Thirty-nine members of a California cult killed themselves. The cult, known as Heaven's Gate, believed in UFOs, predicted an imminent apocalypse, and built Web sites for a living. Evidently the members took the arrival of comet Hale-Bopp (rumored to be concealing an alien spaceship, according to Internet postings) as the sign that it was time to go. Primer: The cult believed that divine aliens traveled to Houston in the 1970s to take possession of a music professor and a nurse, who then founded the cult and renamed themselves (at various times) "Bo" and "Peep," "Tiddly" and "Wink," and "Do" and "Ti." The mass suicide, perhaps the worst in U.S. history, is being compared to Jonestown, Waco, and Masada. Two sidelights reported over the weekend were that 1) the cult's sexual asceticism stemmed from leader Marshall Applewhite's repression of his homosexuality and 2) several members had castrated themselves to emulate him. In four days, the New York Times has run 27 stories on the suicide. (3/31)

Higher Source: higher meaning? The papers were remarkably restrained in assigning a higher significance to the mass suicide. An early and mild rash of commentary on how "American kids have lost their traditional faith" was squelched by the revelation that most cult members were middle-aged and that, despite its ultimate millennial focus, the movement, in one form or another, was a couple of decades old. The Internet was blamed, however, for 1) helping cults get their mitts on isolated, middle-class nerds, 2) spreading the comet-spaceship rumor, and 3) enabling the cult to flourish in the Web-page business (New York Time s headline: "From Porn to Cults, the Net Looks Nasty"). After days of gawking at the cult's wacky faith in supervision by extraterrestrial beings and resurrection in a higher form, pundits consoled themselves with the normalcy of Easter. (3/31)

Speaker Newt Gingrich went to China. Pundits agreed that he was kinder and gentler to China than he used to be but considerably tougher than Vice President Gore (see below). Gingrich warned Chinese leaders that the United States would 1) use force to defend Taiwan against a Chinese attack, 2) never cease its campaign against China's human-rights abuses, and 3) suspend dialogue with China for several years if China dissolved Hong Kong's present freedoms. The White House said Gingrich was speaking for himself, though it affirmed that the United States would defend Taiwan. The Los Angeles Times concluded that Gingrich had "eclipsed" Gore on the China circuit. (3/31)

Vice President Al Gore finished his trip to China. Pundits complained that: 1) Gore won no concrete concessions on human rights, nuclear proliferation, or trade barriers. 2) He failed to criticize Chinese human-rights abuses. 3) He left the impression there will be no repercussions if it turns out that China funneled campaign contributions to influence U.S. policy. 4) One of his two putative accomplishments, a business deal between China and General Motors, is a technology giveaway. 5) He gave his political enemies useful ad footage by joining Prime Minister Li Peng, the "Butcher of Beijing," in a champagne toast. Gore, said the Washington Post's Meg Greenfield, has caught "some of the vice presidential ailment, but not necessarily a terminal case."(3/31)

The University of Tennessee Lady Volunteers won their second consecutive NCAA women's basketball championship. The Lady Vols were celebrated for their collective comeback from a disastrous, injury-plagued early season to reclaim their title against more highly seeded teams. The heroines of the hour were Coach Pat Summitt, who has now won five championships at Tennessee (more college titles than all but one male coach), and Final Four MVP Chamique Holdsclaw, generally acclaimed as the new phenomenon in the women's game. (3/31)

Timothy McVeigh's attorneys will try to pin the Oklahoma City bombing on the Irish Republican Army, according to the London Sunday Telegraph. Defense documents argue that the Aryan Republican Army, an Oklahoma-based neo-Nazi group, was plotting to blow up a U.S. federal building with help from Sinn Fein, the IRA's political wing. The purported smoking gun is the bomb's detonator, allegedly supplied by the IRA. Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams calls the detonator allegation "preposterous rubbish." The McVeigh trial opened March 31 in Denver. (3/31)

