Bonn

The West German government said yesterday it would seek hundreds of millions of dollars from the Soviet Union to compensate West German farmers for sales lost because of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, but Moscow quickly rejected the idea. West Germany imposed restrictions on the sale of milk and vegetables after radiation levels rose in many parts of the country following the Chernobyl accident. The West German government spokesman, Friedhelm Ost, said his country intended to press the Soviets for reimbursement for the hundreds of millions of dollars it is planning to pay to farmers to make up for lost sales.

While workmen rushed about putting the final touches on the mottled pink marble lobby of the elegant new Maritim Hotel, one of its managers extolled it as the best location in the West German capital. "The building on the left is the Postal Ministry," exclaimed Ralf H. Bittner, gesturing to the stone-and-glass towers still under construction to the east. "And the one next to it is the Transport Ministry, and there's the Justice Ministry, and those two big new buildings on the right are the Science and Research Ministries.

Led by Walter Momper, the pudgy, bald-headed leader of the local Social Democratic Party, 6,000 demonstrators trudged in last week's cold rain down Martin Luther King Street to the City Hall square where John F. Kennedy made his famous Ich bin ein Berliner speech. They were a disparate group - men in business suits, casually dressed university students, immigrants from Asia and Africa, and, marching in black masks and balaclavas alongside a sound car blaring heavy-metal music, about 50 autonomen, leftist radicals who revel in violence.

West Germany yesterday responded to U.S. pressure for punitive action against Libya by ordering two Libyan diplomats to leave the country. During a news conference, chief government spokesman Friedhelm Ost said the Libyans were being expelled for activities incompatible with their status, a term often used for spying. Ost also said, though, that their expulsion was not directly connected with Saturday's bombing of a West Berlin disco in which an American soldier and a Turkish woman were killed and 230 people were injured, including 64 Americans.

East German leaders have told West Germany that they are prepared to accept a new political structure in Europe in which East Germany would be closely allied with the West, West German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher said here yesterday. The East Germans have sent word that they would like to be allied with the 12-nation European Community, he said, and are willing to accept West Germany's insistence that Bonn retain close ties with NATO. He told reporters that the East German position was outlined in a formal diplomatic message to the West German government that was received over the weekend.

The White House yesterday won a pledge from West Germany that it would prosecute a hijacking suspect in the murder of a U.S. Navy diver, and President Reagan promised the mother of the diver that the suspect would "get the justice he deserves. " Reagan, in a phone call to Patricia Stethem that a son called "no comfort at all," said the United States had made "every effort to assure justice in the prosecution of" Mohammed Ali Hamadei, 23. Before that phone call, Bonn announced its expected decision to try Hamadei on charges of air piracy and of murdering Robert D. Stethem in connection with the hijacking of a TWA jetliner from Athens to Beirut in June 1985.

This week Gerhard Shroeder became the first leader since Adolph Hiter to govern all Germany from Berlin. But nobody at home or abroad seemed to be paying much attention. The very non-eventfulness of the government's Berlin debut was an event, given the angst generated by its 1991 decision to return from Bonn to its historic seat, in the wake of reunification. Critics contended that the move would resurrect Germany's grimmer ghosts. However much the Reichstag's ruins have been transformed - with a huge glass dome to symbolize democratic transparency - the building can't wholly shed its history, and several government ministries will operate from old headquarters of the Third Reich.

President Bush, lauding East Germany's lifting of travel restrictions as a dramatic advance for freedom, is ordering "all possible assistance" to help West Germany cope with the flood of refugees from its communist sister state. The border-opening decree by East German authorities yesterday caught U.S. officials by surprise. If East Germany fully implements the promise to open its borders, the president told reporters, "this (Berlin) Wall built in '61 will have very little relevance.

Bowing to pressure from industry, the German government this week delayed implementation of a tough new regulation that would prohibit German companies from going along with a long-standing Arab boycott of Israel. The new rule could cost industry up to $5 billion a year in business with those Arab states that require firms to agree not to trade with Israel as a prerequisite for obtaining Arab contracts. The electronics, machine tool and chemical industries would have been especially hard hit by the rule, which was to go into effect Nov. 1. On Wednesday, the government moved that back to May 1. Regina Wierig, a spokeswoman for the Economics Ministry, insisted yesterday that the delay was temporary, to give industry time to adjust.

It's no wonder West German crowds were chanting "Gorby, Gorby" during Mikhail S. Gorbachev's four-day visit to Germany this week. The Soviet leader has offered the German public something very special: the prospect of being freed from the fear of another European war. Inevitably such a war, with the prospect of nuclear fireworks, would be centered on German soil. But Germany's "Gorbomania" has unsettled some observers who recall that Germany was not always so firmly linked to the West.

