Across the Nation

Organizations to ask for cooperation

WASHINGTON - Leaders of some of the same organizations that led the noisy and often violent demonstrations that disrupted the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle last fall have set the same goal for the World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings this weekend in the nation's capital. And they are building on the lesson they say they learned out West: The need to keep strong alliances with all groups opposed to globalization.

''We're more aware now of sensitivity between different groups than we were then,'' said Matthew Smucker an activist for Rainforest Action Network in Minneapolis who is helping to organize this week's protests.

The Mobilization for Global Justice's says roughly 450 groups have endorsed its mission. It is coordinating dozens of organizations spanning a wide range of ideologies, including environmentalists, organized labor and feminists.

Activists describe the movement as leaderless, and most of the protesters seem to have come together through an informal network of groups across the country.

Information is spread largely through word of mouth and the Internet. Decisions - when and where to hold a march, what strategy to pursue - are made by consensus, reached by a council of representatives of the various groups.

Yet, not everyone agrees, even when it comes to the so-called enemies. Some advocate dismantling the WTO, the IMF and the World Bank, while others are simply asking for reforms.

Great-uncle refuses to release Elian

MIAMI - Elian Gonzalez's great-uncle defied the government yesterday and the government blinked, letting its deadline to collect the boy pass and agreeing to a delay that averts a law-enforcement showdown for now. In Little Havana, thousands cheered wildly at the news.

Attorneys for Elian's Miami relatives claimed victory after a federal appeals court issued a stay blocking anyone from taking the boy out of the country. The Justice Department, though, said it had agreed to a delay of "three or four days."

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals told the government to respond to the stay by 9:30 a.m. today, giving great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez's family another day with Elian at the very least. Lazaro "feels relief," family spokesman Armando Gutierrez said, "at least until tomorrow morning."

Yesterday's court action capped a fluid, electrifying day that began minutes after Lazaro Gonzalez dared the government to take Elian by force. In less than 24 hours, the Miami relatives met with Attorney General Janet Reno, publicly announced their defiance of her, allowed Elian to speak on TV and ignored a 2 p.m. deadline to deliver him to an airport for return to his father.

22 FedEx workers arrested in scandal

WASHINGTON - Federal authorities said yesterday they have broken up a Los Angeles-based drug trafficking operation that used the Federal Express overnight delivery system to ship tons of marijuana across the United States.

Sweeping into FedEx warehouses and offices across the country, federal agents arrested 22 drivers, customer service representatives and security agents yesterday who they allege variously packed the marijuana into FedEx boxes, placed bogus labels on them and handed them over to dealers parked along delivery routes. FedEx shipped more than 4,000 boxes of drugs across the country, federal officials said.