A prep course for the month-long World Cup soccer tournament , a worldwide pheno menon to be played in the United States for the first time beginning June 17 , i s available in a set of three home videos . Each of the three volumes by PolyGra m Video lists for $ 14.95 and has a running time of about 60 minutes . The three volumes : `` World Cup USA '94 : The Official Preview , '' which includes a tou rnament history with footage all the way back to the first World Cup held in 193 0 . There 's a look at the training of the 1994 U.S. team and a profile of Brazi l 's Pele , just 17 when he took the 1958 event by storm , repeating in 1962 and 1970 . `` Top 50 Great World Cup Goals , '' highlighting exciting moments from competition beginning in 1966 with favorites such as Pele , Johan Cruyff , Diego Maradona , Roberto Baggio , Salvatore `` Toto '' Schillaci and Franz Beckenbaue r . `` Great World Cup Superstars , '' focusing on the top names in the game , f eatured in the `` Goals '' cassette , and adding some interviews that offer an i nsight into what makes these stars shine . Three new basketball videos available : `` Sir Charles '' takes a look at the on-court intensity and dynamic skills o f Charles Barkley of the Phoenix Suns as well as his entertaining off-court pers ona. $ 19.98 , 50 minutes , 1-800-999-VIDEO . `` NBA Superstars 3 '' follows up on two previous hit videos meshing the moves of the NBA 's elite with today 's h it music . This one includes Kenny Anderson , Steve Smith , Derrick Coleman , La rry Johnson , Dan Majerle , Alonzo Mourning , Hakeem Olajuwon , Mark Price , Sha wn Kemp , Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars . Their play is matched with the music of Erick Sermon , M People , LL Cool J , Celine Dion , Domino , Soulhat , Soul Asyl um , Buckshot LeFonque , Branford Marsalis , Pearl Jam and Rozella. $ 19.98 , 50 minutes , 1-800-999-VIDEO . `` Hog Wild : The Official 1994 NCAA Championship V ideo '' recaptures the excitement of the latest edition of March Madness and Ark ansas 's march to the title with rousing victories over Michigan , Arizona and D uke in the three final games. $ 19.98 , 45 minutes , 1-800-747-7999 . Canadian River Expeditions offers a change from the usual theme-park vacation : five 11-day float trips from July 1 to Aug. 31 that take families through some of British Columbia 's most scenic territory . Travel for these Chilcotin-Fraser tours is by yacht , seaplane and raft through deep fjords where bald eagles whe el through the sky and the water is filled with seals , whales and some of the b iggest salmon in the world . Highlights include winging on a seaplane over icefi elds , hiking trips and fishing expeditions . The raft rides are not white knuck le adventures it 's mostly gentle floating . A few hours a day are spent on the water , with the rest of the time devoted to guided sightseeing and nature walks . Price is $ 2,325 , including round-trip airfare to Vancouver , meals and acco mmodations , as well as camping gear . Call your travel agent or ( 604 ) 738-444 9 . Trafalgar Tours is offering 16 `` Best of ... '' trips to Europe for 1994 . `` Best of Britain , '' for example , takes in all of England and Scotland in 15 days for $ 1,099 . A 14-day `` Best of France '' trip for $ 1,260 covers the co untry from north to south , including Monaco , and a `` Best of Switzerland '' i tinerary combines Zurich , St. Moritz , Zermatt , Geneva , Interlaken and Lucern e in 9 nine days for $ 799 . Other packages are available for Spain , Italy , Ge rmany , Austria , Holland , Norway , Sweden and Denmark , Belgium and Holland , among others . Prices exclude airfare . Call your travel agent or ( 800 ) 457-68 91 . Airlines are offering , or continuing , special price packages for traveler s flying to Europe , the Mideast and the Far East . IPI World Travel and Delta A irlines , for example , are rolling back prices for a `` China Highlights '' tou r 14 days , departing in November and December , to Bejing , Shanghai , Xian Gui lin and Hong Kong for $ 2,650 , including airfare from the East Coast . Delta al so runs several package tours to European cities : a `` Parisien Spree '' of 6 s ix nights , breakfasts and a Seine River cruise , for $ 1,199 per person , doubl e occupancy , round-trip from New York , and a `` Romantic Rome '' trip , with s imilar features , for just $ 1,289 . El Al meanwhile sponsors a spring vacation package that includes five nights ' accommodations in Tel Aviv , daily breakfast s and free rental car , for just $ 1,049 round-trip from New York City . Call yo ur travel agent or IPI at ( 212 ) 953-6010 or El Al Israeli Airlines at ( 800 ) EL AL SUN . Take a long weekend this summer and enjoy one of several two- to fou r-day walking tours of New York 's historic Hudson Valley from High Land Flings Footloose Holidays . Their `` Dutch Treat '' trip , June 3-5 , follows in the fo otsteps of colonial settlers through three National Historic landmark villages w here stone houses built by Dutch and Huguenot builders in the 17th century still stand . You 'll walk America 's oldest street in New Paltz , Main Street in Hur ley and the Stockade area of Kingston , where the state 's constitution was writ ten and adopted , and also visit the 1676 Senate House . Other walks cover the a rea of Lake Minnewaska , Overlook Mountain near Woodstock and the northeastern C atskills . Prices range from $ 350 per person , double occupancy , for two-day w alks to $ 699 for a four-day trip . Call ( 800 ) 453-6665 . Are frequent-flier awards worth all the trouble travelers sometimes go through to rack up enough miles for a free trip ? Not according to a lengthy piece in th e May issue of Worth magazine , which concludes that the programs are vastly ove r-rated . Then why do so many banks , rental-car companies , long-distance phone services and hotels reward their frequent customers with airline miles rather t han cash discounts or other perks ? Simple , says Worth contributing editor Jeff Blyskal , in the article entitled `` The Frequent-Flier Fallacy . '' Companies want to give premiums that combine the greatest perceived value with the lowest possible outlay , and frequent-flier miles are the perfect solution . Each freeb ie ticket costs an airline only $ 11 to $ 42 , Blyskal calculates . The average discount to passengers amounts to 3.3 percent almost 2 percent less than you get by being a valued customer of Sears , he writes . His data showed the cost to a traveler for each award ranges from $ 929 with Southwest Airlines to $ 7,527 wi th Delta , which requires higher-than-average mileage minimums to collect a free bie . The dollar value of the freebies ranges from $ 56 with Southwest to $ 208 with United . The effective discounts passengers reap range from 1.5 percent ( U SAir ) to 6 percent ( Southwest ) . Hotel frequent-guest programs typically prov ide a 5 percent discount , as do numerous retailers ' programs , including Sears Best Customer , Blyskal found . The number of dollars spent to earn a domestic freebie usually available after flying 20,000 miles typically ranges from $ 3,62 6 to $ 6,555 , he said . ( On Southwest Airlines , the average passenger gets a free trip after 7,104 miles because freebies are awarded by that carrier after e ight round trips rather than a mileage minimum . ) Blyskal says his accounting s ystem gives airlines the benefit of the doubt in every aspect and was based on t he programs as they stand now before the program devaluations most airlines plan starting next year . The payback is even worse from affinity credit cards , he says , which generally award one frequent-flier mile per dollar charged . This t ranslates to an effective discount of just 0.7 percent on $ 20,000 in credit car d spending needed to earn the $ 152 in value of the average free ticket , Blyska l figures . All in all , he says , to earn these paltry awards , travelers spend more on air travel in the first place than they have to because they often shun low-cost airlines that do not participate in frequent-flier programs . For exam ple , he says , to earn 20,000 miles on United , a traveler would have to make 1 4 Newark-Chicago round trips at a cost of $ 12,348 . Fourteen round trips would cost just a quarter of that $ 2,912 on upstart Kiwi International Airlines , whi ch offers consistently low rates but no frequent-flier perks , he says . You say you don't care about the price because your boss pays for a lot of your flights and lets you rake in the resulting frequent-flier perks ? Don't let the company bean-counters get wind of the fact that you could be sent on 45 more Newark-Chi cago business trips for what it 's costing to ensure that you get your perk , Bl yskal cautions . Add on the annual fees charged for some affinity cards , not to mention high interest on purchases and maybe a computer program to help you man age your miles . And , of course , most travelers who earn a freebie purchase a ticket for their spouse or companion to accompany them which often isn't availab le at any discount whatsoever . Plus the hardest cost to quantify which may be t he biggest cost of all , Blyskal says : the time many fliers spend obsessing ove r maximizing mileage for minimum payback . His advice ? Focus on service and low fares , not a possible freebie you may never collect . The State Department is taking a wait-and-see attitude after an American touris t was seriously injured in an attack May 10 by a man with a machete on a remote stretch of beach in the Cayman Islands . The State Department issues information about petty street crime , but not violence , in the Caribbean islands it group s as the British West Indies . `` We 're looking at whether this remains an isol ated incidence or if it 's an indication of a threat to other tourists , '' said Gary Sheaffer , department spokesman . At the opposite end of the Caribbean , o n the island of Trinidad off the coast of Venezuela , a honeymooning Canadian co uple was found beaten and dead on a beach May 11 , with their valuables nearby i n their unlocked rental car , a Canadian government spokeswoman confirmed . Trin idadian and Canadian police are still investigating , she said . `` This is the first time this has happened to Canadians in Trinidad . It 's probably a good id ea not to frequent deserted beaches , whether it 's Trinidad or Florida , '' sai d Lely Campbell-Ferreira . Sheaffer said the U.S. . State Department was not awa re of the incident . Now you have legroom , now you don't . TWA , which created its much-advertised Comfort Class in coach last year by taking 40 seats out of i ts cabins , is putting 34 seats back in planes flying its most popular routes th is summer . The airline is re-installing the seats on only 10 planes ( the 747-1 00s ) out of its fleet of 189 `` to meet high market demand '' for the summer , mostly on overseas flights , said spokesman Don Fleming . The rest of the fleet will retain Comfort Class . And TWA will re-evaluate seating in the fall and cou ld very well take the seats out again . Most of the flights with more legs and l ess room this summer fly out of New York : to Athens , Rome , Madrid , Milan , P aris , New York to St. Louis to Honolulu , one flight daily from New York to Los Angeles and St. Louis to Gatwick , London . Ask about Comfort Class before maki ng a reservation . Buzzwords that Cunard honchos recently bandied about as they described the upcoming $ 45 million refurbishment of the cruise line 's flagship , the Queen Elizabeth 2 , which made its maiden transatlantic voyage in 1969 , were `` enhance '' and `` flow . '' Which translates into opening up more spaces all over the ship : adding a second-story deck promenade to give the Midship Lo bby an atriumlike look , eliminating the odd dead-end corridor , redesigning the directional signs ( all `` to enhance passenger flow '' ) and adding a new obse rvation lounge at the rear of the ship with panoramic windows yielding an uninte rrupted view . The new art-deco- , neo-classical-inspired decor will be ripe wit h texture , replete with marble , resounding in architectural detail and rich in earthtones , all `` enhanced '' with the QE2 's memorabilia , such as old chart s and lots of regal art . All 900 cabins will be refurbished and all bathrooms r ebuilt . Ditto on restaurants , where quality of service will , of course , be ` ` enhanced . '' The refurbishment will commence Nov. 30 and take about 30 days , Cunard officials said . So will all this `` enhance '' prices ? `` The cost of cruising has never gone down , '' noted Navin Sawnhey , senior vice president of marketing . The QE2 now offers a range of fares and cruises , with its transatl antic voyage priced from $ 1,395 to $ 10,745 , per person , double , with return air travel . You can't party all night long in Greece anymore . Nightclubs , ba rs and restaurants formerly with all-night entertainment now must close by 2:30 a.m. in summer , 2 a.m. in winter and 3:30 a.m. on Saturday . So you willn't be sleepless in Seattle , the Seattle-King County Visitors Bureau is operating a fr ee reservation service : ( 800 ) 535-7071 . A new service offers travelers a fax mailbox to retrieve stored faxes with any machine by calling a toll-free number in the United States . For rate info , call AlphaNet Telecom at ( 212 ) 932-155 4 . I think there are several reasons why , in polite company , we rarely talk abou t our discharges . I mention this in connection with endorphins , which , I noti ce , people have begun to discuss with relative strangers , just the way people formerly discussed their cholesterol at parties . Do you remember that ? Outward ly normal person : `` Do you know what my cholesterol was last week ? Myself : ` ` Sir , I do not . '' Outwardly normal person : `` It was ( mentions very good c holesterol count ) . '' Myself : `` That is good . '' Outwardly normal person : `` What , you don't believe me ? '' Myself : `` I say no such thing . '' Outward ly normal person : `` If there 's a problem here , I know a medical lab that 's open until 8 . We 'll take my Q45 and I 'll get re-tested and you can see exactl y what my cholesterol is . '' I was never sure about how to participate in these conversations , because , first of all , I would never say `` my cholesterol . '' My creed is that cholesterol belongs to the universe or the Great Spirit . We 're just borrowing it for a little while . Which raises a question : Let 's say you do get your cholesterol down . Where does it go ? Is it just out there , st icking to the faces of babies in perambulators and gumming up the wings of the g reat-crested kingfisher ? Now it is endorphins . Endorphins are a sore subject w ith me , because I 'm pretty sure I don't have any . Other people do , and somet imes they seem to be bragging about them . `` I was up on the Nordic Combat mach ine last night , and I had it set at level eight , which simulates hand-to-hand combat with a huge , grunting , mead-addled Hun . Boy , after 45 minutes , those endorphins were really flowing . '' The idea is that endorphins are chemicals t hat , under certain circumstances , begin squirting out of somewhere inside your head and making your brain feel better . I picture the system as comparable to those nozzles in highly evolved produce sections , where a soothing mist sighs o ut over the kale and the arugula , like the strange fogs that gather ' round Ben Bulben 's bare head . I have been known to tarry there for extra moments , watc hing the wet shades and phantoms dance over the ruby swiss chard . Endorphins ar e supposed to calm the mind and kill pain and produce peak experiences , such as the `` runner 's high . '' I have never had a runner 's high or a swimmer 's hi gh or any particular reaction to strenuous exercise except the keen sense of how exhausted I was and how eager I was to stop swimming or running . And I know fu ll well that my brain is a tightly wired network of fright sensors , discomfort gauges and humming monitors of self-concern . There is nothing up there that coa ts my fevered mind in soothing syrup , and even if there were it would just shor t everything out . So maybe I don't have endorphins , but even if I did , would I mention them ? My normal assumption is that there is no widespread appetite fo r information about my secretions . `` My gall bladder was on the job yesterday afternoon . I was pumping some big-time bile , emulsifying those fats in my duod enum . Bless my soul . '' To the endorphin-proud , I am often tempted to point o ut that one theory about endorphins is that they were originally bestowed upon a nimals , such as cats , for whom sex is excruciatingly painful . They were a lit tle payoff , nature 's way of saying , `` Thanks for perpetuating the species ev en though that felt like being probed by a briar patch . '' Under those circumst ances , I maintain that the civilized course is to live with pain and terror . I f things get intolerable , there 's always the option of scootching the chicory aside and lying down for a while next to the red leaf lettuce . By conventional wisdom , there are certain things you simply don't do , right ? You don't drink on an empty stomach . You don't spit into the wind and , of cou rse , you never escort the bride 's father to the bachelor party . But for paren ts of young children , one don't has always outdistanced all the rest . You don' t go to Disney World during school holidays . People who have disobeyed this com mandment litter Orlando like lost souls , their hollow eyes bespeaking the drubb ing they have taken at the Tourist Capital of the Universe . Their children drag behind , in tears , muttering , `` We 'll be good now , Daddy . We promise . Pl ease. Can we wait two more hours on another line ? '' School holidays at Disney World are crowded with a capital C , chaos with , well , a capital K . The lines are legendary , the sun is hot and the living uneasy . But I did it . I survive d . I even had a good time , and you can , too even if you visit at a peak perio d , such as the three summer months . All you have to do is follow some simple a dvice , which I 'm sharing on the condition that you don't go blabbing it to all the neighbors . Because the secret here is to go where they ISn't and , believe you me , at Disney , an incautious word about an empty attraction can turn the Road Less Traveled into a Superhighway faster than you can say Jiminy Cricket . Rule No. 1 , then , is plan ahead . This trite little maxim will seem biblical i n depth when you 've watched The Unprepared spin out of control like weather van es in the wind . I myself had envisioned being a bit laid back about the whole a ffair until I mentioned my vacation to a few friends : `` I 'm planning on bring ing the wife and my 5-year-old daughter down to Disney World this Easter . '' Th ey looked at me as if I were a few sandwiches short of a picnic . That 's when I finally realized that you don't approach Disney World like a visit to an amusem ent park . You approach it like the invasion of a small country . Think of it as the Duchy of Grand Fenwick and begin preparing your counterattack on the Mouse That Roared . Of course , if you are a Zen master , and view crowds as a natural event , like waves in the ocean , skip ahead to Tip No. 2 . But the rest of you , buy a guide book and start reading . Otherwise you will be trampled by those who know that you have to be at Dumbo by 10 a.m. to avoid an hour 's wait . If y ou don't believe me , listen to Bob Sehingler , whose guide to Disneyland I mana ge to find and use . `` It 's easy to spot the free spirits at Disneyland , '' h e wrote , `` particularly at opening time . While everybody else is stampeding t o Splash Mountain or Star Tours , they are the ones standing in a cloud of dust puzzling over the park map . Later , they are the people running around like chi ckens in a thunderstorm trying to find an attraction with less than a forty-minu te wait . '' Convinced ? Then make sure you abide by Rule No.2 . Get up early . How early ? Sick early . Dawn is too late at Disney World . One morning our wake -up call at the Grand Floridian , a Disney hotel , came at 5:45 a.m. . The hotel operator couldn't help laughing at me . It was pitch black outside . The drunks still hadn't gotten home . But you know what ? There were plenty of people ahea d of us when we boarded the monorail for the Magic Kingdom at 6:30 a.m. , taking advantage of a 90-minute early opening for Disney Resort guests . ( Begin optio nal trim ) Up Main Street we streamed , past street lamps still lit from the nig ht before . Everyone tried so hard to pretend they weren't running . It looked l ike a huge trial heat for the Olympic walking team . All that paranoia paid off , however . In the next hour we were able to board four or five rides that had b een swamped the previous afternoon . One hour after the parks open to the genera l public , major attractions have major lines . At Space Mountain , Splash Mount ain and Thunder Mountain Railroad in the Magic Kingdom , Spaceship Earth in Epco t and Star Tours at MGM , you can expect a line of at least half an hour . At Du mbo , forget it . This dinky little ride featuring that darling little elephant draws children like flies . I waited 45 minutes one day for a 45-second ride . I f you have to ride rides in the afternoon , try to do so during parade times , w hen lines go from maddening to manageable . ( End optional trim ) To make the tr ip back to the hotel as painless as possible , however , remember Rule No. 3 . S tay as close as possible to the parks . This can seem silly when the Budgetbear Hotel 10 miles away is offering Hoedown Weekend at five bucks a night . Believe me , that will not seem like a bargain for long . After becoming disgusted at th e honky tonk sprawl that sprung up around Disneyland , Father Disney decreed it would not happen again . So Disney World is surrounded by virgin acres . The tri p to the Magic Kingdom from the highway is itself a five-mile ride , complete wi th tollbooth . Then you have to take a tram to the booths to buy tickets and the n a boat ride to an admissions gate , and then you have to traverse Main Street USA to get to any real rides . This can be an exhausting experience . You can av oid a lot of the hassle by staying in one of the Disney hotels , which run the g amut from reasonable to ridiculous in price . Disney resort guests not only rece ive free transportation to the parks but also enjoy the early opening times . An d resort guests never have to worry about the parking lots closing . ( Begin opt ional trim ) We stayed at the Grand Floridian , Disney 's deluxe hotel , which i s but a five-minute monorail ride from the Magic Kingdom and about 20 minutes by monorail or bus from Epcot and MGM . The Floridian set us back about $ 350 a ni ght . But my theory was that , on a day when the crowds make me retreat to my ro om , it would be best if the room did not look like a small cell at Rikers Islan d . The Floridian delivered most of what I wanted from a luxury hotel . It remin ded me of the racetrack at Saratoga all red turrets and Victorian balustrades af ter Mary Poppins had taken over and banned all the betting . Very clean . Very p roper . Lots of people in knickers . Our room was large , salmon in color and ni cely furnished . ( End optional trim ) At some point you just have to get away f rom the crowds , sit down , eat and relax . Arranging that is something of a fea t , however , in peak periods when lines for a simple soda may stretch back to b ygone days . One way to beat the problem is to apply Rule No. 4 . Book restauran ts early . Resort guests can book up to three days in advance ; others up to one day . Tip No. 5 . Be flexible . Some things you just cannot plan . Rides break down . People have strange reactions to food and find themselves , as my daughte r calls it , `` disembarfing . '' You just have to deal with it . Leonard Bernstein once scoffed at the notion that there is such a thing as a si ngle , ideal , unimprovable musical interpretation of a piece of music . We shou ld be similarly skeptical of the proposition , already put forward by a few earl y reviewers , that Humphrey Burton 's fat new biography of Bernstein is somehow `` definitive . '' Definitive it 's not , both because the idea itself is meanin gless and because the life in question is too complex and too recently ended to be definitively written about . The nearly-600-page `` Leonard Bernstein '' can , however , make this considerable , if limited , claim : It 's the best we have so far . The book is dutiful , exhaustive ( sometimes to a fault ) , respectful without being fawning . And to deal quickly with an issue that all Lenny fans w ill be unworthily wondering about , it handles Bernstein 's complicated sexual l ife a sort of strenuous omnisexuality , it seems , with a steady pull toward hom osexuality in an unblinking but decently compassionate way . On the other hand , the book is not very excitingly written and could have benefited from some tigh ter editing . It 's a portrait , a sketch , written by a longtime friend a TV pr oducer , not a musician who 's smart , unsentimental , who has had access to pil es of important letters . And such letters ! Tender , hope-filled youthful notes to Aaron Copland , or his parents ; letters of euphoria and gratitude to his ea rly mentor Serge Koussevitzky at the Boston Symphony Orchestra ; letters of stea dily rising confidence to his lifelong confidante , Helen Coates ; letters of al most unbearable conflict to his finacee and later wife , Felicia , as the desper ate-to-be-loved Bernstein gropes with the for him especially problematic possibi lities of marriage and monogamy . Burton gently debunks a few press-agent Lennyi sms that have wafted unchallenged into the general consciousness . One of these concerns Bernstein 's supposed roots in jazz . Unlike , say , Andre Previn , who is a certifiable jazz man , Bernstein was really not steeped in the tradition , a fact that Burton addresses crisply : `` Bernstein 's knowledge of jazz was ch eerful and enthusiastic but essentially superficial . Jazz musicians never thoug ht much of his gifts as an improviser . '' Burton also calls attention to Bernst ein 's dainty total output as a composer , a fact that Bernstein himself often r ued later in life . Burton points out that between 1957 , after `` West Side Sto ry ' ' opened , and 1971 , when his `` Mass '' had its premiere at the Kennedy C enter in Washington , Bernstein managed just two works : the `` Kaddish '' Symph ony and `` Chichester Psalms . '' The two works together total less than an hour of music . Burton also offers a brief but instructive and clarifying view of th e infamous 1969 party for the Black Panthers , held at the Bernstein apartment o n New York 's Park Avenue . Tom Wolfe 's subsequent New York Magazine piece abou t the party coined the smug term `` radical chic '' and tried to offer Bernstein as a comical , desperate figure , or , as Burton paraphrases it , a `` naive bu mbler who hobnobbed with terrorists . '' The important , often overlooked truth was that it was Felicia 's party , and Lenny merely staggered into it . That Wol fe 's piece , which looks increasingly weak and smart-alecky as the years go by , was able to create such a stir is testimony to the then-novelty of what has si nce become a journalistic commonplace : the sanctimonious , questionably motivat ed trashing of the famous . The book 's treatment of Bernstein 's last years pub licly lionized , privately an impulsive , reckless widower is touching . We feel the regret , the self-doubt , the overextended emotional resources , but also , finally , the greatness , a verdict that had long been withheld in some quarter s but which by the end had become nearly unamimous . Burton 's book gives us , i n sum , the first real full-length , intellectually worthy picture of Bernstein the man endearing , effusive , exasperating , irreplaceable . It 's a man who ga ve classical music a humanity it needed and still needs , a man to whom a friend could send a telegram on the occasion of Lenny 's first audience with the pope that read in its entirety : `` REMEMBER : THE RING , NOT THE LIPS . '' Big guns John Grisham and Tom Clancy are weighing in with new beach books . So are Peter Benchley , Cormac McCarthy , Edna O' Brien , E.L. Doctorow and Ken Kes ey . Here 's a look at the major fiction due out this summer . Some books may be in stores before their official publication date . A young lawyer takes up the case of a Klansman on death row in John Grisham 's `` The Chamber '' ( Doubleday ) . Late May . Something scary is lurking off the Connecticut shore , but what is it and why is it killing people ? The answers lie in `` White Shark '' ( Rand om House ) , the latest don't-go-near-the-water thriller by Peter Benchley ( `` Jaws , '' `` Beast '' ) . June . Cormac McCarthy 's `` The Crossing '' ( Knopf ) is the second book in a projected Western trilogy that began with the best-sell ing `` All the Pretty Horses . '' An escaped IRA terrorist finds sanctuary in a remote house outside an Irish village inhabited by a widow in Edna O' Brien 's ` ` House of Splendid Isolation '' ( Farrar Straus Giroux ) . `` The Waterworks '' ( Random House ) , E.L. Doctorow 's newest historical novel , is set in Gilded- Age New York . The timing sounds perfect for this satire : In Christopher Buckle y 's `` Thank You for Smoking '' ( Random House ) , a PR man for the tobacco ind ustry is targeted by an anti-smoking zealot . Someone is killing Oklahoma 's sta te legislators in `` Fine Lines '' ( Random House ) , the sixth One-Eyed Mack my stery by PBS 's Jim Lehrer . A man who is actually a vampire kills the childhood enemies of his best friend in David ( `` Lie to Me '' ) Martin 's `` Tap Tap '' ( Random House ) . In Robert B . Parker 's new Spenser mystery , `` Walking Sha dow '' ( Putnam ) , the Boston P.I. investigates a murder at a small repertory t heater . `` Black Betty '' ( Norton ) is the new Easy Rawlins mystery by Walter Mosley , whose fans include Bill Clinton . Actress Meg Tilly makes her writing d ebut in `` Singing Songs '' ( Dutton ) , a coming-of-age novel about a girl trap ped in a dysfunctional family . `` Blacker Than a Thousand Midnights '' ( Hyperi on ) , a novel about a black firefighter , is Susan Straight 's follow-up to `` I Been in Sorrow 's Kitchen and Licked Out All the Pots . '' July . Ken Kesey ( with Ken Babbs ) has written a historical novel about the 1911 battle for the Wo rld Championship Broncbusting title in `` Last Go Round : A Dime Western '' ( Vi king ) . `` Generations of Winter '' by Vassily Aksyonov ( Random House ) follow s the fortunes of one Moscow family from 1928-1945 . Actor-turned-best-selling-a uthor Kirk Douglas is back with a new novel , `` Last Tango in Brooklyn '' ( War ner ) , the story of a May-December romance . `` The Gift '' by Danielle Steel ( Delacorte ) is set in the Midwest in the 1950s . `` Rare and Endangered Species '' by Richard Bausch ( Houghton Mifflin ) is a collection of short stories by t he author of `` Rebel Powers . '' `` The Unicorn Hunt '' ( Knopf ) is the fifth installment in Dorothy Dunnett 's saga of Nicholas van der Poele in 15th-century Europe . `` Arise and Walk '' by Barry Gifford ( Hyperion ) is a novel of femin ist revenge by the author of `` Wild at Heart . '' Alan Sternberg 's `` Camaro C ity '' ( Harcourt Brace ) is a collection of stories about a Connecticut factory town that has lost its factories . `` Shear '' by Tim Parks ( Grove Press ) is a new novel of psychological suspense by the author of `` Juggling the Stars . ' ' Yet another actor , Stephen Collins , has decided to try his luck at fiction w ith `` Eye Contact '' ( Bantam ) , about an actress suspected of murder . August . Jack Ryan is called out of retirement to serve as the new president 's nation al security adviser as trouble brews in Japan in Tom Clancy 's `` Debt of Honor '' ( Putnam ) . Carol Higgins Clark , daughter of suspense queen Mary Higgins Cl ark , has written a new Regan Reilly mystery called `` Iced '' ( Warner ) . Paul Auster 's `` Mr. Vertigo '' ( Viking ) is a novel of 1920s and '30s America . B ill Maher , host of Comedy Central 's `` Politically Incorrect , '' has written a book about five aspiring comics in the mid- '70s called `` True Story : A Come dy Novel '' ( Random House ) . Thomas Mallon ( `` Aurora 7 '' ) re-creates the s tory of Henry and Clara Rathbone , the young couple who sat in President Lincoln 's theater box the night he was assassinated , in `` Henry and Clara '' ( Tickn or & Fields ) . `` Dixie City Jam '' by James Lee Burke ( Hyperion ) reprises Da ve Robicheaux from `` In the Electric Mist With Confederate Dead . '' Is `` Goodnight Moon '' making you loony ? Does the phrase , `` And a comb and a brush and a bowl full of mush , '' run ' round your brain like some Lite Mixed Variety tune piped into the dentist 's office ? Maybe it 's time to experiment with some new bedtime fare . Oh , don't desert the great green room of Margaret Wise Brown 's classic . Just supplement `` Goodnight Moon '' with some other boo ks that have a going-to-bed theme . Here are a few of the newer ones : My favori te is `` Good Night , Gorilla , '' by Peggy Rathman ( G.P. Putnam 's Sons , $ 12 .95 , 36 pages , ages 1-4 ) . After sharing it with a giggling toddler , you 'll wonder why more picture books don't have a sense of humor . The text is incredi bly simple . A sleepy zoo keeper is making his last round , saying `` good night '' to each of the animals as he walks past the cages . First on his route is th e gorilla , which surreptitiously snatches the key ring from the zoo keeper 's b elt . The gorilla unlocks his cage and follows the keeper through the zoo . As s oon as the keeper says , `` Good night , Elephant , '' the gorilla uses a color- coded key to release the elephant . The same thing happens with the lion , hyena , giraffe and armadillo , who fall into line behind the gorilla . Soon they 're all tiptoeing behind the keeper as he walks to his house , opens the door and h eads down the hall to his bedroom . When he climbs into bed next to his sleeping wife , she stirs and says , `` Good night , dear . '' Imagine her surprise when each of the animals , curling up for the night in her bedroom , responds , `` G ood night . '' On the next page , actually a double-page spread of inky black , all we see are the whites of her frightened eyes . She flips on the light , and the animals flash sheepish grins her way . But she gets up and leads them back t o their cages anyway . Everyone settles into the right cage the elephant with hi s Babar doll , the armadillo with his stuffed Ernie from Sesame Street . Everyon e , that is , except gorilla . Kids will cheer his great escape , sensing that i t just might be a nightly occurrence . `` Good Night ! '' written by Claire Masu rel , illustrated by Marie H. Henry ( Chronicle , $ 12.95 , 32 pages , ages 2-6 ) is about nighttime rituals . As a little girl gets ready for bed , she gathers up all her dolls and stuffed animals . There is no doubt who 's in charge . `` Silly Oscar , '' she tells the clown doll . `` It 's not time to play cards ! It 's time to go to bed . '' Her stuffed dragon can't watch any more TV . Her rag doll can't read any more books . This little girl is giving the orders , and kid s will enjoy sharing her sense of empowerment . When dogs dream , their legs pum ping like pistons , are they catching squirrels and nabbing rabbits ? Naw. `` Dr eaming '' by Bobette McCarthy ( Candlewick Press , $ 12.95 , 32 pages , ages 3 a nd up ) stars a salty dog who dreams of sailing the ocean blue . His wicker bed is transformed into a rowboat : Awash and away , I drift through the night , Thr ough mizzle and moonlight , Through darkness , through light . Eventually he dri fts back to the seaside home of his human family , where a little boy has been w aiting for him to wake up . There 's nothing like cuddling up with your kid to r ead a slow , sleepy story , and then waking up three hours later cramped in the corner of her twin bed , a book on your nose and a crick in your neck . Kids who live for those nights when they outlast their parents will enjoy `` A Quiet Nig ht In , '' by Jill Murphy ( Candlewick Press , $ 12.95 , 32 pages , ages 3 and u p ) . The Larges a family of elephants that debuted in Murphy 's `` Five Minutes ' Peace '' are celebrating Mr . Large 's birthday . Mrs . Large gets all the ch ildren ready for bed early so she and Mr . Large can enjoy a quiet dinner by can dlelight . But before they retire , the kids talk Dad into reading them a story . He conks out , and they persuade Mom to finish the book . She 's snoring a few pages later , and the kids are quite happy to tuck her in next to Dad on the co uch . After all , Mom and Dad did want a quiet night in . Llamas will carry the load on a three-day guided hiking and camping trip in the Chugach Mountains just east of Anchorage , Alaska , beginning Sept. 16 . Each h iker will have his or her own llama to carry a tent , sleeping bag and pad , per sonal items and backcountry cooking supplies to the Williwaw Lakes area , normal ly ablaze in color and ripe blueberries in September . The hiking pace is relaxe d , with time for photography and nature study . Meals are cooked by guides , us ing fresh ingredients at campsites . Cost : $ 375 per person including all campi ng supplies , meals and llamas . Not included : air fare to Anchorage and shuttl e service to the trail head . Contact : Llama Buddies Expeditions , P.O. . Box 8 74995 , Wasilla , Alaska 99687-4995 ; telephone ( 907 ) 376-8472 . -0- A six-day road trip for baseball fans begins Aug. 23 in Boston at the Copley Square Hotel , from which participants leave for an evening game in Fenway Park . The next d ay , sports buffs motor-coach to Cooperstown , N.Y. , to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame . The trip continues with two games at Yankee Stadium in New York , one at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia and one at Camden Yards in Baltimore , with motor-coach transportation from site to site . Participants eat at local restau rants . Cost : $ 675 per person , double occupancy including game tickets , hote ls , ground transportation and guide . Not included : all meals and air fare to Boston and from Baltimore . Contact : Sports Tours Inc. , P.O. Box 84 , Hatfield , Mass. 01038 ; tel . ( 800 ) 722-7701 . -0- For fans of Southern history , hor ses , antiques and regional architecture , two five-day bicycling trips through the heart of Kentucky 's Bluegrass Country leave Lexington on Oct. 16 and 23 . C ycling is on traffic-free back roads with gentle terrain for riders of any abili ty . Participants stop at Kentucky Horse Park and Shaker Village in Pleasant Hil l , and tour Harrodsburg , Kentucky 's oldest town . Participants spend nights i n antique-furnished inns along the way and eat traditional Kentucky cooking . Co st : $ 1,045 per person , double occupancy , including lodging , meals and snack s , van support and guides . Not included : bike rental ( $ 109 ) and round-trip air fare . Contact : Backroads , 1516 Fifth St. , Suite PR84 , Berkeley 94710-1 740 ; tel . ( 800 ) 462-2848 . -0- A 49-day around-South America cruise aboard t he 729-passenger Regent Sea will depart Ft . Lauderdale , Fla. , on Oct. 14 . Pa ssengers will witness the total solar eclipse of Nov. 3 off the coast of Brazil , near Rio de Janeiro . Guest scientists aboard ship will lecture and discuss th e eclipse , the constellation known as the Southern Cross and the so-called Mage llanic Clouds . Participants also will see Antarctic glaciers , the Strait of Ma gellan , Chilean fiords and the Andes Mountains , before transiting the Panama C anal . Some stops on the tour will include St. Thomas , in the U.S. Virgin Islan ds ; Barbados ; Santiago , Chile , and Lima , Peru . Cost : $ 5,442 from Los Ang eles , including all meals and ship facilities . Not included : gratuities , por t charges and optional land excursion costs . Contact : Regency Cruises , 260 Ma dison Ave. , New York 10016 ; tel . ( 212 ) 972-4499 . -0- ECLIPSE IN BOLIVIA A six-day , land-based eclipse-viewing trip to Bolivia leaves Miami for La Paz on Oct. 31 . Tour members stay at a downtown hotel in the Bolivian capital and take leisurely tours of the city including the Witches ' Market . An all-night train trip to the `` center line '' of the eclipse 's course , between Sevaruyo and R io Mulatos , follows . A box dinner will be provided on the train , but no sleep ing accommodations . After the eclipse , participants will continue by train to the small village of Huatajata on the shores of Lake Titicaca for an overnight a t the Hotel Inca Utama , then cruise by hydrofoil to Copacabana , Sun and Suriqu i islands before returning to La Paz . Cost : $ 1,695 per person , double occupa ncy , including round-trip air fare from Miami , hotels , trains , sightseeing a nd most meals . Not included : air fare from Los Angeles to Miami . Contact : Tr avel Bug International , P.O. . Box 178247 , San Diego 92177-8247 ; tel . ( 800 ) 247-1900 . Considering that the United Nations has recently created a Bosnian war-crimes t ribunal , Joseph Persico 's `` Nuremberg '' could hardly have arrived at a more opportune moment . Persico , who is the author of a fine biography of William Ca sey , displays sleuthing skills worthy of the former CIA director in tracing the course of the trial that sought to establish a basis for prosecuting internatio nal atrocities . This is no dry-as-dust account , but a vivid reconstruction of the actions of the wartime Allies and the Nazi elite at Nuremberg . Using the pr ivate papers of the Nuremberg prison psychiatrist , the letters and journals of prisoners , and accounts of the battles between the prosecutors and judges , Per sico easily carries us into a deeper understanding of the trials . Persico 's bo ok does suggest that justice at Nuremberg will remain a noble idea murdered by a gang of ugly facts . The United States designed the trials in the heady days af ter World War II . Nuremberg was to signal not only the triumph of superior migh t , but also the victory of superior morality . Like the United Nations and the World Bank , the Nuremberg trials were an integral part of the postwar new world order that the wise men of the American establishment attempted to create after 1945 . Today the Un ited States lacks the confidence and the United Nations the power to realize that dream . The menace of a loaded gun remains more potent th an a diplomatic brief . Still , the great merit of Persico 's book is to remind us that the undertaking itself was a success . Nuremberg 's most significant acc omplishment was to confront the German people with crimes planned and perpetrate d by the Nazis . Unlike World War I , the Germans could not seek refuge in the m yth of a stab in the back . The trials showed that they had stabbed themselves i n the back . Some of the most fascinating passages in Persico 's book center on the responses of the Nazi ringleaders to the overwhelming evidence of concentrat ion camps and mass shootings introduced at the trials . One of the most odious c ases was that of the former Nazi governor-general of Poland , Hans Frank . In or der to overcompensate for his partly Jewish ancestry , Frank became one of the m ost fervent anti-Semites among the Nazis . So determined was Frank to prove his loyalty to Nazism that he had all of his rema rks condemning the Jews , and boas ting of exploiting 1.3 million Poles for forced labor , recorded for posterity . Frank 's voluminous records would form one of the key sources for the Nuremberg prosecutors . At the trials , Frank veered between acknowledging and repudiatin g guilt for his crimes . Hermann Goering , by contrast , mustered up his old bra vado . Goering , whose outsized personality made him a favorite with the America n GIs , managed to bully most of his fellow defendants into refusing to plead gu ilty . Indeed , Persico shows that under cross-examination the cunning Goering e ven got the upper hand over his famous American prosecutor , Robert Jackson . Go ering managed to cheat the hangman as well . Persico , who seeks to clear up the mystery surrounding Goering 's suicide , argues that upon enter ing prison Goer ing secreted a cyanide capsule in his luggage and persuaded a member of the pris on staff to take pieces of luggage from the baggage room for him . Perhaps the m ost sinister figure at the trial was the cultivated technocrat Albert Speer , on e of the few in the dock who received a jail term rather than a death sentence . Though Speer used millions of foreign workers as slave labor , he managed to sh ift responsibility onto his boorish subordinate Fritz Sauckel . By taking the bl ame for Nazism in the broadest sense but avoiding any particulars , Speer manage d to tell the judges what they wanted to be told . Speer portrayed the Nazis as embodying the dange rs of a military technology that would pose even greater dan gers to humanity in the future . As Persico puts it , Speer presented himself to the court `` not as a man pleading for his life , but as one who had something valuable to tell them , someone with a vision born of redemption after immersion in evil . '' Indeed , as Speer had correctly calculated , his contrition contra sted starkly with the stonewalling of his colleagues . In the teeth of the evide nce , Generals Jodl and Keitel denied culpability for the atrocities on the East ern front . The foppish foreign minister Joachim Ribbentrop claimed that Germany had merely emulated America 's occupation of the New World . Persico , who illu minates the pitiful character of most of the Nazi leadership , does not draw the obvious conclusion that there was nothing particularly exceptional about the ch aracter of most of Hitler 's henchmen . Ordinary men committed extraordinary cri mes . In that sense , the spirit of Nuremberg lives on in Bosnia . Helyar ( Villard , $ 24 ; 576 pages ) . Hyman is a sports reporter for the Balt imore Sun Reviewed by Mark Hyman ( c ) 1994 , The Baltimore Sun If John Helyar w inds up on the best seller list with `` Lords of the Realm : The Real History of Baseball , '' it will be for the anecdotes . Exhibit A : As an infant players u nion is taking shape in 1967 , its new leader , Marvin Miller , calls a meeting and instructs players to write down their most serious grievances with the owner s . Pitcher Milt Pappas , a former Baltimore Oriole , spoke for his colleagues f irmly in the grip of the mod generation . `` There aren't enough outlets for hai r dryers in the clubhouses , '' he thundered . Exhibit B : William D. Eckert , r etired one-star general , briefly baseball commissioner in the late 1960s and ea rly '70s , had a remarkable penchant for confusing people and events . A notorio usly passionless public speaker , Eckert once began delivering remarks to an aud ience of baseball officials before realizing the speech was intended for the Ret ired Airline Pilots Association . Exhibit C : Charles O . Finley ran a cut-rate front office in his final years of owning the Oakland A's . By 1978 , the entire operation was down to six people , including a 16-year-old office assistant nam ed Stanley Burrell . Burrell has since changed his name to MC Hammer , the rap s tar , now called just plain Hammer . Helyar 's book is rich with such stories . But it 's clearly more than a collection of quotable quotes and front-office tri via . Instead , what Helyar offers is surely one of the most complete and provoc ative histories ever written of major-league baseball as it has played out in ow ners ' suites and across the collective bargaining table . It 's a tad intimidat ing at 576 pages , but considering he begins with Elysian Fields in the 1840s , and carries the story through the sale of the Orioles last fall to Peter G. Ange los , the book is anything but long-winded . A word about Helyar : He may not be as familiar to readers of sports books as Pete Golenbock or John Feinstein , wh o between them have covered every topic but the secret world of stadium ushers . But Helyar 's credentials are substantial . His `` Barbarians at the Gate '' wa s a big best seller . He has built a reputation as a solid reporter covering spo rts business issues for The Wall Street Journal . In this book , Helyar tells hi s story , in part , as he profiles some of baseball 's most influential and , wh en the author is through , least likable characters . In the process , more than a few myths are exploded . ( Begin optional trim ) For instance , he sheds a di fferent sort of light on Kenesaw Mountain Landis , the iron-willed judge credite d with bringing baseball back from the brink after the 1919 Black Sox scandal . Helyar has discovered more : `` Under Landis , the morals of baseball were purif ied and the business of baseball was ossified . '' Landis , he writes , was amon g the least progressive men of his day . He said no to lights at Crosley Field i n Cincinnati , vowing there would be no night baseball in the big leagues in his lifetime . He said no to a beer company that wanted to buy advertising on World Series radio broadcasts . If it was new , Landis said no . Other notables appea r equally as unsympathetic in Helyar 's narrative . The list is lengthy , and in cludes former baseball commissioners Peter Ueberroth and Bowie Kuhn and former o wners led by the pre-eminent owner of his generation , Walter O' Malley of the B rooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers . The miracle of Ueberroth is that he lasted as long in the job as he did , given he barely could hide his contempt for the owners . `` He treated them like retarded children , '' says a lawyer , unnamed , quoted by Helyar . ( End optional trim ) If there is a hero in the story , it is Mille r , the man who brought the players union into the 20th century , who stared dow n the owners , broke the reserve clause and paved the way for today 's million-d ollar salaries . Predictably , the owners despised him and , in Helyar 's tellin g , spent years calling him a collection of names , not all fit for this newspap er . This book is not always satisfying . For all its thoroughness , it uncovers few important news stories . There 's also the issue of sourcing . Helyar write s in a seamless , tightly organized style more like a technothriller than a nonf iction baseball book . In the preface Helyar provides a list of baseball folk wh o cooperated with his reporting . What 's missing is something more substantial that connects facts to the sources from which the author pulled them . As a news paper guy , he should see the value in that . The travel agent is as close as most tourists ever get to a free lunch . At no cost to you , an agent can recommend and book your vacation , often drawing on s pecial expertise and firsthand travel experience in making recommendations . Fin d a good one and your life is simplified . But no lunch is truly free . The prob lem with many of the roughly 32,000 travel agencies in the United States is that agents ' attentions are claimed by computerized reservation systems , airline f are wars , and fluctuations in the commissions they are paid by lodgings and air lines . That often leaves agents without time to learn geography in detail or se e many destinations themselves . Sensing an opening there , a new breed of trave l consultants has developed . They specialize in a certain area and reject the t itle `` travel agent '' as an understatement of their expertise . Some make book ings , some don't . Some accept commissions , some don't . Most interview custom ers about their preferences and interests , then come back with itinerary propos als that touch on lodgings , dining , cultural attractions and entertainment . U nlike travel agents , these consultants charge consumers upfront for their servi ce . Their prices can be daunting as much as $ 70 an hour but they can deliver a service highly prized by travelers with less time than money . Regional experti se is one advantage . Also , for those consultants who reject commissions taking their fees only from the client their advice may be less influenced by monetary considerations , and more likely to be `` pure . '' Here are a handful of such companies , listed by their territories : ( Begin optional trim ) California . P erfect Weekends ( 2059 Camden Ave. , Suite 186 , San Jose , Calif. 95124 ; tel. 800-493-3536 or 408-559-3652 ) . Susan Barton opened San Jose-based Perfect Week ends in June , 1993 , aiming to match busy travelers with B&Bs around the state . In the 11 months since , she says , she has booked more than 400 trips . Barto n charges $ 99 to plan a one-destination trip , and presumes that most of her cu stomers will be driving . She books lodgings , makes meal reservations , schedul es lessons or rentals and often builds weekends around special events . ( End op tional trim ) American West . Off the Beaten Path ( 109 E . Main St. , Bozeman , Mont. 59715 ; tel. 406-586-1311 , fax 406-587-4147 ) . Pam and Bill Bryan , bot h trained environmentalists and tour guides , started the firm in 1987 , special izing in outdoorsy trips to Arizona , New Mexico , Utah , Colorado , Wyoming , I daho , Montana and the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta . In 1 993 , Bill Bryan estimates , the company arranged trips for about 570 individual s , couples and groups , with activities such as fishing , skiing , riding , hik ing and canoeing . Fees for planning generally run $ 70 an hour , with a minimum of four or eight hours , depending on the complexity of the trip . Customers ge t detailed itineraries , plane tickets and maps . England . Oh to Be in England .. . ( 2 Charlton St. , New York , N.Y. 10014 ; tel. 212- 255-8739 , fax 212-986 -8365 ) . Jennifer Dorn , an administrator at New York University 's law school and frequent traveler to England , set up her business four years ago . She does n't make bookings ( she advises travelers to make reservations themselves or use a travel agent ) , but fills spiral-bound notebooks with itinerary recommendati ons . A typical trip takes her about 10 hours to plan . In the last year , she e stimates that she haa done about 150 itineraries for $ 150- $ 225 , depending on the number of cities in the itinerary . France . Point of View . ( 5922 Melvin Ave. , Tarzana , Calif. 91356 ; tel. 818-705-4418 , fax 818-708-7131 ) . Kajsa A gostini was born in France and spent 15 years with the French Government Tourist Office in California before striking off on her own last year . Agostini does n ot make bookings , but interviews travelers and devises an itinerary . Once the itinerary is booked , Agostini often writes to hotels to confirm reservations an d ensure personalized service . She charges about $ 200 . Italy . Marjorie Shaw 's Insider 's Italy ( P.O. Box 021816A , Brooklyn , N.Y. 11202-1816 ; tel. 718-8 55-3878 , fax 718-855-3687 . ) Shaw , who was born in Rome and lived in Italy fo r more than a decade , started her consulting business in 1988 after spending fo ur years leading walking tours through the country . Shaw maintains an office in Rome . Her databank of Italian intelligence includes roughly 400 small hotels t hroughout the country . She makes hotel and transportation bookings and gives cl ients a portfolio that runs as long as 85 pages . Her typical fee for a couple o n a two-week trip with four stops : $ 495 . ( If Shaw doesn't answer her phone , she 's on a fact-finding trip ; fax or call back later . ) When I first got off the Pennsylvania Turnpike at Morgantown , I barely glanced at the horse and buggy two-stepping along ahead of me in morning traffic . How nice , I thought carriage rides for tourists . But then I started spotting buggi es hitched outside pharmacies , hardware stores and other everyday businesses on two-lane Route 23 . They really were a normal means of transportation in these parts . There are tourist rides , too , all right . And loads of pseudo-Pennsylv ania Dutch attractions throughout rural Lancaster County . But beyond the `` Ami shland '' commercialism , a sizable community of Plain People remarkably still f lourishes much as it has for 300 years largely without benefit of automobiles , electricity and other trappings of modern life . By avoiding the main routes esp ecially kitschy U.S. 30 visitors can glimpse the old-fashioned lifestyle of the Amish without feeling like intruders . Meander along the byways and you 'll cris scross fields that inspire the designs of exquisite patchwork quilts and see far mers walking behind plows pulled by mules . Women in bonnets tend their kitchen gardens and children with Dutch cuts skip-ride home from school on old-fashioned wooden scooters . Small home-based shops display first-rate yet inexpensive loc al crafts , and roadside stands sell garden-fresh produce and mouth-watering bak ed goods . Lancaster might well be the Comfort Food Capital of the universe , em bodying the familiar aura one restaurant localizes as `` Mom and shoo-fly pie . '' Countless places feature inexpensive food that invigorates the term home cook ing . Virtually everything is made from scratch : crispy potato chips , crusty r olls , tangy condiments and flaky , gooey desserts . Some of these family-orient ed restaurants ( which seldom serve alcohol ) also specialize in all-you-can eat smorgasbords , although allowances are made for tiny appetites . One place , fo r example , prices meals for kids by their weight : five cents per pound . The a nnual Pennsylvania Dutch Food Festival , set to take place at many sites around the county June 13 to 18 , will provide a ready-made vacation focus . My first s top on my recent tour was the Pennsylvania Dutch Visitors Center , which offers a great map , piles of brochures and a 15-minute introductory film on the area . I learned that the Amish ( pronounced AH-mish , after founder Jakob Ammann ) ar e descendants of German-speaking Anabaptists , who believe the decision to be ba ptized should be made as an adult . The Amish broke off from the more liberal Me nnonites three centuries ago , fled persecution in Europe and found peace in Wil liam Penn 's new colony and various other communities in North America . Both se cts and a third Anabaptist group called the Brethren today live amicably in Lanc aster County despite wide variations in customs . The dark clothing and simple l ifestyle that distinguish the Old Order Amish symbolizes their commitment to the ir faith . They also take to heart the biblical edict against graven images , wh ich tourists are asked to respect by not photographing them . Old Order Amish mi ngle with outsiders ( whom they generically refer to as `` English '' ) , and a few even invite visitors to join family dinners in their homes . They rarely cat er to overnight guests . Tourists can , however , sample rural life firsthand on numerous Mennonite farms within a 10- or 15-mile radius of downtown Lancaster . Some of these bed and breakfast accommodations are rather spartan , but others , like Barbara and Harold Frey 's Morning Meadows Farm in Marietta , offer all t he comforts of a country guest house along with a chance to experience the daily farm routine ( which , be warned , can start at dawn ) . My second-floor room a t Morning Meadows Farm was prettily decorated in Victorian-country style and had a modern private bath and a small TV . Adjoining it was a cozy sitting room wit h magazines and another TV and outside was a wide porch offering panoramic views of fields and barns . I asked for a restaurant suggestion and Frey recommended the Country Table Restaurant in nearby Mount Joy . It was a family place , overl ooking nothing but a packed parking lot , but it served one of the best restaura nt meals I 've ever eaten : juicy pork chops , crisp salad , fresh vegetables , oven-baked potato and rolls , herb tea and a wedge of that molassesy Pennsylvani a Dutch favorite , shoo-fly pie . Cost : $ 9.49 . This is an early-to-bed , earl y-to-rise culture and most restaurants close by 8 or 9 p.m. . Breakfast at Morni ng Meadows was at 8 a.m. , and consisted of an apple dumpling hot from the oven and French toast with bacon all delicious . While I lingered over my juice and c offee , the Freys chatted about the area and suggested sightseeing possibilities . Various auto-tape tours of the area are available at Lancaster 's Mennonite I nformation Center , but I preferred to take advantage of the center 's personal guide service ( $ 6 paid to the center , then a fee of $ 8.50 an hour to the gui de who rides in your car ) . For the next two hours ( the minimum tour time ) , a Mennonite woman named Alverna Hess directed me along 20 or 30 miles of back ro ads , pointing out covered bridges , cemeteries and Amish traditions . Windmills whirred in many farmyards , and black dresses and shirts fluttered from clothes lines a sure sign , she said , of an Amish household , which has diesel-powered milking machines and propane-fired hot-water heaters to meet government health r equirements but few other modern appliances . The occasional roadside phone boot hs we saw aren't public ones , Hess explained ; they belong to the nearest house another concession to the realities of doing business in the 20th century but k ept at a discreet distance . After I dropped off my guide , I continued a few mi les south of Lancaster to Strasburg , a pretty village with several attractions for train buffs including the nation 's oldest short-line railroad . Next I head ed northwest to equally charming Lititz , which offers some of the best shopping in Lancaster County . The aromas alone led me to two must-stops : the Sturgis P retzel Bakery and the Wilbur Chocolate Factory . At both you can watch the cooks in action and stock up on their products . ( Begin optional trim ) My second ni ght was at one of the Inns at Doneckers , a collection of four restored houses , one the site of the first Donecker family business back in 1910 . I stayed in T he Guesthouse , which has 20 distinctive rooms and suites . My room , one of the least expensive , was nevertheless the epitome of country style . Some walls we re hand-stencilled , others exposed brick . Two handsome hooked rugs served as w all art . After breakfast , I strolled down the road to Doneckers Artworks , a f our-story marketplace of artists ' studios and galleries with an adjoining farme rs ' market . The market was stuffed with fresh produce and smelled of spring fl owers , apple pie and Auntie Anne 's scrumptious , hand-rolled soft pretzels , s o I was surprised at how few customers were there . The answer was clear as soon as I turned my car onto North State Street to head for the nearby competition . Traffic crawled most of the way to the Green Dragon market , one of the biggest in the county ( along with Lancaster 's Central Market and Root 's Market near Manheim ) . The Dragon was the quintessential country flea market an indoor/outd oor bazaar featuring everything from produce to clothing with , of course , the requisite supply of goodies down to homemade root beer . ( End optional trim ) B etween markets , wineries , breweries , potteries , antiques markets and various fairs and festivals , there 's no end of country diversions around Lancaster ( note that some attractions are closed on Sundays ) . There 's also interesting w alking in downtown Lancaster , which was Pennsylvania 's capital for 11 years an d which served as the nation 's capital for one day Sept. 27 , 1777 when Congres s stopped there after fleeing from Philadelphia . My most indelible memory of th e area , however , remains the home-cooked meals turned out by seemingly every k itchen . I wonder if any of them delivers . The word `` Caribbean '' may conjure up all kinds of vivid colors , but to V.S. Naipaul it suggests gray : a land and seascape bleached out by unmediated sun a nd a counterfeit history . It is the gray in the face of a professional entertai ner the morning after a late night . The displacing and alienating effects of a colonial past on today 's post-colonial peoples has been Naipaul 's leading them e ever since , once past his early Trinidad novels , he broke through the colors to the gray underneath . He has pursued it in his fiction and non-fiction , set in Britain , Africa , South America and India , the home of his forebears . He is one of literature 's great travelers and also one of its oddest . He seeks no t roots but rootlessness . He travels not for acquaintance but for alienation . Paul Theroux does that , to an extent , but the difference is very large . For o ne thing , Naipaul , who can be petty , vain and cruel , both uses and transcend s his defects . His theme is the terrible inauthenticity that history has impose d on the heirs of colonialism 's subjects . But by refusing to conceal or temper his own crabby vision a walleyed sensibility that tends to swivel inward he ach ieves at his best moments a unique authenticity . His nightmare Argentina , for example , can be unrecognizable but there is no question about the nightmares th at it produces in Naipaul . When he is not displaying a certain haste and roughn ess ( on purpose , perhaps , like a musician asserting his freedom to play sour ) , he is a great writer . In a magical and redeeming phrase he will suddenly li nk up the particular estrangements he acquires , wherever he goes , to the estra nged wanderer in all of us . `` A Way in the World '' ( Alfred A . Knopf , $ 23 , 380 pp. ) is a series of partly autobiographical and partly fictional variatio ns on his theme . Each centers on a different personage , and Naipaul himself ap pears in many of them . The principal characters differ widely . There is a Trin idadian who uses his color sense as both a funeral parlor cosmetician and a cake decorator ; and a conservative Port of Spain lawyer who unexpectedly reveals hi s flaming commitment to black power . There is a supercilious English writer who helps and patronizes the narrator ; an itinerant Caribbean radical `` an impres ario of revolution '' who is lionized by the radically chic in London and New Yo rk , and an enterprising Venezuelan who has submerged his identity as a Trinidad ian Hindu . Some of the figures are historical . Naipaul writes a vivid fictiona lized account of Sir Walter Raleigh , aged and desperate , seeking to discover E l Dorado as a way out of his political troubles at home . He paints a poignantly imagined portrait of the early Venezuelan revolutionary , Francisco de Miranda , lifted up and let down by his British patrons and finally , betrayed by the su pporters of Bolivar , dying in a Spanish prison . At first glance there seems to be little connection among the real , part-real and fictional characters he wri tes of . The styles differ considerably too : from factual documentary to a firs t-person combination of memoir and commentary to poetic evocation . In fact all of the protagonists are linked by their passage through the world of the Caribbe an . It is a world that , instead of evolving gradually through slow migrations and evolution , was created in a kind of cataclysm . In the space of a few years , the Spanish , the French and the British landed , fought each other , and sho ved aside the Native Americans as unfit for their purpose . Their purpose was su gar plantations ; and to accomplish it they brought over slaves from Africa and indentured laborers from India . And then , after a couple of centuries , they w ere gone ; leaving behind a fragmented culture resting on a jumbled , conflictin g , half-dreamed past . Naipaul doesn't draw the comparison , but one thinks of Prince Sigismund in Calderon 's `` Life Is a Dream . '' Arbitrarily immured in a tower from infancy , he suddenly finds himself arbitrarily released and royal o nce more in a wide and terrifying universe . Sigismund went temporarily mad . Na ipaul 's characters are put together out of pieces that don't fit . Though not u sually mad , they maneuver hybrid and uncertain identities through a world const ructed of misapprehensions and are visited by undissolved bits of a heritage the y are unconscious of . In his gentle corpse-and-cake decorator , Naipaul sees an ancestral ghost of `` the dancing groups of Lucknow , lewd men who painted thei r faces and tried to live like women . '' He adds : `` He frightened me because I felt his feeling for beauty was like an illness ; as though some unfamiliar de forming virus had passed through his simple mother to him and was even then .. . something neither of them had begun to understand . '' The lawyer , Evander , a properly British-mannered black professional in a still-colonial Trinidad , rec eives a courtesy visit from young Naipaul , about to depart for London on a priz ed scholarship . There is a starchy moment or two ; then , startlingly , Evander raises his fist , smiles , and says : `` The race ! The race , man ! '' It was meant as a secret , confraternal sign to a youth who was off to learn from the e nemy and come back to fight . Except that Naipaul wasn't . He was off to gather the rewards that the British colonial authorities had implied would be his when he reached London with his prize . Instead there were years of misery , condesce nsion and the grinding struggle to find himself as a writer . In his portrait of Foster Morris , an established author who helps him generously and then mortall y offends him , Naipaul vents with gleeful malice his feelings toward the grip o f British attitudes , not only on his country but also on his own divided nature . But Evander mistook young Naipaul in another respect , as well . As a member of Trinidad 's Indian minority , he felt no kinship with the black nationalist c urrent that was to accompany independence in Trinidad and other parts of the Car ibbean . On the contrary , he felt his own identity threatened ; as he would yea rs later in Africa , where the Indian middle class was a particular target of bl ack politics . Naipaul 's angers can be useful as well as shrill , and usually d irected at those British and black who exercise power . The finest portraits are of figures torn and fluttering through their lives and identities . His Miranda is one of the best things he has done , and he writes of the deluded Raleigh wi th unusual compassion . And there is the Indian whom Raleigh , assuming he comes from El Dorado , takes back to London to make up for the gold he couldn't find . In fact , Don Jose comes from the well-settled province of Nueva Granada ( Col ombia ) . His reflections on Raleigh and on European dreams have a haunting simp licity . Asked years later what difference he finds between the Europeans and th e Indians , he answers with an irony that points up what Naipaul is after : `` I 've thought a lot about that . And I think , Father , that the difference betwe en us , who are Indians , or half Indians , and people like the Spaniards and th e English and the Dutch and the French , people who know how to go where they ar e going , I think that for them the world is a safer place . '' ROOMMATES : Monday night on NBC . Eric Stoltz plays a Harvard-educated professi onal who is gay . Randy Quaid plays is a paroled bank robber who is not . They d on't have much in common , except that they 're both suffering from AIDS and are sharing an apartment in a facility for AIDS patients . Quaid 's character 's vi ew is that `` AIDS is God 's way of cleaning house . '' What begins as a rocky r elationship grows into a supportive friendship at a time when the two men need i t most . Elizabeth Pena plays the social worker who arranges for the men to shar e a room . Charles Durning plays the father of one of the men . BEFORE YOUR EYES : KRISTIN IS MISSING : Tuesday night on CBS . This is the story of 14-year-old Kristin Coalter of Kent City , Mich. , who ran away from home with truck driver Bill Neuville , 49 . Presented as the events unfolded , the movie begins soon af ter Kristin , a star athlete and straight-A student , disappeared on April 20 , 1993 , and follows her parents , Nancy and Larry Coalter , on an emotional ride for nearly seven months . CBS was alerted to this particular case by the Nationa l Center for Missing and Exploited Children . About 450,000 children run away fr om home each year . One in seven teens runs away from home ; nearly a third beco me prostitutes within two days . Half of all runaways who return home run away a gain . 1994 WORLD MUSIC AWARDS : Tuesday night on ABC . Entertainers share the s tage with members of the ruling family of Monaco for this seventh annual interna tional special from Monte Carlo 's Sporting Club . The show , honoring the world 's best-selling recording artists for the year , was taped May 4 and will be se en in more than 80 countries . Among presenters : Prince Albert and Princess Car oline of Monaco , Fabio , Claudia Schiffer and David Copperfield . Host Patrick Swayze and his wife , Lisa Niemi , dance to an instrumental version of Whitney H ouston 's `` All the Man That I Need . '' Their dance , choreographed by Lar Lub ovitch , is the first time Swayze has danced on television and is a tribute to H ouston , whose five awards make her the most lauded performer in the history of the event . Also honored : Placido Domingo , Ray Charles and the artist formerly known as Prince . JACQUI 'S DILEMMA : Thursday night on ABC . This dramatizatio n of the decisions faced by a 16-year-old who becomes pregnant is interspersed w ith comments from parents , teens , educators , clergy , adoption-service counse lors , social workers , teen-age parents and physicians ( including U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders ) , discussing the issues surrounding teen sexuality . Melissa Thompson portrays Jacqui . FALL FROM GRACE : Thursday and Friday nights on CBS . This four-hour mini-series , an international co-production filmed in E urope and based on Larry Collins 's novel , is set against the staging and landi ng of the Allied forces in Normandy in June 1944 . Michael York , Gary Cole , Pa tsy Kensit , Julian Curry and Richard Anconina head the large international cast . COMING & GOING : Friday night on PBS . Don't be put off : `` Coming & Going , '' a three-part PBS series on transportation , is not dull . It 's a series tha t really moves , so to speak , carried along by a fast-paced score . The series , beginning Friday night , is about the way transportation shapes our national c haracter and our landscape . It mixes history , philosophy , facts and personal stories as it talks about railroads , container ships , airplanes , truckers hau ling down the highways ; about building interstates and suburbs and light rail s ystems ; and about shipping to people in all areas what they want and need all y ear around . Filmed in two dozen states , the series is a project of producer Cr aig Perry . Perry hired National Public Radio 's Scott Simon to narrate and comm issioned a lively and original score by David Hamilton . It was living in Los An geles that caused Perry to realize that transportation `` becomes a dominant fea ture of your life . I was living the problem . I thought , ` As a television pro ducer , there is something I can do about this . ' It 's been a six-year journey from the time the idea occurred until now , and I 've learned a lot . In the be ginning , I went to find out who was doing this to us , and I realized that it w asn't anybody : We had met the enemy and he was us . '' The little-noticed role of South African-made arms in the catastrophe of Rwanda presents Nelson Mandela with an early test of his ability to reconcile realism and idealism . At least 3,000 of Rwanda 's soldiers and militiamen carry South A frican-made R-4 automatic rifles . Rwanda bought them in 1992 from Armscor South Africa 's state-owned arms corporation along with 10,000 hand grenades , 20,000 rifle grenades , 10,000 launching grenades and more than 1 million rounds of am munition . In Rwanda 's killing fields , such grenades and automatic rifles have been weapons of choice , after machetes . At the Christ Spirituality Center in Kigali , soldiers opened fire with automatic rifles , killing five diocesan prie sts , nine congregated women , three Jesuits and their cook . In Rukara , journa lists came upon about 500 corpses inside a church . One survivor said the people had died when militiamen threw dozens of grenades inside the building . Will th e new South Africa sell arms to countries like Rwanda ? Mandela , with his inter national reputation as a peace-aker , may not want to . But the United Nations t rade embargo against South Africa is expected to be lifted soon , and new market s are already opening up for South Africa 's deadliest goods . Andre Buys , an e xecutive for Armscor , told Defense News last month that `` we expect that by 19 96 ( arms ) exports will at least double , and possibly quadruple . '' Like Vacl av Havel of Czechoslovakia before him , Mandela may find that his humanitarian i mpulses are not strong enough to resist the financial attractions of the arms tr ade . When Havel became president of Czechoslovakia in 1989 , he promised to end arms exports . But last year , after the country split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia , both renewed sales . Before Mandela 's inauguration , ANC spokesm an Madala Mthembu carefully suggested that the post-apartheid government would n ot abstain from the arms business . `` Once the new government is up and running , we will welcome a complete lifting of all remaining sanctions and embargoes a gainst South Africa , '' Mthembu told Defense News . `` We also wish to state th e new government will be in full compliance with international standards governi ng exports of technologies and materials that would threaten world security . '' Such standards would preclude arms sales to states like Libya , which is also c urrently subject to a U.N. embargo . But states like Rwanda before its present c risis would still be able to legally buy arms . Ethnic strife , which plagues mu ch of the world , makes for a boom market in the weapons trade . And South Afric an weapons are generally more reliable , accurate and durable than comparable ar ms made by Egypt , Russia , Romania and even Israel in some categories . While t he world rejoices in witnessing apartheid 's downfall , it will have the unexpec ted effect of adding to the glut of arms already flooding the places that least need them , such as Rwanda , Sudan and Cambodia . No one expects Mandela to turn his back on what promises to become one of the new South Africa 's better earne rs of foreign exchange . But few would expect , either , a man who has devoted h is life to his country 's struggle for justice , equality and human rights to tu rn his back on future victims of other abusive regimes . He doesn't necessarily have to . South Africa can afford to forgo sales of guns and grenades because it actually makes most of its profits from the sale of expensive , high-technology systems like laser-designated missiles , aircraft electronic warfare systems , tactical radios , anti-radiation bombs and battlefield mobility systems . This s ort of weaponry , while potentially deadly , is much less likely to be used in h uman-rights abuses than small arms . In anticipation of an end to the U.N. embar go , South Africa created the Denel Corp. in 1992 . While Armscor has since serv ed as the government 's defense-procurement organization , Denel has operated as a private manufacturing consortium , representing 60 percent of the arms indust ry . Denel expects to lead export sales ; such sales averaged $ 127.5 million in the early 1990s and increased to $ 222.2 million in 1993 . Rwanda 's purchase o f $ 5.9 million of grenades , mortars and ammunition from Denel made only a tiny addition to South Africa 's balance sheet . South Africa also has a technologic al edge in land-mine-detection and -sweeping equipment especially needed by Camb odia and other countries . While South Africa has already begun to market this e quipment , it announced in March that it would not sell land mines at the same t ime and stopped exports . Although it could be argued that this announcement was motivated more by appearance than principle , it was a welcome sign . But Mande la and the ANC 's stated policy isn't good enough . Exporting mine-sweeping equi pment is a legitimate way to earn foreign exchange ; sales of any arms to human- rights violators are not . The new South Africa should re-examine its export pol icy on such items . International prohibitions against arms sales to abusive reg imes are at present non-existent or weak . Rwanda , with its long-documented his tory of ethnic strife and its grisly record of human-rights abuses , is a case i n point . Rather than sink to this standard , Mandela should lead the world in r aising it up . Frank Smyth , a freelance journalist and investigative consultant , is the author of `` Arming Rwanda , '' published by the Human Rights Watch/Ar ms Project in New York . A prep course for the month-long World Cup soccer tournament , a worldwide phen omenon to be played in the United States for the first time beginning June 17 , is available in a set of three home videos . Each of the three volumes by PolyGr am Video lists for $ 14.95 and has a running time of about 60 minutes . The thre e volumes : `` World Cup USA '94 : The Official Preview , '' which includes a to urnament history with footage all the way back to the first World Cup held in 19 30 . There 's a look at the training of the 1994 U.S. team and a profile of Braz il 's Pele , just 17 when he took the 1958 event by storm , repeating in 1962 an d 1970 . `` Top 50 Great World Cup Goals , '' highlighting exciting moments from competition beginning in 1966 with favorites such as Pele , Johan Cruyff , Dieg o Maradona , Roberto Baggio , Salvatore `` Toto '' Schillaci and Franz Beckenbau er . `` Great World Cup Superstars , '' focusing on the top names in the game , featured in the `` Goals '' cassette , and adding some interviews that offer an insight into what makes these stars shine . Three new basketball videos availabl e : `` Sir Charles '' takes a look at the on-court intensity and dynamic skills of Charles Barkley of the Phoenix Suns as well as his entertaining off-court per sona. $ 19.98 , 50 minutes , 1-800-999-VIDEO . `` NBA Superstars 3 '' follows up on two previous hit videos meshing the moves of the NBA 's elite with today 's hit music . This one includes Kenny Anderson , Steve Smith , Derrick Coleman , L arry Johnson , Dan Majerle , Alonzo Mourning , Hakeem Olajuwon , Mark Price , Sh awn Kemp , Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars . Their play is matched with the music of Erick Sermon , M People , LL Cool J , Celine Dion , Domino , Soulhat , Soul Asy lum , Buckshot LeFonque , Branford Marsalis , Pearl Jam and Rozella. $ 19.98 , 5 0 minutes , 1-800-999-VIDEO . `` Hog Wild : The Official 1994 NCAA Championship Video '' recaptures the excitement of the latest edition of March Madness and Ar kansas 's march to the title with rousing victories over Michigan , Arizona and Duke in the three final games. $ 19.98 , 45 minutes , 1-800-747-7999 . It is only natural that a writer make the literary most of whatever happens to him . In April 1984 the distinguished novelist Reynolds Price was asked by a fri end with whom he was walking why he kept slapping his foot on the pavement . It was the first faint whisper of the monstrous illness that would roar across his body for the next four years . For unbeknown , an eel-shaped tubular cancer had taken root and was compressing his spinal cord . For the next four years the aut hor would undergo radiation to his spinal cord , multiple surgical procedures di agnostic , palliative and the last , one hopes , curative . In addition to the p aralysis of the lower half of the body , there was a slowly ascending numbness t o just below the nipple line . And there was pain , real and phantom , the latte r no less severe for all its suggestion of unreality . It was suffering worthy o f Job . On page after page , we are confronted by the downright ugliness of suff ering , its senselessness . Pain is not noble ; it is disgustingly ordinary . Th e reader tries to imagine the pain , but the language of pain is exclusive ; it is a tongue spoken by one person only . The rest of us are not conversant in it , nor can it be conveyed in words . Never mind , we shall know it in our turn . There is some danger in the reiteration of pain , that it will eventually have a n anesthetic effect no matter how persuasive the writing . In this , it is not u nlike pornography that within minutes becomes tedious . The rapture of others ca nnot be rendered in words either ; for that too we must wait our turn . `` A Who le New Life '' is Price 's candid account of his ordeal , written , he announces , to furnish others in similar trouble `` a companionable voice that 's lasted beyond all rational expectation . '' He has written it years after the white hea t of the events and from the vantage of the crippled survivor . Like many such r ecountings , I suspect it was written also to exteriorize the horror , to put a barrier of printed pages between himself and what can best be described as a re- enactment of Dante 's `` Inferno . '' Eschewing the novelist 's proven gifts of style there is none of the elegance , nuance , ambiguity or wit of his powerful novel , `` Kate Vaiden '' he tells his story in a prose that is stripped down an d pell-mell , utterly devoid of the pomp of language or the writer 's vanity . T he sentences come spilling out much as the facts were remembered , but the meani ng of the sometimes clotted paragraphs is never in doubt . Much of the book tell s of the few ups and the many downs in his agonizing struggle to live the progre ssive loss of strength and sensation and function . With each diminution , along with the author , we contemplate sadly the little that remains from the much th at was . A good deal of the account is moving : his brother 's preoperative kiss , and the fellowship of the `` gimps '' at the the rehabilitation center all st riving to recover a modicum of independence . We cheer each brief respite from p ain as we do his brave resumption of writing and teaching . What sustained him ? There was a seemingly endless line of kind friends and acquaintances who commit ted themselves over long periods of time to assist Price in recapturing the pace of his life . One 's inner strength is no match for suffering . It is not our o wn strength alone that will help us prevail , but the strength and commiseration of others . It takes courage to lean on others , but great suffering demands of us that humility . Too , there is Price 's lifelong belief in a God who is pers onally interested in him , if not always benevolent . This belief was made power fully manifest just prior to the course of irradiation . The area on his back to be treated had already been marked out with purple dye . The radiation oncologi st had informed the patient of all the possibilities . Shortly thereafter , Reyn olds Price experienced an uncanny translocation in which he found himself lying on a slope by the Sea of Galilee in 1st-Century Palestine . Sleeping nearby were Christ and his 12 apostles all dressed in the tunics and cloaks of the time . I n the distance he saw the town of Capernaum just as it was . Jesus looked much l ike the Flemish paintings of him , lean , `` tall with dark hair , unblemished s kin and a self-possession both natural and imposing . '' He rose , directed Pric e to undress , then led the naked man into the waters of Galilee . Now , existin g both with and outside of his body , the author could see the purple marks on h is back . Again and again Jesus poured handfuls of water over him . There was di alogue : `` Your sins are forgiven . '' `` Am I also to be cured ? '' `` That to o . '' From the moment Price 's mind returned to the here and now , he has belie ved this event to be neither dream nor vision but `` an external gift .. . of an alternate time and place in which to live through a crucial act . '' For Price , this experience had a tactile reality . It happened . Even the skeptical reade r shivers in wild surmise . The man who emerges from these pages is feisty , gri tty , angry , sometimes snobbish and , notwithstanding , most appealing . He mak es no effort to portray himself as a saint or a martyr . The clerk at the hospit al is `` sullen . '' The cardiac fitness participants are imagined as `` a squad of garrulous heart-attack survivors in designer sweat suits . '' Many of the `` true practical saints '' who offer to help him are `` boring as root canals . ' ' It is the radiation oncologist , cast as the villain , who bears the brunt of Price 's anger and resentment . He has `` all the visible concern of a steel che ese-grater '' ; he `` never offered to tell me ... '' ; he is `` the frozen onco logist . '' And here another physician must demur . Was it not this very doctor , among others , whose judgment and therapy brought about the cure of his patien t ? Surely , that he is not also gifted with charm or bedside manner might be fo rgiven ? Some doctors , particularly those whose work brings them daily into con tact with the gravely ill and whose treatments themselves augment the suffering , may function better when they withhold or even stifle pity , compassion , aest hetic response than when they allow these feelings full sway . Certainly there a re great doctors who are also haughty , cold , materialistic and insensitive ; j ust as there are great artists who fall short of expectations . Beethoven , Wagn er and Richard Strauss were bigoted , angry , domineering . Schopenhauer and Ros sini were scornful and misanthropic . Da Vinci and Goethe were detached , aloof and condescending . And then there was Robert Frost . It is in the final section of the book that Price rises above the dreadful years and reaches out to his ne w life . It is a life full of satisfactions , work , friends and even erotic lov e . `` Reynolds Price , '' he told himself , `` is dead . '' And asked himself : `` Who can you be ? '' The answer is : a writer and a teacher as before , only now with the patience and watchfulness born of suffering , and the blessing of w hole days of focused energy undiluted by the distractions of the able-bodied . I n the years since his illness , Reynolds Price has written 14 books . His last a dvice to the afflicted is to finish grieving for the former self , to reach out hungrily to the new and to find work that sustains the spirit . In writing `` A Whole New Life '' Reynolds Price has come , in the words of Adrienne Rich , `` t o see the damage that was done/and the treasures that prevail . '' There can be no sweeter use made of adversity than this act of generosity that comes in the f orm of a book . The crisis that has been rapidly building over North Korea 's suspected nuclear weapons program seems for now to have abated . Inspectors from the Internationa l Atomic Energy Agency have been sent to Pyongyang to see what they can learn ab out the refueling of a key reactor that is now under way . Washington , welcomin g this and other recent signs hinting at a more cooperative attitude by the Nort h , says that it 's ready to reopen high-level contacts with Kim Il Sung 's regi me . So for the moment at least the United States doesn't have to worry about tr ying to muster international support for economic sanctions against a country th at , at a minimum , seems to have done all it can to encourage the belief that i t has been violating the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty . How long that moment will last is up to Pyongyang . The key question is whether North Korea will let IAEA inspectors examine several hundred specifically chosen fuel rods from its five-megawatt reactor at Yongbyon , north of Pyongyang . By analyzing certain ro ds the IAEA could tell how long they had been in the reactor , and that in turn would indicate whether other fuel rods had earlier been secretly removed . There 's a suspicion , heightened in the last few days by the claims in Tokyo of a No rth Korean defector who once worked at the Yongbyon reprocessing plant , that 26 pounds of plutonium were secretly extracted from spent fuel rods in 1988 . That supports the CIA 's suspicion that the North has produced enough plutonium for a couple of nuclear devices . The United States is ready it wouldn't be too much to say eager to move toward normal relations with North Korea and so help stabi lize Northeast Asia . Rightly , though , it conditions such a move on Pyongyang 's readiness to meet its responsibilities under the Non-Proliferation Treaty . S outh Korea supports the American effort . If North Korea goes along , it could s ee its diplomatic and economic isolation end . If it balks , new pressures would fall on its weak economy . Enlightened self-interest makes the choice clear . T he question is whether a regime that has for decades zealously preached the virt ues of inward-looking self-reliance is able finally to recognize where its true long-term interests lie . Step by step , President Clinton seems to be maneuvering himself into a positio n on Haiti where his only option may be military intervention . If that is the p resident 's intention , it should be reversed forthwith . He must know that two- thirds of the American people oppose such a step ; that with the first American casualties there will be a clamor for withdrawal of U.S. forces ; that the last time Marines marched ashore in Haiti , in 1915 , they were there 19 years , and after taking 126 combat and non-combat casualties left behind a trained and oppr essive military . The ideal solution evidently sought by Clinton is sufficient i nternational pressure to force the Haitian generals now in control into exile . There is a precedent : In 1986 , the United States was able to send dictator Jea n Claude `` Baby Doc '' Duvalier packing . But there is another precedent : his father , Francois `` Papa Doc '' Duvalier , successfully defied a U.S. show of f orce in 1963 . By tightening the embargo on Haiti over last weekend , the world community decided in effect to increase the suffering of the Haitian people in o rder to liberate them . Food and medicine are the exception . But as jobs and pr ivate-sector imports of vital commodities disappear , aid organizations warn tha t hunger and death will increase . Some of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristi de 's more fervent supporters , both foreign and domestic , are willing to have the poorest people in the hemisphere 's poorest country pay this price . The sit uation could force President Clinton 's hand . Having taken on a certain respons ibility for worsening the plight of the Haitian people and having drawn only def iance from Haiti 's military government , he may find himself with little choice other than to order the Marines ashore . Some 650 aboard the USS Wasp are movin g into position . What then ? Will U.S. citizens be taken hostage in a desperate counter-move by the present government ? Will Haitian forces crumble at the fir st sight of the Marines , as their leaders flee to luxurious exile ? Will Father Aristide 's revenge-minded followers then turn on the soldiers that remain ? Or will a form of civil war break out , part ethnic and part class-based , that wi ll make a mockery of quick-solution scenarios ? And even if U.S. forces stay the course , under the facade of a multinational intervention , just what will thei r mission be ? To feed the masses ? That 's the easy part , as humanitarian succ esses in Somalia illustrate . To crack down on violence-minded factions ? That ' s a much tougher role , one the U.S. could not sustain in Somalia . To rebuild t he Haitian government and and economy ? That 's a task the U.S. never really att empted in Somalia , that it flunked the last time out in Haiti and that it is un likely to assume again , given the budget squeeze and public opinion . So Clinto n is boxed in by the Haiti crisis , and so is our country . Any solution other t han the quick capitulation of the present military government offers little but pain and foreboding . It isn't easy for athletes to be legends anymore . Over-analyzed by cranky spor tswriters , noisily critiqued by moronic sports talk-radio callers , their gravi ty-defying feats have been reduced to ESPN highlight-reel fodder . Just ask Barr y Bonds , whose most enduring media moment remains his nasty on-the-field shouti ng match with then-manager Jim Leyland . Sports legend derives from larger-than- life feats , created away from the glare of the spotlight . It belongs to the or al tradition , tales told and retold , till they take on an appropriately mythic stature . Who knows if Babe Ruth really pointed to the right-field bleachers an d called his shot in the 1932 World Series ? Who actually saw Pete Gray , the St . Louis Browns ' one-armed outfielder , in action , throwing a runner out at hom e plate ? How many people got to watch Johnny Vander Meer pitch a no-hitter in t wo consecutive games ? In baseball , the murkiest of all legends have sprung fro m the mythic twilight of the Negro Leagues . Thrown together during the sorry da ys of segregated sport , they showcased the young black gods of baseball , perfo rming in the same cities often in the same ballparks as major-league players , s ometimes even wearing the big-leaguers ' discarded uniforms . That 's where you 'd find Leroy `` Satchel '' Paige , barnstorming across the country in wheezing buses , sleeping in fleabag hotels , playing in ramshackle bandboxes across town from the storied major-league ballparks . Of all the mythic stars of Negro base ball , Satchel was mythic-squared . Unhittable in his prime , he once struck out 22 men in a game , beat Bob Feller 1-0 in a 13-inning exhibition game and was s o indomitable he threw a no-hitter in the first game of a double-header and then pitched relief in the nightcap . After hitting .398 in the Pacific Coast League in 1935 , Joe DiMaggio prepared for his rookie season with the New York Yankees by facing Paige in a much-ballyhooed exhibition game . The future Hall of Famer managed a measly infield hit in four trips to the plate , moving a Yankee scout to wire home : `` DiMaggio all we hoped he 'd be : hit Satch one for four . '' The legend simmered , soaking up its rich flavor in obscurity . As far as the wh ite press was concerned , Paige ( who was as celebrated in '30s-era black circle s as Cab Calloway or Louis Armstrong ) might as well have been pitching in Outer Mongolia . When Time magazine finally discovered Paige in 1940 15 years into hi s career it offered some legendry of its own . Attributing Satchel 's arm streng th to his boyhood shouldering of 200-pound blocks of ice , the news magazine quo ted Paige 's old ice-wagon employer as saying : `` That boy et mo ' than the hos ses . '' Until now , that 's been the Satch story : Print the caricature . But j udging from `` Don't Look Back , '' Mark Ribowsky 's meticulously researched bio graphy , there is another , considerably starker and less sentimental side to Pa ige . Raised in the rough-and-tumble ghetto area of Mobile , Ala. , Paige was a restless , lonely man , a black shadow in a white-only world , his soul shrivele d by a lack of acceptance , both from his family and the realm of big-time sport . Before he was 20 , Paige had hit the road , learning his pitching craft on ba seball 's chitlins circuit . Though Ribowsky is more successful at sketching the Negro League milieu than fleshing out Paige 's character , the scrawny , rawbon ed pitcher emerges as a man of few loyalties , either to friend or team , indiff erent to family ties , easily seduced by a pretty woman or a fat paycheck . Take away his wonderful wit and legendary showmanship and dare we say it Satchel mig ht be almost as hard to love as Barry Bonds . Resolutely unfaithful to every wom an in his life , Paige was jealous of teammates ' success , a hard-drinking caro user , habitually late to even the most important games and disdainful of anythi ng resembling a training regime . Paige was at least 42 ( some say 44 or even 48 ) when Cleveland Indians owner Bill Veeck finally brought him to the big league s in 1948 , a year after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier . Making his fi rst appearance in relief on July 9 , he was the man who brought black vaudeville style to white sport , decades before the high five , the monster jam and the e nd-zone dance . Paige mystified batters with a carnival assortment of trick pitc hes . Using a double or even triple windup with a huge leg kick , he 'd throw wh at he called a Step ' n Pitch-it , a Bat Dodger and finally , his mind-boggling Hesitation Pitch , where he held back his right arm even as his front leg swept his body forward , releasing the ball almost as an afterthought . The first majo r-leaguer who tried to hit the Hesitation Pitch lunged and swung before the pitc h was half-way to the plate , his bat flying 40 feet up the third-base line . Sa tch was a sensation . By the time he started his first major-league game on Aug. 3 , 72,562 fans were at Cleveland 's Municipal Stadium , a new attendance recor d for a major-league night game . Though well past his prime , Paige played part s of six seasons in the majors and was good enough to be named to the 1952 All-S tar team . Never a friend to Robinson he had given him the cold shoulder in the Negro Leagues he displayed little of Robinson 's credit-to-his-race good citizen ry . Paige missed trains , broke curfew and carried around a gun a foot and a ha lf long . His eccentricities won him huge play in the white press , which viewed him as post-integration baseball 's answer to Louie Armstrong Satchmo meet Satc h a happy-go-lucky old coot who rubbed mystery potions on his pitching arm , doz ed in the bullpen grass and issued such maxims as , `` If your stomach disputes you , lie down and pacify it with cool thoughts '' and the immortal phrase ( whi ch Ribowsky borrows for his book title ) , `` Don't look back . Something might be gaining on you . '' These nostrums were strictly for media consumption . In r eal life , the string-bean pitcher burned the candle at every end . As Ribowsky recounts in vivid detail , Paige was far from the only model of impropriety in t he 1930s-era Negro Leagues . Many of the most prominent teams were owned by gang sters such as Gasoline Gus Greenlee , who ran the Pittsburgh Crawfords , using t he team as a legit cover for his numbers racket . Paige was hardly intimidated b y Greenlee 's mob ties . When a promoter offered him more money to barnstorm thr ough the Dakotas , Paige abruptly walked out on his new contract with the Crawfo rds . Aloof and enigmatic all the way to his grave , Paige seems to have defeate d his biographer 's best efforts to penetrate his inscrutable mask . None of Pai ge 's offspring would talk to Ribowsky , while the dim memories of his ball-play ing peers offer little in the way of insight . Eager to provide Paige 's exploit s with some heft , Ribowsky sometimes aims too high , using quotes from Henry Mi ller , William Faulkner and ( ! ) Daniel Defoe to open various chapters . Satche l surely would have loved rubbing elbows with such glittering literati . But the lofty sentiments don't get Ribowsky any closer to this flesh-and-blood folk cha racter . Describing his long and lean physique , Satch once said : `` There was a lot to me , but it was all up and down . '' Whatever was inside seems to have wafted away , like an unhittable Paige curveball , rising and swooping in the di m light of an extra-inning game . The book 's evocative subtitle , `` Satchel Pa ige in the Shadows of Baseball , '' is all too apt . For all Ribowsky 's good ef forts , the real shadow here is Satchel himself . CyberSurfing : Potholes , perturbations and predicaments observed on the inform ation superhighway : A Playboy story titled `` Orgasms Online '' left one virtua l community more steamed than steamy this spring . The story prominently feature d the Sausalito , Calif.-based WELL ( for Whole Earth ' Lectronic Link ) among o ther services . With perhaps 10,000 members , the WELL is minuscule by the stand ards of commercial on-line services like Prodigy and CompuServe that boast more than a million users . But it has influence beyond its size because its hundreds of on-line conferences attract an articulate crowd that includes writers , arti sts and high-tech cognoscenti . For the WELLbeings , as many call themselves , P layboy perpetrated an awful mischaracterization of their electronic hangout . Al though there are areas in which sexuality is discussed , the tone tends toward t he playful . It is also a decidedly more thoughtful place than , say , America O nline , the randier areas of which resemble nothing so much as a cheap-beer sing les bar . Along with making angry accusations that author Matthew Childs got the story wrong , WELL users said Childs quoted their on-line postings without perm ission a violation of the etiquette of the WELL , where the phrase `` You Own Yo ur Own Words '' has an almost mantra-like quality . One user found that her disc ussion of an on-line love affair gone bad had been transmuted by Playboy into an offer to share transcripts of hot modem sessions with an ex-beau an offer she h ad never made : `` .. . ( Y ) ou are a liar . I never , ever promised anyone , a nywhere , that I would share ` hot chat ' transcripts or log with them . I don't even keep such logs ! What I said , Mr. I 'm A Journalist And Get My Facts Stra ight Bigshot , is that I would share the name of the cybercad .. . with people w ho asked in e-mail . `` .. . ( Y ) ou can blow it all out your i/o port , bunky . '' Worst of all , they said , the publicity is likely to attract the wrong cro wd to the WELL namely , horny guys who think that Sausalito is where the action is . That 's exactly what happened . One user , Linda Castellani , said in a rec ent on-line interview that `` there has been an increase in those who were clear ly brought here by the article with an expectation of meeting women and having h ot sex . '' Most of the newcomers , however , don't stick around for long . The WELL is clubby to many visitors , suffocatingly so . That 's what the buzz-phras e `` virtual community '' might ultimately come down to : not just who belongs , but who doesn't . It could have been worse . I recall in college an editor at H ef 's mag asked me to hand out questionnaires for the magazine 's `` Sexiest Col leges '' survey , a highly scientific endeavor . I declined , but one of my room mates was willing . He handed it out at a massive bash ; the questionnaires beca me the party game ; `` can you top this '' fever swept the assembled multitude . After the party , another roommate took the remaining questionnaires to a local gay bar . Do you even need to ask ? The University of Texas was deemed the sexi est school in the nation by Playboy . John Schwartz jswatz ( at ) well.sf.ca.us GETTING THERE : To visit the WELL , call ( 415 ) 332-4335 ( by low-tech voice ) and ask for guidance . If you are already a WELL member : The flame war erupted on the Sex Conference , Topic 414 , and spread to other WELL forums from there . To find the Sex Conference type : g sex at any OK prompt . To find the topic , type r 414 at the next OK prompt . To get an OK prompt from a respond/pass promp t , type q . -0- Early news of Kurt Cobain 's death began an explosion of commen tary in the Alternative Rock Forum on America Online . Grieving cries of shock a nd anguish meshed with poems and messages to Cobain 's wife , Courtney Love , an d their daughter , Frances . But there were also smatterings of mean-spirited as saults on Cobain , his wife , his music and lifestyle ; one was a drawing done w ith keyboard characters that depicted a man with a shotgun in his mouth . Weirdl y enough , Courtney Love 's estranged father , Hank Harrison , joined in the pos tings . Using the log-on `` BioDad , '' he described himself in one message as b eing a `` rich , '' 280-pound man who raises pit bulls , rides motorcycles and g ardens . ( A spokesman for Love 's record label confirmed that `` BioDad '' is w ho he says he is . ) In his postings , Harrison said he has been working on a bo ok about Cobain and Nirvana for two years now , and `` I know things that are so unbelievable , I couldn't believe them . '' He fears that his daughter is in da nger of `` going with Kurt , '' especially if the child , Frances , is taken awa y again . ( Child protection authorities did this once after Vanity Fair reporte d she had used heroin while pregnant . ) Harrison posted a copy of the letter he sent the White House describing his proposal for a `` Kurt Cobain Foundation fo r Suicide Prevention '' and asked that he be invited to meet with the president and Chelsea to discuss the details . Harrison continues to participate in the fo rum despite harsh words from a friend of Love 's calling him a liar and a parasi te . Karen Mason Marrero kmarrero ( at ) aol.com GETTING THERE : Sign onto Ameri can Online . ( To subscribe to America Online , call this voice line : 800-827-6 364 . ) Hit the Lifestyles and Interests conference icon ; go to the Rocklink fo lder ; then the Rocklink forum ; then click onto the Alternative Rock Message Bo ard , then browse the folders for Hole ( the name of Courtney Love 's band ) , a nd Remembering Cobain . Found something intriguing , improbable , insane or especially useful on the In ternet ? Tip The Washington Post 's Karen Mason Marrrero kmarrero ( at ) aol.com or Joel Garreau garreau ( at ) well.sf.ca.us . CyberSurfing : Potholes , perturbations and predicaments on the Information Sup erhighway : Blowing in the Wind There 's been a song going through my head for s ome time now , only I don't know the words . Actually , I don't know the tune ei ther , but I hope to soon because of e-mail . The song is `` Hurricane Janet , ' ' about the storm that hit the Caribbean in mid-September 1955 . It wasn't the w orst hurricane of the century , but because it occurred the week I was born and we had the same name , I was never allowed to forget it . Growing up in Wisconsi n , I was teased about my eponymous meteorological event , though in fact my par ents had already settled on my name before the hurricane was a cloud in the sky . Later , when I began to spend time in the Caribbean , gentlemen of a certain a ge would start humming the calypso song when they heard my name . They said the song was by the Mighty Sparrow , the greatest calypsonian of all time , though i t seemed nobody could remember all the lyrics . I tried to find a recording in t he Caribbean , but it was out of print . After I subscribed to America Online th is year , I decided to give it another try . Searching the service 's membership profiles brief resumes in which subscribers can indicate their address , age , hobbies and any other information they wish to share with other members I locate d Kevin Burke , a freelance writer , photographer and calypso fan in Cambridge , Mass. . I messaged him about `` Hurricane Janet . '' I hit pay dirt . Kevin ans wered , saying he didn't know the song but was working on it . First , he had le ft a telephone message for Sparrow himself in Trinidad . ( For readers unfamilia r with calypso , this is roughly equivalent to buzzing Frank Sinatra about a '40 s pop number . ) Kevin also gave me a list of calypso experts in this country to consult , including Steve Shapiro , who , he pointed out , lives in Takoma Park , as my profile showed I do . I recognized the name but I wasn't sure why . The n I realized the answer was literally in front of my nose , on a list of neighbo rhood telephone numbers taped on the wall over my desk : Steve Shapiro , federal worker and calypso expert , lives across the street , though we 'd never met . I introduced myself and over the next few weeks , we had several conversations , but while Shapiro 's music knowledge and record collection are both legendary , he didn't have `` Hurricane Janet . '' In mid-March , Burke messaged again . `` I talked to the Mighty Sparrow today , '' he wrote , `` and he told me that the song about Hurricane Janet was sung by Lord Melody . '' Melody , a calypso elde r statesman best known for his 1956 classic `` Mama , Look a ' Boo-Boo Dey , '' had died in the 1980s , Burke said . Sparrow had sung a few of the lyrics to Bur ke on the telephone : `` Janet , stay in the mountains ! `` Janet , you go blow down plenty buildings ! `` Janet , your sister is Katie ! `` Janet , go straight to Miami ! '' I ran across the street to tell Steve , who said he had some Melo dy recordings and would look into the matter . The next day , I walked out my do or to find Steve in his front yard , waving his arms and shouting something . I finally made out the words : `` Janet ! It is by Sparrow !! '' Steve had located a fellow calypso maven in Oneonta , N.Y. , who had a recording of my song . App arently , Sparrow either meant that he had sung the song but didn't write it , o r had recorded so many songs over the years that he had simply forgotten . Now , I 'm waiting for the tape of my song to arrive by `` snail-mail '' the U.S. Pos tal Service . Until then , I have another project : How about this Hurricane Kat ie ? Janet Higbie higbiej ( at ) twp.com GETTING THERE : Sign on to America Onli ne . To locate other subscribers interested in the Caribbean or other topics , s elect Search Member Directory from Members menu . Type in topic for list of memb ers who have indicated similar interest . -0- Old Scams in New Electrons `` MAKE .MONEY.FAST '' read the message sent recently to hundreds of subscribers to `` D EAF-L , '' a computer discussion list for people interested in deafness-related issues . The note was filled with heartrending tales of people who had been down to their last few dollars when a miraculous solution appeared in the form of an e-mail letter . Suddenly their bank accounts were full , their spirits were lif ted , and they were overcome with the desire to share the secret of their wealth with their fellow Internet travelers . In summary , the note 's words of wisdom were this : Send $ 10 to the person at the top of this mailing list , add your name to the bottom and send it to 100 friends . That 's right , it was one of th ose chain letters that kids and gullible adults copy and mail out to their frien ds . Now they 've hit cyberspace and the possibilities are endless . With one me ssage , one can , as the DEAF-L subscriber did , send the chain to hundreds , ev en thousands of people . Cyberspace legal experts who were consulted through a p osting on their discussion group CYBERIA-L said such a chain may constitute a py ramid scheme and posting it on the Internet might be illegal under the statutes prohibiting wire fraud . The `` send money now '' chain isn't the only old chest nut floating around cyberspace . Remember Craig Shergold , the ailing kid who wa s once trying to collect a record number of business cards ? That effort stopped years ago , but just last week an e-mail asking for business cards appeared on several discussion lists . The infamous cookie recipe that Neiman Marcus alleged ly sold for $ 250 a story the store adamantly denies showed up not once but twic e recently on a discussion list for fans of the `` Highlander '' movies and tele vision show . `` This is a perfect example of how Internet perpetuates Urban Leg ends and is a perfect example of how things should not be reposted everywhere , '' wrote DEAF-L subscriber Claire Maier in an effort to forestall further chain postings . `` The only explanation I have is that people are sheep , '' wrote Ma ier , a PhD candidate in neuroscience at Emory University . `` Someone says , ` Post this to a zillion newsgroups ... ' and people do it . '' Brooke A . Masters mastersb ( at ) twp.com GETTING THERE : To subscribe to DEAF-L , sign on to any commercial ( America Online etc. ) or private network capable of sending messag es on the Internet . Follow the `` mail '' prompts that set you up to send an e- mail message . Send a message to LISTSERV SIUCVMB.BITNET and leave the subject l ine blank ( AOL users do specify subject ) . In the body of the message , write SUBSCRIBE DEAF-L and your name . After any disaster , the question always arises as to when a destination that h as been hard hit whether by hurricane , earthquake , fire , flood or war is read y to give visitors their money 's worth . Often these places , although not yet in the best shape , will offer an incentive to tempt more adventurous travelers to be the first to return . Such is the case of war-torn Croatia , which is desp erately in need of the potentially lucrative tourist income . This summer , and perhaps for another year , it is promising low prices-particularly for lodging . In the beautiful old resort city of Dubrovnik , I stayed last month for about $ 70 a night less than half the price I had paid for not nearly as nice a hotel r oom a few days earlier in Milan , Italy . Right now , rooms in private homes in Dubrovnik are going for as little as $ 10 a night . `` The prices are very low , '' says Pave Zupan Ruskovic , president of Atlas , one of Croatia 's biggest tr avel agencies . `` It 's one way to bring tourism back . '' This is , I think , a fair exchange . With a civil war still rumbling in neighboring Bosnia-Herzegov ina , Croatia is a problematic destination and personal safety is a matter of at least some concern . But at bargain prices , the new country is also an invitin g place at least for those who are aware of the drawbacks of a visit . Before it s breakup , Yugoslavia was a popular vacation spot for other Europeans and for A mericans . As it happens , the new Croatia now possesses old Yugoslavia 's prima ry tourist asset , the long , still mostly pristine Adriatic Coast stretching so uth from the Istrian Peninsula to Dubrovnik . Among the nations formed from Yugo slavia , its tourism prospects are brightest . Currently , the U.S. . State Depa rtment is warning Americans to stay away from Serbia , Montenegro and Bosnia-Her zegovina because of continuing strife or safety problems . No such warning has b een issued for Croatia , neighboring Slovenia and the former Yugoslav republic o f Macedonia . Slovenia is probably least affected by the ongoing Bosnian crisis , and it offers plenty of scenic and cultural attractions and good dining and lo dging . Macedonia is a developing nation with limited tourist facilities . The s evere impact of the war on Croatia 's tourist income is evident in statistics qu oted by national tourism officials . Before 1990 , Croatia reported 60 million o vernight stays annually , says Velimir Simicic , Croatia 's deputy minister of t ourism . In 1993 , the figure was only 13 million most of them Germans and Easte rn Europeans vacationing on the Istrian Peninsula . This summer , the country ho pes to double last year 's number . Before the war , the city of Dubrovnik count ed on tourism for about 90 percent of its income . Should you go to Croatia now to take advantage of the bargains or wait until peace is assured ? It is a quest ion individuals must answer for themselves . Some factors to consider : Safety T he situation in Zagreb , the capital ; on the Istrian Peninsula ; and in most ar eas of Croatia is calm , says the State Department . But it warns against travel to four United Nations Protected Areas that border Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbi a . Localized shelling has occurred adjacent to these areas . With one important exception , the Adriatic Coast the principal destination that Croatia currently is promoting is not affected . The exception is the coastal road just north of Zadar , where a pontoon bridge replaces the former bridge that was destroyed in Croatia 's war to defend its independence . The bridge , which crosses an inlet , is within potential enemy shellfire , according to a public affairs officer in the U.S. . Embassy in Zagreb , who asked not to be identified . However , the b ridge is open , and motorists including tourists are using it regularly without harm , says Karen Suric in Atlas 's New York office . According to her , travele rs who want to drive the length of the Adriatic Coast to Dubrovnik but avoid the bridge can take an auto ferry that operates far outside the shelling range . As for street crime directed at tourists , incidents are low . But as in any count ry , you should beware of pickpockets and muggers in tourist sites such as bus a nd railway stations . For a current safety report , contact the State Department 's Citizens Emergency Center , ( 202 ) 647-5225 , or the U.S. . Embassy in Zagr eb , 011-385-41-444-800 . Visas Americans must have a visa to travel in Croatia , but a tourist visa valid for three months can be obtained at no cost on arriva l either at border crossings or the airport . There is a drawback to this proces s , however . When I arrived by plane in Zagreb , about 25 passengers werelined up at the visa window , and only one immigration officer was on duty . Each visa took him two or three minutes to fill out . I was near the end of the line and waited for more than a half hour . Only after I had my visa could I proceed thro ugh immigration to baggage claim and customs . Also , the Croatian Embassy in Wa shington warns that some airlines deny boarding for flights to Croatia if you do n't have a visa . To avoid a delay , you can apply for a visa in person or by ma il from the Croatian Embassy , 2343 Massachusetts Ave. NW , Washington , D.C. 20 008 , ( 202 ) 588-5899 . Embassy-issued visas are valid for 12 months . By mail , there is a $ 9 return postage fee . Where to Go & Stay As in the past , most v isitors probably will stick close to the lovely turquoise waters of the Adriatic . Although lodgings from modest to luxurious dot the long coast and the many of fshore islands , the area is relatively undeveloped in contrast to the French or Italian rivieras . In the north , the Istrian Peninsula and the offshore island s of Krk , Cres , Rab and Pag offer excellent beach vacation possibilities in an area untouched by the war . It is easily reached by car from northern Italy and elsewhere in Europe . The area around Dubrovnik experienced heavy damage . Beac h pleasures are possible , but the ancient city should appeal more to travelers interested in seeing the impact of the war for themselves and the recovery that is being made . Among the top hotels now open are the Hotel Argentina ; its neig hboring affiliate , the beautiful Villa Orsula ( where I stayed ) ; and the char ming Hotel Villa Dubrovnik . All are within a 10-minute walk of the old city . A 10-minute drive away is the large and modern Hotel Dubrovnik President . All fe ature either sand or rocky beaches and good sea views . At the Hotel Argentina , a room for one is about $ 58 ; for two , about $ 90 . At the Villa Orsula , a s ingle is $ 68 and a double is $ 116 . Breakfast is included . Other top hotels a re in the same price range . But budget travelers can stay in a room in a privat e home for about $ 10 for one or two people . Zagreb is pretty and culturally in teresting , and there are scenic drives north of the city into countryside that still retains the look of old Europe . Because Zagreb gets a lot of business tra velers , its hotel rates are higher . Rates in the best hotels-which include the Palace , Dubrovnik , Inter-continental and Esplanade-range from about $ 95 to $ 150 a night for a room . Some tours have resumed out of Split to the Catholic s hrine of Medugorje , which is located across the border in Bosnia . Aboard my pl ane from Zurich , a group of 16 New Englanders planned a week 's pilgrimage . Ho wever , the U.S. . Embassy in Croatia discourages such trips , says a spokeswoma n . Escorted sightseeing and outdoor adventure tours and air/hotel/rental car pa ckages are available throughout most U.S. or Croatian travel agencies . I paid A tlas $ 879 for a package that included two nights lodging in Zagreb , three nigh ts in Dubrovnik , five full breakfasts , flights between Zagreb and Dubrovnik an d Split and Zagreb , a car and driver between Dubrovnik and Split , and all airp ort transfers . For Information : Croatia does not maintain a tourism informatio n office in the United States . However , information including lodging choices and island ferry schedules is available from Atlas Ambassador of Dubrovnik , the New York office of the Atlas travel agency ( Lincoln Building , 60 E. 42nd St. , New York , N.Y. 10165 , 212-697-6767 ) . No mere day at the beach , that 's the D-Day Normandy Commemorative Celebration Weekend in Virginia Beach , Va. , June 3-5 . The battle plan for the 50th anniv ersary weekend includes a Fort Story commemorative ceremony and re-enactment of the invasion at the fort 's Omaha Beach , June 4 ; a parade and Stage Door cante en show ; historical displays ; and a wreath-laying . The 29th Infantry ( Maryla nd , Virginia , West Virginia and District of Columbia ) was the first unit to l and its troops on Normandy 's Omaha Beach . Visitors are advised to arrive early for the re-enactment . Above events are free . Information : ( 800 ) 822-3224 . -0- Calling the World The world 's calling get the message ? AT&T 's new WorldP lus Communication Service offers travelers a range of calling and messaging feat ures-from more than 40 countries . By dialing a toll-free access number and ente ring account and identification numbers , subscribers make calls from abroad , b ack home or elsewhere ; set up conference calls ; use a personal mailbox to send and receive voice and fax messages worldwide ; and tap into information service s ( interpreters ) , travel services and more . Cost is $ 70 annually , plus add itional charges for calls-for example , $ 1.99 per minute for any call within Eu rope . Information : ( 800 ) 382-5612 . -0- TRAVEL TRIVIA WHAT CARIBBEAN CITY HA S THE LARGEST POPULATION ? TRIVIA ANSWER : HAVANA . -0- Soaping Up A little fanf are , please , for the stars of daytime TV and the Soap Opera Fan Fair , in Mack inaw City , Mich. , June 1-5 . Ogle more than 50 soap producers , writers and st ars including Linda Dano ( Felicia Gallant on `` Another World '' ) and Eric Bra eden ( Victor Newman on the `` The Young and the Restless '' ) ; get autographs , plus the inside scoop from soap editors ; or do moonlight cruises . Tickets fo r the fair , on the Mackinac Straits ' State Ferry Dock , are $ 25 per day or $ 75 for five-day passes ( cruises extra ) . For tickets and help with accommodati ons , call ( 800 ) 817-SOAP ( 800-817-7627 ) . -0- ON TOURS New tours of Oskar S chindler 's Poland , of movie and book fame , start June 15 . Travel writer and historian Stu Feiler has organized 11-day tours around the movie version of `` S chindler 's List . '' The tour includes Jewish historic d istricts , synagogues and Holocaust memorials , including old and new Krakow and Plaszow and southeast Poland , to see the camp that held Schindler 's Jews , his factory , home and m ore . Cost is $ 1,800 per person , double occupancy , including air fare from Wa shington , accommodations and most meals . Information : ( 312 ) 587-1950 . -0- Ruff Stuff Dog tired of vacationing without Fido ? It 's board and bored no more , for your pooch , with Doggone , the bimonthly newsletter of `` fun places to go and cool stuff to do with your dog . '' Doggedly reported are pet-friendly lo dgings-hotels , resorts , country inns , even five-star hotels that cater to Phy deaux . The newsletter also walks you through pet-friendly attractions parks , b eaches , even theme parks that allow dogs plus tips on health care , plane and c ar travel , events and more . Subscriptions are $ 24 for one year . Information : ( 407 ) 569-8434 . Forget the Freedom Trail get on the JFK trail , with new tours of JFK 's Boston , starting Friday . Through Oct. 23 , the three-hour trolley expeditions ( desi gned in conjunction with the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum ) visit famous K ennedy landmarks from his birthplace in Brookline and the Harvard campus , to hi s favorite restaurant ( the Union Oyster House , where he chowdered down ) and t he Omni Parker House Hotel , where he announced for the presidency . Tours wind up at the Kennedy Library . Reservations are suggested but not required . Ticket s for the Old Town Trolley tour which leaves from the Park Plaza Welcome Center , 52 Eliot St. are $ 20 for adults , $ 15 for students and those age 65 and up , and $ 10 for ages 5 to 14 . Information : ( 617 ) 269-7150 . Wonk Inflation : When the political debate over health-care reform heated up a few years ago , New York publisher Faulkner & Gray compiled an annual directory with names , numbers , photos and profiles of `` the most influential health pol icy-makers and organizations in the United States . '' They called it `` The Hea lth Care 500 . '' The current edition has the same format but a new title : `` T he Health Care 1,000 . '' Is Lewis Carroll 's timeless `` Alice 's Adventures in Wonderland '' simply an innocent children 's story ? Those who think so are in for a fascinating glance through the looking glass , courtesy of The Learning Channel 's `` Great Books ' ' series , running Saturday night . The fourth installment of the Donald Sutherl and-hosted series brings the background of mathematics professor Charles Lutwidg e Dodgson ( alias Lewis Carroll ) out of the rabbit hole , describing how his vi ew of childhood contrasted with the rigid social standards of 1860s Victorian En gland . This program is not necessarily recommended for younger eyes , but it is required viewing for anyone who has read Lewis Carroll stories to their childre n . The story of the independent Alice had its genesis on a Thames boat ride on July 4 , 1862 , when Dodgson related a tale to 9-year-old Alice Liddell , daught er of the dean of Christ Church in Oxford . On Christmas of that year , Dodgson presented young Alice with a hand-illustrated copy of `` Alice 's Adventures Und erground . '' The following year , he enlisted Punch cartoonist John Tenniel to illustrate the renamed `` Alice 's Adventures in Wonderland . '' That book and t he follow-up , `` Through the Looking Glass , '' trail only the Bible and the wo rks of Shakespeare as the most quoted books in the English language . The `` Gre at Books '' program shows many of the hundreds of takeoffs and provides a look a t how the 1960s popular culture melded with the works of 100 years earlier . ( J efferson Airplane lead singer Grace Slick , who recorded the 1967 hit `` White R abbit , '' noted a half-dozen drug references in Carroll 's writings . ) We also see Carroll on the front of the Beatles ' `` Sgt . Pepper '' album , and a snip pet from the more recent `` Don't Come Around Here No More '' video featuring To m Petty as the Mad Hatter . Carroll , described as `` a very clever man with the heart of a child , '' is a very complex study . The author of the book that cel ebrates identity perhaps wrestled with his own identity . The program explores w hether he used drugs or gave them to the young girls he entertained and photogra phed . After all , the `` Alice '' stories , unlike most books of the times , ar e conspicuously without morals . The master of nonsense was also a scholar of lo gic . Queen Victoria , after reading `` Alice 's Adventures in Wonderland , '' s aid she wanted to read Carroll 's next book , which turned out to be a treatise on simultaneous linear equations . Upcoming `` Great Books '' programs will stud y H.G. Wells 's `` War of the Worlds '' ( June 11 ) and `` The Art of War '' ( J une 18 ) . New research has found that acetaminophen doesn't reduce the pain during and im mediately following circumcision . While acetominophen is safe and easily admini stered to newborns , the researchers said , `` the pain of circumcision is too s evere to be controlled by a mild analgesic . '' Acetaminophen ( the active ingre dient in Tylenol ) does seems to work against persistent discomfort at six hours after circumcision , however , according to a study by University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry researchers . The study appears in last month ' s Pediatrics , published by the American Academy of Pediatrics . About 86 percen t of American male newborns undergo circumcision , the most common surgical proc edure performed on males in this country , the study said . Most of these circum cisions are done without painkillers . A local anesthetic procedure called dorsa l penile nerve block has been found effective against circumcision pain , the re searchers said , but is not widely used because of concerns about its safety , t he time it takes to administer and a continued belief that babies don't feel muc h pain . The new study , in line with previous research , concluded that circumc ised newborns do experience great and persistent pain during and after the surge ry , based on crying , increased heart and breathing rates and other measurement s . The discomfort from the surgery also seemed to interfere with breastfeeding in some newborns , who required formula supplements . Breast-feeding takes more- active participation on the part of newborns , who have to learn to latch on to the breast and suckle , than the more-free-flowing bottle , said Cynthia R. Howa rd , the lead researcher on the study . After circumcision , babies can be more difficult to awaken , and this may frustrate mothers who themselves are just lea rning to breast-feed , she added . Howard said she plans to follow up this study to see if there is any long-term impact on breast-feeding . The researchers con cluded `` it is imperative '' that a safe and easily administered painkiller be found and used for the large number of newborns receiving circumcisions in this country . Breast milk has long been appreciated for the nourishment it provides and for i ts rich supply of antibodies that help newborns fight infections . Now research suggests that breasts also produce large quantities of a hormone that may aid th e development of a newborn 's brain and sexual organs , and may also affect the health of the mother 's breast itself . Scientists said the findings , which wer e made in experiments on rats but appear to be true for humans as well , strengt hen the argument for breast feeding and may lead to new strategies for fighting breast cancer . Researchers have known for years that the hormone , gonadotropin -releasing hormone ( GnRH ) , is made in the hypothalamus of the brain in adults , where it influences sex-organ growth , the reproductive cycle and sexual beha vior in rats and people . Pregnant women also make the hormone in the placenta , where it gets passed to the embryo and has a major influence on fetal brain dev elopment . Now researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovet , Isr ael , have found that in lactating rats large amounts of GnRH are made in breast tissues . The hormone is probably also made in human breast tissues , they said , since human breast milk has been found to be loaded with the hormone . The re searchers , led by neuroendocrinologist Yitzhak Koch , propose that the GnRH in breast milk may help complete certain aspects of brain or sex-organ development left unfinished during the fetus ' stay in the uterus . Breast-milk GnRH may be especially important to a newborn rat , since rat brains are still largely undev eloped even after birth . Human brains are more fully developed at birth , so th e importance of GnRH in human breast milk remains uncertain . But even human bra ins change substantially in the first years of life and may benefit from the hor mone , Koch and others said . `` It could be important for the physiology of the developing baby , '' said Donald Pfaff , a neurobiologist at Rockefeller Univer sity in New York . But he stressed that further experiments are needed to see wh ether the hormone can survive in the digestive tract of a suckling newborn or is deactivated there . Sergio R. Ojeda , head of neuroscience at the Oregon Region al Primate Center in Beaverton , said researchers discovered a few years ago tha t breast milk contains fatty acids , which are critical for growth , and taurine , which aids in the absorption of nutrients , and that baby formula companies h ad subsequently added those ingredients to their products . He said GnRH may be the latest such discovery , and he predicted that further research would bring o ther hormonal benefits of breast milk to light . Margaret Wierman , an endocrino logist at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center , said the new findi ng was potentially important for women too because many breast-cancer cells grow in response to GnRH . She said studies of how the production of GnRH is regulat ed in the breast may someday lead to new ways of blocking breast-cancer growth . The new research appears in this week 's issue of the Proceedings of the Nation al Academy of Sciences . It was the surgical head nurse who turned the South African hospital upside dow n . She needed a gynecologist , and it made perfect sense to her to choose Dr. E .T. Mokgokong , who would soon become deputy head of obstetrics and gynecology a t the University of Natal . Except that it was 20 years ago at the height of apa rtheid and the nurse was white and Dr. Mokgokong is black . `` She caused comple te pandemonium in the hospital , '' the doctor recalled . After all , it was a b lack hospital . Although the staff was mostly white , the patients were black . Why wouldn't the nurse go to the hospital for whites ? `` She told them : ` My g ynie is Dr. Mokgokong , ' ' ' he continued . Very delicate , very shocking . He remembers her asking the disapproving white staff : `` Whose body is going to be examined ? '' That stamp of approval helped establish him in the old South Afri ca . It also convinced him that an academic degree and the stethoscope were the most potent weapons he could wield against the apartheid government . This month , a new era began as blacks who represent four-fifths of the population took co ntrol of the government . One of the most immediate challenges is to build a nat ional health-care system to meet the needs of a swelling non-white population . Black children have death rates that are 12 times higher than white , according to government figures . Diseases such as typhoid and tuberculosis , rare among w hites , are major killers of South African blacks . More than half the children admitted to a black teaching hospital last year were found to be suffering from malnutrition . A critical problem is the lack of black health-care professionals . Currently there are about 1,200 black physicians for an estimated population of 30 million . This compares with 25,000 white doctors for about 5 million whit es . For decades Mokgokong , 63 , has been a kind of education warrior on the he alth-care battlefield . He heads the Medical University of Southern Africa ( Med unsa ) , founded in 1978 for black students . Last week , he was in Washington t o receive an award from Medical Education for South African Blacks , a non-profi t organization that funds medical scholarships . Mokgokong grew up on a farm , t he youngest of seven children . His father was a teacher and Lutheran minister . At 19 , he passed the standard examinations to enter a university . After earni ng a science degree at Fort Hare University , Mokgokong received his medical deg ree at the University of Natal in 1962 . He belongs to South Africa 's pioneer b lack generation of `` First-&-Onlys '' : First black on the university faculty , one of the only blacks on the hospital teaching staff ; first & only black to h ead a South African medical school . `` First-&-Only '' pioneers ( blacks or wom en or members of any outsider group ) can break the barriers of the discriminati ng culture but not its rules . They survive and even excel by working within the system and in the process they target the culture 's limits . First Mokgokong b roke the ability barrier when he decided to specialize in obstetrics and gynecol ogy and pursue a career on the prestigious track of academic medicine . `` The e arly days were very difficult , '' he said . `` We were always taking the job of a white . '' Meanwhile , Mokgokong had to prove he was not only just as good as his white counterparts , but better . That 's why it was a turning point when t he surgical head nurse chose him to be her doctor . He also had a mentor in the chief of the ob-gyn department . `` I became his blue-eyed boy , '' he jokingly recalled . But eventually `` First-&-Onlys '' crack up against the culture 's gl ass ceiling . When his department chief retired , Mokgokong applied for the dire ctor 's job and was passed over . A few years later , he crossed a personal and political Rubicon and switched to the all-black medical school . The move was hi ghly controversial . To many in South Africa , Medunsa was seen as a tool of apa rtheid to keep blacks separate and disenfranchised . To some , learning itself w as a form of submission . `` Liberation first , education later '' was the revol utionary slogan . But to an education warrior like Mokgokong , it was the other way around . Education equaled liberation . Spare the book , he believed , and s poil the child 's future . He consulted his political friends , some of them in exile , and got their backing to go to Medunsa because , as he said , `` the ins titution in the long run will be a training area for black people . '' Today rou ghly 60 percent of practicing black physicians in South Africa are graduates of Medunsa . While other universities are opening the door to black applicants , Me dunsa remains the primary medical training ground for blacks . Yet , in the euph oria of liberation , Mokgokong is not resting on his laurels . Apartheid may be overturned , but his education war goes on . He has already started with his fam ily . One son is a neurosurgeon , another is a general practitioner , his wife i s a social worker . `` I hope we can keep our level head and not go into a dicta torship to deal with the violence , '' he said . `` The main thing is to bring b ack the culture of learning and teaching . '' In what may be a new record , the most recent U.S. policy on Haiti , whose cent erpiece is tougher sanctions , was declared futile even before it came into effe ct on May 21 . Among widely opposing views on every other aspect of Haitian poli cy , all sides agreed on just one point : that the still untested sanctions woul d not suffice to drive Haiti 's military regime from power . Administration offi cials , who had just devised the policy , freely but anonymously admitted as muc h to reporters . Supporters of Jean-Bertrand Aristide , who only a few weeks bef ore were fiercely urging tighter sanctions , agreed . Their earlier conviction t hat `` sanctions had never been given a chance '' because the old set was too we ak shifted almost overnight to the view that unmistakable readiness to use force was necessary . The president , listing reasons why an invasion would be in the U.S. interest , was described by aides as trying to build public support for mi litary action . If , as seems nearly certain , the sanctions don't do the job , the administration will have far fewer options than it had a few weeks ago . A p olicy designed to buy time and options already seems to have achieved the revers e . Now , abandoning sanctions on the grounds that the necessary conditions for democracy don't exist today in Haiti , would seem too stark a retreat . Indefini te negotiations would seem obviously fruitless . Tightening the sanctions still further risks destabilizing the Dominican Republic and would bring unacceptable suffering for Haitians . The remaining option unless President Aristide were to voluntarily step aside is an invasion . Five arguments have been advanced in fav or of such a step : that U.S. values and post-Cold War global strategy demand th at we `` restore democracy '' to Haiti ; that U.S. credibility is unacceptably h armed by thugs who `` thumb their noses '' at us ; that restoring President Aris tide is the only way to reduce the number of refugees heading our way ; that rem oving the current military leaders will reduce drug trafficking to the United St ates ; that only such an all out-effort can dispel charges of a racist policy . Close inspection reveals glaring weaknesses in most of these arguments . Haitian drug trafficking , for example , is not a large source of what 's on America 's streets . If that were motive for an invasion , a dozen other countries should come first . Other reasons offered by President Clinton-Haiti 's proximity , the fact that many Haitians live here and Americans live in Haiti , and the fact th at Haiti and Cuba are the only remaining non-democracies in the hemisphere are a ccurate descriptions but hardly reasons for military action . What is noteworthy about this list is that only the first argument addresses Haiti 's problems ; t he rest address our own . Making foreign policy with an eye to domestic opinion is one thing . Making foreign policy to resolve domestic concerns with only an o ccasional eye to the actual problems abroad is quite another , and unlikely to e nd successfully . `` Restoring democracy , '' therefore , is the crux of the mat ter . But is it also a delusion ? We can reinstate a freely elected president wh o is the choice of most Haitians . But a single election does not create a democ racy . The election that brought President Aristide to power was an aberration i n Haitian politics , made possible only by the presence of large teams of foreig n observers . The political norm is rampant corruption , stolen or canceled elec tions , coups d' etat and violence . Democracy can only be homegrown . An establ ished democracy that has been usurped can be restored through outside force . A fledgling democracy , receptive to the rule of law and to the right of peaceful political dissent , can be helped along . But it is questionable and worthy of a serious debate that has not occurred whether Haiti can be lastingly helped at t his point in its political evolution through armed intervention . To leave behin d a functioning democracy in Haiti , an invasion would have to : disarm the mili tary ; reinstate Aristide ; prevent the traditional violent retribution against those leaving power ; create Haiti 's first well-trained , civilian controlled p olice , distinct from the military ; keep order for months to years ; uproot and remove antidemocractic elements of the military and economic elite ; provide ma ssive development assistance , get along with Aristide through thick and thin ; help forge a moderate political consensus , and be prepared to re-intervene if i t collapses . These tasks get harder and more dangerous as the liberators become occupiers and the large initial force shrinks to a smaller number of peace enfo rcers . Lives will be lost to paid and random violence . At what point would the United States declare its job done ? Invasion advocates argue that it could be very early , with the longer , harder job turned over to an ad hoc international coalition or U.N. peace-keeping force . Other countries can be expected to hold a different view . Moreover , a U.N. force would have to be vetoed by the Unite d States , since its open-ended mandate could not meet the conditions of the pre sident 's new peace-keeping policy . If democracy cannot be restored because it hasn't previously existed in Haiti , Americans will have to decide how they feel about military action for the purpose of keeping out refugees or as a means of demonstrating the president 's toughness . The threat to American credibility , however , does not come from Port-au-Prince . It lies in the possibility that we will start something we cannot finish out of little more than frustration , or become hopelessly tangled in a policy riddled with internal contradictions becau se it is principally designed to meet domestic imperatives . WASHINGTON Some people in the federal government never get a pat on the back . Ever hear anybody loving up the IRS ( `` Gee , great tax ! '' ) ? Or the Postal Service ( `` Really quick and cheap ! '' ) ? Or the Border Patrol ( `` Boy , tho se people willn't dare try that again ! '' ) ? Or the U.S. . Agency for Internat ional Development , charged with administering foreign aid , one of the nation ' s favorite spending priorities . ( `` Wow , I loved the way you took the $ 5 mil lion that was supposed to pay for my children 's textbooks and built that beauti ful bridge in Milcamagnesia ! '' ) . One school of thought holds that shepherdin g foreign aid through Congress is what transformed House Appropriations Committe e Chairman David R . Obey , D-Wis. , into such a cuddly guy . Jay Byrne , AID 's press spokesman , put it another way : `` Let 's just say foreign assistance do esn't have much of a constituency . Every time you turn a corner there 's someon e standing there with a baseball bat . '' In an effort to lighten up his troops , Byrne ( and others , he insists ) in March devised a `` Stress Management Prog ram , '' a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post . The basic princip le : `` You all want to stay stressed , and stress is good for moral ! '' Stress may also have caused this spelling lapse , but so what ? Stress `` helps you av oid responsibility , '' the manifesto said . `` This gets you off the hook for a ll the mundane chores ; let someone else take care of them . '' In other words , blame the proofreader . Byrne , 32 , once worked in former Boston mayor Raymond L. Flynn 's office , where , he acknowledged , `` people had more fun '' than t hey do wandering around among the egomaniacs down here . What a surprise . Accor ding to Byrne , AID has been especially stressed because `` dramatic changes '' have made the agency `` what we like to call the number one laboratory for reinv enting government . '' In the Clinton administration this sort of reinvention qu ack-quack is slang for layoffs and budget cutbacks , but Byrne makes a convincin g case that other stuff is happening , too . When last you tuned in , Byrne note d , AID was always being accused of running expensive , inefficient , hugely stu pid projects whose only apparent purpose was to keep corrupt Third World dictato rships from going communist . `` When we ( the Clintonites ) first showed up , ' ' Byrne noted , `` nine out of 10 phone calls from journalists focused on potent ial abuses , dissatisfaction and misunderstanding . '' Now the communists are go ne , Byrne said , `` the Cold War dictums no longer apply , '' and AID is shutti ng down in 23 countries . Some of these are long-term friendlies who have allege dly `` graduated '' ( Thailand , Costa Rica , Botswana ) to become `` developed countries . '' Others are short-term friendly `` graduates '' who apparently wer e always developed , they just didn't know it ( Estonia , the former Czechoslova kia ) . And a few are Third World dictatorships where nothing good ever seems to happen ( Zaire ) . So the good news for foreign aid haters is that we 're cutti ng all these countries off . Maybe they no longer need us , as AID would have us believe , or maybe we no longer need them , since nobody 's going communist any more . Whatever , it should be noted that this is not real money . Of the $ 7 bi llion in the current foreign aid budget , Byrne says , only $ 2 billion is fundi ng `` sustainable development '' projects in the Third World . The rest is eithe r being used to keep old friends from throttling each other ( Israel and Egypt ) or to keep new friends from getting crazy ( the former Soviet Union ) . So , if you 've only got $ 2 billion to massage , tempers can get short . Also , Byrne said nobody can smoke in the office anymore , `` which has caused quite a bit of stress , '' and relations with AID 's closest associates , the State Department and the U.S. . Information Agency , remain snarly . Thus the stress manifesto r ecommends `` worry about things you cannot control , '' including Voice of Ameri ca foreign aid editorials , which the AID press office must painstakingly read a nd clear , even though , `` frankly , you wonder who 's interested , '' Byrne sa id . The manifesto also notes that `` stress helps you seem important . Evidence : the State Department , '' but Byrne refused to expand on this statement . Lat er , however , he admitted that `` you are reminding me that at the time we wrot e this , it was a lot of fun . '' And good for moral . Charles Durning tucked away his D-Day memories 50 years ago . They were so pain ful he 's rarely unpacked them since . Durning is the only survivor of a unit th at landed on Omaha Beach that June 6 in 1944 . He holds the Silver Star for valo r and three Purple Hearts for wounds he suffered . He was an infantryman , only 17 . But so were the German soldiers on the bluffs above , strafing the Normandy beach from concrete bunkers that are still there . Durning survived the invasio n he had to kill seven German gunners to do it and suffered serious machine-gun wounds to his right leg and shrapnel wounds over his body . Later he was stabbed eight times by a bayonet-wielding German teenager . He killed that soldier with a rock . A few months after that , he was taken prisoner at the Battle of the B ulge , survived a massacre of other prisoners , then had to return to help ident ify the bodies . A bullet in the chest finally ended his wartime duty . Durning endured four years of hospitalizations for his physical and psychological wounds . `` I 'd like to have a decade of my life back , '' he said . `` I dropped int o a void for almost a decade . It 's your mind that 's hard to heal . There are many horrifying secrets in the depths of our souls that we don't want anyone to know about . '' Later Durning found that his brother in the Navy also had been p art of the landing . The invasion of Omaha Beach was assigned to the United Stat es ' 1st Infantry Division , to which Durning belonged , and the untested 29th D ivision from Maryland and Virginia . More than 70,000 men went ashore on D-Day , 15,000 of them to their deaths . In recent weeks , Durning has been unpacking h is D-Day recollections . During a spring visit to Washington , he discussed his experiences guardedly . Those experiences , along with his familiar television p resence , made him an ideal choice to take part in a Memorial Day event and two productions pegged to the 50th anniversary of the Normandy invasion . Sunday eve ning , Durning will appear at the National Memorial Day Concert to read a letter written by a 19-year-old American soldier describing the horror of that day . M onday night , on The Discovery Channel 's `` Normandy : The Great Crusade , '' D urning does the narration and reads a poem written by a 22-year-old paratrooper . Durning has also taped an account of the invasion by Ernest Hemingway for incl usion in a `` CBS Reports '' special on D-Day airing Thursday night and hosted b y Dan Rather and retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf . Durning 's colleague from CBS 's `` Evening Shade , '' Ossie Davis , will host the 90-minute Memorial Day concert on PBS , the fifth produced for that holiday by Jerry Colbert of Pathmak ers Inc. , and Washington public station WETA . This one focuses not only on the soldiers of D-Day , but also on the American nurses who served in Vietnam . In addition to Durning , concert headliners include Grammy-winning country singer C lint Black , who has written a song , `` American Soldier , '' for the occasion ; musician Doc Severinsen ; actresses Mary McDonnell and Jill Clayburgh , who wi ll read letters written by nurses ; singers Harolyn Blackwell and Maureen McGove rn ; and the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Erich Kunzel , with a mili tary chorus doing selections that will include Beethoven 's `` Ode to Joy . '' B rass on board are to include Gen. John Shalikashvili , chairman of the Joint Chi efs of Staff ; his predecessor , retired Gen. Colin Powell ; and the chief of ea ch armed service . Durning choked up a little while taping his narration for the Discovery documentary . His recitation before thousands of people at the Memori al Day concert could be an emotional challenge . He 'll be looking into televisi on cameras , but he asked Colbert not to require him to face the war footage to be shown behind him . Concert host Ossie Davis will understand . An Army medic s tationed in Liberia , he was manning the base radio station in early June 1944 w hen he ran into a military-news blackout . He learned about the D-Day landing fr om the BBC and announced it to the local troops . It was Davis who was instrumen tal in securing Durning 's appearance at the concert . Reminded over a lunch in April with his wife , actress Ruby Dee , and Colbert that Durning was part of th e first wave onto Omaha Beach , Davis suddenly realized that his friend would be ideal to read the letter and leaped up to call the sitcom 's production office . Two weeks later , Colbert was in Los Angeles talking with Durning , who had re ad the script for the concert and agreed to appear . Plans call for him to leave the stage briefly to shake hands with other D-Day veterans in the audience . Li ke Davis and Colbert , Susan and Christopher Koch , producers of the Discovery d ocumentary , and executive producer Tim F . Cowling thought the same thing : Dur ning would be perfect . But they nearly missed him . They had contacted his agen t but heard nothing . `` We thought , ` He just doesn't want to have anything to do with it , ' ' ' said Susan Koch . `` We were into casting the ( voices ) , a nd his agent called and said , ` Charlie wants to do anything . He 'll read one line . ' We felt it was meant to be . '' It seems that Durning 's stepdaughter , as aspiring actress , had seen a copy of the script that had somehow never reac hed Durning and insisted he read it . After 50 years of suppressed memories , he decided it was what he wanted to do . `` We didn't get an actor , we got a Norm andy veteran who happens to be an actor , and that was precisely what the film c alled for , '' said Chris Koch . For the actor , doing the narration stirred emo tions . A careful listener may catch a tremor in Durning 's voice at times durin g the program . Durning and Chris Koch talked for several hours beforehand about Durning 's experiences . `` He said , ` You know , everybody who was there is i n some state of denial . There are things I 'll take to my grave. ' ' ' Durning was with `` The Big Red One , '' the 1st Division , which went into Omaha Beach with the 29th Division from Maryland and Virginia . Units that ultimately formed the 29th fought in the American Revolution and both sides of the Civil War ( he nce its nickname , `` The Blue and the Gray '' ) , but unlike most infantry divi sions , it was and is part of the National Guard . `` We picked the 29th because they had never been in combat before , '' said Chris Koch . `` They were traine d and selected to go in first . '' Durning had the bad luck to go in with them b ecause , said Koch , `` he was a real troublemaker in basic training , he said . His CO said , ` Durning , you 're going in on the first wave. ' ' ' Among the v oices in `` Normandy : The Great Crusade '' are those of actor Robert Sean Leona rd as a Virginia corporal , Robert Sales ; Leslie Caron as Marie-Louise Osmont , a widow whose chateau became a German barracks , and who kept a diary ; Mariel Hemingway as American photojournalist Martha Gellhorn ( an ex-wife of Ernest Hem ingway , Mariel 's grandfather ) , who landed at Omaha Beach to cover the story and ended up caring for wounded soldiers ; and Joanna Pacula as Ursula von Karko ff , an anti-Nazi German whose brothers were required to serve in Hitler 's army . Actor Charles Durning grew up in Highland Falls , N.Y. , near the U.S. . Milita ry Academy at West Point . His father , an Irish immigrant who had joined the Ar my to gain U.S. citizenship , lost a leg during World War I and died when Charle s was 12 . The elder Durning 's widow supported her five children by working as a laundress at West Point . `` I never went to college ; barely got out of high school , '' Durning said . `` I finished high school when I came out of the Army . '' All along , what Durning really wanted to do was act . `` I was enamored o f acting from the first time I saw ` King Kong , ' ' ' he said . `` When I saw C agney , I just went crazy . '' At 16 , he was working as an usher at a Buffalo b urlesque house that featured bawdy comics . `` They chose to believe I was 21 , '' he said of the management . After the war Durning used dancing as physical th erapy to strengthen his badly injured leg , and speech therapy to smooth a stutt er that had developed . He began training at the American Academy of Dramatic Ar ts but was told he lacked talent . So he worked as a dancer and played small rol es with Joseph Papp 's New York Shakespeare Company . A role in Papp 's `` That Championship Season '' on Broadway in 1973 led to one in a film , `` The Sting . '' Durning went on to do more than 70 movies . Nominated for two Oscars and eig ht Emmys , and the recipient of Golden Globe and Drama Desk awards , he won a To ny as Big Daddy in a 1990 Broadway revival of `` Cat on a Hot Tin Roof . '' Some times Durning thinks about the loss to the country wrought by war . `` Only the flower of our youth , only the best the most healthy , the brightest are allowed to go , '' he said . `` Think of all the poets , the playwrights , the philosop hers , the scientists , the statesman that were lost . '' WASHINGTON The Office of Management and Budget has announced a new pilot projec t designed to ease some of Washington 's chronic procurement problems , such as cost overruns and lack of competition on large contracts . The government spends about $ 105 billion each year on `` contracting out , '' buying services that r ange from grass-cutting and painting to highly complex scientific research and a nalysis . The announcement this week by OMB Director Leon E. Panetta said the pi lot project would encourage federal agencies government-wide to refashion some o f their existing service contracts to reflect performance-based standards . They would include price , level of competition , number of contract audits and leng th of the procurement cycle . `` This pilot project will help to streamline the procurement process and create a better work environment between the government and service contractors , '' Panetta said . For the experiment , agencies would convert contracts that offer ways to measure before-and-after results , and move from cost-reimbursement contracts to fixed-priced contracts . Agencies also wou ld break up large `` umbrella , '' or multipurpose contracts that typically incl ude a variety of routine services , such as guards and secretaries . `` I think a lot of people throughout government would agree with the observation that very frequently , in government and in service contracting , we don't do a good enou gh job of defining what we want out of the contractors , what performance we wan t , '' said Steven Kelman , the administrator of OMB 's Office of Federal Procur ement Policy . Earlier this year , a survey ordered by Panetta found that the `` statements of work '' which describe the tasks or services to be purchased are often so imprecise that vendors are unable to determine agency requirements . Po or statements of work can reduce the number of bidders , limiting competition , and make it difficult to assess a contractor 's performance . Kelman , noting th at `` it 's hard to write a good statement of what you want , '' said some procu rement officials developed statements of work , then used them repeatedly withou t taking into account technological changes or lessons learned from management e xperiences . The pilot project , he said , will `` tighten up the system in the sense of making it more clear , up front , what the performance criteria is and what we want from contractors . '' By using performance-based standards , Kelman said , the government should be able to move to fixed-price contracts , perform fewer audits and save around 20 percent on contract costs . An `` unusually dra matic '' example savings of 43 percent was achieved at the Treasury Department w hen it took a cost-based contract for training and coverted it to fixed price , Kelman said . WASHINGTON The health-care debate is not nearly as complicated as it looks . Oh yes , the details can get immensely complex and getting the details wrong could cost dearly . But what 's causing all the turmoil are a few key choices . Once those choices are made , the details begin to fall into place . The biggest choi ce is whether or not the United States wants a system assuring every American he alth insurance . This issue passes under the name `` universal coverage . '' Uni versal coverage is immensely popular not only among those who are uninsured but also among those who currently have insurance but fear they will lose it or see their coverage eroded as employers face ever-higher costs . So popular is univer sal coverage that few politicians will say they 're against it . But guaranteein g everyone health coverage will cost money . There are only so many ways to rais e the money . Congress could simply raise taxes . Or it could require individual s to pick up the tab . Or it can require employers to pay part or most of the co sts , as so many already do now . President Clinton 's plan puts most but not al l of the burden on employers . All employers , with the exception of some of the smallest , would have to pay 80 percent of the health insurance costs for their employees , individuals 20 percent . That roughly matches the current split at companies that insure their employees . You wouldn't know it from the cowering i n Congress over the dread `` employer mandate , '' as it 's known , but requirin g companies to insure their employees is immensely popular . That ought not be s urprising . Most people are employees , not employers . And most people think th at if they hold down a job or , as is the case with so many families , two jobs health coverage ought to be part of the deal . But it is a sign of how skewed th e debate is in Washington toward various business lobbies that the employer mand ate has become the main sticking point in the discussion . Many Republicans and some conservative Democrats say they 'll kill any health bill that includes one . Yet most of these politicians will then turn around and also say no to new tax es , no to individual mandates , no to anything that would actually guarantee un iversal coverage . A courageous exception is Sen. John Chafee , R-R.I. , who fav ors requiring individuals to buy health insurance . As Chafee noted on `` Meet t he Press '' on Sunday , `` to have universal coverage and to have the reforms th at we need .. . we 've got to have some kind of mandate . '' For his candor , Ch afee has gotten nothing but grief from the Republican right , which wants to use the mandate issue to stop universal coverage . What scares the Republicans abou t Chafee 's position is that if they concede the reality that only mandates or t axes lead to universality , the Democrats who favor employer mandates suddenly h ave the political high ground . Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole is very shrewd about this . `` I can already see the 30-second television spots , '' Dole told The Washington Post 's Dana Priest. ` ` ` Well , the Republicans didn't want yo ur boss to pay for it , they want you to pay for it. ' ' ' Clinton ought to hire Dole as a media consultant . Some former opponents of the mandate among Democra ts have begun to understand what Dole already knows . The conversion of Sen. Joh n Breaux , D-La. , from firm opposition to open-mindedness about an employer man date may be seen later as the turning point in the debate . Opponents of large-s cale reform have taken to arguing that there is no need for a universal program now and that slower , piecemeal action makes more sense on a problem this compli cated . This view has intuitive appeal , but may be dead wrong on health care . As Hilary Stout and David Rogers pointed out in the Wall Street Journal last wee k , the cost per person of providing coverage generally drops when more people a re covered in larger insurance pools . Piecemeal reform could be more expensive , not less . And real cost containment is only possible once everyone is in the system . Otherwise , the providers of health care will keep shifting costs from the uninsured or the poorly insured to the well insured . The point with health reform is that you either really do it or you don't , and the key to whether it gets done is Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan , the chairman of the Senate Finance C ommittee . Moynihan 's discomfort with the Clinton plan is often ascribed to pri ckly personal relations with the White House , with Senate Majority Leader Georg e Mitchell and the like . But instead of psychoanalyzing Moynihan , supporters o f health reform would do well to pay attention to what he 's written about socia l policy over the years for example , in his 1988 volume , `` Came the Revolutio n . '' Two themes are central to Moynihan 's view . One is the hubris of social reformers . Speaking of government 's exertions in the 1960s , Moynihan says tha t `` we should not exaggerate what we knew or what would come of what we underto ok . '' What scared Moynihan initially about Clinton 's health undertaking was h is plan 's complexity and the impression some Clintonites gave that they thought they had unlocked all the mysteries of health policy . But Moynihan also has an immense respect for what government can do . `` Government , '' he says , `` ca n embrace great causes and do great things . '' Clinton 's central task is to co nvince Moynihan and with him the country that universal health coverage as conce ived by the administration is not an act of hubris but a practical next step in a great cause that began with Social Security and the New Deal and that has work ed out pretty well . PRAGUE , Czech Republic While former Communists and Socialists in much of Easte rn Europe are riding a popular backlash against economic reforms to return to po wer , the Czech Republic appears to be a notable exception . This country of 10. 5 million people , Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus said recently , is beginning to l ook like `` a small non-leftist island in the center of Europe .. . . All opinio n polls show that nothing like that could ever happen in our country . '' Jiri R yvola , spokesman for the country 's newly militant labor confederation , has ma ny criticisms of Klaus but agrees with him on one fundamental point : Former Com munists and Socialists have little chance here of returning to power , as they h ave in several other formerly Communist-governed states . `` It just seems unlik ely to me that a similar development could occur here , '' Ryvola said . Less th an five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall sent the Communist regimes of Ea stern Europe tumbling like dominoes , both Poland and Lithuania have put former Communist parties back into office , and Hungary is about to follow suit , with the Socialist Party poised for a commanding victory in runoff elections there Ma y 29 . Yet , here in the Czech Republic there is no sign that former Communists or Socialists are gathering any momentum at all , as both government and labor c ontinue to support the drive to establish a free-market economy in the shortest time possible and seem to share a hatred for Communists , past and present . The sharing of basic views toward the reform process between the Czech republic 's only labor confederation and its political leadership has apparently not been sh aken by a demonstration by 30,000 disgruntled workers on March 22 the biggest pr otest seen in Prague 's Old Town Square since the overthrow of the Communist reg ime here in November 1989 . The Left Bloc Communists , Socialists and their alli es holds 33 seats in the 200-seat parliament , second only to the 76 held by Kla us 's Civic Democratic Party . But polls show the bloc currently attracting less than 10 percent of voters . Why the Czech Republic is bucking the leftward tren d in Eastern Europe has become the object of considerable discussion among Weste rn diplomats , academics , bankers and financiers . These analysts are pondering whether the Czech Republic could serve as a model of successful transformation from communism to capitalism for other Eastern European nations or whether condi tions here are so specific as to make this unlikely . Right now , the prevailing wisdom seems to be that the Czechs , formerly part of Czechoslovakia before it split into separate Czech and Slovak republics in January 1993 , are a special c ase , with a prime minister who has devised a unique approach . Klaus , a promin ent economist , prides himself on being a disciple of former British prime minis ter Margaret Thatcher , a labor-bashing free-marketeer who despised the social w elfare state . But analysts here say Klaus has in fact followed a highly statist approach toward reform that has carefully incorporated the labor unions as part ners , relied heavily on social welfare measures to keep the social peace and sp ent billions of dollars in government subsidies in flagrant violation of free-ma rket principles . `` It 's clearly hypocritical for Klaus to call himself a That cherite . He 's the biggest Social Democrat in Europe , '' said Mitchell Orenste in , a Yale University graduate researching the Czech transition at the Institut e for East-West Studies here . One of the most striking features of the Czech po litical scene today is the divorce of the unions and leftist parties , while uni ons in Hungary and Poland have jumped into politics and parliament with enthusia sm . Analysts say the answer lies partly in how the fall of the Communist regime came about here more as an aftershock of the earthquake that swept the Communis ts from power elsewhere . The transition was so peaceful that it came to be know n as the Velvet Revolution but also so brief a matter of a couple of weeks that little real reform took place within the Communist Party . By contrast , the ref orm process in Hungary and Poland was underway for years and affected their Comm unist parties as well before non-Communists finally took power in the 1989-90 ge neral upheaval . They quickly shed their old names and ideologies as part of a g eneral face lifting to persuade voters they had broken with the past . Here , th e Communist Party is still agonizing over whether to take `` Communist '' out of its title and has failed to shake off the stigmas attached to it . `` Eighty pe rcent of our members voted to keep the name , ` ` party Chairman Miroslav Greben icek explained somewhat apologetically . Grebenicek readily agrees with Klaus an d Ryvola that there is no chance of the Communists coming back to power here in the near future . The party , he explained , is badly fragmented , with its legi slators split into three factions . But a weak , fragmented and only partially r eformed Communist opposition is not the sole reason former Communists and Socali sts have been marginalized here , according to Orenstein . He believes the secre t to Klaus 's success lies in two strategies massive government subsidies to con struct an extensive social safety net to soften the effects of wrenching economi c reforms and a corporatist approach toward labor and business . Klaus has relie d on such non-free-market practices as a law barring state-owned enterprises fro m declaring bankruptcy while they are being privatized . Yet 61 percent of 767 i ndustrial enterprises were insolvent as of March 31 , according to press reports . This refusal to allow bankruptcies has meant that hundreds of thousands of wo rkers who would otherwise have been laid off have kept their jobs a practice not followed in Hungary or Poland . This has cost the Czech treasury billions of do llars . Klaus has also implemented a program of make-work projects to create `` publicly useful jobs , '' such as street sweeping , to keep another 100,000 to 1 40,000 employed . In addition , the government pays out a `` living minimum '' w age to 300,000 or more Czechs classified as being below the poverty line . These measures have allowed the government to boast that the Czech Republic has the l owest unemployment rate less than 4 percent of any country in Europe today . DEIR BALAH REFUGEE CAMP , Gaza Strip At the edge of the shimmering waters and b rilliant beaches of the Mediterranean lie 39 acres of dreary cinder-block warren s , sandy alleys , open sewers and the dreams of 13,680 Palestinian refugees . A mong them is Bassem Khaldi , 32 , a teacher , the sole breadwinner in a family o f 24 people living in seven rooms and sharing one kitchen . Khaldi and his wife occupy one room with a corrugated tin roof . As much as he would like to flee th is overcrowded camp , he has nowhere to go . `` Once , I dreamed of a house and a car , '' he said . `` Our dreams are something . Our hopes are something . But reality is different . I have no choice . I can't leave . I am the only one wor king , and I have to support 24 people . '' His predicament helps explain much a bout the land and people that Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat will govern when he takes over the Gaza Strip in the weeks ahead . Two ou t of three people under Arafat 's new domain are refugees from the 1948 war and their descendants . They are the poorest of the Palestinians , those who are mos t desperately in need of new housing and economic revival . Yet they may be the most difficult to help , for reasons both political and economic . The Gaza refu gee camps Beach , Jabaliyah , Khan Younis , Rafah , Nuseirat , Bureij , Deir Bal ah and Maghazi are where the Palestinian uprising caught fire six years ago , an d where resentment and pride still burn deep . A recent study of Palestinian soc iety by a Norwegian institute found that `` the single most embittered sector of the population is the first generation '' of Palestinian men in the Gaza refuge e camps . Here , Arafat remains a powerful figure . On a recent afternoon , the sun-baked walls here were resplendent with a freshly painted , elaborate Arabic graffito hailing the PLO and pledging `` All the glory to our martyrs . '' Red a nd green paint ran in glistening rivulets through the sand below . The name Deir Balah means `` Monastery of the Dates , '' recalling an earlier era when this w as a balmy stretch of plantations . But today the refugee camp , Gaza 's smalles t , is a dense honeycomb of families surviving in identical square cinder-block cells built for them in 1960 . There is 124 square feet of living space for each of the 13,680 residents of the camp . To an outsider looking at the Gaza coast , the refugee camps might seem an obvious target for razing and resettlement . B ut starting over with the refugees has long been problematic . For five decades , the camps were a symbol to Palestinians of what they believed was the temporar y nature of their exodus . Israel sought to carry out a resettlement effort in t he 1970s , and several thousand refugees took advantage of it , but there was cr iticism that it would mean the end of their claims to land and villages they los t when Israel was created in 1948 . The refugees ' claims are not expected to be negotiated until the talks on the permanent status of the Gaza Strip and West B ank in several years . At least theoretically , Arafat probably does not want to give up any cards or leverage before those negotiations by dismantling the camp s now . But attitudes in the camps are changing , albeit slowly . The enormous p ressures of decades of overcrowding and poverty have spurred a steady stream of refugees to leave the camps on their own . ( They retain their status as refugee s , eligible for benefits from the U.N. Relief and Works Agency , even when they move out of the camps . ) The Gaza refugee population has grown from 200,000 in 1951 to 625,000 today , about half of them in the camps . `` In the period 1948 to 1953 , for the people who were there , ( the camps were large ) enough to ac commodate those numbers , '' said Palestinian lawyer Shasabeel Alzaeem , a consu ltant to the U.N. agency . `` But the person who back then had one bed and one k itchen , now he is a grandfather with 10 sons . So , they cannot continue expand ing . This is why so many have left . '' `` It doesn't mean they forgot Jaffa or Haifa , '' he added , referring to towns with a large pre-1948 Arab population . `` But they understand they cannot return to Jaffa and Haifa . '' `` The old p eople still remember the land , the village , '' Khaldi said . `` If you ask som eone where they are from , they will never say Deir Balah . When we register the children in our school , we still write down the name of the original village . '' Most of those in the camp were refugees from towns and villages along the so uthern coast of Palestine , near what is now the Israeli towns of Ashdod and Ash kelon . `` But , to be honest , they don't feel they have a good chance of going back , '' he added . `` It 's not fair . But it 's realistic . They have no oth er choice . '' Salah Musa arrived in Deir Balah when he was 15 . At first he liv ed in a tent ; later , in a mud-brick shanty with an asphalt roof that leaked in winter rains . Musa became the mukhtar , or village leader , of Deir Balah and saw his own experience multiplied . `` Most people have been living in a crisis for a long time . The housing , the living conditions and the economy completely deteriorated . The people are psychologically broken . '' Smoking cigarettes an d sipping sweet tea , Musa looked out his door at the beach and camp a striking contrast of natural beauty and man-made squalor . He said no one had forced him to remain here . He simply had no alternative . `` I haven't decided to live in a refugee camp , '' he said . `` If I find a house , a beautiful house , there i s nothing stopping me from leaving . But no one came and gave me money to build a house , so what can I do ? Tell me ! '' `` The situation is completely differe nt since 1948 , '' he said . `` Then , it was only me and my wife . Now , 35 peo ple live here . I sure don't want to live in this house it 's crowded . I hope t he Palestinians who control this place will build me a new house . '' But practi cally speaking , Arafat 's new government will not be in a financial position to rebuild Deir Balah or the other camps for many years , if at all . WASHINGTON To say the pickings have been slim of late for builders of commercia l airliners would be to exaggerate . But there may be help on the horizon becaus e of the slowly improving condition of the airlines and because of something cal led the Airport Noise and Capacity Act of 1990 . The noise act says that every l arge commercial jet in the United States has to meet quieter `` Stage 3 '' noise requirements by Dec. 31 , 1999 , and 1,223 of the 3,335 jets in service today a re in violation . Given a two- to three-year lead time between placing an order for an aircraft and taking delivery , the orders for aircraft are going to have to start coming in soon , manufacturers hope . Just as quieter planes would be a change for people living along airport flight paths , it also would be a change for those who make the planes . According to a recent survey by the magazine Ai rline Business , the Big Three of the commercial aircraft manufacturing world ha d exactly zero net orders in 1993 , with Airbus Industrie and McDonnell Douglas Corp. actually having more cancellations than orders and Boeing having only 33 p lanes on the plus side . Altogether , Boeing 's latest market forecast , release d Monday , projects the worldwide market for aircraft having between 70 and 170 seats at about 3,000 planes by the year 2000 . That combines replacement of olde r planes and additions to airline fleets . That 's actually down about 2 percent from last year 's forecast , according to Richard L. James , Boeing 's marketin g vice president , but he says it will be more than enough to keep all three man ufacturers ' lines humming , once airlines break out of the doldrums into which they have dropped over the past two or three years . Assuming they do , replacem ent of noisy planes will be part of the equation . While the formulas are comple x , Dale McDaniel of the Federal Aviation Administration says that , in terms of total noise impact on a community , `` you could have 10 Stage 3 operations bef ore it would equal one Stage 2 . '' In 1990 , 2.7 million people were exposed to an average of 65 decibels or higher over a 24-hour period . `` That is non-comp atible with residential use . By 2000 , that will down to 400,000 , '' McDaniel said , although those in the path of those aircraft might not be happy no matter what the noise stage classification . The deadline `` provides some continuing stimulation . The fact that it remains a target continues to drive ( airlines ) to modernize , '' McDaniel said , adding a dash of fiscal reality by noting that now the airlines `` just have to have the funds to do it . '' The dramatic loss es of the past three to four years have led almost every major U.S. carrier and many foreign ones not only to stop ordering new planes but also to cut back on e xisting orders . USAir disclosed last week , for example , that it is delaying d elivery of 40 planes and forgoing options on another 70 . Yesterday , British Ai rways , which still is making money , said it is placing no new orders this year and is letting options expire on 25 Boeing planes . `` Downsizing '' has been m ore of a buzzword in U.S. airline planning circles lately than growth . But smal ler fleets do not mean orders for new aircraft can be shelved forever , especial ly with the noise deadlines looming . Most airlines plan purchases several years in advance and last-minute orders often can be very expensive , especially if t he market begins to tighten up . Boeing 's James said airline balance sheets `` are coming back into balance now . A lot of carriers are stirring and looking be yond immediate quarter . We are at a low point in terms of orders . In 18 months to two years , the books should turn . '' WASHINGTON Who would have thought a high-tech security system developed to prot ect the Pentagon 's nuclear arsenal would be safeguarding a huge stockpile of bl ue jeans ? Thanks to ever-cheaper microchips , a rudimentary form of artificial intelligence developed by GRC International Inc. of Vienna , Va. is being used b y Gap Inc. to keep thieves or other intruders out of its warehouse in Edgewood , Md. , which serves Gap stores from Maine to Florida . Given the ungainly name o f `` automated assessment signal processor '' by GRC , the device is what 's kno wn in the computing world as a neural network a system that mimics the human bra in 's ability to take in lots of information from the body 's eyes , ears , nose and skin but discard most of it and focus only on what 's important . And it ca n learn to distinguish between nuisance noise wind ; birds , raccoons and other small animals ; rustling leaves and noise that should trigger an alarm : unautho rized entry by people . It 's taught by being presented with and told to ignore simulations of certain sounds . It can be hooked up to a variety of sensor syste ms microwave , radar , fiber optic that create electronic fences around property . It interprets the information that those sensors are constantly collecting . Since being installed four months ago to protect a warehouse 14 acres in area , `` It 's paid for itself many times over , '' said Gap security supervisor Jim T oscano . WASHINGTON It was a gray day in Red Square when Chris Ihlenfeld dropped to one knee and proposed to a Russian woman he 'd met four days earlier . At the cobble d foot of St. Basil 's onion spires , Anastasia Fedorchoukova smiled sweetly dow n at the divorced computer technician from Northern Virginia . She said yes . Th ey married six months later , on March 25 at the Arlington County , Va. . Courth ouse. Now , amid coos and cuddles in a small apartment with a large stereo , the young couple is living a fantasy that started with a magazine ad their very own Russo-American dream . The Ihlenfelds ' union is a product of the growing mail- order bridal bazaar that has sprouted since Soviet Communism died . With Soviet emigration barriers dismantled , about 350 Russian women entered the United Stat es last year as fiancees of American men . In 1988 , only 11 women came from the Soviet Union to marry Americans . The Ihlenfelds ' marriage is the first arrang ed through Berel and Natasha Spivack , an American-Russian couple from Bethesda , Md. . The Spivacks are cashing in on the lucrative business of showering Washi ngton with brides from Russia with love . Last July , the Spivacks started a bus iness called Encounters International to introduce American men to Russian women . More than 50 Washington area men , many of them federal employees , have come to their office and grazed through photo albums and videotapes of about 300 Rus sian women . Two couples have married , six are engaged , and others are busily faxing letters and pictures back and forth , sifting for true and everlasting lo ve . About every two weeks now , another Washington area man travels to Moscow a nd becomes engaged . That heavy traffic to Russia is a new wrinkle in the Washin gton dating scene , where the oversupply of single women is legendary . Magazine s and gossip columns regularly wail about the imbalance between eligible women a nd men in the nation 's capital . Still , the Spivacks ' male clients are shelli ng out $ 3,000 to $ 4,000 to search for romance in a cold , gray city 5,000 mile s away . In several interviews , American men and Russian women involved in the program struck remarkably compatible themes . The men said they are sick of care er-obsessed American women running to the subway in business suits and tennis sh oes . The women said American men were more likely than Russian men to treat the m as equal partners . `` I was tired of American women , '' said Ihlenfeld , 24 , sitting on his living room couch , stroking his 22-year-old wife 's long , blo nd hair . `` All they cared about was their work . '' According to an Encounters International flier , Russian women are `` much less materialistic '' than Amer ican women , as well as `` more willing to follow their husband 's lead '' and ` ` more appreciative of men . '' They also have `` old-fashioned traditional fami ly values that are getting harder to find '' in America , the flier says . On to p of that , the brochure says , the `` dating scene in Russia is almost non-exis tent , and a woman over 22 is considered past her prime . Wars and alcoholism ha ve taken their toll on eligible Russian men and created a large number of single women .. . . Many beautiful Russian women dream of having an American husband . '' There are tough requiremements for those women , who must pass entrance inte rviews with the Spivacks ' staff member in Moscow . Women are accepted only if t he interviewer deems them reasonably slender and attractive , if they are 17 to about 55 years old , have one or fewer children and speak some English . Natasha Spivack said 600 to 800 women have applied to the service , but only 300 have m et the qualifications . Men using the service range in age from 22 to 71 , but t hey are mostly in their forties , and many are divorced . There are no specific eligibility qualifications . `` When I knew him more , I really began to love hi m , '' she said . The Immigration and Naturalization Service has found no partic ular problems with American-Russian marriage services , spokesman Richard Kenney said . He said women entering the country on a `` fiancee visa '' must be marri ed within 90 days , and they are granted permanent resident status after two yea rs . `` Home free , '' he said . Some marriages between American men and Russian women make sense , according to Harley Balzer , director of the Russian Area St udies Program at Georgetown University . Balzer said many Russian men do not con sider women equal partners in marriage . `` Even men I know who write about wome n 's rights wouldn't get up from the dinner table to clear the dishes , '' he sa id . Balzer said the struggle of single women has been a common theme of the mos t successful Russian movies of the last 20 years . `` You 've got this funny sit uation where the American man is looking for an unliberated woman , and the Russ ian woman is looking for a slightly more liberated man , '' he said . Magazines , especially women 's magazines , have been hot on the Hillary Rodham Clinton story for a year and a half now , delivering not much of interest . Thi s week 's New Yorker brings the first truly heavyweight piece on the First Lady , but before we get to that , a few tips on how to prepare for reading it . Firs t , go to your local newsstand and look at the June issues of Working Woman and the American Spectator , which basically represent the poles of current thinking about the First Lady . You don't have to venture beyond the cover of either to know what lies inside . The cover of Working Woman offers the headline `` Hillar y Hangs Tough '' plus a flattering photo of the First Lady in a sensible busines s suit , poised patron saint of Uber-women everywhere . On the American Spectato r 's cover , Mrs. Clinton is drawn as a witch , malevolent and defiant as she si ts astride a jet . Inside is David Brock 's version of the White House travel-of fice scandal of last year , the latest installment in that magazine 's crusade t o show that Hillary is the antichrist of American politics . Is the First Lady g ood or evil ? Ponder deeply now , for it seems to be the question of the hour . The last several days ' photos and film footage of Jacqueline Kennedy flawlessly doing the First Lady 's job the old way have made Mrs. Clinton 's chameleonism all the more unsettling . To further unsettle yourself about her situation , nex t read Leslie Bennetts 's account of an interview with an edgy , angry Hillary i n the June issue of Vanity Fair . No big news here , but Bennetts 's sporadic re ferences to her dealings with Hillary 's handlers will tell you everything you n eed to know about the state of the First Lady 's relations with the press . One flack hovers nearby throughout the interview , demanding at one point that a ben ign exchange on Vince Foster be retroactively taken off the record . Bennetts de clines . What are we to make of this First Lady of a thousand faces , overexpose d in every medium in the land yet somehow still unknowable , willfully and perha ps wisely withholding parts of herself from inquiring minds ? Enter Connie Bruck , whose lengthy cover story in this week 's New Yorker looks to be the new yard stick by which magazine profiles of Hillary Clinton will be measured . Titled `` Hillary the Pol , '' this exhaustively researched piece portrays her basically as the CEO of the Clinton political partnership , the shrewd operator who resurr ected his ( and their ) career after he lost the Arkansas governorship in 1980 , and who in many ways still guides it today . It 's the Hillary you may have bel ieved was there all along , behind the multiple facades : hyper-intelligent , op portunistic , relentless in pursuit of her own political agenda . Bruck traces t he First Lady 's political skills back to Arkansas . In one instance , she descr ibes how , after Bill 's gubernatorial defeat , Hillary set out to neutralize an Arkansas newspaper columnist who had been an antagonist of Bill 's . Hillary wi ned and dined the man , and he left Clinton alone for years . There are many oth er such stories , but the message is always the same : She had her idealistic vi sion for improving the world , but she also did what it took to reach short-term goals along the way , whether they were political , legislative or financial . Mrs. Clinton didn't have time to be interviewed for the piece , we learn , but t he president was able to give Bruck nearly two hours . What does that tell you ? At one point Bruck raises the possibility that Hillary might even seek to succe ed Bill in his current job : `` Some friends have suggested that her goal now ma y well be to become president herself , '' Bruck writes . `` Betsey Wright ( Gov ernor Bill Clinton 's chief of staff ) told me last December , `` There are a gr eat many people talking very seriously about her succeeding him . Their staff wi ll say , `` We have to do it this way and that way , and then we 'll be here at least twelve years . '' And it 's not just the staff . Friends , Democrats , peo ple out across the country think it is a very viable plan of action. ' ' ' Since The New Yorker came out Sunday , Wright has denied saying that , but The New Yo rker is standing by the story . In Bruck 's account of Clinton 's health care re form task force , the portrait 's especially severe ; the First Lady seems so ce rtain of her own correctness that she will brook no criticism . `` In the end , that sureness about her own judgment at its extreme , a sense that she alone is wise is probably Hillary 's cardinal trait , '' Bruck writes . The Jackie model of how to be the president 's wife died with her . Maybe what we see in Bruck 's piece are the outlines of a new First Lady paradigm that , for better or worse , we 'd better start getting used to . WASHINGTON Andrew W. Mellon was exceptionally rich , and the Soviet Union broke , when , in the spring of 1930 , Mellon bought a 500-year-old painting for $ 50 0,000 right out of the Hermitage . For an additional $ 6,154,000 he soon got 20 others , by Raphael and Rembrandt , Titian and van Dyck , Chardin and Velazquez , but none gratified him more than the first , a panel from an altarpiece by the early Netherlandish master Jan van Eyck of Bruges . Its condition was deplorabl e , its companion panels lost , its scale unexceptional . Van Eyck 's `` Annunci ation '' ( c. 1434/1436 ) is less than 15 inches wide . Still , the purchaser be lieved , and not without good reason , that he had bought a monument of European art . For more than 50 years , that narrow , beat-up painting would be displaye d in the museum Mellon gave his country , the National Gallery of Art here . The n it was taken down . This week , after two years in the lab two years of carefu l cleaning , high-tech examination and painstaking repair it goes on view again . The picture seems reborn , though it will never again look just as van Eyck ma de it . Still , its dull varnish is gone , its bold blues have their brightness back , and its many missing paint flecks there were hundreds , maybe thousands h ave been seamlessly filled in . The picture 's conservation was primarily conduc ted by the gallery 's David Bull , a former museum director ( he used to run the Norton Simon in Pasadena , Calif. ) who has a scholar 's eye and a sure , rock- steady hand . Look as closely as you wish at the in-painting he 's done , and tr y to find a flaw . Gabriel , the archangel , smiling with delight , has just app eared to Mary to announce the Incarnation . His angelic salutation , Ave gratia plena ( `` Hail , full of grace '' ) the letters writ in gold floats out of his mouth like a holy exhalation . The scepter that he holds is of rock crystal , no t glass . Van Eyck was a magician . What one cannot quite believe is the physica lity of his sight . The capitals that crown the columns in the picture have been carved so finely with interweaving tendrils , complex Celtic strapwork , with w arriors and with steeds that you feel each chisel mark . Gabriel 's garments , t oo , are endowed with such tactility that you somehow know the softness of their velvets , the stiff weight of their threads of gold , the slightly gritty gleam ings of their countless sewn-on pearls . Even from an inch away , van Eyck 's su rfaces don't fall apart into streaks of paint . His manner has uncanny depth ; h is details on details go on and on and on . `` He knew fabrics like the weaver , from whose looms they have flowed , '' wrote the scholar Max J. Friedlander , ` ` buildings like an architect , the earth like a geographer , plants like a bota nist . '' `` From the sheer sensuous beauty of a genuine Jan van Eyck , '' agree d Erwin Panofsky , the Princeton iconographer , `` there emanates a strange fasc ination not unlike that which we experience when we permit ourselves to be hypno tized by precious stones or when looking into deep water . '' HOLLYWOOD There was a memorable moment in `` Beverly Hills Cop '' when Eddie Mu rphy 's Axel Foley jammed a banana in a parked police car 's tailpipe . Walking out of `` Beverly Hills Cop III , '' you may be moved to ask , `` Anybody have a banana for this movie ? '' The existence of this film is a testament to star po wer or , to be more precise , recycling power . We 're supposed to be so gratefu l to once again see Eddie Murphy as Axel that we can overlook how crude and shop worn this picture really is . It 's one of the most cynically engineered sequels ever . The kicky appeal of the `` Cop '' series at least potentially has always been the idea of a street-smart black cop from Detroit who outmaneuvers the ( m ostly ) white Beverly Hills honchos who underestimate him . It 's a neat racial joke that provided a few chuckles in `` Beverly Hills Cop '' and virtually none in its hyper-powered , Stallone-ish sequel . Stallone , in fact , was originally supposed to star in `` Beverly Hills Cop , '' and the series has never gotten v ery far from his over-muscled shadow . For most of the way in `` Beverly Hills C op III '' ( MPAA rated R ) we might as well be watching any old standard-issue a ction hunk dodging bullets and lobbing grenades ( and , in a masterstroke , savi ng children in peril ) . But Murphy gives us less than those action hunks do ; h e 's playing out his own fantasy image of a righteous avenger , and the fantasy is essentially humorless . There 's little trace of his gift for con-man mimicry . It 's as if he set out to trash his own franchise . Once again Axel , wearing his Detroit Lions jacket , is brought back to Beverly Hills from Detroit to tra ck down the killers of a close associate . And once again he gets propelled into shootouts and car chases with a clan of murderous nasties , headed by John Saxo n and Timothy Carhart . Their base of operations is a theme park called WonderWo rld , which how 'd you guess ? features a dinosaur ride . `` Jurassic Cop , '' a nyone ? The Beverly Hills police force retains series regular Judge Reinhold , w ho now has his own office and his own SWAT team . Bronson Pinchot also turns up again as the oddly accented Serge . He has graduated from an art gallery to a bo utique selling personalized luxury weapons , which is a fair way of gauging how far the inspiration in this series has dropped . At a time when police detective shows on television are better than they ever have been , what excuse is there for the slovenliness of `` Beverly Hills Cop III '' ? Director John Landis and s creenwriter Steven E. de Souza ( who worked on `` 48 HRS. '' and the `` Die Hard '' films ) are strictly smash-and-grab guys . Like the other films in the serie s , this one has no muscle tone ; it wobbles opportunistically between wan slaps tick and routine bang bang , with lots of gratuitous cheesecake for scenery . It 's not easy to make audiences laugh at a comedy where characters are actually s hot on camera . And , in the post-Rodney G. King era , a racially tinged film in volving cops and violence in Los Angeles carries a lot of unwanted baggage . Tak en simply as pure action , the mayhem in this movie may be routine but , in the context of a knockabout comedy it 's deeply offensive . The film begins with a b unch of workmen in a Detroit auto shop shimmying to a record by the Supremes . T he scene is played for broad , dumb laughs ; then , in a scene that 's not playe d for laughs , they get bloodily ventilated . But it 's near the end , when the assorted good guys wobble and collapse into frame with their wounds , that the c orruption of this enterprise sinks in . There 's a fundamental lack of human fee ling in `` Beverly Hills Cop III '' that makes you want to avert your eyes from the people around you when the lights come up . Attending this movie makes you f eel like an accomplice to the corruption . HOLLYWOOD When the editor of Tricycle , the Buddhist Review , one of the few jo urnalists allowed on the set of `` Little Buddha , '' the new Bernardo Bertolucc i film , wrote about her experience , one question continued to trouble her . Wh at was the word `` Little '' doing in the title ? None of the filmmakers , it tu rned out , could give her a satisfactory answer , but now that the picture itsel f is here , the reason seems obvious . Despite its illustrious pedigree , `` Lit tle Buddha '' turns out to have the sensibility of a children 's film , the most elaborate and expensive `` Afterschool Special '' ever to make it to the big sc reen . Being a children 's film , of course , is not necessarily a negative thin g , and aspects of `` Little Buddha '' ( MPAA rating : PG ) do linger pleasantly in the memory . But what lingers as well is the suspicion that this is a childr en 's film at least partly by default , the product of too much goofy New Age re verence and too little nuance and sophistication . Those who remember such Berto lucci films as `` The Conformist '' and `` Last Tango in Paris '' may be surpris ed at this turn in his career , but those pictures are deep in the director 's p ast . More recently we 've seen the likes of `` The Last Emperor , '' which , it s many Oscars notwithstanding , is best remembered for how everything looked , n ot for what anyone said . In fact , especially when , as here , Bertolucci colla borates with Vittorio Storaro , one of the world 's preeminent cinematographers , the director has a tendency to become a prisoner of his own particular gift fo r luscious images , to assume that the dramatic side of things will more or less take care of itself . Story , however , can be neglected only at great risk , e specially when two parallel tales are being told . The first begins in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in modern-day Bhutan , where Lama Norbu ( Chinese actor Ying Ruocheng ) gets a telegram he 's been waiting for for nine years , a message th at soon puts him on a jet headed for Seattle . Though all Buddhists believe in r eincarnation , only Tibetan Buddhists believe that specific people , invariably great teachers , can be identified in their next incarnation . And Lama Norbu ha s reason to believe that his own teacher , admittedly a man with a hell of a sen se of humor , has been reincarnated as an 8-year-old American named Jesse Konrad ( newcomer Alex Wiesendanger ) . Not surprisingly nonplussed by this news are J esse 's parents , Lisa ( Bridget Fonda ) and Dean ( singer Chris Isaak ) , a spr ightly young couple who don't quite know what to make of all these robed and sha ven monks appearing suddenly in their lives . They don't object , however , when Lama Norbu gives Jesse a child 's life of the Buddha . This little book forms t he basis of `` Little Buddha 's '' second narrative strand , a film-within-a-fil m set in Asia 2,500 years ago that details how the fun-loving Prince Siddhartha transformed himself into a great spiritual being . Though it plays at times like an infomercial on Eastern religions , this half of `` Little Buddha '' is the m ost successful . For one thing , this is where Storaro 's photography and James Acheson 's production and costume design are at their best , making good use of the never-before-seen streets of Bhutan and creating opulent set pieces . And th ough eyebrows and even entire faces were raised when it was announced that Keanu Reeves was going to play Siddhartha , in fact , he does what the part calls for as the golden youth shielded from misery and death who takes the path to enligh tenment . Hewing closely to traditional texts , this part of `` Little Buddha '' comes off closest to the fable quality the filmmakers were apparently after . I n the modern half , however , the lack of texture that is the film 's weakest li nk is most evident . The Mark Peploe and Rudy Wurlitzer plot , from a story by t he director , seems determined to take the drama out of every situation , while the accompanying dialogue is invariably hollow and unconvincing . Being blissed out may be an enviable state for a human being , but it is not necessary the bes t one for a film . Bernardo Bertolucci may not know anything more about Eastern religion than I do , but I don't care . This is not to say his `` Little Buddha '' is inaccurate , either in its portrayal of Tibetan Buddhist thought or the life of Siddhartha ( Keanu Reeves ) , only that it doesn't really matter . What matters is what happ ens on screen , and Bertolucci 's direction alone is the stuff of religious conv ersion . The director , whose philosophical questing has taken him to China and North Africa in recent years ( for `` The Last Emperor '' and `` The Sheltering Sky '' ) has filmed his latest in the holy lands of Nepal , Bhutan and Seattle . And in telling his based-on-real-life story about a blond 9-year-old who is sus pected of being a reincarnated lama and juxtaposing it with an epic recounting o f the life of Prince Siddhartha who will become the Buddha Bertolucci reverses t he tired conventions about ancient religions and religious life and in the proce ss evokes a very contemporary yearning for spirituality . That he cannot sustain the tone of serene momentum that opens the film is perhaps inevitable ; once th e seduction of the viewer is accomplished there 's a certain leveling-off of pas sion . But the beginning of `` Little Buddha '' has moments so full of magic it 's surprising how much of it is accomplished through simple humor . The Buddhist temple in Bhutan , where the film opens , is not the forbidding place of popula r imagination . It is a center of learning , of warmth and of children instructe d by Lama Norbu ( Ying Ruocheng ) , who invites questions and makes jokes . His beatific demeanor changes only after he gets a letter saying that the reincarnat ed spirit of his late teacher , Lama Norje , has been located . In Seattle . `` Lama Norje had a great sense of humor , '' says Kenpo Tensin ( Sogyal Rinpoche ) , one of the jolly monks who have determined that blond , Gameboy-playing Jesse Conrad ( Alex Wiesendanger ) has been chosen by Norje for his reappearance . Je sse likes the idea , likes the gentle Lama Norbu , and gives signs that he may a ctually be Lama Norje . But it 's no joke to his parents ( Bridget Fonda and Chr is Isaak ) , who have made no provision in their yuppie life-plan for a Buddhist invasion . Where `` Little Buddha '' falters , and it does , lies in the castin g . As Jesse 's fatherInvalid face , Dean , who takes Jesse to Bhutan , Isaak ha s the unformed face and personality to make him truly American , and truly flat . Likewise Reeves , whose lighter-than-air screen presence is appropriate for th e young , naive Prince Siddhartha , but who in the end doesn't provide anything very substantial . The ancient Indian sequences are full of miracles , outlandis h visuals and ornate religion , but the modern world defines the film 's spiritu al impact . Bertolucci says that godhead isn't about myth and trappings , but ab out yearning as defined by the faith of monks , or perhaps the unfilled need of secular Americans . `` Little Buddha , '' in its gentle way , probes that cavity . Three stars . Invalid face Eddie Murphy has been telling interviewers , in no uncertain terms , that `` Be verly Hills Cop III '' is not his comeback film . And he 's right . A strictly p aint-by-numbers , action-adventure yarn , with little sense of humor and even le ss sense of purpose , `` Beverly Hills Cop III '' effectively nullifies Murphy ' s main asset comedy in favor of making him another Sylvester Stallone . Which is not something we desperately need . At the same time , it defuses the whole dra matic premise behind the first two `` Beverly Hills Cop '' movies ( the first of which was vastly superior to the others ) , which was Axel Foley as bureaucrati c victim a streetwise Detroit detective , a cop out of water , defying the uptig ht , rulebook-bound Beverly Hills police to fight the good fight . He was smarte r than your average underdog . Now , he just seems rude . When Axel gets to Beve rly Hills this time around , he 's chasing a gang of cop killers who eluded him in Detroit after an opening shootout that 's a good example of both false advert ising the action 's never this hot again and director John Landis ' debauched wa y with movie violence . Bullets and blood are sprayed with equal abandon , cars and humans are liberally riddled , and each slug ends its trajectory target with a fat , soft thud . Much like the jokes . The Secret Service doesn't want the g ang caught ; they 're up to uncovering something much bigger , apparently , than the killing of Detroit cops . Axel is unmoved , not caring who or what he demol ishes en route to getting what he wants . He 's like a cop with a multipicture d eal . The pursuit takes him to WonderWorld , a Disneyland knockoff inspired by t he Walt-like Uncle Dave ( Alan Young ) and under the de facto control of Ellis D eWald ( Timothy Carhart ) , the ruthless killer Foley is chasing . That this one deliciously perverse aspect of `` BHC III '' is not exploited for anything clos e to its subversive potential is symptomatic of the movie 's failings . Disney-f acists vs. the state . It could have been great . But `` Beverly Hills Cop III ' ' lumbers on its way to a predictable , and predictably violent , conclusion , w ith Axel 's BH buddy Billy Rosewood ( Judge Reinhold ) consistently befuddled , Detective Flint ( Hector Elizondo ) trying to protect his post-retirement job at WonderWorld , Bronson Pinchot reprising the unpronounceable Serge , who 's now in the personal security business , and some shamelessly cheesy action sequences . Theresa Randle , as the WonderWorld worker sympathetic to Axel 's cause , is really the sole cast member worth watching . Whether `` BHC III '' signifies any thing in terms of Murphy 's career is moot ; the actor hasn't had anywhere to co me back from , not if you 're talking box office . Even when he 's turned out in cendiary devices like `` Harlem Nights '' or `` Boomerang '' he 's made money . Artistically , of course , it 's another story . He hasn't really fulfilled his comedic potential since .. . well , maybe the original `` Beverly Hills Cop . '' But it clearly doesn't bother him . If Eddie Murphy felt he had anything to pro ve , he wouldn't have done Part III of a movie series that had already run out o f gas , wouldn't have hooked up with as lame a director as Landis , and certainl y would have read Stephen de Souza 's script ( you don't think he actually read this script .. . ? ) BRUSSELS , Belgium Russian Defense Minister Pavel Grachev declared Tuesday his country would join NATO 's Partnership for Peace but emphasized that the terms o f Russia 's participation still need to be clarified . Resolving some of the rec ent ambiguity about the Russian government 's relations with the Atlantic allian ce , Grachev said after meeting with NATO defense ministers that Russia would de finitely join the military-cooperation program , which is designed to create a n ew security system for Europe with NATO as its foundation . `` Boris Yeltsin , o ur president , has instructed me to make it clear that Russia will join the Part nership for Peace program , '' Grachev said . `` We are not going to set forth a ny conditions , '' he said , but he noted that `` these framework agreements do not fully set forth the principles and the forms of the cooperation . '' Grachev said Russia would like to sign a parallel document with the Western allies that spells out the nature of Russia 's collaboration and the defense of its vital i nterests . He said he would provide details Wednesday after meeting again earlie r that day with Defense Secretary William J. Perry and other NATO ministers . Gr achev said that after the two documents were complete , he or Foreign Minister A ndrei Kozyrev would be prepared to visit NATO headquarters `` to sign the two do cuments , that is , the doctrine of Partnership for Peace and our document on th e collaboration of Russia . '' During the 90-minute session , Grachev spent most of his time elaborating on Russia 's new military doctrine . He said Russia was not opposed to joining NATO in peacekeeping missions . Later , he told reporter s that Russia would only resort to nuclear weapons when faced with aggression fr om another nuclear power or one in coalition with an enemy . Senior administrati on officials described the meeting as `` friendly and non-confrontational . '' T hey said there was none of the bombast or harsh rhetoric that had been feared be fore Grachev 's arrival at the headquarters of an alliance created 45 years ago to contain Soviet expansionism . But U.S. officials sounded a note of caution , saying they wanted to hear the specifics of the proposal Grachev promised to lay before the ministers Wednesday . For months , the Russians have sent confused s ignals about their intentions of cooperating with NATO . After indicating early on that Moscow would join the Partnership for Peace , Yeltsin appeared to bow to demands from the military hierarchy that NATO must recognize Russia 's role as a major power in Europe by granting it special status . But NATO Deputy Secretar y General Sergio Balanzino said after a meeting of the alliance 's defense minis ters earlier in the day that there could be no question of drawing up a formal s eparate agreement for the Russians . `` There will be no special protocol for Ru ssia as a member of Partnership for Peace . All members must follow the same rul es , '' Perry said . Western defense officials have tried to reassure the Russia ns they will be accorded all of the importance warranted by their country and it s special place in Europe . But by insisting that all partners must play by the same rules , they are trying to relieve fears among East Europeans that they wil l again fall under Russian military domination . The Partnership for Peace is a kind of junior varsity team for NATO an arrangement that seeks to include East E uropean states in security discussions but does not give them full membership in the alliance . The concept emerged as an alternative to granting former Soviet satellites immediate membership in NATO . Some ranking U.S. officials said admit ting Poland , Hungary and other former Soviet satellites into the alliance would offend Russian sensibilities . After expressing some dismay for what they perce ived as second-class status , 18 states from Eastern Europe and parts of the for mer Soviet Union have signed up for the Partnership for Peace since NATO heads o f government launched the project at a summit here last January . NATO countries and their eastern partners are planning to conduct joint military exercises thi s fall in Poland and the Netherlands . Seeking to reassure Moscow that the partn ership was in no way targeted against them , Perry urged the Russians to climb a board what he called `` a fast-moving train '' that is rapidly gathering momentu m . He stressed that NATO is eager to take advantage of Russia 's military power through peacekeeping initiatives that he expects will become part of the Partne rship for Peace program . `` In terms of the number of troops they have , in ter ms of the quality of troops , training and equipment they have , it would be a r eal asset to the Partnership for Peace were they to join it , '' Perry said . WASHINGTON Most of the people working for the federal government , from Clinton appointees to long-time civil servants , are saving for a rainy day , house pur chase , college or retirement by putting tax-deferred dollars into their thrift savings plan . The rapid growth of the plan during its first seven years has mad e federal and postal workers some of the biggest players in the stock and bond m arkets . The thrift savings plan , Uncle Sam 's version of the 401 ( k ) plan av ailable to many private sector workers , could make many steady investors millio naires by the time they are ready to retire . Some high-income employees who joined at the beginning and made maximum contrib utions to the higher risk stock and bond funds now have accounts worth more than $ 100,000 . Higher-income workers who made the maximum contributions to the hig her risk stock or bond funds now have accounts worth well over $ 100,000 . Sligh ty more than 1.5 million of 2.6 million eligible employees have invested in the stock , bond or Treasury funds . Workers in the new Federal Employees Retirement System can contribute up to 10 percent of pay ( to the $ 9,240 limit ) and get a matching 5 percent goverment contribution . Those in the old Civil Service Ret irement System , mostly people hired before 1983 , can contribute 5 percent of s alary . The savings plan has three funds : The G-fund , made up of short-term ri sk-free U.S. Treasury securities not available to the general public , returned 6.06 percent over the 12 month period ending in April . In 1993 it paid 6.14 per cent . In 1992 , 7.23 percent ; 1991 , 8.15 percent ; 1990 , 8.90 percent and in 1989 it was 8.81 percent . The C-fund ( invested in a stock index fund that tra cks all of the stocks in the S&P 500 Index ) paid 5.33 percent over the past 12 months ; 10.13 percent last year , 7.70 percent in 1992 ; 30.77 percent in 1991 ; lost 3.15 percent in 1990 and paid 31.03 percent in 1989 . The F-fund paid .74 percent over the most recent 12 month period ; 9.52 percent last year ; 7.20 pe rcent in 1992 ; 15.75 percent in 1991 ; 8.00 percent in 1990 and 13.89 percent i n 1989 . Workers can contibute a percentage of pay or a dollar amount . In the n ew book `` Your Thrift Savings Plan , '' author James Sullivan says , `` If you designate a percentage of pay deduction the dollar amount you contribute to the TSP each pay period will automatically increase when your pay increases . For ex ample if you are currently earning $ 1,000 per pay period and designate 5 percen t .. . your deductions will be $ 50 per pay period . If your pay increases to $ 1,060 per pay period your TSP deduction will automatically adjust to $ 53 every pay period . Similarly , if you change job locations and fall under a different locality pay schedule , your TSP contributions automatically increase or decreas e to reflect your new pay . '' Designating a dollar amount , however , means a w orker whose pay increases regularly will still be making contributions to the th rift savings plan as if he or she had never received a raise . Sullivan 's how-t o-invest book costs $ 14.95 plus $ 2 shipping and handling and can be obtained c /o Federal Employees News Digest , P.O. . Box 98123 , Washington , D.C. 20090-81 23 . Or phone orders at ( 703 ) 648-9551 . JERUSALEM Israel sealed off the West Bank town of Jericho Tuesday to give Palestinian police more time to organize th emselves after two armed Jewish settlers were mistakenly detained by police who also temporarily confiscated their weapons . Arafat 's move was seen here as an attempt to unilaterally cancel the body of regulations issued since 1967 by Isra el 's military occupation authorities , and Israel said his announcement violate d the Gaza-Jericho self-rule accord . The closing of Jericho , for one day , was another sign of the uncertainty and confusion surrounding the deployment over t he last two weeks of 3,244 Palestinian fighters from Egypt , Iraq , Sudan and Jo rdan as police in the newly autonomous zones of the Gaza Strip and Jericho . The new police , most of whom do not speak English or Hebrew , have had difficulty communicating at tense moments of confrontation with Israeli Jews who do not spe ak Arabic , and there has been confusion over terms of the agreement under which they are operating . In a visit to the Gaza Strip Tuesday , Prime Minister Yitz hak Rabin expressed sympathy for the early start-up problems , saying most of th e police had not been in the West Bank or Gaza for 27 years and need more time t o get familiar with the area under their control . Israel and the Palestinian po lice have been at odds over whether Jewish settlers should be allowed to carry w eapons in the Jericho self-rule zone . The settlers and the Israeli army say the settlers fall under Israel 's jurisdiction and may continue to carry guns . But the Palestinian police , who are armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles , have r epeatedly insisted that the settlers not carry guns when moving about the Jerich o self-rule zone , away from the Jewish settlements . Except for those working w ith the Israeli security service , Palestinians are not permitted to carry weapo ns in the rest of the West Bank , which is still under Israeli military occupati on , or in Israel . In the latest Jericho incident , two Jews from the nearby se ttlement of Naama were in a money-changer 's shop in Jericho when they were appr oached by a Palestinian policeman . One of the settlers , Yair Yosef , told repo rters the policeman cocked his rifle when the two refused to hand over their sid earms , so they acceded . The two were taken into custody and later released , a nd were permitted to recover their weapons at a joint Israeli-Palestinian securi ty office . The Palestinian police commander later said the incident was a misun derstanding . The army announced that the town was being sealed off for 24 hours barring entry to all outsiders to give the Palestinians more time to explain th e rules to the rank and file . Arafat , in his announcement , appeared to be see king to assert his authority in Gaza and Jericho . He issued the notice , dated May 20 , from Tunis and signed it as head of the Palestinian Authority and the P LO 's executive committee . The notice announced reinstatement of `` all the reg ulations , laws and orders '' that were in effect before the June 1967 war in wh ich Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza Strip . Arafat said the prewar laws w ould remain in effect until differing West Bank and Gaza legal systems could be merged . Before the Israeli occupation , Jordanian law was applied in the West B ank and Egyptian law in Gaza . Both also have remnants of British mandate law fr om the post-World War I era and earlier Turkish law from the period of Ottoman r ule . Arafat ordered Palestinian civil and religious courts to continue working , as well as judges and prosecutors . Palestinians say most of their civil court s in Gaza have been moribund since the the intifada , the Arab uprising against Israeli occupation , began 6 years ago , because they had no authority to enforc e decisions . Judges and prosecutors remained , however , and the courts were pa id for by Israel . Arafat 's order appeared aimed at canceling the 1,300 Israeli military orders issued during 27 years of occupation , although it did not dire ctly mention them . The Israeli orders , enforced through a separate system of m ilitary courts , have long been a hated symbol of the occupation , governing eve ry aspect of Palestinian life , from auto registration to a web of security rest rictions . WASHINGTON The Department of Energy is warning hundreds of current and former w orkers at the Rocky Flats nuclear-weapons complex in Colorado that they were exp osed to higher levels of neutron radiation from 1953 to 1967 than they previousl y had been told , officials said Tuesday . Medical examinations are being offere d to the workers and `` dose reconstruction '' research has begun to determine a ccurate levels of exposure for workers who were either improperly monitored or n ot monitored at all . Preliminary findings already have shown that neutron-sensi tive film used in the employees ' radiation-monitoring badges had been read inco rrectly , resulting in underestimations of exposure , officials said . DOE offic ials said they are notifying about 140 current Rocky Flats employees and soon wi ll begin contacting `` a few hundred '' former employees , out of a total of as many as 3,000 workers exposed to radiation from 1953 , when the plant became ope rational , until 1967 , when monitoring procedures were tightened . Mark N . Sil verman , manager of DOE 's Rocky Flats field office , said the margins of error found so far have been modest . In the worst case , he said , a worker 's radiat ion dose was raised by 1 rem about 20 percent of the annual allowable rate of oc cupational exposure to ionizing radiation . `` So far , the results are encourag ing , although that doesn't make the employees feel any better . Understandably , some of them are asking , ` How can we trust you at all ? ' ' ' Silverman said . He said that although some Rocky Flats workers in the past have blamed their cancers and other illnesses on radiation exposure at the plant , none of the wor kers involved in the current study has reported any symptoms . Officials said th e survey was prompted by concerns raised by researchers conducting a routine rev iew of Rocky Flats radiation-dose records for DOE 's office of environment , saf ety and health . The department said surveys of monitoring practices will be con ducted at other DOE nuclear sites and made public as part of Energy Secretary Ha zel R. O' Leary 's campaign of openness about radiation experiments and accident s from the mid-1940s through the 1970s . Although officials said no illness or o ther adverse effects have been linked yet to the underestimations of radiation e xposure at Rocky Flats , current employees are being given the option of being m oved away from exposure areas until their cumulative doses can be re-evaluated . `` We 're not going to be able to change ( a worker 's previous exposure ) . Th e difference is that he at least will know , '' said Mark Spears , manager of he alth and safety for the DOE plant 's operating contractor , EG&G Rocky Flats Cor p. . During the period under review , the facility was operated for the Atomic E nergy Commission by Dow Chemical Corp. Spears said the dose-reconstruction proce ss involves interviews with current and former workers , physical examinations a nd the taking of bio-assay samples to determine neutron-radiation counts in vari ous parts of the body . In addition , he said , all available records from a wor ker 's production department during his period of employment are being studied t o estimate approximate levels of exposure to neutron radiation , which can penet rate some kinds of shielding normally used to protect workers from other forms o f radiation . Officials said much of the exposure at Rocky Flats occurred in one building used for the chemical processing of plutonium into weapons-grade mater ial . The plant is no longer producing nuclear weapons . Spears said that a key part of the dose-reconstruction procedure has been the retrieval of neutron-sens itive film strips from a federal records center in Denver , where over 95,000 pi eces of film used in monitoring radiation are stored . He said a sample of 400 s trips had been re-evaluated , leading to the discovery last February that monito ring badges worn by Rocky Flats workers from 1953 to 1967 had been incorrectly ` ` read '' in manual inspections by safety technicians . The film strip badges we re replaced in 1970 with thermoluminescent dosimeters , which are crystal chips that can be read by computers and , consequently , are more accurate . David Rus h , a member of the task force on health risks of nuclear-weapons production of the Physicians for Social Responsibility , said that despite the DOE 's openness campaign , studies of radiation dosages of plant workers remain `` fragmentary '' and outdated . `` Some of the dirtiest plants are the least monitored . There are enormous gaps in research , '' said Rush , an epidemiologist at Tufts Unive rsity . He is the coauthor of a recent book , `` Dead Reckoning , '' that estima ted that DOE had radiation-dosage data on only 140,000 of the estimated 600,000 people who have been employed at nuclear-weapons plants . JERICHO , West Bank Yasser Arafat , chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organi zation and head of the Palestinians ' interim government , Tuesday canceled most of the military orders issued by Israel over its 27-year occupation of the Gaza Strip and this West Bank town . In a move that asserted Palestinian authority i n the two regions and promised to affect everything from retail sales to taxatio n and from traffic regulations to street crime , Arafat restored all the laws in force prior to the 1967 Middle East War and Israel 's capture of Gaza and the W est Bank . Although Israeli officials questioned Arafat 's authority in issuing so sweeping an order and asserted that he needs their approval for all legislati ve actions , Palestinians hailed the move as another step in their liberation . `` Establishing our own laws is an essential part of our emancipation , '' said Saeb Erekat , a political scientist nominated to serve on the interim Palestinia n Authority . `` Legally , most of the 2,500 military orders issued by the Israe lis became null and void with their withdrawal last week , and so Arafat re-esta blished the legal framework for everyday life . '' The Palestinian Authority , w hich will administer the Gaza Strip and eventually most of the West Bank under t he autonomy agreement with Israel , will soon be faced with the task of adopting a basic law and then extensive civil and criminal codes after elections planned for October . Some of the military regulations that have governed life here wer e preserved as part of the agreements establishing Palestinian self-government a nd the economic relations between Israel and the Palestinians . But Arafat resto red 1967 Jordanian law in Jericho and Egyptian in Gaza , both to provide a famil iar legal framework for the start of Palestinian autonomy and to `` give people the sense of being masters in their own home , '' Erekat said . `` It 's better to have some legislative gaps than to have Israeli military orders plugging them . '' Freij abu Midan , a Gaza lawyer and another member of the Palestinian Auth ority , described the move as `` the first step toward consolidating our nationa l authority on the ground in Gaza and Jericho . '' But abu Midan added that `` e very day will bring scores of new questions , especially to the police , for whi ch the law will have no immediate answer . We are feeling our way legally as wel l as politically . '' ( Optional add end ) In other developments , the Israeli m ilitary commander in the West Bank closed Jericho for 24 hours to all but its 15 ,000 residents in cooperation with the new Palestinian police commander , who re portedly asked for a `` breather '' in order to get a firmer grip on the town an d to brief his men on regulations governing Israelis traveling through it . Isra el contends that its agreement with the PLO enables Jewish settlers to carry wea pons in Palestinian-governed areas of Jericho and the Gaza Strip . Palestinians assert that Israelis coming into the autonomous areas may not carry weapons , an d Palestinian police in Jericho briefly detained five armed settlers Tuesday bef ore releasing them , reportedly with apologies . Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin , visiting the new Israeli positions along the border with Gaza , at once praised the cooperation between Palestinian police and his forces in the transfer of the region and again warned Arafat that Israel will not turn over administration of more of the West Bank until it sees how self-government works in Gaza and Jeric ho . CAPE TOWN , South Africa President Nelson Mandela set forth a moderate domestic policy agenda in his first major address to parliament Tuesday , pledging to ad dress the material wants left by apartheid without resorting to deficit spending or permanent tax increases . The address , which amounted to a state-of-the-nat ion speech , seemed tailored more for corporate boardrooms than the townships wh ere many of South Africa 's poor blacks live . In many ways , it represented the culmination of a shift in Mandela 's African National Congress away from social ism and to a version of market economics more in tune with South Africa 's prese nt system . Mandela thus struck a theme of fiscal discipline even as he outlined his vision of a `` people-centered society '' where all South Africans will be free from hunger , deprivation , ignorance , suppression and fear . He proposed reallocating about $ 700 million or roughly 3 percent of the 1994-95 national bu dget to programs for upgrading housing , electricity , water and sewage systems , education and health services for the nation 's mostly black poor . That figur e is to rise steadily until it reaches more than $ 2.8 billion in the fifth year of the new government 's Reconstruction and Development Program . Mandela said the money would come from across-the-board cuts in other government departments . Even with the increased social spending , he said he expected to reduce the go vernment 's annual deficit spending , now running at 6.8 percent , and to avoid permanent tax hikes . In a briefing for reporters , Finance Minister Derek Keys a holdover from the old National Party government acknowledged that some tempora ry tax increases might be needed . But he said it should be possible to finance the domestic agenda through civil service attrition , streamlining of redundant apartheid bureaucracies and spending cuts in certain areas , such as defense . W hen the white minority government lifted the ban on liberation organizations in 1990 , most of the black leaders who came out of jail or returned from exile wer e still wedded to a socialist vision of wide-scale wealth redistribution . Over the ensuing years , ANC officials won most of the constitutional debates about S outh Africa 's new political order , but Keys and the white business establishme nt made them converts to market economics . The ANC 's economic ministers in the new coalition government , such as former union leader Jay Naidoo , now say tha t if they overspend on social programs , they will frighten investors and trigge r inflation-hobbling their best hope of using an expanding economy to lift the l ot of the poor . `` I always said we were a bloody conservative organization , ' ' ANC spokesman Carl Niehaus quipped , only partly in jest , as he walked out of parliament after the speech . The real test , as he and others acknowledge , wi ll come some years down the road . If the standard of living of the poor has not risen , but the political temperature has , can the ANC still remain faithful t o fiscal discipline ? Mandela 's first major policy speech held no decisive clue s , but it was notable for some of the things it left out . It made no mention o f the ANC 's campaign promises to build 1 million new houses and redistribute up to 30 percent of all arable land over the next five years . Those two goals con stituted the symbolic heart of the ANC 's plan to provide `` a better life for a ll . '' However , experts in both fields say it will be difficult to meet the ta rgets . The country lacks the resources to build 200,000 housing units a year , and the land redistribution program will be slowed by a parallel promise that al l current landowners must be compensated . Mandela did make specific promises Tu esday to provide free medical care to all needy children under age 6 and pregnan t mothers , and free education up to age 16 for needy students . He also said th at he expects to be able to bring electricity to 350,000 new homes this year , a program already underway by the electrical utility Eskom . In a gesture to the minority community most apprehensive about black majority rule , Mandela opened his speech by quoting the words of an Afrikaner poet , Ingrid Jonker , and later delivered two paragraphs of his speech in Afrikaans the language that once spar ked widespread rioting in black schools , where it has been seen as the language of the oppressor . WASHINGTON Hugh Price , a senior officer of the Rockefeller Foundation and form er newspaper and television commentator on social issues , Tuesday was named pre sident of the National Urban League , the nation 's second-oldest civil rights o rganization . Price , 52 , succeeds John E. Jacob , who is retiring after a 30-y ear association with the league , the last 12 as its president . A native of Was hington whose parents were active in the suffrage and civil rights movements her e , Price served from 1978 to 1982 as a member of the editorial board of the New York Times , writing editorials on such policy issues as public education , urb an affairs , welfare and criminal justice . Price also served for six years as s enior vice president of WNET-13 , New York City 's public television station , w here in 1984 he assumed direction of national production functions . Earlier , h e was human resources administrator for the city of New Haven , Conn. , where he served as a member of the mayor 's cabinet and supervised the city 's Head Star t program and services for youth and senior citizens . Price attended segregated elementary schools in Washington and in 1954 , following the Brown vs . Board o f Education Supreme Court decision , he attended desegregated junior high and hi gh schools here . Following his graduation from Yale Law School in 1966 , Price worked as a neighborhood attorney with the New Haven Legal Assistance Associatio n , maintaining a criminal law practice and representing community organizations . Later he became a partner in Cogen , Holt and Associates , an urban affairs c onsulting firm in New Haven that specialized in community development , housing and other programs . Reginald K. Brack Jr. , chairman of the league 's board of trustees and chairman and chief executive officer of Time Inc. , said that Price `` brings experience , vision , creativity and leadership to the Urban League a t a time when the African-American community is in great need of an effective ad vocate for equal opportunity and a defender of hard-earned civil rights . '' Pri ce said he intends to `` fullfill the league 's traditional mandate combining so cial justice with economic growth and opportunities . '' His agenda , he said , includes focusing public and private recources more sharply on the problems of t he urban poor ; equipping all African-American children with the academic compet ence and social skills needed for self-sufficiency , and developing the urban la bor markets so that inner-city residents `` who want or are expected to work can earn legitimate livings above the poverty line . '' The Fox Broadcasting Co. , newly armed with National Football League games that helped the network land a dozen stations in a landmark deal this week , on Tues day announced a drama-heavy prime-time lineup for fall in its latest bid to achi eve parity with CBS , ABC and NBC . Fox , known for dropping bombshells in late announcements of its schedules , disclosed the coming acquisition of its latest affiliates in time for the presentation of the new schedule to advertisers . For nostalgia-prone couch potatoes , Fox also announced that one of its back-up ser ies for the 1994-95 season is an updated version of the famous 1960s sitcom `` G et Smart , '' reuniting Don Adams and Barbara Feldon as secret agents . The yout h-oriented network will have the new version of `` Get Smart '' focusing on thei r son , who is in his late 20s and , like his incompetent father , is a `` bumbl ing agent . '' At the same time , however , Fox is using its flair for showmansh ip to dilute the impact of serious setbacks in the past season . It flopped in t wo key areas : late night , where Chevy Chase 's show folded quickly , and news , where its magazine series `` Front Page '' failed in the ratings and now is ca nceled , to be replaced eventually by a new effort called `` Assignment . '' In addition , Fox , known for its outpouring of series featuring black performers l ast season , has canceled five of them , including the prestigious `` Roc , '' t he controversial but much-praised and ambitious `` South Central '' which report edly is seeking a home elsewhere and `` In Living Color , '' `` Sinbad '' and , previously , `` Townsend Television , '' which starred Robert Townsend . Several returning series , including `` Living Single '' and the racy `` Martin , '' st ar black performers . Sandy Grushow , president of the Fox Entertainment Group , maintained , `` We 're not walking away from our commitment to program black te levision series . '' He noted that one of the new one-hour dramas , a police sho w called `` Uptown Undercover , '' pairs two officers , one black , the other La tino . In addition , he said , another drama , `` M.A.N.T.I.S. , '' is about a ` ` black superhero . '' With the cancellation of `` In Living Color , '' Fox is l osing one of its trademark series , an irreverent collection of sketches from a black viewpoint . Said Grushow : `` We felt it was pretty well played out . Obvi ously it was a landmark series for our company . For years , it defined who we w ere and what we were about . '' Fox has scheduled as another back-up series a ne w sketch comedy called `` House of Buggin ' , '' which stars Latino comedian Joh n Leguizamo . Grushow said `` Sinbad , '' which features the comedian of the sam e name , was canceled because it `` had a huge ` Simpsons ' lead-in and was unab le to capitalize on it . '' As for `` Roc , '' although its quality rarely dimin ished , it has had a difficult time in the ratings , finishing near the bottom . Other Fox shows from this season that got the ax include `` The Adventures of B risco County , Jr. , '' `` Bakersfield P.D. , '' `` Daddy Dearest , '' `` Herman 's Head , '' `` Monty , '' `` Code 3 '' and `` Comic Strip Live . '' ( Begin op tional trim ) Another series , `` The George Carlin Show , '' failed to make the fall lineup but is expected to return as a back-up entry , as is `` The Critic , '' an animated program canceled by ABC but picked up by Fox . A spokesman for Fox estimated it will take 1 to 1 years before all of the new stations that were reeled in this week are lined up for the network . With Fox going to seven nigh ts a week this past season and now upgrading its affiliates in such major cities as Cleveland , Atlanta , Detroit , Milwaukee and Dallas , the ratings of the 8- year-old network will certainly go up , but just how much depends in great part on the new programming , which consists of five dramas and two comedies . Grusho w said the deal with New World Communications to land the stations will have `` no effect whatsoever on the programs . These New World stations are jumping into bed with us because they like our business plan . They 're interested in the 18 -to-34 and 18-to-49 demographic . '' ( End optional trim ) `` The Simpsons '' no w will return to Sundays at 8 p.m. , where Fox hopes that it and `` Fortune Hunt er , '' a new , James Bond-style spy adventure that precedes it at 7 p.m. and wi ll challenge `` 60 Minutes '' can benefit from the lead-in of the NFL games . Aa ron Spelling also is becoming a bigger player at Fox , where his `` Beverly Hill s , 90210 '' and `` Melrose Place '' will be joined by another hour drama from h is company , `` Models Inc. . '' It stars Linda Gray , formerly of `` Dallas , ' ' as the head of a Los Angeles modeling agency . It gets an early start June 29 . Other new Fox series : `` Party of Five , '' a drama in which five brothers an d sisters `` forge new lives following the sudden loss of their parents '' in a car crash . `` Hardball , '' a `` rowdy '' sitcom that takes `` a locker-room lo ok '' at baseball . `` Wild Oats , '' a Generation X sitcom about `` a group of out-all-night 20-somethings in search of romance and friendship . '' ( Optional add end ) Here 's Fox 's night-by-night lineup for fall : Monday : `` Melrose Pl ace , '' `` Party of Five . '' Tuesday : `` Fox Night at the Movies . '' Wednesd ay : `` Beverly Hills , 90210 , '' `` Models Inc. . '' Thursday : `` Martin , '' `` Living Single , '' `` Uptown Undercover . '' Friday : `` M.A.N.T.I.S. , '' ` ` The X-Files . '' Saturday : `` Cops , '' `` Cops 2 , '' `` America 's Most Wan ted . '' Sunday : `` Fortune Hunter , '' `` The Simpsons , '' `` Hardball , '' ` ` Married .. . With Children , '' `` Wild Oats . '' SARAJEVO , Bosnia-Herzegovina Bosnia 's president said Tuesday his government i s seriously considering an internationally backed peace plan that would give 51 percent of the country to allied Muslim and Croat factions and 49 percent to reb el Serbs . But he demanded that the United States issue a clear statement of its intentions before his mostly Muslim cabinet approves the plan . In an interview on his return from a pilgrimage to Mecca , President Alija Izetbegovic also sai d he does not believe Bosnia 's war is close to ending , although he predicted s ome type of denouement in the fall . `` We 're only eight or nine rounds into a 12-round fight , '' he said at one point , employing a favorite boxing analogy . `` While we willn't win on a knockout , we will win on points . '' Izetbegovic said he had charged Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic with finding out what the U.S . government is willing to do should Bosnia accept the 51-49 plan . Silajdzic le ft Sarajevo Monday to attend another round of negotiations at a French resort ne ar Geneva . Under that peace deal , first proposed by the European Union , Bosni a would be partitioned into a Muslim-Croat federation and a Serb-controlled half . The Serbs would then be free to join the Muslim-Croat federation or merge wit h their political , military and cultural patrons in Serbia . Earlier this month , Muslim and Croat negotiators meeting in the U.S. . Embassy in Vienna drew up a map of the proposed federation 's territory that added up to 58 percent of Bos nia , leaving only 42 percent for the Serbs . When the United States joined its allies on May 13 in a reaffirmation of the 51-49 formula , the Sarajevo governme nt complained bitterly . The Clinton administration has said it would consider s ending up to 25,000 American ground troops to Bosnia once the peace deal was imp lemented . But Izetbegovic said he was loath to accept vague statements of inten tion from any government because `` for two years now we have seen what those ad d up to : nothing . '' `` The Americans have let us read between the lines , but really we are at war and that is not enough , '' he said . `` We need to know w hat they will do if we accept and what they will do if the Serbs reject '' the p eace plan . One of the reasons for Izetbegovic 's demands for a specific commitm ent concerns the fact that in Bosnia 's eyes the West , including the United Sta tes , has squandered its credibility in Bosnia . NATO ultimatums threatening air strikes against Serb positions are now routinely modified by U.N. officials here in what appears to be an increasingly desperate effort to avoid the strikes . I zetbegovic said the impression given by NATO 's silence on the matter is that it too is a willing partner in the dilution of the letter if not the intent of its ultimatums to the Serbs . A U.N. spokesman Tuesday , for example , confirmed th at Serb tanks based inside a 12-mile artillery exclusion zone around Sarajevo we re firing on Muslim positions around Breza , north of the capital . Under NATO ' s first Bosnian ultimatum , issued in February , those tanks are subject to airs trikes . However , the spokesman , Dutch Maj. Rob Annink , said the only option being considered was `` negotiations . '' Izetbegovic 's comments Tuesday , whil e contradictory on the surface , provided an insight into the maneuvers of the m ostly Muslim government and its army , which has struggled back from near demise less than a year ago to relative stability today . Emboldened by the apparent s uccess of a peace deal between Bosnia 's Muslim and Croat factions , Izetbegovic now appears to believe time is on the side of the Muslims in their standoff aga inst the Serbs , who occupy about 72 percent of this mountainous country . Accep ting the peace deal , according to the president 's thinking , would only be par t of a broader and longer-term struggle against the Serbs , widely held responsi ble for starting Europe 's bloodiest conflict since World War II . He said his g overnment would not accept a four-month cease-fire , proposed by the United Stat es , Russia and the major European powers earlier this month , because it would hamper the Bosnian army and effectively preserve Serb war gains . `` Maybe four weeks , but not four months , '' he said . `` If it was four months , it would f reeze the Serb gains , literally , because by then it would be winter . '' Curre ntly , the lightly armed Bosnian army appears capable of nibbling away at Serb-h eld territory but will not be able to mount larger offensives until the fall . T he largely Muslim government troops are reluctant to engage the better-armed Ser b forces in the dry Bosnian summer because that is perfect tank weather . Once t he fog and rain of autumn comes , however , the more numerous Bosnian government infantry will gain some tactical advantage . Throughout the interview , Izetbeg ovic appeared almost jovial and a different man from the downtrodden leader who paced the cavernous halls of the presidency last year while Serb shells pounded his capital . `` Last year I had a lot of good reasons to be depressed . We had a new front opening with the Croats . We really saw no exit , '' he said . Hinti ng that weapons already are coming in over the newly opened roads from Croatia ' s Adriatic coast , Izetbegovic cited the importation of `` food and other materi als that I can't talk about '' as having a positive effect on the war effort aga inst the Serbs . On May 13 , The Washington Post reported that 60 tons of Irania n explosives and raw materials for ammunition manufacturing had arrived for Bosn ia 's weapons plants . Since then , Bosnian military sources have said at least one shipload of Brazilian-made weaponry destined for Bosnia has reached the Balk ans . WASHINGTON U.S. Sen. Charles S. Robb 's re-election campaign willn't have the s upport of his party 's 1993 candidate for governor , two-time Virginia attorney general Mary Sue Terry , who Tuesday endorsed one of his challengers for the Dem ocratic nomination . The beneficiary of Terry 's action was state Sen. Virgil H. Goode Jr. of rural Rocky Mount , who hailed her support as the biggest boost to his underdog campaign . Terry has been closely allied with Robb , a former law school classmate , throughout her career . The two were ticketmates in 1981 , wh en he was elected Virginia governor and she won her first term as attorney gener al . And because both espouse a moderate-to-conservative philosophy , Terry was sometimes called `` Chuck Robb in a skirt . '' In a statement , Robb said he 'd `` been aware for some time that she was thinking about endorsing Virgil , so it didn't come as a surprise , and I didn't try to dissuade her . `` To her credit , '' he continued , Terry `` called me at home ( Monday ) night to tell me what she planned to do , and I respect her for calling me personally . If I am the D emocratic nominee , I know she 'll be with me in November . '' Terry , who appea red with Goode at news conferences Tuesday in Arlington and Richmond , declined to characterize her announcement as a repudiation of Robb . `` The easy thing fo r me , '' she said , `` would have been to sit by and just let whatever might ha ppen in the primary happen . But I think I would be shirking my responsibility a s a Virginian if I did not do what I could as small as that might be to make sur e we have the strongest possible candidate to prevent ( Republican frontrunner ) Oliver North from becoming our senator . And I am convinced Virgil is that cand idate . '' Mary Washington College political scientist Mark J. Rozell said Terry 's snub of Robb `` may reflect a feeling among many leading Democrats . . . ( w ho ) don't feel they have the luxury to speak out . '' Rozell said one upside to Terry 's crushing loss in the 1993 gubernatorial race is that she has `` a degr ee of freedom to speak openly . '' And while she may not carry much weight with the general electorate , Rozell said , within the party `` she retains stature a mong groups , such as women activists . '' WASHINGTON The U.S. Postal Service is in `` serious financial trouble , '' faci ng a huge deficit and an uncertain future , witnesses told a House committee Tue sday . Rep. William L . Clay , D-Mo. , chairman of the House Committee on Post O ffice and Civil Service , agreed with the dire assessments and added one of his own , describing the Postal Service as `` a ship of state that is not only rudde rless , but captain-less . Whoever is running the ship over there is not doing a good job . '' It was one of Clay 's most caustic attacks on Postmaster General Marvin T. Runyon , the former Tennessee auto maker whose budget-cutting exploits have won him praise from many mailers . But in this , the fifth of six oversigh t hearings into the agency 's ability to compete with new electronic technologie s , Runyon 's decisions came under increased criticism . During the hearing Tues day , William H. LeBlanc III , the senior member of the independent Postal Rate Commission , sent one of the strongest signals of any witness that the Postal Se rvice 's finances are more troubled that previously thought . `` It is my view t hat the Postal Service could hardly be worse off financially and I see nothing o n the horizon that will significantly improve its present position , '' LeBlanc told the committee . A Reagan appointee who has served on the five-member regula tory panel since 1987 , LeBlanc predicted the Postal Service is headed for a $ 2 .4 billion loss this year , well above the $ 1.3 billion loss that Runyon had ex pected . LeBlanc said he has never been so worried about the agency 's future . Without naming Runyon , LeBlanc also questioned the wisdom of the postmaster gen eral 's decision to delay the next postage increase until 1995 , noting that the agency could have captured an extra $ 3.9 billion in revenues by filing its rat e case 16 months earlier . `` This would seem a high price to pay for rate stabi lity , '' LeBlanc said . The rate commission is considering a Postal Service req uest to increase the price of a letter to 32 cents from 29 cents an increase tha t Clay and others have suggested may be too small to cover the agency 's rapidly growing debt . Most of the unexpected costs have been attributed to overtime th at followed the retirements of many senior workers in a Runyon-directed reorgani zation last year . Postal spokeman Bob Hoobing declined to comment on Clay 's re marks , but he said LeBlanc had oversimplified the agency 's finances . Runyon ' s proposed 10.3 percent increase in postal rates `` will stabilize '' postal fin ances and prevent a large drop in mail volume . `` We 're not just sitting there and letting the tide roll over us , '' Hoobing said . While LeBlanc said he was not speaking for the rate commission , he was not alone in expressing concern o ver the future of the Postal Service . Representatives of the General Accounting Office cautioned the committee that the agency 's effort to save money through automation was not working and new technologies , such as computer messages and fax machines were eroding the agency 's mail monopoly . `` The risk to the Posta l Service posed by competition and changing technology is very real , '' said GA O Associate Director Michael E. Motley . Large chunks of mail have already been lost to the rapid growth of new technologies , a GAO official said . Since 1971 the Postal Service also has lost two key markets , overnight mail and parcel pos t , to private firms because it failed to compete on price and service , Motley said . Its share of parcels fell from 65 percent of the market in 1971 to 6 perc ent in 1990 and its overnight Express Mail dropped from 100 percent of the marke t in 1971 to 12 percent in 1990 , he said . Motley suggested that Congress might revise its postal laws to give the Postal Service more flexibility on pricing a nd to allow discounts to large mailers , steps the Postal Service has long reque sted . The GAO official praised Runyon for attempting to take advantage of techn ological developments , but he questioned whether any new service the agency cou ld create would generate enough revenue to replace the mail it is likely to lose to new technology . Edward J. Gleiman , the new chairman of the rate commission , also suggested Runyon go slow on new ventures . `` There may be no real reaso n for the Postal Service to seek business opportunities much beyond the margins of its traditional business , '' Gleiman said . But he also sounded the most opt imistic of any witness Tuesday . `` For the intermediate term five to seven year s out I think the greatest threat to postal volumes is the Postal Service itself , '' he told Clay . `` Service must be maintained and costs must be controlled or all mailers will actively seek cheaper and more-reliable alternatives to the mail . '' However , Gleiman did join the GAO in expressing concerns about the fu ture of first-class mail . Taxpayers could ultimately be stuck with `` a substan tial bailout '' of an agency that currently gets virtually no tax subsidies if m ail volume falls substantially , Gleiman said . In his questions Tuesday , Clay seemed to suggest that his final witnesses the presidentially appointed board of postal governors who oversee the agency will be questioned in detail about thei r oversight of Runyon . `` I think they 're being hoodwinked. .. . I have some d oubt they 're being given all the information they need , '' the chairman said . So far most of Clay 's hearings have been receptive to Runyon . Last week , how ever , postal unions sharply criticized his reorganization . They described Runy on 's decision to split all local mail operations into two separate divisions cu stomer service or mail processing whose local heads are often at odds . These di sputes have to be appealed to Washington to be resolved , a time-consuming proce ss . JACMEL , Haiti Despite a reinforced U.N. embargo that went into effect Sunday , a flotilla of ships carrying contraband has sailed into this port city , carryi ng merchandise including gasoline , cars and color television sets . Local resid ents said at least nine ships have docked since the strengthened embargo started , in theory barring everything except pre-approved shipments of food , medicine and propane gas . Five remained Monday , and army officers directed trucks onto the docks to unload the merchandise . The embargo was imposed in October and re inforced by the U.N. . Security Council on Sunday in an effort to force the mili tary to allow the return of ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide . He was ove rthrown in a military coup in September 1991 , six months after becoming Haiti ' s first democratically elected leader . The ships , which flew British , Jamaica n , Colombian , Dominican , Bahamian and Haitian flags , demonstrated how diffic ult it could be to enforce the measure , especially since the ships largely ply the waters between Haiti and the Dominican Republic . The two nations share the Caribbean island of Hispaniola . While the United States and other nations maint ain warships and Coast Guard cutters offshore , they cannot legally enter the th ree-mile territorial limit , and so the ships often can just skirt the shoreline and enter without interference . `` So far , the ships have been triple-parked out there , '' said one longtime resident , watching as they bobbed , waiting to be unloaded . `` It has been years since the port was that busy . '' Diplomats involved in monitoring the embargo said it could take weeks to figure out how to plug its leaks , and admitted that the officers who control the contraband coul d build up substantial stockpiles in the meantime . This means the measure would not really begin to have an impact on the rich and on the officer corps for sev eral weeks , they said . But it is a question whether the wealthy or the officer corps will suffer . While reporters watched , uniformed army officers supervise d the unloading of a truckload of color televisions and other electronic goods . At the port entrance , a small market has sprung up , and residents said there had been an influx of prostitutes to keep pace with the growing number of ships . Residents said that at times over the weekend there were nine tanker trucks on the dock getting fuel from tanks on visiting ships . Other ships unloaded vehic les and luxury goods . The Bahamian-flagged Sea Search , a seagoing tug that on Saturday was engaged by a U.S. picket ship enforcing the embargo , was in port h ere Monday , its barrels of fuel being unloaded under the supervision of militar y officers . Eyewitnesses said an armed fight nearly broke out in the stately La Jacmelienne Hotel here Saturday night when a subordinate of powerful police com mander Lt. Col. Michel Francois , identified as Maj. Oiseau , arrived with sever al other officers to supervise the unloading of fuel . According to several acco unts , the owner of the hotel refused Oiseau a room for the night because he and the other officers were not paying for food or drinks . Oiseau reportedly began waving a gun around and threatening to kill hotel employees , while the hotel o wner also brought out a gun . Only the intervention of Col. Lyonel Sylvain , the regional commander , avoided a major shootout , the sources said . The witnesse s , who asked not to be identified for their personal safety , said another ship , the Oakleigh , flying the Union Jack and registered in Aberdeen , Scotland , made several trips a week over the last several months to the Dominican Republic , bringing back about 15,000 gallons of fuel at a time . Residents here and kno wledgeable sources in Port-au-Prince , the capital , said much of the Jacmel fue l flow is controlled by an important fuel wholesaler named Gerald Caroli . Knowl edgeable sources said Caroli is a major fuel supplier of the U.S. . Embassy and other diplomatic missions . While ships were unloaded , a Dominican vessel sat a bout a mile from the dock , abandoned because its captain , known only as `` Dir ty Harry , '' fled for his life when the buyers of his fuel found some of the di esel was full of sludge and unusable . RWAMAGANA , Rwanda Some of them are only boys , 14 or 15 years old , wearing sh eepish grins and raggedy uniforms that make them appear no more threatening than toy soldiers . They smile easily , but the smile does not reach their eyes . Al ready these boys are wartime veterans , warriors who have no rank , collect no p ay and travel on foot , lugging an odd assortment of French , Belgian and Soviet weapons . They sleep on the ground , stuff bullets in their pockets and have no t yet learned to salute or field-strip a rifle . `` It 's not a bad life , '' sa id one of the boys manning a checkpoint here on the road to Kigali , the capital . `` One day I go back to my father 's farm . Today I fight . '' The boys are p art of the Rwandan Patriotic Front , a guerrilla group whose roots go back to 19 59 but who remained virtually unknown to the world-at-large until its members la unched a major offensive April 6 that has now chased government soldiers out of half of this beleaguered , impoverished nation . In the process , the front has become part of Africa 's post-independence legacy . Page by page , over 40 years , guerrilla groups from Angola to Kenya have rewritten the history of the conti nent . The results have not always been beneficial for the people in whose name the rebellions were launched . The first guerrilla wars , like Jomo Kenyatta 's Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya in the early 1960s , were undertaken to drive out the European colonialists . Each succeeded , and from bloodied Angola and Guinea-Bi ssau in the west to Mozambique in the east and Rhodesia ( now Zimbabwe and Zambi a ) in the south , power was transferred to the Africans . With the election of Nelson Mandela to South Africa 's presidency last month , all 47 sub-Saharan Afr ican countries are now governed by the black majority . Today , the purpose of g uerrilla groups like the Rwanda Patriotic Front and others that have fought in M ozambique , Angola , Somalia , Ethiopia and Djibouti is to dislodge a ruling Afr ican elite in the name of reform . Under whatever banner they may fight , the re bels ' ultimate purpose is always the same power : economic , political and some times tribal . `` I know this African history , and I swear to you we are differ ent , '' said an RPF officer who requested anonymity . `` We are fighting to ins tall a government of national unity . We want democracy and reform . The first t hing we will do is get rid of the cards identifying your ethnic group that the g overnment makes everyone carry . '' Although such lofty ideals are heard often i n Africa , the RPF , composed mostly of members of the minority Tutsi tribe , ha s proved itself a more disciplined , organized military force than the Rwandan a rmy and its fearful Hutu-dominated militias that have run pell-mell through the countryside , massacring untold thousands of civilians . ( Begin optional trim ) Villagers cheered the arrival of RPF troops along the road to the Tanzanian bor der last month , but many Rwandans , especially Hutus , remain deeply skeptical about the rebels ' ultimate goals and feel that they may begin a new round of bl oodletting to avenge the massacres they have endured . `` I will never return to Rwanda if the RPF is in power , '' said Eliachim Mulindandabi , a 20-year-old H utu refugee in Tanzania 's Benaco camp . `` It would not be safe . For me or any Hutu . They are killers , and they would hunt us down . '' ( End optional trim ) The RPF fighters are mostly Rwandan Tutsi refugees whose families escaped to U ganda after a 1959 revolution that ended 400 years of Tutsi domination over the Hutus , who represent 90 percent of Rwanda 's 8 million people . Historically , the Tutsis formed the intellectual and professional core of Rwandan society . Un til the revolution , they held the Hutu farmers in a form of feudal serfdom surp assed only in Ethiopia . In Uganda , many of the Rwandan refugees were recruited as mercenaries in the National Resistance Army that , with the help of Tanzania n soldiers and Ugandan dissidents , overthrew Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in the 1 970s . The rebel leader , Yoweri Museveni , became president of Uganda in 1986 a nd has not forgotten his debt : Uganda provides the RPF with its lifeline of wea pons , ammunition and supplies . Many RPF rebels speak English learned in Uganda , while the Zaire-supported Rwandan army speaks French or Kinyarwanda , the lan guage shared by both Hutus and Tutsis . Some of the rebels have returned to join the battle from jobs abroad as accountants , teachers and a variety of middle-c lass positions . `` I deal with the RPF every day , and I found them very respon sible , '' said a French doctor who works in rebel-controlled territory . `` But they 're having a lot of trouble doing all the things you have to do when you a dminister civilian authority . That I don't think they 're prepared to handle . '' ( Optional add end ) Ever since the Hutus began demanding political reform in 1957 , there have been outbreaks of fierce violence between the Hutus and Tutsi s in Rwanda and neighboring Burundi . Thousands of Tutsis in Rwanda were massacr ed in Hutu-organized slaughters in 1959 and 1963 . The most recent unrest began Oct. 5 , 1990 , when fighting broke out in Kigali between the rebels and the arm y , and it has since become a civil war . MOSCOW Russia is entering a new phase in its economic reforms and will now conc entrate on fighting its disastrous industrial slump and bringing order to its ta x system , officials said Tuesday . `` You could call this the beginning of the stabilization period , '' Economics Minister Alexander N . Shokhin said , `` alt hough the statistics don't bear that out yet . '' The statistics show that in Ru ssia 's stumbling transition from centrally planned socialism to a market-driven economy , it is managing to damp inflation the main task of recent months . But its industry is on the verge of collapse , with production plummeting 25 percen t in the first quarter compared to last year ; its tax system is a mess , and it is desperately short of investment money . The Economics Ministry has warned th at , if unemployment mounts , this could lead to a `` social explosion . '' Afte r months of pleas for change from factory directors and pressure from his indust ry-oriented prime minister , President Boris N . Yeltsin has made the troubled e conomy his focus in recent days . The results appeared Monday . Six presidential decrees rolled off the presses , all of them aimed at bringing some order to th e Russian economy , at introducing enough control so that , as presidential advi ser Alexander Livshits put it , `` there will be a little less robbery . '' The decrees introduce harsh penalties for tax evaders and require factories to regis ter all their bank accounts if they want to receive government subsidies . They also provide a panoply of ways of controlling factories ' finances better while lifting some of the crushing tax burden from them . `` A number of measures take n by the government have allowed the economy to be stabilized to some extent , ' ' Deputy Economics Minister Sergei Vasilyev optimistically told a conference her e . One decree also sharply reduces export tariffs on oil and other goods and do es away with the system of special export licenses that had provided the basis f or massive red tape and bureaucratic corruption . `` The most important decree o f the package is the decree on doing away with export quotas and licenses , '' s aid Mikhail Berger , economics columnist for the newspaper Izvestia , `` because it will destroy the entire structure of massive bribe-taking , a structure that includes armies of corrupt officials . With the disappearance of the quotas and licenses , the very reason for taking and giving bribes will cease to exist . ' ' ( Optional Add End ) Shokhin said obstacles to the export of oil and other fue l had to be lifted because the industry is on the verge of a shutdown ; domestic prices have risen so much that demand for oil has dropped sharply . Export , me anwhile , was limited by licensing , so producers had nowhere to sell their oil and were beginning to stop drilling . Still to come are promised presidential de crees on procedures for going bankrupt Yeltsin is finally beginning to accept th at monstrous loss-makers must be allowed to go under and on limiting salaries . Although the decrees are not quite bombshells , Shokhin said that taken together they reach `` critical mass to provide added impulse '' to the reforms . NEW ORLEANS With the cable TV industry reeling from 17 percent in forced rate r eductions , Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt told industry executives meeting here Tuesday that he foresees no further cuts . `` I know of no evidence to support a further reduction .. . and we are not looking for such evidence , '' said Hundt , seeking to ease concerns of cable executives . The FC C chairman said that he had `` sympathy and concern '' for the plight of cable o perators who complained that the rollbacks handicapped them in the race to build the `` information superhighway . '' At the same time , Hundt defended the roll backs , arguing that the cable TV industry is extremely healthy and that the new regulations would help promote competition . `` I 'm not here to eulogize at yo ur wake , '' he said . In addition , Hundt indicated that the FCC would not enac t a so-called `` productivity offset '' that could have forced many cable compan y operators to scale back rates a further 2 percent , largely wiping out increas es they can pass along to subscribers because of inflation . `` This sort of off set is generally found in the regulations of a utility , but cable is not a util ity , '' explained Hundt . The cable TV industry has been vociferous in its comp laints about the new rollbacks , claiming the cuts will cost the industry some $ 3 billion a year in cash flow . The reduction in cash flow will in turn prevent operators from borrowing money to invest the capital for the building of the br oad-band , 500-channel cable TV system of the future that is supposed to provide customers a panoply of new home shopping services , movies-on-demand , and vide o games . The reaction among cable TV operators to Hundt 's remarks was optimist ic but cautious . `` This is good , but God is in the details , '' said Tim Bogg s , a vice president with Time Warner Inc. , the country 's second largest cable TV operator . ( Optional add end ) Indeed , Hundt offered few specifics about t he kind of `` refinement '' the FCC had in mind to its implementation of the rat e rollbacks mandated by Congress in 1992 . He acknowledged , however , that the FCC was looking for `` programming incentives '' that would encourage operators to put on new channels while keeping some flexibility in pricing . Cable TV stoc ks appeared to react favorably to Hundt 's remarks , with many registering stron g gains for the day . Raymond L. Katz , senior vice president at Lehman Bros. , expressed a sigh of relief . `` I have clients who have obsessed about that 2 pe rcent off-set . They wouldn't buy cable stocks as a result of that . Up until no w the FCC has focused on the political aspects . Now they appear willing to focu s on the economics. , '' he said . WASHINGTON The Clinton administration has concluded an agreement with the gover nment of Vietnam that will open the way for U.S. diplomats to represent and prot ect Vietnamese-Americans on Vietnamese soil , U.S. officials said Tuesday . The agreement means that any Vietnamese-Americans who are arrested or imprisoned in Vietnam will be entitled to have American diplomats visit them and try to ensure they are treated humanely and fairly . It also means that U.S. diplomats in Vie tnam can try to locate Vietnamese-Americans who are missing , can help Vietnames e-Americans replace lost U.S. passports , and can try to arrange money transfers for Vietnamese-Americans who are robbed . The understanding is one part of a br oader accord in which Vietnam and the United States agreed to open up liaison of fices in each other 's capital cities . These offices , to be staffed by at leas t 10 diplomats apiece , will carry out some of the functions of embassies until diplomatic relations are established between the two governments . The move to s et up liaison offices is one of several recent indications that the Clinton admi nistration is taking new steps to upgrade U.S. relations with Vietnam . Last wee k , Vietnam 's Deputy Premier Tran Duc Luong visited Washington for talks with S ecretary of State Warren Christopher . `` The point is that we have taken anothe r step forward , '' a senior administration official said Tuesday . President Cl inton proposed the creation of liaison offices when he lifted the trade embargo against Vietnam last February . But the final arrangements were not worked out u ntil last Friday , after Luong 's visit , when Assistant Secretary of State Wins ton Lord signed the documents spelling out the details . `` We have now agreed o n consular protection ( for Vietnamese-Americans ) , and we can begin to look fo r property and open up the offices , '' said one senior administration official . In the past , Vietnam took the position that Vietnamese-Americans are not enti tled to the protection of American diplomats , because they are Vietnamese natio nals . But the Clinton administration stuck to the traditional U.S. view that su ch people are American citizens , and are entitled to the same consular protecti on as other Americans . `` They ( the Vietnamese government ) finally came aroun d on this issue , '' said a State Department official . In the 1990 census , 615 ,000 Americans identified themselves as being of Vietnamese descent . In recent years , many Vietnamese-Americans have been returning home to do business or to visit relatives . ( Optional add end ) The new U.S. liaison office in Hanoi coul d be opened within the next two months . `` It 's a matter of finding the proper ty , '' a State Department official said . American and Vietnamese officials als o have agreed on a return of the properties that each government owned on the ot her 's soil . The U.S. government will get back 32 properties that it owned in V ietnam , most of them in Ho Chi Minh City , the former Saigon . The Hanoi govern ment will get back a single property , the building that served before the end o f the war as South Vietnam 's embassy in Washington . The U.S. properties will p robably include one of the most famous and photographed buildings in the world : the former U.S. embassy in Saigon , from which crowds of Americans and Vietname se were evacuated by helicopter at the end of the war in April 1975 . Administra tion officials have said the United States will not establish formal diplomatic relations with Vietnam until after Hanoi cooperates further in the task of accou nting for Americans missing in action during the war . TOKYO Smiling and clearly relieved after three months of angry silence , Foreig n Minister Koji Kakizawa said late Tuesday night the world 's two biggest econom ic powers had gone through a tortured series of negotiations but finally been ab le to `` give birth to an understanding . '' The understanding to restart trade talks was no easy birth and largely symbolic , but after a bitter and acrimoniou s dispute it was greeted in Japan as a clear sign that U.S.-Japanese relations a re heading along the right path and toward agreement on substantive points . `` There is no way we will ( now ) fail , '' said government spokesman Hiroshi Kuma gai , who used to run the Ministry of Trade and Industry , which headed the trad e talks . Other Japanese leaders also suggested that the deal meant that crucial barriers to a more comprehensive trade agreement with the United States had bee n broken . `` I am absolutely confident we will find a way , '' Prime Minister T sutomu Hata said . Formal trade negotiations broke down in February when former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa flatly rejected U.S. demands , saying the Japan ese had come of age politically and could stand down the United States . His def iance was initially hailed here as historic and courageous . But as Japan 's tra de surpluses soared , its currency strengthened and economy languished , Hosokaw a 's emphatic rejection provoked widespread consternation that Japan 's most imp ortant political and economic relationship was fraying badly . The breakdown als o reflected badly on the United States , which was viewed as trying to bully Asi ans into accepting U.S. standards on trade , justice and human rights . For exam ple , the United States recently criticized Singapore for caning a youth convict ed of vandalism and threatened trade sanctions against China for human rights ab uses . Two months of acrimony finally broke in mid-April with informal talks . W hen Japanese officials went to the United States last weekend , they expected at least one more round of preliminary negotiations before the pivotal framework t alks could restart . What they found instead , said a participant in the negotia tions , was `` that the atmosphere was far more conciliatory , and far less conf rontational and hawkish '' than before . ( Optional add end ) Two specific obsta cles had led to the collapse of talks in February : Japan 's unwillingness to st imulate its economy by cutting taxes as much as the United States wanted and Jap an 's refusal to use specific measurements to gauge improvement in trade issues . Over the weekend , Japanese officials say , they found that the United States had backed down on both points . In terms of an extended tax cut , the United St ates became convinced that Japan 's chaotic political scene precluded any near-t erm commitment to a sustained fiscal policy tax cut or otherwise . The officials also said the United States backed off demands for numerical indicators to trac k Japan 's willingness to absorb imports . U.S. officials had strenuously denied ever emphasizing a strict numerical indicator , but Japanese officials said tha t the United States had privately pushed for indicators . Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service . BRUSSELS , Belgium Russia said Tuesday that it will join NATO 's new Partnershi p for Peace program for former East Bloc countries despite its earlier reservati ons , but it hinted that it still may seek some political concessions in return . At a meeting of North Atlantic Treaty Organization defense ministers , Russian defense chief Pavel S. Grachev told reporters that President Boris N . Yeltsin has `` instructed me that I should make it clear that Russia will join the .. . program . '' He also denied that Russia would demand a formal side agreement pro viding it with more status than other countries in the program , as Moscow had s uggested earlier . `` We are not going to set forth any conditions , '' he said . But Western officials continued to be wary , mindful of earlier indications th at Moscow would demand that NATO agree to some sort of new protocol that would g ive Moscow more authority beyond the Partnership for Peace program . U.S. . Defe nse Secretary William J. Perry told reporters after Grachev 's news conference t hat he still does not know precisely what demands Moscow will make . Grachev 's appearance followed a series of Russian flip-flops over the issue of whether to join the program . Moscow had been expected to apply for membership last month b ut balked in protest over NATO air strikes against Serb rebel forces in Bosnia-H erzegovina . The Russian defense minister is scheduled to provide details Wednes day about what demands , if any , Moscow will make . The issue of Russian member ship is important because establishing a formal relationship with NATO is viewed by the West as an important step in strengthening ties between the two former f oes . Some Western officials fear that if Moscow chooses not to join the program , it could bolster the influence of hard-liners in Russia who want the governme nt to keep the West at arm 's length . But some analysts believe the issue of sp ecial status is mainly symbolic and that Moscow is looking primarily for a polit ical gesture that will help counter complaints by nationalists that post-Cold Wa r Russia is not being accorded due respect . Grachev himself appeared to be play ing to that end Tuesday when he made a point of declaring that the NATO minister s had been `` listening to me carefully '' and were `` sympathetic '' to Russia 's plans . The Partnership for Peace program was adopted at a NATO summit in Jan uary as a way to strengthen ties with former East Bloc countries by giving them a sort of auxiliary status involving consultations and some joint exercises . As of Tuesday , 18 former Soviet satellites , from Poland to Kazakhstan , have for mally joined the program , and the Netherlands has announced that it will hold m ilitary exercises with the Poles some time this autumn . ( Optional add end ) Th e West 's major objection to providing any special status for the Russians is a fear by some other former East Bloc countries that Moscow will dominate the new program eventually regaining control over their affairs . Both Western and forme r East Bloc countries also are fearful about Moscow 's new assertions that Russi a should have the right to send troops to former Soviet satellites , such as Geo rgia , in which large numbers of Russians live . Perry and other key NATO minist ers made it clear Tuesday that they recognize that Russia 's relationship with N ATO is likely to be broader than that of other countries because of its size and the fact that it is a nuclear power . `` Russia and NATO need a solid partnersh ip , '' German Defense Minister Volker Ruehe said . `` Russia must be treated an d perceived to be treated as a great power . '' But Sergio Balanzino , NATO 's d eputy secretary general , told reporters that the Western ministers had already decided that Moscow 's membership in the partnership program must adhere to the same rules as that of other countries . Even if Grachev and the ministers reach agreement in principle Wednesday , officials say it is unlikely that NATO would act on the application before early June , when NATO 's foreign ministers are sc heduled to meet in Istanbul , Turkey . Grachev met with NATO ministers late Tues day , but U.S. officials said he merely briefed the group on Moscow 's new milit ary doctrine and did not address the membership question . Apart from their meet ing with Grachev , the NATO ministers also issued a communique warning that Nort h Korea 's nuclear weapons program poses `` a grave risk '' to global security , presenting the world with a `` serious '' problem . NEW ORLEANS Washington is softening its hard line on the cable-television indus try . After angering the industry by ordering two cable price cuts in 10 months , federal regulators are talking about ways to give cable operators `` incentive s '' code language for permitting them to raise prices when they add new channel s or offer new services . Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt until now the cable industry 's Public Enemy No. 1 mollified executives gathered here Tuesday for the industry 's national convention by suggesting that the FCC will consider tweaking its price regulations in the next few months to make the m more cable-friendly . The early hour 7:30 a.m. over breakfast miffed some cabl e executives , who wondered why Hundt couldn't take part in the conference 's re gular session . They gave subdued applause and remained silent during some of hi s gag lines . But in general they seemed placated . Hundt said it may be necessa ry to give cable companies a higher markup than the rules now allow when they ad d new channels or invest in the so-called information highway . `` More refineme nt ( of these rules ) may be necessary , '' he said , adding , `` We need to mak e sure that ( government regulation ) does not block any cable company from maki ng investments necessary to offer the .. . services of the future . '' He stoppe d short of making firm promises , other than to reassure cable operators that th e FCC wasn't looking to cut rates more than the average 17 percent rollback alre ady ordered . Despite the industry 's gripes , Hundt until now has maintained th at the effect of the FCC price cut on the industry 's financial health was still unclear , and could even help it . FCC aides said Tuesday they had no hard evid ence demonstrating that additional incentives were justified ; indeed , many of the nation 's 11,000 cable systems haven't yet calculated the exact impact of th e average 17 percent cut due to complicated formulas that make each system 's nu mber different . But cable executives have lobbied the FCC hard in recent weeks for changes , and have been highly public in denouncing the new rules . During t he convention 's opening session Monday , for example , the president of the spo nsoring National Cable Television Association , Decker Anstrom , called the FCC 's cable regulations `` a political caning . '' Anstrom Tuesday called Hundt 's latest remarks `` a good start . '' Investors appeared to agree , bidding up the price of several cable stocks . Tele-Communications Inc. closed at $ 20.50 , up $ 1.50 ; Time Warner Inc. closed at $ 39.25 , up $ 1.37 ; and Turner Broadcasti ng System Inc. 's B shares ended the day at $ 18.37 , up 75 cents . Among the FC C 's most vociferous critics at this year 's convention were entrepreneurs who a re attempting to launch new basic cable networks . Representatives of more than 120 proposed cable channels dotted the floor of the convention center here seeki ng to convince system owners to carry their offerings . Among the fledgling serv ices are the Crime Channel , the Ecology Channel , the Filipino Channel , Pet Te levision Network , the Therapy Channel , as well as channels devoted to parentin g , home shopping , games and other subjects . The programmers were in a dour mo od because they say the FCC 's rules have put a cloud over their prospects . The current regulations permit a cable operator to charge subscribers 7.5 percent a bove the operator 's cost of adding a new channel a margin that programmers say is too low . `` The incentives just aren't there , '' said J. Carter Brown , for mer director of the National Gallery in Washington , who is working on the launc h of an arts channel called Ovation . `` If an operator is going to risk his cap ital '' to add and promote a new channel , `` there has to be a better return . '' Under the current rules , operators will add new channels not as groups but o n a stand-alone basis since such `` a la carte '' channels are not subject to pr ice regulation , said John Hendricks , president of Discovery Communications Inc . , parent of the Discovery Channel . `` If the regulations aren't changed , '' he said , `` new services will only be available to the affluent . '' Although H undt has now put that issue on the table at the FCC , the Supreme Court may come to the industry 's aid first . The court is expected to decide soon on the cabl e industry 's challenge to a portion of the cable law that requires operators to carry local broadcast stations . This `` must-carry '' requirement has forced c able operators to make room for broadcasters by bumping some cable-only channels , including C-SPAN , off their systems . If the court sides with the cable indu stry , cable operators would be free to dump broadcast stations they didn't want , opening many new slots for cable networks . Women who routinely undergo intensive tests , X-rays and bone scans after treat ment for breast cancer do not live longer than women who rely on routine physica l exams and mammograms , two studies show . Results of two Italian studies , eac h of which tracked more than 1,000 women , were to be reported in Wednesday 's i ssue of the Journal of the American Medical Association . The studies concluded that while expensive tests such as chest X-rays , liver scans and bone scans ena bled physicians to diagnose the spread of cancer faster , the earlier diagnosis did nothing to lengthen survival or improve quality of life . One study , by the Interdisciplinary Group for Cancer Care Evaluation in Milan , followed 1,320 br east cancer patients under the age of 70 for five years . Half the women underwe nt intensive testing ; the others had routine mammograms and checkups . The rese archers found that 20 percent of the group subjected to intensive tests died , c ompared with 18 percent of the other group . The difference in death rates was n ot statistically significant . In the other study , researchers in Florence foll owed 1,243 women for five years after breast cancer surgery , determining that X -rays and bone scans should be limited to patients with suspicious symptoms . It 's holiday sale time at your local airline counter . Almost all major U.S. a irlines said Tuesday they will take you up to 750 miles and back for $ 99 this c oming weekend anywhere they fly within the United States , except Hawaii and Ala ska . If your destination is more than 750 miles away , the cost is $ 139 per ro und trip . As usual , there are restrictions . First , all flights have to be ta ken between noon Saturday and midnight Sunday . Second , you have to buy your ti cket within 24 hours of making the reservation . And third , seats are `` limite d , '' but most airlines said they have plenty of unsold seats available . It 's the availability of the seats that is the motivation for the sale . `` This is a slow travel period . This late , you 've either got the seats sold or you 're not going to sell them '' at the regular prices , said Delta Air Lines Inc. spok esman Bill Berry . Delta kicked off a similar sale over the Christmas and New Ye ar holidays and was first to post the sale prices for this coming weekend . Berr y said the one-day Christmas sale netted $ 500,000 in additional revenue and the two-day New Year sale took in $ 1 million . For the most part , this is additio nal revenue for the airlines , which fly their schedules whether a dozen passeng ers are aboard or the plane is full . A $ 99 passenger is better than no passeng er , and no revenue . With their sophisticated computer systems , airlines can j udge several days in advance of a flight whether they are likely to have a large number of unsold seats . The likelihood of little last-minute business traffic on a holiday weekend then creates an opening for a `` super sale . '' Even South west Airlines Co. and Continental Airlines Inc. jumped on the bandwagon , althou gh each noted they regularly offer lower fares Southwest throughout its system a nd Continental on its Peanut Fares flights . `` We willn't raise our fares , '' joked a Continental spokesman . Several low-fare carriers allow a regular paying passenger to take along another traveler for an additional penny or another nom inal sum , beating even a $ 99 promotional fare on a few routes if two people ar e traveling . NEW ORLEANS Washington is softening its hard line on the cable-television indus try . After angering the industry by ordering two cable price cuts in 10 months , federal regulators are talking about ways to give cable operators `` incentive s '' code language for permitting them to raise prices when they add new channel s or offer new services . Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt until now the cable industry 's Public Enemy No. 1 mollified executives gathered here Tuesday for the industry 's national convention by suggesting that the FCC will consider tweaking its price regulations in the next few months to make the m more cable-friendly . The early hour 7:30 a.m. over breakfast miffed some cabl e executives , who wondered why Hundt couldn't take part in the conference 's re gular session . They gave subdued applause and remained silent during some of hi s gag lines . But in general they seemed placated . Hundt said it may be necessa ry to give cable companies a higher markup than the rules now allow when they ad d new channels or invest in the so-called information highway . `` More refineme nt ( of these rules ) may be necessary , '' he said , adding , `` We need to mak e sure that ( government regulation ) does not block any cable company from maki ng investments necessary to offer the .. . services of the future . '' He stoppe d short of making firm promises , other than to reassure cable operators that th e FCC wasn't looking to cut rates more than the average 17 percent rollback alre ady ordered . Despite the industry 's gripes , Hundt until now has maintained th at the effect of the FCC price cut on the industry 's financial health was still unclear , and could even help it . FCC aides said Tuesday they had no hard evid ence demonstrating that additional incentives were justified ; indeed , many of the nation 's 11,000 cable systems haven't yet calculated the exact impact of th e average 17 percent cut due to complicated formulas that make each system 's nu mber different . But cable executives have lobbied the FCC hard in recent weeks for changes , and have been highly public in denouncing the new rules . During t he convention 's opening session Monday , for example , the president of the spo nsoring National Cable Television Association , Decker Anstrom , called the FCC 's cable regulations `` a political caning . '' Anstrom Tuesday called Hundt 's latest remarks `` a good start . '' Investors appeared to agree , bidding up the price of several cable stocks . Tele-Communications Inc. closed at $ 20.50 , up $ 1.50 ; Time Warner Inc. closed at $ 39.25 , up $ 1.37 ; and Turner Broadcasti ng System Inc. 's B shares ended the day at $ 18.37 , up 75 cents . Among the FC C 's most vociferous critics at this year 's convention were entrepreneurs who a re attempting to launch new basic cable networks . Representatives of more than 120 proposed cable channels dotted the floor of the convention center here seeki ng to convince system owners to carry their offerings . Among the fledgling serv ices are the Crime Channel , the Ecology Channel , the Filipino Channel , Pet Te levision Network , the Therapy Channel , as well as channels devoted to parentin g , home shopping , games and other subjects . The programmers were in a dour mo od because they say the FCC 's rules have put a cloud over their prospects . The current regulations permit a cable operator to charge subscribers 7.5 percent a bove the operator 's cost of adding a new channel a margin that programmers say is too low . `` The incentives just aren't there , '' said J. Carter Brown , for mer director of the National Gallery in Washington , who is working on the launc h of an arts channel called Ovation . `` If an operator is going to risk his cap ital '' to add and promote a new channel , `` there has to be a better return . '' Under the current rules , operators will add new channels not as groups but o n a stand-alone basis since such `` a la carte '' channels are not subject to pr ice regulation , said John Hendricks , president of Discovery Communications Inc . , parent of the Discovery Channel . `` If the regulations aren't changed , '' he said , `` new services will only be available to the affluent . '' Although H undt has now put that issue on the table at the FCC , the Supreme Court may come to the industry 's aid first . The court is expected to decide soon on the cabl e industry 's challenge to a portion of the cable law that requires operators to carry local broadcast stations . This `` must-carry '' requirement has forced c able operators to make room for broadcasters by bumping some cable-only channels , including C-SPAN , off their systems . If the court sides with the cable indu stry , cable operators would be free to dump broadcast stations they didn't want , opening many new slots for cable networks . WASHINGTON Chelsea Clinton will step into a teal dress this weekend to be a bri desmaid at her Uncle Tony Rodham 's wedding , the first nuptials held at the Whi te House in more than 20 years . It 's a power-political union , of sorts , with Hillary Clinton 's brother marrying Nicole Boxer , the daughter of Sen. Barbara Boxer , D-Calif . How lucky for the senator ! The Saturday evening ceremony wha t is surely the most coveted invite in town this spring will be held in the Rose Garden , followed by dinner and dancing on the White House State Floor . Hugh R odham will serve as his brother 's best man . Friday 's rehearsal dinner will be hosted by the Clintons and Hillary 's mother , Dorothy Rodham , at a private ho me here . The last White House wedding was in June of 1971 when Tricia Nixon mar ried Ed Cox . A spokesman for the First Lady did want to make it very clear that the White House bill is being picked up by the two families , not by the taxpay ers . -0- We 've heard that .. . Bill Clinton might have to play for his supper Wednesday night when pianist Peter Nero hands him a saxophone at a fund-raiser f or Sen. John Glenn , D-Ohio , at the Corcoran Gallery . It 's been a long row to hoe , but Glenn is still trying to retire his hefty debt from the '84 president ial campaign . Wednesday night 's $ 1,000-a-head ticket , which coincides with t he opening of a new Peter Max exhibit , should certainly put a dent in the effor t . .. . If a picture is worth a thousand words , then having Bill Clinton annou nce that he 's read your book is surely worth a bundle . Seven hundred thousand dollars , to be exact , for mystery writer Michael Connelly . The author has sol d the film rights to his partially written new novel to Scripps Howard Productio ns , according to Variety and just a few months after the president said he love d his last novel , `` The Concrete Blonde . '' WASHINGTON The Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday that municipal solid waste incinerators that produce hazardous ash must soon start disposing o f it under stringent federal hazardous waste disposal rules rather than simply d umping it in conventional landfills . The EPA decision follows an early May Supr eme Court ruling that ash from energy-producing municipal waste plants can be co nsidered hazardous waste if it is found to contain certain metals or other toxic substances . Until the court decision , many municipal waste operators consider ed the ash from their facilities exempt from classification as hazardous waste . Under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act ( RCRA ) , nonhazardous waste can be dumped in any landfill , but hazardous waste must be disposed of under a more costly process in specially regulated dumps . The court ruling will become effective within the next week or two . Some EPA officials had advocated delayin g implementation of the decision , but EPA administrator Carol M. Browner opted for immediate action . `` We stand ready to fully comply with the court 's decis ion , and to help states and municipalities to implement it , '' Browner said ye sterday in a news release . The EPA announcement applies to approximately 140 mu nicipal incinerators across the country that produce energy in the incineration process . EPA is currently drafting rules for operators of those facilities to t est whether their ash is hazardous . Which operators should test and how frequen tly they should test have not yet been determined . The EPA is willing to help o perators come into compliance with the resource conservation law , the agency an nounced yesterday . An implementation strategy and a Federal Register notice abo ut the subject will be issued shortly , the announcement said . EPA is `` willin g to engage in discussions with all interested parties about alternative managem ent schemes . . . for ash , '' the announcement added . The ruling could require operators to ship hazardous waste over long distances . For example , municipal waste facility operators in New Hampshire have determined that their closest op tions for disposing of hazardous waste are in New York or Alabama , according to an EPA official . The Supreme Court case involved a Chicago incinerator that bu rns garbage , producing over 100,000 tons of ash annually and otherwise producin g energy for use in the city . The Environmental Defense Fund ( EDF ) sued the c ity , saying that it violated the resource conservation law by disposing of the ash in landfills that were not allowed to receive hazardous waste . `` We 're pl eased that the EPA is enforcing the decision , '' said EDF attorney Karen Florin i . But the agency should do more to regulate the ash from incinerators that is not necessarily deemed hazardous , she added . The ruling will probably lead to increased recycling in some areas , according to some environmentalists , since some cities will make special efforts to remove metals , batteries or other pote ntially hazardous materials from their waste . CAPE TOWN , South Africa Setting the tone for his presidency Tuesday , Nelson M andela tried to give hope to South Africa 's poor and reassurance to its rich . The 45-minute speech to the initial joint session of country 's first democratic ally elected Parliament laid out the broad goals of the multi-party , Government of National Unity that he leads . Those goals follow closely the ideas of the p latform of the African National Congress , or ANC , known as the Reconstruction and Development Program . The program is aimed at providing the impoverished maj ority black population of South Africa with the same opportunities afforded the country 's small minority of whites during the four decades of apartheid . It fo cuses on building additional housing , on expanded electrification , and on prov iding water , health services and compulsory , free education . He committed the government to spending about $ 750 million on that program in the coming fiscal year , a figure set to rise to over $ 3 billion in the last year of the five-ye ar life of this government for a total of over $ 11 billion . To get it off the ground , Mandela borrowed the first 100-days time frame from Frankin Roosevelt ' s New Deal package of legislation during America 's Great Depression . He said t hat within the next three months he would personally supervise programs to guara ntee free health care to children under the age of 6 and pregnant mothers and im plement nutrition in primary schools . He also said that plans are under way to electrify 350,000 homes during the current fiscal year , a start on his campaign promise to bring electricity to 2.5 million homes in the next five years . Curr ently , two-thirds of South Africa 's 40 million people live without electricity . The speech continued the theme of reconciliation he has used since his releas e from prison four years ago and emphasized since he got 62 percent of the vote last month . This time , he did not reach just over racial , cultural and politi cal divides , but also over economic ones as he sought to reassure the business community , middle-class taxpayers and overseas investors . He promised to achie ve his reconstruction goals while also lowering the country 's budget deficit . And , though he did not say `` no new taxes , '' he did say , `` We are agreed t hat a permanently higher general level of taxation is to be avoided . '' Soundin g far from the revolutionary who spent 27 years in prison on treason charges , M andela talked of a stable monetary policy , of keeping inflation down , encourag ing domestic savings to fund investment , and opening trade negotiations with a variety of partners . As with such state of the union speeches by U.S. president s , Mandela 's talk contained something for just about everyone , with the detai ls to follow next month when the budget is unveiled . Finance Minister Derek Key es , the blunt finance minister who retained the portfolio he held in the previo us National Party Cabinet , told a news briefing that the budget will be able to meet Mandela 's promises . `` We have a carefully planned five-year program , ' ' Keyes said . `` We are not talking about new revenues , but about re-directing the current level of spending , '' he said , pointing out that the $ 750 millio n figure represents 3 percent of the total budget , about the amount that could be saved via yearly attrition of the bloated public service core whose jobs are guaranteed in the new constitution . ( Begin optional trim ) Mandela 's theme of reconciliation included an amnesty plan for those involved in political violenc e . `` The government will not delay unduly with regard to attending to the vexe d and unresolved issue of an amnesty for criminal activities carried out in furt herance of political objectives , '' he said of the plan to end the hunt for tho se responsible for the brutalities of apartheid . `` We will attend to this matt er in a balanced and dignified way , '' he said . `` The nation must come to ter ms with its past in a spirit of openness and forgiveness and proceed to build th e future on the basis of repairing and healing . '' ( End optional trim ) He spo ke of other policies , mentioning alternatives to incarceration for youthful off enders , backing women 's rights , and assuring the police and armed forces of t he government 's faith in them . But the biggest applause came when Mandela call ed for a change in attitude among South Africans . `` We must end racism in the workplace as part of our common offensive against racism in general , '' he said , and then listed the terms that have been a daily reality for the country 's n on-white majority . `` No more should words like kaffirs , hottentost , coolies , boy , girl and baas be part of our vocabulary . '' ( Optional Add End ) The sp eech came after a ceremonial opening of the session , including a 21-gun salute and a flyover by air force jets . Thousands of Cape Town residents lined the cit y 's streets , hoping to catch a glimpse of their new president as he made his w ay to the Parliament buildings . WASHINGTON President Clinton goes to Capitol Hill Wednesday to ask nervous Demo crats not to bend to interest group pressure in their home districts or make spe cific pledges that would gut the administration health care bill . Worried that small business and other lobbies will use the 12-day Memorial Day break , starti ng Friday , to extract promises from members to oppose requirements that employe rs pay for their employees ' insurance and other key features of the Clinton pla n , the president will , according to a spokesman , `` remind everyone why we 'r e in this battle together and why we have to stay the course together . '' He wi ll meet first with Democratic congressional leaders and committee chairmen , the n address a caucus of all House Democrats . `` We want him to ask the members to keep their powder dry , so they don't get locked into positions that would make it even more difficult to pass a bill , '' said Rep. Mike Synar , D-Okla. , a m ember of the House leadership 's health care team . As Clinton attempted to keep Democrats in line , Senate Minority Leader Robert J. Dole , R-Kan. , prepared t o seek Republican support for new stripped-down health legislation drafted by mi nority staff members that could be a starting point for negotiations with Democr ats . The partial plan , which has gone through 30 revisions by Sheila P. Burke , Dole 's chief of staff , rejects most of the key elements of the Clinton plan , including the requirement that employers pay for much of the cost of their emp loyees ' health insurance and that consumers buy insurance through mandatory sta te-run purchasing alliances . Burke said it is still an open question whether Do le will advocate a requirement that all Americans who lack health insurance buy their own as they are required to do with auto insurance . According to a draft of the plan Dole will use in his discussions Wednesday , he seeks to require all health plans to offer a minimum package of benefits , something not now require d . The draft document suggests the benefits package should be worth 75 percent of the value of the standard package offered to federal employees . Dole also wi ll try to get Republicans to agree to prohibit insurers from denying coverage to people when they change jobs and on tough limits to medical malpractice suits . He will suggest providing subsidies to low-income people to buy insurance only when new federal money becomes available , but would impose a `` fail-safe '' me chanism to make sure future Medicare and Medicaid spending does not go above pro jections . Both the Republican and Democratic sessions come at a critical point in the legislative work on the ambitious health plan Clinton promised in his 199 2 campaign and launched last September . The White House had hoped various versi ons of the Clinton bill would emerge by the Memorial Day break from at least som e of the five committees three in the House and two in the Senate with major jur isdiction . One Senate committee and two House subcommittees have begun work on the measure , but no full committee has finished work on a proposal . Administra tion and Capitol Hill officials now have set July 1 as the `` final '' target da te for getting bills out of committee , so the legislation can be considered on the floor of both bodies before the Aug. 15 summer vacation . When Congress retu rns in September , it will have barely a month before adjournment and the closin g phase of midterm election campaigns to get final agreement on a measure . One reason for the slow pace has been the effective lobbying and advertising campaig ns by groups representing health insurance , small business and others who objec t to major features of the Clinton plan . `` No question , '' said Synar , `` a major reason we want the president up here is that we expect to see a tremendous amount of special-interest activity , focused on the members , while we 're at home . We want the president to prepare people for that and to tell them that he is ready to address whatever concerns they hear when they 're home . '' At the last congressional break , over the Easter holidays , platoons of administration officials joined Democratic lawmakers in forums trying to sell constituents on the Clinton plan . The White House has prepared a 53-page handbook of suggested events members can stage during the coming recess as forums for voicing argument s for the Clinton plan . But this time , the effort is essentially defensive to avoid further erosion of support . WASHINGTON In the mid-1980s , John Henderson Jr. had his Texas thrifts buy two airplanes for more than $ 1 million each so he could fly between his offices and his ranch . The thrifts also bought a $ 30,000 Mercedes and a $ 75,000 BMW for his use and a van for his maid , according to court testimony . This April , a T yler , Texas , jury said Henderson was guilty of gross negligence and breach of his duties as the president and chairman of both Southland and Home savings and loan associations , and that he should pay the U.S. Treasury $ 7 million in dama ges . The 1988 failure of the two S&Ls cost taxpayers more than $ 100 million . But Henderson got a reprieve . He doesn't have to pay the $ 7 million because th e state deadline for gross-negligence claims expired even before federal regulat ors took over the thrift . The courts rejected the government 's argument that t he statute of limitations should be waived because when the board of directors i s handpicked by the thrift 's chairman as in the case of Southland and Home it i s unlikely to sue him . Federal bank and thrift regulators say $ 1.6 billion in claims already brought against directors , officers , lawyers , accountants and other professionals who served failed banks and S&Ls in Texas and Virginia are a t risk because of recent court rulings on the deadline for bringing lawsuits . A nd they fear billions of dollars more in claims could be in jeopardy if other st ates set time limits on such cases . Both the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. an d the Resolution Trust Corp. have asked Congress to pass legislation to cure wha t they see as flaws in state laws . The legislation would allow the government t o base claims on activities as far back as five years prior to the takeover of a n institution , which would revive some claims that had expired under state laws . But Rep. Jack Brooks , D-Texas , powerful head of the House Judiciary Committ ee , is opposed to the measure . The legislative change , contained in an amendm ent to the Interstate Banking Bill that passed both houses in April , is headed to a conference committee . Brooks and other members of the Judiciary Committee are among the conferees . FDIC congressional liaison Alice Goodman said Brooks ' aides on the Judiciary Committee told her that they knew his position on the am endment and that she should not bother to brief them on the issue . `` They indi cated he probably would not be supporting this , '' Goodman said . `` Offhand , I 'd say it 's a very dangerous amendment , and ( the conferees ) ought to take a very hard look at it , '' Brooks said . `` It 's a retroactive law . It might be unconstitutional . '' Brooks , who in the past owned substantial stock in Tex as S&Ls that later failed , is currently a director and shareholder of three Tex as banks . In response to inquiries to his office , Brooks said he may decide to recuse himself from the conference because of his bank directorships . Many of the most egregious examples of negligence at savings and loans were seen in Texa s , according to the National Commission on Financial Institution Reform , a pan el of experts appointed by Congress to study the thrift debacle . It said `` 40 percent of all taxpayer losses came from Texas S&Ls . '' If the Texas court deci sions regarding statutes of limitation stand , government lawyers will have to f ocus their efforts in other states to recover taxpayer losses , according to the regulators . `` In other jurisdictions , directors could be ( successfully ) su ed for the same things , while directors in Virginia and Texas would walk away , '' said John V. Thomas , head of the FDIC 's professional-liability section . ` ` It seems unreasonable and unfair . '' `` We might as well shut down the profes sional-liability section if other states adopt the Texas or Virginia rules , '' said Jack D. Smith , the FDIC 's deputy general counsel . Untold millions of dol lars from cases not yet brought are in jeopardy . Among the potential claims tha t could be affected are those that may arise from the investigation of Madison G uaranty Savings and Loan in Arkansas . Special Counsel Robert Fiske is examining Madison 's activities for civil claims as well as criminal violations . Fiske i s investigating President Clinton 's and Hillary Rodham Clinton 's ties to the S &L . Neither was a director of the bank , but Hillary Clinton was an attorney fo r the thrift . Sen. Howard M. Metzenbaum , D-Ohio , proposed the amendment that would give federal regulators more time to file cases , regardless of state stat utes . `` For us to sit by and do nothing while the courts are wiping out millio ns of dollars in decisions would be an absurdity , '' Metzenbaum said . On the o ther side of the argument are those who say it is unfair to paint all S&L direct ors with the same brush . `` You reach a point where the equities say that some guilty people are going to slip through the net , '' said J. Jonathan Schraub , a lawyer for some directors of failed Trustbank Savings FSB of Virginia . `` Ove rall , this industry wasn't populated by fools and crooks. .. . There were a lot of innocent , honest people in that business . '' The issue comes at a crucial time for such recoveries , according to federal officials . The six-month period ended March 31 was the most productive in the four and a half years of the RTC 's professional-liability section , with $ 405 million in claims recovered , acc ording to an agency report . But courts in Virginia and Texas have dismissed 12 cases with claims of $ 93 million because of recent appeals-court decisions in t he two states . `` I think the amendment is unfair , and it 's especially unfair to use this case as an example , '' said Thomas H. Walston , an attorney for He nderson . `` Mr. Henderson had given his entire life to Home Savings . '' Hender son , who helped found the S&L in 1955 and was a majority shareholder , lost muc h of his wealth when the thrift failed in 1988 , Walston said . Henderson denied at trial that the planes and cars purchased by the S&Ls were for his use alone and said they were necessary to do business a contention the jury rejected . WASHINGTON The Justice Department Tuesday asked the Supreme Court to throw out a federal appeals-court ruling that prosecutors committed fraud by witholding ev idence that favored alleged Nazi death-camp guard John Demjanjuk . If the petiti on is successful , it could clear the way for the United States to deport the re tired Cleveland auto worker . When the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found t hat fraud had occurred , it voided an earlier extradition authorization . In its filing Tuesday , the Justice Department said prosecutors involved in the effort to deport Demjanjuk acted in good faith and that the failure to produce certain documents did not rise to the level of `` egregious and deliberate misconduct , such as bribery of a judge or fabrication of evidence '' that typically is foun d to be a fraud upon a court . `` The standard adopted by the court of appeals i n this case is inconsistent with standards articulated by the overwhelming major ity of the courts of appeals , '' said the brief signed by Solicitor General Dre w S . Days III . The government is seeking to vindicate prosecutors ' actions as well as to remove a cloud over the validity of an earlier court judgment that D emjanjuk should be stripped of his U.S. citizenship and deported . Demjanjuk , w ho was extradited in 1986 , was convicted and sentenced to death for torturing a nd murdering Jews at the Treblinka concentration camp in Poland during World War II . He was allegedly the notorious `` Ivan the Terrible . '' But last year the Israeli Supreme Court overturned the conviction , saying there was insufficient proof that he was Ivan , and Demjanjuk was allowed to return home in September . In the meantime , the 6th circuit court had appointed a trial judge to investi gate the Justice Department 's handling of the deportation . The appeals court u ltimately concluded last year that prosecutors had defrauded the court by withho lding information that Demjanjuk could have used to contest the extradition . Th e Justice Department contends that Demjanjuk still should be deported because of his activities at camps other than Treblinka . The 6th circuit 's finding of fr aud `` will hinder the government 's efforts to remove ( Demjanjuk ) from the Un ited States , '' Days told the justices . NEW YORK In perhaps the biggest shift in advertising history , IBM stunned and angered much of Madison Avenue Tuesday by firing more than 40 ad agencies around the world and shifting more than $ 400 million in annual advertising to one age ncy , Ogilvy & Mather . The dramatic announcement reflects efforts under Chairma n Louis V. Gerstner Jr. to radically overhaul and in many cases simplify IBM 's vast and cumbersome structure as well as put new life into its once powerful but increasingly blurred brand image . `` Ogilvy & Mather will help us deliver clea r , consistent messages and in the most efficient way possible , '' said Abby F. Kohnstamm , the giant computer company 's vice president for corporate marketin g . She had helped lead the secretive search for a new agency over the past seve ral months and got to know Ogilvy when she was at American Express . Gerstner , a former American Express president , brought her over to IBM . But while there are big advantages to improving coordination , there are also dangers to shrinki ng the roster of agencies , said Alan Gottesman , media analyst at brokerage fir m PaineWebber & Co. . `` If you get it wrong , you get it wrong everywhere , '' he said . The fallout from the IBM announcement is widespread . In order to avoi d conflicts with IBM , Ogilvy whose accounts also include American Express , Jag uar and Duracell is dropping two other computer-related clients representing a t otal of $ 100 million in billings . They are Microsoft , the nation 's biggest s oftware company , and Compaq , whose ads Ogilivy does in Europe . Ogilvy , with $ 5.8 billion in billings , 270 offices and 7,000 employees in 59 countries , di d not work for IBM before . `` To get this assignment is the best chance we will ever have to practice helping a brand like IBM at a critical juncture in the br and 's life , '' said Ogilvy Chairman Charlotte Beers . ( Begin optional trim ) The biggest losers Tuesday ranged from Lintas and Wells Rich Greene , two large agencies already reeling from the loss of other big accounts , to Merkley Newman Hartley , a small , 1-year-old agency that was the surprise winner of the accou nt for IBM personal computers just last November . `` I understand the logic , ' ' said Kenneth S. Olshan , chairman of Wells Rich , whose image and billings hav e dropped sharply in recent years . `` From a strictly administrative point of v iew it 's very neat and tidy . But in my mind it views advertising as a commodit y , and that 's what is upsetting about it . '' Lintas lost the IBM personal com puter account last year , when it also lost the Diet Coke account . ( End option al trim ) When IBM introduced its personal computer in 1981 , it used a very eff ective depiction of Charlie Chaplin 's Little Tramp produced by Lord , Geller , Federico Einstein . But when that agency fell apart , IBM spread out its account s , saying it was too dangerous for a huge company to depend so much on one agen cy . WASHINGTON Negotiations about the fate of Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , cont inued Tuesday at a heated pitch with federal prosecutors and defense attorneys s till unable to reach an agreement . Meanwhile , some House Republicans said they would call for hearings if the powerful Ways and Means Committee chairman recei ved what they considered too lenient a deal . The options being discussed includ e resignation , a guilty plea to a felony and jail time by Rostenkowski , source s said Tuesday . Although defense attorneys have indicated that there may be roo m for compromise , a number of factors have kept a deal from being set , particu larly the question of jail time . Rostenkowski is said to be adamantly opposed t o spending any time in prison and much of the haggling appears to revolve around that issue , said one source knowledgeable of the deliberations . Defense attor neys were publicly silent Tuesday on the matter , as were prosecutors who had se t this week as the point to seek an indictment of Rostenkowski . However , polit icians on Capitol Hill were offering their opinions in increasing numbers , incl uding House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich , R-Ga . `` Any plea bargain that was be low some minimum standard would automatically '' lead to Republicans calling for House Judiciary Committee hearings , wire reports chronicled Gingrich as saying . Federal prosecutors have outlined a broad conspiracy to defraud the governmen t case against Rostenkowski , including charges that the veteran lawmaker paid e mployees for work not done , and that he abused official accounts for leased car s , office supplies and office space . He has publicly denied all the charges . MUKALLA , Yemen Troops of northern Yemen have seized the military base at Ataq , in southern Yemen , gaining control of key access routes to the warring countr y 's chief economic resource , a potentially lucrative oil field near the border with Saudi Arabia . Vice President Ali Salem Beidh , leader of southern forces in the 3-week-old civil war , acknowledged the advances by troops of President A li Abdallah Salih , the northern leader , in a news conference late Sunday with foreign journalists flown to this oil shipping port 300 miles east of Aden , the chief southern city . Beidh and other southern officials said the northern army passed through the ancient city of Marib , and then moved 75 miles through the oil-producing province of Shabwah to seize Ataq , its capital . Control of the S habwah oil fields could determine who will be master of a region that represents the economic future of Yemen . The country once hoped to be the first working d emocracy in the Arabian Peninsula , but it has been in political disarray since shortly after its formation four years ago by the merger of conservative Muslim North Yemen and Marxist South Yemen . The Shabwah oil fields now account for onl y a small portion of Yemen 's production about 5,000 barrels a day but oil speci alists say they contain reserves estimated at 5 billion barrels . The Saudi oil company Nimr , the French Total and Canadian Occidental have oil-prospecting con cessions there . Phil Davies , the administrator at Canadian Occidental 's oil-l oading terminal on the coast just east of here , said his company has not yet ex perienced any difficulties because of the war , which broke out May 4 . Canadian Occidental is pumping 150,000 barrels a day from the Masila oil field in Hadram out Province , east of Shabwah . Davies said it appeared unlikely that the fight ing , still more than 80 miles west of the major oil fields , will affect the wo rk of his company , which has investments here of $ 2 billion . Northern Yemen , however , warned foreign airlines and shipping companies Monday to stay clear o f southern airports and seaports , saying they would be exposed to danger if the y tried to land or dock at southern facilities . Beidh declared a Republic of De mocratic Yemen in the south last Saturday and has moved his leadership to Mukall a . Beidh is serving as president of the breakaway government , and Haidar Abu B akr Attas , a southerner who was federal prime minister , has joined it . In Was hington , State Department spokesman Mike McCurry said Monday that the United St ates would not recognize the breakup and `` does not believe the critical issues which will shape the future of Yemen should be decided in the heat of battle . '' The conflict between Yemen 's northern and southern leaderships has settled i nto a fight over distribution of the country 's oil income , its ultimate politi cal and social structure , and the patronage and shifting loyalties of its heavi ly armed tribes . `` The military situation is worse than we thought . They have come from Marib and taken Ataq and Nuqbah . We are trying to regroup to organiz e the tribes , '' said Mohsen Mohammed bin Farid , U.S.-educated secretary gener al of the Sons of Yemen League , which has thrown its support behind Beidh in an effort to fend off the offensive from the north . WASHINGTON The House Tuesday decided that if it could not speak with two voices about the international arms embargo of Bosnia , it would rather say nothing at all about the foreign policy issue for two weeks . The Senate recently approved two contradictory resolutions on ending the arms embargo , either unilaterally or with support from other nations . Until the Clinton administration intervened , the House was set to vote on two similar amendments to a $ 263 billion defens e bill , under a procedure that allows lawmakers to support both . But House lea ders postponed the votes until June 9 because officials concluded the administra tion-opposed amendment calling for President Clinton to lift the embargo unilate rally was likely to pass , while the administration-backed one urging the presid ent to seek multilateral action to suspend or limit the embargo was headed for d efeat . That outcome was likely even though the floor procedure favored the admi nistration-backed amendment . Administration officials also successfully argued that the House would appear to be dictating Bosnia policy to Clinton and constra ining his options just days before he visits Europe with the opportunity to pers uade allied nations to join in lifting the arms embargo . Rep. Frank McCloskey , D-Ind. , and other advocates of ending the U.S. arms embargo on the embattled r epublic maintained a House vote for unilateral action would have helped Clinton next week in his talks with European leaders . `` I was getting very good feedba ck that the McCloskey amendment would have passed today . . . and very well rein forced President Clinton in dealing with the allies , '' McCloskey said . Asked how a House vote requiring the president to end the embargo unilaterally would h ave helped Clinton with the allies , given the Senate 's ambivalent stance , Hou se Democratic Caucus Chairman Steny H. Hoyer , D-Md. , replied , `` I think it m akes it clearer than if we say nothing . '' Clinton fared better in his lobbying against a proposal to scale back production of the C-17 , which he reminded the House carries economic punch as well as military cargo . Lawmakers approved , 3 30 to 100 , an amendment to maintain production at six planes next year instead of cutting the number to four as the defense bill stipulated . The vote was so l opsided that Rep. Elizabeth Furse , D-Ore. , dropped her proposed amendment to t erminate C-17 production after next year . In a letter circulated to House membe rs , Clinton advised that cutting production by two planes would `` cause at lea st 8,000 layoffs over the next two years '' and increase the cost per plane by $ 40 million to $ 50 million . Economic interests in maintaining C-17 production at current levels were apparent throughout the House debate . About 10,000 McDon nell Douglas Corp. employees build the planes in Long Beach , Calif. , and leadi ng sponsors of the successful amendment included Rep. Steve Horn , R-Calif. , an d Rep. Jane Harman , D-Calif. Horn is from Long Beach , while Harman represents nearby Los Angeles suburbs . CAPE TOWN , South Africa Two weeks after a negotiated revolution swept him into power as this country 's first black president , Nelson Mandela laid out his vi sion for the new era Tuesday with a promise to create jobs and ease the wretched conditions in which most blacks live . But first , the economy must grow and ne rvous investors must be reassured , Mandela , who helped create a black guerrill a movement 32 years ago to fight white minority rule , said in a State of the Na tion speech in the new all-race Parliament . Mandela outlined an immediate , Fir st-100-Days plan that provides free medical care for impoverished infants , nutr itious meals for the poorest schoolchildren , electrification of thousands of ru ral homes and a public works program to create jobs instantly . In defining wher e the country is headed in the next five years of interim black-white coalition rule , Mandela employed the staid language of international finance and of lectu re hall economists . Sometimes whole chunks of his speech seemed to have been wr itten by international trickle-down theorists . `` In support of sustainable eco nomic growth and the macro-economic objectives of government , it will remain th e primary objective of monetary policy to promote and maintain overall financial stability , '' Mandela said . Gone was the populist rhetoric of the early days of the campaign for the presidency , when `` amaQabane '' ( `` comrades '' in bo th the Zulu and Xhosa languages ) talked of wealth redistribution and original A frican National Congress policy documents spoke of nationalization of diamond mi nes controlled by whites . Now , the euphoria of their election victory is quick ly giving way to the less exalted and entirely boring nuts-and-bolts reality of governing . Life is by no means business-as-usual in the new South Africa . The mere focus of a presidential speech on black needs is unheard of in the country 's history . But white Finance Minister Derek Keys is staying on in his job , as is the governor of the reserve bank , Chris Stals . Their retention by Mandela is meant to signal nervous white business leaders , who have been stashing their money abroad to keep it out of the reach of the new black government , that the country will be kept safe for capital . Last week , when an ANC-aligned economi st said the new government 's Reconstruction and Development Program will carry more than twice its previously estimated price tag of $ 11 billion , the Johanne sburg Stock Exchange went into a mild panic . Tuesday the leftist labor leader J ay Naidoo , appointed by Mandela to coordinate the reconstruction effort in deva stated black communities , said : `` We need to maintain fiscal discipline . We need to contain inflation . Those are universal principles of a modern economy . '' The soothing noises and economic obfuscation may be necessary , said some of even the most left-wing of the previously left-leaning ANC . The new administra tion , said communist leader Ronnie Kasrils , needs to create elbow room for its elf so that the most urgent needs of blacks can be attended to right away withou t scaring whites . ( Optional add end ) `` I think at this point in time he ( Ma ndela ) is trying to soothe the nerves of the old regime I 'm not saying he has to , '' said Kasrils , a member of Parliament . `` At the same time , there are sufficient signals to show our people that we are immediately moving to take act ion on their part . '' Mandela said that the First-100-Days plan will be carried out `` within the context of a policy aimed at building a strong and growing ec onomy . '' His trade minister , the ANC 's Trevor Manuel , pleaded for understan ding , saying that if the president didn't make conciliatory gestures now , he n ever would once blacks began to consolidate power . `` This is not the time or p lace '' for revolutionary talk , Manuel said . In what has the makings of another setback for President Clinton and the Democr atic Party , Republican Christian bookstore owner Ron Lewis took an early lead i n the bitter contest to fill the Kentucky seat held by Rep. William H. Natcher , the Democratic incumbent who died earlier this year . The Lewis campaign , whic h had been considered a longshot , sought to turn the contest into a referendum on the Clinton administration in the traditionally Democratic , but deeply conse rvative , 2nd Congressional District of Kentucky . Backed with $ 200,000 from na tional GOP committees , Lewis charged that Joe Prather , the Democratic nominee , was cut from the same mold as Clinton . His TV commericals repeated over and o ver again : `` Kentucky doesn't need Joe Prather . Send a message to Bill Clinto n . Send Ron Lewis to Congress . Ron Lewis , he 's one of us . '' The results in the Kentucky contest will help determine how much Democratic House candidates i n tough elections , expecially those in southern districts , seek to distance th emselves from the Clinton administration . Republicans are already touting the v ictory of Frank Lukas in a once rock-solid Democratic district in Oklahoma in a contest earlier this month to replace Rep. Glen English , D-Okla . It is also a worry for Democrats that they could have a hard time holding on to some of the s eats being vacated by longtime incumbents . NEW YORK The chairman of the Fox Broadcasting Co. said Tuesday that the defecti on of eight CBS affiliate stations to her network was directly attributable to F ox 's December acquisition of broadcast rights to National Football League games over the next four years . `` These CBS stations were not real happy that CBS l ost the NFL ; that was a big , big blow to them , '' Lucie Salhany , the chairma n of Fox said Tuesday in an interview here at a media luncheon attended by sever al Fox football executives and announcers . `` The NFL was critical to this deal . '' Monday , Fox announced it had invested $ 500 million to buy 20 percent of New World Communciations Group Inc. . New World owns CBS stations in Detroit , C leveland , Atlanta , Tampa and Milwaukee , all of which will switch to Fox . New World is buying another seven stations in Dallas ; Kansas City , Mo. ; Phoenix ; St. Louis ; Greensboro , N.C. ; Birmingham , and Austin , Texas , and those se ven will switch to Fox . Three are currently ABC stations , one is an NBC affili ate . All 12 stations are on the more powerful VHF dial and are expected to swit ch to Fox programming within six months . On Dec. 17 , Fox stunned CBS by outbid ding the NFL 's long-time network for the rights to televise the league over the next four seasons . Fox paid $ 1.58 billion $ 395 million for each year of the contract for the rights to carry National Football Conference games . The deal w ith New World means 10 of the 14 NFC cities will have Fox owned and operated sta tions . The addition of the 12 stations also gives Fox penetration to 97 percent of the country , up from 92 percent when it was awarded the NFC rights by the N FL . Salhany said Tuesday that within the next two weeks , Fox will announce the addition of several more stations , all on the VHF band of channels 2 through 1 3 . She also indicated that Fox was very interested in acquiring other sports pr operties and will make a serious bid for the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney . Th e network 's parent company , Fox Inc. , is owned by Australian-born media magna te Rupert Murdoch , now a U.S. citizen . Its sports division is headed by anothe r Australian , David Hill . Hill and other Fox Sports people were ebullient over the addition of the former CBS affiliates , as was the NFL . `` We 're tickled that everything this network committed to the NFL has happened , '' Hill said . `` It 's easy to say it all , but step by step we 're proving to the NFL and our viewers we 're delivering everything we 've promised . This is another brick in the wall . '' Val Pinchbeck , vice president of broadcasting for the NFL , said one of the league 's initial concerns with Fox was its ability to provide the s ame sort of strong signal and blanket coverage CBS delivered for 30 years . `` T his is another giant step forward in that whole area , '' he said Tuesday . `` T hey didn't talk specifically to us in December about this exact deal . But they indicated they would replicate the CBS coverage . This also goes beyond sports . In major markets , it gives you a stronger VHF station with better penetration . '' Over at CBS Sports , the reaction was predictably muted . `` I was stunned to hear about it , '' said David Kenin , the new president of CBS Sports , `` an d who knows if anything else will happen , if there will be regulatory review . WASHINGTON U.S. Navy ships enforcing expanded United Nations sanctions against Haiti have fired warning shots at two vessels running the embargo and intercepte d one of them , Pentagon officials said Tuesday . Acknowledging that gasoline an d other vital products continue to enter Haiti , mostly from the Dominican Repub lic , Clinton administration officials said they are combining political pressur e on the Dominican Republic with an increase in seaborne patrols to try to halt the commerce . President Clinton 's special envoy for Haiti , William Gray , is going to the Dominican Republic Wednesday to seek President Joaquin Balaguer 's cooperation in closing the land border and shutting down seaborne traffic , U.S. officials said . With the dispatch of two more U.S. Navy ships to the area Tues day , the armada patrolling the Haitian coast has grown to ten eight from the Un ited States , one from Canada and one from Argentina , Pentagon officials said . The Navy has been authorized to fire `` disabling '' shots as well as warnings , and is free to operate inside Haitian territorial waters to block nautical tra ffic into Haiti , said Pentagon spokesman Dennis Boxx . According to Boxx and Na vy officials , the first shooting incident occurred Sunday when a Bahamian-regis tered seagoing tug named the Sea Search ignored instructions to stop . A Navy sh ip fired warning shots , but the tug fled toward shore . A brief squall then hid the tug from view briefly . By the time the U.S. crew spotted it again , the tu g was only 800 yards from shore . With other ships and small boats in the area , `` it would have been too dangerous to fire '' disabling shots , a Navy officia l said . In the second incident , late Monday , a Navy frigate , the Antrim , `` encountered a Panamanian-flagged ship , the Leonese , off the north coast of Ha iti , '' Boxx said . The Antrim `` ordered the ship to lay to . It did not . '' The Antrim then `` fired ten 50-caliber warning shots across the bow , and that ship did lay to . '' A Coast Guard crew searched the Leonese Tuesday , but a Nav y spokesman said the results were not known by Tuesday night . The tighter U.N. sanctions , prohibiting all shipments to Haiti other than food and medicine , to ok effect Sunday . Since then , Boxx said , 14 ships heading for Haiti have been `` diverted '' and nine cleared to proceed . Even those that are cleared have t heir fuel tanks measured on the way in and again on the way out to ensure that t hey are not selling the contents on shore , a Navy spokesman said . A three-memb er team sent by the United Nations , including a U.S. customs agent , is inspect ing the Dominican republic-Haiti border this week to determine what kinds of con trols would be needed to stop the flow of goods across it . `` We 're trying to figure out what you could do with a cooperative ( Dominican ) government , '' on e U.S. official said . `` Will they cooperate , and if so , what do we want them to do ? We have thought in terms of people who would be acceptable to the Domin ican government , '' rather than a military force that would seal the border aga inst Balaguer 's wishes , he said . Jacinto Peynado , who was elected vice presi dent on Balaguer 's ticket in the Dominican Republic 's May 16 elections , said in Washington Tuesday that his country lacks the resources , and perhaps the wil l , to seal the border . `` Even the United States , with all its resources , ca nnot control the border with Mexico , '' he said . `` How can we be expected to seal a frontier that is mountainous and desolate ? '' He said the purpose of the embargo forcing Haiti 's military rulers to step aside and allow the return of ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide is of no concern to the Dominican Republ ic . `` Whether Aristide comes or goes is a matter for the Haitians , '' he said . Even as the Navy tries to halt the flow of goods into Haiti , a flotilla of a nother sort is being assembled to deal with the flow of Haitians out of the coun try . The Pentagon announced Tuesday that the 1,000-berth hospital ship Comfort has been deployed to the Caribbean for possible use as a migrant processing cent er . It will supplement two Ukranian cruise ships already chartered to serve in the refugee effort . Additionally , the State Department began hiring 100 to 200 new employes to assist in processing Haitian refugees . But the administration 's search for a place in the Caribbean to put the ships literally hit a reef . H aving moved closer to getting British permission to station the ships in the Tur ks and Caicos Islands , administration officials said Tuesday they were having t rouble finding a suitable spot for the big ships to anchor amid the 30 small , c oral-strewn islands . Initially the administration hoped to find enough sheltere d water in the Turks and Caicos to station a floating refugee camp . But , a sen ior administration official said , it does not appear that the Turks and Caicos , which are a British dependency , offer a safe place for such a setup . Anticip ating that the Turks and Caicos will not be suitable , the administration has be gun talks with Jamaica about setting up a processing center there , officials sa id . Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott is scheduled to visit Jamaica next week , a State Department official said . On Capitol Hill Tuesday , House membe rs approved , 223 to 201 , a nonbinding resolution offered by Rep. Porter Goss , R-Fla. , urging joint action with the Organization of American States and Unite d Nations to turn the Haitian island of Gonave into a safe haven for Haitian ref ugees . The House also rejected , 236 to 191 , another resolution sponsored by H ouse Foreign Affairs Chairman Lee Hamilton , D-Ind. , and Armed Services Chairma n Ronald V. Dellums , D-Calif. , calling for extending economic sanctions to com mercial air flights and processing Haitian refugess on land rather than at sea . Asked to explain the meaning of the two votes , Goss said : `` It basically say s the safe haven approach is a whole lot better than sanctions that are not work ing . '' NEW YORK Shouting their defiance , four Islamic militants were sentenced Tuesda y to life in prison without parole for last year 's bombing of the World Trade C enter . In imposing the maximum possible punishment for what the government has termed `` the worst act of terrorism in U.S. history , '' U.S. . District Judge Kevin T. Duffy called the defendants sneaks and cowards . `` What you sought to do in the name of Islam , '' he admonished them , ` ` .. . violated the laws not only of man , but God . '' The noontime explosion on Feb. 26 , 1993 , killed si x people , injured more than 1,000 and filled the 110-story twin towers with smo ke and flames . It also shattered America 's sense of post-Cold War invulnerabil ity , and the belief that terrorism was an overseas phenomenon . Evidence presen ted during the trial showed that the defendants had sought to punish Americans f or their support of Israel by targeting one of the nation 's best-known landmark s . `` There has been no remorse shown , merely arrogance and nothing else , '' Duffy said as he sentenced the principal defendant , Mohammed A . Salameh , 26 , who allegedly rented the van that carried the 1,200-pound bomb into the trade c enter 's underground garage . `` Somehow you have a sense of achievement . Perha ps you feel you are a martyr . '' Federal authorities broke the case last year a fter tracing the rented van to Salameh through an identification number found on a piece of debris . `` You chose a site to kill the greatest number of people p ossible , '' the judge told Salameh . If the bomb had been placed at the base of the Trade Center 's north tower , he observed , `` as many as 10,000 deaths cou ld have resulted . '' ( Begin optional trim ) Outside the federal courthouse , w here a jury had convicted the defendants on March 4 , dozens of New York police stood behind barricades to guard against violent demonstrations or perhaps anoth er bombing attempt . No trouble ensued , and by late afternoon some officers wer e slumped over the wooden barricades as if dozing . Salameh , like the other def endants , said in remarks before sentencing that the months-long jury trial had been infected with bias because of unfair treatment by `` the media in the Unite d States and Europe . '' He and his accomplices also objected that after firing their court-appointed lawyers two months ago , Duffy prohibited them from retain ing famed civil rights lawyer William Kunstler to handle their appeals . Duffy r uled against Kunstler on grounds he already is representing one or two defendant s in a related bombing conspiracy trial next fall involving a militant Egyptian sheik and a dozen others . Although the government would like Salameh and two ot her convicted bombers to testify at that trial , Salameh told the court in a boo ming voice : `` The government wants us to testify falsely in the name of cooper ation . I will not testify in that other case against anyone . '' Referring to h is own case , he said , `` I am not going to plead for mercy . I will not beg . '' Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman , regarded by Salameh and the others as their spiritu al leader , and 12 co-defendants are charged with conspiring not only to bomb th e World Trade Center but also with plotting to blow up the United Nations buildi ng and the Lincoln and Holland commuter tunnels linking New York City with New J ersey . ( Begin optional trim ) Duffy reserved his harshest condemnation for the second defendant , Nidal A . Ayyad , 26 , a chemical engineer who helped financ e the bombing and ordered chemicals and hydrogen gas for the homemade explosive device . `` You are clearly the most culpable of the defendants . You had the be st breaks , '' Duffy told him , referring to his U.S. college education . The ju dge said Ayyad had violated the oath he took upon becoming a U.S. citizen `` and turned your life into a total lie . '' Ayyad also was convicted of sending an a nonymous letter to The New York Times threatening further acts of violence unles s the United States cut off all assistance to Israel . Ayyad responded defiantly to Duffy : `` You are only a judge . You can put me in prison for five or 10 li ves . But God is more powerful than America . '' When Ayyad complained that `` h uman rights advocates '' had not monitored his treatment during months in detent ion , Duffy interjected : `` Did human rights organizations monitor the people w hom you killed ? '' ( End optional trim ) The other two defendants , Mahmud Abou halima , 34 , and Ahmad M. Ajaj , 28 , claimed they were victims of American inj ustice , repeatedly invoked the name of God , and said they would rely on divine law over human law . Abouhalima , the oldest of the defendants who was pictured as `` field general '' of the bombing , helped construct the bomb and purchased gas for the delivery van the morning of the crime . Ajaj was convicted of carry ing bomb-making manuals into the country several months before the blast . In se ntencing each to 240 years in prison , Duffy said 180 years of the sentence was based on the life expectancy of the six people who died in the explosion . He al so imposed fines of $ 250,000 on each defendant to be used as restitution to fam ilies of the victims . Federal sources said they did not know if the fines ever could be collected . PORT-AU-PRINCE , Haiti Five of them sit at the pier , ships of all measure , va rying from 70 feet to seven times that size . Some fly the Haitian flag , one th e British ensign , and some fly no flags at all . They all have one thing in com mon : They defy the world . From the Leo , an anchorless rust bucket recently pu lled from the beach where it had run aground , to the British-flagged Oakleigh , all have run a U.N. embargo to bring in tens of thousands of gallons of banned fuel oil . Jacmel , a resort created as a pseudo French seaside village by early 19th-century coffee magnates , has become the center of the Haitian military 's effort to break the international sanctions intended to force the army from pow er . `` The border is still a serious problem , '' a diplomat said of the fronti er between Haiti and the Dominican Republic , `` and lots of gas comes through , but the biggest threat is now the sea . '' Under threat is the strategy by the United Nations and the United States to use a near-total embargo to end military rule and restore exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide , who was driven from office Sept. 20 , 1991 , after seven months as Haiti 's only democratically elec ted president . `` If we can't stop smuggling , especially from the D.R. , then the embargo is not only a failure , it is stupid , '' the diplomat said . `` Shi ps come all the time , '' said a foreign resident who has lived here for more th an 20 years . `` They unload barrels of gas , or they just pump it out into truc k tankers , all in plain sight of the choppers . '' The choppers are U.S. naval and Coast Guard helicopters flying from the 10-ship international flotilla that is supposed to enforce the embargo . Pentagon officials in Washington said Tuesd ay that 14 ships heading for Haiti had been diverted since Saturday , when the i nternational embargo was widened to include all goods save food and humanitarian items . According to Jacmel residents , who have little else to do but monitor the comings and goings , only one ship has been turned back , a vessel that made it into the harbor but fled when the Coast Guard radioed that it would be seize d if it sailed out empty . Another ship received the same warning but unloaded i ts cargo anyway . The captain , who called himself Dirty Harry , simply anchored the ship in the bay and abandoned it . He and the crew returned to the Dominica n Republic overland , residents here said . Sunday , a 70-foot freighter called the Sea Search also ignored that warning as well as two cannon bursts from a Coa st Guard cutter and tied up at the pier . The Pentagon officials said another sh ip sailing near Haiti 's north coast was intercepted and boarded by U.S. officia ls Monday and was still being searched Tuesday . The Sea Search , however , was unloading barrels of fuel Monday under the supervision of at least two Haitian a rmy officers and in full view of reporters and other guests at a nearby hotel . As a result of the sieve-like blockade and a U.S. policy not to use deadly force , diplomats and other experts say Jacmel receives upward of 40 percent of the e stimated 4 million gallons of gasoline being smuggled into Haiti . The most noto rious ship is the Oakleigh , a 500-foot tanker that lists its home port as Aberd een , Scotland . Monitors say it comes from the Dominican Republic every other d ay to unload at least 50,000 gallons each time . ( Optional add end ) One day ov er the weekend , nine tanker trucks lined up in Jacmel to offload fuel to be tak en to the capital , Port-au-Prince , a two-hour drive to the southwest . There i t is sold on the street for about $ 10 a gallon . Most of the smuggling , diplom ats and Haitian businessmen say , is controlled by Gerard Caroli , a local busin essman and close associate of Lt. Col. Michel-Joseph Francois , the Port-au-Prin ce police chief and , along with the army commander , Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras , on e of the two most powerful Haitian military leaders . While far and away the mos t important aspect of the smuggling , fuel is not the only product unloaded here . One ship this past week brought in thousands of bicycles , another a load of televisions and stereo equipment , `` all from Miami , '' according to one perso n who witnessed the unloading . WASHINGTON President Clinton met with more than a dozen foreign policy , econom ic and political advisers late Tuesday as he worked to shape a human rights poli cy toward China acceptable to opposing groups in Congress and within the adminis tration itself . Having all but abandoned his threat to revoke outright China 's Most Favored Nation trade privileges unless Beijing improves its rights record , Clinton is pondering middle-ground proposals being drawn up by Secretary of St ate Warren Christopher . At issue is whether any trade lever at all ought to be used to pry human rights concessions from China . After being briefed by Christo pher Tuesday morning for the second day in a row , Clinton told reporters he had `` an idea of where it 's going , '' but declined to elaborate . `` We still ha ve not only ongoing negotiations with Congress but with others as well , and the re are a number of things that still have to be resolved , '' he said at a photo session with Guntis Ulmanis , the visiting president of Latvia . Officials desc ribed Tuesday 's Clinton-Christopher meeting as an `` informal '' report by Chri stopher on China as well as other subjects . One official said that `` virtually everyone in the Cabinet and subcabinet has an opinion '' on the issue . Congres sional sources said three options , and perhaps some combination of them , are a live . One is a simple extension of MFN , coupled with creation of an American c ommittee to advise Clinton on China and establishment of a Chinese-American bina tional committee to investigate human rights . The second option is a ban on wea pons and ammunitions imports from China . Armements are produced by the People ' s Liberation Army , which carried out the 1989 crackdown on student pro-democrac y demonstrators in Tiananmen square . The repression soured the mood of relation s and enraged many members of Congress . Both options would require no more than an executive order from Clinton and so avoid a congressional battle over China . The third option is to increase levies on a host of goods produced by the army in order to bite more deeply into the Chinese economy . That proposal would req uire legislation . The White House is preoccupied with callibrating its decision to produce the least political turmoil among Democrats in particular , a senior official said . `` There isn't much doubt we would prevail in any vote on this issue in the Senate , '' said a senior official , `` The point is we would like to achieve a solution that is acceptable to the Democratic Senate leadership and leaders on this issue in particular . ' Extending MFN with no punitive or with limited punitive measures would win the support of 60 votes in the Senate , a De mocratic leadership aide in the Senate said Tuesday . The House is another matte r , and officials have had dozens of conversations with Rep. Nancy Pelosi , D-Ca lif. , a leading human rights proponent for China , as well House Democratic lea ders and others aimed at heading off a confrontation there . The White House exp ects Rep. Gerald B . Solomon , R-N.Y. , to introduce a resolution to rescind MFN , as he has done every year since 1989 . Clinton said he will announce his deci sion before he leaves for Europe June 1 . Aides said the announcement probably w ould come by Friday because of Congress ' strong desire Congress to discuss the issue publicly before the Memorial Day recess , which begins Friday . `` He is g oing to get the stuffing knocked out of him if he does it when we are not here , '' said one Democratic official who fears a too lenient ruling toward China and wants to register a public protest . Christopher , who reported to Clinton Mond ay that China had met minimal conditions for continuation of its low tariff trad e status , devoted much of Tuesday to Congressional consultations , in an indica tion of the political heat that surrounds the pending decision . After conferrin g with Pelosi , who is pressing for sweeping sanctions on goods produced by the army , Christopher met with Sen. Max Baucus , D-Mont. , and other Senators who u rged him extend China 's trade priveleges unconditionally rather than risk lost American business and worsening relaitons with Beijing . Senatorial aides descri bed Christopher as guarded in discussing which option he might choose . Baucus , Sen. John C. Danforth , R-Mo. , and Reps. Robert Matsui , D-Calif. , and Jim Ko lbe , R-Ariz. , wrote a letter to Clinton opposing the proposal to raise tariffs on limited numbers of products produced either by the Chinese army or state own ed industries . WASHINGTON Three months after U.S.-Japanese ties sank to their lowest point in the Clinton administration , negotiators agreed Tuesday to resume trade talks , with U.S. officials painting a suddenly sunny picture of one of the country 's m ost important , but troubled , relationships . `` No one can guarantee that thes e agreements are going to work , '' said President Clinton 's senior trade assis tant , Mickey Kantor . But , he added : `` I can tell you we have momentum and d edication and purpose and involvement at the highest level of the Japanese and U .S. governments . '' U.S. and Japanese officials said the accord , hammered out in five days of meetings , gets the two sides over a key hurdle involving how to determine whether the terms of any trade agreement are being met if numerical t argets , to which the Japanese object , are not included . Stripped of the diplo matic veneer in which it was cloaked , the breakthrough is little more than an a greement to return to the negotiating table . And it leaves the two trading gian ts not much closer to a substantive agreement than they were last July when they first established a `` framework '' for their talks . The agreement , said Japa nese Foreign Minister Koji Kakizawa in Tokyo , brings the two sides to the `` st arting line , not the goal . '' It was reached by senior-level negotiators at 1: 30 a.m. EDT , then sealed in a 14-minute telephone conversation nine hours later between Clinton and the new Japanese prime minister , Tsutomu Hata . `` Both ag reed that we can move forward now quickly , '' said Kantor , the U.S. trade repr esentative . The negotiations are intended to increase foreign sales in Japan in four key economic sectors : government procurement of medical and telecommunica tions equipment , insurance , automobiles and auto parts . Kantor expressed hope that the talks could be broadened to include financial services , glass product s and intellectual property rights , which covers an array of creative endeavors ranging from musical composition to pharmaceutical research . Despite the limit ed nature of Tuesday 's agreement , Hata expressed confidence that it will lead to an actual trade accord . `` Not only Japan but the whole world is watching , '' Hata said . `` I am absolutely confident we will find a way . Japan is determ ined to open its markets , and the U.S. is just as determined to sell here . '' In the long run , U.S. officials hope Japan will relax its barriers to foreign p roducts and bring down its trade surplus , which last year reached $ 131 billion in goods and services . Its trade surplus with the United States was $ 59 billi on , and is expected to climb this year . ( Optional add end ) The United States offered a firm commitment to avoid specific numerical targets for foreign sales in Japan . Instead , the two sides agreed to place their focus on `` results-or iented goals , '' which would include both `` quantitative and qualitative crite ria . '' A quantitative measurement , Kantor said , could include `` the prompt , substantial and continuous increase in sales '' by foreign insurance companies in Japan , for example , or in the number of U.S. car dealerships in Japan . A qualitative measure , he said , could be the degree of cooperation between U.S. auto parts suppliers and Japanese carmakers in research and development projects . At the same time , the United States retained the option to use trade laws , including the imposition of tariffs and quotas on Japanese products sold in this country , if sufficient progress is not made in the resumed talks . The parent company of Denny 's announced Tuesday that it will pay more than $ 4 6 million to settle cases of alleged racial bias in restaurants in California , Maryland and Virginia . Denny 's opted to settle the claims partly `` because it became clear to us that the costs of litigating all of them would be unacceptab ly high , '' said Jerome J. Richardson , chairman and chief executive of Flagsta r Companies Inc. of Spartanburg , S.C. , which owns Denny 's . `` We deeply regr et these individuals feel they were not treated fairly at Denny 's , '' Richards on added . `` We invite any customers who have perceived discrimination at Denny 's to give us another opportunity to serve them . '' In announcing the settleme nt , the 1,515-restaurant chain admitted no wrongdoing . It had been contesting these charges : That a Denny 's in San Jose , Calif. discriminated against 40 bl ack patrons by a late-night , prepay requirement , which made them pay in advanc e for meals . Each of the 40 will receive $ 25,000 . Another $ 27 million will b e set aside for future claims . About 3,000 California customers say they were v ictims of racial bias at Denny 's . That a Denny 's in Annapolis , Md. grossly d elayed service to six black uniformed members of the U.S. . Secret Service but p romptly served whites . Denny 's will pay the six $ 35,000 each . Another 12 pla intiffs will be paid $ 15,000 , with $ 17.3 million set aside for future claims . Another 1,300 claims are pending nationwide , excluding California . That a Vi rginia Denny 's refused to serve the Martin Luther King Jr. . All Children 's Ch oir , including 132 singers and chaperones . After 11 p.m. , Denny 's says , it needed prior arrangements for prompt service to a group that large . It is payin g $ 450,000 to settle this complaint , filed with the Prince William County , Va . , Human Rights Commission . Of the $ 46 million settlement , Denny 's says , $ 8.7 million is going to lawyers . The parent company approached the National As sociation for the Advancement of Colored People in 1991 for help in resolving is sues of racial bias at Denny 's and other subsidiaries . Last July the two reach ed a $ 1 billion Fair Share Agreement , which is designed to pump jobs and dolla rs into the black community . `` We hope such incidents never again occur at Den ny 's or any other restaurant chain , '' the NAACP said Tuesday in a prepared st atement . ( Optional add end ) In coming months , it added , it expects to see D enny 's hire and promote more minorities , along with stepped-up trade between D enny 's and minority-owned media and suppliers . The flagship Denny 's opened in California in 1953 . Of its 1,515 outlets now , 1,025 are corporate-owned . Six ty-three are joint ventures in foreign countries , and the rest are owned by 168 franchisees . Thirty-eight of the franchisees are minorities , but none is blac k . JOHANNESBURG , South Africa On a sunny day of pomp and pageantry , President Ne lson Mandela outlined a soaring vision for the new South Africa Tuesday in his f irst State of the Nation speech , a carefully crafted address that tried to bala nce the needs of poor blacks with the fears of rich whites . The nationally tele vised speech before a joint session of the multiracial National Assembly and Sen ate in the Parliament building in Cape Town set a healing tone and a moderate co urse for the new democracy as it struggles to shed the social and economic inequ ities of apartheid . The goal , Mandela repeatedly vowed , is a `` people-center ed society . '' Its aims are nothing less than `` freedom from want , freedom fr om hunger , freedom from deprivation , freedom from ignorance , freedom from sup pression and freedom from fear . '' `` Let us all get down to work , '' he said , to a standing ovation from the 490 legislators . He pleaded for reconciliation and an end to racism. saying that derisive words like kaffirs for blacks , cool ies for Asians and baas for a white boss should be expunged from the national vo cabulary . And in perhaps the most moving section , he read a poem linking the g rowth of an African child to the demand for freedom . The author was Ingrid Jonk er , who committed suicide in 1965 after breaking with her father , a conservati ve Afrikaner legislator , over the injustice and indignity of apartheid . `` To her and others like her , we owe a commitment to the poor , the oppressed , the wretched and the despised , '' Mandela said . Despite the inspiring rhetoric , M andela 's initial programs and policies were unexpectedly modest for a country i n which nearly half the black majority is unemployed , illiterate and without pr oper health care or housing . The limited scope reflected the reality of a gover nment based on a still-untested power-sharing formula and an economy emerging fr om a four-year recession and a decade of capital flight . In his most specific p ledge , Mandela promised to start a 100-day crash program under his personal sup ervision to provide immediate health and nutrition services to impoverished fami lies . Under the program , children under the age of 6 and pregnant women will r eceive free medical care in every state hospital and clinic . Supplementary feed ing programs for malnourished children also will begin in every primary school ` ` where such need is established , '' Mandela said . Beyond that , he pledged to invest `` substantial amounts '' to provide nine years of free compulsory educa tion . And he said he had given instructions `` as a matter of urgency .. . to e mpty our prisons of children and place them in suitable alternative care . '' Ma ndela has said as many as 25,000 children and juveniles are held in detention an d prisons , but government leaders and corrections officials have strenuously de nied the charge . Although Mandela conceded that `` many details .. . remain to be discussed , agreed ( to ) and put in place , '' he also pledged to start a pu blic works program to `` rebuild our townships , restore services in rural and u rban areas '' and create millions of jobs . He gave no overall cost but said his government would allocate $ 735 million in its first budget for the so-called r econstruction and development plan . He said the money would come from savings a nd redirected spending in the anticipated $ 36 billion budget , which will be an nounced next month . ( Begin optional trim ) Mandela clearly hoped the speech wo uld reassure the still-nervous national and international business communities , which are awaiting clear signals of intent and policy from a coalition governme nt that includes Joe Slovo , the chairman of the Communist Party , and many othe r ANC leaders trained in the former Soviet Union and other East Bloc countries . Eager to create a favorable investment environment , Mandela said he is determi ned `` to contain general government consumption at present levels and to manage the budget deficit with a view to its continuous reduction . '' But he offered something less than a no-new-taxes pledge , saying the new coalition Cabinet was `` agreed that a permanently higher general level of taxation is to be avoided . '' ( End optional trim ) Mandela 's speech was partly overshadowed by a contro versy over the surreptitious hand-over by the former government of about 7 milli on acres of state land to a trust controlled by Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini . The transfer was signed by then-President Frederik W. de Klerk a day before the elections and was reported by a local newspaper Friday . Both de Klerk and Zulu Chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi have denied wrongdoing in the last-minute tran sfer of nearly one-third of the land in the new province of KwaZulu-Natal . The deal has raised suspicions because it was completed just as Buthelezi and the ki ng ended an election boycott . The boycott was ostensibly based on demands for a n autonomous Zulu homeland . Mandela , who has said he was unaware of the transa ction , has ordered a Cabinet commission to look into the arrangement . He did n ot mention the issue , or his campaign promises for land reform , in his address . The new lawmakers 400 from the National Assembly and 90 from the Senate also make up the Constitutional Assembly , which will draft a permanent constitution within two years to replace the interim charter used to guide the country throug h last month 's election . Cyril Ramaphosa , the ANC 's secretary-general , was elected without opposition earlier Tuesday as the Constitutional Assembly 's cha irman . Ramaphosa , who was widely acclaimed as the ANC 's chief negotiator for the interim constitution , declined to join Mandela 's Cabinet after he was pass ed over as deputy president . ( Optional add end ) In another announcement , the new defense minister , Joe Modise , said he has reappointed the former governme nt 's military chief for a five-year term . He said Gen. Georg Meiring would run the new South African National Defense Force , which will include both regular troops and former anti-government guerrillas . SACRAMENTO , Calif. . A bill requiring juvenile graffiti vandals to be punished with as may as 10 whacks of a wooden paddle was introduced Tuesday by an Orange County Assemblyman , who declared the public is `` sick and tired '' of the way such offenders are `` coddled '' by the criminal justice system . `` It is hard to take pride in your neighborhood when everything you see is covered with graf fiti , '' said Republican Assemblyman Mickey Conroy . `` That is why paddling is so important . `` If we can stop these punks who have no respect for other peop le , we can give the neighborhoods back to the law-abiding citizens of this stat e . '' Conroy said recent public opinion polls show overwhelming public support for his idea . Those polls were taken in connection with a highly publicized cas e in which an American teen-ager was caned in Singapore for spraying paint on ca rs . Conroy also said he has received almost 200 letters and telephone calls in support of his proposal from across the United States . Graffiti abatement cost Orange County $ 1.2 million in Santa Ana alone last year and the Orange County F lood Control District spent $ 500,000 more , according to Conroy , who said the state spent more than $ 30 million on graffiti removal last year . Conroy 's mea sure , AB150X , ran into immediate opposition from Democratic Assembly Speaker W illie Brown . Asked at a Capitol news conference about the bill , Brown said he would not vote for the legislation . `` A harsh penalty must be imposed , '' Bro wn said , `` but I don't think it has to be a whipping . '' Brown said he also d oesn't believe the Assembly Public Safety Committee , the first stop for Conroy 's bill , will agree with Conroy 's views on paddling . As proposed by Conroy , any juvenile convicted of graffiti vandalism would be given four to 10 whacks wi th a wooden paddle in addition to any other sentence that might be handed down b y the judge . The name of the juvenile also would be made public . ( Optional ad d end ) The paddle would be made of three-quarter-inch thick hardwood , 18 inche s long and 6 inches wide . The whacks would be administered on the outside of cl othes , not the bare buttocks . As outlined in the bill , the paddling would be administered by the minor 's parent . If the parent declines or paddles too ligh tly , the judge can order a bailiff to do the job . `` I would rather give these juvenile misfits a little sting on their bottom early on when they are young , '' Conroy said , `` so five or 10 years from now we don't see these same kids in adult court , facing a more serious charge of rape or murder . '' Conroy said h e believes paddling would survive a court test on the issue of cruel and unusual punishment . WASHINGTON In a decision crucial to the future of the C-17 military cargo jet p rogram , the House voted 330-100 Tuesday to authorize production of six of the M cDonnell Douglas Corp. planes , restoring production of two aircraft deleted in previous committee action . The House action blunted efforts to force the Pentag on to buy existing commercial jets as an alternative to the C-17 , an action tha t would have seriously undercut the future of the program . Air Force Undersecre tary Rudy de Leon said in an interview the House vote was an important endorseme nt of the Pentagon 's plan to put McDonnell Douglas on probation and measure ove r the next two years whether the company can correct longstanding problems at it s Long Beach , Calif. , plant . `` We really want to put the C-17 on a solid pro file so we can judge whether McDonnell Douglas can produce at cost and on schedu le , '' de Leon said . ( Optional add End ) The House vote marked one of the few times the California congressional delegation formed a voting block to support a defense program in the state , a major departure from past years when weapons programs attracted weak support from California Democrats . The C-17 is assemble d at McDonnell Douglas ' massive complex in Long Beach , supporting 10,000 jobs at the plant and another 8,000 at subcontractors around Southern California . Na tionally , about 30,000 jobs are tied to the aircraft 's production , now the Pe ntagon 's largest program . The C-17 has long been controversial . McDonnell is an estimated $ 1.6 billion over budget on the aircraft program and has experienc ed a long series of embarrassing technical problems , including the failure of C -17 wings to meet strength requirements . WASHINGTON Republican lawmakers stepped up pressure on Democrats Tuesday to sch edule congressional hearings into the Whitewater affair , as Special Counsel Rob ert B . Fiske Jr. wound down the initial phase of his investigation of President Clinton 's role in the failed Arkansas land venture . Ending what had been the Clinton administration 's first extended respite from GOP criticism over Whitewa ter , more than 90 House Republicans led by Rep. John T. Doolittle , R-Calif. , introduced a resolution calling for concurrent hearings by five congressional co mmittees . The hearings would begin no later than Aug. 15 , the resolution state s . In the Senate , Republicans were threatening to force a vote on hearings bef ore the end of the week if behind-the-scenes negotiations between party leaders fail to resolve a long-running partisan dispute over the timing and forum for a congressional probe . GOP sources said `` some progress '' was made following a meeting Monday between Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell , D-Maine , and Mi nority Leader Bob Dole , R-Kan. , but the two sides continued to disagree over g round rules . If no agreement is reached by Wednesday , they said , Republicans might try to force a Whitewater vote before lawmakers leave town for a weeklong Memorial Day recess . Both the House and the Senate voted in March to recommend that Congress hold hearings on the Whitewater affair provided Democratic and Rep ublican leaders could structure them in a way that did not interfere with Fiske 's criminal investigation . Since then , Republicans have repeatedly accused the Democrats of stalling the public probe in hopes that public interest in Whitewa ter would completely subside . In recent days , several developments have given Clinton 's GOP critics what they see as an opportunity to renew their calls for public Whitewater hearings . One involves charges of sexual harassment filed aga inst Clinton by former Arkansas state employee Paula Corbin Jones . Another is t he anticipated indictment of House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenk owski , D-Ill. , on felony charges . Both situations , while unrelated to Whitew ater , have provided GOP sharpshooters with new ammunition to use in their ethic s attacks on Democrats . `` The Paula Jones thing makes Clinton more vulnerable on Whitewater , and visa versa , because they both address the character questio n , '' said one Republican leadership aide . ( Optional add end ) Fiske , meanwh ile , is nearing the end of the first phase of his investigation into Whitewater Development Corp. and its possible contribution to the failure of a Little Rock , Ark. , thrift . Fiske has repeatedly stated that , while he would prefer no p ublic hearings at this stage , he would not object to a limited congressional pr obe once the first phase of his investigation was completed . House Speaker Tom Foley , D-Wash. , plans to meet with Fiske Thursday to `` sound him out '' on po ssible hearings once his initial probe is finished , a Democratic aide said . Bu t Doolittle and other Republicans charged that the Democrats were still playing for time , hoping that health care reform and other concerns will once again sub merge questions about Whitewater . `` Two months have elapsed since the House pa ssed '' a resolution recommending Whitewater hearings and `` those hearings have yet to materialize and no timetable has been set , '' Doolittle said , adding t hat , `` it 's time we do something about it . '' NEW YORK From Madison Avenue to Wall Street Tuesday , they were watching CBS . Not `` Hard Copy '' or `` Geraldo , '' but CBS ' business prospects for success in the coming months as the network faces the daunting reality that it will lose up to eight of its major affiliate stations to Rupert Murdoch 's brash young fo urth network , Fox Inc. , which last year stole away CBS ' long-held contract to broadcast National Football Conference games . Tuesday , CBS stock continued it s two-day decline sparked by Monday 's announcement that Fox Inc. had agreed to invest $ 500 million in New World Comunications Group . As part of that bargain it will gain up to 12 TV stations as affiliates , many in major markets , that c urrently are affiliated with CBS , NBC and ABC . The biggest loser was CBS . CBS ' stock price fell 33 , or 11 percent , since its Friday closing of 303 , finis hing out Tuesday at 270 . That means Loews Corp. , the conglomerate controlled b y CBS Chairman Laurence Tisch and his brother Preston R. Tisch , lost about $ 10 0 million on paper over two days . Although advertising executives said the news was clearly a major blow for CBS , they said the full impact of Fox 's deal cou ld not be calculated . The timing is tricky , since it is the beginning of the s eason known as the `` upfront . '' That 's when advertisers lock up rates for pr ime-time shows and make ad time commitments for the September to August season . The Fox deal could hurt CBS , which expects to control $ 1 billion of an estima ted $ 4 billion upfront ad market , by making buyers less willing to pay top rat es . `` An astute buyer will use this as leverage , '' said Steven Auerbach , a media buying consultant . Added Bruce Goerlich , senior vice president and media director USA for ad agency DMB&B : `` This is a good shot over the bow , and it will cause CBS to list a bit . '' Losing affiliate VHF stations those with chan nel positions of up to 13 on the dial is a serious blow for CBS , observers said . CBS already faces a strong challenge to its fall lineup from rival ABC , whic h reaches the younger audience desired by advertisers . CBS could wind up with w eak lead-ins to its strong shows , such as the `` Late Show with David Letterman , '' as it is forced to replace the affiliates with less popular stations , som e of them UHF stations that appear above 13 on the dial . The Fox deal is likely to spark a scramble as networks compete for the stronger affiliates . The loss of the eight stations will not happen all at once because of different contract periods . It also might not affect where advertisers put their money this year . Those decisions are driven largely by the demographic profiles of the network a udiences , said Betsy Frank , senior vice president and director of TV informati on and new media at Saatchi & Saatchi . But , she added , concerns over CBS ' li neup of affiliates in major markets could cause media buyers to push for discoun ts . ( Optional add end ) CBS ' Tony Malara , president of affiliate relations , got the bad news early Monday morning that CBS would be losing its five affilia te stations owned by New World in Atlanta , Tampa , Cleveland , Detroit and Milw aukee , and stood to lose three more once New World completes its planned acquis ition of two other companies that own CBS affiliates . Soon Malara was on the ph one talking to station owners . Malara said Tuesday that he actually sees some p otential opportunities , such as finding new affiliates that will carry Letterma n . Currently , four of New World 's stations air Letterman a half hour late , a nd Milwaukee doesn't carry him at all . WASHINGTON Presidential candidate Bill Clinton vowed he would punish Chinese le aders by revoking China 's preferential trading status if they failed to demonst rate documented progress in human rights . President Clinton is just about to do the opposite . Clinton is expected to announce soon that he is renewing China ' s most-favored-nation trading status despite China 's inability to meet several human rights objectives outlined by Clinton in an executive order a year ago . I n doing so , Clinton would begin the process of de-linking human rights issues f rom trade policy a link that has been a hallmark of Democratic party foreign pol icy for 20 years . Clinton is not alone . In Congress where the sentiment for su ch a linkage was first nurtured and frequently promoted many members who previou sly supported revoking China 's trading rights have changed their minds . Indeed , Secretary of State Warren Christopher Tuesday went to Capitol Hill to gauge h ow much the sentiment has changed in the past year , his spokesman said . Christ opher said he hasn't made a recommendation to the president . Clinton told repor ters he would make an announcement before departing for Europe June 1 by law his deadline is June 3 . `` The administration is definitely moving toward de-linki ng human rights and trade , and there is widespread support in Congress for that , '' said Bonnie Glaser , a Washington-based consultant on Chinese affairs . Re p. Gary Ackerman , D-N.Y. , chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee o n Asia and Pacific Affairs and a longtime advocate of tying economic relations t o a nation 's human rights record , said Clinton `` should abandon the charade o f linking MFN to human rights. .. . This has become a silly dance . We demand th ey take action , they let three or four people out of jail and we call it a vict ory . We should be using other levers , so let 's drop the fig leaf of MFN . '' Clinton may not explicitly say that he is de-linking human rights and trade , an d indeed may levy some minor sanctions on China to indicate his displeasure with its human rights policies . Aides indicate the president will portray his actio ns as a middle course , but experts say he essentially will be abandoning his pr evious tough line on China . `` That 's just trying to prevent Bill Clinton from having egg all over his face , '' Glaser said . The main reason for the change is that the prospect of 1.2 billion Chinese one day buying American goods has pr oven far more persuasive than the forced labor camps , silenced dissidents and j ammed Voice of America broadcasts . All but nine nations have MFN status with th e United States , and those nine are minor economic powers like Cuba and Vietnam . Trade with China is now $ 40 billion and growing rapidly every year , and the economic implications of revoking MFN with China became virtually impossible to contemplate for the administration . `` It is so clear to the rest of the world that we 've moved far more on this than China has , '' said Alan Tonelson , res earch director at the Economic Strategy Institute , a Washington-based think tan k specializing in trade issues . The linkage between human rights and trade star ted 20 years ago in Congress , when the late Sen. Henry Jackson , D-Wash. , and then-Rep. Charles Vanik , D-Ohio , pushed through legislation tying the then-min iscule trade with the Soviet Union and other communist nations to their record i n allowing the emigration of Jews . ( Optional add end ) Although presidents , a s a matter of principle , resisted congressional attempts to link human rights t o their ability to conduct foreign policy , former President Carter made human r ights a centerpiece of his foreign policy . Christopher , then the No. 2 man in Carter 's State Department , was the administration 's coordinator for human rig hts and institutionalized the linkage between human rights and foreign policy , using trade and economic aid as weapons . Now , in a different administration , Christopher is seeking to bend , if not break , the ties between human rights an d the use of MFN status . WASHINGTON White House special counsel Lloyd N . Cutler said Tuesday that Paula Corbin Jones ' sexual harassment lawsuit against President Clinton should be po stponed because it would harm the president to have to deal with it while he is in office . Cutler , appearing on the McNeil-Lehrer NewsHour , was the first adm inistration official to state publicly that the lawsuit should not be allowed to go forward at this time . He laid out a comprehensive administration argument f or granting Clinton immunity from having to deal with the Jones lawsuit while he is in office . He also suggested that Clinton would pursue that claim up to the Supreme Court , a strategy that could help the administration delay the taking of depositions or other discovery in the case . Cutler said resolving that quest ion could take `` well over a year , perhaps longer . '' Clinton 's private lawy er , Robert S. Bennett , said Tuesday that he will claim that Clinton cannot be sued while in office . He has until July 15 to file papers in the case . The Jus tice Department is also planning to file a brief expressing its official view in the case , in which a former Arkansas state employee claims Clinton sexually ha rassed her when he was governor . Because the department is charged with protect ing the prerogatives of the executive branch , it would be surprising if it did not support some claim of presidential immunity . The issue is an unresolved leg al question . The Supreme Court has said that presidents may not be sued for the ir acts as president , but has never addressed the question of private conduct . Cutler did not argue that there is a blanket rule protecting a president while in office from being sued for his private acts . He said that in cases where `` immediate relief '' is required such as a divorce , a failure to pay child suppo rt , or a zoning dispute a case might be allowed to proceed . Cutler said `` the issue has to be judged in each case , '' weighing the needs of the person suing against the duties of the president . But he argued that in the case of the Jon es lawsuit , the fact that the alleged conduct took place 20 months before Clint on took office and that she waited an additional 16 months before bringing suit should be factored into that decision . `` What would be lost in balancing her i nterest against the interest of the presidency if it were deferred for an additi onal period , '' Cutler said . `` No immediate relief is required here . This ca se was brought on the 364th day of the third year '' the last day before it woul d have been barred under the Arkansas statute of limitations . Cutler set out wh at the administration may well argue should be the court test in deciding whethe r such cases should be postponed : `` If the burden of the case is significant a nd if the progress of the case would damage the president and the presidency .. . then there is a basis '' for granting a stay . Although the argument for presi dential immunity could well stall progress in the lawsuit for years , one wrinkl e which Cutler did not address is whether a separate part of the case would be a llowed to go forward in the meantime . In addition to Clinton , Jones has also n amed Arkansas State Trooper Danny Ferguson in the case , claiming that he was pa rt of a conspiracy with Clinton to deprive her of her civil rights and that his later comments defamed her Several experts in court procedures have said it is l ikely that a court would let the Ferguson part of the case proceed even if a sta y is granted to the president an outcome that could permit Jones ' lawyers to qu estion Ferguson and other troopers about Clinton 's alleged conduct in this case and claims that Clinton regularly used troopers to solicit women . WASHINGTON Efforts to reach a plea bargain in the fraud case against Rep. Dan R ostenkowski , D-Ill. , intensified Tuesday , with agreement no longer hinging on keeping the powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee out of jail , sources familiar with the negotiations said . It was tentatively decided that Rostenkowski , who has been expected to play a central role in President Clinto n 's health reform efforts , would resign from Congress . Under discussion is ho w much time U.S. . Attorney Eric Holder would recommend that Rostenkowski serve in prison and whether U.S. . District Judge Norma H. Johnson would be bound by t hat recommendation , the sources said . Negotiations , which grew out of a tradi tional meeting with prosecutors at which defense attorneys are given an opportun ity to argue why their client should not be charged , have been under way since it became clear that Holder intended to ask a federal grand jury to indict Roste nkowski for misusing his office for financial gain . Sources in and out of gover nment estimated the chances that a plea bargain would be reached at 50-50 . The federal grand jury to which Holder would present any proposed charges is schedul ed to meet Thursday but the plea discussions , if they continue , could push the matter over to next week , one source said . Another source , describing Rosten kowski as `` headstrong , '' said that the discussions could collapse , clearing the way for action Thursday or next Tuesday . The advantage to the government i n a plea bargain would be avoiding a long and expensive legal process with no ce rtainty of conviction , while achieving the `` symbolically important '' goal of putting in jail , even for less than a year , a lawmaker who admitted corruptio n . For Rostenkowski , the agreement would offer a chance to avoid the humiliati on of a public trial and the prospect of a possible conviction and long sentence , which could result even if he were convicted on only one of multiple felony c ounts . Dismissing reports that the plea negotiations are still focusing on whet her Rostenkowski would step down as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committ ee and would have to serve time , one source said that his lawyer , Robert S. Be nnett , is engaged in `` damage control , '' trying to ensure that his client 's time behind bars would be limited . Rostenkowski 's resignation from the House appears to be a `` very live option , '' according to one well-placed Democrat . His departure would avoid the possibility of a censure resolution and foil atte mpts by Republicans to force the House Ethics Committee to investigate Rostenkow ski and others allegedly involved in misuse of the now defunct House post office . The Ways and Means chairman is alleged to have converted $ 22,000 in postage stamps from his office accounts to cash for his personal use through the post of fice . Rostenkowski also is alleged to have paid employees for work they did not do . He has denied wrongdoing . If Rostenkowski is indicted on felony charges , rules of the House Democratic Caucus would require him to step down as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee although he could continue as a member of the p anel . But associates said that Rostenkowski would resign from Congress if he ha d to give up his chairmanship . Justice Department guidelines for federal prosec utors state that resignation from office is among `` appropriate and desirable o bjectives in plea negotiations with public officials who are charged with federa l offenses that focus on abuse of the office involve . '' While resignation `` s hall not be imposed involuntarily against the will '' of a member of Congress , an offer of resignation `` may be incorporated into plea agreements , '' the gui delines state . ( Optional add end ) The high political stakes and spillover fro m the Rostenkowski case were made clear Tuesday by House Minority Whip Newt Ging rich , R-Ga. , who noted that defense lawyer Bennett also is representing Clinto n in a sexual harassment complaint brought by a former Arkansas state employee . `` Clearly when you have the president 's lawyer negotiating with the Justice D epartment over a national health care leader , '' Gingrich said , `` the America n people have some cause to wonder what 's going on . '' He said the great conce rn among Republicans is that White House political interference with Rostenkowsk i 's case would prevent justice from being done . `` What we 're concerned about is some sort of strange plea bargaining taking place in which political pressur e could be brought to bear , '' Gingrich added . '' You can't have one of the mo st powerful members of the House having the same lawyer as the president at this critical moment being involved in a plea bargain and not say anything about it. '' ' `` He ( Rostenkowski ) doesn't want to go to prison , '' said a Democratic colleague , indicating why it may be difficult for Rostenkowski 's lawyers to r each a plea bargain agreement with federal prosecutors . On the other hand , a p lea bargain that does not include prison time or a resignation would trigger dem ands from Republicans , and some Democrats , for a tough censure resolution and demands for an Ethics Committee investigation that probably would be approved by the House . WASHINGTON U.S. government officials and civil rights advocates , hailing a `` new partnership '' dedicated to weeding out racism in commercial establishments , announced Tuesday a record $ 54.4 million discrimination settlement with the e mbattled Denny 's restaurant chain . The settlement , which earmarks funds for D enny 's patrons who feel they were victims of discrimination , closes the book o n class-action lawsuits that evoked a modern version of the lunch-counter protes ts of the civil rights movement 's early days . `` With the help and cooperation of private counsel , the Justice Department and Denny 's have entered into the largest , most sweeping nationwide settlement of a public accommodations case in history , '' said Deval L. Patrick , assistant attorney general for civil right s . The deal , which must be approved in U.S. district courts in San Jose and Ba ltimore , ends a painful chapter for Flagstar Cos. of Spartanburg , S.C. , which owns the chain . The company was accused in the lawsuits of fostering a discrim inatory corporate culture and refusing to serve blacks at some of its 1,400 Denn y 's restaurants across the country . Some black customers , for example , said they were asked to prepay for meals or pay cover charges before they were seated . One former restaurant manager said he was told by superiors to close his rest aurant if `` too many '' black customers approached . Under the terms of the arr angement , Flagstar did not admit to any wrongdoing . Nevertheless , Justice Dep artment officials said it represents a landmark in civil rights enforcement the largest settlement ever negotiated in a case involving discrimination at restaur ants , hotels or other public accommodations . The agreement resolves separate l awsuits filed last year in California and Maryland . The California plaintiffs i ncluded Rachel Thompson of Vallejo , a 15-year-old black who went to Denny 's to celebrate her 13th birthday , but was refused the restaurant 's customary free birthday meal . The Maryland lawsuit was filed by six U.S. . Secret Service offi cers who stopped at a Denny 's in Annapolis amid preparations for a speech by Pr esident Clinton at the U.S. . Naval Academy . The black agents said they sat for nearly a hour without receiving service , even as they watched white colleagues eat second and third helpings . Their lawsuit was expanded to include claimants in 48 other states . Under the settlement , Flagstar will pay $ 28 million in d amages to Californian customers , plus $ 6.8 million in attorneys fees . The cha in will pay $ 17.7 million to customers in Maryland and other states , along wit h $ 1.9 million in legal fees . Customers who feel they were treated unfairly at Denny 's can request claim forms and apply for a portion of the damages by call ing the company toll-free at ( 800 ) 836-0055 . The claims will be screened by a n independent claims administrator and the Washington Lawyer 's Committee for Ci vil Rights and Urban Affairs , which filed the Maryland lawsuit . Damages will b e prorated among victims whose claims are approved . Besides paying damages , Fl agstar will be required to retain an independent civil rights monitor to ensure the company 's compliance with the settlement . In addition , it agreed to featu re blacks as customers and employees in advertisements , train its employees in racial sensitivity , and allow representatives of a civil rights group to make r andom spot checks of Denny 's outlets to detect bias . Flagstar officials said t he company already has begun satisfying many of the agreement 's requirements . ( Optional add end ) Attorneys for plaintiffs in the class-action suits said the settlement could become a precedent for future discrimination cases . Patrick , noting that the Justice Department is pursuing 20 other cases involving alleged discrimination at public accommodations , issued a pointed warning to any compa nies that still practice racial discrimination : `` We are watching . '' The set tlement `` symbolizes what I think is a return of the finest moments of the civi l rights struggles , in which the Department of Justice locked arms with civil r ights lawyers and the private bar to win relief for victims of discrimination , '' said John P. Relman , an attorney with the Washington Lawyer 's Committee . ` ` We hope and believe that this is the beginning of a new partnership. .. . We w ant the Justice Department by our side . '' Flagstar still faces a handful of in dividual discrimination lawsuits . A spokesman said the company hopes to settle those cases separately . Last year , Flagstar entered a `` fair share '' agreeme nt with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People , and agr eed to expand minority ownership of its franchises . Although the company has no black-owned franchises , a spokesman said 28 potential owners are under conside ration . JERICHO , West Bank Palestinian police , who apparently thought they were in co ntrol of this small-town experiment in self-rule , got a rude lesson Tuesday in the limits of power . Israel sealed off Jericho for 24 hours after a policeman d isarmed and detained three Jewish settlers who had come to town to change money . The closure , the Israeli army said , is to give Palestinian commanders time t o explain to their officers that Israelis are untouchables . It was a day of bac k-to-back crises in the fledgling arrangement that provides limited self-rule fo r Jericho and the Gaza Strip while leaving substantial authority in Israel 's ha nds . A potentially bloody incident between the armed settlers and Palestinian p olice was narrowly averted in Jericho . At the same time , a ferocious political battle is shaping up over other efforts by Palestine Liberation Organization Ch airman Yasser Arafat to assert his legislative rule in the autonomous zones and to post Palestinian police officers at a PLO office in Arab East Jerusalem . Sin ce the self-rule agreement was signed in Cairo , Egypt , May 4 , Israel and the PLO have disagreed sharply over its interpretation and the PLO 's ability to tak e charge on the ground . In Jericho , site of the most serious power clash since Israel 's troop withdrawal 10 days ago , two men from the nearby Israeli farmin g settlement of Naama were detained by a Palestinian policeman who briefly confi scated their pistols . A third settler reported the incident to Israeli army com manders , who complained to a Palestinian commander and won the settlers ' relea se . The incident could have turned violent , according to the settlers . At one point , one of the Israelis lied when asked if he was armed . The Arab police o fficer then patted the settler down and found a pistol jammed into his waistband . The settler started to pull out the gun . The police officer raised his rifle and cocked it . Shlomi Yohanan , another armed settler at the scene in downtown Jericho , said he came within a twitch of drawing his own gun . `` I was half a second from shooting the Arab , '' a shaken Yohanan said later . `` I was only thinking of my friend . But can you imagine what would have happened to the peac e if I had shot him ? My God . '' The autonomy agreement gives Palestinian secur ity forces the right only to ask an Israeli in their jurisdiction for identifica tion and for a gun license . The Israeli doesn't have to respond . A Palestinian policeman can only hand over an Israeli to Israeli soldiers , but not detain hi m . The army said it closed Jericho to enable Palestinian commanders `` to expla in to all police .. . their powers and authority . '' Palestinians say they don' t want any armed Israelis inside the self-rule areas . Israel said the agreement permits licensed Jewish gun owners to take their weapons wherever they choose , even into places of worship in PLO-controlled areas . ( Optional add end ) The issue of guns and jurisdiction isn't likely to go away . In another incident cau sing friction , a PLO-appointed commander in the West Bank said he wants to stat ion Palestinian police to guard an office in East Jerusalem . Israel 's police m inister , Moshe Shahal , said that would be illegal and threatened to stop the P LO by any means from establishing a security outpost in the Israeli capital . Ar afat Tuesday opened another front in the battle for power by announcing that he is canceling , effective immediately , all Israeli-written laws , military order s and regulations issued over the 27 years of occupation in Gaza and Jericho . I sraeli authorities said Arafat cannot do that because the self-rule agreement gi ves Palestinians only those legislative powers approved by Israel . `` These cla ims by any Palestinian authorities have no grounds because any legislation needs the approval of Israel , '' said a Foreign Ministry spokesman . PORT-AU-PRINCE , Haiti Five of them sit at the pier , ships of all measure , va rying from 70 feet to seven times that size . Some fly the Haitian flag , one th e British ensign , and some fly no flags at all . They all have one thing in com mon : They defy the world . From the Leo , an anchorless rust bucket recently pu lled from the beach where it had run aground , to the British-flagged Oakleigh , all have run a U.N. embargo to bring in tens of thousands of gallons of banned fuel oil even , in at least one case , in the face of warning shots from U.S. en forcers . Pentagon officials said Tuesday in Washington that 14 ships heading fo r Haiti had been diverted since the embargo went into effect over the weekend . But other ships keep coming . Jacmel , a resort created as a pseudo French seasi de village by early 19th-century coffee magnates , has become the center of the Haitian military 's effort to break the international sanctions intended to forc e the army from power . `` The border is still a serious problem , '' a diplomat said of the frontier between Haiti and the Dominican Republic , `` and lots of gas comes through , but the biggest threat is now the sea . '' Under threat is t he strategy by the United Nations and the United States to use a near-total emba rgo to end military rule and restore exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide , w ho was driven from office Sept. 20 , 1991 , after seven months as Haiti 's only democratically elected president . `` If we can't stop smuggling , especially fr om the D.R. , then the embargo is not only a failure , it is stupid , '' the dip lomat said . `` Ships come all the time , '' said a foreign resident who has liv ed here for more than 20 years . `` They unload barrels of gas , or they just pu mp it out into truck tankers , all in plain sight of the choppers . '' The chopp ers are U.S. naval and Coast Guard helicopters flying from the 10-ship internati onal flotilla that is supposed to enforce the embargo , which was widened at mid night Saturday to include all goods save food and humanitarian items . LOS ANGELES Newly reunited family members of the accused assassin of Mexican pr esidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio have given a potentially explosive new account of the case that implicates two Mexican federal security officials , fa mily representatives said Tuesday . The accused assassin 's father now says that his son knew the two security agents and met with them two months before the Ma rch 23 assassination , said Jorge Mancillas , a University of California , Los A ngeles , professor and adviser to the family . Mancillas talked Tuesday with the family of Mario Aburto Martinez at the office of their lawyer two days after Ab urto 's mother and five other relatives crossed the border illegally from Tijuan a and requested political asylum , alleging that they had been harassed and thre atened . Aburto , a 23-year-old factory worker charged with gunning down Colosio at a Tijuana campaign rally , said he was friends with a man identified as a se curity guard for Colosio , Mancillas said . Mario Aburto told his father , Ruben , in January that the guard was going to introduce him to an `` important perso n , '' an agent in Mexico 's Interior Ministry , at a meeting in a Tijuana gymna sium , Mancillas said . The two security agents have been the focus of intense i nvestigation and speculation because of their mysterious actions at the assassin ation scene ; the Interior Ministry agent was even arrested as he ran from the s cene with a bloodstained shirt . But neither has been charged . The revelations by Aburto 's family appear significant because there have been few developments and many conspiracy theories since the arrests of Aburto and three alleged accom plices , volunteer security guards at the rally . But the new account comes afte r weeks in which the family 's statements to the news media have changed several times , causing Mexican officials and others to privately question their credib ility . The family 's representatives , however , said Ruben Aburto and other re latives in Los Angeles had been reluctant to speak until now because they feared retaliation against the family members in Tijuana . `` He 's been very scared , '' Mancillas said of the father . `` He believed they could kill his family in Tijuana . He 's very afraid of retaliation . '' Ruben Aburto and the accused ass assin 's brothers are willing to meet with Mexican investigators to disclose wha t they know about the assassination and about Aburto 's actions in the preceding months , said the family 's lawyer , Peter Schey of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law in Los Angeles . Schey said Mexican investigators made c ontact with the Aburtos in Los Angeles about 10 days ago , using an FBI agent as a go-between . `` The family wants the truth of the assassination to come out , '' Schey said . `` The family is willing to accept the truth . '' ( Optional ad d end ) Before talking to investigators , however , the Aburtos want the Mexican government to let Ruben Aburto visit his imprisoned son in Mexico City and also permit visits by attorneys from the United States and a doctor selected by the family , Schey said . Aburto 's mother and other family members in Tijuana alrea dy have been questioned by Mexican police . The six relatives have been released while they seek political asylum or temporary residence based on humanitarian g rounds . In the past month , the family has been followed , frightened by a seri es of attempted break-ins and had the windows of their house shattered by gunfir e , Schey said Tuesday . U.S. immigration officials say that the case will recei ve no special treatment . They said diplomatic sensitivities a political asylum case would force U.S. authorities to pass judgment on Mexico 's handling of the Colosio case are not an issue . The statements connecting Aburto to other figure s in the case provide the strongest potential evidence of a conspiracy in a secr etive , much-criticized investigation . The special prosecutor has yet to explai n the motives and masterminds behind the alleged plot , basing the case largely on videotapes of the assassination and on the confession of Aburto , who insists that the alleged accomplices were not involved . In various statements to repor ters , however , Aburto 's father has said his son went to a shadowy political m eeting in March with two of the accused accomplices , former Baja police officer s who worked in the volunteer security team provided by Colosio 's political par ty . The two are charged with obstructing Colosio 's military bodyguards , enabl ing the gunman to advance through a crowd and shoot the candidate at point-blank range . Tuesday 's revelations are particularly sensitive because they incrimin ate two other agents initially named as suspects whose roles have never been ful ly explained . WASHINGTON With all five congressional committees working on health care legisl ation now certain to miss their self-imposed Memorial Day deadline for producing bills , President Clinton will go to Capitol Hill Wednesday evening to prod the m to finish their work . Until Tuesday , it appeared that at least one of the pa nels the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee stood a chance of passing a bill to overhaul the United States ' health care system before Congress adjourns for the weeklong recess . However , Chairman Edward M. Kennedy , D-Mass. , anno unced late in the day that it would be `` unwise '' to rush to meet that deadlin e . He blamed at least part of the delay on `` unforeseen events '' an apparent reference to the death and funeral of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis . `` But there is also a larger sense that in this situation , haste right now would make waste , '' Kennedy said . `` The more time we spend , the more progress we are making . It would be foolish to jeopardize further cooperation by forcing too many dec isions prematurely . '' Indeed , Kennedy has been more successful than expected in winning GOP votes for various aspects of his bill . All but two Republicans j oined Democrats Tuesday in beating back efforts to weaken his proposals for expa nsion of coverage for long-term care . Yet despite Kennedy 's optimistic stance , the fact remains that , in varying degrees , all five committees two in the Se nate , and three in the House have bogged down over the most fundamental choices . The toughest issue involves finding a way to reach the president 's most basi c goal of assuring that every American and legal resident of this country has he alth coverage . Clinton 's proposal to require all employers to provide coverage has proven to be the most controversial element of his bill , with opponents co ntending that the additional cost would cause the smallest and weakest firms to fire workers or shut down altogether . Clinton and his allies thought they had m ade a breakthrough last week , when Sen. John B . Breaux , D-La. , previously on e of the most influential opponents of the so-called `` employer mandate , '' ha d said he would support a modified version that exempted the smallest companies . However , Breaux said Tuesday he is not finding much support for that approach , particularly from Republicans . Now , Breaux said , he is testing sentiment f or a proposal under which employer mandates would be put into force only if comp anies did not expand coverage on their own under a reformed health care system . Meanwhile , in what appears to be the most dramatic effort to date to bridge pa rty lines on the issue , Senate Finance Committee Chairman Daniel Patrick Moynih an , D-N.Y. , and Sen. Bob Packwood , R-Ore. , the committee 's ranking Republic an , will work together in drafting the initial version of a health care bill to be presented to their committee after the Memorial Day break , Packwood said . Bipartisanship is more of a necessity on the Finance Committee than anywhere els e in Congress . Democrats command an 11-9 majority there and it is an even more fragile party front , given the fact that the Democrats on the committee include several conservatives such as Breaux . There seems to be a growing sense in Con gress that some sort of breakthrough must happen and happen soon to preserve any chance of sweeping legislation this year . Otherwise , lawmakers might pass onl y a set of marginal changes in the current system . That is why some were viewin g Clinton 's visit with particular interest , despite efforts by both the White House and Democratic leaders to downplay its significance . ( Optional add end ) Some suggested he might use the trip to Capitol Hill as an opportunity to put f orward new proposals that might elicit support from Republicans and more conserv ative Democrats . Others , however , said that would be precisely the wrong tact ic . Instead , they said , Clinton should stand firm behind his bill , and allay fears particularly in the House that he ultimately will be forced into giving u p on the most difficult parts of his plan . `` Members are concerned about what the president 's bottom line is . They need to hear it from the president direct ly , '' said Rep. Henry A . Waxman , D-Calif . `` He needs to spell out his mini mum requirements for health reform. .. . If we do meet them , we need to be sure the rug isn't going to be pulled out from us later . '' WASHINGTON In a surprise announcement , WETA President Sharon Percy Rockefeller Tuesday said she is resigning immediately for health reasons . Rockefeller , wh o also has served as chief executive officer of the public broadcasting station here since 1989 , stressed in a letter to board chairman Daniel K. Mayers that ` ` the sole reason for my resignation is that , most unfortunately , I have not b een able to regain my health and energy since my 1993 accident . '' However , sh e intends to return to the station in the fall , albeit in a changed role , and to remain on the board , she wrote . On May 13 , 1993 , Rockefeller suffered thr ee broken ribs and a punctured lung when the car in which she was riding was for ced off Rock Creek Parkway during a severe thunderstorm . She returned to the st ation after two months but , according to associates , has often refused to redu ce her workload , although the need for her to do so was painfully evident . The decision to step down `` is the most difficult decision of my life ; I do it wi th a lot of sadness and regret , '' she told a reporter Tuesday . `` I was never able to come back from ( the accident ) even though I kept trying and trying . Eventually , it took a big toll the doctors say I have to rest . '' She is alrea dy looking forward to her fall return `` in a new position . I hope to help WETA with programming , community outreach and fund-raising , as well as with the na tional public broadcasting institutions . '' The WETA board holds its regularly scheduled meeting today and is expected to appoint a search committee to seek Ro ckefeller 's replacement . Neil Mahrer , executive vice president and chief oper ating officer , will continue to manage the daily operations . In her letter to Mayers , Rockefeller said the station `` deserves and must have a president who possesses the physical stamina to meet the challenges which lie ahead . '' In hi s reply , the chairman said , `` Most of all , Sharon , we want you to take care of yourself . Your recovery .. . has been impaired by the prodigious effort you have expended on WETA 's behalf . Only those who have worked with you can appre ciate the energy and hours you have devoted to WETA on a sustained basis over ma ny years . '' Rockefeller , 49 , is married to Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV , D-W .Va . They have four children . She has held several major public broadcasting a ppointments , including board memberships at both the Public Broadcasting Servic e and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting ( which she served as chairman ) . She was on the board of the West Virginia Educational Broadcasting Authority fo r 15 years . Richard W. Carlson , president of the Corporation for Public Broadc asting , said , `` Sharon Rockefeller represents the heart and soul of public br oadcasting . She 's always been there for us . And I know that she willn't be ab le to stay away for long . '' -0- It 's been quite a couple of weeks for ABC New s president Roone Arledge . He recently turned down an offer from Rupert Murdoch to take a major corporate job at Fox Broadcasting ( reportedly the chairman 's job now held by Lucie Salhany ) and on Saturday he married his girlfriend of the past couple of years , Gigi Shaw , in a small family ceremony at his Southampto n estate . It was the third marriage for the 62-year-old Arledge . His four chil dren and her daughter were in attendance . Fox Broadcasting leans heavily on new dramas in the 1994-95 primetime schedule announced Tuesday , introducing five o f the long-form shows and two situation comedies . Missing from next fall 's lin eup will be `` In Living Color , '' `` Brisco County Jr. , '' `` South Central , '' `` Herman 's Head '' and `` Sinbad . '' MEXICO CITY Just 10 days after taking office , Mexico 's new attorney general T uesday announced a radical reorganization of the Federal Judicial Police , start ing with the firing of five top commanders and the elimination of special detail s within the force . The actions were taken , according to a statement from Atto rney General Humberto Benitez 's office , `` to make the force more efficient an d to avoid illegal activities . '' Mexican police at all levels have come under increasing pressure in the past year to restore public order in the wake of the unsolved assassinations of a Roman Catholic cardinal , the leading presidential candidate and the Tijuana police chief , in addition to a wave of kidnappings an d audacious gun battles between rival narcotics gangs . Benitez cracked down esp ecially hard on the department in charge of investigations , eliminating it and firing its five commanders . NEW YORK An outraged federal judge Tuesday sentenced each of four men convicted in the World Trade Center bombing to 240 years in prison a life term calculated by adding the life expectancy of each of the six people killed in the blast , p lus 30 years for two other counts . U.S. . District Judge Kevin Duffy , who angr ily addressed the defendants after overseeing the 5-month trial , called the fou r `` cowards '' for planting a bomb during the lunch hour of Feb. 26 , 1993 , in an effort to `` terrorize the people of the United States . '' In sentencing th e four Muslim defendants , Duffy 's toughest words were to the most-educated of the group , Nidal Ayyad , a 26-year-old chemist who helped get chemicals and arr ange for vehicles . Ayyad , who dismissed the court as not being as important as the teachings of the Koran , said to the judge : `` You only rule over this lif e . You are not going to change what God has dictated . '' `` You are the bigges t hypocrite in the room , '' Duffy responded after Ayyad sat down . `` Clearly y ou are the most culpable. .. . God gave you brains .. . and what you have done i s turn your life into a total lie . `` You talk about the Koran , '' Duffy conti nued , as Ayyad , dressed in a brown one-piece prison uniform , stared straight ahead . `` You have shamed it. .. . You violated the laws not only of man but of God . '' Although some of the conspirators shouted angrily at the jury after th eir conviction on March 4 , Tuesday was the first time they had spoken at length in the courtroom . All four have said they are innocent , and their attorneys h ave said they plan to appeal . In Tuesday 's speeches , halted every few seconds for translation from Arabic into English , only one of the men talked about the horror of the crime Ahmad Ajaj , a 28-year-old Palestinian who was in prison on a false passport conviction when the bomb exploded . Ajaj stood for almost thre e hours , telling stories about torture and killing in the Middle East and blami ng the United States for `` terrorism '' that included the country 's treatment of American Indians and blacks and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki . Ajaj , the jury decided , was the one who masterminded the technical parts of making the trade center bomb even while he was in prison . Mohammed Salameh , 26 , the Palestinian immigrant who rented a yellow Ryder van and was captured when he tr ied to get his deposit refunded , said he would `` not beg for mercy '' from the court . After Salameh shouted remarks to the court , Duffy said that if Salameh and his `` cohorts '' had placed the bomb in a different place , it could have knocked one of the towers down onto another . Or , he said , cyanide gas could h ave been sucked into the air ducts , killing thousands . Mahmud Abouhalima , 34 , of Woodbridge , N.J. , told of being tortured by Egyptian police who captured him when he fled to Egypt after the bombing and turned him over the U.S. authori ties . He blamed the media for `` a very effective negative role '' in focusing public opinion , including the jurors ' . He criticized jurors for sleeping thro ugh testimony , and he complained that prison guards had not given him prayer be ads and rugs . `` You 're a convicted felon , '' Duffy said , as he began Abouha lima 's sentencing . `` You 're not some guy on vacation . '' Before the four we re sentenced , Ed Smith , whose pregnant wife was killed in the blast , read an appeal to the judge that the four would be `` held in custody for the duration o f their days on this Earth . '' Smith said that after the explosion , he began c alling his wife Monica 's office . `` There was no answer , and there would neve r be an answer . '' As people wept silently in the courtroom , Smith told of buy ing baby furniture , of his despair at knowing his wife would not ever be able t o hold her son in her arms . `` All this because .. . four men wanted to terrori ze the United States , '' he said . WASHINGTON Four federal agencies are examining allegations that the Air Force s old useless fighter cockpit displays by a California defense contractor whose bo ard members at the time included William Perry , now secretary of defense , and two other top Pentagon officials . Under scrutiny is a 1987-91 contract between the Air Force and Scientific Applications International Corp. , based in San Die go . During those four years , its high-powered board of directors included Perr y ; John Deutch , now the deputy secretary of defense , and Anita Jones , the ne w director of defense research and engineering . After inquiries by Newsday , th e three Clinton administration officials recused themselves from control over th e Pentagon portion of the SAIC probe . The company paid a total of almost $ 900, 000 in severance payments to Perry , Deutch and Jones when they left the company to join the Pentagon in 1993 . The investigation involves Air Force payment of $ 9.2 million , primarily for F-15 fighter cockpit displays that SAIC made parti ally from tiny Japanese television screens that cost only $ 650 each . An estima ted 20 cockpit indicators that were supposed to show whether the plane was climb ing or diving were made from color liquid crystal displays , or LCDs . None of t he 20 cockpit LCDs ever worked properly . While SAIC charges to the Air Force ar e one facet of the investigation , court records and subsequent depositions obta ined by federal officials indicated that the investigation may hinge on SAIC pro mises that the cockpit displays could become operable if the Air Force paid an a dditional $ 320,000 for work on the project in 1991 . Former SAIC employees cont end the company knew at the time that the displays could not be fixed , federal investigators said . Despite SAIC 's failures with LCDs for cockpit displays , t he LCD technology has become a top priority for the Clinton administration 's De fense Department . The Justice Department , two Pentagon investigative agencies and the U.S. . Attorney 's office in San Diego have seized two truckloads of doc uments relating to SAIC executives and board members . SAIC President Lorenz Kul l denied allegations of fraud made by company whistleblowers . `` I think that w as a bum rap , '' Kull said of the allegations of the former employees . Perry , Deutch and Jones refused Newsday 's repeated requests to be interviewed about t heir possible involvement with the contract . But in a Pentagon statement to New sday issued in their behalf , the three recused themselves from the SAIC investi gation . `` If the report comes to their offices for action , they will ask the secretary of the Army to review it on their behalf , '' the Pentagon said . Kath leen deLaski , the Pentagon spokeswoman , said the decision to have Army Secreta ry Togo West oversee the issue was taken after Newsday inquiries . Interviews in San Diego and Washington provided a glimpse inside the often secret world of de fense companies that employ influential politicians , retired military officers and scientists who at one time or another pass through the Pentagon 's revolving door . When Perry , Deutch and Jones left the company for the Pentagon , SAIC p aid them $ 891,763 in severance fees . The payments , particularly to Perry and Jones , were surprisingly high but reflected SAIC 's repurchase of privately hel d company stock issued to officials over seven years of service as directors Acc ording to disclosure statements filed with the Senate Armed Services Committee , Perry was entitled to fees and stock from SAIC worth $ 354,474 ; Deutch , $ 456 ,591 ; and Jones , $ 80,698 . Agents of the Air Force Office of Special Investig ations and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service took part in a federal rai d on five SAIC buildings last Feb. 15 . In an interview , Kull , the SAIC presid ent , said that Perry , Deutch and Jones were not involved in the contract , whi ch was a relatively small part of the company 's $ 1.2 billion-a-year operation . The Pentagon statement on the investigation made the same point . `` Dr. Perry , Mr. Deutch and Dr. Jones did not have any personal involvement relative to th e Air Force contract during their service on the SAIC board , '' the statement s aid . Whistleblower allegations led to the sweep by the U.S. . Attorney 's offic e in San Diego . With search warrants , federal agents entered the offices of Ku ll , board Chairman J.R. Beyster , as well as the legal counsel and company offi cials involved in the Air Force contract . Seized were 85 boxes containing 180,0 00 documents , including records relating to the board of directors . The docume nts seized from SAIC are still being computerized to facilitate a detailed exami nation . One federal investigator who spoke on condition he not be identified sa id , however , that Perry , Deutch , Jones `` and the rest of the board are resp onsible for SAIC 's activities , and this was a very important new technology . '' In 1990 , while Perry , Deutch and Jones were still on the board , the U.S. . Attorney 's office won a conviction of the corporation on charges of fraud in c onnection with altered lab tests by SAIC on hazardous-waste sites . The company was fined $ 1.3 million . According to an investigator , Air Force dismay over t he cockpit displays first surfaced in 1991 , while all three current Pentagon of ficials were on the board . `` There were plenty of red flags for top management and board members , '' the investigator said . ( Begin optional trim ) In April , the Pentagon announced a $ 580 million subsidy program for U.S. companies wil ling to enter the flat-panel LCD production industry . `` These screens are beco ming increasingly critical to the military to display information which we need to give us an advantage in combat , '' Perry said in a May 5 speech . But even b efore the new administration came to office , the Air Force had planned to use f our-by-four-inch LCD panels primarily on F-15 Eagle fighters to replace horizont al indicators , a vital cockpit display that shows whether the plane is going up or down . After years of promises and demands for more money by SAIC 's technol ogy division , however , the Air Force ended the project with an angry letter to the company . `` None of the displays worked , '' said an Air Force official wh o spoke on condition he not be identified . He worked on the program at the Air Logistics Center at Robins Air Force Base , Ga. . Although the $ 9.2 million con tract was small in Pentagon terms , investigators said it involved development o f one of the first military flat-panel LCDs . But SAIC had to scramble when pote ntial U.S. suppliers failed to supply their engineers with LCD screens for the A ir Force cockpit displays . According to federal investigators , the company pur chased Sharp , Hitachi and other Japanese-made LCD television monitors at Target Stores in the San Diego area . According to one Sharp official , the screens re tail for $ 650 . At SAIC , Kull said the controversy involved a legitimate dispu te with the Air Force over a difficult development project that ran out of feder al support before the cockpit displays were workable . ( End optional trim ) In an interview , Kull told Newsday that SAIC informed the Air Force in writing tha t the preliminary cockpit displays were made with LCDs from Sharp and other comm ercial products . `` They ( the Air Force ) knew what it was and they wanted to see what it would look like , to get a feel , '' Kull said . He also said the LC Ds in question were purchased directly from the producers , not dismantled from discount store television sets . Perry served in a top Pentagon post during the Carter administration . He joined the Clinton administration as deputy secretary until he was elevated earlier this year with the departure of Les Aspin as the defense chief . Along with Deutch and Jones , Perry has been an adviser to the d efense community for years . All three are tenured science professors at major u niversities . Their technical insights and Pentagon connections enabled companie s such as SAIC to be years ahead of competitors for the $ 38 billion the Pentago n is spending under the direction of Jones on research and development . In addi tion to preparing for war , a major duty for all three is leading an endless bat tle against waste , fraud and abuse by defense contractors that have cost taxpay ers billions of dollars . WASHINGTON When Science Applications International Corp. runs afoul of federal laws , it is quick to insist that its influential board of directors and top exe cutives are not involved in the wrongdoing . But once U.S. law enforcement agent s move against the government contractor , based in San Diego , the company 's b oard members are rolled into position in Washington like heavy artillery . Take the 1988 federal indictment of six employees on charges they improperly reported lab tests on hazardous-waste site samples for the Enviromental Protection Agenc y . The six employees pleaded guilty and the San Diego U.S. attorney 's office m oved to indict the corporation because of the severity of the fraud . According to the government , the employees were victims of corporate greed , `` lambs thr own to the wolves and then the corporation walks out of here , '' the government said in a federal court statement . In 1990 , former Defense Secretary Melvin L aird , a member of the company 's board , wrote then-Attorney General Dick Thorn burgh , asking him to halt prosecution of the company . `` I can assure you ther e was no wrongdoing on the part of the corporation , '' said Laird , defense chi ef under President Nixon . The letter was made public by the Project on Governme nt Oversight , a private watchdog group , which passed the documents on to congr essional investigators . In the face of the disclosures , Thornburgh went ahead with the indictment and the company pleaded guilty to 10 felony counts of fraud . The company was fined $ 1.3 million in 1991 , the largest fine connected with the hazardous-waste program . WASHINGTON U.S. and Japanese officials offered starkly different interpretation s Tuesday of their agreement ending a three-month stalemate in trade negotiation s , even as both sides hailed it as a major breakthrough . While U.S. officials said they had won Japan 's commitment to use `` objective criteria '' to measure progressin opening specific sectors of the Japanese market , including automobi les , auto parts , communications and medical equipment , Japanese officials str essed that progress in those areas was not a primary goal . Similarly , Japanese officials challenged the U.S. assertion that the two sides had agreed to a `` r esults-oriented '' approach one that stresses sales of foreign products in Japan to resolving their trade differences . The Japanese officials said the most sig nificant part of the accord was an explicit assurance that the United States wou ld not rely solely on numerical targets to measure Japanese progress . U.S. nego tiators minimized that provision , saying it was something they had never sought . Japanese have a favorite word to describe such vague agreements tama-mushi ir o , or having the color of the tama mushi , a common Japanese beetle . The trans lucent wings of the tama mushi can seem green or blue-or some other color entire ly-depending on the light and the viewer 's perspective . Japanese often use suc h ambiguity to paper over frictions and maintain harmony in important relationsh ips . But in the case of Washington and Tokyo , such fuzziness seems to be breed ing only greater enmity . Once again , it would seem , officials from two countr ies are looking at the same beetle , but each seems to believe it has a complete ly different hue . The divergent visions of the accord , hammered out after five days of feverish negotiations and numerous phone calls between top level of off icials in Washington and Tokyo , typified the sort of ambiguity and confusion th at has clouded relations between world 's two largest economies for much of the past decade . Further , it casts doubt on President Clinton 's pledge to transfo rm the nature of the U.S. effort to open the Japanese market . Indeed , the agre ement announced Tuesday seems to do little more than return the United States an d Japan to the point at which their trade negotiations started in Tokyo in July , when Clinton pressed Japan 's then-prime minister Kiichi Miyazawa into signing a `` framework agreement '' to begin a much-ballyhooed market opening effort th at Clinton administration officials said would mark the beginning of a new era i n Japanese relations . But those talks bogged down almost as soon as they were l aunched as it became clear that both sides had come away from the Tokyo meeting with starkly divergent visions of just what had been agreed to . Tuesday 's agre ement clears the way for those talks to resume soon , although the time and plac e of the next session has yet to be determined . In addition , there is no deadl ine for concluding the talks and no sanction for failing to do so , although bot h sides will have to make a public account of their progress when Clinton meets the Japanese prime minister at the Group of Seven summit in Naples in July . U.S . officials said Tuesday that negotiators now had clarified several of the key f laws of the language of last July 's agreement . But the statements of officials on both sides left considerable room for skepticism about that claim . Neverthe less , a Japanese foreign ministry spokesman in Washington seemed to suggest tha t the greatest achievement of the accord was less a clarification of these point s than an agreement to get the two countries back to the bargaining table . `` T he important thing is to get past this metaphysical debate-what is what and what is not what-and get the working groups back together , '' he said . `` As a pra ctical matter , '' one senior administration official said , `` the metaphysical debate is finished . '' Many analysts agreed that that was the real significanc e of the agreement . The negotiators `` simply wanted to start up the framework talks again and they needed some rationale .. . . '' said Alan Tonelson , resear ch director at the Economic Strategy Institute , a Washington think tank that ha s advocated taking a firm stand with Japan on trade issues . `` They are not agr eeing to the kind of provisions that would give this agreement meaning , '' he s aid . Tuesday , U.S. trade negotiators sought to portray the agreement as an imp ortant victory , saying the Japanese had agreed to a solution that followed almo st precisely a U.S. proposal U.S. . Trade Representative Mickey Kantor made last month to then-foreign minister Tsutomu Hata , who is now prime minister , at a meeting in Morocco . One negotiator boasted that the United States had broken th e deadlock without giving in on `` any U.S. negotiating position . '' But that c laim underscores the point that the United States has spent almost an entire yea r wrangling with Japan over the wording of its bargaining arrangements even as J apan 's trade surplus with the United States remains enormous . The real issue a ppears to be one of trust . As Hata told Kantor in a late-night meeting in Washi ngton in February , just between talks between Clinton and Hosokawa broke down : `` The trouble is we can't trust you with numbers and you can't trust us withou t them . '' NEW YORK Calculating a year in prison for each year of life lost in the World T rade Center bombing , a judge Tuesday sentenced the four convicted conspirators to die behind bars . U.S. . District Court Judge Kevin Duffy called the bombers `` sneakin ' cowards '' and said they planned to bring down both towers `` like dominoes '' and kill everyone inside the buildings with cyanide gas . `` My inte ntion is you stay there for the rest of your life , '' said a stern , disgusted Duffy . `` What you sought to do in the name of Islam is what the Koran forbids . '' He quoted a section of the Muslim holy book : `` These righteous people sha ll not be denied their reward . Allah knows the righteous . '' The lengthy , day long sentencing began with Edward Smith , husband of blast victim Monica Smith , exhorting the judge to hand down the harshest sentences possible . Then , one b y one , the four Muslim men convicted March 4 of the bombing defiantly declared their innocence and were handed the same sentence . Mohammad Salameh , Nidal Ayy ad , Mahmud Abouhalima and Ahmad Ajaj each was sentenced to serve 240 years , a sum Duffy calculated by combining the average life expectancy of each of the six people killed in the blast 180 years plus 30 years on each additional count . T uesday 's sentencing brought to a close the first chapter in the tale of terrori sm that culminated Feb. 26 , 1993 , when a bomb rocked the Trade Center , killin g six , injuring 1,000 and causing more than $ 500 million in damage . Marshals lined the back of the standing-room-only courtroom throughout the day . The only supporters present Ayyad 's father and Abouhalima 's wife and sister-in-law lis tened silently to the statements and sentences . The four men , shackled and dre ssed in brown prison jumpsuits , were taken from the courtroom . They were expec ted to be returned to the federal penitentiary in Lewisburg , Pa. , Tuesday nigh t . Tuesday morning , when Smith read his statement , none of the four raised th eir eyes to look at him . Smith described how he and his wife , who was six mont hs ' pregnant when she was killed , happily anticipated the birth of their son a nd how he learned of her death . `` Remember that these crimes are not , in the end , about a VIN ( vehicle identification ) number found in rubble or chemical swabs taken from a storage locker , '' said Smith . `` Remember that this bombin g was an act of multiple murder . '' Then Salameh , 26 , who drove the bomb-lade n Ryder van into the Trade Center garage , stood and spoke in Arabic , which was translated for the judge . The mostly unemployed undocumented alien from Jordan called the trial `` unjust '' and hailed terrorist organizations around the wor ld , praising Islamic fundamentalist guerrillas in Egypt , Algeria and `` occupi ed Palestine . '' `` I am not going to plead for mercy . ( If ) I had been judge d truthfully , I would accept the truth . I will rise above pleading for mercy o n falsehood , '' he said . Duffy , who maintained a casual if caustic demeanor d uring the six-month trial , was visibly angry , glaring down from the bench . `` Allah knows the righteous , '' he said to Salameh . `` Not you . '' ( Begin opt ional trim ) Duffy was equally stern with Ayyad , 26 , a Rutgers graduate , chem ical engineer and naturalized U.S citizen from Kuwait . `` You are the biggest h ypocrit in this room , '' Duffy said . `` You are clearly the most culpable . Yo u had the most breaks . You came to this country . You had a chance to do someth ing with your life . What right do you have to talk about God ? You talk about I slam . You have shamed it . '' Abouhalima , 34 , the cab driver from Egypt , spe nt most of his lengthy address describing his arrest and torture in Egypt and wh at he considered Duffy 's failure to provide a fair trial . He criticized the ju ry , the values of American men `` who worship money '' and `` only see women by their thighs . '' Abouhalima fled the United States four days after the bombing and was arrested a week later at his father 's home near Cairo , Egypt . At the end of his statement , Abouhalima suggested the assembled spectators pray toget her . `` There is one god , Allah . Mohammed is the prophet of us all , '' he sa id . `` You are a convicted felon , '' Duffy said to Abouhalima . `` This is not some guy on a vacation . You were convicted and justly convicted . '' ( End opt ional trim ) Ajaj , 27 , the final defendant , was in federal prison the day of the bombing . A Palestinian , he had been caught at Kennedy Airport Sept. 1 , 19 92 , trying to slip into the country with a phony passport . Ajaj was trying to bring bomb manuals into the country for the other conspirators . His traveling c ompanion was Ramzi Yousef , an alleged bomber who remains a fugitive . Ajaj carr ied on a filibuster for nearly three hours , detailing the history of Palestine from 1917 through President Clinton 's foreign policy . He said he had been unju stly convicted . `` Up to this very moment , I do not know where the World Trade Center is . I did not know where the World Trade Center is located . It did not concern me . '' Duffy finally cut him off and handed him his 240 years . All fo ur are expected to file an appeal of their convictions . JACMEL , Haiti Despite a reinforced U.N. embargo that went into effect Sunday , a flotilla of ships carrying contraband has sailed into this port city , carryi ng merchandise including gasoline , cars and color television sets . Local resid ents said at least nine ships have docked since the strengthened embargo started , in theory barring everything except pre-approved shipments of food , medicine and propane gas . Five remained Monday , and army officers directed trucks onto the docks to unload the merchandise . The embargo was imposed in October and re inforced by the U.N. . Security Council on Sunday in an effort to force the mili tary to allow the return of ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide . He was ove rthrown in a military coup in September 1991 , six months after becoming Haiti ' s first democratically elected leader . The ships , which flew British , Jamaica n , Colombian , Dominican , Bahamian and Haitian flags , demonstrated how diffic ult it could be to enforce the measure , especially since the ships largely ply the waters between Haiti and the Dominican Republic . `` So far , the ships have been triple-parked out there , '' said one longtime resident , watching as ship s bobbed , waiting to be unloaded . `` It has been years since the port was that busy . '' Diplomats involved in monitoring the embargo said it could take weeks to figure out how to plug its leaks , and admitted that the officers who contro l the contraband could build up substantial stockpiles in the meantime . This me ans the measure would not really begin to have an impact on the rich and on the officer corps for several weeks , they said . But it is a question whether the w ealthy or the officer corps will suffer . While reporters watched , uniformed ar my officers supervised the unloading of a truckload of color televisions and oth er electronic goods . At the port entrance , a small market has sprung up , and residents said there had been an influx of prostitutes to keep pace with the gro wing number of ships . Residents said that at times over the weekend there were nine tanker trucks on the dock getting fuel from tanks on visiting ships . Other ships unloaded vehicles and luxury goods . The Bahamian-flagged Sea Search , a seagoing tug that on Saturday was engaged by a U.S. picket ship enforcing the em bargo , was in port here Monday , its barrels of fuel being unloaded under the s upervision of military officers . Eyewitnesses said an armed fight nearly broke out in the stately La Jacmelienne Hotel here Saturday night when a subordinate o f powerful police commander Lt. Col. Michel Francois , identified as Maj. Oiseau , arrived with several other officers to supervise the unloading of fuel . Acco rding to several accounts , the owner of the hotel refused Oiseau a room for the night because he and the other officers were not paying for food or drinks . Oi seau reportedly began waving a gun around and threatening to kill hotel employee s , while the hotel owner also brought out a gun . Only the intervention of Col. Lyonel Sylvain , the regional commander , avoided a major shootout , the source s said . The witnesses , who asked not to be identified for their personal safet y , said another ship , the Oakleigh , flying the Union Jack and registered in A berdeen , Scotland , made several trips a week over the last several months to t he Dominican Republic , bringing back about 15,000 gallons of fuel at a time . R esidents here and knowledgeable sources in Port-au-Prince , the capital , said m uch of the Jacmel fuel flow is controlled by an important fuel wholesaler named Gerald Caroli . Knowledgeable sources said Caroli is a major fuel supplier of th e U.S. . Embassy and other diplomatic missions . While ships were unloaded , a D ominican vessel sat about a mile from the dock , abandoned because its captain , known only as `` Dirty Harry , '' fled for his life when the buyers of his fuel found some of the diesel was full of sludge and unusable . NEW YORK A top cancer expert said Tuesday health officials facing increasing an tibiotic resistance among disease microbes should consider returning to techniqu es that were abandoned when antibiotics first came of age in the 1940s . Dr. Mat thew Scharff , director of the Albert Einstein Medical School 's Cancer Center i n New York City , urged the medical establishment to shift some of the emphasis from developing antibiotic drugs to producing antisera made of human antibodies . This , he said , could address two overlapping concerns : the rising number of severely immune-deficient patients , and the rapid growth of so-called superbug s that are resistant to many , or in some cases all , types of antibiotics . Whe n antisera was used extensively against meningococcal meningitis in the 1920s , Scharff said , it had a 30 percent success rate . `` It was highly statistically significant , '' he said . `` It was a successful treatment . '' Today , though , new technology exists that might make such antisera a more successful option where antibiotics fail , Scharff said . Speaking before a New York City gatherin g of the Irvington Trust , an investment banking group that funds medical resear ch , Scharff said patients who undergo cancer chemotherapy , transplant surgery , radiation or who have AIDS commonly die of what , for other people , are fairl y benign fungal and bacterial infections including staphylococcus , meningococcu s , pneumococcus and cryptococcus . `` In the absence of our own immunity , even antibiotics cannot kill these agents , '' Scharff said . About 10 percent of al l people with AIDS , for instance , die from antibiotic-resistant cryptococcus , a ubiquitous fungus that causes meningitis . Similarly , a variety of bacterial infections are essentially incurable in cancer lymphoma patients : Jacqueline K ennedy Onassis died partly as a result of such an opportunistic , untreatable ba cterial infection . In the the 1920s and 1930s , before the discovery of antibio tics , physicians treated such problems with antisera created by injecting sampl es of the bacteria plaguing their patients into a horse . The horse 's immune sy stem reacted by making antibodies , which doctors then withdrew from the horse ' s blood . After purifying the antibodies , physicians then injected the antisera into their human patients in order to give their immune systems a better chance to fight off the original bacterial threat . The biggest drawback was that huma ns often developed acute allergic responses to horse proteins found in the antis era . Now , though , so-called monoclonal antibodies are already in use for othe r medical purposes , and the techniques for making pure antibodies are well-esta blished , Scharff said . He said he and his colleagues have already made pure hu man antisera against cryptococcus in test tubes that cured mice . `` I think we should look back at this , '' Scharff added . `` We have to . We have nothing el se . '' ( Optional add end ) Dr . Mark Jacobson , of the University of Californi a , San Francisco , however , said there are major questions about whether such a treatment which could cost $ 3,000 would be cost effective since it would be h elpful only to a small number of people . About half of all AIDS patients recove r from cryptococcus while on antibiotics , Jacobsen said . Scharff and his colle ague Arturo Casadevall have met with several pharmaceutical and biotechnology co mpanies , hoping to find interest in the antisera concept . So far , there is no interest because the market is small . WASHINGTON Four federal agencies are examining allegations that the Air Force w as sold useless fighter cockpit displays by a California defense contractor whos e board members at the time included William Perry , now secretary of defense , and two other top Pentagon officials . BALTIMORE Jumping into one of the liveliest debates in psychiatry , researchers at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions will investigate an unconventional th eory that viruses or other infectious agents trigger schizophrenia . The project , made possible by a $ 7 million grant from the private Theodore and Vada Stanl ey Foundation of Arlington , Va. , is a large effort considering its speculative focus . It will involve nine faculty members and nine research `` fellows '' to be recruited over three years . Most schizophrenia studies have been dominated by research psychiatrists and geneticists , but this one will be centered in the department of pediatric infectious diseases . `` I wouldn't say that 's unusual I 'd say it 's unheard of , '' said Dr. E. Fuller Torrey , a clinical and resea rch psychiatrist in Washington , D.C. , who runs the Stanley Foundation 's Resea rch Program on Serious Mental Illnesses . `` This is not traditional mainstream psychiatric research , '' said Torrey , adding that the theory was more popular 60 years ago than it is today . The study is based on the theory that exposure t o an infectious agent in the womb or in early childhood produces the brain abnor malities responsible for schizophrenia later in life . One possibility is that a n infection interacts with heredity to cause the disease . Schizophrenia , the m ost common psychotic illness , with 1.5 million sufferers in the United States a lone , usually does not manifest itself until the teens or early twenties . It o ften causes people to hear strange voices , to withdraw socially and to sink int o disturbed thinking and disjointed , jumbled speech . Medications can reduce sy mptoms , but victims frequently have trouble holding jobs , maintaining friendsh ips and functioning independently . Torrey , speaking at a news briefing Tuesday , said the idea that infections lie at the root of schizophrenia emerged early in the century when many people who caught influenza in the great flu epidemic o f 1918 developed symptoms similar to those of schizophrenia and mania , another mental disorder . The notion fell out of favor as psychiatry became dominated by the idea that mental illnesses including schizophrenia are caused by poor paren ting or other troubling experiences in life . In recent years , however , the fi eld has come full circle dominated now by evidence that severe mental disorders are diseases of the brain . The Hopkins study will be the largest into a viral c ause , Torrey said . In recent years , many researchers have focused on the role played by genetics . The disease often runs in families , and in some cases aff licts a startling number of family members within the span of a few generations . But the thesis that schizophrenia is inherited is far from settled . While a t hird of schizophrenics have one or more close relatives with the disease , the r est have no such family history . If the disease were purely genetic , it would never afflict one identical twin and not the other since the siblings have virtu ally the same genetic makeup . But studies of identical twins have shown that th e disease is shared only 30 percent to 50 percent of the time in remaining cases , only one twin is afflicted . Evidence linking viruses or other infectious age nts to schizophrenia is purely circumstantial , Torrey said . Some studies , for instance , have found high levels of antibodies to certain viruses in the spina l fluid of schizophrenic patients . ( Optional add end ) Also , numerous studies have shown that people born in the late winter and early spring when common vir al illnesses are at their peak have a greater chance of developing the disease t han those born at other times of year . This has fueled speculation that the dis ease can be traced to a viral illness in infancy or during a prenatal stage . It is possible that some people carry genes that made them vulnerable to an infect ion or its complications , said Dr. Robert H. Yolken , chief of pediatric infect ious diseases and the study 's director . `` Infections and genetics are not mut ually exclusive , '' he said . SAN DIEGO The principal at a suburban high school who had blocked the showing o f `` Zoot Suit '' a month ago relented and was prepared Tuesday night to show th e movie on campus . There was only one problem : Not a single student showed up to see it . Terrie Pennock , principal of Santana High School in Santee , said s he still believes the movie does not fit the school 's 11th-grade American liter ature curriculum . But she said she had been willing to show the film to dispel any erroneous impression that her earlier action was racist or censorial . `` Ra cism and censorship are the kinds of things I became an educator to fight , '' P ennock said . Attendance at the 7 p.m. showing was to have been optional and ope n only to the 125 students from five American literature classes who had their p arents ' permission . School rules require such permission when any R-rated movi e is shown . Reiko Obata , the teacher who had wanted to show `` Zoot Suit '' an d had clashed with the principal and the chairwoman of the English Department , remains suspended with pay . Obata said her former students probably stayed away in a display of solidarity with her . But Pennock said the no-show was probably an indication that interest was never as high as Obata had suggested . Obata an d Pennock remain at odds over Obata 's suspension . Pennock said Obata was not s uspended because of the `` Zoot Suit '' clash but rather for other reasons that Pennock could not discuss because of a law requiring confidentiality in school p ersonnel cases . Obata has a one-semester contract as a fill-in teacher . Two da ys after Pennock denied permission for `` Zoot Suit , '' Obata was ordered to go home for the rest of the semester . Obata said she was told by an assistant sup erintendent that she was being suspended for going over the head of the departme nt chairwoman to seek permission to show the film . However , there are no docum ents to verify that . In the controversy that followed Obata 's suspension , `` Zoot Suit '' star Edward James Olmos , the movie 's writer and director Luis Val dez , and a variety of Latino activists , civil libertarians and educators issue d statements supporting her . Valdez said he was `` appalled by the bigotry and censorship '' at the school . Pennock said the original decision was made becaus e `` Zoot Suit '' was not suitable for use in the manner that Obata had wanted : to prepare students for `` The House on Mango Street , '' a short-story collect ion by Sandra Cisneros . A better introduction for the Cisnernos ' book , Pennoc k said , is the movie that has since been used by the substitute hired to take O bata 's place , `` Stand By Me , '' also starring Olmos . ( Optional add end ) B oth `` Stand By Me '' and `` The House on Mango Street '' deal with Latino stude nts struggling successfully against adversity , Pennock said , while `` Zoot Sui t '' deals with a murder trial , racial clashes and institutional racism . ``` T here is nothing wrong with ` Zoot Suit , ' ' ' Pennock said , `` but it is not a lead-in for ` Mango Street. ' ' ' Valdez was unavailable for comment Tuesday . Phil Esparza , associate producer of `` Zoot Suit '' and Valdez 's artistic coll aborator for 25 years , said that it was unfortunate that it took a public contr oversy `` to get this minimal action '' by the principal . In ZOOTSUIT ( Perry , Times ) sub for 13th and 14th grafs ( `` Stand and Delive r '' sted `` Stand By Me '' ) xxx Cisneros : A better introduction for the Cisne rnos ' book , Pennock said , is the movie that has since been used by the substi tute hired to take Obata 's place , `` Stand and Deliver , '' also starring Olmo s . ( Optional add end ) Both `` Stand and Deliver '' and `` The House on Mango Street '' deal with Latino students struggling successfully against adversity , Pennock said , while `` Zoot Suit '' deals with a murder trial , racial clashes and institutional racism . PICK UP 15th graf : `` There xxx : Republican Ron Lewis Tuesday broke a 129-year Democratic hold on a central Kent ucky congressional district , revealing for the second time in three weeks the d angers facing Democrats running in conservative southern and border states and t he liabilities of President Clinton in these electorates . With 100 percent of t he vote counted , Lewis , a fundamentalist Christian minister and bookstore owne r , had 55 percent to Democrat Joe Prather 's 45 percent . Until Lewis , whose c ampaign was aided by $ 200,000 from national GOP committees , began his assault on Prather and Clinton , the Democrat had been the strong favorite to win the se at that had been held for 41 years by Rep. William H. Natcher , who died March 2 9 . Democrats now hold a 256 to 178 advantage over the Republicans in the House . There is one independent . `` Everywhere I went through the district there wer e people upset , '' Lewis declared . `` They actually were mad. .. . They felt l ike they needed to do something and say something that would change lives . '' R ep . Bill Paxon , N.Y. , chairman of the National Republican Comgressional Commi ttee , declared that the results are `` a big defeat for the president and the D emocrats in Congress , and a warning message to Democrats that 1994 is going to be a Republican year . '' A mobilization effort by the Christian right also help ed Lewis , and its success also augurs badly for Democrats . Twenty-one Democrat s retired this year , and 11 of them represent southern or border state district s where the Christian right is strong . Rep. Vic Fazio , D-Calif. , chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee , sought to play down the signif icance of the Lewis victory . `` The outcome was not about message , it was abou t tactics , '' Fazio said , referring to Prather 's decision to run a low key ca mpaign and the low turnout in which strong Christian mobilization and the intens e GOP media effort paid off . In his commercials , Lewis charged that Democratic nominee Prather was cut from the same mold as Clinton . His TV commercials stat ed repeatedly that , `` Kentucky doesn't need Joe Prather . Send a message to Bi ll Clinton . Send Ron Lewis to Congress . Ron Lewis , he 's one of us . '' As te levision screens showed pictures of Clinton and Prather melding into each other , the announcer declared : `` In Frankfort ( Kentucky 's capital ) , Joe Prather votes to increase taxes and fees over 40 times. . . . Bill Clinton passes the l argest tax increase in history. . . . If you like Bill Clinton , you 'll love Jo e Prather . Kentucky doesn't need another professional politician . '' The Lewis victory comes on the heels of the victory of Republican Frank Lucas in a once r ock-solid Democratic district in Oklahoma . Lucas succeeds Rep. Glenn English ( D ) , who resigned . While the 2nd Congressional District in Kentucky has been r epresented by Democrats for more than a century , it clearly has moved toward th e GOP in its presidential voting . In 1992 , President George Bush outpolled Cli nton there by 45 to 41 percent , and in 1988 , Bush crushed Democratic president ial nominee Michael S. Dukakis . The Lewis-Prather special election was the only Republican-Democratic contest Tuesday , although the policies of the Clinton ad ministration were at issue in a number of primaries in Kentucky , Arkansas and I daho . In the 1st District of Kentucky just to the west of the 2nd District , fr eshman Rep. Tom Barlow crushed a challenge by fellow Democrat and state Sen. Hen ry Lackey . Barlow got 60 percent and Lackey 33 percent . In the nearby 3rd Dist rict , former state representative Mike Ward won a 10-way race for the Democrati c nomination to succeed Rep. Romano L. Mazzoli ( D ) , who is retiring after 24 years . Former state representative Susan B . Stokes , who ran for the seat and lost in 1992 , defeated two others for the GOP nomination . In Idaho , Democrati c Attorney General Larry EchoHawk is favored to win his party 's nomination in h is drive to become the nation 's first American Indian governor . Gov. Cecil D. Andrus ( D ) is retiring after four terms . Republican primary voters were expec ted to pick Phil Batt , a former state senator and lieutenant governor , to oppo se EchoHawk . Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker ( D ) , who succeeded Clinton after t he 1992 presidential election , is unopposed in the Democratic gubernatorial pri mary . Sheffield Nelson , one of Clinton 's harshest critics , was trailing stat e Sen. Steve Luelf for the GOP nomination In a battle for the Democratic nominat ion in Arkansas ' 4th Congressional District , James McDougal , whose Whitewater real estate development and savings and loan firm have been the subject of a sp ecial counsel 's investigation , trailed state Sen. Jay Bradford and state Rep. John Parkerson . They were competing for the chance to take on freshman Rep. Jay Dickey ( R ) , who has no primary opposition . WASHINGTON Defense attorneys for Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , are consideri ng an agreement with federal prosecutors in which the powerful House Ways and Me ans chairman would plead guilty to a felony and serve some time in jail , if the government reduces the number and scope of the charges against him , sources sa id Tuesday . The options being discussed also include Rostenkowski 's resignatio n from Congress , sources said Tuesday . Although defense attorneys have indicat ed that there may be room for compromise , a number of factors have blocked a de al , particularly the question of jail time , which at first Rostenkowski was sa id to oppose adamantly . Rostenkowski 's attorneys have been pressing for days t o narrow the number of charges against him . Prosecutors have indicated that the y would compromise in this area , but they have remained firm that any plea must include a felony charge and not just misdemeanors . One source said that any gu ilty plea `` would have to incorporate certain base line charges . '' Much of th e haggling Tuesday centered on jail time , said one source knowledgeable about t he deliberations . Prosecutors want jail time as part of any deal and are willin g to be flexible only on the length of the stay in prison . Rostenkowski 's atto rneys , who earlier had been firm that Rostenkowski avoid prison , now are showi ng some flexibility on the issue , sources said . The negotiations continued Tue sday at a heated pitch with federal prosecutors and defense attorneys still unab le to finalize an agreement . While progress has been made , the discussions cou ld simply fall apart , with prosecutors seeking an indictment this week , source s said . Rostenkowski also reportedly wants to serve out the remainder of his te rm , which may not be possible if there is a guilty plea . The House would have to decide whether to expel Rostenkowski . Defense attorneys were publicly silent on the matter Tuesday , as were prosecutors who had set this week as the point to seek an indictment of Rostenkowski . Meanwhile , some House Republicans said they would call for hearings if the Ways and Means Committee chairman received w hat they considered too lenient a deal . However , politicians on Capitol Hill w ere offering their opinions in increasing numbers , including House Minority Whi p Newt Gingrich , R-Ga . `` Any plea bargain that was below some minimum standar d would automatically '' lead to Republican calls for Judiciary Committee hearin gs , wire reports quoted Gingrich as saying . Federal prosecutors have outlined a broad case of conspiracy to defraud the government against Rostenkowski , incl uding charges that the veteran lawmaker paid employees for work not done , and t hat he abused official accounts for leased cars , office supplies and office spa ce . He has publicly denied all the charges . JACMEL , Haiti Five of them sit at the pier , ships of all measure , varying fr om 70 feet to seven times that size . Some fly the Haitian flag , one the Britis h ensign , and some fly no flags at all . They all have one thing in common : Th ey defy the world . Anyone trying to sell you a bond nowadays will tell you that the recent jump in long-term interest rates is a false alarm , at least as far as inflation is con cerned . There is no inflation to speak of , the bond bulls insist . Unless , of course , you 're a coffee drinker . The price of a pound of coffee on futures m arkets has rocketed from 72 cents at the start of the year to $ 1.33 now an 85 p ercent blip , and that the world economy isn't strong enough to support higher r aw materials prices , let alone higher prices for finished goods . Some contend commodities ' recent gains are the work of professional traders , not the result of `` real '' demand . There may be some truth to that . Caroline Van , analyst at hedge-fund tracker International Advisory Group in Nashville , Tenn. , says her firm is increasingly hearing from big investors who want to place money with hedge funds that trade in commodities . `` They 're interested in commodities a s a ( new ) asset class , '' Van says . In Santa Monica , Calif. , well-known he dge fund manager Mark Strome believes metals such as copper , nickel and aluminu m are poised for dramatic price rises . `` I think this is the opportunity '' in financial markets in '94 , he says . But for metals prices to surge , Strome co ncedes , real demand from busier factories churning out more goods will have to be there worldwide . Robert Genetski , who runs a Chicago-based economic advisor y firm bearing his name , predicts that the No. 1 surprise this year will be a s tronger U.S. economy than Wall Street now foresees . The Federal Reserve Board , Genetski argues , allowed money to be so loose for so long ( 1991 to 1993 ) tha t the seeds of robust future business and consumer spending are already sown . W hile the conventional wisdom is that the Fed 's credit-tightening moves this yea r will slow the economy , Genetski points to the surge in bank loan demand from business borrowers in recent months as evidence that the economic expansion is g aining steam , not losing it . Commercial and industrial loans outstanding , whi ch plunged from 1991 through '93 , have jumped to $ 605 billion now from $ 585 b illion at Jan. 1 , even as rates have increased . Higher demand for goods and se rvices not just in America , but also now in recovering Europe is what 's behind the upward pressure on prices of many once-glutted commodities , Genetski says . As those higher prices stick , and work their way into the cost of products at retail ( like coffee ) , he believes the 2 percent to 3 percent inflation of re cent years will turn into 5 percent inflation in 1995 and 6 percent in 1996 . Wh at about global competition and rising productivity ? Those influences ought to suppress price increases , says investment strategist Katherine Hensel at Lehman Bros. in New York . Plus , she notes that raw materials generally account for o nly one-third of manufacturing costs ; labor is two-thirds , and there 's certai nly no shortage of labor around the world , she adds . Still , Genetski and othe r economy-bulls say the strength in commodities this year is the inflation bell tolling softly so far , but unmistakable . LOS ANGELES Sitting in the parking lot of a McDonald 's in the Los Angeles subu rb of Norwalk on Easter Sunday , 1987 , 17-year-old James V. Beltran thought he held happiness in his hands . He had just bought a Coke and picked up an instant game ticket worth at least $ 1 million in a restaurant chain promotional contes t and he remembers feeling awestruck . `` I realized it would change my life , ' ' he said . `` I thought it would make me the happiest person I could be . '' Th ere was just one problem that would cause Beltran 's sweet daydream to sour : as an assistant manager at the McDonald 's in his hometown of nearby Montebello , Beltran was ineligible to collect the money . So , he asked 18-year-old Teresa J . Villafana , a friend at Montebello High School , to claim the winning ticket i n return for half the $ 1,000 weekly before-tax proceeds . `` I totally trusted her , '' he said . But the apparent good fortune of Villafana and Beltran quickl y turned bad , setting in motion a hellish swirl of greed , naivete and dishones ty between two working-class teen-agers . Disagreements began almost immediately , and in 1990 Villafana filed a lawsuit claiming Beltran had broken their contr act . Now , seven years after Villafana 's face was featured on McDonald 's post ers in Latino neighborhoods as the lucky young woman who had beaten the odds and won a lifetime income , the company also has filed suit to make them give back more than $ 330,000 . No one will say how , but the company found out in Februar y about the agreement to split the winnings and filed a federal lawsuit in Los A ngeles this month charging that Villafana and Beltran had committed fraud . The two said they no longer have the money . `` You can't get blood from a turnip , '' said Carolyn Olivares , who with her husband , Tony , were Villafana 's guard ians until she moved out of their Montebello townhouse soon after she began coll ecting the prize money . `` There 's nothing left . '' McDonald 's spokesman Chu ck Ebeling said the company filed the lawsuit on principal , to `` see that the integrity of games or sweepstakes that we are involved in is maintained . '' The money is also important , he said , but `` it 's really a question of protectin g participants ' rights '' in contests . The complaint filed by McDonald 's cont ends Beltran broke the rules because he was an employee and because he gave the ticket to Villafana . Attorney Ivan W. Halperin , who represents Beltran , said it will be difficult for the company to prove its fraud claim . Beltran said he obtained the ticket legitimately , winning against odds of 1 in 250,016,000 , an d that he did not know it was improper to give it to Villafana . Halperin also s aid his client gave it to his friend on the advice of his boss at McDonald 's . `` With that set of facts , there 's no fraud here , '' Halperin said . Villafan a 's attorney , Emilio T. Gurrola , declined to comment , saying he was trying t o negotiate a settlement with the restaurant giant . Villafana said in a brief t elephone conversation that things had not turned out as she hoped they would whe n Beltran came to her with the proposed agreement . But she referred other quest ions to Gurrola . Carolyn and Tony Olivares , Villafana 's guardians , said argu ments between them and Villafana over how to handle the monthly checks for $ 4,3 33.36 got so bad she moved out and didn't speak to them for a year . The problem , said Tony Olivares , was that both Beltran and Villafana were young and had n o clue about how to handle taxes , insurance , or savings . Discussions over the money `` drove a wedge between us at first because she didn't understand what w e were trying to do '' to help her , Carolyn Olivares said . From the point she moved out , said Carolyn Olivares , `` it went downhill very rapidly '' for Vill afana . She felt as if Beltran was bullying her and began to worry that somethin g wasn't right , according to legal papers that are part of the Los Angeles Coun ty Superior Court lawsuit she filed against Beltran in 1990 . And , she said , B eltran fed those worries by telling her that what the two had conspired to do ha d been illegal and that she could go to jail if it were discovered . Villafana a lso said in legal papers that those fears caused her to agree to Beltran 's dema nds that she sign papers so that the insurance company that issued the annuity w ould send a check directly to him , with him promising to give her a share . Soo n after , in 1989 , Beltran cut her off . When Beltran stopped giving her money , Villafana 's problems mounted . She lost two apartments because she didn't pay the rent . Her car , a Toyota Corolla she had purchased soon after receiving he r first check , was repossessed . A boyfriend ran up big bills on her credit car ds and then disappeared . Her birth mother surfaced and asked for money to go to Mexico to tend to Villafana 's dying grandmother . Villafana fell behind in her taxes and eventually had to work out a repayment agreement with the federal gov ernment . Although Beltran received far more money about $ 237,000 compared to $ 94,000 for Villafana , he also has had difficulties . He said problems began al most as soon as Villafana received the first check in August 1987 . In court pap ers , she said she made partial payments to Beltran . The Olivareses said she pa id Beltran in cash so that he would not be connected to her when he cashed check s . But Beltran now claims that he got almost nothing . `` I never thought she w ould do that , but I guess it 's true that money really does change you , '' he said . ( Optional add end ) A year later , he persuaded Villafana to assign the annuity payments to him . And , he acknowledged , once that happened he stopped splitting the money with her . `` I felt no obligation to give her more , '' he said in an interview . In May 1992 , a Superior Court judge endorsed an out-of-c ourt settlement of the lawsuit Villafana filed against Beltran that gave him abo ut three-quarters of the money . Villafana 's share was to be about a quarter of the money . But , by then , the annuity had shrunk , too . The insurance compan y that issued the annuity , Executive Life , had been forced by its own financia l problems to reorganize . As a result , the value of the monthly check varied e ach month , dropping as low as $ 2,500 . In January , the money stopped altogeth er , because of Executive Life 's troubles . And in February , McDonald filed su it . `` They would have had it made , '' said Tony Olivares , shaking his head i n wonderment at how things turned out . `` There was enough money for both of th em . '' SARAJEVO , Bosnia-Herzegovina Threats by Western countries to pull U.N. troops out of embattled Bosnia may be as hard to deliver on as earlier promises to prot ect civilians , but the prospect has nevertheless stirred fears of devastating c onsequences for all of the Balkans . As fighting in the region grinds through it s third year and hopes for a negotiated solution evaporate , fatigue and frustra tion have prompted countries contributing troops to the U.N. command to impose d eadlines for a peaceful settlement or a pullout . France has put UNPROFOR , the U.N. . Protection Force , on notice that it will cut its 6,800-troop contingent by 2,500 , and Britain has threatened to withdraw all 3,300 of its soldiers if t he Bosnian government and Serbian nationalist rebels have not made peace in two months . While those and similar warnings by other NATO-member countries give th e impression of a new , get-tough attitude with the Bosnian combatants , the con sequences of such a pullout could be lopsided and would almost guarantee a widen ing of the war . British Lt. Gen. Michael Rose , the U.N. commander for 15,000 t roops in Bosnia , said in interviews he is certain all sides recognize that a pu llout would lead to `` a nightmare scenario . '' `` If we go , who is going to f eed the 2.7 million people here who are totally dependent on aid ? '' Rose asked . `` Who is going to push the peace process ? The cease-fire in Sarajevo would unravel . Even in central Bosnia , where there is already a political agreement , there is the risk that everything would come unstuck . '' Without U.N. troops to protect aid convoys trying to reach hungry civilians trapped behind the front lines , deliveries to besieged pockets and this encircled capital city would ha ve to stop , confirmed Kris Janowski , spokesman for the U.N. . High Commissione r for Refugees . Sarajevo , which the refugee agency uses as a base for feeding 440,000 Bosnians on both sides of the encircling confrontation line , is served by a humanitarian airlift now operated and protected by U.N. forces . `` If UNPR OFOR pulled out , the airport would stop functioning and there would probably be a huge escalation in the fighting , '' Janowski predicted . `` And UNHCR cannot run an airlift under conditions of total warfare . '' The eastern Bosnian pocke ts of Gorazde , Srebrenica and Zepa would also likely lose their aid lifelines b ecause there would be no U.N. troops or armor to muscle deliveries through the S erbian rebel cordons entrapping more than 150,000 people , mostly Muslims , in t hose U.N.-designated havens . The United Nations and its aid agency have observe d strict neutrality throughout their nearly two years in Bosnia , feeding nearly all of the population still left here after 200,000 deaths and the flight to ot her countries of as many as half of the 2 million displaced . ( Begin optional t rim ) But because the dependent Serbian civilians live in areas adjacent to thei r patron state of Serbia or Croatian land conquered by fellow Serbs during an ea rlier phase of the regional war , the nationalist rebels have less at risk with the food pipeline if they defy the peace deadline than the Muslim-led government , whose backers would be left to starve . Despite the inequity of aid deliverie s that would result from a U.N. withdrawal , officials of the Balkans force see counter-pressures that they believe should compel the Serbian rebels to quit whi le they are so far ahead and get what they can through negotiation . `` Implicit in a pullout is lifting of the arms embargo , '' one officer said , pointing to the mounting pressures in Washington and Western Europe to nullify a 1991 U.N. prohibition of arms deliveries to what was then Yugoslavia but has since fractur ed into independent republics , each of which holds widely disparate shares of t he old federation 's weapon stockpile . Serbia inherited the arsenal of tanks , heavy guns and aircraft that belonged to the massive Yugoslav People 's Army , t he fourth-largest force in Europe , which has given its Serbian rebel proxies in Bosnia the military might to conquer more than 70 percent of this republic . `` If the U.N. is forced to leave , the chances of the Serbs getting ( U.N.-impose d economic ) sanctions lifted is zero and they have to worry about the Muslims b eing rearmed , '' another European officer noted . `` In both respects , time wo uld not be on the Serbs ' side . '' Bosnia 's Muslims and Croats had been fighti ng each other in a war-within-a-war until March , when a U.S.-brokered agreement restored their alliance against the Serbian land grab . But the Serbs have so f ar refused to commit themselves to a proposed Bosnian federation of ethnically b ased ministates , preferring to press on with a quest to annex their conquered B osnian territory to a Greater Serbia . ( End optional trim ) Officials of the Bo snian government have reacted with pique to the threats of a pullout . Prime Min ister Haris Silajdzic denounced Britain 's two-month deadline as an attempt to f orce the leadership of a U.N.-member state to cave in to its own destruction . T he United States recently joined Russia and nations of the European Union ( whic h formerly was known as the European Community ) in demanding that the Bosnian c ombatants accept an immediate cease-fire and agree to a split of the territory t hat would give the Serbian rebels internationally recognized authority over half of this republic . Some observers believe , though , that the threats are havin g the desired effect of confronting the two sides with no other option but to si t down and negotiate . Mirko Pejanovic , a Bosnian vice president who is a non-n ationalist Serb , said he sees little chance of a U.N. pullout and growing signs that the leadership is ready to compromise on the issue of how long they will c ease military activities to give the peace process a chance . ( Optional add end ) The foreign ministers who met in Geneva insisted that both sides agree to a f our-month cease-fire and resume negotiations that deadlocked early this year . T he Serbs insist that four months is too short , because they hope to draw out th e negotiations endlessly so as to strengthen their grip on all the territory the y now hold . The government , fearing that delaying tactic , wants a finite term by which a fair settlement is negotiated or the intransigent party punished for refusing to bargain in good faith . A well-known political analyst for the Sara jevo daily Oslobodjenje , Merhet Husic , agrees the risk of a U.N. pullout is ex tremely slim . `` They 're bluffing , '' he said of the British and French threa ts to withdraw from Bosnia . `` They have to be here for the sake of their own p olitical futures . They don't care about Bosnia , but if they leave this place w hile war continues , they would be admitting they are nothing , that not even NA TO can protect people from senseless killing . '' Despite the obvious dangers of a U.N. pullout , officials warn that political realities in the parliaments of Europe could pressure those governments to put a limit on their patience and a m ission whose costs and casualties have become increasingly difficult to defend . `` There will come a stage where they have to say , ` That 's it , '' ' Rose 's aide , Lt. Col. Simon Shadbolt , said of the growing sentiment for giving the c ombatants an ultimatum to make peace . `` We are not yet at that stage , and the mission will continue . But if we have provided the conditions for the peace pr ocess and both sides make clear they do not want peace , there will come a stage where we have to ask ourselves what the hell we 're doing here . '' SKOPJE , Macedonia To hear Macedonians on the streets of their capital talk , t he only ones suffering from the blockade Athens has placed on this landlocked fo rmer Yugoslav republic are the Greeks themselves . `` The Greeks are so dumb , ' ' jeered Emran Bajram , a taxi driver . `` They 've lost all their Macedonian to urists to Turkey . '' He gestured to a near-empty gas station . `` Look : There 's no line . We always have gas . When I need it , I just fill up , '' he said . `` We can still get what we need from Turkey , '' said Irena Dimitrieva , a tra vel agent . `` The only problem is that everybody would love to go to Greece for holiday . '' Indeed , downtown shops are filled with everything from imported c utlery to basketball shoes , and Macedonian women in the latest Italian fashions still crowd Skopje 's late-night discos . But beneath the bravado and flashy go ods , Macedonia stands to lose far more than holidays on the Aegean . The trade blockade that Greece imposed Feb. 16 to add economic pressure to a campaign to f orce Macedonia to change its name , flag and constitution has left the Skopje go vernment struggling to prop up an increasingly weak economy , and hoping it can contain nationalist sentiments that could tear the country apart . Greece has cl aimed that the name Macedonia and other symbols adopted by the new country in 19 91 are historically Greek , and that their use reflects Skopje 's designs on Gre ece 's northern province , also called Macedonia . `` If this embargo is prolong ed , and if the economic difficulties and tensions are increased , there is no g uarantee that there willn't be an explosion here , '' President Kiro Gligorov wa rned during an interview in his Skopje office . Factories unable to obtain raw m aterials have shut down and many planned enterprises aborted , exacerbating unem ployment . Gligorov 's moderate but fragile coalition , facing elections in Nove mber , may fall apart under nationalistic pressures , observers say . Fuel and o ther prices are being kept artificially low by a government that is mortgaging i ts future to shield its people temporarily from the embargo 's effects . Macedon ia 's population of 2 million includes substantial Albanian and Bulgarian minori ties , and the region 's conflicting territorial claims have touched off two Bal kan wars in this century . `` If this place comes apart , we have serious proble ms , because I can't imagine it happening without seeing all the neighbors invol ved , '' said Victor Comras , the U.S. government liaison to Skopje and likely a mbassador if and when Washington accords full diplomatic relations . `` There ha ve been too many Balkan wars fought over Macedonia . '' Greek Prime Minister And reas Papandreou has ignored pleas from the 11 other members of the European Unio n to drop the embargo . Gligorov maintains Macedonia is willing to make compromi ses , but says Greece keeps creating new demands . President Clinton has appoint ed a special envoy , Matthew Nimetz , to mediate the dispute , thus far without breakthrough . And the EU has said it will take Greece to the European Court of Justice . But some officials in Skopje fear a settlement of the problem will com e too late . `` We are very close to the edge , '' said Dimitar Belcev , the For eign Ministry 's undersecretary for economic affairs . Ironically , government o fficials here say the sanctions imposed by the U.N. . Security Council in 1992 a gainst Serbian-dominated Yugoslavia over its support for Serb forces in Bosnia a re a bigger problem for Macedonia than the Greek blockade . The U.N. sanctions h ave largely cut Macedonia off from its traditionally largest trading partner and have cut its land and river links to Western Europe and the former Soviet Union . There are widespread violations of the sanctions via Macedonia , U.S. and U.N . officials say . But all acknowledge that no country , aside from Serbia , has suffered more from the sanctions , and that very little of the promised economic compensation has been delivered to Skopje . The sanctions made Macedonia 's out let via the Greek port of Salonika all the more important . `` The second and la st railway link is with Greece , our very dear neighbor to the south , '' said B elcev . With the rail links through Serbia cut , `` the problem is we redirected almost everything over Salonika . '' Oil and other goods are now being trucked through Bulgaria or Albania , but transportation costs have risen 30 percent to 100 percent , according to the government . Many raw materials no longer can be imported . Of grave concern to the government , for example , is the loss of cok e and phosphates needed for zinc smelting . And because it is impossible to expo rt products such as steel plates and copper in bulk , foreign income is dwindlin g and newly developed markets are being lost . `` The Italians are now buying th eir steel pipes from Turkey , '' lamented Belcev . HAGERSTOWN , Md. John Rebarick says he had no idea what or where Sao Tome was u ntil this winter , when a woman named Tanya gave him the most expensive geograph y lesson of his life . Thanks to her , the 33-year-old Hagerstown man now knows that Sao Tome and Principe is a tiny island nation off the coast of West Africa . He has also learned that one of its exports is sex talk which his roommate 's girlfriend apparently imported liberally through an international `` party line '' that bypassed the 900 call-blocking service he signed up for the month before . When the bills started coming in , she skipped town . Rebarick doesn't know w hether she was addicted to the sex talk lines or was doing it for money . All he knows is she left him with about $ 3,500 in phone bills more than $ 2,000 for c alls to Sao Tome alone . Rebarick is one of a growing number of victims of an in creasingly popular tactic among phone-sex merchants possibly in collaboration wi th foreign phone companies . By setting up overseas sex lines , they get around 900 call-blocking , a service used by many employers and parents . And when the bills come in , as Rebarick found , the phone companies have one response to cus tomers : It 's your phone , it 's your responsibility . For Rebarick , the burde n of responsibility was too heavy . His phone service has been cut off , and he says neither he nor his roommate has enough money to have it restored . Telephon e company officials say they have heard relatively few complaints about internat ional sex lines so far , but they are worried they could grow into a problem as serious as 900 lines were before call-blocking and other protections were introd uced . Rules adopted by the FCC after Congress passed the 1991 Telephone Consume r Protection Act require that charges be specified up front and that customers b e given a reasonable time to hang up without charge . They also give customers b road rights to refuse payment for unauthorized calls to 900 numbers a type of ca ll where the local phone company acts as the billing agent for the service provi der . But the international sex lines can evade those protections as well as cal l-blocking . The major long-distance companies are able to block all internation al calls from a customer 's number , but there 's no requirement that they offer the service . And while that solution might work for a family with teen-agers , it could tie the hands of a company with global interests . Bob Spangler , depu ty chief of enforcement at the Federal Communications Commission , said there 's little else U.S. long-distance carriers can do . As common carriers , they are required to put calls through without censorship and there is no way they can te ll whether a foreign number is a sex line until they start getting complaints . Even then they have no authority to block calls to those lines . Unlike U.S. 900 lines , callers do not pay a defined premium just the basic cost of the long-di stance call . So where are the profits going ? Spangler points to the foreign ca rriers who collect money for completing the call on their end in places such as Suriname , the Netherlands Antilles , Portugal , the Dominican Republic and Sao Tome . `` We 've been told that not only do they have an idea , but that they 'r e financing it , '' Spangler says . In many cases those phone companies are gove rnment-owned , he notes , adding that the U.S. government is trying to address t he problem through diplomatic means . He holds out little hope of a quick soluti on . Sao Tome 's phone company , which installed a new digital phone system in J anuary , is jointly owned by a Portuguese company and the Sao Tome government . AT&T spokesman Dick Gundlach says his company is required under international ag reements to pay `` separation charges '' to the foreign carriers that complete t he call . He says each additional call going to Sao Tome increases the monthly p ayment to Sao Tome 's phone company at the rate of 80 cents a minute . So when a 30-minute prime-time call was placed from Rebarick 's phone to Sao Tome on the morning of Feb. 24 , $ 24 of the $ 100 charge went to the carrier in Sao Tome . On that day , when Rebarick and his roommate say Tanya was the only person they knew to be in their home , 21 calls were placed to Sao Tome . Rebarick was bille d $ 1,088.76 , and the Sao Tome phone company collected $ 278.40 that day . ( Op tional add end ) Gundlach says AT&T cannot legally deduct from its payments to t he Sao Tome carrier , regardless of whether Bell Atlantic or AT&T ever collects the money from Rebarick . AT&T is negotiating with some foreign companies and re cently concluded an agreement with Codetel , the Dominican Republic 's phone car rier , allowing the American company to deduct from its payments when a customer protests . AT&T security officials have noticed a growing number of internation al sex line ads in such publications as High Society and Hustler , Gundlach says . But potential callers need not buy a skin magazine to get these numbers . Som e daily newspapers accept classified ads for international sex lines , alongside sexually oriented 900 lines and 800 lines . Two weeks after Moore 's roommate T anya left , she surfaced in Minnesota to plead guilty to an earlier charge of ph one credit card fraud . She is now being sought for violating probation . Can it have been but 30 years since the forces of the far right in the United S tates were led by such substantial figures as Barry Goldwater and William F. Buc kley ? Can it be 14 years since the legions of reaction adopted as their messiah that somnolent and improbable former actor whose life in the social orbit of Fr ank Sinatra was about as atypical of the hearth-home-flag-prayer-abstinence-valu es wing of conservatism as a divorced father of a dysfunctional family who ran o ff with a starlet could be ? Taking stock of the ultra conservative movement , w e now find the amiable old gentleman of Bel-Air is about as involved and relevan t as an afternoon nap . And there is Barry Goldwater , obviously still well shor t of his dotage , on television this week defending the right of homosexuals to serve in the military and rather angrily denouncing the `` religious right . '' Bill Buckley , when he hasn't been coming out for decriminalization of drugs , h as been throwing a book publishing party for that honored , unreconstructed and imperishable legend of the American left , Murray Kempton . And in the torrent o f sometimes incoherent and invariably lachrymose tributes to Richard Nixon , wha t finally stood out ? It was all the arguments that Nixon was , after all , a gr eat , or at least forgivable man for all the liberal things he did : cozying up to the Chinese and the Russians , having a Keynesian domestic economic agenda , supporting the arts , behaving charitably to blacks and Jews and all the things that on the miles of yet unreleased National Archives tapes we will some day dis cover Nixon actually despised with a curiously perverse and almost touching envy . Anyway , if you really think that liberalism has come to a craven and miserab le end in America , stop to realize that the Goldwater-Buckley wing of what we u sed to think of as the pit of darkness has been inherited by Oliver North , Pat Buchanan and , I guess , Dan Quayle . First of all , can you imagine any of them maturing in the mainstream fullness , tolerance and wisdom of old age , into a Buckley or a Goldwater ? I can't . Of course , victory is still theirs . It alwa ys is . That 's the wonder of it . They can make health care reform sound like t he end of capitalism as we know it , with the KGB roaming hospital corridors . H illary Clinton has become something of an ogre who makes grown politicians scare d to admit they 're liberal . They can make a single-payer , Canadian-style syst em sound like it came from Mars . Fifty years ago , as immovable and pigheaded a conservative as Winston Churchill described health care reform in Britain and s tate financing of illness as merely a recognition of the fact that `` disease mu st be attacked in the same way that a fire brigade will give assistance to the h umble cottage as readily as it will to the most important mansion . '' That such a simple , inherently conservative and generous concept could be reversed in ou r age to a squalid , well financed , self-interested and mean-spirited movement as has now marshalled itself against the sick people of America is to underscore the winds of change . Either the insurance companies , doctors , hospitals , dr ug companies and Mercedes drivers of this nation own it or the rest of us do . CLEVELAND Teamsters President Jackie Presser was one of the nation 's most cont roversial union chiefs when he died in 1988 . At the time , he was under indictm ent on racketeering charges , a case his attorney had staved off by citing his r ole for more than a decade as a secret informant for the FBI . Now , a dispute o ver his surprisingly large $ 4.2 million estate has surfaced in state court . It is Presser 's ironic legacy : The case has divided his family and involves pote ntial criminality on the part of his wife , Cynthia . The court proceedings have arisen from the lavish lifestyle that characterized the old-guard Teamster chie ftain , and a widow who refused to change that style after he succumbed to brain cancer . Cynthia Presser his fifth wife has admitted misusing hundreds of thous ands of dollars from the estate and violating her duties as its executor . So bl atant has been her conduct that a probate judge recently asked the Cuyahoga Coun ty prosecutor 's office to investigate Cynthia Presser for possible embezzlement . The case occurs at a time when frugality in the nation 's largest trade union is being stressed by a new Teamster president , Ron Carey , who was elected on his pledge to reduce spending , cut costs and stamp out corruption . The dispute over the estate started with a civil proceeding filed by John R. Climaco , Jack ie Presser 's former attorney and confidant , and by Presser 's two children fro m a previous marriage . In a deposition filed in the case , Cynthia Presser said she has spent $ 369,227 on clothes , decorating and furniture during her term a s executor of Presser 's estate . Another $ 225,000 went to an ex-husband and ot her relatives of hers . `` I know these look like exorbitant expenses , '' she s aid in her sworn statement . `` But my life with my late husband provided me a l ife like that , and I continued to live that life and that contributed to these expenses . '' Although she was bequeathed a substantial sum by her late husband , Cynthia Presser acknowledged she went beyond her inheritance by dipping into f unds that were set aside for her stepchildren , Gary and Bari Presser . ( Begin optional trim ) In her sworn statement , Cynthia Presser said her living expense s have averaged $ 10,000 a month . In addition , she said she bought a $ 10,000 diamond engagement ring for her son by a previous marriage to give his fiancee a nd purchased a $ 629,000 lakefront home for herself outside Cleveland . She told of buying a fur stole worth $ 3,000 in 1989 and spending $ 2,900 to have a larg er closet built for her clothes . She flew frequently to Arizona in the winter , she said . In addition , she gave untold thousands of dollars in outright gifts or loans to her parents , other relatives and friends , she testified . ( Begin optional trim ) Describing the lifestyle the Pressers enjoyed , a one-time clos e associate of the late Teamster chief said in an interview : `` They lived in a Washington condo paid for by the international union . It was fully furnished a nd decorated in style , along with fine china , silverware and crystal provided by the union . There were expensive paintings on the walls and other artworks . `` She and Jackie got used to all-expense-paid vacations and frequent business t rips to California or Florida in the winter . The union footed the bill for thei r accommodations at the finest hotels and resorts , and they were picked up by l imousine anywhere their Teamsters ' Gulfstream jet landed . '' How did Jackie Pr esser amass an estate of more than $ 4 million while holding union posts his ent ire adult life ? Court records are silent on the matter , the ex-associate said . `` Jackie spent union funds lavishly but was frugal with his own money . He ha d what amounted to an unlimited expense account and , therefore , could save mos t of his union salary , which was considerable . '' In the years leading up to h is death , Presser drew about $ 800,000 annually in pay . This included his $ 25 0,000 salary as general president of the Teamsters , as well as pay from union p osts he held . Associates said he also made a profit of more than $ 1 million fr om his investment in the 1970s in Cleveland 's Front Row Theater . He earned no fees from the 10 years he served as a secret informant for the FBI , providing i nformation on mobsters and Teamster rivals . ( Optional add end ) The court reco rds show that Cynthia Presser also is engaged in a legal dispute with current un ion officials over the whereabouts and ownership of some expensive furnishings t hat once adorned their Washington condo . She is facing allegations that she shi pped many of these union-provided items to her home . She agreed several months ago to pay $ 350,000 into Presser 's children 's trust funds , as well as $ 200, 000 in overdue legal fees . But unable to do so she filed for personal bankruptc y and was removed as executor of the estate . Now she is facing possible indictm ent in state court on grounds that she embezzled more than $ 570,000 . GAZA CITY , Gaza Strip As they began to reunite from throughout the Arab world with tears of joy and loss a catharsis that was a quarter-century of occupation and separation in the making the Danaf family of Gaza City had much to catch up on last week . Shawky Danaf had to break the worst of it to his half-brother , A rafat , who arrived in an Iraqi paratrooper 's uniform along with hundreds of ot her Palestinian police officers in newly autonomous Jericho . After four years o f war and isolation with the Palestine Liberation Army brigade based in Baghdad , the news was hard for Arafat to bear . Their brother Mohammad was dead , Shawk y told him by phone in a voice choked with pain . He had been shot and killed by Israel 's occupation army three months short of this greatly anticipated reunio n the coming together of a family long divided , like so many in the occupied la nds . Just before his death , Mohammad had spoken of this reunion as a dream mor e distant only than the dream of living together with his exiled father and four half-brothers in a liberated Palestinian land . By the end of their conversatio n , both Shawky and Arafat were in tears . The Danafs ' saga speaks volumes abou t the events unfolding at ground zero of the Middle East conflict , as Israel an d the Palestine Liberation Organization finally have begun the first concrete st eps toward peace . They are a family of simple poverty among hundreds of thousan ds of Palestinian refugees who are beginning the long process of erasing the dis tance and pain of exile and occupation . And like the peace process itself , the Danaf reunion is far from complete . In fact , it has just begun . The family ' s father , a former Palestinian fighter named Hassan , fled to Gaza with his fir st wife from their Arab village in Southern Israel in 1948 , when the Israeli st ate was carved out of British-ruled Palestine . Nineteen years later , he fled a gain after the Arabs lost the 1967 Arab-Israeli war . He left his wife , three s ons and two daughters in Gaza , bounced from Arab land to Arab land and finally settled with a second wife in Egypt , where he fathered two sons and two daughte rs . As the surviving half-brothers two in Gaza and two in the Palestinian briga des destined to serve the autonomous zones anticipate their imminent reunion , i t is Arafat and the slain Mohammad who best symbolize both the decades of Israel i occupation and the peace-building task now at hand . The Danafs ' complex stor y was gleaned in more than a dozen visits to their home and to a Gaza City cafe that Mohammad had opened last year while unemployed to keep from going mad , he said . It is the story of the splintered and often confusing relationships that typify Gazan families , of lifetimes of desperation and fading hope now turned t o bittersweet joy . And it is a story that demonstrates the human impact of the beginning of both the end of Israel 's 27 years of occupation in the former Pale stine and of the effort still needed to restore enough hope to build Gaza and Je richo into the core of a future Palestinian land . Shawky , 32 , and Arafat , 19 , spoke for the first time in many years when Shawky delivered the news of Moha mmad 's death in the phone call to Arafat 's military post . Gaza and Jericho , the two autonomous Palestinian zones , are still divided by dozens of miles of I sraeli territory . A promised route for Palestinian safe passage is still weeks or months away . Not even Arafat 's mother , Rida Wahbeh Abdul-Rasoul , who trav eled from Cairo to Gaza two weeks ago to begin the reunion , can see him yet . T he Egyptian second wife of Hassan came to Gaza not only to meet the other half o f her husband 's family but also to see her own sons Arafat and Sabar , for the first time in years . Then last week , on the day Palestinian extremists gunned down two Israeli soldiers near the Gaza border , Israel sealed off Gaza for at l east nine days , a further obstacle to the reunion . Mohammad and Shawky 's moth er Halima Abu Obeid had little time last week for the problems of her husband 's second wife . After all , Hassan had abandoned her when Mohammad , Shawky and t he eldest brother , Ibrahim , 36 , were just infants , fleeing into exile . None theless , Halima said , Rida was living with her in Gaza now . Arafat and Halima 's other stepson , Sabar , 25 , are almost home after serving in exiled Palesti nian brigades in Iraq and Libya both during and after the 1991 Persian Gulf War . Sabar , due to arrive in Gaza any day with his delayed brigade from Libya , wa s `` a carbon copy '' of Mohammad , Halima said . `` When my husband called this morning from Cairo , he asked how I was feeling now with the boys coming home , '' she recalled . `` With him , I can still speak freely . I said , ` I still f eel a great sadness . My hand is not complete . Still a big finger is missing . Our son Mohammad is gone . We have lost him . And nothing can bring him back. ' ' ' ( Optional add end ) Last December , Mohammad knew his half-brothers , Arafa t and Sabar , were among the Palestinian fighters who would return to a homeland they never knew . He learned that news from his father , in the same way many G azans kept up with relatives in Egypt after occupation . They would travel to th e divided city of Rafah that straddles the Egyptian border in Gaza 's extreme so uth and , at prearranged meetings , shout to each other through barbed wire acro ss 30 yards . Even at the time , Mohammad stressed the significance of this prom ised reunion a small but powerful step in the reuniting of more than 2 million P alestinian relatives still separated by occupation and exile . It was , he said then , almost too good to be true . `` Even if we have self-government in only o ne small piece of Gaza , it will be better for us , of course . But I fear for t he future , '' he explained . `` I 'd love to see the Palestine police force tak e control of this region , but I doubt it will happen . '' It did happen , but h e didn't see it . Within weeks of its opening , Mohammad 's cafe was trashed . I t happened during an armed clash with another Palestinian family over ownership of the land . Desperate , Mohammad illegally crossed into Israel and took back h is old construction job . After two months , Israeli authorities caught him . He was deported . `` Mohammad came home about midnight on Feb. 24 , '' Shawky reca lled . `` He was angry and exhausted . When he woke up about noon the next day a nd heard what had happened that morning , something just snapped in him . He lef t the house in a fury . The next time we saw him , he was dead . '' That was the day in February when a Jewish settler opened fire inside a Hebron mosque , kill ing about 30 Palestinian worshipers and nearly destroying the autonomy plan for Gaza and Jericho . The killings touched off demonstrations and riots throughout the occupied lands . Mohammad joined one of them , outside the Israeli military camp near his home . He was shot in the right side of his chest . He died in the hospital . As he sat outside the remains of the cafe last week , Shawky was in tears . `` Of course we will be happy when we finally see our two ( half ) broth ers . But we are still in mourning for Mohammad , so there will be no celebratio n , '' he said . `` After a time , I will try to reopen this cafe . That was Moh ammad 's dream , and so now it is mine . But you must understand , we already ha ve paid the full price of this peace . '' The following editorial appeared in Wednesday 's Washington Post : China 's res pect for human rights or China 's lack of it will affect the lives of incalculab le numbers of people over the coming decades . China has not only a huge populat ion of its own , but great influence on other poor countries as it successfully and rapidly becomes richer . That 's why President Clinton needs to keep pressin g the Chinese government on human rights . And that 's why he needs a better ins trument than the threat to lift MFN most-favored-nation treatment and cut off Ch inese exports to the United States . It is important not to misunderstand the cu rrent scale of Chinese abuse of political and religious freedom , or to allow th e Chinese government to argue that Americans are only trying to impose their own legal practices on another culture . Many of the worst trespasses , like the fr equent resort to torture by the police , are in violation of Chinese law . Large and persuasive compilations of these cases have been published by such reputabl e organizations as Amnesty International USA , Asia Watch and the Puebla Institu te . The issue is how to bring the Chinese government into conformity with its o wn laws , and with the principles accepted by most other countries , rich and po or . One danger in lifting MFN is that it would sharply diminish China 's contac ts with this country . Ideas follow the trade routes , and increased trade means increased openness to other changes as well . Lifting MFN would also impede the development of a market economy in China , and the emergence of a commercial mi ddle class two forces that are already undercutting the centralized Communist re gime . The United States has more effective ways to lean on China . A warmer pol icy toward Taiwan and more public attention to the repression in Tibet would rem ind China 's rulers that there are real penalties attached to violation of the w orld 's standards penalties that would not injure the people in China who are pu shing their country in the direction in which most Americans want to see it move . Repeatedly calling a government to account for its human-rights record and en gaging it in a dialogue , privately and publicly , is a diplomatic tactic that h as had significant successes in many places over the years . There is hardly any exercise in international politics more difficult than bringing a rising power peacefully into the world system . China is a great power , with nuclear weapons and the world 's third-largest national economy . But it has not yet acknowledg ed the responsibilities that its position carries . Clinton needs a strategy not to shut China out , but to draw it more deeply into the fabric of international agreements and organizations that set governments ' standards for dealing decen tly both with each other and with their own people . The welfare of Asia , and o f the United States as a Pacific power , will depend on his success . Even under elegant academic robes , you can often spot serious ( breeches , bre aches ) of usage rules . Which words should this commencement speaker choose in order to avoid mistakes ? `` Distinguished faculty , ( reverend , reverent ) cle rgy , honored graduates : `` I 'm delighted to be standing at this ( lectern , p odium ) this morning , participating in this ( ceremonial , ceremonious ) ritual . As I look out over the ( luxurious , luxuriant ) grass and trees of your camp us , I think I 'll go golfing . So that 's my speech . Thank you . '' ( boos , w ild applause . ) Answers : 1 ) Reverend . Whether they 're priests , rabbis , mi nisters or monks , they 're all `` reverend '' ( deserving reverence ) on gradua tion day . Calling them `` reverent , '' would mean that they themselves are fil led with reverence , which they probably are . But on this occasion , they 're t he ones being revered . 