At first the police remained impassive but in the past few days they have told the

At first the police remained impassive, but in the past few days they have told the students to leave their goodies by the side of the road so they can pick them up as they go off duty.On Monday night, which was the Serbian Orthodox Christmas Eve, the police disappeared from the streets altogether as more than 100,000 people walked and danced across town for a late-evening Mass at St Sava Cathedral.It has been a remarkable display of democracy in action, without a hint of violence or resentment from any quarter. The students have analysed protest movements which date back to 1968 and have tried to avoid the mistakes of the past. They have issued a short list of minimum demands - reinstatement of the election results, greater freedom in the media and the resignation of the dean of Belgrade University - rather than starting off over-optimistic and having to backtrack later.They have kept their protests separate from those of the opposition to underline their political independence. They have refused to meet Mr Milosevic, knowing that any such meeting risks being manipulated against them in the official media. And they have kept their protests short to keep everyone fresh and enthusiastic day after day.The opposition coalition, meanwhile, has shown an assured knack for civil disobedience. To counter the propaganda broadcast by the state television news at 7.30 every night they have got Belgraders to "drown out" the official version of the day's events by blowing whistles, banging on pots and pans, letting off fireworks and simply screaming at the top of their lungs.Last Sunday they worked around a ban on marching down Belgrade's main boulevards by inviting their supporters to drive into the centre and then pretend to break down. "Wet cables! Wet cables!" drivers would mutter as they peered with mock seriousness into their bonnets.One man, asked what was wrong with his car, answered: "Its soul has broken down.

It has been broken for a long, long time."New ideas include refusing to pay utility bills and jamming the switchboards of ministries and other government offices by bombarding them with telephone calls."The less work these people do, the better it is for the country," said Zoran Djindjic, one of the three leaders of the opposition coalition Zajedno (Together).If this struggle were all about creativity, then the government would have caved in long ago. As it is, its response has been a near-total silence, broken only by an occasional burst of invective that invariably falls flat.One suspects that President Milosevic cannot believe what he is seeing - his authority flouted day after day with an irreverence that nobody in Serbia would have dared show even a few months ago.Autocrats rely on fear to bolster their position, but fear has vanished off the Belgrade streets like air whooshing out of a balloon. Mr Milosevic cannot match the humour or the verve of his spirited opponents, and that ultimately may well prove his downfall.n A hardline communist party allied with Mr Milosevic yesterday sought to blame the opposition for a bomb that exploded outside its headquarters on Monday night and said it expected further such "terrorist" attacks.Nobody was hurt in the bomb blast, which looked suspiciously like a government provocation against Serbia's pro-democracy demonstrators. Some politicians and diplomats fear it could be a sign of a violent crackdown in the offing.Comment, page 13Life under Milosevic: The pain and the protestSeptember 1987 - Slobodan Milosevic takes over as Communist Party leader in Serbia.May 1989 - Milosevic becomes President of the Yugoslavian republic of Serbia.March 1991 - Milosevic crushes opposition demonstrations in Belgrade with tanks.June 1991-November 1995 - Wars in former Yugoslavia.17 November 1996 - Opposition coalition Zajedno (Together) defeats Milosevic's Socialists (ex-Communists) in municipal elections in Belgrade and a dozen other Serbian cities.18 November - Daily protests begin after authorities annul opposition's election victories.1 December - Socialists underline refusal to compromise by denouncing opposition as "destructive, violent fascists".24 December - First police violence against peaceful demonstrators in Belgrade results in one death.27 December - Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe upholds Zajedno's election victories and urges Milosevic to respect will of voters.2 January 1997 - Serbian Orthodox Church breaks with Milosevic, accusing him of bringing nation to point of complete collapse6 January - Army distances itself from Milosevic, saying it will not use force to end protests..

Mikuni (Reuters) - Fishing villages in north-west Japan feared economic and environmental catastrophe yesterday as oil from a sunken Russian tanker coated beaches and threatened prized shellfish beds. Oil slicks have hit the shore along a 60-mile stretch from Kyoto Prefecture to Fukui Prefecture, whose rocky coast is dotted with fish farms, fishing ports and tourist resorts, a Maritime Safety Agency (MSA) spokesman said. "Oil has come ashore at more than seven places, from Kyogamisaki in Kyoto to Oshima lighthouse in Fukui Prefecture, where the bow of the tanker has drifted ashore," the spokesman said.At a beach at Mikuni, about 210 miles north-west of Tokyo, villagers grimaced at the pungent odour of heavy oil as they surveyed the wreck of the ship that has caused Japan's second worst oil spill."This is where I swim in summer, and my mother dives for abalone," said 12-year-old Koji Ogiwara. "At this time of the year, she would normally be looking for seaweed. It's all destroyed and I don't know what we are going to do."In Mikuni alone, a fishing town of 20,000 people, the oil spill threatened to wipe out the entire port's annual fishing income of 30m yen (pounds 260,000).The oil slicks also threaten a stretch of rocky Sea of Japan coastline on the picturesque Noto Peninsula, east of Fukui. The popular tourist area is famous for shrimp, crabs and "Ama", women who make their livings diving for shellfish and rare seaweed without the aid of air tanks or snorkels.Intermittent snow and cold have dogged efforts to stop the oil spill since the 13,157-tonne Russian-registered Nakhodka broke in two during storms in the Sea of Japan on Thursday.Kenji Ondo, of the Fukui Prefectural Fisheries Organisation, said he feared long-term damage to the local industry."If the oil reaches rocky parts of the coast, ecosystems could be seriously damaged. If it enters the food chain via the seaweed, it could slow down the growth of organisms all the way up the chain," he said.The MSA spokesman said that high seas had prevented an oil dispersal operation using detergent chemicals."We still have no idea of how much oil escaped from the vessel," he said..

He is half-American, entering middle-age and he has spent his entire life in the family business. With his receding hairline and gold-rimmed spectacles, he might be the chief executive of a small, Californian software company. He believes he has the answer to the corrosive short-termism of the politics of the late 20th century (or any other century) The answer is monarchy Hardly surprising. His family business is the longest, continuously installed monastic dynasty on the planet (admittedly ruling an area marginally larger than a golf course) Nor is it just a ceremonial monarchy, like the Windsors. It is one of the few monarchies with real power (admittedly, with a Prime Minister and police chief appointed by France). His name is Albert Grimaldi. He is the 38-year-old camera-shy brother of Caroline and Stephanie, son of Prince Rainier of Monaco and of Alfred Hitchcock's favourite actress.The Grimaldi family business - to which Albert is heir apparent - celebrates its 700th anniversary today.