The countdown has begun at La Bonne Auberge , the classic French restaurant in a 250-year-old farmhouse off the main drag in New Hope. Rozanne and Gerard Caronello say Dec. 19 will be their last night after 38 years. La Bonne Auberge is one of the few remaining dress-up spots in the region. "It's my husband's knees," Rozanne Caronello said. "When I see him limping after work, I know we're doing the right thing. " During a long, relaxing trip recently to mark their 40th anniversary, they noticed a difference.

Want to know whether the White House has any real strategy to stabilize Iraq? Then pay attention to what happens - or doesn't happen - at a crucial meeting May 3 and 4 in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el Sheikh. The event is a regional conference of leaders from Iraq and its neighbors that will be attended by Condoleezza Rice and, maybe, by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki. The reason the meeting is so important: The American troop surge is only a tactic, which can't work unless it fits into a broader regional strategy.

Afghanistan's departing president delivered a scathing attack yesterday on the week-old power-sharing deal among Afghan factions, declaring that the pact was marred by the interference of foreign nations and excluded key Afghan parties. "The decisions which have been made outside of the country . . . are an offense to the leaders, an offense to the nation of Afghanistan," Burhanuddin Rabbani, the leader of the ruling Northern Alliance, told reporters about the accord signed in Germany.

High above the Rhine, in a palatial 19th-century hotel that has hosted presidents, chancellors and queens, representatives from four Afghan factions will sit down today at a massive oval table and begin talks to forge a broad-based transitional government for their ravaged country. The results could determine whether Afghanistan ends 22 years of war or descends once more into anarchy. A senior U.S. official told reporters yesterday that billions of dollars in reconstruction aid depend on the formation of an interim government that represented a broad range of Afghanistan's political and ethnic factions.

The Lycoming men's lacrosse team boasted three Bonnes brothers as it posted a 13-4 record this season. The brothers, all graduates of Ridley, figured in the Warriors' scoring. Michael Bonnes, a senior attacker, was second on the team in scoring with 56 goals and 31 assists for 87 points. Freshman Shaun Bonnes, a midfielder, contributed six goals and one assist. Ryan Bonnes, a sophomore attacker, had three goals and two assists. Although Michael Bonnes led the team in goals, Sang Duong was tops in points with 93 on 49 goals and 44 assists.

With 154 goals, Ridley graduate Mike Bonnes has become the career leader for the Lycoming men's lacrosse team. Bonnes, a senior, matched the former record of 135 - held by assistant coach Shawn Rosa - when he tallied four times in an 18-8 victory over Alfred on March 28. He broke the record in the Warriors' 18-9 loss to Villa Julie three days later. For his efforts, he was named Lycoming's male athlete of the week. Freshmen Sang Duong and Dave Dormond, both graduates of Haverford High, contributed goals for the Warriors in the win over Alfred.

Long before Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his government moved to Berlin, I did. It was in spring 1991, and the German parliament was about to discuss the transfer to Berlin. These days, as government and parliament officially take up work in the new-old capital - the government on Wednesday, the Bundestag a few days later, on September 6 - few people remember the odds were against Berlin then. Even in the face of unification, West German parliamentarians stuck to their familiar environment, mirroring the attitude of their electorate.

This week Gerhard Shroeder became the first leader since Adolph Hiter to govern all Germany from Berlin. But nobody at home or abroad seemed to be paying much attention. The very non-eventfulness of the government's Berlin debut was an event, given the angst generated by its 1991 decision to return from Bonn to its historic seat, in the wake of reunification. Critics contended that the move would resurrect Germany's grimmer ghosts. However much the Reichstag's ruins have been transformed - with a huge glass dome to symbolize democratic transparency - the building can't wholly shed its history, and several government ministries will operate from old headquarters of the Third Reich.

Budget France. An oxymoron, as all our friends were happy to tell us when we announced our travel plans. "You won't believe how expensive it is. Sit down for an espresso at a sidewalk cafe and kiss $20 goodbye. Pick another country. " Forewarned, we forearmed. With something like a vengeance. First, we flew to England, not France, because we had fare vouchers and were offered four free Chunnel tickets with our rental car. Then, before our burrow through the slate and limestone beneath the unseen waters of the English Channel, we did some serious grocery shopping.

If Mike Bonnes decided to use his lacrosse stick as a slot-machine lever, the coins probably would just keep coming. The Ridley junior scored five goals and added one assist through three games for the Green Raiders (2-1) this season. In Tuesday's 11-3 Central League victory over Upper Darby, Bonnes scored four goals on five shots. "He's a good shooter and usually puts the ball in when he shoots," Ridley coach Doug Ellers said. Last year, Bonnes played on the junior varsity for Ridley, whose varsity advanced to the state championship game before losing to Episcopal Academy.