2 ) Lectern . A lectern is a stand that supports a speak er 's notes or books . A podium is the elevated platform on which a speaker stan ds . While , through common use ( it gets scuffed a lot ) , `` podium '' has acq uired a secondary meaning of `` lectern , '' elevated grammarians regard such us age as base . 3 ) Ceremonial . As long as we 're standing on a podium , let 's s tand on ceremony . `` Ceremonial '' refers to anything associated with a ceremon y , as in `` ceremonial offering . '' `` Ceremonious , '' which almost always re fers to people or behavior , means `` unusually formal or meticulous in manner , '' and bears a negative connotation of being a fussy and ritualistic . 4 ) Luxu riant . Strictly , `` luxuriant '' means lush or abundant ( `` a luxuriant beard '' ) , while `` luxurious '' means full of luxury or sumptuous ( `` a luxurious penthouse '' ) . It 's worth noting that respectable writers have often luxuria ted in the pleasure of using these words interchangeably . Theodore Dreiser wrot e of `` luxuriant restaurants , '' for instance , while Henry David Thoreau desc ribed `` luxurious misty timber , '' which is where our erstwhile graduation spe aker probably hit his first tee shot . 5 ) Wild applause . It 's too costly , too important , too tiring , too silly , too long or too sho rt . It 's the American Booksellers Association 's annual convention and trade e xhibit , scheduled this weekend in Los Angeles . Though retailers and publishers differ on the value of spending each Memorial Day weekend talking up fall title s , and dashing from luncheons to seminars to nightly parties , the expected att endance shows that `` The ABA '' remains a seasonal rite that book-industry play ers are loath to ignore . An estimated 1,600 publishers and other exhibitors wil l display their products in the Los Angeles Convention Center , covering 322,000 square feet , or 20 percent more space than was reserved by companies at last y ear 's show in Miami Beach . And 30,000 people are expected to pass through , wh ich would make this the second-best-attended convention since the one held in 19 91 in New York City . The drill hasn't changed : The publishers plan to romance the booksellers and try to whip up interest in new goods , and the booksellers w ill revel in the attention as they consider the size of their orders . `` The bi g publishing houses , with their sales reps around the country , are so self-ass ured that they 're there for the exercise , '' said Bernie Rath , executive dire ctor of the American Booksellers Association , whose 4,500 members consist mainl y of independently owned businesses . `` But the medium- and smaller-sized publi shers that have no sales force on the road rely on the convention to meet the bu yer . '' Michelle Sidrane , president of the Crown Publishing Group , one of the major-league publishing companies , said she hopes to detour booksellers off th e busy convention floor to quieter meeting rooms in order to present special pro motions involving fall books . Crown 's list includes titles by Larry King , Joh n Denver , Dave Barry and Martha Stewart . In addition to these brand names , Si drane said , the publisher hopes to kindle enthusiasm for Judith Rossner 's `` O livia '' and two other novels whose film rights have already been bought by Holl ywood Nina Vida 's `` Goodbye , Saigon '' and Mark Olshaker 's `` The Edge . '' On the festive side , Crown will present Barry in a night of standup comedy at T he Improv and Audrey Meadows at a party designed to showcase her fall memoir , ` ` Love , Alice : My Life as a Honeymooner . '' ( Begin optional trim ) Suppliers of CD-ROMs and other electronic media will occupy about 10,000 square feet at t he convention center vivid evidence that these companies want bookstores to offe r their products along with the latest John Grisham thriller . `` We very much b elieve that the most convenient site for the perusal of electronic media is the bookstore , '' said Morton E. David , chairman of Franklin Electronic Publishers Inc. , an exhibitor based in Mount Holly , N.J. . `` Booksellers , by and large , if they take a pass on offering some kind of electronic media , are going to regret it four or five years down the road . '' Franklin , which employs 200 peo ple and posted $ 66 million in sales last year , will be showing off various ele ctronic books , including its $ 99 Spanish Master , a pocket-sized bilingual dic tionary that can speak 250,000 words in English and Spanish by using voice-synth esized technology . ( End optional trim ) While this weekend 's ABA offers no st ar-powered extravaganza like the Putnam Publishing Group 's blast last year for Ann-Margret ( `` My Story '' ) or Alfred A . Knopf 's lavish do for Oprah Winfre y ( who ended up scuttling the autobiography she planned to deliver ) , New York publishers have planned an array of parties to promote their books . Scribners has arranged a tea for Barbara Bush , whose autobiography will be published in S eptember ; W.W. Norton & Co. will celebrate the release of Walter Mosley 's new `` Black Betty , '' another of his Easy Rawlins capers set in Los Angeles , with soul sounds at the Biltmore Hotel ; Warner Books ' invitation to the St. James Club urges folks `` to Get Down with Your Bad Self and Berry Gordy , '' the main stay of Motown Records , whose autobiography , `` To Be Loved , '' is scheduled for October . The list of RSVPs to Buzz 's ABA party at House of Blues shows tha t the reach of the upstart L.A. magazine extends to many top executives in New Y ork publishing . This especially pleases Eden Collinsworth , a former New York b ook publisher who is now president and chief executive officer of Buzz . Asked w hether the home of television and Hollywood is a suitable venue for purveyors of the printed word , Collinsworth said , `` I certainly brought to L.A. a condesc ending , East Coast attitude toward the city . But in the five years I 've been here , it 's certainly been made clear to me that this is a far more confident a nd cosmopolitan area than many back east assume . '' LONDON Damien Hirst is London 's leading chain-saw artist . He hacks dead lives tock in half . He split-cut a cow and a calf lengthwise and displayed them in hu ge , sealed cases of formaldehyde at the 1993 Venice Biennale , like .. . well . . . like sides of beef in a butcher shop . The Venice Biennale is , of course , one of the world 's most prestigious art events . He sawed a pig 's head in half for this month 's British edition of Esquire . The artist is shown with his cha in saw . We see the chain saw in action . Close-up photos of the halves of the s plit pig 's head are printed as the magazine 's centerfold , inside-out , as it were , very red against a flesh-toned background . No airbrush has edited out of fensive parts to protect the squeamish as the old Playboy used to do . He 's rou tinely called the `` enfant terrible '' of the British art world , the artist mo st talked about , doing the most striking work . He 's 28 and from Leeds , the o ld Yorkshire city , where he saw his first preserved specimens in a mortuary whe n he was a schoolboy . `` I was just really kind of fascinated by them , '' he s ays . He first floated into national notoriety two years ago with a toothy , 14- foot tiger shark , immersed in its own preservative tank of formaldehyde . He ca lled the piece `` The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Liv ing . '' He likes an expressive title . The shark appeared at the very trendy Sa atchi Gallery and launched him into instant tabloid fame . His shark has been ca lled the most caricatured work of art since Whistler 's Mother . His latest anim al act is a lamb , all woolly and cuddly-looking , floating in a white-framed ta nk of faintly greenish-tinted formaldehyde . It 's in a show that opened this mo nth at the Serpentine Gallery . Hirst is curator , and he has chosen 15 artists who share his interests : `` fear , loss , hope , death , fantasy , '' the press release says . The work he 's chosen includes eerie and exquisite photos , by H iroshi Sugimoto , of the serial killers in Madame Tussaud 's waxworks ; a flayed , anatomical figure called Virgin Mary , sculpted in wax by Kiki Smith ; an ora nge , fiberglass cast of Rodin 's Balzac by Michael Joaquin Grey , hung upside-d own from the ceiling ; a bicycle packed with plastics and bags by Andreas Slomin ksi , leaning against the gallery wall as if abandoned by a homeless pilgrim . T he show is called `` Some Ran Away .. . Some Went Mad . '' Hirst calls his prese rved lamb `` Away From the Flock . '' `` It 's just like a shepherd 's thing , ' ' he says at the opening . He 's leaning against a doorjamb , a polite , easygoi ng , round-faced guy in a baseball hat , white T-shirt , jacket and jeans . `` T here 's an allegory that has to do with people and sheep , '' he says . `` It 's like : ` You 're just like sheep , you do what everyone else does . ' I do what I do , and it 's different . `` So you 're away from the flock in that way . Bu t then I kind of see it so tragic and dead and kind of cute , and looking out at the green grass , which I quite think is good . '' The lamb gazes out of its fo rmaldehyde tank onto the greensward of Kensington Gardens . The galley is by the Serpentine , the lake that winds between Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park . Not everybody likes it , he says . Londoners are more used to lamb on a menu than i n a museum , eating dead meat rather than looking at it . `` I 've heard a lot o f people say it 's terrible , '' he says. ` ` ` Why do you do that to a lamb ? O h my God. ' ' ' ( Begin optional trim ) One free-lance art critic went from word s to action , pouring ink into the tank of formaldehyde one recent evening . `` It went completely black , '' a gallery visitor told Dalya Alberge of The Indepe ndent . `` You could see the sheep disappear . There were a lot of visitors ther e . Everyone was bewildered and highly amused . People were laughing . '' Hirst , who already had sold the piece for $ 37,500 , spent the night draining and rin sing the animal in an attempt to wash out the ink . He had no immediate comment . He has said his work `` has just got to get people involved . The worst thing is if someone just walks in and out without seeing anything . '' He thinks that in a way he 's immortalized his lamb . `` You know it was already dead when I fo und it , '' he says . `` I found it in a knacker 's yard , where animals go when they die . I resurrected it into this situation . It would have been dog food . So I kind of saved it from that , in a way . And I quite like that . It 's trag ic , but cute . '' And despite an undeniable macabre element to his work , he 's not interested in similarly preserving a human being . `` Not really , '' he sa ys . `` I don't think you get metaphor with people . It 's too direct . You get metaphor with animals , but you don't with people . '' ( End optional trim ) His work will last , he thinks . `` I 've seen pieces that are 200 years old , '' h e says . `` As long as they don't get out of the liquid , they 'll stay like tha t . '' Which is a good thing , because from here , the show goes to Finland , Ge rmany and Chicago . The Serpentine show , incidentally , is sponsored by Haagen- Dazs . The company passed out chocolate-covered ice cream on a stick . A panic attack consists of spontaneous jolts of intense fear or discomfort acco mpanied by at least four of the following symptoms : Shortness of breath or smot hering sensations . Dizziness , unsteady feelings or faintness . Accelerated hea rt rate or palpitations . Trembling or shaking . Sweating . Choking . Nausea or abdominal pain . Depersonalization the feeling you 're removed from your own exp erience . Numbness or tingling sensations . Hot or cold flashes . Fear of dying . Fear of going crazy or losing control . Source : American Psychiatric Associat ion Michael Artinian 's ear infections began within weeks of his birth . Every few weeks , says his mother , Chris , the baby would fret and fuss with the pain of a new infection . His pediatrician tried antibiotics for months . The milder one s did nothing and infections even flared up when Michael was taking the stronges t antibiotics . Finally , when Michael was 8 months old , the doctor suggested a surgical procedure called a tympanostomy in which ear tubes are inserted to dra in fluid from the middle ear and clear up infection . The Artinians agreed . Par ents often wonder if they are doing the right thing by choosing surgery to heal chronic ear infections , which generally occur as a result of a cold , sore thro at or other respiratory infection . Their doubts stem from disagreements in the medical community about whether the procedure is overdone . `` It 's never easy to put your child through surgery , '' says Artinian . `` But , as a parent , yo u have to get hooked up with the right doctor a doctor you are in sync with . '' But now parents may have more to rely on than just their doctors . An article i n last month 's Journal of the American Medical Association suggested a set of g uidelines for tympanostomy ( while noting that as many as one-fourth of all ear- tube surgeries now performed may be unnecessary ) . And , this summer , the fede ral Agency for Health Care Policy and Research will release guidelines for docto rs and parents on the treatment of childhood middle ear infection , or otitis me dia . Otitis media is the most common reason for doctor visits in children under 6 , accounting for about 30 million visits a year . Yet there are no clear-cut guidelines to help doctors and parents know which of several treatment options a ntibiotics , surgery to insert ear tubes or doing nothing work best and with the least risk to the child . `` The reason we suggest certain disorders for the gu idelines is that there is substantial variation in care , '' says Rose Findley , an agency spokeswoman . `` One doctor treats it one way and across town there i s a completely different type of treatment pattern . There isn't much consensus . And , ( the nation ) is spending a lot of money on it , but we don't know what the best or most appropriate treatment might be . '' The guidelines are highly anticipated , not only because of the magnitude of the problem but because of th e contentiousness that has arisen among doctors on how to treat otitis media . T he experts who contributed to the new federal report , joked one doctor , `` wil l then enter the government 's Witness Protection Program . '' `` I think there is a fair amount of data , but I think it 's confusing and difficult to synthesi ze , '' says Dr. Lawrence C. Kleinman , a Harvard physician and author of the JA MA report . In that study , a panel of doctors reviewed research on tympanostomi es to develop criteria on when the surgery should be considered . Using the pane l 's criteria , the study found that of the 670,000 tympanostomies performed eac h year , 41 percent were appropriate , 32 percent had equivocal indications and 27 percent were found to be inappropriate . An appropriate reason to choose surg ery , the article states , would be for a child who has fluid trapped in the mid dle ear behind the eardrum ( called otitis media with effusion ) that does not c lear up despite treatment with antibiotics . The tiny tube inserted in the eardr um during surgery allows the fluid to drain and restores a child 's hearing , wh ich can be muffled when fluid has collected . The tubes remain in the ear for se veral months to a year and fall out on their own . Surgery is considered inappro priate , for example , if a child had fewer than four ear infections a year or h ad not been treated sufficiently with antibiotics . But , Kleinman says , it is impossible to predict how any individual child will fare . ( Optional add end ) The guidelines might divert surgeries that take place out of frustration , Klein man adds . Recurrent ear infections can cause misery for families , causing the child a lot of discomfort and parents many sleepless nights . Moreover , doctors and parents worry about the small chance that ear infections will cause hearing loss and speech delay . `` Sometimes the level of frustration with ear infectio ns can lead to hasty actions that are not well considered , '' Kleinman says . N o guidelines should revoke the right of doctors and parents to individualize the ir decisions , says Dr. David Bergman , a Stanford University physician who work ed on the federal guidelines . `` The bottom line , to me , is that you have to take each case individually and not use expert consensus as a way of driving you r decision one way or another , '' he says . It 's an old story television 's ultimate blacklisting or brownlisting . Black sitcoms appear indelibly affixed to prime time , yet getting a family drama abou t blacks , or Asian-Americans or Latinos , on the air remains the hardest of har d sells . Take the case of current prime-time ratings champ CBS . It has vowed t o widen its audience beyond Norman Rockwell folk to include more of the nation ' s urban young , but in picking new series to open the 1994-95 season , the netwo rk omitted the worthy `` Under One Roof , '' a weekly drama that was developed b y its own production arm and may lack only one prerequisite for prime time . Whi teness . `` We haven't passed on it , '' said CBS spokeswoman Susan Tick . `` I 'm very pessimistic , '' said executive producer Thomas Carter ( `` Equal Justic e '' ) . Television 's minstrels appear in multiple shades , and Fox 's new fall lineup includes an action show , `` M.A.N.T.I.S. , '' whose hero is black . Whe n it comes to drama , however , TV seeks to seduce a rainbow of Americans with m ostly a single color . Implicit here is that most programmers are ethnocentric , believing that non-whites will be riveted to whites in non-comedic situations , but not vice versa . Black families have been nearly invisible in family drama , a situation `` Under One Roof '' could help remedy . Its protagonists are the Langstons , a middle-of-the-middle-class black family living in Seattle . No dru gs , no violence , no gangs , not even an absentee father . No major dysfunction , just a highly appealing family . Although not faultless , the pilot for `` Un der One Roof '' ripples with more promise than 90 percent of what presently pass es for drama in prime time . Its humor is unforced , its conflicts between gener ations are genuine , and its interesting , endearing characters relate in ways t hat likely would earn them the empathy of real-life families . Plus , the cast i s first-rate . Joe Morton is Ron Langston , a former career military man trying his hand at business . Vanessa Bell Calloway is his wife , Maggie , who resumed school to get a nursing degree . James Earl Jones is Ron 's father , Neb , a cop who lives downstairs with a street youth he and his late wife took in . Joe and Maggie have two kids of their own , and Ron 's younger sister is also part of t his likable extended brood . Written by Martha Williamson , Michael Henry Brown and Paul Aaron ( the latter two wrote HBO 's `` Laurel Avenue '' ) , the pilot ' s teleplay has an edge while also projecting the kind of warmth and even teary p oignancy that usually has network programmers bawling all the way to the bank . If ever a contemporary black family drama was going to make the schedule in the '90s , you 'd think this would be it . `` Under One Roof '' is not only absent f rom the fall lineup , however , it also received no backup order from CBS , said Carter , making it questionable even for mid-season emergence . But CBS has not written all of its 1994- '95 backup orders , and `` Under One Roof '' could sti ll get one , spokeswoman Tick said . `` It 's still in play here , '' she said . `` I think their first concern is about the characters being black , '' said Ca rter , who directed the pilot . `` I think they 're also concerned that this is a very honest show . They 're a slave to gimmicks . We would have had a better c hance to get it on the air if we had a tragedy that brings the family together . '' Carter said it was CBS Entertainment President Peter Tortorici who ( when st ill the division 's No. 2 executive ) approached him about doing a `` black show he would have accepted a comedy with a strong male figure '' for CBS Production s . Carter said when `` Under One Roof '' was screened for CBS executives in Los Angeles , `` they loved it and thought the show was a slam dunk . '' But when t he pilot was viewed by network management in New York , he said , the attitude c hanged and `` everything went askew . '' Equally askew is an industry that rarel y finds room for blacks who live in the real world and don't speak the language of one-liners . -0- FOOD FOR THOUGHT : `` Mmmm , I love garlic , '' Katie Couric said last Wednesday morning , starting a cooking segment for NBC 's traveling ` ` Today '' program at a Boston seafood restaurant . For Couric and `` Today , '' the grotesquely sadistic act that followed was just a big laugher . Inadvertent ly , though , they provided an educational service by erasing the abstraction an d graphically showing the process by which some of the animals we eat arrive on our plate . The fare was lobster . No , not a lobster boiled alive in a pot of w ater , but something even yummier and rather more exotic . After heating the gar lic in a pan and adding some crushed red pepper , the chef picked up the entree a live lobster and twisted off its claws as it writhed . A wincing Couric quickl y turned away . `` I can't look . Hurry ! '' But fine cuisine can't be hurried . The chef then selected a large knife and , as Couric cringed , sliced the still -moving lobster in half . `` Oh , what a way to go , '' Couric said fliply . The n the chef took the upper half of the still-moving lobster and began sauteing it in the pan . `` Oh , it 's still moving , '' Couric said , then wittily joked : `` can't you give him sleeping pills or something before you cut him up ? '' Af ter the mirth subsided , it was time to add wine and tomato sauce in preparation for cooking the lobster for 10 to 12 minutes . Couric : `` And we 'll be back i n a moment to hear some music from the Boston Pops . '' Bon appetit . -0- THE WO RD : Although he does some goofy things from time to time , Phil Donahue at leas t can be counted on , usually , to be an effective devil 's advocate . On Monday 's episode of `` Donahue , '' though , he was overwhelmed and rendered inept by controversial Nation of Islam lecturer Khalid Abdul Muhammad . Muhammad , a dis ciple and suspended aide of National of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan , was the h our 's only guest . The invective-spewing verbal barrage by him and his boistero us followers , who were packed into the front of the studio , targeted all white s in general , all Jews in particular . Donahue and a few doddering audience mem bers made some feeble attempts at rebuttal , but were no match for the relentles s assault , and Donahue , in particular , ultimately appeared to give up . Thus , he did not challenge repeated broad claims that Muhammad 's assertions about h istorical Jewish oppression of blacks were endorsed by `` Jewish scholars . '' R ushing through the audience with his mike , he did not challenge a man who insis ted that the Bible calls Jews `` the synagogue of Satan . '' He did not quiz a m an who urged Allah to `` remove all white folks from the planet Earth . '' Can y ou imagine Donahue not asking a loony white guy what he meant by urging God to e rase all blacks ? Or Donahue letting Ku Klux Klan members slander blacks virtual ly at will ? It wouldn't happen . Spontaneous panic attacks , once thought to be the physical manifestation of in ner angst , may instead be triggered by a glitch in the body 's respiratory syst em , according to a new study . `` It is not anxiety or fear at all , '' said Dr . Donald Klein , professor of psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physi cians and Surgeons . `` Panic attacks result from a physiological abnormality '' in which the body 's natural suffocation alarm is falsely tripped . That alarm , Klein said , is located in the carotid body , an area in the neck that acts li ke a sensor to measure the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood . It normally goes off , he explained , only when levels of the two chemicals are dr amatically altered for instance , when you 're being smothered . However , Klein said that people who tend to suffer panic attacks appear for an as-yet unknown reason to be more sensitive than others to even a tiny fluctuation in the amount of carbon dioxide in their bodies . This , he theorizes , can prompt the caroti d to send a false signal to the brain , causing it to shut down the respiratory system . And the shutdown , in turn , prompts classic `` panic attack '' symptom s : shortness of breath or smothering sensations ; dizziness , unsteadiness , or faintness ; an accelerated heart rate or palpitations ; trembling ; hot or cold flashes ; and nausea . Klein 's theory , which is backed by intriguing data gat hered by him and his colleagues at the New York State Psychiatric Institute , co uld alter the concept of these frightening attacks , leading to novel treatments that prompt a drop in carbon dioxide in the body , experts say . This might inc lude progesterone , a natural hormone , and Diamox , a drug used for glaucoma . The findings are to be reported this week during the American Psychiatric Associ ation 's annual meeting in Philadelphia . About 1.2 million Americans experience spontaneous panic attacks , which experts previously thought were triggered by inner fears or , as Sigmund Freud explained it , threatening impulses . But Klei n , boldly marking new territory in the disease , says , `` That 's a mistake . '' He said that since the 1950s he has listened to patient after patient complai n of panic attacks that left them gasping for breath , and feeling that they wer e going to die . `` It was an overwhelming experience of shortness of breath ver ging on smothering , '' the psychiatrist said . Those descriptions caused him to suspect that panic patients were suffering a respiratory dysfunction , rather t han a psychological one . If the theory holds up , experts say , it could help e xplain why these attacks don't seem to occur any more frequently during frighten ing and stressful times as when they are relaxed , even sleeping . Dr. Thomas Uh de , chairman of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences at Wayne State Universi ty and an expert on panic disorders , believes Klein is `` on to something , '' adding , `` We will be testing his ideas . '' Additionally , Klein said he and h is colleagues are in the midst of gathering more scientific proof to back these ideas . The theory was built on recent studies , also carried out at Columbia , showing that lactate and carbon dioxide can trigger a panic attack in people pro ne to the condition , and does nothing to others without such attacks . Lactate is a substance that is normally produced in the body from pyruvate , which allow s the body to continue to oxidize glucose even when it 's running low on oxygen . Humans don't normally breathe in carbon dioxide , but it is a gas found in tin y amounts in the lungs about 5 percent . Interestingly , more than half of panic patients say they frequently hyperventilate , which helps them to avoid a panic attack , Klein said , by blowing off carbon dioxide . Further evidence that the suffocation alarm may be tripped comes from a higher than normal percent of peo ple with panic attacks among those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease an d asthma . They have obvious respiratory difficulties . Klein says that his coll eagues have also done some work to suggest that women in childbirth almost never experience an attack . During labor , when women often hyperventilate , carbon dioxide is at its lowest level , Klein said . ( Begin optional trim ) However , the most interesting evidence of the existence of a `` suffocation alarm '' come s from a group of children with congenital central hypoventilation syndrome , re ferred to as Ondine 's Curse . These children have a rare disease that affects o ne in 100,000 people . It is named after the mythological water nymph whose fath er turned her lover 's every minute , involuntary movement into a voluntary act . The Ondine children can't breathe when asleep , and thus many die soon after b irth . The few survivors the oldest ones are in their teens have been kept alive through radio-frequency coils implanted in their phrenic nerves that stimulate contraction of the diaphragm every five seconds during sleep . These children , according to studies conducted by Klein and Dr. Debra Weese-Mayer of Rush Presby terian-St. Lukes Medical Center in Chicago , lack a suffocation alarm reflex . T heir studies have shown that these children can be bathed in carbon dioxide and it does not stimulate respiration . They have no feeling of suffocation even whe n they are running low on oxygen and turning blue . What 's more , these childre n rarely express fear or anxiety over their dreadful and life-threatening illnes s , counter to studies that have shown a high degree of anxiety among children w ith chronic medical conditions . ( End optional trim ) Klein also looked at situ ations where people were actually suffocating , finding it in studies of people attempting to commit suicide using exhaust fumes in their garage . Carbon monoxi de , the gas that is put out in car exhaust fumes , binds hemoglobin and prevent s it from carrying oxygen throughout the body . Ironically , it is a painless wa y to die , Klein explains , because carbon monoxide inhibits activity in the car otid , the possible seat of the body 's suffocation center . Klein suspects that carbon monoxide could be acting as an anti-panic agent . This idea will be test ed soon at the psychiatric institute . Klein and his colleagues will be collecti ng panic patients for a study using carbon dioxide , which has been shown to tri gger these attacks in these people , and small amounts of carbon monoxide . If c arbon monoxide is an anti-panic substance , as Klein suspects , it should block the attack . `` That carbon monoxide might actually block panic would be really peculiar , '' said Klein , who turns his back on conventional theories because t hey liken panic attacks to the utmost in fear . `` Fear almost never produces an intense smothering response , '' he said . `` We are excited about the work , ' ' said Dr. Jack Gorman , a professor of psychiatry at Columbia and scientific di rector of the Phobia , Stress and Anxiety Disorders Clinic at Long Island Jewish -Hillside Medical Center . Gorman , an expert on panic conditions , has been wor king with David Anderson of the National Institute on Aging on a computerized bo dysuit that can be used to measure the depth and rate of breathing during a pani c attack . Such a monitor could help determine whether patients are suffering fr om a respiratory defect . HOLLYWOOD A few months ago , the special-effects-laden action-comedy `` The Mas k '' might have been considered a bona fide summer sleeper . But now the New Lin e Cinema film starring a green-faced Jim Carrey has developed such buzz in Holly wood that it is projected to be one of the summer 's hits . `` Speed , '' starri ng Keanu Reeves as a SWAT cop trying to save a careening busload of passengers , also might have been considered a summer sleeper earlier this year . Now advanc e screenings have created positive word of mouth for the 20th Century Fox film , leaving some to question whether the term `` sleeper '' applies anymore . The r eal fun in Hollywood these days is predicting what movies without big expectatio ns will become box-office hits , along the lines of last summer 's surprise hits , `` Free Willy '' and `` Sleepless in Seattle . '' If you listen to the studio publicity departments , you might believe anything other than their biggest sum mer films are potential sleepers . Two baseball movies are now being hyped as su mmer sleepers : `` Angels in the Outfield '' with Danny Glover from Walt Disney/ Caravan and `` Little Big League '' with Jason Robards from Columbia . Another t outed sleeper is `` The Shadow , '' a Universal film about the caped crime-fight er of radio lore , starring Alec Baldwin ( `` Who knows what evil lurks in the h earts of men ? The Shadow knows '' ) . But there are those who argue that all th is talk about summer sleepers is often designed by studios to start an undercurr ent of hype for certain films . `` They want you to believe that we made it for $ 80 million , but it 's a sleeper , '' said entertainment attorney David Colden , adding sarcastically : `` Yeah .. . ' ' John Krier , president of Exhibitor R elations Inc. , a motion picture research company , is another who believes that when you look across the landscape of films this summer , most really don't qua lify as sleeper candidates . How can `` Angels in the Outfield '' be considered a sleeper , Krier asked , when `` exhibitors are expecting big things from it ? '' And he doesn't see how anyone can still say that `` Speed '' is a summer slee per , no matter what Fox executives might say . `` A sleeper is something that i s unheralded and then pops up all of a sudden , '' Krier said . It has a low to moderate budget , no big stars , usually opens small , but benefits from good wo rd of mouth and has `` legs , '' is either critically praised or trashed , has n o heavy advance promotion by the studio , does more at the box office than is in itially expected , and is usually not given the most advantageous playing time . ( Begin optional trim ) Some current examples , Krier said , would be `` Ace Ve ntura : Pet Detective , '' which came out of nowhere with comedian Carrey earlie r this year to gross $ 70 million , and `` Four Weddings and a Funeral , '' whic h has grossed $ 34 million . `` The Mask '' was a sleeper , he said , until exhi bitors viewed the trailer at the ShoWest exhibitors ' convention in Las Vegas ea rlier this year and loved it . Now , it would be a shock if it didn't succeed . A film does not necessarily have to be devoid of stars to be considered a sleepe r . Take `` Sleepless in Seattle , '' which last year grossed $ 126 million for TriStar Pictures . `` It was a movie which had a fairly well-known cast with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan and , given its cost and the subject matter , would normally be expected to do about $ 20- $ 40 million at the box office , '' said one sour ce . `` Therefore , given the expectations the film industry had for that movie , it could be called a sleeper . '' ( End optional trim ) So , what are the real potential sleepers this summer ? If `` Andre '' a film about a 9-year-old girl and a lovable seal makes a big splash at the box office for Paramount Pictures , it would be a bona fide sleeper , just as the killer-whale movie `` Free Willy '' was for Warners when it grossed $ 77 million . They might also include `` Pul p Fiction , '' the Quentin Tarantino paean to criminals starring John Travolta a nd Uma Thurman , which on Monday won the Golden Palm award at Cannes ; the super -hero adventure comedy `` Blankman '' starring Damon Wayans ; and , `` Airheads , '' a tale of an unknown band that takes a radio station hostage to get some ai rplay . ( Optional add end ) Or perhaps `` Fear of a Black Hat , '' a comedy rap version of `` This Is Spinal Tap '' from the Samuel Goldwyn Co. will be the rea l summer sleeper . A parody of a fictitious rap group called N.W.H. , it has tes ted well with middle-age , white male audiences , which could provide it the cro ssover needed to become a financial hit . Or maybe it will be an Andrew Bergman movie from Castle Rock Entertainment called `` It Could Happen to You '' ( Nicol as Cage , Bridget Fonda ) , a little romantic film that some say hits all the ri ght notes . Bergman 's `` Honeymoon in Vegas '' in 1992 , after all , while not really a sleeper , nevertheless became a big hit with audiences . But would a co medy like `` In the Army Now '' starring Pauly Shore be considered a sleeper if it did well ? Not necessarily , say some industry experts . To become a true sle eper , `` In the Army Now '' would have to gross a lot more than $ 30 million , because Pauly Shore movies usually pull in that amount , said one source . If it makes $ 100 million , on the other hand , it would be a true sleeper . WASHINGTON One was the perfect hostess who charmed the world and redefined the title of first lady with her style , elegance and dignity . The other , a driven professional who wins admiration with her eloquence , intellect and unflinching determination , is revolutionizing the role of presidential spouse . Three deca des separate the reigns of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Hillary Rodham Clinton , and no two women better illustrate the sea change in public perception of the `` ideal woman . '' `` It 's a very different image , '' said Brenda Castro , 5 0 , one of hundreds of longtime Jackie admirers who assembled at Arlington Natio nal Cemetery Monday to bid her farewell . `` Jackie 's from an era of grace and elegance , when women were supposed to be charming hostesses and adoring wives . Hillary is from a different era . She 's from an era when you should get an edu cation and go out and make change and be very verbal about it . '' But both wome n stand apart from other first ladies because they epitomize Jackie for the 1960 s and Hillary for the 1990s what a woman `` should be . '' As she waited for the motorcade carrying Jackie Kennedy Onassis ' body , Jenifer Lucas , 48 , of Arli ngton , Va. , said the difference between the two first ladies reflected the ama zing metamorphosis American women have made in recent years . As a young woman i n the early 1960s in Topeka , Kan. , she said , she aspired to be like Jackie Ke nnedy . `` She epitomized so much of what girls of our age were brought up to th ink we should be , '' Lucas said . But now , as an attorney for the Federal Ener gy Regulatory Commission , she looks to Hillary Clinton as a role model . `` We grew up in a time when women were expected to be educated but not have careers , '' she said . `` You were supposed to be a supportive wife , a gracious hostess and a good mother . That was Jackie . Now women are expected to have successful careers . That 's Hillary . '' Castro , Lucas and other women gathered along th e avenue leading to the cemetery recalled the impact Jackie Kennedy had on Ameri can women of all ages , ethnic backgrounds and economic classes , starting with the 1960 presidential campaign . She showed them that a woman could be a support ive wife and mother , dazzle people with her looks and still have an identity of her own . `` I remember voting for her , '' Castro said enthusiastically , maki ng it clear that in her view , casting a vote for JFK was casting a vote for Jac kie as well . `` It was John and Jackie , not just John . '' Not until the Clint ons started campaigning did Castro again feel that she was supporting a couple a nd not just a candidate . With her pillbox hats , command of foreign languages a nd dashing , accomplished husband , Jackie was the standard of a successful woma n in the early 1960s . `` Hillary does that now for people my age and younger be cause she speaks on the issues we care about , '' Castro said . `` But she 's a totally different woman , and we admire different things in her . She 's intelli gent , forceful without being aggressive , focused , directed , accomplished . ' ' In Hillary Clinton 's unprecedented 66-minute news conference in April , she p resented herself as a `` transitional '' first lady . Dressed in pink to highlig ht her traditional femininity , she expertly defended her role in making unusual ly successful investments for her family . Doris Kearns Goodwin , the author of `` The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys , '' argues that Jackie Kennedy was also a t ransitional first lady . Although she was praised for being ladylike and having unrivaled fashion sense , she helped in her own way to open the door for the wom en 's movement . `` There was an independence in the way she approached the firs t ladyship , '' Goodwin said . `` Even though she was doing traditional feminine interests art , culture and fashion she was independent in how she pursued them . She was a symbol of the coming independence of women to do as they like . '' Goodwin stressed that it was much easier in the 1960s , when the media spotlight did not shine so relentlessly , for a first lady to become a public idol . Peop le saw Jackie when she wanted to be seen , and they hardly ever heard her speak . To most Americans , she was the silent , dignified image that she projected on television screens and in the newspapers . ( Begin optional trim ) `` Some of J ackie 's majesty depended on her mystery , '' Goodwin said . `` I 'm not sure th at kind of political celebrity can exist today . We know so much more today abou t everyone . '' Jackie Kennedy , for instance , was never pressed by reporters a bout her husband 's infidelities . But Hillary Clinton had to face such question s before and after her husband came to office . ( End optional trim ) Hillary Cl inton , who has described herself as a very private person , clearly envies the distance Jackie Kennedy was able to create between her family and the press . Th e morning after Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis died , Hillary Clinton told CNN how g rateful she was for conversations that the two first ladies had had about `` how she had managed so well to carve out the space and privacy that children need t o grow into what they have a right to become . '' To be a role model in the 1990 s , Goodwin said , takes a woman like Hillary Clinton , who can dazzle the Senat e with her intellect rather than her wardrobe . `` What Hillary has going for he r is a whole generation of women trying to do what she 's doing balancing a care er and a family life . '' ( Begin optional trim ) If the Jackie Kennedy the worl d knew in the 1960s was in the White House today , `` she would not have a conne ction to young women of today 's generation the way Hillary does , '' she added . Paul Costello , deputy press secretary for former first lady Rosalynn Carter , said the two first ladies are also exceptional among the women who have held th at title because they changed the job description for the spouse of a president . `` Every first lady since Jackie Kennedy has been judged by the standard of st yle and elegance that she set in the White House , '' Costello said . `` Every f irst lady post-Hillary will be judged by her standard of substance . '' ( End op tional trim ) But not everyone agrees that Hillary Clinton represents the ideal woman of the 1990s . `` The way a first lady would more accurately reflect the e volution of the role of a woman would be to leave the White House every day and go to a job that is not dependent on her husband , '' said Sheila Tate , press s ecretary first to Nancy Reagan and then to George Bush 's successful 1988 presid ential campaign . `` Hillary Clinton 's role is really no different from any oth er first lady 's because she has borrowed her husband 's power . Very few women in America have had authority handed to them . They have had to earn it . '' As a nurse , Carol Ann Friedman thought she knew what to expect during her own postpartum recovery : If she had a Cesarean section , she would need eight weeks to heal . If she had a vaginal birth , six weeks . By then , she figured , her life would be back to normal . She would be rested , ready to return to work , a djusted to her baby , with the household running smoothly . Right ? Wrong . `` I t took me much longer than eight weeks , '' she recalls . `` I felt better about the eighth month . '' Having spent her career nurturing others back to health , the irony of the situation didn't escape Friedman , a certified lactation consu ltant in Pasadena , Calif. . The vast majority of women would categorize having a baby as a joyous event , full of rewards and moments of sheer delight . But wh en the tears flow , it 's often because society 's benchmark for when new mother s should be recovered six weeks to eight weeks is unrealistic for many . `` A jo ke , '' says one woman , aptly . `` Ridiculous , '' says another . `` It 's almo st brutal , '' says Friedman . Scientific studies and new mothers themselves att est to a much longer adjustment period , something akin to a fourth trimester . In a study published last year , researchers found that most women need months m aybe as much as a year to fully recover from childbirth . One month after delive ry , women still complained of breast problems , fatigue , hemorrhoids , poor ap petite , constipation , increased sweating , acne , hand numbness or tingling , dizziness and hot flashes . Three months after delivery , many of these symptoms continue , the study reported , while 40 percent of mothers also reported pain during sexual intercourse , as well as respiratory infections and hair loss at t hree to six months . Even at nine months postpartum , many women said they exper ienced vaginal discomfort and constipation . And 20 percent reported problems re lated to sexual function one year after childbirth , says researcher Dwenda K. G jeringen of the University of Minnesota . Moreover , as many as 10 percent of wo men suffer postpartum depression in the months following childbirth , other rese arch has shown . Postpartum depression is a severe mood disorder linked to chang ing hormones in which stress and fatigue can play a major role . Even without ex periencing such a serious postpartum illness , `` Recovery from childbirth often requires more than the six weeks traditionally allotted , '' Gjeringen says . B aby is now 2 months old and signs are everywhere that Mother should be up to spe ed . At six or eight weeks , disability payments usually stop a not-so-subtle hi nt that a woman should now be ready to return to work . Yet , according to Gjeri ngen 's study , the postpartum adjustment period is especially hard for women wh o return to the work force about half of all new mothers soon after childbirth . The average working woman takes eight weeks off for childbirth , according to 9 to 5 , the National Association of Working Women . At six weeks , the last visi t with the obstetrician takes place . That is when , according to medical textbo oks , the uterus has returned to its non-reproductive state . Using that as the benchmark of recovery , physicians pronounce most of their patients fit and read y to resume sexual relations . Never mind that the typical patient is still 20 p ounds overweight , exhausted and sore . There is also a tacit assumption in many quarters that the mother should have her baby on some kind of schedule at six w eeks . After all , when are the in-laws ever wrong ? In truth , the postpartum a djustment period differs greatly among women , and recovery simply cannot be pre dicted or planned , experts say . `` A lot of it depends on whether the baby is an easy baby or not , '' says Sandy Hill , the owner of a Southern California pa rent-care service called After the Stork . For example , some babies have health problems , develop colic , are hard to feed , sleep fitfully or are ill-tempere d . `` Women often say , ` What 's wrong with me ? I 'm not adjusting . Why is t his so hard ? ' But it 's usually because the baby is a difficult baby , '' she says . ( Begin optional trim ) Physically , too , recovery varies widely . `` Th e physical recovery is usually much slower than what people expect , '' says psy chologist Georgiana G. Rodiger , a mother of five and founder of the Rodiger Cen ter in Pasadena . `` Childbirth is a much more traumatic especially for a first birth than most people care to describe . And one of the worst parts is you don' t get sleep . That goes on for months . '' Some new mothers also feel pressure t o lose all their added weight a couple months after childbirth . If a woman is r eturning to work at six weeks , she 's lucky if her regular clothes even fit , F riedman says . `` Most of us have body-image issues at that time , '' she says . `` But it 's very natural not to have lost the weight at that point . '' ( End optional trim ) Postpartum recovery is clearly on the fast track these days , be ginning from the moment of birth . It is common now for women who have an uncomp licated vaginal birth to be discharged in one day and women who undergo C-sectio ns in three days . And , under some insurance policies , childbirth is just a pi t stop : Women with vaginal births go home in eight to 12 hours . `` These mothe rs are still in a fog , '' Friedman says . `` I 'm trying to tell them how to ch ange a diaper and they 're saying ` What ? ' ' ' The trend in early discharge an d a light-speed postpartum recovery sometimes seems like a backlash to the days a generation ago when new mothers spent five to seven days in the hospital and c ame home to a supportive extended family and a neighborhood full of casserole-be aring , stay-at-home moms . `` In the old days , the mother was in bed and every one said , ` Oh , that 's ridiculous this isn't an illness , ' ' ' notes Susan , a Los Angeles woman who asked that her full name not be used . `` Then it becam e a thing of who can get out the door the quickest . '' New mothers who refuse t o get with the program are subject to ridicule , says Lola Clark Tirre , a herba list and mother of three who lives in San Clemente , Calif. . `` I don't think i t 's respected if a woman says she is going to stay home and bond with her baby for several weeks . People think you are kind of kooky . '' Not many women have the luxury of staying home and cocooning , says Linda Juergens , director of the New York-based National Association of Mothers ' Centers , a network of non-pro fit discussion groups . `` Certain societies have ways of relieving new mothers of duties as she recovers and having a mentoring period with other mothers . In our society , we have nothing built in to support a new mother . The extended fa mily is gone . '' Part of the solution to the cultural crisis facing today 's ne w moms may be a return to old customs . For example , new moms are increasingly joining breast-feeding or parenting organizations , says Friedman , the owner of two stores that carry lactation equipment and clothing . At her Mothers with St yle store in Glendale , Calif. , women meet weekly for support . Women are not o nly helped individually , but a forum is created for them to air their concerns , says Juergens , of the National Assocation of Mothers ' Centers . `` As a nati onal organization , our hope is to raise the consciousness among people about th ese issues , '' she says . `` We want to expand the maternal voice and get women to feel entitled to make their needs and wants known . '' Now that Paula Jones has filed her lawsuit accusing Bill Clinton of sexual hara ssment , America once again is tossing around the word `` bimbo , '' using it to describe Jones in a pejorative way , usually in defense of the president . I ca n't imagine anyone hasn't heard about the case . Jones contends that when Clinto n was Arkansas governor and she was on the state payroll , she was brought to me et him in a hotel room , where he dropped his pants and propositioned her . Jone s said she refused and left , but that hasn't kept people from referring to her as a bimbo , though some people who say they knew her as a `` party girl '' migh t think the term is apt . So the word bimbo is back , just as it was used to des cribe Tonya Harding , Gennifer Flowers , or Donna Rice ( remember Gary Hart and the good ship `` Monkey Business '' ? ) . For a country that is being accused mo re and more of embracing attitudes that are politically correct , this kind of l inguistic behavior strikes me as a serious lapse , and one that isn't positive . It seems that the nation has come to accept the term bimbo without considering the connotations it has . Perhaps it 's best to define exactly what a bimbo is . Webster 's New World Dictionary lists three slang definitions , of which the th ird is most pertinent to the current usage : `` a sexually promiscuous woman . ' ' The second definition `` a silly or stupid person : used especially of a woman '' often seems to be implicit when people speak of bimbos , too . After talking with people about what they consider the essence of , well , call it bimbosity , I think you also need to add that the popular notion of a bimbo involves someo ne who dresses provocatively , usually in tight , revealing clothing . Nowadays , I can't think of anyone who uses the first definition , deemed old slang by th e dictionary : `` a guy , fellow . '' In fact , the whole notion of a bimbo seem s to be quite gender-specific . There seems to be no male equivalent . Would you , for example , think of Joey Buttafuoco as a male bimbo ? How about Fabio ? Se e what I mean ? Sure , men have been called hunks , but that term seems pretty p assive when compared to what we mean when we refer to a woman as a bimbo . Think for a moment of the TV commercial that portrays women leering at a bare-chested construction worker . The guy , I 'm told , is a hunk . But he 's not dealing i n sexuality ; he 's just taken off his shirt because he 's perspiring . On the o ther hand , do you think the women doing the leering are bimbos ? Maybe yes , ma ybe no , right ? Then there is the term `` stud , '' which certainly carries a s exual connotation . Yet it isn't the same kind of pejorative that bimbo is . I c an't imagine any women considering bimbo a positive description , but there are plenty of men who would welcome being called a stud . And we better forget about the word womanizer , which has such an elite connotation to it you almost pictu re someone in a pin-striped suit and wing-tips . Think of it this way : JFK was a womanizer ; Judith Exner was a bimbo . Note the difference . All of which make s me wonder exactly how far we have come toward gender equality . The word bimbo reinforces the stereotype of a woman using sexuality to promote herself . That there is no equivalent male term is significant , but not as important as the fa ct that we seem willing to use the word bimbo unquestioningly . Women use it , t oo , including some women who pride themselves on promoting feminist equality . That is perhaps the ultimate irony , for it pretty effectively undercuts the not ion of women being held to the same standards as men , and vice versa . Some of the newer feminist writers surely would criticize the notion of women ever being bimbos . Among this group , dubbed the `` do-me feminists '' by Esquire magazin e , are those who believe women finally are acting sexually demanding in much th e same way men traditionally have . They would find the notion of sexually promi scuous behavior to be just fine , without any of the negative connotations that the word bimbo would conjure up . But society seems ill at ease with the idea of a woman who leers at men , dresses to enhance her sexuality , or even enjoys th e pleasures of the flesh . Hence the continued use of the word bimbo in a way th at can only be considered demeaning , not only to the woman being labeled , but to women in general . Thinking about it that way , we can be certain the double standard is alive and well , despite all the efforts by women and men to try to level the playing field for both genders . What is perhaps surprising , however , is the rancor Jones has stirred through her lawsuit . People across a broad sp ectrum have come to Clinton 's defense . Even Gennifer Flowers , who claims to h ave had a longtime affair with Clinton , says Jones ' story doesn't ring true . Based on that , Jones might be the only person I can think of who could be accus ed of giving bimbos a bad name . LOS ANGELES When I was a kid , I stole a bag of doughnuts once from a grocery s tore . They were glazed doughnuts in a brown bag . I did it because we were poor and I was hungry , and because it was an exciting thing to do . I hid the dough nuts inside a jacket and sidled out of the store as casually as I could , but I was a clumsy thief and the grocer , a man named Fred Barnes , saw me . He shoute d `` Hey ! '' and came after me , red-faced and snorting fire , and cornered me in an alley about a block away . I made a run at him to try knocking him out of the way , but he caught me by the nape of the neck , marched me back to the stor e and took my name and address . He said he 'd be notifying my parents and juven ile authorities and I would be catching everyone 's hell in just a few days . Wh ich brings me to Aldo Vega . He stole a box of cookies from a place called Charl ie 's Market and also was a clumsy thief . The owner of the market , Michael Kim , saw him . Aldo , a 14-year-old , took off . Kim jumped in his car and caught him three blocks away . Then he shot him . He did it , Kim said , because the bo y with Aldo had a knife . No knife was found , but a screwdriver was later recov ered . He did it , Kim said , because Aldo appeared to be reaching for a weapon . There was no weapon , but Aldo admits hiking up his shirt and reaching into hi s pocket . There was just that damned box of cookies scattered on the sidewalk . No criminal charges were filed against Kim because the kid stole cookies , didn 't he , and Kim feared for his life , didn't he ? Cookie thieves are notorious f or murdering grocers . The case was instantly compared to the killing of 15-year -old Latasha Harlins in Compton , Calif. , three years ago . She was shot dead b y grocer Soon Ja Du after the two had struggled over a $ 1.79 bottle of orange j uice . Du was fined $ 500 and placed on probation . Few killers are granted such an easy way out . Aldo didn't die . The bullet fired from Kim 's .38 missed his heart . The district attorney 's office announced magnanimously that it would n ot file shoplifting charges against him . There are similarities between the sho otings of Latasha and Aldo . Both guns were fired by Korean Americans , though L atasha was black and Aldo is Latino . Both shootings were set in motion by the t heft of items worth less than $ 2 . Los Angeles District Attorney Gil Garcetti s aid no charges would be filed against Kim because no prosecutable crime occurred . Commentators , defending Kim 's actions , pointed out that 35 Korean American owners of small businesses have been shot in L.A. in the past year . He had a r ight not to become No. 36 . But Chicano activist Armando Sotomayor cut through t he statistics and legal justification when he stood on the steps of the Criminal Courts Building and said , `` You don't shoot a 14-year-old boy over a 49-cent box of cookies . '' There are those who see the shooting of a Latino by a Korean as a racial incident . I don't . I see it as a metaphor of the time and place i n which we live , in a society packaged by violence and summarized by clashing r ights . Aldo Vega had no right to steal from the store . Michael Kim had a right to pursue him . Aldo Vega had no right to make a threatening gesture . Michael Kim had a right to defend himself . Rights are endlessly debated in a nation tha t revolves around them . But the debate ends when guns are fired . There are an estimated 200 million firearms in private hands in this country , and arguments are increasingly terminated , and rights defended , by their use . Homeowners sh oot at intruders , car owners shoot at thieves , property owners shoot at trespa ssers .. . and grocery store owners shoot at kids who steal orange juice and coo kies . No one will ever know whether Kim actually feared for his life or was try ing , in his way , to teach a lesson . Give him the benefit of the doubt . He wa s in a state of terror . But I can't help wondering what would have happened to me those many years ago had similar conditions existed . Would Fred Barnes have armed himself , pursued me and shot me dead when I lunged at him ? I doubt it . We were a different world back then , less prone to cause pain and more inclined to weigh the value of a human life against the loss of a grocery product . Barn es took my name , but never turned me in . I lived in fear for weeks that he mig ht , and the fear stamped its message on my life . The grocer taught a lesson wi thout a shot being fired . You didn't shoot a kid over a bag of doughnuts back t hen . Sadly , things have changed . Michael Kim and Aldo Vega , thrust together in the context of petty crime and excessive punishment , will symbolize that cha nge for a long time to come . HARTFORD , Conn. . Visitors to the Wadsworth Atheneum in recent years have been mystified by the increasingly dark , murky appearance of the `` Crucifixion , ' ' a 17th-century masterwork by the great French painter Nicolas Poussin . The wo rk 's spectral shapes shrouded in gloom had over time unaccountably darkened far beyond Poussin 's original , deliberately somber palette . But now , thanks to a two-year conservation project , the once ghostly figures have emerged from sha dowy mists . Viewers can once again see how Poussin , a master storyteller , mad e his characters the crucified Christ on the cross , the Virgin Mary , Mary Magd alen , Roman soldiers casting dice for Christ 's garments , a centurion on a rea ring horse , crucified thieves , a resurrected body dramatically bursting from i ts rocky grave and other characters in the cast at Calvary play off one another like a powerful ensemble on stage . A deeply devout Catholic , Poussin portrayed the crucifixion at the moment of Christ 's death , a tumultuous time when , the New Testament says , the heavens darkened , graves heaved open and bodies of sa ints were raised from the dead . The newly restored painting is being displayed in a before-and-after exhibition called `` Restoring a French Masterpiece : Pous sin 's ` Crucifixion . '' ' Installed in the second-floor Connector Gallery , it runs through July 31 . Treating the nearly 350-year-old painting much like an i ll , elderly patient , chief conservator Stephen Kornhauser and conservator Patr icia Garland first had to diagnose the cause of the baffling darkening effect . The two sleuth-like conservators also unearthed evidence revealing what they bel ieve to be the cause of the painting 's painful surface affliction called `` cup ping , '' a blistering effect in which paint curls up in cup-like patches . To g et to the bottom of the enigmatic darkening process , the Atheneum dispatched th e painting and the two conservators to California to the Getty Conservation Inst itute , a prestigious scientific/diagnostic clinic for ailing artworks . Probing for clues in the painting 's skin and body chemistry , Getty scientists discove red a suspicious , foreign substance , a resin possibly from a tree of the balsa m , pine or spruce families lurking in pigment samples . Such resins were most u nusual for 17th-century paintings . But in the 19th century , the resin copaiva balsam was often rubbed onto paintings to lighten a dark surface , Kornhauser sa ys . Based on the Getty lab 's findings , Garland and Kornhauser theorize that s ome unknown 19th-century restorer tried to lighten the Poussin 's naturally dark surface with copaiva balsam , a common practice of that period , they say . So here at last was the villain of the piece , the guilty agent of the painting 's darkening malaise . `` It looks great for a while , '' Garland explains of the b alsam 's initially lightening effect , `` but then it darkens itself , and it ju st keeps darkening and darkening . '' Before the painting was purchased by the A theneum in 1935 , other unknown hands had tried to lighten the painting 's origi nal dark tones by cleaning it with caustic solutions , Garland and Kornhauser sa y . But that caustic cleaner brought not lighter tones but abrasions to the surf ace . Last summer the conservators began operating on their patient , attempting to restore the splendid old invalid to a condition as close as possible to its original state when Poussin painted it for his friend , the French abbot Jacques Auguste de Thou , a member of the French Parliament . The restoration process w as a struggle not only against the natural ravages of aging , but also against e arlier , abortive attempts in pre-Atheneum days to conserve or brighten the pain ting that was never meant to be bright . ( Begin optional trim ) First , the con servators removed coats of discolored varnish and layers of old retouching . The n , to reconstruct lost areas of paint , they employed a process called `` inpai nting , '' the exacting task of matching colors with the original pigments and r e-creating damaged forms by knitting together fragments of the original that rem ain . As a reference point , the conservators used a 17th-century copy of the wo rk attributed to Antoine Bouzonnet-Stella , a friend of Poussin and an establish ed artist of that period . The copy was especially helpful in understanding the original 's most damaged areas , the conservators say . Borrowed from a Swiss co llection , the copy will be part of the exhibition . `` It was a very long and a gonizing process . It was even agonizing to decide whether we should do it or no t , '' Kornhauser says . Because the painting 's condition was so critical , the re was an almost ethical/medical question about whether operating on it would br ing more gain than pain , or even perhaps permanent loss , Kornhauser says . `` We weigh every decision about a major treatment like this very , very carefully and try to figure out what the benefits are . As part of all these preliminary v isual examinations , we were able to see there was an enormous amount of loss an d weren't sure what we would gain . Each individual painting is treated as an in dividual object , just as a doctor would treat his or her patients , '' Garland says . Besides displaying the resurrection of clarity and drama in the `` Crucif ixion , '' the exhibition documents the conservators ' findings on the causes of the painting 's baffling pigmentation problem and its severe skin abrasions . X -ray photos , infra-red photography , blown-up photos of microcosmic areas of th e canvas and , of course , a color photo of the painting before it underwent con servation are part of the exhibition and give it an almost clinical ambiance . ( End optional trim ) The `` Crucifixion , '' which is the Atheneum 's only Pouss in , will go to Paris to be exhibited at the Louvre from Sept. 27 through Jan. 2 , 1995 . From there it goes to London where it will be shown at the Royal Acade my from Jan. 20 to April 16 before its return to Hartford . In the Louvre , with its new facelift , it will hang alongside other masterworks by Poussin in an ex hibition marking the 400th anniversary of the French master 's birth . Considere d France 's greatest painter of the 17th century , Poussin was born in Normandy in 1594 and died in 1665 in Rome , then the art capital of the world . Cardinal Richelieu , eminence grise to French King Louis XIII , and even King Louis , fer vently courted Poussin , the expatriate , trying to convince him to come home ag ain from Italy and become France 's permanent royal superstar painter . But Pous sin spent virtually all of his fruitful career in Italy , although he did return to his native land for a year and a half to serve as chief painter at the Frenc h court . But this was a most unpleasant experience that drove him back to his b eloved Rome , where he remained for the rest of his life . Jean Cadogan , the At heneum 's curator of European art , notes in her exhibition essay that , yes , t he restored `` Crucifixion '' is `` still dark and in some cases mysterious . '' Yet the figures `` are now more legible , their gestures and placement describe the narrative action of the subject , and ( the painting ) tells the story of t he Crucifixion in a dramatic and moving way , as Poussin intended it should . '' Cadogan says the conservation has also restored the painting 's dramatic , thre e-dimensional quality , one of Poussin 's stylistic hallmarks . `` I 'm confiden t now , '' the curator says , `` that when we put this painting in the Paris sho w with the rest of the Poussins , including all the great Poussins in the Louvre , it 's going to take its place rather than look like an anomaly . '' Photos of newly enfranchised voters thronging polling places have become common place , from Russia to South Africa to El Salvador . But just as Americans begin to replace our image of the guerrilla with the citizen , nagging rips appear at the edges of the new picture . Why has democracy been reversed so quickly in Pe ru , Haiti and Serbia ? Will political openings in Mexico and Indochina be endan gered by social unrest ? We Americans are notorious for our optimism , our pragm atism and our lack of historical consciousness . As the world democratizes , our optimistic assumption of a clean slate imperils the pragmatism necessary for ma king policy . Elections , we must remember , are a necessary but not a sufficien t condition for democracy . If elections do not include major sectors of society ( like peasants or former communists ) or address key issues ( like land reform or economic adjustment ) , new citizens will quickly become alienated and anti- system . Democracy must also include human rights , civilian control of the mili tary and some measure of accountability for the new government once it has been elected . Citizenship implies empowerment , and elections are only the first ste p in that process . Rather than treat emerging democracies as infant republics , it is appropriate to see them as `` recovering authoritarians . '' Like recover ing alcoholics , new democracies emerge damaged by a pattern of learned behavior to which they will always be especially susceptible . The bad news is that thes e countries ' heritage will often war with their institutions . The good news is that this heritage is not cultural or eternal ; learned behavior can be unlearn ed and the analysis of common patterns may help manage recovery . Thus , we shou ld not be surprised at the problems shared by recovering authoritarians in all p arts of the world : poverty , policing and polarization . Regardless of the prev ious level or path of economic development , recovering authoritarians experienc e poverty because unaccountable states have been inefficient and predatory econo mic managers . This is more than the conventional wisdom about distorting market s ; market-oriented authoritarians have also dismantled infrastructure and loote d the national patrimony . New democracies often face a crisis of policing becau se social order has never been rooted in a social contract that rewards restrain t with security and opportunity . When massive coercion is removed or shifted fr om the military or secret police to the police proper no `` thin blue line '' ca n stem the tide of self-seeking , anti-social behavior by citizens bereft of soc ial guarantees or guidance . Finally , democratizing societies quickly polarize along lines of ethnicity , class and ideology . Civil societies never developed where social institutions such as churches were controlled by the state or close d off entirely . In many cases , a society temporarily integrated by the authori tarian regime or by opposition to it suddenly collapses with the transition to d emocracy . What is to be done ? As sympathetic outsiders , we cannot repair the damage of authoritarianism but we can support , with our policies , the general principles of recovery . First , the recovering polity itself must accept respon sibility and come to terms with the past . This may involve measures such as hum an-rights investigations ( as in Chile ) or reconstruction of social and economi c infrastructure ( as in East Germany ) . We also need to make it clear that new democracies cannot afford the `` first drink '' of a postponed election or susp ended constitution . Finally , the world community can form support groups for d emocratization and its challenges . The Organization of American States seems to be moving toward this role for Latin America . Different cases will require dif ferent levels of U.S. involvement . Where possible , however , we must provide r eparations and multilateral support . At the same time , we must shed the dysfun ctional bonds that all too often propped up the previous authoritarian regime . Jennifer Capriati , little Jenny of the bouncy smile and sparkly eyes , is in a drug rehab center . She was allegedly caught holding some dope in a semi-seedy hotel room . The guy who was with her said they spent the weekend there , partyi ng on booze and drugs . She 's the bright little girl gone bad , and there 's mu ch wringing of hands as to what went wrong , as if we didn't know . It 's an ugl y , sordid mess that is in no way surprising . Actually , there 's one surprise : that she 's the first of the tennis teen prodigies to end up like this . Of co urse , she was the first to do a lot of things . The youngest to win a match at Wimbledon . The youngest to be a semifinalist at a grand-slam event . She was 13 when she joined the tennis tour and 17 when she left , saying she wanted to go to high school and live a normal life . Ah , the normal life . For her , normal life as a high school student meant her own apartment in a different city from w here her parents live . She 's 18 now and in big trouble . Surprising ? You try growing up the way she did . You try living out your puberty in the living room of strangers . You try being 15 and having to explain to the TV camera why you l ost in the first round of a tournament . You try to figure out wrong from right when right apparently means being pushed by your parents to grab everything you can as soon as you can and worry about the future some other time . What 's amaz ing is how many of the young people who grow up this way turn out all right . I first knew for sure that something was very wrong when Capriati , then 14 , was playing an exhibition match for $ 20,000 on a school night . She had already sig ned several million-dollar endorsements . What was she doing out there ? Who was that money for ? Let 's consider the ordinary , hormone-driven , late-night-tea rs , minor-rebellions , life-is-too-much-to-bear adolescence . You may have teen -age kids , or you may have been one yourself . In either case , you should know what I 'm talking about . You 're either too tall , short , fat , thin , smart , dumb . And nobody likes you . Or nobody knows you . You 've been there . Some kids carry extra burdens . They are prodigies of a kind . They play piano , exce pt not like our kids do . Or they swim . Or they dance . They have special gifts that need to be treated in a special way . But most get to explore their talent s in relative privacy . Even child actors , who grow up on the screen , don't ha ve to face the press every day to explain their defeats or to tell their life st ories as if they 'd had any time to live lives yet . On the tennis tour , there is everyday pressure that breaks grown men and women , much less kids too young to drive . Putting your 13-year-old out there is a form of child abuse . It 's t hat simple . And we 're all to blame . We think they 're so cute , these little darlings in pigtails . Capriati got her millions in endorsements based on that p rinciple . Once she got in trouble , the endorsements vanished . The fact is tha t nearly all who turn pro by age 14 Tracy Austin or Andrea Jaeger come to mind b reak down , usually physically . Is there a rush ? Will the money disappear ? We watched little Jenny grow up , and I 've heard the talk about how we should hav e known there was trouble ahead . You see , a few years ago , she painted her na ils black . She wears four earrings at a time . She even has a ring for her nost ril . And , yes , she was caught shoplifting . She must be .. . a kid . Her fath er said it was just a teen-age problem . He was right . And he was wrong . It 's a teen-age problem that many kids face , except few have to read about it in th e morning paper . Monica Seles , while still a teen-ager , mysteriously skipped Wimbledon one year . She ended up on an estate owned by Donald Trump . Can you i magine a worse call : `` Dad , I 'm staying with The Donald for a while . '' The papers were all over that one . There were the rumors , including one that she had gotten pregnant . One columnist wrote that she and Billy Joe McAllister were seen throwing something off the Tallahatchee bridge . Growing up is hard . It g ets harder every day in this speeded-up world of too many temptations and too li ttle supervision . Throw fame and money and high-stakes pressure into the mix , and you can end up like Capriati . She 's 18 , and under the law , she 's respon sible for her acts . She 's responsible , but who 's to blame ? Q : My 11-year-old daughter is a real tomboy . She likes to dress casually , ha ngs around boys and really doesn't have many girlfriends . Should I be concerned ? A : As long as your daughter seems happy , is doing well at school and does n ot complain or appear concerned about her choice of friends and activities , you can be reassured that she is quite all right . Her decision to hang around boys likely reflects the fact that at this point in her life , she finds their activ ities challenging and in line with her own interests . Being a tomboy at age 11 , however , does not indicate that she will continue to share these same interes ts as she gets older nor does it imply that she will be `` manly '' when she rea ches adulthood . It is impossible to predict what she will be like in the future as she progresses through adolescence and beyond . While there is likely a gene tic basis to various aspects of our personality , much of our identify is shaped by the social world around us . Parents , siblings , schools and religious grou ps , among others , all influence who we are . As your daughter ages , she will encounter a variety of new challenges and interact with an ever widening array o f individuals . Each of these encounters will expose her to new ideas , new ways of behaving and new challenges . As a result , her personality will likely cont inue to evolve even if she does not become less of a tomboy , however , you shou ld resist the impulse to say or do anything about it . If you attempt to conscio usly change or shape her behavior , she will quickly sense that you do not appro ve of her . Q : When my husband recently had a skin cancer removed from the face , he was t old that he was cured and need not worry that the cancer had spread to any other place . I though all cancers could spread , and I am concerned that my husband 's doctor just reassured him so that he wouldn't worry . Is there anything furth er he should be doing ? A : The three common types of skin cancer are basal cell carcinoma , melanoma and squamous cell carcinoma . Melanomas and squamous cell carcinomas DO spread ( metastasize ) to other body sites . It is more likely tha t your husband had a basal cell carcinoma because it is by far the most common t ype of skin cancer . If this is the case , his doctor was not trying to keep you r husband from worrying . Basal cell cancers continue to grow slowly and rarely spread to other sites in the body . More than 90 percent of people are completel y cured when the carcinoma is removed surgically or treated with liquid nitrogen , although if left to grow over time , it can invade and destroy nearby tissue . Exposure to the ultraviolet rays of the sun is believed to be the principal ca use of basal cell cancers . As a result , they tend to occur on those areas of t he skin most commonly in fair-skinned people who have relatively little melanin to protect them against the sun 's rays . Your husband should take measures to a void excessive exposure to sunlight , since the presence of one basal cell carci noma increases the risk that others may develop in the future . He should , for example , avoid direct sunlight during the middle of the day , use protective cl othing , such as hats and shirts with long sleeves , apply a sunscreen before go ing out into the sun and , of course , avoid sunlamps and tanning booths . He sh ould examine the skin regularly for the appearance of new growths and make an ap pointment with his doctor if any are found . A biopsy is necessary to make the d iagnosis . In any case , He should see his physician at least once a year for a full skin exam . First , the facts : The House Ways and Means Committee is the most powerful com mittee in Congress . Membership is highly prized and aggressively sought . Even junior members acquire a certain cachet among their colleagues . They also get n oticed by lobbyists , who pay inordinate attention to what goes on in Ways and M eans and to the political fortunes of its members . Not for nothing is the hallw ay outside the committee hearing room known as `` Gucci Gulch . '' The Ways and Means chairman , Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , `` Rosty '' is one of Washingt on 's most famous faces and a man no president can safely ignore . That 's becau se the committee 's jurisdiction includes the crown jewels of the modern state , including international trade , Social Security and welfare entitlements , tax bills of every description and health-care financing . President Clinton has bec ome particularly dependent on Rostenkowski because his political future is stake d on matters that must pass through Ways and Means before they become law . Clin ton 's only notable legislative achievements to date , the North American Free T rade Agreement and his tax bill , both owe their success to Rostenkowski 's form idable clout . Nothing will happen on welfare reform unless Rostenkowski nods an d , without him , Clinton 's health-care reform proposal doesn't have a prayer . Not surprisingly , the president and the chairman have become political intimat es . The president went out of his way to support Rostenkowski during a hotly co ntested primary earlier this year , even appearing at a Chicago fund-raiser . ( Memory does not recall the last time a sitting president made a personal appeara nce during a congressional primary fight . ) Rostenkowski has been in political hot water since 1992 , when it was revealed that the U.S. attorney 's office in Washington was investigating him for fraud , misuse of government funds and payr oll padding . Rostenkowski denies the charges , but indications are that a felon y indictment is near . Under the rules of the House , a felony indictment would require Rostenkowski to resign as Ways and Means chairman , a step that would al most certainly doom the president 's prized health-care proposal . On the other hand , something less than a felony indictment would enable Rostenkowski not onl y to retain his chairmanship but also to avoid the shame and burden of grave cri minal sanction . Rostenkowski dismissed his first lawyer last year and retained Robert Bennett yes , the same respected criminal defense attorney who became a h ousehold name a few weeks ago when the president tapped him to defend against Pa ula Corbin Jones ' sexual-harassment charges . The Rostenkowski investigation is clearly headed toward its denouement . Plea-bargaining is under way between Ben nett and the Justice Department , although it is not clear who is negotiating fo r the government . One story has it that Atty. Gen. Janet Reno will follow the r ecommendation of the U.S. attorney , come what may . Another has it that Bennett , dissatisfied with progress at lower levels , is seeking to take the negotiati on `` upstairs '' within the department . But neither the ordinarily garrulous B ennett , nor Reno nor the White House is commenting directly . The major partici pants , in short , are being unusually mum about one of the more dramatic events now on the Washington stage . Now , some questions : Do you suppose the White H ouse might have a political interest in the outcome of the plea-bargaining with Rostenkowski ? Do you think it likely that someone in the White House may have s poken to someone in the Justice Department about it ? Do you think it likely tha t the president has spoken with his counsel ( or vice versa ) about it ? What do you suppose goes through the minds of Justice Department political appointees w hen the man they know to be the president 's personal lawyer negotiates on behal f of the president 's most powerful ally on Capitol Hill ? What do you suppose C linton 's lawyer is saying to Rostenkowski 's lawyer about all this ? To avoid a conflict or an appearance of a conflict , it is sometimes necessary for one law yer to wall himself from others in the same firm , but how does an attorney erec t a Chinese Wall within his own brain ? Does anything about the foregoing bother you ? If a non-felony plea bargain is negotiated , would you be surprised ? Bef ore that happens , don't you think it would be a good idea if the press started asking some hard questions ? We can tell ourselves we 're not getting older , we 're getting better , but do we really believe it ? For women , the passage of time can become downright thr eatening when they reach 40-something . I 'm not speaking about myself , of cour se . I 've reached the accommodation between me then and me now . Aside from the occasional shock when I 'm passing a mirror and see the streaks of gray in my h air or the added couple of inches at my waist , I know that getting older is the only option if one plans on continuing to live . But I understand the women who gaze at themselves anxiously , wondering whether the time has come for the firs t facelift even if it is a pre-emptive strike at this point . I understand the a nxiety tinged with despair that colors their voices when they talk about becomin g middle-aged . They don't want to be fat . They don't want to be gray . They do n't want to be wrinkled . They want gravity to go away , so that whatever has be gun to sag will suddenly lift , as if they were 20 again . Some of this anxiety is of our own making . Women all of us are taught to put way too much stock in t he way we look , as if we 're some prized race horse or heifer whose vital stati stics define us and determine our value . But some of the anxiety is caused by s ocietal expectations . Young is beautiful , especially when it comes to women . Sean Connery can play 007 until he 's almost 60 , but the female objects of his desire don't age with him . They are still the nubile things of 20- or 30-someth ing that he always courted . Men can age and be just as appealing as they 've al ways been . It 's a lot harder for women . We strive to contain the cellulite , wash away the gray , tuck the tummy . Each birthday seems to be a call for actio n . I remember one friend whose birthday present one year to herself was liposuc tion . She felt it was the gift that kept on giving , because it restored her gi rlish figure without her having to do 200 sit-ups a night . Another friend I kno w disappeared for a week and returned with a face that was taut where it had beg un to sag . `` How do you like my face ? '' she asked me . `` I 've always liked your face , and I still do , '' I replied . There is something nice about age l ines , even about wrinkles . It 's sad that for so many women these are hated si gns of aging that translate in their minds into threats to their continued attra ctiveness and , therefore , to their value . Those wrinkles on the forehead are really frown lines caused by deep thinking . Surely , there 's nothing wrong wit h that . Those crinkles at the edges of their eyes are either the result of smil ing or of squinting because they are too vain to wear their glasses . Both are t he result of living . A lived-in face is a warm and comforting thing . This fixa tion some women have with aging and their appearance gets in the way of their en joying their progress through life . `` There 's no one more invisible than a mi ddle-aged woman , '' one friend said to me . It was fun to be an ingenue , but b eing 40-something has its value . Most days . I marvel at the things I 've learn ed between my 20s and my 40s , the people I 've known , the children I 've had , the jars of jam I 've canned , the stories I 've written , the places I 've bee n . Looked at that way , those decades are achievement badges , the only kind li fe hands out . I wouldn't want to go back . I know too much . Besides , there 's too much ahead to explore and experience . Still , I hedge my bets . I apply ey e cream faithfully , hoping it will minimize the circles under my eyes . I wash away some of that gray . Why not ? I figure I 'm still holding the high ground b ecause I refuse to lie about my age . Of course , my friend Holly , loyal pal th at she is , took me out for my birthday and solemnly toasted my 39th once again . And I have to admit it had a nice ring to it . This fall , some American women seeking an abortion will be offered their first alternative to surgery : RU-486 , the abortion drug widely used in Europe and C hina . The Population Council , a non-profit contraceptive research organization in New York , holds the American patent rights to the drug . It soon will selec t sites for clinical trials required by the Food and Drug Administration before the drug can be made available to the public . The Population Council expects ap proval in two years . RU-486 , manufactured by the French company Roussel Uclaf , is also used outside the United States as a contraceptive `` morning after '' pill which prevents a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus after unprote cted sex . This usage of the drug is being tested now at the University of Calif ornia , San Francisco . As an abortion drug , however , RU-486 will be tested in conjunction with a prostaglandin pill ; the RU-486 , given first , makes the em bryo detach from the uterus while the other stimulates the body to expel it . Th e treatment , given during the early weeks of pregnancy , is painful and usually takes two to three days . A woman visits a doctor several times over the course of treatment . The benefits of using RU-486 include avoiding surgery and anesth esia , permitting women to terminate pregnancy at an earlier stage and affording them greater privacy . It allows women to obtain an abortion from any physician who is trained in pregnancy and its complications rather than requiring them to travel to centers where surgical abortions are performed . Some women also beli eve this non-invasive method gives them greater control over their bodies . A su rgical abortion , on the other hand , takes less time , is slightly more effecti ve 99 percent compared to 97 percent and requires fewer office visits . In addit ion , women usually experience less cramping and notice a lighter blood flow tha n they do with RU-486 . The French manufacturer recommends women who are over ag e 35 , who are smokers and who have any other cardiovascular risks should not ta ke RU-486 . The Population Council will conduct its clinical tests on 2,000 wome n at as many as a dozen hospitals and clinics throughout the country . Women see king an abortion at these sites will be offered a choice of RU-486 in lieu of su rgery . Until this new treatment becomes more widely used , misconceptions may r emain . Dr. George Huggins , chairman of the department of obstetrics and gyneco logy at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center , one of the institutions applying to serve as a test site , recently considered some basic questions about the dru g . Q : What is RU-486 ? A : It 's a compound that blocks the functioning of the progesterone hormone . Progesterone is necessary for the maintenance of pregnan cy . Q : Why is more than one pill necessary to cause an abortion ? A : Prostagl andins cause the uterus to contract and expel the pregnancy . Most of the protoc ols today include giving prostaglandins one or two days after RU-486 . Q : Must women always take prostaglandins in addition to RU-486 ? A : If a woman just use s RU-486 , the percentage completing the pregnancy termination by themselves is somewhere between 65 and 85 percent . Q : How long does it take to expel the emb ryo after taking the prostaglandin pill ? A : Somewhere from six to 12 hours . Q : How far into a pregnancy can a woman use this method ? A : Up to 54 days from the first day of her last menstrual period . Q : What are the side effects ? A : There is a small incidence of prolonged bleeding of more than a day or so . Be cause of the prostaglandins , a fair number of women get nauseated , have diarrh ea and headaches while they are going through the abortion process . Q : What sh ould a woman expect to feel physically ? A : This is a medical abortion , not a heavy period . A woman will have significant cramping and significant bleeding . It 's painful enough so that , in one study , 37 percent of the women needed to take some kind of pain medication during the process . Q : How much will this m ethod cost ? A : I have no idea on cost yet . Q : What are the benefits of RU-48 6 over surgical abortion ? A : In some countries , surgical abortions are very e xpensive . In France and in England , the health system requires that abortions be performed in hospitals and that patients stay overnight . That makes this met hod much more convenient and less expensive . The major advantage to this method is in the developing world where many surgical abortions are not clean or are n ot done with good equipment or the skill of the provider might not be of very hi gh caliber . This will be significantly safer for those women . But that 's not true in the United States . Fortunately in the United States today , surgical te rmination of early pregnancy is a very safe procedure and has a very low complic ation rate . Some 90 percent of surgical abortions are done in outpatient facili ties and patients go home in a couple of hours . This new procedure is going to be more time-consuming for the patients than a surgical termination . From a sta ndpoint of cost and convenience , RU-486 is not going to have quite the same adv antages as it does elsewhere. .. . I think it 's going to be more complicated th an surgical termination . Q : Who do you anticipate will seek this treatment if it becomes available ? A : Most of the women seeking abortions in our ( Hopkins Bayview ) population are single . In the country , most of the women seeking abo rtions are married . We have no idea who this is going to appeal to or even whet her it will appeal to any specific segment of the population . Of Shostakovich 's harrowing symphonies , No. 8 may be the greatest . It used t o be classified as the composer 's response to the horrors of World War II . But the piece was written as the Germans fled the Red Army after their collapse at Stalingrad and it has been argued more recently by Ashkenazy , among others that the Eighth is more generally about the tragedy of life in a totalitarian system and is filled with fears about the future . Certainly , it is Ashkenazy 's favo rite among Shostakovich 's 15 symphonies , and this latest release ranks as one of the finest performances of the Eighth in modern sound . In fact , Ashkenazy ' s only genuine rival may be the great recording by his friend , Bernard Haitink , with the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam . The Russian-born conductor und erstands the context of this piece the brutally repressive realities of his home land under Stalin and his successors . And like Haitink , Ashkenazy is not intim idated by the structural complexities of the symphony , which begin with a gigan tic and wrenching 25-minute adagio , continue with two savage but very different scherzos and yet another painfully searching slow movement and conclude with a strange fifth movement allegretto , which nearly tears itself apart with raging crescendos only to end with exhausted and otherworldly resignation . Ashkenazy ' s approach eschews flash for architectural strength : He holds the huge opening movement together , sustaining its tension and building inexorably to its shatte ring climaxes . His interpretation of the pitiless third movement toccata , with its remorselessly repeated rhythmic figure , seems initially unexciting , but g rows exhilaratingly to screeching satirical heights . And his pacing of the fina l movement is masterly , suggesting the `` all passion spent '' of Milton 's tra gic `` Samson Agonistes '' at the symphony 's equivocal close . Choosing between this recording ( which includes two short , moving tributes to Russia 's war de ad as fillers ) and Haitink 's is difficult . The Dutch conductor 's great Amste rdam players make Ashkenazy 's Londoners sound almost like a bunch of ragamuffin s . But Shostakovich can take the rough and ready better than other composers . That is demonstrated by Bychkov 's recording of the Eighth with what may be the world 's greatest orchestra . The beautiful , polished-to-perfection playing of the Berliners is insufficient recompense for a first movement that is insufficie ntly sustained , a third movement marred by rhythmic mannerisms and a final one that fails to solve the riddle of the coda . The best available recording of thi s piece , however , remains the 1982 live performance ( Philips ) of what was th en the Leningrad ( and is now the St. Petersburg ) Philharmonic under Evgeny Mra vinsky , to whom the work was dedicated and who conducted its premiere . The sou nd , while not great , is good , and the performance has a ferocity and convicti on unmatched by any other save the same conductor 's long out-of-print , 1950s r ecording , once available as an LP on the MK label . That earlier performance wi ll probably resurface as a CD . And Shostakovich fanciers should be advised that another distinguished , older performance of the piece by Kurt Sanderling anoth er close associate of the composer is scheduled for re-release on the Berlin Cla ssics label . Not long ago , fax modems were exotic , expensive , cutting-edge technology . T oday they 're standard equipment on many home and small business PC packages . I n fact , it 's hard to find a modem today that doesn't have fax capabilities bui lt in . Unfortunately , many users who have fax modems ignore their fax capabili ties , passing up a handy , dual-purpose tool . Others buy fax modems thinking t hat at $ 100 to $ 200 , they 're cheap substitutes for an honest-to-goodness fax machine , which is not the case . Most fax modems today have two functions . Th ey can operate as standard modems for normal communications . They can run as fa st as 14,400 bits per second ( bps ) . That 's the equivalent of 1,440 text char acters a second , or enough to fill a computer screen in a second and a half . Y ou can still find cheap modems that offer standard communications at only 2,400 bps , but the cost of high-speed communication has come down so quickly that the increased performance is well worth the extra money . In addition to standard m odem innards , fax modems have chips that emulate the transmission and receive c ircuitry in standard fax machines . There 's a big difference between the two ty pes of communication , even if they 're packaged in the same modem case . Let 's say you 're collaborating on a report or book with someone in another city . If you 're using the same word processing software , you can use a standard modem to send the actual file you 're working on . Your correspondent can call up that document , make changes , and send it back . When you fax a document , all you 're sending is a picture , a collection of dots that means something to you beca use your brain is smart enough to turn them into words and numbers . But those d ots mean nothing to your word processor . Some high-end fax programs include opt ical character recognition software that can turn those dots back into usable te xt for your application programs , but the process is tedious and inaccurate at best . In facsimile mode , fax modems also differ from desktop fax machines in t he source of the images they send and the destination of the images they receive . A desktop fax machine actually has three parts . There 's a scanner , which c onverts documents into digital images ; a telephone and facsimile modem that tra nsmits and receives those images , and a printer that reproduces the image on pa per . No matter how much you pay for a fax machine , the basic technology inside is the same . That 's why different brands of fax machines can talk to one anot her without so much as a hiccup . Instead of scanning existing documents , fax m odems get their images from your computer . For IBM compatibles running older DO S programs , this presents some difficulty . Memory-resident DOS fax programs ch ew up memory , and because they lack font recognition technology , the output on the other end often looks as though it came from a cheap dot-matrix printer . F or PCs running Windows and for Apple Macintoshes , fax modems are far more usefu l . That 's because the fax software is installed as a printer driver - a progra m that tells the computer 's underlying software how to communicate with a print er . When you select the fax modem as your printer and print a document , your s oftware will typically pop up a screen asking you for the phone number of the re ceiving fax , or allow you to choose the number from a dialing directory . The p rogram will dial the number and send the document with no further intervention . But there 's a big difference at the other end ; in fact a document faxed direc tly will look like no other fax you 've ever seen . Your software essentially tr eats the receiving fax as a 200 dot-per-inch printer . While it 's not quite up to laser standards , your document will come out with its fonts , graphics and l ogos sharp and intact . By eliminating the middleman - the cheap scanners built into most fax machines - your fax modem delivers remarkable quality . This has m ade fax modems a favorite with travelers using laptop computers . If you need a printed copy of a report stored on your PC , all you have to do is fax yourself a copy at your hotel or business destination . Fax receiving software typically runs in the background , alerting you when faxes come in . The faxes can be stor ed on your disk , viewed on screen or printed . Some users like this because it saves trees . They can throw away junk faxes before they 're committed to paper . Fax modems generally come with basic software to make them work their magic , although more sophisticated fax programs provide more flexibility . Elementary f ax programs may let you do little more than set up a phone directory of fax numb ers , and that may be all you need . More sophisticated programs will automatica lly send the cover page of your choice , transmit a scanned signature at the end of your document and allow you to set up groups of phone numbers for mass fax b roadcasts . Now the downside . Not every document you 'll want to fax will be cr eated on your computer . You may want to send a copy of a report from another de partment , a magazine article , a drawing or diagram , or a copy of Aunt Rhoda ' s chocolate cake recipe . The only way to do this with your computer is to buy a full-page scanner at $ 700 to $ 1,500 and then master the scanning software . L ikewise , a fax modem is no substitute for a shared fax machine in an office env ironment where many people need to send and receive documents . And for those wh o receive faxes at odd hours , I question the wisdom of leaving a $ 2,000 comput er running around- the-clock to save the expense of a $ 300 fax machine . Even w ith these limitations , fax modems are good buys , particularly for owners of Ma cintoshes or PCs running Microsoft Windows . While they 're not complete substit utes for regular fax machines , they 're convenient for sending documents create d on your computer . You didn't work hard all your life just for the IRS to claim a big chunk of you r savings after you die . Instead , you want to make sure your estate will be di stributed to your heirs according to your wishes . That 's where trusts can help . But creating the right trust requires considerable planning and some tough de cision-making . Put bluntly , trust planning requires you to mentally kill off e very generation of your family , says Charles Groppe , a partner at the law firm of Putney , Twombly , Hall & Hirson in New York . The idea is to imagine who wo uld be the beneficiary of your estate in different scenarios , depending on who dies first . This macabre mental exercise can become especially complicated if y ou have been married more than once and have children from one or more of the ma rriages . Imagine that a husband wants to provide for his new wife after he dies , but he also wants to be sure his children from a first marriage receive some inheritance after she dies . If he bequeaths his estate to his second wife , he has no assurance she will include his children in her will . The solution , says Lisa Berger , author of a book about retirement planning called `` Feathering Y our Nest , '' is a Qualified Terminable Interest Property Trust , or QTIP . The husband sets up a trust so that after he dies , his wife will receive the income from the trust . He may even structure the trust so she has access to some of t he assets at the discretion of the trustee who runs it . But she has no direct c ontrol over the trust assets . After she dies , the remaining estate goes to the trust 's beneficiaries in this case , the man 's children by a first marriage . A word of warning : Depending on where you reside , you may not be able use a t rust to prevent your surviving spouse from taking part of your estate outright . Trusts also can be useful if a father is worried that his children will squande r their inheritance , or if he wants to specify how the inheritance can be used , such as for a college education . In that case , the father can set up a trust that will provide income for his children , but will be managed by a trustee ac cording to his wishes . Parents of a disabled child may want to create a trust t o be sure the child is adequately cared for after they die . If a trust is drawn up correctly , it can help shelter assets so that the child can continue to rec eive government aid . Karen Greenberg , a financial planner in Baldwin , N.Y. , who specializes in financial advice for parents of disabled children , says that a special needs trust , or Escher trust , is a means of ensuring the disabled p erson will qualify for government benefits , while still receiving income and pr incipal from the trust for other `` quality of life '' items . Trusts are also c ommonly used to reduce estate taxes . This is not usually an important considera tion unless you have an estate worth more than $ 600,000 the threshold for feder al estate taxes . That may sound like a lot of money . But by the time you add t ogether the current value of your home , your pension plan , 401 ( k ) plan , li fe insurance policy and other savings , you may have a much larger estate than y ou think . You are allowed to deduct certain expenses from this total before you arrive at the amount used for calculating federal estate tax . They include suc h things as funeral expenses , income taxes owed , and other bills that must be paid from the estate . Don't forget that in addition to federal estate taxes you may have to pay state estate taxes or inheritance taxes , or both . Five states have no inheritance tax on the recipient but instead levy taxes on the entire e state , Berger says . The state 's threshold may be lower than for federal tax . The good news is that the IRS and most states allow an unlimited marital deduct ion . That means no matter how large your estate , if you bequeath it to your sp ouse , there will be no estate tax . However , the tax bite comes after your spo use dies . Say for example , your estate is worth $ 1.2 million . You leave it a ll to your wife so there is no estate tax . When she dies , however , half of it will be tax exempt and the other half will be subject to estate tax . And that can add up to quite a bite . Groppe says that in New York , for instance , the c ombined federal and state estate tax on $ 600,000 is $ 240,000 . ( Begin optiona l trim ) In this scenario , there is a way to avoid getting hit with any taxes . It 's often referred to as a bypass trust or a credit shelter trust . And it ba sically works this way : When the husband dies , he leaves his wife $ 600,000 ou tright . And he puts $ 600,000 into a family trust that will provide income for his wife as long as she lives . When she dies , she bequeaths $ 600,000 tax-free to her heirs . And because the trust is a separate entity , it can be passed on tax-free to the designated beneficiaries . Be careful if you are considering by passing your children and giving your estate to your grandchildren , Groppe says . This may trigger an additional generation-skipping tax . The government impos es this tax because , in effect , you have deprived it of a generation 's worth of taxes . There is a $ 1 million exemption . But this is a complicated area of the tax law , requiring professional advice . ( End optional trim ) There are al so a variety of irrevocable trusts that can effectively shelter assets from esta te taxes . For example , there are irrevocable life insurance trusts . Some pare nts who don't want their children to have to sell property or the family busines s to pay for estate taxes set up insurance trusts . That way the policy can be p assed tax-free to the heirs , who then can use the cash to pay the estate tax bi ll . And there are charitable remainder trusts , which are one of the few tax sh elters left because they can reduce your income tax while you 're alive . The hi tch with an irrevocable trust is that once you create one , you can't change it . ( Optional add end ) Before you consult a lawyer or other professional about s etting up a trust , it 's a good idea to educate yourself . Learn more about the different kinds of trusts and carefully consider how they may fit your goals . Martin Censor , a lawyer and senior editor at Warren Gorham Lamont , a New York publishing company , says that most people could cut the amount of time spent wi th a lawyer and save up to 50 percent in professional fees if they prepare thems elves first . Finally , shop around for a good lawyer or financial adviser . Don 't be shy about interviewing several experts about their fees and services . And , as Berger notes in her book , `` Be suspicious of an attorney , financial pla nner or bank trust department that urges you to completely turn over the reins t o your estate by giving total power of attorney . '' Distributed by the Los Ange les Times-Washington Post News Service . In the national interest , President Clinton must find a way out of the trap he laid for himself in his executive order a year ago giving China one year to imp rove human rights in order to retain most favored nation ( that is , ordinary ) trading relations . China is the world 's emerging superpower . Removing MFN sta tus would mean raising tariffs about 40 percent , accepting retaliation , and nu llifying U.S. companies ' opportunities in the world 's greatest growth market , including oil exploration and construction . The issue is not about isolating C hina so much as isolating the United States . China is a boisterous economy of r egions out of control of central direction . But China 's central government is paranoid about disorder , having experienced the lunacy of China 's Cultural Rev olution of the 1960s . Hence the crackdown on dissidents from 1989 a crackdown t hat is unabated despite U.S. censure . China 's Premier Li Peng will not leap th rough hoops for the domestic agenda of Clinton . This , however , does not lesse n the need for the United States to engage China in dialogue , knit it into the world community , encourage free enterprise and free spirits . Exactly the oppos ite of what a trade war would do . There is much the U.S. president can say from his bully pulpit about human rights , both for imprisoned heroes of Tiananmen S quare and , more cogently , the culturally suppressed people of Tibet . Citizen groups like Human Rights Watch should not muffle their agitation . But pretendin g the U.S. government is a human rights referee who must be obeyed , or that tra de is a favor the U.S. bestows , is a fantasy this nation can no longer afford . Drawing away from still another example of untenable foreign-policy posturing w ill be awkward for Clinton . But he can make the point that under U.S. pressure China has halted exports made with prison labor and has eased barriers to emigra tion the two specific conditions set out in his executive order a year ago . He should reject a proposed half-way measure banning goods made by state-owned ente rprises , including those of the People 's Liberation Army . As Sun corresponden t Robert Benjamin has reported from Beijing , such a move would hurt the U.S. as much or more than China . State firms were the major buyers of $ 8.8 billion in U.S. export sales to China last year . It is counter-productive for the United States to engage in a gratuitous struggle of wills with a China whose cooperatio n is needed , for example , in dealing with the North Korean nuclear threat or i n stopping its missile sales to South Asia and the Middle East . If trade is to be an issue , let it concern Chinese pirating of U.S. patents and copyrights or opening Chinese markets to U.S. competition . What Clinton must come to terms wi th in his imminent executive order is that he is shaping policy for years to com e . The situation is far too important for play-acting about the internal affair s China , or for grandstanding that ignores real U.S. national interests . ACE VENTURA : PET DETECTIVE ( PG-13 ) . Every body movement and facial tic of J im Carrey ( of `` In Living Color '' fame ) is so broadly exaggerated here , he makes goofy Jim Varney look like stoic Charles Bronson by comparison . A movie r evolving around as manic a presence as Carrey 's sounds like it could be hell , but his starring debut proves surprisingly capable of provoking unexpected giggl e fits . The movie is uneven , but his cartoonish inhumanness is nearly heroic . BABYFEVER . `` For those who hear their clock ticking .... '' That would be the entire audience after two unrelenting hours of procreation talk . This filmic b aby shower from women 's best friend Henry Jaglom is so packed with improvising actresses ( there are dozens ) that it 's a remarkably compleatist documentary o n infant morality in the '90s . But it 's way too formless all the way to its di apers-ex-machina ending to count much as drama . Jaglom 's wife , Victoria Foyt , is good enough in the lead to be the rare auteur spouse you actually want to s ee more of in a movie . BACKBEAT ( R ) . Engaging , uneven movie about the early pre-Fab days of the Beatles when Stu Sutcliffe and Pete Best were in the group and Ringo wasn't . The film is basically about Stu 's connection to the group an d his vehement friendship with John Lennon . Stephen Dorff plays Stu , Ian Hart is excellent as Lennon . BAD GIRLS ( R ) . Even cowgirls get the guns . This Wes tern is shamelessly high concept but sometimes enjoyable anyway . Andie MacDowel l , Mary Stuart Masterson , Drew Barrymore and Madeleine Stowe play prostitutes who rampage with righteous fury while showing off the latest designer fashions f rom the Old West . Stowe is remarkable , as usual . BEING HUMAN ( PG-13 ) . Robi n Williams stars for writer-director Bill Forsyth ( `` Local Hero '' ) in a seri es of interwoven vignettes concerning a character who travels through history se arching for love , self-worth and fulfillment . John Turturro also stars . BELLE EPOQUE ( R ) . Fernando Trueba 's Oscar-winning film captures a sunny yet fleet ing moment in 1932 Spain , an interlude of unconscious freedom and joy as the mo narchy fades and the republic is born . The setting is a rural community dominat ed by the open-minded Don Manolo ( Fernando Fernan Gomez ) , whose four attracti ve daughters beguile a handsome young army deserter ( Juan Sanz ) . BEVERLY HILL S COP III ( R ) . Eddie Murphy 's back as Axel Foley . This time he 's lured to an amusement park with a criminal element . John Landis directs ; Judge Reinhold and Hector Elizondo co-star . BITTER MOON ( R ) . Roman Polanski 's carnal blac k comedy about an obsessively masochistic couple , Peter Coyote and Emmanuelle S eigner , and the British couple , Hugh Grant and Kristin Scott-Thomas , they dra goon on a luxury cruise . Laughable and watchable . BRAINSCAN ( R ) . Edward Fur long stars as a diffident teen-ager swept up in a virtual reality game in which a series of murders may actually be real . Scary , in a workmanlike way , but th e film doesn't live up to its full potential . With Frank Langella . CLEAN SLATE ( PG-13 ) . Dana Carvey plays a small-time gumshoe who suffers from a rare form of amnesia that makes each morning when he wakes a tabula rasa . Intermittently funny but flimsy . The premise far better than the execution . Barkley the wond er dog shares comic honors with Carvey . COPS AND ROBBERSONS ( PG ) . Michael Ri tchie 's slyly subversive family comedy in which Chevy Chase plays a suburbanite who thinks his big chance to be a hero occurs when crusty cop Jack Palance uses his tract house to stake out his villainous next door neighbor ( Robert Davi ) . Funny , inspired but with a tinge of sadness amid the laughter . With Dianne W iest as Chase 's too-perfect wife . CROOKLYN ( PG-13 ) . Though the story of an African American family in 1970s Brooklyn is based in part on director-cowriter Spike Lee 's own experience growing up , the film that resulted , despite some m oments of emotional connection , is more aimless than involving . Good performan ces by Alfre Woodard and Delroy Lindo don't really go anywhere . The Crow ( R ) . The only reason for a grown person to see this hyper-violent doom-and-gloom co mic strip adaptation is for the late Brandon Lee 's charismatic presence . As th e murdered rock guitarist who comes back to life for vengeance , Lee has a kinet ic power . His balletic rampages are like waking nightmares . Otherwise , this f ilm will probably be a hit with tortured male adolescents . D2 THE MIGHTY DUCKS ( PG ) . A disappointing , overly contrived sequel to the impressive and popular 1992 original . Once again an energetic Emilio Estevez is coaching his peewee i ce hockey team , but the first film 's clear concern for values gets badly muddl ed this time out . EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES ( R ) . Making Tom Robbins ' tren dy novel of virtuoso hitchhiker Sissy Hankshaw ( Uma Thurman ) and her oversized thumbs into a movie was a questionable idea at best , but combining writer-dire ctor Gus Van Sant 's deadpan aesthetic of boredom with Robbins ' flimsy jokiness proves to be a recipe for disaster . Only k.d. lang & Ben Mink 's fine score su rvives the wreckage . THE FAVOR ( R ) . Pleasant romantic comedy starring Harley Jane Kozak as a thirtysomething housewife who develops an itch for her high sch ool boy friend ( Ken Wahl ) as their 15th high school reunion approaches and who comes up with the cockamamie idea that her single , liberated best pal ( Elizab eth McGovern ) ought to scratch it for her . With Bill Pullman , Brad Pitt . THE FLINTSTONES ( PG ) . John Goodman dons a saber-toothed tiger suit as Fred , wit h Rick Moranis as neighbor Barney Rubble . When Fred gets a promotion at Slate & Co. quarry , things really change for that modern Stone Age family . Elizabeth Perkins , Rosie O' Donnell , Kyle MacLachlan , Halle Berry and Elizabeth Taylor co-star . Brian Levant directs . FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL ( R ) . A cheerful and witty bit of business that belies its no-nonsense title , the latest from di rector Mike Newell ( `` Enchanted April '' ) provides the kind of sly pleasure t ypical of British comedy at its best . Hugh Grant stars as a marriage-shy young man who keeps running into the very eligible Andie MacDowell at wedding after we dding . A tasty romp that garnishes its humor with style . HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERS EN 'S THUMBELINA ( G ) . Animators Don Bluth and Gary Goldman once again cast th eir spell so effectively that you don't have to be a child to be swept away into its magical Never-Never Land , where the diminutive Thumbelina hopes to find a Prince Charming her size . Traditional in style yet imaginative , with lyrics by Jack Feldman and Bruce Sussman and music by Barry Manilow . Adroit use of such familiar voices as those of Carol Channing , Charo and John Hurt . THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS ( R ) . A lumbering oaf of a movie that turns Isabel Allende 's best -selling novel of half a century of personal and political turmoil in South Amer ica into an extended sleeping pill . Not even the presence of a glittering cast , including Jeremy Irons , Meryl Streep and Glenn Close , can overcome Bille Aug ust 's misguided direction . THE HUDSUCKER PROXY ( PG ) . Those pristine perfect ionists the Coen brothers have done it again with a technically dazzling tribute to the films of the 1940s that is more than a little cold around the heart . Fi ne performances by Tim Robbins and Jennifer Jason Leigh and the best art directi on in the world can't break the frost . THE INKWELL ( R ) . Widely unveven secon d film from `` Straight Out of Brooklyn '' director Matty Rich , at once a heavy handed , way-over-the-top satire of the black bourgeoisie in the '70s and a tend er coming-of-age story . Set in an area of Martha 's Vineyard called the Inkwell , a black enclave since the turn of the century . Larenz Tate stars . JIMMY HOL LYWOOD ( R ) . This amusing look at the would-be actors of the world is a return to small-scale , shambling humor by writer-director Barry Levinson . Joe Pesci is clever and effective as Jimmy Alto , convinced that the break he needs is jus t this far away , but his engaging performance has to contend with a minimalist plot that grandly bypasses plausibility . LITTLE BUDDHA ( PG ) . Director Bernar do Bertolucci 's latest combines a modern story about Tibetan monks looking for their reincarnated master with an idealized travelogue on the life of the Buddha and comes up with the most elaborate and expensive After School Special ever . Well suited for children , but , luscious images notwithstanding , without enoug h nuance to captivate most adults . MAJOR LEAGUE II ( PG ) . The inevitable sequ el to the 1989 baseball hit is a so-so clobber comedy with a few funny moments , most from Bob Uecker as the play-by-play announcer of the laggard but pennant-b ound Cleveland Indians . Charlie Sheen , Dennis Haysbert , Tom Berenger and othe rs recap their roles from the first film . MAVERICK ( PG ) . High-priced crowd-p leaser that reaches for Feel Good and settles for Feel OK . Mel Gibson stars as Maverick , the spineless , jaunty gambler first seen in the ABC TV series , and he 's exhaustingly sporty . Jodie Foster and James Garner co-star . The flimsy f acetiousness of this comedy places it somewhere between `` Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid '' and `` The Apple Dumpling Gang . '' A MILLION TO JUAN ( PG ) . Paul Rodriguez stars in and directed this clunky sort-of comedy with socially co nscious overtones . A poor Mexican immigrant is mysteriously handed a check for a million dollars . Based on a Mark Twain story that was also the basis for a fi ne , neglected 1954 comedy starring Gregory Peck . MR . WRITE ( PG-13 ) . It 's really `` Mr . Wrong , '' a stale , labored romantic comedy about a nebbishy str uggling playwright ( Paul Reiser ) who falls for a beautiful woman ( Jessica Tuc k ) he meets while appearing in a candy commercial . With Martin Mull . MONKEY T ROUBLE ( PG ) . Harvey Keitel is the con artist who has taught a darling little simian how to excel as a pickpocket . Thora Birch later adopts the animal , and an wild adventure ensues when Keitel attempts to retrieve his former partner in crime . Mimi Rogers co-stars ; Franco Amurri directs . NAKED GUN 33 1/3 : THE FI NAL INSULT ( PG-13 ) . The third in the `` Naked Gun '' series is not as funny a s the first two but is still chock-filled with good gags . Leslie Nielsen 's Lt. Frank Drebin is retired but not for long . NIGHT OF THE DEMONS II ( R ) . Smart , sexy and amusing horror picture , which finds students at a posh Catholic coe d prep school surprised to find themselves caught up for real in a struggle betw een the forces of good and evil when they break into a spooky deserted old house on Halloween Eve . With Jennifer Rhodes , Amelia Kinkade . NO ESCAPE ( R ) . It 's 2022 and prisoners too tough for maximum security are airlifted to a peninsu la called Absalom and left to fend for themselves between warring jungle lords . Ray Liotta 's Marine Capt. John Robbins is the antihero convict who tries to su rvive in the jungle . It 's a no-brainer with some exciting action sequences and lots of grunting , decapitating and gougings . ON DEADLY GROUND ( R ) . Steven Seagal makes a lively if preachy directorial debut starring as an oil rigger who discovers his villainous employer ( a deliciously nasty Michael Caine ) is cutt ing corners to the extent of endangering the environment . Although one could wi sh Seagal had delivered his message with a less heavy hand , he is on target in his sentiments and quite possibly will be reaching audiences who never thought a bout the environment before . THE PAPER ( R ) . This Ron Howard-directed ensembl e piece about a day in the life of a bustling New York City tabloid newspaper an d its quirky staff can be awfully funny when it chooses to be , but too much of the time it is unwisely intent on showing the serious side of its characters ' l ives . A lot of energetic acting from its cast , especially Michael Keaton in th e lead , does help . ( Turan ) PCU ( PG-13 ) . The spoofing of campus politics i s haphazard and directed mainly at feminists in this anemic venture whose real p oint is to get down and party , but it comes across as a pale , passe carbon of `` Animal House '' that 's not half as much fun . With Chris Young , Jeremy Pive n , Jessica Walter . PHILADELPHIA ( PG-13 ) . Nothing is so fatal to effective d rama as the air of dogoodism that hangs over Hollywood 's first attempt to deal with the AIDS crisis . Tom Hanks plays a high-powered lawyer who feels he 's bee n fired because of the disease and Denzel Washington co-stars as the initially h omophobic attorney who takes his case . Not intended to be subtle , with the goo d and bad guys clearly labeled , this is mainstream socially conscious filmmakin g that is not worried about sacrificing nuance to make its points . THE PIANO ( R ) . Using Holly Hunter and Harvey Keitel in ways never seen before , writer-di rector Jane Campion has given a sweepingly romantic 19th century tale an almost avant-garde edge . Telling the story of Ada , a mute arranged bride who comes to primitive 1852 New Zealand with her piano and powerfully affects the lives of K eitel and Sam Neill , Campion shows herself to have a command of the visual and the emotional that is fearless and profound . Winner of two prizes at Cannes , a nd deservedly so . Won Academy Awards for original screenplay ( Campion ) , actr ess ( Hunter ) and supporting actress ( Anna Paquin ) . REALITY BITES ( PG-13 ) . The most appealing film yet about the nameless post-collegiate generation , th is romantic comedy starring Winona Ryder , Ethan Hawke and Ben Stiller ( who mak es his directing debut ) is cheerful , edgy and alive . A traditional triangle d etailing the rivalry for one woman 's affection , it is turned by Helen Childres s ' clever and clear-eyed script and Stiller 's direction into a natural and ass ured piece of business . SCHINDLER 'S LIST ( R ) . A most unlikely director , St even Spielberg , tells the quietly devastating story of the most unlikely of Hol ocaust heroes , Oskar Schindler , a convivial sensualist , gambler and war profi teer who rescued 1,100 Jews and ended up the only Nazi Party member to be buried in Jerusalem 's Mount Zion cemetary . Put together with care , emotion and , mo st importantly , restraint , this is as good a fiction film on the Holocaust as we are likely to get . SERIAL MOM ( R ) . John Waters ' latest black comedy is o ne of his best . Kathleen Turner plays a spic-and-span housewife who is actually an avenging mom . It 's her best comic role since the neglected `` The Man With Two Brains . '' SIRENS ( R ) . Silly , sexy romp about a stuffy reverend and hi s wife who go on a religious mission to the mountain retreat of a pagan painter and get taken in by the free-floating sensuality . Closer to the Playboy Channel than D.H. Lawrence , and probably the better for it . Hugh Grant and Sam Neill star , also Elle MacPherson , in the buff . SURVIVING THE GAME ( R ) . A small g roup of hunters track human prey ( in the form of Ice-T ) in the Pacific Northwe st . What they 'll painfully learn is that their quarry will fashion his street smarts into an effective method of retribution . Rutger Hauer and F. Murray Abra ham star ; Ernest Dickerson directs . THAT 'S ENTERTAINMENT ! III ( G ) . A show y tribute to that most glorious and most indisputably extinct of Hollywood genre s , the glossy MGM musical . Though the introductions by aging stars leans too h eavily on canned banalities , the clips , especially behind-the-scene footage an d numbers cut from original productions , are lively and invigorating . 3 NINJAS KICK BACK ( PG ) . Lively and imaginative sequel to the 1992 original . This ti me a Japanese American grandfather ( Victor Wong ) finds he 's competing with th e growing lure of basebell as he continues to instill his three grandsons with t he skills and virtues of martial arts , which nevertheless pay off when they 're all caught up in an adventure that takes them to Japan . THREESOME ( R ) . Obno xious comedy about three college roommates played by Lara Flynn Boyle , Josh Cha rles and Stephen Baldwin who learn all about role-playing and sexual preference while carrying on like overheated banshees . It 's sitcom stuff with a carnal ov erlay . TRADING MOM ( PG ) . Writer-director Tia Brelis makes a delightful featu re debut in bringing her mother 's novel `` The Mommy Market '' to the screen . It 's a fantasy about three children who unexpectedly get their wish to exchange their harried single mother ( Sissy Spacek ) for a model of their own choice . WHEN A MAN LOVES A WOMAN ( R ) . Meg Ryan and Andry Garcia star as a modern coup le , as much in trouble as they are in love , coping with the effects of her pro blem drinking . Though both actors work hard and do affecting jobs , the film 's overall artificiality , the way it piles on woe upon woe , detracts from the ho nesty of their performances . WHITE FANG 2 : MYTH OF THE WHITE WOLF ( PG ) . Tha t half-wolf , half-dog supercanine is back with a new master ( Scott Bairstow ) in a less-than-riveting , stultifyingly politically correct adventure involving a starving Native American tribe . WIDOW 'S PEAK ( PG ) . Lovely piffle set in I reland in the early '20s and starring Natasha Richardson , Joan Plowright and Mi a Farrow , all in fine form . Scripted by Hugh Leonard and directed by John Irvi n , it 's a whodunit trussed up as a domestic comedy . WITH HONORS ( PG-13 ) . B rendan Fraser plays a Harvard student who reluctantly befriends a homeless man p layed by Joe Pesci . Too many drippy life lessons , but Fraser and Pesci have so me rapport and the college scenes are at least more believable than the ones in `` Threesome . '' YOU SO CRAZY ( NC-17 ) . Comic Martin Lawrence may be in-your- face raunchy and scatological , an enthusiastic detailer of all kinds of sexual situations , but this fluid and funny performance film shows he is also a sure c omic presence , an adept social commentator and a promoter of values that can on ly be called mainstream . WASHINGTON For a vision of Yuppie Hell , consider some retirement figures that arrived in the mail the other day . They show what happens to a nest egg of $ 50 0,000 after 11 years : It disappears . In other words , if you retire at age 62 , this rather sizable nest egg runs out eight years before the actuarial die . T his predicament reminded me of a terrifying short story by Somerset Maugham call ed `` The Lotus Eater . '' I 'll get back to the figures and what you can do abo ut them shortly , but first the plot of the story : Thomas Wilson is a London ba nk manager , a widower who has worked hard since he was 17 . He saves his money and decides in 1898 , at the age of 35 , that he will retire to the idyllic Ital ian island of Capri . But he has only enough funds to purchase a 25-year annuity an investment contract that guarantees him an income for a fixed period and the n runs out . At that point , Wilson would be 60 . What then ? Considering the pr ospect , Wilson tells the narrator : `` Don't you think after 25 years of perfec t happiness one ought to be satisfied to call it a day ? '' In other words , if he 's not dead at 60 , Wilson plans to kill himself . But when the time comes , his will fails . `` It was difficult to know what to do with him . He had no mon ey and no means of getting any . '' So he survives in wretched poverty , living in a woodshed , wandering the hills , bumming food . He dies at 66 . This is a p retty nasty little story , and certainly a modern-day Thomas Wilson would have w elfare or Social Security to fall back on . But the truth is that to retire comf ortably takes a much larger chunk of money than most people realize . Back to th e retirement figures . The Smith Barney Shearson Consulting Group , which compil ed them , made these assumptions : A couple wants to have $ 80,000 a year in inc ome money not just for necessities , but for travel and for funding the grandchi ldren 's college education . Retiring at 62 , the husband , the main earner , dr aws a fixed $ 20,000-a-year company pension . The couple also receives about $ 1 0,000 in Social Security benefits , adjusted annually for inflation . The Consul ting Group assumes that inflation runs at 4 percent a year , so the couple needs $ 82,400 in the second year to have $ 80,000 in purchasing power . The final as sumption is that the nest egg 's investments will earn 7 percent a year after ta xes . Now , you can argue with some of these assumptions . Perhaps you don't nee d $ 80,000 . Perhaps you can earn more than 7 percent a year . But then again , perhaps you don't have $ 20,000 coming in from a pension or other sources . What makes the numbers especially daunting for baby boomers is this : The nest egg c omprises $ 500,000 in today 's dollars . If you 're 44 years old and plan to ret ire at 62-and if inflation runs at 4 percent for the next 18 years-then what you will need when you 're ready to retire in 2012 is not $ 500,000 , but $ 1 milli on ! In 2012 , it will take one million bucks to buy you those measly 11 years o f Lotus Land at an annual purchasing power ( in today 's dollars ) of $ 80,000 . After that , it 's the Thomas Wilson routine . Actually , $ 1 million is a good number to shoot for . If you can cut your needs down to $ 40,000 instead of $ 8 0,000 , then you 'll avoid the fate of Maugham 's hero and eke out a retirement until you reach your actuarial reckoning . But how to get to a million ? The bes t answer is to start early . Say you want to retire at 62 . If you can manage to sock away $ 5,000 a year in a tax-deferred account that produces a 10 percent r eturn , you 'll have your million dollars-as long as you start when you 're 31 . But if you wait until you 're 41 to begin , you 'll have only $ 300,000 . And i f you start at age 51 , you 'll have less than $ 100,000 . Also , if you begin e arly , you will be able to devote a higher proportion of your portfolio to stock s , which produce a better return than bonds and money market funds but which ca rry more risk . While time is the greatest engine of investment growth , tax-def erral runs a close second . Critics of our current system believe that one reaso n the United States has such a low savings rate less than 5 percent , compared w ith 15 percent for Japan and 13 percent for Germany is that we penalize savers w ith taxes . It 's true that the nation would be well served if we brought back t he tax-deductibility of contributions to individual retirement accounts . But , even in their current form , IRAs provide a great way to shield your money from taxes as it accumulates . For example , T. Rowe Price Associates calculates that if you invest $ 2,000 a year in a taxable account that earns 9 percent a year , you 'll have $ 183,000 after 30 years . But in a tax-deferred account , you 'll accumulate $ 297,000 before taxes and $ 231,000 after taxes . ( Both scenarios assume a 28 percent tax bite . ) Even more interesting is how the IRA helps you while you 're distributing the proceeds during your retirement . Using the above example and assuming you live to be 90 , the IRA will provide you with $ 19,200 in after-tax income a year for 25 years while the taxable account will provide you with just $ 13,250 annually . That 's the good news . The bad news is that $ 19,200 willn't be a whole lot of money 60 years from now . And there 's more ba d news . A survey by Merrill Lynch & Co. last year found baby boomers saving at about one-third the rate required for a secure retirement . And then there are t hese sage words , written by Laurence Kotlikoff , a Boston University economics professor and an expert on savings : `` Compared with their parents , baby boome rs can expect to . . rely less on inheritances , receive less help from children , experience slower real wage growth , face higher taxes and replace a smaller fraction of their pre-retirement earnings with Social Security retirement benefi ts . `` Unless baby boomers change their saving habits and change them quickly , they may experience much higher rates of poverty in their old age than those cu rrently observed among U.S. elderly . '' You don't want to end up like Thomas Wi lson , do you ? So start saving . The rankings for hard-cover books sold in Southern California , as reported by selected book stores : FICTION 1 . THE CELESTINE PROPHESY , by James Redfield . 2 . INCA GOLD , by Clive Cussler . 3 . THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW , by Allan Folsom . 4 . THE ALIENIST , by Caleb Carr . 5 . `` K '' IS FOR KILLER , by Sue Grafton . 6 . REMEMBER ME , by Mary Higgins Clark . 7 . ACCIDENT , by Danielle Steel . 8 . LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE , by Laura Esquivel . 9 . FIST OF GOD , by Frederick Forsyth . 10 . THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY , by Robert James Waller . NONFICT ION : 1 . EMBRACED , BY THE LIGHT , by Betty J. Eadie . 2 . MEN ARE FROM MARS : Women Are From Venus , by John Gray , Ph.D. . 3 . IN THE KITCHEN WITH ROSIE , by Rosie Daley . 4 . STANDING FIRM , by Dan Quayle . 5 . BEYOND PEACE , by Richard Nixon . 6 . MAGIC EYE II , by N.E. . Thing Enterprises . 7 . MAGIC EYE I , by N .E. . Thing Enterprises . 8 . BOOK OF VIRTUES : A Treasury of the World 's Great Moral Stories , by William J. Bennett . 9 . REBA : My Story , by Reba McEntire with Tom Carter . 10 . COMPROMISED : Clinton , Bush & the CIA , by Terry Reed . NEW YORK The Clinton administration and financial regulators are unsure how bes t to rein in the risky Wall Street trading instruments called financial derivati ves , according to high-level sources familiar with discussions on the subject . As a result , regulators are likely to tinker with a few small fixes without ma king sweeping reforms . What consensus has emerged is largely to jury-rig the ex isting structure . The modest list includes better risk monitoring , more public disclosure and more complete examination of dealers . `` I am afraid we need a financial crisis before Washington moves on this , '' said one source . `` There is enormous opposition from Wall Street . '' Some White House officials worry t hat the $ 12 trillion market in derivatives poses a threat to the financial syst em and the U.S. economy and want comprehensive controls placed on their trading . Other senior policy makers are less sure of the risks and more concerned that tighter regulation would push the booming business in derivatives offshore witho ut significantly reducing the threats to U.S. markets . Given the split , major regulation , such as requiring big players to pony up more money if they want to be active derivatives traders , are longer-term options , the sources said . At present , securities firms and insurance companies that have set up businesses to deal in derivatives get no regulatory scrutiny ; banks that trade derivatives are more closely watched , primarily by the Federal Reserve and the Office of t he Comptroller of the Currency ( OCC ) . Congress ' appetite for a legislative s olution is not yet widely shared within the administration or the regulatory wor ld , sources say , largely because they fear that Congress will go too far . `` Our primary hesitation , '' said Darcy Bradbury , deputy assistant Treasury secr etary for federal finance , `` is that we have not yet exhausted our current reg ulatory authority . We may need legislation down the road , but it is a bit prem ature . '' Financial derivatives , so named because their values derive from suc h underlying securities as stocks , bonds , foreign exchange and commodities , h ave become central to the global financial markets . They are increasingly used by Wall Street and large U.S. corporations seeking to make big , highly leverage d bets or to hedge unwanted risks . U.S. banks and securities firms are the indu stry leaders and derive huge profits from the business . But some U.S. banks , b rokerages , speculators , mutual funds and industrial companies have taken deriv ative-related losses as interest rates changed direction in recent months . The General Accounting Office , Congress ' investigative arm , issued a report on de rivatives last week that spotted `` regulatory gaps '' and called for aggressive reforms , some of which would require legislation . This week , the House subco mmittee on Energy and Commerce chaired by Rep. Edward J. Markey , D-Mass. , hear s from Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan , comptroller of the currency Eugene Ludwig a nd Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt Jr. . Markey wants legislation to bring securities firms and insurance companies that deal in deriv atives under the same , albeit spotty , regulatory scrutiny that U.S. banks get . Their derivatives affiliates are now unregulated . Frank Newman , undersecreta ry for domestic finance , said the administration 's interagency working group o n financial markets is assessing the extent of the risks tied to derivatives . ` ` We are not waiting around , but we are still in the process of determining how much risk to the financial system there is , '' he said . `` Our concern is tha t something might go wrong and turn a moderate problem into a bigger problem thr ough the global interconnection of modern financial instruments like derivatives . We need to know more about that systemic risk , '' a process he expects to ta ke months . In the meantime , a consensus has emerged on the reforms likely to t ake place : Buyers and sellers of derivatives will be forced to account for thes e instruments in ways that accurately reflect the risks they entail . Levitt has made it clear to the Financial Accounting Standards Board , a private group tha t is charged with determining acceptable accounting procedures , that it soon mu st set new standards for accounting for derivatives in financial reports . FASB has been studying the issue for more than five years . Public disclosure must ge t a lot better . Companies and Wall Street firms that buy or sell derivatives di sclose next to nothing about the guts of their derivatives activities , the risk s they represent or how they manage the positions . Both the Fed and the OCC rec ently have given out stricter guidelines for examiners and banks that require th e reporting of the terms and conditions of derivative positions . The SEC also h as begun to query many publicly traded companies on their stakes in this high-st akes game . Levitt has said , `` Disclosure and accounting are my highest priori ties . '' Major dealers and users of derivatives will be required to monitor and limit their risks more . That means more money spent on independent audits and computer systems and more attention paid by top executives and directors . Banki ng regulators already have pushed commercial banks to do this . The SEC has yet to ask securities firms to make the same commitment , but sources say it will . In addition , the interagency working group is considering a proposal to `` subj ect dealers to more stringent stress tests , '' according to one source . In a s tress test , a derivatives dealer uses computer models to see how much money he could lose if the financial markets fall , interest rates rise or if other deale rs and customers renege on their obligations to pay . Dealers will be examined c arefully to make sure that they do not sell risky derivatives to unsophisticated customers . And mutual funds that use derivatives to evade fund investment rest rictions will be examined by regulators to see whether they are fulfilling their fiduciary duties to shareholders . Off the agenda for now are new rules requiri ng that they keep more money in reserve to cushion losses in the event of a stee p drop in the financial markets . The SEC is in the early stages of reviewing ou t-of-date rules on how much cash securities firms active in derivatives must hav e to ensure their survival in a crisis . `` Capital standards must relate to a f irm 's ability to withstand market volatility , shocks , '' said a senior govern ment official . Higher capital standards for banks have been the subject of inte rnational regulatory discussion for years , but no decisions have been made . U. S. banking regulators are unlikely to act alone . `` The question is , do we wan t to encourage the taking of derivative positions with very little money down ? '' said a source . `` What does that mean for people 's staying power in a panic ? '' NEW YORK Hedge fund partner Christopher Ramon Castroviejo is a man with trading in his blood , who doesn't see why Washington bureaucrats should fret so much a bout derivatives the complex financial instruments that are his livelihood . Cas troviejo , 44 , the managing partner of the small Parallax Partners firm , uses derivatives to bet on the rise and fall in various financial indexes , and that kind of trading has begun to draw the attention of government regulators and leg islators . Traders like Castroviejo often operate on very thin margins-putting u p very little money with the chance of making huge profits . But in some cases l ately the losses from such deals have been great , and government officials wond er if the rules permitting such gambles should be changed . Castroviejo , whose grandfather became famous for betting that the stock market was going to fall in 1929 and 1930 , does not think so . The tale of one of his derivatives deals in early February , in which he made $ 188,432.78 , provides an example of what he means , and why he thinks derivatives are a splendid and relatively safe way of keeping the economy going by injecting money into the markets . It was quite ea rly the morning of Feb. 2 that he left his cozy East Side Manhattan house and hi s faithful Norwich terrier , Uptick . When he reached his Park Avenue office , h e discovered that one of his favorite market indexes was just where he wanted it . The Financial Times Stock Exchange index ( FTSE , usually pronounced `` foots ie '' ) , a measure of 100 British stocks , had been sliding leisurely upward to a point where Castroviejo , who specializes in such things , thought it was abo ut to change direction . What should he do ? The chart of the FTSE 's movement a nd other data compiled by Castroviejo 's quantitative analyst , a young Venezuel an mathematics wizard named Luis Sanchez , indicated the index was exhausted and unlikely to go much higher . Castroviejo wanted to bet that it would fall , and Merrill Lynch & Co. was offering him an option that would allow him to see if h e was right , and on terms too good to pass up . For just $ 157,487 Castroviejo could buy a put option contract valued at $ 7.5 million , essentially putting up only 2.1 percent of the total in hopes that the market would turn just enough i n the desired downward direction that he could sell and make a profit . The fart her the index sank , the more money he would make . He has been managing his own fund for little more than a year and has kept much of the money in money market accounts and other secure investments to establish a track record for caution . This worked particularly well in the first quarter of this year , when the sudd enly volatile stock and bond markets forced losses on other managers while Castr oviejo 's fund stayed in the black , if barely . Investing has been a passion si nce he was 6 years old and heard his grandfather , Bernard E. Smith , discuss a purchase of 10,000 shares . The boy thought the financier had ordered 10,000 cha irs , and wondered out loud how they would all fit even in that huge house . Smi th had been born poor in the Hell 's Kitchen section of New York but began to wo rk in brokerage firms and organize bear pools to bet on stock market declines . His nickname was `` Sell ' Em Ben , '' based on his legendary advice to `` Sell 'em all ! They 're not worth anything ! '' as stocks collapsed in 1929 . Castrov iejo got only Bs in economics at Harvard . His fondness for the untrammeled mark etplace seemed to distress professors who admired the Soviet Union and other man aged economies . But he did well on Wall Street and now finds each day , either up or down , a joy . `` It 's astounding to me that supposedly grown men are pai d to do this , '' Castroviejo said . `` It 's wonderful . '' In the FTSE deal , his instincts proved correct . The index began to descend and five days later he pulled out with a 119.65 percent return on his cash investment . With mounting dismay he then watched as the FTSE continued to go down , and down , and down so me more . `` If I had just left it alone I hate to think what I would have made , '' Castroviejo said . Still , he said , `` I like to sleep at night . '' And h e cannot see how any federal bureaucrat would think he was doing any harm . Deri vative contracts , Castroviejo said , do well . In mortgage-backed securities , he said , they `` remove the risk from the commercial bank so a homeowner will b e paying 1 to 1.5 percent less on his mortgage . '' Among derivative traders , ` ` there will always be the occasional bozo who screws himself up , '' Castroviej o said , but overall the instruments draw much more money into the markets . The more money is there , he said , betting both sides of the wager , the more like ly are markets to be healthy and liquid and stable . `` There is plenty of money to be made in this game without being a cowboy , '' he said . WASHINGTON In the post-Cold War era , there is room for disagreement about what America 's foreign policy should be as we chart our way through unexplored wate rs . But the criticisms gaining popularity among some commentators that Presiden t Clinton has betrayed his foreign policy commitments not only skew this debate but also are flat wrong . As the foreign policy aide with Bill Clinton in Little Rock during the campaign and transition , I know what candidate Clinton said an d what he did not say . It was Bill Clinton who repeatedly pushed me and his oth er advisers to reject promises he could not keep or that would be inconsistent w ith sound long-term policies . Let 's examine the record : Bosnia : In July 1992 , candidate Clinton called for tightening and enforcing the sanctions , taking steps to charge the Milosevic regime with crimes against humanity and having the United States take the lead in seeking U.N. . Security Council authorization fo r air strikes against those attacking the relief effort , with the United States lending `` appropriate military support . '' In subsequent statements , he also stated that he thought lifting the arms embargo against Bosnia should be debate d and that the United States should not permit ground troops to become involved in the quaqmire . All these statements are now administration policy . More prog ress must be made . But American leadership has made a difference in enforcing t he sanctions and no-fly zones , sustaining the longest airlift in history , prot ecting U.N. forces with NATO air power , pressing for a war crimes tribunal and concluding the Muslim-Croat agreement . Somalia : President-elect Clinton suppor ted President Bush 's decision to send 25,000 troops to Somalia . We were there longer and the costs were far higher than predicted . But President Clinton brou ght the last of these troops home on March 31 . Their mission saved countless li ves and gave the Somali people a chance at peace . Haiti : Candidate Clinton sha rply criticized the Bush administration 's policy of returning Haitians `` witho ut a fair hearing for political asylum . '' When the president-elect was present ed with reports of an impending massive exodus of Haitians , he called for a tem porary extension of that policy , coupled with a determined effort to work hard for President Aristide 's return . He also took steps that led to a tenfold incr ease in the processing and approving of refugee applicants at centers inside Hai ti . President-elect Clinton said he would change that policy `` when I am fully confident I can do so in a way that does not contribute to a humanitarian trage dy . '' On May 8 , 1994 , following reports of increased human rights abuses in Haiti , President Clinton established a process that affords all migrants a chan ce to make their case for asylum , while this country continues to interdict Hai tian migrants at sea . China : Candidate Clinton criticized President Bush for u nconditionally renewing MFN and said the Chinese government should make `` concr ete and significant progress in the areas of human rights , trade and nonprolife ration in order to maintain its beneficial trade status . '' Last year , Preside nt Clinton issued an executive order conditioning MFN on significant , overall p rogress in human rights by the Chinese government , resolving a bitter dispute w ith Congress and setting forth reasonable steps the Chinese must take to maintai n MFN . We have also pressed China separately and vigorously on nonproliferation and trade issues . Middle East : Having pledged in his campaign to ensure the U nited States serves as a catalyst and an honest broker in building peace in the Mideast , President Clinton has made that goal a high priority . The results are impressive . Not only have two mortal enemies shaken hands on the South Lawn of the White House but also the parties are implementing peace in Gaza and Jericho . Russia : Candidate Clinton , on April 1 , 1992 , urged President Bush to lend support to the reform efforts of President Yeltsin . Since taking office , Pres ident Clinton has worked tirelessly in support of our vital national security in terests in Russia and successfully mobilized a historic $ 4.1 billion in aid in support of democracy and reform . Trade : Candidate Clinton , despite strong opp osition within his own party , endorsed NAFTA and promised to address its defici encies , notably in the areas of environment , labor and import surges . As pres ident , he spearheaded the successful against-the-odds drive to enact NAFTA and achieved the necessary side agreements . President Clinton also followed through on his campaign commitment to `` strongly support free , fair , open and expand ing trade , including the GATT negotiations . '' A historic GATT agreement was c ompleted after seven years of negotiations . Arms Control : Candidate Clinton pl edged to strengthen the International Atomic Energy Agency , the Nuclear Nonprol iferation Treaty and the Missile Technology Control Regime and take the lead in negotiating a comprehensive test ban treaty through a phased approach . All thos e promises have been kept . In the end , the president 's record should be judge d in terms of whether he has strengthened the three pillars of our post-Cold War foreign policy : promoting democracy , economic prosperity and strong defense a dapted to the new security environment . He is meeting that test . WASHINGTON In `` Beverly Hills Cop III , '' Eddie Murphy the man with the Cinem aScope grin once again mugs , jives and drives his way through the 90210 zone of boutiques , babes and bad guys . With screenwriter Steven E . ( `` 48 Hrs. '' ) de Souza at the word processor and John ( `` Trading Places '' ) Landis in the director 's chair , Murphy is clearly in familiar company as they all embark on his goofy vanity project . But de Souza 's script in which Axel Foley ( Murphy ) searches a California amusement park to find the man who killed his police chie f ( Gil Hill ) is an uninspired , long-winded we-know-whodunit . Although Landis ' comic routines provide occasional relief , they 're tired reprises from previ ous `` Cop '' films . And as Foley reunites with his unbearably gushy friends , L.A. cop Billy Rosewood ( Judge Reinhold ) and mop-topped Serge ( Bronson Pincho t ) , the humor becomes as fatigued as that other dismal Murphy sequel , `` Anot her 48 Hrs . '' `` Beverly Hills Cop III '' is rated R for language and violence . It 's hardly surprising that Bernardo Bertolucci a man undaunted by the risky , the intellectual and the spectacular would make a film about the Buddha . What is surprising is the beguiling , unpretentious result : `` Little Buddha , '' a modern fable about a Seattle boy believed to be a reincarnated Buddhist teacher , endears the audience to the Tibetan doctrine with a glowing , almost Disneyesq ue panache . Photographed gorgeously by cinematographer Vittorio Storaro , `` Li ttle Buddha '' is graced with sweet-natured lamas , stunning sights from the Him alayas and in the wackiest bit of casting since George Burns played God Keanu Re eves as the Buddha . Few will believe this without seeing for themselves , but R eeves is rather charming in the role . Bertolucci intermixes high art with child like wonder , blatant special effects with tacit spirituality . The movie , whic h also stars Bridget Fonda and Chris Isaak , may initially seem superficial and commercially pandering , like something Steven Spielberg would have conceived . But it is remarkably devoid of cloying sentimentality . As someone once said abo ut the films of Max Ophuls , `` Little Buddha '' is only superficially superfici al . In Seattle , schoolteacher Lisa Konrad ( Fonda ) is visited at her home by a grinning , befrocked group of lamas . The leader , Lama Norbu ( Ying Ruocheng ) , who has journeyed all the way from Bhutan , informs Konrad that her 9-year-o ld son Jesse ( Alex Wiesendanger ) may be the reincarnated spirit of Lama Dorje , the Tibetan priest 's teacher . Lisa listens to Norbu with indulgent interest , but remains dubious . Her architect husband , Dean ( Isaak ) , is even more sk eptical . But little Jesse takes to the idea with chirpy enthusiasm . He becomes a regular fixture at the Tibetans ' local center . When Norbu gives him a bedti me picture book about Buddha , the boy is spellbound . As Jesse learns about the life of Prince Siddhartha , the founder of Buddhism , the movie flits back 2,50 0 years to mythical India . In a stirring fusion of past and present , `` Little Buddha '' relates Buddha 's evolution from spoiled prince to serene being and-i n the 20th century-details Norbu 's quest to authenticate Jesse 's potential lin k to Lama Dorje . It turns out that there are two other candidates ( in Asia ) f or the teacher 's reincarnation , requiring Jesse to travel to Bhutan . The chil d 's fate is furthered when Dean whose business partner suffers an untimely deat h finds himself suddenly responsive to matters of the afterlife . While Lisa rem ains reluctantly in Seattle , father and son embark on an unforgettable spiritua l journey . Rather than delve into the elusive depths of Buddhism , scriptwriter s Mark Peploe and Rudy Wurlitzer ( adapting an original story by Bertolucci ) ch art a paper-boat voyage over its surface . `` Little Buddha '' succeeds precisel y because of its guileless innocence : It even begins with the words `` Once upo n a time ... '' as Lama Norbu tells a goat fable to his monastic students . Stor aro , possibly the world 's greatest cinematographer , bathes the modern and anc ient Buddhist scenes in burnished reds and golds . In America , he all but freez es Seattle in beautiful but icy blues . The divide between East and West couldn' t be visually clearer . Bertolucci , who completes what he has dubbed his `` Ori ental trilogy '' here ( with `` The Last Emperor '' and `` The Sheltering Sky '' ) , is hardly subtle about this duality . America 's empty , cold materialism i s pitted against the warm splendor of Buddhism in a no-contest bout . To this en d , Bertolucci has directed Fonda and Isaak to give the most lobotomized perform ances of their careers . But this bias is a minor shortcoming , especially in li ght of Bertolucci 's multiple embrace of the American child who comes of age , t he Western father who experiences his own minor revelations , the monks who reso lve their compelling mystery and , of course , the great spiritual leader himsel f . `` Little Buddha '' is rated PG . WASHINGTON Capitol Hill , a political beehive already swarming with reporters , is about to become a two-newspaper community . New York publisher Jerry Finkels tein , whose company owns the National Law Journal and more than 20 community pa pers in the New York area , is launching a weekly newspaper devoted to covering Congress . He has tapped veteran Hill reporter Martin Tolchin , who is retiring from the New York Times after 40 years , as publisher and editor . The still-nam eless publication , scheduled to debut in September , will mount a frontal assau lt on Roll Call , the twice-weekly paper that has been required reading on the H ill since 1955 . `` We 're going to try to be a little more substantive and a li ttle more stylish than Roll Call , '' Tolchin says . `` We 'll try to be wittier , more audacious , and we 'll try to have a soul , which I don't think Roll Cal l does . '' Roll Call , which was purchased last year by the Economist of London , says it isn't worried about the competition . `` We have a unique niche : We cover Congress as an institution , '' says Editor Stacy Mason . `` We cover the people , the politics , the neighborhood , the police department , the post offi ce , and that 's why we 're able to break stories like the House Bank scandal . '' Finkelstein , 78 , is a Democratic Party activist whose son , Andrew Stein , was New York City Council president . Finkelstein consulted with his old public relations partner , Times columnist William Safire , about the Hill venture . `` He asked me who I thought would be a great editor , and the first thought that leaped to mind was Marty Tolchin , '' Safire says . Tolchin , 65 , who has won t he Everett Dirksen Award for congressional reporting , plans to hire 24 mostly y oung reporters and emphasize investigative reporting . Big newspapers , he says , `` tend to do the stories du jour-welfare reform , health care . But there 's a whole lot that goes on there that is absolutely , totally uncovered . There ar e a zillion things happening up there . '' Tolchin noted that Rep. Gary Ackerman , D-N.Y. , is a major stockholder in the firm , News Communications Inc. , but says Finkelstein has promised him `` full editorial control . '' Capitol Hill is increasingly seen as an advertising bonanza as more companies and lobbying grou ps try to influence lawmakers and their staffs . Roll Call , which gives away mo re than two-thirds of its 15,000 copies , urges advertisers to `` send your mess age to Congress in Roll Call . '' Finkelstein says his firm is investing several million dollars . `` You never know in business , but my instincts are usually right . I think it 's an untapped market , '' he says . But , he adds , `` I don 't know Washington at all . It 's Marty 's show . '' Robert Merry , Congressiona l Quarterly 's executive editor , is more skeptical : `` It 's a marvelous littl e market , as Roll Call has proved , but I have to wonder whether the market is big enough for two players . '' -0- Time magazine is getting into the daily news business for the first time in 60 years . The magazine , which is now available through America Online , will feed eight to 12 news stories and a stock market summary to the computerized service each evening . Time 's existing staff will r eport and write the updates , which begin this week . Time spokesman Robert Pond iscio says an average of 60,000 to 70,000 people are downloading Time but that m ost check in only once a week . `` This is a way to bring readership up the rest of the week and get in on the ground floor of the new technology , '' he says . The New York Times has discovered that it 's hard to be hip . Styles of the Tim es , the paper 's two-year-old attempt to plug into the youth culture , is losin g its separate Sunday perch and will be folded inside the Metro section . This w ill bring Styles both production savings and later deadlines , but means the sec tion front can no longer be printed in color . Styles , which has been through f our editors in its brief existence , has struggled to find an identity while exp loring the world of downtown parties , haute fashion and pop culture . Conscious ly pitched to twentysomething readers , its features have ranged from `` The Arm Fetish '' to Barney the dinosaur , from Hugh Hefner to John McEnroe 's SoHo gal lery . `` Baysie Wightman is a woman in search of hip feet , '' a Styles story b egan Sunday . `` She often finds them in the clubs of New York , Tokyo and Londo n , in the rock-and-roll bars of Seattle and Portland .. . . ' ' `` It just neve r jelled , '' says James Ledbetter , the Village Voice media columnist . `` The Times never knew what it wanted out of the section . Some of the things it cover ed homosexual lifestyles , street culture made people at the top of the corporat ion uncomfortable . '' `` We remain committed to presenting lifestyle news , whi ch has a very loyal following , '' Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. said in a sta tement . An editor in the Styles section said the staff was `` under orders '' t o refer all calls to the PR department . Spokeswoman Nancy Nielsen says such fea tures as `` The Night , '' `` Thing '' and `` Surfacing '' will be dropped . She says production costs are `` the overriding factor '' in downgrading Styles , a nd denies that the paper has failed at being hip . `` I know a lot of hip people who read the Times , '' she says . BRUSSELS , Belgium Russia proposed Wednesday beginning broad talks with NATO on a wide range of issues , from nuclear proliferation to the environment beyond i ts latest decision to join the Partnership for Peace program . The plan , unveil ed at a NATO-sponsored meeting by Russian Defense Minister Pavel S. Grachev , ap peared to be aimed partly at domestic consumption , to show hard-liners at home that Russia is still holding its own in dealing with the West . Grachev did not make his proposal a condition for Russia joining the Partnership for Peace progr am , which was set up by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization five months ago to provide an opportunity for closer links with former East Bloc countries . The Russians , who submitted their preliminary application for the program Tuesday , still are expected to join formally as early as June , at a meeting of NATO fo reign ministers scheduled to be held in Istanbul , Turkey . Even so , the Wester n response to Grachev was lukewarm at best . Although the NATO defense ministers seemed relieved that Russia had not set conditions for its entry into the progr am , they seemed cool to the notion of broader talks . U.S. . Defense Secretary William J. Perry , when asked about the plan at a news conference later , said o nly that what Grachev was proposing was `` set up along different parameters '' than the Partnership for Peace program . He declined to comment on the substance of the request . Western officials said they still are not sure just how NATO w ould respond to the proposal . Besides proliferation and the environment , Grach ev listed defense conversion and disarmament as possible topics in any broader t alks . Wednesday 's session marked the first time that the NATO defense minister s and their counterparts from those countries in the Partnership for Peace progr am have met as a group . So far , 18 governments , representing east European an d ex-Soviet countries , have signed up . Russia , assuming that it acts on its i ntention to join next month , would be the 19th . Perry , noting that for most o f its existence NATO had been devoted to defending the West against the now-defu nct Warsaw Pact , called Tuesday 's session `` a major step in removing the divi ding line between East and West . '' Although Russia submitted its initial `` pr otocol '' Tuesday , Western defense ministers seemed encouraged that Grachev him self attended the entire Brussels meeting . The group later went to Mons , Belgi um , to tour a new Partnership for Peace center . Until this week , Western offi cials had feared that Russia might seek some sort of special status as a conditi on for joining the program leading to worries among some east Europeans that it was trying to dominate the group . But Grachev made it clear Wednesday that Mosc ow would not press such demands as a condition for membership in the program . ` ` We are not setting any preconditions for joining , '' he told reporters . He a lso announced that as part of its new role in the Partnership for Peace program , Russia would be willing to join NATO forces in a wide variety of operations , from peacekeeping duties to joint military exercises . ( Optional add end ) In t hat connection , the United States and Russia announced Tuesday that they will g o ahead with previous plans to hold joint military exercises this summer , despi te indications earlier that they might be canceled . In outlining his proposal f or broader consultations between Russia and NATO , Grachev argued that existing talks are proving inadequate for the job , and that Russia and the West need a n ew vehicle for widening their current agenda . While praising the Partnership fo r Peace program as a `` first step '' in bringing the two sides closer , he said it was `` not the complete answer to the reality of the new epoch . '' `` Russi a is prepared for the creation of a real and full strategic partnership with NAT O , '' Grachev declared . He called his plan `` a practical step on the road to the formation of a system of collective security . '' Although Grachev 's propos al for broader talks was not likely to upset existing Western diplomatic machine ry , analysts said it has the potential to turn NATO into a political forum well beyond its historic role as a military alliance . WASHINGTON Pretend for a moment that Michael Dukakis took off for Zurich three days after he lost the '88 election . Suppose he announced he was going to becom e a Swiss citizen . Imagine further Dukakis saying the policies of the newly ele cted George Bush disgusted him , and that other nations should impose sanctions against the United States . Improbable as such a scenario might sound , it never theless strongly resembles the behavior of Mario Vargas Llosa . The novelist ran for the presidency of Peru in 1990 as a reluctant savior , the outsider who wou ld rescue the country from terrorism , bankruptcy and despair . `` I thought you could do politics differently , '' he says . But politics proved inflexible , a nd nasty to boot . Vargas Llosa was viewed as too rich , too white and too eliti st in a country where the electorate is overwhelmingly poor and dark . `` I was a complete failure , '' confesses the writer , who won only a third of the vote . `` The election culminated in a new dictatorship in Peru . It 's grotesque . ' ' Vargas Llosa is now in exile . He spent the spring teaching at Georgetown Univ ersity here , trying to show students that literature is `` intimately related t o life . '' It 's certainly true in his case . Rarely do literature and life bec ome so closely interwoven . Vargas Llosa 's novels and journalism brought him to the brink of the presidency , but probably prevented him from winning it . In a sense , literature betrayed him . Novels may explain and reflect and enhance li fe , but ultimately they 're much simpler to control especially if you 're the o ne writing them . The real world , on the other hand , fights back . Now that he 's learned his lesson , Vargas Llosa doesn't want to be president of Peru anymo re . Sometimes it seems he doesn't even want to be Peruvian . `` I may return to Peru , I may not , '' he says . `` But not in the immediate future , that 's fo r sure . '' Not , in other words , while Alberto Fujimori professor turned presi dent turned strongman wields dictatorial control . In the meantime , Vargas Llos a is campaigning for a cutoff of all forms of foreign aid except humanitarian , saying rights abuses in Peru demand drastic action . This has cost him some of h is remaining friends in the country . Others were dismayed when he asked Spain l ast year for dual citizenship , a step he says he was forced to take after haras sment and threats by the Peruvian military . Says the novelist : `` I don't know if I 'm the most hated person in Peru . I think Fujimori 's more hated than mys elf . '' His wife , Patricia , isn't so sure . `` I 'd have to see the polls , ' ' she says with a laugh . In his autobiography , just issued here as `` A Fish i n the Water , '' the writer admits : `` Perhaps saying that I love my country is not true . I often loathe it . '' -0- The youngest of the so-called `` Boom '' writers to emerge from Latin America into international prominence during the '6 0s , Vargas Llosa , now 58 , is one of the few to reject the fantastical style o f magic realism . His masterpiece , the 1981 epic `` The War of the End of the W orld '' based on a 19th-century uprising in northern Brazil is as solidly built as anything by Stendhal or Tolstoy , the masters with which it deserves comparis on . Nearly all his other fiction is set in Peru . `` Aunt Julia and the Scriptw riter '' is a marvelous comic tale of a young man married to his aunt ( at 19 , Vargas Llosa wed 32-year-old Julia Urquidi , his uncle 's wife 's sister . They were divorced nine years later ) . These books and many others , plus countless articles , were written during a period of self-imposed exile that began in 1958 , when the writer received a scholarship to study in Madrid , and lasted for mo st of the next three decades . But if exile , as Paredes Castro says , is a defi ning characteristic of the greatest Peruvian intellectuals , it doesn't fit into the basic resume of politicians in Peru or anywhere else . Compounding his trou bles as a candidate was his political identity . Just as he 's one of the few re alists among Latin American writers , he 's also one of the few who are not left ists . To his enemies , this usually gets translated into : He 's not a democrat . `` If you 're a Latin American writer , '' Vargas Llosa complains , `` you 'r e immediately labeled . If you 're not a revolutionary , you 're a reactionary . '' Ronald Wright , a Canadian who has written extensively about Peru , is one o f Vargas Llosa 's most caustic critics . `` He either was running as an ego trip , or he was trying to gain material to write about . '' Wright cites an anti-Va rgas Llosa slogan he saw emblazoned on a wall during the campaign : `` Peru is n ot a novel . '' Even the writer 's wife has questioned his intentions . She once told her husband he was drawn to the presidency less for idealistic reasons tha n by the prospect of `` writing the great novel in real life . '' There you have it : isolated by his artistic temperament , alienated from the left , full of t he sort of despair and yearning for his country that politicians learn never to express , and criticized for impure motives . The surprise isn't his failure to be elected ; it 's that he got , in the end , 34 percent of the vote . Fujimori instituted financial reforms , but in April 1992 he closed the Congress and the courts and suspended the constitution . The fact that these actions have been ge nerally popular hasn't changed Vargas Llosa 's mind . His basic argument : Destr oying democracy in order to improve the welfare of the people is a horrible idea . `` What is happening now in Peru is that you have economic reforms , which ar e good , and at the same time you have monstrous crimes , terrible abuses in hum an rights , '' he says , specifically referring to the abduction of nine student s and a teacher in July 1992 . Suspected of being collaborators with the Shining Path terrorists , all 10 were shot in the back of the head , their bodies throw n into an unmarked grave . Anne Manuel , acting director of Human Rights Watch/A mericas , confirms that `` the situation in Peru after Fujimori 's self-imposed coup has worsened dramatically . Hundreds of people are being accused of terrori sm and imprisoned for life based on little or no evidence . '' `` Torture withou t inflation ? That 's what we want for Latin America ? Human rights crimes with open markets ? We have the right to demand from Latin America the same standards that the United States expects from its own society and its own politicians . ' ' Maybe , for his sake , it 's better he lost . He 's told that everyone intervi ewed for this story , no matter how withering his opinion of Vargas Llosa person ally or politically , said he was a great novelist . A delighted laugh . `` A gr eat novelist ! This is already something , you know ? '' WASHINGTON Mario Vargas Llosa , who has been Distinguished Writer in Residence at Georgetown University this past semester , and his wife Patricia rented a fur nished town house on the edge of the university . Besides some books , the only personal touch is some family photos . There 's a particularly charming snap of the couple and their three children : Gonzalo , who works with the United Nation s in Pakistan ; Alvaro , Op-Ed page editor for the Miami Herald 's Spanish-langu age edition ; and Morgana , a student at the London School of Economics . No suc h happy photos exist of Vargas Llosa 's own childhood . His just-released autobi ography `` A Fish in the Water '' reveals that underneath his suave air was a ha rdscrabble , semi-desperate youth . His father , Ernesto Vargas , abandoned his wife , Dora , when she was five months pregnant with the boy . For the first 11 years of Mario 's life he believed his father was dead . Later , when the couple reunited , he merely wished it . Sometimes Ernesto beat his wife ; every so oft en he beat his son . The paradox is , if Ernesto hadn't been so opposed to his s on 's literary vocation writing was something homosexuals did ; besides , how co uld you make a living at it ? Mario wouldn't have persevered . `` He sent me to a military school because he thought that was a good antidote against literature , and he gave me through this experience the raw material for my first novel wh ich was so successful I was able to become a writer . '' After that , when it ca me to his own children , he knew just what to do . `` I renounced any kind of au thority with them , '' he says blandly . `` My wife took total control . She was the authoritarian , so they love me ! I was the most stupidly passive father in history , so terrified was I that they could feel about their father the way I feel about mine . '' WASHINGTON Right now , Mary Chapin Carpenter 's favorite song is one nobody has written yet . `` Off the Road Again . '' After `` 18 months of being out there all the time touring , '' Carpenter is taking serious time off for the first tim e in five years . Actually , when her tour ended in November , she was just goin g to hibernate through the winter and stir awake in the spring . But in January Carpenter decided `` no more in '94 . '' `` I feel like I 'm just starting to ge t used to it , '' she said last week over coffee at an Alexandria , Va. , cafe . `` Now it 's great to call a friend on a Saturday night and be able to go out a nd have dinner , as opposed to ` Well , I have to work tonight .. . and I 'm acr oss the country. ' ' ' Carpenter seems to have reacted to her success with a lev el head . For instance , wearing jeans and a sweat shirt , Carpenter still looks more the down-to-earth singer-songwriter than the star whose latest album , `` Come On Come On , '' has sold 2.2 million copies and produced seven hit singles , including the No. 1 country hit `` He Thinks He 'll Keep Her . '' `` That noti on of people changing is imposed on you by other people , '' scoffs Carpenter , though she concedes that `` there 's elements of my life that have changed , and obligations . '' For one thing , she now lives in Northern Virginia , convenien t to National Airport . Carpenter , who recently set a record with three consecu tive Grammys as top female country vocalist , did just buy a house in Nashville `` I was going down so much and hotel stuff was getting kind of old , '' she say s . `` It 's an experiment like a second home so it 's not like I 'm just workin g down there but this is where I live . I feel like I have the best of both worl ds . '' Carpenter 's producer and longtime musical partner , John Jennings , has moved down to Nashville full time . `` There 's just so many things you can do when you 're touring , '' Carpenter explains . `` This is the year to do a lot o f things I haven't been able to do . '' Right now , she 's keeping mum on detail s . Meanwhile , Carpenter 's new single is titled `` I Take My Chances . '' Of t he seven singles from `` Come On Come On , '' have gone Top 10 and two Top 5 . T his is astounding , since the album has been out 97 weeks and remains in the Top 100 . `` It 's got great shelf life ! '' says Carpenter , as much with amazemen t as pleasure . As for the album 's double-platinum status rare in country , eve n rarer among women artists Carpenter can only say : `` Unbelievable . '' Provin g that time off is not a synonym for vacation , Carpenter will soon start on her new album , due out at the end of September . It will feature all originals , r eflecting some of her `` free time . '' Only one song is old `` Stones in the Ro ad , '' which Joan Baez cut for her last album after hearing Carpenter 's studio recording . At the request of Columbia Records , citing confusion , Carpenter a greed to separate Mary and Chapin , hyphenated all her 36 years . `` But they ha ve visiting rights , '' says their surname . `` God bless people who don't proof read . I know they 'll get back together again . '' Carpenter concedes , though , that the punctuation has been `` the bane of my existence . One writer in Ohio wasn't sure , and put hyphens between all three names . And when your own recor d company doesn't know what the deal is , you know you 're in trouble ! '' WASHINGTON Firms that tap into an estimated $ 105 billion a year in fees for co unseling federal workers on retirement planning , sensitivity training or estima ting the costs of proposed regulations might have a tougher time getting work un der a bill introduced Wednesday . Del . Eleanor Holmes Norton , D-D.C. , propose d legislation that would shed light on what she calls the `` shadow government ' ' of contractors and make it tougher for agencies to disguise costs by replacing civil service with consultants . It is the sort of thing that will unnerve Belt way Bandits the disparaging nickname for corporations , think tanks , experts an d mom-and-pop consulting practices . The firms are often founded or staffed by f ormer feds . Consultants include the proverbial smooth-talking expert who borrow s your watch and charges you $ 50 to tell you the time and specialized groups th at provide complex and necessary data at a lower cost and with less political sp in than the government . The General Accounting Office recently said about half the contracts it studied could have been done better or at less cost by federal employees . Consultants can save taxpayers a bundle by rounding up experts to do quick , accurate studies without creating a permanent bureaucracy that qualifie s for benefits and lifetime pensions . But they also can be costly by marketing services that aren't vital to the national interest or that indulge the pet proj ect , peeve or fantasy of a division chief or political appointee who may have a brother-in-law contractor or who may be looking for future employment . Norton says contractors are often invisible and unsupervised . Last week she proposed c utting $ 1.9 billion from such personal service contracts . The savings would fu nd full national and locality raises next January for white-collar federal worke rs . President Clinton has proposed a 1.6 percent raise , although government da ta indicates workers are due an across-the-board 2.6 percent national increase p lus locality adjustments that could range from 2 percent to 4 percent depending on hometown private salaries . Norton 's new bills would bar agencies from contr acting out work performed by employees given buyouts to quit or retire and would set up guidelines that agencies must use to justify retaining outside contracto rs . It would also assure an accurate headcount on contractors with its annual r eporting to Congress . If the latter becomes law , some agency is certain to hir e a contractor to count its contractors . -0- The Federal Retirement Thrift Inve stment Board says Tuesday 's Federal Diary item about the tax-deferred thrift sa vings plan underestimated the number of participants . About 75 percent of the e mployees in the new Federal Employees Retirement System and 44 percent of those under the old Civil Service Retirement System are contributing to the savings pl an . But all FERS employees , whether or not they contribute , have accounts tha nks to an automatic employer contribution of 1 percent of pay . The savings plan is now worth more than $ 22 billion , and the average CSRS contributors account is $ 10,092 . The average FERS contributors ' account is $ 15,043 , and the ave rage account for noncontributing FERS employees is $ 1,679 . Retirees cannot joi n the savings plan or contribute to it . But workers who have accounts when they retire can remain in the savings plan subject to age rules set by the IRS . BRUSSELS , Beligum Russian Defense Minister Pavel Grachev called Wednesday for the creation of a `` full-blooded strategic relationship '' between his country and the Western military alliance that was formed to contain its territorial amb itions . During a meeting with his counterparts from 16 NATO nations and Russia 's former Warsaw Pact allies in Eastern Europe , Grachev reiterated Moscow 's re adiness to join , with no conditions attached , the NATO program to enhance mili tary cooperation with its former enemies that is known as the Partnership for Pe ace . But Grachev emphasized that the partnership was `` not a complete answer , but only a first step '' toward dealing with the post-Cold War security environ ment in Europe . He said Russia 's status as Europe 's biggest nuclear power req uires a broader `` consultative mechanism '' with NATO that would encompass disa rmament , conversion of defense industries and global threats such as terrorism , nuclear proliferation and environmental pollution . While expressing some caut ion about Russia 's ambitions to create a special relationship with the Western alliance , NATO ministers warmly welcomed Moscow 's willingness to join the part nership program after months of ambivalent and contradictory statements . U.S. . Defense Secretary William J. Perry praised the `` historic nature '' of the mee ting with his Russian counterpart and said `` we are very pleased that he announ ced the unconditional decision for joining Partnership for Peace . '' But severa l NATO officials were less enthusiastic about Grachev 's proposal to expand the relationship into areas not covered under the terms of the military partnership . One alliance official said Grachev appeared to be proposing that Russia become a virtual member of NATO , something that would not be acceptable to most membe r nations . Before the session , senior NATO officials said they feared Grachev would make unacceptable political demands that would scuttle hopes for a Russian role in the partnership . But they said he gave everyone `` a pleasant surprise '' by producing a lengthy document that included a long list of projects , incl uding joint efforts at peacekeeping , technical training , military field exerci ses and strategic planning . `` It 's looking very good , '' said British Defens e Minister Malcolm Rifkind . `` Russia clearly wants to play a constructive role working with NATO on matters of common interest . But there will be no right fo r Russia to take part in NATO 's decision making . '' Germany 's Volker Ruehe sa id `` we are definitely on the right track . Parternship for Peace is a common p osition for everybody , but beyond that there is scope for a partnership between Russia and NATO . But it still needs to be worked out . '' The Russian defense minister gave no indication when his country would join the program , which was formally launched by NATO leaders in January as a way to satisfy demands from Ea st European countries for a closer security relationship with the West without f ully incorporating them into the alliance . A total of 18 countries from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union have now signed up for the program . Grachev insisted that Russia is not seeking `` a warmer place in the sun '' than NATO ' s other partners to the east , but merely a relationship `` adequate to its weig ht '' as a nuclear superpower with territory stretching from Europe to the Pacif ic Ocean . `` Russia has an interest in wider forms of cooperation than envisage d in this program , '' Grachev said . `` What we suggest is not to limit the sph ere of partnership , but to enrich it with cooperation between Russia and NATO , not only in military areas but on other important issues . '' In calling for a new strategic relationship with the Western alliance , Grachev noted that many R ussians still fear the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as a hostile military alliance that treated Russia as an enemy . He said such `` bloc-oriented percept ions '' must be surmounted by enhanced cooperation or they would eventually trig ger a new arms race in Europe . In spelling out Russia 's new military doctrine , Grachev made clear to the Western ministers that Moscow still envisions the pa rtnership chiefly as a stepping stone to a new `` collective security system in Europe . '' He said Russia still regards the 53-nation Conference on Security an d Cooperation in Europe as the basis for this system , in which NATO would play a subordinate role . Grachev acknowledged that Russia wants to strengthen the Co mmonwealth of Independent States , the loose confederation of republics that cam e into being after the breakup of the Soviet Union . He said Russia 's military presence in some republics known as its `` near abroad '' should be seen in term s of `` peacekeeping objectives '' that pose no security threat to its neighbors . In response , Perry said any regional peacekeeping role should be carried out through a U.N. mandate and that `` Russia 's role should be kept compatible '' with goals approved by the U.N. . Security Council . NON-FICTION `` A VALLEY IN ITALY : The Many Seasons of a Villa in Umbria , '' b y Lisa St. Aubin De Teran ( HarperCollins : $ 21 , 224 pp . ) One of the grand d ifficulties accompanying books about people who find the perfect fixer-upper vil la in some gorgeous , flavorful but not too remote part of the world is that you must hate them with all your heart . The other , more interesting problem is : How they fit into the culture they invade and admire ? What do they give back ? Are their observations evidence that they travel with their own culture and expe rience keeping them afloat and apart like water wings ? Or are they porous and d ignified in their differentness ? Having heaped so many caveats on these obnoxio us pilgrims , let me now say that Lisa St. Aubin de Teran gets it right . Sure , she 's a bit of a poseur , `` instructed in the art of buying houses by Ted Hug hes , our Poet Laureate , who explained to me that first I should find the house I wanted and then I should buy it , and only later worry about how to pay for i t , '' and in our American culture delusions of grandeur , visions of loggias an d balustrades and cantilevered thises and thats can be off-putting . You 're sup posed to know your place and what you can afford and keep your ego in check . Li sa St. Aubin de Teran takes her two children ; 6-year-boy Allie , and 15-year-ol d future super-model `` the child Iseult '' with her to set up house in the Vill a Orsola in the little village of San Orsela in the Umbrian hills . Her Scottish painter husband comes later . She has patience and imagination and a wonderful sense of humor . She has a kind of courage and equanimity , and her observations of her own cast of characters is gracious and generous and respectful . After v isiting this long with her , it was hard to leave a compliment to any hostess ( or writer ) . `` VOICE LESSONS : On Becoming A Woman Writer , '' by Nancy Mairs ( Beacon , $ 15 , 166 pp . ) Where would we be without Nancy Mairs , vigilant ch ronicler of a woman 's life , a writer 's life ? We 'd be stuck trying to conver t the five hundred pounds a year Virginia Woolf told us we 'd need to write into billable hours , like immoral lawyers calculating backward , that 's where . It has been said already that she is fearless , can write about anything : depress ion , sex , adultery , religion and now , now writing ( in true life order of de gree of risk ) . Which means that these essays look more to the the stories writ ers write ( in particular , Virginia Woolf , Montaigne , and Hele ne Cixous , am ong others ) , the text , than they do to immediate life experience , as in Mair s ' other books . `` What has interested me particularly , '' she writes , `` is the crucial role that learning to decipher texts both my own experiences and th e works of other writers has played in my writerly evolution . '' Often asked , `` How did you find your voice ? '' Mairs responds : `` In the beginning was the Word . Not me . And the question , properly phrased , should be asked of my voi ce : How did you find ( devise , invent , contrive ) your Nancy ? '' This may se em rhetorical , out of context , but it relieves an enormous burden to find one 's voice , as distinct from others ' and from the experience of others ; a voice with some critical authority and a great deal of distance from real-life suffer ing a quest Mairs believes is uniquely male in nature . Having grown up believin g that men could fill emptiness in women , for a long time Mairs wrote , she tel ls us , `` out of yearning . '' Filling voids with men is replaced , as she grow s older and more confident ( with the help of other women , writers and friends ) , by filling voids with ideas , bringing the same ardor to this yearning as to the first : `` I could feel them in my flesh , quickening my breath , itching m y fingers. .. . ' ' As always , Mairs ' revelations and transformations will tra nslate more easily for some readers than others , but her resolve and her abilit y to turn a once haphazard path into a clear evolution ( her own ) is an inspira tion . `` This is the body , '' she writes , `` who works here . '' `` BALSAMROO T : A Memoir , '' by Mary Clearman Blew ( Viking , $ 20.95 , 212 pp . ) Mary Cle arman Blew , author of `` All But the Waltz , '' and two short story collections , is on many people 's best Western writing short list . Born and raised in Mon tana , much of her writing ferrets out the Montana history and landscape in her own life experiences ; characters from her youth and ancestry are analyzed for t he choices they made with an eye to the choices she 's making . In this book she ponders her relationship to a quickly aging and newly dependent aunt , as well as an estranged and angry daughter . Efforts to honor the family code : `` Never speak aloud of what you feel deeply , '' make these urgent tasks somewhat diffi cult and a little frustrating for the reader . When you feel the urge to do grou p therapy , it 's time to focus on the fine writing ; on the plant and animal li fe in the book ; on the wonderful terse evocation of her maiden aunt 's one love affair . `` THE COAST OF SUMMER : Sailing New England Waters From Shelter Islan d to Cape Cod , '' by Anthony Bailey ( HarperCollins , $ 23 , 368 pp . ) Unlike the other fantasies on this page , journeys backward , forwards and sideways , v arying in expense and imagination , this is one that remains fairly well cloiste red from reality . Sailing yachts along the coast of New England for entire summ ers is not something you can recommend to people in an offhanded way . It seems even more difficult than moving your family to a village in Umbria . But it 's a culture , with a language , and the nostalgia is somewhat contagious , even if the yearning is downright unproductive . Don't let me burst your bubble , let 's let the author , in this comment about class on Fisher 's Island ( affectionate ly known as `` Fishers '' ) do it himself : `` the local class structure is evid ent in physiognomy , I decide ( perhaps quite unjustly ) . '' The very need for the parenthetical should clue you in . `` Messing about in boats '' needn't be s o exclusive . FICTION `` Simple Prayers , '' by Michael Golding , Warner Books , $ 17.95 , 304 pp . ) This delightful , exotic fable , part `` Tempest '' and pa rt `` Decameron '' is so lavish , so dirt-rich and so colorful its like a meal i n the open air , laid out on brocade , under the pine and cypress looking out at the ocean . Part of what gives the writing its infallible charm is the fact tha t every fifth word is Italian , some names of places or food , some just sprinkl ed generously over the meal . This may annoy some people but that would be churl ish . `` Terra del Pozzo di Luna , campanili , mezzogiorno , Riva di Pignoli '' are hardly words to shut a reader out . The characters , all living side by side with their daily miracles and potions and transfigurations , are , for the most part , lovable gnomes and gargoyles ( the only really malicious character is th e black death ) . Things start going wrong on the little island in the Venice la goon , Riva di Pignoli , like objects tossed around before a storm , like the ru mbling before an earthquake . This is a world in which climate and weather are a ffected by the passions and disappointments of individuals , all of which are th reatened by the approaching plague . Their prayers may be simple , but the cacop hony of their daily lives is fascinating . WASHINGTON President Clinton 's health plan gained a second toehold in its clim b toward the House floor Wednesday , as a House Education and Labor subcommittee approved a modified version on a 17-to-10 party-line vote . `` This is the pres ident 's second win in a row , '' said a jubilant Rep. Pat Williams , D-Mont. , chairman of the labor-management subcommittee , noting that a Clinton-like bill also won approval in a House Ways and Means subcommittee a month ago . The Educa tion and Labor subcommittee bill incorporates several key elements of President Clinton 's plan : universal insurance coverage , allowing people to continue pur chasing private health insurance , a guaranteed choice of health plans , benefit s provided through the workplace , and cost controls . But the Williams subcommi tee has a far-larger liberal Democratic majority than most other committees and Congress as a whole , and the president 's bill is expected to experience toughe r sledding in the future . Senior subcommittee Republican Marge Roukema , R-N.J. , said the Williams plan was unacceptable because of its heavy reliance on fede ral controls and the high cost of the benefits added on by the committee . In on e of the most dramatic moments in the month-long drafting process , Williams ' s ubcommittee voted to retain Clinton 's requirement that health insurers pay for abortions . Then , over several days , the committee added preventive health ben efits , mental health , adult dental care , new cancer screening and rural healt h benefits to Clinton 's proposal . Williams said the net cost of the subcommitt ee 's added provisions would be $ 6 billion a year . Some of the added costs wou ld come from increasing subsidies to small firms that otherwise would face diffi culty buying health insurance for their workers . The subcommittee lacks jurisdi ction over taxes , and therefore , many of the toughest issues in health reform were not addressed . Under the Williams bill , employers would have to pay 80 pe rcent of the cost of insurance premiums for their workers . However , small busi ness groups are fiercely opposed to this so-called `` employer mandate , '' and the subcommittee voted to limit the premium for small firms . Employers with few er than 25 workers and average wages of less than $ 12,000 a year would be requi red to pay 2 percent of their payroll costs toward insurance for their workers , rather than the 3.5 percent proposed by Clinton . A firm paying the minimum wag e of $ 4.25 an hour , Williams said , would have added expenses of 8.5 cents an hour . Other small firms would also be helped by `` caps '' on their premium pay ments . Federal subsidies would help cover the rest of premium costs . The bill includes insurance reform . Charging people more for insurance because of their health status or age or excluding them altogether would not be allowed . Imsurer s would have to accept all applicants , and individuals with incomes under 200 p ercent of the poverty line would receive special government subsidies to help co ver any premiums due . WASHINGTON Iraq 's senior diplomat in Washington has been expelled from the Uni ted States for repeated violations of the agreement that allows Iraq to maintain a diplomatic presence here , State Department officials said Wednesday . The di plomat , Adnan Malik , attempted to lobby members of Congress , sent out news re leases espousing an end to the United Nations economic embargo against his count ry and hired and fired staff members without notifying the State Department , al l actions that were specifically prohibited , the U.S. officials said . Malik 's expulsion was not announced , but the State Department confirmed the move when asked about it . Malik , who was transferred to Washington in February from Iraq 's U.N. mission , began violating the rules within days of his arrival , accord ing to a State Department official who monitored his activities . He routinely c ircumvented regulations that his predecessor had scrupulously complied with for three years , the official said . `` He was attempting to function as a full-fle dged diplomat '' but was permitted only to provide consular services , such as i ssuing visas and renewing passports of Iraqis who live in the United States , St ate Department spokesman Michael McCurry said . The United States and Iraq have not had diplomatic relations since the beginning of the Persian Gulf War in 1991 . As is common in such cases , the two countries permit each other to maintain limited diplomatic missions under the flags of other nations . The United States has an office in Baghdad under the flag of Poland , while the three Iraqis stat ioned here are under the `` protection '' of the Algerian embassy . Iraq and oth er nations without embassies in Washington , such as Vietnam and Cuba , have ful l-fledged diplomatic missions in New York . Their envoys there are allowed to op erate freely , although Washington often restricts their travel outside the New York area . Once Malik arrived in Washington , however , he began `` within a we ek '' to violate an agreement that is `` very explicit about what the Iraqi inte rests section is allowed to do , '' a State Department official said . `` The se cond day he was here I went over this with him line by line . I stressed that th is was not a full diplomatic mission , it was a protecting power arrangement and he was specifically forbidden to engage in political activity , '' the State De partment official said . `` He said , ` I understand , I am a professional diplo mat. ' ' ' But he began within days to violate the agreement , leasing property without State Department approval , hiring and firing staff without notifying th e department and attempting to communicate with Congress when the agreement spec ified he could communicate only through three offices at State , the official sa id . Malik 's wife and children have been allowed to remain in New York until th e end of the school year , according to the State Department . Iraq is free to r eplace him here but has not done so . WASHINGTON A sharply divided Senate Wednesday raked the lingering embers of con troversy over the United States ' involvement in the Vietnam War two decades ago as it remained deadlocked over the ambassadorial nomination of former anti-war activist Sam W. Brown Jr. . For the second day in a row , Brown 's supporters fa iled to break a Republican-led filibuster against giving ambassadorial rank to B rown as head of the U.S. delegation to the Vienna-based Conference on Security a nd Cooperation in Europe . They picked up two votes since Tuesday but , with the Senate dividing 56 to 42 Wednesday in favor of ending the delaying tactics , th ey remained four short of the 60 votes necessary to invoke cloture and force the issue to a vote . Sen. John F. Kerry , D-Mass. , who helped lead the fight for Brown 's confirmation , said another vote to end the filibuster is possible afte r Congress returns June 7 from its Memorial Day recess . If at least one more Re publican breaks ranks , three Democrats of the four who voted to sustain the fil ibuster are prepared to switch and bring the issue to a vote , Kerry said . Demo crats who voted Wednesday against ending the filibuster were Armed Services Comm ittee Chairman Sam Nunn , Ga. , and Sens. J. James Exon , Neb. , Bob Kerrey , Ne b. , and Ben Nighthorse Campbell , Colo . Sen. Hank Brown , R-Colo. , who led th e opposition to Brown , said he believed another vote was unlikely because , eve n if the filibuster is broken , the nomination is in serious trouble . He claime d at least 53 `` clearly committed votes '' against confirmation . Sam Brown 's appointment as head of the U.S. delegation to the CSCE , which promotes security and human rights in Europe , is not subject to Senate approval . But , without Senate confirmation , he will not have status as an ambassador , a rank enjoyed by his predecessors and his European counterparts in the CSCE . If the Senate re jects the nomination , Clinton would have to decide whether to keep Brown on the job without ambassadorial status , Kerry said . `` He can do the job without it , '' Kerry added . Wednesday 's debate echoed with many of the bitter feelings that characterized America 's debate over the Vietnam War , with Republicans att acking Brown 's views and his lack of military experience and Democrats defendin g his record as a principled crusader . Brown `` opposed actions to block commun ism '' and should not now be put in a position to `` deal with the world after c ommunism , '' argued Sen. Bob Smith , R-N.H. , accusing the administration of sl ighting veterans in favor of war protesters . `` The United States Senate should not lynch a nominee on the basis of his exercise of his constitutional rights , '' contended Kerry , describing Brown as someone who always worked `` within th e system '' and eventually went on to become `` a full-fledged American capitali st .. . the vice president of a shoe company . '' A key point of dispute which R epublicans emblazoned in large letters on a chart for the television cameras was a 1977 interview in Penthouse magazine that quoted Brown as saying , `` I take second place to no one in my hatred of the intelligence agencies . '' Kerry quot ed Brown as saying the quotation `` does not accurately reflect his views now or then '' and was made in reference to a controversy at the time over CIA involve ment with the Peace Corps , which he oversaw as head of the ACTION in the late 1 970s . But Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison , R-Texas , denounced it as an expression o f `` radical '' views , and Kerrey later told a reporter that the comment about intelligence agencies was a major factor in his vote against cloture . NAIROBI , Kenya Rwanda 's battered army in the capital , Kigali , regrouped Wed nesday and exchanged heavy mortar fire into the evening with rebel guerrillas wh o captured a strategic government position two days ago , U.N. officials reporte d . The fighting , which shattered a truce declared for the visit of a senior U. N. envoy , again prevented relief supplies from being flown into the capital and the U.N. officials expressed fears that shortages of food and medicine had beco me critical . One of the mortar rounds , apparently fired by rebels of the Rwand a Patriotic Front , hit a Red Cross hospital in the government-controlled sectio n of Kigali , killing two Rwandan nurses , the officials said . Rebels also poun ded army positions near the defense ministry while the army lobbed shell after s hell on rebel forces on the outskirts of the city . On Monday , the Tutsi-domina ted rebels who say they are fighting a war of liberation against the predominant ly Hutu government had mounted a three-pronged attack and captured the Kanombe a rmy camp overlooking the airport . The three battalions of defenders fled and so me diplomatic observers in Nairobi believed that the rebels would soon win the b attle for Kigali . But in other African wars in Liberia , Angola and Somalia , f or example armies that may have wilted in the countryside have been willing to f ight fiercely to defend their capitals . The reason is particularly clear in Rwa nda : The government , the military , communications and transportation faciliti es are centralized in the capital ; without the capital , the government would h ave little left worth fighting for . The fighting Wednesday further delayed the arrival of a 5,500-man , all-African peacekeeping force under U.N. command . The United Nations ' special envoy , Iqbal Riza , is in Kigali trying to persuade b oth sides to allow deployment of the troops and the United Nations to take contr ol of the airport . But Riza 's talks may be premature because only three Africa n nations Ethiopia , Ghana and Senegal have agreed to participate in the force . Their commitment totals only 2,100 soldiers . ( Optional add end ) Riza travele d in an armored vehicle through the fighting on the western edge of the city to the seat of the interim government in Gitarama , 25 miles southwest of Kigali , in hopes of holding talks Thursday with the rebels in Mulindi , a rebel strongho ld just south of the Ugandan border . Western diplomats in east Africa are not o ptimistic about the chances for a lasting negotiated political settlement , beca use rebel commanders appear to want nothing less than a military victory that wi ll put them in position to bargain for a large share of power , even though the Tutsis amount to only 9 percent of the population . At the same time , most mode rate government officials who favored conciliation between the majority Hutus an d minority Tutsis had been killed and the surviving officials now at Gitarama re present the extremist wing . This element appears to support the eradication of the Tutsis and is widely believed to be responsible for the widespread massacres that have claimed the lives of as many as 200,000 Rwandans , most of them Tutsi s , since April 6 . The fighting is slowly turning Kigali into a ghost town and is depopulating the countryside . Only about 50,000 people from Kigali 's popula tion of 300,000 remain , U.N. officials said , and wide belts of villages in eas tern Rwanda have been abandoned . The United Nations has set up 15 camps in neig hboring Tanzania , Uganda and Zaire for the estimated two million Rwandans who a re now homeless . Jay Leno says he didn't realize , until he brought `` The Tonight Show '' to th e Big Apple last week , that he has been aping Johnny Carson 's program and not being himself ever since he took over for the latter two years ago . `` I 've be en doing Johnny 's show , '' Leno told NBC affiliates this week . So Leno , who came close to a first-place tie with `` The Late Show With David Letterman '' du ring his week here , is having his Burbank , Calif. , set changed to look more l ike the one he used in New York , where his set 's atmosphere approached that of clubs where Leno spent two decades doing standup comedy . The tinier set in New York 's `` Saturday Night Live '' studios packed a smaller audience closer to L eno , who was practically next to musical director Branford Marsalis . `` The au dience was half the size , but there was more energy , '' said Leno , and there was an easier give-and-take between him and Marsalis , who , in Burbank , is hal f a huge stage away . In any case , the Burbank set shortly will be torn apart a nd made to look like the one Leno used in New York . -0- In the end , it doesn't pay to be slip-and-fall artists . Those kind of folks , profiled by ABC News ' Chris Wallace on Thursday night 's `` PrimeTime Live , '' specialize in faking f alls at supermarkets , convenience stores , fast-food restaurants and elsewhere . They try to bilk insurance companies with fraudulent injury claims estimated b y the program to be as much as $ 20 billion a year . One of them on the air Thur sday night is Garen Cooke , arrested last year in Colorado after putting in 71 c laims in 16 states over 11 years . When Cooke was about to demonstrate some of h is slip-and-fall secrets for the cameras , ABC lawyers insisted he sign a releas e , which freed the network of any liability . The ever-hopeful Cooke asked , `` Is this for a settlement ? '' Wallace replied , `` This is so there is no settl ement . '' -0- Beginning June 4 , there 'll be two late-night repeats of the hal f-hour `` Mary Hartman , Mary Hartman '' every Saturday night on cable 's Lifeti me Maybe such double exposure should be dubbed `` Mary Hartman x Four . '' WASHINGTON The magnificent retrospective of Willem de Kooning 's paintings at t he National Gallery of Art throws the artist 's breathtaking achievement into hi gh relief . More than ever , he is confirmed as the last great exemplar of a Eur opean tradition of modern art , as altered and transmogrified by his loving enco unter with his adopted home . De Kooning , a Dutch emigre to the United States , transformed Parisian Cubism and European Expressionism , infusing them with a s cale and a temperament distinctly American and particular to New York . Cubism a nd Expressionism were writ large , in dazzlingly complex images of women begun c irca 1949 and in luxurious , landscape-inspired abstractions that followed half a dozen years later . The retrospective , which brings together 76 paintings on canvas , paper and board , begins in 1938 with de Kooning 's peculiar figure stu dies of men and women in indeterminate interiors . They seem to merge an affecti on for the `` little brown paintings '' of Dutch old masters with a thoroughly m odern , specifically Cubist interest in constantly shifting points of view . Tog ether , these impulses are inflected by the salutary influence of painter Arshil e Gorky , his great friend , mentor and fellow immigrant ( from Armenia ) . The show concludes in 1986 with the big canvases of loose , light-filled , open inte rlaces of color darting through fields of tinted white . The best of them rank a s an astonishing coda to an already astonishing career . The museum has mounted the retrospective on the occasion of de Kooning 's 90th birthday ; he was born i n Rotterdam April 24 , 1904 , came to the United States illegally in 1926 and st opped painting in the late 1980s , when the debilitating effects of Alzheimer 's disease ended his artistic life . National Gallery curator Marla Prather , Engl ish critic and historian David Sylvester and Nicholas Serota , director of Londo n 's Tate Gallery , have assembled a nearly flawless array of paintings to tell their tale . That rarely flagging level of quality is crucial , because the last opportunity to survey de Kooning 's work a 1983 retrospective at New York 's Wh itney Museum of American Art could be described most charitably as erratic in th e loans that were secured . With few notable exceptions , topped by the missing `` Pink Angels '' from circa 1945 , all the pivotal paintings are in Washington . As a result , it 's easy to follow the internal trajectory of de Kooning 's ar t . The most important insight de Kooning took from Cubism was his sensual artic ulation of the surface of a painting as a bodily metaphor . The Cubist structure on which the great , rambunctious `` Woman '' paintings rely is harnessed by de Kooning as a way to unfold the body in keeping with the two-dimensional space o f painting . He had mastered the device in the vigorous , mural-like abstraction `` Excavation , '' painted for the 1950 Venice Biennale and completed while he was struggling with the newer figure paintings . Formally , in the show 's group of 14 paintings dating from 1949 to 1955 , the women are squared off , flattene d out , interlocked with the surrounding environment . Raucous , funny , flirtat ious and aggressive , they embody the mesmerizing fierceness of flesh and blood . De Kooning used a variety of tricks to pump up the sensuously inviting tactili ty of his surfaces , including his famous wet-on-wet technique of mixing salad o il in the pigment , in order to make it slithery , fluid and receptive to sustai ned periods of work . It didn't dry out fast . As he worked he would repeatedly scrape down the surface , leaving layered smears and traces of underpaint to sho w through , like insistent memories of past encounters piling up one atop the ot her . His paintings can look slatternly , as if they 've been around . ( Begin o ptional trim ) When engrossed by that gorgeously seductive dynamic , the viewer may easily forget the complicated art scene de Kooning worked in . He had been l iving in New York for about a decade when the influx of European modern artists fleeing Hitler arrived , and after World War II he naturally stayed . ( He still wasn't a citizen and wouldn't become one until 1962 , but he considered himself an American nonetheless . ) The volatile avant-garde context that marked the im mediate postwar years in Manhattan was small , cliquish and without much public following . But as a devastated Europe lay in ruins , the sense of needing to pi ck up art 's fallen torch was strong . Abstract Expressionism was thus tinctured with a missionary aura . De Kooning , the European expatriate who had worked hi s way across the Atlantic and then jumped ship when docked at Newport News , Va. , was in part a bridge between the Old World and the New . In many ways his wor k embodied the span . The National Gallery has done a remarkably good job , trip ping up just once at the beginning and once at the end of the exhibition . At th e start a serious fault is the absence of `` Pink Angels , '' a smallish paintin g inspired by Picasso but marked by a voluptuous , transparent linearity wholly de Kooning 's own . Without it , you just can't make the leap from the show 's f irst room , with its six relatively conventional pink and ochre studies of male and female figures , to the startling second room , filled with six exciting bla ck paintings , through which whiplash lines of white create a magical interpenet ration of crystalline and biomorphic shapes . With these , de Kooning was on his way . Despite numerous entreaties , according to the National Gallery , Los Ang eles collector Frederick Weisman simply would not lend `` Pink Angels . '' The s econd problem is the final room . In the 1980s and in his increasingly debilitat ed dotage de Kooning was still enthralled with the soul-shattering , life-alteri ng possibilities for visual pleasure in painting . But the eight selected canvas es are uneven at best . Especially on the heels of the knockout gallery of gorge ous pictures from 1977-78 that immediately precedes it , the erratic last room i nappropriately sends you out the door with a few doubts about the claims that ha ve been made for de Kooning 's last works . Despite these small deficiencies , t he retrospective remains a superlative achievement that sets up an extravagant a rgument in favor of a kind of visual knowledge often erroneously dismissed as ir relevant today , but nonetheless being championed by many of our most compelling younger artists . De Kooning at 90 stands as a gorgeously convincing precedent . BRUSSELS , Belgium Russia 's Pavel S. Grachev was the perfect host Wednesday as he opened a meeting with U.S. . Defense Secretary William J. Perry. The irony o f the situation only seemed to buoy his mood even more . `` It seems strange to me that I 'm welcoming you here to this building today , '' the Russian defense minister told his American counterpart , smiling at the circumstances . Perry to o broke into a grin . The session over which Grachev was presiding was being hel d in Conference Room No. 2 at NATO headquarters , and the sign outside announced `` Russia '' for the Russian delegation . Grachev , a four-star general who mad e 634 parachute jumps while he was an officer in the former Soviet army , was ta king the biggest leap of his career : He was here to sign Russia up for NATO as a sort of associate member for now . Moreover , the Russians were not the only m ilitary officials from the former East Bloc to rate their own suite at this week 's NATO ministerial meeting . The broad , heavily carpeted concourse that leads to NATO 's main meeting chamber was dotted with the oversized military caps of officers from 18 other one-time Communist countries . It might have been a meeti ng of the now-defunct Warsaw Pact , joked a local wag . The session , which foll owed a meeting of NATO defense ministers on Tuesday , marked the first meeting o f the Partnership for Peace , an auxiliary program that the North Atlantic Treat y Organization has set up for former East Bloc countries . And for all of the jo king , it was one of those days on which even the most seasoned diplomats and mi litary officers were overcome by the sense that they were witnessing an importan t piece of history . `` I think everyone is sort of awed by it all , '' mused a U.S. officer who has spent his career trying to prepare for a possible confronta tion with Soviet forces . `` I thought I 'd never see this come . '' To be sure , the Russians will not actually join the PfP , as it is becoming known here , u ntil sometime in early June , when Moscow presents its final application at a me eting of NATO foreign ministers in Istanbul , Turkey . But Grachev was here this week to present formally Russia 's preliminary proposal for its terms of member ship ending weeks of hot-and-cold statements from Moscow about whether the Kreml in would or would not sign up . And , to the relief of Western diplomats , he wa s unambiguous about reports that the Russians would insist on special conditions : `` Absolutely nyet , '' he told reporters at the opening of the session . ( O ptional add end ) A mood of optimism lasted all day Wednesday . After the mornin g session , the NATO ministers , Grachev and the defense chiefs of the 18 Partne rship for Peace member countries posed for what was deliberately dubbed a `` fam ily portrait . '' And Ukraine 's defense minister , Vitaly Radetsky , who was sc heduled to meet with Perry after the session with Grachev , refused to take offe nse when the American was late . `` We 'll make up for it tonight , '' he said l ightheartedly . The ironies continued into the evening . After a day of bilatera l meetings here in Brussels , Perry and the other ministers flew by helicopter t o the Belgian city of Mons for a tour of the new building at the allies ' Europe an headquarters that will serve as a military center for Partnership for Peace c ountries . The structure , which was completed in 1990 , originally was built as an evacuation center in case western Europe were invaded by the Soviet Bloc . A chunk of the fallen Berlin Wall now serves as statuary at its entrance . Pavel Grachev looked as though he were perfectly at home . WASHINGTON President Clinton Wednesday chastised Congress for trying to impose simplistic , `` bumper-sticker '' solutions on conflicts like Bosnia and he warn ed that Americans must learn that efforts to expand democracy 's reach sometimes will be slow and flawed . Addressing the graduating class of the U.S. . Naval A cademy in Annapolis , Md. , Clinton used Bosnia as an example of a messy , compl icated , post-Cold War world where there are no easy answers . An effort in Cong ress to end the arms embargo against the Bosnian Muslims so they can defend them selves , he said , is one of those actions `` that sound simple and painless and good '' but will not work . Doing that , he said , would `` kill the peace proc ess , sour our relationships with our European allies '' who support the U.N.-im posed embargo , and undermine the relationship with Russia , which also supports the embargo . Lifting the embargo , he said , is part of `` the easy out of sim plistic ideas that sound good on bumper stickers but that would have tragic cons equences . '' Clinton , who leaves next week for the 50th anniverary commemorati on of the D-Day invasion , said the sacrifices of the World War II generation pr oduced the freedom and security that helped America win the Cold War . Today 's opportunity , he said , is that `` for the first time in history , we have the c hance to expand the reach of democracy and economic progress across the whole of Europe and to the far reaches of the world . '' That task , he said , will be a long one . `` It took years after D-Day to not only end the war , but to build a lasting peace . It took decades of patience and strength and resolve to prevai l in the Cold War . And as with generations going before , we must often be will ing to pay the price of time , sometimes the most painful price of all , '' he s aid . The Cold War 's end , he said , `` lifted the lid from a cauldron of long- simmering hatreds . Now , the entire global terrain is bloody with such conflict s . '' Instead of the superpower , bipolar world that dictated America 's polici es for four decades , the country now is faced with a leadership role in `` a ne w world threatened with instability , even abject chaos , rooted in the economic dislocations that are inherent in the change from communist to market economics , rooted in religious and ethnic battles long covered over by authoritarian reg imes now gone , rooted in tribal slaughters , aggravated by environmental disast er , by abject hunger , by mass migrations. .. . ' ' Determining which conflicts in such a world merit U.S. action and at what level involves `` no magic formul a '' but an assessment of `` the cumulative weight of the American interests at stake . '' Making that calibration , he said , has `` not been easy or smooth '' and may never again be . `` The world 's most tearing conflicts , in Bosnia and elsewhere , are not made in a day . And one of the most frustrating things that you have to live with .. . is that many of these conflicts will rarely submit t o instant solutions . '' Clinton paid tribute to the World War II veterans who s tood for recognition in the vast stadium and said to the graduating class , the grandchildren of those veterans , that their challenge `` is to remember the dee ds of those who served before you , and now to build on their work '' in protect ing and expanding democracy and freedom . That generational theme is expected to be a major one of the president 's week-day European tour , which includes a nu mber of D-Day events . Clinton opened his remarks by following the tradition of granting amnesty to midshipmen for rules infractions . But he pointedly noted th at covered only minor offenses . The academy was torn by a cheating scandal that resulted in the expulsion of 24 midshipmen . The president noted that problem , and the Tailhook scandal involving sexual harassment of female Navy officers , are `` troubling events , to be sure , because our military rests on honor and l eadership . '' But , he said to the graduates and the Navy leadership , `` You h ave my confidence . You have America 's confidence . '' And as if he were commen ting on his own bumpy first year in office as well , he said , `` Ultimately , t he test of leadership is not constant flawlessness . Rather , it is marked by a commitment to continue always to strive for the highest standards , to learn hon estly when one falls short , and to do the right thing . '' WASHINGTON Students in the poorest public schools could have access to all the books at Harvard and the treasures of libraries and museums nationwide , if , as many educators and government officials hope , American schools are given free or inexpensive access to the developing information superhighway . Some leading members of the Senate , along with Education Secretary Richard W. Riley , Wednes day urged Congress to approve a federal policy that would ensure that schools ar e not bypassed as cable and telephone lines are installed for the electonic high way . Riley described the superhighway as a `` seamless web of communications ne tworks , computers , databases , and consumer electronics that will put vast amo unts of information at our fingertips . '' If some schools cannot afford this te chnological tool because of costly user fees , it would further widen the gap be tween rich and poor schools , he said . A study by consumer and civil rights gro ups issued this week raised similar concerns about how this new technology may h ave the effect of widening the education and income gap between the wealthy and the poor . The information highway , a priority of the Clinton administration , is still being developed and how much it will cost users is unclear . But Riley urged Congress as it considers the Telecommunication Act of 1994 to approve a po licy that mandates a `` public or educational lane on the information superhighw ay . '' Sen. Fritz Hollings , D-S.C. , chairman of the Senate Committee on Comme rce , Science and Transportation , said he , too , was concerned that the new hi ghway might turn into a `` toll road '' only the wealthy could ride . Sen. Bob K errey , D-Neb. , invited a principal and student from his home state to Wednesda y 's hearing to demonstrate breakthrough educational technology being used in Ne braska . A new IBM project called `` Eduport '' is digitalizing video stored at museums and universities around the country , storing it at the University of Ne braska and then sending it , via fiber optic cable , to a public high school in Lincoln , Neb . Kathryn Piller , principal of Lincoln High , the one school in t he country now using this technology , wowed the crowd in the Senate committee r oom by punching up on a television screen footage and audio of President Frankli n D. Roosevelt delivering his 1936 `` repudiating communism speech . '' The old , black and white footage , and familiar sound of his voice , is used in the sch ool 's American history classes . This kind of technology that can bring almost limitless information to the most remote or poor school eventually could be used by millions of students , advocates said . Students would not have to be able t o afford a trip to Smithsonian or NASA or Harvard , but would have access to all the educational materials they store . `` We are not out to get rid of books , '' said Lincoln High School student Clay Ehlers . `` We are ought to get more bo oks . '' Ehlers told the senators that he believed students can learn better , a nd enjoy it more , through the new technology . `` If you can see it and hear it and get it from anywhere in the world , there is nothing better . '' Linda Robe rts , special adviser to Riley on technology , said some states were already mak ing it a priority to get preferential rates for schools and libraries so that th e new technology didn't become a tool only for those who could afford it . What the country did not want to see happen , she said , was for the public schools i n some states to get on the highway and others to be bypassed . The days when No . 2 pencils and chalkboards are all the supplies teachers needed have slipped by , Riley said . If the United States wants to stay competitive with other nation s also developing similar technology , it must give all students `` full and fre e acess '' to information highway , even if it is costly . CAVENDISH , Vt. . After 18 years of exile in the wooded hills of small-town Ver mont , the great Russian writer and Nobel Prize winner Alexander Solzhenitsyn le ft here Wednesday much as he arrived quietly and nearly alone . Accompanied by a few family members and surrounded by a throng of photographers , Solzhenitsyn b egan his long-awaited journey homeward shortly after noon . Sitting in the rear of an Oldsmobile station wagon , the reclusive writer , who is 75 , stopped brie fly in the drizzle at the end of his unpaved driveway . For a few moments he obl iged the photographers by getting out of the car and posing silently next to one of the wooden posts that supported the gate that for two decades had kept the w orld at bay . Having written hundreds of thousands of words at his hillside retr eat , Solzhenitsyn had almost nothing to say . He offered a softly spoken `` Goo dbye '' in accented English , butotherwise stuck to his promise to make no state ments . His only utterances were , `` My son has answered all questions '' an as sertion that was not quite true and a warning to photographers as they backed up into his car , `` Be careful ! Be careful ! '' His departure drew more than 20 reporters and photographers to the unmarked dirt road that led to the Solzhenits yn compound . Winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1970 for his powerful novels dissecting Stalinism and the Soviet state , Solzhenitsyn chose this spot after being expelled in 1974 from the then Soviet Union on the grounds that his writings had slandered the Soviet state . He continued to write books that nettl ed the communists including the multi-volume historical novel `` The Red Wheel ' ' and elected to remain here well after the collapse of the Soviet empire . Solz henitsyn faces an uncertain future as he heads to an apartment in Moscow and , u ltimately , a dacha outside the city . According to family members , he planned to fly to the West Coast and on to Vladivostok , where he plans to board a train for a cross-country tour of Russia . He leaves behind a town of 1,325 in centra l Vermont that treated him just as he wished : by leaving him alone . Just outsi de the door of the Cavendish General Store is a small wooden sign saying , `` No directions to the Solzhenitsyn home . '' Storekeeper Joe Allen said he stuck to that policy right to the end . `` I decided I didn't want anything happening to anybody . There 's a lot of crazy people , '' said Allen , 43 , who lives in on e half of the building that houses the store . He said the Solzhenitsyn family w ere `` fine people '' who had never bothered anyone . Alexander Solzhenitsyn was in his store just once , about three or four years ago , Allen recalled . Indee d , sightings of Solzhenitsyn outside his wooden retreat were about as rare as e ncounters with the moose and black bear that share these forested hills . Richar d Svec , the Cavendish town manager , said he spoke with the author 's wife , Na talya , Wednesday morning . `` There was a note of nervousness . But when you 'r e moving your household halfway around the world that 's not surprising , '' he said . `` We did discuss that there are a lot of challenges ahead and that they are trying to be a constructive influence . She asked for our prayers . '' Svec said he understood that the family intended to keep the house for the use of two sons , Stephan and Ignat , who are remaining in the United States . For his par t , Solzhenitsyn said his formal goodbyes to Cavendish on Feb. 28 at the annual town meeting . `` I hope that I can be of at least some help to my tortured nati on , although it is impossible to predict how successful my efforts will be , '' the author explained at the time . `` You were very understanding , '' he told the townsfolk . `` You .. . took it upon yourselves to protect my privacy . '' ` ` For this , I have been truly grateful throughout all these years . And now , a s my stay here comes to an end , I thank you . Your kindness and cooperation hel ped to create the best possible conditions for my work . '' WASHINGTON A White House review has cleared a Merit Systems Protection Board me mber of sexually harassing an employee and then firing her after she complained about his conduct , administration officials said Wednesday . The officials said that , as a result of the review , Antonio C. Amador , will remain in his posit ion on the board , which is responsible for reviewing federal employees ' claims of discrimination and sexual harassment . The White House commissioned the inve stigation after receiving requests for an inquiry from members of the House and Senate committees charged with overseeing government operations . Then-White Hou se counsel Bernard Nussbaum told the members that Clinton had decided `` that an independent factual review of the allegations against Mr. Amador is warranted . '' Under federal law , only the president may remove Amador from his position . Amador was appointed by then-President George Bush in 1990 . The investigation was assigned to Joseph G. Lynch , assistant general counsel in the Office of the General Counsel of the Navy . The White House said Lynch `` has more than 12 ye ars of government experience in labor and employment law , with an expertise in sexual harassment matters . '' The administration officials said Lynch had submi tted his report within the last several weeks and that Amador had been cleared . They did not provide details of Lynch 's findings , and an attorney for Amador said his client has not been informed of the outcome . The lawyer , Michael J. R iselli , said earlier that Amador `` categorically denies any and all allegation s and suggestions that he engaged in any form of discrimination . '' The allegat ions against Amador were detailed in a letter signed by seven members of the Hou se Government Operations subcommittee on employment , housing , and aviation fol lowing a six-month investigation . According to the letter , the woman whose nam e was not used was hired by Amador as a confidential assistant and worked as one of his four staff members from March 11 , 1991 until she was fired February 18 , 1993 . The day before she was let go , Feb. 17 , the woman complained of sexua l harassment to an equal employment opportunity ( EEO ) counselor at the Merit S ystems Protection Board , claiming that she was sexually harassed `` over a one- year period both in the office and off federal premises . '' Although the letter does not describe the alleged harassment , sources said she complained that Ama dor made `` unwanted physical contact '' with the woman , made sexually offensiv e remarks , and suggested at least once that they spend the night together . The date after the woman sought EEO counseling , the letter said , Amador fired her and ordered her escorted out of the office immediately . Amador , according to the letter sent to the White House , told the subcommittee that he informed the assistant several days earlier , on Feb. 9 , that he `` had lost confidence in h er '' and requested that she look for another job . On that day , according to t he letter , Amador also gave the employee a superior performance rating . In ano ther letter , to Rep. William Zeliff , R-N.H. , Amador said he gave the employee a good job rating simply to help her find a new position and then decided to sh orten the 30-day period because `` she brazenly tried to coerce me , by threats of a fabricated sexual harassment complaint , into keeping her employed . '' Aft er her dismissal , the woman retained a lawyer and negotiated a sealed settlemen t agreement under which she was reinstated , assigned to a regional office , and received a cash payment of $ 17,500 . Gallagher interviewed dozens of men and women to document the U.S. government ' s callous exposure of citizens in Nevada and Utah to radiation from above-ground nuclear tests during 1950s . Soldiers were sent into `` hot '' areas shortly af ter detonation to retrieve equipment . Civilians in nearby towns came to watch t he blasts and the strange , pinkish clouds of dust and ash that killed sheep by the thousand . Since then , local residents have suffered from abnormally high i ncidents of cancer , autoimmune diseases , reproductive problems , hormonal imba lances , nerve damage and birth defects . They bitterly recall how their governm ent used them as expendable guinea pigs , then lied about it . This deeply distu rbing book only begins to explore one of the most shameful episodes of the Cold War : Many of the men recall seeing cages near ground zero that held chained ani mals and humans . -0- `` The Three-Inch Golden Lotus , '' by Feng Jicai translat ed from the Chinese by Eugene M. Kayden ( University of Hawaii Press , $ 12.95 , 239 pp. , paperback original ) . Foot-bound girls had their toes bent under the ir arches and the balls of their feet pressed against the fronts of their heels to produce a small , deformed grub of flesh that became the object of a national fetish in China . Feng Jicai 's curious novel exposes the cruelty of the practi ce and the weird sexual-aesthetic response it evoked . As a child , Golden Lotus screams in pain when her feet are bound , breaking many of the bones . But her tiny feet enable her to marry the son of a wealthy merchant , and Golden Lotus u ses her position as an object of desire to gain power over her decadent in-laws . Feng 's sardonic prose contrasts her calculating intelligence with the shallow ness of the men , who extol the details of her shoes like connoisseurs praising an antique vase . -0- `` THE D-DAY ATLAS : The Definitive Account of the Allied Invasion of Normandy , '' by John Man ( Facts on File , $ 15.95 , 143 pp. , illu strated , paperback original ) . June 6 , 1944 , marked a turning point in World War II . The success of D-day was the result of the growing strength of the All ies , an ingenious hoax that played on Hitler 's certainty that Calais would be the site of any attempted landing , the ineffective German command structure , t he interruption of communications by French Resistance sabotage and plain luck . Man uses maps and contemporary photographs to supplement his description of the preparations , the invasion and its aftermath , which lead to the defeat of the Nazi Reich . -0- `` SLIM 'S TABLE : Race , Respectability , and Masculinity , ' ' by Mitchell Duneier ( University of Chicago Press , $ 9.95 , 200 pp. , illustr ated ) . In this modest study of working-class men , Duneier argues , `` Black m en are badly misunderstood , probably no less because of the well-meaning libera l media 's constant barrage of images showing how bad things have become to Repu blican advertisements indicating that liberals have placed killers like Willie H orton back on the streets . '' Slim and his friends are unassuming men who socia lize in a cafeteria at the edge of the Chicago ghetto . Unlike the media images of black males as dope peddlers , gangbangers and felons , they believe in hones ty , hard work and `` modes of conduct that testify to respectability . '' Dunei er presents a brief look at a neglected sector of society that offers much-neede d role models for teen-age boys of all races . -0- `` The Hat of My Mother , '' by Max Steele ( Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill , $ 9.95 , 270 pp . ) . Available for the first time in paperback , Steele 's short fiction offers solidly constr ucted plots and vivid characterizations . The title story recounts the curious m isadventures the narrator 's prim mother encountered when she set out to buy a r eplacement for her antiquated favorite hat . In the multilayered `` Another Love Story , '' a married man scrutinizes his former lover 's successful books , hop ing and fearing they contain some hint of their affair . -0- `` THE BECKONING FA IRGROUND : Notes of a British Exile in Lotus Land , '' by Ian Whitcomb ( Califor nia Classics Books , $ 12.95 , 231 pp. , illustrated , paperback original ) . Si nger , songwriter , radio personality , journalist , record producer , one-hit r ock star and pop culture gadfly , Ian Whitcomb sets the tone for this memoir whe n he declares in an early diary entry , `` Wish I was like a rock 'n' roll recor d . '' The journal entries , articles , interviews and remembrances in this live ly collection document encounters with icons that range from Mae West and Walter Matthau to Felix the Cat . Whitcomb may not have achieved the rock stardom he d esired , but his account of his ongoing fascination with American popular music is far more entertaining than the biographies of many more celebrated rockers . -0- `` Understanding Immigration Law , '' by Nancy-Jo Merritt ( 112 pp . ) , `` Your Rights as a Consumer , '' by Marc R. Lieberman ( 104 pp. ) and `` Your Righ ts in the Workplace , '' by Richard L. Strohm ( 120 pp . ) , ( Career Press , $ 8.95 each , paperback originals ) . The `` Layman 's Guide to Law '' series is d esigned to introduce the average citizen to the increasingly ( and needlessly ) embrangled U.S. legal system . The authors explain what may constitute grounds f or legal action in key areas of American life . As the disclaimer notes , the bo oks are not a substitute for a visit to a lawyer , but they provide a useful sta rting point for readers curious to know more about their rights and obligations . Back-to-back congressional losses underscore the Democrats ' vulnerability in t his fall 's midterm elections and could foreshadow significant Republican gains in the South , analysts in both parties said Wednesday . Republican officials qu ickly capitalized on their easy victory Tuesday in the Kentucky congressional di strict held for 41 years by the late William H. Natcher , D , and an earlier win in a Democratic-held district in Oklahoma , claiming the races showed growing p ublic dissatisfaction with President Clinton and the Democrats who control Congr ess . `` I think what we just did is a test run in Oklahoma and Kentucky , '' sa id House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich , R-Ga . `` Morale and momentum and therefo re resources are shifting our way and Democrats are disoriented and don't want t o defend Clinton and can't run away from him . '' Democratic National Committee Chairman David Wilhelm blamed the Kentucky defeat on a candidate `` who got in a defensive crouch and stayed there . '' Wilhelm urged Democrats to `` stand tall '' in defending the record of the Clinton administration of `` standing up for middle-class families and breaking gridlock . '' But other Democrats , while cau tioning that special elections are often poor predictors of later contests , wer e more pessimistic , especially in their private comments . They said Clinton is likely to be an issue in many marginal races in the South . `` I think we 've g ot serious problems , particularly in the South and Southwest , '' one Democrati c operative said . Even Rep. Vic Fazio , D-Calif. , who chairs the Democratic Co ngressional Campaign Committee and who echoed Wilhelm 's analysis of the Kentuck y race , warned that the Republicans could rack up big gains this fall . Fazio c alled the Kentucky race unique , but said it nonetheless may serve `` as a wake- up call '' to the party . `` I 've been talking about our potential of losing up to 25 seats and I 've been very serious about it . '' The Kentucky election lef t the Democrats holding a 257-to-178 advantage in the House , along with their 5 6-to-44 margin in the Senate . A gain of even 15 House seats would give Republic ans their largest number since the mid-1950s and greater gains could cost Democr ats their working majority . Working control of the Senate is also threatened by the recently announced retirements of Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell , D-Maine , and Sen. David Boren , D-Okla . The party that holds the White House g enerally loses House seats in midterm elections . But the Democrats ' historical disadvantage is compounded this year by a variety of factors . They include vot er anger toward Washington , Democratic retirements in marginal House districts , the effects of redistricting and Clinton 's unpopularity in the South . Republ ican strategist Whit Ayres said the two special House races , combined with last year 's string of Republican victories `` send a very clear message , that vote rs around the country , and particularly voters in the South , are very unhappy with the leadership provided by President Clinton and the Democrats in Congress . '' Clinton 's popularity varies from region to region and a White House offici al said many Democrats are anxious for his help this year . But the danger for H ouse Democrats in districts where Clinton 's favorability ratings are weak is mo st apparent in the 28 open seats where Democratic incumbents have announced thei r retirements or are seeking higher office . In 17 of the 28 districts , Clinton 's vote in 1992 was below his national average of 43 percent , and in 11 of tho se districts , most of them in the South , George Bush beat Clinton . Republican pollster Bill McInturff said that , in the South , the Clinton administration i s facing growing hostility . `` In focus groups , there is an historic anti-gove rnemnt sentiment , '' McInturff said . `` What they see Clinton doing , on taxes , the economy , health care , these are seen as symbols of Jimmy Carter , round two . The guy is raising taxes and overreaching the role of government . '' Emo ry political scientist Merle Black , who has specialized in the study of Souther n politics , said , `` Clinton is not an asset in most Southern congressional di stricts. '' and predicted that Republican candidates would mimic the kind of cam paign Republican Ron Lewis ran in Kentucky . Lewis ran an explicitly anti-Clinto n campaign that included one television ad in which the face of Democrat Joe Pra ther turned into the face of Bill Clinton . `` I wouldn't be too surprised to se e that ad in 200 districts in October , '' Gingrich said . `` I hope so , '' res ponded presidential pollster Stan Greenberg . `` I think people will vote for ch ange rather than negativism and a return to the Reagan-Bush years . '' Greenberg and other Democrats said it 's too early to make predictions about November , d espite the losses in Kentucky and Oklahoma , and that the outcome of the health- care debate could become a major factor in the fall . `` I don't think the story of the off-year elections is going to be decided until October , '' he said . ` ` People are going to make a decision of whether we 're moving the country forwa rd or whether we 're stuck . And right now , they don't know . '' But Republican pollster Linda Divall said many voters are still angry with Washington . She sa id the special-election results were not just a vote against Clinton . `` It was also a warning signal that the changes voters cast their votes for in 1992 have not come about and they are still frustrated . '' She and others noted the cont inued intense anger over congressional check bouncing , and argued that almost a ny outcome in the pending criminal case of Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , will damage Congress and the Democrats . `` Any plea bargain is going to look very b ad , '' she said . Democrats worry that low voter turnout , which occurred in Ke ntucky , will hurt their candidates this fall . `` The people on the outs are mu ch more motivated to vote than our people are , '' said Democratic pollster Harr ison Hickman . `` The angry people are going to take the time to vote . '' UNITED NATIONS Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali , bristling with anger a nd frustration , derided the international community Wednesday for talking but d oing little else to stop genocide in Rwanda . He denounced the inaction as a sca ndal . `` All of us are responsible for this failure , '' the secretary-general told a news conference. `` .. . It is a genocide which has been committed . More than 200,000 people have been killed , and .. . the international community is still discussing what ought to be done . `` I have tried , '' he went on . `` I have been in contact with different heads of state and begged them to send troop s. .. . Unfortunately , let us say with great humility , I failed . It is a scan dal . I am the first one to say it . And I am ready to repeat it . '' Although h e never singled out the United States for criticism , Boutros-Ghali mocked the p hilosophy behind President Clinton 's recent policy directive on peacekeeping . Under this policy , which U.S. . Ambassador to the United Nations Madeleine Albr ight invoked last week to force the U.N. . Security Council to delay the dispatc h of 5,500 troops to Rwanda , the Clinton administration insists that it will no t approve peacekeeping operations until they are subjected to close scrutiny , i ncluding an assessment of their chances for success . But Boutros-Ghali said tha t `` we must accept that in certain operations we will not be successful and the fact that you are not successful in a certain operation must not be an obstacle to additional operations all over the world . '' `` It is like going to a hospi tal , '' he said . `` You cannot say ` I don't want to take this case . ' There is a moral responsibility . The raison d' etre of this organization is to help m ember states solve peacefully their internal disputes and their international di sputes . '' ( Optional add end ) Boutros-Ghali , a 71-year-old former Egyptian d iplomat and law professor , also used the news conference to make what amounted to a declaration of his intent to seek a second five-year term in 1996 . This wa s a sharp change of course . When he was elected in late 1991 , Boutros-Ghali in sisted that he intended to serve only one term , a posture that give him great i ndependence from the five members of the Security Council who have the power of veto , including the United States . When asked to justify his change of intent , the secretary-general told the news conference , `` I believe that only stupid people don't change their mind . '' `` The question will be raised in 1996 , '' he said , `` and it will depend on my own physical capacities . If I am feeling in shape , quite honestly , I will say yes . On the other hand .. . if I don't feel well enough , then I willn't request a second term . '' Mocking the philoso phy behind the Clinton administration 's policies will not help any Boutros-Ghal i campaign for a second term . Relations between the United States and the secre tary-general have been tense for much of the last year . Boutros-Ghali has been angered about the American attempt to blame him for the debacle in Somalia ; the Americans have been angered by his penchant for setting policy rather than just taking orders from the Security Council . The United States , using its veto , could block a second term for him . WASHINGTON The percentage of Americans with employer-paid medical insurance has dropped sharply in 10 years and the trend is accelerating , the Clinton adminis tration said Wednesday , as it released Census Bureau data sure to fuel the heal th care reform debate . According to the bureau 's employee benefits survey of 3 0,000 workers , only 61 percent had employer-provided medical coverage , down fr om 66 percent in 1983 . The rate of decline was steeper among workers at large c ompanies than those at small ones . `` It 's not a stable system . Employers are providing less and less , '' Labor Secretary Robert B . Reich said at Capitol H ill news conference . `` All workers are vulnerable . '' Such rapid erosion `` m akes a very strong case for strengthening the employer-based system , '' he decl ared . `` It is time for all employers to share in this burden . '' But opponent s used the same data to argue for solutions other than President Clinton 's prop osal to force all employers to provide insurance to workers . `` Given those tre nds , is the employer mandate realistic ? can't we try some other means to encou rage employers to provide benefits , '' said Sharon Canner , a National Associat ion of Manufacturers analyst . The Census data showed that since 1979 coverage h as declined from 83 percent to 73 percent of the workforce at companies with 100 or more workers . Over the same period , coverage declined from 60 percent to 5 4 percent at companies with fewer than 100 employees . `` This is across the boa rd . This is not solely a small-firm phenomenon , '' Reich said . `` If anything , large firms are beginning to get out of the health care business . '' He said the data represent `` the most comprehensive view that we 've had yet of worker s and coverage . '' The president has defended the employer mandate the most con troversial element of his reform agenda as a conservative approach that builds o n the existing system , noting that the overwhelming majority of privately insur ed Americans get their coverage through the workplace . To achieve his goal of u niversal coverage , Clinton would require all employers to pay at least 80 perce nt of a full-time worker 's premiums , up to a cap of 7.9 percent of total payro ll . Small companies firms with low average payrolls would receive government su bsidies , reducing their `` contribution '' to as little as 3.5 percent of payro ll . The president 's bill also would require individual workers to pay as much as 20 percent of their premiums , or no more than 3.9 percent of their wages . B ut many big and small businesses , as well as most congressional Republicans and even some Democrats , strongly oppose any mandate . So any significant health c are reform will require major compromises on both sides . Opponents of mandates , such as the Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers , prefer voluntary incentives and a gradual extension of coverage to the estimat ed 38 million uninsured Americans . Like Clinton , however , they support malpra ctice reforms , administrative simplification to reduce costly red tape and insu rance market reforms that ban discriminatory practices against small groups , pa rticularly people with pre-existing conditions . ( Optional add end ) At his new s conference , Reich rebutted questions that challenged the wisdom of building u pon a system that even the administration says is in rapid decline . `` This is still a health care system that is premised upon employer contributions , '' Rei ch said . That system may be `` ailing , '' he conceded , but it remains `` the bedrock of America 's health care system . '' WASHINGTON Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres complained Wednesday that Syri a has refused to commit itself to full diplomatic relations and open borders in its peace talks with Israel , and indicated his government will not withdraw fro m the Golan Heights for anything less . Peres , who met with Vice President Al G ore and Secretary of State Warren Christopher during a visit here , also warned Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat that he risks destroying his self-rule agreemen t with Israel by continuing to quibble about its provisions . At a meeting with reporters , Peres was asked whether Israel had committed itself to a full withdr awal from the Golan Heights , which was captured by Israeli forces in the 1967 M iddle East war . He responded : `` Do the Syrians suggest opening ( negotiations ) by having a full-fledged peace with Israel ? Do they suggest having a full ar rangement on security ? No. They say peace without embassies , without open fron tiers . '' Syria and Israel have exchanged proposals for a peace agreement , usi ng Christopher as a go-between , for the past month . Syria has hinted unofficia lly that it is willing to consider full peace with Israel , but has not changed its official position . Peres ' statement was the most detailed description of t he Syrian position given by any senior official in the negotiations . In January , after meeting with Syrian President Hafez Assad , President Clinton said the Syrian told him he was ready to seek full peace , including normal diplomatic re lations . But Assad refused to confirm that in public and said such issues were a matter for negotiation . Peres also said he considers `` irrelevant '' a state ment by Arafat canceling Israeli laws in Jericho and the Gaza Strip , Palestinia n areas from which Israel has withdrawn . `` You cannot sit down , reach an agre ement on the declaration of principles , and then go around and declare differen t things , '' he warned . `` If you devaluate a word of an agreement , you kill the peaceful solution , '' he added . `` We worked so hard to reach the declarat ion and the test of the two sides is to remain true in letter and spirit to the declaration of principles , '' he said . ( Optional add end ) Christopher , spea king at the beginning of his meeting with Peres , said he believes Arafat should reaffirm the commitments he made to Israel in their agreement on Jericho and Ga za earlier this month . `` Commitments have been made . It is very important tha t they be lived up to . I think it would be very helpful to have a reaffirmation , '' he said . Arafat has made several statements that cast doubt on his intent ion to remain faithful to the accord , under which Israel agreed to turn Jericho and Gaza over to the PLO in exchange for assurances that it would retain ultima te security control over the areas . In addition to Arafat 's declaration that I sraeli laws are no longer valid in Palestinian-ruled areas , the PLO leader call ed in a speech for a `` jihad '' or holy war to take Jerusalem . He later said t hat he was using the word `` jihad '' only in a figurative sense , meaning a pea ceful crusade . WASHINGTON Russian organized crime groups have made substantial inroads in the United States , engaging in activities such as tax fraud , insurance scams and d rug trafficking , FBI Director Louis Freeh told a Senate panel Wednesday . Freeh said the rapid growth of such groups poses `` a mounting threat to the safety a nd well-being '' of Americans , not only from these crimes but also because the groups could obtain nuclear weapons materials or a completed nuclear bomb . `` S uch stolen weapons could be sold potentially to terrorists who could use them ag ainst the United States and other countries , '' Freeh said . `` We have all bee n fortunate maybe lucky is a better word that there apparently have been no nucl ear thefts so far . '' He added , however , that an international probe is under way into a possible theft from the area of St. Petersburg , Russia , of two kil ograms of highly-enriched uranium capable of being used in a nuclear weapon . Th at is less than a third the amount needed to fashion a crude nuclear device . Fr eeh 's unusually blunt warnings at a hearing of the Governmental Affairs Permane nt Investigations subcommittee prefaced his announcement that the FBI will soon open its first-ever office in Moscow , for the purpose of forging anti-crime lin ks with the Russian law enforcement community . This move and Freeh 's grim depi ction of a new threat to U.S. security come at a time when federal intelligence- gathering and law enforcement agencies are under pressure to trim their budgets and develop new missions in the aftermath of the Cold War . Freeh did not offer many examples of Russian criminal activity abroad but said the FBI has received a growing number of reports of such action . As part of a new effort to cooperat e with a country long regarded as the FBI 's principal nemesis , Freeh said he i s willing to begin FBI training of Russian policemen in organized crimefighting techniques . He also plans to establish a joint intelligence data base and insta ll secure communication links to exchange leads on organized crime groups . Deta ils of the new cooperation are to be discussed when Freeh travels to Moscow next month with senior officials of the Treasury Department , State Department and t he Drug Enforcement Administration . Freeh said the `` template '' for such coop eration is a 1981 arrangement with Italy that has sent hundreds of Mafiosi to pr ison in both nations . Seated near Freeh at the hearing was the top Russian offi cial charged with fighting organized crime , First Deputy Minister of the Interi or Mikhail K. Yegorov , who confirmed and enlarged on Freeh 's grim warnings abo ut the threat to Americans . According to information reaching Moscow , Yegorov said , 24 Russian organized crime groups are operating on U.S. territory , princ ipally in San Francisco , Los Angeles , Miami , Chicago and New York . He said t hey engage in `` money laundering , illegal money transactions , and narcotics , '' with assistance from emigres now living in America . Freeh said FBI probes o f `` Russian/Eurasian '' organized crime and racketeering had increased from 13 in 1992 to 35 early this year . He said , for example , that the FBI had evidenc e Russian emigres were working with La Cosa Nostra organizations to control the illegal , untaxed sale of 50 million gallons of gasoline a month , costing the T reasury $ 7 million a month . Profits from the scheme were funneled to import-ex port firms conducting business in Eurasia and to an organized crime figure in Mo scow , Freeh said . He added that 18 individuals and three companies have pleade d guilty to the fraud , including two people hunted down in Russia and returned to the United States . Freeh also noted that a Russian emigre affiliated with an organized crime group operating in the Baltic States was convicted three years ago in a medical insurance billing scheme that netted $ 50 million . He said FBI data `` clearly indicates '' Russian emigres are laundering millions of U.S. do llars `` that originated as rubles '' and in some cases stemmed from criminal ac tivities . According to Yegorov , the United States is not alone in providing fe rtile ground for Russian criminals . He said 47 organized groups are operating i n Germany and 60 groups in Italy , often banding together with local criminals t o commit extortion , fraud or provide a conduit to the West for narcotics from C entral Asia . Yegorov said that during the past 18 months , his organization had investigated 47 criminal cases involving radioactive materials , including nine alleged thefts of highly-enriched materials of the sort needed for nuclear weap ons . Only one such theft involved `` organized crime groups , '' he said , addi ng nonetheless that this danger should be taken more seriously . Hans-Ludwig Zac hert , the president of Germany 's Federal Criminal Police , also underscored Fr eeh 's warnings about the potential for trade in nuclear materials from the form er Soviet Union and eastern Europe . Zachert told the Senate panel his organizat ion in 1992 investigated 18 such alleged thefts . Weapons-grade materials were o ffered for sale in several of the cases , although none was found . Two cases in vestigated in 1993 involved attempts by eastern Europeans to extort money by thr eatening the use of nuclear arms against Germany or Austria . WASHINGTON President Clinton used commencement at the U.S. . Naval Academy as a platform Wednesday for a sharp counterattack on his Bosnia policy , accusing cr itics including many leaders of his own party of advancing `` simplistic ideas t hat sound good on bumper stickers but that would have tragic consequences . '' T he administration 's policy , which relies heavily on multinational consultation s and which critics deride as a failure to assert U.S. leadership , `` is not qu ick ; it is not neat ; it is not comfortable , '' Clinton conceded during his sp eech in Annapolis , Md. . `` But I am convinced in a world of interdependence wh ere we must lead by working with others , it is the right path . `` Our administ ration will not walk away from this Bosnian conflict . But we will not embrace s olutions that are wrong , '' Clinton said . `` We plan to continue the course we have chosen raising the price on those who pursue aggression , helping to provi de relief to the suffering , and working with our partners in Europe to move the parties to a workable agreement . '' In particular , Clinton denounced proposal s that the United States unilaterally violate the U.N. embargo against arms ship ments to the warring parties in Bosnia a course of action many leading Democrats have endorsed and that enjoys substantial support in Congress . Although Clinto n has made that point several times before , his sharpened rhetoric marked an es calation of the war of words over Bosnia policy . The move reflects a realizatio n by White House officials that Clinton needs to take a more active role in defe nding his foreign policies . Clinton also repeated his insistence that Congress not make further cuts in the defense budget , an idea congressional liberals hav e revived as lawmakers begin to face the hard choices on spending forced this ye ar by tight budget caps . In addition to his Bosnia policy , Clinton also defend ed his overall approach of emphasizing multilateral action in most foreign arena s . Clinton 's critics , including several potential Republican presidential hop efuls , have claimed that he has devalued traditional U.S. leadership by refusin g to act alone when necessary . But , Clinton said , while the United States mus t act unilaterally when its own immediate interests are at stake , many world cr ises require international cooperation instead . `` The end of the superpower st andoff lifted the lid from a cauldron of long-simmering hatreds , '' he said . ` ` Now the entire global terrain is bloody with such conflicts , from Rwanda to G eorgia . `` We cannot solve every such outburst of civil strive or militant nati onalism simply by sending in our forces . We cannot turn away from them . But ou r interests are not sufficiently at stake in so many of them to justify a commit ment of our folks . '' In Bosnia , for example , Clinton said , the United State s has interests at stake . They are not weighty enough to `` warrant our unilate ral involvement , but they do demand that we help to lead a way to a workable pe ace agreement if one can be achieved . '' Multilateral action in such cases `` p reserves our leadership , preserves our treasure and commits our forces in the p roper way . '' ( Optional add end ) Until recently , Clinton advisers tended to shy away from having the president defend his positions on foreign issues , feel ing that the public would resent Clinton for spending time on overseas issues ra ther than on domestic policies . But the administration 's mood on that issue ha s shifted recently as polls have shown that public uncertainty about Clinton 's policies has begun dragging down voters ' overall assessment of his ability . Be cause of that , officials increasingly have urged Clinton to explain and defend his policies more actively a challenge that will absorb much of Clinton 's time during his visit to Europe that begins next week . The arms embargo has been a p articularly difficult issue for the White House because Clinton agrees with crit ics who say the main impact of the embargo has been to prevent Bosnian governmen t forces from obtaining enough weapons to defend themselves against Serb rebels who receive arms through the neighboring Serbian republic . Clinton has intermit tently , and unsuccessfully , tried to convince U.S. allies to agree that it sho uld be lifted . The administration 's inability to convince Britain , France and Russia each of which has a veto in the U.N. . Security Council to agree to lift ing the embargo has led many members of both parties to call on Clinton to abrog ate the ban unilaterally . Back-to-back congressional losses underscore the Democrats ' vulnerability in t his fall 's midterm elections and could foreshadow significant Republican gains in the South , analysts in both parties said Wednesday . Republican officials qu ickly capitalized on their easy victory Tuesday in the Kentucky Congressional Di strict held for 41 years by the late William H. Natcher , D , and an earlier win in a Democratic-held district in Oklahoma , claiming the races showed growing p ublic dissatisfaction with President Clinton and the Democrats who control Congr ess . `` I think what we just did is a test run in Oklahoma and Kentucky , '' sa id House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich , R-Ga . `` Morale and momentum and therefo re resources are shifting our way and Democrats are disoriented and don't want t o defend Clinton and can't run away from him . '' But Clinton , in a private mee ting with House Democrats , said the administration has much to be proud of and urged members to `` take credit for this stuff and don't sit back on your heels , '' according to one Democrat who attended the meeting . Clinton also sharply a ttacked Republicans as `` fanatics '' who are peddling a message of `` hate and fear '' and said they are `` fooling themselves '' if they believe the Kentucky race is indicative of how Democrats will fare this fall . Democratic National Co mmittee Chairman David Wilhelm blamed the Kentucky defeat on a candidate `` who got in a defensive crouch and stayed there . '' But other Democrats , while caut ioning that special elections are often poor predictors of later contests , were more pessimistic , especially in their private comments . They said Clinton is likely to be an issue in many marginal races in the South . Even Rep. Vic Fazio , D-Calif. , who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and who echoed Wilhelm 's analysis of the Kentucky race , warned that the Republicans co uld rack up big gains this fall . Fazio called the Kentucky race unique , but sa id it nonetheless may serve `` as a wake-up call '' to the party . `` I 've been talking about our potential of losing up to 25 seats and I 've been very seriou s about it . '' The Kentucky election left the Democrats holding a 257-to-178 ad vantage in the House , along with their 56-to-44 margin in the Senate . A gain o f even 15 House seats would give Republicans their largest number since the mid- 1950s and greater gains could cost Democrats their working majority . Working co ntrol of the Senate is also threatened by the recently announced retirements of Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell , D-Maine , and Sen. David Boren , D-Okla . The party that holds the White House generally loses House seats in midterm e lections . But the Democrats ' historical disadvantage is compounded this year b y a variety of factors . They include voter anger toward Washington , Democratic retirements in marginal House districts , the effects of redistricting and Clin ton 's unpopularity in the South . Republican strategist Whit Ayres said the two special House races , combined with last year 's string of Republican victories `` send a very clear message , that voters around the country , and particularl y voters in the South , are very unhappy with the leadership provided by Preside nt Clinton and the Democrats in Congress . '' Clinton 's popularity varies from region to region and a White House official said many Democrats are anxious for his help this year . But the danger for House Democrats in districts where Clint on 's favorability ratings are weak is most apparent in the 28 open seats where Democratic incumbents have announced their retirements or are seeking higher off ice . In 17 of the 28 districts , Clinton 's vote in 1992 was below his national average of 43 percent , and in 11 of those districts , most of them in the Sout h , George Bush beat Clinton . Republican pollster Bill McInturff said that , in the South , the Clinton administration is facing growing hostility . `` In focu s groups , there is an historic anti-governemnt sentiment , '' McInturff said . `` What they see Clinton doing , on taxes , the economy , health care , these ar e seen as symbols of Jimmy Carter , round two . The guy is raising taxes and ove rreaching the role of government . '' Emory political scientist Merle Black , wh o has specialized in the study of Southern politics , said , `` Clinton is not a n asset in most Southern congressional districts '' and predicted Republican can didates would mimic the kind of campaign Republican Ron Lewis ran in Kentucky . Lewis ran an explicitly anti-Clinton campaign that included one television ad in which the face of Democrat Joe Prather turned into the face of Bill Clinton . ` ` I wouldn't be too surprised to see that ad in 200 districts in October , '' Gi ngrich said . `` I hope so , '' responded presidential pollster Stan Greenberg . `` I think people will vote for change rather than negativism and a return to t he Reagan-Bush years . '' Greenberg and other Democrats said it 's too early to make predictions about November , despite the losses in Kentucky and Oklahoma , and that the outcome of the health-care debate could become a major factor in th e fall . `` I don't think the story of the off-year elections is going to be dec ided until October , '' he said . `` People are going to make a decision of whet her we 're moving the country forward or whether we 're stuck . And right now , they don't know . '' But Republican pollster Linda Divall said many voters are s till angry with Washington . She said the special-election results were not just a vote against Clinton . `` It was also a warning signal that the changes voter s cast their votes for in 1992 have not come about and they are still frustrated . '' She and others noted the continued intense anger over congressional check bouncing , and argued that almost any outcome in the pending criminal case of Re p. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , will damage Congress and the Democrats . `` Any p lea bargain is going to look very bad , '' she said . Democrats worry that low v oter turnout , which occurred in Kentucky , will hurt their candidates this fall . `` The people on the outs are much more motivated to vote than our people are , '' said Democratic pollster Harrison Hickman . `` The angry people are going to take the time to vote . '' NEW YORK Vandals hit Machpelah Cemetery in New York City where Harry Houdini is buried , knocking over several tombstones and destroying two carved sandstone b enches at the magician 's grave site , officials said Wednesday . Houdini 's tom bstone escaped damage but two hand-carved , priceless stone benches were destroy ed , said David Jacobson , who heads the cemetery , in the borough of Queens . ` ` They were smashed , they 're irreplacable , '' he said . In the 67 years Houdi ni has been buried in Machpelah , vandalism has not been uncommon . Originally t he tombstone was topped by a bust of the magician . But after the theft of the f irst bust and two replacements , those responsible for maintenance of the grave site decided the busts ' disappearing act was too costly to go on . ANNAPOLIS , Md. . In a preview of themes he will strike during next week 's Eur opean tour , President Clinton Wednesday defended his foreign policy in general and his approach to Bosnia in particular against critics with `` simplistic idea s that sound good on bumper stickers but that would have tragic consequences . ' ' The president used a commencement address at the U.S. . Naval Academy to deliv er his most extensive explanation to date of the circumstances under which he wo uld send American troops into harm 's way and made it clear they weren't likely to include `` ethnic and religious conflicts '' like those raging in Rwanda and Bosnia . `` The end of the superpower standoff lifted the lid from a cauldron of long-simmering hatreds , '' he told a sweltering football stadium filled with g raduating midshipmen and their proud families . `` We cannot solve every such ou tburst of civil strife or militant nationalism simply by sending in our forces . We cannot turn away from them , but our interests are not sufficiently at stake in so many of them to justify a commitment of our folks . '' The speech was the first in a series of presidential addresses tied to next week 's celebration in Europe of the 50th anniversary of D-Day , the amphibious assault on the Normand y beaches that turned the tide in World War II . The White House is approaching Clinton 's eight-day trip to Italy , England and France eager to bolster his cre dentials , now under increasing fire , on foreign and defense issues . Clinton o utlined relatively limited circumstances under which he would commit U.S. forces , saying he would do so `` to defend our land and our people '' and `` to prote ct our vital interests . '' During the 1992 campaign , he had advocated more dec isive U.S. action in places like Bosnia and Haiti , but he has tempered those vi ews since taking office especially since the debacle in Somalia last year that c ost American lives . In Bosnia and elsewhere , he said , the United States shoul d work with other nations and be prepared to not always call the shots about how to proceed . He singled out for rebuke calls by Congress to unilaterally break the U.N. arms embargo for Bosnian Muslims . While Clinton personally supports li fting the embargo , Britain and France , which have troops on the ground there , oppose it . `` We simply must not opt for options and action that sound simple and painless and good , but which will not work in this era of interdependence w here it is important that we leverage American influence and leadership by provi ng that we can work with others , '' he said , `` especially when others have gr eater and more immediate stakes and are willing to put their soldiers in harm 's way . '' The Senate this month passed a bill that would require Clinton to lift the embargo unilaterally , though it also passed a contradictory provision inst ructing him to consult with NATO allies first . Advocates of lifting the ban tri ed to force a House vote on the issue Tuesday , but Democratic leaders postponed it until after Clinton returns from the D-Day trip . ( Optional add end ) In hi s speech , Clinton referred to two recent controversies that have rocked the Nav y the Tailhook affair and a cheating scandal that led to the expulsion of 24 aca demy midshipmen last month . `` These are troubling events , to be sure , becaus e our military rests on honor and leadership , '' he said . Then he made a comme nt that echoed an argument put forward by those defending Clinton himself agains t attacks on his character . `` But , ultimately , the test of leadership is not constant flawlessness , '' he said . `` Rather , it is marked by a commitment t o continue always to strive for the highest standards , to learn honestly when o ne falls short , and to do the right thing when it happens . '' Like someone who 's had too many cups , world coffee markets are wired these da ys with the price of beans rocketing higher , thanks to worsening shortages in C olombia , Brazil and the other big coffee producing nations . The commodity pric e of whole , unroasted beans has roughly doubled since last summer , with the la test surge occurring in the past week . And coffee experts say prices could doub le again before it 's over . The dramatic rise which was predicted long ago by c offee growing nations as the inevitable result of the collapse of an internation al cartel in 1989 is described as chiefly a cyclical response to the woefully lo w prices that prevailed just a year ago . When prices tumble , as they did stead ily from 1989 to 1993 , growers save money by skimping on fertilizers and other agricultural practices , opening the door to crop disease and infestations that can slash the size of crops for years . Shortages follow , bidding prices back u p . That and this season 's late Indonesian harvest had more to do with the surg e in prices than did a recent scheme by 28 coffee-growing nations to withhold be ans from the market , says Judith Ganes , a coffee analyst at Merrill Lynch in N ew York . As production fell and consumption remained flat , estimated stockpile s have tumbled by half , says Ganes , triggering a classic supply-demand reactio n in prices . As recently as last July , the average world price of a pound of g reen , or unroasted , coffee beans stood at 52 cents . On Wednesday , the price stood at $ 1.28 a pound . Analyst Ganes predicts the price will exceed $ 2 withi n four months . `` What matters right now is there aren't enough beans , and the growers willn't be able to recoup before 1995 or 1996 , '' says Ganes . `` I th ink the bull market is just starting . '' Though good news for those members of the lately toothless coffee growers ' cartel that have beans to sell , it spells trouble for coffee 's `` Big Three '' Procter & Gamble , Kraft/General Foods an d Nestle 's as they struggle to hold the line on retail prices and limit the fur ther loss of customers to pricey , higher-quality gourmet blends . General Foods , which distributed the Folgers brand , has raised its price to grocers by 25 p ercent , but there has been no ripple effect yet in what consumers pay . Whether that occurs will depend partly on the marketing strategies of the coffee roaste rs and peddlers , says Tom Pirko , president of Santa Barbara , Calif.-based Bev mark Inc. , an international beverage consulting company . ( Optional add end ) Pirko described the high-volume roasters purveyors of such name brands as Folger 's and Maxwell House as plagued by razor-thin profit margins . They have held t he line on prices to hang on to customers who might otherwise opt for the gourme t coffees . If the makers of the cheaper canned coffees decide to raise retail p rices to avoid losses , Pirko said , the trendy gourmet companies typified by Se attle-based Starbucks could grab still more market share by keeping current pric es and foregoing some of the generous profit margins they now enjoy . `` The que stion is , are they smart enough to know that ? '' Pirko said . `` Their margins are enormous . They could absorb much bigger ( green bean price ) increases tha n we 've seen so far . '' WASHINGTON Wall Street 's hottest trading instruments may pose some risks to th e financial system , but Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and other top r egulators told Congress Wednesday that tougher laws over financial `` derivative s '' are unnecessary . Their opposition dims chances that Congress will pass a b ill to stiffen regulation of derivatives this term . The regulators ' reluctance comes despite last week 's release of a two-year report on derivatives by the G eneral Accounting Office that detected `` regulatory gaps '' and called for aggr essive reforms , some of which would require legislation . While commending the GAO for its work , Greenspan and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Art hur Levitt Jr. played down the report 's warning that recent multimillion-dollar losses at U.S. companies and investment firms were signs of more danger ahead . Wednesday 's hearing before the House subcommittee on Energy and Commerce chair ed by Rep. Edward J. Markey , D-Mass. , highlighted Washington 's continuing ina bility to get its arms around the fast-growing $ 12 trillion derivatives busines s . Companies and speculators use derivatives both to make money on trading bets and to protect the value of their other investments from unexpected changes . U nlike stocks , derivative contracts do not entitle holders to any stake in a bus iness or its profits . They instead let holders bet on the movement of stock pri ces and other securities . When indicators move in expected directions , like in terest rates did recently , companies holding derivatives contracts can lose mon ey . Greenspan pooh-poohed fears that the recent corporate losses are the first of many to come . `` It would be wrong to draw sweeping conclusions from these e vents , '' Greenspan said . The `` unintended consequences '' of tougher U.S. re gulation might be that derivatives would simply be struck overseas where laws we re more lenient , making efforts by U.S. regulators to supervise derivatives mor e difficult . Greenspan and Levitt argued against the GAO 's proposal to give th e SEC power over the securities firms ' affiliates that trade derivatives , whic h are now unregulated . The GAO recommends SEC regulatory authority akin to what the Federal Reserve has over the derivative units of commercial banks . Legisla ting SEC oversight of derivatives would lessen regulatory `` flexibility , '' ac cording to the Fed chairman . He said the derivatives market was growing so fast that today 's regulation would be outmoded tomorrow . Levitt mainly agreed with Greenspan but said he would seek legislation in the fall if his efforts to work with Wall Street to lessen the risks of derivatives failed . But he ruled out m andating procedures for how dealers and companies manage the risks associated wi th derivatives , a GAO proposal that is hated by Wall Street and business lobbyi ng groups . Markey , who has announced he plans to introduce derivative-related legislation , said he was disappointed by the regulators ' response . He ended t he hearing by saying he will soon hold hearings on specific cases in which deriv atives caused large losses . When a derivative contract is struck between two pa rties like a bank and a corporation each side agrees to make payments to the oth er for some period of time , say , five years . How much money each side pays de pends on events in the securities markets . Each side 's payment obligation `` d erives '' from price changes in such underlying securities as stocks , bonds , f oreign exchange and commodities . WASHINGTON Washington adores a good rumor , and a real humdinger about Barbra S treisand is virtually consuming Old Town Alexandria , in Northern Virginia . See ms that residents of the quaint historic locale are totally convinced that the s uperstar has purchased an extravagant home among them . Well , as exciting as th is has been for all of us , it appears that Miss Streisand has no plans to disru pt local traffic patterns , according to local real estate agents and Streisand intimates . `` Gee , '' said a very close friend of the diva , `` she did go ant iquing in Old Town last year . That 's about as close as she 's gotten .. . . '' The friend assured us in no uncertain terms that any talk of Streisand leaving California was simply `` crazy . '' -0- Warner Bros. might see it as just good f un and box-office receipts , but the Consumer Product Safety Commission isn't la ughing . The federal regulatory agency has strongly warned Warner that safety pr ocedures better be followed in scenes where child star Macaulay Culkin zooms aro und on a controversial all-terrain vehicle ( ATV ) in the upcoming `` Richie Ric h . '' And it is the appearance of safety that also has the agency concerned . I t might not be apparent on screen , for example , that 13-year-old Culkin 's dri ving is being supervised by adults or that he 's not speeding . `` Kids don't kn ow the difference between reality and the movies , '' Ann Brown , chairman of th e CPSC , tells us . `` When they see a role model appearing to drive around unsa fely , that sets a bad example . '' Added CPSC General Counsel Eric Rubel , `` W e want to make sure an adult is in the scene otherwise the wrong impression is l eft . '' The scene was shot recently , and a spokesman for Warner said Wednesday night that the company `` did its best to meet the guidelines suggested by the commission . '' Although the spokeswoman said Culkin wore a helmet and did not d rive wildly or on pavement , she would not address the appearance issue . The CP SC claims the recreational vehicles have been responsible for more than 2,000 de aths in the past decade , nearly 900 of which were drivers under 16 . The CPSC a ctually has no enforcement authority over Warner . But , according to Rubel , it is studying whether it could expand its jurisdiction on the grounds that films are consumer products . We 've heard that .. . First Brother Roger Clinton is no w a daddy . His bride , Molly Martin Clinton , gave birth to a son , Tyler Cassi dy , on May 12 in Torrance , Calif. . `` The president is just delighted that he 's an uncle , '' said a White House spokesman Wednesday . -0- Norman Schwarzkop f , who headed U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf War , was recovering from surgery Wednesday for prostate cancer . A statement from Walter Reed Army Medical Cente r said , `` All indications are that the cancer was discovered in its early stag es , and the prospects are for a full recovery . '' -0- Iowa Democrat Neal Smith feels wronged . He says his remarks as quoted by the Des Moines Register statin g that if Bill Clinton did proposition Paula Jones , he 'd be disappointed in th e president for hitting on `` such a homely woman '' were misinterpreted . Mostl y , he says , he meant to convey that the Jones charges are politically motivate d . That makes it a lot clearer . -0- George and Barbara Bush 's Houston neighbo rs were obviously not totally prepared for all the hubbub that comes with the ar rival of a former president . Wednesday , the neighborhood got a bit more privac y when the Houston City Council voted to allow the street to be closed to guard against the streams of gawkers who have been parading through . WASHINGTON Democratic National Chairman David Wilhelm on Wednesday denounced De mocratic candidates , including the loser in this week 's special House election in Kentucky , for not running on President Clinton 's record . `` The lesson he re is that Democrats should run as Democrats , '' Wilhelm said , speaking of the loss Tuesday of a House seat in Kentucky held by Democrats for 129 years . The defeat spurred increased concern among Democrats and enthusiasm in Republican ci rcles about prospects in the fall elections . The election results and Wilhelm ' s criticism underlined a problem that Democratic congressional candidates will h ave to face in November as a result of their party 's conquest of the White Hous e in 1992 . During the 12 years of the Reagan-Bush presidencies Democratic candi dates could tailor their campaigns to suit local tastes with minimal concern abo ut the national party . But now they have to answer for Clinton 's policies , to o , and this could be a heavy burden , especially in the South and other conserv ative areas where the president and his policies are not popular . In off-year e lections , the party controlling the White House traditionally loses seats in th e House , where the Democrats hold a 256-178 majority . But professionals in bot h parties said circumstances of the Kentucky contest suggested that House Democr ats this year face a particularly difficult predicament . Adding to their burden is the gradual but steady realignment of the South 's congressional districts , which have long been dominated by Democrats . The Kentucky special election to replace the late Rep. William H. Natcher was won by Republican Ron Lewis , a min ister and owner of a fundamentalist book store who received 55 percent of the vo te to 45 percent for Democrat Joe Prather , a former state legislator . A distan t underdog at the start of the campaign , Lewis benefited from an infusion of ca mpaign funds and advice from the national party , and from a zealous organizing effort by conservative Christians . He centered his campaign on linking Prather to Clinton , even running a television commercial that depicted Clinton 's face blending into Prather 's . `` If you like Bill Clinton , you 'll love Joe Prathe r , '' the announcer declared . In a district former President Bush carried agai nst Clinton in 1992 , Prather concluded he should keep his distance from Clinton and from the national party , refusing financial support or any other type of h elp . But he was so preoccupied with warding off Lewis 's attack , other Democra ts charged , he failed to develop a positive message of his own . `` As best I c an tell , Joe Prather got into a defensive crouch and stayed there , '' Wilhelm told a Washington news conference . ( Optional add end ) Wilhelm claimed the sam e strategy was followed in the last year by unsuccessful Democratic candidates B ob Kreuger , who ran for U.S. Senate in Texas , and Virginia gubernatorial nomin ee Mary Sue Terry . Wilhelm said that approach `` is a dead bang loser , '' beca use `` it allows your opponent to define you and causes Democrats to stay at hom e in droves . '' Wilhelm contended that Lewis and other Democrats would be bette r off running on the president 's record . They should be `` proud of deficit re duction , proud of ( creating ) 3 million jobs , '' and should not `` pretend as if you were in a different party or your president was somebody else , '' he sa id But some independent analysts and Democratic consultants rejected Wilhelm 's argument . `` Right now the president is not seen as an asset '' in many Souther n districts , said Merle Black , Emory University specialist on Southern politic s . Democratic candidates in those districts `` are stuck with Clinton and he ha s given them an unpopular agenda . '' WASHINGTON The Hubble Space Telescope has confirmed for the first time the exis tence of a supermassive black hole , ending a decades-long quest for definitive proof , astronomers announced Wednesday . The orbiting observatory , with correc tive lenses installed during a repair mission last December , for the first time was able to see clearly into the heart of the giant galaxy M87 , more than 50 m illion light-years away in the constellation Virgo , where astronomers have long suspected a monstrous black hole has lurking . The telescope revealed the detai ls there so sharply that the observing team was able to `` weigh '' the object a t the galaxy 's center with unexpected ease , the astronomers said . The key was a pancake-shaped disk of hot gas spinning around , and being consumed , by some thing at the center . Measurements of its velocity showed that the central objec t has a mass 2 billion to 3 billion times the mass of the sun , compressed into an area about the size of our solar system . `` If that isn't a black hole , I d on't know what it is , '' said Holland Ford of Johns Hopkins University and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore . He and Richard Harms of Applied Research Corp. in Landover , Md. , led the observing team and announced the fin dings Wednesday at NASA headquarters . The concept of a black hole was built , a t first , purely on mathematical equations and imaginings of theorists . They en visioned a massive , collapsing object ( a star or group of stars ) whose gravit ational pull is so powerful that nothing not even light can come out again after it has crossed the hole 's threshold , known as the `` event horizon . '' Withi n this singular object , normal time and space come to a halt . The known laws o f physics do not apply . Everything trapped inside that one-way membrane , lost forever to the rest of the universe , is by definition invisible detectable only by the violent and flamboyant energy of material on the verge of being consumed . The immense gravity of the black hole draws all nearby objects and material t oward it , forming a whirlpool ( called an `` accretion disk '' ) that resembles water going down the bathtub drain . In this maelstrom , matter crowds in , col lides , heats up and forms what Hubble saw as a pancake of gas around the hole , with high-speed jets of gas spewing from the disk near one or both `` poles '' of the hole . In recent years , increasingly sophisticated instruments gradually have piled up convincing evidence that these objects exist . But , Ford said , `` Skeptical colleagues were always clever enough to create computer models show ing that some other explanation was possible . '' Now , said Bruce Margon of the University of Washington , `` We no longer have an alternative theory . '' `` A ll reasonable astronomers will be convinced '' said NASA astronomer Stephen Mara n of Goddard Space Flight Center , who is also a spokesman for the American Astr onomical Society . The `` smoking gun '' proof presented Wednesday was the measu rement of the astounding velocity in the whirling disk of gas as it was sucked i nward by the powerful gravity of the hole : At a distance of 60 light years out , it was whipping around at 1.2 million miles per hour . ( A light year is about 5.8 trillion miles ) . `` Once you get that measurement , all you need is strai ghtforward Newtonian physics to calculate the mass of the central object that 's making the disk spin , '' says Harms . In a similar way , astronomers have meas ured the motions of the planets to determine the sun 's mass . M87 is a giant fo otball-shaped collection of up to a trillion stars . It has fascinated astronome rs since early in the century , when they detected a jet of hot ionized gas at l east 4,000 light years long shooting from its core . Such a jet is now thought t o be one signature of a black hole . The new observations show that the disk of whirling gas is positioned at a right angle to the jet , just as predicted . The orist Edwin E. Salpeter of Cornell University , after seeing the new Hubble data , said , `` A black hole is now the least crazy model for what we 're seeing . '' Thirty years ago , Salpeter and a Russian astronomer independently wrote pape rs essentially predicting Wednesday 's findings . `` It 's good to finally win t he bet , '' he added . Recent observations indicate that black holes may come in a variety of sizes and may live at the cores of many galaxies , including Earth 's home galaxy , the Milky Way . If Earth itself could collapse into a black ho le , one astronomer suggested , it would be compressed to the size of a child 's marble . It there were material nearby for it to consume , the feeding frenzy w ould produce as much radiation as the sun . In fact , recent observations indica te that these powerhouses may be commonplace in the universe , existing in all s izes and throughout time . WASHINGTON The Hubble Space Telescope has confirmed for the first time the exis tence of a supermassive black hole , ending a decades-long quest for definitive proof , astronomers announced Wednesday . The orbiting observatory , with correc tive lenses installed during a repair mission last December , for the first time was able to see clearly into the heart of the giant galaxy M87 , more than 50 m illion light-years away in the constellation Virgo , where astronomers have long suspected a monstrous black hole has lurking . The telescope revealed the detai ls there so sharply that the observing team was able to `` weigh '' the object a t the galaxy 's center with unexpected ease , the astronomers said . The key was a pancake-shaped disk of hot gas spinning around , and being consumed , by some thing at the center . Measurements of its velocity showed that the central objec t has a mass 2 billion to 3 billion times the mass of the sun , compressed into an area about the size of our solar system . `` If that isn't a black hole , I d on't know what it is , '' said Holland Ford of Johns Hopkins University and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore . He and Richard Harms of Applied Research Corp. in Landover , Md. , led the observing team and announced the fin dings Wednesday at NASA headquarters . The concept of a black hole was built , a t first , purely on mathematical equations and imaginings of theorists . They en visioned a massive , collapsing object ( a star or group of stars ) whose gravit ational pull is so powerful that nothing not even light can come out again after it has crossed the hole 's threshold , known as the `` event horizon . '' Withi n this singular object , normal time and space come to a halt . The known laws o f physics do not apply . Everything trapped inside that one-way membrane , lost forever to the rest of the universe , is by definition invisible detectable only by the violent and flamboyant energy of material on the verge of being consumed . The immense gravity of the black hole draws all nearby objects and material t oward it , forming a whirlpool ( called an `` accretion disk '' ) that resembles water going down the bathtub drain . In this maelstrom , matter crowds in , col lides , heats up and forms what Hubble saw as a pancake of gas around the hole , with high-speed jets of gas spewing from the disk near one or both `` poles '' of the hole . In recent years , increasingly sophisticated instruments gradually have piled up convincing evidence that these objects exist . But , Ford said , `` Skeptical colleagues were always clever enough to create computer models show ing that some other explanation was possible . '' Now , said Bruce Margon of the University of Washington , `` We no longer have an alternative theory . '' `` A ll reasonable astronomers will be convinced '' said NASA astronomer Stephen Mara n of Goddard Space Flight Center , who is also a spokesman for the American Astr onomical Society . The `` smoking gun '' proof presented Wednesday was the measu rement of the astounding velocity in the whirling disk of gas as it was sucked i nward by the powerful gravity of the hole : At a distance of 60 light years out , it was whipping around at 1.2 million miles per hour . ( A light year is about 5.8 trillion miles ) . `` Once you get that measurement , all you need is strai ghtforward Newtonian physics to calculate the mass of the central object that 's making the disk spin , '' says Harms . In a similar way , astronomers have meas ured the motions of the planets to determine the sun 's mass . M87 is a giant fo otball-shaped collection of up to a trillion stars . It has fascinated astronome rs since early in the century , when they detected a jet of hot ionized gas at l east 4,000 light years long shooting from its core . Such a jet is now thought t o be one signature of a black hole . The new observations show that the disk of whirling gas is positioned at a right angle to the jet , just as predicted . The orist Edwin E. Salpeter of Cornell University , after seeing the new Hubble data , said , `` A black hole is now the least crazy model for what we 're seeing . '' Thirty years ago , Salpeter and a Russian astronomer independently wrote pape rs essentially predicting Wednesday 's findings . `` It 's good to finally win t he bet , '' he added . Recent observations indicate that black holes may come in a variety of sizes and may live at the cores of many galaxies , including Earth 's home galaxy , the Milky Way . If Earth itself could collapse into a black ho le , one astronomer suggested , it would be compressed to the size of a child 's marble . It there were material nearby for it to consume , the feeding frenzy w ould produce as much radiation as the sun . In fact , recent observations indica te that these powerhouses may be commonplace in the universe , existing in all s izes and throughout time . WASHINGTON Poisoning by chemical-warfare agents is a likely cause of at least s ome cases of `` Gulf War syndrome , '' the illness that may afflict more than 10 ,000 veterans of the Persian Gulf War against Iraq , according to a Senate commi ttee report released Wednesday . Pentagon officials , testifying before the Sena te Banking Committee Wednesday , said that even though they have no evidence of gas attacks during the Gulf War , as-yet-unproved contact with chemical- or biol ogical-warfare agents remains on the long list of possible causes of the mysteri ous malady . The 151-page report , prepared largely by the staff of Sen. Donald W. Riegle Jr. , D-Mich , who chairs the committee , builds a case for low-concen tration exposure to chemical agents at levels below those causing mass death or unequivocal detection by mechanical sensors . The cluster of symptoms which incl ude fatigue , concentration problems , joint pains and skin rashes are `` consis tent with '' chronic exposure to these agents , particularly nerve gas , Riegle argued . `` I think the facts are now inescapable that ( chemical-weapons exposu re ) is a significant amount of this problem , '' Riegle said during a day-long hearing . `` If the defense department is incapable of seeing this .. . the prob lem is going to get a lot worse . '' Representatives of the Department of Defens e and the Central Intelligence Agency each testified they had no convincing evid ence either from physical or intelligence sources that chemical or biological we apons had been used during the Gulf War . Under confrontational questioning by R iegle , however , no one was willing to absolutely guarantee that no exposure ha d occurred . `` The intelligence community has an expression : `` Absence of evi dence is not evidence of absence ' , '' said John T. Kriese , chief officer for ground forces at the Defense Intelligence Agency . `` I cannot say there was no CW ( chemical warfare ) use or BW ( biological warfare ) contamination . From ev erything I know , my judgment is that it was not used . ( But ) I think it 's im possible to prove a negative . '' The reports of chemical-weapon contact that th e U.S. military finds most credible were two made by Czech soldiers in mid-Janua ry 1991 . In the first , a gas alarm near the Port of Jubayl sounded and subsequ ent chemical testing demonstrated the presence of saran , a nerve gas . Several days later , soldiers detected liquid mustard agent in a small patch of desert s and near King Khalid Military City . American officials reviewed the chemical re cords , spoke to the soldiers and found these reports credible . But because no gas or sand samples were kept , independent confirmation of the Czech findings w asn't possible . Riegle 's office last September released a preliminary investig ation of alleged gas attacks during the Gulf War . His staff extensively intervi ewed soldiers who believed they were gassed . The new report contains narratives of 16 of these events , which are often characterized by missile attacks follow ed by gas alarms , strange smells and various symptoms in the minutes before sol diers were fully suited in their protective gear . The report , which also carri es the name of the banking committee 's ranking minority member , Sen. Alfonse M . D' Amato , R-N.Y. , contains details about chemical agents and sensing devices , a list of Iraq 's purchases of bacteria and viruses from American sellers in the 1980s ( when Iraq was fighting Iran ) ; other possible causes of Gulf War sy ndrome ; and theories to explain some of the many unanswered questions about the illness . Much of Wednesday 's hearing consisted of speculation by witnesses an d interrogators about what scenarios in the absence of proof are least likely to be true . Riegle theorized that gas was released into the atmosphere after the bombing of Iraqi munitions dumps . It then drifted over coalition troops in conc entrations that were undetectable , or only marginally detectable . Kriese respo nded : `` The question is where are the very sick people , the people with very high exposure ? '' After studying aerial photographs taken after bombing runs , `` we found no evidence of the deaths we would expect from local release of larg e amounts of material . '' There were about 1,400 chemical-sensor alarms among A merican troops . Gulf War veterans said many of these went off repeatedly and of ten during reported ( and sometimes disputed ) incoming SCUD missile attacks . V irtually none of the more sensitive devices used after these alarms sound confir med the presence of gas . The military has concluded that essentially all the al arms were false alarms . `` No answers are being found as to where this body of sick veterans came from , '' said Sen. Robert Bennett , R-Utah . `` To say all t he explosions were sonic booms and all the alarms were false alarms and all the illness is coming from some other source is just not going to cut it . '' Riegle was especially concerned about reports that some spouses of ailing Gulf veteran s have also developed symptoms , including reproductive problems , and that some children may also be affected . No one theorized how transmission of low concen trations of chemical agents might be possible months after contamination and tho usands of miles away . CULVER CITY , Calif. . Closing a celebrated chapter in aerospace history , the aircraft plant where Howard Hughes built the Spruce Goose five decades ago was s cheduled to shut down Thursday afternoon . McDonnell Douglas Corp. has built hel icopter parts in the plant 's cavernous centerpiece , Building 15 , since buying Hughes Aircraft Co. 's helicopter line in 1984 . But McDonnell has been shiftin g that work in recent years to its main helicopter site in Mesa , Ariz. , and it s roughly 50 production workers still in Culver City are calling its quits when the final shift ends at 2 p.m. . `` It 's very sad for me , although all of us h ad known it was coming , '' said Betty Percival , who 's spent 21 years at the p lant in administrative posts . `` I almost wish I hadn't seen this part . On the other hand , I wouldn't have left earlier . '' Hughes began construction of the plant in 1941 , and completed Building 15 in 1943 to accommodate construction o f the Spruce Goose , an enormous wooden craft that was also known as the HK-1 He rcules Flying Boat and remains the biggest airplane ever built . More than two d ozen other structures eventually were added to the 260-acre site . Some of the b uildings including one that served as Howard Hughes ' private apartment already are empty and the plant 's 4,500-space parking lot is dotted with weeds . Hughes Aircraft 's original headquarters , once famed for its mahogany trimmed walls , also sits vacant and rotting 18 years after the billionaire 's death . McDonnel l 's main administrative building on the plant is like a ghost town , its dozens of drab offices empty of people and telephones . Hundreds of typewriters , pers onal computers , desk lamps and chairs that once filled those rooms were auction ed off earlier this week . The factory floor in Building 15 is filled with idle metal stamping machines , drills , hydraulic presses and welding bays . Some are being put in crates for shipment to Arizona . Above , an enormous American flag still hangs from the building 's rafters . The plant , which once employed as m any as 8,000 people , willn't be entirely vacated until the end of this year . H ughes Aircraft still inhabits two buildings at the site , where 700 workers make high-tech display screens for police cars and other electronic gear . But both McDonnell and Hughes are tenants on the property , with leases expiring at end o f 1994 , and Hughes said its employees will leave by then as well . The property is part of a massive development project , that will transform the site into a community with housing , offices , stores and hotels . What happens to the plant now ? Nelson Rising , a senior partner at Maguire Thomas Partners , the develop er , said the first phase calls for leaving the buildings there probably for at least five years and possibly leasing them to new tenants. . Eventually , `` the overall master plan calls for those ( buildings ) to be replaced as the market dictates , '' he said . But R.D. `` Rod '' Ayers , a plant manager who arrived t here in 1969 , said that it would be a shame to tear down Building 15 . It `` is a historical site , '' Ayers said . `` The biggest aircraft in the whole world was built right in that building over there . '' The plant 's demise does end an unique era , because everything about the facility reinforced Howard Hughes ' l egend as a bigger-than-life innovator . Building 15 , as long as 2 football fiel ds and its ceiling eight stories high , was thought to be the world 's largest w ooden structure when it was finished , according to Hal Klopper , a McDonnell pu blic relations official and the plant 's unofficial historian . The Spruce Goose a label Hughes despised , because the plane actually was made mostly of birch w as 218 feet long and 79 feet high . With Hughes at the controls , the aircraft m ade its first and only flight over Los Angeles Harbor in late 1947 . The plane l ater was kept on display in Long Beach , Calif. , then was moved to Oregon last year . BONN , Germany French President Francois Mitterrand , defending his apparent fa ilure to investigate concentration camps in Bosnia after a top-level appeal , sa ys that France did more and acted faster than any other country . In a letter to Newsday , presidential spokesman Jean Musitelli Wednesday implicitly acknowledg ed the charge against Mitterrand of `` silence and inaction '' for at least five weeks in the summer of 1992 . But he added more fuel to a politically volatile issue by turning the charge around and suggesting that it also applied to the Bo snian leaders who made it . Newsday reported earlier this month that Mitterrand failed to order an investigation or any other follow-up . A two-page statement b y the French presidency last Friday in response to the Newsday account did not d ispute the essential points . Indeed , the Elysee Palace acknowledged that Franc e undertook no action until early August 1992 , when Mitterrand demanded that ev ery camp be `` visited , monitored and opened . '' In mid-August , it noted , Mi tterrand sent Humanitarian Affairs Minister Bernard Kouchner to inspect camps in Bosnia . `` Who did better and who acted quicker ? '' the Elysee statement said . In fact , no government , including the United States , took action to uncove r and halt the atrocities for weeks until a groundswell of public opinion led to a series of resolutions at the U.N. . Security Council . Most of these resoluti ons have not been implemented , however . `` Concerning the Americans , to be ch aritable , let us not speak of them , '' Musitelli said . France 's European par tners were reluctant to act , and there was no will at the United Nations , he s aid . Mitterrand went to Sarajevo to `` bear witness with his solidarity , to sh ake the world 's consciousness and to permit President ( Alija ) Izetbegovic to speak before the world media . '' The controversy emerged after the screening of `` Bosna ! '' ( Bosnia ! ) , a documentary film directed by French philospher B ernard-Henri Levy that is fiercely critical of official French policy favoring p artition of Bosnia-Herzegovina . Izetbegovic related in the film that in June 19 92 , taking advantage of the French leader 's sudden dramatic trip to Sarajevo , he had personally briefed his visitor about massacres of civilians and deportat ions to camps . The Bosnian leader appealed to Mitterrand in public to send moni tors to determine the truth of the allegations . During the five weeks between M itterrand 's Sarajevo visit on June 28 , 1992 , and Newsday 's publication Aug. 2 of an account of systematic atrocities , thousands of civilians were massacred in camps , according to a new U.N. study . Levy has demanded a change of policy and threatened to organize an independent slate of candidates for the European parliamentary elections next month . Such a slate , favoring direct aid to the B osnian government , would split Mitterrand 's socialists and cut into the conser vative government 's list as well . Mitterrand , forced to defend an unpopular p olicy , criticized the news media , other Western countries and , as well as the Bosnian government . In the film , Izetbegovic expressed `` great surprise '' t hat , after briefing Mitterrand on the camps , the French president `` remained silent '' upon returning to Paris . Mitterrand 's spokesman , in a letter to New sday Wednesday , accused the Bosnian government of doing the same thing . `` How do you explain that the Bosnian leaders , who now reproach Francois Mitterrand for his silence and inaction '' in the summer of 1992 , `` remained , it seems t o me , silent and inactive themselves during this period ? '' Musitelli said . M usitelli did not indicate any disagreement with his own characterization of Mitt errand 's response as `` silence and inaction . '' He repeated a suggestion carr ied five days earlier in the Elysee statement that the news media also failed to pursue the same tips Mitterrand had received on the existence of concentration camps . `` To say that the president of the republic would have been the only on e to obtain that exclusive information stated by Mr. Izetbegovic is an absurdity , '' the Elysee statement said . It said Izetbegovic mentioned concentration ca mps during the joint news appearance with Mitterrand June 28 after their private meeting . `` If that information was new , how can one explain that it did not arouse more interest from the media which were there ? '' ( In fact , internatio nal news media had little access to most Serb-controlled territory until July 13 , 1992 , when Newsday became the first foreign publication to reach Banja Luka , the main city in the Serb-conquered areas of Bosnia . Newsday published its fi rst account about purported Serbian death camps July 19 , 1992 , and two weeks l ater , after locating witnesses , reported on systematic killing in the camps . ) The Elysee statement alleged that the Bosnian government did not even circulat e a list of concentration camps until Aug. 5 . In fact , according to a U.N. inv estigation , the Bosnian government handed a list of more than 100 camps to U.N. military officials in Sarajevo July 26 and it was transmitted immediately to th e Security Council . That was only the latest of many lists that had been issued in the form of government bulletins and broadcast on Sarajevo radio since late May 1992 . Asked to explain the discrepancy in the dates , Muriel de Pierrebourg , Mitterrand 's press attache , told Newsday : `` We have published the communi que . For us the matter is finished . '' She declined to say whether France had been aware of the official Bosnian statements . ( Optional add end ) Musitelli s aid in his letter to Newsday that the essence of the matter lies `` not in preci se dates or details . '' The essence was `` the absurdity of the thesis which co nsists of making Francois Mitterrand responsible , through his silence , for the delay in the discovery of the camps . '' Newsday asked the Elysee in early May to determine whether Mitterrand , on his return from Sarajevo in 1992 , had orde red the French government to investigate Izetbegovic 's allegations or had infor med fellow Western leaders . De Pierrebourg said she had no answer to this quest ion . `` We have told the truth , everything we know , everything we are able to reconstruct , '' she said . WASHINGTON Amid an embattled chairman of the Ways and Means Committee , lawmake rs who can't get together and an American public still not banging down legislat ors ' doors for action , President Clinton visited Capitol Hill Wednesday to inj ect some political muscle into the health care debate . `` I was urging the posi tion that I strongly feel we must pass health care this year , '' Clinton said a fter the first of three meetings . `` I think we must find a way to cover all Am ericans . '' Clinton put on a full-court press Wednesday , bringing key staffers and Cabinet members to the hill . While he told reporters he received a `` very heartening progress report '' from Democratic leaders , senators at a bipartisa n session later said he got a frank and candid assessment of the obstacles facin g reform . `` It 's obvious there remains substantial diagreements over how to b est proceed , '' Majority Leader George Mitchell , D-Maine , said after the sess ion . But he said it also was `` obvious there 's a growing desire to get someth ing done . '' Sen. Bob Packwood , R-Ore. , who has been working closely with Sen . Daniel Moynihan , D-N.Y. , chairman of the Finance Committee , to get a bipart isan accord , said after the meeting : `` I said Mr . President , I support mand ates . I will support mandates . But if this bill had mandates it will lose . '' While Democratic leaders and the White House downplayed the meetings as just pr e-recess updates , administration officials are privately concerned that Congres s will recess for Memorial Day without meeting the goal of at least one major co mmittee completing its work on a health care bill . The House Ways and Means Com mittee whose chairman , Rep. Daniel Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , is embroiled in lega l troubles that threaten his very tenure in the House is still haggling with the Congressional Budget Office over the costs of the various health plan scenarios . The House Energy and Commerce Committee is deadlocked and the Senate Finance Committee , while apparently approaching agreement , has still not begun to deba te any specific bill . And while the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee is well under way in considering a Clinton-like plan proposed by its chairman , Sen. Edward M. Kennedy , D-Mass. , that committee willn't complete its work unti l sometime in June . At the same time , health care advocates are worried that w hatever emerges from this process will be a watered-down version of the original Clinton proposal . And they realize that they still have some work to do to get the average American energized over this issue . `` My own feeling is that the American people have to speak up more , '' said John Rother , chief lobbyist for the American Association of Retired Persons and head of a broad-based coalition in favor of reform . The trouble , Rother said , is that `` people don't know w hat 's going to happen if we don't have reform . '' ( Optional add end ) Rep. Pe te Stark , D-Calif. , chairman of the Ways and Means health subcommittee , agree d . `` The fact is , 150 million people have a health care plan , '' Stark said at a health reporters ' breakfast this week . `` The worry of health care for th e majority of Americans is an economic worry and as the economy gets a little be tter , they may feel a little better about their health care . '' Clinton had or iginally planned to meet only with Democrats first with Senate Democratic leader s and then the full House Democratic caucus . But Mitchell prevailed on the pres ident Wednesday to add a session that included Senate Republican leaders . Asked whether she could support alternatives that would reform many aspects of the in surance industry , first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton said : `` It is absolutely clear to me that we need to make a lot of the reforms that are being mentioned . But in the absence of a definite plan that will achieve universal coverage , th ose are not enough . '' Want to buy a sexy car that offers loads of `` fahrvergnugen ? '' Consider a VW Cabrio . Want to buy one that 's more pedestrian but more likely to be there in tact when you emerge from the mall ? Buy a sensible , practical , Chevrolet Cava lier station wagon . Apparently , that Chevy model is about as popular among thi eves as a cop with a flashlight . The Highway Loss Data Institute , an insurance industry trade group , said in its annual auto theft report that the VW convert ible had the highest rate of theft claims , based on payments by insurance compa nies between 1991 and 1993 for 1991 through 1993 models . The claims include tho se for thefts of entire cars and for parts , such as radios , air bags and hood ornaments . In VW 's case , said Kim Hazelbaker , senior vice president of the i nsurance group , the high claim rate is due mostly to the theft of radios , a lo ngstanding problem in VWs that apparently , said Hazelbaker , is made worse by t he limited security of a convertible . Hazelbaker hastened to point out that the report 's conclusions do not apply to the redesigned , 1995 VW Cabrio introduce d earlier this month . VW spokesman Andy Boyd in Auburn Hills , Mich. , says nei ther the radio nor its mounting system was changed , but that a factory anti-the ft alarm now is standard . The Cavalier wagon had the lowest theft claim frequen cy . Why the wagon and not the mechanically similar coupe , sedan or convertible models ? Probably , says Hazelbaker , because the wagon is more likely to be pu t to bed at night in a safe suburban garage . Whatever the reason , the Cavalier wagon 's days are numbered . It will be discontinued at the end of the current model year . A redesigned Cavalier line due in the fall will not include a wagon . Whatever you drive , though , there was some good news from the insurance fol ks : The frequency of claims overall for '93 models was the lowest in history ab out one-fourth that for 1979 models in their first year , said Hazelbaker . `` C learly , '' he said , `` anti-theft devices have had some impact and so has incr eased public awareness of the problem , particularly because of carjackings . '' Unfortunately , the group said , the average claim is now four times as high as it was in 1979 , because cars , parts and repairs are more expensive now . WASHINGTON Ending months of intense debate within the administration , Presiden t Clinton will propose making it easier for states to deny additional benefits t o women who have children while already on welfare , senior administration offic ials say . The decision aligns Clinton with those inside and outside the adminis tration who argue that government must intensify its efforts to discourage out-o f-wedlock births , which now constitute roughly 30 percent of all births in Amer ica . `` We think it is very important to discourage additional births on welfar e , '' said one senior official . `` We are saying that states that want to try this approach should be able to try it . '' But the so-called `` family cap '' p olicy inspires even more intense opposition among liberals than the proposed two -year time limit on welfare that is at the center of Clinton 's plan , which is now expected to be introduced shortly after he returns from commemorating the 50 th anniversary of D-Day in Europe next month . Given its potential to affect the most intimate decisions of millions of women , the family cap issue is certain to provoke a polarized struggle in Congress . Many moderate and conservative leg islators see the family cap as a way to promote personal responsibility , while liberals largely denounce it as racist and sexist social engineering . No other proposal may more starkly demonstrate the difficulty of finding common ground be tween left and right on the emotional issues swirling through welfare reform . ` ` This is clearly one where there are very deep feelings on both sides of the is sue , and apart from the families it directly affects , it has a large symbolic impact , '' said Mark Greenberg , an attorney with the Center for Law and Social Policy in Washington . In fact , although Clinton settled on the new policy at a Tuesday meeting , administration officials still appear divided over how close ly to identify with the controversial idea . Some officials take pains to say th e administration does not intend to push states to adopt family cap policies , m erely to smooth the way for those interested in the idea . One agency official l ukewarm to the policy insisted the decision left the administration `` neutral ' ' on the question of whether more states should adopt the caps . But other senio r officials acknowledge that by streamlining the approval process and signaling at least tacit federal support for the family cap , the administration plan will inevitably encourage more states to embrace the idea . Outside observers agree . ( Begin optional trim ) `` The notion of states trying different approaches an d learning what we can from those different approaches makes enormous common sen se and political sense , '' said Delaware Gov. Thomas R. Carper , a Democrat , w ho presented the administration proposals to a closed session of the National Go vernors ' Association executive board Wednesday . `` That flexibility on the par t of the administration is likely to draw support from many of us in the NGA . ' ' It is a sign of how far the welfare reform debate has shifted over the past ye ar that the family cap that Clinton will propose while anathema to liberal advoc acy groups occupies a middle ground among the competing efforts to discourage ou t-of-wedlock births . As a presidential candidate , Clinton declared that he wou ld allow states to experiment with the family cap proposal although he declined to sign such a law when he was governor of Arkansas . The administration plan re flects that perspective . It would not require states to impose a family cap , b ut it would allow them to implement such policies without federal approval , sou rces said . Under current law , states cannot implement such policies without wa ivers from the Health and Human Services department , a process that can take mo nths and require extensive negotiations . Only three states have received federa l approval for a family cap plan . The Bush administration approved a proposal f rom New Jersey , and the Clinton administration has approved plans in Georgia an d Arkansas . Applications are pending from California , Maryland and Wisconsin . ( End optional trim ) In Congress , which must approve Clinton 's proposal , a fierce ideological cross fire over the family cap idea has already erupted . Man y moderate and conservative legislators are pushing for sterner measures to disc ourage out-of-wedlock births . The principal House Republican reform bill would require states to deny additional benefits to women who have children while they are on the rolls , unless the state passes a law specifically providing such be nefits . A group of House Democratic moderates led by Rep. Dave McCurdy , D-Okla . , has introduced identical legislation . `` The administration proposal is sti ll short of what I think is required , but they could have done worse , '' McCur dy said . `` We have to , as a nation , start to remove the incentive for out-of -wedlock , illegitimate , births . '' A competing Republican welfare reform prop osal introduced by conservative legislators in both houses and backed by leading conservative activists , including Jack F. Kemp and William J. Bennett would re quire family caps without allowing states to exempt themselves . In the name of further reducing illegitimate births , both Republican bills would also cut off all welfare payments to unmarried young mothers . On the other hand , the family cap is pointedly absent in liberal welfare reform plans introduced last week by Rep. Robert T. Matsui , D-Calif. , and Wednesday , with 42 co-sponsors , by Rep . Patsy T . Mink ( D-Hawaii ) . Internal administration opponents of the plan st ill hold out the hope that Clinton will trade away the family cap as a means of broadening liberal support for the overall initiative . Liberal legislators and welfare advocacy groups regard the family cap as a mean-spirited effort that pun ishes the children of recipients in an effort to change their parents ' behavior . Advocates also contend that family caps pander to the stereotype that welfare recipients bear more children to sweeten their welfare checks . In fact , they say , welfare mothers typically receive only $ 57 more a month for a new child , while 72 percent of welfare families have two children or less , according to f ederal statistics . ( Optional add end ) Early results in New Jersey , the only state that has actually implemented a family cap , show that births have decline d among welfare mothers since the policy went into place . But it remains uncert ain whether those numbers reflect the cap 's impact , a general decline in child -bearing in the state , or a decreased willingness among welfare recipients to r eport new births . The American Civil Liberties Union and the National Organizat ion for Women are challenging the New Jersey plan in federal court , arguing tha t the policy violates the privacy rights of welfare recipients . Despite those o bjections , family cap supporters , which have included Democratic and minority legislators as well as conservatives , consider it an essential component of eff orts to discourage long-term welfare dependency . `` It 's hard enough to escape welfare with one child , and each additional child makes it that much more diff icult to stay in training or hold down work , '' said the senior administration official . Still , the official said , the administration did not consider the e vidence from New Jersey decisive enough to require states to adopt the family ca p . `` The early results from New Jersey show some promise but it 's too early t o tell for sure what they mean , '' said the official . `` That 's the reason fo r not mandating it nationwide . '' NEW YORK A new study strongly suggests that the United States ' brokerage firms collude with one another to rig over-the-counter trading and ensure themselves artificially high trading profits at the expense of investors . The study by two business professors examined price data for the stocks of 100 large companies t raded on the NASDAQ market for over-the-counter stocks , and is believed to be t he first to examine such price data in great detail . It came up with the seemin gly bizarre finding that for 71 of these stocks including such giant companies a s Apple Computer and Lotus Development prices were almost never posted on NASDAQ in `` odd eighths '' such as 22 1/8 , 22 3/8 , 22 5/8 and 22 7/8 . As a result , the spread between `` bid '' and `` asked '' prices in effect , the profit the brokerage firm makes on each share traded was almost never less than a quarter of a point , or 25 cents per share . The study , most of which was immediately c ondemned by NASDAQ , comes as criticism of the fairness of over-the-counter trad ing has escalated in recent months . It also comes at a time of fierce rivalry b etween the highly computerized NASDAQ system and exchanges such as the New York Stock Exchange and American Stock Exchange . NASDAQ has used fairness and effici ency as a key point of its marketing . The authors of the study Vanderbilt Unive rsity business professor William Christie and Ohio State University business pro fessor Paul Schultz made copies of their study available Wednesday . Christie sa id it was accepted for publication in the next issue of Journal of Finance , due out in about six months . The journal is the official publication of the Americ an Finance Association , an organization of professors who specialize in economi cs , business and finance . The study initially examined data for the full year 1991 , and then went back and confirmed the same results for 1994 to date , acco rding to Christie . Richard G. Ketchum , chief operating officer of the National Association of Securities Dealers , which operates NASDAQ , in an interview did not dispute that the 71 stocks almost never trade at spreads narrower than 25 c ents . But he said there were legitimate reasons . He said the study `` is irres ponsible and in fact we believe it is slanderous . '' The authors emphasized tha t they have no conclusive proof of collusion , which would violate securities la ws . But after analyzing and rejecting other possible explanations , they stated `` we are unable to offer any other plausible explanation for the lack of odd-e ighth quotes . '' ( Optional add end ) They noted that in rare instances when th e stocks were quoted at such prices , the prices typically were posted for less than two minutes before being removed . The authors noted that there were severa l ways dealers could punish maverick rivals who tried to narrow the spread , inc luding the diversion of trades . In an interview , Christie said he believes the Securities and Exchange Commission should launch an investigation of OTC tradin g . Brandon Becker , the SEC 's head of market regulation , could not immediatel y be reached for comment late Wednesday . Wall Street firms that are large `` ma rket makers '' in OTC stocks Wednesday did not seem eager to comment on the char ge of price collusion . A spokesman for Merrill Lynch , the nation 's largest br okerage firm , said the firm had no comment . Prudential Securities and Smith Ba rney Shearson also did not respond to repeated calls seeking comment . In PLANT ( Peltz , Times ) sub for 8th graf ( Changing figures from 8,000 to 3, 000 ) xxx building 's rafters : The plant , which once employed as many as 3,000 people , willn't be entirely vacated until the end of this year . PICK UP 9th g raf : Hughes Aircraft xxx : Cigarette company lawyers for years ran a `` special projects '' division withi n the putatively independent Council for Tobacco Research , steering grants to f avored scientists whose research might be used to defend the industry from legal attack , internal documents show . Documents from the files of Brown & Williams on Tobacco Co. show that top lawyers from the major cigarette companies during t he 1970s and '80s made `` special project '' grants to scores of scientists and research organizations , bypassing a scientific advisory board of outside expert s . `` The industry research effort has included special projects designed to fi nd scientists and medical doctors who might serve as industry witnesses in lawsu its or in a legislative forum , '' said B&W general counsel Ernest Pepples in a 1978 memo to then company chairman Joseph E. Eden . Tobacco industry officials l ong have asserted the council 's independence from business and legal concerns , saying its grants are based on scientific merit alone . The claim has been cent ral to the defense of smoker-death cases , in which industry lawyers have cited lavish support for the council as proof of an honest quest for knowledge about t he effects of tobacco products . Neither Pepples nor officials of the Council fo r Tobacco Research , based in New York , could be reached for comment . However , Tom Fitzgerald , a spokesman for Brown & Williamson , said : `` We believe the Council for Tobacco Research operates with integrity and funds meritorious rese arch by independent scientists who are then encouraged to publish it . '' Counci l materials are among reams of B&W documents recently provided to congressional tobacco foes Reps. Ron Wyden , D-Ore. , and Henry Waxman , D-Calif. , and to sev eral news organizations , including the Los Angeles Times . B&W the No. 3 U.S. c igarette company , which markets Barclay , Kool and other brands says the docume nts were stolen by a former paralegal for a law firm that represents the company . The council will be the focus of a hearing Thursday before Waxman 's House su bcommittee on health and environment . Originally called the Tobacco Industry Re search Council , the CTR was the industry 's response to early studies linking s moking and lung cancer a linkage so unspeakable for tobacco executives that B&W 's parent , British-American Tobacco , for a time used the code word `` ZEPHYR ' ' to describe the disease . The council was launched in 1954 with ads in 448 U.S . newspapers . Under the heading , `` A Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers , ' ' the tobacco companies proclaimed : `` We accept an interest in people 's healt h as a basic responsibility , paramount to every other consideration in our busi ness . '' According to the announcement , the research council would get at the truth of the health allegations by investigating `` all phases of tobacco use an d health . '' An advisory panel of experts `` disinterested in the cigarette ind ustry '' would screen research proposals for scientific merit . In the years sin ce , the body has provided more than $ 223 million in research grants , accordin g to the council 's 1993 annual report . The new disclosures are not the first t o raise questions about the council . Tobacco foes in the past have denounced it as a public relations ploy meant to promote the fiction of a continuing debate on the health effects of smoking . In a candid 1974 memo introduced in a trial o ver the death several years ago of a New Jersey smoker , the research director o f Lorillard Inc. acknowledged : `` Historically , the joint industry-funded smok ing and health research programs hve been selected .. . for various purposes , s uch as public relations , political relations , position for litigation , etc . '' But the newly leaked papers provide the most detailed information yet on the council 's role in industry legal strategy . The documents include dozens of let ters from attorneys with two big industry law firms Shook , Hardy & Bacon in Kan sas City , Mo. ; and Jacob , Medinger & Finnegan in New York seeking approval of CTR `` special project '' grants for various researchers . The letters were sen t to Pepples and top lawyers for the other big cigarette companies . At least so me of the `` special project '' grants went to researchers studying alternative explanations for high rates of heart disease and lung cancer among smokers . Law yers for Shook , Hardy and Jacob , Medinger declined to discuss details of the s pecial project grants , although Shook , Hardy attorney Gary Long said the resea rch was not secret and grantees were allowed to publish their findings . The doc uments show that at least one researcher rejected for regular funding from the c ouncil turned to the lawyers instead . According to the papers , after Louisiana State University researcher Dr. Henry Rothschild was turned down in 1981 , indu stry lawyers granted CTR special project funding for his research on genetic and environmental factors in lung cancer . Rothschild later testified for the indus try before Congress , according to the documents , which include a 1978 journal article , co-authored by Rothschild , that criticized as dubious such advice fro m doctors as `` the complete elimination of cigarettes . '' `` I don't think the re were any restrictions placed on what we found , '' Rothschild said in a telep hone interview Wednesday when asked about his special project funding . `` There was no quid pro quo . '' ( Begin optional trim ) A perennial recipient of speci al project funds was Carl C. Seltzer , formerly of the Harvard University School of Public Health . The documents include four newspaper clippings and four tele vision news transcripts chronicling a trip to Australia in May 1979 , in which S eltzer 's view that smoking does not cause heart disease was widely quoted . `` Reports from colleagues in Australia and New Zealand indicate that Dr. Seltzer ' s visit ` was a great success , ' ' ' said a Shook , Hardy lawyer in a letter to Pepples . `` The CTR supported all kinds of research , '' including research `` contrary to the interests of the tobacco companies , '' Seltzer , now semi-reti red , said in a telephone interview Wednesday . `` I think that 's a very import ant thing . '' ( End optional trim ) Tobacco foes said the disclosures debunk in dustry claims about the council . `` It 's an amazing situation , because to hav e a group of lawyers basically selecting scientific research .. . completely goe s against the normal process by which scientific investigations are conducted , '' said Stanton Glantz , a University of California , San Francisco medical prof essor and longtime industry critic . The documents , he said , `` really reveal that the CTR as it was presented to the public was just a sham . '' WASHINGTON Astronomers peering through the Hubble Space Telescope at the core o f a giant galaxy 50 million light years from Earth say they have found the first conclusive evidence for the existence of a super-massive `` black hole '' an ob ject with gravity so huge it traps everything that comes near , even light . Nat ional Aeronautics and Space Administration officials Wednesday called the discov ery Hubble 's `` most significant so far , '' and among NASA 's most important e ver . As big as 2 billion to 3 billion suns packed into a region as wide as our solar system , the huge black hole lurks at the core of the M87 galaxy , one of 1,000 galaxies clustered in the constellation Virgo . `` If it isn't a black hol e , then I don't know what it is , '' said Johns Hopkins University astronomer H olland Ford , a co-investigator on the project . Ford has pursued the discovery since 1979 . When conclusive data arrived May 5 at the Space Telescope Science I nstitute in Baltimore , he said , `` we were all walking about a foot off the gr ound. .. . It 's finally a lot of fun . '' First theorized 30 years ago , black holes are believed to form from the collapsed atomic rubble of stars , dust and gas . Since no light or other signals escapes from their gravitational grip , th ey disclose nothing directly of their nature . And until Hubble was repaired in December , no telescope has been able to see deep enough into any galaxy to disc lose what might lie near its core . The presence of the black hole in M87 was fi nally indicated by the speed of hot gas swirling in toward the galaxy 's center , accelerating like suds into a bathtub drain . Hubble 's instruments clocked th e gas 60 light years from the center at 1 million mph fast enough to cross the U nited States in seven seconds . ( A light year is the distance light travels in one year , or about 5.9 trillion miles . Sixty light years is about four times t he distance from the Earth to the nearest star , Alpha Centauri . ) ( Begin opti onal trim ) Nothing but the gravitational attraction of something at M87 's core with a mass of 2 billion to 3 billion suns could prevent matter at that speed f rom flying off in all directions . The only candidate within the confines of tod ay 's physics that meets that description , the scientists said , is a super-mas sive black hole . `` This is a tremendous breakthrough , '' said Dr. Daniel Weed man , NASA 's director of astrophysics . A longtime black hole skeptic , he is n ow a convert . `` I do believe there is a supermassive black hole at the center of ( M87 ) , '' he said . Weedman called the black hole discovery Hubble 's `` m ost significant so far , ( and ) very close to the top of ( NASA 's ) most signi ficant discoveries . '' Proof of the existence of black holes at the cores of ga laxies was one of the primary goals established for the Hubble telescope at its launch in April 1990 . But its mirror flaw delayed the observations until this y ear . ( End optional trim ) Last February , barely 30 days after the Hubble tele scope resumed gathering scientific data , it took its first picture of the core of M87 . To astronomers ' astonishment , it disclosed a surprisingly well-ordere d , spiraling `` pancake '' of hot gas just what they needed to measure its spee d . On May 5 , they got their first speed measurements from Hubble 's Faint Obje ct Spectrograph . Gas on one side of the spiral was rushing toward Earth at 1 mi llion mph ; gas on the other side was rushing away at the same speed . `` We nai led it . We knew we had it , '' said Richard J . Harms , the spectrograph 's pri ncipal investigator . Hubble scientists will now continue their pursuit . They w ill peer deeper into M87 for more data on the black hole there , and into other galaxies to see whether they , too , have black holes at their centers . ( Begin optional trim ) Astrophysicists don't know how super-massive black holes are cr eated , or whether they are a cause or effect of giant galaxies like M87 . They may form from the merger of smaller black holes . Although the oldest stars in M 87 are nearly as old as the universe itself 12 to 15 billion years Harms said th e age of M87 's black hole is unknown . Its internal structure , if it has any , can never be known because no light or anything else can ever emerge to reveal it . One structure they can see is a giant , braided jet of hot gas that is spew ing from near the center of M87 at right angles to the spiral of infalling gas . The fast-moving jet is believed to be debris from the destruction of stars ente ring the black hole . ( End optional trim ) The black hole 's ultimate fate is u nknown . It could eventually consume the entire M87 galaxy , and even other gala xies that blunder within range . `` Earth is in no immediate danger , '' quipped University of Washington astronomer Bruce Margon , who helped designed the Fain t Object Spectrograph . While M87 's black hole `` has an infinite appetite , '' said Harms , `` it can't hunt . '' UNITED NATIONS U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali Wednesday called th e international response to Rwanda 's ethnic bloodletting a `` failure '' and a `` scandal '' for which the United Nations and leading countries in the West and Africa share responsibility . `` It is genocide which has been committed . More than 200,000 people have been killed , and the world is still discussing what o ught to be done , '' Boutros-Ghali said . `` It is a scandal . I am the first on e to say it , and I am ready to repeat it . '' Boutros-Ghali vented his frustrat ion at a news conference after pleading for weeks to Western and African governm ents for soldiers and equipment to provide a 5,500-troop peacekeeping force for the central African nation that since April 6 has been reduced to bloody chaos b y a civil war and by tribal conflict . The Rwandan crisis , and the unwillingnes s in world capitals to dispatch troops to help resolve it , have highlighted a b road retreat from activism through the United Nations extending well beyond the United States after ambitious , costly and criticized U.N. operations in Somalia and Bosnia . In that vein , Boutros-Ghali 's comments illustrated the differenc e between his view of the United Nations as a political first-aid agency that mu st rush to help ailing nations , and the Clinton administration 's new concept t hat a long list of safety conditions must be in place before the United Nations should intervene . The United Nations has received commitments from just three c ountries Ghana , Ethiopia and Senegal for a total of 2,100 troops for a Rwanda p eacekeeping force . The Security Council voted May 16 to set up the force , but the United States cast some doubt on the mission by insisting that the council r eview the decision before the bulk of the troops are deployed . Boutros-Ghali at tributed the lax response to `` fatigue '' among U.N. member states , which are already supporting 17 peacekeeping operations . Many major donor countries are f acing economic difficulties , he said , and `` public opinion is not helping the different governments . '' The U.N. secretary general turned to the Organizatio n of African Unity for help , but the regional bloc was unable to mobilize a col lective response . Many African governments are plagued by economic hardships an d political strife . Boutros-Ghali said he also hopes to receive troop commitmen ts from Egypt , Zimbabwe and Nigeria . But U.N. officials said these troops do n ot have the minimum weapons and equipment they need , and it remains unclear how they will travel to and within Rwanda . Boutros-Ghali said he met in South Afri ca earlier this month with six heads of state attending President Nelson Mandela 's inauguration . `` I begged them to send troops. . . . Unfortunately-let me s ay with great humility-I failed , '' he said . After talks in South Africa with Vice President Gore , Boutros-Ghali reached a compromise with the United States over the peacekeepers ' purpose . They will be deployed in Kigali , the Rwandan capital , as Boutros-Ghali had insisted , and in border areas outside Rwanda to protect and feed refugees , as the United States proposed . `` The mandate is li mited , '' Boutros-Ghali said , adding that the peacekeepers , when they get to Rwanda , will try to `` contain the deterioration '' and serve and reinforce the position of U.N. negotiators trying to secure a cease-fire . The secretary gene ral pleaded for the world not to be put off by the lack of success in some U.N. missions . The United Nations , he said , `` is like going to the hospital . You can't say , I don't want to take this case . There is a moral responsibility . '' The Clinton administration , in policy guidelines published early this month , insisted that a cease-fire must be in place and that troops and resources must already have been pledged for a peacekeeping mission before the United States w ould support it . At a special session in Geneva Wednesday , the U.N. Commission on Human Rights appointed a law professor from Ivory Coast , Rene Degni Segui , to investigate the `` root causes and responsibilities for the atrocities '' in Rwanda and ordered him to report his findings to Boutros-Ghali within a month . ANNAPOLIS , Md. . As both hands gripped his gleaming U.S. . Naval Academy diplo ma Wednesday , Christopher Paul Slattery leaped off the stadium stage with a yel p of glee and high-fives for fellow graduates . For Slattery and 867 other acade my graduates at the U.S. Navy Marine Corps Memorial Stadium , it was a day of bo th joy and relief joy at surviving the school 's brutal academic and physical re gimen and relief at the prospect of putting behind them 17 months of scandal and tragedy . `` This is what we 've all looked forward to for about 1,200 days , ' ' said Slattery , a computer science major from Essex Junction , Vt. . `` As a c lass , we 've put it behind us . It 's been dealt with thoroughly , and the thin k the whole school learned a lot from it . '' Since the middle of their junior y ear , Slattery and his classmates have felt the glare of international media att ention in the wake of the worst cheating scandal in the school 's 149-year histo ry . When it ended , 88 classmates had been found guilty of participating in the theft , distribution and sale of an electrical engineering exam in December 199 2 . Twenty-four midshipmen were expelled , and 64 received lesser punishments-in cluding late graduation . Little mention was made of the Class of 1994 's tribul ations at the commencement , held on a sticky-hot day that forced many of the 23 ,500 people in the stadium to use programs and paper hats to shield themselves f rom the sun . At the beginning of his speech , President Clinton forgave graduat es who had broken academy rules , but he stressed that his forgiveness encompass ed only minor offenses and did not include cheating . Later , he briefly mention ed the cheating incident and urged graduates to move beyond it . `` You have my confidence , '' he said . `` You have America 's confidence . '' A smiling Clint on later shook the hand of every graduate as the men and women filed onto the st age for nearly an hour to receive their diplomas . Beyond the cheating scandal , this graduating class has been rocked by tragedy . Last December , an academy g raduate fatally shot his former fiancee and her boyfriend who both also attended the academy before killing himself at the U.S. . Naval Amphibious Base in Coron ado , Calif. . Less than a week later , three midshipmen died when a car in whic h they were passengers slammed into a fallen tree near Annapolis . The weight of those six deaths and the spectre of the scandal couldn't be fully shaken by gra duates , many of whom had friends who were either expelled or faced late graduat ions and other punishments for their roles in the incident . Slattery said he wa s a friend of Max Lane , a football player who was expelled for his part in the scandal . Lane , an offensive lineman , was selected in the National Football Le ague draft last April . `` As much as it hurts not to have some friends here , t he honor code is really important to what this academy is all about , '' Slatter y said . Karen Heine , of Crofton , Md. , said she has gotten used to frequent q uestions from friends and acquaintances about the scandal . Yet Heine , who has dreamed since childhood of graduating from the academy , said the cloud over her class would not taint her memories . Heine , a systems engineering major who is the highest ranking woman in her class , said she too knows people who were inv olved in the incident , but feels `` detached . I don't feel angry at them . Eve ryone makes mistakes , and people pay the consequences of their mistakes . '' WASHINGTON Despite prior claims by Pentagon officials that there were no Iraqi chemical weapons near the Persian Gulf war battlefields , a senior U.S. military -intelligence official testified before Congress Wednesday that U.S. troops cond ucted operations near an Iraqi chemical-weapons storage site . During a Senate B anking Committee hearing on the causes of health problems suffered by veterans o f the war , Undersecretary of Defense Edwin Dorn echoed past statements by other senior Pentagon officials , including Deputy Defense Secretary John Deutch , an d said that `` no chemical or biological weapons were found in the Kuwait theate r of operations .. . among the tons of live and spent munitions recovered follow ing the war . '' But in subsequent testimony Wednesday , Dr. John Kriese , chief officer for ground forces at the Defense Intelligence Agency , said Dorn 's sta tement should have been removed from his prepared statement because a stockpile of Iraqi chemical weapons was indeed discovered near an area where U.S. troops w ere located . Specifically , Kriese said the Iraqi chemical-weapons depot was ne ar the Kuwaiti border , across a desert river , within 17 miles of U.S. position s . The revelation came as the committee 's chairman , Sen. Donald Riegle Jr. , D-Mich. , released a 160-page report concluding that compelling anecdotal eviden ce exists showing that U.S. and allied troops were exposed to harmful levels of chemical and possibly biological contaminants during the Persian Gulf war . The report also said that several years before the war , the U.S. government shipped materials to Iraq that its leader , Saddam Hussein , used to develop chemical w eapons . Chemical weapons appear to have been used on allied troops , many of wh om subsequently developed multiple health problems collectively known as Persian Gulf War syndrome , Riegle said . Riegle Wednesday called for the Pentagon to f ully disclose all it knows about the use of chemical and biological weapons duri ng the war . He estimated that `` tens of thousands '' of the nearly 700,000 gul f war vets are suffering symptoms of the syndrome , including thousands of perso nnel still on active duty . What 's more , there 's a `` strong possibility '' t hat the syndrome has been transferred by the vets to their spouses and children , Riegle said , adding that some of the veterans appear to be sick because of th e aftereffects of nerve-gas vaccines administered by the military . ( Begin opti onal trim ) People who say they are afflicted with the syndrome have experienced a variety of ills including muscle spasms , joint pain , gastrointenstinal prob lems , chronic flu-like symptoms , respiratory difficulties , gynecological infe ctions , bleeding gums , rashes and vomiting . Dorn , Kriese and Dr. Theodore Pr ociv , assistant secretary of defense for chemical/biological matters , testifie d that they have not ruled out the possibility that U.S. troops were harmed by c hemical or biological weapons in Iraq . Dorn also released a joint letter signed by Secretary of Defense William Perry and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman John S halikashvili and dated Wednesday promising that all those affected would receive medical treatment . ( End optional trim ) Still , the officials said they have found no concrete evidence suporting Riegle 's contention that the Iraqis probab ly used chemical or biological weapons in the war or that plumes of contaminated smoke and fallout from chemical production facilities bombed by the allies waft ed over U.S. positions , poisoning U.S. troops . Dorn also said the Pentagon kno ws of only about 2,000 people `` for whom a clear diagnosis continues to elude p hysicians . '' Final count on the fall schedule changes 22 hours of new programs , including l 5 dramas , 13 situation comedies and one newsmagazine . NBC is replacing seven h ours , Fox six , CBS five and ABC four . All but Fox , which airs just 15 hours a week , carry 22 hours of primetime a week . -0- Angela Lansbury is recuperatin g at home after undergoing hip replacement surgery at Century City Hospital last week , just a couple of days after she completed taping of `` Murder , She Wrot e '' for the season . Network spokesman Dennis Brown said the 68-year-old series star `` has had some problem with ( the hip ) but not to the extent that it imp inged on her work . She knew that if she was going to deal with it this was the time to do it , the minute she went on hiatus '' . . . The actress will convales ce at her Los Angeles home for a few weeks before traveling to her summer home i n Ireland . A network spokeswoman said Wednesday she 's `` doing fine '' and is expected back on the set when production on the series resumes in August . . -0- Jay Leno told the NBC affiliate meeting in Los Angeles earlier this week that h e 's getting a new set out in Burbank . He said the `` Tonight Show 's '' recent trip to New York opened his eyes . `` For the last two years , I 've been doing another show . I 've been doing Johnny 's ( Carson 's ) show . There was someth ing missing from the show , but I never knew what it was '' . In New York , he u sed a temporary set built in the `` Saturday Night Live '' studio that packed a smaller audience into a tighter space . `` The audience was half the size , but there was more energy , '' he told the executives . -0- Julie Moran , the host o f ABC 's `` Wide World of Sports , '' has picked up a day job , signing with `` Entertainment Tonight '' as a New York-based correspondent and substitute anchor for Mary Hart , John Tesh , Leeza Gibbons and Bob Goen . She makes her ET hosti ng debut Thursday night as she sits in for Mary for the next three weeknight bro adcasts , concluding Monday night . With the North American Free Trade Agreement now in effect , the annual meeting of U.S. and Mexican border state governors will begin in Phoenix Thursday with a strong undercurrent of competition , unlike the neighborly atmosphere of past gatherings . The Border Governor 's Conference begins as member states on both s ides of the Rio Grande River are competing for billions of dollars in funds to f inance a host of proposed NAFTA-related transportation and environmental project s . Those projects to be funded by the U.S. government and the World Bank transl ate into jobs and economic benefits that politicians everywhere lust after . Alt hough the governors of California , Arizona , New Mexico and Texas and their six Mexican counterparts are accentuating their fraternity , their staff members ad mit the leaders intend to size up the competition for projects that range from a sewage treatment plant in San Diego , telecommunications links in Nogales , Ari z. , and interstate highway funds in Laredo , Texas . `` The battle will be who gets the money and who has the best proposals , '' said Rudy Fernandez , directo r of California-Mexico affairs in the state 's Trade and Commerce Agency . Calif ornia may already have a competitive disadvantage , at least in generating coope ration from Mexican governors . That 's because Gov. Pete Wilson 's use of illeg al immigration as a political issue has offended many Mexicans as well as Mexica n-Americans , observers said . Wilson is scheduled to attend the conference . To fully maximize NAFTA-related business , the states have to build the infrastruc ture roads , bridges , sewers , environmental controls , border checkpoints and communications links to make themselves attractive to business . A big chunk of the federal aid targeted by the states was created by NAFTA itself . To get the trade bill past environmental interests in Congress , the U.S and Mexican govern ments agreed to fund billions of dollars in environmental projects funneled thro ugh a new North American Development Bank , or NADBank , headquartered in San An tonio . Making the decisions on which environmental projects to fund will be the new Border Environmental Cooperation Commission based in El Paso , Texas , also created by a side deal to NAFTA , which will be responsible for evaluating and prioritizing environmental project proposals . ( Optional add end ) Although Tex as got most of the NAFTA bureaucracy and some jobs when it snared the headquarte rs offices of NADBank , BECC and three other NAFTA-related agencies , the projec t dollars are still very much up for grabs . On the Mexican side of the `` front era , '' the six border states are positioning themselves for the competition fo r up to $ 5 billion in loans that the World Bank will make available for border infrastructure and environmental projects over the next several years , Among th e major NAFTA-related projects under discussion in Mexico is a new deep water po rt in Guaymas , located in the Mexican state of Sonora about 250 miles south of the Arizona border city of Nogales . Because the port would stimulate its border traffic , Arizona officials strongly support the project and are cooperating wi th Mexican officials in its planning . WASHINGTON President Clinton made the rounds of Capitol Hill Wednesday to promo te his health care agenda , offering a spoonful of conciliatory honey to Republi can senators whose support he hopes to win , and following it with a dash of com bative vinegar to stiffen the resolve of Democratic House members . Clinton , ac companied by a phalanx of top administration officials , held the series of clos ed meetings as a sendoff for Congress as it prepares to adjourn for its Memorial Day recess . For Democrats in particular , the weeklong break could be a time o f intense pressure from constituents and interest groups at home . Clinton 's he alth care plan is encountering difficulties in all five congressional committees considering it . Democrats are also nursing their wounds from a special electio n in Kentucky , hailed by Republicans as a referendum on Clinton 's policies , t hat saw one congressional district fall into GOP hands for the first time in mor e than a century . As Clinton left a session with House and Senate Democratic le aders the first of three held with various groups in Congress he said his health care bill is `` something we very much want to do in a bipartisan fashion . '' But by the end of the third meeting , which was a pep rally for the entire Democ ratic membership of the House , it was clear that Clinton was in a more confront ational mood . `` The president told us something that was important for us to h ear : If we really want to accomplish something , we 've got to fight for it , ' ' said Rep. Henry A . Waxman , D-Calif. , who is one of Clinton 's chief House a llies in the health care battle . Added Rep. Pat Williams , D-Mont. , another su bcommittee chairman with jurisdiction over health : `` He used the word ` fight ' a half a dozen times . '' Only one of the closed sessions included any Republi can participants and it was Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell 's , D-Mai ne. , idea to invite them . However , Democrats and Republicans alike said Clint on had been solicitous at the session and eager to hear the views of both sides . Republicans said they told Clinton bluntly that the linchpin of his plan a req uirement that employers pay for their workers ' health coverage will not pass . `` I told him , ` Mr . President , I support mandates . I will support mandates , but I think if this bill has mandates , it loses , '' said Sen. Bob Packwood , R-Ore. Packwood is ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee , which i s considered difficult territory for Clinton 's plan . ( Optional add end ) On a more positive note for the administration , a second House subcommittee managed to approve a version of the Clinton plan shortly before the president arrived o n Capitol Hill . The House Education and Labor Committee 's labor-management rel ations subcommittee , chaired by Williams , voted 17-10 in favor of the plan . I t passed strictly along party lines , without a single GOP vote . The bill conta ins the basic elements of the Clinton plan , but substitutes voluntary purchasin g cooperatives for mandatory health alliances . It also contains more generous b enefits in such areas as women 's health , mental health and dental care , and i ncreases subsidies to help small businesses afford their workers ' coverage . RIVERSIDE , Calif. . Two 19-year-olds were arrested Wednesday in the slaying of a 62-year-old German tourist and the attempted killing of her husband last week at a remote mountain overlook . Authorities said the two men were associates of an Asian street gang , but that gang activity was not believed to be a factor i n the attack on the German couple . The victims were shot at a scenic viewpoint alongside California 243 , in the San Jacinto Mountains . A third suspect remain s at large , Sheriff 's Department spokesman Deputy Mark Lohman said . The arres ts came nine days after the Germans were attacked during an apparent robbery , w hich left Gisela Pfleger dead from gunshot wounds to her head . Her husband , Kl aus Pfleger , 64 , was critically wounded with two gunshots to his face and anot her in his shoulder . At a news conference Wednesday , Lohman offered no details of the investigation that led to the arrest of the two teen-agers following an all-night interrogation . He said the handgun believed to have been used in the shootings , as well as the suspected getaway car , were seized by detectives who searched four homes in the Banning , Calif. , area Tuesday . Three other teen-a gers who were taken in for questioning Tuesday afternoon were released Wednesday . All five had been rounded up without resistence . Lohman identified the shoot ing suspects as Xou Yang and Khamchan `` Brett '' Ketsouvannasane . Both were bo rn in Laos and are legal U.S. residents , he said . They were held at a Riversid e County detention center on $ 250,000 bail , and were expected to be arraigned on Friday . Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Richard Bentley said his o ffice would decide Thursday whether to prosecute the suspects as defendants in a capital case , because of the special legal circumstances involving alleged mur der committed in the commission of a robbery . In a letter to Newsday , presidential spokesman Jean Musitelli Wednesday implic itly acknowledged the charge against Mitterrand of `` silence and inaction '' fo r at least five weeks in the summer of 1992 . But he added more fuel to an issue of political volatility in France by turning the charge around and suggesting t hat it also applied to the Bosnian leaders who made it . PICKUP 3rd graf : Newsd ay xxx WASHINGTON In seeking to implement quickly a new program for processing Haitian boat people and answer its critics , the Clinton administration is relying on a set of calculations that involve a peculiar mix of mathematics and morality . C urrent plans call for facilities that can handle as many as 5,000 Haitians at a time , according to a defense policy official . But administration officials say that an operation on that scale can only succeed if they can rapidly decide who is eligible for refugee status and then quickly return the rest to Haiti . If t hey do not send back those who fail to qualify , administration officials insist , there will be a mass exodus . A nightmare scenario underlies both the adminis tration 's planning process and its argument against more lenient treatment of r efugees . It goes something like this : Encouraged by hope that they might get a permanent home outside Haiti , thousands of Haitians set out to sea , overwhelm ing the facilities set up to accommodate them . Many are forced to stay afloat i n rickety boats while awaiting a place and eventually a shipwreck kills hundreds . Officials insist that this gruesome vision lies at the heart of a policy-maki ng process in which every statement and gesture must be weighed in terms of how many Haitians it might prompt into a reckless sea voyage . Given the large numbe r of people who want to leave the island , officials worry that false hopes coul d prompt a disaster . Explaining why the administration has rejected proposals t o create a refuge for all Haitian boat people , State Department spokesman Mike McCurry said Wednesday , `` It has been our concern that the creation of a so-ca lled safe haven might encourage people to use very unsafe means of migration to try to arrive at a safe haven . '' The administration 's critics , who have an i nterest in minimizing the number of potential refugees and the dangers they face , contend that the White House is using the nightmare scenario as an excuse to avoid taking necessary steps . `` They have talked themselves into fearing a mas s exodus , and now they are trying to talk everybody else into it as way of just ifying inaction , '' said Jocelyn McCalla , executive director of the National C oalition of Haitian Refugees . The number of Haitians who might set out in boats if they had a realistic hope of escaping their homeland is a matter of speculat ion and debate . The administration is operating on an assessment that as many a s 1,500 to 2,000 people a day could go to sea , and eventually the numbers could reach between 50,000 and 100,000 if none were to be sent back , a source said . Shep Lowman , director of refugee affairs for the U.S. Catholic Conference , ar gues that such numbers are exaggerated . Instead , Lowman said , the numbers wou ld be somewhere between the 1,300 people who have left in the past two weeks and the 5,000 a month that was the peak flow in the aftermath of the 1991 military takeover . Other advocates like McCalla put the number even lower , saying that less than 20,000 people would show up if the United States created a safe haven . In the face of protests from these critics , President Clinton abruptly announ ced on May 8 that the U.S. would halt its policy of automatically returning all boat people intercepted by the Coast Guard to Haiti and instead would create som e kind of processing facility where the Haitians could apply for refugee status . Those rejected and Clinton warned they would be the overwhelming majority woul d still be sent back . In the two and a half weeks since then , the government h as been busy on many fronts , lobbying foreign governments to allow a processing facility on their territory , chartering ships and hiring personnel . But no co ncrete plans have been announced . The delay is unavoidable , administration off icials argue , because the delicate calculations of refugee flows demand that a complete processing and resettlement plan be in place the day the program opens . `` In humanitarian terms it would be morally irresponsible to create a large m agnet by effecting this change in policy before it can be fully implemented , '' said a senior administration official . `` Lives are at stake . '' This view fi nds some support from immigration experts . `` There is going to be a very subst antial bubble in the number of people up front , and that is where you cannot af ford to make any mistakes , '' said Demetrios Papademetriou , director of the im migration policy program at the Carnegie Endowment . Unless the administration o ffers some form of safe haven , the only way to avoid being overwhelmed , he sai d , is `` by showing from the start that people who are simply fleeing poverty w ill not end up in Miami , and you cannot do that unless you have set up a proces sing facility that is big enough and then some . So you have to be able to guess right on the numbers you 'll face . '' But some advocates argue that the decisi on of whether to risk life and limb for a chance to reach the United States is o ne that only the refugees themselves can make . `` The idea that it would be mor ally incorrect to allow Haitians the opportunity to seek asylum because it would put them in danger is very paternalistic , '' Lowman said . `` That kind of thi nking would paralyze refugee operations all over the world . I 'm sorry , that i s a decision you have to leave to the refugee . They are aware of the dangers of the sea . '' WASHINGTON President Clinton delivered an attack on congressional Republicans W ednesday and told a closed-door meeting of House Democrats they must `` fight ba ck '' against efforts to sabotage the health bill and other key administration l egislation if they are to survive the November election . With growing bipartisa n concerns over whether any comprehensive health care bill is possible this year , Clinton held a pro forma outreach session with the leading Senate players on health care issues from both parties , but he blasted the Republicans in a caucu s with his fellow Democrats moments later . Before the camera lights and microph ones , leaders of both parties pronounced the three Capitol Hill sessions `` pro ductive '' and `` constructive . '' But House Democrats , who met separately wit h Clinton in a Democrats-only caucus , quoted him as saying Republicans hope to reap election gains by blocking his legislative program . `` Their strategy is n ot to cooperate on anything , '' one note-taking House member quoted Clinton as saying . Urging the Democrats to finish action this year on the crime bill , hea lth care and the worldwide trade agreement , Clinton reportedly said history sug gested Republicans would make gains in November and warned that the new GOP memb ers `` will be right-wing fanatics , not moderates , '' according to a listener 's notes . `` The only way you win is to fight back , ` ` he said . Members and staff said there were no new positions taken on health care legislation , which was the ostensible subject of the Capitol Hill visit . They said no compromises were reached , and there were no hints of how the administration might deal with the central issue that could cause the yearlong effortto fail : how to pay for universal coverage . `` I 'm concerned that in these meetings we always sort of say the same things , '' said Sen. John Breaux , D-La. , one of the only Democra ts in a meeting to voice opposition to the requirement that employers pay part o f their workers ' coverage . This is the main financing method in most bills und er consideration . In a meeting with Democratic leaders and committee chairmen a nd then in a bipartisan session that included Minority Leader Robert J. Dole , R -Kan. , and the sponsors of the major Republican bills , Clinton heard the kind of committee-by-committee status reports and positions that dozens of White Hous e aides are paid to give him at a moment 's notice . Democrats told him , accord ing to participants , that three House committees and two Senate committees are working to craft bills that can win approval , but even the leader of the pack , the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee , has been forced to delay compl etion until after the Memorial Day recess , the last unofficial deadline for com mittee action . `` I don't want to minimize the difference between members of bo th parties and between the members of each party , '' said Senate Majority Leade r George J. Mitchell , D-Maine . At the last minute , the White House scheduled the session with the Senate Republica ns . The White House had earlier said the president would meet with Republicans on health care after the recess , but afte r objections were raised by the congressional relations and communications staff s , the meeting was hastily squeezed in Wednesday . `` It got added for the reas on that we didn't want to give the Republicans ammunition '' to argue the admini stration is not operating on its promised bipartisan basis , one official said . WASHINGTON President Clinton is expected to announce Thursday that he will rene w China 's trade privileges , but he may impose extremely limited sanctions on C hinese-made guns and ammunition , according to sources who were briefed on the W hite House decision . The sources said Wednesday that the Clinton administration also plans to set up a new commission to examine human rights abuses in China . The commission reportedly would be headed by former President Jimmy Carter , wh o established diplomatic relations with the Beijing regime in 1979 while he was in the White House . The new commission would be designed as a replacement for t he approach that Clinton proposed last year but will now abandon : using trade a s leverage to improve human rights in China . In recent days , human rights grou ps have denounced the idea of a human rights commission for China as a meaningle ss exercise . `` It would have no authority , no clout and no teeth , '' said Mi ke Jendrzejczyk , Washington director of Human Rights Watch ( Asia ) . The admin istration is facing a deadline of June 3 to decide whether to renew China 's mos t-favored-nation trade benefits , which permit Chinese goods to be sold in this country under the same low tariffs enjoyed by virtually all other countries . La st year , Clinton suggested that China should make `` overall significant progre ss '' on human rights if it wanted renewal of these benefits for next year . The president 's decision to renew the trade benefits would stand unless both house s of Congress pass a resolution to revoke it . As Clinton prepared to announce h is decision on future policy toward China , the White House struggled throughout Wednesday to win the critical support of Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitch ell , D-Maine , the principal architect of the policy of linking trade benefits to human rights . In the last few days , the main question was not whether Clint on would renew China 's overall trade benefits , since all sides have agreed for weeks that he would do so . Rather , the issue was whether he would impose sanc tions on Chinese imports in response to human rights abuses . Administration off icials hope to avoid the embarrassment of a split with Mitchell , who has been u rging the White House to impose some significant sanctions on Chinese products . The White House was considering limited economic sanctions on Chinese weapons , or no penalties at all . But Mitchell was pressing for broader , more significa nt penalties on all Chinese products made by the People 's Liberation Army or by defense-related companies . Not only is Mitchell the Senate majority leader , b ut he also has done more than anyone to create the China issue that was used for years by congressional Democrats against former President Bush . In the years a fter China 's bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations , he pressed for legislation attaching conditions to the renewal of China 's trade benefits . Eventually , Clinton embraced Mitchell 's approach during the 1992 campaign , when he accused Bush of `` coddling dictators '' in Beijing and criticized Bush for vetoing legislation on the issue that Mitchell had sponsored . Now , after a year in the White House , Clinton is backing away from Mitchell 's policy . Adm inistration officials said he plans to drop , for the future , the presidential executive order he issued last year attaching a series of human rights condition s to the renewal of China 's trade status . By imposing penalties exclusively on Chinese-made guns and ammunition , the Clinton administration would , in effect , convert the China trade issue into a gun-control measure . Mitchell has objec ted , saying the penalties on Chinese-made guns and ammunition do not go far eno ugh . China exports more than $ 31 billion in products to the United States and the guns and ammunition make up only a tiny share of these sales . ( Optional ad d end ) `` Mitchell ` s trying to ( penalize ) all products of defense-industria l companies ( in China ) . And the administration is trying to say , ` arms only , ' ' ' one congressional source said Wednesday . The administration has been u nder intense pressure from the American business community to renew China 's tra de benefits . U.S. companies fear that , if the benefits are revoked , China wil l retaliate against American companies and simply deal instead with their Europe an and Asian competitors . The executive order that Clinton issued last year put the administration in an awkward position . Officials believed at the time that the human rights conditions they imposed were so reasonable and limited that Ch ina would be able and willing to meet them . Under the 1993 order , China was re quired to open the way for emigration of the families of some dissidents and to take action to curb the export of goods made with prison labor . In addition , C hina was supposed to make `` overall significant progress '' on releasing dissid ents from prison , on stopping the jamming of Voice of America broadcasts and on preserving Tibet 's cultural heritage . China has repeatedly denounced impositi on of these conditions and has said that it will never be pressured into changin g its domestic policies . Over the last few months , while releasing a handful o f well-known political prisoners , Chinese authorities also have rounded up a nu mber of other dissidents . In April , for example , China once again arrested We i Jingsheng , China 's best-known proponent of democracy , who had been released last September after serving more than 14 years in jail . Wei is still being de tained . In a report likely to influence the national debate on the issue , a New York s tate task force unanimously has rejected the idea of legalizing euthanasia and a ssisted suicide . Instead , the report , released Wednesday by the New York Stat e Task Force on Life and the Law , urges that medical professionals do better at treating pain and depression two prime factors behind patient requests for assi sted suicide . Though some of the task force 's 23 members believe that assisted suicide can be ethical in rare cases , they agreed that legalizing it carries a large risk of abuse , especially `` to those who are poor , elderly , members o f a minority group or without access to good medical care . '' In some cases , t he report said , `` patients may be pressured to consent to euthanasia when thei r care is expensive or burdensome to others . As one commentator has argued , ` Advocating legal sanction of euthanasia at a time and in a society where access to care is so limited and its cost so critical , the so-called `` right to die ' ' all too easily becomes a duty to die. ' ' ' The report more than 200 pages lon g and two years in the making follows two events that offered hope to supporters of assisted suicide . On May 2 , a Michigan jury acquitted Dr. Jack Kevorkian o f charges that he helped a terminally ill man kill himself , in violation of a M ichigan law aimed at Kevorkian . The next day , a federal judge in Seattle struc k down the state 's ban on the practice , finding a right to assisted suicide im plicit in the constitutional guarantee of liberty . The New York report finds no such right in the state or federal Constitution . `` Even though momentum has b een building , the task force is sending a clear warning signal that society sho uld slow down and take a hard look at who would be at risk , '' said Tracy Mille r , the task force 's executive director . As the Seattle and Michigan cases mov e toward the Supreme Court , the report is likely to be influential . `` This is the first public body that has put out a thoughtful , deliberative report , '' said Arthur Caplan , director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of P ennsylvania , who agrees with the report 's findings . `` It 'll be a report tha t gets cited and invoked . '' In rejecting legalization , the task force felt st rongly that assisted suicide and euthanasia would be hard to control . The task force fears that assisted suicide , in which patients kill themselves with devic es or drugs provided by doctors , would escalate to euthanasia , in which doctor s do the killing themselves , with or without an explicit request from the patie nt . `` Once you accept the validity of killing by physicians , there 's no way to put brakes on the practice , '' said a prominent opponent of the practices , Richard Doerflinger , associate director of the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activit ies at the National Conference of Catholic Bishops . ( Optional add end ) One pr ecedent the report cited was the Netherlands , which stopped short of legalizing euthanasia but guarantees physicians immunity if they follow strict guidelines . There , one government report showed 2,300 cases a year of euthanasia at the p atient 's request and 1,000 cases a year without a current request from the pati ent . Projecting that onto the United States , the task force estimated a possib le 36,000 deaths a year from voluntary euthanasia and 16,000 from non-voluntary . Though the task force does represent a variety of views on the underlying ethi cs of the issue , William Batt , president of the Hemlock Society of New York , which supports assisted suicide , said that it is out of touch on the issue and cited polls showing increasing public support for assisted suicide . For the tas k force , the bottom line was risk of abuse . One member , Barbara Shack , a dir ector of the New York Civil Liberties Union , said : `` In the end , the thing t hat I think brought everybody together was that for a very tiny percentage of pe ople who may have untreatable pain and suffering , where people might agree that it might be ethically and morally acceptable to assist in a death , the possibl e negative impact of such a change in the law was too dangerous . '' When competitors and an advertising industry review group challenged Wal-Mart t o justify its slogan , `` Always the low price , always , '' the nation 's large st retailer blinked . Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has agreed to change the slogan , the National Advertising Review Board said Wednesday . The Bentonville , Ark. , ret ailer acted after the review board , made up of 70 advertising professionals and public interest members , recommended that the slogan be changed to eliminate r eferences to `` the low price . '' The board recommended that any modified sloga n refrain from stating or implying that Wal-Mart 's prices are `` always the low est . '' The panel has no power to enforce its recommendations , but if advertis ers refuse to make changes the panel can refer the case to the Federal Trade Com mission . One such case is now pending before the FTC . `` They are unable alway s to have the low price , '' said Ron Graham , a Minnesota business executive an d chairman of an ad hoc group of the advertising review board . `` It 's very di fficult in this mass merchandise environment for any competitor to know that all of their prices are lower . '' Wal-Mart officials were not immediately availabl e for comment . The company said in a statement filed with the review board that it disagreed with the panel 's decision , but would voluntarily modify its adve rtising slogan over the next several months . `` We encourage our competitors to examine their own advertising claims and slogans with the same care and to act accordingly , '' Wal-Mart said in its statement . Lawyers for the New York-based review board , which was established in 1971 so that advertisers could police t hemselves and keep government intervention to a minimum , said the Wal-Mart case is significant for the advertising and retailing industries . `` This wasn't ju st a casual campaign . This was their corporate identifier , '' said Steve Cole , the review board 's general counsel . `` Maybe this will have a ripple effect . Retail advertising now is full of problems . There are an awful lot of claims out there that are exaggerated . Consumers are not believing retail advertising , which is a disaster for the advertising industry . Maybe this will be persuasi ve to others to look at their claims . '' The complaints about Wal-Mart 's sloga n were brought by three retail chains , Target Stores Inc. , Meijer Inc. and Vis ion World Inc. , and the National Advertising Review Network , the board 's ad h oc group chaired by Graham . `` All we want to do is make it a fair playing fiel d , '' said Carolyn Brookter , a spokeswoman for Target Stores , a division of M inneapolis-based Dayton Hudson . `` We think this ( review board decision ) shou ld do that . '' WASHINGTON A haggard , sad-faced Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , put himself throug h his official paces Wednesday , as uneasy House members awaited word of whether the House Ways and Means chairman would be indicted or negotiate a felony guilt y plea that would end his long political career and possibly lead to a prison se ntence . Widespread news media reports that Rostenkowski 's lawyers and the Just ice Department were nearing the end of their discussions prompted a political de ath watch of sorts on Capitol Hill , with House members , staff and press monito ring Rostenkowski 's every move . Many members and aides wondered aloud how Rost enkowski has managed to keep up appearances and continue to push the president ' s health care proposals while under intense scrutiny with his career in doubt . `` What alternative do I have ? '' Rostenkowski responded Wednesday when a repor ter posed the question . `` I just don't have any alternatives . You just have t o do what you have to do . '' The cloud of the three-year criminal investigation of alleged abuses of the House Post Office and of official funds has been hangi ng over the 66-year-old Democrat for so long that it is difficult for many of hi s allies on the committee to comprehend that Rostenkowski could be out as chairm an as early as next week . `` It 's kind of eerie , '' said Rep. Sander M. Levin , D-Mich. , a committee member and Rostenkowski ally . Rep. Mike Kopetski , D-O re. , another committee member , said , `` I want to keep thinking things will w ork out and he 'll continue being chairman . '' Even House Minority Whip Newt Gi ngrich , R-Ga. , who has warned of congressional inquiries if there is any indic ation that Rostenkowski is receiving special treatment from the Justice Departme nt , expressed sympathy . `` I 'm extraordinarily saddened about Rostenkowski , '' Gingrich said . `` Because he was a big man who did a big job . You hate to s ee any human being go through this kind of agony . '' But committee members and the House Democratic leadership are bracing for the worst , and Rep. Sam Gibbons ( Fla. ) , 74 , the committee 's ranking Democrat , said he 's ready for the jo b . Democratic caucus rules and precedents would have Gibbons step in as acting chairman if Rostenkowski were indicted , but that is subject to review by the ca ucus . If he were to resign from Congress , the caucus would choose a new chairm an . Two senior Democratic committee members , Reps. Charles B . Rangel ( N.Y. ) and Fortney `` Pete '' Stark ( Calif. ) , Wednesday endorsed Gibbons for the po st if Rostenkowski is forced to step aside . Rostenkowski , who has led the Ways and Means Committee since Ronald Reagan took office in 1981 , was crucial to pa ssage of President Clinton 's major economic package last year and has been cent ral to Clinton 's efforts to pass a comprehensive health care plan this year . H owever , Gibbons and other committee members Wednesday disputed that health care reform efforts would collapse in Rostenkowski 's absence . Even First Lady Hill ary Rodham Clinton told reporters that while the loss of the chairman `` would b e an obstacle Congress would have to figure out how to overcome . . . health car e reform and the need for it is bigger than any one person in this country . '' `` Somebody told me about a crack somebody made on television last night that th e graveyard is full of indispensable men , '' the jovial Gibbons told a reporter . `` I think all of us realize we 're mortal and that when we go , somebody ste ps forward . That 's just life . '' `` Thirty-two years in this job , '' said Gi bbons . `` I 'm ready . '' Rep. Harold E. Ford , D-Tenn. , a senior committee me mber , suggested that Rostenkowski voluntarily step aside as chairman immediatel y because the media attention to his legal troubles has distracted members from deliberations on health care legislation . `` We 're losing focus , really , on the issue that 's before the committee , '' Ford said . `` Everybody around here is focused on Rostenkowski , and that is not to be down on Danny . '' Ford spea ks from experience . He stepped aside from a Ways and Means subcommittee chairma nship for six years while he successfully fought an indictment . He was the last House member affected by the Democratic rule that compels indicted chairmen to step aside . Rostenkowski 's legal travail has become a preoccupation of House m embers , many of whom fear it will provide fresh ammunition for critics of the i nstitution and GOP challengers in the fall election . `` The mood is just so nas ty out there in the countryside and this just makes us all the more beleaguered , '' said one politically vulnerable House Democrat . Wednesday Rostenkowski pre sided for much of the morning over a tedious committee hearing on alternative he alth care reform proposals , surrounded by reporters and television cameras . La ter in the afternoon , he took part in a House and Senate Democratic leadership meeting with the president in the Capitol to discuss the prospects of his health care plan . Rostenkowski fended off questions about the status of his case , bu t in an interview he sought to defend his record over a colorful career that spa ns more than three decades : `` I think I 'm a committed legislator . I think my record as a legislator is worthwhile . I don't know too many problems that as a legislator I haven't tried to solve . '' WASHINGTON U.S. . Attorney Eric H . Holder Jr. has made a final plea bargain of fer in negotiations with lawyers for Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , and set Tu esday as the deadline for Rostenkowski to accept the proposal or risk almost cer tain indictment on a wide range of charges , sources knowledgeable about the neg otiations said Wednesday . If Rostenkowski refuses , the sources said , Holder ' s move for an indictment against the House Ways and Means Committee chairman wou ld be swift , possibly as early as the Tuesday deadline . Rostenkowski declined to comment Wednesday on the negotiations and efforts to reach his attorney , Rob ert S. Bennett , were unsuccessful . But Democrats on the committee said that Ro stenkowski still hoped to avoid going to jail , and was leaning toward fighting the prosecution 's case that he conspired to defraud the government through misu se of his congressional office funds . Throughout negotiations , federal prosecu tors have insisted that Rostenkowski plead guilty to at least one felony charge and serve some time in jail . After haggling for days over the breadth of the ch arges , sources said Holder has now made clear that the negotiating `` can't con tinue forever . '' Holder is `` simply waiting to hear from Rostenkowski , '' sa id a source close to the negotiations . This latest twist to the complex and flu id negotiations over Rostenkowski 's legal future indicates that one of Congress 's most influential members is all but certain to leave or be removed from the Ways and Means chairmanship , a position thought to be critical in the ongoing d ebate over President Clinton 's plans for health and welfare reform . Rostenkows ki is considered an invaluable ally on both fronts . Under normal procedures of the House Democratic Caucus , Rostenkowski would have to step down from the comm ittee chairmanship if he were indicted on a felony punishable by at least two ye ars in prison . Ironically , a guilty plea apparently would give him a small win dow of opportunity to retain the chairmanship . The rules do not compel a member convicted of criminal charges to resign from office or leadership positions , a lthough such members are likely to face an ethics investigation and disciplinary actions . Federal prosecutors have outlined a broad case against Rostenkowski o f conspiracy to defraud the government . After a two-year investigation , prosec utors have forwarded information to the Justice Department alleging that the vet eran lawmaker paid employees for work not done and that he abused official accou nts for leased cars , office supplies and office space . Sources said that the a lleged illegal activity involves `` several hundred thousand dollars . '' Rosten kowski is accused of trading office postage stamps for cash and assuming ownersh ip of cars previously leased by the government , the sources said . He has since reimbursed the House Stationery Store $ 82,000 , according to individuals famil iar with the case . Investigators also have looked into allegations of obstructi on of justice , said sources , noting that Rostenkowski staff members in Chicago and Washington could face charges . Because of the scale of the charges outline d , prosecutors are under pressure to exact a Rostenkowski guilty plea to a cons piracy felony charge and not just a simple felony count , such as theft , source s said . The plea , in this view , should clearly indicate the breadth of the pa ttern of alleged illegal activity , sources said . Defense attorneys have argued for narrowing the scope and number of charges against the House veteran and hav e sought to avoid a jail sentence , or to get as little jail time as possible . The gap between the two positions has blocked resolution of the issue in recent days . Another critical factor that both sides have considered is that U.S. . Di strict Court Judge Norma H. Johnson is scheduled to oversee the case , the sourc es said . Johnson has a tough sentencing record . Sources said that was likely a factor that led Rostenkowski 's attorneys to at least consider a possible plea bargain . WASHINGTON Pentagon officials have been concealing or ignoring evidence that te ns of thousands of U.S. Persian Gulf War veterans were exposed to Iraqi chemical and biological weapons during the conflict , a Senate report released Wednesday contends . Sen. Donald W. Riegle Jr. , D-Mich. , chairman of the Senate Banking , Housing and Urban Affairs Committee , which interviewed more than 600 veteran s in preparing its report , demanded that the Pentagon declassify all informatio n relating to the detection of chemical and biological agents . Riegle recalled the Pentagon 's reluctance to release information on Agent Orange after the Viet nam War and raised doubts about the effectiveness of devices used in the field t o detect the presence of chemical agents . In a letter sent to Persian Gulf War veterans Wednesday , Defense Secretary William J. Perry and Gen. John M. Shalika shvili , chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , said `` there is no information , classified or unclassified , that indicates that chemical or biological weapo ns were used in the Persian Gulf . '' But veterans ' testimony in the Senate rep ort suggests that chemical and biological contamination was widespread . Operati on Desert Storm soldiers described 10 incidents of Iraqi rocket attacks that rel eased noxious fumes or set off chemical agent alarms as well as several encounte rs with irritating chemicals in the air . Some 12,000 veterans have reported sym ptoms ranging from skin irritation to memory loss , claiming that they are victi ms of `` Gulf War Syndrome . '' In one incident , eyewitnesses recounted their e xperiences during the early hours of Jan. 19 , 1991 , when an explosion near the port of Jubayl in Saudi Arabia sent U.S. troops in a naval construction battali on scurrying for cover . When soldiers emerged from their bomb shelter , some re ported a numbness or a burning sensation on their skin . One soldier who tested the area for chemical agents that evening reported that two of three tests had p ositive readings . At a hearing of Riegle 's committee Wednesday , Pentagon offi cials said that Iraq did not deploy chemical or biological toxins , even though hundreds of chemical alarms were triggered during the war . In some cases , the sensors may have malfunctioned , the officials said , and in others the alarms w ere discounted after further review . Defense Undersecretary Edwin Dorn said the re is some concern , however , about the possibility that soldiers could have be en exposed to low levels of chemical warfare agents or fallout in Kuwait and sou thern Iraq as a result of Allied bombing of Iraqi military installations . Riegl e accused the Pentagon of concealing or suppressing reports of toxic exposures d uring the conflict , saying that the military establishment has an `` institutio nal difficulty in coming to terms with grievous decision errors. .. . I 've seen our government lie to us before in other war situations . '' Army chemical data included in the Senate report indicates that U.S. chemical detectors may not ha ve been sensitive enough to register very low levels of certain agents , such as the nerve gas Sarin , which can still be harmful if soldiers are exposed to it over long periods . Last July , Czechoslovakia 's minister of defense announced that a chemical decontamination unit from his country had detected low levels of Sarin in Saudi Arabia early in the Gulf War . Symptoms commonly associated with Sarin include respiratory problems and chest pain , which many veterans reporte d . Dorn acknowledged that physicians have been unable to diagnose symptoms of a t least 2,000 veterans , many of whom claim to have Gulf War Syndrome . ( Option al add end ) One of those who has suffered since the war is Dean V. Lundholm Jr. of Live Oak , Calif. , who served with an Army National Guard unit . Since retu rning from Saudi Arabia in 1991 , Lundholm has been so beset by respiratory and digestive problems that he has been unable to work . `` I served my country will ingly and proudly , '' said Lundholm , who founded the California Association of Persian Gulf Veterans , at a National Institutes of Health hearing last month . `` But I now expect my country to treat me and other war vets with respect and concern . And that means we vets should get information , diagnosis and treatmen t about our health status . '' Copies of Lundholm 's testimony were distributed at Wednesday 's hearing . Recently , the Pentagon also has considered the possib ility that experimental vaccines administered to soldiers to combat chemical wea pon attacks may have led to some veterans ' symptoms . A panel of experts led by Nobel Laureate Joshua Lederberg is re-examining evidence of chemical weapon exp osure for the Defense Department and is expected to report its findings next mon th , Dorn said . WASHINGTON An uncommon code of silence enveloped the House Wednesday as it conf ronted the strong possibility that Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , will step do wn as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee as part of a plea bargain . The powerful lawmaker , an unparalleled master of arm-twisting and deal-cutting , is considered crucial to the fate of health care reform as well as the Democr ats ' overall legislative record . And in corridors and cloakrooms on the House side of Capitol Hill , members of Congress wondered and worried about who would succeed him and the implications the succession would have both for them and Pre sident Clinton . Yet congressional decorum prevented the members from talking op enly about the looming crisis . Indeed , with Rostenkowski seemingly on the verg e of indictment for financial abuse of his office , House Majority Leader Richar d A . Gephardt , D-Mo. , called an extraordinary news conference to declare he h as no interest in assuming the leadership of the committee to help secure the en actment of health care reform . `` I think in a way it 's an insult to the chair man and the members of the committee that I or someone else from the leadership would have to go to the committee so the committee could finish its work on heal th care , '' Gephardt said . House Speaker Thomas S. Foley , D-Wash. , too , was unwilling to talk openly about the ramifications of the Rostenkowski matter . ` ` I 'm not going to presume the resignation of Mr. Rostenkowski. That 's somethi ng I have no knowledge about , '' he said . First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton wa s less reticent , however , to discuss the effect Rostenkowski 's departure woul d have on the administration 's health care proposal . `` I certainly hope that doesn't come to pass , but it would be an obstacle that Congress would have to f igure out how to overcome , '' she said at an International Women 's Media Found ation conference here . `` It would be a great loss to Congress , but health car e reform and the need for it is bigger than any one person in this country , '' Mrs. Clinton later told reporters . ( Begin optional trim ) Meanwhile , Rep. Rob ert T. Matsui , D-Calif. , a senior member of the panel and a Rostenkowski loyal ist , remained uncharacteristically close-lipped about his own intentions . Some members of Congress and their aides have speculated that , if Matsui challenges ranking committee Democrat Sam Gibbons of Florida for the chairmanship , Rep. C harles B . Rangel , D-N.Y. , and Rep. Fortney H. `` Pete '' Stark , D-Calif. bot h of whom are senior to Matsui also would seek the job . The nervousness over th e chairmanship reflects widespread concern that Gibbons lacks Rostenkowski 's de al-making skills . He also is more a specialist in trade than health care . If R ostenkowski leaves , the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee would recommen d a chairman to the Democratic Caucus . If the ranking member gets the nod , he would be entitled to a separate up or down vote before any alternative was consi dered , Foley said . ( End optional trim ) Sources close to the negotiations bet ween Rostenkowski 's lawyers and U.S. . Attorney Eric H . Holder Jr. indicated t hat the matter will not be resolved until next week . Holder reportedly was pres sing for a decision on the plea agreement by Tuesday . The U.S. attorney 's offi ce has been investigating Rostenkowski for alleged misue of office and campaign accounts , including the possibility that he improperly received money from the House Post Office , hired employees who did no work and made improper furniture and gift purchases from his office funds . A plea agreement would enable him to avoid the humiliation of a public trial and the prospect of conviction and a len gthy prison sentence . The chief barrier to an agreement , sources said , has be en the wording of any charge to which Rostenkowski would plead guilty . The prec ise description of the charge would be crucial in determining the punishment tha t U.S. . District Judge Norma H. Johnson could mete out under the federal senten cing guidelines . The guidelines require judges to explain in writing any depart ure they make from the sentences outlined for various crimes . The sentences are affected by such factors as the amount of money involved , whether the defendan t abused a position of public trust and whether he has accepted responsibility f or his actions . In a fraud conviction involving a loss of more than $ 200,000 , for example , the guidelines call for a sentence of 15 to 21 months for a defen dant with no prior criminal history . If the loss is between $ 70,000 and $ 120, 000 , the sentence would range from 10 to 16 months . In a fraud conviction invo lving an abuse of a position of public or private trust , the guidelines call fo r increasing the incarceration . In a $ 70,000-plus fraud , for example , the se ntence would rise to 15 to 21 months . The guidelines also provide for decreasin g the sentence if the defendant `` clearly demonstrates acceptance of responsibi lity for his offense . '' Rostenkowski 's lawyer , Robert S. Bennett , has been trying to persuade prosecutors to agree to a charge under which Johnson , who ha s a reputation for tough sentencing , could impose punishment of less than a yea r in jail , according to a source familiar with the negotiations . WASHINGTON On what many believed could be Rep. Dan Rostenkowski 's last day of presiding as chairman over his beloved House Ways and Means Committee , the scen e was like a death watch for a wounded king . Grim-faced aides moved about the c ommittee room quietly . The likely successor , Sam M. Gibbons , D-Fla. , stayed close to the rostrum as though he might have to take over any minute . No one wa nted to talk aloud about what was on everyone 's mind . Every so often , Rostenk owski , D-Ill. , would glance over at the bank of more than a dozen photographer s he knew were there only to capture his misery as he contemplates a possible in dictment on ethics charges or his resignation from Congress . The color would dr ain from his ruddy , expressive face . `` It was awful , awful , '' said Rep. Be njamin L. Cardin , D-Md. , who serves on the committee . `` Somebody said it mus t have been like Jackie Kennedy 's apartment when people came to visit the day b efore she died . '' Clearly , there was that same sense Wednesday of losing some one larger than life . This big , gruff , intimidating man , who inspires both s trong loyalty and respect bordering on fear , defines what it means to be a powe r in Congress . Of the dozen House and Senate leaders who met with President Cli nton Wednesday to assess the status of his health reform legislation , Rostenkow ski had been expected to be Clinton 's most valuable ally . The congressman 's s kill at brokering deals often using old-time tactics like threats and rewards , in pursuit of high-sounding public policy like tax reform is unmatched among his colleagues . Clinton values Rostenkowski 's skills so highly that he took the p olitically risky step of campaigning for the Ways and Means Committee chairman w hen it appeared Rostenkowski might lose his primary race for re-election in Marc h . But sometime within a few days , and almost certainly before Congress return s from its Memorial Day recess , Rostenkowski and his lawyers are expected to re ach a decision that will take him out of the action . Rostenkowski may accept a plea bargain that would force him to give up his chairmanship , probably leave C ongress and possibly serve a prison sentence . Or he will be indicted and be for ced out of his chairmanship , at least temporarily , by House rules . In any cas e , Rostenkowski 's colleagues have already started preparing to carry on withou t him . `` Nobody in Congress is indispensable , '' House Speaker Thomas S. Fole y , observed last week . Hillary Rodham Clinton made clear Wednesday that the Wh ite House is adjusting to Rostenkowski 's imminent departure from the health ref orm process . `` It would be an obstacle Congress would have to figure out how t o overcome , '' Mrs. Clinton told reporters . `` It would be a great loss to Con gress , but health care reform and the need for it is bigger than any one person in this country . '' Rostenkowski , 66 , is among the last of his kind . The pr oduct of Chicago Democratic machine politics , he came to Washington 36 years ag o as the agent of Mayor Richard J. Daley and rose to become the confidant of pre sidents . After more than 20 years of aiming for the House speakership , Rostenk owski got off the leadership ladder in 1981 to take over the tax-writing Ways an d Means Committee . It is probably Congress ' most powerful panel and is a prime target of big-spending lobbyists . The chairman is not a particularly high-livi ng man , but he has enjoyed the fringe benefits of his job : rich meals and reso rt vacations at the expense of lobbyists . He is a regular at Morton 's Steakhou se in Washington , where lobbyists pick up his tab . The Palm restaurant in Chic ago has a special table for him . It may have be Rostenkowski 's adherence to th e old way of politics that led him into trouble . The U.S. attorney 's office in Washington conducted an exhaustive probe of his financial dealings for two year s after allegations that surfaced in a probe of the House Post Office . Former H ouse Postmaster Robert Rota pleaded guilty last year to a scheme in which he fun neled tens of thousands of dollars in cash to members of Congress . He implicate d Rostenkowski in the scheme . Although Rostenkowski steadfastly denied any wron gdoing , the federal inquiry widened to cover virtually all his activities durin g his entire service in Congress . According to published reports , federal pros ecutors are ready to seek an indictment that would include charges that Rostenko wski put ghost employees on his Chicago payroll and used taxpayer money to buy i tems for personal and campaign use at the House office supply store . ( Optional add end ) Earlier this year , Rostenkowski reimbursed the government $ 82,095 f or the supply store items . But he insists there was no intentional wrongdoing . Among the issues said to be keeping Rostenkowski awake at night is whether to p ut longtime aides through what could be a lengthy and expensive trial to prove h is innocence . But friends say they suspect that the U.S. attorney for Washingto n , Eric Holder Jr. , a Clinton appointee , may not be able to offer Rostenkowsk i an attractive enough plea bargain to forestall such a trial . Any sign of favo ritism would look as if Clinton were trying to cut Rostenkowski a break . WASHINGTON Scientists said Wednesday that for the first time they have found co nvincing evidence for the existence of a super-massive black hole in a nearby ga laxy , one of astronomy 's most sought-after prey in recent years . Using NASA ' s recently refurbished Hubble Space Telescope , the research team was able to ph otograph a whirlpool of hot gas spinning around the galactic center where the bl ack hole is believed to lurk . By analyzing the light waves from the gas disk , the researchers were able to determine how fast it is moving about 1.2 million m ph and estimate the size of the object that might be causing it to spin so furio usly . They concluded that at the core of the galaxy there is a black hole with the mass of at least 2 billion suns compressed to the size of our solar system . `` We were all walking a foot off the ground for three weeks after we realized what we had found , '' said Holland Ford of the Space Telescope Science Institut e in Baltimore . The existence of black holes , probably the weirdest objects in the universe , confirms a prediction of Einstein 's general theory of relativit y . They are dense , extremely compact objects whose gravitational pull is so st rong that nothing , not even light waves , can escape . The only way to `` see ' ' a black hole is to infer its presence by studying how it influences visible ma tter nearby . Ford had predicted there should be a spinning gas disk at the cent er of the galaxy in question called M-87 and that studying such a disk might off er clues to the existence of a black hole . As early as 1917 , ground-based phot os of the galaxy , located about 50 million light years away , had shown evidenc e of unusual activity at the core of M-87 . Astronomers have since identified a brilliant jet of electrons spiraling out from the center of the galaxy at nearly the speed of light . Initial Hubble images taken prior to last December 's shut tle mission to correct the telescope 's flawed optics were not good enough to sh ow the postulated disk of gas . But photos taken in February with Hubble 's new camera not only revealed the gas disk but also showed that it was surprisingly w ell-ordered , according to Ford . That meant that another Hubble instrument coul d do good measurements on the light waves being emitted from discrete regions on the spiral-like disk as it spun . By studying how those light waves are compres sed or expanded depending on whether the disk material is moving toward Earth or away from it astronomers can estimate how fast the disk is spinning . Combined with an estimate on the radius of the central region of the galaxy taken from th e Hubble photos astronomers can calculate the mass of the galactic core . If the calculated mass is sufficiently large compared to the radius , astronomers argu e , the object in question must be a black hole . The hole at the center of M-87 is estimated to be about as far across as our solar system large , but not out of line with the expected size of a black hole containing 2 billion or more sola r masses . `` If it 's not a black hole , it 's something stranger , '' astronom er Bruce Margon of the University of Washington said during a NASA briefing on t he new results . Daniel Weedman , director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration 's astrophysics division and a previous skeptic about the existe nce of supermassive black holes , said he found the new evidence convincing . `` Yes , I think this is definitive , '' Weedman said . ( Optional add end ) Astro nomer Douglas Richstone of the University of Michigan , in a telephone interview , called the evidence `` pretty convincing '' and said it is a part of a chain of evidence on the existence of supermassive black holes that has been building during the past decade . Astronomers already had come to accept the existence of smaller black holes associated with the collapse of dying stars several times l arger than our sun . `` The evidence for black holes of a few solar masses is ve ry strong , '' Margon said . But astronomers have been particularly interested i n the possibility of massive black holes at the core of galaxies , since they co uld provide the `` engine '' to explain some of the most energetic events in the universe . Some astronomers have suggested that black holes may exist at the co re of virtually every galaxy , including our own Milky Way . The Hubble 's abili ty to look more closely at the central regions of galaxies should help astronome rs learn more about the origin of supermassive black holes , Weedman said . He s aid theorists still do not really understand how such objects form and how they behave . He cited the paradox at M-87 , where a black hole presumably is sucking huge amounts of material toward it while at the same time a jet of electrons is spiraling outward . BALTIMORE The sound of silence that 's all residents of a once-quiet suburban M aryland townhouse court crave . But when they 'll get their wish is still up in the air literally . The burglar alarm on a house whose owner is traveling in Ind onesia has been whoop-whoop-whooping around the clock since last Saturday , and it 's driving people nuts . `` It 's gone off before , but only for 20 minutes o r so , then it stops , '' said Joan Sheppard , one of the neighbors . Sheppard s aid the man installed the burglar alarm himself , and she complained that it has annoyed her from time to time for the five years she has lived there but never for such a prolonged period . This time was different . The alarm awakened her a t 12:30 a.m. Saturday. A half-hour later , an accident nearby shut off power to the area and the alarm stopped briefly . `` I said , ` Thank God , ' but then it came back and it hasn't shut up since , '' Sheppard said . `` If we go in the b ack room and close everything in front , it 's not as loud . '' The owner left a message on his office answering machine that he would not return until Memorial Day . However , a friend said the man was notified of the problem and was air-f reighting keys to another friend to shut off the alarm . Some neighbors along th e tree-shaded street have changed their bedrooms to escape the noise . Others ar e simply enduring the torment . In any case , residents say the homeowner is in for a lot of grief when he returns . Some neighbors have detailed their grievanc es in a note taped to his storm door . Baltimore County police say they have no authority to break into the house to silence the alarm , and the electric compan y says it can't shut off power to the house because it might damage appliances . Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service . WASHINGTON The regents of the Smithsonian Institution Wednesday selected Ira Mi chael Heyman , a lawyer and former chancellor of the University of California , Berkeley , as its 10th chief executive and the first non-scientist to lead the m useum and research complex . `` We considered Mike to be a generalist whose rang e of skills matches the Smithsonian 's needs and interests , '' said Barber Cona ble , the regent who headed the search committee after Heyman stepped down and p ut his own name into consideration . Citing a long list of attributes including leadership of a complex institution , successful fund-raising and deft maneuveri ng in a highly charged political environment , Conable said , `` He is an open p erson , has no hidden agendas. . . . He has the ability to come back after hard knocks apparently Berkeley is a place where occasionally hard knocks are adminis tered . '' Heyman , who is now counselor to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt , s tood by Conable at an afternoon press conference and smiled guardedly at the lit any of praise . `` I see the Smithsonian as a big , rollicking , dynamic , tough , interesting , intellectual institution , '' he said . But he added that takin g the $ 200,000-a-year position at this critical transition time brought `` daun ting challenges . '' `` We have a resource problem that is significant , both a public and private resource problem , '' said Heyman . The Smithsonian is a $ 45 8 million-a-year operation , which receives a direct federal appropriation of $ 342 million and must make up the rest through endowments and private donations . Heyman compared the Smithsonian 's situation to the one he faced at Berkeley in 1980 when he became chancellor . `` California was in economic doldrums , '' he said . `` Things turned around luckily in two ways . The public fist enlarged s lightly . We learned how to raise money , and we raised an awful lot and it was the saving grace . '' Under his tenure there was a threefold growth in private d onations . The new secretary , who takes over in September , replaces Robert McC . Adams , an anthropologist who served for the last decade . The Smithsonian 's enterprises include the National Air & Space Museum , the most visited museum i n the country , the National Museum of Natural History , which has 120 million a rtifacts , and the National Zoo , which has an estimated 3 million visitors a ye ar . Heyman 's election came after a scheduled May 9 vote was postponed when Vic e President Gore , a regent , said he wanted to be present . He was in South Afr ica at the time . Though the request was accepted as a matter of protocol , his move sparked conversation that he disagreed with the choice of the search commit tee , particularly that Heyman is a non-scientist . The other leading contender was Thomas Lovejoy , the Smithsonian 's assistant secretary for environment and external affairs , who is a friend of Gore 's and a prominent tropical biologist . At the regents session , Conable said , there had been `` earnest , open and civil discussion '' on several topics , including the choice of a non-scientist . He would say only that Gore had joined that discussion . Gore would not commen t . `` The Smithsonian has not abandoned its tradition of scientific leadership , '' said Conable , praising Heyman 's stewardship of the prestigious scientific undertakings at Berkeley . Heyman said , `` We will continue to interrelate the research mission and the exhibition mission . '' In its pursuit of new revenue streams , Heyman said , the Smithsonian has to strike `` the right balance betwe en raising money from the private sector and not giving away one 's soul . '' Be sides its public funds , its other support comes from an endowment of the foundi ng benefactor , James Smithson , private donations and revenues from the Smithso nian magazine , museum shops and other revenue-generating businesses and contrac ts . Heyman last year helped form a panel of citizens who raise funds for the Sm ithsonian . WASHINGTON The federal government late Wednesday reached a $ 12.1 million settl ement with Arizona Gov. J. Fife Symington and other directors of two savings and loans whose failures cost taxpayers more than $ 1 billion . Symington , a Repub lican running for a second term this year , has for three years been battling th e Resolution Trust Corp. 's allegations that he misused his position as a direct or of Southwest Savings and Loan Association in Phoenix . The RTC sued Symington and other directors in 1991 for $ 200 million . In a statement released by his office , Symington said he is `` delighted that this issue has finally been reso lved . '' He said he made no personal financial payment nor any admission of wro ngdoing as part of the settlement . Stephen Katsanos , a spokesman for the RTC , said the entire $ 12.1 million settlement will come from the estate of the late Daniel K. Ludwig , owner of Southwest and a second S&L , American Savings of Ut ah . Defendants in RTC civil settlements do not customarily admit or deny wrongd oing , Katsanos said . The agency determined that Symington `` does not have wea lth '' and decided not to pursue him further , he said . Ludwig , a shipping mag nate believed to have been one of the richest people in the world , personally i ndemnified the S&L directors against lawsuits . RTC officials said Ludwig appare ntly gave away much of his money before he died in August 1992 , and his estate was worth less than the RTC had hoped . Symington also is a target of a criminal investigation into activities at Southwest , according to sources , who said a federal grand jury this spring subpoenaed his records . The RTC contended that S ymington breached his duties as a director by failing to disclose the true cost and his actual interest in a large downtown project Southwest funded . The agenc y contended that the upscale hotel-office project ended up costing Southwest mor e than $ 38 million . Symington has dubbed the RTC 's case against him and the o ther Southwest directors a `` witch hunt . '' He said the RTC was simply looking for someone to blame for the nation 's S&L mess . There were a total of 16 dire ctors and other parties involved in Wednesday 's settlement . Symington has said his project and Southwest Savings were both victims of a crash in the once-boom ing Arizona real estate market . The RTC said Symington took $ 8 million in fees from Southwest and a Japanese bank that helped finance the project . Symington argued that he put $ 1.5 million of his own money into the project and personall y guaranteed million in loans from the Japanese bank . WASHINGTON A judge Wednesday threw out a drunk-driving charge against Marlene R amallo , citing scant evidence that she was intoxicated when police saw her driv ing in Georgetown with a gentleman friend sprawled on the hood of her Jaguar con vertible , clinging to the door frame . `` I feel happy , '' said Ramallo , who is 41 , or 37 , or 39 , depending on which legal documents you look up . She als o used to be known as Marlene Chalmers Cooke and , despite her self-declared nam e change , is still more or less the wife of billionaire Jack Kent Cooke , the 8 1-year-old owner of the Washington Redskins . `` I had a wonderful judge , a won derful judge , '' Ramallo said . `` Justice has been done . And now I hope to go on . '' She had been accused of driving under the influence of alcohol , punish able by up to 30 days in jail and a $ 300 fine . She displayed little emotion , barely even a smile , as the charge was dismissed . Unlike Ramallo , most allege d drunk drivers opt to forgo trials , avoiding heavy legal bills by agreeing to plea bargains , or by admitting guilt and hoping for leniency . `` She 's a very principled woman , '' said Ramallo 's attorney , John Perazich . `` She felt st rongly that she wanted to fight this case , and fortunately she has the wherewit hal to do it . '' She emerged from District of Columbia Superior Court after her trial and found a small swarm of reporters and cameras blocking the path to her limousine , which was double-parked nearby , her chauffeur out and waiting . `` What do you think of the police ? '' a reporter shouted . `` Ahh , no comment . '' Okay , then what 's up with your personal life ? How come you 're suddenly u sing your maiden name , Ramallo ? Does it have to do with Cooke 's recent claim that your marriage isn't legally valid , that you weren't properly divorced from your previous husband ? `` He 's a wonderful man . '' ( Despite Cooke 's pronou ncement , the two have been seen together recently in public . ) `` What about P atrick ? Are you still seeing Patrick ? '' Patrick Wermer was , as police put it , `` the male subject '' in the Georgetown incident , a chap in his mid-twentie s whom acquaintances said was a regular nightclub companion of Ramallo 's , at l east until Sept. 15 , when the two began to argue and Ramallo wound up with the Jag keys , prompting Wermer to mount the car 's hood , claiming the Jag belonged to him . `` He 's my friend , '' Ramallo said . Finally someone in her group sa id , `` Thank you , '' ending the briefing , and Ramallo was ushered to the limo . She said , `` Ciao ! '' Perazich said Ramallo had planned to testify in her n on-jury trial , which began Tuesday . But it turned out she didn't have to . Sen ior Judge Nicholas Nunzio , granting Perazich 's motion , dismissed the charge m inutes after the prosecution had rested its case . The evidence against Ramallo wasn't strong enough to warrant a defense , the judge said . Police said that af ter ordering Ramallo out of the Jaguar , they noticed her eyes were watery , her breath smelled of alcohol and her gait was unsteady . At first , she wouldn't s ubmit to a breath test , Perazich said . Later , after she changed her mind abou t the test , the attorney said , police wouldn't allow her to take one , citing her initial refusal . `` Next time somebody 's driving a car in Georgetown and h as someone spread-eagle on the hood , I 'll be the first person called , '' Pera zich said outside the courthouse , smiling at his victory . `` I 'm sure there ' ll be numerous calls . I 'll probably have to get an unlisted number . '' NEW YORK An underground economy of World Cup merchandise stretching from leathe r factories in Pakistan to print shops and retail stores in New York City is cut ting into profits of more than 300 companies with rights to sell official produc ts . Three weeks before the games begin , unlicensed T-shirts , bumper stickers , key rings , soccer balls , shawls , posters , caps and sun visors are selling rapidly . Industry experts predict these goods , many bearing the trademarked Wo rld Cup mascot a cartoon dog named Striker and protected logos will reap as much as $ 150 million worldwide . This includes an estimated take of $ 45 million in the United States , a projected 15 percent of official sales , making the event one of the largest in the history of what is known as ambush marketing . `` It 's a real octopus-type of problem , '' said Tammy Bloom , legal counsel at Time Warner Sports Merchandising , the company that licenses official products for th e World Cup and tracks violators . `` On the street , it is easy to stop one ven dor , but there are 25 other merchants buying the same thing from the same perso n . It 's a very big global problem . '' The quadrennial soccer tournament , whi ch will be held for the first time in the United States beginning next month , i s the biggest single-sport event in the world . Twenty-four countries will compe te at nine U.S. stadiums . Despite the gray market in unofficial goods , World C up organizers estimate that $ 300 million in official merchandise will be sold i n the United States this year and $ 1 billion worldwide . Karen Raugust , execut ive editor of The Licensing Letter , a New York City-based industry newsletter , said gray-market goods typically bring in 15 percent of official sales . In the United States , she said , that should put bootleg World Cup merchandise in the same league as counterfeit Major League Baseball products . This concerns execu tives at many of the 302 companies that will spend as much as $ 50 million for l icenses to sell official World Cup items around the world . Under terms of their licenses , the companies , including 95 with rights to market in the United Sta tes , can use the mascot , the World Cup logo a red and white flag with a flying blue soccer ball and the words `` World Cup USA '94 '' on their products . `` I t 's frustrating , '' said Fred Malamud , director of marketing at Starline , a New York City company that owns rights to sell action posters of U.S. players . `` I know , you know and everybody knows there are knockoffs at little corner st ores all over the place , but we don't have people out there looking for the stu ff . That 's up to the licensing people at Time Warner . '' So far , Bloom said , Time Warner has taken legal action against 105 manufacturers , wholesalers or retailers to stop them from selling counterfeit and other unofficial goods . Blo om said that Time Warner , which gets most of its tips from licensed companies t hat hear about the gray-marketeers from distributors , plans to crack down by jo ining private investigators and local and state police and federal marshals to s eize goods as the World Cup nears . Still , a Newsday investigation of the bootl eg market operating here shows that illegal merchandise , some of which is smugg led into the country from South Korea , Pakistan , Taiwan , China , Mexico and C olombia , is being sold throughout New York City . Stopping stores from selling rip-off items involves a legal process that starts with Time Warner sending the merchants a cease-and-desist order . If they don't comply with the terms of the order , more steps can be taken , but Bloom said most cases are settled within w eeks before reaching court . ( Optional add end ) There is no accurate way to de termine the dollar value of unofficial goods smuggled into the United States , s ay industry experts . In April , U.S. . Customs agents in Miami seized a shipmen t of sweatshirts and T-shirts featuring the ball-and-flag logo and tags depictin g Striker with `` World Cup USA '94 Official Licensed Product '' printed below . The goods , exported from South Korea and intended for a distributor in Guayaqu il , Ecaudor , are now in a Customs warehouse and , according to agency policy , will ultimately be destroyed . Other goods directly turned over to World Cup or ganizers will be given to charities after the official product licenses expire n ext year . One company outside the reach of the World Cup cops is Golden Sunshin e Inc. , a wholesaler based in Anaheim , Calif. Golden Sunshine sells embroidere d patches for $ 1.25 each that show the name of a country over a soccer ball and the year 1994 . These multicolored patches , imported from Taiwan and sewn on b aseball caps , shirts and jackets , do not violate any laws . Although the compa ny uses the official World Cup logo on some of its brochures , that only makes t he brochures unlawful , not the products , Bloom said . `` That 's real ambush m arketing . These patches are selling like wildfire and appearing all over the wo rld , '' Bloom said . `` We can't do a thing about it . They followed the rules of the game . '' POOLE , England The strains of Glenn Miller 's `` In the Mood '' waft from an o ld radio under the canvas tent decked out as a field kitchen , with tin plates a nd cups on G.I. tables , and a server dressed in a blue boiler suit , her hair s wathed in a makeshift turban . The kitchen re-creates the scene on D-day , June 6 , 1944 , in this Dorset port city from which thousands of American troops sail ed for France 50 years ago . The prices , however , are up-to-date 75 cents for a cup of tea ; $ 2 for a ham sandwich . In nearby St. James Church , an old Amer ican flag hangs from the choir balcony ; the 48-star ensign was a gift from the U.S. Coast Guard flotilla , known as the `` St. Bernards of Normandy , '' which shuttled on rescue missions between Poole and France . Twenty-five miles west , in Weymouth , an impromptu museum of U.S. . Army memorabilia has been set up in a shopping arcade , a selection of military items to mark the 50th anniversary t hat could keep the interested visitor occupied for an hour or so . Outside , a U .S. olive-drab jeep and a staff car , manned by locals wearing period U.S. . Arm y uniforms , tool around the port . Sitting in a pub is Mike Wall , 79 , a grizz led , bright-eyed American D-day veteran who married a Weymouth girl and settled there permanently . `` My wife found me a great place here , '' said Wall , onc e a medic with the 1st Infantry Division . `` I 've been living happily ever aft er . '' In the months before D-day , Americans seemed to be everywhere in southe rn England : the troops who would land on the beaches of Normandy ; the supply c orps to back them up ; the sailors to ferry them across the English Channel ; th e airmen to support them from above . All in all , more than a million and a hal f Yanks made their way through the southern counties of Hampshire , Dorset and D evon . They were joined by an equal number of British and Canadian servicemen . The Channel ports of Portsmouth , Southampton , Gosport , Weymouth , Portland an d Poole were the main embarkation points for the invasion . In the initial D-day landings , 156,000 troops took part . By the end of the invasion July 3 , not q uite one month later , 1 million troops had been put ashore . Now , as the 50th anniversary of the greatest amphibious landing in history looms , local resident s are bracing for a new flood of outsiders . Counting on the nostalgia that sout hern England 's towns , villages and bases will evoke among invasion veterans an d their families , local tourism officials expect to lure back this summer about 350,000 visitors , many of them from the United States and Canada . Hotels , pu bs , museums , exhibitions , resorts , transport companies all hope to capitaliz e on the commemoration . Portsmouth alone expects 70,000 visitors on June 4 and 5 to watch Queen Elizabeth II , on board the royal yacht Britannia , review the fleet with President Clinton , kings , queens and politicians and then sail as p art of a massive flotilla for the Normandy coast to take part in ceremonies June 6 . U.S. warships will pay courtesy calls to the Channel ports of southern Engl and between June 2 and 5 . Local organizers are supported by the Ministry of Def ense and veterans associations , which are helping with military events , as wel l as the Department of National Heritage , which is underwriting some less marti al observances . In British Prime Minister John Major 's words , the 50th annive rsary is `` a huge national event . '' `` D-day was not just about those who too k part on the day , '' Major said . `` It was made possible by the effort and sa crifice of men and women throughout the forces , throughout industry and through out our nation . '' Major decreed that church bells `` from St. Paul 's Cathedra l to the smallest rural parish '' would peal on the eve of D-day 's anniversary . But the prime minister 's efforts to make the anniversary a national occasion have not been without controversy . Veterans complained about the carnival natur e of some of the events . As a result , the observances have been muted and made less triumphal . And some events a Spam-frying contest to recall wartime ration s , for instance were summarily dropped . The national Tourism Board has publish ed and circulated a detailed guide to about 350 commemorative events in southern England and Normandy ; there are about 500 events nationally . Dozens of other brochures have been prepared focusing on various aspects of the D-day observance s and history ; for example , `` Americans in Dorset , '' the story of U.S. forc es based there during the invasion buildup . Tourism officials are not shy about promoting their attractions . `` Selling the South '' has become the D-day anni versary slogan for the Southern Tourist Board , which has established a full-tim e D-day coordinator in New York and a national information hot line in Britain . `` We hope to realize an extra $ 9 million in tourism revenue from the commemor ation , '' said Peter Smith of the tourist board . `` We hope spending by Americ an and Canadian visitors alone will top $ 3 million . '' ( Begin optional trim ) The variety of exhibits and observances is staggering . Here is a small samplin g : Sightseeing flights in a DC-3 over former bases or Normandy from Bournemouth . Radio D-day in Poole and Christchurch , which will broadcast for 12 hours a d ay , re-creating wartime news bulletins and music . A parade , church service an d wreath-laying at the American memorial in Portland . A display in Lyme Regis a bout the memories of U.S. troops who trained in the town . The largest display o f wartime vehicles ever assembled 1,100 tanks , trucks , jeeps , motorcycles , e ven a locomotive in Portsmouth . A display at Southwick House in Southwick , whi ch served as the forward headquarters for the commanders of `` Operation Overlor d , '' as the invasion was formally known : American Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower a nd British Gen. Bernard Law Montgomery . ( End optional trim ) Meanwhile , BBC-T V is tooling up for its biggest outside broadcasting operation since the wedding of the Prince and Princess of Wales in 1981 . The anniversary events in the Cha nnel and Normandy will receive 13 hours of live coverage . About 55 cameras will be positioned in Portsmouth for the opening commemorative services on June 4 an d 5 . And the Channel crossing will be transmitted from the pitching decks of sh ips carrying dignitaries and veterans to Sea King helicopters above and thence t o the nation 's television sets . Such has been the mounting interest in the eve nts and memorabilia of 50 years ago that groups such as the Southern Tourist Boa rd are preparing to gear up all over again for next year 's 50th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day . For its sheer audacity , Rupert Murdoch 's lightning raid of the CBS affiliate base this week was a corporate coup of the first magnitude . It is the more so b ecause he pulled it off so cheaply and because it comes so soon after he snatche d rights to the National Football League at a price so high he very nearly accom plished the perverse miracle of televising professional football at a loss . And , of course , it comes only four years after a brush with bankruptcy so close t hat on cold days Murdoch must still feel the hot breath of the wolves who were r eady to liquidate his empire until an obscure bank in Pittsburgh , one of the sm allest of his legion of creditors , at the last minute agreed to roll over its m inuscule chunk of his indebtedness . If , 20 years ago , you 'd been asked to na me the most unassailable corporate oligarchy in America , you 'd probably have s aid CBS , NBC and ABC . The nation had three commercial television networks not one , not two , not five because , well , they got there first , had a lock on b roadcasting licenses in the richest markets , enjoyed a pervasive influence in C ongress , at the Federal Communications Commission and within a succession of pr esidencies , and generated an unending and highly predictable stream of profits for their shareholders . Risk didn't exist to the extent that the networks ran a race in which the worst that could happen was to come in a profitable third . P eople in the industry still fondly remember the glory days of expense accounts s o generous that everybody could imagine they were living close to scales that to day are reserved for a smaller but richer band of glamour generators in a war fo r ratings that has lost a lot of its depth . Anyway , who would have imagined th at the first successful challenge to this system , this citadel of power , this inherently American arrangement , this fixture in American living rooms as cultu rally ubiquitous and seemingly permanent as the nation 's sofas , floor lamps an d wing chairs , would be an Australian capitalist with an apparently admirable f amily life , mildly reactionary political leanings , impeccable taste in vulgari ty , an alarming disposition to borrow money in volumes his competitors wouldn't dare contemplate , and a record of not overly caring about the enemies he makes . The thing about Murdoch that confuses most of his critics and infuriates his most vitriolic disparagers is that he doesn't serve them with platters of the so rt of buffoonery that make Donald Trump or Ross Perot targets that loom to their tormentors like the broad side of a barn . He is well spoken in his public utte rances . He does not crave the artificial respectability that could easily have been arranged by Margaret Thatcher sending him to the House of Lords . He will , unself-consciously , arrange to become a U.S. citizen as easily as young Wall S treet lawyers go to Brooks Brothers in slavish imitation of their senior partner s . But he does not ask us to believe anything of him that doesn't ring true , h owever bloodless . Besides , those people who have for 40 years dreamed that the television might mature into something resembling the diversity , originality a nd cultural richness of the printed world , have , perhaps , been asking too muc h of a medium that requires less human concentration and a shorter attention spa n than a pinball machine . By Lee Hockstader ( c ) 1994 , The Washington Post VLADIVOSTOK , Russia Rising on craggy , fog-shrouded hills from Golden Horn Bay , Vladivostok is like a carn ival mirror 's distorted image of Russia itself : distended in its lawlessness , misery and disorientation , but also in its gaudy new wealth and commercial pro mise . This is the capital of Russia 's Rough and Ready East , a port city seven times zones and 5,700 miles from Moscow that has been as thoroughly transformed as any spot in the former empire in the 2 years since the Soviet Union 's demis e . It is in Vladivistok , farther east than any major city in mainland Asia , t hat Alexander Solzhenitsyn , Russia 's greatest living writer , will arrive Frid ay like some latter-day Rip Van Winkle after 20 years ' exile in the West . Here he will have his first glimpse of Russia 's kaleidoscopic transition to free-ma rket capitalism in all its raucous , lurid , hopeful colors . `` We 're like a d ecaying organism , beset by parasites , '' said Yuri Didenko , director of Vladi vostok 's huge fishing fleet , one of the world 's largest . But after railing a t Moscow 's callousness and Russia 's lost dignity , he captured the tough optim ism of the place by concluding : `` I 'm upbeat . The geography of Vladivostok a llows us to hope it will be a center for business for East Asia and the Pacific Rim . '' Founded in 1860 to block China 's expansion to the Sea of Japan , Vladi vostok ( the name means `` Possess the East '' ) boomed after the Trans-Siberian Railway linked it with Moscow in 1903 . As the home of the Soviet Pacific Fleet , Vladivostok was a closed military camp after World War II , forbidden not onl y to foreigners who might spy on the bristling warships and weaponry but even to Soviet citizens without special permission . Coddled by subsidies from Moscow a nd anchored by the navy , military factories and the fishing fleet , the city gl ided along in splendid isolation but for a 1975 summit between President Gerald R. Ford and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev . Since it was opened officially to th e outside world Jan. 1 , 1992 , Vladivostok has made up for lost time , turning to the outside world with a vengeance . As Moscow 's influence wanes , Seattle a nd Seoul are the new points of reference for Vladivostok 's hustling traders . C oca-Cola is selling big , tripling forecast sales and leaving distributors plead ing for more . U.S. Peace Corps volunteers are offering seminars on commercial b anking , Italians are building a new airport , Australians operate the best rest aurant in town , and Chinese workmen recently refurbished a $ 220-a-night hotel . Hundreds of joint ventures with Japanese , South Korean , Chinese and American firms are underway , jockeying for market share and the chance of future profit s . Flights are planned or already operating to link the city with Alaska and Ja pan . And in a red-brick church atop a hill , an American Catholic priest is hea ring confessions in a room that for decades was a Communist Party archive for to p-secret documents , complete with electronic sensors on the windows to thwart b reak-ins . Signs of new money are everywhere , from the stylishly dressed women downtown to the swanky new apartment buildings on the outskirts , where luxury d uplex condominiums are on sale at $ 80 a square foot . Thousands of white Japane se sedans the tax-free booty of returning merchant sailors , who sell them at a quick profit clog the narrow streets in epic rush hours . But , having thrown of f the yoke of communist control so abruptly , the city is beset by outsized econ omic and social problems , more severe than those of most cities in Russia . As fat subsidies from Moscow dry up , huge defense plants that used to churn out na vigational systems and warplanes are switching over to TVs and automatic bowling pin setters for Asian markets but not fast enough to avoid mounting layoffs and unpaid workers . Alongside the newly rich , a new class of unemployed and impov erished is rapidly taking shape . City officials say a third of Vladivostok 's 7 00,000 civilians are living below the poverty line . Prices , the highest in Rus sia , soared last year as annual inflation here reached 1,300 percent , nearly h alf again the national average . The emerging extremes of wealth and poverty are fueling a wave of crime and corruption , including a murder rate that has jumpe d by five times in five years and now rivals Washington 's . The crime rate is t hree times the national average , and the tough guys are having a field day . Se rgei Bachurin , 31 , an entrepreneur whose business leverage includes a 12-gauge `` Vinchester '' and 20 stocky enforcers , controls the local Chinese market , where merchants from across the border peddle cheap track suits , plastic shoes and video games . `` The Russian mafia is a good mafia , '' he said after displa ying his shotgun for a visitor in the middle of the crowded entryway to his mark et . Tall and lean , with a close-cropped blond beard , Bachurin is a former gol d miner who now strolls around in a double-breasted red blazer , chalk-striped f lannel pants and long black leather coat when he isn't in jail trying to beat on e rap or another . `` My bodyguards , '' he said , `` can kill anyone . They can do this perfectly , because I trained them myself . '' In the face of this expl osion of disorder , the authorities are swamped . The Vladivostok police force , which has just two computers , is hiring hundreds of new cops . City prosecutor s , lacking any official cars , ride trolleys to their investigations . `` In th e United States , you passed this racketeering stage long ago , '' said Chief Pr osecutor Vyacheslav Yaroshenko . `` We 're just entering it . '' Alexander Kuchi nski , a young scientist who was a precinct chief for a former mayor , said the new city authorities are thoroughly corrupt , bent on `` attracting foreigners o nly for their personal profit . '' But in the long run , he said , Vladivostok w ill make it . `` Sooner or later the new , business-minded people will win , '' he said . `` The old guard is trying to keep control , but I think and hope that sooner or later we 'll get rid of them . New forces are growing fast here . '' JERICHO , West Bank In an old public works building , Palestinian men sit in th e stifling heat dressed in revolvers , white shirts and ties the latter a sure s ign they are not locals . They give each visitor a hard , probing look . This is the new West Bank headquarters of the Palestinian secret police , whose quick a ppearance on the scene rings for some an ominous note among the celebrations ove r Israeli withdrawal . `` They are aiming at people like me . There is no questi on , '' said Riyad Malki , an engineering professor identified with a group oppo sed to Yasser Arafat 's Fatah faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization . The dictatorships that abound in the Middle East often use secret police `` muh abarat '' in Arabic to do the dirty work of eliminating opposition to their regi mes : eavesdropping , wiretapping , midnight arrests , torture , and sometimes p olitical assassination . Palestinians here have not been reassured by the select ion of Jabril Rajoub to head the secret police in Jericho . Few wish to speak fo r attribution of the man who spent 17 years in Israeli prisons and six years in exile , where he is reputed to have helped direct attacks against both Israelis and Palestinian foes . `` Everybody 's afraid . The guy 's a tough cookie , '' s aid one well-connected Palestinian . Said another : `` He 's the one in charge o f ` dirty deeds . ' Watch out for him . '' Rajoub , 41 , paints a different pict ure of himself and his force . `` I wouldn't call it muhabarat , '' he said . `` In the Third World , that means terror , interrogation , imprisonment and so on . Our job is to protect the inhabitants and ensure the rights of opposition to express their views in a decent way . '' His force , he said , officially is cal led `` Preventive Security . '' He makes reference to operating under `` democra tic principles , '' trying to assure Palestinians who fear a Fatah autocracy . H is men will be armed , and work in plainclothes . He declines to say how many th ere will be . It will work throughout the West Bank . He refuses to say how they will operate against the opposition if , for example , they will disarm other P alestinian groups . `` I don't think we can solve these problems through the med ia , '' he replies . `` How we deal with our people is our responsibility and ou r job . '' The agreement with Israel to begin Palestinian autonomy in Jericho an d the Gaza Strip permits formation of Palestinian units for `` public security ' ' and `` intelligence . '' Those units are supposed to be within the Palestinian Police force . Rajoub said , however , the secret police report directly to PLO Chairman Arafat . Later , he acknowledged he also will report to Mesbah Hanafi Sakr , a mysterious PLO `` general '' said to have hidden from the Israelis for 27 years in the Gaza Strip , and whom few people say they have ever met . ( Begi n optional trim ) Rajoub is curt to questions about his activities during six ye ars of exile . `` Why do you ask such questions , '' he replied , irritated . Ra joub returned to the West Bank last week to a hero 's welcome . He was imprisone d for life at age 17 for a grenade attack against an Israeli army truck . He bec ame a leader inside prison , where he learned Hebrew and English and eventually became a representative of the prisoners to the authorities . He was released in a large prisoner-swap deal in 1985 , and spent three years working with Faisal al-Husseini in East Jerusalem . In 1988 , he was deported by Israel , and he sai d he spent the rest of the time in Tunis . Israelis believe his job while in Tun is was to organize Fatah operations in the West Bank and within Israel . Accordi ng to Yigal Carmon , former advisor to the Israeli government on terrorism , Raj oub was one of those involved in a plot to recruit an Israeli to murder of top o fficials of the Israeli government , including Yitzhak Rabin , then defense mini ster and now prime minister . The murder plan was foiled before an attempt was m ade . `` I guess Mr. Rabin doesn't take it personally , '' he said of the govern ment 's approval of Rajoub 's return . ( End optional trim ) Israel agreed to th e creation of a security force in hopes it will be like the Israeli secret servi ce the Shabak and act against extreme opposition groups to stop attacks on Israe lis . `` This is not our duty , '' declares Rajoub . `` If Israel asks for full and total security , we can assure that only if we have full and total authority over our land , which we do not . '' If they caught a Palestinian who attacked Israelis , they would not turn the suspect over to Israeli authorities , he said : `` It 's not mentioned in the agreement . '' `` Our relationship with the Isr aelis is not one of friends , '' he said last week , in explaining why there wou ld be `` no coordination '' between his forces and those of Israel . Other Pales tinians believe Rajoub 's main purpose will be to assert control over opposition for the benefit of Fatah , not Israel . `` He will do those things that are not known , so that nobody will be accountable , '' said Ghassan Khatib , who is id entified with the opposition Palestinian People 's Party . Malki from another gr oup at odds with Arafat , the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said it is telling that Arafat installed a security apparatus even before a civil go vernment is formed . `` I fear a lot about the future , '' he said . The secret police `` will be observing the people , watching everybody . They will stop any protest , any opposition , '' he said . `` I have been threatened three times i n the last two years that my place will be in the prison '' when Fatah authoriti es take control , he said . `` In the last 10 or 20 years , I didn't really feel my life was threatened , '' he said . `` Now the possibility is becoming real . These are people who don't really mind eliminating their own . '' WASHINGTON Bill Clinton , who has staked his presidency on achieving bold domes tic policy goals , suddenly appears to be jeopardizing his political future with his handling of U.S. foreign policy . The evidence is accumulating : Some of Cl inton 's poll ratings are wilting ; Republicans including former President Bush and GOP presidential prospects for 1996 are pounding him and discontent is sprea ding on Capitol Hill . And with foreign policy dilemmas plaguing him around the globe , stretching from Haiti to Bosnia to North Korea and China , the future of fers the president little hope for relief . Amid preparations for Clinton 's tri p to Europe next week to commemorate the 50th anniversary of D-Day and to bolste r strained relationships with Western allies , some advisers wonder whether the president might have underestimated the importance of foreign policy while he wa s lavishing attention on domestic issues . `` I can envision a Republican candid ate in 1996 , someone like ( former Defense Secretary ) Dick Cheney or ( former Secretary of State ) Jim Baker , who campaigns on the slogan : ` It 's foreign p olicy , stupid , ' ' ' fretted a veteran of Clinton 's 1992 campaign . Indeed , the Republicans are already on the attack . `` Our leadership around the world i s being eroded by a stop-and-start policy of hesitancy , '' Bush said at a GOP f und-raiser in Milwaukee last week , according to a report in the Milwaukee Senti nel newspaper . Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole , R-Kan. , a potential president ial contender in 1996 , mocked Clinton 's recent 90-minute televised news confer ence on international affairs . `` You shouldn't have to have a television show with someone scripting the answers to demonstrate what you know about leadership , '' Dole said at a party rally in Atlanta . The basic grievance against Clinto n is this : In dealing with an array of problems abroad , such as the bloody con flict in Bosnia , the intransigence of the military regime in Haiti , the nuclea r threat from North Korea and human rights violations in China , he seems to hav e talked loudly but carried a small stick . `` I continue to look for new soluti ons , '' the president has said in his own defense . His supporters blame his di fficulties on the turbulent state of post-Cold War diplomacy , which has forced him to sail on uncharted seas . While some Americans are urging him to steer cle ar of foreign crises , others are demanding stronger action . `` You 're damned if you do and damned if you don't , '' argued Democratic National Chairman David Wilhelm . `` These are tough and difficult situations . '' `` The president is getting a bad rap , '' said House Speaker Thomas S. Foley , D-Wash. , who conten ds that Clinton does not get the credit that he deserves for winning congression al approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement . Likening present condit ions to the chaotic years following World War II , Foley noted that it took Pres ident Harry S. Truman nearly two years to develop policies for dealing with the Soviet Union . But some analysts warn that Clinton 's penchant for wheeling and dealing contrasted with Truman 's characteristic bluntness and decisiveness can backfire in foreign policy . `` In foreign policy , it 's important to present a firm image , '' said Princeton University presidential scholar Fred Greenstein . `` With Clinton , it 's like globs of mercury ; he 's all over the place . '' Clinton 's task is not an easy one . `` In the post-Cold War era , no one knows what foreign policy ought to be , '' conceded Leslie Gelb , a former State Depar tment official in the Jimmy Carter administration . Gelb now serves as president of the Council on Foreign Relations . Yet Clinton 's critics argue that the pre sident is making the job more difficult with his inconsistencies . `` You can't go Chinese menu week by week on foreign policy and expect the American people to support you , '' said Hodding Carter III , who was spokesman for the State Depa rtment during the Carter administration . Clinton 's policies are drawing fire a cross the political spectrum . From the right , House Minority Whip Newt Gingric h , R-Ga. , scoffs at Clinton 's initiative for dealing with the potential flood of refugees from Haiti by establishing seaborne processing centers . `` There i s a level of sloppiness about this administration that is kind of scary , '' the conservative Georgia congressman said . From the left , Maurice Paprin , head o f the liberal-oriented Fund for New Priorities , left a recent White House brief ing convinced that U.S. policy toward Haiti is `` as unclear and muddy as it was before . '' The president seemingly raised the political stakes for his Haiti p olicies recently when he offered a detailed justification for U.S. invasion of t hat strife-torn island nation if economic sanctions do not force the military go vernment from office . But if the Haitian regime stands firm despite the sanctio ns , Clinton will have to risk launching a military assault with unforeseeable c onsequences or face intensified complaints that he lacks the will to manage fore ign policy . Even longtime allies of the president , such as Rep. Dave McCurdy , D-Okla. , who chairs the Democratic Leadership Council , the centrist group tha t helped propel Clinton to the presidency , have joined the disapproving chorus . `` We have conducted ourselves abroad with an unsteady hand , '' McCurdy said in an address to the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco last month . `` In Bosni a , blustery rhetoric faded into reluctant diplomacy. .. . On North Korea , we h ave been anything but decisive . '' Republicans warn that shifting positions on current problems can create even more serious troubles in the future . `` To the extent that you use up your credibility , then when you get into a real crisis you 'll pay the price , '' former Defense Secretary Cheney told members of the N ational Retail Federation earlier this month . Clinton is already paying a polit ical price for the controversies surrounding his foreign policy , according to r ecent polls . Only 40 percent of those interviewed in a Washington Post-ABC News survey released last week approved of his handling of foreign policy , against 53 percent who disapproved . The negative showing on foreign policy apparently c ontributed to lowering the president 's overall approval rating to 51 percent , from 57 percent in March . ( Optional add end ) `` Foreign policy is not just ab out foreign affairs , it 's also an opportunity for the president to display lea dership capabilities in the one arena in which he can do so with fewest challeng es , '' said Everett Carll Ladd , director of the Roper Center for Public Opinio n Research . `` We have loads of evidence that people form impressions of presid ents by what they see of them on the world stage . '' Underscoring Clinton 's di fficulties abroad , and conceivably complicating them , are increasing signs of congressional restlessness with his leadership on foreign affairs . The most str iking example is a Senate vote two weeks ago for an amendment ordering the presi dent to unilaterally lift the U.N.