Madrid

MY BEST SHOT The younger generation By Sharon Paul Perfetti, Bel Air We had taken our girls, Marisa and Mia, to Ellis Island to look for their grandparents' names on the wall when I snapped this picture of them playing in the grass with the Manhattan skyline behind them. A MEMORABLE PLACE Ellen B. Cutler SPECIAL TO THE SUN Busy Madrid on parade Madrid is surprisingly small and surprisingly noisy. From our headquarters at the Hotel Green El Prado on the Bourbon quarter edge of the Plaza Santa Ana, where Old Madrid begins, we can walk with relative ease to all but a few of the tourist-worthy sites in the city.

MIAMI -- An Iberia Airlines DC-10 en route from Madrid, Spain, to Havana was diverted here yesterday by a man brandishing a tinfoil-wrapped package that he claimed was a bomb. The man was arrested without incident after the plane landed at Miami International Airport.None of the other 218 passengers and 14 crew members on board was injured."He had a hoax device," said Paul Philip, a spokesman for the FBI in Miami who identified the suspect as Saado Ibrahaim, 27, a Lebanese national.With heavily armed FBI agents and Dade County police surrounding the plane, Ibrahaim emerged from the plane with his hands in the air about 30 minutes after Flight 6621 touched down.

MADRID - Intensifying an investigation into the March 11 train bombings that claimed 202 lives, Spanish authorities arrested five more suspects yesterday, bringing the total to 11, while the first five suspects arrested over the weekend appeared in court before a magistrate. An 11th man, an Algerian who gave statements to authorities indicating foreknowledge of the attack, was arrested in northern Spain last week and brought to Madrid for questioning Wednesday, authorities said. Of the five newly arrested suspects, one is believed to have had a prime role in the morning rush-hour train attacks that also injured 1,750 people, and he may have also been involved in last year's Casablanca bombing that killed dozens, state radio said.

It was almost as momentous as the Madrid peace conference on the Middle East. Sixty-two delegates from 21 political parties gathered at a Johannesburg airport hotel yesterday for a marathon talk-in scheduled to end today. The subject: South Africa's future.What was unthinkable a few years ago has begun. Black and white South African politicians together are starting to design a multi-racial regime in which the black majority will have full participation and rights.Like the Madrid conference, the most crucial and irreversible progress came in the first 30 seconds.

DON'T SPEND your euros before they clink. It would be a rash speculator who bought European single currency futures on the basis of promises made now. The European Union summit in Madrid on Friday solemnly decreed that a single EU currency to be called the euro will be phased in over three years starting Jan. 1, 1999, by whichever of its 15 members wish and qualify.That is Germany, and who else? Britain and Denmark adhered to the Maastricht treaty only by reserving the right to opt out of the single currency.

If you are vacationing in Europe this month, lucky you. In May, the weather is usually pleasant, costs are often lower, and most destinations are less congested. The same holds true for September. But whenever you go, look for savings along with the sights. The Royal Scotsman luxury train is offering a 50-percent companion fare for its four-day, Edinburgh round-trip Classic journey, July 18-22. The regular price is $5,580 per person fully inclusive, which means a savings of $2,790. There are several stops and many perks, along with fine dining, as the train makes its way along the countryside.

MADRID, Spain -- Syria continued to balk yesterday at direct talks with Israel today, but the joint Jordanian and Palestinian delegation went ahead with plans to attend a face-to-face meeting with the Israelis and joined Egypt and Saudi Arabia in pressing Syria to do likewise."

MADRID, Spain - President Bush is about to lose one of his best friends in Europe. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar has decided to step aside as head of the ruling Popular Party and will not run for a third term in March. He will continue as prime minister until then, but he ceded operation of the right-wing party to a hand-picked successor, Mariano Rajoy, in September and is beginning to focus on a future outside of Spanish government. That positions Rajoy, who serves as deputy premier, as the party's candidate in the coming elections and, if voting patterns continue, the likely next prime minister.

Secretary of State James A. Baker III is dragging the unhappy campers of Madrid kicking and screaming to Washington for the second round of Middle East peace talks. The catch for the Dec. 4 meeting agenda is that the participants can no longer pretend that it is procedural and not about substance.Jordan and Lebanon accepted the invitations. In doing so, while Syria was still undecided, Lebanon's government gave the appearance of making its own policy, which few credit it with doing. Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir made little secret of his annoyance at not being supported by Washington in demanding Middle East venues for the series of bilateral and multi-lateral negotiations.

MADRID, Spain - Even the freezing rain lashing the old stone city of Segovia could not dampen the singing in its streets Friday as residents celebrated "El Gordo," the fat one, the huge lottery bonanza that marks the true beginning of Christmas in Spain. The Christmas lottery draw, broadcast live on three television stations and on radio, is said to be the world's richest, with the equivalent of $1.14 billion in prizes - a jackpot divided among thousands of winners in a country where the minimum wage is just under $400 a month and the average salary perhaps three times that.