"Hands off Microsoft--for now" is the semi-reassuring subhed on the Economist 's editorial about the browser war. "Microsoft will probably win this battle" against Netscape, the magazine predicts. But "on balance," and in the absence of "outright dirty tricks," the editors think the Internet software market will probably remain competitive enough that antitrust regulators should not interfere. This week's lead editorial takes on another notorious predator and begins with a similar analysis: "Give Saddam Hussein a glimpse of weakness and he will exploit it." Unlike Microsoft, however, Hussein requires hands on. "That is why America's cruise-missile attacks this week were justified"(even though "the legal basis for the raids was shaky").

The Times Magazine features a sympathetic profile of a Brooklyn high-school principal named Michael Johnson who, says the piece, is turning inner-city kids into overachievers--but getting no praise from most school reformers. Why? Traditional progressives, the article argues, take a more patronizing view of poor, minority students than does the new, tough breed of black educators. The magazine also looks at Sarajevo's "lost generation" of youths. Raised in their early years in a cosmopolitan, tolerant tradition, they are now disillusioned, disaffected--and jobless. And there's a quick look at the "anti-Newt"--the Democratic cookie millionaire who is challenging the speaker in his home district in November.

U.S. News has religion on its mind, too, with a cover story that asks if church work, and not government programs, is the answer to our social ills. The magazine finds that churches are more efficient at delivering services--the rub is that churches don't have the resources to replace government programs, but that direct funding of church charities raises hairy constitutional questions. The magazine cites several success stories and suggests that generous tax credits for church donations are the sensible way out.
Also, U.S. News reports on the environmental disasters wrought by rapid Chinese industrialization.