Herzegovina

The local division of Northrop Grumman Corp. has won two large contracts to build air traffic control systems in the Middle East and a third for a system in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the company reported.Saudi Arabia's defense ministry picked the Electronic Sensors & Systems Division, based in Linthicum, for a $60.7 million contract to create an air traffic control system at the country's Prince Sultan Air Base complex.The work will involve designing and constructing facilities for flight control, navigation and meteorological and communications systems.

BRCKO, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright completed a two-day visit yesterday to the Balkans that brought few immediate results but appeared to inject a new sense of urgency into the uphill process of rebuilding the war-ravaged region.After meeting in Sarajevo with Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic and walking through some of the most damaged parts of the capital, Albright traveled to this northern Bosnian town to celebrate a modest but important achievement of her visit -- the reopening of a one-lane bridge across the Sava River connecting northern Bosnia-Herzegovina to Croatia and the rest of Europe.

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- Moving to end a volatile power struggle that has increasingly sucked in NATO peacekeepers, the Western-backed Bosnian Serb president agreed yesterday with her hard-line rivals to new elections and shared access to state television.The agreement, brokered in Belgrade by Slobodan Milosevic, the president of neighboring Yugoslavia, was seen by international mediators as a breakthrough.The deal is aimed at resolving a stubborn impasse that pitted Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic against allies of indicted war-crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic.

PAZARIC, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- Old soldiers never die -- they simply become "consultants."Hunkered down in a bunker 25 miles west of Sarajevo, Col. Clark Welch -- late of the U.S. Army's Special Forces -- is plotting the downfall of the Bosnian Serb army. "Eight hundred hours tomorrow, we 'move to contact,' " cackles the ebullient Vietnam veteran to a group of staff officers gathered around a pin-riddled wall map. "They'd better be ready, 'cuz we're gonna kick the crap out of them."Fighting talk.

"Where are you going?" The border guard's expression was as grim as the landscape outside the bus. Just hours before, I had been in charming old Split on Croatia's sunny Dalmatian coast. Strolling palm-lined promenades along the Adriatic, I found it hard to imagine Iwould be spending the evening in a town devastated by war. I told the guard I was heading to Mostar and he moved on down the aisle. As the bus pulled away and crossed into Bosnia-Herzegovina, the gray sky was quickly turning black.

DAYTON, Ohio -- Secretary of State Warren Christopher opened the Bosnian peace talks yesterday urgently warning the three warring Balkan presidents that if they refuse to pursue peace now, they are choosing permanener said. "If we fail, the war will resume and future generations will surely hold us accountable for the consequences that would follow."The three presidents -- Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia, Franjo Tudjman of Croatia, and Alija Izetbegovic of Bosnia and Herzegovina -- sat across a round table from Mr. Christopher in stony silence, showing no sign of accepting or rejecting the secretary of state's solemn appeal.

Pittsburgh. -- The latest sickening picture from Bosnia seems proof to many observers that the U.N. mission there has failed, and to give support to Bob Dole's effort in the U.S. Congress to end the arms embargo on the Muslims and force the U.N. out of Bosnia. Understandably, ''Let the Bosnians defend themselves'' is a slogan with enormous emotional appeal.Yet withdrawing the U.N. mission from Bosnia and arming the Muslims is the worst possible course to take. The result of such an action would be far greater war and far more suffering and death.

PALE, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- As NATO warplanes wheeled and turned above the houses and military sites strung along this mountain valley where Bosnian Serbs have made their capital, Savica Kovac simply continued to prepare coffee for her husband.When what appeared to be a surface-to-air missile rose to attack the jets yesterday, Mrs. Kovac smiled and clenched her hand into a fist.While the planes escaped, many in this small town seemed eager to resist the demands made by Western powers and perplexed about why the rest of the world wants to impose its will on the Bosnian Serbs.

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- There were grilled hot dogs and hamburgers and "The Star-Spangled Banner" and the words "democracy" and "freedom" floated through the sticky midsummer air.Fireworks were absent, but much of the picnic talk at the Fourth of July opening of the U.S. Embassy focused not on that but on whether the support of the United States, this country's staunch diplomatic backer, would somehow make a difference in silencing the guns of...

WASHINGTON -- Less than three years after the end of the Cold War, armed conflicts let loose a wave of inhumanity in many nations last year, producing widespread civilian deaths and refugee flows, tortures, summary executions and rapes, the State Department reported yesterday."