-imposed embargo on selling arms to Bosnia , e ven if the United States ' NATO allies do not agree . Sen. Mitch McConnell of Ke ntucky , the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that overs ees spending on foreign aid , predicted more congressional involvement in foreig n affairs on such issues as curbing development of North Korea 's nuclear capabi lity and granting `` most favored nation '' trade status to China . `` All of a sudden , '' McConnell said , `` an issue the president has no interest in , and he thinks the American people aren't interested in , is becoming a major politic al liability . '' The following editorial appeared in Thursday 's Washington Post : Congress goes home still trying to figure out how , if at all , to restructure the health-car e system . With regard to at least one aspect of the problem cost containment ou r own sense is that it has no choice . It has to act somehow ; the government ca n't afford the system as it stands . No payer can . Some members of Congress hav e said in the past that the way to counter health-care costs the federal share , at any rate would be to impose an entitlement cap . The cap would force the nec essary cuts , if not in health care , then in other entitlement programs to make room for health care . We 've been among those opposed to a cap on grounds that it would be a cop-out another broad promise to achieve great savings by cutting specific programs in the future instead of cutting them up front . But if Congr ess fails to provide for such cuts up front when given the chance if it fails to enact a credible health-care-cost-containment mechanism well , what 's left but an entitlement cap ? The cap becomes harder to resist . There 's already a cap on the third of the budget subject to the appropriations process . It 's a crude device , but it 's working pretty well , forcing the administration and Congres s to make choices they 'd otherwise finesse . Cappers say there needs to be a si milar ceiling on the entitlements side of the budget , or else the deficit , so painfully reduced last year , will soon start to rise again . You can make a lot of arguments against such a cap . Entitlements are a false category , an arbitr ary lumping together of unlike programs ( though the same can of course be said of appropriations ) . The word is a euphemism mainly for aid to the elderly in t he form of Social Security and the payment of health-care costs through Medicare and Medicaid . The health-care costs are the ones that are driving the budget . They are the ones that should be contained , and other programs , including the rest of the federal-support system for the poor , should not be put at risk bec ause of them . Most cap proposals also leave out tax entitlements the mortgage-i nterest deduction , for example . Those should be put at risk as well . A cap is also likely to produce not so much genuine savings as shifts . Particularly in health care , costs now borne by the federal government will simply be shifted t o the states or private payers . That reduces the deficit more than it helps the society ; there 's a better way . But if Congress willn't do the right thing , which is to face up to health-care costs directly , then maybe it ought to put a gun to its own head in the form of an entitlement cap . The health-care problem is also a budget problem . Unless you solve the problem of health-care costs , you can't provide even the health care the country needs . The members need to t hink about that amid the swirl of pressures back home . NEW YORK `` Weekend in the Country '' might be enough for Stephen Sondheim 's m ismatched lovers in `` A Little Night Music , '' but Ivan Turgenev sent his off on `` A Month in the Country . '' Before too many months pass , New Yorkers can expect to get a new look at the Russian classic in a production that is London ' s latest hit . Starring Helen Mirren and John Hurt , it ends a brief sold-out ru n this weekend , but producer Duncan C. Weldon plans to bring it to Broadway nex t February or March . Mirren , Hurt and John Standing would repeat their roles , along with director Bill Bryden and designer Hayden Griffin . London critics ga ve Mirren 's Turgenev portrayal high praise . `` She has taken one of the great , yet most elusive of roles and made it entirely her own , '' the Daily Mail sai d . Mirren 's schedule a film this summer and more of TV 's `` Prime Suspect '' in the fall dictate the delay till next year . Weldon said there may be a pre-Br oadway run in Stamford , Conn. , where his possible partner , Alexander H. Cohen , has a theater , and a post-Broadway date in Los Angeles . SERIOUS SIMON : Acc epting a lifetime achievement award at New Dramatists ' annual luncheon last wee k , Neil Simon was alternately playful and philosophical . As he looked back ove r a career that produced 28 plays , he said , `` I do realize it 's not going to go on forever . ( pause ) This speech may . '' No , he had said at the outset , he would be brief unless he got a lot of laughs . He got quite a few from the a udience of about 500 , but throughout his talk there was a recurring seriousness , vague hints of a career winding down . He referred indirectly to the fact tha t his latest Broadway play , `` Laughter on the 23rd Floor , '' failed to attrac t a single Tony nomination : `` As far as I 'm concerned , all of them ( in the cast ) have gotten Tony nominations from me . Unfortunately , you don't get to g o to the party . '' And he worried that playwrights are now an endangered specie s . `` I came to the theater at the right time . I had a place to learn and a pl ace to fail . There 's no place to fail now and you need that . ( pause ) I 'd b etter stop and tell a joke . '' And he did , but it can't be repeated here that word , you know . Introducing Simon , his longtime producer , Emanuel Azenberg , recalled that during rehearsals for `` Broadway Bound , '' a scene wasn't worki ng . Simon noticed his concern and sent him a note , now framed on his office wa ll : `` Don't worry . I know how to fix it . '' Later , they were workshopping a Simon musical using Gershwin songs . It was terrible , Azenberg said . So bad t hat Simon sent him a note , now also hanging on his office wall : `` Worry . I d on't know how to fix it . '' CASTING ABOUT : We 're not going to see Judy Kuhn a s the young love interest in `` Sunset Boulevard '' when Andrew Lloyd Webber 's megamusical comes to Broadway in the fall . In fact , she left the Los Angeles c ast Sunday to get ready for motherhood . Her first child is due in October . Und erstudy Anastasia Barzee has taken over the role in L.A. . No word yet on who 'l l play it here .. . As of June 7 , the `` Blood Brothers '' will no longer be pl ayed by the brothers Cassidy . Understudy Philip Lehl replaces David Cassidy and Ric Ryder takes over for Shaun Cassidy . On the same day , Carole King steps in to the role of their mother , currently played by Petula Clark . Clark takes the road company out in September first stop , Dallas .. . Peter Bartlett , J. Smit h-Cameron , John Cunningham , Debra Messing and Mary Beth Peil head the cast of the new Paul Rudnick play , `` The Naked Truth , '' now in previews at the WPA T heater . The plot involves photography , pornography and politics .. . Dennis Pa rlato , seen recently in `` Hello Again , '' replaces Howard McGillin in `` She Loves Me '' Tuesday . Starting June 6 , McGillin plays Molina , the gay window d resser in `` Kiss of the Spider Woman . '' ON THE RECORD : Speaking of Judy Kuhn , her debut solo album is due out this summer : a collection of Jule Styne song s on the Varese Sarabande label . Another star from the original cast of the cur rent `` She Loves Me '' revival , Sally Mayes , is also recording solo for Vares e Sarabande . With emphasis on the lyrics of Betty Comden and Adolph Green , the disc is due in the fall . Mayes is also moonlighting this month and next with l ate Saturday night shows at Eighty Eight 's , the Greenwich Village cabaret .. . `` Ruthless , '' the musical about unbridled ambition in a preteen actress , en joyed a good Off-Broadway run here last season but never made it into the record ing studio . The show is having an even better run at Beverly Hills ' Canon Thea ter and getting an album out of it too . Although the murder-minded moppet is no w played at the Canon by Kathryn Zaremba , the production 's original star , Lin dsay Ridgeway , is on the just-released Varese Sarabande recording . Zaremba is remembered here in the kinder , gentler guise of Annie Warbucks . REVIVAL UPDATE : The Drama Desk 's special award citing the 25-year record of York Theater Com pany and producing director Janet Hayes Walker is prompting a preview of their l atest show , a revised version of Sondheim 's `` Merrily We Roll Along , '' open ing June 8 . The cast of York 's revival will perform two numbers at the awards ceremony June 5 at the Roundabout Theater . Carole King is also on the program . . . American Jewish Theater 's revival of Jerry Herman 's `` Milk and Honey '' i s proving enough of a box-office draw to warrant a month 's extension . The show , set to close this weekend , will now play through June 26 . Distributed by th e Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service . HOLLYWOOD When Arsenio Hall takes his final bow Friday night , record company e xecutives fear that the curtain may also drop on urban-oriented music on the lat e-night talk-show circuit . Officials at MCA , Epic and other labels said for th e past 5 years , the syndicated `` Arsenio Hall Show '' provided a valuable nati onal outlet for urban music while other late-night hosts such as Johnny Carson , Jay Leno and David Letterman focused on more traditional , mainstream musical t astes . `` I 'm really bummed , '' said Laura Hynes , vice president of artist d evelopment and media relations for Tommy Boy Records , a New York-based label sp ecializing in rap and urban music . `` This show helped break a lot of our artis ts Naughty by Nature , House of Pain , RuPaul , Queen Latifah , '' Hynes said . `` Before this show , there was no national late-night outlet where a viewer cou ld tune in to see happening music that appealed to the segment of the audience t hat liked rap or dance music . '' Even as Hall 's ratings slipped in the last fe w years by 24 percent in the last year alone these executives and other observer s of the urban music scene maintained that his show never lost its status as a d esired gig for rap and rhythm & blues artists to reach their core young audience . An appearance on the Hall show often translated into a boost in popularity an d record sales as much as 400 percent , said Kim Jackwerth , director of televis ion media for Epic . It was , said Ernie Singleton , president of MCA Records ' black music division , `` the single best platform for urban music , even better than ` Soul Train , ' ` Showtime at the Apollo ' or the occasional Leno and Let terman appearance . '' Hall not only gave visibility to established mainstream r appers and groups such as Salt-N-Pepa , Arrested Development and Queen Latifah , but also featured more controversial artists such as Snoop Doggy Dogg , Dr. Dre , Cypress Hill , Tupac Shakur and Ice T . Now , with Hall quitting after Friday 's show , the music industry is wondering if those artists will be able to `` g et busy '' with Leno , Letterman or Hall 's expected replacement , Jon Stewart o f MTV . The opportunities to get a coveted slot on a late-night show will certai nly be slimmer , they agreed . Reggie Miller , music editor of the Source , a ra p and hip-hop-oriented magazine , said , `` The overall vibe of Arsenio 's show was a party , and it was also family . It was a real symbol to appear on Arsenio 's show . There is definitely not another late-night show that would devote an entire program to rap . I 've seen that Jon Stewart has a lot of music acts on h is ( MTV ) show and he feels very contemporary , but I doubt if any other show w ill be of Arsenio 's essence . '' Another executive who asked not to be identifi ed said there was a perception in the music industry that Leno and Letterman wer e biased against rap and urban music acts . `` They 're white shows for white au diences , '' said the official . `` Unless you have appeal to white people , you 're not going to get a booking on those shows . '' A spokesperson for `` The To night Show With Jay Leno '' disputed that claim and other perceptions that Leno placed less of a priority on urban-oriented music . `` We were the first to have on R. Kelly , '' said the spokesperson . `` In the past , we 've had Gang Starr , TLC and a number of hip-hop artists . On June 2 , we 've got All 4 One booked . '' The spokesperson added that Leno 's booking of rap and hip-hop artists wou ld not change due to Hall 's departure . A spokesman for Letterman could not be reached for comment . ( Optional add end ) Marla Kell Brown , producer of `` The Arsenio Hall Show , '' said she does not believe the other late-night programs are biased against urban artists . `` Initially , we were an alternative to John ny Carson , who had a whole different audience and didn't necessarily speak to t he younger generation , '' Brown said . `` It 's more an issue of age than of bl ack and white . It 's an issue of being uninformed . '' Some urban artists will get shots on the Letterman and Leno shows , she predicted , `` but many will not have a place to go . There are only so many slots available . '' And `` the oth er shows are not going to change their format , '' she added . `` If you try too hard to be what you 're not , that looks strange , too . '' Brown said Hall , a fter all , was only doing what came naturally to him . `` I always felt that the re was this misconception by the media that we were on the cutting edge , '' she said . `` We just brought out what young America was listening to . In our firs t week , we had Bobby Brown on as a guest . He had the No. 1 song in the country then ` My Prerogative ' but he had never been on a late-night show . There just wasn't a venue for artists like him to get their stuff out there . So we were n ot cutting edge . We were just reflecting the mainstream of young America . '' T hat reflection extended beyond the music scene , the producer said . `` There we re actors and athletes that were very popular , but popular in a world that was different than the world populated by the producers of those other shows , '' sh e said . While pessimistic , many of the urban music executives said they were w illing to give other talk shows the benefit of the doubt in terms of the booking of rap and hip-hop artists . `` These musicians will have a place to go , but i t just willn't be the same , '' said Lisa Jefferson , manager of West Coast pres s and artist development for Elektra Entertainment . `` I don't know how hard it will be for an artist to get on . It may take a Top 10 single . With Arsenio , if he knew the group , he would put them on . Plus , it willn't be the same cama raderie . He will definitely be missed . '' I get the calls a couple of times each year . A local public junior high school counselor , usually from a school boasting a `` mostly minority '' student popu lation , will ask me to speak at Career Day . Unless my schedule is unyielding , I cannot resist the invitation . I am a Role Model , capitalized : an African A merican woman with an advanced degree who does work that many of the audience me mbers have fantasized about . I may be the first person of color some of the kid s have seen who does the work that I do . I may be the first real-life lawyer so me have ever seen . Having been there , I cannot resist going back . I know that I have been invited because I represent possibility . My information kit usuall y directs me to tell the students something about the education I needed to beco me a law school professor . I am to impress them with the hard work it will take to get from where they are to where I am . They are at a crossroads , I am told , having to decide what to do about the rest of their secondary education in or der to realize a dream or two . Some of them are considering whether to continue their education at all . Last fall , the Santa Monica , Calif. , YWCA Career Da y was at the John Adams Middle School . The students were restless , wearing on the patience of their teachers and vice principal . The other panelists were a p rofessional beach-volleyball player , a recreation supervisor and an intimidatin g karate instructor with the fourth-degree black belt . As befits our host , the panel was all female . As I gathered my notes , I realized why I make the time to attend career days : It is a grounding exercise . I do not want to forget tha t my present self is the sum of my life . As much as career days give me a chanc e to represent possibility to young African Americans , I also get to remind mys elf , `` Here is very much possible from there . '' I once was , in the language of social science , an economically disadvantaged , single teen mother . Statis tically , I should not be a law-school professor , nor should my daughter be an only child or a college graduate . These facts are vital elements of my discussi on , because the risk exists that some members of the audience are or will becom e single teen parents . There is an equal likelihood that there are many economi cally disadvantaged children at the school at which I am speaking . I tell them about my origins and my early parenthood , not merely as cautionary tale , but a lso as an offering of hope . It is as important to me to include unplanned paren thood in my presentation as it is to point out how I got into college , what my grades were like or the route I took from law student to law professor . It is p art of my objective of presenting possibility to these students : You can have a life after early , unexpected parenthood . It will not be an easy life , but it can be productive and fulfilling . There are innumerable sources willing to sug gest to them that they will fail in life . I like offering the possibility that they will succeed . I don't sugarcoat the teen parenting experience : Once I bec ame a parent , I gave up dating as it is traditionally perceived and deferred a college education in favor of full-time employment until my daughter was 8 and a ble ( if not particularly willing ) to accept an explanation for our changed eco nomic circumstances . I tell the students that my daughter and I grew up togethe r , that I was attending to the needs of a child while just out of my own childh ood . And I always identify the life choices I made that were directed by the pr omise I made to myself that my child 's life would be better filled with more op tions and possibilities than mine . Nor do I forget to tick off the positives : Having a daughter gave me great joy and purpose . I discovered that , to persuad e this child that she could do anything or be whatever she wanted , I had to liv e my life in a way that affirmed that . It was not enough simply to tell her tha t the world was her oyster if I , her primary role model , did not do what I wan ted . She was a powerful catalyst , propelling me through college and graduate s chool , keeping me from remaining in a job that bored me . And , my daughter has always been my most ardent fan and strongest supporter . She even helped me get through law school . She gave me a life-saving study tip : When studying for lo ng periods , take a two- to five-minute break every hour . During this short bre ak , wash your face , make a doctor 's appointment , prepare lunch , check the m ail , check airline ticket prices to Tahiti . Whatever you do , she advised me , get out of the chair in which you are studying and move your brain to something else . As promised , I came back from my breaks refreshed , ready for work . I continue to pass this hint on . ( It works for bar-exam preparation as well . ) It is with wonder that I tell students that life is change and growth , and what seems like a mistake can become an opportunity . I remember how my high school guidance counselor responded to my pregnancy . She suggested that I withdraw fro m my college-preparatory public school for gifted and talented girls and enroll in vocational school , where I could `` learn a trade and maybe find a husband a nd father '' for me and my child . I ignored her and graduated with my class ; m y mother brought my daughter to the ceremony . Sometimes , surprised silence gre ets my reference to my teen pregnancy . Usually , the students are more interest ed in my annual income , whether I go to court , whether there is a test you hav e to take to get into law school . Once a student asked if law-school professors are `` real lawyers . '' Then there are the other times . For instance , in San ta Monica , a student asked my favorite career-day question : What is my daughte r doing now ? She 's living in Philadelphia , finishing her MBA , working in mor tgage banking . She is planning a July wedding . We are friends , she calls four times a week , she is happy . These are the most affirming facts of all . Time was compressed and accelerated for Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis , or so we ' d like to think . Things just seemed to have an awful habit of befalling her too soon and too quickly . It wasn't right . It wasn't natural . As Teddy Kennedy e ulogized : `` Jackie was too young to be a widow in 1963 , and too young to die now . '' She died at 64 , which is way too young in my lexicon of denial . At th e very least , it 's not the `` ripe old age '' in which we middle-aged survivor s are accustomed to seeking relief . They say this is the age at which we begin scrutinizing obituaries . If that is so , Jackie 's death is the obituary page w rit large . A lot of people I know , especially those who were children when our association between Jackie and the funeral hearse was forever forged , are busi ly consulting our mortality calculators and computing how much longer her death date gives us . Twenty-five years ? Twenty ? A little more ? A little less ? Wha tever it is , it 's not much . Certainly , it 's not enough . But then , as Tedd y said , Jackie was `` too young to die . '' Phew . It has been said the intensi ty of the public 's mourning has to do with our perception of Jackie as invincib le , the perfect princess whose wealth and bearing and eternal slimness and styl e enveloped her in a kind of magic shield . Yes , she suffered ; but look how no bly she endured . It has been said , too , that her passing is particularly pain ful because it marks the passing of our youth and its seminal events . Even the veteran broadcaster Sander Vanocur teared up while commenting on her funeral Mon day ; the lights of his youth had gone out , he said , never to be seen again . For me , though , the sadness or is it the fear ? is more banal . It has more to do with the speed with which the cancer claimed her . Diagnosed in January , go ne in May . Can it really happen that quickly ? To a woman who ate right , exerc ised regularly , had the best medical care her millions could buy ? Can it happe n this quickly , even to her ? Perhaps Jackie 's life seems unduly attenuated be cause she embraced and embodied the length and breadth the sheer velocity of her time . She was so many things , in such a short space . The still photographs f lash before us child equestrian , debutante , adoring wife , glamorous first lad y , grieving widow , international swinger , stoic single mother , accomplished professional , proud grandmother . In such a short space , at such a breakneck p ace , she created such a kaleidoscope of images . I tend to think of Jackie as p art of a threesome of Kennedy wives she , Ethel and Joan forming a triumvirate o f female possibility within that testosterone-rich patriarchy of sports and poli tics . A quarter-century after Bobby 's death , Ethel remains his widow , a matr only woman with a horde of children . After decades of drinking , personal decay and finally a legal split from Teddy , Joan remains the recovering alcoholic , the damaged divorcee behind the dark glasses . But Jackie was never static . She continually transcended the present and moved on . She was never stuck , never vanquished by the Kennedy code any more than by the prying paparazzi . Somehow , Jackie managed to accomplish what her counterparts couldn't . She changed . It has been startling , in recent days , to hear her little-girl voice explaining , back in 1962 , how important it is for a woman to worship her husband . It has been startling because it so sharply contrasts with the sophisticated Doubleday editor who shared her Park Avenue apartment with her `` companion of recent year s . '' It has been startling , too , to see her walking one day in Central Park , and then , just a week later , buried at Arlington . Even in death , Jacquelin e Kennedy Onassis moved fast , which is , of course , what we 've all got to do in life . We 've got to move fast , or we 'll miss it . We 've got to grab on an d let go , again and again . We 've got to change . For the excruciating truth i s that life is short , no matter how long it lasts . We may live in a wonderful world of color , but when it comes to television , m uch of what we watch is still in black and white . A quick remote-control journe y through network prime time reveals a lineup of programs divided by race . Most shows feature white characters ; a small but growing number star black performe rs ; but very few offer both in major roles . Our viewing habits mirror those di visions . A recent breakdown of Nielsen Media Research ratings showed a wide dis parity between black and non-black households in television viewing preferences . For fall 1993 , the two groups had completely different lists of top 10 prime- time programs , based on Nielsen ratings . Of the top 20 , only one show , ABC M onday Night Football , appeared on both lists , according to BBDO , the New York advertising agency that analyzed the ratings . And the preference gap is wideni ng . In a similar survey eight years ago , the top-20 lists for black and non-bl ack audiences featured 15 programs that were on both . One reason for the dispar ity in viewing habits is the greater variety of program choices . Only a decade ago , there were just a handful of shows featuring major black characters . For 1993-94 , the networks , led by Fox , offered more than 25 shows starring black people or featuring them in major supporting roles . `` There 's no mystery . Bl acks now have more options than they did in the old days , '' said BBDO Vice Pre sident Doug Alligood , who conducted the survey . People , no matter their age , race or socioeconomic status , are attracted to programs featuring people of si milar appearances or circumstances , he said . For example , 13 of the top 20 pr ograms favored by African-Americans feature black people as stars , while suppor ting roles are the best they can do in programs in the non-black top 20 . Alligo od said television programs are meant to entertain , and that it may not be wise to put too much weight into the differences in viewing preferences . Others are not as sanguine , however . They acknowledge that differences in viewing habits by race and the small number of programs with multiracial casts are symptoms of the divisions in our society . However , television is too powerful a medium me rely to reflect such divisions . Its influence tends to amplify them , some said . `` To the extent that people take television as an indication of the way peop le are in the world , it reinforces stereotypes . And there 's a lot of evidence that people take television as a reinforcement of the world , '' said Clay Stei nman , associate professor of communications studies at Macalester College in St . Paul , Minn . Television can be especially influential in matters of race , wh ere social divisions often keep whites and blacks from knowing much about each o ther . White people , especially , often have little contact with black culture , and can be swayed by characterizations of black people on television , Steinma n said . However , the fact that people of different races may be attracted to d ifferent programs willn't necessarily harm society , said Esther Bush , presiden t and chief executive officer of the Urban League of Greater Hartford . `` I don 't think it divides us more . For African-Americans , it makes sense that we 're watching shows that have us in them , '' Bush said . ( Begin optional trim ) Th ere are similar racial divergences in musical and reading preferences , said Wil liam A . Edwards , chairman of the sociology department at the University of San Francisco . They often reflect different cultural upbringings and interests , w hich also can be found when examining preferences based on education or income , he said . Sanford Cloud Jr. , president of The National Conference ( formerly N ational Conference of Christians and Jews ) , said the growing number of program s featuring black characters is good , because it provides an opportunity to sho w a greater range of black culture and experiences . `` If there 's only one pro gram on , that 's what Americans believe those people are like , '' said Cloud . Still , the content of shows must be analyzed , Cloud said , and there are trou bling signs that television doesn't show the full range . For example , black st ars are featured almost exclusively on comedy programs . Filmmaker Spike Lee rec ently criticized such depictions as a return to minstrel shows , while Charles D utton , the star of Fox 's critically praised `` Roc , '' has complained that th e networks do not support serious shows featuring African-American characters . Programs featuring black characters often receive greater scrutiny . For example , `` The Cosby Show '' on NBC received great ratings and reviews , but was knoc ked by some for offering a sanitized vision of African-American life . The mista ke , Bush and others said , is when viewers look to entertainment programs for d epictions of real life , especially if they rely on few other information source s . `` TV doesn't depict anyone 's family '' realistically , no matter the race , said Robert Gluck , vice president and general manager of WTIC-TV , the Fox af filiate in Hartford , Conn. . Steinman said the white audience , because of its much larger size , always must be taken into consideration by programmers , but that the reverse is not true . For that reason , presentations of African-Americ ans that do not square with white perceptions can have difficulty getting on the air , he said . Crossover programs , those that feature both blacks and whites in prominent roles , generally have not performed well in the ratings and are ra rely seen on television . One exception is the hourlong CBS drama , `` In the He at of the Night . '' Some programs , such as `` Dave 's World '' on CBS , featur e a black character , but `` he is basically a visitor '' on what is perceived t o be a white show , Alligood said . `` What real-life image portrayal there is ( on television ) is that we live in separate communities and live separate lives , '' Cloud said . `` If producers showed more mixing , it might make us mix mor e . '' Michael Brown , professor of recreation and leisure studies at Old Domini on University in Norfolk , Va. , said that airing a show with an all-black cast follows a common marketing practice of targeting groups according to shared char acteristics , such as age , sex or income . The plus is that the networks realiz e they must serve the black audience , which watches a lot of television . The s ame situation should eventually come true for other minority groups , Brown said . By marketing to specific groups , however , `` they don't feel like developin g a multiculturally diverse show , '' he said . Brown sees the popularity of sho ws featuring all-black casts as partly a reaction against programming in the 197 0s and early 1980s , when black people started being featured more regularly , b ut often within a white cultural environment . An obvious example of that phenom enon was `` Diff ' rent Strokes , '' a show in which a rich white man adopts two poor black boys . According to the BBDO ratings survey , there is not a wide pr eference gap between races for some programs , such as CBS 's `` 60 Minutes , '' ABC 's `` Home Improvement '' or `` Roseanne '' or NBC 's `` The Fresh Prince o f Bel Air . '' ( End optional trim ) Alligood , who wrote the BBDO report , said racial differences in viewing habits are far less pronounced for certain age gr oups . According to the BBDO survey , the top-20 lists of black and non-black yo uths between the ages of 12 and 17 share 10 programs . `` When it comes to telev ision , racial differences are secondary to generational differences , '' he sai d . While those interviewed believe that television should do a better job in ed ucating the public about different races and cultures , they said viewers also h ave a responsibility to find ways to learn about others . `` If we learn about e ach other from television , we 're in a lot of trouble , '' Alligood said . Lately , more voices are being raised in favor of staying together for the sake of the children . The notion of a `` good divorce '' when children are involved seems a selfish rationalization left over from the human potential movement of the '60s . Yet , as the average length of marriage has dropped to six years and serial monogamy becomes more popular , many individuals and some jurisdictions a re pursuing a '90s definition of the good divorce also for the sake of the child ren . Like many divorced parents , Geoff , now 35 , and Barbara Lipscomb , 37 , couldn't see past their own emotions in the beginning . Married for five years , they separated three years ago . At the time , their son , Colin , was only 2 . `` It was bitter and angry in the beginning , '' recalled Barbara , who had pla nned a future for herself as a stay-at-home mom . `` I was angry he left and sho cked , rejected and hurt . '' There were practical things to take care of : lawy ers , moving , a new preschool , a new job , new child-care arrangements . And t here was Colin . `` I think it 's heartbreaking for the child . The hardest part was to hear him say , ` I wish you and me and Daddy all lived together. ' ' ' I t took nine months before she would even agree to talk with Geoff . With the hel p of a court-appointed mediator , they ironed out custody and visitation disagre ements and now talk about their son 's needs and development at least three time s a week . They attend school events together . They say they never criticize ea ch other in front of their child . They have even spent Christmas together . `` Most people , I think , are surprised , '' Geoff said . Contrary to popular beli ef , a number of parents have learned ways to continue raising their children to gether effectively , said Constance Ahrons , associate director of the Marriage and Family Therapy Program at the University of Southern California . `` The tru th is , 50 percent of divorces do not do long-term damage to children or adults , '' said Ahrons , whose book `` The Good Divorce '' ( HarperCollins ) is schedu led to be published in the fall . Ahrons said she studied 98 families in the Mid west that she found through court records . She interviewed them three times ove r five years , the last in 1985 . The children were not interviewed . `` About 5 0 percent fell into what is the negative stereotype , '' she said . `` They were still angry or litigating . But 50 percent were not doing that . They got on wi th trying to resolve it , finding ways to effectively handle their parenting . ` ` The research clearly indicates the damage done to children is done in bad marr iages prior to divorce , not so much the divorce itself , '' said Ahrons , who s truggled to attain a civilized divorce herself . Although she and her ex-husband never became friendly after the divorce , they did manage a holiday dinner or t wo and when their daughter married , walked her down the aisle together . ( Opti onal add end ) Lessening the impact of divorce is complicated . The overriding r ule is that children should never become caught in the cross-fire between the pa rents . They need to be reassured that they are not the cause of the divorce and that while there will be changes , both parents will still love them and take c are of them . One of the more important tools in a good divorce , Ahrons said , is compromise . Colin sees his father every other weekend plus Wednesday nights . Barbara learned to consult Geoff on arrangements she made , such as changing p reschools . Geoff sends the child support check on time . When Colin is sick , s ometimes he takes the day off to stay with him . More parents can have civilized divorces if society expects them to , Ahrons believes . Several jurisdictions a re experimenting with mandating `` parenting plans '' when couples with children divorce . Under the state of Washington 's 1987 Parenting Act , divorcing paren ts must file a parenting plan that delineates a dispute resolution process , all ocation of decision-making authority and residential provisions for holidays , b irthdays , vacations and other special events . Exceptions are allowed in cases of abuse . While mandated parenting plans resemble the old joint custody and vis itation arrangements , supporters believe that the new language will help parent s see their roles in terms of responsibility rather than of control . Geoff said that in some ways , a good divorce is not that much different from a good marri age : `` It takes a lot of work . '' There are things in this life that are true . Absolutely true . Children think they know these things . Men talk like they do . But only women really know . He re , then , is another glimpse inside the store of knowledge that has come to be known as True Facts . As always , I am grateful to those who have made these tr ue facts known to me . Don't even look for the Scotch tape . Your children have already used it all up . `` My mom lets me . '' The most common phrase uttered b y a child to an adult not his parent . Almost always a lie . It is a common misc onception that sleep-over means sleeping over at someone else 's house . It does not . It means that after your child spends the night at another child 's house , you have to do the sleeping part of it over sometime that next afternoon or y our child will not be fit to live with . If you go back to bed after your childr en leave for school and ignore that ringing phone , it will be the school callin g to tell you your child is sick and needs to come home . Where are all the spoo ns ? Probably the same place all the other socks are . Old Russian proverb : Wom en do everything . Men do the rest . You know your child has reached adolescence when the field trip permission slips come home with `` My parent will not be ab le to chaperon '' already checked off . Only mothers put the caps back on the ma rkers . That 's because they paid for them . Men don't sing in church . Women wo uld feel bad for the organist if they didn't . If your child has a sore throat a nd you take him for a strep test , he will not have strep throat . If you give h im a couple of hard candies and send him to school , your child will have strep throat . Everything in your child 's life should have a driver 's side power loc k just like the ones on car windows and car doors . Why is it that you can't rem ember where you put your car keys , but you can't forget any of those painful gr ade school injustices ? Women don't read directions . Men don't ask for them . ` ` I don't have any . '' Most common response by a child to an adult asking about homework . Almost always a lie , and you will find that out 30 minutes before b edtime . No matter how much laundry you do , the outfit your daughter absolutely has to wear is not clean . If your husband asks you , `` Where do you keep it ? '' it means he wants you to go get it . If it is possible for your child to lea ve something at a friend 's house hat , jacket , backpack , toys he will . Speed dial was not invented so that little girls who can't remember seven digits in a row can call their friends all afternoon . You are aging like your mother . Wom en bond around problems . Men don't acknowledge them . Let your neighbor put up the basketball hoop or the play gym . Then your children might actually use them . When the chorus performs at the school spring concert , your kid will be in t he second row , all the way on the right , and her face will be blocked the enti re time . The only time you ever lose weight is after you finally give in and bu y something that fits . Every kid in the neighborhood is your child 's best frie nd when you open a box of Popsicles . Every year brings another body part to cam ouflage . It is bad enough when your son burps in public . But when your daughte r does and responds to your horrified criticism by saying that `` all the girls do '' it makes you fear for the future of civilization . As soon as you save eno ugh money to redecorate that room in your house , a car or a major appliance die s . Why are there never any Band-Aids ? You know you bought some . No matter how much money you make , your credit card bill is always a shock . There isn't a l aundry detergent made that gets baby throw-up off your good blouse . And the tru est True Fact of them all : If you allow your child to push the grocery cart for you , he will run it into your Achilles ' tendon . You might well wonder what Julia Roberts , Shannen Doherty , Drew Barrymore , B ette Midler and a 42-year-old Chicago psychologist named Kate Wachs have in comm on . As it turns out , all married impulsively . Quickly and in major defiance o f every mom 's maxim : Gee , honey , maybe you should get to know this person yo u 're about to marry before you actually get married . Barrymore 's marriage to tavern owner Jeremy Thomas lasted about a month . Noting that she and Thomas had not so much as cohabited before their marriage , Barrymore said at the time of her wedding , `` I guess we 're doing it the old-fashioned way . Kind of . '' Do herty and Ashley Hamilton split up six months after they tied the knot at a picn ic in her back yard . Their courtship reportedly lasted only two or three weeks . ( The marriage , if not the divorce , surprised even Doherty 's publicist . ) In a positive dream state while Lovett was removing her blue garter at their wed ding reception , Roberts remarked : `` He makes me so happy . He 's so good to m e . '' These days , heated tabloid speculation notwithstanding , Roberts and Lov ett insist that they 're still wildly in love . When Midler and Martin von Hasel berg reconnected in October 1984 , after having met briefly once before , sparks flew . Two months later , they were heading to Las Vegas to get married . This winter , Midler and von Haselberg will celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary . They have one child , a daughter , Sophie . As for Wachs , her two-year union with seaman Don Donner is so successful that in some circles of the American Psy chological Association whose members , you might think , ought to know better ge tting married impulsively is now known with some admiration as getting hitched ` ` Dr . Kate-Style . '' `` That means quick , '' Wachs said . She and Donner met one evening at the grocery store , after he tracked the scent of her perfume ( P aloma Picasso ) down the aisles . `` You should get some for your girlfriend , ' ' said Wachs , no fool . `` What girlfriend ? '' Donner said . By morning , they were engaged . The short life span of many high-profile impulse marriages has g iven the practice a seriously bad name . Hasty marital decisions make waste-y di vorce proceedings , the logic goes often correctly . Infatuation is an evil drug , your sensible maiden aunt warned . Feels great while you 're in its spell . W hen the effect wears off , look out . But while admitting that they have no vast data pool to draw on , many experts wonder if instant marriages deserve their r eputation as an automatic formula for disaster . Love-at-first-sight is a treasu red myth of our culture , these social scientists point out . The mysterious str anger is an ongoing icon . Passion 's a more enjoyable route to a raised heartbe at than fishing or an aerobic workout . And spontaneity is exhilarating , a rush that rules out reason . Put these elements together , said Cambridge , Mass. , psychologist Barry Dym , and you 've got the recipe for an impulse marriage . An d , Dym said , `` I kind of doubt that they have any worse chance than anyone el se . '' In fact , he added , `` since the chemistry is so strong , they may have a better chance . '' In Austin , Texas , psychologist Pat Love was the first to agree . The Wachs-Donner scenario , for example , seemed perfectly plausible to Love , who once entered an upscale Dallas watering hole with two close female f riends . Love and her friend Maisie went to find a table . Their friend Sue , me anwhile , found a new husband . `` By the time Maisie and I found a place to sit down , Sue was engaged , '' Love said . `` This guy she later married saw her l ooking around and says , ` Who 're you trying to find ? ' And Sue says , ` You. ' ' ' So the marriage , Sue 's third , lasted less than a year . Love 's respons e : So what ? When it comes to finding a life partner , she said , `` the truth of it is , I think it 's kind of a crapshoot anyway . '' Because embarking on an impulse marriage is like buying a car without a road test or a warranty many co uples rapidly end up visiting the marital equivalent of a mechanic . Omaha psych ologist Patricia O' Hanlon Hudson said she despairs when she sees a couple `` th ree months after the marriage that took place two months after they met . '' Yet she called this kind of counseling `` a real opportunity to deal with impulsivi ty '' a trait she equates largely with immaturity . Instant marriages , concurre d Berkeley psychologist Stephen Goldbart , are often `` the bread-and-butter cou ple that we see in therapy . They fall in love , they run off and get married , they run into trouble . '' Couples who fall in love and marry instantaneously of ten find themselves `` over-amped , '' said fellow Berkeley psychologist David W allin , who , with Goldbart , has written a new book called `` Mapping the Terra in of the Heart '' ( Addison Wesley , 1994 ) . The sex may be stupendous , Walli n said a meshing of mutual fantasies . But instant marriage participants are pro bably `` merger hungry , '' he said , meaning that `` they can't bear to be alon e . '' Partners who marry quickly also tend to over-idealize , Wallin said , por traying the new mate as `` a dream come true . '' Few mortals , as it happens , can measure up to such expectations . ( Optional add end ) Revenge and rebound a re fairly common themes in instant marital histories , Goldbart said . Then ther e is the `` Omigod , I 'm 45 , and I 'm still not married and I have no kids '' script that sends men and women alike leaping into the next pair of semi-warm ar ms that wander into the neighborhood . And some people , Goldbart said , are sim ply `` impulse-ridden , '' devil-may-care in everything they do , marriage inclu ded . `` These are the kinds of marriages we suspect willn't last very long , '' Goldbart said , because as soon as they polish off the wedding cake , `` they ' re off to the next impulse . '' But Kate Wachs would hardly have thought of hers elf as impulsive , a woman who waited 40 years before pledging her troth and who has made a comfortable living running the `` Dr. Kate Relationship Center , '' arranging matches and offering `` A-to-Z '' love advice to men and women . Howev er , she said she would not necessarily use her own experience as a model . `` I t 's not that a fast marriage can't work , '' Wachs said . `` It 's just that if you 're getting together with someone in less than two months , you could be be ing persuaded by infatuation . '' As for the odds of success , she said , echoin g the assessment of many of her associates : `` It might work , it might not . ' ' Sweet , sunny , always peaceful how we would love that to be our family . Commo n sense says it 's impossible ; conflict is inevitable . No family or couple can be in harmony at all times . It doesn't make sense to see conflict in itself as a problem . What counts is how conflict is handled , and to what degree it perv ades family life . In an article in the Journal of Family Psychology , Lisa H. J aycox and Rena L. Repetti of the University of Pennsylvania looked at the way em otion is dealt with in the family , and how that affects children . `` There 's been a lot of research on different kinds of conflict , and it varies a lot from family to family , '' Jaycox said in an interview . `` It can be just between t he parents marital conflict varying all the way from disagreements to violence . It can involve a parent-child relationship there 's a lot of research .. . that really points out how it 's a two-way street , how a difficult parenting style can cause behavior problems in a child , but also a difficult child can interfer e with the parent 's ability to manage the child. .. . `` The point we were maki ng in this article is that a lot of times when research is focusing on one of th ose relationships , it sort of ignores the larger climate in the house , and it may actually just be measuring an effect of that climate . So it 's worth lookin g at the way emotion is dealt with in the family , the way it 's expressed in ge neral . '' The researchers studied 72 fourth- and fifth-graders . The children , parents and teachers assessed conflict and anger in the home , marital discord , `` negative emotional tone '' in the parent-child relationship , and how well- adjusted the children were . They found that child adjustment was more strongly related to overall family conflict than to parents ' having marital problems . ( Marital trouble indisputably can have a powerful effect on the home , they note , but the results suggest that family norms `` for acceptable ways of handling anger and conflict may be more significant for child adjustment than is discord in the parents ' marriage . '' ) When anger is not dealt with effectively , chil dren 's reactions vary some become depressed ; some behave poorly either at home or at school , Jaycox says . `` One of the things I think is most interesting i s that apparently the kids are very tuned in to anger and react to it , '' she s ays . She cites research that finds strong physiological and behavioral reaction s in preschoolers to witnessing any kind of anger . `` It doesn't even have to b e verbal or violent . '' Jaycox says `` there 's something to be said for shield ing kids from some of the things parents are going to go through .. . but everyo ne gets angry . It would actually be very unnatural for kids to grow up without seeing any of that . There 's no one right way to deal with conflict , Jaycox sa ys , but there are guidelines : If you start an argument when the kids are there , try to resolve it while they 're present , too . `` There is some research th at points out that if you also can resolve the dispute in front of the child , i t can teach conflict resolution , and also that anger isn't toxic or lethal but natural and can be worked through , and people still love each other when it end s . '' Avoid explosive anger by dealing with problems before they become overwhe lming . Physical violence is particularly traumatic for children . Avoid blaming or criticizing the other parent when you 're in a dispute , and `` try to chara cterize things in term of the conflict at hand '' ( as in , `` Dad and I were ar guing about how some money was spent , '' instead of `` Your father spent all ou r money on something stupid , and he 's always getting us in trouble like that ' ' ) . Try to keep children from becoming involved . `` Some children become expe rt at trying to resolve their parents ' conflict at too early an age , '' Jaycox says , by trying to smooth things out , negotiate for them or act out in some w ay to distract parents from the argument . During the Cold War , the United States and its allies assessed every local con flict for its quotient of strategic harm or benefit . With the Cold War ended , the allies believe that they may allow local conflict to remain local with relat ive impunity . The war in the Balkans has been a semi-exception to this rule . T he European powers have not felt that they could safely ignore the carnage there completely , but they have also not felt that any enemy could exploit this war to their serious harm . Serb expansionism under Slobodan Milosevic was , at wors t , an ominous precedent . But this calculus may be due for a revision . Though the Bosnian government has accepted a European proposal for a Bosnian partition , the separatist Bosnian Serbs have not . The war seems all but certain to conti nue , and the U.N. forces may soon be weakened by the reduction or even eliminat ion of French and British support . If that happens , the conflict may continue as a Christian-Muslim conflict with outside support from the more ardent wing of each side 's co-religionists . To oversimplify , Serbs-against-Bosnian-Muslims could become Cossacks-against-Moujahedeen . At that point , this local conflict would begin to become a grim imitation of the Cold War proxy conflicts of old . This time it would be the shadow of terrorism , rather than the shadow of nuclea r conflict , that would lengthen . The Muslim minorities in several European cou ntries are increasingly aggrieved and militant . The heavy loss of Muslim life t hat would result in the short term from a U.N. default in Bosnia could exacerbat e their sense of grievance and foster the related militancy . The rhetoric heard at the sentencing of the World Trade Center terrorist bombers should remind us that the United States is not immune . That crime was utterly savage , and the l ife sentences that have now been imposed are fully justified . But a great deal can be lost in cross-cultural translation , especially in a climate of rising ho stility . That climate will only worsen if the situation in Bosnia worsens . `` We 're fighting them there so that we willn't have to fight them here , '' Ameri can soldiers said in Korea and Vietnam . In this instance , ironically , it is r efusing to defend Muslims there that may lead in time to defending against other Muslims here . Having pushed their trade dispute to the point of mutual disadvantage , the Uni ted States and Japan are moved bravely ahead toward the status quo ante toward t he policy positions of the Bush era that Candidate Clinton so willingly assailed and President Clinton so coyly embraces . Make no mistake : Japan is the clear winner in this test of wills , which is not to say that its weak governments hav e enhanced the well-being of their people . Quite the reverse . If the Clinton a dministration is to execute this latest flip-flop without excessive embarrassmen t , it had better hope Japanese business prevails over Tokyo 's bureaucracy . Co nsider the retreats ordered this week by U.S. . Special Trade Representative Mic key Kantor in order to restart trade negotiations . He : Stated specifically tha t the U.S. will not seek numerical targets in measuring commerce with Japan , a position Tokyo insisted upon from the start . Withdrew threats of retaliation if Japan fails to meet U.S. demands . Made it clear the United States will not imp ose arbitrary deadlines for ever-elusive agreements . Registered no further obje ctions to Japan 's refusal to come up with a tax cut package big enough to boost U.S. export sales . We cite these shifts not to pound the president but to prai se him . Most of his retreats from the excessive foreign policy postures he set forth while running for the Oval Office have been prudent if not politically cor rect . Refusal to commit ground troops to Bosnia , hesitation to send the Marine s into Haiti , reluctance to use trade sanctions as a club against Chinese human rights violations - all these reflect good judgment . So if Clinton adjusts Jap an trade policy , he will get no complaints from this corner . We have long been uncomfortable with the protectionists and managed-trade addicts in the left win g of the Democratic Party . It has been Kantor 's unpleasant task to keep them a t bay while trying to get the Japanese to take market-opening moves that are rea lly in their own self-interest . He has a long way to go , but at least he has g otten negotiators back to the table after a bad 100-day hiatus . The secret is t o promote trends , not targets . If more Japanese auto dealers sell U.S. cars ( to cite a Kantor example ) , or if imports of key products move steadily upward , this may have to be sufficient if Japanese policy aims at continued improvemen t . Trade agreements can help , but in the long run market forces will prove dec isive . Already there are instances of foreign imports selling much cheaper than their domestic counterparts . Already , more Japanese manufacturers are outsour cing abroad for parts and commodities that come at bargain prices . Once these t rends are translated into improved Japanese living standards , the U.S. can rely on new world trade reforms to hasten the market-opening process . Meanwhile , t he United States and Japan should work hard for mutual advantage rather than mut ual disadvantage . An officer in Her Majesty 's armed forces was recently heard to quip that the A llies would not have invaded Normandy if they had known how difficult it would b e to commemorate it . Fifty years after the historic invasion of France by the A llied Expeditionary Forces , a high-visibility program has been planned , but th e scheduled events have caused more than a little consternation . Germany and Ru ssia are offended that they have been excluded , and President Clinton , who has no wartime experience , is calling in consultants to come up with an appropriat e theme . Finding the right message , however , will be much more difficult , si nce the decision was made to mark this historic event in the traditional way whi ch now not only seems outdated but wholly inadequate in today 's international e nvironment . The world is a very different place than it was 50 years ago . For a start , the Germans , the evil-incarnate enemy , are now a united , democratic country , an important U.S. ally and the linchpin of stability in Europe . In a ddition , one of the critical players on the allied side no longer exists . The Soviet Union , which heroically beat back Nazi attempts to conquer it , has spli ntered into a mostly non-communist multi-country region . Rather than deal with these new complicating factors , the French , who are the hosts of the D-Day eve nts , adopted a formula that accomplishes no particular objective . It does not place essential focus on the veterans , who are bound to be overshadowed by too many politicians , nor does it give the participating heads of state an opportun ity to draw on D-Day 's contemporary meaning . Finding a way to reconcile wartim e commemorations when the enemy is now your ally has been a problem for some tim e . Ronald Reagan used the 40th anniversary for great rhetorical benefit , but t hen felt he had to `` make it up '' to the Germans . After D-Day plus 40 ( and B itburg ) , Western diplomats apparently promised the Germans they would be inclu ded on the 50th . Of the nine heads of state that the French have invited , ( th ey have successfully kept their list as secret as Overlord itself ) , it is know n only that Germany and Russia are not among them . This is unfortunate . If any heads of state were going to participate in these events , inclusion should hav e been the order of the day . The reason for it is simple : Who the protagonists were in 1944 is not nearly as important or relevant as the nature of the strugg le itself . The `` great crusade , '' as Dwight Eisenhower , my grandfather , ca lled it , was assembled to defeat fascism . This was successfully done , and Ger many went through the painful process of de-Nazification . Reneging on our earli er promise now implies that we harbor some belief that the Germans have a kind o f ethnic original sin . The decision to exclude also constitutes the loss of a r eal opportunity . Many contemporary Germans regard the Allied victory as the `` liberation '' of their country from the fascist grip , and they express gratitud e that history turned out as it did . The German presence on the Normandy beache s for the 50th would have given legitimacy to that feeling in Germany , and emph asized Bonn 's own commitment to keeping fascism from ever dominating political life again . It was also wrong not to extend an invitation to the Russians , and perhaps other countries of the former Soviet Union . Failing to do so symbolica lly decouples the Eastern and Western fronts , and ignores the impact the Soviet effort had on the success of D-Day . Even worse , failing to invite the former Soviets has given credence to those in the East who say the West never appreciat ed their role in defeating Hitler . Such an omission also deepens the sense of i solation that is now widely felt all over the region . Although Americans tend t o play down the importance of symbolism , it is a highly potent force in many ot her countries around the world . It is intriguing , for instance , that on VE Da y plus 10 years , Germany became a full member of NATO . The dates agreed upon b y the United States and its Allies must have been a clearly calculated effort to demonstrate Germany 's rebirth as a member of the international community . Why then is it so difficult some 40 years later ? As in so many other instances , t he world is waiting for U.S. leadership . We should have insisted on complete in clusion as a prerequisite for presidential participation . If not , the commemor ation should have remained a veterans ' affair . The presence of Germany and Rus sia would have brought valued closure to whatever wounds remain . But it would h ave also underscored that those allies who fought not only won the war against f ascism , their ultimate sacrifice eventually paved the way for a new Europe of p eaceful democratic countries . THE RETURN OF JAFAR , Not Rated , 1994 , 66 minutes , Walt Disney Home Theatre , closed-captioned , $ 22.99 . This direct-to-video release is an unhappy return on Disney 's wildly successful `` Aladdin '' franchise , one that clearly did n ot benefit from the billion-dollar bounty of the original 's theatrical , video and merchandising divisions . In fact , `` Jafar '' is betrayed all ' round by c ost-consciousness : Cobbled together at overseas animation studios that serve Di sney 's television needs rather than its theatrical ones , it pales in compariso n to the `` The Lion King , '' Disney 's anticipated summer blockbuster . Blame it on the curse of the sequel , though many of the character voices are back , i ncluding Gilbert Gottfried as the amoral , troublemaking parrot , Iago . Noticea bly absent , however , is Robin Williams as the voice of the blue , shape-shifti ng , manic-expressive Genie ( Williams was miffed about Disney 's tight purse st rings , particularly after his vocal performance was singled out by every critic as the original 's most inspired touch ) . Here he 's replaced by Dan Castellan eta , whose attempts at frenetic wit and zen irony fall flat ; perhaps Castellan eta should have stayed in his Homer Simpson voice . The story itself seems sligh t , focusing on assorted power struggles and revenge fantasies pitting the evil genie Jafar and his thief-henchman Abis Mal against Aladdin , Princess Jasmine a nd the Sultan of Agrabah . Iago proves the catalyst for ruin and redemption , an d there 's a climactic battle between Jafar and everyone else . Somehow , it fee ls like a TV show , it plays like a TV show and it looks like a TV show . WASHINGTON North Carolina 's distinctive landscape and buildings are featured i n a photographic exhibition at the National Building Museum . Architectural phot ographer Tim Buchman traveled the state in the late 1980s to shoot the black-and -white images for a book on the subject , `` North Carolina Architecture '' by C atherine Bishir ( University of North Carolina Press , 516 pp. $ 59.95 ) . Organ ized by subject matter , the 52 photographs on display include groupings of such architectural details as staircases , windows and rooflines and a section on fr ont porches . Among the public and private structures , spanning the 18th to 20t h centuries , are a rural worker 's home ; the swimming pool at Biltmore , a his toric mansion in Asheville ; and the executive mansion in Raleigh . The travelin g exhibition `` The Art of Building in North Carolina '' was organized by the vi sual arts programs of North Carolina State University and Preservation/North Car olina . It will remain at the museum , 401 F St. NW , through Oct. 9 ( 202 ) 272 -2448 . How do you keep ice cream from melting in the sun ? Let the sun cool it . The f irst solar-powered refrigerated vending cart made its debut this month in Washin gton . Even when the outdoor temperature pushes 90 degrees , the four 30-watt so lar panels spread out like an umbrella above the vendor 's head will generate en ough electricity to maintain approximately 500 popsicles at near zero degrees Fa hrenheit . Even under overcast skies , the deep cycle-type battery keeps the com pressor going . Super-efficient insulation keeps the cold in , eliminating the n eed to stock the cart with 25 to 30 pounds of dry ice daily , about $ 10 worth . A solar system for a pushcart was conceived by New York industrial designer Ame lia Amon and engineered by Jody Solell and Carmela Knepler of Solar Electrics in Fairfax , Va. Solarex of Frederick , Md. , made the lightweight panels . WASHINGTON Hardly anyone now remembers that one day Jackie Kennedy looked out f rom the safe haven , the elegant plushness of the White House , and decided she must save Lafayette Square . Even then , Lafayette Park was full not only with m arble monuments but also schoolchildren from Iowa , protesters with incomprehens ible signs and fervent causes , tourists with cameras , and people worn out on t he rough stones of the paths of life . Around the square run stood early 19th-ce ntury residences , remnants of the time when this was the aristocratic place to live . Through several presidents , the need for more executive office space had threatened the early houses , leading to plans to replace them with tall office buildings that would cast shadows on the park and the people . Some might say J acqueline Kennedy was concerned with her view from the White House . But a more- generous view holds that having put the White House on its way to comfort , orde r and glory , she was ready to spread out . She , and eventually her husband , a greed to save Lafayette 's historic and architecturally splendid 19th-century re sidential gems : Decatur House , Dolley Madison 's House , the other Cosmos Club houses , and Blair-Lee Houses and the Renwick Gallery . As a result , the cause of historic preservation would be given the imprimatur of presidential influenc e . All her life , Jacqueline Kennedy had grown up in and been a guest in histor ic houses and thus was respectful of the past . In fact , she was descended from a Frenchman who came over with the Marquis de Lafayette to fight the cause of t he American Revolution . So she was especially susceptible to David Finley , cha irman of the Fine Arts Commission . William Walton , a painter , writer and clos e friend of the Kennedys , said , `` We had all but given up on Lafayette Square , when she told the president and me , ` You can't stop until the bulldozers ro ll . ' She was a very strong lady . Her connections with the arts were so natura l and not pretentious . We called in John Carl Warnecke , who understood office space . By making the buildings go back a block , we saved the historic houses o n the square . '' Warnecke recently asked his staff to put together documents pe rtaining to the saving of the square . One is a March 6 , 1962 , letter from Mrs . Kennedy to Bernard L. Boutin , the General Services administrator . In it , sh e writes that she is enclosing a letter from Finley and goes on to say : `` Beca use of our interest in history and preservation , it really matters a great deal to the president and to myself that this is done well ; we have received so muc h mail on this subject . `` Unfortunately , last summer the president okayed som e plans for buildings ; he was in a hurry , he doesn't have time to bother himse lf with details like this , he trusted the advice of a friend .. . and I really don't think it was the right advice . With all he has to do , at least I can spa re him some minor problems like this . So , I turn to you for help . '' Now , wh en we walk in Lafayette Square , we should tip a hat to Jacqueline Kennedy . WASHINGTON Hi ho , hi ho , it 's off to war we go . The Navy Museum is humming with the ballads and ditties that American fighting men and waiting women have s ung to deal with the sorrow and separation of war . The show is an assemblage of recordings , battlefield band memorabilia and sheet music dating from the Civil War to Desert Storm . Its unintended but inescapable message is that we neither fight 'em nor write 'em like we used to . Our worst war , the Civil War that ki lled more Americans than all those since , produced the best songs , including s ome that were sung with equal emotion on both sides of the battle lines and stil l have the power to draw cheers and tears . The divided hearts with which in Vie tnam we waged our first losing war are reflected in the little and lousy music i t produced . From the stirring `` Battle Hymn of the Republic '' to the mawkish `` Ballad of the Green Berets '' is both a musical and a moral decline . And let us pray history to draw a merciful veil over the cornball effusions produced by Hank Williams Jr. and others during Desert Storm . May they go into blessed obl ivion with the jingoistic jingles of the Spanish-American War ( `` Do We Remembe r Dewey at Manila ? Do We , Do We , Yer Bet Yer Life We Do ! '' ) . Although the aims of this handsomely presented exhibit are admittedly modest , as is the spa ce allotted to it , visitors may wish the museum had taken a bigger swing at suc h a fat pitch . Our martial music reflects much about the development of our nat ional character , and that 's a subject upon which we cannot reflect too much . -O- STRIKE UP THE BAND : Sheet Music From the Civil War to Desert Storm , throug h Dec. 31 at the Navy Museum ( 202 ) 433-4882 . A parade of historical figures and contemporary witnesses recounts the effort o f women to control their own lives and find justice in `` A Century of Women , ' ' a three-night special beginning Tuesday night on TBS . The second and third of the three two-hour segments run Wednesday and Thursday at the same time . The s eries , which tells how women have lived , worked , loved , played and changed t he course of history , uses an original drama as a narrative thread connecting p ast and present . The drama features a fictional family , whose lives reflect th e changes women have seen and created over the century . Justine Bateman , Olymp ia Dukakis , Jasmine Guy , Talia Shire , Madge Sinclair , Brooke Smith and Teres a Wright play the members of that family . Jane Fonda narrates the story . Voici ng outstanding women of the 20th century are Angela Bassett , Candice Bergen , G lenn Close , Blythe Danner , Laura Dern , Sally Field , Jodie Foster , Amy Irvin g , Jessica Lange , Marian Ross , Mary Steenburgen , Meryl Streep , Marlo Thomas , Cicely Tyson and Alfre Woodward . On-camera interviews reflecting roles women have played in shaping the 20th century feature Roseanne Arnold , Hillary Rodha m Clinton , Ruth Bader Ginsburg , Carol Burnett , Chris Evert , Betty Friedan , Lena Horne , Joan Baez , Erica Jong , Pat Schroeder and Gloria Steinem . Each pa rt repeats the same night it premieres , and all six hours run again Saturday , June 18 . Monday night on The Nashville Network : Waylon Jennings , Billy Dean a nd Canada 's Michelle Wright co-host the 28th Annual TNN Music City News Country Awards . Vince Gill , Alan Jackson and Reba McEntire lead with six nominations each in 14 categories . Winners are selected by the fans . Monday on Nickelodeon : `` Gumby , '' one of television 's most unusual animated characters , returns with 65 episodes from the 1957 series . The show runs Monday through Friday . O n Monday , Nickelodeon also launches the second season of the popular `` Legends of the Hidden Temple , '' a weekday action-adventure game show that challenges mind and body . Also , beginning Monday , Nick at Nite adds two classics to its Monday-Friday lineup : `` I Dream of Jeannie '' and `` Bewitched . '' Scheduled to enrich the fall schedule is `` Taxi '' in early November . Tuesday night on T he Disney Channel : The premiere of `` Walt Disney World Inside Out . '' Comedia n Scott Herriot hosts the series ' first show , `` The Best of the Wets , '' a t our of ways to enjoy Disney World 's two water-theme parks , 97 pools and 16 wat er slides . Hulk Hogan guests . Repeats : Saturday and June 15 , 18 , 20 , 24 an d 30 . Thursday on The Disney Channel : Marlee Matlin guests in the premiere of `` The Sound and the Furry '' on the `` Adventures in Wonderland '' series . She plays March Hare 's deaf cousin , who brings the language of signing and finger -spelling to Wonderland when crabby Red Queen forbids the residents to talk . Re peats June 15 . Thursday night on MTV at 9 p.m. : Actor/rapper Will Smith hosts the third annual `` MTV Movie Awards , '' an alternative to traditional movie-aw ards shows with such categories such as Best Villain , Best Kiss and Best Act of Violence . Thursday night on USA Network : The premiere of `` Target of Suspici on , '' starring Tim Matheson as an American who goes to Paris to oversee a merg er of a perfume company and winds up accused of rape and murder . Naomi Kocher p lays a sexy model who takes him on a tour of Paris nightlife , Agnes Sorel co-st ars as an Interpol agent and Lysette Anthony plays Matheson 's wife . Repeats Ju ne 12 and 18 . NEW YORK It was a particularly emotional moment at this week 's funeral Mass fo r Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis when Maurice Tempelsman rose to read the poem he ha d selected . Titled `` Ithaka , '' it spoke of discovery and of life 's journey , and Tempelsman added his own sorrowful coda about a journey that had been too short . `` So farewell , farewell , '' he concluded . `` Everyone was deeply mov ed , '' one of the mourners in attendance said afterward . `` He read as if he ' d written the poem himself . It was so personal , so heartfelt . '' For the co-w orkers , friends and family inside the limestone church , Tempelsman had become a familiar figure , someone they would expect to participate in the service , to stand at Onassis ' grave site with her children . But to those who knew him onl y from magazine photos of Tempelsman and Onassis strolling through Central Park , the captions generally identifying him as her `` companion '' or `` friend , ' ' he was more enigmatic . It took her death to fully reveal the central role tha t the very private Tempelsman a man who shared her home , though a man who remai ns married to another woman had come to play in her life . They were the same ag e , 64 , though her enduring loveliness and his stocky plainness made him appear older . They shared many things : summers on Martha 's Vineyard , interests in art and antiquities ( Tempelsman is a collector ) , fluency in French , an avers ion to publicity . In the public mind , Tempelsman must possess special qualitie s to have attracted such a regal and celebrated woman . But his admirers , who a re many , can see the relationship the other way around : Onassis must have been far more than a famous beauty to have intrigued such a cultured and scholarly m an . `` It shows her seriousness and the depth of her intellect , '' says Phil B aum , acting head of the American Jewish Congress , where Tempelsman has been an active trustee . `` For those of us who cared about Mrs. Onassis , it was comfo rting it was terrific to know she was with somebody who was a good , generous an d gentle man , '' says Roger Wilkins , who was an Agency for International Devel opment administrator during the Kennedy Administration and has known Tempelsman for years . A Belgian-born Jew , Tempelsman and his family fled Europe in 1940 a nd came to New York , where his father established a diamond brokerage . The ind ustry has always been dominated by families , and Maurice joined his father 's f irm as a teenager , just as two of his three children and a son-in-law have join ed his . He is chief executive officer of Lazare Kaplan Inc. ( 1993 gross sales : $ 166 million ) . Headquartered on Fifth Avenue , it is one of the largest U.S . companies specializing in the import , cutting and sale of diamonds ; its cust omers include Tiffany and Cartier . Tempelsman is also the general partner of Le on Tempelsman & Son , which has investments , mining and mineral trading interes ts around the world , particularly in central and western Africa . Africa has be en an abiding interest ; Tempelsman has friendships and business alliances of 30 years ' duration there , glides easily through its political and economic circl es , is a connoisseur of African art . `` He 's a player in that scene , '' says Chester Crocker , former assistant secretary of state for African affairs . Unt il Wilkins succeeded him several months ago , Tempelsman served as chairman of t he board of the nonprofit African-American Institute , which fosters African dev elopment and cooperation between Africans and Americans . In terms of wealth , T empelsman is not in the Aristotle Onassis league : By Forbes magazine 's calcula tions , his personal worth didn't reach the $ 300 million threshold needed to la nd on the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans . He is a prosperous man none theless . That was his 70-foot yacht , the Relemar , berthed at the Vineyard , o n which Jacqueline Onassis hosted the vacationing First Family last summer ; Tem pelsman was at the helm . He met Jacqueline Kennedy when she was still a young s enator 's wife and he was supporting JFK 's presidential aspirations . Tempelsma n has long been generous to Democratic Party candidates , last year contributing more than $ 83,000 to the Democratic National Committee , the Democratic Senato rial and Congressional campaign committees , and individual campaigns . But it w as apparently not until after Aristotle Onassis ' death in 1975 , with the twice -widowed Jacqueline living in New York , that they began spending time together . Tempelsman was one of the financial advisers who helped her multiply the repor ted $ 26 million settlement she received after Aristotle Onassis ' death . Publi shed estimates of Jacqueline Onassis ' wealth have varied wildly $ 100 million ? $ 200 million ? `` His counsel resulted in increasing her assets substantially , '' was all a discreet Tempelsman spokesman would say . By the early '80s , tho ugh Tempelsman described himself in a Fortune interview as a family friend , he and Onassis were quietly but unmistakably a couple , seen at small dinner partie s and low-key cultural events . According to the spokesman , Tempelsman moved in to Onassis ' rambling Fifth Avenue apartment overlooking Central Park about 1988 . His wife of more than 40 years , Lily , lives across the park on the Upper We st Side . Yet it was rare to hear or read a word of opprobrium about Tempelsman and Onassis ' relationship , even from New York 's cattier columnists and insati able tabloids , which never tired of running her photograph . It was almost as t hough the press and public had decided she was entitled to grow old with someone . His acceptance by her family probably helped quiet criticism ; `` John and Ca roline have come to feel quite close to him , '' his spokesman says . `` They we re a well-matched and distinguished couple , '' says Vivian Lowery Derryck , pre sident of the African-American Institute . Onassis occasionally accompanied Temp elsman to small institute dinners with African leaders . His demeanor toward her was unfailingly `` comfortable , respectful and loving , '' Derryck says . `` A nd she respected and admired him and held him in great affection . '' As Onassis ' illness progressed , Tempelsman was omnipresent , escorting her home from the hospital , supporting her on her last walks through the neighborhood , keeping vigil by her bedside with her children as she died . Friends say they have sent notes of condolence but have not wished to intrude on his evident grief . Friend s and associates portray him as a man of Old World courtliness , courtesy and er udition . `` You know from what he says , as well as what he doesn't say , that there 's a lively and fertile mind operating there , '' Crocker says . `` This i s a world citizen we 're talking about , at home in almost any culture he finds himself in . '' WASHINGTON When the Federal Reserve pushed down short-term interest rates to un usually low levels in 1992 and kept them there throughout last year , the centra l bank made no bones about the fact that one reason it did so was to help a U.S. banking industry that had been wounded by big losses on loans . Low short-term rates widened the spread between the interest rates the banks had to pay deposit ors to get funds and the rates they charged borrowers . In addition , the low co st of funds enabled the banks to make money by investing in medium-term securiti es , such as two- or three-year Treasury notes , municipal bonds and other items , that carried higher rates . These opportunities allowed banks to turn in reco rd profits and largely restore their battered balance sheets even though the tot al amount of loans on their books stopped growing . Banks ' investments in secur ities surged while lending to businesses , to consumers and for real estate stag nated . This switch reflected both banks ' reluctance to lend and businesses ' a nd consumers ' reluctance to borrow . On the lending side , the banks ' previous large loan losses had made them much more wary about extending credit , particu larly for real estate deals . Covering those losses had sharply reduced the amou nt of capital many institutions had on hand to stand behind their operations , i n some cases to critically low levels . On the borrowing side , the 1990-91 econ omic slump greatly reduced the demand for credit from businesses that were cutti ng back rather than expanding . This combination caused total loans and lease fi nancing at banks not to grow at all for about two years . Meanwhile , however , bank purchases of investment securities rose significantly as institutions took advantage of the opportunity to use low-cost money from depositors to buy notes and bonds that paid a higher return . `` Usually in a recession what happens is that banks have very little demand for loans , so they put their money into secu rities , '' said Joseph Wahed , chief economist at Wells Fargo Bank in San Franc isco . When the slump ends the process normally reverses itself , though this ti me it was very slow in happening . `` The volume of loans has been one of the so ftest part of the recovery , '' Wahed said . `` On the West Coast it has been zi lch , '' though that has begun to change and loan demand elsewhere has turned up significantly . Securities purchases also were encouraged by a change in bank r egulation . Several years ago regulators substantially increased the amount of c apital a bank must have relative to its portfolio of securities , loans and leas es . Each type of loan and security is weighted according to its degree of risk , with regular commercial and industrial loans carrying a 100 percent weight , h ome mortgages 50 percent and U.S. government securities zero because there is no risk of default . That means that there is no capital required to stand behind government securities owned by banks , which makes the cost of funding the secur ities ownership effectively lower than that of a commercial loan . That differen ce has given the banks an incentive to keep buying securities , analysts said . In addition , there is still a significant spread between the banks ' cost of fu nds and yields available on notes and bonds that is encouraging their purchase e ven though lending activity has picked up . `` There is still a lot of money aro und the system that is not being used fully , '' Wahed noted . `` Banks have a l ot of money with nowhere to go . '' And that is probably one reason that lending has picked up as well . While banks have been quick to raise their prime lendin g rates it is up from 6 percent to 7.25 percent this year in line with the Fed ' s increase in short-term interest rates to maintain the unusually large gap betw een their cost of funds and the prime , they have been trimming the cost of cred it in other ways . A report from senior loan officers at banks released by the F ed this week showed a continued easing of credit terms , including reduction in the spread between the prime and actual loan rates , reduced collateralization r equirements and higher lines of credit . The principal reason given for the easi er terms , the Fed said , was increased competition among lenders . However , th e terms on commercial real estate lending have been eased only very slightly . M any metropolitan areas still have gluts of empty office space , and banks remain wary about making loans secured by such real estate . The bulk of the increase in real estate lending shown in the chart has been for single-family home purcha ses or refinancings . Altogether , the trends suggest a banking system that is b ehaving in more a normal fashion than it has for several years . However , the c ontinued high level of securities purchases suggests that banks are a long way f rom being at the stage of the credit cycle when they begin to sell the notes and bonds in their investment portfolios to get the cash to meet strong loan demand . As Wells Fargo 's Wahed said , the banks are flush with money , and that 's t he key reason that the rates they are paying depositors have gone up so little d espite the rise in short-term money market rates this year . HOLLYWOOD Welcome to Bedrock , a town proud of being `` First With Fire . '' Th e locals eat at Roc Donald 's ( `` Over 18 Dozen Sold '' ) , watch George Lucas ' `` Tar Wars '' at the drive-in , get their gas at the Chevrock station and the ir information via the Cave News Network . You were expecting maybe `` Middlemar ch '' ? Whatever else people say about `` The Flintstones , '' no one will claim that a chance to make a truly great motion picture was frittered away here . A live-action cartoon in every sense of the word , this re-creation of the long-ru nning television series about suburban life in 2,000,000 B.C. has been carefully designed to be as bright and insubstantial as a child 's toy balloon . Like `` The Addams Family '' before it , this is one of those clever , lively and ultima tely wearying pieces of showy Hollywood machinery where a glut of creativity has gone into the visuals with only scraps left over for the plot and the dialogue . But then , given its source material , what more could anyone have expected ? Actually , someone must have at least hoped for more , because press reports ind icate that somewhere between 32 and 35 writers ( `` almost as many people as sig ned the Declaration of Independence , '' mocked Daily Variety ) had a hand in th e script . It was finally credited to Tom S. Parker & Jim Jennewein and Steven E . de Souza , but any piece of writing where the most notable words are `` Yabba- Dabba-Doo ! '' is not going to be up for any Writers Guild awards any time soon . That , as anyone who watched the 1960s TV series remembers , is the war cry of Fred Flintstone ( John Goodman ) , devoted family man , operator of a Bronto-cr ane at the Slate & Company quarry and mainstay of the Water Buffaloes bowling te am . Though Fred ( who both here and in the cartoon strongly resembles Jackie Gl eason in `` The Honeymooners '' ) likes to say , `` In my cave , I reign supreme , '' really his wife , Wilma ( Elizabeth Perkins ) , calls the shots . And best friends and neighbors Betty ( Rosie O' Donnell ) and Barney Rubble ( Rick Moran is ) also have sizable places in his heart . The best thing the film that bears his family name has done is to whimsically imagine and create a world where ever ything , up to and apparently including Fred 's head , is made from stone . Prod uction designer William Sandell , `` Jurassic Park '' special-effects supervisor Michael Lantieri and the entire production team have done splendid work in this area , turning Bedrock into a shiny place that always diverts the eye . Most fu n are a host of animatronic beasties designed by Jim Henson 's Creature Shop to do everyday tasks , like a lobster lawn mower , a woolly mammoth shower and some thing called a pigasaurus that replaces the TV series ' vulture as a heavy-breat hing garbage disposal unit . If these devices are unexpected , `` The Flintstone s '' plot devices are less so . The main idea , identical to the one that powers `` The Hudsucker Proxy , '' has Slate & Co. evil-doers Cliff Vandercave and Sha ron Stone ( Kyle MacLachlan and Halle Berry ) searching for `` an ignorant stoog e '' to help them fleece the firm . Fred is obviously their man . But his bogus elevation to vice president turns him into a dreadful snob and causes a rift bet ween the Flintstones and the Rubbles . From such acorns do $ 45 million films gr ow . Though `` The Flintstones '' willn't disappoint those who 've been looking forward to seeing the venerable cartoon made human , its pleasures are not subst antial or lasting enough to convince those who lean toward thinking it all sound s rather feeble . Under the direction of Brian Levant , whose most notable previ ous credit was `` Beethoven , '' the acting in the movie , from star Goodman to Elizabeth Taylor 's well-publicized cameo , is , not surprisingly , cartoonish , with svelte and sexy villains Berry and MacLachlan registering best , as villai ns often do in animation . And even the gaudy and amusing production design , wi nning though it is , can hold one fascinated for only so long . Even at a lean 9 2 minutes , `` The Flintstones '' ( MPAA rating : PG for `` mild innuendoes '' ) eventually makes you want to change the channel and see what else is on . PILSEN , Czech Republic The once prosperous Czech arms industry , whose technic al know-how had made Czechoslovakia the world 's seventh-largest weapons exporte r , is struggling to survive in a post-Cold War market where some of its best po tential customers have been blacklisted by the United States . Pressure from the Clinton administration scotched a $ 90 million deal last year in which a newly privatized Czech company would have sold Iran six Tamara radar systems that the manufacturer claims is capable of detecting U.S. . B-2 `` stealth '' bombers . M ore recently , Iran showed interest in buying an upgraded version of the Soviet- designed T-72 tank that a consortium of Czech companies , the RDP Group , has un dertaken to produce . But just last month , sources said , the Czech Foreign Min istry bowed again to Washington 's wishes and blocked the deal . The Czech gover nment , eager to clean up its old image as a global merchant of death , has in f act accepted U.S. proscriptions on arms sales to nations deemed to be supporters of international terrorism . These include Iran , Iraq , Syria and Libya all po tentially major customers of the Czech arms industry . In the 1980s , the old co mmunist-ruled Czechoslovak federation exported arms worth up to $ 1.5 billion an nually , much of it to those same `` terrorist nations '' but also to more benig n customers , such as Egypt and India . Its most infamous export was doubtless t he odorless chemical explosive Semtex , which has been used widely by terrorists to blow up passenger jets and public buildings . After the fall of communism in 1989 , President Vaclav Havel crusaded for an end to arms exports as a means of cleansing Czechoslovakia of its `` terrorist '' taint . But such idealism soon gave way to the economic reality that the country had to export those products i t could best produce and that included weapons . Therefore the government now en courages arms exports , but under a new and tighter export-control law adopted b y parliament in February that requires the case-by-case approval of the ministri es of foreign affairs , defense , trade and the interior . Nonetheless , Western diplomatic sources here say the RDP Group `` bears close watching , '' particul arly its chairman , Lubomir Soudek , who has visited Iran and reportedly tried t o sell turbines and other heavy machinery for a nuclear power plant there . Foll owing the division of Czechoslovakia into separate Czech and Slovak republics in 1993 , the Czech arms industry was largely privatized and reorganized into a br oadly cooperative network . Forty-one arms-producing firms now work within the R DP Group to develop a wide range of products for both military and civilian mark ets . Soudek , who is also general director of Skoda Pilsen once the biggest for eign arms producer for Nazi Germany said in an interview at the sprawling Skoda complex here that RDP partners are currently working on 27 projects for the arms market , about half of which he believes will find a market . He declined to re veal what any of the projects involve , saying that `` nobody talks about what t hey want to sell . '' At the same time , he listed a multitude of problems facin g the industry . These include , he said , the loss of close ties to Slovak stee l plants , a shortage of research and development funds from the government and a heavy dependence on the Czech military 's modernization plans , which may not be determined until 1998 . `` The arms market is so big , but it 's very limited for our weapons , '' he remarked . `` We will never ever again obtain a rank in the top 10 producers . Local press reports say the RDP Group 's biggest militar y project is the upgraded T-72 tank a joint project with its old Slovak partners which it hopes to sell to NATO countries . But Soudek was not optimistic about this either , unless the Czech army agrees to buy and test it first . Probably t he most controversial high-tech item on the new Czech hardware list is the Tamar a , a truck-mounted , highly mobile radar system developed secretly over the pas t 30 years by the Czechs in cooperation with the Soviet military . Now in its th ird generation , the Tamara is said to be able to pick up any radiation emitted by an aircraft from a distance of up to 280 miles . Each system sells for about $ 15 million . A big advantage of the Tamara is that it is a passive system and emits no electronic signals ; thus , it cannot be easily located , jammed or tar geted , according to Maj. Gen. Oldrich Barak , president of Tesla Pardubice , ma nufacturer of the Tamara , and Otto Taborsky , vice president of Tesla 's parent corporation . Barak , an electronics expert who has been involved in the Tamara project since its inception in the early 1960s , insisted that the system has t he ability to detect the U.S. . B-2 stealth bomber , which was specifically desi gned to elude radar . `` It has been tried ; it detected the stealth . It 's not just theory , '' Taborsky added . They refused to say where or when this occurr ed , but they noted that 50 Tamara systems are in use in former Soviet Bloc nati ons . According to local press reports , the U.S. military also has secretly obt ained one . PILSEN , Czech Republic The once prosperous Czech arms industry , whose technic al know-how had made Czechoslovakia the world 's seventh-largest weapons exporte r , is struggling to survive in a post-Cold War market where some of its best po tential customers have been blacklisted by the United States . Pressure from the Clinton administration scotched a $ 90 million deal last year in which a newly privatized Czech company would have sold Iran six Tamara radar systems that the manufacturer claims is capable of detecting U.S. . B-2 `` stealth '' bombers . M ore recently , Iran showed interest in buying an upgraded version of the Soviet- designed T-72 tank that a consortium of Czech companies , the RDP Group , has un dertaken to produce . But just last month , sources said , the Czech Foreign Min istry bowed again to Washington 's wishes and blocked the deal . The Czech gover nment , eager to clean up its old image as a global merchant of death , has in f act accepted U.S. proscriptions on arms sales to nations deemed to be supporters of international terrorism . These include Iran , Iraq , Syria and Libya all po tentially major customers of the Czech arms industry . In the 1980s , the old co mmunist-ruled Czechoslovak federation exported arms worth up to $ 1.5 billion an nually , much of it to those same `` terrorist nations '' but also to more benig n customers , such as Egypt and India . Its most infamous export was doubtless t he odorless chemical explosive Semtex , which has been used widely by terrorists to blow up passenger jets and public buildings . After the fall of communism in 1989 , President Vaclav Havel crusaded for an end to arms exports as a means of cleansing Czechoslovakia of its `` terrorist '' taint . But such idealism soon gave way to the economic reality that the country had to export those products i t could best produce and that included weapons . Therefore the government now en courages arms exports , but under a new and tighter export-control law adopted b y parliament in February that requires the case-by-case approval of the ministri es of foreign affairs , defense , trade and the interior . Nonetheless , Western diplomatic sources here say the RDP Group `` bears close watching , '' particul arly its chairman , Lubomir Soudek , who has visited Iran and reportedly tried t o sell turbines and other heavy machinery for a nuclear power plant there . Foll owing the division of Czechoslovakia into separate Czech and Slovak republics in 1993 , the Czech arms industry was largely privatized and reorganized into a br oadly cooperative network . Forty-one arms-producing firms now work within the R DP Group to develop a wide range of products for both military and civilian mark ets . Soudek , who is also general director of Skoda Pilsen once the biggest for eign arms producer for Nazi Germany said in an interview at the sprawling Skoda complex here that RDP partners are currently working on 27 projects for the arms market , about half of which he believes will find a market . He declined to re veal what any of the projects involve , saying that `` nobody talks about what t hey want to sell . '' At the same time , he listed a multitude of problems facin g the industry . These include , he said , the loss of close ties to Slovak stee l plants , a shortage of research and development funds from the government and a heavy dependence on the Czech military 's modernization plans , which may not be determined until 1998 . `` The arms market is so big , but it 's very limited for our weapons , '' he remarked . `` We will never ever again obtain a rank in the top 10 producers . Local press reports say the RDP Group 's biggest militar y project is the upgraded T-72 tank a joint project with its old Slovak partners which it hopes to sell to NATO countries . But Soudek was not optimistic about this either , unless the Czech army agrees to buy and test it first . Probably t he most controversial high-tech item on the new Czech hardware list is the Tamar a , a truck-mounted , highly mobile radar system developed secretly over the pas t 30 years by the Czechs in cooperation with the Soviet military . Now in its th ird generation , the Tamara is said to be able to pick up any radiation emitted by an aircraft from a distance of up to 280 miles . Each system sells for about $ 15 million . A big advantage of the Tamara is that it is a passive system and emits no electronic signals ; thus , it cannot be easily located , jammed or tar geted , according to Maj. Gen. Oldrich Barak , president of Tesla Pardubice , ma nufacturer of the Tamara , and Otto Taborsky , vice president of Tesla 's parent corporation . Barak , an electronics expert who has been involved in the Tamara project since its inception in the early 1960s , insisted that the system has t he ability to detect the U.S. . B-2 stealth bomber , which was specifically desi gned to elude radar . `` It has been tried ; it detected the stealth . It 's not just theory , '' Taborsky added . They refused to say where or when this occurr ed , but they noted that 50 Tamara systems are in use in former Soviet Bloc nati ons . According to local press reports , the U.S. military also has secretly obt ained one . Four of the five winners of an industry-sponsored screenwriting contest for eth nic minority writers are expected to attend an awards ceremony Thursday in West Hollywood , Calif. . The fifth will be sitting on San Quentin 's death row . Ken neth Gay is serving a death sentence at the penitentiary north of San Francisco for murdering Los Angeles police officer Paul Verna during a routine traffic sto p in 1983 . When Gay submitted a script he wrote in prison to the Writers Worksh op for contest consideration , Willard Rodgers , founder and director of the org anization , said that he was surprised at the degree of humanity in the story . He said that Gay 's selection as one of the five winners in no way meant that th e workshop was condoning the violence of Gay 's past . His script , titled `` A Children 's Story , '' was picked from among 170 submissions from across the nat ion . The story deals with nine children all with mental or physical deformities who are lost in a forest when the bus they are riding is involved in an acciden t and their leader is mauled by a bear . The kids then have to find their way ba ck to safety and in the process of helping each other are surprised at what they can achieve . It 's the first time in the five years of the workshop 's contest which is sponsored by Steven Spielberg 's Amblin Entertainment , Quincy Jones P roductions , Carsey-Werner Co. , Norman Jewison , MCA/Universal , Dan Petrie Jr. , Sony Pictures Entertainment and Oliver Stone that someone in prison has won t he award . `` It 's uplifting and it teaches the value of cooperation among peop le , '' Rodgers said . `` There 's not one bit of violence in the script . '' Ga y 's wife , Janice , said it was unlikely that her husband would want to be inte rviewed . `` He doesn't want any publicity , '' she said . DAVID J. FOX -0- Ah , to be young , talented and the toast of Hollywood . Mark Steven Johnson , 28 , and Kevin Smith , 23 , are both screenwriters who have seen their first projects become mini-gold mines in town . In fact , Johnson is already writing a sequel to his first script , `` Grumpy Old Men , '' for Warner Bros. ; the first film c ost about $ 18 million and brought in nearly $ 70 million at the box office . He 's also writing a live-action `` Frosty the Snowman '' for Warners , as well as a comedy for 20th Century Fox about the first major league female ballplayer ca lled `` Balls . '' As for Smith , his `` Clerks '' which won both the Prix de la Jeunesse and the Critics Week prize at Cannes and was well-received at Sundance has already nailed down several future projects , even though Miramax is not sc heduled to release `` Clerks '' until Aug. 19 . In fact , `` Clerks , '' a black -and-white slice of life about convenience store clerks in New Jersey , is alrea dy becoming something of a mini-Jersey trilogy . Smith is writing a Jersey busbo ys saga called `` Busing '' for Disney , and a Jersey boys-go-to-the-mall film f or producers Sean Daniel and Jim Jacks at Universal called `` Mall Rats , '' whi ch Smith will direct . He also is writing `` Dogma , '' about growing up Catholi c in New Jersey for Miramax . How each lucked into success has the sweet smell o f innocence and naivete . Both pulled their stories from experiences in their ho metowns . For Smith , `` I was working as a store clerk at the Quick Stop Conven ience store in Leonardo ( N.J. ) and had spent about four months at the Vancouve r Film School . I saw ` Slackers ' and decided I was going to take the rest of m y tuition and put it into a film . '' He convinced the store manager , his boss for three years , to let him use the store as the setting . And $ 27,575 later , Smith had a movie about 12 hours in a convenience store . Smith willn't disclos e how much he 's received for each of his projects , but Johnson isn't as coy . Johnson says that after the success of `` Grumpy Old Men , '' he 's now averagin g between $ 175,000 to $ 350,000 for his scripts , plus another $ 175,000 to $ 2 00,000 if the films are made . For `` Grumpy II , '' the initial amount jumped t o $ 450,000 because it 's a sequel . He will get another $ 300,000 if it is made . Johnson didn't really know anybody in the business to pitch his script to . I n fact , his big connection at the time was his wife 's hospital co-worker , who se cousin used to be an agent . `` How 's that for a connection ? I took a chanc e and called the guy and he got it to people , who brought it to Warner Bros. , '' he says . `` I 'm the same guy who came to L.A. and called up one of the bigg est agents here and said , ` Hi , I 'm Mark Johnson . ' I really didn't know any better at the time . The only reason the agent took my call is because he thoug ht I was the producer ( Mark Johnson , director Barry Levinson 's former partner ) . I didn't know about the producer , but once the agent realized it wasn't hi m , he told me to take a hike , '' says Johnson . `` See how quickly it can chan ge ? '' Both young writers chalk their quick success up to luck , hard work and forever keeping their egos in check . But the producers who are pursuing their p rojects say talent has a little bit to do with it . JUDY BRENNAN NEW YORK Barney aside , the most startling success story in children 's televis ion in the '90s is the Fox Kids Network . And Margaret Loesch is the woman who m ade it happen . In less than four years , the network has gone from nonexistence to No. 1 with kids in the ratings categories for ages 2 to 11 and 6 to 17 , wit h such ratings successes as `` Mighty Morphin Power Rangers , '' `` X-Men '' and `` Batman '' as well as Steven Spielberg 's `` Animaniacs '' and `` Tiny Toons . '' And in light of Monday 's announcement that Fox is trading up for affiliate s with stronger signals in 12 major markets , the kids ' lineup seems destined t o grow even more powerful . With its signature action programming spread through an after-school schedule and a 3-hour Saturday morning block , it 's a good bet your kids are watching Fox at least part of the time . Kids Network President L oesch , not an unambitious sort , would like to have a Sunday morning block too , but right now she says the affiliates make too much money from paid religious programming to give up that time to the network and so instead she 'll try a syn dicated Sunday morning Fox radio show next fall . Some critics say the kids ' pr ogramming is the equivalent of Fox 's schlocky nighttime hits , such as `` Melro se Place '' and `` Beverly Hills 90210 . '' But that doesn't seem to bother Loes ch . She is sitting in a small bar in a midtown hotel , and the conversation has turned to one of the big influences in her career , a small mouse with a squeak y voice and big ears . `` The Mickey Mouse Club , '' she says , `` made no prete nse about being anything other than entertaining . But I learned a lot of things . .. . There were those little cowboy stories where kids learned to get along an d how to deal with bullies and stories on what I call self-esteem . '' However m uch she was influenced by the tiny rodent , Loesch , 48 , does seem to know what kids will watch . For years she tried to sell `` Power Rangers '' and `` X-Men '' but had no takers until she herself became a buyer . `` Power Rangers , '' wh ich is about a group of teenagers who become superheroes by summoning the power of the dinosaurs , is not only a hit on TV , but the toys it spun off were the b ig sellers last Christmas . `` X-Men , '' in which a group of `` mutant '' foste r children vie for respectability ( `` the teen experience , '' says Loesch ) , has become a cult hit of the older set too ; the network has gotten calls from 3 0-year-old Wall Street bond traders asking when a new `` X-Men '' will air . Bot h shows have been criticized in the press for their violent content , but Loesch says that neither parents nor teachers have followed suit and , she adds , she will take her cues from them . For the fall , Fox will add an educational progra m for preschoolers . It 's doing it at the urging of the affiliates , who have t o prove to a skeptical Federal Communications Commission that they are fulfillin g the requirements of the Children 's Television Act to provide that kind of pro gramming . The show , `` Fox 's Cubhouse , '' will feature a group of characters introducing and watching three different shows : Mondays and Fridays it will be `` Jim Henson 's Nature Show , '' a Muppet talk show about nature ; Tuesdays an d Thursdays will feature `` Johnson and Friends , '' an Australian television pr oduction with big stuffed animals that teaches the values of socialization ; and on Wednesdays the show is `` Rimba 's Island , '' which will use fantasy animal s to teach music and movement . She 'll also add `` Spiderman '' to the Saturday schedule , a show that happens to be produced by New World Communications , in which Fox acquired an interest this week . In addition , next season will see `` The Tick , '' which Loesch describes as `` an animated superhero show that poke s fun at superhero shows . '' While Loesch says she is enthusiastic about the `` Cubhouse '' concept , she 's not happy about the Children 's Television Act , w hich she describes as a `` kind of gun to the head '' and quite unnecessary , sh e adds . `` I think we were on the road to doing exactly what they wanted , '' s he says , `` but I resent people saying it 's only because of the act '' that ce rtain shows are being scheduled . And besides , she contends , entertainment pro grams can teach just as much as so-called educational programming though critics of Fox would hope she 's not thinking of `` Power Rangers '' or `` X-Men '' whe n she says that . Some are not so thrilled . Peggy Charren , founder of Action f or Children 's Television and a longtime observer of children 's programming , i s particularly dismayed by Fox 's success . `` The worst shows are winning the r atings game , '' she says. ` ` ` X-Men ' has absolutely nothing to recommend it. .. . It equates foster children with alien life . What kind of peculiar idea is that ? '' To help the network understand the effects its programming will have on children , Fox has set up a six-member advisory board made up of child-develo pment specialists who deal with children every day . The board reads scripts and makes suggestions for changes . And according to board member Frank Palumbo , a Washington pediatrician , the group has expressed concerns about the violence i n both `` Power Rangers '' and `` X-Men . '' He says he believes the network is serious about responding to that issue . Loesch says her standard rule is that v iolence should not be of the sort that could be imitated by a child to his harm . But then she tells you she saw her own 5-year-old son imitate the karate on `` Power Rangers '' and had to intervene to get him to stop . `` The minute he jum ped up and started pretending he was a karate expert , I said , ` You can preten d to be playing karate , but you don't go out and chop the cat and you can't hit your friends , that 's unacceptable . This is a fantasy and it 's only televisi on . ' And he understood . '' RICHMOND On any night of the week , you can drive to a little building in the w est end of town here , lay down $ 9 , climb aboard an alien spacecraft and shoot a lot of people with a laser gun . That 's entertainment , according to four en trepreneurs who believe they have opened the latest in high-tech amusements here and plan to take their venture to the Washington suburbs soon . It 's 21st cent ury paint-ball without the paint ( or the bruises ) . It 's like being inside a video game , but more real , especially when you watch another player smile as h e `` stuns '' you and walks calmly away . Afterward , everyone gathers around a video screen , dripping sweat , and waits for their scores to appear . It 's cal led Ultrazone , and just weeks after opening here it 's packing in teenagers and people in their 20s , who come for the adrenaline rush and the chance to feel l ike characters in an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie , stalking each other down pass ageways of a space ship . Despite the violent premise , it 's all supposed to be clean fun : Alcohol and drugs are verboten , as is running , and no one actuall y dies they just rack up really low scores and get to play again . The game even has developed a small corporate following . Friday afternoon , for example , se veral white-collar workers from Reynolds Metals Co. down the road were chasing e ach other around inside the 6,000-square foot building that used to house a wind ow and door store . The concept was born about a decade ago in Australia , when a few computer engineers designed a complex game of tag in which players wear ve sts equipped with light sensors . Fire a laser at the right spot on an opponent 's vest , incapacitate him and score points . That may sound simple , but throw in a story involving a battle for control of the ship , complete with theatrical fog , pounding metallic music , sirens and general mayhem , and you have an int ense 15-minute experience . The game has spread to England , Canada , a few othe r U.S. and Japan , and is soon to arrive in South America . Troy Peple , preside nt of the company that bought the Virginia franchise from the Australian company , said this kind of entertainment will be all over the United States in the nex t few years . `` In three to five years , they 'll be everywhere , '' he predict ed , standing in the lobby of his first and only center . Nearby young enthusias ts queued up for tickets and plugged `` ROM buttons '' they carry on key chains into a terminal that instantly calls up their career records as Ultrazone player s . The experienced players adopt pseudonyms like Troll , Spawn and Blood Glitte r . But even novices get into the spirit quickly . Kim Abbott , a 17-year-old fr om nearby Chesterfield , said after playing her third game : `` You get a big ru sh , because you feel like you actually killed people . '' Bud Whitehouse , who visited Ultrazone on Friday evening with his son and daughter , said he wasn't w orried about the violent tone . `` It 's been a long time since I played cowboys and indians , but I can remember playing it at the same level of aggression , ' ' he said . Joseph Cassius , a Memphis psychologist who has studied high-tech ga mes and how they affect people , said games such as Ultrazone affect individuals differently . `` It can create a numbing effect , from a negative standpoint , if the game is a game that emphasizes aggression . On the other hand , it can al low some expression ( of aggressive impulses ) in a socially acceptable manner . '' Peple , a certified public accountant with a background in commercial real e state , said he and three business associates in their thirties and forties pool ed $ 500,000 to open the Richmond center . They are about to close on a site in Virginia Beach , are negotiating on locations in Northern Virginia and are tryin g to obtain the Maryland franchise rights , he said . Peple would not provide sp ecific revenue or profit figures , but said more than 10,000 games have been pla yed since the site opened in early April . The price is $ 5 or $ 7 , depending o n time of day , plus a $ 2 membership fee . Peple and his partners are not the o nly ones seeking to cash in on the Nintendo generation 's appetite for high-tech entertainment , but it remains to be seen how much staying power such ventures will have . He takes pains to distinguish Ultrazone from an early '80s game call ed Photon , also a form of light-based tag , which achieved fad status in some c ities before vanishing . `` There 's no doubt that this is a very hot segment of the market today , the laser-tag business , '' said John Latta , president of 4 th Wave , an Alexandria , Va. , consulting firm that follows high-tech entertain ment . A half century ago , when he was the music critic for the New York Herald Tribu ne , Virgil Thomson used to write about going to `` hear '' an opera . Today , i n contrast , music lovers are more likely to talk about going to `` see '' Itzha k Perlman play the violin or Mstislav Rostropovich conduct the National Symphony . The difference points up a profound change in the way people think about musi c : It is now considered a largely visual experience , thanks to the pervasive i nfluence of television . So it was probably a smart move last year when Peter Ge lb was appointed president of both Sony Classical USA , which produces audio rec ordings , and the international Sony Classical Film and Video , which produces b oth theatrical films and home videos . As a TV producer , Gelb won half a dozen Emmys , for Metropolitan Opera telecasts he produced and for music documentaries made by CAMI Video , which he founded and which is now part of Sony . During hi s short time at Sony , Gelb has brought out some of the best items available on the classical home video market . Those released only on video include `` Vladim ir Horowitz : A Reminiscence '' ( laser disc SLV 53478 ; also on VHS ) , part of which was shown recently on PBS , and Herbert von Karajan 's sumptuous 1984 Sal zburg production of `` Der Rosenkavalier '' ( S2LV 48313 , two laser discs , als o on VHS ) , which appeals to the eye as much as the ear-and very strongly to bo th . Others can also be heard on audio CDs , including `` Dvorak in Prague : A C elebration '' ( laser disc SLV 53488 ; compact disc SK 46687 ) and `` John Willi ams : The Seville Concert '' ( Laser Disc SLV 53475 ; compact disc SK 53359 ) . All four of these home videos have one thing in common : They originated as tele vision programs . Gelb insists that even the giant Sony Corp. could not have pro duced them without one or more television networks sharing the costs . `` The cl assical home video market is not sufficient to pay for such productions , '' he says . `` We need broadcast partners , and the television link will have to cont inue for the foreseeable future ; it 's a major source of financial support . '' The cost of producing a video recording can be 10 times as high as for audio on ly , according to Gelb , and the result is that `` for every show I get to do , there are 20 or 30 that are considered but not realized . '' There is no questio n that video can give a strong added dimension to recorded music . `` The Sevill e Concert '' was videotaped on location in an ancient Spanish castle , with a di fferent visual background for each number , carefully and sometimes brilliantly selected to reinforce the music 's effect . `` Dvorak in Prague '' relies not on scenic background but on the performers ' personalities to enhance the video di mension and since the soloists include Perlman , Yo-Yo Ma and Frederica von Stad e , this strategy works well . Watching Ma and Perlman play an arrangement of Dv orak 's `` Humoresque '' intensifies the musical experience . It is wonderful ju st to hear von Stade sing the lovely `` Song to the Moon '' from `` Rusalka '' o n the CD , but it is even more satisfying to see her sing it . The case is diffe rent for a documentary like `` Vladimir Horowitz : A Reminiscence , '' which was made for television . It works only in a video format and enjoys the promotiona l advantage of having been shown nationwide on PBS . Laser video discs , unlike CDs , can be recorded and played back on both sides , allowing up to two hours o f material on a single disc . Gelb takes advantage of this capacity to give home video viewers a substantial plus that was not seen on PBS : a superbly played H orowitz recital in London . Though `` Der Rosenkavalier , '' stylishly conducted by von Karajan and beautifully sung , could be enjoyed in an audio recording , a lot would be missed . The performers , including Anna Tomowa-Sintow , Kurt Mol l , Agnes Baltsa and Janet Perry , have acting skills that deserve to be seen , and the Salzburg Festival 's sets and costumes reinforce the music of Richard St rauss in establishing this opera 's unique atmosphere , a substantial part of it s charm . The rankings for books sold in the New York area , as reported by selected book stores : HARDCOVER FICTION 1 . THE CELESTINE PROPHECY , by James Redfield . 2 . THE ALIENIST , by Caleb Carr . 3 . REMEMBER ME , by Mary Higgins Clark . 4 . IN CA GOLD , by Clive Cussler . 5 . DISCLOSURE , by Michael Crichton . 6 . WALKING SHADOW , by Robert B . Parker . 7 . THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY , by Robert Ja mes Waller . 8 . `` K '' IS FOR KILLER , by Sue Grafton . 9 . NIGHT PREY , by Jo hn Sandford . 10 . TUNNEL VISION , by Sara Paretsky . NONFICTION 1 . IN THE KITC HEN WITH ROSIE , by Rosie Daley . 2 . EMBRACED BY THE LIGHT , by Betty J. Eadie with Curtis Taylor . 3 . MAGIC EYE , by Tom Baccei . 4 . MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL , by John Berendt . 5 . MAGIC EYE II , by Tom Baccei . 6 . MEN ARE FROM MARS , WOMEN ARE FROM VENUS , by John Gray . 7 . HOW WE DIE , by Sherwi n B . Nuland . 8 . LIFE OF THE PARTY , by Christopher Ogden . 9 . STANDING FIRM , by Dan Quayle . 10 . BEYOND PEACE , by Richard Nixon . PAPERBACK 1 . PLEADING GUILTY , by Scott Turow . 2 . LISTENING TO PROZAC , by Peter Kramer . 3 . SHIPPI NG NEWS , by E. Annie Proulx . 4 . CRUEL & UNUSUAL , by Patricia Cornwell . 5 . SCORPIO ILLUSION , by Robert Ludlum . 6 . I ' LL BE SEEING YOU , by Mary Higgins Clark . 7 . PIGS IN HEAVEN , by Barbara Kingsolver . 8 . AFTER ALL THESE YEARS , by Susan Isaacs . 9 . `` J '' IS FOR JUDGMENT , by Sue Grafton . 10 . THE STAN D , by Stephen King . Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service BERLIN When the big American law firm of Mayer , Brown & Platt decided to trump et the opening of a new Berlin branch office this spring , it did what big Ameri can law firms often do to win friends and influence people : It planned a big pa rty . And what a party . Embossed invitations were sent to hundreds of guests ac ross Germany and around the world . The mayor of Berlin , the U.S. ambassador an d the German economics minister all agreed to make welcoming speeches . Chicago- based Mayer , Brown even booked the Landesgericht , Berlin 's state courthouse , for the occasion . Every detail was considered and reconsidered except , alas , the sensitivities of local attorneys . Roused by outraged German lawyers , the Berlin bar swung into action , obtaining a court injunction blocking the party o n grounds that it violated stringent rules prohibiting law firms from soliciting clients . Less than a week before the scheduled March 1 bash , Mayer , Brown wa s forced to cancel and uninvite some 600 guests . `` We certainly didn't want to stick a finger in the eye of local lawyers , '' said C . Mark Nicolaides , the firm 's managing partner here . `` We had no idea it would cause that sort of re action . '' In its own small , humbling fashion , the episode illustrates the ch allenges and occasional perils U.S. firms encounter when they try to do business in a country where custom , regulation and social nuance can create many a stic ky wicket . An estimated 1,250 U.S. companies operate in Germany . Many of them Ford Motor Co. , General Motors Corp. , Coca-Cola Co. have been here for decades and have successfully become part of the landscape . But for newcomers trying t o tap newly opened markets in the east , it doesn't take long to discover that w hen working here there is a right way , a wrong way and a German way . `` The cu ltural and bureaucratic barriers can be substantial , '' said Donald Kobletz , f ormerly the State Department 's senior lawyer in Berlin and now a private attorn ey here . `` In the States , there 's bureaucracy but it operates basically unde r a principle of benign neglect . The Germans don't believe in benign neglect th ey believe in benign harassment . I think it has something to do with the German need for security : You surround yourself with rules and regulations . '' Espec ially troublesome for business executives is a sclerotic system for getting new enterprises approved . `` To get a building permit for a major chemical plant in Germany now takes an average of 70 months ; in neighboring Belgium it takes 12 months , '' said Kurt Kasch , senior vice president of the Deutsche Bank office in Berlin . There are no precise estimates on how many U.S. firms have abandoned Germany and gone elsewhere with their investment dollars , although figures fro m the American Chamber of Commerce in Germany indicate U.S. investment has been flat since the mid-1980s . For those who have plunged into the brave new world o f former East Germany , the experience often has been bittersweet . In early 199 3 , for example , Kaneb Services Inc. , of Richardson , Tex. , paid Treuhand , t he government agency set up to privatize or liquidate former East German compani es , $ 610,000 for an East Berlin engineering firm called Kraftwerks und Lagenba u . After a year of wrangling with Treuhand over how to restructure the company `` to make it a profitable and viable business , '' Kaneb pulled out , according to Kaneb Vice President Howard Wadsworth . Kaneb has nine other operations in e astern Germany , most involving maintenance services for industrial facilities . `` Our general experience has been very good , '' Wadsworth said . `` And then , like this last case , there 've been some difficult ones . '' `` Difficult '' is a word Raymond Learsy uses often in describing his efforts to revive Berlin K osmetik , a former East German cosmetics firm he paid $ 24 million to take over last year . Once a thriving manufacturer of shampoos , lipsticks , skin care pro ducts and the like , the company 's sales had fallen from $ 60 million a year be fore East Germany 's collapse to $ 4 million in 1992 . Learsy said he has diffic ulty getting shelf space in western Germany , a symptom of what Andrew Luedders , an American Chamber official in Frankfurt , calls `` the rather well-defined , or constricted , relationships in Germany between producers and distributors an d retailers . '' `` It appeared to be a level playing field , but it 's really w eighted toward the status quo , '' Learsy said . For example , shop hours are se verely restricted by law in Germany , with few stores open evenings , Saturday a fternoons or Sundays . `` The shortened shopping hours necessitate brand identif ication buying because people don't really have time to browse , '' Learsy said . `` That protects established brands . '' Mayer , Brown 's problems were of a d ifferent nature . One of the 10 largest U.S. law firms , with 600 attorneys and nine offices worldwide , the firm decided to open a branch in Berlin because Fra nkfurt and Duesseldorf appeared `` overlawyered , '' said managing partner Nicol aides . Loosely affiliated with a large German law firm , Mayer , Brown envision ed Berlin as a springboard for dealmaking and legal work throughout Eastern Euro pe . `` We 're not coming in saying we 're going to take business away from Germ an lawyers , '' Nicolaides said . `` We don't compete against them we don't want to ; we don't need to . '' `` We wouldn't have objected if they hadn't chosen t hat particular place ( for the reception ) and invited so many prominent people , '' said Bernhard Dombeck , president of the Berlin bar . `` That was a little too showy . '' As for others looking to crack the German market , Robert F. Smit h , the American Chamber representative in Berlin , observed : `` Doing business in Germany is not that difficult . But you have to follow the rules . '' As funny as it was , `` The Honeymooners '' was basically a one-joke show : Ral ph Kramden , '50s Brooklyn caveman , can't get a break . Its Hanna-Barbera alter ego , `` The Flintstones , '' which came along in 1960 , was a one-joke show , too : same caveman , flashed back to the Stone Age . The solitary gag that prope ls the big-budget feature film version of `` The Flintstones '' is the translati on of cartoon humor into live-action : The mastodon as kitchen faucet ( and Gree k chorus ) ; the large-beaked bird as Victrola ; the giant crab as pin-changer a t the Bowl-o-Rama , and Fred , as embodied by the lovably cartoonish John Goodma n , suspended in midair during an ecstatic yabba-dabba-doo . Directed by Brian ( `` Beethoven '' ) Levant and produced by Stephen Spielberg 's Amblin Entertainm ent ( yes , there 's a `` Jurassic Park '' plug in here , too ) , `` The Flintst ones '' makes relentless puns on the words `` rock '' and `` stone , '' offers p roof that product placement knows no particular millennium ( Cavern on the Green , RocDonald 's , Rolling Rock beer ) and gets mileage out of gags that were old when Dino was a pup . The intro , the music , the finale , they 're all straigh t out of the original Bedrock . In other words , if you loved the cartoon show , you 'll probably love the movie . And did we love the cartoon ? As Fred might s ay , `` Is the Earth flat ? '' The TV `` Flintstones '' was never that funny , p erhaps because it didn't have a Gleason . The `` Flintstones '' movie doesn't ha ve one either , but it has Goodman , who plays the anti-Kramden on `` Roseanne ' ' and has done some memorable work in the Coen brothers ' movies . No one 's eve r been more physically right for a role than Goodman is for longtime Slate & Co. brontosaurus-operator Fred Flintstone , and he 's a lot more Ralphy boy than Fr ed , but he remains throughout the movie an oddly unengaging presence ; rather t han flesh out the cartoon , Goodman is sucked into the animation vortex . So is the rest of the cast . As Fred 's little buddy , Barney Rubble , Rick Moranis cr eates a more original character , but he 's mugging , too . Elizabeth Perkins as Wilma and Rosie O' Donnell as Betty have the right giggle , Perkins certainly h as the right look , but the actors seem to be striving toward a Saturday morning -style one-dimensionality that 's epitomized by Elizabeth Taylor 's hammy cameo as Fred 's mother-in-law , Pearl Slaghoople . Although nearly devoid of what 's usually defined as wit , `` The Flintstones , '' will probably amuse both young children and older set designers . The town of Bedrock may look parched and inho spitable , but it contains a lot of ingenious sight gags , as well as gaps in lo gic : They have television , for instance ( on which Jay Leno hosts `` Bedrock ' s Most Wanted '' ) but they still write with hammers and chisels . In any event , the animals which are the products of either Jim Henson 's Creature Shop in Lo ndon , or Industrial Light and Magic in California are engaging , more so than t he actors . Certainly , the pigasaurus garbage disposal has personality , and th e Dictabird ( voice of Harvey Korman ) has as pivotal a role in the story as any human . It 's the Dictabird who gets Fred out of the jam he finds himself in hi s own bombast , as usual , being partly the cause after the nefarious Cliff Vand ercave ( Kyle MacLachlan ) promotes him to vice president at Slate & Co. Cliff , a Stone Age yuppie embezzler and one of the two more interesting characters in the film the other being Fred 's secretary , Sharon Stone , played by the scene- stealing Halle Berry needs a dupe to perpetrate the liquidation of Slate & Co. . So he invites all employees to take an aptitude test , which Barney aces , and Fred fails . But Barney owes Fred big Fred having lent Barney money so the Rubbl es could adopt Bamm-Bamm ( twins Hlynur and Marino Sigurdsson ) . ( It was easie r on the cartoon , if you recall , when Bamm-Bamm was left on the doorstep . ) S o Barney switches their papers . Fred gets the job and becomes insufferable . Ba rney , with the lowest score , is fired . Friendship , of course , will triumph , as will Fred . You may ask yourself : If Cliff needs a stooge to take the rap for his insidious scheme , why give the job to the highest-scoring applicant ? B ut the script by Tom S. Parker , Jim Jennewein and Stephen E. de Souza makes no pretense of intelligence . Basically , `` The Flintstones '' simply wants to pla giarize itself , and the only thing missing is the laugh track . Ultimately , `` The Flintstones , '' like many cartoons these days , is little more than a mark eting tool . That the movie is as insubstantial and vacuous as the products it ' s designed to sell is appropriate : Why else would it have been made ? There 's certainly no broadening of the original material , no irony , no reflection . Ev entually , the people who make these things will realize that there 's really no need for a movie at all , just an advertising campaign , the right poster-frien dly image ( in this case , Goodman/Fred ) and tie-ins with companies like McDona ld 's . A lot of money will be saved , a lot of eye-strain avoided . Two stars ; add a star if you 're under 9 . HOLLYWOOD `` Improper Conduct '' is a nifty modest-budget psychological thrille r pegged to the timely issue of sexual harassment . It is the 15th film by the e nterprising Dr. Jag Mundhra , who has been a professor of marketing , advertisin g and consumer behavior and who once operated a theater in Southern California t hat showcased Indian cinema . `` Improper Conduct '' is the first of Mundhra 's films to be released theatrically , his previous efforts having been contracted to go straight to video . This movie is the confident work of an efficient filmm aker who knows the ropes . In a sharp ensemble cast , Tahnee Welch plays a beaut iful commercial artist newly hired by a Los Angeles advertising agency , where o wner Stuart Whitman has just appointed son-in-law John Laughlin as head of marke ting . Laughlin immediately starts hitting upon Welch with increasing persistenc e and menacing crudeness , refusing to take no for an answer . Welch 's visiting sister , Lee Anne Beaman , a feminist law student , persuades her to hire Beama n 's lawyer friend Steven Bauer to file suit against Laughlin . Bauer feels sure that his brisk assistant Nia Peeples willn't have any trouble lining up other w omen Laughlin has pestered ; besides , Welch has one witness , the office 's mai l-room worker ( Everette Lamar ) , a gutsy young gay man . Up to this point `` I mproper Conduct '' plays like a crisp , decently made TV movie , whereupon it ve ers unexpectedly and effectively in an entirely different direction . Having poi nted up the pitfalls of women trying to fight back against sexual harassment , M undhra and writer Carl Austin deftly move the film from courtroom drama to eroti c suspense . Technically adroit , `` Improper Conduct '' ( MPAA rating : Unrated ) is notable for its array of well-defined , well-acted roles . The cast includ es Adrian Zmed , as a slimy kiss-and-tell type ; Kathy Shower as Laughlin 's flu ffy , naive wife ; and Patsy Pease , as a Welch co-worker not above using sex to get ahead . Laughlin is properly repellent and scary ; Welch , who recalls the early Rita Hayworth as much as she does her mother , Raquel , is persuasively vu lnerable yet determined ; but it 's Beaman , who has worked previously for Mundh ra , who is the film 's revelation as the deceptively demure sister . HOLLYWOOD `` Two Small Bodies , '' a thoroughly captivating film adaptation of Neal Bell 's play , seemingly is simplicity itself . A trench-coated police dete ctive ( Fred Ward ) comes to a suburban house to interrogate a single mother ( S uzy Amis ) on the disappearance of her two young children . Very early on it 's clear that Ward 's Lt. Brann believes that Amis ' Eileen Maloney , estranged fro m her husband , has murdered her kids and that Brann , who speaks only with love of his own two children , will quickly become obsessed with the case . `` Two S mall Bodies '' ( MPAA rating : unrated ) allows its stars to shine in far-rangin g , deeply probing characterizations of the kind that actors all too rarely get to play on the screen , even those as talented as Ward and Amis . Brann and Malo ney 's ensuing battle of wits yields an amazing thicket of thoughts , emotions a nd evolving perceptions , and they have been elucidated with an unsettling thoro ughness by the veteran independent filmmaker known as Beth B . Indeed , Beth B. , who collaborated on the screenplay with Bell as well as directed the film , is ideal for this assignment . Such earlier films as `` Vortex '' ( 1983 ) and `` Black Box '' ( 1978 ) , made with her husband , Scott B. , have been concerned w ith the abuse of power , both political and sexual . Worn and pale when we first meet her , Eileen , a strip joint hostess , reminds us of Meryl Streep 's mothe r of a missing child in Fred Schepisi 's `` A Cry in the Dark '' in that she see ms simply weary rather than heartbroken or distraught , which is how mothers are supposed to act in such circumstances . ( It is possible , after all , for a mo ther to be a grudging , reluctant parent without being a child killer . ) Right off her aura of cool resignation throws Brann , a sexy ultra-macho type with a t raditional view of women 's roles as a wife and mother . His relationship with E ileen teeters like a seesaw , as the impact of his menace wavers as Eileen appea rs to gather strength , acquiring an increasingly blunt , hard edge , seeming to agree with much of what he has to say about her . Through this endless parrying much emerges . First , we find ourselves not quite so quick to believe that Eil een may in fact be guilty of infanticide , and then we start wondering about Lt. Brann. How do we know he really is a cop ? Could he be the killer of the childr en himself if they are in fact dead ? Suspense , in turn , triggers paradox : Co uld a man as sexually dominant as Brann , a man who sees himself as a good guy , be finding himself tantalized by the prospect of yielding to what he sees as th e embodiment of evil ? And then there is the role of illusion , seemingly so muc h more crucial to men than to women , who constantly find themselves in situatio ns where they feel that they must pretend to be other than what they are to men , many of whom even today still see women as either madonnas or whores . Illusio n , in fact , battles with truth throughout `` Two Small Bodies , '' which is so compelling that it never once seems a filmed play . Beastie Boys `` Ill Communication '' ( Capitol ) 3 stars . Other rappers used t o fault the Beasties for their abrasive , somewhat monochromatic rapping style , and on `` Ill Communication , '' the boys have largely returned to the one-note bray they made famous on their 1986 album , `` Licensed to Ill. . '' With this album , as on 1989 's `` Paul 's Boutique , '' they are masters of the fun part of hip-hop that many artists have forgotten the art of swiping bits of music fro m hundreds of obscure old records and stitching them together into something res embling art . They even manage to manufacture a beat around a second or two of l ow groans from singing Tibetan monks . Once again , the Beasties prove they are maybe the 417th best hard-core punk band in the world , and again , they fill ou t the album with dusted , low-tech instrumentals . But the Beasties are a lot mo re ambitious than they 'd like you to think they are . The complete , self-refer ential trash-culture world they create on `` Ill Communication '' may be on a le vel with the visions of prime Public Enemy and Nine Inch Nails . JONATHAN GOLD N ick Cave & the Bad Seeds `` Let Love In '' ( Mute/Elektra ) 3 stars . Will this explorer of the soul 's darkest recesses be the upcoming `` Lollapalooza '' tour 's sacrificial cult band , like the Jesus and Mary Chain two years ago a noctur nal creature brought blinking to the stage in bright sunlight while the alternat ive-rock hit acts wait for the flattering cover of night ? Even though it coinci des with this opportunity to be heard by a huge audience one that has embraced h is filtered-down influence without even knowing it Cave 's new album isn't exact ly a gesture toward the mainstream . But `` Let Love In '' is less phantasmagori c than its immediate predecessors , abandoning the last album 's queasy cabaret and surreal sea chanteys for classic rock strains a `` Blonde on Blonde '' richn ess , haunting Doors grooves , Stones raucousness . Musical broadening notwithst anding , `` Let Love In '' is unmistakably Cave . Devils still crawl around the bedroom , cities are dark and murderous places , and love remains a source of lo ss and torment and little else . Cave has never set forth these themes with more musical elegance , and he illuminates them with something new the glimmerings o f a vulnerable spirit . RICHARD CROMELIN All-4-One , `` All-4-One , '' ( Blitzz/ Atlantic ) 3 stars . Tired of all the wanna-be vocal groups desecrating doo-wop ? Then check out All-4-One 's debut album . In modern-day doo-wop , this is as g ood as it gets . The young group 's reverence for vintage doo-wop is evident on such romantic songs as the glorious remake of `` So Much in Love , '' a highligh t of this excellent album mostly ballads boasting spine-tingling harmonies . DEN NIS HUNT MANILA The Philippine military Thursday captured the country 's most-wanted com munist rebel , the mastermind of an urban hit squad that has been blamed for the killings of a U.S. . Army colonel and more than 200 policemen and local officia ls . The arrest of Felimon Lagman , 43 , appeared to deal a serious blow to a 26 -year-old communist insurgency that has been wracked by bitter infighting , ideo logical rifts and the repudiation of its guiding principles in much of the world . Lagman was arrested Thursday morning by naval intelligence agents as he drove a car in the Quezon City district of this sprawling capital of more than 8 mill ion people . A 24-year veteran of the rebellion and the younger brother of a con gressman , he headed the 5,000-member underground Communist Party apparatus in M anila , which fields a feared assassination squad called the Alex Boncayao Briga de . `` It 's a very big loss for the ( brigade ) , as well as .. . the entire C ommunist Party of the Philippines , '' said President Fidel Ramos . But he said the dwindling guerrilla movement would continue to pose a threat of urban killin gs , and a senior government official said authorities were bracing for a possib le `` terrorism campaign '' in retaliation . The Alex Boncayao Brigade , named f or a leftist labor leader who joined the guerrillas and was slain by security fo rces in 1983 , went on a rampage of urban killings here in the late 1980s . Amon g its victims was Col. James Rowe , an American military adviser who was gunned down in a street ambush in April 1989 as he was being driven to work in his supp osedly bulletproof car . The killings of local police and others proved unpopula r , and the brigade was reined in when it earned a reputation as a communist dea th squad . Lately , however , it has shown a resurgence of activity . The group , which is believed to include about 30 trained assassins and about 100 other me mbers in the capital , claimed responsibility for the May 7 assassination of Tim oteo Zarcal , a former police colonel who was recently acquitted of kidnapping c harges . Last month , it admitted gunning down the father of a suspect on trial in a rape-murder case , charging that the father had participated in the crime . The brigade has also put out lists of allegedly corrupt legislators and governm ent officials , but Lagman denied that they were being `` targeted for liquidati on . '' The arrest of Lagman came two days after 11 sympathizers of the brigade were detained for participating in an unauthorized street demonstration to mark the 10th anniversary of its founding . The brigade used the occasion to announce a new policy , saying it would no longer impose `` revolutionary taxes '' in th e capital region and that summary execution would no longer be its only method o f implementing `` revolutionary justice . '' On May 4 , the Ramos government sco red a coup by arresting Wilma Tiamzon , 42 , the secretary general of the Commun ist Party and a key supporter of party founder and chairman Jose Maria Sison , w ho lives in self-exile in the Netherlands . After it was founded in December 196 8 , the Communist Party formed an armed wing , the New People 's Army , to wage a Maoist-inspired `` protracted people 's war '' aimed at overthrowing the gover nment . Tens of thousands of Filipinos were killed over the next 20 years as the fighting spread and the guerrilla army grew to an estimated 26,000 fighters . S ince then , however , the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe , internal par ty splits and the restoration of democracy in the Philippines have eroded the mo vement , which now fields about 8,000 guerrillas . A major rift developed in 199 2 , pitting Sison and a coterie of loyalists including Tiamzon against renegades led by Lagman and several other senior party officials and guerrilla commanders . A formerly cohesive , committed revolutionary movement has turned into a coll ection of malcontents whose feuding sometimes takes on a soap-opera quality . La gman has denounced Sison as a `` degenerate communist and unremolded misfit , '' while the Sison camp has accused Lagman and his comrades of offenses ranging fr om `` gangsterism '' to `` sexual and financial opportunism . '' In January , a former guerrilla commander linked to opponents of Sison was executed gangland-st yle by unidentified gunmen outside his house near Manila . Last month , Sison 's faction said it had gunned down another former rebel , Leopoldo Mabilangan , 34 , for alleged criminal activities . Since then , Lagman and Sison have traded t hreats and recriminations , with each claiming that the other is trying to assas sinate him . `` Come and get me , '' Lagman said earlier this month in response to an arrest order against him from the Sison camp . He warned that if Sison 's followers tried to capture or execute him , `` automatically we will hit Sison i n Utrecht , '' the Dutch city where the party founder maintains his headquarters . `` Sison 's death , '' Lagman said , `` would be just a phone call away . '' `` I now laugh it off , '' Sison said of the threat , adding that he had already taken `` precautionary measures . '' WASHINGTON Federal and military retirees racing to beat a phantom deadline for qualifying for their share of a potential $ 700 million tax refund from the Stat e of Virginia can relax . The refund issue remains unsettled , but Virginia tax officials have begged us to tell you there is no deadline for filing amended tax returns . Published reports advised retirees of a mid-June deadline for amended returns . As a result , they have been burning up the telephone lines to tax ac countants , members of Congress and the state legislature demanding information , or clarification of , the alleged deadline . But tax officials in Richmond ask ed us to advise retirees many in the Washington area that the one year that reti rees will have to file amended returns willn't start until there is a final sett lement in the refund battle , which is now five years old . The battle on behalf of ex-federal and military personnel began when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled ( Davis v. Michigan ) that more than a dozen states had discriminated against U.S. retirees by taxing their pensions while not taxing the pensions of state and lo cal government retirees between 1985 and 1988 . Virginia was one of those states . Most of the states found to be using the discriminatory practice gave retiree s refunds but Virginia because it was such a big financial item in the state tha t is home to more than 200,000 federal retirees raised new legal objections each time the Supreme Court told it to pay up . PRETORIA , South Africa South Africa plans a sharp increase in its arms exports in the wake of a United Nations Security Council vote this week to drop its lon g-standing embargo on the country 's arms trade . The head of Armscor , the stat e-run arms industry , predicted South African arms exports would more than doubl e this year to about $ 500 million in sales . He said South Africa 's arms indus try , which flourished during the era of apartheid and international sanctions b ut has been contracting since the late 1980s , would be `` increasingly driven ' ' by exports . The prospect of South Africa turning into a major arms supplier i n a continent riven by war and carnage has caused some alarm here , but the post -apartheid government appears tantalized by the jobs and foreign-exchange revenu es that the exports would generate . `` I don't think it would be fair to say th at a particular country should not engage in trade in arms , '' President Nelson Mandela said in a nationally televised interview on the eve of the U.N. action . `` Arms are for the purpose of defending the sovereignty and integrity of a co untry . From that angle , there is nothing wrong with having trade in arms . '' This week , as the Security Council voted to drop its 17-year-old embargo on arm s sales to South Africa and a decade-old ban on arms purchases from it , the hea d of another U.N. agency scolded industrial nations for contributing to the mise ry and bloodshed in Africa by peddling arms on this continent . James Gustave Sp eth , administrator of the U.N. . Development Program , noted that the world 's annual revenues from arms sales $ 125 billion was more than double the annual le vel of development assistance $ 60 billion to poor countries in Africa and elsew here . He called for arms sales to Africa to be phased out over the next three y ears . Tielman de Waal , executive general manager of Armscor , said South Afric a 's highly secretive arms industry already conforms to international standards that forbid the sale of arms to governments that suppress their own citizens or otherwise abuse human rights . He said Armscor had supplied the government of Rw anda with about $ 30 million worth of small-caliber rifles , grenades and mortar s over the past five years but suspended its shipments last September as the sti rrings of civil war became more apparent . He said Armscor had suspended arms sa les to Zaire , a country widely believed to be supplying arms across its border to the Angolan rebel movement , known by its Portuguese acronym , UNITA . The tr ouble with such prohibitions , analysts say , is that once arms find their way i nto the marketplace , they have a tendency to fall into unsavory hands a syndrom e South Africa knows as well as any country . Its exceptionally high levels of c riminal and political violence have been fueled by a brisk illegal trade in AK-4 7s and other light arms from neighboring Mozambique , where a 15-year civil war ended in 1992 . When the United Nations slapped its first arms embargo on South Africa in 1977 , the white-minority government reacted by investing heavily in a n already-sophisticated domestic arms industry . At the time , South Africa was supporting rebels in nearby Angola and Mozambique and confronting other neighbor s in the so-called front-line states , which opposed its policy of apartheid . A t its peak in the late 1980s , the domestic arms industry here employed some 150 ,000 people and was said to be South Africa 's largest exporter of finished manu facturing products . Though all of its dealings were shrouded in secrecy , it wa s presumed to be supplying such states as Somalia , Libya , Sudan , Ethiopia and Sri Lanka . Iraq used a South African-made long-range cannon during the 1991 Pe rsian Gulf War . De Waal said a 65 percent cut in capital spending on defense ha s cut the arms industry work force to 75,000 people . And , because South Africa is no longer in conflict with its neighbors , the number of those jobs that rel y on exports will grow . Currently , about 15,000 jobs exist because of export s ales and that will increase in the coming year to about 35,000 . South Africa 's artillery , armored vehicles , mine-sweeping vehicles and the Rooivalk helicopt er gunship are said to be competitive in the export market . In addition to mark ets in Africa , the arms industry here hopes to find customers in the Far East , Middle East and Europe . Just how aggressively it will pursue these sales is a matter of debate within the new government . Though Mandela appeared to give a g reen light to arms exports this week , he has spoken and written in the past in support of universal disarmament . `` The new government seems to have a fairly classic division between hawks and doves on the arms-export question , '' said L aurie Nathan , head of the Center for Conflict Resolution at the University of t he Western Cape . `` The defense ministers want to keep the industry alive , whi le some of the ministers in foreign affairs and in domestic areas have different priorities . '' But Jakkie Cilliers , head of an independent military watchdog group , said he believes the hawks already have won . `` There 's been a dramati c shift in the African National Congress position in the past year , '' he said . `` Now that they 're the government , their attitude toward arms exports seems to be , ` Let 's go for it . ' Given economies of scale , it 's the only way th ey can save the defense industry and the jobs that go with it . '' LONDON Prime Ministers John Major of Britain and Albert Reynolds of Ireland on Thursday intensified their pressure on the Irish Republican Army to give up its campaign of violence in Northern Ireland . Speaking on the steps of No. 10 Downi ng Street after a meeting Thursday night , they warned Sinn Fein , the IRA 's po litical arm , that they will not `` wait around '' for the party to respond to t heir peace overtures . The two leaders , who last December signed the Downing St reet Declaration offering Sinn Fein a place at Northern Ireland peace talks if t he IRA would stop its attacks , said they would continue negotiations with polit icians in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic . `` A great deal of progress has been made , '' Major said . `` There 's more to be done , but it is not awai ting an answer from Sinn Fein . '' Reynolds added , `` The two governments are n ot going to wait around for any more prevarication on either side to stop the vi olence . '' Earlier , Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams raised peace hopes by decl aring to the British Broadcasting Corp. that his group would make an official re sponse to the Downing Street peace proposal but not until after European Parliam ent elections June 9 . `` I am quite convinced that what is going to come out of this peace process is a peace settlement , '' Adams said . But Major dashed col d water on the statement . `` I see nothing new in what he had to say this morni ng , '' the prime minister said . `` What was quite striking was what he didn't say . He made no indication that he was going to give up violence . '' ( Optiona l add end ) Protestant leaders from Northern Ireland also scorned Adams ' statem ent . Member of Parliament David Trimble declared that it was all `` some big co n job '' designed to force the British into more concessions . While Major and R eynolds insisted that the peace process was making progress , others seemed less hopeful . One Republican source told the Irish Times of Dublin : `` You don't h ave to study the British response for days , or discuss it for weeks , to know t hat it 's unacceptable . '' The killings and bombings have continued since the p eace declaration was issued , with the level of sectarian violence between Catho lics and Protestants higher in the past five months than for the same period las t year . WASHINGTON President Clinton 's sharp attacks on congressional Republicans at a meeting with Democratic leaders drew a quick rebuttal Thursday from GOP officia ls , who said Clinton and the Democrats were running out of excuses for their st ring of electoral defeats . The partisan exchanges marked an escalation in the e lection-year rhetoric of both parties and signaled the outlines of the strategie s each will be using this fall to appeal to voters . In a private meeting with D emocratic leaders that came the day after Democrats lost a traditionally Democra tic House seat in Kentucky , the president lashed out at Republicans as obstruct ionists , `` fanatics '' held hostage to the religious right and a party carryin g a message of `` hate and fear . '' House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich , R-Ga. , said in an interview Thursday that he was infuriated by Clinton 's attacks . `` We had helped him all day on the foreign operations bill until they ( the Democ rats ) took a recess to go over there and hear the president attack us. .. . I t hink it 's a bit ripe . '' Gingrich said he could not understand the president c oming up to Capitol Hill to bash Republicans just as the Democrats lost another special election and as House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , faces possible indictment . Sen. Dan Coats , R-Ind. , accused Clinto n of `` duplicitous '' behavior and warned that he was courting disaster on heal th care by appealing for Republican support in a bipartisan meeting and then cri ticizing GOP lawmakers at a Democratic caucus . `` It 's duplicitous to come her e and meet with Republican leaders and stress the need for bipartisanship and th en walk down the hall and indicate this is a partisan issue , '' Coats told a ne ws conference . Coats acknowledged that other presidents have conducted partisan pep rallies while trying to negotiate with the opposition but contended that th e tactic is counterproductive . Some Democrats said privately that while Clinton 's exhortation to Democrats to defend the administration 's record was helpful , they feared that the president had overstepped in some of his rhetoric about t he Republicans and the religious conservatives . Ralph Reed , executive director of the Christian Coalition , said Clinton 's strategy of raising the specter of a Christian conservative takeover of the Republican Party would be self-defeati ng . `` Everywhere they 've tried to make us an issue the Republicans have won , '' Reed said . `` I just don't think attacks on people of faith or people 's re ligion resonate . It 's a failed strategy and it will backfire at the ballot box . '' But some Clinton strategists believe the Democrats ultimately will gain by highlighting the activities of religious conservatives , arguing that while the Christian Coalition may help Republicans in southern races this fall , their in volvement will hurt the party in other parts of the country this year and in 199 6 . Clinton 's charge that Republicans have attempted to thwart the administrati on at every turn ignored the role the GOP played last year in the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement . On that issue , a majority of Democrats d eserted the president and he was was saved only by strong support from Republica ns . It was that victory as much as any single event that helped define the pres ident 's first-year successes and helped turn around public perceptions of Clint on 's performance as president . At the time of the NAFTA vote , Clinton 's appr oval rating stood at 49 percent in the Washington Post-ABC News Poll . A month a fter the NAFTA victory , he had risen to 58 percent . BEIJING Five years after the Chinese army crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrat ions , seven dissidents publicly petitioned the government Thursday for a reasse ssment of the 1989 movement and compensation for the families whose relatives we re killed or injured . The activists , led by former student leader Wang Dan , a lso called for the release of all prisoners associated with the June 4 , 1989 cr ackdown and for the government to allow those who have been released from jail t o lead normal lives . The appeal was made in a petition to the national legislat ure and made available to reporters . It is a direct challenge to the government 's characterization of the massive , student-led protests that swept Beijing an d then spread nationwide as a `` counterrevolutionary rebellion . '' The disside nts asserted that the 1989 demonstrations were part of `` a nationwide patriotic popular movement . '' The movement adhered to the principles of `` peace , reas on and nonviolence , '' according to the petition . `` We believe the government 's characterization of it as a `` riot and a counterrevolutionary rebellion ' i s unjust and immediately should be reassessed , '' the activists wrote . The pet ition comes a week before the fifth anniversary of the crackdown , the most sens itive period on China 's political calendar . Security recently has tightened vi sibly in the Chinese capital . The homes of dissidents and their relatives are u nder surveillance . Wang and several other activists have already left Beijing t o avoid the surveillance . Some foreign journalists are being followed . Authori ties have canceled three events sponsored by foreign embassies a charity bazaar , a tennis club dinner and an art exhibit even though the events were to be atte nded by foreigners only . Chinese President Jiang Zemin recently defended the us e of force to crush the protests as the only way to ensure stability and continu ed economic development . China would not hesitate to use violence again if nece ssary , he said . The government has never given a public accounting of the exac t number of dead and wounded from 1989 . Hundreds , perhaps thousands , died whe n Chinese soldiers opened fire on the protestors . Nor has the government ever s aid how many people were arrested in connection with the June 4 crackdown . Desp ite the releases of some prominent activists , human-rights groups estimate that thousands more could still be in jail . In the petition Thursday , the activist s several of whom were on China 's most-wanted list of student leaders and who s erved prison terms for their participation in the 1989 movement said the time ha d come for the government to `` untie the knot in the people 's heart . '' `` We feel that the June 4th incident represents an undeniable `` knot ' in the Chine se people 's historical development . Resolving the June 4 problems and untying this knot in the people 's heart will help heal social contradictions and promot e social stability ( and ) will benefit the construction of a democratic legal s ystem and the advancement of society , '' they wrote . `` We sincerely wish that the government can courageously take this sensible step for the sake of the peo ple 's interest and the nation 's future , '' they wrote . WASHINGTON Black adults are overwhelmingly pessimistic about the prospects of b lack children , citing fears of violence , guns , drugs and gangs , according to a national poll released Thursday . The poll , commissioned by the Children 's Defense Fund and a new organization known as the Black Community Crusade for Chi ldren , found that more than three-fourths of black adults fear that their child ren or children they know will fall victim to violence . The poll did not includ e comparable figures for whites or others . And more than 80 percent of these ad ults say these are `` really bad times '' or `` tough times '' for black childre n . More than 70 percent of black adults many of whom were raised during an era of segregation believe it is harder for children today than it was for them . `` This poll confirms what black leaders already know , '' said Children 's Defens e Fund President Marian Wright Edelman . `` We have a black-child crisis worse t han any since slavery . '' In releasing the poll , Edelman also unveiled the Bla ck Community Crusade for Children , a fledgling organization that is mobilizing an anti-violence campaign , training college students to become tutors and lobby ing for government solutions to the daunting problems facing black children in t his country . The organization is a network of local and regional programs coord inated by the Children 's Defense Fund and funded by foundations . The poll show ed that while 75 percent of black children said these are good times for them pe rsonally , they also see major obstacles ahead . More than three-quarters of the se young people said violence in school is a serious problem for them , 70 perce nt said the same of guns and 64 percent said dangerous neighborhoods present a s erious problem for them . `` They do have dreams and hopes and ambitions , but t hey see the road from here to there is laden with obstacles , '' said Geoffrey G arin , president of Peter D. Hart Research Associates , which conducted the poll . The poll was taken in January of 1,004 adults and 421 children aged 11 to 17 . Two-thirds of adults polled said black children face more problems than opport unities , and the vast majority believe that at least half of all black children will become teen-age parents , will be denied opportunities because of racial p rejudice , have their lives destroyed by drugs or get into trouble with the law . Edelman said the new organization began as an idea three years ago and has hir ed a dozen staff members across the country . More than 600 black college studen ts have been trained as tutors and mentors to children and 200 more will be trai ned this summer . The group is launching an anti-violence campaign next month an d encouraging black churches to hold a `` children 's sabbath '' in October , wi th a focus on programs for youth . Several community efforts were cited by Edelm an as models of creative solutions , including `` beacon schools '' in New York City that stay open until 11 p.m. year-round and operate as community centers ; a program in Savannah , Ga. , that remodeled an abandoned school building and tu rned it into a resource center where families can get help from a variety of age ncies , including health and social-service offices , boys and girls clubs and a mediation project ; and a `` nurturing village '' project in the District of Co lumbia where leaders are bringing together schools , hospitals and community gro ups to provide an after-school program for each of the 20,000 children in the ar ea . Melissa Gilbert , who co-stars with Cicely Tyson as a pair of Southern lawyers who champion the underdog in the fall NBC series `` Sweet Justice , '' has purch ased a three-bedroom home in Los Angeles for about $ 500,000 , sources say . Gil bert just finished a movie with Marlee Matlin for Lifetime Cable and is about to start work on a CBS movie with Patty Duke . Now 30 , Gilbert became a well-know n actress as a child , playing Laura Ingalls on the long-running series `` Littl e House on the Prairie . '' She starred in the CBS movie `` Babymaker : The Dr. Cecil Jacobson Story , '' which aired earlier this year , and co-starred last ye ar in five TV movies , including `` A Family of Strangers , '' with Patty Duke a nd William Shatner , and `` House of Secrets , '' with Bruce Boxleitner . Gilber t , who was divorced from actor-writer Bo Brinkman in February , was briefly eng aged to Boxleitner after her separation from Brinkman . Built in 1944 , Gilbert 's 3,000-square-foot , Cape Cod-style house in the San Fernando Valley has shutt ers , window seats , French doors , two fireplaces , a cozy kitchen , breakfast nook , pool and spa . -0- Matt Frewer , who played Trashcan Man in Stephen King 's miniseries `` The Stand '' earlier this month , and his wife , documentarian Amanda Hillwood , have purchased a three-bedroom Malibu , Calif. , home for clos e to its $ 799,000 asking price , sources say . The home features what is being termed `` an organic design of natural building materials '' and has many trees on its 1.5 acres , with a footpath to the sand . Frewer also played Cinemax 's h igh-tech talk-show host Max Headroom , which was resurrected by Bravo on cable t his year , and he later appeared in the CBS sitcom `` Doctor , Doctor . '' -0- T haao Penghlis , who returned recently after an eight-year absence to his role as Count Antony DiMera on NBC 's `` Days of Our Lives , '' is nearing the end of a $ 130,000 refurbishing project at his Los Angeles home , built by architect Joh n Lautner in 1964 . Penghlis , who also starred as master-of-disguise Nicholas B lack in the revived `` Mission : Impossible '' series and co-starred in the mini series `` Memories of Midnights , '' has been painting the three-bedroom , 2,400 -square-foot house , which was originally gray , to complement his collections o f Greek pots and Oriental screens and vases . He painted the outside of his home cobalt blue and the inside in earth tones of yellow and gold with red touches . He is also redoing the landscaping , having completed a waterfall and pond , an d modernizing the kitchen , installing black granite counters and walls and blac k kitchen appliances . `` I wanted to make it dramatic and masculine , '' he sai d of the home , which he has owned for 10 years . -0- Rod McCary , who is in the just-released movie `` Night of the Demon 2 '' but is best remembered as Barbar a Eden 's nemesis in the 1980s TV series `` Harper Valley PTA , '' has purchased a $ 700,000 home in Santa Barbara , Calif. , with his wife , Emily Reeves . The couple got married on Valentine 's Day in Las Vegas . Their 3,000-square-foot h ome has three bedrooms and ocean views . The newlyweds also have a three-bedroom condo in West Los Angeles . WASHINGTON It follows in the proud tradition of ethanol , soy burgers and recyc led paper . So how could Congress say no to `` veggie ink ? '' Thursday members of a House subcommittee promised swift action on one of the new darlings of the environmental movement : vegetable-based printing inks . Soon , they said , most government reports will be printed on inks made of soybeans and linseed oils . Judging from the comments of farm state lawmakers , the new inks are so good tha t Congress ought to direct the Government Printing Office to crank up its presse s and start turning out even more reports , forms and documents . Developed in I owa seven years ago , soybean-based inks were described Thursday as the quintess ential `` green product , '' environmentally friendly , easy to recycle and as c heap as petroleum-based inks . The proposed Vegetable Ink Printing Act `` does t wo things right away , '' Sen. Paul D. Wellstone , D-Minn. , explained . `` It p romotes rural America 's economy and also protects our environment . '' The bill , he said , is one `` I care fiercely about . I think it 's a very , very impor tant piece of legislation . '' `` It 'll save us some environmental headaches do wn the line , '' agreed Rep. Richard J. Durbin , D-Ill. , sponsor of a bill to p romote the government 's use of vegetable-based inks . Members of the Government Operations subcommittee on information , justice , transportation and agricultu re agreed , promising to mark up the bill shortly after the Memorial Day recess . Last November , the Senate unanimously approved a similar measure sponsored by Wellstone and Sen. Christopher S . Bond , R-Mo. , following the lead of 26 stat es that have endorsed vegetable-based inks for their printing needs . The only o bjection to Durbin 's measure came from the Treasury Department . It said it sti ll wants to print checks and other security documents such as money with petrole um-based inks because of `` anti-tampering security features . '' WASHINGTON The head of the Council for Tobacco Research acknowledged Thursday t hat his organization acted as an industry `` conduit , '' steering research gran ts to favored scientists in hopes of getting results that reflected positively o n the industry . But he insisted that most of the researchers who did work for t he council were `` assured complete scientific freedom . '' Dr. James F. Glenn , chairman of the industry-funded council , which awards scientific grants to res earchers studying the relationship between smoking and health , told the House E nergy and Commerce subcommittee on health that the work supported by his organiz ation `` is performed by independent scientists , '' and that the results are ma de available to the public . The council `` does not consider whether the resear ch will be favorable or not favorable , '' he said . `` We are scientists. .. . Industry exercises no control . '' Under questioning by Subcommittee Chairman Re p. Henry A . Waxman , D-Calif. , however , Glenn admitted that the council bypas sed a scientific advisory board of outside experts to award `` special project ' ' grants requested by industry lawyers who wanted research that could bolster th e industry 's position in future litigation . Glenn said , however , the council did so because of its own expertise in administering grants . The existence of such `` special projects '' was first reported in Thursday 's Los Angeles Times . Glenn , a urologist who also serves as chief of staff at the University of Ken tucky Medical College Hospital , said the council has awarded more than $ 220 mi llion to fund more that 1,380 projects run by 1,000 researchers . Waxman release d a series of documents written in 1953 and 1954 by officials at Hill and Knowlt on , a high-powered public relations firm , indicating that the council was crea ted solely to counter public concerns over early studies linking cigarettes to h ealth problems . The public relations firm became involved in planning a counter -offensive with tobacco company executives after the December , 1953 , publicati on of a study by researchers at the Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York that s howed that cigarette tar condensate causes fatal cancers when painted on the ski n of mice . One early Hill and Knowlton memo written shortly after the release o f the study advised that `` the underlying purpose of any activity at this stage should be reassurance of the public through wider communication. .. . It is imp ortant that the public recognize the existence of weighty scientific views which hold there is no proof that cigarette smoking is a cause of lung cancer . '' On e of their major suggestions was the formation of a special research committee . ( Optional add end ) `` The word ` research ' should be included in the name of the committee to establish the fact that the group will carry on or sponsor fun damental scientific research , '' the memo said . Moreover , it recommended that the group have a research director who was `` a medical research authority of u nquestioned national repute , '' and an advisory board of `` men whose integrity is beyond question . '' The first public statement of the committee should be ` ` designed to reassure the public that the industry 's first and foremost intere st is the public health , ( and ) there is no proof of the claims which link smo king and lung cancer .. . ' ' Glenn dismissed the papers as `` ancient history ' ' that occurred long before he was involved with the group . Nevertheless , Waxm an said this `` paints a disturbing picture of public relations masquerading as science . '' BEIJING President Clinton 's move Thursday banning U.S. imports of Chinese-made guns strikes at the source of one-third of all firearms and more than half the rifles brought into America each year . But the import ban may not seriously hur t the Chinese military conglomerate making most of these weapons . And it does r isk politically alienating the Peoples Liberation Army , a key Chinese organizat ion with which the United States has been trying to restore contacts . The Unite d States issued permits last year for the import of about two million weapons fr om China , according to figures provided by the U.S. . Embassy here . Most of th ose were military-style rifles , such as the MAK-90 , a knock-off of the well-kn own AK-47 assault rifle . Some of these weapons would be banned by crime bills u nder consideration by the U.S. Congress , but one of the most popular makes , th e semiautomatic SKS , would not be affected by the bills . China is the world 's lowest-cost producer of rifles and handguns , and virtually all guns made here come from factories controlled by the PLA particularly the factories of China No rth Industries Co. , also known as Norinco . Norinco is the Chinese military 's largest conglomerate with more than 300 separate enterprises and research instit utes . Like most PLA companies , it has turned aggressively in recent years to p roducing and marketing non-military products . More than 70 percent of the compa ny 's income now comes from civilian products , according to published reports . It claims assets worth more than $ 1.7 billion . Norinco makes more than half o f China 's motorcycles and more than a third of its mini-vans , at some factorie s in joint ventures with Japanese companies . It turns out machines tools , chem icals and refrigerators . But it also is still believed to take in hundreds of m illions of dollars a year from its exports of heavy or high-tech arms sales that likely dwarf its receipts from exporting handguns and rifles to the United Stat es . Nevertheless , the U.S.-gun trade can be lucrative , particularly in illega lly outfitted rifles . Norinco was accused this spring by U.S. Bureau of Alcohol , Tobacco and Firearms officials of having violated federal guns laws by bringi ng into America tens of thousands of illegal rifles . These rifles were illegall y fitted with threaded muzzles to receive silencers or mounts for grenade launch ers . Some could be converted into machine guns . In announcing a recall of thes e rifles , ATF officials admitted that the weapons entered the United States bec ause of the difficulty in closely checking every shipment within the huge volume of U.S. imports . For some diplomats here , this suggests that some importers m ay be able to circumvent the U.S. ban on Chinese guns by shipping them through t hird countries much as importers of Chinese-made towels sidestep U.S. textile qu otas by shipping through the Philippines and other countries . ( Optional add en d ) `` Looks like we 'll have something else to work on soon , '' a U.S. . Custo ms agent based in Asia predicted Thursday . Whether or not the U.S. ban on Chine se guns hits the PLA 's pocketbook very hard , it certainly risks making enemies within the Chinese military a risk at odds with U.S. policy . The PLA is one of China 's most powerful political forces . The Pentagon launched a drive last fa ll to resume high-level contacts with the Chinese military , in part because of the belief that it will play a key role in the likely political struggle followi ng patriarch Deng Xiaoping 's death . `` The PLA isn't going to like being singl ed out in this way , '' a Western diplomat here said . `` But they 're going to be hard pressed to argue in the international arena for a right to sell guns in the United States . In fact , even many Chinese can't understand why the United States has let them sell guns there all along . '' WASHINGTON President Clinton Thursday signed legislation that bars antiabortion demonstrators from blocking access to clinics or threatening patients , decryin g `` the extremism and the vigilante conduct which gave rise to this law . '' Tw o antiabortion groups immediately filed suit to overturn the law , arguing that it interfered with their constitutional rights of free speech and religious free dom . Clinton signed the law , the `` Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act , '' at a White House ceremony attended by the children of David Gunn , the Flor ida physician who was murdered by an antiabortion protestor last year . `` We si mply cannot we must not continue to allow the attacks , the incidents of arson , the campaigns of intimidation upon law-abiding citizens that ( have ) given ris e to this law , '' Clinton said , citing the murder of Gunn and the shooting of another doctor outside his clinic in Wichita , Kan. , last summer . `` No person seeking medical care , no physician providing that care should have to endure h arassments or threats or obstruction or intimidation or even murder from vigilan tes who take the law into their own hands because they think they know what the law ought to be , '' Clinton said . The law , which has been a priority for the abortion rights movement , makes it a crime to block access to clinics , damage their property or injure or intimidate paitents and staff . Approved by the Sena te 69 to 30 this month , following a 241 to 174 House vote , it calls for jail t erms and stiff fines . It was enacted after the Supreme Court ruled last year th at an 1871 civil rights law could not be used to halt antiabortion protests and a Justice Department review concluded existing statutes were inadequate to deal with the growing problem . Abortion rights supporters say there have been 3,000 incidents of violence , vandalism and harassment at abortion clinics since 1977 . Antiabortion activists argue that the law punishes them for legitimate civil d isobedience and for expressing their religious views . The National Right to Lif e Committee accused the president of allowing abortion rights supporters to `` c rush peaceful protesters ' free speech with federal lawsuits . '' Randall Terry of Operation Rescue , the group that has blockaded clinics across the country , said the law `` shows the ever growing anti-Christian persecution that is coming from our government . '' But the American Civil Liberties Union called the law `` a milestone in congressional protection for reproductive freedom '' and said it protects `` peaceful protest and free speech . '' Clinton acknowledged `` gen uine and deeply felt differences on the subject of abortion '' but said it was ` ` time to turn away '' from expressing those views through violence and `` verba l extremism . '' Responding to critics of the legislation , he said , `` This bi ll is designed to eliminate violence and coercion . It is not a strike against t he First Amendment . '' The signing of the bill is the latest of several changes the Clinton administration has made on behalf of supporters of abortion rights , who spent the previous 12 years battling efforts by the Reagan and Bush admini strations to limit abortion rights in Congress and the courts . Since taking off ice , Clinton has lifted the moratorium on federal funding of research using fet al tissue , reversed the prohibition against abortions at military facilities , undone the `` gag rule '' prohibiting federally funded family planning clinics f rom providing information about abortion , and just last week lifted the ban on importation of RU-486 , a drug that induces abortions . On CBS ' `` 60 Minutes '' this Memorial Day weekend , Andy Rooney will report a full segment on impostors who claim to have been awarded the Congressional Meda l of Honor , the nation 's highest military award . Rooney and producer Robert F orte tracked down some of the 500 living Americans who say they got the Medal of Honor but in reality did not . The medal is given for heroism far above and bey ond the call of duty , and , in all U.S. history , has been awarded fewer than 3 ,500 times . It is against the law to falsely claim to have been awarded a Medal of Honor and Rooney shows us pathetic people who crave the recognition of havin g done extraordinarily brave acts . While the Defense Department recently approv ed the sale of military medals to anyone who wishes to buy them , the one medal that still can't be purchased is the Medal of Honor . -0- Former Vice President Dan Quayle , whose book `` Standing Firm '' is No. 2 on this Sunday 's New York Times best-seller list , talks with David Frost on PBS Friday night , looking ah ead to a 1996 presidential bid . When Quayle 's 1992 `` family values '' issue i s raised , he says Hollywood `` got my message and they also got Bill Clinton 's message , because Bill Clinton today is talking about family values . I 'm grat ified he 's come full circle . '' Frost asks Quayle if he regards Clinton `` as one of your disciples . '' Quayle says : `` I certainly would not go that far , and neither would he . '' -0- Prolific Hollywood composer Henry Mancini talks to Bob Brown on ABC 's `` 20/20 '' Friday night about Mancini 's recently diagnose d inoperable cancer . The illness , the 70-year-old Mancini says , `` changed my whole work attitude . I used to get depressed about the dumbest things , as mos t professional people do . You know , you think , ` Oh , God , when am I gonna g et out of this ? ' ' ' Now , `` even when I didn't feel well , I would drag myse lf to the piano upstairs and I would write . It was some of the easiest writing I 've ever done . '' -0- The U.S. government should pay for cable TV for those A mericans who cannot afford it , says Turner Broadcasting Chairman Ted Turner . H e was responding to concerns at the National Cable Television Conference in New Orleans about how the poor would be left behind on the information superhighway . Turner suggested broadcasters be taxed for the air waves they are licensed to use . -0- Last week 's national Nielsen ratings came out Thursday , showing `` T he Late Show With David Letterman 's '' 5.8 rating beating `` The Tonight Show W ith Jay Leno , '' which increased its rating to a 5.2 . Letterman also edged out ABC 's `` Nightline '' ( 5.6 ) . Each national Nielsen rating point equals 942, 000 TV households . The Clementine spacecraft the first scientific mission to the moon in 22 years has discovered craters at the lunar south pole that appear to lie in eternal sha dow . If the craters never see the sun , scientists say , they may stay cold eno ugh to hold water that was delivered there eons ago by crashing comets . If furt her studies confirm the presence of water in the craters , it would be the first ever found on the moon . Such lunar ice could one day be mined by explorers to supply their bases with water or split into hydrogen and oxygen gas to make rock et fuel . `` Don't imagine it as pure cube ice you could put into your martini , '' said Eugene Shoemaker , of the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff , Ariz. `` It 's very dirty ice , but it 's cold enough . '' At more than 400 degrees below z ero , maybe too cold . Clementine was launched into a lunar orbit Jan. 25 . A co mputer malfunction on May 7 canceled plans to send it off to photograph an aster oid on Aug. 31 . But scientists say the spacecraft relatively cheap at $ 75 mill ion has accomplished 99 percent of its scientific mission . Among other Clementi ne discoveries described Thursday at the American Geophysical Union meeting in B altimore : The deepest impact crater ever found anywhere in the solar system , a 7.5-mile-deep basin 1,500 miles across . Called the South Polar Aiken basin and located near the moon 's south pole , it was punched into the moon 's surface 4 .5 billion years ago by an object 155 miles across . Extremes of high and low al titude on the moon twice as great as previously believed . Scientists have found a span of more than 12 miles from the highest and lowest spots . That 's about the same difference seen between Earth 's deep ocean trenches and highest mounta ins . `` It turns out the moon is a much lumpier planet than we expected it to b e , '' said Johns Hopkins University geophysicist Maria T. Zuber . The apparent perpetual shadows on the moon 's south pole were discovered after photographs of the pole were animated into a kind of movie . Shoemaker said Clementine 's pola r orbit allowed it to take repeated photographs of the polar region during two f ull rotations of the moon . That allowed the photographs to show the craters ill uminated from all directions . Because the sun 's angle at the pole is so low , however , the bottoms of the polar craters appear to remain in the shadows of th e surrounding mountains throughout the lunar day . No water has ever been found on the moon , and any that once existed in the open there has evaporated into sp ace . But scientists have said since the 1960s that any water molecules that rea ched the moon from cometary impacts might stick to the surface if they landed so mewhere that was always shaded from the sun . During its two months in orbit aro und the moon , Clementine gathered more than two million images of the lunar sur face . Split by filters into 11 different wavelengths of light , the images have already begun to reveal previously unknown details of the moon 's mineral compo sition and geological history . Clementine has produced the first reliable topog raphic map of the moon , showing its surface contours in a multi-colored map tha t is accurate to within 330 feet . A companion map showing where the moon 's gra vitation pull is strongest will help scientists figure out the moon 's interior structures , providing clues to how it was formed and evolved . ( Optional add e nd ) The May 7 computer malfunction caused the spacecraft to fire its attitude c ontrol jets , and they kept firing until their fuel ran out . Without fuel to po int its instruments , Clementine 's journey to the asteroid Geographos became im possible . Controllers have since fired Clementine 's larger maneuvering rockets and returned the craft to an Earth orbit , where Pentagon scientists will conti nue to flight-test its systems . Stewart Nozette , of the Ballistic Missile Defe nse Organization , said Clementine was designed to test new , lightweight satell ite systems under development for the Strategic Defense Initiative , or `` Star Wars '' program . WASHINGTON President Clinton has decided to include in his welfare-reform plan a proposal to allow states to deny additional benefits to women who have childre n while they are on welfare , according to administration officials . Immediatel y , an unusually broad coalition of 85 civil-rights and religious organizations , including abortion-rights and anti-abortion groups , said it will challenge th e `` child exclusion '' policy in federal courts . Civil-rights activists compla ined that the policy would `` punish innocent children , '' anti-abortion advoca tes said it would encourage abortions and abortion-rights supporters said it wou ld punish welfare mothers who exercise a personal choice . The decision at a Whi te House policy meeting Tuesday to allow states to impose `` family caps '' on w elfare mothers as a means of discouraging illegitimate births will be contested in any state that enacts the policy , said Deborah Lewis , legislative counsel o f the American Civil Liberties Union , one of the coalition 's sponsoring groups . Lewis said the administration 's decision to include the provision in the wel fare proposal it is preparing to send to Congress in June will `` open the flood gates '' of legislation aimed at punishing welfare mothers . At the same time , she said , it will do nothing to discourage out-of-wedlock births , which are es timated to represent nearly a third of all births in the United States . Under c urrent law , states cannot implement such `` family cap '' changes in the Aid to Families With Dependent Children program without obtaining waivers of provision s of the AFDC law from the Department of Health and Human Services , which often is a long and complex process . Only three states New Jersey , Georgia and Arka nsas have received approval for `` family cap '' plans , while applications from California , Maryland and Wisconsin are pending . The ACLU and the National Org anization for Women have joined to form the Child Exclusion Coalition , whose me mber groups range from the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action Leag ue to Feminists for Life and the Seamless Garment Network , an umbrella of sever al hundred groups that oppose abortion . The ACLU and NOW already are contesting New Jersey 's family cap policy in federal court . Also opposing the extension of `` family caps '' are a number of large religious organizations , including t he National Council of Churches , Catholic Charities of the United States , the National Council of Jewish Women and the Washington headquarters of the Presbyte rian Church ( U.S.A. ) . The `` child exclusion '' provision one of the most exp losive parts of the Clinton administration 's welfare-reform proposals is believ ed to be the first issue to bring together abortion rights and anti-abortion fac tions of the women 's movement . Groups both supporting abortion rights and figh ting against the procedure came together earlier this year to help defeat a `` f amily cap '' provision in a welfare-reform bill in the Maryland legislature . Go v. William Donald Schaefer , D , vetoed the bill Thursday because it did not con tain a family cap . `` We 're surprised the president thinks he can make politic al gains on this proposal . It 's just going to upset everyone , '' said Lewis . `` It 's not a compromise . It 's an open invitation to the states to punish in nocent children . '' Anti-abortion advocates complained that the policy will enc ourage welfare mothers to seek abortions rather than risk losing additional bene fits , even though the additional benefits typically range from $ 57 to $ 64 a m onth for a new child . Noting Clinton 's health-reform proposals would cover the cost of abortions , Sharon Daly , Catholic Charities ' deputy to the president for social policy , said , `` The government is saying ` We will pay for your ab ortion but we willn't pay you $ 64 a month if you have a child . ' That sounds t o us like a pro-abortion decision . '' Abortion-rights supporters maintain that if a woman has a right to exercise a personal choice about having a child , she should not be punished simply because she is receiving welfare . An administrati on official said Clinton decided on the new policy `` because he genuinely belie ves , as a former governor , in giving states the maximum amount of flexibility possible . He believes in allowing governors and legislatures to decide what wor ks best in their states . '' However , the official acknowledged that withholdin g additional benefits from welfare mothers who become pregnant has become an eve n more emotional issue among liberals and children 's rights advocates than the proposed two-year time limit on welfare , which is the centerpiece of Clinton 's plan to `` end welfare as we know it . '' The administration 's self-imposed de adline for releasing its final welfare-reform package has been postponed several times , partly because of disagreements over how to finance the package and par tly because no decision has been made on what will happen to families who pass t he two-year time limit in a work-training program but are still unable to find j obs in the private sector . Administration officials said the Clinton welfare-re form bill will be introduced after June 9 , when the president returns from comm emorating the 50th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy . They said Clinton wants to spend $ 9.3 billion over five years to implement the reforms , with $ 7 billion coming from cuts in other social programs and the rest from excess corporate ta xes collected for the Superfund environmental-cleanup program . WASHINGTON Many child safety seats and restraints that are sold as approved for use on airliners are ineffective and some are dangerous , according to research done for the Federal Aviation Administration . In the first comprehensive crash -dummy tests using simulated aircraft interiors , the FAA 's Civil Aeromedical I nstitute ( CAMI ) in Oklahoma City found that all of the forward-facing seats fo r 20- to 40-pound children that it tested produced injuries because they could n ot be sufficiently anchored to prevent a child 's head from striking the seat ah ead . And harnesses and backless booster seats were found to be dangerous , acco rding to Van Gowdy of CAMI 's Biodynamics Laboratory , who performed the researc h . Gowdy said the institute found that one type of restraint performed consiste ntly as advertised : small rear-facing seats for infants below 20 pounds . `` I think these should be encouraged and endorsed by the FAA and the airlines , '' h e said in a telephone interview . The research , which was completed late last y ear but not released , adds another element to one of the most emotional safety issues in aviation . Until now , safety seats have been certified as approved fo r both automobiles and airliners , but the CAMI research indicates that airliner s may be sufficiently different from cars to require different standards . Gowdy said a major problem is that airline lap belts , unlike automobile seat belts , often do not properly secure a safety seat , allowing too much forward movement . Even when the forward movement is within federal standards , a child 's head can hit the seat ahead . Of eight forward-facing seats designed for toddlers wei ghing 20-40 pounds , six produced severe head injuries in crashes and two were c lose to the maximum allowable Head Injury Criteria . Some of the seats are too l arge for confined airline seats , making them even harder to mount . `` We have found a number of these seats that are incompatible with airline seats , '' Gowd y said . Gowdy said harnesses also allow too much room for movement . And child booster seats without backs can result in serious injury , he said , because air line seat backs are designed to rotate forward . In a crash , this could crush a child between the booster seat and seat back . Airlines officials estimate that 40,000 to 50,000 children under 2 travel on airliners daily in the United State s , but there are no statistics on how many use safety seats . Jane R. Goodman , a spokeswoman for the Association of Flight Attendants , said few parents ever use child safety seats on flights . The safety issue has been weighed and debate d in and out of Congress and the federal bureaucracy for three decades . It took on added urgency following the crash of United Airlines Flight 232 at Sioux Cit y , Iowa , on July 19 , 1989 , in which two infants were ripped from their mothe rs ' arms on impact . One was later found dead , while a second survived after s he was heard crying in crash debris . Current FAA rules allow children under 2 t o be held in parents ' laps , and airlines generally allow them to fly for free . The FAA in 1992 ruled that airlines must allow use of safety seats , but the a gency has stopped short of requiring them . Such a requirement would increase tr avel costs for families , who would have to pay for a seat . The National Transp ortation Safety Board , the Association of Flight Attendants and the major airli nes have called for their mandatory use , pointing out that small children are t he only objects that are not required to be secured on takeoff and landing . `` It 's totally illogical if we 're tying down coffee cups that we 're not restrai ning these kids , '' said Jo Ellen Deutsch , manager of government affairs for t he Association of Flight Attendants . Spokesmen for those organizations said the CAMI study would not cause them to change their positions . They advised that p arents use existing safety seats until better ones are designed . `` The seats , while there may be imperfections , are better than nothing , '' said Christophe r Chiames , spokesman for the Air Transport Association . FAA officials in Washi ngton declined to discuss the research . Spokeswoman Sandra Allen said the agenc y has not had sufficient time to review the study internally . But sources in th e Washington aviation community said major differences have surfaced between age ncy officials over the issue . Linda Daschle , the FAA 's new deputy administrat or , is said to be adamantly pushing for a child-restraint requirement . Among t hose opposing her is Anthony J. Broderick , the FAA 's longtime associate admini strator for regulation and certification . Broderick is said to have been convin ced partly by an FAA-sponsored study by Apogee Research indicating additional ch ild deaths would result from parents ' decisions to drive rather than fly at gre ater expense . The safety board has criticized the Apogee report as based on fla wed information . Congressional efforts to impose child-restraint requirements , led by Rep. Jim Lightfoot , R-Iowa , have been thwarted every year . Rep. James L. Oberstar , D-Minn. , chairman of the House Public Works aviation subcommitte e , opposes the requirement . Since 1985 , all new child safety seats bear the s tamp , `` This restraint is certified for use in motor vehicles and aircraft . ' ' But the FAA does not routinely test the seats , ruling in March 1985 that any seat would be considered approved for airline use if it met applicable Federal M otor Vehicle Safety rules . WASHINGTON Two of the newest combat ships in the U.S. Navy fleet high-speed , s hallow-draft vessels known as Coastal Patrol Craft are on their way to Haiti to try to intercept small boats violating the international embargo against that na tion by hugging the shore as they sail from the Dominican Republic . The USS Cyc lone and the USS Tempest will each carry eight Navy Seals , or nautical commando s , trained in taking over ships and inspecting suspect cargoes , Pentagon spoke sman Dennis Boxx said Thursday . Deployment of the Cyclone and Tempest increases the prospects for cutting off small vessels heading for Haiti 's 672-mile coast line , but it also increases the risk that Navy personnel might be targets of sm all-arms fire from smugglers on shore trying to protect their lucrative traffic , experienced Navy officers said . The Cyclone and Tempest are the first two of 13 Coastal Patrol Craft ordered by the Navy for use in the limited-scope , post- Cold War conflicts the U.S. military expects to be engaged in around the globe , Navy officials said . With an eight-foot draft , top speed of more than 35 knot s and a narrow turning radius , the 170-foot-long Coastal Patrol Craft is much m ore capable than full-size warships of interdicting the small craft running the Haiti embargo , Boxx and other officials said . The patrol craft will join nine other ships already in Haitian waters enforcing the tighter United Nations sanct ions that took effect last Sunday . Also steaming toward the region , though not officially part of the embargo operation , is the USS Wasp , an amphibious assa ult ship carrying about 650 Marines . The Wasp is headed for the U.S. . Naval ba se at Guantanamo Bay , Cuba , for `` routine refresher training , '' Navy and De fense Department officials said . The ships on embargo patrol are authorized to enter Haitian territorial waters at will , stop and search all vessels , and fir e if necessary to disable ships that refuse to halt , State Department and Penta gon officials said . The `` rules of engagement '' that determine when the ships can fire are set entirely by the U.S. military , officials said , with no consu ltative Bosnia-style role for the United Nations , even though it was the U.N. . Security Council that imposed the sanctions . The U.S. Navy has become quite fa miliar with seaborne interdiction operations in the past few years , first durin g the 1991 Persian Gulf War and later as part of a NATO team enforcing the inter national embargo on Serbia in the Adriatic Sea . But those operations do not pro vide an exact model for Haiti , officers said , because they involved generally larger vessels in confined bodies of water , with little coast-hugging traffic . `` This is more like trying to intercept drugs in the Caribbean , '' a senior N avy officer said. `` If you are talking about smuggling vessels using shallow wa ters , as long as you know where all the ports are you can set shallow water gat e guards to position yourself , if you are willing to work inside of territorial waters and provided that the ships you use don't have draft limitations . '' Ev en if all known ports are covered , he said , there is probably nothing to be do ne about crude small boats sailed by individuals that can simply be beached anyw here along the shoreline . Much of the gasoline and other goods still reaching H aiti are going overland , across the border with the Dominican Republic . Domini can Republic President Joaquin Balaguer assured President Clinton 's special rep resentative on Haiti , William Gray , on Wednesday that his country `` would sea l its border with Haiti in conformity '' with U.N. resolutions , State Departmen t spokesman Michael McCurry said Thursday . BALASHIKHA , Russia They were once the toughest , deadliest , scariest troops t o police the Soviet Empire . Named after Felix Dzerzhinsky , founder of the Bols hevik secret police , the Dzerzhinsky Division liquidated czarist sympathizers , worked out the formula for the Molotov cocktail and trained snipers to torment Adolf Hitler 's armies . In the 1980s , the KGB unit did the Kremlin 's bidding in such hot spots as Afghanistan , Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh . Last Octobe r , when hard-liners seized the Russian Parliament building , Boris N . Yeltsin called in the Dzerzhinsky Division to storm the White House and save his preside ncy . Thursday , the gates of the elite division 's base swung open to journalis ts , and even foreign reporters were invited in for what commanders said was the first-ever tour of this military holy site about 15 miles east of Moscow . In a bizarre marriage of Russian military propaganda and Western-style public relati ons , the once-terrifying special forces now seemed eager to show themselves to the media as a tough but politically correct unit of crime-fighters trained to b attle terrorists , drug traffickers , hijackers and organized criminals . With c onvincing displays of smoke bombs and machine-gun fire , young commandos demonst rated their crime-busting prowess . First came a display of bulletproof vests , helmets , rifles , pistols , grenade-launchers , stun bombs and tear gas caniste rs . Then , as the television cameras rolled , sharpshooters in camouflage burst into a firing range . They pumped bullets straight into their target , a wooden terrorist who appeared to be commandeering a car , holding a gun to the driver 's head . The shooters left holes in the terrorist , but the hostage escaped uns cathed . Beefy recruits showed how to intercept and liberate a `` hijacked '' bu s by posing as road repair workers . In another mock raid , the commandos storme d a hijacked aircraft , a bullet-ridden old Aeroflot jet parked at the training ground . ( Begin optional trim ) As if to demonstrate Russia 's need for a squad of `` untouchables '' to deal with its skyrocketing crime , while the mock hija ckings were being staged outside Moscow , a very real hijacking of schoolchildre n had begun in southern Russia . Four gunmen seized a bus carrying about 30 peop le eight children , their parents , and their schoolteachers near Mineralniye Vo dy , a resort city whose name means `` mineral waters . '' Authorities said Thur sday that the hijackers had demanded $ 10 million , as well as 100 vials of morp hine , assorted weaponry and a helicopter in which to flee . By late Thursday , the terrorists had released all the children and one adult in exchange for four sub-machine guns , a grenade launcher , a night-vision device and some flak jack ets , the Itar-Tass news agency reported . About 13 adults were still being held . Two groups of elite Interior Ministry troops possibly from the former Dzerzhi nsky Division were on their way to the site , Tass said . ( End optional trim ) As part of its transformation , the commando unit has dropped the name Dzerzhins ky and is now simply known as the Special Forces Division . But the nickname has stuck , and despite financial hardship it remains one of the most prestigious p ostings in the Russian military . The Interior Ministry brass who arranged the t our said the base was opening now in anticipation of the 70th anniversary of its founding June 18 . Russian journalists suggested a more pragmatic motive : The federal budget is under discussion in Parliament , the military is so far gettin g much less money than it asked for , and some good press could not hurt . LOS ANGELES Scholars searching for ways to broaden the lessons of the Holocaust told an audience at Los Angeles ' most prominent black church Thursday that Naz is murdered and mutilated African American prisoners of war because of their rac e , and sterilized children of mixed German and African blood . The presentation of previously unpublicized research was organized by the Martyrs Memorial and M useum of the Holocaust , which is working with teachers and researchers to devel op curriculum supplements for secondary school students . Researchers told liste ners at First A.M.E. . Church that documents from Nazi war-crimes trials show th at blacks both Americans and soldiers from Africa serving in the armies of colon ial powers were `` singled out '' for mistreatment once they were captured by th e Nazis . In one case , said Robert Kesting , an archivist at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington , 11 captured African American soldiers were humi liated by S.S. officers and forced to carry them on their backs before they were tortured , executed and mutilated . Other black soldiers were forced to dig the ir own graves before they were executed . Although white soldiers were also mist reated by Germans , Kesting said , blacks tended to be treated worse because of their race : Nazis considered people of African descent , as well as Jews , Gyps ies , and handicapped people as `` race polluters . '' In a horrific example of Nazi eugenics the pseudo-science of genetically `` improving '' the human race h undreds of half-black , half-German children , aged 6 to 12 , were sterilized un der government dictates in the 1930s , Kesting said . The children , labeled the `` Rhineland bastards , '' were for the most part the offspring of German women who married African soldiers who were part of the French army occupying western Germany following World War I . Hundreds of the children later disappeared with out a trace . The 14-year-old Holocaust museum , run by the Jewish Federation Co uncil of Greater Los Angeles , sponsored Thursday 's lecture in response to the controversy that erupted after some black high school students in Oakland were k icked out of a movie theater for laughing at scenes of the murder of Jews in `` Schindler 's List . '' Educators , struggling to get students interested in hist ory that seems long ago and far away , said they believe the greater scope of ge nocide will hit home to African American students if they are taught that people of African descent were also been persecuted by the Nazis . ( Optional add end ) `` ( Students need to understand ) ` It could have been me , ' ' ' said Suzann e Riveles , a political scientist who teaches at Howard University and participa ted in Thursday 's lecture . Rev. Leonard Jackson , associate minister of First . A.M.E. , says interest in the Holocaust in the black community is `` little or nothing . '' `` It is easy to look at a story such as ` Schindler 's List ' and say , ` so what ? ' But if you realize .. . it was not just Jewish individuals , it was African Americans , black Africans .. . that 's what makes a difference . '' Museum director Alex Grobman , said the students in Oakland were unfairly criticized . They were simply unfamiliar with the history and couldn't understan d that the events on screen really happened , he said . He said he later took se veral of the students on a tour of the museum and found them `` very receptive . '' TORONTO An escalating war of words between the United States and its largest tr ading partner has taken an unusual turn , with the U.S. ambassador lining up beh ind Canada in its bitter dispute with American farmers over wheat subsidies . Am bassador James J. Blanchard made front-page headlines Thursday after he publicly accused U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy of anti-Canada agitation in the mi dst of the politically charged dispute over Canada 's wheat sales to the United States . American farmers and their allies on Capitol Hill contend Canada 's whe at is priced below market rates because of government subsidies . Canada denies the charge , and its denials have been supported by binational trade-review pane ls . In a wide-ranging interview with Canadian television , Blanchard said he di sagreed with Espy 's recent representations to South American leaders that Canad a was engaged in `` predatory pricing '' of its wheat in Brazil . `` I don't thi nk ( Espy ) had the authority from the president '' to criticize Canadian tradin g practices , Blanchard said . `` I don't fault ( Canadian Trade Minister ) Roy MacLaren for being frustrated , '' he added . The ambassador repeated his commen ts in a telephone interview Thursday . Blanchard , a former Michigan governor , and Espy , a former Mississippi congressman , are Clinton appointees , and both are described as friends of the president . In a statement Thursday , the Agricu lture Department said the White House `` was well aware of Secretary Espy 's tri p to South America and Mexico , and the agenda to be discussed . '' The statemen t also said : `` The secretary doesn't intend to get into a discussion rebutting , challenging or contradicting any statement by our ambassador to Canada . We f eel he is doing a good job in a very difficult post . '' The latest hostilities began Tuesday , when the normally diplomatic MacLaren went to Washington and del ivered the Canadian government 's most stinging denunciation to date of what it perceives as U.S. trade belligerence toward Canada . Disputes over wheat , lumbe r , pork , beer and steel , `` if allowed to escalate , risk creating a trade an d investment chill between our two countries , '' MacLaren said . U.S. allegatio ns that Canada unfairly subsidizes its grain exports , the trade minister said , have never been substantiated . Canadian officials have criticized Espy for rep ortedly encouraging the governments of Argentina , Brazil and Mexico to launch t rade actions against Canada in retaliation for alleged dumping of wheat in South America . `` It 's really difficult to speculate on the secretary 's reasoning , '' Canadian Agriculture Minister Ralph Goodale said on a television broadcast , `` partly because the comments were so bizarre and without any factual basis , and now partly because Ambassador Blanchard has cast some doubt on the veracity of the comments . '' Blanchard , in the television interview , said U.S.-Canada trade disputes are `` minor in the scheme of things , '' but he blasted Canada 's restrictions on imports of U.S. eggs , poultry and dairy products . `` If you were to look at the commodities that are at issue right now , I think you can m ake a strong case that Canada is far more protectionist than the U.S. , '' he sa id . ROME Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi Thursday rejected recent complain ts from other Western leaders about the presence of Mussolini 's political heirs in his government , saying they bore no relation to extreme-right forces elsewh ere in Europe . In his first extended interview since taking office two weeks ag o , Berlusconi insisted that the five cabinet ministers he appointed from the Na tional Alliance , a ruling coalition partner that has its roots in the neo-fasci st Italian Social Movement ( MSI ) , have nothing in common with the political i deals of the fascist dictatorship . `` One is a former Christian Democrat , two are former members of the Liberal Party and two belonged to a branch of the MSI that renounced any ties to fascism , '' the 57 year-old media tycoon explained d uring the hour-long conversation in his office at Chigi Palace . `` I have obtai ned a solemn declaration from the National Alliance saying they are against fasc ism and any form of despotism . Its leaders have said this publicly and in party congresses . `` Fascists do not exist in my government . They do not exist . Th ere is nobody in my government who is against liberty and democracy . '' While t he Clinton administration has backed the Berlusconi government and declared that it perceives no danger of a fascist revival in Italy , other Western allies , s uch as France and Germany , have expressed alarm that a government role for Ital y 's fascist descendants could encourage greater political legitimacy for neo-Na zis and right-wing extremists in their own countries . On Wednesday , French Pre sident Francois Mitterrand and Germany 's president-elect , Roman Herzog , calle d for more determined resistance against rightist movements espousing intoleranc e or xenophobia . They warned against further gains in credibility for the extre me right after Italy became the first West European government in 50 years to em brace a party identified with neo-fascism . But Berlusconi contended that Italy 's fascist legacy could not be compared with the growth of right-wing extremism in France and Germany . `` The two phenomena are completely different . The forc es of the extreme right faced by the Germans and the French are not at all like what is happening in Italy with the National Alliance . '' Berlusconi was quick to deny that there was any sympathy in his own past for Mussolini . `` I was the n very small , but my father was persecuted by the fascists and forced to live a broad , and my grandfather hid for two nights under a bridge while the fascists hunted him down . '' WASHINGTON Special counsel Robert B . Fiske Jr. notified House leaders Thursday he expects to complete the initial phase of his Whitewater investigation next m onth , a timetable that could clear the way for Congress to hold the first heari ngs this summer . Those hearings would be confined to questions about the death of White House deputy counsel Vincent Foster and the propriety of Washington mee tings between White House aides and Treasury Department officials concerning the failed Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan in Arkansas . Fiske said his inquiry i nto those areas would conclude , `` barring some development '' in the last two weeks of June and he would then be able to tell lawmakers if he objected to hear ings on subjects he is investigating in Washington . House Speaker Thomas S. Fol ey , D-Wash. , said the earliest the House could hold hearings on those two aspe cts of the Whitewater investigation would be in late July or early August . A sp okesman for Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell , D-Maine , said Mitchell anticipates that Senate hearings could begin `` sometime in July , '' probably a bout a month after Fiske actually completes the first phase of his probe . Mitch ell was briefed by Foley on the meeting with Fiske and planned to lay out his po sition on timing in a letter to Minority Leader Robert J. Dole , R-Kan. , with w hom he has been negotiating over timetable , structure and scope of hearings for about two months . Fiske asked congressional leaders in March to delay hearings that would delve into aspects of his broad investigation until after his staff has interviewed relevant witnesses . House and Senate leaders have indicated a w illingness to comply with Fiske 's wishes under nearly identical resolutions bot h bodies passed in March calling for bipartisan agreement to hold the hearings . In his meeting Thursday with Foley , House Majority Leader Richard A . Gephardt , D-Mo. , and House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel , R-Ill. , Fiske said he n oted that the investigation into Arkansas-based matters , including the past inv estments of President Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in the White water Development Co. , was incomplete and will not be done anytime within the n ext few months . Foley quoted Fiske as expressing `` worry or concern '' that la wmakers would try to use hearings on Foster 's suicide and the Washington meetin gs to explore other matters still under investigation by his office . A note of impatience with the scheduling of House hearings on any aspect of Fiske 's inves tigation came from House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich , R-Ga. , who warned that h earings might extend into the fall campaign season a uncomfortable prospect for Democrats unless committee investigators get the go-ahead to proceed with advanc e research right away . `` If we 've done all the preparation for hearings , we can act fairly quickly once Fiske says it 's okay , '' Gingrich said . In the Ho use and Senate , the structure of Whitewater hearings remains undecided and subj ect to partisan dispute . Foley said , `` It might be better to have one committ ee do whatever hearings '' and identified the Banking , Urban Affairs and Financ e Committee as `` the most likely committee . '' Rep. James A . Leach , R-Iowa , who has pressed for disclosure of government documents related to Madison and W hitewater , is the panel 's top Republican . Gingrich named four committees that could claim jurisdiction over some part of the Whitewater investigation and sai d `` the only alternative would be a select committee , '' an alternative that F oley has consistently sought to discourage . In the Senate , Republicans served notice Thursday they will start amending bills to force hearings if Mitchell has not reached agreement with Dole on plans for the hearings by June 7 , when Cong ress returns from its Memorial Day recess . Republican sources said GOP senators dropped earlier plans to start offering amendments before the recess when Dole assured them he was making progress in his talks with Mitchell and believed agre ement was near . Mitchell has urged that hearings be conducted by the banking co mmittee , with questions that fall under jurisdiction of other panels being hand led by members who serve on those panels as well the banking committee . Democra ts outnumber Republicans 11 to 8 on the banking committee . WASHINGTON Hillary Rodham Clinton was allowed to order 10 cattle futures contra cts , normally a $ 12,000 investment , in her first commodity trade in 1978 alth ough she only had $ 1,000 in her account at the time , according to trade record s the White House released Thursday . The computerized records of her trades , w hich the White House obtained from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange , explain for the first time how she was able to turn her initial investment into $ 6,300 ove rnight . In about 10 months of trading , she made nearly $ 100,000 , relying hea vily on advice from her friend James B . Blair , an experienced futures trader . The new records also raise the possibility that some of her profits as much as $ 40,000 came from trades actually ordered by someone else and allocated to her account , according to Leo Melamed , a former chairman of the Merc who reviewed the records for the White House . Merc records obtained by The Washington Post s how that her broker , Robert L . `` Red '' Bone of Ray E. Friedman and Co. ( Ref co ) was making large orders in 1979 and allocating them to customers ' accounts , a violation of Merc regulations . Melamed said the discrepancies in Clinton ' s records could have been caused by human error and even allocations would not n ecessarily have benefited Clinton . `` I have no reason to change my original as sessment . Mrs. Clinton violated no rules in the course of her transactions , '' he said . Lisa Caputo , Clinton 's spokeswoman , said the documents were releas ed Thursday `` to give as complete a picture as possible '' of her trades . She said Clinton had never before seen them . Blair , who urged Clinton to enter the high-risk futures market and ordered most of her trades , said in a recent inte rview that he `` talked her into '' her first futures trade in October 1978 befo re paperwork on her account was completed . It was liquidated quickly , he recal led , because `` it was bigger than she wanted and required more money . '' A cl ose examination of her individual trades underscores Blair 's pivotal role . It also shows that Bone , who ran Refco 's Springdale , Ark. , office , allowed Cli nton to initiate and maintain many trading positions besides the first when she did not have enough money in her account to cover them . Why would Bone do so ? Bone could not be reached for comment , but Blair said he thought he knew why . `` I was a very good customer , '' he said , noting he paid Bone $ 800,000 in co mmissions over the years . `` They weren't going to hassle me . If I brought the m somebody , they weren't going to hassle them . '' Besides , he added , Bone wo uld not worry if he agreed with his clients ' bet on which way the price of a gi ven contract would go . Blair , who was outside counsel to Tyson Foods Inc. , Ar kansas ' largest employer , at the time , says he was advising Clinton out of fr iendship , not to seek political gain for his state-regulated client . At the ti me of the trades , Bill Clinton was governor . Hillary Clinton has said she made all the trading decisions herself and has tried to play down Blair 's role . Bu t she acknowledged in April , three weeks after her trades were first disclosed , that Blair actually placed most of the trades . Blair advised Clinton again on July 17 , 1979 . He recalled that she started that trading day by losing $ 26,4 60 on 10 cattle contracts she had held for more than a month , by far her worst loss as a futures player . On his recommendation , he said , she immediately wen t back into the market . She acquired 50 new cattle contracts worth $ 1.4 millio n and when the price moved in her favor , unloaded them around noon for a quick gain of $ 10,550 . This recouped part of her loss . Blair said Clinton and other friends he suggested trades for had lost money that spring on feeder cattle . T hose trades `` caused everyone some grief , '' he said . `` I 'm sure I was pres sing to get everyone back above water '' in recommending the quick and bold day trade . The White House defense of Hillary Clinton 's preferential treatment was that other customers in the same office also were allowed to trade without havi ng enough cash in their accounts . It was akin to a poker game where some of the players did not have to pay the ante up money . While Clinton 's account was wi ldly successful to an outsider , it was small compared to what others were makin g in the cattle futures market in the 1978-79 period . An investigation of the c attle futures market at that time by Rep. Neal Smith , D-Iowa , found that in on e 16-month period 32 traders made more than $ 110 million in profits from large trades those of 50 contracts or more . Clinton traded positions of 50 or more co ntracts only three times . The records the White House released Thursday were pa rt of an investigative file from 1979 , when the exchange charged Bone and Refco with violations of its record keeping and margin requirement rules . Bone was s uspended for three years ; Refco paid a $ 250,000 fine , then the largest in the exchange 's history . Internal memoes from that investigation cover transaction s from the same period in June that Clinton was trading , but not the same trade s . In one instance , the Merc found Bone and a fellow broker were ordering 1,00 0 cattle contracts at a time far over the limit allowed at the time and then all ocating them to other customers . One internal Merc memo said `` there is reason to believe '' that a majority of Bone 's accounts were traded without the clien ts ' permission . Blair said that Bone at times traded his personal account with out permission . `` If your back was turned and the market was dull he was capab le of sprinkling around stuff , including in my account , '' he said . Blair sai d he doubted Bone traded Clinton 's account without her permission . `` He didn' t have the level of comfort screwing around with others as he did with my accoun t . '' Blair said Clinton 's trades paralleled his own . She `` was never a tota l risk taker , '' he said . At times though , Clinton took what seemed to be eno rmously risky trading positions for someone whose salary as a lawyer at the time was $ 24,250 . For example , after trading five or 10 cattle contracts at a tim e in October and November 1978 , she suddenly took a 60-contract order in Decemb er . This was a high-stakes gamble in which she could make or lose up to $ 36,00 0 a day . Blair recalled the position was liquidated quickly `` because she woul dn't have had the money to hold it very long . '' He was right . She had about $ 6,000 in her account at the time-instead of the required $ 72,000 . She liquida ted that position the next day , making a $ 7,250 profit overnight , before payi ng commissions . In a news conference last month , Clinton told reporters she qu it trading at Refco in July 1979 . `` I just couldn't bear the risk anymore . '' MEXICO CITY Mexican officials Thursday denied claims by the relatives of Mario Aburto Martinez , the man accused of killing presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio , that they have been persecuted or prevented from testifying in the ca se . A statement from the attorney general 's office contradicted the claims of six Aburto family members who asked for political asylum in the United States ea rlier this week . The family has since dropped their asylum request and are seek ing permission to stay in the United States temporarily , lawyers said . Meanwhi le , a source close to the murder investigation denied that Ruben Aburto , the s uspect 's father , has any pending arrest warrants that would prevent him from r eturning to Mexico to tell police what he knows . Investigators would even be wi lling go to Los Angeles , where the elder Aburto lives , to take his statement , the source said . The father has said that , before the shooting , his son met with a federal security agent who was arrested at the scene and later released . The accusation hints at a government plot to kill Colosio , the candidate of th e ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party who was almost certain to be elected president . Aburto 's U.S. lawyer said he has not told Mexican authorities about his son 's meeting because he is wanted in Mexico for the 1967 murders of two m en . He said he would not return to Mexico unless he received a guarantee of imm unity from prosecution in that case . That arrest warrant was suspended in 1981 , the source said . ( Optional add end ) Other relatives of Aburto have been que stioned , but no arrest warrants have been issued for them , according to the at torney general 's statement . `` Mexican officials are not pursuing , pressuring or harassing these people , and they may return to the country with no fear for their freedom , '' the statement said . Aburto 's mother , brother sisters and other relatives walked across the U.S.-Mexico border Sunday . The six told U.S. . Immigration agents they feared for their lives because of harassment by Mexica n authorities since Aburto 's arrest immediately after the March 23 assassinatio n . WASHINGTON Faced with a painful choice between accepting a plea bargain on felo ny charges or fighting them in a costly trial , an anguished Rep. Dan Rostenkows ki , D-Ill. , isolated himself Thursday as he weighed a decision that seemed lik ely to end his congressional career . The well-known and occasionally feared `` Rosty '' rebuffed questioners and stayed away from most colleagues , holing up i n an office reserved for him as chairman of the powerful Ways and Means committe e . Sources familiar with the extended talks between U.S. . Attorney Eric Holder Jr. and Rostenkowski 's lawyer , Robert S. Bennett , said they did not expect t he issue to be resolved until next week . While Holder is pressing for a decisio n by Tuesday the date for the next meeting of a federal grand jury considering e vidence in the two-year investigation the sources said the deadline could slip i f a plea agreement was in sight . Early in the day , an aide vehemently denied b roadcast reports that Rostenkowski had decided to reject all attempts by his law yers to negotiate a plea bargain that would require him to admit guilt , serve t ime in prison and resign from Congress . `` No decision has been made , '' the s pokesman insisted as reporters kept close watch whenever Rostenkowski darted out to vote on the House floor . Rep. William O . Lipinski , D-Ill. , a Chicago col league , was one of the few visitors admitted to Rostenkowski 's inner sanctum . If the gruff-talking Chicago Democrat balks at a plea agreement , however , it was widely expected that he would be indicted on multiple felony charges that wo uld remove him automatically from the chairmanship of Ways and Means , under rul es of the Democratic caucus . Longtime associates said Rostenkowski would resign his seat in the House if he even temporarily lost the influential post . On the other hand , a plea bargain almost certainly would either require Rostenkowski to resign from the House altogether , or create a political backlash that would force him out of office . ( Optional add end ) While it was impossible to forete ll the outcome , it was clear that Rostenkowski would not be rushed . `` Did you ever know him to make an important decision without going to the deadline and f ive minutes beyond that ? '' asked one Rostenkowski aide . At issue in the plea bargain talks is the precise wording of the crime or crimes for which Rostenkows ki would have to acknowledge guilt . Under the law , this language would affect the amount of prison time under federal sentencing guidelines . As Congress depa rted on a Memorial Day break , tourists began snapping pictures of the door to t he Ways and Means office , which bears a sign saying : `` Mr. Rostenkowski. '' A young congressional aide conducting a guided tour told a group of visitors : `` You might be some of the last to see that name on the door . '' WASHINGTON A senior White House official was forced to resign Thursday after he and a colleague took the presidential helicopter , Marine One , from Washington to a private country club near Camp David , Md. , for an afternoon golf game Tu esday . David Watkins , director of the White House Office of Administration and one of the Arkansas friends President Clinton brought with him to Washington , submitted his resignation after his outing with Alphonso Maldon Jr. , director o f the White House Military Office , became public . A picture of the White House officials was published Wednesday in the Frederick ( Md. ) News-Post , making t he quiet trip a public embarrassment . Clinton announced the resignation when as ked about the trip at a White House news conference Thursday afternoon . He said he knew nothing of the trip , which the press office Thursday morning had descr ibed as a routine effort to check out the course for Clinton 's later use . The president said taxpayers would be reimbursed the cost of the helicopter trip , f rom Washington to New Market , Md. , and back . If previous Pentagon estimates o f the cost of military helicopter use hold true , that could be about $ 10,000 . Clinton said he was `` very upset '' when he heard about the trip , and officia ls said Watkins had virtually no defenders in the White House . Last year , he h ad been disciplined for his role in the firing of the seven employes in the trav el office . The White House Thursday night said Maldon , a political appointee , `` has been reprimanded and will be reassigned , '' probably outside the White House . The White House Wednesday night and Thursday morning put out what offici als now realize was a cover story for the trip . It asserted that Watkins and Ma ldon were checking out the course for security and other reasons in advance of a possible presidential trip . A statement drafted by the White House military of fice and released to reporters by the country club and used by White House spoke sman Arthur Jones described the helicopter trip as a `` training mission '' to f amiliarize the crew with the layout of the course , which is an hour away by car . The subsequent golf game by Watkins and Maldon , the statement said , was con ducted `` in order to familiarize themselves with all aspects of the course , es pecially those aspects related to actual time of play and associated impact of s ecurity plans . '' But , as White House officials later acknowledged , neither W atkins nor Maldon have job duties involving checking out sites for presidential security and White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers said the president has no plans to play the course . Clinton generally travels by motorcade on his freque nt golf outings rather than by military helicopter , which costs between $ 5,000 and $ 8,000 an hour to operate . There are at least three of the white-top heli copters in the presidential fleet ; whichever one the president is in is designa ted Marine One . The helicopter has been so sacrosanct in previous administratio ns that highest-ranking officials requesting to use it , such as former chief of staff Donald Regan to visit Ronald Reagan in the hospital , have been turned do wn . The use is controlled by the military office , under rules established by t he White House . Myers said Clinton `` was very concerned when he learned about this '' and had directed Chief of Staff Thomas F. `` Mack '' McLarty to investig ate the matter . Officials said McLarty and others began looking into the issue Wednesday night , and Watkins was , as one official put it , `` made aware by Th ursday morning his resignation would be in order . ' `` The explanation was basi cally that they were checking out the golf course for the president in case he w anted to play on that course , '' a senior administration official said . McLart y and Watkins , the official said , `` quickly came to an agreement that Watkins couldn't effectively continue in his role and Mack agreed to accept his resigna tion . '' The official called it `` a pretty serious error in judgment taking of f in the middle of a work week , taking a military helicopter , playing 18 holes of golf , and taking a military helicopter back to the White House when you 've got a golf course that 's an hour 's drive away . '' The Tuesday trip by Watkin s , who like the president and McLarty is a native of Hope , Ark. , and Maldon w as captured on film by Skip Lawrence , a photographer for the News-Post . They i nvited the Holly Hills club pro and the commanding naval officer at Camp David t o complete the foursome . Maryland Republican Rep. Roscoe Bartlett saw the photo in his local paper and issued an outraged press release , photo attached . Reca lling the uproar when Bush administration Chief of Staff John H. Sununu used gov ernment planes for private business , Bartlett asked , `` Was it really necessar y for your staff to play a course to determine if it was suitable for a presiden tial visit ? '' The president issued an executive order early in his term bannin g use of White House aircraft unless necessary for official duties . `` The taxp ayers should pay no more than absolutely necessary to transport government offic ials , '' the order states . Watkins , 52 , is a veteran of Clinton 's political campaigns and a former Little Rock advertising executive , and he and Hillary R odham Clinton are former business partners . They were in a lucrative cellular-t elephone partnership in Arkansas in 1983 in which Hillary Clinton made $ 48,000 from a $ 2,000 investment . Watkins is now charged with overseeing the White Hou se administrative structure . The White House review of the travel-office firing s concluded Watkins was `` insensitive '' to the implications of revealing that the FBI was investigating the employees . The report questioned his judgment in ordering a review of the office by a woman who had expressed interest in running the office , and said he failed to consider the implications of summarily firin g the employees . WASHINGTON A broad new federal ban on the use of force or threats to stop abort ions ran immediately into constitutional challenges in two courts Thursday just after President Clinton 's signature made it a law . Although the law to protect abortion clinics , their patients and staffs took effect immediately , abortion foes asked judges here and in Alexandria , Va. , to prohibit the government fro m enforcing it . The challengers contended that the law will curb their free spe ech rights , and stop them from expressing their religious opposition to abortio n even by peaceful gestures like praying and verbally urging women entering clin ics not to have abortion . The challengers asked for a hearing in the Alexandria case a week from Friday . That case is expected to move more rapidly than the o ne filed in a federal court here , since the Alexandria court is known for what lawyers and staff call its `` rocket docket . '' Delays are seldom tolerated . E ven if the Justice Department does get temporary clearance to enforce the new cr iminal law , it is expected to be tied up in court battles for several months , and perhaps longer . Both sides expect the constitutional dispute to go eventual ly to the Supreme Court . In a few weeks , the court may give some guidance on t he scope of clinic protesters ' free speech rights , in a pending case from Melb ourne , Fla. . Clinton , surrounded at a White House ceremony at midday Thursday by abortion rights leaders and congressional sponsors of the new law , used the occasion to urge Americans to talk out their differences on abortion and to sto p violence around clinics . `` There is so much .. . we could be doing together to defuse the intense anger and animosity and to listen to one another , '' the president said . Among those in the audience were the two children of the late D r. David Gunn , who was murdered by an abortion foe outside a Pensacola , Fla. , clinic 14 months ago an incident that added pressure on Congress to pass the ne w law . The law , the strongest action taken by Congress to protect women seekin g abortions and clinic staff members , provides criminal penalties up to a maxim um of three years in prison and a $ 250,000 fine . If someone is killed in an an ti-abortion activity , the sentence can be life in prison . The law also allows clinics to sue for unlimited civil damages when they or their patients or staff members have been harmed , threatened or intimidated . Those who drafted the law in Congress , and abortion rights groups , have argued that the measure was wri tten carefully to reach only violent actions . Clinton stressed that point in si gning it , saying that it would serve only `` to eliminate violence and coercion . '' The president argued : `` It is not a strike against the First Amendment . '' ( Optional add end ) That point , however , was disputed directly in the leg al claims made in the two new lawsuits . In the case in U.S. . District Court he re , papers filed by Atlanta lawyer Jay Alan Sekulow said that abortion foes `` are fearful '' that the law could lead to prosecution and heavy punishment for s uch protest activities as staging sit-ins , passing out pictures of aborted fetu ses , preaching , picketing and `` sidewalk counseling '' of patients on the way to get abortions . Suing in that case were Randall A . Terry of Harpersville , N.Y. , who heads Operation Rescue , one of the nation 's most militant anti-abor tion groups , along with five other individuals who said they have been active i n trying to stop women from having abortions . In the case in U.S. . District Co urt in Alexandria , Washington lawyer Marion Edwyn Harrison said in court papers that the new law will criminalize `` activities substantially identical in form and substance to the civil rights ` freedom rides ' and ` sit-ins ' of the 1960 s , and to the nonviolent protest tactics '' of Gandhi , the hero of India 's na tional independence . The only difference , that lawsuit claimed , is that the a ctivities now being turned into crimes are those carried out by `` persons who o ppose abortion . '' That lawsuit was filed by the American Life League , an anti -abortion group based in Stafford , Va. , by a Stafford Catholic priest and thre e other Virginia opponents of abortion . Both lawsuits were aimed directly at At torney General Janet Reno , who lobbied Congress hard for the new measure and wh o has vowed strong enforcement of it by her aides in the Justice Department . Re no said at Wednesday 's bill-signing ceremony that the killing of Gunn last year in Florida `` focused for me and focused the attention of the nation on the pro blem of violent attacks against abortion providers , vandalism at abortion clini cs , and the efforts by some to prevent women from exercising their constitution al right to choose to have an abortion . '' Vice President Al Gore praised the b ill as a `` freedom of access '' measure . Clinton , in his remarks , said that `` with this legislation , we will have a law with teeth to deal with those who take part in unlawful activities , who put themselves above and beyond the law . '' He said there was `` a trend running in this country '' of people taking the law into their own hands to `` wreak violence .. . and verbal extremism . '' Di stributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service . WASHINGTON President Clinton 's decision Thursday to move human rights to the m argins of American dealings with China underlines the administration 's cold cal culation that emphasis on rights had gotten in the way of other priorities . In eliminating his threat to revoke China 's trade privileges over human rights abu ses , Clinton has dropped an assumption implicit in his original policy : that c ooperation with China on regional and world issues is best obtained with a China devoted to basic human rights . Instead of trying to force liberalization in Ch ina with some of the most powerful tools available to the United States , Clinto n 's hope now is that active engagement with China coupled with the theoreticall y liberalizing effects of free market measures eventually will produce a less au tocratic China . While pledging to continue to pressure China on human rights , Clinton couched his change of heart in economic and geopolitical terms , citing U.S. interest in profiting from Asia 's economic boom and thwarting North Korea 's nuclear weapons program . Good relations with China are pivotal for both . `` I believe .. . this is in the strategic , economic and political interests of t he United States , '' Clinton said of his policy shift . This is far from the fi rst time that idealistic leanings failed to survive in policy . The conflict bet ween strategic imperatives on the one hand and idealistic approaches on the othe r have undermined initial Clinton policies on Bosnia , Somalia and Haiti . In th e weeks leading up to the China decision , Clinton was bombarded with advice fro m influential members of Congress not to discard a key relationship with a major world power . In practice , human rights pressure appears to be most applicable when the cost to American interests , particularly economic , is little . Say N icaragua or Argentina , for instance , but not China , or for that matter , oil- rich Saudi Arabia . The decision to renew China 's most favored nation ( MFN ) s tatus was pressed on Clinton by groups whose efforts complemented one another . American businessmen , eager to cash in on China 's dynamic markets as well as m aintain access to China 's low cost labor , pressed for Clinton to lift the trad e threat . They were backed by economic advisors to the president who openly cal led on him to extend trade privileges unconditionally . At the Pentagon and with in the State Department , fears grew that China would be lost as a strategic par tner if China 's MFN status were revoked . The Defense Department worried about forefeiting contact with the world 's largest army . American diplomats were see king China 's help to press North Korea to end its nuclear weapons program . The y also want China to sign onto a global nuclear test ban treaty as well as stop selling chemical waeapons technology and missile equipment to conflictive Third World countries . Since March , no top administration official supported revocat ion of MFN . Recently , Winston Lord , assistant secretary of state for East Asi a and Pacific affairs , hinted that the adminstration needed to reassess its pri orities in Asia . In a memo to Secretary of State Christopher , he warned of a ` ` malaise '' in relations with East Asia , stemming in part from the dispute ove r human rights with Beijing . `` Asians and others .. . criticize us for tactics that destabilize relationships which are central to the region 's peace and sta bility , '' he wrote . Clinton 's decision to back away from the trade threat in effect exposed a major shortcoming of his China policy . His ultimate goal was to encourage China 's integration into the world economy and international diplo macy , and through human rights , its adherence to shared values . The threat to withdraw China 's MFN status , the basis of trade with the United States , pitt ed two vehicles for China 's integration against each other . If China failed on human rights , trade privileges would be withdrawn . If trade was disrupted , c ooperation on other issues probably would have disintegrated and the adverse con sequences for China 's economy might have resulted in intensified repression . C linton had put the fate of his entire China policy at the mercy of Chinese decis ions on one aspect of it , human rights . `` In effect , '' China expert A . Doa k Barnett said in a lecture last month , Clinton 's threat `` made the entire U. S. relationship hostage to Beijing 's willingness to fulfill specific U.S. deman ds related to human rights . '' Last May , when the threat was made , the risk w as seen as slight . The conditions were designed to be easy to meet . But by lat e summer , some State Department officials already were worrying about the effec tiveness of the U.S. approach , and in the autumn the administration began a ser ies of meetings with Chinese leaders , including military-to-military contact , which culminated in a summit in November between Clinton and Chinese President J iang Zemin in Seattle . But China 's further gestures were slow in coming , and when they arrived , they were eclipsed by high-profile political crackdowns , pa rticularly on the eve of Christopher 's visit to China in March to plead for mor e progress on human rights . Intelligence analysts cautioned that China did not take Clinton 's threat seriously and could be expected to make no more than mino r gestures . A Canadian climber who collapsed near the summit of Mount Everest was carried o ff the mountain in a dramatic rescue effort Thursday . John McIsaac , 39 , of Ca nmore , Alberta , was reported resting at the expedition base camp , suffering f rom pneumonia and pulmonary edema , a potentially fatal altitude sickness in whi ch the lungs fill with fluid . He was being monitored by three doctors , who wer e to decide Friday morning whether to evacuate him to Nepal 's capital , Katmand u . McIsaac , seeking to become the first Canadian to ascend Everest without bot tled oxygen , climbed to within 1,150 feet of the summit Wednesday when he was f orced back by exhaustion . Within hours , he began showing signs of pulmonary ed ema . Unable to walk , McIsaac was carried down the world 's highest mountain Th ursday in a heavy vinyl Gamov bag , which acts as a portable compression chamber , according to Maggie Calloway , an expedition spokeswoman in Vancouver who spo ke to the climbing party by cellular phone . McIsaac was reportedly suffering fr om exhaustion and frostbitten fingers when he gave up his 16-hour final assault on the summit . Earlier , another climber on the Canadian expedition , Denis Bro wn , also abandoned his summit attempt . The Canadians were using the northern , or Tibetan , route up the mountain , which straddles the border of Tibet and Ne pal . The 29,028-foot Everest first was climbed by Tenzing Norkay and Sir Edmund Hillary in 1953 . More than 30 climbers have reached the top without bottled ox ygen since 1978 , when it was first accomplished . The death toll of Everest cli mbers is believed to exceed 120 . WASHINGTON The House Appropriations Committee Thursday endorsed a plan that wou ld give federal workers a 2 percent pay raise and half of their scheduled `` loc ality pay '' next year . The pay plan , presented by Rep. Steny Hoyer , D-Md. , would provide $ 1.8 billion for federal salaries next year , less than the $ 3.5 billion needed to fully fund federal pay but $ 700 million more than recommende d in President Clinton 's fiscal 1995 budget . `` We don't have the money to mak e a better deal , '' Hoyer said in an interview , referring to reduced spending levels caused by deficit-reduction mandates. ` ` .. . My position has generally been with the federal employees , I want to see you treated fairly , which is to say I don't want to see others in the private and public sector going off ( and winning raises ) while you 're squeezed . I don't think that 's fair . On the o ther hand , if everybody is taking a notch in on their belt , we will join in . That 's fair . '' Hoyer told the committee his compromise would create `` a net average of 2.6 percent '' across government , the same percentage that House pan els have scheduled for members of the armed forces next year . Federal agencies would absorb the cost of the pay increase in their fiscal 1995 appropriations . That , Rep. Joseph M. McDade , R-Pa. , said , would likely require some agencies to lay off workers in order to stay within their budgets . McDade said that req uiring agencies to find $ 700 million , given the tightness of their budgets , ` ` scares the life out of me . '' He told the commmittee that Office of Managemen t and Budget Director Leon E. Panetta recently advised congressional leaders tha t some agencies might be forced into layoffs if required to absorb the cost of f uture pay raises . McDade offered an amendment to use unspent fiscal 1994 funds to finance next year 's pay raise , but his proposal was rejected on a 28-to-20 vote . Hoyer said he did not believe the compromise pay plan would cause layoffs in government ranks , but conceded it is `` difficult to tell , '' in part beca use Congress and the administration have mandated a workforce reduction of 272,9 00 employees over six years . The downsizing might even force agencies into layo ffs , he suggested . Hoyer 's plan ensures that all civil-service workers white collar , blue collar and employees on special pay schedules will receive at leas t a 2 percent pay raise next year . His proposal also keeps locality pay , which was opposed by the administration last year , viable for another year . A large , strange beast dug from deep in the past is showing that evolution ran faster and produced more variety 600 million years ago than anyone anticipated , scientists reported Thursday . Dating back to the early years of the Cambrian period up to 400 million years before the dinosaurs the beast was a 6-foot-long ocean-dwelling predator with formidable front pincers . It is roughly reminiscen t of a giant lobster . According to the team of Chinese and Swedish researchers studying the newest fossil evidence , found in 1990-92 in China , the beast appa rently hid in mud on the sea floor while it awaited its prey . The new evidence is important because it `` implies that considerable evolution took place during a time interval even shorter than previously suspected , '' said Jun-yuan Chen , Lars Ramskold and Gui-qing Zhou in the journal Science . Until now , it was th ought such big , predatory creatures did not exist until millions of years later . The Cambrian period is remarkable for the rapidity with which multicelled spe cies appeared , following billions of years of much slower evolution in single-c ell creatures , such as algae . During the so-called `` Cambrian explosion , '' the ancestors of all species known today , and some that have since gone extinct , suddenly appeared . The animal the Chinese/Swedish team studied , `` Anomaloc aris , '' is especially interesting because of its size , and because some parts found during the past 100 years were completely misidentified . Late in the las t century , for example , leg-like appendages found in Canada 's famed Burgess s hale deposit were thought to be the bodies of shrimp-like creatures . Worse , a jaw now known to be from Anomalocaris was listed as being from a jellyfish . `` The unfolding story of anomalocaridids is almost as unlikely as the animal itsel f , '' said geologist Derek E.G. Briggs , of Bristol University , in England , w ho was not a member of the research team . Such errors led to misinterpretations and deeper confusion . `` Although the appendages testified to a giant predator , '' Briggs said in Science , `` the nature of the animal remained a mystery un til specimens preserving the body , with the limbs at the front of the head , we re discovered in Burgess shale material '' about 10 years ago . Finally , a majo r fossil discovery in southern China , at Chengjian in 1984 , was explored more thoroughly from 1990 to 1992 . The dig produced remarkable animal remains from t he Cambrian period , especially because fine sediment had preserved the animals ' soft , non-boney parts . Generally , soft tissues disappear , leaving only bon es , or sometimes parts of an external skeleton . Briggs explained that `` just 15 years ago the Cambrian animal Anomalocaris was little known , '' except from a few scattered , partial remains found in North America . But because of the sp ectacular finds in China `` this creature turns out to be representative of a di verse group of giant Cambrian predators that ranged as far as Europe , Australia and China . '' Paleontologist Andrew Knoll , at Harvard University , said Anoma locaris has been known for a decade to be among the very few large predators in the Cambrian period . `` Now it can be seen to have originated earlier in the Ca mbrian than would have been thought on the basis of the Burgess shale '' finding s , he said . The newest data , Knoll added , `` suggests that most of the struc tural innovations among animals occurred in a very short time , and this is one more piece of evidence . '' ( Optional add end ) Chen , Ramskold and Zhou explai ned that `` Chengjiang yielded fossils of giant predators of three different kin ds , including complete specimens of Anomalocaris . '' Details of the animal 's anatomy suggest it could swim rapidly to capture prey . It is believed to have l asted at least several million years . The animals ' shape also suggests `` they may have spent much time partly buried or camouflaged in the bottom sediment , with stalked eyes protruding over the bottom and scanning the surroundings for s wimming prey , '' the team said . In some examples , the animal 's intestinal tr act can be seen , although it was not possible to identify the content of the gu t . But the scientists suspect Anomalocaris may have preyed on primitive sea cre atures such as large trilobites . Attacks by such large predators were `` inferr ed from healed injuries on trilobites . '' Fossilized dung pellets perhaps from Anomalocaris contain the remains of trilobites and other primitive animals , and were also found in the Chengjiang deposit . WASHINGTON White House administrative chief David Watkins , a longtime aide to President Clinton who hails from his hometown of Hope , Ark. , resigned Thursday after officials learned he had taken a military helicopter earlier in the week to rural Maryland to play golf . Clinton , saying he was `` very upset '' when h e learned about Watkins ' trip earlier in the day , disclosed his aide 's resign ation during a news conference called to announce a decision on most-favored-nat ion trading status for China . The cost of the round-trip was estimated at $ 5,0 00 . Clinton promised that the treasury will be fully reimbursed , though it was unclear whether the money would come from Watkins or other private sources . `` The taxpayers will be made whole , '' Clinton said . Watkins , former head of a n advertising agency in Little Rock , Ark. , handled all the advertising for Cli nton 's initial gubernatorial campaigns and was involved in his presidential cam paign as well . He also has been a co-investor with the Clintons , particularly in a highly lucrative cellular telephone franchise . He now becomes the latest i n a series of Arkansas friends of the Clintons whose actions have subjected the president to political embarrassment . Watkins might have gone unscathed but for editors of the Frederick ( Md. ) News-Post , who heard Tuesday that a White Hou se helicopter was in their back yard , at the Holly Hills Country Club , and sen t a photographer in hopes of catching a glimpse of Clinton . Instead , the paper got , and published in its Wednesday editions , a photograph of Watkins and two other White House aides dressed in golfing clothes and bearing their clubs walk ing back onto the helicopter as Marines in full dress uniform stand by , salutin g . At the time , the paper reported that officials of the country club had decl ined to identify the visitors , but when the photograph was published , Republic an staff members quickly recognized Watkins . The other two officials were Alpho nso Maldon Jr. , head of the White House military office , and Navy Cmdr. Richar d Cellon , the commanding officer at Camp David , Md. , the presidential retreat that is located not far from the country club . By Thursday , Maryland Rep. Ros coe Bartlett , a Republican whose district includes the golf course , picked up the issue and congressional Republicans were in full cry , demanding hearings , an official investigation and a full accounting of all staff use of military air craft . `` The photo of two Marine guards saluting a golf bag as it was carried up the helicopter stairs is truly a picture that 's worth a thousand words , '' Bartlett said . The golf course is about an 80-minute drive northwest of Washing ton . The helicopter departed and returned from the Pentagon , which is about a 10-minute drive south from Watkin 's residence in the Georgetown neighborhood of the capital . At the White House , officials reacted with anger and incredulity to Watkins ' actions , which were painfully reminiscent of the misuse of offici al airplanes that led to the resignation of former Bush administration chief of staff John H. Sununu . Clinton , mindful of the Sununu episode , had issued a di rective to White House staff early in his presidency intended to limit the abili ty of senior government officials to use military transportation . As head of th e White House administrative apparatus , the task of enforcing that directive fe ll to Watkins . ( Optional add end ) The outing is the only time Watkins is know n to have used military transportation for such purposes , White House officials said . Of the two other aides involved , Maldon has been reprimanded and reassi gned for his role , said White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers . No action w ill be taken against Cellon because it has been determined that he was not invol ved in the decision to use the helicopter . Asked about the trip Wednesday , Whi te House deputy press secretary Arthur Jones told The Baltimore Sun the three of ficials had flown to the course to make preparations for Clinton to visit it thi s weekend . Former President Bush golfed frequently at the course when staying a t Camp David . But Thursday , Myers backed away from that account , saying Jones had answered the question in `` good faith '' based on a written statement from a Watkins deputy , but that `` I think we 've gone beyond that now . '' ORANGE , Calif. . Some people grumble at their local legislator in a letter . O thers pick up the phone to gripe . But a disgruntled constituent of California A ssemblyman Mickey Conroy has skipped the usual routes and spray painted an opini on on the doors of the lawmaker 's district office . The message was the work of a tagger with a sense of the sardonic . The object of scorn was a bill Conroy i ntroduced this week calling for paddlings of juveniles caught scrawling graffiti . That proposal has earned the Republican assemblyman nationwide media attentio n and prompted public reaction ranging from hearty applause to outright ridicule . His most pointed critic was right back home in Orange County . Conroy 's staf f arrived Thursday morning at the district office in Orange to discover the word s `` Spank Me '' scrawled on both office doors by the taunting tagger . Police w ere called in and promised a full investigation , but no suspects have been appr ehended . Conroy was less than amused , but did not miss the opportunity to give his bill a boost . `` It 's disgusting , '' he said in a news release distribut ed within hours of the discovery . `` However , if the punks who did this think that this is going to stop me from passing my paddle law , they 've got another thing coming. .. . If these criminals want a fight , I 'll give 'em one . '' Con roy would not hazard a guess who might have been behind it . Local youths ? Disg runtled Orange County Democrats ? `` I don't have any idea , '' he said Thursday . `` I 'm surprised it took them this long . We 've been expecting it . '' Conr oy was happy that `` at least they 're aware of what I 'm trying to do , '' but lamented that it demonstrates once again `` just what the attitude of people is today . That 's why we need a little public humiliation like that proposed in my bill . '' The legislation , which faces stiff opposition in the Democrat-domina ted California Legislature , calls for juveniles convicted of defacing or destro ying property with graffiti to be punished by being struck as many as 10 times w ith a wooden paddle wielded in court by a parent or a bailiff . ( Optional add e nd ) Conroy 's employees weren't happy about the vandalism . The graffiti covere d the middle section of the blue-and-terra-cotta-colored doors to the office , w hich is tucked in the back of a shopping mall . The unevenly spray-painted `` Sp ank Me '' message also covered part of the stucco . `` The owner of the complex is not happy , '' said Ann Conroy , the assemblyman 's wife . But she was not su rprised by the graffiti message . Indeed , she said , `` I would think it would be a natural reaction ( to my husband 's proposal ) . It is targeted toward vand als and I would think they would try to retaliate . '' Graffiti , she said , is common in the area . The mall and a business complex behind it have been constan tly defaced by vandals , one of the reasons her husband 's bill has received an `` overwhelmingly positive response '' among his constituents , she said . SAN FRANCISCO In the dead of night early Thursday , San Francisco State Univers ity painters escorted by riot police obliterated a controversial mural of Malcol m X because it contained symbols considered by university officials to be anti-S emitic . Arguing it was not an infringement of free speech to remove emblems of bigotry on artwork the university itself had commissioned , President Robert A . Corrigan ordered the mural removed after student leaders failed to take action themselves . The mural , painted on a university building and unveiled last week , included Stars of David inset with dollar signs outraging Jewish students and highlighting ethnic divisions on the multicultural campus . `` This university absolutely will not tolerate expressions of hate , '' Corrigan said . `` Intoler ance and prejudice are abhorrent to our deepest values as individuals and as a c ommunity . '' Some black students fought to keep the mural , twice rescuing it f rom campus paint crews before it was finally sanded off the wall of the student union . Defending the depiction of the assassinated leader , members of the Pan African Student Union said the symbols were not anti-Jewish but a reflection of Malcolm 's anti-Zionist views . `` Our intentions were not to hurt anyone , '' s aid Troy Nkrumah , a student who is coordinator of the Pan African Student Union . `` All art is open to interpretation . '' But Jewish students and community m embers disagreed . `` This is a state-funded university , and state funds should not be used to portray hateful images , '' said Eloise Magenheim , a recent gra duate who stood with a protest sign near the site of the mural . Removal of the mural raised the thorny question of whether racist or bigoted statements are pro tected under the First Amendment right of free speech . But legal experts and sc holars echoed the view of university officials that , in this case , the constit utional right to free expression did not apply because the mural was commissione d and paid for by the university . ( Optional add end ) `` This is not a situati on where university officials went into an artist 's studio and painted over his work , '' said Albert Elsen , a professor of art law and art history at Stanfor d University . Instead , Thomas Grey , a Stanford professor of constitutional la w , likened it to `` hiring someone to write a brochure about the university and then editing what was said . `` You might not like the fact that they edited yo ur message , but they have the legal right to decide what picture of the univers ity they want to project . There 's no First Amendment issue there . '' Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union seconded that legal interpretation , but Northern California director Dorothy Ehrlich said she was disturbed by the unive rsity 's conduct . `` This controversy has exposed a great deal of tension and i ntolerance on campus , and it seems to me that simply painting over the offendin g remarks in the dead of night is not good enough , '' Ehrlich said . `` It seem s the lesson given here ( by the university ) is that the way to avoid controver sy is to not allow any provocative expression . '' SAN FRANCISCO The California Supreme Court , ruling for the first time in an ab ortion protest case , held Thursday that demonstrators can be barred from a publ ic sidewalk in front of an abortion clinic to protect patient safety . The 6-1 d ecision helps assure California 's abortion clinics of legal protection if picke ts threaten patients ' emotional health , a protection that could be extended to targets of other kinds of political demonstrations as well . `` Emotionally jar ring confrontations with anti-abortion pickets or sidewalk ` counselors ' may po se serious health risks , '' Justice Armand Arabian wrote for the majority . It was the second setback for abortion protesters Thursday . President Clinton sign ed legislation making it a federal crime to block the entrance to an abortion cl inic or attack those entering it . Two anti-abortion groups immediately filed a lawsuit to nullify the law . The California ruling marked the first time the sta te 's Supreme Court has decided an abortion case since conservatives gained a ma jority in 1987 . The U.S. Supreme Court has a similar case pending . Justice Joy ce L. Kennard , the state court 's only woman and one of its more liberal member s , dissented , contending that the buffer zone approved by the court was broade r than that endorsed by appellate courts . In grappling with the case , the stat e court called the collision between competing constitutional interests `` the m ost difficult and divisive subject of our day '' and acknowledged that its rulin g would be controversial . But the court majority also called its decision `` ma nifestly reasonable and conducive to the fostering of greater harmony in the com munity . '' The ruling came in the approval of an injunction that forced antiabo rtion pickets to remain across a busy , four-lane avenue from a Planned Parentho od clinic in Vallejo , a Solano County city east of San Francisco . The pickets had tried to dissuade women entering the clinic from having abortions . They gav e them anti-abortion literature , shoving it into car windows as patients drove in , and on at least two occasions tossed them plastic replicas of fetuses . `` The state 's responsibility for the health and safety of women seeking medical s ervices , including abortions , extends beyond the operating room , '' Arabian w rote . `` Physical or emotional intimidation of patients outside the doctor 's o ffice may significantly affect their course of treatment once they are inside . '' Although the case involved abortion , the decision has ramifications for othe r demonstrations that limit the `` rights of private citizens to conduct their l awful business without pain or hindrance , '' wrote Justice Marvin Baxter , in a separate concurring opinion joined by Justice Ronald George . Baxter said the k inds of confrontational actions taken by the abortion picketers `` crossed the l ine from protected expression to unprotected interference with the lawful activi ties of other citizens . '' ( Optional add end ) John R. Streett , an attorney f or Solano Citizens for Life , which appealed the case to the high court , noted that the ruling could also limit the ability of unions to picket . In the aborti on context , he said , the decision will `` make it very easy '' for clinics to get injunctions to stop any protests on their sidewalks . `` Basically all they have to allege is , ` Our patients are upset by this , they don't like it , they are crying , we feel they are traumatized , ' ' ' Streett said . `` That is not going to be much of a standard at all . '' But attorneys for Planned Parenthood said courts still will have freedom to shape injunctions according to the facts of the case , including the configuration of the clinic and its proximity to pr otesters . The court ruling simply `` means that patients at medical clinics hav e the right to be free of abuse , harassment and assault , '' said Planned Paren thood attorney Stephen Kostka . Christine Williams , former director of Solano C itizens for Life , complained that the court 's decision will make it `` extreme ly difficult '' for anti-abortion groups to give abortion patients `` one last c hance to change their minds . '' Pickets have been congregating weekly across th e street from the Planned Parenthood clinic since a Solano County Superior Court issued the permanent injunction in August 1991 , she said . But the protesters cannot be heard by patients through the din of traffic , she said , and their nu mbers have dropped because `` people are very discouraged by the lack of effecti veness . '' Abortion-rights advocates have been buoyed by recent victories . In January , the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that abortion clinics can sue protesters for damage under a federal racketeering law . `` This seems to be pa rt of a big wall that is coming down , '' said Anna Runkle , spokeswoman for Pla nned Parenthood , Shasta-Diablo , which runs the Vallejo clinic . `` It seems to be a landslide . The public and the law are finally saying enough is enough . ' ' In her dissent , Kennard said the injunction banishing the protesters to the o pposite side of the street violated their First Amendment rights to express thei r views . Although other appellate courts cited by the majority approved of buff er zones , Kennard said , they also allowed a limited number of protesters withi n them or drew them narrowly enough to permit protesters to communicate with pat ients . WASHINGTON The Energy Department has no permanent solution for disposing of 50 tons of radioactive plutonium waste from the Cold War weapons program , and may have to continue using temporary storage facilities for as long as 20 years , En ergy officials told Congress Thursday . As an interim solution , the department is considering the possibility of storing some of the waste in abandoned militar y bases around the country , officials said in a report released earlier this we ek . The disposal issue is one of the thorniest facing the department . Plutoniu m poses `` significant dangers to national and international security '' because of the possibility that it could fall into the wrong hands and be fashioned int o a nuclear bomb , Energy Under Secretary Charles Curtis said in testimony befor e the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee . Only about 10 pounds of pl utonium is needed to build a bomb . Of the estimated 100 tons of weapons grade p lutonium in the United States , only half will be retained by the federal govern ment for use in nuclear weapons . No plans have yet been devised for disposing o f the remainder . Sen. J. Bennett Johnston , D-La. , committee chairman , said t hat while the problem is a serious one for both the United States and Russia whi ch possess the bulk of the world 's plutonium the pace of the search for a solut ion has been `` torpid at best . '' In addition to solving the plutonium disposa l problem , the Energy Department also must decide what to do about the millions of pounds of radioactive waste from other sources that is being stored in 29 te mporary sites around the nation . Many of the containers are rusting and threate ning to release radioactivity . Inspection teams are now attempting to assess th e extent of the danger , an Energy spokesman said Thursday . By contrast , most of the surplus plutonium is held at relatively few sites , the largest of which is the department 's Pantex plant near Amarillo , Texas , which has the job of d ismantling nuclear weapons . About 6,000 plutonium pits are contained in so-call ed igloos on Pantex land . The proposal to store the waste at military installat ions appears to be the result of protests from Texas authorities over the storag e of the plutonium waste at Pantex . ( Optional add end ) Energy Secretary Hazel O' Leary has promised Texas officials to limit the storage there , raising the problem of where to put the material . Efforts to find a permanent storage site have run into a number of technical and environmental roadblocks . A federally a ppointed panel led by Stanford University Professor Wolfgang Panofsky suggested that the plutonium could be used in commercial reactors to make electricity or b e converted into glass logs in a process called vitrification . But Johnston rai sed concerns that the only U.S. reactors capable of burning the plutonium are sc heduled to be closed . It would take another decade to build a new reactor for t he job , Panofsky said . WASHINGTON The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee announced Thursday a s urprising alliance with a powerful insurance company trade group to endorse legi slation curtailing insurers ' 49-year special exemption from federal antitrust l aws . After two years of negotiations , the American Insurance Association , has decided to back reform , `` the first breach in the wall of strident opposition '' from the industry , said Rep. Jack Brooks , D-Texas . The group 's membershi p includes some of the giant companies of the industry , such as Aetna , Travele rs , Cigna , Hartford and Kemper , active in selling property and casualty cover age . Under Brooks ' bill , insurers will be allowed to continue sharing informa tion on actual historical losses . But , three years after passage , they would no longer be allowed to engage in `` trending , '' or sharing projections of fut ure losses from such things as theft , fire , floods and earthquakes . This shar ed information now has an important impact on setting rates . If Congress approv es the bill , the result would be `` downward pressure on prices and more consum er choice , '' predicted Mark Silbergeld , Washington director for Consumers Uni on , which helped Brooks and the AIA reach their agreement . Brooks has twice mo ved a similar bill through his Judiciary Committee in prior congresses , but was unable to get a vote in the full House because of united insurance industry opp osition . The task is still difficult , but he has for the first time enlisted a n important segment of the insurance business to be his ally instead of his enem y . The AIA hopes that passage of the Brooks bill would defuse some of the consu mer anger against the insurance industry and make it possible to pass other legi slation eagerly sought by insurers . Removing the special antitrust treatment `` will restore some consumer confidence that the rates out there are fair , '' sa id David Pratt , the AIA 's senior vice president for federal affairs . `` It is very important for us to be a more normal industry from the antitrust standpoin t and this can create a more positive climate as we deal with other issues , '' he said . These other concerns , which the insurance industry is pushing for sep arately , include proposals to : Provide a settlement system for the barrage of lawsuits under the federal Superfund , where a company hit with a cleanup sues t he insurance carrier ; Limit lawsuits for product liability ; Create a federal r einsurance fund to ease the risks of providing coverage for natural disasters su ch as earthquakes , floods , fires and hurricanes . But the rest of the industry doesn't share the AIA 's belief that giving away the antitrust privilege will l ead to victory on other issues . `` Some regional companies could go out of busi ness , and it could do a lot of damage to consumers , '' said Julie Rochman , vi ce president of the Alliance of American Insurers , whose membership includes ma ny medium and smaller firms that depend on the pooled information . ( Optional a dd end ) The Brooks bill is `` an effort by a very small segment of the industry to appease opponents of the industry in Congress and some vocal critics on the outside , '' said Jack Ramirez , executive vice president and chief operating of ficer of the National Assn. of Independent Insurers . `` No amount of tinkering with a bad bill is going to make it any better , '' he said . The major life ins urance trade group also opposes any change in the status quo , which has existed since 1945 , when the insurance industry persuaded Congress to pass the McCarra n-Ferguson Act , which removed the federal government from insurance regulation . Each of the 50 states oversees insurers operating within its borders . `` Ther e is no need to fix a system that isn't broken , '' said Gene Grabowski , a spok esman for the American Council of Life Insurance . `` The state governments have done a fine job . But the Brooks bill would allow the federal government , thro ugh the attorney general and the Federal Trade Commission , to get involved . '' WASHINGTON President Clinton signed legislation Thursday barring abortion clini c blockades and harassment a move that extended a recent string of victories for abortion-rights groups but brought a pair of immediate legal challenges from th eir foes . As Clinton hailed the law as a blow against `` extremism and vigilant ism , '' two anti-abortion groups filed lawsuits that could lead to court clarif ication of the murky and hotly disputed boundary between free-speech and abortio n-rights laws . The groups , the American Center for Law and Justice and the Ame rican Life League , sought injunctions to block the new statute , which they sai d will curtail their right to protest more than that of any other group . Even a s they went to court , however , abortion foes acknowledged that the law , which becomes effective immediately , had dealt them a severe setback . While they vo wed to continue protests , officials of some anti-abortion groups said they fear ed that the stiff sanctions which include fines of up to $ 250,000 and prison te rms of six months to life could curtail their ability to find volunteers to help close down clinics . Some openly lamented the reversals suffered by a movement that dominated the abortion debate for much of the past decade . `` Mr. Clinton eroded in one year pro-life gains that took us 20 years of back-breaking work , '' said the Rev. Pat Mahoney , a national leader of Operation Rescue . `` Clearl y , this has been a horrible year for the pro-life movement . '' In addition to the clinic-access law , the anti-abortion rights groups have recently been disap pointed by an agreement that will allow U.S. tests of the abortion-pill RU 486 a nd by million-dollar judgments against protesters who damaged abortion clinics . The Supreme Court also ruled this year that federal prosecutors may use the tou gh anti-racketeering statute in some circumstances against protesters who sought to close down clinics . And last year the Clinton administration lifted a order prohibiting abortion counseling in federally-funded clinics . Surrounded by abo rtion-rights advocates at a White House ceremony , Clinton said , `` We cannot w e must not continue to allow the attacks , the incidents of arson , the campaign s of intimidation upon law-abiding citizens that has given rise to this law . '' But he insisted that the bill `` is not a strike against the First Amendment . Far from it . It insures that all citizens have the opportunity to exercise all their constitutional rights , including their privacy rights . '' Some advocates say more than 1,000 violent incidents have occurred at clinics since 1977 , inc luding 81 cases of arson , 36 bombings , 84 assaults , two kidnappings , and the fatal shooting of Florida abortionist Dr. David Gunn . That killing helped galv anize sentiment against abortion-clinic violence , changing the political balanc e in Congress sufficiently to deliver victory for a proposal that two years ago died in committee . The bill passed by 241-174 vote margin in the House , and by a 69 to 30 margin in the Senate . ( Optional add end ) `` We decry violence all the time this was a move to stop it , '' said Sen. Barbara Boxer , D-Calif. , w ho helped Sen. Edward M. Kennedy , D-Mass. , lead the effort for the bill in the Senate . The bill imposes its penalties on anyone who uses force , threats or ` ` physical obstruction '' to any person using an abortion clinic or reproductive -health service . The bill 's also states , however , that no provision of it ma y interfere with free speech rights . Abortion foes argue that since that it imp oses much harsher penalties than the one-night jail terms and $ 100 fines that a re typical for protest sit-ins and blockades , the law is effectively depriving them of a tactic that other protesters have long used . President Clinton , unabashedly changing course , renewed China 's favorable tr ade status Thursday and abandoned its use as a weapon for pressuring Beijing on human rights improvement . In a mild sanction , Clinton said the United States w ould ban the import of munitions , mainly ammunition and cheap , automatic rifle s that have poured into the country , becoming a mass-market assault weapon . Th e president 's decisions directly contradicted a position staked out last year , when he demanded `` overall , significant progress '' in China 's human rights record as a condition for renewing its most-favored-nation trade status . He ack nowledged Thursday that , despite some strides , serious human rights abuses con tinue in China . While the renewal of MFN was expected , Clinton 's decision to `` de-link '' trade privleges and human rights was debated as late as Wednesday night among administration officials . `` We have reached the end of the usefuln ess of that policy , '' Clinton said at a White House briefing . The president i nsisted that the United States could do more to encourage human rights progress by expanding trade and improving overall U.S.-Chinese relations . The policy shi ft , in keeping with Clinton 's focus on economics in foreign affairs , was chee red by business leaders , Republicans and moderate Democrats as practical and pr udent . But it brought a furious reaction from human rights activists and member s of Congress who have long advocated the use of trade sanctions to bring pressu re on China not to repress its citizens . Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitch ell , D-Maine and Rep. Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif. , said they would introduce legis lation to impose trade sanctions . `` It will confirm for the Chinese Communist regime the success of its policy of repression on human rights and manipulation on trade , '' Mitchell said of Clinton 's action . Mitchell promised to introduc e legislation following the Memorial Day congressional recess . In a stinging re buke , AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland said Clinton 's decision `` sends a clear message to the world : No matter what America says about democracy and human ri ghts , in the final analysis profits , not people , matter most . '' But some in fluential Democrats , including Sen . Bill Bradley of New Jersey and Rep. Lee Ha milton of Indiana , who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee , had urged t he president to drop the linkage between trade and human rights . Clinton was un der heavy pressure by U.S. companies to renew MFN status with China , which allo ws Chinese goods into the United States under low tariffs . Business executives feared that revocation would trigger a trade war , cutting U.S. companies and in vestors out of the world 's fastest-growing market . U.S. businesses export $ 8 billion in goods to China , underwriting more than 150,000 jobs in the United St ates . The potential damage to U.S. interests from a trade war was highlighted T hursday with reports that China had agreed to a $ 5 billion Boeing Aircraft deal . ( Optional add end ) More surprising was the president 's frank conclusion th at his year-old policy had not worked and that it was time to switch . In doing so , he adopted some of the reasoning put forward by former President Bush , who se policy toward China Clinton had sharply criticized during their 1992 campaign . Clinton said more could be gained by engaging the Chinese than by isolating t hem . He also argued that culturally , it is difficult for China , the world 's most populous nation , with 1.2 billion people , to appear to be buckling to pre ssure from the United States . `` We need to place our relationship into a large r and more productive framework , '' he said in a statement . `` I think we have to see our relations with China within the broader context of our policies with in the Pacific-Asian region . '' In May 1993 , working with Mitchell and others in Congress , Clinton issued an executive order that gave China a year to make s pecific strides in its human rights record or face the end of its MFN status thi s June . The order set two conditions that Clinton said had been met : removing emigration restrictions and complying with a U.S.-China agreement on exports of goods made with prison labor . But the order also required the secretary of stat e to determine , in making a recommendation , whether China had made `` overall , significant progress '' in five other areas . These included adherence to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ; releasing and accounting for political p risoners ; ensuring humane treatment of prisoners ; protecting Tibet 's religiou s and cultural heritage , and permitting international radio and TV broadcasts i nto China . Secretary of State Warren M. Christopher `` has reached a conclusion with which I agree , that the Chinese did not achieve overall significant progr ess in all the areas outlined in the executive order relating to human rights , even though clearly there was progress made in important areas , '' Clinton said . WASHINGTON The White House released additional records Thursday related to firs t lady Hillary Rodham Clinton 's commodities trading activities , in further eff orts to show she did nothing illegal or unethical in making her investments . Th e White House also issued a brief analysis by a commodities expert who was asked by the Clintons to review her trading , in which he found that she `` violated no rules in the course of her transactions . '' Leo Melamed , former chairman of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange , one of the nation 's largest commodities exch anges , noted in a statement that the new records released by Mrs. Clinton confi rms his assessment that she broke no rules . The new data from the Chicago excha nge `` largely confirms and also complements '' records from Mrs. Clinton 's bro kerage account released last month by the White House , he said . `` These recor ds are being released today in order to give as complete a picture as possible o f Mrs. Clinton 's trading , '' said Lisa Caputo , Mrs. Clinton 's press secretar y . Caputo said the records were not released earlier because Mrs. Clinton had n ot known of their existence at the Chicago exchange . Caputo said the new record s corroborate those released by Mrs. Clinton last month from her brokerage accou nt at the REFCO commodities brokerage firm , where she invested beginning in 197 8 . In particular , the new records confirm , Melamed 's review stated , that th e first lady did not violate the rules in her first , and perhaps most controver sial commodities trade , in which she turned a $ 1,000 investment into $ 6,300 o vernight . Melamed said the records provide more detailed information about Mrs. Clinton 's first day of trading than was available from the earlier records . T hey show , he said , that Mrs. Clinton had risked her money in the transaction , demonstrating that it was a legitimate investment and not some form of favorabl e insider transaction arranged by her broker . In that one trade , Mrs. Clinton sold 10 December live cattle contracts Oct. 11 , 1978 , at the price of $ 57.55 a pound , and offset this trade with a purchase of 10 December live cattle contr acts Oct. 12 , 1978 at the price of $ 56.10 a pound for a profit of $ 5,300 , af ter commissions . ( Optional add end ) He noted while Mrs. Clinton did not have enough margin , or reserves in her account to cover her exposure in the trade , that `` does not represent a rule violation by the customer . Rather , it is an issue between the clearing firm and the exchange . '' His statement is consisten t with the White House 's previous assertions that if there was any such rule vi olations , they were the fault of her broker , and not Mrs. Clinton . Melamed sa id some records from the exchange concerning Mrs. Clinton 's trading activity we re either missing or incomplete , which may have been caused by REFCO 's practic e of conducting `` batch reporting '' of trades . `` To an extent the firm handl ing Mrs. Clinton 's account was penalized by the exchange for allegedly utilizin g some of these procedures improperly , '' he said . Critics have said such batc h trading was prevalent at the REFCO brokerage office in Springdale , Ark. , whe re Mrs. Clinton traded , and that her broker allocated winning trades from those larger blocks to favored customers . Melamed said such batch trading was `` mor e prevalent in the less-regulated environment of 15 years ago . '' WASHINGTON Abandoning a course set a year ago , President Clinton Thursday rene wed China 's preferential trading status even though he said Beijing had failed to curb human rights abuses . Clinton cited both strategic and economic reasons for not breaking commercial ties with the world 's most populous nation , but fo und himself initiating a policy close to one he had denounced and called inadequ ate to end repression in China . `` I am moving to delink human rights from the annual extension of most-favored-nation trading status for China , '' he said , because `` we have reached the end of the usefulness of that policy , and it is time to take a new path . '' The long-awaited announcement cheered the internati onal business community , which had lobbied hard for renewal of China 's MFN sta tus , but disappointed key congressional allies who had favored tough trade sanc tions on China . Human rights groups also slammed Clinton 's announcement , sayi ng it left the United States with little leverage to improve conditions in China . There was no immediate comment from the Chinese government about Clinton 's a nnouncement , which was made early Friday Beijing time . But Thursday a Foreign Ministry spokesman , Wu Jianmin , said at his weekly press briefing that `` The Chinese side does not accept attaching any conditions '' to the MFN trade benefi ts . `` Extending MFN is in the interests of China and the United States . '' Cl inton insisted he was not giving up on improving human rights in China , and in fact did ban importation of about $ 200 million in annual shipments of Chinese w eapons and ammunition to indicate his displeasure with China 's human rights rec ord . He also continued some sanctions put in place after the Chinese government crushed the pro-democracy demonstrations five years ago . Yet just a year ago , Clinton issued an executive order insisting that renewal of MFN status would co me only with significant progress in human rights by the Chinese leadership . Cl inton said Thursday that China had met two mandatory conditions of the order rel ating to immigration and importation of products made by prision labor but had f ailed make progress on other provisions . During the presidential campaign in 19 92 , Clinton repeatedly accused then-President Bush of `` coddling '' the Chines e government by allowing MFN status without demanding improvements in human righ ts . In essence , experts said , Clinton Thursday virtually adopted the former B ush policy , just as he has with such global hotspots in Bosnia and Haiti . Clin ton , however , argued that conditions had changed , and thus `` we are far more likely to have human rights advance when it is not under the cloud of annual re view of MFN . '' Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell , D-Maine , who usually supports Clinton , said he disagreed with the decision . `` It will confirm for the Chinese Communist regime the success of its policy of repression on human ri ghts and manipulation on trade , '' he said . Mitchell said he will introduce le gislation seeking additional sanctions , but most political experts expect Clint on to prevail in any fight with Congress . Indeed , Clinton frequently noted tha t many other members of Congress have changed their minds on the issue as well . Most-favored-nation status means that Chinese goods will continue to be shipped to the United States with low tariffs . All but eight countries have MFN tradin g status , and its loss would have raised tariffs on Chinese products such as sh oes and toys as much as tenfold . Trade with China now runs about $ 40 billion a year , but all but $ 9 billion of that are imports from China , the U.S. Commer ce Department says . In fact , 40 percent of all the toys sold in America are ma de in China . But some American companies , especially aerospace concerns , truc k manufacturers and telecommunications companies , have experienced significant growth in sales to China in recent years . Trade with China now supports about 1 50,000 U.S. jobs , Clinton said . Commerce Secretary Ron Brown said Thursday , ` ` China is going to be spending $ 600 billion on infrastructure projects between now and the year 2000 . We 'd like American companies to participate in that . '' ( Optional add end ) Indeed , the business community , salivating over the pr ospect of 1.2 billion Chinese buying U.S. products , had lobbied the Clinton adm inistration and Capitol Hill with increasing intensity to break the link between trade status and human rights . `` For many of our principal industries , the p reservation of most-favored-nation for China has been the No. 1 priority this ye ar , '' said Calman Cohen , vice president of the Emergency Committee of America n Trade , a coalition of American companies actively involved in the debate . `` The business lobbying has been unprecedented , '' said Richard Dicker , associa te counsel for Human Rights Watch/Asia , which opposed renewal of MFN status and heavily cricized Clinton 's decision . In a White House briefing after the pres ident 's appearance , national security adviser Anthony Lake disclosed that Clin ton had decided `` some weeks ago , '' even before he had the verdict on China ' s human rights record , to stop holding the issue of trade over Beijing 's head . The reason ? The president had decided that while the Chinese record on human rights remained poor , the administration had `` a very important strategic obje ctive , '' Lake said , `` building a long-term relationship '' with the largest and potentially the richest and most powerful nation in Asia which is where the president sees the U.S. economic future . WASHINGTON A senior White House administrator who took a presidential helicopte r to play golf at a county club during work hours resigned Thursday under pressu re from an angry President Clinton . In announcing the departure of David Watkin s , Clinton said at a late afternoon news conference that he was `` very upset ' ' about the Tuesday afternoon helicopter-and-golf incident . Clinton said Watkin s will fully reimburse the government for his personal use of the Marine aircraf t , which a Pentagon source said costs $ 2,380 an hour to operate . `` Mr. Watki ns offered his resignation , and I insisted that the taxpayers be reimbursed , ' ' a visibly perturbed Clinton said . `` Some way or another they will be , and w e 'll tell you how when we do it . '' Clinton said `` the most important thing t o me '' is that `` the Treasury will not be out one red cent for anything that h appened there . '' Watkins , 52 , a businessman and longtime Clinton friend from Arkansas , was assistant to the president for administration and management , r esponsible for White House security , military liaison and other functions . Ear lier Thursday , presidential press secretary Dee Dee Myers announced that Clinto n had ordered White House chief of staff Thomas `` Mack '' McLarty to investigat e the outing at Holly Hills Country Club at Ijamsville , Md. , 45 miles north of Washington , near Camp David . McLarty was probing whether Watkins violated a 1 993 Clinton executive order on use of government aircraft . Clinton promulgated the policy in light of former President Bush 's firing of White House chief of s taff John Sununu for repeatedly treating taxpayer-paid air travel as a personal perk . ( Begin optional trim ) `` This is something we take very seriously , '' Myers said . McLarty conferred with Watkins on the matter as Clinton was taking Republican flak over news reports of the helicopter ride . On the House floor an d in a letter to Clinton Thursday , Rep. Roscoe Bartlett , R-Md. , who represent s the region surrounding Camp David , admonished the administration over the `` improper appearance of this trip . '' An aide to House Minority Whip Newt Gingri ch , R-Ga. , gave reporters copies of a Frederick , Md. , News-Post photograph p ublished Wednesday of three golfers boarding the Marine helicopter at the golf c ourse . ( End optional trim ) White House officials said Watkins flew to the cou ntry club with Alphonso Maldon Jr. , head of the White House military office , a nd Navy Cmdr. Richard Cellon , Camp David 's commanding officer . Whether Watkin s ' companions will be disciplined was not immediately disclosed . Bush played r egularly at Holly Hills . A deputy White House press secretary said Wednesday th at the Watkins party was scouting the club for possible play there by Clinton du ring a future stay at Camp David , which has no golf course . But Myers withdrew that explanation Thursday and said Clinton has no known plans to golf at Holly Hills . McLarty co-authored an internal report last year officially reprimanding Watkins for his role in the controversial firing of seven White House travel of fice employees , five of whom later were reinstated in other government jobs . T he report also faulted McLarty for the handling of the dismissals . McLarty and Watkins have been Arkansas friends of long standing . ( Optional add end ) Watki ns , a Little Rock management consultant who lists his net worth on a federal di sclosure form at up to $ 1.7 million , had been a business partner of first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton . Hillary Clinton netted $ 46,000 on a $ 2,000 investmen t in a Watkins cellular-phone venture . Watkins wasn't always successful as an e ntrepreneur . Business Week magazine two weeks ago described Watkins as a dealma ker who `` has left a trail of disappointed investors '' in `` failed penny-stoc k companies from New York to Texas , hawking items from cruises to credit cards . '' Watkins later defended his business dealings as honorable . TOKYO , May 27 Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko will not visit Pearl Harbor but will pay respects to American war dead at two other sites during a 17-day to ur of the United States beginning June 10 , the Japanese government announced Fr iday . The trip will be only the second by an emperor to the United States and t he first in 19 years . Foreign Ministry diplomats initially had urged the empero r to visit Pearl Harbor , but fears of repercussions at home from a visit to the memorial to the battleship Arizona what many Americans regard as the symbol of Japan 's `` sneak attack '' on Dec. 7 , 1941 finally killed the proposal . The c ouple will instead visit the Punch Bowl cemetery in Honolulu and Arlington Natio nal Cemetery in Washington . `` If the emperor visited the Arizona memorial , so me ( Japanese ) would argue that the emperor was being used for political purpos es , '' said a high Foreign Ministry diplomat who asked not to be named . As `` a symbol of the unity of the Japanese people '' under the postwar constitution , the emperor takes overseas trips only `` for the purpose of promoting good will and friendship , '' he added . Japan has lived in peace for 49 years since the end of World War II , but it has never apologized outright to its war victims . The U.S. visit by Akihito , 60 , and Michiko , 59 , underscores the changes that have slowly enveloped the imperial family since the end of the war . Until the late Emperor Hirohito made a trip to Europe as crown prince in 1921 and retraced his steps as emperor 50 years later , none of his 123 predecessors had ever lef t Japan . By contrast , Akihito , tutored in English as a student , and Michiko , the first commoner ever to marry an emperor after a courtship that began on a tennis court , traveled abroad frequently as crown prince and princess . Includi ng two stopovers , Akihito has visited the United States four times . One was a trip in 1960 when he visited Pearl Harbor before the memorial to the battleship Arizona and its crew was built . During the June trip , the imperial couple will visit 11 cities including Atlanta , Washington , Los Angeles , San Francisco an d Honolulu before returning to Tokyo on June 26 . ( Optional add end ) Only nine days ago , Michiko delivered a public speech for the first time since she colla psed Oct. 20 and lost her voice . The Imperial Household Agency said she had rec overed to the point at which she has `` almost no trouble '' carrying on daily c onversations . In the Los Angeles area , the imperial couple is scheduled to vis it the Huntington Library and Art Collections , a Japan-America museum and a ret irement home for Americans of Japanese origin , and meet former President Reagan and his wife , Nancy . In Atlanta , Akihito and Michiko will meet former Presid ent Carter and his wife , Rosalynn , and Coretta Scott King , the widow of Dr. M artin Luther King Jr. . Unlike Hirohito and the former Empress Nagako , the coup le will not visit Disneyland . But they are scheduled to go to a baseball game i n St. Louis between the Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Pirates . WASHINGTON Recent economic statistics paint a picture of an economy growing in a moderate , sustainable fashion a picture that should calm fears in financial m arkets that fast growth is about to trigger a new burst of inflation , according to analysts . Worries that the economy might overheat were a major factor in dr iving up long-term interest rates this year as investors sought higher returns t o protect themselves against a possible rise in inflation . If those fears are a llayed , long-term rates should retrace part of their upward track , analysts sa id . Earlier , analysts had predicted that growth would jump to a 4.5 percent or 5 percent annual rate in the three months from April through June , with some e conomists using numbers as high as 6 percent . But with the quarter half over , the flow of statistics on initial claims for jobless benefits , retail sales , a utomobile production , housing starts and new orders for long-lasting goods all suggest that the economy is expanding at a solid but more moderate pace of 3.5 p ercent to 4 percent , analysts said . Friday , the Commerce Department will rele ase its first revision of growth in the first three months of the year , when th e economy was slowed by bitter winter weather in the east and a severe earthquak e in the west . Last month , the government , using incomplete and preliminary d ata , estimated first-quarter growth at 2.6 percent . Most analysts expect the r ate to be lowered by a quarter- to a half-percentage point . That , along with T hursday 's report from the Labor Department that the number of workers filing in itial claims for unemployment benefits is rising , is likely to figure prominent ly when Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan testifies before the Senat e Banking Committee . Some committee Democrats , concerned that increases in sho rt-term interest rates engineered this year by the Fed are damaging the economy , plan to ask Greenspan to justify the rate hikes . In its report , the Labor De partment said that an average of 366,750 people a week have filed initial claims for unemployment claims benefits during the past four weeks . That is the highe st since February of last year , except for a few weeks last winter when the bad weather was putting people out of work . `` Recent evidence suggests that job g rowth is about to slow from the sharp gains posted during the past several month s , '' said Bruce Steinberg , macroeconomics manager for Merrill Lynch & Co. in New York . The job market still is improving `` but the pace of improvement is s lowing to a more sustainable rate of gain , '' he said . The Merrill Lynch forec ast currents pegs the second-quarter rise in the gross domestic product , adjust ed for inflation , at 3.5 percent to 4 percent . David C. Munro , chief U.S. eco nomist at High Frequency Economics in New York , has a similar outlook . `` With auto output slowing after February , I look for only a 3.5 percent second-quart er GDP growth rate , '' he said . `` The first-half average will be only 2.75 pe rcent . '' Steinberg , Munro and many other analysts predict growth in the secon d half of the year will run at about a 3 percent rate or perhaps a little less . WASHINGTON President Clinton , abandoning a central foreign policy principle of his administration , announced Thursday that he has decided to `` delink '' Chi na 's privileged trading status from its human rights record . While acknowledgi ng that China `` continues to commit very serious human rights abuses , '' Clint on said he has come to believe that broader American strategic interests justify the policy reversal . Striking a defensive , almost apologetic posture at a lat e afternoon White House briefing , Clinton acknowledged that his previous approa ch to U.S.-China relations had failed and said he intended to set a new course . `` That linkage has been constructive during the past year , but I believe , ba sed on our aggressive contacts with the Chinese in the past several months , tha t we have reached the end of the usefulness of that policy , and it is time to t ake a new path toward the achievement of our constant objectives , '' Clinton sa id . `` We need to place our relationship into a larger and more productive fram ework . '' Therefore , Clinton said , he will renew China 's most favored nation status , meaning that China can ship its exports to the United States on the sa me tariff terms as most other American trading partners . Last year China export ed about $ 31 billion worth of goods to the United States , running a trade surp lus of $ 23 billion . The United States exported $ 8 billion in goods to China . The only limitation Clinton imposed on the China trade was a ban on U.S. sales of Chinese-made guns and ammunition , which amounted to roughly $ 100 million in sales last year . Clinton dropped the idea of forming a human rights commission to monitor progress in China . The Chinese rejected such a body as an insult to its sovereignty and human rights groups derided it as likely to be ineffective . The president announced his new China policy in the White House briefing room . Unlike previous major presidential announcements , he appeared alone , without Secretary of State Warren Christopher or senior White House aides . Clinton see med prepared to take the inevitable criticism his change in course generated . F rom Capitol Hill to human rights organizations to Chinese dissident groups came immediate expressions of anger and dismay . Human Rights Watch/Asia called the C linton announcement `` one more capitulation on human rights . '' `` Clinton has left his administration looking vacillating and hypocritical , while the Chines e leadership , by contrast , has emerged as hard-nosed , uncompromising and vict orious . We 're deeply disappointed by this decision , '' said Sidney Jones , ex ecutive director of the organization . AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland , in a pa rticularly scathing statement , said Clinton 's decision `` sends a clear messag e to the world : `` No matter what America says about democracy and human rights , in the final analysis profits , not people , matter most. .. . America should be standing with the Chinese people not their oppressors . '' Senate Majority L eader George Mitchell , D-Maine , an important ally of the president 's on healt h care and other major policy initiatives , also quickly criticized Clinton 's n ew China policy . `` I disagree with the decision. .. . The experience of recent years has been that each concession to the Chinese Communist regime encourages its intransigence and I believe this will be the unfortunate result of this deci sion , '' Mitchell said . `` It will confirm for the Chinese Communist regime th e success of its policy of repression on human rights and manipulation on trade . It is likely to produce a result that is the opposite of what the president in tends . '' Mitchell added that when Congress returns from its Memorial Day reces s he will introduce legislation to reverse Clinton 's decision . That legislatio n probably will be similar to bills sponsored by Mitchell and Rep. Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif. , during the Bush administration , attaching conditions to future ren ewals of China 's trade status . ( Optional add end ) Bush repeatedly vetoed suc h legislation , and , in 1992 , Clinton accused him of `` coddling dictators '' in China . During his presidential campaign , Clinton also specifically endorsed the idea of imposing human rights conditions on the renewal of China 's trade b enefits . Sen. John McCain , R-Ariz. , defended the decision on policy grounds b ut accused Clinton of adopting precisely the Bush administration policy that he assailed as cynical during the 1992 campaign . Renewing most favored nation stat us for China `` is a sound , if politically embarrassing , decision , '' McCain said . Clinton said he believed he had reached the right decision and said he wa s prepared to defend it against his critics . `` I want to make it clear to you I do not do this with rose-colored glasses on , '' Clinton said . `` I know ther e will be , no matter which approach we take .. . continuing human rights proble ms . '' CHICAGO The mail here has lately seemed defiant of the laws that govern time an d space . Recent bill payments disappear into the void while bank statements fro m 1988 suddenly show up . Tens of thousands of undelivered letters have been dis covered in the oddest spots : smoldering under a railroad viaduct , rotting in a field , in the trunk of a postal carrier 's truck , stockpiled in a mailman 's suburban condo . Three times last week , people opened collection boxes around t own only to be greeted by smoke streaming from the slots . `` Somebody doesn't w ant the mail to be delivered , '' said Mark Szumny , rolling his eyes heavenward for clues while his daughters , one 6 years old , one 5 , jumped rope on the si dewalk on a waning afternoon . The girls at play reminded him of something . An old friend of his wife 's sent cash when each was born . The money has yet to ar rive . Since the dawn of the U.S. postal system , tales of astounding mishaps an d misroutings have become part of American folklore . But those were isolated in stances . Not so in Chicago . While Chicago may have slipped from Second City to third , it ranks highest on the Mail Misery index . A recent postal survey foun d customers more unhappy with service in this city than anywhere else in the nat ion . The satisfaction rating stands at 69 percent . The next-most troubled city , New York , scored 76 percent . Twenty-seven postal wizards from around the co untry were imported in March to figure out what 's wrong here . Three top manage rs were transferred out this month . Next week , supervisors and window clerks a re scheduled to take training courses , and in coming months , each station is s upposed to recruit a citizens advisory council . The U.S. Postal Service takes t he uproar seriously , said Rufus F. Porter , interim postmaster for Chicago . Ab out 1,500 early retirements in 1992 and this year 's severe winter took their to ll , he said . But mostly , he added , `` it 's a matter of bad work habits on t he part of our employees . It is embedded in the culture .. . and that was a dir ect result of management inattention . '' The locals , some of whom have been co mplaining for nearly a decade , remain pessimistic . `` The post office has not reached out to private consultants . It is still trying to use its own people , '' said Chicago Alderman Mary Ann Smith . `` They 've had shake-ups before but e very time things as we say in this office returned to abnormal . '' Each day , t he postal service is blamed for something else , from the lack of an audience fo r the Bozo TV show hardly anyone got tickets to the decision of a mail-order cos metics firm to move out to the suburbs . Leaders of the sizable Polish community report with fury that their letters to the homeland are ransacked frequently fo r cash . Smith fumes . `` We 're not asking them to cure cancer , '' she said . `` We 're not asking them to build pyramids . We 're asking them to move pieces of paper from one place to another . '' ( Begin optional trim ) The first report from the postal task force , released earlier this month , found the worst prob lems at five northside , lakefront post offices where 40 percent of the mail fac ed delays . Service there is already improving , the troubleshooters said . Thos e zip codes , however , are by no means the only ones that need help . David J. Craven , a 35-year-old attorney in the downtown Loop , specializes in customs an d international trade law , but he also has become a reluctant connoisseur of po stal blunders . He has noticed spotty deliveries since 1991 , but by January and February , the quality of service had deteriorated dramatically . On March 3 , for the first time in its seven-year history , his office received no mail at al l . Craven was waiting for a U.S. . Customs opinion in a $ 5 million case . He c hecked with another law firm on the 20th floor . Also no mail . Craven telephone d the post office . When he got no satisfactory response , he took another tack . He wrote a letter . Four days later , the written complaint was returned to it s sender . The address of the central post office 433 W. Van Buren was scratched out . The envelope was stamped `` NO SUCH ADDRESS . '' ( End optional trim ) In Chicago 's leafy Belmont-Cragin section , the brick bungalows and two-flats are filled with working-class families trading postal horror tales , fueled by the knowledge that 40,000 pieces of their mail turned up last month at their carrier 's house . Firefighters found it when they answered an emergency call . Along t he route , Diane Gaertner had missed two of the paychecks that her employer , an air-conditioning and heating company , sent to her apartment . `` It affects my life when I live from check to check and I 've got a son to raise , '' she said . The carrier , Robert Beverly , is suspected of having sifted through the mail for items he could sell or otherwise turn to profit , Porter said . He has been charged with felony theft . Beverly used his own car , an older Jaguar , on his route , which made hauling the stacks home that much easier . The Chicago distr ict just doesn't have enough vehicles to supply one to every employee . But his replacement , Eddie Ponce , had a regulation truck the other day . `` They told me , ` Keep it clean , ' ' ' she said , when they assigned her to the route . The May ratings sweeps rundown conducted by CBS research boss David Poltrack on e morning each spring usually draws only reporters looking for a late breakfast . Thursday in Manhattan , three days after the Fox-is-snatching-eight-CBS-affili ates bombshell , the annual Poltrack Spinorama was jammed by members of the news media ( `` even Time magazine showed up ! '' exclaimed a CBS spokeswoman ) hopi ng for some nugget from CBS executives . They got a few . CBS/Broadcast Group pr esident Howard Stringer was on hand to staunchly defend broadcasting in general and CBS in particular which after all did cinch the primetime ratings crown for the third year in a row last month and enjoyed what Stringer called `` the most profitable season in history don't knock it . `` Programming , '' said Stringer , `` is what dominates broadcasting and we 've always been the champions . You c an be a telephone company , you can be a cable company , but in the end the qual ity of the original programming is what drives everything , and we have the best . '' He reminded reporters that `` in Louisville ( the people ) who ran the CBS affiliate there some years ago decided in their wisdom to go to ABC .. . they s witched and we switched to UHF . . and we are in first place with that UHF stati on . Because , luckily , our audience has a high school education and they can f ind programs . `` They 're going to find our programming because it 's singular and distinctive and that strategy has worked . '' George Schweitzer , executive vice president of marketing and communications for the Broadcast Group , promise d that `` the network plans aggressive marketing campaigns in those markets affe cted . . . so that people will know where to find their ( CBS ) programs . '' ( Five CBS affiliates in Detroit , Atlanta , Cleveland , Tampa-St. Petersburg and Milwaukee will move to Fox by late fall ) . And each reporter was given a copy o f a letter from CBS Television Network president Peter A . Lund , dispatched to advertisers and agencies , promising that `` CBS will maintain its coverage in e very single market . We expect to maintain our circulation as well . As you may know , many of these ( defecting ) stations were underperforming the network ave rage and frequently pre-empted our schedule . We project these changes will have no impact on our 1994-95 schedule . '' The word on the street in New York is th at initially CBS is targeting ABC and NBC affiliates in Detroit , Atlanta and Da llas ( where another potential New World CBS affiliate will switch to Fox someti me next year ) in its drive to recover from the Fox attack . . MOSCOW In a remarkable letter written in 1973 to a Soviet leadership that was p reparing to arrest and expel him , Alexander Solzhenitsyn concluded with a bold declaration of independence that must have seemed hopelessly quixotic to those w ho received it . `` I long ago grew out of your shell , '' he told the absolute masters of one-sixth of the world 's territory . `` The things I write will be p rinted regardless of your permission . I am ready to lay down my life . '' A few months later , `` The Gulag Archipelago , '' Solzhenitsyn 's devastating compil ation of the horrors of Soviet repression , was circulating throughout the Weste rn world and the author was a stateless exile , stripped of his Soviet citizensh ip and deported to West Germany . Friday that long exile comes to an end as the famous writer and his family arrive in Vladivostok in the Russian Far East after a two-day journey from Cavendish , Vt. , where he spent all but two of his 20 y ears of banishment in the West . Speaking in Anchorage , Alaska , moments before he boarded an Alaska Airlines plane that would fly him back home , the 75-year- old writer praised Cavendish . With his son Stephan , 20 , translating , Solzhen itsyn said : `` This was the most creative period in my life and the most produc tive period in my life . '' He said he hoped to participate in a rebirth of Russ ia comparable to what occurred in Germany after the fall of the Third Reich , wh en a `` spiritual and moral '' recovery helped heal the wartime legacy . `` In t he U.S.S.R. , none of this has happened at all , '' he said . `` The atmosphere remains heavily stained with communism . '' Solzhenitsyn plans to deliver some r emarks in Vladivostok 's town square and spend a few days meeting with members o f the community . Then he intends to set off for Moscow on a train journey acros s the vast breadth of Russia in order to reacquaint himself with his native coun try . He will find that much has changed , and not all of it to his liking . The Marxist system that Solzhenitsyn castigated in his 1973 letter as a `` dark un- Russian whirlwind '' has collapsed , along with the Soviet empire that he descri bed as a liability and a burden for his native land . But they have been replace d by a raw and ragged society of extreme contrasts between rich and poor , incre asingly awash in the Western pop culture that Solzhenitsyn repeatedly condemned during his exile . The writer 's many statements , issued through family members , that he intends to play no official or political role upon his arrival has no t prevented a lively and at times rancorous debate among Russian intellectuals o ver the impact of his return . `` Numerous representatives of the Moscow politic al intelligentsia are tearing at each other 's throats regarding Solzhenitsyn , '' commentator Mikhail Leontiev wrote in Thursday 's issue of the Moscow newspap er Sevodnya . `` It turns out that , irrespective of anyone 's likes or dislikes , Russia needs Solzhenitsyn. .. . It needs a national hero , rather than a poli tical leader . Whether he lives up to this calling or not , time will tell . But there 's no one else in Russia at the moment . '' Leontiev and many others see Solzhenitsyn as an uncorrupted truth-teller who can fill the moral vacuum that h as existed in Russia since the death of human rights activist Andrei Sakharov in 1989 . But others especially the newly ascendent nationalists who lament the lo ss of the Soviet empire dismiss Solzhenitsyn as an irrelevant figure from a bygo ne era . `` Solzhenitsyn is returning to a country which he no longer knows .. . and which no longer knows him , '' said Shamil Sultanov , deputy editor of Zavt ra , a stridently ultranationalist newspaper that has become a rallying point fo r opponents of the current government . `` Solzhenitsyn was a fetish of Western intellectuals and certain political circles. .. . If you go to Ryazan or Smolens k and ask people on the street who Solzhenitsyn is , 80 out of 100 willn't know . '' ( Begin optional trim ) The writer 's impending return has even touched off an outbreak of what might be called Gulag denial syndrome an attempt by some po liticians and intellectuals to assert that the machinery of repression chronicle d by Solzhenitsyn either never existed or was far less severe than he portrayed it . `` When he wrote ` Gulag ' he didn't have a single archival document in his hands , but now they teach Russian history according to Solzhenitsyn , '' said Alexander Nevzorov , a TV journalist turned ultranationalist politician . `` No one would take it into their heads to teach French history according to Dumas , '' he said . `` He is nothing more than a common writer , a storyteller . To me , Solzhenitsyn is no one . '' ( End optional trim ) In Vladivostok Thursday , pr eparations for the exile 's return were decidedly low-key , and an informal samp ling of public opinion in of the city revealed no great interest in Solzhenitsyn and some confusion about his identity . One man had the writer mixed up with Sa kharov , while another was under the impression he was the director of a popular but trivial Soviet-era movie . WASHINGTON Resisting pressure from World Cup organizers , District of Columbia Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly decided Thursday to heed the advice of her police comma nders and install a security fence around the field of Robert F. Kennedy Memoria l Stadium for soccer matches there this summer . Kelly and D.C. . Police Chief F red Thomas informed World Cup officials during an hourlong meeting Thursday that they saw no better alternative than the six-foot-high metal fence to prevent po tentially rowdy soccer fans from charging the field . In recent weeks , the fenc e has become a sharp point of contention between the city and soccer promoters , who have worried that it could tarnish the sport 's image as it is showcased in the United States for the first time . World Cup organizers have tried to convi nce the District that a barrier was unnecessary and could cause more safety prob lems than it solved . The national director of the World Cup organizing committe e , Alan Rothenberg , who only days ago said he was confident there would not be a fence at RFK , attended Thursday 's meeting with Kelly . But the mayor was un swayed . She was not available for comment , but said in a statement that she su pported the fence because `` the safety and security of fans , participants and the public has always been our overriding concern . '' Soccer officials were dis appointed with Kelly 's decision , but said they did not believe it would advers ely affect other World Cup preparations . `` I do disagree on this , '' Rothenbe rg said . `` I think they city ( officials ) are being unduly swayed by looking at the worst examples of soccer violence. . . . There has never been those kind of ugly incidents at World Cup matches . '' The District will be one of only thr ee cities in the country to use a fence for security during World Cup matches , which begin here June 19 . Soccer officials have dissuaded the six other cities that are sites for matches from using a fence . They are still in talks with Dal las about a fence at the Cotton Bowl . The stadium at Stanford University has a permanent fence in place . Security has emerged as one of the leading elements o f the city 's preparation for the World Cup , which is the most watched sporting event on the planet . Thousands of fans from overseas are expected to travel to Washington for the five matches at RFK , and law enforcement officials fear tha t some of them could be troublemakers . District police are planning to deploy m ore than 1,000 officers in various roles for World Cup events . District police , who have traveled overseas to study security measures at soccer matches , say the fence will be the easiest way to contain an unruly crowd . It also will be m uch cheaper than putting scores of extra officers , at overtime pay , on the fie ld during the matches . The fence costs $ 25,000 and will be paid for by a grant from the Department of Defense , police officials said . WASHINGTON President Clinton 's abandonment of the idea of linking trade with C hina on human rights improvements represents a stunning reversal of the policies he espoused both during his 1992 presidential campaign and during his first yea r in office . As recently as the past few weeks , in fact , Clinton administrati on officials were insisting that without some further and meaningful steps in hu man rights by the Beijing regime , there was no way the president could renew Ch ina 's most-favored-nation , or MFN , trade privileges . In the end , Clinton si mply caved in . And , in the process , his MFN debacle gave China a chance to de monstrate the limits of American power and the hollowness of American fantasies of omnipotence . The United States found that it couldn't force China to change its human rights policies , at least not without imposing costs that American bu sinesses were unwilling to bear . `` A great society , so large and with such bu ilt-in habits does not change overnight , '' Clinton acknowledged Thursday , usi ng words very similar to those used over the past year by the many critics of hi s policy . In the view of some China scholars and experts , Clinton 's blending of threat-and-retreat left the United States in worse position than if he had ne ver threatened at all . For the message to the world , to China 's Asian neighbo rs and to the Chinese people themselves is that China can defy the United States virtually at will . `` This is being handled in a way that is eroding our credi bility with the Chinese , '' Kenneth Lieberthal , a University of Michigan China specialist , observed recently. `` .. . The Chinese can see that with this admi nistration , when it 's time to decide whether to hold 'em or fold 'em , it will fold . This administration will take a fig leaf and give away the store . '' Th e administration is left hoping now that what it calls `` a new policy '' toward China will produce more results than the past one . That new policy is based on what administration officials Thursday vaguely called a `` strategic relationsh ip '' with China a phrase that sounds somewhat like the words former Secretary o f State Henry Kissinger once employed . Over the past year , the administration has made a series of concessions to China in hopes of winning its cooperation fo r some changes in its human rights policies . ( Begin optional trim ) Clinton me t with Chinese President Jiang Zemin in Seattle . On the eve of that meeting , t he administration cleared the way for the sale of a Cray supercomputer to China . The administration approved the sale of several U.S.-made satellites to China . And it ended the ban on high-level military contacts that had been imposed by the Bush administration . `` They decided to give everything away , '' observed one U.S. official. `` .. . Somehow , there is still this view that if we just gi ve them enough , they will do what we want . It just doesn't work . '' Throughou t the past year , while making these other concessions , the administration held up on the one thing it felt , rightly , was the thing China wanted and needed m ost : most-favored-nation trade status , which allows tens of billions of dollar s in Chinese exports to be sold in this country with low duties . But in the end , China called Clinton 's bluff . It turned out that Sen. Max Baucus , D-Mont. , was right when he called the threat to withdraw MFN benefits `` the economic e quivalent of a nuclear bomb '' that is , a weapon too powerful to use . ( End op tional trim ) Yet no one could have envisioned a year ago just how many steps Ch ina would take to show its utter disregard for the administration and his polici es . In March , Chinese security officials rounded up a series of prominent diss idents while Secretary of State Warren Christopher was in Beijing . In April , t hey locked up Wei Jingsheng , China 's most prominent advocate of democracy , wh o had been freed last September after more than 14 years in jail . Wei is still in detention . China has refused to make even some of those human rights concess ions the Clinton administration considered relatively easy to achieve . Early th is year , U.S. officials believed China was ready to stop its jamming of the Voi ce of America and other foreign broadcasts into China . That action might come a t the time of Christopher 's mission in March , they believed . But China hasn't even done this yet . The most it has been willing to do has been to receive a d elegation to `` discuss '' some of the technical aspects of broadcasting in Chin a . China 's intransigence goes beyond the area of human rights . There has been no sign , for example , that China has been willing to help the United States m uch in trying to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program . I n Cambodia , the Khmer Rouge , who were once considered China 's client , are on ce again threatening to overrun the government in Phnom Penh . What went wrong ? Some officials , including veterans of the Bush administration , question the e ntire style and underpinnings of Clinton 's approach . They argue that it was co unter-productive to confront China head-on . `` Once you put your fist in the fa ce of the Chinese and tell them they have to do something , they tend to go rigi d , '' says Douglas Paal , who served as director of Asian affairs for the Bush administration . The Clinton administration misjudged a year ago how far China w ould be willing to go . Administration officials sincerely believed that the con ditions they were imposing on China would be relatively easy to meet . `` Narrow , narrow '' was how Assistant Secretary of State John H. F. Shattuck described the U.S. conditions to Hong Kong reporters . But the Chinese regime facing both the threat of new social unrest inside China and a looming struggle to see who w ill succeed the ailing Deng Xiaoping as China 's paramount leader was unwilling to do even the things the administration considered modest . The administration misread the strength of sentiment in the American business community , which did n't like the idea of tying MFN renewal to human rights in the first place and wh ich grew increasingly threatened and nervous by the prospect of a cut off in tra de . Clinton himself bears the ultimate responsibility for being either unwillin g or unable to impose discipline on his own top administration officials . But n ot all of the blame for the American retreat should go to Clinton . It must also be shared with Congress , an institution which Clinton administration officials also misjudged . Over a period of three years , from 1990 to 1992 , Congress re peatedly passed laws tying renewal of China 's MFN benefits to improvements in h uman rights . It was what is known as a `` free vote . '' Each time , President Bush vetoed the legislation , just as Congress knew he would . President Clinton in effect borrowed the vetoed Democratic legislation and put it into the execut ive order he imposed last year . And this year , for the first time , Congress h as been forced to deal with the real-life consequences of its legislation . Chin a failed to make significant human rights improvements , and that meant that the cutoff in MFN which Congress originally threatened might actually be imposed . In droves , congressmen retreated . It turns out that members of Congress includ ing leading Democrats like Sen . Bill Bradley , D-N.J. , were willing to vote fo r a linkage between human rights and trade with China only at a time when they k new their legislation would be vetoed . Under the circumstances , it seems fair to conclude that the congressional Democrats weren't serious about linking trade and human rights , but rather were using China as a partisan issue against Bush . ( Optional add end ) `` Times have changed , ` ` said Rep. Jim Kolbe , R-Ariz . , `` It was easy for Congress to take the positions it did during the Bush ad ministration . '' The American retreat was of far-reaching , even historic , sig nificance for China and its relations with the rest of the world . The Chinese r egime was faced with a direct challenge from the United States , and it proved t hat the United States could not back up its threats . On Oct. 1 , 1949 , on the day the People 's Republic of China was founded , Mao Tsetung stood up above Tia n An Men Square and declared to cheering thousands : `` The Chinese people have stood up . '' Chinese leaders may soon proclaim the modern-day corollary : `` Pr esident Clinton has sat down . '' In ROSTY ( Eaton & Ostrow , Times ) , insert after 9th graf ( adding Justice De partment investigation of Rostenkowski ) xxx of office . The Justice Department has been investigating allegations Rostenkowski abused office and campaign accou nts by , among other things , receiving money improperly from the House post off ice , hiring workers who did not work , and making improper furniture and gift p urchases with office funds . PICK UP 10th graf : While it was xxx . BALTIMORE A burglar alarm from hell was finally silenced Thursday after six day s of nearly constant noise when a police officer climbed a ladder in a blinding rainstorm and snipped the wire . A cheer erupted from a watching crowd when sile nce descended suddenly on the normally quiet , tree-shaded court in suburban Bal timore . It was almost eerie for a few seconds . `` Thank you , Jesus , '' shout ed Joan Sheppard , the next-door neighbor , raising her arms to the sky and igno ring the pelting rain . Once the alarm was silenced , the crowd scattered quickl y under the deluge and the daylong circus occasioned by the presence of televisi on units and a rock radio station was over . The alarm , at the home of a psycho logist traveling in Indonesia , went off early Saturday morning . There was a br ief break later that morning when an accident nearby caused a power outage and a nother short break , during another outage early Tuesday . Except for the two br ief periods , the alarm had pulsed continuously , generally making life miserabl e for the neighborhood . Exasperated to the extreme , Sheppard spent much of Thu rsday trying to get a court order to allow police to shut off the alarm . Becaus e the matter involved private property and there was no emergency , the county a ttorney 's office was called in and lawyers began working on a petition to the c ourt . But as the lawyers debated , the whoop-whoop-whoop of the alarm continued unrelentingly . An employee of the psychologist was in contact with him Tuesday and he was supposed to have air-freighted a house key back to her from Asia . W hen the key didn't arrive , police contacted the woman again and she agreed to a ct as the homeowner 's agent . She gave Lt. J.A. Spiroff permission to do what h ad to be done . Just as the lieutenant signaled his men , the skies opened up . As one officer steadied the waiting ladder , the second climbed to roof level , pulled loose some siding and cut the wire . WASHINGTON Moving to break `` a licensing stranglehold '' on glassmaking that k eeps U.S. companies out of foreign markets , the Justice Department said Thursda y it has settled an antitrust suit against a British glass company . The suit wa s filed under a U.S. policy designed to protect U.S. exports from anti-competiti ve conduct by foreign companies . Attorney General Janet Reno , who announced th e suit and the settlement simultaneously , said the action `` will open new mark ets abroad for American businesses exporting high-tech services . '' Robert E. L itan , deputy assistant attorney general for antitrust , said the settlement wit h Pilkington plc and its U.S. subsidiary could open the door to between $ 150 mi llion and $ 1.25 billion in exports for U.S. companies through the year 2000 . T he suit was the first brought under a 1992 policy that permits the Justice Depar tment to take antitrust action against foreign businesses that harm U.S. export trade without having to demonstrate harm to U.S. consumers . When the policy was announced by the Bush administration , it was widely believed that Japanese fir ms would be the immediate targets . Litan said other cases are under investigati on but he declined to name either the companies or the countries involved . Pilk ington dominates the world 's $ 15 billion-a-year float glass industry , which m anufactures flat glass used in most cars and buildings . The complaint accused P ilkington of closing off foreign markets to U.S. companies and costing U.S. jobs by strictly limiting the use of commercial flat glass technology , part of whic h it developed and patented more than 30 years ago . Although Pilkington 's pate nts expired long ago , placing the technology in the public domain , the Justice Department complaint said the company restrained competition by using licensing arrangements to prevent American glass producers from employing the technology outside the United States . Sir Robin Nicholson , a Pilkington director , conten ded that the settlement in the form of a consent decree will have `` no material economic impact on the company . '' In a phone interview , he said the company had agreed to the decree while denying unlawful conduct for two primary reasons . The decree allows the company to continue licensing technology it has develope d since 1983 . The second factor was `` pure cost , '' Nicholson said , estimati ng that the company would not lose more than $ 1 million a year under the decree , while continued litigation would have cost `` many millions of dollars . '' H owever , K. Craig Wildfang , special counsel to Anne K. Bingaman , assistant att orney general for antitrust , noted that the decree covers technology disclosed to U.S. licensees , the last of which occurred in 1982 . It also frees up techno logy that licensees added themselves after 1982 , he said . WASHINGTON President Clinton Thursday reversed course on China and renewed its trade privileges despite what he said was Beijing 's lack of significant progres s on human rights . Echoing the case made by George Bush when he was president , Clinton said he was convinced the Chinese would take more steps to improve huma n rights if the issue were separated from the threat of trade sanctions . `` Thi s decision offers us the best opportunity to lay the basis for long-term sustain able progress on human rights and for the advancement of our other interests wit h China , '' he said at a news conference announcing his decision to extend Chin a 's most-favored-nation ( MFN ) trade status . To demonstrate what he stressed was his administration 's continuing concern about human rights in China , Clint on said he was banning the import of Chinese munitions and taking several other small steps to support the pro-democracy cause in China . But his action stopped well short of appeals by Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell , D-Maine , and Rep. Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif. , for selected sanctions on some Chinese produc ts as a way to penalize China for failing to improve human rights . Both said th ey would introduce legislation that continues a link between trade privileges an d human rights improvements . `` I disagree with the decision , '' Mitchell said of Clinton 's move . `` This decision will confirm for the regime the success o f its policy of repression on human rights and manipulation on trade . '' Severa l other Democratic senators , however , issued statements of support and said th ey would join Clinton in Congress in resisting legislation to alter the trade st atus . Sen. Sam Nunn , D-Ga. , said that the decision reflected a key role China can play in geopolitics , specifically `` maintaining stability on the Korean p eninsula and preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons . '' Clinton had be en the subject of heavy lobbying by American business interests and his economic advisers to continue China 's trade privileges . With China now the world 's fa stest growing economy , the United States exports $ 8 billion a year there , whi ch sustains up to 150,000 American jobs . Many major American businesses see eve n greater potential in Chinese markets , expecting China to become a massive pur chaser over the next decade of the phones , electronic gadgets and thousands of other products made in America . `` I think we have to see our relations with Ch ina within a broader context '' than simply human rights , Clinton said , adding that the link between rights and trade was no longer tenable . `` We have reach ed the end of the usefulness of that policy , '' he said . Human rights groups a nd a strong lobby in Congress had pressed Clinton to adhere to the goal he set l ast year in an executive order that made renewal of China 's MFN status dependen t on `` overall significant progress '' in human rights . Clinton in his preside ntial campaign had sharply attacked Bush for extending trade privileges to China in the years following the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy activists in Beijing 's Tiananmen Square , accusing him of `` coddling criminals . '' But Clinton sa id Thursday he has had a change of heart . `` Let me ask you the same question I have asked myself , '' he said . `` Will we do more to advance the cause of hum an rights if China is isolated . '' What the United States policy should be , he added , is `` to intensify and broaden its relations '' with Beijing , not isol ate it . He acknowledged that the one sanction he was imposing the ban on import s of guns and ammunition from China involving about $ 200 million in sales const ituted little more than a `` discrete '' symbol of U.S. displeasure . Most weapo ns are made by the Peoples Liberation Army , agent of the 1989 crackdown that se t off congressional calls for revoking China 's trade status . The other measure s he announced include increased broadcasts for Radio-Free Asia and the Voice of America , increased support for non-governmental organizations working on human rights in China and the development with U.S. business leaders of a voluntary s et of principles for business activity in China . Clinton 's decision came after an intensive , sometimes fractious , debate within the administration over what steps to take and how . At one point , the president was leaning toward extendi ng the trade privileges , but putting sanctions on a range of military-made prod ucts . The Treasury and Defense departments vehemently objected , and from the o utset the president 's economic advisers argued that trade and human rights shou ld not be linked . In assessing China 's human rights record over the past year , Secretary of State Warren Christopher reported to Clinton earlier this week th at China had made progress in allowing emigration and had begun complying with a n agreement that produces investigations of the use of prison labor in making Ch inese goods . But Christopher also concluded that the Chinese had not made progr ess in complying with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights , in providing a n acceptable accounting for political and religious prisoners and in treating th em humanely . He also found no change in China 's repression of Tibet and no end to China 's jamming broadcasts by the Voice of America . In TOBACCO ( Cimons , Times ) sub for 7th graf ( deleting `` first '' ) xxx gra nts : The existence of such `` special projects '' was reported in Thursday 's L os Angeles Times . PICK UP 8th graf : Glenn , xxx : With a few tightenings of the national credit spigot , the Federal Reserve Boar d already seems to have achieved one of its goals for 1994 : The central bank ha s converted more than a few mutual fund investors into models of financial conse rvatism . That is apparent in the latest report on fund investment activity from the industry 's chief trade group , the Investment Company Institute . The ICI said Thursday that gross purchases of stock and bond fund shares totaled $ 40.6 billion in April , down sharply from $ 53.4 billion in March and even below the pace of $ 41.1 billion in April 1993 . Net new cash flow , which measures fund p urchases minus redemptions and after adjustment for net exchanges among funds in the same families , was $ 11.3 billion for stock funds in April , a rebound fro m March 's depressed $ 6.6 billion but still below the $ 11.7 billion of April 1 993 . For bond funds , net new cash flow was a negative $ 4.8 billion in April , compared with a negative $ 7.7 billion in March and a positive $ 10 billion in April 1993 . The seeming contradiction in the numbers above gross fund purchases were down between March and April , but net cash flow improved actually is easi ly explained . Overall , investors ' appetite for funds declined in April . But because fewer investors redeemed shares in April than March , cash flow was bett er . This month , fund companies report a further easing of the panic that had g ripped some fund investors in March and April , when markets convulsed because o f the Fed 's decision to raise short-term interest rates for the first time in f ive years . Redemptions are down again in May , and a respectable number of peop le are buying funds . But what 's in demand are mostly the kind of stock funds t raditionally favored by conservative , long-term investors , some fund companies say . Meanwhile , bond funds many of which have dropped more sharply in value t han stock funds this year still appear to be losing money , though at a slower p ace than in March and April . At fund giant Fidelity Investments in Boston , spo kesman Neal Litvack says net new cash flow into the company is expected to total $ 1.5 billion this month , up from $ 1.3 billion in April . But more than 90 pe rcent of this month 's cash flow is going into stock funds , Litvack says . Bond funds are basically flat , he says , meaning money coming in is just replacing the money that 's leaving . Significantly , Litvack says , Fidelity investors no w are shying away from small-stock funds and `` sector '' funds that target stoc ks of specific industries . Instead , the company 's most popular stock funds th is month are conservative names such as the Blue Chip fund and the Puritan fund , which are marketed as long-term holdings for relatively cautious investors . S imilarly , at the Kemper mutual funds in Chicago , the best-selling investment t his month is the Total Return fund , a balanced ( stock and bond ) fund that is having its best month in a year . In contrast , Kemper said that its U.S. . Gove rnment Securities bond fund has continued to experience redemptions this month . Small investors ' ongoing interest in blue-chip stock funds and in balanced fun ds , while pure bond funds suffer , may not seem like evidence of a turn to cons ervatism . After all , academics would typically argue that bonds are more conse rvative investments than stocks , at least in the long run . But the problem in the bond market by late last year was that almost everyone had come to believe t hat interest rates only went down . Speculation in bonds was rampant , in large part because many bond owners didn't even know they were speculating : They real ly didn't think they could lose money in bonds . In tightening credit this year , the Fed had more in mind than slowing the economy . The central bank also want ed to slow the tidal wave of money inflating stock and bond prices , before U.S. markets began to look like a rerun of Japan , 1989 . From mutual fund sales tre nds since March , it 's clear that investors have gotten the message . What is e vident is that many investors in stocks understand the risks , and are comfortab le with them , so they 're still buying ( albeit conservatively ) . The continui ng outflow of money from bond funds , however , suggests that there still are ma ny people who either didn't understand bonds ' risks , or finally do understand and no longer want to be a part of that game . WASHINGTON As a make-or-break summer approaches , the White House is trying to quell a growing sense of panic among Democrats that President Clinton 's signatu re legislative goal on health care is stalled in Congress and that the party now seems certain to suffer serious losses in the November midterm elections . Demo cratic National Chairman David Wilhelm , after meeting with Democratic House lea ders Thursday , told Newsday that the DNC would launch a $ 5 million ad campaign in about a month to boost momentum on health care as the legislation moves to t he floor of the House and Senate . But at the moment no one knows whether the le gislation will get through the key congressional committees by then all five of them already have missed their informal Memorial Day deadline or what the bill w ill include . `` The number of different views far exceeds the number of senator s , '' Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell , D-Maine , said . Meanwhile , Cli nton has trouble on other fronts . An important ally , Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D -Ill. , is expected to step down as House Ways and Means chairman next week when he is either indicted or accepts a plea bargain on corruption charges . A linge ring problem will be revived with the threat by Sen. Alfonse D' Amato , R-N.Y. , that Senate Republicans will hold all legislation hostage until Whitewater hear ings have been scheduled . Thursday , after special counsel Robert Fiske Jr. app ealed anew for restraint from lawmakers , Speaker Thomas S. Foley , D-Wash. , sa id that the House would conduct no Whitewater hearings before late July . There was another embarrassing fillip Thursday when White House administration directo r David Watkins was forced to resign after reports he had taken a Marine helicop ter to play golf at a suburban course . `` I think we now have real problems , ' ' a senior Democrat and Clinton ally said . `` If we get bogged down on the two parts of the domestic agenda that really defined his being a new Democrat welfar e reform and health care I think we go into the ( 1994 ) elections quite weak . And I think he is the issue . '' The loss in a special election Tuesday of a Ken tucky House seat that Democrats had held for 129 years has fueled `` political p anic '' among congressional Democrats , he added . `` A lot of them don't think they 're going to be there in January if they 're too closely identified with th e president , '' he said . But Wilhelm said it was simply `` a wake-up call '' t hat should propel Democrats to enact a health care package before going home to campaign . There are White House officials who view the situation as just anothe r chapter in a Perils-of-Pauline presidency that has become accustomed to averti ng disaster at the last possible moment . The next 10 weeks are described by som e as the period that may well determine whether Clinton 's term ultimately will be seen as successful . He staked much of his 1992 campaign on changing the heal th care system and has championed it over any other goal , including welfare rev ision . Now administration officials figure congressional committees must finish their work by July 1 so the House and Senate can vote before they adjourn in mi d-August for summer recess . Otherwise , they say , no plan is likely to be enac ted this year , and the prospects next year will be worse . ( Optional add end ) It is a sign of Clinton 's weakened position that Democratic congressional lead ers have told the White House not to become engaged in negotiating the compromis e package . `` The label ` Clinton Health Care Plan ' has become a net negative , '' Republican pollster William McInturff warned . A key ally on health care sa id : `` If we are lucky enough to get something out of committee and we do need some luck the kiss of death would be for the Clinton administration to embrace i t as their own . The only way a majority of members can vote for this on the flo or of either the House or the Senate is to wave the piece of paper and say , ` T his is not the Clinton bill. ' ' ' WASHINGTON On May 5 , as part of a long-awaited Clinton administration policy i nitiative , the Pentagon announced its willingness to share the U.S. costs of U. N. peacekeeping , and it set aside $ 300 million of its 1995 budget for such ope rations . Now the Defense Department 's top military brass are quietly cooperati ng with a Republican-led effort in Congress to torpedo the expenditure it promis ed , according to State Department , Pentagon and congressional sources . House Republican Whip Newt Gingrich of Georgia , with the support of key Democratic al lies of the military , has proposed an amendment to the Defense Authorization Bi ll that would prohibit the Defense Department from spending any of its $ 275 bil lion budget on peacekeeping . Although the $ 300 million budget item for peaceke eping is a Clinton administration proposal , a senior State Department official said the Pentagon is `` playing a double-game , '' indirectly helping efforts to block that expenditure after agreeing to it for the first time . `` Let 's say they 've made it clear to their friends they would not be unhappy if the amendme nt succeeds , '' the official said . If it does , a critical part of President C linton 's directive last month aimed at setting guidelines for U.S. participatio n in the growing number of U.N. peacekeeping operations would be crippled , offi cials said . `` There is no doubt that if this amendment passes it would severel y hurt a crucial element '' of the president 's plan , '' said the State Departm ent official , who asked to remain anonymous . The United States has come under considerable criticism from the United Nations and other international organizat ions for its opposition to sending its armed forces to participate in peacekeepi ng operations , preferring to leave that to other nations . And the United State s , while insisting on a larger voice in U.N. peacekeeping and humanitarian oper ations , is more than $ 1.1 billion behind in paying its share of the peacekeepi ng budget . The Clinton administration designed its initiative so that the Unite d States could at least offer funds , if not manpower , and pay the United Natio ns what it owes . And because the Pentagon wanted to exercise some influence ove r operations in which U.S. forces might become involved , the Defense Department agreed to a policy of `` shared reponsibility , '' contributing part of the U.S . assessment along with the State Department , which has been responsible for al l of Washington 's peacekeeping bills until now . Without the $ 300 million from the Pentagon budget , said the State Department official , `` we will have to l ook elsewhere for the money , but it is unlikely that we will be able to pay wha t we owe . '' ( Optional add end ) Sources said the measure blocking all Pentago n spending on peacekeeping may have enough support to pass , and its opponents h ave put off a vote until after the Memorial Day recess . The White House has bee n of little help in pushing its own position , said the congressional aide , par tly because Clinton 's policies on peacekeeping have been ambiguous . The State Department is hoping that if the measure passes the House , it will be defeated in the Senate where Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn of Georgia is said to be more supportive of the initiative . The caning movement , like an infestation of crabgrass , seems to be taking dee p root in America , inspired by the example of the government of Singapore where the criminal code is to this day inspired by the example of its former imperial masters . That the idea of caning youthful offenders in America should be born of a practice originally instituted by insufferable British colonial administrat ors to maintain order among their non-white subjects is , to say the least , wei rd . But I suppose we must take it seriously . A member of the California Assemb ly has introduced a bill requiring parents to paddle juvenile graffiti vandals i n the presence of a judge who could order a bailiff to take over if the whacks w eren't severe enough . A Sacramento City Council member has proposed a similar m unicipal ordinance . A St. Louis alderman is pushing yet another law prescribing three to four lashes . How long can it be before the school board down in Tavar es , Fla. institutes caning of any pupil who doesn't agree to the superiority of American culture above all others ? Backers of public caning and its variations claim it would have the salutary effect of humbling and embarrassing young misc reants who might laugh off a week in jail . They are curiously off base . To beg in with , caning is a pre-19th century concept which ignores the vast technologi cal advancements which have been made in pain infliction with the invention of e lectrodes that can be attached to strategic parts of the body to cause excruciat ing discomfort and humiliation without the danger of tissue injury and permanent scarring . And while we 're talking about violent punishment for non-violent cr imes , how about white collar offenses ? What is it about people that makes the idea of hitting somebody so attractive when it is done to the young ? Surely can ing , if administered to perpetrators of securities fraud , would have a humblin g effect , make them look silly to their peers and perhaps induce them to behave . Why not cane the stuffing out of middle-aged speeders ? Might teach them a le sson too . What graffiti vandal is going to be convinced of the justness of his punishment if he reads that Flagstar Companies , the owner of Denny 's restauran ts , with annual revenues of $ 1.53 billion , gets off with a $ 54 million judgm ent to settle racial bias suits . The systematic offenses described by black cus tomers of Denny 's were somehow more crude , unkind , mindless and antisocial th an any picture you can imagine of a young lout having his say with a spray can . Anyway , Flagstar 's stock declined a mere 37 cents a share on news of the sett lement which suggests a little punitive paddling might have been thrown in as a highly instructive example to the nation 's would-be bigots . If we were really serious about stamping out graffiti , we might ban the manufacture of spray cans and see how quickly these young fools get bored with the mess and bother of car rying around brushes and rollers . It was , after all , the aerosol can that mad e the graffiti explosion possible . Before then , teen-agers carved their names on trees or scribbled in pencil on bathroom stalls . Also we might get a little perspective and try to imagine a society in which graffiti vandalism was the wor st of teen-age crimes , a society in which 13-year-olds did not rape , murder an d mug . Who of us these days wouldn't settle for it over what we 've got ? LOOKING BACK Speaking of Memorial Day , I checked back to see where the Dow Jon es industrial average closed on the day before the end-of-May holiday in past ye ars . Last year 3,527.43 ; five years ago 2,475.55 ; a decade ago 1,107.10 ; 20 years ago 815.65 and 50 years ago 141.24 . LOOKING AHEAD `` Not used to the mark et 's wild daily swings ? Better put on a Dramamine patch . History suggests tha t this could be a very volatile year . The past two years were the least volatil e since World War II , and it 's interesting to note that nine of the 10 single or low-volatility periods were followed by a high-volatility year , where the tr ading range exceeded 23 percent . Translation : We could see a 900-point range b etween the Dow high and low this year . '' ( InvesTech newsletter ) IT 'S YOUR M ONEY `` The holdings of your bond fund may surprise you . There is a good chance today that any bond fund you buy , or may have bought , has gone beyond plain v anilla bonds into exotic securities known as derivatives . The use of derivative s concocted and complicated instruments based on the value of some underlying se curity is growing by leaps and bounds . Used blindly by a fund manager , they ce rtainly can increase the risk of a mutual fund investment . '' ( Financial World ) Ticker suggestion : Ask a lot of questions and read the prospectus carefully before buying any bond fund . THE DARK SIDE `` In the eight major declines we 'v e had since the end of World War II , the Dow Jones utilities have fallen roughl y 88.5 percent as much as the industrials . The utilities peaked last August 31 , and between that time and May 12 of this year , they lost a bit over 31 percen t . Therefore , even if the recent low of 177.04 turns out to be the final low f or the Dow Jones utility average , the Dow industrials will likely decline anoth er 1,062 points to a final bottom of 2,598 in late July before the bear market i s over . '' ( Michael O' Higgins , O' Higgins Asset Management , in Barron 's , May 23 ) SUN ALSO RISES `` The aggressive growth sector of the market is present ly making a very significant bottom , and this should set up a very nice advance in that area and the market as a whole this summer . '' ( Walter Deemer 's Stra tegies and Insights ) .. . `` When bonds and utilities start acting better , the stock market willn't be far behind . By our calculations , the tightening phase of the Fed should be almost over with . '' ( Wall Street Generalist ) . FRANKFURT , Germany Kissing their parents goodbye , hugging lunch boxes and not ebooks , 300 Jewish children pour into the I.E. Lichtigfeld primary school each morning through an iron gate and electric doors with bomb-proof glass . Police p atrol the streets around the school in the city 's lush West End neighborhood wh ile video cameras monitor its hallways . Inside , a few boys don yarmulkes and s it down with girls in ponytails for reading , writing and arithmetic , Hebrew an d Judaism . Throughout their lessons , the children address the particular dilem ma of being German and Jewish . `` In history classes , we speak of their famili es . They know their parents didn't have any aunts and uncles or grandparents , '' said Alexa Brum , director of Frankfurt 's only Jewish school . `` They also know that after awhile they will have to go out to gymnasium ( public high schoo l ) , '' she said . `` We teach them that it is absolutely normal to be Jewish a nd that they should be proud proud people who eventually have to decide if they want to integrate into this society or go elsewhere . Someday , they must make a decision . '' To stay or leave , integrate or isolate . These are the questions that plagued the Holocaust survivors who settled in Germany after the Nazi exte rmination of 6 million European Jews , and that once again weigh on their childr en and grandchildren who see a resurgence of anti-Semitism . Frankfurt is one of the most ethnically diverse cities in Germany and is home to a quarter of the r epublic 's 40,000 Jews . But even here , Jews say they increasingly feel unwelco me in their own country and , occasionally , threatened . Unified Germany is exp eriencing a growing sense of national pride that frightens many Jews for whom na tionalism harks back to the Third Reich . They see Europe 's most powerful count ry increasingly anxious that it will be diminished by European unity . And they watch a small but emboldened radical right finding resonance among Germans who s eek someone to blame for their severe economic problems including the highest un employment since World War II . In this climate , post-war taboos against racism and anti-Semitism are breaking down : In the last two years , Turkish immigrant s have been killed in arson attacks by rightists in Moeln and Solingen ; scores of Germans watched and applauded as arsonists set fire to a home for foreign asy lum-seekers in Rostock , and only two weeks ago , a mob of rightists and hooliga ns attacked Africans and destroyed a restaurant owned by Turks in Magdeburg . On ce-anonymous hate mail has been sent to Jewish leaders with unabashed signatures . And neo-Nazis fire-bombed the synagogue in Luebeck on the eve of Passover the first such attack since the Nazis ' Kristallnacht rampage against Jews in 1938 . After the synagogue-burning , radical-rightist politician and former SS office r Franz Schoenhuber said Frankfurt 's Jewish leaders are to blame for anti-Semit ism in Germany . `` The rats have come out of the holes , '' Brum said . `` Ther e has always been anti-Semitism , but now they dare to say it out loud and dare to throw bombs . '' About half a million Jews lived in Germany before the Nazis were voted into power in 1933 . Nine years later , the 30,000-member Jewish comm unity in Frankfurt was officially decreed to have been eradicated . It had been a vibrant community of well-to-do German Jews who contributed financially and cu lturally to the city bankers , industrialists and intellectuals from the so-call ed Frankfurt School of social scientists and of Polish immigrants who provided c raftsmen and laborers . Liberal Frankfurt even had a Jewish mayor . `` Jews were not just tolerated , they were accepted , '' said Jewish author Valentin Senger . `` They were a part of Frankfurt . '' Within a couple years , the Nazis turne d the city against Jews , Gypsies and anyone who did not fit the Aryan ideal , a nd carted them off to concentration camps . Senger 's apparently was the only Je wish family to survive the Third Reich in Frankfurt , passing as non-Jews and wo rking in the Resistance . After the war , the British and Americans set up displ aced persons camps in Germany for survivors of Adolf Hitler 's concentration cam ps . One of them , Zeilsheim , provided the base for Frankfurt 's post-war Jewis h community , which today numbers about 6,500 . Most of the settlers were mercha nts and craftsmen from small Jewish communities in Poland who never meant to rem ain in Germany . They had children and reluctantly put down roots , reopening th e synagogue , a community center , a home for the elderly , a school for their c hildren . But they were always `` sitting on packed bags '' because they wished to leave or believed that one day they might have to leave . They wanted nothing to do with Germans , whom they considered immoral . Thus , the children of surv ivors were raised in a Jewish ghetto of post-war Germany with all its contradict ions . Their youth organizations encouraged them to move to Israel . Their paren ts would not let them date Gentiles . But they went to German high schools , spo ke German , held German passports . They were citizens of Germany exempted from military service as the offspring of Nazi victims . `` It was schizophrenic , '' said David Lieberberg , managing director of the popular music department at Fr ankfurt 's Old Opera House . `` My parents were always proud when I 'd come home from school with A's in German . '' But the minute his sister was caught with a German boyfriend , she was sent away to Israel . ( Begin optional trim ) Largel y Protestant and Roman Catholic Germany is a country with strict norms governing appearance and behavior . Jews generally have different biblical names and dark er complexions . They celebrate different religious holidays . And because of th is , German-born Jews are frequently asked where they come from . In adolescence , many children of survivors began to challenge their parents : Why did you com e to Germany ? Why did you stay ? Their parents did not have answers . They had stayed because they had stayed . Frankfurt Jews first emerged from isolation in the fall of 1985 in what became known internationally as the Fassbinder Affair . Reiner Werner Fassbinder 's play `` Garbage , the City and Death '' was to be s taged at a local theater , and Frankfurt 's Jews were outraged by a work they ju dged to be anti-Semitic . On opening night , they occupied the stage and closed the play down . For some , the public controversy marked the coming of age of th e German Jewish community . For others , it was another way of hiding , of quiet ing public discussion . In either case , it marked the emergence of Jewish leade rs who believed that Jews were in Germany to stay and must interact with the com munity at large . ( End optional trim ) To stay or leave , integrate or isolate . Younger Jews began to make peace with their German heritage and to accept that they belonged to two cultures . Their bags were unpacked they meant to stay in Germany . `` I grew up here , went to school here , read German books , German i s my mother tongue , '' said Josse Reich , 31 , the son of Holocaust survivors . `` I make fun of the Germans . I imitate them very well because I am them . '' At the Lichtigfeld school , children sing Jewish songs and celebrate their herit age unfazed by the tight security measures around them . But director Brum notes that 400 Russian Jewish families that were supposed to emigrate to Frankfurt th is year have not arrived . Many stayed in Russia or moved to Israel because they fear anti-Semitism in Germany . Brum , meanwhile , bought a small summer house in France a couple years ago that she says gives her family a sense of security a place to go `` if something happens '' in Germany . And many Jews born and rai sed in Frankfurt are beginning to ask themselves whether they should raise their children here . `` I don't want my children to live in fear , '' David Lieberbe rg worried aloud . `` I am German . I feel very German , '' added Reich . `` But since having a daughter a year ago , I don't know if I really want to stay now . '' MANAGUA , Nicaragua The last time President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro tried t o fire Gen. Humberto Ortega , the powerful army chief lashed out publicly at gov ernment officials for having `` sold out '' to pressure from Washington . He ref used to budge . Months later , Ortega has finally agreed to step down , having s uccessfully delayed his retirement date by more than a year . The Ortega episode underscores the difficulties the Chamorro government has experienced as it stru ggles to bring the army , dominated by leftist Sandinistas , under civilian cont rol . `` Nicaragua will have for the first time in its history a national army , clearly subordinated to civilian power , committed to the Constitution , that d oes not belong and is not subordinated to the interests of any political party o r social class , '' Chamorro said in a ceremony last week to announce Ortega 's departure . `` The years of armies that belong to parties , which made the birth of democracy so difficult in Nicaragua , are now behind us . '' In addition to changing the army chief , the government has finally drafted a long-awaited mili tary code that for the first time gives the president formal authority over the army commander . It also sets term limits for senior officers . Still , despite Chamorro 's stated intentions , Sandinista influence on the army will not end wi th Ortega 's departure next year . His likely successor is Maj. Gen. Joaquin Cua dra , another veteran Sandinista . And the entire officers corps remains Sandini sta . Chamorro defeated former President Daniel Ortega , Humberto 's brother , a nd the Sandinista Front in presidential elections in 1990 . She named herself De fense Minister but stunned her followers by retaining Humberto Ortega as army ch ief , saying his presence was necessary to ensure the peaceful downsizing of Nic aragua 's huge military apparatus . U.S. officials and Chamorro 's conservative critics denounced that decision , arguing that continued Sandinista control of t he army would forever limit the civilian president 's ability to govern . Demand ing Ortega 's removal , the critics maintained that the army could not become a professional and non-political force as long as he and other key Sandinistas rem ained in top positions . Sandinista domination of security forces was one of the reasons the United States gave for withholding millions of dollars in aid last year . Chamorro tried to dump Ortega in September , when she announced his retir ement at an Army Day ceremony . Shocked and furious , Ortega stormed up to the p resident and said she had exceeded her authority . She could not remove him , he told her . But now the two have negotiated what the Sandinista newspaper Barric ada called `` a dignified withdrawal . '' Ortega will formally step down on Feb. 21 , 1995 , the 100th anniversary of the birth of Augusto Cesar Sandino , the g uerrilla who fought U.S. Marines occupying Nicaragua in the 1920s and 1930s and for whom the Sandinista National Liberation Front is named . ( Optional add end ) `` The military has professed to be professional and non-political , and at th e same time we know that the whole corps of officers is Sandinista , '' said a d iplomat . `` It will be up to them to show they are professional and non-politic al . '' The Sandinista People 's Army swelled to become the largest army in Cent ral America during the 1980s , as it battled U.S.-backed Contra rebels . It has been reduced dramatically , according to government figures , from more than 85, 000 troops to 14,000 . It is not completely clear what finally forced Ortega to accept retirement now . However , he has told Nicaraguan reporters that he is in terested eventually in running for president . TORONTO Canada is being dragged reluctantly into a new confrontation over the f uture of French-speaking Quebec . In the last two weeks , political leaders and commentators across Canada have lobbed rhetorical grenades at each other over th e revived prospect of Quebec independence . Two factors have pushed Quebec back to the top of the national political agenda . First is the pending provincial el ection there , which by law must take place by fall . Virtually every poll shows the separatist Parti Quebecois leading the governing Liberal Party . PQ leader Jacques Parizeau has promised to begin laying the groundwork for separation imme diately upon his election and to hold a province-wide referendum on independence within 10 months of taking office . Second is the peripatetic Lucien Bouchard , leader of the Bloc Quebecois , the PQ 's separatist counterpart in the federal government in Ottawa . Bouchard has become an international evangelist for separ atism . Last week , Bouchard was in Paris seeking assurance of quick French reco gnition of an independent Quebec . He did not get it , at least publicly , but h e did get saturation coverage in the Canadian media . Earlier this month , he pr eached his separatist message in British Columbia and Alberta , the Canadian pol itical equivalent of proselytizing for vegetarianism at a Texas cattlemen 's con vention . Most of the resulting argument has focused not on whether Quebec ought to be allowed to secede most Canadians agree that 's for Quebecers to decide bu t what the terms of separation ought to be : What would the boundaries of the ne w country look like ? Should the native peoples of Quebec be permitted to opt ou t of independence and keep their lands in Canada ? What kind of economic relatio nship would Canada have with a sovereign Quebec ? The commentary suggests that t his could be a very nasty divorce indeed . `` To hell with common sense , one-si ded decency and compromise . You don't win a country that way and you shouldn't lose one , either , '' stormed columnist Peter C. Newman in the national news we ekly Maclean 's . In media interviews , British Columbia Premier Michael Harcour t predicted that his province would be `` the worst of enemies '' with an indepe ndent Quebec . Saskatchewan Premier Roy Romanow accused separatist leaders of pu lling a `` con job '' on Quebec voters by suggesting that separation would be si mple and painless . Ron Irwin , minister of Indian Affairs , declared that the f ederal government would back native organizations that repudiated Quebec indepen dence . Prime Minister Jean Chretien , who like his predecessors for 25 of the p ast 26 years is from Quebec , has sought to avoid the issue , saying he remains confident his fellow Quebecers ultimately will reject separation . That prompted Preston Manning of Alberta , leader of the opposition Reform Party , to accuse the government this week of `` sleepwalking toward a .. . constitutional crisis . '' ( Optional add end ) Quebec separatists argue that their French language an d culture cannot survive so long as they are a minority amid an English-speaking majority . The province 's relationship with the rest of the country has been a political tripwire throughout Canadian history . The traditional strategy has b een to defuse it through compromise , but the most recent attempts have failed a crimoniously . The 1990 Meech Lake agreement and the 1992 Charlottetown accord ( both named for the places they were negotiated ) proposed constitutional reform s aimed at securing Quebec 's special status within Canada . Both went unratifie d . In the end , most English-speaking Canadians thought Quebec was being given too much , and many Quebecers thought it was not enough . The result was the re- emergence of the Quebec independence movement after more than a decade in retrea t and heightened hostility in the rest of the country , especially the West . An alysts are divided on how the latest arguments might affect the upcoming Quebec election . Quebec voters have a history of unpredictability . In 1976 , they ele cted the late Rene Levesque , father of the separatist movement , premier . But four years later they voted down Levesque 's province-wide referendum on soverei gnty . Current polls show they might do it again . While the PQ is ahead of the Liberals , the surveys also show much more uncertainty about full separation . A poll over the weekend showed 52 percent opposed to independence . It could all add up to a year of wrenching political combat . WASHINGTON The top U.S. spokesman for Jaguar , the British luxury carmaker , ha s been suspended for using the word `` nigger '' at a Washington luncheon meetin g with journalists who cover the auto industry . Jaguar Vice President John Craw ford was suspended Wednesday by Jaguar 's owner , Ford Motor Co. , pending compl etion of an internal investigation of the incident . A Ford spokesman said it di d not learn of the incident until Tuesday night , explaining that Jaguar 's publ ic relations operation is independent of Dearborn , Mich.-based Ford . Ford offi cials called the incident `` unfortunate '' and said both companies deeply regre t it . `` It 's a very unpleasant situation ; the facts are fairly straightforwa rd , '' a Ford spokesman said Thursday . But he said the case goes beyond the me re facts . `` There is a governance issue with regard to our own company , '' he said . During a discussion of the federal luxury car tax in the United States , Crawford referred to rival Mercedes-Benz as `` the biggest nigger in the woodpi le . '' The incident was reported in Wednesday 's editions of USA Today . Crawfo rd has sent letters of apology to each reporter present at the luncheon , acknow ledging that he was guilty of `` gross insensitivity . '' He said the offending phrase was one that was commonly used in his native Australia and it `` just sli pped out . '' Washington Post reporter Warren Brown , who attended the May 12 me eting and was the only black in the room , said `` the phrasing was offensive . The context wasn't . '' Brown said Crawford was reaching for examples to show ho w different sides were lining up over the auto luxury-tax issue . `` In doing so , he used an unfortunate phrase , '' Brown said , `` comparing a competitor to `` the nigger in the woodpile . ' It was clear , from the context of his comment , that he meant no offense to me or any other black person . He later apologize d . I accepted . '' NEW YORK A day after top banking regulators told Congress they didn't want more legislative authority to supervise financial derivatives , two congressmen have introduced a bill to do precisely that . House Banking Committee Chairman Henry B . Gonzalez , D-Tex. , and ranking Republican Rep. Jim Leach of Iowa initiated a bill to protect the financial system and ensure that taxpayers will not have to bail out banks that might fail in a financial crisis because of large derivat ives obligations . Banks sell the complex , risk-laden financial instruments to corporations and speculators that are looking either to protect their investment s ' value or to take big bets . Unlike stocks , derivatives are contracts that d o not entitle holders to any stake in a business or its profits , but rather pay off if certain indexes reach designated levels . Gonzalez and Leach worry that banks eager for hefty fees from such deals might enter contracts with questionab le partners and lose vast amounts of money as banks and savings and loan associa tions did in real estate loans in the 1980s . The bill largely codifies regulato ry steps some banking regulators are already taking . `` The key is that they sh ould take a uniform approach to regulating and supervising derivatives activitie s , '' said a banking committee spokesman . Congressional sources said the bill 's chances of passage were unclear . The following editorial appeared in Friday 's Washington Post : Dolphins are pr otected by an American law that , according to a panel of experts , violates the rules of international trade . This decision will now accelerate the attacks on the revision of trade rules that some 120 countries have negotiated and that Co ngress is supposed to take up later this year . Some environmental organizations will brandish the ruling to argue that trade agreements threaten to undercut th e environmental protection laws . Some conservatives will use it to press their claim that the new trade agreement threatens American sovereignty . Both are wro ng . The dolphins are safe . This trade agreement does not and cannot nullify Am erican law on dolphins or anything else . But the United States may have to pay a price for enforcing this law . Why , environmentalists angrily ask , should th e country pay a price for the privilege of doing good ? Since this case is turni ng into an ideological cause , it 's worth a careful look . Dolphins , in some p arts of the Pacific , tend to swim above schools of tuna . Commercial fishermen throw-or used to throw-vast nets around the dolphins to get the tuna , killing a ll of them together . Congress enacted legislation that not only outlawed that p ractice among American fishermen but banned imports of foreign tuna caught that way . It 's the ban that violates the trade rules . The General Agreement on Tar iffs and Trade says one country can't penalize goods from another because of the way they were produced . Why ? Because it creates much too easy an opportunity to invent high-minded reasons for flagrant protectionism . If there were an envi ronmental exception , a lot of European farmers would love to ban American wheat exports to Europe on grounds that their American competitors benefit from a che ap oil policy that encourages wasted resources and global warming . An environme ntal exception would impose particularly high costs on the world 's largest expo rter the United States . As a result , if the dolphin decision survives appeal , the United States will have to compensate the countries that are complaining . It can give them trade concessions equal to the value of the tuna sales they are losing . There 's also a better solution , and this case illustrates it . Two y ears ago most of the countries that fish for tuna in the Pacific agreed to prote ct the dolphins under a stringent schedule that will push dolphin kills down clo se to zero by the end of the decade . At that point , the trade issue will vanis h . The world 's environment will be best protected by this kind of cooperation , not by trade fights . HOLLYWOOD Fox 's historic raid on eight CBS affiliates this week could cause se rious problems for Paramount and Warner Bros. as they try to launch their own fi fth networks next year . With CBS on the prowl to replace the affiliates it is l osing in such key markets as Detroit , Atlanta and Cleveland , those stations th at presently intend to align with Paramount 's or the WB network have become obv ious targets , analysts say . `` Stations that were going to be a Paramount or W B affiliates now have the option of going with CBS , '' said Matt Shapiro , a vi ce president at MMT Sales Inc. , who advises stations on programming . `` You ha ve to assume that , given the choice , somebody is going to go with an establish ed network rather than a start-up . '' With the exception of Paramount 's announ cement that it would use its spin-off `` Star Trek : Voyager '' series as the an chor for its network , neither company has disclosed much about its programming plans so far . The Paramount Network , which is a joint venture with TV station group Chris-Craft , plans to go on the air with two nights of programming in Jan uary . WB is starting with one night and says it will expand to two by the end o f the year . Paramount and Warner Bros. have been competing to sign up independe nt TV stations around the country . So far Paramount has aligned with 36 affilia tes covering 47 percent of U.S. TV homes , and WB has signed 22 affiliates along with cable TV channel WGN-TV that WB says will give it exposure to 73 percent o f all TV homes . The problem is that there are only a limited number of TV stati ons in every market , so that an affiliation swap can set off a chain reaction o f other switches . The smaller the market , the fewer the available outlets and the more likely that a Paramout or WB affiliate is at risk . Each of the major b roadcast networks has slightly more than 200 affiliates , but the top 30 markets account for 50 percent of all TV households . Since the networks own the majori ty of affiliates in the top 10 markets , the battleground will be in the 10th to 30th biggest markets . For example , in St. Louis ( market No. 18 ) , the ABC a ffiliate KTVI-TV will become a Fox affiliate , forcing ABC to seek another outle t in that market . And in Phoenix ( the 20th biggest market ) , WB has affiliate d with KPHO-TV . Paramount will partner with KUTP , which will not change since the station is owned by its partner Chris-Craft . CBS affiliate KSAZ-TV will bec ome the Fox affiliate , leaving CBS the choice of picking up former Fox partner KNXV-TV , which is on Channel 15 , or going after the more desirable KPHO-TV , C hannel 5 . Should CBS make a run on the ABC or NBC affiliates , whichever networ k is dislodged would also likely go after KPHO-TV before seeking the UHF indepen dents in the market . Jamie Kellner , the former president of Fox Broadcasting w ho was integral in launching the fourth network and is now president of WB , sai d fears that the Fox raid on CBS affiliates will affect either WB or Paramount i s `` silly . '' Kellner said the four other networks have already picked off `` the best stations , '' and CBS will `` poach '' ABC and NBC affiliates . But the situation promises to get even more complicated in the months ahead . Fox Chair man Rupert Murdoch has told his station executives that he wants VHF affiliates in all of the top 30 markets . Murdoch has been trying to get Westinghouse to se ll to Fox its TV stations in Philadelphia , San Francisco and Baltimore all but one NBC affiliates but Westinghouse so far has refused . Some expect him to buy the Philadelphia station , however . And CBS , badly shaken by the surprise atta ck on its affiliates , was rumored Thursday to be mounting a counter bid for Arg yle Television Holding Inc. , part of the group of four TV stations that New Wor ld Communications Group is assembling to own 12 Fox affiliates . CBS Broadcast G roup President Howard Stringer , while downplaying the effect the raid would hav e on the network , said Thursday in a meeting with reporters that CBS would cons ider investing minority stakes in TV stations to secure affiliation agreements s ignaling the affiliate wars are far from over . Forget about Fred and Barney . If you really want to gauge how deeply the Flint stone phenomenon is ingrained on the American psyche , sing a few bars of `` Mee t the Flintstones '' and see how many people join in . Even more impressive is t he consistent quality of the other music featured on the original TV show . Skim through `` The Flintstones : Modern Stone-Age Melodies '' ( Rhino 71649 ) , and odds are you 'll know half the songs by heart , from the zippy `` Car Hop Song '' to the dippy `` Open Up Your Heart and Let the Sun Shine In . '' As such , th e real challenge facing the movie sound track `` The Flintstones : Music from Be drock '' ( MCA 11045 ) is how to update the old songs without losing their charm in the process . Frankly , it 's harder than it looks . Although the aptly rena med BC-52 's try to get into the spirit of the thing , their `` ( Meet ) the Fli ntstones '' owes more of its charm to the vintage sound bites than to the overwr ought yowling of Kate Pierson and Fred Schneider . Worse , the only other songs on the album that come close to being memorable are borrowed oldies like `` Walk the Dinosaur '' by Was Not Was or `` Weird Al '' Yankovic 's hysterical Red Hot Chili Peppers parody , `` Bedrock Anthem . '' -0- Because Erasure owes its repu tation to a mix of synthesized soul and over-the-top pop , it 's hard to think o f the duo as being especially subtle ; the campy tribute of `` Abba-esque '' see ms far more in character . But not only does `` I Say I Say I Say '' ( Mute/Elek tra 61633 ) bring an unexpected warmth to the group 's steady-as-a-second-hand p ulse , it infuses the music with a genuinely affecting romanticism . Naturally , much of that has to do with Andy Bell 's lusciously expressive singing , which adds an enormous amount of heart to everything , from the warm , soaring chorus of `` Always '' to the soulful strains of `` Take Me Back . '' But it 's Vince C larke 's canny electronics that ultimately carry the day , softening techno-edge d groove of `` Run to the Sun '' and filling `` Blues Away '' with such warmth t hat it 's easy to forget he 's doing it all with synthesizers . A revelation . - 0- There 's no denying that Heavy D and the Boyz command the respect of their pe ers , but is it really necessary to open `` Nuttin ' But Love '' ( MCA/Uptown 10 998 ) with five minutes of famous friends paying their respects ? A far better s tart would be to jump straight to the sassy , bass-driven groove of `` Sex Wit Y ou '' and take the album from there . True , the Heavster does rely a tad too mu ch on the tried-and-true here , stressing his good-guy image and playing `` The Overweight Lover '' to the hilt . But just as `` Something Goin ' On '' puts a f resh spin on the `` Heartbeat '' bassline or `` Got Me Waiting '' manages to rei nvent Luther Vandross ' `` Don't You Know That , '' the best moments here are en tertaining despite their seeming conservatism . -0- If all Collective Soul had t o offer on `` Hints Allegations and Things Left Unsaid '' ( Atlantic 82596 ) was `` Shine , '' the band 's debut would be well worth the money . Artfully combin ing the moody drama of post-R.E.M. . Southern rock with the over-amped grit of g runge , `` Shine '' is a pop gem , the sort of single you hear once in the morni ng and end up humming all day . But there 's more to the album than that . `` Lo ve Lifted Me '' shows what the band learned from the Beatles songbook , `` Heave n 's Already Here '' is a pleasant throwback to the singer/songwriter era , and `` Goodnight , Good Guy '' roars in with a powerhouse chorus and an instantly me morable guitar hook . Granted , the rest is mostly filler , but on the whole , i t 's a better beginning than most . Chrissie Hynde is afraid some people might have the wrong idea about her . She 's worried that they might have heard stories about her being a hard-nosed , dom ineering control freak or , worse , taken them as fact . They 're not . The lead er of the Pretenders may be a lot of things feisty , plain-spoken , irreverent , even politically incorrect but a control freak ? Not hardly . `` I don't want t o control my life , I want my life to control me , '' she says , over the phone from the New York offices of her record company . `` I 've always believed that if I allow my life to control me , then I can experience a great deal more than if I think that I 'm on top of it and I set my own agenda from year to year . '' That agenda doesn't always have to do with the usual rock 'n' roll priorities , either . At the moment , Hynde is in full road-mode , happily promoting her ban d 's new album and eager to start playing gigs again . But `` Last of the Indepe ndents '' is only the Pretenders ' second new album since 1987 , while this curr ent outing marks the band 's first tour in eight years . `` I 've had other thin gs to do for that eight years , '' she says , a mite defensively . `` It hasn't even been an option . '' She doesn't elaborate at least not right away . But as the conversation ambles on , she eventually admits that her chief priority for m uch of that time was to stay home and be a good mother to her two daughters . `` The last time I was on tour , I had two infants in baskets , '' she says . `` T here was the coach with the band , and then there was the coach with me and the kids . I can't sleep in a coach , over night , but the kids could . So that woul d mean that by 8 o' clock in the morning , I 'd already be totally irritable , j arred , jangled from driving and having done a show and not sleeping . And then Mary Poppins would come on . You know ? Not my idea of a rock tour . '' So Hynde just `` chilled out altogether , and attended to my first consideration , which was looking after my children . But now I 'm freed up . I can kind of do it a l ittle bit . So I 'm delighted . `` I mean , I adore my children above all else . Of course I do . But I 've got to rock . '' She pauses a second , and then adds , ominously , `` But ( the children ) have nothing to do with it . You willn't see them or hear from them . Nobody gets to meet them . Nobody has to know their name and who they are . And if anyone tries to .. . ' ' Hynde stops , trying to think up an appropriate threat . `` Well , I suggest just don't . '' Advice tak en . Hynde admits that it 's a ticklish situation for her to be in . `` It 's a package , '' she says . `` They come with me , in many ways . But they 're , you know .. . ' ' Of course , nobody ever said being a rock 'n' roll grown-up would be easy . There are times , Hynde says , when she worries that others might fin d her enthusiasm for the music a tad unseemly for someone her age . But she 's c ertainly not going to let that stop her . `` I 'm in my 40s , and I love it more than ever , '' she enthuses . `` So I will enjoy it . I 'll still go out and bu y pop papers . No one can stop me , it 's not illegal . If I want to say I love Urge Overkill and everyone turns around and says , ` Well , you 're retarded , ' fine . So be it . Allow me to be a rock 'n' roll retard for the rest of my life . `` Bear in mind that , after all , I am just a girl from Akron , Ohio . Like , I 'm nobody . And I can now stay in hotels in New York and stuff ? '' She laug hs , clearly delighted . `` I mean , my friends in Akron can't go and stay in a hotel in New York and just hang out and do the things that I do . They have to l ike , get to work in the morning and stuff . I caught the gold ring , man . '' ( Optional add end ) That 's one reason she doesn't mind many of the impositions that come with rock stardom . `` When I 'm asked to sign autographs and people s ay , ` isn't that a pain ? ' I say , ` No . ' When I write my name down on that piece of paper , I 'm signing a contract in my own mind that says , ` You do not have to go to work tomorrow . Sign here . ' `` I love this stuff , '' she conti nues . `` And I 've learned the art of pulling back and getting out of it as soo n as it starts seeming a little bit monotonous , as soon as it starts feeling li ke a career . I don't want to make it sound that I 'm so superficial that I can say that it 's all just good fun , don't take it seriously , because I 've never met a musician who doesn't take it very seriously . `` But it is entertainment , after all . And I 've decided that if I 'm going to be in entertainment , then I want to be entertained , too . '' Back when the Beastie Boys first bum-rushed the popular consciousness , their d etractors wanted to write them off as loudmouths with a lot of attitude but litt le real talent . Most figured the trio would be forgotten as soon as `` Fight fo r Your Right ( To Party ) '' fell off the charts . Guess again . Eight years lat er , the Beasties remain a force to be reckoned with , having expanded their hor izons to include everything from a genre-jumping live show to a burgeoning media empire . Start with the musical end . Although a growing number of rap acts now work with a live band , the Beasties are among the few that actually are a band , an approach the Beasties used heavily on the 1992 album `` Check Your Head . '' `` When we made ` Check Your Head , ' we were just coming off having not play ed our instruments for a while , '' explains bassist Adam `` MCA '' Yauch , over the phone from a tour stop in Toronto . `` So it was all real new . But after w e toured a lot , we got a lot more comfortable playing together as a band , with our percussion player and our keyboard player and everything . Things started j elling a little bit more . `` So when we went back into the studio to record the new album , it came a lot more naturally . It just happens a little easier when you 're playing together more . '' That album , `` Ill Communication '' ( which arrives in stores Tuesday ) , doesn't just benefit from a tighter band ; it als o boasts the sort of stylistic prowess that allows the Beasties to move easily f rom rock to punk to old-school funk . Making music isn't the only thing the Beas ties do these days , however . Among other things , the trio has launched its ow n magazine , Grand Royal . Although much of its content is music-oriented , the magazine is hardly as narrowly focused as mainstream periodicals , such as Spin or Vibe , as stories on George Clinton and the Pharcyde sit cheek by jowl with i tems on Bruce Lee , Joey Buttafuoco and Kiss . ( Optional add end ) `` I 'm surp rised at how homogenized mainstream press is , '' says Yauch . `` It 's really d irected at this one , watered-down thing that they think everyone 's interested in . I think that you need a little bit more of a personal touch on a lot of the stuff that 's going out these days . '' Part of that personal touch for Yauch i s coverage of the political and cultural situation in Tibet . `` My personal fee ling about it is that their approach to life and their way of understanding real ity is well in advance of most Western understanding , '' he says . `` And one o f the main reasons I think it 's such an important issue is ' cause , if we don' t get our approach to technology in check pretty soon , we 're going to destroy the planet . I see Westerners as really immature , with a lot of dangerous toys . If we don't get our minds and thinking in check , we 'll basically blow up the planet . `` So it seems like a good time to turn to the Tibetans . '' It was a decade ago , in the early days of America 's love affair with the mini van , that General Motors launched the Astro to compete against Chrysler Corp. ' s then nearly new Voyager and Caravan . Like the Ford Aerostar that arrived abou t the same time , the Astro is bigger than the Chrysler but never was serious co mpetition for it . The success of the Chryslers , you see , was based not just o n their ability to carry everything including the kitchen sink , but to do that and still ride comfortably and handle well enough to please people who don't muc h like driving trucks . The extended Astro , which is about 10 inches longer tha n the standard version , can carry about 20 cubic feet more stuff than the stand ard Astro , and 30 cubic feet more stuff than a stretched Chrysler , assuming al l three vehicles have their second and third rows of seating removed . An Astro can tow a 5,500-pound trailer , 2,000 pounds heavier than any Chrysler will pull . So the Astro and nearly identical GMC Safari offer impressive advantages for a very reasonable price ; our tester , packed with comfort and convenience optio ns , listed for $ 24,289 , with freight . The price one pays , unfortunately , f or the Astro 's more trucklike capabilities is a jouncier ride and clumsier hand ling than is provided by the Chryslers or GM 's own Lumina/TransSport/Silhouette line , for that matter despite chassis refinements for '94 . Although we 'd rat e the handling superior to that of any full-sized van , there 's more sway in co rnering , more body shake and more rear axle hop on bumps than in the smaller mi nivans adding up to a sense of being less in control than you 'd like when traff ic and road conditions are challenging . Back on the plus side , the all-wheel d rive , costing $ 2,300 , is a modern , full-time system . No complaints about th e engine , either ; even with a four-passenger load , hundreds of pounds of carg o , and the air conditioner going , it did an impressive job of maintaining spee d on long interstate upgrades and of keeping itself cool . The automatic transmi ssion works smoothly . Our tester 's four , extra-cost bucket seats proved comfo rtable even after several hours of driving . Controls and displays are well-desi gned , although sun glare sometimes makes the gauges difficult to read . Our tes ter 's `` dutch door '' tailgate , also at extra cost , is handy for loading in close quarters . The window hinges up , then the rest of the gate opens to the l eft and right in two sections . Standard-length Astros with rear-wheel drive beg in at about $ 17,000 with a 165-horsepower V-6 . Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service . Nissan makes au fait sedans for younger families and naughtier coupes for the h igher spirited who take their driving seriously . Bouncing between both demands , capable of romping or simply strolling through life , has been Nissan 's Maxim a . Visually .. . it 's a four-door sedan . Physically .. . it 's a high-ceiling ed sports car with a performance legacy that began in 1980 with an engine borrow ed from the 240Z sports car . Realistically .. . well , more than 90 percent of Nissan 's car sales are of socially acceptable sedans : Altima , Maxima and Sent ra . The company 's sporty coupes , the 240SX and the 300ZX , remain toys for a gymnastic minority . And as the high energies and fine handling of 130-mph four- doors such as Toyota Camry , Ford Taurus , Honda Accord and Chrysler 's first fa mily of LH cars become silky norms , the demand for sedans that snarl is no more . So the 1995 Maxima was built to paddle steadily toward the mainstream of mid- size . The legacy of every car in the new Maxima lineup remains hearty handling and V-6 athleticism . But they move with a quieter step while handling the irrit ations of traffic and road surfaces with higher sophistication . There 's even a maxi Maxima , all wood-trimmed elegance , lustered upper crust and puffy-leathe r softness very suggestive of Infiniti luxury . It takes , however , more than b etter mechanicals and Ritz-Carlton interiors to buck the best of today 's market . So Maxima , depending on the model , is priced between $ 700 and $ 2,500 lowe r than last year . More significant of the tussle ahead , they cost $ 900 to $ 2 ,000 less than the intended target : the V-6 Toyota Camry . Honda 's Accord stil l has the edge on price but even 1995 versions do not offer a V-6 engine . Ford Taurus underprices Maxima but its V-6 is skinnier by 50 horsepower . From two tr im levels of last year , Maxima has advanced to three with the addition being th at kinder , gentler , plushier sedan with a price tickling the velvet tootsies o f Mercedes C-Class . From a choice of two V-6s , Maxima has mellowed its power s ource to one lighter , more compact , double cam , 3.0-liter engine . It still p roduces 190 horsepower but runs cleaner , more economically and produces heftier torque . If bargain basements are your lifestyle , the Maxima GXE with manual t ransmission is your car and costs $ 19,999 . Those nines , of course , fool no o ne because base prices conveniently exclude unavoidable taxes , registration and destination charges . So get real and figure on more than $ 21,000 with an addi tional $ 999 or $ 1,000 to be on the safe side for a four-speed automatic . Ampl e goodies are standard on the GXE and include dual air bags , air conditioning , cruise control , power windows and steering , rear window defroster , cut pile carpets , dual mirrors and courtesy lighting from trunk to ashtray . Next in lin e at $ 20,999 or $ 22,000 with all the hidden bits is the manual-transmission Ma xima SE . This is a chariot for the warmer of blood who understand the real bene fits of stiffened shocks , firmer struts and stickier tires . Also for those who believe that a leather-wrapped steering wheel , body-colored door handles , rea r-deck spoiler , polished wheels and driving gloves are synonymous with speedy p rogress . Then there 's the Maxima GLE , our test car , which , if not the lap o f lady luxury , certainly lounges at her feet . The sticker of $ 24,199 c' mon , work out the true price among yourselves includes needless , therefore desirabl e , luxuries that are native customs on European cars . Such as leather seats , bun warmers , heated mirrors and a Bose compact disc sound system that will rupt ure eardrums two cars over . There is key-less entry , a thinking climate contro l , an automatic security system and other programs aimed at one day rendering t he human touch obsolete . Anti-lock brakes are a $ 995 option throughout the lin e . Strangely , Maxima styling , sketched by Nissan Design International in San Diego , is a flop . Head-on , the three-lip grille with blacked-out mesh is a da rk smirk from Morticia Addams . The car stands a little high , almost perching . The rear shrieks of Toyota Corolla . Heads do not turn at Maxima 's passage sim ply because in silhouette it makes only one positive statement : This is just an other Japanese car . The GLE 's interior has much more to say and , again , Infi niti is the language being spoken . Leather-faced seats are soft quality with a magnificent , eight-way driver 's chair that would adjust to Gumby . Walnut trim on the dashboard , center console and arm rests is deep and rich , albeit fake . And the switch gear works in deep whispers , not harsh clicks . These are comf ortable , friendly accommodations with understated touches to prevent luxury fro m becoming intimidating . Spaciousness , as Casey Stengel might have allowed , i s everywhere . Thanks to a longer wheelbase and compact suspension , cabin heigh t has been improved until front-seat occupants no longer need open the sun roof for additional headroom . There 's more leg , knee and shoulder space in the bac k seats . But a hand brake set to the right of the driver 's seat and barely thr ee inches from the face of the console is an exercise in clumsiness . It needs r elocating , at least shortening to keep from rasping and gouging a driver 's kne e . Alarm and central locking controls including remote-control opening of front windows to release solar-basted summer air work flawlessly . Also silently . A clearly audible chirp or kerchunk would be a better way of advising a departing owner that the Maxima is armed and secure . Performance remains Maxima 's might . It is not improved radically but has certainly been burnished carefully into a smoother , tighter , less strenuous package . Engine : 4.3-liter V-6 , 200 horsepower . Transmission : Four-speed automatic , all-wheel drive . Safety : Driver air bag , four-wheel antilock brakes . Weight : 4,241 pounds . Maximum Cargo Room : 170.4 cubic feet ( with second and third seats removed ) . Base Price : $ 19,701 , including destination charge . EPA Mil eage : 15 mpg city , 19 mpg highway . Cost : As tested , $ 26,633 ( includes automatic transmission , anti-lock brake s , two air bags , automatic climate control , cruise control , central locking and alarm , Bose compact disc sound system , sun roof , leather-faced seats and faux walnut trim . ) Engine : 3.0-liter , 24-valve , V-6 developing 190 horsepow er . Type : Front-engine , front-drive , sports sedan . Performance : 0-60 mph , with four-speed automatic , 9.2 seconds . Top speed , estimated , 130 mph . Fue l consumption , EPA city and highway , 21 and 28 mpg . Curb Weight : 3,097 pound s . WASHINGTON A Washington Post article may have left the impression that Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt chose the 7:30 a.m. time for a spe ech he delivered at a conference of the National Cable Television Association . It was the association that scheduled him for that time . LOS ANGELES Like surfers waiting for the next wave , booksellers are an anxious bunch these days . They know a big one is coming , they just don't know where o r when . From coast to coast , the book biz is abuzz with talk of a brave new co mputerized world . In the future , some experts predict , a tsunami-force wave o f CD-ROM technology and other innovations will wash through U.S. bookstores , dr amatically transforming the way texts are written , packaged , sold and read . W ithin years , they suggest , books will be more than hard-bound bestsellers or m ass-market paperbacks . They 'll be three-dimensional , sensory experiences on h ome computer screens that usher in a new era of literary information . You 'll j ust pop in a compact disk , turn on the laptop .. . and read . Few are predictin g the demise of books as we know them , because it 's hard to imagine your Power Book at the beach , or bedtime stories with the kids in front of an impersonal c omputer . But in a nation where 32 percent of all homes have PCs , the demand fo r electronic book products could become insatiable . `` There 's a change coming and we have to stake our claim to this new market , '' says Doug Dutton , owner of a Dutton 's Books in Los Angeles . `` Yet that 's all we know . We bookselle rs have a lot of questions about where we 're headed . '' They 'll be seeking an swers starting Saturday , when more than 30,000 publishers , authors , bookselle rs , agents and other vendors gather in Los Angeles for the annual American Book sellers Association convention . The four-day event is the largest book conferen ce in the English-speaking world . Much of the informal buzz is expected to focu s on electronic publishing , a relatively new branch of the book business that ' s gathering more force each year . For the first time , the ABA will be devoting a sizable chunk of convention floor space to computer book products . The marke t has clearly grabbed sellers ' attention but will they be able to ride the new wave ? `` That 's the $ 64,000 question , '' says Elisa Zachary , publisher of S imon & Schuster 's interactive division , which is less than a year old . `` You have to train people to sell these products , and consumers have to become more aware . Maybe they 've heard about electronic books . But they don't know much more . '' On the surface , it looks simple : CD-ROM technology records the text of a book on compact disk to be read on a computer screen . The experience is of ten enhanced with sound , graphics and material not found in the original book . The most dramatic feature of the new product , however , is interactive : It en ables people to `` talk back '' to the text with the mere click of a computer sw itch . From a creative standpoint , the possibilities are endless . In a future CD-ROM book , for example , readers could step into a novel , invent characters and change plots . The technology already exists for kids to watch Velociraptors crossing a Mongolian plain , as they click their way through a book about dinos aurs . History has been enhanced for many college students , who now can look up Hitler , Lenin or Stalin in an on-line encyclopedia and see grainy films of the m delivering speeches on home computer screens . Publishers are calling it the u ltimate marriage of reading and entertainment . But they caution that electronic books and their ilk are like many other futuristic products rolling down the ne w information superhighway . `` Right now it 's all talk and speculation , '' sa ys a high-ranking executive of a major American booksellers chain . `` Everybody knows the potential here is going to be vast and huge .. . but it 's up to cons umers to make this fly . '' ( Optional add end ) Currently , there are only a li mited number of CD-ROM book products on the market , ranging from the complete O xford English Dictionary to a group of children 's stories , including `` Just G randma and Me , '' which has sold more than 130,000 copies . Customers seeking t hem out in bookstores may be disappointed because many stores don't yet carry a full product line . Indeed , CD-ROM books are more typically found in computer s tores such as Egghead Software and Comp USA . Booksellers hope to correct that s o they don't lose the market . And publishers are also feeling the heat , becaus e they don't want to merely provide the back list of material for others to re-c reate on CD-ROM . For them , the big bucks will be in marketing and distribution . `` We 're rethinking what it means to be a publisher , and we 're trying to m ove as many products on paper into electronics , '' says Randi Benton , who runs the interactive computer division of Random House Inc. . `` But everybody has t o proceed cautiously , because there are some obvious business concerns . '' Suc h as : How do you bet the farm on a new medium when fewer than 5 million America n homes have CD-ROM technology in their computers ? Will enough customers buy el ectronic books that typically sell for $ 69.99 or more ? Most important , what h appens if compact disk technology becomes the eight-track tape of the 1990s an o bsolete hardware that 's overtaken by new gadgetry ? `` I don't think it really matters that much , '' says Bob Stein , a creative guru at the Voyager Co. , a N ew York-based company that creates CD-ROM books . `` Did the Beatles suffer when eight-track tapes gave way to cassettes ? They did just fine and so did their a udience . The point is , change will happen . `` You 're entering a whole new wo rld . Reading used to be something where you only used one of five senses , but now at least we 've added a second , which is hearing . We 've enlarged the band width , so to speak . `` And we 're going to see a time when many writers no lo nger just rely on the printed page to communicate . They 'll be using the comput er as a larger locus of expression . That 's where you 'll find our forward-look ing writers . '' The new technology also permits a richer look at the past . In the recently published diaries of Richard Nixon presidential aide H.R. Haldeman , for example , readers of the printed book can thumb through 684 pages of text . But the CD-ROM version just issued by Sony Electronics includes an expanded te xt as well as 45 minutes of rare home movies of Nixon shot by Haldeman . Booksel lers are watching and waiting to see how the new medium performs , but there are some preliminary indications it will be quite popular . Bernard Rath , ABA exec utive director , notes that the introduction of on-line encyclopedias has caused a 10 percent to 12 percent dip in sales of printed versions . `` It would be a shame if we don't seize the advantage and get in the forefront of this , '' he s ays . `` Our goal is to make the bookstore perceived as the place to go for info rmation or entertainment in any format . '' And the place to start , many say , is with kids . It 's no accident that Random House is emphasizing children 's pr oducts in its initial CD-ROM ventures . Next year , Dr. Seuss ' works will be av ailable on disk , through a joint venture with Random House and Broderbund . Thi s fall , Simon & Schuster will market a Star Trek junkies ' dream the operating manual for the USS Enterprise in a bold new computer format , replete with inter active gizmos , color graphics and vivid sound effects . `` Kids are sponges wit h computers , '' Random House 's Benton says . `` They absorb this stuff complet ely , with no fear . They have no barriers . So they 're a natural place for the first waves of this new medium to start appearing . '' 1 . `` Mrs. Doubtfire '' 2 . `` A Perfect World '' 3 . `` Carlito 's Way '' 4 . `` Malice '' 5 . `` Cool Runnings '' 6 . `` The Fugitive '' 7 . `` The Remains of the Day '' 8 . `` The Joy Luck Club '' 9 . `` What 's Love Got to Do With It '' 10 . Watching and listening to filmmakers Allen and Albert Hughes talk about their d ebut 1993 feature film , `` Menace II Society , '' on a new Criterion laser disc ( $ 100 ) takes commitment and a strong stomach . First , there is the raw film itself , seen for the first time in an unrated director 's cut . From the unspa ring , `` Sunset Blvd.''-style opening to the literal closing shot of `` Menace II Society , '' there is little question of the film 's resolution : violent dea th amid grinding hopelessness . Then there is the special supplementary material on this jam-packed laser disc in which each identical twin is given his own ana log sound track . To hear what they have to say about the making of `` Menace , '' you have to watch the film play out twice to give each brother a chance to ex plain , scene by grueling scene , how their bold vision was put on film . There is little doubt that we 're in the presence of two young , uncompromising filmma kers with much potential . The Hughes brothers were 20 when they co-directed `` Menace II Society , '' a film whose story they say they had thought about since they were 15 . The Criterion laser edition leaves almost nothing out : In additi on to the unrated film featuring material deleted from the theatrical release an d the two audio commentaries , the package includes the original theatrical trai ler ; two deleted scenes dropped in the final cut ; two music videos directed by the Hughes brothers ; excerpts from Albert Hughes ' Los Angeles City College st udent film , `` The Drive By , '' and the short , `` Menace to Society '' ; a vi deo interview with the Hugheses ; storyboards and storyboard-to-film comparison of key action sequences , and other production notes and documentation . In this home theater version , `` Menace '' unwinds with all the graphic violence that the MPAA insisted be removed to avoid an NC-17 rating . Even more than in the mo vie theater , the assault on the senses in the comfort of your living room ampli fies the harsh realities of this corner of urban life : young men living a nasty , short and brutish `` gangsta '' existence seemingly handed down from generati on to generation , with little done to break the cycle . For some , the raw lang uage and bullets tearing apart bodies may be too much ; for others , it may simp ly underscore the film 's point , in Allen 's words : `` The whole idea of the m ovie was to make people understand ; we wanted people to know what they 're thin king . '' And , he cautions , `` People shouldn't read too deep into this movie . We just wanted to make a movie that had some kind of morality . '' Albert says black audiences often had less trouble dealing with the violent subject matter than white audiences : `` They know it 's just a film , '' he says . ( `` Menace II Society , '' without supplementary material and deleted scenes , is also ava ilable in a letterboxed , single-disc CLV edition from Image Entertainment at $ 35 . ) -0- GROTESQUE CARNAGE : `` Man Bites Dog , '' the 1992 French film by Rem y Belvaux , Andre Bonzel and Benoit Poelvoorde , offers even more grotesque carn age than `` Menace '' in a director-approved Criterion edition ( $ 50 ) that inc ludes disgusting scenes excised by censors . An interview with the filmmakers at the end of the single disc makes the point that `` it 's not a film about viole nce , it 's a film about filmmaking . '' Shot in black-and-white with a hand-hel d camera as a document of the life and mind of a sociopathic killer , it 's been hailed as a sendup of reality-based docudrama films . Liner notes by Holly Will is also argue that assailing the film for its brutality `` completely misses the film 's point . '' That may be so , but it is hard to find much redemption in t his unrelenting series of murders and graphic rape , and even harder to watch fo r its full 92 minutes . There is little humanity involved here . In fact , `` Ma n Bites Dog '' makes `` Menace II Society '' look tame by comparison . -0- LASER BITS : New Movies Just Out : `` The Three Musketeers '' ( Disney , letterboxed , $ 40 ) ; `` Addams Family Values '' ( Paramount , letterboxed , $ 35 ) ; `` A P erfect World '' ( Warner , $ 40 ) ; `` Into the West '' ( Touchstone , $ 40 ) ; Columbia TriStar 's `` Mr. Jones '' ( Columbia TriStar , $ 35 ) ; `` Flesh and B one '' ( Paramount , $ 40 ) ; `` The Return of Jafar '' ( Disney , $ 30 ) ; `` R oboCop 3 '' ( Orion , $ 40 ) ; `` Glengarry Glen Ross '' ( Pioneer , $ 60 ) , wi th audio commentary by director James Foley and actor Jack Lemmon . Older Movies Just Out : `` My Friend Irma '' ( Paramount , $ 35 , 1949 ) with Marie Wilson a s the dumb blond in the film version of the radio series , featuring the film de but of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis ; `` The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes '' ( Image Entertainment , letterboxed , $ 60 , 1970 ) , with reconstructed material , directed by Billy Wilder and starring Robert Stephens . Upcoming video releases : `` Short Cuts '' ( Wednesday ) ; `` Wayne 's World 2 '' and `` My Life '' ( June 8 ) ; `` Ace Ventura : Pet Detective '' ( June 14 ) ; `` The Getaway , '' `` Dangerous Game '' and `` The Air Up There '' ( June 15 ) ; `` Six Degrees of Separation , '' `` Geronimo : An American Legend '' and `` Tombstone '' ( June 22 ) ; `` The Pelican Brief , '' `` Philadelphia , '' `` In the Name of the Father '' and `` Iron Will '' ( June 29 ) ; `` Grumpy Old Men , '' `` Sugar Hill , '' `` House Party 3 '' and `` Romeo Is Bleeding '' ( July 6 ) ; `` Sister Act 2 , '' `` Searching for Bobby Fischer , '' `` Blink , '' `` He aven and Earth '' and `` Car 54 , Where Are You ? '' ( July 13 ) ; `` On Deadly Ground '' and `` My Father the Hero '' ( July 20 ) ; `` Wrestling Ernest Hemingw ay , '' `` Cabin Boy '' and `` Blank Check '' ( July 27 ) ; `` Beethoven 's 2nd '' ( Aug. 9 ) ; `` Tim Burton 's The Nightmare Before Christmas '' ( Sept. 30 ) ; `` Jurassic Park '' ( Oct. 4 ) ; `` Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs '' ( Oct. 28 ) . Look for the interest in old World Mar II movies to skyrocket in the next few w eeks . The inspiration is the celebration of the 50th anniversary of D-day , the Allied invasion of Normandy June 6 , 1944 . Home-video retailers will be showca sing classic war movies to capitalize both on the media attention and the Father 's Day 's gift potential . The tape that 's getting the most attention is FoxVi deo 's `` The Longest Day , '' which just came out for the first time in a color ized version priced at $ 25 and featuring some Movietone newsreel footage of the invasion . This 1962 movie , probably the most elaborate war epic ever filmed , actually works better in color adding grandeur that 's missing from the black-a nd-white version . It includes nearly every male star of that era from John Wayn e and Robert Mitchum to Sal Mineo . FoxVideo also repackaged two other movies . One is another first-rate but less heralded film about the Normandy invasion , ` ` D-Day The Sixth of June , '' made in 1956 and starring Robert Taylor . Priced at $ 15 , it also includes newsreel footage . The other is 1970 's `` Patton , ' ' featuring George C. Scott 's Oscar-winning performance in the title role , at $ 30 . The hidden gem in this repackaged collection is `` Twelve O' Clock High , '' about American pilots in England during World War II . War-movie buffs love this 1949 movie , which has been hard to find in recent years . It stars Gregory Peck . -0- JACKIE TAPES : As you might expect , there are some Jackie Onassis v ideos on the way . Turner Home Entertainment , which markets CNN footage , is fi rst out of the box with a video homage to the late first lady `` Jackie : A Life '' ( Turner , $ 20 ) . You can order by mail , ( 800 ) 799-7676 , or wait until it shows up in stores in about a month . Turner is an old hand at rush-releasin g tapes . A few weeks ago , it marketed `` Richard Nixon : A Retrospective '' ju st after he died , for $ 20 , but through mail order only that same 800 number . Onassis ' death spurred New Horizons Video to change the release date of `` A W oman Named Jackie , '' the 1992 ABC miniseries starring Roma Downey in the title role . Originally scheduled for July 20 , it 's now coming out June 15 . Surpri singly , this three-tape set isn't bargain-priced for the sales market but will be available as a rental only . ABC Video , which rushed out a tape about Nixon , has no plans to do the same with Onassis . -0- FATHER 'S DAY TAPES : Sports vi deos on the market for Father 's Day : A hot one for golfing dads is Monarch 's `` Highlights of the 1994 Masters , '' due June 8 at $ 13 , including exclusive footage and interviews. .. . Though he 's no longer with the team , Dallas Cowbo ys ' fans will appreciate the glowing portrait of the notorious former coach in `` The Jimmy Johnson Story , '' focusing on his five years with Super Bowl champ s . Out on June 7 , $ 20 from PolyGram. .. . For the tennis fan who 's also into sports-blooper bits , `` Tennis ' Greatest Volleys and Follies '' features some good John McEnroe footage . For $ 20 from LIVE . -0- SPECIAL INTEREST : Roger M oore narrates the excellent biography , `` Audrey Hepburn Remembered , '' origin ally aired last fall on PBS . For $ 20 from MPI , ( 800 ) 323-0442 , it came out Wednesday. .. . Fascinating four-volume set , `` Lost Civilizations , '' from N ational Geographic for $ 70 . Included are tapes about Egypt and Italy 's Mount Vesuvius , but the best of the lot is `` Lost Kingdoms of the Maya. '' .. . Grea t swing drummer Gene Krupa is profiled in `` Jazz Legend Gene Krupa , '' narrate d by Steve Allen . Includes some interesting old clips of Krupa in action . For $ 40 from DCI , ( 800 ) 628-1528 . -0- WHAT 'S NEW : `` The Piano '' ( LIVE ) . In one of last year 's most acclaimed movies , a Scottish mute ( Holly Hunter ) journeys to New Zealand in the 1800s with her young daughter ( Anna Paquin ) to marry a kindly man ( Sam Neill ) . She loves playing the piano and creates a str ange romantic triangle when she teaches a lustful peasant ( Harvey Keitel ) how to play . Tense , slowly paced , well-acted drama , directed by Jane Campion . H unter and Paquin won well-deserved Oscars . `` Rudy '' ( Columbia TriStar ) . Se an Astin plays a scrappy young man who 's not really Notre Dame football materia l but is determined to make the team anyway . This is intended as a personal appeal to a colleague and friend , Supreme Court nominee Stephen Breyer . There are so many people who desperately need your und erstanding and compassion . The sad truth is that you are not only succeeding Ha rry Blackmun . You are the only potential successor to William Brennan , Thurgoo d Marshall , Earl Warren , William O . Douglas and the whole line of humanitaria n justices who understood the importance of compassion and the need to do justic e , not just administer law . There are lots of able technicians who understand law . The nation , however , is entitled to at least one justice with vision , w ith breadth , with idealism , with to say the word despised in the Clinton admin istration a `` liberal '' philosophy and an expansive approach to jurisprudence . Someone must carry on the work of the court 's great progressive thinkers the justices who ended `` de jure '' racial segregation , brought us one man/one vot e , opened the courts to the poor and needy , established the right to counsel f or all defendants , gave women true legal equality . It was progressive justices with a view of the Constitution as a living , breathing document who gave full measure to that instrument not the legal technocrats , not those whose view of t he Constitution was frozen as of 1789 . You have a wonderful opportunity and an awesome responsibility . You can be a narrow , cramped proceduralist like Felix Frankfurter , or you can seize the occasion and grow like a Warren , a Brennan , a Blackmun . You can be cold , purely intellectual and wholly technical , or yo u can become what the president said he was looking for a justice who is compass ionate , who has a big heart . I hope you will re-examine your judicial philosop hy . Everyone who goes on the court should . And when you emerge , I hope it wil l be to assume the mantle of the Brennan-Warren legacy . Otherwise , that voice will be silenced perhaps permanently . How ironic if that would be the enduring consequence of electing a president supported so strongly by the poor , the need y , minorities of all kinds . Anyway , I am most hopeful for the court and the c ountry with you there . Perhaps I 'm influenced by my personal feelings , but I believe that you will not let the spirit of liberalism be extinguished , that yo u will be a strong voice for a philosophy that now has no other means of express ion . It simply cannot be otherwise not after all that your spiritual predecesso rs have fought and struggled for , including the marvelous and caring justice fo r whom you clerked , Arthur Goldberg . You represent an awful lot of hopes , dre ams and aspirations a vision of a nation . For better or for worse , those who d epend on the court to protect their fundamental rights must now look to you . Yo u are their best and last hope . As I listened to the minority leader of the Sen ate say , `` He 's not as liberal as Blackmun , '' and as I heard Sen. Orrin G. Hatch , R-Utah , express his joy over your selection , I thought of how importan t it is to have scruples and convictions and to stick by them . How I hope that those who disdain the expansive and humanitarian philosophy of the Warren/Brenna n court have misread you . Conservatives who fight for what they believe in dese rve respect and admiration . It is hard to have those feelings for others who ar e easily intimidated , who fear controversy , who care only about compromise and consensus or their own success . There are plenty of centrists around . They no w represent the left of the court . While I rarely agree with Chief Justice Will iam H. Rehnquist , I respect him . When he was appointed to the court , he was a lone voice for a judicial philosophy of the right . He was regularly on the sho rt end of 8-1 votes , but he spoke for an important point of view and he almost single-handedly kept alive the principles in which he believed . They now domina te our judicial thinking . I don't expect you to be that successful , but at lea st give us a voice . The court has lots of intellect . While you will add to it , Justice Antonin Scalia represents abstract rationality well enough . But soul is important too . That is what makes greatness . HOLLYWOOD What are talk shows if not collections of fleeting moments some of wh ich are delectable , most of which run together like a monotone buzz that you li sten to without really hearing ? Drop the buzz , keep the highlights and you rea lly have something . So. .. . He-e-e-e-e-re 's `` Johnny Carson : His Favorite M oments from ` The Tonight Show. ' ' ' Carson has described his nearly 30 years o f bending America 's ear as `` just a helluva lot of fun . '' That also applies to this four-tape set from Buena Vista Home Video . It goes on sale Friday , iro nically just as Carson 's once-energized competitor Arsenio Hall is ending his o wn , skimpier run as a late-night host . Nothing gets more inflated than a eulog y . Celebs have been dropping by the syndicated `` Arsenio '' in advance of Frid ay night 's finale to assure him that he 's a giant of entertainment who will be widely missed . Carson heard much the same thing in 1992 during his last days , and , three decades earlier , so did the man Carson succeeded on `` The Tonight Show , '' Jack Paar . Judging by his dive in the Nielsen ratings , though , Hal l 's departure has been preceded by a fade to anonymity . The `` indelible '' me mory of Paar lasted only as long as it took Carson to launch his first one-liner . And the worshiped Carson himself despite his enormous impact as a television icon and a thread of continuity during momentous change in the United States was missed only a little longer . Like television itself , we 're creatures of the moment with short memories . There are just too many distractions . As TV-driven zombies , most of us are easily diverted by bells , whistles or any other loud noises . Nothing has been noisier of late than the duel of television 's late-ni ght commandos , Jay Leno and David Letterman . On CBS , `` Late Show With David Letterman '' has been a true phenomenon , and Leno on NBC has at at times creati vely used `` The Tonight Show '' to tap sources of humor distinct from the late- night talk and comedy of the Carson era . Just how distinct is evident from watc hing the Carson tapes , which , says an accompanying publicity blurb , will be t he only video retrospective of his show to be released . The first three tapes c an be purchased separately ( $ 15 each ) , but you have to buy the entire set fo r $ 60 to get the fourth tape , which is Carson 's final `` Tonight Show , '' br oadcast two years ago this week . The tapes opening with `` The Tonight Show '' originating from New York in black and white are a kick on several levels , one of which is historical . In only a few moments you 're returned to an earlier un iverse in which such names as Ethel Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey surface in Carso n 's monologues , and smoking was still the nasty habit of the TV multitudes ( B uddy Hackett , Flip Wilson , Dean Martin , George Gobel and the host himself are seen blithely puffing away ) . And who is that androgynous falsetto freak that we see a bowled-over , can't-believe-his-eyes-or-ears Carson greeting in 1968 ? Why , it 's none other than Tiny Tim . Yet he looks as quaint as a sweet old aun t and as mainstream as Peoria compared to 1994 's Prince or Michael Jackson . Mo st of the `` moments '' are in the still-funny-after-all-these-years category . There is Carson in 1968 face-to-face with Jack Webb in a `` Dragnet''-style ston e-faced talking-heads dialogue about a `` Copper Clapper Caper '' that could hav e been pulled from a contemporary police parody ; then a decade later as Mister Rogers , using mommy and daddy dolls to explain the birds and bees . And there h e is spoofing George C. Scott 's Gen. Patton , giving a stirring speech in front of an enormous U.S. flag . When the camera pulls back , you see that he 's been speaking to Girl Scouts . What strikes you , though , is just how little time i s devoted to traditional interviews , almost as an admission that the bulk of th em were too forgettable to earn a shot at posterity . Instead , Carson affirms h ere that he not only was a hair-trigger ad-libber but also was someone adept at shaping cleverly written material into hilarious physical comedy , whether as fa st-talking movie host Art Fern or as all-knowing , all-seeing Carnac the Magnifi cent ( `` Piggly wiggly : Describe Kermit 's wedding night '' ) . You particular ly appreciate just how gifted and instinctive he was as a physical comic when he elasticizes his gangly body when he comes under attack from the various exotic insects and animals brought on the show by Joan Embery , Jim Fowler and others . The tapes also showcase a slew of young stand-ups including Leno , Letterman an d Garry Shandling before they became major stars . In fact , all of Carson 's ho sts-in-waiting are memorialized here . Well , almost all . Johnny holds a grudge so long. .. . How long ? So long that former Carson favorite Joan Rivers who re portedly angered him deeply when she bolted `` The Tonight Show '' for her own c ompeting late-night series on Fox in 1986 is a non-person on these tapes . The e motional heart of `` His Favorite Moments '' is not the sign-off show a no-guest , anticlimactic sprawl of clips and various bits of nostalgia but the famous ne xt-to-last show that included a visibly moved Carson being serenaded by Bette Mi dler . It was a lovely , lingering , moist-eyed instant of television that seeme d to belie the fact that , for nearly all its life under Carson , `` The Tonight Show '' was nothing more than fluff . Which , of course , is why we watched it . NEW YORK Judith Krantz 's success with commercial novels rich in steamy sex and glamorous excess began in 1978 with her maiden effort , `` Scruples , '' the st ory of a swank boutique . `` Scruples Two '' came six books later , followed by the new `` Lovers '' ( Crown ) , a discrete conclusion to her trilogy that has m ore than 400,000 copies in print and will spawn an ABC miniseries . For all of K rantz 's fluency in conspicuous consumption `` my beat is not the lady next door '' the resident of pricey Bel Air , Calif. , confesses that she no longer has t ime to go out and shop on Rodeo Drive or anywhere else . `` I have managed to ac quire clothes , but in lightning forays , '' said Krantz , 67 , a diminutive gab ber who was clad during a recent New York visit in a muted green Chanel suit . ` ` J . Crew and J. Peterman are my favorite catalogs . And then I go to Chanel . They have a book of the spring and fall collections with swatches of fabric and designs , and drawings or photographs . I order from that . When it comes in , I go , I try the clothes on and I say , ` I can wear this on ` Larry King , ' wit h a black blouse ' .. . `` I used to shop for pleasure . Now I shop for televisi on . It 's a whole other world . When I couldn't afford it , I was shopping anyw ay .. . Now that I can more than afford it , I don't have the time . It 's not a really tragic story , but I don't have the time . `` At midnight , or 1 in the morning , I 'll call and have a chat with the friendly folks at J . Crew. It 's amazing what kind of a bill you can run up that way . '' Some of the phone opera tors recognize her name , she said , but `` all they want to know is the number of my Visa card . '' -0- Judith Regan has earned more newspaper and magazine cov erage than any book editor in history , or so it seems , mainly because she help ed turn manuscripts by Rush Limbaugh , Howard Stern and Kathie Lee Gifford into best-selling riches . Now , after much speculation about Regan 's plans , an ann ouncement this week revealed that Simon & Schuster has lost the hard-charging ed itor to Rupert Murdoch 's News Corp. and its subsidiary companies . The 40-year- old Regan will become a reporter for a Fox TV news magazine in development , she will start up Regan Books within HarperCollins Publishers and she will develop films for Twentieth Century-Fox . In a prepared statement , Murdoch said `` we e xpect great things from her as she branches out beyond the world of publishing . '' -0- One of the more surprising details in this week 's ocean of ink about th e late Jacqueline Onassis comes in The New Yorker ( May 30 ) , which devotes all of its `` Talk of the Town '' to memories of her and reveals that she , too , o nce wrote an unbylined piece for the section . Her article about New York 's Int ernational Center of Photography appeared Jan. 13 , 1975 . Who knew ? WASHINGTON D-Day : landingboats , dramatic action , a known and evil foe , full power , victory . Nothing has changed more in 50 years than the way in which we routinely tend to the global stability that was bought by massive commitment an d sacrifice in World War II . The United Nations peacekeeping operations now sca ttered around the world are everything D-Day was not : marginal , ambivalent , r agged , controversial . But how could it be otherwise ? And who would again want total war ? We must deal with the world we live in , and we live in a world whe re peacekeeping in its various forms is unavoidable and important to us . We hav e not done it well enough and as a result we face a certain crisis of internatio nalism . Bill Clinton is blamed for wobbling , Boutros Boutros-Ghali for overrea ching . But such criticisms miss the main point . The real trouble is that in th is time of relative safety and security for the favored nations , peacekeeping c an mean an unwelcome degree of personal risk to the forces taking part and polit ical risk to their sponsoring governments . Americans have spent the past few ye ars wrestling with this dilemma . The post-Cold War vista opened with the rosy a nd mistaken diagnosis that Soviet-American confrontation alone had kept the Unit ed Nations from ushering in a new world order . In the second , more sober stage we are seeing that the United Nations is not merely an irregular contributor to global stability but sometimes itself a contributor to disorder . The primary c ontributors to disorder are the governments and their challengers . But the deed s done by peacekeepers sometimes have the unintended but perverse effect of enab ling the parties to extend war and avoid peace . To use the United Nations as an instrument of relief , for example , sounds noble . But it can also encourage c ombatants to shift some part of their war budget to others and can spare them th e discipline of an early reckoning . Are we ready to use relief explicitly as a political lever ? The new pattern of ethnic wars makes this disturbing question increasingly difficult to evade . The international presence in Bosnia is being used by the Serbs in an effort to freeze their gains and by the Muslims to rever se their losses . This is understandable : They are at war . But peacekeepers le nd only themselves to the belligerents ' maneuvers when they make their own safe ty their first concern . In Bosnia , the United Nations now routinely softens NA TO 's ultimatums to avert expected Serb retaliation against exposed U.N. forces . This makes the world body a partner in diluting its own credibility and effect iveness . It gets worse when such limited self-defense as peacekeepers do conduc t is treated as a loss of neutrality . But Americans are poorly placed to compla in as long as American forces do not share the risks on the ground . The embarra ssment in Rwanda is scarcely less painful . The United Nations ' first response was to pull peacekeepers out , abandoning the helpless civilians it was ostensib ly there to protect . Some U.N. forces remain , but with both the Hutu army and Tutsi rebels threatening to fire upon them if they get in the way , they may not be there for long . It 's not `` the U.N. 's '' fault . A membership organizati on , it must heed members unwilling to take more than token casualties . But in that case , the talking part of the United Nations should stop issuing resolutio ns , instructions and promises premised on the notion that the peacekeeping forc e is a military juggernaut . The now-desultory discussion of tactics must get se rious . Ground forces might be reduced and air power brought to bear against the violators of U.N. decrees . Or forces might be increased and unleashed . Many p eople have already concluded that international peacekeeping involving the use o f force is a passing phase in global politics , a post-Cold War experiment that did not work out . But it 's early to throw in the towel . I think there is stil l a logic in proposals for a standby U.N. combat force that members had endowed with a mission and with suitable resources . Not that the members-sovereign stat es , after all-couldn't later take back their approval . But at least there woul d be an effort to deal with the real world of hard choices rather than a pretend world in which everybody acts as though peace comes for free . In any event , l et us not slip too casually and uncritically into D-Day celebration of a war tha t , after all , involved a global cataclysm and caused more than a quarter-milli on American combat deaths . It was horrible . We should be glad that our securit y and stability cares , though they use up our whole frazzle quotient , are triv ial compared with the challenges that America and its Allies faced and mastered in World War II . By James P. Pinkerton Special to Newsday The Clinton administration 's original plan for health-care alliances may be dead , but Washington pols are still stru ggling to assemble bureaucratic body parts into a Frankenstein 's monster that w ill carry them past the electoral finish line in November . Lightning struck in one political laboratory last week when the Senate Labor and Human Resources com mittee voted to piece together a National Health Board to establish a `` standar d benefits package '' for any health plan that might be forthcoming . This may h ave been a small victory for bipartisanship , but it was a big victory for the s ystem of simultaneous credit-taking and blame-shifting Congress has perfected . The board will empower both Democrats and Republicans to say what they want abou t how compassionate ( or thrifty ) they are , secure in the knowledge that a bun ch of bureaucrats will take the heat for defects of the ultimate health-care pro duct . Supporters of the board say it will control costs . But that 's not why t he Congress created it . The board 's real value is as a diversionary punching b ag . Citizens , sick from disease of the body and/or the wallet , will target fa celess apparatchiks , not a real-live elected official . The major reason that t he inflation of health-care costs has been diminishing in recent years is that p rivate-sector insurers have been squeezing benefits . Such cost-cutting is easy for business people ; they don't have to win popularity contests . But politicia ns do , and that means currying favor with those who can give them votes or mone y . Every special interest knows that the health board will be the Potomac equiv alent of one-stop shopping . Lobbyists will descend on it like vampires in the n ight ; groups that can't win their case in the daylight of either the free marke t or public opinion will suck what they want from the American jugular . In case you haven't noticed , all the incentives in Washington are to increase spending . Consider just one controversial issue that the Congress will delegate to the board : coverage for mental health . No rational lawmaker wants to vote `` again st '' the mentally ill , but nobody wants to be on record voting to pay for such expensive coverage , either . The George Washington University Medical Center h as been running ads in The Washington Post arguing for `` non-discriminatory inc lusion '' of mental-health treatment in any plan . The ad cites a study purporti ng to show that full treatment for depression would save the nation $ 35 billion a year in restored productivity . Maybe so . But bear in mind that the mental-h ealth community has every incentive to lowball cost estimates , secure in the kn owledge that once the program is in place it will be almost impossible to roll i t back , even if the projections turn out to be grotesquely wrong , as they were three decades ago with Medicare . Consider other candidates for `` non-discrimi natory inclusion '' : post-traumatic stress disorder , attention deficit disorde r , repressed memory of sexual abuse , multiple personalities and `` ghetto stre ss syndrome . '' Overnight , special pleaders for these ailments and more will s pring up , demanding their share of the federal pie . And , in the final irony , members of Congress will use all their influence on the board to help a favored constituency . That 's right : Congress will lobby its own creation , because t he final responsi-bility will still rest with the board . The point is not to si ngle out mental health for criticism . One could just as easily predict the inco me-optimizing advocacy of balding men , shamans and fallen-arch sufferers . The point is this : If Washington creates a political football , everyone will toss it around . The National Health Board willn't eliminate politics . It will merel y insulate the president and the Congress from the consequences of politics . After a half a dozen years in which he 's directed films , founded a record com pany and dabbled in worldbeat and orchestral music , David Byrne has finally got ten back to doing what he does best being himself . `` David Byrne '' ( Luaka Bo p/Sire 45558 ) marks the singer 's return to the wry , affectless writing style he perfected in his early work with Talking Heads . Like `` Uh-Oh Love Comes to Town '' or `` Don't Worry About the Government , '' the best of these songs are tuneful , plain-spoken and full of wonder , depicting his world with dreamlike c larity and understated wit . Simply put , it 's his strongest work in more than a decade . It 's also and this may not be entirely coincidental his simplest wor k in a long time . Ever since Newsweek declared him `` Rock 's Renaissance Man ' ' in the early '80s , Byrne has done his best to live up to that title , drawing on everything from dadaist poetry to Lucumi rites to show just how clever and e clectic he could be . This album , by contrast , has nothing to prove on that le vel . Byrne 's current band is a quartet ( bassist Paul Socolow , drummer Todd T urkisher and mallet percussionist Mauro Refosco are the other members ) , and `` David Byrne '' offers an appropriately trim sound . Gone are the blaring brass and roiling percussion of his last couple of touring bands ; gone , too , are th e worldbeat experiments that fueled his previous solo efforts , `` Rei Momo '' a nd `` Uh-Oh . '' In their place are the sort of arrangements Byrne used to rely on when he was still part of Talking Heads . `` Angels , '' for instance , opens with a rhythm vamp and recitation that recalls the opening verse of `` Once In a Lifetime , '' while `` Nothing At All , '' with its neatly harmonized chorus a nd coolly understated pulse , comes across as a close cousin to Talking Heads ol dies like `` Who Is It ? '' That 's not to say Byrne has begun repeating himself . For one thing , this new band has far greater range than the Heads did . It w ould be difficult , after all , to imagine the old Talking Heads maintaining the emotional balance of a song like `` Crash , '' in which rage and tenderness int ermingle in the roaring guitar and swirling percussion . Byrne 's new band handl es it easily . Moreover , the level of imagination in Byrne 's songs is well bey ond where it was when `` Talking Heads : 77 '' came out . In addition to its del iciously dreamy blend of guitar , marimba and synths , `` A Self-Made Man '' boa sts a hauntingly clever lyric about a future in which genetic engineering become s the domain of mobsters . `` And now we got a black market/A black market in de signer genes , '' sings Byrne . `` The most beautiful , most intelligent/Crimina ls you 've ever seen . '' Nor has Byrne entirely forgone his interest in global music . `` You and Eye , '' for instance , includes a nifty mbaqanga guitar brea k , while the dark , minor-key melody of `` Sad Song '' floats over a cushion of Afro-Cuban percussion . But this time around , those elements are mixed in more for spice than anything else . So although `` My Love Is You '' comes on as a s amba of sorts , what we hear is less an exercise in musical exoticism than a cle ver means of making the song seem romantic , even as Byrne skewers the conventio nal notion of love song sentiments . ( The tuba solo on the you're-a-jerk , I'm- a-jerk bridge is particularly brilliant . ) As a result , `` David Byrne '' allo ws the singer to have his cake , and eat it , too . By soft-pedaling his artisti c ambition and downplaying his cultural reach , he 's able to make music that 's as enjoyable as it is ingenious . It may be the smartest thing he 's ever done . The man sits in front of a camera . He 's wearing a red sweater and a down-home smile . He talks to us in soft , reassuring tones from a videotape produced by Jerry Falwell , the evangelist who would save America from itself , or at least from Bill Clinton . The man in the sweater does not seem like a nut case . At le ast , not immediately . His name is Larry Nichols . He 's from Arkansas . He is , to put it in the nicest terms , Clinton 's enemy . That 's probably a fair des cription of someone who basically accuses you of murder . That 's right . Anyone can accuse the president of womanizing I mean , who hasn't ? and Nichols surely can't resist himself . But it takes a special kind of person to throw murder in to the mix . Clinton has lots of enemies . You just have to take a run through t he AM-radio dial to find them and all the anti-Clinton bile they cough up on the talk shows . Clinton-bashing is as American as Rush Limbaugh . But Nichols take s the concept to a different level . He was anti-Clinton before there was an ant i-Clinton movement . A former Arkansas state employee , Nichols filed a lawsuit against Clinton in 1990 , making an assortment of charges , including chasing wo men on company time . He was around during the 1992 election , feeding reporters who came to Arkansas all the anti-Clinton material they could swallow . Now , w ith help from Falwell 's Liberty Alliance , he has upped the ante . Radio isn't good enough . Neither are your right-wing newsletters . Video is the medium of o ur time , as any TV evangelist could tell you . And for 43 bucks , Nichols comes directly to you on a video called `` Clinton 's Circle of Power . '' Yes , I kn ow that for 43 bucks you can buy copies of `` Jurassic Park '' and `` Aladdin '' and have enough left over for a couple of Happy Meals . But you get your money 's worth with this tape . Believe me . You get up close and personal with a smea r campaign . You get to see the get-Clinton boys at their get-down-and-dirty bes t . It makes you proud to be an American . In a lot of other countries , they 'd lock these people up . You see , Nichols doesn't simply catalog the bimbo explo sions or quote Arkansas state troopers or call Clinton a pathological liar . No , sir . He also flatly states that Hillary Clinton and Vince Foster were lovers . Then he accuses them of insider trading . Of course , he believes Foster was m urdered . You can hear that anywhere on the right-wing media circuit . Just like you can hear that Whitewater special prosecutor Robert Fiske , although a Repub lican , is a Clinton stooge . But Nichols is just getting warmed up . Right befo re he implies that Clinton might have some connection to a drug-smuggling ring , he strongly suggests Clinton may have been involved in what he calls get ready countless murders . Here 's the quote fresh from the tape , which may not be the `` Manchurian Candidate '' but is still your basic paranoid vision of America : `` People are dead in Arkansas . When I started this , I knew that I might be o ne of those unsolved mysteries in Arkansas . `` There are boys on railroad track s . There are countless and countless people who mysteriously died that , as it turned out , had some connection to Bill Clinton . I believe this is going on to day . '' This is when you hit the stop button on your remote . This is when you either laugh or throw something at the screen . This is when you say to yourself , `` OK , Bill Clinton may not be everything I wanted in a president , but I 'm pretty sure he 's not Billy the Kid . '' In fact , if you judge Clinton by his enemies , suddenly he looks like Abe Lincoln . Whenever I get down on the guy , I just jam the video into the VCR and , within five minutes , I 'm ready to re-e lect . Ask yourself : Are you ready to believe any of this ? Murder ? Drug smugg ling ? Slush funds ? Is this Bill Clinton we 're talking about or Manuel Noriega ? What 's real and what 's propaganda ? And just how far will Clinton 's enemie s go ? Falwell wants to have it both ways . He produces the tape . He appears at the end of it and implores `` God-fearing '' people to write their members of C ongress and demand full hearings . But when asked on CNN if he believed Clinton was a murderer , Falwell said , `` We 're simply saying these charges are being made , look at them and determine what is true . I am making no charges whatsoev er . '' You know , it 's too bad Falwell missed out on the McCarthy era . Of cou rse , McCarthy missed out on VCRs . ZZ Top went back to basics for its new album , `` Antenna . '' But the accompan ying tour is the most elaborate in the quarter-century of the `` little band fro m Texas . '' `` This time , we 've outdone ourselves for sure , '' says Frank Be ard , the band 's drummer . `` It 's really a cool production . It kind of follo ws the ` Antenna ' theme of the album , and we 've got elevators , moving cranes , sidewalks and cyberlights now. ... '' Cyberwhat ? `` Spots . Instead of follo w spots , it 's all automated now . Any little move you make , everybody sees it , '' he explains in his drawl . `` You have a little transmitter in your hat . If you just stand still , move your head back and forth , you can see the lights do the same thing . '' And if you tossed the hat into the audience , the spotli ght would follow it as well ? `` Yeah it would , '' says Beard , who , despite h is name , is the only cleanshaven member of the trio , rounded out by Billy Gibb ons and Dusty Hill . `` That would be a good gag . Except you 'd lose the transm itter , which costs about $ 1,000 . '' Replacing the spotlight operators , who s it precariously amid the light rigging on stage , is only natural for the band , which , on its 1983 `` Eliminator '' tour , appeared to kill off a lighting ope rator at the show 's climax . It makes you wonder whether there ever will be a p oint ZZ Top willn't be able to top itself . `` I don't know , '' Beard says . `` It 's rough for us not to do so much . It 's always been a ZZ thing or a Texas thing . We sit around saying , ` We could do this ; we could do that , ' and som eone else would get fired up . And we 'd end up going on tour with buffaloes and steers . '' People still talk about the menagerie that went out on the road wit h the elaborate 1975 `` Worldwide Texas Tour : Takin ' Texas to the People . '' Besides the hoofed animals , it also involved two rattlesnakes , tarantulas and buzzards . But everybody was just as happy to see the animals go , Beard says . `` We traded 'em in on dancers , '' he says , mentioning another ZZ Top trademar k . `` They 're easier to keep . '' With the dancers in the '80s came a slicker ZZ Top style , some amusing videos and a bigger-than-ever career with the blockb uster `` Eliminator '' and `` Afterburner '' albums a time when its music was sh amelessly augmented by synthesizer programs . And , as depicted in the new book `` Sharp Dressed Men '' by one-time crew member David Blayney ( Hyperion ) , Hil l once pretended to play synthesizer on stage for `` TV Dinners , '' while the r eal sound was on tape , fed by the sound crew . Beard says the band has been usi ng sequencers on stage for years , and it 's no big deal . `` You can sit there and push one note and play a whole song , '' he says . `` What 's more valid ? I f you have a machine that you can program the whole thing , and punch one button and it will sit there and go , ` dadda , dadda , dadda , dadda , ' or if you 'v e got somebody up there off to the side of the stage with two fingers going ` da dda , dadda , dadda , dadda ' ? What difference does it make ? '' There 's a lot less of that pulsing synthesizer sound on `` Antenna '' and in the new show . B ut not because it was planned that way . `` When we first started our writing se ssions for this record , we went into our little funky rehearsal studio down in Houston , '' Beard says . There , using drums , bass and guitar , they were surp rised at how quickly the songs came . `` It was like : ` Hey , this is a lot les s work doing it this way than it is messing with that piece of equipment over th ere . ' So we wrote the whole record that way . We didn't use the synthesizer as a main instrument on anything , '' Beard says . `` It 's easier to sit down and play and make up songs than to make up songs and then to program them . '' It m akes for less trouble on stage , too , where the trio can stretch out on songs r ather than be tied to a disembodied synthesizer track . Still , the group will t hrow in some of those '80s synthesizer favorites , Beard says . `` It 's gotten to the point where we 're going to make somebody mad every night anyway . We 're going to leave off somebody 's favorite . Last tour , we didn't do ` Cheap Sung lasses , ' and people were on us the whole tour . So this tour we 're doing ` Ch eap Sunglasses , ' but there 's something else that got left out . That comes fr om being around forever . '' ( Optional add end ) Of course , many bands would e nvy such fad-dodging longevity , which has been extended by a five-album deal wi th RCA at a figure that 's been reported to be from $ 30 million to $ 45 million . The band did it in part by capitalizing on the video form . The band 's lates t has it appearing as vampires in a `` Thriller''-style clip for `` Breakaway '' that 's also its most expensive . Once more , it will likely include visual clu es as obvious to fans as the sound of Gibbon 's guitar : a car , a set of keys , a group of models , a hand signal . `` For some reason , '' Beard says , `` whe n we started making videos , all we did was try to show what we were into . We a lready had a red car . So we thought , ` Let 's put the red car in the movies . ' It all just seemed to work out together for us where it became a rock 'n' roll icon . It wasn't like we 're super smart and we thought : ` Let 's build a car , and hire some girls . ' We had the car , and there were some girls hanging aro und , and we thought : ` Shoot , they 're prettier ' than we were , let 's featu re them , and we 'll just kind of watch . '' Most of all , they tried to keep th ings light . `` ZZ 's always been a fun band , more or less , '' Beard says . `` I don't like people who take themselves too serious and get up there and shake their hair and that kind of thing . I think if you watch a ZZ Top video , you 'r e going to smile somewhere in it . That 's all we care about . '' WASHINGTON Thomas J. McCullough of Albuquerque is as excited as any World War I I veteran about the series of stamps that the Postal Service started issuing in 1991 to mark the 50th anniversary of the war . But he 's got one big problem : N ot many people seem to be using the stamps for postage . McCullough , a retired sergeant first-class , uses them on all his mail and adds an urgent message abou t the stamps to all his envelopes . `` No one heralds their presence You must as k ! '' reads McCullough 's plea . `` Pearl Harbor was real . WWII did happen , h istory is in these stamps . Buy , save , use make them your ` Stamp of Approval. ' '' . Nevertheless , the Postal Service is pleased with profits from sales of the stamps . Unlike McCullough , most people who have purchased the World War II commemoratives have been putting them in scrapbooks rather than on envelopes . `` Hardly any veteran knows that ( the stamps ) exist , complained McCullough , 78 . Postal officials sell out so quickly `` you can't get 'em , '' he said . St amp art director Howard Paine , who has overseen the Postal Service 's five-year effort to commemorate the war , admits to being troubled by the paucity of stam ps being used for postage . To Paine and many other stamp artists there is no hi gher accolade than seeing their stamp designs on an envelope . That is proof , t he artists say , that the public accepts their work and appreciates the subject celebrated on a stamp . But few people at Postal Service Headquarters will conce de to worrying about whether stamps are used as postage . Since a stamp saved is 29 cents profit for the cash-strapped agency , the World War II stamps have bee n a big hit there . The World War II stamps are not as big as the Elvis Presley stamp , which hit $ 35 million in profit , but Azeezaly S. Jaffer , the Postal S ervice 's top stamp official , calls them an unqualified success . According to Jaffer , the first three sets of World War II stamps have yielded between $ 7.5 million and $ 10 million profit each . That 's enough to prompt Jaffer and other s to try to devise plans for a sequel . `` I think the stamps have been really e xciting. .. . There has been a tremendous outpouring of interest , especially fr om veterans groups , '' Jaffer said . `` I don't see a lot of World War II stamp s on mail , which tells me that people are buying these stamps and keeping them . '' On June 6 , the Postal Service will release 10 more stamps to commemorate t he war . As American officials gather in France to mark the 50th anniversary of the D-Day landing at Normandy , Postmaster General Marvin T. Runyon is scheduled to join President Clinton and other U.S. officials aboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington off the Normandy coast and dedicate the fourth set of Worl d War II stamps . Separate ceremonies will be held in Washington and 13 other ci ties that day to celebrate the new stamps . The official first-day cancellations will come from the USS Normandy , a guided missile cruiser , which is to be amo ng the U.S. ships off France June 6 . It will be only the third time that a U.S. stamp will have been dedicated outside the country , according to the Postal Se rvice . The first two were at stamp shows in 1978 and 1988 in Canada . The Norma ndy cancellation will be available at the National Postal Museum in Washington , where a ceremony with Secretary of Defense William J. Perry will commemorate th e release . The stamps also will go on sale June 6 at Fort Dix , N.J. ; Salt Lak e City ; New York City ; Clarksville , Tenn. ; Bangor , Maine ; Fort Campbell , Ky. ; Charleston , S.C. ; Virginia Beach and Richmond , Va. ; and three Texas lo cations : Fort Sam Houston , Lubbock and San Antonio . Like the other stamps in the series , this year 's set is being sold in special sheets that feature a col or map of the world highlighting the events that occurred 50 years ago . Titled `` 1944 : Road to Victory , '' this year 's stamps salute the Normandy invasion , retaking of New Guinea , bombing raids , airborne unit assaults , submarine wa rfare in the Pacific , the retaking of Rome , the attack on Saipan , the Red Bal l Express speeding supplies to the front , the Battle of Leyte Gulf , Bastogne a nd the Battle of the Bulge . To encourage more people to save the stamps , Jaffe r is planning to introduce a special `` Stamp Folio , '' a souvenir booklet that will hold all five sheets planned for the series . Booklets with the first four sheets will be sold by the Postal Service for $ 14.95 . The stamps were designe d by Bill Bond of Arlington , Va. , who painted all 50 stamps in the series . Th e Bureau of Engraving and Printing used offset and intaglio presses to create th e latest stamps . Individuals interested in securing the USS Normandy first-day cancellations of the World War II stamps should purchase the stamps at their local post office an d place them on address envelopes . These should be placed in a larger envelope and mailed to : Customer-Affixed Stamps , World War II Stamps , Postmaster , 900 Brentwood Rd. NE , Washington , DC 20066-9991 . All envelopes must be postmarke d by July 5 . The Chevrolet Corvette Club was upset . They misunderstood . They just didn't g et what I wrote recently about the way many people react to folks driving Corvet te convertibles and coupes . I wrote that there appears to be an undercurrent of public hostility toward Corvette drivers . This was from personal experience an d empirical observation . I get into a Corvette and cops follow me , folks cut m e off , women avert their eyes . God forbid that I cut someone off while driving a Corvette . I get the Ignoble Salute like nobody 's business . ISn't nothin ' wrong with the car and there probably isn't much wrong with Corvette drivers . I t 's a public perception thing . Corvettes , generally speaking , are seen as ma cho , aggressive , unfriendly . People respond accordingly . But how different i t is to be behind the wheel of a 1995 Volkswagen Cabrio . I drove one for a week and made lots of friends . People waved . Women winked . Cops passed me by with nary a notice . I even gave the Cabrio the Ultimate Motorized Public Acceptance Test . I inadvertently cut someone off in traffic in the District of Columbia a nd braced myself for some shouted expletive . But all I got was : `` Hey , man , you tryin ' to mess up that nice car ? '' I apologized . The dude waved . Nice , friendly reaction . Nice , friendly car . Background : Cars are about more tha n performance , as measured in 0-to-60 times , cornering ability , horsepower , torque and that type of stuff . Cars are also about attitude , which is somethin g that VW 's engineers and designers understand . From the very first Beetle rag top in 1955 to the current Cabrio model , VW 's people have given us simple , em braceable convertibles , cars that seem to run on optimism as much as fuel . It 's a joy to be in these things on a great day , tootling along with the top down . Of course , the guts are there in the new front-wheel-drive Cabrio albeit not in strong enough measure to please wannabe race car drivers . The car runs with a two-liter , in-line four-cylinder engine , rated 115 horsepower at 5,400 rpm . Maximum torque is 122 foot-pounds at 3,200 rpm . Standard brakes include power front-discs/rear drums with anti-lock backup . A roll bar is standard ( I prefe r to have it there ) . Dual air bags are standard , but VW jettisoned the glove box to get the passenger bag in . The standard transmission is five-speed manual ; a four-speed automatic is optional . The six-layer , vinyl-coated , convertib le cloth top is manual , but it works faster and better than many power models a t a substantially lower cost . Finally , the new Cabrio has an overall stiffer b ody than its predecessors and more interior space than a substantially pricier B MW 325i convertible . Complaints : No glove box . Practically nonexistent trunk at 7.8 cubic feet . Yo , somebody at VW forget something ? Praise : Ease of use . Overall quality of design and build . Ample rear seat room for two `` normal s ize '' adults . Great fun at an almost reasonable price . Head-turning quotient : Body beautiful by Karmann Coachworks , with rounded exterior , teardrop headla mps and high rear end . Way more cheers than jeers . Ride , acceleration and han dling : Firm , but comfortable ride . Crisp handling and good acceleration for n ormal drivers . Excellent braking . Mileage : About 26 miles per gallon ( 14.5-g allon tank , estimated 367-mile range on usable volume of required regular unlea ded ) , five-speed manual model , running mostly highway and driver only . Sound system : AM/FM stereo radio and cassette with optional compact disc player , Vo lkswagen Premium sound system . The first VW sound system I 've actually enjoyed . Price : Base price is $ 19,975 . Dealer 's invoice on base model is $ 18,161 . Price as tested is $ 21,710 , including $ 1,345 in options and a $ 390 destina tion charge . Purse-strings note : Compare with any subcompact convertible . For that matter , compare with some luxury convertibles including those from Audi , BMW and , ahm , Chevrolet . COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER , France Their graves run in parallel ranks on the bluff abo ve the bloody shingle called Omaha Beach , where so many of them fell . Row upon row of headstones fill the American cemetery here , more than 9,000 all told , each bone-white , each precisely 39 inches tall , each emblematic of a young lif e forfeited for a greater good . The grass has been clipped , the hedges trimmed , the marble scrubbed . And now the fallen wait amid the tranquility of this ha llowed ground for the return of their comrades . Fifty years after the Normandy landing , they await a last reunion of the quick and the dead . Normandy : the l egend long ago transcended the event itself , joining those other three-syllable battles Trafalgar , Gettysburg , Stalingrad whose names evoke valor , sacrifice and the steel-on-steel clash of irreconcilable adversaries . The invasion on Ju ne 6 , 1944 , is now woven into the warp and woof of our national mythology . It opened the majestic final act of what was known in an earlier age , without emb arrassment or irony , as the Great Crusade . It also marked , as historian H.P. Willmott wrote , `` the emergence of the United States as the major power in Wes tern Europe '' and `` the end of the period of European supremacy in the world t hat had existed for four centuries . '' Joseph Stalin , rarely given to effusive praise for his Western allies , declared that `` the history of warfare knows n o other like undertaking from the point of view of its scale , its conception an d its masterly execution . '' Military historian John Keegan , carefully calibra ting the losses endured by the Third Reich in Russia and North Africa , conclude d that Normandy `` ranked as the greatest military disaster Hitler had yet suffe red in the field . '' It was epic , heroic and decisive . Normandy was all of th ese things , and less . Significant as it was , the invasion came very late in t he war , forcing the Soviet Union to bear the brunt of the fight in Europe for t hree years and giving Moscow squatter 's rights to the eastern empire it would s oon occupy . The Normandy campaign itself was marred by sins of omission and com mission : intelligence shortcomings , questionable generalship , internecine bic kering and friendly-fire casualties on a scale unseen before or since . Notwiths tanding their ultimate success , the invaders failed to capture any of their ini tial objectives on D-Day ; indeed , the critical crossroads city of Caen would n ot fall for more than a month . For seven weeks , the opposing armies slugged it out toe-to-toe in fighting more reminiscent of static World War I combat with N orman hedgerows substituting for Verdun trenches than the mobile warfare commonl y associated with World War II . Foreshadowing the infamous epitaph from Vietnam `` we had to destroy the village in order to save it '' the liberators inflicte d massive damage throughout Normandy ; by summer 's end , about 15,000 French ci vilians would be killed and 200,000 buildings destroyed . German tenacity and ma rtial prowess though crippled by an oafish Nazi high command were often underest imated by the Allies , who ultimately prevailed through weight of numbers and ov erwhelming firepower . As Max Hastings , whose `` Overlord '' is among the defin itive accounts of the battle , wrote a decade ago , `` Whenever British or Ameri can troops met the Germans in anything like equal strength , the Germans prevail ed . '' Let none of it detract from the glory of those who fought and bled in go od faith and good cause . Fifty years ago this week , men who had never read a l ine of Shakespeare in their lives found themselves quoting `` Henry V '' to one another with bardic passion : He that outlives this day , and comes home safe Wi ll stand a-tiptoe when this day is named . They return this week for most , it w ill be a final return to stand once more a-tiptoe . -O- A generation before Norm andy , Sir Edward Grey had likened the United States to `` a gigantic boiler : o nce the fire is lighted under it there is no limit to the power it can generate . '' By 1944 , the boiler had been stoked again . Eleven million Americans were in military uniforms , including 2 million assigned to 90 combat divisions . Ame rican industry was turning out war materiel at a stupendous pace . Much of this power was concentrated on the task of liberating Europe . But how best to do it ? British leaders favored defeating Germany through a series of blows on the Thi rd Reich 's periphery ; Washington believed Allied clout should be concentrated in one staggering punch . The American strategy prevailed . A plan for the invas ion of Europe , code-named Overlord , was reviewed by President Franklin D. Roos evelt , Prime Minister Winston Churchill and their top generals at a conference in Quebec in August 1943 and again during meetings in Cairo and Tehran that wint er . The man chosen to lead the crusade had already commanded three successful a mphibious landings . As a relatively junior officer in March 1942 , Dwight D. Ei senhower had also drafted an early version of the attack plan , which called for an invasion of the continent in April 1943 by 30 U.S. and 18 British divisions 1.5 million men who would land between Le Havre and Boulogne and drive toward An twerp , Belgium . Eisenhower , historian Eric Larrabee wrote , `` came to Overlo rd as though born for it . '' Homespun and self-effacing , Eisenhower also posse ssed equilibrium , a deft political touch later described as `` hidden-hand lead ership '' and charisma . `` He had only to smile at you , '' British Field Marsh al Bernard Montgomery once admitted , `` and there was nothing you would not do for him . '' As supreme allied commander , Eisenhower was granted extraordinary autonomy when he established his headquarters in January 1944 in Bushy Park , ou tside London . Yet it often took more than smiles to exert his will . The most s erious confrontation involved the deployment of Allied air power . British and U .S. air chiefs favored a relentless bombing campaign against strategic targets i n Germany ; Eisenhower demanded that a substantial portion of the planes be dive rted to strike rail , road and other targets in northern France . Only by threat ening to resign did the supreme commander gain Roosevelt 's support and win the day . Eisenhower 's `` transportation plan , '' as it was called , ultimately pr evented rapid German reinforcement of the landing areas and `` was perhaps his g reatest single contribution to the success of Overlord , '' according to Eisenho wer 's biographer , Stephen Ambrose . The Overlord concept had been substantiall y revised since Eisenhower 's first rough cut in early 1942 . Under prodding fro m Montgomery , who would command the landing forces , the first wave of the Alli ed invasion force was increased from three divisions to five , while the attack zone was broadened from a 25-mile beachhead to 50 miles . The date , which had a lready slipped to the spring of 1944 to allow more training and the buildup of f orces in England , was pushed back another month , to early June , because anoth er 1,000 landing craft were needed to ferry the extra troops . The critical choi ce of a landing site , on what the Allied high command called `` the far shore , '' came somewhat through default . Allied intelligence had amassed an immense a mount of data on winds , tides and German defenses along the 3,500 miles of coas tline from Norway to Spain ; British citizens , responding to an official reques t broadcast by the BBC , had donated 10 million postcards and holiday snapshots , which permitted an Oxford University team to draw up detailed topographical ma ps . The most obvious location was the Pas de Calais , which offered the nearest point across the English Channel obvious too to the Germans , who placed their stoutest defenses around Calais . Normandy was chosen because its beaches were m ore sheltered , it had better exit routes leading inland and the defenses there were less robust . Even so , the assault faced formidable odds . Commanding the defenders in German Army Group B was Field Marshal Erwin Rommel , the Desert Fox of North African fame and perhaps the Wehrmacht 's most inventive general . Arr iving in France in December 1943 , Rommel had found Hitler 's supposedly impregn able Atlantic Wall to be poorly fortified , undermanned and porous . The average age of German defenders many of whom were actually Russian and Eastern European prisoners pressed into service was 37 . ( The average age of American troops on D-Day was 22 . ) With frenzied energy , Rommel began thickening the defenses . He ordered the sowing of 2 million mines a month and the construction of a half- million obstacles steel stakes , barbed-wire thickets , automatic flame throwers and booby traps along the beaches and in potential landing zones inland . Germa n strength in France increased from 46 divisions to 55 . Much of this was known to the Allies , who had the invaluable and top-secret advantage of being able to decrypt coded German radio traffic . These `` Ultra '' intercepts showed Anglo- American planners the strength and location of most enemy forces . While Allied assault forces rehearsed on replicas of the invasion beaches built at Slapton Sa nds in southwest England notwithstanding shoddy security , which permitted Germa n torpedo boats to attack a convoy in April 1944 , killing 749 troops Allied cou nterintelligence also sought to convince the Germans that the attack would come somewhere other than Normandy . In air and naval power , the Germans were hopele ssly outgunned . With 12,000 aircraft , the Allied air forces available over Nor mandy outnumbered the Luftwaffe better than 20 to 1 . On D-Day , Allied pilots w ould fly 14,674 sorties compared with only 319 for the Germans . The relentless bombardment of railway yards with 50,000 tons of high explosives not only disrup ted German military movements but also killed innumerable French civilians , inc luding 3,000 in a 48-hour period . A week before the invasion , Churchill warned Eisenhower 's deputy , `` You are piling up an awful lot of hatred . '' Also ha rassing the Germans was the French Resistance . Responding to two prearranged ra dio messages `` It is hot in Suez '' and `` The dice are on the table '' the Res istance cut rail lines in nearly 1,000 places and sabotaged hundreds of telephon e wires . Yet Overlord seemed so audacious , so pregnant with catastrophe that t he faint-hearted easily took counsel of their fears . The plan 's complexity cou ld be felt in the heft of an early operations order for the U.S. 1st Army , whic h contained more words than `` Gone With the Wind . '' Even Eisenhower gave way to defeatism , scribbling a note in anticipation of failure . `` I have withdraw n the troops , '' he wrote in part . `` If any blame or fault attaches to the at tempt , it is mine alone . '' -O- No apology was necessary . After postponing th e invasion a day because of heavy rain and high winds , Eisenhower gambled on a predicted break in the bad weather . `` I don't see how we can possibly do anyth ing else , '' he told his lieutenants . `` I am quite positive we must give the order . '' The order was given . As the late-summer twilight yielded to darkness , 24,000 men from three airborne divisions the British 6th and U.S. 82nd and 10 1st reported to 22 airfields in England and boarded 1,200 transport planes and g liders . Despite predictions from the Allied air chief that the divisions would suffer up to 70 percent casualties , Eisenhower and Montgomery believed the unit s were necessary to seal the flanks of the invasion zone from German counteratta ck . Much of the airborne assault was a courageous fiasco . Only two of the six U.S. parachute regiments landed where and when they were supposed to . Some sold iers drifted to earth 35 miles from their drop zones , while others were machine -gunned to death during the eternal 43 seconds it took to touch down from 700 fe et . Eighteen glider pilots from the 82nd Airborne were killed in the space of a few minutes . Yet the airborne forces won several tactical victories as well as strategic surprise . British glider troops brilliantly seized key bridges east of Caen ; far to the west , the Americans were first routed from the important c rossroads at Sainte-Mere-Eglise but later succeeded in capturing the town . `` T he very extent of its scatter , '' wrote Keegan , `` had multiplied the effect o f confusion in the German high command , preventing it from offering any organiz ed riposte . '' In the words of historian David Howarth , `` the Americans knew what was happening , but few of them knew where they were ; the Germans knew whe re they were , but none of them knew what was happening . '' As dawn broke , an armada of more than 3,000 Allied ships appeared through the Channel mist , steam ing through 10 lanes cleared by minesweepers . Two hundred of the vessels opened up with the most intense bombardment in naval history , their shells chewing hu ge divots still visible along the coast today . The assault had been timed for l ow tide to expose as many of Rommel 's underwater obstacles as possible . At 6:3 1 a.m. , only one minute behind schedule , the first landing craft dropped its r amp and soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division began wading 100 yards to Utah B each on the far western end of the invasion sector . Confusion and a strong curr ent had conspired to push the first wave more than a mile from the intended land ing zone . Theirs was a happy error ; the accidental beach was lightly defended . Brig. Gen. Theodore Roosevelt , 57-year-old son of the former president and th e only general to go ashore in the first wave , announced , `` We 're going to s tart the war from here . '' But 10 miles to the east , at Omaha Beach , the 1st and 29th Infantry Divisions found only death and misery . Undetected by Allied i ntelligence until the last minute , the Germans had more than doubled the forces on the bluffs fronting the beach . The defenders had barely been scratched by A llied aircraft , which , unable to see through the heavy clouds , dropped most o f their bombs far inland . In another intelligence failure , Army Rangers strugg led up the 100-foot cliffs of Pointe du Hoc between Utah and Omaha clawing at th e rock with grappling hooks , knives and fingers only to discover that the big g uns they were supposed to destroy had been moved . All but 90 of the original 22 5 Rangers were killed or wounded . Below on Omaha , terrified , seasick American soldiers fell by the score as machine-gun bullets whipped the water white , the n red . All 26 artillery guns in the first wave sank ; only two of 24 amphibious tanks made it ashore . Successive waves plunged grimly ahead , ignoring the shr ieks of drowning comrades . Bodies lay in windrows along the shoreline . Dead me n drifted on the making tide . Aboard the USS Aurora several miles offshore , Lt . Gen. Omar Bradley , commander of the U.S. 1st Army , concluded at 9 a.m. that `` our troops had suffered an irreversible catastrophe . '' A catastrophe yes , but not irreversible . Farther east , on beaches Gold , Juno and Sword , British and Canadian troops punched ashore on a 20-mile front against lighter defenses and over easier terrain . The Americans at Utah pressed toward Sainte-Mere-Eglis e . By nightfall , the British at Gold had penetrated six miles inland and linke d up with the Canadians from Juno within sight of Caen . By the end of D-Day , n early 175,000 troops were ashore at a cost of more than 10,000 casualties , of w hom about 2,500 were killed . ( Exact figures were never determined for either t he number of Allied soldiers landed in France by sea and air , or for casualties . Estimates of German deaths for the day range from 4,000 to 8,000 . ) The Alli es had their toehold on France . `` Overlord , '' Stalin cabled Churchill , `` i s a source of joy to us all . '' -O- Now came the hard part . Hitler had immeasu rably aided the Allied cause by fragmenting his command structure and personally retaining control over more than half of the German tank forces in Normandy . I n history 's most celebrated nap , the fuehrer went to bed in his Bavarian retre at at 4 a.m. on June 6 and slumbered undisturbed by his inner coterie of sycopha nts despite frantic pleas for armored reinforcements from his generals on the we stern front . Rommel , who had taken leave in Germany , immediately rushed back to France . But by the time he was in position to command his forces and Hitler had woken to the gravity of his predicament , it was too late to level the kind of devastating counterpunch against the beachhead that Rommel had long believed imperative . By now , the best the defenders could hope for was to keep the inva ders bottled up indefinitely , a task the Germans performed expertly for nearly three months . As the Germans had missed an opportunity , so had the Allies . `` A great amount of work , thought and intelligence-gathering had gone into the a ssault phase getting a toehold on the beach , '' Bradley later wrote . `` But no t nearly enough planning and intelligence-gathering had been devoted to the imme diate problems of exploitation of the beachhead . '' Although Montgomery insiste d for years that the campaign proceeded exactly according to his master plan , m any historians hold him responsible for the failure to seize Caen immediately an d plow through the disorganized defenders . Instead , the summer was spent launc hing a series of bloody and costly offensives that accomplished little . Operati on Goodwood , for example , gained the British seven miles of French soil at the expense of 6,000 casualties and 400 tanks . Other catastrophes intruded . A tre mendous storm in mid-June demolished one of the Allies ' two floating harbors , temporarily cutting resupply to a trickle . American fighter pilots mistakenly s trafed Canadian prisoners of war being marched toward Rennes , killing 15 ; erra nt American carpet bombing around Saint-Lo inflicted 814 American casualties and killed Lt. Gen. Lesley J. McNair . Such setbacks notwithstanding , the campaign and the war had effectively been won once the beachhead took root . Allied air superiority , Rommel complained , left German forces `` completely paralyzed '' during the day ; the 2nd Panzer Division took 17 days to move from Toulouse to N ormandy , normally a three-day trip . In a letter to his son , the field marshal bemoaned the loss of more men in a single day of Normandy fighting than in the entire summer of 1942 in the North African campaign . Cherbourg fell on June 27 . By July 2 , the Allies had 1 million soldiers and 172,000 vehicles on `` the f ar shore . '' The Russians tightened the noose around the Third Reich by launchi ng Operation Bagration on the eastern front with 1.7 million Soviet troops and 2 ,700 tanks . On July 25 , the Americans finally succeeded in breaking out of Nor mandy with Operation Cobra , spearheaded by the intrepid , pistol-packing Lt. Ge n. George S. Patton Jr. . Allied forces reached the Loire river on Aug. 13 ; les s than two weeks later , Paris was liberated . Asked for advice by Hitler 's hig h command , Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt , commander of German forces in the west , famously replied , `` Make peace , you idiots ! What else can you do ? ' ' -O- Not for many months would there be peace , except for the dead . Total cas ualties in the 80-day Normandy campaign are put at 637,000 , including prisoners of war , according to historian Carlo D' Este . The losses included 20,838 Amer icans killed and 94,881 wounded . The estimated German tally was 200,000 killed and wounded and another 200,000 captured . So many rotting bodies littered the N orman landscape that pilots 1,000 feet up covered their noses . By D' Este 's ca lculations , five German tank divisions and 20 infantry divisions had been destr oyed ; six other tank divisions and 12 infantry divisions were severely battered . Three German corps commanders and 20 division commanders had been killed , wo unded or captured . `` It was , '' Rommel grimly observed , `` one terrible bloo dletting . '' For the Allied victors , Normandy also sanctified the transatlanti c relationship , double-knotting the bonds of an alliance that would endure near ly five decades of Cold War and beyond . The landings brought to the continent t he first wave in an inexorable invasion of American culture , political influenc e and military leadership . And Normandy marked the beginning , agonizing though it was , of an enduring epoch of peace and stability in a Western Europe that i ncluded a peaceful , stable Germany . Tens of thousands who came to Normandy a h alf-century ago never left . There are 27 national cemeteries here containing th e mortal remains of American , British , Canadian , Polish and German veterans . In the middle of the Colleville cemetery , where four of every 10 U.S. soldiers who fell in Normandy are buried , a little chapel contains this inscription on the wall : Think not only upon their passing . Remember the glory of their spiri t . `` There 's a responsibility to pass the flame to successive generations , ' ' said Joseph P . Rivers , superintendent of the cemetery for the past 11 years . `` We can't let it fade away . A nation can't forget its history . '' COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER , France The British showed a particular genius for deceptio n , creating divisions and whole armies with fake radio traffic and cardboard mo ckups . Among the many diversions that would confuse the Germans on D-Day was Op eration Taxable , the dropping of dummy parachutists near Boulogne ; the dispens ing of clouds of radar-jamming foil that simulated a ship convoy moving toward C alais ; and the use of boats and electronic beacons to suggest an invasion force near Dieppe . President Clinton acted appropriately Thursday in decoupling human rights from trade policy in renewing most-favored-nation trading status for China . `` We ha ve reached the end of the usefulness of that policy , '' he said , and we must s adly agree . It was a difficult political decision , but one thoughtfully made i n recognition of the need to build a productive , long-term , strategic relation ship with China . A China engaged and open is far more desirable than a communis t giant in isolation . That is not to suggest that China has made vast improveme nts in human rights . It has not . Nor should the United States abandon the issu e . The president was unequivocally clear on two points : that the United States will continue to champion human rights and that abuses continue in China . But the attempt to leverage trade for improvements in human rights has fallen short . The question now is what is the best way to pursue human rights in China ? The issue is real , but it should not be the defining element in political , econom ic and security discussions with Beijing . Clinton now believes that advances in human rights are far more likely under improved relations and when they are not beneath the cloud of the annual MFN review . MFN is accorded the vast majority of U.S. trading partners without annual reviews . The status allows them to sell goods in the United States at the lowest possible tariffs . China 's MFN status was not subject to annual wrangling until after June , 1989 , when Chinese tank s rolled into Tian An Men Square in a bloody confrontation with pro-democracy de monstrators . Congress wanted China 's MFN renewal linked to human rights , but it was unable to prevail over President Bush 's preference for unfettered MFN . During the 1992 presidential campaign Bill Clinton accused Bush of `` coddling d ictators '' in China . Last year President Clinton renewed MFN for China with an executive order that required China to meet seven conditions , related to human rights , prison labor and emigration issues . Secretary of State Warren Christo pher certified that China had made improvements in two , but not the other five . That is probably because changing dynamics within China over the last year hav e slowed improvements . Tensions between the central government and the province s have widened with modernization ; further stress is resulting because , in lig ht of the ages of senior officials , changes in leadership are expected soon . W ith China in flux , Congress should support President Clinton 's balanced decisi on on MFN , thereby presenting a united U.S. front to Beijing . For Republicans , this off-year is getting very interesting . The party that lo st the presidential election usually makes some gains two years later . So Repub licans were expecting to pick up seats in the House of Representative just on th e basis of the historical form sheet . But two recent special elections have the party 's political leaders positively licking their chops . Early this month , Oklahoma voters filled a congressional vacancy with a Republican state legislato r , Frank D. Lucas , who was running against a Democrat , Dan Webber Jr. , a for mer aide to a U.S. senator . This district has not had a Republican representati ve in 20 years . Then last Tuesday in Kentucky , Republican Ron Lewis , an evang elical preacher and businessman , defeated former state Sen. Joseph W. Prather , a Democrat , to fill a vacancy in a district that has been safely Democratic fo r over a century . In Oklahoma , the winner stressed his conservatism and his op ponent 's ties to Washington . In Kentucky , the winner stressed his conservatis m and linked his opponent to the national Democratic Party . His best commercial went , `` If you like President Clinton , you 'll love Joe Prather . '' These s traws in the winds are deeply disturbing to Democratic incumbents , especially t hose in the even more conservative , more anti-Clinton districts south of the Bo rder States . Some Democratic leaders in the 11 states of the old Confederacy ar e so pessimistic about 1994 that they agree with Republican leaders who say the South might , for the first time , elect as many Republican representatives as D emocrats . There are presently 77 Democrats and 48 Republicans . A gain of 15 se ats would do the trick . A recent journalistic survey of just the eight Southeas tern states concluded that Democrats could lose 14 districts . Even with no Repu blican gains in the Southwest and the rest of the nation ( which is unlikely ) , a shift of just 14 seats in the House would probably give effective control of legislation to a conservative bloc in the House of Representatives uniting behin d the likes of Newt Gingrich . But can Republicans also make substantial gains i n the Senate ? Probably. Democrats have 21 seats up this year ( and one the next ) , compared to only 13 for the Republicans . The unexpected retirements of Geo rge Mitchell and David Boren , two Democratic shoo-ins for re-election , give Re publicans a good chance in Maine and Oklahoma . And Democratic Sen. Richard Shel by of Alabama is mulling over changing his party registration . If most of the a bove Republican wish list happens , Clinton 's legislative agenda will almost su rely be dead for 1995-1996 , and his own re-election chances threatened . For he alth care and other priorities , it may well be now or never . It started a few nights ago , a horrible dream that left me shaken and sweat-so aked and obsessing about .. . the Flintstones . They were all there in the dream : Fred and Wilma , Betty and Barney Rubble and all their annoying kids and grin ning domesticated dinosaurs , chasing me with flaming torches and yelling `` Yab ba-dabba-doo ! '' as we traversed some prehistoric suburban hell . And everywher e overhead there were huge , billowing clouds of smoke from a thousand pot-belli ed cavemen grilling big , greasy bronto-burgers . `` Why am I having this dream ? ! '' I asked my wife after one particularly bad episode . She said nothing . I n fact , when I looked over , she was lying there with her eyes closed . `` Oh , my God , she 's dead ! '' I screamed , leaping out of bed and sobbing hysterica lly . Then I realized it was 3 in the morning and she was probably just sleeping , which made me feel a lot better , although frankly the dream was still bother ing me . The point ( yes , yes , there is a point to all this ) is that there is no escaping the Flintstones anymore , not even when you sleep . After weeks of relentless hype , `` The Flintstones '' movie has finally opened . And if the tr ailers for this baby are any indication , it looks goofy enough to make `` The A ddams Family '' look like `` Citizen Kane . '' Naturally , the inevitable commer cialization has also begun , and we 're being asked to buy Flintstones backpacks , Flintstones lunch pails , Flintstones posters and all sorts of Flintstones to ys . The whole business is getting ugly . I was at McDonald 's the other day , a nd I asked the 16-year-old Metallica disciple behind the counter for a diet soda . Suddenly , his eyes shone with the eerie glow of the true company fanatic , a nd he said : `` You want a Bedrock mug ? '' `` I .. . just want a Diet Coke , '' I said . Which apparently was the wrong thing to say , because now he was pound ing his fist on the counter and almost shouting : `` But we have Bedrock mugs ! '' Bedrock mugs , Flintstones Happy Meals .. . our society keeps unraveling at a n astonishing pace . But this is what happens when a potential blockbuster movie is accompanied by a $ 100 million marketing campaign . People get carried away . In the New York Times , the movie 's director , Brian Levant , was quoted as s aying of the Flintstones : `` They are spokesmen , celebrated figures in our cul ture . You don't make a Pez dispenser out of just anyone . '' Well , no , but .. . does anyone else have a problem with the idea of Fred and Barney as spokesmen ? Me , when I think of a spokesman , I think of , oh , Henry Kissinger . Or may be James Earl Jones . I don't think of .. . Barney Rubble . Besides , I 'm not s ure how much clout Barney brings to the world of product endorsement . If I come out with a new line of , say , radial tires , I don't think I want Barney Rubbl e hawking them for me on TV . Look , maybe you can get away with plastering Barn ey 's homely mug on a children 's vitamin . But seeing it on a pair of Michelin P215/70SR14 's is not going to fill the average tire customer with confidence . This is probably neither here nor there , but I find this whole outbreak of Flin tstones mania puzzling , since the original TV series wasn't that hot to begin w ith . Let 's face it , Bedrock itself was a nothing little burg . A rock quarry , 20 or 30 dreary ranchers with a quarter-acre of property , that was about it . What was it Gertrude Stein said about Oakland : `` There 's no there there '' ? Look , Oakland is Paris in the springtime compared with Bedrock . Plus , let 's face it , Fred was an unbelievably dense human being who always seemed as if he 'd just had an anvil dropped on his head . Wilma 's voice sounded like a heavy appliance being dragged across linoleum . Betty could fill out a saber-toothed-t iger skin but seemed to operate in a giggly haze of prescription sedatives . And Barney .. . Barney was nothing more than a yes-man for Fred . Barney had no bac kbone . If Fred said jump , Barney said : `` How high ? '' Don't get me started on those bratty kids , either . Pebbles , Bam-Bam .. . this is why they used to build reform schools . The thing is , I 'll probably end up seeing `` The Flints tones '' like every other sucker . I 'll pony up 350 bucks , or whatever it cost s to drag three kids to see a movie these days . Then I 'll settle back with a b ig tub of popcorn soaked in artery-clogging coconut oil to see what all the fuss is about . I will not , however , be buying any Barney Rubble radials . WASHINGTON The Clinton administration , still working to fill the 325 top jobs in executive departments , is inching closer to its goal . But as of the end of April , 67 of those senior positions ( 20.6 percent ) remained unfilled and 41 h ad no nominees pending , according to a report by Rogelio Garcia of the Congress ional Research Service . The slowest departments to fill were Justice , with 37. 9 percent of its positions vacant , Treasury ( 30.4 percent ) and Transportation ( 30 percent ) . The speedsters were Housing and Urban Development and the Labo r Department , which had all positions filled by April 30 , and Health and Human Services , which had 94.7 percent filled . The United Nations allocated monies so that ships sailing through international waters could supply peoples around the world with food . This description of a hypothetical act of mercy may make you exclaim , `` Mercy ! I knew the U.N. was pluralistic , but why so many plurals ? Why not just say ` money , ' ` water ' a nd ` people ' ? '' True enough , there 's rarely a need to pluralize these colle ctive nouns . But when they are pluralized , it changes their meaning . The use of `` moneys '' ( or `` monies '' ) , for instance , implies that the moola in q uestion has either been acquired from several sources or distributed to several different recipients . `` Moneys '' is most often used when referring to spendin g by governments , corporations or international agencies . Thus , when there ar e two or more winners in a state lottery drawing , the lucky ticket holders coul d justifiably sing in unison , `` We 're in the monies ! '' Although some say th at `` monies '' is not a proper plural because there 's no singular `` mony , '' ( please , no letters from the public relations department at Mutual of New Yor k claiming otherwise ) , a tidy sum of others , believing that pluralization is a money-splendored thing , say `` monies '' is on the `` money . '' Now let 's s ail into troubled `` waters . '' `` Waters , '' of course , can simply be the pl ural of `` water . '' `` I don't want any of these waters , '' your son whines a t midnight , rejecting the five glasses that you , the Father of Waters , and yo ur wife `` Mrs. Sippie , '' have dutifully delivered to his bedside . But `` wat ers '' also carries three specific meanings : any body of water ( `` Cayuga 's w aters '' ) , a stretch of ocean under a political jurisdiction ( `` internationa l waters '' ) or the mineral water at a spa . ( Thus , Humphrey Bogart was not m isinformed , at least grammatically speaking , when he said , `` I came to Casab lanca for the waters . '' ) As for `` peoples , '' this word refers not to peopl e in general , but to a collection of entire cultures , religions and nations , such as the Ashanti people , the Navajo people and the French people . Thus , th e phrase `` supply peoples around the world '' implies that assistance is being given to people of many distinct cultures . Sometimes , to paraphase Barbra Stre isand , there are `` peoples who need people . '' A week from Monday , all eyes will be on Normandy for the 50th anniversary of o ne of history 's great moments , D-Day . Now , here 's a question : What importa nt 50th anniversary will occur two days earlier , on June 4 ? You 're hesitating . Nobody else seems to remember either . It 's the Allied liberation of Rome , the first enemy capital to fall . Both events are related . The final drive to R ome , and even the date it occurred , had a lot to do with Normandy . By keeping large German forces busy in Italy , Allied troops at great cost to themselves p ermitted the gigantic Normandy buildup to proceed . At the same time , the Allie d high command in Italy was determined to grab world attention in the hours befo re the landings in France would wipe the Italian campaign off the front pages . At that stage of the war , hopes were high that the twin blows within 48 hours o n two major battlefields would hasten Germany 's collapse . Of course , that did not happen . It took almost another year to reach V-E Day . So today Italy has become the Forgotten Front . Tens of thousands of veterans , families and friend s are expected to pack the Normandy beaches to celebrate that anniversary . But hardly anyone will notice a smaller gathering in Rome on Saturday at which survi vors of the Italian campaign commemorate the occasion . -O- Let 's look back . F rom the fall of '43 through half of '44 , thousands of GIs spent bloody months b attling Italy 's `` mud , mules and mountains '' as well as Germans . A lot of o ur guys are still there , in a handful of eerily quiet cemeteries . As early as September of '43 , Allied strategy included an attempt to reach Rome . The Itali an military chiefs had decided to depose Mussolini and desert their Nazi partner s , and they desperately wanted help against expected German vengeance when the double-cross became public . During secret negotiations that summer , the Allies agreed to drop the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division on Rome hours before Allied forc es began the invasion of Italy at Salerno 200 miles south of the capital . Deter mined to learn whether the Italians could protect his troops , Maj. Gen. Matthew Ridgway , the paratroop commander , had his deputy , Brig. Gen. Maxwell Taylor , slip secretly into Rome . At midnight , a few hours before Ridgway 's schedule d takeoff from Sicily , Taylor woke up the new head of government , Marshal Piet ro Badoglio . The sleepy Badoglio confirmed the worst : The Germans had seized c ontrol of Rome and the American paratroopers faced slaughter by some of Hitler ' s toughest battalions . As the clock ticked toward H-Hour , Taylor 's alarming m essage was relayed to Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower ; Ike ordered the mission aborte d , but Ridgway could not be reached at his Sicily headquarters . Ridgway began launching his paratroop-laden planes . But almost by a miracle , the cancellatio n message found him in time to call his boys back . `` It was a goddam close all , '' one participant in the drama recalled . Eisenhower later commented about T aylor 's mission into Rome : `` The risks he ran were greater than I asked any o ther agent or emissary to undertake during the war . .. . Every minute ( he ) wa s in imminent danger of discovery and death . '' After a desperate battle on the Salerno beaches , the invasion forces managed to move ahead and capture Naples in October . But German defenses stiffened during a deadly fall and winter . In January , the Allies carried out a successful end run with an amphibious landing at Anzio , but over-cautious leadership kept them pinned down for the next four months . Finally , in May , they broke out of the Anzio beachhead and began the race for Rome . Allied strategy called for British troops to advance into and t hrough the capital while American troops pursued and cut off the retreating Germ ans . But the 5th Army commander , Lt. Gen. Mark Clark , wanted Rome for the Ame ricans and above all for himself . An astute practitioner of public relations , he ordered the main body of U.S. forces to change course and speed to Rome . Maj . Gen. Geoffrey Keyes candidly told the Associated Press why Clark was in such a big hurry . `` France is going to be invaded , and we 've got to get this in th e papers before then . '' When a unit commander insisted his men would need the rest of the day to overcome German artillery , Keyes told him , `` That will not do . General Clark must be across the city limits by 4 o' clock . '' `` Why ? ' ' he was asked . `` Because he has to have a photograph taken . '' Clark reached the photogenic heights of Capitoline Hill in time to pose for pictures . On Jun e 6 , when a subordinate woke him up to give him the first bulletins of the Norm andy landings , Clark was heard to grumble , `` Those SOBs can't they even let u s have the headlines for one day ! '' Clark 's actions still cause controversy , bringing bitter criticism that he had sacrificed the opportunity to destroy Ger man forces for the prestige and publicity of being first into Rome . -O- I was o ne of six Army reporters for the GI newspaper Stars & Stripes who came into the city on the heels of the entering troops . We rushed over to Rome 's leading dai ly , Il Messaggero , and asked the staff to help us put out a paper . They were delighted but confessed they didn't know any English . We admitted we didn't kno w any Italian either . So while the fighting soldiers chased the Germans out of Rome , we writing soldiers went to work , filling the paper with our stories and accounts by civilian correspondents . As copies rolled off the presses , we gra bbed them and stood out on the broad , sunny boulevards of the Eternal City , ha nding them out to surprised GIs . Before the last German was gone from Rome , we had published the first issue of the Rome edition of Stars & Stripes , under th e headline , in big type , `` WE ' RE IN ROME . '' The next day , June 6 , world headlines exploded with Normandy landings , and our Stars & Stripes , in type t wice as big as the day before , screamed , `` INVASION . '' In those heady days it seemed reasonable to link the double Rome-Normandy punch to a quick end of th e war . A soldier in a weapons carrier put it this way : `` It willn't be long n ow till Jerry gives in , I hope . Rome and the Second Front will be too much for him . '' An Italian government official enthused : `` In three or four months f inito ! Now is a circle around Germany in Russia , Italy and France . '' But in fact the capture of the first enemy capital dwindled into a one-day story . The sizable press corps following the Italian campaign began to melt away , heading for Normandy . In coming months , with Lt. Gen. George Patton 's tanks blasting into Germany and a new invasion on the southern shores of France , the grinding war of attrition in northern Italy disappeared from public view . And so it has remained . Even during this 50th anniversary commemoration of World War II , Ita ly is virtually ignored . One list of ceremonies around the world grouped the fa ll of Rome with events in tiny Luxembourg and Poland where no Americans fought . But veterans of the Italian campaign are hoping for a pleasant change . With Pr esident Clinton 's decision to visit Rome and Anzio his only appearances outside Normandy the `` Forgotten Front '' will be remembered , at least for a day or t wo . -O- ( Paul Green , a former U.S. Senate staff member , represents Stars & S tripes on the Rome 1994 Committee , composed of units from the Italian campaign that will commemorate the 50th anniversary in Rome on Saturday . ) The rankings for hard-cover books in the Washington , D.C. , area as reported b y selected book stores : FICTION : 1 . THE CELESTINE PROPHECY , by James Redfiel d . 2 . THE CHAMBER , by John Grisham . 3 . INCA GOLD , by Clive Cussler . 4 . R EMEMBER ME , by Mary Higgins Clark . 5 . `` K '' IS FOR KILLER , by Sue Grafton . NON-FICTION : 1 . IN THE KITCHEN WITH ROSIE , by Rosie Daley . 2 . STANDING FI RM , by Dan Quayle . 3 . BEYOND PEACE , by Richard Nixon . 4 . EMBRACED BY THE L IGHT , by Betty J. Eadie with Curtis Taylor . 5 . THE HALDEMAN DIARIES , by H.R. . WASHINGTON While House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski , D-I ll. , agonizes over legal problems that threaten to end his political career , h is likely successor , Rep. Sam Gibbons , D-Fla. , has spent the week mending fen ces with the White House and sending unmistakable signals to his colleagues that he is anxious and ready to take charge . The jovial , avuncular Gibbons 's laid back political style and differing views on health care reform have left the Wh ite House and congressional Democratic leaders uneasy in recent days , as they c ontemplate the political realities of a post-Rostenkowski era . Without Rostenko wski at the helm , some fear , the Ways and Means Committee could badly splinter and President Clinton 's health care initiatives could flounder . `` He 's comp letely unengaged , '' complained an aide to the House Democratic leadership . `` He 's a nice guy and a smart guy , but he 's someone who hasn't put a lot of ti me into helping to organize in the House . '' But Gibbons , 74 , a former Florid a state legislator and decorated World War II veteran , insists that his critics have underestimated his organizational skills , dating to his work on President Lyndon B . Johnson 's war on poverty legislation . He assured the president and Hillary Rodham Clinton in separate conversations this week that he would set as ide his own views on reforming the health care system and vigorously push for pa ssage of the president 's plan before Congress adjourns this fall . `` There 's no doubt about it , I 'm totally on board , '' Gibbons said in an interview . `` The committee knows it , the Clintons know it and my district knows it . '' Gib bons co-sponsored legislation to create a national system of government-paid hea lth coverage through the Medicare program , a single-payer plan , contrasted wit h Clinton 's approach , which relies on employer mandates for funding . Gibbons 's bubbly enthusiasm and eagerness to take the committee 's reins has struck som e of Rostenkowski 's closest allies as a bit unseemly in light of the chairman ' s serious legal problems that potentially could lead to a prison sentence . But after 32 years in Congress , Gibbons , like other longtime veterans , believes h e is entitled to his day in the sun . `` There 's a deep regret my time had to c ome on the footsteps of someone else 's travail , '' Gibbons said . `` I like Ro sty , admire his ability as a legislator . He 's been very friendly with me and very supportive of some of the things I 've done . My heart bleeds for him and h is family . '' This week sources described the chances of Rostenkowski accepting a plea agreement as increasingly unlikely . Rostenkowski , who is said to be le aning toward fighting a lengthy court battle , may reach a decision on whether t o accept a plea agreement by the weekend , the sources said . U.S. Attorney Eric H . Holder Jr. has given the veteran lawmaker until Tuesday to accept a guilty plea to at least one felony and jail time or face almost certain indictment . Si nce the voters of Tampa , Fla. , first sent Gibbons to the House in 1962 , he ha s aspired to lead the Ways and Means Committee , which has jurisdiction over tax es , trade , Social Security , Medicare and more than half of federal spending . A moderate on most social issues , Gibbons is more conservative on economic mat ters . As chairman of the subcommittee on trade , he became a leading advocate o f free trade often an unpopular stance among House Democrats that became more fa shionable with Clinton 's election . Not until recently after Rostenkowski 's le gal problems escalated and other senior committee members indicated they would n ot attempt to challenge Gibbons did it become clear that Gibbons would likely fu lfill his wish to lead the committee . Two senior Democratic members of Ways and Means , Reps. Charles B . Rangel ( N.Y. ) , a committee powerhouse , and Fortne y `` Pete '' Stark ( Calif. ) , a leader in the health care reform debate , this week endorsed Gibbons for the post if Rostenkowski is forced to step aside . `` I would think he would be a good presider over the committee who would play by the rules , '' Stark said . `` Danny played by the rules too , but those two are very different , and the committee will operate differently but I 'm just not s ure how . '' But others warn that without the powerful Rostenkowski in command , the subcommittees may assume greater influence , diffusing power , which could compound the difficulty of passing out controversial legislation . Though his de tractors compare his style unfavorably to that of Rostenkowski , who for years f orged deals within the delicately balanced committee through a combination of pa tience , cajoling and occasional bullying , Gibbons is no shrinking violet . Fif ty years ago , he parachuted behind enemy lines as part of the first wave of the allied forces ' D-Day invasion of France , eluded 15 German soldiers and then p ulled together enough U.S. soldiers to secure the Douve River near the French to wn of Ste. Mere-Eglise. The young Army officer carried two cans of Schlitz beer in his backpack and shared them with two other soldiers . `` A warm beer on a co ol morning on an empty stomach , '' Gibbons recalled this week . Clinton selecte d Gibbons to represent him during part of the 50th anniversary commemoration of the invasion , beginning this weekend . Gibbons met with the president and histo rians Tuesday at the White House to recall his part in the invasion . As the ses sion ended , , Clinton treated Gibbons to a surprise : Two Schlitz delivered on a silver tray . Tired of paying a 4 percent or 5 percent upfront commission when you buy a mutu al fund from your broker ? Weary of worrying about withdrawal charges if you wan t to leave your fund before you 've been in there for five or six years ? If so , I 've got some good news for you . The mutual-fund industry is quickly marchin g down the path to a new kind of fund share , called the C share , or `` level-l oad '' share . When you buy a level-load share , you don't pay an upfront commis sion or face a withdrawal charge . Instead , you simply pay the fund an annual f ee of 1 percent . The new C shares join two older types of broker-sold fund shar es , now called A and B shares . To counter growing confusion about fund shares , the industry recently designated shares as Class A , B , C or D , depending on the sales charges and fees involved . The A share , which is the traditional fr ont-end `` load '' share , comes with the unnerving sight of a broker slicing of f a 4 or 5 percent commission before money is even invested . The B shares were created to avoid that pain and to allow an investor to keep his or her original investment intact . The B shares , however , have early-withdrawal charges and s o-called 12b-1 fees , used to pay brokers ' commissions . The costs of A and B s hares tend to even out after eight years . The emergence of C shares , according to fund executives , recognizes that many investors still resist paying commiss ions to buy mutual funds . C shares thus charge only an annual fee . The biggest advantage of C shares is that they give investors the freedom to change their m inds about where they want to keep their money without paying a penalty . Any in vestor who tends to be uncertain about his or her fund investments will understa nd how comforting it is to have that freedom . William E. Chapman , the executiv e vice president for marketing at Kemper Mutual Funds , which is adding C shares , said he thought they would appeal to investors in the same way some motorists prefer to lease a car rather than buy . Leasing , he noted , might be a better deal for a motorist who wanted the car for only a couple of years . While only a few companies have offered level-load shares up to now , that is changing . Jus t last week , Kemper and another major fund groups said they were getting into t he level-load business . The Calvert Group , which runs a family of social inves tment funds , added level-load shares to its stock and bond funds . Kemper said it was combining two groups of funds and , henceforth , 21 funds would offer inv estors three kinds of shares . The shares are similar to those offered by many c ompanies that sell funds through brokers . These are the Kemper offerings : Clas s A shares . The investor pays a maximum upfront commission or load of 5.75 perc ent . The amount is deducted before the money is invested . Class B shares . The re is no upfront load . However , an investor who leaves the fund before the end of six years will pay a declining withdrawal charge , which starts at 4 percent and goes down to zero . ( If you leave after six years , you pay no withdrawal charge . ) The investor also pays an ongoing 0.75 percent a year charge , known as a 12b-1 fee ( used to pay brokers ) , plus a 0.25 percent service fee a total of 1 percent . At the end of six years , the B shares convert to A shares and t he 12b-1 fee is dropped . Class C shares . There is no upfront sales charge or w ithdrawal fee , only an ongoing fee totaling 1 percent a year . This is composed of a 0.75 percent 12b-1 charge and a 0.25 percent service fee . Kemper says the se `` pay as you go '' shares are advantageous for investors who are likely to s tay in a fund for only three or four years . An investor who stayed in a level-l oad fund for 10 years would wind up paying more than an investor in either an A share or B share fund . As for brokers , C shares will give them their commissio ns over a period of years , instead of when they sell a fund . Some fund officia ls hope the greater ease of selling level-load shares will encourage brokers to accept delayed payments . ( The mutual-fund industry also has created a D class share , which is a lot like a C class , or level-load , share . However , a D sh are could also carry a small upfront sales charge . But that 's a story for anot her day . ) At Calvert , Vice President Steven J. Schueth said his company adopt ed level-load shares to help brokers compete with no-load funds , which sell by mail or phone and have no sales charges . `` The concept of level-load is not on ly here to stay but it is a trend that will pick up speed over the next couple y ears , '' Schueth said . Chapman said Kemper felt it was important , in a compet itive market , to give investors as many choices as possible . However , the lev el-load business may have potential hazards for investors and fund companies . T he danger to the investor involves full disclosure . The level-load share allows a broker to say : `` This fund has no sales charges . '' But it willn't be the whole story . The broker also must tell the investor : As long as you are in the fund , you will pay at least a 1 percent yearly charge , on top of the fund 's regular management fees . The danger to the fund company is that level-load inve stors will make too much use of their freedom to go in and out of the funds . So me observers have suggested these movements , especially during periods of marke t crisis , could require fund managers to hold cash to meet redemptions and poss ibly to sell securities into a declining market . That could prove costly to oth er shareholders . At Kemper , Chapman agreed level-load shareholders might be qu icker to change than others but said he did not think it would be a problem for managers . A recent study by Lipper Analytical Services Inc. of how bond-fund in vestors behaved during April lends some credence to the idea that level-load sha reholders are likely to flee faster than other shareholders when markets encount er turbulence . With interest rates rising and bond values falling , investors t ook more money out of bond funds in April than they put in . Lipper 's study fou nd that level-load investors were the most active group of redeemers , compared with investors who held A or B shares . Clearly , one of the major marketing the mes of this age is to give people more choices whether it is ice cream , yellow pages or mutual funds . The new level-load shares give investors a chance to cha nge their minds without paying a penalty . And that 's a great choice . WASHINGTON Quick . Name the inspector general at the Department of Transportati on . Name one at any agency . Known mostly to government bureaucrats and congres sional oversight committees , the average `` IG '' is an anonymous person lookin g over the shoulders of mostly anonymous government decision makers , regulators and contractors . It 's one of those nameless , faceless , but very powerful jo bs in Washington . But A . Mary Schiavo , 38 , inspector general at DOT since 19 90 , is making a name for herself , especially with the Federal Aviation Adminis tration . In the last year , the IG 's office at DOT has changed its focus from auditing obscure DOT contracts and programs to overseeing major programs and inv estigating safety-related issues . She says the new areas were `` big holes '' i n past IGs ' patrolling of the department 's halls . Though her staff has been r educed , Schiavo has issued 2,456 audit reports and has reeled in 149 indictment s and 95 convictions aggressive growth in the number of cases being pursued . Mu ch of this attention has gone to the FAA . Subjects include : How the FAA makes sure that only approved parts are used in aircraft maintenance and repair ( Schi avo 's high-profile `` bogus parts '' investigations ) ; security at airports ; a delayed computer modernization program ; aircraft and pilot inspections ; and how the FAA manages its fleet of vehicles ( she believes poorly ) . It 's not th at the FAA disagrees with all her findings . But it has complained about the qua lity of some of her work . The agency also points out that there has never been a crash of a major airliner related to `` bad '' parts and has sent her a 67-pag e response saying it continued to `` non-concur with many of the recommendations . '' And she was overruled by the Office of Government Ethics on a finding she made in a controversial case involving whether Frank Lorenzo , fallen airline em pire builder , should fly again . Schiavo , a licensed pilot and a seasoned pros ecutor ( most of her predecessors were auditors ) , is unfazed . `` We don't jus t want to be the time and attendance cops , '' she said . Sen. Wendell H. Ford , D-Ky. , an influential member of the Committee on Commerce , Science and Transp ortation , has put the brakes on the nomination of Ricardo Martinez as National Highway Transportation Safety administrator . Using one of the Senate 's most ti me-tested delay tactics , Ford placed a `` hold '' on Martinez 's nomination , w hich the Clinton administration advanced several months ago . Mark L . Day , a s pokesman for Ford , had no comment on the delay ; administration officials backi ng Martinez were similarly mum . That hasn't stopped the rumor mill . Speculatio n within the administration and on Capitol Hill is that Ford , who is from the b ourbon state , believes Martinez will be tough on drinking and driving due to hi s experience as an emergency-room physician in California and Georgia . Others s uggest a deal is in the making between Ford and Transportation Secretary Federic o Pena over doing a few things for Delta Air Lines Inc. in Kentucky . What kinds of things ? No one 's saying . `` He wanted to get Pena 's attention , and he g ot it by holding up Martinez 's nomination , '' one government source said . And the DOT gets the award for press release of the week . Its Maritime Administrat ion , which is filled with knowledgeable old sea dogs , described the design on a new commemorative flag as `` an eagle , perched on a red , white and blue shie ld , and a fouled anchor . '' And what does `` fouled '' mean ? Especially with an eagle nearby ? `` Twisted , '' said a Maritime spokeswoman . As in a rope dra ped around the anchor . WASHINGTON `` The Flintstones , '' a $ 45 million dinosaur that hired no fewer than 36 screenwriters and stars John Goodman , Rick Moranis , Elizabeth Perkins and Rosie O' Donnell , isn't just awful . It bombs itself into the Stone Age . A s Fred Flintstone might have put it : yabba-dabba-boo . After faithfully duplica ting the TV show 's familiar opening sequence in which Fred Flintstone ( Goodman ) knocks off work , howls for joy , slides down his Bronto-crane tail and foot- shuffles away in his prehistoric car the movie suffers immediate comic extinctio n . Leadenly directed and almost soberly scripted , it never captures the campy brightness of the original series the herky-jerky animation , the wacky sound ef fects , the distinctive character voices and that cheesy laugh track . In the th ird-rate plot ( and there 's no telling who among the Flintstone 36 came up with this gem ) , scheming boss Cliff Vandercave ( Kyle MacLachlan ) and his comely secretary ( Halle Berry ) promote unsuspecting Fred as a vice president , then f rame him for embezzlement , intending to abscond with the ill-gotten profit . Fr ed , enjoying a life of unprecedented luxury , is obliged to fire Barney ( Moran is ) and watch his friend sink into poverty before realizing his mistakes . If t he performers are imitating their cartoon forebears , it is barely apparent . Go odman 's sweat-induced , growly offerings completely bypass Fred 's lovable , pi gheaded innocence . The actor never attains Fred 's gravelly timbre . And with h is blond-dyed hair and zombielike demeanor , Moranis seems more like a zoned-out Warhol groupie than Fred 's perky buddy . The greatest asset of Perkins 's Wilm a is that Perkins looks the part . O' Donnell 's dead-on Betty Rubble giggle is the funniest thing in the movie , but it merely underlines how bad everyone and everything else is around her : The child actors who play Bamm-Bamm and Pebbles are completely forgettable . Fred 's pet dinosaur Dino , with its chintzy eyes a nd unconvincing animatronic gyrations , looks like a low-budget Muppet . And eve n Elizabeth Taylor , trundled out to play Fred 's insulting mother-in-law , fall s disappointingly short of imperious . She isn't exactly helped by the mediocre bones the screenplay tosses her way . While the movie officially scripted by Ste ven E. de Souza , Tom Parker and Jim Jennewein labors through its primeval ooze , it churns out incessant , dull visual gags , including a Stonehenge-meets-'50s -America and the `` pigasaurus '' creature under the sink that serves as a garba ge disposal . It also heaves out unfunny Hollywood `` inside '' jokes : The movi e opens with a `` Steven Spielrock Presents '' credit ; Halle Berry 's character is named Sharon Stone ; George Lucas 's `` Tar Wars '' is playing at the local theater . When , inevitably , Fred locked out of the house by his pet saber-toot hed tiger thumps the door and yells `` Wilma ! '' , it doesn't bring `` The Flin tstones '' to a triumphant close . It just sets the audience free . `` The Flint stones '' is rated PG . TOKYO Hushed and respectful , wearing our best suits , nervously reviewing our lessons on imperial etiquette , we stood stiffly at our assigned spots on the th ick green carpet of the elegant reception chamber . Suddenly , the rice-paper do ors slid open , and muffled steps could be heard coming down the long palace cor ridor . `` Remember , '' an earnest gentleman from the Imperial Household Agency hissed , `` this is a social occasion . '' Well , sort of . With final preparat ions underway for their 16-day royal visit to the United States next month , Jap an 's soft-spoken Emperor Akihito and his wife , the even softer-spoken Empress Michiko , invited a group of American journalists beneath the graceful fluted ro ofs of the Imperial Palace Friday to share a few sips of royal tea and a few wor ds with royalty . Before the tea party , the reporters were required to attend a one-hour lecture on court history and protocol by the vice grand master of cere mony , who sternly adjured us not to carry cameras , recorders or even notebooks into the royal presence . Throughout the 40-minute session with the emperor and empress , an extremely uptight corps of courtiers and palace bureaucrats kept p rodding and poking at us to make sure we stood only in the right places and spok e only at the right times . And yet the handsome , stylish imperial couple radia ted such regal charm and aplomb that they managed to give the imperial tea the f eeling of a `` social occasion '' after all . Relaxed and natty in his trademark double-breasted suit , with a pure white handkerchief folded into three perfect peaks in his breast pocket , the gray-haired Akihito now in his sixth year on t he Chrysanthemum Throne , embodying the world 's oldest ancestral monarchy seeme d considerably more at ease than he had at a similar occasion four years ago . E ven when the conversation turned to delicate political matters , the 60-year-old emperor was unfazed . He spoke an ordinary , easy-to-understand Japanese sharpl y different from the arcane court language employed by his royal ancestors . Aki hito was asked , of course , about the decision by Japan 's political leadership to cancel a scheduled imperial visit to Pearl Harbor . That stop was removed fr om the royal schedule for fear of a political backlash from right-wing elements here , who insist Japan owes no apology to the United States for World War II . In reply , Akihito noted calmly that he is a strictly symbolic monarch under Jap an 's postwar constitution . The elected government decides his travel schedule , he added , and he of course will do what the government tells him . The empres s , meanwhile standing across the room in a pale green kimono with wispy orange and white wildflowers painted along the lavish obi , or belt put on an even more impressive performance . The past year or so has been one of the most trying fo r Michiko , 59 , since her marriage 36 years ago . In an unprecedented display o f public `` disrespect , '' the empress was criticized in several national magaz ines . The complaints were minor , even trivial but they were considered shockin g in a nation that reveres its royalty . The empress collapsed last fall and los t the ability to speak . Court officials blamed this mysterious malady on `` dee p sadness '' because of the bad press . It has been only a matter of weeks since Michiko fully regained her speech . But she did just fine Friday , chatting eas ily , if softly , in clear English with just a few worried glances over her shou lder at the official interpreter . It would be bad form not to mention a violati on of the ground rules to quote what their majesties had to say . Let it suffice that they are aware of current economic friction between the world 's two riche st nations and hope their trip in June will help ease tension in the U.S.