The Middle East peace process is collapsing. First, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat exploded at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for building a Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem. Then, Netanyahu accused Arafat of inspiring a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv by giving terrorists a "green light." A Palestinian rioter was killed over the weekend after more than a week of violence in the streets. The good news is that Palestinian police are preventing the violence from getting totally out of control. The bad news is that Arab League foreign ministers, egged on by Arafat, voted to suspend normalization of relations with Israel. Pundits are debating whether Netanyahu is a fool for jeopardizing the peace process recklessly or a genius for jeopardizing it deliberately. (3/31)

The stock market plummeted. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 300 points in two days, and other leading stock indexes followed suit. Buyers staged a strike on the theory that good news (rising personal incomes, strong consumer confidence, a jump in home sales, a drop in unemployment claims) is bad news. They fear that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates again to head off inflation. This obliterates the previous spin that last week's rate hike, the first in two years, would serve as a gentle but sufficient tap on the economy's brakes. (3/31)

Canadian officials say a Saudi man they recently detained is a link between Iran-backed terrorists and last year's Saudi air-base bombing, which killed 19 American soldiers and wounded 500 others. The Canadians believe that the man, Hani Abdel Rahim Sayegh, is a Shiite Muslim connected to the terrorist group Hezbollah. U.S. officials say evidence disclosed in the Canadian report strengthens the case that Iran was behind the bombing. (3/28)

Gingrich Cannibalism Watch: 1) The Weekly Standard (previous editorial line on Gingrich: "Stand By Your Man") published an article by Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., urging that Gingrich be replaced. 2) Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., said he and 10 GOP colleagues are preparing to rebel if the House leadership doesn't return to conservative principles by August. 3) Human Events, a conservative magazine, says as many as 40 GOP conservatives are considering whether to demand a no-confidence vote on Gingrich's speakership. (3/28)

The National Cancer Institute joined the American Cancer Society in recommending annual mammograms for women in their 40s. This reversed an advisory board's recommendation that the benefits to women in their 40s didn't necessarily justify the cost, and that these women should decide for themselves. The prevailing wisdom now is that the "decide for yourself" advice was too confusing, and that women need to be told exactly what to do. (3/28)

A condemned man's head burst into flames during his electrocution in Florida. This is the second such episode in Florida since 1990. Death-penalty critics compared it to burning a man alive and cited it as another reason to get rid of capital punishment altogether. Florida's attorney general proposed a different lesson: "People who wish to commit murder, they better not do it in the state of Florida because we may have a problem with our electric chair."(3/26)

The English Patient cleaned up at the Academy Awards. It won nine Oscars, including the awards for best picture, best director (Anthony Minghella), and best supporting actress (Juliette Binoche). The hot topic was Binoche's victory over Lauren Bacall, who had been expected, for sentimental reasons, to make good on the first Oscar nomination of her half-century career. Binoche was so dismayed that she apologized while accepting the award. Other subjects of commentary included the sole award, for best supporting actor, to a black nominee, Cuba Gooding Jr. (of Jerry Maguire), and the anemic performance of major studio films. (See "Summary Judgment" for reviewers' reactions.) (3/26)

O.J. Simpson's lawyers filed motions to overturn the civil judgment against him. They claim a dozen grounds for a new trial, including the allegedly improper admission into evidence of 1) a lie-detector test and 2) a phone call to a battered-women's shelter by a woman named Nicole. (3/26)

Jesse Helms and Madeleine Albright are becoming a hot political item. They toured North Carolina together March 25, declaring their mutual admiration. Reporters curious about their motives have decided that 1) she senses his power and gentility and is courting his cooperation and 2) he loves her Reaganesque patriotism, moral certitude, and tough-guy talk (e.g., challenging Cuba's cojones). The first fruit of her labors is that Helms has now indicated that he will stop blocking the chemical-weapons treaty (which he still opposes) from coming to the Senate floor for a vote. (3/26)

Former President George Bush, re-enacting an episode from his Navy career, strapped on a parachute and jumped out of an airplane. The parachute opened. (3/26)