According to Mexican health experts, the toxic yellow haze in the air that tastes like acid on the tongue cuts years off the lives of Mexico City residents. One doctor estimated that 20% of the city's residents suffer from some sort of pollution-related respiratory problem.

The late Queen Gicanda of Rwanda, the last Tutsi queen, is remembered with the passage of death sentences for two of the people responsible for her death, and one conviction of life in prison for genocide. Two former Rwandan Army soldiers and a university professor pled guilty to killing the queen and six of her relatives in 1994. King Charles Mutara III himself was mysteriously assassinated in 1959 while visiting Burundi. The queen was not survived by any children. The monarchy in Rwanda was abolished in 1961 and the royal family had an increasingly diminishing ceremonial role since then.

In a move capable of converting radicals into guerillas, Germany's far right is building up a weapons cache. A German television show is expected to air Wednesday a report showing police, in the last 6 months, discovered weapons and explosive material belonging to radical right-wing groups in at least 4 German cities. A member of one such group stated that they had semiautomatic 9mm Makarov pistols, which they intended to use against "criminal foreigners" and sex offenders.

Iraq demanded that Britain pay compensation for using depleted uranium shells against Iraqis during the Gulf War. Depleted uranium is used to harden ammunition, making it highly effective in piercing tank armor. It is not seen as a radioactive weapon, but it can be toxic. The Iraqis claim scientific studies and research prove that the United States and Britain used depleted uranium in their military operations against Iraq, exposing vast areas to fatal radioactive pollution. A British government spokesman stated that they have seen no evidence that the ill health reported among the population of southern Iraq is a result of the use of depleted uranium shells.

Police officers usually cannot be forced to pay damages under a federal civil rights law for killing or injuring someone during a high-speed chase, the Supreme Court ruled Tuesday. The court ruled unanimously that the parents of a California teen-ager struck and killed by a deputy's car cannot sue the deputy under a federal civil rights law. The justices said police can be held liable only when their actions would "shock the conscience."

Around 60 sea lions found in two California counties suffered seizures, and many died, leaving scientists to puzzle over the cause. Symptoms of the sea lions include grand mal seizures, loss of coordination, vomiting and diarrhea. Most of the sea lions are pregnant females. Marine experts say similar episodes have occurred every three to five years, most recently in 1992. A preliminary analysis of those sea lions showed high levels of mercury in their blood.

A sea-going rocket launch pad is close to completing its transformation from an oil rig, near the Russian town of Vyborg. The plan is to moor the vessel near Hawaii and launch satellite-carrying rockets into space, as early as this coming October. The Sea Launch platform will leave Vyborg on June 15, making its way to its new home base at Long Beach, California. The platform, 436 feet long and 220 feet wide, will act together with a command ship, which will be used as a floating rocket assembly plant and mission control. The Sea Launch is expected to be able to make six launches a year.

In the ancient Baths of Trajan, near the Colosseum, a worker accidentally scraped away part of a wall this spring, revealing a map some 2,000 years old. The site superintendent says it certainly is not a map of Rome nor London. Historians are considering the possibility that it's a mythical city, or a figment of the artist's imagination, but the superintendent is not convinced. Art historians are intrigued -- the painter used shadowing and perspective techniques that were uncommon in the first century A.D., and painted buildings reflected in water. Perhaps most intriguingly, the map is painted from an overhead perspective, as if the artist was hovering above the city gates.

Industry and government are spending billions to head off an unnatural disaster called the Year 2000 (Y2K) problem or Millennium Bug. Under some scenarios, the disruption will be so great the economy itself will sag from the weight of it. The best case is that most critical functions -- power plants, missile defense systems, government checks, tax audits, pension though at major expense and with some nasty surprises. Unless, of course, it's primarily a scam. A minority view persists that a large but straightforward problem is causing millennial hysteria. One New York software consultant says he does not see a lot of facts, just a lot of "mights." For all the high-tech millennial talk from President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, they've had little to say about the bind except to appoint a council in February to oversee repairs. Any expectation that government will be completely ready for 2000 is gone. At issue is whether the most important functions of public health, safety, security, benefits and revenue can be made immune in time.

Sometime next year, a cargo ship docked to Mir will fire its rocket engine one last time and send the deserted Russian space station on a suicidal dive over the North Pacific. With shuttle visits almost over, U.S. space officials want over-the-hill Mir out of the way so their Russian counterparts can devote their scarce resources to the stalled international space station. At NASA's prodding, the Russian Space Agency recently agreed to begin preparing for Mir's impending demise. But the two sides still are haggling over when to pull the plug. Most of the station should burn up on the way down. Sturdy pieces like fuel tanks may survive, however, thus the remote Pacific locale. By planning for all this now, NASA hopes to avoid the hype and haphazardness that accompanied Skylab's 1979 fall, which was largely uncontrolled. Nearly one-third of the 78-ton space station survived the intense heat of re-entry, and thousands of pieces crashed into the Indian Ocean and onto Australia.