WASHINGTON - The United States must help build a new era of peace and security, President Clinton said in his State of the Union address Jan. 27.

MONS, Belgium - NATO officials are highly concerned trouble in the Serbian province of Kosovo may spill over into neighboring nations.

WASHINGTON - The Internal Revenue Service says a few minutes checking your federal tax forms before sending them in may save you money and time in the long run.

MONS, Belgium - Resistance to refugee returns in Bosnia is decreasing, and resettlement progress is evident, NATO's top military leader said here Jan. 27.

BRUSSELS - While NATO expects new members to meet basic membership requirements, alliance officials do not want to overtax the three new member nations, Secretary General Javier Solana said Jan. 22.

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is trying to decide whether it needs to exhume the remains of a Vietnam War service member buried at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery.

BRUSSELS - NATO-led stabilization force troops in Bosnia arrested an indicted Bosnian Serb war criminal during an early morning Jan. 22 raid.

BRUSSELS - How many troops will remain in Bosnia after the stabilization force mission ends in June? Will the number drop substantially or remain the same? Will the mission remain the same?

WASHINGTON - A program supporting installation libraries, DoD schools and other agencies that serve the children and youth of military families was outlined recently by the Armed Services YMCA.

BEIJING - On the second day of his visit to China, Defense Secretary William Cohen signed agreements designed to prevent accidents and confrontations between the U.S. and Chinese navies.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - This could be Marine Gunnery Sgt. Jon Thorsen's most memorable promotion. The 15-year veteran from Marshall, N.C., received his new stripes from Defense Secretary William Cohen in an impromptu courtyard ceremony at the U.S. Embassy here Jan. 13.

JAKARTA, Indonesia - The United States and the Philippines could soon resume joint exercises, combined training and ship visits under a new visiting forces agreement, Defense Secretary William Cohen announced here Jan. 14.

BRUSSELS - NATO Secretary General Javier Solana these days goes to Sarajevo monthly and that, he told a Swedish audience Jan. 19, shows the alliance's progress in securing peace in Bosnia.

BRUSSELS - "NATO has not just reacted to history, we have shaped it," Secretary General Javier Solana told academic, government and military officials in Sweden Jan. 19.

JAKARTA, Indonesia - The president of the second most populous nation in Southeast Asia said he shares the United States' commitment to regional peace in stability and strong bilateral relations.

SINGAPORE - This tiny island nation at the tip of the Malay Peninsula strengthened its support of the United States Jan. 15 with the announcement it will build a new harbor to accommodate U.S. aircraft carriers and other warships.

BANGKOK - Defense Secretary William Cohen told Thai leaders the United States will help them work out new payment options for military equipment they ordered before the current Asian financial crunch.

WASHINGTON - Two triathletes and a world-class triple jumper captured 1997 Armed Forces Athlete of the Year titles.

MONTEREY, Calif. - When the Air Force decided to go with the C-17 cargo plane and the Office of the Secretary of Defense needed to look at base infrastructure in Europe, they turned to a complex computer model designed in part by professors and students of the Naval Postgraduate School here.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - When the sun rises on Nagano, Japan, for the XVIII Winter Olympic Games next month, eight soldiers and an airman will be among the 200 athletes representing the United States of America.

WASHINGTON - DoD units and equipment have been working around the clock providing needed help to victims of the early January Northeast ice storm.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - The U.S. military presence in Asia should be broadened and deepened, yet not increased in the region above the current level of about 100,000 troops, Defense Secretary William Cohen said here Jan. 12.

WASHINGTON - The United States already has "a very robust presence" in the Persian Gulf region and will not send more service members in response to Saddam Hussein's latest provocation, Pentagon officials said Jan. 13.

WASHINGTON - Pentagon leaders hope the Iranian president's recent statements that his country is not seeking nuclear arms or supports terrorism signals a change in policy.

WASHINGTON - "The United States remains totally committed to full implementation of the Dayton peace agreement," said Robert Gelbard, President Clinton's special representative for the implementation of the peace accord.

SKOPJE, FYROM - In Baumholder, Germany, they are mechanized warfighters, maneuvering Bradley fighting vehicles and firing heavy weapons.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - In the midst of the escalating financial crisis that's rocking world stock markets, Defense Secretary William Cohen called his visits to seven countries important to security and stability of East Asia.

WASHINGTON - Reserve and National Guard forces soon will have a greater voice in military policy, planning and operations.

LIMA, Peru - Before it was the United States' biggest supplier of illegal cocaine, Peru was a major exporter of chocolate. Thanks to increasingly successful interdiction of narcotraffickers and an alternative crop plan, some coca farmers here once more produce candy for the mouth instead of the nose.

WASHINGTON - Did Iraq actually use biological warfare agents during the Persian Gulf War? The DoD special assistant for Gulf War illnesses will try to find that out this year.

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary William Cohen left Jan. 10 on an 12-day trip to Asia to meet with senior U.S. political and military officials and troops based there.

WASHINGTON - Military and civilian leaders gathered here recently to find ways to improve service members' quality of life.

WASHINGTON - In the red earth on a hill in biblical Galilee overlooking sites where Jesus preached, thousands of trees flourish on once-barren land in a forest named in honor Martin Luther King Jr.

IQUITOS, Peru - Rusted tin- and thatched-roof huts rise on narrow stilts at the edges of the jungle and along the banks of the brown Amazon River. Boats of varying sizes -- but none of them large -- creak against crude docks. Young men in long rowboats drift slowly, some holding bamboo fishing poles, others just staring silently toward shore. None pays heed to the Peruvian naval patrol boat carving a deep wake as it diesels up the middle of this quarter-mile-wide stretch of the 2,000-mile-long Amazon.

WASHINGTON - More than 100 countries, 49 states and U.S. territories honor Martin Luther King Jr., said Steve Kline of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta.

WASHINGTON - The Martin Luther King Jr. Center at Boston University evolved from riots and disturbances following King's assassination on April 4, 1968, said Mable L. Millner, director of the university's Multicultural Affairs Office.

FORT BELVOIR, Va. - "It's not your father's Oldsmobile. It's a Corvette or some other high-speed vehicle."

WASHINGTON - "Volksmarch? What's that?"

MONTEREY, Calif. - A Navy SEAL creeps silently through dense bushes, and approaches a structure with American citizens held captive inside. He needs to see inside the building to find how many hostages there are and exactly where they're located, but he cannot simply walk up to the building.

BRUSSELS - Politicians may talk the talk when it comes to freedom, but it's American troops who walk the walk, according to William S. Cohen.