-Japan relationship . Both emperor and empress spoke fondly of previous trips to the Un ited States . Akihito said he still has vivid memories of a visit to Washington decades ago , when he first saw the beautiful array of national monuments lined up along the Mall . He also recalls an auto trip through the vastness of norther n Wyoming , when the royal motorcade passed only two other cars in the course of a four-hour drive . In the entire Japanese archipelago , there is nothing appro aching such wide open spaces . But if the royal couple handled this social occas ion with grace , the phalanx of ladies-in-waiting , stewards , palace bureaucrat s , maids and butlers spent the afternoon in a twitter making sure every detail of the tea party was exactly in place . Some 40 minutes before the session was t o begin , we were ushered into a large and tastefully opulent room where the gre en carpet was offset by a high ceiling of polished blond cedar and walls made of rice-paper shoji screens that muted the sunlight outside to the soft glow chara cteristic of older Japanese homes . We were told precisely where to stand , prec isely where to clip on our name tags and precisely how to greet the royal couple ( with Western-style handshakes rather than Japanese-style bows ) . As the empe ror and empress approached each of us , a courtier with a booming voice called o ut an identification . This introduction focused on the things that matter in Ja pan , group affiliation and title , with the individual 's name thrown in as an afterthought : `` The Washington Post newspaper , bureau chief , Reid-san . '' B ut as we sipped our tea from delicate china cups , stirring the liquid with ster ling spoons bearing the 16-petal chrysanthemum crest that only the imperial fami ly can use , the royal couple seemed to make everything copacetic . `` I wish we could get together more often , '' the empress said and sounded like she really meant it . TOKYO Japan 's Cabinet Friday approved the schedule for Emperor Akihito 's stat e visit to the United States next month , but canceled , as expected , a planned visit to the Pearl Harbor memorial in Honolulu . The Pearl Harbor stop sparked political controversy here because some right-wing nationalists fear an imperial visit would be construed as an apology for the sneak attack on Dec. 7 , 1941 , that pulled the United States into World War II . As a compromise , the Cabinet decided Akihito will stop at the Punch Bowl military cemetery in Honolulu , wher e he will lay a wreath in honor of American war dead . Akihito and Empress Michi ko will spend four nights in Washington during the 16-day trip , from June 11-15 . They will be the guests of honor at President Clinton 's first state dinner o n June 13 . The royal couple will also visit Atlanta ; Charleston , S.C. ; Charl ottesville , Va. ; New York ; St. Louis ; Denver ; Los Angeles ; and San Francis co . TRAVNIK , Bosnia-Herzegovina Lt. Gen. Michael Rose , the commander of U.N. troo ps in Bosnia , took a delegation of NATO officers to meet Gen. Mehmed Aligic ear lier this week . At the appointed time , the Bosnian Muslim general burst into t he room , sucked in his formidable gut and jerked his right hand into a snappy s alute . Nonplussed , Rose extended his arm to shake Aligic 's hand . The U.N. co mmander , a by-the-books British officer , does not salute a man with no hat . B ut Aligic Bosnian rascal , lover of women and drink , gloriously incorrect and o ne of the most successful military leaders of the mostly Muslim Bosnian army ref used to shake . The NATO commander for southern Europe , U.S. Navy Adm. Leighton Smith , stepped in and saved everyone a bit of face , participants in the meeti ng recalled . Looser American rules allow hatless salutes . Aligic , his salute returned and his pride intact , settled into his seat and the meeting began . Th e fleeting standoff in this beautiful Bosnian town , which reclines along the La vsa River valley like , Nobel Prize-winning novelist Ivo Andric once wrote , `` the pages of a half-opened book , '' dramatized a yawning gap in understanding b etween officers of the U.N. operation here and the military men of the warring B osnian factions that have brought Europe its bloodiest conflict since World War II . Denizens of different cultures and different worlds , using different maps to fight different wars according to different rules , they can neither shake ha nds nor salute when they meet . The ramifications of this gap in perception are significant , affecting everything in Bosnia from the peace process in Geneva to cease-fire agreements on the ground . It is one of the reasons why what seems t o be a step toward peace in the United Nations ' eyes can , in other eyes , turn out to be a stumble toward more war . Rose , born 53 years ago in Quetta , then a British colonial garrison town in what is now Pakistan , cites the Prussian m ilitary thinker Karl von Clausewitz to sum up his evaluation of this conflict . `` The war , '' he said with the firm belief of a former war college commandant schooled in the unassailable logic of NATO strategy , `` has long ago reached it s limit of exploitation . '' Aligic , 47 , part Turkish vizier , part Communist commissar , trained in the arts of protracted struggle in a culture where Occide nt and Orient collide , where black marketeering verges on virtue and tending th e graves of ancestors constitutes a duty , begs to disagree . `` We don't make w ar here on the basis of West Point , '' he said . Rose predicted , for example , that his masterpiece , a successful cease-fire around Sarajevo that rode on the back of a NATO ultimatum last February , would spread rapidly across Bosnia . I nstead , it was followed by a decision by Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mla dic to attack the U.N. `` safe area '' of Gorazde , precipitating another crisis . One of the great successes of the U.N. operation in Bosnia , hammered out in tandem with U.S. diplomatic efforts , was the March peace settlement between Cro at and Muslim factions that fought a vicious war for more than a year in central Bosnia in parallel with the main conflict pitting the Muslim-led government aga inst Serb secessionists . Lt. Col. John McColl , commander of British forces in the region , Rose and the U.S. diplomats and military officers who brokered the accord saw it as the beginning of a process that would spread into the 72 percen t of Bosnia held by the Serbs . Charles E. Redman , U.S. special envoy to the Bo snian peace talks , says that now that Muslims and Croats have stopped fighting they should sign a peace agreement that would give them 51 percent of the countr y and the Serbs 49 percent . But Aligic commands a corps of Bosnian fighters at least half of whom lost their homes in Serb expulsion campaigns known as `` ethn ic cleansing . '' His eyes , therefore , tend to see the Muslim-Croat deal not a s a harbinger of peace but as the facilitator of more war . `` The federation me ans open roads . Open roads mean guns . And that means my men can go home , '' h e said . While Rose was telling Aligic that continuing the war was `` pointless , '' Muslim infantry and Croat tanks were attacking Bosnian Serb positions near Tesanj , northeast of Travnik , in a joint probe marking the first time in more than a year that the Croat militia had fought alongside Muslim forces in central Bosnia . Muslim and Croat forces also cooperated against Serb fighters around t he strategic Serb-held town of Brcko in northeastern Bosnia earlier this week wi th Croat tanks lobbing a few rounds from their positions in Orasje to the north and Muslim gunners shelling the city from the south . Rose called the fighting ` ` minor skirmishes . '' Bosnian commanders view the renewed cooperation as steps toward bigger ones . One of the goals of the Tesanj attack appears to be to cut a road running south from the Serb-held town of Teslic that supplies Serb gunne rs on Mount Vlasic , a strategic peak overlooking Travnik . Aligic 's men recent ly have attacked Serb positions there . Successful Muslim-Croat cooperation arou nd Tesanj could bode well for more Muslim-Croat teamwork around Travnik , Aligic said . U.N. officers and many European diplomats have never taken the mostly Mu slim army seriously . Just last week , Douglas Hogg , Britain 's deputy foreign minister , called on the Muslim government to acknowledge it had lost the war . In their meeting on Tuesday , Rose told Aligic he would need at least four years to retake the land he had lost . The Muslim commander 's response was simple : `` The general 's mathematics could use a little work . '' VLADIVOSTOK , Russia Twenty years after being stripped of his citizenship , hus tled onto an Aeroflot airliner and sent into unwanted exile , Alexander Solzheni tsyn returned triumphantly home Friday , eager to reacquaint himself with a coun try he acknowledged had been `` altered beyond recognition . '' The Nobel Prize winner , who spent the last 18 years living quietly in southern Vermont , told a crowd of more than 2,000 people gathered in this port city 's main square that Russia had shed communism only to encounter more hardship . `` I never doubted t hat communism was doomed to collapse , but I always feared what the price would be , '' he said . `` I know I am coming to a Russia torn apart , discouraged , s tunned. .. . I would like to search with you for ways to get out of the 75 years of our quagmire . '' The square in which Solzhenitsyn delivered his address is still named `` The Fighters for Soviet Power . '' Despite a long trip , Solzheni tsyn appeared delighted to be back in Russia , smiling and waving to the crowd a s it applauded and cheered him . He was then whisked off in a minibus to the Vla divostok Hotel , which was certain to provide the 75-year-old writer with a quic k dose of new Russian reality : The hotel has not had hot water for days , its e levators are on the blink , and among the guests are a number of the tough-looki ng Russian `` biznessmeni '' who flourish here today . The hotel administration did , however , clear out the miniskirted women who , according to male visitors , frequently knocked on doors in the middle of the night , offering their servi ces . Solzhenitsyn flew to Vladivostok from Anchorage , Alaska , with his wife , Natalya , 54 , his youngest son , Stephan , 20 , and a horde of reporters docum enting his historic trip home . During a brief refueling stop in Magadan , the h eart of the brutal Soviet prison-camp network that he documented in his multi-vo lume account , `` The Gulag Archipelago , '' he briefly disembarked , reached do wn to touch the ground and told reporters , `` I bow my head .. . where hundreds of thousands if not millions of our executed fellow countrymen are buried . '' The writer intends to travel slowly across Russia to see firsthand a country he has only read and heard about for the past 20 years . Solzhenitsyn and his wife are having a house built in a leafy district on the outskirts of Moscow , but th eir plans to move in have apparently been delayed by construction problems . The Solzhenitsyns have kept their home in Cavendish , Vt. , for their sons , who ar e U.S. citizens and grew up in the United States . Solzhenitsyn told the Russian news agency Tass that he had chosen this formerly closed port , home to the onc e mighty Soviet Pacific Fleet , instead of Moscow because he wanted to hear ordi nary Russians and not those living in a city `` that has been living a privilege d life '' at the expense of the rest of the country . There has been extensive c overage of Solzhenitsyn 's return in Russian newspapers , and the local airport erupted in pandemonium Friday when more than 100 local and foreign journalists a nd camera crews broke through a security line and besieged the writer as he desc ended from his plane . Solzhenitsyn attempted to calm people , saying , `` Every one stop . Take as many pictures of me as you want . '' Solzhenitsyn 's return i s important to Russia not only because he is , as poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko calle d him , `` our only living classic . '' His dissident years and unbending opposi tion to the Soviet regime made him a hero to democracy activists . At the same t ime , nationalists have hoped to claim him as a standard-bearer thanks to his ch ampioning of the values of Russia 's roots and religion and his calls for a unit ed Slavic nation . In his remarks Friday , and over the past few weeks , Solzhen itsyn has said he intends to play only a moral or social role in the new Russia , not a political one . Still , his comments have clearly had a political edge . He has criticized the economic reforms of President Boris Yeltsin and his admin istration for wreaking havoc with people 's lives , denounced the International Monetary Fund , dismissed Ukrainian nationalist sentiments and called ultranatio nalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky a `` clown . '' He told Tass Friday that his life as a writer is basically complete and it was time to `` get down to hard wo rk on rebuilding and reviving Russia . '' Whether Solzhenitsyn will have any imp act is unclear . Russia has changed dramatically in the last three years , and t here may be little room for writer-prophets who offer moral guidance to the mass es . Many Russians , particularly the young , have not read Solzhenitsyn 's book s and seem uninterested in his suggestions that Western ways have polluted Russi a . At the same time , many here are clearly searching for someone untainted by the last few years of chaos and broken promises , a moral force in a country tha t is struggling with the loss of all past certainties . Dissident Nobel Prize-wi nning physicist Andrei Sakharov fulfilled that role for many , but since his dea th in 1989 there has been no one . Solzhenitsyn , with his Tolstoyan beard and m oral rectitude , has the same aura . He remains a larger-than-life figure for ma ny because of his willingness to risk all to write the truth about the horrors o f Soviet totalitarianism . For his work , the West gave him the 1970 Nobel Prize for literature and called him the worthy successor to Tolstoy , Fyodor Dostoyev sky and Anton Chekhov . His rulers called him a traitor . He was hounded and har assed , turned into an official non-person , with his books forbidden and unpubl ished . In 1974 they forced him into exile , hoping that , removed from his home land , his angry , overpowering voice would grow still . It did not . Solzhenits yn has described his time in Vermont as his most productive and peaceful ever . And indeed , when the old treason charges against him were officially judged `` groundless '' in 1991 , following the failed hard-line Communist coup , he chose not to return immediately . He wanted first to finish what he says will be his last work , `` The Red Wheel , '' a massive account of Russian and Soviet histor y . Friday night he was finally home . WASHINGTON The hours are just as grueling , the salary 's likely to be lower , and the position comes with a heap of public disdain . Nonetheless , this year n early three dozen physicians are trying to trade their stethoscope and white coa t for the job a seat in Congress . The bumper crop of physician-candidates dovet ails , of course , with the Clinton administration 's effort to push a national health care reform plan through Congress . If the practice of medicine is going to be revolutionized , some physicians want to have a say in it . `` If health c are were not on the front burner , I don't think I would be running , '' said su rgeon George Craig , a Republican activist challenging Rep. Jerry Lewis , R-Cali f. , in the primary . Dentist Ron Franks , a Republican from Maryland 's Eastern Shore challenging Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes , D-Md. , said he is concerned that hea lth care policy is being determined without the direct input of health care prof essionals . `` I believe that all health care providers .. . realize the danger and I plan to invite them to participate in my campaign , '' he said . Currently only two members of Congress are physicians both in the House and one , Rep. J. Roy Rowland , D-Ga. , is retiring . More than 35 doctors are candidates this ye ar . A study by Congressional Quarterly shows medicine barely edging out profess ional sports and acting as prior occupations of members of Congress . The runawa y leader in the breakdown : lawyers . `` I think it 's incredible that we have 2 39 attorneys and two physicians and we 're about to write major changes in healt h care , '' said Wyoming House candidate and ophthalmologist John Herschler , a Democrat . Sheila McGuire , a dentist and epidemiologist running in Iowa said as far as she is concerned `` lawyers are well represented in Congress . '' The pr oblem , she said , is the under representation of doctors and a lack of familiar ity within Congress of the workings of the health care system . McGuire and Hers chler are living the attorney-physician tension in more ways than one ; each is running against a lawyer . Herschler 's opponent is a personal injury lawyer who handles malpractice cases , a point Herschler enjoys drawing attention to on th e stump . But that opponent , Bob Schuster , counters that being a doctor is not an automatic edge in this year 's election , and might even be a negative . `` If that were a credential to solving the health care problem , we wouldn't have a health care problem . '' McGuire 's opponent , Mike Peterson is painfully awar e , however , that doctors carry at least one helpful campaign credential : `` a lot of personal wealth , plus they 've got a lot of friends with personal wealt h . '' Of course , so do many attorneys . But , Peterson said that his work as a small town attorney and part-time state legislator does not begin to even the p laying field . Doctors are not the only medical candidates this year , There is a smaller but equally determined pool : nurses . Cheryl Davis Knapp , a nurse ru nning in Florida 's 12th Congressional District , holds that the Founding Father s intended members of Congress to be `` everyday working people , '' and that do ctors are not that . `` Certainly , I don't think most people are in the positio n of most doctors . But I think most people are in the positions of . . . nurses , in terms of finances . '' According to the American Nurses Association , the only nurse ever elected to Congress is freshman Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson , D-T exas . The gulf between doctors and nurses extends beyond fiscal matters . `` Mo st physicians see the system only from one side and that 's their side. .. . The y 've only seen it from their narrow perspective , '' said nurse practitioner Ri ta Tamerius , who is running for a California Houseseat . Tamerius advocates gre ater utilization of nurses for primary care , which she says physicians oppose . The nurses and doctors running for Congress realize that health care expertise does not guarantee victory . `` People hold their own physician in high esteem b ut are suspicious of the medical community as a whole , '' said Rowland , one of the House 's two doctors . `` I think if a physician is known in the area that he or she 's running in , that will be helpful . '' Congress 's other physician , Rep. Jim McDermott , D-Wash. , a leader in the health care reform debate , rem inds physician-candidates of what they will miss if elected . `` You don't get t he immediate gratification. .. . Nobody says thank you the way patients do . '' WASHINGTON Two years ago , Rep. Karen L. Thurman , D-Fla. , a civic-minded form er school teacher with strong political appeal to women , was part of a Democrat ic victory march led by female candidates who appealed to Republican-leaning vot ers alienated by their party 's anti-abortion stands and its tilt to the right . This year , Florida Republicans will try to overcome the loss of those voters , especially college-educated working women , with a candidate whose appeal is ge ared directly toward a once rock-solid Democratic electorate of poor and working -class whites , especially white men . It would be tough , in fact , to pick a R epublican more different from Thurman than the candidate likely to win the GOP n omination in Florida 's 5th Congressional District : Big Daddy Don Garlits , kin g of the quarter-mile drag strip . `` My family was Democratic going back to the days before the big Depression . We loved the Democratic Party , '' said Garlit s , 62 , who has taken a car from a standing start to 287 mph in 440 yards . `` But somewhere in the early '60s , they got the idea you didn't have to work. .. . They got on these ideas like there should be no corporal punishment in the sch ools , a lot of funny ideas . If you are very young and have a baby , they give you money for it ; and if you have another , they give you more money . '' Citin g the Bible and Judeo-Christian principles , Garlits said , `` The man should be the head of the family . I believe that because he 's got the strong hand . '' But , he added , `` Head of the family is one thing , we are not talking about o ut in the business world . '' Garlits says he is prepared if Thurman attacks him as `` anti-woman . '' `` I 'm going to bring in Shirley Muldowney , '' a three- time drag strip world champion , Garlits said . `` I 'm the guy who first signed her papers ( to enter competition ) and I intimidated the other two guys to sig n , so I have always been for women 's rights , before it was politically correc t . '' The Thurman-Garlits contest is an extreme example of the slow transformat ion of the Democratic and Republican parties , as the increasing influence of va lues , education and gender are working in overlapping ways to weaken the image of a working-class Democratic Party battling a management and Wall Street-domina ted GOP . Candidates such as Thurman women who can win support from Republican a nd independent voters concerned with such issues as health care and abortion rig hts have become crucial to a Democratic Party seeking to be competitive in an in creasingly suburban and college-educated electorate voters who have been most co mfortable with the GOP . One of the most important growth areas within the Democ ratic Party is among young , single working women with college educations . Conv ersely , Garlits , whose parents were poor farmers , is part of a modest but sig nificant movement in the GOP , a movement that has produced `` bubba Republicans '' in the South , and statewide candidates in the North with roots in Catholic , working-class and immigrant families the classic Democratic profile . The Repu blican gubernatorial and Senate nominees picked last month by primary voters in Pennsylvania are , respectively , Reps. Thomas J. Ridge , an Irish-Slovak with w orking-class roots in Erie , and Rick Santorum , the son of an Italian immigrant who represents a Pittsburg district . Reps. Rod Grams of Minnesota and Ronald K . Machtley of Rhode Island have good chances to win the GOP nominations for sena tor and governor , respectively , and both earned their political spurs by winni ng in Democratic-leaning blue-collar and working-class districts . Rep. Vic Fazi o , D-Calif. , chairman , Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee , said he views the loss of some traditional Democratic voters as `` a naturally occurring phenomena . `` We are the party that is nominating people who are compatible '' with the suburban , well-educated voter , Fazio said , adding that Democratic v ictories in suburban areas may be the counterpart to the Republican victories of the 1980s among blue-collar `` Reagan Democrats . '' One of the most important developments driving the transformation of the parties by gender and education i s the emergence of what might be best described as liberal and conservative valu e coalitions of voters . The partisan inclinations and demographic make-up of th ese Republican and Democratic voters runs directly counter to the classic divisi ons of the New Deal era . Voters in the 1992 election holding decidedly `` liber al '' views on abortion and gay rights were very well-educated , young and femal e 52 percent with college degrees , only 23 percent over age 50 and 68 percent w omen according to a study by Alan I . Abramowitz of Emory University . The firml y `` conservative '' voters on these issues were less well-educated and older 24 percent with college degrees , 48 percent age 50 or older and 57 percent were m en . Among some groups , such as young , single college-educated voters , the pa rtisan gulf between the sexes has reached such high levels `` that we ( pollster s ) joke among ourselves about how these people are going to have trouble findin g compatible spouses , '' said Democrat Celinda Lake . `` Clinton has definitely polarized the gender gap , '' said Republican pollster Linda DiVall . Younger w omen , she said , are more Democratic in part because they `` tend to be employe d in government social service , education , and look to a more activist governm ent . '' Greenberg said that female Democratic candidates are important not only in their ability to win in more upscale , suburban districts but also because ` ` they are seen as new , as outsiders .. . not part of the old-boy system . They reinforce the image of the Democratic Party as new and reformist , and they als o emphasize some of the secular side of the Democratic Party , '' strengthing th e perception of the party as supporting abortion rights . Female candidates in c ompetitive congressional districts were able to go `` beyond what normal Democra ts can do , '' because women are seen in many cases as representing `` change fo r the current system , '' said freshman Rep. Maria Cantwell , D-Wash . In 1992 , female candidates were involved in disproportionately high numbers in the close st contests in the nation , and this year they are disproportionately facing tou gh re-election fights against well-financed opponents . In addition to Thurman , the women the Democratic Party depended upon in many middle-to-upscale , genera lly suburban districts , include Reps. Elizabeth Furse ( Ore. ) , Jane Harman ( Calif. ) , Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky ( Pa. ) , Carolyn B . Maloney ( N.Y. ) , Leslie L. Byrne ( Va. ) , Lynn Schenk ( Calif. ) and Cantwell . While women are only 11 percent of the House membership , they make up virtually half of the wi nners in the closest races won by House Democrats in 1992 . JERUSALEM Ariel Sharon , Israel 's hawkish former defense minister , launched a campaign Friday to oust Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in the 1996 elections , de claring his intention to form a broad right-wing coalition and lead `` a rescue mission to save the Land of Israel and the Jewish people . '' But Sharon 's anno uncement was more a challenge to Benjamin Netanyahu , chairman of the opposition Likud Party , who has been feuding with Sharon . Netanyahu angrily demanded Sha ron 's expulsion from the party . `` Arik Sharon is a permanent subversive , '' he said . `` The time has come for such a man to leave Likud . '' Sharon laughed off Netanyahu 's demand , replying , `` I hope Mr. Netanyahu will at least perm it me to stay in the country . '' Former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir , defeate d by Rabin two years ago , tartly rebuked Sharon , saying he `` should find more useful things to do in the national interest than undermine it . '' Ze ' ev `` Benny '' Begin , son of the late Prime Minister Menachem Begin and a longtime Sh aron foe , said that the burly former general is as likely to win the premiershi p as he is the world tennis championship . And some members of Rabin 's Labor Pa rty , noting the deep divisions in Israel 's right wing Tsomet Party leader Rafa el Eitan has also declared his candidacy wondered aloud whether the prime minist er might not benefit by calling early national elections . An opinion survey las t week for the newspaper Yediot Aharonot showed Rabin to be Israelis ' preferred leader , winning support from 36 percent of those questioned . Netanyahu follow ed with 19 percent , Sharon with 12 percent and Eitan with 11 percent . ( Option al add end ) Netanyahu has maintained that if the right unites it could defeat L abor , oust Rabin and return to the Likud 's concept of Palestinian autonomy on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip under Israeli sovereignty . `` Sharon underm ined both Begin and Shamir , and now he is undermining me , '' Netanyahu said . `` He spreads the seeds of a split . '' Under a change in Israel 's political sy stem , the next prime minister will be elected directly by popular vote and must win 50 percent of the vote , on a second ballot if not the first ; in the past , the party that won the most seats in Parliament nominated the prime minister . Sharon , 66 , a retired general , is a fierce opponent of the government 's pea ce talks with the Palestinians and believes that any withdrawal from the West Ba nk and Gaza Strip will endanger Israel 's security and even its existence . BEIJING Chinese officials reacted with restrained satisfaction Friday to Presid ent Clinton 's announcement that the United States will renew its favorable trad e terms with China and , more importantly , `` delink '' trade with human rights issues . `` This decision will create favorable conditions for the further stre ngthening and expansion of trade and economic cooperation between the two sides. ... '' government spokesman Wu Jianmin announced at a news conference . `` The Chinese government and people welcome this decision of President Clinton . '' Ch ina had sought the removal of human rights conditions during a year of hard lobb ying and diplomatic efforts . On Thursday , a subdued Clinton granted the Chines e precisely what they wanted : the restoration of most-favored-nation , or MFN , trade status and the reversal of a U.S. policy linking MFN to human rights a po licy that has haunted Sino-American relations for the past five years . But the Chinese held back from overt celebration over the diplomatic victory because Cli nton also ordered a ban on the $ 100-million-a-year import of weapons and ammuni tion , and kept in effect some sanctions established by the Bush administration after the army crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989 . In what amo unted to the only joke of the day , spokesman Wu said that he heard about Clinto n 's decision by listening to the Voice of America . One of the conditions set b y the Clinton administration was that the Chinese stop jamming VOA broadcasts . In Hong Kong , Shanghai and Beijing , American residents and business people , m any of whom fought strenuously for renewal of MFN , lauded Clinton 's decision . Phil Carmichael , president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing , sa id at a news conference that he was relieved that he would now have more time to spend on his business . `` It means I willn't have to spend one-third to one-ha lf of my time each year trying to get MFN renewed , '' he said . ( Optional add end ) Other Asian governments also welcomed Clinton 's action . `` From the star t , we had maintained that there should be no connection between trade and human rights issues , '' Malaysia 's deputy prime minister , Anwar Ibrahim , said Fri day . Japanese Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata said renewal of China 's trading bene fits was very important for the economic development of the Asia-Pacific region . But some observers said Clinton 's about-face could have a severe impact on Am erican prestige . `` You could call it the Clinton administration 's declaration of defeat , '' wrote Koji Igarashi , Washington correspondent for the influenti al Asahi newspaper , in its evening edition Friday . `` It is a 180-degree chang e in direction from policy up until now , and leaves the strong impression that ( Clinton ) gave in completely to China 's demands . '' TORONTO The five-year anniversary of China 's Tiananmen Square massacre finds C anada in a quandary . The federal government is trying to figure out what to do with a residue of Tiananmen : 4,500 Chinese who sought asylum here after the upr ising but were denied status as refugees . They have held on here for nearly fiv e years , and now the government has said it will decide their fate next month . They remain because Ottawa has an official policy of not deporting anyone but c riminals back to China the only country for which Canada has such a policy . But Immigration Minister Sergio Marchi has said that limbo must end . Lin Xiaoping awaits the coming decision with trepidation . She left Shanghai in March 1990 , after police questioned her for carrying videotapes of the uprising . She arrive d in Canada via Bolivia . Today , she is the proprietor of a restaurant in one o f multiethnic Toronto 's five Chinatowns . Lin 's application for refugee status was denied , she said , because officials did not believe her . She says her ro le here as president of the Mainland Chinese Refugees Organization would single her out were she forced to return to China . `` I hope the Canadian government w ill let me stay on compassionate grounds , '' said Lin , 46 . `` I was not direc tly involved ( in the Tiananmen uprising ) , but I did show my sympathy and agre ement with the students . Here , I fight for ( the refugees ' ) interests and be nefits . My activities here might be something the Chinese government would not be happy with . '' The debate over the refugees comes at an important time in Ca nadian-Chinese relations . Prime Minister Jean Chretien is to travel to China th is fall to promote trade . More than 100,000 Chinese immigrants are admitted to Canada every year . Most come from Hong Kong or Taiwan , but some 30,000 mainlan d Chinese have gained resident status here since January 1990 . Until recently , Canada was known as a relatively easy country in which to gain refugee designat ion . The first wave of post-Tiananmen refugees some of whom were already here a s students overwhelmingly had their applications to stay accepted , refugee lawy ers say . But later arrivals had a harder time persuading adjudicators they were not merely seekers of economic opportunity . `` I think they are real refugees by ( Geneva ) convention criteria , '' said Schiller Wang , a reporter for the T oronto-based Chinese-language newspaper World Journal Daily News . `` It 's a bi g problem from a cultural standpoint . Some Chinese refugee claimants don't unde rstand the question the judge is asking , and the interpreter is not allowed to explain . '' Some of the rejected refugees have held off buying houses or establ ishing roots , waiting until their status becomes clearer . Although they are co nsidered legal residents , their conditional status makes it difficult to find l egitimate jobs or enroll in welfare programs . Even those with capital are reluc tant to start businesses for fear they may have to sell quickly . `` It 's killi ng for them because they are go-getters , '' said Montreal refugee lawyer Richar d Kurland . `` I 've had grown men and women crying in my office because they ar e so frustrated . They can't go back because they 'd go right to jail , but they can't get permanent status here . '' Marchi has ruled out a blanket amnesty for the affected Chinese , although he may propose establishing a special process b y which they could apply for legal-immigrant status . They would have to show , for instance , that they can function in Canada 's economy rather than living on its broad social assistance . Even within the Chinese community , some admit th at not all who seek to remain here are true refugees . But there is general agre ement that their future should be settled one way or another . `` If the governm ent thinks they are not refugees , send them back . If the government thinks tha t would be inhuman , let them stay , '' said Tian Guang , general adviser to the refugees ' organization . `` You cannot keep people in limbo for four or five y ears . These people have been exhausted , physically , psychologically and emoti onally . '' VLADIVOSTOK , Russia Solemn and prophetic , Alexander I . Solzhenitsyn ended hi s 20-year exile Friday with an appeal to people across Russia to seize the initi ative in directing their troubled country 's post-Communist rebirth . `` I know that I am coming to a Russia torn apart , discouraged , stunned , altered beyond recognition , convulsively searching for itself , for its true identity , '' th e country 's greatest living author told an evening homecoming rally in this Pac ific port city , his starting point for a Trans-Siberian rail journey to redisco ver his country and compatriots . `` I would like , after these meetings , to he lp you and search together with you for sure ways to get out of our 75-year quag mire , '' added Solzhenitsyn , who exposed his Soviet tormentors with powerful w ritings that earned him the Nobel Prize and expulsion from his homeland on Feb. 14 , 1974 . About 2,000 people waited three hours on a gray , blustery evening i n a seaside plaza for his dramatic return on an Air Alaska commercial flight fro m the United States . They applauded when his brief speech ended with the words , `` I bow to you . '' `` We bow to you ! '' someone shouted . Then , answering a question from the audience , he said that Russia 's revival after seven decade s of Soviet rule and two years of tumultuous , divisive and stalled democratic r eforms would be `` difficult , not soon '' and would ultimately depend on Russia ns taking responsibility for their own fate . Judging from his remarks and his a mbitious travel plans , the bearded , craggy-faced author intends , at age 75 , to play a guiding role in Russian life , although he has forsworn seeking electi ve or appointed office . His voice could provide a rallying cry for regional and local leaders seeking to wrest more autonomy from the central government of Pre sident Boris N . Yeltsin . In an interview with Russia 's Itar-Tass news agency , Solzhenitsyn was more categorical about his mission and blunter in his critici sm of Moscow , which he said `` is leading a privileged life compared with the p rovinces . '' He said he was returning home east to west because `` to begin wit h Moscow means to lock oneself in a concrete box . '' ( Begin optional trim ) `` My literary task is fulfilled , '' he added . `` Now I will have no time to wri te . It 's time to get down to the hard work of rebuilding and reviving Russia . '' Many who turned out to see Solzhenitsyn , like Galina N . Petrovna , said th ey are ready to follow his prescriptions as those of a sage . Petrovna , a grayi ng , bright-eyed woman of 69 , came to the square bedecked with Soviet medals ea rned for underground resistance in a Nazi prison camp . But she was a reluctant hero , having lost her father in the Stalin regime 's political executions . `` I have been waiting for this moment all my life , '' she said at the rally for S olzhenitsyn . `` Here is a great man who can show us how to rebuild our country . If we had worked like he does , by the call of our souls and hearts , we would live now in a different , much happier country . '' ( End optional trim ) The t rip began Wednesday in an Oldsmobile station wagon , lumbering down the unpaved driveway from the hilltop country home in Cavendish , Vt. , where Solzhenitsyn s pent the past 18 years writing in near-seclusion . With a newly issued Russian p assport , the author flew to Anchorage , Alaska , with his wife , Natalia , and Stephan , 20 , the youngest of their three sons . They left behind the middle so n , Ignat , 21 , and Natalia 's mother , Yekaterina Svetlova , who will join the m later . The eldest son , Yermolai , 23 , flew here , 5,700 miles from Moscow , ahead of his parents to help arrange the overland journey to the capital , whic h he called `` the greatest road trip you could do . '' ( Optional add end ) Air Alaska 's first touchdown in Russia came at Magadan , once a main receiving poi nt for those destined for the Soviet gulag prison camp system . Solzhenitsyn , w ho spent eight years in the gulag and exposed its evils in his best-known works , once described Magadan as the site of the most human bones on earth . Stepping off the jet , Solzhenitsyn stooped , touched the tarmac with both hands and cro ssed himself . `` Today , in the heat of political change , those millions of vi ctims are too lightly forgotten , both by those who were not touched by that ann ihilation and even more so by those who were responsible for it , '' he said . ` ` Under ancient Christian tradition , land where innocent victims are buried bec omes holy . We shall consider it so , in the hope that the light of Russia 's co ming recovery will reach ( this ) region . '' Landing in Vladivostok , he accept ed an offering of bread and salt a Russian symbol of hospitality and raised the loaf to his lips . `` All the best people are leaving Russia , and Solzhenitsyn is the one coming back , '' said Antonina N . Detyareva , 39 , who was selling d ried squid and imported apples just off the puddled airport parking lot . `` May be that will set a good example . '' The writer returned a controversial figure , however , scorned by many who miss the old order and condemn him for helping d estroy it . `` He 'll get no warm welcome from me , '' said Vladimir A . Gornosl al , 45 , a taxi driver at the airport . `` I don't like traitors . '' JERUSALEM Ariel Sharon , the right-wing former general who led Israel into the war with Lebanon in 1982 , announced Friday that he intends to run for prime min ister in the next election , further dividing the once powerful Likud opposition party . Sharon 's announcement was a blow to Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu , who was elected head of the party last year and also hopes to run for prime mini ster . Netanyahu has failed to quell challenges from his rivals , and Friday he denounced Sharon , demanding that he be thrown out of the party . The next elect ion , in two years , is to be the first in Israel 's history in which the prime minister will be chosen by direct popular vote . In the past , voters chose part y lists , and the parties then jockeyed for coalitions and a parliamentary major ity to control the government . The new system seems certain to reward candidate s who run outside their parties ' establishment , and there are signs both Likud and the ruling Labor Party face the prospect of divisions and possible breakup . Another factor fragmenting the old parties is the accord with the Palestine Li beration Organization on self-rule in the Gaza Strip and West Bank . Some analys ts think if the pact holds and the issue of those territories is removed from at op the national agenda , new political blocs will spring up , based on issues ot her than security . For example , Labor recently lost control of the giant Hista drut labor federation for the first time in its history . In a race for the fede ration 's leadership , the winner was a youthful Labor politician , Haim Ramon , who broke away from the party establishment and ran against Labor 's candidate on a platform of domestic issues , chiefly better health care . Sharon , however , remains a stalwart of the old order , and his challenge is clearly based on a hawkish , nationalist ideology . He has been among the sharpest critics of the Israeli-PLO accord and has gained a following among hard-line Jewish settlers in the West Bank . Sharon , 66 , has never concealed his disdain for Netanyahu , a nd his declaration Friday set off fireworks . `` Arik Sharon is a permanent subv ersive , '' Netanyahu told Army Radio . `` The time has come for such a man to l eave Likud . '' `` That Arik Sharon wants to be prime minister at a minimum , pr ime minister is no surprise , '' said Netanyahu , using Sharon 's nickname . Sha ron snapped back , `` I hope Mr. Netanyahu will at least permit me to stay in th e country . '' Polls show that Labor Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin would be the f irst choice of Israeli Jews if an election were held now . A survey last week pu blished by the daily Yedioth Aharonoth showed 36 percent of those questioned cho ose Rabin , followed by 19 percent for Netanyahu , 12 percent for Sharon and 11 percent for Rafael Eitan , another former general who heads the nationalist Tsom et Party and has announced plans to run for prime minister . The feuding in the opposition has been intense since the 1992 election in which Labor and Rabin def eated Likud and Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir . Binyamin Begin , a supporter of Netanyahu , said Friday that the garrulous Sharon had about as much chance of be coming prime minister as he did of winning a world tennis championship . Moshe K atsav , leader of the Likud forces in parliament , rejected Netanyahu 's suggest ion that Sharon be ousted and called instead for a collective leadership . Shami r urged Sharon to find something else to do . Also , former Foreign Minister Dav id Levy , angered by what he considered a smear campaign against him by Netanyah u , has boycotted all Likud Party gatherings in recent months . WASHINGTON The House and Senate intelligence committees have been asked by Just ice Department officials to delay their possible questioning of confessed-spy Al drich H. Ames until the FBI and CIA have finished debriefing him , according to administration and congressional sources . The officials have argued that interr upting the interrogation of Ames for Capitol Hill appearances could have a harmf ul effect on what investigators hope to learn from the veteran , 52-year-old for mer CIA counterintelligence officer . `` In the complex process of establishing rapport and a questioning pattern with an individual such as Ames , you don't wa nt to introduce other influences , '' one source said . The House panel has agre ed to wait , according to a spokesman for committee chairman Dan Glickman , D-Ka n . The spokesman added that even before the Justice Department made its appeal , the panel had not contemplated asking Ames to appear until after the governmen t had concluded its questioning and the committee staff reviewed the results . G lickman wrote to Ames 's lawyer , Plato Cacheris , on May 5 asking that his clie nt testify in closed session about `` his perspective on counterintelligence iss ues . '' No date for an appearance was mentioned in the letter . Senate Select C ommittee on Intelligence Chairman Dennis DeConcini , D-Ariz. , also has informal ly sounded out Cacheris about an Ames appearance but has yet to raise the matter with other committee members . A Senate committee aide said there had been conv ersations with the Justice Department about Ames but nothing has been decided . Meanwhile , he said , committee members were disturbed by reports from televisio n reporters that Ames has been discussing possibly appearing on television . `` Senators have been asking Justice , ` How come you are permitting this and block ing us ? ' ' ' the aide said . Although representatives from three major televis ion networks have either called or sent letters to Ames 's attorney asking about interviews , Cacheris said yesterday , `` Mr. Ames is not going to do any inter views until after his wife is sentenced . '' Rosario Ames , who pleaded guilty t o conspiracy to commit espionage and income tax evasion , is scheduled to be sen tenced Aug. 26 . The length of her prison term , which could be as short as five years or as long as 15 years , is dependent on her husband 's cooperation with FBI and CIA interrogators under the guilty plea agreements they both signed in A pril . Aldrich Ames faces a life term in prison with no provision for parole for his nine years of spying for Moscow . In return for $ 2.5 million and the promi se of at least $ 1.9 million more , Ames delivered highly sensitive intelligence information including the names of at least 11 communist intelligence agents wh o were passing information to the United States or Britain . CIA officials are b itter at the thought that the congressional committees may turn for advice on ho w the CIA should be run to a man who betrayed his country and his colleagues . ` ` That presses some hot buttons out here , '' a senior CIA official said . Forme r CIA director Richard M. Helms summed up the view of several other retired agen cy officials , saying that `` having a traitor on the Hill to vent his spleen is a dangerous precedent .. . and I deplore it . '' CIA Director R. James Woolsey told an interviewer earlier this month that `` one of the strangest things about the Ames case is the fact that some people would take seriously Ames as an auth ority on the CIA and what its value is . '' Rep. Larry Combest of Texas , the ra nking Republican on the House intelligence panel , gave the rationale for hearin g from Ames . It `` would be intriguing to have him and hear how he did it , '' Combest said . Ames `` has a perspective of the agency that is rather unique . ' ' Ames said recently that he would `` look forward '' to testifying . In a state ment in court the day he was sentenced , Ames described espionage `` as carried out by the CIA and a few other American agencies '' as `` a self-serving sham . '' PARIS When Jacques Chirac led the Gaullist conservatives to an overwhelming vic tory in national elections last year , he had his eye on a bigger prize the pres idency . Unfortunately , the sitting president , Francois Mitterrand , planned t o keep the job until his term expired in 1995 . So the conservatives devised a c unning , though politically risky strategy . They selected Edouard Balladur , on e of Chirac 's oldest friends , a modest man without presidential aspirations or thundering charisma , to take the job of prime minister , the nation 's second- most-powerful job . That way , they figured , Chirac would be free to run for pr esident while the mild-mannered Balladur , a seasoned politician , attempted to `` cohabit '' with Mitterrand and grapple with the domestic problems . But Balla dur has , in just a year on the job , become the odds-on favorite to replace Mit terrand , a Socialist , in the country 's highest office . The 65-year-old prime minister 's popularity has baffled political analysts , journalists and even hi s own colleagues . Analysts say Balladur 's popularity stems , in part , from hi s relative anonymity . Although a career government official , whose jobs includ ed chief of staff to President Georges Pompidou in the 1970s , Balladur was not well known to most voters . And many in France were looking for a fresh face . B alladur is known for his formality and his courtesy . As he sat for a rare inter view at Matignon , the prime minister 's office on the Left Bank of Paris , he w ore a tailored , Saville Row suit and kept the jacket buttoned . Born in Turkey to a well-to-do French banker , Balladur earned a degree from the Ecole National e d' Administration , the school of France 's bureaucratic elite . He understand s English , but prefers to speak in French . `` I have a complex with English , '' he explained . `` I don't like to appear ridiculous . '' Though an unabashed protector of things French , the prime minister is fond of the United States and Americans . Under his guidance , the government is spending millions of dollars this year on D-Day landing ceremonies . And , at the government 's invitation , President Clinton will become only the second foreigner in decades to address P arliament next month . Question : Many Americans are beginning to believe that F rance wants to close its cultural doors to competition . What 's your feeling ? Answer : Yes . Yesterday , Ted Turner was in this office and we talked about tha t . I think there is one thing that must be understood : We are strongly against a uniform world culture with one single world language . We the French consider that we have a great culture and a great civilization language and that it 's p erfectly legitimate that we should defend our culture . I forget what the exact percentages are , but American films have much more than 50 percent of the Frenc h market . And French films in the United States are just a few percentage point s . So I think really the question is for me to put to you . Q : The question is , though , can you protect it by legislation , by law ? A : I think one can , y es . And it 's our firm intention to do so . Now , this brings up a problem . It 's really a problem of principle . Should world progress only spring from the l aw of the markets ? And that applies to everything . Economy , trade , culture . If that is the case , then nations are no longer of any use . We could just `` leave it to nature , ` ` so to speak . As you know , the tendency of nature is t hat the strongest become stronger , and the weakest become weaker . The basis of civilizations is their struggle against nature . That is the basis of education , of religion , of democracy , of law . So , it is a civilization endeavor that we are engaged in . It 's a bit of a paradox . Q : What baffles many Americans is why France , such a powerful country and with such a rich culture , needs law s to protect its culture and its language . The French didn't need to protect th eir culture in the 19th Century . A : There are two different aspects . First is the language and , secondly , there is what you might call the cultural industr y . As for the language itself , this is not something new we are doing . Three and a half centuries ago , the Academie Francaise was set up ( to protect the la nguage ) . It 's not something my government has thought up that is new . One ha s to have an open mind on this . Words like le weekend are part of the French la nguage now . The only thing is , you shouldn't overdo this . When the precise Fr ench word exists , there 's no point in not using it . Q : And culture ? A : Wha t is more interesting , really , is the cultural industry , the cultural economy , if you like . You 're perfectly right . In the 19th century , this wasn't nec essary , nor at the beginning of the 20th century . But cultural activity has be come a very big consumer product . It 's true of books , films , shows . It need s a market to live . ( Begin optional trim ) And a country whose territory isn't big enough needs to help those cultural activities , to give them what the mark et cannot provide . It 's a problem you don't have in the United States , becaus e the market is already there . You have almost 300 million consumers of cultura l products . But it is a problem in Europe , and especially in European countrie s that don't use English as a national language . The inadequacy of the market h as caused a certain number of film industries to almost completely disappear in Europe . Luckily , the French film industry still exists , but I think it exists only thanks to this machinery that we have . And that 's why you have to correc t market forces . ( End optional trim ) If we had a Francophone market with 300 million people , then we wouldn't need to have this machinery . But your product s and your cultural activities already pay for themselves in the U.S. market , a nd , therefore , they can be exported at a very low cost . We can't do that . So I think it 's a consequence of the fact that France is smaller than the United States , both in geographical terms and in population . Q : Clint Eastwood was r ecently honored by the French culture minister for his work in films . That kind of thing is confusing to many Americans . The French seem to like Hollywood fil ms , but the government seems to not want them to like those films . A : That 's not at all it . First of all , Clint Eastwood wouldn't have had his declaraton if the government hadn't agreed . But you need both . We like American films . I 'm very fond of American films and American actors and actresses . There are so me very fine actors . But it doesn't mean that they should be the only ones on t he screens . They have a monopoly . We also were a very powerful country in the past , and our tendency at the time , probably , was also to consider that Frenc h language and French culture excluded all others . Now history has moved . Thin gs have changed . And things will go on changing . One day you ( Americans ) may have to defend yourself against Chinese films . Q : Speaking of that reduction in French power . Is it difficult for the French to accept a lesser role in worl d affairs ? A : I think the French people have gotten used to this for a number of years . But at the same time , I think at the heart of every Frenchman there is a feeling that his civilization has a worldwide value . It 's a heritage we g et from the French Revolution . At the heart of all French men and women is the feeling , perhaps , that they embody an international value , related to princip les , to rules , to laws , to behavior . If you look at our colonial past , it e ssentially consisted of seeing to it that the largest possible number of populat ions were able to join the French model of civilization . ( Begin optional trim ) There are two ways of looking at that phenomenon . You can say that it was gen erosity , if you like . But you can also say it was a sort of imperialism . You can say both and there probably is a bit of truth in both , anyway . So , basica lly , France considers that she has a special mission in the service of peace an d human rights . That doesn't mean she always fulfills that mission in a proper way , but she tries to do it . ( End optional trim ) Q : A few months ago , Pres ident Clinton suggested that America should try to strengthen its economic ties with Asia rather than focus only on Europe . Does that worry you ? A : I do not share your analysis . If he shows a bigger overture to Asia , such an evolution seems to me to be natural . It 's the same for us . We are more interested in As ia than 10 years ago . It should not be interpreted as U.S. disinterest in Europ e . We often forget in Europe that a seashore of your country is turned toward t he Pacific , and that your interest in Asia is ancient and constant . But it doe s not constitute an alternative to the privileged relations that have to go on b etween the two seashores of the Atlantic . Q : How are relations between France and the United States at the moment ? A : I am satisfied by the state of Franco- American relations now , and optimistic about their future . France and the Unit ed States base their relations on identical , fundamental interests . We have al ways found solutions to our temporary problems without affecting the privileged character of our alliance , which has seen our countries side by side in major c rises . This was true in the time of Gen . ( Charles ) de Gaulle , during the Cu ban missile crisis , and it was even more true during the Gulf War . The celebra tion of D-Day in Normandy next month will give us the opportunity to again celeb rate an important page of our common history . MIAMI Pledging to make cigarette manufacturers pay , Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles ( D ) signed legislation this week that authorizes the state to sue makers of t obacco producers for the billions the state spent caring for sick smokers . The controversial bill is being hailed by anti-smoking advocates as the ultimate clu b to wield against tobacco companies , a `` smart bomb '' that allows the state to initiate a sweeping class-action suit to recoup state Medicaid money spent on patients suffering from illnesses associated with smoking . `` This law brings about the greatest change in the liability of the tobacco companies in the last 50 years , '' said Matthew Myers , counsel for the Coalition on Smoking or Healt h in Washington , which represents the national heart , lung and cancer societie s . If Florida succeeds in defending its legislation in a special session of the legislature June 7 and in the courts and then sues the tobacco industry , other states will almost surely follow . Mississippi , without the benefit of new leg islation , this week sued the tobacco industry to recoup its costs of treating s mokers . The tobacco industry vows to fight the legislation in a special legisla tive session , which was called to deal with health care reforms . `` We 're vie wing this has a very serious situation. .. . They ought to repeal it , '' said B rennan Dawson , spokesperson for the Tobacco Institute in Washington . `` The bi ll says don't do business in the state of Florida . You can't defend yourself . '' The tobacco industry has allies in Florida 's strongest business lobby , whos e leaders warn that the new legislation exposes other industries such as liquor to costly litigation . The legislation does not single out tobacco , though that is the industry that Chiles says the bill was designed to tackle . `` For decad es now , tobacco companies have turned an enormous profit while their victims ha ve turned to the taxpayers for treatment , '' Chiles said Thursday at the bill s igning . `` It 's time that those responsible are made to pay . '' The bill is t he brainchild of Harold Lewis , general counsel for Florida 's Agency for Health Care Administration . Lewis said he designed the bill to take away the most pow erful arguments the tobacco industry has traditionally used to defend itself aga inst lawsuits . Under the legislation , cigarette manufacturers will no longer b e able to argue that smokers knew of risks , either from the surgeon general 's reports or from the warnings on cigarette packs because it is the state that is suing , not the smokers . `` The state is the innocent victim , '' said Lewis . `` The state didn't smoke the cigarettes . The state didn't read the warnings on the cigarette packs .. . But the state has to pay the bills . '' Chiles said th at Florida taxpayers have spent at least $ 1.2 billion in Medicaid payments over the last five years for smoke-related illness , including lung cancer and emphy sema . Lewis also wrote the legislation in such a way that tobacco manufacturers will no longer be able to argue that smoking did not cause a specific illness i n a specific person . The new legislation enables Florida to rely on statistical evidence that cigarettes caused sickness . The state will simply tally the numb er of Medicaid patients who are treated for illnesses commonly associated with s moking , and then seek compensation from the tobacco companies for the state 's health care costs . The state need not even name plaintiffs , nor does it need t o show that those patients smoked one or another company 's brands . If found li able , the companies would simply be assigned shares of the blame based on their shares on the cigarette market in Florida . Lewis said the idea of litigating b ased on market share has been used in product liability cases for breast implant s and asbestos . Tobacco industry advocates charge that the new legislation was slipped through without any real understanding by legislators . The bill passed as an amendment to a large Medicaid fraud bill and was voted on without debate o r hearings . Lewis , however , contends the bill circulated for some 29 hours : `` That 's an eternity '' in the Florida legislature , he said . Jon Shebel , pr esident of Associated Industries , the state 's most powerful business lobby , s aid Friday that Chiles has already signaled that he would narrow the new legisla tion to target only tobacco manufacturers . Shebel went even further , suggestin g that the bill might be repealed if Chiles could get the tobacco industry to co ntribute money to offset Florida 's Medicaid costs . `` He wants them to put mon ey into Medicaid system , '' Shebel said . `` That 's really what the governor w ants . '' A delegation of cardinals Friday officially presented to Pope John Paul II the English version of the new Catechism of the Catholic Church , the first universa l book of the church 's teachings in 428 years . Disagreements over references t o men , women and the holy Trinity had delayed publication for more than a year . The Vatican rejected early drafts by the American translators and insisted on retaining references to `` men '' rather than `` men and women '' or `` the huma n race '' in referring to humanity . The 803-page compendium of faith an outgrow th of the Vatican II council of 1962 to 1965 is an all-purpose guide that reaffi rms the abiding principles of Roman Catholic doctrine and practice and applies t hem to some of the most painful dilemmas of modern life . It upholds the authori ty of the church hierarchy and restates the church 's strong prohibitions agains t premarital sex , abortion , euthanasia and divorce . Its condemnation of homos exuality is tempered by a call for `` respect , compassion and sensitivity '' to ward gay people and a rejection of `` unjust discrimination . '' The book condem ns the arms race and states that employers who neglect to pay adequate wages to their workers or engage in tax fraud commit `` a grave injustice . '' And it sta tes that Muslims and Jews are among believers who are eligible for salvation a m ajor shift from the old , discredited catechism of the 16th Century Council of T rent . The pope , who received the new catechism in the hospital room where he i s recovering from hip surgery , called the translation `` faithful '' to the Fre nch original he approved Dec. 8 , 1992 . He said in a statement that the new tex t fulfills a need `` of millions of English-speaking faithful .. . seeking a ful l and balanced exposition of the Catholic truth professed , celebrated , lived a nd prayed by the Church throughout the world . '' The presenters included Cardin al Bernard F . Law , archbishop of Boston , who introduced the idea of a new com pendium of faith at an international conference of bishops in 1985 . The pope ap proved the plan and appointed an oversight commission that included Law and Arch bishop William J. Levada , of Portland , Ore . The catechism was translated last year into German , Spanish and Italian . Although it will not be published offi cially until June 22 , the new text is already an instant bestseller among the n ation 's 59 million Catholics . The first printing of more than 560,000 has sold out . A second printing of at least 100,000 will begin June 13 for delivery in July . The U.S. Catholic Conference Office of Publishing and Promotion Services , which holds the American rights for the English text , has signed on 15 other companies as co-publishers to ensure the widest circulation possible . Catholic leaders expressed delight that the English version is finally available . `` The re has not been a comparable Catholic publishing event in this nation 's history , '' said Baltimore Archbishop William H. Keeler , president of the National Co nference of Catholic Bishops , in a prepared statement . Monsignor William E. Lo ri , vicar general and chancellor of the archdiocese of Washington , said the ne w catechism will be used as the basis for religious instruction materials throug hout the world . Critics expressed concern over the Vatican 's decision to use e xclusively masculine terminology . `` I feel very badly about it , '' Bishop Jos eph Imesch of Joliet , Ill. , told the Associated Press . `` I don't think Rome has any understanding about the feelings that are aroused when you use exclusive language . '' But Archbishop Keeler called the issue `` a serious question .. . which only time and further study can answer . '' The last universal catechism was issued in 1566 after the Council of Trent , convened to respond to the sprea d of the Protestant Reformation . A condensed and updated version , the Baltimor e Catechism , was approved in 1885 by James Cardinal Gibbons , the Archbishop of Baltimore . With the Second Vatican Council in the mid-1960s , this version fel l out of favor and was replaced by other religious textbooks . `` Catechesis '' is rooted in the Greek verb katekhein , to resound or echo . In the New Testamen t , it refers to oral instruction used to pass down the teachings of Christ . Or al instruction continued until the 16th Century and the invention of the printin g press . WASHINGTON George W . Ball , who was under secretary of state during the Kenned y and Johnson administrations and one of the few high-ranking U.S. officials to offer early and vigorous counsel against U.S. involvement in the war in Vietnam , died of cancer May 26 at New York Hospital . He was 84 . Ball , who served in the State Department from 1961 to 1966 , was a specialist in foreign affairs , i nternational law and commercial relations for most of his adult life . In the Ke nnedy administration , he was part of the task force that steered the U.S. throu gh the Cuban Missile Crisis , and he was an influential advocate of liberal worl d trade policies and monetary stability while in government and out of it . Duri ng World War II , he worked on the Lend Lease program to supply war materiel to the Allies . He later headed the U.S. . Strategic Bombing Survey , a civilian pa nel appointed by President Roosevelt to evaluate the social , economic and physi cal effects of the air raids on Nazi Germany . From this experience came Ball 's conclusion that massive bombing would be ineffectual in a country such as Vietn am , which lacked a developed industrial infrastructure . After World War II , h e served as general counsel to the French Supply Mission , which was engaged in the acquisition of supplies for the economic rehabilitation of postwar France . In this role , he worked closely with Jean Monnet , the architect of European ec onomic unity , and he became one of the foremost American disciples of Monnet 's vision . Later he was an adviser to Monnet during the preliminary work that led to the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community and later the European Common Market . From May of 1968 until January of 1969 , Ball was back in gover nment service as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations . During the Carter admin istration , he was an adviser on Iran and Persian Gulf policies . At other times in his career , he had been a U.S. trouble-shooter in such places as Zaire , Cy prus and Laos . As a government official , Ball was said by associates to have b een a stickler for details and an extraordinarily hard worker who found relaxing difficult . He wrote and rewrote all his own speeches , and he was often a nuis ance to his colleagues after hours and on weekends . Away from the office , he w as an amateur carpenter who spent years working on an addition to his home in Wa shington . A resident of Princeton , N.J. , Ball was born in Des Moines . He gra duated from Northwestern University , where he also received a law degree . He c ame to Washington directly from law school at the outset of the New Deal , and h e worked until 1935 in the office of the general counsel of the Treasury Departm ent . From 1935 until returning to Washington in 1942 , he practiced law in Chic ago . He was appointed associate general counsel of the Lend Lease Administratio n , and then held the same position with the Foreign Economic Administration , o f which Lend Lease had become a part . As director of the U.S. . Strategic Bombi ng Survey , Ball interviewed several high Nazi officials , including Albert Spee r , the German minister of armaments , munitions and production , whom he interr ogated for seven days with economist John Kenneth Galbraith . A report on this i nterrogation was published in Life magazine in December of 1945 . In Washington after the war , Ball was a founding partner of the law firm now known as Cleary , Gottlieb , Steen and Hamilton , with offices in New York , Washington , Paris and Brussels . At his death he was of counsel to the firm . Politically he was a ctive in the presidential campaigns of former Illinois Gov. Adlai E. Stevenson , the Democratic nominee in 1952 and 1956 . Ball had known Stevenson since his da ys as a young lawyer in Chicago . He was director of Volunteers for Stevenson in 1952 , and was director of public relations for the Stevenson-Kefauver ticket i n 1956 . . In 1960 , he backed Stevenson again for the Democratic presidential n omination . But after Kennedy 's election , a report by Ball and a colleague on economic policy and the balance of payments caught the new president 's attentio n . He named Ball under secretary of state for economic affairs , the third-rank ing post in the State Department . Ball was appointed under secretary of state , the second-ranking position , in November of 1961 . That same month , Ball reca lled in his 1982 Memoirs , `` The Past Has Another Pattern , '' he warned Kenned y privately that it would be a tragic blunder to commit U.S. troops to Vietnam . `` Within five years , we 'll have 300,000 men in the paddies and jungles and n ever find them , '' Ball recalled saying . He wrote that Kennedy answered him , `` You 're just crazier than hell . That just isn't going to happen . '' During the Johnson presidency , Ball was often called the `` Devil 's advocate , '' on Vietnam , but he maintained a close personal relationship with Secretary of Stat e Dean Rusk , a supporter of the war . They often enjoyed a drink together at th e end of the day , and when Ball resigned in 1966 , he left on good terms . Ball then joined the investment banking firm of Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb as a senio r partner . He resigned in May of 1968 to become United Nations ambassador , but he returned to the firm in 1969 . He retired in 1982 as senior managing directo r . In addition to his memoirs , Ball was author of four other books , including `` The Discipline of Power , '' published in 1968 . In it he wrote , `` Today , America is in an ugly mood . By a series of small steps , taken in good faith o ver a period of years , we have mired ourselves in a frustrating war that turns our otherwise sensible countrymen into placard-carrying hysterics . Already we h ear the querulous frog croaks of an old isolationism . '' Ball 's other books in clude `` Diplomacy for a Crowded World '' ( 1976 ) , `` Error and Betrayal in Le banon '' ( 1984 ) and `` The Passionate Attachment : America 's Involvement with Israel , 1947 to the Present '' ( 1992 ) . He was a recipient of the Medal of F reedom , the highest U.S. civilian award . His wife of 50 years , Ruth M . Ball , died in 1993 . Survivors include two sons , John C . Ball of Concord , Mass. , and Douglas B . Ball of Rockville Centre , N.Y. ; and two grandchildren . WASHINGTON Swift passage of long-promised legislation to overhaul congressional campaign financing laws has been jeopardized because the House and Senate remai n sharply divided over limits on contributions from political action committees ( PACs ) , the chief sponsor of the Senate bill warned . `` I would say the fate of campaign finance hangs in the balance .. . the chances of enactment are now only about 50-50 , '' Sen. David L. Boren , D-Okla. , said in an interview Thurs day after the latest in a series of inconclusive meetings on the issue between H ouse and Senate Democratic leaders . Boren 's assessment was made as Congress sl owed its earlier fast pace of action , sending lawmakers home for their 10-day M emorial Day recess without final action on any of the major bills that congressi onal leaders hoped to send to President Clinton before the holiday . Two of thes e measures a big anti-crime bill and legislation to tighten controls on lobbyist s and restrict or ban gifts to lawmakers are headed for House-Senate conferences when Congress returns June 7 , facing what negotiators describe as difficult bu t not insurmountable obstacles . But the campaign finance bill , which passed th e Senate nearly a year ago and the House last November , is stuck in pre-confere nce talks between the top leaders of both chambers , with increasingly impatient Republicans grumbling from the sidelines . Just six weeks ago , congressional l eaders appeared optimistic about a speedy completion of the nearly decade-long s truggle to pass the first comprehensive bill to tighten campaign finance rules s ince the post-Watergate reforms of 1974 . Both House and Senate bills would set voluntary spending ceilings for congressional candidates , provide incentives fo r compliance and tighten controls over special-interest spending . Even the sens itive issue of how to fund public subsidies for candidates without dipping into general tax revenues considered a taboo in the current political climate is in t he final stages of being worked out by House leaders . But there has been little if any movement on the key issue : what limits to put on contributions that can be made to any single campaign by PACs , which are created by corporations , un ions and other interest groups to influence legislation by raising funds for can didates . In its original bill , the House voted to retain the current $ 5,000 l imit . The Senate voted to ban PACs or , failing that , to reduce the limit to $ 1,000 . Senators have suggested compromising at $ 2,500 , but House leaders are resisting any change . House Democrats believe they risk crippling Democratic d efections if PAC limits are reduced too far , but Senate Democrats cannot break a GOP filibuster without help from a half-dozen Republicans who are insisting on the lowest possible PAC limits for all congressional races . House members care more about PAC money because they receive proportionately more from PACs than s enators , who raise contributions from a larger base . In addition , many female and minority members of the House contend they could not run competitive races without PAC help . Enthusiasm for the legislation is not high among rank-and-fil e members on either side of the Capitol . But concern over the bill 's impact on incumbents ' traditional fund-raising advantage is especially strong in the Hou se , where members face election every two instead of six years . Senate Republi cans and some Democrats complain that House Democrats are trying to have it both ways : in guaranteeing the bill 's defeat by giving Senate Republicans a bill t hey are sure to reject and then blame them for the results . `` They 're trying to find a politically correct way of killing the bill .. . by blaming us , '' co mplained Sen. James M. Jeffords ( Vt. ) . He is one of seven Republicans who hel ped break a filibuster against the bill last year but who have said they will no t do so again unless several conditions are met , including reduced PAC limits a nd equal rules for both chambers . At Thursday 's meeting with Speaker Thomas S. Foley ( Wash. ) and other House leaders , Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitc hell , D-Maine , Rules Committee Chairman Wendell H. Ford , D-Ky. , and Boren wa rned that they wanted no part of such a strategy , one source said . In an inter view , Mitchell said he remained confident about passage of the legislation but acknowledged that `` there is disagreement on PACs . '' Rep. Sam Gejdenson ( Con n. ) , chief architect of the House Democratic plan , said he thought the proble m could be worked out , but added , `` I think the danger here is some ( Senate ) Republicans are threatening to filibuster if they don't get this or that . '' Gejdenson also questioned the efficacy of lowering the maximum PAC contribution . `` You 're in effect sending people to more PACs . In reality , that 's not re form . '' Boren argues that large contributions tend to increase the obligation that the recipient feels toward the giver , often pouring in at the last minute for maximum impact . Asked if the House could accept less than a $ 5,000 PAC lim it , Gejdenson said , `` I don't think there 's any need for that to move . '' T he conference to resolve differences between House and Senate anti-crime bills w hich would reimpose the federal death penalty , increase penalties for violent c rimes and pump more money into prison construction and crime prevention probably will get started shortly after the recess and continue for several weeks , a Se nate source said . Many believe the toughest issue will be a House provision , o pposed by the Senate , to allow use of sentencing statistics to challenge death penalties as racially discriminatory . A compromise on the issue could be diffic ult , but House Judiciary Committee member Charles E. Schumer , D-N.Y. , said he would propose to `` make explicitly clear it 's not a quota bill and you can't use general population figures '' to challenge death sentences . The Justice Department has begun an antitrust investigation of Los Angeles-base d Ticketmaster after the rock band Pearl Jam accused the giant ticket agency of pressuring promoters to boycott the band 's low-cost concert tour . Lawyers for the Seattle-based band , the biggest selling rock group in the country , complai ned on May 6 in a memo to the department 's antitrust division , accusing Ticket master , the world 's largest ticket agency , of exercising a monopoly over tick et distribution in this country and using that influence to keep promoters from booking the Pearl Jam tour this summer . The memorandum to the Justice Departmen t filed by Sullivan & Cromwell , a prominent New York law firm that specializes in antitrust issues , said that Ticketmaster has exclusive arrangements with all important concert venues in the country and uses these arrangements to `` cemen t control over the distribution of tickets to concerts . '' Sales of Pearl Jam ' s last two albums exceeded $ 137 million . Ticketmaster , which is privately hel d , last year reportedly earned about $ 200 million in service and sponsorship f ees on $ 1.3 billion in sales of tickets to concert and sporting events . A spok eswoman for the Justice Department declined comment on the probe . Ticketmaster and representatives for Pearl Jam also did not comment . The investigation is li kely to focus new attention on a growing furor over skyrocketing concert ticket prices and service fees , and the arrangements among managers , promoters and se rvice companies that underlie pricing decisions . Ticketmaster collects a phone service fee for tickets to rock and pop concerts , typically $ 6 to $ 8 per tick et , although the agency 's fee for $ 350 tickets for Barbra Streisand shows amo unted to $ 18 in some cities . Ticketmaster pays a portion of the fees to mainta in exclusive long-term contracts with the owners of the largest concert venues . In addition , Ticketmaster also pays a portion to some promoters , managers , a gents and artists . In March , Pearl Jam sent letters to promoters vowing to per form concerts this summer only at venues that charged $ 18 for a ticket and no m ore than $ 1.80 for service or handling charges . A representative of the band s aid Pearl Jam was seeking to keep prices in the range of its young fans . But so urces in the concert industry said the group encountered immediate resistance fr om Ticketmaster and members of the North American Concert Promoters Association a McLean , Va.-based group that represents the nation 's largest promoters . In two letters obtained by the Los Angeles Times , Ben Liss , the executive directo r of the association , warned promoters that if they booked Pearl Jam under the band 's conditions , they could face possible lawsuits from Ticketmaster . `` ( Ticketmaster ) views the Pearl Jam issue as an all or nothing proposition , '' L iss wrote in one of his letters on March 24 . `` ( Ticketmaster chief executive Fred Rosen ) has indicated that he intends to take a very strong stand on this i ssue to protect Ticketmaster 's existing contracts with promoters and facilities and , further , ( Ticketmaster ) will use all available remedies to protect its elf from outside third parties that attempt to interfere with those existing con tracts . '' Liss did not return phone calls seeking comment . After being turned down by virtually every promoter in the country for bookings , Pearl Jam postpo ned its summer tour . ( Optional add end ) As part of its preliminary inquiry , three Justice Department officials from Washington flew into Los Angeles on May 24 to interview music business figures , sources said . Sources close to the cas e said that Ticketmaster and members of the North American Concert Promoters Ass ociation will soon be served with `` investigative demands '' the civil equivale nt of a subpoena . The demands would require the companies to turn over document s relevant to the probe . Ticketmaster has dominated the ticket market since 199 1 . In May of that year , the Justice Department 's Antitrust Division gave the go-ahead for Ticketmaster to buy certain assets from Ticketron . At that point , Ticketron was Ticketmaster 's only major competitor . The government inquiry co mes at a time when Ticketmaster plans to expand into a variety of new ventures , including movie ticket sales and an interactive TV channel devoted to tickets , concert merchandise , records and videos . Ticketmaster is controlled by billio naire Paul G. Allen , who co-founded software giant Microsoft and owns the Portl and Trail Blazers basketball team . Allen reportedly paid more than $ 250 millio n last November for controlling interest in Ticketmaster from the Chicago-based Pritzker family , who retain a small piece of the firm as part of their vast hol dings , which include the Hyatt hotel chain . Allen , who also holds a 24 percen t stake in the America Online interactive computer service , has already joined forces with EMI Music , PolyGram , Sony Music and the Warner Music Group to crea te a video music channel to challenge MTV . Executives of those four recording c onglomerates have been subpoenaed in a separate antitrust probe by the Federal T rade Commission , which is investigating compact disc pricing policies . xxx China 's demands . '' In Washington , however , White House officials made an apparent effort to show how hard Clinton worked to try to achieve human right s progress in China . The officials disclosed that a Cabinet-level meeting in Ap ril led to a plan to send Michael H. Armacost , former U.S. ambassador to Japan , to China as a private emissary . At the time of former President Nixon 's fune ral in Yorba Linda , Calif. , in April , three top administration officials met with Chinese Vice Premier Zou Jiahua in a private room of the Nixon Library to t ell him of the emissary 's plan to visit . `` Clearly , the feeling was that an additional channel was needed , '' one senior administration official said Frida y . The official said the administration had also sent messages to the Chinese l eadership through other private American citizens , including former national se curity advisers Zbigniew Brzezinski and Henry A . Kissinger . Clinton also consu lted with former President Jimmy Carter , Kissinger and Brzezinski , according t o White House officials . VATICAN CITY Having battled his doctors to an amicable draw , Pope John Paul II left the hospital Friday to return to the Vatican and a dramatically changed pa pacy . The 74-year-old pope , who will be forced to modify his hectic lifestyle , left Rome 's Gemelli hospital four weeks after surgery to repair a thighbone b roken in a bathroom fall at his Vatican apartment . He walked without a cane the few steps from the hospital doorway to a waiting limousine . Pope John Paul int ends to make a Sunday morning appearance to pilgrims from a window overlooking S t. Peter 's Square , and will receive a visiting President Clinton as scheduled on Thursday , the Vatican said . `` He may lean on a cane or against a table , b ut the Holy Father will certainly be standing to greet the president , '' papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro told reporters Friday . Doctors , who say they are ple ased with Pope John Paul 's progress , originally estimated that he would remain two to three weeks under hospital care . They would have released him last week , they say , except that he insisted on returning to the Vatican instead of to Castel Gandolfo , the papal summer residence south of Rome where therapy could h ave included swimming and garden walks . As the price for returning directly to a hectic and more restrictive Vatican life , the pope agreed to remain longer in the hospital , Navarro said . `` Some say the broken leg is not all bad because it forces the pope to take time to rest ; he works too hard , '' said a Europea n bishop at the Vatican . Boston Cardinal Bernard Law was with another cardinal and three bishops who traveled to Gemelli Friday to present Pope John Paul with a copy of the long-delayed English edition of their church 's new catechism . `` He was in a better state than I would have expected after such a long hospitali zation . He was himself , '' Law said . Looking thin but fit and obviously in hi gh spirits , Pope John Paul used an aluminum walker to leave his hospital room . He stopped along the way to chat for 20 minutes with children being treated for tumors . `` You have treated me very well , and I thank you very much , '' the pope told doctors as he left , `` but don't expect to see me back here soon . '' ( Optional add end ) Over the years , Pope John Paul has shown a remarkable abi lity to snap back from medical emergencies ranging from a gunshot to a colon tum or to a broken collarbone . The leg injury , however , marked his second fall an d second broken bone in five months . It sparked concern about the pope 's incre asing frailty and speculation about a successor . `` We must pray for the Holy F ather . We can see his energies draining away as he tries to do more and more , '' one cardinal was heard to observe after Easter Mass , three weeks before John Paul 's latest fall . While he was in the hospital , the Vatican denied a repor t in Spanish newspapers that the pontiff , whose left hand shakes , is suffering from Parkinson 's disease . Vatican administration , largely on hold in the pop e 's absence , resumes next week with the publication of a letter Monday reaffir ming a ban on female priests . But the hospital stay has put the papal schedule badly out of sync . An unusual meeting of all the church 's cardinals was cancel ed this month ; rescheduled for June , the conference is to discuss the state of the Roman Catholic Church and its policies as it enters a third millennium . WASHINGTON The Federal Reserve began raising short-term interest rates earlier this year `` without widespread indications that inflation has picked up , '' Fe d Chairman Alan Greenspan said Friday , because the central bank feared that low rates and rapid growth would make inflation worse . But two senior Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee , Paul S. Sarbanes of Maryland and Jim Sasser of T ennessee , accused Greenspan and the Fed of jumping the gun . They argued that i t was certain that higher rates would slow growth and cost the nation jobs , and that the central bank could not be sure inflation would worsen even if interest rates remained low . `` We 've got a basic disagreement , Mr . Chairman , '' Sa sser told Greenspan . `` I don't see the inflation , and I 'm willing to run a t iny little risk ( to ) get some quarters of robust economic growth going here , not putter along indefinitely at 3 percent , 2.5 percent ( growth ) , with high rates of unemployment . '' Greenspan told the hearing , `` History unequivocally demonstrates that monetary accommodation ( taking no action ) when the economy is strong risks a significant acceleration of inflation . '' Committee Chairman Donald T. Riegle Jr. , D-Mich. , noted that with an upward revision in growth fi gures for the first three months of this year , announced Friday by the Commerce Department , the economy has grown by 3.7 percent in the year ended in March . At the same time , employment was up by 2.3 million jobs and the unemployment ra te down by a full percentage point . Riegle , unlike his colleagues , did not di rectly criticize the Fed . Instead , he said that while he does not want to lose the gains that have been made against inflation , `` it would be foolhardy to u s to needlessly bring this economic expansion to a premature shutdown . '' The B anking chairman urged Greenspan not to raise interest rates any further while th e economy `` digests '' the 1.25 percentage point increase in short-term rates t hat the Fed engineered since early February . `` I think we may need a pause her e to sort of see how these adjustments are taking hold . The upward revision in first quarter growth figures by the Commerce Department , from a 2.6 percent ann ual rate advance estimate last month to 3 percent rate in Friday 's release , ca ught virtually all analysts by surprise . On the basis of the additional data av ailable since last month to the statisticians who compile the figures for the gr oss domestic product , the analysts had been looking for a reduction of a quarte r of a percentage point or more rather than an increase . However , the analysts had missed a surprising jump in non-defense federal spending in March which cha nged what had been listed as a decline for first quarter federal spending into a n increase . But the analysts generally said that the revision did little to cha nge either their sense of the state of the economy or their expectations about g rowth in the April-June period , which several put at 3.5 percent to 4 percent o r slightly more . Part of the higher growth this quarter is due to a rebound fro m the effects of severe winter weather that reduced economic activity early in t he year , particularly in construction . At the Banking Committee hearing , Gree nspan declined to predict what growth would be this quarter or how high it could be in the future without triggering more rapid inflation . Instead , the Fed ch airman argued that keeping inflation low was the best way to maximize economic g rowth over time . `` The evidence is increasingly that low inflation means highe r economic activity , greater growth in standards of living , greater real wages , not lower , '' Greenspan said . `` I think we 're all endeavoring to find way s to get solid economic growth , which is sustainable and which is not periodica lly upended by .. . destabilizing bouts '' of inflation . `` If we are successfu l in our current endeavors , there will not be an increase in overall inflation , and trends toward price stability will be extended . '' Greenspan explained th at there is a substantial lag between changes in interest rates and the resultin g changes in economic activity . And that means the Fed `` must implement the ne cessary monetary policy adjustments in advance of the potential emergence of inf lationary pressures , so as to forestall their actual occurrence , '' he said . But Sasser and Sarbanes repeatedly rejected the Fed chairman 's argument . The F ed should stop `` buying into the notion that as soon as you get some good growt h , you 've got to move to cut it down because there 's some phantom inflation t hat you perceive that needs to be addressed , when the underlying figures don't support it , '' Sarbanes responded . Red Rodney , a driving force in the bebop movement of the 1940s and '50s that s pread from New York 's Birdland to envelop the rest of the country , died Friday . Leonard Feather , jazz critic for the Los Angeles Times , said Rodney died of cancer in New York City . He was 66 . Rodney , the trumpeter who helped make th e Charlie Parker quintet a definitive unit in the early days of progessive jazz , had experienced health problems throughout his life . As with Parker , Dizzy G illespie was an early influence on the young trumpeter from Philadelphia who was born Robert Chudnick . Rodney who was portrayed by Mike Zelnicker in the Parker biopic `` Bird , '' had begun studying brass when he was in his teens . He was working with a Philadelphia swing orchestra when he first heard the innovative G illespie harmonics . Gillespie listened to him and took the 18-year-old to New Y ork where he met Parker . He said the first thing the troubled famous saxophonis t did was to borrow $ 10 . Rodney also was allowed to sit in with the Parker gro up . Rodney , who was made a member of the elite Downbeat ( magazine ) Hall of F ame , joined the Gene Krupa band after learning that Parker and Gillespie were t raveling to California where Krupa would be performing . He returned to New York with Krupa , stayed a year , then began working clubs on 52nd Street . He was i n Woody Herman 's brass section in New York in 1949 when trumpeter Miles Davis l eft Parker and Rodney took his place as part of the fabled quintet . Rodney shor t , red-headed and Jewish found that he had to pass himself off as a racial oddi ty to be accepted in a field dominated by blacks . Parker , he recalled , would introduce him to audiences as `` Albino Red . '' ( Begin optional trim ) Rodney said Parker not only led him to the forefront of the bop movement but also `` in spired '' him to start using drugs so `` maybe I could play that good , '' as he told Feather in 1988 . He battled drugs for several years but by the 1970s had put his destructive habits behind him and was touring Europe , playing regularly behind star acts in Las Vegas and recording with a group called Bebop Preservat ion Society . In the early 1980s he started working full time with his own jazz quintet and appeared throughout the country . In 1980 he teamed with Ira Sulliva n who played both reeds and brass in one of the then most popular combos in jazz . ( End optional trim ) The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music called Rodne y `` one of the best bebop trumpeters '' of the period and `` certainly one of t he first white players to gain credibility and experience in the field . '' Rodn ey 's survivors include his wife , Helene . SAN FRANCISCO A 10-year study of smog in national parks has found that air qual ity is improving in Western states but continuing to deteriorate in the East des pite tougher laws aimed at halting air pollution . In the summertime , remote pa rks and wilderness areas in the East share the same hazy air as big cities like Washington . In fact , the study found , visible air pollution in the two easter n parks studied is worse than in Los Angeles during the summer . Researchers at the University of California , Davis , who conducted the study of a dozen nation al parks , came to the unexpected conclusion that the West is doing a better job of controlling the sulfur emissions that cause visible air pollution and acid r ain . The findings were published in the latest issue of the journal Atmospheric Environment . `` The measures used in the East to clean up the air aren't worki ng the way they should and the air quality is getting worse , '' said physicist Thomas Cahill , head of the UC Davis Air Quality Group . `` The measures used in the West are working , and the air is getting better . '' Cahill called for tou gher laws to reduce sulfur emissions , particularly in the East . `` The bottom line is that the Clean Air Act may not accomplish all that it was supposed to do , which is to clean up the air of the eastern United States , '' he said . The research , the first of its kind , found that the United States is divided down the middle into two distinct zones of sulfur emissions , which can travel hundre ds of miles from their original sources . In the East , the level of sulfate pol lutants is often eight times as high as in the West because there are many more power plants , fewer emission controls and higher humidity , which accelerates t he conversion of sulfur emissions into visible acidic particles . Sulfate pollut ion is the primary cause of visible smog and , in heavy concentrations , can sev erely damage trees . By contrast , ozone , which is not visible , is the main co mponent of smog that causes health problems in humans and can also damage vegeta tion . To see how air pollution is affecting visibility in some of the most remo te and pristine spots in the country , the UC Davis researchers took air samples at scenic spots , such as the mountains above Yosemite Valley and the bottom of the Grand Canyon . The researchers found that the air quality improved in natio nal parks in Arizona , Colorado , Utah and Oregon between 1982 and 1992 , while holding steady in Yosemite , the Grand Canyon , Bryce Canyon National Park in Ut ah and two national parks in Texas . ( Optional add end ) However , visible poll ution at Shenendoah National Park in Virginia and Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee jumped nearly 40 percent during the same period . `` On many days in the summer , visitors have no view at all except a strange , gray fog fr om many of the most popular lookouts , '' Cahill said . `` But it 's not fog . I t 's mostly sulfate particles , with lots of water attached . At times in the Ea st , it is almost pure dilute sulfuric acid . '' Cahill said the UC Davis findin gs support the theory that the sulfate haze hanging over much of the eastern Uni ted States and Europe is countering the effect of global warming in that region by scattering light that would otherwise heat the earth . He said this finding c ould explain why temperatures have not increased as much in the northern hemisph ere as expected under scientific models of global warming . Some scientists have maintained that the lack of temperature rise in northern climates refutes the t heory that the planet is warming up because emissions of carbon dioxide are hold ing in heat . TICKETS ( Philips , Times special ) has been killed . The kill is mandatory . B e certain the story is not published . A sub will be filed later . TICKETS ( Philips , Times special ) has been killed . The kill is mandatory . B e certain the story is not published . A sub will be filed later . BEIJING President Clinton 's decision to sever the link between China 's trade status and human rights could provide an opportunity for China and the United St ates to deal with each other on a normal basis for the first time since the bloo dy crackdown five years ago against pro-democracy demonstrators , Chinese and We stern analysts said today . `` The current situation offers a historic opportuni ty for the enhancement of Sino-American relations , '' the Chinese Foreign Minis try said , adding that China will continue to make `` major efforts '' to improv e relations . In the past , the threat of not renewing China 's most-favored-nat ion trading status has `` impaired the bilateral trade and economic exchanges an d the overall relations between the two countries , '' the statement said . `` W e hope that the U.S. government , on its part , will take a realistic and forwar d-looking stand in the overall interests of Sino-American relations and take con crete action to show its sincerity for enhancing relations , '' it added . The C hinese statement also expressed `` regret '' that sanctions imposed by the Unite d States after the Tiananmen Square crackdown remain in place . In an apparent r eference to Clinton 's comments about continuing serious human rights abuses in China , the Foreign Ministry also accused the United States of `` making unwarra nted charges about ( the ) human rights situation in China . '' But the overall tone of the statement was upbeat , and the rhetoric was restrained . Clinton 's move is likely to reassure China 's leaders on a fundamental issue . The decisio n shows that `` it 's not the intent of the administration to destabilize China or overthrow the regime , '' said Michel Oksenberg , a longtime China scholar wh o recently visited Beijing and met with top Chinese leaders . Among China 's agi ng rulers , the elimination of the threat to revoke trade privileges over human rights abuses will strengthen the hand of more reform-minded leaders to argue fo r a wide-ranging relationship with the United States . This becomes especially i mportant because of the uncertainty surrounding the political succession after s enior leader Deng Xiaoping , who turns 90 in August . At the same time , Clinton 's flip-flop on China policy has raised questions about his personal credibilit y among the Chinese . `` The Chinese know they have won , '' said Wang Xizhe , a veteran dissident who was released last year after nearly 14 years in jail for his pro-democracy activities . In a telephone interview from the southern city o f Guangzhou , he said he welcomed the decision . He pointed out that in the end , it was the United States that gave in . `` I think the Chinese saw early on th at the United States is a paper tiger , '' he said . This raises the question of how seriously the Chinese will take Clinton 's word or threats on issues such a s Washington 's relations with Taiwan and bilateral trade issues , analysts said . `` It is always important for the Chinese to feel that we are quite credible in what we say , '' said a Western analyst who has long had dealings with Chines e leaders . `` If people respect you on that level , it usually saves both sides a lot of heartache , and there is less testing of each side by the other . '' N evertheless , the questions of credibility and trust might carry less weight if the Clinton administration follows through with broad strategic discussions with the Chinese , analysts said . This is particularly true in the military realm , where high-level contacts had been frozen until last fall . A visit to the Unit ed States of a top Chinese general had been put on hold while the two sides awai ted the outcome of the trade decision . Meanwhile , a delegation that includes f ormer defense secretary Robert S. McNamara and four senior retired U.S. military officials , including three generals , has been holding talks in Beijing for th e past week with Chinese military officials . `` It 's important to see what kin d of role China sees for itself in the region , what resources it is devoting to its military budget and what their strategic doctrine is , '' said David Lampto n , president of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations , which sponsore d the trip . In the area of human rights , some Chinese dissidents said there mi ght be setbacks in the short run as a result of Clinton 's decision . But over t he longer term , greater contacts with the West and rapid development of China ' s economy may lead to increased freedom , said veteran activist Wang . Wang ackn owledged that his release in February of 1993 was due in part to international p ressure . For that , he said , he will always be grateful . But those activists who have chosen to stay in China long ago made their own preparations to deal wi th the authorities , regardless of outside pressure such as the threat of losing the trading status . Perhaps the one dissident who felt most strongly that the United States needed to be tough on China could not be reached for comment . Chi na 's most prominent political activist , Wei Jingsheng , has been in police cus tody since April 1 . Chinese and Western analysts say China 's actions in human rights area are driven more by its own domestic-stability concerns than by press ure from the West . `` China is undergoing change at a speed that borders on the uncontrollable , '' said Ken Lieberthal , a China expert from the University of Michigan in a telephone interview in Hong Kong . `` It has a leadership that is desperately trying to shift that country from a typical Soviet-style command ec onomy to a typical East Asian type of economic miracle . And it believes firmly that it must find a path that combines entrepreneurial flexibility with politica l stability , '' he said . Chinese officials have often complained in the past t hat the U.S. position on human rights often comes out sounding like the United S tates has a morally superior position when dealing with China . For a country wh ose leaders still remember China 's bitter humiliations at the hands of foreign powers , such a posture often stiffens the Chinese resolve not to give in to Ame rican demands . Earlier this year , when a U.S. official had to visit Beijing fo r consultations , the message about the importance of human rights was not raise d , and the meeting was very fruitful , according to a Western diplomat . Clinto n 's decision was praised around Asia , where many leaders , particularly Singap ore 's elder statesman Lee Kuan Yew , have been critical of the policy to link t rade and human rights . In Beijing , Phil Carmichael , president of the American Chamber of Commerce here , told reporters that while the chamber did not suppor t Clinton 's ban on U.S. imports of Chinese guns and ammunition , it welcomed th e move to separate trade from human rights . `` Let 's declare victory and move onto the next issue , '' he said . He said U.S. businesses in China were willing to discuss Clinton 's suggestion of a `` voluntary code of conduct '' to addres s human rights concerns . But most American business executives have said their companies follow their own codes of business ethics . WASHINGTON Democrats in the White House , Congress and federal agencies are anx ious about the possibility that Marion Barry could be elected mayor and are seek ing ways to address the District 's problems without hurting Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly 's re-election prospects . As a result , some have scaled back their effor ts to hold Kelly personally accountable for the city 's problems with public hou sing , finances and other matters . Officials at the Department of Housing and U rban Development recently formed a joint committee with Kelly to oversee the cit y 's troubled public housing program , rather than seizing complete control , in part because they sensed that a federal takeover of the department would hurt t he mayor too much politically and could help Barry win the Democratic primary , sources familiar with the decision said . The joint approach permitted HUD to ex ercise additional influence over the program while enabling the mayor to indicat e she had asked for the agency 's help and supported the new partnership . HUD o fficials consulted in advance on their decision with White House staff , who app roved of the way it was handled , a White House official said . A Congressional source who discussed the matter with White House officials also confirmed that t he mayor 's race played an important role in the decision not to simply take ove r the public housing agency . Sources said the mayoral race and the implications of a possible Barry victory are being widely discussed in Washington . However , many Democrats in Congress and elsewhere , including D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton , will not disclose their views about the mayor 's race because they coul d arouse a political backlash or be accused of meddling . A White House official said : `` We are very cognizant that there is a highly charged mayor 's race in the city , and we would be careful to try not to influence it . I think we woul d like to let the voters of D.C. decide that one . '' Tony Coelho a former membe r of the House of Representatives who is now an unofficial political adviser to the White House and who has close personal ties to senior White House officials said there was fear in the White House and on Capitol Hill that a Barry victory would damage the Democratic party 's image because of the former mayor 's drug c onviction . Coelho said he expects Republicans to use the city 's troubles as an issue in this year 's elections because Democrats are in charge of the White Ho use and the Congress . He said a Barry victory in the Democratic primary would m ake the Democrats even more vulnerable , and that leaders of the party are worri ed about it . `` It is legitimate for this government , the Congress and the adm inistration to try to help this city out , '' Coelho said . `` It is the nation 's capital . An embarrassment here is an embarrassment internationally , so it i s critically important they pay attention to it . The implications ( of a Barry victory ) are that the comics go wild , and the press goes wild and makes it int o a big international story . '' Barry 's entrance into the mayor 's race and th e enthusiastic support he has received from his base of supporters has prompted numerous conversations among Democratic leaders seeking to determine his chances for victory , according to interviews with members of Congress and staff member s . One Congressional source said Barry 's campaign had sparked a `` deathbed fe ar '' in Democrats in Congress and around Washington . `` The DNC ( Democratic N ational Committee ) doesn't need this , '' the source said . Rep. James T. Walsh , R-N.Y. , the ranking Republican on the District appropriations subcommittee , said Barry 's campaign after his conviction on drug charges had become a topic of discussion in Congress . `` It concerns me a great deal , '' Walsh said . `` The image of Washington D.C. was tarnished by his term , and I certainly don't w ant to give him any advantage . `` The District of Columbia is in difficulty now vis-a-vis Congress , '' Walsh said . `` That ( Barry 's election ) certainly wo uld not make relations easier . There are very strong feelings against the forme r mayor on the Hill . '' WASHINGTON Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan on Friday mounted his first public defense of the Fed 's repeated interest rate increases this year , telling a skeptical Congress that the central bank had no alternative but to hik e rates to reduce the threat of inflation . Confronted with stiff criticism from leading Democratic lawmakers , Greenspan told the Senate Banking Committee that market pressures ultimately would have brought on higher interest rates even if the Fed had not acted . `` Delaying our actions would not have been constructiv e , '' Greenspan said . He also stressed that he believes the Fed 's actions sho uld now lead to solid economic growth without rapidly rising prices . On Friday , the government said the economy grew at a 3 percent pace in the first quarter of the year , up slightly from an earlier estimate of 2.6 percent , but down sha rply from the 7 percent level in the fourth quarter of 1993 . `` Overall .. . th is looks like a well-balanced economy , '' Greenspan said . `` This is looking t o me as good as I 've seen an economy evolving in a balanced form in a very long period of time . The economy is moving at a fairly respectable pace .. . it cou ld go on for a quite a long period of time , provided that inflationary imbalanc es don't emerge . '' Since February , the Fed has raised short-term interest rat es four times in a controversial effort to cool the economy before it gets so ov erheated that it begins to generate a surge in inflation . Fed officials are now convinced they kept interest rates too low for too long as the economy began to recover last year , and that before they acted in February the economy was grow ing at a pace that was too rapid to be sustained without a run-up in prices . Gr eenspan noted Friday that the central bank 's easy money policies of 1993 also m ay have led to an unhealthy increase in speculative activity in the financial ma rkets , and said Fed officials felt they had to raise rates to burst that bubble . Leading senators complained that the Fed was too concerned about appeasing th e nation 's financial markets , and had moved so aggressively that its interest rate increases are now hurting average Americans . Committee Chairman Donald Rie gle , D-Mich. , urged Greenspan to pause for a time . `` It would be foolhardy f or us to needlessly bring this economic expansion to a premature shutdown , '' R iegle said . Other committee members complained that the Fed has raised rates to curb inflation at a time when there is virtually no evidence of rising prices . The Fed 's moves to raise short-term rates have had a cascading effect on other market interest rates and the rest of the economy by making it more expensive f or businesses and consumers to borrow either to invest or make purchases . And t he lawmakers noted that the American economy is now more sensitive than ever to changes in Fed interest rate policy because so many mortgages and other consumer loans carry adjustable rates , which can be changed relatively quickly . ( Opti onal add end ) Senator Paul Sarbanes , D-Md. , who is also vice chairman of the Joint Economic Committee , also complained that Greenspan was tightening monetar y policy at a time when the Clinton administration and Congress have already mov ed to tighten fiscal policy with last year 's deficit-reduction agreement . He a rgued that since Greenspan had repeatedly urged Congress to cut the deficit , th e Fed should now reward them by keeping interest rates low . So if both fiscal a nd monetary policies are restrained , Sarbanes asked , `` the question then is w here is the impetus to come from in order to get some economic growth and some j ob restoration ? '' But Greenspan disagreed that Fed policies would sacrifice th e health of the overall economy to please Wall Street investors . `` I don't ack nowledge there are differences between the goals of Wall Street and the goals of Main Street , '' Greenspan said . `` The evidence is increasingly that low infl ation means higher economic activity ( and ) greater growth . '' LONDON Senior British health officials sought Friday to play down the widely ci rculated press reports that a deadly bacteria is threatening the population . `` The public should be reassured there is no killer bug sweeping the country , '' said Dr. Diana Walford , director of the Public Health Laboratory Service , att acking the barrage of publicity . She said there have been 15 cases of the disea se , called necrotising fasciitis , since Jan. 1 a rate of occurrence that she s aid is not out of the ordinary . News that the disease was breaking out in parts of Gloucestershire in western England surfaced last weekend , and the British t abloid press painted horrifying visions of a virus that can devour human flesh i n a matter of hours . `` Curse of the Killer Bacteria , '' bannered The Sun , Br itain 's largest-selling daily , and `` Flesh Bug Ate My Brother in 18 Hours . ' ' `` I Watched Killer Bug Eat My Body , '' read another tabloid 's headlines . E ven more sedate papers like The Times of London reported : `` Bacteria That Eat the Flesh '' and `` Flesh-Eater on the Move . '' Walford said press reports give the impression that the 15 cases 11 of which resulted in death all occurred in a sudden epidemic , instead of over the last five months . She stressed that nec rotising fasciitis , a virulent form of the streptococcus bacteria , `` remains a rare disease . '' The British scare has generated worldwide concern , with gov ernments from Austria to New Zealand checking incidents of the infection . In No rway , the disease has killed 25 people so far this year , the country 's Nation al Institute of Public Health . U.S. officials estimated that up to 450 American s may have died each year from 1989 to 1991 from the infection , according to th e World Health Organization . British Health Secretary Virginia Bottomley appeal ed for calm , insisting that everything possible is being done to fight the bug . `` There is no evidence that the numbers we are seeing are untoward , '' Botto mley said . `` It is important not to get it out of proportion . This is a situa tion where everything that can be done has been done . '' ( Optional add end ) G overnment officials did acknowledge that the disease could be horrifying to thos e who contract it . The infection attacks the fleshy parts of the body , eating it away like gangrene . In the worst cases , death can occur within hours . `` I feel enormously for anyone who has a member of the family involved , '' Bottoml ey said , `` but I don't want every family in the country to be panicked . '' Th e tabloid press sent reporters to find victims and their relatives , and recount ed their stories in lurid tales that brought invoked images of an outer-space in vasion . As the Financial Times suggested : `` Mutant flesh-eating superbugs , c apable of killing a healthy adult within hours , are rampaging their way through Britain . Or , to put it another way , the media is indulging in one of its per iodic frenzies of terrifying the public with a medical horror story . '' WASHINGTON The director of the International Atomic Energy Agency ( IAEA ) urge ntly warned the United Nations Friday that North Korea has recently accelerated its withdrawal of fuel rods from a nuclear reactor , raising new concerns about North Korean intentions . During a series of negotiations with top IAEA official s this week , North Korea not only spurned the agency 's demand that it halt the fuel rod withdrawal , but also said it could not accept demands for special sto rage of some key fuel rods , Hans Blix said in his letter to U.N. Secretary Gene ral Boutros-Boutros Ghali . U.S. and IAEA officials have said that the fuel rods must be preserved for future radioactive measurements aimed at determining how much plutonium North Korea extracted in recent years from spent nuclear fuel . P lutonium is a key element in nuclear arms , and U.S. officials suspect North Kor ea of trying to develop an arsenal of such weapons . The North Koreans told the IAEA that special storage of the withdrawn rods would not meet `` their politica l constraints , '' Blix said . Blix 's letter , obtained by The Washington Post , warned that North Korea has withdrawn almost half of the reactor 's estimated 8,000 fuel rods and is continuing to withdraw them `` at a very fast pace . . . not in line with the information previously conveyed to the agency . '' The agen cy had initially predicted the fuel withdrawal , which began two weeks ago , wou ld not be completed for another six weeks . Blix wrote that his agency 's abilit y to inspect the rods would be `` lost within days '' if the North Koreans proce ed as they have been . Unless North Korea changes its position immediately , he added , `` the agency will not be in a position to verify the amount '' of pluto nium the country has accumulated or verify that North Korea is not developing a nuclear arsenal . He asked that the matter be brought immediately to the attenti on of the U.N. . Security Council . Robert Gallucci , the senior U.S. envoy for Korean matters , warned Friday in an interview that if North Korea proceeded , W ashington would cancel plans for new high-level talks desired by North Korea to chart a solution to the nuclear dispute and foster improved relations . Gallucci also said the continuing withdrawal of the fuel rods would `` force us to go ba ck to the Security Council where sanctions would be one of the options . '' Othe r U.S. officials said they hoped China would intervene by sending a tough messag e to North Korea . In a sign of Washington 's growing pessimism , however , U.S. officials Friday began reviewing two draft statements condemning the North Kore an action with other members of the U.N. . Security Council . The IAEA and U.S. warnings came after North Korean officials , at talks this week with mid-level U .S. diplomats in New York , rejected a U.S. proposal to begin the high-level tal ks promptly . The North Koreans complained that they could not accept Washington 's condition that the talks could be held only if the key fuel rods were preser ved . North Korea 's actions bolstered suspicions among some U.S. officials that the country is determined to hide how much plutonium it obtained by reprocessin g spent fuel rods withdrawn from the reactor in 1989 . Moreover , the officials said , if North Korea responds to sanctions by barring further inspections , it would then be able extract enough additional plutonium from spent fuel rods to m anufacture four or five nuclear devices . North Korean officials said their deci sion to reject the inspections was justified by the country 's `` unique status '' under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty , a global accord aimed at halting the spread of nuclear arms . North Korea claims it achieved this special status in 1993 by threatening to withdraw from the treaty and then suspending that thr eat under U.S. pressure . The IAEA has repeatedly said North Korea has no specia l status and must comply with all the inspection pledges it made in January 1992 . Among those pledges was a commitment to international verification of how muc h plutonium the country had extracted from spent fuel rods since the reactor sta rted operating in 1986 . Two of the four IAEA negotiators in Pyongyang plan to d epart for the agency 's headquarters in Vienna today , with the other two stayin g behind at the site of the reactor in Yongbyon , north of the capital , to obse rve the withdrawal of fuel rods , Blix said . In this case , the agency would de clare formally that it could no longer maintain adequate safeguards against nucl ear weapons development there . Secretary of State Warren Christopher told an As ia Society meeting in New York Friday that `` confrontation is emphatically not our preferred path . '' But he said that if `` North Korea rejects the negotiati ons we 've offered , '' Washington would be well-positioned to `` mobilize the i nternational community to take sterner measures . '' Christopher added that sanc tions would `` condemn '' North Korea to continued isolation and economic depriv ation , while preserving its status as a political pariah . BEIJING In the end , China 's success in overcoming human rights opposition to win renewal of trade privileges from the United States boiled down to one simple truth : The Chinese regime demonstrated a much better understanding of the Amer ican political system than the Clinton administration did of the Chinese system . The key to Beijing 's strategy was to divert attention from human rights issue s by using the blinding lights of China 's booming economy and huge potential ma rket . By doing this , Chinese officials said , they successfully broadened the terms of the debate inside the United States . As a result , the Clinton adminis tration found itself fighting back on many fronts , often against some of its ow n most powerful citizens . Time and again during the past year , the Chinese eff ectively called on U.S. big business to do most of the heavy lifting in carrying their case to the American public and President Clinton himself . Major league companies such as Boeing , AT&T , General Electric and United Technologies were more than happy to go to bat for the Chinese with their powerful public relation s machines . `` My feeling is that a few huge companies had more at stake than i n the past , '' said Anne Stevenson-Yang , Beijing director of the U.S. China Bu siness Council . American executives , for example , lobbied hard for a last-min ute meeting between Clinton and China Vice Premier Zou Jiahua in early May that was one of the turning points in the dialogue . When confronted with allegations of human rights abuses , the Chinese leadership coolly responded by changing th e subject , citing the thousands of U.S. jobs that depend on Chinese orders for commercial aircraft and telecommunications equipment . This approach was used in November when Chinese President Jiang Zemin held his first summit with Clinton during a Seattle visit . Jiang ostentatiously made a point of visiting the famil y of a Boeing worker . His Chinese staff noted for all who would listen that Chi na buys one out of every seven Boeing aircraft made . This effort continued righ t up until Clinton 's Thursday news conference announcing renewal of China 's mo st-favored-nation trading status the same rights that the United States grants a ll but a few pariah states . The same day , the Wall Street Journal reported tha t China is `` within weeks '' of finalizing an agreement to buy 50 new aircraft from Boeing , an order worth $ 5 billion . On another front often very embarrass ing to the Clinton administration , the Beijing regime romanced American allies with attractive business opportunities to accentuate the U.S. isolation on the h uman rights question . For example , at the same time Clinton was in Seattle pre senting Jiang with a list of human rights concerns , German Chancellor Helmut Ko hl traveled to Beijing with German business leaders to sign $ 3.5 billion worth of contracts . This spring , French Prime Minister Edouard Balladur arrived in B eijing with a similar entourage . The Chinese government made the point abundant ly clear : Only the United States put human rights conditions on trade . If the Clinton administration kept insisting , China could take its business elsewhere . Finally , during the year leading up to the Clinton decision , China hosted an d feted hundreds of American political and business leaders . During all of 1992 , for example , only 11 members of Congress eight representatives and three sen ators came to China . But between June 1993 and June 1994 , Beijing was swarmed by 47 U.S. representatives and 14 senators . ( Begin optional trim ) The incomin g planeloads of American politicians was partly due to the efforts of U.S. . Amb assador J. Stapleton Roy , who encouraged Congress members to visit China and wi tness its development firsthand . But the Chinese were quick to welcome the visi tors , spending thousands of dollars to feed them and show them the sights . As a result , they may have won a few extra votes for their cause . Many Congress m embers indicated that the bleak land of torture and abuse described in news repo rts appeared instead to be a land in the throes of rapid , healthy development . ( End optional trim ) China was finally able to win the unyoking of human right s questions and trade relations , while making only a handful of mostly token co ncessions to the American side . This was the prize they wanted most but had bee n unable to win from a hostile Democratic Congress during the Bush administratio n , despite Bush 's personal support for separating trade and human rights issue s . In explaining why the Chinese had not fully responded to American demands on human rights Clinton explained that China was under great strain from tensions between its far-flung provinces and the central government . This is a common ar gument espoused by senior Communist Party leaders when they explain the need for measures to insure `` stability . '' Borrowing another common Chinese argument , Clinton noted that Asian societies like China have a more authoritarian tradit ion . He cited as an example the recent case of American teen-ager Michael Fay , sentenced to several strokes of a rattan cane for a vandalism charge in Singapo re . Even when the Chinese did make concessions to the Americans , such as the r elease earlier this month of prominent dissidents Wang Juntao and Chen Ziming , they timed them impeccably so as to win maximum possible credit from the Clinton administration , which in the later stages of the game was desperate for any su ch sign from the Chinese . ( Begin optional trim ) While business delegations fr om the United States were welcomed into Beijing like heads of state , U.S. Secre tary of State Warren Christopher , who came to China in March ostensibly to tie up the package on human rights , was given one of the frostiest receptions an Am erican diplomat ever received in the Chinese capital . The State Department 's s pecial human rights envoy , assistant Secretary of State John Shattuck , who cam e to China to prepare for the Christopher visit , was accused by authorities of breaking Chinese law because he met with prominent dissident Wei Jingsheng durin g the visit . Adding insult to injury in the Shattuck episode , the Chinese auth orities subsequently jailed Wei for allegedly telling Shattuck that China 's mos t-favored-nation status should not be renewed unless improvements in the rights arena were made . Wei was still in jail when Clinton renewed the trading status Thursday . ( End optional trim ) When cornered on some tough points such as the thousands of political prisoners in Chinese jails and labor reform camps Beijing turned the tables on the Americans . In response to U.S. objections to the expo rt of goods made in Chinese prisons , for example , China commissioned a series of reports in respectable international publications documenting examples of Ame rican prison exports to other countries . Under a barrage of human rights allega tions from the West , China responded that its first obligation to human rights was feeding and housing its people , something the United States so far had been unable to do with its enormous homeless population . Finally , the Chinese adop ted a strategy of aiming their diplomatic efforts directly at Clinton , while sh unting aside his most prominent emissaries . ( Optional add end ) Although Ameri can policy on the human rights/trade question was vilified in the Chinese press , Clinton himself was never personally attacked . Moreover , when the Chinese au thorities in May released dissident Wang , they made it clear that it was becaus e Clinton had personally requested the release on medical grounds . Wang suffers from hepatitis . Confident that it had already won the diplomatic match-up over human rights through its other efforts , particularly by marshaling American pr ivate business interests to its cause , China viewed the releases of dissidents Wang and Chen as a way of `` giving face '' to the young American president , st ill a neophyte in international affairs . During his campaign for the presidency , Clinton repeatedly attacked Bush for `` coddling dictators '' in China . On T hursday , however , Clinton succeeded where Bush had failed , removing human rig hts conditions from trade matters between the two countries . WASHINGTON The nation 's largest bar examination review course signed a consent decree with the Justice Department Friday , agreeing to provide sign language i nterpreters , transcription services and other costly auxiliary aids to students with disabilities . The agreement , which settled a civil complaint the departm ent brought against the owners of the Bar/Bri bar review course , could have bro ad implications for disabled students preparing to take bar exams and certified public accountant exams . They often have to pay 10 times more for interpreters or special materials than the cost of the review course tuition . `` This is a m ajor step forward . All the others will be on notice that they have to provide t he same services to the disabled , '' said Arlene Mayerson , an attorney for the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund , based in Berkeley , Calif. . Dev al L. Patrick , assistant attorney general for civil rights , said that as a res ult of the agreement , `` The gateways to the legal and accounting professions h ave now been opened wider for persons with disabilities . '' He said the agreeme nt `` should serve as a model to all the other review courses this nation has to offer . '' In its complaint , the Justice Department accused Harcourt Brace Leg al and Professional Publications Inc. , owner of Bar/Bri , of violating the Amer icans With Disabilities Act ( ADA ) by failing to provide sign language interpre ters to two deaf California students , and failing to provide Braille copies of course materials to a blind student from New York . The suit also alleged that B ar/Bri regularly denied requests for interpreters and Braille materials , instea d offering transcripts of course lectures to hearing-impaired students and recor dings of written materials to blind students . Under the consent decree , the Ch icago-based Bar/Bri , which each year prepares about 20,000 law school graduates for bar examinations in 25 jurisdictions , agreed to provide a wide range of sp ecial services to the disabled within 60 days . They include interpreters , comp uter-aided transcription services , special listening devices for the hearing-im paired , note-takers , Braille materials , large-print materials , audio tapes a nd other aids . Bar/Bri also agreed to pay $ 25,000 in civil penalties and $ 28, 000 in compensatory damages to cover the costs of special services for a blind s tudent in New York and a deaf student in California who filed complaints against the company . Earlier this month , Becker CPA Review Inc. , which prepares stud ents for the certified public accountants ' exam , signed a similar consent decr ee that would make its courses accessible to students with disabilities . Patric k said that Harcourt cooperated fully to settle the complaint , entering into ne gotiations promptly after being notified of its alleged violations and implement ing many of the new procedures months before the final settlement . Bar/Bri pres ident Richard Conviser said that supplying a sign language interpreter for the i ntensive review course costs about $ 11,000 , compared to the $ 600 to $ 1,000 f or tuition . `` But we are pleased to enter into this consent decree . We believ e it 's the right thing to do , and we believe it can be a model for other cours es throughout the country , '' he said . Conviser estimated that less than 1 per cent of Bar/Bri students are disabled . However , Mayerson said the costs will b e minimal to `` multimillion-dollar companies like Bar/Bri who have been avoidin g their responsibility for years . '' She said that law schools have been provid ing sign language interpreters and other special services since a 1977 federal d isability act went into effect . `` When they got out of law school and went for the bar exam review , they 'd say , `` Hey , where 's my interpreter ? Where 's my simultaneous transcriber ? ' ' ' Mayerson said . Under the consent decree , Bar/Bri also agreed to educate its staff about the needs of disabled students an d include information about auxiliary aids and services in its advertising . LONG BEACH , Calif. . They wanted a role model , a teacher , a motivator of you ng people to issue the final rousing challenge to the class of '94 at California State University , Long Beach . And there he was at the podium Friday morning , an unlikely sight in black robes and mortar board instead of Dodger blue Tommy Lasorda . Mills College in Oakland , Calif. , wasn't as lucky filling its commen cement marquee . After rejection by Oprah , Whoopi and Chilean-born author Isabe l Allende , the all-female school settled for Alice Waters , the owner of Chez P anisse restaurant in nearby Berkeley . She used the occasion Sunday to warn abou t the hazards of fast food . `` She was available and that 's how we settled on her , '' said Sharon Jones , executive director of college relations at Mills . With more than 3,500 schools hunting graduation speakers this year , administrat ors must stalk eye-catching names for months and put the grip on influential alu ms to avoid stifled yawns and even embarrassment at commencement time . Lasorda was the first choice for Long Beach 's College of the Arts even though the longt ime manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers and diet-drink pitchman never attended co llege . His strongest higher education credential is an honorary membership in t he Valparaiso University alumni association , but that was of no concern . The i dea , was to sprinkle a little Dodger glory on the program and make the point th at sometimes art imitates baseball . `` It 's very difficult to get into the maj or leagues and it 's very difficult to get into a Spielberg film , '' said Howar d V. Burman , chairman of the theater arts department . In what may be the only graduation covered by ESPN , the professor of the clubhouse talked about what it takes to succeed in life ( nope , it 's not a split-finger fastball ) . Accordi ng to Jay San-Martin , the student body president , Lasorda 's anecdotes and ban quet-circuit wisdom was a hit with the 600 aspiring Pacinos , Baryshnikovs and V an Cliburns . `` Students have been flailed , for lack of a better word , in the past by speakers , who although intelligent or renown in their field , have not necessarily had a good connection with the student class , '' said San-Martin , whose position has required him to sit through seven commencement addresses so far this year . `` Tommy has the ability to make that connection and he did toda y . '' In 1947 , George Marshall elevated the standards for commencement speeche s when he chose Harvard University 's graduation exercises to reveal his plan fo r redeeming postwar Europe . For the most part , however , college officials say they are just happy to find speakers that bridge the gap between the profound a nd the popular . The problem is that the small circle of instantly recognizable people who can do that President Clinton , his wife Hillary Rodham Clinton , act ors such as Edward James Olmos are too busy to honor all but a few invitations . High-demand speakers such as poet Maya Angelou , who charges $ 20,000 , are too expensive for schools with paltry budgets or only honorary degrees to offer . ( Begin optional trim ) Some Stanford seniors complained because President Gerhar d Casper invited a former alum and distinguished Yale law professor , Stephen Ca rter , to speak at the June ceremony , instead of Angelou , author Scott Turow o r David Letterman . A student newspaper editorial lamented that the Palo Alto , Calif. , school could not attract a heavyweight for the graduation of its 100th class . In a bizarre twist , University of Southern California 's graduation pro gram May 6 did not list an official commencement speaker . The reason : Two of i ts honorary degree recipients , producers Steven Spielberg and George Lucas , as ked not to be billed as commencement speakers , although they offered limited re marks , a school spokesman said . In the game of lining up speakers , the Milwau kee School of Engineering claimed a minor public relations coup in February when it induced actor James Doohan , who played `` Scotty '' on the original `` Star Trek , '' to give the winter commencement address . Doohan was invited and give n an honorary degree , school officials said , because he had inspired a generat ion of Trekkers to study engineering . Fortune and luck shined on Whittier ( Cal if. ) . College , however a personal plea from its president during a London tri p a year ago led to Friday 's extemporaneous commencement address from Anglican Archbishop Trevor Huddleston , an anti-apartheid activist who stood at Nelson Ma ndela 's side during the recent South African presidential inauguration . ( End optional trim ) A commencement address is important because it helps defines bot h school and student , said Harvard education professor Arthur Levine . The coll ege lays bare its institutional values by selecting a speaker and the speech its elf becomes the `` last lesson '' for students heading into the cruel world , he said . Most important , though , the show must go on . Some college officials f ind themselves resorting to old-fashioned networking , cajoling and persistence to snare a name commencement speaker . At Mills , for instance , administrators went to work months ago to sign-up any one of the candidates forwarded for consi deration by the senior class . ( Begin optional trim ) The list included Texas n ewspaper columnist Molly Ivins , talk show host Oprah Winfrey , actresses Whoopi Goldberg or Emma Thompson , California State Treasurer Kathleen Brown , authors Ursula K. Le Guin and Sandra Cisneros , and restaurateur Waters . Jones , the M ills administrator , said calls to Winfrey 's Chicago production company reveale d she was `` getting married and didn't want to do anything more than concentrat e on that . '' Jones then tried to reach Goldberg , whose hometown is in nearby Berkeley . `` I actually knew Whoopi 's mother and someone else knew where Whoop i 's mother shopped , they knew the neighborhood in which Whoopi 's mother lived and the church she attended , '' said Jones . But when Goldberg 's mother volun teered the phone number for Goldberg 's agent , the college learned that the sta r was busy filming three movies at once . Mills officials faxed a December lette r to Allende , who lives in nearby Marin County , only to find out she was on a tour promoting three new books . With time running out , Mills officials called Waters , a celebrated organic food environmentalist who made headlines when she once tried to break Clinton of the hamburger habit . ( End optional trim ) At Lo ng Beach , Dean Wade Hobgood said Lasorda was a unanimous choice . `` There were a half of dozen names mentioned and Tommy 's name rose to the surface , '' Hobg ood said about a meeting with his department chairmen earlier this year . Hobgoo d said college administrators singled out Lasorda , in part , because his daught er had graduated from the dance program in 1977 . In addition , the chairman of the theater arts department had earned favor with team management with his play `` Boys of Summer , '' a musical about the old Brooklyn Dodgers that is now head ed for off-Broadway . A Dodgers official said Lasorda readily agreed to speak , because the team was scheduled for a day off . But Burman , who is also a Dodger season ticket holder , said he sealed the deal by going to an early morning bat ting practice and making the commencement pitch personally to Lasorda . Using an ecdotes about determination , Lasorda never mentioned the word `` art '' in his talk but in something of a locker room speech , he exhorted graduates to perseve re and `` outwork your competitor . '' `` You are going to face a lot of challen ges , you are going to be in a world that if you are not fully prepared , like m any , you will fall by the way side , '' he said . `` But what you have learned here in this beautiful , wonderful university will carry you through for the res t of your life . '' WASHINGTON Thirteen senior White House officials Friday volunteered to chip in to help a fired senior aide repay the government the cost of his helicopter trip to play golf near Camp David , and the White House acknowledged that a second h elicopter took part in the outing . In his resignation letter released Friday , the aide , David Watkins , was unrepentant . `` I firmly believe that my actions were in fulfillment of the responsibilities of my position , '' said Watkins , who was head of the White House Office of Administration . Watkins , a longtime Arkansas friend of President Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton , sai d `` there simply was no effort on my part to use White House or military equipm ent for personal or recreational purposes '' and that his `` sole motivation was determining how you could utilize Camp David more frequently . '' The president told Watkins in a response that `` I understand your reasons '' for resigning a nd thanked Watkins for his `` accomplishments large and small '' at the White Ho use and for his `` loyal friendship . '' In a separate letter , White House Chie f of Staff Thomas F. `` Mack '' McLarty , who is among those contributing to rep ay the cost of the helicopters , called Watkins 's decision to take the flight t o play golf `` an unfortunate error . '' Watkins , who left the White House Frid ay , was reprimanded last year for his role in the firing of White House travel office staff members . The aides contributing to the repayment fund included nea rly the entire senior White House hierarchy , including the two deputy chiefs of staff , Philip Lader and Harold Ickes , special counsel Lloyd N . Cutler , seni or advisers George Stephanopoulos and David R. Gergen and communications directo r Mark Gearan . Clinton on Thursday said he was `` very upset '' one White House official described him as `` furious '' when he learned that Watkins and Alphon so Maldon Jr. , director of the White House Military Office , had taken one of t he presidential helicopters to New Market , Md. , Tuesday afternoon for the golf outing . The president promised that the cost to taxpayers would be repaid . On e White House source said the idea of having White House staffers contribute to the repayment fund arose when Watkins balked at paying the full amount . An adve rtising executive in Little Rock , Ark. , before joining the White House staff , Watkins is worth more than $ 1 million , according to his financial disclosure statement . Gearan described the repayment effort as a `` gesture of friendship to Mr. Watkins and Mr. Maldon. '' Another official said that only Watkins is con tributing to defray the cost , but could not provide any dollar amount . Maldon is being reassigned elsewhere in the administration and was not asked to repay t he costs because he was acting at Watkins 's direction , the official said . Ask ed whether the decision of senior staffers to help out Watkins suggests that his action is not taken seriously , Gearan said , `` That would be a misread of the situation . '' Rather , he said : `` We accept that he acted in good faith but recognize there was an error and he has resigned. . . . His colleagues are being supportive . '' The White House could not provide an estimate for the cost of t he flights , but the military estimates the cost at $ 2,380 for each hour of fli ght time . The helicopter that carried Watkins and Maldon , flew for about 30 mi nutes to Camp David in Maryland 's Catoctin Mountains and then 15 minutes to the golf course . It then returned to Washington and flew back to the golf course t o pick up the pair at the end of their round , meaning flight time of more than two hours . The White House said the military also would be reimbursed for the c ost of a second helicopter , but said it could provide no information on the sec ond craft 's flight time . Gearan said that helicopter was on a `` training miss ion '' but acknowledged that it would `` probably not '' have flown had the firs t helicopter not been in the air . White House officials initially denied report s of other golfers that a second helicopter was involved but later Friday acknow ledged that the second one had flown up to Maryland . SAN FRANCISCO Former police officer Tom Gerard , who fled to the Philippines af ter he was accused of spying for the Anti-Defamation League , pleaded no contest Friday to one charge of illegally accessing police computer records . Gerard 's plea brings to a close the spying scandal that rocked the prominent Jewish civi l rights group last year and outraged thousands of people and activist groups ta rgeted by the league 's private intelligence operation . Gerard , a onetime CIA agent who voluntarily returned from self-imposed exile to face charges , is the only person to be prosecuted in the scandal . He will serve 45 days in a work ca mp and pay a fine of $ 2,500 . Last fall , San Francisco District Attorney Arlo Smith agreed not to bring charges against the Anti-Defamation League after the g roup promised to pay up to $ 75,000 to Smith 's office to fight hate crimes . Ge rard , who at one point was an intelligence officer with the San Francisco Polic e Department , was accused of tapping into police computers and giving confident ial information on hundreds of people to Roy Bullock , an undercover operative f or the ADL . Bullock has admitted that the two of them sold some of the informat ion to an agent for the South African government . Bullock , who was never charg ed , also used data from Gerard in amassing intelligence files for the ADL on ne arly 10,000 people and 950 groups , ranging from the Klu Klux Klan to the NAACP . After the FBI began investigating the case , Gerard fled to the Philippines an d resigned from the force . He left behind a briefcase filled with such items as false IDs , information about Central American death squads and a black executi oner-style hood . From the Philippines , he threatened to expose illegal CIA sup port of death squads if he was prosecuted for his role in the ADL case . Last mo nth , a San Francisco judge dismissed felony charges against Gerard after the FB I refused to provide wiretaps and investigative files in the case . Because the issue could have been tied up on appeal for years , both sides agreed to the mis demeanor plea bargain . To prevent the theft of confidential data in the future , Smith said , the San Francisco Police Department will require all computer use rs to have a personal password . SOUTHGATE , Calif. Eisenhower , Churchill and their troops were pursuing him 50 years ago . But they gave up the hunt for Hitler on Friday in South Gate . Lead ers of an 800-member veterans group planning to have an Adolf Hitler look-a-like take a mock drubbing from Gen. Dwight Eisenhower and Prime Minister Winston Chu rchill impersonators at a D-Day anniversary celebration say the enemy is no long er invited . `` We couldn't find a decent Hitler , '' said Bob Stane , president of the B-17 Combat Crewmen & Wingmen 's Association , which is co-sponsoring th e event at the South Gate Post Office . `` But then , there never was a decent H itler . '' The veterans said they plan now to hunt instead for Gen. George Patto n and President Roosevelt look-a-likes who can give the event a more festive loo k . The uninviting of the enemy is probably just as well , considering the dimen sions the D-Day gathering was taking Friday . What began two months ago as an in formal commemorative stamp-canceling ceremony for veterans at the post office ha s mushroomed into a celebration that is now attracting local , state and federal officials , a marching band , an ROTC drill team and military color guards from the four branches of the military . `` We 're honoring WWII veterans , so why n ot do something splashy ? '' said South Gate Postmaster Prescilla Buckley , who has ordered a tent and folding chairs and convinced the local Rotary Club to bri ng refreshments for hundreds . Veterans who actually hit the beaches during the June 6 invasion of Europe are being invited to autograph commemorative cachets p ostmarked with a special `` D-Day June 6 1944-1994 50th Anniversary '' cancellat ion stamp and tell war stories , she said . The absence of Hitler probably willn 't bother the Sir Winston Churchill impersonator that the veterans have invited . That 's because he 's a scowling English bulldog that the veterans say may be kept busy licking stamps during the celebration . Dog owner Diane Wuertemburg sa id her bulldog whose real name is Archie may show up wearing a miniature English bowler hat for the occasion . But Eisenhower look-a-like Robert Beer may be dis appointed . He is a civil engineer who tried to enlist during WWII but was assig ned instead by the government to ride herd on the production of U.S. warplanes a t Lockheed and Hughes aircraft plants . Beer said he learned he was a dead-ringe r for Ike in 1943 when Eisenhower was named supreme commander of Allied troops f ighting Hitler 's Nazi forces . `` The day he was appointed I came to work and a newspaper with his picture in it was on my desk and I thought it was me , '' Be er said . NEW YORK Last Wednesday , United Nations Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghal i denounced the international community for not sending troops to end the fighti ng in Rwanda , where an estimated 200,000 people have died . He was right to con demn world leaders for their inaction , but wrong to believe that a U.N. peaceke eping force is or was the answer . Quite the contrary . The efforts of Boutros-G hali and others to expand the military role of the United Nations are partly to blame for the failure of the international community to develop effective ways t o prevent such violent conflicts as is in Rwanda . The root cause of the problem is the belief that the end of the Cold War opens the door for the United Nation s to take on ever more responsibility for international peace and security . Thi s ambition is an article of faith among a small but outspoken group of internati onalists who regard the U.N. . Charter as a sacred text that was regularly defil ed by superpower antics during the Cold War . It was also fostered by world lead ers , especially by former President George Bush , who see the world body as a c onvenient way to conceal unilateral desires beneath a cloak of international leg itimacy ( as happened in the case of the Persian Gulf War ) and to shift respons ibility for troublesome conflicts in nonstrategic places to others ( as happened in the case of Angola ) . Finally , the new role was embraced by many relief an d human-rights organizations that saw it as a means to transform the body into a vehicle for humanitarian intervention . Unfortunately , the results of U.N. mil itary adventures have been disastrous . The Bush administration 's cynical manip ulation of the Security Council during the Gulf conflict has greatly increased d istrust of the United Nations in many Third World countries . The misguided huma nitarian intervention in Somalia has created a general reluctance to get involve d in other conflicts . The U.N. 's role in military decisions regarding Bosnia h as complicated and endangered the organization 's humanitarian operations there and weakened the credibility of NATO threats to deter Serbian aggression . Now , disagreements over U.N. military-deployment plans and a lack of troop commitmen ts have become an excuse for inaction in Rwanda . Some analysts contend these pr oblems can be solved by a series of reforms , among them , adding new permanent members to the Security Council ; strengthening the U.N. . Secretariat 's abilit y to plan and supervise military operations ; creating a standing U.N. military force , and establishing criteria for humanitarian intervention under Chapter Se ven of the U.N. . Charter , which authorizes military action in response to thre ats to international peace and security . This is wishful thinking . Few of thes e reforms are likely to be approved by the U.N. membership . Even if they were , it is doubtful that they would produce the outcome their proponents covet . The effective use of force requires a degree of consensus and resolve that the Secu rity Council can only muster in extreme circumstances . The Gulf War and interve ntion in Somalia were the exceptions that proved the rule . In both instances , without American leadership , the United Nations would not have acted or been ab le to act in the ways it did . None of the reforms now being recommended would c hange this reality . But even if a significant U.N. military capability could be created , it would be a mistake to move down this path . If an attempt were mad e to use such a force to stop the fighting in Rwanda , or Angola , or any of the other civil wars now raging , it would risk involving the United Nations in pro tracted guerrilla wars . To believe otherwise would require a naive faith that t he parties to these conflicts would be prepared to give up their objectives and bow to U.N. demands without a fight . At the same time , it would be equally nai ve to believe that a U.N. force would have any more success in ending civil wars than the United States had in Vietnam . Just as important , military interventi on would make it impossible for U.N. officials to maintain the impartiality that is usually essential to the success of diplomatic mediation efforts and humanit arian-relief operations . These are the areas where the United Nations has achie ved most of its greatest successes . As we have seen in Bosnia , however , once the Security Council approves military actions , U.N. mediators and relief worke rs lose the shield of neutrality . What can be done ? The Clinton administration has taken a series of steps in the right direction . A presidential directive e arlier this month establishes criteria that will greatly restrict the kinds of p eacekeeping operations Washington will support . One result is that the administ ration has been reluctant to back deployment of soldiers in Rwanda . But it has not gone far enough . Over the long run , the only kind of policy that is likely to succeed is one that combines a blanket prohibition against U.N. military int ervention in combat situations with serious efforts to bolster the nonmilitary o perations of the United Nations to head off violent conflict and alleviate human suffering . It may be necessary for the United States and other countries to in tervene for humanitarian reasons in conflicts such as Rwanda . And , over time , it may be possible for regional organizations to develop the military capabilit ies and decision-making structures needed for intervention . But these intervent ions are likely to be far more timely and successful if the United Nations is no t involved . For example , the only opportunity to stop the violence in Rwanda t hrough armed action was probably in the first hours after Rwandan government for ces began to slaughter their opponents in Kigali . If the United States , France and Belgium had been willing to send troops in then , they probably could have prevented the killing from reaching such horrific proportions . Waiting for Secu rity Council authorization would scuttle any such undertaking . As it is , the i dea that such interventions are a U.N. responsibility provides a convenient rati onale for Washington and other powers to stay on the sidelines . Rather than dec ry the international community 's failure to support his calls for military acti on in Rwanda , Boutros-Ghali should direct his attention to developing ways to p revent future Rwandas . One would be to push for the creation of an internationa l criminal court that would be responsible for investigating crimes against huma nity and gross human-rights violations . If such a court were created and its de cisions accepted and enforced by the world 's governments , it would provide a s ignificant deterrent against the kinds of atrocities occurring in Rwanda . In ad dition , the Boutros-Ghali should take the lead in calling on the United Nations and all other international organizations to bar any government that comes to p ower through violence or commits gross human-rights abuses from receiving intern ational assistance . Finally , he should devote greater effort to getting the in ternational community to focus on the deteriorating situation in countries like Kenya and Zaire , which are already sliding down the same slippery slope that le d to hundreds of thousands of deaths in Rwanda and Somalia . These measures will not produce quick results , nor will they end the fighting in Rwanda . But they would help to create the kind of political environment that will discourage fut ure slaughters and make military intervention unnecessary . By contrast , anothe r quixotic U.N. military operation would only set the stage for more disasters . WASHINGTON Virginia legislative leaders and representatives of federal retirees have reached a tentative $ 340 million settlement for the thousands of pensione rs whom the state illegally taxed in the 1980s . The pact would pay 80 percent o f claims , excluding interest , in installments over five years . It would cost $ 106 million more than an offer by Gov. George Allen that was resoundingly reje cted this month by retirees and the General Assembly , but $ 60 million less tha n a recent proposal by the plaintiffs ' attorney , Michael J. Kator . Sources sa id the deal , which would end five years of litigation , was signed Wednesday ni ght by retiree representatives and House Majority Leader C. Richard Cranwell . C ranwell had continued negotiations while Allen 's proposal was failing . The pro posed pact was first reported in the Washington Times . Democratic and Republica n legislative leaders and Attorney General James S. Gilmore III ( R ) were brief ed on the settlement Thursday in Richmond ; some said they wanted to study it , but no one opposed it strongly , sources said . The same day , Gilmore asked a f ederal judge to postpone a hearing next Thursday on a retiree lawsuit seeking ba ck taxes , citing progress toward a settlement . A news conference is planned Tu esday to announce all the details of the agreement . Spokesmen for Gilmore and A llen said both had concerns about the proposed settlement . The governor , for e xample , wants to make sure it 's not paid for with `` phantom funds , '' press secretary Ken Stroupe said yesterday . But Gilmore 's spokesman , Mark Miner , s aid , `` Significant progress has occurred. . . . We 're trying to get it cleare d up as soon as possible . '' The deal hinges on approval by 80 percent of the s everal hundred retirees who have sued for tax refunds , followed by General Asse mbly ratification . According to the agreement , the 186,000 retirees who qualif y would have six months to file claims . Some lawmakers are concerned that the p roposal could run into stiff opposition from pensioners who have vowed to press for 100 percent refunds and interest . `` I think the legislature will go for it , '' said one lawmaker who was close to the negotiations . `` It 's the retiree s-they 're the ones who could torpedo it . '' But Rose Musumeci , president of t he Virginia chapter of the National Association of Retired Federal Employees , s aid that if the settlement is equal to what has been reported , she believes it will fly . `` You 're not going to satisfy everybody , '' she said yesterday , b ut `` I think 80 percent of the retirees would go along with it . '' The pact wo uld set up a special fund paid with general fund appropriations $ 60 million the first year and $ 70 million in the following years . It would end a fight that began in 1989 when the U.S. . WASHINGTON The endgame between the United States and China , which climaxed Thu rsday with President Clinton 's decision to extend China 's trading privileges , began at Richard M. Nixon 's funeral in late April when top administration offi cials organized a last-ditch effort to persuade China to improve its human right s record . In a little room inside the Nixon Library , national security adviser Anthony Lake , National Economic Council head Robert E. Rubin and Assistant Sec retary of State Winston Lord met with Chinese Ambassador Li Daoyu to discuss way s China could make further progress in human rights . The U.S. officials offered to send a special envoy to Beijing to discuss the matter . It is far from clear whether anyone in the room considered China 's response would make much differe nce . At that late date , no American official believed disrupting trade with Ch ina would be wise , even though Beijing was unlikely to meet the conditions laid down by Clinton last year for renewal of its preferred trade status . U.S. inte lligence analysts were reporting from the beginning that the Chinese never belie ved Clinton 's threat to pull the plug on the lucrative U.S.-Chinese commerce . Nonetheless , the administration 's offer to send a special envoy reflected its need to make renewal of trade benefits more palatable politically , and China 's inclination to accept reflected perhaps its willingness to let Clinton save a l ittle face . Indeed , the final days of Clinton 's threat to withdraw China 's m ost-favored-nation ( MFN ) trading status were an exercise in preparing for the inevitable . Administration officials not only had to squeeze the Chinese for an y last drops of concession a released prisoner here , a discussion of radio jamm ing there . They also had to convince members of Congress and the public that Cl inton 's decision was not another example of foreign policy waffling , this one involving the most populous country in the world . In that sense , the saga is a s much a story of politics in Washington as it is of human rights in China . Fri day , administration officials were describing as heroic Clinton 's decision to extend MFN for China despite insufficient progress on human rights and to separa te in the future the issues of trade and human rights . Madeleine K. Albright , the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations , called it `` a very important step i n showing American resolve . '' Secretary of State Warren Christopher said a pol icy of `` comprehensive engagement '' with China had replaced the trade threat a s the focus of U.S. policy , calling the new approach `` the best way to influen ce China 's development . '' As in other administration foreign policy dramas , even those who agreed with the outcome despaired at the process . `` We have see n one great power try to bluff another and seen the bluff called , '' said Dougl as Paal , a China analyst and proponent of delinking trade matters from human ri ghts concerns . `` It 's not a pretty sight , and it may be damaging . '' The Yo rba Linda meeting had been designed to head off that kind of perception , but in the end , China gave less than administration officials had hoped . The offer t o send a secret envoy resulted in the mission to Beijing in early May of Michael Armacost , a veteran diplomat . Armacost was publicly opposed to revocation of China 's MFN status , but after some persuading from Christopher , he embarked f or China on May 8 . He won some concessions : pledges to release from jail at le ast two prominent dissidents , including pro-democracy activists Chen Zeming and Wang Juntao . The Chinese also invited an American technical team to discuss th e jamming of Voice of America , gave Armacost a list of some prisoners , permitt ed the emigration of some citizens whose passports had been blocked for politica l reasons and agreed to inspection of a prison labor camp suspected of producing goods for export to the United States . Armacost returned to the United States May 12 advising Clinton to pocket his limited winnings , extend MFN and move on . During roughly the same period , the administration recruited numerous visitor s to China to press for more progress on human rights . Among them were Jimmy Ca rter 's former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski , Nixon 's former c hief foreign policy adviser Henry Kissinger and China expert Michael Oksenberg . All were briefed by security adviser Lake and/or Christopher and all were urged to ask for more progress . The idea for the Armacost mission had been discussed at an April 8 meeting of Clinton 's top foreign policy advisers . Vice Presiden t Gore mentioned the idea to visiting Chinese State Counselor Song Jiang that da y . High-profile diplomacy had produced mixed results . In late March , Christop her had returned from Beijing with some pledges of cooperation , but these were overshadowed by arrests of Chinese dissidents and hard-line public statements by the Chinese . Christopher was constrained in responding in an equally tough fas hion . To do so would risk a confrontation that would all but tie Clinton 's han ds , disrupt trade and probably the whole relationship with China , State Depart ment officials said . In any event , Armacost 's secret diplomacy was also disap pointing . Christopher , whose assignment it was to report to Clinton on China ' s progress on human rights , declined to give it a clean bill of health . He mad e a key judgment that China had complied with two compulsory criteria for mainta ining its low tariff trade status : progress in emigration and inspections of pr ison labor camps to search for goods bound for U.S. export . He recommended a ba n on imports of Chinese munitions to indicate displeasure with the lack of progr ess on issues such as repression in Tibet and continued detentions of democracy activists . At one point in the past week , Clinton suggested that no sanctions should be applied ; it would muddle the message that trade and human rights were being separated . Christopher and others argued that some sanction was necessar y . Proposals for either an American or a joint Chinese-American human rights co mmission also were shot down this week as unworkable . Carter , whom Clinton tri ed to recruit to head the commission , persuaded the president to drop the idea . On May 19 , Rubin , Lake and other officials met with Carter at National Airpo rt ; Carter them met with Ambassador Lito push the human rights message , a last stab at back-channel diplomacy . Clinton 's original threat was expressly desig ned to unite the presidency and Congress behind a single policy . Congress , led by Democrats , had repeatedly tried to legislate economic sanctions against Chi na , which President George Bush repeatedly vetoed . Clinton roundly criticized Bush and said he would be tougher . The political consensus was sacrificed with Clinton 's retreat . Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell , D-Maine , and R ep. Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif. , criticized Clinton 's decision and threatened to l egislate sanctions on Chinese imports . If successful , they would put Clinton i n the position of having to veto the measure , just as Bush did . Administration officials are counting on Democrats not to embarrass Clinton over the issue . O ne Democratic staff member in the House , musing on the inability of Clinton to win major concessions from the Chinese , said wryly , `` It turned out that MFN was useful as a tool only to bludgeon George Bush . '' Five key U.S. maritime unions formally agreed Friday to support lifting a feder al ban on the export of Alaskan crude oil , in a deal worked out with British Pe troleum Co. . Breaking its silence at the same time , BP confirmed that it has a greed to preserve union jobs by using U.S.-flag tankers to ship any BP oil `` th at moves off the Alaskan North Slope , '' said Rob Rehg , a spokesman for the Lo ndon-based oil company . The agreement is contingent on Congress adding the lift ing of the ban to a pending bill that would extend the Export Administration Act . Though opposition remains among members of Congress , proponents were optimis tic on Friday . `` It doesn't make it a done deal , but it certainly makes it a viable deal , '' said one congressional source . `` If the maritime unions reall y get behind this , they can sway a lot of Congress members. .. . And then if yo u get a good ( U.S. Department of Energy ) study that says it 's not going to af fect national energy concerns , then there 's no legitimate argunment for the ba n . '' A still-unreleased Energy Department report on the costs and benefits of lifting the ban estimates that as many as 494 maritime-industry jobs could be lo st in 1994- '95 if the ban were ended without a provision requiring the crude to be transported on U.S.-flag ships . Otherwise , the study supports proponents ' estimates that thousands of new oilfield jobs and a substantial increase in inv estment in California and Alaskan production would result from lifting the ban . ( Optional add end ) Though many high-ranking members of the Clinton administra tion favor lifting the ban , the White House is not likely to take a formal stan d on the issue until after the release of the DOE report , expected June 7 . In a statement made available to the Los Angeles Times Friday , executives of the S eafarers International Union ; National Maritime Union ; American Maritime Offic ers ; International Organization of Masters , Mates & Pilots ; and Marine Engine ers Beneficial Association ended two decades of insistence on preserving the ban , declared that lifting it will create jobs and ensure the existence of a U.S. tanker fleet `` vessels that are militarily useful in times of conflict . '' Cal ifornia 's independent oil producers and other proponents of lifting the ban hav e argued that it forces too much crude into the California market , depressing t he regional price . WASHINGTON White House anger over an aide 's golf outing by helicopter seemed t o cool rapidly Friday , as top aides agreed to help the fired administrative chi ef reimburse the government for the cost of his ride . As a `` gesture of friend ship , '' 13 top White House officials virtually the entire senior rank committe d to help the former chief of administration pick up a tab , said Mark Gearan , the director of communications . By one rough estimate that bill could run to ab out $ 20,000 . The agreement came as White House efforts to defuse a public rela tions debacle were set back by their admission that a second Marine helicopter a lso had gone on the outing that took David Watkins and two others to an afternoo n of golf Tuesday at the Holly Hill Country Club in Frederick , Md. . After deny ing earlier that any other helicopters were part of the trip , Gearan conceded t hat there was a second helicopter . While the second aircraft 's purpose was to conduct a `` training mission , '' he said it would `` probably not '' have been along but for Watkins ' plans to spend the afternoon at the course . The disclo sure of the trip Thursday prompted President Clinton to seek Watkins ' resignati on . Clinton declared that he was `` very angry '' at news about his long-time A rkansas friend and business associate and promised that private money would be u sed to reimburse the government for the trip . But announcement of plans for the White House contributions appeared to add a dose of moral ambiguity to the epis ode , forcing officials to deny that the top aides were not taking the infractio n seriously . ( Begin optional trim ) The trip reawakened voter outrage on radio and television talk shows across the country . But at the White House , anger w as barely evident in a series of letters , released late in the day , from Clint on , Watkins and Thomas F. `` Mack '' McLarty , the White House chief of staff . Clinton made only the most passing reference to the reason for Watkins ' depart ure , saying : `` I write to accept your resignation and to say that I understan d your reasons for submitting it . '' He praised Watkins ' `` great vigor and ef fectiveness '' and thanked him for improvement in the White House telephone and computer systems . `` Hillary and I will never forget the loyal friendship you a nd Ileene ( Watkins ' wife ) have given to us over the years . '' ( End optional trim ) For his part , the 52-year-old Watkins insisted that `` there simply was no effort on my part to use the White House or military equipment for personal or recreational purposes . My sole purpose was determining how you could utilize Camp David more frequently and enjoy the same opportunity for relaxation in Mar yland that you sometimes get in Washington . '' The aides who have agreed to con tribute are McLarty , presidential advisers David Gergen and George Stephanopoul os , Gearan , deputy chiefs of staff Phillip Lader and Harold M. Ickes , economi c adviser Robert E. Rubin , counsel Lloyd N . Cutler , national service director Eli Segal , congressional relations director Pat Griffin , cabinet secretary Ch ristine Varney , public liaison chief Alexis Herman and domestic policy director Carol Rasco . Gearan said that it was unclear whether the Clintons would contri bute . Officials are awaiting word from the Pentagon on the size of the total bi ll for the use of the helicopters , which cost $ 2,380 an hour to operate . Gear an said it was undecided how the cost would be shared but said it is certain tha t Watkins and Alphonso Maldon , the White House military-office head who joined Watkins for the outing , will `` be paying something . '' A third golfer , Navy Cmdr. Richard Cellon , who directs operations at Camp David , was judged to have no responsibility for the trip and will not pay anything . The positions of Wat kins and Maldon give them authority over Cellon . ( Begin optional trim ) Gearan said that the Marine helicopter had taken Watkins and Maldon from Bolling Air F orce Base near Washington to Camp David , where Watkins took part in a meeting t hat lasted about 30 minutes and conducted a `` site inspection '' of new constru ction . Then the helicopter dropped the three at Holly Hill and headed back to t he air base . Two other golfers at the course said that they saw the second airc raft join Watkins ' aircraft after the golfers had been picked up , though Geara n indicated that the two helicopters did not fly together on the return trip . ( End optional trim ) Gearan was asked why reporters earlier had been told that t he trip was devoted to scout out a potential golfing site for the president . `` That was the best information received at the time from David and Al Maldon , ' ' he said . ( Optional add end ) Although Clinton showed a flash of anger during a press conference Thursday afternoon , one aide said that he had not expressse d anger to Watkins . Clinton had talked to Watkins on the telephone before the p ress conference and met with him for about 15 minutes afterwards . Former Republ ican aides noted pointedly that in the George Bush and Ronald Reagan administrat ions only presidents used the helicopters . This was both because of the cost of operation and because the copters were viewed as part of the ceremonial trappin gs that should be reserved for the chief executive . In a memorandum to the U.S. Justice Department , the rock band Pearl Jam has co mplained that Los Angeles-based Ticketmaster successfully pressured promoters to boycott the band 's low-cost concert tour this summer . Lawyers for the Seattle -based band the biggest selling rock group in the country made the complaint on May 6 in a memo to the department 's antitrust division . The memo accused Ticke tmaster the world 's largest ticket agency of exercising a monopoly over ticket distribution in this country and using that influence to keep promoters from boo king the Pearl Jam tour . The memorandum , filed by Sullivan & Cromwell , a prom inent New York law firm , said Ticketmaster has exclusive arrangements with all important concert venues in the country and uses these arrangements to `` cement control over the distribution of tickets to concerts . '' The Justice Departmen t has begun an evaluation of the memo , and sent three officials from Washington to Los Angeles on Tuesday to interview music business figures , sources said . Such an evaluation is in some measure a standard response to such a complaint . It is preliminary to a decision on whether to launch an investigation . A spokes woman for the Justice Department declined comment . Representatives for Pearl Ja m also did not comment . In a letter to the Los Angeles Times , Ticketmaster vic e president Ned S. Goldstein said `` Ticketmaster operates fully and squarely wi thin the parameters of all applicable laws . '' Sales of Pearl Jam 's last two a lbums together exceeded $ 137 million . Ticketmaster , which is privately held , last year reportedly earned about $ 200 million in service and sponsorship fees on $ 1.3 billion in sales of tickets to concert and sporting events . ( Optiona l add end ) The Pearl Jam memorandum is likely to focus new attention on a growi ng furor over skyrocketing concert ticket prices and service fees , and the arra ngements among managers , promoters and service companies that underlie pricing decisions . Ticketmaster collects a phone service fee for tickets to rock and po p concerts , typically $ 6 to $ 8 per ticket , although the agency 's fee for $ 350 tickets for Barbra Streisand shows amounted to $ 18 in some cities . Ticketm aster pays a portion of the fees to maintain exclusive long-term contracts with the owners of the largest concert venues . In addition , Ticketmaster also pays a portion to some promoters , managers , agents and artists . In March , Pearl J am sent letters to promoters vowing to perform concerts this summer only at venu es that charged $ 18 for a ticket and no more than $ 1.80 for service or handlin g charges . A representative of the band said Pearl Jam was seeking to keep pric es in the range of their young fans . But sources in the concert industry said t he group encountered immediate resistance from Ticketmaster and members of the N orth American Concert Promoters Association , a McLean , Va.-based group that re presents the nation 's largest promoters . In two letters obtained by The Times , Ben Liss , the executive director of the association , warned promoters that i f they booked Pearl Jam under the band 's conditions , they could face possible lawsuits . Ticketmaster `` views the Pearl Jam issue as an all or nothing propos ition , '' Liss wrote in one of his letters on March 24 . Ticketmaster chief exe cutive Fred Rosen `` has indicated that he intends to take a very strong stand o n this issue to protect Ticketmaster 's existing contracts with promoters and fa cilities and , further , ( Ticketmaster ) will use all available remedies to pro tect itself from outside third parties that attempt to interfere with those exis ting contracts . '' Liss did not return phone calls seeking comment . After bein g turned down by virtually every major promoter in the country for bookings , Pe arl Jam postponed its summer tour . WASHINGTON President Clinton , concerned by a loss of public confidence in his leadership on foreign policy , said Friday that he has consulted widely but has rejected recommendations that he replace Secretary of State Warren Christopher a nd White House national security adviser Anthony Lake . Administration officials had told the Los Angeles Times that Clinton was considering a major shake-up of his foreign policy team by the end of the year . But Clinton , in a telephone i nterview late Friday , said that the root of the problem is communicating his fo reign policy to the American people . And that , he said , is not the responsibi lity of Christopher or Lake . The president said that he has talked with `` a hu ge number '' of people about his foreign policy problems , perhaps more than 100 , and that he could understand how some of them might have drawn an inference f rom the conversations that he planned to change his foreign policy team . Clinto n has come under criticism from some leading Democrats as well as Republicans fo r apparent inconsistencies in foreign policy . Most recently , he was faulted fo r his decision after weeks of semipublic deliberations to renew China 's most-fa vored-nation trade status , despite the Beijing regime 's failure to meet human rights conditions that he had set forth last year . The president conceded Frida y that he had made mistakes in the way he has articulated his foreign policy and that he needs to do a better job of that . But on most major policy issues , he said , he believes the administration has been on sound footing . His consultat ions inside and outside the administration , he said , was about policy on Bosni a , Haiti and most recently on China 's trade privileges in the United States . The interview was hastily arranged by White House counselor David Gergen , who w as concerned about comments that other senior adminstration officials had made t o The Times . At times , Clinton sounded frustrated by what he called the `` rel entless criticism '' of his foreign policy . `` I 'm doing the best I can with s ome fairly intractable problems , '' he said . Two senior administration officia ls had said earlier that Christopher and Lake probably would be replaced by the end of this year or early in 1995 . Several other officials in the State Departm ent and National Security Council had said that they had no specific knowledge o f plans to replace their bosses but that the expectation was spreading that eith er Christopher or Lake or both would be out of office by the end of the year . ` ` It 's a natural response , when you 're taking a beating , to think about what you can change , '' one senior official said . `` The political people look at the polls and say : ` Hey , we 'd better do something about this . ' And , since you can't discard the policies that you presumably are serious about , you shuf fle people around instead . '' ( Begin optional trim ) Clinton has suffered a se ries of embarrassing setbacks in foreign policy from Somalia to Haiti and Bosnia problems that , in the public mind , have overshadowed his claims of success in Russia and elsewhere . The president has publicly defended Lake and Christopher when they have come under fire and aides in their offices said they believed th e president still has confidence in them . Recent polls , however , have shown A mericans losing confidence in the president 's management of foreign affairs and Clinton 's political aides are concerned that there may be an impact on his dom estic policies and his reelection chances . Last month a Los Angeles Times poll showed that only 43 percent of Americans approved of Clinton 's handling of fore ign affairs . And last week a Washington Post/ABC News poll showed only 40 perce nt approved , his lowest rating since the crisis in Somalia last fall . For mont hs , Christopher and other aides have been pushing for a shift in emphasis by Cl inton , who had sought to focus on domestic issues and minimize the time he devo ted to foreign policy . One official said that as a result of high-level discuss ions that has followed the release of some polls , Clinton agreed to devote more time and personal visibility to foreign policy leadership . An early reflection of that shift , he said , was Clinton 's 90-minute appearance at a CNN foreign policy `` town meeting '' earlier this month . ( End optional trim ) In the inte rview Friday , Clinton said that the nation is `` in a period of transition '' i n international relations . `` We 've got delicate negotiations in the Middle Ea st right now , '' he said . `` The secretary of state is involved in that and Ch ina and the last thing in the world I need to be doing is to be considering chan ging my team . `` What I need to be doing is considering changing whatever it is that is not inspiring people 's confidence in me and , if we 've made some mist akes , we need to fix it . That 's what I 'm working on . '' If he does `` a bet ter job of communicating our foreign policy , '' Clinton said , Americans will b e `` much more understanding of what I 'm trying to do and that will give me the flexibility I need . '' WASHINGTON The Justice Department is trying to negotiate changes to a British t elephone company 's plan to buy a $ 4.3 billion stake in Washington-based long-d istance company MCI Communications Corp. , government and diplomatic sources sai d Friday . The move to alter MCI 's deal with British Telecommunications PLC , k nown as BT , is an apparent reaction to complaints that Britain unfairly blocks U.S. telecommunications companies from doing certain kinds of business there . ` ` The negotiations are between BT and the Justice Department , '' said Jonathan Temple , a commercial officer at the British embassy . `` My understanding is , if they come to an agreement with BT , the Department of Justice will file a con sent decree . '' A consent decree is a court document under which both parties t o a dispute agree to certain actions . It was unclear Friday what alterations th e department was seeking , or whether the British company and MCI would agree to them . The talks risk muddying relations between the two governments . On Thurs day , the Justice Department took action against a British glass company , Pilki ngton PLC , that it contends uses licensing arrangements to keep U.S. companies out of foreign markets . Temple said that his country 's Department of Trade and Industry recently wrote the Justice Department to caution against taking any ac tion that would link approval of the MCI-BT deal to changes in British regulator y policy . `` The government of the United Kingdom is keen to ensure that the co nsent decreee , when it emerges , does not impose any second layer of regulation in addition to that which already exists in the UK , '' Temple said . MCI , BT and Justice Department spokesmen would not comment on the talks . But an MCI spo kesman said that MCI lawyers had visited Justice earlier this week . MCI shareho lders have approved the deal , and BT already has handed over $ 830 million to M CI . But Justice Department Antitrust Division chief Anne K. Bingaman and the fi ve-member Federal Communications Commission also must weigh in before BT puts up the remaining $ 3.4 billion . With the deal , BT would acquire 20 percent stake in MCI . The companies would divide their global business , with MCI selling to corporate long-distance customers in the Western hemisphere and BT to the rest of the world . U.S. law prohibits foreign investors from owning more than 25 per cent of U.S. telecommunications companies , on grounds of national security . Bu t U.S. officials contend that on the whole this market is more open to foreign c ompetition than is Britain 's . Through its review , the Justice Department has leverage to address longtime complaints here about Britain . In the case of the BT-MCI merger , the Justice Department is exploring whether other U.S. firms wou ld suffer a competitive disadvantage because of MCI 's presumed superior access to the British market , Temple said . BT , Britain 's largest telephone company , has virtually complete control over the price of connection charges it imposes on outside companies wishing to use its local telephone network to route calls in and out of Britain . The United States also is unhappy with British policies that ban foreign ownership of international calling facilites . AT&T Corp. has b een trying to set up its own such network in Britain . The U.S. concedes that ma ny barriers to foreign competition in Britain have come down in the past decade , making it the most open market in Europe . Long-distance company Sprint Corp. and several regional Bell companies have received permission or are already offe ring cable , wireless and telephone services in the United Kingdom . WASHINGTON The Clinton administration has given up for this year efforts to con solidate the four federal banking regulatory agencies , a key element of Vice Pr esident Gore 's drive to `` reinvent government , '' administration officials sa id Friday . The plan to bring all regulation of the nation 's banks , savings ba nks and savings and loan associations under a new Federal Banking Commission was put on hold because of intense opposition from the Federal Reserve Board , whic h objected to the administration 's proposal to take away most of the Fed 's reg ulatory responsibilities . `` Even though we have made pretty good progress work ing with the Fed , it has become increasingly clear that a realistic assessment of the legislative calendar indicates it isn't going to be possible to have regu latory consolidation done this year , '' Treasury undersecretary Frank N . Newma n said in an interview . `` There has to be a pause , '' a Fed spokesman said . `` But we hope that by early 1995 we are able to produce a joint proposal ( with the administration ) for Congress '' when it reconvenes in January . Both the H ouse and Senate are working on regulatory consolidation bills , but the prospect s for legislation have been fading fast because of the split between the Fed and the Treasury and lukewarm industry support . Administration officials said they do not want to take time and effort away from such major legislative issues as health-care reform and trade . Further , Congress already has two big banking bi lls to finish : The House and Senate have each passed separate measures that wou ld for the first time permit nationwide banking , and House and Senate negotiato rs are working out the differences between the two versions . Lawmakers also are working on reconciling competing versions based on President Clinton 's Communi ty Development Financial Institutions bill , which would create a network of len ding organizations to serve minority and disadvantaged communities . Negotiation s between Treasury and Fed officials , which have been going on for months , wil l be halted because the two agencies need to spend more time on other issues , s uch as what to do about regulating derivatives , a family of exotic new investme nts that are largely unregulated . Industry officials said the foundering of the consolidation plan was no surprise . `` The Treasury tactically made two mistak es that caught up with them , '' said Kenneth Guenther , vice president of the I ndependent Bankers Association of America , the small banks ' industry group . ` ` They didn't have ( Fed Chairman Alan ) Greenspan on board and the banking indu stry was totally against them . '' Small banks `` will breathe a sigh of relief , '' Guenther said . `` People are comfortable with the status quo . I don't thi nk they ever made a convincing case that the status quo was so wrong it required the sweeping changes they put on the table . '' Paul Schosberg , president of t he Savings and Community Bankers of America , said Friday 's decision was `` ack nowledging political reality . Historically , the political constituency for res tructuring and reform tends to be pretty thin . '' Bankers were not convinced by the administration 's claim that its regulatory consolidation would reduce red tape and save bankers money , Schosberg said . Federal banking regulation is now spread among four agencies : The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency regu lates national banks , the Office of Thrift Supervision handles savings and loan s , the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. oversees most state chartered banks and the Fed handles all bank holding companies and the several hundred banks that ar e members of the Federal Reserve System . The consolidation proposal would have largely taken away the Fed 's regulatory responsibilities , leaving it to concen trate on its primary role of managing the economy . But Greenspan objected , say ing that the Fed needs to have hands-on contact with banks in order to monitor t heir health and make sure the banking system is running efficiently . The following editorial appeared in Saturday 's Washington Post : Maybe it 's f rom seeing all those impeccably uniformed Marines snapping to attention all the time . Or from riding in too many presidential motorcades that can part traffic and force mere mortals to idle as you zip by . Or maybe it 's a simple loss of g ood judgment . Somehow , for some presidential aides , spending too much time in the White House is very dangerous . You start to think you own the place and al l that goes with it . That , at least , is what seems to have happened with Davi d Watkins , who stepped down as director of the White House Office of Administra tion after he and a colleague took a presidential helicopter from Washington to a country club near New Market , Md. , for a round of golf on Tuesday afternoon . The hour or so it would have taken to drive seemed just too inconvenient to Mr . Watkins , who no doubt wanted to rush back to the White House to figure out ho w to save taxpayers ' money . Friday night , the story got a bit worse as the Wh ite House announced in response to queries that a second chopper was sent out to accompany the first . The military , the White House said , normally sends heli copters out in pairs apparently even to country clubs . Mr. Watkins has a thing about transportation . Last year , he was disciplined for his role in the firing of seven people from the White House travel office . President Clinton , at lea st , seems to have learned something about White House transportation issues and the damage control related thereto . By Thursday , Mr. Watkins was out of there , and Mr. Clinton said the taxpayers would be reimbursed for the golfing jaunt . In what White House Communications Director Mark Gearan declared was `` a gest ure of friendship , '' 13 White House aides including White House Chief of Staff Mack McLarty announced they 'd contribute to paying the costs of the flights . Staff solidarity may be a fine thing , but we wonder what message this sends abo ut the staff 's attitude toward such adventures . In particular , what is the vi ew of Mr. McLarty , who is supposed to stop these things from happening ? The wo rst of it is that Mr. Watkins said he had done nothing wrong and reportedly balk ed at fully reimbursing the government , necessitating the staff fund raising . In his resignation letter , he insisted that his `` sole motivation was determin ing how you could utilize Camp David more frequently , '' the golf club being ne ar Camp David . His letter paralleled an absurd early cover story put out by Whi te House Deputy Press Secretary Arthur Jones . In a statement , he described the helicopter trip as a `` training mission '' to familiarize the helicopter crew with the layout of the course . The golf game ? That was business , too : Mr. Wa tkins and his White House colleague Alphonso Malden Jr. played their round `` in order to familiarize themselves with all aspects of the course , especially tho se aspects related to actual time of play and associated impact of security plan s . '' Right , and we propose to familiarize ourselves with all aspects of every four-star restaurant in Paris in preparation for the president 's D-Day visit , especially those aspects related to the actual time it takes to consume a meal and associated impact on security plans of consuming several bottles of Bordeaux . WASHINGTON `` The Flintstones , '' a $ 45 million dinosaur that hired no fewer than 36 screenwriters and stars John Goodman , Rick Moranis , Elizabeth Perkins and Rosie O' Donnell , isn't just awful . It bombs itself into the Stone Age . A s Fred Flintstone might have put it : yabba-dabba-boo . After faithfully duplica ting the TV show 's familiar opening sequence in which Fred Flintstone ( Goodman ) knocks off work , howls for joy , slides down his Bronto-crane tail and foot- shuffles away in his prehistoric car the movie suffers immediate comic extinctio n . Leadenly directed and almost soberly scripted , it never captures the campy brightness of the original series the herky-jerky animation , the wacky sound ef fects , the distinctive character voices and that cheesy laugh track . In the th ird-rate plot ( and there 's no telling who among the Flintstone 36 came up with this gem ) , scheming boss Cliff Vandercave ( Kyle MacLachlan ) and his comely secretary ( Halle Berry ) promote unsuspecting Fred as a vice president , then f rame him for embezzlement , intending to abscond with the ill-gotten profit . Fr ed , enjoying a life of unprecedented luxury , is obliged to fire Barney ( Moran is ) and watch his friend sink into poverty before realizing his mistakes . If t he performers are imitating their cartoon forebears , it is barely apparent . Go odman 's sweat-induced , growly offerings completely bypass Fred 's lovable , pi gheaded innocence . The actor never attains Fred 's gravelly timbre . And with h is blond-dyed hair and zombielike demeanor , Moranis seems more like a zoned-out Warhol groupie than Fred 's perky buddy . The greatest asset of Perkins 's Wilm a is that Perkins looks the part . O' Donnell 's dead-on Betty Rubble giggle is the funniest thing in the movie , but it merely underlines how bad everyone and everything else is around her : The child actors who play Bamm-Bamm and Pebbles are completely forgettable . Fred 's pet dinosaur Dino , with its chintzy eyes a nd unconvincing animatronic gyrations , looks like a low-budget Muppet . And eve n Elizabeth Taylor , trundled out to play Fred 's insulting mother-in-law , fall s disappointingly short of imperious . She isn't exactly helped by the mediocre bones the screenplay tosses her way . While the movie officially scripted by Ste ven E. de Souza , Tom Parker and Jim Jennewein labors through its primeval ooze , it churns out incessant , dull visual gags , including a Stonehenge-meets-'50s -America and the `` pigasaurus '' creature under the sink that serves as a garba ge disposal . It also heaves out unfunny Hollywood `` inside '' jokes : The movi e opens with a `` Steven Spielrock Presents '' credit ; Halle Berry 's character is named Rosetta Stone ; George Lucas ' `` Tar Wars '' is playing at the local theater . When , inevitably , Fred locked out of the house by his pet saber-toot hed tiger thumps the door and yells `` Wilma ! '' , it doesn't bring `` The Flin tstones '' to a triumphant close . It just sets the audience free . `` The Flint stones '' is rated PG . SARAJEVO , Bosnia-Herzegovina On days when Bosnian Serb rebels have allowed U.N . troops to patrol the mountainous terrain around Sarajevo , the peacekeepers ha ve counted at least 20 heavy artillery pieces and seven tanks in violation of a NATO-proclaimed no-weapons zone . Despite a threat made more than three months a go to punish such violations with air strikes , the U.N. . Protection Force is s till trying to win withdrawal of the offending Serbian armor through negotiation . In the eastern enclave of Gorazde , the U.N. mission has set aside another NA TO ultimatum . Serbian gunmen who invaded the purported U.N. `` safe haven '' in April have refused to heed a U.N. order to retreat . But instead of ordering ai r strikes , the mission has asked the Bosnian government to make a `` goodwill g esture '' to encourage its attackers to pull back . The U.N. commander for Bosni a , British Lt. Gen. Michael Rose , has asked the Muslim-led government to withd raw its lightly armed defense forces from the center of Gorazde an act of capitu lation requested neither by NATO nor by the U.N. . Security Council . Rose insis ts that the threat of air strikes against those defying the international commun ity 's efforts for peace is still credible . But with mounting evidence that the mission has neither the will nor the political backing to use force against tra nsgressors , cease-fires have broken down , fighting has escalated , and U.N. of ficials have adopted a damage-control strategy that oscillates between understat ement and outright denial . U.N. mission spokesman Maj. Rob Annink has begun eac h daily briefing for the past week by describing the situation in Bosnia-Herzego vina as `` stable , '' while subsequently reporting the following incidents : Se rbs fired at least 500 artillery shells into the mostly Muslim enclave of Bihac , another U.N.-protected area , in the 24 hours before Thursday morning . Govern ment forces have been on the offensive against Serbs in the central Bosnian town of Tesanj , as well as in Olovo and along 100 miles of front line that arcs bet ween the two flash points . Bosnian Croats and government troops have massed on either side of the narrow Serb-held corridor linking conquered areas of eastern Bosnia with Serbian spoils farther west . The Croats and Muslims , newly reconci led allies , appear to be coordinating artillery attacks on the town of Brcko , along the vital supply route . Two Serbian tanks entered the weapons exclusion z one around Sarajevo Monday to attack government forces in the town of Breza . An other Serbian assault Wednesday against the government town of Pazaric was also suspected to have been launched from the zone , which is supposed to be demilita rized . Tuesday , snipers killed a Bosnian woman riding a bus under U.N. escort through Serb-held territory west of Sarajevo . Bosnian government officials said she was at least the 40th civilian fatality since NATO proclaimed a cease-fire in the area three months ago . Sarajevo has not been under intense bombardment s ince the February ultimatum , but sniping remains a daily danger and there have been increasing instances of `` detonations '' which the U.N. spokesman refuses to call shelling . Foreign diplomats in Sarajevo express concern that Rose 's no t-to-worry approach to collapsing cease-fires and fraying agreements is giving t he outside world the erroneous impression that the conflict in Bosnia is on the mend . `` On the one hand he is putting pressure on the parties to settle this t hing diplomatically , by refusing to publicly acknowledge what is going on , '' one European envoy said . `` On the other hand , he 's taking a tremendous risk of it all blowing up in his face , as it did in Gorazde . '' Rose repeatedly cha racterized a recent Serbian offensive against that safe area as a `` limited , t actical maneuver '' to improve the rebels ' bargaining position in stalled peace talks . But nearly half the city fell to Serbian gunmen , tens of thousands of Muslims were uprooted , and 700 people , mostly Muslim civilians , were killed i n the sustained artillery attack . Another Western diplomat characterized the U. N. mission 's attempt to play down the spreading crisis as a consequence of the world 's major powers having given the peacekeepers no real option for containin g it . `` There 's this assumption that Bosnia is already dead and it just needs a proper burial , '' the diplomat said . `` The problem with that assumption is that Bosnia is not dead , and it 's going to continue fighting . '' Rose warned the Bosnian army Tuesday that it should not pursue a military solution to the c onflict . While shepherding a NATO delegation around some of central Bosnia 's m ore peaceful venues , Rose told a senior army commander that it would take years for the government to get its troops armed and trained for a successful campaig n to recover lost territory . Government officials say they resent the attitude that they should accept defeat by a force repeatedly castigated by the U.N. . Se curity Council as the war 's instigator . `` The problem is that the basic aim o f the mission from the beginning has been to see us capitulate , '' said Bosnian Information Minister Ivo Knezevic . `` All their calculations have been based o n this assumption . We 've blown all their plans because we do not accept this . This is why we have become such an irritation to the powerbrokers of the world . '' LOS ANGELES The 67 men of the Los Angeles Police Department 's Special Weapons and Tactics unit are members of the department 's most exclusive club . Handpick ed for the duty after passing rigorous entrance requirements , they train using live ammunition and confront armed and barricaded suspects at the rate of more t han one a week . For a quarter-century , SWAT has occupied a unique place in the Police Department and the public imagination a group of virtual soldiers embedd ed in a police agency , their missions among the most demanding in law enforceme nt . The original SWAT team was pioneered by the LAPD , and it has grown up ther e , evolving from a ragtag group of eager volunteers into a tightly disciplined group of professionals whose officers train side-by-side with Navy SEALS and Arm y Green Berets . Insular and intensely proud , SWAT was battered and shaped by e arly criticism and a pair of nationally renowned shootouts , one of which occurr ed 20 years ago this month . It battled a reputation for militarism , redoubled its emphasis on negotiation and emerged as one of the nation 's most widely emul ated hostage-rescue organizations . Most recently , when a highly regarded femal e officer was denied entry into the unit , it raised the question of when , if e ver , SWAT will open its doors to women ; her case is in court and its outcome c ould again reshape SWAT as it continues to define its place within the LAPD . As SWAT has changed , so has the Police Department , which is trying to adopt a mo re community-oriented style that bears little resemblance to the work SWAT offic ers perform . But the paramilitary arm of the Police Department remains fully st affed and in robust health despite the vogue for a kinder , gentler force , desp ite money problems in municipal government , despite the departure of its godfat her and founder , former Chief Daryl F. Gates . His successor , Willie L. Willia ms a police chief better known for his devotion to community policing than his b elief in special weapons and tactics has expressed his confidence in the unit . More important , he has kept it at full strength despite cutbacks in other areas of the Police Department and pressure to put more officers on patrol . This sum mer , SWAT will stand guard against terrorism during the World Cup games , the s ame function it performed a decade ago during the Summer Olympics . The 1965 Wat ts riots made a deep impression on the city and its police and no one reacted mo re strongly than a young commander named Daryl Gates . Convinced that the riots proved the need for the LAPD to better counteract sniper fire , Gates pioneered SWAT , making the LAPD the nation 's first police department to develop such an organization . In the early years , SWAT was informal . Officers continued to wo rk their regular jobs , they got no bonus pay , and they kept a decidedly low pr ofile . The officers who staffed SWAT in the early years veterans now refer to t he team during that period as `` Old SWAT '' were dedicated to the mission but s ometimes ill-equipped to carry it out . And on Dec. 8 , 1969 , Old SWAT came fac e-to-face with the Black Panthers . When the officers arrived at a Central Avenu e stronghold to serve arrest and search warrants , they were greeted with shotgu n blasts and submachine-gun fire . Over the next five hours , more than 200 Los Angeles police officers and a handful of Black Panthers exchanged thousands of r ounds of gunfire . When it was over , three officers and six Black Panthers were hurt . Although no one died , the Black Panther shootout raised deep concerns . To do its job correctly , LAPD leaders decided , SWAT needed to be a formal uni t whose officers trained and worked together full time . In 1971 , Old SWAT beca me New SWAT , a full-fledged unit under the wing of the department 's Metropolit an Division . Then , on May 17 , 1974 , the LAPD engaged in the most notorious g unfight in the history of the organization . That afternoon , three SWAT squads , hundreds of other police officers and FBI agents descended on a 54th Street ho me where they expected to find members of the Symbionese Liberation Army , the g roup that had kidnapped heiress Patricia Hearst a few months before . For about two hours , police and suspects traded shots while news crews broadcast the shoo tout nationwide . Eventually , the house burned to the ground . Six SLA members died , three from gunshots , three from the fire . As the Panther battle had in 1969 , this major shootout forced the LAPD once again to review the way its SWAT officers went about their work . `` When I took over Metro ( a few months after the SLA incident ) , there was a lot of sensitivity about SWAT , '' said Jesse Brewer , who went on to become an assistant chief and then president of Police C ommission . `` There was a feeling that we were using military tactics against c itizens . '' Brewer tightened SWAT 's admission standards , clamped down on disc ipline , insisted that SWAT officers treat members of the community with respect . Under him , the unit replaced its old tear-gas canisters , which were implica ted in starting the fire that destroyed the SLA headquarters . ( Begin optional trim ) All of that helped calm the waters , but the evolution of SWAT reflects a constant balancing between the unit 's use of military tactics and the departme nt 's desire to project a friendly public image . In the mid-1980s , that tensio n flared up again when SWAT began using a pair of battering ram-equipped small t anks , known as V-100s , in some confrontations . `` That sent a terrible signal , '' said Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. , a prominent Los Angeles attorney and frequen t police critic . `` It reinforced that whole argument about the LAPD as an occu pying army . '' Without ever admitting a mistake , the LAPD scaled back the use of the tanks . Today they sit mostly idle , and criticism of the unit is mostly muted . Cochran and Stephen Yagman , two of the city 's most prominent civil rig hts lawyers , say they haven't handled any SWAT cases in years . Cochran says hi s impression is that the unit has improved from its rougher origins . In large m easure , that is because negotiations or other , less subtle , forms of persuasi on resolve almost all SWAT situations without gunshots . Still , there are times when SWAT officers make the hardest of all decisions in police work : When its officers believe they have exhausted all other remedies and feel lives are in da nger , SWAT will shoot to kill . ( End optional trim ) If SWAT was born in the a ftermath of the Watts riots , it came of age in the buildup for the 1984 Summer Olympics . Confident as ever , Gates announced that SWAT would handle any outbre ak of terrorism inside the city limits . He sent three of his most trusted offic ers Lt. Jeff Rogers , who headed the unit at the time , Sgt. Al Preciado and Cap t. John Higgins to Europe , where they studied counterterrorism units in Israel , Italy , France , West Germany , West Berlin and England . `` We came back with a whole head full of ideas and a shopping list of what we needed , '' Rogers sa id . They got it . Some new equipment was purchased by the Olympic Organizing Co mmittee . Other pieces special poles with mirrors that allow officers to look ar ound corners without being seen , flashlights that attach to the barrels of rifl es were invented by officers in the Metro armory . SWAT also revolutionized its training . Before the 1984 Olympics , SWAT trained with blanks . Today , SWAT , unlike any other unit in the LAPD , uses live ammunition in hostage-rescue train ing . SWAT officers spend 240 hours a year shooting , climbing , rappelling and practicing other tactics . They fire out of helicopters , rappel off the sides o f some buildings and scale the walls of others . They drop from helicopters onto rooftops . It 's grueling , dangerous work , but it underscores a message : Thi ngs sometimes go wrong ; SWAT needs to be ready when they do . `` You perform li ke you practice , '' one SWAT cop said . `` For real . '' SARAJEVO , Bosnia-Herzegovina Black nylon stockings and patent-leather shoes pe eking out from beneath Ajla Nuhbegovic 's tunic clash flirtatiously with her hea d scarf and neck-to-ankle garb . Ajla has every intention of wearing lipstick , eye makeup and jewelry when she 's old enough , the enshrouded 12-year-old expla ins between licks of a dripping ice-cream cone . She shrugs off what some might see as an incongruous melding of religious modesty and a young girl 's natural i nterest in being attractive to boys . `` We have drifted too far from our religi on . I think girls should dress in this manner , at least until they are 18 , '' Ajla insists , contradicting her father 's aside that she can more often be fou nd in form-fitting leggings and sweat shirts . Her fleeting earnestness provokes a look of amused tolerance from her father , Hajrudin , a wry smile that sugges ts he thinks she is just going through a phase . Ajla may be unevenly absorbing the religious instruction offered at the Muslim parochial school she has been at tending for two years . But amid the hardships of war and the Christian world 's growing indifference to the plight of Bosnian Muslims , the desire to express a faith that was repressed here for most of this century is becoming more common . The Slavs whose ancestors embraced Islam during Ottoman Turkey 's 500-year rul e are increasingly searching for solace where they can find it , as they continu e to be targeted by a deadly Serb nationalist campaign of `` ethnic cleansing . '' And as Western nations turn their backs on Bosnia because its conflict seems too complex to resolve , moderates warn they have no choice but to grasp the han d of Islam , as long as it remains the only one offered to them . Bosnia 's stre ets , even in cosmopolitan Sarajevo , are traversed by growing numbers of women who dress with at least partial deference to Islamic tradition . Mosques that we re mostly tourist attractions in the Communist era are crowded with the faithful ; Muslim feasts and celebrations are now official holidays . Most obviously , a nd most worrisome for the non-Muslim majority of Bosnia , is the strengthening b ond between this secular country in the heart of Europe and fundamentalist Islam ic nations that have come to its aid out of sympathy for a people endangered bec ause of their faith . Iran has smuggled weaponry to the Bosnian government defyi ng a U.N. embargo that most Western countries concede tied the hands of this nat ion 's defense forces throughout 26 months of assault by heavily armed Serbs . L ibya has supplied oil when there was no money for imports . Saudi Arabia has ban krolled pilgrimages to Mecca for 350 invalids and war casualties . And Islamic w arriors from Afghanistan to Algeria have flocked to Bosnia 's battle zones to fi ght for Allah , perverting an already beleaguered defense effort into a holy war no one in Bosnia wanted . `` We have been waiting for two years for the West to help us defeat fascism , for its own interest if not for our benefit , '' says Osman Brka , a leader of the Muslim-dominated Party for Democratic Action . `` W e still hope against hope that America will see it must help us defend the democ ratic values we share . But we will look to anyone willing to help us , and no o ne in the West will have the right to blame us if they turned away . '' ( Begin optional trim ) Until the Serb rebellion that began in April 1992 threw this for mer Yugoslav republic into social and economic chaos , Bosnian ties to Islam wer e tenuous at best . Today 's 2 million Bosnian Muslims are descended from Serbs , Croats and a schismatic Christian sect known as the Bogomils who were represse d by both Catholic and Orthodox Slavs . Their forebears acquiesced to the Turkis h conquerors ' religion and mores , creating a culture through half a millennium distinct from that of the Serbs and Croats . The Muslims , or Bosnjaks , as mos t preferred to be called , identifying themselves with the territory rather than religion , were ruled by the Turks until the Serbs threw off the Ottoman yoke l ate in the 19th century . While Serbia retained its independence , Bosnia was sw allowed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire , providing the friction that led to Worl d War I and the eventual creation of Yugoslavia . The years between the two worl d wars subjected the Muslims to crude assimilation attempts by both Serbs and Cr oats , until Communist partisan leader Marshal Tito led the country to victory o ver Nazi Germany . During his 35-year rule arguably Eastern Europe 's most benev olent dictatorship Tito imposed peace among the fractious Balkan ethnic groups t hrough a delicate balance of force and personality . In recognition of their div ergent lifestyle , Tito conferred the status of a nationality on Bosnian Muslims in 1970 . ( End optional trim ) In the twisted rationale of propagandized Serb nationalists , the Muslims have `` stolen '' Serb land by taking on a separate i dentity . The current war in Bosnia is , in the eyes of the rebels , a campaign to recover territory lost when Serbian and other Slavic owners converted from Ch ristianity . To justify their rebellion to the outside world , Bosnian Serb rebe l leader Radovan Karadzic has repeatedly warned that the presence of Muslims her e poses a risk of fundamentalist Islam establishing a foothold in Europe . The M uslim-led government that gained power after 1990 elections has always rejected that claim as a cynical scare tactic aimed at defusing Western concern over the civilian slaughter and expulsion of Muslims by Serbs as they take territory for a Greater Serbia . Serb accusations that other Balkan ethnic groups threaten the m have been a cornerstone of the expansion plan drafted and executed by strongma n Slobodan Milosevic . Exaggerated claims that Serb lives were at risk if Croati a seceded became fact after Milosevic sent the Yugoslav Peoples Army to seize la nd coveted by the Serbs and to expel Croats , creating a climate of hostility an d a desire for revenge against the Serbs . Serbian propaganda has for seven year s accused the Albanian majority in Kosovo province of plotting secession and ann exation to neighboring Albania . The claim was ludicrous when Albania endured th e most brutal Stalinist regime in Europe . But two years of democratic reform in Albania has coincided with ever-intensifying repression of Kosovo Albanians by Serb security forces , making union with Albania genuinely attractive for the Ko sovo majority . Bosnian government and social leaders insist theirs could never become an officially Islamic state . But some concede the stronger ties to Islam ic countries emerging as a consequence of abandonment by the West play into the hands of propagandists in Belgrade . `` We Muslims have never sought to live sep arately and we still believe the best solution for Bosnia is a country that unit es all three nations , '' said Husajn Smajic , the mufti of Sarajevo . Smajic de scribes Bosnia 's Islamic community as unique and more heavily influenced by Eur ope than other countries with which it shares the faith . War horrors and disapp ointment in Western indifference to the human rights violations committed agains t them has driven more Muslims to turn to their religion in this time of crisis , Smajic said , accounting for the visible signs that religious expression is on the rise . The main influence of a more visible Islam has been to instill confu sion among those who have long described themselves as Muslims but had little me ans of expressing that identity during the last century when they were ruled by Catholic Austrians , Orthodox Serbs and atheistic Communists by turns . Ajla is one of many young Bosnian Muslims who seem to be following Islamic doctrine more out of fashion than conviction . It is not unusual to see young women on the st reets with gauzy white scarves draped far enough back on their lacquered hairdos to expose dangling earrings and a colorful facial palette of cosmetics . `` We laid in a big stock of beer for Bajram , '' said cafe waitress Dina Hasanagic . `` We are aware of the irony , but this is our way of doing things . Whether it 's Bajram or Easter , it 's a holiday , and we just want to drink and have a goo d time . '' In politics as in war , it is more difficult to execute a retreat than to go on the offensive . President Clinton 's retreat from ill-conceived attempts to bas e U.S. trade policy with China on the human rights record of the hardline Beijin g regime is one of the most difficult calls he has made since taking office . Bu t his decision was correct and courageous . It shores up the U.S. position in As ia and actually promotes a trend toward individual liberty in China that is link ed to a booming economy . That Clinton is taking catcalls from the likes of Sena te Majority Leader George Mitchell and House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt sa ys more about what is wrong with the president 's party than about the president . The Democrats continue to be tugged into untenable positions by protectionist s , Big Labor and self-appointed moralists and causists . As a candidate for the White House , Clinton went along with their get-tough tactics toward China and even accused George Bush of `` coddling '' the Beijing masterminds of the Tianan men Square massacre . As president , he has felt the need to echo Bush 's admoni tion that the United States must `` avoid isolating China . '' The reasons are c lear enough . China is a nuclear power with veto authority in the U.N. . Securit y Council . It is the world 's most populous nation with the world 's fastest-gr owing economy . It has more influence than any other country over a North Korean regime suspected of building a nuclear weapons arsenal . It will take possessio n of Hong Kong later in this decade , a step with enormous ramifications in Asia . Just before the Clinton decision , China eliminated 195 quota and license reg ulations in preparation for joining the World Trade Organization a step toward d rawing closer to the international community in other productive ways . Mitchell and Gephardt have announced their intention to introduce legislation to overtur n Clinton 's order preserving `` most favored nation '' ( i.e. normal ) trading status with China . President Bush had to veto such legislation three times . In the event the Democratic majority enacts a similar measure once again , Clinton can count on Republican support if he casts another veto . The ironies are larg e . In his executive order , the president took one punitive step by banning the import of guns and ammunition made by factories affiliated with the People 's L iberation Army . This will eliminate only a $ 100 million sliver of $ 31 billion in Chinese exports to the United States . It can be regarded more as a gun-cont rol measure than a trade sanction , and welcomed as such . Henry Wadsworth Longf ellow once wrote that `` a masterly retreat is itself a victory . '' It is too e arly to determine that Clinton 's retreat is masterly . But because facts and re ality and a clear appreciation of U.S. national interests are on his side , he s hould in the end come out all right on this issue . Had he opted the other way , he would have had a foreign policy disaster on his hands . JERUSALEM What do Israeli President Ezer Weizman , Tel Aviv Mayor Ronni Milo , the editors and publishers of the country 's best-selling newspapers , two bank managers , the manager of the Maccabees soccer team , several big building contr actors and the owner of high-fashion clothing stores have in common ? The answer is that they were all on a list of 231 Israelis many politically prominent , so me financially powerful but a few relatively obscure whose cellular telephones w ere methodically tapped for eight months by two Tel Aviv private investigators . But the real riddle why ? so far has no answer . The two investigators , arrest ed in April and facing charges of illegal wiretapping , are refusing to tell pol ice who hired them or what they overheard . Rafi Friedan , one of the investigat ors , initially told police that he had been asked `` to gather data '' and that he was confident that his clients ' reasons were `` personal and family related , '' according to court records . But Friedan has said nothing further , on his lawyers ' advice . The list of those whose calls were regularly monitored , acc ording to preliminary evidence given Tel Aviv courts , is a veritable Who 's Who of Israel 's movers and shakers and a warning to a security-conscious country o f the risks many of its leaders are running in unguarded conversations on their always-in-use cellular phones . `` The police have found records of some convers ations of some of our people that are , well , rather embarrassing in their cont ent , '' a senior Israeli official commented , asking not to be quoted by name . `` Things were said that should not have been said on open lines , and then thi ngs were said that were professionally indiscreet . '' Among the phones that wer e monitored , according to police , were some belonging to the Israeli Defense M inistry , senior officials of the country 's security services , two members of the opposition Likud Party , the state comptroller and the director of an airlin e used by the government for charter flights . There were also Weizman , top exe cutives of the country 's two television stations , a number of lawyers , the ag ency that administers the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem 's Old City , an insurance company , staff members from the newspapers Yediot Aharonot , Maariv and Haaret z and 10 other private investigators . ( Optional add end ) Altogether , more th an 400 different cellular telephones may have been monitored from August until t he men 's arrest last month , according to prosecutors . Friedan and Yaakov Tsur , his partner in Agam Security Consultants , were held for three weeks and are now under house arrest . If convicted under Israel 's laws prohibiting wiretappi ng , they would face sentences of three years for each conversation they monitor ed . Although police do not believe the two monitored all conversations , they h ave had very limited success in determining which calls they did record and no l uck in finding out what they did with them . `` Their clients did not exactly pa y with company checks , '' one police detective said . Prosecutors theorize the monitoring operation may have grown out of the bitter rivalry between Yediot Aha ronot and Maariv , which have been engaged in a long-running circulation war . B ut they are at a loss to explain how it came to encompass such high-ranking offi cials . LONDON Since 1888 , the Chelsea Flower Show has been the most genteel of Britis h institutions : a magnificent display of flowers , shrubs , exotic plants and e verything else imaginable for a garden . Sponsored by the Royal Horticultural So ciety , the show attracts hundreds of exhibitors and tens of thousands of dedica ted visitors to the grounds of the Royal Hospital in London 's Chelsea for five days in May . There they view orchids , violets , begonias , delphiniums , roses , azaleas , freesias , daffodils , lupins , clematises and dozens more in elabo rate displays . After visits by Queen Elizabeth II and other members of the Roya l Family , highly prized gold medals are awarded to those exhibitors with the mo st attractive displays from nurseries across Britain . But this year horror of h orrors ! a scandal has rocked the flower show and dealt a blow to a great Britis h tradition : It has been revealed that many of the exhibitors have shown flower displays not from their own gardens . Worse , many of the flowers came directly from London 's huge Covent Garden Market . Worst of all , many of the flowers h ave come from abroad from Holland ! The disclosure caused an uproar this week , shocking the thousands of innocent visitors who assume the flowers are grown in the green fields of England . Apparently the practice of `` buying-in , '' or pu rchasing flowers from outside sources for exhibition , has been going on for yea rs with the knowledge of the Royal Horticultural Society . Some observers regard ed the revelations as evidence marking the decline of another bastion of gentili ty . The Chelsea Flower Show , the world 's largest , is the highlight of the ye ar for lovers of Britain 's favorite outdoor pastime gardening . As one mourner noted , `` First it was our disastrous cricket season . Then the BBC went on str ike for a day . Now the flower show . What next ? '' That reporters at the Briti sh Broadcasting Corp. long an emblem of upper-middle-class rectitude would strik e instead of standing by at their microphones once seemed unthinkable , as did B ritish cricket losses to teams from countries that learned the sport from the co lonial masters . John Metcalf of the Four Seasons nurseries in Norwich , who dis plays only blooms he has grown and was awarded a silver medal , was angered by t he buying-in and called for a ban on exhibitors displaying other people 's plant s . `` It 's like an athlete in the Olympics letting someone else run their race , '' he said , `` and then going on to collect the medal . '' ( Optional add en d ) More than a quarter of the 51 exhibitors who won gold medals admitted buying -in some of their stock . Many of the flowers displayed came from the `` glass h ouse '' area of the Netherlands , which year-round grows lilies , chrysanthemums , freesias and peonies for wholesalers in Britain . Those wholesalers sell to C ovent Garden companies . The Royal Horticultural Society has been swamped with l etters protesting buying-in since the practice became known just before this yea r 's show opened on Monday . The Chelsea organizers maintain that they have no w ay to monitor where blooms are grown , so they have not prohibited buying-in but simply asked exhibitors to note whether they originated their own flowers . Bes ides , organizers argue , medals are awarded for showmanship and the artistry an d quality of a display . That explanation has been lost on many . `` When someon e shows a product they have not grown without making it clear , they are cheatin g , '' said one flower lover . `` It is not right . '' U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali refuses to let the genocide in Rwa nda go unchallenged . He scolds the West for not responding to the crisis . He c hides Africa for not sending more troops to stop the killing . It 's a good use of his international bully pulpit . Though he met Friday with President Clinton , Boutros-Ghali can't drum up the political support he did when he finally persu aded George Bush and other nations ' leaders to send troops to Somalia . That th ankless operation soured much of the West on the idea of dispatching troops to a nother bloody foreign power struggle . The American casualties in Somalia prompt ed the Clinton administration to develop a new and stringent policy on peacekeep ing , Presidential Policy Directive 25 , which Clinton signed May 5 . Even when no U.S. troops are promised , the new policy calls on the secretary general to a nswer a series of tough questions posed by the United States , such as which cou ntries will send troops , what role the troops will play on the ground and when they will leave . Washington demands satisfactory responses because Americans pa y one-third of the U.N. peacekeeping budget ; although U.S. lives might not be o n the line , U.S. tax dollars would be . In order to comply with the new U.S. di rective , the U.N. . Security Council delayed sending 5,500 troops to Rwanda to allow time for a study of what can be accomplished in the Central African nation while the fighting rages . The troops would go only if the secretary general de termined that the combatants would cooperate with the United Nations by agreeing to a cease-fire , that foreign troops were indeed available and that any missio n in Rwanda would be short-lived . Additional delays have been caused by the ref usal of most African nations to commit troops to a U.N. peacekeeping force . So far , only Ghana , Ethiopia , Senegal and Zimbabwe have committed . Boutros-Ghal i has tried to put together an all-African contingent to secure Rwanda 's Kigali airport , ensure the flow of relief supplies and create safe havens for fleeing Rwandans . The reluctance of neighbors to get involved is not unusual in Africa , where isolationism is encouraged by the charter of the Organization of Africa n Unity . Since the deaths of Burundi 's President Cyprian Ntayamira and Rwanda 's President Juvenal Habyarimana in a suspicious plane crash April 6 , more than 200,000 people have been killed in fighting between members of the Tutsi and Hu tu tribes . U.N. officials will try again on Monday to negotiate a cease-fire . That 's a start , but only a start . What would it take to get more help for Rwa nda ? Neo-colonial meddling is inappropriate , but for so many African nations t o sit by while hundreds of thousands of neighbors die is unconscionable . BANGKOK , Thailand Nearly 30 years ago , the United States issued a clarion cal l against the spread of communism in Asia and Southeast Asian nations eagerly un ited behind the American initiative . But when Washington tried to pull together similar support this year to isolate Myanmar , where human rights violations ar e rife , the coalition balked . Thailand said that instead of isolation it would offer `` constructive engagement '' to the military regime in Myanmar , formerl y known as Burma . Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong paid a friendly state visit to Yangon , the capital . The six-member Association of Southeast Asian Na tions even invited Myanmar to send the leader of its military junta to its annua l meeting here this July . More and more , the economically booming nations of A sia are flexing their political muscle in disputes with the United States and th e West , especially on such sensitive issues as human rights , freedom of expres sion and labor rights . Some call it the Asian Way ; others refer to neo-Confuci anism or East Asian authoritarianism . A hybrid of traditional Asian culture and 1990s economics , this doctrine champions society over the individual and `` fa mily values '' over what is seen as corroding Western influences . Most importan t , according to its ardent believers in China and the surrounding states of Sou theast Asia , economic development requires a period of political stability not possible under democracy a notion derided by Western critics as justification fo r tyranny . Whatever the name , the Asian Way doctrine is a distinctly post-Cold War phenomenon that may spell declining U.S. influence in the region and threat ens to raise friction across the Pacific in years ahead . `` With the growth of their economic prosperity , East Asian countries are becoming more assertive pol itically , '' said Washington SyCip , a prominent Manila business consultant . ` ` I think you 'll see them being more and more forthright and stating what their values are . '' Bearing him out are statistics showing the combined gross domes tic product of East Asia Japan , China , Taiwan , South Korea and the Southeast Asian nations was 4 percent of the world economy in 1960 ; by 2010 , it is expec ted to be 33 percent . Is the Asian Way really new ? After all , both Taiwan and South Korea boomed economically under authoritarian regimes and have made the t ransition to democracies . But in the 1960s and 1970s , the United States was mo re willing to turn a blind eye to human rights abuses in the name of anti-Commun ist solidarity . Only since the Cold War ended in 1988 has Washington seemed eag er to confront Asian countries with broader issues of democracy and labor rights . The most dramatic example of Asian muscle-flexing is the debate between Washi ngton and the Communist rulers in Beijing over human rights , culminating in Pre sident Clinton 's decision announced Thursday to renew most-favored-nation ( MFN ) trade status for China . The United States had linked continuation of the tra de benefits with human rights improvements , but Clinton was forced to make an e mbarrassing retreat . When Secretary of State Warren Christopher visited Beijing in March , Premier Li Peng warned him that China `` will never accept U.S. huma n rights concepts . '' As Christopher expressed outrage at the detention of Chin ese dissidents , Li responded by warning that if its trade status is revoked , ` ` the United States will suffer no less than China . '' China 's economy is boom ing , with growth at 13.4 percent last year , and European as well as American b usinesses are scrambling to enter the market . Even though China runs a $ 23-bil lion surplus with the United States , meaning it would suffer much more from a t rade drop , it was American businessmen who spoke gloomily about the potential l oss of 200,000 jobs if MFN status were revoked enough to sway the President . Wh ile many Asian countries remain wary of a resurgent China , the U.S. linkage of trade and human rights did not find a sympathetic audience in the region . `` Wh en China becomes powerful in 20 or 30 years ' time , there is no reason why Chin a should behave kindly toward the West , '' said Singapore 's Goh when asked abo ut the possible effect of trade sanctions on Beijing . `` That 's our worry : Ch ina may want to flex its muscles and then it will be a very troublesome world . '' He added that Singapore will continue to invest in China no matter what the U nited States decides to do . ( Begin optional trim ) Even Australia , normally a champion of human rights but now courting Asia 's business , has parted company with the United States in its dispute with China . Australia 's ambassador to W ashington , Don Russell , urged the Clinton administration in April to drop its aggressive pursuit of human rights and adopt a low-key dialogue with China using `` constructive , non-confrontational engagement . '' Southeast Asian nations a re similarly assertive with the United States and Europe about Myanmar , because of budding economic ties and dislike of outside interference . No one disputes the country 's appalling human rights record , in which thousands of demonstrato rs have been killed and the military junta has rejected the results of a May 199 0 election that was won in a landslide by the opposition National League for Dem ocracy . The league 's chairwoman , Aung Sang Suu Kyi , has been under house arr est for nearly five years . Winston Lord , the U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian affairs , called on Myanmar 's neighbors to help isolate the cou ntry 's generals until the human rights picture improved . But last month Lord w as forced to concede that `` as friends , '' the United States and Southeast Asi a `` have agreed to disagree on the approaches . '' Singapore is the largest inv estor in Myanmar , followed by Thailand and Japan . But beyond economic question s , Southeast Asian countries are loath to allow outside powers to interfere in what they consider to be the internal affairs of a neighboring state . `` If we were to adopt the Western approach with Burma , we would be abandoning our role , '' said Thai Foreign Minister Prasong Soonsiri . `` We are neighbors and we sh ould keep up relations in order to bring them out into the world community . '' The other members of ASEAN Malaysia , Singapore , Brunei , Indonesia and the Phi lippines have agreed to follow the policy of `` constructive engagement '' towar d Myanmar . ( End optional trim ) One of the paradoxes of the recent assertion o f the Asian Way is that no two Asian nations are culturally identical . Corrupti on-free Singapore stands in contrast to the venality of Indonesia and Thailand , and the media are as free in the Philippines and Thailand as they are controlle d in Malaysia and Singapore . Critics , mostly in the West , argue that there re ally is no Asian Way . They say this is a convenient slogan seized by undemocrat ic rulers to justify their continued hold on power . Kishore Mahbubani , the top civil servant in Singapore 's Foreign Ministry , published an essay in the Wash ington Quarterly this year in which he blamed America 's current troubles on too much freedom . `` In a major reversal of a pattern lasting centuries , many Wes tern societies including the United States are doing some major things fundament ally wrong while a growing number of East Asian societies are doing the same thi ngs right , '' Mahbubani said . ( Optional add end ) A Stanford University profe ssor wryly observed that Singapore 's recent caning of American teen-ager Michae l Fay for vandalism made him the first known victim of the `` clash of civilizat ions '' expected to take place between Asia and the United States . President Cl inton denounced the punishment as extreme , but many Asians and a fair number of Americans decried America 's crime rate and said it needed to adopt more string ent punishments . Apart from the issue of human rights , few things make Asian l eaders bristle as much as the Western media . China , Malaysia and Singapore hav e banned individual ownership of satellite dishes to prevent direct reception of Western programming , which they view as an assault on Asian values . Another i ssue on which Asia and the West seem likely to collide is labor rights . The Uni ted States and France have suggested that a worldwide minimum wage be adopted by the World Trade Organization to stop the exploitation of workers in poor countr ies . Malaysia 's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed said the West 's `` professed concern about workers ' welfare is motivated by self-interest , '' because , he said , low wages are the developing world 's only competitive advantage against the industrialized West . `` Washington 's newfound concern for workers ' right s is downright exploitation of workers in poor countries . '' WASHINGTON As the only one of five committee chairmen charged with health care reform who is making visible progress , Sen. Edward M. Kennedy was being quizzed by reporters last week about President Clinton 's appearance on Capitol Hill to rally support for the effort . The Massachusetts Democrat had already begun lum bering off when he got a final query about whether he was the one who had prompt ed Clinton 's last-minute decision to meet with Republican critics as well as wi th his own party leaders . Flattered by the suggestion he had a hand in this int rigue , Kennedy suddenly whirled around with an impish twinkle in his eye and qu ipped : `` No , I wish I had . Can we start this over again ? '' Somehow , in th e flash of that magnificent Kennedy smile , the years just disappeared . These a re glorious days for America 's aging political prince . After three tumultuous decades of high drama and low moments , Kennedy is playing a pivotal role in wha t could be the crowning achievement of his career : enactment of national health care legislation . `` This is the fulfillment of something he 's been working o n for at least 25 years , '' said Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II , the senator 's nep hew and another Massachusetts Democrat . `` He 's going to move mountains to get it passed . '' At a time when other congressional leaders are weakened or distr acted , Kennedy has his Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee steadily movi ng forward . He is seen as certain to be the first full committee chairman in ei ther the House or Senate to win approval for any version of health care reform l egislation . And despite his reputation as the poster boy for liberal Democratic causes , Kennedy is picking up Republican votes for nearly every section of his bill . He has a reliable majority of Democrats , but he urges his committee mem bers to shape bipartisan compromises every time they hit a snag . To some degree , the Republicans are just trying to make the best of what they consider a bad bill because it is too generous in its benefits and too burdensome on employers . On the final vote for committee approval for the Kennedy proposal , the only R epublican likely to support it is James M. Jeffords of Vermont , a co-sponsor of the original Clinton proposal . Kennedy 's bill is also certain to run into opp osition from conservative and moderate Democrats when it reaches the Senate floo r . But Sen. Nancy L. Kassebaum of Kansas , the ranking Republican on the commit tee , said she believes some of the bipartisan compromises the panel is reaching on side issues such as a fail-safe process for controlling benefit costs could find their way into law . At a minimum , Kennedy 's committee offers hope for pa ssing health care reform this year when progress elsewhere is hard to find . `` This committee is moving along at a better pace than anyone else on health care reform , '' Sen. Barbara A . Mikulski , a Maryland Democrat who serves on the pa nel , observed with satisfaction during a voting session this week . `` And we ' re doing it with a better tone . '' ( Optional add end ) Kennedy 's delight in h is progress on the health care legislation was overshadowed by the recent death of his sister-in-law , Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis . As patriarch of the Kennedy clan , it fell to him to comfort his huge family through yet another tragedy . T here are also signs of trouble at home in Massachusetts , where surveys suggest that Kennedy may be vulnerable to a re-election challenge for the first time sin ce he arrived in Washington 32 years ago . A majority of those questioned in a r ecent Boston Globe poll indicated they thought it might be time for the 62-year- old Kennedy to retire . Reminders during the Onassis funeral of the rakishly han dsome youth who was first elected to the Senate when his brother was president h ave been a mixed blessing for the `` Teddy '' of today . The ruddy-faced veteran of what Kennedy acknowledges as too many long nights on the town has seen his p oll ratings sink at a time when he 's getting around the state more than he has in years . `` To see him is not to love him , '' said Ronald Kaufman , a Republi can political operative from Massachusetts who served in the Bush White House . `` He doesn't look good . '' By all accounts , Kennedy 's remarriage two years a go to Victoria Reggie has brought stability to his personal life . The two joine d in a Christmas party skit last year that poked fun at his licentious bachelor behavior . `` He 's changed a great deal , '' said Sen. Orrin G. Hatch , a Utah Republican and close friend of Kennedy . `` I 've been there throughout the proc ess , and I have to say his marriage to Vicki has been a wonderful thing for him . '' Kennedy turned to Hatch for counsel and help after the 1991 incident durin g which his nephew , William Kennedy Smith , was charged with rape , Hatch said . The incident reflected badly on Kennedy because he had awakened the younger ma n to go out drinking with him earlier that evening . The physical effects of tho se years of hard living are not easy to reverse . But Kennedy advisers say they aren't worried . His campaign has a huge war chest of $ 8 million to spend on ge tting out the message of how effective Kennedy is on the job . Most gratifying f or Kennedy is that he has upended the predictions of those who had written him o ff as too liberal to be a major player in the health care debate . Said White Ho use lobbyist Steven J. Ricchetti : `` He 's staying in the game . '' BEDFORD , Va. . Long gone are the boys of Bedford , gone these 50 years , lost in the roiling English Channel and on the sands of Omaha , cut down by German pi llboxes and artillery shells that blew men and machines and whole boats out of t he water . Gone a half century now , these were the Gold Stars of Bedford , the young men who would never marry their sweethearts or raise families , who would not return to the farm , who would never gather Saturdays at Green 's Drug Store and dazzle the younger boys with stories of heroism on D-day , June 6 , 1944 . These men 19 sons of Bedford killed on D-day alone , the largest proportion of c asualties for any community in the nation lie under great oak trees at the town cemetery and under white crosses on the fields of Normandy . For one of them , R aymond Hoback , all that was found was his Bible , tossing in the surf , scooped up by another soldier trudging onward into France . John Wilkes would never aga in drive down Main Street in his tan station wagon with the wood siding , ferryi ng his buddies and their dates to picnics out on Smith Mountain Lake . Elaine Co ffey and Bedford Hoback , engaged to be married after the war , would never move into their little farm home . Ray Stevens would not shake his brother 's hand i n France , and Earl Parker would never ever see his baby daughter . Such a high price for one small town . In 1944 , Bedford had just 3,400 residents , and only one taxi driver , one undertaker and one sheriff . It fell to them to deliver t he telegrams , driving past the farm fields rich in summer grain , the hillsides covered with loblolly and hardwoods , the clay foothills at the break of the Bl ue Ridge Mountains . They went to the Deane home and the Schenk home and the Rey nolds home , and stopped twice at the Hobacks ; they lost two sons . Today , the ir names are engraved in granite on a memorial on the lawn of the Bedford County Courthouse . The granite was carved out of a Vierville-sur-Mer cave where the m en of Company A , 116th Infantry , the `` blue and grey '' 29th Division , lande d on Normandy . There will be a modest courthouse ceremony to mark the 50th anni versary , as there have been at other times , because even after all these years , the grief is still borne by their loved ones in this still small town of wido ws and children . Saddest among them , perhaps , was Frank P. Draper Sr. , so ov ercome with sorrow that he built a large stone monument atop his son 's grave in Bedford . For Frank Jr. , `` Juney '' as he called him , the father poured out his broken heart on that marble sarcophagus : `` We loved you Juney , dearly lov ed you , but God loved you best . '' But even that did not cool the grief . One cold January day 20 years ago , Frank Sr. shot himself to death . He now lies bu ried next to the son he gave to France . There had been happier times . Bedford back then was known by its motto , the `` World 's Best Little Town . '' Then ca me the day when Elizabeth Teass , working the Western Union machine at Green 's Drug Store , was suddenly inundated with wires that began `` The Secretary of Wa r regrets to inform you. ... '' This was on a Sunday morning in July , six weeks after Bedford families were not only not getting any more letters from their so ldiers fighting in Europe , but their own letters to the men were being sent bac k unopened . Something was wrong . `` Green 's used to be a happy drugstore , '' Teass said about the local hangout , a combination drugstore-diner . `` It was a lively affair . Everybody was happy there . `` But on this particular morning , Roanoke wired that they had casualties to give us and then they started coming . There was a crowd gathering around , and after the wires had been delivered i t was affecting everybody . `` Everybody now was coming down to the drugstore an d when it was over , this was a calm , blue Bedford . This was a blue town . So many young men killed . '' At the Hoback home , where the family was dressing fo r Sunday services at the Center Point Methodist Church , the news came that Bedf ord Hoback was dead . Soon their home was filled with parishioners from the chur ch across the road , offering comfort . The next morning , while the Hoback chil dren were cranking homemade ice cream in the cellar for their grieving parents , they learned that another brother , Raymond , had also been killed . Some time later , Raymond 's family Bible arrived in the mail , with a letter from Pvt. H. W. Crayton addressed from `` Somewhere in France . '' Crayton had plucked the Bi ble out of the water , convinced that Raymond was alive and probably had just dr opped it in the surf . `` You have by now received a letter from your son saying he is well , '' Crayton wrote . `` I sincerely hope so . '' So sure was he that Raymond was safe , Crayton went on to describe the success of the invasion and the `` peaceful and quiet '' Normandy beachfront now that the German guns had be en silenced . `` The birds have begun their daily practice , '' he wrote , `` al l the flowers and trees are in bloom , and especially the poppies and tulips whi ch are very beautiful at this time of the year . '' Unlike the Bible , Raymond ' s body was never recovered . ( Begin optional trim ) `` It was just too much for us , '' recalled Lucille Hoback Boggess , a sister who was just 15 at the time . `` My mother was never the same . She later suffered a stroke and lived anothe r 10 years but she couldn't speak or remember anything . `` It took all of the j oy out of our family . No more family picnics . No more family get-togethers . A nd my mother never forgave the Germans . Once a German missionary came to our ch urch , and she wouldn't go see him . It was the first time she ever refused to g o to church . '' ( End optional trim ) The Bedford casualties were among 197 men in the company assault group on D-day . In all , 30 of them were from Bedford . They were assigned to several landing craft and then launched across the Englis h Channel . Roy Stevens , now 74 , remembers speaking with his twin brother , Ra y , before splitting up on the landing boats . They talked about home and Ray wa s shaking and he seemed convinced he wouldn't make it . Ray suggested they shake hands goodbye . `` No , '' Roy told him . `` We 'll shake hands in France . '' Some days later , Roy was walking through a makeshift graveyard near the beach w hen he stumbled across his brother 's dog tags nailed to one of the crosses . `` I saw several Bedford boys buried up there , '' he said . `` None of them made it . '' He also remembers Earl Parker staring at his little girl 's photograph t he night before D-day , and his misgivings about the invasion . `` If I could on ly see my baby daughter , I wouldn't mind dying , '' Parker told his buddies . H e too perished on Normandy . ( Begin optional trim ) Captain Taylor N . Fellers , before the war a state highway foreman in Bedford , skipped out of an Army hos pital to make the landing . He had earlier written home about his men : `` I 'm beginning to think it 's hard to beat a Bedford boy as a soldier . '' At the bea ch , Fellers and his boat crew were hit by an artillery shell that , to Bob Slau ghter , a soldier from nearby Roanoke , `` looked like it made Capt. Fellers jus t evaporate into thin air . '' ( End optional trim ) Ray Nance , one of the few who did return to Bedford , can still see John Reynolds running ahead of him up the beach . `` He went down on his knees , and he brought his rifle up as if he were searching for something , and then he fell forward . He was dead . '' He ca n still hear J.D. Clifton screaming into his pack radio near the cliffs . `` Sud denly he yelled that he 'd been hit and he died . '' And he can see John Wilkes and John Schenk taking heavy sniper fire near their boats , cut down at the wate rline . `` You know , '' Nance said , `` us Bedford boys , we competed to be in the first wave . We wanted to be there . We wanted to be the first on the beach . `` We got our wish . '' LOS ANGELES The latest cause gaining appeal in Los Angeles is not AIDS or the h omeless or even the rain forest . It 's the Los Angeles Police Department . With such recent offerings as cash , computers , cameras , furniture even a motor ho me donations to the LAPD in the past five months have surpassed the tally for al l of 1993 . The increase in donations , from private citizens , businesses and o ther government agencies , has been attributed partly to city officials ' effort to prod the private sector into helping the city during its fiscal crisis . But some police officials speculate that residents and businesses are chipping in b ecause they feel helpless in the war against crime and want to do their part to assist the department . `` I think it 's kind of an outpouring of support predic ated on the fact that we have just been through some tumultuous experiences , '' said Al Beuerlein , who heads the department 's financial support bureau . ( Be gin optional trim ) Police in the San Fernando Valley northwest of downtown have fared particularly well at drawing donations over the past year , receiving tho usands of dollars worth of computers , bicycles , automobiles and high-tech came ras used to produce extra-sharp photographs of evidence . For example , 13 perso nal computers donated by Great Western Bank are being used to help officers writ e crime reports . Because reports can be written faster , police are including m ore details , which they believe improves the chances of a suspect being convict ed if the case goes to trial . `` I can't even guess at the number of hours this has saved us , '' said West Valley Detective Dave Navarro . ( End optional trim ) According to city records , 16 donations have been accepted for the departmen t so far this year , four more than all of last year . Because most donations to the LAPD are goods such as used computers and cars , police officials could not provide a cash total for offerings or a precise breakdown of how much each stat ion has received . This year , the department has taken in $ 22,000 in cash , 41 computers , 100 cellular phones , a 1972 motor home , a 1993 Ford wagon , offic e furniture and a facsimile machine , among other donations . Leading the city ' s campaign to draw donations to the police are Mayor Richard Riordan and Council woman Laura Chick , both of whom came into office last July and immediately bega n tapping community groups and private firms to beef up a department so fiscally strapped that officers have not had a raise in two years and use dilapidated eq uipment such as cars with more than 100,000 miles on them . As part of Riordan ' s efforts to increase donations , next month the City Council is expected to app rove a special trust fund for the Police Department to cut down on the red tape that delays the acceptance of donations for at least two weeks until the council can consider them . The trust fund would eliminate the requirement of council a pproval for donations valued under $ 10,000 . ( Begin optional trim ) West Valle y Sgt. Walt Kainz attributes most of the increase in donations his division has garnered to Chick 's efforts . They have included turning over more than $ 80,00 0 from her office budget to the division and giving the department three of the seven city cars assigned to her staff . She has also encouraged residents to mak e donations through the West Valley Police Athletic League Supporters , a nonpro fit booster organization that uses cash donations to purchase equipment for the division , Kainz said . Contributors to such organizations can get a tax write-o ff . Money donated through West Valley PALS was used to purchase a sophisticated $ 700 camera that police use to photograph needle marks on the arms of suspecte d drug users for use as evidence in court , Kainz said . The camera originally u sed by the department was damaged during the Northridge earthquake and the Polic e Department lacked the cash to replace it , he said . ( End optional trim ) The motivations behind the donations vary . A spokesman for Duskin Co. Ltd. , a cle aning-equipment rental firm based in Osaka , Japan , said the firm donated $ 20, 000 the biggest cash donation in recent months to the Police Department 's Asian Crime Investigation unit because an executive vice president was acquainted wit h a sergeant and wanted to help . Last year , Rice Honda Co. loaned the LAPD two Sea-Doo watercraft , similar to oversize jet skis , for a year to be used , in part , to make rescues when the Los Angeles River overflows . Tim Rice , vice pr esident of the firm , said American Honda offers the use of its products not onl y to assist police but for the publicity . `` We want the Sea-Doos to be seen ou t there , '' he said . ( Optional add end ) In the past , the LAPD has received such unusual offerings as a 4-year-old gelding Thoroughbred named Mesa Blaze in 1992 to be used in the department 's mounted police unit . In 1982 , Jack LaLann e donated physical fitness equipment and the use of his Pasadena gym . In 1988 , American Honda donated three all-terrain vehicles . The staff of the television show `` Hunter '' got into the act in 1990 by donating a cellular phone . BEIJING In his plaid pants , golf shirt and sun hat , the Japanese businessman slowly squeezed the trigger of a rocket launcher sending off a sudden burst of s moke , a concussive boom and a sizable shell into a barren mountainside a half m ile away . `` Aaaaah , '' came the deep growl of satisfaction from the middle-ag ed tourist as he staggered back from the weapon . `` Fantastic . '' Such thrills meant it was business as usual Friday at the China North International Shooting Range , about an hour 's drive north of Beijing near the Great Wall . The range is located within a weapons research center affiliated with China North Industr ies Co. or Norinco , the Chinese military conglomerate that has been making and sending to the U.S. hundreds of thousands of weapons a year . For those with eno ugh money , the shooting range offers the chance to fire anything from a small p istol to an anti-aircraft machine gun . These arms include the Chinese-made assa ult rifles and handguns that President Clinton announced Thursday he wants to ba n from entry into the United States . Such ranges using military weaponry were o rdered closed by China 's central government last year . But this one is special . While tourists are no longer brought out here by the busload , the range has quietly remained open for business . This is because this range also functions a s a showcase of Norinco 's smaller arms to potential bulk buyers from abroad . A n attached exhibition hall shows off the company 's export line : from `` Saturd ay night specials '' to the cheap SKS semi-automatic rifle so popular in the Uni ted States these days . Exports of these and other firearms to the United States may bring $ 100 million to $ 200 million in annual sales to Norinco and other C hinese military firms . But those running Norinco 's range claimed Friday to kno w nothing of Clinton 's decision to ban their products . `` This gun is not for sale here , but you might be able to get it in America , '' the range 's manager explained coyly as he pointed to an SKS . Hundreds of thousands of these Chines e-made assault rifles were imported by the United States last year . China 's Fo reign Ministry was hardly so indirect in issuing a statement Friday welcoming Cl inton 's decision to renew China 's most-favored-nation trade status , but decry ing the president 's parallel move to ban U.S. imports of the Chinese-made weapo ns . But on the national TV news here Friday night , the Foreign Ministry 's sta tement came toward the program 's end after a long list of insignificant items i ndicating the Chinese leadership may opt to not trumpet its MFN victory domestic ally , likely because that could provoke questions here about human rights . `` The current situation offers a historical opportunity for the enhancement of Sin o-American relations , '' Foreign Ministry spokesman Wu Jianmin said . But then he called on the United States to soon remove all remaining sanctions against Ch ina including the weapons-import ban saying they held back good relations . A le ading Western human-rights group Friday also had a mixed reaction , calling the president 's weapons ban as good for gun control in the United States but not fo r human rights in China . `` No one can be opposed to a ban on exports of guns a nd ammunition to this country , '' Sidney Jones , executive director of Human Ri ghts Watch/Asia , said in a statement issued from New York . `` But as pressure on China , it 's meaningless . Is a ban on guns going to persuade China to relea se jailed dissidents ? The only big winner from this decision is the Chinese gov ernment . `` President Clinton has effectively removed all pressure on China to improve its human rights practices , '' Jones said . `` Clinton has left his adm inistration looking vacillating and hypocritical , while the Chinese leadership .. . has emerged as hard-nosed , uncompromising and victorious . '' A Beijing di ssident said Friday that U.S. pressure had only gained the release of certain we ll-known dissidents from jail and had not really made much of a difference in th e human-rights picture here . `` It 's no use if only prison stars are released , '' Ding Zilin said . `` What about those who are not famous ? There are still many people imprisoned . '' Ding 's teen-age son was among the hundreds killed i n the military crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests five years ago . The e lderly professor has boldly carried on a one-woman campaign to compile a list of protesters killed by the Chinese army a campaign that has cost her job and brou ght her almost constant surveillance by security agents . `` I welcome the help from other countries , '' she said . `` But the real help can only be done by ou rselves. .. . I do see a bright future for human rights in China someday , but i t will be very hard and slow . '' ( Optional add end ) U.S. businessman , howeve r , foresee things getting much better for them very quickly . With the annual M FN debate in the United States appearing to be coming to an end with Clinton 's decision to `` delink '' trade and political issues , the U.S. businessmen are e xpecting rapid growth in U.S. investment here and in Sino-American trade . Phili p S. Carmichael , president of the American Chamber of Commerce chapter here , s aid Friday that planning for some large joint ventures had been put on hold this spring until the MFN issue was settled . This , he said , is an example of the way in which the issue put American business at a `` competitive disadvantage '' here . The chamber `` lauds the president 's leadership in looking out for the strategic interest of the United States , '' he said . Carmichael added that the chamber had hoped that the president would not impose any conditions for MFN re newal this year , even the ban on Chinese guns . But he indicated he believes th e impact of the gun ban will be minimal as Chinese weapons sales in the United S tates amount to less than one percent of the more than $ 40 billion in annual tr ade between the two countries . However , the Chinese semi-automatic rifles bein g banned have become a favorite of U.S. criminals because of the weapons ' cheap price . `` Let 's declare victory , '' Carmichael said , `` and move on to the next issue . '' WASHINGTON When Jennifer Merrill faced possible surgery for a gynecological ail ment , her new insurance plan refused to pay if she went to the specialist she h ad been seeing for nine years . He was not a member of the plan . Instead , Merr ill 's insurer wanted her to see a total stranger , an obstetrician-gynecologist who is a participating provider in her health maintenance organization . That m akes the 23-year-old Baltimore woman one of a fast-growing number of Americans w ho , even before enactment of national health care reform , are losing the freed om to choose their own doctors . In Merrill 's case , the story does not end the re . She became so uncomfortable with her new doctor that when the time came for the $ 2,000 surgery , she returned to her own specialist and with a loan from h er grandparents paid the entire bill out of pocket . Merrill 's dilemma arose ou t of one of today 's less-welcome trends in health care : Insurance companies ar e aggressively imposing restricting `` managed care '' systems on their clients . In the name of curtailing soaring health care costs , individuals enrolled in these systems receive maximum coverage only when they visit participating doctor s who agree to abide by price controls negotiated with the insurer . Clients may go outside the network of participating doctors but only if they pay much or , as in Merrill 's case , all of the price . Perhaps no issue has aroused so much emotion as that of whether Americans will be able to select their doctors . `` C hoice is one of the things people most jealously guard against erosion and they are willing to pay for it , '' said Edward F. Howard , head of the nonpartisan A lliance for Health Reform . Critics complain that President Clinton 's health re form plan would not do enough to preserve choice a charge that first lady Hillar y Rodham Clinton has branded as `` one of the great lies '' in the health care d ebate . Clinton has said that the allegation , more than anything else , has `` made me the maddest in the relentless campaign against this plan . '' In fact , Clinton 's prescription for change , more than any other politically viable refo rm proposal , would increase choice of doctors for most patients . `` Clinton 's plan has , if anything , bent over backward to give people the maximum choice , '' said Stanley B . Jones , a Shepherdstown , W.Va. , analyst . But there 's a catch : People would have to pay something extra for that freedom , although har dly the full cost that Merrill and her grandparents had to bear . Managed care s ystems have grown so explosively that there are no reliable figures on how many exist . `` Nobody can say for sure , '' said Phil Caper , a New Hampshire physic ian who sells computer software programs to managed care networks that monitor p atients and doctors . `` All I know is that things have really taken off in the past few years . '' KPMG Peat Marwick , a benefits consulting firm , says the pe rcentage of American workers enrolled by their employers in fee-for-service plan s the traditional plans that reimburse workers for a percentage of their health costs , no matter who the doctor dropped from 71 percent in 1988 to just 49 perc ent by last year . At the same time , the percentage of private employees in man aged care systems grew from 5 percent in 1980 to 55 percent by 1992 , the govern ment 's General Accounting Office reports . That percentage is even higher in la rger firms , which have moved most aggressively in channeling workers into manag ed care networks , says Derek Lifton , associate director of Peat Marwick in Was hington . And according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute , the number of Americans enrolled in HMOs the most tightly run form of managed care rose fro m 9.1 million in 1980 to 37.2 million by 1992 . The regional differences in HMO acceptance are stark : more than one in three Californians belong , compared wit h 7 percent in Texas and less than 1 percent in Alaska , Montana and Wyoming . I n all , as many as 95 percent of Americans with private insurance are subject to some form of utilization review , possibly leading to a denial of coverage eith er before or after a specific treatment , according to Lewin-VHI Inc. , a health care consulting firm . `` Fewer than half of American workers have any choice a t all over their doctors or their health care plan today , '' Clinton has said . Why hasn't there been a huge public outcry over the loss of choice if , as ever yone says , it is such a potent consumer issue ? `` I don't think the public und erstands how pervasive this is becoming , '' said Dr. James Todd , executive vic e president of the American Medical Assocation . Clinton 's plan , like most oth er viable proposals in Congress , contains strong financial incentives to prod c onsumers into managed care systems . A central hallmark in such arrangements is the `` gatekeeper , '' a primary care physician whose permission is needed befor e a patient may consult with a specialist . So it 's hardly surprising that the most vocal critics of the erosion of choice are high-priced specialists . Last m onth , the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons , for example , took out full -page newspaper ads to clamor for `` direct ( public ) access to specialty care . '' `` Those pushing the issue tend to be providers who don't want to be exclud ed , '' said Bill Custer , EBRI 's research director . ( Optional add end ) Step hen M. Shortell , a Northwestern University management professor , called the is sue of choice in the context of health care reform `` a red herring . '' The pre sident 's proposal , which seeks to guarantee a lifetime of comprehensive benefi ts to all Americans , would increase choice by pooling most people into regional insurance-purchasing alliances that negotiate rates with specific groups of pro viders and insurers . As an alliance member , Shortell says , `` you end up havi ng to choose your doctor from a panel . But in most areas , that list will be pr etty long . '' Under Clinton 's proposal , each alliance must offer at least thr ee types of plans including a traditional but costlier fee-for-service plan and an HMO with lower premiums , no deductibles and co-payments of $ 10 or less per visit . Each plan also must offer a `` point-of-service '' option , which allows consumers to see any doctor outside the plan , but for a higher out-of-pocket f ee . Under such arrangements , says Joseph M. Davis , president of Medimetrix , a Cleveland-based consulting firm , consumer choice `` goes up significantly . ' ' Congress is sure to make major changes in Clinton 's plan . But , as currently written , it would require employers to pay at least 80 % of a worker 's premiu ms , with the individual paying the rest . Administration analysts estimate that the average annual premiums ( subject to regional variations ) will be $ 4,200 for a family of four and $ 1,800 for an individual . Twenty percent of that , th e consumer share , would be $ 840 and $ 360 , respectively . For those who opt f or more choice under a fee-for-service plan , premiums , co-payments and annual deductibles will be higher , with a cap on out-of-pocket spending of as much as $ 3,000 per year per family . `` That 's a high hurdle most people can't get ove r , '' warned the AMA 's Todd . True choice , he said , `` will depend on what t hat threshold is . '' The mandatory alliance structure proposed by Clinton also would let consumers rather than their employers pick which health plan to join . As the president boasted last month in a speech : `` We give choice of provider s back to the employees themselves . '' In the fall of 1986 , Oliver North sought to save a convicted felon from servin g his federal prison sentence . The beneficiary of North 's efforts was no commo n criminal . His name was Jose Bueso Rosa ; he was a former Honduran general who had been actively involved in a failed 1984 plot to assassinate the president o f Honduras a plot that was to be funded by a $ 10 million cocaine deal . It soun ded like a lurid `` Miami Vice '' plot to veteran newspaper reporters , but for Oliver North , then the deputy director of political military affairs at the Nat ional Security Council , it was just another day at the office . North insisted to colleagues that Bueso deserved special treatment because he had previously he lped senior U.S. officials conduct covert operations in support of the Contra re bels fighting in Central America . After Bueso was sentenced to a five-year pris on term in connection with the assassination plot , North waged a wide-ranging b ureaucratic campaign in Washington to gain his freedom . The story of North 's e fforts on behalf of Bueso is not just an obscure chapter in the Iran-Contra scan dal . Like shredding documents and misleading Congress in the name of defending American values , the leniency campaign for Bueso illuminates North 's seeming i nability to distinguish between his own political interests and the requirements of the law . North , now a candidate for the Republican senatorial nomination i n Virginia , presents himself as a candidate who is tough on crime , who favors the abolition of parole and who will zealously defend what he calls `` tradition al American values . '' His efforts to free a man who plotted with a convicted c ocaine conspirator to kill a democratically elected head of state suggest a cert ain permissiveness in the way North puts his beliefs into action . In the Bueso case , as in other critical junctures in the Iran-Contra scandal , North did not let concern about the niceties of the law interfere with the pursuit of his goa ls . North declined to answer questions about the Bueso affair for this article . He spelled out his motivation for the leniency campaign on Sept. 17 , 1986 in a White House electronic mail message to his boss , national-security adiser Joh n Poindexter . North expressed his concern that Bueso , if sent to prison , migh t `` break his long-standing silence about the Nic ( araguan ) Resistance and ot her sensitive operations . '' North then called together a host of senior Reagan administration officials to `` cabal quietly , '' as he put it , on Bueso 's be half . His behind-the-scenes pressure did not save Bueso from prison , but it di d succeed in getting him transferred to one of the most comfortable federal corr ectional facilities in the country . And Bueso , whom North feared might `` star t singing songs nobody wants to hear , '' never did speak out publicly about cla ndestine U.S. government operations in Central America . -O- Bueso 's assistance to the U.S. government in the early 1980s was a closely guarded secret . Only t hree U.S. government officials `` were fully aware of all that ( Bueso ) was doi ng on our behalf , '' according to a partially declassified memo written by Nort h and obtained by the National Security Archive , a Washington research organiza tion . What covert operations Bueso and North worked on together is not known . In one of his NSC memos , North said Bueso `` was the man with whom '' he and ot her top officials `` worked out arrangements. .. . ' ' The next three lines of t he memo have been classified as top secret . Bueso 's admitted violations of U.S . law are not a secret . The FBI announced the indictment of Bueso and three oth er men in November 1984 . The court proceedings that resulted in the conviction of all the defendants produced a detailed public record of the U.S. government ' s evidence about their scheme . The affair began in July 1984 . Bueso traveled t o Miami where he joined four men in discussing a plot to kill the president of H onduras and take control of the government . An FBI agent posing as an assassin- for-hire infiltrated the plot and met Bueso at several meetings . The FBI also w iretapped conversations of all of the participants . The plotter 's target was R oberto Suazo , a wealthy conservative rancher who had been elected in 1981 . Sua zo , though generally supportive of U.S. policies in Central America , was regar ded as a virtual communist by several of the plotters because the Honduran gover nment had allegedly reneged on business deals with them . Suazo was also no frie nd of Bueso 's . Four months earlier , in March 1984 , Suazo , under pressure fr om more nationalistic officers , had acquiesced in the purging of pro-American o fficers , including Bueso , from commanding positions in the Honduran armed forc es . North would later lobby for Bueso 's freedom by claiming that the Honduran man was only tangentially involved in the assassination plotting . The evidence available to the U.S. government indicated otherwise . Bueso participated in at least five meetings in the summer and fall of 1984 in which the assassination wa s discussed and planned , according to the affidavit of the lead FBI agent in th e case and the wiretaps . At one meeting , Bueso told the conspirators he did no t want the assassination to be carried out prior to Nov. 15 , 1984 . According t o an FBI affidavit , Bueso explained that a premature `` hit '' might cause the country to fall into the wrong hands . Bueso also knew about the hiring of the a ssassin . In early September 1984 , he was present at a meeting where the conspi rators swore a blood oath to carry out the assassination and the erstwhile hitma n was paid $ 20,000 in cash . The plot , according to an FBI agent 's sworn test imony and wiretaps submitted into the court record , was to be financed by a dru g deal . In early October 1984 , Bueso 's host in Miami , a Honduran businessman named Faiz Sikaffy , was overheard by the undercover FBI agent discussing a dea l involving `` fish . '' The FBI agents following the investigation believed tha t `` fish '' was actually a code word for narcotics . The next day , Sikaffy agr eed to pay the hit man $ 300,000 and 10 kilos of cocaine for carrying out the as sassination , according to an FBI agent 's affidavit . On Oct. 28 , 1984 , the f irst part of the plot was carried out . A Cessna plane , laden with 15 duffel ba gs carrying 760 pounds of cocaine , landed at a remote airfield in central Flori da . FBI agents were waiting . Over the next week all of the plotters were arres ted ; Bueso , who was in Chile at the time , was arrested there . William Webste r , director of the FBI , told the press , `` We don't want international terror ists to establish beachheads or bases for operations in the United States such a s they have enjoyed for years in other parts of the world . '' Facing extraditio n from Chile , Bueso voluntarily returned to Miami in November 1985 . He was cha rged and released on $ 50,000 bail . He was not charged with any narcotics-relat ed offenses , and his lawyer has denied that he knew anything about any drug dea l aspect of the plot . However , one of Bueso 's conversations heard on the FBI wiretaps had piqued the interest of federal investigators . The conversation occ urred eight days before the cocaine arrived in the United States . Bueso called one of his fellow plotters in Miami asking for the whereabouts of Faiz Sikaffy . `` I have some things ready but it is on a timetable , '' Bueso was recorded as saying , . `` If he does not come on Tuesday that thing is ( expletive ) . '' ` ` Uh .. . the fish ? .. . the fish flour ? '' his associate stammered . `` No .. . the fish flour , yes , '' Bueso said . `` The fish flour , I think that they have it , '' the other plotter replied . `` Uh , they are going to obtain a lett er of credit . That 's what he was telling me . '' Then the conversation turned to the planning of the assassination in Honduras . `` Our assessment was that th ere was insufficient evidence to join him ( Bueso ) in the narcotics indictment , '' says one federal prosecutor familiar with the case . `` From our perspectiv e we often have that feeling that a defendant had to have known ( about drug tra fficking ) but in Bueso 's case we couldn't prove it . He was certainly an activ e player in the plans . '' There is no evidence that North knew about the plot w hile it was taking place in 1984 . But it is known that Bueso was actively seeki ng special treatment from Washington officials by the spring of 1986 . That was when Bueso entered into a plea-bargain agreement with federal prosecutors in Mia mi . He pleaded guilty to two felony counts of traveling in furtherance of a con spiracy . His lawyer asked for a delay in sentencing so that he could consult wi th `` several highly placed officials '' in Washington who were working on aid t o the Contras . At his sentencing hearing in July 1986 , Bueso expressed `` my p rofound sorrow for having been involved in this case . At the same time , I woul d like to clarify that the matter was not premeditated . '' Judge Sidney Aronovi tz gave Bueso a lecture on terrorism and ordered him to report to a medium-secur ity federal prison in Tallahassee , Fla. , on Sept. 25 , 1986 , to serve a five- year sentence . -O- That 's when North 's behind-the-scenes campaign to spring B ueso began . North was concerned that Bueso was going to feel betrayed if he act ually had to serve a substantial amount of time . As he told Poindexter in an el ectronic mail message on Sept 17 , 1986 , Bueso was due to report to prison in a week . `` He apparently still believed up until yesterday that he ( would ) be going to the minimum-security facility at Eglin ( Air Force base in Florida ) fo r a short period ( days or weeks ) and then walk free . '' North swung into acti on . He told Poindexter he was going to call a meeting of five top Reagan admini stration officials `` to look at options : pardon , clemency , deportation , red uced sentence . Objective is to keep Bueso from feeling like he was lied to in l egal process . '' The next morning North reported to Poindexter that the meeting had gone well . The plan , he said , was to get retired Gen. Paul Gorman , the former top commander of U.S. forces in Latin America , to testify in closed cour t on Bueso 's behalf . Then Bueso would be released and deported back to Hondura s . Over the next two weeks North arranged a series of meetings in which he lobb ied the upper echelons of the Reagan administration on Bueso 's behalf . Among t he officials who supported his efforts , according to a several participants in the meetings , were Gorman ; Dewey Clarridge , the head of CIA operations in Lat in America ; and Elliott Abrams , assistant secretary of state for Latin America . Gorman was not available for comment . Abrams declined to answer questions on the matter . Clarridge , now a senior vice president at General Dynamics in San Diego , says North 's actions were appropriate . `` We considered the fact that he ( Bueso ) had been helpful to us in the past . And there was a feeling he ha d been set up as part of some type of overzealous , unfair sting operation . The re was a real question as to whether Bueso even had any idea what was going on a t all . '' At a meeting with top State and Justice department officials on Sept. 24 , 1986 , North argued that Bueso was only tangentially involved in the assas sination plot , according to a deposition given to congressional investigators b y a senior Justice Department official . North proposed that Bueso be released a nd deported to Honduras . Oliver `` Buck '' Revell , then deputy director of the FBI , who also attended the meeting , objected . The FBI was determined not to get involved in the `` manipulation of the case or attempting to get the charges dropped , '' says Revell , now special agent in charge of the FBI office in Dal las . `` There was no way we could do something for someone who had been involve d in drug trafficking aimed against the United States . '' North refused to give up . In early October 1986 , he called another meeting trying to get higher-ran king officials at the State Department and the Justice Department to change thei r position in favor of prosecution . Again , North , Clarridge and Gorman attend ed , and all spoke in favor of letting Bueso go free . But the Justice Departmen t representative at the meeting , deputy assistant attorney general Mark Richard , resisted . Richard asked North to explain why Bueso merited special treatment . North 's answer , according to a deposition Richard gave to investigators for the congressional Iran-Contra committee in 1987 , was `` very ambiguous '' and included `` no specifics . '' `` I said , ` Look .. . anything we do for this ma n seems to undercut our position that we have taken repeatedly that this man is an international terrorist , ' ' ' Richard testified . `` This is certainly not consistent with the position we have articulated throughout the course of this p rosecution that this man is a serious international terrorist and should be trea ted accordingly . '' The Justice Department did make one concession to North . I t acted on North 's request that Bueso be transferred from the medium-security p rison at Tallahassee to a minimum security at Eglin Air Force base in Florida , known as `` Club Fed '' for its comfortable cabins and volleyball courts . Bueso began serving his sentence there on Oct. 9 , 1986 . After serving a total of 40 months ( including time served before his conviction ) , Bueso became eligible for parole and was released in May 1989 , according to Bureau of Prisons records . Bueso is now retired and living in Honduras . What does North 's campaign to free Bueso in 1986 have to do with his effort to get elected to the U.S. Senate in 1994 ? Nothing , according to a spokesman for the North campaign who said , ` ` It 's old news and garbage and nobody cares about it . '' William Webster , th e director of the FBI when Bueso was arrested and later the director of the CIA , has a different view of the Bueso affair . `` Information about past assistanc e to an agency of government can be supplied to the sentencing judge but the bal ancing responsibility lies with the court , '' says Webster , now a senior partn er at the law firm of Milbank , Tweed , Hadley and McCloy . `` It 's important t hat loyalty or zeal not short-circuit the criminal-justice process . '' The judi cial process was not short-circuited in the Bueso affair but not for lack of try ing on the part of the would-be junior senator from Virginia . -O- ( Jefferson M orley is an editor in The Washington Post 's Outlook section . Murray Waas is a Washington-based reporter specializing in national-security issues . ) Gen. Jose Abnego Bueso Rosa was , in Oliver North 's words , a `` friend of the United States '' deserving of `` reward . '' He was the chief of staff of the H onduran armed forces from 1982 to 1984 , making him the second-ranking military officer in that Central American republic . At the time , Reagan administration officials were transforming Honduras , a sparsely populated agricultural republi c , into a base for projecting U.S. military power throughout Central America . VLADIVOSTOK , Russia Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn lost no time Saturda y , 24 hours after his return from two decades of exile in the West , in speakin g his mind , often quite sharply , about his much-altered country . In his first formal news conference on Russian soil , the 75-year-old Nobel Prize winner cri ticized the economic reforms of President Boris Yeltsin as `` brainless , '' cal led ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky a `` caricature of a patriot '' and sa id that swaths of independent Kazakhstan were actually Russia . He also labeled the political system here a `` pseudo-democracy . '' Solzhenitsyn , who has neve r shied from controversy , has made similar statements in the West , where he wa s sent by Soviet rulers in 1974 for his defiance . But his words are taking on a dded meaning now that he is back in Russia and can easily be heard and seen for the first time by his compatriots . He is widely respected here , but whether hi s opinions will carry more weight than those of any other prominent person is an open question . If today was any indication , many of Yeltsin 's moderate natio nalist critics will be quite content with what Solzhenitsyn has to say , while o thers on both the left and right may be less happy . Solzhenitsyn said he does n ot intend to get involved with politics , either through election or appointment . But he will try to `` help our homeland in these extremely difficult conditio ns by public activity , through meetings , by persuasion and through my articles . Of course , I will speak as much as I can . '' Residents here seemed delighte d that the famous writer was in their midst and were willing to listen to what h e had to say . `` People respect him , so he 'll have some influence , of course , but how much depends on how he acts , '' said Nikolai Shemetov , 45 , a mecha nic at a local power station . Solzhenitsyn pointedly avoided direct criticism o f Yeltsin despite several questions about the Russian leader , who sent him a we lcome-home telegram Saturday . Solzhenitsyn supported Yeltsin in the Russian lea der 's past political crises , including last year 's battles with the now-disba nded hard-line parliament . Saturday , however , he had nothing good to say abou t the changes in Russia under Yeltsin 's rule , except to applaud the collapse o f communism and Soviet power . He particularly took issue with Yeltsin 's econom ic policies , which he said he had followed closely through news accounts and co nversations from his home in Vermont . He said he had become convinced that the reforms , including the controversial program to privatize state property , had done nothing more than enrich a few and impoverish many . Solzhenitsyn 's first- hand survey this morning of the new Russian economic world , at an outdoor marke t overflowing with food and clothing , did not seem to alter his opinion . Like many Russians , he appeared shocked by the high prices in comparison to 20 years ago and seemed less impressed that so much more is available now than before . When he commented on the high prices to one merchant , the man responded that be cause of inflation `` the prices will be even higher tomorrow . '' As was the ca se on Friday , when he arrived in this naval port city from the United States , Solzhenitsyn was besieged everywhere he went by well over 100 local and foreign journalists , eager to monitor his every statement and reaction . Some Russians have suggested that Solzhenitsyn himself has created the commotion , by beginnin g his return to Russia here in Vladivostok rather than in Moscow , which is much more accustomed to celebrities . But Saturday he complained bitterly about the constant swarm of reporters , saying it had made it impossible for him to meet w ith and talk to ordinary Russians , his most important goal over the next few mo nths . The family will travel slowly across Russia to Moscow in an effort to get reacquainted with the country . Solzhenitsyn has been so harried by the media t hat one of his best moments so far , according to his sons , was when he and his entourage got stuck in an elevator at the Vladivostok City Hospital for 20 minu tes with the head of the medical facility . `` There was no noise ; no one was t here , '' Solzhenitsyn said . `` I learned a lot . '' BEIT HANINA , West Bank Inside the nerve center for Palestinian economic reviva l , Deputy Managing Director Hasan Abu Libdeh is waiting for the phone to ring . In fact , he 's still waiting for the phone to be installed . So far , the Pale stinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction , the agency set up to translate billions of dollars in foreign aid into jobs and prosperity for Pal estinian self-rule , does not have a single telephone line . The Palestinians sa y Israel 's military government in the West Bank is blocking their request for t elephones . The military government says it is a problem of poor West Bank infra structure . Either way , it is a clue to the uncertainty swirling around the amb itious dreams of Palestinian economic renewal and the global rescue plan that is supposed to make it happen . After the self-rule accord was signed last Septemb er between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization , nations around the world promised to help the nascent Palestinian Authority rebuild after 27 years of Israeli occupation . At a U.S.-sponsored conference in Washington , $ 2.1 bi llion was pledged to the Palestinians over five years , including $ 600 million for the first year . Seven months later , the global rescue program is looking m ore like a mirage . So far , only a tiny fraction of the money has trickled in . And now that the Palestinians and Israelis have started to implement their agre ement , the Palestinians are facing enormous financial problems that they are wo efully unprepared to solve . For now , Palestinians in the street are still cele brating the arrival of their own police force in the Gaza Strip and the West Ban k town of Jericho . But the best and brightest Palestinian technocrats are deepl y worried about what will happen when the celebrations fade , when the people on the street discover that the government under their own flag cannot deliver the same services that the Israeli occupiers did . `` We 'll be drinking a lot of u nsweetened coffee , '' said Libdeh . `` It will be the real life . '' The reason s why the money has not yet started flowing from abroad are complex and help ill uminate the uncertain nature of the new Palestinian experiment . PLO Chairman Ya sser Arafat , who single-handedly controlled the finances of his revolutionary o rganization for three decades , has not yielded to the demands of the World Bank and donor nations that he give up his old methods when running the new Palestin ian Authority . While Arafat has made some concessions under pressure , authorit ative sources said he has not given up his desire to run everything . Worried ab out corruption , as well as about political favoritism , the international donor s have not yet made good on their major pledges . According to these sources inc luding Palestinians and Western diplomats familiar with the events the whole con cept of a coordinated , global aid effort to the Palestinians may be stalling . Instead , the sources report , Arafat is actively looking for ways to bypass the World Bank by dealing directly with individual companies and countries for lucr ative projects in Gaza and Jericho . This system would help preserve his central role , without the headache of restrictions being imposed by international dono rs . The sources said British , American , French , German and Danish firms quie tly have been beating a path to PLO headquarters in Tunis recently , with the ap proval or acquiescence of their governments , seeking contracts for long-term de velopment projects such as printing a new currency , building a new telephone sy stem and constructing airports and an electric system . `` The reasons the donor s are going to Tunis are the same reasons Israel decided to go there : That 's w here the decisions are made , '' one diplomat said . The Palestinian economic co uncil here , based just outside Jerusalem , was originally intended to channel t he aid from abroad into useful projects in the West Bank and Gaza . But for mont hs the international donors complained the council was not adequately set up to avoid abuse . Recently , the council 's bylaws were approved , and six top offic ials were given six-month reappointments , including several prominent Palestini an economists . Last week , Arafat also selected the U.S.-based investment bank Morgan Stanley to help manage the reconstruction efforts , according to the Pale stinian news agency Wafa . But the big money has not started flowing , and there is a growing fear that it may never materialize on the scale promised . The Pal estinian economic council `` is doing some good work , '' said another Western a id expert , `` but the question still lingers : Who is the genuine authority ? ' ' While some countries are anxious to win lucrative contracts , they are loath t o pour money into an organization that will be exclusively controlled by Arafat , he said . The suspicion is strong among donors that Arafat , if left to his ow n devices , will channel aid to political friends in the territories-for example , that he will build health clinics to reward operatives in his Fatah movement , rather than where the clinics are needed . There is also a reverse suspicion : The Palestinians complain that foreign donors are only interested in projects t hat look good back home , with a plaque on the front door , rather than let Pale stinians build what they want . But the Palestinians admit they are not in a pos ition to turn anyone down . In the near term , the Palestinians are heading for an economic upheaval . The Israelis have turned over to them health , education and other government departments in Gaza and Jericho , but the 7,000 workers ' s alaries have been paid only through June 1 . After that , the Palestinians have to begin running their own government and they are short of cash . The new Pales tinian national authority has about $ 19 million in a special emergency fund , o fficials said . But after a few months , it will be severely strained . During t he occupation , Israel spent about $ 70 million a year to provide services in wh at are now the self-rule areas of Gaza and Jericho ; by most accounts , the Pale stinians will need two or three times that amount , since they must support poli ce as well . Already , thousands of Palestinian policemen in Gaza and Jericho ar e unpaid and sleeping on mattresses ; Israel recently donated military rations t o keep them from going hungry . The Palestinians have been given the authority t o set tax rates and collect taxes . But all the Palestinian workers in the tax d epartment of the Israeli military government resigned six years ago at the begin ning of the intifada , or uprising against Israeli occupation . In addition , th e Palestinians lack expertise to run the computerized tax system left behind by Israel , which is entirely in Hebrew , said Elise Shazar , spokeswoman for the m ilitary government . Moreover , it is not at all certain that Palestinians in Ga za already hard-pressed by high unemployment and Israel 's closure of the territ ories will be willing to pay taxes to the new authority . Palestinians estimate it may take months to begin to generate revenues and that the collection rate ma y be only 40 percent of what is sought . While tax revenue is supposed to also c ome from Palestinian workers in Israel , so far Israel has only permitted a tric kle to return to their jobs . The result will be a skyrocketing deficit for day- to-day needs the first year , perhaps $ 150 million or more . The Palestinians a re hoping the international donors will decide soon pick up the tab . But a seni or Israeli official , who spoke to reporters on condition he not be identified , was skeptical . `` We know that the international community is insisting on spe cific projects to support , '' he said . `` They don't want to pay for daily exp enses . If everyone is stalling and there is no money for expenses , the whole t hing may collapse . `` It 's going to become our problem in no time , '' said th e official . `` And then what ? '' WASHINGTON An unresolved feud in the Clinton administration , which abruptly cu t off Peru and Colombia from access to U.S. counter-drug intelligence , has blin ded all three nations to the flights of drug smuggling aircraft and threatened t o fracture a brittle alliance against the northward flow of drugs . The sudden h alt in cooperation has created a significant opportunity for traffickers , accor ding to civilian and military narcotics experts . Relatively few drug flights ha ve ever been intercepted , but data on their origin and destination has set the stage for raids on drug labs and storage facilities that netted some 300 metric tons of contraband last year . Because the State and Defense Departments could n ot agree on a policy and failed to coordinate their moves , Peru and Colombia re ceived no warning and scant explanation of the May 1 intelligence cutoff . On th at day , the U.S. . Southern Command suspended operation of U.S. ground-based ra dars in those countries and stopped allowing their nationals aboard U.S. surveil lance flights launched from Panama . The two South American nations have begun t o retaliate . Peru has banned the American AWACS and P-3 surveillance craft from its air space , and Colombia threatened in writing last week to expel two U.S. mobiground radars . At issue is the use of American flight tracking data by Colo mbia and Peru to locate and then force down or shoot down suspected drug planes . The United States has long regarded any attack on civil aircraft as illegal un der international conventions and detrimental to U.S. interests as the world 's leading aviation power , but it sometimes has winked at quiet efforts against dr ug traffickers . The Pentagon , supported by the Justice Department and a recent review by lawyers for eight government agencies , maintains that assisting in t he shootdowns breaks U.S. and international law . Senior State Department offici als , while acknowledging what one called `` legal concerns , '' want to continu e some form of a policy under which the United States would share the tracking d ata but express its official disapproval of attacks in flight . Beyond the legal concerns , the Defense Department worries about the possibility that the two So uth American nations will down innocent aircraft by accident . Days after U.S. . F-15 fighters shot down two American helicopters in northern Iraq , Defense Und ersecretary Frank G. Wisner wrote on April 20 to Undersecretary of State Peter T arnoff . `` Recent events in Iraq , '' said his classified letter , underscored the need to protect innocent aircraft . The Defense Department would stop the in telligence sharing on May 1 , he wrote , unless Colombia and Peru agreed not to use weapons against aircraft in flight . What threw the interagency dispute into crisis was its uncommon rancor and the willingness of U.S. adversaries to let i t spill out into relations with Colombia and Peru . Noteworthy because it accomp anies new claims of bureaucratic peace within the Clinton administration , the p olicy feud has `` descended into hatred , '' according to one senior participant . Defense Department officials charge that the State Department deliberately fa iled to provide advance notice of the May 1 cutoff to Peru and Colombia or even to U.S. ambassadors there in order to create maximum backlash . When the two cou ntries protested , one Colombian diplomat said a State Department contact told h im the Defense Department cut off the aircraft intelligence `` unilaterally '' a nd that the military `` didn't even tell the State Department about it . '' In a remarkable suggestion that one U.S. official likened to `` treason , '' the sam e State Department official even encouraged Colombia to lodge a strong protest , according to the Colombian diplomat and another U.S. official with knowledge of the conversation . `` I have been through a lot in 27 years of service , '' wro te Alvin Adams , U.S. ambassador in Peru , in a classified May 3 cable to compla in that he received no word in advance . `` Of the little I can remember in my a dvanced middle age , this is in my ken of experience a standout . '' Adams asked `` urgently for coordinated guidance from you . '' In Washington , two of the p rincipal adversaries , Assistant Secretary of State Robert S. Gelbard and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Brian E. Sheridan , each in charge of counter-na rcotics policy for his department , are said to be not on speaking terms . State Department officials , according to sources there and on Capitol Hill , have to ld congressional Republicans that the Pentagon is trying to walk away from the w ar on drugs . One State Department official , who provided a reporter with the n ames of Republicans to call , said he worried that there might be an `` unfortun ate perception '' that the Clinton administration is `` in full retreat on narco tics . '' `` We are trying to understand what is going on inside the American go vernment , '' said a frustrated Peruvian official . `` We are waiting for the di scussions between the agencies to come to a consensus . '' The importance of the small aircraft to drug traffickers is not in dispute . Coca leaf grown in Boliv ia and Peru must move northward for processing in successive stages to cocaine p aste , cocaine base and in Colombia the pure street drug . Because dense jungle prevents overland transport and the rivers flow mainly east-west , the trafficke rs have what one U.S. general called `` a north-south problem . '' U.S. intellig ence officials believe nearly 1,000 flights a year head north carrying some form of cocaine or heroin . Since the late 1980s the United States has provided the backbone of an air tracking network capable of detecting and intercepting the fl ights . The idea , officially , was to pinpoint the where the planes took off an d landed and `` fuse '' that information with other intelligence in order to mou nt ground attacks on drug labs and storage facilities . The ambitions of Peru an d Colombia to down the aircraft in flight were largely hypothetical until recent ly , when Peruvian Tucano trainer aircraft armed with machine guns began shootin g effectively at the renegade flights . Peru brought the issue into the open Nov . 4 with a dramatic shootdown of a suspected drug plane near Pucallpa , Peru . S hortly after that , Colombia announced its intention to shoot down drug flights . State Department officials argue that the air traffic is so important to the d rug trade that the United States cannot afford to remove the threat that narcoti cs planes will be shot down . Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey , chief of the U.S. . Sout hern Command , also supported the shootdown policy until its legal implications became clear . But other officials , including a senior Drug Enforcement Agency expert , said interceptions of drugs in flight are a minor part of the drug war . Official Pentagon statistics , undisputed elsewhere in the government , show t hat 200 kilograms of cocaine were forced down last year while 300 metric tons we re seized by other means in Colombia and Peru . Far more important than the flig ht interceptions , officials said , are the hard-won cooperative relationships w ith Colombia and Peru . With the Clinton administration still deadlocked , those relationships now appear to be in jeopardy . `` The U.S. cannot decide what we do in our air space , '' said an angry Colombian official in a telephone intervi ew . `` That 's a sovereign decision and we 're not going to change it . If the U.S. doesn't cooperate with us , we 'll request its radars to be withdrawn . '' Said a U.S. government official , expressing anger against his Pentagon and Stat e Department counterparts , `` Why could these children not come together and wo rk this out ? The real reason we can't fight effectively against the narcotraffi ckers is that we 're too busy fighting among ourselves . '' MALEMBO , Uganda This is where their journey ends , far from home , their bodie s carried by the Kagera River out of Rwanda and into Africa 's greatest lake , V ictoria , to be caught like perch by peasant fishermen . They have traveled more than 100 miles , over thundering falls and along fertile savannas , by the time the Kagera rages into Lake Victoria at Kasensero . It is near that little town that Jamil Kakora waits each morning , his boat loaded with plastic bags instead of fishing tackle . By the time he and his five-man crew returned to shore abou t noon Saturday , a ghastly collection of limbs and torsos filled the boat . The fishermen , donning masks and gloves , worked quickly to wrap and tie the bodie s , and to load them into the trailer of a red tractor parked nearby . `` We hea rd about the war on the radio , '' Kakora said , `` so we knew the bodies were c oming . We had a meeting in the village and agreed : You cannot leave these peop le to just float in the lake . Even if they died like dogs in Rwanda , they dese rve to be buried like humans . We all said yes , this is something we must do . '' As many as 40,000 bodies , relief specialists say , have washed into this gia nt lake that provides an abundance of Nile perch and tilapia for fish markets fr om Kampala to London , as well as drinking water for scores of primitive village s scattered along its shores . The majority of the victims of the most extensive massacre in modern Africa 's post-independence history appear to be women and c hildren . Some who reach Lake Victoria apparently were beheaded . Others ' arms were tied behind their backs . One cluster of infants washed downstream in a tie d sack . Three others were joined by a single pointed stick thrust through their stomachs . International aid workers estimate that between 200,000 and 500,000 people have been killed in Rwanda since the country 's president died in a plane crash April 6 and Hutu-dominated government troops and militiamen began an orgy of murder , primarily against members of the minority Tutsi tribe . Two million Rwandans have fled across the border to neighboring countries . Although Kenya has dismissed any threat from the decomposing bodies to its portion of Lake Vict oria , Uganda has told its people not to drink the lake 's water until further t ests are made and to boil all fish taken from Victoria for at least 30 minutes . Health officials also are concerned that cholera could be spread by the flies t hat descend in thick swarms on the bodies . ( Begin optional trim ) The first bo dies the villagers pulled from the lake were buried in shallow graves a few yard s from the shore . They were dug up by dogs and pigs and lay uncovered for sever al days , along with the rubbish and human waste that the people of Malembo rout inely deposit at the water 's edge . Health officials feared an outbreak of dise ase could result . World Vision , a U.S. relief and development agency , was alr eady active in the region when the bodies began pouring into Lake Victoria . Its work dealt primarily with 160,000 children orphaned in the region by AIDS the l eading cause of death in rural Uganda . Malembo is tucked away on the shoreline swamps of the Nassara Plain , 20 miles from any road other than a footpath . The village has no running water or electricity , and most of the 800 inhabitants h ave concerns other than examining the daily cargo of the body-hunting fishermen who are paid $ 6 a day by World Vision . ( End optional trim ) Only a handful of people were on the shore Saturday as the tractor 's trailer began to fill with bodies . John Marembo , the local defense secretary and also the village 's reco rd-keeper , stood by the tractor , dutifully recording in his notebook the numbe r of bodies retrieved for the day .. . 18 , 19 , 20. .. . `` It is awful enough that Rwanda should have a war like this , '' Marembo said . `` It is also very b ad they should give us their litter from the war . '' When the trailer was full , a barefoot man climbed onto the tractor and drove to a dusty clearing a mile a way , a mass grave site bought from a local farmer for $ 80 . Joseph Kasozi and John Kastunga waited there , shirtless and sweating in the fierce sun . Along wi th five others , they had dug a huge grave , as long and high as a bus . They we re eating sugar cane stalks . Six other large graves shoveled out earlier in the week were already filled , covered with earth and marked by a cross of twigs la shed together by twine . The bodies were thrown into the pit and covered with a liquid chemical , to become nameless wartime victims whose families will never b e able to fully explain their fate . As the workers shoveled in earth , up the p ath toward the clearing came the village 's lay priest , John Lubega . He wore a cross carved from a bone around his neck and had no shoes . He was reciting : ` ` Oh , Lord in heaven , help the souls of these people . They are the accidents of war . We ask you , please intervene and stop the war so people may stop dying . '' WASHINGTON President Clinton chose to back away from a human rights confrontati on with China to avoid a damaging rift with one of the world 's great economic a nd military powers . But what is likely to ensue now , many experts in and out o f government acknowledge , is far from a period of tranquil relations . In fact , now that the dispute over China 's most-favored-nation trading status is final ly being resolved , a number of other conflicts are likely to boil to the surfac e . Many of these have been suppressed or delayed by the Clinton administration 's preoccupation with the trade dispute . In other words , relations between the United States and China are shaky enough that all the efforts expended on the t rade dispute may produce only very fragile , short-term gains . `` Even if the p resident were to say , ` I 'm giving MFN to China for five years , ' it 's Polly annish to think everything else will be taken care of , '' one U.S. official obs erved recently . `` We will stop focusing on one debate and start focusing on ot hers , '' the official said . `` It 's just going to go on . There are still a l ot of other issues that need to be worked out , and they 're not even going to b e addressed until MFN gets out of the headlines . '' Over the next few months , the Clinton administration is likely to challenge China by moving ahead with oth er trade sanctions that it has threatened as retaliation for China 's pirating o f American tapes , compact discs , movies and computer software . While the Amer ican business community opposed Clinton 's linkage of human rights and China 's trade status , it also strongly supports a tough stand on these copyright and pi racy issues . Over the next year or two , the United States and China are also l ikely to clash over China 's continuing nuclear tests , which are likely to resu me soon . In addition , the United States could well find itself complaining aga in about China 's arms exports . And China will haggle with the United States ov er the future of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the terms for its memb ership in the new World Trade Organization , the successor to the General Agreem ent on Tariffs and Trade . That list of disputes does not even include other , p ossibly more contentious controversies , such as those over North Korea 's nucle ar program and the future of Cambodia , still torn by civil war despite a 1991 p eace treaty . Once the trade and human rights linkage is behind them , however , Clinton administration officials are likely to try hard to upgrade ties with Be ijing . `` My guess is that after MFN , they are going to go into a full-court p ress to improve relations with China , '' said former U.S. . Ambassador to China James R. Lilley. `` They 're going to move fast and hard . We 've got important interests in North Korea and Cambodia , and we could use China 's help . '' As part of that effort , Washington sources said , the administration is expected t o announce soon the appointment of a new envoy to China . The likely candidate i s a veteran China specialist , Charles W. Freeman Jr. , now assistant secretary of defense , who served during the early 1980s as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. . Embassy in Beijing . Some U.S. China experts point to recent trends that suggest that separating the trade and human rights issues may not ease friction s between Washington and Beijing for long . Only a year ago , with much less fan fare than last week , Clinton `` de-linked '' the issues of arms proliferation a nd China 's trade benefits . Before Clinton took office , President Bush had rep eatedly vetoed legislation that would have required China , before winning a ren ewal of its trade privileges , to make progress not only on human rights but als o on curbing its arms exports and reducing its trade imbalance with the United S tates . Clinton enshrined the linkage between most-favored trade benefits and hu man rights in an executive order a year ago . But at the same time , he dropped the conditions on arms exports and the trade imbalance , saying that these probl ems could be dealt with through other means . So what happened ? The administrat ion felt obliged to prove that , even without most-favored trade linkage , it co uld take tough action against the proliferation of weapons and missiles . Last A ugust , as punishment for China 's sale of missile technology to Pakistan , the United States imposed sanctions barring the sale of American-made satellites to China . ( Optional Add End ) `` They ( administration officials ) de-linked trad e and arms control last year , but the result afterward was a downward trend in the relationship , '' one U.S. official said . `` And I 'm afraid that , to prov e that they still care about human rights , they 'll do things now on human righ ts that will ring off even more bells in Beijing than MFN linkage , such as acti ons to upgrade ties with Taiwan and Tibet . '' Indeed , in the first 24 hours af ter Clinton announced that China 's most-favored trade benefits would be renewed , top administration officials began to suggest that the president might take o ther actions on human rights that could produce new frictions between Washington and Beijing . `` I think that , in the future , we 'll be keeping steady pressu re on , through other instruments , in a way that may cause ( Chinese officials ) to make more progress in the future , '' Secretary of State Warren Christopher said . `` We 're certainly not giving up on improvement in human rights in Chin a . '' VLADIVOSTOK , Russia On the first day of a cross-country tour to rediscover his Russian homeland , Alexander I . Solzhenitsyn visited a hospital Saturday . As the famous author stepped into an elevator , a small crowd of doctors and a tele vision film crew jammed in with him . Instead of going up to the director 's off ice on the sixth floor , the overloaded elevator sank part way between the lobby and the basement and stuck there for 15 minutes before a mechanic came to the r escue . Aside from the hazards of everyday life here , the mishap reflected the quandary of Solzhenitsyn 's identity as he returns from two decades of exile to help post-Soviet Russia find itself . Is he an intellectual or a celebrity ? can 't he have peace to search for new truths , or must he put up with media stardom and intrusive fans ? And how long can the 75-year-old Nobel laureate depend for special protection on a government he criticizes so fiercely ? Solzhenitsyn spe lled out his controversial views on Russia 's ills at a wide-ranging news confer ence , insisting that there is no real democracy or economic reform here , no cl eansing of the communist legacy and too much imitation of the West . ( Begin opt ional trim ) He was equally passionate about his privacy . `` I would prefer not to have 200 photographers crowding around me all the time and shooting me day a fter day , '' he said . `` I need to talk to the common people .. . to learn in detail about life in Russia . '' To be more specific , he said he resents the fa ct that somebody in the crowd stepped on his wife 's foot after their triumphant landing here Friday on a flight from Alaska . `` When it 's enough for each pho tographer to take two shots , why take 250 ? '' ( End optional trim ) After gree ting doctors and eye surgery patients at the Territorial Clinical Hospital , Sol zhenitsyn rode to the city 's Pacific port , where he was greeted by a navy band playing a lively classical medley , well-wishers pressing for autographs and mo re cameras . Strolling down a waterfront aisle of merchants selling food from tr uck-sized freight containers , the writer acted the part of a modern Rip Van Win kle just awakened from a 20-year nap . `` How much is that ? '' he asked a man s elling sausages . `` 10,000 rubles , '' the merchant replied . About $ 5 a kilog ram . `` I don't get it , '' Solzhenitsyn said , touching his long beard and app earing amazed . `` When I left the country many years ago , prices were very dif ferent . '' `` Come again soon , sir , '' the merchant said with a laugh , `` an d I 'll sell it to you for an even higher price ! '' Plainclothes police officer s locked arms in a protective ring around Solzhenitsyn and his wife as they walk ed , while uniformed cops stopped people at random to inspect purses and shoppin g bags . `` While he 's here , we will keep him under guard whether he likes it or not , '' said Igor P. Lebedinets , the acting territorial governor . `` We 'r e mobilizing hundreds of men . '' Later , Solzhenitsyn was driven in a black gov ernment Volga sedan to have lunch aboard one of the two luxury rail cars sent fr om Moscow by the Railway Ministry for his trans-Siberian journey to the Russian capital . The cars , equipped with a kitchen and Oriental carpets , will carry h is entourage of family , friends , chefs , attendants , security police and a Br itish Broadcasting Corp. documentary film crew . Solzhenitsyn said the 5,700-mil e rail journey , which will take several weeks , will allow him to make many sto ps and to `` see things through the window . '' He said he last saw Siberia from a prison van during his eight years in Stalin 's gulag after World War II the s eminal experience for his powerful writings against the Soviet system . The lavi sh official hospitality by the current authorities prompted one Russian journali st to ask Solzhenitsyn about comparisons to Maxim Gorky , the writer brought bac k from Italian exile under Stalin . `` Gorky came back to serve the regime , '' Solzhenitsyn replied . `` I will never serve the regime , whatever government is in power . '' ( Optional Add End ) But he refrained from criticizing Russian Pr esident Boris N . Yeltsin , who sent a congratulatory telegram saying : `` Your talent and your experience as a historian and thinker will help us all in reorga nizing Russia . '' The writer did , however , repeat many criticisms he had made abroad about the Yeltsin government 's attempts at reform . For example , he de scribed the 1992 decisions to free prices and sell off state property without br eaking up monopolies as `` brainless '' steps that had made a country already wr ecked by the communists even poorer . He called Russia a `` pseudodemocracy '' t hat still lacks local self-rule , has failed to punish the crimes of Soviet repr ession and blindly imitates Western ways unsuited to its culture . While Solzhen itsyn denied any political ambitions , his more measured Russia-first views are likely to strike a powerful chord as he travels and speaks across the country . `` The atmosphere in the hospital changed in one minute after he came , '' said Yelizaveta B . Pyatina , 58 , a patient there . `` Everybody began smiling and t alking about books , politics , history . We all forgot about our ailments . '' WASHINGTON Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D Ill. , has signaled that he intends to rej ect any plea bargain and vigorously contest anticipated charges that he abused h is office by diverting public money for personal use , associates of the powerfu l lawmaker said Saturday . Unless Rostenkowski should have a last-minute change of mind , federal prosecutors are expected to seek a grand jury indictment early this week , possibly Tuesday . `` He 's not giving up , he 's going to fight it , '' one associate said of the 18-term congressman . Other sources said Rostenk owski was reluctant to resign from Congress , which acceptance of a plea agreeme nt would involve , and admit to a series of felonies that would permanently scar a Capitol Hill career of more than 35 years . A spokesman for Rostenkowski said Saturday that he had no immediate comment on the matter . According to federal sources , an indictment is likely to allege that Rostenkowski defrauded taxpayer s of hundreds of thousands of dollars through both his Washington and Chicago of fices . That sum would include cash he allegedly received improperly from the Ho use of Representatives ' post office in transactions disguised as stamp purchase s , and government funds misused to buy furniture and gifts for friends and cons tituents , the sources said . Once indicted , Rostenkowski , 66 , would have to step down as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee under House Democrat ic rules , but he still could remain as a member of the tax-writing panel , whic h has been considering President Clinton 's health care plan . If he were acquit ted of the charges , he could then regain his chairmanship . Rostenkowski 's law yers have advised him that a plea agreement would enable him to avoid the humili ation of a public trial and the prospect of conviction and a prison sentence lon ger than the one-year term understood to be part of the agreement . However , Ro stenkowski , who is represented chiefly by Robert S. Bennett , one of Washington 's most skilled defense attorneys , probably could force a delay of any trial u ntil after the congressional elections in November , legal sources said . His de cision to contest the anticipated charges , pending a change of heart , scuttles three weeks of intensive negotiations between Bennett and U.S. . Attorney Eric Holder , a Clinton administration appointee who inherited the two-year investiga tion last fall from his Republican predecessor , Jay Stephens . One source said Holder has been given full authority to proceed with the case as he sees fit wit hout intervention by Attorney General Janet Reno or high-ranking Justice Departm ent aides . Holder sent an outline of the proposed charges to the Justice Depart ment late last month . ( Begin optional trim ) An indictment of Rostenkowski lik ely would include allegations that he : Illegally converted stamps to cash for h is personal use through the House post office between 1985 and 1991 . Former Hou se Postmaster Robert V. Rota , who pleaded guilty to charges last July and would be a key trial witness for the prosecution , has alleged he improperly transfer red $ 21,000 to Rostenkowski . Misused official funds to buy expensive gifts for friends from the House office-supply service . In an admission of wrongdoing , Rostenkowski has already reimbursed Congress about $ 82,000 for office supplies purchased by his office over a period of six years . Converted government-leased autos to his personal ownership . Improperly used government funds to pay a num ber of so-called `` ghost employees '' who performed no official work . ( End op tional trim ) Removal of Rostenkowski from the Ways and Means chairmanship , whi ch he has held since 1981 , would harm efforts to approve Clinton 's health care reform plan . The massive proposal is running into difficulty in other House co mmittees , and Rostenkowski 's legendary power was expected to boost its prospec ts in the Ways and Means panel . The Illinois Democrat could , however , still e xert a measure of influence on the legislation by remaining on the committee . S uch an arrangement might seem odd , but there is precedent : Wilbur Mills yielde d the chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee in the mid-1970s after public ity about his antics with a stripper , but he stayed on the panel as a member . In contesting an indictment in court , Rostenkowski would be playing a high-stak es game that automatically could result in a lengthy prison term if he were conv icted , regardless of the sympathies of a sentencing judge . ( Optional add end ) For example , in a fraud conviction involving a loss of more than $ 200,000 , federal sentencing guidelines call for a term of 15 months to 21 months for a de fendant with no prior criminal history , as would be the case with Rostenkowski . If the loss is judged to be smaller for example , between $ 70,000 and $ 120,0 00 the sentence would range from 10 months to 16 months . However , in a fraud c onviction involving abuse of a position of public or private trust , as would ap ply to a member of Congress , the guidelines call for automatically increasing t he period of incarceration by five months . PRETORIA , South Africa Dirk Coetzee is a killer . As he all too readily admits , the retired security police captain spent two decades in the utterly ruthless defense of apartheid , leaving a trail of dead or broken bodies , booby-trapped homes and cars of anti-apartheid activists , and poisoned dogs . `` We grew up brainwashed as the defenders of the last Christian outpost in Africa , '' Coetze e said . `` When we knelt down at night to pray to our God , we already knew wha t his answer would be : Put the enemy in our hands . '' At the height of his car eer in the security branch of the South Africa police , said Coetzee , now 49 , he planned and helped carry out dozens of murders of opponents of the white gove rnment . He was regarded as among the best the apartheid system produced to safe guard South Africa for white Afrikaners like him . But eight years ago he fell o ut with his superiors and , as a diabetic , was retired for health reasons . Thr ee years later , in 1989 , the nightmare of every covert operator occurred : Coe tzee 's black right-hand man , on death row for killing a white man , spilled th e beans about police murder . Faced with exposure and , Coetzee said , his possi ble `` termination '' by security police , he fled the country and began giving one of the first credible detailed accounts of official assassinations . He went to Nelson Mandela 's African National Congress for protection , using his infor mation as leverage . `` It takes a thief to catch a thief , '' said Coetzee , wh o has since returned to South Africa . Initially , few believed Coetzee 's stori es , writing him off as a turncoat ( which he was ) out to save his own skin ( w hich he denies ) . But most of the stories have been independently corroborated , including an official investigation by a state commission that specifically na med the highest-ranking police generals as instigators of `` a horrible network of criminal activity . '' Several of the generals have been forced out , with th eir main protector , Commissioner Johan van der Merwe , as the last holdout . Go vernment sources say van der Merwe will be retired in the next few months , once the new parliament passes a police reform bill . In an interview , Coetzee deta iled the internal workings of the security police , which constitutes about 6 pe rcent of the total force but has produced the last three commissioners and most of the other top police generals . He said the security branch always operated a bove the law and in defiance of civilian authority . When Frederik W. de Klerk , still president in March , ordered the retirement of the police generals mentio ned in connection with `` hit squad '' activities , the commissioner defied him without consequence . Coetzee says he is ready to accept punishment for his crim es and has refused to ask for amnesty . But before that , he says , he would lik e to help clean out the police . `` After all we did , when you come to your sen ses , there is no way you can keep quiet , '' he said . `` I am asking for no in demnity whatever . I am guilty . '' WASHINGTON The probe started with the House Post Office but , now , two years a fter federal prosecutors began investigating Ways and Means Committee Chairman D an Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , the allegations of official misconduct have moved far beyond stamps . In fact , the initial allegations that Rostenkowski traded post age vouchers for cash at the House Post Office now rate as a comparatively weak portion of the government 's case , so much so that his defense lawyers have plo tted to use them to undermine the rest of the case , sources close to Rostenkows ki say . Lawyers see the former House postmaster who told prosecutors Rostenkows ki participated in the allegedly illegal exchanges as a less than ideal witness . Rostenkowski faces a Tuesday deadline for accepting a plea bargain and almost certain jail time or fighting to salvage what is left of his public reputation b y challenging a litany of charges in court . Either choice would knock the power ful 66-year-old Chicagoan from his influential chairmanship and prominent role i n shaping President Clinton 's health care legislation and major trade , welfare and campaign finance bills . U.S. . Attorney Eric H . Holder Jr. has outlined f or the Justice Department what has been described as a `` kitchen sink '' of all eged abuses of Rostenkowski 's official accounts for postage , leased automobile s , office space , supplies and personnel . Rostenkowski , completing his 36th y ear in Congress , entered plea negotiations in an effort to reduce or eliminate any prison sentence while avoiding a lengthy legal battle and possibly retaining his Ways and Means chairmanship , sources familiar with the discussions said . Such negotiations are considered normal and cannot be used against Rostenkowski should the case go to trial . However , the talks are acknowledgment on both sid es that there might be weaknesses in their positions . Prosecutors , although ge nerally confident of their case if a federal grand jury approves an indictment , are said to harbor some concerns Rostenkowski might prove likable to jurors and also benefit from their assumptions that most officeholders commit similar acts . Still , Rostenkowski 's defense attorneys are said to be worried about the lo ng list of charges in the government 's case . Yesterday , sources described bot h sides as at loggerheads . Under normal procedures , Rostenkowski would have to relinquish his chairmanship if indicted on any felony punishable by at least tw o years in prison . If he pleads guilty and is given jail time , efforts to remo ve him from the chairmanship would likely come immediately . Faced with the ugly options , Rostenkowski is leaning toward fighting , knowing he will have to cas t doubt on each of the allegations in the laundry list . He also must overcome t he public distaste with politicians and their perks . According to sources knowl edgeable about the case , the allegations of `` ghost employees , '' unrelated t o the House Post office , appear the most difficult to counter . Because of past controversies over members ' employees , the House has well-developed rules gov erning staff aides . They must show up for work in a member 's Washington or dis trict office , and each pay period the member must sign a form certifying his em ployees performed official duties . In Rostenkowski 's case , the FBI interviewe d at least a half-dozen individuals listed as employees of his Chicago district office in recent years but who were said not to have been seen in the office . O ne probe centered on a woman who allegedly stayed on the payroll for years after she supposedly quit to rear her children . The Chicago Sun-Times in December id entified the woman as the wife of a Chicago alderman and protege of Rostenkowski . The paper also named an elderly woman in her 70s , who it alleged appeared on Rostenkowski 's payroll four times in the late 1980s . She denied doing any wor k for him except babysitting his children . His youngest is in her 30s . Despite the legislative demands of his Ways and Means chairmanship , Rostenkowski paid close attention to his payroll account , according to a former employee of the H ouse Finance Office , H. Bruce Avner . He was assigned to handle the account , i n which Rostenkowski made frequent changes in pay levels and employees to maximi ze his salary allotment . Holder was faced with the allegations about `` ghost e mployees '' after he was sworn in as U.S. attorney last October and decided to p resent evidence to a new grand jury rather than seek indictments from one whose term was expiring . The inquiry was also expanded to cover Rostenkowski 's purch ases of personal and gift items through his expense account at the House Station ery Store . Acting on advice of his lawyers , Rostenkowski last January repaid t he government $ 82,000 charged to his official stationery account over six years , including what he acknowledged were `` purchases by myself or others of items for personal use '' as well as `` gifts to those who had counseled , assisted o r supported my activities in public service '' and `` items . . . donated to cha rities in my district to use as items at fund-raising auctions . '' In letters t o House Administration Chairman Charlie Rose , D-N.C. , Rostenkowski said the re imbursements covered `` various bowls , mugs , plates , china , clocks , paperwe ights and decorative items . . . bearing the congressional seal , '' chairs embo ssed with a picture of the Capitol given to supporters , `` tote bags , cuff lin ks . . . key chains , books '' and `` clocks , magnifying glasses , picture fram es , cameras , albums and some luggage . '' House leaders ordered gift items rem oved from the stationery store in 1992 , but before that time members were allow ed to charge them to their accounts and later pay for the purchases , plus a 10 percent surcharge . The store in the basement of the Longworth House Office Buil ding , which does not serve the public , stocks paper goods and other supplies u sed in members ' offices . Rostenkowski said he repaid `` all sums arguably due '' and blamed `` the ambiguity and flexibility surrounding many of the House rul es , which have changed over time . '' His lawyer , Robert S. Bennett , has argu ed the stationery store purchases should be `` a matter internal to the House . '' Under the law , Rostenkowski 's reimbursements have no bearing on his potenti al culpability , but the repayments could influence jurors . His official leases of three automobiles from a Chicago-area dealership and subsequent acquisition of them as a private owner have also come under prosecutors ' scrutiny . Under H ouse rules , the government pays for lawmakers to lease cars used for official t ravel in their districts . They may also acquire those vehicles after the lease expires . But they are prohibited from getting special deals to buy cars at disc ount prices as condition of the official leases , which are reviewed and preappr oved by staff of the House Administration Committee . Part of the question about Rostenkowski is whether the cars were used for private purposes rather than off icial use while they were leased with government funds . The committee 's invest igation in early 1992 of House Post Office irregularities has played a role in s hifting the focus from allegations that Rostenkowski and other lawmakers traded postage vouchers and stamps for thousands of dollars at the House Post Office . Robert V. Rota , the former longtime postmaster at the contract station , initia lly denied to committee investigators that such exchanges occurred . Last July , Rota pleaded guilty to embezzlement charges for participating in such exchanges with two lawmakers court documents described as `` Congressman A '' and `` Cong ressman B . '' House records of Rostenkowski 's postage purchases matched him wi th `` Congressman A , '' whom the documents said received $ 21,300 from Rota in allegedly illegal exchanges between 1985 and 1991 . The contradiction between Ro ta 's initial denial and subsequent court admission gives defense lawyers a chan ce to challenge his truthfulness before jurors , lawyers close to the case say . He is also known to be a diffident individual who appears nervous in the public spotlight , as was evident when he made his pleading before Judge Norma H. John son. Both factors could make him an unsatisfactory witness . Johnson has a reput ation for tough sentencing although federal guidelines leave judges relatively l ittle discretion . Her reputation is thought to be one reason Rostenkowski consi dered a plea agreement . Another worry , one Ways and Means friend said , was be ing a white politician facing what would almost certainly be a predominantly bla ck jury in the District . WASHINGTON With an unbridled fury , conservative foes of President Clinton are spinning sometimes bizarre conspiracy theories about him into a character-rippin g tornado of videotapes , newsletters , radio chatter and tips to investigative reporters . `` It 's intense , '' says Larry Sabato , a University of Virginia p rofessor of political science . `` There is no president in modern times , since Nixon , who has stirred such basic passions . '' Beyond partisan politics , Sab ato and other observers attribute the depth of antipathy toward Clinton to mistr ust of the president and his baby-boom generation , compounded by fear of the ch ange he advocates and his political skills in promoting it . Illustrating the op en contempt being displayed for Clinton : The Rev. Jerry Falwell is selling TV v iewers of his `` Old Time Gospel Hour '' a $ 40 videotape purporting to blame Cl inton for several mysterious deaths in Arkansas . Conservative activist and radi o personality Floyd Brown , already a thorn in Clinton 's side in the Whitewater land-development investigation , soon may turn his attention to trying to subst antiate a hot new rumor involving supposed Clinton connections with a drug-smugg ling ring . Radio and TV talk show commentator Rush Limbaugh instantly broadcast and embellished a newsletter report that White House deputy counsel Vince Foste r didn't kill himself in a Virginia park last summer but died in a secret hideaw ay used by Hillary Clinton and other Arkansans in Washington ; and his body was carried to the spot where it was found . Reflecting the glee with which some con servatives welcomed the sexual-harassment lawsuit against Clinton by former Arka nsas state employee Paula Jones , Washington Times Editor Wesley Pruden joked in a May 20 column that Jones says she is able to identify a `` distinctive mark n ear the president 's clinton . '' Sabato says that U.S. politics has `` degenera ted into low-level warfare . '' Attacks on Clinton are motivated not only by ide ology but by `` a personal kind of contempt '' stemming from religiously based m oral outrage and a widespread feeling that , because Clinton received only a 43 percent plurality victory in a three-man presidential race , he has no real righ t to be president , Sabato says . Some leading Clinton-bashers warn that careles s heapings of vitriol could provoke a backlash of sympathy for the president . M any commentators attributed Clinton 's 1992 win partly to counterproductive GOP personal attacks on him and his wife , Hillary Rodham Clinton , that began at th e Republican National Convention in Houston . Cliff Jackson , the Arkansas attor ney and former Oxford University classmate who made Clinton 's Vietnam War draft record a 1992 campaign issue , complains that the Falwell tape is unsubstantiat ed and `` engages in the same deceit I object to in Bill Clinton . '' Jackson , also a key figure in publicizing womanizing allegations against Clinton by Arkan sas state troopers and Jones , says : `` There are people out there who think th ey 're helping , but they 're hurting . The truth itself is sufficient here . '' Equally dubious about the Falwell tape is Reed Irvine , of the conservative gro up Accuracy in Media , a Washington-based watchdog group that bought newspaper a ds to prod The Washington Post into publishing Jones ' allegations . Irvine says the tape `` sounds pretty wild . '' ( Begin optional trim ) On the tape , Gary Parks , son of a slain onetime Little Rock security chief for Clinton 's preside ntial campaign , says , `` I feel that Bill Clinton had my father killed '' to s eize secret files on Clinton love affairs . No proof is offered . The tape is na rrated by Larry Nichols , a fired former Arkansas state official who has admitte d he had no evidence for a 1990 lawsuit he filed alleging Clinton misused state funds to romance five women ; the suit was dismissed . ( End optional trim ) Ask ed about the allegations , Falwell spokesman Mark DeMoss says , `` Yeah , I imag ine some of them willn't add up , possibly , but all of them can't be coming out of thin air . '' As exemplified by Pruden 's off-color gibe , Jones ' lawsuit h as many anti-Clintonites so agog that conservative syndicated columnist Cal Thom as recently decried an atmosphere of `` self-stimulation over details of Clinton 's alleged behavior in a Little Rock hotel room . '' Thomas warned that conserv atives are `` enjoying themselves too much '' and should battle Clinton 's polic ies instead of `` too avidly prolonging their association with this kind of inde cent political exposure . '' To the extent that mainstream Republicans join in ` ` wallowing and reveling in the mud '' of the Jones suit , Thomas says , `` it j ust reinforces the idea that Republicans are out of ideas . '' ( Optional Add En d ) But few high-ranking Republicans have concentrated on the rumors and innuend oes regarding Clinton 's personal conduct . Republican National Chairman Haley B arbour says the party is keeping its distance from Jones . House Minority Whip N ewt Gingrich , R-Ga. , told Cox Newspapers recently that a `` sick culture '' is `` destroying the institution of the presidency as an important symbol binding us together . '' On ABC 's `` Nightline '' last month , Limbaugh indicated that portraying Clinton as a habitual liar is a means of crippling the president 's l egislative proposals . `` This is not about getting rid of the president , '' Li mbaugh said . `` This is about people who would like to stop health care in a le gitimate democratic sense , trying to compete for the minds and hearts of the Am erican people on the basis that maybe what the president 's saying isn't true . '' ROME Silvio Berlusconi dimmed the lights and drew the blinds in his elegant off ice at the Palazzo Chigi . Even at sunset , his day seemed far from over . There were cables to read , legislative plans to approve and other tasks of governing that he says keep him working until as late as 2 a.m. . Three weeks after becom ing Italy 's prime minister and only three months after he entered politics one of Europe 's biggest media tycoons is struggling to adapt to his new role of run ning the world 's fifth-largest industrial democracy . `` Churchill said politic s is fine , except you have to shake too many hands and deal with too many stupi dities , '' Berlusconi said as he eased into an armchair for his first interview since taking office . `` I 'm used to shaking hands , because of my involvement with soccer and show business , but not to listening to the enormous number of stupidities that I hear in politics . '' `` I have 11 houses spread all over , i ncluding an extraordinary park , '' he said . `` Now I am forced to lead a life that , frankly , does not please me . However , I consider myself to be fighting a war on behalf of my country . '' When President Clinton opens his European to ur next Thursday by paying a call on Italy 's reluctant crusader , he will find that Berlusconi 's astounding political rise is still generating shock waves acr oss the continent . The 57-year-old businessman was swept into power on a tide o f voter disgust with the corruption-ridden caste that ruled Italy for four decad es , stirring fears of further populist revolts against mainstream governments e lsewhere in Europe . He has appointed five cabinet ministers from a party with n eo-fascist roots , arousing fears in France and Germany that their entry into go vernment will legitimize the growth of extreme right movements across the contin ent . He has mapped out a vision for a free-market revolution in one of Western Europe 's most socialistic states that surpasses in scope anything attempted by his conservative role models , former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher a nd former president Ronald Reagan . And he has declared that , at least for the time being , he will govern the country while maintaining a vast business empire with holdings in real estate , insurance , press and television raising the spe cter of conflicting personal interests with almost every legislative measure he tries to push through Parliament . Berlusconi 's opponents accused him of using his three television networks , which control about 45 percent of the national a udience , to `` brainwash '' voters and secure his victory in the general electi ons . He , in turn , believes they are jealous of his success in finding a succe ssful formula that rallied the vast majority of young Italian voters behind the free-enterprise banner waved by his Forza Italia party . `` I know the young gen eration well . They grew up seeing America through the television shows that I b rought to Europe . They have come to believe in the meritocratic philosophy that will help us develop a more liberal and free-market society without losing our cultural roots or traditions . `` Young people everywhere now share the same pol itical values . The French may be very jealous about their identity , but Italia ns have no complexes , no feelings of inferiority or superiority . We are more e cumenical . '' Nonetheless , the unprecedented sight of seeing a media tycoon ac hieve a sudden leap to the pinnacle of political power has alarmed some of Italy 's neighbors . `` This is an approach to democracy we are not used to and that appears fearsome to me , '' said French President Francois Mitterrand , pointing to the demagogic risks of seeing the boss of a $ 6 billion media conglomerate t ake the reins of a major European government . `` This is an example that others will try to imitate . There is a serious risk of perverting democracy . The mom ent has come to say : Stop ! Danger ! '' Berlusconi brushes off Mitterrand 's wa rning as the kind of partisan carping he must endure from Italy 's former commun ists and their leftist allies throughout Europe . `` I have no operational role anymore in any of my companies . I am completely removed from their activities , '' he said . `` There is one difficulty and that is how to sell my group . If y ou know somebody who is interested , please tell me . '' Berlusconi said he was forced to enter the political arena when centrist reformers such as Mario Segni , a maverick Christian Democrat , failed to organize an effective coalition that could block the path to power by the leftist alliance led by former communists . `` I had a very interesting and entertaining life , and I had no desire to cha nge it . But I found my country facing a future without liberty or democracy . I was obliged to go into politics against the advice of my family , my friends an d , above all , against my own interests . But I realized my life as an entrepre neur would have become impossible under the communists , whose program would hav e led my country into a terrible state without any hope of return . '' Indeed , Berlusconi 's empire , now close to $ 3 billion in debt , probably would have co llapsed if the leftist slate had been elected . Achille Occhetto , the leader of the former communists , had vowed to strip Berlusconi of his lucrative televisi on stations . But Berlusconi insists he was motivated by more than the fate of h is own business interests . `` I went into politics to keep my country from fall ing into the hands of the communists , '' he said . `` That 's what I mean by wa ging war for my country . Their program would have led the country into a terrib le state , with no hope of return . In their spirit , their mentality , their cu lture , it 's a vision of the world that has not changed . '' NAIROBI , Kenya With the world community horrified by the bloodshed in Rwanda b ut paralyzed by confusion , indecision or fear , many aid officials , human righ ts advocates and Africa watchers now are hoping for a victory by rebel forces to end the tumult . Such a scenario now seems likely , with the Rwandan Patriotic Front ( RPF ) rebels improving their positions in neighborhoods around the capit al , Kigali , while advancing on the town of Gitarama , headquarters of the Rwan da 's rump government . Reports said the rebels were moving this weekend on Gita rama from two fronts , while government soldiers and allied militiamen were flee ing westward toward Kibuya , on Lake Kivu . With the rebels occupying large part s of Kigali , including the international airport , the fall of Gitarama would m ake a complete victory for the rebels all but certain , leaving them in control of most of the country except the west and southwest . That would allow the rebe ls to dictate the terms of a cease-fire and would leave them in a position to tr y to form a government . Many who have been watching Rwanda 's horror say a rebe l victory would relieve foreign governments of witnessing mass slaughter while f ailing to muster the political will to try to stop it . `` There is some thinkin g that if the rebels win , maybe that would take care of the problem for now , ' ' said Pauline Baker , a scholar on Africa with the Washington office of the Asp en Institute . Baker said some African policy makers were harking back to the `` Ethiopian scenario '' of May 1991 , when the Bush administration virtually invi ted an advancing guerrilla army to enter the Ethiopian capital , Addis Ababa , a s a way of ending that country 's long civil war while providing for an orderly transition after the fall of dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam . Another Rwanda sch olar , interviewed in Brussels , said a rebel victory `` is what everybody is ho ping for . '' But this scholar , who asked not to be quoted by name , said that policy may in the long term prove `` very unwise , '' since it was unclear how t he rebels , representing Rwanda 's long-oppressed Tutsi minority , would be able to form a broadly representative government . `` The RPF looks like the angel i n this thing , '' she said . `` But to let the RPF win creates another Burundi , where you have a tiny minority in charge . '' The populations of both Rwanda an d Burundi are about 85 percent Hutu and 15 percent Tutsi . In Rwanda , the Hutus have held political power since they overthrew the Tutsi monarchy and achieved independence from Belgium three decades ago . In Burundi , the minority Tutsis d ominated the country after independence through their control of the armed force s , and only last year surrendered power in democratic elections to a Hutu-led g overnment . Seven weeks ago , both countries were thrown into chaos when their t wo presidents died in a suspicious plane crash while returning from a regional p eace meeting . Rwanda erupted in killings of Tutsis-mostly by armed Hutu civilia n militias , supported by the army and encouraged by a Hutu-controlled radio sta tion . U.N. spokesmen have estimated that at least 200,000 people have been kill ed , mostly Tutsis but also Hutus opposed to the slain president or suspected of being disloyal to his dominant political machine . The bodies of the dead have been stacked up in churches and along the roadside , buried in mass graves or si mply dropped into the Kagera River . Thousands of corpses have floated to Lake V ictoria , raising fears of widespread pollution at the source of the Nile River . After the outbreak of the massacres , which most aid officials and U.N. diplom ats have termed genocide , the rebels launched their drive on the capital to end the bloodshed and bring to justice those responsible for the killings . When th e Security Council earlier this month agreed to the dispatch of 5,500 U.N. troop s to Rwanda , the rebels initially balked , saying the foreigners might interfer e with victory by the front . They have since said the troops could come if they limited their activities to protecting humanitarian relief . But the arrival of the foreign troops looks further off than ever , with U.N. Secretary General Bo utros Boutros-Ghali admitting that he had failed to persuade more than a handful of countries to contribute soldiers . Only Ghana , Ethiopia and Senegal have ma de firm offers , and Italy said it would be willing to join in a U.N. peacekeepi ng operation . But most countries , including the United States and Africa 's tr aditional West European patrons , have shown reluctance to get involved . Follow ing last year 's disastrous experience with international peacemaking in Somalia , many governments including the Clinton administration fear being drawn into w hat is essentially an African civil war , in which the foreign troops , like tho se in Somalia , may shift from being neutral peacekeepers to combatants . `` I t hink there 's a sense of moral outrage , but at the same time , a kind of paraly sis , '' said Alison Des Forges , a consultant with Human Rights Watch/Africa . `` Everybody is looking to the United States for leadership , but the United Sta tes is not providing leadership . '' Somalia , she said , `` has been a formativ e experience in the early days of this administration . '' After the humiliation in Somalia , in which U.S. troops engaged in a futile and bloody manhunt for a Somali factional leader through the streets of Mogadishu , President Clinton rev ersed his earlier enthusiasm for involving American troops in U.N. military oper ations and issued a directive laying out strict conditions for future U.S. parti cipation . Rwanda , according to Baker of Aspen Institute , has become `` the fi rst test case '' of the Clinton directive . `` There 's no one exerting any lead ership to bring about a consensus '' on how to intervene effectively in Rwanda , Baker said . `` The major issue is a lack of will to search for ideas collectiv ely . Any solution is going to have great risks attached to it . And that 's the key : No one wants to take those risks . '' PORT ELIZABETH , South Africa It has taken nine years , but finally Nyameke Gon iwe received formal acknowledgment Saturday that the state ordered the brutal mu rder of her husband . In a wood-paneled courtroom here , a Supreme Court judge e nded years of official denials and cover-up by declaring that South Africa 's se curity forces , in defense of white rule , assassinated anti-apartheid activist Matthew Goniwe and three of his colleagues on a deserted stretch of highway in J une 1985 . The killers , said the judge , meant to defeat the mass uprising of t he 1980s by eliminating one of its most important leaders , who had turned the e astern Cape region into a hotbed of resistance . `` It has , in my opinion , bee n established prima facie that the murderers .. . were members of the security f orces , '' Judge Neville Zietsman said at the end of a 14-month inquest . The ki llings , once officially attributed to unknown persons , were revisited after a disgruntled officer two years ago leaked what appeared to have been the assassin ation order : a state security memo recommending that Goniwe and the others be ` ` permanently removed from society , as a matter of urgency . '' Listening to Zi etsman 's finding , Nyameke Goniwe sat very still , as she had sat through every session of the inquest . Then she walked quickly out of the courtroom , emotion s held tightly in check . `` The critical thing is for us to know who did what , and the judge just confirmed for us what we believed all along , '' she said . `` You must understand that our lives have revolved around this case for nine ye ars . '' Cases like the Goniwe murder present a delicate problem to the fledglin g democracy led by President Nelson Mandela , who must balance deeply felt calls for restitution with the theme of national reconciliation that he has sounded r epeatedly since his election three weeks ago as South Africa 's first black lead er . Saturday 's verdict seems to be only the start of a long , traumatic proces s of exhuming the buried skeletons of this country 's apartheid past , as offici al files are opened and secret documents thought to have been shredded surface . Estimates of officially mandated killings of opponents of the state as well as the wanton massacres of civilians by operatives in the state security system run into the thousands . Mandela , worried about possible sabotage of his fragile n ew black-led government by the white-dominated security forces , pledged Friday a blanket amnesty for political crimes committed in the defense of apartheid . ` ` There will be .. . no vengeance , no witch-hunts , no revenge and no humiliati on , '' said his new justice minister , Dullah Omar . Amnesty seekers must , how ever , disclose their crimes in full , he said , and government will provide uns pecified compensation to victims . The sensational murder of Matthew Goniwe unde rlined the desperate `` total onslaught '' strategy employed in the 1980s by the P.W. Botha government , which sought to save rapidly disintegrating apartheid s tructures by creating an elaborate state security system with virtually unlimite d powers . ( Begin optional trim ) The charismatic Goniwe , a bespectacled 37-ye ar-old schoolteacher , was targeted because he pioneered a community organizing system based on a network of street committees . As chief rural organizer for th e United Democratic Front the internal , legal arm of the banned African Nationa l Congress he created an organizational web so dense that an entire township cou ld be mobilized in minutes for a rally , a strike or a rent boycott . Goniwe 's telephone was tapped and security agents followed his every move , court papers show . `` He was .. . referred to as an enemy of the state whose activities had to be curtailed or terminated , '' Zietsman said Saturday . By 1985 the entire c ountry was in turmoil . On June 7 of that year , according to the leaked militar y document , Gen. Stoffel van der Westhuizen , who would remain as director of m ilitary intelligence until several weeks ago , sent the message suggesting the ` ` permanent '' removal of Goniwe , his brother , Mbulelo , and his friend Fort C alata . But Goniwe 's brother was not with him 20 days later , when he headed ho me to Cradock from this coastal city after another UDF meeting . Riding in the c ar with him were Calata and two others , Sparrow Mkonto and Sicelo Mhlauli . ( E nd optional trim ) According to the inquest , security forces no specific indivi duals have yet been identified stopped Goniwe and his colleagues . They shot and stabbed Sparrow Mkonto , and stabbed the othersthrough the heart and about thei r bodies . Security police , anxious to conceal the crime , burned the bodies an d the car . The charred remains were found scattered over a wide area in the fol lowing days . `` For years I didn't want to pass that spot where it happened , ' ' Nyameke Goniwe said . `` You could still see the marks on the ground today ; g rass has not even grown there . '' Charges of government involvement in the kill ings were quickly dismissed ; an inquest by a local magistrate returned a verdic t of murder by persons unknown . But as the reopened inquest drew to a close , v an der Westhuizen , at less than 50 years of age , suddenly announced several we eks ago that he was retiring as chief of military intelligence . He cited ill he alth . Others implicated have mostly retired with large pensions from the govern ment of President Frederik W. de Klerk , who now serves as one of Mandela 's two deputies . The state prosecutor , Michael Hodgen said that all the victims ' fa milies could do now was file civil lawsuits against the government for damages , although the proposed amnesty may make that impossible . ( Optional add end ) N yameke Goniwe said presidential calls for forgiveness and reconciliation were al l well and good , `` but the killers have not even admitted they did anything wr ong . '' `` The families have lost everything , and the perpetrators are gaining from it , '' she said . `` We want to celebrate with everybody the new beginnin g of a new country , but this has been holding us back . '' WASHINGTON President Clinton 's foreign policy difficulties may be igniting wid espread criticism of his national security team , but at least one top official is escaping most of the heat : Defense Secretary William J. Perry . In the past four months , the soft-spoken former mathematics professor has emerged as one of the administration 's few pleasant surprises in the foreign policy arena . Besi des getting a grip on the Pentagon 's sprawling bureaucracy and gaining the resp ect of the military Perry , 66 , has become a quiet but important player in the administration 's foreign policy apparatus , gradually winning plaudits from the administration and its critics alike . It was Perry , for example , who helped hone the administration 's proposal to launch air strikes in Bosnia limiting the enforcement to a small exclusion zone that NATO forces could handle easily . He was the administration 's point man in engineering a nuclear weapons disarmamen t treaty between Russia and Ukraine . And , more recently , he has become its ch ief spokesman in the stalemate with North Korea over nuclear weapons inspections . With few glitches along the way , Perry `` is dealing with the problems he 's got as well as anyone can be expected to , '' said Robert W. Gaskin , a former Pentagon military strategist who has been a frequent critic of the administratio n . Sharing that opinion is Harold Brown , who served as defense secretary durin g the Carter administration . `` Is he going to solve all of their problems ? I think the answer is no , '' Brown said . `` But he has done very well . '' Admit tedly , at least part of Perry 's overnight rise may have come by default . By s ome outside assessments , Secretary of State Warren Christopher has proved a cap able negotiator but not a strategic thinker , and national security adviser Anth ony Lake has been so low-key that he has failed to enunciate the administration 's policies clearly . Perry is known as a problem-solver , and he explains issue s articulately and directly . He also has benefited from the inevitable comparis ons to his predecessor , Les Aspin . Aspin 's plans to inject the Pentagon into formulating broad foreign policy brought him into conflict with the State Depart ment and the National Security Council . His frequent public ruminating about po licy options and his accompanying gaffes heightened the perception that the admi nistration was in disarray . And his manipulative style alienated many in Congre ss and the military . By contrast , Perry is demonstrating himself to be a no-no nsense pragmatist who is quick to make decisions and has an impressive command o f detail . Invariably straightforward , he has restored good relations with mili tary leaders and lawmakers . `` He has the complete confidence of the military h e 's frank , '' said Rep. John P. Murtha , D-Pa. , chairman of the House Appropr iations subcommittee on defense . `` I think he 's doing a commendable job . '' Others say he has quietly brought order out of the previous managerial chaos . ` ` Perry is nothing that Aspin was , and everything that Aspin wasn't , '' one Pe ntagon-watcher said . He also has confined himself to the defense secretary 's t raditional role of running the nation 's military establishment and finding ways to make it serve the president 's foreign policy objectives . Sometimes that me ans squelching a proposal that seems unrealistically ambitious . For instance , administration officials say he recently nipped a campaign to mount an invasion of Haiti by publicly questioning what the United States would do once its troops took over the island . ( Begin optional trim ) To be sure , Perry 's four month s as secretary have not been entirely error-free . In an appearance on NBC 's `` Meet the Press '' program in early April , he set off a major brouhaha by inadv ertently leaving the impression that the United States would sit by and let the Bosnian Serbs storm the Muslim city of Gorazde . And a few weeks ago , he provok ed a similar flurry over Haiti when he suggested there were preliminary indicati ons that the island 's military strongman , Gen. Raoul Cedras , was about to res ign . The political and diplomatic ripples from that incident caused some conste rnation in the State Department , but so far Perry seems to have recovered succe ssfully , vowing to become more careful in his statements to the news media . ( End optional trim ) A veteran of the Cuban missile crisis he was called in by th e Pentagon in 1962 to help analyze data on Soviet weapons emplacements on the is land Perry has a keen sense of the moment , especially about developments that h elp mark the end of the Cold War . A visit to a former Soviet ICBM center last s pring left him emotion-filled and eager to tell the world about his experience , as did a NATO meeting last week with former Soviet bloc states . With a long ca reer in the defense industry he is known as the godfather of the Stealth bomber and a background in U.S.-Soviet strategy , high-technology weapons and defense-i ndustry problems , Perry said he has already set a firm agenda for his current t erm as defense secretary : to keep the world from drifting back into a Cold War , to develop a new approach for using U.S. military power in the post-Cold War w orld and to manage the reduction in the size of the nation 's armed forces . `` I will measure myself '' by these `` when I leave the job , '' he said . ( Optio nal Add End ) Critics concede he has made a good start on the first of these , p ainstakingly forging and cementing ties with former Soviet Bloc military leaders , helping achieve an accord with Russia and Ukraine to dismantle their nuclear weapons , and pressing the administration 's new Partnership for Peace program i n NATO . He has begun work on his second objective by creating half a dozen new task forces within the Pentagon to study proposals for altering the way the Unit ed States uses military power . On the third , he has begun efforts to streamlin e the way the Pentagon buys equipment and weapons systems . He has also sought t o ease the impact of military downsizing on the nation 's defense industries bas e by eliminating excess regulations and preserving some programs in order to kee p production lines open . WASHINGTON The final tally is in for the golf outing last Tuesday by a White Ho use aide who took a presidential helicopter to play a course near Camp David : $ 13,129.66 The White House Saturday night released that figure and said senior s taffers but not President Clinton will contribute the full amount to reimburse t he Treasury within the week . Thirteen staffers , nearly the entire White House senior hierarchy , have agreed to chip in . The bill , calculated by the Marine Corps , is based on a total of 5 hours and 31 minutes of flying for two helicopt ers . The first carried David Watkins , who resigned Thursday as White House dir ector of administration , to Camp David and then to the nearby Holly Hills Count ry Club ; the second was a training flight paired with the Watkins helicopter . The White House said it would reimburse taxpayers for both helicopter flights . Clinton pledged Thursday that the taxpayers would not be out `` one red cent '' for the cost of the golf outing by Watkins and the head of the White House milit ary office , Alfonso Maldon Jr. , who is being reassigned . But officials were i n a bind when Watkins , a longtime Arkansas friend of Clinton 's whose financial disclosure statement pegs his worth at more than $ 1 million , balked at paying for the flight . White House staffers were furious with what they viewed as Wat kins 's poor judgment in deciding to take the trip , which he defended even in h is resignation letter as a perfectly appropriate effort to see that the presiden t enjoyed Camp David to the maximum . Watkins reasoned that golfing in nearby Ne w Market , Md. , could facilitate that . Presidential aides were even more incen sed when Watkins refused to reimburse taxpayers . On Friday , the White House ch ose to bill the staff willingness to chip in as what Communications Director Mar k Gearan called a `` gesture of friendship '' to Watkins and Maldon . Maldon was not asked to repay the money on the grounds that he was following Watkins 's or ders . Saturday , the White House line changed . Asked whether the repayment eff ort should continue to be viewed as a gesture of friendship to Watkins , one sen ior official answered with an emphatic `` no , '' adding : `` Since Mr. Watkins declined to make full payment , White House staff members volunteered to pay the cost of both flights , rather than forcing the issue , to ensure that the presi dent 's pledge was fulfilled . '' A Marine Corps statement , released by the Whi te House , said White House officials had not requested and were not aware of th e second helicopter , which was described as a `` routine training flight relate d to potential landing sites with respect to medical or other contingency concer ning movement around Camp David . '' The Marine Corps said scheduling training f lights in conjunction with other White House flights was `` routine procedure '' in order to make certain that crews receive their mandatory flight time and to have them on hand in case there are mechanical difficulties . The statement said the pilot of the first helicopter had only 9.4 hours of his 24 monthly minimum and the pilot of the second helicopter had 11.3 hours toward his minimum . When Clinton went out for a round Saturday at the Robert Trent Jones course at Lake M anassas , Va. , he traveled by motorcade , his usual mode of transportation for local golfing . LOS ANGELES Khallid Abdul Muhammad , condemned nationally by most black and whi te leaders as a racist hate-monger , was greeted with fervent applause Saturday night by an audience of more than 1,000 African Americans in a theater here . Mu hammad , the 43-year-old former senior aide to Louis Farrakhan , head of the Nat ion of Islam , displayed once again his strident brand of black nationalism that is routinely laced with condemnation of Jews . Contending that blacks have suff ered more than Jews at the hands of oppressors ( `` the black holocaust is one h undred times worse than any other holcaust , '' he said at one point ) , Muhamma d quickly launched into the kind of name-calling and racial mockery that has ear ned him national enmity . `` Don't let those bagel-eating , hooked-nosed .. . wa nna-be Jews make you think otherwise , '' he said of his statistical claim . Wea ring long royal-blue robes over a crisp white shirt , Muhammad theatrically list ed some of the most tragic episodes in the history of black people in America , starting with the horrors of the slave ship crossings . As his voice rose in ind ignation , insisting that recognition of black suffering had been repressed , th e crowd applauded and shouted words of agreement . By the time he came to one of his most emotional statements `` the worst crime that can be committed is to be robbed of self knowledge '' the audience errupted in frenzied applause and scre ams of agreement that nearly drowned out Muhammad 's voice . There were also mom ents of dark humor . Arguing that Jesus was black , Muhammad said , `` The Bible said Jesus would have hair like lamb 's wool , that nappy hair. .. . I 'm talki ng about a black lord , a black Jesus , a black savior . Take that cracker down off your wall and throw him in the garbage . '' The audience screamed in delight . The crowd that came to see Muhammad did so out of a mixture of curiosity and almost-religious support . The believers said Muhammad had touched a strong chor d among American blacks and that his strength was his appeal to black self-suffi ciency , not racism and that some of his outrageousness should be taken figurati vely . `` He 's telling black people to rise and take care of ourselves , '' sai d UCLA student Susan Leach , 21 . `` I believe in everything he says . I think i t 's white people who make the controversy . '' `` He 's not anti-Semitic or rac ist , '' said Patrick Pritchett , 41 . `` How could he be ? How can the first pe ople on earth be racist or anti-Semitic ? '' ( Optional add end ) Outside the th eater , the neighborhood took on the air of a street festival , intensified by a rally held in an adjacent park by a group called the All-African People 's Revo lutionary Party . Inside the hall , all members of the crowd and the press were frisked for weapons . Women 's handbags were searched , and all objects includin g pens and makeup containers were scrutinized . When the speeches began , the cr owd was treated to what seemed like a cross between the impassioned spirit of a rally and the fervor of a church meeting . Before Muhammad came onstage , the au dience was treated to an African dance troupe , a history lesson from a speaker who decried numerous incidents of racism and oppression against blacks , and a r oll call of visiting celebrities . Actor Wesley Snipes , sitting in the front ro w , came onstage briefly when he was introduced . Rapper Ice T , who had earlier embraced Muhammad backstage , gave a rousing speech . Also onstage were such gu ests as Georgiana Williams , the mother of Damian Williams , the most celebrated defendant convicted in the Reginald O . Denny beating trial that grew out of th e 1992 Los Angeles riots , and Celes King , a well-known bail bondsman and forme r president of the Los Angeles Human Relations Commission and the Los Angeles ch apter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People . The following editorial appeared in Sunday 's Washington Post : The sexual-hara ssment lawsuit filed by Paula Jones against President Clinton is a case of first impression no one has ever brought a civil suit against a sitting president for alleged conduct that occurred before he took office . The court is sure to hear a variety of arguments on why the lawsuit should be thrown out . Unfortunately for the president , every angle that has been suggested so far has flaws . The p resident 's advisers have put forward a theory that the chief executive is simpl y immune from civil suits , or at the very least entitled to have litigation pos tponed until he leaves office . They cite a 1982 Supreme Court ruling that accor ded President Richard Nixon this protection . But that case is easily distinguis hed , because it was limited to suits arising out of a president 's official act s , specifically in that case Nixon 's firing of whistle-blower Ernest Fitzgeral d . Such an immunity is similar to the kind enjoyed by legislators and judges wh o cannot be sued for actions taken in their official capacity . The allegations against Clinton , of course , arose out of conduct that occurred long before he became president and certainly involved no actions that were part of his officia l duties . The president 's lawyers may well ask a judge to make the leap from p rotecting official acts to shielding private ones , but such a finding would be a substantial extension of the Nixon v . Fitzgerald doctrine . Harvard professor Laurence Tribe has another theory that is even more imaginative . He cites a fe deral statute that protects military personnel on active duty from civil suits a nd argues that since the president is commander in chief of the armed forces , h e is included in the protected group . The statute mentions no civilians and was clearly intended to cover men and women whose ability to defend lawsuits is sev erely hampered by the nature of military service . In addition to the immunity d efense , the president 's attorneys may also move to dismiss on other grounds , questioning , for example , Paula Jones 's use of an old civil-rights statute to support a legal action that should have been brought under the equal-employment laws but on these laws the statute of limitations had run out . Others will que stion the plaintiff 's motives , point to her partisan supporters and complain t hat she waited until the last minute to file this suit . But probably none of th ese objections will carry weight in court . It is likely that motions to dismiss will fail . But extended appeals may perhaps postpone an actual trial for years . The prospect of a public airing of these charges true or not is surely troubl ing for the president and for a lot of people who have an interest in the well-b eing of his presidency , irrespective of anything else . But the alternative of granting a single individual special immunity from civil suit in these circumsta nces is not a good idea no matter how powerful he is or how important it is that he be able to conduct the business of his office . Even those who believe Clint on has been wronged in this case need to consider the precedent that would be se t by such a waiver . Divorce actions could be delayed , child-custody disputes p ostponed for years , damage claims ranging from auto accidents to industrial pol lution could be shelved , leaving victims in each case without remedies for year s . Like every citizen who finds himself in a legal dispute , the president must defend himself in court . Frivolous cases and claims arising out of his office can be dismissed . His schedule can be accommodated , and demands on his time ca n be minimized . But individuals with private claims have a right to proceed , a nd he has the obligation to respond . In his 18 years as a reclusive writer in Cavendish , Vt. , Alexander Solzhenits yn created an ideal Russia . It existed in his mind , within the walls of his ho usehold and in the forests of birch trees , which had the same sun and blue sky that on good days can be seen in Russia . He saw few visitors besides his family , had virtually no contact with the outside world . Instead , he applied the gr ueling self-discipline he adopted during his years in Stalin 's gulags . He got up at 6 every morning and spent the rest of the day writing , completing `` The Red Wheel , '' his four-volume history of events leading to the 1917 Russian Rev olution . No one knows whether that exhaustive and long-winded history will ever be published in full . Few people in the West are that interested in the subjec t . As for Russians , they no longer have endless time to read about past histor y that has little relevance to matters at hand . Like millions of Westerners , t hey are hustling to make a living . We wish Solzhenitsyn well as he returns to h is native Russia . But we fear he is in for a tremendous disappointment . Crime and corruption are rampant , Western pop music , pulp literature and pornography prevalent . He will have a tough time trying to reconcile his idealized view of Russia with the rudeness and greed he will encounter or with the country 's dis regard for thoughtful writing and high culture . As a painstaking chronicler of the gulags , Solzhenitsyn made his contribution not only to history but to a pub lic realization at home and abroad of the true nature of communism . The country which oppressed and exiled him no longer exists , however . It was replaced by another that is still taking its first steps on a long road to economic prosperi ty , cultural fulfillment and rule of law . Anticipating the collapse of communi sm , Solzhenitsyn wrote in 1991 that `` we must take care not to be crushed bene ath its rubble instead of gaining liberty . '' As he moves to Moscow , he may re alize that life in Vermont offered more inner peace . Russia may be eternal , bu t it , too , changes . For most of the last half-century , the relationship between the United States and India was colored by Cold War distrust . Differences between the world 's tw o most populous democracies were frequent , with Washington voicing concern over India 's ties to the Soviet Union , its nonaligned status , its state-dominated economy and its nuclear weapons program . From a U.S. perspective , there was c ause for suspicion , and that suspicion was the basis for a longstanding U.S. po licy in South Asia that favored Pakistan , India 's neighbor and bitter rival . Now , however , the Soviet Union is gone and India is making a revolutionary tra nsformation from socialist protectionism to a market-oriented economy . In light of this and the fact that Pakistan now has nuclear weapons , the United States is being forced to reassess the Indo-American relationship . Economic cooperatio n between the two nations is important . The United States already is India 's l argest export market , and U.S. corporations like AT&T , Ford , General Electric , Coca-Cola and IBM have operations in India . An enduring economic relationshi p appears certain . In a speech this month before a joint session of the U.S. Co ngress , Indian Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao emphasized the new economic ti es between Washington and New Delhi . For that matter , so has Ambassador-design ate Frank Wisner , who will fill a 16-month vacancy and is expected to be confir med when the Senate reconvenes after the Memorial Day holiday recess . Such opti mistic assessments are certainly welcome . But as the United States becomes more economically linked to India , it will be forced to face up to some uncomfortab le differences that persist . These include India 's continuing attempt to devel op nuclear weapons and its efforts , much criticized by human rights groups , to crush a separatist insurrection in Kashmir . The violence in Kashmir reportedly has claimed as many as 20,000 lives . Although the United States and India can easily agree on the benefits of a stronger economic relationship , they aren't l ikely to find the going smooth as they confront the political challenges . WASHINGTON Next year , for the first time , the United States will produce more combat planes for foreign air forces than for the Pentagon , highlighting Ameri ca 's replacement of the Soviet Union as the world 's main arms supplier . Encou raged by the Clinton administration , the defense industry last year had its bes t export year ever , having sold $ 32 billion worth of weapons overseas , more t han twice the 1992 total of $ 15 billion . As the administration and the industr y look abroad for new markets to offset military spending cutbacks at home , the y are raising concern in Congress and a chorus of criticism from arms control ad vocates . `` Things have moved toward the ` merchants of death ' view of arms pr oduction , '' said Randall Forsberg , executive director of the Institute for De fense and Disarmament Studies in Cambridge , Mass. . `` It 's becoming a commerc ial business involved in profits and jobs rather than security . '' This will be the last year this century that the U.S. defense industry will produce more com bat planes for domestic than overseas use , according to a study by Forsberg . N ext year , 92 combat planes will be delivered to U.S. forces ; 97 will go abroad . In 1996 , the Pentagon will get just 24 , compared with 153 for overseas . Pl anes are , except for ships , the most expensive weapons , and account for more than half the value of U.S. arms exports . The increase in arms exports , Forsbe rg said , creates a long-term paradox for the United States : Foreign sales were meant to help keep the U.S. defense industry operating and able to meet future threats ; but the main source of new threats is likely to come from the prolifer ation arms abroad . `` They are going to create the very threats they are insuri ng against , '' she said . `` Short-term commercial interests are outweighing ou r long-term security interests . '' Joel Johnson , international vice president of the Aerospace Industries Association , countered that as the United States re duces its overseas military presence and demands that allies accept more of the defense burden , it is inevitable that the allies will need more weapons . `` Yo u can't have it both ways , '' he said . ( Begin optional trim ) The export of o lder-model combat planes is overtaking their production for domestic use , he sa id , as the Pentagon develops such new programs as the F-22 fighter , improved F -18 attack jets and the Commanche helicopter . Once those new planes go into pro duction for the Pentagon around the turn of the century , the gap between higher exports and lower domestic sales will be corrected , he said . `` The only thin g now keeping the ( production ) lines open is exports , '' Johnson said . Notin g that 450,000 U.S. defense workers have lost their jobs since 1991 , Johnson sa id : `` Why do you want to fire people in St. Louis and hire them in Paris ? '' ( End optional trim ) Mindful of the controversy , the Clinton administration is forging a new arms sales policy . A senior White House official involved in dra fting the policy said it would seek to establish an `` international regime '' o f nations with `` a common set of standards '' for arms exports . The intent wou ld be to restrict arms exports to particular regions or countries and bar the sa le of certain weapons systems altogether . The official declined to be more spec ific . Testifying to the Senate Budget Committee earlier this year , Defense Sec retary William J. Perry said : `` The dominant criterion for determining whether any weapons systems .. . are sold to a foreign government still is a national s ecurity decision , not an economic decision . '' But critics question that asser tion . `` The ( Clinton ) policy and practice , as far as we can see , is a cont inuation of what the policy under Bush and Reagan was , which was sell , sell , sell , '' said Sima Osdoby , director of policy for Women 's Action for New Dire ctions , a Washington group seeking to divert defense spending to social program s . Natalie J. Goldring , of the the British American Security Information Counc il , a Washington-based advocacy and research group , said : `` The United State s has a special responsibility to lead efforts toward arms-transfer control . In stead , U.S. policy is moving in the direction of less-restricted arms sales . ' ' In a paper titled `` In Search of Arms Control , '' she pointed to Clinton 's support of major arms-sales contracts during the 1992 election campaign and whil e in office ; his loosening of controls on high-technology exports ; the taxpaye r subsidy of U.S. company displays at foreign air shows ; and an Air Force plan to sell up to 360 used F-16s abroad to enable it to buy up to 88 more sophistica ted planes . ( Begin optional trim ) Until 1990 , the Soviet Union led in milita ry sales to an arms-hungry world as it sought to export and defend global Commun ist revolution . Between 1989 and 1991 , as the Soviets retreated from the marke t , world arms sales fell by 53 percent . U.S. arms sales declined less steeply , by 34 percent , leaving the United States with a bigger share of a smaller pie . In 1991 , the United States took the lead in international arms sales and has widened it since . In 1981 , the United States supplied 19.3 percent of world a rms exports , compared with the Soviet Union 's 39.9 percent . In 1991 , accordi ng to the latest statistics from the U.S. . Arms Control and Disarmament Agency , the U.S. share had nearly doubled , to 37.8 percent ; the Soviet share was dow n to 26 percent . The Arms Control Association , a Washington research and lobby ing group , says that the export trend has continued . Last year , the United St ates supplied about 50 percent of the world arms market ; Russia supplied 17 per cent . ( End optional trim ) U.S. arms sales were boosted by the Persian Gulf wa r , which provided a showcase for advanced U.S. weapons technology , with `` sma rt '' bombs disappearing on worldwide TV down the air conditioning ducts of stra tegic buildings in Iraq . Governments able to afford such weapons lined up to pl ace their orders ; The United States has even overcome its traditional reluctanc e to arm the Third World . It increased its share of the military market in deve loping countries from 12.8 percent in 1981 to 32.3 percent in 1991 . Over the sa me period , the Soviet share dropped from 42.7 percent to 33.3 percent . Most of the arms-sales growth is in two regions the Middle East and Eastern Asia . Crit ics assert that the United States in some areas of the world is engaged in an ar ms race with itself by supplying weapons to both sides of potential conflicts . Turkey and Greece , historic foes , have been two of this country 's biggest cus tomers . But the most dramatic example has been in the Middle East . Saudi Arabi a placed a $ 9 billion order for 72 F-15XPs in 1992 . This year , Israel matched that with a $ 2.4 billion purchase of 25 ultra-sophisticated F-15Is . Some in C ongress express concern that economic considerations are driving conventional-ar ms sales overseas , jeopardizing national security . Legislation to set standard s for U.S. arms exports has been introduced in both the House and Senate . WASHINGTON While Congress is away on a 12-day Memorial Day break , staff member s of the Senate Finance Committee will be at work drafting a compromise health-c are plan that could become the main hope for breaking a five-month congressional impasse on President Clinton 's top legislative priority . Committee Chairman D aniel Patrick Moynihan , D-N.Y. , and ranking minority member Bob Packwood , R-O re. , agreed before the break to have their aides work out language embodying ar eas of agreement and have it ready for consideration when Congress returns June 8 . No one is betting how far the bipartisan exercise will go , but there is agr eement on both sides of the Capitol that it represents what may be one of the la st hopes for a breakthrough on the health-care front . Chairman Edward M. Kenned y , D-Mass. , of the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee , which shares j urisdiction with Finance , aims to finish his version of a health bill the first week back . Despite concessions that have won bipartisan agreement on some seco ndary features of the plan , the bill as a whole does not seem likely to draw si gnificant Republican support . That is clearly the case with the measure being w orked on in the counterpart Education and Labor Committee in the House . A draft that cleared one of its subcommittees just before the recess is described by cr itics as `` Clinton-Plus , '' promising even more benefits and imposing even mor e regulatory burdens than the White House plan that has failed to enlist moderat e Democratic or Republican support . The House Energy and Commerce Committee app ears so deadlocked in its efforts to draft a bill that Chairman John D. Dingell , D-Mich. , has spoken privately of throwing up his hands and asking the House t o discharge the panel from further consideration of the measure . Dingell has be en unable to get a sufficient number of Democrats to accept his watered-down ver sion of the Clinton bill , so he never began formal markup sessions . A middle g roup of conservative Democrats and moderate Republicans on the committee has bee n equally frustrated about trying to frame a compromise . The last of the Big Fi ve health committees , House Ways and Means , has been slowed to a crawl , in pa rt by the delay in getting cost estimates from the Congressional Budget Office , and in part by the threatened indictment of its chairman , Rep. Dan Rostenkowsk i , D-Ill . Although its health subcommittee finished marking up a major proposa l more than a month ago , Ways and Means has not gotten beyond the general discu ssion stage . Taken together , the problems with the other committees and their products have led such key legislators as Rep. Jim Cooper , D-Tenn. , to say , ` ` We 're all hoping Senate Finance can find a fresh trail out of this swamp . '' Three developments have raised hopes that this is not just a wistful dream . La st week three other moderate Republicans on Finance Sens. John H. Chafee , R.I. , Dave Durenberger , Minn. , and John C. Danforth , Mo. encouraged Packwood and Moynihan to explore a compromise . They reportedly told the chairman that the ac t of drafting is the quickest way , as one of them put it , to `` turn Bob Dole away from political posturing and focus him on what really needs to be done . '' Sen. Robert J. Dole , R-Kan. , the Senate minority leader and a member of the F inance Committee , is the man Moynihan has tried repeatedly to enlist as a partn er , but pressure from conservative Republicans has made Dole increasingly criti cal of anything resembling the Clinton plan . The second development that raised hopes of a Finance Committee compromise has been the series of trial balloons f loated by Sen. John B . Breaux , D-La. , co-sponsor with Cooper of a managed-com petition plan that once appeared to be the major rival to the Clinton bill . Las t week Breaux proposed omitting for now any requirement that all employers buy h ealth insurance for their workers . That `` employer mandate '' section of the C linton bill has been denounced by Dole and other Republicans and is a major stic king point to compromise . Instead , Breaux would rely on insurance reforms to b ring coverage to more Americans but would require that in three to five years , if specified percentages of the uninsured have not been able to buy policies , ` ` employer mandates '' would be applied . Dole 's initial reaction was skeptical . `` Congress is here every year , '' he said . `` We don't need to bind some f uture Congress , and we can't do it anyhow . '' But he also said , `` Everybody is looking for a way to avoid mandates up front , but to bring them in if we don 't get to what the president likes to call universal coverage . '' The third pos itive factor was the reaction of Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell , D-M aine , also on Finance , to the Breaux proposal and the Moynihan-Packwood effort . Mitchell is regarded as the committee 's most influential protector of Clinto n 's positions . But Mitchell said in an interview that `` the ` employer mandat e ' is only one route to universal coverage , and if someone else Senator Breaux or Senator Packwood or Senator Chafee suggests a way to get there by other mean s , we 'll look at it . '' Committee sources said Mitchell 's private reaction t o the Breaux plan is more supportive than those public comments . But they also cautioned against assuming that it will be easy to bridge the differences on man dates , cost containment and other intractable issues before Congress takes anot her break on July 1 . IRVINE , Calif. . The Eagles certainly didn't take it easy in returning to conc erts after 14 years . Instead of playing it safe by simply serving up the two do zen or so of the best-known Eagles tunes in a nostalgia-to-the-max reunion packa ge , the most celebrated Southern California band since the '60s gamely threw al l sorts of surprises at the audience on Friday at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre . Surprise 1 : Defying the conventional concert wisdom of saving your signature tu ne for a climactic moment late in the show , the Eagles opened with `` Hotel Cal ifornia . '' Surprise 2 : Instead of inviting the audience to then settle into a golden oldies mode by following with such peaceful , easy trademark hits such a s `` Take It Easy , '' the band followed `` Hotel California '' with more challe nging fare four more songs from the `` Hotel California '' album , including `` Wasted Time '' and `` Pretty Maids All in a Row . '' Surprise 3 : After devoting most of the opening hour to old Eagles material , the quintet shifted emphasis dramatically in the second half to focus on new Eagles tunes and the members ' s olo works . Surprise 4 : The group didn't perform `` The Long Run , '' `` Best o f My Love , '' `` Last Resort , '' `` Sad Cafe , '' `` On the Border , '' `` Tak e It Easy ` ` or `` Peaceful Easy Feeling '' at all . The result : Only 13 of th e 29 songs were from the Eagles '70s catalog . Biggest Surprise : The show still worked . `` Good party , '' a beaming Glenn Frey said at one point , looking ou t at the 15,000 cheering fans as he stood on a stage whose set resembled a Mad M ax-like industrial wasteland in keeping with the apocalyptic nature of some Eagl es songs . `` Real good party . '' The audience was equally enthused . Fans , so me of whom had come from as far away as New York and Kentucky to toast the start of the group 's first tour since their bitter 1980 break-up , shouted , `` Than k you '' and `` We love you '' throughout the show . Many sang along with all th e hits and danced in front of their seats to the upbeat tunes . Yet the selectio n of songs suggested that the Eagles had more on their minds than merely the app lause of the night . Amid all the talk about the tour simply being a one-time , money-driven affair , the Eagles were intent on demonstrating that , indeed , th e band is in for the long run that the reason Frey , Don Henley , Don Felder , J oe Walsh and Timothy B . Schmit came back together after all these years was to resume writing and recording together . And that issue the recapturing of the ba nd 's old creative spark is the real challenge facing the Eagles . The band wast ed little time Friday in passing Test One of the reunion campaign . Midway throu gh the opening hour , it was clear that the Eagles remain the masters of such '7 0s trademarks as sweet , seductive harmonies and precise but flavorful musicians hip . It was also apparent that the band 's best songs including `` Hotel Califo rnia '' and `` Desperado '' speak of social and personal morality in ways that r emain relevant . The question is whether the Eagles will be able to come up with new songs that continue to reflect on human rituals and rites with equal insigh t and skill . That is the more important Test Two and an answer isn't likely unt il the band delivers an album of new material , possibly next summer . ( Optiona l add end ) Meantime , the group is trying to encourage fans to look forward not just backward . The solo material notably Henley 's `` Heart of the Matter , '' `` New York Minute '' and `` Boys of Summer '' served as a bridge and helped ad d a more contemporary edge to the evening 's tone . Similarly , the turning of t he microphone over to Frey , Walsh and Schmit for solo turns was a reminder that the band isn't just a Henley or Henley-Frey proposition . Of the four new tunes being introduced on the tour , the most striking is the fiery `` Get Over It , '' a wickedly satiric reflection by Henley and Frey on '90s political correctnes s , with a strong commercial feel to it . The Eagles , who were joined on variou s numbers by four support musicians , haven't tried to add flash to their perfor mances . The quintet still simply relies on its music and that music still serve s them well . The Eagles are once again flying high . WASHINGTON President Clinton 's planned defense against the sexual harassment l awsuit by a former Arkansas state employee raises questions of presidential priv ilege that have been debated since the founding of the republic , and that court s and presidents have grappled with ever since . White House Counsel Lloyd N . C utler last week sketched out one possible legal argument for Clinton : that the Constitution generally protects a sitting president from being sued for damages . The balance in this case in which Paula Corbin Jones waited three years before bringing suit and has no urgent need for recompense tips in favor of forcing he r to delay her lawsuit until the end of Clinton 's term , Cutler said on the Mac Neil-Lehrer News Hour . Clinton has not yet decided what he will have his privat e lawyers argue in court , but sources close to the president said he may go bey ond simply arguing that the case should be put off until after he leaves office and contend that , in this case , Jones has lost her chance to sue by waiting un til after Clinton became president . But the sources said Clinton does not plan to contend that a president or former president is absolutely immune from being sued in any circumstances over his private conduct . The issue has never been de cided by a court , and the debate reflects the tension in American law between t he fundamental precept that no one is above the law a departure from the English rule that the king could do no wrong and the need , rooted in both practical an d constitutional considerations , to protect the office of the presidency . Cour ts are more likely to side with the claims of presidential privilege in civil su its than in criminal cases , where the needs of prosecutors or criminal defendan ts may take precedence . In the Watergate tapes case , the Supreme Court ruled u nanimously that then-President Richard M. Nixon could not assert executive privi lege as a grounds for refusing to turn over the tapes to the special prosecutor . Presidents have also testified as witnesses in criminal proceedings , but have at the same time been granted more procedural protections than ordinary witness es . Presidents Gerald R. Ford and Jimmy Carter gave videotaped testimony in cri minal cases while in office , and President Ronald Reagan gave a videotaped depo sition in the Iran-Contra prosecution of former national security adviser John M . Poindexter . Even in criminal cases , however , the president may be entitled to unique protections . Although the issue has never been decided , the Justice Department argued when a federal grand jury was investigating then-Vice Presiden t Spiro T. Agnew that a sitting president could not be criminally indicted . Ins tead , the department said in a filing by then-Solicitor General Robert H. Bork , the president cannot be prosecuted until he is impeached or otherwise leaves o ffice . In civil cases like the suit now pending against Clinton courts have bee n particularly protective of the president . In 1982 the Supreme Court ruled 5 t o 4 in Nixon v. Fitzgerald that a president can never be sued for damages for hi s official actions no matter how egregious his conduct , and even after he is ou t of office . The court described a Pentagon whistle-blower 's claim as a `` mer ely private suit for damages , '' noting the `` lesser public interest '' in civ il cases than in criminal proceedings . The reasoning in the Nixon case can be u sed to argue either for or against extending similar protection to a president b eing sued for his private actions . On the one hand , the court relied heavily o n the need to ensure that the president , empowered `` to make the most sensitiv e and far-reaching decisions entrusted to any official under our constitutional system , '' should not have to worry about being subjected to a civil lawsuit ev ery time he acts . Because Jones is complaining about Clinton 's conduct before he became president , Clinton will not be able to argue that the court should sh ield him in order to preserve his ability to exercise his authority and judgment as president . On the other hand , the court also emphasized what it described as the `` unique position '' of the president within the constitutional system a nd raised two other concerns that Clinton will be able to use to bolster his cas e : the threat of proliferating lawsuits against a target as attractive as the p resident and the drain on a president 's valuable time and energy of defending h imself against a lawsuit . TOKYO At last Japan can rest assured : Hachiko 's wan-wan was not a weak one . This is an important cultural discovery . But to understand why , you need to un derstand some Japanese dog lore . Between the world wars , in Tokyo 's Shibuya s ection , there lived a golden brown Akita dog named Hachiko . The famous tale of her loyalty and devotion to her master is so familiar here that she is universa lly known as `` chu-ken Hachiko , '' or `` faithful dog Hachiko . '' If a nation al election were held to pick America 's favorite dog , the votes would probably be split among such diverse candidates as Lassie , Snoopy , Goofy , Old Yeller and Millie Bush . But in this more homogeneous nation , where everybody tends to agree with everybody else on these big cultural questions , there would be no s uch confusion . Unquestionably , unequivocally , the choice for Japan 's favorit e dog would be Hachiko . Hachiko died in 1935 , but millions still visit her eac h year , in stuffed form , at the National Museum in Tokyo . There are countless books , movies and CDs , plus statues and plaques commemorating the faithful do g all over Japan . Because 1994 is the Year of the Dog in the Oriental calendar cycle , and because it is also the 60th anniversary of the most famous Hachiko m emorial , Japan this spring has launched into a new burst of Hachiko hagiography . The biggest scoop yet in the media 's Hachiko Wars occurred over the weekend , when the Culture Broadcasting Network obtained a hitherto unknown recording of Hachiko 's bark . It was an old LP record , broken into three pieces . But tech nicians at Culture Broadcasting repaired the disk with laser surgery so that it could be broadcast . After a breathless buildup , a dramatic introduction and ma ny commercials , the faithful dog 's voice was played for a national audience Sa turday . Hachiko said , `` Wan-wan . '' Wan-wan is the Japanese word for `` bow- wow '' that is how the Japanese render the sound of a dog 's bark . For that mat ter , cats in Japan say `` nyaah-nyaah ' ' instead of `` meow , '' and frogs her e say `` kero-kero . '' The Japanese word for what a rooster says is `` ko-kek-k o-ko , '' which is , if you think about it , a lot closer to the real thing than `` cock-a-doodle-doo . '' Having a hefty `` wan-wan '' is considered a sign of health and good karma for a dog here . And to everyone 's relief , Hachiko had a healthy , hearty wan-wan . Even a wimpy wan-wan , however , might not have dimi nished the national affection for Hachiko , because her true story crystalizes t he characteristic trustworthiness and loyalty that dog-lovers everywhere have co me to expect from Man 's Best Friend . Hachiko , born in 1922 , was the pet of P rof. Eisaburo Ueno of Tokyo University , an institution roughly as prestigious h ere as Harvard , Princeton and Stanford combined in the United States . Ueno liv ed in Shibuya , then considered a suburb but now a very trendy , up-market Tokyo neighborhood . Every morning , the professor would walk from his home to Shibuy a Station to take the train to work and every morning Hachiko came with him . Ea ch afternoon , when Ueno came back home on the afternoon train , Hachiko would b e waiting on the platform to meet him . All the other commuters and the merchant s of Shibuya came to know and love the dog and await her daily vigil . One day i n 1925 , Ueno died suddenly while at work . Faithful Hachiko waited and waited a t the station that night , but her master did not come home . So Hachiko came ba ck to wait for her master again the next afternoon . And the next , and the next . In fact , she kept coming back to the station , through rain , snow and the o ccasional earthquake , every afternoon for the next 10 years . Word of this real -life wonder dog spread around Japan and the world . American dog-lovers were so moved that the Los Angeles Friends of Animals raised funds to commission a stat ue honoring `` Faithful Dog Hachiko . '' It was erected at Shibuya Station in 19 34 and become the most famous of many subsequent memorials to the dog . Hachiko died in 1935 and was buried next to her master in Tokyo 's Aoyama Cemetery . But she remained alive in drama , books , movies , songs and a million bedtime stor ies . During World War II , Japan 's military dictators took an ambivalent stanc e toward Hachiko . They made her story mandatory reading in the schools , to pre ach the importance of unthinking loyalty to one 's superiors . But they also mel ted down the famous statue to get metal for shipbuilding . Hachiko is a powerful retail agent in Japan , and the department stores here sell Hachiko cookies , c ups , calendars , coasters , calculators , chopstick holders and other memorabil ia . The Tokyu Department store in Shibuya offers , among much else , a Hachiko necktie ( with `` Wan Wan ! '' printed on it ) for $ 50 and a $ 58 wristwatch wi th Hachiko 's face and this message , in English , on the dial : `` The most hea rtful Japanese , A dog . He goes to station to meet with his master . '' As for the statue that became a war casualty , it was replaced in 1948 and became natio nally famous once again so much so that when Shibuya Station was rebuilt to acco mmodate increased population , the architect had to design around Hachiko 's sta tue so that it would not be disturbed . Hachiko 's brand of loyalty to a leader is an important social virtue in Japan . But so is promptness . Accordingly , th e Hachiko statue at Shibuya Station is also famous as the locus of many lover 's quarrels . A couple makes plans to meet at Hachiko , and then gets into an argu ment on the theme of `` Why didn't you get here on time ? '' To avoid confrontat ion , the Japanese have placed , at Hachiko 's statue , a machine that lets you punch in on arrival and issues a card saying what time you arrived . That way yo u can prove to your lover that you did arrive at Shibuya Station right on time j ust as Faithful Dog Hachiko did for all those lonely years . WASHINGTON The No. 2 executive at the Social Security Administration has decide d to return a $ 9,256 bonus he received after about three months on the job . So cial Security principal deputy commissioner Lawrence H. Thompson `` voluntarily decided '' to return the money , the agency 's commissioner , Shirley Chater , t old a Senate subcommittee earlier this month . Several House and Senate members had raised questions about Thompson 's award and Social Security 's decision to spend $ 32 million on employee bonuses last year . More than two-thirds of the a gency 's 65,000 employees received the bonuses . Chater told the Senate Appropri ations subcommittee on human services that Thompson 's award was based on his wo rk at Social Security and his `` exemplary performance '' at the General Account ing Office for the nine months he served there before transferring agencies . Th ompson 's bonus , she said , `` seemed an appropriate action at the time . '' Bu t Chater said she and Thompson `` both understand the sensitivity and concern th at has been expressed regarding the fact the award was paid by ( Social Security ) . Consequently , based on this concern and the basic issues raised by many re garding the fairness and consistency of the award with current regulations gover ning their use not to mention how it might adversely affect the future payment o f performance awards to federal employees Dr. Thompson has voluntarily decided t o return the entire performance award . '' After members of Congress raised ques tions about the government 's employee bonus program , the Clinton administratio n issued a government-wide memorandum urging federal agencies to reexamine how t hey award cash bonuses , stressing that bonuses should be linked to improved per formance . Some agencies , such as the Agriculture Department and the U.S. . Inf ormation Agency , revamped their bonus programs before the administration asked for its review . At USIA , for example , Director Joseph Duffey reduced fiscal 1 994 funding for bonuses by 85 percent and shifted the money into employee traini ng programs . The programs include career counseling , training in new technolog ies and outplacement assistance for employees whose jobs are being eliminated . Office of Personnel Management figures for fiscal 1992 show that the government spent more than $ 549 million on 759,660 bonuses . The average award was $ 724 , and the fiscal 1992 bonus money represented less than 1 percent of the federal payroll . Sen. David Pryor , D-Ark. , has asked Vice President Gore to address t he role of employee bonuses as part of the administration 's effort to overhaul civil service laws later this year . LONDON Prime Minister John Major 's public criticism of street beggars drew fir e from political , religious and civic leaders Sunday in what is developing into another row for the British government . During an interview with a Bristol new spaper , Major described panhandling as `` offensive and unjustified '' and call ed beggars an `` eyesore '' who should be reported to police . The comments , pu blished Friday , gained wide publicity over the weekend and provoked an outcry f rom many quarters . Tony Blair , the Labor Party domestic affairs spokesman who is favored to be the party 's next leader , called Major 's statement bewilderin gly petty . Blair said the prime minister was trying to deflect attention away f rom bigger problems , such as `` education , a million people under 25 out of wo rk , major problems of putting this country back on its feet . '' `` The real cr iticism of what the prime minister has done is not only its vindictiveness again st some who will be genuinely destitute it is the notion that this is what we sh ould be concentrating on , '' he said . The Bishop of Liverpool , the Rt. Rev. D avid Sheppard , said there is no justification for attacking society 's most `` vulnerable elements . '' `` I find it a very unlovely feature of public life whe n people in power pick on the most despised groups in society rather than asking what the causes are . '' Social workers were equally forceful in their condemna tion of Major , who took over power in 1990 and said he wanted to be the leader of a classless , caring society . `` He is passing the buck . He is having a go at homeless people because they would appear to be defenseless , '' said Stan Bu rridge , one of the organizers of a Sunday rally by homeless protesters . The Lo ndon rally , planned before Major made his comments , was intended to commemorat e the 600 people estimated to die on Britain 's streets every year . Marchers wa ved banners saying : `` Beggars cannot be choosers . '' Major was unrepentant du ring a campaign stop Saturday , saying , `` I stand by what I said . There is no need for begging . '' ( Optional add end ) And his remarks seemed to strike a r esponsive chord with many in the public . The Conservative Party headquarters re ported that telephone calls were running 2-1 in favor of the prime minister . In recent weeks , newspapers have printed accounts of organized gangs of beggars w ho aggressively accost passersby . One gang operating on the London subway was r eported to be posing as refugees from Bosnia-Herzegovina and making up to $ 30,0 00 a week . In England , beggars have no official status . Police treat them as vagrants or confidence tricksters , and they are subject to ancient laws with pe nalties of up to $ 1,500 . Each year about 1,000 panhandlers are held for questi oning by police . Sheppard , in his comments to BBC Radio , said , `` If there a re aggressive tramps frightening people , yes , they should be reported to the p olice and there should be firm action . But that is a tiny handful of cases . '' JAPAN-DOG ( Reid , Post ) has been held by the Post . Do not publish the story . It will be released at a later date . BERLIN More than 100 times a minute , 50,000 times a day , a camera shutter cli cks in a windowless basement in southwest Berlin , capturing on each frame a fra gment of Germany 's grim past . Thirteen camera operators labor throughout the d ay on what some here say may be the most ambitious microfilming project ever und ertaken : the duplication of 75 million pages of Nazi personnel documents stored in a former Gestapo eavesdropping post now known as the Berlin Document Center . The microfilmers work swiftly because on July 1 the U.S. . State Department in tends to relinquish custody of the original documents to the German government . The duplicates 8 million feet of film on 38,000 rolls will be flown to Washingt on this summer and deposited in the National Archives . The Justice Department k eeps the right to unrestricted access to the original files . The pages passing beneath the camera lens range from the prosaic to the sinister : Heinrich Himmle r 's expense accounts ; Nazi Party membership card No. 899,895 , belonging to on e Adolf Eichmann ; Josef Mengele 's dental records and membership sheet in the N azi Physicians Professional Association ; Hermann Goering 's suicide notes , scr ibbled before he swallowed cyanide in 1946 . Among the old files with contempora ry relevance is that of Erich Priebke , a former SS captain now awaiting extradi tion in Argentina on charges of helping to murder 335 Italians in Rome 's Adreat ine Caves in 1944 . Returning the original documents to German custody is anothe r milestone in the restoration of German sovereignty after a half-century of All ied occupation . But the proposed transfer has met resistance . Historians , Jew ish groups and Nazi hunters have bitterly objected to the State Department 's pl an . They complain that restrictive German privacy laws will hamper access to th e original documents , that the National Archives duplicates will not be availab le for at least two years and that surrendering the files is morally wrong . `` We bought those documents with the most precious commodity we have : the blood o f our young boys and the other Allied forces that had to fight the Nazi menace i n order to liberate the world , '' Elan Steinberg , executive director of the Wo rld Jewish Congress , said in a telephone interview from New York . `` I 'm remi nded of the old saying that if it ISn't broke , don't fix it , '' he said . `` T he Berlin Document Center ISn't broke right now , and I don't know why we 're tr ying to fix it . '' Rep. Tom Lantos , D-Calif. , who led hearings on the documen t center last month , has threatened a full debate in Congress `` on Germany 's Nazi past '' unless Bonn and the State Department resolve the controversy . Germ an Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel recently promised Je wish leaders that rules governing access to the original documents will remain i n line with U.S. regulations until the National Archives duplicates are ready fo r viewing . U.S. Embassy officials in Bonn are trying to hammer out the details . `` This is something that has been negotiated over quite a long period of time and has been reviewed from every angle that I can imagine . When concerns have been raised , they 've been reviewed again , '' said Dan Hamilton , policy advis er to Richard Holbrooke , the U.S. ambassador to Germany . Donald Kobletz , the State Department 's lawyer in Berlin in the 1980s and now a private attorney her e , said : `` Can you tell a sovereign government , one of your closest allies , that 50 years after the war you don't really trust them to keep their own recor ds ? After getting microfilm copies , paid for by the German government ? I woul d consider it a gratuitous irritation to our relationship that really isn't warr anted . '' Many of the files were seized by Allied troops driving across Germany such as some 10.7 million Nazi Party membership cards impounded by American sol diers at a Bavarian paper mill as the SS prepared to reduce them to pulp . The c ards provided useful evidence for prosecutors at the Nazi War Crimes tribunal in Nuremburg . Ever since , the archives have proved invaluable for historians scr utinizing the Third Reich , for German officials sorting out immigration request s and for Nazi-hunters looking for culprits . Last year the center processed 27, 000 requests for information from official agencies and 1,300 from private indiv iduals such as scholars and journalists . Although few files in this collection contain direct documentation of mass murder , the information often helps corrob orate other evidence . `` When a guy writes in his resume , ` I was assigned to KZ ( concentration camp ) Auschwitz , ' and he signs it , it 's difficult for hi m to later claim that he wasn't there , '' said David Marwell , 42 , the center 's director . As early as 1952 , U.S. officials began discussing the eventual re turn of the archives to German control . Many other documents , such as papers f rom the Third Reich foreign ministry , were given to the Germans decades ago aft er being microfilmed for the National Archives ' Captured German Documents divis ion . Negotiations over the Berlin Document Center were abandoned in the late 19 60s , however , because of U.S. government concerns that Germany 's proposed rul es of access `` were unacceptably restrictive of private scholarly access , '' P eters told Lantos ' hearing last month . Moreover , German officials for years p rivately hinted that they were content to have such sensitive material remain in American hands . `` I don't think the Germans really wanted the documents , '' said Kobletz , the former State Department lawyer. `` .. . It 's a bit of a hot potato for everybody . '' The potato got hotter in the 1980s when it was discove red that an estimated 10,000 pages had been stolen from the archives and sold to memorabilia collectors willing to pay up to $ 3,000 for each signature of a hig h-ranking Nazi . Marwell was dispatched to Berlin to overhaul security procedure s . In 1989 , the German parliament voted unanimously to ask that the center be remanded to German custody . The microfilming project , which had begun in 1968 only to stop in 1972 , resumed . Last October , the State Department signed an a greement to relinquish the archive on July 1 . In bulk alone the collection is s taggering , covering roughly eight miles of stacked paper . Among the party memb ership cards is that of Oskar Schindler party No. 6,421,477 and Amon Goeth , No. 510,964 , the sadistic commandant of Plaszow concentration camp in Poland ; bot h men were portrayed in the recent film `` Schindler 's List . '' Much of the cu rrent controversy was stirred by a magazine article in the New Yorker by writer Gerald Posner , who questioned both the quality of the microfilming and the pote ntial pitfalls in German privacy laws . The article contends , for example , tha t microfilm fails to distinguish between different colored inks used on some doc uments and renders some writing less legible . More significant perhaps are conc erns about whether German archivists would hinder legitimate scholarship . Germa n privacy law typically prohibits access to files on people until they have been dead for at least 30 years . However , as to the issue of accessing the origina l documents , Marwell expressed confidence that the German government will prove to be a fair administrator . Since 1988 , Germany 's Federal Archives has had t he authority to screen requests from German citizens for entry into the Berlin D ocument Center ; German officials contend that only one request from a scholar a nd less than 1 percent of requests from private citizens have been denied . More over , under the agreement signed last October , the Justice Department keeps th e right to unrestricted access to the files . `` For the kind of access that peo ple are concerned about scholarship and Nazi war crime investigations people wil ln't see a difference , '' Marwell said . `` Absent some dramatic change , I don 't think scholars have anything to worry about . '' JERUSALEM If Yasser Arafat wants to return to the city he says he was born in , he may be greeted at the entrance to Jerusalem by angry mobs led by the city 's mayor . Right-wing Israelis , spurred on by Jerusalem 's new mayor , Ehud Olmer t , have vowed to block any attempt by the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization to visit Jerusalem . There are no announced plans yet for Arafat to try to visit , but already they are laying out an unwelcome mat : A deputy mayo r of the city last week offered the city 's top award to anyone who would `` liq uidate '' Arafat . A Jewish settler 's group proposed offering a 100,000 shekel reward ( about $ 33,000 ) for the capture of Arafat `` dead or alive . '' Olmert has vowed to rally 500,000 demonstrators to block Arafat 's arrival , warning o minously of a massacre with `` 10 times as many victims '' as the Hebron shootin g spree Feb. 25 that killed 30 Muslims . `` This is something that would be pote ntially explosive '' if Arafat arrives , said Aliza Kristt , a spokeswoman for O lmert , who is traveling abroad . `` It would turn the city upside-down and insi de-out . '' Arafat is expected to arrive in June in the West Bank town of Jerich o and the Gaza Strip , the first areas of Palestinian autonomy under the Israel- PLO agreement signed in September . It will be the first time the man who led a 30-year struggle of violence and diplomacy for the Palestinian cause will be in the West Bank since shortly after Israel 's occupation in 1967 . He has made no request to visit Jerusalem , although he has often used the image of a return to the city as a rhetorical rallying cry . Arafat claims that he was born in Jerus alem 's Old City in a poor neighborhood now demolished near the Western Wall , a site holy to Jews . Other evidence suggests that he was born in Cairo , Egypt , and the issue never has been settled . ( Optional add end ) Israeli officials e xpect eventually that they will face an attempt by Arafat to pray in Jerusalem ' s Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount , Islam 's third-holiest site and destinati on for Muslim pilgrims . It will put them in an awkward spot . Israel has long b oasted that it guarantees freedom of religion at all the holy shrines in Jerusal em , including Christian and Muslim shrines . The government would be hard-press ed to deny a prayer visit by a leader with whom they have signed a peace accord . But such a visit would be a large event for the Arabs here , and could turn in to a triumphal entry of the Palestinian leader to a city he has vowed should be the Palestinian capital . Jerusalem was physically divided between Arabs and Jew s until 1967 , when Israel evicted Jordanian troops from East Jerusalem during t he Six Day War . Although about 160,000 Arabs remain there , Israel has official ly annexed Jerusalem and has sworn that it will be the `` eternal , undivided ca pital '' of the Jewish state . It 's a claim that most countries , including the United States , do not recognize . Palestinians have not relinquished their cla im to Jerusalem , and a draft Palestinian constitution divulged last week refers to Jerusalem as the eventual capital . Israel and the PLO have agreed that it i s an `` unresolved issue '' to be on table of final negotiations scheduled to st art in two years . FORT MYERS , Fla. . Sometime next month , Walt and Sandy Lamkin will hit the ro ad again , fleeing Florida 's summer with their trailer full of wares for the fa irgrounds and festivals of New England and the hope of bigger crowds , more mone y and a little middle-age security . They 'll head north in their live-in van , the dog , Brandy , stretched out by the stove and the Amazon parrot , Envy , per ched on a bunk bed , offering an acceptable version of `` Zippidy do dah . '' Th e trailer they tow will be so jammed with goods everything from contour pillows to jewelry to disposable rain jackets ( two for $ 1 ) that Lamkin will have to s houlder the door to secure the lock . In another life , the Lamkins were worth s everal million dollars . Then in the early '80s , the bottom fell out of the egg -and-poultry business in Maine and they lost their 1,500-acre farm . They moved to Florida to start over after a couple of false starts as members of the growin g class of entrepreneurs who peddle wares from town to town and consider storefr onts , leases and 800-phone numbers an unseemly symbol of settlement . From Cali fornia to Florida , thousands of Americans are on the road like the Lamkins thes e days , moving with the seasons , plying their trade at flea markets and trade shows . They may sell fine silverware or antiques , T-shirts or gadgets that sli ce , dice and cut in a single swipe . Bt each is united by his or her disdain of having to punch a time clock or answer to a boss . Like the drummers of the Old West the salesmen who traveled from town to town , hawking medicines and housew ares from the backs of their wagons today 's itinerant vendors play to the most basic American instinct : Every home can afford a bargain . They are survivors , possessed of modest dreams , content to pursue a decent living and the freedom to move on when business is lean . By 7:30 a.m. the other Friday , the Lamkins h ad set up four tables in the space they rent for $ 60 a weekend at Fleamaster 's flea market in Fort Myers . The covered , open-air market one of more than 150 that operate year-round in Florida attracts 800 vendors and 30,000 customers on a busy weekend . `` I don't care what I sell , '' said Walt Lamkin , 54 . `` All I want is a good product that no one else has . That 's the magic , finding the product. .. . `` Battery-operated talking parrots are big this year , and I nev er would have guessed that . Take the nice cooler with a two-quart jug I found . I said everybody 's going to want that . I bought 72 of them for $ 8 each . I m arked them up to $ 14.95 . They didn't sell and I kept dropping the price becaus e you can't let your money sit around . I just sold the last one the other day , for $ 5 . '' The early crowds were sparse on this morning . The sellers were mi ddle-aged and many had come to this line of work because they had failed at some earlier business or had retired and didn't want to be idle . With Florida empty ing as summer approached , most had plotted their escape to points north and wes t . `` Eight years ago , I came down to Florida as a commercial fisherman , '' s aid George Nichol , standing among tables stocked with jellies , greeting cards , cotton ear swabs , chamois clothes , men 's dress belts , billy clubs and roll s of rope . `` It was a lot of work for no money . Pulling 70-pound traps of sto ne crabs 300 times a day , out from dawn to dusk , getting eaten by a brutal sun that 's a job for young people , and I was lucky enough to realize it . You got to have a lot of luck to be old these days . '' Nearby , Norm and Cathy Bricker had parked the 40-foot motor home they live in next to their Rising Sun Traders jewelry counter . Their 11-year-old son , Aaron , whose schooling is done by co rrespondence courses , was organizing the baseball cards that he will sell and s wap when the family leaves for Arizona , California , Alaska and Montana . `` Wh en Norm wanted to sell off the farm and go on the road .. . about 10 years ago , I was dead set against it , '' Cathy Bricker said . `` But now I wouldn't be ca ught dead living in the same place . I feel antsy just visiting my parents in Ma ryland . '' ( Optional add end ) After the Lamkins lost their Maine farm in 1982 and their Florida tire shop to fire in 1990 , their net worth was down to $ 500 . They bought $ 300 worth of canned food , figuring that would sustain them for a couple of months , and spent the final $ 200 on cashews and pecans . They sol d them at a flea market and have been among the modern-day drummers ever since . `` I tried to get a regular job , '' Walt said , `` but hell , I was 50 years o ld with a degree in agriculture . No one was going to hire me . So you do what y ou got to do to survive . Actually , I 've got no complaints . The egg business was good to me for 20 years . We raised two boys we 're proud of . We 're paying our bills now . Hell , I 'm as happy as if I had brains . '' By the time the fl ea market closed , the Lamkins ' receipts totaled $ 205 , less than half what th ey had taken in the previous Friday . `` That 's why it 's time to get out of Fl orida , '' Walt mumbled . `` You can't live on that . '' WASHINGTON Speculation is growing in Washington that Secretary of State Warren Christopher will make a groundbreaking visit to Vietnam this summer . Christophe r is scheduled to travel to Bangkok , Thailand , on July 26 for the annual meeti ng of the Association of Southeast Asian States . Nothing has been announced , b ut chances are that he will go to Hanoi before or after that meeting . The Unite d States announced recently that it had finished arrangements to set up a liaiso n office in Hanoi. .. . Assistant Secretary of State Winston Lord is about to go to Vietnam , and there is speculation that among his responsibilities is to mak e preparations for a visit by Christopher . If Christopher does make the trip , he would be in position to open up the new liaison office himself . Christopher would be the first U.S. secretary of state ever to visit Hanoi . -0- BROWN VS. B ROWN : Sen. Hank Brown , R-Colo. , says he has enough `` clear commitments '' fr om both Democrats and Republicans to defeat the nomination of former anti-war ac tivist Sam W. Brown Jr. as ambassador to the Vienna-based Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe . The Northern California businessman , who is no rel ation to the GOP senator , has been tapped by President Clinton to head the U.S. delegation to the organization that oversees arms control and security agreemen ts in Europe . But his confirmation is being filibustered by Senate Republicans who note that Brown 's only military experience was as a prominent organizer of nationwide protests against the Vietnam War. .. . Echoes of the divisions that s plit the nation 20 years ago reverberated on the Senate floor last week as Democ rats twice failed to muster the three-fifths majority needed to break the filibu ster and vote on Brown 's confirmation . But Sen. Brown insisted that nominee Br own 's Vietnam record is not the issue . `` It 's not the war , '' he said . `` That issue 's behind us . The real concern is that Sam Brown is not qualified . '' -0- LINING UP : Out in the real world , the hot tickets are to World Cup socc er games and Barbra Streisand concerts . But here in the government 's company t own , some of the most precious tickets are to committee hearings , which are fr equently held in small rooms with far fewer seats than lobbyists who want to sit in them. .. . And now the Capitol 's police force is investigating whether some lobbyists are getting in illegally by paying friendly congressional staff membe rs , who have keys to the House and Senate office buildings , to go inside befor e the buildings are open to the public and stand in line for them . If they are , the staffers in their employ would be violating congressional rules prohibitin g anyone in an `` official position '' from using that position to gain outside employment. .. . Chris Van Horn , owner of the CVK Group , which provides `` lin e-standing '' services to lobbyists , has complained that his place-holders most ly college students have found as many as 10 people in line ahead of them when t hey entered office buildings at their 7 a.m. opening . -0- COURT PLAN : The pres ident , having passed over federal Judge Jose A . Cabranes for the Supreme Court , has now nominated him for the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals , based in Ne w York . Aides say Clinton hopes to put several more Latinos in the appeals cour ts during the next couple of months in hopes that one will emerge as a likely hi gh court nominee by the time the next vacancy occurs . Next in line is Antonia H ernandez , head of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund based in Los Angeles , whose nomination to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is expect ed to be announced soon . SANTIAGO , Chile Erich Honecker , the former East German Communist leader who b uilt the Cold War 's most chilling monument , the infamous Berlin Wall , died of liver cancer Sunday here at his home in exile . He was 81 . Honecker , who rule d for 18 years before the collapse of communism , had lived in Chile with his wi fe and his daughter 's family since January 1993 , when Berlin judges ruled he w as too ill to stand trial in connection with shootings at the Berlin Wall . He l ived his final days in sickness and bitterness , according to Chilean friends , still a committed Communist who fretted about the `` social deterioration '' of reunified Germany . Although Honecker led the Communist East German state betwee n 1971 and 1989 , he will be remembered most for what he did long before buildin g the Wall . In many ways , the structure served as a metaphor for the uncomprom ising , neo-Stalinist views Honecker held throughout his rule . His regime foste red the most pervasive secret police organization in Communist Europe , penned i n its people and shot those who tried to flee to the West . Honecker 's successo r as head of the East German state , Egon Krenz , on Sunday pleaded for `` a fai r judgment '' on Honecker 's life . `` He wanted to realize the dream of humanis m . '' But a spokesman for German Chancellor Helmut Kohl stated that Honecker ha d failed in his political goals . `` His policies brought harm to countless peop le , '' said government spokesman Dieter Vogel . `` Erich Honecker failed . Perh aps he didn't recognize it , but history gave proof of his failure . '' On Sunda y , news of Honecker 's death drew shrugs of indifference in his homeland . `` A t this point I couldn't care less about Honecker , and I 'm sure the same goes f or most East Germans , '' said Klaus Sternberg , a teacher in Schwerin . `` He ' s in heaven now , and he can sit down with Marx , Engels and Lenin and think ove r what went wrong , '' said Lutz Wagner , a salesman in eastern Berlin . In the early part of his 18 years in power , Honecker enjoyed success . But later , poo r health , advanced age and political isolation left him increasingly vulnerable to the winds of change sweeping the region . An unbending hard-liner , he disli ked the Soviet Union 's reform-minded leader , Mikhail S. Gorbachev , and was de eply suspicious of the liberalization under way in other parts of Moscow 's empi re . In the end , Honecker was toppled by the massive anti-government street dem onstrations that marked the decisive phase of the 1989 East German revolution . His control over the East German state had been so complete , and his fall so su dden , that Politburo colleagues who witnessed his political demise said Honecke r was incapable of grasping what had happened . Krenz has said that when he info rmed the ousted leader of his expulsion from the Communist Party , Honecker `` h ad not understood at all '' the contents of the message . In his 1980 memoirs , `` About My Life , '' Honecker described proudly how , as the Politburo member r esponsible for state security , he organized the operation that in a matter of a few pre-dawn hours on Aug. 13 , 1961 , cut one of Europe 's largest cities in t wo , closed the last remaining hole in the Iron Curtain and stunned the West . ` ` At midnight the alarm was sounded and the action began , '' he wrote . `` With it began an operation that .. . would make the world take notice . Later we det ermined with satisfaction that we had forgotten nothing essential ( in the prepa rations ) . '' The 100-mile-long , heavily fortified wall through and around Wes t Berlin endured for 28 years as the most compelling symbol of an ideologically divided world . It was almost 10 years after supervising the Wall 's constructio n that Honecker succeeded Walter Ulbricht as Communist Party boss and de facto E ast German leader . Honecker was driven from power three weeks before the Wall ' s collapse in November 1989 in a series of events that heralded the fall of Sovi et bloc communism itself . The concrete barrier that he and other members of the East German hierarchy called the `` anti-fascist protection wall '' had effecti vely halted the westward flight of skilled manpower that threatened to bleed the Communist state to economic death . For all its horror , Western economic and p olitical analysts subsequently admitted that the Wall enabled East Germany to su rvive as a poorer neighbor of a highly successful West German state . ( Optional add end ) Born Aug. 25 , 1912 , in the western town of Neunkirchen as the third of six children of a coal miner , Honecker began his political career at the ag e of 10 by joining a Communist youth group . At 18 , he became a full party memb er , quickly taking on responsibility in the Saarland region for stirring the pa rty 's youth into street actions during the tumultuous final days of Germany 's Weimar Republic . Spotted by the party 's leadership as a future talent , Honeck er was sent to Moscow 's Communist Youth International School for a year and ret urned to become youth propaganda chief for his home region at age 19 . After Ado lf Hitler 's Nazis seized power in 1933 , Honecker worked surreptitiously to sti r resistance among factory workers in several parts of Germany , including the i ndustrial Ruhr Valley . He was finally arrested in Berlin by the Nazi secret pol ice , the Gestapo , convicted in 1936 of treason and sentenced to 10 years in pr ison . He remained there until advancing Allied forces reached his prison , 30 m iles west of Berlin , and freed him in the fading days of World War II . His com paratively light sentence and preferential treatment during his imprisonment led to persistent rumors that he had cooperated in some way with his Nazi captors . Those rumors continued virtually to the end , with reports that at the crucial 1989 Politburo meeting where Honecker was toppled , East German secret police ch ief Erich Mielke finally forced a reluctant Honecker to give up power by threate ning to publicize apparently damning evidence relating to his actions in prison . After his release from prison in the Soviet-controlled occupation zone , Honec ker , then 33 , joined the newly formed Communist hierarchy that would eventuall y lead the East German state . Initially responsible for the reconstituted Commu nist youth organization , the Free German Youth , he joined the Politburo as sec urity chief in 1958 , later planning the Berlin Wall operation and emerging as U lbricht 's heir apparent . Friends of Honecker hailed him as a lifelong anti-fas cist . Luis Corvalan , former secretary general of the Chilean Communist Party , said Honecker had been `` a great comrade , a great Communist who showed solida rity with the Chilean people . '' After the Chilean armed forces overthrew Socia list President Salvador Allende in 1973 , thousands of leftists fled into exile and an estimated 5,000 of them took up residence in the former East Germany . Al lende 's widow , Hortensia Bussi de Allende , was among the Chilean leftists who paid their respects to Honecker 's widow , Margot , and their daughter , Sonja , Sunday at their home in a closed condominium complex in Santiago . Honecker ha d another daughter , Erika , by an earlier marriage . Sunday afternoon , a hears e took Honecker 's body to Santiago 's general cemetery for a wake . A police sp okesman said a funeral service would be held there Monday and the body would be cremated . He did not know whether the remains would be taken to Germany . WASHINGTON After a breakdown in talks between a U.N. team and North Korea , U.S . lawmakers issued new warnings Sunday about the consequences if the Pyongyang r egime does not agree to international monitoring to prevent development of a nuc lear weapons program . Calling the defense of South Korea a `` sacred obligation , '' Sen. Sam Nunn , D-Ga. , said the North Korean government 's brinkmanship c ould ultimately endanger its survival . Pyongyang `` should make no mistake abou t our dedication , our intention and our absolute firmness in continuing the cou rse of making sure they do not become a nuclear weapons state , '' Nunn said on NBC 's `` Meet the Press . '' Tensions heightened this weekend when North Korea announced it would continue unloading spent fuel at its main Yongbyon nuclear re actor , but would `` never allow '' the International Atomic Energy Agency , or IAEA , to inspect the facility to determine whether fuel has been secretly diver ted from energy to weapons use . North Korea has repeatedly denied it has any fo rm of nuclear weapons program , but U.S. intelligence agencies believe that enou gh enriched plutonium has been siphoned off to make one or two crude bombs . Aft er talks broke down Saturday , part of the IAEA team left North Korea , abruptly ending the latest effort in the 16-month crisis that has swung erratically betw een near-calamity and tentative cooperation . The collapse could open the way fo r punitive U.N. economic sanctions , which North Korea has said it would treat a s an act of war . `` We don't want a war , '' added Nunn , who is chairman of th e Senate Armed Services Committee . But `` if North Korea brings a war in reacti on to any kind of sanctions , then they will bring about the destruction of thei r own country . '' For months , the Clinton administration has tried a carrot-an d-stick strategy to engage the outlaw state , offering diplomatic and economic i ncentives in exchange for cooperation on its nuclear program . Pyongyang 's late st actions indicate that tactic may have failed . Nunn said Pyongyang faces thre e alternatives and three different responses : First , cooperation , which would be rewarded with membership in the family of nations through `` trade and inter course . '' Second , resisting nuclear weapons monitoring , which would cause `` a very serious financial situation , which could lead to their own disintegrati on . '' And third , aggression , which would bring decisive military defeat . `` The North Koreans are playing brinkmanship this is their historical pattern but playing this game has very dangerous consequences , '' he added . Saying there are still methods of avoiding military confrontation , Sen . Bill Bradley , D-N. J. , suggested that the Clinton administration exert pressure through Japan 's e conomic ties and China 's energy links . `` So you have two vises right there th at can begin to squeeze , that might indeed take place if there were ever econom ic sanctions voted at the U.N. against North Korea , '' he said , also on `` Mee t the Press . '' U.N. . Security Council members met Friday to discuss the stand off , and more talks are scheduled at the United Nations on Tuesday . ( Optional add end ) On Friday , the crisis appeared to take on new urgency when the IAEA , the U.N. nuclear monitoring agency , notified the Security Council that North Korea was removing the reactor 's fuel rods so quickly that evidence of divertin g fuel to a weapons program could be erased `` within days . '' International co ncern has mounted further over the weekend with reports out of Japan that North Korea may soon test an advanced version of the Rodong 1 missile , which could re ach most of western Japan . Military analysts believe the missile would be capab le of carrying a nuclear warhead if it were refitted for that purpose . NAIROBI , Kenya Officials of Rwanda 's self-declared government fled their head quarters Sunday for a border town in western Rwanda , according to diplomats in Kigali , the capital . The rump government , composed of militant ethnic Hutus , abandoned the town of Gitarama as rebel troops of the Rwandan Patriotic Front a dvanced on it , said the diplomats , who were quoted by the Reuter news agency . The rebel group is dominated by the minority Tutsi tribe . The diplomats said t he Hutu leaders fled a civil servants ' college outside Gitarama where they had made their headquarters , heading west by road or helicopter toward Kibuya , on Lake Kivu , which borders Zaire . The fall of Gitarama , 25 miles south of Kigal i , would bring the rebels closer to their goal of an outright victory in the vi cious , seven-week-old civil war , and would mark a major psychological defeat f or the Hutu militants . `` Most of the government has gone to Kibuya and others are already abroad , '' Reuter quoted one diplomat as saying . The Hutu militant s , who control the state 's army , helped organize a pogrom against Tutsis last month after the Hutu president , Juvenal Habyarimana , died in a suspicious pla ne crash . In an offensive on Kigali , the smaller but better organized Rwandan Patriotic Front forced the Hutu leadership to withdraw to Gitarama . Now , the H utu militant forces including army units and militias are concentrated in the we st and the southwest around Butare . The Tutsi-led front controls large chunks o f Kigali , including the airport , and most of the north , east and south of Rwa nda . Its leaders refer to the Hutu-proclaimed government as a `` clique of kill ers '' and have refused direct negotiations with it . The U.S.-based human right s group Human Rights Watch/Africa has said at least four officials of the rump g overnment were key instigators and organizers of Rwanda 's ethnic slaughter incl uding its president , Theodore Sindikubwabo , prime minister , Jean Kambanda , a nd defense minister , Augustin Bizimana . From the time of the government 's cre ation , however , it was unclear how much real control they exercised over the R wandan armed forces and the roving bands of machete-wielding militiamen who bega n the slaughter that has left an estimated quarter-million Rwandans dead . Human Rights Watch/Africa , in a report this month on Rwanda 's violence , said , `` Although much of the violence is still controlled by authorities of the hardline ( Hutu ) parties , the rump government , or the Rwandan army , random killing , especially in the course of banditry and pillage , is growing as well . '' With the international community horrified by Rwanda 's widespread killing , but par alyzed by confusion and fear about how to respond , many diplomats and human rig hts advocates have quietly expressed hope for a quick rebel victory as the most likely way to end the bloodshed . The front also has been accused of random kill ing and other abuses , but human rights groups say violations by the rebels do n ot appear systematic or centrally directed . The offensive on Kigali also contin ued Sunday , with heavy artillery pounding the city overnight and small arms fir e forcing the United Nations to suspend convoys in which it has been evacuating civilians trapped by the fighting . With tens of thousands of civilians reported ly fleeing Kigali along the main highway south , the rebels faced the prospect o f taking over the capital and finding it largely deserted . The roads south were said to be clogged with refugees and some government soldiers , fleeing the reb el advance . Two relief flights landed Sunday with food at Kigali 's airport , b ut intense small arms and mortar fire prevented food from being distributed in t he city , according to new agency reports . A mortar shell apparently struck the Gitiga orphanage in the capital , wounding six children . WASHINGTON As President Clinton prepares to depart for Europe this week to comm emorate the 50th anniversary of D-day , he faces the challenge of asserting Amer ica 's and his own leadership in the world . Speaking across a generational chas m and addressing himself to veterans of a military whose later mission in Vietna m he and others vehemently opposed , Clinton confronts an important test of his presidency . Can the 47-year-old Clinton persuade a skeptical world that he and his fellow postwar baby boomers are ready to assume the mantle of leadership ? C an he summon a nation and its allies to deal with a world whose threats are far more diffuse and ambivalent than the unvarnished evils of Nazism and fascism ? A nd can he present a coherent view of American engagement in the world despite a foreign policy record marked by vacillation on Bosnia , retreat in Somalia and H aiti and reversal on human rights in China ? The way the world and the American public come to answer those questions will have a lasting effect on how much Cli nton will accomplish in his presidency . Clinton hopes that by proving himself a strong spokesman for America 's ideals abroad , he can boost his credibility at home despite questions about his character and competence . Aides say the key t hemes of the European trip will be homage to the heroes of the `` Great Crusade '' of World War II and a vision of the future based on the triumph of democracy . As Clinton speaks against the backdrop of American military cemeteries in Ital y , Britain and France , he and millions of television viewers will be reminded of the painful legacy of the bloodiest century in human history . Clinton , who was born after the war ended , will be shadowed not only by his own draft-avoidi ng past but also by the specter of former President Reagan . Reagan , who spent World War II in Hollywood making training and propaganda films for the Army , st aged what many consider the most effective piece of political theater of his pre sidency on the cliffs above the Normandy beaches during the 1984 ceremonies cele brating the 40th anniversary of the D-day landings . White House aides say they know that comparisons with Reagan 's stirring performance are inevitable , but t hey contend they are irrelevant . In 1984 , they say , the United States was sti ll engaged in a great moral struggle against communism and Reagan 's words about the heroes of Normandy carried a resonance that cannot be reproduced today . Cl inton will instead try to summon up the valor of the struggle against fascism an d make it apply to the effort to consolidate democracy in the nations of the for mer Soviet empire and elsewhere around the globe . ( Optional add end ) Aides in volved in planning the trip and polishing the keynote speeches said there will b e no chest-thumping over the Allied military triumph of World War II . `` Let me emphasize this : This should not be seen as a victory over Germany and over Ita ly , '' said national security adviser Anthony Lake . `` I think the president w ill be trying to make it clear that we are not celebrating the defeat of certain nations ; we are celebrating the victory of an idea , a liberating idea , of de mocracy . '' Lake said Clinton intends to honor not only the veterans of the war but also those political and military leaders who shaped the postwar world , re built the shattered economies of Europe and Japan and led the West in its costly victory in the Cold War . WASHINGTON With skepticism mounting about the fate of the health care reform in itiative , key Democrats tried Sunday to minimize the damage from House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski 's looming legal troubles . The commi ttee `` is going to get a bill out no matter what happens , and we 're going to have it on the floor in July , '' House Majority Leader Richard A . Gephardt , D -Mo. , predicted . `` The committee has already done a lot on health care . We ' re going to get it done . '' Gephardt and others , appearing on ABC 's `` This W eek With David Brinkley , '' said there are many forces working to ensure passag e of a health care reform bill this congressional session and that the legislati on 's future does not depend solely on the chairman of the powerful House panel . Health care reform `` is bigger than any one person , '' said White House seni or adviser George Stephanopoulos , adding : `` There is great momentum right now to make sure we get health care reform. .. . We 're confident we will be able t o work with whoever is chairman of the committee. .. . We 're going to get this done this year . '' Rostenkowski has a Tuesday deadline for accepting a plea bar gain that would require his resignation and a probable jail term . The alternati ve would be an indictment and potential trial on corruption charges . There have been allegations that he has taken illegal cash payments from the House post of fice and listed employees on his payroll who did not do any work . He has denied any wrongdoing and , according to sources , is now inclined to fight the charge s . Under Democratic caucus rules , he would have to abandon his chairmanship if indicted . Rep. Charles B . Rangel , D-N.Y. , the third-ranking Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee , said on the ABC program that Rostenkowski 's skill w as in `` being able to fully understand the needs of the different regions , the needs of members who had to vote for ( health care reform ) ... . In talking to people , he will know those who can vote for it , and those who can't . '' Rang el insisted that `` with the presumption of innocence still going , '' he expect ed Rostenkowski to continue to work to ensure passage of a health care measure ` ` because he is really committed to this piece of legislation . '' But House Min ority Whip Newt Gingrich , R-Ga. , speaking on CBS ' `` Face the Nation , '' sai d that recent Republican House victories , particularly in Kentucky and Oklahoma , signal more problems for passage of President Clinton 's reform bill than the potential loss of the influential chairman . Those Republicans ran against Clin ton 's policies , including his plan for overhauling the nation 's health care s ystem . Gingrich said he was concerned that Rostenkowski might get a lenient ple a bargain through Democratic influence . He cited `` the weird situation where t he president 's lawyer is negotiating with the president 's Justice Department o n behalf of the president 's health care leader in the House . '' Robert S. Benn ett , who is Rostenkowski 's lawyer , is also representing Clinton in a sexual-h arassment lawsuit filed by a former Arkansas state employee . Gingrich said he w as worried that the result would be `` some kind of rigged deal where 15 or 20 f elony counts magically get reduced to a misdemeanor to allow him to stay in char ge of health care . '' SHANGHAI Percy Chu 's eyes glisten as he recalls Shanghai in the decades before the 1949 communist revolution , when it was `` the Paris of the East , '' pulsa ting with Jazz Age energy . It was Asia 's most cosmopolitan city , a hub of fre e-wheeling capitalism , high intrigue , bacchanalian night life and brazen crime . Chu , 95 , was a prominent banker in those days . Among his prized mementos i s a 1940 newspaper clipping reporting his abduction by an armed gang so audaciou s that its extortion letters bore a return address . `` I survived , '' Chu said . `` I 've survived a lot of things . '' Now heady times are returning to Shang hai and the city 's old capitalists such as Chu are gaining a new lease on their pre-revolutionary way of life . After four decades of stagnation and decay unde r communism , Shanghai is bidding to regain the glory it once enjoyed as a cente r of international finance and trade . The city 's rulers are wooing foreign inv estors and spending massive amounts on public works in an effort to build a glit tering nexus of commerce on old Shanghai 's faded ruins . They aim for the city to rival Asia 's modern urban jewels such as Hong Kong and Singapore within the next two decades . The endeavor underscores the extraordinary sense of hope and progress engendered by China 's explosive growth as its economy converts from st ate planning to free enterprise . Given Shanghai 's dreadful overcrowding and an tiquated infrastructure the majority of homes still lack flush toilets the city 's aspirations are ambitious to say the least . But the atmosphere of rejuvenati on has aroused the capitalistic spirits for which Shanghai used to be famous , f ueling one of the most spectacular boons in China 's reform era . Members of Sha nghai 's old money elite are back in clover . Chu , for example , belongs to an organization of elderly Shanghainese stripped of their assets during the communi st era and brutally bullied by Mao Zedong 's Red Guards . The group , using mone y that had been repatriated by the authorities , recently helped launch a local construction company , whose shares have soared on the Shanghai stock exchange . Chinese companies that left Shanghai after 1949 are streaming back with an eye to tapping its burgeoning markets and employing China 's best-educated work forc e at wage levels that are rock-bottom by world standards . Chung Shing Textile C o. , whose late founder fled Shanghai for Taiwan , has formed a joint venture wi th the Shanghai apparel factory it had owned before the plant was nationalized b y the communists . The Sincere department store chain of Hong Kong , whose flags hip store on Shanghai 's Nanking Road was also nationalized , opened a glitzy ne w store last year a few doors from the site of the old one . Multinational compa nies from the United States , Europe and Japan are also pouring billions of doll ars a year into offices , factories , bank branches , chemical plants and distri bution facilities . Among them : AT&T Corp. , Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. , Citiban k , Morgan Stanley & Co. , Volkswagen AG , Unilever , Toshiba Corp. , Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and Hitachi Ltd. . `` Two years ago we had 54 members , '' said Diane Long , president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai . `` Now there 's 313 I mean , there were 313 a week ago . '' The number is risi ng so fast , she explained , `` I don't know what it is today . '' The most dram atic development is taking place in a section of the city on the eastern bank of the Huangpu River , named Pudong . Nearly 2,000 foreign-funded ventures are eit her completed or underway in Pudong , including a giant department store backed by the Hong Kong-based retailer Yaohan ; a spandex-manufacturing venture bankrol led by DuPont Co. ; and an air-conditioner factory established by Japan 's Sharp Corp. . Officials predict that by 1995 the new area 's skyline will boast 100 h igh-rise buildings , including a financial center that will house the country 's main stock exchange , commodities exchanges and currency trading operations . S hanghai 's comeback is emerging as a key test of China 's ability to shed its co mmunist fetters and create a modern market economy . The city of 13 million , Ch ina 's largest , encompasses nearly all of the nation 's most troublesome econom ic problems poor transportation and distribution systems , inefficient state ent erprises , poorly defined property rights and imperious bureaucracy . The Chines e leadership under Deng Xiaoping , aware that a successful renaissance in Shangh ai would send the strongest possible signal of the nation 's advancement , is tr eating the city as an important showcase of economic reform , a major change fro m the 1980s , when Shanghai was held in check . Tax laws have been changed to en tice foreign-funded ventures , and $ 17 billion worth of infrastructure projects is nearing completion , including power generation plants , waste water treatme nt facilities and a two bridges over the Huangpu River , connecting the city 's western and eastern segments for the first time . A second group of projects is now underway , including a new airport , subway , ring road and ocean container terminal . Seldom , if ever , has so bold a venture in urban renewal been launch ed in a city where history echoes so clamorously . Shanghai attained its interna tional fame as the result of some particularly shameful excesses on the part of Western imperial powers.In the 1840s , colonists from Britain , France and the U nited States including many opium traders carved out sections of the city exempt from Chinese law , with exclusive parks and gentlemen 's clubs . Hundreds of in ternational banks and trading houses set up shop in Shanghai . European refugees fleeing Bolshevism and Nazism flooded in by the tens of thousands during the er a between the two world wars , as did Chinese refugees fleeing civil strife and the Japanese invasion . While Shanghai 's high society thronged to cabarets , te a dances and greyhound races , its vast underclass endured slave labor , opium a ddiction and starvation . The communists rid the city of its most sordid blight , and Shanghai became a bastion of ultra-leftist zealotry during Mao 's reign . But now the Maoist legacy weighs heavily on the city . Years of neglect left an infrastructure designed for a population a fraction of Shanghai 's size . Nearly 3 million Shanghainese work for state-owned enterprises , many of them money-lo sing dinosaurs , and the authorities dare not allow the extensive layoffs that w ould enhance efficiency . Foreigners complain that bureaucrats , eager to fill m unicipal coffers , are demanding absurdly high amounts for property leases , a d evelopment that is threatening to cool investors ' enthusiasm . Yet Shanghai 's development goals , which once evoked widespread skepticism , are no longer the object of derision . `` Three years ago , I would have been rather reserved , '' said Annick de Kermadec-Bentzmann , manager of the Shanghai office of the Banqu e Nationale de Paris . `` Today , when you look at what 's going on , you have t o admit , it 's quite surprising . It 's not just a fantasy . '' JERUSALEM In leaving the Gaza Strip after a quarter-century of military occupat ion and looking toward withdrawal from the West Bank , Israel is finally able in the view of many of its liberal thinkers to return to the question , profound a nd contentious , of what kind of nation it should be . `` As long as we were occ upying another people , depriving the Palestinians by force of arms of their bas ic human and political rights , we were not a democratic state ourselves . And a s long as we had more than 2 million Palestinians under us , we were on the way to losing our Jewish identity , '' philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz declared . `` We can again ask ourselves the question , What does it mean for Israel to be Je wish ? What kind of democracy should we have ? What sort of nation are we ? What sort of people should we aspire to be ? After a generation , those questions ar e back at the top of the agenda . '' Although the iconoclastic Leibowitz challen ged Israel 's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip immediately after the 1 967 Middle East War , and called for a Palestinian state , he is joined today by many others closer to the Israeli political center in suggesting that the count ry must now confront new issues . `` The glue of security has kept this country together , '' said Rabbi Naama Kelman , who directs Reform Judaism 's education program here . `` If we obtain peace with the Palestinians and then with the oth er Arab neighbors as we hope and that is a big if we will face serious questions like social unrest , poverty , domestic violence , intolerance , economic prior ities and relations between synagogue and state ... . `` Once Israelis are less concerned about physical security , they will have time to worry about spiritual security and they will find there is a lot to worry about . '' Among Israeli li berals , there already is a lengthening agenda : the role of religion in the Jew ish state , improvement of education after years of degradation , relations betw een Jews and Arabs within Israel , how to close social gaps while encouraging en trepreneurs , the future of Judaism itself . Many on the Israeli right share the se concerns . But their focus , more than ever , is on security , because of the ir fear that an agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organization on Palestin ian self-government will prove to be a death trap for the country . Even liberal s preface their discussions of where the country should go with clearly stated a ssumptions that the autonomy deal must be the first step into an era of peace an d with warnings that , if it fails , Israelis will respond `` very , very vigoro usly and violently , '' as Rabbi David Hartman put it , and then retreat back in to the `` world of conflict '' that they know so well . Novelist Amos Oz , while noting that `` everything depends on the Arabs and their acceptance of us , '' said it `` already feels a bit strange this life ` after the ( occupied ) territ ories ' and the possibility we will look out and not see someone ready to kill u s . `` I worry sometimes that Israel at peace will lose its character and become part of a homogenized , CNN world . That would be a great pity , because Jews f orm a unique instrument in the world orchestra of art and culture , and it would be a shame if it vanished . '' `` The big question is whether Israel is the end of Jewish history or another chapter of Jewish history , '' asserted Hartman , a theologian and philosopher . `` People are wondering seriously about that . Th ere is a profound Jewish identity crisis in Israel . '' ( Begin optional trim ) With the establishment of Israel as a modern state in 1948 and earlier , in the Zionist movement according to Hartman , Leibowitz and others , many Jews came to substitute the founding and building of a national home for the spiritual value s and way of life that had defined Judaism for centuries . Israel 's triumph in the 1967 war , including the conquest of the West Bank and Gaza Strip , confirme d for many that `` the whole biblical promise was being worked out .. . and we w ere living in God 's redemptive scheme , '' Hartman said . `` That meant they ne ed not ask any difficult or embarrassing questions about the future of the Jewis h people or the purpose of Israel . '' That was an illusion on virtually a natio nal scale , Hartman and others maintain . And because of the fundamental shifts implicit in recognizing the Palestinians ' right to self-determination , includi ng a share of the biblical Land of Israel , Israelis will soon be searching for new points of orientation . ( End optional trim ) Michael Breeson , who writes p rovocatively on political and social issues under the name `` B . Michael '' in Israel 's largest newspaper , Yediot Aharonot , was even more pungent in assessi ng this historic juncture . `` Over our 27 years in the Gaza Strip and on the We st Bank , we became occupation junkies , hooked on power and running and ruining other people 's lives , '' Breeson said , `` and now we have to give it up . Th at will be tough . People know they have to kick the habit and that means gettin g out entirely from the West Bank , settlements and all but they say , ` Just a little more. ' ' ' For secular Jews such as Ilana Hammerman , a prominent editor , the questions may be the same as they are for Leibowitz , Hartman and others who are religious , but the answers are certain to be different . `` Is Israel a religious state , a theocracy run by rabbis , or is it democratic and pluralist ? '' Hammerman asked . `` We need a very big discussion on that . Having our li ves run by rabbis , as it is now at the most important points like birth , marri age and death , is the first battle I will fight . `` Then there is education th at is the very future of our society . Next is the forced nationalism , the mili tarism and all the holy little rituals that remind me of countries we fled . Wha t about the cultural conflicts we have among us ? I could go on the list is long . But when can we start ? If we have to wait another 40 years , we will cease t o exist . '' Oz also believes that `` the future has already begun getting out o f Gaza just confirmed it . '' `` Turn your back on Jerusalem and scan the entire coastal plain from Haifa down to Ashdod , and you see a land that is secular to the core , hedonistic , passionate , noisy , warmhearted , temperamental like G reece , Italy , Spain and North Africa , '' Oz said . `` Israel is finding its p lace in the Mediterranean where it belongs . I like it . People smoke a lot , sp eak loudly , push a lot , but are open and creative , very creative . What makes me relatively optimistic is that it is not going to become a boring place for a very long time . '' LAS VEGAS , Nev . Like corporate raiders seeking new markets to exploit , Los A ngeles gang members have come gunning for easy money on the high-rolling Strip . In a spree of brazen invasion-style heists three of them in the last three mont hs suspected Bloods and Crips have stormed into casinos , rifled through the cas hier 's cages and made off with tens of thousands of dollars in a matter of seco nds . No bystanders have been injured in any of the attacks , which reflect the continuing evolution of some South-Central Los Angeles gangs into profit-driven enterprises . But the robberies , captured on dramatic surveillance videotape , have stunned this mushrooming tourist mecca and forced image-conscious proprieto rs to begin beefing up their intentionally low-key security measures . `` When y ou see these guys jumping like animals over the counters with their pillow cases ready to fill with bounty , that really strikes fear in people 's hearts , '' s aid Beecher Avants , security chief at the Gold Coast and a candidate for Clark County sheriff . `` This is going to continue .. . as long as we leave cash layi ng out there like candy . '' Starting with a November 1992 , robbery at the San Remo Hotel and Casino , there have been seven casino heists in Las Vegas , inclu ding holdups at the Aladdin , Flamingo Hilton , Harrah 's and the San Remo again . Although Los Angeles gangs are suspects in five of the assaults , authorities have had enough evidence to file charges in only two . In almost every case , a t least three or four masked gunmen have burst into the neon-bathed gambling hal ls , waving shotguns and shouting for everyone to hit the floor . A few times , the crowds failed to even hear the commands , drowned out by the clatter of slot machines and the unshakable lounge bands . Vaulting over the belly-high counter s of the cashier 's cages , the robbers have scooped up bundles of large bills , then sped away in stolen cars . One group of alleged thieves , all suspected Cr ips , was caught in Las Vegas after a high-speed chase . The 15-year-old trigger man in another casino robbery was arrested in South-Central Los Angeles after an informant overheard him boasting about his feat . None of the loot , which has ranged from $ 47,000 to $ 158,000 , has been recovered . `` It 's like they thin k we 're the new frontier , that we 're easy pickin 's , '' said deputy district attorney Victoria Villegas , who successfully urged a 30-year prison term for t he juvenile shooter . `` We 're trying to send a message to L.A. gangs that this not going to be looked upon lightly . '' ( Optional add end ) For much of the l ast decade , Crips and Bloods have been evolving from turf-oriented neighborhood cliques into business-minded outfits . Some of the more sophisticated factions have helped fuel a nationwide drug-trafficking network , while others have been linked to the alarming rise in Southern California bank robberies . `` Our gangb angers are master opportunists , '' said Los Angeles County Sheriff 's Sgt. Wes McBride , who fields calls from law enforcement agencies around the country seek ing information about Crips and Bloods migrating from Los Angeles . `` Like any predator , they take what they can get . '' With the crack cocaine market satura ted and banks rapidly bolstering security , gang experts say , the fast cash of Las Vegas became a lucrative target . Not only are many of the cashier 's cages wide open , but there is little chance that a security guard would risk firing a gun in a casino crowded with tourists . `` No matter what gets taken in a robbe ry , it 's not as much as they 'd have to pay if grandma gets shot at the damn s lot machine , '' said Jim Galipeau , a deputy probation officer in South-Central Los Angeles . `` It 's well-known in the gang community that you can go in and take anything you want from a Vegas casino as long as you can get out the door . '' MOSCOW His hair has grown grayer and his face grimmer , but Alexander Rutskoi s till looks and sounds much as he did last Oct. 3 when he stood on a balcony of t he Russian White House and exhorted a roiling mob of armed supporters to topple President Boris N . Yeltsin . The trademark mustache is still in place under nar row blue eyes that flick back and forth in humorless scrutiny . And the bitter d enunciations of Yeltsin and his `` regime of national betrayal '' still fall fro m his lips like verbal hand grenades . `` This regime is a Fifth Column inside R ussia , '' Rutskoi told a conference of government opponents Saturday . `` It is fulfilling the assignments of the international monetary groups that are reachi ng for our natural resources . This is a Mafia clan that is running the country . '' The conference was a kind of political coming-out party for Rutskoi , the f ormer fighter jock and defrocked vice president who spent four months in prison after breaking with Yeltsin and leading the revolt that ended in a bloody tank a ssault on the White House last fall . The goal of the gathering was to relaunch Rutskoi as a serious political figure by making him the rallying point of a new coalition of neo-communists , ultranationalists and other Yeltsin opponents call ed Accord in the Name of Russia . Only three months ago , when Rutskoi and the o ther leaders of the October revolt walked out of prison to supporters ' chants o f `` Rutskoi , president ! '' events appeared to be moving in their direction . Russia 's chronic political and economic instability seemed to be undermining Ye ltsin 's support and paralyzing his will to act , creating an ominous power vacu um made to order for his most implacable opponents . But since then Yeltsin has fought back , moving in a variety of ways to reassert himself as a leader , shor e up his own support and divide the ranks of his adversaries . As a result , man y observers believe , the first frail shoots of political stability are sproutin g in Russia and hard-liners like Rutskoi and his allies have been pushed to the fringe , at least for the moment . `` It is a kind of stabilization very tempora ry , very fragile but nonetheless stabilization , '' says Viktor Kremenyuk , a M oscow political analyst who is no great fan of Yeltsin 's . `` It gives the gove rnment some breathing room . '' ( Begin optional trim ) One source of this new s tability is economic . While Russia 's economy remains in steep decline , its mo st acute problem runaway inflation has eased considerably recently , dropping fr om 22 percent in January to 9.7 percent last month . With inflation easing , Yel tsin moved last week to brake the drop in production by cutting taxes and ending government controls on exports . A second source is Yeltsin 's recent burst of activity . Russia 's political center of gravity has shifted rightward in recent months and the president has moved with it , dropping radical reformers from hi s Cabinet and projecting an image of toughness against crime , corruption and th ose who would take advantage of Russia 's troubles . While this shift has worrie d some foreign leaders , it apparently has helped Yeltsin recapture the support of some of the millions of voters who unexpectedly cast ballots for ultranationa list Vladimir Zhirinovsky in the December parliamentary elections . `` These peo ple want a strong executive figure , '' says Boris Mikhailov , director of domes tic political studies at the U.S.-Canada Institute , a Moscow think tank . `` Th eir vote for Zhirinovsky was a kind of protest vote , not just about economic in stability but also social instability . I think most of them are moving back tow ard the president as he becomes tougher on the law-and-order issue . '' Yeltsin has also moved to split his opposition by offering a kind of political non-aggre ssion pact called a treaty on civic accord . While the agreement was derided by some as hollow and meaningless , it was signed by a surprisingly wide array of p oliticians , including Zhirinovsky and parliamentary chairman Ivan Rybkin . Sinc e then , Rybkin has steered his chamber in a more cooperative direction , despit e his communist background . Yeltsin believes that the treaty has succeeded in i solating those adversaries , such as Rutskoi and Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov , who refused to sign it . `` The forces of the irreconcilable oppositi on .. . are increasingly becoming a side , marginal phenomenon in Russian politi cs , '' says Yeltsin 's chief spokesman , Vyacheslav Kostikov . ( End optional t rim ) An air of lethargy and frustration hung over Saturday 's gathering of hard -liners , which attracted about 300 people , most of them aging Communists . Sev eral leaders expected to attend , such as Agrarian Party chief Mikhail Lapshin a nd jurist Valeri Zorkin , failed to show . Rutskoi complained openly about Yelts in 's success in stealing the opposition 's issues . After a morning of mostly d ull speechifying and a closed-door strategy session in the afternoon , the deleg ates voted to adjourn until fall , when they hope the political situation will b e more favorable to them . Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service . HOUSTON These days , Mayor Bob Lanier sits comfortably in his City Hall office , his black Western-style boots plopped on his desk and a stack of charts and gr aphs in his lap . He likes to talk statistics ; he revels in numbers , and he ca n spin off facts about Houston as fast as a Texas tornado . But there is one sta tistic he cherishes most : The city 's overall crime rate has plummeted more tha n 30 percent since he was elected three years ago . Lanier credits the sharp dec line not to `` new-fangled ideas '' such as community-based policing but to hund reds of newly hired police officers whose sole purpose is to go out in uniform e very day and make arrests . `` I don't look on police officers as social workers , '' he said , espousing ideas that run counter to what other big cities , such as Los Angeles , are trying to do . `` I don't expect a police officer to go to a neighborhood and figure out a drainage problem or a ditch problem . I expect him to do police work . '' Down the street at police headquarters , Police Chief Sam Nuchia is equally plain-spoken . `` When I took over , '' he said , `` we q uit using the terminology ` neighborhood-oriented policing . ' Instead , I decla red that we were going to make it as tough on the criminals as we possibly could . '' Just a few years ago , before Lanier and Nuchia moved into their jobs , Ho uston was considered a model for community policing a concept that has caught on in other big cities looking to rebuild public trust in their police departments . While Los Angeles is only slowly implementing the program as a result of the 1991 beating of black motorist Rodney King by white police officers , Houston of ficials claim to have learned the hard way that the effort never really paid off . The perception here is that instead of reducing crime , community policing fu eled a deep resentment among officers , did little to boost the public 's trust of the police and ultimately cost the two biggest champions of the policy the po lice chief and the mayor their jobs . Houston never had an episode as divisive i n police-community relations as the King case . But there were past controversie s nevertheless . A Latino man drowned after he was handcuffed by police and forc ed to swim in the bayou . A `` throw-down '' weapon was planted on a suspect aft er he was shot by police . To turn the tide , Houston in 1982 brought in its fir st outside police chief , who also happened to be its first minority chief , jus t as Los Angeles did in hiring Willie L. Williams from Philadelphia in 1992 . Le e P. Brown , who served as Houston 's chief until 1990 , made neighborhood-orien ted policing a hallmark of his administration . It was designed to make police o fficers more aware of community concerns , to get them out of the patrol cars an d into neighborhood meetings and other civic ventures . Proponents say it works best when officers walk their beats , meet residents and business owners and enl ist the public in crime-prevention efforts . Brown was followed by Chief Elizabe th Watson , a 20-year veteran who stayed until 1992 . She embraced many of Brown 's programs , but her tenure was troubled . Because of the oil bust in eastern Texas and the subsequent economic downturn here , the city under then-Mayor Kath ryn J. Whitmire put a freeze on the hiring of officers , closed the police acade my and did not grant police pay raises . The police , in turn , began ridiculing neighborhood-oriented policing , saying that its initials actually stood for `` Nobody On Patrol . '' Morale sunk and senior officers began leaving for other c ities where old-fashioned police work was still practiced . When Whitmire lost t o Lanier in the fall of 1991 , police officers unfurled a banner downtown procla iming : `` Ding , Dong . The Witch Is Dead . '' `` The previous administration w as penny-wise and pound-foolish , '' Nuchia said . `` They saved money on the bu dget , but they also allowed the strength of the department to go down at a time when we needed it most . '' Lanier , a wealthy businessman , ran for mayor on a promise to beef up the police ranks . `` That was the only campaign issue , '' he said . He was elected in November 1991 , and one of his first appointments wa s Nuchia , then an assistant U.S. attorney who earlier had worked as a junior po lice administrator in Houston . Almost immediately they froze their predecessors ' plans to expand community policing , such as putting officers in `` storefron t '' substations around the city where they would be more accessible to resident s . Lanier , in order to reopen the police academy and start hiring officers , s cuttled a proposed downtown monorail system and saved $ 50 million . `` That was a goddamn Tinkertoy , '' he said . He said he picked up another $ 50 million by restructuring the city 's debt and saved $ 50 million more by improving its rev enue-collection system . So far , the department has grown from 3,900 sworn offi cers to 4,800 . Now Lanier is seeking a four-cent sales tax to boost the force t o 5,200 officers . From 1991 to today , murder and rape each dropped 15 percent , according to police department statistics . Robbery was down 22.5 percent ; th eft down 25 percent ; burglary down 41.2 percent ; and auto theft down 42.5 perc ent . Even with aggravated assaults up 12.5 percent ( the only category to see a rise ) , the total crime rate dropped 30.3 percent . ( Optional add end ) In ad dition , police response times to crime scenes shortened , from 6.1 minutes on m ajor calls to 4.4 minutes . Police morale , meantime , went up , particularly wh en Lanier and Nuchia found two small pay raises for officers . The chief and the mayor suggested that Los Angeles , which appears to be going the opposite direc tion , also might be better served by increasing its police force before embarki ng on new community programs . `` I don't want to tell them their business , '' Lanier said , `` but I think they have a big problem . They don't have enough po lice . That 's going to strain any additional duties . It 's going to strain thi ngs . '' BERLIN More than 100 times a minute , 50,000 times a day , a camera shutter cli cks in a windowless basement in southwest Berlin , capturing on each frame a fra gment of Germany 's grim past . Thirteen camera operators labor throughout the d ay on what some here say may be the most ambitious microfilming project ever und ertaken : the duplication of 75 million pages of Nazi personnel documents stored in a former Gestapo eavesdropping post now known as the Berlin Document Center . The microfilmers work swiftly because on July 1 the U.S. . State Department in tends to relinquish custody of the original documents to the German government . The duplicates 8 million feet of film on 38,000 rolls will be flown to Washingt on this summer and deposited in the National Archives . The Justice Department k eeps the right to unrestricted access to the original files . The pages passing beneath the camera lens range from the prosaic to the sinister : Heinrich Himmle r 's expense accounts ; Nazi Party membership card No. 899,895 , belonging to on e Adolf Eichmann ; Josef Mengele 's dental records and membership sheet in the N azi Physicians Professional Association ; Hermann Goering 's suicide notes , scr ibbled before he swallowed cyanide in 1946 . Among the old files with contempora ry relevance is that of Erich Priebke , a former SS captain now awaiting extradi tion in Argentina on charges of helping to murder 335 Italians in Rome 's Adreat ine Caves in 1944 . Returning the original documents to German custody is anothe r milestone in the restoration of German sovereignty after a half-century of All ied occupation . But the proposed transfer has met resistance . Historians , Jew ish groups and Nazi hunters have bitterly objected to the State Department 's pl an . They complain that restrictive German privacy laws will hamper access to th e original documents , that the National Archives duplicates will not be availab le for at least two years and that surrendering the files is morally wrong . `` We bought those documents with the most precious commodity we have : the blood o f our young boys and the other Allied forces that had to fight the Nazi menace i n order to liberate the world , '' Elan Steinberg , executive director of the Wo rld Jewish Congress , said in a telephone interview from New York . `` I 'm remi nded of the old saying that if it ISn't broke , don't fix it , '' he said . `` T he Berlin Document Center ISn't broke right now , and I don't know why we 're tr ying to fix it . '' Rep. Tom Lantos , D-Calif. , who led hearings on the documen t center last month , has threatened a full debate in Congress `` on Germany 's Nazi past '' unless Bonn and the State Department resolve the controversy . Germ an Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel recently promised Je wish leaders that rules governing access to the original documents will remain i n line with U.S. regulations until the National Archives duplicates are ready fo r viewing . U.S. Embassy officials in Bonn are trying to hammer out the details . `` This is something that has been negotiated over quite a long period of time and has been reviewed from every angle that I can imagine . When concerns have been raised , they 've been reviewed again , '' said Dan Hamilton , policy advis er to Richard Holbrooke , the U.S. ambassador to Germany . Donald Kobletz , the State Department 's lawyer in Berlin in the 1980s and now a private attorney her e , said : `` Can you tell a sovereign government , one of your closest allies , that 50 years after the war you don't really trust them to keep their own recor ds ? After getting microfilm copies , paid for by the German government ? I woul d consider it a gratuitous irritation to our relationship that really isn't warr anted . '' Many of the files were seized by Allied troops driving across Germany such as some 10.7 million Nazi Party membership cards impounded by American sol diers at a Bavarian paper mill as the SS prepared to reduce them to pulp . The c ards provided useful evidence for prosecutors at the Nazi War Crimes tribunal in Nuremburg . Ever since , the archives have proved invaluable for historians scr utinizing the Third Reich , for German officials sorting out immigration request s and for Nazi-hunters looking for culprits . Last year the center processed 27, 000 requests for information from official agencies and 1,300 from private indiv iduals such as scholars and journalists . Although few files in this collection contain direct documentation of mass murder , the information often helps corrob orate other evidence . `` When a guy writes in his resume , ` I was assigned to KZ ( concentration camp ) Auschwitz , ' and he signs it , it 's difficult for hi m to later claim that he wasn't there , '' said David Marwell , 42 , the center 's director . As early as 1952 , U.S. officials began discussing the eventual re turn of the archives to German control . Many other documents , such as papers f rom the Third Reich foreign ministry , were given to the Germans decades ago aft er being microfilmed for the National Archives ' Captured German Documents divis ion . Negotiations over the Berlin Document Center were abandoned in the late 19 60s , however , because of U.S. government concerns that Germany 's proposed rul es of access `` were unacceptably restrictive of private scholarly access , '' D eputy Assistant Secretary of State Mary Ann Peters told Lantos ' hearing last mo nth . Moreover , German officials for years privately hinted that they were cont ent to have such sensitive material remain in American hands . `` I don't think the Germans really wanted the documents , '' said Kobletz , the former State Dep artment lawyer. `` .. . It 's a bit of a hot potato for everybody . '' The potat o got hotter in the 1980s when it was discovered that an estimated 10,000 pages had been stolen from the archives and sold to memorabilia collectors willing to pay up to $ 3,000 for each signature of a high-ranking Nazi . Marwell was dispat ched to Berlin to overhaul security procedures . In 1989 , the German parliament voted unanimously to ask that the center be remanded to German custody . The mi crofilming project , which had begun in 1968 only to stop in 1972 , resumed . La st October , the State Department signed an agreement to relinquish the archive on July 1 . In bulk alone the collection is staggering , covering roughly eight miles of stacked paper . Among the party membership cards is that of Oskar Schin dler party No. 6,421,477 and Amon Goeth , No. 510,964 , the sadistic commandant of Plaszow concentration camp in Poland ; both men were portrayed in the recent film `` Schindler 's List . '' Much of the current controversy was stirred by a magazine article in the New Yorker by writer Gerald Posner , who questioned both the quality of the microfilming and the potential pitfalls in German privacy la ws . The article contends , for example , that microfilm fails to distinguish be tween different colored inks used on some documents and renders some writing les s legible . More significant perhaps are concerns about whether German archivist s would hinder legitimate scholarship . German privacy law typically prohibits a ccess to files on people until they have been dead for at least 30 years . Howev er , as to the issue of accessing the original documents , Marwell expressed con fidence that the German government will prove to be a fair administrator . Since 1988 , Germany 's Federal Archives has had the authority to screen requests fro m German citizens for entry into the Berlin Document Center ; German officials c ontend that only one request from a scholar and less than 1 percent of requests from private citizens have been denied . Moreover , under the agreement signed l ast October , the Justice Department keeps the right to unrestricted access to t he files . `` For the kind of access that people are concerned about scholarship and Nazi war crime investigations people willn't see a difference , '' Marwell said . `` Absent some dramatic change , I don't think scholars have anything to worry about . '' BOGOTA , Colombia In a presidential election whose major candidates have all be en victims of Colombia 's rampant violence , economist Ernesto Samper of the rul ing Liberal Party took a tenuous lead in vote-counting late Sunday . The margin was so narrow that a runoff seemed assured . With 79 percent of voting booths re porting , former development minister Samper , 43 , led Conservative Andres Past rana with 45.4 percent of the ballots to 44.7 percent . With 18 candidates in th e race , the absolute majority needed to declare victory today was out of reach . The runoff would be June 19 . According to the partial results from the Nation al Elections Office , an ex-guerrilla named Antonio Navarro was in third place w ith 3.9 percent of the vote and self-proclaimed witch Regina Betancur was fourth with 1.2 percent . The campaign and balloting took place in relative calm , a m arked contrast to presidential elections four years ago when drug cartel hitmen and paramilitary squads assassinated three candidates . In 1990 , the candidates were forced to adopt a bunker lifestyle and limit their public appearances to r adio and television . This year the contenders campaigned openly , accompanied b y salsa bands and vendors selling liquor . A turnout of about half of the 17 mil lion eligible voters was widely predicted . Colombia has coaxed left-wing guerri lla movements into electoral politics and adopted constitutional changes to enco urage a wider spectrum of participation . But this election seemed to confirm Co lombia 's status as essentially a two-party state . Samper has promised to creat e 1.5 million new jobs , increase social spending and carry out an economic open ing program `` with a human face . '' A balding economist and lawyer with a nasa l voice , Samper seemed less fit for campaigning on television than Pastrana , b ut his performance in two TV debates drew wider praise . Pastrana , 39 , an ex-m ayor of Bogota , favors free markets , privatization , minimal government interv ention in the economy and an aggressive campaign to provide more education . The handsome son of a former president , Pastrana began his public career as the an chor of his family 's TV news program . He speaks flawless English and spent a y ear studying at Harvard . During a news conference Saturday , Samper said he and the other major contenders , as victims of violence , share `` a tragic common denominator . '' Samper was hit by 11 bullets , four of which remain in his body , in an assassination attempt attributed to drug traffickers at the Bogota airp ort in 1989 . The Medellin cocaine cartel kidnapped Pastrana when he was a mayor al candidate in 1988 . Two other candidates Gen. Miguel Maza , a former secret p olice chief , and Enrique Parejo , an ex-justice minister were attacked after ch allenging drug lord Pablo Escobar . The nonviolence of this year 's campaign is widely attributed to Escobar having been killed last December by security forces . The candidate running third in the polls , Antonio Navarro , is a former comm ander of the M-19 rebel group , which laid down its weapons four years ago in ex change for amnesty . In 1985 , Navarro lost a leg when assailants threw a grenad e at him as he ate breakfast in a restaurant in the southwestern city of Cali . Navarro became a co-president of an assembly that rewrote Colombia 's constituti on and , later , President Cesar Gaviria 's minister of health . Both frontrunne rs say they are willing to negotiate peace with the insurgents who , together wi th drug traffickers , right-wing paramilitary squads and common criminals , have bloodied Colombia . About 28,000 homicides are committed each year , compared w ith 24,000 in the United States , which has a population eight times as large . BUDAPEST Hungary 's former communists scored a decisive victory Sunday in the r unoff round of parliamentary elections , winning an absolute majority of 209 sea ts in the 386-member legislature . The ex-communists now called the Hungarian So cialist Party were trounced in Hungary 's first post-Cold War election four year s ago but have been steadily building public support ever since as the promise o f democratic capitalism has soured here . The Socialists who have traded their r ed star symbol for a red carnation won more than 54 percent of the vote nationwi de , while the center-left Alliance of Free Democrats finished second with about 18 percent and 70 seats in parliament . The current ruling party , the center-r ight Democratic Forum , finished a distant third with just under 10 percent of t he vote and 37 seats nearly 130 fewer than they won four years ago . To the surp rise of most foreign observers , more Hungarian voters went to the polls in the two rounds of voting nearly 70 percent in the initial round May 8 and 55 percent Sunday than did to end 45 years of communist rule in 1990 . `` This is the firs t time in its history that Hungary has freely voted in a leftist government , '' said Hungarian political analyst Tibor Vidos . But it also reinforced a recent trend among other East European countries that replaced communism with nationali st politics and free-market economics and have since lurched back to the left . Lithuania led the way , then Poland the cradle of anti-communist insurgency and now Hungary too has followed suit , all largely as a result of widespread econom ic insecurity , rising unemployment and social disillusionment brought on by the transition from a communist welfare state to the hazards of free-market democra cy . The Hungarian Socialists have pledged there will be no going back to the au thoritarian ways of the old postwar regime and say they intend to improve on the free-market reforms of the current government , many of which they say they ini tiated in the waning days of communist rule five years ago . Their immediate tas k will be to decide whether to form a government on their own or try to find a c oalition partner , which many Socialist leaders favor as a means of widening the ir political base and providing additional strength in parliament should it prov e necessary to force through unpopular measures . At a news conference Sunday ni ght , Socialist leader Gyula Horn said his party favors `` broad national cooper ation '' and is ready to cooperate with the second-place Free Democrats , whom h e called `` our natural partners . '' Political analysts say the country could b e headed for a period of political and economic instability if the Socialists tr y to form a single-party government and that much will depend on whether the Fre e Democrats agree to join the Socialists a prospect that they say could require hard and lengthy bargaining even though the parties ' economic platforms are sim ilar . At a separate news conference , Free Democratic leader Gabor Kuncze said the size of the Socialist victory makes his party 's decision on entering a coal ition `` much more difficult , '' since the Socialists ' absolute majority would allow them to carry through programs in parliament that the Free Democrats migh t oppose . In early discussions , the Free Democrats had strongly objected to Ho rn 's becoming prime minister and had proposed Kuncze instead as the price of th eir participation . Kuncze and his party are expected to announce their decision Sunday after a party convention , just one day after the Socialists meet to nom inate their candidate presumably Horn as prime minister . Horn , who is recoveri ng from a serious auto accident earlier this month , is a controversial figure h ere because he served in a pro-Soviet militia that helped put down the bloody 19 56 Hungarian uprising against communist rule . Free Democrats , among others , h ave been asking how Horn can be expected to lead nationwide ceremonies scheduled for Oct. 23 to mark the 38th anniversary of the revolt . On the other hand , Gy ula 's supporters have consistently pointed out that he was a leader of the comm unist reform movement here in the 1980s and that as foreign minister he was resp onsible for opening Hungary 's border with Austria in 1989 so that thousands of East Germans could flee to the West an action they say led ultimately to the bre aching of the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain . PHOENIX Border states and cities will have to come up with innovative ways to f inance infrastructure improvements in the region before they can fully realize t he jobs and economic benefits expected from increased U.S.