Tourists

A group of tourists who returned Thursday from visiting relatives in the Ukrainian city of Lvov reported that fresh food had disappeared from stores there and that people were staying indoors in the wake of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, 380 miles away. "There was no meat, no fish, no fruit and no vegetables, and people were not inclined to drink the water," said Zenon Smylyk, the editor of a Ukrainian-language newspaper in Jersey City, N.J., who interviewed the tourists who had visited Lvov.

For a few years, the strongest image of Philadelphia around the nation was not cobblestone streets and historic shrines but "a mayor bombing his own city. " "The number of questions I used to get about MOVE was unbelievable. You'd always get wise remarks," said Jim DeWan, a carriage driver in the historic area for the past 12 years. "It's rare now," he added. "In the past few months, I've gotten only two questions. One was from a couple from Germany. They asked if I go near the place where the bomb was dropped.

SARASOTA, FLA. - A Florida teenager received a life sentence Wednesday after a jury convicted him of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of two British tourists last April 16, a case that generated blaring tabloid headlines in the U.K. press. Shawn Tyson, 17, sat stone-faced as the jury's verdict was read. When Judge Rick De Furia asked Tyson if he wanted to say anything before being sentenced, Tyson mumbled, "No. " The verdict came after two hours of deliberations and the sentencing about an hour after the verdict.

SOCHI, Russia - If he were alive today, Joseph Stalin wouldn't recognize the place. This subtropical Black Sea resort of nearly 350,000 residents at the foot of the snowcapped Caucasus Mountains is on the verge of becoming a major international destination since being designated the site of the 2014 Winter Olympics and the 2018 World Cup. More than 100 building projects are under way, as a capitalist fervor grips the city, fueled by...

The first contingent of U.S. troops sent to restore calm to the hurricane- ravaged Virgin Islands arrived in St. Croix today and moved immediately to secure the airfield and "deploy troops as necessary," Pentagon officials said. President Bush authorized the use of the troops to halt a looting frenzy and protect residents and tourists from the lawlessness still gripping St. Croix two days after Hurricane Hugo's devastation. The action marks the first time U.S. troops have been deployed to quell a civil disturbance since they put down riots in Washington D.C. in April 1968 after the slaying of civil rights leader Martin Luther King.

Above a busy intersection near a beachfront strip of luxury hotels, a billboard for Cathay Pacific Airlines heralds the inexorable, inevitable thing we call progress: Bali, the island of the gods, "the morning of the world," is now accessible by jumbo jet, direct three times a week from Hong Kong, not to mention Singapore and Australia. That's the sad, disquieting state of affairs, at least for all those who have long considered Bali the most exotic place on earth. Now the good news: Bali can still send the needle surging on almost anyone's exotic-meter, despite close to a million tourist arrivals during Visit Indonesia Year 1991, the government's campaign to promote tourism.

Could seeing President Clinton really top a Phillies game or the Fourth of July fireworks? Could catching a glimpse of Bill whizzing by in a limousine really beat the Liberty Bell? To some tourists and a few Philadelphians, maybe so. "This is more exciting than a Phillies game," said Evelyn Ailing, a visitor from Flint, Mich. She stood behind a barricade on Sansom Street near 7th where 200 people waited more than two hours to see Clinton leave the back of the Public Ledger Building a little after 9 last night.

Cezanne. Cezanne. Cezanne. That's all you hear anymore. Not a word about the Moose. This week's annual convention of Moose Lodge members won't turn heads in social and cultural circles the way Cezanne has, but it's certainly going to impress city bean counters. One visiting Moose will spend about $650 more than a well-heeled art lover here to see Cezanne. But don't expect the city marketers to dump the Cezanne hoopla in favor of "Come to Philadelphia - the Moose did" billboards: No matter how much money the Moose spend, they ain't Cezanne.

Kristian Levring's The King Is Alive is the latest offering from Denmark's Dogma 95 school of filmmaking, a movement whose participating directors believe in addition by subtraction. By shunning gimmickry and restricting themselves to natural lighting and the props they find on location, they have produced such provocative and striking works as Celebration and Mifune. Bolder and more experimental, Levring's film has its flaws, but remains a fascinating and strangely involving piece.

With a trident in one hand and a net in the other, Gianluca Zanna, who goes by the name of Spartacus and looks as if he just hopped off a Harley, glittered in black leather and silver studs as he winked at a few blond tourists and spoke of a gladiator's joy. Sure there were the financial squabbles with his partner, the breast-plated, perpetually sweating Mark Antony. Sure he jangled when he walked and his sandals gave him blisters. And, yes, British tourists were often chintzy with tips.