SPACE LINK-UP.

The U.S. space shuttle Atlantis docked smoothly with Russia’s Mir space station March 23. It was the third link-up of the two spacecraft since June 1995 and begins a period of 26 months during which at least one American will be working on board Mir. U.S. astronaut Shanon Lucid will be the first, remaining on Mir until August. (Reuter, March 24)

Taliban Maintains Hard Line.