Today's Story Line

China and America have had a long love-hate relationship. Ties are warm one day, cold the next. With the Cox report now alleging Chinese theft of US nuclear secrets - coming just after the US bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade - the world may wonder if a new cold war is upon us. But the relationship is very different from that of Soviet-US ties.

Each NATO country has seen erosion of public support for the war in Yugoslavia. In Dayton, Ohio, the US city that hosted the 1995 peace talks for the Bosnia war, people are wary of sending American troops into Kosovo.

Is the Yugoslav military cracking, as NATO claims? Protests by Army reservists have led some observers to predict wider splits.

Young Serbs have been fleeing their homeland even before the war. Many are now plotting to exit, although young men are barred from leaving. They see no future in a country that will have to be rebuilt. Quote of note: "The only way I would go to America would be as a terrorist." Tatijana, a student in Novi Sad.

One East European state that missed the train to join the West has a chance to catch up. Voters in Slovakia (once half of Czechoslovakia) are expected to elect a pro-West president on Saturday.

REPORTERS ON THE JOB *HUDDLED MASSES: In recent weeks, Slovaks have grown more vocal in their denunciation of NATO's bombing campaign against fellow Slavic Serbs in Yugoslavia. But their country's high unemployment problem apparently takes precedence. Correspondent David Schwenk saw long lines of people applying for visas at the US Embassy in Bratislava, even as crowds of protesters gathered outside. An Embassy diplomat told David the demonstrations occur "like clockwork" every day at 5 p.m., after those with jobs leave work.

PICTURE OF THE DAY *THUMBS UP IN SERBIA: A group of young people line up on a bridge to hitchhike in Belgrade, Yugoslavia on Wednesday. An oil shortage caused by NATO bombing has forced many citizens in the capital to seek alternative transportation.

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