-Mexico trade . That ' s the message U.S. government officials brought to last week 's annual Border Go vernors ' Conference here , where leaders from California , Arizona , New Mexico and Texas met with their counterparts from Mexico 's border states to discuss t he issues related to approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement and oth er regional concerns . The U.S. and Mexican governments will not be able to pay for the roads , bridges , sewers , new border checkpoints and communications lin ks that must be built to fully leverage NAFTA , Assistant U.S. Secretary of Comm erce Charles F. Meissner said in a speech to the governors . Meissner said $ 16 billion in improvements are needed along the border to facilitate trade , but on ly $ 3 billion in U.S. and Mexican funds are available thus far . `` The public sector cannot meet these needs . The private sector must help , '' he said . Alt hough Congress increased highway and border improvement funding in 1991 with a v iew toward increased traffic that would result from border trade , the funds sti ll run about 35 percent short of what the states will need to simply maintain cu rrent levels of service , said Bruce Cannon , chief strategic planner for the Fe deral Highway Administration . So , states and cities have no choice but to beco me entrepreneurial if the infrastructure for the post-NAFTA era is to be built . They may have to charge a variety of tolls and fees to help finance the improve ments , some speakers suggested . But others warned that charging excessive fees would only dampen the commercial forces that NAFTA was designed to unleash . Th e trade pact was designed to ease trade barriers among Mexico , the United State s and Canada . Meissner offered the governors his help in setting up a `` consul tative '' group of bankers and investment professionals to help the states draw up business plans and conduct feasibility studies on border improvements . ( Opt ional add end ) Officials said cooperation in planning between U.S. and Mexican states will be critical to ensure maximum efficiency of dollars spent and persua ding the private sector to invest in improvements . Both Texas and Arizona have set up numerous joint committees with their Mexican neighbors , bolstering ties that have been in place for decades . California , by contrast , has been slow i n cementing commercial relations with Baja California , officials from other sta tes said . Whereas other border governors have made it a priority to develop clo ser ties with neighboring Mexican states , most coordinated activities in Califo rnia is being carried out between the municipal governments of San Diego and Tij uana . California 's relative lack of statewide coordination may be due to Gov. Pete Wilson 's preoccupation with the state 's financial problems and the fact t hat up to now the state 's massive economy has not had to put much energy into s timulating trade , some officials noted . American investors in European stocks and bonds experienced a bad case of deja vu last week : European markets plunged on growing fears that interest rates the re have bottomed . Earlier this year , it took an actual boost in short-term rat es by the Federal Reserve Board to send U.S. stocks reeling . In Europe , all it took last week was for German central bank President Hans Tietmeyer to suggest that the Bundesbank may be finished cutting short rates for now . Mindful of Ger many 's still-languishing economy , Tietmeyer said nothing about raising rates . Yet investors reacted with horror at the thought that European short rates migh t stop falling , after only 20 months of Bundesbank-led cuts . At about 5 percen t now , the yield on three-month German treasury bills is well above the 4.25 pe rcent yield on U.S. T-bills even though Germany 's economy is weak while the U.S . economy is strong . Rattled by Tietmeyer , the Frankfurt stock market 's DAX i ndex slumped 109 points for the week , to 2,141 Friday a drop of 4.8 percent , o r the equivalent of the Dow industrial index losing 180 points from its current 3,757 1/8 . Because the Bundesbank largely calls the tune for interest rates acr oss Europe , most of the region 's other stock markets also went down hard . In London , the FTSE-100 stock index tumbled 5.1 percent for the week ; Milan 's Mi btel index dove 5.9 percent . Worse , in some respects , was the reaction in Eur opean bond markets to Tietmeyer 's comments . In Britain , the yield on the benc hmark 15-year government bond closed at 8 percent Friday , up from 8 1/8 percent just three days earlier . But while investors were dumping European securities , other world markets paid scant attention . In fact , North American , South Am erican and Asian stock markets generally finished higher last week or unchanged . Other markets ' ability to ignore Europe 's turmoil may be a sign that interna tional investing has become a stock-picker 's game again unlike last year , when virtually all foreign markets rocketed . As markets go their separate ways , U. S. investors will find international investing more challenging , but also poten tially more rewarding . If you can recognize bargains among individual markets , or you 're in a foreign mutual fund that has proved its savvy as a global stock -picker , you should earn above-average returns . So far in 1994 , a good defens e has been the best offense in foreign investing . Early this year , the smart m oney was selling stocks in Hong Kong , Singapore , Bangkok and other Southeast A sian markets after their 60 percent-plus gains in 1993 . Those markets began to dive in January , and only recently have they shown signs of bottoming . Meanwhi le , the Japanese stock market has been this year 's big surprise . The Nikkei i ndex has jumped 19.3 percent year-to-date , fueled by the perception that Japan 's economy is bottoming after three difficult years . Until last week , European stock markets had held the middle ground between Southeast Asian markets ' plun ge and Japan 's hot streak . Most European markets were off marginally for the y ear , though with the dollar 's weakness American investors still were making mo ney there . Does last week 's selloff suggest European stocks are poised for a m eltdown ? Many international stock fund managers don't think so . For the most p art , fund managers still believe there 's room for short- and long-term Europea n interest rates to fall , because the Continent 's economy is only beginning to emerge from recession . On Friday , in fact , the Bundesbank 's Tietmeyer tried to allay investors ' fears by telling a radio interviewer in Germany that `` it can be taken for granted '' that the Bundesbank will keep cutting money market rates , even if it makes no additional cuts in its official discount rate . But European stocks now face other obstacles , fund managers admit . John Hickling , who runs the Boston-based Fidelity Overseas fund , says too many European compa nies are trying to raise money with new stock offerings . `` There 's supply com ing from everywhere , '' he warns . Political risk is also high , with German el ections looming this year . Pressure on politicians in Germany ( and across Euro pe ) to use government spending to bring down double-digit unemployment rates ma y keep inflation concerns at the forefront , in turn keeping bond yields artific ially steep . Lastly , there 's the issue of valuation : Many European markets l ook expensive because corporate earnings remain depressed while stocks have rall ied since 1992 . Nonetheless , European stock bulls expect their markets to foll ow the U.S. script : As the economy improves , the bulls see investors flocking back to European industrial stocks , which have the most to gain from an economi c turnaround . For example , Hickling 's fund has about half its assets in Europ e , mainly in industrial giants such as auto makers Volvo and Peugeot , and ener gy/petrochemical leaders such as Elf Aquitaine and Total . Madelynn Matlock , ma nager of the Bartlett Value International fund in Cincinnati , has 59 percent of her fund 's asset in Europe . She expects investors to eventually return to suc h industrial names as Tampella , a Finnish maker of mining equipment , and to Fr ench construction materials firm Saint Gobain . Jeff Russell , co-manager of the Smith Barney International Equity fund in New York , argues that European stock s still don't reflect the future earnings benefit from corporate restructurings still in full swing there a couple years behind the U.S. restructuring binge . H is fund , about 45 percent invested in Europe , has targeted stocks in Italy , I reland and other countries that depreciated their currencies 18 months ago . Tha t depreciation made those countries ' exports more competitive , giving their co mpanies a head start in Europe 's recovery , Russell says . But some internation al stock fund managers contend that the best place to put new money to work toda y isn't Europe , but the beaten-down emerging markets of Asia and Latin America . Norman Kurland , head of Pioneer International Growth fund in Boston , is only 35 percent invested in Europe . He finds more allure in markets such as Mexico , South Korea and Thailand , especially after their selloffs this year . If you want to bet on global growth , Kurland argues , it makes more sense to invest no w in Asia or Latin America . Expansions in the United States and Europe , he say s , will be magnified in already-booming emerging economies that are major expor ters to the developed world . And emerging markets ' stock valuations are once a gain reasonable , he says . Khallid Abdul Muhammad , a controversial former aide to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan , was wounded in a parking lot shooting Sunday evening at the Un iversity of California , Riverside , where Muhammad had just given a speech , of ficials said . A Riverside police sergeant said two or three other people were a lso wounded , none of them seriously . An Associated Press photographer said Muh ammad was hit in the foot . A crowd surrounded the gunman in the parking lot out side a university auditorium where Muhammad had spoken , and beat him before aut horities could break up the fight . He is in police custody , officials said . T wo people were injured in the parking lot shoving after the shooting , said univ ersity spokesman Jack Chappell . Muhammad , 43 , had been suspended from his dut ies as senior aide to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan after a speech in N ovember in which he called Jews `` the bloodsuckers of the black nation and the black community . '' That speech was denounced by President Clinton and other bl ack and Jewish leaders , as well as by Farrakhan himself . RIVERSIDE , Calif A black gunman dressed to look like a member of the Nation of Islam shot and wounded controversial former Nation of Islam spokesman Khallid A bdul Muhammad here Sunday , on the steps outside a university auditorium where M uhammad had just spoken . Muhammad , 43 , was hit in the left leg by at least on e of five or six shots from a .9 mm handgun , officials said . He was in satisfa ctory condition at Riverside Community Hospital , according to a Muhammad associ ate who asked not to be named . ( Riverside is about 60 miles east of Los Angele s ) . Two Nation of Islam bodyguards were also wounded . Caliph Sadig , 33 , of Upland , Calif. , was in satisfactory condition with a wound in the upper right back . Another guard , Varnado Puckett , 34 , of Pomona , Calif. , was shot thre e times . He was in serious condition , undergoing surgery at Riverside General Hospital . The gunman wearing the dark suit , white shirt and bow tie `` charact eristic of what his security people were wearing , '' said University of Califor nia , Riverside , spokesman Jack Chappell stepped from a crowd of some 50 people outside the auditorium where Muhammad had just spoken , and fired from five to 10 feet away . He was severely beaten by the crowd , some of whom reportedly sho uted , `` He works for the Jews . '' ( Muhammad was fired as an aide to Nation o f Islam leader Louis Farrakhan after making anti-Semitic remarks last year . ) P olice plucked the bloodied man from the angry crowd and put him in a police car until he could be taken away by ambulance . Riverside Police Sgt. Robert Hanson said authorities are not releasing the name of suspect because of concerns for h is safety . No motive for the shooting has been discussed by officials . Ahromuz , a longtime Muhammad friend who was standing on the auditorium steps next to M uhammad when he was shot , said someone had just asked him to compare the strugg le of Latinos with those of African Americans . `` The last thing I remember him saying was , ` The same dog that bit you , bit me , ' ' ' said Ahromuz . `` Aft er that , just pop , pop , pop , pop , pop . It was so close . I just took my da ughter and hit the ground , '' he said . `` I heard a bullet echo in my ear and I could smell gunpowder . '' In the chaos after the 6:09 p.m. shooting , Ahromuz said , several young African-American men attacked some white people who had ru shed to the scene , but others who had been at the speech intervened . Members o f the Fruit of Islam , the Nation of Islam 's security contingent , carried the wounded Muhammad back through the building to a waiting white Lincoln Continenta l and hurried him to Riverside Community Hospital . Associated Press photographe r William Lewis said angry supporters descended on the gunman and pummeled him a s police attempted to stop them . `` They were just kicking and stomping him in the head . That 's where the pandemonium was . They dragged the shooter out by t he nape of his neck , blood dripping , '' he said . `` People were still trying to get their kicks in . The police were trying to protect him . And the people w ouldn't let him get out . '' UC Riverside senior Mark Thaler , who attended the speech , saw the suspect later , `` a bloodied head , and ( he was ) propped up '' in the back of the police car . Muhammad 's son , 9-year-old Farrakhan Khalli d Muhammad , was carried away by aides as he screamed , `` Daddy ! Daddy ! Daddy ! '' The boy , who frequently appears on stage with Muhammad , did not appear t o be injured . Under intense security that included pat-downs and bag searches a nd a hefty presence of police , campus security as well as Fruit of Islam , near ly 450 people had entered the Student Recreation Center to hear Muhammad , who w as sponsored by the African Student Alliance at UC Riverside . During the speech , some 70 protesters picketed silently outside , among them Jewish and Roman Ca tholic students . Inside , three people were thrown out of the building after th ey began heckling Muhammad . Campus officials identified one of them as Irv Rubi n , a member of the Jewish Defense League . Following the speech , Muhammad step ped outside , where 50 or 60 people were waiting . `` After a speech , he likes to deal with the people , which irritates his security , '' a friend of Muhammad 's told the Los Angeles Times . `` Security is more worried about Khallid than Khallid himself . '' ( Optional add end ) That Muhammad arouses strong passions has been evident since his controversial remarks last November at a New Jersey c ollege about Jews , comments which got Muhammad fired from his job as senior aid e to Nation of Islam head Louis Farrakhan . Muhammad said that Jews and Arabs we re `` the bloodsuckers of the black nation and the black community , '' and sugg ested that Jews brought the Holocaust upon themselves . After his speech was den ounced by the Rev. Jesse Jackson , the Congressional black caucus and President Clinton , Farrakhan was forced to reprimand Muhammad and suspend him from his ro le as top aide and spokesman . Although Farrakhan said he agreed with Muhammad ' s remarks , he disagreed with how he said them . Muhammad , however , said he wa s told his speech was `` repugnant , malicious , mean-spirited ... . I feel very hurt over those words , to be honest . '' He acknowledges the raw nerves his sp eeches touch , saying again and again , `` I 'm a truth terrorist , I 'm a knowl edge gangster . '' The following editorial appeared in Monday 's Washington Post : The United Stat es didn't create the Macedonia problem but by its sluggish diplomacy lets a fire spread that could yet ignite a second set of Yugoslav wars , rather than contri buting to closing down the ongoing first set . Washington does this mischief by bending excessively to an assertive Greek lobby , thereby stiffening Athens in i ts dispute with the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia , which is now a decla red state . A more independent policy would let Washington help move both sides toward necessary compromise . The dispute between Athens and what it calls , by the capital 's name , `` Skopje '' arises from Macedonia 's grip on a name , fla g and constitution that Greece claims are irredentist . Small and weak Macedonia badly overreached in its choice of nationalist symbols and rhetoric . Greece is supposedly a mature country , able to distinguish a short-term political victor y from a long-term strategic debacle . But in response it went off the deep end , imposing a crushing economic embargo and opening an effective campaign of poli tical isolation . Throw in multiethnic Macedonia 's sharpening internal tensions , and you have a recipe for pitching the so-far spared southern Balkans into th e northern Balkans ' fire . Washington 's role is curious . It has put nearly 60 0 peace-eepers on Macedonia 's northern border as a caution to Serbia . This rep resents a policy of stabilizing Macedonia . At the same time , though it recogni zes the `` Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia , '' it does not send an ambass ador . This conspicuous default has the effect of destabilizing Macedonia . How is this awkward contradiction to be explained ? The result corresponds to the ap peals of Greece and its friends . A look at Macedonia on a map tells the real st ory . The country abuts Serbia , including the inflamed Serb province of Kosovo , on the north and Albania , Greece and Bulgaria on its other borders . It could be the fuse that , once lit by , say , an explosion in tightly wound , majority -Albanian Kosovo , could touch off further explosions through the region . Unlit , however , Macedonia also could be the stopper . This is the double potential that American diplomacy has yet to grasp . Greece seems unfamiliar with the requ irement to think in a regional context . The United States is in a position to r ender Greece a true friend 's service to help it to rise above parochial politic al concerns and face the urgent requirement for a responsible regional policy . In Beijing in 1989 , one of the larger student-democracy movements in a century emerged . More than 3,000 young students gathered in Tiananmen Square , gaining the support and concern of people in China and around the world . Now , almost exactly five years have passed , and during these years , the world has changed tremendously . The communist `` camp '' has fallen apart . A new world structure has appeared . If we want to understand why there has been such a huge change i n so brief a time , we should not neglect the China democracy movement of 1989 a nd the response of the Chinese regime . That regime had reacted wrongheadedly ma ny times in countering the student movement . But never was the government more wrong than on that June night , when it used bullets and tanks to suppress the s tudents . Such brutal behavior astonished the world , and I cannot overstate my condemnation of it . But as a member of the leadership of the movement , I don't want to use more ink to express my anger . Rather , I want to look back at the main reasons for the failure of the democratic movement . In June 1989 , when st udents went to the streets , the only motive they had was to push the process of political reform through orderly , radical political expression . Their aim was to compel China to become a democratic , modern society more quickly . This pur e motive gained popular support ; it was also the fundamental reason students lo st their lives . As students , we never realized we were engaged in a political movement . Our goal was just to express our opinions , to try to represent the p eople 's voice . We wanted the government to answer questions and come up with s ome solutions to the country 's problems . Even the most radical students never thought of adopting the tactics of a general political struggle , such as having contact with the ruling class , learning about power struggles within it , arou sing the masses or making alliances with other political powers . We thought of ourselves as simply a student movement . This , I think , was why we had no effe ctive political means to resist government suppression . Furthermore , if we had treated our movement as a political movement , we would have accepted some sort of appropriate compromise . We should have known that political struggle is the art of compromise . But in reality , the students did not have any desire to pu rsue political interests . They merely wanted to express their political wishes . When the government labeled their action as `` anti-Communist Party , '' `` an ti-Socialist system '' or `` turmoil , '' the students reacted with strong resis tance . At that point , they did not want to compromise at all . That 's how the deadlock formed between the government and the students . Looking back from tod ay 's vantage point , we can see that if the students had withdrawn from Tiananm en Square of their own accord and adopted more meaningful measures of political struggle , they would not have had to pay such a price in lost lives . June 4 ha d an important impact on Chinese history even on world history . For China , the 1989 democracy movement was an important step on the road to modernization . Mo re than that , it served as a means to enlightenment . After several decades of political suppression , the value of democracy and freedom had little room in th e Chinese people 's heart . The 1989 movement opened that heart again . Its larg er meaning is beyond words . For a country to follow a democratic road , it must first meet a basic precondition : Its citizens must possess a strong desire for democracy and a civic consciousness . Not only intellectuals but influential wo rkers ' groups must show the social responsibility to help the larger society re ach this precondition . From this point of view , the June 4th movement helped t o build a strong foundation for realization of a politically democratic China . In the past five years , however , ordinary Chinese have generally distanced the mselves from politics . This detached attitude is the inevitable consequence of the bloody suppression of June 4 . Some hold the student movement responsible fo r this aftermath . They criticize the movement , saying it brought harmful effec ts to the process of China 's modernization . But these opinions are , in my vie w , very shallow . We must clear our eyes and see : The Chinese government is re sponsible for what happened . It 's normal for people to keep silent when they a re facing brute force . It is not politics but their own government that the Chi nese people have distanced themselves from . Nor would I say that people are det ached from politics so much as disappointed . Yet this situation will not last l ong , because the '89 movement has already planted the seeds of democracy . As s oon as the spring wind comes , the democracy flowers will bloom splendidly . Eve ryone who learns history knows that the more time that passes after an important historical event , the clearer what happened becomes . The same principle appli es to the '89 movement . The Chinese government totally denies the historical me aning of the '89 movement . This attitude has caused enormous dissatisfaction in side people 's hearts . If such dissatisfaction continues , China 's political d evelopment will not follow the right track . If we do not have political reform , there will be no big breakthrough in economic reform . The majority of Chinese have decided that only by following the road of reform can China reach wealth a nd power . I firmly believe that unless the '89 movement is rehabilitated , it w ill be impossible for China to transform itself peacefully into a modern society . Several thousand years of history have told us something : When you forget ol d suffering , it revisits you . Wang Dan , a dissident leader in China now worki ng as a freelance writer , was recently detained and released in Beijing . This article was translated from Mandarin by Kun Cody . LOS ANGELES The transformation was completed on a recent Saturday afternoon whe n I found myself standing on the lawn with a cordless phone in one hand and a Fr isbee in the other . I was talking with my wife about plans for dinner at a rest aurant on Melrose Avenue , and I was flinging the flying disk for our dog . And the thought occurred to me that I had become California Person . In the six year s since we moved to the land of low-fat milk and organic honey , I have survived drought , water rationing , drip irrigation , several earthquakes , a riot , ra in so heavy houses slid down hillsides , and trips to Cedars-Sinai Medical Cente r , where the stars go to die . I have stood at the top of Mount Hollywood with a bottle of Evian water in my fanny pack . My grocery store is at Melrose and Vi ne . My dog 's vet has valet parking . I know that morning clouds almost never m ean rain . I know all the words to `` I Love L.A. '' I no longer turn and stare when a '56 Thunderbird or a '57 Chevy rolls by . I am used to seeing and politel y ignoring famous actors when I go shopping . A movie location shoot is just the cause of a detour , not curiosity . I am used to seeing major sporting events o n TV at breakfast time . I pay 29 cents for a huge sack of crispy fresh cilantro instead of $ 2.45 for tiny brown bits in a shrink-wrapped package . I know how to spell `` Chardonnay , '' and I know not to serve it ice cold . I know that a tostada is not made by Dodge . I can figure out what time it is in Tokyo . I thi nk all those people in Washington , D.C. , my former home , are self-centered , pompous idiots who ought to get real jobs . I don't smoke anymore. I go to parti es here where nobody smokes , even outside . I expect flowers to bloom in my gar den on Christmas Day . I have swatted flies in January . I have seen the thermom eter top 100 in January . I love to chuckle over blizzard reports from cities wh ere I used to live . I no longer own a parka , and I can find only one of my glo ves . Umbrella ? It 's around here somewhere . I know the difference between a g ardener and a lawn guy . I know nobody has ever rolled a 300 game at the Hollywo od Bowl . I view 15 mph on the freeway as steady progress . I am used to waiting 20 minutes instead of five for a bus during rush hour . I know City Hall is the building Superman used to jump over on TV . I have hiked in the state park wher e helicopters used to land on `` MASH . '' I have been in the Griffith Park cave from which the Batmobile used to come roaring . I know how to get discount tick ets to Disneyland . My home improvement center is on Sunset Boulevard . I have f lown the redeye . I have seen my wife walk up to the mondoplex refreshment stand and order banana chips and herb tea . I know the best time of the year to visit Yosemite . I have seen buffalo roaming free on Catalina Island . I know that Ca talina is part of L.A. County. I know the location of the unmarked road to the b est beach at Big Sur . I know the difference between Cinco de Mayo and Mexican I ndependence Day . I know the best parking lot to use for a speedy exit from Dodg er Stadium . I can count on my fingers the number of times I have eaten red meat this year . I have seen the seismo-cam too many times , thank you . Now I certa inly have my doubts that any of this has made me a better person . But it does m ean I have adapted enough to this unique environment that I have a slightly bett er chance of surviving here than I did six years ago . For better or for worse , I am California Person . Hear me Roar . I am Strong . I am Invincible . NEW YORK When fX , the new cable network from Fox , begins programming Wednesda y , it will be available in 18 million U.S. households , said to be the largest launch of a cable channel in history . But fX 's gain will be C-SPAN 's loss . ` ` Some 1.1 million cable subscribers will lose C-SPAN entirely or see us part ti me due to cable systems picking up fX , '' said Brian Lamb , chairman of C-SPAN , the 15-year-old cable channel that televises congressional proceedings and oth er public-affairs events . Lamb blames provisions in the 1992 Cable TV Act for t his development , which he says gave Fox and the other broadcast networks an unf air advantage in rolling out new cable channels . `` This is government meddling in communications of the highest order , '' Lamb said angrily . `` I have nothi ng against fX , but the government has given the broadcast networks a powerful j ump-start with their new cable networks , an advantage that no one else has . '' What 's more , Lamb complained , the same law earlier led to another 2.5 millio n subscribers losing all or part of their access to C-SPAN programming . The Cab le TV Act prohibited cable companies from carrying a broadcast signal without th e consent of the station . If a station wanted to provide the signal for free , cable operators in the immediate area were obligated to carry it , even if they hadn't done so in the past the so-called `` must-carry '' rule that meant droppi ng or cutting back on existing channels . If a station didn't want to give away its signal , it could negotiate for `` retransmission consent . '' This is the r oute the networks took with the stations they own , but most cable operators bal ked at paying cash to the broadcasters , so many of them struck deals instead th at guaranteed space for network-owned cable channels in exchange for the right t o continue carrying their over-the-air programming . ABC quickly brought forth E SPN-2 , now available in 14 million homes ; Fox developed fX and NBC will launch America 's Talking , an all-talk channel , on July 4 , with an initial reach of more than 10 million homes . ( CBS chose not to go forward with a cable enterpr ise . ) fX 's weekday lineup will mix reruns of `` Dynasty , '' `` Hart to Hart , '' `` Fantasy Island , '' `` Wonder Woman , '' `` In Living Color , '' `` Batm an '' and `` Greatest American Hero '' with seven hours a day of original progra mming , ranging from an information show along the lines of `` Good Morning Amer ica , '' to a pet show , an issue-of-the-day show hosted by Jane Wallace a music video program and a viewer call-in show . Meanwhile , dozens of other new cable channels are struggling to find an outlet in the crowded cable universe . Most cable systems simply don't have the channel capacity to handle anywhere near the volume of programming that is being offered . If they decide to take something new , it often means dropping something else or forcing two services to share ti me on one channel . `` It 's the ` law of unintended consequences ' run amok , ' ' said Lawrence Grossman , president of Horizons Network , a proposed cable chan nel that would be a `` cultural C-SPAN , '' offering lectures , readings and oth er symposiums featuring authors , scientists and artists . `` The government has given the broadcast networks a preferred seat on the bus for their new cable ch annels , while all the new independent services have been pushed to the back of the bus . '' And with cable companies chafing under new rate cuts ordered by the Federal Communications Commission , new channels such as Grossman 's may not ge t a better seat anytime soon . The cable operators say that the government has s everely restricted their ability to generate the revenue needed to upgrade and e xpand . `` The FCC clearly intended to create incentives for new networks , but the most recent rules have had the opposite effect , '' Grossman said . `` They 've helped to create a situation that discourages new and innovative program ser vices . '' ( Optional add end ) Horizons Network and Ovation Network , a propose d fine-arts network whose executives include former National Gallery of Art cura tor Carter Brown , recently asked the FCC to look at the impact of its regulatio ns on smaller networks . Kathleen Waldman , deputy chief of the FCC 's cable ser vices bureau , said that the agency may do so . `` We are open to hearing argume nts about whether we 've provided adequate incentives to add new programming and maintain investment in public-interest programming like C-SPAN , '' Waldman sai d . `` We obviously didn't intend for the rules to discourage diversity in progr amming . '' The cable industry also has challenged the constitutionality of the `` must-carry '' rule , arguing that , under the First Amendment , the governmen t may not dictate the programming that cable operators offer . A decision by the U.S. Supreme Court is expected soon . If it votes to overturn the law , C-SPAN could win back some of the channel space it has lost . Some C-SPAN fans aren't w aiting for the government to act , however . They 've mounted local campaigns to protest the replacement of C-SPAN with fX . `` People are outraged that we are going to go off and they are going to get reruns of ` Dynasty ' instead , '' Lam b said . In McAllen , Texas , the announcement that TCI Cablevision planned to d rop C-SPAN in favor of fX prompted citizens to demand a meeting with the mayor . `` I 'm getting beat up by my customers , but I don't have a lot of options , ' ' said TCI General Manager Neil Hamen . `` We have contract obligations to take fX , we have to take broadcast signals , we 're channel-locked the people in Was hington who passed the regulations are reaping what they 've sown . '' AROUND THE HOUSE When finished painting , wipe off excess paint from can and li d and apply vegetable shortening around rims . This provides an airtight seal bu t allows easy opening next time . Welcome summer . Fill an empty fireplace with houseplants or a bouquet of baby 's breath . A flexible , cloth measuring tape w ill easily measure irregularly shaped objects for workshop projects . Seal small holes in window screens with clear cement glue . The repair will be almost invi sible . Store children 's outdoor toys in 30-gallon garbage containers . Label c ontents on top of each lid and keep container close to the play area in your yar d . Update your front door with a fresh coat of paint and new hardware ; the cha nge looks as good as a new door and is much less expensive . IN THE GARDEN Deter mine the pH level of your soil by purchasing a soil testing kit or calling your local extension agency . An abundance of mushrooms , moss or fungi in the lawn i s indicative of an imbalance and lime may need to be applied to the soil . HOLLYWOOD The competitive matchups disclosed by ABC , CBS , NBC and Fox in thei r recently announced fall schedules are more intriguing than usual , from the fr ontline battle of programs to the long-range ambitions mapped out in executive s uites . For viewers , who will see 30 freshman series in the new prime-time line ups 15 dramas , 13 comedies , one newsmagazine and `` The ABC Family Movie '' se veral matchups are sure to draw major attention : NBC is risking its top new ser ies of this season , `` Frasier , '' by pulling it from its cozy post- `` Seinfe ld '' slot on Thursdays and sending it into head-to-head competition with ABC 's `` Roseanne , '' one of the best and most-established comedies on TV . On Sunda ys , all eyes will be on Fox 's newly acquired National Football League games sw iped from CBS and how their lead-in will affect the tune-in for this highly watc hed night of TV , prized by advertisers and networks . With CBS reeling from a o ne-two punch by Fox , which also this week swiped eight of its key stations in a daring raid that brought it 12 new affiliates overall , the thing to watch is w hether and how the football games begin to have an impact on CBS ' audience domi nation on Sundays with `` 60 Minutes '' and `` Murder , She Wrote , '' both long -running CBS series that have benefited in the past from the football lead-in . Fox , now possessing the football games and commentators long associated with it , including John Madden , Pat Summerall and Terry Bradshaw will use the contest s to lead in to a new action drama , `` Fortune Hunter , '' and `` The Simpsons , '' which is returning to Sundays . These shows will be followed by Fox 's `` M arried .. . With Children '' and a new comedy , `` Wild Oats , '' about a group of 20-somethings . If football loosens CBS ' hold on Sundays , `` The Simpsons ' ' and two other returning , high-profile series that have registered only medioc re ratings ABC 's `` Lois & Clark : The New Adventures of Superman '' and NBC 's `` seaQuest DSV '' will be in place to make yet another assault at 8 p.m. on `` Murder , She Wrote . '' There are other intriguing matchups in the fall schedul e , including Fox 's increasingly popular `` Melrose Place , '' which will be mo ved to Mondays , taking on such sitcoms as `` Fresh Prince of Bel-Air , '' `` Bl ossom '' and `` Dave 's World , '' as well as ABC 's weekly NFL game . `` Melros e Place '' could benefit from increased public attention to Fox as a growing net work force , but the odds are that it will still have a rough time against the B ig Three competition , although the show 's hold on young viewers is formidable . A key player in Fox 's youth-oriented lineup is producer Aaron Spelling , who , in the coming season , will have three one-hour series on the network : `` Bev erly Hills , 90210 , '' `` Melrose Place '' and its new spinoff , `` Models Inc. . '' The new show , with Linda Gray as the head of a modeling agency , will fol low `` Beverly Hills , 90210 '' and try to make inroads against its key competit ion , ABC 's potent `` Home Improvement '' and `` Grace Under Fire . '' ( Begin optional trim ) By an odd twist , CBS , which has won the ratings crown for thre e consecutive seasons , goes into the 1994-95 shootout as the underdog in the ey es of many industry observers . Not only has the loss of football and the coming defection of stations over the next 1 or 1 years left a negative public impress ion but , more important in an immediate sense , CBS is running into the increas ingly red-hot ABC network . Dependent heavily on older-skewing dramas and unable to develop many pivotal blockbuster comedies , CBS also will be without four ma jor sports happenings that helped it to the top in recent years : the World Seri es , the Super Bowl , the Winter Olympics and the weekly NFL games . ABC , which might have won this season 's ratings race if not for the Winter Olympics and t he out-of-sight ratings propelled by the Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan rivalry , seems well-armed for the coming season , with comedies galore 16 of them and man y of them hits . ( End optional trim ) In addition , ABC will have the Oscars , the Super Bowl and the World Series . The network was a solid winner in the May ratings sweeps , and it has come on strong as this season progressed . It had th e No. 1 show , `` Home Improvement '' ; the top new comedy , `` Grace Under Fire '' ; the leading new drama , `` NYPD Blue '' and the highest-rated freshman new smagazine , `` Turning Point , '' a midseason entry . Strengthened by such other comedy hits as `` Coach '' and `` Full House , '' ABC has had the luxury to `` hammock '' some other new contenders , such as `` Thunder Alley '' and `` Ellen '' ( formerly `` These Friends of Mine '' ) , between successful shows , thus he lping them to successful launches . Not long ago , CBS and other networks were c rowing that this has been a significant season for the networks , which actually went up in overall viewership despite new TV alternatives . The Fox station rai d , while painful for CBS which could become more vulnerable to acquisition may be a further plus for networks and viewers because Fox chose to invest in free , over-the-air broadcasting . For the first time Fox is reaching the potential in its station penetration to pass one or more of the Big Three networks in total household ratings . ( Optional add end ) With NBC moving both `` Frasier '' and `` Wings '' to Tuesdays , Fox will try to move in on Thursdays by leading off wi th two of its popular sitcoms , `` Martin '' and `` Living Single . '' Both have black stars , but Fox dropped five other series with black headliners `` South Central , '' `` Roc , '' `` In Living Color , '' `` Sinbad '' and `` Townsend Te levision . '' However , some breakthroughs may be occurring in the minority area . Margaret Cho , a Korean American stand-up comedian , has a new sitcom , `` Al l American Girl , '' on ABC . And Latinos are starred in several series , among them Michael DeLorenzo in the police drama `` Uptown Undercover '' and John Legu izamo in a planned midseason comedy sketch show , `` House of Buggin ' , '' both on Fox . Overall , despite CBS ' three-year reign , despite the `` Roseanne''- `` Frasier '' matchup , the key development of the new fall season could be a cl oser realization of a true four-network environment . Once upon a time , it was just CBS and NBC . Haitians go home ! And stay there ! This is clearly the message to the poorest inhabitants of our hemisphere . The message is most audible in the United States , where the fate of the first democratically and constitutionally elected gover nment of Haiti has become a domestic political issue , largely due to the pressu re exercised by black American political leaders . Undoubtedly , the U.S. govern ment has its share of responsibility in the failure of the international communi ty to restore the government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide . But its invol vement , limited as it is , has served to shield the failings of the Latin Ameri can countries to assume , effectively and honestly , their collective responsibi lities within the inter-American system . Haiti , after all , is in the Caribbea n , not on some faraway continent . It is the second-oldest independent country in the hemisphere ( after the United States ) . It is also the world 's oldest b lack republic . It should be known more widely that many Haitians died fighting for the United States in its war of independence , and that a Haitian president , Alexandre Petion , generously helped Simon Bolivar to finance the campaign of independence of Venezuela , Colombia , Peru , Bolivia , Panama and Ecuador . As part of these recollections , I would add that it was the Haitians who handed Na poleon I , emperor of France , his first defeat . Is is evident , then , that th e Haitians have not been free-riders in the defense of their rights or in their solidarity with the peoples of the United States and of Latin America in their s truggles for independence . The Haitians have and continue to live a tormented h istory , from enslavement by the French to the dictatorships of the infamous Duv aliers and their current heir , Cedras ; from the richest sugar-producing colony in the Caribbean in the 18th century to the extreme poverty of today . Even tho ugh Haiti is part of the Americas , the general impression in the region is that its problems are , and should essentially be , of concern only to the United St ates . This impression is confirmed by the strictly ritualistic and formalistic interest expressed by Latin Americans . The sacrosanct principle of self-determi nation has served them well as an excuse not to get seriously involved in the tr agedy of this black and poor member of our community . The `` Haitians keep out '' message comes not only from Florida , which already has generously received m ore than its share of refugees , but also from the Latin American countries that do not welcome refugees and are , if only through passivity , effectively discr iminating against their poorest sibling . For the future of inter-American relat ions , it is sad and disappointing to witness once more as if the case of the U. S. invasion of Panama were not enough how the Latin American governments continu e to yield their responsibilities to the United States in affairs in their own b ack yards . Also how they have so easily discarded their historical debt to Hait i , a once independent and generous nation . Yesterday the leadership was surren dered to a U.S. ambassador , Lawrence Pezzullo ; today to William Gray . Are the principles of regional sovereignty and independence of action less important th an the principle of self-determination ? Or is it plainly that Haiti is not wort h the effort ? Today , the Black Caucus of the U.S. Congress and the leadership of other black Americans such as Randall Robinson provide the main support for P resident Aristide 's return to Haiti . Was it necessary for the cause of Haiti t o resort to ethnicity ? The sad answer is yes . Haiti in some ways is becoming a black Bosnia . In the Balkans , the Bosnians are considered Muslim and as such , non-Europeans not worth fighting for . The Haitians are black , not Latin , an d as such , it seems , also , not worth fighting for . Their only recourse , the n , is to appeal to their black brothers in the United States to influence their government to act . Unfortunately , there are no black caucuses in Latin Americ a to speak on behalf of their black and impoverished brethren on the island of H ispaniola . So , for their own domestic political considerations , the nations o f Latin America will let Washington carry the ball and bear the costs that an in tervention may incur as well as the censure for violating Haiti 's sovereign rig ht to suffer alone . Only then will Latin America find it useful to remember tha t Haiti does not belong to the United States but to the Organization of American States . You 've finished the renovation , the dust has settled and you 're tired of bei ng cooped up in the house . Or maybe you 're partway through a painting project and the weather 's just too nice to stay inside . What are you going to do for a break ? How about a little work in the garden ? Whether you 're an urban pionee r or suburban dweller , a pretty and comfortable garden can provide an oasis of civility , a place to refresh mind and body , soul and eye . We were pleasantly reminded of this recently at the annual Victorian Garden Tour put on by Baltimor e 's Union Square neighborhood association . None of the dozen or more gardens o n the tour is large , and most are as narrow as the 19th century rowhouses they belong to . But even the tiniest of these had some touches that made them specia l , and all together they were an encyclopedia of clever gardening ideas . The h omeowners have devised various ways to give character to the blank rectangles mo st started with . Here are some of our favorites : Tiny fountains . In one small garden , a half whiskey barrel had been filled with a liner and a little bubble r-type fountain . It had rocks , plants and even a couple of goldfish . Arbors . One enterprising homeowner used copper tubing to make an arbor of arches from t he side of the house to the fence on the other side of a narrow areaway . He is training vines on the pipes , but in the meantime they 're decorated with string s of tiny white lights . Another yard had a simple , old-fashioned wooden arbor - basically posts with a piece of lattice on top - draped with grapevines . In t he cool space underneath , white wrought-iron furniture made a pleasant spot to sit and enjoy the garden . Tiny fences . The same garden with the copper arbor h ad a tiny , ornate wrought-iron gate leading into a square rose garden . The own er said he cut it down from a piece of fencing left over from the front walk . R aised beds . Since a lot of urban rowhouses have paved back yards , raised beds can provide an environment for plants without demolition and hauling . We saw bo th tall raised beds , 2 to 3 feet off the ground , and short ones , as tall as o ne railroad tie . ( If you 're planning to grow vegetables , you might want to c onsider using wood that hasn't been treated with chemicals to resist insects and decay . ) Brick patios or walkways . In one long-ish yard , there were two path s : a straight one that followed the fence to the back gate , and a curvy one th at wandered between wide border beds . The meandering path made the garden seem much larger . Garden projects are among the easiest and most rewarding you can u ndertake . Even an element as dramatic as a pond , if you have space for it , is remarkably easy . You can buy a rigid black plastic liner and dig a hole to fit it , or you can dig a free-form space and fit it with a flexible liner . ( Just be sure the liner is big enough to cover the excavation . ) Add a plant step ab out 9 inches from the top , if you 're planning to add water plants . Line the e xcavation with damp sand , drape the liner over it , and place bricks or stones around the edge to anchor it . Gradually fill with water , adjusting the bricks as the liner sinks to fit the contours of the pond . Trim the liner , leaving ab out 6 inches to fit under the edging . Flat stones are the traditional edging , but bricks will also work . Brick walks and patios are also easy to build . As w ith ponds , the hardest part is the digging . Mark the sides of the path or pati o , and excavate about six inches . It 's best to install a permanent edge ; you can use pressure-treated 2-by-6s , held in place by stakes driven below ground level , or you can use concrete and pour permanent sides and bottoms . If you 'r e not using concrete , put 2 inches of sand in the bottom of the excavation and tamp it down ( you can buy or rent a hand tamper ) . Level it a brick 's depth b elow the top of the edging ( about 3 inches ) , using a board notched on each en d to ride on the edging . ( For a large space such as a patio , level with the l ongest board you can comfortably use ; check for level by placing a level on the edge of the board at intervals . ) Deciding what pattern to lay the brick in is one of the fun parts of the job - will it be straight , herringbone , diagonal herringbone , lattice , or something of your own invention ? Just be sure to use a brick that is designed for paving . Some old bricks aren't glazed , and will crack and crumble . Tamp the bricks into the sand with a board and fill the gaps with more sand . Some people line the excavation with black plastic sheeting to keep weeds from growing between the bricks . The walk may still need occasional weeding , and because it 's set in sand , it will move with the heaving of the earth , so you may have to reset a brick every now and then . A concrete foundat ion will offer a relatively weed-free and perfectly level surface , but it 's a lot more work , more expensive , and it willn't have the hand-made charm of the sand . WESTCLIFFE , COLO . Where I grew up in Colorado , `` Jet Noise : The Sound of F reedom '' was the top bumper sticker without the question mark . My father was a federal employee , and we lived between an Air Force base and the Denver airpor t . Even today , a large proportion of Coloradons work for the Defense Departmen t and its contractors . Colorado historians tell us we 've always had this love- hate relationship with Uncle Sam . Lately , it 's all hate . Here in southern Co lorado , the Wilderness of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains forms our fortress wal ls . The mountains are the most ecologically diverse of any in the great Rocky M ountain chain . Motorized vehicles are forbidden in the wilderness , but its air space is vulnerable to any intruder . We have always lived with some jet noise , but lately the sound of freedom has turned deafening . The Air National Guard , along with its Air Force allies , began to besiege the region 's six counties w ith its Colorado Airspace Initiative , which would increase annual `` sorties '' screaming , ear-rending , tree-top-level dogfights by thousands , with no upper limit . The area would become a permanent Military Operations Area . We made th e mistake of demanding an Environmental Impact Statement , hoping that we could state a scientific case against the Guard 's initiative . In return , we got an endless series of public meetings , `` scoping sessions , '' lies , inaccuracies , contradictions and evasions all paid for with our tax dollars . Whatever its grasp of military tactics , the Guard understands war by attrition . Unless the Federal Aviation Administration , which rules on all military airspace , rejects the initiative , the Guard will bomb and boom us to kingdom come . ( Begin opti onal trim ) You can't hear , see or smell the enemy until too late , until he ha s blasted you from a clear sky , dipped his wings in a mocking salute and scream ed on to torture your neighbors with his sonic booms and his radar-confusing fla res and aluminum-silicate chaff . Treetop-level sub-to-supersonic flights have r everberated through the valleys around the Sangres for at least 20 years . Durin g the Cold War , we put up with the bombs and booms . We took it for granted tha t behind them lurked some deep , dark reason . Then the Cold War ended . Then th e effects on livestock became all too clear . Then the effects on wildlife and p ack animals in the back country started to show . And then came the earsplitting , heart-racing effects on a growing army of retirees and a real-estate industry . ( End optional trim ) The war with the Guard has turned uncivil . The main ev ent pits ranchers , realtors and recreationists against a decrepit wing of the U .S. . Air Force . It wasn't that long ago when the ranchers and recreationists w ere squaring off over wilderness designation . Indeed , they didn't strike a dea l until last year . But the Guard has kept them united . The Guard is about as r usty a weapon as there is the nation 's arsenal . In the last 40 years , America has called up the Colorado Air Guard exactly once . Furthermore , the economies around the Sangres are changing , from traditional ranching and timbering to a mix of organic-beef or bison ranching , including a thriving business in ranchin g-for-wildlife . The recreation industry includes a booming second-home sector f or retirees . More than 40 spiritual communities have made the Crestone area on the Sangres ' west side a world center for contemplative religions . The Guard c laims that the new Denver International Airport restricts its airspace . In the face of rising local and statewide opposition , serious budgetary concerns and m ajor environmental effects , it is determined to expand its training in the area . `` We 're in it for the long haul , '' said Maj. Thomas Schultz , public-affa irs officer for the National Guard at Buckley Air Base . He says domestic traini ng operations are increasingly important for the national defense , now that ove rseas missions have been sharply reduced . `` If we don't fly , we lose our comb at readiness , '' Schultz asserts . `` This is a matter of pride for Colorado : Its 120th squadron was the first unit to be federally recognized in 1946 . The A ir National Guard was born here . '' The residents of the valleys around the San gres are not impressed . That 's partly because so many of them are retired mili tary or veterans themselves . Take Ray Koch , a naval-aviation veteran and forme r aerospace engineer for Martin Marietta . He spent years designing more sophist icated versions of the hardware and software systems that drive schemes like the Guard 's . He doesn't have much respect for them or their systems , which he re gards as Stone Age technology . `` The Air Guard is a dinosaur , '' he says , ad ding that low-level flight training has about as much relevance to contemporary warfare as Kit Carson 's pistols . Cheap , readily available surface-to-air miss iles have rendered the Guard obsolete . Koch has a solution to the dispute . He has designed a demonstration of the Guard 's latest proposal to minimize impacts on our valleys and our wilderness . F-16s would overfly specific noise-sensitiv e points at typical airspeeds and power settings . Video and audio equipment wou ld record the effects . Flight-data systems would correlate with ground data to validate speed , power setting , altitude and aircraft altitude . If the Guard ' s planes perform as it claims , we will leave our back yard open to them . If th ey perform as we claim , they will leave our back yard forever . The Guard has y et to respond . And so we continue to cringe when we consider the fire danger fr om crashing planes and flying flares . Could it be that silence has become the s ound of freedom ? From time to time , Richard T. Seymour of Baltimore will come across something in the news about blacks that causes him to shake his head in disgust and exclai m , `` There they go again ! '' `` But then I 'll catch myself and remember , ` Wait a minute , they aren't all like that , '' says Seymour . `` I 'll think : B ill isn't like that . Dave isn't like that . A lot of the black people I do busi ness with or come into contact with during the day they aren't like that . I 'm painting blacks with a broad brush . Does this mean I 'm prejudiced ? '' Seymour asks me rhetorically . `` I don't know . '' So then I confess to Seymour that f rom time to time , I find myself shaking my head with equal disgust about whites . `` So , you see , it 's a Catch-22 , '' says Seymour . `` The circle of preju dice just goes around and around and on and on . '' Not long ago , I wrote a col umn about how some businesses exclude black models from their advertising , thus sending a subtle message that such firms do not welcome black patronage . It wa s the sort of commentary that made Richard T. Seymour shake his head in disgust and exclaim , `` There they go again ! '' So Seymour who owns an advertising bus iness sent me copies of Ebony and Essence magazines . And he wrote me an angry l etter pointing out that nobody ever `` comes down hard on the rampant racism of ` black publications . '' `` Blacks are always crying ` race ' , '' said Seymour after I called him . `` I mean , fair is fair . You 've got black magazines , y ou 've got black student unions on college campuses , you 've got a Black Entert ainment Television station on cable and a Congressional Black Caucus in Washingt on . Blacks get away with racism that whites would never be allowed to get away with . If you 're going to complain about one , you 've got to complain about th e other . '' Actually , there were a substantial number of white models included in the ads in the very issues of Ebony and Essence that Seymour sent me . Never theless , I think he has a point : Most blacks , I suspect , would be profoundly offended by a magazine that celebrated white culture and heritage with the ferv or that Ebony celebrates African American culture . A Congressional White Caucus in Washington ? No way ! Are blacks guilty of a double standard with regard to racism ? `` First of all , the Congressional Black Caucus has never disallowed w hite members we have approximately 26 associate members who are white , '' said Rep. Kweisi Mfume , the caucus chairman , when I put my question to him . `` Sec ond , the caucus exists to leverage opportunity and enforce change for black peo ple . In the absence of a civil rights movement , the caucus is one of the most important vehicles for change that blacks have . '' Mfume said that most whites either are unaware of the continued disparities between blacks and whites in thi s society or they don't care . `` There is a feeling in the larger community tha t ` We 've done enough for blacks . We don't want to do any more , '' said Mfume . `` But , in fact , every major indicator suggests that the disparities are ev en more stark than they were 30 years ago . I hope and pray for a time when we w illn't need a black caucus , '' he said . `` But realistically , I don't expect that time to occur in my lifetime . '' John H. Johnson , the publisher and chief executive officer of Ebony Magazine , makes a similar point : `` Until the two races are meshed or merged or integrated , you will need both ` white ' and ` bl ack ' media , '' Johnson said in a 1984 interview , provided by his office . `` If we somehow reach a point in this country when race will no longer be a factor , then Ebony will simply serve all the people . In fact , Ebony would be a grea ter success than its white competitors , simply because black people have more e xperience studying and meeting the needs of whites than white people have had st udying and meeting the needs of blacks . '' Seymour conceded he was unaware of m any of the continued problems that make blacks feel they have to organize for ch ange . And , I conceded something too : Maybe blacks are too quick to cry `` rac ism '' whenever whites question our goals . Maybe both sides must learn to liste n . WASHINGTON Journalists and the corporations that employ them are worriers . We worry about the economic survival of the news business , about the `` meaning '' and social utility of what we do , about our ethics and status and about our `` relevance '' to a public that seems increasingly bored and turned off by the `` news '' as we have traditionally defined it . Howard Kurtz , the media critic o f The Washington Post , published a book last year in which he said , `` The sme ll of death permeates the newspaper business . '' A headline in the trade magazi ne Editor & Publisher last week notes the trend line on our health chart : `` Ne wspaper Circulations Plummet . '' The journalistic outlook at the television net works is not sunny , either . As audiences for news programming decline , some T V executives wonder aloud whether it makes sense to keep the network news divisi ons alive . Advertisers are deserting us for `` new media '' serving the special interests of a fragmented , narcissistic society `` the culture of contentment '' in which consumption is the dominant theme . Our young people , Jay Rosen wri tes , `` have available to them not only a substitute source of news , but a kin d of substitute universe , an alternative culture that is centered around televi sion but is , in fact , more pervasive . This `` everywhere culture ' the cultur e of popular music , Hollywood , MTV , `` Entertainment Tonight ' , People magaz ine generates its own notion of currency .. . ( and ) is loosening the very grou nd on which the newspaper stands . '' Half of these people 18 to 24 never read a newspaper , and great numbers never watch or hear the evening news . If `` citi zenship '' is defined as active and informed participation in public affairs and the political process , they the young in particular have become noncitizens al ong with millions of their elders . While our politicians and editorial writers preach to the world about the joys and successes of democracy , half the America n electorate ignores our presidential elections . Turnouts in off-year congressi onal elections and in local elections of all kinds are an international joke . T here are close relationships among the decline of citizenship in this country , the decline of interest in traditional definitions of `` news '' and the decline of journalism 's large role in the life of the society . Rosen notes correctly that , `` To pick up a newspaper and scan the front page is to feel yourself a m ember of a world in which politics and public affairs matter . '' That has been true since the late 18th century , and journalists have assumed ever since that our intense interest-some might say obsession-in these affairs is shared by the general population . However valid that assumption may have been in some golden era past , it obviously has little validity today . Vast numbers of Americans ar e not only turned off by politics and public affairs , as their lack of particip ation and their lack of interest in political journals demonstrates ; they have become actively hostile . E. J. Dionne , an editorial writer at The Post , wrote a book on the subject a couple of years ago : `` Why Americans Hate Politics . '' The corruption of government at all levels by lobbyists and special interests of every description is a factor . The frequent incompetence and lavish waste o f government bureaucracies and officials is another . The character flaws of pol itical leaders and candidates , the cliches and psychobabble that pass for polit ical discourse , the malign influence of political consultants who brainwash and mislead us with deceptive and irrelevant political advertising contribute signi ficantly to the public 's alienation . So does the incompetence and superficiali ty of the press . Post political columnist David Broder has identified a central problem . `` Citizens , '' he has said , `` now perceive the press as part of t he insider 's world. .. . We have , through the elevation of salaries , prestige , education and so on among reporters distanced ourselves to a remarkable degre e from the people we are writing for and have become much , much closer to the p eople ( experts and politicians ) we are writing about . '' Our professional liv es are tied up with ( and greatly dependent on ) the political elite government officials , lobbyists , bureaucrats , consultants , experts and academicians . W e socialize with them , talk the same language , have the same interests , live in the same neighborhoods , share lifestyles , schools for our children , clubs and poker games . It is no wonder that the pictures of the world we present to t he newspaper audience and the spin we put on them are , in the strict meaning of the word , the `` propaganda '' of the ruling class . Tom Koch , a journalist a nd author of books on journalism , makes the same point : `` For twenty years co ntent analysis studies have shown that between 70 and 90 percent of our content is at heart the voice of officials and their experts , translated by reporters i nto supposedly `` objective ' news . People don't trust us anymore .. . because the way we quote and attribute and build factoids as if they were truth is a lie . And folks are catching on . '' They not only do not freely give us their trus t , they often do not understand us at all . We write in the argots of politics and the bureaucracy and the academic world , which is as comprehensible and usef ul to the masses as the journals of quasars , black holes and quantum physics . Because of uncertain prospects in the 21st century , there is a lot of talk in t he press these days about reinventing ourselves through the marvels of technolog y electronics and the `` information highway , '' for example . Others see a sol ution in design and artistic innovation . But until we re-examine and change the way we conceive of `` news , '' until we redefine the `` reliable source '' and until we learn to use a language that is accessible and meaningful to the apath etic public out there , neither the press nor our political system will be cured of its problems . D-day 's success on June 6 , 1944 , together with a Russian victory at Stalingr ad 15 months earlier , assured that Nazi ambitions for European and world domina tion would not be realized . But when the common enemy collapsed in 1945 , what British Prime Minister Winston Churchill called the Grand Alliance swiftly broke apart , giving way to Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States . Many Americans were distressed when their hope for a peaceful postwar world fai led to materialize , but hard-nosed observers recognized the new international a lignment that emerged between 1946 and 1950 as a classic example of balance-of-p ower politics . This was exactly what wartime presidents Woodrow Wilson and Fran klin D. Roosevelt had hoped to banish from the Earth by making international law enforceable . How ironic , then , that the United States found itself unexpecte dly engaged in a ruthless game of power politics instead of relying on internati onal law . Does half a century 's experience since the shocking international re alignments of the 1940s make us any wiser ? It is hard to tell . Hopes and fears about international affairs are less intense than they were 50 years ago . But the decay of Cold War alignments and motivations , like the decay of the wartime alliance , puts the future up for grabs in an unusually drastic way . Perhaps t he peace-keepers of the United Nations can really keep the lid on international conflicts if the great powers cooperate . Perhaps a new balance of power among r ival states will emerge to replace the Cold War antagonism . Or perhaps changes within the leading states of the Earth have altered public life so much that old -fashioned balance-of-power politics has begun to decay not because peace has br oken out , but because other kinds of conflict have begun to limit and distract attention from intergovernmental rivalries . As far as I can tell , all three of these alternatives which find their origin at least in part in the victory of D -day are live options . U.N. peacekeeping has not been uniformly successful , bu t as long as the great powers refrain from taking sides , local wars remain loca l and sending in outsiders to keep combatants apart might become habitual . On t he other hand , if the great powers quarrel , they can easily form rival blocs a nd alliances as aforetime . Radically different lineups seem possible . The clas sic balance-of-power response to the eclipse of the Soviet Union would require t he American Cold War alliance to split up . Fortress America would then confront Festung Europa under German leadership once again , with a new Japanese Co-pros perity Sphere in Asia to challenge both . Alternatively , the United States and Japan might ally against China ; Russia might join or oppose western Europe ; In dia might join or oppose China in Asia , and so on . Permutations are innumerabl e , but according to this view , the balance of power is immortal , even if unst able , and compels statesmen to form and break alliances willy-nilly . The third alternative is more interesting to think about . Balance of power is only as pe rmanent as the states and governments that play the game . But states exist only in the minds of the people they govern , and if enough people feel themselves a lienated , governmental power can dissolve with quite surprising rapidity . This was what happened to the USSR . Other states may face similar difficulties in t he future . Subnational identities on the one hand and transnational connections on the other have modified national politics already . A tangle of overlapping rights , duties , obligations and beliefs , if they increase in the future as th ey have been gaining power of late , might weaken national identities and restri ct the sovereign power of existing governments far more than they are restricted today . None of these scenarios is likely to bring peace to the world . But the way people organize themselves into groups and distribute loyalty among differe nt and often overlapping groups makes all the difference . Divided loyalties and plural identities are incompatible with total war and marginalize balance-of-po wer politics . Perhaps divided loyalties have already multiplied to such a point that international behavior is changing in ways no one imagined in 1944 and no one yet fully understands 50 years after the D-day victory that prepared the gro und to make it possible . It 's become something of a commonplace to say that foreign policy should not b e governed by television coverage . The most prominent example of the alleged ab use , probably , is the American intervention in Somalia . In late 1992 , the pu blic witnessed almost daily television coverage of hundreds of thousands of Soma lis starving to death , and in January President Bush launched Operation Restore Hope , whose purpose was to deliver food and other supplies to the afflicted . No doubt the Bush administration 's reasons for intervening were complex . It is clear , however , that it never would have taken place without public acceptanc e , and that public acceptance was primed by the television coverage . Naturally , the action was attended by debate regarding the purposes and justifications f or intervention generally in the post-Cold War period . Some argued that any hum an catastrophe on the scale of the Somali famine was justification enough for in ternational intervention . Others feared that intervention for humanitarian reas ons would quickly lead to political and military involvement , which would prove both interminable and self-defeating . This warning seemed especially pertinent inasmuch as the famine , initially caused by drought , was greatly extended and protracted by a civil war in which control of food had become a weapon among th e contending sides . By the time of the American intervention , food sent by the outside world was piling up in warehouses in Somali ports . Later developments seemed to confirm the fear of involvement . In October of 1993 , 18 American sol diers were killed in a battle with the forces of the Somali warlord Mohammed Far ah Aidid , and the corpse of one was dragged through the streets . The televisio n images of this event proved as powerful in pulling U.S. troops out of Somalia as the earlier pictures of starving Somalis had been in pushing the troops in . Within days , President Clinton vowed to withdraw U.S. soldiers in six months . They are now gone . This sequence of events left in its wake a widespread belief that international intervention inspired by horror at faraway events cannot lea d to anything good : A frivolous public , it seemed , had first lightly demanded intervention and then abruptly abandoned support for it at the first sign of ad versity . The Somalia intervention became a byword for futility . That character ization is especially potent in the current debate over intervention in the geno cidal proceedings in Rwanda , where government forces have massacred some hundre ds of thousands of members of the Tutsi tribe , and Tutsis have retaliated , tho ugh on a smaller scale . A recent editorial in The New York Times , for example , warned that intervention in Rwanda might turn out to be a repeat of the `` deb acle '' in Somalia . This characterization , however , overlooks certain facts o f epic proportion . The most important is that hundreds of thousands of lives we re saved . The U.S. . Agency for International Development estimates the number at 500,000 , and Oxfam America , the independent relief organization , confirms the figure . Peggy Connolly , who traveled widely in Somalia for Oxfam America i n the spring , recently told me she found nearly universal gratitude among Somal is for the international intervention , and for the crucial American role in par ticular . Farming has resumed , she found , and communities are rebuilding . `` And the civil war is over , '' she added though she agrees with other observers that the long-term political future of the country is worrisome . There may be s ound reasons for the international community 's reluctance to intervene in Rwand a , but an alleged `` debacle '' in Somalia should not be among them . Nor , in this case , did television coverage inspire bad policy . The public saw starving people , and wanted something done . Something was done , and hundreds of thous ands lived who otherwise would have died . Let 's say you 're an anti-abortion protester . You think abortion is murder . And so , you believe you must do whatever you can to stop it . As a pro-life adv ocate , however , you don't believe in violence . In fact , you completely disav ow the hard-core radical fringe of the movement , the kind of people who killed Dr. David Gunn and firebomb abortion clinics . You don't believe you can be pro- life and pro-violence at the same time . But you 'll do anything short of violen ce . Because your conscience willn't allow you to do anything less . So , as you try to stop people from going inside abortion clinics , you hold true to your b eliefs in nonviolence . You practice civil disobedience , in the tradition of Ga ndhi and Martin Luther King Jr. . You sit in front of a doorway , and you shall not be moved . It 's against the law , of course , just like the civil rights si t-ins were . But you 're prepared to be dragged away by police . You 're willing to spend a few days in jail and pay a fine , if you must . But now the cost has gone up . Now , the president has signed into law a bill that makes it a federa l crime to blockade an abortion clinic or related medical facilities . Violent o ffenders can face up to $ 100,000 in fines and a year in prison for a first conv iction . You wonder why they single out violent pro-life advocates . Aren't viol ent acts already illegal ? You hear the oft-quoted numbers that since 1977 , the re have been 36 bombings of clinics , 81 cases of arson , 131 death threats , 84 assaults , two kidnappings but you don't understand what they have to do with y ou . The person accused of killing Gunn is in jail . Firebombers are in jail . Y ou never firebombed or threatened anyone . What you do is plead with women who a re going inside for an abortion to reconsider . Some call that intimidation . Yo u say it 's an attempt to persuade a woman to do the right thing . Some people c all you a zealot . Maybe you are . Surely , it 's not against the law to be a ze alot in America . But now nonviolent offenders , the people who participate in s it-ins blocking the entrance to a clinic and maybe even those who simply kneel a nd pray in front of the entrance , face a prison term of up to six months and a fine as high as $ 10,000 for a first conviction . An additional conviction can b ring 18 months and $ 25,000 in fines . What do you do now ? The people who write the law say they 're not after lawful protesters . The people who write the law say you can still picket and speak out . You wonder , though , about the risks . Who knows how the law will be enforced ? Who can say exactly where picketing e nds and blockading begins ? Isn't this what they call a `` chilling effect '' on protest ? These days , you feel like you have little recourse other than protes t . The courts continue to rule against your cause . Most of the state legislatu res have gone over to the pro-choice side . Bill Clinton has brought RU-486 , th e abortion pill , to this country . You understand you hold a minority position . But you figure one of the great things about America is that the Constitution protects the right to hold unpopular positions . Now you don't know . You wonder how Clinton , a former professor of constitutional law , doesn't see this law a s a First-Amendment problem . You wonder how the ACLU , the dogged defenders of the First Amendment , the same guys who defend the rights of Nazis to march , ca n support this law . You wonder what would have happened if , 30 or 40 years ago , Congress had passed a law aimed specifically at civil rights protesters who s at-in at lunch counters . How many sit-ins would there have been with a six-mont h jail term as a result ? You wonder what would have happened if they 'd passed such a law during the Vietnam era , singling out protesters who sat down in fron t of draft boards . Actually , you don't wonder . You know exactly what 's going on . They say they want to stop the violence at abortion clinics . You know tha t 's a phony issue . Existing laws handle that problem . What the people who bac k the law want is to stop you . What they want is for you and the entire anti-ab ortion protest movement to just go away . And if , in the process , the liberal establishment chooses to disregard and even endanger principles it once fought s o hard to win , that 's just the price we 'll all have to pay . About the time a home furnishings trend shows up on a bathmat , it 's washed up . So it is with heavenly objects . Not that you 'd know it by scanning the stor es and catalogs : Suns , moons and stars still fill the shelves and cover multip le pages . But such is the nature of these trends just when they 're everywhere , they 're goners . `` It is post-peak , '' pronounces Raymond Berger , vice pre sident of Plummer-McCutcheon , which gave two entire pages to the celestial them e in its most recent catalog . During the decorating-down years ( on average , p eople replace furniture only 1 times during their lifetimes , designer Vladimir Kagan says ) , we freshen our nests with small decorative items . They are to fu rniture what accessories are to fashion affordably priced additions that stretch the life span of the major , expensive pieces . And they 're the fuel that fire s yard sales of the future . Where a furniture style can take five to 10 years t o max out , a decorating theme might come and go in a matter of months . With tw o years on the scene , celestial items have had a long run . There is no consens us on its exact flash point , but early signs of the celestial look include a sn ow globe at a German gift fair , a cotton throw at a New York gift show and need lepoint pillows at a New York craft fair . Within a few months of those isolated sightings in 1992 , the sun , moon and stars motif began appearing on everythin g from clocks , dishes , candles , linens , napkin rings and watering cans to sh ower curtains . As prices go , the merchandise leans toward the low end . If the celestial theme came out of the blue , the reasons for its popularity are equal ly obscure . The brilliant yellow and orange graphics on a dark blue background hardly enhance the favored furniture styles of the day , such as Mission , nor d o they complement the reigning palette of faded colors . `` Perhaps it has a sen se of mysticism , or escape , '' Berger suggests . `` When it was at its peak , we were in a recession . '' Mystical iconography had another brief fling last wi nter when angels sprouted wings and took off , seemingly overnight . They rated a Time magazine cover before degenerating into swap-meet fodder . Now , though , angels appear to be getting a second life . Moons , stars and suns in pastels a re being mixed with angels for some fairly rococo combos . American country is m oving toward fussy Victorian style , and cherubs and moons fit right in with the lacy furbelows . Design trends have traditionally trickled down from such high- end sources as a furniture style , a designer 's line or even a museum show , bu t these days they often start , as the celestial theme did , at the mass-market level . `` The middle level is where all the action is , '' says color consultan t Leatrice Eiseman of the Eiseman Center in Seattle . `` We have a three-tier sy stem of price levels . There is the high end , or designer realm , the middle gr ound and then the low end , discount-price level . Now that it is trendy and per missible to talk about saving money and shopping at Price Club and Target , ther e is a lot more attention being paid to the middle level . The mass market is ge tting more attention , and new things are being introduced at this level . '' Su nflowers were another graphic phenomenon that bloomed midfield , as part of the American country look of several years ago . Cows and gingham also figured into the farm scene , but sunflowers ultimately struck out on their own to bedeck rug s , teapots , vases , linens , coffee mugs and candlesticks . Some are designed to look like folk art , others are done in dark , muted colors to complement Mis sion-style furniture , and still others are as garishly bright and sickeningly s weet as daisies and happy faces two overused devices from decades past . The sun flowers are also starting to fade . ( Begin optional trim ) Chili peppers , ivy and fruit have also been popular in the middle-price range but will probably hav e disappeared by this time next year . On an ascent are African-inspired items . Such fabrics as kente cloth have caught on in the textile and fashion markets a nd fueled a growing selection of African-like prints on linens and dinnerware . `` I think African-themed items will be a fairly important classification , '' s ays Mary Morris , vice president of Ross-Simons , publishers of the home-wares c atalog Anticipations . Society seems to moving toward a greater appreciation of ethnic influences , she says . ( End optional trim ) Also on the rise is a home- wares trend influenced by a furniture style referred to variously as Bloomsbury chic , palace trash , neo-ancestral and shabby chic . About two years ago , the severely trendy began collecting old chairs with moth-eaten , worn , velvet upho lstery and displaying them just like that decrepitly shabby . The idea was to ha ve furniture look as if it had been in the family for generations as in old fami ly , old money . The decorative bits accompanying this theme are intentionally m ismatched , worn and patched . The plates are different from the soup bowls , th e mirrors need re-silvering , and the sofa cushions are upholstered in one fabri c , the back and arms in another . Now , furniture manufacturers are reproducing the look . `` It 's in the $ 1,000-sofa range now , '' Berger says . `` I 've s een slipcovers with incredibly creative mixes of fabrics . One piece of upholste ry may have six fabrics on it . '' ( Optional add end ) The shelves of American Rag Maison et Cafe in Los Angeles are stocked with like-minded items . `` We are going for a mixture of things , rather than one look . Stripes and patterns on pillows . We mix two different types of plates things from cafes and things from flea markets , '' owner Margot Werts says . At stores with more moderately pric ed merchandise , wine glasses with mismatched stems come as a set and pillows ha ve a mix of patterns . The Pottery Barn , for one , offers a sofa upholstered in ticking stripes combined with faded cabbage roses . The most promising element of the Clinton administration 's ambitious new plan `` to break the cycle of homelessness and prevent future homelessness '' is the amount of money requested from Congress . The administration seeks an unpreceden ted $ 1.7 billion , which would more than quadruple the funds now available to h eavily impacted areas . Washington would not dictate how the new money would be spent . Rightly , that would be a local determination . By law , nonprofit organ izations the key players in the recent assault on homelessness must get 51 perce nt of the funds . That mandate would allow groups that have long provided scarce social services and built affordable housing to collaborate rather than compete for crumbs . The administration 's plan is expensive because the Clinton team h onestly acknowledges the scope of homelessness , and the complexity of the multi ple challenges . The federal plan cites recent studies finding that between 500, 000 and 600,000 people are homeless on any given night . Christopher Jencks , a sociology professor at Northwestern University and the author of the new book `` The Homeless , '' believes that the number of the `` visible homeless '' who li ve in shelters or public places like doorways , parks and cars is between 300,00 0 and 400,000 . Jencks links the recent increase in the numbers of aggressive pa nhandlers and confused or babbling men and women pushing shopping carts in large part to the proliferation of cheap crack cocaine and government 's failure to p rovide adequate mental health treatment . Two of three single adults who agreed to the voluntary and anonymous drug testing requested by the Cuomo Commission at New York shelters tested positive for cocaine , according to Jencks . In family shelters , 16 percent tested positive . Jencks puts overall drug use at 25 perc ent , and notes that it makes the users even less employable , deprives them of money for rent , drives away friends and family members who could give them shel ter and in general prolongs their homelessness . They need drug treatment , job training and additional low-cost housing . One of three homeless people is sever ely mentally ill , according to Jencks . Many wouldn't be on the streets if stat es still operated the warehouse-like mental hospitals that were common in earlie r generations . According to Jencks , these people require hospitalization , out patient programs , rent vouchers to pay for board-and-care facilities or governm ent support for relatives willing to provide care . Despite these daunting chall enges , Henry G. Cisneros , the head of the Department of Housing and Urban Deve lopment , promises to reduce homelessness by one-third . Helping sick people who hear voices , fear others and are prone to violence is difficult . As the Clint on plan and the Jencks book indicate , they need more than a place to live . Pro viding treatment , services and financial aid will require a long-term commitmen t from Washington . The Clinton administration deserves credit for tackling a th orny social problem with a request for significant new funds and a well-thought- out plan of action that is long overdue . Now does America have the political pa tience required to make this plan successful ? NARBERTH , Pa. Lynn Duffy has been writing real-estate ads for so long she coul d compose them in her sleep . A spacious home in an upscale , secluded setting n ear jogging trails conjured up phrases like `` executive living , '' `` sports e nthusiasts take note , '' `` quiet neighborhood . '' But that was before the `` red-light words . '' Duffy Real Estate now avoids the term `` executive '' ; it could be racist , since most corporate executives are white . Singling out `` sp orts enthusiasts '' could discourage the disabled . `` Quiet neighborhood '' cou ld be a code for `` no children . '' Duffy knows of firms that are even avoiding `` master bedroom '' ( it suggests slavery ) , `` walk-in '' closet or `` spect acular view '' ( some homebuyers cannot walk or see ) . Real-estate agents in Ph iladelphia 's affluent Main Line suburbs are not suffering an attack of politica l correctness . Like their counterparts in many states , they say they are afrai d of being charged with housing bias by increasingly vigilant , local fair-housi ng groups and individuals who are filing more and more discrimination cases over real-estate ads in newspapers . Most complaints concern blatant violations of t he federal Fair Housing Act and state and local housing laws such as ads seeking `` adults only '' or `` no children . '' But a complainant listing her religion as `` non-Christian '' has charged a Gannett newspaper in Salem , Ore. , with r eligious discrimination for an ad published on Easter Sunday under a logo of a b unny in a flower basket bearing the words , `` Happy Easter . '' The Department of Housing and Urban Development is investigating . And a Pennsylvania fair-hous ing official said a real-estate agent recently pulled an ad for a `` rare find ' ' in Chester , Pa. , after a reader complained that it was racist to describe as `` rare '' a nice house in a largely black community . National civil-rights le aders are as upset about these complaints as are real-estate agents and newspape rs . They say they consider them a `` trivialization '' of the act 's intent and a diversion from the fight against real housing discrimination . University of Pennsylvania law professor Lani Guinier , who has become a national voice on civ il rights since the furor over her failed nomination to a Justice Department pos t last year , sees the struggle as a symptom of national confusion over how to c ommunicate in an age of growing sensitivity to individual differences . `` We ha ve to find a way to establish the legitimacy of people 's concerns without allow ing every concern to define the debate , '' she said . Asked this month at a Sen ate hearing whether HUD would prosecute the use of terms such as `` master bedro om '' or `` walking distance to '' trains , assistant HUD secretary Roberta Acht enberg , who oversees Fair Housing Act enforcement , said firmly : `` HUD has ne ver taken any such position , and we would not under my administration . '' `` I f one of my members brought a complaint like that , I 'd choke them , '' said Sh anna Smith , executive director of the National Fair Housing Alliance , which wo rks with local fair-housing groups across the country . But Achtenberg and Smith cannot stop individuals who feel aggrieved from bringing complaints to state or local human-relations commissions , regional HUD offices or state or federal co urts . Tim Kearney , program co-ordinator for the Fair Housing Council of Montgo mery County ( Pa. ) , said that he hopes one day to test the law by suing over g ray-area words . `` If somebody didn't pick up the phone ( to respond to a housi ng ad ) because they felt excluded by the wording , you have a complaint , '' he said . `` All day long some people suffer stings and pangs of discrimination , and it adds up . That 's what civil rights is all about . '' And a senior offici al of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission , which enforces the state hou sing law , said there is no way of knowing how a hearing officer would rule on a ny complaint , even `` master '' bedroom . `` We say to the newspapers and the R ealtors , '' said the official , who insisted on anonymity . ` When in doubt , l eave it out. ' ' ' This ambiguity is driving time-consuming efforts by real-esta te agents and newspapers to anticipate even far-fetched claims of liability unde r the Fair Housing Act . While the financial penalties are not always severe , t he litigation costs of cases that go beyond the complaint stage often reach tens of thousands of dollars . And housing-law violations are grounds for revoking a n agent 's license in some states . The federal act bars housing discrimination in all forms , including any notice or ad that `` indicates any preference , lim itation , or discrimination because of race , color , religion , sex , handicap , familial status or national origin or an intention to make any such preference ... '' Lawyers for associations of real-estate agents and newspapers say they r eceive calls every day from clients around the country , asking , `` Can I use t his word ? '' `` In Hawaii , some people say , ` We can't say the house has a Ja panese garden , ' ' ' said Fred Underwood , vice president of the National Assoc iation of Realtors . `` I answered , ` Do only Asian Hawaiians like Japanese gar dens ? '' ' The main problem , he said , is there is no way to list all discrimi natory words , because many are in the eye of the beholder and there are so many beholders . `` A real-estate concern called two HUD offices in New Jersey and a sked about ` walking distance to synagogue and deli , ' ' ' Underwood said . `` One office said it 's fine ; the other said no , '' because it constituted relig ious steering . The Philadelphia Inquirer now urges advertisers to say `` conven ient to ( shopping ) '' rather than `` walking distance . '' The Baltimore Sun i nstructs its advertisers to say , for example , `` three blocks to ... '' Numero us newspapers and real-estate agents around the country have foresworn phrases l ike `` convenient to jogging trails , '' for fear they discriminate against disa bled people , `` ocean view '' in deference to the blind phrases cited in a 1991 complaint in Oregon or `` ideal for empty nesters , '' which could be discrimin atory against families with children . The year was 1969 . The site was Berlin . The circumstance was the election of a new German president , a largely ceremonial post . The stakes were nothing les s than control of the Bonn government after election of a new Parliament and a c hancellor later in the year . On that occasion , the Cold War was much in eviden ce as Soviet and East German officials harassed the arrival of delegates to the election assembly from all over Germany . But the ceremony went ahead . And when it was over the election of the first Social Democratic president since the Wei mar Era in the '20s proved to be a harbinger for the triumph of that party 's le ader , Willy Brandt , in late summer . The key to Brandt 's victory was the libe ral Free Democratic Party , which switched allegiance from the conservative Chri stian Democratic Union to the Social Democrats . It was to reverse course in 198 2 , putting in office the current chancellor , Helmut Kohl ( but that is another story ) . What happened this week in Berlin was another presidential election , this one in which the Free Democrats , reluctant and divided as ever , stuck wi th the Christian Democrats rather than risk political oblivion . Chosen presiden t was Chief Judge Roman Herzog of the Supreme Court , Kohl 's choice but hardly a favorite in the country . The question now in German political circles is whet her , as in 1969 , the Free Democrats will prove again to be the decisive elemen t in German politics . Only this time , as Herzog 's victory indicated , the FDP has determined to keep leaning right to support Kohl rather than swing left to align itself with his SPD challenger , Rudolf Scharping . Latest public opinion polls indicate that Kohl , though still behind , is gaining as the economy impro ves . Whatever the outcome , Germany is about to be denied the leadership of its most popular politician . Not Kohl . Not Scharping . Not the FDP 's Klaus Kinke l . Rather , the nation will lose the services of Joseph von Weizsaecker , who i n his 10 years ( the limit ) as president has come to embody the conscience of a country that still feels `` abnormal , '' a nation haunted by its Nazi past . P resident von Weizsaecker has constantly warned against neo-Nazi eruptions and ag ainst intolerance toward foreigners . His successor , despite a bumbling beginni ng , must do nothing less . Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service . WASHINGTON A growing number of Americans are being caught up in securities liti gation and are being forced to make potentially important decisions with little understanding of what is going on or what is at stake . It is common today for i nvestors to find in their mail a document filled with dense language and fine pr int telling them something about a company they have invested in . Figuring out what it is , and then deciding what action to take is mission impossible for man y investors . But those decisions may make the difference between recovering mon ey and going without . Often , as in the case of a failed company , a class acti on is investors ' only hope of restitution . But sometimes , as with Humphries , joining the suit , intentionally or not , may prevent them from participating i n a better deal that may have been worked out by a regulatory agency . Such prob lems have become so widespread that the subject was taken up at last week 's mee ting of the Securities and Exchange Commission 's newly formed consumer affairs advisory panel , said Louis M. Thompson Jr. , president of the National Investor Relations Institute , an association of corporate investor relations officials . `` When investors are informed of a class action , ( the notices ) are so lega listic they can't even understand what they are getting involved in or are not g etting involved in , '' Thompson said . Thousands of investors apparently just t hrow these notices away , but that in itself is a form of decision . Typically , when a class action is brought seeking monetary damages , the courts employ wha t is called an `` opt out '' procedure , meaning that anyone who fits the defini tion of the class is automatically included unless they take action to opt out , said Stephen J . Toll of Cohen , Milstein , Hausfeld & Toll , which handles man y class action suits . This makes it easy if you want in , but can be a pitfall for the unwary or for anyone who for some reason doesn't get the notice . People who don't get the notice , who throw it away as junk , set it aside but forget it or otherwise don't respond , will be swept into the class . And when the case is decided or settled , they will be bound by the result . In many cases , Toll said , investors first receive a notice that the suit has been filed and that t hey may opt out if they wish to . Later they may receive another notice that the case has been settled , and that they may file a claim . Sometimes , he said , the second notice offers another chance to opt out , but generally not . If not , then the investor is locked into the settlement . If the investor doesn't file a claim , he or she willn't get any money , but will still be bound by the sett lement . Sometimes when a case is settled before the class is certified by the j udge , the notice and claim form are combined , and an investor may opt out at t hat point , Toll said . If you get a class action notice , Toll and others sugge sted thinking about it this way : How big is my investment and how good is my cl aim ? If your investment is large and your claim strong , Brenner said , `` you 're probably better off out of the class '' so you can sue on your own . Since c lass actions lump weak and strong claims together and give both kinds of claiman ts the same settlement , the good claims to a certain extent subsidize the weak ones . If your claim is strong , but your investment small , you are probably be tter off in the class because it is not economically practical to bring your own case . And , of course , if your claim is weak , you are definitely better off in the class . In general , said Toll , `` the only reason to opt out is to pres erve your rights '' to sue . Still , critics charge that many class action lawsu its are frivolous . The stock goes down so somebody sues . Some studies indicate that the plaintiffs individually don't get much money in these cases . `` I ten d to be rather skeptical ( of such suits ) because the law firms that bring them tend to make a bundle and the shareholders who would be participating wouldn't get that much out of it , '' said Maria Crawford Scott of the American Associati on of Individual Investors in Chicago . In most cases , if an investor has suffe red a loss because a company or partnership went under , regulatory agencies do not become involved and the class action suit may be the investor 's best hope o f salvaging something from his or her investment . Death by violence was at least 50 times more common among ancient peoples than it has been in the modern world , according to a new study of ethnographic recor ds and human remains found in ancient burials . Still older prehistoric societie s had violent death rates thousands of times higher . Recurrent warfare appears to have been the chief reason . `` The price we pay in our modern civilization f or being divided into nation-states is far lower than what we would be paying if the world were still tribalized , '' said Lawrence Keeley , an anthropologist a t the University of Illinois at Chicago , whose findings are being published nex t year as a book by Oxford University Press . Keeley calculated that if the worl d 's current population were undergoing warfare at the rate attributed to prehis toric peoples , 22 million people would die violently every year . In fact , the highest estimate of violent deaths of all kinds during the entire 20th century is around 100 million . Keeley 's study focuses on societies that lived between 12,000 years ago and the present . Among the more recent tribal societies , the annual death rate from violence averaged from estimates by various anthropologis ts who studied them is close to 0.5 percent . In other words , this is the perce ntage of people who die by violent means each year . In the United States today , the comparable figure is around 0.01 percent 50 times less . ( This is usually expressed as 10 violent deaths per 100,000 population . ) In still older prehis toric societies , Keeley said , the violent death rates , probably largely from warfare , appear to range between 1 percent and 40 percent . He cited one villag e site dated at A.D. 1325 in what is now South Dakota . `` There were 50 houses in this town , which meant that around 800 people lived there . Every house in t he town had been burned to the ground . '' Archaeologists found a mass grave con taining skeletons of more than 500 people . Of the skulls that could be found , 94 percent bore scalping marks . Most of the bodies had been badly mutilated and left to rot . Keeley said it is a myth that `` pre-civilized '' life was peacef ul and happy , and that Western civilization is the root of all evil . `` As soc ieties evolve and become larger and more complex , less violent ways of resolvin g disputes are institutionalized , '' Keeley said . `` What prevents war is poli tics . '' The planet Earth is a flasher . In recent years , several different scientific teams have detected mysterious bursts of light in the upper atmosphere , apparen tly linked somehow to thunderstorms . Scientists and others have seen them from the ground , from airplanes , from the space shuttle and through robot observato ries in orbit . They have seen them in optical wavelengths and in intense micros econd sizzles of radio waves and now in the form of high-energy gamma rays . A t eam using NASA 's orbiting Gamma Ray Observatory , designed to scan the cosmos f or powerful celestial sources of the rays , reports in the May 27 Science that i t has seen at least a dozen Earth-flashes in two years . `` The last thing we ev er expected to see was gamma rays coming up from Earth , '' said Gerald Fishman of Marshall Space Flight Center , who led the team . `` But about a week after w e reached orbit , we started seeing flashes coming from below the spacecraft . ' ' Collaborating with weather and lightning experts at Marshall , the team used o ld weather satellite photos to determine that there were always storms nearby wh en the flashes occurred . The bursts could originate in a rare type of high-alti tude electrical discharge above storms , possibly the result of lightning bolts that punch through the top of a thunderhead . Estimated to begin at altitudes no lower than about 19 miles well above the storm cloud tops and to rise as high a s 63 miles , the flashes lasted from 1 to 8 milliseconds too short to pose any d anger . They carried the signature of emissions from million-volt electrons dece lerating rapidly ( known as bremsstrahlung radiation ) . About half had a double pulse , and one had five . However , according to a companion commentary by Ric hard Kerr , to create these effects would require superbolts 30 times more power ful than normal . She is hardly a household name , but New York Republicans hope Elizabeth McCaug hey will make life as miserable for Democratic Gov. Mario M. Cuomo as she did ea rlier this year for President Clinton . McCaughey tore apart Clinton 's health-c are plan in a long and devastating Feb. 7 New Republic article that forced the W hite House to issue a point-by-point rebuttal and drew a rebuke from the preside nt himself . Now she has been transformed from think-tank scholar to political c andidate as the New York Republican Party 's endorsed candidate for lieutenant g overnor , and one of her principal roles , says the man who put her on the ticke t , is to distinguish the difference between Cuomo 's rhetoric and his record . `` Betsy has done such a spectacular job on the health-care plan .. . I have no doubt she will do a tremendous job '' on Cuomo 's record , said state Sen. Georg e E. Pataki , the Republicans ' endorsed candidate for governor and the man who put McCaughey ( pronounced McCoy ) on his ticket . Pataki , who was the handpick ed candidate of Sen. Alfonse M. D' Amato , R-N.Y. , said that , despite strains and schisms evident all year , Republicans emerged from their state convention l ast week `` with an overwhelming sense of optimism '' about the fall campaigns . McCaughey , after a day crisscrossing the state , said she is eager to serve . `` I 've spent 25 years studying American government , '' she said . `` I adore our system of government . It 's the freest and most enduring democracy every cr eated , so the idea of participating as an elected leader is very exciting to me . '' Most Republicans who endorsed her nomination had barely heard of McCaughey , but her clash with Clinton has given her unique celebrity status . After all , how many other candidates for lieutenant governor have posed for Vanity Fair i n a loaned designer gown ? `` I was quite shocked by it myself , '' McCaughey sa id after seeing the photo . A specialist in 18th-century history , she had hoped the magazine would use a close up picture of her and an image of George Washing ton . SAN ANTONIO If it had not been for the Daughters of the Republic of Texas , the re would not even be an Alamo today . Instead of this familiar limestone shrine , this monument to liberty or death , there would be just another downtown hotel . For nearly 90 years , the Daughters have protected the Alamo , restored it , tended it and treated it like the most precious real estate in Texas . And now , as the Daughters see it , this is the thanks they get : Ethnic minorities have accused them of ignoring other claims to the site . An adjoining park has been p roposed that could , they fear , turn the Alamo into Disney World . A new histor ical perspective has reduced their heroes to lily-livered scoundrels . And at ev ery turn , the Daughters have been assailed as hidebound , amateurish and stubbo rn dowagers with nothing better to do than drink tea and plot more ways to justi fy their blindered version of the past . It has been most unpleasant . `` The Da ughters are willing to look , listen and talk , '' said Gail Loving Barnes of Od essa , who wears the ceremonial ribbon sash of the group 's president-general an d speaks softly , but crisply , about the controversies . `` We have been conten t all these years to work to preserve the Alamo , the shrine to Texas liberty . We did not seek publicity . We did not pat ourselves on the back . I realize now our foremothers should have arranged for some positive publicity years ago , so people would know what we were doing all along . '' Some critics have gone so f ar as to suggest the time has come for the Daughters of the Republic of Texas to relinquish control of the site , which draws 3 million visitors a year and rank s as one of the country 's more compelling attractions . That is a possibility t he Daughters can describe only as unthinkable . `` We will never give up , just to put it bluntly , '' Barnes said , as other members shook their heads in empha sis . They refer to themselves as The Daughters . There are about 6,600 members of this unique and exclusive group ; to qualify , an applicant must provide irre futable evidence her ancestors were early colonizers of what became Texas in the years before 1845 . History is greatly revered in the Texas scheme of things . Every little Texan is taught that he or she lives in the most fascinating state in the Union what other state was ever a country all its own ? Six of the top 10 tourist attractions here are historic sites , and students begin learning Texas history in the first grade , largely due to the Daughters ' heavy campaigning . The names Jim Bowie , William Travis and Davy Crockett , the shining heroes of the Alamo , are as familiar to youngsters as Batman . No battle is more sacred h ere than the siege of the Alamo , the fight for Texas independence from Mexico . It has all the essential stirring elements : an outnumbered band of patriots ho led up for days inside a former mission , a rousing agreement to fight to the de ath , a brutal annihilation that paved the way to a greater triumph . For 13 day s in 1836 , Col. Travis and 188 men managed to stave off the ferocious Mexican G en. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna and his 4,000 well-armed troops . Finally , in t he pre-dawn hours of March 6 , the Mexican forces stormed the fortress , slaying all but a few women and children and burning the bodies of the resisters . Alth ough Santa Anna dismissed the conflict as a minor affair , he had lost 600 men . Forty-six days later , the stage was set for the Battle of San Jacinto , when G en. Houston led his 800 volunteers to defeat the Mexican army , and the Republic of Texas was born . Incensed by the Alamo 's fall and inspired by reports of th e heroics there , Houston 's men coined a rallying cry that has since become a s tandard expression in American language : `` Remember the Alamo ! '' Texas switc hed from sovereign country to on of the United States in 1845 . The Daughters , founded in the 1890s as a historic-preservation society , entered the picture in 1905 , when the Texas legislature granted them custodianship of the crumbling a nd neglected Alamo . Clara Driscoll and Adina de Zavala , two founders of the gr oup , had saved the site from destruction ; it was coveted for a new hotel . Sin ce then , there have been regular tempests at the Alamo , but the Daughters agre e the latest series of assaults depicting them as blue-haired control freaks or worse , white supremacists has gone beyond normal bounds . One after another , c ritics have emerged to attack the fortress . Gary Gabehart of the Inter-Tribal C ouncil of American Indians says the Daughters are wrong to concentrate solely on the siege , that the Alamo should also honor the 921 mission Indians previously buried at the site . Gilberto Hinojosa , a dean at Incarnate Word College , wan ts more emphasis on the Alamo 's role as a mission . Historians have raised doub ts about the very worthiness of the heroes Houston may have been an opium addict , Davy Crockett a sniveler . David Anthony Richelieu 's serious plan to expand the Alamo site to its former football-field-sized proportions has filled the Dau ghters with dismay . `` The DRT has had this little domain , and people are jeal ous , '' said Richelieu , a columnist for the San Antonio Express-News who has c losely followed the disputes and belongs to a special , city-appointed committee to study the questions about the Alamo . Visitors to the shrine on a recent aft ernoon hardly seem repelled by the disputes . Dozens of people prowled the lush green grounds , marveling at the smallness of the Alamo ( the mission itself is tiny , and the compound covers only 4 acres ) and its surprising location . Many first-time visitors expect the Alamo to be situated , alone , on a windswept hi ll , but downtown San Antonio sprang up around the site , and a Wendy 's and a W oolworth 's loom across the street . The Daughters do not like it that lost in t he controversy is the fact the group has never charged for admission to the Alam o , meeting a budget that now reaches $ 2 million a year with donations and the sale of Alamo-shaped ashtrays and coonskin caps . Not a penny of tax money has e ver gone to the Alamo . WASHINGTON Among the double agents that former CIA officer Aldrich H. Ames has admitted exposing to Moscow was Oleg Gordievsky , the KGB 's onetime top officer in London and the most important Soviet spy ever recruited by MI5 , Britain 's security service . Problem is , Ames can't say exactly when he told Moscow about Gordievsky . The FBI had concluded it was on June 13 , 1985 , when Ames turned over to a Soviet Embassy employee in Washington an envelope containing a list of code-names or other identifying clues for all the Soviet citizens he knew were in the pay of the CIA or allied governments . The FBI fixed on that date using p hotographic , electronic and other surveillance records that are supposed to hav e recorded all those who visited the Soviet Embassy , sources said . But the FBI did not consult with Gordievsky or read the book that he wrote in 1990 , the so urces said . In the book , Gordievsky said he was mysteriously ordered back to M oscow from London on May 17 , 1985 , four weeks before the FBI has Ames turning over his list . Gordievsky also wrote that on May 27 , 1985 , he was drugged , i nterrogated by KGB officials in the Soviet Union and `` directly accused of work ing for the British . '' Ames has said he cannot remember the date he passed the envelope , but during an interview last month placed it `` some months '' after March 1985 . Neither MI5 nor the CIA wants it proven that Ames was not the one who informed on Gordievsky because that would suggest another , still undiscover ed double agent inside either U.S. or British intelligence . The FBI , sources s aid , has been asked to review its finding . Gordievsky himself announced after Ames 's arrest that he believed it was Ames who turned him in . `` He has the bl ood of a dozen officers on his hands , '' Gordievsky wrote in an article in Marc h . `` He would have had my blood , too , had I not managed to escape before the KGB had any evidence , other than Ames 's tip-off , against me . '' Some Britis h intelligence officials , although accepting the CIA 's apology , have come to believe that Gordievsky was uncovered by the KGB 's own counterintelligence work and that Ames 's information only confirmed an existing suspicion . Motivated b y his realization that the Soviet Union was a stagnant , corrupt society , Gordi evsky agreed to spy for British intelligence in 1974 while working as a KGB poli tical intelligence officer in Copenhagen . He rose steadily in the KGB in Moscow and arrived in London in 1982 . Three years later he was named chief of the KGB 's station in the British capital . So impressive was Gordievsky 's information that some of his reports were hand-carried to then-President Ronald Reagan . Th ey gave top leaders in London and Washington what one former high-ranking CIA of ficial called `` an amazing look inside the Kremlin . '' From London Gordievsky would report on gossip he gathered and conversations he had with visiting Soviet officials and KGB officers . His reports covered China , Nicaragua , even the U nited States . The information he conveyed about the internal workings of the Kr emlin `` went way beyond any reporting we were getting , '' the former CIA offic ial said . Only a handful of top CIA officials knew the material was coming from a KGB source in London and from an individual senior enough to assume charge on occasion of the Soviet Embassy there . Ames , along with a handful of other off icers in the CIA operations directorate , was able to determine that MI5 's sour ce came from the KGB station in London . According to Gordievsky , he was unexpe ctedly recalled to Moscow in a cable he received May 17 , 1985 , saying he would be formally appointed head of the KGB 's London operation and two Politburo mem bers wanted to talk to him . When he arrived in Moscow on May 19 , he found his apartment had been searched . For a week nothing happened . Then he was taken to a KGB dacha outside Moscow for a lavish lunch that included large amounts of li quor . After the meal he felt drugged . He was then subjected to sharp questioni ng for the rest of the day , including accusations he had become a British agent . He denied the charges and maintained his innocence . Gordievsky was released , but his wife and children were ordered back from London and he was told he wou ld not be allowed to serve outside the Soviet Union again . He was relieved of d uties and told he had to report to KGB headquarters for a new assignment on Aug. 3 , 1985 . Gordievsky wrote in his book that he believed the Soviets were waiti ng to see if they could catch him secretly meeting with MI5 agents . On July 19 , without giving notice to his family , Gordievsky and MI5 agents carried out a bold escape plan . He was picked up by MI5 agents on a street outside Moscow whi le jogging with a KGB guard just yards away . He was smuggled out of Russia thro ugh a route that remains secret . The issue of Israeli settlers and settlements in the West Bank and Gaza cannot go long ignored . If mishandled , the fate of the settlers will undermine the pr ospects for later stages of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations . Ironically , the $ 10 billion U.S. loan-guarantee program just two years ago the single most cont entious issue in U.S.-Israeli relations could serve as a vehicle of conciliation and peacemaking . Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin has courageously said th at peace is more important than settlements . So far he has given no indication of how , or under what conditions , settlements might be removed . But Israel ha s the capacity on its own to adopt non-coercive policies that could at least red uce the magnitude of the settler population , leaving until later negotiations t he precise details of how settlements will be dealt with in a final peace agreem ent . When the Camp David accords were signed in 1978 , some 10,000 Israelis liv ed in the West Bank and Gaza ( beyond the expanded municipal boundaries of Jerus alem ) . Then , during the 1980s , the Israeli government intensified substantia lly its financial incentives to lure more Israelis to settle in the West Bank . The goal was to make it impossible for any future Israeli government to relinqui sh the area . As a result , more than 130,000 Israelis now live in the territori es , excluding those in expanded Jerusalem . American aid , up until 1991 , cont ributed to the settling of the West Bank by cushioning what would otherwise have been a substantial drain on the Israeli budget in the form of subsidies to sett lers . Now , when peace is a real prospect , the time has come for the United St ates and the Israeli government to reverse the financial incentives . An appropr iate instrument for this is the $ 10 billion loan-guarantee program authorized b y Congress in 1992 to provide housing for hundreds of thousands of Jews expected to emigrate from the former Soviet Union . Since actual immigration has turned out to be less than anticipated , the loan guarantees now largely unused could f acilitate emigration from the territories by financing housing within pre-1967 I srael for tens of thousands of returning Israeli settlers . Here 's how such a p rogram might work : Relocation assistance would be made available to families th at agree to leave apartments and homes in the territories . These properties wou ld become the property of the Israeli government and might at some later date be transferred to Palestinians , within the context of final status negotiations . The amount of assistance provided would decline over time . In the first year , $ 100,000 per family might be made available . This could be reduced in $ 20,00 0 increments each year , so that settlers waiting until the fifth year would rec eive only limited compensation . In short , those who leave early will be reward ed . At present , there are approximately 25,000 Israeli families living in the territories . If , in each of the next five years , 4,000 families took advantag e of the program , the cost to the Israeli government would be just over $ 1 bil lion dollars , a limited part of the total $ 10 billion in U.S.-guaranteed loans . A program of this sort will not draw the most ideological of the settlers fro m the territories , and it can also be expected that smaller groups of extremist s committed to violence will not leave in response to financial incentives . But polls show that even now more than 30 percent of the settlers are ready to leav e if compensation is provided . And this number will grow once the process is st arted . The program could be implemented unilaterally by the Israeli government ; no negotiations with the Palestinians are required ; and no coercion would be involved . Moreover , it would still leave open the future of the settlements th emselves and of those settlers who remain . By agreement , those issues are to b e dealt with in the final-status negotiations , which according to the Declarati on of Principles are to `` commence as soon as possible but not later than the b eginning of the third year of the interim period . '' The advantages of assistin g the settlers to leave now are compelling . By reducing the size of the settler population , the problem of dealing with settlements in the final status negoti ations will be significantly easier , both to negotiate and to implement . Indee d , if this is not done , the settlement question may prove `` a deal breaker '' in the final status talks . A government-assisted exodus of settlers would also send the clearest possible signal to the Palestinians that the Israeli governme nt is serious about ultimately withdrawing from the West Bank . This would great ly strengthen the position of Palestinian moderates who have been negotiating wi th the Israelis . Moreover , a major return of Israeli settlers from the territo ries would help limit violence in coming years . With respect to extremists on t he Israeli side , it would demonstrate that the effort to create permanent facts on the ground has failed and that Israelis were leaving the territories regardl ess of attempts by extremists to disrupt negotiations . An exodus of settlers fr om the territories would also refute the claim of Palestinian extremists that th e only way to end the occupation is to mount violent attacks on Israelis . The p recedent of ample compensation paid to settlers who left the Sinai when peace wa s achieved with Egypt has created an expectation of compensation among Israeli s ettlers . They will not leave without it , and the real choice is whether the pr ocess begins now or in five years . Logic says do it now . Khalil Jahshan is exe cutive director of the National Association of Arab Americans . William Quandt i s a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution . Jerome Segal , president of the Jewish Peace Lobby , is a research scholar at the University of Maryland . WASHINGTON She is a web of contradictions a woman whose name is almost synonymo us with loyalty to Bill Clinton but who has a way of giving him bouquets laced w ith stinkweed . Betsey Wright , President Clinton 's longtime chief of staff dur ing his Arkansas governor days and now a Washington lobbyist , is widely regarde d as smart and politically savvy . But for some reason , she says things on occa sion that make other Clinton advisers cringe . She coined the phrase `` bimbo er uptions '' in an interview during the presidential campaign on the spur of the m oment , she later said , because she couldn't bring the term `` gold digger '' t o mind . It was meant to be snide , putting down the women who claimed past liai sons with Clinton , but quickly took on its own life among Republicans and the m edia . `` Nobody ever told her to say anything about it , '' says a former Clint on campaign aide . `` She just came out with this quote . '' Most recently , she has been at the center of a small controversy over her statement , as quoted in a novella-size article about Hillary Rodham Clinton in The New Yorker , that `` a great many people ( are ) talking very seriously '' about a potential Hillary run for the presidency . Such comments come at a bad time , when polls are show ing renewed suspicion of the first lady 's power after she 'd attempted to put t hose concerns to rest . Wright denies making those remarks . But opinion in Clin ton circles is split . `` Sure she said it , '' says one White House staffer . ` ` She wants to be the center of attention . And she becomes the center of attent ion and realizes that it doesn't help her , so she backs off . '' `` I have neve r heard her in public or private utter anything that was not in support of Bill and Hillary , '' says Bev Lindsey , executive director of the Department of Arka nsas Heritage and wife of White House senior adviser Bruce Lindsey . `` I know B etsey wasn't out there saying some of those things that were quoted in the artic le . '' Bev Lindsey adds that she also was misquoted in the piece . Clinton camp aign strategist James Carville , who has often clashed with Wright , is giving h er a sort of backhanded benefit of the doubt . He suspects that Connie Bruck , a uthor of the New Yorker piece , `` set out to get somebody to say that '' and pe rsisted until someone did . It was `` the journalistic equivalent of a forced co nfession , '' he says . The normally talkative Wright wasn't returning calls las t week . But Bruck is standing by her quote and she says she didn't browbeat Wri ght to get it . `` You couldn't browbeat Betsey that 's my sense of it , '' she says . `` I didn't feel that she intended to harm Hillary and Bill . Was I a lit tle surprised that she would say something that I realized when printed could be startling ? Yes , I was surprised . '' If Bruck was surprised , others weren't . Some speculate that Wright is seeking a subtle form of revenge because , after years of devoted service to Clinton , she wasn't given a leading role in the pr esidential campaign . Others speculate that if Wright 's performance is sabotage , it isn't conscious . Either way , some Clintonites have been asking themselve s : With friends like Wright , who needs Rush Limbaugh ? The Texas-born Wright h as been a lifelong political player . She met Bill and Hillary Clinton in 1972 , when all three worked on George McGovern 's presidential campaign in Wright 's home state . After Clinton became governor of Arkansas , then lost his re-electi on bid in 1981 , Wright relocated to Little Rock . That 's when she began a rela tionship with Clinton that she would subsequently describe as `` almost symbioti c . '' Wright was happy to be Clinton 's lightning rod , associates say , and to absorb the bolts that otherwise would have struck her boss . In exchange , howe ver , she demanded control no scrap of paper passed through the office without h er involvement . She was a renowned workaholic who virtually never took time off showing up between 5 and 6 a.m. each day and staying late . So when she abruptl y departed for a rare vacation in August 1989 , Arkansans noticed . `` I am told that Bill and Betsey have been at each other 's throats lately , but that this is not particularly unusual , '' Arkansas Democrat-Gazette political columnist J ohn Brummett wrote then . `` Their relationship apparently is volatile , love-ha te . '' Clinton blamed Wright for a political initiative that had put him into u ncomfortable conflict with state legislators , Brummett continued . `` Her abras iveness used to get on my nerves and I considered her too protective of the boss . But now I realize that Bill needs protection sometimes , and Betsey has kept him out of a lot of trouble . '' Wright 's vacation turned out to be permanent , and the transition was handled none too smoothly . If Wright felt that Clinton had pushed her toward the door or at least failed to support her adequately she never said so publicly . She served at Clinton 's request as head of the state D emocratic Party , throwing herself into an ambitious and relatively expensive pr ogram of organizing the machine . In September 1991 , with the party more than $ 25,000 in debt , she resigned . She had `` spent far too much '' on 1990 electi ons , she acknowledged . Wright herself hadn't been paid for months . In 1992 , she contacted the presidential campaign after Gennifer Flowers surfaced with her allegations about an affair with Clinton . She knew the real dish on Flowers , Wright said later , and others in the campaign didn't . In her view , these newc omers James Carville , George Stephanopoulos and the others permitted the Flower s story to get bigger than it should have . Wright joined the campaign team but she never fit in very comfortably . With her sense of proprietorship , Wright wa s not fated to get along with the campaign 's `` white boys , '' as some insider s dubbed them . `` Can you imagine what happened when Carville started screaming and yelling and Betsey didn't shut up and started screaming and yelling back at him ? '' one campaign aide says . But Wright wasn't someone to be dismissed lig htly . She knew Clinton very well . Everyone assumed she had nuclear capabilitie s . Those who are loyal to Wright and they tend to be longtime Clinton allies wi th Arkansas roots maintain that the `` War Room '' crowd was harder on Wright th an they should have been . Brummett says Wright recounted to him a meeting with Carville and Stephanopoulos in which they criticized her because some of Clinton 's potential liabilities had not been resolved in the past . `` One said , ` Ho w could you let Bill Clinton be governor for 10 years and not answer the marijua na question ? ' And she began to cry . '' But Wright also maintained that she ha d tried that on some points , Clinton was hard to manage . `` And what did Carvi lle and Stephanopoulos get him to do ? '' Brummett asks . `` He stood up and sai d he didn't inhale . '' Wright acknowledged some of the stress she felt during t he campaign in tearful comments that she made at a post-election forum of campai gn players at Harvard . She complained bitterly about attacks on Arkansas and Cl inton 's record as governor , including some that came from within the campaign . But at the same forum , Wright continued with remarks that didn't necessarily favor Clinton . A reporter asked Carville why Clinton never denied having an aff air with Gennifer Flowers . `` He certainly did , '' Carville replied . `` He sa id it any number of times . '' `` Now , what he said , James , was .. . ' ' Wrig ht interjected . `` Let 's not do a slick Willie here . '' He had said that Flow ers was lying , Wright explained . `` And she was , and she has been lying since she was 3 years old . '' A defense of Clinton , perhaps but one that raised the very possibilities that Carville had been attempting to dispel . After the elec tion , Wright came to Washington . She never had a job in the administration and said she didn't want one . After years of service , she said , she was broke . It was time for her to earn some money and , pushing 50 , time to prepare for he r retirement . She joined the Wexler Group , lobbying with some success on behal f of the American Dietetic Association and the American Forest and Paper Associa tion . Wright has demonstrated that she can tap straight into Bill or Hillary 's office at least to get her clients a hearing , even if their wishes aren't alwa ys granted . The relationship `` has been a good thing for her , for us , for ou r clients , '' says Anne Wexler . Arkansans are much warmer to Wright than the c rowd that gathered around Clinton during and after the presidential campaign . T hey know she is complicated and volatile , but she also is one of them certainly more so than the boys in the War Room . They recognize her past loyalty to Clin ton and offer their own support . `` Arkansans have an appreciation of the histo ry , '' says Skip Rutherford , a Little Rock attorney who formerly chaired the s tate Democratic Party and worked in the Clinton campaign . `` The truth of the m atter is , she came in and helped Bill Clinton after a stunning defeat . She hel ped position him for a '92 victory . '' The Carville crowd `` got Bill Clinton a s he was a national candidate , '' he says . `` We saw Bill Clinton coming out o f the ruins of an upset defeat . And what we saw was Betsey Wright rebuilding th e tower . '' Retirees are increasingly finding themselves on their own when it comes to heal th-care coverage . A new survey shows that most companies in the United States c ut employees off from all coverage the moment they retire , and those that conti nue to provide coverage shift most of the cost onto the retiree . The nationwide study of 2,395 employers by A . Foster Higgins & Co. , a New York-based benefit s consulting firm , shows that among large companies those with 500 or more empl oyees workers who take early retirement are somewhat more apt to get continued c overage than those who have reached age 65 and are eligible to receive governmen t health insurance under Medicare . Among large companies , 46 percent provide s ome form of coverage for early retirees , while only 39 percent provide insuranc e for Medicare-eligible retirees . But fewer than one in five large employers is willing to pay the entire cost of health care for retirees , while 40 percent o f the companies that do offer some form of health-care coverage require the reti ree to pay all the costs . Even at full cost , however , it may be cheaper for a retiree to buy coverage from his or her ex-employer than to buy an individual i nsurance policy . Stephne Behrend , the managing consultant who conducted the su rvey , one of the larger of its kind in the United States , said it showed a con tinuing `` gradual erosion '' in employer health-care benefits for retirees . `` Each year we 've seen a significant number of companies that say they 've termi nated their benefits for retirees , '' Behrend said . A new Census Bureau study shows a similar decline in employer health-care coverage for active workers . Th e overall percentage of workers covered by employer health plans , it concludes , dropped from 66 percent in 1979 to 61 percent in 1993 . Labor Secretary Robert B . Reich said the Census report shows a drop in coverage in every category of workers and employers . Behrend said that this year Foster Higgins revised its s urvey methods to gauge better what 's taking place among smaller companies . `` What we get is a much better picture of smaller companies and just how limited p ost-retirement benefits are from smaller companies , '' she said . The survey , she said , shows there is not a great difference between large and small compani es when it comes to health care benefits for active employees . `` The differenc e really happens in the smaller companies when you get to the post-retirement ar ea , '' she said . According to the survey report , `` small employers are much less likely to offer retiree coverage ; only 8 percent offer coverage to retiree s under age 65 and 9 percent offer it to Medicare-eligible retirees , '' general ly people age 65 or older . Benefit consultants have long maintained that the av ailability of health care benefits is often a major factor in retirement decisio ns by employees . The Foster Higgins survey underscores that . `` Whether or not an employer offers retiree coverage appears to have some effect on employees ' retirement decisions , since most employees are not eligible for Medicare until they reach age 65. .. . Two-thirds of those retiring were under age 65 , '' acco rding to the survey . Among small companies , people tend to hang on longer so t hat they can move straight to Medicare . At companies with fewer than 500 employ ees , the survey showed , 70 percent of those retiring were over age 65 . The su rvey also said that 73 percent of small employers required both early retirees a nd Medicare-eligible retirees to pay the full cost of any company-provided insur ance benefits . Behrend said that even with the retiree paying the full cost , h owever , it provided some advantage for the retiree because it often guaranteed the continuation of coverage regardless of preexisting medical problems . The Fo ster Higgins survey showed that the cost of providing health care benefits to re tirees rose an average of 7.9 percent last year . The average cost per retiree w as $ 2,735 in 1993 , compared with $ 2,534 the year before . When the age of ret irees is considered , there is a dramatic shift in costs to the company . The su rvey shows that the average cost for early retirees , those under age 65 , was $ 5,216 per employee . The cost for people 65 and older , who can tap Medicare , averaged $ 1,786 . This is particularly relevant in today 's work force as major corporations , often those with the most expensive health-care plans , continue to reduce the size of their work force and turn to new technology to become mor e competitive . During the first three months of the year , an average of more t han 3,000 jobs was lost each day as the result of corporate downsizing . That nu mber began to slow slightly to fewer than 2,000 jobs a day in the second quarter of the year . Many companies have used retiree health benefits to lure older em ployees to leave . WASHINGTON Paul Green Houston , a longtime Washington correspondent for the Los Angeles Times and author of its popular weekly `` Washington Insight '' column , died late Sunday after a two-year battle with colon cancer . He was 52 . Houst on joined the Los Angeles Times in 1965 as a staff writer in Los Angeles and was assigned to its Washington bureau in 1972 . He first covered the California con gressional delegation before his beat was expanded to include all of Congress . He served a term as chairman of the Standing Committee of Correspondents , the o rganization of news reporters assigned to Congress . Houston played a prominent role in The Times ' coverage of the Watergate affair , including the impeachment proceedings against former President Nixon , and later the Iran Contra scandal . Several years ago , drawing on his experience and contacts , he took over the newspaper 's Washington Insight column , which features behind-the-scenes glimps es of the capital 's processes of power . `` He had the best sources of anyone o n the Hill , '' said Times Washington Bureau Chief Jack Nelson . `` I covered im peachment with him , and he had better sources than I did . He was extremely wel l-liked . '' Said House Speaker Thomas J. Foley , D-Wash. , `` Congress had a go od many journalists covering the Hill in recent years , but Paul Houston was in the handful of the best . Few had covered it longer or better . '' Houston , who was named after the Pulitzer-prize winning playwright and family friend Paul Gr een , was born into a writing family in Chapel Hill , N.C. . His father , Noel H ouston , was a prize-winning journalist and novelist who authored the best-selli ng 1946 novel `` The Great Promise . '' His mother , Kay Replogle Houston , was a noted gardener and cook . Houston demonstrated an early interest in journalism in his high school years and then as an English major at the University of Nort h Carolina at Chapel Hill where he wrote for the Daily Tar Heel and was assistan t sports publicity director for the university . He was graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1963 . After graduation , he moved to Houston where he worked as a reporter for the Houston Chronicle for a year , and then joined the San Francisco Examine r , where he worked for another year . In 1968 , at 25 , he became the youngest recipient of the Nieman Fellowship for journalists at Harvard University . He wa s an avid sportsman who enthusiastically pursued tennis , golf and body surfing , and , in fact , scored 81 , with two birdies , in a golf match four days befor e entering the hospital for the last time this month . He was also a devoted coo k , reader , trombonist and punster . He is survived by his widow , Virginia ; t wo daughters , Katherine and Susanna ; and a sister , Diana Houston , all of the Washington area . WASHINGTON What 's approximately 48,000 years old , has 1,394 legs , is steady , generally healthy and likes to work ? Those are the combined stats more or les s of the 697 men and women who have been in federal government service here 50 o r more years . Most were in their 20s , or teen-agers , when they came to work b efore D-Day . They have been on the job longer than the average American has bee n alive . At a time when the federal government is pushing early retirement and paying workers $ 25,000 bonues to leave , people who stick around for 50 years s tick out ! Some are the institutional memory of their agency . All the club memb ers were on the job before President Clinton was born , before TV or CDs or PCs , and when the outcome of World War II was still in doubt . Their Washington was a boom town where movies were run night and day to accommodate shift workers , and where women vastly outnumbered men in most government offices . Most walked or took the trolley ( 10 cents ) to work . About that time The Washington Post l aunched a `` Government Girl Plane Drive . '' The idea was to get $ 1 from G-gir ls ( that was a legal term in those days ) to buy a warplane for both the Army A ir Corps and the Navy . The White House supported the drive . Each aircraft was to be named GOVERNMENT GIRL and each would carry a logbook with the names of all donors . Donors names were posted in front of the Post building . It was a diff erent town and time . One who remebers is Bernice Watson . She 's with the Feder al Mediation and Conciliation Service . Mid-June marks her 50th year in governme nt . Like thousands of other G-girls ( including my mother ) she was recruited f rom small towns to come to Washington . Many planned to work for the duration of the war , then go home . A lot of them are still here . Watson and the late Mur iel Fortenberry Freeman , came fresh from high school to be civilian clerk-typis ts in the brand-new Pentagon building . The young ladies , from Magnolia , Miss. , took the 26-hour train from New Orleans to Washington 's Union Station . Afte r signing forms , they were taken to their government-approved rooming house at No. 2 Logan Circle . A vigilant landlady insured that no men patriotic locals an d Nazi spies were equally suspect ever got above the first floor lounge area . W atson giggled when she remembered the lounge `` dance band '' a nickelodian that supplied tunes for not-too-close dancing . Working a 5 and a half day week for $ 38 left little time or money for exotic entertainment . Like many of the warti me temps , Watson stayed and added to the city . Her son , Lawrence Thomas , is now a lieutenant in the Metropolitan Police Department . She still lives in town . Why has she worked so long ? `` Well , I had a good reason , I needed the mon ey , '' she said . Now she works because otherwise `` I 'd go crazy. .. . You ha ve to get out of the house . '' She likes the FMCS , and it likes her . If you c an't be at her June 15 luncheon party , raise a glass from wherever for that han g-tight , hang-tough 50-year bunch . NEW DELHI , India Nine-year-old Raju and his big brother , Mantu , had a carefu lly choreographed scam they pulled on unsuspecting tourists . The two boys would leave their home in the slums for the city 's busiest market center , where the y would target a well-shod Westerner on a stroll . The fleet-footed Mantu would sneak behind him and squirt shaving cream on the back of a shoe . Raju of the sw eet face and big doelike eyes would step into the tourist 's path , point to his shoes and say , `` Hey , man , your shoes are dirty . I clean them . '' He 'd t hen fleece the tourist at 10 times the going rate for a shoeshine , more if the guy looked rich and overly gullible . Suresh `` Baba '' Varma , a movie producti on executive who splits his time between Los Angeles and India , frequently walk ed past the little scam artists and would tease Raju , the more gregarious of th e pair : `` Some day I 'll make a film and give you a chance to be a star . '' ` ` Ha , '' scoffed Raju , a rail-thin boy small for his age . `` No you willn't . Nobody gives me a chance . '' But in nothing less than a Cinderella story for t he poor shoeshine boy , one of 11 children of a Rajasthani Gypsy who fed his fam ily by making plaster gods and idols , Varma kept his word . In the summer of 19 93 , Varma was in Katmandu , Nepal , screening children for the role of a child Buddha in Bernardo Bertolucci 's `` Little Buddha , '' the tale of a Buddhist te acher believed to be reincarnated in three modern-day children . `` I feel like I looked at every single kid in Nepal between the ages of 7 and 10 , '' says Var ma . But none of the youngsters seemed right for the role . One day Varma spotte d the Delhi shoeshine boys on the streets of Katmandu pulling their same old tri cks . Raju and 11-year-old Mantu had joined their nomadic father on his annual m igration to Nepal , following the holiday selling season for plaster gods and go ddesses . Varma pulled them into a scooter rickshaw and took Raju for an auditio n . `` I believe in karma , '' says Varma . `` I know the script . I see his fac e this kid had a lot of energy in his face . I know this is the boy . He 's the one . '' One week Raju Lal Sehansra was pulling his scam on the streets of the c ity by day and living in fetid slums by night , and the next week he was practic ing lines in a foreign tongue , wearing chic new Western clothes and learning to love alien foods such as spaghetti , which he had to eat with a fork instead of his fingers . In the months of on-the-scene filming of `` Little Buddha '' in N epal and Bhutan , Raju experienced the kind of lifestyle about which poor Indian families dare not even fantasize . For his scenes , he was draped in colorful r obes and perched on a throne as a young lama . He watched his favorite movie , ` ` Home Alone , '' dozens of times . He was showered with toys and Western clothe s he 'd only seen from the outside of the stores . Not to mention that he was pa id $ 12,000 more money than his father could expect to make in a lifetime . The conversion from shoeshine boy to movie star was not always easy . The language b arrier was a major problem . The producers hired Mantu , who spoke more English than his little brother and was a faster study , to coach Raju and ended up cast ing him in a small part in the movie . In Katmandu , Varma helped relocate Raju 's entire family to the biggest house they 'd ever occupied . The good deed ende d in disaster . After a few weeks , Raju 's father whose skills in plaster had b een put to work on the movie set and even landed him a bit part as a mechanic in `` Little Buddha '' approached Varma and pleaded , `` Please take us out of her e . I was living in the slums . If I had to go to the toilet I 'd just walk out anywhere . Here we have to wait in line . I want some fresh air . I feel like I am in jail . '' At the end of the shoot , there were promises of more movies , m aybe even one based on Raju 's own life . Indian advertisers wanted to hire him to plug their products on television . Varma vowed to get the boys out of the sl ums . He hired dancing instructors to coach them and planned to enroll them in D elhi 's best schools . But with `` Little Buddha '' now playing in the United St ates it opened in Europe months ago , to mixed reviews the Cinderella tale is di mming . Raju has had no new movie offers , and Delhi 's private schools refused to admit the two brothers because their family is from a poor , low caste and th eir father has spent a large chunk of their earnings on extravagant village wedd ings for two of his older children . The movie production company has put the re maining money in a trust and allows the family to draw only the monthly interest . Even so , that amount is more than the entire family earned each month making idols , shining shoes and selling maps at inflated prices to tourists . So , fo r the most part , their father has stopped working and Raju and Mantu hang out i n the slums , doing occasional interviews and hoping for another movie offer . L ike many of India 's poorest people , the boys ' 47-year-old father , Jai Lal Se hansra , doesn't think much about the future : `` We are small people . We can't have big dreams . My only dream is that all my children grow up and get married and become good people . That is enough for us . There is no basis for dreaming . If you can't have it , why dream at all ? '' But Raju and Mantu do dare to dr eam . `` In the future I want to be a big actor , '' says Raju . `` Before I did n't think about it . '' And that has given the other children the incentive to d ream . `` If my brothers become so famous , why shouldn't I ? '' says 11-year-ol d Meera , a delicate-faced girl wearing braided pigtails and a tiny nose stud . Has temporary stardom and a taste of life beyond the narrow alleys of the slums changed the two boys ? Their mother , Parvati , looks up from the bucket of blac k water where she is washing her cooking pots just outside the front door of the house . `` I don't see any change . They sit and eat roti the same way . '' WASHINGTON The Democrats love to call theirs the party of compassion , and so t heir reaction to losing a Kentucky House seat last week was all the more unusual : They shot the wounded . Joe Prather , the former Kentucky Democratic chairman and state Senate leader who lost his election to Congress on Tuesday , was atta cked by his own party leaders for running a lousy campaign . Democrats sounded l ike the Americans in Vietnam : They had to destroy the village to save it . Afte r losing two House seats in a month , and every key race over the past year , th e Democrats were desperate to tell people particularly their own nervous candida tes that these losses had nothing to do with President Clinton 's unpopularity o r with the party 's policies . That was not selling , even among many Democrats . Democratic leaders are the first to admit that this is likely to be a tough ye ar . Internal forecasts say the party could lose from 18 to more than 30 House s eats this fall . Losses on the high end of that range would wipe out Clinton 's majority in the House . Several things are working against the Democrats this ye ar that go beyond the normal cyclical trends of midterm elections : Voters are s till angry at Congress and incumbents . That puts the Democrats , with far more incumbents , in greater jeopardy . Retirements have hit Democrats harder than Re publicans , and these open-seat races are more susceptible to switching parties than seats with an incumbent running for re-election . That was the case in Kent ucky , where the late Rep. William H. Natcher ( D ) had held the Republican-lean ing district for four decades . There are 46 open seats , and the number is like ly to grow . Redistricting turned once-safe Democratic districts into competitiv e ones . The Democrats still hold a greater share of House seats than is their s hare of the national vote for the House , but Republicans believe the last round of redistricting helped to level the playing field in many districts . Republic ans appear to be assembling a quasi-independent force of grass-roots workers , i ncluding religious conservatives , anti-tax activists and term-limits advocates , who could offset organized labor 's aid to Democrats . That is why Democrats w ant people to believe their problems have nothing to do with them . But the Okla homa and Kentucky special congressional elections showed that in some parts of t he country , particularly in Southern and border states , Clinton is a growing l iability to Democratic candidates . In Oklahoma , the Democratic candidate kept his distance from Clinton ( and lost ) , and in Kentucky , Republican Ron Lewis wrapped Clinton around Prather and , when Prather failed to fight back , snatche d away a seat that had been in Democratic hands for 129 years . The lesson , exp ressed vigorously by Clinton and other top Democrats after Prather 's loss was : Fight back . They said Democrats who had run from Clinton over the last year su ch as Prather and Virginia 's Mary Sue Terry and Texas 's Bob Kreuger got beat . And those who didn't ? Well , they got beat too , but not so badly . Exhibits A , B and C were former Georgia Sen. Wyche Fowler , former New Jersey Gov. Jim Fl orio and former New York Mayor David N . Dinkins . To this reasoning by Democrat s , Republican National Committee officials literally howled . `` I suggest Demo crats in November take David 's ( DNC Chairman David Wilhelm ) advice and adopt a .. . Jim Florio , David Dinkins strategy , '' RNC Chairman Haley Barbour said in a statement . But there was a more serious point Clinton and Wilhelm tried to make to their fellow Democrats . With the economy growing , inflation low and t he possibility of action on health care reform , the Democrats may have a messag e of success to take to voters this fall . When Republicans lost 26 seats in 198 2 , two years after Ronald Reagan won the presidency in a landslide , unemployme nt had just hit 10 percent . This year it has been falling , and gross domestic product has been rising . Interest rates ? The Democrats will blame their increa se on Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan . Democrats do not believe they ha ve received enough credit from the voters for that record . Whether because of C linton 's foreign policy problems , the nagging questions about Whitewater and h is personal life that have eroded public confidence in his character or the stil l-uncertain fate of health care , the Democrats have not been able to sell thems elves nationally . Republicans are eager to see the fall elections turned into a national referendum . They argue that perceptions of Clinton , particularly in the South , have been shaped by controversy over homosexuals in the military , b y the belief that his health care plan is a big-government approach and by the b elief that his fiscal policy is to tax first , cut spending later . But presiden tial pollster Stanley Greenberg said the Republicans may be overly confident in their belief that voters want to abandon Clinton and the Democrats . `` There 's denial that there was any criticism of the '80s in the 1992 election , '' he sa id . `` The special elections reinforce that denial and may mislead them in how '94 will be defined and how '96 will be defined . '' Health care may hold the ke y to the Democrats ' future . Successful passage of a reform bill that ultimatel y guarantees coverage for all Americans could cap Clinton 's first two years in office and give incumbents something real on which to campaign . Failure to pass anything could , in turn , bring disgust with gridlock back to center stage . NEW DELHI , India Even for India , notorious for heat and dust , this summer ha s been a sizzler . How hot has it been ? On Monday , New Delhi sweated though it s hottest afternoon in a half-century , with the mercury shooting up to 114.8 de grees . In the arid , mostly desert state of Rajasthan to the southwest of the I ndian capital , at least 71 people have died over the past few days of heat stro ke , news reports said . In the towns of Phalodi and Jhalawar , it was an overpo wering 118.4 degrees . Dust storms were forecast for some areas . Rajasthan 's c hief minister , Bhairon Singh Shekhawat , said more than 22,000 villages were in the grip of a severe drought caused by the two-week heat wave . The state will spend almost $ 65 million on aid and make-work programs for farmers whose crops have been singed in the fields , he said . New Delhi 's wide streets were desert ed during much of the day as wary residents avoided the burning sun and searing breezes that felt as if they were venting from a brick kiln . Electric current e bbed and surged throughout the day , sometimes failing entirely , as the already overtaxed power grid strained to run all the air conditioners and fans in this city of more than 8 million people . ( Begin optional trim ) Like the British be fore them , many of India 's high and mighty fled the burning plains of northern India for the cooler hills . On a single day recently , 10 government VIPs were sighted in Dehra Dun , ostensibly on some official business . Finance Minister Manmohan Singh went to unveil a statue of Buddha at a hospital . Rajesh Pilot , minister of state for external security , was chief guest at a function staged b y the Indo-Tibetan border police . Pressed by a reporter , he admitted he intend ed to relax in the coolness of the nearby hill station of Mussoorie for four day s . For those left behind at lower altitudes , no relief was in sight , forecast ers warned . Ram Snehi , director of the Safdarjung Meteorological Office in the capital , said Monday that over the next few days `` the maximum temperature ma y , at the most , show a difference of about a half a degree only , but no drama tic change is expected . '' ( End optional trim ) May is generally the hottest m onth of the year for Delhi . The weatherman 's outlook was bad news for people a cross North India , who must expect another month of intense heat before the arr ival of the cooling rains of the monsoon , expected to reach Delhi June 29 . May 29 , 1944 remains the hottest day on record in India 's capital , with the temp erature peaking at 117 degrees . WASHINGTON You hit the `` enter '' or `` return '' key and that soft , comforti ng clicking begins . A colored light blinks on and off . Your hard disk , workin g faster than a waiter at a wedding banquet , is serving information by the mill ions of bits . We hear endlessly of rapid-fire advances in microprocessors . But just as important in keeping personal computing on that ever-upward plane are f aster , cheaper , higher-capacity hard disks . And their gains are just as amazi ng . Don't think so ? Consider these numbers . In a little more than a decade st orage costs have been cut by close to 99 percent . That is , in 1982 , according to research firm Dataquest Inc. , the price of hard disks worked out at about $ 75 per megabyte ( 1 million characters ) of data . On average , hard disks sold back then could hold a mere 6 megabytes of information . But in 1993 , the pric e of hard disks worked out to 92 cents per megabyte . The average disk size was 240 megabytes . That 's progress . So , look at it like this way : the Windows r evolution and the advent of multimedia computing happened because companies have built hard disks big enough to hold the bloated software that these innovations require . The disk makers have names like Quantum Corp. , Seagate Technology In c. , Connor Peripherals Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. . They ar e huge operations ; they sold about $ 9 billion worth of hard disks for PCs and laptops in 1993 , according to International Data Corp. . But few consumers know their names ( with the exception , of course , of IBM ) . That 's because most of these companies ' production is overseas , typically in Singapore or Malaysia . It also is because most people don't know what kind of hard disks they have i t just comes as part of the computer . The hard disk is a holdout in the compute r world it 's among the last components with moving parts . Its interior would w arm the heart of a Swiss watchmaker . It is a miniature world of metal and motio n discs that spin , heads that move back and forth in jerky robot like motion to fetch data and electric motors that keep the whole unit alive . When a hard dis k fails , it is usually more painful than anything else that can go wrong with y our computer system . You can replace all other components quickly and go on as before . But a failed hard disk can destroy years of information . ( Don't forge t to make those backups ! ) But mostly what hard disks do is sell , not fail . T he market is so vibrant that it has been unfazed by a potentially troubling deve lopment : the appearance of compression software . It used to be the only way to get bigger capacity was to buy a bigger disk . Now companies such as Microsoft Corp. and Stac Electronics Inc. have sold millions of copies of software that sh rinks the size of other software and data files , meaning you can get more onto the old disk . But Crawford Del Prete of International Data Corp. says compressi on is being used mainly in laptops , where it 's hard to upgrade the disk . On e asy-to-upgrade desktops , he said , prices are low enough so `` people are willi ng to spend and upgrade '' the old way , by buying a new disk . How long will th e hard disk remain ? You can count on a long , long time . While there are two m ajor competing technologies , the CD-ROM and what 's called `` flash memory , '' each has drawbacks that make it unsuitable as the disk 's successor . The CD-RO M , which has become commonplace these days , makes a wonderful storage medium , holding about 650 megabytes of information . But access time is much slower tha n with hard disks ( that file your hard disk can fetch in one second may take a CD-ROM five or 10 seconds ) . Plus there 's the lack of erasability . CD-ROMs , as we know them today , can't record once they 've left the factory . There are erasable optical units out there , but they are two and three times the price of hard disks . And even if costs came down , there is still the problem of slow a ccess time . Flash memory is the other alternative . This is a memory chip that can store any information you want and , unlike its Random Access Memory cousins that hold data electronically in your computer , doesn't forget everything when the machine is turned off . Ideally , it would make a wonderful replacement low power , small size , an end to those darned moving parts . Ideally , I said . F lash memory has found a fast-growing market in such things as PCMCIA cards used in laptops and personal digital assistants . Prices are coming down by about 50 percent a year . But the technology remains far too expensive for general deskto p use . Dataquest figures that flash sold in one megabyte dollops is about where hard disks were a decade ago $ 75 per megabyte . So , it would not generally ma ke sense to store a 20-megabyte Windows program in flash when you could do the j ob for about one-fiftieth the cost with a hard disk . Consider , too , that hard -disk makers have hardly come to a standstill in product improvement . Manufactu rers are shrinking the size and raising the durability of hard disks to the poin t that popping them into mobile devices makes more sense all the time . And the basic , full-sized product is always getting stronger . Each year , engineers ma ke progress on two basic challenges : One , building recording heads that are fa ster and more sensitive and , therefore , can inscribe more information on a sma ller piece of `` real estate '' on a disk ; two , developing materials that can hold information at denser ratios . The other force that is bringing prices down is economies of scale . Even without technological advance , prices would proba bly fall as more and more computers are sold . Annual world demand for desktop d rives is about 50 million units , up from basically nothing in the early 1980s . Phil Devin , Dataquest 's disk specialist , expects that storage costs will fal l from 1993 's 92 cents per megabyte to 9 cents by 1998 . Imagine that . Or wait and see it for real . It 's only four years away . TOKYO A right-wing nationalist Monday fired a single gunshot near former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa in a hotel lobby . He was unhurt . Police and members of Japan 's secret service arrested the assailant . Press reports said he told police he was angry at Hosokawa 's apologies last year for Japan 's aggression i n World War II , and at Hosokawa 's inability to end Japan 's long-running reces sion . The assailant was identified as Masakatsu Nozoe , 52 , said to be a membe r of a nationalist fringe group that maintains Japan was in the right when it in vaded East Asian countries and attacked Pearl Harbor . As Hosokawa walked throug h the hotel lobby after a political rally , Nozoe fired a single shot from about 30 feet away , witnesses said . The bullet hit the ceiling . Nozoe reportedly t old police later that he had not intended to shoot Hosokawa . For many Japanese , Hosokawa is the epitome of change here . Last summer , he was a leader of the political revolution that ended four decades of one-party conservative rule . Ho sokawa 's successor , Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata , has basically taken the same stance on apologies for the war . But he gave in to right-wing pressure earlier this month when he canceled plans , originally made by Hosokawa , to have Emper or Akihito visit the Pearl Harbor Memorial in Honolulu during a trip to the Unit ed States in June . NAIROBI , Kenya Somalia 's on-again , off-again peace talks were once again pos tponed after the main feuding parties failed to show up . Diplomats said this la test delay , prior to a U.N. . Security Council decision on the future of the op eration , appeared to increase the likelihood that the Clinton administration wo uld prevail in its attempts to cut it short . The `` nation-building '' has cost $ 1.5 billion so far but yielded few results . `` Of course , it looks bad , '' said a senior U.N. diplomat here speaking of this latest postponement . The tal ks , originally scheduled for April but postponed four times , were supposed to prepare a full-fledged national reconciliation conference to choose a new govern ment . Somalia has been without any government since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown in January 1991 and the country descended into anarchy . Diploma ts had called these talks the Somali factional leaders ' last chance to reach a compromise and set up a government before the Security Council voted to shorten the mandate of the U.N. mission to just six more weeks . But antagonists Ali Mah di Mohamed , the country 's self-styled `` interim president , '' and Gen. Moham ed Farah Aideed , the strongman of South Mogadishu , did not show up . WASHINGTON Federal prosecutors plan to seek an indictment Tuesday against House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , unless he makes a last minute offer for a plea agreement , sources familiar with the case said Mo nday . By Monday afternoon , Rostenkowski still had not accepted a deal and sour ces said that barring an immediate overture by the influential lawmaker the wait ing was over . `` The government is ready to go , '' one source familiar with th e negotiations said . Other sources said that the government 's case was already set for presentation to a grand jury . Tuesday is the `` day '' another source said . After more than two weeks of discussing the possibility of a plea bargain , Rostenkowski last week declined to accept a deal in which he would plead guil ty to a felony and spend a limited amount of time in jail , sources said . U.S. Attorney Eric H . Holder Jr. gave Rostenkowski until over the holiday weekend to ponder his fate . Options for Rostenkowski appear to have run out , as has his tenure as chairman of Ways and Means , a committee that puts him in the forefron t on President Clinton 's health-care legislation as well as major trade , welfa re and tax bills . If the grand jury returns an indictment punishable by at leas t two years in prison , under normal procedures of the House Democratic Caucus , Rostenkowski would have to step down from the committee chairmanship . A plea b argain would give him a slight chance of retaining his chairmanship . Caucus rul es do not require a member convicted of criminal charges to resign from office o r leadership positions , although such members are likely to face an ethics inve stigation and disciplinary actions . House Republicans have indicated that they would seek to have Rostenkowski removed from the chairmanship if a plea agreemen t is struck . Federal prosecutors have outlined a broad case against Rostenkowsk i of conspiracy to defraud the government in what has been described as `` kitch en sink '' approach alleging abuses of official accounts for postage , leased au tomobiles , office space , supplies and personnel . Rostenkowski has publicly de nied all the allegations . The FBI has investigated whether several so-called `` ghost employees '' in Rostenkowski 's Chicago office received pay for work neve r down . The probe also examined whether Rostenkowski purchased personal and gif t items through his expense account at the House Stationary Store . In addition , the prosecution 's case also reportedly examines whether government leased car s were used primarily for personal use rather than official business and if Rost enkowski and other lawmakers traded postage vouchers and stamps for thousands of dollars . Rostenkowski , completing his 36th year in Congress , entered plea di scussions in an effort to reduce or eliminate any prison sentence while avoiding a lengthy legal battle . He also wanted to try to retain his chairmanship . The talks broke down as the government remained adamant that Rostenkowski must do j ail time and plead guilty to a felony that is reflective of the breadth of the o verall allegations against him . Rostenkowski is said to be frustrated that the government 's case originates from the initial investigation into the so-called House Post Office scam . He views those initial allegations as bogus and general ly believes that the subsequent questions of wrongdoing are petty . Should he be indicted , the stage will be set for one of the more acrimonious and lengthy le gal battles in recent memory , said sources , including one who described the re sulting litigation in terms of `` nuclear war . '' JERICHO , West Bank A Palestinian official , just arrived with the new police f orce from Jordan , waxed eloquent on the telephone last week to his wife back ho me about life in Jericho . `` It 's like heaven , '' gushed Abu Yassin . `` Psyc hologically , it is poetry to be in my homeland . `` But we are living in hell , '' he admitted to her . `` The weather is very bad . There is no bed I sleep on the floor . And to eat , I have to go out to pick fruit from the banana fields . '' Such is the mix of emotions and complications that has marked the start of Palestinian autonomy in Jericho and the Gaza Strip . The first 10 days after Isr aeli withdrawal have served up a salad of close calls , doomsday predictions , a ngry threats and cautious whiffs of optimism . Palestinian autonomy has gotten o ff to a predictably rocky start . There is little sign so far of a Palestinian g overnment to replace the civil administration that left with the Israeli army . The last Israeli paycheck to civil servants here runs out Tuesday , and no one h as stepped in to pick up the payroll . Palestinian soldiers-turned-police still are trickling in from scattered bases in the Middle East , but they have no supp lies and little equipment . They have to borrow gas from Israel to put in their patrol jeeps , donated from the United States . Officers declared it unseemly fo r their men to take handouts of food from local residents , but they had no othe r provisions . The Israeli army started slipping combat rations to the new arriv als . Yasser Arafat was still in Tunis , Tunisia , trying to appoint a national council . Other Palestinian figures balked at joining him and sharing blame for the mess . Surprisingly , it is Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin who finds c heer amid this gloom . It is `` a good start .. . a good chance for the future , '' he said last week on a tour of the Gaza Strip . `` Things were carried out i n a much better way than I thought . `` I had deep fears about .. . the way thin gs would take shape , '' he said . But `` on the Palestinian side , a real effor t was made to coordinate and understand . '' The prime minister may have been pr acticing a little damage control . Public opinion polls showed a sharp dive in I sraeli support last week for continuing the five-year autonomy process ; 63 perc ent said stop now , according to one poll . ( Begin optional trim ) Israeli news papers worked themselves into a froth over the first mishaps involving Palestini an police . Last Monday , a Palestinian soldier shot out the tires of an Israeli who ignored a checkpoint . On Tuesday , the new officers improperly arrested th ree armed Israelis . On Wednesday , a Palestinian private stopped at gunpoint an Israeli general . News photos showed Israeli and Palestinian soldiers faced off with guns , a hair-trigger away from disaster . But the disaster did not happen . Nor did other dire predictions that autonomy would bring civil war among Pale stinian factions , or a revolt in other areas , or a slew of fresh terrorist inc idents . In all , last week , things were relatively quiet . ( End optional trim ) In a background briefing to Israeli reporters , top Israeli army chiefs went out of their way to compliment the Palestinian police . The crisp-uniformed Pale stinians look smarter than the determinedly sloppy Israeli soldiers , admitted a senior Israeli officer . And `` when an Israeli brigade replaces another , it i s much less organized than what we have seen so far from the Palestinians , '' h e said . But flattery and understanding could not hide obvious shortcomings in t he Palestinian takeover . Although they have had eight months to plan their tran sition , the Palestinians have arrived with no mechanism to continue government services . Israel 's civil administration said that it spent about $ 70 million a year on government services to the Gaza Strip and Jericho . With the additiona l cost of police salaries , the Palestinians may need three times that amount . `` The Palestinian national authority is in financial straits , '' lamented the Arabic daily Al-Quds . `` Before the end of this month it has to have $ 20 milli on in Gaza and Jericho . '' The Palestinians protest that international donors s o far are deadbeats and have not backed up their pledges with cash . In part , t he donor countries are wary of handing over money to the historically corrupt PL O ; in part they prefer financing concrete projects over daily expense vouchers . `` They are insisting on specific projects that they can put a plaque on , pra ising the donors . There is no money for operating expenses , '' acknowledged on e Israeli official . ( Optional Add End ) The Israelis do not acknowledge any re sponsibility for the situation . For 27 years , Israel silenced , imprisoned or deported emerging leaders of the Palestinian people . As for facilities , Israel this month left behind equipment ranging from computers to telephones in some o ffices , but stripped others bare . Israel , too , has been less than faithful t o its signature , Palestinians complain . Israel has released fewer than 1,000 o f the 5,000 prisoners it had promised to free promptly after May 4 . VATICAN CITY In a stern veto , Pope John Paul II reasserted a ban against women priests Monday , ordering Catholics to end internal debate and obey historic te achings . In a righteous , authoritarian apostolic letter addressed to his bisho ps , Pope John Paul marked his first day back in the office after four weeks in a hospital for a broken leg . His resounding `` no '' to any possibility of a gr eater religious role for Catholic women in their church was the second time in a week that the Vatican has crossed swords with assertive Catholic women . Before returning to the Vatican Friday , Pope John Paul accepted an English translatio n of the church 's new catechism that women 's groups have denounced as sexist f or its language . Monday 's 1,000-word letter , `` On Reserving Priestly Ordinat ion To Men Alone , '' is remarkable for its bluntness and the absolute authority that Pope John Paul asserts `` in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance . `` I declare that the Church has no authority wh atsoever to confer priestly ordination on women , and that this judgment is to b e definitively held for all the Church 's faithful , '' Pope John Paul writes in the letter . Fundamentals of their faith make it impossible to ordain women as priests , the pope tells his bishops , noting that Christ `` acted in a complete ly free and sovereign manner '' in selecting only men as his apostles the first priests . Still , Pope John Paul laments , despite an all-male priesthood unbrok en across two millennia , `` in some places it is nonetheless considered open to debate . '' No more , in the pope 's view . An accompanying Vatican commentary said the letter `` confirms a certainty which has been constantly held and lived by the church . '' As such , the pope 's views are not to be regarded as new , or an opinion , or a matter of discipline , `` but as certainly true . '' `` The refore , since it does not belong to matters freely open to dispute , it always requires the full and unconditional assent of the faithful , and to teach the co ntrary is equivalent to leading consciences into error , '' his commentary says . Pope John Paul , 74 , who has been increasingly outspoken in recent months , w ill host a private meeting at the Vatican Thursday with President Clinton , who may get a papal lecture for his support for abortion . In a debate the Vatican n o longer wants to hear among Catholics , advocates of women priests say Christ ' s choice of disciples was determined by customs and laws of the time , not becau se he sought a unisex ministry . ( Optional Add End ) Pope John Paul 's vigorous restatement of the ban may have been prompted in part by the ordination of the Church of England 's first women priests in March , an innovation that effective ly scuttled reunification talks between the two churches . Thousands of Anglican s and hundreds of Anglican priests have turned to Catholicism . The Vatican is a ccepting even married Anglican priests as converts and priests despite its own b an on married priests . Lobbying among Catholic activists for women priests has increased since the Anglican ordinations , a Vatican official noted . Pope John Paul has now fired an unanswerable broadside in response . `` The pope clearly i ntends for the ban to stick , because he comes right up to the brink of infallib ility with this teaching . Still , it is not infallible , and therefore it is op en to possible change by some later pope , '' said one senior theologian . Under Catholic dogma , popes are infallible in matters of faith and morals when the s ay they are giving infallible teachings . WASHINGTON The stubbornness of dictatorships has become one of the Clinton admi nistration 's chief foreign-policy vexations . Leaders in Haiti , China , and mo st recently North Korea , have found a way to thumb their noses at top U.S. dipl omatic priorities . Haiti 's corrupt military regime showed no sign last week of buckling under to newly tightened U.S.-inspired economic sanctions aimed at for cing the return of elected President Jean Bertrand Aristide . A clique of elderl y Chinese generals and Communist Party bosses successfully called Washington 's bluff by ignoring the threat of new tariffs on exports to the United States unle ss they improved their human-rights record . Then North Korea 's communist regim e on Friday appeared to rule out critical international inspections of spent fue l rods at a nuclear reactor north of its capital , giving every indication the c ountry will never allow the outside world to perform inspections needed to learn how much plutonium it may have accumulated for nuclear arms . These dismal resu lts of earnest U.S. diplomacy have not been flattering to America 's self-image as a world leader , and if President Clinton 's recent comments are any indicati on , they are provoking some re-examination not only of his expectations for U.S . foreign policy but also the administration 's often blunt and demanding style of dealing with recalcitrant foreign leaders . As one senior U.S. official expla ined , when Clinton arrived at the White House , he shared a popular notion that foreign relations is an extension of domestic U.S. business relations a matter of rules and regulations in which the threat to sue , or impose legal sanctions , is a vital negotiating tool . Clinton had criticized President George Bush for `` coddling dictators , '' for example , and indicated he supported pursuing pu nitive measures such as economic sanctions if other nations did not comply with U.S. demands . Recalling a statement by Dean Acheson that sanctions are essentia lly a declaration of war without the willingness to use force , the senior offic ial said Clinton had a misplaced faith that they could be used to alter other na tions ' internal priorities , without the direct compulsion of a military attack . `` Sanctions did not get ( General Manuel ) Noriega out of Panama '' in 1989 and they did not force the Iraqi military to withdraw from Kuwait in 1991 , the official said , calling America 's persistent faith in sanctions `` pathetic . ' ' But several officials said the frustrating experience of the last few months a ppears to have humbled the president 's ambitions . At a White House news confer ence on Thursday , Clinton not only rejected future threats of higher tariffs on trade with China , he also counseled a more patient style of diplomacy , noting that `` a great society , so large and with such built-in habits , does not cha nge overnight . '' He compared the challenge of improving human rights there to the reduction of `` crime and violence '' in U.S. society a goal that would take years to accomplish . Clinton had struck a similar theme of the limits of U.S. influence in a May 25 speech to the U.S. . Naval Academy 's graduating class , w here he noted that many of the world 's `` most tearing conflicts .. . will rare ly submit to instant solutions . '' Noting that the resolution of the Cold War t ook decades , he said `` we must often be willing to pay the price of time , som etimes the most painful price of all . '' In addition to lowering expectations a bout quick results , Clinton also seemed last week to be pointing the way to a l ess confrontational style of diplomacy . Revealing what could be taken as a pers onal epiphany of sorts about the limits of U.S. powers of moral suasion , he sai d that `` no nation likes to feel that every decision it makes for the good , to do something that 's right , that makes progress , is being made ... only becau se of external pressure from someone else . '' Clinton was trying to explain why China had rebuffed Washington 's insistent entreaties to treat its people more like the United States treats its citizens . But several U.S. officials said the y believe the lesson may also be relevant to Haiti and North Korea , which also have repeatedly ignored urgings that they respect U.S.-defined `` norms '' of in ternational behavior . The officials suggested that in both cases , Washington h as backed itself into a corner by using or threatening to use sanctions unlikely to produce instant policy shifts . The officials said Clinton might have unders tood the magnitude of the challenge earlier had he listened to U.S. intelligence experts instead of the strains of popular opinion supporting tough demands and blunt threats . A number of classified studies reported last winter , for exampl e , that the Chinese leadership was beset by worry about growing internal unrest , officials said . The studies also said key Chinese officials were jockeying f or power , anticipating the death of aged leader Deng Xioaping , and would be un likely to risk supporting any liberalization . They also reported that Chinese l eaders were not taking seriously Washington 's threat of higher trade tariffs ev en though the threat was not lifted until last week . A U.S. intelligence commun ity report similarly predicted last fall correctly , it seems that North Korea w ould not accede to demands for nuclear-related inspections that would reveal the size of its stockpile of plutonium , a key ingredient of nuclear arms . Other U .S. intelligence reports have expressed skepticism that the economic embargo of Haiti would prompt its military rulers to resign soon . In its dealings with bot h of these stubborn dictatorships , the Clinton administration might soon be fac ed with the same choice it faced last week with China : to continue to pursue a policy that has not worked , or to face up to a further humbling of American for eign-policy ambitions . VLADIVOSTOK , Russia The sun was still high and the day was warm , so by the ti me he reached the top step , the Rev. Myron Effing was sweating and puffing . He had taken visitors up some splintering outdoor wooden stairs , up a hillside st rewn with garbage and weeds , past flimsy lean-tos with laundry billowing from c lotheslines , and finally to a simple , solid red-brick building overlooking a s quare . `` Here it is , '' said the 53-year-old Roman Catholic priest , a little out of breath . `` It 's our pride right now , our joy . '' The object of Effin g 's affection was a church with a history as tragic and grim and , now , as ful l of hope as Russia 's own history in this century . For 58 years , it was not a place of worship , but an archive of the Soviet state . It was in the state 's hands for so long that people forgot it had ever been a church at all , and some bureaucrats even disputed it , despite abundant evidence and explicit testimony to prove it . The Communists had built a radio tower to jam foreign broadcasts atop a higher hill nearby , as if to remind those below that the party 's author ity was loftier even than God 's . Then last New Year 's Eve , after a two-year struggle , Effing reclaimed the building from the government and proclaimed that the Church of the Most Holy Mother of God and the Roman Catholic Church had ret urned to Vladivostok , at last . But as Effing knew better than anyone , that me ant the real work was only about to start . It is the lone Catholic church in th is boom town of 700,000 people , and these days it is very much Effing 's church his work in progress , his personal crusade . A native of Indiana , Effing had spent much of his adult life teaching in seminaries in the American Midwest and recruiting young men for the priesthood . In 1986 , he went to Guam and spent fo ur years there as rector of a seminary . He returned to the United States in 199 0 as a university chaplain in California , but before long , he said , he grew t ired of church politics there . His aim was to find a place where there were no other priests , and Russia seemed like ideal virgin territory . He appealed to t he bishop of Novosibirsk in western Siberia the nearest diocesan seat to Vladivo stok , though it is four time zones away . The bishop had no idea whether any Ca tholic church had ever existed in Vladivostok but told Effing to go ahead and se e whether a parish could be organized there . At the time , Vladivostok was stil l a closed military city , barred not only to foreigners but also to Russians wh o lacked special permission to enter . On an invitation from the city , Effing a rrived in 1991 and discovered there had indeed once been a parish and a church . Rebuilding them would become his vocation . `` When we first came we didn't hav e anything except our suitcases and a computer , '' he said . `` We had to borro w the money to buy our plane tickets from San Francisco. .. . When I first saw t he church I felt mostly pity because it was in such a rundown condition . And I felt pity that such a strong Catholic community in the past could build such a g ood building only to have everything taken away . '' The building he found had b een finished , or nearly finished , in a rush in 1922 as the Bolsheviks , on the ir way to victory in Russia 's Civil War , approached Vladivostok . It was a cat hedral , the seat of a diocese , but architecturally it was hardly distinct from countless red-brick churches built in cities in America 's eastern seaboard abo ut the same time . Yet the panoramic setting , high above the city overlooking G olden Horn Bay and its bustling harbor , was magnificent . The supression of the church began soon after the Bolsheviks arrived . The parish , which included 5, 000 Catholics in the city and 10,000 more in the surrounding Maritime Territory of Russia 's Far East , soon began to dwindle as priests and lay people left or were expelled or killed . When the atheistic Communists finally confiscated the church in 1935 , as they had confiscated everything else , the explanation was a s simple as it was laughable : There were no more Catholics around , so who need ed a church ? Inside the structure , they built three floors where before there had been soaring space and stained-glass windows , and they stacked shelves with documents and books . The altar , the crucifix , the pews and everything else f rom the interior were removed . This was how Effing found it when he arrived 2 1 /2 years ago . He set about persuading city officials that the building should b e returned to the Catholic Church . He collected affidavits from old people who remembered that the building had been built with private funds . Effing found a marble crucifix that had been dug up 20 years earlier near the church by a crew laying a cable and reclaimed it to use in a shrine commemorating martyrs of the parish . Workmen began digging to see whether anything else that might once have belonged to the church still lay underground . Last November , the parish celeb rated its first Mass on the top floor inside the church , and on Dec. 31 Effing was formally presented with the keys to the building a place of worship at last for his 250 parishioners . On Sundays he says Mass in Russian , then preaches in English , using a translator . A few months ago he conducted his first full-fle dged wedding , a young American man marrying a Russian . An older couple who had been married for decades also came to have their union blessed in the church . Effing now wants to restore the church to its original condition , a task made m ore difficult since the plans for the interior have disappeared . The cost of re pairing the church is astronomical $ 700,000 to shore up the crumbling facade al one , Effing reckons . The nearest pipe organ he knows of is in Irkutsk , Siberi a , 1,500 miles to the west . And he expects that his goal to reclaim land aroun d the church will turn into a new fight with city authorities . But Effing said he has decided that rebuilding the church , and Vladivostok 's Catholic communit y , will be his life 's remaining work . HOLLYWOOD What do you call $ 37.5 million in the box-office till ? Certainly no t pebbles . Hollywood on Monday was calling the Memorial Day weekend gross for U niversal Pictures ' `` The Flintstones '' something `` wonderful '' and a `` gre at start for the summer . '' Starring John Goodman as Fred Flintstone , the live -action version of the Hanna-Barbera animated TV series that was a hit in the 19 60s , established a record ticket-price inflation notwithstanding for a Memorial Day weekend opening , based on preliminary estimates . It surpassed the $ 37 mi llion taken in by Paramount Pictures ' sequel `` Indiana Jones and the Last Crus ade '' in 1989 , when ticket prices were somewhat lower . Both films are associa ted with Steven Spielberg . `` The Flintstones '' also helped propel ticket sale s for the overall movie business approximately 10 percent ahead of last year 's Memorial Day weekend , which is the traditional beginning to the summer season . Hollywood invests heavily in summer fare from which it hopes to derive 40 perce nt of an entire year 's box-office receipts . `` After weeks of a springtime box -office slump , this certainly bodes well , '' said John Krier of Exhibitor Rela tions Co. , who noted that there are `` many big titles to come , '' including W alt Disney 's animated `` The Lion King , '' which industry insiders have picked as this summer 's expected box-office champ . It opens June 15 . `` The Flintst ones '' was launched with a massive marketing campaign notably a tie-in to McDon ald 's restaurants but to mixed reactions from the critics who thought the audie nce for the movie would be children . `` A lot of people thought this movie wasn 't going to work , or that it would be only for kids , '' said Universal Picture s chairman Tom Pollock , whose studio released last summer 's `` Jurassic Park ' ' ( another Spielberg picture and the industry 's all-time box-office champ ) . `` But when you have a Friday night where families comprise only about half the business , it means that the other half are adults and teens on dates . '' It al so meant that about 40 percent of the weekend audience headed directly to `` The Flintstones ' ' ' hometown of Bedrock , and it might appear that the stampede l eft other films in the proverbial dust . But not quite . `` Maverick , '' anothe r remake of an old TV show with Mel Gibson as a card shark of the Old West and a cast that also bills Jodie Foster and James Garner , delivered an estimated big $ 18 million in the Friday-through-Monday period . That brought the total for t he Warner Bros. release after two weekends of national release to just over $ 40 million . Paramount Pictures ' `` Beverly Hills Cop III '' drew an estimated $ 15.5 million in its debut . The film is the third in the series starring Eddie M urphy as a Detroit cop who finds adventures in Beverly Hills . ( Optional add en d ) For Murphy , the opening was the strongest of his last three movies . His fi lm `` Boomerang '' opened on a peak summer weekend in 1992 to $ 13.6 million . ` ` The Distinguished Gentleman '' scored $ 10.5 million in its first weekend duri ng the Christmas season in December 1992 . The box-office figures released Monda y were based on industry estimates for Friday through Monday . Final results wil l be released Tuesday . In fourth place was the Andy Garcia-Meg Ryan alcoholism drama `` When a Man Loves a Woman '' with $ 7.1 million , followed by the late B randon Lee and `` The Crow '' in fifth with $ 6.3 million and `` Four Weddings a nd a Funeral '' in sixth with $ 2.7 million , estimates show . Spike Lee 's `` C rooklyn '' finished seventh with $ 1.6 million , while `` With Honors '' was eig hth with $ 1.4 million . `` Little Buddha '' was ninth with $ 834,000 and `` 3 N injas Kick Back '' was 10th with $ 745,000 . TOKYO A suspected right-wing extremist fired a shot yards away from former Prim e Minister Morihiro Hosokawa Monday in apparent protest over Hosokowa 's open ap ologies for Japan 's actions in World War II . Hosokawa was not harmed . The bul let hit the ceiling of a Tokyo hotel , where he had spoke at a political party m eeting . Security guards quickly tackled the gunman , who was identified as Masa katsu Nozoe , 52 . He later told police that he was upset by Hosokawa 's stateme nts on Japan 's role during World War II and his economic policies , Japanese ne ws reports said . Police refused to confirm those reports , but they said Nozoe was believed to be a member of an extremist right-wing group and that the shooti ng may have been politically motivated . Shortly after his election last summer , Hosokawa became the first Japanese prime minister to candidly state that Japan had waged a war of aggression during the 1930s and 1940s . He offered apologies on behalf of Japan for the consequent suffering and encouraged revelations abou t suspected atrocities . The comments were widely applauded throughout Asia and broadly endorsed even in Japan . But they were deeply resented by a small fringe of ultra-nationalists , commonly referred to as the country 's right wing , who believe the expansionist policies in China and Southeast Asia were proper and t he attack on Pearl Harbor a justified pre-emptive strike against the United Stat es . Since Hosokawa 's resignation last month in the midst of government gridloc k and allegations of financial improprieties , the forthrightness that marked hi s tenure has receded . A June trip by Japanese Emperor Akihito to the United Sta tes had included a stop at Pearl Harbor , planned by the Hosokawa administration . That has been canceled by the administration of Hosokawa 's successor , Tsuto mu Hata. which has already been far less adamantly forthright about Japan 's pas t provocations . Japan has hundreds of right-wing groups that make no apologies for the nation 's militant past . They advance their views by driving around in vans with speakers , but they do not have a wide following and generally have be en nonviolent . Since late last year , however , that appears to have changed . The liberal Asahi Newspaper has been attacked several times recently , including an incident last month when hostages were taken and held for several hours . In the fall , a Japanese right-wing leader in the same group committed suicide whi le visiting the Asahi , using handguns . That incident and Monday 's raise stron g questions about Japan 's vaunted control of firearms . It is commonly thought that the major crime syndicates have amble supplies , but it is rare that they a re used against outsiders . ( Optional add end ) Flush with confidence , the loc al police have been slowly reducing security for former prime ministers , in som e cases eliminating it altogether but not for Hosokawa . According to sources qu oted by the Kyodo wire service , threats against Hosokawa have been made since l ast summer by right-wing groups . Police official Kiyotaka Osaki said the shot w as fired from about 10 yards away from Hosokawa . `` I 'm just glad no one was i njured , '' Hosokawa said after the attack . He declined to comment on the gunma n 's possible motive . Japan 's wartime past has been been the focus of national attention recently because of remarks by a Cabinet minister that Japanese atroc ities in Nanking , China 's wartime capital , in 1937 were exaggerated . The rem arks ignited a storm of protest in Asia and the official was forced to resign . Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service . JERICHO , West Bank Not even a month old , the Palestinian Authority is facing a crisis that could bring its collapse an acute shortage of cash . Although prom ised $ 2.4 billion for economic development over five years , the new Palestinia n administration has virtually no funds with which to operate no money to pay it s police and civil servants , no money to maintain local hospitals , trash colle ction and other public services , no money for its own telephones and office lig hts . `` The situation is very , very serious , '' said Saeb Erekat , the author ity council member for local government . `` Our institutions are brand new , an d they need money to operate and meet the people 's needs . Without money , they willn't function . The whole effort could fail for the lack of start-up funds . '' Palestinian leaders fear that public support for the self-governing authorit y , which already is controversial as a product of many difficult compromises wi th Israel , will decline rapidly if it falters in any way ; thus , inability to pay its workers , maintain public services and expand the economy could lead to a loss of legitimacy and perhaps rebellion . Freih Abu Meddein , a Gaza Strip la wyer with responsibility for justice on the authority council , warns of possibl e food riots in Gaza if the new administration does not receive enough assistanc e to begin full operations and to launch its initial development programs . `` W e had many promises that we would get the money as soon as we signed the Cairo a greement on autonomy , '' Abu Meddein said in Gaza City . `` It has been nearly four weeks , and we have received only a fraction of our immediate and most urge nt needs . '' The crisis is so serious that Israel Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is looking at ways to assist the Palestinians , perhaps by continuing a public w orks program that employs 16,000 in the Gaza Strip , perhaps by lending the Pale stinian Authority some of the operating funds it will need for June . `` I am wo rried because , if it will not work , it will not take more than three months .. . until there will be no food , '' Rabin said over the weekend . Senior Israeli officials have sketched alarming scenarios of possible riots , bloodshed and ev en civil war for the impoverished Gaza Strip , home to more than 850,000 Palesti nians , if the new authority does not establish itself fast and effectively with the money to back it up . Amid the mounting concern , Faisal Husseini , a senio r Palestinian Authority member , sought to assure the Palestinian police and civ il servants Monday that they would be paid in June . `` The money 's there , '' he told a news conference in Jerusalem , alluding to a $ 19 million emergency fu nd . Israeli officials estimate the Palestinian Authority will need $ 600 millio n to $ 700 million a year to administer the Gaza Strip and the West Bank ; the P alestinian police force alone will cost about $ 105 million . Local revenues may come to only $ 200 million to $ 300 million , depending on local tax rates . Th e development program , starting with the 27-year backlog of public works but re aching well beyond to the industrialization of some regions and the the rehabili tation of agriculture in others , will cost at least as much on an annual basis , Palestinian economists say . The World Bank says that international pledges fo r the first year of self-rule total $ 720 million . ( Begin optional trim ) The money has been slow in coming for these reasons : Western donors , mistrustful o f Arafat , his secretive ways and past profligacy , have insisted on full accoun tability of how their money is spent . Arafat , wanting to ensure his own contro l of the funds , was slow in staffing the Palestinian Economic Council , approvi ng its bylaws and appointing a Western investment bank , Morgan Stanley Asset Ma nagement , to oversee it . Many Western governments prefer to finance specific p rojects and to give contracts to their own companies , thus boosting their expor ts , as well as providing foreign aid . This has led to a proliferation of propo sals to PLO headquarters in Tunis for projects such as the construction of airpo rts , offshore generation of electricity and a new telephone system , while imme diate needs have been ignored . The Palestinian Authority 's own tax collections will probably not start for months . A new tax system must be adopted to replac e the one imposed by the Israeli army during its occupation ; the new administra tion would like to lower the burden carried by local businessmen to foster an ec onomic resurgence . ( End optional trim ) Erekat said he hoped the Western count ries that pledged extensive economic assistance and development advice last Sept ember when Israel and the PLO signed the autonomy agree will now free substantia l amounts to underwrite the authority 's operations . `` We were born without a penny , and we are told that our ability to cope will test our readiness to gove rn ourselves , '' Erekat said bitterly . `` In a sense , this is right if we can run Gaza and Jericho without cash , we are miracle workers . `` Instead of real help , we are getting one delegation of experts after another , flying in first -class and business-class from around the world , spending money on hotels and m eals that we could use to pay salaries , and then telling us they will make a re commendation after the summer , '' he said . CAIRO , Egypt The world seemed to be sliding inexorably toward violent confront ation , if not nuclear disaster , that day in 1961 when the leaders of Egypt , Y ugoslavia and India declared themselves officially out of the running of the Col d War , laying the groundwork for a network of nations that would be neither of the East nor the West . The Berlin Crisis threatened superpower confrontation in the middle of Europe ; an ill-fated U.S.-backed attempt to topple the Marxist r egime in Cuba foundered near America 's southern shores ; disputes broke out ove r nuclear testing around the globe ; superpowers still extended their military a nd colonial influence in large areas of Africa and Asia . Tuesday , the Non-Alig ned Movement created by Yugoslavian leader Josip Tito , Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser and Indian Prime Minister Jawharlal Nehru convenes here for its 11 th Council of Ministers in a dramatically changed world . Not only is there no l onger any East-West axis with which to be non-aligned , Yugoslavia , host of the first meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement in Belgrade , has for the first time been refused an invitation . The new world 's confrontations are erupting along religious and nationalistic frontiers , and the new Yugoslavia will find itself competing for a chance to debate foreign ministers of break-away Croatia and Bos nia-Herzegovina over an appropriate response to the long-running Balkan civil wa r . Iran , embroiled in mounting disputes with the Arab world over its support o f Islamic fundamentalist militants , will send its foreign minister to Cairo for the first time since the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran . South Africa , one o f whose first actions as a new black-majority-led government was to join the Non -Aligned Movement , will sit at the table with nations that spent decades revili ng apartheid . For the 108 disenfranchised , non-aligned countries that represen t two-thirds of the world 's people , the battles this week are more likely to s hape up over trade policy than national liberation the widely loathed GATT agree ment , economic relief for debt-ridden nations and access for Third World goods to the world 's major markets . `` There is really a different agenda coming . W ell over half of the active members are concerned about getting northern markets open to their products . They 're concerned about being shut out . They 're con cerned about changing the terms of credit , '' said Tim Sullivan , a political a nalyst who has studied the Non-Aligned Movement . Egypt has pushed since the las t summit of movement leaders in Jakarta in 1992 to merge the Non-Aligned Movemen t with the Group of 77 developing nations , effectively undercutting its politic al role and focusing squarely on the economic frontier between developed countri es and the Third World . `` When you consider the new economic realities of the world , it is important to try to identify certain commercial interests and form ulate government positions which put us in a better negotiating position when de aling with the West or developed countries , '' said Nagui Ghatrify , foreign mi nistry spokesman for Egypt , which for years capitalized on its non-aligned stat us by playing off the Soviet Union against the United States . ( Optional add en d ) Officials of the non-aligned movement say the political crises that have bee n bungled or ignored by the world 's superpowers the chaos in Rwanda , Somalia a nd Liberia can perhaps best be addressed closer to home . Several nations at thi s week 's meeting propose to discuss a new peacemaking and peacekeeping role for non-aligned nations , similar to plans under discussion by the Organization of African Unity . Non-aligned nations also are almost certain to continue the push for a greater voice for the Third World in the United Nations , with the most p opular proposal being a permanent seat on the Security Council for a developing regional power such as Egypt , Brazil or India . ARLINGTON , Va. . On the cusp of the 50th anniversary of D-day , President Clin ton remembered America 's war dead Monday as `` the backbone that secured our na tion 's liberty '' as thousands gathered at Arlington National Cemetery to pay h omage to the fallen . Addressing a throng of veterans , families and friends , C linton said `` it was the independence and the can-do confidence of the sons and daughters of American and the other democracies that won the day '' on June 6 , 1944 , when allied soldiers stormed the beaches of northern France and lay the foundation for Adolph Hitler 's defeat . The president leaves Wednesday for an e ight-day trip to Italy , France and Britain , his first visit to those countries since taking office . A highlight will be ceremonies to commemorate D-day 's go lden anniversary . More than 10,000 Allied soldiers were slain or wounded in the Normandy landing , which Clinton said started a battle that `` was not just bet ween two armies . It was as clearly as any conflict in all of human history a ba ttle between two ways of life . '' Clinton said he mourned the suicide earlier t his month of Lewis Puller Jr. , a disabled Vietnam War veteran who wrote a Pulit zer-Prize winning book after returning from the conflict . Puller was the son of the most decorated Marine in history . `` This morning when I got up I thought of Lew Puller and the countless other heroes he has joined and the terrible sacr ifices men and women have been willing to make for this great land , '' Clinton said . He laid a red-white-and-blue-flowered wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at the cemetery earlier in the day . The president also hosted a White House bre akfast for veterans , telling them the nation must be vigilant in fighting to up hold its freedoms . `` We owe our liberty and prosperity to the strength and val or of those who fought '' in World War II , he told the veterans . `` But we als o inherit the responsibility of defending that gift . '' Clinton 's Arlington Ce metery speech was greeted with warm applause from the 4,000 people packed into a n open-air amphitheater . He ignored a lone heckler , who shouted `` Go back to Oxford , you traitor , draft-dodger . '' Clinton 's avoidance of the military dr aft while studying in England in the late 1960s brought harsh criticism from vet erans during his 1992 presidential campaign , and last Memorial Day his first as commander in chief he met with heckling and a cool reception when he spoke at t he Vietnam Veterans ' Memorial . ( Optional add end ) The president tried to com fort families of Vietnam soldiers still missing in action by underscoring `` our solemn obligation to find answers for those whose loved ones served but were ne ver accounted for . '' He urged parents to teach their children about World War II , offering as an example the story of a Missouri elementary school librarian who brings D-day veterans and other war survivors to speak to students every yea r . `` To honor , we must remember , '' he said . `` Today , somewhere in Americ a , a curious child rummaging through an attic will stumble upon his grandfather 's insignia patches , a pocket guide to France , a metal cricket , a black-and- white photo of a smiling young man in uniform . But learning about those times a nd those deeds must be more than accidental . '' Veterans of wars from World War I to the Persian Gulf war knelt or laid flowers among the rows of white headsto nes that blanket the gentle green slopes of the cemetery . Soldiers from a nearb y Army base planted small American flags in the soil in front of each of the 250 ,000 graves last week . WASHINGTON President Clinton , striving to demonstrate continued American press ure to end Chinese human rights abuses , has outlined a five-point program `` to support forces of constructive change in China while strengthening the U.S.-Chi na relationship . '' The program , described in an article appearing Tuesday on the opinion pages of the Los Angeles Times , consists of steps by the administra tion , American businesses and human rights organizations to push China to impro ve human rights conditions , even though they no longer will be linked to U.S. t rade privileges . Last week , the administration announced it would effectively end the effort to link China 's human rights record with its status as a most-fa vored-nation MFN trading partner . Clinton 's article also clearly is part of th e president 's new campaign to do better at explaining his foreign policy to Ame ricans . Clinton told The Times on Friday that controversies and apparent shortc omings in his foreign policy were not the result of staff weaknesses but of his inability to communicate effectively on key issues and decisions . Among the mos t controversial of those policies was his decision to renew China 's MFN status , despite Beijing 's failure to comply fully on human rights issues , as require d by Congress and a presidential executive order last year . `` Annual debates l inking MFN to human rights threaten to block needed progress on security and eco nomic issues while yielding little if any progress on human rights , '' Clinton wrote in the article . `` We must pursue our human-rights agenda with China in a way that does not isolate China . We can't help change human rights in China if we 're not there . '' The five points he outlined include : Transmitting new fo reign broadcasts to China , including the new Radio Free Asia . Supporting Ameri can organizations assisting private Chinese groups working on human rights issue s . Developing voluntary standards for U.S. companies doing business in or with China . Promoting international attention to and support for human rights in Chi na . Banning the import of Chinese guns and ammunition . In context of D-day com memorations this week , the president said : `` We must not waver in the challen ge of advancing those same values freedom and prosperity in Asia and especially China . It is in this region that many of the profound challenges to America 's national interest can be found ; it is in this region that our generation 's pro gress will in large part be measured . '' Relations with China should be put in context of broader U.S. interests in the Asian-Pacific region , of which America is an integral part , he wrote . The president commends the Chinese government for recent steps , including the release of two dissidents , verbal acceptance o f the U.N. . Universal Declaration of Human Rights , and moves toward ending the jamming of Voice of America broadcasts . But he underscores that these are insu fficient to constitute real progress . He calls his program `` new and vigorous , '' although each of the individual points has been debated or acted on before . ( Optional Add End ) In the 1992 presidential campaign , Clinton pledged to ma ke improvement of China 's human rights record a prerequisite for renewal of its most-favored trading status and to launch Radio Free Asia to make available new foreign media outlets to the Chinese people . Congress passed authorization of Radio Free Asia this spring , despite China 's vigorous opposition on grounds th at it amounted to interference in its internal affairs . Establishing voluntary principles for U.S. businesses an idea tried with disputed impact in South Afric a is a long-standing option borrowed from parties who oppose using MFN as levera ge on human rights . ZAGREB , Croatia Croatia Monday revived a currency used during a pro-Nazi World War II regime as part of celebrations marking the third anniversary of independ ence . In dumping the dinar and embracing the kuna , the government of President Franjo Tudjman seemed likely to complicate peace efforts by riling rebel Serbs , who occupy 27 percent of the country . For them and for many others , the kuna evokes memories of the brutal Ustashe regime of Ante Pavelic . In a ceremony at the Croatian National Bank , avoided by much of the foreign diplomatic corps , Tudjman marked Statehood Day by exchanging dinars for kunas printed in Germany . The notes , he said , are the most beautiful in the world and are `` the final act on the bumpy road to the independent and sovereign Croatian state . '' In a region where nationalism is the dominant coin of political discourse , where an ethnically revealing first name can trigger a violent response , the resurrectio n of a currency with an echo of Croatia 's fascist past is provocative . By all accounts , Croatia 's Serbs suffered under the Ustashe regime . They are led tod ay by hard-liners determined not to negotiate with the Croatian government . The Serbs took up arms against Croatia when it declared independence from Serb-domi nated Yugoslavia in 1991 . Monuments to Yugoslav and anti-fascist heroes such at Marshal Tito have been replaced by those to Croat nationalists , and Serbian wo rds have been purged from the language . At root is the question of whether ther e is room in Croatia for Serbs and other ethnic groups if the government continu es to take such steps . Asked during a Saturday night television interview wheth er the reintroduction of the kuna would harm relations with Serbs , Tudjman repl ied : `` Serbs in Croatia must understand they are a minority . '' Slavko Goldst ein , a leader of Croatia 's tiny Jewish community and a publisher in Zagreb , s aid he believed Tudjman 's move , despite his personal history as a veteran of t he war against the Ustashe state , would offend those in Croatia who suffered . Effectively , the new currency is the monetary version of a swastika . Goldstein and other analysts hypothesize that Tudjman ordered the new currency as part of his policy of balancing moderates within his party with nationalists , such as Defense Minister Gojko Susak , the architect of the failed policy to carve out a Croatian protectorate in Bosnia . In recent months , several leading moderates have broken with Tudjman . The main issue has been Tudjman 's refusal to get rid of Susak and other extremists who oppose Croatia 's recent decision to back a p eace deal between Bosnian Croats and Muslims . The introduction of the kuna coul d have consequences for that deal as well . Nationalist Croat officials in Bosni a have said they plan to use it in Croat-held territory there instead of the Bos nian dinar , as ordered under the peace deal . Kuna is Croatian for marten , a t ype of weasel , whose pelts were bartered in Roman times . Croatia 's brief medi eval kingdom used a coin boasting the image of the kuna . ARLINGTON , Va. . In the midst of a quiet ceremony at Arlington National Cemete ry Monday , President Clinton 's tribute to the nation 's war dead was interrupt ed by a protester who shouted the sort of comment that gives sleepless nights to the White House aides planning this week 's European tour . `` Go back to Oxfor d , you traitor , draft-dodger , '' a man yelled from the rear of the white marb le amphitheater before being hurried out . Apparently taken aback , Clinton stum bled over the next few words of his speech , which was intended not only to mark Memorial Day but also to lay the groundwork for the eight-day trip to Italy , E ngland and France that starts Wednesday . The trip , commemorating the 50th anni versary of the Normandy invasion , offers what should be a White House public re lations dream , with major speeches and heart-tugging ceremonies scheduled at th e sites of some of the climactic battles that helped the United States earn its mantle as the world 's champion of democracy . But even some of his own senior a ides worry that the trip instead will remind Americans of Clinton 's efforts to avoid the draft during the Vietnam war and underscore questions about his perfor mance as commander-in- chief since becoming president . In fact , he is going ba ck to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar there , he helped organize Vietnam anti-war dem onstrations although that stop has been hastily rescheduled from the middle of t he trip to the end , in part to avoid the inevitable comparisons with the vetera ns of World War II . `` I think this trip looms a lot larger for him than it wou ld for another president , '' historian Michael Beschloss said . `` The presiden t who didn't serve in the military and Vietnam is speaking on D-day and beyond t hat , a president who is known for spending less time on his role as a world lea der than most presidents do . '' He has been buffeted by complaints that his pol icy toward Haiti , Bosnia , Somalia and elsewhere has been wavering and hesitant . Only 40 percent of those interviewed in a Washington Post-ABC News poll this month said they approved of his handling of foreign policy ; 53 percent disappro ved . But the trip also could increase his stature , as foreign travel often doe s for presidents . `` It could be that the speeches will be so good and the rece ption so warm and the relations with leaders in Italy and France and England so obviously enhanced that this will be a help for him , '' Beschloss said . The jo urney begins Wednesday with a flight to Rome , where Clinton will meet with Pope John Paul II and with the new Italian prime minister , Silvio Berlusconi . Late r , Clinton will meet with Prime Minister John Major at Chequers , the country r etreat of British prime ministers , and with French President Francois Mitterran d in Paris . One topic will be the very current problem of Bosnia . `` The big i ssue is whether the great powers are going to be able to hold together in some k ind of common policy in Bosnia that is respectable enough for them to defend , ' ' said Charles William Maynes , editor of Foreign Policy magazine . ( Optional A dd End ) Ten years ago , on the 40th anniversary of D-Day , President Reagan 's emotional address to the former U.S. Rangers at Pointe du Hoc was perhaps the mo st memorable speech of his presidency . `` It was the beginning of ` morning aga in in America , ' ' ' the dewy-eyed theme of Reagan 's 1984 re-election campaign , recalled Michael Deaver , a top aide who helped plan that trip . Actually , R eagan had spent World War II making training films on a Hollywood set , but with his patriotic persona and his trillion-dollar defense buildup he was treated as a hero at such occasions . In his speeches , Clinton will reminisce about the w ar record of his father , William Jefferson Blythe II , who spent two years in N orth Africa and Italy in an Army unit that rebuilt trucks and jeeps . After retu rning safely home , he was killed in a car accident six months later , three mon ths before Clinton was born . WASHINGTON U.S. business executives intend to hire more employees this summer t han at any time over the past five years , says a report released Monday by the country 's largest temporary-help firm , Manpower Inc. . Milwaukee-based Manpowe r 's quarterly employment survey of more than 15,000 companies nationwide showed that 29 percent of the firms responding to the survey expect to undertake addit ional hiring during the summer while 7 percent plan staff reductions . `` These hiring projections confirm a full return to pre-recession job conditions . . . d espite a lingering downsizing in some companies , '' said Mitchell S. Fromstein , Manpower 's chief executive . Manpower 's survey is closely watched , partly b ecause it correctly signaled a sharp slowing of economic growth in 1989 , as wel l as the economy 's uneven recovery beginning in early 1991 . The new survey for ecasts the jobs ' outlook for the permanent U.S. work force for the months of Ju ly , August and September . Unmployment nationwide has gradually dropped , reach ing 6.4 percent in April . The Labor Department is scheduled to report its job s tatistics for May on Friday . The hot issue for economists is the impact that co ntinuing job growth and lower unemployment might have on wages and price inflati on . Some say the economy is now approaching `` full employment , '' or the leve l of employment at which companies have to compete to hire workers and workers b egin to demand higher wages , thus fueling inflation . DRI/McGraw-Hill Inc. , a research firm based in Lexington , Mass. , said in a report this month that the unemployment rate is nearing 6.2 percent , which is the figure the firm has set for full employment . Despite the Federal Reserve 's raising of interest rates , it said , unemployment is expected to fall to 6 percent by the end of the year . At 6.2 percent , said Cynthia Latta , a DRI/McGraw-Hill analyst , the lower un employment rate `` will put some upward pressure on wages . '' However , Labor S ecretary Robert B . Reich last week told Reuter Financial Television that the un employment rate at which inflationary pressures develop may be lower than in the past . Because of technological advances and competition from overseas , the av erage American worker `` is in no position to demand wage increases , '' Reich s aid . Fromstein said that he did not believe the Fed 's actions in raising inter est rates would affect Manpower 's projections for summer hiring , although they could affect jobs over the longer haul . Fromstein said that for the first time in several years , the economy showed hiring strength in both manufacturing and the wholesale and retail trade businesses . Both are considered indicators of a rising economy , according to Manpower . The survey forecast the weakest hiring prospects in transportation , public utilities , education and other service in dustries , some of which helped account for job growth in earlier recovery stage s . Manpower said that Midwestern companies are expected to lead the nation in h iring in the summer quarter . It said that its survey of Southern employers , co nfirms that the South is in a period of `` general employment expansion . '' The recession-wracked West and Northeast , both of which had lagged behind other re gions in job growth , also will make gains during the summer quarter , Manpower said . Separately , the Association for Manufacturing Technology in McLean said on Sunday that orders for U.S.-made machine tools rose 11.7 percent in April , r eaching the highest level in 12 months . Economists see this as another sign of future economic growth , because manufacturers use machine tools to make a wide range of products . ADDIS ABABA , Ethiopia A high-level U.S. aid delegation said Monday it aims to mobilize an urgent global response to food shortages in eastern Africa before th ey grow into full-blown famine . Ethiopia , which was devastated 10 years ago by starvation that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives , this year risks becomi ng the center of a famine in which as many as 20 million people in nine countrie s could risk death , said J. Brian Atwood , head of the U.S. . Agency for Intern ational Development . Famine threatens a swath of eastern Africa from Sudan to T anzania , Atwood told a news conference . Relief workers in Ethiopia report hund reds of deaths since the current round of food shortages began here and scores o f fresh graves in villages in the south of the country . Most of those in danger are victims of recurrent drought . Here , as in surrounding nations , the annua l summer rains failed last year and food stocks are desperately low . But Atwood said about a third of those at risk this year are in danger because of wars-not ably in Sudan , Somalia and Rwanda . Atwood said the mission , which includes re presentatives of three main U.S. charities , is part of a new Clinton administra tion effort to shift U.S. policy from chronic emergency gear to crisis preventio n . He said the administration aims to step up cooperation with what it has call ed `` a new breed '' of pragmatic African leaders in Ethiopia , Eritrea and Ugan da . President Clinton hopes to use the mission `` to raise consciousness of thi s issue at the highest possible levels '' and win more aid for eastern Africa fr om European governments and Japan , Atwood said . `` This is a desperate situati on and we need to respond to it now to avoid what could become a major famine as soon as August if the rains fail '' again , he said . The U.S. team which inclu des the heads of CARE , Catholic Relief Services and the International Rescue Co mmittee as well as the leading congressional campaigner on hunger issues , Rep. Tony Hall , D-Ohio will go to Europe this week to seek multilateral support for a program to head off another famine . Atwood said the more than $ 1.5 billion s pent by the U.S. government in an effort to halt starvation and anarchy in Somal ia had spotlighted in Washington the need to prevent rather than respond to huma nitarian calamities in Africa . So , he said , has `` the holocaust '' in Rwanda , where the United Nations has estimated that 200,000 people have been killed i n tribal massacres and battles . `` Just the other day we made a decision to con tribute $ 35 million additional to handle this disaster '' in Rwanda , he said . `` One wonders if we had had that $ 35 million in the previous two years whethe r we could have done something to avoid the killing . '' Atwood said that , with the new focus on `` crisis prevention , '' the administration seeks to make Afr ica a top priority for development assistance `` on a par '' with Russia and Eas tern Europe . U.S. officials have voiced a commitment to working closely with le aders in Ethiopia , Eritrea and Uganda who have emerged in recent years . Those leaders , who have stressed pragmatism in economic development and in mediating conflicts in the region , `` have started on a success story , and with a little bit of help , they can turn things around in their own countries and , eventual ly , affect the whole region , '' Hall said . But the goal of `` sustainable dev elopment '' in the Third World to prevent underdeveloped nations from falling in to chronic crises has long been a goal of the international community and has pr oven difficult to fulfill . Crises such as famines or wars often force the diver sion of development aid funds into emergency relief . With pressures remaining h igh in Washington and other capitals for budget cutting , and a public perceptio n that Africa is a `` bottomless pit '' for aid money , it is not clear whether the U.S. administration and other donor governments can allocate sufficient fund s for both . Atwood said U.S. disaster assistance worldwide is about $ 1.6 billi on , about twice what is spent on development aid that could permit stricken cou ntries to become less dependent . He called that `` a poor ratio '' that should be reversed . GAZA CITY , Gaza Strip As the euphoria that followed Israel 's troop withdrawal begins to fade , anxiety is growing over the critical lack of money to govern a nd rebuild the new Palestinian autonomous areas of Gaza and Jericho . The cash c runch threatens every part of Palestinian society , which has been left to fend for itself with this month 's hand-over of civil and security powers from Israel . The Palestine Liberation Organization , while steadily asserting its control , is broke . The PLO 's best hope for financial relief is rich donor countries a nd they have moved slowly , and cautiously , to translate promises into hard cas h . The Palestinian police force , for example , has received less than half of the promised donations of equipment from the West and will be forced to borrow I sraeli communications equipment just so officers can talk to each other in the f ield . France promised to provide a $ 2 million system the most urgent of the po lice force 's unmet requirements but has only just begun the weeks-long selectio n and purchasing process . At the same time , about 13,000 public employees resp onsible for tax collection , licensing , education , health services and more in Gaza and Jericho aren't sure their next paycheck at the end of June will be cov ered . Palestinian hospitals , to be cut off from Israeli subsidies Wednesday , have no way to pay for patients ' food and for expensive referrals to Israeli in stitutions . Moreover , of the $ 1.2 billion pledged by donor countries for emer gency reconstruction of the infrastructure in Gaza and Jericho , only about $ 60 million has been received by the World Bank , which is trustee for the donation s . `` Thank God we had the vacation ( for a Muslim feast ) and people were cele brating , '' said Riad Khouderi , president of Gaza 's al-Azhar University . `` But after that , what if people are still stepping over garbage in the streets a nd the schools remain in such poor condition ? Even to get rid of all aspects of the occupation to get rid of fences , iron bars and road blocks it takes money , people , and trucks that we don't have . '' According to Western diplomats and PLO officials present at meetings of the donor countries , the urgency of the c ash crisis is well understood . But the bureaucratic machinery in various nation s that should translate those good intentions into money in the bank has proved cumbersome . One problem is that most of the money already promised to the Pales tinians is earmarked for specific reconstruction projects in Gaza and Jericho . An additional $ 14 million has been pledged to help the Palestinian police pay o perating costs , but little of it has actually reached the hands of self-rule of ficials . The United States , for example , promised $ 5 million for the police more than two weeks ago . The money has not yet been delivered . Nor has the $ 5 .7 million promised in April by the European Union . The first six months ' esti mated budget for the police , including salaries and fuel costs , is $ 40 millio n . ( Begin optional trim ) One possible mechanism for alleviating the crisis an d bypassing the legal constraints on donors is just now being worked out . Diplo mats involved in the process said donor countries may be asked to give money to the private Johan Jurgen Holst Fund , set up in memory of the late Norwegian for eign minister who brought the PLO and Israel together for peace talks . It has f ewer restrictions than other World Bank funds , and donors could specify that mo ney contributed to it be used for operating costs in Gaza and Jericho . Still , it could be weeks before the details are worked out . A crucial senior-level mee ting of representatives of the donor countries has been rescheduled several time s since the Israel-to-PLO hand-over in Gaza and Jericho . The tentative date is now sometime around June 9 , according to one diplomat , who said earlier meetin gs were canceled because of the `` technical '' problems of getting the right pe ople together at the right time . ( End optional trim ) Another problem has been continuing friction between the World Bank and the PLO over jurisdiction , plan ning responsibilities and ultimate control over how the donors ' money will be s pent . The World Bank has insisted on strict accounting procedures , on tying mo ney to specific projects and on distancing PLO chairman Yasser Arafat from the l evers of control . `` Donors don't feel comfortable with Arafat , and now he 's in a mess , '' said Salah Abdel Shafi , a leading Gaza economist . `` Authority has been transferred to the PLO by Israel , but the donors remain very conservat ive . '' Complicating matters further , the PLO is only now finalizing appointme nts to the 25-member Palestinian Authority that will govern Gaza and Jericho . P olitical infighting among Palestinians continues to prevent the naming of city c ouncils in the Gaza Strip and Jericho . Without the authority and without munici pal councils , there is no one to solicit bids and sign contracts for redevelopm ent projects . That means there is no one to receive donations if anyone cares t o help subsidize the day-to-day costs of self-rule other than Arafat himself , a situation that in itself could further delay donations . BUDAPEST , Hungary Three slightly sheepish officials of the Hungarian Socialist Party the former Communists sat sipping coffee and discussing the strange turn of events here : their restoration to power by the voters in the midst of a nati onal drive to create a free-enterprise economy . `` It 's a great problem , '' G yula Horvath , a self-employed handyman , said of Sunday 's election . `` Worker s are not members of the party any longer. . . . It seems it is the task of the Socialist Party that we have to create capitalists now . '' Josef Kalapacs , the party 's local campaign chief , is a good example of the curious role reversal in which the party finds itself caught . Formerly a skilled worker at the state- owned Csepel steel plant here , Kalapacs is now a shareholder in a struggling pi pe-making enterprise spun off from the now defunct steel mill . `` We have reach ed the stage where people are forced to become entrepreneurs , '' he said . The third party official , Tamas Huszar , is also a former Csepel employee and anoth er new entrepreneur , having set up his own construction firm . He has also swit ched allegiance from the old Communist Workers Party to the Socialists , who spr ang from the reform wing of the authoritarian regime that was ousted in 1990 aft er a 45-year rule . It is hard to image what Karl Marx might say if he could hea r these three `` socialists '' airing their capitalist aspirations . All three r eadily agreed , for example , that the state `` should get out of the economy , '' although they had differing views on just how quickly this should happen and what residual role government should play . But such views reflect a central par adox of post-Cold War Eastern Europe namely , that a growing number of constitue nts of the former ruling Communist parties are budding entrepreneurs whose inter ests are far removed from those of the once exalted proletariat . In fact , the Hungarian Socialist Party which will form this country 's new government in comi ng weeks is a hodgepodge of conflicting interest groups . There are unreformed o ld-style Communist apparatchiks , labor union leaders , reformed social democrat s , struggling small entrepreneurs and a new capitalist aristocracy of `` Red Ba rons , '' born out of the old party elite . But swelling the flood of roughly 1. 5 million new Socialist voters on Sunday , according to the Hungarian Gallup pol ling organization , were people from all walks of life with fond memories of the security and social welfare benefits of the old Marxist government and a distru st of the hazards of free-market democracy . `` There has been quite a shift in the ( Socialist ) voter profile , '' said Gallup spokesman Robert Manchin . `` I t is much more anti-market , anti-privatization , more for egalitarian values an d social redistribution . They are the traditional , old-time socialist supporte rs . `` This is something that should bother the Socialist Party and everybody e lse , since they didn't run on a traditional socialist program , but its ( suppo rters want ) to go back to egalitarian solutions . '' In the wake of the Sociali st victory , the question being asked by Hungarians and foreigners alike is whic h faction of the highly eclectic party will prevail in the coming struggle to de fine its economic and social policies . Will it be the more orthodox , old-time socialists and labor advocates led by Sandor Nagy , whose name was listed second on the party 's election slate ? Or the faction led by Laszlo Bekesi , the part y 's most prominent economic reformist , who was listed third on the slate and i s likely to become the next finance minister ? The party will meet in convention here Saturday to outline its policies and formally choose its nominee for prime minister . WASHINGTON A defiant Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , rejected a proposed plea bargain with federal prosecutors Monday night and vowed to fight in court effort s to convict him of an alleged conspiracy to defraud the government out of sever al hundred thousand dollars . `` Federal prosecutors threaten to indict me if I fail to plead guilty to a series of crimes I did not commit , '' Rostenkowski sa id in a written statement . `` I will not make any deals with them . I did not c ommit any crimes . My conscience is clear and my 42-year record as an elected of ficial is one I am pround to once again run on . '' The statement by Rostenkowsk i , chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee , came the day before sources have said United States Attorney Eric H . Holder Jr. would ask a grand jury to indict the Chicago Democrat . Holder 's office declined comment Monday . Barring a last minute overture by Rostenkowski , prosecutors planned to indict him Tues day . `` The government is ready to go , '' one source familiar with the negotia tions said . Other sources said that the government 's case was already set for presentation to a grand jury , regardless of whether they heard from Rostenkowsk i by the deadline . After more than two weeks of discussing the possibility of a plea bargain , Rostenkowski , 66 , last week declined a deal in which he would plead guilty to a felony and spend a limited amount of time in jail . Options fo r Rostenkowski had run out , as had his tenure as chairman of Ways and Means , a committee that puts him in the forefront on President Clinton 's health care le gislation as well as major trade , welfare and tax bills . If the grand jury ret urns an indictment punishable by at least two years in prison , under normal pro cedures of the House Democratic Caucus , Rostenkowski would have to resign from the committee chairmanship . Rostenkowski made clear last night he stood ready t o step aside from his leadership role and battle to salvage his political life . `` If I am indicted I will temporarily give up the chairmanship .... but will c ontinue to serve as an active member of Congress , '' Rostenkowski said . `` ... If I am indicted , I will fight in court . I will present a compelling case to the jury which will , I am confident , find me not guilty ... . Rostenkowski 's action and the anticipated indictment clouds the political horizon for key issue s such as health care and sets the stage for Rep. Sam Gibbons , D-Fla. , to take the reins of Ways and Means . Three key Democrats on Ways and Means said they w ere not surprised by the chairman 's decision and said the committee would rally around Gibbons in the fight for health care . But they conceded that , as repre sentative John Lewis , D-Ga. , put it , `` It will be much more difficult withou t him . '' Lewis , Rep. Jake Pickle , D-Tex. , and Rep. Charles Rangel , D-N.Y. , all said they expected no challenge to Gibbons ' becoming acting chairman unde r House Democratic Caucus rules . Pickle , who is No. 3 in seniority said , `` T here is a remote possibility that 50 members could petition the Democratic Caucu s to change the rules , but I doubt that will happen . '' Rangel , who is next i n seniority behind Pickle , and Lewis , who is close to both the White House and the House Democratic leadership , echoed the view that Gibbons would take over without a serious challenge . Rangel said he thought the committee 's considerat ion of health care would go forward `` ninety percent as normal . '' He said Gib bons `` will probably work very closely with Rostenkowski to find consensus amon g the committee 's Democratic members . '' A senior committee Republican , Rep . Clay Shaw of Florida agreed that there was nothing surprising about the chairma n 's decision . `` You don't check your citizenship at the door when you go to C ongress , '' Shaw said , `` and he is entitled to a fair trial . If he feels he 's not guilty of the charges , he should fight them . '' Shaw said that he thoug ht Rostenkowski would have faced great difficulty in delivering a health bill to the President 's specifications , but said with the `` disruption '' of the cha nge in the chairmanship , `` this probably backs us up a ways . '' A plea bargai n would have given Rostenkowski a slight chance of retaining his chairmanship . Caucus rules do not require a member convicted of criminal charges to resign fro m office or leadership positions , although such members are likely to face an e thics investigation and disciplinary actions . Federal prosecutors have outlined a broad case against Rostenkowski of conspiracy to defraud the government in wh at has been described as `` kitchen sink '' approach alleging abuses of official accounts for postage , leased automobiles , office space , supplies and personn el . Rostenkowski has publicly denied all the allegations . The FBI has investig ated whether several so-called `` ghost employees '' in Rostenkowski 's Chicago office received pay for work never down . The probe also examined whether Rosten kowski purchased personal and gift items through his expense account at the Hous e Stationary Store . In addition , the prosecution 's case also reportedly exami nes whether government leased cars were used primarily for personal use rather t han official business and if Rostenkowski and other lawmakers traded postage vou chers and stamps for thousands of dollars . Rostenkowski , completing his 36th y ear in Congress , entered plea discussions in an effort to reduce or eliminate a ny prison sentence while avoiding a lengthy legal battle . He also wanted to try to retain his chairmanship . Such talks are considered normal and will not affe ct his trial , should he be indicted . WASHINGTON In an alabaster-white amphitheater surrounded by a sea of headstones , President Clinton told a packed audience of veterans and visitors Monday neve r to forget those who had died fighting for freedom . `` Fifty years ago the wor ld learned just what Americans are capable of , '' Clinton noted during a Memori al Day service at Arlington National Cemetery . `` World War II was an era of sa crifice unequal in our history . It was the energies of free people who turned t he tide '' against totalitarianism . The 50th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy echoed throughout Clinton 's speech . Straining to see and hear him from her wheelchair was retired Army nurse Dorothy Fearn Olsen , who had treated D-Day casualties during her 19 months as a combat nurse . Afterward , she recou nted helping the wounded at the Battle of the Bulge and being among the first me dical units at the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp . She was onl y 24 . Olsen recited a list of nurses who had served in U.S. wars , beginning wi th Clara Barton in the Civil War and ending with Frances Slanger , a little-know n nurse who was killed in Belgium before the Battle of the Bulge . `` There had been various letters written by GIs to Stars and Stripes thanking the nurses for being there , '' she said . Slanger `` wrote a very beautiful letter that ended . . . `` It 's an honor and a privilege to be there when you open your eyes and say , `` Hiya , babe. ' ' ' Clinton 's speech in the cemetery 's Memorial Amphi theater came just before noon . Earlier in the morning , before placing a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknowns , he and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton had been the hosts for a breakfast for World War II veterans and leaders of veterans org anizations . During his speech Monday , Clinton said the endless rows of graves along the hillside of Arlington are reminders of `` the high cost of freedom . ' ' The famous are there among them , he said . `` But far more numerous are Ameri cans who are not famous , are not legend , but whose deeds are the backbone '' o f democracy . `` Let us also hold a special place for all our living veterans , '' he urged . `` We owe them a lasting debt of gratitude . '' WASHINGTON As Washington awoke on Memorial Day morning , 11 families sat in fol ding chairs on a grassy hill and , far away from the day 's more elaborate event s , cried in each other 's arms . The Vietnam Veterans Memorial ebbed like a bla ck wave in the distance . The names of their loved ones could not be on that gra nite wall , because unlike the dead whose sacrifice was etched there , their lov ed ones had died after the fighting ended of Agent Orange poisoning , of injurie s that never healed , in suicides . In a war that has seemed exiled from the bro therhood of conflicts , these dead are the lost veterans . The Friends of the Vi etnam Veterans Memorial , which decided they had been forgotten long enough , he ld Monday 's ceremony to honor them . It brought nine members of the Reynolds fa mily , ages 14 months to 74 years , from Palo Alto , Calif. . It brought Jennie LeFevre from Shady Side , Md. , to honor a husband killed by Agent Orange . It b rought Diana Steele from Newport News , Va. , bearing a grief almost unimaginabl e : Her husband and father had both taken their own lives within nine months of each other . `` Merciful God , we ask your tender blessing on all who are gather ed here , '' said writer Joe Galloway , who covered the Vietnam conflict . `` Yo u have brought beside you the souls of some good soldiers who suffered greatly l ong after their war was over and who are loved and missed deeply. '' ' More than 3 million Americans served in Vietnam . Among them were 58,190 who were killed or missing in action , about 450,000 wounded in action and an estimated 117,000 who have since died . `` You know and I know what really cut their lives short , '' Galloway said . `` And who among us dares judge them for the way they lived or the way they died ? '' Twenty-two veterans were honored , among them Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lewis Puller Jr. , of Alexandria , who took his life this month . Their names will be entered in an honor roll displayed near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial . After speeches and prayers , the families walked to the Wall . At the foot of the polished panels , they placed red carnations , a white spi der mum and tributes for their lost loved ones . Diana Steele left her husband ' s Purple Heart . She said Robert William Steele was diagnosed with depression ju st after the war . The Army soldier killed himself in 1983 , she said , because `` the experience of Vietnam was so traumatic for him . He was such a gentle man . He couldn't deal with it . '' He was 37 . Patricia Codd 's husband and Diana Steele 's father , Nicholas Joseph Codd Jr. , served in the Army in 1966 , then again in 1970 and 1971 . He committed suicide at age 51 in 1984 . `` He made nin e suicide attempts , '' said his widow , who lives in Hampton , Va. . He rarely spoke of war , but once he shared a memory . `` They were on an ambush , '' Patr icia Codd said . `` They heard a noise . They opened fire . It turned out to be women and children . He talked about having to pick them up and put them in body bags . '' Codd had five children and 12 grandchildren `` who will never know hi m , '' she said . `` We 're hoping this will put all of this to rest . But I don 't think it 'll ever be over . '' Jennie LeFevre , 62 and gray-haired , wore whi te tennis shoes , white slacks and an orange T-shirt that said `` Widow of Agent Orange Victim . '' Her Air Force husband , Gerald Henry LeFevre , died in 1989 . `` These men need their own wall , '' she said . The Reynolds family mourned T errence Michael Reynolds , dead at 25 . He served in the Army in 1966 . He suffe red wounds that left him a paraplegic and kept him hospitalized for 2 years . In 1970 , he died of a heart attack related to his injuries . `` I miss him terrib ly , '' said one of his sisters , Kathy LeVain . `` After 25 years , I still mis s him . '' Reynolds 's son , mother , a brother , two sisters , three nephews an d a brother-in-law came to honor him . They showed a faded black-and-white photo of a young man in a hospital bed with large expressive eyes , dark eyebrows and a mischievous , yet sad smile . `` He was quite a prankster , '' said another s ister , Melinda Burnham . `` He was always cracking me up . Always making people laugh , '' offered his brother , Jim Glanville . `` That 's how I 'd like him r emembered . '' WASHINGTON House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , said Monday that he has chosen to fight charges of fraud and abuse of his public office , rather than making a deal with federal prosecutors to plead guilty to lesser offenses . `` I have always fought for what I believe in . I strongly bel ieve that I am not guilty of these charges , and will fight to regain my reputat ion in court , '' Rostenkowski said in a statement issued Monday night . His rem arks came on the eve of Tuesday 's deadline by the government to accept or rejec t its plea-bargain arrangement . `` That is a far more attractive arrangement op tion than pleading guilty to crimes that I did not commit , '' Rostenkowski said . The decision appears to make it certain that he will be indicted on a series of felony charges possibly as early as Tuesday , sources familiar with the case said . A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment on Rostenkowski 's ann ouncement . The Chicago lawmaker 's lawyers had urged him to consider the deal b eing offered by U.S. . Attorney Eric Holder , a Clinton administration appointee . Although it was understood to have meant a one-year prison term and his resig nation from Congress , the bargain would have spared Rostenkowski and his family the humiliation of a public trial and possibly a longer prison term . Under the rules of the House Democratic Caucus , an indictment on felony charges punishab le by a prison term of more than two years would mean that Rostenkowski would ha ve to relinquish his chairmanship , until and unless he were acquitted . The imp lications of his removal go far beyond the effects on the 35-year congressional career of a single lawmaker . Rostenkowski , whose legislative deal-making skill s are considered unparalleled in Congress , is one of President Clinton 's most crucial allies in the administration 's uphill efforts to pass comprehensive hea lth care legislation this year . Rostenkowski , 66 , was considered so vital to the passage of the health bill that Clinton went to Chicago to campaign for him earlier this year , when it appeared that he faced a strong challenge in the Dem ocratic primary . The Ways and Means Committee has already begun its deliberatio ns on the health bill , and it now appears it will lose its chairman just as it is to start its voting after Congress ' weeklong Memorial Day recess . Ways and Means is one of five committees in Congress that have jurisdiction over the bill . In the last few days , as negotiations between Rostenkowski and federal prose cutors reached a critical phase , a pall had settled over the House . While few House members had been willing to discuss it on the record , the situation had s eemed to overshadow all the House 's official business , and was the topic of ma ny whispered conversations in the corridors and cloakrooms of the Capitol . Alth ough the chairman had agonized over the choice before him , the idea of pleading guilty had gone against all his instincts , friends said . `` He finally came t o closure late this afternoon , '' spokesman Jim Jaffe said Monday . The helm of the committee is expected to pass to the second most senior Democrat , Rep. Sam Gibbons of Florida . Though genial and well-liked , Gibbons has not been tested on such major legislation . His expertise is in trade matters . Though Rostenko wski would relinquish the chairmanship , he could still exert considerable influ ence as a member of the committee . The Democrats on the panel are fiercely loya l to him , and have received many breaks for their constituents from him in the past . Also , he hired the Ways and Means Committee 's entire staff . ( Optional add end ) Rostenkowski is represented by Robert S. Bennett , a leading Washingt on attorney well known for his defense of public officials and others accused of white-collar crimes . It is expected that Bennett , who also is representing Cl inton against a sexual harassment suit filed by Paula Corbin Jones , could delay any trial until after the November elections . The federal investigation of Ros tenkowski has been under way for more than two years . Among the charges that pr obably would be included in an indictment : That between 1985 and 1991 , he ille gally converted stamps from the House Post Office to cash for his personal use . A key witness against him is likely to be former House Postmaster Robert V. Rot a , who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor embezzlement charges last July . That he i mproperly used office funds to buy lavish gifts for friends from the House Stati onery Store . On the advice of his lawyers , Rostenkowski earlier reimbursed Con gress for about $ 82,000 of purchases , without admitting wrongdoing . That he c onverted government-leased cars to his personal ownership . That he used governm ent funds to pay `` ghost employees '' people who were on his payroll but did no work . All told , the charges could be such that the chairman would face a leng thy prison term , if convicted . RIVERSIDE , Calif. University of California officials said Monday that Khallid Abdul Muhammad , the controversial Nation of Islam figure shot in the legs here Sunday night , disregarded an elaborate security plan by continuing to answer qu estions outside the gymnasium where he had just given a speech . The alleged gun man has been identified as James Edward Bess , who authorities said is a member of a `` subset of the Nation of Islam '' in the Tacoma , Wash. , area . Bess was severely beaten by a crowd of bystanders and had to be rescued by police . He i s under heavy guard at a local hospital . Muhammad , 43 , is listed in stable co ndition at another local hospital . He was an aide to Louis Farrakhan , head of the Nation of Islam , until he was demoted following a national outcry over anti semitic remarks he made during a speech last November in New Jersey . Some membe rs of the crowd that beat Bess shouted that the gunman worked `` for the Jews . '' Minutes after leaving the gym , Muhammad was shot at close range while standi ng at the top of some steps about 100 yards from the gym entrance on the Univers ity of California at Riverside . The security plan drawn up by campus police and Muhammad 's bodyguards had called for him to exit quickly through a rear door a nd leave by car . Authorities had no explanation for why Muhammad did not follow the plan . Five of his bodyguards were also wounded in the attack . Only one of the bodyguards was wounded seriously enough to be in the hospital tonight . The investigation into the shooting is being handled by University of California ca mpus police , who would not speculate Monday on the motive for the attack . Acco rding to Leon Forrest , former editor of the Nation of Islam 's newspaper , Muha mmad Speaks , the shooting of Muhammad by a disgruntled Nation member is reflect ive of ongoing leadership problems in the organization . It was not uncommon for people to join the Nation and then leave , often over ideological differences o r a belief that power was not distributed in an equitable way , said Forrest , n ow chair of African American studies at Northwestern University . Joseph E. Lowe ry , president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference , said he regarde d the shooting , which he deplored , as an `` internal conflict '' in the Nation of Islam . Police said they found three weapons of Bess 's in addition to the 9 mm handgun used in the shooting . Two additional 9mm weapons were found at the s cene . In his vehicle nearby , they said , they found a rifle with a telescope s ight . Riverside Police Chief Ken Fortier said that police are not ruling out a conspiracy but they believe Bess acted alone . He said Bess has not been charged yet . Forrest recalled the shooting 29 years ago of Malcolm X , a former Nation of Islam leader who broke away and attracted a following of young blacks . Thre e members of the Nation of Islam were convicted of the killing . University offi cials said security arrangements for Muhammad 's Sunday appearance had been adeq uate . `` There was good security , '' David H. Warren , the university 's execu tive vice chancellor said at a news conference here Monday . `` What went wrong was he ( Muhammad ) completely broke with what his scheduling was and his routin g was . '' Since being suspended by Farrakhan in February , Muhammad has continu ed to make controversial speeches , describing himself at one point as a `` trut h terrorist '' for the Nation of Islam leader . He has done little to soften the rhetoric that first gained widespread attention in an address Nov. 29 at Kean C ollege in New Jersey that was later denounced by President Clinton , Congress an d many black and Jewish leaders . In his two-hour speech here Sunday , Muhammad sounded many familiar themes , including the need for blacks to overcome white r acist oppression and the attempt by Jews in the entertainment industry to promot e negative images of blacks . University officials said Monday they considered b locking Muhammad from speaking but decided to allow it because they feared being sued . After protests from Jewish groups on campus , however , they refused to allow Muhammad 's bodyguards to conduct searches of the audience , and they also insisted that reporters be allowed to bring recording equipment into the gym . WASHINGTON Ezra Taft Benson , head of the Mormon Church since 1985 , secretary of agriculture from 1953 to 1961 and a pugnacious force in matters of church and state for much of his life , died Monday at his home in Salt Lake City . Church officials said he had been hospitalized briefly last week for congestive heart failure . He was 94 . Incapacitated since 1989 and unable to speak or , at times , to recognize even close relatives , Benson spent his last years under the 24- hour care of nurses in his apartment across the street from church headquarters . His last public appearance was at the funeral of his wife of nearly 66 years , Flora Amussen Benson , in 1992 . The severity of his condition became public la st year when one of his grandsons , tired of what he said was a charade involvin g posed pictures and letters signed by an automatic pen , denounced Mormon leade rs for participating in a deception . His grandfather 's absence , Steve Benson conceded , had made little difference in running the church , whose bureaucracy he compared to that of the former Soviet Union . `` To me , it was just further evidence of the systematic illness that has affected the hierarchy of the church , '' said Benson , 39 , a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist for the Arizona Rep ublic . The grandson , a sixth-generation Mormon , later left the church . Benso n became the 13th president , prophet , seer and revelator of the Church of Jesu s Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1985 , after the death of Spencer W. Kimball. P residents of the Mormon Church serve for life . He took over leadership of a chu rch that was 156 years old and had about 6 million members worldwide . During hi s administration , the church membership grew to nearly 9 million , church spoke smen said . Benson was president of the Boise ( Idaho ) stake , or district , of the Mormon Church in the late 1930s and headed the Washington stake from 1940 t o 1943 . He was chosen as a member of the Council of Twelve Apostles , the churc h 's ruling group , in 1943 . Three years later , he became president of the chu rch 's European Mission , headquartered in London . When he was appointed agricu lture secretary , he took a leave of absence from his duties as eighth-ranking c hurch apostle . After leaving government service in 1961 , he devoted his life t o church work full time . Yet he did not become a stranger to controversy . He s poke out on a variety of social and political questions . He attacked the civil rights movement as advancing communism , called the graduated income tax `` Marx ist , '' attacked detente with the Soviet Union , lambasted the women 's movemen t and became closely associated with members of the reactionary John Birch Socie ty . When he became church president in 1985 , many observers wondered whether t he Mormon Church would take a turn to the political right and whether Benson , w ho had been restrained in his comments in recent years , would begin to speak ou t again on political issues . When he took office , Benson expressed love for `` every creed , color and political persuasion . '' `` Some have expectantly inqu ired about the direction the church will take in the future , '' he said . `` Ma y we suggest that the Lord , through President Kimball , has sharply focused on the threefold mission of the church : to preach the gospel , to perfect the sain ts and to redeem the dead . We shall continue every effort to carry out this mis sion . '' During his years as agriculture secretary , Benson opposed increases i n parity payments , intended to ensure farmers stable prices for crops . He also opposed soil bank schemes , which would pay farmers for cutting production , sa ying he was dead against paying farmers for doing nothing . In the spring of 195 6 , President Dwight D. Eisenhower was forced to take measures to bolster fallin g hog prices , after protests from Republican members of Congress representing t he Midwest farm vote . Benson opposed measures to help those small farmers , say ing the farmers were inefficient and the government should not pay to bail them out . But members of Congress pointed out just how crucial the farm vote could b e in a presidential election year , and farmers got what they wanted . Benson 's image as a foe of many small farmers was bolstered when he was battered by eggs thrown at him during a speaking engagement in South Dakota . Another time , Dem ocrats on the Senate Agriculture Committee hectored him so persistently that it took him 90 minutes to get through three pages of testimony . Authorities say on e measure of his unpopularity among farmers was the steady loss of Republican vo tes in congressional elections in farm states during the 1950s . Another measure was the sure-fire success with farm crowds of Democrats campaigning for the pre sidency in 1960 when they promised that , if elected , they would fire Ezra Taft Benson . Benson is survived by six children . RIVERSIDE , Calif. . A former Nation of Islam minister who clashed with fellow Muslims had a small arsenal , including a hunting rifle with a scope , when he a llegedly shot black nationalist Khallid Abdul Muhammad and five other men outsid e a university auditorium , authorities said Monday . The suspect , identified a s James Edward Bess , 49 , opened fire just after Muhammad finished a speech on the University of California campus . Khallid Muhammad a former Nation of Islam spokesman known for his fiery anti-Jewish , anti-white rhetoric was shot in the legs . He and a bodyguard were reported in stable condition . Four other bodygua rds were treated and released . Law enforcement authorities said they have not r uled out a conspiracy in the shooting , but they believe Bess was acting alone . Investigators have not offered a motive . People familiar with the suspect desc ribed Bess as a contentious figure and a devotee of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan . Bess had been removed from his post as a leader of the Seattle area mosque . He once wrote an open letter in a black community newspaper criticizin g the mayor of Seattle for denouncing remarks by Farrakhan . And , on another oc casion , he told television viewers in Seattle , where he frequently appeared on public access TV , that violence was the way to deal with black leaders who let down the black community . `` If this false leadership continues I willn't be s urprised to see the same thing as happened in South Africa , where the black wom an was hacked to death with a axe and .. . thrown on a fire and burned up , '' B ess said . `` Matter of fact , I think that 's what needs to take place with thi s leadership . They ought to be doused with gasoline and burned in public . '' A former top aide to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan , Muhammad had been o ne of Farrakhan 's most vituperative lieutenants until a verbal assault on Jews , Arabs and whites provoked denunciations by the Rev. Jesse Jackson , black memb ers of Congress and President Clinton and led to his suspension . Despite his su spension , Muhammad has publicly remained so loyal to Farrakhan that many wonder if he continues to speak for Farrakhan . He says only that they remain in conta ct but adds , `` We don't have the closeness that we had . We don't have the com munication that we used to . '' Muhammad had come to Riverside to make the secon d of two speeches in the Los Angeles area over the weekend ( Riverside is about 60 miles east of Los Angeles . ) The shooting Sunday night occurred despite tigh t security inside the University of California , Riverside , auditorium during h is two-hour speech . The 500 members of the audience were frisked as they entere d the room . In addition to two city police officers , about 50 members of the F ruit of Islam the security arm of the nation of Islam were present . Muhammad dr ew cheers during his speech when he described whites as satanic and Jews as oppr essors . In a speech in Los Angeles Saturday , Muhammad referred to Jews as `` b agel-eating '' and `` hook nosed '' and contended that `` the black holocaust is 100 times worse than any other holocaust '' . But police and university spokesm en spokesman said that security personnel were caught by surprise when Muhammad left the podium and said he would continue to field questions outside . Muhammad said he was going outdoors because he had been told apparently in error that th e sponsoring organization had to give up the gymnasium or pay additional costs . University officials acknowledged they were apprehensive about Muhammad 's spee ch on campus , sponsored by the African Student Alliance , but said that to have blocked the talk would have been a denial of free speech . When he came outside , Muhammad , 43 , was hit in both legs by shots fired from a 9-mm handgun . One bodyguard , Cakliph Saduik , 33 , was shot in the upper right back . Another gu ard , Barnado Puckett , 34 , was shot three times . Terrell D. Strait , 20 , was shot in the left shoulder and stomach . Steve L. Washington received a minor gu nshot injury , and Thomas L. Harri had a minor gunshot graze to the back . Bess was was severely beaten by a crowd of people who had witnessed the shooting . Au thorities said he suffered a fractured shoulder , multiple abrasions and lost te eth . Riverside police reported Monday that they confiscated not only the 9-mm h andgun alleged used in the shooting , but also found a backpack containing two o ther guns and a hunting rifle in Bess ' car which was parked nearby . ( Optional Add End ) By Monday afternoon , Muhammad had gotten out of his hospital bed and was walking around his room , according to Nation of Islam security guards who declined to identify themselves . `` He is fine . His spirits are fine , '' said a woman who identified herself as Muhammad 's sister at Riverside Community Hos pital Monday afternoon . `` He 's just tired . Doing his father 's work makes hi m tired , '' said the woman who would not give her name but was sitting in a roo m beside Muhammad 's 9-year-old son in the hospital 's intensive care wing . One knowledgeable source told the Los Angeles Times that Bess was suspended about t hree years ago from his post as minister of a mosque in Seattle by a former Nati on of Islam minister and official , Wazir Muhammad . A resident of Los Angeles , Wazir Muhammad was said to be with Khallid Muhammad during the speech but not a t his side when the shooting took place . In ROSTY-TIMES ( Tumulty-Times ) sub for 3rd graf ( recasting first sentence ) xxx night : His remarks came on the eve of Tuesday 's deadline by the government to accept or reject its plea-bargain . `` That is a far more attractive arrange ment option than pleading guilty to crimes that I did not commit , '' Rostenkows ki said . PICK UP 4TH GRAF : The decision xxx WASHINGTON House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , said Monday that he has chosen to fight charges of fraud and abuse of his public office , rather than making a deal with federal prosecutors to plead guilty to lesser offenses . `` I have always fought for what I believe in . I strongly bel ieve that I am not guilty of these charges , and will fight to regain my reputat ion in court , '' Rostenkowski said in a statement issued Monday night . His rem arks came on the eve of Tuesday 's deadline by the government to accept or rejec t its plea-bargain offer . `` That is a far more attractive option than pleading guilty to crimes that I did not commit , '' Rostenkowski said . PICKUP 4TH GRAF : The decision xxx The Security Council issued an appeal to North Korea Monday night to allow the international nuclear agency to monitor the discharge of fuel from a reactor . T he non-binding statement , which had the crucial support of China , did not incl ude any explicit threat of sanctions against North Korea for violating nuclear s afeguards . But diplomats said the measure would likely be the last the Security Council will take before considering sanctions , if North Korea continues to un load fuel from the Yongbyon reactor without oversight by the International Atomi c Energy Agency . IAEA Director General Hans Blix reported Friday that North Kor ea had accelerated the unsupervised discharge of fuel and was only days away fro m making it impossible for the IAEA to determine whether fuel from the reactor h ad been diverted secretly in the past , perhaps for weapons . If North Korea doe s not halt the fuel discharge , it will spell the failure of more than a year of efforts by the Clinton administration to use dialogue to bring the Communist re gime in Pyongyang back into line with nuclear safeguards . `` We are perilously close to the precipice , '' a U.S. official said . The statement `` strongly urg es '' North Korea to continue unloading thousands of spent fuel rods `` in a man ner which preserves the technical possibility '' of measuring nuclear materials according to IAEA procedures . It calls for new talks between Pyongyang and the IAEA and asks the agency to leave two inspectors in the country . An IAEA offici al left North Korea on Friday after talks on inspections failed . The United Sta tes opted for a `` last-minute appeal rather than a warning , '' a U.S. official said , to secure the cooperation of China before the council is forced to debat e punitive sanctions . Beijing has been opposed to sanctions and will probably a bstain on any resolution . North Korea has said it would view sanctions as an ac t of war . The IAEA has said that so far North Korea did not appear to be divert ing fuel from recently removed fuel rods . But it needs to take samples from a r ange of the unloaded rods to determine whether any fuel was removed from the rea ctor in years past . The used fuel can be reprocessed to make weapons-grade plut onium . RIVERSIDE , Calif. . A former Nation of Islam minister who clashed with fellow Muslims had a small arsenal , including a hunting rifle with a scope , when he a llegedly shot black nationalist Khallid Abdul Muhammad and five other men outsid e a university auditorium , authorities said Monday . The suspect , identified a s James Edward Bess , 49 , opened fire just after Muhammad finished a speech on the University of California campus here Sunday night . Muhammad a former Nation of Islam spokesman known for his fiery anti-Jewish , anti-white rhetoric was sh ot in the legs . He and a bodyguard were reported in stable condition . Four oth er bodyguards were treated and released . Law enforcement authorities said they have not ruled out a conspiracy in the shooting but they believe Bess , a Tacoma , Wash , resident who was booked on several counts of attempted murder , was ac ting alone . Investigators have not offered a motive . People familiar with the suspect described Bess as a devotee of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan an d a contentious figure who was removed from his post as a leader of the Seattle- area mosque . He once wrote an open letter in a black community newspaper critic izing the mayor of Seattle for denouncing remarks by Farrakhan . And , on anothe r occasion , he told viewers of a public access television station in Seattle th at violence was the way to deal with black leaders who let down the black commun ity . `` If this false leadership continues I willn't be surprised to see the sa me thing as happened in South Africa , where the black woman was hacked to death with a ax and .. . thrown on a fire and burned up , '' Bess said on a 1985 tape aired by ABC and CBS . `` Matter of fact , I think that 's what needs to take p lace with this leadership . They ought to be doused with gasoline and burned in public . '' A former top aide to Farrakhan , Muhammad had been one of Farrakhan 's most vituperative lieutenants until a verbal assault on Jews , Arabs and whit es provoked denunciations by the Rev. Jesse Jackson , black members of Congress and President Clinton , leading to his suspension . Despite his suspension , Muh ammad has remained so publicly loyal to Farrakhan that many wonder if he continu es to speak for Farrakhan . He says only that they remain in contact but adds , `` We don't have the closeness that we had . We don't have the communication tha t we used to . '' Muhammad had come to Riverside to make the second of two speec hes in the Los Angeles area over the weekend . ( Riverside is about 60 miles eas t of Los Angeles . ) The shooting Sunday night occurred despite tight security i nside the University of California , Riverside , auditorium during his two-hour speech . The 500 members of the audience were frisked as they entered the room . In addition to two city police officers , about 50 members of the Fruit of Isla m the security arm of the Nation of Islam were present . Muhammad drew cheers du ring his speech when he described whites as satanic and Jews as oppressors . In a speech Saturday in Los Angeles , Muhammad referred to Jews as `` bagel-eating '' and `` hook-nosed '' and contended that `` the black holocaust is 100 times w orse than any other holocaust . '' Police and university spokesmen said that sec urity personnel were caught by surprise when Muhammad left the podium and said h e would continue to field questions outside . Muhammad said he was going outdoor s because he had been told apparently in error that the sponsoring organization had to give up the gymnasium or pay additional costs . University officials ackn owledged that they were apprehensive about Muhammad 's speech on campus , sponso red by the African Student Alliance , but said that to have blocked the talk wou ld have been a denial of free speech . When he came outside , Muhammad , 43 , wa s hit in both legs by shots fired from a 9-mm handgun . One bodyguard , Varnardo Puckett , 34 , of Pomona , remained hospitalized with three wounds . Caliph Sad iq , 33 , was shot in the upper right back . Terrell D. Strait , 20 , was shot i n the left shoulder and stomach . Steve L. Washington received a minor gunshot i njury , and Thomas L. Harri had a minor gunshot graze to the back . ( Optional a dd end ) By Monday afternoon , Muhammad had gotten out of his hospital bed and w as walking around his room , according to Nation of Islam security guards who de clined to identify themselves . `` He is fine . His spirits are fine , '' said a woman who identified herself as Muhammad 's sister at Riverside Community Hospi tal Monday afternoon . `` He 's just tired . Doing his father 's work makes him tired , '' said the woman who would not give her name but was sitting in a room beside Muhammad 's 9-year-old son in the hospital 's intensive care wing . One v isitor said that Muhammad was grateful for the bodyguards who took bullets for h im : `` He said , ` If it wasn't for ( them ) I wouldn't be here . '' While Frui t of Islam members guarded his hospital room , Muhammad received a steady stream of visitors , including his 9-year-old son , Farrakhan , and other family membe rs . He also reportedly talked to Louis Farrakhan on the telephone . As of late Monday , the Nation of Islam had released no statement regarding the shooting . Bess was severely beaten by a crowd of people who had witnessed the shooting . A uthorities said he suffered a fractured shoulder , multiple abrasions and lost s ome teeth . He remained hospitalized . Riverside police reported Monday that the y confiscated not only the handgun allegedly used in the shooting , but also fou nd a backpack containing two other guns and a hunting rifle in Bess 's car , whi ch was parked nearby . One knowledgeable source told the Los Angeles Times that Bess was removed about three years ago from his post as minister of a mosque in Seattle by a former Nation of Islam minister and official , Wazir Muhammad . A r esident of Los Angeles , Wazir Muhammad was said to be with Khallid Muhammad dur ing the speech but not at his side when the shooting took place . Just when President Clinton thought it was safe to focus on his health care age nda , Whitewater may come back to haunt him again . Over the past two months , t he controversial land deal faded from the front page as journalists second-guess ed their frenzied coverage and congressional leaders delayed holding hearings so as not to interfere with ongoing grand jury investigations . But after a visit to Capitol Hill Thursday by Special Counsel Robert Fiske Jr. , lawmakers now say they may begin calling witnesses as early as July , bringing the issue that Cli nton and his wife , Hillary Rodham Clinton , have fought so hard to kill back to life . Fiske said that by the `` middle to the end of June , '' he would comple te the portion of his investigation that relates to the death of Deputy White Ho use Counsel Vincent Foster and possibly improper contacts between Clinton admini stration officials and government regulators concerning the failed Madison Guara nty Savings and Loan in Arkansas . Fiske said that at that point , he would tell lawmakers if he objected to hearings on those subjects . Speaker Thomas Foley , D-Wash. , under mounting Republican pressure , responded that the House could t hen hold hearings beginning in late July or early August . And Senate Majority L eader George Mitchell , D-Maine , who has been exchanging hearing proposals with Minority Leader Bob Dole , R-Kan. , grudgingly agreed . `` We all know what is going on , '' Mitchell complained earlier . `` This is raw partisan politics ... . '' Lawmakers from both sides generally agree it is likely that hearings will b e held sometime this summer . But they say that the proceedings probably will be narrowly proscribed and tightly controlled by the dominant Democrats , who will keep a tight rein on information that reflects badly on the president . In the House , Foley said he wants the Banking Committee to hold the hearings while his nemesis , Minority Whip Newt Gingrich , R-Ga. , is calling for the creation of a special select committee to investigate . A resolution by Rep. John Doolittle , R-Calif. , that called for House hearings to begin by Aug. 15 was recently end orsed by 92 of his Republican colleagues . SAN DIEGO Reveling in her keynote role at a recent conference of 500 women lawy ers , Kathleen Brown effortlessly established common ground with professionals j uggling work , families and careers . `` We all know that housework , if done ri ght , can kill you , '' quipped the California state treasurer and Democratic gu bernatorial candidate . Her post-feminist advice that day : `` We can have it al l , so long as we don't try to have it all at once . '' Elegant but down-to-eart h , Brown , 48 , was delivering a message she has lived . Her father , former Ca lifornia Gov. Edmund G. `` Pat '' Brown , has called her `` the real politician in the family '' high praise , considering that her brother Jerry , 56 , also se rved two Sacramento terms and made three runs for president . But suppressing he r own political ambitions , Kathleen Brown raised three children ; she has twin 2-year-old grandchildren . In her second marriage , to TV news executive Van Gor don Sauter , she detoured to New York as a corporate wife and Fordham law studen t before returning west to claim her political heritage . She won the treasurer 's job in 1990 . Her only previous government service was on the Los Angeles sch ool board in the 1970s and the city public works commission a decade later . She has been forced to combat a perceived lack of executive experience . In the Jun e 7 primary , she faces state insurance commissioner John Garamendi and State Se n. Tom Hayden . Brown until recently concentrated on fund-raising and TV ads ins tead of stump speaking . But her commercials misfired . In one , she slammed Rep ublican Gov. Pete Wilson , whom she hopes to run against , for paroling a serial rapist . He slammed back , contending that the mandates of a judge appointed by her father and a parole law signed by her brother left him no choice . Brown fi nally unveiled a focused message at the state Democratic convention in Los Angel es last month . Her theme is `` 1 million new jobs '' for Californians in the ne xt four years . `` My goal is to keep the voters ' attention on jobs and the eco nomy , '' Brown said in an interview . What about her brother ? Unfavorably reca lled by many Californians as a flake , Jerry Brown is praising Hayden and refusi ng to endorse his sister on his syndicated radio show , saying `` I have more ra dical views '' than anybody running . He 's even said voters are getting `` bamb oozled '' by her and Wilson alike . Kathleen Brown laughs it off . `` Jerry 's b eing Jerry , '' she said . America has become a sunglass culture . A society of shades , if you will . At one time , marketers convinced us that we can make bold statements about ourselv es by the brand of soda pop we drank or the sneakers we wore . But now , it is t hose dark spectacles on our noses that tell all . Sunglass makers are making a k illing on our mass desire to look cool . And for all of today 's talk about ultr aviolet sun protection , consumer psychologists say that when we slip into our $ 275 Revos , we are mostly protecting ourselves from looking ordinary . Just as athletic shoe makers convinced us that we need $ 100 tennis shoes and a differen t sneaker for every sport the sunglass industry is now spurring its own growth b y persuading us that we need different sunglasses while driving the car , steeri ng the boat or competing in the Iditarod . `` It 's all about imagery , '' said Marge Axelrad , editorial director of the trade publication 20/20 . `` Fashion a nd styling have never been more important . '' Nothing absolutely nothing sells sunglasses like style . `` Ultimately , you buy a pair of sunglasses because you think they look good on your face , '' said Jeff Turner , general manager of Ni kon Inc. 's eye wear division , which is running ads that nudge consumers to buy several pair of its performance glasses for different activities . This is prim e sunglass season . Between Memorial Day and the Fourth of July , sunglass maker s expect to peddle nearly 60 percent of the estimated $ 2.5 billion in non-presc ription sunglasses that will be sold this year . California reigns as the nation 's sunglass capital . By one estimate , nearly 25 percent of all sunglasses sol d in 1994 will be sold in California . Although flea markets and tourist attract ions sell lots of low-end glasses for under $ 10 , the big-ticket sunglasses for over $ 100 are increasingly being bought at sunglass specialty stores . While s ales of all sunglasses jumped 14.6 percent last year , sales of upper-end sungla sses ( those over $ 30 ) were up nearly 17 percent , according to Bausch & Lomb . Manufacturers say that smaller , geometric metal frames are among today 's mos t popular designs . For $ 330 , you can pick up a pair of fancy Serengeti sungla sses guaranteed to cut reflective glare from water , snow or your $ 120-an-hour tennis pro 's metal racquet . And if your 8-year-old needs a new set of shades b ecause the last pair ended up getting flushed down the toilet Bausch & Lomb has just introduced its new `` Covers '' line of sunglasses that , for $ 30 a pop , come with a kiddie neck cord to avoid immediate loss . Sunglass industry executi ves concede the current sunglass mania was carefully carved out by manufacturers many of which pay celebrities to wear their shades . `` All of this has been gr eatly enhanced by marketing , '' said Jim Pritts , president of the Sunglass Ass ociation of America . Every time some major Hollywood hunk slips into a new pair of shades on screen , sales of the brand tend to skyrocket . Tom Cruise sent Ra y-Ban sales through the roof when he wore them in `` Risky Business . '' Ditto f or Arnold Schwarzenegger and his too-cool Ray-Ban `` Baloramas '' in `` Terminat or 2 . '' And the film `` Blues Brothers '' caused a run on Ray-Ban 's thick-fra med `` Wayfayer '' sunglasses . Jackie Kennedy Onassis made over-sized sunglasse s the craze among the over-40 set for years although few realized that her desig ner frames were actually prescription sunglasses . Bausch & Lomb pays baseball s lugger Frank Thomas to don its outer space-like `` Killer Loop '' glasses . Oakl ey Inc. , which virtually owns the so-called `` performance '' segment of sungla sses , has Winter Olympic gold medalists Bonnie Blair and Dan Jansen wearing its brand . Serengeti pays A.J. Foyt to slips on its shades . And Revo has Reggie J ackson in its glasses . Reebok has just begun trying to do with sunglasses what it did with athletic shoes . But the company finds it can't coax its big-name at hletes to wear its shades because most already have deals with other companies , said Marty Blue , director of licensing . Thomas is with Bausch & Lomb , as is Olympic skater Nancy Kerrigan , who wears the company 's Ray-Ban line . Foster-G rant , a company that once ruled the industry , resurfaced over the weekend with its first national TV ad campaign in 15 years . The company , which makes lower -end sunglasses ( under $ 30 a pair ) , was king of the sunglass market in the 1 960s and 1970s . But after years of mismanagement , it sought protection from cr editors in 1988 when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy . Recently , Foster-Gran t was purchased by Rye , N.Y.-based Benson Eyecare Corp. , which is about to spe nd millions to re-establish the brand . Over Memorial Day Weekend , Foster-Grant began airing a new ad that features its 30-year-old slogan , `` Who 's that beh ind those Foster-Grants ? '' `` Brand awareness is incredibly strong , '' said K en Shaw , senior vice president of sales . Indeed , Foster-Grant tested its slog an among groups of consumers and discovered that 35- to 54-year-olds were as fam iliar with that line as the slogan , `` Look who 's squeezing the Charmin . '' B y next year , Foster-Grant may try to introduce a line of higher-end sunglasses , Shaw said . Cashing in on the high-end sunglass craze is the Sunglass Hut chai n , which has nearly 750 stores nationwide . It will also expand into several Eu ropean countries this year , said Jack B . Chadsey , president of the Coral Gabl es , Fla.-based chain . `` It all boils down to lifestyle , '' said Chadsey , wh o said the typical sunglass customer will own 30 pair of sunglasses over a lifet ime . `` We all sit on our sunglasses , drop them or leave them sitting on the t able in the restaurant . '' Today , the typical customer spends $ 77 on sunglass es at Sunglass Hut , Chadsey said . To improve its bottom line , the firm recent ly developed its own private-label line , SunGear . Also trying to cut in on tha t action is the giant LensCrafters optical chain . In five test markets , LensCr afters is linking up with the Sunglass Hut chain by offering discounts to Sungla ss Hut customers . Behind the current sunglass craze is a simple cry for attenti on by many people who wear them . `` It 's the upscale equivalent of the tattoo , '' said psychologist Dr. Joyce Brothers . `` Wearing sunglasses may be the las t bit of lure that we have left . '' The shellacking unions took on NAFTA last year could soon be avenged by passage of the most important piece of pro-labor legislation since the Wagner Act of 19 35 . This is amazing since this is not 1935 , union membership has been declinin g for more than a decade , we have a centrist presidency disposed to ingratiate itself with the business community and the Congress is heavily infested with `` new '' Democrats , old Republicans and Reaganite new Neanderthals . What gives ? Well , the Anti-Striker Replacement Act has already achieved clear majorities i n both houses . And it will come to the floor of the Senate this summer with onl y the promise of a filibuster between it and final passage . It may take but a f ew compromises to win the 60 votes necessary to shut off the gaseous debate and get the measure signed . The usual suspects are bellowing ludicrous warnings tha t the bill is an invitation to American workers to stage an immediate re-enactme nt of Paris in the Terror enforced by an epidemic of strikes and the brutalizati on of their less militant comrades . Given the current condition of organized la bor and the global mobility of manufacturing , these are hardly realistic fears . There were only 35 major strikes in all the United States last year . There ha ven't been more than 100 strikes in any year since 1981 . In 1979 there were 235 strikes . In 1974 , 424 . One reason is the decline in union membership . Anoth er is the wretched example Ronald Reagan set in 1981 by firing all the air traff ic controllers who had the temerity to strike in protest to working conditions o f appalling stress . Another is increasing global competition and the ease with which U.S. companies can transfer operations overseas . Whatever the reasons , t he results have not been very pretty . The decline of the unions and in the leve l of strike activity has moved in lock step with stagnation of blue collar wages , an explosion in individual wrongful dismissal litigation by workers with no u nions to defend them , sharp declines in the percentage of companies offering pe nsion and health care benefits , the overall redistribution of income to the ben efit of the wealthy , less job security and huge increases in part-time and temp orary jobs as a percentage of total employment . America with weakened unions is simply not a nicer place unless , of course , you are the CEO of a major corpor ation whose annual compensation has been rising obscenely over the last decade . Miraculously , this seems to have sunk in with a majority in Congress including more than a few members not normally to be found on the side of organized labor . Even among a number of conservative economists , especially those who applaud labor 's recent tendency toward greater cooperation with management on producti vity issues , there is an increasing sense that the nation has lost something es sential to social fairness something , well , American by tilting the industrial playing field too far to labor 's disadvantage . Besides , in an era where it i s increasingly fashionable to disparage those who don't work even when there are no jobs for them it is finally occurring even to some of the cement heads in Co ngress that it would be nice for a change to do something decent for those who d o . GAZA , Gaza Strip Hani Abed has disappeared , last seen in the hands of the Pal estinian police . Abed , a 31-year-old university teacher , may be the first sec ret arrest and perhaps first political arrest by the new Palestinian authority i n the Gaza Strip , who took over from Israel two weeks ago . `` If the police do things like this , for sure there will be a revolution , '' said his angry sist er , Atimad Abed . Abed is a man with the wrong kind of friends : for certain , opponents of the peace process , and maybe or maybe not murderers from the Musli m group Islamic Jihad . Because of that , the Palestinian police took him away l ast Tuesday . They have held him without charges , without explanation , and wit hout admitting they have him . Suddenly everybody wants him . Israelis have dema nded he be turned over to them and questioned about a May 20 attack that killed two soldiers . Islamic Jihad wants him freed . And his family wants to see him , just to find out where he is . `` This is a very dangerous crime , a stupid cri me , to kidnap our brother Hani Abed , '' said a leaflet published Friday by Isl amic Jihad , one of the most strident criticisms yet of the new Palestinian poli ce . It warned : `` We will not be silent . '' Abed 's surreptitious arrest he w as lured to police headquarters with a false story and his confinement without c harges may have far-reaching implications . It is an ominous signal for Palestin ians who had hoped they had seen the end of midnight arrests common under the Is raeli military occupation . The incoming police had promised to protect civil ri ghts . It may also signal the methods that will be used by the police , loyal to the Fatah branch of the Palestine Liberation Organization , to deal with opposi tion Palestinian groups . And it may determine how the new authorities will deal with Israeli demands that the police turn over Palestinian suspects in attacks on Israelis . The Palestinians so far have not made clear how they will answer t hat demand . Because of those implications , both Israel and the new Palestinian authority are remaining publicly mum about the case . Israel apparently is inte rested in Abed in relation to a drive-by shooting at a Gaza Strip checkpoint May 20 in which two Israeli soldiers were killed . The gunmen fled toward Gaza City , and Islamic Jihad later claimed responsibility for the attack . It is uncerta in what , if anything , Abed knows of the attack . Abed is a chemistry teacher a t the Science and Technology College in Gaza . Married , with four children , he works a second job in a press office in Gaza known to be affiliated with the Is lamic Jihad . According to his family , throughout the Israeli occupation he was never arrested for Islamic Jihad activities . Like most Palestinian groups , th e Islamic Jihad is divided into its armed `` military '' wing and its political wing . Abed 's contacts were with the political wing , his family claimed . Last week , men in plainclothes saying they were from the Palestinian police visited his home six times . They said a new Palestinian arrival who was a relative wan ted to meet Abed . When he went to inquire , he was taken into custody . ( Optio nal Add End ) When his family demanded to know his whereabouts , the chief of th e Palestinian Police , Maj. Gen. Nasser Yusef , told them it was a `` secret , ' ' according to his brothers , Awni Abed , 20 , and Amad Abed , 29 . Then they we re told their brother was being kept in confinement for his protection from Isra eli collaborators , they said . Finally , three days ago , the family stayed at the entrance to the Gaza Central Prison , causing a commotion and demanding to s ee Abed . The prison was notorious during the Israeli occupation for its confine ment of Palestinians and was `` liberated '' with great celebration by Palestini ans when the Israelis withdrew from Gaza May 18 . Abed 's mother , Najiba , said her son was escorted from the prison to see her for just a moment to assure her he was OK . She has not heard from him since that short Saturday visit , she sa id . `` If the Israelis arrested him for 20 years , I could accept it , '' said Amad Abed . `` But for the Palestinians to arrest him and put him in that jail i s crazy . '' WASHINGTON Not content with trying to broker peace between Israel and Syria and head off nuclear confrontation between India and Pakistan , the Clinton adminis tration is wading into another seemingly intractable conflict , the civil war in Sudan . Melissa F. Wells , President Clinton 's new special representative on S udan , is going to Africa this week for exploratory conversations with Sudanese rebels and the governments of several neighboring countries . No one thinks she can bring about a solution to a war that has raged on and off for nearly four de cades , State Department officials said last week , but with millions of Sudanes e on the brink of starvation and the conflict threatening to spill over into adj acent countries it has become necessary to try to do something . In many ways , Wells 's mission reflects perfectly the foreign policy strategy of the Clinton a dministration . On one level , Sudan is the very definition of a country where t he United States has few important interests . But it has a high priority in ter ms of the issues deemed important by the administration : humanitarian concerns ; the promotion of democracy and regional stability ; prevention of terrorism ; the conflict between extremist Islam and the secular state . Wells is one of sev eral special envoys the administration has dispatched to chronic points of confl ict , including Cyprus and Angola , in an effort to defuse regional tensions and promote human rights . `` The international community has never been able to de al with Sudan effectively , '' a State Department official said last week . Well 's mission `` brings American interest to bear on the problem , right up to the level of a presidential appointee . We believe we have the president 's attenti on on this . But it may not be soluble . '' Wells is a respected career diplomat who has spent much of her adult life in Africa , including tours as ambassador to Zaire and Mozambique . But it is hard to imagine that any of her previous ass ignments was tougher than the current one . Sudan , the largest country in Afric a , is an impoverished , thinly populated land ravaged by war , disease and drou ght . Its government a military dictatorship dominated by Islamic militants and allied with Iran has been branded a supporter of international terrorism by the State Department . Clinton 's national security adviser , Anthony Lake , recentl y added it to his list of `` reactionary backlash states . '' According to a May 24 report by the U.S. . Agency for International Development , about 392,000 of Sudan 's 28 million people are refugees in neighboring countries . A larger num ber are living in refugee camps within Sudan , dependent for food on internation al relief missions that are frequently disrupted by the war . Many people are ea ting wild roots and leaves , the AID report said . In the Bahr al Ghazal region , `` practically all the trees are picked clean , because the population has res orted to eating leaves and bark . '' The World Health Organization reported 102, 000 deaths from malaria in 1993 , but also said that AIDS is spreading so fast i n the southern part of the country that it will overtake malaria as a killer thi s year . The cause of most of this misery is a war that began in 1955 , went on until 1972 and resumed in 1983 . Generally described as pitting the Muslim , Ara b north against the non-Muslim , African south , it has recently grown more comp licated because factions among the southern rebels have been fighting each other . The south , which wants autonomy and refuses to abide by the Islamic law impo sed by the north , `` has been totally ravaged by the war , '' Sudanese scholar Francis M. Deng told a Washington Symposium sponsored by the United States Insti tute of Peace . `` There is no infrastructure worth the term , '' Deng said . `` A generation is growing up without education , and millions have been displaced in their own country or forced into refuge abroad . Cohesive cultures that have been studied and assumed to be stable and enduring are now being wiped out . '' On her first trip to East Africa as special envoy , Wells will sound out the pr ospects for reviving regional peace talks and for expediting the flow of relief aid , State Department officials said . No political solution , end to the war o r reconciliation between Washington and Khartoum is in sight , officials said . United Nations ambassador Madeline Albright went to Khartoum April 1 to tell Pre sident Omar Hassan Bashir that `` we were not going to welcome them into the int ernational community until they totally changed their behavior . '' But State De partment analysts were intrigued by a recent interview Sudanese foreign minister Hussein Suleiman Abu Saleh gave to the Christian Science Monitor . Abu Saleh wa s quoted as saying Sudan would welcome western `` technical know-how ` ` in draf ting a power-sharing plan for the government and the rebels . The shellacking unions took on NAFTA last year could soon be avenged by passage of the most important piece of pro-labor legislation since the Wagner Act of 19 35 . This is amazing since this is not 1935 , union membership has been declinin g for more than a decade , we have a centrist presidency disposed to ingratiate itself with the business community and the Congress is heavily infested with `` new '' Democrats , old Republicans and Reaganite new Neanderthals . What gives ? Well , the Anti-Striker Replacement Act has already achieved clear majorities i n both houses . And it will come to the floor of the Senate this summer with onl y the promise of a filibuster between it and final passage . It may take but a f ew compromises to win the 60 votes necessary to shut off the gaseous debate and get the measure signed . The usual suspects are bellowing ludicrous warnings tha t the bill is an invitation to American workers to stage an immediate re-enactme nt of Paris in the Terror enforced by an epidemic of strikes and the brutalizati on of their less militant comrades . Given the current condition of organized la bor and the global mobility of manufacturing , these are hardly realistic fears . There were only 35 major strikes in all the United States last year . There ha ven't been more than 100 strikes in any year since 1981 . In 1979 there were 235 strikes . In 1974 , 424 . One reason is the decline in union membership . Anoth er is the wretched example Ronald Reagan set in 1981 by firing all the air traff ic controllers who had the temerity to strike in protest to working conditions o f appalling stress . Another is increasing global competition and the ease with which U.S. companies can transfer operations overseas . Whatever the reasons , t he results have not been very pretty . The decline of the unions and in the leve l of strike activity has moved in lock step with stagnation of blue collar wages , an explosion in individual wrongful dismissal litigation by workers with no u nions to defend them , sharp declines in the percentage of companies offering pe nsion and health care benefits , the overall redistribution of income to the ben efit of the wealthy , less job security and huge increases in part-time and temp orary jobs as a percentage of total employment . America with weakened unions is simply not a nicer place unless , of course , you are the CEO of a major corpor ation whose annual compensation has been rising obscenely over the last decade . Miraculously , this seems to have sunk in with a majority in Congress including more than a few members not normally to be found on the side of organized labor . Even among a number of conservative economists , especially those who applaud labor 's recent tendency toward greater cooperation with management on producti vity issues , there is an increasing sense that the nation has lost something es sential to social fairness something , well , American by tilting the industrial playing field too far to labor 's disadvantage . Besides , in an era where it i s increasingly fashionable to disparage those who don't work even when there are no jobs for them it is finally occurring even to some of the cement heads in Co ngress that it would be nice for a change to do something decent for those who d o . ( c ) 1994 , Newsday World Cup sponsors are gambling $ 500 million on advertisi ng rights despite Americans ' past indifference to the world 's most popular spo rt . Coca-Cola , Canon , McDonald 's and Snickers candy bars are among the 19 bu sinesses spending as much as $ 20 million each for sponsorship rights to the soc cer championships , which start next month . This is the first time the World Cu p will be played on American soil . Time Warner , meanwhile , should make at lea st $ 35 million , according to one analyst , from the licensing and merchandisin g rights to sales of World Cup apparel and merchandise , which are expected to t op $ 1 billion . More than 100 American companies have agreements with Time Warn er to produce World Cup merchandise . The jury is out over whether all this mone y is well spent . `` These companies are more like pioneers than sponsors , '' s aid Brandon Steiner of Steiner Sports Marketing , a Manhattan-based consulting f irm . `` One day soccer will be big in this country , but not this year . You go out on the street and you stop 25 people , and I guarantee 20 of them couldn't name a single sponsor . That 's where the World Cup is today . '' But do sponsor s really have to win the hearts and minds of Americans to succeed ? Probably not . Most have a larger , worldwide audience in mind . `` The attention of the spo rting world will be focused on the World Cup , '' said Robert Baskin , public re lations director for Coca-Cola . `` The games are sold out . You can't book flig hts into the U.S. during the finals . The World Cup is bigger than the Olympics , especially the final games . The scale of this is going to be a real eye-opene r for Americans . '' In this country , `` it 's a niche play , '' said Walter St aab , chairman of SFM Media Corp. , media buyers based in Manhattan . `` There a re certain segments of the population who love soccer and they could be very muc h involved in the World Cup if it was marketed correctly . '' `` There 's an imm ense Hispanic audience that is slowly being tapped into , '' says Bryan Murphy , publisher of the Westport , Conn.-based Sports Marketing Newsletter . `` The sp onsors will probably be very happy if they keep in mind who 's going to watch . The World Cup is not going to draw everybody like the Super Bowl , but it 'll dr aw a lot . '' ( Begin optional trim ) The tournament will last from June 17 to J uly 17 , with games played at nine sites nationwide . An estimated 1 million peo ple nationwide are expected to attend the games and spend $ 4 billion on hotels , restaurants , shopping and other activities . For sponsors , the games pose un usual challenges . Because soccer doesn't have time-outs and game breaks like fo otball or baseball , World Cup TV broadcasters ABC and ESPN will show the games without commercial interruptions . As part of an agreement between the broadcast ers , World Cup '94 and FIFA , the international soccer federation , commercials will only be shown during the pre- and post-game shows and at halftime . Names of the major sponsors will be displayed in 9-minute intervals on top of a game c lock in the lower right hand corner of the screen . But that doesn't mean there 's any shortage of soccer-related commercials and promotional tie-ins : Soccer b alls are flying in new TV spots by Coke and Adidas ( starring U.S. goalkeeper To ny Meola ) , among others , and in a contest by Gillette and a soccer gear givea way by Energizer batteries . McDonald 's is hosting a `` McSoccerfest '' tournam ent in the nine host cities . Wheaties boxes will offer trading cards with Reebo k 's soccer endorsers . General Motors will be the exclusive advertiser in a spe cial World Cup edition of Newsweek . On July 16 , the eve of the final match in Pasadena , Calif. , Coca-Cola will run two hours of entertainment and commentary from the World Cup games on TNT . Called `` Big TV , '' the telecast is similar to one it made in conjunction with the Super Bowl . ( End optional trim ) The i nternational and U.S. groups organizing the World Cup have designated levels of sponsorship , including `` official sponsors , '' who pay $ 17 million to $ 20 m illion for advertising rights , including billboard space on the playing fields in full view of TV cameras during the 52 games ; `` marketing partners , '' who pay up to $ 10 million for ads on one side of the World Cup playing fields , and a variety of less expensive regional sponsorships . All together , the companie s are spending nearly $ 500 million . In addition , each TV `` gold '' sponsor i s rumored to have paid ABC nearly $ 3.5 million for game exposure throughout the 52 matches and for an undetermined number of 30-second spots during halftime an d the pre- and post-game shows . Lesser `` silver '' sponsors paid an estimated $ 2 million to $ 2.5 million for a similar package that does not include game ex posure . The World Cup 's final game is expected to grab as many as 2 billion vi ewers worldwide , compared with 750 million for the 1993 Super Bowl . A `` gold ' advertising package costing $ 3.5 million includes three 30-second TV spots pe r game over 52 games . That comes out to approximately $ 22,000 per spot . By co mparison , a 30-second spot during last year 's Super Bowl cost $ 900,000 . WASHINGTON President Clinton departs this week on the first of two back-to-back European trips in hopes of reversing his growing reputation as a weak or indiff erent world leader . The events this week revolve around the 50th anniversary of D-Day , providing Clinton a rare opportunity to speak to the entire world . He was not yet born when men from the Allied armies waded ashore in Normandy . Nor did he serve in the armed forces a generation later , when Americans fought in V ietnam . But as the U.S. commander-in-chief and president of the only remaining superpower , Clinton will occupy a place of honor among the bands , speechmakers and aged soldiers who will revisit the site of their sacrifice . White House of ficials expect the televised ceremonies to bolster the president 's sagging appr oval ratings . But Clinton has a second mission on his weeklong European trip : to reassure jittery foreign leaders that he cares enough about international pol icy to take the risks needed to conduct it successfully . Clinton is to meet lea ders in France , Italy and Britain . In July , he plans to attend an economic su mmit in Naples , Italy , and then travel to Germany and Poland . A topic sure to arise , U.S. officials say , is one that has probably done the most to undermin e confidence in the Clinton administration 's foreign policy : the ethnic war in Bosnia . `` My government thinks President Clinton is indecisive when it comes to Bosnia , '' said one Western European diplomat stationed in Washington who sp oke on condition of anonymity . `` Personally , I think it 's because he is preo ccupied with his domestic policy . That 's what he was elected for and , clearly , he 's already thinking about re-election . '' In 1992 , running against an in cumbent widely respected for his conduct of foreign policy , particularly of the Persian Gulf war , Clinton and other Democratic challengers needled George Bush for focusing too much on problems abroad . Clinton said that he would focus `` like a laser '' on the issues relating to everyday American life , particularly the economy . Since inauguration , however , two realities have sunk in on the C linton team . One is that foreign policy crises cannot be wished away . The seco nd is that many of the Bush administration positions , including those singled o ut by Clinton during the campaign , were easier to criticize than to correct . C linton rebuked Bush for returning refugees to Haiti . He spoke passionately in f avor of the United States ' being more aggressive in stopping the Serbs ' campai gn of `` ethnic cleansing '' in Bosnia . He criticized Bush for overlooking Chin a 's labor camps and other human rights abuses . Yet as president , Clinton sent his Justice Department into court to uphold the Bush policy on Haitian refugees . He issued threats against the Serbs in Bosnia , but little more and the `` et hnic cleansing '' continued . On Thursday , he extended the favorable trade stat us of China , reciting a litany of reasons identical to Bush 's rationale . Thos e actions have not gone unnoticed in foreign capitals . North Korean leaders hav e shown little fear of U.S. retaliation in taking the United States to the diplo matic brink over their nuclear weapons development program . In nations friendli er to the United States , such actions further the perception that the United St ates isn't up to the task of coping with Bosnia , the area for which there has p erhaps been the widest gap between U.S. words and U.S. deeds during the Clinton administration . On May 1 , 1993 , Secretary of State Warren M. Christopher vowe d that `` the clock is ticking '' on Serbian aggression . He then left for Europ e , where he failed to rally the United States ' allies . One reason , foreign d iplomats say , was that Christopher signaled that the Clinton administration wou ld not act unilaterally . `` He says he wants to play a role in making peace in Bosnia , but there are no American ground forces there , '' said a Northern Euro pean diplomat . `` There are Swedish troops in the peacekeeping force . There ar e Danish troops , Spanish troops French troops , for God 's sake ! Yet the only Americans are in Macedonia , where there is no conflict .... '' Such diplomats b elieve the White House is paralyzed by a fear that an unpopular foreign military adventure could jeopardize Clinton 's chances for re-election . ( Optional Add End ) Last week , in its annual assessment of global affairs , the respected Int ernational Institute for Strategic Studies termed the Clinton administration 's foreign policy `` a mess '' but noted that other Western powers have not done mu ch better . `` It was a year in which the powers in the West , and indeed a numb er of states elsewhere , seemed to be suffering from a serious attack of strateg ic arthritis , '' said the independent think tank . `` One major problem is the reluctance of global and regional great powers to provide the necessary lead . T he United States , even more than usual , does not seem to be following a steady compass . '' Similar criticism has been voiced at home , too , by politicians a nd foreign policy experts who span the ideological spectrum . `` He doesn't have the slightest idea of what this country should be doing in the post-Cold War er a , and neither does his staff , '' said Kim R. Holmes , vice president of the c onservative Heritage Foundation . `` The president wants to avoid any kind of en tanglement that can get him into trouble , but he can't avoid the temptation to speak out . So he says things on Bosnia , Haiti , Somalia things he 's not willi ng to back up and he gets in trouble . '' Of course , for every country complain ing that Clinton is not putting the vast military might of the United States to good use , there are those that would object to his exertion of U.S. influence . When the president so much as protested the brutal caning of an 18-year-old Ame rican who had been charged with vandalism in Singapore , he was widely criticize d in Asia for promoting Ugly Americanism . Likewise , the Clinton administration 's pressure on Japan to open its markets provoked outrage in Tokyo . `` You 're damned if you do and damned if you don't , '' said David Wilhelm , the national Democratic chairman . COLLEVILLE SUR MER , France Others may not agree , but Raymond `` Buzz '' Davis knows the best place to catch the international ceremonies in France next Monda y marking the 50th anniversary of D-day . `` I 'm going to be home in my easy ch air watching TV and sipping a martini when all this is taking place , '' says th e 70-year-old Pasadena , Calif. , man as he puffs on his pipe at the Normandy Am erican cemetery and memorial above Omaha Beach . Around him swirl parades of gig gling French schoolchildren , groups of military support personnel and a stream of foreign and U.S. visitors to the site that holds the remains of 9,386 America ns . Most gave their lives on D-day , June 6 , 1944 , when history 's greatest s eaborne invasion took place . The 175,000 troops who did make it to shore that d ay were the first members of an Allied juggernaut that rolled into Europe and pu t an end to Adolf Hitler 's plans for a Thousand-Year Reich . But Davis , a B-26 bomber pilot who flew his first mission that day over Cherbourg , and other vet erans of Normandy battles on the invasion beaches of Utah , Omaha , Sword , Juno and Gold would rather be out of the action this time . Frank Reitter of Framing ham , Mass. , another Normandy vet who decided to make his pilgrimage now , agre es with Davis . `` I figured I better come early because this is going to be a t hree-ring circus later , '' he says . `` They told me they could get me the appr opriate badges to get in on the anniversary date , but I said I don't want them . I willn't be here . '' Veteran groups , in fact , have been coming and going f or pre-anniversary gatherings over the past few months to avoid the coming crush , says Millie Waters , a U.S. . Army public affairs specialist at the cemetery . Plenty of other former invasion participants will be battling for position amo ng the dignitaries slated to show . The lily-pad pond at the cemetery has been d rained and its resident frogs removed to seat 6,100 veterans , Waters says . But 30,000 veterans are expected to descend upon Europe and no one knows exactly ho w many will appear in Normandy . Certainly there is plenty for the early birds t o do . Considering the welcoming festivities being held throughout Europe for th e returning GIs , Brits and Canadians , it is probably safe to say that never ha ve so few been entertained by so many . Six hundred events are being held in Nor mandy alone , the rural region that was the first area to be liberated in France . Once more fleets of ships are to fill the English Channel and airplanes dot t he sky . Fourteen U.S. . Naval vessels will be anchored off the French beaches o n Monday . The day before , an international flotilla with several of the Navy s hips will escort England 's royal yacht with passengers President Clinton and Qu een Elizabeth II from Portsmouth , England , across to the Normandy coast . Flyi ng overhead will be an international collection of military aircraft . On shore 15 heads of state , including Clinton , the queen , and French President Francoi s Mitterrand , will congregate next Monday for a French-sponsored observance on Utah Beach . Clinton 's busy official schedule also includes sunrise services ab oard the aircraft carrier George Washington ; a visit to Pointe du Hoc , the bea ch cliffs scaled by the U.S. Rangers , and an afternoon ceremony at the American cemetery . Two of what promise to be the most popular events involve re-enactme nts of a couple of casualty filled D-day actions . On Sunday , 600 members of th e 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions , along with an Italian combat infantry team , will jump over Amfreville , simulating the leap by wind-scattered paratrooper s during the invasion . But most eyes will be on a jump earlier that day by a gr oup of geriatric gladiators . The three dozen Americans range in age from 68 to 84 and are original unit members who leaped into that bottomless night . On Sund ay and Monday , members of the 75th Ranger Regiment will give a demonstration of the rope climb up Pointe du Hoc , a 100-foot precipice climbed by the Second Ra nger Battalion under German fire in 1944 to destroy artillery trained on the inv asion beaches below . ( Optional add end ) All of which means major transportati on problems for the quiet Norman countryside . Except for official vehicles all traffic will be blocked from the beaches on the anniversary day . Even the early visitors are causing problems at places such as the American cemetery . On one recent weekend , 13,000 cars showed up , packing the small parking lot and spill ing onto the side roads , says Phil Rivers , cemetery director . `` It was the w orst traffic jam we ever had . '' Veterans groups in the United States warned me mbers via newsletters of potential problems , adding that even those who made it to some of the ceremonies could be relegated to back-of-the-crowd status . The U.S. military , sensitive to this criticism , has said that all veterans will be designated VIPs and receive preferential seating . Dignitaries ordinarily given that label are to be called ODVs , or Other Distinguished Visitors . VIP status or not , Davis is completing his tour and heading home . `` You wipe it out of your mind , '' the former pilot said of the cost of the war . `` There are those who dwell on it , but not me . '' Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washingt on Post News Service . ( c ) 1994 , Newsday World Cup sponsors are gambling $ 500 million on advertisi ng rights despite Americans ' past indifference to the world 's most popular spo rt . Coca-Cola , Canon , McDonald 's and Snickers candy bars are among the 19 bu sinesses spending as much as $ 20 million each for sponsorship rights to the soc cer championships , which start next month . This is the first time the World Cu p will be played on American soil . Time Warner , meanwhile , should make at lea st $ 35 million , according to one analyst , from the licensing and merchandisin g rights to sales of World Cup apparel and merchandise , which are expected to t op $ 1 billion . More than 100 American companies have agreements with Time Warn er to produce World Cup merchandise . The jury is out over whether all this mone y is well spent . `` These companies are more like pioneers than sponsors , '' s aid Brandon Steiner of Steiner Sports Marketing , a Manhattan-based consulting f irm . `` One day soccer will be big in this country , but not this year . You go out on the street and you stop 25 people , and I guarantee 20 of them couldn't name a single sponsor . That 's where the World Cup is today . '' But do sponsor s really have to win the hearts and minds of Americans to succeed ? Probably not . Most have a larger , worldwide audience in mind . `` The attention of the spo rting world will be focused on the World Cup , '' said Robert Baskin , public re lations director for Coca-Cola . `` The games are sold out . You can't book flig hts into the U.S. during the finals . The World Cup is bigger than the Olympics , especially the final games . The scale of this is going to be a real eye-opene r for Americans . '' In this country , `` it 's a niche play , '' said Walter St aab , chairman of SFM Media Corp. , media buyers based in Manhattan . `` There a re certain segments of the population who love soccer and they could be very muc h involved in the World Cup if it was marketed correctly . '' `` There 's an imm ense Hispanic audience that is slowly being tapped into , '' says Bryan Murphy , publisher of the Westport , Conn.-based Sports Marketing Newsletter . `` The sp onsors will probably be very happy if they keep in mind who 's going to watch . The World Cup is not going to draw everybody like the Super Bowl , but it 'll dr aw a lot . '' ( Begin optional trim ) The tournament will last from June 17 to J uly 17 , with games played at nine sites nationwide . An estimated 1 million peo ple nationwide are expected to attend the games and spend $ 4 billion on hotels , restaurants , shopping and other activities . For sponsors , the games pose un usual challenges . Because soccer doesn't have time-outs and game breaks like fo otball or baseball , World Cup TV broadcasters ABC and ESPN will show the games without commercial interruptions . As part of an agreement between the broadcast ers , World Cup '94 and FIFA , the international soccer federation , commercials will only be shown during the pre- and post-game shows and at halftime . Names of the major sponsors will be displayed in 9-minute intervals on top of a game c lock in the lower right hand corner of the screen . But that doesn't mean there 's any shortage of soccer-related commercials and promotional tie-ins : Soccer b alls are flying in new TV spots by Coke and Adidas ( starring U.S. goalkeeper To ny Meola ) , among others , and in a contest by Gillette and a soccer gear givea way by Energizer batteries . McDonald 's is hosting a `` McSoccerfest '' tournam ent in the nine host cities . Wheaties boxes will offer trading cards with Reebo k 's soccer endorsers . General Motors will be the exclusive advertiser in a spe cial World Cup edition of Newsweek . On July 16 , the eve of the final match in Pasadena , Calif. , Coca-Cola will run two hours of entertainment and commentary from the World Cup games on TNT . Called `` Big TV , '' the telecast is similar to one it made in conjunction with the Super Bowl . ( End optional trim ) The i nternational and U.S. groups organizing the World Cup have designated levels of sponsorship , including `` official sponsors , '' who pay $ 17 million to $ 20 m illion for advertising rights , including billboard space on the playing fields in full view of TV cameras during the 52 games ; `` marketing partners , '' who pay up to $ 10 million for ads on one side of the World Cup playing fields , and a variety of less expensive regional sponsorships . All together , the companie s are spending nearly $ 500 million . In addition , each TV `` gold '' sponsor i s rumored to have paid ABC nearly $ 3.5 million for game exposure throughout the 52 matches and for an undetermined number of 30-second spots during halftime an d the pre- and post-game shows . Lesser `` silver '' sponsors paid an estimated $ 2 million to $ 2.5 million for a similar package that does not include game ex posure . The World Cup 's final game is expected to grab as many as 2 billion vi ewers worldwide , compared with 750 million for the 1993 Super Bowl . A `` gold ' advertising package costing $ 3.5 million includes three 30-second TV spots pe r game over 52 games . That comes out to approximately $ 22,000 per spot . By co mparison , a 30-second spot during last year 's Super Bowl cost $ 900,000 . `` The husband works two jobs ; the wife works two jobs ; the kid works at McDo nald 's ; and the dog stays home and watches TV . '' That vision of families sur viving on low-paying , part-time jobs was delivered by Ted Bloom , business agen t for New York Teamsters Local 810 , during a recent demonstration at the Statue of Liberty . The 250 Teamsters , protesting trucking companies ' demands to emp loy part-timers at cut-rate wages and benefits , laughed at Bloom 's black humor . But it delivered a chilling point . The number of `` involuntary '' part-time employees those who want full-time jobs but can't get them has almost tripled s ince 1970 , growing to 6.3 million people last year , according to the U.S. Bure au of Labor Statistics . Almost one out of every five employees more than 21 mil lion have part-time jobs , including 2.7 million who work at two or more part-ti me jobs . Part-time workers are usually paid about 60 percent of the hourly scal e of full-timers and often don't get any fringe benefits . As more employers rep lace full-time workers with part-timers , the trend is emerging as a hotly conte sted issue in union negotiations . The recent national trucking strike revealed the deep-seated fear felt by union members over the threat of employers hiring t housands of part-timers . The trucking companies wanted the right to hire part-t imers who would be paid about half the current union scale to work in freight te rminals . The workers ' opposition to part-timers is generally credited with bei ng the element that kept the Teamsters strike solid in the 24-day-long trucking walkout . Analysts noted that the Teamsters were the first major union to confro nt the subject of part-timers on the picket line . Management negotiators eventu ally conceded they didn't realize how sensitive the issue is to workers until th ey blundered into it . They withdrew their demand to use part-timers . `` We won on the key issue by not letting them change good full-time jobs to low-wage , p art-time jobs , '' said Teamsters president Ronald Carey . `` We stood up for th e American Dream . We drew the line , not just for Teamsters members , but for a ll American workers . '' Eileen Appelbaum , associate director of research at th e labor-oriented Economic Policy Institute in Washington , said , `` This is the first recovery where involuntary part-time ( jobs ) rose through the recovery , up until July of 1993 , and total part-time is still growing . '' Applebaum ass erted that if the Teamsters lost on the part-time issue , `` it would be a clear signal to employers that they could even more rapidly substitute part-time for full-time employment . '' Yet Michael Gordon , a Washington-based lawyer who is an authority on pensions , cautions that society can't mandate full-time jobs . `` The business community has made the decision , due to automation , due to com puters , that they can get along without all sorts of full-time workers , and th at is the way to be profitable and competititive , '' Gordon said . He noted tha t the shift to part-time work is a worldwide phenomenon . The International Labo r Organization estimates there are 60 million part-timers one out of every seven workers in the industrialized nations . Still , the conflict over the use of pa rt-timers is likely to continue at the bargaining table . Analysts agree that un der certain circumstances , part-time jobs can be attractive , particularly for college students and those supplementing a pension or a comfortable family incom e . `` You take one job at a restaurant offering 20 hours a week . For one perso n , who has someone at home ( with another salary ) , filling that job is volunt ary , '' said Tom Nardone , a Bureau of Labor Statistics economist . `` The same job filled by somebody living on their own is involuntary . '' ( Optional Add E nd ) The Teamsters ' largest employer , United Parcel Service , already employs one of the largest blocks of part-timers in the nation . Slightly more than half of UPS ' 165,000 Teamsters employees are part-timers who start at $ 8 an hour l ess than half the scale , including benefits , of a full-time worker . UPS first negotiated part-timers into the Teamsters contract 32 years ago , but up until 1982 paid them wages comparable to those of full-timers . In 1982 , the starting wage for UPS part-timers was set at $ 8 and hasn't been increased since . The c ompany says that 85 to 90 percent of the part-timers are college students , most of whom work from 10 p.m. until 2 a.m. . Barry Glassner , author of `` Career C rash : The New Crisis and Who Survives , '' a book that examines the impact of c orporate downsizing , said that companies enjoy an immediate bottom-line benefit by moving to part-time workers , but at a serious cost to the long-term health of the U.S. economy and society . `` We want stronger families , but if you have the family members never together because everybody is holding part-time jobs o n different shifts to make ends meet , you are not going to have a strong family , '' said Glassner , chairman of the sociology department at the University of Southern California . `` While the companies are saving money , in the long run they may not be . They are losing experienced , trained workers , the most compe tent work force , and over the long haul that loss is going to be costly . '' ( c ) 1994 , Newsday World Cup sponsors are gambling $ 500 million on advertisi ng rights despite Americans ' past indifference to the world 's most popular spo rt . Coca-Cola , Canon , McDonald 's and Snickers candy bars are among the 19 bu sinesses spending as much as $ 20 million each for sponsorship rights to the soc cer championships , which start next month . This is the first time the World Cu p will be played on American soil . Time Warner , meanwhile , should make at lea st $ 35 million , according to one analyst , from the licensing and merchandisin g rights to sales of World Cup apparel and merchandise , which are expected to t op $ 1 billion . More than 100 American companies have agreements with Time Warn er to produce World Cup merchandise . The jury is out over whether all this mone y is well spent . `` These companies are more like pioneers than sponsors , '' s aid Brandon Steiner of Steiner Sports Marketing , a Manhattan-based consulting f irm . `` One day soccer will be big in this country , but not this year . You go out on the street and you stop 25 people , and I guarantee 20 of them couldn't name a single sponsor . That 's where the World Cup is today . '' But do sponsor s really have to win the hearts and minds of Americans to succeed ? Probably not . Most have a larger , worldwide audience in mind . `` The attention of the spo rting world will be focused on the World Cup , '' said Robert Baskin , public re lations director for Coca-Cola . `` The games are sold out . You can't book flig hts into the U.S. during the finals . The World Cup is bigger than the Olympics , especially the final games . The scale of this is going to be a real eye-opene r for Americans . '' In this country , `` it 's a niche play , '' said Walter St aab , chairman of SFM Media Corp. , media buyers based in Manhattan . `` There a re certain segments of the population who love soccer and they could be very muc h involved in the World Cup if it was marketed correctly . '' `` There 's an imm ense Hispanic audience that is slowly being tapped into , '' says Bryan Murphy , publisher of the Westport , Conn.-based Sports Marketing Newsletter . `` The sp onsors will probably be very happy if they keep in mind who 's going to watch . The World Cup is not going to draw everybody like the Super Bowl , but it 'll dr aw a lot . '' ( Begin optional trim ) The tournament will last from June 17 to J uly 17 , with games played at nine sites nationwide . An estimated 1 million peo ple nationwide are expected to attend the games and spend $ 4 billion on hotels , restaurants , shopping and other activities . For sponsors , the games pose un usual challenges . Because soccer doesn't have time-outs and game breaks like fo otball or baseball , World Cup TV broadcasters ABC and ESPN will show the games without commercial interruptions . As part of an agreement between the broadcast ers , World Cup '94 and FIFA , the international soccer federation , commercials will only be shown during the pre- and post-game shows and at halftime . Names of the major sponsors will be displayed in 9-minute intervals on top of a game c lock in the lower right hand corner of the screen . But that doesn't mean there 's any shortage of soccer-related commercials and promotional tie-ins : Soccer b alls are flying in new TV spots by Coke and Adidas ( starring U.S. goalkeeper To ny Meola ) , among others , and in a contest by Gillette and a soccer gear givea way by Energizer batteries . McDonald 's is hosting a `` McSoccerfest '' tournam ent in the nine host cities . Wheaties boxes will offer trading cards with Reebo k 's soccer endorsers . General Motors will be the exclusive advertiser in a spe cial World Cup edition of Newsweek . On July 16 , the eve of the final match in Pasadena , Calif. , Coca-Cola will run two hours of entertainment and commentary from the World Cup games on TNT . Called `` Big TV , '' the telecast is similar to one it made in conjunction with the Super Bowl . ( End optional trim ) The i nternational and U.S. groups organizing the World Cup have designated levels of sponsorship , including `` official sponsors , '' who pay $ 17 million to $ 20 m illion for advertising rights , including billboard space on the playing fields in full view of TV cameras during the 52 games ; `` marketing partners , '' who pay up to $ 10 million for ads on one side of the World Cup playing fields , and a variety of less expensive regional sponsorships . All together , the companie s are spending nearly $ 500 million . In addition , each TV `` gold '' sponsor i s rumored to have paid ABC nearly $ 3.5 million for game exposure throughout the 52 matches and for an undetermined number of 30-second spots during halftime an d the pre- and post-game shows . Lesser `` silver '' sponsors paid an estimated $ 2 million to $ 2.5 million for a similar package that does not include game ex posure . The World Cup 's final game is expected to grab as many as 2 billion vi ewers worldwide , compared with 750 million for the 1993 Super Bowl . A `` gold ' advertising package costing $ 3.5 million includes three 30-second TV spots pe r game over 52 games . That comes out to approximately $ 22,000 per spot . By co mparison , a 30-second spot during last year 's Super Bowl cost $ 900,000 . WASHINGTON Judge Stephen G. Breyer 's steady march toward the nation 's highest court began in San Francisco , where Irving Breyer and his wife , Anne , raised Stephen and his younger brother , Chuck , who is also now a lawyer , in a modes t , two-story home in an upper-middle-class neighborhood in the shadow of the Un iversity of San Francisco . Their street was bordered on one side by the univers ity and the other by a private college for women , symbolic , perhaps , of the p lace that education took in the family 's list of priorities . Education came ea sily to the young Breyer . In addition to his classes , he insisted that his par ents , who were Jewish but religiously unobservant , send him to religious schoo l on Sundays , Chuck Breyer recalled . As a college student , he later taught re ligious school at a local synagogue . But Anne Breyer pushed constantly for him to be `` well rounded , '' his brother recalled , chiding that if he did not put his books down and go outside he would end up like her brother , Leo , a curmud geonly man who taught for a brief time at Radcliffe College and then retired to a book-lined study for a life of reading and avoiding others . Mrs. Breyer insis ted that her son take part in sports , although he was not particularly good at them , and attend camp , although once there his tender feet quickly won him the nickname Blister King . Nonetheless , in a pattern that would become typical of his life , Breyer persevered and excelled , becoming an Eagle Scout at the age of 12 . `` He wasn't very popular but he was well known as the troop brain , '' recalled his Scoutmaster , Bob Anino . The Breyer boys attended the city 's pres tigious Lowell High School , the elite academy of the San Francisco public schoo l system . There , Steve Breyer took an active part in the school debate team , competing against the likes of future Gov. Edmund G. `` Jerry '' Brown Jr. , who attended rival St. Ignatius Loyola High School . In 1955 , Breyer graduated wit h only one B marring an otherwise straight-A record . He was voted `` most likel y to succeed . '' `` He was one of the brightest kids in my 30 years at Lowell , '' said Paul Lucey , his economics and social science teacher . Breyer wanted t o go on to Harvard but bowed to the wishes of his parents , who feared , again , that he would become too bookish , and attended Stanford instead . After gradua ting , he won a Marshall Scholarship to attend Oxford , where he became fascinat ed with economics , then went on to study law at Harvard , where he became an ed itor of the law review and quickly developed a reputation as one of the school ' s bright lights . In the spring of 1964 , Breyer received word that the now late Justice Arthur M. Goldberg had selected him as a clerk for the high court term beginning in October . Historians recall the 1964- '65 term primarily because of one decision , Griswold vs. Connecticut , in which the court for the first time recognized a constitutional right to privacy in sexual matters . The court held that states could not forbid married couples from buying or using contraceptive s , a ruling that laid the grounds for the Roe v. Wade decision a decade later t hat guaranteed women the right to abortions . Breyer , according to fellow clerk s , helped Goldberg draft his opinion . But the opinion 's central idea that a r ight to privacy could be grounded in the Ninth Amendment , which reserves to the people rights not `` enumerated '' elsewhere in the Bill of Rights , was one th at Goldberg had toyed with earlier and , therefore , provides little evidence of Breyer 's own views . Over the next several years , Breyer worked in the Justic e Department 's antitrust division . He also met the woman who in 1967 became hi s wife . She is the former Joanna Hare , an Englishwoman who then was working as an assistant in the Washington office of London 's Sunday Times . Joanna Breyer , a psychologist at Boston 's Dana Farber Clinic , was the daughter of Lord Joh n Blakenham , a prominent British political figure who was a leader of Britain ' s Conservative Party . The marriage contributed heavily to Breyer 's current wea lth . According to his financial disclosure forms , which report assets in broad categories , the couple has at least $ 3.2 million and perhaps as much as $ 6.7 million . From Washington , Breyer returned to Harvard to teach regulatory law but he continued to visit the capital , working for several months in 1973 on th e Watergate prosecutions , joining two other Harvard colleagues as aides to Arch ibald Cox . In 1974 , he accepted Sen. Edward M. Kennedy 's offer to head the st aff of the Judiciary Committee 's subcommittee on administrative law . In 1979 , he returned to Washington again , this time as the Judiciary Committee 's chief counsel . ( Optional add end ) That background , plus his years on the bench , made Breyer an immediate candidate for the `` short list '' of high court nomine es when Clinton returned the White House to Democratic hands . Indeed , when he arrived in Washington last year for a luncheon interview with Clinton , in pain from a bicycle accident in which he had broken a rib , White House officials and Breyer 's friends believed that the Supreme Court job that was then open would be his . That afternoon , as he stretched out on the floor of White House counse l Bernard Nussbaum 's office to rest , officials told him to delay his return to Cambridge , Mass. , and begin preparing an acceptance speech . But , as Clinton pondered his choice , Breyer 's lack of an engaging life story a factor that ha s always had strong appeal to the president did him in . Clinton opted instead f or Ruth Bader Ginsburg , a pioneer in women 's rights whose biography offered mo re excitement . Breyer , disappointed , returned to Cambridge but characteristic ally avoided any negative comment about Clinton 's selection and conspicuously a ttended Ginsburg 's swearing-in ceremony . One year later , with the White House already finding that it had more excitement than it can handle , a nominee with a conventional background and broad support in the Senate seems newly appealing . Breyer 's time had come . WASHINGTON When friends and colleagues of Judge Stephen G. Breyer search for an ecdotes about him , what they recall is his career advice . Kathleen Sullivan , now a law professor at Stanford University , was starting as a member of the Har vard Law School faculty when she met Breyer . At a faculty reception , Breyer ur ged her to get involved in `` something like the federal sentencing commission s omething practical . '' `` We need intellectuals to get involved in projects tha t have an impact on people 's lives , '' Sullivan recalls Breyer telling her . T o Akhil Amar , who worked as a law clerk in Breyer 's judicial chambers and now teaches at Yale Law School , the judge offered a more direct suggestion : After listening to his young clerk 's plans for a series of law review articles , Brey er counseled him that to really have an impact , he should write a book . And he should not wait too long , Breyer added . `` I really wanted to have a book bef ore I was 40 , '' Amar recalls him saying . The advice , as Breyer told those he counseled , was autobiographical reflecting twin elements of his life that expl ain why Breyer now stands on the edge of an all-but-certain confirmation to the nation 's highest court : a strong desire to use his formidable legal talents to make a practical impact beyond Ivory Tower theorizing , coupled with a keen app reciation of the quickest , surest routes toward his own advancement . `` Every move he has made has paid off , '' said his friend Alan Dershowitz , a Harvard L aw School professor and noted criminal defense lawyer . `` Steve just never make s a mistake . '' But while Breyer 's path has been so smooth and steady as to ap pear almost effortless , it has provided few clues to answer the ultimate questi on : if he is to become a leader of the Supreme Court , as President Clinton hop es , where would Breyer take it ? Breyer has become well-regarded as an expert o n federal regulatory law , about which he has written influential articles and b ooks . But by contrast with several past Republican nominees , who had staked ou t clear ideological positions before being chosen , Breyer has made almost no pu blic comment on constitutional law or on such controversial topics as abortion o r privacy rights or affirmative action . `` Steve is a lot like President Clinto n in many ways . He 's a pragmatist , a centrist with an enormous array of frien ds , '' said Dershowitz . In pursuit of his goals , Breyer has traveled a route from Stanford to Oxford to Harvard to a Supreme Court clerkship , back to Harvar d , to the staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee and then to the federal appea ls court bench mixing academic work with immersion in practical politics . `` St eve has the same philosophy his father had , '' said his aunt , Shirley Black , whose brother , Irving Breyer , was a prominent attorney and public servant in S an Francisco , counsel for nearly 40 years to the city school board . `` It 's d oing the most good for people . If you want to help people , you should try to g ain power . '' Along the way , he has impressed and charmed scores of people sca ttered through the upper reaches of American law and politics , from the late Ju stice Arthur M. Goldberg , who used to tell friends he hoped to see his former c lerk one day don a justice 's robes ; to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy , for whom he wo rked in 1974- '75 and again in 1979- '80 as a top Judiciary Committee aide and w ho then secured an appeals court judgeship for him in the Carter administration 's closing days ; to such conservatives as Sens. Orrin G. Hatch , R-Utah , and S trom Thurmond , R-S.C. , whose support for him has virtually guaranteed a smooth confirmation . What he has not done , conceded another longtime friend , Peter Edelman , is live a life that makes `` good copy . '' Breyer 's biography includ es no epic struggle , none of the up-from-obscurity morality tale that so deligh ts ( and sometimes deludes ) American audiences . At home in Cambridge , Mass. , in a comfortable house not far from the Harvard campus , Breyer lives the life of a conventional and successful member of the American intellectual and policy elite enjoying fine food , wine and conversation , rooting for his hometown base ball and basketball teams , running and riding a beat up , one-speed bicycle to stay fit , driving a dark blue Volvo station wagon , sending his three children to Harvard , Stanford and Yale . Despite the lack of drama in his life , Breyer could become one of the most influential public figures of his generation . Many lawyers who study the court believe that Breyer has a strong chance of being fa r more than merely one vote among nine . The current court , in the opinion of m ost lawyers and academics who study it , notably lacks a leader . Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justice Antonin Scalia , who could exercise leadership by virtue , respectively , of position and intellectual prowess , stand too far toward the judicial right to do so effectively . The justices in the court 's co nservative center David H. Souter , Sandra Day O' Connor , Anthony M. Kennedy ha ve shown little ability to lead . By contrast , of the nine men and two women pl aced on the court in the last generation , only Scalia and , perhaps , Clinton ' s other nominee , Ruth Bader Ginsburg , come close to matching Breyer 's record of legal scholarship , intelligence and achievement . At a time when many federa l judges complain frequently about the crushing burden of their workloads , Brey er was able to handle the work of an appeals court judge while still teaching at Harvard , playing a central role on the Federal Sentencing Commission and educa ting himself about architecture to guide the construction of a new federal court house in Boston . Moreover , unlike Ginsburg , who often has appeared to associa tes as distant , shy or aloof , Breyer is gregarious and charming . His experien ces heading a Senate staff , on the court of appeals and on the sentencing commi ssion demonstrate that he is a highly effective small-group politician who inspi res genuine affection on the part of those who have worked under him and loyal f riendship from those he has served . About the only open opponent to his nominat ion so far has been consumer advocate Ralph Nader , who objected that Breyer has sided with big business too often in antitrust cases and has been too skeptical of federal regulatory efforts . But in a telling example of the network of Brey er 's friendships , Nader 's top lawyer , Alan Morrison , is a close friend of t he nominee 's who has defended Breyer 's views . ( Optional add end ) Breyer 's judicial opinions on antitrust prove little . He is clearly no economic populist , but the Supreme Court 's conservative rulings on antitrust cases over the las t two decades give lower court judges relatively little leeway . But his views o n regulation reveal more about him . Breyer 's writings show a desire to bring o rder to messy legal problems and an underlying belief , reflective of the Califo rnia progressive tradition in which he grew up , that government programs are su bject to improvement by careful , expert thought . But there is nothing to indic ate much about Breyer 's views on the great constitutional issues that attract a ttention to the Supreme Court . That absence of comment has made some liberals u neasy about Breyer 's imminent ascension to the Supreme Court , particularly giv en his endorsements from such prominent conservative voices as Hatch and the Wal l Street Journal editorial page . Breyer 's friends say that as a justice he wil l emerge as a newly liberated champion of an updated form of judicial liberalism one who will uphold strong protections of civil rights and civil liberties but be more skeptical about the ability of federal judges to improve society than wa s the case during the court 's liberal era under former chief justice Earl Warre n . Now that Breyer has achieved his ultimate goal , argued Dershowitz , `` all the constraints are off . There 's nothing else he wants in life . '' Here 's the recipe for the baked Vidalia appetizer as served at Vidalia , Jeff and Sallie Buben 's aptly named downtown Washington restaurant . VIDALIA 'S BAKE D ONION ( 4 servings ) 4 jumbo Vidalia onions , whole with skins left on 8 table spoons ( 1 stick ) butter , softened 4 tablespoons brown sugar 8 tablespoons she rry vinegar 4 tablespoons beef glaze or bouillon 4 teaspoons chopped fresh rosem ary 4 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme 4 large shiitake mushroom caps , finely dice d 4 ounces country ham , finely diced 4 tablespoons chopped chives 1 ripe tomato , finely diced Salt and pepper to taste Cut inch from the bottom ( rounded roo t end ) of each onion . Score the skin of each onion at 1-inch intervals , start ing from the cut bottom end upward to within inch of the top . Pull the section s of onion skin back and up over the top of each onion , like a tassel . On a wo rk surface , place four 12-inch-square pieces of aluminum foil . Place of the b utter , sugar , vinegar , beef glaze ( or bouillon ) , rosemary , thyme and dice d mushroom in the center of each piece . Top each with an onion and draw the foi l from 4 corners to the top center , like a pyramid . Crimp the foil around the `` neck '' of the onion , leaving the `` tassel '' of onion skin exposed . There should be a hole in the center . Bake in a pre-heated 375-degree oven about 1 h our and 10 minutes , or until soft . Transfer onions and mushrooms to serving pl ates , reserving the juices . Combine the cooking juices from all the onions in a saucepan and gently heat with the ham , chives and tomato . Season to taste wi th salt and pepper . Pour of the sauce over each onion and serve . If you decide after visiting a coffee bar that hanging out in a cafe drinking l atte is the only way to spend the afternoon , then you may want to pick up `` Es presso : Culture & Cuisine , '' by Karl Petzke and Sara Slavin ( Chronicle Books , $ 14.95 ) , two people who must feel the way you do . More a private treat th an a coffee-table tome ( it 's a smallish paperback ) , this exquisitely designe d collaboration is closer to a CD Rom experience ( or a guide to typography in t he late 20th century ) than to a real book . In bits and beautiful pieces , it o ffers coffee history , a little Neruda , a bit of Yeats , cafe culture in soft f ocus and some very tempting coffee-based recipes . -O- The National Turkey Feder ation celebrates Turkey Lovers ' Month in June with a turkey-recipe contest . Th e cook with the winning recipe , using at least 1 pound of turkey meat , will ta ke home a $ 2,500 grand prize . Deadline is July 30 . For more information , wri te to the federation at 11319 Sunset Hills Rd. , Reston , Va. 22090 . -O- You wo uldn't want to miss the Virginia Cantaloupe Festival in late July , would you ? Or the Sorghum Molasses Festival in October ? Well , you willn't with your own f ree copy of `` The Virginia Food Festival Directory 1994 , '' which lists events around the state through November . To obtain a copy , write to Virginia Food F estival Directory , Suite 1019 , Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services , 1100 Bank St. , Richmond , Va. 23219 , or call 804-786-5867 . Meanwh ile , a list of 30 Maryland seafood festivals , all over the state , May through November , plus a dozen fee-fishing farms , can be had by sending a self-addres sed stamped envelope to 1994 Maryland Seafood Festival List , Maryland Departmen t of Agriculture , Seafood Marketing , 50 Harry S Truman Pkwy. , Annapolis , Md. 21401 . WASHINGTON Companion planting allows the gardener to become a matchmaker with p lants , turning strangers into fast friends . The practice of companion planting goes back centuries , driven by the abiding belief that some plants do better w hen grown near other species , either for protection from pests or as a result o f a chemical interaction beneficial to at least one of the partners . Today , th e technique is unproven scientifically , although in its quaintness it may have merit , especially since each gardener 's own preferences give us gardens of div ersity and character . In one plot , the aim might be to attract birds , in anot her , to repel raccoons . Companion planting in the modern garden is generally a casual undertaking , with few rules and an openness to new ideas and combinatio ns . In fact , one of its basic truths is that where one combination might fail in one garden , it could prove indispensable in another . Most people , whether they are new to gardening or have many seasons behind them , are familiar with t he marigold 's reputation for warding off all manner of insect pests above and b elow the ground . Although this reputation may be rather overblown , it goes to the basic concept of companion planting : Plant marigolds among your vegetables , and you 'll have fewer bugs . Marigolds , in field tests and in lab trials , s eem to have a pretty good record in controlling damaging subterranean nematodes that invade plant roots . But in most cases , no one knows why something does be tter when planted near something else . One gardener swears that planting radish es around her beans controls Mexican bean beetles . I have tried this in my own garden and have seen little effect on the voracious bean pests . While the varia bles from one garden to the next will dictate much of how successfully companion planting works , there are some fundamental principles that are universal and h ave been proven : DON ' T plant tomatoes , eggplant and potatoes close together . All members of the nightshade family , they tend to share pests . Thus , if th e Colorado potato beetle finds your eggplant near the potatoes , the pest , prob ably will afflict the eggplant . Some gardeners find that eggplant is more vulne rable to the beetles than potatoes . DON ' T plant parsley , carrot and cilantro near each other . These also share a family tree and the pesky carrot fly . Its grub prefers to tunnel into the carrot but will go to parsley and even cilantro if they are close at hand . DO interplant onions , radishes and even yes marigo lds with other garden varieties . Apart from the practical aspect of sneaking sp ace-saving onions and radishes among larger plants they rarely compete with comp anion plants and they do very well in the smallest of spots they emit an odor th at is repugnant to a wide range of insect pests . Ordinarily , radishes and onio ns are pulled before they bloom . However , if they are left to mature , their f lowers are most attractive to predatory insects that prey on pests . DO combine dissimilar species eggplant with beans ; corn with potatoes ; lettuce and basil with tomatoes . DO intermingle herbs with vegetables . With the exception of fen nel , nearly all herbs offer aid to garden plants by attracting predatory insect s , repelling pests or , simply , providing a compatible growth habit . DO inter plant flowers with vegetables . These will attract birds and insects that prey o n many pests . The classic example of this is nasturtium , with its peppery , ed ible foliage and its aromatic , edible flowers , themselves a magnet for humming birds . WORTH A TRY : Plant bush beans among tomatoes . I did this a couple of y ears ago and was delighted with the beans ' ability to keep down weeds . In addi tion , they will fix nitrogen in the soil , providing an important nutrient to t omatoes . As a living mulch , low-growing bush beans ensure an even moisture con tent in the soil , important in the prevention of blossom-end rot in tomatoes . One caveat on this companionship , however : My bean crop was poor , I think bec ause the tomato vines robbed the beans of their full measure of sunlight . WORTH A TRY : Combine corn with pumpkins , melons or other climbing squashes , althou gh I have never tried cucumbers . The rough foliage of the squashes is reputed t o dissuade raccoons from invading the corn at the time ears are ripening . The c orn is thought to deter the squash vine borer moth from laying its eggs on pumpk in vines . The squash shades the ground around the corn and even climbs up stalk s but does not hinder the corn 's growth and development . Sow or plant cucumber , pumpkin , winter squash and melons . All of them love t o wander about in the garden , and they will grow more tidily on strong supports . Pallets , fences , trellises or even an old stone wall will support these ram bling squashes . The following editorial appeared in Tuesday 's Washington Post : Even the most draconian welfare rules are said to be aimed at giving welfare recipients `` bet ter incentives '' or `` the right messages . '' It isn't only a view expressed b y right-wing Republicans eager to cut programs . It has also been offered by Pre sident Clinton in defending his proposal to require welfare recipients to accept jobs after two years or be tossed off the rolls . His point is that if the cycl e of dependency is not broken at some point , it can go on forever , sometimes a cross generations . But there are more and less intrusive requirements that can be placed on the recipients of government assistance . It is one thing to say th at if someone gets a government check , the taxpayers have a right at some point to demand some work . It is another to use the welfare rules to affect other , more personal aspects of individual behavior for example , whether someone shoul d have an additional child . New Jersey and a growing number of other jurisdicti ons have decided that this , too , should come under the welfare rules . They ha ve denied additional benefits to women who have children while they are on welfa re . These recipients continue to collect what they were receiving before , but no more . Clinton has decided to include in his reform plan a provision allowing but not compelling states to follow New Jersey 's lead . In one sense , Clinton 's proposal simply marks an extension of current practice . The federal governm ent has already given New Jersey a waiver to pursue its experiment . Clinton is on record as supporting this and similar waivers to other states . Some civil-li berties advocates have argued that because the New Jersey rule affects one of th e most personal decisions a person can make , it is unconstitutional . A case on the matter is now in court , but the civil-liberties argument is not entirely c onvincing . New Jersey is not telling anyone that she cannot have a child , simp ly that the state will not support an additional newborn . Is the New Jersey rul e actually reducing the number of children born to the welfare rolls ? An early study showed a 16 percent reduction in the number of children born to mothers on welfare in New Jersey , but a subsequent analysis found that the number of birt hs had been underreported , and that the real reduction was about 9 percent . `` I never pretended or intended to have the law bring about a dramatic decrease i n births , '' said State Assemblyman Wayne R. Bryant , leading supporter of the new rules . `` It was a responsibility issue . '' The truth is that welfare refo rm is very much about influencing behavior or , at the very least , about keepin g government rules from offering the wrong incentives . The New Jersey approach strikes us as being within the range of state experiments the federal government could permit . But as Bryant suggests , no one should pretend it will produce m iracles . CyberSurfing : Potholes , perturbations and predicaments observed on the inform ation superhighway : Most visitors to Paris are satisfied with their little Eiff el Tower souvenirs , but that 's obviously not enough for Michael Hayward , who seems to be an unusually sentimental sort . `` I 'd like to locate a source for the benches which are found everywhere in Paris city parks , '' he wrote in a re cent posting on the Internet newsgroup soc.culture.french . `` The older design .. . ( is ) shaped like an elongated ` S ' with narrow ` slats ' ( roughly squar e in cross section ) running lengthwise . The supports ( legs/backs ) are a some what ornately designed cast iron . As I recall , these benches are ( always ? ) painted a distinctive shade of high gloss deep green. .. . Has anyone else got f ond memories of these benches ? Has anyone else made an attempt to track down a source ? '' From France Olivier Clary responded with the lyrics of a popular son g : Les amoureux qui s ' becotent sur les bancs publics/ bancs publics/ bancs pu blics/ en s ' foutant pas mal du r ' gard oblique/ des passants honteux . ( `` T he lovers kissing on the public benches/ the public benches/ the public benches/ don't give a damn about the nasty glances/ of the shameful passersby . '' ) Par isian Gregory Miezelis , however , actually had an answer : The first place to l ook , said Miezelis , is Les Domaines , a French government agency that auctions off surplus equipment . He also suggested checking the Paris flea market 's man y antique dealers . Selling price ? About 950 francs plus 10 percent tax , or ro ughly $ 200 , although cybernaut Miezelis said he saw one sold at auction for on ly 350 francs . Evan Roth evanr ( at ) aol.com GETTING THERE : Once you 've gain ed access to the Internet , go to Usenet or Newsgroups and type : soc.culture.fr ench . On America Online , for example , go to the Go To menu , click on Keyword and type in Newsgroups . At the Newsgroups menu , click on the Expert Add icon . Type in soc.culture.french in the blank space and click Add . When asked if yo u want to add the newsgroup , click Yes . When the menu returns , click on the M y Newsgroups icon , and you will see soc.culture.french added to the list . Doub le-click on it and you 're there . -0- They Want His mtv.com Adam Curry wants hi s mtv.com . Curry , a longtime video jock for MTV , set up a music-news bulletin board on the Internet a year ago , using his home computer and the address mtv. com . Now he 's being being sued by his ex-employer for copyright infringement . Curry uses mtv.com to dish industry gossip ( `` cybersleaze , '' he calls it ) , and offers concert schedules , band interviews and commentary . He estimates 3 5,000 log-ins daily . Many of those users are now following the saga of Curry vs . MTV-from Curry 's viewpoint only . The cable music network , which prides itse lf on up-to-the-minute hipness , isn't `` jacked into the net , '' as Curry put it in a recent missive to his supporters . The on-line faithful have been flamin g MTV as `` totally lame '' and `` a pitiful network of corporate pigs . '' Wrot e a user named Daredevil : `` DON ' T LET THE LAMERS GET YOU DOWN ! '' Curry cla ims mtv.com began with the `` blessing and support '' of MTV execs , but after h e resigned April 25 , `` things got ugly . '' ( It probably didn't help that Cur ry posted a resignation letter on the Internet accusing MTV of selling out the ` ` M '' in its name . ) In federal court in Manhattan in May , MTV 's lawyers arg ued for an injunction against Curry 's use of mtv.com . Further hearings are sch eduled . `` This has nothing to do with Adam 's departure , '' says an MTV spoke swoman . `` We 've tried unsuccessfully for a year to get Adam to stop using the MTV trademark to market his services . '' Said the defiant Curry in e-mail : `` mtv.com will always exist on the net . '' Richard Leiby leiby ( at ) aol.com GE TTING THERE : To follow the Curry case using America Online , select keyword Int ernet ; then select WAIS & Gopher databases ; then select category Music ; then select the MTV Gopher folder ; then brainwaves.txt . Found something intriguing , improbable , insane or especially useful on the In ternet ? Tip The Washington Post 's Karen Mason Marrrero kmarrero ( at ) aol.com or Joel Garreau garreau ( at ) well.sf.ca.us . As cool weather gives way to warm , and hot not far off , many people feel the need to switch gears in their wine-drinking . Room-temp red becomes less interes ting than chilled , crisp white , and picnics conjure up stuff that 's soft , sl ightly sweet and quaffable . Stocking up wine for summer takes just as much thou ght as buying wine for those dinners by the fireplace , yet few wine shops are s avvy enough to suggest the right warm-afternoon wines . There is these days a ma nia in America for Chardonnay , and since so much of this wine is white ( thus c hillable ) and soft and slightly sweet , one might assume Chardonnay would be a great picnic quaff . Many wine shop owners still recommend it . Bad thinking . A fter Petite Sirah , Chardonnay is my least-favorite picnic wine because of the h igh alcohol ( above 13 percent in most cases ) and the heavy oak flavor the wine s often have . And in cheaper wines , that oak flavoring is not derived from agi ng in a barrel , but from the winemaker 's latest trick : dipping in a huge teab ag filled with oak chips . What I look for in picnic and patio wine is good , st rong , fruity flavor something to compete with the charcoal briquettes burning i n the firepit and alcohol low enough not to intrude on the taste of the fruit . Stocking up doesn't require a cellar . In the few months you will have the wine before it 's consumed , nothing will happen to it if it 's kept relatively cool ( 70 degrees is fine ) and out of direct light . And I do suggest buying at leas t a case of wine to be sure you 'll get good wine before it all sells out , and to have a few extra bottles around in case of emergencies , such as friends popp ing by unexpectedly , which always seems to happen . If you look at the summer a s comprising 12 weekends during which you and your friends will consume a bottle per weekend day , you 'll need two cases of wine at minimum . So with that in m ind , here are my suggestions for what to buy . Note that you may have to replen ish the supply faster than you might think , especially if the wine is so good p eople drink it faster than you expect . Chenin Blanc : This grape makes the grea t wines of Vouvray in France and , in California , a wine with a softer , more m elony aroma and taste , perfect for picnics . Four bottles . German Riesling : A must for the summer . Try various producers of Kabinett or Spatlese wines , whi ch are not totally dry but offer marvelous acidity and balance with less alcohol than most wines about 10 percent . Four bottles . Gewurztraminer : I am smitten with this usually off-dry white wine . I prefer it drier so it matches with can apes and sandwiches . My summer buying pattern calls for a whole case of various producers ' Gewurztraminers , but unless you have the same sort of fetish for i t that I do , I 'd recommend three bottles . Sparkling wine : Light , crisp and a perfect summer beverage . Bubbly is always in fashion , and it is a great subs titute for heavier white wines . Three bottles . Sauvignon Blanc : You need not pay much more than $ 7 for some of the best of these wines , and usually you can find excellent wines in the $ 5 to $ 6 range . A great all-purpose wine , excel lent with food . Three bottles . Rose : Here we have the true all-purpose wine , usually made with enough flavor but still dry enough to match with food . Chill ed , it is appealing to cool off with all by itself at poolside . Buy only the b est ( $ 9 a bottle or so ) to make sure you 're getting a high-quality rose , th ough Grenache Rose is being made better these days and may be found at $ 7 to $ 8 . Three bottles . Beaujolais : Great light red wine such as this is a real tre at , especially when chilled and served with hearty foods . Three bottles . Ligh ter-styled Zinfandel : Buy one bottle of a good Zinfandel for those moments when the evening air suddenly chills and demands a better , richer , heartier wine . One final tip : Buy only the youngest vintages of any of these wines , and from producers whose names you know . Q : When I 'm baking , there are so many choices to be had in the fat category , even in the wrapped sticks of butter or margarine alone . What 's the differen ce ? Can I use a vegetable oil spread instead of butter in my baking ? A : There are many variables the quantity of cream used , the quality of that cream , how much filler has been added and how much salt is used for preservative . General ly , the most reliable baking product is either unsalted butter or basic margari ne . These two products have the highest content of fat and are not filled with gums or fillers that might affect the baking result in some way . While there ar e many reduced-fat options on the market now , because of added liquid , they wi lln't produce satisfactory baking results as easily . If you replace butter in a recipe with a vegetable oil spread , you will not get the same result , because the basic fat component will be oil and not cream . -0- Q : My granddaughter ca nnot have sugar . Do you have a recipe for cookies that does not contain sugar o r honey , but uses artificial sweetener ? A : The following recipe offers some a lternatives for sugar-free cookies . ALMOND SUGAR COOKIES 5 tablespoons margarin e 4 packets saccharin or 8 packets aspartame ( Equal ) or 4 packets acesulfame-K 1 tablespoon egg white teaspoon almond , vanilla , or lemon extract 1 cup unbl eached flour 1/8 teaspoon baking soda pinch of cream of tartar 32 almond slices Preheat oven to 350 degrees . In a medium-size bowl , combine margarine and swee tener , beating until light and fluffy . Mix in egg white and almond extract . G radually stir in flour , baking soda , and cream of tartar ; mix well . Form int o -inch balls . Place on a non-stick cookie sheet . Dip a flat-bottomed glass in to flour and press down on each ball to flatten cookie . Top each cookie with an almond slice . Send questions to : What 's Cooking , c/o Food & Home , The Balt imore Sun , 501 N . Calvert St. , Baltimore , Md. 21278 . Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service . Here are some tips on grilling from the National Live Stock & Meat Board , an i ndustry group in Chicago , Ill. . Prepare coals well in advance so they have tim e to reach the correct temperature before the food is cooked . To check the temp erature of coals , place the palm of your hand at cooking height , just above th e grid . Count the number of seconds you can hold your hand there before the hea t is so uncomfortable you have to pull it away ( to count seconds , count one-on e thousand ; two-one thousand , etc. ) . Approximate times-temperatures are : lo w , 5 seconds ; medium , 4 seconds ; medium-hot , 3 seconds ; hot , 2 seconds . In appearance , low coals are covered with a thick layer of gray ash ; medium co als glow through a layer of gray ash ; and hot coals are barely covered with gra y ash . Avoid cooking over direct flame so the outside of food is not charred . When cooking meats , trim them well of fat to avoid flare-ups . Use spatula or t ongs to turn foods ; don't pierce with fork or flavorful juices will be lost . I n warm weather , it is important to keep cold foods cold ( below 40 degrees ) un til you are ready to cook or serve them . Food should not be left out at room te mperature for long periods . Two hours is the maximum for most foods ; extremely perishable items should not sit out more than 20 minutes . Leftovers should be packed quickly in small , covered containers , and returned to the cooler , refr igerator or freezer as soon as possible . Keep raw and cooked foods separate . W ash utensils and surfaces that touch raw food with hot soapy water before using them for anything else . Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post Ne ws Service . Thinking about cooking out tonight ? Why not think big ? That 's BIG , as in ba rbecued beef tenderloin , stuffed turkey breast , marinated leg of lamb , grille d salmon roast , or grilled-smoked ham . All these things are perfect on the gri ll , and can make a mighty nice change from the `` small stuff '' like burgers a nd dogs . They can turn a family meal into an occasion , or make a memorable fea st for guests . And they 're really no more trouble than preparing and watching over a lot of little things on the grill . `` You can do anything on a grill , ' ' says Francie George , corporate vice president of Baltimore 's Haussner 's res taurant and an enthusiastic outdoor griller at home . `` I do Christmas dinner o n the grill , '' she says . Other favorite items to grill are whole fish , fresh ham , turkey , prime rib and spare ribs . Everything is cooked on `` an old , b eat-up '' kettle-type grill she 's had for nearly 30 years . Statistics show she 's not alone in her enthusiasm . Americans celebrated 2.6 billion `` barbecue e vents '' last year , up from 2.3 billion in 1991 , according to the Barbecue Ind ustry Association , a trade group based in Naperville , Ill. . Eighty-three perc ent of all families in the United States own a barbecue grill of some type , the association says . Gas types have a slight edge over charcoal . And whatever th e type , 52 percent use their grills year-round . The trend toward more meal pre paration over coals or flame outdoors doesn't surprise Melanie Barnard , author of `` The Best Covered and Kettle Grills Cookbook Ever '' ( HarperCollins , $ 16 .95 ) . Grilling appeals because it 's so easy it 's less formal , and there 's less cleanup afterward a factor that appeals in family dining and in today 's en tertaining . `` Casual entertaining is where it 's at , '' Barnard says . `` Gri lling speaks casual entertaining , '' she says . `` You don't do formal things o n a grill because it 's a participatory experience . And that 's what I think is fun about it . You get people together and they get their hands in. .. . Maybe it 's prehistoric , maybe it 's part of our genetic makeup . Anything you make o n a grill tastes better . '' While her book offers recipes for such things as Ca jun burgers and `` the ultimate hot dog , '' there are also recipes for whole ch icken stuffed with lemons and sage , summer herb stuffed turkey breast , grill-s moked brisket , ham , and country pot roast , apple and sage-stuffed pork roast and spiced rack of lamb . `` You can do chickens and ducks , whole turkeys , big pieces of fish '' quite easily on the grill , Barnard says . It takes just a li ttle planning to make a memorable meal around a grilled specialty , she says . S imple dishes are the best accompaniment : She suggests starting with such snacks as cheese and crackers , or grilled toast with salsa , side dishes such as cole slaw , potato salad , or old-fashioned macaroni salad , some fresh vegetables fr om the farmer 's market , all topped off with ice cream or frozen yogurt and sli ced fresh fruit . `` The biggest mistake people make , '' she says , is planning a menu that requires them to be in the kitchen finishing side dishes at the sam e time they 're outside watching the grill . That 's why easy things that can be made ahead , or require only the tiniest bit of last-minute preparation , are t he most practical choices . And then the centerpiece can really stand out . ( Op tional add end ) `` The key to doing larger pieces is to roast them slowly at lo wer temperature , '' George says . She cooks everything with indirect heat , mov ing the coals aside after they 're hot to encircle the grill , or placing them i n semicircular piles on each side of the grate . The vents in the grill also hel p control the temperature , she says . `` When I do something large , I close th e bottom vents and open the top ones , to let in a little more oxygen . '' She t ries to keep the temperature between 275 and 300 degrees . ( She recommends buyi ng a good meat thermometer , commercial-style if you can find one at a kitchen s pecialty store or restaurant supply outlet . ) `` Doing a whole turkey is wonder ful , '' she says . `` I do nothing to it . I just let it cook . '' She props up less dense areas of the bird by placing an old half-cup measuring cup under the tail , and allows half an hour per pound to cook the bird . The skin gets brown and crispy and the flesh is firm and juicy , she says . `` Another thing that ' s spectacular on the grill is a whole salmon , '' George says . She divides the coals into two semi-circles on opposite sides of the grill , so no part of the f ish will be directly over the coals . `` The night before I wash it and dry it a nd make sure there are no scales left on it , then I open it up and fill the int erior with a paste made of honey and brown sugar . '' You can also put in sprigs of fresh herbs dill , tarragon or thyme all work well , she says . The honey-su gar mixture should be the consistency of thick paste . She stores the fish in a plastic bag on a baking sheet in the refrigerator until she 's ready to cook it . She puts the fish in a two-sided rack , so it can be turned over halfway throu gh the cooking process . For perfectly cooked fish , she says , allow 10 minutes per inch of thickness at 400 degrees . To make sure the fire stays hot enough w hen she divides the hot coals into two piles , she adds an extra eight to 10 coa ls per side . Then she throws on a handful of wood chips that have been soaked i n water for a couple of hours . `` I predominantly use hickory , '' she says . ` ` I think mesquite is too strong . Cherry is also nice . '' With fresh ham , she says , `` before I cook it , I rub it with a combination of freshly grated hors eradish and honey . '' The heat from the coals dries out the glaze , and when th e ham is sliced , `` you get little tastes of it '' with each slice , she says . For a truly special occasion , she says , she will do a New England-style clam bake . She uses a two-part steamer , putting corn in the husk and potatoes in th e water in the bottom section , then layering lobster , clams , monkfish , shrim p , mussels and perhaps scrod in the top section . She sprinkles each layer with Old Bay ; the steam picks up the spice and takes it back to the water , so that everything is just suffused with the flavor . Delightful as it is , grilling ne edn't always be a big deal . `` If I 'm cooking for myself , which I do quite a lot these days because my kids are all grown and my husband travels a lot , '' M s. Barnard says , `` I would rather go turn the grill on and cook myself up a pi ece of chicken , than to cook it in the house where I 'd have to dirty a frying pan and it 's no more time and no more effort and it tastes a whole lot better . `` We have good seafood , '' in Connecticut , where she lives , Barnard says . `` Pretty soon we 'll get soft shells . I love to grill those . I do that for my self . That 's a real treat . '' OUR HOURLY BREAD : Bread doesn't demand much of you while it rises just that yo u be home three or four hours ahead to get it started . If you don't have that l uxury , you can add club soda or beer to a package of Quick Loaf mix , stir it u p , let it sit 10 minutes in a loaf pan and bake . The resulting loaf doesn't ha ve the chewy , elastic texture of kneaded bread , but it has a good fresh-baked aroma , and for home-made bread that 's ready one hour after you open the packag e , with essentially no work , that 's not bad . The cracked wheat and nine-grai n flavors are particularly good , and there are also garlic , onion , oatmeal an d cinnamon-raisin mixes . In supermarkets. -0- I ' LL HAVE A RIK .. . A RKATS .. . OH , MAKE IT A CHARDONNAY : Wente Bros . Winery of Livermore , Calif. , has a greed to invest in Sameba Co. , a winery in the Republic of Georgia where some s cholars believe wine was invented thousands of years ago . Distribution is expec ted to be in the four Commonwealth of Independent States countries where Wente n ow distributes its own California wines : Russia , Ukraine , Kazakhstan and Lith uania . University of California , Davis-trained winemaker Hughes Ryan has alrea dy moved to Georgia to supervise the fall 's crush . The wines will be made from Rkatsitelli , a white grape , and Saperavi , which produces a dark red wine tha t ages well . `` It 's premature to say , '' says John Schwartz , Wente 's vice president/international , `` but we hope to produce a suitable product that meet s U.S. standards within two to five years. '' -0- SWIMMING FOR THE HALIBUT : Unl ike other flatfish , halibut are swift swimmers and can easily rise to the surfa ce to feed . In other words , they don't , as it were , flounder . I didn't know whether to laugh or cry . Last week 's `` 48 Hours '' did an `` e xpose '' on pesticides and the safety of the American food supply . They actuall y had a mother in tears because she fed her child grapes , which the host led he r to believe were highly contaminated and dangerous . Give me a break . While pr etending to be balanced , actual air time and editing created an alarming , thou gh distorted , picture of killer fruits and vegetables raining destruction on ou r kids . And it attempted to create controversy where there is none ( in the nam e of ratings ? ) . In fact , there is widespread agreement that our produce is s afe , even for kids , and important to their health . There is also agreement th at improved research and monitoring are in order . Nobody wants to eat unnecessa ry pesticides , mostly because we fear they cause cancer . But we have no eviden ce to show this , a fact admitted by Richard Wiles of the Environmental Working Group , the prime promoter of the unsafe food supply theory . In fact , he even said that `` the risk from a diet of Twinkies is far greater than the risk from a diet of fruits and vegetables , even with these pesticides on them . '' So wha t we 're dealing with here is fear of the unknown . That in itself is not a bad thing . Experience tells us we 'd better be asking these kinds of questions . Re search on pesticide safety should be thorough and ongoing . But terrorizing ours elves is not in our own best interest , especially if it puts a lid on our healt hy behaviors . What we do know is that the fruits and vegetables that we 've bee n eating all our lives ( and for some of us that 's a long time ! ) are our No. 1 protector against cancer . During the show , cancer expert Dr. Bruce Ames poin ted out that people who eat a total of five fruits and vegetables a day have hal f the cancer rate of those who eat less . In the United States today , we averag e only 3 servings daily . Clearly , we should be running toward the produce depa rtment , not away from it . On camera , Carol Browner , an administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency , was set up as an insider dissatisfied with th e system . She said as a mother , she wanted a declaration from Congress that ou r children would be protected . Then she went on to admit that the EPA is alread y doing that . A year ago , the National Academy of Sciences issued an exhaustiv e report concluding that some regulatory improvements should be made to strength en the food safety system , but that the food supply is safe even for children a nd parents should continue to encourage them to eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables . As Browner noted , the EPA has begun putting the NAS recommendatio ns into effect , including increased monitoring for pesticide residues in foods most commonly eaten by children . The NAS report has triggered other action as w ell . The International Food Information Council , a non-profit organization in Washington , notes that nearly half of all the produce sold in the United States is grown in California and monitored for safety by the California Department of Food and Agriculture . The California Department of Pesticide Regulation , whic h has one of the most stringent pesticide regulatory programs in the country , s pent the last year reviewing the NAS study . On May 17 it issued its own report , indicating that `` the current California and federal pesticide regulatory sys tems adequately protect infants and children from risks posed by pesticide resid ues in the diet . '' IFIC also notes that , `` contrary to the Environmental Wor king Group report , most pesticides are water soluble and can be significantly d ecreased with washing. .. . The best advice to consumers wishing to further redu ce their exposure to any possible pesticide residues is to wash produce thorough ly in cold tap water ; peel the outer leaves or skin of the produce ; and eat a wide variety of foods . '' Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service . Outdoor grilling is a very personal form of cooking depending more on intuition than formula . Yes , there are barbecue cookbooks , but when was the last time you saw someone actually follow a recipe to the letter ? To do so is an invitati on to disaster , because no two fires are the same . The choice of wines to go w ith grilled food is a very personal one , too . So this along with the next colu mn is a very personal answer to a question about food matchups posed by my edito r . Whole books have been written about wine and food pairings , but I have neve r seen one that doesn't try to make me feel like a bozo for enjoying matchups th at aren't on the approved list . So let 's be clear on one thing : These aren't rules . They are observations based on unscientific experimentation . At its mos t basic level , the answer to the question of which wine to serve with grilled f ood is the same one people have used for all foods : White wine with white meat , red wine with red meat . It 's a rule that 's demonstrably flawed , but nine t imes out of 10 it will produce a wine choice that 's at least acceptable . At hi gher levels of the game , more variables come into play and the goal becomes mor e elusive . Instead of an acceptable choice , you aim for an excellent selection or even the elusive perfect match . Seldom do you attain it , but on occasion i t 's fun to play . Sometimes I play on the higher levels , sometimes I don't . S ometimes my choice is governed by my wanting to drink a certain wine that night regardless of whether the pairing is `` correct . '' Grilled food poses some int eresting challenges other foods don't . In grilling , the manner of cooking is p art of the seasoning . It 's also a form of cooking in which the food is often c onsumed outdoors . That can be an important factor in my choice of wine . The mo st important factors are what and how you grill . And no two people grill in exa ctly the same way . For me , one of the most important factors is the marinade . My marinades tend to rely heavily on herbes de Provence . That skews my wine ch oices in the direction of southern France . Someone who uses Italian seasonings might prefer Italian wines . There are other questions : Do you use mesquite ? T hat can be a consideration . The extra smokiness and spiciness could tip the bal ance toward a wine with those characteristics , such as a red zinfandel . Who 's coming for dinner ? Are they people who will appreciate your best or who willn' t notice the difference ? Do they have special preferences ? What 's the weather ? Warmer weather calls for lighter , more acidic wines , especially if you 're eating outdoors . What are the secondary courses ? Sometimes they can clash with a wine that would be your first choice with the main dish . A down-the-list cho ice might be better with the overall meal . Some vinegary potato salads , for in stance , might push you toward a simpler , lighter , more fruity wine . Do you u se barbecue sauce ? If you do , you might want to stick to a fairly simple , fru ity wine because most barbecue sauces , especially sweeter ones , tend to oblite rate the flavors of dry , complex wines . You might be better off with a simple Beaujolais Nouveau than a better cru such as Morgon . Is there a salsa or spicy topping ? That might argue for a wine with some residual sugar , like a Kendall- Jackson chardonnay . ( Begin optional trim ) Grilling is a good excuse to try ty pes of wines that aren't so familiar . Chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon are onl y average in how well they work with grilled foods ; pinot blanc and mourvedre c an be exceptional . You might discover something you like better than what you ' ve been drinking all along . Some wines that aren't great on their own can reach new heights when they accompany grilled food . Some California sauvignon blancs do just that . And some of the world 's greatest wines just don't have much aff inity with grilled food . Even so , it 's difficult to generalize . One style of California chardonnay might be a total zero with grilled salmon ; another might be a perfect marriage . ( End optional trim ) In future columns , I 'll be taki ng a look at some specific foods and how they work with specific wines . Until t hen , don't get concerned . If you 're eating grilled food and enjoying good win e , you 're already on the right track . Here are a couple of recipes from `` The Best Covered and Kettle Grills Cookboo k Ever '' ( HarperCollins , $ 16.95 ) , by Melanie Barnard . While this first re cipe is for a whole side of salmon , you can also use steaks or fillets , if you adjust the cooking time to about 5 minutes per side . MUSTARD-DILL SALMON ROAST cup lemon juice cup Dijon mustard cup olive oil 3 tablespoons minced shallot s cup chopped fresh dill teaspoon freshly ground pepper 2 to 3 pounds side of salmon fillet , in one piece 1 cup plain yogurt or sour cream 1 tablespoon grate d lemon zest whole dill sprigs , for garnish In a shallow dish just large enough to cover the fish , whisk together the lemon juice , mustard , olive oil , shal lots , chopped dill , and pepper to blend well . Add the salmon and turn to coat both sides . Cover and refrigerate at least 30 minutes and up to 3 hours . Retu rn to room temperature before cooking . Combine the yogurt with the lemon zest . Refrigerate until ready to use . Prepare a medium fire in a covered or charcoal gas grill . Cover and grill the salmon , skin side down , until nicely browned on the bottom , about 10 minutes . Carefully turn over with one or two wide spat ulas and grill until the fish is just opaque throughout , 5 to 10 minutes longer . Serve the fish garnished with dill sprigs and accompanied by the lemon yogurt sauce . Serves six . Barnard recommends the next recipe as simple starter for s ummer barbecues . Use high-quality ingredients for best results . TOMATO-BASIL B RUSCHETTA cup extra-virgin olive oil 2 large garlic cloves , minced 1 pound rip e tomatoes , peeled , seeded and chopped 1/3 cup chopped sweet white or red onio n 1/3 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil , plus leaves for garnish 2 tablespoons b alsamic vinegar teaspoon salt teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper 8 slices c rusty Italian bread , cut inch thick 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese In a smal l bowl , combine the olive oil and garlic and let stand 15 minutes . In medium b owl , combine tomatoes , onion , basil , vinegar , salt , pepper , and 2 tablesp oons garlic oil . Stir gently to mix . Let stand 15 to 30 minutes to allow the f lavors to blend . Prepare a medium to hot fire in a covered charcoal or gas gril l . Brush both sides of the bread with the remaining 2 tablespoons of the garlic oil . Grill until lightly toasted on one side , about 45 seconds . Turn the bre ad over and quickly spoon the tomato mixture over the toasted side . Sprinkle th e cheese on top . Grill until the bread is toasted , the cheese melted , and tom ato mixture slightly warmed , about 45 seconds . Garnish each piece with a basil leaf . Serves eight . Tasty home-baked dog biscuits can be a tail-wagging treat for the canines you k now . And , if you don't have a dog to give a bone to , perhaps you 'd enjoy bak ing some for a friend who does . Shirley Wright of Baltimore requested a recipe for dog biscuits and writes , `` I doubt if your chef would be willing to sample them but that wouldn't be necessary because I 'll bake them and try them out on Tasha , my Bouvier des Flandres . '' Chef Gilles Syglowski had no problem findi ng some special tasters of his own . His dogs , Chi Chi and Shena , ages 4 and 6 , whom the chef says are white Eskimo dogs , were more than willing to sample t he entries . `` My dogs would look at me in wonder when I offered them so many t reats , '' he said . Three responses were chosen . T.J. Leeds of Columbia , Md. , Jean Partch of Kelso , Wash. , and Sally Niemann of Longmont , Colo. , sent in the chef 's choices . Dogs belonging to the three responders who enjoy home-bak ed offerings include a border collie , a springer spaniel , Brittany spaniel , a Maltese and a golden retriever `` who really woofs them down . '' NIEMANN 'S DO G TREATS 1 cups whole wheat flour 1 cups white flour cup quick oats ( soaked in warm water , just enough to cover ) cup corn meal cup ground nuts ( sunflower or sesame seeds work well ) 1 teaspoon garlic powder 4 tablespoons Brewers ' ye ast 4 tablespoons oil ( corn or canola ) water Combine dry ingredients . Add oil then add enough water to make a stiff dough . Knead. Roll out and cut out in sq uares or in animal shapes . Bake 50 minutes in a 325-degree oven . Substitutions for wheat flour may include oat , rye or other flours . Oats may be substituted with multigrain cereals soaked or dry , or soaked stale crackers , rice cakes o r corn chips . PARTCH 'S DOGGIE BISCUITS 3 cups all-purpose flour 2 cups whole-w heat flour 1 cup rye flour 2 cups bulgur 1 cup cornmeal cup instant non-fat dry milk 4 teaspoons salt 1 envelope dry yeast cup very warm water 2 to 3 cups chi cken broth 1 egg 1 tablespoon milk Mix first 7 ingredients together . Sprinkle t he yeast over the warm water then add it and 2 cups chicken broth to the flour m ixture and mix with your hands until the mixture is stiff . If necessary add the remaining cup of broth a little at a time . Roll dough out to inch thickness o n a floured surface and cut into shapes . Place on ungreased baking sheets . Mix the egg and milk and brush over the biscuits . Bake at 300 degrees for 45 minut es . Then turn off oven and leave biscuits in closed oven overnight . Store in r esealable bags . They keep well . LEEDS ' DOG BISCUITS Makes about 2 dozen 1 cup all-purpose flour 1 cup whole wheat flour cup wheat germ cup dry milk teaspo on salt ( optional ) 6 tablespoons shortening 1 teaspoon brown sugar 1 egg cup water ( approximately ) Combine all dry ingredients , cut in shortening until th e mixture resembles cornmeal . Beat together the brown sugar and egg and add to dry mixture . Add water gradually , enough to make a stiff dough . Roll out to - inch thickness and cut with a cookie cutter , if possible a bone shape . Bake at 325 degrees for about 30 minutes or until lightly browned . Chef Syglowski , wi th the help of chefs and students at the Baltimore International Culinary Colleg e , selected and tested these recipes . -0- Recipe requests R.M. Allen of Reiste rstown , Md. , is looking for a dandelion jelly recipe which has been misplaced . Gladys A . Field of Bend , Ore. , has lost her recipe for `` a delicious white cake using bing cherries which was in the American Home magazine sometime betwe en 1957 and 1963 . I think the cherries were used on top and as a filler between layers , '' she wrote . Eleanor Wendt of Woodstock , Ill. , writes that her hus band brought home a spaghetti salad from a local grocery chain and `` I believe ` homemade ' would be a better description . Please help , '' she wrote . If you are looking for a recipe or can answer a request for a long-gone recipe , maybe we can help . Please print each response or request clearly on a separate sheet of paper with your name , address and phone number . Send to Ellen Hawks , Reci pe Finder , The Baltimore Sun , 501 N . Calvert St. , Baltimore 21278 . Q : Did Johnny Crawford , the boy on `` The Rifleman , '' appear in any other s eries ? A : Crawford appeared on television as early as 1955 ( he was born in 19 46 ) . He came into prominence as a regular on `` The Mickey Mouse Club '' ( 195 5-56 ) and then saddled up for `` The Rifleman '' ( 1958-63 ) . Following his ru n as Mark McCain , he guest-starred on scores of prime-time series and TV movies throughout the 1960s , '70s and '80s . His early '60s pop/rock singing career i ncluded such hits as `` Cindy 's Birthday '' ( No. 8 ) , `` Rumors '' ( No. 12 ) and `` Your Nose Is Gonna Grow '' ( No. 14 ) . If you don't know where you 've been , how do you know where you 're going ? To day , women in America have the right to vote . The right to obtain credit . The right to jobs that for decades were strictly for men . Reproductive rights . Th e right to serve in their country 's military . Rights now taken for granted . Y et , do women really understand how they got those rights ? `` A Century of Wome n , '' a six-hour production premiering Tuesday on TBS , offers a glimpse of the enormous inroads and societal changes women have affected throughout this centu ry . It 's a story filled with sadness , joy , passion , drama , tears , death , struggle and hard-won victories . And it 's not for women only . Narrated by Ja ne Fonda , `` Century of Women '' utilizes diaries , letters and personal memoir s , never-before-seen archival footage and photographs and interviews with the w omen who have made a difference . Interwoven throughout the footage connecting p ast with present is an original family drama directed by Oscar-winning documenta ry filmmaker Barbara Kopple ( `` An American Dream , '' `` Harlan County , U.S.A . '' ) . The generational story stars Olympia Dukakis , Teresa Wright , Talia Sh ire , Brooke Smith , Justine Bateman , Jasmine Guy and Madge Sinclair . The docu mentary is divided into three topics : `` Work and Family , '' `` Sexuality and Social Justice '' and `` Image and Popular Culture . '' `` When we sat around di scussing the themes of the six hours , '' says executive producer Pat Mitchell , `` we found that everybody talked about the same issues . We thought if there w as a way to mirror our conversations in the office with the conversations in liv ing rooms , then people would understand this is not about history . It 's also about right now and how we are living our life . That was the genesis of our ide a to create that connection for the viewers that this isn't just about what wome n did for the past 100 years . This is what women are talking about now and copi ng with and laughing about and crying about . '' Co-writer and executive produce r Jacoba Atlas points out that a century ago , women were beset by many of the s ame problems confronting contemporary women . Turn-of-the-century writer Charlot te Perkins Gilman , Atlas says , grappled `` with the role of men and women , ho w to raise their children , how to be a writer and postpartum depression and exp ectations. .. . `` What we hope comes across is that we are all part of the same piece and things don't go away . Laws change that 's a real accomplishment for women in this century , but I think that any woman who has a child and has to le ave their child to go to work grapples throughout their life : Did I do the righ t thing ? That went on in 1901 and it goes in 1994 . '' Though the documentary p rofiles such well-known women as first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton , feminist Be tty Friedan and writer Edna St. Vincent Millay , most of the women are not house hold names . `` A lot of the women who really changed the laws are just average women , '' Atlas explains . One such `` average '' woman was Ida May Phillips wh o , in the 1970s , was a waitress with seven children . The family breadwinner , she wanted a better job and applied to become an assembly trainee at Martin-Mar ietta Co. . `` They said , ` You can't take this job because you have small chil dren , ' ' ' Atlas says . `` So she took it all the way to the Supreme Court . T he Supreme Court said you can't tell a woman with children she can't have a job unless you say the same thing to a man with small children . Ida Phillips had no background to say she would be able to go and do this , but she changed the wor ld for all of us . '' ( Optional add end ) Determining who to include in the doc umentary was difficult . One prominent woman not profiled is former first lady J acqueline Kennedy Onassis . Atlas says Onassis ' life had been so dissected and publicized that the production team didn't think it could add anything to her st ory , especially because the extremely private Onassis didn't give interviews . Nor did the people close to her . `` I 'm not sure we could have offered any ins ights that would have done her justice , '' Atlas laments . Former first lady El eanor Roosevelt , though , is prominently featured . According to Atlas , the do cumentary 's historical advisers all agreed that Roosevelt was the most influent ial woman of the 20th century . `` I gained tremendous respect for her , '' Atla s says . `` She took stands that she hadn't been raised to take . She took a sta nd against racism in this country . She took a stand against anti-Semitism , bot h of which were prevalent in her husband 's administration . She also defended J apanese-Americans during World War II , who were rounded up . '' For Kopple , di recting fiction was not much different from making a documentary . `` In a sense , it was a documentary because we were searching for something that was deeper and going sort of underneath and being intimate , '' she explains . `` When we s tarted out to do the fictional , we had a rehearsal the first day and all the se ven actresses sat around and read through the entire script . There was just thi s explosion of all of these women suddenly being so intimate with each other . I t was if there was a bond between all of us . They talked about their mothers an d being mothers and different things that happened to them in their lives . Ever y second we weren't shooting was an excuse to talk to each other . '' `` A lot o f the women that we deal with in the documentary led very public lives , '' Atla s adds . `` The women in the fictional lead what would be called small lives . W e were always concerned if the balance would seem OK . Can the fictional family compare to ( birth control pioneer ) Margaret Sanger ? She was dealing on such a public level that impacts all of our lives and would some of the small concerns that we go through during the day hold up in the bigger world ? '' Documentarie s , Kopple says , `` have so much drama and passion what we were afraid , ` Woul d the fictional hold up to the documentary because the documentary is so strong ? ' Not until we got into the editing room did we see that yes , this is going t o work . '' `` A Century of Women '' airs Tuesday-Thursday on TBS ; all six hour s repeat June 18 . The last thing most kids want to do when they grow up is work 14-hour days with their dad . But Barry Van Dyke who co-stars in his father Dick Van Dyke 's `` D iagnosis Murder '' doesn't mind at all . `` I 'd work with him any time , '' say s Van Dyke , 42 , from his Conejo Valley , Calif. , home . He adds that his dad , long labeled one of Hollywood 's nicest actors , is `` the best to work with , very creative . He has a lot of integrity and he 'll work no matter what , incl uding physical discomfort . He set a fine example . We 've always talked about w orking together . '' On the CBS comedy-drama , where father and son act as fathe r and son , Van Dyke plays police investigator Steve Sloan , who often helps his physician and mystery-solver dad , Dr . Mark Sloan , get out of hot water . Pro ducers thought it would be easier if they made the local police investigator Slo an 's son . `` He doesn't really want to arrest his meddling dad , '' Van Dyke s ays , laughing . Of the Sloans ' relationship , he adds , `` It 's an easy role for me to fall into . My dad pretty much plays himself . You 're seeing the real him . All that warmth and humanity really comes across . So I tend to play myse lf . So their relationship is pretty much ours . '' While Van Dyke 's siblings o ne brother and two sisters all considered careers in show business , he was the only one who took it seriously . His father , well aware of the trappings of a f ickle industry , advised his oldest son to wait . `` He wanted me to have my chi ldhood , '' says Van Dyke . `` He told me that if I still wanted to act after I graduated high school , then it would be OK . '' Even though the family moved to Los Angeles when he was 9 for `` The Dick Van Dyke Show , '' he never felt they were part of the show-business community . `` My father didn't travel in those circles . We were aware he was on TV and watched the show and knew it was succes sful , but we didn't socialize with a lot of show-business types . '' Yet some o f Van Dyke 's best memories include visits to the set of his father 's show . Wa tching Carl Reiner , Mary Tyler Moore and his father work together was `` the gr eatest thing to see , '' he recalls . When his father worked on location , it be came the family vacation . Trips to England and Hawaii are remembered fondly . H e acknowledges that , initially , his father 's name may have helped him get an agent , but it certainly didn't help him get work . `` There 's too much at stak e for producers and casting directors to get you in on just a name , '' Van Dyke says . Eventually , it comes down to : `` You either perform or you don't . You work or you don't . '' And he worked , beginning as a `` go-fer '' on `` The Ne w Dick Van Dyke Show , '' shot at his father 's small production studio in Arizo na , where the elder Van Dyke had decided to `` retire '' before being persuaded to return to television . Dick 's son held cue cards , ran the transportation d epartment and basically gathered production experience . But he always wanted to be in front of the camera . Finally , he got his wish : He landed a job as an e xtra . More extra work and small parts followed . Then he got really lucky . He landed a development deal with ABC . Although initially pigeonholed in comedy , his father 's milieu , Van Dyke found he had more of an affinity for action-adve nture . Regular series work followed , including `` Battlestar Gallactica '' and `` Airwolf . '' And Van Dyke may be following in his father 's footsteps in mor e ways than one : He 's got his own family dynasty in the works . During his fir st foray into `` entertainment , '' Van Dyke took tickets at a local movie theat er , where he met his wife Mary , when they were both 16 . They married seven ye ars later , when Van Dyke was working as an extra . The Van Dykes have four chil dren : Carey , 18 ; Shane , 14 ; Wes , 9 , and Taryn , 7 . It seems his kids are eager to work with their dad too . The Van Dyke family , who surf and dirt-bike together , is hoping to start its own production company soon . `` Diagnosis Mu rder '' airs Fridays on CBS . One glimpse at the new `` Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle '' and you know that it 's a produ ct of Shelley Duvall ( `` Faerie Tale Theater , '' `` Bedtime Stories , '' `` Ta ll Tales and Legends '' ) . Based on the popular children 's stories by Betty Ma cDonald , `` Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle '' is filled with colorful , exaggerated sets wi th costumes and characters to match . Jean Stapleton stars as the eponymous lead character , a wise and loving lady who lives in an upside-down house and offers uncommon cures for such common childhood problems as `` The Not Truthful Cure , '' `` The Never Want to Go to Bedder 's Cure , '' `` The Fraidy Cat Cure '' and `` The Tattletale Cure . '' `` Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle , '' the fifth original serie s Duvall has done for Showtime , offers `` a wonderful , uninhibited creature , fearless and able to relate to children in a perfectly comfortable , uncondition al way , '' Stapleton says . Most of all , the actress notes , Mrs. Piggle-Wiggl e is child-like , but not childish . `` She has a great sense of humor , with a lot of common sense , '' Duvall adds . Not only was she drawn to the series of b ooks because they were hilarious but also because they offer great information f or families . Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle gets her message across without using the waggi ng finger . `` She never says , ` do this or do that , ' ' ' Duvall says . Throu gh suggestion , the errant children always `` end up understanding the right way on their own . '' As Stapleton puts it , `` She helps them see the light . '' T he hourlong `` Special Parents ' Sneak Peek '' of `` Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle '' airs Tuesday . Beginning June 14 , the show begins its regular time slot on Showtime . For ages 2 and up. -0- Beginning Monday , `` Storytime '' the award-winning se ries produced by KCET in Los Angeles , will be carried by PBS affiliates nationw ide . The show 's goal is to show how much fun reading can be , using new books and classic stories read aloud by celebrities . Many read to their own children , as well as to members of the kid audience . `` What 's great is that everyone is passionate about one story that 's their favorite , '' notes producer Steve K ulczycki . He hopes that the show can encourage youngsters to find a favorite of their own . `` A lot of the show depends on the imagination of the kids , '' he says . `` Maybe parents will do some reading with their own kids , too . '' Cel ebrity readers include Tom Selleck , Mariel Hemingway , John Goodman , Shari Bel afonte , A Martinez , Paul Rodriguez , Edward James Olmos , Fred Savage , Cloris Leachman , Valerie Bertinelli , Paula Poundstone , John Ritter , Patricia Richa rdson , Cindy Williams , Amanda Plummer , Mayim Bialik , Meshach Taylor , Regina ld Veljohnson , Maria Conchita Alonso and Hector Elizondo . Puppet Kino and host Mara ( Marabina Jaimes ) are joined by a new co-host named Lucy ( Anne Betancou rt ) . Lucy adds a grandmother-like appeal , Kulczycki points out . Twenty new s hows have been added to the original 20 , which will be presented in rotation na tionally . The 67 new readings bring the total of books read on the show to 137 . On June 20 , Charles Dutton of `` Roc '' hosts a prime-time `` Storytime '' sp ecial . Dutton reads `` Muckey Moose , '' and Jamie Lee Curtis reads her own boo k , `` When I Was Little . '' The special will feature excerpts from the new sho ws . `` Storytime '' airs daily . For ages 2 and up . Arts & Entertainment 's 7-year-old `` Biography '' series has developed into th e most popular show on the cable channel that offers an eclectic mix of document aries , British mysteries and drama , arts programming and vintage movies . `` B iography '' has become so successful over the last 18 months that last week the series went from airing once a week to five times a week . Michael Cascio , vice president of documentary programming , explains why he believes the series , ho sted by Peter Graves and Jack Perkins , has become an audience favorite : `` Whe re a big network might give you 10 minutes on a person , we will give you a whol e hour , '' he says . `` You get detail . That 's one thing we can do that the o ther people can't . I think the reason why ` Biography ' succeeds is that it liv es on the name of the persons being profiled . If you do an Alfred Hitchcock or Margaret Thatcher or Hillary Clinton or John Belushi , these are people whom eve rybody knows who they are . They have an interesting life and can sustain detail that can last for an hour . Generally , you look for people who are popular and have a little bit of weight behind them . '' The type and era of personalities the series chooses have evolved since the series premiered April 6 , 1987 . Orig inally , most of the biographies were culled from the '60s Mike Wallace-hosted C BS series , also entitled `` Biography . '' These days , `` Biography '' profile s more than recent historical figures . `` We have covered a lot of historical f igures from the '30s and '40s Churchill and Roosevelt . We will still do some of those . But we have gone way forward . We have just done Sid Caesar and Milton Berle . We have done Madonna and Elizabeth Taylor . '' Because production techni ques have become so sophisticated , `` Biography '' also can examine the lives o f such not-so-recent historical figures as Ulysses S . Grant , George Washington and Davy Crockett . `` You can go back in time and use drawings and paintings , '' Cascio says . `` We can have some fun . There are a lot of people that you c an choose that are going to have audience appeal . The range is phenomenal . We have so much fun figuring out who we want to do . '' `` Biography '' aspires to give viewers a fresh look at a particular person . `` You have an obligation to the public , '' Cascio says . `` We are not sensationalized . We are not tabloid . Our goal is fairness not to highlight the bad stuff or just dwell on the good parts . It 's to present a balanced portrait of a person or a particular portra it . Generally speaking , the biography is meant to deal with people in all of t heir aspects and look at them as a whole , which is more difficult to do than yo u might think . '' ( Optional add end ) Members of the Hollywood community have become more receptive about participating in the series . `` You can do anything , '' Cascio says . `` We can do a biography , but it 's difficult to do not imp ossible without ( the subject 's ) direct approval . Even if they don't talk , t hey can say to their friends , ` Don't talk to them . ' When we told Sid Caesar we were doing this , he had a choice of cooperating or not , and he cooperated . He knows his life has had ups and downs . He said , ` It 's better for me to co operate and give you my side of the story rather than have a bunch of people tel ling stuff they don't know about. ' ' ' Famous folks , Cascio says , also percei ve the documentaries as a way to leave a legacy . ` I 'm sure that for Milton Be rle , aside from the fact he 's a natural ham , this was a chance to get on reco rd his life in an hour . '' And what have been the highest-rated `` Biography '' subjects ? Elizabeth Taylor , Milton Berle , Bruce Lee , Shirley Temple and How ard Hughes . `` Right below that there is a surprising middle pack including Nap oleon and Vincent Price , '' Cascio says . A&E plans to produce between 70 and 1 00 original biographies this year , including John Belushi , Sherlock Holmes ( ` ` We can do fictional people as well , '' Cascio says ) , Steve Allen , Davy Cro ckett , George Washington and Lucille Ball . `` Biography '' airs twice weeknigh ts on A&E . Several `` Biography '' documentaries are also available on A&E Home Video . NEW YORK Outside Henry Bookbinders , the street is polyglot and polychrome : a wonderful collision of languages spoken by men and women of every hue , multicol ored storefronts and awnings awash in alphabets and ideograms whose messages run in every direction . Inside the bindery , it 's only a bit less so : Two alphab ets predominate , Hebrew and Roman , and two languages , Yiddish and English alt hough there 's a smattering of medical Latin on some of the pages as well . Shul em Halpert , Henry 's proprietor , speaks English with the pronounced accent and imperfect grammar that marks those for whom it is a second language . It theref ore comes as something of a surprise to learn that he is American-born . `` I co me from America , '' he says . `` My father came from Hungary . English is for m e a second language . I learn it in school ; also , I catch it from the streets . '' His first language , and the one most used for communication in the shop , is Yiddish . Halpert is a Satmar Hasid , a member of a sect so strict and inward -looking that it exists in enclaves . The nearest is in Williamsburg , where Hal pert was born and grew up . Another enclave is Kiryas Joel , a Satmar community in Monroe , N.Y. , where Halpert moved 19 years ago , and where he still lives w ith his wife and those of his 16 children who are as yet unmarried . He is 45 ye ars old , looks quite a bit younger , and already has eight grandchildren . ( Be gin optional trim ) Halpert is an intense and voluble man with an aggressive sen se of humor . `` I like a joke , '' he says . `` Even a Jewish joke you know , a joke that makes fun of someone ? As long as it is not meant to hurt . As long a s the person is a friend . '' Bookbinding is a second career for Halpert . His f irst was as shammes for the Grand Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum , who led the Satmar unt il he was succeeded , in the dynastic tradition of the movement , by a nephew . Halpert cannot find a term in English that matches shammes . `` I help him , '' he says of the rebbe , Yiddish for rabbi . `` He was an old man . Before I was m arried I stayed with him I helped him eat , dress . I write things . He was a re al rebbe . Not a phony baloney . Everybody liked him like a father . '' His expe rience with the printed word then was restricted to parchment . `` Really , I wa s an artist , '' he says . `` I wrote the parchments , the mezuzah , the scrolls . '' But after the rebbe 's death about 15 years ago , he decided to come to th e bindery , which was then run by his brother 's father-in-law , Itzak Glanz . ( End optional trim ) Henry Bookbinders is precisely what the name says , a place that binds books . It does not print them , publish them , sell or distribute t hem . Customers must supply the text ; Halpert supplies the outside . Some of th e outsides are probably at least as satisfying and instructive as the material t hey shelter . Halpert does very nice work with some very nice leathers . These e xceed the chromatic variety of the street outside : They are blue , green , crea m , red , yellow , maroon , white and brown of many shades . Pretty much everyth ing is done at least in part by hand . For instance , Halpert stitches the books together with the aid of a big , foot-operated sewing machine . He takes a stac k of loose pages about a quarter-inch high , sets them in place and steps on a t readle . A bank of threaded needles descends to sew the pages together . The sew n batches are folded and fastened into covers held down in presses until the glu e dries . Leather is hand work , and the tools Halpert produces for a demonstrat ion speak eloquently of how long Henry Bookbinders has been going about its busi ness : Halpert hones an old kitchen knife ( whose blunt , broken blade had been all but worn away in past sharpenings ) on a whetstone that was once the size of a pound of butter . Now it is down to the equivalent of perhaps nine ounces . H alpert sets a scrap of leather on a granite slab whose once-sharp edge has been dulled by long wear . He takes a board , the cardboard that stiffens the cover o f a hardbound book , and traces one corner onto the back of the leather . He cut s a generous triangle around this corner and bevels the edges with the razor-sha rp knife . When he has the leather slimmed down to his satisfaction , he fits it to the corner and , using a flat , round-cornered rectangle of plastic called a bone , bends the leather over the board and glues it down in a neat bedsheet co rner , with Elmer 's glue . This is a leather corner ; Halpert will also bind or rebind books entirely , or partially , in leather . He will also put hubs , tho se horizontal raised bands , on the spine . It is the labor , not the material , that makes leather binding expensive , Halpert says . He always has a selection of leather on hand for customers , but occasionally someone will come in with h is or her own piece of leather . `` Someone brought me an old leather briefcase once , '' Halpert says . `` It had belonged to his great-grandfather . He wanted to make a book from it , to save something . '' Halpert offers a choice of endp apers to liven the insides of the covers , and also will decorate the page edges . This he does with a sponge and inks of various colors , dipping and dabbing t o give the blank edges an interesting design . You also can have the edges gilde d but Halpert sends this work out to a specialist in Soho . Most of the books th at leave Henry Bookbinders are less elegantly clad in what the trade calls libra ry binding buckram , or imitation leather , or fabric , in the unadorned style f amiliar from library shelves . Halpert uses a stamping press to print the titles on the spines of these books in plain gold block letters . In the past , Halper t says , Henry Bookbinders was quite well known in the city as a binder of city documents . The company did a great deal of work that wound up in the libraries of city hospitals . `` A lot of journals , medical books , magazines , '' Halper t says . ( Optional add end ) Lawyers , too , are among Henry 's clients ; the b etter-off ones use a roomful of leather to impress laymen with their prowess . H e takes on other projects as well , such as an order from a television productio n company that wanted hardbound pocket folders to hold documents , perhaps press releases . The production company was talking in terms of 650 folders , an orde r that did not faze Halpert . `` I can do this , '' he says . `` I 'm ready to w ork . I make things fast . I have good hands . '' Still , he gives the clear imp ression that he often would rather be back in Kiryas Joel , where there is no te levision , no radio , no newspaper except the one published in the community , n othing but the religion that has shaped him since birth . `` Now , '' he says , looking around his office with an uneasy smile , `` Now I want to go out from th is . '' PROVIDENCE , R.I. . You 're within earshot of the biggest bell ever cast at Pau l Revere 's workshop , not far from an Ivy League university , and in a seaport where the streets practically teem with history . Back in Colonial days , the ci ty hosted a tea party of sorts , destroying a shipment of leaves as a protest ag ainst the stiff tax imposed by the British government . It might sound like Bost on , but this is Providence , the biggest city in little Rhode Island . Surround ing the gleaming marble dome of the Rhode Island Statehouse , Providence packs p lenty of variety . Here you 'll find one of New England 's best zoos , a Little Italy atop Federal Hill , some picture-perfect parks , and what they say is the first shopping mall in the country the Arcade , built in 1828 . But the true ple asures of Providence lie on the city 's East Side , on the hillside settled more than 350 years ago by founder Roger Williams and his followers . Back in 1635 , Williams was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his dangerous ideas which included the radical concept that Indians had a right to the land on whic h they had lived for millennia . Williams left one jump ahead of a group of sold iers sent to arrest him , and eventually he made his way up the Providence River to a spring , where he established a community based on religious tolerance . H ere on the patch of Providence now known as College Hill , today 's visitor will find little evidence of Williams ' original community it was nearly destroyed i n 1676 during the Indian uprising called King Philip 's War . Now College Hill i s crowned by Brown University , and the surrounding streets are a treasury of ea rly American architecture . In addition to hundreds of historic homes , there 's the Cambridge-style stretch of Thayer Street , with its ethnic restaurants , bo okstores open late into the night , vintage clothing shops and a host of places to buy CDs , tapes or records . And there are the artsy , gallery-dotted environ s of the Rhode Island School of Design and the peaceful oasis of the Providence Athenaeum , one of the country 's oldest public libraries with a quintessential reading room that has yet to be discovered by a Hollywood location scout . Colle ge Hill is a walker 's domain , a part of Providence that seems more town than c ity . It 's built on a human scale , with few buildings topping off at more than four stories . Trees line the streets , and sidewalk gardens send flowery scent s into the air . Here and there , Colonial-era clapboard houses frame a distant vista of the Statehouse dome , the downtown high-rises , or the steeple of some stately church . Urban hikers on College Hill are rewarded with one discovery af ter another as the picture of Providence unreels along the city 's sidewalks . S tart on Benefit Street , along the so-called `` Mile of History , '' setting out from the First Baptist Church on North Main Street at the foot of College Hill . Head north on what was once an old Indian trail , a pathway along which the Pe quots or the Wampanoags may have portaged their canoes . Benefit Street is now o ne fine home after another , a long parade of well-restored houses from the 18th and 19th centuries . Along the city 's most famous historic thoroughfare are Fe deral-style houses and Greek Revival manses , Italianate-style homes and gambrel -roofed Colonials . It 's a riot of clapboards , pediments and pilasters in an E aster-egg assortment of pinks and pale yellows , mustards , grays , tans and bro wns one house is even painted the color of a pumpkin . Many homes are the legacy of Providence 's long association with the sea . Many residents were shipping m agnates , importing treasures from the Orient or engaged in the notorious triang le trade shuffling rum , molasses and slaves between Africa , the Caribbean and New England . The houses show how lucrative the trade was . Throughout Benefit S treet 's mile run , the architectural integrity borders on the hermetic . Almost nothing detracts from the sense of the past . Benefit Street 's historic homes were rescued from the depths of decline many of the old homes had become crumbli ng tenements beginning in the 1950s . The success of the neighborhood restoratio n effort kindled pride enough to encourage the Providence Preservation Society t o host , for the past 14 years , an annual Festival of Historic Houses . But Ben efit Street is not the city 's only historic highway . After walking to the corn er of Jenckes Street , where residents have barricaded their houses with stones against the danger of runaway trucks coasting down the San Francisco-style hills ide , you could turn uphill for a few blocks before turning right onto Prospect Street . The houses along this ledge-top patrician way represent the high point of Providence living . These stately houses , built by some of the city 's wealt hiest residents in the latter 19th century , boast landscapes decorated with per ennial gardens , clipped hedges , magnolia trees and rhododendrons . Along the w ay , take a one-block jaunt down Cushing Street and stop at Prospect Terrace . H ere are panoramic views of the city skyline and an oddly posed statue of founder Roger Williams , looking eternally ready to disco off toward the setting sun . ( Optional add end ) Back on Prospect , a few blocks bring you to the imposing d ome of the Christian Scientist Church and the greenswards of Brown University . Here you might head toward Thayer Street , the city 's four-block mecca for Gene ration X hipsters . Another locus of activity lies along the southern end of Col lege Hill , where cafes and restaurants line a stretch of Wickenden Street . Or head back downhill , toward Benefit Street and the mighty steeple of the First B aptist Church . Head south on Benefit , to the Providence Athenaeum , a library that traces its roots to 1753 . The library , now housed in a temple that appear s transplanted from Greece , offers peaceful respite among the antique desks and chairs , the marble busts , the paintings and the quiet alcoves where Edgar All an Poe courted Providence poetess Sarah Helen Whitman 150 years ago . With a lit tle luck , you might get a look at one of the library 's greatest treasures the seven volumes of the original double Elephant Folio edition of John James Audubo n 's `` Birds Of America . '' These eye-popping illustrations each almost 6 feet square are kept in a special climate-controlled locked vault along with other p recious works , such as the Athenaeum 's incredible selection of travel and expl oration books and its collection of works by Robert Burns . Many of these histor ic treasures can be traced to the library 's astute forebears the very patrons w ho left evidence of their discerning tastes and genteel manners all over College Hill . Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service . We were sitting around the other day talking about lard and I mentioned my favo rite duck `` chicharrones '' duck skin cooked until the bits of skin are crisp a nd brown in the rendered fat . That sounds great , someone said , but what do yo u do with the rest of the duck ? Well , you could have knocked me over with a ta il feather . There is so much you can do with a duck that I hardly knew where to start . If , as the old saying goes , you can use every part of the pig but the squeal , think of a duck as a pig built for two . To prove my point , I decided to stop at a local Asian market to get a nice fresh duck . The good thing about Asian markets is that the ducks are sold with the heads and feet still on . Tha t 's nice because the feet add a lot to the stock , and with the heads on , you get the full neck , which is loaded with good fat . The thing to check , though , is the cavity . Sometimes the butcher might happen to kind of accidentally for get to leave in the liver strictly an accident , you understand , but a near-cri minal offense in my book . If you 've ever tasted a terrine made from duck liver s or even duck livers just lightly sauteed in butter you 'll know why . They 're like Little League foie gras . Rinse the duck well , then strip away the skin a nd any fat and cut them into roughly two-inch squares or strips . Put these in a pan with about one-quarter cup of water and cook over medium heat . Pretty soon , the water will evaporate and all you 'll have left is rendered duck fat ( the liquid will start to sizzle when this happens ) . Cook it until the skin bits t urn dark-brown , then retrieve them with a slotted spoon and drain them on paper towels . Let the fat cool , then pour it through a strainer into a glass contai ner . The skin cracklings , or chicharrones , are terrific lightly salted kind o f like popcorn from cardiac hell . For the more cautious , they can be used as a garnish . They 're also wonderful folded into an omelet , but don't tell them y ou heard it here . The duck fat you 've just rendered is one of the best cooking mediums around , with a wonderful brown flavor . I love to fry potato pancakes in it . The next step is to remove the two duck breasts . Using just the point o f a very sharp knife , trace the line where the keel bone separates the breasts . Lift up gently and continue tracing the line where the breast meat meets the r ibs . When it is free , remove it to a plate , cover it with plastic wrap and re peat on the other side . The breasts are wonderful broiled , grilled or sauteed in a very hot skillet . And by serving them separate from the legs , you can coo k them to only medium-rare , thus keeping them juicy and flavorful . ( If you co oked the duck with the legs , of course , you would have to have rare-rare legs to get a medium-rare breast , and that would be very unpleasant . ) Remove the l egs from the frame and set them aside . Take off the feet and wings and put them in a roasting pan . Chop the remaining bones into four or five pieces and add t hem to the feet and wings . Toss in a peeled whole onion and a carrot and roast at 450 degrees 30 to 45 minutes or until everything starts to brown and smell re ally good . Using a slotted spoon to leave as much fat as possible behind , remo ve the browned bones and vegetables to a large saucepan . Cover well with water , add some parsley stems and whatever else you like in a poultry stock , and let it cook over medium-high heat for a couple of hours . Top off with water as nec essary . When the stock is deeply colored , ladle it off into a separate , clean saucepan . At this point you will have a delicious , intensely flavored stock . Either add a little more water to use it as a base for a duck soup ( nothing ea sier ) , or set it to cook over a low flame and reduce it to a demi-glace , or d uck jelly . The only thing left is the duck legs . These are tendon-y and a bit tough but very flavorful . Put them in a shallow pan with a little duck stock . Cook , covered , over medium heat for about 20 minutes . Test with a small sharp knife . It should slip into the meat fairly easily . Let the legs cool , then r emove the meat . Shred the meat into strips . ( If you 're still cooking the sto ck , throw in the leg bones . What can it hurt ? ) This meat is great in salads , as part of a filling for stuffed pastas or even for sandwiches . Do a couple o f ducks and you 'll have enough to make duck sausage , if you 're that ambitious . What 's the bottom line ? Out of one 5-pound duck , I got three cups of duck fat , two cups of duck cracklings , two duck breasts ( about pound each ) , fiv e cups of concentrated duck stock ( enough for two quarts of soup , or 2 cups of stiff duck demi-glace ) , and 1 cups cooked , shredded meat from the legs . And that 's what you can do with a duck . I had duck ; I had arugula . How to bring them together ? I wasn't sure what my dressing would be until I opened the plas tic bag of lettuce . The intensely nutty smell of the arugula reminded me of ses ame oil , so I put together this Asian-influenced dressing . DUCK SALAD 1 cups c ooked , minced duck leg meat from 5-pound duck Duck Dressing 4 cups arugula , co arsely chopped 1 cup duck chicharrones , coarsely chopped from of skin of 5-pou nd duck Toss together minced duck and Duck Dressing in medium work bowl until du ck is coated well . Add arugula and toss until lightly coated and well mixed wit h duck . Divide among 4 chilled plates and sprinkle chopped duck chicharrones ov er top . Makes 4 servings . Each serving contains about : 787 calories ; 608 mg sodium ; 160 mg cholesterol ; 73 grams fat ; 2 grams carbohydrates ; 28 grams pr otein ; 0.1 gram fiber . Duck Dressing cup lightly warmed duck demi-glace 1 tab lespoon hoisin sauce 2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar 1 teaspoon soy sauce 2 teaspo ons finely minced green onions , green part only Combine demi-glace , hoisin sau ce , vinegar , soy sauce and green onion in small work bowl and whisk until smoo th . It 's October and Sheila Lukins is feeling harassed . Her first solo book is su pposed to be published in April , and the galley proofs have just come back from the copy editors with a thousand questions still to be answered . What size tom ato ? What kind of apple ? How much does that fennel bulb weigh ? Now she has to go to a market , buy a bulb of fennel and weigh it . Her physical therapist is coming by four times a week to work on the muscles she screwed up by not walking correctly after a stroke . And she still has to find the time to pack for a qui ck trip to Paris to visit her daughter . On top of that , she 's worried about h ow the book will be received . Just last spring her one-time business partner an d former co-author Julee Rosso put out a solo book , `` Great Good Food , '' and got trashed in the press . Rosso , who pocketed an advance reported to be $ 625 ,000 , insisted that she and four assistants tested 1,500 recipes in 10 months t o select the 800 used in the book . Her detractors said that was impossible . No matter , Crown Publishing willn't talk specifics but reveals that the thick pap erback of low-fat recipes has been a fast seller : Since last April the book has sold about 500,000 copies . So was the book really that bad , or was it a matte r of the food establishment the `` Food Mafia , '' as many call it taking sides in the professional divorce of a couple that helped change the way America eats ? In 1977 , the dynamic duo Lukins the caterer and Rosso the marketer co-founded the Silver Palate in Manhattan , one of the first gourmet take-out shops in the country . The highfalutin home cooking they pioneered contributed to a radical change in baby boomer eating habits . Sauteed chicken livers with blueberry vine gar , caviar eclairs , pizza pot pie and pesto by the quart were suddenly the ra ge from Boca Raton , Fla. , to Bellingham , Wash. . To date , their three Silver Palate cookbooks have sold more than 5 million copies . By the time the partner ship ended , shortly after the sale of their shop in 1988 , the pair were barely speaking . `` We were great friends , '' says Lukins , `` It 's over now . '' A fter the breakup , Rosso moved to Michigan and discovered yogurt cheese , while Lukins began traveling and researching her `` All Around the World Cookbook '' f or Workman , the publishers of the original Silver Palate books . `` I wish with all my heart that Julee 's book had been nicely received because everyone is go ing to want to see how the other one did , '' Lukins says . `` I 'm sure I 'll b e scrutinized plenty. .. . And I did not get a huge advance ! '' But make a few calls to key people in the food world and you 'll find no one filing their nails in anticipation of the Lukins release , as they did with Rosso 's book . Lukins , who is 51 , suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage in 1991 and , according to Pat Adrian , who buys books for the Book of the Month Club , the `` Food Mafia '' rushed to be loyal to her . It took two operations and weeks of therapy befor e Lukins was able to leave a wheelchair . `` I 'm happy not to be dead , '' she says . `` A lot of people were jealous of both women for a long time , '' says A drian . `` ( Blasting Rosso 's book ) should have been a great chatty lunch at L a Cirque rather than ( the media event ) it ended up being . After all , it 's j ust a cookbook . It 's not going to change the world . '' Lukins is hoping the w orld is ready for Peloponnesian lamb shanks and Moroccan marmalade , but she 's not sure . Her publisher thinks so it has announced a first printing of 350,000 , believed to be a record for a cookbook . `` A huge amount of my pride is invol ved in this book , '' says Lukins . `` I just didn't want this book to be anothe r clone ( of the others ) . Those books are great , fun , and fine but they are what they are . I wanted to do something different . '' Yet , the book is unmist akably in the Silver Palate format , down to the little drawings ( although Luki ns wasn't the illustrator on this book , as she was on the others ) and boxed si debars . Even the ethnic-inspired recipes are reinterpreted for the American kit chen , in Silver Palate fashion . There are very few ingredients called for in t he book that aren't readily available in Omaha , Neb . But then Lukins did not i ntend to go around the world and bring back the strictly authentic recipes of ea ch country . Instead , she took the best of what she found and created food . Lu kins developed her cooking ability when her husband , Richard , who ran a securi ty business , was transferred to England . A bored housewife , Lukins enrolled i n cooking classes at Le Cordon Bleu to occupy her time . The following year , Ri chard was transferred to Paris , and Lukins signed up for more classes . `` That 's the way to learn , '' she says . `` In Paris I took cooking lessons and Fren ch lessons during the day and then cooked for my darling husband at night . '' B ack in New York and raising two daughters in the Dakota Apartments , a bachelor in the building called one night in a panic . He had invited a group over for di nner and the superintendent 's wife , who usually cooked for him when he had gue sts , was on vacation . `` I said , ` Don't worry , I 'll cook you dinner , '' ' Lukins remembers . `` So as was the fashion in the mid- '60s , I cooked moussak a , a Greek salad , some stuffed grape leaves and sent it over . I charged him $ 50 plus the cost of the food . He ended up with a great dinner and I wound up w ith $ 50 . '' She also wound up with a new career . One of the guests at the bac helor 's dinner party was Gael Greene , restaurant critic for New York magazine . Greene loved the party food and mentioned it to her friend , Joan Kron , who i mmediately called Ellen Stern , who at the time wrote the `` Best Bets '' column for the magazine . `` It was New York telephone at its best , '' says Lukins no w . `` Ellen Stern ran a half-page picture of me and my kitchen with a headline : ` Eat , Drink and Be Murray . '' ' The article portrayed Lukins as a bachelor 's best cook . `` I got 200 calls from single men , '' she says . Six months lat er , the Other Woman Catering Co. was born . A year later , Lukins teamed up wit h Julee Rosso to open the Silver Palate . The two met when Rosso , an advertisin g executive for Burlington , hired Lukins to cater a press breakfast introducing Oleg Cassini sheets . In April , when `` Sheila Lukins Around the World Cookboo k '' is about to hit the stores , Lukins ' mood has lifted considerably . She 's almost giddy . Vanity Fair has just printed a flattering article on her . A wee k later , when Lukins ' book comes out , it 's already received its first review . Cook 's Illustrated tested 30 recipes from the 450 in the book . Its verdict : `` We were underwhelmed . '' Plus , the reviewer brought up the Rosso book in the first paragraph . Afterward Lukins is subdued and never mentions the story . But she wonders aloud if her name will be linked with Rosso 's forever . `` Wil l anyone ever write a story about me without mentioning her ? '' she asks . `` I know everyone will compare the two books , '' says Nach Waxman , owner of Kitch en Arts and Letters bookstore , gossip central to the New York food world . `` T he Julee business will do no good for Sheila 's book . '' Lukins has been around a long time , though , and she 's philosophical about the world of cookbook pub lishing . `` When you put yourself before the public and say , ` this is my work , here it is , '' ' she says , `` I think they look hard . '' With her book in the stores and more reviews to come , Lukins can only wait and see what the cons ensus on her solo project will be . And maybe , a few books from now , her work will be reviewed without the mentions of her past life as half of a famous `` fo odie couple . '' For now , she is content in the knowledge that she has done the best book she could .. . on her own . Getting there Stay on I-195 until you see the sign for downtown Providence . Ta ke a right off the exit , continue through a traffic light and bear left . Pass the Biltmore Hotel . At City Hall , take a left and cross Kennedy Plaza to the f oot of College Hill . Park near the First Baptist Church , the huge , high-steep led church across the Providence River . Historic houses The Providence Preserva tion Society Festival of Historic Houses takes place June 3 to 5 . Tours include a candlelight walk through the colonial revival houses of Power and Cooke stree ts ; a house and garden tour on Prospect Street ; and a trolley tour through sev eral historic districts . There also are lectures - one on lansdscaping for hist oric properties and another on the restoration of the 1792 Nightingale-Brown hou se . Tickets for the candlelight and house and garden tours are $ 18.50 ; for th e trolley tour , $ 12.50 . Lecture tickets are $ 5 . For more information , writ e the Providence Preservation Society , 21 Meeting St. , Providence , RI 02903 , or call ( 401 ) 831-7440 . Walking tours Pamphlets for self-guided walking tour s are available at the Providence Preservation Society and at the Roger Williams National Memorial , ( 401 ) 521-7266 , on North Main Street . Information Great er Providence Convention & Visitors Bureau , 30 Exchange Terrace , Providence , RI 02903 , or call ( 401 ) 274-1636 . LOS ANGELES There was a time when Abraham Almorade would have been quarantined by the U.S. government , exiled to a life that excluded all except those who sha red his mysterious and feared condition . Today , he need only visit a clinic fo r medication and kinship , but his burden is by no means slight . Almorade , 65 , has Hansen 's disease known since biblical times as leprosy a difficult-to-tra nsmit bacterial ailment that attacks body tissue and is controlled by medication . It has slowly eroded his body since he was diagnosed in the 1950s , covering his skin with sores and leaving his nose deformed as the cartilage collapsed . S itting in an examination room recently at Los Angeles County-University of South ern California Medical Center , where a clinic has served Hansen 's patients sin ce 1973 , Almorade discussed his condition . Hansen 's disease has robbed his ha nds of sensation , making it difficult to feel routine cuts , burns and scrapes . Without feeling , such accidents have become major health risks and over the y ears have reduced Almorade 's fingers to stumps . As a precaution , he no longer performs tasks that might injure him , such as cooking or cutting . `` I have t o protect my hands , '' said Almorade , a retired soldier from the Philippines . `` They were always numb with no sense at all and I didn't want to hurt them . I don't cook anymore. I just eat . '' He is one of about 500 Hansen 's disease p atients who visit the Los Angeles clinic regularly . Roughly 500 additional pati ents are served by clinics in San Diego and San Francisco . `` Leprosy is still very common around the world , '' said Dr. John Leedon , head of infectious dise ases at County-USC . The World Health Organization estimated that in 1991 there were more than 5.5 million cases worldwide , down from more than 10 million in t he 1980s . A 1992 article in the journal Clinical Dermatology , however , said t here were between 10 million and 15 million patients worldwide , most in Africa and India , and about 6,000 in the United States , primarily in Texas and Louisi ana . `` The figures differ depending on how you count them , '' said Dr. John T rautman of the National Hansen 's Disease Center in Carville , La. . `` The Worl d Health Organization doesn't count patients who have completed drug treatment . In the U.S. , we ( do ) . '' Scientists believe the disease is transmitted only by prolonged , close contact with someone who is infected , although its precis e route into the body is not known . It causes a `` significant disability '' in about 30 percent of those infected , said Dr. Thomas Rea , a dermatologist who heads the clinic at County-USC . Still , most of the clinic 's patients function normally day to day , often wearing long sleeves and explaining away their sore s as bug bites and other minor maladies . They are all ages , although most are adults . Some have jobs , spouses and children . And all visit the clinic period ically to work with doctors at controlling their symptoms . Rea said the disease and its treatment have changed over the years , but that the image of Hansen 's disease patients has changed little . `` There 's quite a stigma associated wit h the disease , '' he said . `` The idea of the patient being outcast , unclean and the lowest of the low , those things are reinforced in the Bible . Despite t he efforts of the informed , cultural values seem to change very , very slowly . '' ( Optional Add End ) The biblical stigma remains so great that the emotional ly loaded terms `` leper '' and `` leprosy '' are no longer used . In 13th centu ry France , more than 2,000 facilities were built to house sufferers rounded up by the government during an epidemic . As late as the 1930s , those with the dis ease in China were sometimes burned . And in the United States , laws existed in the early 1900s that allowed authorities to arrest patients . Most were sent to so-called `` leper colonies , '' the most famous of which was established on th e Hawaiian island of Molokai in the 19th century . Most of the colonies have bee n closed . The National Hansen 's Disease Center , located for almost a century in Carville , Calif. , is believed to be the only residential treatment center s till operating in the United States . Though leprosy , now known as Hansen 's disease , has existed since ancient tim es , it wasn't until the early part of this century that treatment other than qu arantine was discovered . Named for the Norwegian physician who pinpointed the b acteria in 1873 , Hansen 's disease attacks body tissue slowly , and symptoms ca n take several years to appear . Left untreated , it can cause skin sores and di scoloration , pain , blindness and accidental mutilation caused by loss of feeli ng in the limbs . It is still not completely understood by scientists . Despite its reputation as highly contagious , scientists now believe it can be transmitt ed only by repeated , long-term , human-to-human contact with a carrier . But ev idence that Hansen 's also can afflict armadillos may suggest unknown transmissi on routes , according to researchers . Treatment is still developing , said Dr. Thomas Rea , a dermatologist who heads the Hansen 's disease clinic at Los Angel es County-USC Medical Center . In the 1950s , the drug dapsone stopped the sprea d of the disease by halting the bacteria 's ability to multiply . But it did not kill the bacteria that already existed , and scientists soon found patients who were resistant to dapsone . In the 1970s , multi-drug therapy was recommended b y the World Health Organization . This worked so well that the organization decl ared a goal to cure Hansen 's disease worldwide by 2000 . But Rea doubts the goa l will be reached . Belgian scientist S.R. Pattyn released a study recently show ing a 20 percent relapse rate after 10 years of multi-drug therapy , Rea said . `` Even the most die-hard optimist would admit that 's not acceptable , '' he sa id . More effective drugs were discovered in 1990 , but Rea said they are expens ive and have not yet been proven safe . Though most cases are imported into the United States , stopping the inflow has proven difficult . Patients are supposed to receive treatment before entering the United States , said Dr. John Trautman of the National Hansen 's Disease Center , but the long incubation period and l ack of a simple detection method makes the disease hard to spot . When Sheila Lukins was asked to name her favorite recipe in her book , without hesitating she answered , `` Peloponnesian lamb shanks . '' She recommends servi ng them with orzo or a vegetable couscous . The fresh mint stirred in just befor e serving adds not only color but great flavor . SPICED PELOPONNESIAN LAMB SHANK S 4 ( 1-pound ) lamb shanks 1 teaspoon coarse salt 1 teaspoon coarsely ground bl ack pepper 3 tablespoons olive oil 1 medium onion , cut in half lengthwise and s livered 1 cup beef broth 1 cup dry red wine 2 tablespoons honey 4 large cloves g arlic , lightly bruised 2 ( 3-inch-long ) cinnamon sticks 4 fresh sage leaves Da sh ground cloves 1 cup seeded and coarsely chopped ripe plum tomatoes 1 cups pit ted prunes cup chopped fresh mint leaves Sprinkle lamb shanks with salt and pep per . Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in large heavy casserole over medium heat . A dd shanks , 2 at time , and saute until well browned , about 8 minutes per side . Remove lamb and pour off fat . Add remaining 1 tablespoon oil to casserole and place over low heat . Add onion and cook , stirring occasionally , until tender , about 10 minutes . Return lamb shanks to casserole . Add beef broth , red win e , honey , garlic , cinnamon sticks , sage and cloves . Bring to boil . Cover c asserole and bake at 350 degrees until meat is soft , about 1 hour . Stir in cho pped tomatoes and prunes and cook uncovered until both are blended into sauce , about 45 minutes longer . Before serving , stir in fresh mint . Makes 4 servings . Each serving contains about : 687 calories ; 916 mg sodium ; 118 mg cholester ol ; 33 grams fat ; 59 grams carbohydrates ; 34 grams protein ; 1.96 grams fiber . -0- Lukins first came across the Indonesian version of chicken noodle soup in Banjarmasin , South Kalimantan ( Borneo ) , where cinnamon and cardamom are ess ential ingredients . This is her interpretation . INDONESIAN CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP ( Soto Banjar ) 4 cups chicken broth 3 cups water 4 large flat-leaf parsley spr igs 2 fresh cilantro sprigs , roots and stems lightly crushed 1 whole chicken br east , rinsed well 3 medium waxy potatoes , peeled and cut into -inch cubes pou nd shallots 4 large cloves garlic 3 tablespoons olive oil 1 tablespoon fresh gin ger , peeled and minced 1 teaspoon ground cardamom 1 ( 3-inch-long ) cinnamon st ick Coarse salt Freshly ground pepper 2 cups cooked angel hair pasta 3 hard-boil ed eggs , quartered cup fresh cilantro leaves 1 lime , thinly sliced Combine ch icken broth , water , parsley and cilantro sprigs in medium-sized soup pot . Bri ng to boil . Add chicken breast . Reduce heat and simmer , partially covered , u ntil chicken is just cooked through , about 30 minutes . Do not boil . Remove ch icken and let cool slightly . Shred meat from bones in 1x-inch pieces , discardi ng skin and bones . Set aside covered . Strain broth and return to pot . Add pot atoes to broth . Cut half shallots and half garlic lengthwise into very thin sli ces . Heat oil in medium-sized non-stick skillet over low heat . Add sliced shal lots and garlic and cook stirring , until lightly golden and crisp , about 10 mi nutes . Remove with slotted spoon to paper towels to drain . Reserve for garnish . Finely mince remaining shallots , garlic and ginger together with cardamom . Add to skillet and cook uncovered , stirring over low heat until aromatic , 3 to 4 minutes . Add shallot mixture to broth along with cinnamon stick and salt and pepper to taste . Cook covered over medium heat until potatoes are tender , 12 to 15 minutes . Remove potatoes from broth with slotted spoon . To assemble , la y out shallow soup or pasta bowls . Arrange chicken , pasta , eggs and potatoes in section in each bowl , to make 4 wedges . Heat broth until piping hot . Adjus t seasonings to taste . Discard cinnamon stick . Ladle broth into bowls . Sprink le with fried shallots , fried garlic and cilantro . Float lime slice in center of each bowl . Makes 4 servings . Each serving contains about : 522 calories ; 9 49 mg sodium ; 204 mg cholesterol ; 22 grams fat ; 50 grams carbohydrates ; 30 g rams protein ; 0.76 gram fiber . -0- Baking the ribs first cooks off some of the fat so ribs will not scorch when finished on the grill . Be sure to make the je rk sauce at least an hour ahead so the flavors can meld before marinating . JERK PORK RIBS 1 ( 3 pound ) rack pork ribs , cut into 2- to 3-rib portions 2 cups J amaican Jerk Sauce Coat ribs with Jamaican Jerk Sauce , rubbing sauce in well . Cover and refrigerate overnight . Bake at 350 degrees 45 minutes , occasionally turning and basting . Remove from oven and grill over medium hot coals until bro wned and cooked through , about 25 to 30 minutes , turning ribs 4 or 5 times and basting with Jamaican Jerk Sauce . Makes 4 servings . Each serving contains abo ut : In Turkey , the boreks weren't filled with lamb , as Lukins expected , but rather bastirma , a cured beef covered in spices . When Lukins came back , she m ade her filo pies with pastrami , a cousin of bastirma . What is `` the greatest long-term threat to the security of the United States ' ' ? According to FBI Director Louis Freeh , it is the rise of organized crime in Russia , with its present or potential capacity to steal nuclear weapons and fi ssile material that can be sold to rogue nations or terrorist groups . `` Organi zed crime has unique abilities to commit theft and diversion , '' he warns . `` This is why we must take action before a major nuclear incident occurs . '' The action he contemplates is establishing an FBI office in Moscow itself , there to work with Russian police and security officials to combat a wave of criminality engulfing the states of the former Soviet Union . Freeh pronounces the United S tates `` lucky '' that no illegal diversions of nuclear-weapons material have ye t occurred , but even that cannot be verified absolutely in light of the interme shing of Russia 's civilian and military nuclear programs as well as the notorio usly inadequate protection of its facilities . It is one of the anomalies of thi s post-Cold War era that once the Soviet police state collapsed , along with its reliance on terror and intimidation , crime has had a heyday . Freeh 's outspok en warnings before a Senate subcommittee mark a shift in the Clinton administrat ion 's handling of this scary matter . Heretofore , officials have alluded to th e problem in muted fashion for fear that publicity might encourage criminal elem ents to seek possession of salable nuclear materials . With The Atlantic Monthly running a cover story on criminality in Russia and various European publication s reporting near-successful test attempts to buy warheads from Russian military officers , it appears that the new policy is to confront the issue head-on . If so , it is for the best . The `` loose nuke problem '' has added new dimensions to the long crusade to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction . Its central feature , from the beginning , was to stop as many nations as poss ible from going nuclear . With the collapse of the Soviet Union , three new nucl ear-weapons states ( Ukraine , Kazakhstan and Belarus ) had to be prodded , so f ar with mixed success , to turn their facilities over to Russia . There also was worry about a `` brain drain '' of Soviet nuclear scientists to the likes of Li bya , Iraq , Iran and North Korea . And , finally , there was the criminal probl em , raising what FBI Director Freeh calls the `` dreadful possibilities '' of h aving stolen nukes fall into the hands of terrorists bent on using them against the United States . Russia is the site of thousands of nuclear warheads and hund reds of tons of weapons-grade plutonium and enriched uranium ( the stuff of nucl ear bombs ) . Clearly , it will require monumental cooperation between American and Russian authorities to keep nuclear materials out of the hands of internatio nal organized-crime operations . With governmental authority eroding in Russia , the prospects are not encouraging . Cruel in its manifestation , fiendishly enigmatic in its pathogenesis , AIDS ma rches on relentlessly . Already 360,000 cases have been diagnosed in the United States alone ; 220,000 people have died . Worse is sure to come soon . It is abo ut 10 years since the disease was first identified . With its stealthy 10-year l atency , that means thousands infected by the HIV virus in the mid-1980s , befor e they learned how to protect themselves , will soon start to develop symptoms a nd die . Despite massive research , the tiny virus has outwitted the best scient ific minds . Little progress has been made in finding a cure or vaccine . The ti me has come for new thinking , new approaches . A lucid and logical framework fo r the future comes now from Bernard N . Fields of the Harvard Medical School . I n a paper in the British journal Nature , he argues that AIDS is far more comple x than anyone imagined and calls for a broadening of research and a return to ba sic science . In other words , valuable time has been lost in following narrow h unches for an easy cure , some magic bullet . `` The real challenge , '' he writ es , `` is to put aside politics and the illusion of easy answers so that we can concentrate on studies that offer a real possibility of working . '' He adds : `` In our zeal to control AIDS , we have invested enormous resources in the sear ch for drugs and vaccines . This may have been reasonable 10 years ago , but is no longer . '' Wise words , but politically difficult . A huge medical , corpora te , bureaucratic and political infrastructure is committed to testing new remed ies and vaccines . Even as Dr . Fields ' words were published , the National Ins titute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases appeared , reluctantly , to be ready t o spend tens of millions of dollars on human tests of two vaccines even though l aboratory tests showed they had no effect on HIV viruses isolated from infected people . In their legitimate outrage over the federal government 's shameful slo wness to act on AIDS during the last decade , activists forced quick approval of unproven drugs . As a result , the drug AZT was widely prescribed to delay the onset of disease in infected people who had not yet developed symptoms . Only la ter did further studies show it was useful only in people with advanced disease . AIDS has dashed hopes that it could be controlled as polio was . That devastat ing epidemic too was caused by a virus . Once it was identified , a vaccine coul d be developed . Alas , as Fields notes , the HIV virus is far more complex , un predictable and nefarious . Fields calls for expanded research in related areas ( such as on other infectious agents ) , on basic study of the early events of H IV infection and on the so-called opportunistic infections that often fell AIDS patients . `` AIDS is a novel disease requiring new paradigms and a new conceptu al framework , '' he argues . `` We must give serendipity ( and reasoned scienti fic redirection ) a chance to join the war on AIDS . '' His notions are embraced by many AIDS experts , including Dr. Mervyn F. Silverman , president of the Ame rican Foundation for AIDS Research , and Dr. William Paul , new director of the Office of AIDS Research at the National Institutes of Health . Some activist gro ups , such as the New York ACT UP organization , continue to focus on a speedy c ure and support a bill in Congress that would set up a focused research program outside of the NIH . But other AIDS groups , though divided , have begun to see that such narrow approaches have so far proved counterproductive . We need a new beginning on AIDS . Everything smolders in Rio Seco . In this fictional California town , the setti ng for Susan Straight 's second novel , `` Blacker Than a Thousand Midnights , ' ' the torrid weather , the prickly relationships between a young black man and h is wife , family and friends and the friction between the races all simmer just below the flashpoint . Straight carefully piles on the tinder and the reader wai ts to see whether it will spontaneously combust . The infernal weather makes lif e tough for young Darnell Tucker , but he can deal with the choking heat . What he must really struggle to cope with is impending fatherhood , a marriage off to a very rocky start , a father-in-law who willn't talk to him , friends who are risking their lives by `` slinging ' caine '' and the lack of a decent job . Dar nell , who is 20 , wants to do the right thing . Circumstances conspire to make that a heroic effort . When they marry , his wife , Brenda , is pregnant and is the breadwinner as well . She loves him , but she is overwhelmed by exhaustion a nd anxiety . Their working-class parents make it clear to Darnell that he must f ind a job , and fast . That 's not so easy to do . Darnell 's great ambition is to become a full-time firefighter , part of a crew that ranges through the Los A ngeles hills , short-circuiting the small fires that can roar into major disaste rs . Brenda knows that Darnell is infatuated with firefighting and fears she 'll lose him to this deadly fascination . But the best he can do is part-time work , and even that dries up , even as the drought-struck hills threaten to burst in to flame . He tries work as a security guard , but in an episode of mistaken ide ntity , winds up face-down on the pavement with a police dog slashing at his leg . He does bull work for his father , a hauler of tree stumps who 'll take any y ard-cleaning project that comes his way . Not much feels right for Darnell . His friends , Leon and Louis , are caught up in drug selling . Brenda is so consume d by love for their newborn daughter , Charolette , that she has very little tim e and energy left over for him . But he perseveres . And in a flash of entrepren eurship , he finally comes up with an idea that works , while neatly playing off the state of race relations in his part of the world . Passing himself off as a foreman , he hires Mexicans and pretends they all work for an Asian landscaper , the better to be accepted by white homeowners . Straight , who is white and wh ose previous book was `` I Been in Sorrow 's Kitchen and Licked Out All the Pots , '' does a lot of things right in this novel . She creates believable characte rs , and she does black dialect well . Yet , despite admiration for Darnell 's d ogged persistence and pleasure when he overcomes his poor prospects , something is missing . The cleansing fire - in the hills , in the marriage , in the street s - never quite flares . This is a story of the rewards of control , but some re aders may feel almost cheated that a fiery release , hinted at throughout the bo ok , never comes . Is cruising getting more like flying when it comes to passenger incentives ? Mo st cruise lines reward their frequent passengers with perks like special discoun ts and private parties , but Cunard is about to launch a plan that sounds like a seagoing version of the airline frequent-flier programs . Passengers who sail o n any of 10 Cunard ships will earn Cruise Miles that can be redeemed for awards ranging from upgrades to free voyages . Cruise Miles will be awarded on a per-pe rson , per-day basis according to ship , grades of accommodation and length of t rip . Thus , the higher your cabin category and the longer the cruise , the more points you 'll earn . How fast will Cruise Miles add up ? On a five-star ship s uch as the Queen Elizabeth 2 , Columbia-class passengers ( the lower first class tier ) will earn 200 miles a day . On Cunard Crown vessels ( which are less for mal than the QE2 , Sea Goddesses and other top-of-the-line ships ) , you 'll ear n 50 Cruise Miles a day in a mid-priced inside cabin , 100 a day in a mid-priced outside cabin , 150 a day in a deluxe stateroom thus 250 , 700 or 1,050 Cruise Miles for a seven-day voyage . Once you 've accumulated 600 Cruise Miles you can redeem them for a one-category upgrade on a seven-day trip on a Cunard Crown sh ip . It 'll take 5,000 Cruise Miles to get a free seven-day sailing on a Crown v essel which you can earn by taking just one 11-day voyage on one of the deluxe S ea Goddesses . However , if your style and pocketbook allow only an annual one-w eek cruise in the budget category , you 're never going to earn a freebie within the seven-year limit Cunard has set . Seabourn Cruise Line has offered a somewh at similar incentive plan for its frequent sailors since 1988 . Passengers who ' ve made one voyage automatically become members of the line 's Seabourn Club , w hich offers fare reductions for accumulated days at sea . For example , after 28 days of sailing typically two Seabourn cruises you 'll get a 25 percent savings on your next 14-day trip ; after 70 days , you 'll get a 50 percent reduction o n your next 14-day journey ; after 140 days , you qualify for a free 14-day crui se . Seabourn 's all-suites ships offer luxury voyages ( the average per-person tariff is $ 830 a day ) , but lots of passengers have nevertheless qualified for freebies , according to spokesman Ernie Beyl . Seabourn also has a pay-in-full prepurchase program called World Fare , which offers substantial savings to trav elers who buy 45 , 60 , 90 or 120 days at sea up to three years in advance . Via World Fare , you can reduce the average daily cost to about $ 500-plus , Beyl s aid . Royal Viking , which claims a 66 percent repeat rate on its cruises , give s gifts of merchandise after a certain number of sailings . Members of its past- passengers Skald Club ( named for the well-traveled Viking historians who made c ontinual voyages and always returned home with intriguing tales ) also get an ex tra 5 percent reduction on top of the standard 15-percent early booking discount . And several annual Royal Viking `` reunion cruises '' offer a variety of perk s for Skald Club members . Other lines said they 're taking a new look at their incentive programs . Meanwhile , Radisson is offering a $ 1,000-per-person disco unt to Radisson Hotel guests who book a seven- or eight-night Radisson Diamond M editerranean cruise within 30 days of check-in . The promotion also includes an additional $ 250-per-person shipboard credit that can be used toward shore excur sions , drinks , boutique purchases and beauty and spa services . Radisson says the discount reflects savings of nearly 25 percent off the full fare , which nor mally totals $ 4,295 for a seven-night voyage , $ 4,895 for eight-night voyages . The deal is available to Radisson Hotel guests until July 31 for sailings betw een June 10 and Nov. 5 . ( ndy ) ( ATTN : Travel editors ) TRAVEL PLANNER : Packages to Finland Range fr om Cities to Tundras By Marc Cottone ( c ) 1994 , Newsday The Finnish Tourist Bo ard is offering more than 40 package tours for travelers in Finland this year th at cover everything from coastal cities to the tundra of the Arctic Circle . The `` Midnight Sun Flight , '' for example , takes tour members from Helsinki to R ovaniemi , capital of Lapland , for a day of ' round-the-clock sunlight . Take i n the native Lapp culture with a reindeer lasso-throwing contest , cross the Arc tic Circle and later enjoy a traditional Lapp dinner . The one-day/one-night pac kage , available June 1-July 31 , is $ 336 per person , double occupancy , and i ncludes round-trip airfare from Helsinki and accommodations . Or try the `` Torn ionjoki River Adventure '' that offers two exciting trips near the Arctic Circle that include white-water rafting , fishing , a visit to a Lapp lumberjack mill even a visit to Santa Claus at his Arctic Circle workshop . Starting at $ 290 pe r person , double occupancy , fo r the river raft , the tour includes roundtrip air from Helinski , accommodations and meals . Package trips are available for c oastal cities tours and rural farmhouse sojourns . There 's even a tour to Tanka vaara , home of the Goldpanning World Championships . Call your travel agent or Finnway at ( 800 ) 526-4927 . -0- VOLUNTEER VACATIONS : Here 's something differ ent : a tax-deductible vacation for you or your family . Global Citizen 's Netwo rk , a nonprofit organization that seeks to promote understanding between cultur es through hands-on volunteer projects , has several volunteer slots open this s ummer on two- and three-week teams headed for Kenya , Guatemala and Belize . You don't need foreign language ability only a willingness to experience and accept new cultures and the trips are open to all ages and skills . Trip-related expen ses , including airfare , food and lodging are tax-deductible , according to the group . Programs range from $ 990- $ 1,300 , plus air fare . A number of partia l scholarships are available . For more information , call ( 800 ) 644-9292 . -0 - MARTINIQUE MUSTS : Two new trips are available on direct flights from New York to Fort-de-France in Martinque this summer for just $ 969- $ 1,250 per person , double occupancy , depending on choice of hotels . The `` Fly/Drive Explorer '' package includes airfare , seven-nights ' accommodations , daily breakfasts and a car for five days with unlimited mileage and maps with suggested itineraries . A golfer 's package includes the same basic items plus greens fees for a week at the 18-hole Empress Josephine Country Club , designed by Robert Trent Jones S r. , where the fairways roll right down to the town 's colorful waterfront . Cal l ( 800 ) 765-6065 . -0- A RECIPE FOR FUN : Spend a holiday immersed in culinary philosophy and gastronomic delights on a five-day `` Going Solo in the Kitchen '' vacation through Regatta Travel . Under the direction of Jane Doerfer , noted cooking teacher and author , participants will learn the techniques of cooking for one in a modern school that operates out of a 19th-Century plantation house in Apalachicola , Fla. . Students prepare quick meals such as swordfish in sweet -sour tomato sauce and butterfly chicken with sweet potatoes and onions , all wi th an eye on healthful and non-wasteful recipes . During afternoons off , studen ts can walk or swim at nearby St. Georges Island Beach or fish for a bass that m ight wind up on the dinner platter . Classes are limited to 12 . Four sessions a re held through December , the first from June 12-17 . Price is $ 875 per person ; air fare is extra . Call ( 800 ) 445-7685 . -0- COUNTRY FOOTPATHS : BCT Sceni c Walking tours offers eight-day British holiday strolls this summer and fall al ong the remote southern and northern shores of the Cornwall Peninsula . With dai ly walks of just six to eight miles , travelers have plenty of time to soak in h istory along the escarpments of the northern coast , where pirates once lured sh ips aground to plunder their cargoes , or follow streams along the southern shor e in Daphne du Maurier country . Tour members will visit St. Michaels ' Mount , a monastery accessible only at low tide by a tidal causeway , and explore old se aside footpaths on the remote Lizard Peninsula . Accommodations are at first-cla ss inns for two to three nights at each location , where breakfasts and gourmet dinners are included . Price is $ 1,795 per person ; departures begin June 18 . Call your travel agent or ( 800 ) 473-1210 for a brochure . Most packages can be booked through travel agencies . Moviegoers love films based on John Grisham novels . Two of his books `` The Fi rm '' and `` The Pelican Brief '' became box-office hits thanks to Grisham 's ac tion-packed plots , and `` The Client , '' starring Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones , hits theaters in July . So it 's no surprise that Grisham 's latest wor k , another legal thriller called `` The Chamber , '' is Hollywood-bound as well . Producer Ron Howard acquired the rights while the book was still being writte n . Set mostly in Mississippi , `` The Chamber '' chronicles the desperate effor ts of Adam Hall , a young Chicago lawyer , to block the gas-chamber execution of his grandfather , 70-year-old Sam Cayhall . Cayhall , a lifelong member of the Ku Klux Klan , was convicted of a 1967 bombing that maimed a Jewish civil rights lawyer and killed his two children . Cayhall has only four weeks left to live u nless grandson Hall , who hates the death penalty as much as he does Cayhall 's crimes , can devise a successful appeal . The tempo builds as the execution date approaches . Besides exploring death-penalty issues , Grisham uses `` The Chamb er '' to discuss the social conditions that existed during the height of civil r ights tensions in the South . He pulls no punches on the bigotry and hate that m arked that era . This aspect of the tale is recounted through flashbacks and the memories of the family members , law-enforcement agents , and victims that Hall encounters in his bid to save his grandfather 's life . In the process , Hall , whose own father had fled the violence but could not escape it , learns about t he Cayhall family 's role in the hatred and bloodshed . The death penalty and th e civil rights struggle are potential gold mines for a novelist . Too bad Grisha m fumbles the opportunity to make `` The Chamber '' something more than summer a dventure reading . Despite its strong plot line , the book is marred by a variet y of weaknesses , including contrived dialogue , cliched characters and dead-end subplots . Conversations about the death penalty often turn into two people lec turing each other . Government officials supporting the death penalty are portra yed as either cold functionaries or cynical opportunists . All reporters are ign orant vultures interested solely in sensationalism . Worse , the plot often seem s downright deceptive . At least two significant characters set up for key roles in the novel 's climax turn out to be irrelevant to the outcome . So pages of f oreshadowing are revealed as having been used to dupe the reader . There 's also a strange lack of realism in the novel 's descriptions . Grisham , a Mississipp i resident , obviously has gone to great pains to study life in prison , on deat h row in particular . But when characters move to the Mississippi countryside , they seem lost in a generalized Southern landscape , not rooted in a distinct se tting . None of this , however , is likely to hamper the book 's chances of beco ming a successful and entertaining movie . Two-hour adventure movies are slavish ly devoted to plot and have little time left for subtleties or character develop ment . Those who have enjoyed Grisham 's earlier works , which include `` A Time To Kill , '' should have no qualms about diving into `` The Chamber . '' It 's good for a beach or an airplane or a backyard deck chair . But those new to Gris ham might want to preview his earlier work at the library before investing $ 25 in a new hardcover . That , or wait for the movie . When it comes to putting a wacky spin on a familiar story , Kevin O' Malley is one of the best . O' Malley made a splash with `` Froggy Went A-Courtin ' , ' ' followed by `` Who Killed Cock Robin ? '' He flew solo on those two books , as w ell as `` Bruno , You 're Late for School ! '' and `` The Box . '' But he has go ne from author/illustrator to illustrator in his latest , `` Cinder Edna , '' wr itten by Ellen Jackson ( Lothrop , Lee & Shepard , $ 15 , 32 pp. , ages 4 and up ) . The story leaves O' Malley plenty of room to have fun with the illustration s . The jokes he slips in are the funniest parts of the book , which would be fu nnier if it wasn't hammering home a message . Not that the moral is a bad one . Cinder Edna happens to live next door to Cinderella . Both have a cruel stepmoth er and wicked stepsisters . When Cinderella has done all the work around the hou se , she sits in the cinders , thinking about her troubles . When Cinder Edna is done slaving for her stepmother and stepsisters , she mows lawns and cleans par rot cages for neighbors , at $ 1.50 an hour . Cinderella is beautiful . The indu strious Cinder Edna `` wasn't much to look at . But she was strong and spunky an d knew some good jokes including an especially funny one about an anteater from Afghanistan . '' Cinderella gets to go to the ball courtesy of her fairy godmoth er . Cinder Edna has saved up her money to put a dress on layaway . While Cinder ella rides in her pumpkin coach , Cinder Edna takes the bus to the ball . Empty- headed Cinderella falls for the vain prince . Cinder Edna hits it off with the p rince 's younger brother , a dorky sort who lives in a solar-heated cottage and runs the recycling plant . Both couples end up getting married , and there 's no doubt about who lives happily ever after . A take-off on traditional fairy tale s lets readers take off on a wild trip in `` Come Back , Jack ! '' by Catherine and Laurence Anholt ( Candlewick Press , $ 12.95 , 32 pp. , ages 3 and up ) . On e day a little girl who doesn't like books is playing outside with her little br other , Jack , who loves books . Next thing she knows , Jack is climbing into on e of his books , and she has to scramble to crawl in after him . Once inside the book , she runs down a hill to find a little girl named Jill , a spilled bucket beside her . `` Jack fell down and now he 's run away , '' Jill says . Jack 's sister rushes to find him . She gets to the house that Jack built , only to find that he has already left . He was last seen jumping over a candlestick . Finall y , the trail leads her to the giant 's castle , where she finds Jack sitting in a corner , eating a Christmas pie . They barely escape down the beanstalk in ti me . Once they 're safe , back at home in the garden , she says , `` Well , perh aps books aren't boring after all ! '' The endpapers include the nursery rhymes referred to during the children 's romp through the pages . A sequel to Humpty D umpty ? No , it 's not filled with omelet recipes . `` Little Lumpty , '' by Mik o Imai ( Candlewick , $ 12.95 , 32 pp. , ages 4 and up ) , is an original story about a little egg growing up in the town of Dumpty , where young eggs play by t he wall that Humpty Dumpty fell from long , long ago . Lumpty dreams of climbing the wall , even though he knows it 's forbidden . Finally , he gets his courage up , finds a ladder and makes it to the top . He is thrilled until he looks dow n and his legs shake and he can't make it back down the ladder . He knows he 'll be in trouble when his mother finds out what he has done . He remembers Humpty Dumpty 's great fall and starts crying . Finally , he gets his courage up and ye lls for help . All the eggs in town rush out , and he is rescued . He tells his mom he 's sorry , and she hugs him . Any kid who has broken the rules , thrilled in the adventure of it all and then found herself in big trouble will identify with Lumpty . The best part is that there 's no grown-up moral at the end . Lump ty , who dared to chase his dream , is safe in his bed . `` But I still love tha t wall , '' he whispered to the moon just before he fell asleep . Possibly enough has been said about Barney , but has anything been said about t hose who are not Barney ? My son Joey and I were at a festival last weekend wher e we encountered not Barney but `` a purple dinosaur . '' He was roughly the siz e of Barney . He was roughly the color of Barney , although I would have pegged him somewhere between plum and aubergine , whereas Barney has this thing happeni ng where he modulates between soft true fuchsia and almost a zinfandel . Sometim es I think it 's a shame I don't ever get to give the police any descriptions . Also , Barney apparently has access to some moth-proofing that is not widely ava ilable . We looked at not-Barney . He did tell us he loved us . He did not tell us we loved him . He did not offer any explanation for himself . Neruda 's , `` It so happens I 'm tired of being just a man , '' would have been nice . Joey is 4 and doesn't like Barney , because Barney is not engaged in the important work of this life , which is pounding really hard for 22 minutes a clip on radioacti ve Japanese armadillos , as per `` Mighty Morphin Power Rangers , '' a show that takes the old saw about there being only seven basic plots in all storytelling and divides it by seven . But even though he disdains Barney as the sort of appe aser who would hand the Sudetenland over to the isotope-leaching weaselcobras wi thout so much as a kick-punch , Joey determined that he was in the presence of s omebody famous , and , just the way you or I might not immediately turn our back s on , say , Marge Schott or John McLaughlin , he hung with the Barney-tribute-a ct until it was clear that there was not going to be a glow of any kind . Plus i t was one of those deals where they want about $ 4.50 for a Polaroid of you and ( in this case ) somebody who wasn't really in a position to claim to be the ent ity he was impersonating . It would have been like paying a lot of money to see Demi Moore as Ophelia . I did wonder : Can this be legal ? No way can the Barney people sew up the whole idea of being a purple dinosaur , but how close to Barn eyness can you get before you cross some kind of line ? The Newfoundland muzzle , the Norville eyes .. . these must be worth a call to Mackenzie & Brackman . Th ere are already lawsuits flying around about the Barney song . In a couple of ye ars , Barney will be an entire semester at most law schools . Meanwhile , almost gratifyingly , another Barney is back . `` The Flintstones '' movie opened last weekend . It made me think about the original Flintstones and how Barney Rubble is the defining symbol of why they weren't any good . Because , unlike Ed Norto n in `` The Honeymooners , '' Barney is not connected to an alternate reality . Ed 's sewer-nourished transcendentalism is kind of the escape window from all th ose peevish Kramden realities . But Barney is just kind of there . Like Barney . And not-Barney . And then I thought : If I have time to think about this , I ne ed a night job . Now I come to find out that head-spinningly David Geffen has op tioned the rights to make a Barney ( the dinosaur ) movie . Well , he might have actually been righter than Redford for `` Out of Africa , '' but what exactly i s Barney ( not to mention those insufferable children ) supposed to do for 90 mi nutes ? Maybe a `` Stardust Memories '' thing . Maybe Barney doesn't want to be instructively affirming ( or whatever ) anymore , but his fans willn't let go . His head is in a different place . He 's got chick problems . ( `` Four Weddings and a Reptile . '' ) Maybe then , Barney finishes alone , on a hilltop in L.A. , like Beatty at the end of `` Shampoo . '' And , wait , maybe he is reciting Ne ruda : `` For a long while I 've pondered them now these big legs of mine : with infinite tenderness , curious , with my usual passion as if they belonged to a stranger ... '' Maybe I need some rest . This summer , Elizabeth Marshall Thomas takes on cats , Bob Woodward takes on B ill Clinton , and those lovebirds Mary Matalin and James Carville take on each o ther . A slew of D-Day books are the other major highlight of this season 's new nonfiction . ( Please note that some books may be in stores the month before th eir official publication date . ) BIOGRAPHY , MEMOIRS : `` All 's Fair : Love , War and Running for President '' by Mary Matalin and James Carville with Peter K nobler ( Random House , August ) is a joint memoir by the now-married political rivals who were on opposite sides of the campaign fence during the 1992 presiden tial election . The country music legend is the subject of `` Patsy : The Life a nd Times of Patsy Cline '' by Margaret Jones ( HarperCollins , June ) . `` Boule vard of Broken Dreams : The Life , Times and Legend of James Dean '' by Paul Ale xander ( Viking , July ) is described as the first `` sexual biography '' of the actor . In `` A Woman 's Life : The Story of an Ordinary American and Her Extra ordinary Generation '' ( William Morrow , June ) , Susan Cheever traces the baby -boom generation through the prism of one woman a 45-year-old suburban Boston mo ther of two named Linda Green . `` Loving Garbo : The Story of Greta Garbo , Cec il Beaton and Mercedes de Acosta '' by Hugo Vickers ( Random House , June ) exam ines the actress ' bisexual liaisons . `` Mad as Hell : The Life of Paddy Chayef sky '' by Shaun Considine ( Random House , July ) is a life of the screenwriter ( `` Network '' ) . Peter Collier and David Horowitz , authors of `` The Kennedy s '' and `` The Rockefellers , '' take on another political dynasty in `` The Ro osevelts : An American Saga '' ( Simon & Schuster , June ) . `` Westmoreland '' by Samuel Zaffiri ( William Morrow , July ) is a biography of Gen. William C. We stmoreland , commander of American forces in Vietnam . `` Defending the Devil : My Story as Ted Bundy 's Lawyer '' by Polly Nelson ( William Morrow , July ) is a memoir by the serial killer 's attorney . ``` With Bleeding Footsteps ' : Mary Baker Eddy 's Path to Religious Leadership '' by Robert David Thomas ( Knopf , July ) is a biography of the founder of the Christian Science church . You knew this book was inevitable . `` The Rock Bottom Remainders , '' a group of writers -turned-rock-'n'-rollers that includes Stephen King , Amy Tan , Matt Groening an d Roy Blount , reveal secrets of life on the road in `` Mid-Life Confidential : The Rock Bottom Remainders Tour America With Three Chords and an Attitude '' edi ted by Dave Marsh ( Viking , August ) . `` Gene Roddenberry : The Myth and the M an Behind ` Star Trek '' ' by Joel Engel ( Hyperion , June ) is a biography of t he creator of the cult sci-fi TV series . Martha Reeves ( with Mark Bego ) reliv es the soulful sounds of the '60s in `` Dancing in the Street : Confessions of a Motown Diva '' ( Hyperion , August ) . CURRENT EVENTS : Bob Woodward goes behin d the scenes during President Clinton 's effort to get an economic recovery plan through Congress in `` The Agenda : Inside the Clinton White House '' ( Simon & Schuster , June ) . Donald Katz ( `` Home Fires '' ) goes inside the Nike empir e in `` Just Do It : The Nike Spirit in the Corporate World '' ( Random House , June ) . In `` The Difference : Growing Up Female in America '' ( Warner , Augus t ) , Washington Post columnist Judy Mann investigates why our culture raises gi rls to feel inferior to boys . `` 9 Highland Road : Sane Living for the Mentally Ill '' ( Pantheon , June ) by The New York Times ' Michael Winerip focuses on t he residents of one group home . `` The World Economy Since the Wars : An Eyewit ness Account '' by John Kenneth Galbraith ( Houghton Mifflin , June ) surveys 20 th century economics . Etc . Elizabeth Marshall Thomas , author of the surprise best seller `` The Hidden Life of Dogs , '' probes the feline psyche in `` The T ribe of the Tiger : Cats and Their Culture '' ( Simon & Schuster , August ) . `` Death and Disaster : The Rise of the Warhol Empire and the Race for Andy 's Mil lions '' by Paul Alexander ( Villard , August ) examines the dispute over Andy W arhol 's estate . Yale historian John Boswell , whose previous books include `` Christianity , Social Tolerance and Homosexuality , '' writes about his discover y of homosexual marriages sanctioned by the church in the early Christian and Mi ddle Ages in `` Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe '' ( Villard , June ) . Step hen B . Goddard is the author of `` Getting There : The Epic Struggle Between Ro ad and Rail in the American Century '' ( Basic Books , June ) , a history of mas s transportation in the United States . `` A Natural History of Love '' ( Random House , June ) is Diane Ackerman 's companion volume to her popular book `` A N atural History of the Senses . '' `` Dave Barry Is Not Making This Up '' ( Crown , June ) is a new collection of humor columns by the syndicated columnist . Gay activist and novelist Paul Monette ( `` Borrowed Time : An AIDS Memoir '' ) , w ho won the 1992 National Book Award for his autobiography `` Becoming a Man : Ha lf a Life Story , '' has written a book of essays called `` Last Watch of the Ni ght '' ( Harcourt Brace , June ) . D-DAY BOOKS : A number of books are being pub lished to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy : `` D-Day : June 6 , 1944 : The Climactic Battle of World War II '' by Stephen E. Ambrose ( Simon & Schuster ) is the most ambitious of the new D-Day books . Thr ee oral histories offer firsthand accounts of D-Day : `` Nothing Less Than Victo ry : The Oral History of D-Day '' by Russell Miller ( William Morrow ) ; `` June 6 , 1944 : The Voices of D-Day '' by Gerald Astor ( St. Martin 's Press , June ) and `` America at D-Day : A Book of Remembrance '' by Richard Goldstein of The New York Times ( Delta , paperback original ) . Field Marshall Montgomery , fie ld commander of ground forces at Normandy , is the subject of two new biographie s . Nigel Hamilton ( `` JFK : Reckless Youth '' ) is author of `` Monty : The Ba ttles of Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery '' ( Random House , June ) and Ali stair Horne and David Montgomery , an English military historian and the field m arshal 's son , have written `` Monty : Man and General '' ( HarperCollins , Jun e ) . `` The Normandy Diary of Marie Louise Osmont 1940-1944 '' ( Random House , June ) is a first-person account of the German occupation and Allied invasion b y a French diarist . Two paperbacks that offer lots of color maps and photos are `` D-Day and the Invasion of Normandy '' by Anthony Kemp ( Abrams Discoveries ) and `` The D-Day Atlas '' by John Man ( Facts on File ) . `` Shot in the Heart '' is Mikal Gilmore 's gut-wrenching exorcism of the demon s that have ravaged his doomed family , especially his oldest brother , the cold -blooded killer Gary Gilmore , who embraced death by a firing squad in Utah in 1 977 . A pop-culture writer for Rolling Stone magazine , Mikal Gilmore has create d a powerful portrait of his family 's toxic genetic pool that has spawned Snope s-like figures whose epic struggles with crime and punishment could populate gre at works by Faulkner or Dostoevski . His volatile clan has left a legacy of cent uries of domestic brutality , madness and tyranny . Its heritage of dysfunctiona lism culminated in Gary Gilmore 's execution after he murdered two Mormons in co ld blood in Utah . Gary Gilmore 's crusade to have himself executed by a firing squad as his blood atonement for his sins made news around the global village . His bizarre story became fodder for Norman Mailer 's masterly `` The Executioner 's Song , '' later adapted into a first-rate TV movie . Mikal Gilmore wrote thi s agonizingly candid memoir in hopes of finding a key that would unlock `` the t rue history of ( his ) family and how its webwork of dark secrets and failed hop es helped create the legacy that , in part , became ( his ) brother 's impetus t o murder . '' Mikal , 43 , says it was a life-and-death struggle for him to brea k with his family 's unnatural bent for violence and create a sane , straight li fe . But , he confesses , he has been dizzyingly close to the murderous abyss th at swallowed up his brother . He writes : `` There were days during this time ( before Gary was executed ) that I wanted to kill the world . I supposed that in those months I was finally like my brother in all respects except one : He was d estroyed enough to pull the trigger , and I was not . '' Mikal finds a number of cultural and sociological culprits to blame for the curse of the house of Gilmo re . Among these is the bungling prison system , which , he says , makes crimina ls even more unfit for life outside . Mormonism , the faith of Gary 's mother , is also in some way culpable , Mikal says , because of its early rugged history on the blood-soaked frontier and its teaching of blood atonement the concept tha t some sins are so heinous , they can be atoned for only by the shedding of the sinner 's blood . Gilmore takes a Calvinistic view of fate , coming down hard on the side of predestination . `` Gary 's fate was finished at about the instant in which my parents conceived him , '' he writes . Inescapable fate , inexplicab le appearances of malevolent ghosts and revelations of shameful family secrets r ecur as motifs throughout this account of one man 's family . But finally , the central villain is the tyranny of the family itself , a kind of inhuman bondage that Mikal Gilmore hopes to shatter by bringing everything out into the light of day . So he outs long-closeted secrets , festering fantasies and fictions that were the Crazy Glue bonding his loony loved ones together . Perhaps in a bit of wishful thinking , Mikal implies that his family is not that much of an aberrati on from more typical-seeming American families , which also have dark secrets lu rking under their roofs . Families have their flaws . But to emblazon the mark o f murderer and child-and-wife abuser upon the brow of all families smacks of the sort of cruel and unusual punishment Mikal 's brutal father loved to inflict on his boys ' buttocks . Gilmore stumbles in other ways . His prose sometimes over heats , or strikes a gratingly banal note or portentous pose . Even worse , as h is family saga focuses more on him , its pace fizzles out in mercilessly boring salvos of I 's , as in I did this , I did that . And after reading hungrily abou t Mikal 's con-man dad , his mad mom and fascinatingly flawed brothers , it 's a drag to read about his troubles . Does anybody care that he had to take Dalmane to help him sleep or that his `` meetings and couplings '' with one girlfriend `` took on a special intensity '' ? Nonetheless , Gilmore 's account of his asce nt from this hell of family life is moving and memorable . If the work doesn't b ring him the redemption he sought , its confessional tone in this Age of Confess ion might well bring monetary salvation at cash registers across the nation . As a former member of corporate America who eventually turned to writing , I wa s extremely intrigued by this novel written by Washington attorney Helen Elaine Lee . How many people have I met , fueled by the success of John Grisham or Mich ael Crichton , who report slaving away at their portable `` Disclosure '' ? Was Lee , I wondered , another one of these misguided souls who sit at computers try ing to write the next `` Pelican Brief '' and would be better off writing legal briefs than literature ? Should she be given that sage advice , `` Honey , don't quit your day job '' ? But after a marathon reading of `` The Serpent 's Gift ' ' while I should have been enjoying the scenery on vacation , I wanted to advise Lee to start writing that resignation letter . For `` The Serpent 's Gift '' ma rks the debut of an important new voice on the fictional landscape . Although th ere 's nary a lawyer or murder weapon in sight , Lee has nevertheless created an emotional , suspenseful page-turner . Her terrain is the human heart ; the firs t two pages of the book alone contain one of the most haunting deaths in recent memory . This passing deeply affects young Vesta Smalls , creating in her a fear of making a critical misstep , of yielding to `` the power of the small deed to rip the sky apart , and return it to seamless blue . '' And as the novel fast-f orwards to an aged Vesta , now encased in tattered scarves and surrounded by pla stic-covered furniture , you sense that she 's paid some terrible price for a mi sstep , an accident long ago . There 's a saying that goes , `` When one door cl oses , another opens. ' ' For Lee 's characters , the closing off represented by the accident and the violence leading up to it are a new beginning , an opening that propels the 8-year-old Vesta , her mother Eula and younger brother LaRue t o the loving and colorful home of Ruby and Polaris Staples . There Eula finds a peaceful place in the basement in which to recede and muse on the nature of her love for Ontario Smalls , a love whose most visible remnant is a serpentine faci al scar , which her rescuer and friend Ruby calls `` angry healing flesh . '' It is there that Vesta and LaRue find a sister in the Staples ' daughter Ouida , a n imaginative , confident child , and a ready-made mother in Ruby . And while Ru by 's stories , told in stoop-sitting sessions with the neighbors , are too unco ntrolled for the rigid vigil Vesta must keep over her life and emotions , young LaRue is drawn to this other mother , absorbing stories while sitting in a rocke r in Ruby 's kitchen . These stories ignite his imagination , allowing him to cr eate his own make-believe character , Miss Snake , `` who got in and out of fixe s each time she appeared , who started out with purple spots but changed each ti me she shed her skin . '' The creation of the Miss Snake stories , as well as th e later tales of Tennessee Coal & Iron Company Jones , are author Lee 's masters troke , completely rooted in the African American oral traditions of Bre ' er Ra bbit and Anansi the spider . The stories , themselves deserving of their own boo k , act here to illuminate the narrative and give it a lyrical magic that both c aptivate and enlighten the characters . In young LaRue 's mouth , the stories al so represent a connectedness to African American culture and identity ; they del ight Ruby and Ouida , but dismay Vesta and Eula , who consider them `` lies . '' For Eula and Vesta , the stories threaten to initiate an internal battle with s ecrets and dreams , long hidden but recurring as closed-off spaces that keep the m from knowing peace . And until they understand the gift the Miss Snake stories have to offer , that peace remains elusive , just beyond their reach . Lee has written in the siblings LaRue , Vesta , Ouida and December ( who appear near the end of Part I ) a quartet of unforgettable characters whose personalities run c ounter to expectation . LaRue is a sensitive , intuitive man with a spirit that cannot be crushed ; a man who , when recognizing his love for Olive Winters , fi ghts against his impulse to pull away ; a man who marks the changes in his world from after the Great War through the 1960s with wonder , a great love for his p eople and a moving grace . His sister , Vesta , is rigid and frightened , a woma n whose retreat from the pain of early disappointments drains the vitality from her life . Ouida supposedly has everything to be desired among black folk of the time fair skin , vivacious wit , imagination yet she makes a radical decision t o embrace an unconventional love . Then there is December , Ruby and Polaris ' d aughter , whose arrival at the winter equinox signals birth out of death , but w ho , under Vesta 's excruciatingly restrictive love , becomes a colorless cipher of a Detroit housewife , more concerned with the correctness of her peanut butt er selection than the quality of her life . Lee 's novel also displays an adept use of color , light and space as indicators of vitality , of memory , of love a nd loss . Images appear in unexpected ways : The skin of an orange that stimulat es the elderly Vesta 's memories ; her youthful retreat from the tumult of color into a seemingly serene world represented by an all-white wardrobe and meticulo usly cross-stitched homilies ; the cobalt blue lovemaking of LaRue and Olive . W hile there are moments in which I wished Lee 's style were a little more restrai ned , or conversely displayed more emotion , these are small quibbles about a bo ok that is so richly imagined . LaRue Smalls finishes many stories in `` The Ser pent 's Gift '' with , `` I 've told my friends , now you tell yours . '' The ph rase is most apropos in celebrating the arrival of Helen Elaine Lee and `` The S erpent 's Gift , '' a book whose colors will linger behind the eyes long after y ou read the final page . Through the years , my job as a sports reporter has taken me to a lot of intere sting places New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl , Quebec and Montreal for hockey gam es , San Francisco for a Super Bowl , even to London for Wimbledon . Most of the time , my friends willingly suggest they slip into my suitcase or come along as a photographer . But when the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League opened their season in Winnipeg , Manitoba , last fall , no one offered to join me . `` Good luck , '' said one . `` Stay warm . '' `` Winnipeg ? '' said anoth er . `` Isn't that in the middle of nowhere ? '' A call to the NHL 's Winnipeg J ets public relations office made me wonder . `` Winnipeg is like nowhere you 've ever been before , '' promised information director Mike O' Hearn . Mike Ridley , a native of Winnipeg who plays center for the Capitals , said , `` I 've give n up trying to explain where it is . When people ask where I 'm from , I just sa y North Minneapolis . '' Winnipeg sits just about in the middle of Canada , just about in the middle of North America . To outsiders , if Winnipeg is known at a ll , it is known primarily for frigid weather . The city claims the intersection of Portage and Main streets as the coldest street corner in North America . Tem peratures dip to minus-30 degrees Fahrenheit regularly , as the wind rips in una bated from the central Canadian plains . `` Block heaters ( to keep engines from freezing ) are regular equipment sold on cars in Winnipeg , '' said Ridley . `` I spent the first 22 years of my life in Winnipeg , '' he added . `` I thought cars everywhere came with block heaters ; when I went to buy my first car in New York , I wanted to make sure it came standard and was told it was extra . The g uy finally told me I didn't really need one . '' Wondering why you would ever wa nt to go to Winnipeg ? Obviously , you think , there are reasons Winnipeg is not included in the same sentence with Quebec , Montreal and Vancouver . But that ' s in the winter . In the spring and summer , this city of 650,000 blossoms . Fro m June through early October , Winnipeg can be a delight . `` Winnipeg is a wond erful place in the summer , '' said Ridley , who still takes his family home for vacation during hockey 's off-season . `` There is always something to do , pla ces to go . Everything from fishing and golf to museums , dinning out and gambli ng in the casinos . '' In summer , Winnipeg residents and their visitors enjoy t emperatures in the mid-70s to mid-80s with zero humidity . It is true that unles s you come from the North Pole or the Outback , you are probably not going to co nfuse Winnipeg with Paris or Montreal . But there are wide streets , warm sunny benches and some very good cappuccino to be enjoyed down at the Forks , where th e Red and Assiniboine rivers meet . Winnipeg residents are friendly . One day , while trying to make my way to the Forks , I stopped in a small card shop in the restored Union Station Market at Main and Broadway to ask directions . The shop keeper smiled , came out from behind his counter and personally led me to the si te , leaving his store unattended . `` It is not very far , but from this side i t can be a little tricky , '' he said of the short walk . `` I 'll take you ther e . '' And once you get to the Forks , you will have reached a historic crossroa ds that dates back 6,000 years , to a time when historians say aboriginal groups met to trade and socialize . In fact , Winnipeg is an Indian name for `` Where muddy waters meet . '' And people are still meeting there , for lunch and shoppi ng and an afternoon of sunshine in the 57-acre enclave , which includes a six-st ory , glass-enclosed tower for exhibits , a skating rink , an amphitheater and o ther outdoor amusements . Through the centuries , Cree and Assiniboine Indians , fur traders and European settlers came and went as the spot grew , first as a p lace for fur trading in the 1730s , when people came in canoes , York boats and steamboats ; then as a settlement for Scottish farmers in 1812 and a hub for tra in cargo and passengers in the 1880s ; until today , when two antique horse barn s have been converted into an airy marketplace . Beyond the shopping and dining areas , there is a rock wall carved with scenes depicting Winnipeg 's history th at winds down to a beautiful and peaceful paved walkway along the riverbank . Fr om there , it is an easy walk along the Assiniboine River to the stunning Manito ba Legislative Building , built in neoclassical style in 1919 and topped with a 13-foot , 5-ton statue called the Golden Boy , holding a torch meant to `` light the way '' to progress . The Tourist Information Center is also located next do or . The city 's streets are wide and clean , and , like a European city , it is made for walking , whether along the river banks or elsewhere . Traffic jams do n't exist . `` Rush hour , '' said O' Hearn , the Jets ' public relations man , `` is three cars at a stop light . '' Crime ( no surprise after the shop keeper 's actions ) is also rare . And when you get tired of being above ground , or if you 're there on a rainy day or snowy one in winter there is a whole different city of shops and walkways underground . Winnipeg is made up of culturally diver se neighborhoods , good restaurants , fine museums and a lively regional theater . The Winnipeg Art Gallery has one of the best collections of Inuit art in the world ; the Exchange District , once the center of Winnipeg 's wholesale and man ufacturing district , has had its wonderful old buildings restored and converted to fine stores and restaurants . Academy Road , one of the city 's oldest areas , is the place to go for designer clothes , cozy restaurants and specialty shop s . Osborne Village is a five-block area filled with shops that feature local ar tisans , imported chocolate and books . `` Little Italy , '' between Pembina Hig hway and Stafford Avenue on Corydon Avenue , offers sidewalk cafes ; and Saint B oniface is home to the largest French-speaking community in western Canada . At night , the Grey Nuns ' Walkway ( Promenade Tache ) becomes a lamp-lighted path between Tache Avenue and the Red River and provides a pretty view of Winnipeg an d the Forks . ( Begin optional trim ) Among the most diverting places to visit i s the Museum of Man and Nature , an interpretive museum with life-like reconstru ctions of Indians hunting buffalo and planetarium for the star-gazers among us . One of the more interesting replicas is of the Nonsuch , a two-masted sailing v essel called a ketch . The ship arrived in 1668 and was the first European ship to sail into Hudson Bay . It sailed out again to England with a cargo of furs , and it was that incident that eventually led to the founding of the Hudson 's Ba y Co. , the trading company that still exists and is most familiar in the form o f its department stores . Last March , that same company donated its entire hist oric archives collection to the museum , which will house it in a new $ 2.2 mill ion wing to be completed next year . The collection , which is said to be among the most extensive and detailed private historical resources ever maintained , p ortrays more than three centuries of the company 's history , including the ques t for the North West Passage the water route from the Atlantic to the Pacific th at took explorers 400 years to get right . ( End optional trim ) Winnipeg may no t offer the night life of New York or the glamour of Paris . But for a low-key , relaxing and safe place to visit , it is a very pleasant discovery . One of the big doings in London this summer is the 100th anniversary of the Tow er Bridge , marked officially on June 30 with fanfare and fireworks on the banks of the River Thames . Created for the centenary , `` The Celebration Story '' e xhibit in rooms and passages inside the bridge recounts the story of this Victor ian engineering marvel and city life 100 years ago ; for info , call ( 800 ) 781 -6088 . Nearby , at the Tower of London , dating to at least 1066 , the Historic Royal Palaces Agency says it willn't be refilling the big moat this year . The moat 's been dry for about 150 years , when it was declared a health hazard and drained . Although there 's a new cafe opening on the wharf outside the tower , the new $ 10 million jewel house for the royal baubles that opened in March is s till the big draw . For tower info , call ( 011 ) ( 44 ) ( 71 ) 709-0765 . The Q ueen 's digs at Buckingham Palace will again be open to the public from Aug. 7 t o Oct. 2 . London 's Stafford hotel is offering a special pass for its guests th at 'll take them to the head of the daily ticket queue ; ( 800 ) 525-4800 . Othe r notes : Say double-double toil and trouble in double-double time : `` Instant Macbeth , '' a 30-minute version of Shakespeare 's tragedy , just opened at the Waterside Studio Theater in Stratford-Upon-Avon , where down the street the Roya l Shakespeare Company is presenting the unabridged play in about 2 hours . For ` ` Instant '' info : ( 011 ) ( 44 ) ( 78 ) 929-5623 . It 's not four-legged jogge rs that you might be seeing at night crossing the roads near Westwood pasture in the northeast English county of Humberside . Environmentalists have proposed pu tting fluorescent leggings on local cows so motorists will able to moo-ve over b efore they hit them . -0- GLOBAL WHEELER : Although she 's been in a wheelchair since she was 2 , Annie Mackin is an intrepid traveler who 's logged four trips to Europe since 1978 . During her five weeks there last summer , the 40-year-old woman decided to write a guide for other disabled travelers , `` Wheelchair thr ough Europe . '' Many hotels that are accessible to the disabled are top-of-the- line , Mackin says , so she wrote her book with a budget in mind , seeking out a ccessible lodging from $ 90 to $ 110 a night , double . Although she traveled wi th an attendant , Mackin found many places accessible to those with good upper b ody strength . Some tips : Take the narrowest wheelchair you can find and jell c ell batteries that willn't tip over and spill , and remind the airlines to pack the chair carefully . Also , try to fly into London or Amsterdam where there 's accessible mass transit from the airport to the city so you willn't have to pay for a cab . European travel , she says `` can be difficult , can be challenging , but it 's not impossible . You miss a lot if you stay home . '' Send check or money order for $ 12.95 to Graphic Language Press , P.O. . Box 270 , Cardiff by the Sea , Calif. 