EVENTS

HOPES FOR PEACE FADE IN BOSNIA Bosnian Serb leaders have pronounced a United Nations peace plan for Bosnia "dead" in the wake of a weekend referendum and say an independent Serb state is a reality. The commander of Bosnian Serb forces, Gen. Ratko Mladic, exuded defiance, saying any Western soldiers who might intervene to enforce the peace plan as President Clinton has threatened would meet fierce resistance from his fighters. "Whoever comes will leave his bones here," the Yugoslav news agency Tanjug quoted him as saying. Fighting raged y esterday between Croatian and Muslim Bosnians around the city of Mostar. Bosnia's Muslim president, Alija Izetbegovic, is scheduled to meet Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and the European Community's negotiator, Lord Owen, today to try again to make peace. Arab-Israeli woes

Arab-Israeli violence claimed six more lives Sunday as Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin vowed that Israel would make no further unilateral gestures toward the Palestinians to achieve Middle East peace. Meanwhile, Palestinian peace negotiators said they plan to discuss with the United States a draft declaration of principles for Israeli-Palestinian talks. Israel and the Palestinians failed to reach agreement on the principles of interim Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the ninth round of peace talks which ended in Washington last week. German neo-Nazi trial

Two right-wing extremists went on trial yesterday on charges of killing three Turks last November in a fire bombing that shocked German authorities into cracking down on neo-Nazi violence. One of the defendants denies taking part in the bombing, while the other has admitted his role in killing the two girls and their grandmother. China-US trade

China has not made enough progress on issues the United States has linked to renewal of its most-favored-nation trade status, Winston Lord, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said Sunday. Meanwhile, the Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday that China's economy continues to boom. Industrial production for the first four months was up 23 percent from a year earlier, the report said. Supreme Court rulings

The Supreme Court yesterday let stand a ruling that barred the distribution of Gideon Bibles to fifth-graders in an Indiana public school system. The justices, without comment, rejected arguments by Rensselaer, Ind., school officials who said the longtime practice did not violate the constitutionally required separation of church and state. Yesterday, the Supreme Court also let a group of black Milwaukee residents sue under a federal fair-housing law for alleged racial discrimination in the sale of homeo wners' insurance. Democrats press for budget

White House communications director George Stephanopoulos yesterday challenged Republicans to say how they would reduce the federal deficit if they continue opposing President Clinton's plan. Meanwhile, Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D) of Illinois, who guided the bulk of Clinton's plan through the House Ways and Means Committee last week, suggested little help will come from Republicans in either the House or Senate. US West-Time partnership

US West, a major telephone company, has agreed to pay $2.5 billion to become Time Warner's partner in creating a "full-service" interactive system that gets information and entertainment to customers whenever they want it, the companies announced yesterday. The deal represents the first strategic alliance between a regional Bell phone company and a major cable television firm. `Dave' whips Bruce Lee

Two movies released a week ago switched places atop the list of the weekend's top box office draws. "Dave" earned an estimated $8.6 million to move ahead of "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story." "Dragon," which debuted last week in the No. 1 slot, earned an estimated $6.1 million for second place, an industry source said.