Yugoslavia

Amid warnings that the Yugoslav army was "out of control" and "running amok" against two breakaway republics, the United States yesterday suggested that all countries halt economic aid and arms sales to Yugoslavia. Secretary of State James A. Baker 3d also issued a joint statement with the head of the European Community (EC) calling for an immediate halt to the violence and a return of all military forces to their barracks. No serious fighting was reported in Yugoslavia yesterday, but it was not clear whether the lull would last.

Before Yugoslavia broke into pieces, representatives of its six republics used to take turns in an Alice-in-Wonderland spectacle called the rotating presidency. Four of the republics abandoned this weekly tea party over the last year, but Serbia and Montenegro insisted on playing out the farce of government. At each session, their representatives would solemnly take their seats at opposite ends of a vast, polished table, and then, oblivious to the four empty chairs between them, proceed to conduct the affairs of a country that no longer existed.

Yugoslav army tanks rumbled ominously through the Slovenian countryside yesterday and early today, and air force jets buzzed the republic's independence ceremonies. It was one day after the republics of Croatia and Slovenia declared their independence from Yugoslavia, and the federal government responded with a show of force, but little else. Early today, Yugoslav army tanks closed in on Slovenia's main airport after defiant citizens set up blockades but apparently did not try to fight the advance.

The Istrian peninsula, at the northernmost tip of the Adriatic Sea, promises visitors 2,398 hours of sunshine yearly. That's a lot of sunshine. Even discounting civic enthusiasm by reducing the figure one-fifth, one could end up basking in five hours' worth daily. Considering the number of dank and foggy winter days, a person is left with the realization that during summer, the sun is almost a constant companion. It is little wonder, then, that northern Europeans flock to Istria to get away from their undeniably dreary climates.

Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev arrived yesterday for his first visit to communist but nonaligned Yugoslavia, where he was expected to take a hard look at the country's liberal form of communism. He and his wife, Raisa, received enthusiastic greetings from crowds in Belgrade, and they made separate, impromptu forays into the throngs. At a war memorial, Gorbachev surprised security men when he waded into a cheering crowd. Later, his wife was mobbed as she crossed the road from the National Museum to greet a crowd chanting support for perestroika, her husband's economic reform program.

Yugoslavia was barred from international soccer and tennis competition yesterday, one day after the United Nations passed sweeping sanctions against the war-torn country. International Olympic Committee officials will meet this week to discuss whether to exclude Yugoslavia from the Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch gave no indication which way the IOC is leaning. But Josep Miquel Abad, the No. 2 man on the Barcelona Olympic Organizing Committee, suggested that Yugoslav athletes might be able to participate in the Games under the Olympic flag instead of their national flag.

A Europe "whole and free" is dying. In Yugoslavia, Serbs and Croats are killing each other in a kind of bilateral suicide while the United States errs by not waging peace in the Balkans as vigorously as we prosecuted war in the Middle East. The stakes are no less critical. Already, a thousand people have died as a consequence of military action in Croatia. But this is only a fraction of those who may die as fighting inexorably spreads in Yugoslavia or throughout southeastern Europe.

Like the brute from "Popeye," his nickname was Bluto. He was minutes away from getting whacked when he sat down at Mama Mia's restaurant with a briefcase, holding 750,000 German marks. The police would later hush things by saying that Bluto, Serbia's deputy police minister, was carrying only kiwis. (Nobody knows why). The door opened and a hit man with a Heckler machine gun stepped in. Bluto was halfway through a plate of spaghetti when seven bullets danced across his back, and another body bag was unzipped in this gloriously corrupt town.

Shoppers here wear dazed looks, picking and choosing among items on the grocery shelves as if searching for precious gems. When they get to the checkout counter, their baskets are nearly empty, but what is there is drastically more costly than it was last month. Some items have jumped by as much as 100 percent. That comes after a 250 percent increase earlier in the year. Although the daily battles in the breakaway republic of Croatia often seem remote, in ways big and small the bloody Yugoslav civil war is seeping into people's lives, stealing their sons for the distant battlefields, now taking the food from their tables and the clothes from their backs as the cost of living soars out of control.

In the wake of the U.S. aerial raid on Libya, the fear of terrorist reprisals against Americans abroad is causing some American movie companies to question plans to film in Europe. "I wouldn't like to be a movie company shooting right now in France, Germany or Italy," said Paul Lichtman. Lichtman and his partner, Arnold Fishman, happen to have a solution. Their company, Incovent Inc., is the exclusive North American representative for Jadran Films in Yugoslavia. Until now, there were two major advantages to filming in Yugoslavia: the large savings of U.S. production costs because of the cheap labor in that country and the nation's varied terrain, which enabled producers to use Yugoslavia as a substitute for Italy (Mussolini)

WHENEVER the Catholic Church grabs her periodic moment in the spotlight, you can be assured to read a story about (a) the sex-abuse scandal, (b) the evils of mandatory celibacy, (c) the refusal to ordain women as priests, (d) homophobia or (e) all of the above. Given the media's track record we shouldn't really be surprised. When ratings are your true god, the real one doesn't stand a chance at fair and balanced coverage. It doesn't even bother me that "Saturday Night Live" in a recent episode did its occasional "we're more sophisticated than you are" attack on the church by portraying Jesus wielding an assault weapon.

