Zaire's regime is in its final hours. Dictator Mobutu Sese Seko fled to a palace in his hometown in Zaire's north. Government troops outside the capital decided to run rather than fight, raising the possibility that rebel forces will enter the city without resistance. Mobutu's allies are responding alertly to the crisis: His soldiers have begun deserting and looting, and his cronies are fleeing the country. His prime minister asked the French for help. Instead of coming to his assistance, the French began burning Embassy documents linking them to Mobutu. Diplomats expect Mobutu to join in the general orgy of cowardice and seek exile in Morocco. (5/16)

White House and Hill negotiators announced that this time, they really do have an agreement to balance the budget in five years. The plan would increase the federal deficit next year and make up the shortfall with deep domestic spending cuts in the last two years. "The president is ecstatic," said the White House's congressional lobbyist. "He thinks this is absolutely a triumph." Scoffed the Washington Post, "You cut the budget, cut taxes, increase 'spending' on higher education all in the same stroke. Not bad work if you can get it."(5/16)

NATO and Russia struck a deal. As compensation for NATO's expansion to Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, Russia gets 1) a role in an internal NATO council on security issues and 2) a pledge from NATO not to put nuclear weapons or storage facilities in new member countries. Analysts marvel that despite Russia's lack of leverage, it played its hand so well that the three countries being admitted to NATO suspect Russia got a better deal by being locked out. Meanwhile, old-timers are grumbling that NATO is getting too big and diverse to be effective, and that the United States will lose its pre-eminence in the alliance. (5/16)

The Senate soundly rejected a compromise measure banning post-viability abortions. The proposal, crafted by Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and supported by President Clinton, would have allowed exceptions for women who would otherwise suffer "grievous injury." Pro-life advocates and senators objected that 1) it was riddled with loopholes and 2) pro-choice activists weren't sufficiently outraged by it. This clears the way for a replay of the Republican "partial-birth" abortion ban: The Senate will pass it; Clinton will veto it; the House will override the veto; the Senate will fail to override; and Republicans will use the issue against Democrats in the next election. The difference this time is that Daschle's bill will provide political cover to Democratic senators who sustain Clinton's veto of the Republican bill. (5/16)

Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against accused Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski. The Justice Department authorized this despite entreaties from Kaczynski's brother (who essentially had turned him in) to spare Ted's life. The family's lawyer grumbled that if the government is going to be that way about it, other people who suspect their relatives are dangers to society may refuse to turn them in. Cynics wager that the death-sentence option is just a bargaining chip the government hopes to exchange for a guilty plea from Kaczynski. (5/16)

House Speaker Newt Gingrich said he would cut his loan from Bob Dole in half and pay the remaining $150,000 in penalties for ethics violations from his and his wife's own savings. He paid the first $50,000 Thursday. Other elements in his recast agreement with Dole addressed concerns that Dole might use the leverage from the loan to aid clients of the law firm he has joined. (5/16)

Rupert Murdoch is on the verge of buying the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Los Angeles Times says this is the first step in Murdoch's scheme to build a regional sports empire that includes football and basketball teams (he is already trying to buy part of the Lakers). National Football League officials worry that Murdoch's acquisition of an NFL team would create a conflict of interest, since he also owns the Fox network that televises half the league's games. The Times foresees the degeneration of sports into corporate competition among Disney (Michael Eisner; Anaheim Angels, Anaheim Mighty Ducks; ABC), Time Warner (Ted Turner; Atlanta Braves, Atlanta Hawks; TBS), and Fox (Murdoch; Dodgers, Lakers; NFL TV). (5/14)

Miscellaneous: Australian Susan Maroney became the first woman to swim from Cuba to Florida. She endured the 24-hour, 112-mile ordeal by replaying Seinfeld episodes in her head. At least five climbers died on Mount Everest this week. The San Jose Mercury News confessed it had overstepped the evidence last year when it implicated the CIA in selling crack to finance the Nicaraguan Contras (see Slate's "Tangled Web"). The New York Times congratulated the Mercury News for this "courageous" admission. Tiger Woods declined to apologize for rejecting President Clinton's invitation to appear at the Jackie Robinson commemoration in New York last month, saying that the invitation should have come before his Masters victory. Activists are lobbying Congress to extend its ban on clitoridectomies (aimed at parents of African origin) to clitoral-reduction surgery, which as many as 2,000 American infants are said to undergo each year for cosmetic reasons. (5/14)

The art market is roaring back. Christie's auction of the Loeb family's collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings raked in $92 million, the biggest one-night score since the market's 1990 collapse. The subsequent auction at Sotheby's garnered record bids for works of Degas and Klimt. Christie's noted that most of its buyers were American, and many were new purchasers of major art. The Los Angeles Times welcomed both the season's success and the absence of the speculative fever that caused the 1990 crash. (5/14)

A huge earthquake in Iran (7.1 on the Richter scale) killed 1,560 people, injured 6,000, and destroyed 200 villages and 10,000 homes. Several countries and relief organizations (including the American Red Cross) are sending aid. This follows a Feb. 28 quake in the same area that killed nearly 1,000, and two June 21, 1990, quakes (that killed 50,000, injured 60,000, and destroyed the homes of half a million people). (5/14)