Official Visits

New York Cardinal John O'Connor's planned visit to Israel erupted into a diplomatic fracas today when Israeli leaders demanded the Roman Catholic prelate meet them officially in their Jerusalem offices. The squabble over the visit was prompted by O'Connor's New York office saying the Israeli stop on his 10-day Mideast tour was downgraded from "official" to "private" and he would meet top Israeli officials only on an informal basis.

Two Bay Area artists who will present their works to Mikhail S. Gorbachev at Stanford University on Monday have wanted to meet the Soviet president for years, but neither dreamed they would get the opportunity only a few miles from home. "I wanted personally to shake Gorbachev's hand. . . . I figured I would have to go to Moscow in order to do it," said Sausalito painter George Sumner, whose oil work "The Peacemakers" will be given to the Soviet leader.

A future president of the United States may be among a group of students who landed in China this week. And -- sorry, Harvard -- he or she goes to Yale. At least that seems to be the wager Chinese President Hu Jintao made when he invited 60 Yale students and 40 faculty and staff to visit China as his high-profile guests. Apparently mindful that the three most recent U.S. presidents attended Yale, Hu is laying out the red carpet for the delegation.

A surprising visit by Albert Pujols is sending the message: The Miami Marlins will be a much different franchise from the Florida Marlins. Pujols began his free-agent tour Friday when he was courted in Miami by the Marlins, only hours before they officially changed their name during a ceremony at their new ballpark. Pujols had lunch with team officials, checked out the stadium and received a contract offer. The notoriously thrifty franchise, suddenly in the mood for a spending spree, declined to disclose details of the proposal.

The Bush Administration, which is seeking China's backing for a new U.N. resolution against Iraq, on Tuesday substantially eased the ban on high-level meetings between U.S. and Chinese officials that was imposed after the 1989 massacre in Beijing. The State Department announced that Secretary of State James A. Baker III has invited Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen to Washington on Friday, where Qian will be the highest-ranking Chinese visitor in the past 18 months. U.S.

The Bush Administration is sending Poland's new Solidarity-backed government just what some people say it doesn't need--another delegation of high-level VIPs. The visitors, who are scheduled to arrive late today on a special Air Force jet, include three U.S. Cabinet officers--Agriculture Secretary Clayton K. Yeutter, Commerce Secretary Robert A. Mosbacher and Labor Secretary Elizabeth Hanford Dole--and Michael Boskin, chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers.

Orange County's Vietnamese community reacted with revulsion last month when a delegation of Communist Party leaders from Vietnam made plans for a motorcade through Little Saigon. Their anger led to city resolutions requiring notice for such official visits. The Vietnamese representatives visited anyway. Though the motorcade was scrubbed, members of the delegation quietly toured the business district and dined at local cafes. Local business leaders said this shows the paradox of Little Saigon.

Vice President Dan Quayle, who arrived amid anti-American demonstrations here Tuesday night shortly after suspected Communist rebels killed two American employees at a U.S. military base, today condemned the killings as "cowardly murders" that were linked to his visit. Although no group immediately claimed responsibility, U.S.

Nelson Mandela's provocative statement of support for Moammar Kadafi, Fidel Castro and Yasser Arafat has surprised and disturbed the Bush Administration, complicating a presidential meeting that is the main event of Mandela's triumphant U.S. tour. Although Mandela's sentiments had long been known, his strong expression of them in a television interview called attention to tensions between blacks and Jews in the domestic political scene.

Shoeless and dressed simply in white, Benedict XVI became only the second pope in modern history to enter a mosque when he prayed Thursday alongside a senior cleric in Istanbul's most majestic house of Islamic worship. The pope toured the cavernous 17th century Blue Mosque with the grand mufti of Istanbul, gazing overhead at its intricate tile work, in his most deliberate and concrete gesture yet of conciliation toward Muslims infuriated by his comments.