Foreign Relations

Not so long ago, it would have seemed the stuff of a spy thriller. Here was Benjamin S. Lambeth, a Cold Warrior by profession, climbing into the cockpit of the erstwhile Evil Empire's most sophisticated jet fighter. The 46-year-old Lambeth--ex-CIA, Harvard Ph.D. and veteran RAND Corp. expert on Soviet military affairs--would be the first American to fly the MIG-29, a ride the folks at the Pentagon want to hear all about. But that's glasnost for you.

Once, they were seen as some of the cleverest Cold Warriors, applying their high-powered brains to follow the time-worn advice to know thy enemy. Now the Soviet Union's scholars of U.S. ways, known here as Americanists and especially active during this week's feverish hours of summitry, are busier than ever--but no longer on propaganda fodder.

In its campaign to bring about a more democratic Russia, the Bush administration is speaking ever more loudly, but carrying a small stick. Although the administration has served notice that it will press the Kremlin to govern democratically at home and play by the rules abroad, it has less and less leverage to bring this about.

The deaths of the two schoolgirls were particularly gruesome. While walking along a narrow rural road to a friend's birthday party, they were crushed by a 50-ton mine-clearing vehicle that was moving during a U.S. Army training exercise. Last week, two GIs accused of negligent homicide in connection with the fatal accident were acquitted in U.S. courts-martial. Ever since, one of the most intense waves of anti-Americanism in recent years has swept through South Korea.

The young man named Anton is a member of Russia's "lost generation." He's the son of middle-class, college-educated engineers; he studied at a good university and became a truck sales manager in Moscow. He's also a 28-year-old heroin addict. In the years since the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan triggered a sharp increase in poppy cultivation, Russia has been flooded with heroin. The dope has crept along a drug trail stretching from Afghanistan through Tajikistan and other Central Asian nations and over the Russian border, turning this country into the world's top consumer of heroin, the government says.

Seeking to lower the American profile in Iraq, a top U.S. military commander said Wednesday that he would remove U.S. forces from the palaces of toppled leader Saddam Hussein and had ordered the military to hand over Baghdad's international airport within a year. The move to leave the palaces is designed to counter the view that Hussein's government has simply been replaced as Iraq's overlords by American soldiers occupying the same opulent seats of power. The U.S.

Taiwan and China quibble about everything from diplomatic slights and hidden meanings to ancient history and obscure definitions. So perhaps it's not surprising that they'd argue over two chubby animals that bite each other's ears and have trouble procreating. China's latest weapon in its increasingly effective charm offensive against Taiwan is an offer of giant pandas. Who would think of turning down two lovable animals that zoos around the world can only dream about, you might ask?

Could Ecuador become a major coca-growing country like its neighbors, Colombia and Peru? That fear was expressed this week by Ecuadorean and U.S. counter-narcotics officials as this Andean country reported an alarming increase in illegal coca crops destroyed this year along its northern border with Colombia.

A senior U.S. lawmaker said Thursday that unmanned CIA Predator aircraft operating in Pakistan are flown from an air base in that country, a revelation likely to embarrass the Pakistani government and complicate its counter-terrorism collaboration with the United States. The disclosure by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, marked the first time a U.S.

The president of Georgia accused Russia of bombing his nation Friday and killing one person, in an escalation of long-running tensions between the neighbors. Russian military officials shrugged off the protest by President Eduard A. Shevardnadze, denying the incident and claiming that the Georgians probably dropped the bombs themselves--although Russian helicopters and planes have bombarded the country in the past. Georgian officials said the airstrike early Friday also wounded five people.