Ante Markovic, 87, who as the last prime minister of Yugoslavia tried to stave off the ethnic warfare that led to the disintegration of that nation, died Monday in Zagreb, the Croatian capital. Mr. Markovic, a Croat born in what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina, was named prime minister in January 1989, two years before his formerly Communist country fell apart. Despite ancient ethnic rivalries, Yugoslavia had been held together during the 35-year regime of Marshal Josip Broz Tito, who died in 1980.

By Téa Obreht Random House. 337 pp. $25 Reviewed by Jane Smiley This is how out of it I am. When I started reading The Tiger's Wife , I had never heard of Téa Obreht, I hadn't read the "20 Under 40" issue of the New Yorker, and I was completely unaware that the author of the novel I was reading was a mere 25 years old. I continued to read in blissful ignorance, and I am here to tell any other ignorant ones who might still...

UCLA is still riding high from its upset victory over Southern Cal 3 1/2 weeks ago, but the Bruins are not planning on any letdowns when they face Florida State in the Emerald Bowl. UCLA (7-5) will take on the Seminoles (6-6) tomorrow in San Francisco. "We're still excited from winning against SC," tailback Chris Markey said, "and we want to carry that confidence into the game against Florida State. " Defensive tackle Brigham Harwell said: "There's a lot left to build on. " DeWayne Walker, UCLA's new defensive coordinator, directs a unit that allows only 17.9 points per game.

There has been a world of change in international basketball. In 1 week, Borislav Stankovic, FIBA's secretary general, witnessed a U.S. team full of NBA players lose three times in the World Championships, while New Zealand, a relative newcomer, played for a medal. Stankovic never thought it was possible. But if this year's 11-day tournament proved one thing, it was this: The American domination is over. "They went to NBA players and they've owned everything until now," Stankovic said of the Americans' surprising collapse.

Yugoslavia came back from an eight-point deficit in the final 2 1/2 minutes and survived a crucial pair of missed free throws by Vlade Divac to beat Argentina, 84-77, in overtime yesterday in Indianapolis for the gold medal in the World Basketball Championship. The game ended with Argentine players pointing their fingers and yelling at a Greek referee who had refused to call a foul on the final play of regulation. Dejan Bodiroga scored 27 points, including nine straight late in the fourth quarter as Yugoslavia rallied to tie the score, and Peja Stojakovic added 26. Former Temple star Pepe Sanchez collected three points and six assists for Argentina.

Sophomore Garvey Camilien scored two first-half goals and junior John Heacock added two more in the second half as Haverford College defeated Neumann College, 7-0, yesterday to become the first U.S. college or university in any NCAA or NAIA division to record 700 wins in men's soccer. Haverford has been playing since early in the 20th century. The Fords defeated Harvard, 1-0, in the first modern-day intercollegiate soccer match on April 1, 1905. In statistics released by the school, UCLA entered the current season second on the all-time list with 689 wins.

Former Yugoslav President Slodoban Milosevic's extradition to face a war-crimes tribunal in the Hague precipitated a political crisis in Yugoslavia yesterday as the prime minister resigned, the federal cabinet collapsed, and thousands headed for Belgrade to protest Milosevic's removal. Yugoslav Prime Minister Zoran Zizic, a Macedonian, said Milosevic's transfer Thursday to the U.N. war-crimes tribunal had dragged the nation "below the level of dignity. " Zizic's resignation caused the federal government to collapse and probably will lead to new elections.

The change in fortunes was messy but complete on April 1, when former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was arrested by police loyal to Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, who only six months ago was a political dissident and the target of a planned assassination by the Milosevic regime. Milosevic's 13-year rule is crashing in disgrace. He spends his days in an 8-by-8-foot cell at Belgrade's central prison. His wife, Mira, brings him clothes and books. He will never again sit in the presidential villa, smoking his trademark Monte Cristo cigars and sipping plum brandy.

Two years ago, Slobodan Milosevic's forces were butchering thousands of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. Now, he's Yugoslavia's ex-president, stewing in a Belgrade prison and awaiting trial. The ultimate, rightful destination for him is the war-crimes tribunal in The Hague. That's where this flag-waving megalomaniac should be brought to justice for a decade of crimes against humanity. To pine for Mr. Milosevic's eventual trial as an international war criminal, however, is not to miss the importance of his arrest last weekend after an armed standoff.