And sailing close to the mushroom clouds, evacuating islanders who'd felt the ash rain down froma colonial power halfaworldaway, was again a sure-fire way to win in the court of public opinion - even if the French government had not guaranteed itself a defeat by its cack-handed resort to force in Auckland.
In Brunei, U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher sat down with Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev to discuss the latest developments in the Balkans, halfaworldawayfrom Asia.
The session is held in a conference room down the hall from his office, but many of the attendees are halfaworldaway, participating via teleconference.