92007 . Arizona-based Wheelchair Inc. has signed a contract wit h Avis to provide wheelchair-accessible minivans at 47 on-and-off airport Avis s ites in 29 states . Many locations are available now , but they all will be in t he next four months , company President Tammy Smith said . Rates range from $ 71 to $ 89 a day ; ( 800 ) 456-1371 . Another company , Wheelchair Getaways , rent s and sells specially equipped vans and other equipment in 80 cities , with rate s from $ 75 to $ 95 a day ; ( 800 ) 642-2042 . -0- QUICK TAKES : More Americans are planning to take more vacation trips this summer but for shorter periods of time than they did last year , according to an annual survey of 1,500 conducted by the Travel Industry Association of America and the Automobile Association . M ost popular activities : going to the beach , visiting friends or relatives , vi siting historic places and camping/hiking/climbing . Top destinations : Florida , California , Hawaii , New York and Texas . Apple Vacations is offering new pac kages to Las Vegas with nonstop service from Newark , N.J. , Mondays and Fridays ; ( 800 ) 727-3400 . Western-Union is setting up a temporary international mone y transfer agent location in Colleville-Sur-Mer in Normandy , France , through J une 13 to accommodate D-Day travelers ; ( 800 ) 325-6000 . can't stand the heat ? Try the kitchen at the Villa d' Este Hotel on Lake Como , Italy , for daily cooking demonstrations . Six-day trips begin Oct. 1 , 8 or 1 5 . Each morning , the hotel chef will prepare lunch ; participants can help or just watch . After lunch , guests can take optional excursions to food markets , vineyards , and cheese- and salami-making shops . Cost : $ 1,688 per person , i ncluding hotel for six days , breakfasts and lunches . Not included : round-trip air fare to Milan and ground transportation . Contact : MSW Columbia Travel , 6 30 Fifth Ave. , Suite 3070 , New York 10111 ; telephone ( 212 ) 332-8900 . -0- H ABLA EN PUEBLA : Two-week language programs in Puebla , Mexico , run June 26 thr ough Aug. 20 . Guests stay with selected families , participating in daily activ ities . After morning Spanish classes , participants have their afternoons free to explore open markets , the Great Pyramid of Tepanapa and the battlefield site of the 1862 Cinco de Mayo victory over the French that gave rise to a national holiday . Evenings are spent with the host family practicing language skills . W eekend excursions to Mexico City are available . Cost : $ 595 per person , inclu ding lodging , meals , ground transportation to Puebla ( 80 miles southeast of M exico City ) and Spanish classes . Not included : round-trip air fare to Mexico City . Contact : Language Experience Programs , 2432-F Moon Dust Drive , Chino H ills , Calif. 91709 ; tel . ( 800 ) 726-6644 . -0- HALLOWEEN JAZZ : An eight-day Halloween jazz cruise leaves Oct. 30 from New Orleans aboard Holland America 's Noordam for stops in Grand Cayman ; Ocho Rios , Jamaica , and Cozumel , Mexico . Round-the-clock , live , on-board jazz performances feature Diane Schuur , Bud dy Montgomery , Pete Candoli , Ernie Watts and many other musicians . Cost : $ 1 ,165 per person , double occupancy , including all meals and shows . Not include d : round-trip air fare to New Orleans . Contact : Labadie Productions , 303 Pot rero St. 19 , Santa Cruz , Calif. 95060 ; tel . ( 800 ) 350-7464 . -0- UMBRIAN R AMBLE : An eight-day easy walking trip in the Umbrian countryside of central Ita ly leaves Sept. 10 and Oct. 1 and 22 . The tour begins in the ancient city of To di , where participants stay in a converted Benedictine monastery . Each day , g roups walk to a new village , stopping frequently to visit wineries , churches a nd museums . Van assistance is always available and will carry luggage to the ne xt lodging , from a family-run hotel to a converted villa . Guests will stop to see frescoes at the church of San Francesco in the walled town of Montefalco , R oman ruins in Spello , and museums and churches in Assisi . Picnic lunches are p rovided by the guide en route , and dinners are eaten at local restaurants . Cos t : $ 1,720 per person , including accommodations , continental breakfasts , mea ls and guides . Not included : air fare to Rome and ground transportation . Cont act : Alternative Travel Group , 575 Pierce St. , Suite 604 , San Francisco , Ca lif. 94117 ; tel . ( 415 ) 431-6789 . -0- GREEK ISLES : A 45-foot sailing yacht takes up to seven guests through the Saronic Gulf south of Athens , stopping at Hydra , Aegina , Poros and Epidavros . Participants on this 15-day journey leave Los Angeles Oct. 7 , tour Athens the following day , then board the yacht for a week ; they can sit back or actively participate in the sailing . Afterward , g uests board an overnight deluxe steamer to Irakleion , Crete , to visit the anci ent ruins of Cnossus , the White Mountains and archeological sites on the wester n side of the island . Cost : $ 1,975 , including breakfasts , lunches while sai ling and two dinners , ground transportation and a guide . Not included : air fa re to Athens . Contact : Guides for All Seasons , 202 County Road , Calpine , Ca lif. 96124 ; tel . ( 800 ) 457-4574 . -0- MAYAN JOURNEY : Visit the mysterious M ayan ruins without breaking a fingernail on a 15-day deluxe train/cruise tour le aving Los Angeles Union Station on Oct. 9 . Participants will travel by private train in Pullman sleeping cars to New Orleans , where they stay two nights at th e Riverside Hilton hotel and tour the city . They board Holland America 's Noord am to cruise to the Yucatan and the West Indies , stopping at Cozumel , Mexico , for a day trip to the Mayan ruins of Tulum ; Grand Cayman ; Cartagena , Colombi a , and Jamaica . The ship returns to New Orleans for the flight home . Cost : $ 2,895 per person , including ground transport , meals and guides . Contact : Un common Journeys , 1529 Cypress St. 103 , Walnut Creek , Calif. 94596 ; tel . ( 8 00 ) 323-5893 . Richard Dooling is a traveler in two drastically different territories : the la w he practices today in Nebraska , and the folkways of the Mende people in the b acklands of Sierra Leone , where he once stayed . In his sardonic and decidedly untidy novel , `` White Man 's Grave '' ( Farrar , Straus & Giroux , $ 22 , 386 pp. ) , he pits the tribal magic of each against the other . There is no questio n who wins . Dooling has something of the beady , comical glitter of Evelyn Waug h though not his formal perfection but only in one eye . Waugh traveled in Sierr a Leone and wrote nastily about both whites and blacks . Dooling 's parody wicke dly impales his Americans ; his ingenious sympathies lie with the Mende villager s , giving his book an aspect beyond parody . The story goes roughly like this : Randall Killigan , a maniacally hard-charging lawyer in Indianapolis , has a st raying son , Michael , who went to Africa with the Peace Corps for two years , s tayed for four and has disappeared . While Randall fulminates , mobilizes his se nator and the State Department and offers large rewards , a second effort goes o n . Boone , an artist friend of Michael 's and a fugitive from an equivalent bul l elephant of a father , treks into the Sierra Leone bush . Eventually Michael t urns up along with an explanation for his disappearance . Most of the African pa rt of the story , which is most of the book , concerns Boone 's painful and illu minating encounters with a primitive village civilization . Painful for him , il luminating for us . The young man 's artistic veneer quickly burns off , disclos ing a hereditary , stiff-necked American prig . The priggishness , though , allo ws the author to show us what Boone refuses to see : how supremely and winningly , in the notion of primitive civilization , the noun demolishes the adjective . Dooling gives us a bravura display of satire with Randall Killigan , in war pai nt and tribal regalia , as a legal chieftain whose ambition is to be `` the syno nym for bankruptcy in the Seventh Circuit . '' He demolishes the lawyers for ban krupt firms . He lays the reeking carcasses of his victims upon his conference-r oom table , apportioning bits to the rival creditors ' lawyers . He is the most virile tiger in the jungle : the electronic notebook he carries into negotiating battle has twice as many bytes as anyone else 's . It contains for instant refe rence the entire Federal Bankruptcy Code , annotated . The imagery , of course , is purposeful as well as comic . As the search for his son goes on , with Boone encountering witches , shape-changers , juju medicine , the dumbstruck regard o f young villagers and the cryptic though essentially benevolent maneuvering of t he elders , Africa leaks into Indianapolis . Randall mysteriously receives a hid eous , skin-wrapped package that drips blood ; now and then it turns into a bat . For a while he wonders if he has a brain tumor ; gradually he realizes that it is witchcraft . It will turn out to be self-inflicted : he , we will learn by t he end , is possessed by a witch-spirit and has , in effect , become one . As on e character points out , the American counterpart of voodoo is lawsuits : Both a re used to kill , sicken or otherwise ruin one 's neighbors . The Mende hire wit ches , we hire lawyers . Dooling brings off his satiric parallel , which might o therwise seem forced , with a wit and outrageousness that make it work . His suc cess has large holes in it , though . He can satirize his countrymen but he is p lain awful when he attempts anything more inward with them . When Randall goes t o Mass and confession to try to stave off the witchery , his mental flailing is written in flamboyant cliche and interlarded with more cliche : lengthy quotatio ns from the liturgy . Satire has sunk out of its depth to become the mawkish thi ng it satirizes . In the African chapters , the author 's sympathy and responsiv eness produce writing whose humor is carried on a current of discovery and aston ishment . Only the Americans are flat . Michael , when discovered , is simply an American overachiever gone native . Boone 's cultural obtuseness has a narrativ e usefulness it allows the delicate complexities of the villagers to emerge more clearly but it turns him into a null character . An anthropologist who has live d with the Mende for years and has , in effect , become one of them , is conside rably less interesting than what he has to say . He is a good explainer but not much else . Oddly , the only American with any roundness or allure is a thorough ly reprehensible Peace Corps veteran , infinitely cynical about the villagers an d mainly in it for the adventure and the beer . He is alive , though , and authe ntic . And it is in evoking the life of Africa and in suggesting the wisdom and forbearance that underlie the `` superstitions '' of the Mende villagers that Do oling is at his best . There is , first of all , a vivid presentation not just o f what his Africa looks , feels and smells like but of the emotions of unease an d beguilement they can produce . The vast landscape seen from the descending air plane looks like `` an empire of solid broccoli tops stretching inland to the ho rizon . '' Boone rides a rickety truck into the interior ; people , animals and cargo are so jammed together that the passengers practice a kind of metabolism-l owering trance state . The villagers live in a fearful world of uncontrollable e vents : hunger , disease , the depredations of white settlers and diamond seeker s , and the arbitrary incursions of warring political factions whose maneuvering in the capital is felt 200 miles down-country . Dooling portrays the rich cultu re that can evolve from powerlessness to command one 's environment ; as opposed to Western culture , which has evolved from just the opposite . From command , that is , or a sense of command or look at our cities an illusion of command . T he suggestion is there without being explicit . It is fleshed out in countless s cenes in which Dooling gives life to a village that manages dignity and a subver sive humor in the teeth of what seem to us like invincible odds . The witchcraft , the magical secret societies , the shamanism , the taboos are ways of coping with unmanageable dangers both outside and within . In his portraits a visiting witch cleaner who runs a cotton thread around the village so nobody shall leave or enter until the place is cleaned ; the poignantly striving third wife of a lo cal political thug ; and above all , the elder who adopts Boone as his son so th at the villagers can see him as a real person , albeit an odd and misbehaving on e Dooling evokes the humane checks and balances of a deep world ; the logic , yo u might say , of its magic . WASHINGTON The fight for a tougher human-rights policy toward China was lost lo ng before President Clinton announced surrender last week . Clinton 's decision to throw aside his own campaign commitments on the issue bodes very badly for th e future of human rights as a core concept of American foreign policy . From now on , it seems , the United States ' human-rights policy will amount to talk , t alk and more talk . The battle to impose trade sanctions on China 's dictators w as lost , first , within and by the Clinton administration itself . Because of a lack of internal discipline , the administration couldn't even manage a coheren t effort to bluff the Chinese leadership into making at least some serious human rights concessions . Even administration officials concede that while some in t he State Department were trying to tell China 's leaders that the United States was prepared to be tough , the Treasury , Commerce and Agriculture departments o f the same administration-as well as many who occupy the economy policy precinct s of Clinton 's own White House-were sending the Chinese clear signals that said : Never mind . Ignore the State Department 's claptrap . There 's no way we 'll impose serious sanctions . The Chinese sat tight waited for the inevitable cave -in and the renewal of most favored nation trade status . That cave-in was made all the more inevitable by the behavior of the American business community . Bus iness leaders are , of course , free to lobby for whatever policy they want . In the United States , you don't face torture or prison for opposing government po licy , as you do in China . But if we 're counting on American business to be th e conveyor belt of human rights to China , we may be waiting a very long time . Every signal the business community sent to the Chinese government was that mone y and trade mattered a lot more than the rights of political dissidents rotting in jail cells . Why ruffle the feathers of the very people you 'll be doing deal s with ? `` The business community was shameful in the way they conducted themse lves , '' said Rep. Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif. , a leading congressional advocate o f human rights in China . `` They told the Chinese government , `` you hang toug h , they willn't revoke MFN . ' They associated themselves with the regime , and that was shameful . '' It can be argued , as Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen d id , that unilateral trade sanctions were the least practical way to advance the cause of human rights . Unilateral sanctions , he said , were more likely to hu rt us than the Chinese , since other countries would pick up the contracts the U nited States walked away from . But if ever there were a practical time for sanc tions , it is now , when the U.S.-Chinese trade balance is heavily in China 's f avor . Some serious human-rights advocates also opposed sanctions on the ground that increased trade and prosperity would inevitably make China a freer society . `` Not only does such trade help produce a middle class , with increasingly so phisticated political and social views , '' said James Finn of Freedom House , w riting recently in Commonweal magazine , `` but it introduces new information an d values into an insular society . '' Maybe so , but the relationship between ma rkets and freedom is far from automatic . China 's markets , after all , are not really `` free , '' given the large role played by the political and military l eadership in determing who will get rich . And as George Black of the Lawyers Co mmittee for Human Rights argued in the Los Angeles Times , China may be developi ng a system that he called `` market Stalinism . '' The government will let mark ets develop as long as there is no challenge to its political authority . It 's quite possible to say yes to Ronald McDonald and no to the Statue of Liberty-and to make that decision stick for a long time . But even assuming that Bentsen an d Finn are right , Clinton had a problem in renewing MFN that George Bush did no t . Bush actually believed sanctions were a mistake . Clinton , on the other han d , accused Bush of having `` coddled the regime , pleading for progress but fai ling to impose penalties for intransigence . '' The people of China , Clinton sa id in 1992 , `` are still denied their basic rights and liberties . They are den ied the right to choose their own leaders ; they are still imprisoned for simply calling for democracy ; they continue to suffer torture and cruel , inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment . '' And on and on and on . All those condit ions still apply . Yet Clinton , after so many threats and promises , was forced to back down . In doing so , he sent a message about all future American statem ents and undertakings about human rights : We may not really mean them . Forced to confront a contradiction between his stated commitment to human rights and hi s promise to put economics at the center of American foreign policy , Clinton ch ose economics . It is not an irrational choice . But its implications will not b e lost on China 's dictators , or on dictators anywhere else . What 's most trou bling is not Clinton 's flip-flop but the fact that it appeared so inevitable . Human rights served America 's interests in the Cold War as a rallying cry again st Soviet power . But now that the Cold War is over , a lot of policy makers are starting to see concerns over human rights as a barrier to a rational , self-in terested American foreign policy . In the case of China , after all , there were not only concerns over trade but also over cooperation against North Korea . If human rights are destined to give way to cold-eyed realism whenever the going g ets even remotely tough , then let 's be honest about it . Let 's stop rationali zing by pretending that what we really cared about in this MFN business was `` o pening up '' China to democracy . If we 're unprepared to come to the defense of the lives and liberties of others when doing so might inconvenience our own pur suit of happiness , we should at least admit it to ourselves . It ranks up there with the world 's other great unanswerable questions : Will M adonna 's career ever get back on track ? Are Roseanne and Tom going to reunite ? When will Susan Lucci ever get her Emmy ? And now we have : `` Why bother with sex ? '' OK , we guys know why . But Rosemary Redfield , a Canadian evolutionar y biologist , wants the female of the species to know that when their hormones a re in hysterics , when their libido is wired , when they 've got `` making whoop ee '' on their brain cells , they should think twice about having sex . Redfield , a researcher in the Department of Zoology at the University of British Columb ia in Vancouver , wrote in the journal Nature that a female would be more likely to have genetically healthier offspring by not mixing her genes with those of a male , whose sperm is more likely to carry mutations than are her eggs . She wa s talking about hypothetical , computer-modeled species lonely , dateless amoeba , to you and me . But because there were no single-cell spokes-creatures availa ble to comment , we had to interview humans . `` This is male-bashing at the mol ecular and biological level , '' Dennis Palumbo , a psychotherapist in private p ractice in Los Angeles , said of Redfield 's findings . Redfield , who was unava ilable for comment , told the Washington Post that her ideas on sexual reproduct ion `` do not apply to the vast majority of human males , who make many very imp ortant non-genetic contributions to their offspring . '' Still , Palumbo asked : `` Are we , as men , basically on the way out ? It sounds like that . `` But on the other hand , male scientists have sort of been the voices of record for so many years that some part of me now thinks that this is an attempt by female res earchers to balance the voices out there . '' Helen E. Fisher , research associa te in the department of anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History i n New York and the author of `` Anatomy of Love '' ( Ballantine , 1992 ) , said the study by Redfield `` is providing balance to the subject and pointing out th at there are some maladaptive consequences to sex as well . '' `` It 's more ada ptive to clone yourself than it is to reproduce with a male partner who may intr oduce mutations and produce a more shoddy offspring , '' she added . Too bad peo ple can't be more like strawberries , Fisher said . `` Strawberries clone themse lves when they are in the middle of a nice good patch . But when they get to the edge of the patch and they have to branch out into dangerous frontier , they re produce sexually instead . `` And that is useful to them because they 've got mu tant and new kinds of strawberries that may survive in very unpredictable circum stances , '' she said . `` The same could be said of human beings . It has long been said that there is variety in offspring . '' As far back as Darwin , scient ists have argued that reproduction is possible through parthenogenesis , or virg in birth . Ellen Kriedman says Darwin be damned . The author of `` How Can We Li ght a Fire When the Kids Are Driving Us Crazy : A Guide for Parents to Be Lovers '' ( Villard , 1994 ) said any woman who has ever had an orgasm wouldn't want t o put the kibosh on sex . `` There 's nothing like it . It 's the closet act you can engage in . It 's intimacy . It 's loving . It fulfills your need to be hel d and to be touched and to be connected with another human being , '' she said . `` Aside from the biological , it is psychologically and emotionally satisfying to be engaged in the sexual act . '' ( Optional Add End ) Palumbo said he doesn 't like the notion of eliminating the `` middleman '' or the sexual act from pro creation . `` There 's already a growing body of literature delegitimizing the n eed for males . Our culture already suffers from the lack of fathers , a crucial aspect of the dysfunction in families . I know if I were a woman , I would be f rustrated by how many men abrogate their responsibility as fathers . '' Maybe , Palumbo said , Redfield 's work `` will be a clarion call for men to hang around , '' even though the biologist `` was studying amoeba who missed out on intimat e dinner dates , going to the movies and holding hands . '' Christine Martin , a former erotic film actress and exotic dancer , said Redfield 's sexual reproduc tion theory reeks of `` female supremacy . '' Martin , who resides in New York , teaches a class in `` How to Drive Your Woman Wild in Bed '' at the Learning An nex in Los Angeles . `` Men have been battered by feminists and are confused by courtship and how to please women , '' she said , adding that Redfield 's conclu sions `` are anti-male to me . And the fact that it is anti-sex is pretty anti-h uman because sex is not only for reproduction , it is for pleasure , relaxation and intimacy . '' Madge Sinclair was `` flattered '' to be asked to be involved . Talia Shire tol d her husband she was really lucky in life : `` I have had the chance to work wi th the very best and that 's a wonderful feeling . '' And Justine Bateman and Ja smine Guy found working on the fictional segments of TBS ' `` A Century of Women '' to be a great learning experience . Directed by Academy Award-winning Barbar a Kopple , the fictional segments of the documentary follow the lives of four ge nerations of women in one family . Teresa Wright , Olympia Dukakis , Talia Shire , Justine Bateman and Brooke Smith play the women who gather to celebrate the b irth of Bateman 's daughter . Madge Sinclair and Jasmine Guy play mother and dau ghter African American friends who join in the celebration . Throughout the cour se of the gathering , they discuss the changes women have seen and fought for ov er the course of the century . `` To me it just showed that everything starts wi th the family , '' Sinclair says of the fictional scene . `` You can find every single instance of anything that happens in your life within the family . It onl y is multiplied to that many powers when it goes out in the community . Everythi ng that happens in the community happens to the family . '' Originally , Sinclai r worried that her and Guy 's characters were included to fill a quota . But the n she realized their inclusion made perfect sense . `` If we are talking about t he journey of women , this is about where we have arrived at from a place where black women and white women could barely talk to each other in public , except i f one was giving orders and the other was saying , ` Yes ma ' am . ' `` To have a family as closely knit as that one was to feel comfortable enough with these t wo women to invite them to a happening , I thought it was pretty nice and indica tive to where I think we have arrived , which is a happy place . '' The weeklong shoot brought all the actresses closer together . `` I came out with such enorm ous respect for all of those women , '' Shire says . `` It was hard to say goodb y . '' Guy recalls how much they talked about about their lives and careers when the cameras weren't rolling . `` For me , Justine and Brooke Smith , to get a p erspective from Olympia and Talia , I think , was really invaluable . At least w here I am , I 'm still trying to plot everything out and pursue specific goals . I think Olympia said to me one day , ` You can't plan this career . Your career just is . ' It was a relief to know that because you are kind of fighting a los ing battle thinking we are in control of this business . '' Bateman believes the documentary is important for women her age . `` I 'm 28 and I need to see this stuff , '' she says . `` I came into a world where I already had the vote . I al ready had equality the most equality we 've had . And to see that this was hard won , I can be really grateful for where I am now . '' Tina Hill is always asked the same question : Did she know she was making histo ry when she became a `` Rosie the Riveter '' during World War II ? Yes and no . `` I knew I was making history for myself , but I didn't know I was making histo ry for anyone else . Always as a little child , there were two or three things I always wanted in my house . I didn't want a leaky roof and I didn't want a lot of fussing and fighting . Up until now , I have had some leaks , but I 've had n o fighting ! '' Hill , now 76 and living in Los Angeles , is among the women pro filed on the first installment of TBS ' six-hour `` A Century of Women . '' The Texas native migrated to Los Angeles in 1940 to seek a better life . She found u nheard-of economic freedom for a black woman when she began working in one of th e many defense-industry facilities sprouting in Southern California during World War II . After the men returned from the war , she continued working at the pla nt , run by North American Aviation ( now known as Rockwell ) . She retired in 1 980 , after 37 years . `` They didn't have a lot of jobs for black people then , especially women , '' Hill says . `` Some of them had jobs working in the hotel s . They had a few black teachers . '' When Hill came to Los Angeles to stay wit h an aunt , all she could find was domestic work . Then came the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor . `` I went home and married my childhood sweetheart . He went into the service and I came back to Los Angeles again . They were hiring people , so I went to the plant and put in my application that day . She applied at Nor th American Aviation . `` They hired me and they sent me to a training school fo r six weeks . They paid you the same thing as if you were working regular . That old 40 cents an hour was a lot of money . I would bring home about $ 16 a week . '' As a domestic , she earned $ 40 a month . She was happy working at the plan t , she recalls , `` as long as I was making some money that was sufficient and I was able to spend it as I wanted to . I was home with my family when night cam e . That 's what I liked . '' World War II , she says , `` helped every woman wh o was breathing air because they learned to manage things and do things . We jus t learned a lot . We learned how to do things we thought we couldn't do . '' If there was racism at the plant , Hill says , `` you couldn't show it . Roosevelt was a good president and he opened up the doors and things for us to go in these different places to work . '' Whites , she says , `` didn't want us to get ahea d . They wanted us to stay back . Hitler got the black woman out of the white wo man 's kitchen . '' As spring turns to summer , more and more people are enjoying activities outdoo rs . The American Cancer Society estimates that between 700,000 and 1 million ca ses of skin cancer will be diagnosed this year . Although many forms of skin can cer are highly curable , it can be a fatal disease . To reduce the likelihood of developing skin cancer , wear clothing that the sun cannot penetrate and use a sunscreen with a sun protective factor ( SPF ) rating of 15 to 30 . REMEMBERING D-DAY : Sunday and Monday , news services will cover the major cere monies commemorating the D-Day invasion 50 years ago , including a parachute dro p . Some stations will offer documentaries and special programs . Other planned TV coverage : SUNDAY On ABC , Joan Lunden will report from St. . Mere Eglise , F rance , site of the parachute drop , for `` Good Morning America/Sunday . '' `` This Week With David Brinkley '' will originate from Chateau de Vierville . Brin kley , who covered the D-Day invasion , will be joined by Sam Donaldson , Cokie Roberts and George Will . For CBS , Charles Osgood will anchor `` CBS News Sunda y Morning . '' Segments will include a report by Tom Fenton and Andy Rooney 's v isit with D-Day veteran paratroopers en route to France aboard the Queen Elizabe th II . For NBC , Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric , Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams will anchor at Normandy . On cable , CNN reports are anchored by Frank Sesno in Normandy with reporters Bruce Morton and Richard Blystone and two analysts , Br itish historian Paul Beaver and French historian Francois Bedarida . CNN airs th e Drumhead Service from Portsmouth , England , with remarks by the Archbishop of Canterbury in the morning . Arts & Entertainment runs several movies and docume ntaries including the series `` D-Day . '' Later A&E also offers `` Eye on Histo ry : D-Day '' featuring first-person stories from retired Vice Adm. John D. Bulk eley , historian Stephen E. Ambrose and Paul Stillwell , author of `` Assault on Normandy , '' among others . On Sunday night Discovery Channel repeats `` Norma ndy : The Great Crusade '' ; `` CNN Presents ... '' offers `` D-Day : The Great Crusade '' ( Lou Waters and Judy Woodruff host ) ; The Disney Channel carriess ` ` World War II : A Personal Journey '' ; and The Learning Channel offers `` This Century : War . '' MONDAY NBC , ABC and CBS will cover the 50th anniversary eve nts beginning at 7 a.m. EDT . For ABC , Peter Jennings reports from the American Cemetery at Colleville , overlooking Omaha Beach , where troops from the United States Army 's 1st Infantry Division and 29th Division landed . ABC 's `` World News Tonight '' will air from Normandy , followed by `` Day One . '' Sheila Mac Vicar reports on the search for a former Nazi general who is still wanted by the United States , Britain and Canada for the alleged murder of unarmed prisoners of war . For CBS , Harry Smith will co-anchor from the American Cemetery with re ports from Fenton and Bill Plante ; Rooney , who was a soldier in the D-Day inva sion ; former CBS News anchor and correspondent Walter Cronkite , who covered th e invasion of France in 1944 for United Press ; and David Eisenhower , grandson of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower , Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces . `` CBS E vening News '' includes coverage from Rita Braver and Mike Phillips , among othe rs , in Normandy . For NBC , the anchors are Brokaw , Gumbel and Couric . Willia ms also anchors coverage live for NBC News ' `` Nightside , '' as well as the jo int French-United States ceremony at Utah Beach at 4:30 a.m. EDT . PBS carries ` ` D-Day Remembered : A Musical Tribute from the QE2 '' from Cherbourg Harbor , w ith Walter Cronkite , Bob Hope , Tommy Tune , Vera Lynn , Helen Mirren and other s ; and then Bill Moyers 's `` From D-Day to the Rhine , '' follows World War II veterans as they returned to the battlefields . This 1990 documentary includes new interviews . On CNN , Sesno continues to anchor with Blystone and Morton . L ive coverage includes a memorial service aboard the USS George Washington , the Ranger Assault Ceremony from Pointe du Hoc and the U.S.-French Ceremony at Utah Beach with President Clinton and French President Francois Mitterrand . `` Larry King Live '' originates from Normandy ( repeating that night ) . Later. Lou Wat ers anchors `` D-Day Remembrances . '' LOVE ON THE RUN : Sunday night on NBC . T his action-adventure follows the exploits of a business entrepreneur ( Anthony A ddabbo ) and a Canadian heiress ( Noelle Beck ) . After exchanging intoxicated m arriage vows on a whim in Greece , the newlyweds realize they don't get along an d decide to divorce . But her father ( Len Cariou ) orchestrates a clever financ ial scheme to ensure that the two remain partners both in marriage and in the co mpany , Adventure Inc. , an operation that allows clients to go anywhere and do anything for a price . THE ESSENCE AWARDS : Monday night on Fox . Sinbad and Van essa Williams host this entertainment special celebrating achievements of eight African-American men . The awards were taped April 22 . Honorees are Eddie Murph y and Denzel Washington and film-maker Spike Lee ; Benjamin Carson , director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Medical Institute ; civil-rights activi st Robert P. Moses , director of the Algebra Project for mathematics education ; musician/composer Quincy Jones ; Joseph E. Marshall Jr. , director and co-found er of Omega Boys Club , which promotes academic achievement ; and the Rev. Jesse Jackson , president of the National Rainbow Coalition . WASHINGTON It is one of those rare spring days when Washington city is at its m ost beautiful , and Vermont filmmaker Jay Craven is nostalgic . `` I used to liv e here , '' he says , taking in the sights of Georgetown as he ambles toward the Potomac River `` 1970 to '71 . '' College ? you wonder . Government family ? Mi litary brat ? Nope . `` I was a full-time anti-war activist , '' says Craven . I t was no small time in his life and not only for the obvious reasons . Raised by his grandparents , Craven grew up more or less alone and had always longed for a place where he felt at home , a community . He discovered both in the anti-Vie tnam War movement , as well as something equally valuable : his ability to organ ize and make things happen . These days he is still leading a charge and still e xtolling the virtues of community . But now his venue is a feature film , `` Whe re the Rivers Flow North , '' a made-in-Vermont opus funded mostly by Vermonters , set against a singular time and place in the state 's history . Craven , 42 , and his co-producers are distributing the movie too . Encouraged by the buzz at the recent Sundance Film Festival , which gave it two extra screenings , the te am turned down eight distribution offers that seemed too limited . `` We want to see it play across the country , '' Craven says , `` at least in every town in New England and New York with a movie theater . '' The film has opened cautiousl y to appreciative reviews , first in Vermont , New Hampshire and Upstate New Yor k , then two art houses in Boston . Since then it 's been getting released gradu ally elsewhere . Taken from a novella by Vermonter Howard Frank Mosher , and a s creenplay by Craven and Don Bredes , the movie tells the story of an old Vermont logger and his Native American housekeeper-companion and their battle in 1927 t o survive the construction of a big hydro-electric dam that threatens to flood t heir land . The logger , Noel Lord ( Rip Torn ) , is defiant no amount of money will buy his lifetime lease and livelihood . His companion , Bangor ( Native Ame rican actress Tantoo Cardinal ) , is more pragmatic . Craven , who also directed , has lived almost 20 years in the poor , rural country where much of `` Rivers '' was filmed . He moved there after his Washington sojourn and a couple of yea rs in New York . `` I wanted to be in a place where there was a stronger sense o f community , '' he says of his decision to leave New York . `` And I was intere sted in the challenge of mingling with people unlike myself . '' So just around the time of the Saturday Night Massacre ( Craven still chronicles that period in political terms ) , he set out with a girlfriend to visit a poet friend in Verm ont and stayed . After a lonely first year spent researching Vermont history and nursing an arm he 'd broken carrying wood , Craven , an activist by nature , st arted the Catamount Arts Center . Using it as a base , he put together a 16mm se ries of American and European film classics , which he showed in church basement s and town halls around the state . He also taught history , journalism and film -making at an alternative high school and fathered a son . By the time he set ou t to make `` Rivers , '' he had more than a decade of community activity and per sonal contacts behind him . He also had a couple of documentaries and a 30-minut e fiction film to his credit ; both were helpful when he reached out for funding to his friends and neighbors , some of them conservative Yankee Republicans he never dreamed he 'd be buddies with in his anti-war days . Craven , his producer and wife Bess O' Brien and associate producer Lauren Moye ( both of whom were p regnant ) systematically worked the state . They brought cocktails and homemade hors d' oeuvres , a chance to be part of a major motion picture and a fund-raisi ng style borrowed from charitable giving . Individuals and businesses from all o ver the state , and some from neighboring New Hampshire , participated . Even th e ads that paid for the publicity brochure were local : Bailey 's Country Store , the Rotary Club of St. Johnsbury , the National Life of Vermont insurance comp any . Grants from 11 foundations ( including the National Endowment for the Arts ) , $ 475,000 in business loans and a $ 500,000 foreign-sales advance completed the almost $ 2 million budget . Finally , during the cold , wind-swept fall of 1992 , the movie was shot . Nearly half the cast and crew are or have been resid ents of Vermont ( or New Hampshire ) including Michael J. Fox and Treat Williams , who have small character roles in the film . More than 100 local extras , inc luding Vermont Gov. Howard Dean , participated too . The production team operate d out of Craven 's and O' Brien 's home , an 1821 farmhouse in Barnet , a town o f about 2,000 . The ups and downs of Craven 's personal life have made him parti cularly interested in the relationship between the two main characters in `` Riv ers . '' He empathizes with them both , but particularly with the logger . `` No el is a tough guy with vulnerability he can't fully face , '' he says . `` He ta unts the gods and has to do things his way . He takes on lost causes and difficu lt jobs that would be simpler to do another way . I can identify with that . '' LYON , France A resurrection of `` city-states '' and regions is quietly transf orming Europe 's political and economic landscape , diminishing the influence of national governments and redrawing the continental map of power for the 21st ce ntury . As the revolution wrought by information highways , rapid means of trave l and global capital flow gathers momentum , the traditional dominance of capita ls such as Paris , Rome and London is being challenged by provinces whose locati on and infrastructure seem better adapted to the continent 's modern demands . W ith remarkable speed , the areas surrounding Lyon , Milan , Stuttgart and Barcel ona have emerged as the `` four motors '' driving the process of European integr ation . Since signing a co-operation pact in 1988 , the four partners have parla yed their skilled industrial work forces and affluent markets into a dynamic par tnership that transcends national loyalties . These poles of prosperity are suck ing in huge investments and making new demands for greater autonomy . Some exper ts believe the emerging urban economies are creating a new historical dynamism t hat will ultimately transform the political structure of Europe by creating a ne w kind of `` Hanseatic League '' that consists of thriving city-states . ( The H anseatic League was an alliance of northern port cities in Europe whose commerci al success enabled them to become sovereign entities in the 15th and 16th centur ies . ) . Stuttgart , the capital of Baden-Wurttemburg , one of Germany 's wealt hiest regions , already enjoys enormous autonomy in the country 's decentralized political system and has started to seek partners abroad as it develops its own `` foreign policy . '' Milan , the capital of Italy 's Lombardy that has long s erved as the country 's industrial base , is the home of the Northern League led by populist Umberto Bossi . Capitalizing on voter dismay with the massive corru ption scandals and tax money lavished on `` white-elephant '' projects in the po orer south , Bossi has built solid support in Milan for his call to break Italy into three autonomous regions . Barcelona , the capital of the Catalonia region , has long enjoyed substantial political autonomy in Spain and now wants the pow er to raise and keep its own share of income tax away from Madrid . The city tur ned north to build a bustling economic triangle with Toulouse and Montpelier in France that sees itself as the crossroads of the Mediterranean . Lyon , France ' s second city , is developing into one of Europe 's faster-growing regions by bu ilding connections with Geneva and Turin . Lyon now does twice as much business with northern Italy as with Paris . The trend is expected to accelerate when a n ew high-speed train tunnel bored through the Alps cuts the travel time between L yon and Turin to 70 minutes . While talk of political autonomy from Paris is mut ed compared to its other regional partners , Lyon is slowly asserting its own in dependence as the capital of the Rhone-Alps region . It now operates nine office s abroad , as far away as Toronto and Shanghai , to carve out its own foreign co mmercial policy . `` In a way , Europe is returning to its roots by building aga in on the regions , '' says Jean Chemain , director of Lyon 's Chamber of Commer ce . `` The Romans settled here because access to the rivers and roads made it a natural base for their empire . Business is doing it for the same reasons , and those enterprises are the key building blocks of Europe , not national governme nts . '' The process was hastened by the announcement of the European Union that it would tear down national barriers by the end of 1992 . Instead of worrying a bout tedious delays and dozens of customs documents at frontiers , companies rea lized they could finally concentrate on locating production and distribution cen ters close to their customers . `` It was a race to get to the hottest points on the map , '' recalls Jean-Louis Ouellette , distribution director for Ikea , th e popular Swedish furniture maker with more than 120 stores in 25 countries . `` We wanted to serve as many places in Europe as possible within 24 hours , and w e think we found the most strategic spot . '' Ikea 's executives pored over char ts and maps until they settled on a piece of land for their main warehouse near Lyon 's Satolas airport , which offered express-train connections and a modern h ighway nexus that put them less than five hours from affluent metropolitan cente rs in three countries Paris , Barcelona and Turin . Other cities and towns acros s Europe are reaching across borders for new economic partnerships based on stra tegy and location . Antwerp and Rotterdam have forged an alliance across the Bel gian-Dutch border linking two of Europe 's biggest ports . Maastricht , Liege an d Aachen have revived their medieval community in a prosperous triangle across D utch , Belgian and German frontiers once rooted in shared waterways . Other regi ons where common economic interests are conquering national boundaries include t he `` Atlantic Arc '' ( Ireland , Wales , Brittany , the Basque region , Galicia and Portugal ) , the Baltic-North Sea connection ( Scotland , Scandinavia , Ham burg and Poland ) and the Eastern Triangle of Vienna , Prague and Budapest . In Europe as elsewhere , globalization forces now at work appear to be making citie s more important than nations . By the year 2000 , says Pascal Maragall , the ur ban economist who is Barcelona 's mayor , there will be 19 cities with at least 20 million people in the greater metropolitan area . `` Cities , not nations , w ill become the principal identity for most people in the world , '' Maragall say s . Ricardo Petrella , the European Community 's director of science and technol ogy forecasting , predicts that a desire to bring government closer to the peopl e could make nationhood obsolete . By the middle of the next century , he believ es there could be multinational security alliances while real government is carr ied out by what he calls `` the international metropolitans . '' `` In just a fe w decades , nation-states such as the United States , Japan , Germany , Italy an d France will no longer be so relevant . Instead , rich regions built around cit ies such as Osaka , San Francisco and the four motors of Europe will acquire eff ective power , because they can work in tandem with the transnational companies who control the capital . '' Such regional alliances are increasingly seen as a pragmatic and logical approach to building a more united and prosperous Europe . The same desire to preserve local identity that motivated much of the oppositio n to the Maastricht treaty on European Union is prompting many voters to demand that national governments yield more power to the regions . Indeed , an overlook ed section of the treaty calls for a Council of Regions that many believe will q uickly assume wider responsibilities and possibly evolve into a kind of European Senate . Those who are ardent defenders of the European dream now hope to win m ore converts among voters by contending that the regional approach will invest m ore power and administrative control closer to the people . At the same time , d efense and foreign policy would be co-ordinated by national governments and rais ed to a higher level . LYON , France Much of the criticism leveled by national governments and the Eur opean Community 's executive commission against the `` Four Motors '' partnershi p is that they are only interested in sustaining their high level of prosperity to the exclusion of poorer neighboring regions . The commission wants the richer areas to `` adopt '' a poor region , or their funding may be cut . But Europe ' s wealthier regions are looking elsewhere . They are now reaching out to counter parts in Asia to lure even more lucrative investments , widening the disparity w ith their poorer neighbors in Europe even more . Alsace , for example , was so e ager to capture new Japanese investment that the regional fathers hired a film-m aker to produce a soap opera for Japanese television that extolled the virtues o f their region . The show , called `` Blue Skies Over Alsace , '' is credited , along with the presence of a Japanese school in Mulhouse , with attracting inves tments by leading Japanese corporations that have produced more than 5,000 new j obs . `` A lot of the attacks are based on the view that we are only a club of t he rich , '' acknowledges Thierry Bernard , general manager of the Rhone-Alps `` foreign relations '' department . `` It 's true that to join our partnership , we insist on the same high level of industrial development , to have similar tra ining and economic policies and to be within one day 's travel time . '' Those l inks are intensifying in different areas , including culture , education , envir onment and social policies as well as transport and communications . Business an d law students in the `` Four Motors '' cities now must spend at least one year at universities in one of the other three cities in order to earn their degree . The aim , says Bernard , `` is nothing less than to create the kind of European scholar that existed at the time of Erasmus , who moved about from one great un iversity to another and felt at ease in several different cultures . That 's the best way to prevent wars . '' KWADABEKA , South Africa The words painted on the red brick wall at Phephile Pu blic Primary School spell out a motto that could easily apply to KwaZumba Africa n Builders . `` The sky is the limit , '' they say . For Cyril Gwala , managing director of the Durban-based construction company , the pledge of South Africa ' s new black-run government to build 1 million houses in five years means unprece dented opportunity . As the new South Africa gets started , no other industry st ands to gain more from the political and economic reconstruction of the country . `` We don't expect results overnight , but there is a lot to be done in this c ountry , especially with low-cost housing , and that is where the black builder will have a chance to rise to the occasion , '' said Gwala , president of the Af rican Builders Association . The ability of the new government to bring blacks i nto the white-dominated economy will be one of the first tests of whether politi cal change will result in genuine wealth-sharing in South Africa . `` Unless the re is participation at levels that matter , economic empowerment for black build ers will remain forever an illusion , '' said Joas Mogale , secretary general of the Johannesburg-based Foundation for African Business and Consumer Services , a leading business organization in South Africa . The foundation calculates that there is a backlog of 1.4 million homes in South Africa . As of mid-May the ind ustry was putting up only about 30,000 homes a year . South African President Ne lson Mandela made the five-year homebuilding plan a campaign centerpiece . That means millions of dollars will be spent by the new multiracial government on hou sing , along with millions more anticipated from international donors . For an i ndustry that has been in a major slump for several years it has shed 60,000 jobs since 1986 the formal end of the apartheid system of racial separation means th e beginning of a boom . Including black builders in the national building campai gn will not be easy . Because apartheid limited the kind of work that black cont ractors could do , most are not equipped to handle the large-scale building that will take place , Mogale and others acknowledge . The builder of a new housing complex in a community just outside Johannesburg is already running into a probl em of finding black contractors able to secure financing to participate in the p roject . Graceland , with its pastel-colored single-family homes and streets cal led Sunhill Lane and California Grove , is designed to be a model for the new So uth Africa . It has been developed by a subsidary of Murray & Roberts , one of t he larger white-owned construction companies in South Africa . The first of its kind , Graceland was planned as a multiracial development of between 500 and 800 low-cost homes built near an industrial park . Murray & Roberts has imposed its own goal of 10 percent participation by black builders in the Graceland project . However , making that quota is already proving difficult , because banks cont end that black builders are a high risk and therefore are reluctant to extend cr edit to them . Uhuru Madida , a development consultant with Bernhardt Dunstan & Associates , a housing consultant firm working on Graceland , said there is conc ern that the government will be under pressure to build houses irrespective of w ho is doing the building . Already , builders black and white say the constructi on industry isn't able to pump out more than 100,000 homes a year . `` You can't say to the people , ` We can't build enough houses because we are developing bl ack builders , ' ' ' said Nhlanhla Mjoli-Mncube , who does development strategy for Bernhardt Dunstan . Under apartheid , blacks were shut out of skilled constr uction work and management training . Even when the government decided to build hundreds of thousands of low-cost homes for blacks in racially segregated townsh ips , the contracts went to white-owned construction companies . Under apartheid , many loans to black businessmen did not come from banks but from stokvels , i nformal groups of black people who used savings to boost black business . Inspec tors were routinely bribed to get necessary permits , and suppliers demanded cas h for all building materials . Suppliers traditionally have reserved credit for white-owned businesses . But in the new South Africa , a few builders already ar e succeeding by teaming up with white-owned companies . KwaZumba , for example , is thriving because of a partnership with a subsidary of Murray & Roberts . Gwa la struck a deal with Amalgamated Construction Co. , which essentially provides the black builder with technical and financial assistance . KwaZumba 's annual r evenues have soared from about $ 250,000 to more than $ 2 million in just two ye ars . The King hath note of all that they intend , By interceptions which they know n ot of . `` Henry V , '' Act 2 , Scene 2 BLETCHLEY , England Shakespeare was writ ing about another invasion of France , of course , but his words , inscribed on a plaque in the oak-paneled manor house at Bletchley Park , tell as much about w hat really happened 50 years ago June 6 as all the tales of blood and valor on t he beaches of Normandy . For what is still far too rarely appreciated , even hal f a century later , is how much the climactic battle of World War II was fought and won in the shadowland of stealth and deception . It was a victory achieved i n no small part by an anonymous army of toymakers , scenery painters , illusioni sts and purveyors of electronic make-believe , all guided by a legion of cryptog raphic skulkers so secretive that their work is still not fully known . The de f acto headquarters of this looking glass war lay here 46 miles north of London on the 55-acre , still barbed-wire-rimmed remnant of a once-grand Victorian estate . Here , in a series of drafty frame huts and dank concrete bunkers shaded by h uge flowering chestnut trees , some 7,000 people labored feverishly on the eve o f D-Day to secure the invasion of Hitler 's Europe by first invading and manipul ating Hitler 's mind . So successful were they at skewing his version of reality that even as the largest invasion fleet in history hove into sight off Normandy , the crucial strength of the German war machine was occupied elsewhere , ambus hing imaginary armies , bombarding invisible fleets and repelling thousands of 3 -foot-tall paratroopers made of straw . `` If you ask me were the deceptions eff ective , I would say they were absolutely vital on D-Day , '' says military hist orian M.R.D. . Foot , a slim , silver-haired septuagenarian who spent the war st aging commando raids for the British Army . `` We would have been mad to attempt the invasion without them , precisely because Hitler had so many more divisions in France than we could land quickly . Had he been able to mass them to meet us , we would have been finished . And it was a near enough thing as it was . '' B ut goaded by psychological feints at other corners of his empire , Hitler ignore d an ageless maxim of military strategy : Try to be strong everywhere and you 'r e not strong anywhere . Alerted by hundreds of landing craft spotted in the loch s of Scotland , 16 divisions of German troops ( Hitler had only seven in Normand y ) , stood poised across the North Sea awaiting an imminent invasion of Norway . The Scottish landing craft were plywood stage props , the Norwegian invasion a myth . Alarmed by aerial reconnaissance showing hundreds of troop encampments a nd tank divisions in southeast England , Hitler held six armored divisions and 1 9 other divisions north of the Seine to meet the Allied landing that was certain to come between Dunkirk and Dieppe at the narrowest part of the English Channel in the Pas de Calais . The tents in England were empty , the tanks made of wood . Other German divisions garrisoned southern France in response to an appearanc e in Gibraltar by an actor disguised as British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery . In the pre-dawn June 6 darkness northeast of Normandy between LeHavre and Bou logne , fleets of small launches trailing radar-reflecting balloons pitched and rolled their way toward shore while above them two squadrons of Royal Air Force bombers loosed a specially designed pattern of aluminum chaff and electronic sig nals designed to appear on German radar as a huge fleet of warships . Ten miles offshore , screened by banks of smoke , the launch crews switched on sound ampli fiers , touching off the rattling of anchor chains , the squeal of steam derrick s lowering heavy objects and the thump of landing craft banging the sides of tra nsports . They were all illusions , only a few among thousands in a strategy of deception as old as the Trojan horse , and often imbued with what one historian referred to as `` the Monty Python element . '' But as captured Wehrmacht docume nts would later show , it was tremendously effective . It hopelessly confused th e Germans and forced them to reserve or divert armored units that , properly pos itioned , would have blown the Allied landings off the map . Still , as Foot and others emphasize , the deceptions would have been useless without the work at B letchley Park , where a bizarre band of eccentric geniuses had broken the German codes in the war 's earliest years and had been reading Germany 's most secret radio traffic ever since . `` What you have to remember about deceptions , '' sa ys F.H. Hinsley , the Cambridge professor who authored the official history of B ritish intelligence in World War II , `` is that if they 're to be successful , two things are imperative : First , the enemy must be kept totally in the dark a bout what you don't want him to know , and second , you must know everything he 's thinking all the time , especially when he 's confronted with what you want h im to believe . '' Thanks to Bletchley 's early and long-secret penetration of G erman radio traffic , Hinsley says , `` we were able to locate , early on , the entire German espionage network in Britain , eliminate parts of it and use other s to feed Hitler disinformation . We were also able to learn Hitler 's thinking about where and when the invasion would eventually come , play to his prejudices and hunches , and learn when and whether he took our bait . We were reading his mind all the time . '' In the nearly 20 years since F.W. . Winterbotham 's book `` The Ultra Secret '' first made public the extent of Allied code-breaking in World War II , much has been written about Bletchley Park and its cast of code-c racking irregulars : the sputtering Oxford dons , neurasthenic chess champions a nd rumpled , unwashed linguists recruited to attack and analyze the Germans ' su pposedly impenetrable Enigma cipher . What novelist , after all , could dream up a cryptographic protagonist like Alan Turing , the stammering , nail-biting mat hematical genius and computer pioneer , who bicycled in a gas mask to avoid hay fever , ran long distances in tweeds , listened nightly to a BBC children 's pro gram about Larry the Lamb and , nine years after the war , killed himself by coa ting an apple with cyanide and biting into it ? It was Turing , building on cryp tanalytic breakthroughs made before the war by a band of brilliant Polish mathem aticians , who led the frenzied intellectual scramble at Bletchley Park , aided by several thousand tireless young female clerks and the army of abstract academ ics one clerk remembers as `` just absolute boffins. .. . They just weren't in t he real world at all . '' Their work consisted of three basic areas . First , it involved the technical challenge of engineering what became the first electroni c programmable computers , not only to solve the increasing number and complexit y of German ciphers , but to greatly reduce the time for decoding individual mes sages . Second , it involved meticulous analysis of the messages themselves , no t only for the subtleties of linguistic translation but , in light of what was a lready known of the sender and receiver , their branches of service , their pres ent tactical situations and so on . Finally it involved the dissemination of thi s `` Ultra '' secret information to specific commanders on a need-to-know basis , through the small number of liaison intelligence officers cleared for Ultra se curity . In the early days of the war , with many ciphers still unbroken and man y messages read only days later , largely for strategic value , these tasks abso rbed the labors of only a few hundred people . But as the code-breaking process was perfected , and its machinery multiplied , so did Bletchley 's manpower need s . By D-Day , some 6,000 clerks and 1,000 `` boffins '' had overflowed the esta te 's dozens of prefabricated wooden huts and bombproof bunkers into auxiliary s tations in nearby country houses and the London suburbs . Nearly one-fifth of th e workers arrived in the final few months before the invasion , as the code-brea kers geared up for the blizzard of messages anticipated as the destruction of Ge rman land lines would force more and more Wehrmacht communiques onto the airwave s , and as the code-breakers raced to read them in time to give them tactical va lue . The speed was most needed to trace the moment-by-moment movement of German army units , particularly armored units , in the first hours and days of the in vasion . Would Hitler sniff out what was really happening on the beaches of Norm andy and move to crush it ? Or would he remain the psychological prisoner of the deception artists of the Allied cause ? The Allied deceptions of D-Day were bor n from a wedding of desperation and guile and were incomparably British from the start . Many writers credit them to the country 's horrific losses in World War I and England 's subsequent desperate search for military measures other than t he suicidal frontal assault . But Foot notes as well a rich tradition of decepti on throughout British history , dating at least to William the Conqueror , who i n 1066 had Viking allies stage a diversionary raid on Yorkshire so he could land in Sussex from Normandy almost unopposed . At the beginning of World War II , s ays Hinsley , `` we simply had no alternative but deception . We were so weak we had either to outsmart the enemy or be defeated . '' Thus in the darkest days o f 1940 , a tiny British force under Gen. Archibald Wavell literally inflated its strength with blow-up dummy tanks and artillery , and outwitted an enormous Ita lian army in Libya , capturing 130,000 prisoners . It was nothing particularly n ew for Wavell . He had once been part of a World War I operation in Palestine th at captured Beersheba from the Turks by showering the tobacco-starved enemy from the air with opium-laced cigarettes and then walking to victory across their sl eeping forms . Wavell 's Libyan success prompted a memo in which he argued convi ncingly for a new concept of deception-a highly clandestine central clearinghous e for all Allied deception plans , the London Controlling Section ( LCS ) , keye d to orchestrating them into a single grand strategy . From that beginning , fue led by the technical and analytical breakthroughs at Bletchley Park , grew `` Op eration Bodyguard , '' the myriad deceptions that ultimately ensured the D-Day l andings . Month by month , as U.S. and Canadian armies poured off ships in Brita in for the long buildup to Operation Overlord , the LCS inflated Hitler 's pictu re of the number that came ashore . For every dozen regiments that disembarked , British-controlled Nazi agents would add one or two in their reports to Hitler . For every division of armor , Hitler would hear through diplomatic circles the re were more . By May , Ultra intercepts showed German intelligence credited the Allies with having nearly double the 49 divisions they actually had in England . Most of the imaginary units , augmented by real units in other areas , were ev entually united into the largest single deception of Operation Overlord , the 90 0,000-man First U.S. . Army Group ( FUSAG ) . Its purported leader was the one g eneral who Bletchley intercepts showed Hitler feared more than any other : Georg e S. Patton . Patton 's army , headquartered in Kent , just across from Calais , was more than just a rumor . Its regimental names appeared in newspaper wedding and social announcements and even the occasional obituary . German wireless ope rators picked up radio transmissions from its jeep and tank drivers . Radio disc jockeys dedicated big-band numbers to it from regimental girlfriends . Mythical divisions were described right down to their mythical shoulder patches . The wh ole FUSAG , Hitler learned from a variety of sources , was destined to hit the b eaches of France at the closest point to Germany 's vital industrial heartland , the very spot Bletchley intercepts had shown Hitler betting on all along : the Pas de Calais . The timing was still uncertain , German troops were told by Berl in . Maybe July . Any landing anywhere else before that would probably be just a feint . Several weeks before D-Day , Foot , an intelligence officer with the Br itish Army 's Special Air Services Brigade , was ordered by his commanding offic er to prepare a deception of his own . `` I was told the order had come down to parachute two groups of men into Normandy , '' he remembers . `` They would be a rmed with light pistols and gramophones . '' The men two officers , two sergeant s and six enlisted men in each group would all be volunteers . One group would b e dropped between Le Havre and Rouen , the other behind Omaha Beach southeast of the village of Issigny-sur-Mer . They were part of the sound effects crew for ` ` Operation Titanic . '' Titanic involved the dropping of thousands of dummy par achutists in advance of the real airborne drops of D-Day . `` The dummies were a bout three feet tall , but fully uniformed and fashioned quite to half-scale , ' ' Foot says . `` In searchlights they looked exactly like real paratroopers . '' They were made of straw by professional toymakers ( `` there was a shortage of toys during the war because the toymakers were so occupied with deceptions '' ) and were designed to explode on impact . `` But in practice it had been discover ed that they didn't always explode . Hence the need for more sound effects . '' Foot 's gramophonists were to be dropped in advance of the dummy paratroopers , so the doll landings would trigger the sounds of rifle fire , the rattle of mach ine guns , the crump of mortar explosions , shouted orders and even a snatch of properly British profanity . The recorded battle was to last about 30 minutes . Then the sound effects men were to hide themselves until the invasion caught up with them . By most conventional measures , the airborne operations on D-Day wer e a disaster . The weather was marginal for jumping and many planes lost their w ay . Others were piloted by novices who panicked when they encountered flak and dropped their jumpers far off course . Many troops landed in flooded fields and drowned , and some landed in the English Channel . But with parachutes coming do wn everywhere , some real , some dummy , the mobile German units called out to d eal with the attack were hopelessly confused about which to pursue . Command cen ters fielding numerous reports of landings were unable to deduce a pattern to th e Allied attack . The chaos was furthered by the French underground , which , in accordance with longstanding LCS plans , began severing telephone cables , expl oding junction boxes and dynamiting poles . Which in turn forced the confounded Germans onto the radio waves , where their frustration could be heard and savore d in Bletchley Park . All the chasing around after parachutists distracted the G ermans into thinking their quarry was inland . Few noticed that the previously i nvasion-proof weather had suddenly improved . No one thought to look for what wa s advancing on them from the sea . One enters a time warp on visiting Bletchley Park these days . The estate is owned jointly by the British government and Brit ish Telecom , the once government-owned , now privatized telephone company , and for the past 50 years only a fraction of the buildings have been used , primari ly as a place to train postal workers and air traffic controllers . The clock on the manor house has been stopped since anyone can remember . The bunkers and hu ts that sifted Enigma and other ciphers wear the aura of timeless and banal util ity that once cloaked the same sort of WWII buildings on the Washington Mall . T o all intents and purposes the whole place appears frozen in 1945 . Three years ago , plans surfaced to level Bletchley Park to make room for housing and indust ry . The plans prompted a small but fervent protest and the formation of a small but energetic historical trust that now holds regular open-house weekends here where visitors can view code-breaking machines , pace the empty , mildewed bunke rs and learn something of the profound and long-secret history of the place . What 's wrong with this picture : A woman stands in front of a mirror , holding one arm over her head . Her fingertips press her bare breast in concentric circ les . She looks for changes in her nipple , or on the breast itself . Pretty sta ndard for breast self-examination , you say ? Not if you have arthritis and can' t hold your arm over your head . Not if your muscle tone is poor . Not if your e yes are dimming . Not if your fingers are less sensitive than they used to be . Not , in fact , if you are getting old . Breast cancer is vastly more common in women past menopause indeed , age is the single most powerful risk factor for br east cancer , and the risk keeps rising as age increases . For example , a woman has a 1-in-10 chance of getting breast cancer by the age of 80 , but only a 1-i n-2,426 chance of getting it by the age of 30 . Although lung cancer has exceede d breast cancer as causing the largest number of cancer deaths in women , among older women breast cancer is still the No. 1 killer . Yet , says Joyce Guillory , most preventive information is aimed at younger women . For many older women w hose health is beginning to fail , `` the standard breast-exam guidelines can be daunting , '' she says . Guillory , a nursing specialist in the psychosocial as pects of cancer , is an assistant professor and director of the Cancer Preventio n Awareness Project at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta . She did a surve y in the Atlanta area of a group of 50 African-American women between the ages o f 60 and 96 to determine what type of cancer-prevention techniques they use . Al though white women have a higher rate of developing breast cancer , she noted , the mortality rate among African-American women is 19 percent higher . Guillory found only 18 percent of the black women in her study had regular mammograms , s pecial X-rays used as a common screening technique to detect breast cancer . Not surprisingly , says Guillory , the women cited transportation , costs and fear of pain as barriers to getting mammograms . But more surprising to her was that 80 percent of the women did not know the correct way to examine their own breast s , a preventive measure that cancer experts have been advocating for more than a decade as one of the most effective means of discovering breast tumors . `` Th ey were just sort of patting around , feeling for a lump , '' Guillory found . T he standard breast self-examination ( BSE ) requires a woman to stand in front o f a mirror and hold her arms over her head as she visually examines her breasts . Even examination lying down requires the arm to be raised . Palpation is done with the fingertips . So even learning the standard method of BSE didn't help ma ny of these women because the effects of aging were an impediment . She found th at 38 percent of the women had arthritis . `` And then , '' she noted , `` the o lder we get , the more our joint range of motion diminishes as does the tactile sensation in our fingers . Shoulders , elbows and wrists get stiff . '' The wome n assured Guillory that they would certainly examine their breasts if they were shown how they could do it efficiently . As a result , she devised mostly simple and common-sense modifications to the standard instructions and taught them to the survey group . Her six-step program and her survey results will appear this summer in the Journal of Women and Aging . Her program for older women includes these steps : If vision and dexterity are a problem , enlist a trusted friend or family member to help . If performing a self-exam alone , visually inspect the breasts using a magnifying mirror . Look for changes such as dimples , differenc e in size between the two breasts , a lump , thickening roughness or a sore . Li e down on the back , beginning the examination under the armpit . If fingertips are losing their sensitivity , use the palm of the hand . Palms are much more se nsitive than fingertips , Guillory says . Letting the breast rest on one hand , stroke it with the palm of the other hand beginning at the chest wall and moving towards the nipple . Feel for changes in texture as well as lumps . Squeeze the nipple gently , looking for any discharge . Repeat the procedure on the other b reast . The glory that is Rome , Barcelona and Seville is captured on three new volumes in the Museum City Video series released by V.I.E.W. . Video . The first three volumes in the series , which looks at great cities through the eyes of their ar tists , architects and poets , focused on Florence , Venice and London . The Lon don video was a finalist in the Special Interest Video Association Awards . Upco ming releases include volumes on Vatican City , Jerusalem and Moscow . The video s list for $ 19.98 each . Running time for the Rome cassette is 45 minutes . The other two run 40 minutes each . To order , call 1-800-843-9843 . `` Rome : The Eternal City '' is alive with views of its rooftop gardens , pink and ochre stuc co glistening in the sun , and everlasting monuments and locations such as St. P eter 's Basilica , the Coliseum , Trevi Fountain , Spanish Steps , Baths of Cara calla , Sistine Chapel , Via Veneto , and Piazza Navona . There are people in Ro me , too-people who sip espresso at sidewalk coffee bars , people who dine in ou tdoor cafes scattered throughout the city , across the Seven Hills and along the banks of the Tiber River . The artwork in Rome is bountiful : jeweled mosaics , glowing frescos , tapestries , vaulted ceilings and palatial rooms where master works by Bernini , Michaelangelo and Raphael live on . `` Barcelona : Archive of Courtesy '' looks at a city that has been the vanguard for Spanish art and cult ure for 2,000 years . Barcelona 's wonders range from the soaring spires of Anto nio Gaudi 's Sagrada Familia to the winding streets of the Gothic Quarter and th e modern works of Pablo Picasso , Joan Miro and Salvador Dali . The people in th e region of Catalonia , between the waters of the Mediterranean and the slopes o f the Pyrsenees , remain bound to their glorious past even in the art of futuris tic Olympic City in Montjuic Park . `` Seville : Heart of Andalusia '' explores the city 's cathedral , the world 's largest Gothic building ; the Roman ruins o f Italica ; the Moorish palace of Alcazar ; Santa Cruz and La Giralda , one-time center for the city 's Jews , who like the Romans , Visigoths , Muslims and Chr istians , left their imprint on Seville . A new study calls into question the assumption that hospitals could save lots o f money by forgoing or withdrawing treatment in futile cases . The study looked at more than 4,000 very sick patients at five major medical centers . Researcher s calculated how much money would have been saved if life-sustaining treatment h ad been withdrawn as soon as a patient was deemed to have less than a 1 percent chance of surviving two months . `` The public believes that valuable resources are ` wasted ' on terminally ill patients , although the data to support this co nclusion are frail at best , '' said Joanne Lynn , a Dartmouth Medical School ph ysician who presented the findings this month at the American Geriatrics Society 's annual meeting in Los Angeles . Only 115 patients of the 4,301 studied had a n estimated 1 percent or less chance of surviving two months . All but one of th ose 115 died within six months , and 75 percent died within five days . But only 27 would have died earlier if life-sustaining treatment had been withdrawn or w ithheld . `` The vast majority of persons sick enough to qualify for a 1 percent threshold would save no more than a few days of expenses by dying early , '' sa id Lynn . The patients were in the advanced stage of coma , acute respiratory fa ilure , multiple organ system failure , chronic obstructive lung disease , conge stive heart failure , cirrhosis , metastatic colon cancer or inoperable lung can cer . All but 14 were on one of three types of life-sustaining treatment mechani cal ventilator , blood-pressure booster or kidney dialysis . By forgoing or with drawing such treatment for those patients , the study found , doctors would have saved 183 hospital days out of 1,688 days . The estimated dollar savings would be $ 1.1 million , or about 12 percent . Nearly 75 percent of the savings would have come from stopping treatment in five cases , including four aged 50 or youn ger . Two had bone-marrow transplants , and one had a liver transplant . Not onl y is it hard to identify patients likely to die within a few days , the study fo und , but those who can be so identified often are not receiving life-prolonging treatment . Sixty-one percent had a do-not-resuscitate order written by the fif th day of hospitalization , and 83 percent had one by the time of death . The st udy included patients at five centers : Beth Israel Hospital in Boston ; MetroHe alth Medical Center in Cleveland ; Duke University Medical Center in Durham , N. C. ; St. Joseph 's Hospital in Marshfield , Wis. ; and the UCLA Medical Center i n Los Angeles . Researchers from Dartmouth , George Washington and Johns Hopkins also worked on the project . More could be saved if treatment were withheld fro m patients with a 5 percent or 10 percent chance of surviving two months . But u se of such guidelines to forgo treatment , the study found , `` would result in only modest savings , and those only through what will seem to be inequitable an d unpalatable curtailing of life support in a few young patients . '' Far fewer Americans are losing teeth now than a generation ago , with particula rly impressive gains among older people , according to new research at the Natio nal Institute of Dental Research in Bethesda , Md. . The use of fluorides , seal ants , better nutrition and better consumer education have made a huge impact in the past several decades on limiting tooth decay and gum disease . The NIDR fin dings , published in the May issue of the Journal of the American Dental Associa tion , are another indication of a dramatic improvement in the oral health of Am ericans in the past several decades . Much dental disease `` is concentrated in an increasingly smaller portion of the population , '' a JADA commentary conclud ed . The percent of toothless Americans dropped from 9.9 percent in the early 19 70s to 3.8 percent in the mid-1980s , the research found . This represented a de cline in the number of toothless adults from 7.3 million to 3.7 million , even a s the working population increased by 24 million . The rate of toothlessness amo ng those 55 to 64 years of age was cut in half , from 29.7 percent to 14.6 perce nt . L. Jackson Brown , director of epidemiology and oral-disease prevention at NIDR , drew his conclusions from two surveys on tooth loss among employed Americ ans , one conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics in 1971 to 1974 and one done by NIDR in 1985-86 . The findings may indicate that Americans are keeping their teeth about a decade longer than they used to . People 35 to 44 in the 1980s survey had the same number of teeth as people 25 to 34 in the 1970s s urvey , for example , Brown said . `` Prevention of tooth loss is extending to t hat part of the population which is most at risk , '' Brown concluded , calling this `` perhaps the most encouraging finding '' of the study . Still , he said t he conclusions could not be extended to unemployed adults nor to those over 64 , who were not included in the analysis . Baseball may be more than America 's favorite sport . It may be one of its most dangerous , at least for Little Leaguers and their peers . Sports-medicine expe rts and pediatricians have increasingly been concerned about baseball injuries a nd have been lobbying for additional protective gear and safety equipment to be required for children 's leagues . They point to leg injuries sustained while sl iding into bases and head or chest injuries received when hit by a ball or bat . That effort was underscored this month with the deaths of two children a 9 year old in Hershey , Pa. , who was hit in the chest with a pitched ball , and a 3 y ear old in Texas who was hit in the chest while playing ball with his 6-year-old brother . Each child apparently died when the force of the ball threw his heart into wild arrhythmias , although medical specialists said they do not know prec isely how or why this occurs . Experts estimate that 5 million youngsters aged 5 to 14 years play baseball throughout the country , and many are never seriously injured . But in 1990 , more than 280,000 baseball players between the ages of 5 and 24 were injured , according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission , wh ich also lists baseball as the children 's sport with the most fatal accidents . About five players each year die from injuries , said Daniel J. Levy , a Baltim ore pediatrician who is a spokesman for the American Academy of Pediatrics . At a consensus meeting in Boston early this year , convened by the National Youth S ports Foundation for the Prevention of Athletic Injuries Inc. , sports-medicine specialists examined how to reduce the number of injuries in baseball . The grou p recommended children wear helmets at all times while on the field and batting , and that they have safety goggles while batting . To help prevent injuries lik e the death of the Hershey , Pa. , boy , the group said youths , especially thos e under the age of 12 , should wear a padded safety vest while batting or pitchi ng to help prevent injury when hit by balls . The experts also called for face p rotectors for children while they are at bat and on base . They also urged the u se of special balls with softer centers . These are not as dangerous when they h it a child . Many of the group 's conclusions were echoed in a statement issued by the Sports Medicine and Fitness Committee of the American Academy of Pediatri cs in April . Levy said the academy is highlighting baseball safety this summer to draw attention to `` approximately 4 million sports injuries ( from all sport s ) to children , most of which go unreported . '' The Baltimore Orioles have le nt a hand to the effort . The major-league team designated June 15 as `` Youth F itness and Safety Day '' and will feature Olympic gymnast Dominique Dawes demons trating good warm-up techniques . Levy , along with athletic trainer Katy Curran of the Children 's National Medical Center , is also setting up seminars on saf ety for coaches and parents . Levy said the American Academy of Pediatrics is pr omoting these principles : Be certain youngsters are in good physical condition before playing ball , are aware of proper nutrition and know the importance of w arm-up and stretching exercises . Make sure parents and coaches know cardiopulmo nary resuscitation ( CPR ) and have someone familiar with CPR at every game . `` We want to promote the aspect of parents knowing how to deal with injury and , God forbid , catastrophe , '' Levy said . Prevent injuries by using appropriate equipment . The use of the equipment advocated by the National Youth Sports Foun dation has been controversial . Some parents and coaches have been reluctant to use some of the gear , arguing it interferes with how the game has been traditio nally played . Also , says Curran , `` there is a feeling that the kids will res ist because they 're afraid they 'll be called sissies or geeks . '' But Levy di smisses these arguments . `` I think it 's a bogus issue , '' he said . `` The k ids do fine , especially if the equipment is mandated for all of them . '' Free agency , salary wars , the designated-hitter rule , divisional restructuri ng . What will the National Pastime stumble into next ? How about high-velocity ocular blunt trauma ? Because baseball accounts for more sports-related eye inju ries than any other sport , five New York eye doctors have conducted a study of `` ocular trauma '' in major-league baseball players . A total of 21 players suf fered eye injuries between July 1991 and July 1992 , the doctors reported in a l etter to the New England Journal of Medicine . Eleven were hit by a batted ball including six who were up at bat themselves . Others were hit by a thrown ball , injured in a collision with another player , caught dirt in the eye or simply r ubbed their eyes the wrong way . Five of the injuries forced a player to miss on e or more games . The severest injury was to a pitcher hit by a line drive . He suffered bleeding , swelling and inflammation in the eye and a scratched cornea . All eventually recovered full vision . The relatively large size of a baseball compared , say , with a racketball or the sharp end of a stick actually makes i t less dangerous to the eye . A baseball is more likely to strike the bony surro undings of the orbit , rather than reaching the eyeball itself . The Consumer Pr oduct Safety Commission estimates 39,526 eye injuries from sports or recreation were treated in hospital emergency rooms in 1991 . Baseball accounted for 18 per cent of those more than any other sport . Baseball was the most common cause of eye injuries in youngsters age 5 to 14 , second to basketball in 15 to 24 year o lds and third behind basketball and racket sports in those 25 and older . For pl ayers at bat or in the on-deck circle , the doctors recommend use of a plastic t ransparent face guard that attaches to the batting helmet and protects the face and eyes . I 'm an opera fan , and I was determined on a recent trip to Milan to get a tic ket to La Scala , one of the world 's most famous opera houses . I phoned and fa xed Italy weeks before I left home , but failed to book a seat until the last mi nute and then only after I showed up at the box office . What luck , but what a hassle . One of the great delights of Europe is the abundance of top-rate cultur al presentations theater , opera , ballet and concerts . But one of Europe 's gr eat challenges , at least at the major performance halls , is getting a ticket f or the day you are going to be in town . Often it is difficult to find out in ad vance what will be playing or even whether a performance is scheduled . But ther e are ways to get this information and to get tickets . If you want to reserve s eats before you depart , at least four U.S.-based organizations book shows in Gr eat Britain , France , Russia and elsewhere in Europe . Tourism information offi ces can provide some help , and so can the concierge in the hotel where you will be staying . But sometimes your best bet is to trust your luck at the box offic e . This is the strategy of John Philip Couch , author of `` The Opera Lover 's Guide to Europe . '' So much opera is performed in so many cities , he says , th at you should be able to get a seat on the spot almost anywhere except at major theaters . Even if the box office is sold out , you may be able to buy from a ti cket holder on the street , and many theaters sell standing-room tickets an hour or two before performances and , at the last minute , reserved tickets that hav e not been picked up . `` With a Eurailpass , a recent copy of Thomas Cook 's `` European Timetable , ' and lots of stamina , '' Couch says , `` it is conceivab le that you could see 15 different operas in 15 different cities in the same num ber of days . '' My own experience has taught me to try to book in advance if th ere is a performance I absolutely want to see which is why I began working on a ticket to La Scala as soon as I knew the date I would be in Milan . First I call ed the Italian Government Tourist Office in New York , which maintains a schedul e of performances . An information clerk gave me the fax and phone number of the La Scala box office . So far , so good . I immediately faxed La Scala and just as quickly ran into a big road block resulting from the theater 's complex ticke ting procedures . La Scala replied promptly , but noted that I had missed its de adline for advance ticket sales although my trip was still weeks away . So I pho ned La Scala , talked to an English-speaking official and got this explanation : For each production , La Scala sets specific time periods for seat requests fro m abroad ; these are listed in the theater 's `` Postal Bookings Calendar . '' I planned to be in Milan on April 21 , which meant that my fax should have been d ated between Feb. 16 and March 3 , the official told me . I had missed by a few days . Confusing ? Yes . Aggravating ? Oh , yes . But this is the way it is done . Obviously , I began my quest for tickets too late . `` Try at the box office when you get here , '' the official advised . And so I did . In mid-afternoon on the day of the performance , I checked in at the counter . `` Sold out , '' the clerk said , which was what I had expected . But as I turned to go , he asked , `` Just one ticket ? '' I nodded , he punched some commands into his computer a nd out popped a $ 35 ticket in the First Gallery . I don't know where he found t hat ticket , but I had my seat at La Scala . Not all European tickets are so har d to come by . Among the helpful resources : Booking offices : For a fee , sever al U.S.-based firms can reserve seats in advance in selected European theaters . Good Show ! London Theatre Information & Booking Service of Richmond , Calif. , ( 510 ) 236-5126 , specializes in London performances . Allegro Enterprises Inc . of New York City , ( 800 ) 666-3553 or ( 212 ) 666-6700 , books tickets to Eas tern European theaters , and especially to opera and ballet productions at the f amed Kirov Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg and the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow . Keith Prowse & Co. of New York City , ( 800 ) 669-8687 or ( 212 ) 398-1430 , is a ticket agency for cultural and sporting events throughout Great Britain and Ireland and for many theaters in Paris . Edwards & Edwards of New York City , ( 800 ) 223-6108 or ( 212 ) 944-0290 , is a ticket agency for performances in Lon don , Stratford-upon-Avon , Dublin , Paris , Berlin , Copenhagen and elsewhere i n Scandinavia . It also handles tickets for the Edinburgh Festival ( Aug. 14 to Sept. 3 ) and the Edinburgh Military Tattoo ( Aug. 7 to 27 ) . National tourism offices : Most European tourism offices , many of which are located in New York , can provide guidance on how to get tickets at major theaters in their respecti ve countries . Hotel concierges : If you are staying in a hotel with a staff con cierge , phone , fax or write ahead and ask the concierge to obtain tickets for the productions you want to see . You may have to pay a premium price , so be su re to specify a maximum amount you are willing to pay . And don't forget to incl ude a good tip . Opera publications : In his guide , opera buff Couch lists a ha lf-dozen U.S. and European magazines that print European opera schedules for the month ahead . He suggests getting a copy of one of them . Even in a foreign lan guage , the listings are reasonably understandable . In the United States , he r ecommends Opera News , published by the Metropolitan Opera Guild . An introducto ry subscription ( 17 issues ) is $ 21.95 . For information : ( 212 ) 769-7000 . In Europe , the magazines can be found on newsstands . In England , look for Ope ra or Opera Now ; in France , Opera International ; in Germany , Das Opernglas ; and in Switzerland , Opernwelt . Couch 's book , `` The Opera Lover 's Guide to Europe '' is full of useful information about getting opera tickets . The 284-p age first edition , published in 1991 , is available for $ 15.95 from Limelight Editions of New York . An updated version will be published in the fall . To ord er : ( 212 ) 532-5525 . Join the caravan and explore 40 cultures without leaving Toronto at the 26th an nual Festival Caravan , June 17-25 . Go from Belgrade to Kiev , Taipei to Tokyo all in one day , sampling ethnic fare ( curry and Wiener schnitzel ) , shopping ( weavings and painted eggs ) and entertainment ( steel bands , limbo contests a nd fashion shows ) . Walk or take public transit to 40 international pavilions a ll over the city . A Caravan passport , available at any Bank of Montreal branch or at some Bell Phonecentres , includes a map of the pavilions but not transpor tation ; cost is about $ 5 U.S. per person per day , about $ 10 for a nine-day p ass ( kids 12 and under are admitted free with an adult ) . Information : ( 416 ) 977-0466 . -0- TRAVEL TRIVIA LIST THREE BODIES OF SALT WATER WHOSE NAMES ARE C OLORS . TRIVIA ANSWER : THE RED SEA , THE BLACK SEA AND THE YELLOW SEA . -0- Beh avior in Singapore If you didn't get the message yet , the Department of State i s reminding travelers about Singapore 's `` strict laws and penalties for a vari ety of offenses that might be considered minor in the United States . '' A new c onsular information sheet lists among these jaywalking , littering , spitting , even the importation and sale of chewing gum all of which can exact high fines . Caning , imposed for vandalism , may also be used for immigration violations an d more serious offenses . For the new sheet , contact the State Department 's Ci tizens Emergency Center ( 202-647-5225 ) , computer bulletin board ( 202-647-922 5 ) or automated fax service ( 202-647-3000 ) . -0- FREE FOR THE ASKING Europe a n annual affair ? So 's the European Planning & Rail Guide , Budget Europe Trave l Service 's '94 guide to planning your foray concentrating on rail travel , cou ntry by country , from Scandinavia to Spain , with information on rail passes an d scenic train rides . There are also sample itineraries for 20 countries , walk s , accommodations , travel tips on packing and safety and more . Send $ 1 or th ree 29-cent stamps to BETS 's '94 Planning Guide , 2557 Meade Ct . , Ann Arbor , Mich. 48105-1304 . The glory that is Rome , Barcelona and Seville is captured on three new volumes in the Museum City Video series released by V.I.E.W. . Video . The first three volumes in the series , which looks at great cities through the eyes of their ar tists , architects and poets , focused on Florence , Venice and London . The Lon don video was a finalist in the Special Interest Video Association Awards . Upco ming releases include volumes on Vatican City , Jerusalem and Moscow . The video s list for $ 19.98 each . Running time for the Rome cassette is 45 minutes . The other two run 40 minutes each . To order , call 1-800-843-9843 . `` Rome : The Eternal City '' is alive with views of its rooftop gardens , pink and ochre stuc co glistening in the sun , and everlasting monuments and locations such as St. P eter 's Basilica , the Coliseum , Trevi Fountain , Spanish Steps , Baths of Cara calla , Sistine Chapel , Via Veneto , and Piazza Navona . There are people in Ro me , too-people who sip espresso at sidewalk coffee bars , people who dine in ou tdoor cafes scattered throughout the city , across the Seven Hills and along the banks of the Tiber River . The artwork in Rome is bountiful : jeweled mosaics , glowing frescos , tapestries , vaulted ceilings and palatial rooms where master works by Bernini , Michaelangelo and Raphael live on . `` Barcelona : Archive of Courtesy '' looks at a city that has been the vanguard for Spanish art and cult ure for 2,000 years . Barcelona 's wonders range from the soaring spires of Anto nio Gaudi 's Sagrada Familia to the winding streets of the Gothic Quarter and th e modern works of Pablo Picasso , Joan Miro and Salvador Dali . The people in th e region of Catalonia , between the waters of the Mediterranean and the slopes o f the Pyrsenees , remain bound to their glorious past even in the art of futuris tic Olympic City in Montjuic Park . `` Seville : Heart of Andalusia '' explores the city 's cathedral , the world 's largest Gothic building ; the Roman ruins o f Italica ; the Moorish palace of Alcazar ; Santa Cruz and La Giralda , one-time center for the city 's Jews , who like the Romans , Visigoths , Muslims and Chr istians , left their imprint on Seville . `` I don't know that I ever had a conversation with my husband about what pedia trician we would use , '' said the mother of a teen-age daughter . `` And if you have a husband like mine and most of my friends , they don't ever want to go to the doctor , they don't ever want to confess that they don't feel good , and it is you who are probing and pushing and calling and making the appointments . '' Everybody around her smiled and nodded in recognition of the familiar scenario . For centuries , women have been the unpaid `` health-care providers , '' dragg ing their spouses , children and aging relatives to the fountain of medical serv ices and then tending them at the bedside at home . As a result , the woman conc luded , `` Women have a greater stake in the health-care-reform debate than men. .. . We 're the ones in the middle juggling all the health-care decisions , our jobs , our child-rearing . '' This could start sounding like another episode in the Big Whine from the middle-aged `` sandwich generation '' if the speaker wer en't First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and the subject weren't the most far-reac hing domestic legislation in almost 30 years . But as Congress slugs out the det ails of various proposals , something crucial is missing in the debate and it ha s to do with women . Long stereotyped as nurturing handmaidens , women play a ce ntral role in medicine . They are the biggest users of health care and go to the doctor more often than men . They are also the major `` providers '' as nurses 2.2 million strong and unpaid family care givers . Yet , for starters , women ar e sparsely represented on the congressional committees designing legislation and none of the powerful committee chairmen has a female face . The debate itself h as been narrowly focused . Following the stereotype that guys do numbers , most of the political discussion has been about costs and strategies to pay for exten ding the current system to the 38 million people who have no insurance , with Hi gh-Noon shootouts over `` employer mandates '' and `` premium caps . '' There 's been very little talk about the quality and types of services that are needed a nd not needed in an era of chronic illness and an aging population . `` It is a male model versus a female model , '' said Virginia Trotter Betts , president of the American Nurses Association . As she explained last week at a conference on care giving by the International Women 's Media Foundation , the male model is the status quo with its emphasis on high-tech remedies of acute medical problems ; the female model shifts the focus from cures to care not just to preventive a nd primary care for healthy people but also supportive care for people with chro nic conditions . If the debate paid more attention to the female model , noted B etts , `` there would be a dramatic change in winners and losers . '' The view t hat chronic illness is getting short shrift in the debate is supported by a rece nt report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation . As the foundation 's preside nt , Steven A . Schroeder , put it : `` Even after a year of intense debate abou t health-care reform , the disparity between the needs of people with chronic he alth conditions and the way the medical care system is currently organized is no t being addressed in the debate . '' Perhaps the way for Congress to get the mes sage about chronic illness is to pay more attention to a largely invisible volun teer army of an estimated 18 million family care givers in this country . Their responsibilities go beyond the normal raising of a family . Their patients have such chronic diseases as multiple sclerosis , Alzheimer 's , cerebral palsy . Th ey work as unpaid home health aides on average four hours a day , seven days a w eek . These calculations come from the National Family Caregivers Association , a non-profit organization in Kensington , Md. , for people who care for a parent , child , sibling or spouse with a disabling illness . `` We 're the people who push the wheelchair , '' said the association 's president , Suzanne Mintz , wh ose husband has MS . `` We 're so invisible . '' If these volunteer health worke rs virtually all women were paid $ 7.25 an hour , their total annual bill would come to an estimated $ 190 billion a year . If their patients had to be cared fo r in institutions and other community facilities , it would cost the nation 's t axpayers even more . These care givers aren't looking for pay ; they are looking for benefits that would reimburse home health care and provide support and resp ite care for care givers . But whenever long-term care benefits come up in the d ebate , the Mayday Dollar Button is pushed and voters are cautioned it may be to o expensive . So here 's another way in the health-care debate to look at the fi nancing issue . The country actually has a health-care credit of $ 190 billion a year thanks largely to American women . If these volunteer Florence Nightingale s should stage a work stoppage for a week , Congress would soon find out the rea l dimensions of the health-care cost crisis . `` Everybody seems to like my name , '' said Jack Noseworthy . `` I never thoug ht about changing it . Not for a second . '' Joe Davola , senior vice president of MTV Productions/MTV Development , can relate to that . `` Seinfeld '' writer Larry David was so taken by the name that `` Crazy Joe Davola '' became part of the NBC sitcom . Soon Noseworthy and Davola may have one more thing in common a cult following . That will depend on the reception to `` Dead at 21 , '' the mus ic television network 's first foray into the action-adventure genre . The serie s gets a sneak preview Thursday night and starting June 15 will run Wednesday ni ghts . `` Dead at 21 '' features Ed and Maria , both 20 , who are running for th eir lives . It seems that as an infant , Ed ( played by Noseworthy ) had a micro circuit planted in his brain to increase his brain power . As a side effect , he and other cybernauts have wild dreams and , by the time they are 21 , will self -destruct . As might be expected , the show has an energetic music-video quality . It leans heavily toward the rock 'n' roll set , with quick edits , harsh angl es , hand-held camera work , on-location shooting and a pulsating soundtrack . O h , yes , and on the back of the motorcycle Ed has Lisa Dean Ryan as Doogie Hows er never knew her . `` Every now and then I get to kiss a girl , '' Noseworthy s aid proudly , referring to the former `` Class of '96 '' star . He also got to r ide a motorcycle for the show , but , because of a hectic shooting schedule , is still operating with a restricted license . Noseworthy , 24 , has been doing qu ite well recently . After appearances in the movies `` Alive '' and `` Encino Ma n '' and a regular role on the short-lived CBS show `` Teech , '' he landed a ch allenging part as Sissy Spacek 's son in the Hallmark Hall of Fame production `` A Place for Annie . '' `` I was the only male in the cast , and I got to work w ith some really powerful women , '' he said , clicking off the names of Spacek , Joan Plowright and Mary-Louise Parker . `` It was nice to have a challenging ro le where I played a character in the beginning , middle and end of the movie , ' ' in which Spacek portrayed a pediatric nurse who tries to adopt the HIV-positiv e daughter of an AIDS patient . Then there was the casting for `` Dead at 21 . ' ' Noseworthy , already selected for the role in part because of his non-glamorou s appearance and look of vulnerability , read with three actresses and was asked for his recommendation . He picked Ryan . `` I connected with her , '' he said . `` There was a ` Taming of the Shrew ' type of energy . She 's a joy to work w ith . '' In the premiere the two ride Ed 's cycle into the sunset , with the bad guy lurking somewhere in pursuit . It 's part of the paranoid reality on which the show plays . `` When you are young , you don't trust anybody , '' Davola sai d . `` Everything 's a conspiracy . The government is after him ; his parents ha ve deceived him ( by not revealing that Ed is adopted ) . It 's ` The Fugitive ' meets ` Logan 's Run. ' ' ' While on the run , and in search of the mad doctor who planted the time bomb in his head , Ed and Maria journey through familiar ni ght clubs , shopping malls and coffee houses and try to decipher the clues conta ined in his freakish dreams . `` MTV is a step ahead of every other network , '' Noseworthy said of the program , which will have a 13-week run . Davola agreed . `` Dead at 21 '' joins the unscripted soap opera `` Real World '' and the dram atic series `` Catwalk '' in the stable of first-run series as MTV strives to be come `` a full-service network . '' Before returning to MTV last year , Davola s pent five years at Fox , where he was involved with `` In Living Color , '' `` T otally Hidden Video , '' `` The Ben Stiller Show , '' `` Code Three '' and `` Si ghtings . '' During that tenure , Davola struck up a friendship with writer Larr y David , who , after repeating `` Joe Davola '' several times at a party , proc laimed he was going to use the name for a character on `` Seinfeld . '' The Davo la character is an obsessed fan who stalks Jerry in several episodes . BEIJING On that night five years ago this week , high school sophomore Jiang Ji elian decided to go to Tiananmen Square one last time . There , Beijing 's stude nts had camped at the gates of political power , demanding democracy in the most serious challenge to 40 years of China 's Communist Party rule . On June 3 , 19 89 , Beijing was under martial law . Authorities had warned residents to stay ho me . But Jiang , who had marched in peaceful protests for democracy all spring , was worried about the safety of the university students still in the square . H is mother begged him not to go . She bolted the front door of their ground-floor apartment . But Jiang came to her , kissed her on the cheek and said goodbye , using a Chinese phrase that means farewell forever . He then locked himself in t he bathroom and jumped out the window . `` I remember saying to him , `` What ca n you do ? You 're only a high school student , ' ' ' his mother recalled , figh ting back tears . `` He said , `` If all parents were as selfish as you , there would be no hope left for our country. ' ' ' About 30 minutes later , Jiang was shot and killed by Chinese army soldiers about two miles west of the square . Li ke thousands of other civilians who tried to stop the troops as they advanced fr om the city outskirts toward the square , he was unarmed . When soldiers opened fire on the crowd , a bullet hit him in the back and ripped through his chest . He died on the way to a hospital . He had turned 17 the day before . Jiang 's de ath launched his mother , Ding Zilin , on a one-woman campaign to locate the fam ilies of those killed and wounded by the army . Ding , a 57-year-old aesthetics professor , defies government harassment and contacts the families and distribut es to them money donated from abroad , much of it from Chinese students in the U nited States . And underlying this campaign is another cause . `` I don't care h ow long it takes , '' she said in a recent interview in her apartment on the cam pus of People 's University . `` I want the real truth to be known . I want to k now how many were killed by the government . '' Does the government know how man y were killed ? `` Of course they know , '' she said . `` But this is their secr et . '' The Tiananmen Square massacre , which has considerably influenced the wa y Chinese and foreigners view China , remains the most politically taboo subject in the country today . The official version is that the Chinese army was forced to quell a `` counterrevolutionary rebellion '' that night to ensure stability . The civilians killed were `` counterrevolutionary rebels , '' `` thugs '' or ` ` rioters , '' authorities have said . But China has refused to give a complete public accounting of the number of dead and wounded or hold an inquiry into the circumstances in which unarmed civilians were killed . Ding and other families h ave gotten no official compensation for their loss , she said . The government c laims that only about 300 died , most of them soldiers and `` thugs . '' U.S. Em bassy officials concluded at the time that between 500 and 800 Chinese died , wh ile human rights organizations have said several thousand were killed . Ding 's family gathered evidence corpses viewed or accounts from hospital staffers of 21 6 dead , and Ding said she believes this represents a fraction of the total . Di ng has located 84 families of those killed and nearly 50 other families of peopl e seriously injured . She is pursuing leads in 10 other deaths . In a recent pet ition asking for an official reassessment of the crackdown , seven dissidents , including former student leader Wang Dan , said it was time for the government t o `` untie the knot in the people 's heart . '' But instead , on this year 's fi fth anniversary of Tiananmen , authorities have ordered stepped-up surveillance of families of those killed in the massacre , Ding said . Ding , a soft-spoken w oman , is the prime target . Of the hundreds of families of victims , only she a nd her husband , Jiang Peikun , also a university professor , have dared to ackn owledge consistently and publicly that a family member was killed by the army . Policemen watch the couple 's apartment and harass anyone trying to visit . Ding said police have kept 24-hour surveillance on her since May 20 including follow ing her to the medical clinic where she receives treatment for heart ailments an d a slipped disc . Ding said Sunday by telephone that she had written to the par liament to say she and her husband will start a two-day hunger strike Thursday u nless their freedom is restored . Writing from her apartment , where the couple keep their son 's ashes in a shrine in the bedroom , Ding asked , `` Is he not e ven allowed to have one untainted space in which his spirit can rest ? '' `` Can his parents not even have a moment of peace to commemorate the fifth anniversar y of his death ? We can hardly bear it , '' she wrote . Ding 's campaign has hel ped reveal how deep is the fear of Tiananmen 's survivors . Families of those ki lled are afraid to acknowledge the deaths to neighbors or their work units , she said . Several have refused to see her or accept her donations , even though th ere are no strings attached . Ding went public with her case in 1991 to counter a claim by Premier Li Peng that families did not want an accounting of the dead and injured . Because she mourned publicly and challenged the government , Ding was expelled from the Communist Party and lost her teaching job . Her husband , 59 , was dismissed as director of the university philosophy department 's aesthe tics institute . Starting this year , he can no longer take on new graduate stud ents and his monthly bonus has been cut . The couple have become pariahs . `` No w old friends we have known for 10 years avoid me and pretend they don't even kn ow me , '' Ding said . Her neighbor across the hall , an elderly worker , used t o be friendly but now keeps his distance . Each year , on June 3 , Ding plays fu neral music and burns paper money in her son 's honor . As the date approaches , she said , her dreams of him often turn to nightmares . Ding knows her work is a growing threat to the government . But she said she is not afraid . `` What mo re can they do to me ? '' she asked . `` They have already killed my son . '' Once there was a marvelous woman named Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle , who understood chil dren so well that she was able to get naughty children back on the straight path of growing up . She could get a messy boy to clean up his room . She could pers uade a girl who hated baths to wash . She knew ways to cure a boy who lied . She could cure a ' fraidy cat and a tattletale and get a child to go to bed . In sh ort , she was terrific . People who grew up in the 1940s and '50s might remember Betty MacDonald 's character . But not many modern children do . Neither did Je an Stapleton , who did grow up in the '40s , or the younger Shelley Duvall , who has a large collection of children 's books and makes award-winning productions for kids . But by their own accounts , they were entranced by MacDonald 's hero ine and set about bringing her to life in stories inspired by the books . Guests include Christopher Lloyd , Ed Begley Jr. , Joan Cusack , Meshach Taylor , Phyl lis Diller and James Whitmore , who shows up as Mr. Piggle-Wiggle ( `` He was de ceased in the books , '' Duvall confided ) . Executive producer Duvall has also made creative changes in the stories . `` We contemporized them . There were cer tain things in the books that I wanted to bring up to speed . '' `` Mrs. Piggle- Wiggle , '' Duvall 's fifth series for Showtime , begins Tuesday night with a on e-hour parents ' preview that includes two stories : `` The Not Truthful Cure , '' featuring Lloyd as Grandpa Moohead , who is given to overexaggeration , and h is grandson , Egbert , who fibs ; and `` The Pet Forgetters Cure , '' about a gi rl who forgets to feed her pets . Begley and Cusack play her parents . Weekly ep isodes begin June 14 . Duvall and Stapleton talked about the series recently ove r lunch in a Washington hotel . Duvall said the publishers of the original `` Mr s. Piggle-Wiggle '' books are considering reissuing the books . If they do , she said she hopes they hire the original illustrator , Maurice Sendak . Any illust rator who takes a cue from Duvall 's color-drenched televised version will be ob liged to dress the character in stripes . `` You can tell a Piggle-Wiggle by the ir stripes , '' said Duvall , who plays Mrs . Piggle-Wiggle 's daughter Potsi . Stapleton , whose character lives in an upside-down house , has played in severa l Duvall series : the fairy godmother in `` Cinderella , '' the ogress in `` Jac k in the Beanstalk '' and Mother Goose in `` Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme . '' A veteran actress , she won three Emmys for playing Edith Bunker over eight season s of CBS 's `` All in the Family . '' `` It 's good to be talking about ( ` Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle ' ) again , because it was so delightful , '' Stapleton said . `` We don't have a lot of delightful material on television . I 'm beginning to th ink we 're all going to regress to childhood , because that literature is the mo st revealing . '' Duvall , whose collection of illustrated children 's books num bers about 3,000 , agreed . `` There is some great children 's literature out th ere . It 's an untapped natural resource . We have not explored all the marvelou s children 's literature to its full extent . With ` Faerie Tale Theatre , ' I d id some of that . '' It was one of Duvall 's staffers , visiting in Seattle , wh o reported that a children 's theater there was doing a play based on the books , and that local children were flocking to it . `` Kids , from having seen the p lay , were writing in to the theater saying , ` I have a cure for my older broth ers ' or whatever , '' said Duvall . `` And suddenly there were these Mrs. Piggl e-Wiggle fan clubs . So we pursued the rights and got them . '' For Duvall , the re was only one choice to play the lead : `` Jean : the perfect Mrs. Piggle-Wigg le. There were no others . '' Stapleton snapped up the part . `` If you are a ch aracter actress , ` Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle ' is a dream . I was in Toronto doing a m ovie for Fox , and I had two movie scripts . And here comes this bundle of stuff from Shelley : three scripts , outlines for others , and the books . As soon as I read them , I said , ` This is it . I 'd rather do this than the films . ' It 's the quality of writing that drew me , the literacy and the wit . '' `` Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle '' was co-produced with Universal Family Entertainment and New Zea land 's South Pacific Pictures . The cast and crew went to New Zealand to make t he 13 shows in 10 weeks , working 12-hour days for six-day weeks . Stapleton , D uvall said , was `` indefatigable . '' CHICAGO Richard Graff is every municipal bureaucrat 's nightmare . Eccentric an d excitable , he bounded back and forth in front of his downtown newsstand here the other day while providing a stream-of-consciousness commentary on the evils of the local government . Arrayed on the newsstand racks behind him were thousan ds of comic books and a smaller collection of adult magazines tucked into a disc reet corner , but no newspapers . Rick 's Newsstand , as it is known , does not sell newspapers , a fact that its proprietor blames on his long-running feud wit h the city . `` It 's degrading to me , '' Graff said . `` I 'm the Michael Jord an of newsstands . I 'm the best . '' To city officials , however , Graff bears no resemblance to Jordan , the Chicago Bulls ' former superstar . To them he is a nuisance and his newsstand is an eyesore , blighting the sidewalk area near an entrance to the Chicago Cultural Center , a graceful , 19th century building th at is an official Chicago landmark . Graff and the city have been battling on an d off for years . Earlier this month , their dispute reached the Supreme Court , which refused to consider Graff 's appeal of a 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal s decision upholding the city 's right to order Graff to move the newsstand to a new location or dismantle it . For Graff , June 6 is indeed D-Day , the deadlin e for him to leave the location where he has operated since 1984 and where a new sstand has existed for more than 70 years . The legal battle centered on Graff ' s assertion that a 1991 city ordinance regulating the size and location of newss tands and limiting their number is an unconstitutional infringement on the disse mination of information . But his cause , according to sympathizers , also invol ves a larger struggle between those who want to preserve such colorful , gritty reminders of Chicago history and the forces of sterile gentrification who would turn the city into a sanitized theme park , a sort of Daleyland by the Lake . Th e chief villain , to Graff and his supporters , is Mayor Richard M. Daley , D , who also has pushed for the dismantling of another grubby Chicago institution th e ramshackle Maxwell Street Market where street vendors have hawked their wares for more than 100 years and whose vision of the city 's future focuses on a plan to create a `` family entertainment center '' theme park built around several r iverboat gambling casinos . Even Daley 's recent decision to abandon his family 's ancestral home , the working-class neighborhood of Bridgeport , for an upscal e development south of the central business district has been linked by critics to what they call his obsession with tidiness . `` It 's kind of like the Disney landization of America , '' said Jonathan A . Rothstein , one of Graff 's lawyer s . `` That attracts tourists , I suppose , and it 's good for the economy , but do you want to live on Disneyland 's Main Street ? It 's not real . '' To Roths tein and others , the newsstand is `` as much a landmark as the building '' and Graff is part of the vitality and color of the downtown city streets . He is cer tainly colorful . Dressed in a black Marvel Comics jacket , he chatted the other day with regular customers who browsed through the comic books , including a ma n who identified himself as a lawyer for the city government . `` How do you fee l about the newsstand ? '' Graff demanded to know . `` Bad , '' the lawyer repli ed sheepishly . To amuse pedestrians who rush by , Graff sometimes outfits his A laskan malamute , Tasha , with sunglasses and watches the reaction . `` See , I just made two people smile , '' he said proudly as two women paused and laughed at the dog . `` That is why I should be here , '' Graff added . `` For the flavo r of the city . It 's not just a newsstand . '' Graff said he paid $ 50,000 in 1 984 for the newsstand and prime location a few feet from the entrance to a commu ter train station and busy Michigan Avenue . But he has never had a city permit to run the stand . Denied a permit , he filed suit in 1991 challenging the exist ing ordinance that restricted newspaper sales to publications printed in Chicago , a widely ignored provision . Rather than defend the ordinance in court , the city enacted a new law later that year . Lawrence Rosenthal , deputy corporation counsel for the city , argued that the new ordinance cleaned up a loosely regul ated system that was rife with another Chicago tradition the opportunity for cor ruption . `` If you were pals with someone in City Hall , you got to run a newss tand , '' he said . `` Graff 's predecessor evidently had some kind of a handsha ke agreement with someone . But that 's the worst way to protect First Amendment rights . '' Under the new permit ordinance , Rosenthal said , newsstand vendors are protected `` even if they offend the local alderman . They have rights now . '' He said this includes Graff , who has rejected offers to operate a smaller newsstand at a less desirable downtown location . Meanwhile , the larger debate over whether there is room for places like Rick 's Newsstand and the Maxwell Str eet Market in the city 's future continues to rage . Gerald W . Ropka , a geogra phy professor at DePaul University , said he sympathized with Daley 's efforts t o clean up the downtown area rather than risk the slow strangulation by suburban shopping malls that has occurred in cities like Detroit . But political scienti st Larry Bennett , Ropka 's colleague on the DePaul faculty , said he has misgiv ings about grandiose plans to transform a historically messy melting pot into `` a very tidy city . '' `` The problem will be when Chicago becomes insufficientl y distinctive from other cities so that it no longer has its own identity , '' h e said . In the 1930s , flight attendants were called `` skygirls . '' They were to be s ingle , under age 25 , less than 115 pounds , act like a `` well-trained servant . '' An airline manual of that era instructed skygirls to `` treat captains and pilots with strict formality while in uniform . A rigid military salute will be rendered as they go aboard and deplane . '' Times are different now , but the a viation community is gradually coming to realize that some of the old attitudes hang on in modern jetliners and that can be dangerous . Research has shown that there is a greater gap between pilots and attendants than just the cockpit door , and in rare instances it has killed . A report published by the Flight Safety Foundation said that pilots and attendants sometimes show animosity toward one a nother , are often confused as to when to communicate problems , have little awa reness of the other 's duties in an emergency and sometimes don't even introduce themselves prior to a flight . These problems do not exist with every airline c rew , and only rarely lead to a safety problem , but the report 's authors , Reb ecca D . Chute of San Jose State University and Earl L. Wiener of the University of Miami , gave two examples when they did : In 1989 , 24 people were killed in an Air Ontario crash on takeoff from Dryden , Ontario , because of ice on the w ings . Flight attendants saw wet snow on the wings , but did not tell the pilots because they assumed they knew and were reluctant to `` second-guess the pilots . '' Before a disastrous British Midlands fire in 1989 , the captain reported o ver the public address system that he had a problem with the right engine . Alth ough the attendants and passengers could see fire in the left engine , they did nothing as the pilot shut down the wrong engine . `` Although cabin and flight d eck crews share the same goals , the two crews have evolved into two distinct cu ltures , resulting in communication and coordination problems between them , '' the report said . Clay Foushee , Northwest Airlines vice president for flight op erations , said he is well aware of the problem , and Northwest `` is moving ver y quickly toward doing some joint training and crew resource management '' betwe en pilots and attendants . Crew resource management or CRM is the aviation buzzw ord for teaching pilots to communicate and not to intimidate subordinates , prob lems blamed for several crashes in the 1980s . CRM for pilots and flight attenda nts is a fairly new concept , and is endorsed by the Chute-Wiener report . `` Da ta suggest that CRM training could bring these two disparate cultures into great er cohesion , '' they said . John O' Brien , director of engineering and air saf ety for the Air Line Pilots Association , said the association has been pursuing joint training and CRM as a goal since 1986 . He said pilots can encourage the flow of information by such simple practices as saying thank you for information , even if it isn't needed . Flight attendants may withhold vital information if `` the flight deck responds by jumping down someone 's throat . '' Nancy Gilmer , chairman of the Association of Flight Attendants ' safety committee , said fl ight attendants are trained to inform pilots of possible problems , but `` it ha sn't been stressed in training . '' The report said a major source of confusion is the Federal Aviation Administration 's `` sterile cockpit '' rule , which say s that crew members should strictly stick to their duties during `` a critical p hase of flight . '' Generally , this is interpreted to mean any operations below 10,000 feet . It bans `` nonessential communications between the cabin and cock pit crews . '' One of the greatest problems the study identified is airline corp orate structure . Pilots report to the flight operations department , where safe ty is the major concern , while attendants usually report to the marketing depar tment , where service is the main concern . Another problem is that cockpit and cabin crews no longer serve as a team for long periods . Attendants may work for as many as five cockpit crews in one day . Stay home Friday nights this summer and see the first-season replays of Fox 's `` The X-Files '' that you probably missed . The series debuted to little fanfar e in September but finished a strong first season in May so strong it has become one of those shows with a so-called `` cult following . '' `` Each week we set out to scare the pants off people , '' said creator , writer and producer Chris Carter . `` We try to do it in a number of ways , but we have found that some of our most effective episodes have been dark ones , in both psychological content and the look of the show . `` I think that there is a general mood to ` The X F iles , ' although each of them ( episodes ) have their own dark sensibility . '' Fox 's frightening Friday series is slated to return next fall . A blend of sci ence and the supernatural , the series focuses on two smart FBI special agents w hose relationship is based on mutual respect and intellectual attraction . Gilli an Anderson , 25 , plays the stoic Dana Scully , recruited by the FBI out of med ical school . David Duchovny , 33 , is Fox `` Spooky '' Mulder , the scientist w ho studies serial killers and is willing to suspend credibility to get to the tr uth , which , as the show 's mantra phrases it , `` is out there . '' Nothing od d or unusual is off limits to Scully and Mulder 's caseload , be they mediums , psychic phenomena , UFOs , mutating humans , firestarters or the Jersey Devil . This week 's episode is a particularly gruesome one called `` The Squeeze , '' a bout a man who can live indefinitely , shifting his shape , as long as his diet includes the livers of freshly killed humans . The eeriest part of `` The X-File s '' may be knowing that the plots are based on factual reports . The May 13 sea son finale tied in the newsmaking case of a California cancer victim whose dying body emitted fumes that overcame an emergency-room staff . `` Many of our ideas spring from actual accounts , essays , pieces in journals that we expand by pos iting ` what if , ' ' ' Carter said . He said he forages for ideas from news rep orts but has been particularly influenced by Harvard professor John Mack 's 1991 Roper Survey describing UFO abductions . ( Mack has estimated that 3.7 million Americans may have been abducted by UFOs . ) `` That was part of my original ins piration , '' he said . The fact that alien phenomena was being taken seriously , studied scientifically by a man who works at Harvard , `` gave it a legitimacy . I thought that that gave me some heavy ammunition with which to set out . '' Yet Carter himself sounds as if his feet are firmly planted on the earth . `` I would not call myself a New-Ager , '' he said , although many of his fans may be . `` My brother is a Ph.D. he 's a physicist , '' he said . `` He became the sc ientist of the family . But I think that there 's a big part of me that is inter ested in what he does . '' The show , shot in Vancouver , B.C. , has a burgeonin g following , including a fan club based in New Hampshire and heavy traffic on t he Internet computer network . Carter 's assistant prints out messages for him ` ` instant feedback , '' he called it . Carter acknowledged that he listens to fa n reaction to the episodes but pays little attention to suggestions for stories . `` We have a very clear vision of the show and what we want to do , '' he said . That means no plans for romance between Scully and Mulder . `` Everyone thoug ht that there would be a lot of weirdos coming out of the woodwork , '' said Car ter . `` We 've had a few , but mostly we 've had people who have enjoyed the sh ow because they think the stories are well told . '' Perhaps the show appeals be cause it challenges our set notions , as did Rod Serling 's `` The Twilight Zone . '' But what is the goal of the show ? To scare , amaze , mystify or simply ra ise a lot of pertinent questions ? `` All of the above , '' said Carter . `` I t hink that comparison ( with ` The Twilight Zone ' ) only goes so far . Those sho ws became allegories . I think that each episode did not explore a bigger theme. .. . We set out to find something , a subject , and we twist it , and we try to make it take place in the realm of extreme possibility . And that 's where the biggest scare comes from . '' The show 's title refers to secret government file s on the paranormal . Files starting with an ` X ' fall into the unexplainable/p aranormal category , presumably stored in a clandestine vault beneath the Pentag on . The series has the government trying to conceal many unusual occurrences . WASHINGTON There may be a few less young interns working on Capitol Hill this s ummer : A congressional internship program that would support nearly 300 summer interns has been suspended by the House as part of an effort to cut staff . Memb ers of Congress were notified May 16 that the Lyndon Baines Johnson internship , which has made it possible for congressional offices to hire a two-month intern each year since 1974 , will not authorize funding for any more interns this yea r . While the funding cut poses problems for those congressional offices that ha ve already committed to summer interns , it is unlikely to thwart the plans of t hose students . Hill offices say they will find savings in other areas to pay th e interns . `` We 'll just look within our own budget and find a way to cut it . Maybe there 's a magazine subscription we don't need , maybe we can look at tho se small things that add up , '' said Mary Fetsch of the office of Rep. Elizabet h Furse , D-Ore . . The LBJ intern will be the only intern on Furse 's staff thi s summer . Other offices have multiple interns , including those from university -sponsored programs , volunteers from members ' districts , or paid interns from the office 's personnel budget . `` It will take out one of our paid internship s , '' said Charlie Boesel , an aide to Rep. Thomas J. Bliley Jr , R-Va . `` Fou r six-week internships that Bliley pays for out of his own annual staff appropri ations willn't be affected . '' In addition , Bliley 's office often takes advan tage of an unpaid internship program American University offers . In anticipatio n of the funding cut , Rep. James P. Moran Jr. , D-Va. , did not hire an LBJ int ern for this summer . In contrast , Rep. Scotty Baesler , D-Ky. , will have two one-month LBJ interns one who started May 1 and one who starts June 1 who will n ow have to be paid out of the office 's personnel budget . Because each office h as a different combination of available funds for personnel , office space and s tarting dates for intern hiring , the LBJ cut will affect some members more than others . Congress is trying to match a 4 percent staff cut in the executive bra nch over the next two fiscal years . The Federal Reserve Board decides to raise interest rates by a hefty one-half p ercent and Wall Street cheers ? Either financial markets are truly perverse , as some at the White House have suggested , or something else is going on . And it isn't inflation . The United States under the Clinton administration is locked on a collision course between its desired domestic economic agenda and the deman ds of the international financial community . President Clinton has set great st ore on his ability to deliver low interest rates as the result of prudent budget decisions . While administration officials early on dismissed the stock market as a credible judge of their economic program ( `` It goes up , it goes down '' ) , they have pointed to the low 30-year Treasury bond rate with pride and satis faction . But since that benchmark rate started climbing precipitously this year it reached as high as 7.60 percent on May 11 , compared with 5.78 on Oct. 14 th e White House has been scrambling to explain to the American people what has cha nged . As it turns out , the U.S. domestic economic scene hasn't changed much in the past seven months , except for the better : Employment is up , inflation is down . What has been driving interest yields higher is the insistence by foreig n investors that they be compensated for the impact of a falling dollar . Ever s ince Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen uttered `` I 'd like to see a stronger yen '' at the National Press Club a month after Clinton 's inauguration , the value of the dollar has been up for grabs in international currency markets . Clinton himself compounded the jawboning factor last spring , when he announced at a jo int press conference with Japan 's visiting prime minister that the weak dollar was `` number one '' on a list of the `` things working today which may give us more results '' in shrinking the U.S. trade deficit with Japan . Global currency traders took notice . If officials in the White House wanted to see the dollar go down against the yen , they would be only too happy to accommodate them . Wit hin four months , the dollar would hit post-World War II record lows approaching 100 yen to the dollar . Still , bond yields seemed relatively unaffected by the sagging dollar until early this year . Then , suddenly , the dollar began losin g value against the German mark also . Now global investors were demanding highe r interest rates to offset the projected exchange rate loss from investing in do llar-denominated financial instruments . By late April , officials at Treasury a nd the White House were alarmed by the backwash effect of a weak dollar on U.S. bond yields . A massive intervention effort carried out by the Fed in conjunctio n with the central banks of 15 other nations on May 4 gave currency speculators temporary pause as they weighed the willingness of foreign governments to endles sly shell out reserves to buy dollars . But U.S. bond yields continued to soar . A surprise move on May 11 by the Bundesbank to dramatically cut German interest rates tipped the currency scale in favor of the dollar . Still , investors were waiting for the other shoe to drop . Two weeks ago , with a Fed hike of 50 basi s points in both the discount rate and the federal funds rate , it did . So even as sharply rising interest rates are spooking average Americans and undermining the fundamental assumptions of Clinton 's domestic economic program , the inter national financial markets are merely pacified for the present . Wall Street 's seeming approval of the jump two weeks ago in key interest rates is a reflection of that . It does not mean U.S. business is eager to embrace a higher cost of c apital or that consumers are ready to absorb higher borrowing costs . Are financ ial markets irrational , superstitious ? To the contrary . They are not prone to inflation myths , as Laura D' Andrea Tyson , chairman of the president 's Counc il of Economic Advisers , would have us believe . They are registering their leg itimate response to the Clinton administration 's demonstrated willingness to le t the dollar slide to achieve perceived gains in foreign trade . What is pervers e is to proclaim a commitment to a strong dollar , as Clinton did in December 19 92 ( when it took 124 yen to buy a dollar ) , and then expect investors to passi vely absorb exchange rate losses as the White House talks down the value of Amer ica 's currency . WASHINGTON The white stone blocks used in some patios , driveways and walkways in the Washington area have names and dates engraved on one side . Thousands of weathered and damaged burial markers from graves at Arlington National Cemetery have been discarded over the years , and many of them apparently were scavenged from landfills and used for home projects , cemetery officials said . They are s ometimes discovered after a home changes hands , and startled homeowners contact the cemetery . `` We get these calls all the time , '' said Herman Higgenbottom , deputy superintendent of the cemetery . `` It 's not unusual for someone to b uy a house in Washington and find one in the yard or the basement , and then the y call us up . Years ago , people used to steal them from the dump and build pat ios with them . '' Higgenbottom , an employee of the cemetery for 29 years , sai d he understood the distress of the callers . `` I 'd be upset too if I found ce metery markers around my house . '' Arlington gravestones are replaced at a rate of about 100 a month , a spokeswoman said . The markers used to be left intact at a landfill . In 1987 , the cemetery began pulverizing discarded gravestones , the spokeswoman said , in part because of calls from those who found the marker s that had been discarded in earlier years . Arlington National Cemetery is the best known of the country 's more than 100 military cemeteries . More than 225,0 00 service veterans and family members are buried on the 612 acres of former far mland . According to literature supplied by the cemetery , about 18 burials are conducted there each weekday . More than 160 of the stones , turned face down , were made into a patio behind a Northeast Washington apartment building . In the basement were three more of the large , group markers inscribed with the names of 19 men who died in World War II . Vietnam-era veteran Ed Siemion , who was hi red to repair one of the four apartments in the building , discovered the stones and showed them to a reporter last week . `` It gave me chills when I saw them , '' Siemion said . Holiday drivers who pulled into service stations across the nation last weekend were taking advantage of one of the country 's great bargains : gasoline has ne ver been cheaper than it has been this year , compared with what people pay for other goods and services . Encouraged by the low cost of fuel , Americans have b een buying more and more cars and light trucks a category that includes most min ivans and driving them farther . For instance , the American Automobile Associat ion estimated before the holiday that 25 million people used a car , light truck or recreational vehicle to drive more than 100 miles from home this weekend , w hile another 3.5 million traveled that distance by airplane , train or bus . `` The major reasons for the . . . record number of holiday travelers include an im proved economy , low gasoline prices , stable lodging and meal costs and airfare discounts , '' said AAA Potomac . The low cost of the kerosene type jet fuel mo st commercial airliners use is one reason so many airlines are offering discount ed fares . Actual jet fuel prices this year are about half what they were in 198 1 , and compared with prices of other industrial products , they are down much m ore than that . However , it 's not just travel that 's affected by low fuel pri ces . Experts say one reason that sales have been booming for pickup trucks , mi nivans and four-wheel-drive vehicles which generally are less fuel efficient tha n most cars is that fuel cost is not a deterrent . Meanwhile , low fuel costs ar e having a major impact on air pollution , particularly in urban areas , accordi ng to a number of analysts . The most important point is simply that people are driving more miles . `` Since 1970 vehicle miles traveled have increased by 69 p ercent , partially offsetting reductions in emissions per mile brought about by new-car emissions standards , '' recently wrote Winston Harrington and Margaret A . Walls , analysts at Resources for the Future , a Washington environmental re search organization . Harrington and Walls also note that the average age of the U.S. fleet of vehicles has gone up substantially , compounding the problem . `` Emissions control systems tend to break down as cars get older , causing emissi ons to rise , '' they said . While it may be that the newer generation of cars a nd light trucks are more durable than their predecessors , low fuel costs also h ave encouraged many owners of older , less fuel efficient vehicles to keep them on the road longer . Some analysts have suggested that a cost-effective way to r educe emissions is to have a public agency buy and scrap such cars to upgrade th e average level of emissions control effectiveness . Several other pollution con trol strategies could directly affect the price of gasoline , at least initially . For instance , the Environmental Protection Agency has suggested that reformu lating the cocktail of refined petroleum products that make up a gallon of gasol ine could reduce certain emissions in a cost-effective way while adding about 3 cents a gallon to the cost of making the fuel . Reformulating the mix to allow v ehicles to meet stringent targets set by the state of California would cost an a dded 8 cents to 11 cents a gallon . But even if such an approach were taken , th e average motorist might well not end up paying that much . There are two concre te examples to the contrary : lead and taxes . Under the terms of air pollution control laws passed in the 1970s and tightened later , gasoline refiners were re quired to phase out the use of tetraethyl lead , an additive that effectively up graded the quality of the fuel . However , part of the additive came out the tai l pipe along with the other emissions and added significantly to the amount of l ead in the air , especially in congested areas . Lead is a metal that when taken into the body can cause severe health problems , including permanent reduction in mental capacity in children . At the time , there were complaints from the oi l industry that if the use of tetraethyl lead was stopped , more expensive parts of a refined barrel of crude oil would have to be used in its place to provide satisfactory performance in most cars . Almost all of the gasoline produced in t he United States today is lead-free , and even if it costs more to make than if tetraethyl lead were still in use , the added expense has not been enough to inc rease the inflation-adjusted price of gasoline at the pump . Neither have the st eady increases in taxes levied on fuel by federal , state and some local governm ents . Last Oct. 1 , for example , the federal government raised its motor fuel tax by 4.3 cents a gallon as part of the package of measures to reduce prospecti ve federal budget deficits . During the debate over the legislation , some lawma kers and environmentalists argued for a much larger increase in the tax both to generate more revenue and to discourage gasoline consumption . In September , th e average , seasonally adjusted pump price for unleaded regular gasoline across the nation was $ 1.085 a gallon , according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics . The next month , with the higher tax in effect , the price jumped to $ 1.127 . B y January , despite the tax , it was back down to $ 1.043 and in April , the lat est figure available , it stood at $ 1.064 . While all those forces have been pu shing up the cost of gasoline , other forces have been holding it down . The mos t significant , of course , is the world price of crude oil . Another reality of the marketplace is that the average fuel efficiency of the U.S. fleet of vehicl es has gone up enough that , despite all the added miles being driven on Memoria l Day weekends and the rest of the year , the nation 's total consumption of gas oline is no higher now than it was in the late 1970s . WASHINGTON President Clinton has taken pains to avoid a public quarrel with the Federal Reserve over its decision to increase short-term interest rates , but , privately , he has railed against the moves . And , according to Clinton admini stration officials , he has sent staff scrambling to provide him with the latest details about where the economy and with it his political fortunes are headed . White House deputy economic adviser Gene Sperling can tick off key economic dat a almost to the minute . He can tell you , for example , that on Friday the econ omy is likely to create its three-millionth job since Clinton took the oath of o ffice . In recent weeks , White House aides have consulted a number of outside e xperts on the dynamics of the `` political business cycle . '' Among them : Yale University economist Ray Fair , architect of the nation 's most sophisticated m odel for predicting presidential election outcomes based on the performance of t he economy . The only presidential contest Fair has called wrong was Clinton 's victory over President George Bush . And serving on the White House staff this y ear is Robert F. Wescott , an economist whose `` pocketbook index '' for predict ing the outcome of presidential elections suggests that if the after-tax income of U.S. families is rising at a 3.7 percent annual rate or more in the fall of 1 995 , odds are that Clinton will win re-election . The rate this spring : 3.8 pe rcent . This constant monitoring of the economy 's pulse highlights one of the m ost fundamental characteristics of the Clinton White House : It remains exquisit ely sensitive to the link between its political future and the health of the eco nomy . Indeed , the rallying call for Clinton 's 1996 campaign may well be , `` It 's still the economy , stupid . '' `` The president is very focused on the ec onomy , '' said Sperling . `` He has been sending very strong signals down the c hain of command that even while we are working on crime , health care and other things , the economy should always be front and center . '' At the close of his first year in office , the waves of economic growth seemed to be breaking just r ight for Clinton : The jobless rate was falling , there was hardly a trace of in flation , interest rates had receded and the stock market was soaring . With eco nomists predicting solid growth rates into 1996 election year , it seemed Clinto n would be able to surf the business cycle right through to a second term . But the economic tides have shifted in recent months . As the Fed has raised interes t rates , the value of the dollar faltered overseas and financial markets behave d erratically . Many private economists believe the business cycle continues to move in sync with the political calendar . But the developments of the past thre e months seem to have shaken Clinton 's confidence . Robert E. Rubin , Clinton ' s national economic adviser , is counseling colleagues to stay the course . Rubi n , a former Wall Street executive , likens their current anxiety to that of a w hite-knuckled trader sitting with a billion-dollar block of Treasury bonds durin g a unexpected dip in the market . If you believe your original analysis was rig ht and the economic fundamentals have not changed , he argues , there is no reas on to panic or modify your strategy . In fact , the administration 's current fo recast for the economy has changed little from the one it fashioned in the first few days of the administration , a projection known inside the White House as t he `` pizza forecast . '' Those calculations were made by the members of `` T-2 , '' a troika of economic deputies-Alan S. Blinder , a member of the Council of Economic Advisers ; Alicia H. Munnell , assistant Treasury secretary ; and Josep h J. Minarik , associate director of the Office of Management and Budget . Over carry-out pizzas in Blinder 's quarters in the Old Executive Office Building one night shortly after the inauguration , they estimated that the economy 's growt h rate cycle eventually would reach 3.3 percent in 1994 before settling down to a comfortable noninflationary growth rate of 2.5 percent in 1996 and the years b eyond . The Council of Economic Advisers is now revising that forecast , but exp ects little change . The preliminary consensus is that the economic drag from th e recent rise of interest rates will be more than offset by the stimulative effe cts of record-high spending on new business equipment . As companies invest in n ew technology and re-engineer the way they do business , many administration eco nomists believe , workers will be able to produce more goods and services , gene rating higher incomes without generating inflation . The bottom line : Economic growth will remain steady , but not so strong as to make Clinton 's reelection a sure thing . Many private economists share the administration 's cautious optim ism . In fact , some say that recent developments have only improved the preside nt 's political prospects . By raising interest rates , they argue , the Fed and Wall Street 's bond traders might have slowed the growth of the economy this ye ar or next , but helped to ensure that the expansion would not peter out by 1996 . `` If anything , I think the Fed has done Clinton a favor , '' said Lehman Br others Inc. economist Allen Sinai , whose latest newsletter to clients said the administration stands posed to `` beat the business cycle '' this time around . `` This is looking more and more like it will be a long-lasting business expansi on . '' Now we know why the Clintons bombed in their Whitewater real estate venture . I t was , says Jack Trinsey , Pennsylvania developer , politician and legal gadfly , a failure of vision . They bought only half the mountain . They should have b ought the whole thing . Behold , the Trail of Tears Tower , a 115-story , talles t-building-in-the-world monolith that Trinsey says is the true destiny for the 2 40 acres of mountain land the Clintons bought 15 years ago with their then-frien ds and future S&L barons , James and Susan McDougal . In what would surely rank as one of the world 's great silk purse transformations , Trinsey says he wants to build the tower on a bend in the scenic White River in northern Arkansas . Th e name would honor the Native Americans who passed through the area on a forced march to Oklahoma in the late 1830s . The project also would be carried out , Tr insey said , in memory of the spunk of the `` young Clintons . '' To that end , he 's planning to keep Hillary Rodham Clinton 's puny $ 30,000 model home as a L incolnesque tribute to the First Family 's `` noble '' if unsuccessful efforts ` ` to bring this magnificent Whitewater site to the public . '' He wants to use a cuddly black `` Hillary Bear '' as the project 's mascot . `` I saw an aerial v iew of the Whitewater project and I said , `` Oh my goodness . . . I have got to have that , ' ' ' Trinsey said . `` I understand why the young Clintons fell in love with it and I understand why they failed. . . . They bought only half of t heir hill . `` They just could not cut the mustard . When you see the sample ( h ome ) that the young Hillary Rodham put in you understand that she did all the s uffering any developer in the country does . There is just heartache there . '' All told , Trinsey 's project would be 5 million square feet ( the Pentagon cloc ks in at 3.75 million ) of sparkling glass office space . In Flippin , Ark . `` It appears to me he is probably a crackpot because in my wildest imagination I c annot imagine the thing he is talking about being built in this area , '' said F lippin Mayor Bob Marberry . The roads are bad and the area remote , and there ce rtainly is no demand at present for a 1,500-foot office tower in the Flippin are a , or even Cotter the other town near Whitewater . There may not be for another millennium . The tallest building in Flippin currently is two stories , and the largest industry a factory that turns out a couple dozen bass boats each day . What 's more , the people there don't want such an obvious urban intrusion even a dozen miles away at Whitewater . `` When you get to Flippin you think you have gone to the end of the world , '' Marberry said . `` When you go on to Whitewat er you know you are at the end of the world . '' Nevertheless , Trinsey , aided by brokers at local Pioneer Realty , has for nominal sums bought purchase option s on about 10 of Whitewater 's 44 lots , and on another 80 acres across the road . The real estate agents involved say they are earnest about helping Trinsey as semble up to 1,000 acres , in hopes he can get at least a limited project off th e ground . Trinsey , in fact , says he will start slow . `` The question is , ca n we start new life here ? '' Trinsey said . `` I am doing exactly what the Good Witch Glinda advised Dorothy to do in her quest to find the Wizard of Oz . It i s always best to start at the beginning . '' So first he will build the four-sto ry `` Whitewater Inn . '' Then he will expand with the construction of six- , 10 - , 20-story and larger structures , before going public with a stock offering t o raise the money for the Trail of Tears Tower . There will also be a Whitewater soap opera , and movie , he says , all about young entrepreneurs trying to get a leg up-just as Bill and Hillary tried to do when they went halfsies with the M cDougals on Whitewater , and when they practiced the politics of meaning on the commodities exchange . `` The advertising we are going to have all across the wo rld is , `` Live , work and worship at Whitewater , ' ' ' Trinsey said . `` I am seeking to get blessings from the Indian nation. . . . I am going to invite the entire nation of tribes to a public picnic '' to authenticate the project 's ro ots . Consider him the Romulus and Remus of the Ozarks . More modestly he refers to himself as the `` Beethoven '' of developers , and says Whitewater 's remote ness is part of the attraction for him . It 's a chance to paint on a clean canv as . He could use it . The central project of Trinsey 's life , incomplete after 30 years , was taken away from him and auctioned by the Resolution Trust Corp. in 1992 . Trinsey acquired the land for his Rebel Hill development , near Philad elphia , in 1959 , and did manage to build a few town houses before facing forec losure on a $ 7 million loan . Trinsey , 66 , is still fighting the RTC in court over that project , which offers another important glimpse of Trinsey 's charac ter . He likes to sue people . Over the last few years he has typically acting w ithout a lawyer sued the Democratic and Republican parties , Ross Perot 's organ ization , and all 50 states . The lawsuits were related to his various political campaigns-for U.S. Senate , president ( he got 22 votes in New Hampshire ) and an upcoming bid for governor of Pennsylvania . He is also planning to sue Suprem e Court Justice Byron White for refusing to allow an appeal of one of his other lawsuits . It was , in fact , in fighting the RTC that he first learned about Wh itewater . He saw in special counsel Robert B . Fiske Jr. 's investigation of th e development an opportune chance to correct his own misfortune with Rebel Hill . The answer was obvious . Sue Fiske ! A motion trying to force Fiske to include in his probe an extensive look at RTC wrongdoing is pending in U.S. . District Court in Washington at this moment . Immersed in Whitewater as a result , he saw published pictures , then followed up with a visit in April . Herewith , his re action : `` My eyes slowly left the bottom of the White River to the ground belo w my feet and suddenly I felt a presence of those Indians on those very grounds and then my eyes caught the base of the trees lining the river bank and my eyes lifted slowly up the trees to the sky above when I saw a vision of a Trail of Te ars Tower rising to the sky , the tallest building in the world . `` I have not been the same since . '' WASHINGTON How much did Hillary Rodham Clinton know in the early and mid-1980s about the troubled business dealings of her Whitewater partner and sometime law client , James B . McDougal ? And did she play a role in his efforts to bail him self out ? These questions have become an important part of the Whitewater contr oversy facing the president and Mrs. Clinton. And in the incremental way that th e affair is now developing , new documents have surfaced that don't fit comforta bly with Mrs. Clinton 's explanation that her contacts as an attorney with McDou gal and his Arkansas savings and loan company were purely routine and peripheral . The Clintons contend they were remote from the tangled financial affairs of M adison Guaranty Savings & Loan , owned by McDougal , their partner in the Whitew ater real estate development . The thrift was seized by federal regulators in 19 89 at a cost to taxpayers of $ 47 million . As a partner in the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock , Ark. , Mrs. Clinton represented McDougal 's S&L in 1985 before th e state securities commissioner ( appointed by her husband , then the governor ) on a plan that would allow the thrift to sell preferred stock to boost its capi tal reserves and meet federal regulators ' demands . At a press conference in Ap ril , Mrs. Clinton said she acted only as the `` billing attorney , '' while the case was actually handled at the firm by a junior associate . But documents obt ained by the Resolution Trust Corp. suggest that Mrs. Clinton 's efforts on McDo ugal 's behalf were both more active and more longstanding than that . In 1983 , the documents show , Mrs. Clinton took a role in mediating a dispute between Mc Dougal and the Rose firm over fees from earlier legal work . McDougal had refuse d to pay Rose 's bills , prompting the firm 's managing partner , Joseph Giroir , to declare that he did not want McDougal as a Rose client again in the future , according to partners at the firm . But Mrs. Clinton interceded , and document s and interviews with participants suggest that her mediation may have made poss ible the subsequent Rose efforts on behalf of the S&L . In an Oct. 10 , 1983 , l etter obtained by the RTC , Giroir wrote McDougal that he was submitting a new b ill `` pursuant to your discussions with Hillary Rodham Clinton . '' While the s avings and loan matter was pending before the state commission , McDougal indica ted an interest in ways Mrs. Clinton could help with Madison 's dealings with th e state . `` I need to know everything you have pending before the Securities Co mmission as I intend to get with Hillary Clinton within the next few days , '' M cDougal wrote to Madison President John Latham in a July 11 , 1985 , internal Ma dison memo obtained by the RTC . The White House acknowledged that Mrs. Clinton may have interceded while at Rose to help mediate the billing dispute . As for t he later memo from McDougal , John Podesta , a White House spokesman on Whitewat er matters , said Mrs. Clinton did not recall getting together with McDougal in the summer of 1985 to review the embattled S&L 's pending issues . Regardless of any contacts between them and her part in patching up the Madison-Rose relation ship , administration officials asserted , Mrs. Clinton had no significant profe ssional role with McDougal 's financial institutions or any knowledge of the con troversial practices cited after Madison Guaranty 's collapse . But critics sugg est that having Mrs. Clinton and Rose in his corner may have given McDougal the potential of exercising undue influence on state authorities . A five-month-old special counsel 's investigation is probing whether political influence may have been used to prolong Madison 's existence and run up the eventual cost of the R TC bailout . Former Madison President Latham said that McDougal , who was the ma jority stockholder in Madison and effectively controlled day-to-day management o f the S&L , told him to use Rose for legal work . In one conversation `` he said , go to Rose , because Bill and Hillary are my friends . So I used them ( Rose ) , '' Latham said . When rocker Billy Idol joined the on-line revolution a year ago , he did it wit h a requisite snarl . Promoting his album `` Cyberpunk , '' Idol talked of using the global Internet to circumvent the Establishment media , to smash the barrie rs between musicians and their fans . He widely publicized his electronic-mail a ddress . Good luck finding Idol on-line today . He signed off with a whimper las t month , complaining of the `` overwhelming '' task of answering his e-mail . ` ` Right now . . . my mailbox has over 4,000 messages and there is no way I can p ersonally answer all of them without spending my days at the computer , '' Idol said in an automated e-mail response to anyone attempting to reach him on-line . Idol is a victim of self-induced cyber overload . The information superhighway has not only inspired a slew of bad metaphors , it 's become littered with uniqu e nuisances . There 's e-mail glut simply too much mail , from social or busines s contacts . There are junk messages unwanted commercial spiels posted on public bulletin boards . And there are e-mail bombs time-wasting messages that are `` exploded '' through unsuspecting networks into your personal mailbox . The net u sed to be a cozy place , a virtual priesthood protected by its own arcane langua ge and customs . Beard-tugging academics and helpful scientists set the tone . N ow , as more and more techno-tyros log on , and more firms attempt to exploit th e network commercially , the limits of `` netiquette '' the unwritten rules gove rning cyberspace are being stretched . E-mail traffic on the Internet a conglome ration of 20,000 computer networks loosely overseen by the National Science Foun dation has reached more than 800 million messages a month , nearly double the vo lume of a year ago . As happened with other communications breakthroughs that we re supposed to make life simpler ( voice mail comes to mind ) , some e-mail user s are beginning to see the down side of convenience . `` Whole work patterns are changing , '' says Dan VanBelleghem , associate program director for the Nation al Science Foundation 's NSFNET , the largest component of the Internet . `` Bef ore , you would get to work and chat with your neighbor over a cup of coffee . N ow it 's become : `` I 'm gonna turn on my PC or Mac and scan through my mail . ' And there 's 300 messages , and a lot of it is junk and a lot is hidden , and you might delete some accidentally , and before you know it , it 's 10 a.m. '' V anBelleghem says he 's attempting to limit his morning mail call to 45 minutes . An e-mail address still imparts a certain exclusive , cutting-edge glamour . En tertainment and publishing people are flocking to the net , hoping to plug in to cultural trends . E-mail also allows an instantaneous connection to vast amount s of knowledge , in the form of both data and experts . But `` as soon as e-mail is ubiquitous , people will have the same problems with it as they do with pape r mail and phone calls , '' says Gail Williams , a manager of the Whole Earth ' Lectronic Link ( WELL ) , a West Coast conferencing system . There are easy solu tions : Change your address or install a program to filter out the junk . But ba sically , you can't hide . Once you join a public conference , it 's like giving your phone number to 20 million people . You can't be `` unlisted , '' because the system requires a return address on every message you send . If you message someone privately , that person has your address . `` There is a potential , bec ause of the way the net is set up , that you can be mail-bombed or swamped in ju nk mail , '' says Mike Godwin , an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundati on . `` And occasionally people will do this to you . But it seems to be no more of a problem than obscene phone calls . There is the potential for all people t o make obscene phone calls , but most people don't act on the impulse . '' The I nternet 's fiber-optic cable capacity isn't close to being taxed . And ultimatel y , the humans on the other end of the messages will find ways to cope . `` This is the real world-you should expect the occasional junk phone call and junk e-m ail , '' says Carl Malamud , president of the Internet Multicasting Service in W ashington , a `` cyberstation '' that relays speech and music over the net . He estimates that he gets 500 e-mail messages a day . `` We filter the junk-we put it in a pile at the end of the day and then we delete , delete , delete . '' You can e-mail this reporter at LEIBYaol.com . But feel free not to . How 's this for high-concept television : A great network lifts itself out of t he ratings cellar and rides high for three years . Then , all at once , things g et rocky . The network loses its top programming executive , its high-profile sp orts shows , even some of its affiliates . As executives search desperately for a new hit , the ratings start to look shaky again . Can this network be saved ? This scenario , as they say on TV , is based on a true story . CBS , the dominan t television network of the early '90s , appears headed for a fall . Despite win ning a ratings triple crown during the last television season taking the top spo t in the prime time , daytime and late night Nielsens in recent months the netwo rk of `` Murphy Brown '' and `` Late Night With David Letterman '' has been show ing clear signs of deterioration . Last week , Black Rock , as CBS ' New York he adquarters is known , was shaken anew . New World Communications Group Inc. , wh ich owns eight TV stations affiliated with CBS , said it was shifting its loyalt ies to Rupert Murdoch 's Fox network . The move was widely read as a coup for Fo x , which paid $ 500 million for the stations ' affiliation , and as a major def eat for CBS . Indeed , the stock market 's judgment was swift and harsh : Invest ors rushed to sell their CBS shares , knocking nearly $ 520 million off the comp any 's value on paper in two days . CBS executives argue the reaction to the New World-Fox deal was overblown . After all , they said , with its powerful primet ime lineup , CBS should have no trouble persuading other stations in the eight m arkets to sign up to carry `` 60 Minutes , '' `` Murder , She Wrote '' and other CBS fare . Fox , sniffed CBS Broadcasting Group President Howard Stringer last week , is a network of `` downscale sitcoms and titillating soap operas . '' In fact , Fox whose ratings have declined 10 percent in the past two years needs th e soon-to-be former CBS affiliates more than CBS . Once it finds stations to rep lace those it has lost , CBS ' `` worst case '' internal projections call for it to lose about 15 percent of its current audience in the eight cities . To put t hat in perspective , the eight stations collectively reach about 10 percent of t he U.S. population . So CBS believes a 15 percent decline in those markets would knock 1.5 percent off its average national rating each evening . `` We 're talk ing about economically insignificant numbers , '' said David Poltrack , CBS ' to p research executive . This glass-is-half-full analysis masks deeper strains at Black Rock , however . Having to search for ( or buy ) new affiliates in eight m arkets represents another distraction for CBS 's top management , which hardly s eems to need another one . At a time when Stringer and CBS Chairman Laurence Tis ch should be taking bows , they are instead stamping out small brushfires . Said one CBS executive last week , `` It hasn't seemed like much of a celebration ar ound here . '' -O- Network ratings leadership tends to be cyclical . Popular pro grams on one network lose viewers over time , as people gradually drift away to sample new offerings on competing networks . And after three years at the top , CBS may be at the end of this cycle , TV analysts say . For one thing , CBS has failed to develop a new hit series during the recently completed TV season . `` Dr. Quinn , Medicine Woman '' has been its most successful new program , and it debuted in January 1993 . ABC , meanwhile , has scored with `` Home Improvement , '' `` NYPD Blue , '' and `` Grace Under Fire , '' while NBC has a new ratings winner in `` Frasier . '' Helped by the addition of the Super Bowl and World Ser ies next season , `` I think there 's a strong chance ABC will replace CBS as nu mber one , '' said Jack Shubert , corporate media director at Earle Palmer Brown , a regional ad agency based in Bethesda , Md. `` ABC has a lot of strong comed ies ( `` Roseanne , '' `` Home Improvement , '' `` Coach , '' etc. ) anchoring i ts schedule during the week . They are in a good position . '' Despite the signs of decline , CBS Inc. , the network 's parent company , could be headed for its best financial performance in several years . One senior official points out th at the company is no longer burdened with the costly baseball and football contr acts , and is being helped by a general recovery in the advertising business ( C BS ' earnings rose 28 percent in the first quarter , thanks in part to its Winte r Olympics ' telecasts ) . Indeed , advertising buyers still expect the network to command the largest share of dollars spent during the upcoming `` upfront '' season , the period in which ad agencies purchase air time for their clients on fall programs . But a sense that tougher times could be on the horizon made for some black moods at Black Rock last week . `` People are very down , '' said one executive last week . `` They 'd be lying if they said otherwise . '' Among the events buffeting CBS : The loss of sports programming . CBS has been outbid for the right to televise the Super Bowl , the 1996 Olympics , the World Series and , most important , NFC football games ( Murdoch 's Fox took the NFC a way in December , paying $ 1.6 billion ) . While sports were a hugely expensive proposition CBS has written off more than $ 600 million from what it paid on its baseball and football contracts in the past four years the big games were , in fact , loss leaders for the network : They attracted viewers who later tuned in CBS ' primetime programs . `` They 're going to save money ( without sports ) , but this has taken away some of their ( promotional ) muscle , '' said Joel Sega l , national broadcast director at McCann Erickson , a major advertising agency . A black eye from the cable industry . After persuading Congress to pass a law enabling broadcast TV owners to negotiate rights payments from cable companies , CBS was stiff-armed by the cable industry last summer in its efforts to obtain cash fees for allowing the cable companies to carry CBS shows . NBC , ABC and Fo x , meanwhile , negotiated deals in which cable companies agreed to air cable ch annels owned by the three broadcasting companies . A rebuilding job in its progr amming staff . Jeff Sagansky , the CBS Entertainment president who engineered CB S ' rise in the ratings , stepped down last month , citing a desire for `` a mor e entrepreneurial challenge . '' Since becoming the top programming executive in 1990 , Sagansky took CBS from No. 3 to No. 1 by shoring up what the network cal ls `` The Franchise , '' its popular Sunday and Monday night schedules . Sagansk y 's successor is Peter Tortorici , the network 's programming strategist . As i t is , Sagansky , like NBC 's Brandon Tartikoff before him , may be jumping ship at the right moment . Toothpaste containers . Cereal boxes . Car ads . Those 1-800 numbers that enabl e you to call companies long distance with the companies picking up the tab seem to be everywhere . In fact , there are almost 3 million toll free 1-800 numbers in use today . And AT&T Corp. 's top 800 service marketing executive , Dan Shul man , predicts that a million more will be added by the end of this year . `` It 's just explosive growth , Shulman said . On a typical day , more than 40 perce nt of the 160 million calls that AT&T 's network carries are to 800 numbers . La st year , about 22 billion such calls were made , with AT&T accounting for about 60 percent of the market . It used to be that 800 numbers were mainly used by F ortune 500 companies , Shulman said . But now companies such as Kiwi Internation al Air Lines Inc. the Newark-based airline formed a year and a half ago , rely o n them . Kiwi , which has 830 employees and revenue of $ 125 million , has six t oll-free numbers . It uses two as reservation lines for customers , two for trav el agents and two for pilots and other employees who need to call for schedules and other information . Small and medium-size businesses particularly retail gro ups that have discovered catalogue shopping have been a major source of growth f or the 800 business in recent years , analysts said . The 800 business also bene fited during the economic downturn , which forced companies to try to become mor e marketing savvy , analysts said . Companies used 800 numbers to try to encoura ge customers to call whether to complain , buy or inquire because these calls we re the source of rich marketing data . For instance , a car company running nati onwide ads listing an 800 number might notice that a majority of the responses c ome from a particular region or from people of a particular age , income or sex , and could target those groups for more attention , said Ed Stukane , executive vice president of Keyes Martin , an advertising and direct marketing firm in Sp ringfield , N.J. . While toll-free phone service can add considerably to a compa ny 's costs , Shulman said there are ways for firms to minimize their exposure . For instance , a small Maryland company that sells only to customers in Marylan d and adjacent states could limit its 800 service to those states . `` You can s pecify that these are the area codes that I want to receive 800 phone calls from , '' Shulman said . `` Therefore , you are not paying for calls that don't brin g you business . '' Jerome Lucas , president of Telestrategies Inc. , a McLean , Va.-based telecommunications consulting firm , said the practice could be seen as `` telecommunications redlining '' and predicted it will become more controve rsial in coming years . He said companies may be attracted to the practice as a way to prevent 800 fraud . Ted Pierson , a Washington telecommunications attorne y , said hackers use machines to dial 800 numbers at random until they get into a phone system . They then use other machines to find ways to use the phone syst em to make outgoing calls . The hackers can then make free long-distance calls . Because a good portion of such fraudulent calls originate in large urban areas , such as New York City , Lucas predicted some companies may try to block toll-f ree calls from these points . WASHINGTON The Clinton administration may not fight legislation that would give white-collar federal workers a double-barreled raise in January . The president requested funds for a 1.6 percent civilian-military raise . Current law , which calls for a series of annual national and local catchup raises , had targeted e mployees for a nationwide across-the-board adjustment of 2.6 percent next year , plus smaller locality increases . The Senate budget resolution endorses the ful l national and locality raises , and the House Treasury , Postal Service money b ill , the usual vehicle for federal pay raises , calls for the 2.6 percent natio nal raise , plus locality raises . The fact that Rep. Steny Hoyer , D-Md. , inse rted the language suggests the Clinton administration has been persuaded not to fight the higher amount . There is lots of generalized support for keeping the 1 995 federal pay raise low members of Congress aren't likely to get it but it is not as well organized as the smaller , pro-pay raise coalition built around the congressional civil service caucus officially known as the Federal Government Se rvice Task Force . The bipartisan House-Senate group has one thing in common : A ll of its members represent states or districts chock full of civil servants , r etirees or military personnel . Task force members who crossed House-Senate and party lines to keep the pay raises on track included Maryland Democratic senator s Paul Sarbanes and Barbara Mikulski ; representatives Jim Moran , D-Va. ; Frank Wolf , R-Va. ; Leslie Byrne , R-Va. ; Connie Morella , R-Md. ; and Kweisi Mfume , D-Md. ; the District of Columbia 's delegate , Eleanor Holmes Norton , a Demo crat ; and from beyond the Washington region , Rep . Norm Dicks , D-Wash. , and Rep. Vic Fazio , D-Calif . Giving fully funded raises means executive branch age ncies must get another $ 400 million ( over and above the amount requested by th e president ) and the Defense Department will need an addition $ 300 million . I f agencies were forced to `` eat '' the difference , it would mean they could gi ve full pay raises but would have to fire or furlough some employees to afford p aying the others . The indications that the administration willn't make its 1.6 percent raise a do-or-die effort is a good sign both for 1995 paychecks and also for low-seniority workers who are first to go in economy-inspired layoffs . News of the D-day landings traveled far and fast . In the United States , newsp aper extras carried banner headlines of the Allied assault on the Normandy beach es of northern France . In Nazi-occupied Europe the accounts spread by short-wav e radio from Britain . One week shy of her 15th birthday , an excited Jewish gir l in Amsterdam , the Netherlands , named Anne Frank described in the June 6 , 19 44 , entry to her diary how she and her family huddled around a radio in their a ttic hideaway to hear details of the invasion . `` This is the day , '' she wrot e. `` .. . I have the feeling friends are approaching . '' While it was quickly understood that D-day would alter the course of World War II irrevocably in the Allies ' favor , not even the most farsighted visionaries were in a position to grasp the event 's lasting significance : That the 70,000 Americans who set foot in Northern Europe on that gray , stormy June day were the vanguard of a U.S. p resence that would not just help win the war , but remain to preside over a half -century of peace . For the United States , D-day was part of a watershed . For Europe it was more . For better or worse , the Normandy invasion was one of a se ries of events that propelled America past the point of no return on the road to ward a permanent global role , a permanent European presence and its first peace time alliance . ( Begin optional trim ) Psychologically and politically , the U. S. casualties taken that day and during the subsequent 11 months of fighting unt il Nazi Germany 's surrender gave America little option but to push aside instin ct , reject a return to isolationism and instead stay on to help preserve the pe ace in Europe . In the years since , about 16 million American service personnel and their dependents have served in Europe . ( End optional trim ) Only the col lapse of communism , a deepening budgetary crisis and a string of pressing domes tic problems have led Washington to begin unwinding its presence in the region . From a peak of 325,000 in 1989 , U.S. troop strength in Europe now stands at ab out 150,000 . It is scheduled to fall to 109,000 by the end of 1996 . The troop withdrawal reflects a larger shift in America 's national priorities those now e mbodied in Bill Clinton . As a result , more question marks hang over the future of the transatlantic relationship than at any time since the Iron Curtain fell across Europe . For Europeans , adrift on a sea of frightening new problems and searching to redefine themselves and their role in a post-Cold War world , this ebbing American interest is disturbing . After all , they owe a lot to their tra nsatlantic partner . It was , for example , the American military and economic s upport in the early post-war years that halted the Soviet Union 's westward adva nce , steadied governments vulnerable to communist takeover in France , Italy an d Greece and kept West Berlin alive with a 15-month airlift . As Soviet Cold War bullying intensified , it was a U.S. president , John F. Kennedy , who traveled to Germany , reminded Moscow that the defense of America began in Berlin , then declared himself a citizen of the beleaguered city with his famous declaration , `` Ich bin ein Berliner . '' It was U.S. pressure that helped pave the way for Germany 's swift rehabilitation into the community of Western democracies and A merican money that flowed into an exhausted Western Europe under the Marshall Pl an , restoring hope and igniting an unprecedented economic recovery . And it was leaders such as Dean Acheson , Dwight D. Eisenhower and John Foster Dulles , wh o repeatedly gave crucial support to the French visionary Jean Monnet as he work ed to overcome regional jealousies to build a European Common Market . `` We 've all buried the amazing importance of America in process of European integration , '' said William Wallace , a senior research fellow at Oxford University 's St . Antony 's College . `` The whole thing was American-driven . '' ( Begin option al trim ) Added Pierre Jacquet , deputy director of the French Institute of Inte rnational Relations , `` Without it ( the American presence ) , Europe would hav e fallen back again into the 1930s , with nations trying to export their problem s to each other . '' Instead , the Common Market 's successor the European Union stands at the center of the Continent 's future . It is about to enlarge from 1 2 to 16 member states and albeit hesitantly has reached out to the former Soviet satellite states in the east . EU member nations still squabble with each other , but war between them is only a slightly less remote possibility than armed co nflict between California and Nevada . ( End optional trim ) The Vietnam War deb acle , coupled with Western Europe 's growing economic strength , the student re volutions that swept the region in 1968 and the dollar crises of the early 1970s ended the European sense of awe for America that characterized much of the rela tionship 's early years . Some sharp foreign policy clashes during the Carter an d Reagan presidencies and a love-hate relationship with the growing American cul tural invasion led many Europeans to nurture a new stereotype of the United Stat es that of a powerful , but naive ally , whose quick-trigger , overly simplistic world view constituted a danger only slightly less than that emanating from Mos cow . But few on either side of the Atlantic could challenge the reality that We stern Europe 's stunning revival had unfolded and matured under the protection o f America 's security guarantees . Indeed , many argue that both a long-term Ame rican political role and military presence in Europe remain vital for the contin ent 's stability . Anyone watching the EU 's futile efforts to prevent conflicts on its own within the region would be hard-pressed not to agree . The war in Yu goslavia , the first major political crisis post-war Europeans have had to face without immediate American leadership , has been a diplomatic disaster and a dem oralizing blow to the EU 's self-confidence in addition to a great human tragedy . `` Our biggest problem is that for the last 50 years , America has told us wh at to do , '' said Wallace , the Oxford fellow . `` We may not have liked it , b ut it always gave us a starting point . Now this is gone . '' ( Begin optional t rim ) Added Stanley Crossick , chairman of the Belmont European Policy Center , a Brussels-based political think tank : `` We got things right after the war bec ause of strong U.S. leadership , the brilliance of the Marshall Plan and the vis ion of our own statesmen . Now we no longer have the same U.S. leadership , our own leaders are weak and there 's no Marshall Plan . '' ( End optional trim ) Bu t there remain many elements that will keep America and Europe locked together . Despite the new importance of Japan and other Asian markets , Western Europe re mains America 's biggest overseas trading partner . Since 1945 , the Old World h as drawn an estimated $ 200 billion in U.S. private investment roughly 40 cents of every American dollar invested overseas . The $ 195 billion in EU-U.S. trade last year accounted for more than one quarter of all global exports . Such figur es help support the claim that America 's decision to defend Western Europe was no act of altruism , but far more a policy based on enlightened self-interest th at has paid off . While many Europeans are ill at ease with the intrusions of Americana , only th e French have cared enough to seriously fight it . Over the years , they have la unched a series of counterattacks most notably in December , when they fought to the last bitter minute to successfully retain their leaky defenses against the growing influx of American films and television programs during global trade neg otiations . Declaring the defense of the French language a `` political priority , '' Premier Edouard Balladur 's government has also passed a law requiring tha t a minimum of 40 percent of all songs played over the country 's airwaves be in French and issued an official dictionary of some 3,500 new terms , such as `` r estauration rapide '' instead of fast food and `` disque audionumerique '' inste ad of compact disc , to replace Anglicisms that have crept into the language . H owever , a walk through Paris is proof that Americana is well entrenched . A tin y sandwich shop just off the Place de la Bastille , for example , seemed typical ly French except for the Hollywood chewing gum , the Jack Daniels whiskey , the Getaway pinball machine in the corner , and the framed photo of a Harley-Davidso n motorcycle on the wall . D-Day marked a watershed in American political , military and economic involvem ent in Europe , and with 16 million American servicemen and their dependents hav ing been stationed in Europe since then , a powerful transatlantic cultural bond has been forged and continues to grow despite European ambivalence . From the G I chewing gum , jazz music and Ernest Hemingway paperbacks in the late 1940s , t o the Levi 's , NFL sweat shirts , Pizza Hut restaurants , hard-rock music , Hol lywood films and TV game shows found virtually everywhere in Western Europe , Am erican soft-power has steamrollered the continent . It is a truth that makes man y Europeans wince , but 3 decades after the Treaty of Rome committed them to the path of integration , the common thread through Western European mass culture i s American . `` At the mass level , it has contributed to a cultural homogenizat ion across Europe , '' declared Philipp Borinski , part of an academic team at M ainz University that is studying the future of the transatlantic relationship . American pop music , scientific writings and successful business styles helped c atapult English into the role of a de facto international language , adding furt her to this cultural impact . Widespread knowledge of English has made northern Europe especially vulnerable to American influence and , although the Romanesque countries to the south have resisted this trend , they too have succumbed , at least in part . `` These countries are more influenced than they like to admit , '' noted Wilfried Wiegand , who edits the cultural pages of Germany 's leading national daily , the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . `` In Italy it 's now fash ionable for young people to eat hamburgers and learn English . In a country that values form and elegance , this is a way for young people to show they are diff erent . '' In Germany , American ideas flooded into a cultural vacuum left in th e wake of Nazism . Probably nowhere else in Europe have American habits and tast es from jazz clubs to corporate board rooms taken greater hold . While the react ion to the Vietnam War and the 1968 student protests both carried a distinctly a nti-American character and worked to tarnish America 's image as a political rol e model , they paradoxically strengthened the American cultural impact . With fe w home-grown symbols to challenge the Establishment , Western Europe 's young re volutionaries listened to the protest messages of Joan Baez and Bob Dylan , cult ivated Andy Warhol 's art and adopted Eldridge Cleaver and Angela Davis as polit ical heroes . `` It was a lifestyle revolution in the direction of America , '' said Borinski , who views 1968 as a clear break from traditional West European m ores , one that has brought Europe permanently closer to the United States . He argued that American cultural influence has generated a greater sense of persona l freedom in Germany , eroded authoritarian strains within society , and general ly boosted the status and confidence of the individual all developments that hav e enabled western Germans to thrive in a free-market , democratic environment . `` There 's a sort of social , cultural convergence taking place that 's making ( Western ) Europe and the U.S. more similar , '' Borinski said . `` I think it has a positive effect in that it helps create a much broader understanding above all among younger generations , which have been welded together in a common you th culture . '' MOSCOW A bipartisan delegation from the Senate Armed Services Committee said Tu esday it would recommend that the first joint exercises involving U.S. and Russi an ground troops be moved from Russia to the United States because of nationalis t hostility here to the planned maneuvers . Sen. Sam Nunn , D-Ga. , chairman of the committee , said that after meeting with Russian legislators `` it was appar ent that this was a sensitive area . '' As a result , the Senate delegation unan imously decided to recommend to President Clinton that the exercises `` be held on American soil at a suitable military base and at a suitable time to both the American and Russian side . '' The joint peacekeeping exercises , involving abou t 250 troops from each side , had been set for July near the city of Orenburg on the Volga River . The Russian military had favored the maneuvers , which would allow the former enemies to engage in joint operations for the first time , but nationalist and Communist forces strongly opposed them , saying U.S. forces shou ld never set foot in `` Holy Russia . '' Last month Russian President Boris Yelt sin had asked the Defense Ministry to reconsider the exercises . Since then , to p defense officials have given mixed signals about the maneuvers , but it was cl ear that planning had all but stopped . U.S. . Defense Secretary William J. Perr y had hailed the joint exercise as proof of a new cooperative era in military re lations between the two countries . Russian parliamentary leaders , wary of hand ing hard-line nationalists such a visible and emotional cause , were clearly rel ieved by Nunn 's proposal . `` It 's not just a question of substance in such ma tters but a matter of tact , '' said Vladimir Lukin , former ambassador to the U nited States , who now heads the Parliament 's foreign affairs committee . Nunn said the delegation of four Republicans and three Democrats was somewhat taken a back when the issue of the joint maneuvers was raised because in Washington they had been told that , after some flip-flops by the Russian side , the exercise ` ` was now back on course . '' `` This exercise is not designed to use armored ve hicles or tanks . It is not even designed for live firing . But it has obviously been a sensitive subject here , and it seems to me we can further our objective s by beginning . . . in the U.S. , '' he said . Nunn said he hopes U.S. troops w ill eventually be able to come to Russia for joint exercises . `` It would be my hope that there would be reciprocity and that at some point in the future we wo uld have that kind of further peacekeeping exercises here in Russia , '' he said . Cambodia awoke from a 20-year nightmare last May with historic U.N.-sponsored e lections . Ninety percent of the population defied Khmer Rouge threats to vote f or peace . There was hope that Cambodia was on the road to reconciliation . But what a difference a year makes . Today Pol Pot 's weakened forces are on the att ack again . In the past few months the Khmer Rouge have recaptured their Pailin headquarters from the government , establishing control over areas in northern a nd western Cambodia and displacing 60,000 villagers . The ineffectiveness of the Phnom Penh government and an ill-conceived military campaign are key reasons fo r Khmer Rouge successes . But a major external factor is Thailand 's help for th e Khmer Rouge . The Thai military provides them goods and , reportedly , arms an d gives their leadership sanctuary . Despite Thailand 's impressive growth and s teady if halting moves toward democracy , the Thai military and its civilian sup porters dominate foreign policy , particularly toward Cambodia and the other nea rby states of Burma , Laos and Vietnam . The cross-border gem and timber transac tions between Thailand and Cambodia are murky but highly profitable for both sid es as much as $ 20 million per month . Yet , there are reasons beyond lucre for Thailand 's de facto alliance with the Khmer Rouge . The Thai government 's atti tude toward Cambodia has been shaped by a troubled history . Bangkok never liked the earlier Sihanouk government and helped stoke up border insurgencies . In th e 1980s , when the overriding concern was getting the Vietnamese out of Cambodia , the United States and Southeast Asian nations did not put any priority on end ing Thai and Chinese support for Pol Pot . The Vietnamese left after the 1991 Pa ris Peace Agreement . China reportedly ceased its support , leaving Thailand hol ding a monopoly on dirty work . Some Thais want to keep a hand in Cambodian affa irs and create a sort of permanent buffer zone against a renascent Vietnam . A s enior Thai official told me in 1992 that protecting the Khmer Rouge was an impor tant element of Thai security . The Thai government publicly proclaims the oppos ite and provides economic assistance to the Phnom Penh government , but even if it doesn't condone the military 's complicity with the Khmer Rouge in violation of Cambodia 's sovereignty , it has not controlled the practice . Perhaps it can not , given the Thai government 's weakness relative to the army . Whether by gr aft or statecraft , Thailand has become Pol Pot 's best ally . The war in Cambod ia could have been brought to an end and 370,000 refugees returned from Thailand only by the largest U.N. peace-keeping and assistance operation ever assembled , costing $ 2 billion . Now only the world community can help ensure that Cambod ia 's pathetically weak state and its hopes for rehabilitation are not destroyed by the Khmer Rouge . Pol Pot 's insurgents have suffered serious political setb acks and losses of manpower , but they are tenacious fighters who survived a war with the far tougher Vietnamese with outside support . The United States and re gional governments need to focus on the issue . Sihanouk 's declining health has added urgency . The problem is tough to crack . Trade sanctions and other punit ive efforts against a friendly Thailand would be ridiculous . Providing weapons and training to the Cambodian government might help , but one can't have much co nfidence in a top-heavy army whose rolls exaggerate the true numbers of servicem en . The only tools remaining are moral and diplomatic suasion continually remin ding the Thais that they are undermining a neighbor and the costly work of the w orld community . Bangkok will resist having the issue raised , but doing so mult ilaterally can put greater pressure on the military and perhaps induce Thailand 's top figures , including its respected monarch , to weigh in . Secretary of St ate Warren Christopher 's participation in Association of Southeast Asian Nation ( ASEAN ) meetings in Bangkok this July offers a prime opportunity to air the w orld 's concerns about Cambodia . ASEAN came into its own during the Cambodian c risis , which for 10 years was the focus of ASEAN discussions . A voluble Singap ore leadership spearheaded the effort to get the Vietnamese out . Since Vietnam 's departure , Singapore 's interest has evaporated ; it doesn't even have an em bassy in Phnom Penh , and its aid is virtually invisible . ASEAN discussions abo ut Cambodia have been perfunctory . ASEAN must be brought around to face the Khm er Rouge problem and focus on how to reduce Pol Pot 's capacities and strengthen the government 's . It needs to consider Cambodia 's early membership . ASEAN a nd its new security forum willn't become effective instruments for regional stab ility if members refuse to discuss some issues that make them uncomfortable . As for the United States , President Clinton has rightly said that we cannot solve every world problem . But we should work with others when U.S. participation ca n make a difference . Working with our Western allies and ASEAN countries to hel p break the Thai-Khmer Rouge connection is such an opportunity . If we don't tak e it , Cambodia 's resurrection could be short-lived . MANILA , Philippines A conference on human rights in Indonesian-ruled East Timo r opened here Tuesday despite intense opposition from the Philippine and Indones ian governments and a ban on 34 foreign participants , including the wife of Fra nce 's president and a Nobel Peace Prize winner . The privately sponsored Asia-P acific Conference on East Timor , organized by opponents of Indonesia 's 1976 an nexation of the former Portuguese colony , convened after the Philippine Supreme Court overturned an injunction against it . However , the court upheld the gove rnment 's right to ban foreigners from entering the country to participate in th e meeting . Authorities threatened to arrest several foreign delegates who elude d the ban and attended the opening session . But a phalanx of priests , nuns and chanting students surrounded the foreign delegates as they were escorted to the University of the Philippines conference site from nearby hostels . The charged emotions , large Filipino turnout and heavy press coverage of the conference in dicated Indonesian pressure on the Philippines to block the gathering had backfi red badly . A number of politicians and commentators complained that by bowing t o Jakarta 's `` bullying '' tactics , the government had undermined the Philippi nes ' democratic principles and tarnished its international reputation . The res ult has been to focus far more attention on the plight of East Timor here and ab road than would probably have been the case if the conference had proceeded with out interference , organizers said . Although the Philippines and East Timor sha re a Roman Catholic religious heritage , Indonesia 's invasion , annexation and subsequent occupation of the territory had never been an issue here . An estimat ed 100,000 East Timorese , a sixth of the population , died during the 1970s as a result of the invasion , a subsequent famine and efforts to crush guerrilla re sistance , human-rights groups have reported . In a statement read for her at th e opening session of the five-day conference , Ireland 's Mairead Maguire , who shared the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize , accused Indonesia of engaging in `` barbaris m '' against the people of East Timor . Maguire , 50 , was one of 10 foreigners who were detained at Manila 's airport and deported on orders of President Fidel Ramos to prevent them from attending the conference . Danielle Mitterrand , pre sident of the human-rights group France-Libertes and wife of French President Fr ancois Mitterrand , was originally scheduled to deliver the conference 's keynot e speech but canceled after she was blacklisted . She said Monday in Paris that Indonesia had exerted `` tyrannical pressure '' and `` a kind of blackmail '' on her and the Philippines . A Philippine senator said banning Mitterrand was a ma jor political blunder , given that Ramos is scheduled to visit France in Septemb er and his wife , Amelita Ramos , has been invited to open a Philippine exhibiti on at a Paris museum next month . Three bishops , a prominent Japanese priest an d the head of Indonesia 's largest Muslim organization also were blacklisted . O rganizers said one of the bishops died six months ago . The Philippines ' Roman Catholic prelate , Cardinal Jaime Sin , joined the storm of criticism . In a let ter Monday to the bishop of Dili , the East Timorese capital , Sin said he was ` ` sorry to see the political leaders of my own nation giving in to the pressure of a foreign nation . '' Ramos justified his ban on foreign participants in the conference by asserting that freedom of speech and assembly were outweighed by ` ` national security '' issues . In applying pressure to block the meeting , Indo nesia had hinted that , among other measures , it could promote the cause of Mus lim separatists in the southern Philippines , presidential aides said . BANGKOK , Thailand U.S. allegations of drug trafficking by Thai legislators hav e thrown Thailand 's parliament into an uproar and raised the prospect of the fi rst major test of a new extradition treaty . So far , three opposition legislato rs have been publicly named by U.S. officials as suspects in drug-trafficking ca ses , and reports that others might be implicated have aroused apprehension amon g jittery politicians . The publicity has focused attention on the role of big m oney in Thai politics and fueled concerns that the parliament 's reputation is b eing damaged . Thailand is a conduit for much of the heroin produced in the Gold en Triangle , the border area where Burma , Thailand and Laos meet . The huge pr ofits generated by the drug trade have sowed corruption among Thai politicians , security officials and businessmen at the local and national levels , U.S. and Thai sources charge . According to a recent State Department report , efforts to fight drug trafficking and money laundering in Thailand are hampered by such fa ctors as `` widespread police and military corruption '' and `` the narcotics in volvement of some politicians . '' More than 60 percent of the heroin entering t he United States comes from the Golden Triangle , U.S. officials estimate . Burm a produces nearly 90 percent of the triangle 's annual yield of more than 2,500 tons of opium , the raw material for heroin . Some analysts predict a record cro p this year of more than 3,000 tons . Last month , Thanong Siripreechapong , 42 , was forced to resign from parliament after a judge in San Francisco unsealed a 1991 indictment accusing him of involvement in smuggling more than 45 tons of m arijuana from Thailand to the United States between 1973 and 1987 . The indictme nt said Thanong was paid more than $ 13 million in a series of deals . Last year , the U.S. government seized about $ 1 million in assets including a Beverly Hi lls house and a Mercedes-Benz that Thanong was found to have acquired in the Uni ted States with proceeds from drug smuggling . He was notified twice of U.S. for feiture proceedings but did not appear . Thanong denied the charges and said he wanted to fly to the United States to clear his name . The U.S. . Embassy here r esponded it would facilitate the trip , but that if he did enter the United Stat es , he would be `` arrested immediately . '' The Chart Thai party , the largest of five parties in opposition to the coalition government of Prime Minister Chu an Leekpai , expelled Thanong after finding inconsistencies in his testimony in parliamentary hearings . He had represented the northeastern province of Nakhon Phanom , known as Thailand 's premier marijuana growing area . Thailand faces a dilemma over the prospect that U.S. authorities might seek Thanong 's extraditio n . The case already has generated a debate over whether a Thai citizen can lega lly be extradited to stand trial in a foreign country . Extradition of Thai nati onals has previously been banned , but the current constitution is ambiguous on the issue , and a 1992 extradition treaty with the United States neither authori zes nor forbids it . If the government decides Thanong cannot be extradited , it may decide to prosecute him here , officials said . But it remains to be seen w hether Thai authorities could try him based on foreign evidence for offenses com mitted before a new Thai conspiracy law took effect . In a parliamentary session May 19 , Mongkol Chongsuthanamanee , 48 , tearfully denied involvement in the d rug trade after it was disclosed that he had been denied a U.S. visa because his name is on a narcotics watch list . The U.S. . Drug Enforcement Administration has implicated Mongkol in a conspiracy to smuggle heroin to the United States , but currently lacks evidence to indict him , a U.S. official said . Mongkol , wh o represents the opposition Chart Pattana party from Chiang Rai , a northern tow n bordering the Golden Triangle , called the allegations against him `` rubbish '' and threatened to sue the Thai Foreign Ministry and U.S. . Embassy for defama tion . A brother , Arun Chongsuthanamanee , is seeking commutation of a 1992 dea th sentence for drug trafficking . Mongkol is a protege of Narong Wongwan , who was in line to become Thailand 's prime minister in 1992 until the State Departm ent confirmed that he too had been denied a visa on suspicion of drug traffickin g . Narong 's nomination to head a pro-military coalition was later scuttled , a nd Gen. Suchinda Kraprayoon was chosen instead . Suchinda 's accession to the pr emiership then prompted massive protests in which hundreds of democracy demonstr ators were killed by the army before Suchinda was forced to resign . Narong , wh o is still in parliament , remains barred from entering the United States . The allegations linking legislators to drug dealing came to a head after Thai newspa pers quoted Foreign Minister Prasong Soonsiri as telling a cabinet meeting that he had a U.S. list of 17 politicians , including 10 opposition legislators , sus pected of being traffickers . Opposition legislators demanded that he name the s uspects and traded insults with government members . Prasong dismissed the repor ts , and the U.S. . Embassy denied providing any such list . However , lists com piled by Thai academic and media sources quickly began circulating , including o ne that named three senior members of the government . `` I have to confirm that several politicians , both at the local and national levels , are suspected of being involved in the drug trade , '' Prime Minister Chuan told parliament . He acknowledged having a list of suspected drug-dealing politicians , but declined to disclose details . WASHINGTON David Watkins , the White House aide who was forced to resign after taking the presidential helicopter to play golf near Camp David , relented Tuesd ay from his refusal to pay the full cost of the flight and agreed to reimburse t he government for the full $ 13,129.66 tab . The White House announced it was ti ghtening its rules on use of government aircraft , with approval required from t he chief of staff or deputy chief of staff . If they want to make the trip , the y must receive approval by the the White House counsel or deputy counsel . Previ ously , Watkins , head of the office of administration , had authority to approv e helicopter flights . The White House also released a summary of 11 other helic opter trips by members of the White House staff , saying they all appeared to be proper uses of the helicopter . `` There were no other instances of abuse , '' White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers said . She said a review of staff use of fixed-wing aircraft would be released later this month . The other trips gene rally involved White House military and communications personnel , three times t o classified locations . Secetary of State Warren Christopher flew to Williamsbu rg , Va. , for a Senate Democratic retrat , and Secretary of Housing and Urban D evelopment Henry Cisneros and Deputy Office of Management and Budget Director Al ice M. Rivlin went on a `` special training mission '' to a classified location . Watkins himself went to Camp David for `` camp familiarization '' last April a nd to Beltsville , Md. , for `` orientation and training '' last September . Wat kins ' decision to reimburse the government spares his former administration col leagues from having to chip in for the reimbursement and the White House hopes p uts an end to the embarrassing episode . After moving quickly to force Watkins t o resign from his post as director of administration , the White House fumbled i ts handling of the matter . It belatedly discovered that a second helicopter was involved and after Watkins balked at paying the tab scrambled to put together c ontributions from nearly the entire senior staff to pay for the cost , billing t he money as a `` gesture of friendship '' to the fired aide . Although President Clinton announced that the taxpayers would not be out `` one red cent '' from t he helicopter incident , Watkins initially refused to pay any more than a share of the costs . He insisted he had done nothing wrong and would not pay up as a m atter of principle , White House sources said . But Watkins said Tuesday that he called Chief of Staff Thomas F. `` Mack '' McLarty Monday night and said he wou ld repay the full amount . Watkins , a Little Rock advertising executive whose f inancial-disclosure statement shows his net worth at more than $ 1 million , sai d in a telephone interview Tuesday that when he learned the amount had grown far beyond the few thousand dollars he originally believed the trip would cost , he decided his former colleagues should not be saddled with the bill . Watkins sai d he had orginally believed the cost would be only about $ 2,500 , and likened t he contributions promised by 13 senior aides to `` buying tickets to Barbra Stre isand . '' But , he said , `` When it 's over $ 1,000 , it 's braces for your ch ildren 's teeth . It could be a financial burden for some . '' Watkins added , ` ` While I contend I did nothing wrong , I was carrying out the duties of my job , it was something that I was involved with and so I should go ahead and not cre ate any resentment or any more resentment . '' The 55-mile trip to Camp David an d the nearby Holly Hills Country Club became public when the Frederick ( Md. ) N ews-Post published a photograph of Watkins and other adminisration officials abo ut to board the presidential helicopter after playing 18 holes of golf . Watkins was accompanided by Alphonso Maldon , the head of the White House military offi ce , who the White House said would be reassigned , and by the Camp David comman der . In his letter of resignation to Presdient Cliton , Watkins defended his ac tions as `` in fulfillment of the responsibilities of my position , '' which inc ludes oversight for Camp David . He said `` there simply was no effort on my par t to use White House or military equipment for personal or recreational purposes '' and that his `` sole motivation was determining how you ( Clinton ) could ut ilize Camp David more frequently . '' WASHINGTON The Federal Aviation Administration has expressed concern about a ra sh of accidents and incidents involving China Airlines , the official airline of Taiwan , and `` invited '' the company to discuss how the United States can hel p improve it , an official said Tuesday . `` We expect very shortly that they wi ll be able to sit down with us and discuss specific assistance we can give them , '' said Anthony J. Broderick , the FAA 's associate administrator for regulati on and certification . While it couched the message in polite language , the FAA effectively put China Airlines on notice it expects the company to take action on safety-related issues . The airline , stunned by a series of incidents that a ppear to be related to poor training or unprofessional behavior , has instituted a retraining program for all its pilots . The Transport Ministry of Taiwan has also warned the airline which flies dozens of international routes including to and from the United States and owns at least 30 wide-bodied airliners to enforce Taiwanese aviation law . Tests show that drinking may have been a contributing factor in the latest crash , April 26 at Nagoya Airport in Japan , in which 264 people were killed and seven survived . The Japan Times , in Tuesday 's editions , said the head of the National Public Safety Commission has confirmed widespre ad reports that both pilots had been drinking . Commission chairman Hajima Ishii said tests showed the pilot had a blood alcohol content of .013 and the copilot , who was flying the wide-body Airbus A300-622R , .055 . If the crew did all th eir drinking on the ground before the more than three-hour flight , the copilot would have had a blood alcohol content nearing 0.1 , considered legally drunk in many countries . A preliminary report on the accident by the government of Fran ce , where the Airbus is manufactured , said the crew lost control of the airpla ne on the landing approach as the copilot attempted to descend by pushing forwar d on the control yoke , apparently unaware that he was in effect fighting the au topilot . The plane stalled twice and fell . This was the most serious of a numb er of China Airlines incidents , including the crash landing of a Boeing 747-400 in Hong Kong and an in-flight incident involving the autopilot on another 747 . `` That seems to be a number ( of incidents ) higher than one would expect from an airline this size , '' Broderick said in an interview . Broderick said the a irline seems to be taking the problem seriously , but the FAA wants to be `` hel pful '' because many Americans fly the airline and its jets fly in U.S. airspace . The FAA move is part of a growing tendency to become directly involved in wor ld aviation matters . The agency has opened new offices in several Asian countri es , and is actively involved in helping Russia deal with its mounting aviation problems . `` We place a fairly high priority on that , '' Broderick said . Alth ough the agency usually speaks softly , its suggestions carry weight because it could ban any carrier from landing in the United States on safety grounds . Coun tries often ask for U.S. help with aviation safety from the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board . China , for example , recently requested U.S. adv ice after its newly independent regional airlines developed major safety problem s . JERUSALEM Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin told a parliamentary panel Tuesd ay that he was disappointed with recent contacts between Israel and Syria and th at the United States ' effort at mediation through Secretary of State Warren Chr istopher has `` exhausted itself . '' Rabin , reiterating Israel 's offer for a phased withdrawal from the Golan Heights , which Israel captured from Syria in t he 1967 Middle East war , complained that Damascus is `` playing for time , '' a nd added , `` We can't say right now that Syria is serious about peace . '' Rabi n 's comments to the closed-door meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Comm ittee were relayed to reporters by an official . They follow a recent visit to t he region by Christopher , who carried messages back and forth between Damascus and Jerusalem and said the two sides had begun a new phase of substantive negoti ations . However , Rabin has pressed for direct , secret talks with Syria , whic h President Hafez Assad has firmly rejected . Rabin has also pressed for a phase d withdrawal in which Israel would exchange some land for a series of normalizat ion steps from Syria . But Assad has insisted on a total withdrawal in exchange for peace . Rabin said that so far Syria has not agreed to return to the peace t alks in Washington , which were interrupted after the massacre in Hebron on Feb. 25 of 29 Muslims by a Jewish settler . But he said he did not think much was be ing accomplished there . `` The Washington talks are an exercise in treading wat er , '' he said . While Israel would like Christopher to be involved , Rabin sai d , `` in fact Washington has exhausted itself '' with the shuttle missions . Ra bin 's comments seemed to run counter to statements from the Clinton administrat ion suggesting that Christopher was making progress . On Friday , the Los Angele s Times quoted President Clinton as saying in an interview that `` we 've got de licate negotiations in the Middle East right now '' and `` the secretary of stat e is involved and . . . the last thing in the world I need to be doing is consid ering changing my team . '' Privately , Israeli officials have faulted Christoph er for what they describe as episodic involvement in the Israeli-Syrian negotiat ions . Some officials would like to see a greater American involvement , althoug h Rabin has made clear he wants to get the Gaza-Jericho agreement with the Pales tinians implemented before pressing ahead with territorial concessions on the Go lan Heights . Rabin was asked about a comment made by Egyptian President Hosni M ubarak to American newspaper editors this week . Mubarak reportedly said Rabin h ad told him Israel `` doesn't intend on keeping one centimeter of the territory which was occupied from Syria in 1967 but is demanding in exchange from Syria fu ll peace with all its components . '' Rabin said there was `` no way '' he had s aid this , and he reiterated his proposals for a phased pullout , saying the fir st stage would not involve removing any Jewish settlements . MOSCOW A delegation of U.S. senators on Tuesday sought to defuse anti-American sentiment by proposing that joint military exercises , which were to be conducte d in Russia , take place instead on American soil . The United States and Russia agreed to the maneuvers in September , with both governments categorizing the e xercise as a dry run for possible future peacekeeping operations . The drill was to take place in July at the Totsk testing ground in the Ural Mountains . Its s ignificance was to be more symbolic than military , as the entire operation was to involve only 250 soldiers from each side , no heavy equipment and no live fir e . Still , communists and nationalists here seized on the notion of `` Yankee ' ' soldiers on Russian territory as further evidence of what they see as a contin ued attempt by the United States to impose its will on a weakened Russia . `` Ru ssia cannot be made a training ground for the American Army , '' lawmaker Pyotr P. Shirshov , an army officer from Bryansk , said in a heated debate last month . Faced with stiff opposition in Parliament and in the Urals , the Russian gover nment on Friday quietly asked the United States to postpone the exercises . On S unday , a bipartisan delegation from the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee ar rived to learn that the maneuvers , meant to showcase the new cooperation betwee n the old adversaries , had instead fallen victim to resurgent Russian nationali sm . Some conservative Russians interpreted the American push for the exercises as , ` ` ` We won the Cold War and now we 're going to show you our stuff ' whic h is not at all what it was meant to be , '' said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison , R- Texas . Given the `` sensitivity '' of the issue , Armed Services Committee Chai rman Sen. Sam Nunn , D.-Ga. , said the seven senators visiting here will recomme nd to President Clinton and Defense Secretary William J. Perry that the planned U.S.-Russian maneuvers be held in the United States . Nunn suggested that the Na tional Training Center at Fort Irwin , Calif. or several bases in his home state of Georgia might be just right for the job . Hutchison said she is sure Texas w ould be pleased to host the exercises . Russian politicians welcomed the America n proposal . `` All these hysterics about the exercises in the Totsk firing rang e are simply comical , '' said liberal economist Yegor T. Gaidar , complaining t hat hard-liners have told people that American troops would use the opportunity to seize Moscow . `` Nevertheless , the opposition managed to use this as a pret ext for violent anti-Western propaganda . '' Ironically , the United States and Russia first agreed to hold the maneuvers in Germany . But officials had neglect ed to consult the German government , which nixed the idea . Next , the United S tates proposed hosting the exercises , but Russia balked at their $ 2 million co st . ( Optional Add End ) Sergei N . Yushenkov , chairman of the Defense Committ ee of the Duma , or lower house of the Russian parliament , said the maneuvers ' cost could still be a problem . And he said that members of the far-right party , led by Vladimir V. Zhirinovsky who had at first insisted that the exercises n ot be held in Russia were already finding new excuses Tuesday to oppose holding them in America . Zhirinovsky supporters have formed an alliance with other nati onalists , Communists and conservative Agrarian lawmakers . They often command a majority in the Duma . `` They do not want equal partnership ( with the West ) and they are not really interested in promoting a stable , firm and reliable int ernational security system , '' Yushenkov said of the hard-line opposition . High grades go to two segments from Wednesday night 's latest news-magazine pre miere , CBS News ' `` America Tonight , '' anchored by Deborah Norville and Dana King . One is Norville 's on-scene report of a commando raid by a mother to ret rieve her American-born son from a Tunisian father who kidnapped the child to Tu nisia . The other is Bob McKeown 's frightening look at how unconscionable mail- order munitions dealers sell lethal arms to anybody whose check is good . Not av ailable for preview : a commentary by Susan Estrich on date rape , stories by Pe ter Van Sant on the Filene 's Basement annual bridal gown sale in Boston and by Bill Geist on the `` fingernail industry . '' `` America Tonight 's '' big mista ke is a planned weekly , unscientific telephone `` poll '' ( the 900-number call s cost 50 cents each ) that CBS News President Joe Peyronnin Tuesday defended as a way to `` empower '' audiences to be part of the show . -0- Peter Jennings ' excellent blending of the military 's D-Day decisions and tactics with survivors ' personal recollections airs as a 90-minute `` Turning Point at Normandy : The Soldiers ' Story '' on ABC Wednesday night. .. . At a special time Wednesday , NBC 's `` Now With Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric '' has an emotional reunion of tw o vets who had not seen each other for 50 years after having become friends duri ng battle in World War II . -0- Dan Rather 's `` 48 Hours '' Wednesday night giv es us a spirited overview of Scotland Yard , with its tradition of the unarmed b obby appearing to be on the wane as violence increasingly overtakes British soci ety . Among the segments is one about how British royalty simply refuse to have strict security that will keep its members from being close to the people . -0- So much of the original programming on cable 's Comedy Central isn't funny . Suc h as Wednesday night 's five-minute `` Briefs Encounter : Jones v. Clinton , '' a dramatization from `` Comedy Central News '' of the sexual-harassment complain t by Paula Jones against President Clinton . The complaint is read verbatim by c ivil right attorney William Kunstler , who , whatever his other qualities , has never shown himself on TV as a barrel of laughs . The segment is part of the cha nnel 's special `` Battle of the Sexes '' edition of the `` Short Attention Span Theater . '' WASHINGTON An institution already bruised from a succession of scandals got ano ther black eye Tuesday with the indictment of Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , a nd Republicans got a campaign issue for this year 's midterm elections . The 17- count indictment against the powerful Chicago Democrat embodies the contempt man y Americans long have made against Congress , that its members enjoy perks and p rivleges not available to ordinary citizens and have used their positions for pe rsonal enrichment rather than the public good . Rostenkowski proclaimed his inno cence and vowed to fight the charges . But many Americans already have found the Congress guilty , and the case outlined by U.S. attorney Eric Holder Tuesday li kely will feed public cynicism regardless of how the legal battle turns out . `` People are going to sit back and watch this trial and say , `` I always thought that politicians used public office for private gain and now I know it 's true , ' ' ' said Democratic pollster Mark Mellman . `` If you multiplied the $ 600,0 00 allegedly embezzled ( by Rostenkowski ) by 435 members of Congress , you woul d get an idea of how big this is in the eyes of the taxpayers , '' said Rep. Ern est J. Istook Jr. , R-Okla. , who won his seat two years ago by defeating a scan dal-ridden Republican in the primary . `` Rightly or wrongly , it gives fuel to people who believe that everybody in Congress is a crook . '' That cynicism has put incumbents on the defensive , spawned the term limits movement in America an d helped to give rise to Ross Perot and his followers . Even before Tuesday 's i ndictment , incumbents were nervous about the voters ' mood this year . The assa ult on Congress 's image has come in many forms over the past five years : the s candals over the House bank and post office ; the resignation under a cloud by f ormer speaker James C. Wright , D-Texas ; a stream of television reports on the junkets and goodies enjoyed by those in office . Polls continue to show an overw helmingly negative view of Congress as an institution . Four in five voters say members of Congress quickly lose touch with people back home and three in five d isapprove of the job Congress does . The fallout of declining public confidence in Congress and of demands for ever-stricter ethics laws and tigher regulations on public behavior also have led to a record number of resignations by House inc umbents over the past two election cycles , and Republicans signaled Tuesday the y would try to make Rostenkowski part of their arsenal of attack against Democra ts this fall . `` It 's more than an indictment of a man , it 's an indictment o f a system of political boss control of Congress for 40 years , '' said Rep . Bi ll Paxon , R-N.Y. , chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee . `` Nothing 's going to change in Congress until the public changes the party i n control . '' Paxon said Rostenskowski `` absolutely '' will be an issue in the fall campaigns . `` It already is a key part of the fall message , '' he said . But freshman Rep. Peter Deutsch , D-Fla. , a former state legislator , said tha t voters are not likely to hold any one party responsible for political corrupti on when members from both parties have had their problems . `` This fall , I thi nk the attitude will be `` a plague on both your houses , '' ' said Deutsch . `` This indictment is a personal tragedy for Rostenkowski and it 's not good for A mericans to have this kind of cynicism ( about their government ) . But just as I think the impact of the indictment on health care reform will be zero , the im pact on other races around the country will also be zero . '' But the indictment put Democratic leaders in a particularly difficult position because of their co nflicting desires to show loyalty to a man who is both enormously powerful and h ighly popular on Capitol Hill and to protect the image of the institution . Hous e Speaker Thomas S. Foley , D-Wash. , and House Majority Leader Richard A . Geph ardt , D-Mo. , issued cautious statements underscoring their respect for the Hou se Ways and Means Committee chairman and reminding the public that he is innocen t until proven guilty . But their statements were more telling for their brevity , as if the less they said the less likely the public would try to connect Rost enkowski to other Democrats . Other Democrats tried to show sympathy for Rostenk owski : `` It hurts in the legislative sense and it hurts in the personal sense , '' said Rep. Charles Schumer , D-N.Y. . `` This is not just an ordinary member getting into trouble , but one who was very respected . '' But privately some D emocrats were gloomy about the fallout and candid about the demoralizing effect of the indictment . `` Everyone 's going to run away from him like crazy , '' on e House Democrat said . `` This is a no-winner . '' Gephardt tried to draw a par allel with the indictment of Rep. Joseph McDade , R-Pa. , as evidence that the R ostenkowski damage will be limited . `` The ( Republican ) minority has had a ra nking member of the Appropriations Committee under indictment and it hasn't impa ired their ability to say anything , '' Gephardt said . But Frank Luntz , who po lls for Republicans , said the indictment itself will `` allow Republicans to po int the finger at another major Democrat '' and make it easier for Republicans t o make `` the case for change '' this fall . With more incumbents running for re election , Democrats may pay a higher price for the perceived sins of the instit ution , but even some Republicans acknowledged that the public may not make much a distinction between the two parties . `` As a Republican , I don't take any j oy in this because I think it will reflect badly on the whole institution , '' s aid freshman Rep. Michael Castle , R-Del . `` My impression is that Congress 's image had begun to improve in the last year or so , and then this happens .. . . This reflects on everybody to some degree . '' ROME Launching a nostalgic pilgrimage to salute the World War II victory over f ascism , President Clinton flies Wednesday into a swirling , bitter European con troversy with echoes from those desperate days half a century ago : Are the poli tical heirs of Benito Mussolini trustworthy partners in a new Italian government ? Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi , a billionaire businessman on the defensive over the inclusion of neo-fascists in his two-week-old government , pledged ane w on Tuesday that there was no threat to democracy . In a 50-minute meeting , Be rlusconi reassured a delegation from the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles that he would support their call for the extradition from Argentina of Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke . `` Berlusconi said he was personally committed to see P riebke brought to trial in Rome , '' said Rabbi Abraham Cooper , associate dean of the center who headed the delegation . `` I spoke directly about concerns ove r neo-fascists in government , and I was very satisfied with Berlusconi 's respo nses . '' Clinton arrives around midnight for his first visit to Rome , a planne d-to-the-minute extravaganza that will include talks Thursday with Berlusconi an d a meeting with Pope John Paul II . On Friday , the president delivers a major address at the American military cemetery in Nettuno , south of Rome . Clinton w ill honor soldiers who died in fighting after the 1944 amphibious landing at Anz io , one of the savage battles that marked the beginning of the end of World War II . On Saturday , the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Rome , Clinton fli es to England , and continues to France for D-Day ceremonies on Normandy beaches Monday . In assaying the new-look government of one of its closest allies , the United States has proved more sanguine about the five neo-fascist members of Be rlusconi 's Cabinet than Italy 's partners in the European Union . `` Berlusconi has been elected . Let 's see if he knows how to do his job . Let 's give him a chance and support him , '' Clinton told Italian reporters in Washington in an interview televised over the weekend . The 57-year-old self-made tycoon , one of Europe 's richest men , entered politics in January , led a right-wing electora l alliance to victory in March and won confirmation by Parliament in mid-May . S ince then , however , Berlusconi has been repeatedly rebuffed by European partne rs for the neo-fascist elements in his coalition , and discomfited by allies at home in his efforts to effectively launch Italy 's first right-wing government s ince the war . On Tuesday , in the latest of a long line of incidents , Socialis t Party members of the European Parliament asked conservative colleagues to help bar neo-fascists from joining the assembly after European elections later this month . Returned to office after more than four decades as pariahs on the extrem e right-wing of the many-splendored Italian political universe , extremists amon g the neo-fascists are in full cry to the embarrassment of Berlusconi and Nation al Alliance leader Gianfranco Fini . `` The National Alliance condemns any total itarianism and certainly does not propose a model for a totalitarian or despotic state , '' Fini told Italian state radio over the weekend . ( Optional add end ) Fini , a slick , 42-year-old professional politician , has made neo-fascism po litically acceptable . But he also triggered a storm after the election by decla ring that Mussolini was the century 's greatest statesman . He says he was quote d out of context . Many of Berlusconi 's ministers are more technocrat than poli tician , and in the economic and international arenas they are well-respected . Foreign Minister Antonio Martino , a university professor , won high marks on co nfidence-building visits to Washington and Brussels . `` I 'm sure there will be no difficulty in collaboration between Britain and Italy , '' said British Fore ign Secretary Douglas Hurd after meeting Martino in Brussels . French Foreign Mi nister Alain Juppe observed : `` I have no reason to worry , but all that will b e judged by actions . '' Berlusconi who promises a jobs-producing , more efficie nt government that is based on free-market economics and is able to pay its bill s asks to be evaluated `` on the basis of facts and not on prejudices . '' That was an appeal he made again Tuesday in conversation with the Wiesenthal Center d elegation , which has been pressing for vigorous Italian action to bring Priebke to trial . The former SS captain has confessed to being second in command of Ge rman soldiers who executed 335 Italian civilians , about 75 of them Jews , at th e Ardeatine Caves south of Rome in 1944 . The Wiesenthal delegation gave Berlusc oni and Justice Minister Alfredo Biondi a bulky dossier on Priebke , including a 1946 confession in which he says he shot at least two people at the caves , Coo per said . `` Berlusconi told us that four days ago that Italy officially reques ted of Argentina that Priebke , who is under house arrest , does not flee , '' t he rabbi said . `` When we talked about concerns about fascism , the prime minis ter assured us that his ministers harbor no feelings and no links to the past . The justice minister said he personally would not serve in any government with a ny minister who believed in fascism . `` We heard what we hoped we 'd hear , '' Cooper said . WASHINGTON There are mounting signs that the buying spree American consumers be gan at the end of 1991 may be over , signaling that the economy likely will expa nd more slowly in coming months than it did during the burst of growth at the en d of last year . From the last three months of 1991 through the first three mont hs of this year , consumers increased their purchases of goods and services so s ignificantly up 8.5 percent after adjustment for inflation that their spending w as the driving force that lifted the economy out of its post-recession doldrums . Many analysts are welcoming the prospect of slower growth since it would head off any danger of the economy overheating and triggering a surge of inflation . The latest sign of cooling came Tuesday when the Commerce Department reported th at consumer spending fell in April an inflation-adjusted 0.4 percent the first m onthly drop since the end of the 1990-91 recession , except for a dip caused by a massive storm in March 1993 . In addition , a number of analysts said sources at department stores and auto dealers have indicated sales remained flat or perh aps even fell last month . Meanwhile , the Conference Board , a New York-based b usiness research group , said its monthly survey of consumer attitudes found tha t households were slightly less confident about their current economic circumsta nces in May , and how they expect the economy to look six months from now . The confidence index dipped from 92.1 in April to 87.6 last month . Robert Diederick , chief economist at Northern Trust Co. in Chicago , said an array of economic figures , including those released Tuesday , is pointing toward slower overall e conomic growth for the coming year . He noted that since the middle of last year , real consumer spending had been rising at about a 4.5 percent annual rate , a string of gains that he said `` clearly were unsustainable . '' `` While the em ployment gains have been nice recently , '' he said , other factors have not bee n so favorable for consumer pocketbooks a sharp decline in the mortgage refinanc ings that usually give households extra cash to spend , a low saving rate , last year 's income-tax increase for high-income individuals and overall gains in pe rsonal income which `` has not been rising rapidly . '' Diederick said some of t hese factors are only temporary . `` The employment gains , and the output gains , will slow after this quarter , '' with the inflation-adjusted gross domestic product increasing at a 2.5 percent to 3 percent rate , he predicted . Indeed , the Commerce Department said Tuesday that personal incomes rose in April by a mo derate 0.4 percent , leaving them 5.4 percent higher than they were a year earli er . Personal incomes rose 0.6 percent in March and 1.8 percent in February , wh en they rebounded from a January decline due to severe winter weather in the Eas t and an earthquake in Los Angeles . New homes sales ran at an annual rate of 68 3,000 in April compared with 733,000 in March , the Commerce Department reported . The April rate except for a January figure depressed by the weather was the s lowest since August . `` Housing will make a positive contribution to second-qua rter growth , merely because the weather hurt construction activity in the first quarter , '' said F. Ward McCarthy of Stone & McCarthy , a Princeton , N.J. , f inancial-markets research firm . `` But beyond the second quarter , housing shou ld be neutral or even a slight drag '' on economic growth . McCarthy 's colleagu e , Ray Stone , said the April consumer spending figures were only slightly high er than their average for the first three months of the year , implying that for the second quarter household purchases probably will be up at an annual rate of about 1.5 percent to 2 percent , following the much larger 4.6 percent rate in the first quarter . Since consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of the gross domestic product , such a small increase in the three months from April t hrough June `` means it will be difficult to get a GDP ( growth ) number much ab ove 3 percent , compared to some forecasts in the 5 percent to 6 percent range , '' Stone said . Fabian Linden , executive director of the Conference Board 's C onsumer Research Center , said that `` although confidence retreated in May , th e current reading continues to be at a fairly reassuring level . Consumers , on balance , remain fairly confident . '' However , somewhat fewer respondents desc ribed business conditions as `` good '' and a few more said they were `` bad '' than the month before . Also , a third of the respondents said jobs are `` hard to get , '' more than had done so in April . Less than half that number said job s are `` plentiful . '' WASHINGTON A family of tourists got quite a shock early Tuesday morning when Pr esident Clinton jogged by on Pennsylvania Avenue and then stopped dead in his tr acks to have his photo snapped with them . At least one cynic nearby , however , wasn't too impressed . When a cameraman trailing the First Jogger yelled , `` W hat more could you ask for ? '' a voice shot back , `` George Bush . '' The pass erby in question did at least have the good form to wait till the prez was out o f earshot . -0- Patti Davis , who 's lately taught us the real meaning of exhibi tionism , never ceases to find new ways to tweak her parents . Now comes her tho ughtful decision to become the next poster girl for People for the Ethical Treat ment of Animals , which should allow all of Ronald Reagan 's old political pals to see her naked body , alongside Hugh Hefner 's dog , plastered in ads all over town . It 's part of PETA 's campaign that it 's better to `` go naked than wea r fur , '' and we 're confident the group will be very aggressive in distributin g the posters . Davis has also decided to donate half of the hefty fee she recei ved for posing naked in the July Playboyto the animal rights group . This is the same group , we remind , that used to dog her mother , Nancy Reagan , from even t to event for wearing mink . PETA even ran an ad about a decade ago featuring c omedian Terry Sweeney dressed up as the former First Lady in a fur with a captio n that shouted , `` Fake people wear real fur . '' This should really cement the family relationship . -0- We 've heard that .. . The American Civil Liberties U nion has weighed in on the side of Warner Bros. in the movie company 's push-pul l with the Consumer Product Safety Commission over Macaulay Culkin 's driving of a controversial all-terrain vehicle in the upcoming flick `` Richie Rich . '' T he ACLU claims that Warner is `` entirely insulated from interference '' by the regulatory agency under its First Amendment right of free speech. .. . Chris Buc kley 's latest novel , `` Thank You for Not Smoking , '' fortuitously heads to b ookstores just as a new round of tobacco controversies are making headlines . To celebrate this spoof on lobbyists for the tobacco industry , a rather eclectic group , including G. Gordon Liddy ( non-smoker ) , Greek gossip columnist Taki ( smoker ) , Marlin Fitzwater ( occasional cigar ) , Art Buchwald ( cigar ) and R andom House Publisher Harry Evans ( non-smoker ) , throws Buckley a party here n ext week . ( Note to guests : Bring a gas mask . We 're told smoke machines will billow the stuff out of some Ritz-Carlton Hotel windows as a bit of a joke . ) WASHINGTON Sen. John W. Warner , R-Va. , said he will actively support an indep endent Senate bid by fellow Republican J. Marshall Coleman if Oliver L. North wi ns the GOP nomination Saturday , and he may even renounce the party by seeking r e-election in 1996 as an independent . Virginia 's senior senator said he has be en encouraging Coleman , a former state attorney general , to mount an independe nt campaign because he finds North unfit to hold public office . And although Wa rner has made no final decision , he said he will not allow the conservatives wh o support North to prevent him from running again in two years . `` I will find a way of getting my name in front of the voters of Virginia , '' he said . `` I hope to do it through the party structure . But a small , tiny group is not goin g to stop me . '' Warner , the highest-ranking elected Republican in Virginia , will not attend the party convention in Richmond this weekend ; he will be 4,000 miles away on the beaches of Normandy , participating in ceremonies commemorati ng the 50th anniversary of D-Day . He said one Republican activist recently joke d to him : `` You 're going where the shooting has stopped . '' Warner 's blunt remarks are the clearest sign yet that the ideological schism caused by North 's candidacy likely will widen in coming months . The prospect of a Warner defecti on in two years could shatter the party unity fostered by Republican Gov. George Allen 's unexpected victory last fall and throw Republicans into an internecine war . There also is evidence that Warner commands a much stronger political pos ition than the hail of criticism directed at him in recent weeks would suggest . Although GOP conservatives are furious with him for disparaging North , senior Republicans and Democrats say Warner 's popularity with the general public has s oared because of his stand . According to political strategists , numerous priva te polls show that most voters consider his statements gutsy . Warner 's current approval ratings are the highest of any elected official in Virginia . The thre e-term incumbent certainly doesn't sound worried . In remarks sure to rile North supporters , Warner said a North victory could turn this weekend 's meeting int o a repeat of the party 's 1992 national convention , with its stridently conser vative tone . `` I 'm deeply concerned , '' Warner said . `` I hope this convent ion will not be compared to that which nominated George Bush in Houston . Histor ians point to the Houston convention as the beginning of the road to his loss . '' Political analysts said that even though Coleman has lost two statewide races since he was elected attorney general in 1977 , an energetic effort by Warner c ould help make him a serious contender . `` John Warner has the ability to trans fer some of his popularity to a centrist Republican candidate like Marshall Cole man , '' said Mark J. Rozell , a political scientist at Mary Washington College . `` There are a good many Republicans who are disgruntled with Oliver North. . . . North has a strong base , but his major problem is broadening that base . He needs the support of moderates , and Marshall Coleman would cut into that . '' The potential for a donnybrook began building four months ago , when Warner beca me the first senior GOP official to publicly criticize North . On the day North formally declared his candidacy , Warner gave a round of scathing interviews in which he questioned North 's fitness for the job . `` What is the sign the Virgi nia Republican Party sends , '' Warner asked , `` when the only person it can fi nd is someone with ( North 's ) record ? '' Several weeks later , when former pr esident Ronald Reagan released a letter criticizing North , Warner played a key role in disseminating it . Finally , Warner said he could not actively support N orth under any circumstances . WASHINGTON For the first time since the dawn of the nuclear age , the world 's two superpowers are no longer in each other 's sights . The Defense Department a nnounced Tuesday that it had `` detargeted '' all U.S. strategic missiles , matc hing a similar move by the Russians and taking global nuclear war off hair-trigg er readiness . It added that the British had also detargeted their nuclear weapo ns as part of the international effort to step back from nuclear confrontation . Strategic targets in the former Soviet Union and its satellite states had been programmed into the United States ' 1,400 strategic nuclear delivery systems . W ith the Kremlin locking its intercontinental missiles onto key targets in the Un ited States , the policy that helped keep the peace for decades became known as MAD mutual assured destruction . The Pentagon said Tuesday that 50 10-warhead Pe acekeeper missiles , which have a range of 6,000 miles and form the core of the U.S. land-based nuclear strike force , were no longer programmed with targeting information . The programmed targeting of the Trident missiles on 18 Ohio-class submarines , which carry 24 missiles each , was also erased . The computers on 5 00 older Minuteman IIIs , housed in silos in North Dakota and Wyoming , require constant targeting programs . They have now been targeted to fall into the sea . `` Detargeting is an important symbolic point , '' said Kathleen de Laski , a P entagon spokeswoman . `` It emphasizes the strengthening partnership between the U.S. and Russia , a significant milestone which indicates we are no longer nucl ear adversaries . '' But she stressed that the weapons could be retargeted quick ly to hit military , political and urban centers , so that neither the United St ates nor Russia is at `` a significant disadvantage . '' ( Optional Add End ) Co nservative hawks are concerned that the administration might retreat from the la nd- , sea- and air-based nuclear forces that have been the basis of U.S. deterre nce for decades . Baker Spring , a nuclear-force expert with the conservative He ritage Foundation , said : `` What worries me a little bit is whether the overal l ( nuclear ) force will be in a ready enough state to retain a retaliatory capa bility in the most extreme circumstance a bolt out of the blue , presumably from Russia . `` The question is , in an unexpected crisis , is the load-up time ( f or retargeting the missiles ) still long enough that it reflects retaliatory cap abilities . Ultimately , the targeting should be done so that the United States has the best chance possible .. . of reducing to an absolute minimum the amount of damage that would be done to this country , in the event deterrence fails . ' ' The U.S.-Russian agreement to detarget the weapons of mass destruction was sig ned by President Clinton and President Boris N . Yeltsin at their summit in Janu ary . They set a deadline of May 30 for completion of the operation . WASHINGTON The Clinton administration decided Tuesday that North Korea is likel y to continue to bar required international inspections at its principal nuclear reactor , and senior U.S. officials began detailed planning to seek punitive ec onomic sanctions against the communist nation . In a telex to North Korea Tuesda y night , the International Atomic Energy Agency ( IAEA ) made a last-ditch appe al for the country to halt its withdrawal of fuel rods from the nuclear reactor , or to follow acceptable procedures for storing the rods under international su pervision . But at the IAEA 's headquarters in Vienna-as well as at the Defense Department , State Department and White House-there was uniform pessimism that N orth Korea would accept the appeal . That consensus contrasts with a longstandin g disagreement among U.S. officials over whether North Korea has simply been res isting inspection as a negotiating ploy in hope of gaining concessions from the United States . In light of the new agreement within the administration , offici als said they expected the United States would have to submit a proposal for san ctions to the U.N. . Security Council . Washington has threatened such a respons e if North Korea ruins any chance to measure the radioactive content of the fuel rods , a measurement considered critical to determining how much plutonium the country may have accumulated for nuclear weapons . The CIA has concluded that No rth Korea may have a nuclear bomb now , and suspects it is trying to develop mor e . The U.S. position has hardened in response to North Korea 's acceleration in recent days of unsupervised withdrawal of the nuclear fuel rods . A group of se nior administration officials , including Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Defense Secretary William J. Perry , met Tuesday at the White House to discu ss North Korea 's action and prepare for formal diplomatic consultations about s anctions , officials said . `` We 're very concerned about the situation . We 'r e following it closely , '' White House spokeswoman Dee Dee Myers said . `` The ( sanctions ) issue is on the front burner , '' an official familiar with the Wh ite House meeting said . Although U.S. officials said they did not see any signs of unusual North Korean military activity , South Korean president Kim Young Sa m responded to heightened tension over the inspection issue by placing the count ry 's military forces on a higher level of alert . Kim also telephoned President Clinton to offer his assurances that South Korea supports the U.S. position on the inspections . Clinton told Kim the situation has reached `` a very dangerous stage , '' a spokesman for Kim told reporters in Seoul . Pentagon spokeswoman K athleen DeLaski said `` we are not pleased with the actions of the North Koreans over the past 48 hours . '' She said that while the military has `` shortened t he time '' needed to reinforce the 37,000 U.S. troops in South Korea , the Unite d States has not begun moving additional troops or helicopters to the country in anticipation of any conflict there . CHICAGO Dan Rostenkowski grew up in a political world far different from Washin gton of the 1990s with its independent counsels and ethics codes . It was this k ind of world : In 1963 , when Rostenkowski was 35 and in his third term in Congr ess , a judge here ordered him to stop using local Democratic Party funds to pay his constituents ' parking tickets . Rostenkowski thought he was providing a se rvice that also was `` good politics . '' During the two-year investigation that culminated in Rostenkowski 's indictment Tuesday , his friends often recalled t hat distant and colorful world of ward bosses and old-style politics to try to e xplain what was happening to the 66-year-old House Ways and Means Committee chai rman . The rules of politics had changed over the years , they said , but stubbo rn , proud `` Rosty '' was slow to adapt . What was once acceptable in the ward organizations of Chicago and the backrooms of Congress could now get a guy in tr ouble . After the lengthy investigation and days of intense speculation about a possible plea bargain , Tuesday 's announcement of the 17-count indictment was g reeted here with almost a sense of relief . Leading politicians had little to sa y except for expressions of sadness and muted loyalty to their old friend . But few here expressed surprise over Rostenkowski 's decision to reject a plea barga in and fight the charges in court . `` The spectacle of him cutting some sort of deal and slinking off was not in keeping with people 's image of him or Chicago , '' said political consultant David Axelrod , who worked for Rostenkowski in h is last two campaigns . Indeed , Rostenkowski seems to personify Chicago 's self -image big , broad-shouldered and gruff on the outside , someone who got things done . At a restaurant in Rostenkowski 's district Tuesday afternoon , owner Cha rles Schulien called the indicted congressman `` a heavyweight . '' `` When you find somebody who can get the God-damned job done , they want to nail him , '' h e said . `` I just hate to see it . '' To his critics here , however , Rostenkow ski has always personified a less-savory aspect of the Chicago political traditi on . His indictment , they said , resulted from `` the habits of a lifetime '' t hat began when he entered politics in the 1950s . `` He operated for much of his career as a Chicago ward heeler , '' said Don Rose , a veteran of the political -reform movement that has battled the regular Democratic organization for genera tions. ` ` .. . It 's almost like they don't know the difference between right a nd wrong . '' `` There is no question he is of another era in which politicians went out and tried to accomplish things and didn't spend countless hours poring over poll data to decide which tie to wear that day , '' Axelrod said . `` The p olitics he grew up with were much more focused on results rather than appearance s . '' Rostenkowski has never cared much about appearances . The quality he has always valued most and prided himself on is loyalty to his family , which he shi elded from the glare of publicity ; to his city , which he showered with federal largesse from his powerful congressional post ; and to his party , which expect ed his loyalty and rewarded him in return . It is how he learned the game of pol itics in his hometown . Rostenkowksi 's father , Joe , was for three decades the undisputed boss of Chicago 's 32nd Ward . There he was the alderman and Democra tic ward committeeman , which gave him control of the ward 's patronage . Known as Big Joe Rusty , the elder Rostenkowski in 1952 was accused by the Chicago Dai ly News of having three `` no-show '' employees on his payroll , a charge that m ore than 40 years later would be leveled against his son . Defeated in the 1955 Democratic primary , Big Joe Rusty was rewarded for his loyalty by the city 's n ewly elected mayor , Richard J. Daley , who named him superintendent of sewer re pairs . A few years later , a Daley critic on the City Council said he was `` un able to find any evidence that Rostenkowski does any work for the city . '' In t he 1950s , real political power in cities like Chicago was at the local level . That is where the jobs were , where friends could be rewarded and enemies punish ed . But with a foresight he later demonstrated as Congress 's consumate dealmak er , Rostenkowski , then a state senator , set his sights on Washington . Daley and the other party bosses considered Washington something of a political backwa ter , but Rostenkowski used the Southern example to help persuade them otherwise . Southern Democrats , he argued , dominated the congressional committee system because they were elected to Congress when they were young , rose through the s eniority system and in later years controlled the committees that dispensed mone y and power from the nation 's capital to the states and cities . Why shouldn't we do the same ? Rostenkowski asked . Daley agreed . And so in 1958 , running in an ethnic district that was as politically safe as the most entrenched Southern Democratic barony , Dan Rostenkowski was elected to Congress . For much of his congressional career , Rostenkowski struggled to overcome his `` Chicago ward he eler '' image , finally succeeding when he became House Ways and Means Committee chairman in 1980 . He became a national figure , someone with `` clout , '' a w ord that Chicago contributed to the political lexicon . Rostenkowski funneled mi llions of dollars in federal funds to his hometown , just as he had planned deca des earlier . And as his legal troubles deepened , the city 's political and bus iness establishments rallied to his side , helping him win 50 percent of the vot e in a three-candidate race in the Democratic primary in March . `` It was sell , but not a tough sell , '' Cook County Democratic Party Chairman Thomas G. Lyon s said of that campaign . `` All you had to do was remind voters of what this gu y has meant . '' Rostenkowski 's Republican opponent in November , Michael Flana gan , is a political unknown who is still given little chance of defeating the i ndicted incumbent in the overwhelmingly Democratic district . Even his severest critics recognize Rostenkowski 's legislative ability and his importance to this city . `` He 's one of those tragic figures , '' Rose said . `` This is a guy w ho has qualities . This is a man of value . It 's almost Aristotelian the tragic flaw . '' LONDON The British political scene was buzzing Tuesday with its latest scandal and its bewildering batch of elements . Alan Clark , the 66-year-old patrician w ho once was a favored member of Lady Thatcher 's government , was accused of hav ing overlapping affairs with the wife of a British judge and her two daughters . Clark the son of Lord Clark , who was ennobled in his role as the art historian who created the television series `` Civilization '' saw his own hopes of resum ing his political career in the House of Lords dashed Tuesday because of the dis closures . In his best-selling `` Diaries '' last year , the younger Clark produ ced fascinating insights into the workings of ministers in a Conservative govern ment , while at the same time admitting to a career of pursuing women outside hi s marriage . His book included allusions to a `` coven , '' an assembly of witch es , among his women friends . He gave the first names or nicknames of three : t he mother Valerie , and her two daughters , Alison and Josephine . It has now be en disclosed that Valerie was married for a second time to an English judge , Ja mes Harkess . After retirement , he moved to South Africa . One of her daughters , Josephine , now 34 , remains close to them in South Africa . The other daught er , Alison , 36 , is estranged and lives with former KGB agent Sergei Kausov . He is the former husband of Greek shipping heiress Christina Onassis , who died in 1988 . On Sunday , the top-selling tabloid , News of the World , owned by Rup ert Murdoch , published a story by the women admitting to the affairs with Clark ; the judge said he supported the allegations . The reason they spoke out , the y said , was to `` tell the truth , to set the record straight . '' `` I feel th at certain people in the present government and the recent government are rotten to the core , '' said Harkess , `` and I think this should be brought out . '' Harkess was reported to be politically opposed to Prime Minister John Major , a moderate Conservative by Harkess ' standards . Mrs. Harkess said she realized , after her 14-year-affair with Clark , including a period when she knew her lover had had sex with her daughters , that he was a `` pathetic , lecherous , dirty old man . '' ( Optional Add End ) After the Harkess family landed in London Tues day , bankrolled by the News of the World , Clark admitted : `` I deserved to be horse whipped . '' But he denied allegations by the Harkesses that he had offer ed the family $ 150,000 to keep them from taking their story to the newspapers . Meanwhile , Jane Clark , the millionaire 's wife , whom he married when she was just 17 , told reporters she knew of her husband 's peccadilloes , declaring : `` Quite frankly , if you bed people I call ` below-stairs class ' they go to th e papers , don't they ? '' Mrs. Clark , 52 , has admitted in the past to throwin g an ax at her husband after being informed of his latest escapade . Of her husb and 's girlfriends , she said : `` I think they are dreadful . They all have the ir ` sell-by ' date on them . They all get put away on the shelf in the end . '' WASHINGTON The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a public employer who wants to fire a worker because of alleged insubordinate remarks must first investigate th e episode . It marks the first time the court has given procedural rights under the First Amendment to public employees whose speech may be disruptive . At the same time , the justices reaffirmed the broad power of federal , state and local governments to restrict employees ' speech . The court said a boss can fire a p ublic employee for remarks as they had been overheard and reported by other work ers as long as the boss reasonably believes they constituted insubordinate speec h . It does not matter , Justice Sandra Day O' Connor wrote , if it later emerge s that the worker was commenting on matters of public concern and that the state ments were protected by the First Amendment , provided some investigation occurr ed . `` ( T ) he extra power the government has in this area comes from the natu re of the government 's mission as employer , '' O' Connor said . `` When someon e who is paid a salary so that she will contribute to an agency 's effective ope ration begins to do or say things that detract from the agency 's effective oper ation , the government employer must have some power to restrain her . '' That p art of the ruling was 7 to 2 . Justice John Paul Stevens , joined by Harry A . B lackmun , wrote in a dissent that the majority view `` underestimates the import ance of freedom of speech for the more than 18 million civilian employees of thi s country 's federal , state and local governments , and subordinates that freed om to an abstract interest in bureaucratic efficiency . '' Yet , O' Connor 's op inion does offer government workers more protection than they had before Tuesday 's ruling in Waters v. Churchill. She said a public employer who is presented w ith a report of disruptive remarks `` must tread with a certain amount of care . '' She was not specific about what kind of investigation was required . `` Many different courses of action will necessarily be reasonable , '' she said . That part of the decision was effectively 6 to 3 . Justice Antonin Scalia who otherw ise joined O' Connor 's judgment in the case arising from a nurse 's comments in a Macomb , Ill. , hosptial cafeteria lashed out at the unprecedented requiremen t of an investigation , saying it was ambigious and would burden employers and t he courts . He was joined by Justices Anthony M. Kennedy and Clarence Thomas . O ' Connor 's opinion was signed in full by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices David H. Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg . As the dust settled Tuesday , many legal experts said public workers had fared better than employers . The c ourt already had said public employers may fire workers whose speech is disrupti ve . Yet , this is the first time that the court has said the First Amendment im poses procedural requirements on the employer . Solicitor General Drew S . Days III had argued in a friend of the court brief that the government needs great di scretion over its personnel affairs and that adoption of procedures `` would con flict with the common-sense realization that government offices could not functi on if every employment decision became a constitutional matter . '' The ruling i s likely to especially benefit state and local public workers . Many federal wor kers , according to government lawyers , already are entitled to a disciplinary investigation under various statutes . Tuesday 's case arose from complaints by nurse Cheryl Churchill seven years ago at the McDonough District Hospital and he r subsequent firing . Administrators , who were told by other nurses that Church ill `` was knocking the ( obstetrics ) department , '' claimed Churchill was den igrating the hospital and her superiors . Churchill insisted she was voicing leg itimate concerns about patient care and staff shortages . A federal district cou rt held that neither version of the conversation rose to the level of a `` publi c concern '' and therefore was not protected by the First Amendment . But the U. S. . Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit reversed , ordered a jury trial to det ermine whether Churchill 's comments were merely disruptive griping or a matter of public concern , that is , nursing care . The appeals court ruled that a publ ic employer is liable when it fires an employee who engages in the latter type o f speech , even if the employer , after staff interviews , had believed otherwis e at the time of dismissal . In rejecting that standard , the Supreme Court said Tuesday it is enough that the public employer reasonably investigate the compla int and believe it to be true . While Stevens and Blackmun dissented from O' Con nor 's opinion , they effectively endorsed the principle of an investigation int o complaints about public-employee speech . Scalia , Kennedy and Thomas countere d that employers should be able to fire workers unless the action is in retaliat ion for some constitutionally protected speech . Scalia mocked O' Connor 's appr oach as `` strange jurisprudence indeed , '' conflicting with employers ' legiti mate prerogatives . `` In the present case , for example , if ( it were discover ed ) that nurse Churchill had not been demeaning her superiors , but had been co mplaining about the perennial end-of-season slump of the Chicago Cubs , her dism issal , erroneous as it was , would have been perfectly OK , '' Scalia said . Th e court sent Churchill 's case back to a lower court , saying it should resolve whether she was fired because of her statements in the cafeteria or because of s omething else . It noted that Churchill alleged that management was hostile to h er because of earlier criticism . Fox Inc. 's new general entertainment cable network , fX , will be launched Wed nesday morning at 6:30 with the debut of `` Breakfast Time , '' which , a spokes woman said , will be 2 hours of `` very fast-paced entertainment . '' fX apparen tly is not going to be one of those Fox efforts aimed at the big city young . Sp okeswoman Ellen Cooper said Tuesday that `` fX is definitely seeking adult audie nces , '' the solid 18-to-49 demographic groups . WASHINGTON Rep. Sam Gibbons , D-Fla. , took command Tuesday of a House Ways and Means Committee shaken by the multi-count indictment of its longtime chairman , Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , and immediately ordered the staff to continue working on a health care bill that would expand Medicare to cover millions of un insured Americans . In a phone call from Normandy , where he is attending ceremo nies marking the 50th anniversary of D-Day , Gibbons told committee aides to pre pare a `` chairman 's mark '' or first draft using the subcommittee-approved Med icare expansion bill that so far has failed to win enough Democratic votes to cl ear the full committee . Rostenkowski , who was forced because of his indictment to step aside , also was using that measure as his starting point , but even Wh ite House officials had been uncertain whether Gibbons might have an alternative approach in mind . In the past , Gibbons has supported a single-payer Canadian style system that has been rejected by the administration . Under House Democrat ic caucus rules , the 74-year-old Tampa legislator , who parachuted into France on D-Day , becomes acting chairman of Ways and Means unless 50 Democrats file a petition challenging him . No sign of such a revolt appeared Tuesday and senior Democrats said they expected Gibbons to go unchallenged . Rostenkowski , who rej ected plea bargaining , will remain a member of the committee , but its members said they were uncertain how much influence he will retain . Some spoke of a vir tual division of labor between Gibbons and Rostenkowski while others predicted t he Floridian , who even before Rostenkowski 's indictment publicly expressed his eagerness to take over , will reject any notion of power-sharing . Senior White House aides said Tuesday night they had not talked to Gibbons and were uncertai n of his plans . But in the telephone interview Tuesday , Gibbons said his start ing point for committee deliberations when Congress returns next week will be th e bill drafted by Rep. Fortney `` Pete '' Stark , D-Fla. , and reported from Sta rk 's Ways and Means health subcommittee on a shaky 6-5 vote last month . Commit tee sources and White House aides said Rostenkowski had found himself at least o ne vote short of the necessary 20 votes to move some variant of the Stark bill t o the floor , because at least five of the 24 committee Democrats were refusing to support the big expansion in Medicare rolls . Gibbons said Tuesday that he fa vors requiring employers to help pay for their workers ' health insurance becaus e it would make the system `` fairer . '' These employer mandates have been one of the most controversial parts of President Clinton 's plan . Gibbons said he d id not know how much taxes he might have to raise and what kind of taxes to use because the committee is still waiting for financial projections from the Congre ssional Budget Office . Rostenkowski had said he was facing a $ 50 billion gap , but the White House has balked at imposing any broad taxes . Gibbons , rejectin g the administration argument that an employer mandate differs from a tax , said , `` Ultimately , all those costs come out of the cash pay of the employees . ' ' Gibbons said he does not think the federal government needs to mandate partici pation in alliances , the health care purchasing cooperatives that are central t o Clinton 's health plan . States should be allowed to decide the role of the al liances , as the subcommittee 's version of the bill proposes , he said . In the past , Gibbons has expressed strong skepticism about the cost-saving potential of managed competition , which seeks to control costs through competition among private insurers . The direct cost controls included in the subcommittee bill ma ke him more confident that managed competition would reduce spending on health c are , Gibbons said Tuesday . Gibbons said he favors including coverage of aborti ons `` in all cases '' in the standard package of health benefits that insurers would be required to provide . On that issue , he appears to have changed his th inking since an interview with The Washington Post last September , when he said , `` I do not want to pick up the abortion bills in health care . '' Unlike Ros tenkowski , Gibbons has not had a long or close relationship with Clinton . `` H e calls me Sam , but so do a lot of other people . He recognizes me and calls me Sam , '' Gibbons said last September . `` I don't have any qualms about me bein g able to lead , '' Gibbon said . `` I 've been a leader all my life in the Boy Scouts and ROTC and the army . And I 've been successfully elected for e had so many opponents I can't even name them all or count them all . '' Democrats and R epublicans on Ways and Means expressed confidence in Gibbons ' leadership while acknowledging that the loss of Rostenkowski 's chairmanship makes a difficult le gislative task even tougher . `` The hill got a lot steeper , '' said Rep. Mike Kopetski , D-Ore . In private comments , several Ways and Means Democrats said t hat Gibbons ' brusqueness , what one called his `` eruptions '' of anger , contr asted unfavorably with Rostenkowski 's discipline and doggedness . Some also sai d they had been offended by Gibbons ' blunt dismissal of Rostenkowski , with com ments like `` the graveyard is full of `` indispensable ' people . '' `` Directn ess is a part of my character , '' Gibbons said Tuesday . `` If it is abrasive t o anyone , I would certainly seriously consider modifying it . '' Rep. Mike Andr ews , D-Tex. , said , `` No personality is bigger than an issue , and this is th e largest issue most of us on the committee have ever faced . '' Rep. Barbara B . Kennelly , D-Conn. , said , `` After all these years , Mr. Gibbons is finally in the chairmanship , and he will want to demonstrate he can get a bill out . '' Like others , Kennelly said she was uncertain about the new relationship betwee n Rostenkowski and Gibbons in his new role as acting chairman . But she noted th at Rostenkowski was more sympathetic than Gibbons to the managed competition app roach suggested by Clinton , which relies in part on market forces to control co sts and aid health care consumers . CAIRO , Egypt A group of Saudi dissidents seeking to transform what they call a tyrannical Saudi government into a `` true '' Islamic state have set up shop in London , charging they were forced into exile by repression at home . The Commi ttee for the Defense of Legitimate Rights represents the first time in recent me mory that dissidents from within Saudi Arabia 's Sunni Muslim majority have star ted activities abroad . Although there is no evidence they have broad support wi thin the kingdom , their activities could prove embarrassing to the secretive Sa udi monarchy , which tries to keep its rifts behind closed doors and prides itse lf on religious orthodoxy and its role as custodian of Islam 's holiest shrines at Mecca and Medina . Only six months ago , King Fahd reached a deal with exiled leaders of the country 's 15 percent Shiite Muslim minority under which they ha lted anti-government activities from London and Washington in exchange for incre ased civil liberties at home and promises to address Shiite complaints of discri mination . Since opening its London office in April , the Sunni dissident group has kept up a steady stream of faxes to news agencies that have accused the gove rnment , among other things , of following `` confused and irrational '' foreign policies and of `` lavish spending .. . in support of oppression and tyranny . '' `` This is a fake Islamic government , '' said committee spokesman Muhammad M asaari , a former physics professor . The group was banned by Saudi authorities shortly after its establishment in Riyadh last year , and most observers say its chances of attracting wide support at home are blunted by the pervasiveness of the Saudi welfare state and a web of business partnerships that link the royal f amily to the country 's elite . `` I don't think this group has done enough conc eptual work to offer ideas and make themselves acceptable to outsiders , '' said a Saudi analyst . Although they are demanding more accountability from Saudi ru lers , `` their ideas on some social issues , such as women , are more orthodox than the regime 's . '' But the group appears to have several factors that could give it weight , including financial backing and connections within the Saudi b ureaucracy . Most importantly , it draws support from disaffected Sunni professi onals and clergy who have grown outspoken about human-rights abuses and corrupti on since the Persian Gulf War . The Saudi government dismissed the significance of the group 's London operations . `` This will not change the stability of the kingdom , and it is nothing which worries us , '' said Deputy Information Minis ter Shehab Jamjoon . Masaari was fired from his job at Riyadh 's King Saud Unive rsity and jailed for six months after helping set up the dissident committee las t year . In April , he fled Saudi Arabia despite being forbidden to travel abroa d . In an attempt to discover how he left the country and pressure him and fello w dissidents to discontinue their activities , Saudi authorities arrested Masaar i 's stepson , a brother , a cousin and two brothers-in-law , he said . In a sep arate interview from Riyadh , Masaari 's American wife , Lujain Imam , said her 5-year-old child by a former Saudi husband was taken from her by his father with the support of Saudi police . TOKYO Japan on Tuesday released a report accusing the United States of unfair t rade practices , yet another indication of its continued tough stance toward Ame rican trade demands . `` The United States is without parallel in imposing measu res that force its trading partners to abide by unilateral judgments , and shows no sign of abandoning this practice , '' charges the 333-page report , which al so summarizes alleged unfair practices by nine other major trading partners of J apan . The report , prepared by an advisory committee under the Ministry of Inte rnational Trade and Industry , harshly criticizes President Clinton 's reinstitu tion in March of the `` Super 301 '' trade law , which allows U.S. retaliation a gainst Japanese imports if Japan fails to further open its market to foreign goo ds . `` When the same country serves as both prosecutor and judge , one must ass ume that due process is lacking , '' the report declares . This is the third yea r Japan has produced this kind of report , which serves as a counterattack again st an annual U.S. report on foreign trade barriers . A U.S. report released Marc h 31 , which singled out Japan for the most severe criticism , could ultimately lead to sanctions . The Japanese report , in turn , lists more categories of unf air practices by the United States than by any other country . Taken together , the two reports show how officials of the two countries continue to largely talk past each other when discussing trade . The underlying theme of the Japanese re port is that trade issues should be settled according to international rules as embodied in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade , or GATT , and its succe ssor , the World Trade Organization , or WTO . But U.S. complaints about trade b arriers in Japan primarily concern features of Japan 's economic structure that are not covered by GATT rules . Tokyo and Washington agreed last week to resume trade talks that had broken down in February , but basic conceptual disputes bet ween the two sides remain unresolved . From the U.S. perspective , the purpose o f the talks is to agree on ways to further open Japan 's market so as to reduce Japan 's $ 60 billion merchandise trade surplus with the United States and its $ 131 billion global surplus in trade of goods and services . The Japanese report , however , dismisses core U.S. arguments in almost condescending terms . It is especially critical of demands to address detailed `` microeconomic '' issues a s a means of redressing trade imbalances . In the trade `` framework '' talks no w being resumed , a key American focus is on specific sectors , including automo biles and auto parts , insurance , and government procurement of telecommunicati ons and medical equipment . These sectoral talks formally resume Wednesday with insurance negotiations in Tokyo , while auto talks reopen Thursday in Washington . ( Optional add end ) Yet Tuesday 's report rejects the conceptual basis for t hese talks . `` A quick perusal of almost any economics textbook will confirm th at microeconomic policies for individual sectors are not effective means of reso lving trade imbalances , '' it says . The report also states that `` in purely e conomic terms there is no need to resolve .. . trade imbalances . '' The report 's charges of U.S. discrimination against foreign competitors run the gamut from unfair enforcement of anti-dumping actions to patent law . Some complaints are remarkably detailed . The report charges , for example , that U.S. restrictions on the export of logs cut from federal forests , imposed to protect the endanger ed spotted owl , are a violation of GATT rules . While log exports are restricte d , lumber exports are encouraged , it charges , suggesting that WTO dispute set tlement procedures could be invoked to demand a change . WASHINGTON In many respects , Rep. Dan Rostenkowski never left Chicago and its political folkways , despite spending nearly 36 years in Congress and achieving a lasting national legacy for his role in helping to overhaul U.S. income tax la ws in 1986 . A towering bear of a man who could intimidate his colleagues , Rost enkowski 's brusque style reflected the blunt , take-no-prisoners politics pract iced in his hometown . `` You might as well kick a guy 's brains out if he 's no t for you , '' the Democratic congressman once said in a typical bit of Chicago street talk . So the aggressive `` Rosty '' was doing what comes naturally when he decided to go to the mat with federal prosecutors rather than holler `` uncle '' and accept a plea bargain . Rostenkowski , who dominated the House Ways and Means Committee as its chairman for more than a decade , earned top marks as a l egislative achiever . Driven by a passion for political power , the 66-year-old lawmaker hoped to climax his career by playing a leading part in passage of heal th care legislation that would add to his reputation for accomplishments against the odds . Instead , his dream has soured as he has spent much of this year try ing to retain some measure of dignity in a Washington world where he never seeme d fully at home . As Ways and Means chairman , he was one of the most powerful m en in government , shaping policy on taxes , Social Security , Medicare , welfar e and trade . Probably his proudest accomplishment was passage of the 1986 tax l aw , which reduced the top income tax rate to 28 percent and eliminated many tax preferences for business . As part of that campaign for tax fairness , he appea red on television , urging listeners to `` write Rosty '' if they favored the pl an . On the downside , Rostenkowski 's reputation suffered because of his unasha med appetite for perquisites , including steak dinners at lobbyists ' expense an d invitations to free golfing trips at some of the nation 's top resorts . `` In my hometown of Chicago they call politics a blood sport , '' he once said . `` I don't apologize for getting in the arena and I 'll be damned if I apologize fo r winning . '' He was also true to his roots on another issue . As the city 's l ate mayor , Richard J. Daley , once declared : `` Chicago ISn't ready for reform . '' Neither was Rostenkowski . ( Begin optional trim ) While other lawmakers p retended that they did not want a pay increase , Rostenkowski came out for a sys tem whereby a House member could , within limits , set his or her own salary . N aturally , Rostenkowski said that he deserved the highest rate of pay because of his committee chairmanship as well as his ability to deliver benefits for his c onstituents . Rostenkowski bristled at Congress ' increasing requirements for fi nancial disclosure , limits on members ' speaking fees and proposals to curb fre e meals and golfing trips financed by lobbyists . ( End optional trim ) The Chic ago congressman had few peers when it came to taking free trips to make speeches before special interest groups at locations conveniently close to a golf course . During the five years ending in 1991 , for example , the veteran politician t ook 167 trips at the expense of corporations , universities and charities an ave rage of 34 expense-paid trips a year . His re-election campaign once paid $ 1,60 0 in `` consulting fees '' to five golf professionals who attended fund-raising events with Rostenkowski on the golf links . In the 1992 election cycle , Rosten kowski charged his campaign treasury for $ 28,422 worth of meals at restaurants and country clubs , mostly in the Chicago area . At the same time , he was a lea der on the paid lecture circuit , collecting more than $ 1 million in speaking f ees in a two-year period , keeping the maximum amount allowed under House rules about $ 50,000 and donating the rest to charity . Growing up in the Great Depres sion in what now would be called a disadvantaged neighborhood , he learned direc tly about free-and-easy machine politics as the son of a Chicago alderman and wa rd boss who presided over a Polish-American fiefdom on the city 's Northwest sid e . With his father 's clout , it was easy for Rostenkowski to become the younge st member of the Illinois legislature at the age of 24 , the youngest Illinois s tate senator at 26 and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives at 30 . Chi cago 's Democratic Party selected nominees who breezed to election in the one-pa rty town , assuring a safe House seat for Rostenkowski for decades . ( Begin opt ional trim ) Although in recent years the machine has began to sputter , Rostenk owski whose possible indictment was the subject of wide speculation in the press at the time got help when he desperately needed it from ward organizations in M arch 's primary election . They gave it unquestioningly and overwhelmingly and h e won renomination to another term . On Capitol Hill , he focused at first on th e internal politics of the House , gradually building friendships that might hel p him later , keeping Chicago 's needs ever in mind . He became known as `` Mayo r Daley 's man in Washington , '' although other Democrats in the city delegatio n had more seniority . He brought home the bacon to his city and state with such regularity that even Republican Gov. Jim Edgar endorsed Rosty 's re-election th is year when he was in the toughest race of his political life . ( End optional trim ) In 1965 , Rostenkowski was rewarded with a seat on Ways and Means , then under the forceful leadership of Rep. Wilbur D. Mills , D-Ark . For a decade , u ntil Mills departed after a scandalous encounter with an exotic dancer from Arge ntina , Rostenkowski acquired seniority and familiarity with the arcane tax code . He chafed during the tenure of Rep. Al Ullman , D-Ore. , a knowledgeable but ineffectual leader , and took over the committee 's helm in 1981 , passing up a chance to take the third-ranking House leadership post as majority whip . ( Begi n optional trim ) With newly elected Republican Ronald Reagan in the White House , the rookie chairman made what he later conceded was a serious mistake , engag ing in a `` bidding war '' to see who could cut taxes the most . Reagan won , th e federal government 's revenue base was seriously reduced and Rostenkowski lear ned a political lesson the hard way as the House voted with Reagan by a large ma jority . Working with Reagan and the Republicans , Rostenkowski helped to preser ve the solvency of the Social Security system by making tough choices to raise p ayroll taxes . ( End optional trim ) As a result of his strong hand , Rostenkows ki brokered the complex deals behind the major tax bills of the 1980s and 1990s . But he experienced some embarrassing defeats as well . In 1991 , for example , six Democrats on Ways and Means joined with all the Republicans to push through a cut in capital gains taxes that Rostenkowski fought , both in his committee a nd on the House floor . Only hard-nosed tactics by Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell D-Maine , blocked it from becoming law . Even worse , legislation t hat Rostenkowski championed to provide catastrophic health insurance coverage fo r senior citizens , along with a surtax on them to pay for it , produced such a strong backlash that the law was repealed . It was during this seniors ' rebelli on that a group of elderly citizens chased the chairman down a Chicago street , shouting : `` Impeach Rostenkowski . '' As Rostenkowski increased his power on t he committee , he began to run the panel like a Chicago ward boss , disbursing b enefits and demanding loyalty in return . Under his system , committee Democrats caucused frequently to develop a consensus , pledging that each of them would s upport the resulting compromise . Rosty took names of defectors , placing them i n his own version of political purgatory . Former Rep. Kent Hance , D-Texas , on ce deserted the chairman on a key vote . Shortly afterward on a bus trip where o ther committee members sat in front , a seat was marked for Hance next to the to ilet . He got the message that the chairman was not pleased . WASHINGTON The Supreme Court on Tuesday gave a boost to the growing number of c ities that enforce curfews for teen-agers by rejecting a challenge to a Dallas l aw that generally requires people under 17 to be off the streets after 11 p.m. o n weekdays and midnight on weekends . Without a dissenting vote , the court refu sed to hear an appeal filed on behalf of three young people and their parents wh o said the city law `` convicts the innocent .. . and broadly stifles fundamenta l liberties . '' Although the court did not explain its decision , in earlier ru lings the justices have said the First Amendment to the Constitution does not gi ve teen-agers a `` generalized right of social association '' that permits them to be out after hours . Moreover , official discrimination based on age is permi ssible , the court has said . Lawyers in the case said curfews to combat juvenil e crime exist in as many as 1,000 cities , including Atlanta , Boston , Detroit , Houston , Los Angeles , Philadelphia and Phoenix . While Tuesday 's action is not a binding national ruling , it strongly suggests the court will not strike d own curfews as broadly unconstitutional . However , some lower courts have inval idated curfews that do not permit exceptions for teen-agers who work or are acco mpanied by their parents . Two other decisions announced Tuesday also restrict F irst Amendment rights . In a case that yielded four separate opinions , the high court ruled that public employers may fire workers whose job complaints could a ffect the morale of fellow employees . So long as the manager makes a `` reasona ble '' effort to investigate what was said , the manager can then freely dismiss disgruntled workers to ensure that their complaints do not `` detract from the agency 's effective operation , '' the court said . The case of Waters vs. Churc hill , 92-1450 , sought to clarify the free speech rights of public employees , such as teachers , nurses , police officers and state workers , but it resulted in badly splintered decision . The First Amendment severely restricts the govern ment 's power to pass laws infringing free speech , but government officials can limit the free speech rights of their employees . In Tuesday 's decision , seve n justices agreed only that the nursing supervisor at a public hospital could di smiss a disgruntled nurse for her on-the-job griping , so long as the supervisor first made a `` reasonable '' effort to learn who said what to whom . In a sepa rate First Amendment case , the justices allowed government-sponsored fairs , ca rnivals and parades to keep out groups whose message is deemed `` inappropriate . '' On an 8-1 vote , the justices refused to hear an appeal filed by anti-abort ion activists who claimed their free-speech rights were violated when they were excluded from a city-sponsored festival . Frankfort , Ky. , holds its `` Great P umpkin Festival '' each October to bring people downtown for `` fun and entertai nment . '' In 1990 , a local anti-abortion group applied for a booth to distribu te `` plastic models of fetuses , '' but fair sponsors deemed such political adv ocacy inappropriate . The group denied booths to groups who support abortion rig hts , including the Kentucky chapter of the National Organization for Women . Th e Kentucky Supreme Court upheld the fair sponsor 's authority to restrict partic ipation to non-political groups , and only Justice Sandra Day O' Connor voted to hear the appeal in Capital Area Right to Life vs . Downtown Frankfort , 93-1201 . ( Optional add end ) In the curfew case , lawyers said the Dallas law may hav e won approval in part because it contains so many exceptions . `` If a mother i s sick , and a kid needs to go get a prescription filled , who would doubt that he has a constitutional right to be out doing that ? , '' asked ACLU attorney Ch ris Hansen , who has coordinated the group 's attacks on teen-age curfews . The Dallas curfew was enacted in 1991 but exemptions were added in 1992 . For exampl e , it exempts young people who are accompanied by a parent or guardian , are ru nning an errand , or are out on an emergency . It also does not apply to those w ho are traveling for work reasons or attending a school , religious or civic fun ction . Moreover , young persons are allowed on the sidewalks in front of their homes or a neighbor 's home . Fines of up to $ 500 can be assessed against youth who violate the law , as well as their parents and the owners of establishments who serve minors after hours . In November , the U.S. . Court of Appeals based in New Orleans ruled that the Dallas law is justified by the city 's `` compelli ng interest '' in reducing juvenile crime and in `` promoting juvenile safety an d well-being . '' It cited statistics showing that murders , assaults and rapes occur most often between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. . The case of Qutb vs. Bartlett , 93 -1571 , was dismissed without comment on Tuesday . `` I think this means that ev ery major city in this circuit is going to have a curfew , '' said Bruce Morrow , a Dallas attorney who appealed the case to the Supreme Court . WASHINGTON President Clinton and his top national security officials met Tuesda y to consider the potentially volatile question of whether to seek economic sanc tions against North Korea a move that Pyongyang has warned would be regarded as an act of war . Although no final decisions were expected Tuesday , officials sa id Clinton wanted a consensus for any future actions by Wednesday night , when h e is scheduled to leave for Europe , where he will help celebrate the 50th anniv ersary of D-Day . The flurry of activity came amid growing fears that North Kore a may be removing spent fuel rods from its reactor so rapidly that it is on the verge of destroying U.N. inspectors ' ability to determine if spent fuel has bee n diverted to make nuclear weapons . The administration has warned that it consi ders the ability of the U.N. inspectors to trace the history of North Korea 's n uclear program a crucial issue in the current dispute . Results of such inspecti ons could tell for certain if North Korea has built a bomb . The situation has b een intensifying for days . In a last-ditch effort to avert a crisis , the U.N. . Security Council urged North Korea on Monday to preserve all existing evidence of how much nuclear fuel it may have diverted to a nuclear weapons program . Th e International Atomic Energy Agency , which conducts the nuclear weapons inspec tions on the U.N. 's behalf , is expected to issue a report this week declaring whether North Korea has destroyed the agency 's ability to tell if Pyongyang eve r made nuclear weapons . U.S. officials say that , if the IAEA reports its effor ts have been blocked , there is little doubt the Security Council will begin con sidering the sanctions . The only real question would be how broad the measures should be and how rapidly they should be imposed . South Korea said Tuesday that North Korea already has removed more than 4,800 of 8,000 spent fuel rods in the reactor at Yongbyon a far more-rapid pace than Western analysts had expected . Officials say that , at this rate , it could be only days before the evidence is destroyed . The administration continued to express alarm publicly . `` We 're very concerned about the situation , '' White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myer s told reporters . But she said Washington still was hoping for a diplomatic sol ution . ( Optional Add End ) A major problem facing the administration is uncert ainty whether China will go along with any new move to impose formal sanctions . Although the Chinese supported Monday 's U.N. appeal , they still are not ready to go along with sanctions . As a result , the administration may have tough ne gotiating to do on how rapidly the sanctions should be imposed . China wants Was hington to fold negotiations about nuclear issues into broader U.S.-North Korean talks . Pentagon officials said Tuesday that any decision to push for sanctions almost certainly would be accompanied by a step-up in the alert status of U.S. military in the region . In Vienna , North Korean officials continued to rebuff IAEA demands that U.N. inspectors be permitted to test the rods that have been r emoved . Yun Ho Jin , Pyongyang 's representative to the agency , said his gover nment would not alter its policies anytime soon , but he said that it would set aside 40 of the spent fuel rods for possible inspection by the IAEA later . Anal ysts said the move would be useless . WASHINGTON In a ruling that affects the free speech rights of 18 million govern ment employees , the Supreme Court Tuesday tentatively allowed a city hospital i n Illinois to fire a nurse who criticized a training program . As long as a publ ic employer reasonably believes that its actions do not violate First Amendment rights , it can fire someone even if it later turns out that free speech was inv olved , the court said . Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg , described after her nomin ation last year as a strong defender of First Amendment rights , was one of only four justices who signed the court 's opinion Tuesday . Three others concurred in the result , while Justices John Paul Stevens and Harry A . Blackmun dissente d . The case involved an appeal by the city-owned hospital in Macomb , Ill. , of a decision by the U.S. appeals court in Chicago that Cheryl R. Churchill was en titled to ask a jury to reinstate her to a job helping to deliver babies in the hospital 's obstetrics department . Churchill , during a dinner conversation wit h another nurse at the hospital , criticized a policy allowing on-the-job traini ng of nurses from other departments . She also allegedly criticized her supervis or , which she denied . Witnesses split as to whether she had criticized the sup ervisor , but she was fired on charges of insubordination anyway despite the obj ections of the doctor in charge of the department who had been battling with the hospital administration over staffing and training . While government employees ( unlike private employees ) have had a right to make statements about public p olicy , including nurses ' training , they do not have the right to make stateme nts considered `` disruptive . '' The hospital said that because it believed Chu rchill had criticized her supervisor speech that is not protected by the First A mendment it had acted in good faith and its judgment should not be questioned . But the appeals court said that ignorance of the fact that her statements were c onstitutionally protected was not a defense and that the facts should be determi ned by a jury . Justice Sandra Day O' Connor , writing for four justices , said that a government agency 's responsibility to perform its job sometimes outweigh s its employees ' First Amendment rights . `` When someone who is paid a salary so that she will contribute to an agency 's effective operation begins to do or say things that detract from the agency 's effective operation , the government employer must have some power to restrain her , '' O' Connor wrote . She ordered the case sent back to a lower court to decide whether the hospital 's assumptio ns were `` reasonable , '' though she made it clear that `` reasonable '' should be broadly defined . ( Optional add end ) Justice Antonin Scalia , joined by Cl arence Thomas and Anthony M. Kennedy , sharply critized the `` reasonable '' req uirement as a new constitutional right , but agreed with other aspects of the op inion . Stevens , joined by Blackmun in dissent , wrote , `` The First Amendment demands that the government respect its employees ' freedom to express their op inions on issues of public importance . '' In other action Tuesday , the court : Ruled , 7-2 , that the state of Washington could impose minimum stream flows on a hydroelectric power plant to protect fish . Refused , over a dissent by O' Co nnor , to hear the appeal of a an anti-abortion group banned from participating in a downtown festival in Frankfort , Ky. . Declined to hear a challenge to a ru ling that officials in Cobb County , Ga. , must remove a 3-by-5-foot framed pane l containing the Ten Commandments and teachings of Jesus from a wall in the coun ty courthouse . Agreed to decide in an Arizona case whether arrests based on err oneous computer records are good-faith mistakes that don't necessarily require t hrowing out all evidence seized afterward . WASHINGTON Although he says he wants his day in court , Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , may well meet his match if Eric H . Holder Jr. , the prosecutor who ob tained his indictment , chooses to try the case himself several months from now . Holder , 43 , the first black U.S. attorney for the nation 's capital , is a t all , stately man with a polished courtroom manner and 18 years experience in pu blic corruption cases . He also has made a study of how to appeal to juries . `` He understands juries here , and he certainly understands politicians , '' says a former colleague on the Washington , D.C. , Superior Court , where Holder ser ved five years before President Clinton appointed him as Washington 's top prose cutor last July . A confident , easygoing man , Holder has said he wants to deve lop a better relationship between his office of 300 attorneys , who are dispropo rtionately white , and the predominantly black population of the District of Col umbia from which juries for his cases are drawn . During his years as a judge , he said he winced at seeing prosecutors lose trials they should have won mainly because they failed to relate to jurors . Holder said he plans to correct that i n his new post . He promptly won the respect of his new colleagues when he took over the Rostenkowski probe after his swearing-in last October . At the time , J ay B . Stephens , his Republican predecessor , criticized the Clinton White Hous e for replacing him at a time when it was replacing other U.S. attorneys across the country in the midst of a highly sensitive investigation . Rather than duck the criticism , Holder met it head on . `` The idea that a Democratic U.S. attor ney is going to do something different than a Republican U.S. attorney is pretty close to ridiculous , '' he said . Instead of shortening or curtailing the inqu iry , he decided to expand it by asking for the appointment of a new federal gra nd jury to replace the old jury , which faced a deadline of Oct. 31 , 1993 . Des pite his short time as top prosecutor , Holder has had ample experience investig ating public corruption . He spent a dozen years as a lawyer in the Justice Depa rtment 's public integrity section , where he had a hand in the Abscam congressi onal bribery prosecution of former Rep. John W. Jenrette , D-S.C. . `` In some w ays , I came in as prepared as I could have been because of my 12 years in publi c integrity , '' he told The Washington Post earlier this year . `` I think pote ntially I 'm a better U.S. attorney now than I was then , from being on the benc h for five years and presiding over hundreds of criminal trials . '' Former judi cial colleagues said Holder 's record was `` pretty middle of the road , '' neit her soft-hearted in his sentencing practices nor too conservative in espousing ` ` law and order '' at any human cost . ( Optional add end ) The son of a secreta ry and a real estate agent , Holder spent the summer of 1974 as a law clerk for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and the following summer as a law cle rk in the Justice Department . He received his law degree in 1976 from Columbia University . A Democrat , he has never been active in local politics , has never run for public office or played a role in anyone else 's campaign , he told the Senate Judiciary Committee last year on the eve of his confirmation . Others sa y they suspect the reason is that Holder is skeptical about politicians , or tha t he espouses higher standards than many officeholders do . In describing the Ro stenkowski charges to reporters , Holder said , `` The vast majority of members of Congress are decent and honorable public officials who work incredibly hard a nd follow all the rules . '' He quickly added , `` But the criminal acts of a fe w feed the cynicism which increasingly haunts our political landscape . '' With nearly 14 million Americans out of work , marooned in part-time jobs or to o disheartened to answer a help-wanted ad , could the United States be approachi ng `` full '' employment ? Key Federal Reserve officials , along with many on Wa ll Street , believe that as a practical matter the answer is yes : that the econ omy has has entered a danger zone where further jobs growth could set off an upw ard spiral of inflation . That belief , which has helped justify four interest-r ate hikes this year and may hasten the next one , has sparked a controversy that goes to the very core of the U.S. economy 's capabilities in a world of changin g technology and global business links . `` How would an average person in Calif ornia respond to the notion that somehow we 're growing too fast and have to slo w the economy down ? '' asks Lawrence Mishel , research director at the Economic Policy Institute , a liberal think tank . Critics say the Fed is relying on an outdated world view that has failed to consider sweeping changes that are likely to keep the lid on inflation as joblessness shrinks further . Moreover , the jo bs-versus-prices flap comes at a time when the labor market , despite significan t gains , still has pockets of distress . While the national unemployment rate i n April was pegged at 6.4 percent , that is just an average figure . The experie nce of regions , racial groups and industries differs drastically . In Californi a , almost 1.5 million people are looking for work , and the unemployment rate i s 9.6 percent , according to state data . By contrast , the rate in North Caroli na is 3.9 percent . Nationally , whites enjoy a unemployment rate of 5.6 percent , according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics . But the black unemployment rate is 11.8 percent , and the Latino rate is 10.8 percent . One in three Americans still believes that jobs are `` hard to get , '' the Conference Board reported T uesday , a slight increase from April . Given the disparities of fortune , the q uestion of when to slow the economy through interest-rate hikes takes on huge pe rsonal and political ramifications . `` You 'd hate to throw away 500,000 jobs t hat it might not be necessary to throw away , '' observes Laurence H. Meyer , an economic forecaster in St. Louis . Nonetheless , what Fed officials abhor most of all is the prospect of inflation , which could unhinge the financial markets and undermine the entire recovery . They have lately become concerned that the e conomy is running out of `` slack '' unused factory capacity and available worke rs . The jobless rate has been on a downward trend for almost two years , dippin g to 6.4 percent in April from 6.7 percent in January . Factories , meanwhile , have been humming , another sign that the economy continues to pushing forward a t high speed : Operating rates have churned up to 83 percent , closing in on the traditional inflation threshold of about 85 percent . As the economy runs out o f slack , goes the view , shortages of labor and materials lead to inflation . A nd inflation erodes the value of bonds . ( Begin optional trim ) `` What 's impo rtant is that the country has removed an awful lot of slack in the economy , '' said Robert Parry , president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco , in an interview . Parry doubts that anyone can pinpoint the precise unemployment ra te that triggers inflation , but he suggested it lurks somewhere between 6 perce nt and 6.5 percent , and probably `` in the higher part of that range . '' ( End optional trim ) Therein lies the dispute . Critics say the Fed is counting too heavily on theories hatched in an entirely different era . Nowadays , they conte nd in a theory of their own , a range of new , anti-inflationary forces have tra nsformed basic economic behavior . `` There is no question that this ( unemploym ent ) is what the Fed has been focusing on , and there is no question there are faults in their methodology , '' said Mickey D. Levy , chief financial economist with NationsBank in New York . ( Begin optional trim ) Corporate cost-cutting , for example , has evolved from a fad to a new business culture , with major imp lications for keeping the lid on prices . Consider hiring practices : By some es timates , one in five jobs generated during the recovery has been temporary , sa ving employers much of the expense of permanent staffers who qualify for full be nefits . Global forces are also at play . More than ever , foreign workers and f actories are ready to meet the needs of U.S. consumers when America approaches t he limits of its own industrial capacity . ( End optional trim ) `` They 're jus t wrong , '' Robert Pollin , an economics professor at University of California , Riverside , said of the Fed 's worries that America 's falling unemployment ra te threatens an inflationary spiral . `` They haven't factored in the downward w age pressures from global competition . '' `` If some of the world 's best physi cists can be hired in Russia for $ 100 per month , why should anyone pay a third -rate American physicist $ 50,000 a year ? '' MIT economist Lester C. Thurow rec ently asked in the New York Times . ( Begin optional trim ) In the 1960s , econo mists counseled that an unemployment rate in the 4 percent range was the flash p oint for inflation . Then came the youthful baby boom , largely unsettled in lif e , inexperienced in the workplace and often lacking job skills . Estimates of t he inflationary flash point floated toward a 7 percent unemployment rate . Fast- forward to 1994 , and the picture has changed once more . Economists believe the danger zone has has gotten lower , partly due to a more-experienced work force , and peg it in a range between 6.5 percent and 5 percent . But that range cover s a lot of territory : The difference of 1.5 percentage points could be the diff erence of up to 2 million jobs , said Ross DeVol , an economist with the WEFA Gr oup in suburban Philadelphia . ( End optional trim ) The issue could become even touchier in the coming weeks , in light of some new signs that the economy is p erking along faster than expected . The Commerce Department recently surprised a nalysts by revising upward to 3 percent the nation 's growth rate for the first three months of the year , though reports released Tuesday indicated that the ec onomy cooled off in April . In any case , this much is agreed upon : A recovery once dubbed `` jobless '' is spewing out new jobs by the hundreds of thousands , and it is doing so without sparking wage inflation so far . But the Fed is on a course of raising interest rates anyway , a strategy that will reduce jobs grow th in the future : `` To the average person on the street , I 'd guess this does n't make a lot of sense , '' DeVol said . WASHINGTON The Supreme Court , in a case with far-reaching consequences for all privately owned hydroelectric dams , ruled 7-2 Tuesday that states may require hydroelectric projects to keep enough water in rivers to maintain fish populatio ns , preserve aesthetic qualities and even ensure recreational uses . The case h ad pitted the state of Washington , which is home to dozens of powerful rivers a nd even more hydroelectric dams , against the Tacoma City Light , a utility comp any that would own and privately operate a massive water project on the Dosewall ops River . The state had insisted that the utility forfeit some electric genera ting capacity by leaving the Dosewallops at levels that would allow the continue d migration of rare salmon and trout up and down the stretch of water . But offi cials from Tacoma City Light had argued that while states may set standards for water quality , only the federal government , which regulates privately owned hy droelectric dams , may set standards for water quantity . But Associate Justice Sandra Day O' Connor , writing for the majority , rejected that argument , calli ng the distinction between the quality and quantity of water in a river `` an ar tificial distinction . '' `` In many cases , water quantity is closely related t o water quality ; a sufficient lowering of the water quantity in a body of water could destroy all of its designated uses , be it for drinking water , recreatio n , navigation or , as here , as a fishery , '' O' Connor wrote for the majority . Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia dissented . The ruling could effe ct hundreds of privately owned dams whose licenses are due for renewal in the co ming years . Already , operating licenses of some 230 privately owned dams have expired and are operating pending a licensing review , and dozens more are due t o expire in the next several years . While environmentalists cheered the ruling , the hydropower industry said it is likely to create uncertainty over federal l icensing of hydropower projects and over who federal or state officials will hav e the final say in issuing operating licenses . `` We are very dismayed by the c ourts decision , '' said Karolyn Wolf , a spokeswoman for the American Hydropowe r Association . `` It 's left the industry in the lurch and we feel the ramifica tions for the industry will be severe . '' The ruling also was seen as broadenin g states ' rights to protect and preserve their waters from degradation by hydro power projects . ( Optional add end ) Under the federal Clean Water Act , states are responsible for designating uses for streams and rivers , such as drinking water , fish habitat or whitewater recreation . A state must then issue a plan t o ensure that those designated uses are not degraded . While those plans normall y set out complex chemical standards that must be met , the court ruled that sta tes also can enforce standards expressed in more general terms . In the dispute that prompted Tuesday 's ruling , the state of Washington had designated the Dos ewallops as a river capable of supporting the migration of salmon and steelhead trout , species of fish that are considered in danger of extinction . If the Tac oma City Light hydroplant diverted too much water for power generation , the sta te argued , the river no longer would be able to meet that objective . `` The ru ling shows that water quality and water quantity are strictly intertwined , and have to be treated together under the Clean Water Act , '' said Katherine Ransel of American Rivers , a watchdog group that brought the case before the Supreme Court . `` They 're like love and marriage , you can't have one without the othe r . `` It 's also sweeping : the court has ruled that water quality means much m ore than some measure in a test tube , '' she said . `` The other side had argue d that that 's what states are limited to . The court said uh-uh . '' The Federal Trade Commission has begun assessing the potential consequences of a possible merger between R.H. Macy & Co. and Federated Department Stores Inc. . According to sources , the FTC has sent letters to both retailers , asking abou t their operations , particularly in states where the chains overlap : New York , New Jersey , California , Georgia , Texas and Florida . Spokeswomen for the tw o retailers declined comment on the inquiry , which an FTC spokesman refused to confirm or deny . Federated 's proposed takeover of Macy 's would create the nat ion 's largest department-store group , with $ 13.5 billion in sales . Federated owns Bloomingdale 's , Abraham & Straus , Stern 's and six other chains . In ad dition to its flagship operation , R.H. Macy also runs I . Magnin , Bullock 's a nd smaller specialty stores . Macy 's , which has vowed to remain independent , has argued that a combined entity would lead to fewer suppliers and higher price s . Conversely , Federated maintains that a merger would result in a more effici ent company that can offer consumers lower prices . Federated has circulated pro posals on Wall Street claiming at least $ 100 million in cost savings after a me rger . The number of A&S locations , for instance , might be scaled back . And o verlapping chains elsewhere , such as in Atlanta , are expected to be sold . But a merger is far from certain , even though Federated is a big Macy 's creditor and plays an important role in shaping Macy 's bankruptcy reorganization , which is expected to be completed by January . Macy 's own proposal to emerge from ba nkruptcy has , so far , won the backing of bondholders and suppliers . To wrest control of Macy 's , Federated must still win the backing of other important cre ditors . Until Aug. 1 , Macy 's has the exclusive right to file a reorganization plan in bankruptcy court . WASHINGTON Health care , an issue already steeped in heavy political problems , became a bit more difficult Tuesday with the indictment of Rep. Dan Rostenkowsk i . Under the rules of the Democratic caucus , the Illinois Democrat must immedi ately step aside as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee , a prestigious pan el with the prime responsibility for drafting the sweeping health legislation at the top of President Clinton 's agenda . Before any measure can be voted on by Congress , proposals must wend their way through committees in the House and Sen ate . Rostenkowski 's loyalty to Clinton and his dealmaking ability were best su ited to getting a comprehensive plan out of the House where other House panels a re either faltering or planning to report out legislation that hasn't been given much chance of success . Based on the seniority system , Rep. Sam Gibbons , D-F la. , will automatically step in as acting chairman of Ways and Means . Some Cap itol Hill watchers suggested Tuesday that with Rostenkowski out of that role , t he administration 's emphasis may switch to the Senate , where Sen. Daniel Moyni han , D-N.Y. , chairman of the Finance Committee , is trying to forge a bipartis an accord . Democrats on the committee went out of their way to insist that busi ness will go on , even if it 's not as usual . They point to the fact that Gibbo ns has already told the Ways and Means Committee staff it will remain intact and it is expected to continue working on the bill Rostenkowski has been fashioning even in the final days before his criminal indictment . `` We 're more concerne d with getting a bill out than with personalities , '' said Rep. Charles Rangel , D-N.Y. , a senior member of the committee who has been close to Rostenkowski . `` We made a commitment to the American people and the president , '' Rangel sa id . `` We should not complain that we couldn't do it because one of our members has a personal problem . '' House Republicans , who want a much more minimalist bill than the president or House leaders , hope Rostenkowski 's ouster could he lp their cause . His predicament `` deals a fatal setback to health care reform unless the Democrats in the House recognize what the Democrats in the Senate hav e recognized , and that is that a bill needs to be bipartisan , '' said Rep. Nan cy Johnson , R-Conn . Even supporters of comprehensive national health care worr y that this is one more setback in a series of problems surrounding this issue . Without Rostenkowski 's skill as a legislative negotiator , they fear , the hea lth issue could be in for more delays . `` Gibbons is no Rostenkowski , '' one f ormer congressional staffer said . Rostenkowksi is famous for his ability to sit down with members , find out what their concerns are and craft a bill . `` You could give him your cards and he would play the hands for you , '' Rangel said . `` You could trust him with your hole card . '' Gibbons was described by severa l political observers as someone who is rigid once he makes up his mind to somet hing and less of a compromiser . `` He 's not the kind of guy who brings people together , '' one analyst said . ( Begin optional trim ) Gibbons , who sat in on many of the health subcommittee sessions this spring , has had a longstanding i nterest in health care , and has supported the subcommittee bill , especially th e provision that would insure the poor and uninsured through an expansion of Med icare . But on the Ways and Means Committee he has been much more involved in tr ade issues as chair of that subcommittee . Committee-watchers say other than pos sibly beginning hearings on welfare reform , health care is the only big item on the committee 's plate . What Rostenkowski 's role will be as a member but not chairman of the committee was unclear Tuesday . Some lawmakers suggested just ha ving him in the room will be important and so they were glad to hear he will fig ht the charges rather than accept a plea bargain and resign from the House . Oth ers said he is likely to be preoccupied with his legal issues and may not or sho uld not be engaged in the debate at all . `` No one is above the law , '' Rep. S ander Levin , D-Mich. , a member of the committee , said in a statement . `` Lik e all citizens , Rep. Rostenkowski is entitled to his day in court , but under t he rules he must relinquish the chairmanship of Ways and Means Committee . This rule must be followed both in letter and in spirit . '' ( End optional trim ) So me health experts suggested that Rostenkowski 's role in the health reform effor t has been overemphasized that that the real problem how to pay for such an expa nsive effort remains whether he is at the helm or not . `` We want to do health reform where no one pays and everyone gets coverage , '' said one health policy expert . `` Health reform is in trouble because you can't do it for free . '' In ROSTY-TIMES ( Eaton , Times ) sub for 11th graf ( Correcting quote attribute ) xxx for winning . '' He was also true to his roots on another issue . In a mo tto coined by Chicago ward boss Paddy Bauler more than a half-century ago and ha nded down through the political generations : `` Chicago ISn't ready for reform . '' PICK UP 12TH GRAF : Neither was .. . UNITED NATIONS The U.N. . Security Council demonstrated growing impatience with bickering clan leaders in Somalia Tuesday , renewing the controversial U.N. mis sion there for only four months and warning it could wind down the operation in mid-July if there has been no progress toward peace . The Clinton administration is bringing to bear on the huge U.N. mission in Somalia its new , cautious poli cy on U.N. peacekeeping approved in early May . U.S. diplomats pressed for the m ission to be renewed for only 45 days . In a compromise , Council members voted 15-0 to the four-month extension instead of the previous six-month periods and t o reassess the mission before the end of July . `` This resolution puts those mo st responsible for obstruction of forward movement on notice ; it is time for So malis simply to get on with the job of moving toward political reconciliation , '' said Ambassador Edward W. Gnehm Jr. , the U.S. deputy permanent representativ e to the United Nations . Despite U.S. impatience , the Council decided to give Somalia the `` last chance '' Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said it de served after the United Nations spent some $ 2 billion in a year and a half to r escue the east African country from famine and clan warfare . But Somalia has fo rced the United Nations to ponder how long it should wait for warring leaders to settle their differences before U.N. officials pull back their support and conc lude they have done all they can . In a gloomy May 24 report , Boutros-Ghali tol d the Council that security in Somalia is `` deteriorating , '' with forces alli ed with militia leader Gen. Mohamed Farah Aideed on the offensive to seize new t urf in several regions . The 13 major clans have refused to honor a commitment t hey made March 24 to disarm voluntarily , Boutros-Ghali reported . Because of th e infighting and rampant banditry , `` the emergency situation continues and the welfare of large numbers of Somalis remains at risk , '' the secretary general warned . He said any immediate draw-down of U.N. forces could plunge the nation back into the war-induced starvation that killed hundreds of thousands of Somali s in 1992 . In all , 11 countries withdrew their troops from Somalia in the wake of the United States ' pullout in March , including all the units with sophisti cated equipment . Although 19,000 troops remain on the ground , Boutros-Ghali ad mitted `` the deficiencies in capacity that resulted from the withdrawal of the United States forces have not been made up in full , especially with regards to air operations and night capabilities . '' The current forces are too few to pro tect U.N. humanitarian and training programs throughout the country , U.N. offic ials said , yet the cost of the mission for the next four months is $ 310 millio n , of which the United States will pay 31 percent . After helping lead the U.N. mission into a shooting war in Mogadishu a year ago , the Clinton administratio n abruptly began to pull out U.S. troops after 18 American servicemen were kille d in a battle with Aideed 's force in October . Washington then led the drive in the Security Council to rewrite the mandate for U.N. troops to eliminate forced disarmament and stress negotiations by clan leaders to set up a new government . The U.N. special envoy in Somalia , Lansana Kouyate , succeeded in drawing Aid eed back into the negotiations with a coalition of 12 other clans . But a final conference to establish the framework for a new national government has been rep eatedly delayed amid jockeying for position by Aideed and other leaders . Some o bservers have questioned whether these talks are the right approach . In its mos t important achievement , the U.N. mission has set up 55 district-level councils of recognized village leaders . But it is unclear whether the clan leaders will respect this grass-roots authority as they bargain among themselves . `` Many S omalis to whom I spoke expressed grave reservations at the prospect of the warlo rds , by whose hands so much Somali blood was spilled , becoming their new ruler s , '' wrote Malcolm Harper , the head of the United Kingdom United Nations Asso ciation , after a recent visit . The troubles of the Somalia mission cast a clou d over U.N. operations in the rest of Africa , especially in Rwanda , where more than 200,000 people have been killed in a tribal killing campaign . The experie nce of Somalia made many countries skeptical about how effective U.N. peacekeepi ng troops could be , even in large numbers , in halting a bloody civil war . At the same time , many countries that might have sent troops to Rwanda have exhaus ted their resources in Somalia . WASHINGTON Hoping to calm an uproar over abuse of presidential helicopters , th e White House disclosed Tuesday that aides have taken 12 trips using the aircraf t but officials said none involved misuse of the flights . The disclosure came a s the former official forced to resign last week for using one of the choppers f or a golf outing said he alone not top White House aides will cover the $ 13,129 cost of the trip . Thirteen White House aides last Friday agreed to put up mone y to reimburse the government for the cost of the trip by former White House adm inistrative chief W. David Watkins and two other aides . But Watkins said in an interview that he changed his mind Sunday after reading news accounts that quote d former colleagues at the White House who were angered by the obligations he ha d forced on them . Watkins said the $ 13,129 cost of the trip was far more than the $ 2,500 to $ 3,000 he was told the trip would cost . `` I did not want to cr eate any financial burden for anyone , or create any ill will toward me , '' sai d Watkins , a millionaire who worked for Clinton as a businessman or aide for mo re than a decade . In detailing other trips on presidential helicopters , the Wh ite House released a memo briefly describing the flights , which took place betw een April 29 , 1993 , and May 24 , 1994 . Officials said the flights which exclu ded presidential and military journeys showed no misuse of the sophisticated air craft . But congressional Republicans who have pressed for a full accounting of the trips said the description did not provide sufficient detail . `` This is ju st an outline , '' said Cheri Jacobus , an aide to Rep. Roscoe Bartlett , R-Md . `` The White House 's information has been inconsistent , sporadic and incorrec t . We want to know more . '' Bartlett and half a dozen others have been demandi ng more information since it was disclosed that the three White House officials used one of the $ 2,380-an-hour helicopters to go golfing last Tuesday at the Ho lly Hills Country Club , near New Market , Md. . One entry on the White House in ventory was an April 29 , 1993 , flight to Camp David by Watkins and the two top officials of the White House military office for `` camp familiarization . '' S uch a flight `` may not be absolutely necessary , '' said a White House spokeswo man . `` You can drive . '' But she insisted that the trip `` was appropriate .. . because in many instances the president uses helicopters . '' The inventory l isted four trips within the Washington area for `` orientation and training . '' Listed on board were various White House administrative , security and communic ations officials . ( Optional add end ) Three flights were classified , includin g a `` special training mission '' that had an unlikely mix of passengers : Hous ing Secretary Henry A . Cisneros , deputy budget director Alice M. Rivlin and mi litary personnel . Another trip , a flight by Secretary of State Warren Christop her to give a private speech in Williamsburg , Va. , was described as `` reimbur sable State Dept. use '' meaning the expense would be paid with taxpayer funds , but from a different federal account . And another was a trip in which White Ho use advance staff , military officials and communications aides flew to Norfolk , Va. , to examine an aircraft carrier Clinton will use this week in ceremonies to commemorate the 50th anniversary of D-day . In another step to try to restore confidence , White House Chief of Staff Thomas F. `` Mack '' McLarty released a memo providing that from now on , the staff chief or his deputy must approve fl ights . In their absence , approvals can come from officials of the White House counsel 's office but no longer , as before , by the chief of administration . SANTA ANA , Calif. . Citing a crash that killed five people here last December , the Federal Aviation Administration has adopted a policy that will require sma ller planes to stay farther behind Boeing 757 jetliners to prevent airplane acci dents caused by their potentially hazardous wake turbulence . But the regulatory agency 's action part of a detailed set of new policies on 757s falls short of safety recommendations made by the National Transportation Safety Board earlier this year . And aviation safety experts and pilots ' advocates termed the change s merely a `` first step '' toward making the skies safe for aircraft landing an d taking off behind 757 jetliners . FAA Administrator David R. Hinson outlined t he policy in recent days in a letter to NTSB Chairman Carl W. Vogt . Beginning J uly 1 , the FAA will require air traffic controllers handling landings to keep a ircraft four miles behind 757s instead of the current three miles to protect the m from the miniature tornadoes produced by rapid air movement across the larger aircraft 's wings . The NTSB in February had recommended that the FAA adopt mini mum separation distances of up to six miles behind 757s . The FAA , however , is not bound by NTSB recommendations . At least two accidents that claimed 13 live s and three other serious incidents have been linked to 757 wake turbulence sinc e December 1992 . Because it could potentially decrease the number of flights at the nation 's airports and increase costs for the hard-hit airline industry , t he FAA has been reluctant to increase separation distances between 757s and tail ing airplanes . Researchers have speculated that the 757 's unique , sleek-wing design may be the cause of the turbulence that can be unusually powerful for an aircraft of its size . Both the fatal accidents occurred when corporate jets fle w into wake turbulence as they were preparing to land . The Santa Ana crash occu rred when a twin-engine corporate jet was on a landing approach to John Wayne Ai rport . The jet , which was 2.1 miles behind a Boeing 757 , went out of control and slammed nose-first into the ground . All five aboard , including the top two executives of the In-N-Out Burger chain , were killed . The NTSB is still inves tigating the accident , but turbulence from the 757 is said to have played a par t . The other fatal crash occurred in Billings , Mont. , in 1992 . Eight people were killed . NTSB spokesman Mike Benson said the safety board will review the F AA 's new policies and draft a formal response over the next several weeks . Bob Flock , a spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Association , said , `` We think it 's a good beginning . It certainly addresses part of our concern . But it doesn 't , for instance , address separation on departures . '' ALPA , the largest pil ots ' organization in the world , recently issued its own advisory on 757s , rec ommending that pilots of smaller aircraft even MD-80s , Boeing 737s and DC-9s re main five miles or at least `` two minutes '' behind 757s on final approach , Fl ocke said . The organization also has recommended that pilots ask the control to wer for extra time when taking off behind 757s , Flocke said , to give more time for the 757 turbulence to diminish . Despite concerns from other corners of the aviation industry , the FAA said it believes that the four-mile separation is s afe enough for now . `` The FAA believes that this interim increased separation will provide an extra margin of safety without unnecessarily impacting system ca pacity , '' FAA Administrator Hinson wrote in a May 20 letter outlining the chan ges to NTSB Chairman Vogt . ( Optional add end ) The four-mile separation , Hins on wrote , recently was adopted by the Civil Aviation Authority in Great Britain and `` has significantly reduced the number of reported incidents '' there . As part of its new policies on 757s , Hinson said , the FAA is embarking on a two- year test with the help of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to determine the precise level of danger 757 wake turbulence poses . The four-mile separation limit will remain in effect until testing shows whether additional di stance is warranted , Hinson said . Leo Garodz , a former FAA manager who was am ong the first to bring the 757 wake turbulence problem to the agency 's attentio n in 1991 , said the new policies represented an `` initial step , '' but nothin g more . `` It 's a beginning , but it 's only a beginning , because there 's go ing to be another accident , because things are not that precise at airports whe n there is a heavy traffic load , '' Garodz said . WASHINGTON A federal grand jury indicted House Ways and Means Committee Chairma n Dan Rostenkowski on corruption charges Tuesday , alleging that over the past t wo decades he stole nearly $ 640,000 from taxpayers and then tried to thwart an investigation into the alleged wrongdoing . Rostenkowski , an Illinois Democrat who over the past 35 years rose to become one of the most powerful members of Co ngress , defiantly rejected a plea bargain over the weekend and vowed to fight i n court to regain his reputation . The 17-count indictment , resulting from a tw o-year federal investigation , charged that over a 21-year period , Rostenkowski defrauded taxpayers of $ 638,000 and violated federal elections rules by misrep orting $ 56,000 in campaign funds spent for his personal benefit . It alleged th at he carried out his criminal scheme by putting `` ghost workers '' including a future son-in-law on his House payroll to perform personal services ; trading s tamps and postage vouchers for cash at the House post office ; charging the gove rnment for expensive gifts to friends ; and creating fake car leases to get taxp ayers to put up most of the purchase price of seven personal vehicles . In addit ion to charges of embezzlement , mail and wire fraud , conspiracy , concealing m aterial facts and aiding and abetting , Rostenkowski was accused of obstructing justice by urging a subpoenaed witness not to tell the grand jury of doing perso nal engraving work allegedly paid for from House funds . Indirectly , the indict ment also alleged , Rostenkowski used the House payroll to renovate and clean hi s home , rent campaign offices and get his laundry picked up . At the House stat ionery store , the Justice Department charged , Rostenkowski bought $ 42,500 in hand-carved chairs , crystal Capitol replicas , china and luggage as personal gi fts or for his own use , passing them off as for official use . In February , wi th the investigation nearing U.S. . Attorney Eric Holder 's recommendation of an indictment , Rostenkowski wrote the Treasury a reimbursement check for $ 82,095 for possible misuse of official resources in ordering the gifts . After months of news reports and leaks from the investigation , only two aspects of the indic tment were newly made public Tuesday : The witness-tampering count and a charge that many of the ghost workers had to kick back part of their paychecks to Roste nkowski 's Chicago office manager , who allegedly kept `` thousands of dollars ' ' on hand for undisclosed purposes . According to Holder , the engraver was one of `` at least '' 14 virtually do-nothing employees on Rostenkowski 's official payroll . They allegedly received a total of $ 529,200 from the government while mainly handling such personal chores as mowing the congressman 's vacation-home lawn , keeping the books for his family insurance business and photographing hi s daughters ' weddings . The indictment will complicate matters for President Cl inton , who was counting on Rostenkowski to help shepherd his health care legisl ation and other key parts of his agenda through Congress . `` Like all Americans , Chairman Rostenkowski has the right to contest the charges made against him a nd to have his day in court , '' Clinton stated . `` Chairman Rostenkowski and o thers have helped create real momentum for health care reform , and I am confide nt that legislation will pass this year . '' Although required by Democratic cau cus rules to give up his chairmanship until the charges against him are resolved , Rostenkowski said he intends to remain in office and run for a 19th term in N ovember . `` I am confident that I will be vindicated , '' he said in a statemen t Monday . But at a news conference Tuesday afternoon in which he outlined the f elony counts against Rostenkowski , Holder said , `` We don't bring cases when w e think we cannot win them . '' Holder said Rostenkowski 's alleged conduct was `` very reprehensible , very offensive '' and `` a betrayal of the public trust for personal gain . '' The federal statutes involved carry maximum total prison time of 110 years and $ 365,000 in fines , but under complex sentencing guidelin es , U.S. . District Judge Norma Holloway Johnson probably would order the defen dant to serve `` several years in jail '' if convicted on all counts , Holder sa id . ( Optional add end ) Holder expected an arraignment before Johnson in about 10 days , but he said a trial date would be hard to predict because defense mot ions could cause long delays . The trial probably would be held in Washington , Holder said . The indicted legislator made no public comment Tuesday . Rostenkow ski 's lawyer , Robert Bennett , reportedly had recommended to his client the ac ceptance of a deal for a one-count felony guilty plea and a few months ' jail ti me . Bennett said Tuesday he had `` nothing to add '' to Rostenkowski 's stateme nt . Rumored to be on the way out as Rostenkowski 's lawyer , Bennett was still representing the defendant Tuesday . The investigation of Rostenkowski was promp ted by corruption scandals at the House post office , in which former House Post master Robert V. Rota and eight other individuals have pleaded guilty . Between 1978 and 1991 , Rota often personally handed cash to Rostenkowski at the committ ee chairman 's behest in return for federally paid stamps or vouchers , the indi ctment claimed . Rostenkowski was accused of amassing at least $ 50,000 by maski ng the cash handovers as stamp purchases . Holder said the post office investiga tion is continuing . WASHINGTON A federal grand jury Tuesday charged Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , an old- line Chicago politician who wields vast influence in the House , with 17 serious crimes , ranging from grand-scale fraud to petty money manipulation over a 20-y ear span . In a 49-page indictment that threatens the Illinois Democrat with man y years in federal prison and potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in fi nes , he was charged with making personal use of upward of $ 700,000 in money be longing to the House or to his campaign committees . Depending upon how federal judges would figure the prison sentence they might give , the maximum Rostenkows ki faces if convicted of all of the charges is 110 years in jail and $ 365,000 i n fines . Eric H . Holder Jr. , the U.S. . Attorney for the District of Columbia , told reporters at a news conference that the charges `` represent a betrayal of the public trust for personal gain '' by Rostenkowski , who stood accused of using `` his elective office to perpetrate an extensive fraud on the American pe ople . '' The indictment came after the breakdown of intense plea bargaining . W hen a deal could not be reached , Holder was free to put the massive indictment to a vote in the grand jury . The congressman , who knew all of the accusations that prosecutors were preparing to make , said over the weekend : `` I did not c ommit any crimes . '' Tuesday , the lawmaker who has represented the North Side of Chicago in Congress for the last 35 years , remained silent and out of sight in the wake of the indictment that he has vowed to fight . Already , however , t he charges took away at least temporarily his power-laden post as chairman of th e Ways and Means Committee a position outranked in influence by few if any posts in the House other than that of the speaker . Under the rules of the House Demo cratic Caucus , made up of all the Democrats in that chamber , the congressman h ad to step down as committee chairman because he was indicted for a felony that could lead to two years or more in prison . If he is later found not guilty , he may resume his chairmanship . He may go on serving in the House , and seeking r e-election , while the charges are pending . In summary , the U.S. attorney said , Rostenkowski was being accused of `` abusing his congressional allowances whi ch are paid for by American taxpayers '' in these ways : Putting people on the c ongressional payroll `` who did little or no official work , '' but who instead did personal and family chores in return for more than $ 500,000 in payments . O btaining `` at least $ 50,000 in cash from the House Post Office by disguising h is transactions as stamp purchases . '' Charging Congress and the taxpayers `` m ore than $ 40,000 for the purchase of valuable merchandise .. . handed out as gi fts to his friends . '' `` Causing Congress to pay over $ 70,000 in taxpayer mon ey for personal vehicles used by himself and his family . '' `` He obstructed ju stice by instructing a witness to withhold evidence from the grand jury . '' Tha t charge was based on allegations that the congressman directly told a House sta ff member an engraver who was doing personal work for the congressman on gifts h e was handing out not to say anything after getting a subpoena from the grand ju ry . Rostenkowski 's `` elaborate scheme to defraud , '' prosecutors said , invo lves the congressional payroll , the House Post Office , the House 's stationery store and the purchase of autos as a `` mobile district office . '' He was accu sed specifically of embezzlement , mail and wire fraud , covering up key facts , plotting to defraud , mail and wire fraud , and false reporting of campaign spe nding . Rostenkowski is expected to plead not guilty before a federal judge here within the next 10 days . Holder said he expected the trial to be in Washington , but said he could not estimate when . The prosecutor conceded that if Rostenk owski claims legal immunity under the Constitution to charges because they invol ved actions as a legislator , `` that could have a delaying effect on how long i t takes us to get to trial . '' Holder added that Rep. Joseph McDade . , R-Penn , was charged two years ago with taking bribes `` and has yet to come to trial . '' ( Optional add end ) President Clinton , whose legislative agenda including health care reform had appeared to be dependent on Rostenkowski 's influence in Congress , said in a statement that `` like all Americans , Chairman Rostenkowsk i has the right to contest the charges made against him and to have his day in c ourt . '' The president went on to praise Rostenkowski `` and others '' for help ing to `` create real momentum for health care reform . '' Holder , asked if his office had come under any political or White House pressure in its investigatio n of Rostenkowski , said `` no , not at all . '' The probe was `` free from any kind of outside interference and free from any kind of political pressure . '' D istributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service . WASHINGTON The United States has reached an agreement with Jamaica to set up a facility on the Caribbean island to process Haitian refugees , according to offi cials close to negotiations that have been taking place between the two nations for several days . The agreement is likely to be announced Wednesday in Kingston , the officials said . This is the first time another government has offered to help the Clinton administration share the burden of handling those who flee Hai ti 's military regime by taking to the sea , most of them seeking political asyl um in the United States . Aside from providing a diplomatic boost to the adminis tration 's efforts , Jamaica has helped resolve logistical problems that have be deviled U.S. officials for weeks . The United States asked Jamaica to consider h osting a refugee facility last week and since then U.S. and Jamaican officials h ave been engaged in almost continuous discussions , here and in Kingston . The l ikely agreement would allow the United States to anchor or dock large ships in a Jamaican port or at least close to shore , the officials said . The ships would be used to house Haitians picked up by the Coast Guard and would serve as a pro cessing center where their applications for refugee status would be heard and ad judicated . U.S. officials could be housed on land along with all facilities nee ded to support the ships . President Clinton 's special advisor on Haiti , forme r House member William H . Gray III , was to arrive in Jamaica Tuesday afternoon and begin meetings with top Jamaican officials today . Deputy Secretary of Stat e Strobe Talbott is due to begin a visit to Kingston Thursday . A formal agreeme nt on a processing facility could be announced during these meetings , officials said , and the first Haitians could be brought to Jamaica as early as the begin ning of next week . `` We are encouraged by the progress that has been made in t he talks and we are hopeful progress will continue and that we will be able to s ay something more on this soon , '' a senior U.S. official said . In recent week s Clinton repeatedly has emphasized his desire to pursue a policy on Haiti with international and especially regional support . He was able to win such backing for tighter economic sanctions against Haiti , which went into effect on May 21 . But it has proved more difficult for Clinton to get help with the other half o f his Haitian dilemma , the handling of boat people . After protests by civil ri ghts groups and refugee advocates , Clinton on May 8 ended a policy of automatic ally returning all Haitians picked up at sea without giving them a chance to see k the shelter of refugee status . Instead he promised to set up facilities that would let the Haitians apply for refugee status , which entitles them to permane nt resettlement in the United States . Clinton insisted , however , that most bo at people were likely to be rejected and sent back . Although it has held discus sions with a number of governments in the regions , the only expression of suppo rt the administration had received thus far was an agreement with the U.N. . Hig h Commissioner for Refugees to cooperate on handling the boat people . Last week the United States sought permission to locate a processing facility on the Turk s and Caicos Islands , a British dependency , but has yet to receive a response . LOS ANGELES Los Angeles police officers staged day two of their mass sickout Tu esday , causing minor disruption of public service , exasperating city officials and prompting Mayor Richard Riordan to call for a mediator to step in . In an u nusual joint appearance designed to signal the seriousness and solidarity of the city 's leadership , Riordan appeared with six council members standing behind him as he spelled out the city 's budget woes . `` The city respects the police and wants to give them a raise and reward them for a job well done , '' Riordan said . `` ( But ) the city is facing the gravest fiscal situation since the Grea t Depression . '' The mayor called on the officers ' union , the Police Protecti ve League , to permit an impartial mediator to settle the two-year-old dispute . `` If mediation is rejected , the council will have no other choice in my opini on and I believe they will vote for an impasse , '' Riordan said . Declaration o f an impasse would allow the city to call in a mediator without the union 's app roval ; if mediation fails , the city ultimately could impose a contract unilate rally . Although officially unsanctioned by the officers ' union , the job actio n known as `` Blue Flu II '' enjoyed wide support from the rank-and-file Tuesday : Of 548 officers scheduled to report to day watch duty , 248 or 43 percent cal led in sick . Other officers were ordered to work double shifts to cover for the ir `` ailing '' colleagues . The three-day sickout was scheduled to enter its fi nal stretch with the Tuesday evening shift calling in sick . The union , legally barred from any official involvement in the sickout , denounced the mayor 's su ggestion that a mediator be appointed , condemning it as a stalling tactic that would only escalate the dispute . Union leaders also decried the increasingly ra ncorous tenor of the management-labor dispute . The city has offered 3 percent r aises over the next two years . The union is seeking retroactive raises for the two years officers have worked without a contract . A rookie officer earns about $ 33,000 a year . WASHINGTON Welfare recipients , unemployed workers and military pensioners move d closer to joining the cashless society Tuesday as Vice President Gore announce d plans for a new nationwide system of delivering federal and state benefits ele ctronically . In five years , Gore said , the governments will be delivering mor e than $ 111 billion in benefits annually to recipients through electronic trans fers , with recipients using magnetically encoded `` benefit security cards '' t o make transactions at bank automatic teller machines and to receive food stamp credit when buying groceries . The new system , one of the `` reinventing govern ment '' proposals in Gore 's National Performance Review last year , will save u p to $ 195 million a year in paperwork and greatly reduce fraud and theft of ben efit checks , the vice president said . Pilot electronic transfer programs for f ood stamp distribution will be gradually expanded from the few states already in volved Maryland , Texas and New Mexico among them to cover Aid to Families With Dependent Children ( AFDC ) , the main state-federal welfare program , Veterans Affairs compensation , military pensions , civil service retirement programs , S upplemental Security Income ( SSI ) , unemployment insurance and other benefit p rograms . An electronic benefits task force , headed by Elizabeth Sawhill , asso ciate director for human resources at the Office of Management and Budget , is w orking with the Southern Alliance of States to develop the first federal-state p rototype of the new benefits system . Gore said thousands of automatic teller ma chines and supermarkets across the country will be linked to federal and state a gencies by commercial computer networks so that by 1999 food stamps and paper ch ecks will be virtually eliminated in most government benefit programs . The vice president said bank executives had expressed support for the program because it will give them opportunities to add new customers . He said recipients of 12 pr ograms who receive $ 31 million a year in benefits but do not have bank accounts would still be able to withdraw cash benefits through automatic teller machines by using the benefits card and a personal identification number . Agriculture S ecretary Mike Espy , who joined Gore in a news conference to announce the plan , said his department spends $ 75 million a year printing and distributing $ 22 b illion worth of food stamps and another $ 22 billion to retrieve and destroy the used coupons and reconcile them . He said welfare recipients still would not be able to purchase excluded items such as alcohol with food stamp credit because the computer automatically would reject such purchases . The Consumers Union , h owever , criticized the plan , calling it a `` disaster for public assistance re cipients '' and accusing the government of `` bowing '' to banks seeking to make more profits and state governments wanting to cut administrative costs . Michel le Meier , counsel for the union , said welfare recipients not only will have to pay a withdrawal fee for each automatic teller machine transaction , but will b e exempted from regulations that require other consumers to bear only a portion of the loss when funds are stolen from their account . WASHINGTON A federal grand jury Tuesday charged Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , with misappropriating more than a $ 500,000 , tampering with a witness and usi ng taxpayers ' money to enrich himself , his friends and his family . `` The all egations contained in today 's indictment represent a betrayal of the public tru st for personal gain , '' said U.S. . Attorney Eric H . Holder Jr. `` .. . Congr essman Rostenkowski used his elective office to perpetrate extensive fraud on th e American people . '' The 17-count indictment charges that Rostenkowski , 66 , chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee , engaged in a pattern of corrupt activity for more than 20 years . He personally directed the House Finance Offi ce to place at least 14 `` ghost employees '' who performed little or no officia l work on the payroll , the grand jury said . Instead , they mowed the lawn of h is vacation house in Wisconsin , picked up his laundry , took pictures at his da ughters ' weddings and supervised the renovation of Rostenkowski 's house , the indictment charges . In one instance , Rostenkowski 's future , now former , son -in-law was required to return most of his government salary to the congressman in cash kickbacks , the indictment said . The government also alleges that Roste nkowski obtained seven cars valued at more than $ 100,000 from a Chicago dealers hip , while paying only $ 5,294 from the bank account of his daughters . The rem ainder of the debt was paid by the government and his campaign committee , prose cutors allege . The charges were leveled one day after Rostenkowski rejected a p roposed plea agreement with prosecutors and went on the offensive , denying all charges and vowing to fight in court. `` I have always fought for what I believe in , '' Rostenkowski said in a statement faxed around the country Monday evenin g . `` I strongly believe that I am not guilty of these charges and will fight t o regain my reputation in court. .. . This will be a difficult fight . The gover nment has vast resources at its disposal . '' A Rostenkowski spokesman said the 36-year veteran of Congress would have no comment Tuesday and that his earlier s tatement would suffice . Holder called the actions `` offensive and reprehensibl e , '' stating that such official misconduct had a `` corrosive effect '' on the nation 's `` democratic system of government and on the trust our citizens have in their elected officials . '' Rostenkowski is expected to be arraigned within the next 10 days , but a trial date is uncertain , prosecutors said , because o f the time required to respond to expected defense motions . If the charges were taken separately , Rostenkowski would face a maximum penalty of more than 100 y ears in prison if convicted , but federal sentencing guidelines would prescribe much less confinement . Holder said Rostenkowski faced `` several years . '' The indictment alleges that Rostenkowski abused his congressional payroll account , his House Stationery Store privileges , his House Post Office prerogatives and his expense allotment for vehicle leasing . Holder said that Rostenkowski `` reg ularly put people on his congressional payroll who did little or no official wor k , but who instead performed a variety of personal services for him , his famil y , his family insurance business , and his campaign organizations . '' Holder s aid that payments to them exceeded $ 500,000 . The government charges that betwe en July 1971 and July 1992 , Rostenkowski placed 14 people on his congressional payroll who performed personal services for him and his family . One person alle gedly received $ 20,000 in federal funds for taking photographs at the congressm an 's daughters ' weddings , political fund-raisers and parties held at Rostenko wski 's family vacation house . A second person allegedly received $ 48,400 duri ng a four-year period while performing no government work . The father of that s ame `` ghost employee '' paid two of Rostenkowski 's daughters a total of $ 48,0 00 through the payroll of the Illinois State Senate Office , the indictment char ges . Another person , identified as Rostenkowski 's 17-year-old godson , collec ted $ 1,500 in government salary in 1976 for `` mowing the grass .. . at defenda nt Rostenkowski 's summer home . '' During much of this period , Rostenkowski al legedly maintained `` close '' control over his payroll , personally determining each month who should be added to the accounts , how they long they would remai n and how much they should be paid , the indictment charges . Further , Rostenko wski instructed the House Finance Office not to disclose any payroll information to members of his staff . The indictment charges that Rostenkowski kept the sam e `` payroll counselor '' to assist him in `` payroll matters '' for 10 years in violation of House policy that required such staff to be rotated every two year s in an effort to prevent fraud . Rostenkowski 's office created an `` untraceab le '' supply of cash by instructing several employees to cash their checks and r eturn them to the Chicago district office manager , prosecutors alleged . `` The n , as these people performed services whether personal , official or campaign r elated they were paid in cash in substantially smaller amounts than the checks t hat initially had been issued to them . '' The indictment also alleges that Rost enkowski obstructed justice by instructing a witness to withhold evidence from t he grand jury . In 1991 , Rostenkowski asked a House employee whom he had earlie r placed on the congressional office payroll to engrave 50 brass plaques and to place them on the bases of 50 sculptures of the U.S. Capitol , prosecutors said . The plaques and the sculptures had been bought at the House Stationary Store a nd charged to his official account . The employee was asked to engrave the names of recipients , followed by a phrase such as `` friendship '' or `` our pal , ' ' and then followed by the first name of Rostenkowski and his wife . The employe e did the work for no charge . In September 1993 , the employee was asked to tes tify before a grand jury investigating Rostenkowski . `` The engraver ( employee ) went to see the congressman 's administrative assistant in Washington , who h ad earlier told him that Rostenkowski 's campaign committee was paying for lawye rs for people called before the grand jury , '' Holder said . `` After putting t he engraver in contact with an attorney , the administrative assistant told the engraver that Rostenkowski wished to speak with him . Over the telephone , Roste nkowski instructed the engraver not to say anything about the crystal sculptures . . . . ' ' Rostenkowski obtained some $ 40,000 in merchandise from the House St ationery Store , the bulk of which he distributed as gifts to friends and associ ates , prosecutors said. `` He charged the items to his official expenses allowa nce , causing Congress to pay for them based on his false representation that th e items were being purchased for official use , '' Holder said . The list of ite ms purchased included : 60 wooden armchairs , handpainted and inscribed with his name for $ 379 each , 60 crystal sculptures of the U.S. Capitol at total cost o f $ 12,000 , 250 pieces of china at $ 5,000 and 22 pieces of luggage valued at $ 2,200 . Prosecutors charge that Rostenkowski obtained at least $ 50,000 in cash from the post office by `` disguising the transactions as stamp purchases . '' Members of Congress have `` franking privileges '' that enable them to send offi cial mail without postage . However , the frank cannot be used for certified , i nsured or express mail , and for these letters lawmakers can purchase stamps at the House Post Office . House members are required to submit vouchers that must be signed by the legislators , certifying that they have paid for or received th e postage specified on the voucher . From May 1985 through May 1987 , Rostenkows ki personally obtained $ 11,500 from the House Post Office through the postmaste r , the indictment states . The postmaster got the cash from the post office sup ervisor of accounts , according to the charges . When that supervisor left in 19 87 , the postmaster allegedly told Rostenkowski that he was no longer able to ob tain the cash . `` When the second supervisor of accounts left in 1989 , Congres sman Rostenkowski personally intervened and insisted that one of his patronage e mployees be promoted to the position , '' a Justice Department press statement s aid . Then , during a 21-month period in July 1989 and April 1991 , Rostenkowski obtained $ 9,800 more in exchange for vouchers and stamps , prosecutors said , noting that the alleged scheme ended one month later when Capitol Police began i nvestigating allegations of embezzlement . Prosecutors charge that Rostenkowski was able to develop a `` unique '' relationship with a suburban Chicago Ford dea lership , enabling him to obtain immediate possession of and title to vehicles w ithout a down payment , without taking out a loan , without signing a promissory note , without paying interest on the debt and without making regular payments . Rostenkowski submitted fraudulent lease agreements to the House Finance Office , which `` falsely '' represented that the payments would be for leasing the ve hicles , prosecutors said . About $ 73,000 in government funds were used for the vehicles which were `` for the personal use of himself and his family . '' The indictment was issued after a two-week period of plea bargaining discussions wit h Rostenkowski 's attorney , Robert S. Bennett. Last week the congressman declin ed to accept an agreement that he plead guilty to at least one felony count and serve a limited time in jail . Rostenkowski was said to have entered the negotia tions in effort to reduce or eliminate any prison sentence while avoiding a leng thy court battle . He also wanted to retain his chairmanship . Such talks are co nsidered normal and should not affect his trial . Holder said Rostenkowski 's at torneys initiated the talks , and that the government 's only interest was in av oiding a costly trial . The talks in no way , he said , were reflective of conce rn on his part about the strength of the case . Sources said the talks ended wit hout agreement because Rostenkowski maintained his innocence . There had been so me tension between Rostenkowski and Bennett over the handling of his case and th ere was speculation about whether Bennett would continue . Longtime friends had urged the lawmaker to fight , while defense attorneys urged him to weigh all opt ions and even suggested that he get a second opinion about whether to accept a p lea bargain . WASHINGTON In a step that eventually would eliminate paper Social Security , we lfare checks and food stamps , Vice President Al Gore unveiled a program Tuesday that would allow electronic access to government benefits . Using a plastic aut omated teller machine card , welfare recipients and Social Security pensioners w ithout bank accounts would be able to walk up to any ATM terminal and withdraw t heir share of the $ 500 billion in benefit payments that the federal government doles out annually . The electronic delivery system , designed as part of the Cl inton administration 's `` reinventing government '' initiative , is projected t o go on-line nationally in 1999 . Government officials from nine states Florida , Alabama , Georgia , North Carolina , South Carolina , Tennessee , Kentucky , A rkansas and Missouri will start phasing in the electronic transfer plan in their region this year . The system is expected to be running in those states in 1996 . `` This card makes it much easier to deliver the right benefits to the right people with much less paperwork , '' Gore said at a ceremony here Tuesday . Appe aring with him were Health and Human Services Secretary Donna E. Shalala , Agric ulture Secretary Mike Espy and Texas Comptroller John Sharp , who is overseeing what will be the largest state electronics benefits transfer project when it is fully phased in next year . Electronic delivery , once fully installed , is expe cted to reduce the fraud and abuse that plague current assistance programs and s implify labyrinthian federal and state benefits systems , saving taxpayers $ 195 million annually , Gore said . With the electronic system , `` there 's conside rably less paper . The flip side is that we 'll have an electronic audit trail f or every transaction , making fraud much easier to detect and prosecute , '' Sha lala said . For benefits recipients with bank accounts , having their payments d eposited directly is still the most cost-effective means of delivery . But for t he estimated 31 million people without bank accounts who are entitled to food st amps , unemployment payments , Social Security payments , aid to families with d ependent children or other benefits , the electronic system will bring convenien ce and relief from the `` stigma '' associated with receiving government aid , a ccording to Espy . Federal and state governments pay $ 111 billion in military a nd federal pensions , veterans ' compensation , student loans and general assist ance to recipients without bank accounts each year . In comparison , the annual fund flow for VISA , the nation 's most widely used credit card , approaches $ 1 80 billion , the Gore task force that came up with the plan said . Food stamp re cipients would swipe the benefits card through a debit card machine in a grocery store instead of paying for their purchases with paper vouchers . The card woul d block recipients from buying prohibited products and allow government fraud in vestigators to track transactions more closely than does the current system . Ea ch card user would have a personal identification number to prevent thieves from using stolen cards . Printing food stamps vouchers that grocery shoppers use in stead of cash is wasteful because each voucher can only be used once , Espy said . In inner city areas , food stamp transactions can comprise as much as 40 perc ent of a grocery store 's retail food sales , according to the task force . Once the food stamps are collected by grocery stores and shipped back to the Agricul ture Department , they are burned . `` The food stamps program we 've been opera ting in this country for the last 30 years belongs in the same place the dinosau rs are , '' Sharp said . Texas state officials began developing their electronic system to pay veterans ' and old age benefits in 1991 , he said . But benefits recipients could be liable for a large chunk of the cost of goods purchased with pilfered cards and could be forced to pay ATM-user fees . Under a current feder al law known as Regulation E , a consumer is entitled to reimbursement from his credit card company for all but the first $ 50 that is fraudulently charged on a stolen card if the theft is reported within two days . Earlier this year , howe ver , the Federal Reserve Board exempted the electronic benefits system from the rule for three years . ( Optional add end ) Critics fear that the potential fra ud losses may bar expansion of the system . Gore 's report says that the federal government will work with states and the banking industry to develop strategies to limit exposure to fraudulent claims and distribute the liability among all w ho have a stake in the new system . Gore 's plan permits commercial banks to cha rge welfare recipient fees for each transaction , and represents `` a kick in th e teeth '' to poor people , said Michelle Meier , counsel for government affairs for the Consumers Union , which publishes Consumer Report magazine . `` We are very disappointed that the administration appears to be laying the groundwork to cut the safety net on poor people , '' Meier said . Pilot programs enacted so f ar appear to have met with some success , however . Maryland is the only state n ow fully operating the electronic delivery system . It pays about $ 55 million i n food stamps , child support and other benefits each month to about 250,000 peo ple . WASHINGTON Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , was indicted on 17 felony counts of fraud and embezzlement Tuesday , a far broader set of charges than many expecte d , for alleged acts that ranged from taking kickbacks of government funds from a son-in-law to buying cars for his family with public and campaign money . The lawmaker also is accused of personally tampering with a witness last September b y instructing him not to reveal potentially incriminating information to the fed eral grand jury investigating the case , and of using government wages to pay em ployees who performed little official work but did such personal chores as photo graphing one of his daughter 's weddings and mowing the lawn at his summer home . The indictment , which alleges corruption over more than 20 years , also charg ed Rostenkowski , who has been in Congress nearly 36 years , with using postage vouchers to steal cash from Congress and cashing campaign fund checks at the Hou se Post Office to disguise them as stamp purchases , an outgrowth of the House P ost Office probe that led to the Rostenkowski case . U.S. . Attorney Eric H . Ho lder Jr. announced the charges after plea-bargaining talks collapsed and Rostenk owski defiantly proclaimed his innocence . Holder said Rostenkowski `` used his elective office to perpetrate an extensive fraud on the American people '' that amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars . ( Begin optional trim ) Holder sa id the cost of the alleged misconduct `` must also be measured in terms of the c orrosive effect it has on our democratic system of government and on the trust o ur citizens have in their elected officials . `` The criminal acts of a few feed the cynicism which increasingly haunts our political landscape , '' Holder said . This causes `` too many of our citizens to assume that all persons in public office are motivated by greed and self-interest , and to succumb to the defeatis t notion that we must resign ourselves to the fact that a certain level of polit ical misconduct is a way of life . '' ( End optional trim ) House Speaker Tom Fo ley , D-Wash. , contending that Rostenkowski `` clearly deserves the presumption of innocence , '' said the Chicago native has stepped aside as chairman of the House Ways and Means committee until the charges are resolved , in keeping with rules of the Democratic Caucus . Rep. Sam Gibbons , D-Fla. , ranking member of t he panel which has a crucial role in handling health care reform , will become a cting chairman , but Rostenkowski `` will continue to be fully involved , '' Fol ey said . President Clinton tried to minimize the impact on health care , saying `` real momentum '' has been created and that he is confident the legislation w ill pass this year . But the political fallout of the grand jury 's action appea red substantial . Rarely have Rostenkowski 's legendary deal-making skills been more sorely needed than now , when Clinton is asking a Democratic Congress to ta ke a risky leap on health care reform shortly before an election when many polit ical futures are at stake . Following that battle , Ways and Means will be at th e center of other issues that could be crucial to the success of Clinton 's pres idency most notably , welfare reform , trade and , once again , revamping the So cial Security system . Yet while Rostenkowski 's giving up the chairmanship will make the already difficult task of passing health legislation even harder , few believe that the survival of health care reform hinges on having him there to c ut the deal . The political forces at work on the issue are so large that they t ranscend any one person 's influence even one as important as Rostenkowski 's . Indeed , despite the negotiations surrounding the impending indictment , Rostenk owski has devoted himself to the health care bill with a single-mindedness that many of his colleagues have found remarkable . `` Rostenkowski 's ( bill ) is da mn near ready , '' said one administration official . ( Begin optional trim ) Be cause he did not agree to a plea-bargain that would have forced his resignation from Congress , Rostenkowski will remain on the committee . As long as it remain s possible that he will return to the chairmanship , he can still exert some inf luence among Democrats . And because the committee Democrats will be drafting th eir bill behind closed doors , Rostenkowski may still find a way to operate as t he panel 's de facto chairman , while Gibbons assumes the public role . If Roste nkowski were convicted of all the felony counts , he theoretically could be sent enced to 110 years in prison and fined a maximum of $ 365,000 , excluding any re stitution he was ordered to pay . But all the charges are subject to the federal sentencing guidelines , which prescribe ranges of punishment depending on such factors as whether the crime involved an abuse of trust . ( End optional trim ) Holder said he expected the trial to take place here and last several weeks . Wh ile arraingment will be held within 10 days , Holder would not forecast when the trial would begin . The 49-page indictment alleged that Rostenkowski created an elaborate scheme to defraud Congress and taxpayers through the misuse of congre ssional allowances involving payroll , the House Stationery Store , the House Po st Office and purchase of vehicles . He also was charged with embezzlement , con spiracy , obstruction of justice and concealing material facts from Congress and the Federal Election Commission . In the payroll allegations , Rostenkowski was charged with misappropriating approximately $ 500,000 in taxpayer funds by plac ing at least 14 people on his payroll who did little or no congressional work . The workers included a former son-in-law who allegedly received $ 10,400 in gove rnment salary but performed no work in the congressional office and was required to give most of the money back to his former father-in-law as cash kickbacks . In another arrangement , prosecutors say the son of an Illinois state senator , not identified in the indictment , drew about $ 48,400 in salary from Rostenkows ki 's congressional office , though he did no official work . Over the same 1983 -1986 time period , the indictment charged , the state senator paid two of Roste nkowski 's daughters a total of $ 48,000 through his payroll . In the House Stat ionery Store scheme , Rostenkowski allegedly obtained more than $ 40,000 worth o f valuable merchandise , most of which he handed out as gifts to personal friend s and associates . But he was accused of charging the items to his official expe nse allowance , which Congress paid . ( Optional Add End ) The obstruction of ju stice count involved a House engraver whom Rostenkowski allegedly put on his pay roll to engrave 50 brass plaques and attach them to 50 crystal sculptures of the Capitol that he obtained from the House Stationery Story and charged to his off icial expense allowance . Last September the engraver was subpoenaed to testify before the federal grand jury looking into Rostenkowski . Before testifying , ho wever , the engraver , whom Holder declined to identify , was instructed by Rost enkowski during a telephone call not to tell the grand jury about the Capitol sc ulptures he had engraved for the congressman . Holder declined to discuss the pr ovisions of the plea bargain that Rostenkowski rejected , against the advice of his lawyers . But a source familiar with the negotiations said it involved admit ting some elements of the stationery store allegations , the acquisition of vehi cles on false grounds and the ghost employee charges . The proposed deal also ca lled for Rostenkowski to resign from Congress and to serve a six-month jail sent ence , the source said . The plea-bargaining put a strain on relations between R ostenkowski and his lawyers , Robert S. Bennett and Carl Rauh , but Bennett was still representing him Tuesday morning , Holder noted . RIVERSIDE , Calif. . The former Nation of Islam minister who is suspected of sh ooting Khallid Abdul Muhammad on Sunday night was seen outside a Los Angeles the ater the previous night while Muhammad was speaking inside , sources said Tuesda y . Several Nation of Islam members knew the shooting suspect , 49-year-old Jame s Edward Bess , of Tacoma , Wash. , and recognized him as he sat in his parked c ar , then walked back and forth outside the theater , said various sources , who spoke on condition of anonymity . Police investigators said they were trying to learn whether Muhammad , one of the most controversial figures within the Natio n of Islam , was being stalked by Bess . ( Begin optional trim ) Inside of Bess ' vehicle , which was parked near the University of California , Riverside , gym nasium where Sunday 's shooting occured , police found a scope-equipped , high-p owered rifle and ammunition . Outside the gymnasium , police recovered a backpac k containing two additional semi-automatic handguns , similar to the one they sa y was used in the shooting . ( End optional trim ) Police said Tuesday they rema ined clueless about Bess ' motives and had little information about Bess ' falli ng-out with the Nation of Islam . `` We 're not dealing with a whodunit , '' sai d UC Riverside Police Chief Hank Rosenfeld . `` We know whodunit . What we 're d ealing with is , why ? '' ( Optional Add End ) Bess was arraigned Tuesday aftern oon before Riverside Municipal Court Judge Gary Tranbarger . He was formally cha rged with one count of attempted premeditated murder , with the use of a gun and inflicting great bodily injury . Bess also was charged with five counts of assa ult with a firearm with infliction of great bodily injury . The most serious cha rge carries a possible life prison term . Bess remains hospitalized at Riverside General Hospital for injuries he sustained from a beating he took in the melee following the shooting . Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Bill Mitchell said doctors gave the go-ahead for Bess to be taken by wheelchair from the hosp ital to the courtroom , dressed in blue pajamas and his left arm bandaged to his side to protect a broken shoulder . Abrasions on his face and head were apparen t . Answering the judge 's inquiries in a soft voice , Bess pleaded not guilty t o the six counts and was assigned a public defender , Mitchell said . His prelim inary hearing was scheduled for June 14 , and he was being held without bail and under police guard . Muhammad , who was suspended as spokesman for the Nation o f Islam by Louis Farrakhan after a verbal assault on Jews , Arabs and whites was roundly denunciated , underwent surgery Tuesday night at Riverside Community Ho spital to remove a bullet lodged in his leg . Persons familiar with Bess charact erized him as a generally loyal follower of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakh an , despite having been removed as minister of a Seattle mosque about four year s ago , and later ousted altogether from the Nation of Islam . One source said B ess lost his ranking because he ran an `` unproductive '' mosque , where attenda nce had slipped to an all-time low and was making no money . CAPE CANAVERAL , Fla. . With high hopes for her future , marine scientists retu rned Inky the whale to her Atlantic Ocean home Tuesday after recovering from an overdose of pollution . The well-traveled whale , rescued from a New Jersey beac h on Thanksgiving and nursed back to health in a five-month stay at Baltimore 's National Aquarium , was taken into deep water about 35 miles east of Cape Canav eral by a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration vessel and given her f reedom . Inky immediately dispelled the fears of aquarium officials that she wou ld be slow to adapt and simply swim around in circles waiting for a food handout . `` She just took right off , '' said aquarium veterinarian Brent Whitaker aft er Inky nosed into the ocean carrying a small radio transmitter and a microcompu ter so marine experts can keep track of her activities over the next few days . The pygmy sperm whale 's last trip with human caretakers began at the Marineland park south of St. Augustine where she and another stranded female of her specie s , nicknamed Blinky , had occupied round holding pools about 20 feet apart . In ky was carried in a custom-fitted canvas sling by a backhoe and loaded onto a fo am bed in a borrowed refrigerated seafood company truck , while Blinky was moved in like fashion into a Marineland truck for a predawn , 112-mile ride to Cape C anaveral under police escort . Blinky , having overcome a small infection at Mar ineland , was transferred to the Coast Guard Cutter Drummond , while Inky was ta ken aboard the Relentless a 226-foot former Navy submarine surveillance vessel m aking its maiden mission for NOAA and the National Marine Fisheries Service . Bl inky , unencumbered by equipment , was lowered in a sling from the side of the c utter and vanished in the sea swells . Cmdr. Patrick Ruttan said NOAA 's coopera tion was part of its mandated mission to educate the public on ocean pollution l ike the plastic trash that Inky swallowed and nearly died from in November , eme rging as a living symbol of that environmental problem . With the whale 's story being turned into a documentary film for young people , Ruttan said the benefit s `` will far outweigh the costs so far of getting Inky released . '' Aquarium o fficials said those costs could be close to $ 500,000 most of it in donated serv ices from government agencies and the private sector , but not including some 40 ,000 hours of labor provided by the dozens of volunteers in its marine animal re scue program . Inky survived longer in captivity than any other seriously ill py gmy sperm whale , and Dr.Joseph H. Geraci , a consulting veterinarian and marine mammal expert , said she enabled scientists to greatly expand their knowledge o f the species ' physiology and behavior , including the discovery that it emits the highest-frequency sonar-like sound of any whale . Even in being released , I nky will continue to provide information until saltwater exposure disintegrates the bolts attaching the radio transmitter and microcomputer to the whale 's smal l dorsal fin . Geraci said the tiny equipment will tell scientists remaining on NOAA 's Relentless `` what she 's doing out there , what temperature she likes , how deep she 's diving , and that should tell us how well she 's made the adapt ation to freedom . '' Foreign money is pouring into Japanese stocks again , convinced that the Japane se economy 's four-year slide is over and that a robust corporate profit turnaro und is imminent . Many foreign buyers also are betting on another , perhaps more important turnaround : a change in Japanese investors ' gloomy view of their ma rket , which has left most of them watching unimpressed on the sidelines as the gaijin ( foreigners ) snap up Japanese shares . The Nikkei-225 stock index has s oared from 17,417.24 at year 's end to 20,973.59 as of Tuesday , a 20.4 percent gain that makes the Tokyo market among the world 's best this year . In recent d ays the Nikkei has been particularly strong , breaking above the 20,000 mark whe re it had been lodged since February to a nine-month high . Optimism about Japan is running high among many American portfolio managers . The bulls believe that the Japanese economy is finally bottoming and that Japan therefore offers an op portunity to buy stocks on the ground floor of a recovery . Any money manager wh o missed loading up on U.S. stocks for two years while the U.S. economy languish ed naturally doesn't want to make the same mistake twice . And those who played the U.S. market correctly are eager to repeat that success . Barton Biggs , glob al investment strategist for Morgan Stanley & Co. and someone whose opinion carr ies substantial weight with institutional investors , recently told clients that `` the Japanese market is a buy right now . '' Biggs ' case is that Japan 's ma ny ills including a floundering political system , collapsed corporate earnings , a strong yen and horrendous unrealized real estate loan losses at banks are al ready so well known to investors that they must be mostly discounted in the stoc k market . `` What isn't discounted is that Japan is still a huge , powerful eco nomy with a formidable business class running world-class companies located in t he center of the fastest growth area of the world , '' Biggs told clients in a M ay 11 report . Strictly by the numbers , Japan still looks problematic . Real ec onomic growth , which was 4 percent in 1991 , plunged to about 1.5 percent in 19 92 and was a negative 0.1 percent last year . The problem last year was largely internal : Japan 's wealthy consumers sharply reduced their spending as the coun try 's major corporations launched unprecedented restructuring efforts ( includi ng layoffs and deep cuts in capital spending ) to cope with weaker global demand for Japanese exports . In short , 1993 was the year in which corporate Japan fi nally bit the bullet and admitted that the glory days of the 1980s were gone for good . This year , Morgan Stanley expects only 0.7 percent real economic growth for Japan , far below expected U.S. growth and even below what still-suffering Europe should muster . But in 1995 , the Japanese stock market 's U.S. fans expe ct the restructuring payoff to begin . Merrill Lynch & Co. is telling clients th at Japanese corporate earnings could rocket 35 percent next year from this year 's depressed levels . Morgan Stanley 's Biggs expects that a combination of revi ved domestic demand and faster export growth will lead to 5 percent to 6 percent economic growth in Japan for 1995 and 1996 . `` When that happens , profits sho uld explode , '' Biggs contends . `` I guess that reported earnings per share in the industrial sectors could double in the first year of recovery . '' Even so , many investors would argue that Japanese stocks already reflect 1995 earnings gains , and more . After all , the Japanese market 's price-to-earnings ratio is around 70 now , based on estimated 1994 earnings per share . Even cut in half , the Japanese P-E would be 35 , still far above the 15 to 20 P-Es of most world markets . The bulls contend that the P-E argument isn't important , and not just because Japanese stocks have always sold for high P-Es . Adjust for accounting differences and look at real , cash earnings of Japanese companies versus cash e arnings of American or European companies , and many Japanese stocks appear quit e reasonable , says John Hickling , one of Boston-based Fidelity Investments ' s enior international managers . By Morgan Stanley 's figuring , Japanese stocks n ow sell for 7.8 times estimated 1995 cash earnings , versus 8.3 times for U.S. s tocks . Hickling , who manages Fidelity 's Japan stock fund and Overseas stock f und , among others , says `` a lot of the ( Japanese ) stocks I own sell for les s than 10 times 1994 cash flow , '' which is cheap if you consider how depressed earnings still will be this year , he says . `` I think the Japanese market loo ks terrific , '' Hickling says , and he 's focused in particular on industrial g iants such as Toyota . `` You just have to look at what they 've done to their c ost base '' to see rich future profit potential there , he says . William Stack , manager of the Lexington Global stock fund , also believes that Japan 's leadi ng industrial and export companies are poised for surprising turnarounds . `` On e of my strongest investment convictions today is Japanese cyclical stocks , '' says Stack , whose fund owns issues such as Toyota and Honda Motor . Yet beyond the obvious potential pitfalls in the bullish case on Japan another dive in the economy , or a further steep strengthening of the already overvalued yen ( which would hurt exports ) there 's one glaring market problem : The Japanese themsel ves aren't buying stock . Still traumatized by their four-year bear market , Jap anese regard the latest market surge as the work of `` silly gaijin , '' says Ja mie Rosenwald , whose Rosenwald Capital Management has long been active in Japan . Rosenwald will be in Japan next week , specifically to look for hints that ca sh-rich Japanese institutions are ready to begin trickling back into the stock m arket . If he can't find signs that that 's ready to happen , he admits , he wil l have to reconsider his bullish view of the market . Rosenwald believes that if domestic investors join in , the Nikkei could hit 25,000 in a hurry . But witho ut their participation and soon he says , `` this rally could fizzle real quickl y . '' VIERVILLE-SUR-MER , France A brisk wind is blowing off Omaha Beach into the sou venir shop of Madame Sylvie le Gallois , a short , alert woman who speaks almost no English but is fluent in capitalism . `` Oui , '' she says , she has heard t hat thousands of veterans soon will be flocking to the beach for the 50th annive rsary of World War II 's Normandy invasion . She hopes that many will be stoppin g to pick up the D-Day license plates , replica Zippo lighters and special `` 50 Ans '' edition bottles of champagne displayed in her window . So business will be good , she is asked in halting French . Her eyes roll as if she has just been offered a prize truffle . `` Oh , '' she gushes , `` oui , monsieur ! '' Drivin g around the city of Caen or through the coastal towns along the invasion beache s , it is difficult to see which is winning commercial opportunism or genuine af fection . Is it `` Vive le Debarquement ? '' Or is it `` Vive '' la buck ? Is th e real spirit of the moment reflected in an advertisement for a risque revue , o r in the American , British and Canadian flags displayed outside Norman farmhous es ? Sit down to eat and you find your silverware flanking a placemat battle sce ne complete with parachutes floating into Ste.-Mere-Eglise . Reach for a lump of sugar for your thick Norman coffee and discover a drawing on the package of a t ruckload of GI 's reaching down to shake the hands of the French citizenry . Wal k down the street and you will find replica `` clickers , '' the toys used by ai rborne Allied troops to locate each other in the dark , selling for five bucks a pop . Probably one of the most overt examples of invasion capitalism is a poste r slapped on buildings throughout Caen . They advertise a coming revue titled `` Nuit du Debarquement , '' which promises `` major dynamite '' and features a sc antily clad woman floating to Earth with a parachute . The veterans have noticed the displays . `` You know what this is , don't you ? It 's D-Day . Dollar Day , '' says 74-year-old Jack Alexander , as he looks at souvenir tents recently pl aced next to Utah Beach . The big-ticket items were fleece-lined World War II-st yle bomber jackets for the equivalent of $ 600 to $ 800 . Alexander , who lives in Severna Park , Md. , landed here a half-century ago five days after the initi al wave of GIs , but he shrugs when asked if he is alienated by the area 's comm ercialism . `` Hell , no , '' he says . `` The Yanks probably taught it to them . '' But there is true warmth amidst the mercantilism one that springs from a on ce-oppressed people . Cynics must take into account a postcard sent recently by a woman living near Paris to the Caen Memorial , the city 's new museum dedicate d to World War II and the Normandy invasion . She begins by asking that the card be given to any of the D-Day veterans. `` .. . and others who risked their live s in order to save us and give us back our liberty . Thank you a thousand times . '' The card is in French but she adds in English , `` We shall never forget wh at you did for us . '' ( Begin optional trim ) Less obvious are the French who h ave given rooms in their homes gratis to visiting former soldiers who arrived in an overbooked town . But quite visible are the French families who lead their c hildren reverentially around the American Cemetery and Memorial as well , as the classes of French schoolchildren on field trips who listen as teachers tell the m about their country 's liberation . `` We have worked very hard to learn about the ` Debarquement , ' ' ' says Dromain Marc , an instructor at the Jean Moulin School near Paris . His class of 9- and 10-year-olds play around him , in the s hell holes and on the concrete chunks of destroyed German bunkers at Pointe du H oc , the precipice scaled by the U.S. Rangers . `` It is history . It is the pri ce of the liberty . '' ( End optional trim ) And then there are surprises like J ean Marc , a thin , deferential Frenchman with an unruly moustache who owns a sm all Normandy tour business . No , he doesn't want his last name used or his tour s promoted , but he would be glad to bring over veterans on his tour if they wou ld like to be interviewed . The countryside has undergone an amazing change late ly , he says . Normandy folk are not known as loquacious , he says but locals ha ve become surprisingly talkative when it comes to sharing tales about the day th e Allies landed . `` Maybe it is time after 50 years , '' he says . Of course th ere are some who will take advantage of the invasion memories for the buck , he says . But the show of generosity is real . `` Norman people don't forget . And next winter when everyone is gone , they will still remember . '' NEW YORK For Kenny Vixama 's first-grade teacher , an alarm went off when she n oticed that the 6-year-old often invented his own text for the simple storybooks his class was reading . Though a bright child , as he read his eyes did not fol low the left-to-right pattern of a successful reader . He had trouble identifyin g specific words when asked to find them . And he showed confusion with certain patterns of letters a basic stumbling block in learning to read . Kenny 's diffi culties had landed him in the bottom 20 percent in reading achievement among the first-grade students at Public School 41 in Greenwich Village . If Kenny 's pro blems went uncorrected , he seemed headed down a path of reading failure that ha s become frustratingly hard to address for teachers across the country . That wa s when reading specialist Barbara Mandel intervened . Mandel is a soldier in a q uiet revolution that is transforming the way some elementary schools deal with s low readers . The program she teaches is known as Reading Recovery , and since 1 983 , when it was introduced in this country at Ohio State University , it has s pread to 48 states and brought thousands of first-graders up to average or above reading levels . Developed in the 1970s by New Zealand educator and psychologis t Marie Clay and used extensively in that country , the program 's premise is th at the best way to avoid reading failure is to prevent it in the first place . T he simple theory has won a cult-like following among an army of U.S. teachers wh o have gone through yearlong training to more effectively tutor children in the most fundamental skill . Ohio State professor Gay Su Pinnell , who helped establ ish the university 's pilot program and heads a de facto national organization o f Reading Recovery teachers , estimates that by the end of the year , 9,000 teac hers will have been trained and will have reached 50,000 to 60,000 students . Pr ograms are booming in Ohio , California and Texas , and even in small states , l egislatures and local school districts are approving special funding for trial p rograms , she said . But Reading Recovery has not been universally endorsed , ma inly because of its high personnel costs and selectivity . Though implementation costs vary from district to district , all have to foot the bill for teachers l ike Mandel to take a year off for rigorous training . Then , they must dramatica lly scale back the teacher 's regular duties to allow time to work with a small number of children . Some principals have complained that the program unfairly c oncentrates limited funds on first-graders , leaving little for programs geared toward vulnerable children in later years . In the District of Columbia , where about 23 teachers have been trained , Deputy Superintendent Maurice Sykes said , `` We 've had to do a lot of convincing '' to win over principals despite Readi ng Recovery 's early successes . `` This has been our flagship intervention prog ram , '' Sykes said . `` We have hard empirical data that demonstrates that chil dren who 've gone through the program will do better , that it is a long-term in vestment in the child 's future. . . . But for the principal with `` X ' dollars to spend , there 's a real tendency to put the money into programs that serve t he most children . '' Reading Recovery assumes that every child can learn to rea d if confusion with the language is detected and corrected as soon as it becomes a problem . Many educators see the program as a first step in a long struggle t o break the failure chain that has cluttered junior high and high schools across the country with nonreaders . By the time students reach upper grades , experts say , the inability to read has usually taken an enormous academic and social t oll . Sykes , whose district has contracted for special tutoring services for il literate high school students , said most of the older students `` were probably exhibiting problems as early as first grade . But no one was scrutinizing ; bac k then , there was no Reading Recovery . '' Studies of Reading Recovery children show that 80 percent who go through the 12-20 week intervention never need furt her reading remediation or special education , according to specialist Angela Ja ggar , a New York University professor who is conducting follow-up studies of ch ildren who went through the program , which began in Manhattan 's District 2 in the mid-1980s . `` What the schools have traditionally done is wait until a long time has passed in a child 's life to decide they 're having difficulty in read ing. . . . The longer you wait the harder it is , '' explained Jaggar . `` This program helps us understand how kids learn naturally , to spot their confusions and respond immediately with a repertoire of strategies . '' In Kenny Vixama 's case , Mandel several weeks ago began one-on-one tutoring sessions . The first l essons allowed him to show off what he knew , a phase called `` Roaming Around t he Room , '' designed to build the child 's self-confidence . Then , in each str uctured 30-minute session , Kenny worked first on familiar materials and built g radually to more challenging ones , with Mandel intervening when a difficult wor d or phrase stopped him . At one recent session , with a timer clicking in the b ackground , Kenny stumbled over the word `` how . '' Mandel quickly pulled out p lastic letters to spell the word , let Kenny sound it out , write it on a slip o f paper , rhyme it and find its proper place in a scrambled sentence . With each small victory , Kenny was able to move on through the text , his finger followi ng the words , a technique Mandel purposely used to keep his attention properly focused . She watched intensely , keeping a written record of Kenny 's progress to help structure the next day 's session . With 12 of the maximum 60 lessons un der his belt , Kenny seemed a candidate for success . But there were frustration s . Though Kenny 's problems were detected early in the year , it had taken unti l spring to work him into the program . Because Reading Recovery is only offered in first grade , Kenny would have only the few remaining weeks of school to wor k . Mandel , who helped eight children move up to average reading ability this y ear , expressed a complaint common in the movement there 's never enough time or teachers to reach all the children in need of help . In Jackson , Miss . , Supe rintendent Ben O . Canada has decided to shoulder the costs that come with wide- scale implementation of Reading Recovery . In 1991 , using federal Chapter 1 fun ds for needy students , the Jackson district began implementing Reading Recovery in eight of its lowest performing schools . Seventeen teachers were trained in the technique . Now , Reading Recovery has expanded to 37 Jackson schools and 81 teachers , and the district is cited as a national model of how the program can turn around reading progress in small school districts . `` Being in this for m any years , I '' ve seen so many fly-by-night programs , fancy packaging for thi ngs that didn't work . This has caused a revolution here almost , '' said Ida J. McCants , Chapter 1 administrator for the Jackson schools . `` The teachers are revitalized . The strategies they 're learning are helping them get through to children . And the parents are delighted . They see real growth in a short perio d of time . '' Yet even the program 's strongest advocates concede that Reading Recovery is only a beginning in the enormous fight against illiteracy . `` We 'r e optimistic , '' said Pinnell . `` But we know this problem is bigger than we a re . '' The new supersonic jetliner sponsored by a $ 1.5 billion NASA research contract would require major breakthroughs in aircraft technology . Among them : Aerodyn amic drag must be cut to an absolute minimum . One technique involves a radical new design in which massive pumps would suck turbulent air off the skin of the w ings through millions of microscopic holes . The so-called laminar flow over the wings would be virtually free of turbulence , cutting the drag . The 311-foot-l ong jet must be so light that its structure would probably be built in large par t with thin sheets of titanium , held together through an exotic process called super plastic diffusion bonding . Engines that power supersonic jets are notorio usly noisy , but the new planes would have to keep quiet if they want a chance a t wide acceptance . A new design for the exhaust nozzles is expected to allow th e plane to meet existing airport noise standards . Inside the engines , the comb ustion chamber , or `` combustors , '' would operate at 3,600 degrees , hot enou gh to melt existing steel alloys and about 700 degrees hotter than existing engi nes . NASA is betting that a new fiber-reinforced ceramic composite liner would stand up to the heat . To prevent severe environmental damage , the engines must emit no more than five grams of nitrogen oxide for each kilogram of fuel burned . One proposed system would mix fuel and air in the engine upstream from the no rmal burning zone , allowing the lean fuel mix to vaporize better . The other pr oposed system would create a stratified fuel mixture , first injecting excess fu el and then adding air later in the combustion to create a lean stage a concept called rich burn-quick quench-lean burn . NASA is still hoping to find ways to r educe the sonic boom generated by the jet as it flies over the ocean . A boom , which is the acoustic shock wave trailing an aircraft , is a function of an airc raft 's mass , shape and its speed . Although cutting the boom is possible , it must be done without significantly hampering flight efficiency . Dan Rostenkowski 's problem is that so many prospective jurors in America know all too well the perils of home renovation , the bore and expense of giving chin a and crystal to people you 'd sooner not be obligated to , the inordinate cost of a daughter 's wedding , the pitfalls of auto leasing , the hoary dilemma of w hat to do about an underemployed son-in-law and the never-ending vexation of how to keep the grass mowed at a vacation home in another state . There is too much of the familiar upper middle class drudgery in Tuesday 's indictments to provok e a natural sympathy for a congressman accused of having converted these domesti cities to federal public works projects . And , of course , jurors whose existen ce spares them these trials whose daughters run off with the local drug dealer , who haven't a lawn and whose houses defy renovation can't be expected to stretc h their natural disposition to liberality to include the forgiveness of such nov el ways of achieving the comforts they have been denied . I 'd sooner be Sen. Bo b Packwood trying to explain how I had annoyed so many women so repeatedly witho ut ever gaining a reputation as the Senate 's greatest lover but rather as its m ost often rejected one . When Phil Gramm needed a house built he can now smugly say he went not to the Treasury but to a savings and loan operator . Even Al D' Amato can now boast to colleagues that all his dirty linen is safely stored in t he closets where the Senate Ethics Committee keeps the secret testimony that led it to conclude that he ran his office in what even his fellow senators found to be a rather disgusted way . It is there , mocking D' Amato 's detractors who 'd like to pore over its imagined enormities , not being paraded in a manner that reduces public perception of the knaveries of Congress to lawn mowing . The powe rs of the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee are such that when he falls , it is like the crashing of a mighty oak . And until now , most of the public un derstood little more than that Chairman Rostenkowski 's legal problems had somet hing vaguely to do with vouchers and postage stamps which brought to mind an alm ighty congressman being tormented for 29-cent transgressions . Now it has been r educed to terms both more vast and more mundane . One of Rostenkowski 's predece ssors as ways and means chairman , Wilbur Mills , fell from power because of a m idnight frolic in the Tidal Basin with an Argentine show girl . It 's hard to sa y which one showed more class . But surely , as we presume for the moment his to tal innocence , we must admire the defiance of Rostenkowski to such sweeping cha rges and to the power the government has in its corner . `` I will , '' he said , `` present a compelling case to the jury . '' Either we are going to hear a ta le of prosecutorial folly that will curl our hair even Al D' Amato 's hair or we are going to be treated to the whimpering excuses of a powerful man who didn't , in the end , understand power . What 's most curious , I guess , even appallin g and depressing , is that the indictment of one Chicago politician is so widely thought to stand between the sick people of this nation and the comprehensive , universal , affordable health care which any humane society would give them . E xplain this first and I 'll explain to you why Dan is Snow White . PORT-AU-PRINCE , Haiti Port-au-Prince is facing a health care crisis of immense proportions , with two out of three children suffering from malnutrition and me dical professionals predicting the statistics will get worse as the country 's p olitical standoff continues . `` This is a place that is on the path to destruct ion , '' said Richard Arseneault , director of the Ship of Peter , a converted o ceangoing yacht used as a makeshift clinic in Carrefour , on the southern outski rts of the capital . Compared with rural sections of the country , Port-au-Princ e and its environs have suffered a greater deterioration in health standards sin ce the 1991 coup against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide , medical workers say . That 's because the metropolitan area has relied on jobs for survival , while in the countryside people live largely off the land . Since the coup , more than 100,000 residents of Port-au-Prince have lost their jobs , cutting off almost 1 million people from their principal sources of income . In January , 66 percent of the children surveyed at health facilities in the Port-au-Prince area were m alnourished , according to the United States Agency for International Developmen t . That is a nine point leap over January 1993 , and 11 points higher than the comparable rate for the northwest region , historically considered the most dest itute section of the country . A doctor at a clinic in the Cite Soleil ghetto of the capital said she has become all too familiar with the `` visage de petit vi eux , '' the child with the expression of an old person . The dermatologist , wh o asked that her name not be used , spoke as she examined 10-month-old Wilnise X avier , whose ears were raw from a severe case of scabies and who showed signs o f malnutrition , like dozens of others in the waiting room outside . The U.N. em bargo against Haiti clearly bears some of the blame for the worsening health pro file of the capital . Scores of businesses have shuttered because of the trade b an . There is not enough fuel to pump drinking water . But social-service worker s cite other factors : Rampant corruption and mismanagement , which has led to s lowdowns in the deliveries of goods from the port , international aid workers ha ve said . Shipments of food and medicine often sit for months on the docks , and some small health organizations have said they cannot afford huge fees that are demanded . Repression of the past 2 years , which has sent tens of thousands of Haitians into hiding or onto wooden boats heading for Florida . Families and wh ole communities have been disrupted , and experts say they have noted an increas e in the number of single-parent households in the capital . `` The people of Ha iti have to fight two battles , the battle against repression and the battle aga inst the embargo , and it 's time the international community does what it has t o do to end both of them , '' said Dr. Reginald Boulos , director of the Centers for Development and Health , which operates medical and educational programs in Cite Soleil . Ermine Noblette , 37 , said she remembers better times . She talk s as if speaking of the distant past , but in fact she is referring to three yea rs ago , when prices were stable and she could afford to feed her children . `` Two of my children have fever and colds , and something is wrong with the baby b ecause she hasn't been eating ( from my breast ) , '' said Noblette , mother of five . Noblette was interviewed early Thursday morning as she lined up outside t he Ship of Peter , which serves as a health center for Carrefour , an impoverish ed community of about 400,000 . The clinic sees 2,000 patients a month and is ru n by Arseneault , a Catholic lay missionary from Quebec who lives on the vessel . Functioning on a bare-bones budget with financial assistance from the Canadian Embassy , Arseneault said he is supposed to earn $ 50 a month but since October , has been using that money to pay other clinic expenses , such as salaries . T he medical needs of the community around him are daunting . Every day he and the 14 Haitians working with him deal with dozens of cases of child malnutrition . They see tuberculosis , malaria and typhoid . Most of Arseneault 's prayers woul d be answered if he had food to give his clients , who pay a dollar a visit . A smallish man with the wispy , white beard of a leprechaun , he said he recently developed anemia because of his own poor diet . `` In the case of TB , it 's not enough just to give them injections , '' Arseneault said . `` They have to eat well also . Once we were receiving biscuits from international organizations , a nd we were able to give them biscuits three times a day . But we haven't gotten them in a while . '' At the Ship of Peter , as well as at the nearby Seventh Day Adventist Hospital pediatric clinic , the scarcity of infant milk for malnouris hed babies is perhaps the most critical problem . A can of soy-based formula tha t lasts three days costs about $ 3 . `` Sometimes you just have to reach into yo ur pocket and give them the money for the milk , or their babies will die , '' s aid Dr. Ghislaine Jean-Baptiste , director of pediatrics at the Adventist clinic . But even if the mother is given a can of milk , she will probably take it and divide it up among her other hungry children , meaning the malnourished infant will remain sick , Jean-Baptiste said . One of the few success stories in the wa r against sickness and malnutrition in the capital has been the Centers for Deve lopment and Health . As head of the Centers , Boulos oversees a string of job-tr aining projects , health clinics and feeding centers in Cite Soleil . He applies U.S.-acquired management techniques to his programs and , not incidentally , ha s been one of Haiti 's notable recipients of grants from USAID . ( Begin optiona l trim ) Because of his ties to the United States , he has been criticized as an elitist who is out of touch with the community that he serves . In his defense , Boulos mentioned among other things to his `` mental stimulation '' program th at has lifted formerly malnourished children to a level where they can learn and play like other youngsters . He pointed to a group of them dressed in bright ch eckered clothing , as they sat in a classroom . `` These are all children who th ree or four years ago were at the brink of d ying , '' said Boulos . `` Today th ey can talk to you or sing to you as all normal babies do . '' Twenty miles away in Carrefour , Arseneault was decidedly more pessimistic . His `` health agent , '' Joseph Beaudelaire , sometimes bloodies his feet walking through nearby com munities , as he visits patients to counsel them on hygiene . He would like to b uy or rent a motor scooter for Beaudelaire but he does not have the money . `` I t is hard , '' Beaudelaire said . `` I was about to go into one house this week and I heard a scream . It was a child who was crying from hunger . '' ( End opti onal trim ) Arseneault says he sees the worst of Haiti from his boat , bodies , shot and dumped on the shores nearby . `` Where are you , Lord ? I sometimes ask , '' Arseneault said , acknowledging that Haiti often tests his faith in the po wer of good over evil . When Boston 's Pioneer Group looked to establish a mutual fund in Eastern Europ e , Poland was the logical choice . With 40 million people , it was the biggest nation . There were no grisly ethnic feuds within its borders . And Poles had mo ney to invest : Pioneer estimated $ 10 billion in `` under-the-mattress '' savin gs alone , much of it from U.S. relatives . When Pioneer looked for a fund manag er , the choice was equally clear . Alicja Malecka was raised in the southern Po lish town of Czestochowa known for its Black Madonna of miracles and educated in Warsaw and New York. . She had just begun a U.S. Treasury assignment in Poland . `` She had done international operations and international banking , '' said W illiam H. Smith , president of the Pioneering Services subsidiary of Pioneer , w ho laid the groundwork for the First Polish Trust Fund in mid-1992 . `` She was at the time on loan to the Polish Ministry to set up its first government bond s ystem . And she was a Pole . '' Malecka took the job , and for just under two ye ars has run Poland 's first , and so far its only , mutual fund . She has built the fund 's $ 100,000 seed money to nearly $ 1 billion in assets , and attracted about 500,000 Poles with a return last year alone of nearly 200 percent . It wa s a decision that put Malecka smack in the economic swirl of a country she meant to leave for good in 1969 . It has given her professional challenges she once c onsidered `` unthinkable . '' And this is just the beginning . Malecka 's next c hallenges include a $ 75 million investment fund for Poland , and mutual funds f or other , yet-unannounced Eastern European countries . `` I find it all unbelie vably flabbergasting , '' Malecka said in a recent interview . `` It 's the only word I can come up with . '' Malecka had returned reluctantly to Poland . She s aid she had no fascination for revisiting her roots . She had left the Central S chool of Planning and Statistics in Warsaw four years into a five-year program , she said , `` completely disenchanted with the realities and absence of opportu nities in Poland at the time . '' But 20 years later , world events turned that assessment on its head . The fall of communism brought down the central economie s of Eastern Europe . Capitalism rushed into Poland , following a pattern common to the newly converted economies . Rampant optimism brought inflation to match , reaching almost 300 percent in 1989 . Legislation has since reined that in to an expected 23 percent this year while the government worked to convert the mass ive , state-owned businesses to private firms . Some Poles even started up priva te businesses of their own . But the practical difficulties of this phase led to rising unemployment and falling living standards , according to Derek Brzezinsk i , a senior consultant with the U.S. accounting firm Ernst & Young in Warsaw . Still , the Polish economy grew as fast or faster than any in Europe , according to Wlodzimierz Chodzko , commercial adviser in New York for the Polish Embassy . And one bright spot has been the Warsaw Stock Exchange , which stretched from its original five companies in 1991 to 24 as of last month . Its runup of 700 pe rcent made it the world 's most successful market last year . Then the market sp uttered around New Year 's , and crashed from March to April . Such dramatic gyr ations are not unusual for new , small markets . But suddenly all those Pioneer ads about safety in diversification caught the Poles ' eyes : While the market f ell 52 percent , Malecka 's fund with 10 percent overseas investments , and the rest spread among various Polish stocks and government bonds dropped only 6 perc ent . `` Let 's just say we were considerably outperforming the market , '' Male cka said . That explains why about half of her 500,000 investors have signed on since mid-December , she said , paying a 5.5 percent sales commission . And that 's why Polish securities regulators welcomed Pioneer 's plans for a mutual fund , Chodzko said . `` They bring accumulated knowledge in something that reaches segments of investors who are not eager for such speculative profits as the stoc k market , '' he said . By now , other funds reportedly are in the pipeline ther e , and the government plans to privatize about 350 more companies this summer . ( Optional add end ) The expansion is important , experts say , partly because regulations prohibit Poles from investing overseas . Also , the tiny stock marke t has such severely limited investment choices and in the process such inflated prices that Pioneer chose not even to offer a Polish mutual fund to U.S. investo rs , Smith said . In fact , none are now sold in the United States , said Willia m McBride , international editor for Lipper Analytical Services , which tracks t he mutual fund industry . American investors ' best options now , McBride said , are to invest in European funds that include Poland , or in companies now doing business in Poland . As for Pioneer 's work within Poland , McBride described t he firm as well prepared , partly through its earlier sales within Germany . And he called its balanced fund approach mixing stocks with bonds a good one in an emerging economy , as evidenced by its strong performance through the recent mar ket crash . Malecka said her new challenge for the fund will be to play Warsaw ' s more mature market . `` We 'll have to look to selecting stocks rather than ju st running with the market , '' she said . `` It means more sophisticated analys is and more time spent in managing . '' WASHINGTON A sleek , needle-nosed jetliner carrying 300 passengers taxis out of Los Angeles International Airport , rolls to a hushed takeoff over the Pacific Ocean , then accelerates like no commercial plane in history reaching 2.4 times the speed of sound nearly 12 miles above the earth . The titanium airplane with a cockpit that looks like a video arcade pulls into Tokyo in just over four hour s cutting six hours off the normal trip . Getting to Asia from Los Angeles is no more of a hassle than a hop to Chicago . Jet-lagged international travelers hav e been anticipating such an airplane for 20 years , since Congress halted develo pment of a first-generation supersonic jetliner and Europe produced the rival Co ncorde an economic flop . Advances in technology have raised hopes in the Clinto n administration that the long-standing economic and environmental problems with supersonic jets can be overcome if the government puts in the seed money . With out much fanfare given the stakes , the National Aeronautics and Space Administr ation is poised to issue a $ 1.5 billion contract in coming weeks to a consortiu m of every major U.S. commercial airplane and jet engine company for an ambitiou s research program leading to a supersonic jet in regular service by 2005 . NASA hopes Americans would dominate the effort , though it would likely include fore ign suppliers and investors . It 's the sort of colossal industrial project that would require enormous investments , carry huge technical risks and raise poten tially serious environmental concerns . Some experts claim NASA is too optimisti c about its ability to solve the environmental concerns . And the airlines , ree ling from financial losses , have voiced little enthusiasm for buying new planes , particularly ones a decade away . But there is a huge potential payoff if the skeptics are wrong and the plane fulfills its promise of being far more fuel-ef ficient than the Concorde and if it can fly without fouling the atmosphere . NAS A touts the program as the most important industrial project in the nation 's fu ture and says it is a key to halting the erosion of American dominance of the wo rld aircraft industry . At stake is a potential $ 200 billion in orders for 500 to 1,000 of the supersonic aircraft that would support roughly 140,000 manufactu ring jobs in such areas as Southern California and Seattle , said Wesley Harris , NASA 's aeronautics chief . `` We have growing confidence that this plane will be built by 2005 by either the U.S. or the Europeans , '' he said . `` Who will build it ? U.S. companies must be in the driver 's seat . '' The strong advocac y reflects a changed attitude at NASA , which for years has sponsored aircraft r esearch that often helped foreign competitors as much as Americans and often eng aged in academic research with little commercial value . Since the Apollo moon m issions , NASA 's commitment to aeronautics has withered . Director Dan Goldin n ow wants to put more emphasis on helping the U.S. aircraft industry , drawing st rong support from Congress . Last year , lawmakers gave the supersonic program $ 10 million more than the $ 187 million requested by NASA . `` We have underfund ed aviation research and we need to make substantial investments in this area , '' said Rep. George Brown , D-Calif. , chairman of the House Science , Space and Technology Committee . `` This program is a good thing for the nation to do . ' ' Under the new supersonic program , known as the High Speed Civil Transport , N ASA will play a central role in organizing the efforts of major U.S. aerospace c ompanies and making the key decisions in the next four years about which technol ogies will be used . For the first time , the archrivals of the commercial aircr aft industry will be partners under NASA 's direction : Boeing and McDonnell Dou glas for the jet 's airframe and General Electric and Pratt & Whitney for the en gines . By pooling America 's best talents , NASA hopes to make the major breakt hroughs needed to make a supersonic jetliner economically viable . That task alo ne is daunting . The program to actually develop the aircraft , including the de tailed engineering of each of millions of parts and the building of thousands of production tools , would require a private-sector investment of $ 15 billion mo re than double the cost of past jetliner developments . Even if high sales volum e defrayed the investment expense , the planes would cost $ 180 million to $ 300 million each . ( A Boeing 747 today costs roughly $ 150 million . ) Proponents argue that the high price would be offset by the aircraft 's ability to make two trips for every one that a subsonic plane makes . As a result , fares would be no more than 20 percent higher than current tickets , Boeing and McDonnell Dougl as engineers say . `` It would make this an airplane for everybody , not just hi gh-paying passengers , '' said Bruce Bunin , McDonnell 's manager for the progra m in Long Beach , Calif. . Keeping costs low will also require that the plane be highly fuel-efficient , meaning its structure must be very lightweight , engine s highly economical and aerodynamic drag at a minimum . Because U.S. law prohibi ts commercial planes from creating sonic booms over land , the jets would fly su personically only over the ocean . A failing of the 100-passenger Concorde has b een its gross inefficiency in flying subsonically , an area where the new plane must excel . After Congress forbid supersonic flights over land in the 1970s , t he market for Concordes collapsed ; fewer than 30 were built . Unlike the Concor de , the new jet would have flaps and slats that would change the shape of the w ing depending on the plane 's speed , allowing it to fly nearly as efficiently a s today 's jetliners . But even if the plane can do all this , it is not clear t hat airlines will rush to buy it . U.S. airlines have collectively lost $ 12 bil lion in four years , and their enthusiasm for costly new planes seems tepid at b est . American Airlines spokesman Al Becker said the supersonic jet carries high risk and may be too specialized for the flexible fleet his company wants . `` T his is an industry that is struggling desperately for survival , '' he said . `` We are in no position to be thinking about buying large numbers of $ 200 millio n airplanes . Where are we going to raise that kind of money ? '' ( Begin option al trim ) Instead of a supersonic jet , airlines may opt for a proposed 600-pass enger super-jumbo plane that Boeing and McDonnell Douglas are studying . It woul d involve much less technical risk and may be more adaptable to different routes . The Air Transport Association , the trade group representing U.S. airlines , has not raised the supersonic jet as a priority , a spokesman said . And the pro gram is not even mentioned in McDonnell 's or Boeing 's 1993 shareholder reports . ( End optional trim ) NASA officials , however , believe any reservations abo ut the supersonic planes are myopic . Just build the plane and `` the market wil l be there , '' claims Louis J. Williams , director of the supersonic program at NASA . Commercial air travel is growing at 8 percent to 10 percent per year , h e said , and international travel growth is paralleling the explosion in interna tional trade . ( Begin optional trim ) Weary business travelers would flock to a supersonic jetliner that promises to reduce jet lag . If executives can get to Tokyo or Paris , conduct business and board a return flight on the same day of t heir departure , they may never have to adjust to a different time zone . `` Fro m the traveling public 's perception , I am not sure we have done much for them in the past 20 years , '' said Sam Gilkey , head of GE 's effort to develop a su personic engine . `` This plane offers more to the public than a 600-seat plane you hear so much about . '' Still , even in an industry where companies firms be t their survival on each new product , the supersonic plane carries unique risks . It will require entirely new high-technology materials , computerized jet eng ine controls and even new research into human behavior . For example , when pilo ts land the jet , instead of looking out the window , they would rely on `` synt hetic vision '' that would resemble a video game screen . NASA and industry offi cials believe they have licked a long-standing concern that a fleet of supersoni c commercial jets flying through the stratosphere would seriously degrade the oz one . In recent years , NASA has invested $ 500 million into research on superso nic jet engines that would cut pollution by controlling combustion and fuel air mixture . ( End optional trim ) Aviation has always had unique public support . It occupies a special place in American history and plays a key role in the U.S. economy . Commercial aircraft are America 's leading export . At issue is wheth er the NASA research program will give the U.S. the dominant technological posit ion internationally . With the lead role , U.S. industry would then be in a posi tion to decide when to launch production of the jet . `` I believe it is the mos t critical manufacturing decision this country will make in the next 10 years , '' Harris said . The following editorial appeared in Wednesday 's Washington Post : That 's a to ugh indictment that was handed up against Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , Tuesd ay . It was sometimes said in the course of the two-year investigation by the U. S. attorney 's office here that the veteran congressman would never commit offen ses as petty as those in which he was said to have been involved . But taken tog ether , and if in fact they occurred as described , the alleged offenses are any thing but petty ; they can't be put in the everybody-does-it category either . R ostenkowski , who as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee has been an extremely effective and valuable member of Congress , is of course entitled to t he presumption of innocence . He has elected , as is both his right and style , to contest the charges rather than accept a profferred deal that would have sent him to jail . That may be an indication he thinks he can win , but he has ackno wledged that he likely faces an uphill fight . The case against Rostenkowski wil l be described already has been as in part the case against Congress . That 's b ecause he has become emblematic of a particular congressional lifestyle . But in fact the charges against him have to do only peripherally with that lifestyle . He is not accused of having taken gifts or golfing trips or funds from interest groups , though he has certainly done his great share of that over the years . Rather , he is accused of having gone to sometimes extraordinary lengths to make personal use of his House office accounts public funds and , to a lesser extent , of accumulated and surplus campaign funds . Over the years he is accused of h aving taken a large amount , but of having squeezed it out a small amount at a t ime . That 's not the public 's image of a congressional committee chairman . Un der the House Democratic rules , Rostenkowski now must relinquish his chairmansh ip . It is set to go to Rep. Sam Gibbons , D-Fla . The conventional wisdom has b een that Gibbons isn't up to the job isn't shrewd or forceful enough and that th e president 's health-care reform proposal could well be the first casualty . We think that 's a little premature : not the health-care prediction Who knows wha t will happen to that ? but the prediction as to Gibbons . There was a similar c lucking sound when Daniel Patrick Moynihan , D-N.Y. , succeeded former Sen. Lloy d Bentsen of Texas as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee before last year 's budget battle ; too flaky , said the critics and the budget passed . We even remember a few disparaging remarks when Rostenkowski ascended to the Ways and Me ans chairmanship ; too crude , they said , and now they lament the loss of his t oughness . The critics who said that the Justice Department in a Democratic admi nistration couldn't be counted on to prosecute a leading congressional Democrat were also wrong . We have no idea how the Rostenkowski case will turn out ; the defense has yet to be heard from . But whatever occurs , the case hasn't been de flected for political reasons . That 's already an impressive result . HOLLYWOOD The Tabloid Gossip Column. .. . OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS !! ! Coming next W ednesday night on CBS is `` A Busch Gardens/Sea World Celebration , '' an hourlo ng summer vacation tip being produced for the Anheuser Busch Theme Parks . It ha s the same taint as `` Treasure Island , '' an alleged children 's special set i n the new Treasure Island park at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas . The hotel 's p arent firm , Mirage Resorts , was the sponsor of this NBC hour last January . Co ntinuing on this grimy path , ABC 's June 15 special , `` The Lion King : The Mu sical Special With Elton John , '' is produced by the Wrightwood Group in associ ation with Disney Television . John wrote the music and Tim Rice the lyrics for `` The Lion King , '' an animated movie from Disney that opens in New York and L os Angeles June 15 , the same day as the TV special and three days after the Jun e 12 premiere of `` The Making of ` The Lion King '' ' on the Disney Channel . T his `` documentary '' has three additional airdates this month . And oh yes , We dnesday finds CBS airing `` Movie News Hot Summer Sneak Preview , '' a program t hat profiles/promotes four coming Disney films . And what a coincidence ! It was produced by Disney 's Buena Vista Pictures in association with the Wrightwood G roup . -0- BODY PARTS !! ! What sexy Hollywood Goddess of the '50s and '60s was ogled and graphically displayed from head to toe on TV recently ? Read on . `` T hose stunning eyes .. . that beauty mark .. . that platinum hair. ... '' Yes , a dded the pitchwoman on cable 's QVC channel , `` no one would dazzle quite like Marilyn Monroe . '' She added : `` Whenever you see a book on Marilyn or a photo graph , you stop and gaze . There is just something about her. ... '' To prove i t , the QVC camera moved slowly down Marilyn 's curvaceous body . No , not the r eal Marilyn , stupid , Marilyn the 11.5-inch-tall vinyl doll , the one that your friends `` will admire , '' the pitchwoman promised , `` when they come over to your house . '' Yes , what an exciting prospect : Featured in your living room or greeting guests in your entry , your very own `` fully poseable '' Marilyn Mo nroe doll . `` She '' is a limited edition with a certificate of authenticity . `` This is a certificate you definitely want to hang on to , '' said the pitchwo man . Just in case your admiring friends doubt you . And who are the buy-by-tele vision zealots who would call QVC to order Marilyn ? Probably the same ones who swooned over the next doll featured on QVC , Sleeping Beauty . `` She has this i ncredible wig that 's so long and so shiny , '' the pitchwoman said . `` You cou ld feel comfortable taking a doll brush and brushing it out . '' Ooooooh . But n ot in front of Marilyn . She might get jealous . -0- PRETTY FACES !! ! Who is lo oking just marvelous in Tunis tonight ? Deborah Norville , that 's who in the de but of the CBS News magazine show , `` America Tonight , '' which she co-hosts w ith Dana King . On Tuesday , Norville showed up on the syndicated `` Regis & Kat hie Lee '' series to promote her opening story about the adventures of a mother who recovered her kidnaped daughter in Tunisia . After watching a clip of Norvil le doing a stand-up , Regis Philbin was mightily impressed . Proving he 's more than just a pretty face himself , Regis weighed in on the proliferation of newsm agazine shows , telling Norville : `` That 's the beauty of what you 're doing . You can go over there and do these stories at a fraction of the cost and more r ealistic than Hollywood . '' At last , a textbook justification for news : Not o nly cheaper than Hollywood , but also more realistic . It 's no accident that David Byrne 's new solo album is titled simply `` David Byrne . '' After more than a dozen albums with Talking Heads and on his own , th e singer-songwriter , called `` Rock 's Renaissance Man '' in an '80s Time magaz ine cover story , has made his most personal work . Gone is much of the emotiona l shield Byrne held up during the Heads days , when he was the wry , detached ob server of human foibles and fads . Gone , too , are most of the elements of worl d music that characterized his two earlier solo collections 1989 's `` Rei Momo '' and 1992 's `` Uh-Oh . '' In the new album , Byrne , 42 , speaks with a new d irectness on topics ranging from innocence and love to morality and death in way s that are frequently both disarming and endearing . Before leaving New York on a European tour with his new band , Byrne spoke about the album and how the AIDS -related death two years ago of his sister-in-law , designer Tina Chow , helped push him toward a more personal tone in his music . Q : What about the expectati ons surrounding someone whose work has been as heralded as yours ? Is it somethi ng that inspires you to do better , or does it burden you ? A : It is a little b it of both . The burden part goes along with the whole Western myth of progress ... . That every year we have got to come up with something new .. . something t hat has to be exciting . That is what causes you to end up with all these dispos able trends .. . these styles and stuff that one just replaces the other . You e nd up pushing artists just to innovate for the sake of innovation , which is kin d of futile in the end . On the other hand , the ( expectation ) is good because it gives people a kick in the ass .. . and makes them try to set a standard for themselves because they know people are watching . Q : What was the starting po int in the new album ? A : Probably the song `` Buck Naked . '' I wrote it when my wife 's sister was dying of AIDS and so was kind of born out of that grief an d confusion ... . Trying to explain what was happening to our little daughter . I think that kind of acted as a catalyst . Q : The interesting thing is that it 's not just the lyrics that are more intimate or personal , but the whole feel o f the record the bareness of the arrangements . How did that come about ? A : Du ring the tour , I would often just play the new material with an acoustic guitar in front of an audience . I would introduce the material that way and kind of w ork it out for myself ... . How to sing it .. . what attitude to take , all that kind of stuff . Afterward , people often said the strength of the writing came across a lot more that way .. . the meaning of the song . So , I decided to stri p the band down to sort of the essentials .. . leaving in only what was needed t o just embellish the song a little bit . Q : Did part of you resist being so per sonal in the music ? A : Oh , that 's a constant thing I think . Plus as a write r , it is easy to fall into traps of writing what you know how to do .. . what y ou can do kind of easily . And , with me , it wasn't the personal kinds of songs . It was more those funny , quirky little songs . Q : It 's also safer to write as the observer , isn't it ? It 's not like you 're revealing yourself . A : Ye s . If the song is real personal , it 's not just that they don't like the songs , which you can easily accept , but that they don't like you . Q : What about d uring the Heads days ? .. . Were there some songs that were very personal ? A : Oh , there were plenty . Songs like `` Cool Water '' and `` Naive Melody '' come to mind first . In those days , however , they were mixed in with others so the y didn't stand out . They didn't kind of announce themselves as being completely different from the rest of the stuff . In my case , I think I have gotten far e nough away from ( the Heads days ) that I don't care what people say so much , w hich gives you this incredible freedom to lay it on the line and say what you th ink ... . I just wanted to write something from the heart .. . something about m y own experiences and feelings .. . the kind of music that I look for when I lis ten to other artists and am moved by their work . ( Optional add end ) Q : In th e new `` Sad Song , '' you say , `` But it 's the truly sad people who get the m ost out of life . '' What do you mean by that ? A : People want the world to be a Hallmark card place , but that 's really disgusting . There is no richness to life without both sides . Q : `` Self-Made Man '' is about a future society wher e you can buy genes to really remake yourself . Are you optimistic or pessimisti c about the future ? A : Yes , `` Self-Made Man '' is a kind of an exception in a way to the rest of the album .. . a completely imaginary scenario . It 's abou t a possible future where instead of dealing crack on the black market , they ar e dealing little vials of genes ... . Am I optimistic ? I 'm optimistic that the re is still a lot of creativity out there .. . especially in other countries . T hat is incredibly stimulating and exciting . Politically and economically , I 'm more of a pessimist . Q : How do you see yourself dividing your time over the n ext few years ? Will you continue to be the `` Renaissance man of rock , '' open to film or stage or classical music projects ? A : Dividing my time between rec ords and other things is important for me . It gives ideas time to kind of germi nate while you are working on something else . It also keeps you from feeling li ke you are on a treadmill . It keeps you open to new ideas and experiences . Tha t 's what keeps you alive .. . artistically . In the coming days , we will celebrate the spectacular achievements , and honor the tremendous sacrifice , of D-day June 6 , 1944 . But the retelling of the ma ssive invasion 5,000 ships , 20,000 vehicles , 150,000 soldiers on June 6 alone will be incomplete if we do not recall that D-day 's success was made possible b y a counterintelligence operation so well-planned and coordinated that it remain s to this day a standard of excellence . British security forces were remarkably successful in detecting German spies sent to infiltrate the United Kingdom . So me were hanged , some imprisoned , but a number were turned into double agents b y MI5 , British counterintelligence . Through these double agents , the Allies l earned what Nazi intelligence wanted to know and by inference , Nazi strategic d esigns . They also became part of an elaborate network of real and fictitious sp ies ( the `` double-cross system '' ) that was used to feed false and misleading intelligence back to Berlin , including supposed plans and preparations for the Allied invasion of France . A second critical element was the British ability t o intercept and decode many Nazi military , diplomatic and intelligence communic ations . With assistance from Polish and French intelligence before the war and also from German security officials who refused to believe their codes had been broken , British cryptologists cracked `` Enigma , '' Germany 's sophisticated e lectro-mechanical enciphering machine . Known as `` Ultra , '' the decoded Germa n messages became the most closely guarded secret of the war . Double agents in place and Enigma broken , the infrastructure was set for a grand deception . The Allies had two goals : to mask the initial assault on Normandy and to buy time to gain a foothold in coastal France . The ruse they came up with was the linchp in of the invasion strategy . First , they had to persuade Hitler that the invas ion would not take place at Normandy , but to the north at Calais . This was log ical , since Calais is at the narrowest part of the English Channel . In the mon ths leading up to D-day , what appeared to be a massive Allied buildup was deplo yed across from Calais in eastern and southeastern England . German reconnaissan ce planes spied this assemblage of tanks , barges and aircraft , but did not det ect that most were made of plywood , paint and tarpaulin . Nor , because of artf ul Allied security , did they detect the building of the massive , man-made `` h arbor '' for use at the Normandy beaches . And finally , German intelligence int ercepted supposed Allied radio communications that were really the phony chatter of a nonexistent army over which a real U.S. general , George Patton , presided . Because of Ultra , the Allies knew that Hitler had swallowed the bait . But i t was not enough to simply shield the June 6 assault . Success depended on persu ading Hitler that Normandy was a feint to mask the `` real '' assault at Calais . The Allies made a bold gamble . They provided the Germans advance notice of th e Normandy invasion 's beginning . British double agent Juan Pujol Garcia code-n amed Garbo tipped his German handlers of the landing hours before the first wave of men and equipment hit the beach . Too late to do the Germans any good , Garb o 's warning cemented his credentials as a top spy , setting the stage for a mor e critical step in the deception effort . By June 9 , 1944 , German generals wer e clamoring for reinforcements in Normandy . Hitler initially complied . But the n Garbo urgently reported that all of his agents all fictitious creations of MI5 were convinced that Normandy was a diversion . The real strike , Garbo insisted , would still be at Calais . Hitler read Garbo 's cable and rescinded the order to reinforce Normandy . For critical weeks after D-day , Hitler continued to ho ld in reserve more than a quarter-million German soldiers , awaiting the much-an ticipated Allied attack at Calais . So what is the lesson for today to be drawn from D-day ? At a minimum , it challenges the notion that `` spy wars are a side show of passionate interest to the actors , but of marginal significance for nat ional policy '' as stated in a recent New York Times editorial . More broadly , the brilliance of Allied strategists , analysts and operators involved in D-day 's plans is a reminder that governments that take counterintelligence seriously hold a sometimes crucial advantage over those that don't . When plans to celebrate the 50th anniversary of D-Day were being developed , th e question arose of what role the Germans should play in the rituals of remembra nce . They had been the enemy in 1944 , the defenders of Hitler 's wicked regime . But for most of the last half century they have been allies , not enemies . A n invitation should have been extended and accepted in recognition of shared par ticipation in the tragedy of the war and of Germany 's escape from Nazism . An i nvitation need not have been a denial of the evil inflicted by Hitler . It would have created an opportunity to recall the deeper meaning of D-Day without assig ning guilt to survivors who at the time were mostly in their teens and 20s . But the idea was not widely welcomed on either side . German officials and veterans have understandably displayed little eagerness to join the party in honor of th eir defeat . And those embarking on a vacation trip to the land and time of what writer Studs Terkel called `` the good war '' had little appetite for the ambig uities of a German presence . The issue raises interesting questions of how and why great battles are remembered and whether a distinction ought to be drawn bet ween the celebration of a particular battle and that of an entire war . The Amer ican mood for D-Day , 1994 , is a combination of nostalgia for a simpler age , w hen the moral and political purpose of war was clear , justifiable congratulatio n for a complex task successfully and quickly completed , and the fun of relivin g a tremendous adventure . There will be wreath layings and memorial services , but the occasion is not primarily for mourning or meditation on human folly . Bu t there are other ways of remembering . Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg in 1863 re affirmed deep philosophical values . Nov. 11 , 1918 , Armistice Day , was long c ommemorated with a minute of silence and hope that World War I had been the war to end all wars . And two sides can use shared memories to heal and reconcile . For example , American veterans of the Vietnam War have increasingly been meetin g and comparing recollections with their one-time foes . And yet some memories a re so bitter that they can be shared with only the greatest difficulty , if at a ll . President Ronald Reagan 's visit to and conciliatory remarks at the militar y cemetery in Bitburg , Germany , were condemned because some German SS troops w ere buried there formations that personified the brutality of Nazism and played a role in the Holocaust . Less than a year after the D-Day ceremonies , however , there will be a greater occasion for remembrance : the 50th anniversary of V-E Day , marking the German surrender of May 8 , 1945 . V-E Day could become anoth er triumph of victors , although the fact that the Soviet Union made the greates t contribution in blood to that victory adds a problematic dimension . Or it cou ld , and should , be an occasion for Americans , Canadians , British , other Eur opeans , Russians and citizens of the newly independent states formerly in the S oviet Union , and especially of all Germans , to celebrate the defeat of or libe ration from Nazism . It could and should be a time of reflection over the causes of World War II and contemplation of measures that might have prevented such su ffering and of measures that need to be applied to preclude a recurrence . With the overwhelming majority of Germans today appalled by the recrudesence of ultra right movements bearing a whiff of Nazism , such an approach to remembrance woul d be very appropriate . In the meantime , the perfectly understandable victors ' urge to celebrate will have been satisfied in 1994 by the memory of D-Day . When plans to celebrate the 50th anniversary of D-Day were being developed , th e question arose of what role the Germans should play in the rituals of remembra nce . They had been the enemy in 1944 , the defenders of Hitler 's wicked regime . But for most of the last half century they have been allies , not enemies . A n invitation should have been extended and accepted in recognition of shared par ticipation in the tragedy of the war and of Germany 's escape from Nazism . An i nvitation need not have been a denial of the evil inflicted by Hitler . It would have created an opportunity to recall the deeper meaning of D-Day without assig ning guilt to survivors who at the time were mostly in their teens and 20s . But the idea was not widely welcomed on either side . German officials and veterans have understandably displayed little eagerness to join the party in honor of th eir defeat . And those embarking on a vacation trip to the land and time of what writer Studs Terkel called `` the good war '' had little appetite for the ambig uities of a German presence . The issue raises interesting questions of how and why great battles are remembered and whether a distinction ought to be drawn bet ween the celebration of a particular battle and that of an entire war . The Amer ican mood for D-Day , 1994 , is a combination of nostalgia for a simpler age , w hen the moral and political purpose of war was clear , justifiable congratulatio n for a complex task successfully and quickly completed , and the fun of relivin g a tremendous adventure . There will be wreath layings and memorial services , but the occasion is not primarily for mourning or meditation on human folly . Bu t there are other ways of remembering . Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg in 1863 re affirmed deep philosophical values . Nov. 11 , 1918 , Armistice Day , was long c ommemorated with a minute of silence and hope that World War I had been the war to end all wars . And two sides can use shared memories to heal and reconcile . For example , American veterans of the Vietnam War have increasingly been meetin g and comparing recollections with their one-time foes . And yet some memories a re so bitter that they can be shared with only the greatest difficulty , if at a ll . President Ronald Reagan 's visit to and conciliatory remarks at the militar y cemetery in Bitburg , Germany , were condemned because some German SS troops w ere buried there formations that personified the brutality of Nazism and played a role in the Holocaust . Less than a year after the D-Day ceremonies , however , there will be a greater occasion for remembrance : the 50th anniversary of V-E Day , marking the German surrender of May 8 , 1945 . V-E Day could become anoth er triumph of victors , although the fact that the Soviet Union made the greates t contribution in blood to that victory adds a problematic dimension . Or it cou ld , and should , be an occasion for Americans , Canadians , British , other Eur opeans , Russians and citizens of the newly independent states formerly in the S oviet Union , and especially of all Germans , to celebrate the defeat of or libe ration from Nazism . It could and should be a time of reflection over the causes of World War II and contemplation of measures that might have prevented such su ffering and of measures that need to be applied to preclude a recurrence . With the overwhelming majority of Germans today appalled by the recrudesence of ultra right movements bearing a whiff of Nazism , such an approach to remembrance woul d be very appropriate . In the meantime , the perfectly understandable victors ' urge to celebrate will have been satisfied in 1994 by the memory of D-Day . How do we teach children about morality ? By doing the right thing ourselves . So what will our children conclude about the way we and the rest of the world ha ve turned our backs on the slaughter of 200,000 people in Rwanda ? They 'll thin k we are long on rhetoric but short on courage . U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali pleaded with world leaders to send troops to the ravaged country , but those leaders did nothing . President Clinton said he could find `` no stra tegic reason to do so . '' When crimes against humanity are being committed , th ere needn't be a strategic reason to intervene . The catalyst ought to be a mora l imperative that says : Thou shalt not kill . Boutros-Ghali blamed the world 's refusal to help on `` donor fatigue . '' Presumably , we were all tired of doin g good and decided to sit out this massacre . So much for 200,000 innocent men , women and children who were mutilated and killed . So much for the thousands mo re who may still die if no one intervenes . Evil wins when good men and women ar e silent . Haven't we learned anything from history ? John Donne said , `` No ma n is an island unto himself . We are each a piece of the continent , a part of t he main .. . so do not ask for whom the bell tolls , it tolls for thee . '' We s hould all be writing the president , our senators , our congressmen and congress women , begging them to intercede out of justice and mercy . We should be explai ning to our president that it 's more than the economy , stupid . There are mora l absolutes out there . If we had to help feed starving Somalians and I believe we did then the same principles apply to the besieged people of Rwanda . The wor ld is more than our own back yard . We can't stand idly by and endure the slaugh ter of innocents . If we only act on behalf of what is right when it is convenie nt to do so , we will not long hold onto the mantle of moral leadership that sho uld be ours . We need to teach our children that sometimes it 's hard to fight f or our values . After all , the United States is supposed to be the last best ho pe on Earth . We are the country founded as the defender of freedom , as the cit adel of individual rights . There is no more basic individual right than the rig ht to life a right that is being violated daily in Rwanda . We should be showing the rest of the world fatigued or not how to behave . It is hard to understand a mentality that can fight so hard for gun control laws in this country and then ignore the slaughter of thousands in another country . The world should be a mu ch smaller place , one where we reach out to each other , protect one another . We may not be able to help everyone all the time , but certainly in a case like Rwanda , if we are not there , we are nowhere . Surely , those poor helpless vic tims deserve better than our indifference . And if some American sons and daught ers , all volunteers in the armed forces , were to die in defense of these victi ms , that is just the price we pay for taking moral stands . No guts , no glory . Or , put another way , if we are unwilling to act on our values , we have none . We need to set the kind of example for our children that says : Violence does not always win , might is not always right . We need to show them that there ar e knights in armor who will rescue the world 's innocents . Distributed by the L os Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service . With all the talk these days about the Internet that vast network of computers that links millions of people around the world one of the most frequent question s I get is , `` How do I get on ? '' The answer is : With some difficultly . Unl ess you 're affiliated with a university or a large corporation that maintains a dedicated Internet link , you 're going to have to find an on-ramp to the `` in formation highway . '' When you do find one , there will undoubtedly be a toll b ooth at the entrance . And once you 're on the road , given the state of today ' s software , you 'd better be prepared for flat tires , broken transmissions and radiator boil-overs . Those disclaimers aside , the journey can be a rewarding one . There 's an incredible amount of information out there , not to mention a direct link to 23 million Internet users around the world . Before you decide to make the trip , it 's a good idea to learn a little bit about what the Internet is and isn't . You may also be able to take a shortcut that can save you time a nd money . In this column , I 'll talk about Internet basics . First things firs t . The Internet is not Prodigy or CompuServe or America Online . These companie s are complete , self-contained information services . For a fee , they provide you with a well-organized universe of electronic mail , news , weather , feature s , discussion groups , information databases and collections of programs , grap hics and other files to download . They also provide friendly , dedicated commun ications software that makes their offerings easy to navigate . With any of thes e large providers , you have a standard business-to-customer relationship . They have to keep you satisfied , ensure that the quality of information they delive r is good , and make the service attractive in order to keep your business . You have every right to demand good service in return for your money . ( It doesn't always work out that way , but that 's the theory ) . The Internet , by way of contrast , is a huge , worldwide network of networks of individual computer syst ems run by universities and corporations , largely to enhance their own research and development efforts . These institutions have agreed to share their resourc es with users on other systems . The Internet as a whole also provides a vehicle for sending and receiving electronic mail , and that 's how most people use it . E-mail capability also has given rise to thousands of special interest `` mail ing lists '' and `` news groups '' that have made the Net an electronic meeting place for millions of people . Linked by high-speed phone lines , the Internet s preads in all directions , and it 's growing every day . There 's no plan , no o verview . Other than a committee that sets technical standards and maintains the system 's high-speed , fiber-optic backbone , nobody runs the Internet . Each o rganization is responsible for its own computer system , and the people who run those systems are responsible to their organizations . In fact , many of the arc hives and databases that make the Internet so interesting are maintained by volu nteers who devote a great deal of their free time to them . Some computer system s on the net are virtually closed , allowing little access other than E-mail . O thers put out the welcome mat , allowing users on other systems to share their w ealth . For example , most large university and public library systems make thei r card catalogs , periodical indexes and archives of scholarly and research pape rs available on the Net . There are interesting databases everywhere you can fin d libraries of computer programs , the complete works of Shakespeare , on-line m agazines , collections of NASA space photographs , electronic comic books , comp ilations of Bill Clinton 's speeches almost anything that someone had a mind to store and catalog . Each system on the Net also has its own look and feel . Some provide nothing more than a cryptic prompt , and users have to memorize dozens of the unintelligible commands that have made the Unix operating system so belov ed for years . Others welcome you with GOPHER , a friendly menu-based system nam ed for the University of Minnesota programmers who developed it . Still others p rovide sophisticated World Wide Web and Mosaic servers designed to work with spe cial PC-based programs that treat the Internet as a gigantic hypertext document . These systems point the way to the future , but they 're still in their infanc y . Given this anarchy , there 's is no such thing as an `` Internet Manual , '' which is one of the reasons that half the books crossing my desk for review the se days bill themselves as Internet manuals . The problem is that by the time th ey 're in print , they 're often out of date . As a result , getting around the Internet can be either an exercise in frustration or a marvelous if somewhat qui rky adventure , depending on your state of mind . If you 're not affiliated with a university or company that maintains an Internet link with dial-in capability , you 'll have to set up an account with an Internet service provider . These a re companies that maintain computers linked to the Internet . They make their mo ney by providing you with a way to dial in with a modem and make connections wit h other systems . They also give you an electronic mailbox through which others can reach you . Most of these Internet providers are local or regional . The Bos ton-based DELPHI service is available nationally through local calls in most met ropolitan areas , and a few , like Cerfnet , provide access through an 800 numbe r at a stiff price . Almost all can be accessed with standard communications pro grams . Some providers can set up more expensive SLIP ( Serial Line Internet Pro tocol ) connections that require special software but make Internet access easie r and more secure . If your communications experience is limited to Prodigy and America Online with their friendly , no-brainer start-up kits , you 'll be in fo r a rude shock . Some Internet providers may offer basic menu services to help y ou navigate a bit , but basically , all you 're buying is access to the highway . Once you 're in , you 're on your own , and when you do log onto other systems you 're there as a guest . These folks don't get anything for allowing you to g et your foot in the door , and you may find that systems you 're looking for are unavailable because they 've been taken off line for maintenance , changes or r epairs . That 's life on the Net . Environmentalism isn't what it used to be . An awareness is building that not e very program identifying itself as `` good '' for the environment delivers real value to society . Many voices are now being raised in favor of more common sens e and realism in allocating the burdens and benefits of environmental protection . So the opponents of environmental legislation have become the environmentalis ts themselves . The reauthorization of environmental statutes is being stalled o n Pennsylvania Avenue not by conservatives , but by liberals . Their fear is tha t the `` Zeitgeist '' no longer favors unqualified environmentalism . The enviro nmentalist imperative to preserve the status quo is best evidenced by their camp aign to kill congressional reform of the Superfund law . Likewise , Congress has been stymied in reauthorizing the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and th e Endangered Species Act . Even the bill to give the EPA Cabinet-level status wa s stopped in its tracks by the environmental side of the aisle . The tension bet ween balanced and absolute environmentalism has hit a social nerve because a par ticular form of conservation the need to save money has become so urgent . It co sts business owners , shareholders , workers and consumers , as well as state an d local governments , hundreds of billions of dollars a year to comply with the existing environmental laws enacted by Congress . This money is well spent only if the results are worth it . There is no question that the public loathes pollu tion and loves the idea of a green world . But people are starting to object to policies that protect the environment stupidly . Crime can't be fought , childre n educated , cancer cured or welfare reformed if environmental-protection money isn't used wisely . Cleaning up dirt at industrial Superfund sites to edible lev els , forcing schools to rip asbestos from behind sealed walls or sacrificing jo bs to protect subspecies can seem disproportionate to our more dangerous risks . Environmental realism seeks to find a balance by enhancing respect for honest s cience , private property and state and local budgets . There is growing consens us on the common-sense need to assess risks scientifically , compare relative ri sks and weigh the costs and benefits of government mandates . Some reactionary e nvironmentalists disparage the principles of `` risk analysis , '' `` property r ights '' and `` unfunded mandates '' as an `` unholy trinity '' intended to gut the environment as we know it . But if lawmakers and the public are kept in the dark about real risks and costs , the country will continue to buy environmental protection of the wrong kinds and amounts . Common sense is also rooted in the Constitution . The Fifth Amendment promises that the government will not take pr ivate property for public purposes without paying just compensation . This claus e has been increasingly invoked by landowners prohibited from using their proper ty by regulations designed to protect wetlands , species , beaches and green spa ce . These are worthwhile public objectives . But if their cost is too much for the public 's coffers , why should private citizens foot the bill ? The final co mmon-sense standard is a straightforward money question . Congress keeps passing laws that compel state and local governments to spend billions to comply with f ederal mandates . Goals like safe drinking water and clean air are good and nece ssary . But as Sen. John Glenn , D-Ohio , has said , Congress has an insatiable impulse to pass the buck but not the bucks . Governors and mayors just cannot af ford these unfunded mandates without depriving their constituents of a lot of ot her public services . If the federal money isn't there for the taking , which it isn't , then the minimum that good government can do is insist on a careful ord ering of regulatory priorities . The more mandates , the higher the property , s ewer and water taxes and these don't hit the rich hardest . Senior environmental officials in the Clinton administration are uncomfortable with the Democrat and Republican legislators who want to build these standards into law . This oldthi nk will not wash in 1994 any more than it did in 1969 . Then , the National Envi ronmental Policy Act ordered all federal decision-makers to consider environment al impacts before any major action . Surely it is no less desirable that the maj or impacts of environmental actions be considered just as carefully . The new en vironmental realism will improve , not stifle , environmental protection if resu lts are measured in terms of value received . No one really believes that the bi llions of environmental dollars spent today are spent well enough . I recently attended a human-rights conference in Baghdad . When I told a friend that the Iraqi Federation of Women had invited me for this purpose , she smirke d and , in a voice dripping with sarcasm , said , `` Human rights ? In Iraq ? '' No one can condone any of the human-rights violations by Iraq , such as the sup pression of the Kurdish and Shiite peoples or the invasion of Kuwait . But there are other parts to this story , especially concerning the status of women . Ira q , before its long war with Iran and during the brief two-year interlude before the Gulf War , was one of the most progressive Arab states on women 's rights . Women 's education , for example , benefited from the law on compulsory educati on of 1976 , the national comprehensive literacy campaign of 1978 and the law of higher education and scientific research of 1987 . For 15 years , there was a c lose association between Iraqi women and the organization I headed , the Women ' s Union of Greece . In 1979 , I visited many after-hours classes in elementary s chools where women of all ages were learning to read and write . Thousands of yo ung women were on government scholarships studying abroad , encouraged to enter any and all professions . The Iraqi women 's political rights included the follo wing : the right to vote and hold parliamentary office and membership in politic al parties , the right to membership in non-governmental organizations and assoc iations , and the right to hold public-sector jobs . Compare this to women 's si tuation in Saudi Arabia or Kuwait . Most of these rights were wiped out by the c onditions created when the United States and its allies dropped 88,500 tons of b ombs equal to seven Hiroshimas on this land . The bombing killed and wounded ten s of thousands of men , women and children , hitting mosques , churches , hospit als , schools , homes for children and the disabled and civilian shelters . Bomb s and missiles also destroyed power stations , sewage systems and municipal serv ices . This is a breach of Article 51 of the first protocol of the Geneva conven tions of 1977 , which calls for protection of civilians against military operati ons and forbids attacks targeting them . The U.N. economic sanctions were placed on Iraq for refusing to withdraw from Kuwait and were continued after Iraqi tro ops pulled out , following the cease-fire . The stated aim was to compel destruc tion of the country 's capacity to produce chemical and nuclear weapons . The wh ispered aim was to bring down Saddam Hussein and to aid the Kurds and the Shiite s . Saddam is still in power , with a weary and impoverished population unable t o gather the revolutionary zeal for his overthrow expected by President Bush . A s for the Kurds , the United States has never been a friend of the Kurdish strug gle for self-determination . Its policy after the war produced the painful exodu s of the Kurds , resulting in thousands of dead and homeless , hungry people . N ow it is trying to assuage its guilt by dropping pallets of food into refugee ca mps while Turkey carries out military raids against Kurdish villages in Iraq . T he U.S. call for an uprising of the Shiites , only to abandon those who made the attempt , resulted in the deaths of thousands more . Sanctions have , however , managed to create a weak economy , a physically debilitated people and three so cietal problems practically unheard of in prewar Iraq : crime , unemployment and prostitution . Women and children are bearing the brunt of these sanctions . Wo men whose partners were lost were thrown into the job market to feed their child ren . Divorce rates are up in two-parent families because of the stress and stra in . Girls are dropping out of school to help in the home . The acute shortage o f basic food and medicines as well as their soaring prices has triggered a nearl y 550 percent increase since 1990 in the mortality rate of children under 5 . An d women are withdrawing from political activity , unable to handle all the added responsibilities they now have . The stated aim of the U.N. resolution on sanct ions was to stop Iraq 's production of weapons of mass destruction . Iraq has co mplied with all the conditions . It has officially dropped its claim to Kuwait a s Iraq 's 19th province . And it has agreed to long-term monitoring to ensure it is not resuscitating its weapons program . What is the purpose of continuing th e sanctions ? A healthy , vibrant society is in a much better position to work f or political change , to correct human-rights abuses , to build a democratic sys tem . If the civilized world is to carry the banner of human rights , it has to look at its own actions . Denying people food , medications , sovereignty and pe ace of mind is another form of war . The Clinton administration inherited a poli cy . It is time it examined that inheritance and took the bold , humane action o f removing the sanctions . Q : I just saw my first grandchild . He is beautiful , but I have a question . Why do they put stocking caps on babies in the hospital ? I would think it would be their little hands and feet that got cold ! I recommend booties . A : Before birth a baby is kept warm by its mother 's body . Its own thermostat is not cha llenged . After birth , a baby 's temperature regulation system is suddenly on i ts own . Placed in a cool environment , a baby may have trouble adjusting . Comp ared to the rest of its body , a baby 's head is relatively large . It provides a large area of skin from which heat can escape , even if the baby 's body is bu ndled . The purpose of the cap is to preserve body heat . We do not know whether it also makes a baby more comfortable . Hands and feet are , as you pointed out , little . They are unlikely to be a major source of heat loss for a baby . We doubt whether a baby cares whether or not it has on booties , but in our experie nce , booties do seem to make grandmothers more comfortable and may be recommend ed for that reason alone ! Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service . This is an embarrassment of riches . For years Rachmaninoff 's First Sonata has fared poorly on records and in the concert hall . The work is gigantic almost a s long the Concerto No. 3 and horrendously difficult . Few of the great Rachmani noff interpreters including the composer himself , Horowitz , Richter , Cliburn and Ashkenazy have shown interest in expending the time and energy necessary to keep it in their fingers . It 's hard to blame them . While the piece is better organized than the Sonata No. 2 , its length particularly in the 15-minute long finale all but precludes success . In the finale the composer 's forearm-straini ng and knuckle-breaking virtuosic phrases must be repeated so frequently that ev en a great artist runs the risk of boring an audience . In the past 30 years or so , only John Ogdon and Alexis Weissenberg have been interested in the piece . And Ogdon 's old RCA recording is long out of print , and by the time Weissenber g got around to recording it for Deutsche Grammophon in 1990 , he did not play i t with his earlier fire and brilliance . Desperately in need of a single decent recording , we now must choose between two tremendous ones . Both the Cuban-born Rodriguez , who lives in College Park , and the Russian-born Berezovsky , who n ow lives in Spain , have the fingers to play this music , the minds to make a co herent experience of it and the hearts to make it affecting . They are somewhat different kinds of readings . Berezovsky , 25 , plays Rachmaninoff in the now do minant style that Cliburn first introduced in the late 1950s . His relaxed , ass ured playing , while it does not shortchange the music 's heroism , emphasizes i ts lyricism . Rodriguez , 40 , performs the Sonata in the way to judge from his recordings that one imagines the composer himself did before he lost interest in the work . Rodriguez 's is utterly unsentimental playing that drives the music with a sense of ferocious destiny . This is not to say that his playing lacks fe eling , but only , like that of Rachmaninoff 's himself , that it lacks anything resembling self-indulgence . If I had to choose between them , I would select R odriguez . He has been programming an enormous amount of the composer 's solo pi eces in the past few years and his experience shows in the way he is able to per suade the listener as Berezovsky does not always do that the Sonata is not over- long . ( In fact , Rodriguez ' performance is about four minutes faster than Ber ezovsky . ) The couplings are excellent : Rodriguez performs the opus 32 prelude s in a heroic , turbulent manner and Berezovsky does a lovely job in making a ca se for the composer 's neglected Variations on a theme of Chopin . But listeners should keep in mind that a second all-Rachmaninoff CD of Rodriguez , featuring the Sonata No. 2 and the same Chopin Variations , is planned for future release . When we talk about cyberspace , the online world , more and more we 're talking about the Internet . It 's a place that has emerged , Oz-like and shimmering , from the intertwining of more than 15,000 computer networks around the globe . T he Internet isn't a discrete physical place , nor is it owned by anyone . The wo rd describes the computer networks that abide by the same technical rules for tr ansmitting data . But since so much of that `` data '' is plain old , person-to- person communicating , the Internet has begun to feel like a new community , a s olid place where people go to communicate and learn . The Internet evolved from a Cold War experiment in computer networking called the Arpanet nearly 25 years ago . The Defense Department network allowed different kinds of computers to int erconnect and pass data . It was designed to withstand nuclear war ; should one node be taken out in , say , Salt Lake City , whatever was left of the network w as designed to carry on , route around the dead zone . Happily , this was never tested and , as the Defense Department moved out , civilians began to move in , like squatters inhabiting bomb shelters . The simple rules for interconnecting t o the network encouraged the growth of regional subnetworks . Universities and c olleges joined research facilities on the Net , followed by the rest of us , who were looking for PC diversions beyond word processing and spreadsheets . Now , some 15 million people spend time in this place . If the population continues to climb at such an astounding rate , everyone on the planet will be on the Intern et by the year 2003 . As the population grows , so does the content . More and m ore of the world 's information is centralizing here . The seasoned Net comber c an find digitized photographs from the Smithsonian Institution or the Vatican , thousands of shareware programs and free software , satellite maps , weather for ecasts , a daily MTV `` cybersleaze report '' and discussion groups on everythin g from abortion to gardening . But you have to know what you 're doing to get ar ound and even find the Internet . To people who are just beginning to allow comp uters into their homes , the Internet is as mysterious as was the New World six centuries ago . The Internet tourist needs only minimal equipment . In fact , al l you need is a computer , a modem and a phone line . Virtually any computer and any U.S. phone line will work . That 's one of the great things about using the Internet : You can hook your slow , dumb , out-of-date computer into a million- dollar supercomputer on the Net and tap into all that power like a bandit . ( It 's nice to know that that computer you paid $ 3,000 for three years ago is stil l good for something . Indeed , a lot of people , when they upgrade to new machi nes , reserve their old computers for traveling the online world . ) It doesn't matter if you have an IBM clone or a Macintosh . It doesn't matter if it 's an o ld XT or an Apple II . It doesn't even matter if you have a hard drive , though having one means you willn't have to pop floppy disks in and out to capture the treasures you retrieve off the Net . All that matters is that your computer can be connected to a modem , and frankly , it 's hard to think of one that can't . The next item on a hardware checklist is called a modem . Modems are devices tha t allow computers to communicate over telephone lines . Modems do this by transl ating the digital language that computers use into audio frequencies that can be transmitted by telephone networks . ( The word `` modem '' comes from MOdulator -DEModulator . ) Many computers are sold these days with internal modems . If yo u look on the back of the computer 's central processing unit ( the box that loo ks like a toaster ) and if you see a jack that will accommodate a phoneline , yo u 've already got a modem on board . Otherwise , you 'll need to buy one . You n eed to decide whether you want to buy an internal modem , which fits neatly insi de your computer ( it 's easy enough to install yourself ) , or an external mode m , which can sit on the floor or desk top . External modems are slightly more e xpensive , mainly because they are equipped with a string of lights that help yo u figure out what the modem is doing at any given time . This is a nice feature for problem-shooting ; a quick glance tells you whether you 're actually online , how fast your modem is pumping data and other , more arcane details . Still , some people prefer not cluttering their desks with more circuitry than necessary , and gladly forgo yet another array of LEDs in favor of economy . A phone line will plug into the back of your computer , if you have an internal modem , or i nto the external modem itself . The next decision is speed how fast a modem shou ld you buy ? On the Internet , and elsewhere in the online world , faster is bet ter . The faster the modem , the less time it takes to transfer the fruits you ' ll be harvesting on the Net : Text files , inexpensive or free software , pictur es , even video and audio . If you 're paying for Internet service by the hour , you 'll actually save money by buying a more expensive high-speed modem . A mod em 's speed is determined by how many bits per second it can move . ( A bit is e ither a zero or a one , the smallest unit of data conveyed by microprocessors ) . You will also see the word `` baud '' used as a measure of speed . In the fabu lously arcane world of computer jargon , baud and bit rate are sometimes used in terchangeably , though in most cases they are not at all the same . At low speed s , however , baud and bit rate are the same : A 300-baud modem moves data at 30 0 bits per second . But as modems developed , and coding schemes for moving bits matured , it became possible to pack more than one bit on each baud . ( A 2400- bits-per-second modem , for instance , operates at 600 baud . ) The usual analog y is cars on a highway , with each car representing a baud and each passenger a bit . Bits-per-second is the measure you 're interested in . So how fast ? These days , it pays to get a modem that pumps data at 14,400 bits-per-second or fast er . At that speed , or higher , you can try some of the nifty new services that are making it easier to navigate the Net , like Mosaic . Slower modems will wor k for everything else , though . ( Begin optional trim ) It also pays to buy a r eliable modem , one that can stand up to the crushing demands of a long session on the Net . You can find many off-brand modems , and save yourself money . But my experience has been that cheap modems tend to fail when they get hot ( cussed ly annoying when you 're in the middle of downloading a large file and have to s tart anew ) . I use a Global Village Gold , 14,400 bps in my Macintosh Powerbook . The modem sells for about $ 275 . It 's been reliable and so has the 800-numb er for customer support . In the Time of Misery , when I used IBM compatibles , I used a Hayes modem , which is also the industry standard . To get your modem t o call any other computer , you 'll need a communications program . There are do zens of these , ranging in price from a few hundred dollars to freeware . On the IBM side , the most common are ProComm and Mirror ; try Zterm or Microphone for Macs . Any off-the-shelf communications program will do for online work . Unfor tunately , the only way to learn how to use one of these is to read the manual . You 'll need to learn how to put a phone number in your dialing directory and c all the number ; later , you 'll also need to learn how to use xmodem or zmodem to transfer files between your computer and your Internet host computer . ( End optional trim ) One final word : Most fast modems also come with a fax option , meaning you can send or receive faxes through your computer . Sure , you 've gon e this long without having a fax machine . But it 's amusing to fax things to yo ur friends . Think of it as e-mail for the Internet-impaired . I 'd rather give up my telephone than my e-mail . I love being able to communic ate in writing with people and not have to wait days or weeks for a reply ( or h ave to find a stamp ) . It 's a luxury to be able to compose my thoughts before I communicate . On a recent , typical day , I sent e-mail to a computer technici an in Finland ( `` How 's it going ? '' ) , a fellow reporter in New York City ( `` Lunch Friday ? '' ) , a college kid at Dartmouth ( `` Here 's that telnet ad dress you wanted ... '' ) and my mom in Pennsylvania ( don't ask ) . I also rece ived mail from all of the above , as well as from a magazine editor in San Franc isco , a programmer in Boston , a professor at the University of Pennsylvania an d .. . actually , I got about 60 messages from people all over the world . Unlik e using regular `` snail mail '' the U.S. Postal Service kind I can send and rec eive as much e-mail as I want , paying nothing other than my flat , monthly Inte rnet access fee . Corresponding with my friend in Espoo , Finland , is as cheap as e-mailing my friend in New York City , which makes the `` global village '' c liche really work . The only problem with e-mail is that some people I want to r each don't use it yet . But that 's changing . An estimated 15 million people sw ap electronic mail over the Internet . That includes the world 's college and un iversity students , users of America Online , CompuServe , Delphi , FidoNet , GE nie , Prodigy and anyone who subscribes to the e-mail services offered by AT&T , MCI and Sprint . More commercial online services are offering e-mail-only gatew ays to the Internet every day . Much of that e-mail is just like the communicati ng you do in letters and over the telephone . It 's casual , and has the feeling of a long-running conversation . One way e-mail improves upon the telephone is most people read their own e-mail , rather than having , say , their secretary s creen it . Of course , President Clinton isn't any more likely to read e-mail ad dressed to ` ` president ( AT ) whitehouse.gov ' ' than he is a postcard mailed to him . But other people might be . Until The New Yorker published an amusing p iece a few months ago that detailed the correspondence between a staff writer th ere and Microsoft founder Bill Gates , Gates read his own e-mail . Then , after tens of thousands of messages , he turned the chore over to an assistant . Findi ng someone 's e-mail address requires more sleuthing than finding someone 's `` snail mail '' address . There are a few directories on the Internet that represe nt little more than the first attempts at collecting addresses . For now , your best bet is having someone 's e-mail address already in hand . But you can often figure out a person 's address if you know a little bit about how e-mail addres ses are structured . The syntax of an e-mail address is a peculiar thing . The f irst time you saw one , you probably thought it was a typo. ` ` quit ( AT ) news day.com ' ' If I were telling someone that address I 'd say : `` quit at newsday dot com . '' ( In the bit-speak of network land , you always say `` dot , '' ra ther than `` period , '' and `` at , '' instead of `` at-sign . '' ) At the far right of that address , ( .com ) is the `` domain '' name . Internet domains can be .com ( commercial ) , .edu ( educational , like colleges and universities ) , .gov ( governmental agencies ) , .org ( organizations ) and so on . The name i n the middle is usually the name of the school , organization , agency or busine ss . The at-sign identifies the individual user at that domain . Beyond person-t o-person correspondence , e-mail is used for a powerful , new way of communicati ng known as mailing lists . These mailing lists are creating small , floating co mmunities without boundaries that are growing up around special interests . You can subscribe to mailing lists by sending your name to a computer , known as a L istserv , that automatically handles the e-mail list . Any message sent to the L istserv bounces out to all the members of the list . So if someone on a list abo ut , say , Powerbook computers , sends a question to the Listserv asking why his trackball gets all gummy , the question would go out to everyone . Chances are someone knows why and how to fix it , and will send a reply back to the list . I n the past two years , I 've subscribed to e-mail lists that : track civil liber ties issues on the electronic frontier ; disseminate bad jokes ; report on techn ological risks ; examine questions surrounding computer-assisted journalism ; pr ovide daily feeds of what 's hot in cyberspace ; and discuss ad nauseum the tele vision series `` Mayberry RFD . '' ( Begin optional trim ) It 's easy to get off these lists ; you simply send e-mail to the Listserv asking to be taken off the list . Mailing lists illustrate the fundamentally different way people are usin g the global Internet to communicate : An e-mail user can send an electronic que ry out into the void , like a message in a bottle , and days or even hours later , get a reply , usually from a stranger , and often , from someone in another c ountry . In letterwriting , or telephone conversations , we communicate one to o ne ; on the Net , we can communicate one to many . It helps explain why people g et so carried away when they contemplate the future of this global medium . ( En d optional trim ) Often , when people get access to the Internet , one of the fi rst things they do is start subscribing to mail lists . The question is , how do you find out what 's out there to subscribe to ? One way is to get a copy of th e List of Lists , a compendium that catalogs each mail list , its address , and the rules for subscribing , as well as the topics covered . ( You need to read e ach entry on the List of Lists , since the list name doesn't necessarily tell yo u what it 's about . For instance , the list called DOROTHYL is the one you 'd w ant if you 're interested in discussing mystery novels ; the name is an homage t o the great mystery writer Dorothy Sayers . ) You can get the List of Lists by e -mail . ( Send e-mail to : ` ` mail-server ( AT ) sri.com ' ' Put the words `` s end interest-groups '' in the body of the message . ) Or you can buy one of the many books that provide directories of mail lists . Among them are , `` Internet : Mailing Lists , '' published by Prentice Hall , which is little more than a v erbatim printout of the List of Lists ; or `` netguide , '' published by Random House . The Random House book , which is described as a TV Guide of cyberspace , lists most of the mail lists ( and other great net treasures ) in a topic-by-to pic directory . The hardware you need to tap into the Internet : Any desktop or laptop computer that can connect to a modem . ( In other words , virtually any computer sold du ring the past decade . ) A modem , preferably 9,600 bps or faster , that is comp atible with your computer . A telephone line . Note : Be sure to disable call-wa iting during online sessions . The software you need to tap into the Internet : Any off-the-shelf communications program . ProComm and Mirror are particularly g ood for IBM compatibles ; zTerm and Microphone are good for Macs . About a decade ago , it would have taken you only a few hours to read every mes sage posted on Usenet , a collection of special-interest groups commonly referre d to as the `` Internet 's bulletin board . '' That would be an impossible task now : Each day , about 106 megabytes of information roughly equivalent to 106 50 0-page books is piped around the world to Usenet readers , said Gene Spafford , a computer science professor at Purdue University in Indiana . ( Spafford counts himself among those old Usenet hands who once read Usenet in its entirety daily . ) What could possibly fill 53,000 pages of text every day ? Cat lovers writin g about their pets . Russian emigres writing about the situation back home . Fan s of Pugsley in the old `` Addams Family '' TV show recounting their favorite ep isodes . And arguments , known as `` flame wars , '' that go on for days about e very religion , stripe of sexuality , computer and operating system . Indeed , e very topic imaginable ( and many you can't imagine ) has its own forum in Usenet . These topics are called `` newsgroups , '' though little of what 's discussed bears any resemblance to news . The name newsgroup is a holdover from 1979 , wh en Usenet was developed as a way to relay information about new product releases , seminars and other timely news , among university computer users . But like t he Internet itself , Usenet has grown to include the rest of the world . To find your corner of that world , it will help to know a little bit about the structu re of Usenet . Newsgroups are arranged according to general categories , or `` h ierarchies , '' including : Computer-related information ( designated as comp ) , world and local news ( news ) , recreation ( rec ) , science ( sci ) , social studies ( soc ) , talk ( talk ) , miscellaneous ( misc ) and everyone 's favorit e , alternative news groups ( alt ) , where some of the weirdest correspondence on the face of the Earth can be found . Within each of the hierarchies are subca tegories . For instance , if you wanted to find the Usenet group where people ta lk about bicycles , you 'd go to rec.bicycles . If you were looking for job list ings , you 'd check out misc.jobs.offered . There 's even a group for discussing bad seafood , called alt.bad.clams . By Spafford 's estimate , there are 10,000 Usenet newsgroups . With so many , it is something of a chore figuring out that rec.bicycles is the place to discuss bicycles , and that there isn't a group ca lled talk.bicycles . Unless you have a book that lists Usenet groups , you 'll h ave to spend some time looking around Usenet for what you want . Happily , most sites that provide full Internet access get daily feeds that include a few thous and of the more popular Usenet newsgroups . Among the national online providers , so far America Online and Delphi offer Usenet , as well . To read and post mes sages on Usenet , you invoke something called a `` news reader , '' which is a s oftware menu system to help you navigate . News readers have their own rules , a nd are usually pretty self explanatory ; typically , if you don't know something , typing a question mark will pull up a help file . On Panix , where I get my I nternet access , I enter my news reader by typing `` N . '' From there , I can t ype `` G , '' which causes the news reader to respond `` go to ? '' It 's asking me what newsgroup I want to browse . If I know the name of the group , I simply type it . But let 's say I 'm looking for a newsgroup where people can discuss gun control . If I type the word `` gun , '' my news reader , being no dummy , a sks me if I want to go to the newsgroup rec.guns or talk.politics.guns . You can assume that rec.guns is about recreational gun use ; talk.politics.guns is the one for me . Aren't computers great ? You should be aware of the cultural conven tions that have come to flourish among Usenet readers . If you 're interested in posting your thoughts to a newsgroup , it 's advisable to first read the FAQ . FAQs are files that contain `` frequently asked questions , '' as well as their answers . FAQS are designed to prevent the same question from being asked every time a new person starts reading a newsgroup . Another thing to be aware of is t his : Usenet is uncensored . If you are easily offended , or if you are a parent who doesn't want your child exposed to certain things , be warned that most Int ernet sites that provide Usenet feeds take all the popular newsgroups . Some of the most popular groups are alt.sex-related groups , where people endlessly disc uss some of the most intimate details of their lives , in extremely explicit lan guage . And then there is the question of flame wars . There is definitely a sid e to computer-based communication that resembles graffiti anyone can scrawl what ever they want in a public place without fear of reprisal . Even if your name is attached to your message , it 's easier to provoke outrage through careless wri ting than through face-to-face conversation . That 's partly due , I think , to the alienation people sometimes feel when they 're sitting alone , at their comp uters , removed from their audience . `` A lot of people think they 're almost c ompelled to abuse others , '' said Spafford , who has cut back in the amount of newsgroups he reads because of what computer-science people euphemistically refe r to as a low `` signal-to-noise ratio . '' In other words , there 's a lot of g arbage out there . ( Optional add end ) `` The problem 's gotten steadily worse , '' Spafford said . `` I think it 's because the entry cost of getting on the N et has gone down to the point where people on the Net don't have an interest in developing harmony and cooperation . '' Spafford said that in Usenet 's earlier days , the users were mostly computer scientists or researchers who had a shared interest in `` promoting computer-professional demeanor . '' `` Now , '' Spaffo rd said , `` you can get 14-year-olds , emotionally , who spend a few hundred do llars to augment their PC , ( get on the Net ) and they can be as rude and crude as they want . '' Your computer 's modem is connected to a phone line . You 've figured out how t o use the communications software that came with it ( or that you bought ) . You 're ready to travel the Internet . So how do you get there from here ? If you ' re a college student , or work at a large communications company , you probably already have Internet access on site . ( Check with someone in your computer ser vices department to find out . ) But for most home users , getting to the Intern et means finding a company that retails Internet access . Then you instruct your computer to call its computer . If you 're lucky , you 'll have a choice of loc al providers . Local access is desirable because it means you willn't be spendin g money on long-distance telephone service on top of monthly Internet access fee s that typically cost less than $ 30 a month . Real Internet access means more t han merely being able to send and receive electronic mail . If you 're just look ing for an Internet e-mail connection , there are many commercial services such as America Online , CompuServe , GEnie and Prodigy that will let you send and re ceive e-mail to Internet users without giving you any other access to the Intern et . Likewise , most local Internet providers offer e-mail addresses as part of their `` basic '' service plans at lower monthly rates than fuller service . Tru e Internet access means being able to connect your computer directly to other co mputers on the Net . It means being able to use a number of tools that help you navigate the online world and find things like archives of software for your IBM clone or Mac . Or card catalogs from the great libraries of the world . Or mult iplayer games in simulated `` virtual worlds . '' It means being able to transfe r large quantities of data at very rapid speeds . That said , you should know th at what most home users purchase from Internet providers is `` gateway '' servic e . Think of gateway service as an indirect ( and cheaper ) connection to other computers ( called `` hosts '' ) on the Internet . Most providers allow you to l ink your computer to their computer , which , in turn , is connected by a high-s peed phone line to the sprawling Internet beyond . Many providers may also offer to sell you a more direct connection to the Internet ( you might see these conn ections referred to as SLIP or PPP connections ) . These connections allow your computer to communicate directly with other Internet computers , but require you to use at least a 14,400 bps modem and special software . They also cost signif icantly more . Scattered throughout the Internet are free files and computer programs that tea ch you how to use the Internet . This has always struck me as sweetly ironic : I f you knew how to find any one of them ( hint : try using archie ) , transfer it ( using ftp ) , move it from your host computer to your PC ( using zmodem ) and decompress it ( using God knows what ) , what more would you need to know about the Internet ? Of course , these files were placed on the Net so that veteran I nternetters could retrieve them , and print them out for Net newcomers . These f ree files are typical of the Internet 's spirit and explain something that you s hould know by now : Here is a community that has flourished because its inhabita nts believe that the world is a better place when information flows freely and f or free . Indeed , until about two years ago , the only way you could learn abou t the Internet was from other people who 'd been there , or from these free file s . Virtually no how-to books were available at bookstores . That 's changed . I n a bookstore in New York City last week , there was an entire section devoted t o Internet books . Every major publisher , and lots of small presses , have thei r own authority on the subject . Most of these books are indistinguishable from each other . Some of them are marketed by exploiting your insecurity about new t echnology . If you really want to understand more about the Internet , you 'll s tart amassing your own library , which , it seems to me , should be built on a f oundation of three books : a comprehensive how-to guide ; a directory of places to go and things to do on the Net ; and a comprehensive computer dictionary , wh ich will help fill in the blanks left by the other two books . Here are some boo ks , published during the past year , that I can recommend : HOW-TO GUIDES `` Th e Whole Internet : User 's Guide & Catalog , '' by Ed Krol ( O' Reilly & Associa tes ; $ 24.95 ) . This is the book that started it all , way back in 1992 , and is one of many Internet-related offerings from the Sebastopol , Calif. , publish er . More than 250,000 copies are now in print , which explains why other publis hers have jumped into the market . Recently updated , Krol 's book is a straight forward account of how the Internet works . It also has a brief list of places t o go and things to do . Best of all , it has a nifty `` quick reference card , ' ' that gives you a short list of commands you need to know to use telnet , ftp , archie and Usenet , among other things . `` Internet Starter Kit : Everything Y ou Need to Get on the Internet , '' by Adam C. Engst ( Hayden Books ; $ 29.95 ) . An excellent find for Macintosh users since , in addition to being a solid how -to book , it comes with a diskette that contains five genuinely useful programs for Net surfing , including Stuffit Expander ( a compression program ) and Inte rSLIP ( a high-speed protocol for connecting to the Net ) . There 's also a Wind ows version if you 're so inclined . `` The Internet Navigator , '' by Paul Gils ter ( John Wiley & Sons Inc. , $ 24.95 ) . Gilster writes a regular column for T he News & Observer in Raleigh , N.C. , so he speaks a form of English most peopl e will readily understand . The book is written in a way that makes you feel as if you were looking over Gilster 's shoulder ; he tells you where he 's going an d how he got there . `` Zen and the Art of the Internet , '' by Brendan Kehoe ( Prentice Hall ; $ 23.95 ) . This guide started as an online file ( and you can s till find it at many sites on the Net ) . It was published in book form for the first time last year . Kehoe really knows his stuff . `` The Internet Guide for New Users , '' by Daniel Dern ( McGraw-Hill Inc. , $ 27.95 ) . Dern , editor at the magazine Internet World , has put together a comprehensive guide , with the right mix of information on Internet tools and Unix commands . DIRECTORIES OF PL ACES TO GO AND THINGS TO DO `` Netguide , '' by Michael Wolff & Co. . ( Random H ouse ; $ 19 ) . The best attempt yet at categorizing and organizing all the grea t stuff you can find out there . Netguide also includes non-Internet cyberspace material , such as forums on the main commercial online service providers . Plan s are under way to put all this information up on an online database , but until then , this book is definitely worth owning . As evidence of its popularity , i t 's the book people keep stealing off my desk at work . `` The Internet Directo ry , '' by Eric Braun ( Fawcett Columbine/Ballantine Books ; $ 25 ) . Instead of approaching the Internet by category , this directory breaks it down into secti ons that index mailing lists , Usenet newsgroups , online library card catalogue s , ftp sites and various navigational sites . Impressively comprehensive , with a good index in the back of the book . `` The Whole Earth Online Almanac , '' b y Don Rittner ( Brady Computer Book ; $ 32.95 ) . The Whole Earth folks have bee n way out in front on the Info Revolution , and their book is well laid out and complete . `` Internet : Mailing Lists , '' edited by Edward T.L. Hardie and Viv ian Neou ( Prentice Hall ; $ 29 ) . The book is little more than the comprehensi ve List of Lists , a list of all the e-mail groups that anyone on the Internet c an subscribe to . E-mail groups focus on any topic you can think of , from dog o wnership to `` Mayberry RFD '' fans . A DICTIONARY The Computer Glossary : The C omplete Illustrated Desk Reference , '' by Alan Freedman ( Amacom ; $ 25.95 ) . Of the half-dozen or so computer dictionaries , this is my favorite . Lots of pi ctures and charts . The explanations of arcane computer technology are simple an d direct and willn't make you feel like a Complete Idiot-Dummy . Scientists at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in New Jersey announced t his week that they have set a new world record for the amount of power produced in a nuclear fusion reactor : 9 million watts . Last December , the same reactor set a series of new world records at 3 million watts and 5.6 million watts . Th e new power level , which was maintained for about one-quarter of a second , app roached the reactor 's design-maximum of 10 million watts . The experiment was d one in the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor , a $ 1.4 billion device that is not inte nded to produce sustained power but to operate in bursts so that scientists can learn how to control the hot , ionized gases , or plasma , that creates the powe r . Once they learn to control the plasma , the scientists hope to build a react or that will operate continuously , generating enough energy to sustain itself a nd have enough left over to generate electricity . In this experiment , however , the reactor consumed about three times as much power as it produced . `` This was a major success , '' said lab director Ronald Davidson . `` We 're discoveri ng a lot of intriguing phenomena in these experiments . '' The reactor works by feeding two forms of hydrogen gas deuterium and tritium into a doughnut-shaped c hamber and heating the particles with electromagnetic energy until they move wit h such speed that they overcome their natural repulsion , slam together and fuse . WASHINGTON The U.S. . Sentencing Commission , which sets prison sentences for f ederal crimes , has long been a target of criticism from defense lawyers , liber al judges , civil libertarians and the like . Critics complain the 7-year-old co mmission merely replaced the unchecked sentencing power of federal judges with a Republican-controlled , computer-like operation of fixed sentences that ignored differences among criminals . Some even thought that the Clinton administration , with four vacancies to fill on the seven-member commission , would seize the opportunity to put its stamp on federal sentencing . But the commission , which went part time ( except for the chairman ) on Jan. 1 , is limping along doing no thing controversial while it awaits the administration 's actions . This is one the Democrats can't blame on the Republicans . The holdup seems to be a fight am ong powerful Democrats over who will be succeed the chairman , William Wilkins J r. