May 30, 1992

By its very existence, Ross Perot's unannounced independent Presidential campaign promises the unconventional. Mr. Perot is a businessman, not a politician. Even in a day of wealthy candidates, he is richer than anyone else in sight. He has devised a kind of self-nominating process, rooted in appearances on television talk shows. And he has taken the lead in national opinion polls, something no other Presidential hopeful outside the two-party system has ever managed.

Defying international threats of sanctions against Belgrade, Serbian forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina pounded Sarajevo with artillery and rocket fire early today in the heaviest bombardment the capital of the war-torn republic has faced, and kept up the shelling throughout the day, officials and witnesses there said. At least six people were reported killed in Sarajevo and scores more wounded in the latest barrages, officials in the city said. Serbian gunners also shelled the ancient Croatian port of Dubrovnik for the first time since December, damaging the stone tower that guards the old city's harbor.

Less than a week after the introduction of a new American policy of returning fleeing Haitians directly to their country, there are signs that far from slowing down, the exodus has accelerated. When the new procedure was introduced on Sunday, officials here said it was expected to quickly take the wind out of the exodus of thousands of boat people. They said it would send a strong message that those who leave the country in that manner would have almost no chance of traveling far beyond Haiti's coastal waters.

Fourteen men sat in a room, leafing through the classified ads with varying degrees of enthusiasm, poring over a tip sheet of companies that might have openings, calling to set up job interviews. Each man had children with a woman who receives welfare. Each was unemployed and thousands of dollars behind on his court-ordered child-support payments. And each was here by court order, getting help with the search for a job.

A half- dozen newly independent republics in the old Soviet Union, still fumbling their way toward free markets and fast food, received a bracing lesson in American capitalism today. The Commerce Department said they were selling uranium at unfairly low prices and proposed a punitive import tariff that would more than double the price. The preliminary ruling, which will be followed by a final determination in early fall, was issued in response to complaints from American uranium producers. The decision puts the Bush Administration in the embarrassing position of moving to cripple exports from some of the most impoverished republics while the United States is rallying international aid for them and criticizing Western Europe for excluding goods from Eastern Europe.