Nature center moving to Owings Mills The Irvine Nature Center will close its building on the grounds of St. Timothy's School in Stevenson as of tomorrow to prepare to move to a new facility in Owings Mills. The new building, at 11201 Garrison Forest Road, is scheduled to open to the public Aug. 23. A grand opening gala for adults only will be held at 6 p.m. Sept. 12 at the new center, featuring the Jody Westerlund Band, food and a look at the facility. Tickets are $100 and reservations are required.

MCLEAN, Va. - President Bush's reaffirmation two weeks ago in Kosovo that American forces will remain in the Balkans is bad news for those long bent on obstructing the Dayton peace process in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Bush administration now needs to impart a fresh sense of determination to achieve the goal of a just peace among Bosnia's Muslims, Croats and Serbs, including those who wish only to be known as Bosnians. Policies, however, need success stories. The conflicted Bosnian city of Brcko is one such story.

PAZARIC, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- Old soldiers never die -- they simply become "consultants."Hunkered down in a bunker 25 miles west of Sarajevo, Col. Clark Welch -- late of the U.S. Army's Special Forces -- is plotting the downfall of the Bosnian Serb army. "Eight hundred hours tomorrow, we 'move to contact,' " cackles the ebullient Vietnam veteran to a group of staff officers gathered around a pin-riddled wall map. "They'd better be ready, 'cuz we're gonna kick the crap out of them."Fighting talk.

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- Moving to end a volatile power struggle that has increasingly sucked in NATO peacekeepers, the Western-backed Bosnian Serb president agreed yesterday with her hard-line rivals to new elections and shared access to state television.The agreement, brokered in Belgrade by Slobodan Milosevic, the president of neighboring Yugoslavia, was seen by international mediators as a breakthrough.The deal is aimed at resolving a stubborn impasse that pitted Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic against allies of indicted war-crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic.

The local division of Northrop Grumman Corp. has won two large contracts to build air traffic control systems in the Middle East and a third for a system in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the company reported.Saudi Arabia's defense ministry picked the Electronic Sensors & Systems Division, based in Linthicum, for a $60.7 million contract to create an air traffic control system at the country's Prince Sultan Air Base complex.The work will involve designing and constructing facilities for flight control, navigation and meteorological and communications systems.

BRCKO, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright completed a two-day visit yesterday to the Balkans that brought few immediate results but appeared to inject a new sense of urgency into the uphill process of rebuilding the war-ravaged region.After meeting in Sarajevo with Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic and walking through some of the most damaged parts of the capital, Albright traveled to this northern Bosnian town to celebrate a modest but important achievement of her visit -- the reopening of a one-lane bridge across the Sava River connecting northern Bosnia-Herzegovina to Croatia and the rest of Europe.

"Where are you going?" The border guard's expression was as grim as the landscape outside the bus. Just hours before, I had been in charming old Split on Croatia's sunny Dalmatian coast. Strolling palm-lined promenades along the Adriatic, I found it hard to imagine Iwould be spending the evening in a town devastated by war. I told the guard I was heading to Mostar and he moved on down the aisle. As the bus pulled away and crossed into Bosnia-Herzegovina, the gray sky was quickly turning black.

DAYTON, Ohio -- Secretary of State Warren Christopher opened the Bosnian peace talks yesterday urgently warning the three warring Balkan presidents that if they refuse to pursue peace now, they are choosing permanener said. "If we fail, the war will resume and future generations will surely hold us accountable for the consequences that would follow."The three presidents -- Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia, Franjo Tudjman of Croatia, and Alija Izetbegovic of Bosnia and Herzegovina -- sat across a round table from Mr. Christopher in stony silence, showing no sign of accepting or rejecting the secretary of state's solemn appeal.

PALE, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- As NATO warplanes wheeled and turned above the houses and military sites strung along this mountain valley where Bosnian Serbs have made their capital, Savica Kovac simply continued to prepare coffee for her husband.When what appeared to be a surface-to-air missile rose to attack the jets yesterday, Mrs. Kovac smiled and clenched her hand into a fist.While the planes escaped, many in this small town seemed eager to resist the demands made by Western powers and perplexed about why the rest of the world wants to impose its will on the Bosnian Serbs.

Pittsburgh. -- The latest sickening picture from Bosnia seems proof to many observers that the U.N. mission there has failed, and to give support to Bob Dole's effort in the U.S. Congress to end the arms embargo on the Muslims and force the U.N. out of Bosnia. Understandably, ''Let the Bosnians defend themselves'' is a slogan with enormous emotional appeal.Yet withdrawing the U.N. mission from Bosnia and arming the Muslims is the worst possible course to take. The result of such an action would be far greater war and far more suffering and death.