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy , D-Mass. , wants Boston federal Judge David Mazzone , who is now a commissioner . Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. , D-Del. , wants his law s chool chum , Commissioner Michael Gelacak , in the job . Attorney General Janet Reno had been interviewing candidates last fall . Another list of candidates is being put together now . WASHINGTON A draft presidential executive order was circulated by the White Hou se last week calling for a `` bulk declassification '' of 48.8 million pages of documents held by the National Archives . Half of the material is World War II-r elated and the other half concerns selected records up through the Vietnam years . The draft was sent out with a very short turnaround time for responses becaus e the White House was hoping to make an announcement before President Clinton to ok off for his D-Day trip . But the agencies came in asking for more time to rev iew the material . The World War II stuff is mostly Army papers . There is some State Department material , as well as some Office of Strategic Services ( the o riginal CIA ) documents . It is going to be tough for some of the classification zealots to defend holding 50-year-old documents , but some may give it a try , using the old `` sources and methods '' approach . That might still work if any of the sources are living . Word is the executive order will be signed shortly a fter Clinton returns . He wanted his wife to quit smoking . It was a simple wish , yet its consequence s were profound . This was in the 1970s , in Greece , where smoking was as cheri shed a pastime as baseball in America . Dimitrios Trichopoulos didn't care about bucking the tide . He simply detested his wife 's addiction . A young cancer ep idemiologist at the University of Athens , Trichopoulos tried the usual guilt tr ip . He told her she was hurting herself . On this , he said , the medical liter ature was clear . When that didn't work , he told her she was hurting him an arg ument he could not support with statistics . She didn't believe it . Ever the sc ientist , he set out to prove it . That family argument wound up earning Trichop oulos a place in tobacco history . He was the first researcher to connect second hand cigarette smoke with an increased risk of lung cancer . He accomplished thi s in a somewhat unorthodox fashion , pirating $ 50,000 from one of his grants to conduct a survey of 189 nonsmoking women . ( Greek officials , Trichopoulos say s , would never have given him money to study the detrimental effects of a cash crop as lucrative as tobacco ) . He found that smokers ' wives were twice as lik ely to develop lung cancer as women married to nonsmokers . It worked . `` I con vinced her , '' Trichopoulos says . His wife quit . The study did much more than clean the air in the Trichopoulos home . He published it in 1981 , days before the publication of a larger study conducted by Japanese epidemiologist Takeshi H irayama . These papers gave a huge boost to a grass-roots anti-smoking campaign that has dramatically changed the way Americans work , dine , travel and raise c hildren . This is the nature of the secondhand smoke revolution : a little bit o f science still emerging , not all of it conclusive shaping a lot of public poli cy . For anti-smoking activists , scientific research into the dangers of second hand smoke has been a godsend . The high point came last year , when the U.S. . Environmental Protection Agency declared secondhand smoke a `` Group A '' human carcinogen , reporting that it accounts for 3,000 lung cancer deaths each year . This placed it in the same deadly category as asbestos and radon ; the agency c oncluded that the danger cannot be eliminated by using smoking and nonsmoking se ctions . Thanks in large part to that report , secondhand smoke is now one of th e nation 's most pressing and divisive public health issues . Coupled with alleg ations that tobacco companies have misrepresented the nicotine content in cigare ttes and tobacco executives ' denials the issue is bringing public outrage to ne w heights . But the tobacco industry is fighting back hard . A coalition of farm ers and manufacturers filed a lawsuit alleging that the EPA `` manipulated and c herry-picked scientific data '' and asked that a U.S. . District Court judge in North Carolina nullify the report . In California , tobacco giant Philip Morris has placed a controversial initiative on the November ballot that would undo loc al ordinances designed to curb secondhand smoke and replace them with a looser s tandard . ( Begin optional trim ) And cigarette maker R.J. Reynolds has launched an aggressive public information campaign designed to stave off smoking bans by countering the widespread perception that secondhand smoke is dangerous . The c ompany 's tactic : Fight science with science . In full-page newspaper ads , R.J . Reynolds says its research shows that nonsmokers are exposed to `` very little '' secondhand smoke , even when they live or work with smokers . In one month , the company said , a nonsmoker living with a smoker would breathe the equivalen t of smoking 1 cigarettes . ( End optional trim ) `` Policies should be based on science , '' Chris Coggins , the R.J. Reynolds toxicologist , said in an interv iew last week . `` I think that the ( EPA ) science is very , very weak . '' But the industry has a long way to go toward rolling back public policy on secondha nd smoke . More than 600 state and local ordinances restrict smoking in public p laces . Across the United States , in cities large and small , a familiar sight has emerged : Smokers congregating outside . The federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration is contemplating a ban in all workplaces . This month , a congressional subcommittee approved a bill , introduced by Rep. Henry A . Waxma n , D-Calif. , that would ban smoking in most buildings , except restaurants and private clubs . There is no smoking on domestic flights . There is no smoking i n the White House ; first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton will not tolerate it . The re is no smoking with your Big Mac ; McDonald 's recently banned tobacco in its corporate-owned restaurants . Taco Bell and Jack in the Box followed suit . Last year , the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Nevada prisoner who called hi s cellmate 's smoke cruel and unusual punishment . Custody battles have been set tled by giving preference to parents who do not smoke . The turnabout from a smo king to a smoke-free society seems to have occurred overnight . It could not hav e happened , anti-smoking advocates say , without science . `` Twenty years ago , I tried to have one room in a cruise ship declared smoke-free and I was told I was crazy , '' said John Banzhaf , a law professor at George Washington Univers ity who runs Action on Smoking and Health , or ASH . `` Who at that time would h ave figured that 30 percent of all our businesses would be smoke-free today ? .. . Things are moving amazingly quickly , and it is the scientific , medical unde rpinning that has changed the complexion of the issue . '' Today , several hundr ed scientific studies link secondhand smoke to a variety of diseases : lung and other cancers , heart disease , respiratory infections including bronchitis and pneumonia , asthma and sudden infant death syndrome , or SIDS , which claims the lives of babies as they sleep . This research is responsible for an oft-quoted statistic : About 53,000 Americans die each year from secondhand smoke . `` The evidence is so clear , '' says Mark Pertschuk , co-director of Americans for Non -Smokers Rights . `` Everybody and his brother is lining up to ban smoking . '' Yet the evidence , while compelling , is not as complete as Pertschuk suggests . Of each year 's secondhand-smoke deaths , 3,000 are attributed to lung cancer , 12,000 to other cancers and 37,000 to heart disease , according to the Coalitio n on Smoking OR Health , a nonprofit group formed by the American Lung Associati on , the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society . The coalit ion also estimates that secondhand smoke accounts for 700 SIDS deaths a year . M ost scientists working outside the tobacco industry say the link between lung ca ncer and secondhand smoke is firmly established . But the evidence on heart dise ase which accounts for nearly 70 percent of estimated deaths is much newer , and not all scientists accept it . Only 14 studies have documented this link , and the federal government has not yet taken a position . Nonetheless , public toler ance for secondhand smoke is waning . A recent Gallup Poll showed 38 percent of Americans support a ban on smoking in restaurants up 10 percent from three years ago . Support for workplace smoking bans is at 32 percent , up eight points fro m 1991 . The poll also found 36 percent of Americans believe secondhand smoke is very harmful to adults , and 42 percent believe it is somewhat harmful . `` The tide has turned , '' says Michael Eriksen , director of the Office on Smoking a nd Health at the U.S. . Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . `` I think an invisible line was crossed in terms of how the public feels about smoking . ' ' The tobacco industry is trying its best to persuade people to cross back over that line . The vast majority of the research on secondhand smoke is epidemiolog ical , meaning it traces patterns of disease and finds connections , rather than proving cause and effect . Based on those studies , scientists are just beginni ng to conduct animal research to learn the precise biological effects of secondh and smoke . Tobacco industry officials vehemently dispute the epidemiology , inc luding the EPA report . They say some study subjects give inaccurate information about how much smoke they have been exposed to , or whether they have ever smok ed . R.J. Reynolds officials also cite a recent report by the Congressional Rese arch Service the research branch of the Library of Congress that characterized t he EPA 's data as `` uncertain . '' Coggins , the Reynolds toxicologist , compla ins that the EPA failed to include recent data that found no link between lung c ancer and secondhand smoke . `` The epidemiological evidence is not sufficient t o say that ( secondhand smoke ) poses a health risk , '' says Gio Batta Gori , a toxicologist and consultant for the Tobacco Institute , a trade industry group . Next : An Unwilling Fighter in the War on Secondhand Smoke SAN FRANCISCO Rosita Garcia never wanted to be a poster girl for the fight agai nst tobacco . But here she is , living testimony in the debate over the dangers of second-hand smoke : the cocktail waitress who never touched a cigarette but g ot lung cancer after 11 years of serving drinks in the blue haze of a smoky airp ort bar . This is not how she wants to be remembered . At 39 , she is a very pri vate woman , a former fitness buff ( she quit exercising when the cancer was dis covered ) who hates to be thought of as being sick . She does not look sick ; th ere is color in her cheeks , her dark eyes are bright , her waistline is full a sign that she is again eating well . Yet the evidence is there , if one looks cl ose enough . She wears her reddish-brown hair in a pixie cut , not by design but by necessity it is just growing back after chemotherapy and radiation . With ev ery few sentences , she lets out a sputtering cough . Lately , she says , her ch est has been hurting . Sometimes , she must excuse herself to vomit . The coldes t proof of all sits in the medical file that Garcia keeps in the closet of her t iny government-subsidized apartment in Daly City , a working-class suburb just s outh of San Francisco . Although her disease , diagnosed nearly three years ago , is confined to a single lung and is not getting worse , neither is it getting better . Her tumors , reduced to scar tissue by radiation , may recur . Her onco logist says she is lucky to have survived . Her prognosis : Fair . Garcia 's pli ght provides a snapshot of the human side of the emotional secondhand smoke deba te . Last year , the U.S. . Environmental Protection Agency declared secondhand smoke a human carcinogen , saying that it causes 3,000 lung cancer deaths a year . Health advocacy groups put the annual total death toll at 53,000 from secondh and smoke , including deaths from various forms of cancer , as well as from hear t disease . Despite these figures and several hundred scientific studies documen ting the ill effects of secondhand smoke , the tobacco industry counters with re search showing that it is little more than a nuisance . As a consequence , Garci a and others who count themselves as its victims must battle not only disease , but also skeptics . For Garcia , the fight comes with a price tag : $ 26,889 . T hat is the cost of her medical care . She is seeking this amount , plus her week ly wages , in a workers ' compensation suit that is languishing in the bureaucra cy while she lives on disability checks of $ 600 a month . Her former employer , Host Marriott , which operates the bars where Garcia worked for more than a dec ade , thus far has successfully fought the claim , saying Garcia did not get sic k at work . At the San Francisco airport , a handful of Garcia 's former colleag ues have waged a losing battle to clean the barroom air . Ironically , the airpo rt has won plaudits for its aggressive anti-smoking policy ; in 1991 , it became the first airport in the nation to ban tobacco in all public places with one no table exception : bars . For the next two years there was nowhere else for smoke rs to go . Then in 1993 , the airport began installing ventilated smoking rooms . Although airport officials could have banned tobacco in the bars , they left t hat decision to Host Marriott , which after a trial ban chose to let smoking con tinue . The reason ? Economics. Bars lose money when patrons cannot smoke . Cust omers complained . Tips got so low that even the bartenders many of whom say the smoke makes them sick asked to have smoking back . `` No smoking did not go ove r well , '' said Nancy Wood , a Host Marriott official . `` We had a very hard t ime explaining to our client base , which is largely international travelers , w hy they couldn't smoke in the bar . '' The struggle at the San Francisco airport typifies a nationwide wrestling match over the issue of secondhand smoke . Whil e more workplaces are banning tobacco use , in restaurants , bars and other quar ters , matters of health collide with matters of money . Money often wins . More over , what is sufficient proof for the medical establishment may not be good en ough in a courtroom , as Garcia 's faltering workplace injury claim shows . The case , which is hung up on a technicality , pits the word of a noted researcher who says Garcia 's lung cancer was caused by secondhand smoke against the word o f a Host Marriott doctor , who says it was not . ( Begin optional trim ) Nationw ide , there have been dozens of lawsuits and workers ' compensation cases filed by victims of secondhand smoke , including a recent $ 650 million wrongful death suit filed against tobacco manufacturers by the heirs of a Mississippi barber . The risk of a nonsmoker getting lung cancer is 1 in 250 , far lower than the 1- in-8 risk for a smoker , according to Lawrence Garfinkel , a consultant to the A merican Cancer Society . And of all diseases that may be caused by secondhand sm oke , the link to lung cancer is most firmly established . But , Garfinkel notes , `` any one case is hard to prove . '' ( End optional trim ) The key question for Garcia , in the cumbersome language of state bureaucrats , is whether her di sability is `` the result of occupation , either as an industrial accident or as an occupational disease . '' The answer ? Yes , said Dr. Christine Angeles , th e Kaiser Permanente physician who first treated Garcia . Angeles based her concl usion on Garcia 's account that she had been exposed to excessive secondhand smo ke at work . No , said Dr. Irene Danse , who was hired by Host Marriott lawyers to examine Garcia . Noting that Garcia is Filipino , Danse wrote in her report t hat Asian women , `` for some reason that has not been defined , '' seem prone t o lung cancer . Citing a study that found Garcia 's workplace exposure to be equ ivalent to smoking one cigarette per day , Danse concluded : `` I cannot link he r lung cancer to her job . '' To counter that assertion , Garcia 's lawyer hired Stanton A . Glantz , professor of medicine at University of California , San Fr ancisco , and one of the nation 's most respected researchers on the issue of se condhand smoke . Glantz reviewed Garcia 's medical records . He found that she h ad only incidental exposure to secondhand smoke at home , that she had no exposu re to other toxic agents such as asbestos or radon that might have caused her ca ncer . He dismissed the study Danse cited as flawed and said she had ignored `` large and compelling scientific literature . '' Garcia 's cancer , he concluded , was caused `` in major part , by her exposure to environmental tobacco smoke a t her place of employment . '' But there was a problem with Glantz 's report . H e is a Ph.D. , not a medical doctor , and he never examined Garcia . So Host Mar riott persuaded a workers ' compensation judge to strike his testimony . The jud ge also ruled that it was too late for Garcia to be examined by a medical doctor . That was in March 1993 , and the question of whether Glantz will be permitted to testify has lingered on appeal . Without Glantz , Garcia 's lawyer says , he has no case . ( Optional Add End ) Tom McBirnie , a staff attorney for the Work ers ' Compensation Board , suspects that Garcia 's claim has been delayed in par t because workers ' compensation law is not equipped to deal with the emerging s cience of secondhand smoke . `` What we basically see , '' McBirnie said , `` ar e bad backs and stress claims . '' NEXT : How Dangerous Is Secondhand Smoke ? DAVIS , Calif. . The big brown building , a short walk off a country road in th is scenic college town , looks more like a barn than a high-tech university labo ratory . Inside , a rare and curious contraption is engaged in a habit that the surgeon general warns is bad for your health . This is Kent Pinkerton 's creatio n : the University of California , Davis , smoking machine . As an associate pro fessor of anatomy at Davis , Pinkerton is interested in how the lungs work . His specialty has landed him at the crossroads of politics and medicine . In his la b at the university 's Institute of Toxicology and Environmental Health , Pinker ton and his colleagues hope their unusual smoking machine will inject hard scien ce into the roiling national debate over the dangers of secondhand smoke . How , they are eager to know , are the cells and tissues of the lungs altered by expo sure to secondhand smoke ? Are infants born smaller when they are exposed in the womb ? Does secondhand smoke induce changes in the nasal passageways that lead to asthma ? Is there a precise dose for lack of a better term at which it become s dangerous ? If so , where does the threshold lie ? The government has classifi ed secondhand smoke as a human carcinogen and nonsmokers worry that the slightes t whiff of smoke could wreak havoc on their lungs and hearts . Cigarette compani es are waging a counterattack , insisting that it is little more than a nuisance . The truth , which independent scientists say is somewhere in between , may em erge from the smoking machine . Scientific truths about secondhand smoke are not easy to come by . Studies are difficult and expensive to conduct , and funding is limited . Moreover , ethical considerations prevent researchers from subjecti ng humans to cigarette smoke , at least not for days on end . Nor can they ask p eople to smoke for the sake of science . Hence the busy Davis smoking machine . Five days a week , six hours a day , the machine is at work , blowing smoke at g uinea pigs and hamsters , whose body parts will later be dissected in an effort to identify biological reactions that may be similar in humans . The device one of just two large-scale smoking machines in the nation outside of those owned by tobacco companies smokes more precisely than any person ever could , and therei n lies its value . There are no Marlboros , Camels or Virginia Slims here . Rath er , the smoking machine 's brand of choice is one few people have heard of the 1R4F . These low-tar and nicotine research cigarettes , each manufactured from t he same tobacco blend , are produced by the University of Kentucky . They were r olled in 1983 and kept in a deep freeze until being shipped to Davis , where the y are conditioned for up to 48 hours at 70 percent humidity before being smoked . Every 10 minutes , a steel piston fires another 1R4F into a revolving cylinder . A small metal coil , the sort used to heat an ordinary blow-dryer , lights th e cigarette with a tiny red glow . As ashes begin to emerge , two others are in various stages of being smoked . The whole mechanism is encased in a plexiglass box that is yellow with smoke residue . Through a series of pipes , the box is c onnected to chambers where the animals are kept . With every puff , the cylinder clicks another revolution and a red light flashes . Each cigarette there are ne ver more than three burning at any time is smoked in precisely the same fashion : one puff a minute , each puff lasting two seconds , eight puffs in all . To cr eate each puff , a vacuum draws in 35 milliliters of air no more , no less . The re is , Pinkerton says , an important reason for all this precision . Soft-spoke n and lanky , the scientist is a master of understatement , never going out on a limb . `` If we are going to understand the mechanisms ( by which secondhand sm oke injures people ) , '' he says , `` we need to have well-controlled condition s . '' The Davis studies have been under way for three years a short span in sci ence , when research often lasts for decades . The university scientists are par ticularly interested in the effects of secondhand smoke on young children ; stud ies show infants and toddlers who may suffer from bronchitis , asthma and other respiratory diseases when exposed to secondhand smoke in the home are its primar y victims . Among the Davis findings : Toxicologist Peter Witschi has shown that pregnant rats exposed to secondhand smoke gave birth to pups that weighed 6 per cent less than those born to other rats not a dramatic reduction , but one that experts say is significant . Dr. Jesse Joad , a pediatrician , has demonstrated that newborn rats exposed to secondhand smoke in the womb and after birth test p ositive for asthma . Pinkerton has found that the lungs of newborn rats develop more slowly when exposed to secondhand smoke . As part of the experiments , Joad is investigating how nerve fibers in the lungs of guinea pigs are harmed by exp osure to secondhand smoke ; the damage prevents the lungs from fending off other pollutants . Witschi is trying to determine whether a particularly strong carci nogen called NNK produces lung tumors in hamsters exposed to secondhand smoke , as it does in animals that breathe direct smoke . Few such studies have been don e before . `` This is very beginning stuff , '' Joad said , adding : `` The kind of testing that we are going to do absolutely could never be done on children . '' Tobacco industry critics contend that the research is a waste of time . Chri s Coggins , a toxicologist for R.J. Reynolds , says he has done his own animal r esearch on rats and found no biological changes in the heart , lungs or respirat ory system . The only damage documented in the study which appeared last year in the journal Inhalation Toxicology occurred in the tip of the rats ' noses , Cog gins said , and was `` completely reversible '' when they were no longer exposed to the smoke . Tobacco industry consultant Gio Batta Gori , also a toxicologist , calls the Davis studies irrelevant . Humans , Gori argues , have the `` intri nsic capacity '' to clear their bodies of low-level pollutants , including secon dhand smoke . `` You can manipulate the experiments any way you want and come up with some results , '' Gori complained of the research at Davis and other anima l studies . `` You can choose a strain ( of animal ) that is susceptible , and y ou can use doses that are beyond the capacity of the animals to clear . '' Witsc hi says the doses can be manipulated and must be if scientists are to learn at w hat levels secondhand smoke becomes dangerous . ( Optional add end ) On these ex periments hang the answers to crucial questions about secondhand smoke 's health effects . According to the U.S. . Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , as well as health advocacy groups , 53,000 people die each year from exposure to secondhand smoke . This figure is based on epidemiology studies , which examine patterns of illness but do not prove cause and effect . The studies implicate s econdhand smoke in lung cancer and other cancers , heart disease , sudden infant death syndrome , bronchitis , pneumonia and asthma , especially in children . T he U.S. . Environmental Protection Agency , relying on the lung cancer epidemiol ogy , has declared secondhand smoke a Group A human carcinogen a classification that puts it in the same category as radon and asbestos . But tobacco industry o fficials say the EPA 's research is flawed because people overestimate the amoun t of smoke they have been exposed to , or lie about their smoking habits . The a nimal research may settle this debate by showing what epidemiology cannot : prec isely how secondhand smoke wreaks its havoc , and exactly how much exposure is d angerous . As it turns out , the major problem with my childhood was that I wasn't paying attention to the right things . Kids , learn from my experience . That 's what I 'm here for . What you should be doing is watching TV . Much more TV . Forget w hat everybody says about TV ruining the lives of young people . It was not watch ing enough TV that ruined mine . Believe me , I could be a rich man today if , a s a kid , I had taken the time to watch `` The Flintstones . '' As you may have heard , it is now a movie . Not just a movie it did $ 37.5 million at the box of fice over Memorial Day weekend . That 's a record for any holiday weekend in whi ch people also ate genetically altered tomatoes . `` The Flintstones '' is , of course , a movie based on a cartoon TV show based on a real TV show . This is wh at we call sub-referencing . Which often , if not necessarily in this case , can lead to humor . Still , I should have watched . Then I could have written the s cript of a hit movie . I also didn't watch `` Maverick , '' which was the weeken d runner-up at the box office and now stars the original TV Maverick , James Gar ner , who does not play the movie Maverick . You explain it . I didn't even watc h `` Bewitched , '' which seems like a prime candidate for a summer movie , mayb e next year . I bet somebody 's pitching it now . They can do this one as a cart oon or maybe a combo-job like Roger Rabbit . Elizabeth Montgomery drove every ki d I knew crazy , and not just for her twitchy nose . But no , I was way too cool for that . Instead of watching dumb TV as a kid and ensuring my future , I spen t a lot of time up in my room listening to rock and roll music the devil 's musi c , as it was known then . Bad , bad mistake . And not just because you had to l isten on non-stereo transistor radios with a single earpiece that would not stay in your actual ear unless you taped it to the side of your head . The thing is , the bands of my youth are out there touring today . I could have missed the fi rst 30 years of the Rolling Stones ( how long can time be on their side ? ) and still have caught them this summer on their latest tour , sponsored by the Hair Club for Men . Believe me , kids , there 'll be Lollapalooza reunion tours long after you 've lost most of your hair and look exactly like your dad does today . Sorry . Forget music . Forget MTV , unless it 's Beavis and Butt-head . I want you to think Fox network . In my childhood years , when I could have been watchi ng TV , I also spent a lot of time reading . I was an excellent reader . I read all the classics , especially Mad magazine and the one issue of Playboy that I h ad managed to sneak into the house and hide in the back part of the drawer where I kept my baseball cards . You know you 've reached a defining point in your li fe when Miss July becomes more important to you than Minnie Minoso . Now I know you 're not reading . In fact , books , magazines and even newspapers as we know them will all soon become obsolete . Everything will be on CD-ROM , which I 'm told is the merging of computers and MTV . Which means that someday I may be abl e to bring this column to you each morning the way I always dreamed of doing it with backup singers . Ignore your schoolwork . In today 's job market , which fo r college graduates with advanced degrees runs the gamut from unemployment to wo rking at the Gap , you can't get a decent job anyway . In summation , study TV . The stupider the TV the better . That 's the lesson of `` The Flintstones . '' What it means today is that you can't watch enough of the Bundys . Tape the show s and keep them for reference . Watch `` Family Matters . '' Sure , you may feel like a nerd . But someday it could pay off with a McDonald 's Urkel-meal tie-in . What I 'm saying is , I hope you were paying attention during `` Major Dad . '' Of course , not all of these shows will make successful movies . `` Beverly H illbillies '' didn't . My advice : A show with a catchy tune , like `` The Addam s Family , '' helps . It also helps if the characters in your show are eventuall y turned into kids ' vitamins . I willn't be seeing `` The Flintstones '' myself . It 's too late for me . But don't let what happened to me happen to you . You don't even have the same excuse I did . You 've got remote control . Your kids are grown and you retired several years ago . But you 're still rattl ing around a four-bedroom house , spending too much time cleaning and too much m oney on utility bills and real estate taxes . Is that your idea of how to spend your golden years ? Perhaps there 's a better way . Why not sell your home and m ove to a smaller , more affordable house or apartment ? And while you 're at it , why not move to a state with a better climate and lower taxes ? Plenty of othe r people have done it . What 's stopping you ? The question of where to live aft er retirement is not a simple one . There are many factors to consider , not the least of which is your sentimental attachment to your home and its proximity to your children . Whatever your final decision , it will affect your finances and quality of life for years to come . If you bought your house 25 or 35 years ago , chances are that it is much more valuable ; it may be your biggest asset . If you stand to make a big gain on the sale of your home , then consider your alte rnatives . Lee Rosenberg , author of `` Retirement Ready or Not , '' says tradin g down to a less expensive home can be a very smart financial move because you c an use what 's left over to improve your standard of living . There 's another p lus : You may be eligible for a special , one-time capital gains exclusion . The IRS says that once you reach age 55 , you can exclude from taxes up to $ 125,00 0 in capital gains on the sale of your primary residence . That means if your ca pital gain is $ 125,000 , you don't have to put the money into another home in o rder to avoid taxes . If you want , you could invest the money in stocks and ren t a condominium . If your capital gain is $ 275,000 , you could take the exclusi on on $ 125,000 of the gain , and defer taxes on the rest by rolling it over int o a new home . Before you rush to sell your home , be sure to check the eligibil ity rules for the exclusion . You must have owned and lived in the home for thre e of the five years preceding the sale . There is only one $ 125,000 exclusion p er couple . For example , say that a man is considering remarrying and both he a nd his fiancee are over 55 and own homes . If they sell the homes before the wed ding , they each get an exclusion of $ 125,000 . If they wait until the honeymoo n is over , they get only one exclusion . The capital gains exclusion is a one-t ime offer , but you can choose when to take it . When you get ready to calculate the capital gain , don't overlook the value of any capital improvements you mad e in your home over the years . If you added a new roof , put in a swimming pool , or renovated the bathroom , these things increased the value of the home . `` But you need good records to document what you paid for these improvements , '' says Ann Diamond , a Manhattan financial consultant . Take the total value of t hese capital improvements and add it to the original price you paid for the home . This is your cost basis . Then subtract the cost basis from the sale price . The result is your capital gain . So imagine that you have taken the big step an d put your home on the market . You 've already found a buyer . Soon you 'll hav e a windfall in the bank . Now what ? Where should you move ? Perhaps you have f riends in Boca Raton , Fla. , who 've been telling you how great it is there . T hey could show you around , help you find a place to buy , and introduce you to people . How about it ? Do some research before you select a retirement destinat ion . You may want to compare several places . Visit them . Find out about the t axes and cost of living . Consider the climate , public transportation , quality of health care , and the amenities available . And remember that it can take ti me to make friends and develop a support system in a new place . Some people cho ose to retire in places like Florida because they know so many people who have a lready moved there . Many people choose Florida because of the tax benefits of l iving there . It has no state income tax , no gift levy and the estate tax is a dollar for dollar deduction from the federal estate tax . And if you live in Flo rida , the first $ 25,000 of the assessed value of your principal residence is e xempt from property tax . ( Begin optional trim ) In his book , `` Fifty Fabulou s Places to Retire in America , '' Rosenberg says that Florida `` ranks first am ong 10 popular retirement states for smallest tax bite . '' In order to realize these benefits , however , you must establish legal residence in Florida . And t hat means you also must prove that you no longer owe taxes in your former home s tate . Even if you can prove you 've changed your residency , the state where yo u once earned your living may continue to lay claim to the taxes on your pension income . Some states try to raise tax revenues by aggressively pursuing people who claim to have moved out of state . In New York , the Tax Department conducts about 4,000 audits a year of such people , says Paul R. Comeau , a Buffalo , N. Y. , lawyer and co-author of `` The New York Residency Audit Handbook . '' The a udits have resulted in additional tax assessments of $ 125 million a year , he a dds . Florida is not the only state without a personal income tax . Alaska , Nev ada , South Dakota , Texas , Washington and Wyoming also share that distinction . ( End optional trim ) In addition , you will want to check the sales tax and p roperty tax rates before you select a retirement destination . If you take the r ight steps to establish residency , you can save money by moving to a state with low taxes . But financial experts say that taxes shouldn't be your primary cons ideration . Why move to Florida if you will miss the change of seasons , or if y ou want to live somewhere you willn't need a car ? `` In the end , you should ne ver let the tax tail wag the dog , '' says Lawrence A . Greenberg , a senior tru st officer at Chemical Bank 's Palm Beach , Fla. , office . Off to a stumbling political start as it seeks to oversee self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho , the Palestine Liberation Organization now faces the stagger ing prospect of financial collapse within months after assuming authority . PLO officials on the ground Chairman Yasser Arafat remains in Tunis aren't the only ones frightened by the possibility . Israel , in what some would see as an ironi c twist , is pondering ways to channel emergency help to the Palestinian interim government to keep it afloat . This isn't altruism . It 's prudent self-interes t . If the PLO can't provide for the necessities of life in the territories it n ow seeks to govern , its already damaged legitimacy could be terminally undermin ed . That would open the door to at least an attempted seizure of power by Musli m extremists . What could follow concerns Israel enormously . It ought to concer n nearly every Arab state , along with Europe and the United States no less . Th e World Bank and 40 donor countries that were brought together by the United Sta tes last October have pledged a total of $ 2.4 billion over the next five years to sustain Palestinian self-rule . Much of that is earmarked for specific projec ts and a lot will consist of equipment and training and other in-kind services . The Palestinians say that with all these pledges they have up to now seen almos t no cash . Without cash , workers in essential services will go unpaid and soon will stop going to work , fueling popular disaffection and weakening the govern ing authority 's standing even more . Dilatory donors aren't wholly to blame , h owever . Once again responsibility goes to the apex of the Palestinian hierarchy , to Arafat , who has always kept the PLO 's finances including its extensive i nvestment portfolio under his own secretive control . An accounting of what the PLO has , or has left after decades of notoriously high living by its top offici als , is long overdue . At the same time Arafat can blame only himself although of course he willn't for the loss of hundreds of millions in aid from the PLO 's once-generous oil state benefactors , a circumstance he brought about by rushin g to approve Iraq 's invasion of Kuwait . Noting all this , those concerned with stability in the Middle East can still only conclude that the Palestinian exper iment in self-rule remains too vital to the security interests of too many count ries to let collapse . Donor nations must act quickly to speed up their cash tra nsfers , not to save Arafat from his own folly but to give the Palestinian peopl e a chance to evolve toward the democratic and secular society that the PLO has for so long portrayed as their destiny . Rep. Dan Rostenkowski says , `` I did not commit any crimes , my conscience is clear . '' And , `` I strongly believe I am not guilty of these charges . '' If by those statements he means he did not do what a grand jury in Washington in a 17-count indictment said he did , then we hope he will be `` vindicated , '' to use his word , by a trial jury . But if he means only , as some of his supporter s have suggested , that he did what is charged but that this should not be consi dered felonious , then that 's another matter . These are `` very reprehensible '' crimes , as U.S. . Attorney Eric Holder put it . If the powerful representati ve from Chicago employed ghost workers who kicked back pay for work not done , i f he regularly and for long periods used federal employees for work at his homes , if he used official expense accounts for purely personal enrichment in the fo rm of cash and gifts all to the tune of over $ 600,000 in taxpayer funds if he d id all those things and then tried to obstruct the federal investigation into hi s case , as alleged in the indictments , then he deserves the severest punishmen t the law can impose . Such acts are not , as some defenders of Rostenkowski kee p saying , standard operating procedure for powerful members of Congress . Rep. Robert Torricelli is just wrong when he says , `` ( Rostenkowski ) is being pros ecuted for things which , a generation ago , were probably somewhat accepted . ' ' The things charged in the indictment were never accepted , at least not by the public . The things listed in the indictment are not just `` perks '' for the p owerful . They weren't when Rostenkowski became chairman of the Ways and Means C ommittee in 1981 ; they weren't when he came to Congress in 1959 . The felonies charged in the indictment then as now add up to a `` betrayal of the public trus t for personal gain , '' to use Holder 's label . Rostenkowski may not have done these deeds at all . If he says he didn't do them , then it becomes something a jury must decide . Political corruption indictments are almost never shaky ; ab out 90 percent of them result in convictions , according to Justice Department r ecords . Still , as we have said before , even the high and mighty deserve the p resumption of innocence . In just the past 13 months two members of Congress , S en. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas and Rep. Harold Ford of Tennessee , beat indic tments charging abuse of office . If Rostenkowski prevails by convincing jurors that he did not behave as charged , good for him . But if he prevails with a def ense of `` it 's the way Congress works , everybody does it , '' then shame on h im and on Congress . Can you spot the monstrous grammar and usage errors in this conversation betwee n Dr. Frankenstein and his assistants Igor and Lee ? ( Look for the hidden clue in the wording of each sentence . ) 1 ) Dr. Frankenstein : I 'm anxious to sew t his monster together , Igor , so please give me a hand . 2 ) Igor : My , my , Ma ster . I didn't realize that you objected to me taking a break . 3 ) Lee : Worki ng on this monster , it appears that one of his parts is dangling . 4 ) Dr. Fran kenstein : Only sew those parts that are loose , and place them as carefully as you would your own , Lee . 5 ) Lee : While I 'm sewing , can I ask you a questio n about creating an extra monster next May . 6 ) Dr. Frankenstein : Lee , you se em to like this work better than him . Hee , hee ! Answers : 1 ) If Dr. Frankens tein were eager to please language purists , he would say , `` I 'm eager ( not anxious ) ... '' 2 ) `` My , my , '' say the experts , declaring that Igor shoul d say `` my ( not me ) taking a break . '' 3 ) In fact , it 's the participial p hrase `` working on this monster '' that 's dangling . It should be surgically r eattached to the subject , `` I '' ( `` Working on this monster , I noticed that one of his parts is dangling . '' ) 4 ) Dr. Frankenstein did not place his own `` only '' carefully . `` Only sew those parts that are loose '' means that loos e parts should only be sewn and not stapled or glued . Clarify the meaning by pl acing `` only '' after `` sew '' as in , `` sew only those parts that are loose . '' 5 ) Can `` can . '' Use `` may . '' Lee surely can ask about creating an ex tra monster next May , but what he means is , `` May I ask about it ? '' 6 ) If Lee likes his work better than he likes Igor , `` than him '' it is . But if Lee likes his work better than Igor does , it should be `` than he '' because `` th an he does '' is implied . Hee , hee ! WASHINGTON The worst financial disaster since the Great Depression came to an u nofficial end last week when regulators quietly announced that during the first quarter of this year , not a single U.S. bank failed or was taken over by the go vernment . The banking turmoil began in 1980 when the Federal Reserve pushed sho rt-term interest rates over 15 percent . That set off a chain reaction of fraud , stupidity and political cowardice that eventually led to the closing of 2,000 banks and savings and loans and a taxpayer bailout in the neighborhood of $ 150 billion . Now , banks are making record profits and adding to their capital rese rves , their cushion against adversity . Meanwhile , money is piling up in the c offers of the Bank Insurance Fund , which is operated by the once-nearly-bankrup t Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. . But a big question remains : Is the banking system really fixed , or is it merely enjoying the temporary fruits of an econom ic recovery that features exceptionally low interest rates ? Instead of patting ourselves on the back for saving the banks , perhaps we should be overhauling th e system completely so a disaster willn't recur . Bert Ely , a well-known consul tant based in Alexandria , Va. , is pushing hard for an overhaul . He proposes t o replace government deposit insurance with private insurance a network of `` cr oss-guarantees '' that would allow banks to protect each other against losses . Competing companies backed by the capital of hundreds of financial institutions and other large corporations would set premiums based on assessments of whether particular banks were likely to fail . The companies would employ their own exam iners to check on financial soundness . It would be `` as regulator-proof as pos sible . '' With their own money at risk , the insurance companies would have a t remendous incentive to step in quickly to minimize losses or stop them before th ey happen . After all , this is the way property and casualty insurance works ri ght now . And Ely believes that bank deposit insurance may be an easier game : A huge earthquake can strike without warning , but bank insolvencies can be nippe d in the bud before they blossom out of control . That 's what should have happe ned in the early 1980s , Ely says . Instead , Congress and the regulators lacked the political will to close banks and S&Ls as soon as they got into trouble . A nd , of course , the FDIC and especially its sister organization , the Federal S avings and Loan Insurance Corp. lacked the funds to shut sick institutions and p ay off depositors . So politicians encouraged the banks and S&Ls to grow their w ay out of insolvency ( which reminds me of the old joke about the retailer who l oses $ 10 on every dress but makes it up on volume ) . The result , as economist Paul Krugman writes , was an `` epidemic of moral hazard '' a phenomenon that s trikes terror in the hearts of all insurers . Moral hazard is what you get when someone is so well insured against a terrible event that he isn't very concerned whether it happens or not . If you have $ 200,000 worth of coverage on a diamon d ring , you 're less likely to leave it in a safe deposit box than if you had n o coverage . Thanks to federal deposit insurance , bankers could make exceptiona lly risky , self-serving loans . If the loans went bad , the bankers could just walk away and let the government that is , the taxpayers pick up the pieces . Ba nk examiners should have caught up with these misdeeds , but they were overworke d and sometimes , as in the case of the Keating Five senators , encouraged to lo ok the other way . Congress and the White House both preferred to wait until aft er the election of 1988 before confronting the terrible truth . Then the regulat ors started shutting banks down and paying off depositors . More important , law s were enacted in 1989 and 1991 to try to prevent a cataclysm from happening aga in , but they left the federal deposit insurance system , to Ely 's chagrin , es sentially in place . Ely believes that the marketplace would impose a more ratio nal discipline . Well-run banks would pay low insurance premiums and wouldn't ha ve burdensome capital requirements to prevent them from making loans to invigora te the economy . Riskier banks would pay higher premiums or mend their ways . Or go out of business . And the taxpayers would be out of the loop . Rep. Thomas E . Petri , R-Wis. , has introduced a bill to make Ely 's plan law . I 'll admit to a bias in favor of market solutions such as Ely 's . But sometimes believe it or not the federal government can do things better than the private sector . De posit insurance appears to be such a case . Remarkably , the 1991 FDIC Improveme nt Act has really improved the FDIC . It beefs up capital requirements . It effe ctively eliminates the `` too big to fail '' doctrine that allowed rescues of hu ge banks at the expense of smaller ones . It gives the regulators more independe nce . And it strictly enforces the $ 100,000-per-account insurance limit . Georg e Kaufman , professor of finance and economics at Loyola University in Chicago , would love to see that limit dropped to $ 40,000 ( I 'd like to see it cut to $ 10,000 per person the size of the average U.S. bank account ) , but he admits t hat politics precludes such a move . So far , he says of the new system , `` it 's worked quite well . '' Which is probably why we haven't heard much about it . Success , especially in the world of money politics , gets little attention the se days . But look at the numbers : Annual bank failures have declined from 168 in 1990 to 42 last year to four so far this year ( those four , in April and May , involved small institutions ) . S&L failures have dropped from 315 in 1990 to 27 last year to 14 so far in 1994 . It 's true that low interest rates have aid ed this amazing turnaround , but it 's also true that banks have a penchant for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory-by recycling their profits into dubiou s ventures such as Third World loans , junk bonds and slick land deals . Who kno ws ? A real test of how the new , improved system stands up under fire may be cl oser than you think . The rankings for hard-cover books sold in Southern California , as reported by selected book stores : FICTION 1 . THE CELESTINE PROPHESY , by James Redfield . 2 . THE CHAMBER , by John Grisham . 3 . INCA GOLD , by Clive Cussler . 4 . REMEM BER ME , by Mary Higgins Clark . 5 . THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY , by Robert J ames Waller . 6 . THE ALIENIST , by Caleb Carr . 7 . `` K '' IS FOR KILLER , by Sue Grafton . 8 . LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE , by Laura Esquivel . 9 . FIST OF GOD , by Frederick Forsyth . 10 . THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW , by Allan Folsom . NONFIC TION : 1 . IN THE KITCHEN WITH ROSIE , by Rosie Daley . 2 . EMBRACED , BY THE LI GHT , by Betty J. Eadie . 3 . MEN ARE FROM MARS : Women Are From Venus , by John Gray , Ph.D. . 4 . STANDING FIRM , by Dan Quayle . 5 . MAGIC EYE II , by N.E. . Thing Enterprises . 6 . BEYOND PEACE , by Richard Nixon . 7 . MAGIC EYE I , by N.E. . Thing Enterprises . 8 . BOOK OF VIRTUES : A Treasury of the World 's Grea t Moral Stories , by William J. Bennett . 9 . THE HALDEMAN DIARIES : Inside the Nixon White House , by H.R. Haldeman . 10 . REBA : My Story , by Reba McEntire w ith Tom Carter . CyberSurfing : Potholes , perturbations and predicaments observed on the inform ation superhighway : Most visitors to Paris are satisfied with their little Eiff el Tower souvenirs , but that 's obviously not enough for Michael Hayward , who seems to be an unusually sentimental sort . `` I 'd like to locate a source for the benches which are found everywhere in Paris city parks , '' he wrote in a re cent posting on the Internet newsgroup soc.culture.french . `` The older design .. . ( is ) shaped like an elongated ` S ' with narrow ` slats ' ( roughly squar e in cross section ) running lengthwise . The supports ( legs/backs ) are a some what ornately designed cast iron . As I recall , these benches are ( always ? ) painted a distinctive shade of high gloss deep green. .. . Has anyone else got f ond memories of these benches ? Has anyone else made an attempt to track down a source ? '' From France Olivier Clary responded with the lyrics of a popular son g : Les amoureux qui s ' becotent sur les bancs publics/ bancs publics/ bancs pu blics/ en s ' foutant pas mal du r ' gard oblique/ des passants honteux . ( `` T he lovers kissing on the public benches/ the public benches/ the public benches/ don't give a damn about the nasty glances/ of the shameful passersby . '' ) Par isian Gregory Miezelis , however , actually had an answer : The first place to l ook , said Miezelis , is Les Domaines , a French government agency that auctions off surplus equipment . He also suggested checking the Paris flea market 's man y antique dealers . Selling price ? About 950 francs plus 10 percent tax , or ro ughly $ 200 , although cybernaut Miezelis said he saw one sold at auction for on ly 350 francs . Evan Roth evanr ( at ) aol.com GETTING THERE : Once you 've gain ed access to the Internet , go to Usenet or Newsgroups and type : soc.culture.fr ench . On America Online , for example , go to the Go To menu , click on Keyword and type in Newsgroups . At the Newsgroups menu , click on the Expert Add icon . Type in soc.culture.french in the blank space and click Add . When asked if yo u want to add the newsgroup , click Yes . When the menu returns , click on the M y Newsgroups icon , and you will see soc.culture.french added to the list . Doub le-click on it and you 're there . -0- They Want His mtv.com Adam Curry wants hi s mtv.com . Curry , a longtime video jock for MTV , set up a music-news bulletin board on the Internet a year ago , using his home computer and the address mtv. com . Now he 's being being sued by his ex-employer for copyright infringement . Curry uses mtv.com to dish industry gossip ( `` cybersleaze , '' he calls it ) , and offers concert schedules , band interviews and commentary . He estimates 3 5,000 log-ins daily . Many of those users are now following the saga of Curry vs . MTV-from Curry 's viewpoint only . The cable music network , which prides itse lf on up-to-the-minute hipness , isn't `` jacked into the net , '' as Curry put it in a recent missive to his supporters . The on-line faithful have been flamin g MTV as `` totally lame '' and `` a pitiful network of corporate pigs . '' Wrot e a user named Daredevil : `` DON ' T LET THE LAMERS GET YOU DOWN ! '' Curry cla ims mtv.com began with the `` blessing and support '' of MTV execs , but after h e resigned April 25 , `` things got ugly . '' ( It probably didn't help that Cur ry posted a resignation letter on the Internet accusing MTV of selling out the ` ` M '' in its name . ) In federal court in Manhattan in May , MTV 's lawyers arg ued for an injunction against Curry 's use of mtv.com . Further hearings are sch eduled . `` This has nothing to do with Adam 's departure , '' says an MTV spoke swoman . `` We 've tried unsuccessfully for a year to get Adam to stop using the MTV trademark to market his services . '' Said the defiant Curry in e-mail : `` mtv.com will always exist on the net . '' Richard Leiby leiby ( at ) aol.com GE TTING THERE : To follow the Curry case using America Online , select keyword Int ernet ; then select WAIS & Gopher databases ; then select category Music ; then select the MTV Gopher folder ; then brainwaves.txt . Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould : Original Motion Picture Soundtrack ( Sony SK 46686 ) . With one exception ( Toscanini conducting the prelude to `` T ristan und Isolde '' ) , this soundtrack focuses on Gould playing the piano or o rgan , and it profiles his musicianship and quirky personality with as much vari ety and fascination as does the film . Besides the expected Bach selections , th is album features interpretations of Richard Strauss , Sibelius , Hindemith , Pr okofiev and Schoenberg . Like the movie , this disc is an excellent promo for So ny 's massive `` Glenn Gould Edition '' series . Ned Rorem : Piano Concerto for Left Hand and Orchestra ; 11 Studies for 11 Players ( New World 80445 ) . Rorem is known almost entirely for his songs , which deserve the praise they have rece ived , but his instrumental works merit equal attention . These examples , compo sed in 1991 and 1993 respectively , reveal him to be a master of modern styles , with a penchant for impressionistic and late romantic flavors . These recording s were made in the Curtis Institute , Philadelphia , with a student orchestra wh ose professionalism matches that of piano soloist Gary Graffman and conductor An dre Previn . Mahler : Symphony No. 4 ( London 440 315 , with text and translatio n ) . This beguiling celebration of youthful innocence and joy is an ideal intro duction to Mahler 's symphonies ( even more so than the muscular struggles and s harp-edged ironies of his more-popular First Symphony ) . Ernst von Dohnanyi and the Cleveland Orchestra precisely capture the music 's Viennese lilt and the su btlest details of phrasing and dynamic accent . In the final movement , Dawn Ups haw 's is the angelic voice that quaintly proclaims the joys of heaven . Monteve rdi : Arie e Duetti ( Capriccio 10 470 , with texts and translations ) . Soprano Mieke van der Sluis and countertenor Axel Kohler give unusually well-styled per formances of music that demonstrates the range of the Renaissance master 's geni us : short sacred works with Latin texts , duet madrigals and dramatic monologue s , and the nurse 's aria and final duet from `` The Coronation of Poppaea . '' Four instrumental numbers are played by the German ensemble Lautten Compagney , which also plays accompaniments . Ravel : Gaspard de la Nuit , La Valse ; Liszt : Ballade No. 2 in B Minor ; Prokofiev : Sarcasms ( Connoisseur Society CD 4195 ) . Pianist Sergei Babayan has chosen a program bristling with technical challen ges , but he never indulges in technique for its own sake . He is a musician ded icated to small nuances and atmospheric subtleties which are also crucial elemen ts in these pieces and he has the skill to make the music 's difficulties seem n onexistent . CAMBRIDGE , Mass. . In a first floor office next to John & Nick 's gas station , Karen Fox is looking for a few good sperm . Harvard sperm . MIT sperm . Smart little swimmers from the Ivy League . `` If our customers wanted high school dro pouts that 's what we would get , '' said Ronda Wilkin , spokeswoman for the Cal ifornia Cryobank , which operates the sperm bank here that Fox manages . `` No o ne has proven that Harvard , MIT , Princeton or Yale sperm produces smarter chil dren , but people like the idea . '' Wilkin said single women or married couples searching for a sperm donor base their decisions on an anonymous resume and pro file , and some find assurance in men who have a college degree . At the Cryoban k , a vial of sperm costs $ 135 to $ 165 , and there 's `` no extra charge for t he Ivy League , '' she said . There are now more than 100 sperm banks in the cou ntry , most located near selective universities . The Cryobank , one of the nati on 's largest , has locations near the University of California at Los Angeles ( UCLA ) , Stanford and Harvard . Specialists in the reproductive fields say the number of single women who want babies and couples with infertility problems is growing , and more people are turning to sperm banks . As more men and women tal k openly about their fertility struggles , the mystery is fading from the banks that store vials of sperm in liquid nitrogen . Many of these people are deciding that the 1990s conception of choice is academically correct sperm . Sperm banks like the Cryobank say they are responding to the demand and aggressively recrui t on college campuses , where they rank among the largest advertisers at campus newspapers such as the Harvard Crimson . Nobody knows how many men have donated sperm ( each bank 's supply is kept secret ) or how many babies are born thanks to donor sperm . But about 65,000 babies were born through artificial inseminati on in 1987 , the most recent year for which reliable figures are available , sai d Joyce Zeitz , spokeswoman for the American Fertility Society , which issues et hical guidelines in the field . Of those births , 35,000 were from pregnancies u sing the husband 's sperm , and 30,000 were from donor sperm . Since then , expe rts in the field say they believe the number has risen . `` Seems like everyone who you talk to has fertility problems , '' Fox said . `` The field of fertility medicine is growing fast . '' As it does , women have more sperm to choose from . `` I had a lady who wanted to know if we had a mathematician , '' Fox said . `` We did . '' Fertility specialists say it is not new that the anonymous donors who are being recruited for sperm banks are not average Joes . The first record ed use of frozen sperm for artificial insemination was in 1953 , according to Ze itz , who said in those early years it was not uncommon for fertility experts to use the sperm of medical students or other doctors . The field has expanded dra matically and some sperm banks have less rigorous academic qualifications for do nors . But the Cryobank will not accept sperm from men who are not attending or did not graduate from a four-year college . Even then , the bank says it refuses 95 percent of men who apply to be donors . Rejection can come for low sperm cou nt ( not enough millions per milliliter ) , low motility ( does not swim well ) or because some sperm is too difficult to freeze . Heart disease is a disqualifi er . And men over 34 or under 5-feet-9 can forget it , because young and tall ar e requirements too . `` We don't get requests for short men , '' Wilkin said . D onors are anonymous , known only by a number . Customers select them by flipping through a catalogue that includes extensive profiles of the men , from their me dical history to their musical talents . The catalogue also list the men 's alma maters , as well as their scores on Scholastic Achievement Tests ( SATs ) . Of course , much of this has been criticized as elitist . Another sperm bank , the Repository for Germinal Choice , known as the Nobel sperm bank , was nationally criticized for trying to breed a superior race when it sought out only Nobel lau reates as donors . One of that bank 's donors even spoke about the inherent or g enetic superiority of some people . This `` genius '' bank still exists , but it has since lowered its expectations : mere scholars now suffice . Cryobank says it is different from banks that have an IQ-cutoff . It takes sperm from donors w ho attend state schools , and it requires no intelligence tests . Cryobank offic ials say they are simply seeking the kind of donor that women want . Stephen Fra nk , opinion page editor of the Harvard Crimson , is not as worried about the of fspring as he is about the donors . He has written a column , `` Dollars for Spe rm , '' that questions whether this is a wise part-time job . Donors can earn $ 105 a week for what can amount to three 15-minute visits . While Frank says this is good pay for what some would hardly call work , he wonders whether sperm ban ks take advantage of young donors , who might regret their choices later in life . To limit the chance of accidental incest or a chance encounter with a strikin gly similar person , many sperm banks retire a donor 's sperm supply after its h as produced 10 children . But Frank is not sure those safeguards make much diffe rence . `` When I am 40 years old and have a family of my own , '' he said , `` I personally wouldn't want to have other kids running around who look like me . '' Get out your calculators . You 're going to need them to keep up with rising ca r prices , especially on best-selling cars and trucks . Take the Chevrolet Camar o . When the 1994 model was introduced last fall , it carried a base price of $ 13,399 . By Jan. 10 this year , that price rose to $ 13,499 . On May 9 , the pri ce went up $ 250 to $ 13,749 . Yet , the sporty Camaro and its companion Pontiac Firebird continue to sell at a brisk pace . Current sales are almost four times what they were in 1993 . So what 's going on here ? Partly it 's the end of rec ession . People are buying cars again and that 's creating high demand , which i s leading to higher prices . Partly it 's manufacturers such as General Motors C orp. scrambling to find money and ways to expand production . And partly it 's s hifting exchange rates putting pressure on Japanese companies to raise prices . `` We 're having the opposite side of the problem that we had two years ago , wh en we were shutting down plants because we couldn't sell enough cars , '' said J ohn F. Maciarz , GM 's marketing spokesman . `` Now our demand is so high , we c an't build enough cars and trucks . '' Oddly enough , Japanese automakers with t heir factories of legendary efficiency are experiencing similar capacity problem s , although their prices are rising faster than those of their American rivals . Since Oct. 1 , 1993 the beginning of the 1994 model year Japanese auto prices have risen an average $ 991 , or 5.8 percent , over what they were for comparabl e 1993 models , according to the latest pricing survey by Automotive News , a De troit-based industry trade journal . By comparison , prices for GM , Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Corp. have risen an average $ 416 since last October , or 2.2 p ercent . Yet , the Japanese share of the car and truck market in the United Stat es for the first four months of this year stood at 23.1 percent , up two-tenths of a percentage point over its 1993 level . Domestic auto companies held a 74.2 percent share , down six-tenths , according to figures compiled by Autofacts Ear ly Warning Report , another industry trade journal . `` That sort of pokes a hol e in the argument that higher prices necessarily mean lower market share , '' sa id Joel Pitcoff , an industry analyst for Ford . `` In spite of their higher pri ces ( and ) our increases in quality , in spite of the fact that more Americans are beginning to buy our cars , the Japanese are still making gains ; and we 're not taking them lightly . '' However , some analysts have argued that U.S. auto makers could gain more share if they absolutely held the line on prices , or low ered them . But that conventional wisdom assumes the U.S. companies have enough capacity to meet even existing demand for their products , said Chrysler spokesw oman Karen Stewart . Chrysler is losing sales , and chances to increase market s hare , largely because it is having a hard time building all the cars people wan t to buy , Stewart said . Chrysler 's much-in-demand Neon car is an example . Th e company has a backlog of about 35,000 orders for the subcompact , Chrysler off icials said . Chrysler so far has raised its 1994 car and truck prices an averag e $ 389 , 2 percent higher than they were last year . But , as is becoming commo n with Japanese and U.S. car manufacturers alike , those Chrysler increases came in steps an average $ 244 in October 1993 , and mini-hikes totaling an average $ 145 since then . The strategy is to avoid turning off consumers with one , big price jump , Stewart said . ` ` .. . People tend to deal with price increases m uch better if you keep the increases moderate and spread them out over time , '' she says . Consumers still will be able to find bargains in what has become a s eller 's market , industry officials said . But those bargains most likely will be found on slower-selling models . Also , a best-seller in one community may be a dud in another , where the price might therefore be lower , some industry off icials said . If an icy comet strikes a large , gaseous planet while everyone is watching , d oes it make a sound ? Well , yes in a way . It 's this summer 's buzz . Comet Sh oemaker-Levy 9 , which resembles a string of pearls , is on a collision course w ith Jupiter . On July 16 , the first of the comet 's 21 major chunks will plumme t into the planet 's gassy atmosphere . For the following five days , piece afte r icy piece dives into Jupiter . What happens next , scientists aren't sure . Th is kind of comet is the first one astronomers ever have seen-in fact , this is t he first time humanity will witness space real estate smacking a planet . Caroly n and Gene Shoemaker and David Levy discovered this one-in-a-thousand-lifetimes comet on March 25 , 1993 , at the 18-inch Schmidt telescope at Mount Palomar Obs ervatory near San Diego . The trio found the comet by studying pictures taken wi th the telescope two nights earlier . In the photographs , Carolyn found what sh e called a `` squashed comet . '' To verify it , Levy and the Shoemakers wanted to see it again . But the night was cloudy in Southern California . Levy contact ed Jim Scotti at the Spacewatch Telescope at Kitt Peak , Ariz. Scotti aimed his telescope at the object and reported a few hours later : `` Have you got yoursel ves a comet ! '' It featured multiple nuclei and tails . Astronomers conclude th at eight months earlier , on July 7 , 1992 , the comet passed Jupiter and the pl anet 's gravity tore the comet into 21 major bits . Apparently , the comet chunk s will mostly hit on Jupiter 's far side , but the planet spins fairly fast , gi ving scientists some hope to catch residual events . To see it , you 'll need a telescope large enough to capture Jupiter 's detail . `` I heard NBC was initially interested but wanted to play down the suicide and the drugs , '' says Dave Thompson , author of the quickie unauthorized bio `` N ever Fade Away : The Kurt Cobain Story . '' Thompson is referring to newspaper r eports that network television had considered a movie about the short life and s udden death of Nirvana 's lead singer . In the wake of three `` Long Island Loli ta '' and two Menendez brothers movies not to mention just about every sweeps we ek special in recent years such restraint is probably more indicative of Attorne y General Janet Reno 's attentions than late-blooming industry conscience , thou gh a Los Angeles Times report noted that the networks weren't particularly inter ested in the youthful demographics of Nirvana fans and felt that older audiences wouldn't know who Cobain was and probably wouldn't care . Thompson is an intere sted observer because the film rights to his paperback book have been picked up by Los Angeles-based Paradigm Talent , which is talking to interested producers and has already assigned one of its clients , Richard DiLello , to write the scr ipt . DiLello , who has written scripts for `` Colors '' and `` Bad Boys , '' is best known in music circles as the author of the Beatles biography `` The Longe st Cocktail Party : An Insider 's Diary of the Beatles '' ; DiLello was `` house hippie '' and public relations director at Apple Records from 1968 to 1970 . So me people don't like even the idea of a Cobain film . `` It 's just being so exp loitive of something so tragic , '' says Janet Billig of Gold Mountain , Nirvana 's management company . `` The whole idea of it is really upsetting . I can't f ind a word in the English language strong enough to express how we all feel abou t this . '' One word that comes to mind is `` no . '' While Cobain 's life is op en to unauthorized bio-films , just as it was to Thompson 's unauthorized book , his songs are protected by copyright laws , and Billig indicates that Paradigm and any other would-be biographers will not have access to Nirvana 's music . `` We have advised our lawyers that we wouldn't want this to happen , '' Billig sa ys . Thompson admits that he too wondered `` what on earth are they going to do for a soundtrack , since a lot of the things we know about him came through his songwriting ? As `` Backbeat ' ( the recent movie about the Beatles ) proved , t here are ways around that . One idea I had was to concentrate on the life and no t make the music a major part of it , because the book is essentially about Kurt as opposed to the band . '' `` Michael Azzarad 's book ( `` Come As You Are ' ) is truly the Nirvana story , '' says Thompson . Azzarad , whose book was also u nauthorized but written with the cooperation of the band , has reportedly turned down several offers to sell the film rights . Thompson , who also wrote a book about the Red Hot Chili Peppers , turned his 170-page book over to St. Martin 's a week after Cobain 's suicide on April 8 ; 200,000 copies started shipping out in the middle of May . That 's impressive , but the Seattle-based Thompson had been working on a Nirvana book since 1991 . The Thompson adaptation is not the o nly Cobain story being shopped : Scenarios have reportedly been offered by Cobai n 's mother and several associates . `` There is a built-in exploitation , '' sa ys Paradigm agent Gary Pearl , who purchased the rights to `` Never Fade Away . '' The way to avoid that , he says , `` is to have really top talent developing it , people who are interested in the band and the people , and that 's what we 're searching for . '' As for music rights , Pearl remains hopeful . `` It would be great to have the support of Geffen ( Nirvana 's label ) and the Cobain esta te . The screenwriter doesn't get involved in productions that aren't prestigiou s and smart , and while they may have reservations now , I 'm fairly confident t hat upon seeing a script , they 'll be more than interested in being involved . '' It will probably be a year before any Cobain film appears in theaters , but w hen it does , it will be part of a new wave of pop music bio-films . Also on the way are two about Jimi Hendrix ( due out next year on the 25th anniversary of h is death ) , Bob Marley ( based on Tim White 's `` Catch a Fire '' ) , Miles Dav is ( based on his autobiography ) , soul man Otis Redding and bluesman Robert Jo hnson . A long-simmering film about folk singer Phil Ochs ( a suicide in 1976 ) may also be revived , and with two new books out suggesting he was actually murd ered in 1969 , a Brian Jones film is likely as well . Also reported to be in the works : bio-films about Roy Orbison , Ray Charles , Eddie Cochran , Sam Cooke , Marvin Gaye , Bobby Darin , Jim Croce , Frankie Lymon , Rick Nelson and Phil Sp ector . I couldn't believe my eyes : James Earl Ray was up for parole last week . The m an who pleaded guilty 25 years ago to assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. actua lly had the gall to ask to be set free . And if that wasn't shocking enough , th e Rev. James M. Lawson , a civil rights leader , showed up at the hearing to spe ak on Ray 's behalf . Lawson was the strategy chairman for the strike among sani tation workers that prompted King to make his fateful trip to Memphis in April 1 968 . With a news photographer capturing the obscene moment for all the world to see , Lawson walked over to Ray and affectionately shook the gunman 's hand . W hat is wrong with our people ? How many ways can we come up with to make ourselv es look totally stupid ? Hosea Williams , another associate of King 's during th e 1960s , also showed up to testify on Ray 's behalf . `` I know in my heart tha t Ray didn't pull that trigger , '' Williams told the parole board . In his hear t ? What kind of evidence is that ? If Williams knows something about the assass ination , he ought to give it up . Or just be quiet . In 1969 , Ray admitted tha t he killed King . Before sentencing Ray to 99 years in prison , Criminal Court Judge Preston Battle repeatedly asked him if he understood that his plea preclud ed appeals . Ray said he understood . That should have been the end of Ray . But three days later , he tried to retract that confession and began seeking a new trial . Ray , 66 , now contends that he was pressured to confess and says he jus t wasn't `` assertive '' enough to resist . That is ludicrous . Here is a man wh o was assertive enough to live the life of an armed robber . He was assertive en ough to elude capture for months after King 's assassination , assertive enough to escape from prison after being convicted of the crime . Moreover , a House Se lect Committee on Assassinations concluded in 1978 , after a two-year investigat ion , that Ray killed Martin Luther King Jr. . There may have been a conspiracy , the committee noted , but Ray was telling the truth the first time , when he a dmitted pulling the trigger . Lately , however , there has been a steady parade of black civil rights activists acting as if Ray has been as wronged as Nelson M andela . `` If Dr. King were alive , he would be appalled that a person could be imprisoned for 26 years having had no trial , '' Lawson said . Never mind that people who plead guilty don't have a need for jury trial . Jesse L. Jackson , a longtime aide to King , even wrote the foreword to Ray 's autobiography . The bo ok was a blatant attempt to cash in on the killing . It was titled `` Who Killed Martin Luther King ? '' As if Ray did not know . Meanwhile , Hosea Williams has been going around talking about evidence hidden in his heart . The fact is , a new trial for Ray would do nothing but give the convict a chance to wriggle free on a technicality . For all of the talk by Ray 's lawyers of a conspiracy that a new trial supposedly would uncover , some of the first words out of Ray 's mou th at the parole hearing last week were : `` I wasn't involved in any type of co llusive activity to kill him . In other words , I wasn't some type of accomplice . '' Therefore , Ray 's lawyers would have no reason to link him to a conspirac y . They 'd simply try to confuse a jury by raising the possibility that someone else did the shooting . Memphis District Attorney John Pierotti seemed to be th e only one making sense about the case when he said Ray 's supposedly new eviden ce is either fabricated or unprovable . `` I could be doing a lot of other thing s that would be more productive than baby-sitting this senseless case , '' he sa id . `` The whole thing is garbage . '' And it 's a stench that is going to be w ith us for quite some time . Although Ray has been eligible for parole before , last Wednesday was the first time the Tennessee Parole Board agreed to hear argu ments on his release . In the past , all of Ray 's requests were denied without oral presentations . This time , the vote was 3 to 0 against parole . Ray needed four votes . One of the seven board members had investigated King 's assassinat ion and disqualified himself . The remaining three decided not to vote when it b ecame clear Ray had lost his bid . But two of those who voted against Ray last w eek said they would favor his release when he comes before the parole board agai n in 1999 . The very thought is nauseating . Did Martin Luther King Jr. have a c hance to explain why he ought not have been assassinated ? Did he get to call wi tnesses to say what a good father he was and how much his children loved him ? D id he get the opportunity to speak before a panel to say how much his people nee ded him and tell what a loss it would be to have us deprived of his leadership ? No , he did not . And the man who shot him down in cold blood on a balcony that day in Memphis shouldn't have another chance either . I could understand Willia ms and Lawson showing some compassion if Ray , having confessed , had expressed great remorse and sorrow . You could shake his hand on the way to the gas chambe r . But to offer a hand of support to an unrepentant sinner ? Come on , Rev. Law son. Sometimes we bend over backward so far to appear forgiving that we end up k issing our own behinds . POKOINNY BAY , Russia A massive brown bear , hungry after a long winter sleep , loped with surprising speed across steep meadowland rising from the world 's ol dest and deepest lake . In a clearing below , three red deer froze , noble and u nmoving , and then disappeared into the pine forest . A pair of red-breasted mer ganser ducks launched themselves from the shoreline , their whirring wings seemi ng barely to skim the lake 's glassy surface . These were the most visible deniz ens , on a frosty May morning , of the Baikalo-Lensky nature reserve in southern Siberia . They are a tiny part of Russia 's vast natural treasure , a wildernes s as rich and vital to the earth as the Amazon rain forest and just as threatene d . While the Soviet Union justly earned a reputation as a monstrous despoiler o f the environment , it also protected a unique network of nature reserves rangin g from the Central Asian desert to the Arctic tundra . These 170 reserves were t otally off-limits to visitors , and they sheltered a bewildering variety of plan t and animal species . Now , with economic collapse and a breakdown of central a uthority , the reserves stand exposed . Poachers and loggers , prospectors and r anchers are gnawing away at Russia 's natural heritage . The `` green '' movemen t is moribund , the profit motive is exalted and the few rangers and naturalists seeking to defend the reserves are virtually powerless . `` Everything is begin ning to break up and fall apart , '' said Vladimir Krever , the World Wildlife F und 's representative in Moscow . Russia alone has 85 of the reserves , enclosin g as much territory as all of Italy , as well as 88 semi-protected national park s and wildlife refuges with even more space . But scientists have warned that th eir deterioration could destroy the world 's largest temperate forest , an essen tial defense against global warming , and hasten the extinction of thousands of unique species , from the Siberian tiger to Lake Baikal 's unique freshwater sea ls . `` The vast landscapes of the Russian Federation represent one of the last opportunities on Earth to conserve relatively intact ecosystems large enough to allow ecological processes and wildlife populations to fluctuate naturally , '' the World Wildlife Fund said in a report earlier this year . Here in the Baikal region , park rangers who earn less than $ 20 a month often turn to poaching to support themselves . More honest employees have no jeeps or walkie-talkies to pa trol their vast territories against the incursions of hungry locals or criminal bands of commercial hunters . Local authorities , emboldened by Moscow 's declin e , grab chunks of protected land for grazing or to build new vacation lodges . The government can no longer pay for the aircraft that used to deliver supplies and fight fires and given Siberia 's thin soil and short summers , a forest fire is a century-long disaster . Reserves in other parts of the country are struggl ing with similar problems . In the Arctic Ocean near Alaska , the Wrangel Island reserve , breeding ground for the endangered polar bear , has been unable to pa y its bills for last summer 's deliveries , Krever said . If it does not receive funds soon , its staff will have to leave before the next freeze . Near the Oka reserve , collective-farm dwellers are earning 3,000 rubles ( $ 1.35 ) and two bottles of vodka per month . `` Of course people are going to go poaching , '' K rever said . And local authorities in Tuva , near the Mongolian border , now all ow domesticated-reindeer grazing on a reserve where endangered beavers , sables and other species live . `` They have no right to do it , but with the situation in the country today , there 's nothing Russia can do to stop it , '' Krever sa id . Now the reserves are fighting back as best they can , seeking aid from the West and allies within Russia . Many have recognized their total isolation was p ossible only in a totalitarian regime and that they have to allow some access , both to raise funds and to win local support . Breaking with eight decades of st rict policy and outrunning a debate still raging in Moscow the Baikalo-Lensky re serve has mapped three routes through its vast territory , hoping to attract adv enturers and `` eco-tourists '' from the United States . The neighboring Pribaik alsky National Park has formed a small furniture trading company , seeking profi ts that could increase rangers ' salaries or buy equipment . The Institute of Li mnology , a longtime leader in the fight to save the lake from industrial pollut ers and once a proud cog in the powerful Soviet Academy of Sciences , now market s Baikal Water , in plastic bottles labeled in Japanese and English . Yet many h ere fear that , without more help from Moscow or the West , they will not save t he lake and the wild woods and steppe around it . `` I have to say that perestro ika has brought us nothing good , '' said Alexander Zayatz , director of the Bai kalo-Leninsky reserve . `` We suffer from a fever of instability . '' Home to hu ndreds of species of plants and animals found nowhere else , Lake Baikal has lon g attracted the interest of Russian and Western environmentalists . In 1916 , Cz ar Nicholas II created Russia 's first reserve on Baikal 's eastern shore to pro tect the fur-bearing sable , which had been hunted almost to extinction . A half -century later , when authorities built a giant cellulose factory on Baikal 's s outhern shore , the Soviet `` green '' movement was born . Today , the region bo asts three reserves and three national parks ( which , unlike the reserves , hav e always been open to recreational use ) . But despite all the attention , Baika l today offers a vivid picture of the problems confronting nature preservation t hroughout Russia . The cellulose plant is still operating , despite years of cam paigns and promises , and looming unemployment in the Irkutsk industrial basin m akes any voluntary closure less likely than ever . The `` greens '' who fought a gainst the plant , as well as against factories to the east that pollute Baikal 's watershed and those to the west that pollute its air , have all but faded awa y . `` This powerful movement was diluted by the distractions of everyday proble ms , by inflation , by unemployment , '' said Zayatz . `` People start to forget about Baikal , and think more about how just to survive . '' Emboldened by the weakening of Moscow 's authority , a collective farm on the preserve 's northern border has grabbed 1,109 acres of northern steppe , where several rare plant sp ecies grow , to graze its cattle , Zayatz said . Local authorities back the farm and `` just don't think about tomorrow . '' `` We could stop them by closing of f just one road , '' he added . `` But we don't have the manpower , we don't hav e transport and we don't have communications . '' In a still-unresolved conflict , the powerful local energy company is battling for a piece of shoreline inside the national park to build a vacation home for its big shots . The company won local support by promising to extend electricity to several remote villages but only if the national park gave way , park officials said . Poachers trespass to shoot bear and the diminutive musk deer , whose glands are valued by Chinese med icine makers . At the best hunting spots , poachers have burned down ranger cabi ns to make sure no one interferes , officials here said . Some of the hunters ar e part of commercial gangs . `` Poaching has become big business , '' said Amirk han Amirkhanov , Russia 's deputy minister of the environment . `` The gangs hav e carbines and other modern weapons , while our wardens have weapons going back to World War II and cannot possibly retaliate . '' But many hunters are local in habitants trying to survive . Overfishing has eliminated the livelihoods of many , as the population of the lake 's unique omul fish declined below commercial l evels . At the same time , the creation of the Pribaikalsky National Park ( in 1 986 ) and the reserve ( in 1987 ) ruled out logging , goldmining and guiding for eigners on hunting excursions while generating considerable hostility . On a rec ent sunny afternoon , a dozen men sat idly on docked fishing boats in the island village of Kuzhir . Two boys and a man had been reported swept out to sea in a recent storm , but few of the ships had fuel to conduct a search . On land , the local power station had been without diesel fuel for a month which meant everyo ne had been without lights and running water . Forest rangers like Vladimir and Natalya Ignashev , living in a wind-buffeted log cabin on Kadilny Bay , have few resources to block any poachers . They depend on passing boats and on the cows , chickens and garden they tend themselves . Naturalists here know they would do better to enlist the locals than to fight them . By encouraging tourism , they hope to give everyone a stake in preserving the wildlife that would attract visi tors . Zaitunya Abdrashitova , head of international relations for the national park , is full of ideas : a mining museum in the old gold-mining town ; a bungal ow campsite near a village that now subsists on an ecologically disastrous mink farm ; bed-and-breakfasts in the fishing town of Kuzhir . And Russia 's economic slump in one sense has given the naturalists some breathing space . Far fewer b oaters than in the past can afford gasoline to roar around the lake ; most enter prises can only dream of building hotels ; new factories are out of the question . Baikal 's water remains so clear that from a high cliff it is possible with b inoculars to watch fish swimming lazily along the sandy lake bottom near shore . But the slump also has accelerated Russians ' desperate need to cut timber or h unt bear . Moreover , as a tourist destination , Baikal has been damaged by West ern mistrust of Russian domestic airlines , which alone serve the nearest city o f Irkutsk , 3,000 miles from Moscow . After recent reports that a pilot 's teen- age son was at the controls of a Russian International Airlines flight that cras hed in Siberia , three U.S. tour groups canceled their planned visit , Abdrashit ova said . Still , while `` mattress tourists '' may be scared off , Zayatz said he hopes the nature reserve can still attract a dozen or so people per week to raft or hike through the wilderness . `` We don't plan to build any huge hotels or offer super service , '' he said . `` People should walk , and get close to n ature , and just see what 's there . '' IRKUTSK , Russia More than two years ago , Russia 's leading environmental orga nization opened a campaign to save the country 's unique but increasingly embatt led nature reserves . A natural treasure of incomparable value was in danger and , unlike with so many problems here , a modest amount of Western aid seemed lik ely to make a difference . The Socio-Ecological Union collected information , an alyzed needs and appealed to Western donors . `` We were naive enough to expect that the reserves would actually get something , '' recalled Yevgeny Simyonov . Western donors did indeed respond , but mostly by paying other non-Russians to c onduct more studies and perform more on-site inspections . In what might serve a s an archetype for much of the Western aid effort since the collapse of the Sovi et Union , the chief beneficiaries seemed to be outside consultants , while thos e in greatest need became disillusioned and discouraged . Nowhere is there a gre ater sense of dashed hopes than here , where the lure of Russia 's premier natur al attraction the mysterious Lake Baikal has enticed dozens of would-be donors f rom the United States , Canada and elsewhere . `` Every year new people come , b othering us , asking questions , making promises , '' said Pyotr Abramenok , dir ector of the Pribaikalsky National Park . `` Then the next group comes , and ask s all the same questions . It seems they all want to see Baikal . `` We get noth ing out of this , '' Abramenok added . `` We need radios and cars ( to protect w ildlife from poachers ) . We say , ` You want to build eco-tourism here . But by the time you develop anything , there will be a desert here no biodiversity , a nd nothing for eco-tourists to see. ' ' ' In May , visitors arrived from a U.S.- based company , Environmental Resources Management , which had won a $ 560,000 W orld Bank contract to develop `` an eco-tourism master plan '' for the Lake Baik al region , according to the company 's Angus Mackay . Mackay plans to spend the next several months studying the `` ecological carrying capacity '' of the regi on . But as Mackay acknowledged , Irkutsk 's problem these days is a paucity of tourists , not a surfeit . So there is a good chance that the study will lead to a World Bank decision not to invest further `` because not enough people want t o come . '' Irina Dyatlovskaya-Birnbaum , assistant director of the ecological g roup Baikal Watch , said she found the World Bank contract particularly galling because it is far from the first such study in the region . The U.S. . Agency fo r International Development has allocated $ 200,000 for an eco-tourism study , a nd others already have been carried out . `` We know where we don't have toilets , '' Dyatlovskaya-Birnbaum said . `` We don't need Westerners to come and tell us that we need this , this and this before tourists will come . We know all thi s , and we don't need more studies . We need money , and we need contacts in the West . '' Justin Mundy , who is helping oversee the World Bank 's environmental programs in Russia , said the criticism is `` understandable , but not necessar ily fair . '' He noted that throughout Russia , in all fields , there is a `` de ep level of frustration at the hard cash and hard finance not actually getting o ut to people on the ground . `` And we 're trying to address that , '' Mundy sai d . The World Bank is in the process of negotiating with the Russian government a grant of $ 25 million to $ 30 million to support biodiversity throughout the c ountry and around Lake Baikal in particular , Mundy said . When that money begin s flowing hopefully next year , he said concrete projects will benefit , he said . `` Ninety percent of the consultants are going to be Russian , '' he added . Dyatlovskaya-Birnbaum and even park director Abramenok , in a more reflective mo od acknowledged they have benefited from some U.S. programs . Exchanges sponsore d by the Sierra Club and by U.S. government agencies , including AID and the U.S . . Fish and Wildlife Service , have proved especially useful , they said . AID also has allocated $ 3 million to promote sustainable development in the Baikal region . Budget documents show that at least half of the money will go to U.S. c onsultants , airfare and U.S. administrative overhead , but the grant funds the kind of concrete projects that officials here said they need . In that sense , t he Baikal region is luckier than most of Russia 's nature preserves . In fact , ecologists in Moscow say , a few high-profile areas Baikal , the Kamchatka Penin sula with its spectacular geysers and the Khabarovsk homeland of the Siberian ti ger have monopolized most Western attention and funding . With a grant from the MacArthur Foundation , the World Wildlife Fund in January crafted a three-year , $ 17 million program to conserve Russia 's biological diversity during this per iod of crisis . The report proposed specific investment projects in particularly well-managed and needy reserves ; training programs for rangers and other offic ials ; environmental education to increase public support for conservation ; mea sures to discourage international trafficking in endangered species ; and format ion of new reserves where unchecked oil-drilling and speculation could destroy u nique habitats . The response so far ? `` Zero. Not a single kopeck , '' said La ura Williams , a World Wildlife Fund official here . Williams said journalists ' focus on `` corruption , crime and inflation '' has convinced many Westerners t hat any investment or donation here will `` go into a black hole . '' Vsevolod S tepanitsky , an ecologist who until last year headed Russia 's nature reserves , estimated that Western consultants for-profit and non-profit so far have receiv ed more than 20 times as much money as the reserves themselves . `` This is karm ushka ' ' a feeding-trough , said the Socio-Ecological Union 's Simyonov . `` Th e consultants have to consult . And what are they going to live on if these orga nizations start actually giving money ? '' USHKANYA PAD , Russia Rain dripped through a torn plastic sheet stretched acros s the lean-to , soaking a few fish hanging with mouths agape and turning the gro und to a muddy mess . Hank Birnbaum , 35 , Colorado-born and California-bred , t urned up the collar of his soiled jacket and spread his arms wide . `` Welcome t o Bermuda , '' he said with a rueful smile . If World Bank consultants at $ 300- per-night hotels represent one end of the West 's aid spectrum , Birnbaum surely holds down the other extreme . After several years of coordinating Russian-Amer ican exchange programs for a San Francisco non-profit organization , Birnbaum si gned on for the ultimate in grass-roots humanitarian aid : He is a full-time , $ 13-a-month forest ranger in a roadless , isolated corner of the Pribaikalsky Na tional Park in Siberia . `` I just have my own inner need to be here , '' Birnba um said . Park officials said they were delighted to hire Birnbaum , hoping Amer ican attitudes toward nature conservation would rub off on other rangers . The n ational park on Baikal 's shore was formed only in 1986 , and many locals includ ing quite a few rangers continue to regard the territory as a handy hunting rese rve . `` When my colleague sees ducks flying past , he says , ` Look , meat ! ' ' ' Birnbaum said . Birnbaum expected to spend the spring and summer living in a log cabin in this beautiful spot , greeting hikers and watching for forest fire s . But during the winter , the cabin was set on fire and destroyed . Park offic ials believe the culprit was a ranger who had been fired for hunting . Birnbaum acknowledges `` a lot that 's frustrating '' in Russia . `` People take a lot of holidays , they find a lot of reasons to work slowly and take days off , '' he said . Rather than clean the trash from a small area , they spend hours discussi ng grand projects for a park-wide cleanup or propose leaving the trash for Sierr a Club volunteers who come each summer , actually looking to work . `` But peopl e here need each other , and the simple things are important , and you have to w ork to get the simple things , '' Birnbaum said . `` In America , so much of lif e is in the fast lane . '' In 1988 , Birnbaum met a Russian ecology activist who is now his wife . But she prefers life in San Francisco to the lakeside mud of Baikal . Birnbaum , too , said he appreciates America more now . But for the mom ent , he is determined to stay at least one year . Among other things , he said , he is committed to some of his colleagues in the park who also are determined to save the beauty and cleanliness of Baikal . `` The economic situation is so d esperate right now that to work with people here who don't have economic motives as primary that 's a step in the right direction , '' he said . `` And it 's su rprising for them to meet an American who 's not here to make money . '' POKOINNY BAY , Russia Lake Baikal is a 426-mile-long crescent of astonishingly clear water , a geological rift between sharp ranges of snowcapped mountains , w indswept valleys of cedar and larch , and bare tundra hills where falcons and ki tes circle overhead . The lake itself is so deep that it holds one-fifth of the world 's fresh water . NEW YORK For Kenny Vixama 's first-grade teacher , an alarm went off when she n oticed that the 6-year-old often invented his own text for the simple storybooks his class was reading . Though a bright child , as he read his eyes did not fol low the left-to-right pattern of a successful reader . He had trouble identifyin g specific words when asked to find them . And he showed confusion with certain patterns of letters-a basic stumbling block in learning to read . Kenny 's diffi culties had landed him in the bottom 20 percent in reading achievement among the first-grade students at Public School 41 in Greenwich Village . If Kenny 's pro blems went uncorrected , he seemed headed down a path of reading failure that ha s become frustratingly hard to address for teachers across the country . That wa s when reading specialist Barbara Mandel intervened . Mandel is a soldier in a q uiet revolution that is transforming the way some elementary schools deal with s low readers . The program she teaches is known as Reading Recovery , and since 1 983 , when it was introduced in this country at Ohio State University , it has s pread to 48 states and brought thousands of first-graders up to average or above reading levels . Developed in the 1970s by New Zealand educator and psychologis t Marie Clay and used extensively in that country , the program 's premise is th at the best way to avoid reading failure is to prevent it in the first place . T he simple theory has won a following among an army of U.S. teachers who have gon e through yearlong training to more effectively tutor children in the most funda mental skill . Ohio State professor Gay Su Pinnell , who helped establish the un iversity 's pilot program and heads a de facto national organization of Reading Recovery teachers , estimates that by the end of the year , 9,000 teachers will have been trained and will have reached 50,000 to 60,000 students . Programs are booming in Ohio , California and Texas , and even in small states , legislature s and local school districts are approving special funding for trial programs , she said . But Reading Recovery has not been universally endorsed , mainly becau se of its high personnel costs and selectivity . Though implementation costs var y from district to district , all have to foot the bill for teachers like Mandel to take a year off for rigorous training . Then , they must dramatically scale back the teacher 's regular duties to allow time to work with a small number of children . Some principals have complained that the program unfairly concentrate s limited funds on first-graders , leaving little for programs geared toward vul nerable children in later years . In the Disrict of Columbia , where about 23 te achers have been trained , Deputy Superintendent Maurice Sykes said , `` We 've had to do a lot of convincing '' to win over principals despite Reading Recovery 's early successes . Reading Recovery assumes that every child can learn to rea d if confusion with the language is detected and corrected as soon as it becomes a problem . Many educators see the program as a first step in a long struggle t o break the failure chain that has cluttered junior high and high schools across the country with nonreaders . By the time students reach upper grades , experts say , the inability to read has usually taken an enormous academic and social t oll . Studies of Reading Recovery children show that 80 percent who go through t he 12-to-20-week intervention never need further reading remediation or special education , according to specialist Angela Jaggar , a New York University profes sor who is conducting follow-up studies of children who went through the program , which began in Manhattan 's District 2 in the mid-1980s . `` What the schools have traditionally done is wait until a long time has passed in a child 's life to decide they 're having difficulty in reading ... . The longer you wait the h arder it is , '' explained Jaggar . `` This program helps us understand how kids learn naturally , to spot their confusions and respond immediately with a reper toire of strategies . '' In Kenny Vixama 's case , Mandel several weeks ago bega n one-on-one tutoring sessions . The first lessons allowed him to show off what he knew , a phase called `` Roaming Around the Room , '' designed to build the c hild 's self-confidence . Then , in each structured 30-minute session , Kenny wo rked first on familiar materials and built gradually to more challenging ones , with Mandel intervening when a difficult word or phrase stopped him . At one rec ent session , with a timer clicking in the background , Kenny stumbled over the word `` how . '' Mandel quickly pulled out plastic letters to spell the word , l et Kenny sound it out , write it on a slip of paper , rhyme it and find its prop er place in a scrambled sentence . With each small victory , Kenny was able to m ove on through the text , his finger following the words , a technique Mandel pu rposely used to keep his attention properly focused . She watched intensely , ke eping a written record of Kenny 's progress to help structure the next day 's se ssion . With 12 of the maximum 60 lessons under his belt , Kenny seemed a candid ate for success . But there were frustrations . Though Kenny 's problems were de tected early in the year , it had taken until spring to work him into the progra m . Because Reading Recovery is only offered in first grade , Kenny would have o nly the few remaining weeks of school to work . Mandel , who helped eight childr en move up to average reading ability this year , expressed a complaint common i n the movement there 's never enough time or teachers to reach all the children in need of help . In Jackson , Miss . , Superintendent Ben O . Canada has decide d to shoulder the costs that come with wide-scale implementation of Reading Reco very . In 1991 , using federal Chapter 1 funds for needy students , Jackson bega n implementing Reading Recovery in eight of its lowest performing schools . Seve nteen teachers were trained in the technique . Now , Reading Recovery has expand ed to 37 Jackson schools and 81 teachers , and the district is cited as a nation al model of how the program can turn around reading progress in small school dis tricts . `` Being in this for many years , I '' ve seen so many fly-by-night pro grams , fancy packaging for things that didn't work . This has caused a revoluti on here almost , '' said Ida J. McCants , Chapter 1 administrator for the Jackso n schools . `` The teachers are revitalized . The strategies they 're learning a re helping them get through to children . And the parents are delighted . They s ee real growth in a short period of time . '' Yet even the program 's strongest advocates concede that Reading Recovery is only a beginning in the enormous figh t against illiteracy . `` We 're optimistic , '' said Pinnell . `` But we know t his problem is bigger than we are . '' Everyone knows by now that Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt didn't make it to t he Supreme Court because of opposition from a few Western senators . But why the opposition ? It wasn't the usual reasons . His vote against Babbitt , explained Sen. Alan Simpson , R-Wyo. , without a blush , would be `` totally provincial . '' Babbitt 's unforgivable sin , in the eyes of some Rocky Mountain senators , was to be insensitive to Western values . This is a startling charge against a m an whose family began a ranching business in that well-known Downeast state of A rizona in the 1880s . Insensitivity would have to have been quickly acquired by a Democrat who was twice elected governor and once attorney general of the only state in the Union to have voted Republican in every presidential election since 1952 . True , he went east for law school and to England for graduate work , bu t that was for a degree in geology that enables him to read the history of the l and Westerners revere from its rocks and canyons . It 's hard to imagine a more perfect resume for an Interior secretary in a centrist , environmentally oriente d administration . In part , the flap is evidence of how hard it is to be head t he Interior Department . The post combines the roles of chief conservationist an d chief resource developer . He or she must care for the nation 's parks and wil derness , preserve their biodiversity and provide for recreation , while at the same time developing fossil fuels , managing grazing , building water projects , overseeing mining and ensuring land and resources for growth . When you 're doi ng a good job at the Interior Department , you can expect to be trashed by both sides . But the senators weren't really protesting policies . They were protecti ng a myth the myth of the `` Old West . '' The symbolic nature of the confrontat ion explains its fervor and the obvious fact that if Babbitt 's opponents were s erious about stopping what he was doing at Interior , nothing could have been be tter than a lifetime appointment for him elsewhere . No successor was likely to be as successful in promoting the same policies as a man with national name reco gnition , deep Western roots and skills in forging compromise . Had the confirma tion hearing been held , the country would have watched the senators and Mr. Bab bitt apparently arguing over reducing federal subsidies for ranching , mining an d logging on public lands and for providing water at a fraction of its cost . ( The administration unwisely launched all four of these initiatives at once in it s deficit-reduction plan and then dropped them at the first hint of opposition . ) What they really would have been doing is grappling with the ghosts of the 19 th century . Then , the government threw every incentive it could find into sett ling the West . It gave away free land through the Homestead Act , gave a proper ty right to mining claims and charged no royalties , provided cheap water , buil t logging roads even if they cost more than the resulting timber and encouraged cattle grazing at public expense . Of all these policies , only the Homestead Ac t has disappeared . The rest survive , increasingly anachronistic and environmen tally more damaging with each passing decade . The 122-year-old mining law the f ocus of reform efforts for more than 20 years recently forced Babbitt to sell to a private company 2,000 acres of public land containing an estimated $ 10 billi on worth of gold for $ 9,765 . Cowboys and miners remain the cultural icons of t he West , but everything else has changed . Astonishingly , the eight sprawling states of the Rocky Mountain region are today less rural ( 20 percent of the pop ulation ) than is the country as a whole ( 24 percent ) . A higher fraction of p eople use public transportation to get to work than in any region but the Northe ast . Even in the most remote areas , mining , oil and gas drilling , logging , farming and ranching are a small and dwindling portion of the economy . A Wilder ness Society study of the huge area surrounding Yellowstone Park found that in t he past two decades 96 percent of job growth occurred outside these traditional sectors . Seventy-nine percent came from services alone . Income directly from a griculture and the extractive industries fell by half , to just 12 percent of to tal personal income . Western governors reflect this shift to balanced economies and urban demographics . They tend to be moderates men like Cecil Andrus , Idah o , Roy Roemer , Colorado , or Mike Sullivan , Wyoming who concentrate on jobs , crime , education , drugs and the like . They know voters want the region 's be auties protected , for themselves and for the tourists they draw . Senators , ho wever , whether Democratic or Republican , tend to be to the right of their part y 's mainstream . Among today 's incumbents , seven of the 14 who were rated in 1992 received environmental vote ratings of zero on a 0-100 scale . Far away in Washington , it seems , echoes of a free-wheeling , wide open Old West without f ences or limits play better than in Denver , Las Vegas or Salt Lake , where the realities of air pollution , dwindling water supplies and competition among land uses are all too well understood . PAC money from the extractive industries mak es a difference too . It 's too bad that a confirmation hearing didn't provide t he opportunity to thrash all this out on television . Still , with perseverance on Babbitt 's part , and some support from the president , the high court 's los s is likely to prove the new West 's gain . In RAY-COMMENT ( Milloy ) , bio line should read : Courtland Milloy is a local columnist for The Washington Post . `` D-DAY : The Climactic Battle of World War II , '' By Stephen E. Ambrose ( Si mon & Schuster , $ 30 , 656 pp . ) `` MONTY : The Battles of Field Marshal Berna rd Montgomery , '' By Nigel Hamilton ( Random House , $ 30 , 624 pp . ) `` JUNE 6 , 1944 : The Voices of D-Day , '' By Gerald Astor ( St. Martin 's Press , $ 25 .95 , 432 pp . ) `` The Longest Day , '' By Cornelius Ryan ( Touchstone Books , $ 11 , 338 pp . ) `` Nothing Less Than Victory , '' By Russell Miller ( Morrow , $ 25 , 512 pp . ) `` America at D-Day , '' By Richard Goldstein ( Delta Books , $ 14.95 , 320 pp . ) `` Voices of D-Day , '' edited by Ronald J. Drez ( Louisia na State University Press , $ 24.95 , 312 pp . ) Walker is the U.S. bureau chief of Britain 's The Guardian , and author of `` The Cold War ; A History . '' Rev iewed by Martin Walker Special to the Los Angeles Times A magnificent and awesom e military operation , and a moment of acute symbolism as the liberation of Euro pe began , D-day itself was not a great battle by the bloody standards of modern war . At Omaha Beach , the scene of the worst confusion if not the hardest figh ting of invasion day , the Americans had 2,220 casualties , mainly from the Rang ers and the 1st Division . At Utah Beach , where the terrain was less hostile an d the defenders more demoralized , the American 4th Division suffered 187 casual ties . These amounted to about 5 percent of their losses in the training disaste r earlier in the year at Slapton Sands . By contrast , the U.S. Marines had lost 3,500 men in the amphibious assault on the single Japanese-held island of Taraw a . These casualty figures are collated by Stephen Ambrose , best known as the b iographer of Eisenhower and Nixon ; and for someone looking for just one among t he flood of D-day books , his is the one to obtain . And yet Ambrose never reall y proves the contention of his subtitle , that D-day was `` the climactic battle of World War II . '' This is partly because of a fundamental change in the way military history is now written . Historians used to rely on the maps and the pl ans and the orders of generals , in which armies are portrayed by arrows sweepin g around flanks . But the surging growth of oral history in the recollections of individual soldiers has changed our perspective . A style of modern history pio neered by Cornelius Ryan , whose 30-year-old `` The Longest Day '' still reads m arvelously well , this grunt's-eye view of chaos , blood and panic interspersed with moments of boredom and humor , is how battles are experienced . But they ar e not the full story of the way wars are decided . And World War II was not deci ded on the Normandy beaches . On June 23 , just 17 days after D-day , Hitler 's Army Group Center on the Eastern Front lost five divisions ( over 50,000 men ) a t Vitebsk alone . Part of Operation Bagration , this parallel and simultaneous S oviet battle that smashed the German army and cleared the way to Warsaw , puts D -day into proportion . Until the invasion , the British and U.S. troops never fa ced more than a dozen German divisions . Even after D-day , they never fought mo re than 60 . The Red Army fought and beat over 200 divisions and the bulk of the panzer armies . The great merit of Gerhard Weinberg 's monumental history of th e war as a whole is to remind us of the vast sweep of the conflict , industrial as well as strategic . In Stephen Ambrose 's riveting book , this industrial com ponent of D-day is brought home when he quotes the comment of Gen. Eisenhower th at `` the man who won the war for us '' was Andrew Higgins . In the teeth of off icial opposition , he designed , built and forced into production the essential landing craft . From the almost token chapters given to the non-American role in D-day in this spate of 50th anniversary books , a casual reader might miss the fact that the Americans were a minority of the invading force . The Canadians at Juno Beach suffered rather worse than the Americans at Omaha , losing 1,200 men , or one in 18 of those committed , compared to the U.S. loss of one in 19 up t he coast at Omaha . Even so , compared to the first serious test of Hitler 's co astal defenses , the disastrous Dieppe raid in 1942 , Juno Beach was a cakewalk . At Dieppe , the 2nd Canadian Division had taken more than 6,000 casualties in six hours . And the British , thanks in part to their special tanks , took only 630 casualties at Sword Beach and about 400 at Gold Beach , as they put 55,000 m en ashore . But with the exception of the Americans at Omaha , who stumbled upon the good Wehrmacht units of General Kraiss ' 352nd Division , the Allies were f ighting a ragbag force , the gleanings on which Hitler depended after five years of war . At Utah Beach , Lt. Robert Brewer of the 101st Airborne captured four Koreans in German uniform . Originally conscripted by the Japanese , they had be en captured and forced to fight by the Red Army , and then captured yet again an d made to fight by the Germans . At the time of the invasion , every sixth rifle man in the Wehrmacht forces in France was from an `` Ost '' battalion captured R ussians and Poles and Ukrainians and Balts . Germany was exhausted . The average age of the troops in the 709th Division , based in the Cotentin peninsula , was 36 . ( Begin optional trim ) It was not just luck that put the Allied troops as hore in Normandy , where the defenses were relatively feeble , but planning . Th e best German troops , the six panzer divisions , were stuck in the Pas de Calai s , where Hitler believed the real invasion was coming . A complex deception ope ration , with fake radio signals from fake headquarters , succeeded brilliantly in fooling the Germans . But if those Panzer divisions were not available to rep el the invasion in its most vulnerable first few hours , they had to be fought l ater , in the grinding battles of June and July as the Allies tried to break out from their beachhead . Under Gen. Montgomery , the British attacks repeatedly f ailed . But they drew to their front around Caen the bulk of the German armor , opening the way for the Americans under Gen. Omar Bradley and Gen. George Patton to break out into the heart of France . Nigel Hamilton 's new book on Montgomer y , an edited and truncated version of his three-volume biography , refights the rather silly postwar squabble of the Allied generals and their memoirs . Yes , Monty was a crotchety and arrogant ally who stretched the truth to claim that he had planned the American breakout all along . But with his first command decisi on in January of 1944 , insisting that the Allied assault be made with five divi sions rather than three , Monty probably won the battle . ( End optional trim ) The point about D-day was that it was not a single event , but part of a long ca mpaign . With hindsight , we might even say that , for the future , the battle o f Arnhem three months later in September 1944 was more significant . Arnhem was a battle that concerned far more than the defeat of Germany ; it was about the p ostwar map of Europe . The goal was for the British and American armies to use a n airborne landing to bounce their way across the Rhine and into the heart of Ge rmany before winter set in . The ambition was clear . With Germany 's industrial heartland of the Ruhr under their guns , the Anglo-Americans could occupy Germa ny before the Russians did . Defeat at Arnhem kept the Western Allies on the wro ng side of the Rhine until the spring of 1945 and helped define the parameters o f the Cold War itself . But that was not how it felt for the lonely parachutists , landing in the blackness of a hostile Normandy night . It was not how it seem ed for the bewildered infantry of the U.S. 1st Division , dumped ashore at the w rong place , under intense fire and with most of their tanks sinking to the seab ed . For that flavor of D-day , Russell Miller 's `` Nothing Less Than Victory ' ' is the most useful account , with each interview telling a coherent soldier 's tale . ( Begin optional trim ) Richard Goldstein , Ronald Drez and Gerald Astor have produced almost interchangeable narratives , peppered with ill-organized a nd random individual reminiscence . Collectively , they show how not to use the rich archives of oral history , the largest collection of individual accounts of a single battle anywhere in the world , which are now gathered at the National D-Day Museum at New Orleans . Stephen Ambrose 's book relies rather than depends upon them , using the intense personal perspective to illuminate a battle that amounted to rather more than the sum of individual experiences . ( End optional trim ) It took another 11 months of fighting , but D-day began the great peace t hat began to civilize Europe . It marked the moment when the fractious and warli ke European tribes began to come under the adult supervision of the United State s and Soviet Union , two superpowers with far too much at stake to permit the en dless squabbles of the Old World to rise again . More than just a peace , a kind of miracle emerged , in which the Europeans laid aside their martial pasts and adapted comfortably to the extraordinary new role of an economic giant that chos e perhaps for the first time in history not to spend that wealth on becoming a m ilitary superpower . The real essence of that European decision , whatever the i nter-alliance squabbles along the way , was trust in the Americans as an honorab le ally and a reliable custodian of the stability and the democratic hopes of Eu rope . And the real meaning of D-day was that it symbolized the moment when that trust was earned , in blood . Pvt. Robert Murphy looked down . In the moonlight , through the open door , he could see the coastline . The C-47 banked to the left . Over the engine noise , his commanding officer shouted : `` Hook up ! '' At 300 feet , the pilot hit the green light and yelled : `` Let 's go ! '' Murphy , face blackened , carrying h is Thompson submachine gun , 300 rounds of ammunition , a six-inch boot knife , a switchblade and a 40-pound radar , was the third man out the door . He bent fo rward , tucked his knees up to his chest and folded his arms over them . His par achute snapped open and jerked . In seconds , he hit the ground . He tumbled and rolled . He reached into his boot , pulled out the knife and cut himself out of his straps . Accidentally , he also sliced off his ammunition pouch . But he ha d a full magazine in the gun . He was in the corner of a field . He thought he s aw someone under a tree . He kept one hand on his gun . He put his other hand to his lips to signal silence . It was 1:10 a.m. , 50 years ago June 6 . D-day had begun . If there was someone under the tree , whoever it was did not shoot , di d not make a sound . Murphy , a pathfinder with the 82nd Airborne , and scores l ike him , set up radar beacons and signal lights to guide hundreds of C-47s carr ying thousands of paratroopers into the fields of Normandy . During the next 24 hours , 175,000 soldiers , drawn mostly from the United States , Britain , Canad a and France , along with 50,000 battle vehicles of all kinds , invaded Nazi-occ upied France . Most of them landed under fire on five beaches along the Normandy coast . France , along with much of the rest of Europe , had fallen under Adolf Hitler 's shadow during the darkest months of World War II . The Allied invader s , bearing the arms , the hopes and the prayers of freedom , were carried acros s the English Channel by more than 5,300 vessels and nearly 11,000 aircraft . It was the most powerful armada ever assembled , and it conducted the greatest amp hibious assault in human history . It would be the pivotal battle of the war , a nd Hitler knew it . `` The destruction of the enemy 's landing , '' he told his commanders in Europe , `` is the sole decisive factor in the whole conduct of th e war . '' The Allied assault succeeded , and France was liberated . The Anglo-A merican offensive overran Germany 's industrial heartland ; and , for freedom , the war in Europe was won . The D-day assault was important for an additional re ason . `` It was an open question , '' says Stephen E. Ambrose , an eminent hist orian of D-day , `` whether a democracy could produce young soldiers capable of fighting effectively . Hitler was certain the answer was no . Totalitarian fanat icism and discipline would always conquer democratic liberalism and softness . ' ' But the Allied forces showed remarkably superior courage , steadiness under fi re , competence and willingness to take the initiative . `` On D-day , '' Ambros e says , `` the soldiers of democracy showed that they could outfight and outthi nk the soldiers of totalitarianism . '' This is the story of that triumph . It i s based upon interviews by the Los Angeles Times with veterans of D-day on both sides of the fighting ; upon interviews , letters , oral histories and other doc uments at American and British government repositories and in the Eisenhower Cen ter at the University of New Orleans . It is also based upon published accounts of the assault , including `` The Longest Day , '' a classic by war corresponden t Cornelius Ryan ; `` Six Armies in Normandy , '' an authoritative account by Br itish military scholar John Keegan , and `` D-Day June 6 , 1944 : The Climactic Battle of World War II , '' a new history by Ambrose . Most of all , it is a sto ry about the soldiers who won , many of them very young men , and how they fough t and the terrible cost of their victory . `` To them , '' Ambrose says , `` we owe our freedom . '' -0- CAT AND MOUSE The Allies had resolved that a cross-chan nel attack was necessary to free Europe from the Nazis . The Soviets , who had t urned back the Germans in the east , were demanding a second front . And Hitler expected one . Where to attack was a matter of debate . The sands at Pas-de-Cala is looked ideal . Calais was the French shore closest to England , and it offere d the straightest route from London to Germany 's industrial Rhine-Ruhr region a nd then on to Berlin . It was at Calais , however , that the Germans had built t he strongest part of their main defense of Fortress Europe , a steel-reinforced concrete barrier called the Atlantic Wall . Pas-de-Calais was out . Instead , Al lied planners chose the Normandy coast . It had Caen , a port to bring in men an d supplies . Nearby was an airport . Routes from the beach could take armor inla nd . Moreover , the capture of Caen would cut off the Cotentin Peninsula and pos ition the Allies to threaten the Germans holding Paris . There were guns along t his part of the Atlantic Wall as well , but behind it was only one division of P anzer tanks . The Allies could feint toward Calais and then might be able to sur prise the Germans at Normandy instead . So it was that Dwight D. Eisenhower , th e supreme commander of Allied forces , agreed to invade on five Normandy beach a reas , code-named Utah , Omaha , Gold , Juno and Sword . The Allies gave the ent ire assault a code name . They called it Overlord . They mounted an elaborate ef fort to fool the Germans into thinking that any attack on Normandy was a feint a nd that the real assault would come at Calais , maybe even elsewhere : perhaps t he Biscay coast , maybe Scandinavia , perhaps Marseilles . ( Begin optional trim ) They sent aging British officers to Scotland to create radio messages in easi ly broken cipher that spoke of invading Norway . But Eisenhower dispatched Lt. G en. George S. Patton to Dover , opposite Calais . Hitler believed Patton to be t he best Allied commander . Eventually Eisenhower would bring him to France for t he breakout attack across Europe . For now , however , he made Patton part of hi s most elaborate ruse . He gave him inflatable rubber tanks and plywood-and-canv as landing craft . From the air , they looked real , and Patton let German plane s photograph them at will . All the while , the Allies developed their real plan s in strictly enforced secrecy . ( End optional trim ) The deceptions and the se crecy worked . Because the British had broken German encryption , Allied intelli gence could understand German war radio . It provided clear evidence that German generals had come to expect feints in Biscay , the south of France and in Norma ndy . There might be an actual attack in Norway , they thought . But , more impo rtant , they began preparing for the main D-day invasion at Pas-de-Calais . -0- THE ALLIED BUILDUP In the winter and spring of 1944 , thousands of Allied troops trained throughout Britain . First Lt. Jack Isaacs , 21 , saw mountains of supp lies lining the roadsides , some of it in half-moon shaped prefabricated shelter s made of corrugated metal , called Quonset huts . By April , the men were engag ed in D-day dress rehearsals . It was dangerous . Planes collided , killing para troopers . Live ammunition went astray , killing infantrymen . In addition to th eir K rations and grenades , the men were issued books of Scripture . They were small enough to be tucked into their shirt pockets . Chaplains held Catholic , P rotestant and Jewish services . ( Begin optional trim ) Pvt. Milton Villarreal , 19 , went to Mass , confessed his sins and took Communion . He had a rosary , a nd he prayed to Our Lady of Guadalupe . He thought of her often and took courage from her image , which he visualized firmly in his mind . At the last Mass that Staff Sgt. Charles Klein , 20 , would attend before the invasion began , the Re v. Joe Lacy , a short , chubby Irishman , told his congregation : `` I want you men to do all your praying here and now . When we hit the beaches , if I see any man praying when he should be fighting , if he 's within the reach of my boot , he 'll get the toe of my boot . I 'll do the praying when we go in . You do the fighting . '' ( End optional trim ) In May , the entire Allied Expeditionary Fo rce descended upon southern England , nearly 2 million strong , with half a mill ion vehicles . Some were conventional , others were not . Sherman tanks . Floati ng `` deuce-and-a-halfs , '' 2-ton trucks with propellers , called DUKWs , or `` Ducks . '' Standard landing craft . Plywood cigar boxes 36 feet long with squar e metal bows , called Higgins boats for the Louisiana man who made them . Briefi ngs began , and the number of people who knew the secrets of Overlord started to grow . Still the Allied invasion plan did not leak . ( Begin optional trim ) St aff Sgt. Lowry Brooks , 23 , was assigned to the briefing room for the 1st Batta lion in the 29th Division . On the wall was a map of the Normandy coast . The in vasion routes were drawn on a celluloid overlay . It was marked for specific bea ches . Objectives were circled . The map was plotted with down-to-the-minute ins tructions for the attack . The briefings went on for two weeks . Brooks was not allowed to leave the room . His meals were brought to him , and a guard stood at the door . ( End optional trim ) Allied planes had bottled up the Luftwaffe in Germany . John Keegan , the military scholar , says that the Allies had such air superiority that their planes ultimately would paralyze much of Germany 's armo r as well . Still , German reconnaissance planes occasionally sneaked through . `` It is one of the great mysteries of World War II , '' historian Ambrose says , `` that although the Germans saw the buildup in southern England .. . they com pletely failed to draw the right conclusions . '' Part of the solution to these mysteries , Keegan says , is that Allied aircraft permitted the German spy plane s to see only what the Allies wanted them to see . Another part of the answer la y with the Nazi high command back in Germany and among the German generals in oc cupied France . Often they found themselves hamstrung . Despite Hitler 's bombas t about the military superiority of totalitarian discipline , his insecurities a nd his distrust of those around him prompted him to proceed by what Manfred Romm el , son of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel , calls `` divide and rule . '' At times , these divisions caused paralysis . He put his senior field marshal , Gerd von Rundstedt , in charge . Von Rundstedt was 69 and short of energy and supplies . Apart from the fortifications at Pas-de-Calais , not much wall-building had been done . Hitler 's chief of operations suggested that Rommel be given tactical co mmand . Characteristically , Hitler bisected the authority . Von Rundstedt would retain overall tactical control , but Rommel would take charge of the principal defense : the wall . Never was it clear , Ambrose says , whether Rommel or Von Rundstedt would direct the upcoming battle for Europe . Rommel grew obsessed wit h the wall and ways to reinforce it . He mined the channel . He booby-trapped it s tidal flats with obstacles , including mined logs driven into the sand at an a ngle pointing toward the sea . These and similar logs in farm fields , designed to impale gliders , came to be called `` Rommel 's asparagus . '' He ended train ing and put all of his troops to work building and reinforcing the wall and his obstacles . Robert Vogt , 19 , a private in the German infantry , heard Rommel s ay : `` You must stop them here on the first day . If you don't stop them here , it 's over . '' ( Begin optional trim ) But even Rommel guessed wrong about whe re the Allied invasion would come . He also guessed wrong about when the invader s would come . He predicted that any assault would come at high tide , which off ered the shortest beach to cross . From the outset , however , Eisenhower planne d to invade on a rising tide . That would permit his landing craft to run onto t he beach , then to float free so they could be used again . On June 1 , Rommel a nalyzed the tide tables . The English Channel did not seem suitable for an invas ion until possibly the middle of the month . His first inkling of the Allied inv asion came at 7:30 in the morning , when the telephone rang at his country house at Herrlingen . He canceled his meeting with Hitler and set out by car for Norm andy , because Allied air superiority made it too risky to fly . As Rommel drove toward Normandy , Maj. Hans von Luck , 32 , commander of a panzer regiment east of Caen , climbed a hill behind his headquarters and saw the Allied armada comi ng . `` It is enormous , '' he thought . `` They will succeed . '' ( End optiona l trim ) -0- ` OK , LET 'S GO ' Across the channel , Dwight Eisenhower had no qu estion about who was in charge . He was . Allied planners had picked May 1 for D -day . He moved it to the first suitable day in June , to take advantage of an e xtra month 's production of landing craft . Which day would depend upon the tide s and the moon and the weather . Eisenhower wanted to cross at night , to mainta in surprise ; under a half-moon , to provide at least some light for the fleet ; with a rising tide , to keep his Higgins boats from getting stuck on the sand , and at first light , to give his troops a full day to gain a foothold . This me ant June 5 , 6 or 7 , or June 19 or 20 . He chose June 5 . Loading began on May 31 . There were 2,727 transports from 12 countries . As the troops marched onto their ships , each received an order . It was from the supreme commander himself . `` You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade , '' Eisenhower wrote . `` The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you . '' As the vessels formed into convoys , a drizzle became a heavy rain . At 4 a.m on J une 4 , Eisenhower and his commanders met to consider the situation . In the mes s room at Southwick House , a command post in Portsmouth , on the south shore of Britain , a weather briefer told them that the storm would continue on June 5 , sending clouds down to at least 500 feet in some places and all the way down to the coastline in others . Eisenhower told his commanders that the invasion woul d succeed only with air superiority , and that these clouds might cancel this ad vantage . Did anyone disagree ? There was no dissent . At 6 a.m. , Eisenhower pu t the armada on hold until June 6 . At 9:30 p.m. on June 4 , Eisenhower convened his commanders again at Southwick House . Rain still rattled against the French windows . Now , however , the weather briefer predicted a break in the storm . Around the mess-room table , commanders of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Exped itionary Force cheered . But , the briefer added , some scattered clouds would c ontinue to hang over the Normandy coast . Conditions still would be risky for fi ghters and bombers . Eisenhower 's commanders were split . It was up to him . `` The question is , '' he said , `` just how long can you hang this operation on the end of a limb and let it hang there ? '' Nobody answered . He paced . The on ly sound was the rain on the windows . `` I am quite positive , '' he said , fin ally , `` that the order must be given . '' D-day would be June 6 . At 3:30 a.m. on June 5 , he received another weather briefing . The wind was driving the rai n sideways . By now , the storm should have been letting up . It was still not t oo late to call it all off and to try again June 19 . The weather briefer was mo re sure than ever that the storm would break . But there was a new worry . He sa id the good weather would last for only one day . This meant that Allied troops on the second day of the attack might not make it ashore . Eisenhower knew that putting off the invasion for two more weeks was certain to increase chances that the Germans would learn about the plans . Eisenhower said later he paced for ab out 45 seconds . Others said it took him as long as five minutes . Then , Ambros e says , he turned to his commanders and said , quietly : `` OK , let 's go . '' AIR DROP TO CHAOS The pathfinders went first . They parachuted into Normandy to mark landing zones for 13,000 American and 7,000 British paratroopers , the mos t massive night drop ever . Their mission was to secure the routes to the beache s and disrupt any German counterattack . It took more than 800 C-47s to fly all the Americans across . They were members of the 101st and the 82nd Airborne divi sions . The aircraft , in full flight , stretched all the way from Britain , nin e planes wide , cruising 100 feet from wingtip to wingtip . As they reached Norm andy , they found that some scattered clouds were lingering over the coast . Pil ots lost their visibility . In radio silence , with only tiny blue lights on the aircraft ahead to guide them , they separated to avoid colliding . All flew off course . The Germans opened fire . Only one of 18 American pathfinder teams lan ded where it should have . Pvt. Robert Murphy , 18 , was part of that team . He assembled his radar . He waited for the sound of more planes , then looked up . Never before had he seen so many parachutes . Nearly 1,800 men were falling in h is drop zone , but it looked more like 5,000 , maybe 10,000 . Some of the paratr oopers were shot in the air . Others fell into trees . One tumbled into a pile o f manure . Many landed in a flood that Rommel had created for them . He had open ed the locks on the Merderet River at high tide . Water covered the surrounding farm fields . Somehow , Allied reconnaissance had missed it . The water was no m ore than four feet deep , but that was enough . Sgt. Robert Williams , 21 , with the 101st , fell into it up to his chest . Between 50 and 100 feet away , in th e dark , he could hear gurgling . Men were drowning . First Lt. Jack Isaacs , wh o was a platoon leader in the 82nd , fell through an antiaircraft barrage withou t a scratch . It lighted the sky around him with green , red and yellow streams of fire . He landed near some cows in a pasture seven miles from his target , th e village of Ste.-Mere-Eglise . He had no idea where his men were . He located a stranger from another unit . Together they found a paratrooper speared by a sta lk of `` Rommel 's asparagus . '' Isaacs gave him a shot of morphine . With his assent , Isaacs plunged the man 's rifle bayonet-first into the ground and put h is helmet on the upturned rifle butt a universal sign of surrender . Isaacs roun ded up 35 other men only one from his platoon , the rest strangers and prepared to set out for Ste.-Mere-Eglise . He turned to take a last look at the paratroop er impaled on the asparagus and saw a German soldier approach him from a hedgero w . The German shot him . Isaacs ' men wheeled and fired . The German fell . Lt. Col. Edward Krause , a battalion commander in the 82nd , led the Allied attack . He drove the German garrison in the village into retreat . He occupied buildin gs and set up roadblocks . He cut telephone lines and established gun posts . ( Begin optional trim ) A gunner in one of those posts had a feeling he was not al one . He wheeled around and saw a pair of boots swaying back and forth . The mac hine gunner looked up . Hanging in a tree , looming over him , was a dead paratr ooper . There were others hanging in the trees , where they had landed and then been shot dead . In twos and threes , fellow paratroopers entered the village sq uare . They looked up , Cornelius Ryan says , and they felt a surge of anger . L t. Col. Krause reached the square . He said only three words : `` Oh , my God . '' Then , Ryan says , Krause pulled an American flag from his pocket , old and w orn , the flag his regiment had raised over Naples . He walked to the town hall and ran up the colors . ( End optional trim ) Ste.-Mere-Eglise was the first Fre nch village to be liberated by the Americans . -0- HELL IN THE HEDGEROW Behind t he paratroopers came the gliders . They were fragile craft , made of plywood and canvas . Towed across the channel by propeller-driven aircraft , the gliders ca rried entire platoons of support troops , as well as Jeeps , antitank guns and s mall bulldozers . They were turned loose to land in the fields . But they hit he dgerows . The glider pilots were expecting English-style hedgerows , low enough for fox hunters to jump . Instead , these were shrubs and saplings , five to eig ht feet tall , planted in dirt embankments and so dense they seemed solid . If a glider pilot approached a farm field high enough to clear the leading hedgerow , he could not get his glider down fast enough to avoid the hedgerow at the far end . If he tried to pull up and over the end hedgerow , he would stall and cras h . The Norman hedgerows took a heavier toll than `` Rommel 's asparagus . '' By 4:30 a.m. , all Allied paratroopers and their glider-borne support troops were on the ground . Almost to a man , however , they had been scattered so far from their drop sites that they had no idea where they were . Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor , commander of the 101st , for instance , landed by himself . Lost , he wandered for 20 minutes before encountering his first trooper , a private . In the darkn ess , Taylor clicked twice on a toy cricket , issued to each man in training . T he private returned a single click . It signaled that he was an American . Both men were so relieved , they hugged each other . Together they stumbled on until they had gathered together another general , a colonel , 18 other officers and 4 0 men . `` Never , '' Taylor cracked , `` have so few been led by so many . '' A s they drew closer to Ste.-Marie-du-Mont , they could see its church steeple , a nd Taylor knew for the first time where they were . He moved his band of men eas t toward the village of Pouppeville and an exit from the beach . As they neared Pouppeville , they ran into gunfire . Sixty Germans held the town . They were fi ring from second-story windows . It took Taylor nearly three hours to drive them out . He suffered 18 casualties , inflicted 25 and captured 40 Germans . Taylor took possession of the top of the beach exit . It would be only a matter of tim e before his men would see the U.S. 4th Division coming inland . It was led by a tank . Taylor 's men could not tell for sure whether the tank was friendly . Ta ylor 's men fired . A hatch opened , and a tanker waved an orange banner , signa ling that he was American . Capt. George L. Mabry , an infantry officer in the 8 th Regiment , walked around the side of the tank . Taylor shook his hand . Befor e the end of the day , the 101st Airborne would open the way for the 4th Divisio n , drive a German battalion out of Ste.-Marie-du-Mont , and destroy German batt eries at Bretcourt Manor and Holdy . But the victories came at a steep price . M any of the men of the 101st were missing . Of 6,600 who had jumped , only 2,500 were assembled into fighting units . ( Begin optional trim ) In some cases , men of the 101st and the 82nd were so jumbled together by the chaotic jump that it took a week to sort them out . At midmorning , men in the 82nd were still trying to find one another . Worse , they had landed on both sides of the Merderet Riv er . Thanks to Rommel 's flood , it was more like a lake . There were only two w ays to cross . One was a causeway and bridge at La Fiere . The other was a cause way and bridge at Chef-du-Pont . Gen. James Gavin , the assistant division comma nder , put together 300 men , took them to La Fiere and Chef-du-Pont and capture d the causeways . The Germans counterattacked . Maj. Gen. Matthew B . Ridgway , commander of the 82nd , feared that his division might be destroyed before it , like the 101st , could connect with the 4th Infantry Division moving inland . Af ter nightfall , the 4th arrived . It found the causeway at Chef-du-Pont secure i n Allied hands . ( End optional trim ) -0- DAWN AND THE FLEET Never before had s o many planes flown in anger . On D-day , the Allies launched 3,467 heavy bomber s , 1,645 medium bombers and 5,409 fighters . German antiaircraft destroyed 113 , but not one was shot down by the Luftwaffe . The Germans flew 250 sorties duri ng the invasion . The Allies flew more than 14,000 . The Americans and British d ropped more bombs on Normandy in two hours than they had on Hamburg , the most h eavily bombed city in Germany , during all of 1943 . But they were not entirely successful . At Utah Beach , the B-26s destroyed much of the Atlantic Wall befor e the Germans could fire a shot . At Omaha , Gold , Juno and Sword , however , m any of the bombs from the B-17s and the B-24s missed the wall and fell on the Fr ench countryside . The clouds were partly to blame . But so was the fact that so me bomber crews flinched . Only 1,000 yards separated their targets and the firs t wave of Allied landing craft . To avoid hitting fellow Americans , the crews h eld onto their bombs for too long . From the air , the incoming ships were a sig ht that pilots never forgot . Minesweepers by the score were headed for the sand . Behind them were landing craft by the hundreds , trailing a churn of white wa ter . The Germans , historian Stephen E. Ambrose says , heard nothing and saw no thing . At 3:09 a.m. , their radar finally picked up the fleet . They sent out s ome torpedo boats and two armed trawlers . But the German vessels were like gnat s against a hurricane . They sank only one ship , the Norwegian destroyer Svenne r . At 5:20 a.m. , it grew light . Fifteen minutes later , German shore batterie s opened fire . The Allied battleships replied , Ambrose says , like Zeus hurlin g thunderbolts . By 6 a.m. , all of the landing craft had launched their skirted , amphibious tanks . Higgins boats passed among the tanks in the water , headin g for shore . The battleships and the cruisers raised a wall of sound so immense it could be felt . When the warships lifted their fire , the landing craft carr ying tanks opened up . Fourteen thousand rockets whistled over the heads of the men in the Higgins boats as they neared the sand . Finally , the tanks themselve s began to fire . Wind rolled back the smoke . H-hour was at hand . Next : `` We 'll start the war here . '' NEW YORK Eight million Broadway theatergoers paid a record $ 356 million at the box office during the '93-'94 season that just ended , the League of American T heaters and Producers said Wednesday . Along with the gross receipts record was the continuation of a five-year rise in total attendance , to 8.1 million . ( Th e attendance record is 11 million , set in 1980-81 . ) The Broadway gross for th e '92-'93 season was $ 328 million , with total attendance of 7.9 million . The bulk of last season 's ticket revenues , almost $ 300 million , came from musica ls , most of them long-running shows from previous years . Only two musicals fro m '93-'94 , `` Beauty and the Beast '' and `` Passion , '' were playing at the e nd of the season . Top Broadway ticket prices remained at $ 65 for the third con secutive year , but at least one musical , `` Show Boat , '' will come in next f all with a $ 75 top . The average cost of admission for all shows was $ 43.94 , compared to $ 41.71 in the previous season . The reason for the increase was a r ise in ticket prices for some non-musical shows . One , `` Angels in America , ' ' has gone to $ 65 , the same as musicals charge . At season 's end , there were 25 shows running on Broadway , compared to 19 at this time a year ago . Because of the slim number of holdover shows , the season began slowly last summer . Th e quick failure of seven shows last fall , followed by severe snowstorms early t his year , kept attendance below comparable levels of the previous season . Not until about two months ago did attendance rise dramatically . The league also re ported figures for major national touring productions : gross receipts of $ 688 million , a record , and estimated attendance of 16.5 million . SANTO DOMINGO , Dominican Republic According to a newspaper editor who has know n him for many years , the president of the Dominican Republic , 87-year-old Joa quin Balaguer , is above all else a pragmatist . This fact was manifest last wee k when Balaguer faced with mounting U.S. pressure abruptly reversed his reluctan ce to enforce sanctions on Haiti . The Dominican leader agreed , during a meetin g with Clinton 's special adviser on Haiti , William H . Gray , to help the Unit ed States and the international community seal the long border between his count ry and Haiti . He did so after listening to Gray explain that the Clinton admini stration believes Dominican laxity in enforcing the U.N.-imposed sanctions has a llowed Haiti 's ruling generals to continue to get the oil they need to retain t heir hold on power . U.S. officials deny there was any quid pro quo , but Balagu er 's sudden turnaround sparks a series of interesting questions . First and for emost : Will his new cooperation with the United States serve to reduce Washingt on 's interest in fraud allegations regarding last month 's Dominican presidenti al election , in which Balaguer has been declared the victor by a narrow margin ? His chief electoral rival , Dr. Jose Francisco Pena Gomez , believes the aging incumbent struck a deal with the United States . `` I foresee a moderation from Washington , '' he said . Other important questions : Does Balaguer actually ha ve the will and the ability to compel the Dominican army to enforce the embargo ? And even if he does , will closing the border thereby enhancing the efficacy o f U.N. sanctions on Haiti succeed in bringing about the downfall of the military regime in Port au Prince ? And perhaps most important : Will Dominican complian ce enable President Clinton to escape the dead-end Haiti policy he has been purs uing-a policy headed toward restoring left-leaning priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power by means of a U.S.-led military invasion ? I spoke with Balaguer , who heads up the Social Christian Reformist Party , at length a few days ago , both about the disputed Dominican elections and about his decision to seal the borde r with Haiti . He took the opportunity to protest charges leveled by former cong ressman Stephen Solarz who served as a U.S.-appointed monitor during the electio ns that widespread fraud , carried out in large part by the ruling party , disto rted the final results . `` This is not true , '' Balaguer said , arguing that h is party won a free and fair election . He acknowledges only that a few voters w ere unintentionally left off voting lists . But he contends that all parties suf fered equally from this circumstance . Nevertheless , Balaguer says he will abid e by the decision of the Dominican Electoral Board a body charged with handing d own a final verdict on the election . In fact , the Organization of American Sta tes as well as the Electoral Board are investigating Pena Gomez 's charge that w idespread and deliberate irregularities led to the disenfranchisement of at leas t 200,000 of Pena 's followers . Pena told me that many of his supporters ' name s appeared on the original voting lists but not on separate lists kept at voting places . So far , the OAS has documented irregularities in 28 of 107 municipali ties . But well-placed neutral observers told me that OAS officials lack hard ev idence that the irregularities were sufficient to alter the election 's outcome . As for the Haiti embargo , Balaguer does not pass judgment on whether it is a good thing . He says simply that the Dominican Republic will work to make it eff ective because the international community has decided to enhance the embargo . `` We abide by international decisions , '' he said . Some have questioned wheth er he can persuade the Dominican army to to go along with such an effort , given the profits so many Dominicans derive from the smuggling . `` I have not only m oral authority over ( the army ) , '' says Balaguer , `` but they are obedient a nd totally loyal to me at least the vast majority . '' He goes on to acknowledge , however , that `` It is a great temptation to buy a gallon of gas for $ 1 and sell it in Haiti for $ 10 . '' Balaguer expressed a willingness to follow the r ecommendations of a U.N. expert team with respect to sealing the long and porous border , and said he 'll ask for other technical help from the international co mmunity in this effort . Balaguer , who is no admirer of Aristide , says that wh at Haiti needs is a new ruler not Aristide and not the army but a third party wh o `` will think more about the welfare and stability of Haiti . '' Balaguer thin ks Aristide 's return is unlikely to produce positive results , but neither does he approve of the military regime now in power there . If there is a U.S.-led m ilitary invasion of Haiti , Balaguer insists that the invaders have an obligatio n to stop Haitians from fleeing into the Dominican Republic . During the recent presidential campaign , Balaguer accused Pena Gomez of planning to merge the Dom inican Republic and Haiti into one country , a charge that was particularly effe ctive . Pena in turn accuses Balaguer of conducting a racist campaign aimed at p reventing a `` poor black man '' like himself from becoming president . Dominica ns tell me that their country is on the verge of civil strife that violence coul d break out at any moment if Pena encourages his followers to take to the street s . The Clinton administration , currently focused on changing the regime in Hai ti , would do well to give some attention to keeping the Dominican Republic stab le . Unlike Haiti , it is a country where there are major American business inte rests and one that has strong commercial ties with the United States . A Dominic an editor , German Ornes , sums it up succinctly : `` We are divided , and anyth ing could bring this division to a civil war . The United States should be caref ul , because it could have a bigger problem than Haiti if this country explodes . '' WASHINGTON Thousands of federal engineers , scientists , secretaries and medica l personnel who were bypassed by the 1994 pay raise would get a 2 percent payche ck transfusion in 1995 if Congress and the White House allow a scheduled nationa l pay raise to take effect . The majority of federal employees who are not paid special higher rates would get both the national raise and a locality adjustment that together would be worth about 3.3 percent . The difference between a natio nal and locality raise may seem like bureaucratic nit-picking , but it is a big deal to hundreds of thousands of workers nationwide who are eligible for nationa l but not locality raises . Here 's why : Most federal workers are on a straight civil service pay scale for their area . They get both national and locality ra ises . Workers who are paid special higher rates because of location New York , Los Angeles or San Francisco or because they are in hard-to-fill jobs get nation al raises , but don't get locality increases unless they exceed the amount of th eir differentials . In the three cities those differentials are 8 percent . For special raters the differentials are 3 percent to 30 percent higher than the reg ular grade salary scale . Most of the special raters were excluded from the Janu ary 1994 pay raise because it was a locality adjustment . The Clinton administra tion barred the 2.2 percent national raise which , if approved , would have gone to them . The White House has doubts about the way past government surveys prod uced a 30 percent gap between government and industry salaries . That 's why it tried to freeze pay in 1994 , and wants less than full increases in 1995 . Gover nment data shows federal employees nationwide are due a 2.6 percent raise , plus yet-to-be-determined locality adjustments that would vary from city to city . T he House is working on a compromise that gives all workers the 2 percent raise , plus half the locality adjustment to eligible employees . Special raters would get only the national 2 percent portion . The system of dual national and local raises was approved by Congress during the Bush administration . It promised to gradually close the national and hometown , federal vs. private sector pay gap t hrough a series of precision-crafted raises . Both raises are automatic unless C ongress or the White House object . The White House objects on grounds that the pay gap data is flawed . President Clinton 's budget calls for a 1.6 percent rai se instead of the 2.6 percent national adjustment provided by law . Congress , l ed by the bipartisan congressional civil service caucus , the Federal Government Service Task Force , is pushing for both a local and national raise next year . The national raise would benefit all white collar feds , the smaller locality r aise would cover most special rate employees . ` WE ' LL START THE WAR HERE ' At 6:30 a.m. , the 4th Division infantry hit Uta h Beach , on the west flank of the invasion . Gen. Theodore Roosevelt , 56 , who se father had been the 26th president of the United States , was in the first bo at . The division commander had been reluctant to bring him ; it was Roosevelt ' s fourth assault landing , his heart was bad and he walked with a cane . But he was well-known and well-liked by the men for his trademark .45-caliber pistol , his enthusiasm and his voice , which was a few decibels louder than the bellow o f a rutting elk . He was not supposed to have gone in first . The plan was for 3 2 amphibious tanks to launch , swim to the sand and clear the way . But they wer e late . Higgins boats carried E Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 8th Infantr y Regiment past the tanks in the water , and the men of E Company landed first . Roosevelt was with them , and it was a good thing . Because of wind , waves , t ide , smoke and the loss of all but one control craft to mines , everyone landed out of sequence and in the wrong place . The men stormed a seawall and climbed to the top of some dunes . What they saw looked like nothing in their briefings . Roosevelt strode up , wearing a wool-knit hat . The general hated helmets . He ignored fire from German trenches in the dunes . Leaning on his cane , he studi ed the company commander 's maps . By now two tanks had landed . German 88-milli meter guns were pounding the beach , and the tanks had begun firing back . Cane in hand , Roosevelt walked back through the fire , ducked into a shell hole behi nd the tanks and told Col. James Van Fleet , commander of the 8th Regiment , tha t his men were a mile south of where they should have been . They faced a crucia l decision . Should they try to shift more than a mile to the north and follow t heir original orders ? Or should they attack where they were ? Some men say Roos evelt declared : `` We 'll start the war from right here ! '' It made him a lege nd . But , in an unpublished memoir , quoted by historian Stephen E. Ambrose , V an Fleet says that , in fact , he was the one who decided . ` ` ` Go straight ah ead , ' I ordered . ` We 've caught the enemy at a weak point , so let 's take a dvantage of it. ' ' ' It matters little , Ambrose says , who decided or what was spoken . Far more important , he says , is that the decision was made without o pposition or time-wasting argument and that it was right . The decision and how it came to be made , he says , demonstrated the flexibility and initiative that were so distinctive of the American command . Engineers and demolition teams fol lowed the first wave . They set their charges around Rommel 's obstacles . Withi n an hour , Ambrose says , the demolition teams had cleared eight 50-yard gaps i n Rommel 's beach obstacles . More Higgins boats arrived . The boats unloaded mo re infantry , and the demolition teams on the sand were forced forward . They ra n into Bouncing Bettys , mines that jumped and exploded groin-high . Still more tanks arrived . They rolled through openings in the seawall and drove along a be ach road that turned inland toward Pouppeville . As reserves began piling up on the sand , the 4th Division advanced onto the fields behind it . ( Begin optiona l trim ) The men turned a farmhouse into a medical aid station . They put two wo unded Germans in one room and three wounded Americans in another . One was a red -headed captain named Tom Neely . He had been hit in the stomach by machine-gun fire , triggered accidentally by an American soldier . The Rev. William Boice , 27 , a Protestant chaplain , spent the night trying to comfort Neely , who told him about his wife and his 6-year-old son . `` Why me , chaplain ? '' Neely aske d . Boice had no good answer . At 3 a.m. , Neely died . Boice prayed for him . H e prayed for the other Americans , and he prayed for the Germans . ( End optiona l trim ) By the end of the day , the Americans had put more than 20,000 troops a nd 1,700 vehicles ashore at Utah Beach . It had fallen to the Allies . -0- ( Beg in optional trim ) ASSAULT ON POINTE-DU-HOC Between Utah Beach on the west flank and Omaha Beach in the center of the invasion stood a promontory on a cliff . T he French called it Pointe-du-Hoc . On this promontory , intelligence agents sai d , were massive German fortifications and a battery of 155-millimeter cannons l arge enough to deliver unspeakable horror to both beaches . Allied ships bombard ed Pointe-du-Hoc , Ambrose says , with 10 kilotons of explosives , cumulatively equal to the destructive force of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima . But the gun emp lacement still stood . An elite American force , the Army Rangers , went to sile nce the guns . They were led by Lt. Col. James Rudder , 34 , whose landing craft was steered in the wrong direction by a British coxswain . Rudder turned it , b ut the error cost his flotilla 30 to 40 minutes and gave the Germans at Pointe-d u-Hoc time to rally . They fired mortars and machine guns as the Rangers approac hed . The U.S. destroyer Satterlee and the Royal Navy 's destroyer Talybont shot back , but the Germans on the high ground hardly winced . From their boats , th e Rangers fired rockets carrying grappling hooks to the top of the cliff . Some of the hooks had plain , inch-thick ropes attached . Others had toggle ropes , w ith wooden rungs tied every two feet . Still others were fastened to rope ladder s . Machine-gun bullets from the cliff hit scores of men , including 1st Sgt. Le onard Lomell , 24 . As his boat beached and he jumped into the water , a volley tore through the muscle on his right side . It spun him partway around . The bul lets burned . `` I 've got to get up there , '' he said to himself . `` I 've go t to get those guns . '' Bleeding , he stumbled through shell and bomb craters t o the water 's edge . The cliff was 100 feet high , on the far side of a 30-foot shingle of rocks . Some were small , others the size of pumpkins . The shingle began at the water 's edge . There was little sand . Under the cliff was a pile of wet clay . It had fallen from shell craters during the bombardment . To 1st S gt. James Eikner , 30 , the face of the cliff looked like the face of the moon . Eikner knew that the quickest way to get away from machine-gun fire was to char ge . With a load of mortars in his arms , he ran for the pile of clay . From the cliff top , Germans were dropping grenades . Jim Eikner set up his mortars . `` Faces in , butts out ! '' he yelled . He shot straight up the face of the cliff . The Germans pulled back . On top , 1st Lt. Ted Lapres , 23 , and his men look ed around . They , like each of the other Ranger units , had a specific mission . Theirs was to neutralize one of the German observation posts and to knock out one of the big guns . Engaging Germans as they went , but just long enough to kn ock them out of the way , they advanced toward the battery . They stopped . Lapr es was stunned . The guns were not there . Sgt. Lomell was still bleeding from t he machine-gun bullets he had taken in his side . He and his men were assigned t o knock out three of the big guns . But when they reached the battery , they , t oo , were dumbstruck . The gun positions were huge , but they were empty . Inste ad of guns , telephone poles were sticking out of the embrasures . Lomell and St aff Sgt. Jack Kuhn , 24 , found a dirt road . It showed a number of tracks . The y followed it . Lomell moved forward first while Kuhn covered him , and then vic e versa . Leapfrogging each other , they came upon an apple orchard . It was sur rounded by a hedgerow . They peered through it . There , about 50 feet away , hi dden in a swale under some apple trees , were the guns . There were five in all . They were covered with camouflage netting and fake leaves . Germans were milli ng around not far away about 75 of them . Kuhn worked his way into a secluded sp ot in the hedgerow and hid . `` If one of them even looks this way or starts wal king , '' Lomell told him , quietly , `` I want you to hit them . That 'll clue me , and I 'll come out the other side , and we 'll get back to the other guys . '' Lomell crept around the perimeter . He had taken Kuhn 's high-temperature , thermite grenade . He also had one of his own . Figuring any minute to be jumped or shot in the back , he moved in toward the guns from the rear . Their barrels , aimed upward at an angle toward Utah Beach , looked to be six inches across . Lomell stood 5-feet-9 . He could not touch the tops of them . He went to one of the guns . He placed one thermite grenade on its traversing mechanism and pulle d the pin . Without any noise or smoke , the grenade melted into the mechanism a nd welded its gears together . Then he did the same to the second gun . He took his submachine gun , slung over his shoulder , wrapped his field jacket around t he stock , and quietly smashed the gun sights on all five of the weapons . He ra n back to Kuhn . `` Jack , '' he panted , `` we have to get out of here , get ba ck to the guys and get the rest of their grenades . '' They did . When they retu rned , the Germans still had not moved . Kuhn took his position in the hedgerow . Lomell crept back to the guns and disabled all of them . He set off thermite g renades in traversing mechanisms , breech blocks and elevation gears . The weapo ns were ruined . He returned to Kuhn , who said : `` Come on . Let 's get the he ll out of here . '' ( End optional trim ) -0- ` WE ' RE GOING TO CATCH HELL ' Om aha Beach , at the center of the invasion , would be the most difficult . A mile out , Bob Slaughter , a 19-year-old sergeant in the 29th Division , shook hands , one by one , with his men . `` See you on the beach , '' he said . `` Take ca re . Good luck . '' They loaded from the British transport Empire Javelin onto a landing craft . About 1,000 yards from the sand , the landing craft passed a ca psized boat . Men were drowning . The landing craft picked up three of them , bu t Slaughter and his men fought off the rest to keep from overloading and going d own themselves . As they neared the sand , they could see a landing craft alread y on the beach . German bullets raked across it . Sparks flew from the ramp . `` Man , '' Slaughter said to the soldier standing next to him , `` we 're going t o catch it . We 're going to catch hell . '' Three hundred yards out , German ar tillery and mortars opened up at Slaughter 's boat . Artillery shells splashed g eysers into the air . The water rained down on the men , and the British coxswai n lost his nerve . `` Step back , mates , '' the coxswain said . `` I 'm going t o lower this ramp . '' `` No , you 're not ! '' shouted Willard Norfleet , Slaug hter 's platoon sergeant . `` You 're going to take it all the way in . We 've g ot heavy equipment . '' `` But we 'll all be killed ! '' `` I don't give a damn ! '' Norfleet yelled . `` You 're going to take us all the way in . '' `` No ! W e 'll all be killed . '' Norfleet pulled out his .45-caliber pistol . He put its muzzle to the coxswain 's head . `` You , '' he said , quietly , `` are going t o take us all the way in . '' The coxswain did . When he finally lowered the ram p , Slaughter was the fifth man off . It was 6:30 a.m. . Bullets flew . `` Get t he hell off ! '' men shouted . `` Let 's go ! Let 's go ! Let 's go ! Let 's go , go , go , go ! '' Some of the men could not swim . They floundered under 60 po unds of ammunition and gear . Slaughter , 6-feet-5 , tried to stand . The water was up to his chest . A dead man floated past . Other men were getting shot , bl eeding , screaming . Several struggled toward him . They grabbed his jacket and his rifle . He started to go under . He knocked them away and tried to help them one at a time . Slaughter and several others made it to the beach . They lay at the edge of the water , in a torrent of machine-gun fire . Ahead of him , the s and had a lazy curve . Nearly 1,000 feet of it stretched from the waterline wher e he lay to a sloping shingle of stones . At the top of the shingle was a seawal l . It was made of wood and masonry and stood from three to 12 feet high . Beyon d it was a road that ran along the beach , then an antitank ditch six feet deep , then a swamp and finally a bluff about 100 feet high formidable to climb and f ar too steep to drive . Four draws led inland , providing natural exits near the French villages of Vierville , St.-Laurent and Colleville . Folds in the bluff held foxholes , semi-permanent bunkers and concrete emplacements called Tobruks , big enough for a mortar team . They were filled with Germans who could cover t he beach with flanking fire and march their bullets and shells at an angle partw ay up the bluff itself . Bob Slaughter had to make it across the sand to the sea wall , or they would kill him . `` I 'm going , '' he told Walfred `` Fats '' Wi lliams , who was his No. 1 machine-gunner . `` I 'm going across . He waited unt il some of the German guns on the bluff stopped to cool and reload . Then Bob Sl aughter fixed his bayonet to the muzzle of his rifle . He got into a crouch . He ran as low as he could and as fast as he could . Bullets kicked up the sand all around him . He felt naked . His helmet , too loose , slapped against his head . He crossed the sand , stumbled into a water-filled runnel , caught his balance , accidentally fired his rifle , thanked God that he had not hit an American , kept on running and collapsed , shaking , against the seawall . He looked back : 200 yards . It had taken an eternity . He was panting and weak in the knees . H e was scared to death . Fats Williams came next . Then Salvatore Augeri . Then L eonard McCanless . They huddled against the seawall and watched as others , just as lucky , made it too . Slaughter took his raincoat out of a large , pouch-lik e pocket on the back of his jacket . He spread the raincoat behind the seawall . Then he took his rifle apart to clean it . He placed parts of his rifle on the coat to keep them out of the sand . Only then did he notice the bullet holes in his rain coat . Several of them . He showed the holes to the others . `` Look he re , '' he said . `` I 've been shot at . '' WHEN PLANS ARE USELESS It was murderous . The first company ashore at Omaha too k more than 90 percent casualties . Units fell apart . Their men intermingled . The beach , historian Stephen E. Ambrose says , was littered with the dead , the dying and the disorganized . Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower had a saying , Ambrose r ecalls : Plans are everything before the battle . But they are useless once it i s joined . The plan had been for amphibious tanks and bulldozers to clear the ex it draws from the beach to Vierville and St.-Laurent and Colleville so the infan try could advance through them into open country . But many of the tanks had sun k . Their crews were huddling on yellow rubber rafts out on the channel . The pl an also had called for fire support for the infantry from half-tracks and artill ery . But the half-tracks and artillery were in chaos . The infantrymen at the s eawall were paralyzed with fear . And the Germans were starting to lob mortars o ver the wall . At 7:30 a.m. , a Higgins boat neared the beach , carrying the ass istant commander of the 29th Division , Brig. Gen. Norman `` Dutch '' Cota . The boat hit an obstacle . The obstacle was mined , but the mine did not go off . T he boat hung up , rising and falling with the swell . It drew withering fire . T he coxswain lowered the ramp . Three men , including a major , were killed insta ntly . Cota jumped into the water and reached the sand . He made it to the shing le and then to the seawall . In an instant , he saw that the Omaha assault plan would not work . The men huddled around him could not advance up the exit draws without tanks or artillery . Cota was unafraid to do what Adolf Hitler would hav e removed a commander for trying : something unauthorized . In the face of the G erman fire , Cota climbed over the seawall . He dug a Browning automatic rifle i nto the sand and raked the bluff with fire of his own . He directed some of his men to blow the barbed wire with a Bangalore torpedo , a pipe explosive . He and two other men crawled through the wire , and Cota shouted for more to follow . He ignored the exit draws and headed straight for the bluff . About the same tim e , a number of others came to Cota 's conclusion : To hell with the exit draws . By 8 a.m. , they too were headed for the bluff instead . Some men crawled over the seawall by themselves . Sergeants led others . Junior officers rounded up l eaderless units . One by one , GIs , officers and men , took charge of themselve s and others . This , Ambrose says , was a critical moment . He calls it a pivot al test for democracy and the self-reliance it encourages . ( Begin optional tri m ) Col. Charles Canham , the commander of Sgt. Bob Slaughter 's regiment , pass ed the test . Slaughter saw him coming . To Slaughter , he was a tough son of a bitch : Tall and lanky , he had a thin little mustache like the villain in a mov ie , but he was one hell of a soldier . Canham came charging up to the seawall , his arm in a sling . He had been shot through the right wrist . He had a .45 in his left hand . `` Get your ass out of there ! '' Canham screamed . He stood in the open , bullets and shells flying . `` What are you doing there , laying the re like that ? Get up ! Get across the rest of this goddamn beach ! '' Canham wa s right-handed . He emptied the pistol , left-handed , at some Germans on the bl uff . A runner took the pistol , slipped in a new magazine and handed it back . Canham yelled again and fired some more . One of his battalion commanders , a li eutenant colonel , shouted back at him from the safety of a pillbox that the Ger mans had abandoned nearby : `` Colonel , if you don't take cover , you 're going to get killed ! '' `` Colonel , '' Canham fumed , `` get your goddamn ass out o f that goddamn pillbox and get these men off this goddamn beach ! '' Slaughter c ould not believe it . `` Goldarn , '' he said to himself , `` if that guy can do that , then , hell , I can too . '' Slaughter and others climbed over the wall . Led by men like Canham and Capt. Joe Dawson from the 29th Division , and by me n like Capt. Robert Walker , Lt. John Spaulding and Sgt. Perry Bonner , from the 1st Division , they went up the bluff . ( End optional trim ) Finally , GIs on the beach saw two heartening sights : Americans were standing on the top of the bluff , and German prisoners were marching down . And still Omaha Beach was not secure . Wreckage littered the sand . The tide was rising . The beach was shrink ing . Progress up the bluff was bloody and slow . More troops were arriving . Th ey brought more vehicles . Omaha developed a traffic jam . At 8:30 a.m. , the Na vy suspended all landings . The order added to the confusion . With nowhere to g o , more than 50 incoming landing craft began turning in circles . -0- THE CRUCI AL MOMENT This was the moment , historian Ambrose says , that Eisenhower had fea red the most . Nearly 5,000 Americans were ashore , cut off from reinforcements , unable to retreat hostages as much as invaders . It was the moment that Field Marshal Erwin Rommel had anticipated the most . The Americans were caught half o n the beach and half off , wounded and bewildered . Offshore , Allied battleship s and cruisers were helpless . They were too big to get close enough to give the ir guns the precision to kill Germans without killing GIs . Even destroyers were under orders to stand down until fire control spotters could make it to shore . Skippers watched in angry frustration as the Germans slaughtered American infan trymen on the sand . Finally , one of them had enough . Lt. Cmdr. Ralph Ramey , known in the Navy as `` Rebel , '' took it upon himself to charge the beach rega rdless . Ambrose says that Rebel Ramey steamed his destroyer , the McCook , clos e enough to see for himself that there were no Americans on a portion of the blu ff near the exit draw leading to Vierville . He opened up with his 5-inch guns , blasted one German pillbox off the bluff and blew up another . It was another v ictory for American flexibility and initiative . At 9:50 a.m. , an admiral shout ed into his ship-to-ship radio : `` Get on them , men ! Get on them ! They are r aising hell with the men on the beach , and we can't have any more of that ! '' Every destroyer off Omaha responded . Skippers risked running aground to fire po int-blank at targets of opportunity on the bluff . Ramey had fired 975 rounds ag ainst the bluff . Other skippers fired 500 rounds , some as many as 1,120 . `` T his destroyer action against shore batteries , '' naval historian Samuel Eliot M orison says , `` afforded the troops the only artillery support they had during most of D-day . '' What the Navy had done , Ambrose says , was to give the men o n Omaha a fighting chance . They took it , and renewed their attack against the German guns dug into the face of the bluff . Still more GIs scrambled past the g un emplacements to the top . ( Begin optional trim ) On top of the bluff , Gen. Dutch Cota and his men found themselves midway between Vierville and St.-Laurent . No paratroopers had landed behind Omaha to clear its inland approaches . Germ ans hiding in hedgerows caught Cota 's force in a cross-fire . He divided his me n into fire and maneuver teams . The fire teams provided bursts of cover while t he maneuver teams rushed forward . The Germans were startled by such aggressiven ess . They fled . Cota turned west toward Vierville . Frenchmen stared in surpri se as he and his men moved through town . Cota took an aide and four riflemen an d started down Vierville draw from the top . Germans in a fortification on the e ast side opened fire . Cota 's riflemen shot back . The Germans , dazed by the n aval bombardment , gave up . Ambrose says Cota ordered them to lead the way down the draw through minefields to the beach . The group made it . Back on the sand , Cota organized demolition teams to dynamite a roadblock at the bottom of the draw . He summoned tank units to advance through the opening . But there were Ge rmans still on the face of the bluffs , and they were sweeping the beach with ma chine-gun fire . It took hours , Ambrose says , to fully open Vierville draw . ( End optional trim ) The assault on the bluff was only one of several notable ac ts of initiative that saved the invasion . Another came when Gen. Clarence Heubn er , commander of the 1st Divison , told his 18th Regiment to go ashore the Navy be damned , along with its order that had suspended landings . All morning , th e tide at Omaha Beach had been rising . By now Rommel 's obstacles were hidden u nder water and were particularly dangerous . Skippers had their orders to stay a way . But now regimental officers had orders to go in . They argued fiercely wit h the skippers . Finally , a landing craft , carrying tanks , charged at full sp eed through the obstacles , all guns firing . Another rammed its way through , c arrying infantry , all weapons blazing . Other skippers began to yield to the Ar my 's demands , Ambrose says , and the 18th got ashore but not without severe lo sses , compounded when the 155th Regiment of the 29th Division mislanded on top of it . The landings , however , gave Omaha a welcome infusion of firepower . It was badly needed . The traffic jam on the beach was taking a pounding from Germ an machine guns , mortars and artillery . With support from the newly arrived re giments , bulldozers began cutting a gap through a line of dunes just east of an exit draw leading up to a plateau between St.-Laurent and Colleville . By 1 p.m . , the draw was open . Vehicles on the beach started moving at once . Slowly th e traffic jam eased . At dusk , with the opening of the Vierville draw , as well , men , tanks , trucks and Jeeps began emerging on the flat land above the beac h in significant numbers . They reinforced GIs on the plateau , and the American s started moving inland . By nightfall , troops from the 29th and 1st divisions were scattered in 18 pockets in and around Vierville , St.-Laurent and Collevill e . They had no continuous line . They had no artillery and few mortars . But th ey had dug in . Omaha was secure . -0- GOLD , JUNO AND SWORD On the east flank w ere the beaches of Gold , Juno and Sword . They were targeted by forces from Bri tain and Canada , joined by a small group of commandos from France . The British 6th Airborne Division was assigned to seize bridges over the Orne River and the Caen Canal , to destroy a coastal battery at Merville and to delay any German a dvances from inland . Sixty pathfinders jumped from light bombers to mark drop z ones . The pathfinders landed at 12:20 a.m. June 6 . They set up radar beacons a nd flashing lights . Shortly afterward , glider-borne troops from the 6th Airbor ne touched down alongside the Benouville bridge crossing the Caen Canal . Capt. John Tillett , 24 , who served as adjutant of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshir e Light Infantry , was aboard . It was dark . Tillett expected a crash landing . But he was lucky . Only one wing and the wheels ripped off when his glider touc hed down . Tillett knew that any glider landing that let soldiers walk away was a good one . Tillett and his men joined in a successful assault at Benouville br idge , later named Pegasus bridge to honor their insignia and the heroism of Bri tish troops , including officers such as Maj. John Howard and Lt. Danny Brotheri dge , the first Allied soldier , historian Stephen E. Ambrose says , to be kille d by enemy fire on D-day . The 6th Airborne assault on the bridge over the Orne River was successful as well . Staff Sgt. Norman Elton , 24 , landed his glider near the village of Ranville . The aircraft carried two Jeeps . The only way to unload them was to remove the tail of the plane . Elton and his co-pilot hacked it off with an ax . It took two hours . All the while , Germans were firing mort ars . Lt. Col. T.B.H. . Otway destroyed the German battery at Merville , against huge odds and at an awful price . Half of his 150 men were killed or wounded . As the sun rose , Allied bombers hit the railroad station at Caen and the villag es of Ver-sur-Mer and La Riviere . The British cruiser Belfast shelled German in stallations from the channel . And at 7:35 a.m. , British underwater demolition teams and Royal Engineers landed on the sand at Gold beach . There were no Germa n tanks on the beach and not many troops . When men and vehicles from the 50th D ivision rushed ashore , there was comparatively little to stop them . The men sc aled a seawall , crossed an antitank ditch and found themselves in the villages of La Riviere and Le Hamel . Now the fighting was street-to-street . La Riviere held out until 10 a.m. Le Hamel fell at midafternoon . By the end of the day , t hey had penetrated six miles inland and had positioned themselves to take Arroma nches and Bayeux . At Juno Beach , the fighting was heavier . Royal Marine Capt. Geoffrey Knight was in charge of small craft that took sappers onto the beach e arly . They had been assigned to clear obstacles and mines ahead of the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division . As Knight neared the sand , a German shell blew a hole in his boat . He succeeded in landing his flotilla . Then he straggled ashore , soaking wet . The Canadian 3rd was a collection of lumberjacks , miners , fisher men and farmers . They were very tough , Ambrose says , but they got to Juno Bea ch 10 minutes behind schedule . It gave the Germans time to recover from a bomba rdment by B-17s and the Royal Navy . At 8 a.m. the Germans opened fire . For the Canadians , the chances of being hit were one in two . ( Begin optional trim ) Lance Cpl. Harold Little , 22 , of Winnipeg landed near the village of St.-Aubin . On the sand , his tank hit a mine . Little and his commander got out . Crouch ing against German gunfire , Little directed another tank toward a path that app eared to be safe . The tank hit a mine . The blast caught the left side of his f ace . He felt himself rise in the air . Suddenly , Harold Little sensed it : He was blind . But he could still hear . The tank roared . He thought it was coming straight at him . He picked himself up off the sand . He thought he knew where his own tank was , about 20 feet away , and he turned and ran . He slammed direc tly into it . His tank crew guided him to cover , but he had lost much of his si ght forever . ( End optional trim ) At 6 p.m. , Canadians had reached Beny-sur-M er , more than three miles inland . Finally , the Canadians linked up with the B ritish at Creully . At the end of the day , says John Keegan , the military scho lar , the Canadians had penetrated more deeply into France than anyone else . At Sword Beach , on the easternmost edge of the invasion , Pipe Maj . Bill Millin , 21 , stepped out into the chaos with panache . He wore a kilt , with boots and gaiters , a green beret , his battle jacket and the six-inch commando knife of his trade . But , most important of all , Millin had his bagpipes . Brig. Lord L ovat , 32 , also known as Simon Fraser , the 24th chief of the Fraser clan , had charge of the Scottish commandos . When the ramp on the first of the landing cr aft went down , Lovat had ordered up a skirling rendition of `` Highland Laddie . '' And Bill Millin was blowing it with everything he had . The commandos and m en from the 3rd Infantry rushed a line of seaside villas at Ouistreham . Germans fired from the villa windows and from pillboxes in the dunes . The British stor med the houses one by one , and then a casino as well . The Germans had turned i t into a fortress . Before long , a line of German prisoners stretched from the casino to the water 's edge . There were French commandos with the English and t he Scots . As early as 8 a.m. , the force pushed inland . Lovat and his commando s broke into open country and linked up with the 6th Airborne holding the bridge s at the Orne River and the Caen Canal . To Guillaume Mercader , 29 , in the Fre nch Resistance , it was a joyous blessing . The Mercaders had paid dearly ; hour s before , his mother and father had been killed in Caen when a bomb fell on the ir house . Now , in the evening of D-day , his wife sewed the Croix de Lorraine on a French flag he had been hiding in his attic , and Guillaume Mercader flew i t . A little French girl , Josette Gouellain , came up to Bill Millin . She plea ded : `` Musique ! Musique ! '' Lovat gave permission . Millin played `` Nut Bro wn Maiden '' because of her hair and her eyes . She ran after him , but he told her to go back . After all , there was a war going on . -0- D-day casualties nev er have been counted with precision . For the Allies , estimates of the dead and wounded have ranged as high as 12,000 and as low as 4,900 . For the Germans , c asualty estimates have ranged from 4,000 to 9,000 . For another 334 days , the w ar would go on . The Allies would build their foothold on the beaches of Normand y into an advance across France and into Germany itself . On May 7 , 1945 , the Nazis would surrender . Edward Regan can tell you exactly what his combat efficiency rating was the mom ent photographer Robert Capa snapped what is perhaps the most famous picture of D-Day . `` Zilch , '' he says . Most of the men who splashed ashore onto Omaha B each were in the same condition . Regan himself had just passed two dead GIs flo ating facedown in the water and was gathering strength to crawl forward when fat e picked him for photographic immortality . Of all the shots taken that gray Jun e day , none has come as close to capturing the shock of battle . How the 21-yea r-old infantryman became frozen in history is a tale involving Capa 's daring an d an infamous lab accident . A Hungarian-American photographer on assignment for Life magazine , Capa had made his reputation with daring combat shots . `` If y our pictures aren't good enough , you 're not close enough , '' he once said . W hen the military unit he was following waded onto Omaha , Capa realized that fac ing the withering German fire was suicide and sought cover . He made a dash for the beach behind two soldiers . `` The slant of the beach gave us some protectio n , so long as we lay flat , from the machine-gun and rifle bullets , but the ti de pushed us against the barbed wire , where the guns were enjoying open season , '' he would write in one of his books . Before running to catch a ship returni ng to England , Capa snapped 72 images , including a bedraggled GI in the water . The subject was a draftee from a Pennsylvania coal town getting his first tast e of battle . Like many invasion soldiers , Regan became seasick on the way over and nearly drowned in deep water after stepping off his landing craft . He neve r noticed Capa , but his mother saw the photo in Life and saved it . More dramat ic shots may have existed among the images taken by Capa during the landing , bu t the world will never know . A technician at Life 's London office left the fil m in a closed drying cabinet , melting the film emulsion . Only 11 pictures were printable . Life caption writers credited the blurred image to the `` immense e xcitement '' of the moment . Some feel this actually increased the photo 's impa ct . Capa himself felt that to convey good war shots , photographers should shak e the camera a little . At Omaha , Regan got his second wind and crawled to land . During the Allied push to Germany , he won a Silver Star , a Purple Heart and the French Croix de Guerre . Regan contacted Life magazine to get a copy of the Capa photo before D-Day 's 40th anniversary . Soon after , Life magazine flew R egan to France for another set of photos on the beach . He remains unimpressed w ith his fame and says Capa could have focused on anyone that day . `` We were al l drenched and sick as dogs , '' he said . ( Optional add end ) Cornell Capa , b rother of Robert and director of the International Center of Photography in New York City , made Regan a guest of honor at an exhibit of his brother 's works at the center . `` His picture was used millions of times without a name , '' says Cornell Capa . `` Now he has a face and a name . '' The exhibition opened last Wednesday , 40 years after Robert Capa died on a combat photo mission in Indochi na . Regan , 71 , moved his family 27 years ago to Atlanta , where he served as a social services administrator . During the 40th anniversary celebration , he a ppeared on NBC 's `` Today '' show along with a German veteran . Afterward , his former enemy asked him about Germany 's exclusion from the commemoration in Fra nce . Didn't he think Germany should have been invited ? Regan told him no . `` I wouldn't have made a very good diplomat , '' he says . NORMANDY , France Not far along the walkways of the lovingly tended burial plac e above Omaha Beach , where the American dead of D-Day and weeks after lie , the re is a small reception building with one focal attraction inside . This is a la rge book in which visitors are invited to sign their names and say in a few word s what they feel . I am hesitating here , with a line behind me , because after hours of wandering among the white marble crosses and the six-pointed stars almo st 10,000 of them I feel a heart so overloaded I can't find the words . I am cur ious to know what comments have occurred to others , so winning no friends among the people waiting , I flip backward through the book . Apparently I 'm not the only one to be made inarticulate by the emotional impact of this place which ev en the French schoolchildren who come here in busloads appear to treat as sacred ground . The signers of the book who leave comments repeat what others have wri tten ahead of them , with little try at originality . There are two phrases that recur over and over . One is `` God bless them . '' The other is simply , `` Th ank you . '' The blessing is for the sleepers in the ground . Amen. And the than k you may be taken another way . It could be partly meant for the authorities an d the workers who keep this place so beautiful . Imagination can't picture the t axpayer who would quibble over a penny as it has been expended by the United Sta tes on the 172 acres of this shrine . It has the dignity and the meticulous care owed to the men under the marble markers who bore the climactic battle of the w ar in Europe and died doing it . The eyes of the world were on them , their supr eme commander told them at the mammoth embarkation , and Eisenhower had exaggera ted in no way . Can anybody who is , like me , a contemporary of the men interre d above Omaha Beach not remember the intensity of expectation with which people in and out of uniform awaited the invasion ? Short of the Second Coming , it may have been the most anticipated event of all time . We had waited so long and so impatiently as the war smoldered on the far edges of Hitler 's stolen territori es . When June 6 , 1944 , finally arrived , I was 20 years old , the war in Euro pe had gone on for a quarter of my lifetime and I had spent a tenth of it in uni form . A world without warfare flaming totally around it was imaginable to me on ly as a blurry utopia . The news of D-Day , signifying the beginning of the end , came like a biblical trumpet , changing the world with a blast . Where it reac hed me , some 8,000 miles away on a Pacific island , it caused a squad of us to stir out of sleep in the morning and gang around a staticky radio . I remember t hat , although it was a consummation of our wishes , there was no whooping or ro ughhousing in celebration . We had too vivid an idea of what unknown brothers we re going through . If the gears of military bureaucracy had worked differently , we could be there instead . There was a thought even more sobering . If this me ant the end of the war in Europe , it brought closer what we expected might be o ur own D-Day the dreaded invasion of mainland Japan . The memory of that morning and the individual faces solemn with intense listening is powerfully alive in m e as I walk and rewalk among the graves of those who were in action on that day when probably more prayers rose around the globe than ever before or since . It seems impossible that it was half a century ago . To the kids who come here , th e kids in the ground must seem a mere historical abstraction like the Normans wh o invaded across the English Channel in the other direction 900 years ago . But I can personify any grave marker here by matching it to a GI personality I remem ber with an ethnically similar name . Here lies Salvatore Arnone , a tech corpor al from New York who died on D-Day plus 5 . I knew at least three of him . In th is place , I think I know what is meant by `` survivor 's guilt . '' Here among the unlucky ones who paid with all they had , I 'm ashamed to remember that for me , the war was a teen-age adventure and a help toward growing up . I remember how the brotherhood of the uniform satisfied the adolescent need to belong . Thr own among the uprooted youth of the war years , I learned for the first time how easy it can be to make friends . I thought everybody wearing olive drab pants o r Navy blue was my friend , and without deserving it , I get a resurgence of tha t feeling here where the uniform is white marble . I want to wake some one of th e sleepers up and ask , `` How bad was it , Joe ? '' I know how bad it was witho ut having had to learn the way they did . There is a sound that has haunted me f or much of my life although I know it only from the testimony of those who can s tand among these graves with a better conscience than mine . I have been told th at it is common , when a young soldier takes the wound that ends in this kind of burial , for him to regress to earliest childhood and cry for his mother . It i s wrenching to think how close to childhood so many of the fallen of D-Day actua lly were . On rainy days during the basic training for World War II , they would show us films indoors . One of these I remember as punctuated by the sound of m embers of the audience falling unconscious . The movie was intended to toughen u s up for seeing battle wounds we might soon have to view in reality . I never pa ssed out because I had the sense to close my eyes at the worst parts , but the s oundtrack wasn't so easy to shut out . I remember it too well . The trees in the American Cemetery are sculptured into dome shapes by the caretakers . Around th e crosses and the stars , the grass is clipped with such miraculous care that no t a straggling blade interrupts the whiteness of the marble . At a midpoint in t he eye-filling expanse of perfectly ranked graves , there is a rotunda-shaped ch apel , Jewish on one side , Christian on the other . On the day I linger in it , a worker is meticulously polishing the shared marble altar . Outside , the rows of markers stretching in all directions affect the eye the way a chord on the s trings of a great symphony orchestra caresses the ear . But the western boundary of the cemetery is a sudden drop of the land which drives home the irony that s eparates the serene loveliness of the burial place from the ugliness which cause d it to be . Down there is Omaha Beach . Nobody who drives out here from Caen , the ancient city that burned for 11 days 50 years ago and which is the likeliest takeoff point for pilgrims to the Normandy beaches , can be prepared for the sh ock of viewing that downward plunge of the land . So much of Normandy is as flat as Nebraska that the visitor who traverses it thinking about the war shudders a t the lack of cover no place to hide . Then at the stretch of coast whose code n ame reverberates in history along with those of the great battle sites of all ti me , the land dives precipitously to the sea . No photograph gives any idea of t he steepness of those 150-foot bluffs or would it ever have been chosen as Omaha Beach ? Yet men made it under fire to the top . ( Begin optional trim ) Today e ven the route of the climb has been mown and landscaped to harmonize with the ce metery above . There are graded paths and benches for resting , but even so , on e guesses that few of the World War II veterans who visit in this anniversary ye ar will feel like trying the ascent at their present age . On the day I am here , I 'm surprised both that the visitors are so numerous and that almost nobody s eems to be a contemporary of the men in the graves and of me . Admittedly it is no day to entice visitors at the rheumatic stage of life . It is cold for the ti me of year , and there are heavy storm clouds hanging in the sky like black udde rs leaking rain . There is a penetrating wind and a high chop on the channel of the sort dreaded by the planners of the amphibious invasion . Yet in the extensi ve parking lots outside the cemetery grounds , there are nine tour buses and per haps 100 automobiles . Not much English is heard . Observing the turnout in such weather , I think of the way Memorial Day is now treated at home . Americans ar e not great at remembering . Those whose vacationing takes them to Normandy this summer may be jolted into it . ( End optional trim ) To make a first sweep of t he eye over those acres of white memorials at Omaha Beach is first to cry and th en to feel a surge of angry pacifism . No such blood purge of youth should ever happen . Yet when these men were alive and I in some sense was among them , I ca n't remember that I ever once heard the view asserted that the war we were invol ved in wasn't worth fighting . The soldiers of sea , land and air in World War I I knew little of global politics or the dynamics of history , but one thing was firmly within their grasp . This was that you couldn't have a thing like Hitler rampaging in the world unchallenged even if it cost something to stand in the wa y . One reason their parade formation in death shakes me up is that I 'm so prou d of them for doing it . Another is that they missed so much of life . The gleam ing purity of the symbols under which they lie stirs a memory in me that might s eem bizarre or laughable to people too young to know how much the world has chan ged since these departed left it . In their time , a youth of 18 or 20 who wasn' t married at so young an age wasn't considered socially backward if he had no se xual experience . It was what was expected of him . Young men among their peers were not embarrassed to speak of their virginal state and be it admitted , their eagerness to get rid of it . I honestly believe that the besetting fear of the younger servicemen of World War II was that they would die before they were init iated into what for them was life 's most alluring mystery . The chaste look of the markers above the Normandy graves is a stabbing reminder of how many of them probably did . In the barracks life of World War II , spoken confidences would come out during an hour that was a favorite of the day . This was when the troop s were in bed , the lights were out and the comfortable bull session would drows ily go on with the voices one by one dropping out . After the day 's hard physic al exertion , there was a transporting sweetness in the oncoming of sleep . I ho pe sleep is like that on the heights above Omaha Beach . LOS ANGELES First he makes fun of your last name . Then he asks all manner of r acy , personal questions . It 's just another morning for Howard Stern in the pu rsuit of lively radio . But for this reporter , granted an `` exclusive intervie w '' on the air , it was about as much fun as having a root canal . When Stern t urns his quick wit and dirty mind your way , the natural instinct is to run for cover . Especially when the self-proclaimed `` king of all media '' regally dema nds that his media subjects conduct interviews on his terms in this case live , on the air and at an ungodly pre-dawn hour ( because of the time difference betw een here and New York , where he broadcasts ) . The `` exclusive '' opportunity I was granted after four years of requesting a personal interview and being turn ed down was really just another instance of Stern making unabashed use of the me dia for self-promotional purposes . In other words , it was Howard being Howard in the most Howardly way he knows how . The occasion Wednesday was Stern 's anno uncement to his radio listeners of a deal he 'd made to do a daily series for th e E ! Entertainment Television cable network . Stern deigned to put up with some questions from a reporter for the greater good of celebrating `` the start of s omething amazing . '' `` I thought it would be nice to have somebody from the me dia on the phone with us to listen in on my big news who could ask intelligent q uestions , '' Stern explained on the air . He was much more interested in my ana tomy than my questions , it turned out . This much I did learn : The cable show will simply be a televised version of his radio show and is part of a larger dev elopment deal Stern has with E ! All five hours of his popular syndicated mornin g program will be videotaped each weekday by six robotic cameras , then a half-h our will be culled for showing on the cable network that night . But after 45 mi nutes on the air with Stern it seemed an eternity there still remained some conf usion . The E ! series might be called `` The Howard Stern Show With Pictures '' or `` The Howard Stern Radio Show on Television '' or even `` Howard Stern on t he Air . '' There 's no telling . It might debut June 13 . Then again , the laun ch date may be June 20 . No one is quite sure . Stern and sidekick Robin Quivers at least were honest about what the E ! deal entailed : `` We get to do televis ion without any extra work , '' Quivers said . `` And doing it on a major networ k is too easy , '' Stern quipped . `` I wanted the challenge of E ! , where nobo dy can see us . '' He tried to make a serious case about being persecuted by the Federal Communications Commission . He tried to explain why he couldn't come to terms with Fox for a late-night talk show . He tried to describe how the film v ersion of his best-seller `` Private Parts '' would make him a movie star . He t ried to find out my bra size . After it was over , with nothing terribly persona l revealed and Stern respectfully admitting that I had always been fair to him , I breathed a sigh of relief . I even began to think I might have managed to eme rge from the experience with some dignity intact . My peace of mind was shattere d when I got to the office and heard the first message on my voice mail : A repr esentative of the 509th squadron of the Air Force , stationed in Lakeland , Fla. , said he and some 50 other guys had heard me on the show and wanted to know if I could send them an 8-by-10 glossy . Rush Limbaugh would never have put me thr ough this . At 8:10 p.m. on Feb. 17 , 1944 , a balding , 32-year-old Spaniard had a radioma n transmit a coded message from England to a German intelligence center in Madri d . The message reported that `` there is no concentration '' of Allied troops a long Britain 's southern coast . The Germans believed that the Spaniard , Juan P ujol Garcia , was their best spy in Britain , but he was in fact a double agent : an anti-fascist working for British intelligence , who code named him GARBO . The radiogram marked the beginning of his involvement in the Allies ' deception plan for D-Day the most extensive , sophisticated and successful program of mili tary trickery of all time . The plan had several angles , but a basic one was to make the Germans think that the landing in Normandy was a feint to draw German forces from the real onslaught , which would come later and in the Pas-de-Calais , opposite the white cliffs of Dover . This location seemed logical to the orth odox military thinkers of Germany . Because the Pas-de-Calais was closer to Brit ain than Normandy was , ships could transport more troops to it more quickly and airplanes could patrol it longer . Moreover , it was closer to Germany 's indus trial heartland , the Ruhr . To confirm to the Germans that the main assault wou ld take place in the Pas-de-Calais , Allied bombers struck rail lines and milita ry installations there more heavily than around Normandy . GARBO and other doubl e agents reported that troops were building up in the area of England close to t he Pas-de-Calais ; though they exaggerated , they included some factual details to maintain their credibility . Dummy tanks of inflatable rubber , left out for German aerial reconnaissance to spot , added to the impression . The deception t eam had to make the Germans think the Allies had enough troops to carry out both a fake landing and a real one . So it invented imaginary divisions . One of the se was the U.S. 55th Infantry . American deception officers had the Army 's Inst itute of Heraldry devise an insignia of a double pentagon a blue one with a yell ow one inside . Then one of the double agents in Britain reported seeing this ba dge . Within weeks German intelligence was reporting the non-existent division a s stationed in Scotland . `` Information '' sent over other controlled channels let the Germans think one source was confirming another when , in fact , both re sulted from a carefully coordinated program . For example , the Allies knew the Germans listened to Allied radio messages . So the signal corps transmitted mess ages to and from fake units . Thus the German intercept post at Euskirchen `` di scovered '' the U.S. 49th and 59th Infantry Divisions . Neither existed . ( Begi n optional trim ) To command these imaginary forces , the Allies created the ima ginary First U.S. . Army Group , or FUSAG , and the equally imaginary American 1 4th Army . They gave FUSAG credibility by letting it be known that it would be l ed by one of the most glamorous of Allied generals , George S. Patton. GARBO pas sed some of this information , and soon FUSAG appeared on German situation maps . All these tricks together convinced the Germans a week before the invasion , w hen the Allies had 47 divisions in Britain , that 79 were there more than enough to mount both a diversionary landing and a real one . ( End optional trim ) Not all the credit for this success must go to the deception planners . The Allied cryptographers were reading top-level German codes while the Germans were unable to read Allied messages . Allied air defenses were so strong that the Germans c ould not obtain comprehensive long-range photo reconnaissance to see that landin g craft were concentrating for a Normandy invasion . Every spy that the Germans sent to Britain was captured , leaving the field clear for double agents . Brita in was separated from the enemy by 20 miles of water , making combat observation , such as often undid Soviet deceptions on the eastern front , impossible . Per haps most important was the German preconception that the attack would come in t he Pas-de-Calais . But it was largely the deception planners , among them the Lo ndon Controlling Section and the Double-Cross , or XX , or Twenty , Committee , that orchestrated this vast , intricate and enormously successful trick . On the sixth of June , when the Allies landed on the beaches of Normandy , the defende rs were weaker than they might have been because the German 15th Army and associ ated reserves were held in the Pas-de-Calais . Two days later , GARBO , who had further solidified his reputation among the Germans as their best spy by radioin g a message announcing the invasion timed to arrive too late for the Germans to do anything about it said that `` the present attack .. . is diversionary . '' T he Germans believed him , as they had believed all the `` evidence '' the Allies had placed at their disposal . So they did not send forces to Normandy from the Pas-de-Calais , and the Allies lodged themselves on the continent , beginning t he mighty endeavor that was to liberate Europe . With all the drums and banners and selected film footage , perhaps Americans ca n be forgiven for embracing the 50th anniversary of D-Day in the belief that suc cess was inevitable . After all , we outnumbered them . We outgunned them . And God was on our side . But it wasn't that simple . It may seem unthinkable in the heady red , white and blue haze of celebration and remembrance , but it could h ave gone the other way . Not everyone was confident of success 50 years ago , no t even the military leaders who planned the operation . The commander of the inv asion forces , Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower , prepared this message and carried it with him until a month after the invasion : `` Our landings in the Cherbourg-Hav re area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the tro ops . My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best infor mation available . The troops , the air and the navy did all that bravery and de votion to duty could do . If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt , it is mine alone . '' Winston Churchill , who was never enthusiastic about the invasio n , said to Eisenhower early in 1944 , `` When I think of the beaches of Normand y choked with the flower of American and British youth .. . I have my doubts .. . I have my doubts . '' If the enterprise had failed , the villains would have r emained the same , but there might have been different heroes and different poli tical maps . Herewith , history tampered with and a vision of what might have ha ppened if Germany had prevailed on June 6 , 1944 . -0- The people at home are gr owing impatient . After 2 years of war , the Allies are still nibbling at the ed ges . But we know we can win with one swift go-for-broke punch . And so we 've c rammed Britain with 2 million men and hundreds of thousands of vehicles and airc raft and we wait for good weather . A meteorologist has predicted 36 hours of sk ies clear enough to admit warplanes into France to prepare the way . But bad wea ther sneaks up on you . Eisenhower is doubtful . He asks British Field Marshal B ernard Law Montgomery what he thinks . `` Go , '' says Monty . And so they go . The armada sails but the skies fail to clear . The aerial bombardment is ineffec tive . Ships bob like corks on the churning English Channel . Flat-bottomed land ing craft are seesawed by the waves . And on the heights in the distance , the s easick invaders can see deadly orange and rose-red flashes blurring through the fog . The whole catalog of German artillery , from delicate quad-mounted anti-ai rcraft guns to infamous 88s , has been rushed to the Normandy beaches . The defe nders , secure on the heights , fire like marksmen at a shooting gallery , blast ing landing craft on the downswing , chopping up American infantrymen as they st umble out of landing craft into churning waves and exploding mines . Tanks rumbl e into position , their guns adding to the carnage . Lt. Gen. Omar Bradley comma nds the U.S. forces from a warship . He can't see anything from the rain-whipped bridge , but he hears the desperate messages radioed from Omaha Beach by soldie rs who have made it onto the shingle alive . Bradley willn't allow any more GIs to be slaughtered . They must turn back . A diversion is impossible . Montgomery agrees . German tanks and artillery are battering the Allied troops on all the Normandy beaches . Inland , 18,000 airborne and glider troops are cut off . Desp ite the wea ther , the dependable C-47s make it well beyond the Channel coast . But now those troopers are lost , dropped far from their assigned drop zones bec ause of the stormy skies . The Germans have clapped the stranded troops behind b arbed wire within two weeks . -0- `` Once defeated , the enemy will never try to invade again . Quite apart from their heavy losses , they would need months to organize a fresh attempt , '' Adolf Hitler had told a meeting of his generals at Berchtesgaden weeks before . And now the Fuhrer is quick to take credit for the victory . Once again , the madman tells his generals , history has endorsed his military genius . Reich minister of information Josef Goebbels smirks with sati sfaction . But the victory will be short-lived . And it will be costly because i t will prolong the war . Another invasion is inevitable . The Allies know the ne xt invasion could be costlier than the first . Meanwhile , the Soviets are rumbl ing west . If they take France , a clash with the Western Allies is inevitable . What if Berlin were taken out in a single bombing raid with the new , untried a tomic bomb ? But Germany is protected by too many hostages , tens of thousands o f Allied prisoners of war , hundreds of thousands of slave laborers and an untol d number of concentration-camp inmates . No , it would be a political disaster . To Josef Stalin , the failed invasion is a dream come true . Hitler has been fo rced to divert precious resources westward and the British and Americans have be en deprived of a foothold on the continent . Perhaps they will nurse their wound s long enough to permit the Soviet juggernaut to roll to the Atlantic . And then perhaps , a Marxist Europe . Virtually the entire resistance movement in France is Communist . Indeed , orders are transmitted from Moscow to the French Commun ists to suspend anti-Nazi activities so as to maintain a status quo until furthe r notice . The Gestapo is mystified but relieved . Eisenhower is sent home to ta ke a staff position in Washington . He retires and with his wife , Mamie , takes up obscure residence in Abilene , Kan . He is replaced at invasion headquarters in London by a reluctant Gen. George C. Marshall , who , a few months before , would have killed to get the job . Churchill 's worst nightmare has come true . A hysterical Field Marshal Montgomery is near collapse and goes on a prolonged l eave . Bradley remains , under a cloud , in a subsidiary command position . Only Gen. George S. Patton is left to head the American ground troops . Stalin shudd ers . Patton is no leftist . A Stalinist France seems less attainable . Would it be worth a new war ? Patton and Churchill would welcome the excuse . And could Soviet forces hope to win so far from home ? Stalin will compromise for greater Soviet hegemony . -0- The second invasion is launched in unseasonably fine Septe mber weather during a week of almost cloudless skies . Casualties are still heav y . To President Franklin D. Roosevelt 's horror , Patton goes ashore with the t roops in a landing craft and , to the general 's delight , is slightly but visib ly wounded . The troops clear the beach and drive back the Nazis within 24 hours . And within months , the war in Europe ends .. . in a fictitious but plausible way . Could Germany have won ? There was practically no possibility of that eve n if D-Day had failed . A year before , German forces had been demolished at Sta lingrad and Hitler 's Afrika Korps had been defeated at Tunisia . And finally , there was too much Soviet land and too many Soviet soldiers . Not even fiction c ould reasonably give Germany a final victory . In the spring of 1943 , Nazi troops were ordered to evacuate all Jews from the Warsaw ghetto where they had been forced to live , and put them on cattle cars h eaded for the death camps . A few hundred Jews , practically unarmed and hopeles sly outnumbered , fought back . `` Resistance , '' by Israel Gutman , is the dra matic story of the Warsaw ghetto from its creation to its awful , bloody end . T his is difficult , emotional material , and my experience of it changed while I was reading the book . Until the uprising begins , well over halfway through the book , one may feel hopelessly depressed and even sick . Nearly 500,000 people were packed into a few square blocks where they were starved , beaten and worked to within an inch of their lives . Diseases broke out , babies died in the stre et ( the suffering of children is the hardest part to read ) yet no one fought b ack until it was obvious the Nazis intended to kill them all . At that point , ` ` Resistance '' becomes oddly exhilarating . `` The entire ghetto was ablaze . T housands of people near physical and mental collapse virtually on the verge of m adness not only maintained this way of life , but viewed its disappearance as a great catastrophe ... . Nazis called ( for the Jews ) to surrender , and the inh abitants responded with bullets . '' There is enormous power in choosing your ow n death , and the hundreds of Jews who resisted , many of them teen-agers , grab bed that choice with a courage that shows the very best of what the human spirit has to offer. -0- `` BROTHER SAM : The Short Spectacular Life of Sam Kinison , '' by Bill Kinison with Steve Delsohn ( Morrow , $ 22 , 315 pp . ) Not everyone liked comedian Sam Kinison 's brand of screaming , irreverent humor , but as a p erformer he was , without question , a true American original . `` Brother Sam , '' written by his older brother and manager , Bill Kinison , sets out to illumi nate the man behind the agonized yell . Sam Kinison was a high school dropout , a traveling Pentecostal-style preacher ( along with his father and brother ) and a rebel . His comedy was connected to his rage by an unbroken line that made hi m a millionaire and simultaneously alienated much of the entertainment industry . He died in a car crash in 1992 . This book 's material , though compelling , f eels so close to Bill Kinison 's heart that it 's almost impossible to see Sam . Instead we see Bill 's Sam who is often tragic , funny , original and sharp , b ut not , one suspects , the same man that would have emerged if this book had be en written by another person . Bill Kinison raised co-dependency to new heights , even accepting a drug sentence for Sam and attending five months of court-mand ated rehab in his place . In spite of being both too close and not close enough , `` Brother Sam '' is a completely engaging biography . Bill Kinison spends exa ctly the right amount of time on each chapter of Sam 's life , and although we h unger for input from other human sources , particularly his third wife , Malika , the book still manages to quote magazine articles and pieces of Sam 's routine s very effectively. -0- `` REVIVING OPHELIA : Saving the Selves of Adolescent Gi rls , '' by Mary Pipher ( Putnam , $ 23.95 , 320 pp . ) According to clinical ps ychologist Mary Pipher , adolescent girls are in terrible trouble . Teen-age pre gnancy , drug abuse , eating disorders , self mutilation and depression are all on the rise . The cause of this , Pipher contends , is to be found in today 's s ociety where `` ( Girls are ) caught in myriad double binds : achieve , but not too much ; be polite , but be yourself , be feminine and adult ... . They are tr ained to be what the culture wants of its young women , not what they themselves want to become . '' In `` Reviving Ophelia , '' Pipher shines high-beam headlig hts on the world of teen-age girls by giving us case studies of adolescents from every possible racial and socio-economic background . The book is an articulate plea for better parenting , less violence and for all of us to `` .. . work for a culture in which the incisive intellect , the willing hands and the happy hea rt are beloved . '' It 's difficult to fault such a profoundly well-intentioned piece of work . Not only do Pipher 's claims make sense , but her genuine kindne ss shows on every page . However , there are problems . Too many case studies go by too quickly , which saps much of their power . It might have been more effec tive to have fewer stories so that we could feel these young women as real peopl e rather than illustrations of Pipher 's points . Another disturbing trait is oc casional statements such as , `` One forth of all women are raped . '' Say what ? Where did this statistic originate ? How is rape being defined ? Are these rep orted ? How are unreported rapes calculated ? `` Reviving Ophelia '' is an impor tant book , which , one hopes , will find its way to the right audience. -0- `` 9 Highland Road , '' by Michael Winerip ( Pantheon , $ 24 , 464 pp . ) Journalis t Michael Winerip 's , book , `` 9 Highland Road , '' an account of life in a gr oup home for the mentally ill over a three-year period , is , in many ways , sim ilar to a fairly intelligent nighttime soap . This has both advantages and drawb acks . On the plus side , there 's an interesting , diverse cast , each member d ealing with his or her own issues . The world of mental illness ( like the world of doctors , lawyers or cops ) is shown in a captivating way . There 's a satis fying sense of closure . On the other hand , as in even a high-quality televisio n drama , everything feels a bit sanitized . Relationships are complex enough to make you think , but only for a few minutes . Characters seem two- and three-qu arters dimensional . That is not to say there isn't a great deal to be learned h ere . Much of `` 9 Highland Road , '' is truly compelling without ever being exp loitative . In particular , the chapters dealing with one resident 's multiple p ersonality disorder are unforgettable . `` Night after night the personality tha t caused the most turmoil by far was the five year old Scared One . Something aw ful had happened to Julie at five . Di , ( another personality ) who was four , effervescent and well adjusted , absolutely refused to celebrate her birthday . She was adamant about not turning five . '' Winerip 's writing is smooth and ple asant although somewhat lacking in physical detail. `` 9 Highland Road '' may ei ther satisfy or frustrate depending on your expectations . This is a book that w ill stick to your ribs , but not your psyche . A journalist of Croatian descent who lives in Zagreb , Drakulic recounts the ex periences of individuals who have endured and those who have perpetrated the hor rors racking the former Yugoslavia . A young soldier recalls shooting someone fo r the first time ; a student plots the disfranchisement of a benefactor ; an old friend becomes a refugee . Drakulic decries the perverse mentality that strips friends , lovers and neighbors of their individuality and reduces them to anonym ous ethnic statistics : `` The irrational that dwells in each of us is being unl eashed from its chain and nobody can control it anymore .. . because the demons in us have already made people perceive themselves as nothing but parts of the n ational being. .. . If there is any future at all , I am afraid of the time to c ome . '' -0- `` A Big Storm Knocked it Over , '' by Laurie Colwin ( HarperPerenn ial , $ 12 , 259 pp . ) . The last novel by a talented writer who died premature ly in 1992 , `` Storm '' focuses on a young woman in New York City who observes the messy state of the families she knows and despairs of making her own marriag e work . Jane Louise Parker loves her husband and enjoys her work as a graphic d esigner , but she 's haunted by the fear that her happiness will crumble , despi te her efforts to preserve it . The honest vulnerability of the characters sets Colwin 's novel apart from the vapid tales of Manhattan neurotics who decry thei r angst in trendy clubs and chic boutiques . -0- `` Sweet & Sour , '' by Andrew A . Rooney ( Berkeley , $ 5.99 ; 305 pp . ) . There 's something patently false about an Emmy-winning television commentator posing as a Regular Guy who loses o dd socks in the dryer and balks at paying $ 27 for a tie . Despite his ingenuous stance , Rooney is not a dispenser of folk wisdom , but of folksy wisdom , the sort of down-home corn American audiences savor : The fruit in stores isn't as g ood as it used to be ; self-service hasn't made gas cheaper and significantly , in light of past controversies `` I 'm tired of fighting my prejudices . I 'm go ing to relax and enjoy them . '' -0- `` ZEN SPEAKS : Shouts of Nothingness , '' by Tsai Chih Chung , translated from the Chinese by Brian Bruya ( Anchor : $ 10. 95 , 159 pp. , illustrated , paperback original ) . Taiwanese cartoonist Tsai Ch ih Chung continues his exploration of Asian philosophy in this sly introduction to Zen Buddhism . The simple line drawings of a chubby , bulbous-nosed monk ( re miniscent of the figures in old comic scrolls ) offer parables and puzzles that emphasize some of the key tenants of Zen belief : The folly of seeking Enlighten ment outside oneself , the error of confusing words with meanings , etc . More t han 18 million of Tsai 's books have been sold in 12 languages : `` Zen Speaks ' ' is the second to appear in English . -0- `` I HAD A FATHER : A Post-Modern Aut obiography , '' by Clark Blaise ( Addison-Wesley , $ 12 , 204 pp . ) . As a chil d , Blaise had to endure his father 's womanizing , shady dealings and pathologi cal lies . He attempts to come to grips with his pain in these fragmented recoll ections of a search for identity that lead to an ancestral home in rural Quebec and provided insights into his own interracial marriage . Unfortunately , the au thor 's moments of genuine insight get buried in rambling attempts to mythologiz e his condition . -0- `` Seasons of the Coyote , '' edited by Philip L. Harrison ( HarperCollins West , $ 24.95 , 114 pp. , paperback original ) . Intelligent , adaptable and persistent , the coyote inhabits virtually every corner of North America , despite ill-advised campaigns to exterminate it . The brief essays in this attractive volume extol the cleverness and scroungy beauty of the coyote an d recap the important place it occupies in Amerindian mythologies . The color pi ctures are striking and exceptionally crisp , but the decision to print the text on shaded paper makes the book hard to read . -0- `` Peterson First Guide to Ur ban Wildlife , '' written and illustrated by Sarah B . Landry ( Houghton Mifflin , $ 4.95 , 128 pp. , paperback original ) . Landry takes an unusual approach in the latest entry in this popular series , introducing the various types of life on earth ( animals , plants , viruses , bacteria , fungi , protoctists ) . Buil ding from this basic information , she introduces some of the creatures that hav e adapted to life in American cities , both the familiar ( rabbits , skunks , fr ogs , ants ) and the less known ( minks , Luna moths , biting mites ) . ABC News ' David Brinkley on Thursday night 's `` PrimeTime Live '' will report on a World War II tragedy of which he might have been a part if not for a misdi agnosis of his health by U.S. . Army doctors . `` Knowing the draft was coming , I joined the Army in 1940 , thinking I would get in , serve awhile and get out , '' he recalled in an interview from Normandy , France , Wednesday . He was sta tioned near his hometown of Wilmington , N.C. , with other men from the area , a s an infantry rifle company 's supply sergeant . He got the job because , as a n ewspaper reporter when he was a civilian , he was the only man in the unit who c ould type . `` Early in 1941 , the Army medics gave me an honorable discharge , insisting I had a kidney ailment , '' he said , `` but there was never anything wrong with my kidneys , then or now . '' At any rate , he returned to work at th e local paper , and his buddies ' Company I ranks were swelled by draftees in th e wartime buildup . It was only years later that Brinkley learned that Company I had been pulverized by the U.S. . Army Air Corps , which failed to bomb where G en. Omar Bradley had ordered . `` There were very few survivors , '' said Brinkl ey , `` and we got them together for this report . One sergeant I worked for in the unit still calls me his ` secretary . ' At my age , I 've begun to wonder ho w many Americans there are left who still really remember how the war affected t hem . '' A check of census bureau figures shows that only a little more than a f ourth of all living Americans were born by D-Day 50 years ago . -0- Bryant Gumbe l will anchor NBC 's `` Today '' from Normandy Friday , and Tom Brokaw will anch or Friday 's `` NBC Nightly News '' from Portsmouth , England , where Queen Eliz abeth is to officiate during British memorials . ABC 's Peter Jennings is anchor ing `` World News Tonight '' from London before moving on to Normandy . -0- `` C BS Evening News '' co-anchors Dan Rather and Connie Chung and `` CBS This Mornin g '' co-anchors Harry Smith and Paula Zahn are putting on their shows ( includin g Chung 's `` Eye to Eye '' Thursday night ) from Los Angeles through Friday nig ht and mixing it up with CBS affiliate executives at the network 's annual affil iates meeting . They 're there as CBS tries to put on a good face and prevent fu rther affiliate erosion on the heels of Fox 's grab of NFL football from CBS and of eight big-city CBS affiliates . -0- Lessons for American society today are b ehind the scheduling of a June 15 `` CBS Reports : When America Trembled Murrow/ McCarthy . '' The special will look at the clash between CBS News ' Ed Murrow , the nation 's pre-eminent journalist in the 1950s , and Sen. Joe McCarthy , who gained international notoriety by manipulating America 's fear of communism . Mu rrow 's famous `` See It Now '' broadcast , which demolished McCarthy 's tactics but also ultimately destroyed Murrow , will be put in the context of the time i n which it aired . Dan Rather will anchor the broadcast , which will explore wha t freedom of the press allows , what defines journalistic integrity and how poli tical manipulation of the press can be limited . -0- ABC 's hourlong `` Jacqui ' s Dilemma '' Thursday night originally was to have been an `` Afterschool Specia l , '' but the network 's executives decided the program was something parents s hould have a chance to watch with their children . The broadcast deals with the emotional , social and economic perils a teen-age girl ( Jacqui ) faces when she unexpectedly becomes pregnant . Interspersed throughout the drama are interview s with parents , educators , therapists , clergy , adoption-service counselors , social workers , teen-age parents and physicians . U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Joy celyn Elders is among those who appear . Melissa Thompson stars as Jacqui . WASHINGTON Chinese smuggling organizations have vastly expanded their elaborate networks of way stations around the world and are now capable of transporting t ens of thousands of people to the United States , according to a new intelligenc e assessment that has caused U.S. officials to rethink their approach to illegal immigration from China . For more than a year , public attention and law-enforc ement efforts have focused on shiploads of Chinese emigres arriving on U.S. shor es . But officials say they face a larger and more-difficult challenge from the rapid growth of overseas smuggling networks that transport their human cargo by many different means and directions . Such networks have existed for several yea rs , yet according to the assessment more people are using them than ever before and the routes are more complex . Moreover , several developments have made thi s trade more difficult to combat . The most important and most troubling aspect of the new assessment , senior officials said , is the finding that thousands of people already have left China en route to the United States and are being held by smugglers in a variety of locations while transportation and false documents are arranged for them . `` Over the last six months , we have become aware of a huge human warehousing operation that holds tens of thousands of aliens at vari ous points along the pipeline , often for months at a time , '' a senior foreign -policy official said . The relaxation of border and immigration controls in Eas tern Europe and the former Soviet Union has produced a proliferation of new rout es , with Moscow recently emerging as a major hub for Chinese smuggling operatio ns , a senior official said . An estimated 60,000 Chinese immigrants live illega lly in Moscow , according to a still-classified report summarizing the recent in telligence findings . `` Many are believed to be in Moscow awaiting onward trave l to the U.S. , '' the report states . Russian organized-crime groups have forme d a formidable alliance with the Chinese gangs known as `` snakeheads '' in the lucrative human trade , the report said . Travel along these smuggling networks typically involves a circuitous trip with several stops along the way , and for some the trip from Fujian Province , the principal departure point , to New York , the major destination , can take two years or more , U.S. officials said . `` One documented air route used by alien smugglers originated in Bangkok , went t o New Delhi or Karachi , on to Nairobi or Johannesburg , and then to Buenos Aire s or Rio de Janeiro . It then went onward to Madrid , Barcelona , and London and finally terminated in New York City , '' the intelligence report noted . Most o f the smugglers ' clients leave China legally , a senior Clinton administration official said . They readily acquire passports and often have legitimate visas f or their first stop outside China , before starting their illegal voyage to the United States . Two U.S. delegations have gone to China in the past six months t o press for cooperation in fighting the ship traffic , but U.S. officials said i t is much harder to ask for help restraining emigres who leave China legally but arrive here as unlawful immigrants . `` As a practical matter it is easier to p atrol a coastline looking for freighters loaded with people than to screen airli ne or rail traffic for people who obtained visas with questionable documents , ' ' an official said . But there is a diplomatic problem as well . The United Stat es has pressed China to loosen travel controls as a matter of longstanding human -rights policy . Progress in this area was cited by President Clinton last Thurs day when he announced his decision to renew China 's most-favored nation trade s tatus . In making the new assessment known , officials of several agencies empha sized their hope that it would provide added justification for a package of anti -smuggling measures that were proposed by Clinton last summer but have not been enacted . The assessment also will be used to seek greater cooperation from seve ral countries around the world in combating immigrant smuggling . The government has no ready estimates of the amount of smuggling traffic , but officials see c lear signs that the numbers are rising . They note that more than 14,300 Chinese nationals applied for political asylum last year four times the number from the year before . Smugglers shift routes frequently , depending on the availability of safe houses and false documents as well as on pressures applied by law-enfor cement agencies , the officials said . While some of the illegal immigrants fly directly into the United States and seek asylum on arrival , two other routes in to the country appear to be carrying heavy traffic . In April , U.S. immigration officials apprehended three separate groups involving 86 Chinese smuggled into Puerto Rico by sea from the Dominican Republic . Once in Puerto Rico , they can fly to the U.S. mainland without passing through immigration controls . The othe r favored route is to go by air or ship to somewhere in Mexico or Central Americ a and then travel north across the border illegally , U.S. officials said . The recent indictment of an alleged snakehead leader in New York indicates how subst antial numbers of people are transported across the border , the officials said . The indictment charged that Chen Guo Ping had helped arrange the transport of about 176 illegal Chinese immigrants by ship to Mexico and then across the borde r . The indictment alleged that after arriving in New York City , Chen 's gang , the White Tigers , held the immigrants in safe houses until fees of about $ 30, 000 each had been paid on their behalf . Chen has denied the charges . The disco very that large numbers of Chinese use these complex routes has obliged U.S. off icials to reassess their view of the marine traffic that received so much attent ion last year after several incidents , including the shipwreck of the Golden Ve nture on a New York City beach with more than 300 immigrants aboard . `` The pip elines and way stations appear to have been in place for several years , '' one official said , `` and the smugglers seem to have been looking for a more-profit able , cost-effective means of transport when they began to bring big loads of p eople directly to the United States . '' U.S. officials believe they were able t o significantly deter the use of ships by arresting some top snakehead leaders , intercepting several ships and winning the cooperation of the Chinese governmen t . But they caution that smugglers could turn again to ships in the future if o ther routes are blocked . Proclaiming that `` today we send a strong and clear m essage , '' Clinton called congressional leaders to the White House last July 27 to unveil a package of measures designed to combat such smuggling . Doubled pri son sentences , expanded use of wiretaps , application of racketeering statutes , more aggressive asset seizures and the quick exclusion of emigres who arrive w ithout proper documentation were all part of the message . So far , none of thos e measures has cleared a full committee in either house of Congress and there ap pears to be little prospect for any action this year . A crowded agenda has dive rted attention from the issue on Capitol Hill , and the administration has shift ed the focus of its immigration initiatives to the Mexican border , which is thi s year 's hot topic because of agitation in California . Making the case for the measures , a senior law-enforcement official said , `` People have gotten a fal se sense of security about Chinese alien smuggling , and it has dropped off the political radar screen , but in the meantime the problem is getting bigger . '' WASHINGTON Only one ship is known to have landed illegal immigrants directly in the continental United States since the Golden Venture incident last June a ves sel that dropped about 110 people onto the Virginia coast in March . More than 6 0 of the passengers were discovered during a raid on a Prince George 's County ( Md. ) safe house April 5 . WASHINGTON Would a mother on welfare have another baby for $ 60 a month ? Would she have fewer babies if the extra welfare benefits were not there ? The questi ons , and the passion they inspire , swirl at the center of what has become the most divisive debate in the Clinton administration 's effort to reform the natio n 's welfare programs . The issue is whether women who are on welfare should be denied additional benefits if they have more babies , a policy Clinton said last week the states could adopt under his proposal . The power of this debate over `` family caps '' springs from deep-seated emotions : alarm at dramatic increase s in the number of American babies born to single mothers , anger from a populac e that perceives a failed welfare system , and conviction among many political l eaders that they can drive down out-of-wedlock birth rates by rewriting the welf are rules . That acceptance of a causal link between welfare benefits and birth rates has become so prominent that it is driving Republican legislation and , to some extent , has influenced the proposal Clinton is preparing . What would see m remarkable is that this argument contradicts the work of social scientists who have studied the issue , including some who are now in the Clinton administrati on . That point , however , seems to have been lost in the debate . `` Welfare e nables illegitimacy . It pays for illegitimacy , '' said Rep. Tom DeLay , Texas , co-chair of a Republican group that drafted legislation banning assistance for unmarried teenagers who bear children . `` It 's creating fatherless boys . Tha t encourages violence , predatory sex , total anarchy within that community . It has created a whole culture of dependent people that is destroying the fabric o f families .. . mostly in the inner city . '' Republicans like DeLay say that a prime motive in writing their welfare reform bills is to reduce those birth rate s . And now the issue has become even more volatile than another reform debate , whether and how to place time limits on welfare benefits . News last week that Clinton would allow `` family caps , '' brought together a broad and unlikely co alition of feminist groups and abortion opponents who vowedto take the issue to court . They said such a `` child exclusion '' would encourage abortions , punis h children and discriminate against welfare mothers . Administration officials s aid the decision was based on the president 's belief , as a former governor , t hat states should be allowed great flexibility . But even as the administration has come to believe that the inclusion of family caps in the president 's needed to gain support in Congress , deep divisions remain over whether they would be effective , especially in changing the behavior of teenagers . The political cli mate that has given priority to family caps seems to stem from a growing public alarm over the steady increase in the number of babies born out of wedlock : 1.2 million babies in 1991 , the equivalent of 30 percent of all births . Among Afr ican Americans , more than two-thirds of babies are born out of wedlock . While there is disagreement over whether there is a moral argument to be made against out-of-wedlock births and how to prevent them , there is widespread acknowledgme nt that children born in such circumstances are more likely to be poor , have a harder time in school and face other obstacles . `` My proposition is that illeg itimacy is the single most important social problem of our time more important t han crime , drugs , poverty illiteracy , welfare or homelessness , because it dr ives everything else , '' conservative scholar Charles Murray wrote in a Wall St reet Journal editorial page article last year . Murray called for an end to Aid to Families with Dependent Children , the government 's largest welfare program , as a way of stemming the problem . Murray , a fellow at the American Enterpris e Institute , has led the argument that welfare policy during the past 30 years has produced increased dependency and out-of-wedlock births . Advocates of this theory cite the growth in the nation 's welfare program and the coinciding rise in illegitimacy . Mark Robert Rank , author of the recent book , `` Living on th e Edge : The Realities of Welfare in America , '' has countered Murray 's argume nt . `` There 's virtually no research evidence which supports the idea that wom en on welfare are somehow being encouraged to have more children in order to rec eive more public assistance money , '' he said at a recent Capitol Hill forum . Rank , who teaches sociology at Washington University in St. Louis , said his st udy of nearly 3,000 Wisconsin welfare recipients showed that women on welfare ha d lower birth rates than women in the general population . And in his interviews with welfare recipients , Rank said , the mothers laughed at the notion that th ey would have another baby for the extra benefits , which typically amount to $ 57 to $ 64 a month . In New Jersey , one of handful of a states that has receive d federal permission to adopt family caps , births to mothers on welfare have go ne down . But according to the Center for Law and Social Policy in Washington , it is not clear to what extent the figures reflect underreporting of births or c an be attributed to factors other than the new policy . William A . Galston , a domestic adviser to the president , cited economist Robert Moffitt 's review of the scientific literature . `` The scholarly consensus is that , at most , the w elfare system might be responsible for 15 percent of the problem , '' Galston sa id in an interview . Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary David T. Ellw ood , writing in his 1988 book , `` Poor Support : Poverty in the American Famil y , '' laid out several arguments disputing claims that welfare has caused chang es in the family structure by giving benefits to single parents . `` ( N ) o hig hly regarded study has indicated that welfare has played more than a minor role in the changing patterns of families overall , '' he wrote . He also pointed out that even as welfare benefits to individuals were cut in the 1970s , and the va lue of benefits failed to keep pace with inflation , single-parent families cont inued to increase . In addition , he said , the highest percentages of children in female-headed families lived in states with the lowest benefits . Both of the se facts , he wrote , contradicted those who argue that welfare is the villain i n rising single-parenthood . But late last week , after Clinton 's decision on f amily caps became public , administration officials tried to put the best face o n what would appear to be a contradiction of their previous research . Ellwood a nd Mary Jo Bane , another assistant secretary at HHS who has also conducted exte nsive research on welfare and poverty , `` are comfortable with the plan as writ ten , '' said an agency official , pointing to the possibility that family caps may `` send a signal '' that births out of wedlock should be avoided . Even as t he administration 's proposal was alienating dozens of civil rights and religiou s organizations , it was falling far short of pleasing Republicans . Clinton 's `` incremental '' proposals are not `` ending welfare as we know it , '' as the president promised during the 1992 campaign , said Rep. James M . Talent , R-Mo. , sponsor of a bill that would deny benefits to unmarried mothers under age 21 and give the savings to states for programs to care for the children , including group homes and orphanages . `` What the welfare system has said for 25 years i s that you can form a household and we will offer you benefits from $ 8,000 to $ 15,000 a year if you have a child , don't marry and don't get a job , '' said T alent . `` A lot of young people take that bait . '' PORT-AU-PRINCE , Haiti The Clinton administration is planning a total ban on ai r traffic , including passenger service , between Haiti and the United States , as well as a cutoff of all financial transactions with the Caribbean nation , di plomatic and Haitian officials say . The actions , described by a U.S. official `` as the next logical step , '' augment already stringent international economi c and financial sanctions that have stopped all but commercial passenger air tra ffic . President Clinton also reportedly has ordered other steps aimed at punish ing civilian backers of Haiti 's military rulers . The order affecting air and f inancial services will come this month , perhaps within two weeks , one U.S. off icial said . He said several days ' notice will be given before the flight cutof f to allow people especially Americans to leave or return to Haiti . Embassy sou rces estimate there are 1,000 Americans in Haiti and 7,000 others holding U.S. p assports . U.S. officials said the latest bans are aimed at the wealthy civilian supporters of Haiti 's military rulers , who took power in September 1991 , wit h the violent overthrow of Jean-Bertrand Aristide , this nation 's first modern , democratically elected president . They said the cuts in air traffic and finan cial transactions will be the last efforts by the White House to persuade the mi litary to give up power or face American military intervention . `` If this does n't show them that we are serious , then I guess only Marines at the airport wil l do it , '' said an American source in a telephone interview from Washington . The tightening of the sanctions is part of an apparent three-step U.S. approach to reduce the privileges of the civilian elite ; squeeze the general population with the aim of causing serious public discontent ; and openly threaten military action . As a measure of the heightened tension here over the possibility of U. S. military action , the United Nations and other international organizations la ter this week are expected to order dependents of their officials and employees to leave Haiti as soon as possible . One U.N. . The French Embassy also is prepa ring to send dependents out of the country and is closing its school early . U.S . diplomats here said a similar American move `` is always under consideration . But not yet . There is nothing in the works . '' The American move to sever air and financial links will come in an executive order from Clinton . It will appl y only to flights between the United States and Haiti . But it will effectively isolate this tiny nation , because almost all international service in and out o f Haiti connects through the United States ; there are only infrequent flights t hrough Panama , France and Canada . ( Optional add end ) The end of air service will be little more than an inconvenience , not a hardship , for most Haitians , particularly the wealthy families who travel often for shopping , entertainment and business . But many of this nation 's elite take great pride in their acces s to American culture and commerce and see their ability to fly on a moment 's n otice to Miami as their escape route , if and when life in Haiti becomes unbeara ble . `` You are going to see a scramble for the airport like you can't imagine , '' said a Haitian businessman . `` These people think they have a God-given ri ght to go to Miami . Take that away from them and they 'll feel helpless . '' Wh ile the air ban will put some strains on individuals and families , the major im pact of the president 's decision will come from the cutoff of financial transac tions . As with the general sanctions , the pain from Clinton 's newest decision will be felt most by the poor and the middle class . It is likely to do little more than inconvenience the military and its civilian supporters . In fact , man y sources said , it will even enrich them . `` This will prevent Haitians in the United States from sending money to their families , '' said a Haitian business man . These payments , or remittances , amount to tens of millions of dollars ye arly and are the only source of money for many Haitians , including the poor . O ne businessman observed of the transactions ban , `` It will cause a giant leap in the currency black market and make the gourde ( Haiti 's currency ) worthless . Anyone who has access to dollars will be rich . And who has the most access t o dollars ? The military . They 'll continue to run the smuggling , drugs and al l the other things . '' WASHINGTON The National Right to Life Committee and other anti-abortion groups Wednesday called for a boycott of products made by the company that developed RU -486 , the so-called abortion pill that is about to be tested for possible U.S. manufacture . `` We have not made this decision lightly , but feel morally compe lled to hold these companies accountable , '' Wanda Franz , president of the Nat ional Right to Life Committee , said at a news conference . She said the coaliti on of anti-abortion organizations , which also includes the Southern Baptist Con vention , will take action against Hoechst AG , the parent German company ; Rous ell Uclaf , the French manufacturer of RU-486 ; and two American subsidiaries , Hoechst Celanese , a chemical company , and Hoechst Roussel , which manufactures pharmaceuticals . The threat of such a boycott by anti-abortion groups was cons idered responsible , in part , for Roussel Uclaf 's reluctance to bring the drug to the United States during the six years it has been available in France . The other major factor holding out the pill was opposition by the administration of former President Bush . The climate changed after the election of President Cli nton , who regards himself as an abortion rights advocate . ( Begin optional tri m ) Franz said her coalition considers the companies `` fully responsible , '' d espite the French firm 's recent decision to give its U.S. patent rights for RU- 486 to the non-profit Population Council , a reproductive research group based i n New York . The council expects to find a U.S. manufacturer for the pill , and plans to begin human studies this fall that are expected to last about six month s . The U.S. . Food and Drug Administration has pledged to move as quickly as po ssible to evaluate the research as soon as it is completed , and decide whether to license the drug . The pill removes the risk of surgery and could enable wome n to have abortions without going to abortion clinics , which have been the targ et of strong protests . Prescribed by doctors and taken in the first eight weeks of a pregnancy , the pill successfully induces abortions in 96 percent of the w omen who take it . Franz did not name the specific products under boycott , but said such a list would be forthcoming within the next several weeks . ( End opti onal trim ) Andrea Stine , a spokeswoman for Hoechst Celanese , called the boyco tt decision `` misdirected . '' Hoechst Celanese `` was not involved in the nego tiations to bring RU-486 into this country , nor were we involved in the researc h , development or sales of the drug , '' she said . And Sandra Waldman , of the Population Council , said she doubted the boycott would have any impact on the process of getting RU-486 into the American marketplace . `` It 's not a new thr eat , '' she said . `` There 's been no lack of companies and organizations inte rested in this drug . In fact , dozens of companies have expressed interest in v arious aspects marketing , distribution , manufacture since last year , '' when the council first became involved in negotiations to sponsor the drug in this co untry . Franz also criticized Clinton , who has announced he intends to include abortion as a guaranteed medical benefit under his health reform proposals . She said that without the support of the Clinton administration , U.S. women would never have had access to the drug . UNITED NATIONS The United Nations ' main agency for economic development , desp airing over the waste of almost a trillion dollars of peace dividend , set down sweeping proposals Wednesday including an international tax for expanding assist ance to a third of the world in such `` abject poverty .. . that words simply fa il to describe it . '' The proposals , to be taken up next year at the U.N. 's W orld Social Summit conference in Copenhagen , form the centerpiece of the U.N. . Development Program 's annual report on worldwide human development . The repor t , as always , includes the United Nations ' annual rankings of countries on a development index based on wealth , education and health . Canada , which had be en second in the world last year , now ranks first , followed by Switzerland , J apan ( last year 's leader ) , Sweden and Norway . The United States , sixth-ran king last year , has fallen to eighth . The conference , a pet-project of Chilea n President Patricio Alwyn that has won the endorsement of the United Nations , is expected to attract scores of heads of state and government , including Presi dent Clinton . Alwyn insists the summit is needed because the post-Cold War worl d while it has largely adopted democracy for its politics and the free-market fo r its economics has failed , so far , to come up with a philosophy to deal with its social problems . `` There is one golden and , I fear , fleeting opportunity to bring the rich and the poor together , to make the compacts and to forge the partnerships that are needed to achieve sustainable human development in all co untries , north and south , and that is the social summit , '' James Gustave Spe th , administrator of the U.N. agency , told a news conference in Washington . I n the report , largely written by Mahbub Haq , former Pakistani minister of fina nce , the Development Program concludes that global military spending declined b y $ 935 billion from 1987 until now . `` Unfortunately , '' the report says , `` this peace dividend has not been used to finance the world 's social agenda . ' ' The agency , the United Nations ' main engine for Third World development , ac knowledges there has been considerable improvement in world development in the l ast years . `` While 70 percent of humanity survived in abysmal human conditions in 1960 .. . only 32 percent suffered such conditions in 1992 , '' it states . But the agency takes little solace in this . `` Despite all our technological br eakthroughs , '' the report goes on , `` we still live in a world where a fifth of the developing world 's population goes hungry every night , a quarter lacks access to even a basic necessity like drinking water , and a third lives in a st ate of abject poverty . '' To deal with these problems , the U.N. agency propose s what it calls `` fundamental changes .. . in the present framework of developm ent cooperation . '' Some of the most sweeping include : `` A serious search .. . for new sources of international funding that do not rely entirely on the fluc tuating political will of the rich nations . '' The report notes some possibilit ies such as a global tax on the use of gasoline and other non-renewable energy s ources and a small tax on transactions of speculators dealing in foreign exchang e . A tax of $ 1 on every barrel of oil ( or its equivalent in coal ) would brin g in $ 66 billion a year . Compensation by rich countries to poor countries for services like pollution control that benefit mankind and for damages caused by m arket barriers like restrictions on migration of labor . Allocation of 20 percen t of the peace dividend in rich countries and 10 percent in poor countries to a new `` global human security fund '' that would pay for such projects as control ling drug trafficking , international terrorism and nuclear proliferation . Crea tion of an Economic Security Council to deal with issues like unemployment , pov erty and food shortages in the same way the Security Council deals with threats to peace and security . ( Optional add end ) The U.N. . Development Program repo rt stresses that wealth and human development do not always go hand in hand . Ec uador and the Congo , for example , each have Gross National Products of a littl e more than $ 1,000 a year . Yet because of its high life expectancy and literac y and its low infant mortality , Ecuador ranks 74th in the worldwide human devel opment index , while the Congo ranks 123rd . The U.N. . Development Program , me asuring the health of nations , also discusses a concept it calls human security . Under this concept , countries are in crisis if they measure poorly on indica tors of food supply , jobs , human rights , military spending , sharing of wealt h and ethnic conflict . Using these , the report names eight countries in crisis : Afghanistan , Angola , Haiti , Iraq , Mozambique , Myanmar , Sudan and Zaire . The report expresses great disappointment with the continued spending for arms in the Third World , despite the end of the Cold War . Citing figures over a pe riod from 1988 to 1992 , the agency says that the five largest exporters of arms to the Third World were the five permanent members of the Security Council : Ru ssia , the United States , France , China and Britain . The five largest importe rs of arms in the Third World during this period were : India , Saudi Arabia , A fghanistan , Turkey and Iraq . Although much gloom edged the pages of the report , the U.N. agency had positive news , as well . A number of countries have mana ged to increase their human development index markedly in the last three decades . The countries that increased their development the most were Malaysia , Botsw ana , South Korea , Thailand , Syria , Turkey , China , Portugal and Iran . WASHINGTON A highly decorated Army nurse who was thrown out of the military aft er declaring she was a lesbian was reinstated in the Washington State National G uard Wednesday by a federal judge who said the prohibition on gay service member s is `` grounded solely in prejudice . '' Col. Margarethe Cammermeyer , who earn ed a Bronze Star in Vietnam , was discharged from military service in 1992 after 26 years in uniform because she acknowledged her homosexuality in a security-cl earance interview . Her celebrity grew later that year when President Clinton , then campaigning for election , saluted her in a televised town meeting and vowe d he would end the ban against homosexuals in the military . U.S. . District Jud ge Thomas Zilly 's summary judgment in favor of Cammermeyer was the latest in a succession of at least a half-dozen legal victories by gay service members over the past year . Zilly was ruling on the military 's old policy against homosexua ls , not the `` don't ask , don't tell '' compromise that emerged after Clinton backed off his campaign pledge . But jubilant gay-rights advocates said the reas oning and uncompromising language of Zilly 's ruling adds momentum to their argu ment that the new policy also should be declared unconstitutional . `` The gover nment has discriminated against Col. Cammermeyer solely on the basis of her stat us as a homosexual and has failed to demonstrate a rational basis for doing so , '' Zilly said , adding that , `` the rationales offered by the government to ju stify its exclusion of homosexual service members are grounded solely in prejudi ce . '' Cammermeyer , who was one of the highest-ranking officers ever to be thr own out of the service for homosexuality , struck a triumphant tone . `` It 's s o powerful and so vindicating , not just of my own struggle but thousands of oth ers , '' she said in a telephone interview from Seattle . Cammermeyer said she w as not by temperament a crusader , but was thrust into the role `` by accident . '' She said she remains a believer in the military life and has tried to change the minds of people who have told her they despise the military because of its homosexual policies . `` It 's not the military that 's wrong , but policies wit hin the system , '' she said . `` It 's been a wonderful career , and I 'm looki ng forward to finishing it . '' A spokesman for the Justice Department Wednesday declined to comment on Cammermeyer 's case . The government has appealed simila r cases that it has lost at the District Court level and lawyers who have follow ed the Cammermeyer case said it is likely they will do the same in this instance . All sides agree that the gays-in-the-military controversy willn't be resolved until the Supreme Court weighs in . At least two cases pending in appeals court s are likely candidates to reach the high court . The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California is weighing the case of sailor Keith Meinhold , who won a lower-court ruling saying the military 's exclusion of homosexuals was unconstit utional . The appeals court here , meanwhile , is reviewing the case of Joseph S teffan , who resigned under pressure from the U.S. . Naval Academy after admitti ng he was gay . A three-judge appeals panel initially ruled in Steffan 's favor . But the full appeals court vacated that decision and last month heard the case anew . Although Cammermeyer was ousted under the old policy , Zilly offered bro ad hints that his reasoning could also apply to the new policy . The new policy , which took effect last year , allows gay people to serve as long as they keep their sexual orientation to themselves and do not act upon it . Goernment lawyer s , Zilly noted , cited a series of `` legislative findings '' reached by Congre ss as it was devising the new `` don't-ask , don't-tell' ' compromise last year . One of the findings declared that letting openly gay people serve `` would cre ate an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale , good order and discip line , and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability . '' Zilly said such an argument was not valid if the reason for the decline in morale was simply that heterosexuals were prejudiced against homosexuals . Michael Himes , an attorney for Cammermeyer , said one of the noteworthy aspects of her case is that Zilly allowed top Pentagon officials to testify in depositions . The offici als were Edwin Dorn , assistant secretary of defense for personnel , and Army Ma j. Gen. John P. Otjen . In the end , Zilly wrote , the Pentagon officials helped seal the case against the government . `` Both witnesses testified to the effec t that the government 's objection to homosexual service is based solely on the fears of and prejudices of heterosexual service members , '' he said . `` If thi s reasoning is followed by other courts , the new policy will not be upheld , '' predicted Himes . ( ndy ) ( ATTN : News , Financial editors ) ( Includes optional trims ) China R ights Decision : It 's The Economy , Stupid ( Washn ) By Glenn Kessler ( c ) 199 4 , Newsday WASHINGTON President Clinton 's renewal of China 's preferential tra ding status , even at the risk of appearing to cave in to Beijing , underscores the central role economics plays in his foreign policy initiatives . Clinton exp ressed concern for the long list of dissidents languishing in Chinese prisons . But the numbers that proved convincing were the 150,000 American jobs that compa nies said would be lost if Chinese exports faced higher tariffs and the Chinese stopped buying U.S. products . `` At the end of the Cold War , there was great o ptimism that there would be a higher priority given to human rights issues , '' said Richard Dicker , associate counsel of Human Rights Watch/Asia . `` In the p ast , human rights concerns were downplayed for national security reasons . Now , in the China decision , it appears human rights have been downplayed for econo mic security concerns . '' Clinton was elected on the promise that he would devo te much of his attention to domestic economic issues , and aides say the economi c implications of any action on China were heavily discussed within the administ ration . Robert Rubin , Clinton 's chief economic aide , acknowledged that last week 's decision to renew most-favored-nation trading status for China wasn't le ft to the State Department but was handled by foreign policy and economic offici als working together . These officials decided that revocation of China 's trade status `` did not make sense , '' he said . Clinton insisted that greater busin ess ties would ultimately help the cause of human rights . `` To those who argue that in view of China 's human rights abuses we should revoke MFN status , let me ask you the same question that I have asked myself : Will we do more to advan ce the cause of human rights if China is isolated or if our nations are engaged in a growing web of political and economic cooperation and contacts ? '' America n businesses also lobbied hard for MFN renewal , and Clinton is unusually solici tous of their views . In fact , some experts say no other president has been so focused on delivering the goods for U.S. corporations . AT&T won a $ 4 billion c ontract to modernize Saudi Arabia 's telecommunications system after Clinton wro te King Fahd and dispatched his secretaries of state and commerce to jawbone Sau di officials . `` Clinton 's actions are important . Elevating the economic agen da as part of foreign policy has long been overdue , '' said Daniel Burton , pre sident of the Council on Competitiveness , a non-profit group in Washington supp orted by business . `` The attention and priority given to these issues by Clint on is unusual . '' ( End optional trim ) Some believe the Chinese exploited the administration 's focus on economic issues to minimize the problem of human righ ts abuses . The United States buys about $ 33 billion in Chinese exports , while China buys about $ 9 billion in U.S. products . The Chinese made it clear in th e past year that a number of major deals worth billions of dollars were on hold until the threat of MFN revocation was lifted . Rubin said Clinton scrapped his policy of linking Chinese trade rights and human rights performance in part beca use the previous policy had been hurting American business . `` I think business in this country has been somewhat held back in terms of developing markets in C hina because of the uncertainty of the relationship , but I think that with the steps the president has taken there will be all the more incentive for developin g markets in China , '' he said . `` I think it will become an ever larger and e ver more important trading partner . '' ( End optional trim ) Still , Clinton 's actions on China distressed some of his more liberal supporters . Rep. David Bo nior , D-Mich. , House majority whip , caustically said : `` By renewing MFN for China , we are sending a clear message to every dictator around the world that not only will the U.S. look the other way while you torture , abuse and murder y our own people , but we 'll even help subsidize it . '' Some key players , inclu ding Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell , D-Maine , have said they will intr oduce legislation calling for more sanctions on China . WASHINGTON Some staffers at the National Geographic Society are positively up i n arms that this prestigious promoter of all things natural has gone and spent a small fortune replacing live yew plants with artificial ones outside its downto wn headquarters . Naked symbolism aside , the estimated $ 220,000 move to synthe tics comes at a time when the organization has been downsized by at least 800 fo lks as a cost-cutting measure . `` We made what was a very difficult decision fo r us , '' said Geographic spokesman Barbara Fallon , who confirmed that the fake yews had been `` planted '' around the terraces on five levels . `` Our prefere nce would certainly have been to maintain live plants . We tried for 10 years . '' Fallon went on to explain that the real yew plants had died due to soil and d rainage problems and that landscapers could not guarantee that new plants would survive . And the building 's architectural design , she says , demands plants . As for the cost , Fallon emphasized that `` we go out of our way to be cost eff icient in everything we do . '' -O- John Wayne Bobbitt went to court Wednesday t o request a legal guardian to manage his finances and ended up being reprimanded by a Buffalo judge for getting too familiar with his fiancee in the courtroom . Bobbitt rested his head on Kristina Elliott 's shoulder and began stroking her face when Judge Mario Rossetti snapped at him , telling him to knock off the pub lic display of affection . Bobbitt later testified that he 's been kept in the d ark on his finances by agents and attorneys , reported the Associated Press . He claims he 's gotten almost none of the hundreds of thousands of dollars raised through publicity appearances since he became an instant celebrity after his wif e maimed him in their Virginia home last summer . There was no ruling on the mat ter . -O- At least some of the folks in embattled Rep. Dan Rostenkowski 's offic e are clinging to a sense of humor . Spokesman Jim Jaffe put this message on the answering machine the very day the congressman was indicted : `` We have no sta tements to issue , we have no schedule , we have no bananas . '' There was also a great sigh of relief when incoming chairman Sam Gibbons informed Rosty folks h e was keeping them on board the Ways and Means staff . In yet another indication that Hill perks are falling by the wayside , Sen. Wendell Ford of Kentucky has circulated a memo saying that , henceforth , underground parking at the Capitol will be viewed as taxable income . SAN SALVADOR , El Salvador Armando Calderon Sol , leader of a right-wing politi cal party once associated with death squads , was sworn in as president of El Sa lvador Wednesday amid warnings that reforms aimed at preserving this country 's fledgling peace are dangerously incomplete . As the first president to take offi ce since the end of a brutal , 12-year civil war , Calderon Sol pledged to rebui ld his devastated , still polarized country with free-market economics and atten tion to long-neglected social programs . But he acknowledged Salvadoran society is far from reconciled . `` We have achieved peace , the guns are silent , '' he said in an elaborate ceremony before Central America 's leaders and dozens of i nternational delegations . `` But we have yet to shatter the suspicions and ster ile antagonisms . We must rebuild our nation physically , morally and spirituall y so that we can together achieve social peace . '' This was El Salvador 's firs t peace-time transfer of power between civilians in more than six decades . Cald eron Sol assumes office a year and a half after U.N.-brokered accords ended the war between Cuban-backed leftist guerrillas and U.S.-backed forces . The war cla imed more than 70,000 lives and sent 1 million Salvadorans fleeing to Los Angele s , Washington and other cities . Calderon Sol , the portly 45-year-old former m ayor of San Salvador and founding member of the ruling Nationalist Republican Al liance , or Arena , was elected April 24 in a landslide over leftist candidate R uben Zamora , who represented a coalition that included the former rebels . The U.N. accords set in motion sweeping military , political and judicial reforms ai med at installing democracy and guaranteeing all Salvadorans ' security . The go vernment succeeded in substantially reducing the army , but some of the most imp ortant reforms have not been fulfilled . In a report issued May 11 , the United Nations cited `` serious shortcomings '' in completing the accords and emphasize d flaws in the formation of a new civilian police force , considered the corners tone to maintaining peace and building a system of justice . The report complain ed that the `` civilian nature '' of the new police force is in jeopardy because agents from the old , paramilitary National Police have been phased into the ne w agency without proper training or screening to eliminate human rights abusers . The government of outgoing President Alfredo Cristiani , also a member of Cald eron Sol 's Arena party , has repeatedly delayed demobilizing the dreaded parami litary police . It recently indicated it would not do so until sometime between January and March of next year . The U.N. report also complained that 30 senior positions in the civilian police force have gone to officers from the militarize d force and reports of human rights abuses have increased . ( Begin optional tri m ) Calderon Sol has publicly attacked several reforms in the peace accords . Bu t since his election April 24 , and again Wednesday , he insisted he would abide by them . `` I say you have to give him the benefit of the doubt it 's his firs t day , '' Joaquin Villalobos , a former guerrilla commander who now heads a soc ial democratic party , said as he emerged from the inauguration . `` But we will have to see how much distance there is between words and actions . '' The issue of the police and public security is especially urgent because of renewed viole nce , some of it political , that has claimed the lives of former rebels and sev eral Arena militants in recent months . Amid fears of a resurgence of death squa ds , U.N. peacekeepers late last year appointed a special commission , the Joint Group , to investigate the violence over a six-month period ending this week . Tuesday , the commission asked for a two-month extension , after a flurry of mur ders and attempted murders in the last two weeks . ( End optional trim ) Despite his party 's history as an authoritarian and militaristic organization , Calder on Sol has taken pains to assure the world that he and the forces around him hav e become more moderate . `` The era of dogmas and fanaticisms has ended , '' Cal deron Sol said Wednesday , apparently referring to both the left and right . Are na officials say they have abandoned their extremist past to move closer to the center and to broaden their appeal . Key to a more pragmatic outlook , the offic ials say , is the growing role of Arena 's business sector . But the new preside nt and most Arena leaders continue to revere the late Roberto D' Aubuisson , par ty founder and reputed organizer of death squads that killed thousands of suspec ted leftist sympathizers during the war . In the highly partisan crowd at Calder on Sol 's inauguration , supporters held aloft a larger-than-life poster of D' A ubuisson in his trademark , clenched-fist pose . And several military officers p urged as part of the peace accords were in attendance , including retired Gens. Rene Emilio Ponce and Orlando Zepeda ; they were accused of ordering the 1989 mu rder of six Jesuit priests considered supportive of the rebels . `` The new pres ident and the people around him are using all the right words ( about democracy ) but I don't think they know what the words mean , '' said a Latin American dip lomat . `` Arena is still very influenced by hard-line elements . You willn't se e them in government , but they 're there . '' It could be the ultimate in long-range weather observations . University of Mar yland radio astronomers say they have spotted water clouds near the center of a galaxy called Markarian 1 , a smudge of stars 200 million light years away in th e constellation Pisces . It is the most distant water ever detected in the unive rse . `` It 's always exciting to find a superlative , '' said James Braatz , a doctoral candidate who led the research . The discovery of water so far from Ear th was not unexpected , and does not suggest the presence of life there . But it s detection at such a distance helps to enlarge astronomers ' understanding of ` ` megamasers , '' a curious natural phenomenon that amplifies normally weak radi o emissions from water at the centers of active galaxies . Braatz was assisted b y UM astronomy professor Andrew Wilson and Christian Henkel , of the Max Planck Institute for Radioastronomy in Germany . They were to announce their discovery Thursday at the American Astronomical Society Meeting in Minneapolis . At the sa me meeting , astronomers from Johns Hopkins University said this week they have found `` very strong '' evidence for a black hole with a mass of several million suns at the center of the Andromeda Galaxy . It is the second black hole discov ery announced in less than a week . Black holes are objects with gravitation so powerful that they draw in stars and anything else that passes near , including light . The detection of molecular water clouds in Markarian 1 was made using a huge radiotelescope near Effelsberg , 40 miles south of Bonn , Germany . `` It ' s not a surprise that there is water ( in Markarian 1 ) because it has been seen in galaxies much closer to us , '' said Braatz . `` But it is a surprise that i t 's bright enough to be detectable . '' That brightness is believed to be the r esult of a megamaser , a natural amplifier . The term combines , mega , which me ans very large , and maser , which stands for `` microwave amplification by the stimulated emission of radiation . '' ( Optional add end ) Astronomers say water megamasers form when an energy source perhaps gas being sucked into a black hol e stimulates the water molecules to emit powerful microwaves . The phenomenon is similar to man-made lasers that stimulate rubies or other substances to produce powerful beams of visible light . Radio telescopes can detect natural masers , and hundreds of small ones have been found in the Milky Way . But megamasers are a million times stronger , much rarer , and they 're found outside our galaxy . Only nine have been detected so far , four of them by Braatz , a 27- year-old B altimore native . `` But we 're still looking , '' he said . `` I 'm going to Au stralia on Saturday to look for them in the southern part of the skies . '' By c omparing the properties of the galaxies that have megamasers and those that don' t , he hopes to learn what conditions are necessary to produce them . WASHINGTON More than two-thirds of 118 health-maintenance organizations that ha ve voluntarily undergone quality review by a national accrediting group received less than full accreditation , the ratings group reported Wednesday . Two of th e three health plans that were denied accreditation were run by Aetna Health Pla ns in Southern California . The ratings were released for the first time Wednesd ay by the National Committee for Quality Assurance , a Washington-based not-for- profit group that health plans pay to evaluate them . The ratings represent one of the few standardized measures of the quality of health plans and are used by employers to help them select health plans for their employees . `` This is a bu yers ' guide to purchasing managed care , '' said Kathryn Abernethy , a health-c are specialist at Towers Perrin Co. , a management consulting firm that advises companies on employee benefits . Alan Peres , a benefits manager at the telecomm unications company Ameritech Corp. , said NCQA ratings could make his workers mo re comfortable with HMOs , which try to contain costs by controlling patients ' access to medical specialists and steering them to doctors and hospitals that ac cept discounted rates . There are no similar accreditations for traditional fee- for-service health-insurance plans , which allow their members to seek care from any doctor or hospital and typically do not attempt to control patient care . ` ` We can say to them ( employees ) that , yes , managed care is different than w hat you had before , it may take some getting used to , but unlike with fee-for- service .. . there is somebody out there watching , '' said Peres , who appeared at an NCQA news conference . For competition to work in health care , consumers must have access to detailed standardized information comparing plans on qualit y and cost , health-care specialists agree . Such information is generally unava ilable , they said . The NCQA ratings offer employers and consumers only limited guidance . They generally measure the soundness of health plans ' quality contr ol and management systems , rather than the quality of the care the health plans deliver . For example , NCQA would mark a health plan down for doing too little to monitor and improve rates of immunizations or cancer screenings , but it wou ld not necessarily grade how well a plan uses those preventive measures , NCQA o fficials and health-plan executives said . The accreditations do not reflect med ical outcomes or independent measures of patient satisfaction things that variou s groups , including NCQA , are attempting to measure in report cards on health- plan performance that are still in embryonic stages . Under its agreement with h ealth plans , NCQA can disclose nothing more detailed about a plan 's performanc e than its accreditation status : Full accreditation for plans that have `` exce llent '' quality-improvement programs and comply fully with NCQA standards . One -year accreditation for plans that have `` well-established '' programs and meet most standards . Provisional accreditation for those that have `` adequate '' p rograms and `` meet some NCQA standards . '' Denial for plans with more signific ant shortcomings , including those that pose `` a potentially significant risk t o quality of care . '' Or `` under review '' for plans seeking reconsideration o f their rating . Two of Aetna 's plans were denied accreditation because of the `` immaturity of their quality-monitoring systems , '' Aetna spokeswoman Linda A mbrose said . The denials are `` no reflection on the quality of care provided t o individual consumers or members , '' she said . Ambrose added that consumers s hould be concerned if health plans do not improve their ratings over time . Corp orate managers who select plans said they might refuse to do business with a hea lth plan that would not participate in the accreditation process , but that they might give a health plan that received less than full accreditation time to imp rove its rating . NCQA , which has been reviewing HMOs since 1991 , set its stan dards to reflect an ideal rather than the industry 's current norms , said Marga ret O' Kane , NCQA 's president . WASHINGTON Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown has sold his interest in a compan y he owned with Nolanda Hill , the Washington business executive whose failure t o repay a $ 26 million debt to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. became a poli tical embarrassment to Brown . In his financial-disclosure report for 1993 , fil ed last month with the Office of Government Ethics , Brown reported he received between $ 250,000 and $ 500,000 on Dec. 15 for his stake in First International Communications Corp. , a Washington investing firm . The shares were repurchased by the firm , Brown aides said . Brown and Hill `` decided last year to disolve their partnership due to restrictions placed on the partnership 's business as the result of Mr. Brown 's position as secretary of commerce and the unfair pres s attention directed at Nolanda Hill because of her on-going professional associ ation with Secretary Brown , '' Commerce Department spokeswoman Carol Hamilton s aid Wednesday . Hill , who handled all the operations of First International and was the only other known investor in the company , could not be reached for com ment Wednesday . Harry Barnett , a Boston attorney representing Hill , said he c ould not explain how she came up with the money to buy Brown 's share of the fir m when last year she was unable to repay debts to the government . Brown and Hil l have refused to discuss their business relationship or say what their company did . At a breakfast meeting with reporters last week , Brown said that despite its name , First International Communications was not in the communications busi ness . Brown 's stock in First International was the largest single investment l isted by Brown on his 1992 financial-disclosure report , which listed his holdin gs before he joined the government , Government regulations do not require offic ials to put precise values on their holdings , but to list them in various range s of value . As of last year , Brown showed his First International shares were worth between $ 500,000 and $ 1 million and said that valuation was based on inf ormation provided by Hill that might be optimistic . The new report shows Brown like many high government officials had to substantially restructure his persona l finances when he entered the government . The disclosure report shows Brown re ceived between $ 500,000 and $ 1 million last February when he disposed of his i nterests in Capital PEBSCO Inc. , an employee-benefits consulting firm . Because Brown was required to sell his stake in PEBSCO when he took office , he qualifi ed for special tax treatment that allowed him to reinvest the profits from the s ale without paying capital-gains taxes . Brown now has put most of his money int o mutual funds and now lists holdings of between $ 15,000 and $ 100,000 in 34 di fferent funds , invested in a wide variety of stocks and bonds . Hill , Brown 's partner in First International , formerly owned WFTY , Channel 50 in Washington , and WUNI , Channel 27 , in Needham , Mass. , a suburb of Boston . Last year s he lost both stations in foreclosure proceedings after she failed to repay the m oney she borrowed to buy and run them . Hill financed the stations with loans fr om a group of Texas savings and loan associations , which later failed and were taken over by the FDIC . After trying unsuccessfully to collect on the loans , t he FDIC sold them and wrote off a loss of $ 23 million , which was absorbed by t axpayers as part of the $ 150 billion savings and loan cleanup . When Hill 's fa ilure to repay her debts to the FDIC were reported by The Washington Post last y ear , Brown said he knew nothing of his partner 's financial problems . Brown an d Hill were partners in First International which operated out of the same small office here as Corridor Broadcasting , the parent company for Hill 's televisio n stations . Hill and Brown , the former Democratic National Committee chairman , also were political allies and last summer he arranged for her to be invited t o a White House lunch with President Clinton and a small group of business execu tives . Promient in Democratic Party circles , Hill was one of the organizers of a planned Kennedy Center gala for `` Friends of Ron Brown '' that was scheduled for three days before President Clinton 's inaugural . The party , which was to be sponsored by such corporations as J.C. Penney , Anheuser-Busch , Pepsico and Textron , was canceled after objections that it was inappropriate for the comme rce secetary-designate to be soliciting funds from companies that might be invol ved in issues before the Commerce Department . BEDFORD , Va. . Fresh-faced teenagers performing patriotic skits on the school stage . A military band playing the national anthem outside the picturesque cour thouse . Glass cases stuffed with wartime memorabilia in the local museum . Thes e are the simple ways in which this small town is paying tribute to the sons it lost on D-Day a half-century ago . Similar remembrances are unfolding throughout rural America . But this community of 6,000 , about 25 miles east of Roanoke , has a tragic distinction : It lost more men per capita on Normandy 's beaches th at day than any other U.S. town . The death toll of 23 was so devastating that i t prompted the military to stop forming units out of soldiers from a single comm unity . For years after the war , few people in Bedford talked about their sacri fice . It was too painful . Eventually , the veterans who made it home started g athering each June with their families and with relatives of the dead , sometime s at a small memorial marker that had been placed outside the courthouse . But r esidents born after the war seemed oblivious to the price their community had pa id . `` At times , I thought that no one cared , '' said E. Ray Nance , 80 , a r etired postal worker and one of two D-Day veterans still living in Bedford . `` It 's their history , it 's their heritage . It was an important time . '' This year , however , the generation that lived through D-Day vowed not to let the ha lf-centennial pass unnoticed . It started with Nancy Johnson , 55 , an apple far mer whose recollections of the war are confined to memories of her grandfather ' s straining to hear the radio bulletins . She pressed for an exhibit at the Bedf ord Museum , then recruited middle and high school students for a tribute to sur vivors and those who never came home . As word spread , interest in the annivers ary grew . Residents donated mementos for the museum exhibit and lined up for ti ckets to the show at the school . Students interviewed veterans for oral history projects . The local radio station started playing patriotic anthems and popula r music from the 1940s . An office supplies store downtown created a window disp lay honoring those who fought . The mayor asked local schools to make Bedford 's D-Day role a permanent part of their history curriculum . `` It needs to be rec orded , '' said Mayor Mike Shelton , 42 . `` It needs to be passed on . Because those who experienced its direct impact willn't be with us when the 60th anniver sary comes . '' Last weekend , members of the Bedford Middle School chorus , onl y slightly younger than many of the fallen soldiers were on D-Day , performed in the building where the troops had attended school . The teenagers paid tribute with moving renditions of `` America the Beautiful '' and `` Battle Hymn of the Republic '' and upbeat performances of `` Over There '' and `` Boogie Woogie Bug le Boy of Company B . '' After the songs , there was a skit about soldiers going off to war , and one young man returning home in a casket . And there was a rec reation of that morning at the drugstore when the telegrams started to arrive . For the finale , 23 youngsters stood in a semicircle , each lighting a candle as the name of a fallen soldier was called . Then Joel Morgan , 17 , played taps , wearing the olive green uniform of his grandfather , a D-Day survivor who serve d in the 29th Division from another small Virginia town . `` It just gets me exc ited to know that I 'm doing something for these people-like I 'm paying them ba ck for what they did for us so long ago , '' Joel said . `` It 's not much , but hopefully they 'll realize how much we appreciate what they did . '' RIVERSIDE , Calif. . An apparently distracted James Edward Bess locked his keys in his car at the University of California , Riverside about an hour before he allegedly shot Nation of Islam speaker Khallid Abdul Muhammad and campus police came to his rescue , university officials said Wednesday . After police confirme d that Bess had rightful use of the vehicle and opened it for him , Bess moved t he vehicle from a housing complex across the street from the gymnasium where Muh ammad had begun speaking 45 minutes earlier . Bess , 49 , who was expelled from the Nation of Islam after serving as a minister of a Seattle mosque four years a go , never made it back to his car . He was beaten by the crowd after he alleged ly opened fire with a semiautomatic handgun , striking Muhammad and five of his bodyguards after they left the building . Later , police found Bess ' vehicle ab out two blocks away , near one of the main campus entrances . Inside the vehicle , they recovered a high-powered rifle and ammunition . They also recovered at t he shooting scene a backpack containing two additional semiautomatic handguns th at they said belonged to him . Nothing about Bess ' behavior or actions attracte d the officer 's attention when he helped Bess get into his car , university spo kesman Jack Chappell said . `` There was nothing unusual about the vehicle , and the individual 's demeanor was polite , '' Chappell said . Chappell said the ca ll for police assistance came in at 4:45 p.m. Sunday , after Bess was unable to break into his car with a coat hangar he got from a student resident on campus . Unknown to Bess , the student on his own called police for help , and they prom ptly showed up , Chappell said . The campus police dispatcher , using the vehicl e 's license plate number , called the registered owner of the car in Washington state , who confirmed that Bess had permission to drive it , Chappell said . He would not release the name of the owner of the car but said investigators were following up with that person . Muhammad and his bodyguards were shot just minut es after 6 p.m. . Bess who was convicted of manslaughter in 1964 in Missouri and who shot and killed his brother in Fresno in 1975 in what was ruled self-defens e has been charged in the Muhammad shooting with one count of attempted premedit ated murder and five counts of assault with a firearm . He has pleaded not guilt y and is being held without bail and remains hospitalized at Riverside General H ospital from injuries including a broken shoulder inflicted by people who beat h im after the shooting . Muhammad , meanwhile , is in good condition at Riverside Community Hospital , where he underwent surgery Tuesday night for the removal o f bullet fragments from his leg , officials there said . ( Optional add end ) Dr . Nicandro Marciano , who assisted in the surgery , described Muhammad as `` unc annily lucky '' because the fragments were less than one millimeter away from a major artery which , if hit , `` could have been not only limb-threatening , but life-threatening . '' Muhammad who was suspended last year as spokesman for Nat ion of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan after his verbal assault on Jews , Arabs and whites has lost feeling in the sole of his foot because of slight nerve damage caused by the wound , Marciano said . It was too early to tell if the damage is permanent , he said . Hospital spokeswoman Ann Matich said Muhammad is expected to remain hospitalized `` for a few more days . '' RIVERSIDE , Calif. . The niece of the man accused of shooting former Nation of Islam spokesman Khallid Abdul Muhammad on Sunday still holds her uncle responsib le for the death of her father 19 years ago . James Edward Bess , 49 , an expell ed Nation of Islam minister , shot his brother Elvin in 1975 . He was acquitted when a jury decided he fired in self-defense , but Elvin Bess ' daughter still r esents her uncle . `` He cheated me out of a relationship with my father , '' Rh onda Bess , 33 , of San Bernardino , Calif. , said in a telephone interview earl y Wednesday . She said she had not seen nor spoken with James Bess in years . Af ter killing her father , Rhonda Bess said , her uncle moved to Seattle . James B ess has a record of violence . He and another brother , Henry , were convicted i n 1964 in Missouri of manslaughter . They were sentenced to 10-year prison terms , but were paroled almost immediately , according to 30-year-old accounts in th e Fresno Bee newspaper in California . In 1965 , James and Henry Bess were convi cted of beating a man in Fresno , Calif. , who refused to buy a Muslim newspaper , the Bee reported at the time . Bess , the father of eight , has been charged with one count of attempted premeditated murder and five counts of assault with a firearm in Sunday 's shooting of Muhammad and five bodyguards . The shooting o ccurred after Muhammad delivered a speech laced with anti-Semitic invective to a bout 500 students at the University of California , Riverside , campus . Police believe Bess acted alone . Muhammad was suspended as an aide to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan after a November speech at Kean College in New Jersey in which he called Jews the `` bloodsuckers '' of the black community and urged the killing of South African whites . Police disclosed Wednesday that in the hours before the Sunday shooting , University of California police helped Bess after h e accidentally locked his keys in his blue Mazda . Police later found a high-pow ered rifle with a scope in the car . Before opening the car , police telephoned its owner in Washington state , said campus spokesman James Chappell . He said t he owner confirmed that Bess was authorized to use the car . Police say Bess use d a 9-mm pistol to wound Muhammad and his security guards , and two more 9-mm pi stols were found in a backpack , belonging to him , next to the auditorium . Mea nwhile , about a half-dozen members of Farrakhan 's personal security force arri ved Tuesday from Chicago . Late that night , they examined the scene of the shoo ting and as many as 30 men re-enacted the incident with the permission of univer sity officials , Chappell said . Muhammad rested Wednesday after a two-hour oper ation in Riverside Community Hospital Tuesday to remove bullet fragments from hi s left leg . His doctor , Nicandro Marciano , said the bullet fragment missed a major artery in his leg by a millimeter . If it was hit , he could have bled to death . ( Optional add end ) Muhammad and his supporters have not issued a state ment about the shooting , nor has Farrakhan . Farrakhan is scheduled to appear S aturday at the University of Nevada , Las Vegas , fueling speculation that he ma y visit Muhammad at the Riverside hospital . Muhammad is scheduled to speak in d owntown Los Angeles Saturday , a commitment his supporters say he intends to kee p . Earlier this year , Bess was a delegate to a convention of independent polit ical parties aligned with New Alliance Political Party leader Lenora Fulani , a longtime Farrakhan supporter . `` This obviously came as a surprise to all of us , '' said another delegate , Patriot Party Chairman Nicholas Sabatine of Wind G ap , Pa. . `` Absolutely nothing happened at the convention that would lead us t o believe he would do something like this . '' SACRAMENTO , Calif. . Contending there is reason to believe tobacco-giant Phili p Morris Corp. `` engaged in a systematic scheme of deception '' to gain signatu res for a statewide smoking initiative , acting Secretary of State Tony Miller o n Wednesday filed legal action that could lead to disqualification of the ballot measure . Miller asked the Superior Court in Sacramento to give him permission to question a sampling of voters who signed the initiative petition to determine whether they were deliberately misinformed . The ballot measure would abolish a ll local smoking bans and replace them with a looser , statewide standard . A sp okesman for the Philip Morris-financed Californians for Statewide Smoking Restri ctions argued that Miller 's action was unconstitutional and that he was grandst anding to gain an advantage over his opponents in next Tuesday 's Democratic pri mary . `` It is blatantly clear that this is a fairly desperate attempt to call attention to himself in his campaign for secretary of state , '' said Lee H. Sti tzenberger , whose firm , the Dolphin Group , represents the smoking initiative committee , Californians for Statewide Smoking Restrictions . One of Miller 's p rimary opponents , former Los Angeles City Councilman Michael Woo , agreed . `` There is the appearance that ( Miller ) continues to use the office to advance h is campaign goals that could have been avoided by waiting until after the electi on , '' said Woo 's campaign manager , Steven Glazer . Miller said politics play ed no part in his decision to go to court this week that he needed to act quickl y to get the matter settled by June 30 , the deadline for certifying measures fo r the November ballot . Miller 's action was hailed by anti-smoking forces . Car olyn Martin , who chairs the Coalition for a Healthy California , predicted that `` a scientific survey will prove that a least half of those who signed the tob acco industry petition were duped or signed under false pretenses . '' Documents released by Miller show that paid signature gatherers were told not to deviate from two `` pitches '' made to potential signers that the petition imposed `` st atewide smoking restrictions '' and that it increased penalties for selling toba cco to minors . The hired workers were apparently not to tell voters the initiat ive would strike down local smoking ordinances stronger than the new law or that Phillip Morris was the actual sponsor . The smoking initiative committee 's fin ancial statements show that Philip Morris provided $ 491,213 to qualify the meas ure . A smattering of bars and restaurants provided the rest , a total of $ 480 . Miller said that if he establishes that there was deception , he would then as k the court to invalidate the ballot measure under a statute barring circulators from misrepresenting the contents of an initiative petition . ROME , June 2 President Clinton arrived here Wednesday night for the first leg of an eight-day trip that will put him in the center of ceremonies commemorating the 50th anniversary of D-Day and provide what the White House hopes is a respi te from a troubled spring on the domestic and foreign policy fronts . Clinton wa s greeted when he arrived at Ciampino Airport after midnight by Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Martino . His visit begins later Thursday with meetings with Po pe John Paul II and Italian political leaders . Its highlight will occur at cere monies Monday at the Normandy beaches where invading Allied troops opened the fi nal phase of World War II . `` Fifty years ago . . . the men and women of Americ a saved democracy in Europe and changed the course of history for the world , '' Clinton said in a departure ceremony in Washington at a monument to those who s erved in the Army 's 1st Infantry Division , which played a prominent role in th e D-Day invasion . `` I hope you will have some time to look at the ceremonies ' ' marking history 's largest invasion , he said . `` I hope you will think about how we can honor their legacy by carrying it on . That is the greatest honor of all . '' Clinton has rallied public support for his foreign policy management o n both his previous foreign trips and the White House hopes this one will produc e the same results , despite its potential difficulties . A senior official said today that the trip `` involves very little substance , '' with its focus being the Normandy commemoration and the pictures of the president on the world stage in Italy , France and Britain . Americans have become increasingly critical of Clinton 's handling of foreign policy , with a string of recent polls showing th at a majority now disapprove of his handling of such issues . His overall approv al has also been slipping below 50 percent in some recent surveys . White House officials are prepared for Clinton 's first day overseas to offer a tinge of con troversy . Differences with the pope on abortion and other issues to be raised a t a U.N. population conference later this year are expected to be part of the di scussions at the Vatican . Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told reporter s that the pope wants to discuss `` ethical aspects '' of the final draft for th e U.N. conference , `` particularly the right to life . '' Clinton also holds hi s first meeting with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi , who is trying to allay international concern about the presence in his cabinet of five ministers from a party with neo-fascist roots . White House officials said Clinton would minimize any U.S. concern about Berlusconi 's government . White House officials said the one big issue on this trip will be an effort to persuade French Presid ent Francois Mitterrand to keep France 's peacekeeping troops in Bosnia . Althou gh Clinton refuses to send U.S. ground troops to the former Yugoslav republic ot her than to help enforce a peace agreement , he said in a radio interview broadc ast in France on Wednesday that he hoped French forces remain `` until we have e xhausted all possibilities of a settlement . '' French officials in recent weeks have indicated that their peacekeepers ' presence in Bosnia is untenable unless a viable peace agreement is reached by this summer . While many Europeans are ill at ease with the intrusions of Americana , only th e French have cared enough to seriously fight it . Over the years , they have la unched a series of counterattacks most notably in December , when they fought to the last bitter minute to successfully retain their leaky defenses against the growing influx of American films and television programs during global trade neg otiations . Declaring the defense of the French language a `` political priority , '' Premier Edouard Balladur 's government has also passed a law requiring tha t a minimum of 40 percent of all songs played over the country 's airwaves be in French and issued an official dictionary of some 3,500 new terms , such as `` r estauration rapide '' instead of fast food and `` disque audionumerique '' inste ad of compact disc , to replace Anglicisms that have crept into the language . H owever , a walk through Paris is proof that Americana is well entrenched . A tin y sandwich shop just off the Place de la Bastille , for example , seemed typical ly French except for the Hollywood chewing gum , the Jack Daniels whiskey , the Getaway pinball machine in the corner , and the framed photo of a Harley-Davidso n motorcycle on the wall . WASHINGTON When the House Ways and Means Committee gets back to work on health care legislation next week , it will have a new chairman but the same set of pro blems to face . Knowing that he would likely be forced to relinquish leadership of the panel because of looming criminal charges against him , Rep. Dan Rostenko wski , D-Ill. , had worked feverishly in recent weeks to make as much progress a s possible . As his starting point , Rostenkowski had used a bill that was barel y approved by the Ways and Means health subcommittee , which is chaired by Rep. Fortney H. `` Pete '' Stark , D-Calif . Making modifications in closed-door nego tiations with individual Democrats , Rostenkowski managed to get within one vote of the 20 that he needs to win committee approval . Five Democratic members rem ain uncommitted . Rostenkowski 's thrust ended Monday , when a federal grand jur y indicted him on 17 felony counts of fraud , embezzlement , conspiracy and obst ruction of justice in what prosecutors characterized as more than 20 years of al leged corruption . Under rules of the Democratic Caucus , the Chicago Democrat h ad to step down as committee chairman while the charges are pending . The incomi ng chairman , Rep. Sam Gibbons , D-Fla. , has already alerted the committee that he plans to offer his own first draft , but aides believe that it will be simil ar the one that had been shaped by Rostenkowski . Previously , Gibbons had suppo rted the so-called single-payer system , in which the government finances health care . However , because it would involve a massive tax increase , that system appears to have no chance of passage . The Ways and Means approach is significan tly different from those under consideration in the other committees . It includ es the single most controversial feature of Clinton 's plan : a requirement that employers pay the bulk of their workers ' health care costs . However , unlike Clinton 's proposal , it would cover the remaining uninsured with a new form of Medicare . In that area , it is a step toward a single-payer system , which pres umably would make it more attractive to Gibbons . Before his departure as chairm an , Rostenkowski had also suggested that a broad-based tax could be necessary t o make up for a $ 50 billion shortfall in the bill a proposal that caused shudde rs at the White House . That issue is likely to wait until after the Congression al Budget Office produces its cost estimates of the Ways and Means subcommittee bill . Similar deliberations are going on in four other committees in Congress t wo in the House and two in the Senate and House leaders hope that a breakthrough on Ways and Means could help clear the logjam on some of the other panels . Non e of the five committees managed to make their self-imposed Memorial Day deadlin e for producing a bill . Because so many committees share jurisdiction over the issue , and because it involves so many powerful interests , House and Senate le aders cannot rely on the normal legislative process to produce a single bill tha t can become law . Thus , it has always been clear that the actual legislation w ould be written after the committees had done their preliminary work . However , because no committee has yet produced a bill , any sense of momentum has been d rained out of the process , and that has made members of both the House and Sena te even more skittish about voting for such a controversial measure in an electi on year . The loss of Rostenkowski appears certain to put more pressure on Energ y and Commerce Committee Chairman John D. Dingell , D-Mich. , who also has been unable to find the votes he needs . Sources said the Energy and Commerce Committ ee is considering a `` two-bill solution '' that could involve approving a versi on of the president 's plan and one that would lean more toward a competing prop osal offered by committee member Rep. Jim Cooper , D-Tenn. Cooper 's bill is les s regulatory , but also does not reach what Clinton has said is his bottom line requirement : guaranteeing that every American will have health coverage . The f inal House committee considering the bill , the Education and Labor Committee , is not considered a true testing ground for health legislation , because it is a mong the most liberal in the House . Even there , however , reaching an agreemen t is proving more difficult than expected . The disarray in the House appears ce rtain to accelerate health care legislation in the direction that it was already headed toward resolution in the Senate . There , Democrats still have some hope of bringing moderate Republicans on board , particularly if they can soften the employer mandate so that the burden on the smallest businesses might be lighten ed . ( Optional add end ) The Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee has alr eady begun drafting a bill , with Republicans joining Democrats on many of the v otes thus far . However , it has not yet dealt with the core issues that divide the two parties . Those appear most likely to be worked out in the Finance Commi ttee , where Republicans are stronger in number . The Democratic and Republican staffs of the committee are working together over Congress ' weeklong Memorial D ay recess in hopes of producing a set of options when the committee members retu rn . Separately , U.S. . District Judge Norma H. Johnson scheduled a June 10 arr aignment of Rostenkowski at the federal courthouse here where cases involving hi gh-profile political figures and scandals ranging from Watergate to Iran-Contra have been tried . Times staff writer Ronald J. Ostrow contributed to this report . ROME As he launches a weeklong tour of Europe , President Clinton is braced to hear protests from Pope John Paul II Thursday over U.S. support for a draft U.N. document that calls for expanded contraception programs worldwide and endorses a woman 's right to abortion . The potential confrontation comes as Clinton begi ns what is supposed to be a triumphant trip , commemorating the 50th anniversary of D-Day with a series of major addresses and emotion-laden events at the U.S. cemeteries overlooking Anzio Beach in Italy and Omaha Beach in France . His depa rture from Washington Wednesday set the tone . Beneath a towering monument to th e first Army division to storm ashore in Normandy , Clinton asked Americans to w atch Monday 's televised D-Day ceremonies and `` say a simple thank you '' to th e generation that won World War II . For a moment at work Monday , he counseled , `` You might pause and reflect , 50 years ago on this day , at this hour , the men and women of America saved democracy in Europe and changed the course of hi story for the world . '' In viewing the ceremonies , Clinton said , `` I hope yo u will think about how we can honor their legacy by carrying it on . That is the greatest honor of all . '' But even before leaving on the eight-hour flight to Rome , Clinton received a letter from the United States ' six Catholic cardinals charging that the U.N. document was `` morally objectionable '' and would tramp le `` the rights and religious values of people around the world . '' At issue i s a non-binding declaration that is to be ratified at the International Conferen ce on Population and Development in September in Cairo , Egypt . Clinton has rev ersed 12 years of strict anti-abortion policy under two Republican administratio ns that barred the United Nations from using any U.S. funds for organizations pr oviding abortion services . Instead , U.S. delegates helped write a draft that c alls for stabilizing the world 's population at 7.27 billion by the year 2015 by improving the status of women and providing easier access to abortion and contr aceptives in the Third World . In March , John Paul sent a letter to Clinton and other heads of states warning that the Cairo conference would be a `` serious s etback for humanity . '' Administration officials said Clinton would stand by th e U.S. position . `` On this , we will respectfully acknowledge our agreement , '' a senior official traveling with the president said . Another official said , `` It 's very important in developing countries that women have medical and oth er information as they 're making decisions about planning their families . It ' s not that we 're advocating any type of forced sterilization or anything like t hat . '' But the White House does hope to avoid the sort of public confrontation over abortion that marked the meeting of the president and the pope in Denver l ast August . Then , to Clinton 's obvious discomfort , the pope exhorted America ns to `` defend life . '' This time , citing the pontiff 's convalescence from r ecent hip surgery , the White House and Vatican haven't planned any public remar ks while the two men are together , though that is still possible . They are sch eduled to meet privately for 45 minutes in the Papal Library in John Paul 's pri vate quarters . First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and other officials will then join them for a picture-taking session . The meeting is one of the first events on Clinton 's eight-day tour of Italy , England and France . The Italian leg of the journey celebrates the June 1944 Allied liberation of Rome . ( Optional add end ) Wednesday , in an embarkation ritual sure to be repeated during the trip , the presidential couple walked from the White House and laid carnation wreaths at a stone honoring the World War II dead of the `` Big Red One , '' the First I nfantry Division . Gen. Gordon Sullivan , Army chief of staff and a former comma nder of the unit , stood by . `` In Europe , '' Clinton told an invited crowd of 300 , mainly World War II veterans , in a six-minute speech , `` we will be rem embering the sacrifices of the generation that fought that great war . They have given us 50 years of freedom and strong nationhood . They have nurtured generat ions of young Americans and given us a chance to work with the rest of the world to bring the Cold War to an end and to build toward the 21st century . '' Besid es praising the fighting troops , Clinton lauded `` Rosie the Riveter and her co -workers '' in the `` home front army of democracy '' those who stayed to build the planes , grow the crops and mine the coal , including the children who colle cted scrap metal and rubber for production lines . After the war , Clinton noted , the same generation `` built the strongest middle class in all of human histo ry '' through such initiatives as the GI Bill . `` This week , let us all , from the president to every other citizen , do our best to say a simple thank you , '' Clinton said . `` Thank you for what you did . Thank you for the years you ha ve given us . Thank you for the example you have set through sacrifice and coura ge and determination . '' With huge increases predicted in the number of Haitian boat people fleeing to t he United States , Jamaica agreed Wednesday to let the United States interview t he refugees in Jamaican waters to determine if some of them deserve political as ylum . The agreement represents a minor victory for President Clinton as he trie s to shore up a Haiti policy that protects Haitians in danger of political perse cution but not those seeking escape from poverty and that attempts to restore ou sted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power . Prime Minister P.J. Patterson s aid Wednesday Jamaica had given the United States permission to use Jamaica 's t erritorial waters to process Haitian refugees . The agreeement is to last six mo nths , Patterson said . Up to now , the U.S. Coast Guard has been returning all the boat people it finds on the open seas to Haiti . Critics have blasted Clinto n for the policy , saying the Haitians face torture and death upon their return to their country . Large numbers of the refugees are supporters of Aristide , wh o was overthrown by the Haitian army in 1991 . They say they are fleeing politic al terror and deserve asylum in the United States . But U.S. officials have said most of them are seeking jobs and are therefore not eligible for asylum . The n umber of Haitians taking to the seas has been picking up since Clinton announced May 8 that he was changing policy , and that the United States would begin inte rviewing boat people . Almost 1,500 have been picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard since then . All have been returned to Port-au-Prince . Some human rights advoca tes in Haiti have said the number will increase even more sharply once the new p olicy goes into effect . Administration officials have said that probably only a bout 5 percent of the Haitians would receive asylum . But it is believed that ma ny Haitians will see those as good odds and worth the dangerous journey . Those not receiving asylum will be returned to Haiti . According to State Department o fficials , the Clinton administration achieved another Haiti policy victory in r ecent days . The officials said the Dominican Republic appears to be beefing up patrols along its land border with Haiti , in an effort to cut off the flow of o il and other contraband items barred by the U.N. . Security Council embargo agai nst Haiti . WASHINGTON For years , the neighborhood surrounding Capitol Hill has been a hig h-crime area . Now the crime wave looks to be moving under the Capitol dome itse lf . With the indictment Tuesday of Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , the powerfu l chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee , criminal proceedings involvin g members of Congress are growing in number . Two other former lawmakers are cur rently in federal prison for financial misdeeds , another is free pending appeal of a bribery convicton last fall , and still another is awaiting sentencing on charges of misusing public funds . Three other former legislators recently serve d time for bribery and related offenses . In addition to Rostenkowski , two othe r senior legislators also are under indictment and at least two more appear to b e the targets of FBI investigations . In this century , only in the late 1970s w hen Congress was rocked by the so-called Koreagate and ABSCAM bribery scandals h ave so many members been in prison , just out of prison or facing the prospect o f prison as now . Even that accounting does not include the ethical lapses that did not lead to criminal prosecutions : the House Post Office and banking scanda ls , which implicated dozens of members , the sexual misconduct allegations agai nst Sen. Bob Packwood , R-Ore. , the exertions to protect savings and loan owner Charles W. Keating Jr. by five senators , or the questionable financial transac tions that forced the resignations of Democratic leaders Jim Wright and Tony Coe lho in 1989 . Some attribute this confluence of scandal not to declining ethics but to intensifying scrutiny from the news media , public and prosecutors that h as made behavior criminal that once was tolerated , if not endorsed . But others insist that the climate on Capitol Hill is encouraging legislators to confuse i ncumbency with immunity and power with license . ( Begin optional trim ) `` Ther e is a clear environment up there that the rules aren't to be enforced , '' says Fred Wertheimer , president of Common Cause , a group that monitors government ethics . `` It does enormous damage to the institution because it allows lowest common denominator ethics to set the public standard for the institution . '' Th e flow of charges has been steady enough to guarantee a good living for lawyers who specialize in defending public officials charged in corruption cases . `` Fo r me , it 's been constant , '' says attorney Stan Brand , who has represented m ore than two dozen legislators since leaving his post as counsel to the House of Represenatives to open his own firm 10 years ago . ( End optional trim ) Over t he years , congressional scandals have covered the gamut of human misbehavior . Legislators have fallen into the bottle or the arms of prostitutes . Almost all the prosecutions of sitting legislators in recent years , however , have involve d bribery , tax evasion or misuse of public funds . The list includes : New York Democratic Rep. Mario Biaggi , who served 26 months in a medium-security federa l prison for an extortion conviction in a case involving Wedtech Corp. , a South Bronx company that spent lavishly in its search of defense contracts . Fellow N ew York Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia also was convicted twice of extortion in t he case and at one point served three months in prison , but each conviction was later overturned by a federal appeals court . Former Rep. Lawrence J. Smith , a Florida Democrat who served three months last year for tax evasion and lying to the Federal Election Commission about using campaign funds to pay off a gamblin g debt . Pat Swindall , a former Republican representative from Georgia , is sch eduled to remain until February 1995 in the minimum-security U.S. penitentary ca mp in Atlanta after a perjury conviction in a case involving a personal loan . U ndercover agents told him that the loan involved the proceeds of laundered drug money . Swindall has filed a brief with the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals , claiming new evidence and seeking to reopen his case . Former Democratic Rep. Ni cholas Mavroules of Massachusetts is to be confined until September at a medium- security federal institution in McKean , Pa. , after pleading guilty last year t o an array of bribery and tax evasion charges . Albert Bustamante , a former Dem ocratic representative from Texas , was sentenced last fall to 42 months in pris on for accepting a bribe but is free on bond while appealing his conviction to t he Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals . Carroll Hubbard Jr. , a former Kentucky Demo cratic congressman , pleaded guilty in April to falsifying campaign reports , us ing public employees to work on his wife 's campaign for Congress and obstructin g justice . While awaiting sentencing on June 30 , Hubbard has solicited his for mer colleagues to send letters to the judge urging leniency . In addition to Ros tenkowski , two other legislators are currently under indictment : Sen. David Du renberger , R-Minn. , on charges of fradulently billing the Senate for use of a condominium he secretly owned , and Rep. Joseph M. McDade , R-Pa. , who was indi cted in May , 1992 , on charges of accepting bribes and illegal gratuities from defense lobbyists . Published reports also have indicated that the FBI is invest igating at least two other legislators : California Republican Rep. Jay Kim , on charges of illegally funneling money into his 1992 campaign from a business he owned , and California Democrat Walter R. Tucker , as part of an investigation o f corruption in Compton , Calif. , where Tucker formerly served as mayor . Does this constitute a congressional crime wave ? Compared to other professions , the frequency of ethical transgression in the contemporary Congress appears relativ ely high but not entirely out of line . Over the last 20 years , about three doz en members of Congress either have been convicted of criminal offenses or censur ed by the House and Senate . That averages out to about 3.5 legislators in any t wo-year congressional session or put another way , about one serious ethical san ction per 150 sitting legislators at any given time . ( Begin optional trim ) Co mpare that to lawyers . In the period from 1989-1990 , the latest for which comp lete figures are available , about 4,500 practicing lawyers were publicly sancti oned by the American Bar Association . That averages out to roughly one serious ethical problem per 190 accredited lawyers over the two-year period . But compar ed to historical standards , today 's Congress might not look so bad . Throughou t the 19th century , and even well into this century , Rostenkowski might have h ad considerable company in the activities for which he was indicted allegedly pa dding his payroll and diverting official accounts to his personal use . It is ag ainst the backdrop of such history and the 20th century equivalents involving th e now-defunct urban political machines that attorney Brand labels the current su rge of congressional prosecutions `` part of the overcriminalization of life in America . '' Brand attributes the rising number of cases not to deteriorating et hical standards but `` higher level of scrutiny , more rules , less tolerance fo r old ways not illegal ways but mores and more aggressive prosecutorial theory , taking peccadilloes and violations of House rules or Senate rules and making th em into criminal cases . '' ( End optional trim ) Prosecutors are devoting more energy than ever before to rooting out public misconduct . Since 1976 , the Just ice Department has operated a public integrity section that investigates Congres s and other public officials : with 26 attorneys , it has 18 cases under active litigation and another 172 under investigation . To most reformers , the real me asure of Congress ' ethical problems are found not in such egregious examples of misconduct , but in the corrosive workaday trading of money and favors permitte d under current campaign finance and gift laws . For these critics , the working s of Congress testify to journalist Michael Kinsley 's maxim that in Washington the real scandal almost always involves behavior that is legal . HOLLYWOOD Casey Silver was named president of Universal Pictures Wednesday and given broad new responsibilities , including the authority to `` greenlight '' m ovies . While Silver 's promotion was expected in industry circles , some were s urprised by the level of autonomy he received . Universal said Silver , 39 , wil l have control over all production , marketing and distribution at the studio , a division of MCA Inc. . Silver said he expects to `` stay the course '' at Univ ersal , which has recently emerged from a long dry spell at the box office with Steven Spielberg-driven hits such as `` Jurassic Park , '' `` Schindler 's List '' and `` The Flintstones , '' the last of which grossed $ 37.5 million over the Memorial Day weekend . `` I want to make as many good movies as I can , '' Silv er said . `` I have no plans to change what we 're going to do . '' Silver worke d as president of production at Universal for five years . Hal Lieberman , the e xecutive vice president of production , is rumored to be the leading candidate t o replace him . Silver will report to Motion Picture Group Chairman Tom Pollock , who will become more involved in strategic planning . In partiular , Pollock i s expected to focus on the international film market and MCA 's minority interes t in Cineplex Odeon . By his own admission , it was hardly the stuff of Hollywood when Pfc . Anthony Yakaitis and a bunch of his American Army buddies entered Rome 50 years ago this week . `` It was the middle of the night and the place was pitch black , '' rec alled Yakaitis , then a 20-year-old military policeman stationed with the 45th D ivision on the outskirts of the city . `` There was nobody out , and it was too dark to see . Nothing was happening , so we walked around for a while and then h itched a ride back to camp . Not very exciting . '' That was the evening of June 6 , 1944 , and if Yakaitis , now a retired civil servant and Franklin Square , N.Y. , resident , had arrived 48 hours earlier , he would have seen something mo re dramatic . Vera Signorelli Cacciatore , then a young Rome resident , would re call the scene several years later for war correspondents . She told them how th e first ranks of footsore , exhausted Americans walked into the capital , fulfil ling a major goal of the bitter Mediterranean campaign launched by Allied troops almost a year earlier . `` They were silent , very tired , marching almost like robots , '' she said of members of the 88th Division , who were among the first Yanks to enter Rome on the evening of June 4 . `` The people came out of the ho uses to cheer them , but they only smiled , waved and kept on going . '' Succeed ing ranks of GIs were given different orders , however , and stopped in Rome for the night . And when they did , the citizenry could provide a more rousing welc ome . `` The civilians crowded around them , patting them on the back , kissing them , '' said Cacciatore , whose description is contained in `` The Italian Cam paign , '' a Time-Life book . `` The soldiers asked for something to drink water or wine and when they had drunk , they slumped down on the stones and fell asle ep . '' Most of the troops slept on the streets or against the walls of building s . A few simply flopped in the dry bottom of The Old Boat , as one of sculptor Giovanni Bernini 's fabled Rome fountains was known . By the next morning , the ambiance of Italy 's Eternal City had subtly changed . `` Before , Rome had alwa ys smelled of cooking , wine , dried fish , garlic , '' Cacciatore recalled . `` Now , suddenly , it was Chesterfields . '' A few Americans Yakaitis among them were able to spend some time sightseeing in the following days . And , although Rome , like Paris , had been unscarred by combat , the New York City-born privat e and his buddies came upon what seemed like a stunning scene of devastation . ` ` We came across a big building that looked pretty well blasted away , '' Yakait is recalled this week . `` And one of the guys pointed to it and said , ` Wow lo ok at that bombed-out place , ' which is what I thought . Then another guy took a good look and said , ` You jerks that 's the Coliseum ! ' And he was right . ' ' ( Begin optional trim ) Most of the liberators did not stay long in Rome , how ever , because the capital , abandoned by retreating Germans before they arrived , had more symbolic than strategic significance . The primary goal of the Medit erranean campaign , which began with the July 1943 invasion of Sicily by seven A llied divisions from North Africa , was to drive Italy out of the war and tie do wn German forces that might otherwise have been shifted to counter the long-expe cted Allied invasion of northern France . Moreover , Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower , supreme commander of Allied forces , strongly believed that nothing could help his planned invasion of Normandy codenamed Overlord as much as a landing in sout hern France by troops who had fought their way into northern Italy . `` If we ca n keep him on his heels until early spring , '' Eisenhower said of his German en emy shortly after the invasion of Sicily , `` then the more divisions he uses in a counteroffensive against us , the better it will be for Overlord . '' Which i s how things essentially worked out . ( End optional trim ) Italy formally surre ndered in September 1943 . Thousands of Germans subsequently were bogged down ba ttling Allied forces that , after taking Sicily , moved northward in Italy from Salerno and the blood-drenched beachhead at Anzio . Finally , thousands of Allie d troops from Italy invaded southern France in August 1944 . Yakaitis and his 45 th Division comrades participated in all those combat episodes . After landing i n southern France , they fought their way into Germany and wound up in Munich . After serving several months with occupation forces , Yakaitis was released from service in October 1945 . He had spent about 30 months in combat without a furl ough . `` I dont regret it , '' he said . `` I felt it was my duty to fight for my country . And I would do the same thing today . '' UNITED NATIONS The U.N. Commission on War Crimes issued its final report Wednes day , saying strong evidence in the former Yugoslavia indicates that Serb comman ders violated international law by pursuing a deliberate policy of `` ethnic cle ansing , '' sexual assaults and rape . `` The crimes committed have been particu larly brutal and ferocious in their execution '' and `` the magnitude of victimi zation is clearly enormous , '' the commission said . It said the `` ethnic clea nsing , '' sexual assaults and rape were carried out so systematically with no e ffort by authorities to stop or punish offenders that members of the commission believe that `` command responsibility can be established . '' The commission , headed by Cherif Bassiouni , an Egyptian-born professor of law at DePaul Univers ity in Chicago , turned over its findings and its files to the International Tri bunal on War Crimes in the former Yugoslavia , headquartered in The Hague in the Netherlands . The tribunal , which is supposed to indict and put on trial those accused of war crimes in Bosnia-Herzegovina and other parts of the former Yugos lavia , has been slow in organizing itself . Its first prosecutor resigned befor e even taking office . The Security Council has not yet named a replacement . In its report , the commission urged the tribunal to act . Victims , the panel sai d , had `` high expectations that this commission will establish the truth and t hat the ( tribunal ) will provide justice . '' The commission also said that , a lthough the victimization was clearly ordered by commanders , the perpetrators m ost but not all of them Serbs had no right to defend themselves by claiming they had to obey their superior 's orders . The command-and-control structure in Bos nia was so loose , the commission said , that `` unlawful orders could have been disobeyed without individuals risking personal harm . '' `` Indeed , some did , '' the commission went on . `` A moral choice existed . '' Discussing ethnic cl eansing the practice of clearing an area of its non-Serb population the commissi on said it was carried out `` with extreme brutality and savagery in a manner de signed to instill terror in the civilian population , in order to cause them to flee and never to return . '' The weapons included mass murder , rape , torture , looting and property destruction . ( Optional add end ) Studying in detail one district northwest Bosnia 's Opstina Prijedorin the commission found that its M uslim population had declined from 49,454 in 1991 to 6,124 in 1993 . Counting Cr oats and others , as well , the commission concluded that 52,811 people had been killed or deported in `` ethnic cleansing '' in that district . Listing names o f possible guilty parties , the commission said the military destruction of non- Serb houses in the district occurred when it was under the command of Col. Vladi mir Arsio and Maj. Radmilo Zeljaja . Further , the commission said , it `` posse sses the names of hundreds of alleged perpetrators at different levels and in a variety of capacities . '' Discussing the siege of Sarajevo , the commission con cluded there is no doubt that Bosnian Serbs deliberately targeted the civilian p opulation in months of shelling a violation of international law . `` Whether or not it is possible to develop a firm case against individual soldiers or unit c ommanding officers , '' the report said , `` it should be quite practicable to d evelop a prima facie case against the officer or officers responsible for the ( Bosnian Serb ) forces which have ben surrounding Sarajevo from the beginning of the siege . '' WASHINGTON Prominent Washington criminal lawyer Robert S. Bennett is unlikely t o represent Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , in his upcoming trial on corruption charges because of increasingly strained relations between the two , sources sa id Wednesday . The day after Rostenkowski , 66 , was charged with defrauding the government of more than $ 500,000 , sources said there was a `` less than 10 pe rcent chance '' that Bennett will stay on as the longtime lawmaker 's chief coun sel . Sources said the decision would have to be made sometime near the date of Rostenkowski 's arraignment , which has been scheduled for June 10 before U.S. . District Court Judge Norma H. Johnson . Sources said Rostenkowski has been frus trated at the outcome of the plea negotiations with U.S. . Attorney Eric H . Hol der Jr. . The veteran chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee had entered the negotiations in an effort to reduce or eliminate any prison sentence , avoi d a lengthy legal battle and retain his powerful chairmanship of the tax-writing committee . Prosecutors offered a deal in which Rostenkowski would plead guilty to at least one felony and serve a limited amount of jail time . The discussion s ended without prosecutors offering any options Rostenkowski considered accepta ble . Some of his friends and colleagues privately complained to the Chicago con gressman that the plea negotiations , which had been initiated by Bennett , may have been a mistake . They said the negotiations created a media `` feeding fren zy '' and left the impression that Rostenkowski was guilty of something . Althou gh sources said that the negotiations were initiated with Rostenkowski 's full k nowledge and consent , evidence began building that a rift was developing , and that Rostenkowski had questions about Bennett 's legal advice . Bennett suggeste d that Rostenkowski get another opinion about the plea negotiations but the cong ressman declined , the sources said . Meanwhile , Bennett became increasingly co ncerned that he did not have complete control of Rostenkowski 's defense and wor ried that the Congressman 's longtime friends had too much influence over him , particularily decisions about how the case should be litigated , sources said . The same sources noted that the silence from Rostenkowski 's camp following Hold er 's blistering press conference Tuesday spoke volumes . There was no press con ference to raise doubts or suggest weaknesses in the federal government 's case against Rostekowski , a decision that was said to have infuriated Bennett . The sources said that unless the two strong-willed men meet and resolve their differ ences , Bennett 's departure is imminent and Rostenkowski would hire his fourth chief counsel on the case . The tensions , said one source , are rooted in the f act that Rostenkowski finds himself in the unfamiliar situation of not being abl e to be in control . Sources said that if Bennett leaves , the decision will be mutual . Rostenkowski , completing his 36th year in Congress , has been charged with embezzling funds , tampering with a witness and using taxpayer money to enr ich himself , his family and friends . He is accused of receiving cash for posta ge stamps purchased in the House Post Office . Rostenkowski , who has been repla ced as Ways and Means chairman by Rep. Sam Gibbons , D-Fla. , has denied all the charges and vowed to fight them in court . Sources knowledgeable about the prob e say the FBI is completing its investigation into the House Post Office , focus ing on '' two to three '' former members of Congress . The sources , who decline d to name the former members , said it was unclear whether those investigations would lead to a grand jury indictment . SEATTLE The highest ranking military officer ever to challenge the armed forces over sexual orientation was ordered reinstated Wednesday in a ruling so broad a s to cast doubt on the Clinton administration 's new `` don't ask , don't tell ' ' policy for gays and lesbians . Army nurse Col. Margarethe Cammermeyer , a Viet nam veteran and Bronze Star recipient , won at least the first step in her case to resume her 26-year military career . And in so ordering , federal District Ju dge Thomas Zilly held that the military could not discriminate against gays just because of society 's prejudices . `` Mere negative attitudes , or fear , are c onstitutionally impermissible bases for discriminatory governmental policies , ' ' Zilly wrote in his 51-page ruling . `` Prejudice , whether founded on unsubsta ntiated fears , cultural myths , stereotypes or erroneous assumptions , cannot b e the basis for a discriminatory classification . '' Under long-standing but now revised rules of military service , Cammermeyer had been forced out of the mili tary in 1992 after she was asked about her sexual orientation and replied that s he was a lesbian . The question arose while she was being interviewed for a secu rity clearance . At the time , her distinguished service in the Army and the Nat ional Guard won her a great many sympathizers , including the governor of Washin gton and the chief nurse of the Army , who described Cammermeyer as a `` great A merican . '' Even in discharging her , the military rated her as qualified to le ad the Army nurse corps and to represent her profession `` anywhere in the world . '' Since Cammermeyer 's discharge , the military has changed its rules regard ing sexual orientation . The current policy of the Clinton administration is not to ask uniformed personnel about sexual orientation but to continue to forbid h omosexual behavior by men and women in the military . Attorneys who represent ga ys and lesbians said Zilly 's ruling was significant not only because of Cammerm eyer 's high rank and long service , but because it was so sweeping and fundamen tal as to invite a challenge to any type of military discrimination against gays . `` This is a terrific ruling . It 's very strong , '' said Mary Newbombe , wh o worked on Cammermeyer 's case as cooperative council for the gay rights Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund . `` The rational that Zilly used , the eviden ce that he considered , would apply equally to the ` don't ask , don't tell ' po licy , '' she said . So far , there have been no court rulings on Clinton 's mil itary policy toward gays , although a federal judge in April issued a temporary injunction forbidding the discharge of six members of the armed forces who filed suit against it . Cammermeyer , 52 , the mother of four , now works at the Vete rans Administration hospital at American Lake , near Tacoma , Wash. . She descri bed herself Wednesday as `` absolutely ecstatic . I feel like a kid. .. . The fi rst thing I did was holler so everybody at the hospital knew what was going on . '' `` It seems like a vindication of all the struggles so many of us have had . I can't say that I 'm speechless I can't afford to be . It 's just very excitin g . '' Her attorneys said they hoped Cammermeyer might instantly be reinstated w ith the state National Guard . But in the two previous 9th Circuit cases includi ng that of sailor Keith Meinhold , who won a lower-court ruling saying the milit ary 's exclusion of homosexuals was unconstitutional the Pentagon has appealed a nd very well may in this one , too . Dis By Marc Lacey and Jim Newton ( c ) 1994 , Los Angeles Times LOS ANGELES Hol ding onto a critical bargaining chip the World Cup games the union for disgruntl ed Los Angeles police officers Wednesday rejected Mayor Richard Riordan 's propo sal to bring in an outside mediator to help settle their labor dispute . The uni on 's action was a gamble . It prompted the city to immediately declare an impas se , which ultimately could allow the city to impose the contract it wants . But union leaders needed to take the chance in order to stay in step with their mem bership an increasingly militant crew that has already ousted one team of negoti ators it viewed as not tough enough . A job action during the upcoming soccer to urnament is unlikely to paralyze the massive security effort : The Los Angeles P olice Department can easily force its officers to work during the World Cup by d eclaring a tactical alert . But staging something similar to the Blue Flu II sic kout which ended Wednesday would cost the city millions of dollars in overtime c osts . And officers could still embarrass the city by publicizing their cause wh ile Los Angeles is in the world 's eye , union officials said . `` You 're going to have the world 's media here and a whole lot of disgruntled cops , '' said u nion spokesman Geoffrey Garfield . `` If any incident breaks out we can say , ` We told you so public safety is important . ' That will make our argument for us . '' Already , the union 's order that members refuse voluntary overtime during the World Cup games has stirred some concern among neighboring law enforcement agencies who have spent more than a year working with Los Angeles police to lay plans for the tournament , which begins June 17 . `` They have some very importa nt policing functions to perform , '' said Capt. Dan Burt , a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff 's Department . `` This is going to be a monumental u ndertaking . '' Officers ended their three-day blu flu Wednesday morning , when 226 out of 458 officers on the morning watch called in sick . But they continued their campaign for a raise by protesting en masse at an evening speech delivere d by Riordan . Hundreds of officers were there handing out fliers asking for the public 's help . To counter the city 's suggestion that a non-binding mediator be appointed , the union insisted on binding arbitration . The city rejected tha t . The resulting stalemate prompted the city to declare an impasse , an action that may ultimately give the city the authority to impose a contract on its own . ( Optional add end ) As the league has tangled with the city in the current co ntract talks , it has veered back and forth between confrontation and conciliati on partly in an attempt to stay close to what league leaders believe the members hip wants . Officers have shown that they are so frustrated that they will act e ven without the union , said union president Danny Stagg . There was widespread participation in this week 's unauthorized blue flu . Earlier , officers overwhe lmingly rejected a contract proposal that the union leadership brokered with the city . That deal called for 6 percent over the next two years . Among other thi ngs , officers have insisted on retroactive pay for the two years that officers have worked without a contract . ` Barney 's '' producers at the Lyons Group have agreed on terms for a third PB S season for the purple one . The new contract calls for 20 half-hour episodes o f the popular preschool program as well as two one-hour specials . In addition , PBS will undertake its first publishing venture with a `` Barney '' book , subj ect and audience to be determined , according to Kathy Quattrone , vice presiden t of programming at the network . Quattrone said the Lyons Group has guaranteed that PBS will recoup its investment , which for the new season will amount to $ 1.7 million . That revenue will come from the sale of videotapes , audio tapes a nd international rights to the program . The network will see no revenue from an y of the merchandising spinoffs that have a more tangential relationship to the PBS program , such as toys and stuffed animals . `` They make the case , quite a ppropriately , '' says Quattrone , `` that Barney had a life before PBS . '' She said the network continues to be very happy with `` Barney 's '' ratings and th e attention it has drawn to all the network 's preschool programming . WASHINGTON Federal regulators are reviewing their approval of one of the bigges t TV station deals in history , K. Rupert Murdoch 's 1985 acquisition of six big -city television stations . With new information about the nine-year-old purchas e emerging in the past week , the government is investigating whether the purcha se of the stations violated federal laws prohibiting foreign ownership of U.S. b roadcasting properties . If so , it could have multibillion-dollar consequences for Murdoch and the company he controls , News Corp. Ltd. The six stations in Wa shington , Los Angeles , New York , Chicago , Dallas and Houston formed the basi s for the Fox television network , which in 1987 became the first in a generatio n to gain a foothold against the established Big Three . Federal Communications Commission officials confirmed Wednesday that they are close to completing their review , which was prompted by a complaint from a division of the National Asso ciation for the Advancement of Colored People . It contends the current ownershi p is illegal and has served to squeeze out minority groups who want to buy stati ons . If the FCC reverses its approval of Murdoch 's 1985 purchase , it could ta ke the unusual step of revoking the stations ' licenses or order a restructuring of the current ownership . Murdoch 's attorneys contend that the original sale was proper . They told the FCC last week that revocation of the licenses would l ead to `` the likely demise of the Fox network . '' The key question facing the FCC is who owns the stations Murdoch , a naturalized American citizen , or News Corp. , an Australian company . Federal law prohibits a foreign company or indiv idual from owning more than 25 percent of a broadcast outlet . Passed in 1934 , the law was designed to prevent foreign governments from using radio ( and later television ) to influence the American public unduly , particularly during wart ime . Ironically , the issue is coming to a head just as Murdoch has struck anot her big station deal . Last week , News Corp. said it would spend $ 500 million for a nonvoting 20 percent interest in New World Communications , a company that owns or is buying 12 TV stations around the country . Attorneys for Murdoch say the 1985 deal complies with the foreign ownership law for two reasons . First , Murdoch became an American citizen before the deal was final , renouncing his A ustralian citizenship in 1985 . Second , Murdoch pledged in 1985 that he and his chief American lieutenant , Barry Diller , personally would control the six sta tions . ( Fox subsequently bought two others ) . The acquisition was structured so that Murdoch and Diller own stock carrying 76 percent of the voting rights in a holding company that owns the stations . News Corp. , which Murdoch headed th en as now , received a second class of stock that represents 24 percent of the v oting rights in the holding company . That is just below the 25 percent limit th at would have triggered the foreign ownership prohibition . `` The intent of the structure was to comply with the statute , '' said William Reyner , who represe nts Fox . But FCC officials now say they didn't know all they needed to know abo ut the deal . Murdoch 's application for FCC approval did not make one point exp licit : News Corp. was to supply virtually all of the money used to complete the purchase . After repeated questioning in recent months by the FCC , Murdoch 's attorneys at Hogan & Hartson of Washington acknowledged last week that more than 99 percent of the equity capital came from the Australian company . `` If we kn ew that equity control in excess of ( 25 percent ) was in the hands of aliens , we would have raised the question '' in 1985 , said Roy Stewart , the chief of t he FCC 's division responsible for television and radio licenses . Murdoch and D iller put down relatively little for their controlling shares $ 760,000 , or 0.0 013 percent of the cash purchase price . ( Murdoch bought out Diller 's preferre d shares in 1992 , after Diller left Fox to become head of the QVC cable network ) . The issue for the FCC is whether people who put in such a small portion of the total equity capital could truly be said to control the company . Stewart sa id the FCC didn't know about the 99 percent contribution because News Corp. and Murdoch had not settled their financing arrangements when they filed for governm ent approval . `` They certified that they were financially qualified to make th e purchase and would comply with the ( alien ownership ) statute , '' Stewart sa id . The only apparent disclosure made at the time about News Corp. 's financial participation was an attachment to the application . It says that News Corp. wo uld tap credit lines supplied by `` American , European and Australian banks , ' ' and that this money would be `` contributed as capital or loaned to '' Murdoch and Diller . Fox 's attorney Reyner responded Wednesday that the actual size of the investments are immaterial since an American citizen owns 76 percent of the voting stock . Attorney David Honig , representing the NAACP , called the 76/24 split `` a sham '' designed to evade the foreign ownership restrictions . Revoc ation of licenses is an extreme step that the FCC takes very rarely . Other poss ibilities include ordering Murdoch to put more of his own money into the holding company that owns the stations . `` Historically , when a bad actor is too big , the commission finds a face-saving middle ground , '' said Andrew Jay Schwartz man , executive director of the Media Access Project , an advocacy group on medi a issues . LOS ANGELES They spent 11 days together in intense deliberations , and managed to deliver a unanimous verdict : that Rodney G. King would receive no punitive d amages from the police officers who beat him . But only moments later , several jurors disclosed the sharp divisions that existed as they struggled to strike a compromise that would end a case fraught with complex issues . `` It was a very tense situation for many of us , '' said the jury 's forewoman , a Filipino-Amer ican who , without identifying herself , spoke briefly with reporters Wednesday before driving away from the courthouse in her van . `` Although we had differen ces , we still had to resolve them in some way and come to some consensus . '' T he forewoman described herself as someone with a background in mediation . That helped , but the case was vexing at times , she conceded . `` I think when ( we had ) both extremes in terms of positions : one being that the officers were jus t doing their duty , the other feeling that there was excessive force and reckle ss disregard . '' Another member of the racially mixed jury expressed anger over the decision . `` There was no justice here , '' the woman , a black South Pasa dena seamstress , said before driving away . `` There was no justice at all . '' Deliberations in the case were `` very difficult , '' she added . When asked wh ether she felt former Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates was responsible fo r the King beating , she became agitated and said , `` Yes , I do . Definitely . '' ( The judge dismissed the chief as a defendant last month . ) Her comments d iffered markedly from those of a white juror who said the decision to withhold p unitive damages was based , at least in part , on the feeling that Los Angeles P olice Department officers receive inadequate training and are grossly outnumbere d on the streets . Emphasizing that police work is a dirty job , that juror also a woman said she believed the King beating and its aftermath had been `` sad fo r the police officers . '' Controversy involving the jurors spilled beyond the c ourtroom . King 's attorney , Milton Grimes , said Wednesday he was told three j urors `` a native American , a Caucasian male and a Caucasian female '' went tog ether to a weekend barbecue where `` a substantial amount of alcohol '' was serv ed . The outing could be the basis for an appeal , Grimes said . `` We don't kno w the details , '' he said outside the courthouse , adding that a juror from ano ther federal trial had invited the King jurors to the cookout . `` We 're going to look into it , '' Grimes said . The issue was important because `` you drink too much you get loose tongues . '' Grimes added : `` The court is concerned it was a serious situation . Tongues may have gotten loose . Things may have been s aid about the case . '' ( Optional add end ) But it was the jurors ' verdict tha t drew most of the attention from legal analysts Wednesday . Hugh Manes , a Los Angeles civil-rights lawyer who has represented many plaintiffs in other police brutality cases , said : `` The jurors obviously had a difficult time . '' While criticizing the jury 's failure to assess punitive damages against former Los A ngeles Police Department Sgt. Stacey Koon or Laurence Powell , Manes characteriz ed the result as one that `` smells of compromise , '' adding that the jury 's e arlier damage award of $ 3.8 million represents a fair settlement . Like other l egal experts , Manes speculated that the jurors decided against imposing monetar y penalties on Koon and Powell because of their jail sentences . `` They are say ing Powell and Koon wound up in prison , their careers are ruined . There wouldn 't be a lot of point to imposing a punitive damage award , '' Manes said . `` Ov erall , justice has been done . It could have been done a little better . ( But ) the jury system has proven once again to be the best in the world . '' Laurie Levenson , a Loyola Marymount University law professor , said there were several possible explanations for the jury 's action , including the fact that `` this jury had already awarded very substantial compensatory damages , and those damag es already may have ( conveyed ) a bit of a message . `` This jury might have fe lt that , even though the individual officers did something wrong , the party wi th the best ability to pay and most responsibility is the city , '' she said . P aul Hoffman , former legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Sou thern California and an expert on police misconduct who now runs a private pract ice in Santa Monica , said : `` The overall message of what the jury did in this case is to send an important signal that police abuse willn't be tolerated . '' But Hoffman also expressed surprise that no punitive damages were awarded . `` It 's a very important thing in a case like this for officers to be personally o n the line , '' Hoffman said . `` That 's the one major problem with the verdict the taxpayers will pay the $ 3.8 million and the officers willn't pay anything . Officers who commit this kind of misconduct should pay something personally . '' WASHINGTON The Clinton administration has decided to seek some form of internat ional economic sanctions against North Korea , if Pyongyang continues to flout i nternational nuclear weapons inspectors , and the United States soon will begin sounding out its allies about possible action , officials said Wednesday . The e ffort would be launched only if the U.N.-affiliated International Atomic Energy Agency , which is conducting the inspections , formally declares that Pyongyang 's rebuffs have destroyed inspectors ' ability to determine if North Korea has d iverted fuel to make nuclear weapons . The Vienna , Austria-based agency is expe cted to issue its report later this week or early next , but U.S. officials said they are assuming it will declare North Korea out of compliance , unless Pyongy ang reverses itself soon . North Korea issued another statement Wednesday saying it would not allow inspectors the access they want . But U.S. officials said pr ivately they believe Pyongyang is still considering the international agency 's demands . `` The ball is in their court , '' one strategist said . The consensus on the U.S. approach was achieved by top administration national security polic y-makers before President Clinton left for Europe , where he is scheduled to tak e part in a celebration by the allies of the 50th anniversary of D-Day . Althoug h Clinton left Washington Wednesday morning , administration officials continued to discuss the issue late into the afternoon . The president is expected to rec eive periodic briefings . Officials said initial American soundings of allies ar e likely to begin Friday , when Assistant Secretary of State Robert Gallucci is scheduled to meet here with envoys from South Korea and Japan . U.S. officials s aid the central question is how the sanctions should be structured and how tough they can be and still win approval of the U.N. . Security Council . The United States may have to settle for a gradual imposition of sanctions , particularly i f China , which has opposed punishing North Korea formally , opposes such a move . U.S. officials said they still are unsure how China would vote on the issue . The State Department , while rejecting Pyongyang 's statement as unacceptable , continued to hold out hope publicly that North Korea would agree to comply with the atomic energy agency 's demands . `` There is no IAEA conclusion yet that N orth Korea has crossed the line of no return , '' Christine Shelly , the State D epartment 's deputy spokesman , told reporters Wednesday . She said North Korea still has a chance to change its mind . At the same time , Vice President Al Gor e told reporters that the administration `` will not flinch '' in its showdown w ith North Korea . `` We 're not rattling sabers we 're just saying the same thin g that American administrations have been saying since the 1950s , '' he said . Administration officials said they still are puzzled over North Korea 's intenti ons whether it is trying to cover up a nuclear weapons program or merely playing a cat-and-mouse game in hopes of prodding the West into offering more economic incentives . U.S. intelligence officials said North Korea may well have develope d one or two nuclear bombs by reprocessing spent fuel rods after it shut down it s reactor at Yongbyon briefly in 1989 . But they are uncertain any weapons have been manufactured . North Korea initially had agreed to allow international insp ectors to monitor the Yongbyon reactor earlier this year but later barred them f rom entry . Sir David Hannay , Britain 's U.N. ambassador , told reporters that , although `` there is no smoking gun '' at Yongbyon , `` there is circumstantia l evidence that points in one direction and that is not a direction that makes t he Security Council comfortable . '' Whether the Council is asked to vote on san ctions , he said , `` depends on the North Koreans . They have a choice . '' BEIJING Decades from now , they will still be remembered as the June 4 Generati on . They were the young college students and the older , battle-scarred rebels , the Communist Party reformers and independent union leaders who converged on B eijing 's sprawling Tiananmen Square in the months of April , May and June 1989 in a massive appeal for more freedom . On June 4 , their dreams of a more democr atic China were crushed when a phalanx of tanks and troops from the elite 27th A rmy moved into the city , killing hundreds , perhaps thousands , of citizens in their path . Five years later , the June 4 Generation is only now coming out of its shell and daring to speak cautiously of new ambitions for the world 's most populous country and for themselves . In interviews with the Los Angeles Times , two dozen Tiananmen veterans , most of whom spoke on condition that their full names not be used , said they have put their political dreams aside and concentr ated in recent years on their careers . However , a few said they still hope for a day when the nation 's politically disenchanted once again take to the great central square of Beijing to urge reform of the Communist regime . `` If Tiananm en happens again , I will support it , '' said Zhang , 21 , who joined the demon strators in the square when he was a student and who now works for a furniture d esign company . For the most part , however , the politically repressive years a fter the crackdown have made the June 4 Generation a much less idealistic lot , preoccupied with finding good jobs and starting families . `` I 'm more concerne d about how to make a living , how to support a family and how to be a good news paperman , '' said Wu , 24 , a budding journalist and part-time television actor . After the army moved into the center of Beijing and enforced martial law , th e demonstrators in the square and their supporters outside scattered in all dire ctions . Three of the most prominent student leaders Chai Ling , Li Lu and Wuer Kaixi fled to the United States , where they have had considerable trouble adjus ting to their new lives . One of the three , Li Lu , is an MBA graduate student at Columbia University who now believes that business enterprise is the best way to liberate China . `` I firmly believe that business is the ultimate force for democratic change in China , '' he told a reporter from Business Week magazine in March . `` Economic expansion is teaching people they can have a better life . Everyone is a capitalist in China now . '' After serving four years in prison , Beijing University history student Wang Dan , organizer of the Beijing Student s Autonomous Federation that played a key role in the demonstrations , remains i n Beijing under heavy police surveillance . Wang Dan , 25 , continues to speak o ut in favor of democratic reforms . `` On June 4 , '' he said in a telephone int erview , `` the government injured not only demonstrators but all of the Chinese people . To heal those wounds and to regain popular support , the leadership mu st reverse the verdict on June 4 . '' The two men charged by the Chinese governm ent with being the `` black hands '' behind the Tiananmen protests , intellectua ls Wang Juntao and Chen Ziming , were recently released from prison on medical p arole as part of the government 's effort to meet human rights conditions set by the Clinton administration for the renewal of China 's preferential trading sta tus with the United States . But according to a report recently compiled by the international organizations Human Rights in China and Human Rights Watch/Asia , at least 200 more June 4 demonstrators remain in jail . Five years after the cra ckdown , it is still dangerous to speak publicly about the events described by t he government as a `` counterrevolutionary riot . '' Despite the passage of time , the Chinese people still have not won back the freedoms they enjoyed in the y ears just before the crackdown , when economic reforms had begun to bring new we alth to the land . Naturally , this has caused many to wonder if China might not have made more progress in areas of civil rights and democratic reforms if the demonstrations in Tiananmen had never taken place , or at least not reached the point of confrontation that allowed hard-line political factions to call in the troops . `` Every June 4 since then , '' Wu said , `` my wife and I drink a lot of beer , smoke Marlboros and shout . I still can't believe that people died . T his result was a lot worse than no result at all . Still , I 'm convinced it was n't useless . At least the government had to bring out its troops to stop us . ' ' ( Optional add end ) `` If viewed from a short-term perspective , '' said Zhou Duo , a former Beijing University lecturer , `` the 1989 student protests and J une 4 have hurt the cause of political reform in China . Many ordinary people no w associate democracy with chaos and violence and are therefore afraid of it . ' ' In 1989 , Zhou , 44 , was a supporter of the reform wing of the Communist Part y headed by former party General Secretary Zhao Ziyang . After 1989 , Zhao was r emoved from leadership and placed under virtual house arrest , although Japanese diplomats claim that they occasionally see him on one of Beijing 's golf course s . Zhou , whose recent efforts to launch a tourism business outside Beijing wer e unsuccessful , spent several months in jail on charges that he acted as an `` unauthorized '' negotiator , representing the Zhao Ziyang faction , with the stu dents demonstrating in Tiananmen Square . `` Although the protests in 1989 resul ted in a reversal of liberalization and reform , I think that few of us who took part in the movement regret our actions then , '' Zhou said . Perhaps the most negative result of June 4 , Zhou lamented , was the chilling effect it has had o n the subsequent generation of students . `` On college campuses today , '' he s aid , `` the main two goals of students are to go abroad or to become rich . Few young people want to get involved in politics because they believe they can't c hange the system or that it is too dangerous to try . People have become pessimi stic , so they channel their energy into making money and concentrating on their own future . '' In some cases , democracy movement demonstrators have made surp rising accommodation with the forces that opposed them . Li , 27 , was a student in Shanghai and an active participant in that city 's pro-democracy movement . By chance , he was out of the city on the day of the crackdown and thus avoided political prosecution . His clean slate allowed him to take a high-paying job wi th a People 's Liberation Army-owned company , with such perks as an imported ca r and an apartment in Hong Kong . `` Every day when I drive to work I feel very lucky I was not there on June 4 , '' he said . Wang , 26 , was a student at the Central Institute of Drama when the events of Tiananmen began to unfold . He jum ped into the movement enthusiastically , joining a hunger strike for more democr atic rights . But after the June 4 crackdown , he found it hard to get a job . E mployers demanded that he first write a self-criticism detailing his actions in the square . Tall and handsome , he recently won some plum parts on Chinese tele vision and seems on the verge of becoming a matinee idol . Looking back , he now sees his actions in 1989 as naive . `` I don't regret them at all , '' he said , `` but they ( the Tiananmen protests ) had a negative effect on the art world . The policy to art circles has been more strict than before , and more strict t han any other fields . '' WASHINGTON The number of inmates in state and federal prisons climbed to nearly a million last year , an almost threefold increase since 1980 , according to a Justice Department report issued Wednesday Last year 's growth alone represented an average weekly gain of about 1,250 prisoners . Congress is poised to stiffen penalties for dozens of crimes , thereby exacerbating the problem . The Bureau of Justice Statistics said that nearly half the increase in prisoners since 1980 was linked to drug offenders entering prison . In 1992 , the last year for whic h data on drug offenders were available , prison commitments for drug offenses r eached 30 percent of all new commitments , the department said . The `` War on D rugs '' produced longer federal and state sentences , mandatory minimum terms an d tighter parole policies for drug and violent crimes . In addition to drug offe nders , the numbers of people jailed for sexual assault , robbery , aggravated a ssault and burglary have increased , the report said . Those crimes accounted fo r nearly 50,000 people entering prison in 1992 , according to the Justice Depart ment . Inmate growth also was linked to increases in the number of parole and pr obation violators returned to prison . In 1980 , only 17 percent of state prison ers were parole or probation violators , but by 1992 this had risen to 30 percen t.Overall , the nation 's prisons held 948,881 inmates at the end of last year , compared with 329,821 men and women in 1980 . The average annual increase for t he 14-year period was 8.5 percent . At the end of last year , state prisons were estimated to be operating at between 18 and 29 percent above capacity , while t he federal system was estimated to be 36 percent over capacity . The rapid rise in incarcerations underscored the fiscal impact of rising crime rates , primaril y on state governments . Corrections officials estimate that it costs at least $ 15,000 a year to house each prisoner , and say the cost of building prisons has been rising annually . `` In recent years , the increase in correctional spendi ng for states has been twice that for general fund increases and even larger tha n in education spending , '' said Jon Felde , who studies judiciary issues for t he National Conference of State Legislatures . `` We have to find new ways to co pe with the rate of criminality , '' he added . Felde predicted that state gover nments would intensify their searches for sentencing alternatives to incarcerati on . Joseph R. Biden Jr. , chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee , said tha t the Justice Department report makes all the more imperative the need for Congr ess to pass the crime bill , which authorizes billions of dollars for prison con struction besides lengthening sentences for a number of crimes . `` But it is no t enough simply to keep building prisons because the statistics released demonst rate prison population keeps growing to fill new spaces , '' he said . Biden cal led for a `` new approach '' to fighting crime , balancing punishment with innov ative prevention programs and expanding cost-effective experiments such as boot camps and special drug courts . The report said that California had the most inm ates in state facilities in 1992 ( 119,951 ) , followed by Texas ( 71,103 ) and New York ( 64,569 ) . Texas had an additional 29,546 inmates in local jails awai ting transfer to state prisons . The report stressed and local law enforcement o fficials confirmed that inmate overcrowding and rising costs of incarceration ha ve forced a number of states to begin housing prisoners in local jails . At the end of last year , the report said , 22 states reported a total of 50,966 such p risoners being held in local jails or other facilities . Texas reported that alm ost 60 percent of its prisoners were being held in local jails even though they had been sentenced to state prisons , and four other states Louisiana , Virginia , New Jersey and West Virginia held more than 10 percent of their prison popula tions locally , the report said . Bud Meeks , executive-director of the National Sheriff 's Association , said , `` Incarcerating people is a very expensive pro position for us . We feel the increase because our local jails are turning into long-term facilities , which they really are not equipped to be . '' He said one local jail in Fort Wayne , Ind. , was housing 540 inmates , even though it was built for 220 . `` That 's happening all over. . . . It 's a disaster waiting to happen , '' Meeks said . SAN SALVADOR Armando Calderon Sol , El Salvador 's first postwar president , to ok office Wednesday with a pledge to end political polarization and comply fully with the battered peace accords that ended 10 years of fratricidal conflict her e . While in many ways El Salvador has left behind the era when it was synonymou s with political violence , deep concern has persisted among opposition leaders that key elements of the peace accords will fall by the wayside accords viewed w idely here as fundamental to resolving the deep social problems that sparked the bloodshed of the 1980s . Calderon , 45 , a deeply conservative lawyer and prote ge of right-wing ideologue Roberto d' Aubuisson , called his April 30 election ` ` another step toward the definitive consolidation of democracy '' and added : ` ` The fact that this is the first presidential transition since the war has crea ted great expectations and opens new horizons for national development . '' The new president won 66 percent of the vote to succeed Alfredo Cristiani , a key fi gure in negotiating the U.N.-brokered plan that ended fighting between the U.S.- backed government and Marxist guerrillas of the Farabundo Marti National Liberat ion Front ( FMLN ) . Under a central provision of the accords , the FMLN agreed to abjure violence and take part in the elections , in which they were outpolled by Calderon and his Republican Nationalist Alliance party ( Arena ) . Throughou t the 1980s , El Salvador was a key battleground in the Cold War proxy battles t hat enflamed the region . The United States poured $ 6 billion in economic and m ilitary aid into this Massachusetts-sized nation to help defeat the FMLN , which was receiving support from Marxist-led Nicaragua and Cuba . But in 1990 , with neither side able to gain a military victory , the Soviet Union crumbling and Wa shington reaching the end of its patience with government human rights abuses , the two sides agreed to initiate peace talks . The formal peace agreement was si gned in December 1992 , ending the war that had cost 70,000 lives . Cristiani , who pushed for the plan over strong opposition from hard-line members of Arena , left office with his popularity high , receiving warm praise from the world com munity and grudging respect from the FMLN . Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Tal bott led the U.S. delegation at today 's inauguration . Also present were retire d generals Rene Emilio Ponce and Juan Orlando Zepeda-who were purged from the ar my for human rights abuses-and a number of former FMLN commanders , many of them now members of the national legislature . Underscoring the continuing strength of the far right within Arena , some of those in attendence waved pictures of d' Aubuisson in characteristic pose with his right fist thrust forward . D' Aubuis son , who died two years ago , founded Arena in 1981 and was strongly linked to the notorious right-wing death squads that killed tens of thousands of people he re in the 1980s . For his part , though , Calderon used his inaugural address to issue a call for conciliation and political harmony-a much more moderate stance than he adopted during the campaign , in which he referred to the FMLN as `` te rrorists . '' `` We do not want more confrontation or polarization , '' he said after accepting the presidential sash . `` We will work for collaboration among all social and political forces to carry forward our great national project . '' Under the peace agreement , the army was purged of the its most notorious human rights violators and was reduced by half , while the paramilitary security forc es were disbanded . Land is to be distributed to former combatants on both sides , and a new National Civilian Police Force is being created that is supposed to include former FMLN guerrillas both in its ranks and leadership . WASHINGTON The Clinton administration is leaning toward seeking gradual economi c sanctions on North Korea , rather than an immediate trade embargo , because of the difficulty in getting China to agree to punish the Communist country over i ts nuclear weapons program , administration officials said Wednesday . Should Ch ina not cooperate in the U.N. . Security Council in imposing sanctions , Washing ton may try to persuade individual countries rather than the United Nations as a whole to place economic restrictions on North Korea . Such sanctions would requ ire no endorsement by the United Nations , where China wields a Security Council veto . But in that case , President Clinton could face criticism that he was un able to get China 's backing over Korea even after the administration agreed las t week to maintain Beijing 's favorable trading status despite its poor human ri ghts record . Clinton justified that decision , which represented a major revers al , in part as necessary to ensure Beijing 's cooperation in security issues . One initial measure against North Korea being considered is an attempt to persua de Japan to block North Koreans living in Japan from sending money to relatives back home . Such remittances are a major source of North Korea 's foreign exchan ge . Officials expect the International Atomic Energy Agency ( IAEA ) to report as early as Thursday that North Korea , by refusing to allow inspection of its k ey nuclear facility , has made it impossible to determine if nuclear fuel was di verted four years ago to build a bomb . Such a report almost surely would prompt the administration to intensify pressure on North Korea . `` We are coming peri lously close to the precipice of sanctions , '' an administration official said . North Korea has said imposition of sanctions would be an act of war . North Ko rea has recently hastened removal of fuel rods from its key atomic reactor , whi le refusing to allow inspection of the process by the IAEA as required by an int ernational treaty limiting the spread of nuclear weapons . The State Department said it was still waiting for final word from the IAEA that North Korea had reje cted an appeal to halt withdrawal of the fuel rods , or to follow acceptable pro cedures for storing them under international supervision . North Korea appeared to reject that appeal , as a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Pyongyang `` will n ot yield to such an unreasonable act . . . and allow itself to be treated as an `` offender. ' ' ' Robert Gallucci , the administration 's top negotiator on the North Korean problem , will meet with Japanese and South Korean officials Frida y or Saturday . Clinton 's top foreign policy advisers met Monday on the questio n of whether to seek immediate sanctions at the Security Council . Although admi nistration officials insist that China 's objectives precisely match Washington 's , China has resisted calls for pressure on Pyongyang , instead counseling neg otiations with North Korea , a former ally with which it maintains an uneasy fri endship . As a prime fuel conduit and trading partner , China would have to be a primary enforcer of any sanctions . U.S. analysts believe China is reluctant to contribute to the weakening of a fellow Communist-led regime on its border . Ev en if China goes along in the Security Council , a gradual approach to sanctions is likely , to give North Korea time to change its mind over inspections , admi nistration officials said . The weakest resolution under review would warn North Korea , perhaps with a deadline after which the Security Council would consider sanctions . `` The overall feeling ( is ) , it is better if you start with low end , step by step , then work your way up the spectrum and turn up the heat , ' ' a State Department official said . China shares U.S. concern about the North K orean weapons program , but would `` prefer to work in a quieter way , without w aving the sanctioning stick , '' the official concluded . Possible sanctions inc lude bans on technical exchanges , financial transactions , energy deliveries an d eventually all trade . Prohibitions on financial restrictions would include th e remittances from Japan . Japan and other countries would prefer a U.N. cover f or such actions to avoid taking on North Korea unilaterally and perhaps risk ter rorist vengeance . The go-slow approach also is meant to persuade North Korea no t to end inspections intended to guard against further development of nuclear we apons . Pyongyang has agreed to such inspections and IAEA technicians are on the job , even while the government blocks the agency from taking measurements to d etermine if fuel was diverted in the past . While it is possible that North Kore a already has developed one or more bombs , new fuel diversions could result in adding five or six to its arsenal , an administration official said . LOS ANGELES Drawing to a close one of the most wrenching chapters in Los Angele s history , the jury that had awarded Rodney King $ 3.8 million for his fateful police beating decided Wednesday to leave it at that , declining to impose punit ive damages against the officers who beat him . The Los Angeles federal court pa nel , which reached its verdict on the 11th day of deliberations , found that fo rmer Los Angeles Police Department policemen Laurence M. Powell and Stacey C. Ko on had acted with malice in the 1991 beating of King . But the jury concluded th at the two men and the officers who backed them up should not be forced to pay K ing for his pain and suffering a punishment that King 's lawyers had sought to d eter similar acts in the future . King 's camp greeted the verdict with mixed em otions , as did many residents of the city . One King attorney , John Burris , d escribed the verdict as a `` Solomon-type decision '' that awarded King some mon ey , but pulled back from punishing officers who some jurors felt `` have suffer ed so much economic hardship . '' Lead attorney Milton Grimes , however , said h e was bitterly disappointed , especially by a decision by Judge John G. Davies e arlier in the trial to dismiss the best-known and wealthiest of the defendants , former Los Angeles police Chief Daryl Gates . Grimes said he is considering an appeal of the decision to remove Gates as a defendant and questioned the jury 's wisdom . `` How do you give a man $ 3,816,535.45 who was beaten and not conside r the badness of the beaters ? '' asked Grimes . Former officer Timothy E . Wind , the sole defendant present in the courtroom as the verdict was read , said he was satisfied with the decision . `` This has been a long road I 've traveled a nd I am very pleased with the decision , '' said Wind , who was a probationary p olice officer at the time of the beating . `` It 's taken a chunk out of my life , a big chunk . '' People throughout Los Angeles agreed that , during the past three years , the case has exacted a heavy toll . The most immediate reaction to the jury 's decision was mainly one of relief that the ordeal appears to be fin ally playing itself out . ( Begin optional trim ) `` I 'm really glad this is ov er , '' said Fletcher Jorden a salesman at a sporting goods store . `` It 's bee n a long process that we 've been going through everyone . '' In fleeting remark s to the news media as they left the courtroom , jurors alluded to the ambivalen ce they felt in addressing the painful question of retribution against the offic ers . The jury forewoman described the deliberations as `` a very tense situatio n for many of us , '' and said the unanimous verdict was a hard-won compromise . But another juror , an African-American woman , left the courtroom in dismay . `` I 'm not happy . I 'm not happy at all , '' she said . `` It 's very , very u njust . '' ( End optional trim ) The verdict marked the denouement of a drama th at has wracked Los Angeles for more than three years . The grainy , videotaped i mage of the white policemen clubbing the black motorist , aired first by a local television station , forced the city to confront long-simmering racial tensions and set the stage for the worst urban riots in modern history . The King case p rompted two criminal trials , one state and the other federal . The first yielde d not-guilty verdicts for the officers involved , triggering a riot in which 55 people were killed . The second ended with the convictions of Koon and Powell fo r violating King 's civil rights . Then , two months ago , a third trial began , as King filed a civil suit against the city for monetary damages . By the time of Wednesday 's verdict , all four of the officers charged initially were pennil ess and unemployed , and King a high school dropout and ex-con was a household n ame and a millionaire . The civil case was essentially a two-phase process in wh ich King asked first for compensation for medical bills , pain and suffering and then for punitive assessments against the individual officers . The first phase ended with an order from the jury that the city pay King $ 3.8 million in compe nsatory damages . But the second part of the trial involved the much thornier is sue of punishment for the individual officers . Jurors , who were able to use te stimony from both phases of the trial , evaluated whether present and former off icers used unreasonable force or acted in reckless disregard for King 's constit utional rights , then determined whether those officers should have to compensat e King from their own pockets . King 's lawyers had asked the jury of six women and three men to award between $ 3.8 million and $ 15 million in punitive damage s from Koon , Powell , former officers Theodore J. Briseno and Wind , and curren t officers Rolando Solano and Louis Turriaga . Grimes , King 's lead lawyer , sa id his aim was to convey a message that `` this type of malicious beating of a p erson will not be tolerated . '' But attorneys for defendants Koon , Powell , Wi nd and Briseno argued that they are now impoverished and have suffered enough . Koon and Powell are serving 30 months in prison . Wind , a rookie probationary o fficer , was dismissed from the department , and Briseno was suspended from the force and is trying to get his job back . To the end , the officers were unrepen tant , saying they had acted within police procedure in their treatment of King . NEW YORK Diane Welsh was 19 and living in a `` hard-drinking Midwestern town '' when she was raped . Like most women , she didn't report the crime . Instead , Welsh 's friends took matters into their own hands , pummeling her attacker as t heir form of punishment . But those actions did little to ease Welsh 's anguish and pain . `` I know their intentions were good . But it left me feeling more ou t of control , '' said Welsh , who moved to New York City in 1980 and is now pre sident of the city 's chapter of the National Organization for Women . `` It mad e me feel like male property that had been violated . '' Welsh said that 's how she also feels about surgical castration and chemical castration , which some le gislators and activists say should be used to punish rapists and other sexual of fenders . `` We 're all agreed that rape is not about sex , it 's about power , '' said Welsh , who has spoken publicly about the attack against her , which occ urred in the early '70s . `` You 're not going to deal with power by castrating someone . '' But the debate over castration , which has been batted around for d ecades , emerged again this week after Guardian Angels leader Curtis Sliwa annou nced that his organization had gathered more than 5,000 signatures on petitions urging castration as an optional punishment for rapists . Castration or the use of hormones to control sexual drive , Sliwa said , should be applied as a form o f punishment or as part of the plea-bargaining process . The surgical procedure known as orchiectomy , or castration , removes the testes , producers of much of a man 's testosterone , which fuels sexual desire . Since the 1960s , injection s of the testosterone-controlling drug Depo-Provera have also been used , though it 's only effective as long as the recipient continues taking the hormone . Th e issue came to the national forefront in 1992 when Steve Allen Butler , a convi cted rapist , chose to be castrated by a Texas court rather than spend his life behind bars . A judge who had initially granted his request later reversed his d ecision after a surgeon willing to perform the operation could not be found . In the United States , there is no legislation mandating castration or the use of drugs as a form of punishment . However , some state legislators have proposed b ills all in vain calling for such penalties . Experts say many rapes are committ ed by repeat offenders , with some studies showing that 70 percent of those who receive no counseling or other treatment are likely to rape again . Sliwa said t he answer may be castration . `` Hell , let 's divert to a measure that we know works , '' he said . `` It 's common sense , it 's pragmatic , but we 're intell ectualizing about castration , saying that it 's barbaric . But rape is barbaric . '' Sliwa argues against what he calls the `` knee-jerk '' reaction of castrat ion opponents who contend that rapists would not be deterred by the procedure be cause sexual assault is a crime of violence . `` That first urge is completely s exual , '' Sliwa contends . But Sherry Price and other experts in the field of r ape counseling and victim advocacy strongly disagree . `` I want to know when he ( Sliwa ) became an expert on sexual assault , '' said Price , coordinator for Choices Rape Treatment Center in New York City . `` I want to know how many sexu al assault victims he 's met and counseled . '' Price , 54 , who has also spoken publicly about being a rape victim , said that `` rape is about power and contr ol and the penis is just a tool , a weapon . If they don't have use of the penis , they 're going to use something else . '' She added : `` When you castrate so meone , that doesn't do it because there 's still that rage in their mind , ther e 's still that anger . '' ( Optional add end ) Price notes that a rapist may st rike 10 to 20 times before being caught . Those who are caught and convicted , s he said , serve an average of three years in prison . Part of the answer , she s aid , lies in longer prison terms . But she said the United States ' collective thinking on rape and sexual crimes must also change , giving the benefit of the doubt to victims , most of whom do not report being raped . Research on whether castrated sex offenders repeat their crimes is inconclusive . Some studies in De nmark , Switzerland and other European countries have shown that the rate of rei ncarceration for sex crimes drops sharply for those sex offenders who were castr ated . WASHINGTON A top aide to House Speaker Thomas Foley , D-Wash. , tried to pressu re Capitol Police to withdraw from their investigation of the House Post Office , an audiotape broadcast Wednesday indicated . The same probe eventually led to Tuesday 's indictment of Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski . On June 19 , 1991 , then-Capitol Police Chief Frank Kerrigan secretly audiotaped the aide Ho use lawyer Steven R. Ross saying he would recommend to Foley that members of the force be replaced with security guards if the police did not pull back from the investigation . `` There were questions , about do we need the force ? People a re talking , too , members are talking about , well , what we all need is a grou p of Pinkertons , '' Ross said on the tape , which was broadcast Wednesday on CN N 's `` Inside Politics . '' Both Ross and Kerrigan were interviewed about the a lleged threats by investigators from the Committee on House Administration , whi ch completed a report on the post office scandal in July 1992 . Although that re port contained various descriptions of the meeting and said Justice Department p rosecutors had a copy of the recording , Wednesday 's broadcast was the first ti me it was made public . Kerrigan has left the force and lives in Florida and cou ld not be reached for comment Wednesday night . Foley was on vacation , and Ross , who is now a private attorney in Washington , did not return calls . Ross tol d CNN , `` There was no effort I 'm aware of to derail the investigation . '' Bo th men , as well as Heather Foley , the speaker 's wife and unpaid chief of staf f , have in the past denied pressuring Capitol Police investigators . Neverthele ss , while the tape 's contents may be subject to interpretation , the House `` will never find the truth until we dig deeper , '' said Rep. Scott R. Klug , R-W is. , who has led the calls for hearings into improprieties at the post office a nd Wednesday renewed that call . Rostenkowski 's name first became connected wit h the post office scandal about two years ago . But the investigation began much sooner , in April 1991 , when the Capitol Police discovered post office clerks embezzling money . That investigation blossomed into the wider scandal that invo lved members and their staffers allegedly misusing hundreds of thousands of doll ars of House funds . A review of congressional records and interviews with inves tigators shows that , early on , Capitol Police discovered large amounts of mone y missing , but Ross and Heather Foley thought that the force was not competent and that other agencies including the U.S. Postal Service should handle the inve stigation . Kerrigan , angry and distrustful after House employees would not coo perate , refused to share audit information with Ross and then taped their meeti ng by hiding his recorder in a television cabinet . Kerrigan had cleared the sec ret recording with the U.S. attorney 's office ; the Justice Department has a co py of the tape , congressional records show . The minority report of the House A dministration review of Post Office operations quoted Kerrigan as saying that Ro ss threatened withdrawal of support for pending pay increases and retirement ben efits unless the Capitol Police backed off from their investigation . The report says Ross told investigators he was simply worried about the rights of Post Off ice employees and the relationship between the police and the Justice Department . Yet in the conversation broadcast Wednesday , Ross told the police , `` We go t a problem '' and that unless they yielded to the federal investigators , `` th en my recommendation to House leadership would be , is that , fine , take them o ff the House payroll . '' Ross told police he was not trying to cover up , thoug h he acknowledged that , `` It 's bound to raise questions when a person of auth ority comes to investigators and suggests that the investigation ought not to be done this way , and suggests there may be funding or job cuts in connection wit h that .. . that constitutes an obstruction of justice . '' During the two years since the scandal broke , federal prosecutors have obtained nine indictments in cluding that of Rostenkowski and a number of convictions . The Democratic portio n of the House administration report , meanwhile , concluded that elements of th e affair should be reviewed by the ethics committee . House Democrats , however , still refuse to conduct an investigation , arguing that such an action would j eopardize Justice Department prosecutions . ( Optional add end ) The minority po rtion of the House administration report says that in the process of reviewing P ost Office operations , congressional investigators discovered that no fewer tha n 13 current and former House members from both parties may have committed impro per activities in violation of House rules and/or criminal codes . `` There are a lot of others involved in the Post Office scandal , '' said Rep. John E. Boehn er , R-Ohio , who also has called repeatedly for an ethics investigation . `` Em ployees , other members and former members . '' U.S. . Attorney Eric H . Holder , who is prosecuting Rostenkowski and other matters associated with the Post Off ice , wrote a letter to ethics committee chairman Jim McDermott , D-Wash. , warn ing against a parallel House investigation . Such an action would `` interfere d irectly with the federal grand jury 's final consideration of possible criminal charges , '' Holder wrote . Cal Ripken Jr. is on a pace to break Lou Gehrig 's Iron Man record of 2,130 con secutive games next summer , but the Baltimore Orioles shortstop will not be abl e to match Carla Boggess ' streak until the 1996 season . When the 17-year-old B oggess steps across the stage at Lansdowne ( Md. ) . High School 's senior assem bly Friday , to accept a pair of scholarships her streak will end at 2,340 conse cutive days of school , that is . For 13 years from kindergarten through high sc hool , Carla hasn't missed a day . Even chicken pox , that childhood scourge , w aited to break out until a few days after first grade ended . Although Baltimore County schools do not keep a list of such records , system spokeswoman Myra Tre iber said she checked with senior educators and found `` it is very rare and qui te an achievement . '' HOLLYWOOD CBS , which last week lost eight key affiliates to Fox in the largest defection of stations to a rival network in history , hopes to have most of the affiliates replaced within the next two to three weeks . But the network , in a news conference Wednesday following a daylong meeting with its affiliates , was evasive about what stations would become new CBS affiliates . `` We 're going t o spend whatever it takes , '' said Laurence A . Tish , CBS Inc. chief executive . `` We 're going to be No. 1 in programming that 's where the battle is going to be fought . '' But at the same time , Tisch downplayed speculation that the a ffiliate defections would force CBS to pay more in so-called compensation paymen ts , the money the networks pay affiliates to carry their programming . `` I don 't think there will be any ( across the board ) increases , '' Tisch said . In h is first public statement since Fox 's surprise wresting of CBS affiliates , Tis ch was guarded in his remarks about Rupert Murdoch , chief executive of Fox pare nt News Corp. . `` He had to do what he thought was best for his company . '' Ho wever , CBS affiliates looking for a definitive move by CBS to replace its affil iates lost to Fox were disappointed . There were expectations that the network w ould come to its affiliate convention with a deal in place . William Sullivan , president of WPAX-TV in Missoula , Mont. , and head of the CBS affiliates adviso ry committee , said CBS stations were `` looking for confidence '' from the netw ork . `` By Friday we should have some indication where we 're going , '' he sai d . Earlier this year CBS lost the National Football League contract to Fox afte r being outbid by $ 400 million . Peter Tortorici , president of CBS Entertainme nt , said the network would replace its Sunday afternoon football games with new made-for-TV movies and network TV premieres of theatrical films in a bid to cou nter program with female-oriented programming . CBS ' history of appealing to to o many men and older viewers has been a perennial complaint from affiliates . Ti sch said CBS is looking at buying additional TV stations and would urge the Fede ral Communications Commission to lift the ownership caps that limit the number o f TV stations a broadcaster is permitted to own . At present , a company may not own more than 12 TV stations or a group covering more than 25 percent of all TV households . `` I don't think two years ago ( we ) could have forced the issue , '' Tisch said . `` I think it should be relaxed and will be relaxed , just lik e radio . '' Still , Tisch was unapologetic in defending his strategy to keep CB S focused on its core business and not diversifying into related businesses , su ch as cable TV . In recent years , ABC , NBC and Fox all have launched cable cha nnels and invested in overseas broadcasting ventures . `` I 'm a businessman , ' ' Tisch declared . `` I 've been around a long time . ( CBS ) has over $ 1 billi on in the bank earning money every day . There is no better asset . To make ( a deal ) for one day of pleasure and 22 years worth of pain is not worth it . '' W hen asked how long he would continue to control CBS Tisch was named chairman in 1987 and buying 25 percent of CBS Inc. 's stock he attributed his reply to legen dary investor and friend Warren Buffett : `` I hope to retire 10 years after I d ie . '' Joe Camel has been set free . The Federal Trade Commission has voted not to see k restrictions on Joe Camel ads despite a staff finding that the suave dromedary encourages youngsters to start smoking cigarettes , the head of a major anti-sm oking group said Wednesday . `` It 's a major setback for the public health in t his country , '' said Scott Ballin , chairman of the Coalition on Smoking OR Hea lth in Washington , D.C. , which brought the complaint more than three years ago . `` It basically gives the tobacco industry a green light to aggressively targ et kids with seductive advertising messages and says that the industry should no t fear any reprisals from the Federal Trade Commission . '' The decision is a ra re victory for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. , which makes Camel cigarettes , and th e rest of the tobacco industry amid a spate of bad news . The industry has been pummeled by smoking bans , cigarette tax increases and congressional hearings on the role of nicotine in cigarettes . `` We 're obviously pleased that the FTC ' s extremely thorough review of all of the documents tens of thousands of pages a nd all of the facts relating to the Joe Camel matter led to a decision not to mo ve forward with a complaint , '' R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. said in a statement b ased on reports of the vote . `` We have always maintained that the Camel campai gn is designed to reach adult smokers . '' The company said it had not been offi cially notified of any action . Lee Peeler , associate director for advertising practices at the FTC , declined to confirm or deny the report . He said the comm ission can only comment publicly if it either issues a complaint or votes to clo se a matter . It is possible for the FTC to keep a case open even it votes not t o pursue a particular complaint . Ballin said the commission , breaking a long s talemate , voted 3-2 Tuesday against pursuing the complaint . Mary L. Azcuenaga , who had long been refusing to vote one way or the other , provided the final v ote against , he said . Deborah K. Owen and Roscoe B . Starek also voted against , Ballin said , while FTC Chairwoman Janet D. Steiger , who has long favored a ban , voted to pursue the complaint , as did Dennis A . Yao. FTC staff first rec ommended restrictions on Joe Camel more than a year ago . Opponents of a ban hav e argued that it would be a violation of the First Amendment , which protects ad vertising . Supporters of a ban have said the FTC has the right to act because t he campaign is harmful to children just as that agency and the Food and Drug Adm inistration already restrict advertising for prescription drugs . In February , Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders urged the FTC to act on the complaint and critic ized the Camel campaign . In April , a House subcommittee that has regulatory ju risdiction over the FTC demanded access to materials from the agency 's investig ation to review its status and why it was moving so slowly . In 1991 , a study i ndicated that 6-year-old children were as familiar with Joe Camel 's tie to ciga rettes as they were with the Mickey Mouse logo 's link to the Disney Channel . L ast year , a researcher at the University of California , San Diego , reported t hat smoking began rising among teen-agers in 1988 after a 15-year decline and bl amed the Joe Camel campaign . In 1992 , 23 percent of Camel smokers were 25 and younger , up from 18 percent in 1988 , according to a survey by Simmons Market R esearch . `` We do not think that the campaign has caused young people to start smoking , '' said Peggy Carter , a spokeswoman for RJR in Winston-Salem , N.C. . `` There has been no evidence to that effect . If we believed the campaign did start kids smoking , we would pull it . '' ( Optional add end ) Reynolds has ref used to cut back on its ad campaign , which helped halt a decline in the brand ' s market share after it was launched in the U.S. in late 1987 . This year , the company added female camels to its ads for the first time and set them in a bust ling bar , prompting a new outcry from critics . Camel ranks No. 6 among cigaret te brands in the United States , with about 4.1 percent of the total market . La st year , spending on ads for Camel shot up by 87 percent , to $ 42.9 million , according to Advertising Age . The campaign was ranked eighth in popularity amon g print campaigns last year , one notch below the Marlboro ad campaign and down from third place in 1992 , according to an annual consumer survey by Video Story boards . The Marlboro campaign features cowboys and western settings . In highly successful promotions , both Marlboro with first an Adventure Team and now a Co untry Store campaign and Camel have been offering merchandise such as caps and k napsacks in exchange for cigarette packs . Ballin 's coalition , which includes the Heart Association , Cancer Society and Lung Association , has also filed a c omplaint with the FTC about the Marlboro Adventure Team campaign , saying that c igarette companies had agreed not to depict smokers in vigorous sporting activit ies . In HAITI ( Freed , Times ) sub for 3rd graf ( deleting reference to others hold ing U.S. passports ) xxx rulers : The order affecting air and financial services will come this month , perhaps within two weeks , one U.S. official said . He s aid several days ' notice will be given before the flight cutoff to allow people especially Americans to leave or return to Haiti . Embassy sources estimate the re are 1,000 Americans in Haiti . PICK UP 4th graf : U.S. officials xxx : BENACO , Tanzania Six weeks after this empty valley became home to 300,000 Rwan dan refugees , Benaco is taking on the trappings of permanency . It is now part of Africa 's life cycle , with births and natural deaths , roadside merchants se lling everything from batteries to potatoes and practitioners who treat the ill with herbs and chants . The wealthier people here have radios , and news from th e war front in Rwanda spreads quickly from tent to tent , where families hunker outside to cook their maize rations over campfires of gathered sticks . The surv ivors of entire villages moved across the border as cohesive entities and now dw ell here clustered together , their social structures intact . A young man who c alls himself Johnny sat alone by a fire the other night , looking across the hil ls toward Rwanda . He was the oldest of eight children and had been a university student . A passerby asked him how he felt being part of this great sea of disp laced people . `` Sad , '' he said in English . `` Not angry , not afraid , not how do you call it ? confused . Just sad . '' -0- Annie Faure , a French doctor , has been ministering to the wounded at Gahini Hospital in northern Rwanda sinc e May 1 . Her patients include 100 war orphans , and she is at a loss to explain why the Rwandans at the hospital including nurses and healing mothers ignore th e orphans , even refusing to feed them unless she is there to check . `` They ne ed love , particularly after the trauma they have suffered , '' the doctor said . So one afternoon last week she took the orphans , who were well enough to walk , to her nearby home . She sat them in a big circle in the garden and gave them cookies and told them stories with , she said , happy endings . -0- Young con a rtists in Nairobi , Kenya , have for years used a favorite trick : They introduc e themselves to Americans on the street and say they will be studying at a unive rsity in the United States in the fall . Does the American have time for coffee to talk about what university life in the United States will be like ? Wary Amer icans know the encounters are always pitches for money . One young man who said his name is Peter wasn't making any headway with an American visitor the other d ay , despite an elaborate story about growing up in Kenya 's highlands with a do zen brothers and sisters and studying nights to earn his scholarship at the Univ ersity of Southern California . `` What if I tell you I am a Rwandan refugee ? ' ' he said . `` Then will you buy me a meal ? '' -0- Along the Uganda side of Lak e Victoria , between the villages of Kasensero and Lambu , the bodies of thousan ds of Rwandan massacre victims have washed ashore in the last two weeks . Uganda n health officials have expressed concern that the rotting corpses may have cont aminated the lake and its fish . But fisherman Philip Anguma does not share the concern . He was pulling in his catch of Nile perch , 100 yards from where rescu e teams were plucking half a dozen decomposed bodies from the lake . He wrapped his fish in banana leaves and sent them off to market in Masaka lashed to the ba ck of his friend 's bicycle . Anguma explained : `` Of course the lake is safe . I have fished here for years . My father fished here too , and he lived to be a n old man . '' -0- John Barayagwiza came to bury his infant son in the mist of e arly morning . He stood on a small plateau above the Benaco camp , surrounded by 20 men from his village , and they talked loudly about the war . The child 's b ody was wrapped in dark plastic provided by the United Nations and lay unattende d nearby in the brush . Several men labored with hoes and pickaxes to dig a grav e in the hard earth . Soon a lay priest came , turning off the dirt road at a si gn that said `` irimbi '' cemetery . Then came the body of another child , a wee k-old girl whose mother had died giving birth . And then the covered body of an adult woman , borne by four men on a makeshift stretcher . She had died of AIDS , one of the stretcher bearers said . Barayagwiza , a farmer , said it was stran ge his son should escape the killing in Rwanda , only to die here where it was s afe . The service lasted only a few minutes . Then the farmer walked back over t he hill to gather his remaining seven children and begin the long daily trek in search of firewood that would sustain his family . HOLLYWOOD Paramount and Warner Bros. recently discussed merging their competing fifth television networks but were unable to come to terms , knowledgeable indu stry executives said Wednesday . The discussions , which were held by Paramount Pictures Chairman Jonathan Dolgen and Warner Bros . Executive Vice President Bar ry Meyer and other senior executives , were said to be complicated by cross-owne rship concerns and other problems . Paramount was unavailable for comment . Jami e Kellner , president of Warner 's WB network and an equity partner , said `` th ere are no ongoing discussions . '' Kellener said the talks never reached a `` m eaningful stage , '' adding , `` In my opinion the two entities will not be merg ed together . '' Both companies have been in a race to sign up affiliates in rec ent months in the hopes of introducing two nights of prime-time programming by t he end of next year . The merger talks are said to taken on a new urgency after Fox 's unprecedented raid on CBS affiliates . Fox last week snatched away 12 aff iliates from the major networks , up to eight of them from CBS , in a bold bid t o gain parity with ABC , CBS and NBC . The move has set off a domino effect amon g affiliates , as the networks scramble to find new outlets . While most industr y executives think it would be wiser for Paramount and Warner Bros. to combine t heir competing networks rather than waging a war of attrition , implementing suc h a strategy may be all but impossible . In order to win valuable airspace in th e biggest cities , both Paramount and Warner Bros. took on as partners some of t he largest independent station groups in the country . Paramount 's network is 5 0 percent owned by Chris-Craft Industries , which through its majority-owned sub sidiary BHC Communications , controls eight TV stations . The WB network , which is being guided by Kellner and Garth Ancier , is launching a `` hybrid '' netwo rk in conjunction with the cable superstation WGN-TV and other independent TV st ations owned by Tribune Broadcasting . One major obstacle to combining the two n etworks is a non-compete agreement between Paramount and partner Chris-Craft . U nder that agreement , Paramount may not invest in another network for a three-ye ar period . In addition , the Tribune TV stations have long-term program contrac ts with Warner Bros. , making it difficult for the studoo to sever its ties . ( Optional add end ) But Fox 's historc raid on established affiliates has left bo th Paramount and Warner Bros. shaken . As the major networks begin to hunt for n ew affiliates to replace the ones they are losing to Fox , stations that have co mmitted to either of the fifth networks are targets . Neither Paramount or Warne r Bros. can afford to lose affiliates since it would make it harder to achieve t he 70 percent level of U.S. TV households needed to attract national advertisers . It was in part to get around the shortage of available TV outlets , in fact , that Warner Bros. partnered with WGN-TV to increase its coverage area . Executi ves familiar with the talks said if either studio were to effect a merger it wou ld have to win the approval of its respective partners . And right now , the exe cutives said , neither Chris-Craft or Tribune appears willing to do so . I had assumed Paula Jones ' quest for whatever it is she really wants was alrea dy fully funded by various forces on the right who had lavishly assisted her in her historic legal assault on a sitting president . Apparently not . A Virginia pesto sauce manufacturer who has been a Republican fund raiser has launched a $ 500,000 campaign to pay the costs of presenting Jones ' case against the preside nt . I 'm not saying that a $ 40,000 contribution will get you a choice ambassad orship if the Republicans evict President Clinton from the White House in 1996 . But anybody with the mission of making the president 's life more miserable tha n it already is now has a viable new option besides simply funneling money to th e Republican National Committee , to the right political action committees or to the campaigns of Clinton 's chief tormentors in Congress . The Jones campaign h as even got operators standing by at an 800 number to take your pledges , and fo r all I know you can put it on your VISA card . Do you suppose the Republicans a re getting ready to run her for the Senate somewhere ? At the rate things are go ing , legal expenses related to Whitewater and dealing with Jones could either d rive the Clintons into personal bankruptcy or force them to the unseemly expedie nt of finding their own pesto sauce manufacturer with an 800 number . We have to ask ourselves where this trend in campaign finance is taking us . First Ross Pe rot proves that a loquacious Texan with more money than God and the nerve to ask millions of Americans to send him a few dollars can buy his way onto the nation al political scene without ever having stood for alderman , even dog catcher . T hen a lieutenant colonel named Oliver North proves you can lie like a rug to Con gress and parley this patently offensive act into a life of personal riches and a well financed campaign for a seat in the very Senate of that Congress from a o nce proud state that used to be so boastful of its politicians as to call itself `` the mother of presidents . '' And now Jones is showing how the Republicans c an in effect commingle funds for the 1996 presidential campaign with the expense s involved in a sexual harassment case without leaving a single fingerprint that will get them hauled in for election law violations . This proves , I guess , t he utter futility of ever imagining that there is such a thing as believable cam paign finance reform in America . Limit every congressional and presidential can didate to $ 5 contributions , abolish PACs , force the holders of broadcast lice nses to give free air time , publicly finance candidates ' travel expenses , eve n grant them free postage . There is still something about money that will , and legally , buy what it wants in politics . This is what we must tell ourselves w hen we imagine that Congress is infested with people who ran for office purely t o enrich themselves with subsidized haircuts , expensive Capitol subways and din ners with lobbyists . This , for God 's sake , is the small change , the chicken feed of federal politics . Look at the millions of dollars that gush to protect the various health care lobbies , the timber and grazing interests , the right of every American , no matter how deranged , to run around with a gun , the rest oration of capital gains preference , and you 'll see why you feel owned . WASHINGTON Charles Evans Hughes , chief justice of the United States in the 193 0s , once said , `` How I dislike writing opinions ! I prefer arguments and let someone else have the responsibility of decision . '' He must have loathed the e nd of the Supreme Court term . June has become the do-or-die month . The month w hen , in an effort to resolve all of the outstanding cases , the difficult gets done , the stubborn compromise and procrastinators face the music . Of an estima ted 84 cases to be decided this term , 36 remain . `` It is truly a sweatshop at the Supreme Court in June , '' said Paul Cappuccio , a former clerk to Justices Antonin Scalia and Anthony M. Kennedy. `` Everyone at the court dreads the inev itable memo that comes around from Chief Justice ( William H. ) Rehnquist saying it 's time to stop dillydallying and get these opinions to the printer . '' `` June was the month that I worked hardest , '' retired Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr . said yesterday . It is when the justices must finish their opinions , write di ssents to other justices ' opinions and anticipate drafts that have yet to be ci rculated . June rulings often show the strains of deadline and forced consensus . Tuesday 's case involving public employee speech rights produced four differen t opinions , none signed by a majority of justices . The ruling , requiring publ ic employers to investigate before they fire someone for allegedly insubordinate remarks , emerged from a patchwork of the justices ' separate statements . June opinions , sometimes characterized by hasty reasoning , are most likely to conf ound lower court judges . The joke among lawyers is that if an opinion is especi ally difficult to follow , it must be a June . Testiness increases at the end of the term too . Justice Scalia mocked Justice Sandra Day O' Connor 's opinion in Tuesday 's case of Waters vs. Churchill. Scalia , whose vitriolic pen often is aimed at O' Connor , wrote , among other things , `` Justice O' Connor makes no attempt to justify ( her opinion ) on historical grounds ( it is quite unheard o f ) . '' O' Connor , using milder rhetoric , dismissed Scalia 's complaint . ( T hree other justices sided with her , two sided with him , and two went their own way . ) Powell , who was on the court from 1971-1986 , noted that in the mid-19 80s the court heard almost twice the number of cases it will decide this term . But no matter . The justices , like other mortals , leave their toughest work to the end . `` Sometimes a justice would work fairly slowly to circulate ( a prop osed majority opinion ) in which I would want to write a dissent , '' Powell sai d , talking about how the process would be prolonged . `` I would have to see th e opinion before I would begin writing a dissent ... . I was sometimes guilty of doing just that ( working slowly on a majority opinion ) myself . '' The court 's most controversial disputes of the term await decision , including a case tes ting black and Hispanic voting rights in Florida , which was heard on the first Monday of October . Also pending is whether Congress may require cable TV system s to set aside up to one-third of their channels for local broadcasters and whet her the New York legislature 's creation of a special school for Hasidic Jews vi olated the constitutional separation of church and state . Other high profile ca ses concern the speech rights of disruptive abortion clinic protesters , whether judges must have authority to limit juries ' punitive damages awards , and the constitutionality of state procedures in numerous death penalty cases . Rehnquis t tries to evenly distribute the opinion writing . So sometimes one can deduce w hich justices are most likely to be writing opinions from outstanding cases . O' Connor has delivered the most opinions so far , nine . Behind her , with six ea ch , are Rehnquist , Clarence Thomas and Ruth Bader Ginsburg . John Paul Stevens , Scalia and Kennedy have written five majority opinions each . Justices Harry A . Blackmun and David H. Souter have written three opinions each . On May 26 , Blackmun sponsored a music recital at the court with a renowned pianist , violin ist , cellist and bass baritone . The biannual event has become a tradition for the court 's most senior justice . Before Blackmun , who will retire at the end of the term , introduced the performers , he told the audience that he hoped the afternoon 's music would boost the justices ' spirits as they headed into a dif ficult month . CHICAGO The Cabrini-Green projects tower over the northern edge of downtown lik e a high-rise graveyard , a monument to the futility of three decades of public housing policy and the hopelessness of all who live there . Vincent Lane , the m an who runs these skyline eyesores of mottled cinder-block and security fencing , comes here often on a mission that many Cabrini tenants regard as a fool 's er rand . Lane , the chairman of the Chicago Housing Authority , imagines garden ap artments where tenants see exhausted dormitories , some sealed with plywood . He sees ceiling fans and wrought-iron gates where residents endure crippled elevat ors that force them to slog up to 19 flights of stairs to get home . He sees cou rtyards filled with children at play where they spy huddled gang members , pisto ls bulging under their shirttails . A real-estate millionaire who administers Ch icago 's 155 high-rise projects , Lane intends to resurrect Cabrini , a symbol o f `` all that 's bad in public housing , '' to prove that the nation 's largest and most infamous system of public housing can be redeemed . `` You can raise fa milies in high rises , '' he preaches to wealthy architects at wine-and-cheese r eceptions and to rows of murmuring Cabrini residents jammed inside drafty common s meeting rooms . Lane puts his faith in `` income mixing '' the experimental re placing of many low-income project residents with working and middle-class famil ies . Lured by low rents and the higher safety and maintenance standards , the n ew tenants are expected to provide a human safety net for their poor neighbors , acting as role models and helping them find jobs . A natural-born salesman in I talian-tailored suits , Lane has spent the last year trying to sell the dream th at Cabrini , a 70-acre cement moonscape bordered by freeway ramps and railroad s purs , might someday become a functioning , livable community . Despite $ 50 mil lion in federal seed money , Lane 's $ 350 million project is still in its infan cy , months away from breaking ground . Before tenants can be moved and building s razed , Lane must secure financial commitments from developers and business le aders , loans and legislative support from politicians and government-mandated a pprovals from Cabrini 's tenants . A blunt , genial Mississippi native , Lane , 51 , commutes between Washington and Chicago to nudge his dream along . Even in its earliest stages , the Cabrini plan is generating excitement among housing pl anners as one of the most ambitious efforts to transform high-rise projects sinc e their creation in the 1950s . If it succeeds , Cabrini could become a model fo r change in massive projects throughout America . `` It 's a concept that 's lon g overdue and really brings us back to what public housing was supposed to do in the first place , '' said Margery Austin Turner , a housing analyst with the Ur ban Institute in Washington . `` These big high-rise projects not only segregate the poor from the rest of the world , they also have a destabilizing influence on the neighborhoods around them . '' More than 30 city housing agencies recentl y embraced income-mixing in applications for grants to the U.S. Department of Ho using and Urban Development though only Lane 's bases the future of an entire co mplex on it . Income mixing was common once in the nation 's projects , before s tringent federal rent rules made it economically ruinous for working families to remain there . Lane recalls growing up in the 1950s omically ruinous for workin g families to remain there . Lane recalls growing up in the 1950s near Wentworth Gardens , a South Side Chicago project , amid `` green lawns and working famili es with both parents living at home . '' That world is gone , but Lane insists ` ` we can fine-tune it to fit a new era . '' His fledgling Cabrini project which would tear down seven high-rises would be the first phase of a metamorphosis tha t could run into the billions and last a decade or more . Those left out would b e resettled `` willingly , '' Lane insists in subsidized rental units and new go vernment homes built elsewhere in Chicago and its suburbs . Cabrini 's populatio n is now overwhelmingly poor and without resources . More than 70 percent of its households pay less than $ 100 a month in rent . At least 63 percent are female and 43 percent are school-age children . All but 2 percent are African-American . And 90 percent are on public assistance . It is Cabrini 's own poor who are m ost suspicious of Lane 's intentions , and not without reason . They worry that they will be displaced into perhaps worse housing at higher rents . And they bri dle at the prospect of having to leave apartments where some families have lived for three generations . `` We 've been getting the shaft for years and we want to be damn sure we 're not going to get it again , '' said Josephine Trotter , w ho has lived at Cabrini 15 years and is on the project 's Resident Advisory Coun cil , the tenants ' negotiating group . Lane , an African American , has run Chi cago 's housing since 1988 as an appointee of the mayor and City Council . He ju ggles his post at a salary of $ 1 a year with private interests in subsidized ho using units scattered outside Chicago through the Midwest and East . Lane became one of the nation 's most visible housing directors when he tamed the rampant a dministrative chaos that almost led HUD to seize control of Chicago 's housing s ystem in 1987 . He was hailed by former Republican HUD Secretary Jack Kemp for t he crime sweeps he repeatedly ordered in Chicago projects . His name was bandied about as Kemp 's replacement until President Clinton chose former San Antonio m ayor Henry Cisneros . In April , Clinton hoisted Lane 's profile even higher by ordering federal officials to find legal underpinnings to back his warrantless w eapons searches in the Robert Taylor Homes , a 28-block stretch of high-rises li ning the Dan Ryan Expressway on the city 's South Side . Crime control will be e ssential at Cabrini , Lane says , because `` I willn't be able to persuade worki ng families to move in unless they feel safe . '' James Rosenbaum , a professor at Northwestern University 's Center for Urban Affairs , believes poor residents will benefit from living among higher-income residents . For 10 years , Rosenba um monitored Chicago 's Gautreaux Program , a federal court-mandated effort that assisted 5,000 poor families in finding integrated housing . Although Gautreaux 's poor moved into more affluent areas the reverse of the process Lane seeks at Cabrini the results , Rosenbaum says , may well be identical . At least 46 perc ent of those who had no jobs when they lived in public housing and tenement unit s found work after moving to the suburbs , Rosenbaum found . That number compare d to 30 percent who moved to other city housing . And those who moved to the sub urbs also won better pay and benefits . ( Optional add end ) Lane can point as a precedent to Lake Parc Place , whose twin red-brick towers loom over Lake Michi gan on the South Side . Until the 1980s they could have been any dispirited city high-rise . Closing the buildings in 1986 , Lane used a $ 14 million HUD grant to erect a black , wrought-iron fence and install wading pools and shrub-trimmed play areas . He spent $ 60,000 per apartment on pastel-colored paints , oak cab inets and mini-blinds , among other refurbishments . Then he welcomed back tenan ts with a rigid screening policy , weeding out troublemakers and addicts . Half of Lake Parc 's 282 units were earmarked for working families a ratio that the b uildings have maintained since they opened in August 1991 . Georgia Caldwell was transfixed by the sound of early morning showers . `` When I first got here it took me a while to figure out what that was , '' she said . `` All these people were getting ready for work . I never used to hear that sound . '' WASHINGTON Twelve blocks from the Immigration and Naturalization Service headqu arters , a foreigner with an extensive criminal record can deceive the owners of a fingerprint shop , get a fake set of prints and then use them at the INS to b ecome a U.S. citizen . The INS requires all immigrants who apply for naturalizat ion to submit fingerprints so the FBI can run a background check . But agency pe rsonnel stopped taking fingerprints 10 years ago for budgetary reasons , instruc ting applicants to have them taken by private companies instead . In many cases , they do so without providing proof of their identities , according to a report issued by the Justice Department 's inspector general . The INS has failed to r egulate private companies , and has no means of preventing immigrants intent on hiding their arrest records from enlisting someone with a clean history to submi t their prints instead , the report said . Evidence of the problem lays just acr oss town from the headquarters . Adrianne Lucke , manager of ASL Business Servic es , which started offering fingerprinting services four years ago , said she wa s never instructed by the INS to check applicants ' identification . `` No one e ver instructed me that that 's what I have to do , '' said Lucke , who fingerpri nts about 10 people each month . Others have more established procedures . At Au thorized Fingerprinting and Passport Photos in Los Angeles , owner Thomas Kitrel l says he is leery of customers without identification who seek fingerprinting . He said he writes down the driver 's license number of every person who has pri nts taken . `` It is a problem and is something I 've always felt is a big hole in the system , '' Kitrell said . `` We 're letting the world 's criminals into our country . '' Last year , the FBI turned up 9,000 arrest records among the 86 6,000 applications for U.S. immigration benefits that included fingerprints . Bu t `` an unlimited number '' of immigrants with criminal histories could still sl ip by federal law enforcers if the INS doesn't close loopholes in its applicatio n procedures , said Sen. Joseph I . Lieberman , D-Conn. , who released a study o f the problem Wednesday . `` We have enough problems with criminals born right h ere in the United Staters , '' Lieberman said . `` We don't need to invite troub le by making it easier for criminal aliens to become criminal citizens . '' Lieb erman suggested that the INS begin charging fees to immigrants applying for bene fits to pay for in-house fingerprinting , or start licensing private companies t o take fingerprints . He said local law enforcement offices also could offer the service . Lieberman threatened to introduce legislation to change INS policy if the agency does not act soon on its own . Agency officials acknowledged Wednesd ay that their procedure is flawed , but they resisted the idea of imposing new f ees on immigrants who already have to pay $ 90 simply to file a naturalization a pplication . ( Optional add end ) `` We 'd have to charge more in a system that is already fee-based , '' said Rick Kenney , an INS spokesman . A task force cre ated to develop better application procedures is due to issue its recommendation s later this month , but Kenney cautioned that changes in agency rules may not t ake effect until August . Applications for naturalization , asylum or other bene fits may be denied depending on the seriousness of an applicant 's crimes . In m ost cases , felony convictions of drug trafficking , prostitution or other vice- related offenses would be grounds for rejection , according to INS policy . WASHINGTON A beaming President Clinton , flanked by young people , is shown str iding across the White House South Lawn . Everyone is clapping . `` AmeriCorps C oming Soon To Communities Everywhere , '' says the advertisement , which White H ouse officials hope will be as effective at getting participants for national se rvice as Smokey Bear has been at reducing forest fires . AmeriCorps is the presi dent 's signature domestic peace corps program . It will send young Americans in to communities across the country starting in September to `` get things done '' like immunizing infants , tutoring teens and making schools and neighborhoods s afe . In return , workers expected to number 20,000 the first year will receive a low wage , health benefits and stipends of $ 4,725 for each year of service th at they can use for education or training . Even though 60,000 people have calle d to inquire about signing up for the program , Eli Segal , the president 's nat ional service czar , is a little nervous . `` If we throw a party and no one com es , then we haven't thrown a party , '' Segal said . To make sure that does not happen , the Corporation for National Service , the independent agency Segal he ads , has begun a sales campaign . The first step was coming up with a logo , an d that meant the `` 30-something '' agency officials had to design a logo cool e nough to appeal to those in their teens and 20s . The corporation chose a design featuring a letter `` A '' swimming in a gold sun , encircled with the words : `` AmeriCorps National Service '' in blue block print . After emblazoning the lo go on T-shirts , badges , patches and bumper stickers , it was time to take the campaign on the road to college campuses . To promote the visits , the corporati on enlisted rap artist L.L. . Cool J . In a public service announcement recorded for college radio stations , he urges students : `` Find out how you can be one of the 20,000 young people committed to rebuilding our communities . AmeriCorps , the new national service movement that will get things done . '' Then Clinton administration officials , accompanied by rock or rap groups , hit the campuses of the University of California , Los Angeles , Harvard University , the Univer sity of Minnesota and Morehouse College in Atlanta last month . Smaller events a nnouncing AmeriCorps took place at 50 other campuses . Segal also gave his pitch to national magazines from Elle to Rolling Stone to Money , hoping they would h elp launch national service by running articles in their September editions . Ne gotiations are under way with Ogilvy and Mather Worldwide to have that top adver tising agency design public service announcements for radio and television . Pop ular bands are being asked to talk up the program at concerts through the summer . And the administration is trying to set up partnerships between local TV stat ions and AmeriCorps projects in their area , so they can keep viewers informed o f what workers are accomplishing . ( Optional add end ) This emphasis on accompl ishment is important because for the program to expand or continue to exist afte r the first few years Segal will have to be able to show Congress that it is hav ing a real impact . Segal said he has some concern that the campaign will create such demand that many interested young people will be turned away from the prog ram . On the other hand , he said , he does enjoy entertaining the thought that his `` product '' could end up being as popular as the `` Cabbage Patch Kids '' doll craze . Advertising campaigns for federal programs serve dual goals . One i s to stimulate people to do what the government wants . The other is to sell the impression to the public that the government doing what it promised it would do . For that reason , it is perhaps more than coincidence that Clinton figures so largely in public service ads being distributed to magazines and newspapers acr oss the country for publication . `` We always start with the assumption that th is would not happen if Bill Clinton was not the president of the United States , '' Segal said . `` What is unique about this is that the president of the Unite d States is so committed to it . '' The following editorial appeared in Thursday 's Washington Post : Majorities of both houses of Congress have signed onto bills that would make it harder to imp ose additional unfunded federal mandates on state and local governments . It sou nds like a simple enough thing to do , and the bare minimum in terms of intergov ernmental fairness . Why should the feds be allowed to impose obligations and pr iorities on the state and local sector without the funds to match ? But it isn't that simple ; nor is it clear that these bills would always produce good public policy . Carelessly drawn , they could easily do a lot of harm . The Senate Gov ernmental Affairs Committee is at work on the issue . Here are some of the probl ems it has encountered : . ( 1 ) The leading bills are described as if they were bans on unfunded mandates . That 's what members seem to think and to claim the y are sponsoring . In fact , it isn't possible for one Congress to bind the next , or even to bind itself . The bills would merely require an explicit vote in o rder to impose such a mandate . That 's not a bad idea a form of truth-in-legisl ation but even it can present complications . ( 2 ) There 's a question of which mandates the sponsors mean to include . The civil-rights laws impose certain co sts on the states ; the recent Americans With Disabilities Act is a prime exampl e . The leading bills originally included the civil-rights statutes ; now it 's been pretty well agreed that they should be dropped . There 's no similar agreem ent , however , with regard to labor laws . If Congress raises the minimum wage , should it take a separate vote to cover state and local government ? Health an d safety legislation is another category . Should there be a presumption in the law that state and local governments are entitled to federal aid in order to com ply with health and safety standards when private employers are not ? ( 3 ) How do you count up the costs of a mandate , and from what starting point ? Aggrieve d state and local officials want the bill to cover only future increments in cos ts , locking present costs and aid into place . But what if the federal governme nt is already giving more in aid in a certain area construction of drinking-wate r-treatment facilities , for example than it is requiring on the margin . Do the feds get a credit when they pay for more than they demand ? Do they get a credi t for the tax subsidies given state and local governments-the deduction for stat e and local income taxes , for example , or the exemption of interest on state a nd local government bonds ? The feds now pay 57 percent of the cost of Medicaid , the states the rest . What if Congress wanted to cut the federal share to 55 p ercent still well over half the cost of a program that would otherwise fall to t he state and local sector entirely-and use the savings for something else ? Coul d it do so without a vote on the `` mandate '' it was imposing ? ( 4 ) There 's a huge problem as well in terms of the congressional committee structure . Most of the authorizing committees that produce new legislation have no control over the funding of their creations , which lies with the appropriators . The authori zers thus have no power to guarantee when a bill comes to the floor that it will be funded . Do they take power from the appropriators or cede it ? Congress is currently set up in such a way that to require it not to enact unfunded mandates may be to require it not to legislate at all . Is that what the proponents want ? In its 1916 decree creating the National Park Service , Congress explicitly out lined two goals : Preserve the designated sites `` unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations , '' and provide for the public enjoyment of those resourc es . The conflict between preservation and access has forced a creative tension on the Park Service since its first days . Achieving balance grows more difficul t each year . As challenging as the mission is , the two goals are not contradic tory , particularly when one focuses on the nature of the genuine park visitor e xperience . The national parks are not about entertainment ; Disney , Warner Bro thers and others are masters at that task , and park rangers need not compete wi th them . Rather , rangers facilitate the American people 's encounter with thei r heritage . The challenge is in bringing the visitor to a more intense apprecia tion of the natural world . This framework sets new and clear parameters on meth ods for accommodating more visitors . Despite annual increases in visitation , f or example , the Park Service will not be in the road-building business . Roads disrupt , divide and fragment natural systems that are the very reason for parks ; our challenge is in finding new means of visitor transport . We will not be i n the hotel-building business , but will instead work with owners of lands borde ring parks so that many overnight needs can be met in gateway communities . Thes e communities can also serve as `` staging '' areas , where visitors can learn o f a park 's facilities , collect materials and shop all without adding to the mi lling crowds inside . Likewise , the service must consider different methods for protecting its resource base , because it is no longer enough to focus on the n ature of developments within the park . We must begin to focus on parks not as d istinct entities , but as the centers of ecosystems . At Yellowstone , massive h erds of elk and buffalo ( and soon , perhaps , gray wolves ) do not acknowledge the straight lines on a map ; those animals inherited an entire ecosystem , and park staff must work closely with resource managers from other state and federal agencies to protect their migration range . Everglades National Park is part of a natural system being killed by the invasion of exotic plants ( caused by nutr ient-rich agricultural runoff ) and the diversion of water for residential and c ommercial uses . That park 's fate lies not in the hands of its rangers , but in a massive , multi-agency effort to restore the system . Sequoia National Park h as air-quality problems worse than many large cities , but the problems ' source lies in faraway industrial centers along the California coast and in the Centra l Valley . Clearly , it is no longer sufficient to label land a park and assume it is protected . Protecting the resource base also means continuing the search for new sites , because America 's history and perspectives are always changing . Fifty years ago , there was no Martin Luther King Jr. . Historical Site to be preserved , because that chapter in our history had not yet been written . A cen tury ago , we crossed the Midwest in search of scenic splendor , oblivious to th e extraordinary biodiversity being plowed up and taken for granted . The new eff ort to create a park in the Kansas tall-grass prairie finally acknowledges the i mportance of that resource . Generations in search of alpine scenery simply walk ed on by some of America 's most unique ecosystems . One of those regions would be protected by the California Desert Protection Act , ushered through the Senat e by Sen. Dianne Feinstein , D-Calif . Unsurpassed in its scenic , biological , cultural and recreational significance , the desert has been ignored too long . Finally , protection of the resource requires a sounder financial base . A first step would be congressional action to restore discretion to the Interior secret ary to set reasonable park entrance fees . Currently , only three of the 367 Par k Service sites charge $ 10 per vehicle , only 15 charge as much as $ 5 per car and Yellowstone 's entrance fee is less today than it was in 1915 . In addition , Congress can provide collection incentives to park managers by returning to th e park half the money collected above the current base . Though beset by fundame ntal problems , the welcome sign is out at our national parks , because the Nati onal Park Service can fill a unique and immediate role . We are within decades o f an environmental collapse on this planet . Our urgent task is to communicate t o the American people what it means to live more lightly and respectfully on the land . Any contemplation of our role in developing and teaching a new conservat ion ethic leads directly back to the national parks . The parks are where this t ask is easiest , where the educational process begins , where it is all so extra ordinarily fresh , obvious and overwhelming . The national parks must serve as t he gateway to the conservation ethic , because if that gateway can't be crossed in our national parks , it can't be crossed anywhere . NEW YORK A Reworked Craig Lucas-Craig Carnelia musical , a new play by Joyce Ca rol Oates and a drama by Steven Dietz that had a brief run here last winter will be part of Circle Repertory Company 's 1994-95 season . The season opener in Oc tober will be `` Three Postcards '' by the two Craigs Lucas ( author ) and Carne lia ( composer-lyricist ) . The musical , first produced at Playwrights Horizons in 1987 , was one that a Circle Rep director , Tee Scatuorchio , `` had always wanted to work on , '' said artistic director Tanya Berezin . Scatuorchio was pr eparing a Circle Rep Lab production , she said , `` and had some questions for C raig Lucas , which inspired some rewrites . So this is really a reworked version , '' rather than a revival , which Circle Rep rarely stages . The show focuses on three girlhood friends who reunite in a restaurant and , amid the usual chatt er , begin revealing more about themselves than they intend . The other two show s that are definite for the season do not yet have time slots . Berezin said she hopes Dietz ' `` Lonely Planet '' will have the same director , Leonard Foglia , and the same cast as the Barrow Group production that ran during last winter ' s snowstorms . Denis O' Hare and Mark Shannon played two men grappling with issu es such as anti-gay bias and AIDS . Oates ' play , `` The Truthteller , '' is `` high comedy '' reminiscent of Oscar Wilde , Berezin said . Gloria Muzio will di rect . `` Basically , it 's about the value of the family , even if the family i s dysfunctional . '' The family in question decides to be totally honest after a tape recording reveals how phony everyone has been . The bottom line : Honesty doesn't always pay . Casting began this week for `` Das Barbecu , '' expected to be one of Off-Broadway 's major productions in the fall . The musical by Jim Lu igs ( book and lyrics ) and Scott Warrender ( music ) is a country-western show by way of Richard Wagner , no stranger to onstage barbecues . It has already had productions in Seattle ; Chester , Conn. ; Baltimore ; Sarasota , Fla. ; and , of course , Dallas . Christopher Ashley will direct and Eduardo Sicangco will ha ndle sets and costumes . Producing will be some of the industry 's most active p resenters : Thomas Viertel , Steven Baruch , Richard Frankel , Dasha Epstein , F ox Theatricals , Margery Klain and Daryl Roth . No theater or specific dates are set . Paul Rudnick 's latest play , `` The Naked Truth , '' doesn't officially open until June 16 , but it is already officially headed for a larger venue afte r the run at the WPA Theater ends in July . The producers , the Baruch-Viertel-F rankel group from `` Das Barbecu , '' plus Jujamcyn Theaters and Scott Rudin , a re veterans of Broadway , and that 's not ruled out as a destination . Directing `` The Naked Truth '' is Christopher Ashley , who staged Rudnick 's earlier hit , `` Jeffrey . '' The move will probably come in late summer-early fall , depen ding on Ashley 's schedule . In addition to `` Das Barbecu '' and `` The Naked T ruth , '' he 's directing the film version of `` Jeffrey . '' We haven't heard m uch in New York from playwright Cheryl L. West since `` Before It Hits Home '' w as staged in March 1992 , at the Public Theater . But she 's been busy elsewhere and , before too long , we may get to see her highly acclaimed new play . At th e moment , West is adapting `` Before It Hits Home '' for a planned Spike Lee mo vie . The script , which deals with a black family facing a son 's death from AI DS , is due in a few months , West said recently from her home in Champaign , Il l. . Meanwhile , she said she hopes to visit New York soon to talk about her lat est play , `` Holiday Heart , '' which was co-produced earlier this year by Syra cuse Stage , Cleveland Play House and Seattle Rep . There has been New York inte rest , she said , but declined specifics . Once again , the subject is family . The holiday heart of the title is a wise , warmhearted drag queen who takes in a 12-year-old girl abandoned by her drug-addict mother . `` There 's all kind of family , '' West said . `` I thought , ` Let 's put these unlikely characters to gether and see what happens. ' ' ' Lincoln Center Theater saved Eric Bogosian 's `` subUrbia '' for the last slot in its Festival of New American Plays . Good t iming ! Now , with the reviews in and raves fairly consistent , the play about w asted youth in the suburbs can take a summer-long lease on the Mitzi Newhouse Th eater . The closing has been moved to Aug. 28 . A further extension may be possi ble , depending on when the fall season 's first production opens . The play is Tom Stoppard 's `` Hapgood , '' and the timing of that one depends on the availa bility of its star , Stockard Channing . Charles Busch is dragging out some of h is gowns and some of his friends for a one-night gender-bending gala . The event , `` Charles Busch 's Dressing Up ! , '' will be staged June 24 at Town Hall . Busch will host the evening and perform . He 's also persuaded drag diva Charles Pierce to come out of retirement to spoof `` Sunset Boulevard . '' Randy Allen will recreate Marilyn Monroe and Ira Siff will appear in his most famous persona , prima ballerinaVera Galupe-Borszkh . In the interest of equality , comedienne Louise DuArt will perform from her repertoire of impressions that includes Geor ge Burns and Woody Allen . Rachel , Rebecca and Julia are girls . That 's obvious . Or is it ? They 're 10 years old . Their dark hair is short , their legs muscular , their chests flat . They 're soccer players , really good soccer players , and they dress the part running shorts , T-shirts , cleats . They 're also smart , funny , exuberant an d brimming with the self-esteem and camaraderie organized athletics has given th em . But , as they have recently learned , some people consider their profile an d their gender to be mutually exclusive . It began as one of those silly sidelin e rumors ; the opposing ( and losing ) team was said to have complained that Rac hel , Rebecca and Julia were not , in fact , girls but boys posing as girls . Th eir parents , teammates and coaches were , of course , incredulous . Rachel 's m other , hoping to dismiss the rumor as just that , approached a man on the other side and inquired as to the existence of such a laughable claim . `` I think it 's revolting , '' was all the man said . At first , she thought the man might b e referring to the absurdity of the gossip . But his gruff tone and huffy demean or quickly set her straight . He was revolted by the sickening sight of those th ree transvestites those 10-year-olds in drag ! Well , Rachel happens to be my ni ece . And having changed her diaper on numerous occasions , I can attest to her femaleness . Moreover , having watched her first decade of growth , I can say th at one of Rachel 's many outstanding qualities is that she is who she is stubbor nly , gloriously honest and individualistic . Many a time have I rejoiced in how miraculously immune she is to the insidious effects of stereotypes of any kind . She can be loud and tough and aggressive ; she can be quiet and gentle and boo kish . She is always herself . She is also pretty insightful . Her summation of the charge against her : `` It 's so stupid . '' Rachel 's mother ( my sister ) and I have attempted to probe the nature of this stupidity . Does it mean that g irls still must be frilly and physically inept to be `` real '' girls ? Does it mean that if they are close-cropped and athletically skilled they must not be gi rls at all ? I keep thinking of Donald Trump 's comment on the Native Americans whose business acumen is rapidly edging him out of the casino business : `` They don't look like Indians , '' he fumed . Translation : They don't look like the stock characters we 've been conditioned to expect , and/or there 's got to be s ome hidden and unscrupulous explanation for their astounding success . Anyone wh o 's got kids in organized sports knows what a fascinating social laboratory the sidelines can be , parental competitiveness being one of the more explosive ( a nd ugly ) chemical reactions to routinely take place there . But one heartening observation I 've made during my many hours in the lab this spring is that there is , in fact , a burgeoning population of Rachels , Rebeccas and Julias girl at hletes who do defy the traditional female profile . But they 're too numerous an d too well integrated into their social milieu to be tossed off as `` tomboys '' or any other eccentric subset . The `` revolted '' man on the opposing team isn 't the only one who 's failed to come to terms with this phenomenon . Even my si ster and I , who grew up when team sports were an exclusively male domain and we girls were consigned to cheering from the sidelines in our frosted lipstick , r an into trouble . We found ourselves seeking to affirm Rachel 's femaleness by p ointing out that she had just enthusiastically selected a fancy bridesmaid dress and her first low-heeled pumps . And maybe , we added , if she 'd been wearing her earrings ( they 're prohibited during play ) , this wouldn't have happened . . . We were really starting to flail What does a 10-year-old girl look like , an yway ? Does Rachel look like a boy ? when my 17-year-old , an athlete himself , happened onto the conversation and with one breathtakingly spare observation put the matter firmly to rest . `` Rachel , '' he said , `` looks like a soccer pla yer . '' LOS ANGELES Rob Reiner 's 1984 rock-documentary parody film `` This Is Spinal T ap '' inspired many of those who saw it to retell some of its best bits , like i ts gags about exploding drummers , but for actor-screenwriter Rusty Cundieff , i t did much more . It inspired him to make his own movie spoof . `` I was a big f an of ` Spinal Tap , ' ' ' says Cundieff , 29 , during a midmorning interview at a diner near his home , adding that he has seen the film at least 11 times . `` It 's truly , truly awesome . It 's one of the best parodies it 's so subtle . '' The movie Cundieff directed , wrote and starred in , `` Fear of a Black Hat , '' spoofs rap the way `` Spinal Tap '' spoofs rock , and it 's often as funny a s its inspiration . Much as Reiner 's film tracks the career of a hard-rock band , `` Fear of a Black Hat '' follows the exploits of the fictitious hard-core ra p group N.W.H. ( the `` H '' stands for hats ) and its members , Tone Def , Tast y-Taste and Ice Cold , who is played by Cundieff . Cundieff , an actor and stand -up comedian , decided he wanted to direct a rap parody movie in 1990 after memb ers of 2 Live Crew were arrested in Florida for performing songs from `` As Nast y as They Wanna Be . '' They were later found not guilty . `` It just seemed lik e a ridiculous thing , '' Cundieff says . `` The ( First Amendment issue ) was i mportant , but it was ridiculous the way it came about ... . The idea was to do a film like ` Spinal Tap ' that had a group of rappers who were on death row for obscenity ( charges ) . '' `` Fear '' eventually evolved into a broad parody of hip-hop culture that spares few rappers and few rap conventions . The pseudo-my stical Tone Def sounds suspiciously like Prince B. of PM Dawn ; minor characters Vanilla Sherbet and MC Slammer have obvious real-life counterparts ; and the mo re one knows about rap , the more inside jokes one can spot . In a nod to `` Spi nal Tap , '' the group 's managers rather than its drummers die under mysterious circumstances . ( Begin optional trim ) `` The movie plays on a few different l evels , '' Cundieff says . `` People who are really into rap and understand the business get one area of it . People who aren't into rap laugh at it , but in an entirely different way . People who are really into rap , and seriously take it as real , don't like the movie . `` One of the things that a lot of people don' t seem to realize is that rap is a performance , just like anything else ... . I t 's kind of scary when people take the lyric to a song and turn it into a polit ical frame of mind : ` OK , we are basing our dogma on this : `` Fight the Power . '' ' The song is a great song .. . but you hope the people will go beyond that . '' Making `` Fear '' not only gave Cundieff his first chance to direct , but it also gave the longtime rap fan his first chance to grab the microphone himsel f he does some of the rapping on the movie 's soundtrack , a collection of N.W.H . songs that includes `` My Peanuts , '' a send-up of Run DMC 's song `` My Adid as , '' and the group 's controversial hit `` ( Expletive ) the Security Guards . '' About two weeks ago , he went into the studio to cut a new track for a soon -to-be-released video by Ice Cold 's newest persona controversial gangsta rapper Ice Froggy Frog . ( End optional trim ) Though Cundieff pokes fun at hip-hop 's cliches , he seems to have a genuine love of the music , which he started liste ning to in the early 1980s while growing up in Pittsburgh . After graduating fro m the University of Southern California , he started doing stand-up comedy and a cting . After appearing in a small role in Spike Lee 's `` School Daze , '' Cund ieff decided he wanted to write and direct . `` Spike was really influential , ' ' Cundieff says . `` Any time anyone had a problem with what he was doing , he ' d say : ` If you don't like it , direct it yourself . ' It made total sense to m e . '' Cundieff and `` Fear '' producer Darin Scott a big `` Spinal Tap '' fan a nd a friend of Cundieff 's used $ 600 they won gambling on a trip to Las Vegas t o make a 20-minute video version of the movie they could shop around to producti on companies . Though none were immediately interested , ITC picked up the movie in 1992 . The film premiered at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival and was well re ceived , but internal changes at ITC caused the film to be delayed for about a y ear . Even if the delay affects how the film does at the box office , Scott stil l regards `` Fear '' as a success because it helped the two land other projects , including `` Tales From the Hood , '' an urban suspense anthology they co-wrot e , which will be produced by Spike Lee . `` No matter how well it does at the b ox office , it 's already ( done well ) for us , '' Scott says of `` Fear . '' ` ` We 're making more movies . '' After more than a century of girding the loins of American male athletes and gi ving its name to those who wear it the jock is slipping . `` I never see jockstr aps anymore , '' says Michael Joy , 17 , a high school junior in West Hartford , Conn. . Joy , who plays basketball and lacrosse , says although cup protectors are de rigueur for lacrosse , the jock alone is definitely an endangered species . The jock continues to have its supporters it 's still issued by many college and pro teams . And protective cups , both hard and soft , with cup supporters t hat , with any luck , keep them in position , have never gone out of style in co ntact sports . But novel fabrics and designs have helped to create a new generat ion of athletic underwear . Undoubtedly the fastest growing jock alternative is compression shorts those skin-tight spandex shorts made famous by college and pr o basketball players . ( Some athletes do wear jocks under their compression sho rts . ) Also edging out the traditional strap are light , brief-type supporters that feel and look like the underwear that up-and-coming athletes are used to . `` Most of all , it 's the advent of new materials , '' says Bob Beeton , manage r of the clinical services program in sports medicine at the U.S. Olympic Commit tee training center in Colorado Springs , Colo . Beeton says jockstraps are incr easingly rare among would-be Olympians . `` It 's a lot more comfortable getting your support from something that is kind of a full-sleeve support rather than s omething with straps and bands around it and never seems to stay where it 's sup posed to , '' says Beeton . The jock is not simply another piece of clothing . T hose in middle age and older can remember when getting the first jock sometimes required for junior high or high school physical education classes or youth spor ts was an awkward rite of passage . It has been a rich source of rib-tickling lo cker-room humor : The old Ben Gay-in-the-jock rarely failed to get a laugh , and seniors often tried to convince unwary freshmen that the strange , new applianc e was really a noseguard . Who can dispute its many contributions to the colorfu l language of sport ? Will it be possible to fake someone out of his compression shorts ? One would think that the demise of the jock would be met with anguish at the jock capitol of the world : the Knoxville , Tenn. , headquarters of Bike Athletic Co. , the company that developed and sold the first jockstrap in 1874 i n Boston to protect the privates of bicycle jockeys ( thus the name ) who were b ouncing over Beantown cobblestones . Bike sold its 300 millionth jock two years ago . `` There are a lot of different products out there cannibalizing the jock business , '' says Beth Hamilton , marketing manager for the elastics division , which includes jockstraps . The jock `` is on the way out , but I can't tell yo u that it 's gone . There are still people who prefer the traditional supporter . '' Actually , Bike invented compression shorts , so it is happily competing wi th itself . The shorts were originally designed from surgical hose 15 years ago to reduce hamstring injuries and groin pulls among football players . And Bike i s further diversifying : Besides brief-type jocks and special lightweight number s for runners and swimmers , Bike this summer will add a line of men 's underwea r briefs `` with a mild degree of support , '' according to Hamilton . Bob Gfell er , senior marketing manager of Champion Underwear of Winston , N.C. , another jock maker , calls the traditional strap `` a low-end loss-leader for our line . '' It 's an entry-level item , he says , but it accounts for only 5 percent of Champion 's underwear business , while its Cool Jock one of the new wave of ligh tweight jocks , has 8 percent . Compression shorts are 65 percent of Champion 's business . `` You 're seeing a move out of jocks and into compression pants , ' ' he says . ( Optional add end ) The need for support is reiterated constantly b y sports-medicine experts . Dr. John Fulkerson , head of sports medicine at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington , echoes this advice : `` If athletes don't have some form of protection and support , they are at additio nal risk of injury . '' ( Protection and support , technically , are two differe nt things , according to Bike 's Hamilton . A cup supporter is designed only to hold a cup in place , not to support the genitals . For both protection and supp ort , she says , you need to wear both a cup and a supportive garment . Compress ion pants , by the way , make everything feel tight , but they don't provide qui te the same support as jocks . Claims that they help prevent groin and hamstring injuries have not been clinically evaluated . ) Dr. Jeffrey P. York , a Portlan d , Maine , urologist who has written on sports and the male genitals , agrees t hat athletes need protection and support . But he notes that the part about supp ort is more a common-sense opinion than the product of exhaustive research . If male athletes slam their testicles around over a long period of time , he says , they 're likely to end sore , even bruised . Dr. Kennon Miller , an assistant p rofessor of urology at the State University of New York , Buffalo , says support in athletics is not a matter of plastering the family jewels tightly against th e abdomen but of `` gathering the genitals in a little more of a defined area . '' Jocks do this quite well , he notes , but so do good-fitting briefs , the bui lt-in briefs in some running and gym shorts and some kinds of compression shorts . Traditional jocks , he says , can chafe some men more than alternatives ( com pression shorts are particularly chafe-proof ) . And wearing yesterday 's dirty jock can worsen existing skin problems such as `` jock itch , '' a yeast infecti on . If the need for support is so obvious , why did the ancient Greeks who were smart enough to invent democracy , geometry and assisted suicide not wear jocks ? Such a question plagued the late Waldo E . Sweet , a professor of classics at the University of Michigan , who devoted a chapter to the topic in his 1987 boo k , `` Sport and Recreation in Ancient Greece . '' Sweet 's conclusion , based o n glosses of ancient texts , interviews with nudists and a little firsthand birt hday-suit running , was that the cremaster muscle , which lifts or lowers the te sticles involuntarily based on temperature or stress lifts away during exercise . The Greeks figured out that nature provides its own support . York says nature 's built-in jockstrap undoubtedly does kick in as exercise begins . However , a s the body temperature goes up with an extended workout , the cremaster and othe r muscles in and around the scrotum will relax . `` If I were running a marathon , '' he says , `` I 'd probably wear an athletic supporter . '' He also notes t hat the body may adapt to some kind of habitual exercise . `` Too many of us are weekend athletes , '' he says . Nonetheless , the Greek way seems to appeal to a segment of young athletes who forgo support for style . Josh Lippman , an 18-y ear-old high school junior in West Hartford , Conn. , says although the jock is surviving , there is an anti-jock movement among teen-agers . `` A lot of kids a re wearing boxers now , even for sports , '' he reports . `` They think you 've got to hang loose . '' GLENELG , Md. . It 's a slow , meandering journey from New Jersey to Georgia on a mule . That 's how Keri Martin likes it . She 's a 40-year-old woman with no permanent home who travels the country on her mule , Samuel 3 mph when she walks him , 2 mph when she rides . `` I don't rush , '' says Martin , who was visitin g friends here recently . `` It 's the trip that matters . '' She took three wee ks to travel from her father 's house in New Jersey to Glenelg , where she staye d one week before departing for Georgia . If you gauge a trip by the time it tak es to get there , then Martin ranks last . But if you measure the journey by pea ce of mind , then she finishes ahead of most of us . Her father , a corporate ex ecutive , has come to realize that . `` I 'm sure there are times you look at yo ur job and your life and wonder : ` Is this all there is ? '' says Frank Martin , 63 , by telephone from New Jersey . `` There 's a little bit of Keri in all of us . '' Plain-spoken with a grand smile , Martin wears her usual outfit : Old h at , wire-rim glasses , scarf tied around her neck and overalls . Two pigtails h ang down her back . `` I guess the old-time pioneer spirit is still left in a fe w people , '' she says . She 's not sure why it 's left in her , but she remembe rs in the sixth grade having to write a composition about what she wanted to do when she grew up . She wanted to ride a horse across country . That was admirabl e for a 12-year-old girl living in the suburbs of New Jersey . But when she got a job at a riding stable in high school , bought a mare for $ 250 and announced her intention of riding west after graduation , that was unsettling for her pare nts . She left with her mare , Lady David , after midnight to avoid the daytime traffic around Philadelphia . She crossed the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge over the Del aware River leading Lady David , blindfolded , next to a police escort with flas hing lights . `` I didn't have any idea where I was going , '' Martin says of th at 1972 trip . `` I was just heading out . I still do that sometimes , just head out . '' The trip lasted two months , derailed a week by Hurricane Agnes and fi nally stalled in Western Maryland near Sugarloaf Mountain when Lady David bent a shoe . Martin went to college that fall , attended three years and dropped out . She worked at a riding stable , learned blacksmithing and then got the itch ag ain and again , and again . This is her eighth journey . She 's ridden as far we st as Texas . Working odd jobs , she settles down for short stretches at her fat her 's , at friends ' farms . `` When the grass starts growing in the spring , ' ' she says , `` I 've got to go somewhere . '' ( Optional add end ) Martin was r obbed once . She 's been pestered by drunks , and once a driver accidentally sid eswiped her mule but didn't hurt him . That 's about all the bad things that hav e happened , she says . `` For hours you can think what you want to think , '' s he says . `` You can go all day and not say a word to anybody . `` I 'm not the kind of person who gets lonely . I don't get bored either . I 'm happy doing thi s . I don't see any reason to change . '' Materialism is not for her . `` The mo re possessions you have , the more you have to work to pay for them , '' she say s . `` If all you own is a mule and a few possessions , you don't have to work t hat much. .. . Life 's supposed to be fun , at least that 's the way I look at i t . '' She packs lightly a tent , some food and not much else . Traveling alongs ide the road , she rides Samuel up hills , walks him down hills and splits the r est of the time riding and walking . `` He 's got over 8,000 miles on him , '' s he says of Samuel , who is 16 . `` I 'm going to have to retire him pretty soon . '' Samuel is her second mule . She switched from horses because , she says , m ules are sturdier , friendlier and better travelers . The pair sleep at night in woods or fields . Attracting a lot of attention during the day , they 're often invited to stay with strangers . Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washingto n Post News Service . This will be the summer of Joe 's 10th year , the summer of letting go . I can see in my son an anxiousness to be free of little boydom . In me , there is just anxiousness about the little freedoms that I will be forced to grant , about th e freedoms he will stretch and embroider , about rules he will bend and break , just to see if I am serious , just to see how far he can get . I have seen it co ming all this year . He pressed me to be allowed to return to the school playgro und with his buddies , and came home with new words to try out on me . I could s ee him calculate my reaction . Just what do mothers do when you say those things ? On another trip to that playground , he was threatened by some older boys and tried not to show how shaken it had left him . He is ready for all this . I 'm not so sure about me . My own memories come into focus about the age of 10 , so I am conscious of this turning point for him . It pains me to think that all we have done together up to now will be lost to him , that it will be me telling hi m about the memories , not him remembering them . That what has meant the most t o me during these 10 years will exist only in photo albums for him . But I am al so pleased with the kind of clean slate his amnesia will give me . We can start over , sort of , building this wonderful relationship that will sustain us throu gh his adolescence . I 'm not sure how to do it , though . I had sisters . I don 't know what it is like to be a 10-year-old boy . At 10 , I was waiting to wear a bra and shave my legs . He wants to ride his bike across a four-lane road to p lay at a dock on a deep and forbidding stream . I was trying to get my mother to let me have bangs . He wants to spend all day in the woods where liquor bottles have been found and where teen-agers smoke . I don't know if I will like it if I can't hear his voice through the screen door . While I wanted to read `` Archi e and Veronica '' comic books and drink Cokes with older girls when I was 10 , J oe has buddies with Swiss army knives and real bows and arrows . My girlfriends ' mothers took me with them to the new mall in our neighborhood . Joe has a frie nd whose dad might take him hunting . Did I think he was going to play Legos in front of the television for the rest of his life ? Joe and his dad are best frie nds now . It used to be me . Now , I feel like a woman who comes in to do the wa sh . But why would you want to go to a children 's theater performance of `` Cin derella '' when somebody else will take you to the batting cages ? So soon ? He used to love seeing plays with me . Now , he and his dad trade their mild bathro om jokes in whispers out of earshot of disapproving me . When Joe fidgets in chu rch , it is his dad who settles him by telling him to pray for hits . His father is now endlessly amusing while I his partner during years of intimate moments h ave become a bore . `` Ohhhh , mom ! '' is what I hear most often these days . J oe used to wear the polo shirts , khakis and Docksiders I chose for him . ( His father says I dressed him like someone I would like to have dated . ) Now , most days , he looks like a pile of dirty wash and glad of it . His long , delicate fingers are always filthy now I swear , it looks as if he digs for his food and his nails are chipped and broken . He still slips that little paw into my hand w hen we walk , but I wonder how long that will last . He doesn't seem to be very curious about sex . I guess I am grateful for that . But there is one girl in hi s class that he doesn't absolutely hate , and he endures endless teasing when he refuses to disparage her . He never cared if his teeth were brushed , but sudde nly he cares what his hair looks like . Oh my , I can see him in a prom tux ! I don't like what he chooses to wear to school ; I will never approve of whom he w ants to date . How did we get to this point , Joe and I ? How did I , a college hippie and a ground-zero feminist , end up with a station wagon full of Little L eaguers ? How did I , who wanted the sports section of my college newspaper disb anded as irrelevant , come to feel such pride in the fact that my son bats secon d and fields like Chris Sabo ? Joe and I got to this point together , I guess , traveling down the same road these 10 years . I can't help but wonder when that road will fork for us . Sometime in the next 10 years , I suppose . What 's a mother to do ? One of the earliest choices she makes is how to feed h er child , but society doesn't always make the best choice an easy one . New Yor k State has recently enacted a law protecting a woman 's ability to breast-feed in public and imposing stiff penalties on people who try to interfere . Breast m ay be best , but the American public still tends to confuse the fundamentally de cent act of nurturing a baby with the crime of indecent exposure . Even a few fa cts about breast-feeding versus the bottle can make the decision a no-brainer no t just for mothers , but for policy makers , employers , health insurers and any one else concerned about public health and welfare . Breast-fed babies get fewer ear infections and are less likely to have allergies or diarrhea . Studies even show that nursing raises a baby 's IQ . Recent research in Israel has found tha t breast milk contains a potent `` cocktail '' of hormones that may hold life-lo ng benefits for a child 's health and development . Scientists are also explorin g the possibility that breast-feeding may lower a mother 's risk of certain type s of cancer . If that 's not persuasive , consider the pocketbook . In addition to saving on expensive infant formula , parents can now ponder another incentive . Researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health studied 10,000 babie s and announced last month that those who were breast-fed for more than a year t ended to have straighter teeth than bottle-fed babies . But translating a wise c hoice into real life is not always easy . Breast-feeding in public is not in its elf a crime , but since the process can easily bare a breast to public view , it could conceivably be prosecuted under indecent exposure laws in various states . Those cases are rare , of course , but public disapproval is not . From museum s and malls to mass transit buses , stores , sidewalks and restaurants , nursing mothers whose babies get hungry are accustomed to stares and sometimes even bei ng asked to stop or leave . The New York law was prompted in part by an incident in an Albany mall when a woman breast-feeding her child in the food court was a sked to cover up or leave . When the incident was publicized , a reader wrote to a local newspaper , fretting that nursing in public put society on a slippery s lope toward fornication in the streets . Such worries would be amusing if they d idn't have such dire effects . Cities like Baltimore face deep and abiding probl ems posed by the number of unmarried teen-age girls who give birth . Compared to middle- and upper-income mothers , these young women are far less likely to bre ast-feed . Yet , according to Judy Vogelhut , nurse coordinator of the Johns Hop kins Breastfeeding Center , they are precisely the mothers and children who most need the benefits gained by breast-feeding . In addition to the health benefits , breast-feeding promotes the bonding process between mother and child somethin g that does not always go smoothly when a young girl gives birth . Equally impor tant is the natural contraceptive effect breast-feeding can have . It 's not foo lproof , but it 's certainly better than nothing . Yet these young mothers are m ore vulnerable than most women to disapproving attitudes toward breast-feeding . They often live in crowded conditions , making it difficult to nurse in private . Frowns from the baby 's father or taunts from other members of the household can easily discourage them . They also depend on public transportation , where s nide comments can have a devastating effect . Vogelhut notes that when young mot hers are told about the benefits of breast-feeding , they almost always want to do what 's best for their baby . But it would help if society made it easier for them . Already , cost containment efforts have resulted in policies that send w omen home within hours after giving birth just when a new mother can run into pr oblems with breast-feeding . On the other hand , governments and employers are b eginning to recognize the value of incentives for breast-feeding . This year , t he government of Quebec began offering subsidies of $ 37.50 a month to low-incom e women who breast-feed their babies . In this country , the Special Supplementa l Food Program for Women , Infants and Children , known as WIC , has begun offer ing incentives by allowing nursing women to stay on the program longer . About t hree-quarters of middle and upper-income women nurse their babies , compared wit h fewer than 25 percent of women enrolled in the WIC program . A society increas ingly burdened with soaring health care costs and with the social effects of chi ldren having children is not one that can afford to indulge a misplaced prudishn ess that confuses breast-feeding with indecency . They weren't a dashing couple the way she and Jack had been back in the high su mmer of the '60s , brimming with grace and vigor , Bouvier charm wed to Kennedy charisma . One pairing like that is probably enough for anyone . Nor were they a controversial power couple the way she and Ari had been , ensconced in their pr ivate island like pharaohs , he ruling the waves of commerce with his vast fleet , she nursing a secret pain and all the billions in the world . No , they weren 't dashing and they weren't billionaires , this odd couple of Fifth Avenue . The y weren't married , either , because Maurice Tempelsman was still bound to his l egal wife , an orthodox Jew who refused to grant him a divorce . So his years wi th Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis were unsanctified by religion , unnotarized by the law , and the press and the public hardly knew what to call him . Adviser , fri end , escort ? Or what to call them . Companions , partners ? No one , I think , publicly called them lovers , but that is what they clearly seemed , and when s he suffered her unexpected illness and died last month , too young at 64 , he wa s by her side every moment , faithful as any husband , devoted as any partner , devastated as any person who sees the comfortable vision of his declining years snatched away and replaced with the looming shadows of a lonely old age . Homose xuals are not the only people who , for reasons not of our own design , are unab le to marry those with whom we share our lives . There have always been people w ho are married in spirit but not in law , wed in their own eyes but not ( at lea st according to the rabbis and the priests ) in the eyes of God . But the pairin g of Jacqueline Onassis and Maurice Tempelsman , and the cruel disease that ende d their very private love story , struck a deep resonance with many gay people . Many of us know the awkwardness of terms like lover , longtime companion , dome stic partner , none of which convey the heart 's truth . Too many know the horro r of feeling within yourself , or on the body of your beloved , those implacable lumps that signify impending death . Too many have known the insecurity of beco ming an overwhelming burden to someone who has no legal or religious obligation to carry that burden , but carries it anyway . And far too many have tasted the acrid bitterness that comes when , after that burden has been honorably borne an d finally set aside by death , the survivor is cast aside by the family because he or she lacks the legal rights that legal spouses take for granted . So while the world watched the famous as they came and went , the gorgeous children , the celebrated cousins , the movie stars and senators and living legends , I strain ed for a glimpse of the private mourner . I longed for him to be recognized , an d was cheered to see that he was given pride of place as a member of the innermo st family . Her hand was in that , I 'm sure , as though the grace that touched her first husband 's funeral she extended to this last partner at her own . Alth ough Catholicism condemns adultery as seriously as any sin , Tempelsman properly partook in the religious rites of Jacqueline Onassis ' death as he had in the j oys and sorrows of her life , and read from the altar of St. Ignatius Loyola a p oem by Cavafy , the great gay poet of modern Greece , himself never married but long in love . In the last photo we have of this most private , most photographe d woman in the world , taken just days before her death , Jackie is leaning on M aurice 's arm in a sun-drenched Central Park , her daughter pushing a grandchild nearby . No shame . Dignity. And a model to the very end , in ways she never kn ew . President Clinton 's first official visit to Western Europe calls to mind some incendiary comments made by former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt about how Am ericans go about choosing their leaders . The time was the early '80s . soon aft er Ronald Reagan took office . Schmidt was in his usual arrogant state of mind . His disdain for President Carter was already legendary . What was new was his l ow opinion of Reagan , then embroiled in the backlash of some unfortunate remark s about how he would conduct a nuclear defense of Western Europe . Schmidt noted that before he became chancellor he had served as minister president of Hamburg , as head of his party 's caucus in the Bundestag and as a minister of finance and defense . In other words , he was prepared . And his American counterparts ? Why they were provincials , mere ex-governors , who came to the White House wit h zero experience in foreign affairs . And showed it . Schmidt had a higher opin ion of George Bush . One can speculate about his grades for Bill Clinton . But o f this we Americans can be sure : The president 's Western European hosts , desp ite well-choreographed photo-ops , will be regarding their visitor with somethin g less than admiration . When a high French official was recently asked what he thought of Clinton foreign policy , he said he found it hard to discern just wha t the U.S. was doing day by day . That his own government had publicly conceded it was helpless in Bosnia without U.S. leadership can be small comfort to Americ ans . By the verdict of his own countrymen , Clinton has been a politician so do mestically focused that only lately has he realized his plummeting poll ratings reflect his sorry repute as a world leader . Clinton 's back-to-back visits to E urope this month and next provide a needed opportunity to reverse his reputation . The White House is all a-jitter about how his D-Day appearance as a commander in chief who shirked military duty will play next Monday . But more important i s what the human species thinks about Clinton as sole superpower chief confronti ng ( in his words ) `` a new world threatened with instability , even abject cha os .. . religious and ethnic battles .. . tribal slaughters , aggravated by envi ronmental disaster , by abject hunger , by mass migrations . '' The president 's most cogent formula for dealing with this sorry mess is to avoid `` having to c ommit the lives of our own soldiers where they should not be committed '' based on `` the cumulative weight of the American interests at stake . '' This will ha rdly be reassuring to Western Europe , torn as ever between desire and resentmen t on the subject of American leadership . And it will hardly save Clinton from h is domestic critics , even though his low-profile sentiments are in sync with ho me-folk unwillingness to take casualties overseas . But such are the burdens thi s ex-governor of Arkansas has assumed , and he will get little sympathy from the Helmut Schmidts of Europe . The political crisis in Haiti has gone on so frustratingly long that it would b e easy to overlook a couple of small but significant signs of progress there rec ently for the Clinton administration . Under the fresh leadership of William H . Gray III , head of the United Negro College Fund and a former member of Congres s , whom President Clinton recruited as his special envoy to Haiti , the United States has begun to rally the kind of regional support that will be needed to wa it out the military junta that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in late 1 991 . Meeting with officials of the Dominican Republic , for example , Gray was able to get their cooperation in cracking down on the cross-border smuggling tha t has allowed the Haitian junta to get around an international economic embargo . Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the island of Hispaniola , and despite a history of rivalry between the two nations the Dominican government had turned a blind eye to smuggling of oil and other goods into Haiti in violation of the U.N.-imposed embargo . That was until Gray visited the Dominican Republic and pe rsuaded President Joaquin Balaguer , whose recent re-election to office is being internally criticized due to election irregularities , that this might be a goo d time for him to be on good terms with Washington . As a result , Balaguer orde red hundreds of Dominican border guards transferred and replaced by elite troops from the Dominican army . The result has been at least a short-term drop in smu ggling . On Tuesday , Gray was in Jamaica to work out the final details of an ar rangement to better deal with the continued flow of Haitian refugees to the Unit ed States . Henceforth , rather than be returned directly to their homeland , as has been U.S. policy , Haitian refugees will be taken into the Jamaican port of Kingston by the U.S. Coast Guard . From there , refugees with legitimate claims to political asylum will be transferred to the United States or to a refugee ce nter at Guantanamo Bay , Cuba . But while encouraging , both of these steps are only temporary fixes . They help relieve some of the political pressure on Clint on to `` do something '' about Haiti , and quickly . The problem is that this pr essure could tempt the White House to invade Haiti . Ousting the thuggish clique that ousted Aristide would be easy work for the Marines , of course . But getti ng the Marines out of Haiti after an invasion would be much more complicated . T hat is why simply waiting out the Haitian junta is still the preferred option . Haiti 's military leaders must be convinced that Washington and the rest of the world intend to make life as difficult as possible for them until they step asid e and allow their nation 's first popularly elected president to return . Gray ' s recent achievements in the Caribbean are important because they will contribut e to that methodical long-term strategy . A DANGEROUS WOMAN , R , 1993 , 93 minutes , MCA/Universal Home Video , closed-c aptioned , $ 95.98 . A melodrama without internal logic or moral perspective , ` ` A Dangerous Woman '' features Debra Winger in a studied performance as Martha Horgan , the mentally retarded pariah of an inbred California farming community . Martha , whose slow-wittedness combines disastrously with her obsession for te lling the truth , lives with her glamorous Aunt Frances ( Barbara Hershey ) , a widow whose affair with a married politician ( John Terry ) sets the film in mot ion . Actually , it 's the pol 's wife ( Laurie Metcalf ) who starts thing rolli ng when she plows her car through the porch and into the living room to confront the adulterers . Now that things are busted up , Frances can use the services o f Mackey ( Gabriel Byrne ) , an itinerant handyman who proves handy at more than carpentry . An Irishman with an alcohol problem , Mackey is drunk when he lets Martha seduce him and when he and the equally potted Frances make whoopee in a p ile of broken plates . The plot is a tangle really , which involves Martha 's lo sing her crummy job at the dry cleaners . Accused of stealing from the till by t he real thief ( David Strathairn ) , Martha is separated from her beloved co-wor ker ( Chloe Webb ) , which leads to Martha 's revenge via cheese knife . Directo r Stephen Gyllenhaal imposes neither aesthetics nor control on the film , which was written by his wife , Naomi Foner . Maybe she 's the dangerous woman . Rita Kempley -O- RUDY , PG , 1993 , 112 minutes , Columbia/TriStar Home Video , close d-captioned , $ 95.95 . Notre Dame provides the mythological underpinning for th e inspirational , reality-based story of Daniel Ruettiger , an undersized , unde rtalented working-class dreamer whose childhood aspirations to play football for mighty Notre Dame have been consistently dashed by family , friends and educati onal institutions . Even his dad counsels , `` Rudy , not everyone is meant to g o to college . '' But Rudy ( Sean Astin ) has dreams beyond the Joliet , Ill. , steel mill that has swallowed Ruettiger men for decades , and he heads for South Bend with a duffel bag and a truckload of determination . There he 's counseled by a school priest ( Robert Prosky ) to enroll at right-next-door Holy Cross Co llege to prepare himself academically ( with the aid of nerd tutor Jon Favreau ) . Immersed in Irish football lore , Rudy gradually insinuates himself into the Notre Dame community by working for Knute Rockne Stadium 's groundskeeper ( Char les S. Dutton ) , painting players ' helmets gold and announcing his intentions to the startled head coach ( Jason Miller ) . Rudy somehow makes the team as a l ive practice dummy who will never suit up for a game , but his underdoggedness a nd determination eventually earn him a shot in the last game .. . maybe . The mi d- '70s setting ( the film was shot on campus ) and the quietly insistent Astin make believable a story that 's less about winning than about trying , a sweet-n atured family drama in which years of effort are rewarded by a brief moment of g lory . WASHINGTON Wall hangings and rugs woven on centuries-old looms by artists from the Navajo Nation go on view June 3 at the Renwick Gallery of the National Museu m of American Art . The 38 weavings were made between 1980 and 1992 using a tech nique handed down from generation to generation on the nearly 16-million-acre re servation located where Arizona , New Mexico , Colorado and Utah join . `` Styli stically , they 're all over the map , '' says anthropologist Ann Lane Hedlund , who collaborated with Gloria F. Ross to commission and acquire the weavings for the Denver Art Museum . Some were woven in the old style of chief 's blankets , 19th-century shoulder blankets worn to indicate status . Have you gone too far in consuming for and with your pet ? Herbert Freudenberge r , a psychologist in New York , warns that some people treat pets as `` surroga te children that they never had . Anything that is too much is an extreme . '' C heck these warning signs , compiled with the help of a few candid pet enthusiast s : Do you find yourself counting the grams of fat your pet eats per day ? Are y ou searching for a scented flea collar in the same fragrance recommended by your aroma therapist ? Does every cabinet , closet and drawer in your house/apartmen t have a giant sack of pet food stashed in it ? Do you need organizers for your gigantic collection of pet toys ? Have you color coordinated your hamster beddin g to go with the water bowl ? Does your dog/cat wear more jewels than you ? Does your pet 's chow cost more than yours ? Do the people where you shop know both you and your iguana by name ? Do you carry pictures of your grand-dog/grand-cat ? Do your friends bring you luxury pet shampoo as a gift from Europe ? Does your pet get a haircut more often than you ? An extraordinary collection of original documents , including a 1575 memo from Queen Elizabeth I to a servant requesting that her closets be cleaned out and so me of her clothes given to 40 poor women on Maundy Thursday , is on view at an e xhibit that opened May 27 at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville , N.C. . The show is called `` George Washington Vanderbilt : A Man and His Treasures '' to mark t he centennial of Biltmore , the largest house in America . The 250-room French R enaissance-style mansion was designed by noted architect Richard Morris Hunt for the grandson of the dynasty 's founder , Cornelius Vanderbilt . Biltmore , whic h is now a museum , remains in the family ; its owner , William Cecil , is a six th-generation Vanderbilt . The royal correspondence is among approximately 1,000 original documents inserted into a set of 29 gilded volumes entitled `` The His tory of Holland House , '' published in the 1850s . Holland House was the London abode of an aristocratic English family from the 17th century until it was dest royed by bombs during World War II . The folio-size volumes were purchased more than a century ago by George Vanderbilt . They have remained ever since in stora ge at Biltmore , uncataloged and unseen by scholars , according to Jerry Patters on , author of `` The Vanderbilts . '' Another exceptional document in the colle ction is a 1782 letter from the Marquis de Lafayette to Benjamin Franklin tellin g him it would be tough to get more `` pecuniary assistance '' from France for t he young United States . Asked by Cecil to authenticate the collection , Patters on , formerly a rare-book expert at Sotheby 's , said in an interview it contain s unique items such as an autograph of Edward VI , Henry VIII 's son who died as a teen-ager , and funeral bills for William III showing how much his shroud cos t . There are unpublished missives from literati such as Lord Byron , Samuel Joh nson , Richard Sheridan , Samuel Taylor Coleridge , Alexander Pope and William W ordsworth . There is a letter in Old Russian signed by Catherine the Great and a 1799 note about a soldier 's pension from Napoleon when he was still Bonaparte . Napoleon was a friend of the Holland family . Other treasures collected by Geo rge Vanderbilt that are on public display for the first time since the museum op ened in 1930 include numerous pieces of silver by famed 18th-century English sil versmiths Paul DeLamerie and Paul Crespin . There are also memorabilia that shed light on the personality of Biltmore 's original owner , who died in 1914 : his boyhood diaries , French royalty cards ( an antique version of baseball cards ) , pocket watches and even a ticket stub from a bullfight of long ago . A compan ion show entitled `` Biltmore Estate : The Most Distinguished Private Place '' w ill be mounted at the Octagon museum in Washington starting Oct. 17 . The centen nial exhibit will remain until the end of 1995 . For information , call ( 704 ) 255-1130 . WASHINGTON Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis took the subject of her official White Ho use portrait very seriously . The February 1971 official presentation of Aaron S hikler 's paintings of the former first lady and her late husband marked the onl y return visit Onassis made to the White House after the assassination . Onassis personally approved of Shikler 's portrait , which was paid for by the White Ho use Historical Association . But at the time , some art critics found Shikler 's impressionistic full-length romantic portrait of Onassis standing in front of a fireplace at her New York apartment `` other-world-ish '' or `` veiled . '' Shi kler 's comment to The Washington Post at the time was , `` Anyone could paint h er prettiness . I wanted to paint the haunted look in her eyes . '' Last week , Hillary Rodham Clinton asked that the portrait of Onassis , which was completed by Shikler in 1970 , be moved from the Vermeil Room where it is usually displaye d to a more heavily trafficked area of the White House to honor Onassis 's memor y . The first lady also requested that a bouquet of peach Osiana roses , a Clint on favorite , be placed in front of the portrait . According to the first lady ' s press office , the portrait will hang in the ground floor corridor until the e nd of June . Not long ago , Mike Goff , who spends his summers near Seneca Rocks , W. Va. , was stopped by police in nearby Petersburg , W. Va. , after they had spotted him driving up and down the town streets . `` I was looking for a cash machine , '' Goff said , `` and I was surprised when they told me you had to drive to Mooref ield ( W. Va. ) to find one . '' At the rate at which automated teller machines are spreading , it probably willn't be long before there 's one in Petersburg as well as Moorefield , 15 miles away . In fact , the number of banking offices is now falling while the number of ATMs is soaring . By the end of last year , the re were more than 95,000 of the machines across the country far more than the nu mber of bank head offices and branches up from only 2,000 in 1973 . Probably not hing else has changed the way people manage the cash in their pocketbooks as the advent of ATMs . Most ATMs are open all the time , so depositors with ATM cards tend to make more than twice as many cash withdrawals as those who do not use t he machines . Depositors found the machines so convenient that they used them 7. 7 billion times last year , an average of 6.7 times a month each , according to the Consumer Federation of America , drawing on data from the Nilson Report and the University of Michigan 's Survey Research Center . The spread of the machine s has not been just a matter of customer convenience , however . Banking executi ves have seen ATMs as a cheaper way to handle routine transactions that otherwis e would require a teller and possibly more banking offices . The number of banki ng offices was , until a couple of years ago , also going up . But such experts as David B . Humphrey , a banking professor at Florida State University , say th at the rise in the number of bank branches was the result of a relaxation of ban k branching restrictions in many states . Meanwhile , the number of bank head of fices has gone down as bank failures and mergers have reduced the country 's tot al number of banks . The Consumer Federation released a study this week saying b anks are overcharging customers for the use of ATMs . `` Throughout the economy , self-service facilities result in lower costs for the consumer , '' said Chris Lewis , the group 's director of banking and housing policy . `` But in banking , self-service is regarded as a privilege for which the consumer is required to pay a premium for saving the bank money . '' The consumer organization noted th at most banks charge a fee , usually about $ 1 , when customers use ATMs other t han those belonging to the institution at which they have their accounts . About a fifth of the banks also charge about 25 cents each time a customer uses an AT M of their own bank . And there are other fees in some cases , it said . Altoget her , banks took in more than $ 2.55 billion in ATM fees last year , while buyin g and operating the machines cost $ 2.9 billion . But the banks came out way ahe ad , the group argued , because they saved $ 2.34 billion in teller costs that t hey would have incurred if all those ATM transactions had been handled by a pers on in a banking office . Indeed , one of the major reasons for the rapid spread of ATMs has been that a transaction on them costs about half the $ 1.12 cost est imated by the American Bankers Association for a transaction requiring a teller . However , contrary to the Consumer Federation 's complaint , Florida State 's Humphrey found that use of ATMs has not necessarily saved banks money because th e convenience has encouraged so many more transactions . In an article in the sp ring issue of the Quarterly Review of the Richmond Federal Reserve Bank , Humphr ey wrote : `` The expectation that ATMs would reduce bank costs has not been rea lized . Indeed , costs appear to be slightly higher .... '' The Consumer Federat ion recommended that bank customers minimize their ATM fees by using their own b ank 's machines whenever possible and by withdrawing larger amounts of cash if a nother bank 's machines must be used . Finally , it said , `` If convenient , us e a teller . '' `` We don't apologize for the fees , '' said Ed Alwood of the Am erican Bankers Association . `` We think we deliver a valuable service , and obv iously our customers do too . '' Depositors found ATMs valuable enough to use th em 7.7 billion times last year , fees and all . WASHINGTON Our ids obviously don't like squids . The Smithsonian has just put i ts second giant squid on display , and this one is even creepier than the first . It comes with blue-green flashing lights and rows of nasty hooks on its tentac les that guarantee the first embrace with the creature will be the last . Taning ia danae let 's just call her Tonya was netted off Cape Cod a couple of years ag o . Reduced by the preservation process to a fraction of her former 7-foot , 135 -pound self , she nestles nastily in a plastic tank at the National Museum of Na tural History . One of the rarest of deep-sea specimens , Tonya 's permanently p aired with her big sister Archie ( Architeuthis dux ) , a half-grown 440-pounder with 30-foot tentacles that washed ashore on Plum Island , Mass. , in 1983 . Cu rator Clyde Roper , the Smithsonian 's squid expert , thinks the two of them are just beautiful , making allowances for the fact that pickling has turned them a ll gray and ooky . Roper regards squids as pinnacles of evolution , having gone about as far as could be expected of any spineless creature . Some grow 50 feet long , maybe much longer , he exulted at Tonya 's press debut , ignoring the ala rm on the faces of the hard-scribbling scribes . `` We talk of giant squids as r are because we don't see many of them , '' Roper says , `` but in fact they may be common . They mainly live in the deep open ocean . If sharks and sperm whales don't get them , they 're eaten by scavengers when they die . '' Roper loves sq uids . He can't stop talking about them . `` You know how shallow-water squids e mit puffs of ink to distract predators , '' he says . `` It attacks the ink clou d while the squid squirts away . But of course that wouldn't work in the deeps , where it 's always dark . So there 's a squid that squirts luminescent ink ! '' Among newcomer Tonya 's charms , as enumerated by Roper , are eyes as big as gr apefruits , backed by a large and complex brain . Two of her eight arms were equ ipped with powerful bioluminescent organs that apparently are used to warn or di stract predators , making her , in the sober and precise language of science , ` ` the world 's largest flasher . '' While it 's possible the lights may also be used to attract or dazzle prey , it 's doubtful , science says , because a squid already is uniquely equipped to reach out and clutch someone . Speaking of whic h , Roper wishes it known that all those myths and legends about giant squids ar e just stories . Although some squids grow bigger than many oceangoing boats and one could if it wanted overtake a boat at 45 mph after spotting it through the darkest night with volleyball-size eyes and has tentacles that could easily snak e their way over the side across the deck down the hatch through the galley and into the sail locker where the crew has retreated in terror and although the ten tacles are enormously powerful and have suction cups rimmed with sharp teeth or backed by cruel barbs and could easily grasp shrieking sailors and slowly and re lentlessly draw them into a mouth equipped with a flesh-shearing bone-crunching beak leaving the craft bare and abandoned like the Flying Dutchman or Marie Cele ste , this has never been proved to have happened . So calm down . -O- GIANT SQU IDS , on permanent display at the National Museum of Natural History . WASHINGTON If you go to the National Gallery of Art 's newest show , don't sit on the two white benches . Alarms will sound and guards will come running , beca use they 're not benches at all , they 're art . Furthermore , they 're importan t art , two of 90 artworks selected from the world-famous contemporary collectio n of Dorothy and Herbert Vogel . The Vogels , who are a heartwarming legend in t heir own time , have given or promised the gallery their entire assemblage of mo re than 2,000 drawings , paintings , sculptures , constructions and whatever . G allery Director Earl A . Powell III praises the Vogels ' `` extraordinary connoi sseurship and love of art , '' and says the gallery is honored to be given stewa rdship of `` one of the broadest , deepest and most discerning collections of la te-20th century art . '' The works once filled the Vogels ' New York City apartm ent `` literally from floor to ceiling-living room , bedrooms , bathroom , where ver , '' laughs Ruth Fine , curator of the gallery 's modern prints and drawings , who organized the show . `` The collection touches virtually all the importan t elements of minimal , post-minimal and conceptual art . '' Not only that , it was assembled on a shoestring by two of the nicest people you 'd ever want to me et . Dorothy and `` Herby '' Vogel , as she calls him , are an only-in-America l ove story . She was a librarian , daughter of a stationer ; he was a postal cler k , son of a tailor . They met at a reunion of Catskill resort patrons , and the ir devotion to each other has always been matched by their love of art ( much of their 1962 honeymoon was spent exploring the National Gallery ) . Both studied art and dreamed of being artists , but then came to the conclusion that others w ere doing much more important and exciting work than they ever could . For 30 ye ars they lived on her salary and spent his on art , meanwhile becoming friends a nd patrons of scores of struggling unknowns who went on to fame and fortune . In stead of cashing in on the enormously enhanced value of their modest purchases , the Vogels , now retired , donated them to the nation . `` We didn't do it to m emorialize ourselves , '' Herbert Vogel says , `` we did it to maintain the inte grity and personality of the collection . '' Who could resist such a story ? The only thing that tarnishes this bright and shining tale is the show itself . If this is the cream of contemporary art , then bring on the millenium and get us o ut of this drab , desultory , declining century . The abovementioned non-benches , for instance , are far from the silliest pieces in the show . The broad white platforms are used to display a pair of small , untitled cast-iron sculptures b y Joel Shapiro ( born 1941 ) that might at least serve as paperweights . For max imal silliness in minimal sorry , conceptual art , there 's an irregular form , covered in brown paper by mega-wrapper Christo ( born 1935 ) that 's called `` P ackage '' ( 1974 ) and leaves one oddly uncurious about what might be inside . T here are a few , too few , relieving flashes of wit . Robert Barry ( born 1936 ) , draws a chuckle with `` Closed Gallery '' ( 1969 ) , which is an invitation t o an exhibition `` opening '' that consists of closing his gallery for a couple of weeks . `` Colorfast ? '' ( 1975 ) by Edward Ruscha ( born 1937 ) , is printe d in beet juice on paper , and the answer is no : The letters have all but faded away . -O- FROM MINIMAL TO CONCEPTUAL ART : Works from the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection , through Nov. 27 in the East Building , National Gallery of Ar t . WASHINGTON The life cycle of the senior political appointee lasts just over two years . The number , calculated by the General Accounting Office in a report re leased this week , represents the median length of service for presidential appo intees who undergo Senate confirmation . During the 1981-91 period surveyed by G AO , these positions turned over between two and three times , on average . It u sually took months , sometimes years , to fill the vacancies , GAO noted . GAO f ound that the position with the highest turnover seven appointees in 10 years wa s the Commerce Department 's assistant secretary for trade development . The nex t highest turnover occurred in the Justice Department , where there were seven d eputy attorney generals in 10 years . Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chai rman John Glenn , D-Ohio , who asked for the GAO study , often points out at pan el hearings that high turnover in senior positions disrupts programs and undermi nes an administration 's policy initiatives . Glenn also usually asks appointees during confirmation hearings whether they intend to stay for the full president ial term . They almost always answer yes . Last year , Glenn discussed prelimina ry figures on appointee turnover with President Clinton , contending that the te nure question had been neglected too long . In a letter to Clinton last week on the new GAO findings , Glenn said he has `` grown concerned by the increasingly apparent relationship between troubled programs and the recurrency with which ke y leadership posts have changed hands , or which have remained vacant for long p eriods of time . '' For example , Glenn wrote , the Federal Aviation Administrat ion has had seven appointed and four acting administrators in the last 15 years , the Federal Housing Administration has had 13 commissioners within the past 14 years , the General Services Administration has had 18 administrators in the la st 24 years , and in an 18-month period in 1991-92 , three different appointees served as assistant secretary for postsecondary education . `` These programs we re responsible for some of our more recent , and major , management crises .. . ( such as ) housing fraud , student loan delinquencies , exorbitant federal buil ding expenses , and excessive cost overruns and delays on multibillion-dollar co mputer systems , '' Glenn said . In reviewing turnover rates , GAO looked at eig ht departments and agencies to determine if positions remained empty for extende d periods . GAO found that it took six months ( at the State Department ) to 20 months ( at Health and Human Services ) on average to replace a departed appoint ee . GAO surveyed Cabinet departments and major agencies in gathering its data , but did not try to explain why political appointees seem to sign on for brief t ours of duty . `` In most cases , we could not determine from the information we gathered specifically why an appointee left a position , '' the report said . C ritics assert that too many appointees come to Washington to enhance their resum es , but others note that appointees leave for a wide variety of reasons . The l ack of senior appointee staying power has been documented in previous studies by the National Academy of Public Administration , Paul A . Volcker 's commission on public service and a number of management specialists . The GAO report , said Patricia G. McGinnis , president of the nonprofit Council for Excellence in Gov ernment , `` points up the importance of leadership among the career civil servi ce , which is the institutional foundation of these agencies . '' The report 's findings , she added , underscored the need for a re-examination of the appointm ents process , which currently consumes weeks or months as appointees undergo ba ckground checks and Senate confirmation . Patricia W. Ingraham , a Syracuse Univ ersity professor who has studied political appointees and their relationship to the bureaucracy , said two-year tenures frequently do not allow enough time for appointees and career officials to learn to trust one another . `` The longer a political appointee stays in place , the more he or she comes to appreciate that there is a great deal to learn on the job , and that they need a teaming arrang ement with a career executive , '' she said . Sheila K. Velazco , president of t he National Federation of Federal Employees , said political appointees are need ed to set an administration 's tone and philosophy , especially at a time when n ew labor-management partnerships are being tested . `` We want the political app ointees to have the ability to have some effect on down the line , '' she said , `` and the longer they are there , the better that can happen . '' WASHINGTON If President Clinton 's D-Day visit to the beaches of Normandy next Tuesday is a success , he can thank a tiny Pentagon agency with an unwieldly tit le that was created four years ago by the Bush administration . Since 1990 , the 50th Anniversary of World War II Commemoration Committee , a military agency th at is no more a committee than the Pentagon is a private corporation , has been plotting how the federal government should remember the war . Armed with a budge t of $ 2.8 million hardly enough to run the Pentagon 's motor pool the committee has undertaken a broad , ongoing international agenda that ranges from staging presidential visits to creating classroom posters . For Tuesday 's events , the Navy will send an armada of ships across the English Channel and write off the c osts of the exercise as a training mission . So will the Army and Air Force unit s participating in the ceremonies . The events in which Clinton and the leaders of 13 other nations will participate have been scripted `` like a military opera tion . '' There 's an obvious explanation for that says Sgt. Jeffrey C . Fry , a committee spokesman : `` Well , we are a military operation . '' It was a Bush administration decision to place the World War II ceremonies under the control o f a military rather than a civilian commission , Fry noted . That has allowed th e committee to stage a relatively low-cost commemoration by getting military com mands and local communities to underwrite most of the costs of staging ceremonie s and projects on their own . The Army Reserve recruiting command was tapped to print classroom posters on the war and the National Geographic Society printed m aps of the war 's key events . The National Archives and Records Administration reproduced World War II photographs and exhumed wartime propaganda films includi ng a famous seven-part series by movie maker Frank Capra titled `` Why We Fight . '' `` It 's been a labor of love , '' said Claude M. Kicklighter , a retired t hree-star Army general who became executive director of the committee a month af ter he left the Army 's Pacific Command in July 1991 . Since taking charge , Kic klighter 's goal has been to give top priority to honoring the 8.2 million survi ving World War II veterans . At his direction , spokesmen say the committee will ensure that veterans who make it to Normandy are be given the best seats for Tu esday 's ceremonies . Veterans who attended the 40th anniversary ceremony , comp lained that they could not see much so committee spokesmen say Kicklighter order ed that veterans headed for any major World War II event get a Veterans Identifi cation Badge , assuring them priority access . Working out of a small office in a Crystal City high-rise with a staff of 35 , the committee has enlisted about 3 ,000 communities and military commands to stage ongoing World War II events . To officially participate , all a community or base has to do is stage three event s a year and follow committee guidelines . `` We are not celebrating , we are co mmemorating , '' said Michael Humm , a committee spokesman . That means no comme rcialization of the events and , in Fry 's words , `` no pie-eating contests . ' ' If communities follow the guidelines , the committee will not interfere . `` W e don't dictate content , '' Fry said . Participating communities receive a flag with the committee 's motto , `` A Grateful Nation Remembers. '' and the commit tee 's logo , the `` ruptured duck '' eagle patterned after lapel pins presented to all veterans discharged after the war . The community program has been so su ccessful that the committee recently expanded it to include private companies an d labor unions that played a role on the World War II homefront . Cooperating fi rms and unions will be given a commemorative `` E '' flag similar to the World W ar II Efficiency award flags that the Army and Navy gave defense contractors . T his week 11 committee staffers went to Europe to help manage events there . The D-Day ceremonies are the highest-profile event the committee has orchestrated si nce the Pearl Harbor anniversary Dec. 7 , 1991 . The agency will continue to ope rate though 1995 with its `` grand finale , '' a week-long commemoration in Wash ington to mark the end of the war . Humm said `` the day the door closes '' prob ably will be January 1996 . By then the committee will have drafted an after-act ion report that will recommend how the nation marks the 50th anniversary of the Korean War . Or , as Humm puts it : `` See you in the year 2000 . '' NEW YORK In an artist 's eye , a bale of hay , old newspapers or piles of tarni shed vintage pennies become the unlikely stuff of dreams a bench for the horsewo man 's dressing room , a durable chair for a child , a coppery etagere for the h all . But you can't just build it and hope they will come . In the real world of furniture design , the challenge is finding someone to share the vision and hel p make it or better yet , buy it . And that 's where the annual International Co ntemporary Furniture Fair comes in . This 6-year-old magnet of the avant-garde t akes place each May , filling the halls of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center with inventiveness and often beauty like delicate waxed tissue-paper lampshades imprinted with leaves and imported from England . An estimated 11,000 visitors inspected the works of 400 exhibitors from the Charles Eames chairs of design gi ant Herman Miller and the sophisticated chic of Leland International 's industri al stack chairs to curiosities made by struggling youngsters seeking their first glimmer of recognition . Architects and interior decorators go looking for new sources of custom design , manufacturers keep an eye out for new designers . Dep artment-store window dressers and TV stylists show up to hunt for props . Among the reasons for enthusiasm were a chaise of recycled paper bricks by a French gr oup , Arrgh , whose works are being launched in this country by the Landon Galle ry in New York . Bowls , tables and an etagere made of vintage pennies attached end-to-end to a steel frame were the pride of Tom Sachs of Allied Cultural Prost hetics , who said he pays suppliers 2 cents for each penny . New Yorker Gaston M articorena was chosen New Designer of the Year . Now 25 , he has made his own li ghting fixtures for three years and designed furniture for two , including a see -through chair stuffed with confetti and upholstered in clear plastic and a hay bale on metal legs slipcovered in clear vinyl . `` I thought that my things woul d be too funky for the average interior designer or architect , '' he said after ward , `` but I didn't get any negative reaction . Everyone understood it . Peop le would .. . start smiling and laughing . '' He 's off to Italy in three weeks to look for a manufacturer . `` I would like to work in this country , but it se ems like it 's impossible , '' he said . Cedric Williams , 30 , a fashion design er , turned to furniture two years ago , forming a company called Gourmade . `` I think furniture will be the fashion for the 1990s , '' he explains . Williams attracted attention from the start with a black-vinyl chair that was clearly a s poof on Chanel . The back was shaped like a large No. 5 . This year , he showed tiny end tables covered with large , colorful polka dots . The excitement of bei ng discovered can be tempered by the risk of losing an idea to a competitor . `` The good thing is that everybody sees it ; the bad thing is that everybody sees it , '' said Michael McDonough , an architect and design writer in New York who was careful to have a patent pending on the recycled-paper kiddie furniture he exhibited under the name Eco-sTuff ! McDonough incorporated alphabet letters and other playful shapes into chairs and tables made of Homosote . They are designe d to be assembled , painted , drawn on and otherwise personalized by their small owners . `` I like the blank-slate thing , '' he explained . Two chairs and a t able will cost $ 180 . Henner Kuckuck 's fiery `` Red Chair '' was designed more for an adult playroom . With its skinny , elongated back , tubular arms and poi nty leather headrest , it looks set for takeoff on some whimsical journey . Kuck uck , 54 , a jovial German-born sculptor turned furniture designer , works on co mmissions through Nanna Design in Long Island City . He won awards for an earlie r chair , which could be collapsed like a big black bag when not in use , and su rvives on private clients ( no celebrities ) , he says . `` It 's tough . The mo re avant-garde your design is the tougher it is . So I have a tough time . '' Bu t , before turning to furniture , he was an artist , also not an easy calling . `` I chose all the worst . I like it , and that is the point . '' Tina and Franc esco Gianesini , two industrial designers in New York , both 26 , were uncertain about their prospects at the fair . Going by the name G Design , they set a goa l of finding a manufacturer for their first collection of wicker , metal and vel vet furniture . They succeeded on the second day . A Utah company , Directions , has taken on their designs and intends to get them to market by October . `` We 're just starting out , '' said Tina Gianesini , who met her husband when both were students at the Domus Academy in Milan . Now they work in New York . `` We did this in our spare time '' between freelancing and other jobs . `` It 's just really exciting . We went in there kind of feeling out what was it all about . This was a happy ending . '' NEW YORK Technology made an unusual inroad into this artists ' colony . Lama , a French firm , was showing a platform bed that could be raised to the ceiling a t the push of a button when not in use . The underside is designed to look like a ceiling and is wired with recessed lighting to complete the illusion . The ide a was being promoted as a solution to the home-office and guest-room problems in urban markets . Designer Alain Letessier says about 2,000 units have been sold in France . `` The idea is pushing the limit of space , creating new space in an apartment in a very convenient way . It 's not a gadget , not a toy , '' he ins isted . `` A lot of clients don't want bedrooms anymore . '' A 65-square-foot pl atform costs $ 5,660 installed . Letessier has been designing tables , televisio ns and walls that go up and down for nine years . By Benjamin Weiser Washington Post Service WASHINGTON Oded `` Ed '' Aboodi has been Wall Street 's best-kept secret : a shy , enigmatic dealmaker who rose to b ecome a powerful adviser to Time Warner Inc. 's legendary head Steve Ross and to its current chairman , Gerald Levin . Aboodi reportedly received $ 51 million f or his work in three megadeals , yet he remained largely invisible-as one Wall S treet investment banker put it , `` the Wizard of Oz , the man behind the curtai n . '' Then last month came the news that Aboodi had been cited for two counts o f alleged insider trading . According to the Securities and Exchange Commission , Aboodi sold 20,000 shares of Time Warner stock after being warned by insiders that it was about to drop . The stock did then plunge by more than 10 percent , allowing Aboodi to avert personal losses of $ 413,700 , according to the SEC . W hile neither admitting nor denying guilt in the matter , Aboodi agreed to settle the complaint , paying $ 931,077 in civil penalties and interest . New transcri pts released here yesterday by the SEC provide more detail on the Aboodi case an d reveal a fascinating tale of family intrigue involving Aboodi 's 29-year-old s on , David . According to sworn testimony given to SEC investigators , David Abo odi , a budding investment banker who had been authorized by his father to manag e the family accounts in which the questioned stock deals occurred , insisted th at he , not his father , had sold the Time Warner stock . When the SEC questione d the elder Aboodi , he took the same position : `` My son David. . . .My son Da vid , '' he repeated to SEC investigators as they asked who had made the deals , saying they had not talked beforehand about the transactions . The younger Aboo di told the SEC that he made the deals after reading several analysts ' reports on Time Warner , which favored such a move , and said that he did so without any inside knowledge from his father or anyone else that the stock was likely to di p . Separately , the documents reveal that as part of its inquiry into the tradi ng of Time Warner stock , the SEC quizzed Daniel Tisch , son of Laurence Tisch , chairman of CBS Inc. and also chairman of Loews Corp. . The agency asked about a sale of 10,000 Time Warner shares the elder Tisch made through his son at the end of May 1991 , just before the Time Warner stock fell . Daniel Tisch told the SEC that his father made the `` short '' sale-selling borrowed stock in anticip ation that it can be replaced at a lower cost after it falls in price-based on h is judgment that the stock was overvalued and not because they had received any inside information . The SEC appears to have accepted their position and there i s no indication that any case is active involving either Tisch . Laurence Tisch could not be reached for comment , and Daniel Tisch said he had not heard from t he SEC since giving testimony in 1992 and had no knowledge of any active case . SEC officials declined to comment . For Time Warner , the Aboodi case could not have come at a more sensitive time . The company is saddled with a large debt , and has faced Wall Street speculation that Seagram Co. , which owns 14.99 percen t of its stock , would support a hostile takeover bid or an attempt to oust its management . Seagram yesterday denied such speculation . After a special directo rs ' committee assisted by retired federal judge Harold `` Ace '' Tyler looked i nto the matter this spring , the board decided to retain Aboodi . Levin told sha reholders at the company 's annual meeting last month that the decision was `` a ppropriate '' and Aboodi was `` a trusted and valued adviser . '' The decision d rew some criticism : At least two Time Warner directors were said to have expres sed concerns about retaining Aboodi , said one source , though neither director would return phone calls . Another critic was Columbia University professor John Coffee , an expert in securities regulation and white-collar crime , who said : `` I am disappointed in Time Warner being able to rationalize this kind of cond uct by someone who is settling on these terms with the SEC . '' Neither Aboodi w ould be interviewed for this article ; and under terms of Ed Aboodi 's May 11 ag reement with the SEC , he is prohibited from publicly disputing the SEC 's versi on of the facts against him . `` What has been so wrenching for him is precisely what he cannot say , '' said one confidant , referring to the younger Aboodi 's statements to the SEC that he made the questioned trades . David Aboodi , a 198 7 Harvard University graduate , is vice president of the Berkshire Bank in Manha ttan , which his father founded . He told the SEC that his father initially gave him authority to trade in the family accounts because `` he thought it was time I learned a little bit about the stock market . '' The SEC probe of the Aboodis was first disclosed this spring by writer Connie Bruck in a book on Ross . But even before that , the Time Warner adviser was a figure of controversy because o f his role as Ross 's dealmaker . Emigrating from Israel as a teenager , Aboodi was plucked from an obscure accountant 's job by Ross and eventually became his financial guru . Aboodi also set up his own company , Alpine Capital Group , and later started the Berkshire Bank . He reveled in complex dealmaking . Said one lawyer : `` He loved doing things in Byzantine ways when they could just as easi ly be done straight . That was Steve Ross 's style too. . . . They suited each o ther beautifully . '' In Warner 's 1987 acquisition of Chappell & Co. , then the world 's largest music publisher , Aboodi 's low-key style appears to have help ed close the deal . The negotiations were boisterous and tense , with multiple b idders and near-chaos as Warner executives grew angrier and angrier as the price kept jumping until it exceeded $ 200 million , said Chappell owner James Harmon . `` Ed was the only one who kept his cool . He didn't scream and yell at me , '' Harmon said . Two years later , Aboodi played a key role in negotiating Ross 's merger with Time . Ross was later quoted as saying of Aboodi : `` He is one o f the most fantastic dealmakers of all time . '' He was also well-compensated : According to published reports , he received $ 6 million for his role in the Tim e Warner merger ( and the company also invested $ 150 million in a fund managed by Alpine Capital ) ; $ 15 million for a 1992 Time Warner joint venture with Tos hiba Corp. and Itochu Corp. ; and $ 30 million for last year 's Time Warner deal with US West Inc. . It was his role advising Time Warner 's board in a controve rsial 1991 securities offering that led to his recent troubles . That spring , T ime Warner , with the assistance of Merrill Lynch & Co. , devised an offering th at forced shareholders to subscribe or face a substantial dilution of the value of their stock . Merrill Lynch executives warned Time Warner officials-including Aboodi , according to the SEC-that in the short term , the offering would be un popular and likely depress Time Warner 's stock price . The SEC complaint allege s that on May 30 , 1991 , after hearing this warning , Aboodi `` directly or ind irectly '' caused the sale of the 20,000 shares of Time Warner common stock , wh ich he held in personal and family accounts at Merrill Lynch . He netted about $ 2.4 million from the sale . On June 6 , before the stock market opened , Time W arner announced the offering , and as Merrill Lynch had predicted , the stock dr opped , by 10.2 percent . The SEC alleged that the losses Aboodi averted resulte d from his trading on nonpublic , insider information . However , David Aboodi t old the SEC that he , not his father , ordered the stock sale . `` It was based on some reading I had done in the month before , '' David Aboodi said , referrin g to analysts ' reports that favored such a move . He said he put the proceeds t oward what the reports said was a safer investment , preferred Time Warner share s . The younger Aboodi 's version , however , was not supported by the Merrill L ynch broker who handled the sale . According to an informed source , the broker told SEC officials that he had a `` very very vague '' and `` extremely hazy '' recollection that Ed Aboodi had called him and asked to sell the 20,000 shares . Faced with this discrepancy and the circumstantial case against him , Ed Aboodi agreed to the SEC deal . Keeping Aboodi may help Time Warner in one respect . A s the board ponders Seagram 's investment , it may be without its longtime outsi de adviser , Felix Rohatyn , who has a longstanding relationship with Seagram . `` The question comes up , '' said a Time Warner source , ` ` `` Who is our inve stment banker now ? ' HOLLYWOOD `` Fear of a Black Hat '' is designed to be a rap version of the clas sic mock rock documentary `` This Is Spinal Tap , '' and the idea is so funny th at for a long time the film coasts on our good will . But it should be funnier t han it is . Writer-director Rusty Cundieff , who also stars , along with Larry B . Scott and Mark Christopher Lawrence , as one of the three members of the rap group N.W.H. , has a loose-limbed comic sense , and there are hilarious bits pok ing through the tedium . What the movie lacks is any kind of smart , sociologica l sense . It 's a defanged spoof . The biggest in-joke about gangsta rap , after all , is that its largest audience is white . Black rappers , many from middle- class backgrounds , market the white audience 's worst racial fears . Instead of getting into this kind of material , Cundieff goes for more obvious ( and safer ) targets : Vanilla Ice types and cringing money-grubbing managers . The rap gr oup 's numbers aren't particularly well-staged , or funny , but a few of their M TV clips are almost indistinguishable from what 's really on the network . ( Tha t 's the joke . ) There 's a funny interview with one of the rappers about the m eaning of the group 's name where he goes into a long diatribe about how slaves weren't allowed to wear hats , and another where the group 's recurring use of t he word butt is explained away as a social statement . The titles for their rap hits are the most inspired thing in the movie ( MPAA rating : R , for pervasive strong language and for sexuality ) , but you 'll have to see the movie or read something besides a family newspaper to find out what they are . The tamest one is `` Guerrillas in the Mist . '' HOLLYWOOD `` Renaissance Man '' wants to own your tear ducts . It 's got a sop for every audience and happy endings coming out of its ears . There 's a fine li ne between delighting an audience and pandering to it . `` Renaissance Man '' le apfrogs across the line . What complicates the issue is that , in snatches , the film does delight . Phony hokum becomes heartfelt hokum . Danny DeVito plays ou t-of-work ad exec Bill Rago , Princeton graduate , who grudgingly takes a job th rough the local welfare office teaching eight educationally disadvantaged Army r ecruits at a nearby post . This `` Dead Poets Society '' / `` Corn Is Green '' s etup always seems to work on some level movies about the inspirations of educati on can be inspiring and the liveliest moments in `` Renaissance Man '' involve B ill 's classroom wheedlings and back talk . Initially marking time while hunting for a `` real '' job , he finds himself roused to help his troops . He discover s an improbable way to reach them by teaching them `` Hamlet . '' Screenwriter J im Burnstein reportedly worked a job very much like Bill 's , but many of the in cidents in the film seem trumped up . Bill 's washout students are , of course , not really washouts ; they just need to be cared for . They 're like racially m ixed Dead End Kids for the dysfunctional '90s . Most of them have sob stories : Miranda ( Stacey Dash ) was ditched by her mother ; Brian ( Peter Simmons ) neve r knew his father who was killed in Vietnam ; Jackson ( Richard T. Jones ) was a great pro football prospect before he became injured ; Mel ( Greg Sporleder ) c omes from an abusive family and dozes to blank out the pain . Even the soldiers who don't seem touched by grief or anger like country boy Tommy Lee ( Mark Wahlb erg , aka Marky Mark ) or the well-read Roosevelt ( Khalil Kain ) or the jokeste r Jamaal ( Kadeem Hardison ) seem stunted not by lack of aptitude but by lack of opportunity . Donnie ( Lillo Brancato Jr. ) starts out reading comic books and ends up reciting the `` St. Crispin 's Day '' speech from `` Henry V '' to his f labbergasted drill sergeant ( well played by Gregory Hines ) . It 's an inspirin g moment , but it would have been funnier and probably truer to experience if Do nnie , an expert mimic , had recited the speech in his Al Pacino voice from `` S carface . '' The soldiers get fired up about `` Hamlet '' by relating the play t o their own lives it 's Shakespeare as therapist , as career adviser . The film 's view of education is inspiring but also a bit bogus . It reduces great drama to a catalog of shibboleths and life lessons . ( This is also what the movie doe s to its own meanings . ) And Bill 's transformation is self-serving . He comes to recognize that his former advertising world lacks the `` truth '' of his new crusade but Burnstein and director Penny Marshall plug the Joy of Learning with slick commercial fervor , as if they were framing an ad campaign . `` Renaissanc e Man '' never really shows us how Bill 's brood might bring him into their cult ure . Through them he discovers his real calling , but the educational process i s mostly one-way his way . ( The big dance number where the students do a rap ve rsion of `` Hamlet '' is the film 's phoniest scene . ) Bill is too busy getting his comeuppance in other ways : as a divorced father whose daughter wants his r espect ; as a former draft resister who learns , from the company colonel ( Clif f Robertson ) , the true value of the military life . DeVito is required to plod Bill through a lot of hare-brained paces , like the scene where he enters an en durance test to win the respect of his students . But DeVito is remarkably good in the role anyway ; it seems to have touched something genuine in him . He 's t oned down his usual bug-eyed squalling , and the result is his best screen work since Barry Levinson 's `` Tin Men . '' It is in Bill 's early scenes , where he stands humiliated before his jobless life , that Penny Marshall 's tact as a di rector comes through best . It doesn't come through often enough , though . She 's a graceful , intelligent director who doesn't appear to have her heart in all the graceless grandstanding in `` Renaissance Man '' ( MPAA rating : PG-13 , fo r some language ) . She doesn't have the gift for shamelessness , and that 's wh y the film , with its pileup of sentimentalities , seems so processed . She 's t rying to engineer our emotions , but she 's smart enough to know that an artist not an engineer is required for the job . HOLLYWOOD `` The Princess and the Goblin , '' a new animated feature opening to day , feels like 82 minutes of audio-visual junk food cloying , devoid of signif icant content and ultimately unsatisfying . Based on the 1872 novel by Scottish writer George MacDonald , this fairy tale focuses on Princess Irene ( voice by S ally Ann Marsh ) , who leads a sheltered life in her father 's castle with only her bumbling governess and her cat , Turnip , for company . On a walk , she meet s Curdi ( Peter Murray ) a miner 's son , who learns that subterranean goblins a re plotting to seize the kingdom . Curdi foils their plan with a little help fro m Irene and the royal guards because he knows the goblins ' weaknesses : They ha te singing and stepping on their feet is the only way to hurt them . All ends ha ppily , although the screenplay by producer Robin Lyons leaves many loose ends d angling . Why is Curdi the only person who knows how to defeat the goblins ? Whi le sneaking through the underground kingdom , he discovers the Queen Goblin ( Pe ggy Mount ) has six toes on each foot , while her subjects have only one : Why i s this significant-sounding discovery never mentioned again ? How do the goblins manage to flood a castle on a hill by unleashing one underground stream ? ( Can they teach my landlord how to generate that much water pressure ? ) Parents who sit through the film ( MPAA Rating : G ) will have ample time to devise answers , as the characters aren't interesting enough to hold the viewer 's attention . Irene and Curdi are perfect Victorian children who make waxworks figures seem l ively . Curdi just wants to do good deeds ; Irene will only go where the magic t hread of her great-great-grandmother 's ghost ( Claire Bloom ) leads she takes n o real risks and therefore doesn't really grow . The animation , done by crews i n Wales and Hungary , looks like Saturday-morning kidvid . Director Jozsef Gemes , is widely respected for his epic paint-on-glass feature , `` Heroic Times '' ( 1982 ) : He deserves better material as do the children who 'll be parked at a matinee of `` Princess '' while their parents shop in an adjacent mall . CANNES , France Sitting on the terrace of the Carlton Hotel , his lime green pa nts and lavender socks resplendent in the morning sun , Lloyd Kaufman president of Troma Films , casts a benevolent eye on Margot Hope , the fetching writer-pro ducer-director and star of Troma 's latest extravaganza , `` Femme Fontaine : Ki ller Babe for the CIA . '' `` Margot , '' he says , searching for just the right way to be nice , `` your film is much too good for the American Cinematheque re trospective . '' Not really , because nothing is too good or , for that matter , too bad for the feisty folks from Troma , who in truth will be feted with a thr ee-day Cinematheque retrospective in Los Angeles starting June 10 in honor of 20 years in the business . Longer , the New York-based company boasts , `` than an y other independent distributor and most Hollywood marriages . '' Complete with personal appearances , this may be the first Cinematheque series to come with wh at it calls a surgeon general 's warning : `` These films are often repulsively violent and sexually explicit . Not for children ( and many adults ) . '' `` We are especially pleased to be finally honored in Los Angeles , '' was Kaufman 's official response to the event . `` The international flights to the other tribu tes were just getting too expensive . '' Kaufman , who likes to claim that the c ompany name is Latin for `` excellence in cinema , '' wasn't just being hyperbol ic . Troma 's films have been the subject of retrospectives in London , Tokyo , Munich , Toronto and San Sebastian , plus a monthlong `` Aroma du Troma '' tribu te at the American Film Institute in Washington . Why Troma ? Is it because star s like Kevin Costner can be seen just getting started in Troma 's `` Shadows Run Black '' and `` Sizzle Beach USA '' ? Or because Kaufman and company vice presi dent Michael Herz have co-directed something like 30 films , a feat worthy of th e Guinness Book of World Records ? Or is it simply that , as Kaufman has put it , `` we 're the smallest , cheapest movie studio in America '' ? `` In the entir e history of the movie business , '' he says with his usual sang froid , `` ther e has never been a movie studio that existed for 20 years without a hit . And so long as we continue as the heads of Troma , we will continue this perfect track record . '' Self-mocking and with a genius for self-promotion , the Troma Team , as Kaufman likes to call his group , clearly did not get to where they are by taking themselves too seriously . `` We enjoy what you in the media call sex and violence , '' says Kaufman , who has been known to brandish the actual shoestri ng his movies cost . And though his cheerfully tasteless films are as likely to be admired for the spirit in which they 're made than the quality of the executi on , one of Kaufman 's most accurate boasts is that `` when you see something by Troma , you may love it or hate it , but you 'll never forget the movie . '' A sentiment that goes double for the publicity that goes along for the ride . For while most critics have not actually sat through many of Kaufman 's films , almo st everyone in the business is familiar with the clever and cheeky titles and ad lines that are stuck on them . For instance : `` Sgt. Kabukiman NYPD : America 's First Accidental Oriental Crime Fighter ! '' `` A Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinos aur Hell : The Pre-Historic and the Pre-Pubescent , Together at Last ! '' `` Man iac Nurses Find Ecstasy : Their Weapons Are Sterile , Their Bodies Are Fertile , and Any Thought of Escape Is Futile ! '' `` Redneck Zombies , '' filmed in ( wh at else but ) Entrail-Vision : `` Tobacco Chewin ' , Gut Chompin ' , Cannibal Ki nfolk From Hell ! '' This kind of zaniness is visible also in the Troma Times , the company 's genial newsletter whose motto is `` Dictated but Not Read .. . or Even Thought About . '' And it shows up in the `` Troma System '' infomercial t he company has put together , complete with bikini-clad Tromettes , which satiri zes self-help ideologies as it pushes the sale of various kinds of Tromabilia . When you ask Kaufman where he and Herz learned the basics of filmmaking , he is likely to answer , `` if you read the reviews of our movies , you will see that we did not learn . '' But in fact his film education began at Yale , where he an d Herz met and where movie buffs in his dorm made him familiar with the efforts of Joseph E. Levine and Roger Corman , shrewd producers who inspired his own wor k . When he and Herz founded Troma , tiny budgets were the order of the day , th e plan being to make films that would have negligible theatrical releases but ma ke most of their money in video , cable and overseas markets . Kaufman calls `` The Toxic Avenger '' `` our Mickey Mouse , the movie that put us on the map . '' Familiarly known as Toxie , it is a movie so successful it inspired a TV series , hundreds of licensed products , two sequels ( one called `` The Last Temptati on of Toxie '' ) already released and a third ( `` Mr. Toxie Goes to Washington '' ) is in the planning stages . Set in Tromaville , N.J. , `` the toxic waste d ump capital of the world , '' `` Avenger '' details the awful circumstances that turn health club mop boy Melvin Furd , `` 98 pounds of solid nerd , '' into `` the first superhero born out of nuclear waste . '' Another Troma classic is `` C hopper Chicks in Zombietown , '' which explores what really happens when an all- female motorcycle gang takes a breather in a quiet hamlet mainly populated by th e undead . Typical dialogue , from the leader of the gang to her troops : `` You 're the Sluts . Try and act like it . '' The company has been associated with s ome classier films as well : `` Def by Temptation , '' a slickly made ( by James Bond III ) and stylishly photographed ( by Ernest Dickerson ) all-black horror film about a sexy succubus who has her way with men and a genuine sleeper , Bob Dahlin 's 1986 `` Monster in the Closet . '' Better films may actually be in Tro ma 's future , since the company has created a subsidiary called Fiftieth Street to concentrate on doing just that . And then there is the projected `` Tromio a nd Juliet , '' a no-doubt liberal adaptation of Shakespeare 's play . And after that ? `` We 've become an institution , a national treasure , '' Kaufman has sa id , probably more than once . `` It 's not going to be long before Troma will b e awarded the coveted Nobel Peace Prize . '' Election-year politics are about to torpedo one of the few functioning mechanis ms to cut government waste . Last week the Clinton administration , looking ahea d to the 1996 election , appeared ready to cave in to a congressional proposal t o delay the 1995 round of military base closures . Some members of Congress are pushing for the delay because they fear the backlash from voters adversely affec ted by base-closings in their districts , while the administration has its eye o n the electoral map . A good number of the estimated 70 bases to be axed in 1995 are in states such as California , Florida , and Texas that are crucial to Clin ton 's chances for reelection in 1996 . And as George Bush learned , nothing bre eds anti-incumbency quite like unemployment . But if it 's successful , the effo rt to delay base closings in 1995 will have several damaging consequences . It w ill saddle the Pentagon with unnecessary costs at a time when its budget is badl y stretched . It will taint the highly effective Base Closure and Realignment Co mmission ( BRAC ) , and it will hurt , not help , communities that will inevitab ly lose bases . From its peak in 1985 , the overall defense budget will have fal len 40 percent by 1999 , force structure will have declined by 30 percent , and spending on new weapons will have been slashed by a whopping 65 percent . Meanwh ile , despite rounds of base closings in 1988 , 1991 and 1993 , only 15 percent of domestic base infrastructure will have been cut . The 1995 round of closures is expected to be as large as the three previous rounds combined , and would bri ng infrastructure cuts more into line with reductions in other areas of the budg et . Proponents of the delay are quick to point out that savings from base closi ngs haven't been as great as expected . But the administration 's own figures in dicate that annual savings from closed bases will reach $ 4.6 billion by 2001 , half of which will be generated by the 1995 round of closures . The military ser vices are counting on that money to fund new equipment and training . Delaying t he 1995 round by two years would be an outright waste of $ 2.3 billion each year at a time when the Pentagon 's six-year budget is already underfunded by as muc h as $ 100 billion . According to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam N unn , `` The longer we delay closing unneeded bases , the longer it will take to achieve real savings , and the more the other parts of the budget readiness , p ay , procurement , and research and development will suffer . '' The delay would also undermine the BRAC , which Congress created in 1988 specifically to take p olitics out of the base-closing process . Between 1977 , when Congress ceded its elf the authority to close bases , and 1988 , not a single base was closed mostl y because no member of Congress in his or her right mind would vote to close a b ase and thereby put voters out of work . BRAC changed all that , by placing the onus for base closing on an independent commission . With political cover , Cong ress was able to close 103 bases . But suborning BRAC to the politics of the ele ction year will anger those who have already lost bases and make it difficult to generate support for future base closings . Yes , future base closings . Becaus e even after BRAC 's current authority ends in 1995 , there will still be a grea t deal of excess infrastructure that should be cut . Finally , members of Congre ss seeking to hold up the 1995 base closure round argue that by postponing the p ain for communities they are helping them . Nothing could be further from the tr uth . Research by Business Executives for National Security shows that a well-or ganized community with a head start recovers from a base closure quickly . After a base is turned over to the community , an average of two civilian jobs are cr eated for every military job lost . Most jobs are recovered within five years af ter the base 's doors finally close . But the longer a community waits , and the more it resists the inevitable , the more difficult and costly the process beco mes . Uncertainty will add to the woes of base closure communities if the 1995 r ound is postponed . The military will lay off workers on excess bases even if th ey remain open for two more years . Delaying closure will only destroy the commu nities ' chances to replace jobs they are already losing . Unless the Clinton ad ministration overcomes its election year myopia , it could instigate a return to the hollow military of the 1970s . On the other hand , a strong signal from the White House supporting the base closing process as planned would sink efforts t o place cynical political expediency before fiscal responsibility and military p reparedness . HOLLYWOOD In `` The Endless Summer II , '' creator-narrator Bruce Brown takes p ains to tell us how much has changed since he began filming his definitive surfi ng movie , `` The Endless Summer , '' 30 years ago . He takes pride in the inter national appeal of the sport he helped popularize and ticks off its various inno vations . He does not shy away from showing how crowded some Hawaiian beaches no w are or how the once-deserted beach at a still-choice surfing spot near Cape To wn , South Africa , is now covered with expensive condos and tract houses . To h is credit , he makes a passing acknowledgment of polluted waters . What Brown is really doing , however , is shrewdly getting such matters out of the way in ord er to celebrate all that mercifully hasn't yet changed : fabulous beaches that a ttract world-class surfers to ride the most spectacular waves . Brown 's conceit is that a couple of likable young surfer pals , Robert ( Wingnut ) Weaver he ha s the dark hair and the blond Patrick O' Connell , are such fans of the original `` Endless Summer '' that they dip into some surfing prize money to finance a g lobe-girdling retracing , more or less , of their surfing counterparts in the fi rst film , Robert August and Mike Hynson , who were in search of the perfect wav e . While it 's anybody 's guess if Brown 's mix of awesome surfing sequences in terspersed with travelogue material and good-natured cornball antics will play a s well as it did decades ago , this `` Endless Summer '' is no less endearing th an the original . That this sequel is as fresh as it is is probably in large par t due to the fact that Brown deliberately backed off from further surfer movies after making the first `` Endless Summer '' ( which was part of an entire cycle of surfer epics , all the others lesser efforts ) . Wingnut and Pat 's journey t akes them from Southern California to Costa Rica ( which Brown intercuts with si de trips to Alaska and Hawaii not involving his stars ) , to France , South Afri ca , Fiji , Australia , Bali and Java , which from the looks of it just might be the most glorious , unspoiled place to surf on the face of the globe . Along th e way Wingnut and Pat meet champion surfers like Tom Curren ( in Biarritz ) and Laird Hamilton and Gerry Lopez ( in Java ) . They also meet several men from the first film , hearty rugged types like John Whitmore of Cape Town and Nat Young , of Brisbane , Australia , a veritable Crocodile Dundee , who takes Wingnut and Pat riding the rapids in a rubber raft . ( Neither August or Hynson appear in t he sequel . ) Accompanied by Gary Hoey and Phil Marshall 's driving score , `` T he Endless Summer II '' ( MPAA rating : PG , for brief nudity and mild language ) is such a pleasure to watch , so effective in its ability to take you away and into the healthy , carefree world of surfing , at once exciting and uncomplicat ed , that you 're actually sorry when it 's over . HOLLYWOOD Woody Harrelson is the only reason to subject yourself to `` The Cowb oy Way , '' but to be a straight-shooter about things , he is not reason enough . Instead of enhancing his surroundings , Harrelson 's breezy , amusing performa nce simply underlines everything the rest of the film is not . Based on yet anot her idea from the cornucopian mind of producer Brian Glazer who , if the press n otes are to be believed , came up with this gem `` while horseback riding in his native California , '' `` Cowboy '' will be recognized by film buffs as a rewor king of the tip-top `` Coogan 's Bluff , '' directed by Don Siegel and starring an especially laconic Clint Eastwood as an Arizona lawman out of his element on the steamy pavements of New York . It is perhaps a sign of cinematic inflation t hat this time around `` The Cowboy Way '' is forced to send not one but two stan d-up Western gentlemen into the wilds of Manhattan to right a wrong and see that justice is done . New Mexico cowboys Pepper Lewis ( Harrelson ) and Sonny Gilst rap ( Kiefer Sutherland ) are a formidable team-roping combination and best pals since they were toddlers . But , in one of the film 's many bogus plot contriva nces , Sonny has been giving his partner `` the Eskimo treatment '' since Pepper was a mysterious no-show at the finals of a key tournament . `` There we were , one steer away from the national championship , '' grouses Sonny in one of the many pieces of presumably authentic Bill Wittliff dialogue . Pepper , you may be sure , had his reasons for staying away , but once revealed they , like much el se here , turn out to be as lame as an overworked plow-horse . Sonny and Pepper 's best pal is a wise old Latino named Nacho ( Joaquin Martinez ) who accuses cr anky Sonny of having `` the heart of a tiny raisin . '' But before he can explai n where he got such a gift for metaphor , Nacho is called to New York to try to rescue his daughter , Theresa ( Cara Buono ) . She , illogically enough , is a d ewy illegal just off the boat from Cuba who is in the unfortunate clutches of a bunch of slimeballs ramrodded by the nefarious Stark ( Dylan McDermott ) . Force d to work in a sweatshop while Stark practically drools over her needlework , Th eresa is clearly in need of the kind of help only two hopelessly naive cowboys i n Manhattan can provide . As directed by Gregg Champion , whose only previous th eatrical feature was the forgotten `` Short Time , '' `` The Cowboy Way '' has a tendency to milk every bumpkin-in-the-big-town situation it can think of . As a result , elements of `` Midnight Cowboy '' ( Pepper catching the lascivious eye of effete fashion folk ) awkwardly joust for position with cartoony violent ech oes of `` Home Alone . '' Getting bruised in the melee are some usually reliable actors , including Ernie Hudson as a mounted policeman who loves the West . Esp ecially lost is Sutherland , whose thankless role as the straight-arrow , censor ious Sonny mostly calls on him to frown and say , `` I 've had it with you , '' to the irrepressible Pepper . Losing patience with Pepper is always understandab le . A macho pain in the neck who never stops talking and preening , he could ex asperate a saint . But thanks to Harrelson 's casual flair and his considerable comic energy , Pepper grows on you so much that his rare absences from the scree n bring the picture to a dead halt . While this is not a performance that wins a wards , it does demonstrate the kind of star presence that the movies can never have too much of . What `` The Cowboy Way '' ( MPAA rating : PG-13 for `` violen ce , some language and comic sensuality '' ) does best is underline how much mor e there is to Woody Harrelson than how he looks in his underwear or with a hat o ver his private parts . What if we found a rehabilitation method that could take violent criminals and greatly reduce their likelihood of committing further crimes ? What if this prog ram dramatically raised the odds that prisoners would never return to prison , w ould instead become law-abiding , tax-paying citizens ? The crime legislation no w being considered by Congress should have extra money for this proven crime-pre vention program . Right ? Guess again . Congress is eliminating all of its fundi ng . For this is the federal Pell Grant program , which for two decades has enab led convicts to secure a college education while in prison . The Pell Grant prog ram provides federal money to finance higher education for lower-income American s . Since its inception , prisoners , whose income is effectively zero , have be en eligible to apply for these funds . This has enabled colleges and universitie s to establish extension programs , sending books and professors into the prison s . More than 35,000 inmates are enrolled around the country . However , both th e House and Senate versions of the crime bill forbid the use of Pell Grant funds by prisoners . In most states , which have no network of state funding , this w ould effectively mean the end of prison higher education . As a volunteer profes sor at the Maryland State Penitentiary , I have seen the difference a college ed ucation can make . For the past two years I have been meeting weekly with prison ers to study philosophy . We have ranged from Homer to Gandhi , Socrates to Sart re . The men I teach have serious criminal histories . Many are murderers , comi ng from a background of rage , ignorance and despair . But the chance at educati on has given them a new purpose , and made them feel they can turn their lives a round that when they get out ( and most of them will ) , they 'll have marketabl e skills and credentials . Typically , such a prisoner can tell himself : I don' t have to base self-esteem on the gold chain around my neck and the gun in my po cket . I 'm a college graduate . Recently I was at a prison function for inmates who were alumni of the Coppin State college program speeches , banners on the w all , honorary awards , standard stuff . But most striking was the sense of hope and pride in the room anything but common in a maximum security penitentiary . The keynote address was given by Stanley Covington . Released from the penitenti ary five years ago with a college degree , he is now project director at the Cen ter on Juvenile and Criminal Justice , where he heads up a program for Washingto n , D.C. , youth in trouble . Another student from this prison is Charles Dutton , producer and star of the `` Roc '' show . Then there is H.B. Johnson Jr. , a student I met through my prison class . This year he won ( for the second time ) the Baltimore WMAR-TV contest for best play by a black dramatist . He came into prison with an eighth grade education . Sentence commuted , he left prison last December a college man and a playwright , novelist , newspaper columnist and pu blic speaker devoted to freeing our stre ets of drugs and crimes . If Congress f ollows its plan there will be precious few H.B. 's . The people who come in crim inals will go out the same , only a little tougher and meaner . Their only teach ers will be fellow inmates with tips on criminal techniques . We 'll have cleare d out the college professors who would have brought a different message . When t hese inmates are released and commit more crimes , we 'll shout `` three strikes , you 're out . '' But did we give them a fair shot to get a hit that is , to m ake it in the legit world ? Statistics show that the uneducated prisoner has a f ar greater chance upon release of repeating criminal activities and returning to prison . The price we pay for educating them is small ; less than one percent o f Pell Grant funds go to inmates . But what of the price of not educating them ? Consider the cost in blood and tears when they hit the streets , then the $ 30, 000 per year for jailing repeat offenders . Happily , nothing is yet written in stone . Senate and House conferees can reconsider specifics of this Pell Grant e limination , or at least extend grants through a phase-down period . Funding for prison education could also be provided through a supplemental grant or other m eans . Ironically , as it stands , part of the new crime bill will serve only to increase violence and criminality . You don't need a college degree to figure t hat one out . WASHINGTON The indictment of Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , raises again the murky issue of the proper use of campaign funds . Though it is illegal under fed eral law and congressional rules to convert campaign funds to personal use , enf orcement has been so lax that some members of Congress have turned their campaig n accounts into personal slush funds . They use the money to pay for country-clu b dues , meals , vacations and expensive automobiles , or donations to their fav orite charities . More than half the $ 466 million that candidates spent in the 1990 elections was `` virtually unrelated to contacting voters , '' a Los Angele s Times study found . Rostenkowski wasn't charged specifically with personal use of campaign funds , apparently because he and other members serving at the time the ban was enacted in 1979 were exempted until last year . Instead , in two co unts of his indictment prosecutors charge that the longtime chairman of the Hous e Ways and Means Committee made false statements to the Federal Election Commiss ion about his use of campaign funds . Rostenkowski allegedly disguised the parti al purchase of family cars with $ 28,267 in campaign funds as campaign `` car re ntals '' and a van for campaign use . The indictment also alleges Rostenkowski c aused his campaign fund and personal political action committee to list as `` po stage '' on FEC reports $ 28,000 in checks he exchanged for cash at the House Po st Office . Former Rep. Larry Smith , D-Fla. , pleaded guilty last year to lying to the FEC about $ 10,000 he converted to his personal use to pay off gambling and other personal debts . The FEC has been working for the past year on new reg ulations to define prohibited uses of campaign funds . The Senate-passed version of a campaign-finance-reform bill also tried to address the issue . It is diffi cult to systematically track campaign spending practices because the FEC doesn't computerize the information , as it does donations . The Los Angeles Times stud y , which included keypunching and categorizing 437,753 separate expenditures fr om the 1990 races , was the first to do so . It is even more difficult to determ ine whether expenditures are for campaign or personal use or both . The Times ' study , for example , found many instances in which members of Congress , mostly entrenched incumbents , leased or bought cars with campaign funds . In one exam ple , Sen. Ted Stevens , R-Alaska , spent $ 72,000 for auto expenses in six year s , including $ 23,000 for a van . After being re-elected , the campaign bought a $ 32,000 Lincoln Town Car , the study found . A Stevens aide denied the cars w ere for Stevens 's personal use and added that the Lincoln was sold . The FEC fi rst proposed a general rule that would have banned using campaign funds for expe nses like mortgage payments or vacation trips that a candidate would have even i f not running for office . After a hearing in which all sides requested specific guidance , the FEC tried but failed to draw up a specific list of prohibited ac tivities , including the use of campaign funds to buy cars . Trevor Potter , a R epublican who is chairman of the commission , said in an interview this week tha t the FEC 's challenge is to draw `` a clear line that is easy to follow and min imally intrusive on the day-to-day work of campaigning . '' The trick , he said , is to provide guidance without being accused of micromanagement that leaves a candidate `` carrying a rule book the size of a telephone book . '' Sen. John Mc Cain , R-Ariz. , offered an amendment to the Senate campaign-finance-reform legi slation that would ban several `` inherently personal '' uses of campaign funds , including mortgage payments , clothing purchases , non-campaign auto expenses , country-club membership and vacations or trips of a non-campaign nature . The measure was approved , but it must be reconciled in conference committee with a House bill that is silent on the issue . Fred Wertheimer , president of Common C ause , which is pushing for campaign reform , said , `` There has been widesprea d abuse of the `` personal use ' ban for years. .. . There is absolutely no just ification for House leaders to resist tough prohibitions in this area in the new campaign-finance law . '' The renewed debate over the `` personal use '' of cam paign funds comes at a time Congress also is considering a new lobbyist disclosu re act that could restrict considerably the meals , entertainment tickets , trip s and other gifts that a lobbyist can give a member . Cutting off campaign funds as an alternate source for paying for these items would be considered a major b low to the lifestyle of some members . Lifetime Television presents its first original mini-series , `` Lie Down With Lions , '' and will premiere all four hours in one night on Sunday . Based on Ke n Follett 's best-seller , the show stars Timothy Dalton , Marg Helgenberger , O mar Shariff and Nigel Havers and tells the story of why three people choose to l eave the peaceful streets of Luxembourg for the war-torn lands of Armenia and Az erbaijan . It also deals with the web of passion and deceit that binds them and sets the course for their lives . Repeats : Wednesday ( Part 1 ) and Thursday ( Part 2 ) nights , and the entire four hours June 25 . Sunday night on TBS : `` N ational Geographic Explorer '' debuts `` Women in Vietnam , '' the story about t he young women who enlisted as nurses and recreation specialists in a combat zon e , and didn't know quite what to expect . Repeats : Monday night , Saturday mor ning . Sunday night on Showtime : The premiere of `` Past Tense , '' starring Sc ott Glenn as an ex-policeman who emerges from a coma faced with sorting out the murder of a former lover . Co-stars Anthony LaPaglia and Lara Flynn Boyle . Repe ats : Thursday night , June 21 , 27 . Wednesday night on The Nashville Network : Reba McEntire reflects on her life and talks of her current status as a wife an d mother and a performer juggling recent releases of a movie , autobiography and album . Ralph Emery hosts the one-hour interview that repeats the same night . Thursday night on Arts & Entertainment : `` Stage : Judy Garland and Friends , ' ' with Barbra Streisand , Ethel Merman and Liza Minnelli , sharing the stage and favorite songs in one of Garland 's 1960s television specials . Repeats the sam e night . Thursday night on USA Network : World Premiere Movie `` Deconstructing Sarah , '' with Shelia Kelley as a high-powered executive whose sexy nightlife leads to blackmail and murder . Rachel Ticotin and A . Martinez co-star . Repeat s June 19 and 25 . Thursday night on HBO : Chris Rock performs on `` HBO Comedy Half-Hour , '' Others in this adult series of rising comics are D.L. Hughley , J une 23 ; Simply Marvalous , June 30 ; and Carlos Mencia , Bob Smith and Suzanne Westenhoefer in July . Rock 's show encores June 18 , 20 and 21 . Saturday night on The Family Channel : The first espisode of `` Centennial , '' James A . Mich ener 's 26-hour mini-series about the settling of the American West , featuring an all-star cast . The first show runs three hours and will be followed by two-h our segments Monday through Saturday , June 20-25 , and Monday through Thursday , June 27-30 . The final episode runs Saturday night , July 2 . Vince Gill , `` When Love Finds You '' ( MCA ) ( 3 stars ) . Vince Gill 's work on up-tempo tunes is like a baseball pitcher 's batting average it can be nice , but it 's totally beside the point . Gill is all about ballads , and he knows it with eight of its 11 songs on the slow side , his fourth album is even more w eighted toward that genre than last year 's `` I Still Believe in You , '' which had a ballad average of .600 ( 6 for 10 ) . None of these , however , matches t he exquisiteness of that album 's title song or 1992 's `` Look at Us , '' two o f the most transcendent expressions of devotion ever recorded . Gill 's high , a ngelic voice and artistic intelligence can elevate mediocre material , but such middlebrow pop fare as `` When Love Finds You '' and `` If There 's Anything I C an Do '' doesn't really tax his interpretive powers . The closer Gill moves to h ard-core country tradition as on `` Which Bridge to Cross ( Which Bridge to Burn ) '' and the remorseful lament `` Real Lady 's Man '' the stronger he becomes . The climactic `` Go Rest High on That Mountain , '' a valediction for his decea sed brother , combines '90s pop sumptuousness with the purity of mountain church music , tapping a personal urgency rare in country music these days . RICHARD C ROMELIN -0- `` KISS My Ass , '' Various Artists ( Mercury ) ( 2 stars ) . Andy W arhol almost got it right . In the future , everyone gets his or her own tribute album , evidenced by this 11-artist nod to the not-entirely-timeless Simmons & Stanley songbook , though it 'd take a perverse palate to claim the KISS boys we re ever anything more than perfunctory writers ( Gene Simmons likes to claim all `` rock '' music is throwaway trash spin control if ever we heard it ) . Among those hewing yawningly close to the period-piece originals are the Gin Blossoms , Anthrax , Extreme and the Lemonheads ( whose stoopidly faithful `` Plaster Cas ter '' is fitting , given Evan Dando 's anachronistic eagerness to speak up on t he subject of groupies ) . Lenny Kravitz is at least well-suited to shift `` Deu ce '' from one '70s sub-genre to another , though he runs out of ideas and of so ng a minute in . There are curiosities . An unrecognizable Garth Brooks does `` Hard Luck Woman '' under the very funny delusion that he 's Rod Stewart . Dinosa ur Jr. achieves the heppest transfer , transforming `` Goin ' Blind '' one of KI SS ' typical underage-girl anthems into pure Angst with the updated line `` I 'm 93 , you 're 16 . '' Toad the Wet Sprocket , too , attempts major cheek by inte rpreting `` Rock and Roll All Nite '' as a wistful mid-tempo ballad , which soun ds way more amusing than it turns out . Maybe they 'll fare better playing `` We 're an American Band '' for pathos on the inevitable Grand Funk tribute . CHRIS WILLMAN -0- Seal , `` Seal '' ( Sire/Warner Bros . ) ( 3 stars ) . The black St ing ? A male Joni Mitchell ? The new Terence Trent D' Arby ? After his impressiv e 1991 debut album , also titled `` Seal , '' this prodigiously talented English singer-songwriter seemed quite capable of going in many different directions . The way he skillfully squeezed unsettling , poetic lyrics into a commercial pop framework on his big hit single `` Crazy '' clearly marked him for big things . On his second album produced , as was the debut , by Trevor Horn that male Joni Mitchell tag seems to fit best ( she even guests on the tranquil `` If I Could ' ' ) . Seal 's softer side clearly dominates . Mostly in a mellow , reflective mo od , he ponders philosophical and romantic themes , his gently gloomy voice addi ng urgency to such moody , melodic pieces as `` Dreaming in Metaphors , '' `` Pe ople Asking Why '' and `` Don't Cry . '' The explosiveness that simmered under e ven the most serene tracks on the first album isn't there this time . That rooki e 's aggressiveness and experimentation that marked the first album seems to hav e been replaced by a desire to firmly entrench himself in the pop-folk genre . W hile there 's nothing as arresting as `` Crazy '' on this album , it 's a quite satisfying sophomore effort . DENNIS HUNT WASHINGTON Documents revealing the Supreme Court 's most private discussions in dicate that President Clinton and his lawyers are likely to start with a conside rable advantage this summer when they try to stop the Paula Corbin Jones sexual harassment lawsuit with a claim of legal immunity . When the court last faced a claim similar to the one Clinton 's lawyers are preparing to make , demands by s ome justices for only limited immunity for the president against personal lawsui ts were swept away by a majority in favor of much broader protection . After an internal struggle stretching over more than two years and badly fracturing the c ourt , that majority prevailed by the narrowest margin 5 to 4 in June 1982 . Now , three of that majority 's five members remain on the court , and the last of the four dissenters still there Justice Harry A . Blackmun is retiring and would not be on hand if the Jones case gets to the court . The struggle focused on tw o lawsuits against Richard M. Nixon after he had left the presidency . The first , by a former aide whose telephone had been tapped when the president 's other aides thought he was leaking secrets to the news media , ended with a frustrated and angry court splitting 4-4 . That was , in effect , a non-decision , so the court did not let on in public just how hotly that battle had been waged . The s econd lawsuit , by a Pentagon aide who was fired after blowing the whistle on ov erspending on a military airplane , finished with the 5-4 decision blocking that lawsuit or any other civil claims in court against Nixon and insulating all fut ure presidents from a good many legal claims by disgruntled citizens . That , to o , was a bitterly contested case . The full extent of the conflict , and the ac tual sweep of the immunity concept the court pondered , can now be traced in the files of the two cases in the Library of Congress ' public collection of the la te Justice Thurgood Marshall 's papers . In coming weeks , Clinton 's legal mane uvering through his private lawyers is to be a sequel , testing just how big the cloak of presidential immunity is going to be . Back in 1982 , however , it was clear that the court majority had a bold , ambitious notion of immunity in mind . Nothing in the case files suggests that a majority was thinking that by grant ing a president legal immunity for actions taken in office they were necessarily ruling out immunity to damage lawsuits for unofficial acts or those that occurr ed before a president took office . With no specific word or clause in the Const itution suggesting that a president ought to be immune to civil lawsuits , and n o prior Supreme Court precedent that was even close on that issue , a core group of justices pressed for immunity so grand in scope that then-Justice Byron R . White complained repeatedly through sharply barbed criticisms at his colleagues . It started early , with White accusing the majority of embarking on `` a most mistaken course that will disserve the law and the country . '' The immunity tho se justices were fashioning , he said , amounted to `` gross overkill , '' far m ore than was needed to protect presidents from nuisance lawsuits . Even a law cl erk for one of the justices then supporting `` absolute immunity '' said the ide a would give presidents `` the power to toss a lawsuit or any other legal proces s into the waste can , '' like the power a king would have . The echo of that co ntroversy will be heard in a federal court in Little Rock , Ark. and perhaps , u ltimately , back in the Supreme Court in Jones ' lawsuit seeking $ 700,000 in da mages from Clinton . The reams of Supreme Court documents that spell out the bac kstage story of a dozen years ago thus are not likely to remain neglected paper relics of history , but instead will fuel the reopened constitutional feud over presidential immunity . Jones , a former Arkansas state employee , in May sued t he president personally , charging him with `` sexually harassing and assaulting her '' in a Little Rock hotel room in May 1991 while he was governor of Arkansa s . That was , of course , nearly two years before Clinton became president . A governor would not be likely to get much immunity , if any , for an incident of that kind , so Clinton 's lawyers will have to make do with presidential immunit y if , as they hope , they can fit that within the reach of the June 1982 ruling in the Nixon case . The decision of the Supreme Court then clearly gave preside nts immunity from legal claims based on what they did while in office . Jones ' attorneys , therefore , are expected to argue that Clinton cannot use that rulin g to shield any actions that allegedly occurred in 1991 , before his presidency started . But as Clinton 's attorneys dig more deeply into the history of presid ential immunity , and the basic reasons the court gave for it in 1982 , they are becoming persuaded that the 12-year-old ruling was so comprehensive in scope an d meaning that only something close to `` absolute immunity '' satisfies the Con stitution and the needs of the presidency . Their basic intent , therefore , is to end the Jones case , once and for all , at its very beginning perhaps a polit ically damaging gesture , but less so than a full-scale trial would be . At this point , his attorneys do not appear to favor the idea embraced by some of the p resident 's White House aides , notably White House counsel Lloyd N . Cutler : t hat the president should seek only a long postponement of the Jones case . That idea , too , has some support among legal policy aides at the Justice Department , who are looking over a range of potential immunity options they might claim i f the department gets involved in the Jones lawsuit on behalf of `` the institut ional presidency . '' ( The Justice Department would not be speaking for Clinton personally . ) Clinton 's personal lawyers are expected to file their views on the immunity issue in the Little Rock federal courthouse late this month or earl y next . ( Optional add end ) The plea they are now inclined to press encompasse d in the simple phrase `` absolute immunity '' is a theme that reverberates thro ughout the 1981 and 1982 memos that led to the Supreme Court 's only decision so far on the legal shield around presidents when they are sued personally for civ il damages . In the majority at the end then were Justice ( now Chief Justice ) William H. Rehnquist , Justice Sandra Day O' Connor and Justice John Paul Steven s . Joining them in the majority were two who have since retired : Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. Powell , in fact , was the pri ncipal architect of the immunity concept . O' Connor had just joined the court w hen the majority began to solidify in late 1981 , after the first Nixon case had washed out the prior summer on the 4-4 vote : the case filed by former national security aide Morton Halperin , claiming unconstitutional tapping of his home t elephone . O' Connor quickly became active in the second case : the $ 3.5 millio n lawsuit by former Pentagon whistle-blower A . Ernest Fitzgerald . Powell , try ing to draft an opinion for the apparent majority , told Burger in mid-December 1991 : `` I am now prepared to defer to the wishes of you , Bill Rehnquist and S andra , and prepare a draft opinion holding that a president has absolute immuni ty from damage suit liability '' for the reasons he had spelled out in the broad est of all of his earlier drafts . He also noted that Stevens `` is willing to d ecide the Nixon case on absolute immunity . '' That made five votes . Indigo Girls , `` Swamp Ophelia '' ( Epic ) ( 2 stars ) . If only Emily Saliers and Amy Ray weren't so acutely aware that we 're listening . The folk-rocking d uo labors to imbue every lyric with heart- or mind-expanding meaning , sometimes sapping the music 's bracing , insouciant spirit . They come through with a few songs that adroitly balance earnestness and gracefully emphatic playing , notab ly `` Touch Me Fall '' and `` Dead Man 's Hill . '' JEAN ROSENBLUTH South Centra l Cartel , ` ` 'N Gatz We Truss '' ( GWK/RAL ) ( 2 stars ) . Chaos. Cruising the ' hood , dodging bullets , attacking enemies , chasing women , partying with ho mies .. . you 've heard it all before . While the Cartel 's second album doesn't advance the art of gangsta rap , the group does a fair job of re-creating the t ensions of ' hood life . Touches of humor make this a little better than most . DENNIS HUNT Frank Black , `` Teenager of the Year '' ( Elektra ) ( 3 stars ) . R emember Pong ? William Mulholland ? The Three Stooges ? CB radios ? Frank Black does , and he sets these and other preoccupations into the vigorously inventive swirl of punk-garage-psychedelic-progressive rock that launched his post-Pixies career so auspiciously last year . A pop-rock enthusiast and iconoclast of the f irst order , Black deserves the same salute that he offers L.A. water baron Mulh olland : Ole ole . RICHARD CROMELIN Collective Soul , `` Hints , Allegations and Things Left Unsaid '' ( Atlantic ) ( 3 stars ) . Melding retro-leaning tunefuln ess with an alternative , Southern-fried edge , this Georgia quintet has forged an uplifting , infectious amalgamation . The hit single is `` Shine , '' a warm , bluesy romp with an irresistible chorus . This diverse debut may be too predic table for musical pundits , but it 's still an ardent effort . KATHERINE TURMAN WASHINGTON Most of the 50,000 federal workers who take buyouts this fall will b e 50 and 60 year olds with 20 to 40 years service that will make them eligible f or regular or early retirement plus the $ 25,000 payment . Regular retirees ( an yone age 55 with 30 years ' service , age 60 with 20 years ' or age 62 with 5 ye ars ) will get immediate , unreduced pensions based on salary and service time . Someone retiring with 30 years service gets a pension equal to about 56 percent of final pay . A retiree with 41 years gets a pension equal to 80 percent of sa lary . Benefits are indexed to inflation . Early retirees ( anyone 50 years old with 20 years service or an employee at any age with 25 years ' service ) take a 2 percent pension reduction for each year they are under age 55 . Many , if not most , of the workers taking buyouts also will have money in the tax-deferred t hrift savings plan . A lot of these workers are under the impression they must g et out of the federal 401 ( k ) plan when they leave government , but retirees c an leave money in the TSP for many years in some instances . Once retired , they cannot contribute . Some workers will need their TSP money immediately to suppo rt themselves . Others may wish to purchase an annuity with it , or roll it over into an individual retirement account to continue sheltering it from taxes . Mi chael J. Sullivan , author of the new `` Your Thrift Savings Plan '' ( 703-648-9 551 ) says those offered buyouts are in the same situation as workers being laid off ( those who lose jobs as part of the Reductions In Force ) when it comes to deciding the fate of their federal 401 ( k ) plan . `` If your going to take th e buyout and actually retire , look at how your TSP account fits into your retir ement income needs now and in the future .. . take stock of other income you rec eive when you leave the buyout payment or severance payment , and the lump-sum p ayment for annual leave . '' People who take the buyout or get RIFfed who move i nto other jobs will `` probably want to leave the money in the TSP , or transfer it to an IRA , '' Sullivan says . Workers also should be aware that `` under no circumstances can the buyout payment .. . be rolled over into your TSP account or into an IRA . '' The script for the film version of `` Mission : Impossible '' may be turning ou t to be just that . The Paramount Pictures remake of the '60s and early '70s sec ret-agent series is finally under way , and will be directed by Brian De Palma a nd produced by Paula Wagner , partner of the film 's star , Tom Cruise . Willard Huyck ( `` American Graffiti , '' `` Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom '' ) and his wife , Gloria , are in the midst of a rewrite on their original script , but sources close to the project say there 's a chance that another writer perh aps Jay Cocks ( who co-wrote `` The Age of Innocence '' ) may be brought in to s mooth away the current draft 's clumsiness . The problem is not the story line , which , sources say , Wagner and crew are happy with . Rather , it 's the `` ba d dialogue and scenes that aren't being flushed out . In other words : a bad TV script , '' said one project source . The beginning of the movie , which is slat ed to begin production later this year , supposedly has members of the old `` Mi ssion : Impossible '' team , including Peter Graves , embarked on a secret gover nmental assignment , toting Cruise , the team 's youngest operative , along . Al l are killed except for Cruise . His mission becomes forming a new team to find out why his colleagues were assassinated . And there is a love interest for the young agent . For those whose memories are rusty : There were several teams on t he TV series , but the most memorable included Peter Graves as the team leader , James Phelps ; Martin Landau as the disguise expert , Rollin Hand ; Barbara Bai n as the beautiful seductress and fashion model , Cinnamon Carter ; Greg Morris as the electronics expert , Barney Collier , and Peter Lupus as the strongman , Willie Armitage . The opening of each episode had Phelps hearing a tape-recorded message outlining his next assignment . The tape would self-destruct and Phelps would scan his dossiers for the best operatives to handle the assignment . But they always ended up being the same agents , except for a few guest operatives . Their mission was always thwarting some corrupt power in an obscure country . E ventually , the show ran out of little countries , so its writers turned the foc us on cleaning up organized crime back home . The team 's success always hinged on split-second timing , sophisticated gadgetry and elaborate plans . While the familiar staccato theme written by Lalo Schifrin and Bob Johnson 's voice on the tape survived the entire series run from 1966 to 1973 , the cast underwent many changes ; Landau and Bain , married in real life , left the show at the end of the 1968-69 season . A Paramount spokesman confirmed that the studio had receive d the Huycks ' first draft , describing it as having a `` lot of theatrical elem ents '' that advance the TV show 's premise . He said that the filmmakers consid ered the potential for the script `` excellent , '' and are convinced the outcom e will be a `` high-octane film . '' As for a reputed meeting between Wagner , C ocks and De Palma ( his friend of 25 years ) , the Paramount spokesman said that the writer is working on another script for Cruise , a love story called `` Nig ht Magic . '' Any discussion of Cocks ' input on `` Mission : Impossible , '' he said , could have been brought up in discussions on the other project . JUDY BR ENNAN It 's pretty unusual to see even one movie ad that uses a picture of a man strategically covering his private parts with a hat an informal poll of film bu ffs would suggest it 's never happened but this summer there are two . The print ad for Universal 's `` The Cowboy Way '' features a picture of Woody Harrelson 's character in only cowboy boots and a Stetson ( not on his head ) , while an a d for Goldwyn 's rap music parody `` Fear of a Black Hat '' shows the three memb ers of a fictitious rap group wearing two hats each , one on their heads and one on .. . well , you get the idea . And what 's behind the cover-up ? Pure coinci dence , apparently . The Harrelson shot is taken from a key scene in the movie , while the `` Fear of a Black Hat '' ad spoofs a Red Hot Chili Peppers album cov er that shows the Peppers wearing only well-placed socks . A spokesman for Unive rsal said he didn't know about the similarity until he saw both ads in print jus t before Memorial Day . `` Initially we were concerned , ( but ) we 're not at a ll upset , '' he said . `` We looked at it and said , ` This is amusing . '' ' ` ` My reaction was I thought it was an interesting coincidence , '' said Richard Bornstein , Goldwyn 's vice president of worldwide marketing . `` I actually did n't notice it until it ran . '' Spokespeople for both companies are quick to poi nt out that neither company knew about the other 's ad , and there seems to be l ittle worry that the two movies , both of which opened Friday , will be confused by the public . `` I can't believe anybody seeing our ad would think it 's ( an ad ) for ` The Cowboy Way , ' ' ' said Bornstein . `` Unless there 's a movie a bout a cowboy rap group , I think we 're OK . '' ROBERT LEVINE Film producers te nd to hit pay dirt when transforming classic TV shows into feature films . `` Ma verick '' and `` The Flintstones '' are now burning up at the box office . And p roducers are already pinning their hopes on the big-screen `` Mission : Impossib le '' and `` Green Acres . '' But mining the small screen for features is nothin g new . The first was `` Dragnet . '' No , not the 1987 Tom Hanks-Dan Aykroyd co medy . The cop series was actually a 1954 feature film , starring and directed b y Jack Webb , who played deadpan Sgt. Joe Friday in the original 1952-59 cop ser ies . Other series similarly spun off movies while the shows were still on the a ir , among them : `` Our Miss Brooks , '' which went to the big screen in 1956 , its final year on CBS , with series regulars Eve Arden , Gale Gordon and Richar d Crenna starring . Also in 1956 , Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels starred in a feature version of their long-running ABC series , `` The Lone Ranger . '' Not until 1983 did we first see the practice of taking a television series and redo ing it from scratch , with big budgets , big directors and big stars . That 's w hen four names of filmdom Joe Dante , George Miller , Steven Spielberg and John Landis lent their talents to the 1983 `` Twilight Zone the Movie . '' It feature d new versions of three classic vignettes from Rod Serling 's 1959-65 CBS anthol ogy series . Vic Morrow , Scatman Crothers and John Lithgow starred . BUFFALO Even before New York Gov. Mario M. Cuomo , D , took the stage here Thur sday to launch his campaign for a fourth term , one of his top strategists was g iving party activists a description of the problems ahead for the incumbent . `` I didn't know ( until recently ) literally one-tenth of what he had done in New York , '' said David Garth , the veteran consultant hired to do Cuomo 's advert ising this year . `` Nobody really knows his record ... . We really have to find out how to get the story across . '' That is a common lament of unpopular incum bents across the country and one reason Cuomo faces what campaign manager John M arino predicted would be `` the toughest campaign we 've ever had tougher than ' 82 , '' when Cuomo narrowly won the governorship for the first time . Since then , Cuomo has dominated the politics of this state , and at times his star shone so brightly that he was considered a favorite to become his party 's presidentia l nominee . But in 1994 , with incumbency often more a burden than a benefit , h e begins his campaign on the defensive , trying to fight off charges that he has overstayed his welcome in the governor 's mansion and has no stronger rationale for another four years than , as he said Thursday , `` I 'm ready to finish wha t I started . '' Cuomo was defensive and defiant in accepting his party 's nomin ation at a Democratic state convention that concluded Thursday . He claimed he c ut state income tax rates that had been raised by his Republican predecessors , saying , `` We 're the tax cutters , not the Republicans . '' And he taunted the GOP by claiming he would fight crime and violent criminals with more intensity , despite his long-stated opposition to the death penalty . `` Republicans talk tough on crime , but they cannot put their record where their rhetoric is , '' C uomo said . He called for a ban on assault weapons , a three-strikes-and-you're- out bill to imprison repeat violent offenders , and called on Republicans to pas s legislation requiring life without parole for those Cuomo described as `` cold -blooded killers . '' The governor took credit for much of New York 's growth du ring his first two terms because of policies he put in place , but he blamed the most recent recession , which battered the state 's economy and his political s tanding , on national trends and Republican policies . `` We were hit from behin d , '' Cuomo said . `` Not by a New York-bred disaster , but by the heavy weathe r of a national recession . '' Eight years ago , Cuomo coasted to re-election . Four years ago he defeated a weak Republican candidate . This March , in a poll taken by the Marist Institute , 36 percent of those surveyed rated his performan ce favorably , even though 60 percent said he had been a good governor . Last we ek , New York Republicans endorsed state Sen. George Pataki as their candidate f or governor and the GOP 's endorsed ticket ( Republicans still must hold a prima ry in September ) has made some Democrats even more nervous about Cuomo 's chanc es . The Democrats used their convention to attack the Republican ticket as inse nsitive , inexperienced and the creation of GOP bosses and spin meisters . Cuomo sought to discredit Pataki as the handpicked candidate of U.S. Sen. Alfonse M. D' Amato , R , who himself toyed with challenging Cuomo but ducked a direct figh t . `` I may hit a sour note from time to time , but understand this , '' Cuomo said derisively . `` The words and ideas that come out of my mouth are mine , no one else 's . I have no boss , and will have no boss , but the people of the st ate of New York . '' But the campaign here largely will be about Mario Cuomo , n ot his opponent , and Cuomo 's advisers know it . `` There 's a climate out ther e that has anti-incumbent overtones , '' said Bill Lynch , who was former New Yo rk mayor David N . Dinkins ' top political adviser and now advises Cuomo . `` Th e voters are impatient . We 've got to give them assurances and hope . '' `` Whi le he has stabilized , we still have a long way to go , '' Marino said of Cuomo 's standing in the state . `` I have a candidate ( who can ) articulate a clear message . We 're going to work damn hard to get that message out . '' The boot camp comedy `` Renaissance Man , '' written by a former English teache r and directed by gush maestro Penny Marshall , is built entirely around one dub ious notion , that if you can overcome the language problem , you can make Shake speare exciting , even to people too stupid to get through basic military traini ng . I don't know who should feel more insulted by the idea , the Army , Shakesp eare or the audience . You decide . `` Renaissance Man '' stars Danny DeVito as an out-of-work Madison Avenue ad executive who takes a temp job teaching languag e skills to a group of Army recruits so thick-headed they can't understand simpl e orders screamed into their faces by drill sergeants . On the brink of being wa shed out of the service , the eight `` Double-D '' ( dog-dumb ) recruits , seven men and one woman , are given an opportunity to rescue themselves with a six-we ek course in remedial thinking , to be taught by reluctant unemployment-line dra ftee Bill Rago ( DeVito ) . Though Rago has no more interest in teaching the dum mies than they have in learning , they are stuck with each other , so while they 're together , Rago tries to pass along some of his love for Shakespeare by hav ing them act out and analyze `` Hamlet . '' To paraphrase Polonius , there prove s to be a method to his madness . The students love the story sex ! violence ! i ncest ! and not only get past the Bard 's Elizabethan English , but begin to ove rcome some of the fears of education that got them in trouble in the first place . It 's `` Dead Poets Society '' for underachievers . First-time screenwriter J im Burnstein was reportedly inspired to write this story by his own experiences teaching Shakespeare to soldiers at an Air National Guard base in Michigan , and his obvious passion for the subject is the best thing about his script . The mo vie lights up every time the students begin dissecting `` Hamlet . '' Even DeVit o , whose screen persona has been evolving into something resembling a snapping turtle , seems moved by the connection Rago is able to make through Shakespeare . He is his old self when dealing with the military nonsense outside the classro om , but when Rago is with his students , DeVito becomes remarkably warm and sym pathetic . Every other element of the story Rago 's anti-authoritarian run-ins w ith the gung-ho drill sergeant ( Gregory Hines ) , his insensitivity to his teen -age daughter at home , his attempts to solve each of the student 's life crises is so contrived , the movie just creaks through all the exposition . Burnstein lays on secondary issues about the failure of America 's public school system , the shifting values of the new co-ed military and the regenerative powers of kno wledge , but the only genuine question can you make Shakespeare fun ? is pretty much answered when the guys in class stop complaining about having to play Gertr ude and Ophelia . Marshall , whose most recent movies ( `` Awakenings '' and `` A League of Their Own '' ) have each given us two acts of story and one of shame less sentimentality , is given nine golden opportunities to ring us out again , and she doesn't waste any of them . If you 're a sucker for her lingering closeu ps of people bulging with restrained emotions , don't forget the Kleenex . Howev er , when they hear Rago 's class perform `` Hamlet Rap , '' co-written by Marky Mark ( who plays one of the soldiers ) , Shakespeare scholars may be crying for a completely different reason . 2 stars . The princess , along with the rest of the Sun People , acts as though she hasn' t been using enough sunscreen . She 's been fried stiff . Her joints have atroph ied . Her dollish face has hardened into a one-expression-fits-all countenance . And when she speaks , her lip-syncing will remind you of a bad kung-fu import . The subterranean goblins , on the other hand , appear to have thrived in darkne ss . They 're witty , colorful , acrobatic and , except for a mean streak and an intolerance for music , more fun than the boring Sun People who rule the above- ground kingdom . This is hardly the first animated feature in which the bad guys have upstaged the good . But here , the animators seem to have been working on two different films . In fact , separate teams one in Wales and another in Hunga ry produced the animation for `` The Princess and the Goblin . '' The film is ba sed on a 19th century Scottish children 's fable . The goblins , banished long a go to the underground by the Sun People , are plotting a revolt . And since they live inside the very mountain on which the royal castle is perched , Princess I rene makes a convenient kidnap target . Her life in danger , the spirit of her g reat-great-grandmother appears to Irene , granting her the gift of an inexhausti ble spool of magic thread . All she has to do is follow the thread in and out of danger with her new-found friend , Curdie , a miner 's son . Curdie is the only Sun Person who knows how to fight the goblins stomp on their sensitive , mono-t oed feet , or sing to them . For the most part , `` The Princess and the Goblin '' is charmingly innocent and old-fashioned , though a few scattered attempts ha ve been made to de-sentimentalize it . A preschool- and grade-school-age audienc e attending a recent screening gave an in-unison endorsement `` G-R-R-R-R-OSS ! '' when one goblin picked his nose and another wolfed down a fistful of insects . Especially appealing , in their comically repulsive way , are Prince Froglip , who intends to marry the kidnapped Princess Irene so he can rule the kingdom , and his mother , the Queen , who 's the only goblin smart enough to protect her feet by wearing shoes . The watercolor-style scenery , with its subtle use of mi sts and cobwebs , works handsomely with goblins in the foreground . But the life lessly drawn Sun People look out of place against an alive , moving background . While kids who watch made-for-TV cartoons may excuse such technical lapses , th ey may not forgive the relative innocence . `` The Princess and the Goblin '' wi ll appeal to younger children . Two stars . Woody Harrelson is standing on a bed , naked except for the Stetson on his head , the warpaint on his face , and the purple bandana diaper-tied around his loin s . He is also wearing a grin as dumb as a cork and speaking the broken English of movie Indians , as he directs a giggly playmate to turn `` Big Chief '' into `` Happy Chief '' by beating on his tom-tom . If this isn't one of the most emba rrassing scenes a major star has been asked to do in a movie , it 's only becaus e Harrelson is not a major star . Or apt to become one , after answering the cal l for Gregg Champion 's `` The Cowboy Way . '' Harrelson has other opportunities to embarrass himself in this witless action-comedy about a New Mexico rodeo-rid ing team trying to break up a gang of slave traders in modern New York City , an d he doesn't let a single one slip by . Reverting to the persona of the affable idiot he played on TV 's `` Cheers , '' Harrelson 's Pepper Lewis clops through the New York scenes like the Encino Man dressed by Levi Strauss . Co-star Kiefer Sutherland comes off marginally better , but only because the contemplative per sonality of his character , Sonny Gilstrap , was written to contrast with Pepper 's ill-bred impetuousness . They are the odd couple on the range , a loner and a loser united by their passion for and skills at ridin ' , ropin ' and calf-wre stlin ' . When we meet them , Sonny and Pepper are estranged . The unreliable Pe pper had failed to show up for a national event whose prize money Sonny was coun ting on using to buy a ranch . But when their mutual friend Nacho ( Joaquin Mart inez ) heads east to meet a daughter he paid to have smuggled in from Cuba , Son ny and Pepper reteam and follow his trail right into a nest of human rattlers in midtown Manhattan . Led by a sadist named Stark ( Dylan McDermott ) , the gang uses relatives ' money to bring immigrants into the city , then turns them over to sweat shop bosses . Using the `` cowboy way , '' which proves to be the same as the bull-in-the-china-shop way , Sonny and Pepper set out to rescue Nacho 's daughter . But first , the hayseeds have to learn the big city ropes , and go th rough an array of painfully contrived culture clash scenes . They rankle a snoot y waiter at the Waldorf-Astoria , build a campfire in Central Park , become sex objects for slumming socialites , befriend a horseback cop ( Ernie Hudson ) who 's nursing his own cowboy fantasy . Eventually , `` The Cowboy Way '' settles in to conventional urban action , the sole difference being that in the big chase s equence , Sonny and Pepper are on horseback and the bad guys are on a Brooklyn-b ound subway train . You 'll get more realism in a Roadrunner cartoon . When a mo vie misfires this badly , you can usually trace it to the moment of inspiration , and sure enough , the production notes reveal that gee-whiz producer Brian Gra zer ( Ron Howard 's impetuous partner ) came up with the idea of modern-day cowb oys in New York while horseback riding in California . Just think , Woody , had it rained that day , we might have all been spared . One star . Def Leppard bassist Rick Savage has put his condo overlooking Beverly Hills on the market at $ 549,000 , furnished . Since Savage and four other British teen-a gers got together to make music 17 years ago , their `` light-metal '' band suff ered the death of its original guitarist , Steve Clark , and the loss of drummer Rick Allen 's left arm in a serious car accident . Allen relearned to play the drums using one arm and his feet . `` They 're in Ireland and don't spend enough time here to merit having the condominium , '' said a listing broker . The cond o , which Savage bought in 1988 , has two bedrooms in almost 1,700 square feet . It 's in a 32-story building with vast city views . The 146-unit , nearly 30-ye ar-old building is where actor George Hamilton bought a condo in March . -0- Act or John C. McGinley who appears in the 1994 films `` Surviving the Game , '' `` On Deadly Ground , '' `` Mother 's Boys , '' `` Car 54 , Where Are You ? '' and the upcoming `` Wagons East , '' the late John Candy 's comedy Western has purch ased a three-bedroom home with ocean and canyon views in Malibu , Calif. . McGin ley , who began his film career with appearances in `` Platoon '' ( 1986 ) and ` ` Wall Street '' ( 1987 ) , bought a two-story traditional on a bit more than an acre for close to its last asking price of $ 729,000 , sources say . Built in 1 986 , the house originally had been priced at nearly $ 1.3 million . -0- Thomas Calabro , who plays the lying , womanizing louse Michael Mancini in `` Melrose P lace , '' and his actress wife , Liz , have moved into a Los Angeles home that t hey purchased for $ 300,000 , sources say . The traditional-style , 2,000-square -foot residence was built in the 1950s . -0- Claudia Christian , who stars as th e icy brunette Commander Susan Ivanova in the sci-fi TV series `` Babylon 5 , '' and her husband , Rod Dyer , a graphic designer in the film industry and a rest aurateur , have leased a home in the posh Los Angeles community of Bel-Air for c lose to its monthly asking price of $ 7,500 , furnished , sources say . The four -bedroom , 3,200-square-foot home has a woodsy yard and a wine cellar built into a hill . The rankings for books sold in the New York area , as reported by selected book stores : HARDCOVER FICTION 1.THE CHAMBER , by John Grisham . 2 . THE ALIENIST , by Caleb Carr . 3 . THE CELESTINE PROPHECY , by James Redfield . 4 . REMEMBER M E , by Mary Higgins Clark . 5 . INCA GOLD , by Clive Cussler . 6 . A WAY IN THE WORLD , by V.S. Naipaul . 7 . WALKING SHADOW , by Robert B . Parker . 8 . THE DA Y AFTER TOMORROW , by Allan Folsom . 9 . THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY , by Robe rt James Waller . 10 . LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE , by Laura Esquivel . NONFICTION 1 . IN THE KITCHEN WITH ROSIE , by Rosie Daley . 2 . EMBRACED BY THE LIGHT , by Betty J. Eadie with Curtis Taylor . 3 . MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL , by John Berendt . 4 . MAGIC EYE , by Tom Baccei . 5 . SOUL MATES , by Thomas Moore . 6 . LIFE OF THE PARTY , by Christopher Ogden . 7 . STANDING FIRM , by Da n Quayle . 8 . D-DAY , JUNE 6 , 1944 , by Stephen E. Ambrose . 9 . THE HALDEMAN DIARIES , by H.R. Haldeman . 10 . BEYOND PEACE , by Richard Nixon . PAPERBACK 1 . PLEADING GUILTY , by Scott Turow . 2 . ROAD TO WELLVILLE , by T. Coraghessan B oyle . 3 . I ' LL BE SEEING YOU , by Mary Higgins Clark . 4 . THE CLIENT , by Jo hn Grisham . 5 . LISTENING TO PROZAC , by Peter Kramer . 6 . SCORPIO ILLUSION , by Robert Ludlum . 7 . AFTER ALL THESE YEARS , by Susan Isaacs . 8 . PIGS IN HEA VEN , by Barbara Kingsolver . 9 . CRUEL & UNUSUAL , by Patricia Cornwell . 10 . THE STAND , by Stephen King . Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Po st News Service JERUSALEM Israeli warplanes and helicopter gunships attacked a training base of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas near the Lebanese town of Baalbek early Thursday , killing as many as 45 and wounding 200 . Striking at 2 a.m. , as the estimated 400 guerrillas slept in tents on a rocky hillside , 10 Israeli fighte r-bombers rocketed the base in waves and followed with intensive canon fire , ac cording to Lebanese officials . Six helicopters then raked the exposed camp with more rocket fire and strafed it with machine guns for nearly 15 minutes . Leban ese Foreign Minister Faris Bouez , putting the death toll at 45 , called the att ack `` a massacre '' and `` naked aggression against Lebanon 's sovereignty and security and a big challenge to the peace process . '' Hezbollah declared its re venge would be `` swift and merciless . '' About 11 hours later , the first of t hree barrages of Katyusha rockets 25 in all fell in Israel 's Western Galilee re gion , landing mostly in farm fields and causing no casualties and little damage . Hezbollah also rocketed Israel 's self-declared `` security zone '' in southe rn Lebanon . Mordechai Gur , Israeli deputy defense minister , quickly warned th at Israeli forces would respond `` seven-fold '' against Hezbollah , if its rock et attacks upon Israel continued . `` This is something we willn't put up with , '' Gur said . Anticipating intensified clashes , Israeli forces increased their firepower in southern Lebanon early Wednesday , 24 hours before the raid on Baa lbek , by bringing four heavy , long-range artillery guns north across the borde r into Lebanon , according to U.N. sources . After the first rockets fell near t he northern Israeli town of Nahariya early Thursday afternoon , residents in the region were ordered into bomb shelters and fortified `` security rooms . '' Pri me Minister Yitzhak Rabin described the Baalbek attack as part of `` an ongoing war '' between Israel , Hezbollah and other Islamic fundamentalist groups oppose d to Israel 's agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organization on Palestini an self-government and to other efforts to achieve Middle East peace . `` Whenev er we have an opportunity to hit terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah witho ut causing civilian casualties , we will do it , '' Rabin said . `` We have alwa ys done so , and we will continue to do so . '' Israel had acted in self-defense in hitting the Hezbollah base , Gur asserted , for the guerrillas had `` all pa rticipated in operations or were about to take part in operations . '' Lt. Gen. Ehud Barak , Israeli chief of staff , said Israel had acted on extensive informa tion on the Hezbollah training session from aerial reconnaissance and other `` v ery precise intelligence . '' The Israeli Cabinet approved the operation at a sp ecial session Wednesday . But the attack brought warnings that the unrelenting c onfrontation between Israel and the Hezbollah in Lebanon could endanger efforts to negotiate peace agreements throughout the Middle East . In New York , a spoke sman for U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said he was deeply concern ed by `` the escalation of violence at a sensitive time in the Middle East . '' ( Optional add end ) The attack was one of Israel 's most successful against Hez bollah and the fiercest since its weeklong bombardment of southern Lebanon last July a demonstration of Rabin 's determination to ensure not only Israeli securi ty in the face of Hezbollah attacks but to protect the peace process from a back lash among Israelis concerned about `` weakness '' on the part of Rabin . The ac tion also reflected Rabin 's loss of faith in Syria the dominant power in Lebano n as a partner in the Middle East peace process . Rabin said earlier this week t hat he saw no chance of an early breakthrough in Israel 's talks with Syria desp ite U.S. mediation in recent months . `` This can be seen as a signal to the Syr ians : You aren't doing anything against Hezbollah , about the ( Israeli ) MIAs , so don't expect us to make any concessions to you , '' said Yossi Olmert , a l eading Israeli specialist on Syria and Lebanon . `` What you didn't do , we 'll do regardless of your sensitivities . '' Hezbollah enjoys Syrian protection in L ebanon , as well as Iranian patronage . The base hit Thursday is in Lebanon 's B ekaa Valley , about seven miles from the Syrian border and 44 miles east of Beir ut . With 40,000 troops in Lebanon , Syria is the dominant political and militar y power in the country . Israel halted its onslaught last July only after U.S. S ecretary of State Warren Christopher had secured Syrian pledges that Hezbollah w ould not attack Israeli communities from southern Lebanon . The Israeli bombardm ent last summer killed about 150 people , mostly Lebanese civilians , and drove several hundred thousand people from their homes . With the Baalbek attack , Olm ert suggested that Israel has moved to a preemptive rather than a retaliatory ap proach to Hezbollah , which likes to describe itself as waging the Arabs ' only sustained armed confrontation with the Jewish state . `` They can't know what 's going to come next they should be nervous , '' Olmert said . `` It creates unce rtainty , and that is always good for Israel. .. . This was a serious blow , but not a crippling one . '' Claiming she was tortured with machetes and left for dead in a killing field ne ar Port-au-Prince , Alerte Belance , a 32-year-old Haitian housewife now living in Newark , N.J. , Thursday sued a Haitian political party that Belance said was behind her attack . The unusual lawsuit , filed in federal court in New York , names as defendant the Front for Advancement and Progress in Haiti ( FRAPH ) , a n organization with close ties to the Haitian military . The group has represent atives in New York and Miami . Human-rights observers with the United Nations an d the Organization for American States have said that FRAPH is behind the rash o f violence against supporters of exiled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide , who was overthrown in a military backed coup in October 1991 . Some U.S. offi cials in Port-au-Prince have called FRAPH a terrorist organization . Rigaud Noel , described as assistant general coordinator of FRAPH in New York , said of the lawsuit , `` We ignore it . '' Noel refused to answer questions about his group 's activities but said whatever happened to Belance happened in Haiti and `` we had nothing to do with it . '' Representatives of FRAPH in New York and Miami r ecently have denounced U.S. policy against the military government in Haiti and attacked supporters of Aristide . In one communique included in Belance 's lawsu it , Lyonel Sterling , general coordinator of FRAPH-New York , condemns the `` A ristidien mob '' and its alleged violence against Aristide 's opponents . The do cument concludes : `` Never , never again will ( the FRAPH ) stand idly by and l et our oppressors , foreign or domestic , impose on us your demented leader , Je an-Bertrand Aristide . '' Belance and her attorneys are suing FRAPH under the Al ien Tort Claims Act , a law that also allowed Evans Paul , the current mayor of Port-au-Prince , to sue Prosper Avril , a former Haitian dictator , for damages . That complaint is to be heard Monday in federal court in Miami . Belance 's su it is believed to be the first instance of using the Alien Tort Claims Act to su e a political party . In Haiti , the national leaders of FRAPH , including a for mer Haitian U.N. diplomat Emmanuel Constant , have denied the group is involved in terrorizing Aristide supporters . But recent reports by human-rights organiza tions charge that FRAPH members are even more repressive than the feared Tonton Macoutes , who enforced the will of former dictator Claude `` Papa Doc '' Duvali er for three decades . Belance , who lost an arm and fingers during the machete attack , said she and her husband were awakened in their Port-au-Prince home by gunshots early on the morning of Oct. 16 , 1993 . Her husband , who had done pol itical work for Aristide , jumped out a back window . Belance , speaking through an interpreter in New York , said four men armed with automatic weapons dragged her into a car and drove her to Titayen , outside of Port-au-Prince , where she said bodies frequently are dumped . There , she said , she was attacked with ma chetes and left for dead . She claims the men identified themselves as members o f FRAPH . Belance today is severely scarred on the neck and face . She lost her right arm below the elbow and a finger on her left hand . Three months after the attack , she and her husband were granted refugee status by U.S. officials in P ort-au-Prince and allowed to immigrate to the United States . Her attorney , Mic hael Ratner , of Center for Constitutional Rights in New York , said the lawsuit was designed in part to bring attention to the presence of FRAPH representative s living and working in the United States . `` We want to shine a spotlight on t hese people , '' Ratner said . State Department officials Thursday declined to c omment on the case . The State and Treasury departments are responsible for enfo rcing U.S. sanctions against the leaders of the coup against Aristide , includin g FRAPH members . PORTSMOUTH , England It 's the scale of it all that 's hardest to fathom . By t he first week of June 1944 , there were 3 million troops in southern England mor e than the entire population of Mississippi . It took 24,459 special trains just to move them to the 24 embarkation points for D-Day . On the way , they passed rural lanes flanked with shoulder-high stacks of artillery shells , mountains of medical supplies , forests filled with tanks . There were fields of artillery , cobwebbed with camouflage netting and miles of halftracks and jeeps . The invas ion fleet of some 7,000 ships was the largest the world has ever seen . It inclu ded 1,213 warships , 4,126 landing ships , 736 support ships and 864 merchantmen . They needed 287 minesweepers just to clear the way . The beachhead stretched nearly 50 miles . There was only one problem with all those troops and equipment : how to unload them on the far shore . The test of the invasion was not gettin g ashore but staying ashore . The troops could go in over the beach , but they w ould need 12,000 tons of supplies and 2,500 vehicles unloaded every day . That , in turn , required ports , both to speed the handling of cargo with docks and r eady ground transportation , and , more importantly , to shelter unloading ships from the English Channel 's notorious weather . The Normandy coast has few such ports , and the closest major ones , Le Havre and Cherbourg , were so heavily f ortified that they would have to be pounded to pieces before their capture . Unt il they could be seized and repaired , there seemed to be only one answer . Said Winston Churchill : `` We shall build our own ports and take them with us . '' Thus was born Operation Mulberry , a project of technological hubris as daunting for its time as the manned space program would later be in its . Operation Mulb erry would absorb the round-the-clock labors of more than 20,000 men for more th an half a year and suck up every bit of available steel and concrete in a Great Britain already reeling from wartime shortages . And it would be brought to frui tion , despite obvious physical visibility , in almost total secrecy . What it e nvisioned was no less than the instant creation on an exposed coast of two separ ate protected anchorages , each fully two square miles in area , or approximatel y the size of Britain 's own major channel port at Dover . Within these harbors would be dock space sufficient for unloading simultaneously six amphibious landi ng ships ( LSTs ) , plus moorings for an additional eight larger cargo ships . T he most maddening challenge was a requirement that the docks remain at a level w here vehicles could roll right onto them through the bow-opening doors of the LS Ts . Since tides in Normandy rise and fall a whopping 21 feet twice a day , this meant semi-floating docks whose height could be adjusted somehow on retractable legs . And since the beaches in Normandy have a very gentle slope , it also nec essitated a series of floating piers that could reach out half a mile to the doc ks as the tide retreated and advanced . In all there would be seven miles of pie rs for the two harbors , and at least one of the three docks and pier combinatio ns in each harbor would need to be heavy enough to handle 40-ton tanks . Dover , also artificial , had taken seven years to build . The Mulberrys were to be bui lt in seven months . `` Don't argue the matter , '' wrote Churchill in a famous memo . `` The difficulties will argue themselves . '' -O- The English Channel , as many a sailor has discovered , is not a nice piece of water . It is prone to fog and dangerous tidal rips and wrapped in stormy , unforgiving shores . Its we ather is fickle and treacherous , its currents disorienting and its waters cold . But June is usually relatively calm , which is to say one rarely encounters 40 -knot winds . July and August are even calmer , and since the Mulberry harbors w ere only thought necessary for three months ( within which time the French ports would have been seized and functioning ) , they would be designed to anticipate neither serious gales nor more than eight-foot seas . Even so , their strength on paper was impressive . The key ingredient of the harbor was a concrete shell , or caisson , roughly the size of a five-story building . It would be built in six sizes , the largest 60 feet high and displacing more than 6,000 tons . A tot al of 212 caissons were built , using in the process 600,000 tons of concrete an d more than 31,000 tons of steel . Each caisson was to be towed across the chann el and flooded in series so as to make two giant breakwaters , one of them fully 1 miles long and 4,000 feet off the beach , and the other , a fifth as long , p erpendicular to the beach at the outer breakwater 's southern end . A third brea kwater nearly 2 miles long , at the north end of each beach , was to be composed of 70 old `` block ships '' ( including an ancient Victorian battleship ) steam ed across the channel and scuttled with explosives . Beyond the outer breakwater was to be yet another type a mile-long floating barrier of 200-foot steel ponto ons , or `` bombardons , '' to dampen wave action . The caisson project alone ta xed the resources of the United Kingdom to the very limit . Construction started Oct. 31 , 1943 , and quickly fell behind schedule as the 25 contractors involve d scrambled for work sites and labor . With nearly every man , woman and child i n Britain already occupied on war-related tasks , most of the caisson builders h ad to be imported from neutral Ireland . Dorothy Moore , now 86 , was in charge of lodging those in Gosport , where they were billeted with local families . She remembers them as `` very strong , good-hearted fellows , but very rough . They worked very long hours , and were given to going to bed with their muddy boots on , or relieving themselves out the bedroom window after an evening at the pub . Things like that . '' None of them had the least idea what they were building . Nor did most workers at either end of the project . Jerry Jerrard of Southampt on , then a 20-year-old physicist fresh out of the University of London , was pa rt of an `` operations research group '' assigned to Operation Mulberry . All he knew was that it was something concrete . `` We had a chemist , a civil enginee r , a mathematician and me in the group , '' he remembers . `` We were working o n things like metal stress in tank treads several projects simultaneously and I was assigned to compute the stresses involved in the caissons . But the stresses they asked for had nothing to do with waves or water . They concerned mostly wh ether we could mount anti-aircraft guns on the top . For all we knew it could ha ve been a block of flats . '' Ray Beachill , 66 , of Portsmouth had just left sc hool at age 16 to work as an electrician 's apprentice in 1944 . His first job w as running power cables to the tidal zone of nearby Langstone Harbor , where one caisson was being built . `` It was very hard work . We were working outside in the winter with snow and everything right at the water 's edge , which is alway s the coldest place . Gale winds kept breaking the electric cables and I 'd have to climb up there in the gale with no protective clothing on and hope I didn't get blown off . '' The Irish workers , he says , were worse off still . `` They 'd be up to their waist in water sometimes when the tide came in , and this was January , mind you. .. . I don't mind telling you I was just as glad to see the back end of that thing when they finally towed it away . '' When they did , he h ad still not learned what it was . Six weeks before D-Day , however , it appeare d that the Germans did know . William Joyce , the Nazi radio propagandist known as `` Lord Haw-Haw , '' declared on the air that `` we know exactly what you int end to do with those concrete units . You think you 're going to sink them on ou r coasts in the assault . Well , we are going to help you boys. .. . When you co me to get them under way , we 're going to sink them for you . '' The broadcast sent panic through the Allied high command . If the Germans understood the Mulbe rry concept , they 'd have a window into the invasion strategy possibly enough t o undermine the elaborate deception efforts long employed to convince them that the real invasion would come north of Normandy in the Pas de Calais . There the Germans had positioned the bulk of their troops and armor . If those troops were moved to Normandy it would be disastrous on D-Day . How much did the Germans re ally know ? The high command turned to its intelligence ace in the hole , the co de-breaking unit at Bletchley , which had been reading `` ultra''-secret Wehrmac ht radio signals throughout the war . After some sleepless nights the answer cam e back by circuitous route . American cryptographers in the Pacific , who were r eading Japanese radio traffic , had intercepted a report to Tokyo from the Japan ese ambassador in Berlin . While briefing him on their French coastal defenses a nd the Allies ' surmised invasion plans , the Germans had mentioned the concrete units being built on the British coast . But they appeared , the Germans said , to be anti-aircraft gun towers . Allied relief was palpable . But just to be on the safe side , an early prototype caisson was towed up and parked across from Calais . The `` Haw-Haw '' broadcast made Allied security so jittery a major inv estigation was launched the following month when the word `` mulberry '' turned up in a crossword puzzle in the Daily Telegraph . That mulberry turned out to re fer to trees . -O- Operation Mulberry , meanwhile , was marching on . The towing aspect of it alone was a logistical snake pit . Every conceivable size and type of towing vessel had been drafted for the operation , one dating back to 1880 . Each had to be matched with an appropriate load lest a gale-propelled 6,000-ton caisson end up towing its towing vessel . Then all the speeds and distances had to be coordinated so the 85 tugs would not arrive with their huge loads all at once amid the barely controlled chaos of the 7,000-ship invasion fleet . The tow ing was not without incident . One troubled caisson flooded prematurely and sank off Hayling Island near here , where it can still be seen today . Half the pier sections intended for Mulberry B were lost in rough seas on the way over . The first units arrived off Omaha Beach June 7 , and three of the block ships were s unk in place for the northern breakwater that afternoon . The following day the first caissons arrived . The block-ship breakwater was completed June 10 , despi te being targeted sporadically by German artillery fire . The first ships docked at Mulberry A pier six days later , three full days ahead of schedule . Mulberr y B , in the British sector at Arromanches , was less than half finished . Up to that time , the bulk of the unloading had been handled by LSTs `` drying out '' beaching themselves at high tide , opening their bow doors and rolling vehicles right onto the sand . While this proved far more practical than envisioned by t he invasion planners , it had the immense disadvantage of immobilizing ships for a full 12 hours until they could be refloated on the next high tide . The first LST at the Mulberry dock discharged 78 vehicles its entire load in just 38 minu tes . In the 11 additional hours it would have spent on the beach drying out , i t could now return to England , load up again and be halfway back . The cargo ca pacity of the invasion beaches had suddenly more than doubled . By June 18 , wit h its third dock still uncompleted , Omaha Beach had landed 197,444 troops , 27, 340 vehicles and 68,799 long tons of supplies . Mulberry A was not only living u p to its projections , it was now the busiest port in all of Europe . -O- Then d isaster struck . Allied weather forecasters , who inarguably had made the greate st tactical contribution to D-Day by spotting a brief window amid what appeared to the Germans to be invasion-proof weather , missed an oncoming cold front that descended on the Mulberrys like a bomb . On June 19 , during an unusually high spring tide , the winds stiffened , backing to the northeast , and blew from the one point on the compass that built the waves over 100 miles of open water and aimed them into the harbor entrance . By midday the wind was blowing steadily at 20 knots and gusting regularly to 30 . Eight-foot waves began washing over the tops of the block ships and caissons and running wild in the harbor . Anchors be gan to drag and moorings to part . Small craft , then bigger ships began driftin g into the floating piers . The bombardon breakwater dragged anchor , came apart and began battering the caissons , which in turn began to shift and capsize . I t was the worst summer storm in the channel in 40 years . It blew for four days . When it was over , 21 of 35 caissons in one breakwater had capsized or been be aten in and the piers and docks were little more than twisted wreckage . Only th e block-ship breakwater at Omaha had held . The British Mulberry , still uncompl eted and partially protected by the capes north of Le Havre , survived with litt le damage . Appalled by the damage at Omaha , Allied planners decided to move an y salvageable parts of Mulberry A to Arromanches . The discharge of cargo had vi rtually stopped during the storm , and shortages ashore were becoming critical . Fortunately , Cherbourg was captured June 26 , but it was another 20 days befor e the harbor there could be cleared of wreckage and booby traps enough for the f irst ships to unload . Meanwhile , supply logistics were rebuilt around the inte nsified beaching and drying out of LSTs at Omaha plus the operation of a finally finished and greatly storm-reinforced Mulberry B at Arromanches . It operated t hrough November 1944 . Its block ships and caissons still stand today . -O- Fift y years after D-Day , historians tend to view Operation Mulberry as something of a quaint sideline to the invasion of Europe , some citing it as a cautionary ta le of man 's technological arrogance in the face of nature , rather like the sin king of the Titanic . For all the immense expense and effort that went into the Mulberrys , the `` British Report to the Chiefs of Staff '' on D-Day suggested t hey were a waste of steel and labor and said the invasion could probably have su cceeded without them . Eisenhower 's chief of staff , Gen. Walter Bedell Smith , however , strongly disagreed . Though the Mulberrys may have only contributed 1 5 percent to the flow of needed materiel to the invasion forces , he said after the war , `` that 15 percent was crucial . '' What many overlook is that the Mul berrys marked a historical benchmark in the evolution of waterborne transportati on . They were designed by engineers and architects still discovering how best t o employ the then-novel LST , the first ship built almost entirely for the rapid loading and discharge of cargo . The mating of the Mulberry docks and the LST m arked the prototype of the roll-on , roll-off concept of cargo-handling that gov erns today 's containerized ports and shipping . Like so much that D-Day brought to Europe and the world , the Mulberry harbors were the face of the future . In preparation for Monday 's commemoration of the 50th anniversary of D-Day , C BS ' `` Sunday Morning , '' ABC 's `` Good Morning America/Sunday '' and NBC 's `` Weekend Today '' will provide extensive reports . NBC 's `` Meet the Press '' and a 90-minute edition of ABC 's `` This Week with David Brinkley '' also will be devoted to D-Day . Live TV coverage from Normandy , France and other Europea n sites critical in the invasion will dominate regular and elongated news progra ms on Monday . ABC anchor Peter Jennings and NBC anchor Tom Brokaw are on the sc ene for their evening newscasts through Monday ; CBS and CNN chose to send senio r correspondents . The networks ' anchors and reporters also will be on Monday b eginning at 7 a.m. , when there will be five continuous hours of coverage on eac h of the networks ' morning shows . -0- PBS ' new `` The Steven Banks Show '' wi ll air Monday nights from July 11 to Aug. 8 and , after a pledge break , return Aug. 22 to Sept. 5 . It takes place in `` the cluttered mind and apartment '' of Banks , who manages to be distracted by most anything . We find him doing comic monologues ; parodying Rex Harrison , Elvis Presley , Katharine Hepburn , Jerry Lewis , Paul McCartney and Bob Dylan ; writing music ; singing ; and playing ne arly a dozen instruments . There will be guests , Penn and Teller among them , a nd two regulars , Teresa Parente and Michael Kostroff , who play six recurring c haracters and more than 50 onetime roles . -0- Here 's more light summer fare : NBC finally will show `` TV Nation , '' the comedic investigative magazine from filmmaker Michael Moore ( `` Roger & Me '' ) . It will air Tuesday nights beginn ing July 19 . Moore says his show departs from all the other news magazines in t hat `` we don't have the credentials or the wardrobe of most TV correspondents . '' Moore 's on-air team includes Merrill Markoe , former writer for David Lette rman ; MTV veejay Karen Duffy ; author Ben Hamper ( `` Rivethead '' ) ; Roy Seko ff , Spy magazine 's Louis Theroux ; and comic Jonathan Katz . Topics include re al-estate sales near the Love Canal ; catching a cab in New York City if you 're African-American ; the lighter side of Dr. Kevorkian , and `` Pets on Prozac . '' -0- Except for the Peabody , duPont-Columbia and Emmy awards , this space nor mally steers clear of reporting the many awards handed out to TV people . We mak e an exception to note that `` All My Children '' star Susan Lucci , our favorit e non-Emmy winner , has received the 1994 Crystal Apple Award , presented to a p ersonality who `` has distinguished him or herself in the entertainment business and has made lifetime contributions to the film and TV industry in New York . ' ' Past winners are Dustin Hoffman , Michael J. Fox , Spike Lee and Robert De Nir o . Mayor Rudolph Giuliani will present Lucci with a Tiffany Crystal Apple June 13 . -0- Viewers for Quality Television is asking fans of Fox Broadcasting 's ca nceled `` South Central '' to write to Fox Broadcasting Chairwoman Lucy Salhany and ask that the series be reinstated . The series about black family life , one critic wrote , deals with `` a healthy , functional family trying to get by in a dysfunctional society . '' Salhany 's address : Fox Broadcasting , Box 900 , B everly Hills , Calif. 90213 . VQT wants copies of the letters sent to its office : P.O. . Box 195 , Fairfax Station , Va. 22039 . WASHINGTON Sketching a picture of an emerging work force no longer well served by employment laws that date back to the Great Depression , a special White Hous e commission issued a report Thursday that the Clinton administration will use t o try to overhaul the fundamental rules of the U.S. workplace . The fact-finding report by the 10-member Commission for the Future of Worker/Management Relation s will serve as the starting point for what promises to be a bitter and lengthy legislative fight over labor law reform . Unlike the U.S. work force of the past six decades , the report said , today 's workers are as `` more educated ; more female , often part of a two-earner family ; more likely to be members of a min ority group ; and getting older as the baby boomers age . '' This , it said , `` poses challenges to the traditional modes of compensation and organization of w ork schedules and makes provisions of equal opportunity for all increasingly cri tical to our economic success . '' Labor Secretary Robert B . Reich called the r eport `` an attempt to begin the process of dialogue . '' Reich said the questio n that has to be answered is whether the current system of laws governing the wo rkplace is `` appropriate to the times . `` The American workplace has undergone extraordinary transformation over the last six decades and will be evolving sti ll more dramatically in the future , '' he said . `` But our legal framework and many of our notions about worker-management relations were made for a 1930s wor ld not the 21st century . '' Headed by former Labor Secretary John Dunlop , the commission will use the report to make recommendations by the end of the year fo r changing a wide range of laws governing the workplace , covering such diverse subjects as collective bargaining rights , overtime pay rules , anti-discriminat ion rules and unpaid medical leaves . The commission includes two other former s ecretaries of labor as well as the chairman of Xerox Corp. . Business , labor an d civil rights groups generally hailed the report Thursday , each group singling out the finding that best suited its constituency . The Labor Policy Associatio n , which represents more than 200 Fortune 500 corporations , called the report a first step toward building a consensus for change . Brad Cameron of the LPA sa id the report comes at a `` pivotal period '' in the history of U.S. labor law . Thomas Donahue , AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer , predicted the commission finding s would `` launch a debate that has not been had in this country in 40 years , a bout the relationships between workers and owners . '' Several major women 's gr oups and the presidents of four other national women 's organizations all praise d the commission for recognizing the changes that have taken place in the workpl ace . They said the report underscores the need to change the laws to accommodat e the problems women face in the workplace as more and more families are depende nt on two incomes to survive . The commission was created by the White House mor e than a year ago to look into the possible need for labor law reforms . Unions want the laws changed to make it easier to organize new members . Many business groups want changes to remove current legal obstacles to cooperative efforts in the workplace . But the report may prove to have a broader impact on the overwhe lming majority of U.S. workers who do not belong to labor unions . For the last 30 years , as union membership has declined along with the percentage of workers covered by collective bargaining agreements , Congress and state legislatures h ave increasingly been enacting laws to protect individual rights on the job . `` American employees have now been promised a wide variety of legal rights and pr otections by both federal and state lawmakers , '' the report said . `` These in clude minimum wages and maximum hours , a safe and healthy workplace , secure an d accessible pension and health benefits once provided adequate notice of plant closings and mass layoffs , unpaid family and medical leave and bans on wrongful dismissal : these and all other employment terms and opportunities are to be en joyed without discrimination on account of race , gender , religion , age or dis ability . '' The result of this shift in employment law away from collective bar gaining and labor-management relations to a system of legal intervention has bee n an explosion in litigation . The commission said there was a 400 percent incre ase in the number of employment cases in the federal courts from 1971 to 1991 . And regulatory agencies charged with administrating the laws have been swamped w ith complaints . Reich said that last year alone the Equal Employment Opportunit ies Commission , which governs discrimination in the workplace , had to deal wit h 90,000 cases . One of the commission goals is to look closely at possible priv ate dispute resolution alternatives for a broad range of issues , as well as the possibility of creating a single labor and employment court with jurisdiction o ver the employment laws now on the books . Speaking for the administration , Rei ch would not comment Thursday on most of the specifics in the report . He said h e would wait to comment until the commission issued its recommendations later th is year . BERLIN As legions of statesmen and aging warriors gather along Normandy 's beac hes this weekend to celebrate the 50th anniversary of D-Day , their 1944 enemy G ermany will be represented almost exclusively by her dead . Nearly 78,000 German soldiers lie in Norman graves , more than twice the number of all Allied troops buried there . Otherwise , Germans will be conspicuous by their absence . Excep t for a low-key memorial service on Saturday at the German war cemetery in La Ca mbe , where Bonn 's ambassador to France will lay a wreath , Germany has been po intedly excluded from the festivities . Despite this snub by their closest postw ar friends and allies , Germans for the most part have accepted the exclusion wi th graceful forbearance . The national attitude appears to hover somewhere betwe en puzzled bemusement and mild irritation at the American , British and French p reoccupation with events of a half-century ago , long before the shared values o f peace and democracy lashed Western Europe and the United States together in an enduring alliance . `` D-Day is not something that 's very much on people 's mi nds in Germany , '' said Christoph Bertram , diplomatic correspondent for Die Ze it newspaper . `` There will be thoughtful articles noting that the invasion was the beginning of Hitler 's end and hence a contribution to the liberties and de mocracy we enjoy today . But it will be more a distant spectacle than anything G ermans feel part of , or even feel that they should be involved with . '' Chance llor Helmut Kohl , although reportedly miffed last winter when it became clear h e would not be invited to join other world leaders in Normandy , has recently ma intained an air of amiable understanding . `` Let these people celebrate this da y . Let the survivors commemorate it in honor of their fallen comrades . That 's absolutely right , '' Kohl said in a BBC interview last week . `` I have deep r espect for that . But on the other hand , this is no day for us Germans to join in the commemoration . '' The event has hardly been ignored in Germany . Der Spi egel magazine is running a long series on the Allied invasion , newspapers have provided ample coverage of the festivities , and the movie `` The Longest Day '' will be shown on German television . Commentators have noted that the German ar my suffered 200,000 casualties and lost 200,000 prisoners in the Normandy campai gn . `` But it has very little emotional resonance , '' Bertram said , `` and in that sense I think we Germans have become true Europeans . '' Noting that the c atastrophe of the Third Reich has imprinted German society with a deep and endur ing aversion to martial topics , a Foreign Ministry official added , `` When it comes to celebrating battles , we are reluctant at best . '' Still , it is not d ifficult to find expressions of hurt feelings at being locked out of the party o r of bewilderment that the commemoration has focused more on the military epic t han on the decades of harmony engendered by the invasion . `` The war is over , and as a result the world has been changed for the better , '' Hildegard Frank , president of the Association of German-American Clubs in Duisburg , said in an interview . `` It 's really a shame that they willn't make that the focal point . '' Added Thomas Kielinger , editor in chief of the Rheinischer Merkur newspape r : `` I understand fully the desire to commemorate the sacrifices that were mad e . But I would have wished that those who sacrificed so much for liberating Eur ope could recognize that they won much more than the defeat of the Nazis . They reclaimed for Germany the rule of law and due process . In other words , D-Day w as a double victory : the defeat of Hitler and the resuscitation of democracy. . . . It 's just a pity that the politicians who engineered these festivities did not ( include ) this notion . '' Although a few German veterans are likely to ma ke private pilgrimages to Normandy , others voice regret at having to slip in th rough the back door . `` What harm can be done by inviting the Germans ? '' aske d Ewald Feldhaus , 74 , a former paratrooper captured in 1945 . `` It 's sad thi ngs haven't come to that yet . It would be a nice gesture , and it should come f rom the victors . '' But an officer now serving in the German army , Capt. Joerg Bestehorn , said : `` German veterans have no place there because many of them were SS ( Nazi paramilitary ) people who didn't just serve the military but also served a regime. .. . We have to respect the fact that if ( the Allies ) want t o celebrate and don't want us there , that 's fine . '' It is possible , however , to detect some vexation that Germany 's ostensible friends , particularly the British , appear to be reveling so robustly in bygone glory . `` There 's a fee ling , '' Bertram said , `` that obviously a number of countries who are not doi ng terribly well at the present time hanker after the past and try to celebrate it in order to compensate for the dismal present . '' Holger Schwendler , 23 , a student of history and politics at the University of Cologne , suggested that G ermany 's exclusion `` is a sign that the European countries are still afraid of Germany or afraid again . '' No public-opinion poll has specifically examined G erman attitudes on the D-Day commemoration , according to a spokesman for the go vernment press office in Bonn . But a Forsa Institute survey published this week by the newspaper Die Woche provides some insights into latter-day feelings abou t the war in general . For example , nearly two-thirds of those surveyed 64 perc ent said they consider it a good thing that Germany lost the war ; a comparable percentage said they would not have wanted to live in Germany had Hitler won . A lmost seven in 10 believe the destruction of Hitler 's Third Reich should be vie wed as a liberation , while only 13 percent consider it a defeat . More than thr ee-quarters believe complicity by German society and bureaucracy made the Nazis ' war crimes possible , and more than 90 percent are certain that Germany commit ted mass murder against Jews and other groups . On the other hand , 24 percent c onsider the basic ideas of Hitler 's National Socialism `` really not so bad . ' ' Reflecting the ambivalence many Germans feel , 53 percent said the time had co me to `` draw a line '' under the Nazi era and relegate it to the distant past , while 41 percent disagreed . As part of the relentless German search for expiat ion , symbols of atonement have been much in evidence lately . This week , for e xample , Kohl returned to French President Francois Mitterrand 28 art masterpiec es including paintings by Claude Monet , Paul Cezanne and Paul Gauguin taken fro m France by Nazi occupiers during the war and later kept by communist East Germa ny . Mitterrand answered the gesture of reconciliation by inviting German soldie rs to march with their French counterparts down Paris ' Champs Elysees on Bastil le Day next month . As a counterpoint to Normandy , Germans have also focused on their own meaningful dates this summer . The last Russian troops will leave Ger man soil in August , marking the end of nearly five decades of occupation in wha t was East Germany . Kohl will also attend a July 20 ceremony in Berlin commemor ating the 50th anniversary of the failed plot by German military officers to kil l Hitler with a bomb . The ceremony plans turned sour this week when Kohl 's opp onent in the fall election , Rudolf Scharping , bitterly complained of being exc luded from the event even though his Social Democratic Party was persecuted duri ng the Third Reich . Beyond the imminent departure of Russian soldiers , much of Bonn 's attention has been riveted on May 8 , 1995 , the 50th anniversary of Ge rmany 's surrender and the end of the war in Europe . Kohl has accepted an invit ation to commemorate the event in London , where festivities are also intended t o celebrate the birth of modern Europe . In the intervening 11 months , however , Germans will be subjected to a sequence of other World War II anniversaries , including : the liberation of Paris and other West European cities ; the Battle of the Bulge ; the crossing of the Rhine by Allied troops ; and the linkup of Am erican and Soviet forces on the Elbe . Contrary to fears in Bonn earlier this ye ar , neither Normandy nor any other war commemorations has been effectively used by the German far right to suggest that a humiliated Germany should feel ostrac ized by its neighbors . Elections for the European Parliament fall on June 12 , but whatever success rightist candidates may have is likely to come as a consequ ence of stressing pocketbook themes and domestic xenophobia . `` Maybe the right wing understands the general reluctance of people as a whole to rise to the bai t on issues such as Normandy , '' Kielinger said . Some Germans suggest that the ir fellow citizens are simply too preoccupied right now to fret about what 's ha ppening on the French coast , several hundred miles to the west . `` The only th ing Germans care about is health and wealth . They 're very selfish at the momen t and aren't thinking about other things , '' said Schwendler `` For me personal ly , Normandy 's not a big deal . '' ROME So he chatted with the pope , captivated clerics , hobnobbed with a billio naire prime minister and supped from one of the world 's great cuisines . In the hot streets of Rome Thursday , it was mostly Roman passersby and accidental tou rists who witnessed President Clinton 's visit to celebrate what he characterize d as an extraordinary , all-in-the-family relationship between the United States and Italy . Indeed , Clinton seemed as much awe-struck as awe-inspiring to Roma ns as he made a relaxed , tourist-like debut in the Eternal City . `` I came all they way from Omaha , Neb. , to see this . I can't believe it ! The tour direct or had tickets for the president , so we just abandoned the tour , '' said Morin e Dosert in the majestic Piazza Campidoglio where Clinton spoke before Rome 's c ity hall . If Romans behaved almost as if an old friend had dropped in to call , not all of them were pleased . Clinton was not good news for sidewalk carver Ka vir Ahmed , who makes his living inscribing `` Your Name on a Grain of Rice . '' `` A tourist from Vienna named Kurt had me put his name on one side of a grain and Clinton 's on the other , but business is lousy . A lot of people are stayin g away , and the rest don't seem to care that he 's here , '' said Ahmed , a 28- year-old Bangladeshi . Throbbing in routine weekday anarchy , central Rome in of f-handed fashion digested the friendly invasion by a president commanding more l imousines and security cars than Hannibal had elephants . People went to work . Ugly orange buses growled messily . Motorini buzzed busily . Helicopters coptere d . Everybody knew that Clinton would make the traffic worse , if that is possib le . He did . There were American flags here and there , cops galore , bunches o f people , but few crowds to speak of except at the Campidoglio . There , in a f olksy speech partially translated by Budget Director Leon Panetta , an Italian-A merican , Clinton evoked Marc Anthony 's `` Friends , Romans and countrymen , '' hailing Italians , in Italian , as `` Alleati , amici , una famiglia . '' ( All ies , friends , one family . ) `` I shaked his hand , '' shouted Jude Jeyankacha n , 10 , with greater exuberance than grammatical nicety . A police band played `` Cheek to Cheek , '' as Clinton warmly greeted seven Romans born on June 4 , 1 944 the World War II Liberation of Rome by American troops and all named Italian variations of `` America . '' `` From the hearty atmosphere and the number of p eople here , America is alive and well in Rome , '' said Sister Brigid Murphy , a teacher at Marymount International School amid a forest of Italian and America n flags before city hall . Like Hilary Rodham Clinton , who swapped M & M 's for smiles with chanting , delighted Italian school kids in the Piazza Navona ( `` EE-la-ree ! EE-la-re ! '' the children cried ) , the president seemed to enjoy t he experience at every stop on a cloudless Roman day more summer than spring . ` ` It 's unbelievable , '' said Clinton , enjoying Michelangelo 's restored fresc oes in the Sistine Chapel . ( Optional add end ) Even a long news conference wit h new Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi , one of Europe 's richest men , was outd oors in a landmark 17th century courtyard of the distinguished old Palazzo Chigi . Then on to a glittery , caloric , black-tie state dinner in a Renaissance vil la designed by Raffaello . At the height of Rome 's tourist season , many who sa w Clinton Thursday just happily happened upon him . `` The first president I 'll have seen since LBJ , '' said Jim Tudor of Chicago , who stopped in curiosity o n Via del Corso and was rewarded with a motorcade . Thomas Kubik , a German from Frankfurt for a long weekend , observed of the president : `` He 's worth waiti ng for ; some of us see him as a new JFK . '' `` What a coincidence . We missed him at home , '' said Nancy Brown of Honolulu . `` Splendid advertising for us , '' said Raffaele Ciarelli , leading a demonstration for immigrants ' rights tha t city authorities had unaccountably forgotten to reschedule for another day . C linton , who jogged his way through jet-lag in a red baseball cap and a gray T-s hirt that said `` Radio City , '' got his first view of the day of the Italian c apital from a famous , much-beloved hilltop lookout called the Pincio . After hi s encounter with a stiff , frail-looking Pope John Paul II , who is recovering f rom a broken thigh , Clinton was buoyant and beaming in an encounter with 140 Am erican priests and seminarians . Striding into a baroque salon at the Apostolic Palace , the president told the black-suited clerics that his encounter with the pontiff was `` an awe-inspiring experience . '' When Raymond Flynn , former Bos ton mayor and American ambassador to the Vatican , assured Clinton that all the priests were Democrats , Clinton turned to accompanying Cardinal Angelo Sodano a nd joked : `` After that political comment he ( Flynn ) made , he has another go od reason to go to confession now . '' WASHINGTON Five deaths in a 1993 hepatitis drug trial were an `` unavoidable ac cident , '' an advisory panel of the National Institutes of Health concluded Thu rsday . The new report , which clears the NIH 's scientists of wrongdoing , cont radicts the view of the Food and Drug Administration , which said last month tha t researchers in the NIH drug trials had committed `` serious violations '' of f ederal regulations . The advisory panel , a subcommittee of the Advisory Committ ee to NIH director Harold Varmus , found that `` only in retrospect are there cl ues '' to the hidden toxicity of the experimental drug fialuridine ( FIAU ) . Fi aluridine was believed to be a promising treatment for chronic hepatitis B . The disease , which can cause liver damage and death , has no other satisfactory tr eatment . Two previous human trials of the drug produced no apparent toxic effec ts . But in the 1993 tests , five of the 15 NIH patients died and two others sur vived only after receiving liver transplants . After the deaths , the FIAU resea rchers had said the drug 's deadly effects were hidden because they resembled sy mptoms of hepatitis B and tended to occur months after the initial doses . The N IH advisory panel agreed : `` There is no villain other than the emergence and i dentification of a new and unique form of delayed drug toxicity , '' they conclu ded Thursday . `` The FIAU studies represent the best of current practice in cli nical investigations and exceeded regulatory requirements where such applied . ' ' The recent FDA investigation produced very different results . The `` complian ce letters '' released last month detailed numerous violations of FDA regulation s , including not informing the agency immediately of adverse side effects . The drug 's sponsor , Eli Lilly & Co. , and the trial 's principal investigator Jay H. Hoofnagle of the NIH have until the end of June to respond to the FDA letter s . An earlier FDA report suggested that optimism on the part of researchers may have led them to evaluate information in too favorable a light and to miss warn ing signs . In that November 1993 report , the FDA said that four patient deaths prior to the 1993 trial might have been caused by FIAU , but were attributed to other causes . Liver toxicity had also showed up in two healthy patients who we re given FIAU by Lilly , the FDA said , but the incidents were not reported unti l after the 1993 FIAU patients had begun to die . The FDA is formulating new rul es requiring scientists to gather more data about side effects and obliging them to assume from the outset that medical problems in test subjects are caused by t he drug . FDA spokesman Jim O' Hara said Thursday that agency officials had not yet had a chance to review the NIH panel 's report , but `` we stand by our repo rt of November and the compliance letters that were issued in May . '' The NIH p anel said that some of the FDA recommendations especially one that called for al l new drug trials to track patients for an extended period to catch other exampl es of delayed toxicity would be too expensive , and suggested that such steps on ly be taken where such toxicity might be expected . But the panel recommended th at animal tests for new drugs mimic as nearly as possible the treatment that hum an test subjects will receive . Animals were injected with FIAU ; humans took th e drug orally . Subsequent animal tests have shown toxicity with oral doses . Th e stark difference between the two reports which NIH panelists referred to only as an `` apparent discrepancy '' could be seen a conflict between regulators at the FDA and the scientists at NIH . NIH panelists said that the FDA report was c oncerned mainly with whether the agency 's procedures were followed in the trial s . The NIH panelists , many of whom are experienced clinical researchers , went through a four-foot stack of patient reports , charts and diaries to determine what the researchers knew or should have known at each step of the process and i nterviewed the scientists , nurses and surviving patients at length . Critics of the 's panel 's conclusions said that the NIH investigators were overly charita ble about signals the FIAU researchers might have missed . Rep. Edolphus Towns , D-N.Y. , who has been sharply critical of the NIH , called the report a `` whit ewash '' which showed that `` NIH is simply not sufficiently removed from culpab ility to evaluate impartially the tragic events that occurred . '' A surviving p atient from the FIAU trial , Carl Schmid , complained Thursday of his interview with the NIH panel , saying `` I don't think it was a thorough review or a thoro ugh follow-up , and that was disappointing . '' The Department of Health and Hum an Services has said it will request a separate study of the FIAU affair by the independent Institute of Medicine ; NIH panel members said Thursday that the IOM might be able to reconcile the FDA and NIH versions of events . Stephen Straus , one of the chief FIAU researchers , said that panel members interviewed him fo r four hours and that he was gratified by the result : `` They did a fabulous jo b of investigating and unraveling a complex and tragic series of events . '' All an J. Weinstein , vice president of Lilly Research Laboratories , said `` We 're pleased that an independent group of outside experts has concluded that this wa s a novel toxicity and an unpredictable one . '' As for the tougher response by the Food and Drug Administration , Weinstein said , `` We respectfully disagree with the FDA . '' NIH director Varmus said he pressed the panelists to be `` cri tical '' and `` skeptical '' because at the outset , `` I was concerned somethin g was wrong '' in the FIAU drug trials . Opening the advisory panel meeting Thur sday morning , Varmus cited the FIAU trials and the recent scandal concerning ta inted data in breast cancer studies , and said `` the confluence of these two ep isodes '' had been cause for `` concern about the state of clinical trials in th is country . '' ROME President Clinton sought common ground with Pope John Paul II Thursday des pite their disagreement over abortion as he opened his European tour with a day of maneuvering through political and diplomatic minefields . Among those minefie lds was a session with Italy 's new prime minister , Silvio Berlusconi , whose i nclusion of the neo-fascist-rooted National Alliance in his governing coalition has ignited fears in Europe and elsewhere of a fascist resurgence . Clinton said Berlusconi assured him that all members of his government `` from top to bottom '' are `` unequivocally committed to democracy , '' and the president added tha t the United States would judge the government by its actions . Later , in an ev ent characteristic of Clinton 's trips abroad , the president saluted Italian-Am erican friendship before a crowd of Romans waving tiny American and Italian flag s in front of City Hall , atop Capitoline Hill . He plunged into the surging cro wd , his security agents pushing him along , for a round of handshaking . Of his 40-minute session with the pope , Clinton said the pontiff urged him not `` to be insensitive to the value of life or appear to be advocating policies that wou ld undermine the strength of the family , '' a reference to the Clinton administ ration 's support for abortion rights and the immediate concern over a U.N. conf erence in Cairo later this year on stabilizing population growth . The United St ates is backing more liberal abortion language in a proposed population-control plan , and its stance is a reversal of policies of the last two Republican admin istrations . But Clinton insisted Thursday his administration does not support a bortion as a means of family planning . Clinton said there was `` genuine disagr eement '' between him and the pope on birth control and its use to slow the rate of population growth . `` We do support active and aggressive family-planning e fforts ; we do have differences over contraception , '' he said . He noted `` a common commitment to the family '' with the pontiff . White House Press Secretar y Dee Dee Myers said the draft statement for the September conference in Cairo i s still being worked on but that Clinton does not read the document language in as narrow a manner as the Roman Catholic Church does . She said the administrati on 's support for the availability of abortion for women in poor counties is not support for abortion on demand , abortion as a method of family planning or coe rced abortion . The Vatican and the Clinton administration basically have irreco ncilable differences on the issue of abortion , she said . A papal aide stressed that these differences could be narrowed only if the president moved closer to the pope 's opposition to abortion . The president already has received a letter of protest from the U.S. . Conference of Catholic Bishops and had been warned b y Raymond Flynn , the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican , that the pope had express ed great anger over the administration 's position and intended to put it on the top of his agenda for discussion . Clinton went from that touchy session with t he pontiff to a lengthy meeting with Berlusconi , who took office May 11 after a meteoric political rise that culminated in his election March 28 at the head of a three-party conservative coalition . Berlusconi 's meeting with Clinton was h is first with a Western leader since he took office , and the new prime minister repeatedly offered reassurances in a news conference that his government had no fascist leanings and his nation no nostalgia for the years when fascist dictato r Benito Mussolini sided with Adolf Hitler during World War II . Berlusconi said within the government he has chosen `` there is not and there could never be , any minister or any official ( who is ) not democratic in nature , that truly an d deeply believed in freedom and democracy and that believed completely that tot alitarianism needs to be fought always and at all costs . '' The Italian media h ave interpreted a Clinton interview broadcast here last week and his statements Thursday as an endorsement of the Berlusconi government , and neither the presid ent nor his senior advisers raised concerns about that government here . Clinton said `` extremists '' attempting to play on economic and social frustrations ar e a fact of political life across the globe where people yearn for `` a certain sense of order and discipline and hopefulness '' and that the way to neutralize extremist movements such as neo-fascism was successful governing . As to neo-fas cist leanings in the Berlusconi government , Clinton said many political parties around the world `` have their roots in a less-democratic past . I have found i t not only useful but the only reasonable approach to judge all people in govern ments by what they do , what do they say and what do they do when they are in po wer . '' A senior official who briefed reporters later said that in private , Be rlusconi had offered `` strong assurances '' of his government 's commitment to democracy and that the United States is `` well pleased by what they said here a nd what they have done '' in the period since the March elections that brought t he conservatives to power as the 54th government since World War II . In his pub lic address and in toasts at a state dinner Thursday night , Clinton reiterated the theme that the post-World War II generations must secure the peace across Eu rope that those who fought that war sacrificed to ensure . `` For 50 years , we have stood together to help build peace and prosperity in Western Europe , '' Cl inton said , `` now let us expand those blessings across a broader Europe . '' L et us hope , he concluded , that 50 years from now `` the world will say of us t hat the children of freedom and democracy were the builders of the lasting peace . '' The president , whose major purpose on this trip is to observe the 50th an niversary of the D-Day invasion that led to the liberation of Europe from the Na zis and the end of World War II , recalled the liberation of Rome in his address and read out the battle names from Italy and France . `` We must resolve never to forget such hallowed words as Anzio , Nettuno , Salerno , Normandy . These na mes speak of the sacrifices of our parents and the freedom of their children and grandchildren , '' he said . PHILADELPHIA A recent Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that saying no to a sex ual assailant is not sufficient grounds for a woman to prove she was raped has a larmed victims advocacy groups and prosecutors who contend it marks a major setb ack for rape victims here . The state 's highest court unanimously ruled last Fr iday in what is known here as the `` No Is Not Enough '' case that merely provin g a woman did not consent to a sexual encounter does not constitute rape under P ennsylvania law , which requires proof of `` forcible compulsion '' or the threa t of force . The seven-man panel said it had accepted the appeal of the 1988 cas e , Commonwealth vs. Berkowitz , involving two East Stroudsburg University stude nts who knew each other , to address `` the precise degree of force '' necessary to prove forcible compulsion , which the law does not define . The court upheld a lower court 's decision reversing the man 's rape conviction but reinstated h is conviction for indecent assault , a lesser charge . The court opinion states that the victim said `` no '' throughout the encounter . Addressing the question of force , it said she `` agreed that appellee 's hands were not restraining he r in any manner during the actual penetration , and that the weight of his body on top of her was the only force applied . '' Advocates for rape victims around the country and local prosecutors said the ruling underscores the problem with s exual assault statutes like Pennsylvania 's that require proof of force or activ e resistance to establish rape . Roughly half of the states require some proof o f physical force in their rape laws but state courts have issued widely varying interpretations , according to victims advocates . `` This goes against what we 've been teaching women all these years to say `` no , ' and mean `` no , ' and after that , any nonconsensual sex act is rape , '' said Kathryn Geller Myers , spokeswoman for Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape . `` The message here is tha t a woman has to physically resist and risk serious bodily injury to prove she w as raped . `` If you 're a 107-pound woman and a 280-pound guy is on top of you , I think that 's forcible compulsion , '' Myers said . `` This is one of the wo rst setbacks for the sexual assault movement in the last several years , '' said Cassandra Thomas , president of the National Coalition Against Sexual Assault . According to the opinion , the woman entered the room of Robert A . Berkowitz , then 20 , looking for his roommate , who was a friend of hers . The roommate wa s not there . Berkowitz sat beside her , pulled up her blouse and bra , fondled her breasts and attempted without success to get her to perform oral sex on him , the opinion says . He then locked the door , pushed her onto the bed , partial ly removed her clothes and sexually penetrated her , according to the opinion . The opinion pointed out that the door was locked from the inside , but she did n ot attempt to unlock it . The opinion quoted her as testifying , `` He didn't th row me on the bed ... . It was kind of like a push ... . ( It ) wasn't slow like a romantic kind of thing , but it wasn't a fast shove either . It was kind of i n the middle . ` ` The defendant , Berkowitz , told the jury that he heard the w oman say `` no , '' but did not believe that she meant it . Berkowitz 's lawyer , Mark Sheppard , said the ruling was a fair interpretation of the state rape st atute . But Monroe County district attorney James Gregor , who prosecuted the ca se , said the decision left to individual interpretation the question of what co nstituted physical force . `` Are we going to start using meters to gauge how mu ch a man pushed a woman to see what constitutes force ? '' asked Gregor . He sai d the facts of the case `` pushed the envelope of what a rape would be , approac hing the question of acquaintance or date rape . '' Pennsylvania 's sexual assau lt laws have not been overhauled in more than 20 years . The law does not addres s the question of consent ; use of force is the key issue . The national trend , according to Thomas of the National Coalition Against Rape , is for states to r emove clauses that require proof of force or resistance . Arizona and Alaska are among states that have made these changes in the last five years . New Jersey ' s law is similar to Pennsylvania 's , yet the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in 1992 that `` any act of sexual penetration engaged in by a defendant without the affirmative and freely given permission '' of the other person constitutes sexu al assault . The Texas statute , said Thomas , defines sexual assault as sexual penetration of another person `` without that person 's consent . '' Pennsylvani a state representative Karen Ritter , D , has introduced legislation to reform t he state 's sexual assault laws in the last two sessions . Her package , she sai d , `` would make clear that any actions by a victim for self-preservation or su bmission are not to be considered consent . '' She said she believes that the Be rkowitz ruling will give momentum to her legislation , now in the House Judiciar y Committee . ROME President Clinton launched an eight-day European voyage of nostalgia and d iplomacy Thursday with a celebration of America 's `` towering friendship '' wit h Italy and a search for common ground with the pope on population control . Cli nton , in a late afternoon address to the people of Rome at the city 's historic al heart on Capitoline Hill , declared that the United States and Italy shared a bond of blood and spirit forged in the 50 years since the end of World War II . `` America and Italy are more than mere partners , '' Clinton said , standing i n the Michelangelo-designed plaza where his political idol , John F. Kennedy , s poke to the citizens of Rome 31 years ago . `` We are now and forever will be ` Alleati , amici , una famiglia ' ' ' ( Allies , friends , one family ) . Clinton 's European trip is chiefly dedicated to commemoration of the liberation of Eur ope from Nazism and fascism and the 50th anniversary of the D-Day landings of Ju ne 6 , 1944 . But the president is combining ceremonies of remembrance with subs tantive talks with Italian , British and French leaders on current issues , from North Korea 's nuclear ambitions to the civil war in the former Yugoslavia and the surge of ultranationalist politics in Europe . He also used the occasion to conduct a private , 40-minute meeting with Pope John Paul II , their second enco unter in less than a year . The pontiff , growing more outspoken with the years , did not pull his punches on abortion with the young U.S. president . The secul ar and spiritual leaders made little effort to mask their fundamental dispute ov er abortion while seeking shared language on the central role of the family in s ociety . Clinton acknowledged `` genuine disagreements '' with the pope on contr aception and efforts to slow population growth in the developing world . But the president said he reassured John Paul II that , despite his and his wife 's lib eral views on abortion rights , his administration does not endorse abortion as a means of contraception or population control . The White House and the Vatican were far apart , also , on spin control . While Clinton said he and the pope sp ent the bulk of their time discussing problems in Asia , the Middle East and Lat in America , the Vatican , in a statement , said `` the most important part of t he meeting '' was dedicated to the subject of the `` defense and promotion of li fe '' the Church 's code words for its unwavering opposition to abortion . `` In this regard , '' the Vatican statement said , `` the Holy Father made an appeal to the responsibility of a great nation such as America , whose origin and hist orical development has always promoted ethical values that are basic to every cu lture . '' The pope had upbraided Clinton on abortion at their first meeting , i n Denver last August . After seeing the pope and viewing the newly restored fres coes of the Sistine Chapel , Clinton met with American seminarians at the Vatica n . He told the priests-in-training that seeing the pope was an `` awe-inspiring experience '' and praised their commitment to a life of faith and self-discipli ne . With perhaps an unconscious reference to his own inability at times to resi st earthly temptation , Clinton told the earnest theologians , `` In all secular societies , it is recognized that very few people have the capacity to make a c ommitment of that depth and constancy . And yet , all of us know that , ultimate ly , the meaning of our lives depend upon the constant effort to achieve a level of integrity between what we feel and what we think and what we do . '' After C linton 's two-hour visit to the Holy See , the president and the new Italian pri me minister , billionaire Silvio Berlusconi , met for the first time . The Itali an leader reaffirmed his government 's commitment to political and economic refo rm , despite the presence of five neo-fascist ministers in his 25-member Cabinet . Clinton said he would judge Berlusconi 's conservative new government on its record and said he was confident Italy would continue to hew to its democratic t raditions . But he expressed concern about the appeal and spread of totalitarian sentiment , not just in Italy but throughout the world . ( Begin optional trim ) `` No country is immune to people who run making extremist statements trying t o divide people , trying to , in effect , play on both the economic frustrations and the social and moral frustration that people feel in all countries where th ere is both economic stagnation and social disintegration , '' Clinton said in a news conference with Berlusconi at the Palazzo Chigi , seat of the Italian gove rnment . `` People everywhere yearn for a certain sense of order and discipline and hopefulness about the daily conditions of life , '' Clinton added . `` And w hen those things are under stress , every political system will be vulnerable to people who try to play on fears and to divide people . '' He said he was reassu red by Berlusconi 's promise his government is unequivocally committed to democr acy `` from top to bottom . '' ( End optional trim ) Friday , Clinton visits the American cemetery at Nettuno , near the site of the disastrous Anzio landing of January 1944 . He will pay homage to the war dead and speak about the struggle to extend the hard-won freedom of Western Europe to the struggling nations of th e former Soviet Union . WASHINGTON There 's a baby boomlet going on at the Great Ape House at the Natio nal Zoo : Three newborn gorillas in three years , the latest born this week . Th e newest infant , born Monday afternoon to 12-year-old Mandara , has not yet bee n named because mom is keeping such a tight grip that zoo keepers cannot determi ne its gender . Based on brief glimpses , they believe it 's a female . At the a pe house Thursday , Mandara cradled the nursing infant constantly , even keeping a one-handed grip as she bent over for a drink of water from the compound 's ou tdoor fountain . She 'll carry the baby for three or four months , when it will begin riding around on her back . The birth apparently was an easy one , and mot her and baby ( estimated weight : four to five pounds ) appear to be doing well . Zoo officials believe the birth happened quickly , shortly after 5 p.m. , base d on reports from zoo visitors . They 'd known Mandara was pregnant , and based on when she was bred , expected a birth between February and June . Gorilla gest ation is 8 to nine months . The gorilla babies are not the only things happening at the zoo . Babies have been born this spring to a white-cheeked gibbon , an a rmadillo , an elephant , a Komodo dragon , a snake-necked turtle , rodents and b irds , including a blue-crowned hanging parrot . More are expected : Pregnant an imals include a red kangaroo , a Dorcas gazelle and a naked mole rat . Baby make s seven for the gorilla group at the ape house , which already includes two adul t males , another female and two toddler male gorillas . The social group was cr eated eight years ago with the idea of using unrelated apes , some on loan from other zoos , to duplicate the tight family living pattern of gorillas in the wil d . The gorilla births are part of an international breeding program to protect species that are endangered in the wild . Three years ago , Mandara gave birth t o her first baby , a male the National Zoo 's first gorilla birth in 19 years . Two years ago , the other female , Haloka , had a male that she rejected , so Ma ndara took over mothering duties , including nursing . At the zoo , they call he r `` supermom . '' The father of all three gorillas is 13-year-old Gus ; zoo off icials say he 's acting protective of the newborn . TUNIS , Tunisia Yasser Arafat , the Palestine Liberation Organization chairman , fell ill after a meeting with a U.S. Senate delegation and spent much of Thurs day in bed , raising fears for the health of the aging chairman who is said to b e exhausted and ridden with stress . The new health alarms were raised about a w eek after Arafat checked into a Tunis military hospital for tests after a flare- up of a vertebrae condition that first erupted in 1979 and was aggravated by wee ks of long hours and little sleep , his aides said . Arafat 's top lieutenants s ought to downplay the 64-year-old chairman 's current llness , which they descri bed as `` a cold '' that set in Wednesday afternoon after Arafat spent a tiring day flying to Algeria , Mauritania and then meeting with a U.S. Senate delegatio n headed by Paul Simon , D-Ill . Arafat who normally works until the wee hours o f the morning , sleeps until 9 a.m. and then gets up for another day of work ins tead went to bed after meeting the Americans . He did not get up again until Thu rsday evening , when he returned to his desk . `` It 's not true that he is seri ously ill . He got a cold during our trip to Algeria and Mauritania , and he 's getting some rest today , '' said Yasser Abed-Rabbo , one of Arafat 's senior ad visers and an appointee to the new governing Palestinian Authority . `` I 'm sur e by tonight he will be back in his office . It has nothing to do with his heart . It 's more like a sore throat . '' Arafat 's wife , Suha Tawil , had sought t o quiet alarms about Arafat 's health when she spoke by telephone to CNN . Inste ad , she fanned the flames by saying he was `` in bed with angina . '' Later , h er brother said she had meant the French word `` angine , '' by which she intend ed to say a sore throat . ( Optional add end ) Though his current condition does not appear serious , Arafat seems clearly to be feeling the strain of weeks of stress and overwork . The debut of Palestinian self-rule in Jericho and the Gaza Strip has stepped up pressure on his administration in Tunis to begin providing services and paychecks to Palestinians at a time when international donor short falls have plunged the PLO into a cash crisis . At his meeting with the U.S. sen ators , Arafat looked `` tired , pale and nervous , '' according to one observer at the meeting . Arafat aides said the vertebra flare-up that hospitalized him happened after the four-day holy Muslim feast of the Eid al-Adha , when Arafat h ad an exhausting schedule of visiting the Palestinian orphanage , stopping at th e cemetery for the Palestinian dead in Tunis and , over the course of the weeken d , kissing more than 1,000 well-wishers . `` Saying that he was in the hospital for five days is rumor mongering . He made a usual medical checkup as any one o f us might do , '' said one of his top lieutenants . He said Arafat first suffer ed the vertebrae condition in 1979 , when he was attempting to mediate in the wa r between Iran and Iraq and had to wear a neck brace . During the feast , he sai d , `` He received more than 1,000 people who kissed him , each one of them put his hand around his neck , and the pain came back . Is he human or inhuman ? `` You have to consider how many hours he works , '' the aide added . `` How many p eople he meets every day , how much stress he lives under , and everybody has to remember he 's not a machine , he 's a human , of blood and flesh . But he 's i n very good condition . '' WASHINGTON After weeks of abuse and bad news from Washington , the tobacco indu stry has apparently won a rare victory it may keep Joe Camel . Anti-smoking grou ps said Thursday their complaint against the popular cartoon character , the pro tagonist of a seven-year advertising campaign for Camel cigarettes , had been re jected by the Federal Trade Commission . R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. had been accu sed of using the smiling , fun-loving animal to weaken children 's resistance to tobacco products . But the commission voted this week 3-2 not to pursue the com plaint , according to sources . The decision was particularly heartening for Rey nolds , which insisted the ads were aimed at adults . Last year the FTC staff re commended banning Joe Camel . Attorney generals from 27 states had petitioned to begin legal proceedings against the ads . Having grown accustomed to regular do ses of venom from government agencies , a spokeswoman for Reynolds was careful i n her words , saying the company had not yet been notified of the vote . If the report was true , said Peggy Carter , `` we 're obviously pleased that the FTC ' s extremely thorough review of all of the documents tens of thousands of pages a nd all of the facts relating to Joe Camel matter led to a decision not to move f orward with a complaint . '' Joe Marks , a spokesman for the American Heart Asso ciation , said anti-smoking activists learned of the decision from FTC sources . He called the news `` a big disappointment we thought this was an easy one , a blatant ad targeted at kids . '' Some sources had earlier indicated , however , that the FTC might not pursue the matter because of concern over the violation o f free speech rights and the lack of evidence that the cartoon although almost a s recognizable to many children as Mickey Mouse had convinced young people to st art smoking . Claudia Bourne Farrell , spokeswoman for the FTC , said she would not confirm or deny the report of commission action . There is often a delay bet ween an FTC decision not to pursue a complaint and a publicly reported formal vo te to drop an investigation . Carter said Reynolds and its advertising agency re vived the Joe Camel campaign , originally used in France in 1974 , as a light-he arted way to convince adult consumers that `` this was not the brand that their grandfathers had smoked . '' The smiling camel , described as `` the smooth char acter , '' appeared in magazine ads and billboards beginning in 1987 and stopped what had been a steady decline in the brand 's share of the market . Until last year 's price wars threw the cigarette industry into turmoil , Camel had 4 perc ent of the American market and was one of only two name brands not losing market share to new discounted brands . Carter said the company acknowledged Joe Camel had drawn the attention of children , but cited several studies showing no chan ge in youthful attitudes toward smoking or that particular brand . A survey by t he Centers for Disease Control showed 71 percent of underage white smokers chose Marlboro while only 8.3 percent buy Camels . Five percent of black youths smoke Camels . The company cited a survey by Lucy Henke of the University of New Hamp shire showing widespread recognition of Joe Camel among children , although 96 p ercent said they did not like cigarettes . Scott Ballin , chairman of the Coalit ion on Smoking or Health , said the decision revealed the FTC in `` total paraly sis '' on tobacco issues . He called for Congress to give authority over cigaret te advertising to the Food and Drug Administration . WASHINGTON The Clinton administration has joined with its European allies and R ussia for the first time to forge a detailed , bottom-line peace proposal for Bo snia based on a near even split of land between the contending forces . Washingt on had resisted endorsing specific outlines for a territorial solution between a Muslim-Croat federation and a breakaway Serb force . In recent months , however , U.S. officials had approved in principle a 51 percent-49 percent division of land , with the Muslims and Croats receiving the bare majority . Now Washington is formally supporting that plan , which is scheduled to be presented in Geneva at peace talks scheduled to resume Saturday . Concern that talks between the Bos nian-led Muslim government and the Serbs were going nowhere , and that the war w ould drag on , prompted Washington to propose the `` de-facto map '' for partiti on , with details left to the warring factions to work out , a State Department official said . The plan includes advice on resolving differences over disputed territory in several parts of Bosnia , including the contested Bihac region and isolated Muslim enclaves of east Bosnia . `` This is do-or-die for the Muslims , Croats and Serbs , '' a State Department official said . `` We basically offer a solution , but it is up to them to decide whether to accept . '' There is no i ndication that either the Muslim-led government or the Serbs will embrace the pr oposal . The Muslims say they want more than 51 percent and their military leade rs believe they can make up ground on the battlefield . The Serbs have shown no sign of giving up any territory . The Serbs now hold more than two-thirds of the country after a two-year war of conquest that has included systematic killing a nd expulsion of civilians from their homes . The U.S.-backed proposal is based o n a combination of solutions that were bandied about in previous talks , a U.S. official said . U.S. envoy Charles Redman , and mediators from Russia and the Eu ropean Union all in the so-called Bosnian `` contact group '' hammered out the n ew proposal . Redman is in Europe meeting with mediators from Russia , Britain , France and Germany in advance of Saturday 's meeting . The Clinton administrati on had strongly resisted endorsing a clear territorial solution , especially one that ratified any Serb gains . Washington long based its policy in Bosnia on op position to the Serb conquest of territory by force . Recently , confusion cloud ed the Clinton adminstration stand on the territorial issue . In talks brokered by Redman , the Muslims and Croats based an agreement to form a confederation on a 58 percent to 42 percent split of land , with the Serbs getting the smaller p art . At first , Redman hailed the agreement as a whole . That prompted the Stat e Department to qualify the endorsement to cover only the Muslim-Croat agreement to unite , and not the 58-42 percent division . The coming talks on land were s upposed to be preceded by talks beginning Thursday on a cease-fire . But United Nations special envoy Yasushi Akashi postponed the negotiations because the Serb s declined to withdraw 300 soldiers from the Bosnian Muslim town of Gorazde as p romised . In CLINTON-SCENE ( Montalbano , Times ) sub for 9th graf ( Changing spelling to Marc Antony sted Anthony ) xxx the Campidoglio : There , in a folksy speech par tially translated by Clinton administration budget director Leon Panetta , an It alian American , Clinton evoked Marc Antony 's `` Friends , Romans and countryme n , '' hailing Italians , in Italian , as `` Alleati , amici , una famiglia . '' ( Allies , friends , one family . ) PICK UP 10th graf : `` I shaked ( cq ) xxx : WASHINGTON Eight baggage handlers at National Airport have been arrested after FBI surveillance cameras caught them rifling passengers ' suitcases and stealing jewelry , computers and other valuables , authorities said Thursday . The worke rs , all employed by American Airlines , were rounded up Wednesday night and Thu rsday after a three-month FBI investigation . More than two dozen times , the FB I said , hidden cameras recorded them searching through belongings behind baggag e carousels , as unsuspecting passengers waited nearby . The arrests were the la test in a series of crackdowns by the FBI against thefts and other crimes at the nation 's airports . In recent years , the FBI has broken up other rings in New York , Miami , Houston , Chicago and Los Angeles . `` They 'd pick a bag , reac h in , see if it had jewelry or cameras , and then pull the items out , '' said Timothy P. McNally , an FBI supervisor . `` We 're not talking about complex pla nning or sophistication , but they moved with dispatch . These are not well-orga nized rings they 're just primed for profit . '' The eight employees were charge d with conspiracy to steal valuables and each could face up to five years in pri son . The crime is a federal offense because baggage transportation is considere d interstate commerce . Most of the thefts at National Airport occurred in the l ate evening or early-morning hours , authorities said . They said they had not y et determined how many bags had been pilfered or set a value on the stolen items . The FBI is attempting to trace the property , but so far none has been recove red . The investigation began early this year after American Airlines contacted the airport 's police for help in solving a rash of thefts . The police brought in the FBI , which installed video cameras in the baggage area . The cameras wer e used from February until May and recorded numerous thefts , the FBI said . A s pokesman for American Airlines said the company routinely notifies law-enforceme nt authorities when it uncovers evidence of thefts . `` We take these issues ver y seriously , '' Al Becker said . The baggage handlers `` were helping each othe r .. . by acting as lookouts , passing stolen items to each other , and arrangin g for one to unload baggage while another stole , '' according to an affidavit f iled by the FBI Thursday in U.S. . District Court in Alexandria , Va. . The docu ment describes 29 instances in which the employees were videotaped while going t hrough bags . According to airline-industry estimates , roughly three of every 1 00,000 checked bags nationwide are stolen or have property taken from them . Eac h day , more than 2 million bags are checked at airports across the country . `` It 's a problem that exists , but it 's not an overwhelming problem , '' said T im Neale , a spokesman for the Air Transport Association , which represents larg e air carriers . `` There are some crooks out there . '' Other security speciali sts said baggage thievery is more pervasive than the industry suggests . Louis R . Mizell Jr. , a security consultant from Bethesda , Md. , who tracks airport cr imes , estimated that 300,000 Americans have bags or belongings taken each year . Many never report the incidents to police , he said . `` Dishonest baggage han dlers have been responsible for billions of dollars in losses over the years , ' ' Mizell said . `` The best advice is never put anything in your checked luggage that you can't afford to lose . '' WASHINGTON Penny Marshall is whining . About the noisy vacuum cleaner across th e room . About the state of the country 's schools . And about women who complai n about the shabby treatment they 've gotten in Hollywood . `` They like to make it an issue because they like to get on soapboxes , '' the famous director is s aying in the corner of a hotel restaurant here . `` I mean , I don't think it 's fair that a person should be limited because of their sex , their age , their c olor ... . But there are women who think that just because they are women they d eserve something . Even I get scared of them and don't want to hire them . '' An d as one of a handful of successful female directors and one of the most powerfu l people in the industry , she can do whatever she pleases . Marshall , with hit s such as `` Big '' and `` A League of Their Own '' under her belt , is in town to flack her latest flick , `` Renaissance Man , '' a poignant comedy about an u nemployed ad exec ( Danny DeVito ) who 's tapped by the Army to teach English to a group of slow learners . Touchstone moved up its opening date to Friday , for cing Marshall to crash-edit the final print before her marathon promo tour . Whi ch along with the Marlboros she chain-smokes and the diet Coke she guzzles might explain why the 50-year-old director landed in the hospital briefly over the we ekend , suffering , doctors say , from anxiety and exhaustion . She 's apparentl y okay now , and showed up in fine form at the film 's premiere in L.A. . The ma cho subject of `` Renaissance Man '' didn't faze her , she insists . `` I did le arn about the Army , and I had no experience with it , '' she said . `` And , I must say , the Army was very cooperative when they said they 'd have a thousand troops there at midnight , I mean they were there . And they marched their littl e hearts out . '' In the mid- '70s , Marshall bubbled onto the scene to stay , a s the wacky , insecure Laverne in TV 's `` Laverne & Shirley , '' which was prod uced by her brother , Garry . She wet her feet directing near the end of the ser ies 's run and made the leap to the big screen in '86 when she was called in at the last minute to save `` Jumpin ' Jack Flash '' with Whoopi Goldberg . To hear Marshall tell it , her MO in Hollywood is simple . `` You have to drag me into doing things . I don't volunteer and I don't demand . But once I say yes , I 'm obsessive , '' she allows in raw Brooklynese . `` If I get into a disagreement a nd someone says , `` I don't think you should do this , ' then I say , `` Fine , I 'll go home . I 'm happy to get back into bed . ' And they say , `` Ohhhhh , Penny , don't be silly . ' And I say , `` Okay , then this is how I 'm doing it. ' ' ' It can't hurt that she grew up surrounded by a family in the business and she was married to actor-director Rob Reiner for eight years in the '70s . Mars hall 's daughter , Tracy , by her first husband , Michael Henry , is also an act ress . But her real secret weapon , she says , is a common touch . `` I 'm a reg ular person . If I 'm interested in something , I feel maybe somebody else is . '' So far , she 's been right . -O- The director of a Chicago museum was fired b y the museum 's founder last week after co-hosting a party for the author of a b ook on Pamela Harriman . Robert Donnelley told the Chicago Tribune that he was o usted from the Terra Museum of American Art by Daniel J. Terra when he went ahea d with a book-signing for Washington writer Christopher Odgen , author of `` Lif e of the Party : The Biography of Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman . '' T erra 's letter to Donnelley said his intent to sponsor the party `` demonstrated disrespect '' for Harriman , who has served on the advisory council of Terra 's museums both in Chicago and in Giverny , France . Harriman is U.S. ambassador t o France . Terra served as ambassador-at-large for cultural affairs during the R eagan years . He could not be reached for comment . -O- We 've Heard That .. . B ill and Hillary Clinton will finally host their first bona fide state dinner lat er this month in honor of Japanese Emperor Hirohito . The June 13 affair for 130 in the Rose Garden will be the first white-tie dinner in 18 years , since Queen Elizabeth was feted by Jerry Ford in 1976 . November 's fete for South Korean P resident Kim Young Sam , while a state-level event , was just a flourish shy of the real thing . -O- Sen. George Mitchell was spotted in Paris this week attendi ng the French Open with his fiancee , tennis honcho Heather MacLachlan . In his official capacity , he met with French Senate President Rene Monory , Prime Mini ster Edouard Balladur and Foreign Minister Alain Juppe . He headed home to Maine Thursday night . -O- John Bobbitt , the target of an ongoing paternity suit in New York , conceded Thursday that he is indeed the father of the baby boy involv ed . `` I want to provide Andrew with something I unfortunately never had a supp orting , caring , nurturing relationship with his natural father , '' he said in a statement . In CLINTON-SCENE ( Montalbano , Times ) sub for 12th graf ( Correcting spelling of Hillary and making pronunciations conform ) xxx hall . Like Hillary Rodham C linton , who swapped M & M 's for smiles with chanting , delighted Italian schoo l kids in the Piazza Navona ( `` EE-la-ree ! EE-la-ree ! '' the children cried ) , the president seemed to enjoy the experience at every stop on a cloudless Rom an day more summer than spring . `` It 's unbelievable , '' said Clinton , enjoy ing Michelangelo 's restored frescoes in the Sistine Chapel . PICK UP 13th graf : Even xxx : WASHINGTON White House officials , in an optimistic assessment of President Cli nton 's prospects for achieving his key health-reform goals this year , said Thu rsday that `` a great deal of progress has been made '' in Congress in the past 10 to 11 weeks . `` On balance we are on target , the committees are on target , '' said Deputy Chief of Staff Harold Ickes at a briefing with reporters . `` We expect virtually all committees '' to report out legislation `` by the end of t he month , '' despite some gloomy polls and predictions in the press . He said t he president 's key goals include passing legislation to assure universal health -insurance coverage and `` to get it done this year . '' Ickes , accompanied by Ira Magaziner , White House senior adviser for policy development and a principa l author of Clinton 's health plan , said that of five committees with jurisdict ion to work on developing major health plans , two the House and Senate labor co mmittees are on track to report bills this month achieving many of the president 's major goals . They said work was under way in the House Ways and Means Commi ttee and that Senate Finance Committee Chairman Daniel Patrick Moynihan , D-N.Y. , had made clear he will begin legislative action soon . A major sticking point for the president in Congress , particularly in the Finance Committee , is his proposal that employers be required to pay part of the premiums for health care for their employees . This `` employer mandate '' is fiercely opposed by small b usinesses and most Republicans . Ickes said that on the Finance Committee and el sewhere `` there are Republicans who are in favor of universal coverage and real reform , '' and he believes that in the end , `` It is my sense there will be s ome form of employer mandate . '' Meanwhile , Moynihan , in a speech in Buffalo on Wednesday that Ickes and Magaziner cited as one cause for optimism , told a s tate Democratic party meeting that was nominating him for re-election , `` In th is Congress , as Finance Committee chairman , my health-care mission is clear ge t the president his bill . '' Moynihan recalled that he had co-sponsored a Canad ian-style government health-insurance proposal with Sen. Bob Kerrey , D-Neb. , i n 1992 , but said such a bill `` has no chance of passing the United States Sena te , '' though he favors giving each state an option to create such a system wit hin its own borders . He noted that he is a principal sponsor of the president ' s bill . In a May 26 letter to a Brooklyn , N.Y. , health official Moynihan wrot e , `` I support indeed I insist that we must have universal coverage . I suppor t an employer mandate and will oppose the taxation of benefits . I absolutely su pport long-term care . '' In a telephone interview from Oregon Thursday , Sen. B ob Packwood , R-Ore. , said he might support a requirement that employers help p ay for health insurance for their workers that would not become effective immedi ately , but would be triggered automatically if universal health-insurance cover age were not achieved by some future date specified in the law . But Packwood , the senior Republican on the Finance Committee , said whether he would do so wou ld depend on the specific terms and whether `` the rest of the bill is acceptabl e . '' A triggering mechanism such as that described by Packwood , is being push ed by Sen. John Breaux , D-La. , a Finance Committee member , as a compromise be tween Clinton 's demand that employers help pay for premiums and Republican dema nds that any employer mandate be dropped . WASHINGTON The Food and Drug Administration Thursday opened its inquiry into th e safety of saline breast implants , provoking the same intensely emotional deba te that surrounded the agency 's decision two years ago to sharply curtail the a vailability of silicone breast implants . The FDA-sponsored hearing was called t o hear views about when manufacturers should be required to submit safety data t o the agency . But it quickly turned into a public opinion forum on the implants themselves . `` I 'm alive and happy with my body again , '' said breast cancer patient Susan Yuriditsky of Washington . `` I 'm happy saline implants were ava ilable to me at my time of need . '' But Mary Spieker , a Florida woman who has suffered life-threatening infections she is convinced were caused by the saline implants she received for cosmetic augmentation , implored : `` Women can live w ithout saline implants . '' The controversy over the silicone devices , which ul timately resulted in their virtual removal from the market , pitted women agains t women over the freedom of choice to use the implants and raised soul-searching questions about the values of a society so conscious of breasts . About 80 perc ent of those who undergo implant surgery do so for cosmetic reasons . The remain ing 20 percent seeks implants for reconstruction , usually after breast cancer s urgery . Saline implants , which are the only breast implants still widely avail able on the market , generally are considered safer than the silicone implants , although their long-term safety has not been established . It is unclear how ma ny women have saline implants , although one manufacturer said his company has s old devices for roughly 1,500 women a month . A second company estimated it had sold implants for about 125,000 women since 1986 . Saline implants , which are f illed with salt water , can leak or rupture , requiring further surgery to remov e or replace . Other known risks include infection , capsular contracture which is the hardening of scar tissue around the device interference with mammography , and altered breast sensation . Officials from the two companies that manufactu re saline implants , McGhan Medical Corp. and Mentor Corp. , both of Santa Barba ra , Calif. , said they have studies under way assessing safety of the devices , but did not expect them to be completed for several years . Based on preliminar y data , however , they said the devices could continue to be used safely , and urged that they remain available . McGhan said results from its first two years of research showed only 3 percent of the nearly 500 patients studied had experie nced capsular contracture ; 2 percent had suffered deflation of the device ; 0.2 percent had developed infections ; and less than 1 percent developed breast dis ease or immune system disorders . The early results indicate `` there would be n o immediate health concerns associated with continued marketing , '' the company said . ( Optional add end ) Implants have been on the market for more than thre e decades but escaped strict regulation until recent years because they were int roduced before passage of legislation in 1976 that gave the FDA authority to reg ulate medical devices . Like other devices grandfathered under that law , implan ts were allowed to remain in use with the understanding that the agency would la ter require manufacturers to submit evidence of product safety and effectiveness . Many women had blamed the silicone devices for connective tissue diseases and other immune system disorders , although the association has not yet been prove n scientifically . In April 1992 , the FDA banned almost all cosmetic uses of th e implants except for specific and closely monitored research purposes and restr icted their use to breast cancer patients and those with other valid medical nee ds . Today , all women who receive silicone gel implants , including for the pur poses of reconstruction , must agree to participate in an overall research progr am to evaluate their long-term effects . In January 1993 , the FDA announced it would require manufacturers of the saline devices to begin the process of provin g their safety . WASHINGTON Disagreeing with the findings of an earlier federal investigation , an advisory panel of private physicians appointed by the National Institutes of Health has labeled the deaths of five hepatitis patients using an experimental d rug `` an unavoidable accident . '' The controversy , which has shaken the world of biomedical research , involved people with chronic hepatitis who had been ta king a drug known as fialuridine , or FIAU , in a clinical research project spon sored by NIH . The deaths of one-third of the 15 patients who were on the drug i n 1992 and 1993 occurred weeks after their last dosages , authorities said . Las t month the U.S. . Food and Drug Administration , concluding a study of the trag edy , said scientists , physicians and drug maker Eli Lilly & Co. involved in th e FIAU research had failed to fully disclose the drug 's potential risks or take note of its ominous side effects . But the new study released Thursday by an NI H panel of outside experts found no fault with those who developed the drug or a dministered it to chronically ill patients who had volunteered for the research project . David R. Challoner and David M. Kipnis , who headed a panel of seven p hysicians to determine what went wrong , said in a report to NIH director Harold E. Varmus that the deaths resulted from `` delayed drug toxicity '' and could n ot have been foreseen . The panel did say that U.S. scientists must do a better job checking for drug toxicity by testing patients for six to nine months after they have taken certain experimental drugs . But it said that should not be done for all drug trials because of the expense . Challoner said his panel 's study has been forwarded to the FDA . Because that agency and NIH are both divisions o f the Department of Health and Human Services , the department 's assistant secr etary for health will be asked ultimately to develop a federal position on the c ontroversy . The drug in question no longer is being used , although research on it is continuing . One reason for the conflicting conclusions , Challoner said , was a difference in approaches by FDA investigators and NIH panelists . He sai d his panel focused on the quality of the clinical research project while the FD A found faults based on records kept by those who conducted the research . Kipni s said the recent FDA report , for example , criticized some physicians for fail ing to report abdominal pains experienced by some people taking the new drug . B ut he said interviews by panel members found the doctors felt `` abdominal disco mfort did not reach the degree of severity to be reported . '' Dr. Jay Hoofnagle , the NIH 's lead investigator of FIAU , was criticized by the FDA for alleged `` significant violations '' of federal regulations . But the panel 's report de fended him . `` Dr. Hoofnagle was enthusiastic about the possibility of developi ng an efficacious treatment for hepatitis B . However , his approach was careful , '' the panel said . ( Optional add end ) Last November , as a result of the f ailed drug trial , the FDA adopted new drug-testing regulations that were propos ed by an internal review task force . The new rules require researchers to gathe r and report more data on potentially adverse effects of trial drugs and to assu me that any medical problems in patients may be caused by the test drug . Hepati tis B , which scientists hoped could be cured by FIAU , is regarded as a signifi cant global problem . In the United States , about 300,000 new cases of infectio n are reported each year , while 4,000 to 5,000 Americans die from the chronic e ffects of the infection cirrhosis of the liver , liver failure and liver cancer . It is transmitted primarily through blood transfusions , sex and sharing conta minated hypodermic needles . Kipnis said FIAU probably caused genetic damage to the sub-units of liver cells , causing the next generation of liver cells to die . This would explain why FIAU 's side effects did not appear until long after p atients took the drug , he said . WASHINGTON The International Atomic Energy Agency declared Thursday that its ab ility to tell whether North Korea diverted reactor fuel to make nuclear weapons in 1989 has been `` seriously eroded '' and President Clinton said the United St ates would press the United Nations to enact sanctions . While the president is traveling in Europe , special U.S. negotiator Robert L. Gallucci is scheduled to meet with South Korean and Japanese envoys Friday and Saturday to hammer out a proposal on sanctions , officials said . But there were fresh indications the ef fort to punish the Pyongang regime may prove difficult . Both China and Russia r epeated Thursday that , despite North Korea 's actions , they are not yet prepar ed to support a resolution imposing economic sanctions . Thursday 's decision en ds 15 months of maneuvering between the U.N.-affiliated atomic energy agency and North Korea . North Korea initially invited the agency 's inspectors to its Yon gbyon reactor , then barred them entirely and finally allowed them access only t o part of the site . As a result , while the inspectors have confirmed that Nort h Korea is not now diverting spent fuel rods to make nuclear weapons , they have been unable to say whether it did so during an earlier reactor shutdown in 1989 . That issue is important because U.S. intelligence agencies suspect that North Korea may have used the spent fuel to build one or possibly two nuclear weapons . If North Korea does have a nuclear bomb , it could threaten Japan and the res t of Asia . At the same time , North Korea has warned repeatedly that it would r egard the imposition of sanctions as an act of war , raising fears in some quart ers that the North might initiate military action against South Korea . U.S. mil itary authorities said Thursday that they have not put U.S. forces in the region on alert , partly to avoid any actions that might be deemed provocative . But t he Pentagon is considering scaling back a fleet exercise to leave ships availabl e in case of hostilities , they said . The atmosphere at the United Nations was increasingly tense . The Security Council is expected to meet informally to disc uss the issue as early as Friday . But diplomats cautioned that the 15-nation bo dy likely will not get around to firm action until late next week after members reach agreement on a measure that can be passed by a clear majority . It was not immediately clear just how much the continuing reluctance of China and Russia t o go along with sanctions would hurt the U.S. effort in the United Nations . Rus sian President Boris N . Yeltsin told reporters in Moscow that imposing sanction s now would be premature . But he warned that `` if North Korea takes a stubborn stance , '' eventually `` we will be forced , step by step .. . to resort to in ternational sanctions . '' In Beijing , Chinese spokesman Shen Guofang took a si milar tack , warning that resorting to sanctions now `` might sharpen the confro ntation . '' But neither Russia nor China indicated whether they would veto a Se curity Council resolution imposing sanctions . A senior U.S. official traveling with Clinton in Rome said the president was trying to arrange a telephone conver sation with Yeltsin to discuss the issue . The official also conceded that Washi ngton is uncertain how quickly or how forcefully it could get the Security Counc il to act . That `` will depend on the nature of discussions that we 're engaged in , '' he said . `` We simply will have to see . '' ( Optional add end ) The j ob facing the international inspectors has been complex . The standard method by which the agency 's experts tell whether a country is diverting spent nuclear f uel for weapons is to test fuel rods in a reactor . Telling whether spent fuel h ad been diverted in previous years such as in 1989 , when analysts believe North Korea may have begun making a bomb is more difficult . To do so , the inspector s must measure how fuel rods in various parts of the reactor have been used up . The task was complicated substantially a few weeks ago when Pyongyang announced to the West 's surprise that it would begin shutting down its reactor immediate ly and start removing the spent fuel rods well ahead of schedule much faster tha n the atomic energy agency had expected . North Korea removed the rods at such a rapid pace that the inspectors were unable to determine if any of the spent fue l had been diverted during the 1989 shutdown leaving the West still uncertain wh ether Pyongyang has a bomb . TOKYO At last Japan can rest assured : Hachiko 's wan-wan was not a weak one . This is an important cultural discovery . But to understand why , you need to un derstand some Japanese dog lore . Between the world wars , in Tokyo 's Shibuya s ection , there lived a golden brown Akita dog named Hachiko . The famous tale of her loyalty and devotion to her master is so familiar here that she is universa lly known as `` chu-ken Hachiko , '' or `` faithful dog Hachiko . '' If a nation al election were held to pick America 's favorite dog , the votes would probably be split among such diverse candidates as Lassie , Snoopy , Old Yeller and Mill ie Bush . But in this more homogeneous nation , where everybody tends to agree w ith everybody else on these big cultural questions , there would be no such conf usion . Unquestionably , unequivocally , the choice for Japan 's favorite dog wo uld be Hachiko . Hachiko died in 1935 , but millions still visit her each year , in stuffed form , at the National Museum in Tokyo . There are countless books , movies and CDs , plus statues and plaques commemorating the faithful dog all ov er Japan . Because 1994 is the Year of the Dog in the Oriental calendar cycle , and because it is also the 60th anniversary of the most famous Hachiko memorial , Japan this spring has launched into a new burst of Hachiko hagiography . The b iggest scoop yet in the media 's Hachiko Wars occurred last weekend , when the C ulture Broadcasting Network obtained a hitherto unknown recording of Hachiko 's bark . It was an old LP record , broken into three pieces . But technicians at C ulture Broadcasting repaired the disc with laser surgery so that it could be bro adcast . After a breathless buildup , a dramatic introduction and many commercia ls , the faithful dog 's voice was played for a national audience Saturday . Hac hiko said , `` Wan-wan . '' `` Wan-wan '' is how the Japanese render the sound o f a dog 's bark , rather than `` bow-wow . '' For that matter , cats in Japan sa y `` nyaah-nyaah ' ' instead of `` meow , '' and frogs here say `` kero-kero . ' ' The Japanese word for what a rooster says is `` ko-kek-ko-ko , '' which is , i f you think about it , a lot closer to the real thing than `` cock-a-doodle-doo . '' Having a hefty `` wan-wan '' is considered a sign of health and good karma for a dog here . And to everyone 's relief , Hachiko had a healthy , hearty wan- wan . Even a wimpy wan-wan , however , might not have diminished the national af fection for Hachiko , because her true story crystalizes the characteristic trus tworthiness and loyalty that dog-lovers everywhere have come to expect from Man 's Best Friend . Hachiko , born in 1922 , was the pet of Prof. Eisaburo Ueno of Tokyo University , an institution roughly as prestigious here as Harvard , Yale and Stanford combined in the United States . Ueno lived in Shibuya , then consid ered a suburb but now a very trendy , up-market Tokyo neighborhood . Every morni ng , the professor would walk from his home to Shibuya Station to take the train to work and every morning Hachiko came with him . Each afternoon , when Ueno ca me back home on the afternoon train , Hachiko would be waiting on the platform t o meet him . All the other commuters and the merchants of Shibuya came to know a nd love the dog and await her daily vigil . One day in 1925 , Ueno died suddenly while at work . Faithful Hachiko waited and waited at the station that night , but her master did not come home . So Hachiko came back to wait for her master a gain the next afternoon . And the next , and the next . In fact , she kept comin g back to the station , through rain , snow and the occasional earthquake , ever y afternoon for the next 10 years . Word of this real-life wonder dog spread aro und Japan and the world . American dog-lovers were so moved that the Los Angeles Friends of Animals raised funds to commission a statue honoring `` Faithful Dog Hachiko . '' It was erected at Shibuya Station in 1934 and become the most famo us of many subsequent memorials to the dog . Hachiko died in 1935 and was buried next to her master in Tokyo 's Aoyama Cemetery . But she remained alive in dram a , books , movies , songs and a million bedtime stories . During World War II , Japan 's military dictators took an ambivalent stance toward Hachiko . They mad e her story mandatory reading in the schools , to preach the importance of unthi nking loyalty to one 's superiors . But they also melted down the famous statue to get metal for shipbuilding . After the war , the Japanese seemed determined t o forget all their memories of the first half of this century . But the tale of Faithful Dog Hachiko was not forgotten . Today everybody knows her . Hachiko is a powerful retail agent in Japan , and the department stores here sell Hachiko c ookies , cups , calendars , coasters , calculators , chopstick holders and other memorabilia . The Tokyu Department store in Shibuya offers among many other thi ngs , a Hachiko necktie ( with `` Wan Wan ! '' printed on it ) for $ 50 and a $ 58 wristwatch with Hachiko 's face and this message , in English , on the dial : `` The most heartful Japanese , A dog . He goes to station to meet with his mas ter . '' As for the statue that became a war casualty , it was replaced in 1948 and became nationally famous once again so much so that when Shibuya Station was rebuilt to accommodate increased population , the architect had to design aroun d Hachiko 's statue so that it would not be disturbed . Today , Shibuya is a sho pping and nightlife district , particularly popular among students . For teenage rs all over Japan , the expression `` Hachiko mae de ! '' `` Let 's meet at Hach iko '' heard all the time on the TV dramas , is the very essence of big-city gli tter and sophistication . Hachiko 's brand of loyalty to a leader is an importan t social virtue in Japan . But so is promptness . Accordingly , the Hachiko stat ue at Shibuya Station is also famous as the locus of many lover 's quarrels . A couple makes plans to meet at Hachiko , and then gets into an argument on the th eme of `` Why didn't you get here on time ? '' To avoid confrontation , the Japa nese have placed , at Hachiko 's statue , a machine that lets you punch in on ar rival and issues a card saying what time you arrived . That way you can prove to your lover that you did arrive at Shibuya Station right on time just as Faithfu l Dog Hachiko did for all those lonely years . ROME President Clinton Thursday pledged to pursue U.N. sanctions against North Korea after a formal finding that its refusal to allow inspection of its key nuc lear facility has made it impossible to determine if fuel was diverted to build a nuclear bomb . The finding was made by the International Atomic Energy Agency , whose Director General Hans Blix Thursday sent a letter to the U.N. secretary general describing as `` irreversible '' the damage done to the monitoring of No rth Korea 's nuclear program . The IAEA report signaled an escalation in the con flict over North Korea 's violations of international monitoring agreements duri ng the past two years . The letter from Blix to U.N. Secretary General Boutros B outros-Ghali automatically puts sanctions on the agenda of the Security Council and marks the demise of lengthy efforts by the United States to coax Pyongyang t hrough negotiations to open its nuclear program to inspections . `` The United S tates and the world community have worked with North Korea on this issue for fiv e years now , '' Clinton said , `` And I believe , therefore , the question of s anctions has to be at least taken up in the United Nations Security Council and discussed . '' North Korea Thursday threatened to withdraw completely from the n uclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and warned that any U.N. sanctions would violate the 1953 armistice agreement that ended the Korean War and would return the Kor ean peninsula to a state of war . North Korea also accused the United States of using U-2 planes to spy on its coastline in preparation of an invasion . Clinton said North Korea had entered international agreements providing for inspections of its nuclear facilities and now is unwilling to meet the obligations of its a greements . `` Well , we 're not any of us permitted to conduct ourselves that w ay , '' he said . North Korea , he said , has `` triggered these events , not th e United States or anyone else . We have to go forward . '' Clinton 's somewhat tentative reference to `` at least '' taking up the subject was attributed to th e difficulty the United States faces in obtaining agreement from the 15-member S ecurity Council considering China 's historical ties to North Korea as well as R ussia 's reluctance to move quickly on sanctions . Both China and Russia , as pe rmanent members of the council , possess veto power over council resolutions . C hina said Thursday that it still opposes sanctions . `` At this time we do not f avor resorting to means that might sharpen the confrontation , '' said Chinese F oreign Ministry spokesman Shen Guofang . In Moscow , President Boris Yeltsin sai d Thursday that Russia is `` deeply concerned '' about North Korea 's nuclear pr ogram but is not yet ready to support sanctions against its Communist neighbor . Meeting with South Korean President Kim Young Sam , Yeltsin reiterated his call for an international conference on the subject involving Russia , China , both Koreas , Japan , the United States and representatives of the United Nations and the IAEA . `` Since no decision has yet been made about an international confer ence , '' Yeltsin said , `` it is too early to speak about sanctions . '' Noneth eless , National Security Adviser Anthony Lake said , `` We do intend to pursue the issue of sanctions '' in the Security Council . A senior official said that U.N. . Ambassador Madeleine K. Albright has been discussing both a broad sanctio ns resolution and sanctions that individual nations might take to compel North K orean compliance . Asked what the administration will do if China threatens to v eto sanctions , Lake said , `` It is premature to say what form the sanctions wo uld take '' until consultations are completed . The White House was attempting W ednesday night to arrange a phone call between Yeltsin and Clinton on the Korean issue . Clinton said he was `` encouraged '' by Yeltsin 's statements and added that China `` has not yet said that they would veto a sanctions resolution . '' He said he would discuss the North Korean issue with the French and British lea ders , whom he will meet on his eight-day European trip , as part of the effort to obtain sanctions . The new flurry of diplomatic activity was triggered by the IAEA report and the unresolved dispute over whether material from nuclear fuel rods at North Korea 's Yongbyon nuclear reactor was diverted to make nuclear wea pons . The secretive , isolated regime in Pyongyang last refueled the reactor in 1989 without inspectors present , and Washington believes it removed nuclear ma terials at that time . In 1992 , IAEA detected clues that North Korea had failed to declare some plutonium it had produced , perhaps more than a kilogram . The inspections of the spent fuel from the reactor at two waste sites would have giv en the IAEA a definitive history and shown whether nuclear material had been div erted . The current crisis over its suspected nuclear weapons program erupted 15 months ago when the regime refused access to the sites . North Korea has recent ly speeded up the removal of fuel rods from its key atomic reactor at Yongbyon a nd refused to allow inspection of that removal process . The nuclear Non-Prolife ration Treaty limiting the spread of nuclear weapons , which North Korea has sig ned , requires such inspections . The IAEA wanted North Korea to set aside 300 f uel rods crucial to determining how much plutonium Pyongyang produced after repl acing some of the rods in 1989 . `` The agency has concluded that the limited op portunity which had remained for it to select , segregate and secure fuel rods f or later measurements in accordance with agency standards has been lost , '' Bli x wrote in the report issued Thursday . `` Accordingly , the agency 's ability t o ascertain , with sufficient confidence , whether nuclear material from the rea ctor has been diverted in the past has also been lost . '' The report was based on observations two IAEA inspectors made early Thursday at the five-megawatt nuc lear reactor at Yongbyon , where North Korean technicians in mid-May began a has ty discharge of spent fuel roads . Although North Korea said it has slowed the p ace of the fuel removal , the IAEA found that all the key parts of the reactor c ore needed for sampling and inspection had already been unloaded without its sup ervision . North Korea Thursday accused the IAEA of playing `` sinister '' polit ics and sending inspectors late . Its atomic energy department asserted that the information the IAEA needed had been preserved . Blix said the IAEA never recei ved an answer from North Korea to three proposals it offered Monday for ways it could still carry out the needed inspections . Blix will travel to New York on F riday to brief the Security Council in what will be the first official discussio n of the issue . U.S. officials will hold a planning meeting with Japanese and S outh Korean officials in Washington on Saturday . `` What you are going to see n ow is a tremendous amount of discussions within the Security Council and among o ther countries about sanctions . A great deal of diplomatic work will have to go forward before we will be all able to agree that diplomatic efforts have been e xhausted , '' a senior U.S. official said . The senior official said that now th at the issue of noncompliance by North Korea has been joined with the IAEA lette r to the United Nations , `` we will now proceed with real persistence , trying to build a consensus , work through both determined and careful diplomacy and se e where we come out . '' North Korea disclosed Thursday that it has already warn ed the United Nations that any move to impose sanctions would `` bring devastati ng consequences menacing peace in Asia and the rest of the world , not to speak of the Korean peninsula . '' Clinton and his aides brushed off statements by the North Koreans that sanctions would amount to an act of war . `` This is not the first time that the North Koreans have made such statements , '' a senior offic ial said . `` Neither we nor the international community , we believe , will be deterred or intimidated by such statements . '' In CLINTON-TIMES ( Broder , Times ) sub for 12th graf ( Recasting to delete int roductory clause ) xxx self-discipline . Clinton told the earnest theologians , `` In all secular societies , it is recognized that very few people have the cap acity to make a commitment of that depth and constancy . And yet , all of us kno w that , ultimately , the meaning of our lives depend upon the constant effort t o achieve a level of integrity between what we feel and what we think and what w e do . '' PICK UP 13th graf : After Clinton 's xxx WASHINGTON A federal commission painted a grim picture of a fast-changing Ameri can workplace Thursday , citing stagnant pay levels , a growing gap between high -wage and low-wage workers and a sharp increase in `` working poor '' who have f ull-time jobs but earn so little they fall below the government 's poverty line . In addition , the commission said , the traditional pattern of lifetime jobs w ith a single employer is growing less common as firms increasingly hire more par t-time and temporary workers to reduce labor costs . The report also noted that a higher proportion of Americans two out of three now hold jobs or are seeking t hem , largely because almost three out of five women are now in the work force c ompared to one out of three women in 1950 . Americans also put in longer hours p er year than any other industrialized nation except Japan , the report said , la rgely due to laws mandating four or five weeks of vacation in European countries . While the yearlong study found a decline in collective bargaining contracts a nd a sharply lower level of strikes , it also reported a surge in government reg ulation and litigation involving health and safety , job discrimination and othe r workplace issues . Employment cases in the federal courts increased by 400 per cent between 1971 and 1991 , the report said . The commission , headed by former Secretary of Labor John T. Dunlop , envisioned a growing role for employees in making decisions affecting their jobs and said available evidence suggests it co uld improve their firms ' economic performance . Even so , the report added , su rvey research indicates that about 50 million workers would like to take part in making workplace decisions but have no opportunity to do so . At most , only 5 percent of all workplaces have effective participation systems , it estimated . The 163-page fact-finding report of the Commission on the Future of Worker-Manag ement Relations was presented to Secretary of Labor Robert B . Reich and David B arran , undersecretary of commerce , who was standing in for Secretary of Commer ce Ron H. Brown . Dunlop said the commission hoped to start a national debate on the issues outlined in the initial report and then issue recommendations for ch ange to the Clinton administration within the next six months . `` The American workplace has undergone extraordinary transformations over the last six decades and will be evolving still more dramatically in the future , but our legal frame work and many of our notions about worker-management relations were made for a 1 930s ' world not the 21st century , '' Reich said . Reich also deplored the grow ing gap between more highly skilled workers and those at the bottom of the pay l adder . A long-term decline in the rate of growth of American productivity , or employee output per hour , limits the increases in wages and benefits that can b e paid by firms without sacrificing their ability to compete in an increasingly global economy , the commission said . ( Optional add end ) In addition , the de clining power of labor unions and the fall in the buying power of the federal mi nimum wage has also played a role in widening the gap between more highly paid a nd lower paid workers . Referring to the `` working poor '' who remain in povert y despite putting in 40 hours on the job every week , the commission said their numbers have increased greatly in the last 15 years . `` About 18 percent of the nation 's year-round full-time workers earned less than $ 13,091 in 1992 a 50 p ercent increase over the 12 percent who had low earnings in 1979 , '' the report said . `` These workers consist disproportionately of women , young workers , B lacks , Hispanics and the less educated . '' The number of bargaining rights ele ctions and the number of labor union victories has diminished sharply over sever al decades , the report also noted , with an increasing probability that workers will be fired for pro-union activity . WASHINGTON The Immigration and Naturalization Service is testing an automated s ystem in the San Diego area that would free Border Patrol agents from paperwork burdens so they can concentrate on tightening U.S. borders , Attorney General Ja net Reno announced Thursday . `` Border Patrol agents have , up until now , been spending 40 percent of their valuable enforcement time doing paperwork , '' sai d Reno , who complained after a border visit last August of finding agents drivi ng buses and performing other tasks that could be handled by technology . At her weekly news conference , Reno also announced that a fingerprint system currentl y under development for the INS will identify criminal illegal residents at the border within minutes . The automated paperwork system , called ENFORCE , was tu rned on Wednesday at three border patrol sites near San Diego and `` will provid e the equivalent of redeploying 48 agents to the line , '' Reno said . The syste m handles by computer 43 of 51 forms that agents completed with typewriters or b y longhand , freeing Border Patrol agents from 60 percent of the paperwork invol ved in processing illegal immigrants . In the future , it will be used to track cases by linking immigration enforcement and deportation systems that currently lack the means of exchanging data , officials said . In unveiling the technology , Reno and INS Commissioner Doris Meissner noted the current budget includes on ly enough money to run the pilot effort for six months . Final enactment of Hous e and Senate crime bills now in conference to resolve differences would provide $ 200 million for INS technological developments , including the ENFORCE system and the fingerprint identification . That would be the largest part of the two t o three years of funding needed to fully implement the system , according to Mei ssner . `` If we are going to deploy these technologies all along our border and develop others , Congress needs to pass the crime bill and appropriate funds , '' Reno said . The fingerprint system , which was described as in `` the late st ages of development , '' will enable Border Patrol agents to identify an illegal immigrant from an electronic fingerprint within three to five minutes and to re trieve the individual 's criminal records , photographs and other information . Meissner said the technology would help close a gap in the IRS fingerprinting sy stem that allows private companies to take prints from illegal residents for use on their INS applications without requiring them to prove their identities . ( Optional add end ) The INS has failed to regulate the private companies and has no means of preventing immigrants intent on hiding their arrest records from enl isting someone with a clean history to submit their prints instead , according t o a report by the Justice Department 's Inspector General . In a related develop ment , the Justice Department announced that 53 Mexican nationals now in U.S. pr isons for committing crimes here will be sent back to Mexican prisons Friday . I t will be the third transfer under an accelerated program that resulted from Ren o 's meeting in Mexico last October with Jorge Carpizio , Mexico 's then attorne y general . Reno praised the Mexican government for its role in the transfer , s aying , `` it is a common sense answer to help ensure that U.S. prison space is used for U.S. citizens . '' Some 186 criminal illegal immigrants were returned t o Mexico in the stepped-up transfers , which began last December . NEW YORK His mortar board tipped , and he fumbled with his hood , but alumnus-c omedian Jerry Seinfeld Thursday did not miss a punch line after receiving an hon orary doctorate from Queens College . Before an audience of 3,500 cheering Queen s College graduates , his mother , Betty Seinfeld , and sister , Carolyn Lieblin g , Seinfeld delivered a two-minute stand-up . `` When my parents were pushing m e to become a doctor , I could have at least said to them , ` All right , all ri ght . Just let me tell jokes to strangers in nightclubs for 18 years , and I 'm sure after that they 'll make me a doctor , ' ' ' Seinfeld said . As the audienc e cracked up , Seinfeld added : `` I tell you with the job market you 're facing , you 're a terrific audience . '' Above the traditional pomp and circumstance , and the toll of the Queens campus bells , rose the chant : `` JER-RY , JER-RY . '' Robed in cap and gown , Seinfeld , 40 , who graduated in 1976 , joined Quee ns College President Shirley Strum Kenny , who gave her farewell commencement sp eech before leaving to head the State University of New York at Stony Brook in S eptember . Occasionally smiling for photographers and waving to fans , Seinfeld barely said a word . Still , people laughed . `` What 's interesting is how funn y everybody gets around him , '' Kenny said . As Seinfeld walked onto the grassy lawn , graduates and guests cheered wildly as they perched atop folding chairs , straining for a glimpse . One feisty fan waved a poster that read : `` Hey Jer ry , Even Kramer knows librarians are the best . '' Kenny gave him a copy of `` Seinlanguage '' in Hebrew . On a more serious note , Seinfeld said : `` I 'm ver y proud to be an alumnus of Queens College , and it 's truly a wonderful feeling to know that you are all very proud of me . Good luck , Class of '94 ! '' As se curity guards whisked Seinfeld into a waiting car , a lone voice bid the comedia n a New York farewell : `` Hey Jerry , I got the money I owe ya . '' ROME The mayor of Rome thought he had chosen just the right gifts to present Pr esident Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton when they visited the stately Palazzo Senatorio , or town hall , Thursday . For the president , Mayor Francesco Rutel li had a small bronze statue of the wolf that , according to legend , had nursed the infants Romulus and Remus , founders of Rome . For the first lady , he had a watercolor by the Italian artist Manzu . But the Italian-language Il Messagger o reported Thursday that the mayor had second thoughts over the painting 's titl e , `` The Lovers . '' Could that cause offense , given the allegations of infid elity that have been leveled at her husband ? Just to be safe , when she arrived in the City Council chambers , Hillary Clinton was given a large picture book o f Rome . ROME The international tension over North Korea 's nuclear program reached the point of confrontation Thursday as the United States announced it would urge the United Nations to impose economic sanctions against Pyongyang . The long-debate d move toward sanctions began when the International Atomic Energy Agency formal ly notified U.N. Secretary-General Boutros-Boutros Ghali that it could no longer certify that North Korea wasn't diverting nuclear fuel to weapons production . So President Clinton , in the midst of a largely ceremonial European trip to com memorate the 50th anniversary of D-Day , was plunged instead into a deadly serio us conflict over the Korean peninsula where the United States helped wage war in the 1950s . `` I believe that in the end , when we move to the Security Council discussions , we will come out with a policy that will show resolve , '' Clinto n told reporters after a day that also included meetings with Pope John Paul II and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi . `` I just don't think we can walk away from this . '' South Korea 's ambassador for nuclear affairs , Kim Sam-Hoo n , said the United Nations could no longer avoid imposing sanctions against Nor th Korea . `` Warnings have been delivered to the full . It has now become inevi table to seek punitive measures against the North , '' Kim said . But Clinton fa ces a daunting diplomatic mission . He must persuade China and Russia , both wit h veto power in the Security Council , to put aside their reluctance to impose s anctions . He also must be prepared for the unpredictable course a confrontation with the Communist regime in Pyongyang could run . North Korean Foreign Ministe r Kim Yong Nam already has sent a letter to Boutros-Ghali warning that sanctions would `` bring devastating consequences menacing peace in Asia and the rest of the world , not to speak of the Korean peninsula , '' the North Korean news agen cy reported . And the North Korean envoy to the international atomic agency , Yu n Ho Jin , warned that Pyongyang was close to withdrawing from the nuclear Non-P roliferation Treaty . The treaty pledges members not to develop nuclear arms and to keep facilities open to international inspection . A North Korean withdrawal would end any hope of monitoring whether it is building nuclear bombs . Any san ctions would further isolate what is already one of the world 's most isolated n ations . `` They have more than 750,000 troops along the DMZ ; they could go to war , '' said Rep. Gary Ackerman , D-N.Y. , the last U.S. official to have met w ith North Korean President Kim Il Sung last October . `` They have said they wou ld consider economic sanctions an act of war , and they are still capable of inf licting horrible damage . They can certainly punch their way through the border , and they could destroy Seoul before we could react . '' The CIA has said there is a better than 50-50 chance that North Korea has already used the plutonium i t extracted from its experimental nuclear reactor in 1989 to build one or two bo mbs . Meanwhile , South Korean officials announced that a major joint U.S.-South Korea military exercise would be held in August to test the combined military o perations of the two allies against possible North Korean provocations . The esc alating tensions came after months of diplomatic maneuvering over North Korea 's refusal to allow atomic agency inspectors to verify the amount of plutonium bei ng produced in its experimental reactor at Yongbyon . Agency Director Hans Blix formally informed Boutros-Ghali Thursday that all possibility of establishing th e history of the reactor 's fuel had been lost , White House officials said . ( Begin optional trim ) In his letter , Blix said the United Nations ' nuclear wat chdog agency `` has drawn the conclusion that the discharge of spent fuel from a five-megawatt experimental nuclear power reactor has now made it impossible to select fuel rods for later measurements which would show whether whether there h as been any diversion of fuel in past years . '' That prompted the United States to begin full-scale international consultations to build support for sanctions . The White House tried to schedule a telephone call between Clinton and Russian President Boris N . Yeltsin. U.N. . Ambassador Madeleine Albright and other sen ior U.S. officials were conferring with the other four permanent members of the Security Council Britain , France , Russia and China as well as with South Korea and Japan , the nations that probably would be most affected by sanctions . `` I recognize it is a more difficult question for China and for Russia than for th e United States and for Britain and for France , '' Clinton said . `` It also ma tters a lot to Japan and to South Korea . I think we all have a common desire to see North Korea return to the former path '' of compliance with atomic agency s afeguards . ( End optional trim ) The North Korean situation left frazzled the W hite House officials who were trying to track the developments in the midst of a busy schedule in a foreign country . At one point , a senior administration off icial briefing reporters was handed a scrawled note and announced that the atomi c agency letter had been delivered to the United Nations . Fifteen minutes later he reappeared and announced that the information `` was not accurate . '' A hal f-hour later , another senior official appeared to declare that the letter , in fact , had been delivered . WASHINGTON The Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday it is scrapping de velopment of a system to guide airplane landings after an investment of 27 years and $ 400 million , because the program has been overtaken by an alternative te chnology . The move came as the agency was preparing major changes in a troubled multibillion-dollar contract to modernize the computers in the country 's air t raffic control system . Officials said the agency plans to announce Friday that it will scale back efforts to develop new equipment and focus on buying `` off-t he-shelf '' technology that it hopes will lower costs . Both steps reflect major rethinking of how aircraft should be guided through the skies in the 21st centu ry . Finding ways to allow more planes to fly safely in already crowded airways is a key to the growth of air travel . The Microwave Landing System ( MLS ) had been intended to replace the instrument landing system ( ILS ) now in use to gui de planes to runways under conditions of limited visibility . But the FAA reache d a conclusion long espoused by some aviation industry groups that satellite-bas ed technology has greater potential . `` Continuing the MLS development program is not an economically sound strategy , '' FAA Administrator David R. Hinson sai d in a press release . The FAA 's decision could cause some confusion internatio nally , because the United States and many other nations had agreed to switch to MLS by 1998 . FAA officials said Thursday that MLS was no longer on schedule fo r global implementation in 1998 , and they added that technology may overcome an y international inconsistencies by allowing planes to navigate by any of the thr ee technologies-ILS , MLS or satellites . The FAA Thursday canceled contracts on the MLS project with Raytheon Corp. and Wilcox Corp. , saying the move would sa ve taxpayers $ 59 million through 1997 . The MLS system would have required exte nsive ground-based equipment as well as new electronics aboard airplanes . The F AA 's new plan is to use the Defense Department 's network of so-called Global P ositioning Satellites ( GPS ) . The satellite system requires only minimal groun d equipment , and airlines generally favor it because it would be much less expe nsive for them than MLS , according to Roger Fleming , senior vice president of the Air Transport Association , which represents airlines . The satellite system is the same one the military used to guide the movement of tanks and troops dur ing the Persian Gulf War . But it also is used widely for civilian purposes , su ch as pleasure boating and private aviation . One thing that changed since the g overnment embarked on the MLS program is that , with the waning of the Cold War , the Pentagon became willing to allow civilian use of the militarily sensitive satellite capability , said Clark Onstad , a Washington lawyer who specializes i n aviation matters . The computer project is far larger , seeking to replace agi ng machines in hundreds of facilities scattered across the country . Forecast to cost $ 4.3 billion when the job was let to International Business Machines Corp . in 1988 , the estimate has grown year after year . The FAA 's current predicti on is about $ 7 billion , a number that has shocked Congress and led to demands for swift action . Much of $ 2 billion spent to date on the job has focused on d eveloping new software for computers in 22 regional control centers that guide p lanes between airports . Plans to be announced call for that work to be slowed d own somewhat while a 90-day audit of the work is conducted , a Transportation De partment official said . Officials said the new safeguards would be put in place to monitor progress and create a greater sense of keeping to schedule and budge t . Aerospace firm Loral Corp. earlier his year bought the IBM division handling the work . FAA officials cast it as a major change . `` The new concept will be more affordable and it should be more technologically feasible to achieve , '' said deputy administrator Linda Daschle . JERUSALEM Israeli warplanes and helicopter gunships attacked a Hezbollah traini ng base in eastern Lebanon 's Bekaa Valley early Thursday , killing dozens of pe ople in the deadliest Israeli assault on the Muslim guerrilla organization in ne arly a year . Later , three volleys of about 25 Katyusha rockets were fired from Lebanon into western Galilee just inside Israel 's northern border . Most fell in empty farmland , and there were no reports of casualties , although glass was broken in some buildings . Residents were ordered into bomb shelters , and Isra el 's army was put on alert . Israel described the raid as part of its continuin g campaign against terrorists who threaten its security from bases inside Lebano n . But the surprise attack which comes less than two weeks after Israeli comman dos abducted a Muslim guerrilla leader inside southern Lebanon could have broad repercussions for Middle East peace , further complicating efforts by the United States to broker a settlement between Israel and Syria . The raid was immediate ly denounced by Lebanon and Syria . Syrian Information Minister Mohammed Salman said in a statement that `` the timing of this aggression underscores Israel 's endeavors to undermine the peace process and hinder U.S. efforts to steer peace negotiations out of the logjam . '' The Israeli attack was aimed at a camp in Ei n Dardara near the border with Syria . The Lebanese army said most of those kill ed were 12- to 18-year-olds who died in their beds , according to news service r eports . Israeli officials said the timing of the raid was determined by intelli gence showing the camp had only recently been populated . `` They are not always there , '' said Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin , who is also defense mini ster . There were conflicting accounts of the number of casualties . The Lebanes e army said nearly 30 guerrilla trainees were killed and dozens wounded . Hezbol lah said 31 were killed . Israel television said the death toll may be as high a s 45 , but Israel 's military chief of staff estimated 30 dead . Security source s quoted by the Reuter news agency said that four helicopter gunships struck bef ore dawn , firing machine guns into the tents of the training camp , 44 miles ea st of Beirut . Six Israeli warplanes then fired rockets into the camp . Lebanese and Syrian troops in the region responded with antiaircraft fire , but Israel s aid all its forces returned safely . Rabin said the raid was part of Israel 's ` ` continuing war '' against Hezbollah , an Iranian-backed political party of Isl amic extremists with an active military wing . `` In every place where there is a possibility to strike at terror organizations , at Hezbollah , without it caus ing injury to civilians , we have done it , we are doing it , and we will contin ue to do so , '' he said . Hezbollah vowed `` swift and merciless '' revenge for the attack . It has also vowed to retaliate for the kidnapping of the guerrilla leader , Mustafa Dirani , whom Israel wanted to interrogate about a missing Isr aeli military aviator . Lebanese President Elias Hrawi summoned Lebanon 's Supre me Defense Council and said , according to Beirut Radio , `` This is a massacre , an inhuman massacre that stands as a disaster for what is left of the peace pr ocess . '' The bombing occurred at a point when peace talks appear to be bogged down between Israel and Syria , the regional power broker with about 40,000 troo ps in northern , eastern and central Lebanon . Earlier this week , Rabin said re cent messages carried by the United States between Damascus and Jerusalem had pr oduced no results . Peace talks in Washington between Israel and Syria have been suspended for several months , and the latest violence may further stall the ne gotiations . In Washington , U.S. officials said the violence appeared to be par t of a pattern of Israeli-Hezbollah tensions that go up and down according to th e circumstances of the moment . `` We 've seen it before , and we frankly expect it to break out from time to time , '' one official said . Last July , Israel l aunched a week-long offensive against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon , forcing ha lf a million residents to flee their homes and killing 149 people . Thursday 's attack was the most severe carried out by Israel since then . After last year 's operation , Israel and Hezbollah agreed on an unwritten cease-fire arrangement under which neither side would attack civilian targets . Rabin claimed Thursday 's air blitz remained with those rules , because the training camp was a base fo r guerrilla fighters . But he charged that the retaliatory rocket attacks went b eyond the cease-fire understandings . LOS ANGELES Children who eat more than 12 hot dogs per month have nine times th e normal risk of developing childhood leukemia , a University of Southern Califo rnia epidemiologist reports in a cancer research journal . Two other reports in the same issue of Cancer Causes and Control also suggest that children born to m others who eat at least one hot dog per week during pregnancy have double the no rmal risk of developing brain tumors , as do children whose fathers ate hot dogs before conception . The findings , which already are generating a great deal of controversy and concern , could help explain why the incidence of childhood leu kemia and brain tumors has been increasing over the last two decades , say the r esearchers , led by USC epidemiologist John Peters . The scientists caution , ho wever , that the studies are preliminary and based on relatively small numbers o f cases a total of 621 cancer victims in the three studies and an equal number o f controls . They also note that the statistical association is not necessarily a cause/effect relationship . Critics , as well as the researchers themselves , point out that such studies are difficult to conduct and interpret because peopl e have a hard time recalling what they have eaten in the past . Nonetheless , th e scientists argue that the results are significant and the issue deserves much more intensive scrutiny . In response to the findings , researchers at The Unive rsity of Minnesota have already modified their National Cancer Institute-sponsor ed study on childhood leukemia to explore the possible connection to hot dogs . The researchers suggest that the trigger for the cancers might be the use of nit rites to preserve processed meats such as hot dogs . Nitrites are converted in t he body to highly carcinogenic nitrosamines . Still , none of the investigators argues that people should stop eating hot dogs based on the findings . Because o f the low incidence of these childhood tumors , `` This is not a hazard at the l evel of tobacco smoke or high-fat diets , '' said epidemiologist David Savitz of the University of North Carolina , author of one of the studies on pregnant wom en . `` The rational response would be a small modification of your consumption . '' `` It 's an intriguing idea because hot dogs certainly contain chemicals th at one might wonder about , '' said Dr. Clark Heath , vice president for medical research of the American Cancer Society . `` I don't think they prove the case , '' he said , but the results are feasible because animal studies have establis hed that nitrites cause cancer . `` Obviously , it is an idea that will need to be explored further . '' Researchers from the hot dog and cured meat industries were not available for comment Thursday . A spokeswoman for the National Cancer Institute also could not provide anyone familiar with the findings . ( Optional add end ) Other researchers scoffed at the findings as an example of the `` carc inogen of the week '' syndrome . `` The problem is that there are an enormous nu mber of variables in a study like this , '' said nutrition expert Michael Pariza of the University of Wisconsin . `` You don't know whether they were undernouri shed , for example , or if they had adequate exercise. .. . It would be extremel y premature to draw any conclusion from this type of study . '' Other researcher s also attacked the studies because they were published in a journal that is not peer-reviewed , meaning that experts did not have a chance to critique the resu lts before they appeared in print . Leukemia and brain tumors have been a concer n to pediatric oncologists because they have been increasing more than twice as fast as childhood cancer overall . In the 17 years such data has been collected , Heath said , cancer among children up to ages 14 has increased by an average o f 0.8 percent per year , while acute lymphoblastic leukemia has increased by 1.7 percent per year a 27.4 percent total over that period . Brain tumors have incr eased by 1.8 percent per year over the same period , a 32.8 percent total . The cause of these increases has been a mystery . Even so , the cancers are still co nsidered very rare . Acute lymphoblastic leukemia , for instance , strikes only about three in every 10,000 children , so even a nine-fold increase still amount s to a relatively small risk . WASHINGTON The Clinton administration declared Thursday it would seek U.N. econ omic sanctions against North Korea after the world 's nuclear watchdog agency co ncluded that the Communist regime had blocked efforts to learn the scope of its nuclear weapons program . The U.S. step elevated the long-simmering Korean crisi s to a new level of tension . North Korea has already declared that it would con sider any imposition of sanctions an act of war . The north-south border , manne d by tens of thousands of American troops , has long been on hair-trigger milita ry alert . President Clinton was forced to act to make good on his administratio n 's previous threats . For days , U.S. officials have been saying if North Kore a made it impossible for inspectors to probe the history of its nuclear program , the United States would seek sanctions through the U.N. . Security Council . T hursday , the International Atomic Energy Agency concluded North Korea had done just that . In a statement issued from its headquarters in Vienna , Austria , th e agency said North Korea 's rapid discharge of fuel from its reactor `` has now made it impossible to select fuel rods for later measurements , which would sho w whether there has been any diversion of fuel from the reactor in the past year s . '' State Department spokesman Mike McCurry , traveling with Clinton in Rome , said the United States would ask the Security Council to impose economic sanct ions . A U.S. official predicted Thursday night it would be `` some days '' befo re a sanctions resolution emerges from the Security Council . The prospect is un certain in any case . China , which has veto power , still opposes confronting N orth Korea with sanctions now . Its position remains unchanged despite Clinton ' s decision last week to renew its most-favored-nation trading status . Russia , another Security Council member with veto power , proposed Thursday an internati onal conference on North Korea instead of moving quickly to impose sanctions . C linton said North Korea had only itself to blame if sanctions are imposed . `` T hey have triggered this , not the United States or anyone else , '' he said . U. S. officials plan to meet in Washington Friday with their closest Asian allies , Japan and North Korea . An informal Security Council meeting is set for Friday afternoon , when IAEA Director General Hans Blix is expected to brief its member s . Administration officials have said in the past that sanctions , if agreed on , would be imposed gradually and would not begin with a full-scale blockade . ( Optional add end ) The crisis focuses solely on North Korea 's nuclear-weapons development in the late 1980s . The IAEA wanted to examine selected fuel rods be ing extracted from North Korea 's so-called experimental reactor . By examining these rods , they could ascertain whether the regime had diverted nuclear fuel a fter the reactor had been shut down once before in 1989 . There is no evidence t hat North Korea is trying to add to its nuclear stockpile . In fact , U.N. inspe ctors have told the IAEA that the spent fuel from the reactor is being placed in cooling ponds , where it can be monitored to make sure any diversion doesn't oc cur . U.S. intelligence analysts have long believed that North Korea diverted en ough fuel when the reactor was last shut down to make one or more nuclear bombs . What is now at issue is the ability of world nuclear inspectors to determine w hat weaponry North Korea possesses . This has broad implications for their being able to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons around the globe . The danger , v oiced in the past by Japan and South Korea , is that sanctions would further iso late North Korea and prompt it to sever all contact with international inspector s . This , in turn , would make it impossible for inspectors to monitor what Nor th Korea does with the spent fuel now being discharged from its reactor , once t he fuel cools and could be reprocessed into weapons-grade fuel . In an effort to give corporate sponsors a little more bang for their public bro adcasting bucks , the Public Broadcasting Service is considering proposals to in crease the time allotted in programs for acknowledging underwriters . Current ru les allow only 30 seconds for underwriter credits at the end of a broadcast , wi th a maximum of 15 seconds to a single underwriter which often results in some u nderwriters being undercredited , as it were . One proposal would allow as many 15-second credits as necessary for sponsors who contribute 20 percent or more to the funding of a broadcast . Corporate spokesmen , now banned , may also be con sidered and even ads the underwriters use on commercial TV , if appropriate . Va rious task forces are considering the proposals , but no firm decisions are expe cted until the fall planning meeting , according to Jon Abbott , senior vice pre sident , development and corporate relations at PBS . `` We have a large project underway to look at all the ideas to shore up funding from corporations and fou ndations , '' he said . At a time when corporate funding continues to shrink , A bbott said , too many potential contributors `` find it cumbersome to work with public TV and we have to make it easier for them to be recognized for their fund ing '' . There willn't be a massive relaxation of rules , however , he said . `` Our noncommercial environment and our relationship with our viewers is of param ount importance . '' Still , in the past , significant funders have been allocat ed as little as four seconds in a broadcast . As PBS began a weekend meeting in Orlando , Fla. , Abbott said stations would also be urged to carry major program s at the same time the failure to do so has been a long-standing problem through out the system as another means of giving major contributors the fullest exposur e and maximum promotion time for their efforts on behalf of public television . K mart , the nation 's second-largest discount chain , hasn't been having a goo d time of it lately . Its stock has been sinking and it has posted big losses . Friday , at its annual meeting , management will see just how irritated sharehol ders are . The company is trying to get shareholder approval for a series of com plicated stock issues . But big K mart stockholders have mounted a campaign to d efeat the measure . Moreover , they want to unseat the five company directors wh o are up for re-election . `` Basically we 're concerned that the plan doesn't a ddress the key issues , which are what to do with the core retailing business , '' said Luther Jones , manager of corporate affairs for the Florida State Board of Administration , which manages the state 's $ 37 billion pension fund and own s 3.9 million shares of K mart . His organization is one of seven investors that have publicly announced their opposition . The proposed stock offerings , which would pay a dividend based on the earnings of K mart 's four specialty lines , would allow K mart to raise some much needed cash . But some investors say what the company should really be doing is finding ways to bolster sales at its flags hip discount stores , which have been losing sales to other big discount retaile rs like Wal-Mart . The investor opposition hardly comes out of nowhere . The com pany 's stock , now at about 15 , is down roughly 40 percent in the past six mon ths , and after three years of flat earnings , the company posted a loss of near ly $ 1 billion for the year ended Jan. 31 . Announcement of the offering in Apri l was just the last straw , investors said . `` We don't have to indict manageme nt . The stock is doing that , '' said James Severance , portfolio manager of th e State of Wisconsin Investment Board , which is leading the campaign and owns 3 million K mart shares . The dissidents don't think they have a good chance of w inning . Still , Severance said he hopes the opposition will send a message to m anagement that it needs to rethink its strategy . K mart , based in Troy , Mich. , said it believes it is doing the right thing . It also said it is not neglect ing its K mart stores . ROME On a day of Roman glories that took him from the Sistine Chapel to the Pia zza del Campidoglio , President Clinton Thursday found himself in an irreconcila ble clash with Pope John Paul II over their opposing views on abortion and contr aception . In a private 40-minute meeting , the pontiff pressed his objections t o a draft U.N. document on population control due to be adopted in September . H e noted `` his concern that the world community in general , and the United Stat es in particular , not be insensitive to the value of life , '' Clinton said . B ut the president , acknowledging their `` genuine disagreements '' on abortion , also emphasized their `` common commitment '' to strong families and emerging d emocracies . The first full day of Clinton 's European tour was full of diplomat ic minefields , from the Vatican session to a meeting with the new Italian prime minister , Silvio Berlusconi , whose governing coalition includes neo-fascists . At a news conference , Clinton dismissed concerns about the coalition , saying he would `` judge all people and parties by what they do when they 're in power . '' Still , the official meeting at the prime minister 's office in the Palazz o Chigi offered an odd counterpoint on a trip scheduled to commemorate the 50th anniversary of a war against European fascism in Germany and Italy . Berlusconi is the first prime minister since the war to govern Italy with the support of fa scist leader Benito Mussolini 's political heirs . In Thursday 's emotional high point , Clinton stood at sunset outside the Palazzo Senatorio , or city hall , and delivered an address to `` the citizens of Rome '' that recalled the liberat ion of the city a half-century ago from Germans who occupied it after Italy surr endered in World War II . `` I have come to Europe to recall its cruelest war , and to help secure its lasting peace , '' he said as thousands of people jammed the plaza , many waving small American and Italian flags . `` This week , as the sons and daughters of democracy , we must resolve never to forget such hallowed words as Anzio , Nettuno , Salerno , Normandy . '' Friday morning , Clinton is to fly over Anzio , scene of an Allied landing that became one of the most contr oversial of the Italian campaign , and visit the nearby U.S. cemetery at Nettuno , where 7,862 Americans who died in the fighting were laid to rest . In the day s that follow , the president will make similar appearances at a U.S. cemetery i n Cambridge , England , for those lost in the air campaign against Nazi Germany , and at the U.S. cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach , scene of the bloodiest batt le of the D-Day landing . After his private session with the pope , Clinton trie d to emphasize issues on which they agreed , but the Vatican focused on the core of their differences over abortion underscoring a new strain in relations . Cli nton has reversed anti-abortion policies of his two Republican predecessors . Al though Clinton told reporters they had made `` some progress '' on finding commo n ground , Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro said their differences could be nar rowed only if the president moved toward the pope 's opposition to abortion . `` The Holy Father made an appeal to the responsibility of a great nation such as America , whose origin and historical development has always promoted ethical va lues that are basic to every culture , '' the Vatican said in a communique issue d after the meeting . The communique cited `` grave ethical problems '' with som e population-control measures to be discussed at a U.N. conference in Cairo , Eg ypt , this fall . The conference is expected to endorse expanded contraception a nd abortion rights for Third World women . ( Optional add end ) The pope looked frail at the meeting , his first major public appearance since breaking his hip and then undergoing surgery this spring . After seeing the pontiff , Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton moved to a reception room to meet with North American seminarians who are studying in Rome . Ray Flynn , the former Boston ma yor who is now the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican , introduced Clinton to the ga thered priests , nuns and others . `` I make this promise to you : Every single one of them are Democrats , '' Flynn told Clinton . That elicited hissing and la ughter from the audience and a comment from Clinton that Flynn would need to go to confession . WASHINGTON Former House Ways and Means Committee chairman Dan Rostenkowski , D- Ill. , parted company with his third criminal defense team Thursday , issuing a terse written statement saying he and Robert S. Bennett `` mutually decided to g o our separate ways . '' `` I soon will retain new counsel and will present a vi gorous defense to the charges recently brought against me , '' Rostenkowski said . Rostenkowski was indicted Tuesday on 17 felony counts , including misappropri ating more than $ 500,000 , tampering with a witness and using taxpayers ' money to enrich himself , his friends and his family . Relations between Bennett and Rostenkowski had become increasingly strained after Rostenkowski rejected a plea bargain with U.S. . Attorney Eric H . Holder Jr. that would have required him t o go to jail . Rostenkowski has maintained that he is innocent of all charges . He balked at a deal in which he would have had to plead guilty to a felony count of concealing material facts in relation to `` ghost employees . '' The propose d deal also would have required him to spend six months in jail and repay the go vernment $ 150,000 . That total included the $ 82,000 that Rostenkowski had alre ady repaid and repossession of vehicles . Some of Rostenkowski 's friends and co lleagues privately questioned the legal wisdom of the talks , which they felt cr eated a media frenzy and left the impression that the lawmaker was guilty of som ething . In addition , Rostenkowski became disenchanted when Bennett agreed to r epresent President Clinton on sexual harassment allegations , sources said . He was concerned that Bennett would not have time to devote sufficient attention to his case , they said . Bennett , meanwhile , became increasingly frustrated abo ut his growing lack of control in the case and at the influence of Rostenkowski 's aides and friends , sources said . Bennett 's departure , prompting Rostenkow ski 's search for his fourth set of attorneys , should not hinder his chance of a successful defense , some observers said , noting that the case can be attacke d on several fronts . `` This is a winnable case because each separate scenario ( in the indictment ) is weak , '' said Nancy Luque , who represents Rostenkowsk i 's campaign committee and his Chicago office manager . `` I 'm always suspicio us of kitchen-sink indictments where the prosecutors throw everything on the wal l and hope some of it will stick , '' said Ronald S. Liebman , a former federal prosecutor . `` Often it 's a hodgepodge of weak allegations. . . . ' ' Henry As bill , a Washington defense lawyer , added that the government 's case appears a `` mile wide and an inch deep . '' Many of the allegations involving the ghost employees are `` so ancient '' that they will be open to attack by the defense , and if pressed at trial , could make it appear prosecutors unfairly `` piled on '' charges , said lawyer Alan Strasser , a former federal prosecutor . The indi ctment charges that the lawmaker misappropriated $ 500,000 in government funds t o pay them . The use of old conduct makes it look `` like the government was una ble to prove sufficiently telling charges about the immediate past , so they rel ied on the distant past to shore up charges that otherwise would be weak , '' St rasser said . According to the indictment , Rostenkowski , beginning in 1971 , d irected the House Finance Office to place 14 ghost employees on the payroll . So me mowed lawns for the congressman , picked up his laundry or took pictures at h is daughters ' weddings , the grand jury charged . But the alleged conduct of ei ght of the 14 ghost employees inolving the payment of nearly $ 235,000 did not o ccur within the five-year statute of limitations on most federal crimes , lawyer s said . Instead , it appears the prosecutors `` have lumped together unrelated conduct in order to allege a 23-year scheme to defraud under the mail fraud stat ute , '' said Luque . `` It is doubtful whether it will survive . '' In addition , some attorneys questioned whether the case should have resulted in a federal indictment at all . Instead , they argued , it was , perhaps , an internal matte r for the House to resolve . `` Prosecutors are trying to make a federal case ab out deficiencies in House of Representatives housekeeping matters , '' Asbill sa id . Defense attorney John Dowd agreed , noting that the Constitution provides f or Congress `` to discipline its own members . '' `` You could have a serious se paration of powers issue , '' he said . A critical prosecution witness , former House postmaster Robert V. Rota , who made contradictory statements at different points in the investigation and pleaded guilty to embezzlement charges , may al so be easily attacked , several lawyers said . Rota may be seen by jurors as som eone who became a government witness to `` save his own skin , '' said New York lawyer Gustave Newman . Despite the perceived flaws , the prosecution already ha s achieved the public relations coup of `` portraying Rostenkowski as having com mitted a monumental fraud over a lot of his career , '' said Baltimore defense l awyer Arnold Weiner . The lawyers were almost unanimous in their belief that the charge that Rostenkowski tried to persuade a witness to withhold testimony will be troublesome for the defense . Dowd said that if the government can prevail o n the obstruction of justice charge , it could `` poison the entire case . '' LOS ANGELES Rodney King , making his first public comments since the verdicts i n his civil damage suit trial , said Thursday he was not surprised the jury awar ded him no punitive damages , but King 's lawyer said the jurors themselves migh t provide grounds for appeal . `` After the first ( verdict ) in Simi Valley , n othing surprises me , '' King said , referring to the state court trial in which the police officers accused of beating him were acquitted , sparking the 1992 L os Angeles riots . `` I 've gotten the short end of the stick from the Simi Vall ey trial until now . '' But King said he had to concentrate on the millions of d ollars that came out of an earlier verdict on compensatory damages and `` make s omething out of that . '' He said he is attending classes to learn how to `` hol d on to the money . '' King 's lead attorney , Milton Grimes , said Thursday dis cussions with a juror troubled with how the verdict came about could provide the basis of an appeal . `` I think there are areas that warrant an investigation , '' said Grimes , flanked by King at a news conference outside his office . `` I t does bring out some information .. . that the verdict may be impeachable . '' King said he would not have sued for punitive damages if the officers `` had sho wn some sign of remorse . None of them came up to me and said they were sorry . '' Grimes declined to identify the juror who contacted him . But the juror , Cyn thia Kelly a self-employed seamstress from South Pasadena met with Grimes at his office later in the afternoon . Grimes said he was concerned by statements made by Kelly , the lone African American juror , that justice had not been not done and that she had to `` fight like hell '' to get the earlier verdicts favoring King . Grimes said he had been contacted by a second juror , whom he did not ide ntify . `` I don't think we can say this is the final chapter in the trilogy of Rodney King , '' he said . `` We 're still looking for justice . '' After 11 day s of deliberations , a nine-member federal jury found Wednesday that former Los Angeles Police Department officers Laurence Powell and Stacey C. Koon had acted with malice in the 1991 beating of King . But the jury decided unanimously that the officers had been punished enough and declined to award King as much as $ 15 million in punitive damages . Earlier , the jury had awarded King $ 3.8 million in compensatory damages , payable by the City of Los Angeles , for the police b eating . Grimes said he could not say how much of the $ 3.8 million King will re ceive , after attorney fees and the expenses of the defendants are subtracted , but `` Mr. King will be left with a substantial part of the money . '' Grimes re fused to let King comment on the possibility of another trial , but said the jur y `` left us with an unresolved type of feeling . '' Grimes said he planned to i nvestigate reports that three jurors may have discussed the case during a weeken d barbecue and challenged the dismissal of former Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates as a defendant , and said he is considering appealing it . BEIJING Chinese authorities appeared to have cut off outside contact Thursday w ith two Beijing professors whose son was shot dead by troops in the crushing of the 1989 democracy movement here . The couple had planned to begin a hunger stri ke Thursday to protest police harassment over the mother 's challenge to officia l accounts of the army assault , in Tiananmen Square . Ding Zilin , 57 , the boy 's mother , had said that she and her husband , Jiang Peikun , 59 , would begin a two-day hunger strike in their apartment Thursday night if police did not hal t surveillance of the couple and harassment of their visitors . `` I don't want to be confrontational , '' she said , before all contact was cut off , `` but I want an immediate stop to this . '' Ding has for years contacted families of tho se who were killed and wounded in the attack and her research on the attack has been the subject of Western press reports in advance of Friday 's fifth annivers ary of the massacre , in which troops killed hundreds of Chinese calling for dem ocracy in this country . The government says it was `` counterrevolutionary rebe ls '' or `` thugs '' who attacked soldiers in Tiananmen Square-and has enforced tight security to prevent any commemoration of the anniversary . Ding said by te lephone early Thursday that police had prevented the couple from receiving visit ors for the past few days and had reinforced a 24-hour police presence outside t heir apartment on the campus of People 's University . She told reporters they w ould stay at home and asked them to call her back Thursday evening . But about 1 1 a.m. , calls to her home began ringing unanswered . It was unclear whether the couple 's line had been cut off , or whether they might have been detained . Th e university switchboard that routes calls to their home said simply that there was no problem with their line . A heavy police presence at the university part of the tightened security for the anniversary has made it impossible for journal ists to enter the campus . A correspondent for the Wall Street Journal , Kathy C hen , was detained for several hours this week after she chatted with students a t Beijing University without registering at the gate . As part of the crackdown , at least one labor activist and six Christians have been detained , the Associ ated Press reported . The labor activist , Wang Zhongqiu , a principal organizer of an independent labor organization and a postgraduate student at Beijing Univ ersity , was taken into custody last week . The Christians were detained last we ekend , and all but one have been released . In Tiananmen Square , where thousan ds of students camped five years ago to protest corruption and demand greater fr eedom , plainclothes policemen could be seen in force this week along with the u sual tourists and schoolchildren . Officers carried walkie-talkies wrapped in ne wspapers , slung compact video cameras over their shoulders . Several hotels hav e been ordered to cut their transmission of the CNN television channel to guests ' rooms , hotel sources said , apparently out of worries that the network might air footage from the 1989 demonstrations . In some cases , the blackout of CNN may last as long as a week , hotel guests have been told . Although security in Beijing always tightens before the June 3 date , authorities are particularly un easy this year . Because of widespread corruption , high inflation and disconten t among peasants , laid-off workers , and others on fixed incomes , authorities fear that even small commemorative events may spark wider protests . Work units have been ordered to keep staff members on duty at night in the event of any pro test , dissident sources said . Surveillance of foreign journalists has increase d . Even foreign embassies have been pressured to cancel cultural exhibits and o ther events unrelated to the anniversary . RICHMOND , Va. . Federal officials threatened Thursday to block every major new road project in Northern Virginia , including those needed for the planned Walt Disney Co. theme park near Haymarket , because Gov. George Allen has balked at a stringent pollution control program . In a letter to Allen , Environmental Pro tection Agency officials declared that Virginia has not met requirements for car emissions tests under the federal Clean Air Act , and announced that they will withhold approval of transportation improvements beginning in 30 days . The agen cy , which sets clean-air standards for projects that add cars and pollution to urban roadways , said it would lift the road-building moratorium if Allen were t o reverse his stand within the next month . `` We needed to get their attention , '' said Peter H. Kostmayer , the regional EPA administrator who oversees Virgi nia . `` The governor has given every indication that he does not want to do it our way . '' The move is an unusually aggressive attempt by the EPA to enforce n ew anti-pollution laws , and it reflects the gulf that has developed between fed eral officials and Allen 's pro-business administration over how to clean the Wa shington region 's air . It also puts Allen in a sticky situation politically . The new Republican governor does not want to retreat from his opposition to the EPA demands , which have become a cause celebre for GOP lawmakers from Northern Virginia who believe its provisions to toughen car exhaust inspections are too s evere for their constituents . But Allen is anxious to avoid doing anything that would threaten construction of the Disney 's America project , which has been t he priority of his young administration . During the recent General Assembly ses sion , Allen joined Disney officials in persuading lawmakers to approve $ 132 mi llion in road improvements in the area near the 3,000-acre Disney site , about 3 5 miles west of Washington in Prince William County . Among other things , the p ackage calls for widening Interstate 66 west of Manassas and building a new inte rchange to the amusement park and related development . The EPA has demanded tha t Northern Virginia cars which now may be inspected at service stations be check ed at state-contracted facilities that would do such tests exclusively . EPA off icials believe that would yield stricter tests and eliminate conflict-of-interes t concerns that arise when a station inspects a car , then makes any repairs it needs to pass inspection . Kostmayer , a former Pennsylvania congressman , playe d down any relationship between the EPA 's action and Disney 's America . `` Thi s is certainly not an effort to sidetrack Disney , '' he said . Disney represent atives expressed concern Thursday , but stressed that theirs would not be the on ly project stalled . `` It 'd be pretty disastrous for the region , '' said Leon G . Billings , the company 's environmental consultant . Park opponents hailed the decision , repeating their contention that Disney 's project would attract t housands more cars to the area that would damage the air quality . `` What 's go ing on is that EPA is calling their bluff , '' said Chris Miller , a spokesman f or the Piedmont Environmental Council . FREDERICK , Md. Armond Pastore remembers vividly that night four decades ago wh en he crouched beside a dying Frank Olson and looked into the eyes of the man wh o had just fallen from a 10th-floor window of New York 's Statler Hotel . `` He couldn't say anything , '' recalled Pastore , who was night manager of the Manha ttan hotel . `` He was trying to say something . He was looking straight at me . '' Thursday , a team of researchers exhumed Olson 's body from a hillside grave here in hopes of giving posthumous voice to a man who had been an unwitting vic tim of one of the most egregious government-run experiments of the Cold War era . Olson 's death plunge Nov. 28 , 1953 , occurred nine days after he had been a given a drink laced with LSD without his knowledge or consent by a researcher fo r the CIA . Olson , a 43-year-old biochemist , was a civilian employee of the Ar my 's biolological warfare lab at Fort Detrick , Md. , when he died . He and oth ers had been given the hallucinogen at a gathering of Army and CIA personnel at a rural Maryland cabin . He was told within 20 minutes that he had taken LSD , b ut he had difficulty coping with the experience , according to later investigati ons . He was depressed and upset in the days that followed , and the CIA arrange d for him to see a New York doctor . Olson 's death in New York was considered a suicide by investigators at the time , but his family has never been convinced that he willingly leapt through a closed window . `` This story has been a tough one to put to rest , '' said Eric Olson as he watched cemetery workers using a backhoe and shovels to uncover the brown concrete vault containing his father 's casket . Eric Olson , 49 , a psychologist , and his brother Nils , 45 , decided to have their father 's body analyzed now because they were going to have it mo ved anyway to another Frederick cemetery , where they buried their mother last s ummer . The Olsons asked James Starrs , a professor of law and forensic sciences at George Washington University , to assemble a team to do a thorough autopsy a nd to look for any clues suggesting that their father might have been forced out the window . `` They deserve whatever knowledge we can give , '' said Starrs , who previously had done forensic investigations into the deaths of explorer Merr iweather Lewis , the ax-murdered parents of Lizzie Borden , assassinated Louisia na Sen. Huey Long and the victims of Albert Packer , a 19th-century Colorado can nibal . Starrs said the original autopsy on Olson was perfunctory . No X-rays we re taken , and there was little examination of the internal organs . He said the team will be looking for any evidence of LSD or other hallucinogens in Olson 's tissues as well as any hints of coercion such as a blunt-force wound to the hea d or a dislocated shoulder . He acknowledged that it will be `` a tricky questio n '' to sort out such evidence in a body that suffered massive trauma and also w as embalmed before burial . Olson never told his wife , Alice , that he had been given LSD . The family first learned that there might be more to his death than they suspected in 1975 , when the Rockefeller Commission , studying illegal CIA domestic operations , reported that a man fitting Frank Olson 's description ha d leapt from a New York hotel shortly after the CIA had given him LSD . Former P resident Ford later personally apologized to the Olson family , and Congress pas sed a bill in 1976 to pay $ 750,000 in compensation to Alice Olson and her three children . But the questions remained . What had happened that night in the hot el room shared by Olson and Robert Lashbrook , a CIA official who had accompanie d him ? Pastore , a former Mineola , N.Y. , resident who is now retired in Flori da , said he found the incident suspicious from the outset . `` Nobody jumps thr ough glass , '' he said in a telephone interview . `` They open the window and g o out , '' the method used by several suicides when he was working at the hotel . ( Optional add end ) Pastore also said that a hotel telephone operator had tol d him that `` the man in the room ( Lashbrook ) called somewhere out on Long Isl and '' immediately after Olson 's plunge and reportedly said , `` Well , he 's g one . '' Pastore said the other party responded , `` Well , that 's too bad , '' and hung up . Lashbrook , reached at his home in Ojai , Calif. , said he made t wo calls after Olson 's death one to his CIA superior and one to the doctor who treated Olson . He denied making any comments such as those reported by the hote l operator . Lashbrook repeated his long-held view that Olson committed suicide . `` I was asleep at the time , and I didn't see him go out the window , '' Lash brook said . He said he was awakened by a noise and saw the window shade flappin g . The CIA said in a statement that Olson 's death was `` a sad and tragic even t . '' David Christian , an agency spokesman , said , `` The role of CIA employe es in the events leading up to his death was extensively investigated in the 197 0s . The facts were made public at that time . The investigations indicated no r eason whatsoever to suspect that homicide was involved . '' In OLSON ( Lane , Newsday ) sub for 10th graf ( Deleting reference to previous cases ) xxx the window . `` They deserve whatever knowledge we can give , '' sai d Starrs . PICK UP 11th graf : Starrs said xxx WASHINGTON Five deaths in a 1993 hepatitis drug trial were an `` unavoidable ac cident , '' an advisory panel of the National Institutes of Health concluded Thu rsday . The new report , which clears the NIH 's scientists of wrongdoing , cont radicts the view of the Food and Drug Administration , which said last month tha t researchers in the NIH drug trials had committed `` serious violations '' of f ederal regulations . The advisory panel , a subcommittee of the Advisory Committ ee to NIH director Harold Varmus , found that `` only in retrospect are there cl ues '' to the hidden toxicity of the experimental drug fialuridine ( FIAU ) . Fi aluridine was believed to be a promising treatment for chronic hepatitis B . The disease , which can cause liver damage and death , has no other satisfactory tr eatment . Two previous human trials of the drug produced no apparent toxic effec ts . But in the 1993 tests , five of the 15 NIH patients died and two others sur vived only after receiving liver transplants . After the deaths , the FIAU resea rchers had said the drug 's deadly effects were hidden because they resembled sy mptoms of hepatitis B and tended to occur months after the initial doses . The N IH advisory panel agreed : `` There is no villain other than the emergence and i dentification of a new and unique form of delayed drug toxicity , '' they conclu ded Thursday . `` The FIAU studies represent the best of current practice in cli nical investigations and exceeded regulatory requirements where such applied . ' ' The recent FDA investigation produced very different results . The `` complian ce letters '' released last month detailed numerous violations of FDA regulation s , including not informing the agency immediately of adverse side effects . The drug 's sponsor , Eli Lilly & Co. , and the trial 's principal investigator Jay H. Hoofnagle of the NIH have until the end of June to respond to the FDA letter s . An earlier FDA report suggested that optimism on the part of researchers may have led them to evaluate information in too favorable a light and to miss warn ing signs . In that November 1993 report , the FDA said that four patient deaths prior to the 1993 trial might have been caused by FIAU , but were attributed to other causes . Liver toxicity had also showed up in two healthy patients who we re given FIAU by Lilly , the FDA said , but the incidents were not reported unti l after the 1993 FIAU patients had begun to die . The FDA is formulating new rul es requiring scientists to gather more data about side effects and obliging them to assume from the outset that medical problems in test subjects are caused by t he drug . FDA spokesman Jim O' Hara said Thursday that agency officials had not yet had a chance to review the NIH panel 's report , but `` we stand by our repo rt of November and the compliance letters that were issued in May . '' The NIH p anel said that some of the FDA recommendations especially one that called for al l new drug trials to track patients for an extended period to catch other exampl es of delayed toxicity would be too expensive , and suggested that such steps on ly be taken where such toxicity might be expected . But the panel recommended th at animal tests for new drugs mimic as nearly as possible the treatment that hum an test subjects will receive . Animals were injected with FIAU ; humans took th e drug orally . Subsequent animal tests have shown toxicity with oral doses . Th e stark difference between the two reports which NIH panelists referred to only as an `` apparent discrepancy '' could be seen a conflict between regulators at the FDA and the scientists at NIH . NIH panelists said that the FDA report was c oncerned mainly with whether the agency 's procedures were followed in the trial s . The NIH panelists , many of whom are experienced clinical researchers , went through a four-foot stack of patient reports , charts and diaries to determine what the researchers knew or should have known at each step of the process and i nterviewed the scientists , nurses and surviving patients at length . Critics of the 's panel 's conclusions said that the NIH investigators were overly charita ble about signals the FIAU researchers might have missed . Rep. Edolphus Towns , D-N.Y. , who has been sharply critical of the NIH , called the report a `` whit ewash '' which showed that `` NIH is simply not sufficiently removed from culpab ility to evaluate impartially the tragic events that occurred . '' A surviving p atient from the FIAU trial , Carl Schmid , complained Thursday of his interview with the NIH panel , saying `` I don't think it was a thorough review or a thoro ugh follow-up , and that was disappointing . '' The Department of Health and Hum an Services has said it will request a separate study of the FIAU affair by the independent Institute of Medicine ; NIH panel members said Thursday that the IOM might be able to reconcile the FDA and NIH versions of events . Stephen Straus , one of the chief FIAU researchers , said that panel members interviewed him fo r four hours and that he was gratified by the result : `` They did a fabulous jo b of investigating and unraveling a complex and tragic series of events . '' All an J. Weinstein , vice president of Lilly Research Laboratories , said `` We 're pleased that an independent group of outside experts has concluded that this wa s a novel toxicity and an unpredictable one . '' As for the tougher response by the Food and Drug Administration , Weinstein said , `` We respectfully disagree with the FDA . '' NIH director Varmus said he pressed the panelists to be `` cri tical '' and `` skeptical '' because at the outset , `` I was concerned somethin g was wrong '' in the FIAU drug trials . Opening the advisory panel meeting Thur sday morning , Varmus cited the FIAU trials and the recent scandal concerning ta inted data in breast cancer studies , and said `` the confluence of these two ep isodes '' had been cause for `` concern about the state of clinical trials in th is country . '' AT&T Corp. Thursday disputed an assertion that one of its computer scientists h ad uncovered a critical flaw in controversial encoding technology that the Clint on administration has embraced . The technology , which is known as the `` clipp er chip , '' is meant to protect the privacy of telephone and computer conversat ions , while still allowing law enforcement agencies to eavesdrop on suspected c riminals . The clipper chip , which was designed by scientists at the National S ecurity Agency ( NSA ) , is being used in civilian government communications , a nd the administration is urging private telephone and computer companies to adop t the technology . The standard has come under heated criticism from many in the computer community who fear that a `` backdoor '' built to allow legal wiretaps also might be used for unwarranted snooping by government officials and others . An article in the Thursday New York Times raised another potential problem wit h the clipper chip that criminals can close that back door and keep law enforcem ent officials out . It cited research by AT&T scientist Matthew Blaze . But AT&T officials said that Blaze 's findings did not apply to the clipper chip standar d adopted by the federal government . That standard covers voice , facsimile and low-speed data transmission . Blaze 's research , which will be presented in a few weeks to a scientific group , was examining vulnerabilities with computer-to -computer electronic mail encryption devices that are under development by the N SA , said Dave Maher , chief scientist for AT&T secure communications systems . AT&T said Blaze was not available to answer questions . In his paper , Blaze con cluded that the technique he discovered would have limited application for telep hone calls , but that it would be relatively easy to keep law enforcement offici als from eavesdropping on computer-to-computer conversations . He based his conc lusion on a review of a prototype that was supplied by the NSA , Maher said . Wh ile the NSA said it would review Blaze 's study and consider modifications , it said his techniques `` are not practical in real-world applications and are cons idered to be acceptable risks . '' The NSA statement also noted that there are s impler ways to prevent law enforcement eavesdropping . Lance Hoffman , a compute r science professor at George Washington University , said one way might be to b uild another layer of encryption around the clipper chip , a `` super encryption '' that would keep eavesdroppers out . Dorothy Denning , a computer science pro fessor at Georgetown University who evaluated the clipper chip standard for the government , said the Blaze finding would have no effect on the current standard s , which are targeted at telephone and not at computer communications . But Hof fman called the study another `` chink in the armor '' of the clipper chip . He and other clipper critics are skeptical about the comments that the flaw outline d by Blaze would be limited to computers . They said their ability to evaluate t he NSA and AT&T assertions were hampered by the fact that the underlying mathema tics are a classified secret . `` This goes to the heart of our criticism that y ou cannot trust a secret algorithm to grant you security , '' said Jerry Berman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation , a public interest group advocating the r ights of computer users . `` The irony of it is while we have been attacking it from a privacy point of view , this research pointed out a flaw that undermines the law enforcement side of the clipper chip . '' When IDB Communications Group 's stock price collapsed Wednesday in the wake of news that its auditors quit in a huff , the company 's 38-year-old founder admi ts he faced the same basic question over and over again from shareholders : Was he a crook ? No , Jeffrey Sudikoff insists , he 's not a crook . He understands that he 'll have to prove that , he says , and probably in court ( the sharehold er lawsuits are already piling up ) . But whatever else people want to say about him , Sudikoff has 900 employees , tons of telecommunications hardware and a lo ng list of clients worldwide to show that his 10-year-old , Culver City , Calif. -based business isn't some grandiose fraud . The devil , however , is in the det ails , and that 's why Wall Street let the stock plummet from 14 Tuesday to 7 1/ 8 by Wednesday 's close in wild trading . IDB 's auditors , Deloitte & Touche , abruptly resigned in an apparent dispute over certain IDB accounting practices . IDB says the disagreements are minor . But until Deloitte gives its side of the story ( it must , by law , within the next 10 days ) many investors will assume the worst that IDB 's books have been cooked . Ultimately , this is probably wh at we 'll find out : IDB didn't grossly misrepresent its sales and earnings grow th over the past few years . But in remaking itself from a $ 61 million TV and r adio signal relayer in 1989 to a $ 311 million international long-distance phone company by 1993 , IDB was guilty of too much hype and overly `` aggressive '' a ccounting . This is a game that small and large companies alike play , and it is aided and abetted by institutional investors on Wall Street . They want hot sto cks , and once the Street identifies a certified `` growth stock , '' the instit utions and their legions of analysts create high standards for the company to me et quarter after quarter . If your earnings come in under expectations just once , your stock may plummet by almost as much as if , say , your auditors were to quit . If , like IDB , you 're using stock to make big acquisitions within your rapidly consolidating industry competing with the likes of AT&T and MCI it 's mo re than a little important to keep the stock price up . Thus , companies like ID B find themselves in the business of managing earnings . With a sharp pencil , y ou can adjust and readjust your numbers take a capital gain here , delay a charg e there to make sure that your quarterly results meet Wall Street 's estimates . Wall Street understands this , and doesn't much care , as long as the basic tre nd in the business is strongly up . Purists may argue that there is only one set of accounting rules , and that aggressive accounting is by definition wrong . B ut the reality is that `` there 's discretion in accounting , and companies can be more aggressive '' if they choose , says Bruce Miller , a professor of that t rade at the University of California , Los Angeles . The role of the independent auditor is to make sure that aggressiveness doesn't turn into outright fraud . And because Deloitte gave unqualified opinions in support of IDB 's financial re ports in 1992 and 1993 , the auditors would face potential billions of dollars i n liability claims if they now were to recant those earlier opinions . `` Do we have aggressive accounting and a unique business that has subtleties of accounti ng ? Yes , '' Sudikoff admits . But Deloitte `` never had a problem with that in that past , '' he says . Disagreements about the numbers in 1992 and 1993 were always ironed out , Sudikoff says . And he notes , correctly , that it isn't unu sual for companies and their auditors to have disagreements . When the Deloitte partner in charge of the IDB account changed this year , the disagreements , fro m Deloitte 's point of view , evidently became insurmountable . Why ? Sudikoff c ontends he doesn't know , because the individual accounting items in dispute don 't appear major . IDB 's president , Edward Cheramy , blames a personality clash between himself and the new Deloitte partner . We 'll have to wait and hear fro m Deloitte . Thursday , some investors felt intrigued enough with IDB 's future potential in its international long-distance phone business to bid the battered stock up $ 1.19 to $ 8.31 on NASDAQ , in still-heavy trading . Sudikoff says thr ee of the Big Six accounting firms are already vying to take over the IDB accoun t . Assuming new auditors can certify that IDB has grown as it said it has , Sud ikoff says IDB 's course in international long-distance will remain the same : E at , or be eaten . And he concedes that with his stock price cut in half , IDB i s as much a potential target now as it may be an acquirer . LOS ANGELES When New York businessman Laurence A . Tisch made his first investm ent in CBS Inc. nine years ago , he was dubbed a short-term player . Wall Street expected him to sell his CBS shares quickly for a tidy profit . But Tisch confo unded the skeptics and is now completing his eighth year as CBS 's largest share holder and chief executive . Instead of a short-term player , critics now say he 's a short-term thinker whose miscalculations are coming home to roost . As evi dence , they cite Fox Broadcasting Co. 's raid last week of eight CBS affiliates , and CBS 's loss of National Football Conference broadcast rights to Fox for t he next four years . These critics predict that CBS 's value will inevitably dim inish under a protracted Tisch regime . Tisch in Los Angeles Thursday for a CBS affiliates ' meeting shrugs it off . `` I think we 're doing the right thing by shareholders , '' said the 71-year-old chairman during a breakfast interview . ` ` I think long-term , not short-term . '' With understandable pride , he points to 1993 earnings of $ 316.8 million , or $ 20.39 per share , nearly double the r esults of the previous year . Among the networks , CBS ranked No. 1 last year in daytime , prime time and late night ratings , in a `` triple crown '' feat acco mplished only once before in network television , when CBS dominated the 1983-84 season . His long-term strategy ? To invest in programming . `` We 've built th is asset ; we haven't diminished it , '' he continued , citing the increased mar ket value of CBS ' radio stations as an example . The radio properties could fet ch $ 800 million if they were for sale , compared to $ 400 million or $ 500 mill ion five years ago , he said . Indeed , Tisch worked hard to turn the network ar ound , and he won the respect of some of Wall Street 's most prominent analysts , who praise his discipline . `` The crazies are not in charge of this thing , a nd football is the classic example of that , '' said David Londoner , a managing director of Wertheim Schroder in New York . By his calculation , CBS would have reduced its per share earnings by 25 percent if it had matched Fox 's winning b id for a four-year package of Sunday football games . Still , the criticism pers ists . By selling off CBS 's recorded music business and publishing , the compan y 's remaining broadcast business is hobbled by government restrictions , and vu lnerable to economic downturns or new competitors . And unlike the other network s , CBS has not invested in cable television or business overseas . `` His prima ry asset is getting attacked and he 's got nothing else to draw on . If I were h im , I 'd sell it , '' said one big media investor who holds Capital Cities/ABC stock . But the investor who spoke on the condition of anonymity mused that Tisc h does appear to relish his status as a network chief , adding : `` I don't know how much he likes it as a toy . '' To such talk , Tisch responded : `` How coul d it be a toy after eight years ? I don't run around after stars ; you don't see me at the parties . I 'm not there because it 's a game or a toy . '' ( Begin o ptional trim ) As a youth in Brooklyn , he worked in his father 's clothing busi ness and his New Jersey summer camp , then entered New York University at age 15 . Tisch has a master 's degree in industrial engineering from the University of Pennsylvania . During World War II , he worked in Washington on military codes . Then , in 1946 , he dropped out of Harvard Law School to invest in a resort ho tel with his close-knit family . Over the next decade , the family built a chain of resorts before Larry and his younger brother Preston ( or Bob ) invested in Loew 's Theaters . After the death of their father in 1960 , the Tisch brothers merged their hotels with the theater chain and Larry became chief executive . Lo ews became their vehicle for shrewd investments in cigarette manufacturer Lorill ard , CNA Financial and , eventually , CBS . Although the theater chain was sold in the 1980s , the Tisch family still controls 26 percent of Loews Corp. , whic h boasted $ 13.7 billion in 1993 revenue . Loews controls 19.6 percent of CBS . Although Tisch has characterized his CBS holdings as a legacy to be passed on to his family , he acknowledged Thursday that none of his children have expressed interest in joining the CBS executive ranks . Nor does he think his brother Bob would step in as chairman , if anything unforeseen happened to him . He said the question of succession would fall to the CBS board . Like Loews , CBS has no ch ief operating officer . CBS directors have not questioned the need for one , Tis ch said . With just one business , he said CBS Broadcast Group President Howard Stringer effectively fills the role . The management is lean but collegial , Tis ch said . `` You don't have to go through channels . '' ( End optional trim ) `` We don't have our heads buried in the sand . But you show me the niche where we can be successful . I 'd like to see it ! '' said Tisch . Broadcasting , he sai d , has a `` bright future '' while he foresees trouble for cable TV operators w ho will have to engage in a price war with telephone companies to expand their b usinesses . `` We have over $ 1 billion in cash that 's earning 7 percent , 8 pe rcent , 9 percent . What better security does a company have , than to have that liquidity and those earnings that can't disappear on you ? '' he asked . If Random House had planned it down to the last banana cream pie , it could not have staged a more successful or appealing fracas to accompany the publication of Peggy Noonan 's new book . It began with a brief and curious pre-publication profile in New York magazine suggesting she was an original new self-launched st ar in the Manhattan social orbit without ever suggesting there was anything remo tely original about her or what she has to say . There followed newspaper review s of the book which were of such heroic savagery that they 'd have been more app ropriate in tone for the latest self serving drivel published by Richard Nixon o r Henry Kissinger , desperately trying to secure their place in history against such devastating assaults as the publication of H.R. Haldeman 's diaries and , a s the clock ticks , the more damning revelations that are sure to come from all the Nixon tapes still locked up in the National Archives . Noonan , after all , was merely a speechwriter for Ronald Reagan and George Bush . She wrote the thou sand points of light speech into which some White House superior penciled `` kin der and gentler '' in place of her `` more inclusive '' nation . Then there was a counter-flurry of whispering among those who asked if Noonan 's book could rea lly be as dreadful as they say . And now , that redoubtable enemy of wealth and privilege , Michael Thomas , writing in the New York Observer , has flown gallan tly to her defense with the argument , as near as I can tell , that while the bo ok may well be `` trite , silly , superficial and dumb , '' it is `` harmless at worst '' and unworthy of the volcanic mauling it has taken from Andrew Sullivan in The New York Times and Jonathan Yardley in The Washington Post . You 've nev er heard of Peggy Noonan ? Don't worry , she 's working hard to correct this . W hat is her new book about ? I haven't the faintest idea because , having sentenc ed myself to read her first one which served up Reagan covered with syrup and hi s wife Nancy covered with Noonan 's scratch marks I feel excused . I am strictly neutral on its merits , on Noonan 's charms and on the intriguing question of w hether a dreadful book of no particular consequence deserves the onslaught of cr iticism that has engulfed hers and , incidentally , ensured both its commercial success and Noonan 's climb up whatever socio-economic tree it is she is so assi duously trying to get to the top of . Anyway , as potential keeper of the flame of Reaganism , who 's to say that Noonan isn't a more decorative figure than som e of the other candidates , say , Patti Davis or Oliver North . Davis ' naked ro mp through the pages of the latest Playboy and North 's romp from the very thres hold of the penitentiary to riches and fundamentalist stardom are hardly better credentials . Anyway , all three of them say they are right with God . Noonan rh apsodizes , I 'm told , about her rediscovery of Catholicism . North 's worn-on- the-sleeve religiosity has given his campaign for the Senate the timbre of a Sou thern televangelical tent show . And even the buck-naked Davis , between undaugh terly swipes at her despised mother , tells Playboy how much she appreciates her father 's `` gift of faith . '' Put them all in a painted wagon and just imagin e the evil , the unmitigated un-Godliness , the worldly moral squalor and un-Chr istly liberalism they can save us from . AUGUSTA , Ga. . The first time Jesse L. Jackson rode buses through the South , he joined black and white Freedom Riders who worried about white racists shootin g at them during the civil rights movement as they campaigned for blacks ' right to vote . Three decades later , Jackson is embarked upon another bus tour of th e South , accompanied by black and white aides . Once again voting rights and vi olence are concerns , but this time the specific issues are black-on-black viole nce and preservation of majority black congressional districts created under the Voting Rights Act . Jackson has preached the `` dual subject of voting empowerm ent and stop the violence '' on a two-week tour of new congressional districts b eing challenged in five states as unconstitutional segregation . The legal quest ion is headed to the Supreme Court . Originally , the bus tour was conceived as a means to educate the public about the redistricting lawsuits , including one g oing to trial next month against the 60 percent black district of freshman Rep. Cynthia McKinney , D-Ga. , which stretches 260 miles from Atlanta 's suburbs to Augusta 's slums . The tour of seven states , which ends Sunday in Newport News , Va. , is being financed by Jackson 's National Rainbow Coalition , the affilia ted Citizenship Education Fund and the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation . J ackson estimated the cost at $ 250,000 . With crime a pre-eminent concern across the nation , the anti-violence message was added to Jackson 's `` southern voti ng rights tour '' and has often overwhelmed the original theme . In Dallas , whe re the trip began a week ago , his visit to the family of a 9-year-old boy kille d while eating ice cream on his porch dominated news coverage . In Atlanta , whi ch experienced 29 killings in the 31 days of May , Jackson 's plea for peace Wed nesday obscured his defense of McKinney 's district . `` Cynthia 's struggle .. . is in competition with 29 killings , '' Jackson acknowledged en route to Augus ta Friday . `` You can't keep your credibility and moral authority unless you ad dress the violence . '' But Jackson maintained that there is a connection betwee n violence and voting rights . For instance , he said fighting crime and mournin g its victims have diverted African Americans ' attention from jobs , justice an d political empowerment . `` On that journey from Selma to Montgomery , if three or four of us had shot each other , or there had been a drug bust , it would ha ve undercut our right to vote , '' Jackson said . He that lawmakers from distric ts drawn to have a black majority could help address criminal justice issues lik e stiffer federal sentences for possessing crack-cocaine than for possessing pow der cocaine . The disparate sentences have primarily affected black drug offende rs . `` We have to have politicians in office to protect us from the crime of th e crime system , '' Jackson said . The creation of black majority districts afte r the 1990 census led to the election two years ago of a dozen black southerners , who helped boostthe Congressional Black Caucus to a record 40 members . The r edistricting lawsuits are a threat , at least indirectly , to all of the souther n newcomers . Reps. Melvin Watt , D-N.C. , and Eva Clayton , D-N.C. , await the decision of a three-judge panel in Raleigh , which most observers expect to upho ld the remap . In Texas , a challenge to three districts , including a majority Latino one , in Houston and Dallas is scheduled for trial later this month . Bas ed on a judge 's comments at a pretrial hearing , McKinney 's district is so thr eatened with being overturned when a trial begins here July 18 that her father , longtime state Rep. Billy McKinney , D-Ga. , has renounced his decision to reti re from the legislature . `` When they redraw those lines , Billy McKinney is go ing to be sitting in that room , '' he told elected officials and leaders of you th programs here . McKinney 's district stretches from the predominantly black s ection of suburban DeKalb County whose upscale demographics one McKinney aide co mpared to Prince George 's County through rural farm areas to urban Savannah and Augusta . `` That 's the thing about these districts they bring black and white s together in a new kind of relationship , '' McKinney said . `` Previously , it 's been very comfortable for the defenders of southern tradition . '' Jackson s aid the political configurations the Supreme Court condemned last summer in the North Carolina case as `` political apartheid '' were themselves a product of ra cial segregation . `` The reason these lines look the way they is white bankers and real estate agents determined where we lived until we got open housing , '' he said . Jackson 's dire warnings about the loss of the black majority district s , and the threats to similar ones for state and local offices , have not caugh t fire with his audiences , who tend to focus on the anti-violence message . The tour has drawn modest crowds , usually of several hundred , and the number of v oters registered has also been modest . It was about 30 at DeKalb College , a ha lf a dozen at an Atlanta church and about 45 at an Augusta high school . Jackson suggested the tour 's impact might not be immediate or predictable , just his v oter registration drive through the South in 1983 and 1984 paid unexpected divid ends , including inspiring activists to run for political office . In addition , newly registered black voters were credited with helping elect white Democrats to the Senate at a time former President Ronald Reagan was attracting the suppor t of conservative white Democrats . `` That 's why I like the crusade thing : It 's like planting seeds , '' Jackson said . `` You never know which seeds will s prout , but you know some seeds will sprout . '' JOHANNESBURG , South Africa In the two weeks since President Nelson Mandela 's inauguration , a host of international organizations have rushed to embrace Sout h Africa . The country 's new flag flies in Addis Ababa , Ethiopia , at the head quarters of the Organization of African Unity , once one of apartheid 's bittere st enemies . On Wednesday , South Africa rejoined the British Commonwealth , mor e than three decades after storming out because of objections to its racist poli tical system . And full re-integration into the United Nations is expected this year . But as South Africa re-emerges onto the world stage , its immediate neigh bors have the most to gain and to lose . They look on with a mixture of expectat ion and alarm after decades of mutual hostility . The anti-apartheid bloc known as the Frontline States Organization formally welcomes its neighbor at a meeting in Zimbabwe Friday , which Mandela is attending . The group does so in the hope that South Africa 's renewal also will be their own , but member countries fear being swamped by its much stronger economy . Already the gravitational pull sou thward is draining some African nations of their best brains and threatening to divert international investment and aid . In Pretoria , the Foreign Ministry 's deputy director-general for Africa , Derek Auret , says one of Mandela 's priori ties in meeting with frontline leaders will be to assess ways of establishing po litical and economic stability in southern Africa . Auret says South Africa 's p eaceful transfer of power to Mandela 's African National Congress might encourag e a settlement of the continuing civil war in Angola and provide a reassuring ex ample to Mozambique before it holds multiparty elections in October . But the ke y to stability , he argues , will be ensuring that South Africa 's expected econ omic growth spills over to neighboring countries . `` Perhaps the best chance is in coming together around common economic objectives and achieving collective e conomic growth , which will lead to all the benefits that this government would like to see accrue to South Africans ( and to ) all southern Africans , '' Auret said . `` South Africa cannot be an island of prosperity in a sea of poverty . '' But Pretoria is keen to discourage exaggerated expectations . `` South Africa 's potential is a long-term issue , '' Auret said , `` and willn't have any imm ediate spinoffs for the rest of the continent . '' Some of South Africa 's new l eaders do feel a deep emotional debt to nations such as Zambia , Zimbabwe and Ta nzania because they helped hold the line against apartheid over the years . They also recognize that assisting their neighbors eventually will conflict with the ir own government 's interests and priorities . Mandela needs rapid economic exp ansion if he is to provide jobs and housing to his constituents , yet South Afri ca 's economy is already three times larger than the economies of the seven fron tline states combined . It exports five times as much to the continent as it imp orts . Economists point out that further expansion will likely widen the financi al gap between South Africa and its neighbors . Among the few African exports in to South Africa today are professionals doctors from Ghana and Zaire , managers from Nigeria , teachers from Zimbabwe . While South Africa welcomes them , the o ther nations despair at the loss . ( Optional add end ) And domestic pressure is building on Mandela to stem the flow of unskilled migrant labor from Zimbabwe , Mozambique , Malawi and Lesotho a vital source of revenue for those nations . T here are estimated to be at least 2 million illegal immigrants in South Africa h olding jobs the ANC urgently needs to provide to its own citizens . Other Africa n nations also fear Pretoria will garner a sizable chunk of what little foreign investment and western aid the continent gets . For all the talk of regional coo peration , the key to South African prosperity lies in trading beyond African sh ores . The world once heard out Zimbabwe 's President Robert Mugabe when he call ed for sanctions against apartheid following his own successful struggle against white rule . The ANC hopes that if Mandela now tells the international communit y it has a moral obligation not to turn its back on southern Africa , the world might listen . MOSCOW Just when President Boris N . Yeltsin thought it was safe. .. . Just whe n it looked like Russia 's spasm-wracked political system might finally be on th e road to stability .. . along came Alexander Sobyanin . Sobyanin , a bespectacl ed physicist-turned-political scientist , does not look like the kind of man to shatter parliaments and constitutions with a single blow . But the numbers he cr unches pack such a charge that they threaten Russia 's whole new political syste m by casting doubt on its foundation the Dec. 12 balloting that approved the Rus sian Constitution and put the current Parliament in place . His computations ind icate massive fraud in the critical vote . `` These figures are political dynami te , '' said the respected daily Izvestia . Late last month , the Russian Duma , the lower house of Parliament , ordered its Credentials Commission to look into Sobyanin 's allegations . The commission chairman brushed off a proposal for a two-week deadline on a commission report , but sooner or later the truth will em erge . And if Sobyanin is right , it is a truth that nobody particularly wants t o hear . The trouble began when Sobyanin 's group of Kremlin-appointed sociologi sts began to analyze the Dec. 12 results , using samples and mathematical princi ples to dissect overall results . His team has worked over results of every Russ ian election since 1989 . This time around , charges of widespread cheating abou nded after the election , mainly from Russia 's Choice , the pro-Yeltsin party t hat gained only an embarrassing 15 percent of the vote compared to the whopping 23 percent that went to neo-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky and his party . The falsification charges gained credence after local counters took more than two d ays to send their tallies to Moscow , with many results coming in much later . T he longer the delay , election monitors know , the more chances for fiddling wit h the numbers . On May 4 , Sobyanin dropped his bombshell . Quoted in an Izvesti a article , he alleged that some 9 million votes out of an electorate of 106 mil lion had been falsified , apparently mainly by regional leaders intent on their own election . He identified three types of election fraud padded voter lists , ballot-stuffing after the fact and official coercion of voters . He estimated th at the fraud had largely worked against reformers and in favor of both Zhirinovs ky and the Communist Party . That calculation , with the prospect that it could be corrected and reformers given more seats , was sure to please Yeltsin . But a ny pleasure was outweighed by horror at the flip side of Sobyanin 's allegations that the faked ballots had so plumped up the total voter participation that it had passed the 50 percent mark needed to make the referendum on the constitutito n valid . In fact , Sobyanin believes , only some 46 percent of the population v oted which means the new charter never really passed . The Russian president had thrown every ounce of his political weight behind the constitution , touting it as the only way to avoid the kind of political bloodshed that Moscow suffered l ast fall when the fight between the president and Parliament climaxed in artille ry fire at the White House , the old Parliament building . Yeltsin 's aides have responded to Sobyanin 's charges with outrage and denial . The president 's chi ef of staff , Sergei Filatov , huffed that the charges `` smell of a well-though t-out provocation . '' Sobyanin 's group of experts has lost its government offi ce space and been disowned by the administration . Sobyanin gave an interview la te last week in a hallway of the Duma and was promptly approached by a deputy wh o wanted to shake his hand for `` disclosing what we all knew was the truth . '' Sobyanin himself does not want to see the Constitution invalidated . He believe s that if his fraud allegations are proven , Yeltsin can simply hold a nationwid e public opinion poll asking people if they think the Constitution needs to be v oted on once again , and the vast majority will decline . ( Optional add end ) I n any case , Sobyanin believes , his findings are likely to end up as nothing mo re than a historical footnote because neither the reformers , who want the const itution to remain in force , nor opposition members , who would lose seats , bel ieve a challenge to the election results to be in their interest . The Credentia ls Commission , he noted , does not even have computers with which to check his data . At best , he hopes the ruckus over his findings will lead to a change in the slapdash laws that would allow such rampant abuse . `` Our main goal is to g et new election laws passed that would exclude this kind of falsification , '' h e said . `` We must not let the elections once again fall into bosses ' hands in a restoration of the totalitarian system . '' BEIJING Five years after the crackdown on Tiananmen Square protests , few dissi dents remain openly active in China 's capital . But the wounds of those days st ill fester . Ding Zilin 's son , a gentle high school student named Jiang Jielia n , was shot to death by China 's army one day after his 17th birthday in the mi litary assault on the unarmed demonstrators June 3 and 4 , 1989 . There still ha s been no accurate public accounting of how many people were killed in the massa cre . The Beijing regime says about 300 died , mostly members of the military tr ying to restore order . Many human-rights activists believe the death toll excee ds 1,000 , mostly students and workers protesting the government . Ding , a 57-y ear-old philosophy professor , has doggedly documented more than 100 of these de aths . Her courageous research and contacts with other victims ' families have c ost her her teaching job and brought her heavy surveillance . And with the arriv al of the Tiananmen anniversary , her harassment has been round-the-clock . ( Be gin optional trim ) Ding is a special case in that she is the rare relative of a victim willing to speak out . But the official pressure that has been brought t o bear on her life is typical . Six plainclothes agents roost across the street from her apartment at People 's University in northwest Beijing . More hang arou nd the building 's other three sides . Recent visitors have been interrogated fo r hours after they left her apartment . She is allowed out only for necessary ch ores . `` My home is a special prison , but even a special prison doesn't need t hat many watchdogs , does it ? '' Ding says . `` I 've lost too much , '' she sa ys . `` I 'm not allowed to teach . Anything I write will not be published . Thi rty percent of my salary was taken away . My colleagues were told not to have an ything to do with us . These are the things that were taken away from me that th e eye can see . But right now they 're taking away things that the eye can't see . `` I just want some peace and privacy . I just want some peace with my son . '' ( End optional trim ) There aren't many dissidents left in Beijing now . Some , such as the father of China 's modern democracy movement , Wei Jingsheng , ha ve been arrested again . Others , such as leading labor activist Han Dongfang , have been allowed to go abroad but not return home . Still others , such as form er Tiananmen student leader Wang Dan , have left Beijing for the anniversary . V irtually all others have been warned by the government to keep quiet . Thousands of armed police reportedly have been brought into Beijing 's suburbs in recent days . Police were rechecking the residence permits of those living near Tiananm en Square . The square itself is thick with plainclothes agents , some openly br andishing walkie-talkies while trying to pose as tourists . At the heart of the square , the Monument to the People 's Heroes , where the last of the Tiananmen protesters waited for the lethal advance of the Chinese army , is cordoned off b y a chain as it has been since 1989 . Signs there admonish against unapproved `` commemorative activities , '' `` the laying of wreaths or garlands , '' taking pictures or even `` joking or playing . '' The fear inherent in these warnings u nderscores that the Tiananmen massacre remains an open wound on the Chinese body politic . This contrasts starkly with China 's remarkably rapid international r ecovery from the debacle , a recovery capped by the recent ending of the U.S. th reat to withdraw China 's favorable trade status . Economically , these are the best times for the world 's largest nation . Many Chinese are freer than ever , except in challenging their government . But in terms of domestic politics , the Tiananmen wound still could play a major role in overturning this regime . The much anticipated death of China 's ailing 89-year-old patriarch , Deng Xiaoping , will likely launch a scramble for scapegoats for Tiananmen , with the various factions within the leadership trying to tar each other if not Deng with the bla me . A measure of how politically unresolved the massacre and the preceding `` c ounter-revolutionary '' protests remain here is the case of Bao Tong , the most senior official jailed in connection with the 1989 protests . Bao , 62 , was the top aide to former Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang , Deng 's reformist heir w ho was toppled from power in Tiananmen 's wake and who remains in political limb o . Human rights groups say Bao , sentenced to prison until 1996 , is seriously ill , perhaps with cancer . He has had five operations while in jail . But altho ugh China has released many well-known dissidents in the past few years in respo nse primarily to U.S. pressure , Bao remains in solitary confinement at the noto rious Qincheng Prison north of Beijing one of thousands believed still imprisone d because of the Tiananmen protests . `` They can't release Bao without resurrec ting Zhao Ziyang , and they can't resurrect Zhao without reversing the Tiananmen verdict , and they aren't at all ready to do that , '' a Western diplomat says . But underneath the Tiananmen taboo , pressure builds . Seven dissidents led by Wang , the former Tiananmen leader recently issued a public letter to China 's legislature , asking it to `` untie the knot in the people 's hearts '' by reass essing the Tiananmen protests . The Tiananmen knot , they said , holds back Chin a 's `` political development '' . `` The movement was a nationwide popular patr iotic movement , '' the dissidents wrote . `` We believe the government 's chara cterization of it as a riot and a counter-revolutionary rebellion is unjust . '' Other dissidents aren't waiting for a reversal of the Tiananmen verdict , havin g gone underground to organize workers under the banner of a recently formed gro up called the Labor Alliance . Some of its founders already have been arrested . Its leader , Liu Nianchun , reportedly is in hiding . An urban workers ' rebell ion is one of Beijing 's worst nightmares , and conditions are brewing for a big one . State enterprises two-thirds don't turn a profit have reached the point w here they must go bankrupt or lay off millions of workers from their previously guaranteed jobs ; they 're only being kept afloat by state deficit spending . Re ports of illegal strikes are on the rise . Inflation and corruption , the two ke y concerns driving the 1989 protests , are as bad as then , if not worse . To ma ke matters more volatile , with the gap between urban and rural incomes widening , millions more peasants have filtered into China 's cities where they could we ll serve as a ready supply of dry kindling for the next major flare-up . ( Optio nal add end ) The Chinese leadership 's answer to this daunting situation has be en to try to run faster than the rapidly rising expectations of its more than 1. 2 billion people allowing more opportunities to make money while stressing that those opportunities rest on `` stability , '' meaning the maintenance of the Com munist Party 's absolute power . But expanding even just economic freedoms has a price . Many of Beijing 's dictates already are largely irrelevant in huge part s of China , which are aflame with the fever of speculation . Nevertheless , the regime has run fast enough and retained enough of the appearance of control tha t party chief Jiang Zemin had the confidence to openly declare recently that it had been necessary to use lethal force to break up the Tiananmen protests in ord er to continue China 's economic reforms . `` A bad thing has been turned into a good thing , '' he said . `` As a result , our reform and opening program has f orged ahead with steadier , better and even quicker steps . '' But for Ding , th e mother of one of Tiananmen 's dead , Jiang 's logic is so absurd as to almost not warrant a response . `` To achieve stability , politically or economically , isn't there another way to do it than killing ? '' she asks . `` I don't need t o say anything else . Anyone with a conscience understands . '' SEOUL , South Korea Ask sixth-graders here about Japanese comic books , and the ir eyes light up . Slam Dunk , a macho basketball player , is hot , says one boy . So are Dragon Ball , a futuristic space warrior , and Dr . Slump , a mad scie ntist who designed the perfect robot girl . Japanese comics deliver the ultimate in thrills , chills and `` interesting stuff with girls , like nakedness , '' h e said . `` We all like Japanese comics better , because Korean comics are too s issy . '' That is exactly what worries Kwag Young Jin , a Ministry of Culture bu reaucrat , and other officials . Bootleg Japanese comics may be runaway hits , t hey say , but the violence and sex rampant in them are twisting young Korean min ds . Likewise , they predict , if samurai movies were freely shown , violence wo uld increase as people imitate the slashing warriors . To hear Korean officials tell it , all that stands between their refined Land of Morning Calm and a helli sh descent into Japanese cultural vulgarity is an import ban on Japanese movies , music , videos and other forms of pop culture . The ban was adopted in 1945 , after South Korea was freed from 35 years of Japan 's repressive colonial rule . It remains the most prominent symbol of the lingering sense of han , or bitter resentment , that many Koreans still feel toward the Japanese . ( Korean officia ls acknowledge the ban also protects their media markets from well-financed Japa nese competitors . ) But now the long-entrenched prohibitions may soon be lifted . Earlier this year , President Kim Young Sam broke the taboo and pushed Korea closer to reconciliation with its erstwhile enemy by declaring in a goodwill ges ture that the ban should be ended . Saying it conflicts with global trends towar d open markets , Kim ordered the Ministry of Culture to review how and when this should be done . The review is expected to be finished this month . At issue , however , is far more than whether Koreans will get to see samurai slasher flick s or Dragon Ball videos . The ban reflects what Kwag called the Korean people 's `` complex feelings of jealousy , contempt and hatred all mixed together '' tow ard Japan . It has become a lightning rod for centuries of accumulated grievance s : Claims that Japan robbed Korea of cultural treasures in raids of priceless a rt and decimated its national identity by forcing Koreans to adopt Japanese cust oms , language and names during the colonial period . To make matters worse , th ey say , Japan still refuses to acknowledge adequately its cultural debt to Kore a . Scholars say that Koreans introduced everything from the tea ceremony and fl ower arranging to temple architecture and kabuki during waves of migration to Ja pan beginning in the fourth century . Some even claim that Japan 's indigenous r eligion , Shintoism , stemmed from Korea 's shamanism and that the Imperial fami ly originated from Korean aristocrats in Japan . ( Most Japanese authorities rej ect that view . ) Against this backdrop of bitterness , talk of Slam Dunk and Dr . Slump provokes withering looks . `` The teacher was hurt by his student in a barbaric way , '' said Kwag . `` Our pride was hurt . This feeling will not go a way soon . '' Admitting it is flagrantly ignored , he added : `` We don't think this import ban means much . But we need something to remind the Japanese that t hey need to frankly admit their acts and do something to comfort Koreans . '' Su ch attitudes perplex many Japanese . Although they understand the emotion and fe el a sense of guilt , many wonder what they can do about it today and why Korean s cling to hatreds a half-century after the colonial period . For their part , a growing number of Japanese scholars are starting to acknowledge Korean influenc e on Japan 's culture . However , many view Korea largely as a bridge through wh ich Chinese culture passed to Japan . The tea ceremony , for instance , originat ed in China and was introduced by Korea to Japan . Despite the passage of time , the Korean sense of `` han '' still comes up at surprising times . Etsuo Miyosh i , a Shikoku island glove maker , decided to close his factory in Korea in 1989 because rising labor rates made it unprofitable . Korean labor activists protes ted at his Shikoku headquarters , coming by the busloads from nearby Osaka . `` They said : ` You occupied us for 35 years ! This is a historical problem ! ' I couldn't say anything , '' Miyoshi recalled . Japanese officials were likewise s tartled when then-Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa visited South Korea in 1992 . H e was told by then-president Roh Tae Woo that Japan was obliged to provide econo mic assistance because it was better off than Korea , which was having hard time s . The meeting eventually resulted in the establishment of a joint foundation f or scientific and technical cooperation , and a package to promote Korean export s in Japan . Still , Roh 's logic was lost on many Japanese . `` Probably a lot of Japanese couldn't understand this . Economic relations and private business a re not like an older brother helping a younger brother , '' said a Japanese Fore ign Ministry official . `` If it 's profitable , they 'll do it . If it 's not , they willn't . '' Katsuhiro Kuroda , dean of Japanese correspondents in Seoul a s the Sankei Shimbun 's bureau chief , said the resentment toward Japan may be a form of `` self-confirmation '' for Koreans . `` Perhaps because Korea was cons tantly invaded from long ago , they can unite themselves '' by harboring collect ive grudges against an external enemy , Kuroda said . `` It is not necessary for we Japanese to get excited about it . '' ( Begin optional trim ) Some Koreans a gree . Lee Jan Soo , a popular producer with the Seoul Broadcasting Station , is airing a 16-part series , `` The Ghost Is Going , '' that examines what he argu es is a basic lack of identity among Koreans . He asserts that a true national i dentity has not been allowed to bloom under the overwhelming influence of Chines e culture , which Korea absorbed as a vassal state until the late 19th century , the Japanese colonization , and today 's hybrid of Japanese and Western pop cul ture . The series aims its barbs not only at the Japanese , but also at Koreans who slavishly imitate their ads , TV shows and fashions . `` It is not important to assert that Japanese culture is actually Korean culture , '' Lee said . `` W hat we need to do is rediscover Korean identity . '' He says Korean identity is so diluted that the first page of middle-school textbooks reads : `` Contribute to the common prosperity of humankind . '' In Germany , the textbooks say : `` B e a good German , '' he said . Asked what , exactly , represents Korean culture , Lee himself falters . Maybe `` arirang , '' the traditional folk song , he mus es . Or `` hanbok , '' the brightly colored traditional woman 's dress . Yet Lee and others lament that such culture is not widely known outside Korea . `` We n eed to be assertive , '' he said . That is precisely Kim 's aim as he nudges his nation to lift the ban and put old grudges behind . Thanks to a generational sh ift , increasing economic ties and new political overtures between Kim and Japan 's coalition government , a growing number of Koreans seem ready to mend fences . ( End optional trim ) Just as Japan absorbed Chinese culture through Korea ce nturies ago , Koreans are absorbing Western culture through Japan today imitatin g everything from Japanized grunge fashions and torn jeans to henna-dyed hair . And then there are the ubiquitous comic books . About 200 kinds command 70 perce nt of the market , most of them pirated . But even as sixth-graders snap them up , they do not forget their lessons in political correctness . `` Japan is a bad country , '' said Song Ju Hwan , a sixth-grader at Kwan Ak Primary School in Se oul . `` They attacked Korea and beat Koreans in older days . I 'm going to stri ke them back ! '' she added , with a rambunctious punch in the air . Indeed , Ko rea-Japan relations continue to have their bad moments . One of the hottest best -sellers is `` Japan Is Nothing , '' by Chon Yo Ok , a former Tokyo corresponden t for the Korean Broadcasting System . The book castigates everything from Japan 's cramped homes to its sexism and racism to its `` infantile '' culture . Judg ing from casual interviews , a fair number of Koreans have read it and shifted t heir image of Japan from bad to worse . `` Underneath the economic might , there is a people whose history is dirty , whose culture infantile and who are discon tented and twisted , '' Chon writes . `` Koreans and Japanese may look alike , b ut they are a world apart . '' But , in general , Muto and others say the long a nd uneasy relationship between the two peoples is definitely on the mend . TAKE YOUR CHOICE `` Stocks will decline slowly over the next several months , w ith the Dow Jones average dropping from its high of 3,978 to about 3,200 . '' ( Michael Metz , chief strategist , Oppenheimer & Co. ) .. . `` We 're very positi ve on stocks because profit growth and cash flow look excellent . We recommend 7 5 percent in stocks . '' ( Abby Joseph Cohen , Co-Chairman , Goldman Sachs ' Inv estment Policy Committee ) JUNE JOURNAL `` Workers are adding more stock funds t o their 401 ( k ) s and IRAs . Even people whose sole investments are 401 ( k ) s and other retirement accounts are relying more heavily on stocks . '' ( Money magazine , June ) .. . `` People are becoming investors earlier . The median age of shareholders declined from 53 to 43 recently . '' ( New York Stock Exchange survey ) .. . `` Only stocks win . The average annual rates of return after taxe s and inflation since 1974 are : Blue-chip stocks plus 7.2 percent ; long-term g overnment bonds minus 0.6 percent ; money market funds minus 5.9 percent . '' ( Ibbotson Associates ) .. . The T. Rowe Price International and New Asia mutual f unds are now favored by nine financial newsletters , according to The Hulbert Fi nancial Digest . WALL STREET WISDOM : `` Investments aren't safe if they don't e arn more than inflation . There are two types of risks short-term risk of loss o f value and the long-term risk that an investment willn't provide for your futur e needs . Fearful investors often focus only on the first risk and invest too co nservatively . Best strategy : Place money you will need in safe , no-loss inves tments . Place longer-term funds in stocks for greater gains , realizing that st ocks ' short-term volatility shouldn't concern you when investing for the long t erm . '' ( `` Wealth : How to Get It and Keep It '' by Herb Vest , $ 24.95 . ) N OTES & QUOTES : June in Wall Street has historically been a slightly `` up '' mo nth , edging ahead an average 0.1 percent over 44 years . But cheer up : July ha s proved to be the year 's fourth best month , rising 1.2 percent over the same time span . MONEY SAVERS ( 1 ) : `` Don't invest everything in your company 's s tock . Doing that could make you overly dependent on your employer 's fortunes . If your firm does poorly , you could lose the money you 've invested as well as your job . '' ( Ted Benna , benefits consultant . ) MONEY SAVERS ( 2 ) : `` A s tock that drops suddenly because of unexpected bad news may seem like a bargain but don't rush out to buy . Our study of 2,000 companies that had single-day dro ps of 10 percent or more found that their prices continued to fall after the ini tial drop . '' ( David Dreman , Dreman Value Management . ) MARKET BEAT : `` We have become more cautious toward the stock market . Although stocks may bounce f rom oversold conditions , the prospect of rising interest rates and a slowing ec onomy are not developments that sit well with investors . '' ( First National Ba nk of Maryland ) . WALL STREET WATCH : `` Ever so slowly , market fundamentals a re improving . '' ( Trade Guide Indicator ) ... . `` I see a coming stock market crash which will take the Dow all the way down to 2,000 by the first quarter of 1995 . '' ( Joseph Granville ) .... `` The last two bear markets ( 1987 and 199 0 ) were mercifully short in duration . So short that many investors acquired th e notion that markets always snap back quickly . Investors who suffered through the long bear market of 1973-74 know differently . Don't be suckered into this r ally . '' ( Cabot Market Letter ) ... . `` Unfortunately , buying on dips this t ime around will probably cause more harm than good . '' ( Wall Street Bargains ) The following editorial appeared in Friday 's Washington Post : The Clinton adm inistration has asked a federal judge in Seattle to lift an injunction of three years ' standing and let logging resume on a limited basis in federal forests in the Northwest . The environmental groups whose lawsuit led to the logging ban i n 1991 don't like some aspects of the administration 's proposed new plan ; they want it tightened . Most of them nonetheless are not objecting to the lifting o f the injunction . Instead they will come back and try to tighten the timbering plan around the edges later . Partly they have adopted this accommodating postur e for political reasons . They fear they would lose if they took the harder line , that the judge would be unlikely to go along with them and that if he did and extended the injunction , Congress might well step in and change the underlying law . The groups are taking a certain amount of heat from some of their brethre n for `` selling out '' like this . Our own , contrary sense is that maybe the e nvironmentalists are finally learning how to win . Judge William Dwyer issued th e logging ban because of what he found to be a `` deliberate and systematic refu sal '' of the executive branch then the Bush administration `` to comply with th e laws protecting wildlife '' in the forests . The policy was to let the industr y log . If instead the law was to be observed and the logging was to be limited , someone else the judge was going to have to take the political heat for it . A n administration devoted to law and order in so many other circumstances was in this case going to sit on its hands . The Clinton administration has come up wit h a plan for much less logging . Most of the old-growth federal forest the fragm ent of the forest that remains , that is would be preserved . So would the threa tened wildlife within it , whose celebrated proxy has been the reclusive norther n spotted owl . The administration says the plan is scientifically based and wel l within the area of discretion set by the law . The critics complain that 20 to 30 percent of the remaining old-growth forest would still be open to logging , that the owl and other threatened species would remain at risk or near enough to justify further protection and that the runoff from logging under the plan woul d continue to damage salmon and other spawning areas . They want the judge to or der the plan made more protective in those respects-but in the meantime would le t the logging resume . That 's reasonable . Environmental disputes as complex an d bitter as this will never be settled to the total satisfaction of any side . B ut the administration seems to have come up with a plan that meets the tests of both pretty good policy and the law . That , too , is what the acquiescent posit ion of the environmental plaintiffs should be taken to signify . WASHINGTON The General Accounting Office has concluded that inadequate inspecti ons are being done to enforce a law that is supposed to protect thousands of chi ldren from devastating and irreversible lead poisoning . Homes where more than 3 00,000 children younger than 7 reside are not being tested adequately for the pr esence of lead-based paint until many of the children living in them are already sick , said the GAO , which is the congressional investigative agency . Childre n in this age group are most vulnerable to lead poisoning . Health experts say h igh levels of lead can damage a child 's nervous system , kidneys , reproductive system and mental development . Even low levels of lead can inhibit development and result in lower IQ scores and behavior problems . The agency 's investigati on , mandated by the Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act of 1992 , concluded that the regulations intended to protect children are not being fully enforced . The families covered live in privately owned homes and apartments an d get federal subsidies to help pay their rent . Most of them live in housing bu ilt before 1978 , when paint makers began removing lead from paint , the GAO sai d . When officials from public-housing authorities in Boston , New Orleans , Min neapolis and St. Paul , Minn. , inspected homes and apartments in visual searche s , they failed to spot such existing lead hazards as intact paint on window sil ls and sashes and floors , the GAO said . These hazards were found by local heal th agencies in seven of the 11 residences covered by the probe , even though `` public-housing authorities had recently inspected these homes visually and had n ot identified any such hazards . '' Lack of coordination among health and housin g workers also caused children to go untreated and housing uninspected , the GAO said . Local health agencies , which are responsible for testing the children , often did not ask where lead-poisoned children lived and did not notify housing authorities of the test results so that homes then could be checked for paint , according to the GAO . Public-housing authorities are responsible for administe ring Section 8 housing programs in which tenants ' rents are subsidized by the f ederal government . The program is one of the largest sources of housing for low - and moderate-income Americans . `` Our work shows that HUD 's regulations to p rotect children with elevated lead levels from further poisoning are not being i mplemented , '' the GAO report said . Only after a child was found to be poisone d was the intact paint in the home tested for the presence of lead , the report said . This practice has led advocates for lead-paint removal to contend that HU D is using children as `` guinea pigs '' to locate lead-based paint . The GAO sa id HUD has a responsibility to see that `` public-housing authorities receive th e information they need to protect children with elevated lead levels from furth er poisoning . '' The GAO recommended that HUD require property owners to notify public-housing officials when a local health agency finds dangerous levels of l ead-based paint in a home or apartment . Public-housing authorities also should be required to get addresses of children with high lead levels in their blood an d match them with addresses of residences that are part of the subsidized housin g program . Murky wording of the anti-lead legislation and congressional reports make it unclear whether Congress intended for the law to cover Section 8 housin g , the GAO said . The agency 's report said HUD officials nevertheless intend t o apply the act 's requirements to Section 8 housing , but also suggested that H UD consider clarifying the law . The investigators found that some regulations i ntended to protect children who already have elevated levels of lead in their bl ood from further poisoning also are not being implemented . Some lead-abatement advocates have expressed concern that numerous private landlords will stop parti cipating in the Section 8 program to avoid the expense of removing lead-based pa int from their properties . If Jimmy Buffett really is as laid-back and likable as he makes out , why does `` Fruitcakes '' ( MCA-11043 ) leave me wanting nothing so much as to smack him hard ? Could it be the cookie-cutter Caribbean rhythms that make each song sound almost exactly like the next ? Or is it his showy remake of the Kinks ' `` Sunn y Afternoon , '' which drains both the charm and the irony from the song ? No , the truly irritating thing about Buffett 's trademark whimsy is that it 's about as subtle as a surly drunk , grinding its nose into the listener 's face and de manding that we act amused a tall order , given that songs like `` Quietly Makin g Noise '' or `` Apocalypso '' are no funnier than their titles . So do yourself a favor , and give Buffett 's `` Fruitcakes '' as wide a berth as you 'd give t he Christmas kind . -0- No sooner did He-Who-Used-To-Be-Called-Prince close the doors on his Paisley Park empire than he uncorked his biggest hit in years , the endearingly drippy `` The Most Beautiful Girl in the World . '' What this means in terms of the Symbolic One 's career longevity is hard to say , but judging f rom `` The Beautiful Experience '' ( NPG 710003 ) , it 's way too early to count him out . Even though six of the seven tracks here are mere variations on the s ingle , they 're so completely reconfigured that it 's less like a remix EP than a sort of `` Most Beautiful Girl '' suite . There 's plenty of interesting rhyt hm play , from the stylish techno throb of `` Beautiful '' to the Sly Stone-infl ected dub of `` Sexy Staxaphone and Guitar . '' But it 's the `` Mustang Mix , ' ' with its slow , sexy lead vocal , that really makes this EP a truly beautiful experience . -0- Some folks might wish for eternal youth , but the truly wise wo uld settle for merely aging as well as Lena Horne has . Even though more than a half century has passed since she made her first recordings ( with the great Ted dy Wilson ) , `` We 'll Be Together Again '' ( Blue Note 28974 ) demonstrates th at Horne 's voice remains as stylish and expressive as ever . That 's not to say there hasn't been some wear on her voice ( understandable for a 76-year old ) , but Horne 's careful phrasing and well-shaded vibrato keeps that from becoming an issue . In fact , she more than holds her own against Johnny Mathis on `` Day Follows Day , '' and seems perfectly at home with the brassy funk of `` Love Li ke This can't Last . '' Class tells , as they say , but it 's singers like Lena Horne that make it truly listenable . -0- Country , as we all know , is the last bastion of family values in popular music , so what could be more appropriate g iven the current state of the American family than a pair of albums like `` Grea t Divorce Songs for Her '' ( Warner Bros. 45594 ) and `` Great Divorce Songs for Him '' ( Warner Bros.45598 ) ? Tellingly , most of the songs on the `` For Her '' collection are variations on the theme of `` what a louse he was , '' with Hi ghway 101 's `` Someone Else 's Trouble Now '' serving as a particularly stellar example . But ironically enough , it 's the `` For Him '' album that shows the most emotional range , from the traditional tear-in-my-beer approach of Eddie Ra bbitt 's `` Drinkin ' My Baby ( Off My Mind ) '' to the barely concealed glee of Hank Williams Jr. 's `` All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight . '' Could this really be where the Men 's Movement has made the most progress ? NEW YORK When Peter Lefcourt sat down recently to discuss his new novel , he ha d no idea that the book was about to kick up a front-page storm in Britain . The next day 's Sunday Express screamed : ` ` ` MY AFFAIR WITH DIANA ' BOOK ROW . ' ' Romance novelist Barbara Cartland , a step-grandmother to Princess Diana , tol d the London tabloid that Lefcourt 's `` Di and I '' should be banned , saying , `` It 's appalling that Diana can be used to sell fiction like this . '' Though it was doubtful that Cartland and other detractors had read the fictionalized a ccount of a love affair with the princess the book has yet to go on sale in Brit ain the Reuters news service picked up the story and exported it to the United S tates . In New York , where Lefcourt grew up , taught school and drove a taxi be fore moving to Los Angeles , WCBS-TV anchorman Tony Guida reported the `` Di and I '' story on Memorial Day with not-so-veiled disgust . But `` Di and I , '' pu blished in the United States by Random House , is not trash . Two years after pu blication of `` The Dreyfus Affair , '' Lefcourt 's well-received tale of two ma jor-league baseball players who fall in love ( with each other ) , his wildly im probable `` Di and I '' has enough page-turning hilarity and romance to make it a worthy candidate for beach reading . `` Di and I '' works like this : Embitter ed screenwriter Leonard Schecter , a Hollywood deal and divorce papers in hand , arrives in London to prepare a TV miniseries about Diana . He manages to grab a dance with her at a formal party and they click . Clandestine meetings then lea d to a sexually rich romance , and a bold escape from royal boredom , before Leo nard and Di settle down and open up a McDonald 's franchise in Rancho Cucamonga , Calif. . In this Cinderella story in reverse , Diana is portrayed as as appeal ingly sweet and fragile , an innocent who finds love outside of her painfully lo veless marriage . `` My reaction is that it 's really irrelevant for Cartland to comment without first reading the book , '' Lefcourt said . `` The book is mean t to be romantic and sweet and I think that Diana herself would be pleased . '' Lefcourt , 52 , a soft-spoken son of New York City , moved to Los Angeles in 197 2 . He had managed to sell a script for a murder mystery to Universal . `` Here I was , in L.A. , in my corduroy jacket , looking at Porsches , '' he recalled . The movie was not made , but by 1975 Lefcourt was writing for TV 's `` Eight Is Enough . '' He won an Emmy in 1985 for his work on `` Cagney and Lacey . '' In this country , the interest of `` Entertainment Tonight '' and other American sh ows should help move the 25,000 copies that make up Random House 's first printi ng . In Britain , where Sue Townsend 's humorous `` The Queen and I '' was a bes t seller last year , the horrified response of recent days should light , or may be scorch the path when Lefcourt arrives to promote his book on June 19 . -0- Bo ok Talk From L.A. : Visitors to the American Booksellers Association 's annual c onvention left Los Angeles this week with piles of books , catalogs , T-shirts a nd publishing tales such as these : The next headache for President Clinton may come in the form of Bob Woodward 's `` The Agenda : Inside the Clinton White Hou se . '' Woodward 's view at the top was described by one who has read the book a s unflattering when it comes to Clinton 's decision-making skills . Simon & Schu ster plans to put the book on sale immediately after `` 60 Minutes '' offers a f irst peek Sunday .. . Chuck Hogan , a young writer who has been supporting himse lf by working in a Boston video store , scored a $ 500,000-plus contract from Do ubleday for his first novel . Film rights are now in play for `` The Standoff , '' praised by Doubleday publisher Stephen Rubin as `` pure action , a thriller a bout a hostage negotiator who has to deal with a white supremacist in Idaho '' . . . ( Optional add end ) Random House has ambitious plans for the October public ation of Marlon Brando 's long-awaited autobiography . `` Brando : Songs My Moth er Taught Me , '' which includes as many as 100 photos from the actor 's collect ion , will be advertised extensively to support an anticipated print run of 500, 000 copies . But whether the enigmatic and reclusive Brando will step forward to support his own cause on the chat circuit appears doubtful . Random House publi sher Harold Evans said that Brando has agreed to answer p repared questions in f ront of a camera and this video will then be made available to interested media . Meanwhile , Hyperion intends to publish Peter Manso 's unauthorized bio of Bra ndo , a book that Evans called `` a spoiling operation '' .. . Barbara Bush said she felt `` kind of guilty hiding behind the dog '' when she wrote the canine c hronicle `` Millie 's Book '' ( and Millie , by the way , is `` absolutely wonde rful , a great companion still '' ) . But when the former first lady 's autobiog raphy is published by Scribners at summer 's end , she will be out on her own , with everyone from Barbara Walters to yes David Letterman planning to catch up w ith her life outside the White House . Mrs. Bush presented an overview of her me moir at an afternoon te a in Beverly Hills , Calif. , and boasted that she wrote every word on a laptop computer .. . Simon & Schuster Interactive took visitors aboard the Starship Enterprise as the publisher unveiled its lead CD-ROM title for the fall , `` Star Trek : The Next Generation Interactive Technical Manual , '' a virtually real tour of the TV spaceship in which ROM-equipped Trekkies are sure to get lost for hours . Good thing it 's an extra-long truck , with a name like Nissan XE-V6 King Cab 4 X4 Pickup . Every bit of it means something important , though . Nissan , of cou rse , is Japan 's second-largest carmaker . `` XE '' is an equipment level added for '94 that has most of the important items in the more expensive `` SE , '' b ut fewer frills to keep the price down . `` V6 '' refers to the optional engine , which produces 19 more horsepower than the standard four-cylinder . It runs on regular gas , but gets 3 mpg less than the four-cylinder in the city and highwa y . `` King Cab , '' not to be confused with king crab , means there 's extra st orage space behind the main seats , along with two , strictly-for-occasional-use , jump seats . `` 4X4 '' means four-wheel drive , in this case engaged from wit hin the vehicle via a floor lever . That 's better than systems that require goi ng outside and locking the hubs , but not as good as the more modern full-time s ystems or those engaged via pushbutton . The King Cab is available without the f our-wheel drive for $ 12,489 with freight . So its name tells you quite a bit ab out this truck . But it doesn't indicate that Nissan 's pickups are built in Ten nessee , with engines built mostly in Japan and transmissions built entirely in Japan . Nor does the name indicate that , like any small pickup , the XE-V6 etc. etc. rides a lot rougher than most cars and is generally less stable , particul arly in aggressive driving . And that , again like most competitors , it lacks a n air bag . Or that the dashboard is new for '94 but lacks a cupholder , though the optional console is an acceptable substitute . The name indicates nothing ab out price , either , which can be steep . Our tester listed for $ 17,984 with fr eight , a plastic bed liner and optional air conditioning , tilt wheel , cruise control , tachometer , AM-FM stereo/cassette player , fancy wheels and several o ther cosmetic and convenience items . Power windows and locks are not available in the XE-V6 etc. etc . Automatic transmission would add $ 1,000 . The five-spee d is typical of those in light trucks , with a very low first-gear ratio for off roading , and with long throws compared with those of most cars . The name give s no hint , either , of the quality of Nissan 's trucks , which is above average , according to J.D. . Power and Associates . Nor does the name indicate that th e King Cab has the medium-sized of three cargo box lengths offered in Nissan pic kups . It 's about an inch longer than the standard bed , but 14.6 inches shorte r than the long bed . But , then , a more specific name like `` Nissan XE-V6 Kin g Cab 4X4 Medium-Sized Bed Hard Riding Not Too Cheap But Pretty Good Quality Ten nessee-Built Air Bag-Less and Cupholder-Less '' pickup might have to be continue d on the next truck . Engine : 3.0-liter V-6 , 153 horsepower . Transmission : Five-speed manual , re ar- or four-wheel drive . Safety : Manual belts , side-impact beams , rear antil ock brakes . Weight : 3,765 pounds . Box Size : 74.6 inches long , 59.8 inches w ide . Base Price : $ 16,989 , including destination charge . EPA Mileage : 15 mp g city , 19 mpg highway . Incongruous or what ? The hotel dining room is posh , brocaded in silks , and t hrough its stately aisles rush liveried waiters with the muted aplomb of funeral directors . Swanky bouquets detonate their expensive colors on each linen-shrou ded table , and the silverware and crystal gleam like diamonds in a tiara . And there , in the middle of it all , sits .. . Laverne ? Yes , Laverne that is , Pe nny Marshall , with those sad Brooklyn eyes and the look of being endlessly put- upon , sitting in a funk of exhaustion so dense it would , a few days later , ca use her to collapse and briefly enter the hospital . Her eyes are blue , her hai r is blond , she 's tan as a surfer and yet everything about her says Brooklyn . Go figure . You can take the woman out of Brooklyn , but you can't take Brookly n out of the woman . Marshall , like her colleague Ron Howard , has the entwined good luck/bad fortune to be forever identified by a television role ; no matter that , like Howard , she has since leaving the tube built an extraordinarily su ccessful career as a film director . After a shaky start on `` Jumpin ' Jack Fla sh , '' she segued neatly into three first-class projects `` Big , '' `` Awakeni ngs '' and `` A League of Their Own . '' To these she brought her learned-on-TV professionalism , a shrewd sense of comedy and feeling , and rigorous toughness . Now , fighting off the exhaustion that attended the ordeal of finishing her la test film , she 's out on the hustings beating up some attention for it . It 's `` Renaissance Man , '' with Danny DeVito as a former ad man who 's forced to ta ke a job on an Army post teaching some dim basic trainees the art of `` comprehe nsion , '' which he does through the use of Shakespeare 's `` Hamlet . '' `` I l iked what it had to say , '' says Marshall , firing up a cigarette and sucking d own a lungful of tar , then expelling it in a blast of haze . `` It 's a teachin g movie , like ` Goodbye , Mr . Chips ' and ` To Sir With Love . ' The Army is t he last place for a lot of kids to go to get a chance to become someone . '' She also was attracted to the character DeVito plays , a Detroit advertising man na med Bill Rado who , in his 50s , loses his job and has to start over . `` He los es his job at that age ; it 's like losing everything . But he manages to surviv e and even triumph ; it shows that it 's never too late to find something that i s meaningful for you . '' ( Begin optional trim ) That almost sounds like Marsha ll herself , who after 7 prosperous years on television lost her job , with few prospects . How on earth did she go from whiny , adenoidal Laverne to the person who gets to yell `` Action '' ? `` I wish I could say it was something I 'd wor ked my whole life to get and that I was really prepared for . But what happened was that they were having a lot of trouble with ` Jumpin ' Jack Flash ' and had just fired the director . And someone saw me eating dinner with Whoopi Goldberg and said , ` Oh , she can get along with Whoopi . ' So I got the job , even thou gh at the time I 'd only directed a few TV shows . I was in way over my head , b ut somehow I got through it . '' The next three films were big , Oscar-nominated hits , of the sort that would make a male director employable for the rest of h is life . But here she is , handing out interviews in a dining room to get the p roject a few more yards of ink . The script came to her from Jim Burnstein , a p rofessor of English in the Detroit area , who actually had spent some time in th e '70s teaching Shakespeare to air national guardsmen at a base in Michigan . ( End optional trim ) `` I chose Danny for two reasons . First of all , because he was the complete antithesis of everything that said ` Army . ' And second , bec ause in teacher movies , the guy who loves Shakespeare always has graying temple s and a perfectly clipped accent . I wanted the Shakespeare lover to sound like a normal person , a regular guy . For the same reason , when I use the St. Crisp ian 's Day speech from ` Henry V , ' I put it in the mouth of someone else who s ounds like me Lilo Brancato Jr. , who has that New York sound . '' Ultimately , she says , the purpose of `` Renaissance Man '' is practical . `` When I was in school , boy , did I not want to flunk . Teachers had power , and if you had hom ework , you handed it in geometry , history , math ; it didn't matter , you hand ed it in . I didn't care about any of those things , just as the kids in the mov ie might not care about Shakespeare or ` Hamlet . ' But I learned the discipline of learning and that applied across the board , and it became a necessary skill for everything that came afterwards . `` Now the teachers don't have the power to enforce anything , and you can see the results . The movie is finally about t hat : doing your homework , studying hard and learning the discipline of educati on . '' The week 's Top 10 national video rentals are : 1 . `` Mrs. Doubtfire '' 2 . `` A Perfect World '' 3 . `` Carlito 's Way '' 4 . `` Malice '' 5 . `` Cool Runnin gs '' 6 . `` The Three Musketeers 7 . `` The Remains of the Day '' 8 . `` Addams Family Values '' 9 . `` The Fugitive '' 10 . The last video you 'd expect to need a giant ad campaign is `` Jurassic Park , '' the world box-office champ . You 'd think that an ordinary campaign plus word of mouth would be enough to trigger stampedes to video outlets . But when it de buts on video Oct. 4 , priced at $ 25 , `` Jurassic Park '' will be supported by a whopping $ 65 million promotional and advertising campaign . Overkill ? A was te of ad dollars ? Andrew Kairey , MCA/Universal 's senior vice president of mar keting and sales , doesn't think so . `` Nothing is an easy sell , '' he said . `` You have to make consumers aware of the tape and make it an attractive purcha se . '' This video , though , has to be the lock of the year in the video market . The betting is that `` Jurassic , '' which will be routinely discounted to th e $ 14 to $ 15 range , will gobble up the sales record of Disney 's `` Aladdin , '' which has topped 24 million copies . Yet video retailers are unhappy about o ne aspect of MCA/Universal 's promotional plan a tie-in with McDonald 's . Start ing Nov. 18 , by making a purchase at the hamburger outlet , you can buy for $ 6 one of four MCA/Universal videos : `` The Land Before Time , '' `` An American Tail : Fievel Goes West , '' `` Back to the Future '' or `` Field of Dreams . '' Each tape will include a $ 2.50 mail-in rebate on a `` Jurassic Park '' video . Retailers simply don't want McDonald 's meddling in the video business . Not on ly is a tape sold at a fast-food outlet money out of their pockets , it also pri mes consumers for further purchases at such restaurants , rather than video stor es . And the low price undercuts the retailers , prompting fears that customers will balk at paying the average store cost of $ 15- $ 20 for a video . MCA/Unive rsal 's Kairey defends the rebate deal , arguing that it sends consumers back to video stores . `` They have to purchase the ( ` Jurassic Park ' ) tape at a ret ail store , which increases traffic at the retail level , '' he said . -0- VIDEO BITS : The early returns are in on `` The Return of Jafar , '' Disney 's direct- to-video sequel to `` Aladdin . '' The company reports that nearly 5 million of the 8 million units shipped were sold in the first week . Consumers were obvious ly responding to the ads and ignoring the negative reviews. .. . MCA/Universal i s following in Disney 's footsteps with a direct-to-video sequel to its 1988 ani mated feature `` The Land Before Time . '' The tape , `` The Land Before Time : Great Valley Adventure , '' is due Dec. 27 at $ 20 . -0- SPECIAL INTEREST VIDEOS : The best of the Jackie Onassis tapes is A&E 's documentary `` Jacqueline Kenn edy Onassis , '' priced at $ 20. .. . The market is jammed with tapes that are t he video equivalent of elevator music , but `` Coral Sea Dreaming '' is much bet ter than the norm . It features gorgeous visuals of the Great Barrier Reef accom panied by an intriguing score . From Small World Music for $ 30 . ( 800-757-2277 ) . .. . Cabin Fever Entertainment has just put out four new Laurel and Hardy t itles at $ 10 each : `` Scram ! , '' `` Their First Mistake , '' `` Towed in a H ole '' and `` Twice Two. '' .. . On June 15 , CBS-Fox will put out , at $ 15 , ` ` Dream Team II , '' showcasing the National Basketball Association players on t he team participating in the world basketball championships in Toronto Aug. 4-14 . -0- TECH NEWS : Portable CD players are a lot more attractive these days . Th e hot models are equipped with anti-shock memory buffers , which cut down on sou nd skipping that happens when the machine is moved around . These machines , whi ch had been retailing in the $ 300 range , are selling as low as $ 150 from Sony and Sanyo/Fisher . Also , more companies , such as Kenwood and Panasonic , have introduced models this year . Two more have joined the bandwagon . Aiwa has a $ 190-model coming next month and Magnavox has one , priced at $ 219 , due in ear ly fall . -0- WHAT 'S NEW ON VIDEO : `` Short Cuts '' ( Columbia TriStar ) . For about three hours , co-writer-director Robert Altman weaves together myriad min i-dramas about unhappy Californians , featuring a star-studded cast including An die McDowell , Robert Downey Jr. and Madeline Stowe . The film earned Altman an Oscar nomination for best director . If you prefer movies with linear story line s and few subplots , you 'll likely have a hard time getting into this one . `` Firecreek '' ( Warner , $ 30 ) . An excellent but often overlooked 1968 Western about a kindly sheriff ( James Stewart ) battling a gang of bad guys , with Henr y Fonda playing the chief villain . It would be wonderful to report that the Image Entertainment release of Billy W ilder 's `` The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes '' ( $ 60 ) is the 1970 film as the co-writer/director originally intended it . Alas , it is not . But it is as close as we are likely to come in the foreseeable future , unless Holmes himself unearths the original roadshow edition shot by the fabled director but never re leased by United Artists . What Image 's laser wizards have done , however , is reassemble as closely as possible a glimpse of what might have been had the stud io kept faith with the director of `` Some Like It Hot '' and `` Sunset Boulevar d . '' The original `` Private Life ... , '' written by Wilder and longtime coll aborator I.A.L. Diamond , was a two-hour , 45-minute exploration of the previous ly untold private life of Arthur Conan Doyle 's legendary master of deductive re asoning . Wilder said that he designed the film as a symphony in four movements , structured around a prologue in which Dr. Watson 's grandson discovers four of his grandfather 's unpublished stories from 221B Baker St. . One of many road-s how films that dotted the late '60s to lure `` Laugh-In '' and `` Welby '' couch potatoes into theaters for `` event '' movies , it had the misfortune to follow several failed events ( `` Star ! , '' `` Paint Your Wagon '' ) , and so the st udio hacked it down to two hours and five minutes . What was trimmed was the pro logue and two cases that helped reveal what Wilder intended as `` a serious stud y of Holmes , '' an attempt to explain the cerebral , ascetic `` dope addict '' and `` misogynist . '' Starring as Holmes is Robert Stephens ( Wilder 's origina l choice was Peter O' Toole ) and Colin Blakely ( Peter Sellers was the original choice for the good doctor ) . The missing elements are diabolically frustratin g . First , the producers of the two-disc laser found the video of the missing ` ` The Dreadful Business of the Naked Honeymooners '' but not the audio track . T he clever reconstruction includes the video with subtitled dialogue from one of the found original scripts . As such , it 's a chance for true interactivity for aspiring thespians and Holmes fans : Just assign the parts to viewers in your l iving room . Then , the producers found only the audio of the second missing seq uence , `` The Curious Case of the Upside Down Room . '' No video was ever found . The audio alone is wonderfully effective , like listening to an old radio pro gram . All in all , the missing pieces seem to come together to give us more tha n a hint of what Wilder originally had in mind . The film itself , in a sharp di gital film transfer using the original 2.35:1 Panavision aspect ratio ( annoying to those who hate large black borders and narrow video ) , is an enjoyable piec e of work even in its abbreviated version . The atmospheric Miklos Rozsa score c an be heard without dialogue and sound effects since it has been isolated on the right digital and analog tracks . Music cue sheets also are included . Excellen t liner notes detail Wilder 's vision , from writing the film itself to using Ro zsa 's passionate Violin Concerto , Opus 24 . The concerto , originally written for Jascha Heifitz , ultimately served as the skeleton around which the movie wa s fleshed out . -0- LASERBITS : New Movies Just Out : `` The Piano '' ( LIVE , l etterboxed , $ 40 ) ; `` The Remains of the Day '' ( Columbia TriStar , $ 40 ) ; `` Short Cuts '' ( New Line , $ 50 ) ; `` The Joy Luck Club '' ( Hollywood/Imag e Entertainment , letterboxed , $ 40 ) ; `` A Dangerous Woman '' ( MCA/Universal , $ 35 ) . Coming Soon : Paramount 's `` Wayne 's World 2 '' with Dana Carvey a nd Mike Myers is due Wednesday ; Columbia TriStar 's `` Rudy , '' starring Sean Astin , is scheduled for June 22 , at $ 35 ; Buena Vista 's `` Aladdin , '' rele ased through Image Entertainment , will be released Sept. 21 , at $ 30 , with a letterboxed THX special edition going for $ 50 ; `` Tim Burton 's Nightmare Befo re Christmas , '' also on Image , will be released Nov. 16 , at $ 30 and in a $ 100 collector 's edition . HOLLYWOOD Good morning , Normandy ! This is an invasion . The D-Day documentari es , black-and-white newsreel footage and testimonials from military veterans an d former riveting Rosies are this spring 's blitzkrieg , dusting off memories wh ile massing on television in such force that you can hardly keep count . With th e 50th anniversary of the Allies ' liberating invasion of France so near , U.S. media are hitting Normandy with everything they 've got , waves and waves of cam era crews scurrying across its beaches like sand crabs . Although the elements o f spectacle are ever present , it 's encouraging , at least , to see television cover an event not of its own making . The invasion cost the lives of 23,000 Ame rican troops . `` Only those who were there know how horrendous it was , '' ABC 's Peter Jennings reported on videotape from the French coast during Wednesday n ight 's `` Turning Point . '' Surely most on the home front never understood the horror . Especially the children . Reared on simplified war movies that were as dispensable as popcorn and isolated from the actual killing fields by their geo graphy , that generation of American kids sealed themselves inside an impenetrab le play world where war was a dreamy reality at best and death was an abstractio n . There was no television to speak of during World War II and the immediate po st-war years . No slaughters in Los Angeles , Bosnia , Haiti , Sudan , Gaza or R wanda that anyone could see , no nightly pictures of rotted , fly-buzzed corpses baking in the sun . No wretched victims dying right there on the screen , nothi ng on a mass scale that could convey to the very young just how gory and grim wa r was . That wouldn't happen until Vietnam . `` Real war is never like paper war , '' Ernest Hemingway wrote , `` nor do accounts of it read much the way it loo ks . '' To many kids of that era , it looked this way : Bang-bang , you 're aliv e . I remember playing lots of baseball with my friends as a kid in Kansas City , Mo. . Just as vivid are my memories of having fun playing guns . For us , only one thing could compare to the crack of a bat hitting a ball , and that was the crack of gunfire , at least as we innocently imagined it . We provided our own sound effects , even our own danger ( dum-de-dum-de-dum-de-dum ) music . There w as something very romantic about the fantasy of both shooting someone and preten ding to get gunned down yourself , grunting and clutching your chest in mock ago ny while keeling over , then getting back up and starting the game again . To us , war was a game , an exercise in heroism minus real casualties . Some things s tay in your head . One afternoon in the winter of 1949 , my neighbor Jody Aldric h and I returned from the Fiesta Theater excited and energized after watching a Saturday matinee of `` Battleground , '' a movie about Americans fighting and dy ing in the Battle of the Bulge . Hearts pounding , we tore into our houses and i n only a few minutes were back outside with our plastic guns ( I think mine was a Thompson 's submachine gun ) , brown infantry helmets and other soldier gear , re-fighting World War II in the snow . Being two years older than I , Jody pull ed rank and , as a result , I got killed probably a dozen times that afternoon , hitting the white ground so often that my clothes took on a glacial rigidity . What fun . It all came back to me while watching `` Turning Point . '' I contras ted my childhood war games with the recollections of Normandy survivors , their voices at times cracking with emotion after all these years . `` I curled up as small as I could . '' `` Twenty or 30 G.I.s who had gotten up ran smack into a s hell . '' `` They were just mowed down . '' `` Men were getting hit , you know , drowning . '' `` His eyeballs .. . were hanging down . '' Reuniting America wit h its dead sons , the 90-minute program ended with an overview of white crosses at Normandy 's military cemetery , where so many soldiers are buried beneath a b it of the ground they fought to free . During `` The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour '' on PBS Tuesday , artist and Normandy survivor Tracy Sugerman asserted that the m emory of what happened there will be `` dusty and meaningless '' to today 's chi ldren and future generations . A disturbing thought . Yet sadly , he 's right , and it 's something that cannot be changed by all the history lessons in the wor ld . Time is too great a barrier to overcome , rendering us all uncaring amnesia cs when it comes to the major crises experienced by our predecessors . Thus , a lot of people are probably tiring of this history lesson that is now preoccupyin g so much television , even though it memorializes a seminal event of a war that changed the 20th century . It must seem as abstract to them as it was to war-pl aying kids in 1949 , especially compared to the contemporary violence that inter sects their lives nightly via their favorite newscast . On CNN Thursday came thi s report from Rwanda : `` We saw nine bodies . When we got closer , we could see five were alive , barely alive . Then we witnessed a government soldier shootin g one . '' In the 1990s , business as usual . Unfortunately , it 's hard for man y to get worked up over Normandy when there 's so much in the present that compe tes for our attention and fear , as television relentlessly reminds us of today 's killing fields both abroad and in the United States , where even children no longer the innocents of yesteryear have access to firearms . And instead of toys , these guns are real . Bang-bang , you 're dead . It was almost a year ago that five male livery cab drivers in suburban New York accused a male police officer of rape , and for most of that year local reporte rs , usually gluttons for sex and sensation , didn't write a word . Now , when t hey do mention the charges , many employ adjectives like `` outlandish '' and `` bizarre , '' as though the very idea of male rape by a law officer is almost be yond belief . So it may come as a surprise that at least one highly regarded ant i-rape organization estimates that the rape of men is as common as the rape of w omen in our society , and that law enforcement officials frequently play at leas t a peripheral role . I 'm referring to male rape in prison , which claims about 290,000 victims a year , according to the group Stop Prisoner Rape . By compari son , the Bureau of Justice Statistics of the U.S. Department of Justice estimat es that 150,000 females are raped annually . True , some independent experts con sider SPR 's 290,000 estimate which does not include consensual sex in prison so mething of an overcount , and some anti-rape activists consider the BJS ' 150,00 0 figure something of an undercount , but that still leaves the figures for male and female rape in roughly the same ballpark . ( For the record , anti-rape act ivists distinguish male rape from homosexual rape : Whether in prison or out , m ale rapists are seldom gay . ) Why , then , do we hear so little about male rape ? For one thing , SPR president Stephen Donaldson says , victims of male rape a re rarely middle-class types with easy access to the media , and even if they we re , the stigma attached to male rape dissuades most victims from complaining . For another , there is a widespread sentiment in this lock-'em-up society that v iolent criminals who get raped are getting just what they deserve . The irony , says Donaldson , is that the victims are generally the least violent inmates . B ut perhaps the most problematic aspect of prisoner rape is the tacit acquiescenc e of many law officers . It 's one thing for some violent male criminals , locke d away for years , to attempt rape as a vehicle for social domination , sexual r elease or both . It 's quite another for law enforcement personnel to wink at th e problem . Or worse , contribute to it . Yet , says Donaldson , prison authorit ies generally deny that rape exists in their institutions , take few steps to pr event it , and sometimes even set it up . Donaldson himself , a Quaker pacifist arrested during an anti-war demonstration in 1973 , says a guard placed him amid violent criminals as punishment . He was raped more than 40 times his first nig ht in the cellblock . As to the rape of prisoners by guards themselves , Donalds on says , `` It is not as common as assaults by prisoners , but more common than most people realize . '' Yet we virtually never hear about it , which is hardly surprising . `` Where it 's a prisoner 's word against a guard 's , nobody 's g oing to take the prisoner seriously . '' His group advises those who have been s exually assaulted by guards to `` band together and show a whole pattern of abus e , on the assumption that a guard who gets away with raping one prisoner is lik ely to be doing it to others . '' That sounds logical . Demonstrating a pattern of rape by a law officer should be more convincing than a single accusation . Bu t it doesn't seem to have convinced law enforcement officials in the Rockaways , where five civilians have charged that that a cop raped them , four others clai m to have witnessed one of the rapes , and yet there is no indictment . I don't know what , if anything , happened in the New York incident , and neither does D onaldson , but he isn't surprised at the reaction to the charges . `` On the con trary , '' he says , `` what I find incredible is the notion that a bunch of wor king-class guys would invent a story in which they would popularly be considered to have lost their manhood . In that sense , it 's far more incredible to think that this didn't happen than to think that it did . '' Provided , of course , o ne acknowledges that male rape happens regularly in our society , and often unde r the watchful eye of the law . Utopian writer Edward Bellamy put it this way : `` If bread is the first necess ity of life , recreation is a close second . '' That was a century ago . Since t hen , through the cycle of the Industrial Revolution with all its gilded promise s of machines to save us time and work , Americans remain uneasy with play . We yearn for it , fret about it and throw our money in quest of it . But we don't r egard it seriously . `` It 's a very contradictory part of America , '' says Joh n R. Kelly , professor of sociology and leisure studies at the University of Ill inois . `` There is increased emphasis in people 's lives on what we call leisur e . Still , in the social ideology is the concept that if something is not produ ctive , it 's not important . '' Now the nation crosses the threshold of a new I nformation and Technology Revolution . And it appears Americans once again are b eguiled by the promise of machines . These new electronic devices will make us s marter , bring to our fingertips the wonders of the world and worlds beyond , en tertain us and delight us . If you follow the breathless promotions closely , yo u might even arrive at a neo-utopian vision wherein technology can erase the dis tinction between work and play , so we willn't have to feel guilty about leisure any more . One machine will do it all we will earn our livelihoods from it , pl ay on it , learn , organize ourselves , establish friendships , let it entertain us , and have the unheard of mobility to do all of this while we roam the count ryside on our own schedules . Finally , we will be in charge of our lives . Not buying this promise are some of those who study leisure as a necessary component to human balance and satisfaction . These thinkers offer at least two contrasti ng expressions of skepticism about tomorrow 's technology . Kelly subscribes to the `` big mirage theory . '' That is , technology is evolutionary and not revol utionary ; it may alter how we do things , but not what we do . `` Vastly overbl own , '' Kelly says about foretold changes in American life . The huge costs of technology , its inherent complexity and longstanding patterns of cultural behav ior will naturally , and significantly , modulate the process of social transfor mation . `` Technology doesn't change things very much in the small worlds in wh ich people live . Most people still live in families , they eat dinner , go on v acation . Change will have to fit in with that , '' he says . So , a 12-year-old obsessively playing with dolls or toy soldiers in 1950 is not so much different from today 's youngsters fixated on their beeping Game Boys . A more disturbing view comes from other scholars . As they see it , technology is rapidly separat ing us from the natural world , blurring the distinctions between what is real a nd what is not , substituting vicarious stimulation for actual experience , and giving us no leisure relief from the relentless acceleration of time . The bally hooed coming of virtual reality is particularly unsettling to these experts . As envisioned , these machines will simulate places and experiences without requir ing physical effort or skill , for instance deep sea diving without getting wet . `` Our definition of mental illness and sanity is the ability to distinguish b etween what is real and what is not , '' says Geoffrey Godby , professor of leis ure studies at Penn State . `` People already are yearning for what is real . Wh y else would a highly sugared nut beverage be marketed as ` the real thing ? ' . . . Leisure is giving oneself to an act , not taking something from it . And tec hnology is no friend of that . '' ( Optional add end ) At California State Unive rsity , Northridge , Al Wright , professor of leisure studies , says he is stagg ered , overwhelmed and depressed at how little students know of the real world a round them . For example , urban youth have seen so many images of rivers that r eal rivers hold no mystery . `` Then I take them out to a river , and they say , ` Oh my gosh , I didn't know this is what a river sounds like. ' ' ' Wright fea rs that Americans will accept simulated experience and never know what they are missing . `` And it willn't result in the same benefit , '' he adds . Virtually all experts in the field say Americans undervalue leisure even in the face of ov erwhelming data that show that well-rounded individuals live longer and happier . Rather than trying to intermingle work and play , these scholars say Americans need more thoughtful emphasis on leisure apart from toil . How important is it ? `` I 'll answer that with a question , '' says Brett Wright , a professor of r ecreation at George Mason University . `` How important is it to sleep ? To eat ? To breath ? We can't continue to rob ourselves of it . We can't sustain our li ves without it . Psychologically , we 're beginning to reach that point . '' Per haps the most important ingredient of leisure is the release from the pressure o f time . And in this regard , even the most enthusiastic futurists offer little consolation . Rather than measure time by the seasons as their ancestors did , A mericans now rush to upgrade their IBM 286 computers for the marginally faster 4 86 , compressing time into ever quickening bursts . This , despite their lament , expressed in poll after poll , that society is too fast-paced already . Says G odby : `` Efficiency is the most important value in American life . We are becom ing ever more efficient , at the resultant death of tranquillity . Whatever happ ened to tranquillity anyway ? '' It would probably be overstating things to suggest that revenge was the main th ing John Lydon had in mind when he wrote his memoir of the Sex Pistols but not b y much . After all , the Sex Pistols ' saga has been hashed over from every imag inable angle . There have been music histories , such as Jon Savage 's award-win ning `` England 's Dreaming , '' cultural analyses along the lines of Greil Marc us ' wide-ranging and impenetrable `` Lipstick Traces , '' even a few films , li ke Alex Cox 's `` Sid & Nancy . '' But none of them , in Lydon 's view , came cl ose to getting the story straight . `` It 's terrible that my own life has been taken away from me in that respect , and re-written for me , without me supposed to have a word to say about it , '' he says , over the phone from Los Angeles . So Lydon ( or Johnny Rotten ) decided to do something about it , and wrote his own book : `` Rotten : No Irish , No Blacks , No Dogs , '' a 329-page memoir tha t traces his path from the slums of London to the height of pop culture infamy . It 's a fascinating book , and not just because it tells about the original Sid Vicious ( a `` soppy white hamster that used to live in a cage on the corner ta ble in my parents ' living room '' ) or what Lydon 's audition with the Sex Pist ols was like ( `` No , I will not mime to ` Maggie May ''' ) . What Lydon offers is a warts-and-all view of what was then the world 's most-feared rock band , o ne that balances his own recollections with sometimes contradictory comments fro m others who were part of that scene . It 's not the most flattering way to asse mble an autobiography , but then , Lydon wasn't interested in feeding the Sex Pi stols myth . `` People seem to thrive on fantasy , '' he complains . `` It 's a shame , because I think the truth is far more interesting and certainly more use ful . Reality at least you can learn something from . '' That 's not to say Lydo n 's memories aren't occasionally shaded to his own benefit . Just ask Pretender s frontwoman Chrissie Hynde , who knew Lydon even before the Sex Pistols started to pop . Hynde is apparently miffed about an interview Lydon did with the Engli sh music magazine Q , in which he dismisses the story that he was once to have m arried Hynde so she could have stayed in England . `` He says , ` Oh , I wouldn' t have married Chrissie Hynde , that would have been a lifelong commitment , '' ' she huffs . `` Which was the last thing any of us was thinking about at the ti me . `` He never mentions in his book that he got married to a woman who was a m ulti-millionaire , and who was just about to inherit a great deal of money . He doesn't really talk about a lot of the stuff that I could have talked about ! Bu t he turns around and trashes me the minute the book comes out . `` I still love him , '' she adds . `` I mean , we all know he 's a back-stabber . Everyone kno ws that . '' He 's also more than happy to own up to contradictions like that on e . `` Rotten , '' to its credit , does include a lengthy interview segment in w hich Hynde gives her side of the muddled matrimony story as well as similar bits drawing upon the memories of scenesters like Billy Idol , Julien Temple and Mac ro Pirroni , plus fellow Pistols Paul Cook and Steve Jones . Why the interviews ? `` As the book slowly but surely started to come together , I wanted to introd uce other voices , '' Lydon explains . `` And have you ever tried interviewing y our own father ? Well , it doesn't work . So I got Keith and Kent ( Zimmerman ) in to help me on things like that . Because it became impossible for me to do it any more on my own . '' Lydon insists that , by writing `` Rotten , '' he can f inally put the whole Sex Pistols era behind him . On the one hand , it 's easy t o believe him when he says there will never be a Sex Pistols reunion ( he 's too happy with his own music , particularly the solo album he 's working on ) ; on the other hand , it 's hard to imagine him passing up the opportunity to wax sar castic on his old band 's legacy . Take , for example , the Sex Pistols ' impact on today 's bands : `` I 'm sure there are some who genuinely do appreciate us for what we were , '' he says . `` But I 'm mystified as to what element they ge t from it . They can imitate the music , but that 's where they stop . They don' t seem to be dealing with serious problems . They shy away from them , in fact . I find that rather sad . '' Six days before he was shot while delivering a speech at the University of Cali fornia , Riverside , Khallid Muhammad , the former national spokesman for the Na tion of Islam , appeared in a pre-taped session of the `` Donahue '' show . Anyo ne who saw the show May 23 would not have been surprised by the events of May 29 . During the show Muhammad expressed love for Colin Ferguson , the man accused of killing whites and Asians on a commuter train in New York . In an analogy dra wn by those who hover perilously close to the lunatic fringe , he confided that he loved Colin Ferguson just as white America loved its killers Generals Schwarz kopf , Westmoreland , Patton , MacArthur and Eisenhower . So suspect No. 1 in th e shooting might have been some neo-Nazi or skinhead type who took Muhammad at h is word that white America and black America are in a shooting war in which sold iers from each side are expected to go out and gun down unarmed civilians . It w ould be unlike Muhammad to go an entire hour without hurling some bit of invecti ve against Jews . And so he did . Phil Donahue played a segment of a Muhammad sp eech in which he referred to the `` hook-nosed , bagel-eatin ' , lox-eatin ' , i mposter-perpetrating-a-fraud , johnny-come-lately , just-crawled-out-of-the-cave s-and-hills-of-Europe wanna-be Jew ... '' Since Muhammad repeated the phrase at Cal-Riverside in his Sunday speech , we can only assume it must be one of his fa vorites . So suspect No. 2 might have been some member of the Jewish Defense Lea gue whipped into a state of high dudgeon after hearing the insult one too many t imes . Folks on the lunatic fringe , you see , often have a fatal attraction for one another . Thus it came as no surprise that the suspect in the Muhammad shoo ting turned out to be a former Nation of Islam minister one James Edward Best . Violence in the Nation of Islam is nothing new . When I mentioned that obvious a nd well-documented fact in an opinion piece a while back , some folks in the Nat ion of Islam pretended not to know what I was talking about . One wrote to me fr om Dayton , Ohio . Dr. Waheed S. Al- ' Araby took issue with my assertion that a hit squad from the Newark , N.J. , mosque of the Nation of Islam assassinated M alcolm X in Harlem 's Audubon Ballroom Feb. 21 , 1965 . `` I challenge Kane to p roduce any evidence to support this one more deranged innuendo , '' Dr. Al- ' Ar aby sneered . I don't need any evidence . I 've got something even better a conf ession from the only man arrested at the scene of the crime and convicted for it . Talmadge Hayer 's confession has been on record for some time now . I urge me mbers of the Nation of Islam to give it a careful reading . But the Malcolm X as sassination is only the most famous example of factional violence spawned by dis putes within the Nation of Islam . Others are : The beating of Aubrey Barnette , the secretary of the Boston mosque in 1964 . Barnette left the Nation of Islam at about the same time as Malcolm X . ( Louis Farrakhan then Louis X of the Bost on mosque called Barnette a `` bourgeois Negro '' for asserting his independence . ) Barnette wrote an expose for the Saturday Evening Post that same year descr ibing how top Nation of Islam officials were fleecing their followers . For his trouble , Barnette received a fractured vertebra , broken ribs and ankle and kid ney damage from the beating . The beating of another Malcolm X ally , Leon 4X Am eer , in a Boston hotel in December 1964 by a Nation of Islam goon squad . Ameer was left unconscious in the bathtub of his hotel room with broken ribs and rupt ured eardrums . The murder of Hanafi Muslims in Washington in January 1973 by ei ght members of the Nation of Islam 's Philadelphia mosque . The target of the at tack was Amaas Abdul Khaalis , a former minister of the Nation of Islam who had been critical of then-leader Elijah Muhammad . Khaalis wasn't home , so the thug s took their wrath out on his family and members of his sect . Khaalis ' 10-year -old son was shot in the head and killed . His 23-year-old daughter was also sho t in the head but survived . Two other sect members were shot , one fatally . Mo st tragic and despicable of all was the drowning of three infants whom the murde rers found in Khaalis ' home . Yet Al- ' Araby took issue with a claim in my ear lier column suggesting that the Nation of Islam has only been violent with black people . He ordered me to apologize publicly to Louis Farrakhan , which I inten d to do one split second before hell freezes over . As for Farrakhan 's former n ational spokesman who is recovering in a Riverside hospital perhaps he has learn ed that vitriolic language only attracts members of the lunatic fringe . Some of them may be for you today and against you tomorrow . As Khallid Muhammad recove rs from his wounds , we can only hope that he has learned the value of keeping a civil tongue in his head . Three years ago , some 38 million Americans in their 20s were dubbed Generation X : a grungy , angry , hopeless group of gripers . But a backlash is emerging a s many say that stereotype is wrong . Here 's a brief history of the labeling of a generation . 1990 In a July cover story , Time magazine christens today 's yo ung adults `` the twentysomething generation , '' spawning similar articles in o ther publications . 1991 Douglas Coupland 's novel `` Generation X '' is publish ed in April . Critics call it a guidebook for the twentysomething set . His book 's user-friendly pages include Gen X lingo such as `` McJob '' `` A low-pay , l ow-prestige , low-dignity , low-benefit , no-future job in the service sector . '' The first Lollapalooza tour a packaging of bands popular among the Generation X crowd sells out amphitheaters across the country during the summer and attrac ts throngs to its midway of body-piercing booths . In July , the film `` Slacker '' is released , setting off a bandwagon effect of other Gen X movies . In Sept ember , Kurt Cobain and his band , Nirvana , release the album `` Nevermind , '' bringing the alternative Seattle sound and grunge wear plaid flannel shirts and ripped jeans to the Gen X masses . Fans hail Cobain 's anti-anthem single , `` Smells Like Teen Spirit '' and tag him the voice of antisocial slackers . Less t han three years later , Cobain commits suicide . 1992 `` The Real World '' an MT V docu-soap makes its debut in May , depicting a cross-section of Gen Xers livin g under the same roof in New York , allowing viewers to eavesdrop on their secre ts , squabbles and sexual sparks . In 1993 , the video verite program switches l ocales to the Southern California beach community of Venice and moves to San Fra ncisco beginning later this month . In July , `` Melrose Place '' Angst , Gen X- style debuts on Fox television to a slow start . Later , Heather Locklear arrive s to goose the ratings . 1993 Signs of a Gen X backlash begin to surface . Movie s with a twentysomething sensibility `` Bodies , Rest and Motion '' ( April ) , `` Three of Hearts '' ( April ) , `` Poetic Justice '' ( July ) , `` Kalifornia '' ( September ) and `` True Romance '' ( September ) under-perform at the box o ffice . A year later , `` Reality Bites '' tries to sink its teeth into Gen X mo vie-goers . The $ 11 million film brings in less than $ 20 million at the box of fice . Twenty-six-year old Harvard graduate Michael Lee Cohen , tired of the pre ss overkill that has over-generalized his generation , treks across America to p rove that young adults are hopeful and optimistic . After interviewing almost 20 0 people , he writes `` The Twentysomething American Dream '' ( Dutton ) , publi shed in October . It explores how his generation is shaping the world it will in herit . 1994 Twenty Twenty Insight , a business newsletter , advises corporate A merica to shun Generation X-themed marketing . Michael Krugman , 29 , and Jason Cohen , 26 , ( no relation to Michael Lee Cohen ) write `` Generation Ecch ! The Backlash Starts Here , '' ( Fireside ) , to be published in August . Says Cohen , a self-professed overachiever : `` We worry too much about what the media say s about our generation . Ecch is about getting a life . '' LOS ANGELES Lydia Ramos , 24 , sips mango tea while she chats about her active life one with no time for slacking . She works full time at the University of So uthern California as a high school recruiter . On Sundays she teaches at an East Los Angeles church . In the evenings she researches her idea for a consulting b usiness . While driving around town , she soaks in audio books , not Pearl Jam . Clearly , Ramos surrounded by other twentysomethings one recent evening at a tr endy downtown cafe is not your aimless and angry Generation X clone . Yes , she has read Douglas Coupland 's novel `` Generation X '' ( St. Martin 's Press , 19 91 ) , in which he coined the term to describe 46 million Americans between 18 a nd 29 as generally blase and bitter over problems AIDS , the national debt , pol lution , a jobless economy and the meaninglessness of marriage created or made w orse by their predecessors , some 72 million baby boomers . But when it comes to talkin ' ' bout her generation , Ramos is no whiner . She just doesn't relate t o the McMarketing moniker that has lumped her with a pouting bunch depicted as o ver-educated , under-motivated elitists hooked on `` Melrose Place . '' And she has plenty of post-boomer company ready to wage a war against the tag and its im plications , which they agree do not entirely represent their generation . Many already consider the term `` Generation X '' passe , but they must battle other downbeat labels : Slackers , Numb and Dumb , the Doofus Generation , the Lost Ge neration , the Motorbooty Generation , the New Petulants , the Posties , Baby Bu sters , Baby Bummers , Twentynothings and Thirteeners because they are supposedl y the 13th generation to come of age in America . Indeed , they have an X to gri nd and the backlash has begun : The term `` Generation X '' is a turn-off to mos t who would qualify as members , according to a recent MTV poll . Twenty Twenty Insight , a newsletter that provides marketing reports on people in their 20s , advises businesses to `` lose the X unless , of course , you 're referring to Ma lcolm , Madame , Racer or the Planet '' and to treat these millions of consumers as individuals . According to the `` Bellwether Generation , '' a national stud y conducted by Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising , `` cynical , aimless twentysometh ings are not at all the dominating segment of this group . '' In Washington , tw o social-activist groups Lead or Leave , started in 1992 , and Third Millennium , formed a year later have set out to give their generation a better image throu gh political activism and community-based projects . And books such as `` The Tw entysomething American Dream , '' ( Dutton , 1993 ) ; `` 13th Gen '' ( Vintage , 1993 ) , and the upcoming `` Generation Ecch ! '' ( Fireside , 1994 ) also focu s on the flip side of the movement by countering some of the stereotypes about t he generation . Michael Lee Cohen , a 28-year-old Dallas lawyer and author of `` The Twentysomething American Dream , '' said he 's had it with the zings . Two years ago after reading articles and watching TV programs that clumped him and h is friends in the same Gen X lot as the audience that worships Beavis and Butt-h ead Cohen set out to see for himself `` if my generation was really that bad . ' ' With a Harvard fellowship after graduating from Harvard Law School , he trekke d across 51 cities and interviewed 161 twentysomethings of various racial and ec onomic backgrounds . `` Most of us are striving to carve out a life for ourselve s in the face of scary obstacles , '' he said about the experience . `` We 're a political but not apathetic . '' He says the people he interviewed rejected gree d . `` They just want material comfort , if not prosperity . They don't want to be homeless or hungry . '' Sure , he said , he heard from `` wary , distrustful and worried '' twentysomethings , cynical about organized politics , religion an d institutions . But the cynicism he encountered `` seems to be partly an unexpr essed idealism . We seem to be waiting not only for a hero , but for a mission . '' For now , his mission is to help set the record straight . He said in the la st several years the media , marketers , sociologists and pundits have bashed an d disparaged his generation and the jig is up . `` We have been over-generalized as oversexed and overdosed with overstated lives , '' he said , adding that eff orts to define today 's young adults `` have excluded the majority of the nation 's twentysomething generation , '' including 76 percent of the generation who n ever attended or completed college . `` And what about the people who weren't bo rn into affluent families ? '' he asked . `` They are a part of the twentysometh ing generation '' that has virtually been ignored . Cohen said most of his gener ation 's bashing `` comes from the age-old tradition of older generations viewin g the generations coming up behind them as the worst horde of ingrates since the vandals sacked Rome . '' ( Begin optional trim ) Camille Mosley , 23 , of Los A ngeles , said baby boomers have `` made statements to set up Generation X for fa ilure . '' `` They don't give us a lot of credit for the ideas and the creativit y that we have . We are very bright and capable , and we have been prejudged unf airly , '' she said , even though she doesn't entirely feel a part of the moveme nt . `` Being African-American and because of my culture it 's a little bit diff erent for me , '' she said . `` I think that there 's pressure on me either put on myself or from cultural consciousness to do just as well or better than what my parents did so that my children can do just as much for their children . `` N ow that I am on my own , I am realizing the things that I need to take care of . I need health and car insurance , stuff that my parents always took care of . S ome of us haven't really had to struggle and suffer , and I think that 's why pe ople really think that we 're the Lost Generation and that we 're just out of it . `` But , I do have a sense of responsibility as an African-American woman , n ot as a Gen Xer . '' Andrew Barrett , 24 , also of Los Angeles , said : `` Every one is typecasting us as white rich kids raised on the Brady Bunch . I 'm white but I 'm not rich . I worked my way through college . '' Barrett , a registered nurse , said he disagrees with the common wisdom about his generation : grunge-a ttired gripers who hang out in coffeehouses complaining about being overqualifie d for jobs and out of work . `` That 's not my reality . I don't even like coffe e , '' he said . Henry Rincon , a 25-year-old graduate of the University of Cali fornia , Los Angeles , and Bank of America accountant , said if he must align hi mself with a generational handle , he 'd rather go with Generation Mex . `` My i dentity is with my family and my culture , '' said Rincon , who lives on his own in East Los Angeles , buys his own groceries and pays his own bills , none of w hich include credit card debts . He praises his parents married for almost 44 ye ars for `` giving me good family values , especially in respecting the work ethi c . '' `` My parents didn't raise me to be a bum , '' added Rincon , who is a me ntor to middle-school students in East Los Angeles and one day hopes to enter po litics `` to help my barrio progress . '' `` It 's up to us who don't fit the Ge neration X mold to break it , to trash the stereotype , '' Rincon said . `` I do n't watch Beavis and Butt-head . I don't live at home . And I expect to have a b etter life than my parents . '' LOS ANGELES In 1990 , Nate Sanders took the 12-year-old autograph business he h ad been running from his Pikesville , Md. , home and headed for California . No one exactly told him to `` Go west , young man , '' but if you 're running a bus iness that depends on the rich and famous , it makes sense to hang out where the y do . `` I figured there would be more business out here , '' he says , decked out in a Los Angeles business suit blue jeans , striped cotton shirt and no sock s . `` I wanted to get away from home and I liked L.A. . My nights in Baltimore were filled with trips to the Fair Lanes , where here you can do something more exciting . '' Today , Nate 's Autographs employs six people , operates out of a fourth-floor apartment a few miles from Beverly Hills and sells about $ 1 millio n worth of autographs a year . Not bad for a 21-year-old guy who never went to c ollege . Of course , he gets a lot of help from people like Abraham Lincoln , th e Wright Brothers , Rudolph Valentino , Marilyn Monroe , Albert Einstein and sco res of others who were considerate enough to sign their names a few thousand tim es , as well as those customers willing to spend thousands of dollars to obtain what it took these famous people seconds to create . For Sanders , his associati on with the autograph business began when he was still in elementary school . Us ing a cousin 's book of celebrity addresses , he wrote to a handful of stars and ended up with autographs of Lillian Carter , Mel Blanc , Jimmy Stewart and othe rs . Sanders hasn't looked back . ( Begin optional trim ) `` I was just always i nto it , '' he says from his apartment in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles , trying to explain what made him decide to make a living from other people 's pe nmanship . `` As a kid , I could make relatively good dollars . If you 're a 13- year-old and you 're going to a show and you 're making $ 200 in a day , that 's darn good . '' His parents , who still live in Pikesville , can't quite explain their son 's avocation . But he 's always been a collector including an early b rush with `` Star Wars '' figurines and always seemed driven to have a better co llection than anyone else . `` If he was to get involved in it , he had to get t he best and most involved and most complete collection , '' says Hildagarde Sand ers , who teaches biology at Villa Julie College . `` Whatever little boys colle cted at the time , he had to have the best . '' His father , Elli , a science te acher at Pikesville Middle School , says he encouraged Nathan to write away for celebrity autographs , but admits to an ulterior motive . `` I thought that was a good idea , so he could become familiar with writing , communicating with the written word , '' says the elder Sanders , who subsidized those initial forays b y contributing a nickel toward each stamp . Are they surprised by their son 's s uccess ? `` Yeah , I think anyone would be surprised , '' Mrs. Sanders says . `` When a kid goes out and is on his own , you wonder how he 's going to do . I wo uldn't have been surprised if it had been a problem . '' ( End optional trim ) W hile not on a level with such burgeoning hobbies as comic books or sports memora bilia , autographs occupy a comfortable niche in the world of collecting . Hard- core hobbyists may be hard to find , but almost everyone owns an autograph or tw o , whether it 's a Cal Ripken obtained after standing outside the gates of Camd en Yards for a few hours or the Franklin Roosevelt handed down by a grandfather . The money can be impressive . According to a recent article in Newsweek , the going rate for a George Washington signature is $ 6,500 . James Dean 's scrawl c an fetch $ 2,950 , probably tops among entertainment figures . Mark Twain would cost a collector around $ 1,500 . Sanders sold his first autograph at age 10 , t hrough the same cousin who had gotten him hooked in the first place . But he soo n gave up the hobby in favor of the profit . `` I don't collect anymore , '' he says . `` I always found that to be a conflict of interest . Whenever I tried to hold stuff back , I 'd always have to end up selling it , because there would b e someone who would want it and it would be ridiculous to hold onto it . You wou ld start keeping more than you were selling and you would be out of business . ' ' For Sanders , the growth from small-time autograph dealer to big-time moneymak er was steady . He started selling at the occasional collectibles or antiques sh ow , graduated to a largely mail-order business promoted through catalogs publis hed four times a year and has reached the point now where he deals exclusively w ith high-end pieces . A recent catalog includes not a single item priced under $ 500 ; in February , his second auction included a letter from Robert E. Lee tha t sold for $ 28,500 . A letter from Buffalo Bill Cody , in which the Wild West p romoter tries to lend frontier doctors the same sort of notoriety he had already created for cowboys and Indians , has an asking price of $ 62,500 . Most of his stock , Sanders says , is obtained during periodic maybe four times a year buyi ng trips . Just last month , during an eight-city East Coast spree , he landed a letter from George Washington to Gen. Benjamin Lincoln , written from Yorktown , Va. ; a letter from John Hancock , written one day before the British surrende red to end the Revolutionary War ; and a letter from Andrew Jackson , written ju st after the Battle of New Orleans , giving the British a flag to put on ships s o no Americans would shoot at them . `` I think we 're busy enough with just the high end , '' he says , estimating his business needs to bring in at least $ 1, 000 a day to remain profitable . `` There 's not much point in trying to make 10 sales when all you have to do is try to make one . `` These things are skyrocke ting , as far as values are concerned , '' he adds . `` I think they said ( Abra ham ) Lincolns have an average return of 14 percent in the last 50 years , which is way more than anything else would have given you per year . '' Even though a utographs can mean big money , not all collectors are attracted by the potential for profit . For some , Sanders notes , it 's the closest they may get to peopl e they admired , or to people whose lives were an inspiration . With an autograp h , he says , `` you actually get to have a piece of history on your wall . '' Memorial Day weekend is over . Are you sick of `` The Flintstones '' yet ? You will be . Even if you avoid the movies , shun the toy aisles , and don't drive b y RocDonald 's , chances are you 'll hear `` ( Meet ) The Flintstones '' shoutin g out from the Top 40 stations . It 's the scarily faithful version by the B-52 's , who change their name for the occasion to the B.C.-52 's . The B.C.-52 's t heme kicks off `` The Flintstones : Music From Bedrock '' soundtrack album ( MCA ) , one of several new musical titles inspired by the mad rush to merchandising in conjunction with the mega-hyped movie . But if nostalgia fuels the ascent of `` ( Meet ) The Flintstones '' up the pop charts for the first time since its u nveiling two dozen years ago , it isn't because we haven't heard it for a while . Besides the incessant reruns of the original episodes , the theme has been pic ked up in the intervening decades , most prominently by jazz artists from Clark Terry to Herb Ellis and Ray Brown and Barry Harris . Lyrics to the familiar them e , whose strangest lyrics are `` courtesy of Fred 's two feet , '' are credited to Flintstone creators , William Hanna and Joseph Barbera , while the music was handled by studio music director Hoyt Curtin . Besides creating Huckelberry Hou nd , Yogi Bear and Magilla Gorilla , Hanna and Barbera had a bit of an urge to c rash the pop charts . In the '60s , they owned their own HBR label . As noted by Billboard magazine , the label 's greatest success was a No. 26 tune in 1966 by the Five Americans , `` I See the Light , '' and `` Roses and Rainbows '' a No. 73 hit in 1965 by Danny Hutton , who would go on to join Three Dog Night . Pop music played a role in the original TV show , as reflected in `` The Flintstones : Modern Stone Age Melodies , Original Songs from the Classic TV Show Soundtrac k '' ( Rhino ) . Made-up parodies of stars of the day , from Hi-Fye , swinging a t the Rockadero to made-up bands like the Wipeouts , and the Termites . And , ye ars before `` The Simpsons , '' they used cartoon versions of real life people , from James Darren , who becomes James Darrock , doing a surf song called `` Yab ba-Dabba-Doo '' ( as Fred , with the voice of Alan Reed , massacres `` Stardust '' ) . ( Begin optional trim ) The most prominent human guest star was probably Ann-Margret , who told Larry King that she is still recognized as Ann-Margrock . Ann-Margrock 's absence is the most jarring void on the Rhino collection . Her tunes , `` The Littlest Lamb , '' tearfully sung to Pebbles , and `` ISn't Gonna Be Your Fool No More , '' were originally planned for the disc , but cut soon b efore it was issued , probably because of contractual problems . The Rhino disc also includes lots of versions of the show 's theme - two versions of the ending track ( which was titled `` Rise and Shine '' ) and three variations of the ope ning singalong , including one that has a second verse : `` Rubbles ! Meet the R ubbles ! They 're the other Stone Age family . '' One strange rediscovery on the collection is from a dream episode in which Fred imagines the infant Pebbles to be a pop singer . The resulting , `` Open Up Your Heart and Let the Sun Shine I n '' sung with a pair of sped-up harmonies , is a weird song about the devil . P art Shelley Fabares , part David Lynch . The most famous rockers on the show wer e the Beau Brummelstones , a cartoon re-creation of the Beau Brummels singing `` Laugh Laugh . '' Sure , that band just inserted their prerecorded hit `` Laugh , Laugh '' into their episode , but just playing the song here without the surro unding introduction by Jimmy O' Neillstone on `` Shinrock '' seems like cheating . At any rate , it still sounds great alongside the other animation-manufacture d tracks . ( End optional trim ) But the best rock track ever on the Flintstones TV show was `` The Twitch , '' a rockabilly stomper by someone called Rock Roll . Already covered by cool bands ( especially memorable is a version by San Fran cisco 's Buck Naked and the Bare Bottomed Boys ) , it is the other song covered by the B.C.-52 's on the soundtrack album . It sounds bloated and overdone compa red to the original . More to the original Rock Roll spirit on the movie soundtr ack is `` Rock With the Caveman , '' just about the most straight rockabilly eve r done by Mick Jones as a part of his current Big Audio Dynamite . Another good new track on the album is `` Yabba Dabba Doo '' by Us3 , who sat down to write s ome clever Flintstone-inspired lyrics instead of just inserting a few sound effe cts . For the flipside of the soundtrack , the producers dug up some previously issued tracks that fit fine , especially Screaming Blue Messiah 's `` I Wanna Be A Flintstone , '' and the insidious `` Anarchy in Bedrock '' that splices the S ex Pistols with Saturday-morning cartoons and ends up with Barney Rubble in a Mo hawk . Weird Al Yankovic 's recent `` Bedrock Anthem , '' which ties cartoon the mes to two Red Hot Chili Peppers hits , is also welcome . The producers may have overlooked a few Flintstone related songs such as the 1982 underground hit `` B edrock Rap/ ( Meet ) the Flintstones , '' which brilliantly transformed Fred 's persona into Bruce Springstone . Rap strangely suited Fred and Barney , when the y appeared as a prehistoric Run-D.M.C. on a 1980s Fruity Pebbles commercial . Th erefore , it 's nice to see it returning on `` Bedrock Hop , '' one of two new F lintstone titles on Kid Rhino Records ( the other is the more straightforward `` The Flintstones Story '' ) . On the cover , Fred , with a devilish look on his face , jewelry on his wrists and a knit hat with the initials `` D.J.F. , '' scr atches a prehistoric disc on a stone-age turntable affixed with a bird beak need le . Titles include `` Disco Dino Dinosaur , '' `` Welcome to the Gravel Pit '' and two versions of `` Bedrock Hop . '' But something must be wrong here not a s ingle version of the `` ( Meet ) The Flintstones . '' Perhaps more than any other hobby , autograph collecting can be a difficult , i f not downright intimidating , field for the beginner . Forgeries abound , and t he variety of autographs to be collected seems almost endless a lot of famous pe ople over the years have signed their names . Some basic rules : the cheapest au tograph is just that , a plain autograph on a piece of paper , maybe cut off a l etter or other document . Checks and letters are more desirable letters especial ly , depending on their content ( a letter from Judy Garland asking that someone pick up her laundry would not be nearly as valuable as one in which she discuss ed whether she truly enjoyed playing Dorothy in `` The Wizard of Oz '' ) . When possible , autographed photos can be valuable , and also make for the nicest dis play . James Lowe , a New York City autograph dealer , says beginning collectors should pick a specific subject movies , authors , Civil War figures , signers o f the Declaration of Independence , whatever and pick the brains of someone alre ady in the field . Collectors , he says , should specialize in `` what interests them , what type of people they hold as ideals . '' Charles Searle , a dealer f rom Asheville , N.C. , says collectors need to figure out how much they can affo rd to spend , then concentrate on quality over quantity . `` Try to buy the best piece you can afford , '' he says . `` Don't buy an autograph if you can buy a nice letter . Don't buy a nice letter if you can afford a nice photograph . '' A s for forgeries , `` the rule for the general public is , buy from dealers you k now and trust , '' dealer Nate Sanders says . `` Don't buy from the flea market dealers , because you 're liable to get burnt . '' Lowe , who has been selling a utographs for a quarter-century , says he will often do considerable research to establish a signature 's authenticity . If for example , a letter from Ulysses S . Grant is dated Sept. 4 , 1866 , in New York City , he 'll try to find out if the Union general and 18th president of the United States really was in New Yor k at the time . There are also tricks of the signing trade collectors should kno w . Many famous people use rubber stamps or autopens electronic contraptions tha t can inscribe a signature thousands of times . Valentino , Sanders says , used rubber stamps a lot , while Richard Nixon was big on the autopen , making his au tograph probably the most difficult to obtain among modern presidents . Jean Har low presents her own unique problem . Most autographed photos of the actress , w ho died of uremic poisoning in 1937 , were actually signed by her mother . Jean Harlow 's autograph , noticeably sloppier than her mother 's , will cost you abo ut $ 3,000 if it 's on a photograph , $ 1,000 if it 's just on a slip of paper . But a mother-signed picture can be had for $ 50- $ 100 provided its new owner d oesn't mind owning a second-hand Jean . Are you smart enough to appreciate the Beastie Boys ? A ridiculous question , r ight ? Bela Bartok that takes brains to understand . Be-bop too . But the Beasti es ? How many IQ points do you need to understand a few rhymes and a beat ? That depends on how carefully you listen . Because few albums reward close attention more assiduously than the Beastie Boys ' latest , `` Ill Communication '' ( Gra nd Royal/Capitol 28599 , arriving in stores this week . It isn't just a matter o f being able to sort through the pop-culture references and dropped names that l itter these raps , though it 's difficult to savor a rhyme like `` So I kick out the jams and tell you who I am/And talk to the people like Les McCann '' withou t knowing that `` Kick Out the Jams '' was a landmark release by the MC5 , while `` Talk to the People '' was the title of an album by soul-jazz keyboardist McC ann . There 's also a lot of musical information to process , thanks to the Beas ties ' fondness for densely layered grooves and astonishingly eclectic taste . T ake `` Root Down , '' for example . Most of the track is straight retro-funk , f rom MCA 's bone-simple bass line to the lock between Mike D' s drums and Eric Bo bo 's congas . But when DJ Hurricane drops a few bars of Jimmy Smith 's `` Root Down ( And Get It ) '' into the chorus , the music 's flavor shifts dramatically , adding a rhythmic and harmonic tension that revitalizes the track . At the sa me time , the mixture of musical elements creates just the right mood to convey the Beasties ' own sense of hip-hop roots . Soul , jazz and '70s funk , remember , were the most popular sounds on the early rap scene , back when the Beasties were just Brooklyn high-schoolers going to `` Harlem world battles on the Zulu B eat show/It 's Kool Moe Dee Vs . Busy Bee , there 's one you should know . '' Gr anted , it 's not necessary to catch every lyrical reference or musical allusion to get the basic effect here . In fact , there are some tracks where what the B easties do sonically seems almost intended to obscure the rap 's verbal content . On the lyric sheet , `` The Update '' comes across as an urgent warning about the impending apocalypse , as the Beasties rap about `` searching for unity '' a nd how `` a transition is occurring '' in global consciousness . Sounds cosmic a nd kind of preachy , doesn't it ? But the track itself masks that didacticism in a dense , percussion-heavy mix that not only distorts MCA 's rap with fuzz and echo , but places far greater emphasis on the group 's Afro-Cuban percussion and fusion-jazz keyboards . Then again , it 's worth noting the Beasties have alway s placed greater value in musical impact than on lyrical content or stylistic al legiance . That 's one reason `` Ill Communication '' can so easily sustain such a wide range of musical interests . After all , how many other acts can sound a s at home moshing through a punk tune like `` Tough Guy '' as trading rhymes wit h Q-Tip ( from A Tribe Called Quest ) on `` Get It Together '' ? Who else would dare mix hip-hop with Tibetan Buddhist chant the way the Beasties do on `` Shamb ala , '' or mix fusion jazz and klezmer music as freely as `` Eugene 's Lament ' ' does ? But that 's precisely the sort of thing that makes `` Ill Communication '' worth hearing even if it does take some effort to appreciate . WEST HOLLYWOOD , Calif. . The phone rang , and it was Bruce . That probably mea nt it was time for the band to tour . But that 's not what it meant . This time , in late 1989 , Bruce Springsteen told Danny Federici he was breaking up the ba nd . `` I was surprised , '' Federici recalled . `` I was very hurt . It was the only life I had known for 22 years . '' Five years later , Federici , 44 , isn' t completely healed . He says he is still `` working through all that stuff , '' but he is happy . For the first time since the E Street Band hit the road , for good , its former keyboardist is excited about his work . He plays Monday night s for the house band the Sacred Hearts at one of the hottest clubs in town , the new House of Blues in West Hollywood . He is his own Boss . `` I 'm having a bi t of the fun that I used to have , '' he said . `` I had forgotten why I became a musician . '' He can see his audience again . After Springsteen became a super star during the mid-1980s , Federici said , the band lost that once magical inti macy with its fans . `` You could see maybe the first 10 rows of the crowd , and that was it , '' Federici said . `` Now , I play for people I can hear , people I can see . '' Federici envisions himself as an `` R&B kind of guy , '' which m atches his group 's blend of contemporary and old-fashioned blues . The band pla ys Muddy Waters , Al Green and Albert King . These are the songs Federici loves , not just the ones Springsteen preferred . But he 's no fool . He understands t he climb back to success is very steep , and so he calmly accepts his band 's se condary role . `` We 're not there to be the stars , '' Federici said . `` We 'r e there to make others look good . '' That means he will pull out his rock 'n' r oll Rolodex , and bring in the best names possible . So far , Gregg Allman , Joh nny Rivers and Paul Shaffer have stopped by to jam . Federici said there will be more guests . `` We want to give people a sense , '' he said , `` that anything can happen on Monday nights . '' The band is moving slowly with its music as we ll . Eventually , members plan to introduce original songs into their repertoire , but for the immediate future , covers will suffice . The group also includes guitarist Steve Chrismar , who played with George Thorogood ; lead vocalist Jimm ie Wood , who recorded with Bruce Hornsby , and drummer Tony Braunagel , who has toured with Ricki Lee Jones , Bette Midler and Bonnie Raitt . Braunagel said Fe derici has had the perfect attitude for a new band . `` He doesn't walk around w ith his ego , '' Braunagel said . `` He 's very open to musical suggestions , an d quite full of his own . '' ( Optional add end ) Yet , while Federici says the breakup of the E Street Band has liberated him , both musically and emotionally , he still misses the good life . He puts `` room service '' at the top of that list . `` I walked into the lobby of this hotel recently after a Billy Joel conc ert , '' he said , `` and I saw someone with a room service tray . I don't miss the music , but I do miss the hotels . '' He also misses the dedication of the S pringsteen days . When the band needed to rehearse , the band rehearsed . That w asn't always the case when Sacred Hearts first got together . `` I came from a d ifferent scene , '' he said , `` and either you 're committed or you 're not . I wasn't used to that . But I understand these guys have to hustle to make it in L.A. . '' That includes himself . Since moving out here in 1992 , his resume has gotten him into meetings , but it hasn't clinched the deal . He had hoped to wr ite music for films or television but so far nothing major has clicked . `` It w ould have been good , '' he admits , `` if I had just been a bit more famous . ' ' But Federici 's only regret may be that he didn't leave it all sooner . `` I w asted a lot of good time , '' he said . `` That 's what happens when you make to o much money . '' In fact , it was Springsteen who made him realize it was time to move to Los Angeles . One day , he visited Federici 's New Jersey farm and to ld him there was nobody left in New York . Everyone had moved west . `` It was t rue , '' he said . And it wouldn't be a total shock if Springsteen pops up soon at the House of Blues to play with his former keyboardist . The two saw each oth er a few weeks ago , and have remained good friends . `` He digs the club , '' F ederici said . HOLLYWOOD `` Rap is a man 's world and for women rappers it 's sometimes a host ile world where you have to walk on eggshells , '' says Karryl Smith of Consciou s Daughters , which many consider the best female rap group to emerge in the '90 s . `` Sometimes it 's like working with the enemy . '' The vast majority of hit rappers and their audiences is male and often seems to thrive on one of the fav orite pastimes in rap circles : female-bashing . `` You can't let that bother yo u , '' says Smith , who , with partner Carla Green , recently had a huge hit wit h `` Something You Can Ride to ( Fonky Expedition ) '' one of the biggest hits e ver by a female rap group . `` When guys use the word bitch , I don't get too up set , '' she says . `` It 's just a word . '' Isn't that just a rationale ? `` N ot really but you do things you have to do to survive in this business , '' Smit h says . `` I 'd like men to use nice , respectful terms for women but they don' t and probably never will . We use the word bitch on our record too . It works i n the context of our music . But there 's uglier things in rap than men calling women disrespectful names . '' The two 26-year-old women , who come from the Oak land area , steer clear of those uglier things like the excessive violence in ga ngsta rap . But their music , though generally positive , isn't exactly wholesom e . Their debut album on Scarface/Priority Records , `` Ear to the Street , '' i s nowhere near as extreme as the music of some other female rappers , but it doe s include some crude language and images . `` There 's a street quality to what we do you need that , '' Smith explains . `` If you don't use the same language the kids use , they willn't want to hear your music . The problem is that they w illn't be able to relate to it . '' Smith knows how crucial that aspect is . `` I got into rap when I was about 10 because I could relate to what they were sayi ng , '' she recalls . `` Rap was just starting then but it had something no othe r music had . Black kids can relate to rap better than any other music because i t 's talking about what happens in their community . '' When Smith and Green got mesmerized by rap back in the early '80s , they were high school students in El Cerrito , near Berkeley . Though they branched out into other areas , their pas sion for rap never waned . Both are 5-foot-10 , and Smith made use of her height playing basketball at San Francisco State , where she majored in radio broadcas ting . Green has been working in the computer business , developing software for computer games . On the side , though , they were building the foundation for a rap career . `` We were hanging out at clubs working on our rapping and writing and looking for a break , '' Smith says . `` We wanted to be rappers in the wor st way . '' Before ever recording an album , they had some minor successes , inc luding an opening slot on a tour headlined by the group Fu-Schnickens . But thei r big break came at a party in 1991 where they met Paris , a prominent rapper wh o was looking to sign artists for his Scarface label . Paris , who produced thei r debut album , was impressed by both their rap skills and their writing ability . He gave them free rein within certain limits . `` I wouldn't put anything out that was excessively violent or had a lot of negative images of the black commu nity , '' he explains in a separate interview . `` There are some references her e and there to things like that but it 's not a major theme of the songs . '' ( Optional add end ) Conscious Daughters , Paris insists , offer an honesty and re ality missing from the work of what he calls the `` fake '' rappers . `` A lot o f record companies are putting together a bunch of pretty faces for hip-hop albu ms and have other people write all their music , '' Paris says . `` It 's not re al and the fans know it . That 's why a lot of these female rappers fail . '' Sm ith , though , points to another reason . `` These female rappers rap about stuf f men don't want to hear about , '' she says . `` We avoid doing that . Sure , w e have songs geared to women , but there are so many male rap fans we don't want to turn them off . `` What we don't do is shake our butts and flirt and tease a nd show men what we can do for them in bed , '' Smith explains . `` That 's the bimbo way . We can get our messages across and still maintain our dignity as wom en . '' President Clinton has met Pope John Paul II twice , and one topic abortion has dominated both meetings . Last summer in Denver , the pope publicly rebuked the president for his support of abortion rights . Thursday at the Vatican , the pop e further pressed his adamant opposition to contraception and abortion and , in particular , to a document being prepared for a U.N. conference on population an d development to be held in September in Cairo , Egypt . After Thursday 's encou nter , the president told American seminarians that he and Pope John Paul discus sed `` how we could come together on a policy that would promote responsible gro wth in the world 's population and still reaffirm our common commitment to the c entral role of the family in every society . '' That seems to have put the most optimistic spin possible on the conversation . A Vatican official told reporters , `` If he says there was a narrowing of differences , it 's clear it can be on ly in one direction . '' Obviously , President Clinton would be foolish to hope for much common ground as long as the Vatican 's concerns about human reproducti on center so strongly on opposition to contraception and abortion . The presiden t would be equally wrong to capitulate to the pope 's desire to shape U.N. polic ies in ways that would hamper efforts to give people around the world more contr ol over the size of their families . Certainly moral and religious concerns shou ld be central to these decisions , and the Catholic Church has every right to pr ess its case . But governments everywhere are now recognizing the link between s lower population growth and any reasonable hope of providing their citizens with adequate food and shelter . The central issue in this debate is not abortion , but rather population specifically , whether world population will be stabilized before it outstrips the resources necessary to sustain human communities . As i t is , too many millions of people already subsist in abject poverty . Those con ditions give rise to the reason abortion cannot be overlooked in population deba tes . International family planning programs rarely get tangled up in questions of legalizing or subsidizing abortion . Rather , abortion forces itself into the debate in the ugliest of ways the 100,000 women each year who are so desperate not to have another child that they resort to unsafe , illegal abortions and end up paying for that desperation with their lives . That 's the messy reality . P resident Clinton has long said abortion should be safe , legal and rare . But wi thout adequate contraception , that will never happen . Unfortunately for a worl d that desperately needs guidance on these issues , the Vatican 's opposition to both abortion and to any form of contraception it regards as artificial severel y constricts its ability to participate in any realistic policy debate . President Clinton is now facing his biggest foreign policy crisis . North Korea , breaking a written promise , has prevented international inspectors from exam ining the spent fuel rods it is withdrawing from its only operating nuclear reac tor . At a minimum , that action feeds worries that Kim Il Sung 's regime is ind eed covertly diverting plutonium to build its own nuclear weapons . The refusal also effectively ends U.S. efforts to coax North Korea into compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty by offers of closer diplomatic ties and economi c aid . The administration 's next step is to ask the U.N. . Security Council to impose economic sanctions . Kim 's regime , now in its fifth decade of iron con trol , has already warned that it would regard sanctions as an act of war . Resp onsible world powers may soon decide they have no choice but to test the threat implicit in that declaration . Washington and South Korea know the risks of conf ronting an antagonist as nuttily irresponsible as North Korea . With a million-m an army and with far more artillery pieces and tanks than the South Korean army and the 38,000 U.S. troops that directly support it , Kim Il Sung could risk all on one roll of the dice and rapidly strike south , as he did 44 years ago this month . There is no chance that North Korea could win a second Korean war . But before it was thrown back and militarily annihilated it could inflict enormous d amage on Seoul , home to 25 percent of South Korea 's 44 million people . It 's this possibility that prompted the Clinton administration to seek a diplomatic s olution to the challenge posed by the North 15 months ago when it announced it w as quitting the NPT . All good-faith efforts have now failed . The International Atomic Energy Agency , along with Washington , has been repeatedly bamboozled . If North Korea succeeds in making a mockery of the NPT , other nuclear aspirant s Iran , Iraq , Libya will not be far behind . If North Korea can build nuclear weapons and put them aboard the medium-range missiles it is developing , South K orea , Japan , much of China and parts of Russia will fall within its target zon e . Pressures within South Korea and probably Japan to go nuclear would be enorm ous . It willn't be easy getting a U.N. . Security Council consensus on sanction s ; China and Russia both have expressed their distaste for such an approach . B ut with its economy a shambles , North Korea could be highly vulnerable even to partial sanctions . If , for example , Japan acted to halt money transfers to th e North from Koreans living in Japan , Pyongyang 's primary source of hard curre ncy would be gone , and its ability to pay for vital imports would shrink . Pres ident Clinton should promptly speak to the American people , and to the world , about just how serious the threat now emanating from North Korea is . He should candidly concede that there are grave risks in implementing sanctions . He shoul d be no less clear in emphasizing that the ultimate risks of doing nothing in re sponse are immeasurably greater . WASHINGTON I remember Pearl Harbor because my father , a World War I veteran , at once volunteered for military service ; he was turned down . I remember D-Day for the blurred combat photographs of American soldiers going bravely ashore in to a hail of fire . We who are now pushing into our sixties grew up thinking tha t it was as American as apple pie to take a turn in uniform . The Korean War was still on when we were leaving college . Some graduates were ready to taste war and some were not , but without debate except as to the particular branch or pro gram you were applying for , almost everyone went in . What 's more , almost eve ryone in my gang thought there was something good about military service . Eithe r it taught you a lot about a much broader spectrum of Americans than any one of us had ever been exposed to , or it provided a first look at how a big organiza tion gets things done , or it gave you a certain satisfaction for `` serving '' your country despite the fact that those of us who ended up in what was the peac etime military did not serve in any dangerous way . A young second lieutenant wh o had never bossed a soul suddenly found himself formally in charge of the work and welfare of 30 or 40 people , including kids but also older noncommissioned o fficers who had seen combat . It was a maturing experience . It left many of us quietly appreciative of the system that had offered this opportunity . Mark me d own as one who regrets that a few years of military service no longer constitute part of an average young person 's universe . Alas , the whole notion of servic e turns out to be generational . As we embark on what will be a long year of 50t h anniversary observances of victory in World War II , it is worth noting what h as been gained and what lost by this fundamental change in a citizen 's public o bligations . What is gained is an extra two or three years ' worth of personal f reedom no battlefield risk and no one ordering you around . To serve is now ofte n considered , I gather , strange , nutty , uncool , a waste . Even in peacetime circumstances , the benefits of nonparticipation are prized by many young peopl e , and not only young people . They are prized specifically over the forgone be nefits of military life in terms of people met , places seen and challenges face d . What is lost is the experience of working in a public enterprise . True , se rvice in uniform can breed cynicism as well as civic-mindedness . I would not in sist that military veterans make better citizens . But at the more enlightened e nd of the spectrum , there are lessons to be learned from living under a code of discipline lessons of personal reliability and public purpose that bear directl y on the matter of concern for others in the society . The military is one place where those precious lessons can be learned . Vietnam fouled us up terribly and still on the issue of military service . The Vietnam conflict gave life to the notion that individuals should choose the wars in which they take part and shoul d not leave this question up to the elected government alone . Down that path li es a triumph of participatory democracy but a series of dilemmas for representat ive democracy , which is the kind we have . Bill Clinton as a student was a pick -your-war man . He had conscientious objections to the war that happened to be o n when his time came , and he chose not to serve . Now he 's the commander in ch ief , struggling to be true at once to an oath of office that commands him to pr otect the nation and to a personal code that inclines him to leave room for indi vidual choice . His awkward straddle in these circumstances leads him to reduce to the minimum the contingencies in which American lives would be put at risk . It was a bit jarring to hear him on the radio last Saturday holding out the sacr ifice of D-Day veterans as a model for America 's continuing commitment to freed om . But he was right about the D-Day veterans even if the words did not fall na turally from his lips . Such words used to come much more naturally from Ronald Reagan . Who does not recall his thrilling salute to the D-Day heroes in 1984 ? But of course he was never there , in battle , either , although he made you fee l he was . The military draft distributed service and risk more or less fairly a cross the American male landscape . President Nixon ended the draft by way of pr oving to the American people he would not send their sons to Vietnam . For a sho rt-term political purpose he did a long-term social harm : separating the popula tion into protectors and protected and thinning the exchange between them . Cert ainly we have a fine fighting force . We also have a military not fatally but in some degree less able than it might be to learn from the society and to teach t he society in return . WASHINGTON The legends of the West stamps that were sold by various post office s before being recalled earlier this year will probably be among the rarest stam ps produced by the U.S. Postal Service . Azeezaly S. Jaffer , manager of the age ncy 's stamp services , said that postal officials believe that the number of sh eets sold was `` under 200 . '' Since only three full sheets of the stamps have surfaced , it seems likely that most of the other stamps were torn apart and use d in the mail . Those stamps , for all practical purposes , have disappeared . T he 250 million recalled stamps the ones with the wrong portrait of Wild West sta r Bill Pickett are locked in postal vaults in Kansas City , Mo. . They are sched uled to be burned despite protests from U.S. Rep. William L . Clay , D-Mo. , cha irman of the House Post Office and Civil Service Committee , and representatives of stamp publications , who want the stamps sold to collectors . Postal officia ls say that Postmaster General Marvin T. Runyon is not waivering from his determ ination to destroy the stamps , which cost more than $ 1 million to print . He o rdered them recalled Jan. 18 after members of the Pickett family complained that the portrait of `` Bulldogger '' Pickett was based on an incorrectly labeled ph otograph of the Wild West performer . After the destruction of the recalled stam ps , the few surviving stamps in private hands will be among the rarest American stamps , probably worth far more than the $ 4,200 that a sheet purchased at a M cLean , Va. , post office brought at an auction in New York earlier this year . Other sheets were purchased in Princeton , N.J. , and Bend , Ore. , but postal o fficials have yet to release their breakdown of where the stamps were sold , wel l before officials had fixed a release date for the stamps . Postal officials ar e finishing their validation of the portraits and descriptions on the other 19 s tamps on the Legends sheet . Once that is finished and officials have decided wh at other changes to make to the stamps , Jaffer said it will take at least anoth er 120 days before 400 million of the new stamps can be printed and shipped to p ost offices . An internal postal review has suggested changes to which will push their release from June , as officials once hoped , toward fall . The delay pre sents Jaffer with a dilemma . A number of other stamps are scheduled for release in the fall , including the booklets of blues and popular singer stamps in Sept ember and the Four Wonders of the Sea stamps in October . Because the Postal Ser vice is determined to boost the price of a first-class letter to at least 32 cen ts in early January , post offices will have little time to sell lots of new 29- cent stamps this fall before the rates change . So Jaffer , the top stamp offici al in the Postal Service , is still deciding when to release the revised Legends stamps . One thing seems certain : There will be a strong demand for the stamps whenever they are released , if only as a result of the furor that the Pickett stamp generated . -0- The second high-valued stamp based on a design created 125 years ago will go on sale Aug. 19 at a stamp show in Pittsburgh . The dark gree n $ 5 stamp features portraits of George Washington and Andrew Jackson and is on e of the few U.S. stamps to be printed in a diamond format . In revealing the un usual design in New York last month , Jaffer said the planned release at the Ame rican Philatelic Society show `` reinforces the commitment shared by stamp colle ctors and the Postal Service to promote the world 's most popular hobby . '' His comments were aimed at easing tensions between APS officials and the Postal Ser vice over the agency 's support for stamp collecting , an issue that arose after Runyon 's restructuring eliminated some stamp promotion programs . The new $ 5 stamp will replace a stamp in the Great Americans series featuring Western write r Bret Harte , which was first issued in 1987 . The Washington-Jackson stamp joi ns a new $ 1 stamp based on another 19th-century stamp design released last mont h . Postal officials say that original copies of the design for the latest stamp could not be located , but based on published descriptions , they believe the d esign was planned as a 3-cent stamp by a company bidding on an 1869 printing con tract . Like the new $ 1 stamp , the latest was printed by Stamp Venturers of Ch antilly , Va. , on intaglio presses . Engraver Yves Baril was said to have rever sed a Gilbert Stuart portrait of Washington for the stamp and used a John Wood D odge portrait of Jackson for his final design . Baril also created engraved flou rishes and lettering for the stamp , which is being printed in sheets of 20 stam ps . Individuals interested in securing first-day cancellations of the $ 5 Washingto n-Jackson stamps should purchase the stamps at their local post office and place them on addressed envelopes . These should be placed in a larger envelope and m ailed to : Customer-Affixed Stamps , $ 5 Washington-Jackson Stamps , Postmaster , Pittsburgh , PA 15290-9991 . All envelopes must be postmarked by Sept. 18 . Spring and summertime sports activities offer a chance for some of the best pic tures of your kids when they are engrossed in something they love , and don't ha ve to be cajoled , bribed or threatened to look interested , much less happy . T aking good action shots is sometimes easier said than done , because it often ca n mean letting your instincts take over while shooting . Sometimes it can mean b reaking the rules moving the camera while shooting , for example to make a drama tic panning shot . But if you work on developing your instincts and realize that the only rule is that there are no rules , making good action photos becomes th at much simpler . The best sports photographers have developed an anticipatory e ye as well as a photographic one . You can do this too . For example , in a soft ball game with the bases loaded , it stands to reason that a base hit will lead to a play at the plate , especially in a close game . So instead of looking all over the place for a shot , set your focus on home plate and wait for the action to come to you . Good sports shots most often are made with conventional 35mm c ameras rather than point-and-shoots because they offer more flexibility and spee d . Even a zoom lens on a point-and-shoot can be less value than a similar lens on a conventional camera because the point-and-shoot lens can't be immediately r acked in and out in reaction to fast-changing events on the playing field . As f or the best zoom lens , I 'd recommend a 28-85mm or 35-105mm to start with since that will give you a nice range of wide-angle to medium telephoto shots . A lon ger telephoto or zoom , like a 200mm , will have the added benefit of letting yo u make close-ups of faces unobtrusively . ( Your son or daughter on the sideline s , for example , or waiting a turn at bat . ) Unless you absolutely prefer it , I wouldn't use slide film for action shooting leave that to the pros . Use more forgiving print film so that even if you happen to be a stop or so off in expos ure during a dramatic shot , the damage can be undone when the photo is printed . On most sunny days , a good all-around 400-speed film like Kodak Ultra Gold 40 0 or Fuji 's new Super G 400 will allow you to shoot comfortably at 1/500 or eve n 1/1000 of a second , ensuring sharper pictures of flying bodies while also les sening the effect of camera shake . If the day is overcast , switch to Fujicolor 800 or Kodak 's Ektapress 1600 to retain the option of shooting at high shutter speeds . Note : Automated metering systems today are pretty impressive and gene rally can be relied upon to give adequate exposure . But if you 've got the time , I 'd suggest taking a reading off shaded grass and using that reading for mos t lighting situations that day unless , of course , the lighting changes dramati cally . It 's old-fashioned , I know , but it works like a charm . When shooting sports , don't assume all the action takes place on the field . Try turning awa y from the field now and then and shooting your fellow frenzied moms and dads fo r some humorous photos that will do as much to capture the atmosphere of the gam e as your shot of Jimmy or Cathy kicking the winning goal or batting in the winn ing run . Henry Horenstein , a professional photographer and author of more than 20 sports and instructional photography books , notes that , just as athletes p ractice before their best performances , so too an amateur sports photographer m ight shoot some test rolls before a crucial game . Horenstein is working with Ca non USA to promote this year 's World Cup soccer matches around the United State s . He stopped by recently to chat about shooting sports . It seems only sportin g , then , to give him the last words : `` Change your position don't just stay in the same place . Try walking around to get different angles . Also , the subj ect doesn't always have to be in the center of the photo . When photographing th e players , avoid distracting backgrounds . For example , use the field as a bac kground instead of the crowd . `` Silhouettes make interesting photos , but unle ss you 're trying for a special effect , don't shoot directly into the light , e ven on cloudy days . `` Taking good action pictures is a lot like playing the ga me itself : The more you practice , the better you can be . '' We were playing Ticket , a game that went like this : Nobody obeyed the New Jer sey Turnpike 's posted speed limit of 55 miles per hour . Nobody drove under 65 mph . Everybody tried to stay in the middle of speeding traffic . The first driv er to complete the entire 135-mile length of the turnpike without a traffic tick et won . None of us knew one another not by name anyway . Our identities were wr apped in our vehicles and their license plates . I was driving the 1994 Ford Mus tang Cobra a flaming red sports coupe with blue Michigan manufacturer 's tags . That meant there was no way I could win . The art of mastering Ticket is inconsp icuous speeding , which is why most players try to remain in the middle of traff ic until an opportune time to break away . But there was no way to remain incons picuous in the new Cobra not with its red paint , polished aluminum wheels , its snake-nostril hood ; not with its flared rear fenders , high rear spoiler , hig h rear end . Too sexy . It attracted attention in `` park . '' That meant I was forced to run in the worst possible positions way behind the pack or way ahead o f it , or abandoned in the left or right lanes , all spots vulnerable to radar . Anyway , for me , it didn't matter . I finished the Delaware-to-New York turnpi ke run in reasonable time . I didn't have an accident , and didn't get a ticket ; and even though I had to drive the Cobra under speed most of the way , I had a hell of a good time . Background : The new Cobra is a real snake , nothing like the cobbled-together , phony , marketing-exercise , jive-time Mustang Cobra it replaced . This Cobra comes with big , 13-inch diameter , vented front and rear disc brakes ; modified MacPherson strut front suspension ; rigid-axle rear suspe nsion with four trailing links and two leading hydraulic links . In other words , folks , the thing stops right and handles even better . The engine is Ford 's 5-liter V-8 , bumped up to produce 240 horsepower at 4,800 rpm . That 's 25 more horsepower than found in the Mustang GT , but 35 less horsepower than found in the humongous 5.7-liter V-8 of the comparable Pontiac Firebird Formula . Big who op . Not on this side of the jail cell will you ever come close to using all of the horsepower in any of those cars . Torque in the new Cobra is set at 280 foot -pounds at 4,000 rpm . Four-wheel , anti-lock brakes are standard . Ditto dual-f ront air bags and a standard five-speed manual transmission and 17-inch diameter Goodyear Eagle GS-C tires . The Cobra can be bought as a coupe or convertible . Complaints : The five-speed gearbox could use a bit more finesse . I found it a bit choppy . And though the suspension is mostly righteous , there 's a bit mor e wallow in the Cobra 's body than exists in the comparable Firebird Formula . P raise : ISn't nothin ' but a whole lot of fun . But if you really want to have a good time in this front-engine , rear-drive muscle car , buy it in a color less conspicuous than red . Head-turning quotient : Star of the turnpike rest stops . Lotsa whoops . Ride , acceleration and handling : Superb ride and acceleration . Darned good handling , especially when you anticipate and then prepare to tak e sharp curves . Excellent braking . Mileage : Down the hatch ! About 18 miles p er gallon ( 15.4-gallon tank , estimated 265-mile range on usable volume of 89-o ctane unleaded ) , running mostly highway , driver only with light cargo . Sound system : Kick butt ! Optional Mach 460 Electronic AM/FM stereo radio and casset te and compact disc . One of the best auto audio sound systems ever . Price : Es timated base price is $ 21,000 . Estimated dealer 's invoice price is $ 18,458 . Estimated price as tested is $ 23,000 , including $ 1,525 in options and a $ 47 5 destination charge . Purse-strings note : The Cobra is in limited production 5 ,000 coupes , 1,000 convertibles which means dealers can charge anything they wa nt . Compare with Chevrolet Camaro GT/Pontiac Firebird Formula . For Dwight D. Eisenhower , June 5 , 1944 , was `` the longest day . '' For over a year the Supreme Allied Commander had been preparing history 's mightiest inv asion force more than 5,000 ships , almost 12,000 aircraft and 155,000 soldiers . Originally set for that day , the assault on Hitler 's Atlantic Wall would hav e to be postponed 24 hours because of high winds and ominous waves in the Englis h Channel . Then the storm broke and the most momentous decision of Eisenhower ' s life was made . `` Okay , let 's go , '' he told the men around him . For bett er or for worse , tomorrow was D-Day . Outside his tent the gray English skies b egan to clear . Inside he prepared for the worst . `` Our landings .. . have fai led , '' he wrote in a statement he hoped would never be used . `` If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt , it is mine alone . '' Eisenhower , the global strategist , remained at heart a self-effacing Kansas farmboy , embodying the d emocratic virtues of the soldiers he led . War is an unpredictable mix of organi zed confusion , improvised ingenuity and timeless courage . Eisenhower recognize d this when he returned to the battlefield beside the sea in June 1964 . On D-Da y-plus-20 years , he spoke not of planes or tanks or guns or ships , nor strateg ies or commanders , Allied or Axis . Instead he thought of what might have been of all the men buried in French soil and all their families from whom they were forever separated . He said how blessed he and Mamie felt to have had grandchild ren . And he reflected with sadness on the other American couples who would be d enied that blessing because their sons had fallen in the fields of northern Fran ce . I had similar feelings in June 1984 when I visited Normandy for the 40th an niversary of the great invasion . As I gazed out upon the endless rows of white crosses and Stars of David , Ike 's lament took on a special and personal poigna ncy . Within sight of Omaha Beach , I singled out Pfc . Peter Zanatta , whose da ughter Lisa had written to tell me of her father 's extraordinary bravery . Pfc. Zanatta had died of cancer several years before the 1984 commemoration , but he was very much in our thoughts . On that day I promised both Lisa and her father , `` We will always remember . We will always be proud . We will always be prep ared , so we may always be free . '' Much has changed in the decade since . The Iron Curtain that rose in the tragic aftermath of the war has been consigned to the history books . Germany has united . Yet for these changes and more , our de bt of gratitude remains to the boys of Pointe du Hoc and all the heroes who libe rated a continent in chains . Age has its privileges , not least among them the opportunity to distill whatever wisdom comes from a long life of experiences . M y generation has lived through a cold war and a nuclear nightmare that for 40 ye ars haunted the dreams of children everywhere . During this same time , we have seen the United States become , however reluctantly , a great player on the worl d stage . Today , 50 years after the stark contrasts of D-Day , many Americans q uestion our role in a world less clearly divided between dictatorships and democ racy . Aware of our power , we seem uncertain as to our purpose . Some in Congre ss , who confuse leading with meddling and ignore the lessons of a century scarr ed by false Utopias and Maximum Leaders , would have us lower our global profile . On the eve of D-Day-plus-50 they propose the removal of 75,000 American soldi ers from Europe unless Europeans pay a significantly greater share of the cost o f keeping them there . Many oppose such short-sighted policies , and for good re ason . Let 's be honest . Evil still stalks the planet . Its ideology may be as simple as bloodlust , its program not more complex than economic or military plu nder . Call it what you will , it is evil all the same . As such , it must be re cognized and countered . Acknowledging trouble is not the same as looking for it . In the post-Cold War world it is fashionable to assert that nations must focu s their energies on economic , not military factors . In the long run , it is tr ue , no nation can remain militarily strong while economically exhausted . But i t is also true that defeats on the battlefield can and do occur in the short run . Enemies driven by nationalism , religion , ethnicity or ideology are unlikely to be impressed by American automobile production or diplomatic skills , especi ally if the latter are divorced from military strength . Lest we forget , Kuwait 's wealth did not protect it from the predatory Saddam Hussein . Moreover , can anyone truly believe that progress toward a Middle East peace has occurred in a vacuum , or that Israel 's age-old enemies would consider making peace but for the disappearance of the Soviet Union as a regional military power ? The questio n answers itself . As long as military force remains a necessary fact of modern existence , we should employ it in the service of vital humanitarian objectives . For example , what is being done to the people of Bosnia-Herzegovina shreds ev ery definition of human morality . `` Ethnic cleansing '' is a savage euphemism for an evil we 've seen before in Europe . By the same token , in parts of Afric a , mankind is an endangered species . The ultimate lesson of D-Day should not b e the willingness of freedom 's friends to come to its defense in an hour of gra ve peril . It should rather be how unnecessary such sacrifice is . If statesmen do their jobs with vision and resolution , then soldiers needn't be exposed to m urderous fire . Ten years ago I promised Lisa Zanatta that we would always remem ber . It would be tragic as well as ironic if the 50th anniversary of D-Day was marked only by political amnesia . Private Zanatta deserves better . So do his g randchildren . WASHINGTON A Washington Post article about Bedford , Va. , incorrectly stated t hat the deaths of 23 Bedford soldiers on D-Day prompted the military to stop for ming units from single communities . A Pentagon spokesman said the story is not true , even though it is a much-repeated World War II story . National Guard and military reserve units activated for combat still comprise people from the same region . The article also misstated the year in which the 29th Infantry Divisio n sailed for Britain . It was 1942 . WASHINGTON A Washington Post article about Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown ' s business interests incorrectly reported a statement from Harry Barnett , the a ttorney for Washington business executive Nolanda Hill . Barnett said he was not aware of the specifics of Brown 's sale of his interest in First International Communications Corp. , a Washington investing firm that Hill and Brown owned . You see them all the time now , on the trunk lids of new cars , sporty-looking and not-so-sporty-looking . They resemble oversized lift handles or misplaced ai rcraft wings . They are called rear spoilers , and they are being offered increa singly as options on new cars . Not just on overpowered , pseudo sports cars lik e the Chevy Camaro or the Ford Mustang . Spoilers can also be found on such othe rwise sedate models as the Toyota Camry , Honda Accord , Oldsmobile Achieva , Ni ssan Sentra , and Mercedes 190E . They 're attached to the rear ends of the Volv o 850 and the Ford Tempo and Escort . Even Saturn , which bills itself as a no-n onsense , straightforward automobile , offers an optional spoiler . You now can order a spoiler for virtually every new car model sold in America . If it doesn' t come from the factory , the dealer will be happy to install one for you for a price . The idea isn't new . Formula I racing cars have been using them for year s . The principle is simple : It 's the reverse of an aircraft wing . The spoile r generates downward airflow on the rear of the car , thereby increasing tractio n without requiring an increase in curb weight . It 's an effective racing devic e , provided you 're running the track at about 200 mph . But street vehicles ar e a different story . You simply aren't going to reach speeds where a spoiler 's effects would be significant . Furthermore , most of the spoiler manifestations cropping up on our highways aren't engineered components . They 're added for s tyling . They 're gingerbread . And they 're very expensive , especially when yo u consider that they 're basically useless . How expensive ? About $ 700 on a To yota Celica or Honda Accord . Or $ 500 on the Volvo . Only GM , which is fightin g for market share at the moment , seems to be reticent about gouging for spoile rs . On most of its models , the option runs under $ 200 . But even GM 's price is exorbitant , compared with the manufacturing cost . In a recent and informal survey of new-car dealers in the Washington area , I asked every salesperson who approached me about spoilers . I also collected as many brochures on new cars a s I could , looking to read what the automobile manufacturers were saying about spoilers in their promotional literature . The results of my little expedition s hould be eye-opening for cost-conscious car-shoppers . The typical pitch is that the spoiler will help improve traction . But when you ask for specifics enginee ring data , say you immediately get a verbal shuffle about how it 's too complic ated for a layperson to understand . In some cases , however , the salespeople w illn't try to mislead you . `` What does a spoiler do ? '' I asked at a Honda de alership . `` It makes the car look better , '' was the reply . `` Oh yeah ? For how much ? '' `` About $ 700 . '' `` Would you spend that kind of money on the thing ? '' I asked . `` Not me , man , '' the salesman replied , sheepishly . On e hint of the uselessness of spoilers , and the unspoken line over which the car manufacturers willn't step , is how they are described in the sales literature . Only a few of the brochures I collected categorized spoilers as a performance- enhancing feature . Those were for high-end , high-performance models . Instead , loose references were made to their sporty appearances . In other words , no c armaker will claim in print that a rear spoiler actually does you any good on th e road . The closest I found to an overt statement was contained in the brochure for the Toyota Supra , which sells for nearly $ 50,000 . In it , the company to uts the $ 700 option as `` Helping to increase downforce and stability at the hi gher speeds. .. . ' ' At exactly what higher speeds ? The brochure doesn't speci fy . The Volvo brochure is more circumspect . The spoiler option on its 850 mode l series , which runs about $ 500 , `` Adds distinctive , performance oriented v isual accent. .. . ' ' We 're talking about a spoiler on a Volvo , for crying ou t loud ! Although they have been an option for several years , none of the major consumer magazines has turned its attention to spoilers not Consumer Reports , the Car Book , Consumer Guide , Car & Driver , or Road and Track , for instance . -O- Possibly the height of absurdity is the sight of spoilers on the rear deck s of such models as the Camry and the Accord , which have front-wheel drive . An idle question : If spoilers were truly effective , shouldn't carmakers install them on the hoods of their front-drive models ? True , there are many other opti ons that are just as expensive . But this isn't like a sunroof , which costs a l ot but at least has a function . Or fog lamps . Or even a tachometer for a model with an automatic transmission . The spoiler has no function whatsoever except to liberate more of your money . So what 's a consumer to do ? First and foremos t , don't waste a dime on a spoiler . If you absolutely must have one , insist t he dealer give you a discount equal to its mark-up on the sticker price . My rec ommendation is that you take the money you would have spent on a spoiler and go out and buy yourself a bicycle rack and a good bicycle to put on it . You 'll ha ve purchased a much more useful addition to your car 's rear deck , a wonderful alternative mode of transportation , and a boon to your personal fitness . President Clinton recently treated word-watchers to a linguistic `` two-fer . ' ' On a single , red-letter day , he dusted off the venerable American phrase `` red cent '' and coined a new word , `` delink . '' `` The Treasury will not be o ut one red cent , '' Clinton announced , explaining that the government would be fully reimbursed for an aide 's use of a White House helicopter for a golf outi ng . Hot on the scent of `` red cent , '' we discover that the U.S. government ' s first penny , minted between 1793 and 1857 , was made from reddish tinted copp er , earning it the name `` red cent . '' Since then , Americans haven't been re ticent about using `` red cent '' to mean something of small value . Clinton mig ht have plugged that spot in his prose with `` plugged nickel , '' a term circul ated during the 1800s for a gold or silver coin whose center has been removed an d plugged with a cheap metal . Some might contend that there 's not a dime 's wo rth of difference between these two terms . But in coins , as in religion , deno mination is everything . By choosing a penny ante expression , Clinton was tryin g to make it clear that he 'd give such corruption no quarter and trying to prev ent his own de-nomination in 1996 . Which brings us to `` delink . '' Was Presid ent Clinton a `` delink-quent '' when he coined this word for detaching U.S. tra de policy with China from our disapproval of Chinese human rights violations ? S ome newspapers not only greeted Clinton 's decision with an unchained melody of boos , but placed `` delink '' in quotation marks , the journalistic equivalent of dangling a dead rodent at arm 's length and holding your nose . True enough , `` un '' is the more common prefix to indicate that an action has been reversed , and we already have a perfectly good word `` unlink '' to indicate the concep t of detachment . But the prefix `` de '' also means `` to reverse '' or `` remo ve , '' as in `` delouse , '' `` demystify '' and `` demagnetize . '' Besides , `` delink , '' in the diplomatic tradition of `` dealignment '' and `` depolitic ize , '' sounds crisper and more decisive than `` unlink . '' But , please , spa re us `` delinkization . '' An extraordinary collection of original documents , including a 1575 memo from Queen Elizabeth I to a servant requesting that her closets be cleaned out and so me of her clothes given to 40 poor women on Maundy Thursday , is on view at an e xhibit that opened May 27 at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville , N.C. . The show is called `` George Washington Vanderbilt : A Man and His Treasures '' to mark t he centennial of Biltmore , the largest house in America . The 250-room French R enaissance-style mansion was designed by noted architect Richard Morris Hunt for the grandson of the dynasty 's founder , Cornelius Vanderbilt . Biltmore , whic h is now a museum , remains in the family ; its owner , William Cecil , is a six th-generation Vanderbilt . The royal correspondence is among approximately 1,000 original documents inserted into a set of 29 gilded volumes entitled `` The His tory of Holland House , '' published in the 1850s . Holland House was the London abode of an aristocratic English family from the 17th century until it was dest royed by bombs during World War II . The folio-size volumes were purchased more than a century ago by George Vanderbilt . They have remained ever since in stora ge at Biltmore , uncataloged and unseen by scholars , according to Jerry Patters on , author of `` The Vanderbilts . '' Another exceptional document in the colle ction is a 1782 letter from the Marquis de Lafayette to Benjamin Franklin tellin g him it would be tough to get more `` pecuniary assistance '' from France for t he young United States . Asked by Cecil to authenticate the collection , Patters on , formerly a rare-book expert at Sotheby 's , said in an interview it contain s unique items such as an autograph of Edward VI , Henry VIII 's son who died as a teen-ager , and funeral bills for William III showing how much his shroud cos t . There are unpublished missives from literati such as Lord Byron , Samuel Joh nson , Richard Sheridan , Samuel Taylor Coleridge , Alexander Pope and William W ordsworth . There is a letter in Old Russian signed by Catherine the Great and a 1799 note about a soldier 's pension from Napoleon when he was still Bonaparte . Napoleon was a friend of the Holland family . Other treasures collected by Geo rge Vanderbilt that are on public display for the first time since the museum op ened in 1930 include numerous pieces of silver by famed 18th-century English sil versmiths Paul DeLamerie and Paul Crespin . There are also memorabilia that shed light on the personality of Biltmore 's original owner , who died in 1914 : his boyhood diaries , French royalty cards ( an antique version of baseball cards ) , pocket watches and even a ticket stub from a bullfight of long ago . A compan ion show entitled `` Biltmore Estate : The Most Distinguished Private Place '' w ill be mounted at the Octagon museum in Washington starting Oct. 17 . The centen nial exhibit will remain until the end of 1995 . For information , call the Bilt more Estate , ( 800 ) 323-6804 . WASHINGTON The State Department , in a highly unusual move , has quietly yanked career foreign service officer Jon David Glassman from his job as ambassador to Paraguay only a few months before his three-year tour was to have been complete d . Glassman , a national security aide to former Vice President Dan Quayle , wa s summarily bounced by Assistant Secretary of State Alexander F. Watson and prin cipal deputy Michael Skol around mid-February and was given until April 30 to le ave Asuncion . Administration officials insist that the move had nothing to do w ith Glassman 's identification with Quayle or his authorship of a controversial `` white paper '' that the Reagan administration used to `` prove '' that the Sa lvadoran rebels were Cuban and Soviet puppets . Officials said that the problem was mostly one of style . The hard-charging Glassman had been U.S. charge d' aff aires to Afghanistan and closed the U.S. . Embassy there in 1989 . He was sent t o Paraguay by President George Bush . Word is that he was too undiplomatic in le aning on the Paraguayan government to crack down on drug smugglers and money lau nderers . He had simply stepped on too many toes too often . Sources said the Pa raguayan government had twice sent senior officials to Washington in recent mont hs to complain and press for Glassman 's removal . `` We simply lost confidence in his reporting '' on the situation in Paraguay , an administration source said , adding that Glassman 's departure `` has been a long time coming . '' Bush ad ministration officials also had been unhappy with his performance but took no ac tion before the Clinton administration came in , that source said . While style may have had much to do with the decision , there appears to have been a substan tive dispute as well between Glassman and the State Department . Glassman report edly pushed to have the newly elected Paraguayan government branded as noncooper ative with U.S. antinarcotic efforts in the South American country . Other agenc ies working in Asuncion agreed with that assessment , a source said . But offici als here disagreed and kept Paraguay on State 's `` good guys '' list of nations this year . Glassman is now awaiting his next assignment , which will be workin g in Washington at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces at Fort McNair , d escribed by one source as `` truly Siberia . '' Word is Glassman 's replacement is to be another career foreign service officer , Robert E . Service , who has s erved in posts in Latin America and as director of Southern Cone affairs , the b ureau that handles Argentina , Chile , Uruguay and Paraguay . Service is the son of John Stewart Service , one of the career foreign service `` China hands '' w ho fell victim to the McCarthyite witch hunt of the 1950s . BUDAPEST , Hungary The successors to the Communists won last weekend in the fin al round of Hungary 's 1994 national elections . With some trepidation , the wor ld took note that Hungary , like Lithuania and Poland before it , had returned t he former ( if somewhat reformed ) Communist Party to power . The wins by the Co mmunist remnants are leading some to wonder about the fate of regional democrati c reforms . But only a paranoid few anticipate the restoration of the old one-pa rty dictatorship and state-controlled centralized economy . With a 54 percent ma jority , the Hungarian Socialist Party ( MSZP ) registered the third and largest victory by Communist successors in the former Soviet bloc . The Polish Democrat ic Left Alliance won 37 percent of seats in the Polish Sejm in September 1993 . The Lithuanian Democratic Worker 's Party gained 52 percent of parliamentary sea ts the next month . The regional trend may reflect nostalgia for communism to th e extent that free-market reforms hurt , and the standard of living for many Eas t Europeans was higher in the late 1980s than it is now . But it is perhaps bett er understood as a product of the post-Communist Zeitgeist , a combination of de termination to see democratic reforms through with popular disillusionment with the euphoria of 1989 . In Hungary , the election went to the Socialists , not to socialism . An absolute majority , 209 of 386 parliamentary seats , went to the MSZP , the legal successor to the Communist Hungarian Socialist Workers ' Party that governed Hungary from 1956 to 1989 . The Socialist victory stems from seve ral factors . First , many Hungarians voted with their wallets , perceiving the MSZP 's promise of `` capitalism with a human face '' as the best of both worlds . Hungary 's post-Communist economic health has been plagued by chronic and acu te pain , including rising prices , 13 percent unemployment and a widening gap b etween rich and poor . Because the MSZP 's moderate platform included a firm com mitment to continuing Hungary 's reforms , the electorate was spared an agonizin g choice between self-interest and democracy . To date , Hungary has attracted s ome $ 7 billion in foreign investment since 1990 , more than the rest of Eastern Europe put together . The privatization of state-owned concerns has resulted in some 60 percent of the gross domestic product stemming from the private sector , including the black market . Most Western political analysts agree the Sociali st leadership will pose no threat to Hungary 's long-term stability . The Social ist leadership 's credibility was crucial to the MSZP 's victory . Polls show MS ZP leader Gyula Horn is the politician Hungarians most strongly associate with t he change of regime . In his role as foreign minister in the last Communist gove rnment , Horn opened the border to allow East German refugees to move from Hunga ry into Austria , creating a dramatic movement of people that hastened the colla pse of communism . Another element contributing to the credibility of the MSZP i s that the party did not change its ideological stripes after the Berlin Wall fe ll . Unlike Poland , where transformed ex-Communists ran as free-market democrat s , the MSZP campaigned as unrepentant , if revamped , Socialists . This was pos sible because of the liberal nature of Hungary 's `` goulash communism , '' so c alled for its mix of some private enterprise with a planned economy . This relat ively moderate climate under communism earned Hungarians a reputation as the hap piest campers in the Eastern barracks . The MSZP benefited from the absence of s ubstantive distinctions among the mainstream party platforms , political analyst s said , giving image precedence over ideology : Polls show that voters regard t he Alliance of Free Democrats , a party largely composed of former dissidents th at came in a remote second with 70 seats , as principled , but inexperienced and idealistic . Voters held the current ruling party , the conservative Hungarian Democratic Forum , guilty by association for the economic troubles of the last f our years . It won 37 seats , a humiliating drop from 164 seats in the 1990 elec tions . The Young Democrats ' Party made a surprisingly poor showing , gaining o nly 20 seats despite its earlier popularity . Voters perceived that the former a lternative student party had moved too far to the right , positioning itself as a party of pragmatic yuppies . At this juncture , it seems premature to see a ne w , regional Red Menace . The MSZP , democratically elected by a landslide , pro poses no significant changes in national policy . While the prospect of former C ommunists attaining power frightens some , especially in this part of the world , it should be remembered that the voters ' choices , in Hungary and the other e merging democracies , are limited . As a Budapest intellectual observed , `` If everyone associated with the old regime was forbidden from power , then by defau lt the country would have to be run by waitresses and bus drivers . '' The triumphant success of Operation Overlord and the ensuing Normandy campaign , launched 50 years ago Monday , led to the destruction of German armies totalin g more than 250,000 men , making it the greatest success by the Western Allies i n all World War II . Its very success , however , tends to lead modern-day histo rians , in the brilliance of hindsight two generations later , to take it all fo r granted , as a forgone conclusion . Yet it was far from that . Realization of the grim losses on Omaha Beach had , by mid-day on June 6 , caused Gen. Omar Bra dley , a competent and `` unflappable '' commmander , to fear that his 29th and 1st Divisions had `` suffered an irreversible catastrophe . '' He came within an inch of ordering withdrawal of the Omaha force representing the main bulk of th e American D-Day effort . Such a Dunkirk-style evacuation , disastrous as it wou ld have been , illustrates just what a risky and courageous undertaking it was t o invade Normandy in June 1944 . It was , however , only one of the ways in whic h D-Day might have failed . D-day was one of the greatest single achievements in all military history , a triumph of Anglo-American cooperation . The vast armad a that set forth from England on June 6 was the largest that ever put to sea . I n it were nearly 6,000 vessels of all sizes from vast battleships down to tiny i nvasion craft at least 11,500 aircraft , 156,115 ground troops plus three elite airborne divisions . ( Of these the majority , by a margin of 10,000 , were in f act British and Canadian . ) The intense risks involved in that gigantic operati on , have reminded me of a conversation with Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf . It was sh ortly after the Gulf War , and I had asked what had been his biggest headache . His immediate response : `` the media . '' Separately I put the same question to Sir Peter de la Billiere , the British commander in the Gulf , and received the identical answer . ) Schwarzkopf told me that , in the Gulf , he had gone so fa r as to ban all TV sets in his headquarters , lest any of his staff be influence d by what they saw on CNN 's instant coverage of the battlefield . With D-Day in mind , I asked him what might have happened if CNN had been on Omaha Beach on J une 6 , 1944 where the U.S. . Army suffered some of its most severe casualties o f World War II . His reply : `` There would have been no D-plus-2 . '' In contra st to Vietnam , and the Gulf , civilian populations during World War II were wel l shielded from the impact of battlefield carnage . U.S. censorship discreetly f orbade the showing of photographs or film of any dead or badly wounded GIs . And of course there were no television cameras . -O- History can play strange trick s ; D-Day could so easily have gone terribly wrong . Secret papers recently rele ased in London now suggest that , by 1944 , it was by no means impossible for Hi tler actually to have won the war improbable as that may seem today . In the fir st place , the invasion might have taken place in 1943 or earlier . Stalin wante d an invasion Operation Sledgehammer as early as 1942 . So did the U.S. . Joint Chiefs of Staff , who were impatient with apparent British lethargy . But Britis h caution , and in this instance good judgment , prevailed . It was the disastro us Dieppe landing of August 1942 , where the Canadians lost 3,369 out of a total force of 5,000 , that illustrated the catastrophe that would almost certainly h ave overtaken any premature all-out invasion of northwest Europe . Success in Ju ne 1944 was predicated very largely on massive Allied superiority in the air whi ch had not yet been achieved the previous year . Equally in 1943 the British and Americans had neither the numbers of tanks , nor more crucially of landing craf t , that were essential to success . Secondly , there was the weather , always p articularly unpredictable in Normandy and on the English Channel . To get the ri ght combination of tides and moon , there were only a few days in June 1944 that were acceptable . As it happened , the invasion was postponed on the decision o f the supreme Allied commander , Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower , from June 5 to June 6 because of bad-weather reports . Had it been called off yet again , the next possible date would have been June 18-19 . But on those days , the worst storm i n 40 years struck ; 800 vessels were destroyed together with the whole American floating harbor called Mulberry . Thus , if postponed to June 18-19 , the Anglo- American invasion force would almost certainly have suffered the same fate as th e Spanish Armada in 1588 scattered and sunk without a shot being fired from shor e , in this case by Gen. Erwin Rommel 's German defenders . Thirdly , D-Day coul d equally have failed if the Germans had had access to anything resembling Briti sh Ultra intelligence and were `` reading our mail '' as we were indeed reading theirs . In this way , Rommel would have known where we were going to land , ena bling him to rush some of his 60 available divisions ( including 11 powerful Pan zers ) to the threatened area . An absolutely essential ingredient of Allied suc cess on D-Day was the skillful ( and British-initiated ) deception scheme , Oper ation Fortitude . By pretending to have a whole army group under the swashbuckli ng U.S. Gen. George S. Patton in readiness in southeastern England , the Allies deceived the Germans into believing that the main invasion effort would take pla ce in the heavily defended Pas de Calais . This was a logical invasion zone ; th e channel was narrowest here , and it offered the shortest route to Paris and th e industrial German Ruhr . But it was also the most heavily defended . Operation Fortitude succeeded so well that it fooled Hitler into keeping a whole German a rmy , the 15th , tied down uselessly in the Pas de Calais even after Patton 's U .S. 3rd Army had landed in Normandy , six weeks after D-Day . What might have ha ppened had Fortitude failed is suggested by two disasters that overtook Bradley 's U.S. 1st Army . During a landing exercise off Slapton Sands in April , fast G erman patrol boats sneaked through the Royal Navy screen to sink two LSTs . Six hundred American assault troops of the 7th Corps were killed more casualties tha n they suffered in the June 6 landing on Utah Beach . If the German patrol boats and submarines had been properly alerted by their intelligence on D-Day , losse s inflicted on the Allied armada could have been devastating . Then , when landi ng on deadly Omaha Beach , Bradley 's men ran unexpectedly into a first-class Ge rman division , the 352nd , the only one of its standard in Normandy . Casualtie s were appalling , higher than anywhere else though slender in proportion to wha t was at stake , and in terms of the whole costly battle of Normandy . If Bradle y had been forced to withdraw from Omaha , and had it been repeated on the Briti sh and Canadian beaches ( where , thanks chiefly to Fortitude , the landings had met only limited resistance ) , the cutting edge of the D-Day forces would have been lost . Almost certainly a large proportion of the indispensable invasion c raft would have been lost too . Such a reverse would have meant the almost certa in postponement of another Overlord attempt to the following summer of 1945 . Th e Americans were under strong pressure from the `` Pacific First '' lobby of Adm . Ernest King , the chief of naval operations , to transfer forces and landing-c raft to the Pacific . With British manpower critically depleted , the main effor t against Germany would have been American . Under the rain of Hitler 's `` secr et weapons , '' the pilotless V-1 missiles ( which began landing , and causing t errible damage and civilian losses , one week after D-Day ) , Britain 's economy and morale would have been seriously impaired . It was Rommel 's hope that , if he could destroy the Allies on the western beaches , Germany might be able to f orce Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to some kind of stalemate peace in the east . T he 60 German divisions deployed in the west could conceivably have tilted the ba lance against the Red Army , which had already suffered millions of casualties . The Soviet economy was under severe strain , and as its supply lines grew longe r , so proportionally did German logistical problems ease . If D-Day had failed , at best continental Europe would have been subjected to another year and certa inly the most terrible year of war before liberation . Hundreds of thousands wou ld have succumbed to starvation . The `` Final Solution '' would have consumed t he last remnants of European Jewry . Finally , Hitler 's scientists had been wor king for years on an atomic bomb . They might have been unlikely to have achieve d it by 1945 ; but , with greater certainty , the Allies would have dropped `` F at Boy '' in Europe , not Japan . With Allied ground forces stalled in the west , then in all likelihood the war would have ended with the Red Army occupying al l of a `` nuked '' Germany , confronting the Allies with a largely communist Wes tern Europe . The recently released papers from the British Public Records Offic e show Hitler by April 1945 planning self-immolation accompanied by a terrible W agnerian Gotterdammerung of destruction in Europe . With the war continuing thro ugh 1944 and 1945 , it would have given him much greater opportunity to destroy Paris at his leisure . That none of these dread scenarios took place depended ve ry largely on two men Eisenhower , and his ground-forces commander , Gen. Bernar d Montgomery `` Monty . '' One of Montgomery 's sharpest American critics was Ei senhower 's tough chief of staff , Maj. Gen. Bedell Smith , but he confessed aft er the war : `` I don't know if we could have done it without Monty . It was his sort of battle . Whatever they say about him , he got us there . '' Almost equa lly indispensable , as superbly qualified to weld together harmoniously all the disparate Allied forces , was Ike . But the detailed planning , and actual comma nd of all the invasion forces , he had entrusted to Montgomery . As of D-Day , M ontgomery was the one man on either side who could have lost the war that day . It almost certainly would have been lost , if in addition to the big ifs of timi ng , air superiority , weather and success of the Allied deception plan , Fortit ude Monty had accepted the plans he inherited in January 1944 . These had prescr ibed a wholly inadequate landing by three divisions . From the very beginning , Monty insisted the Allies land five divisions on a 50-mile-wide beachhead . As i t turned out , although final victory was to be delayed another year ( not least through disagreements over strategy between the Allies ) success at D-Day assur ed the fall of Hitler . It also shaped the modern world . With U.S. predominance in the war manifestly established as her troops in Europe grew from parity with the British to a ratio of 3 to 1 , D-Day was the moment when America took over lead of the alliance . Today 's frontiers in Europe and the structure of the 50 years of peace that followed hark back to that success . Without it , what remai ned of Europe would surely have been left to face liberation by the Red Army . - O- ( Historian Alistair Horne , co-author of `` The Lonely Leader ; Monty 1944-4 5 '' ( Harper Collins-USA , Macmillian-UK ) was training in England for the Guar ds Armoured Division when D-Day was launched . ) American policy on Rwanda is difficult to understand . Statements made by Madel eine Albright , the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations , indicate that Rwanda is viewed as a traditional peace-keeping problem , when it is really a `` Call 911 ! '' problem . Traditional peace-keeping calls for a negotiated cease-fire f ollowed by the arrival of lightly armed multilateral forces who monitor and obse rve . Rwanda , on the other hand , is a case of planned , systematic murder of m en , women and children who happen to belong to a particular group the Tutsi . B oth the self-proclaimed government of Rwanda , which has armed the death squads who are doing the ethnic killing , and the rebel Rwanda Patriotic Front fighters , do not want to stop fighting until they can finish the genocide or dominate m ilitarily . Waiting to intervene until there is `` progress toward a cease-fire , '' in Albright 's words , is like a doctor telling a heart attack victim , `` Take two aspirins , and call me in the morning . '' Giving one or both of the fi ghting groups in Rwanda a veto on international intervention is the height of fo lly . If anything is going to destroy the credibility of the international commu nity in the area of conflict resolution , the American policy is going to do it . The Rwandan crisis has all of the characteristics of a situation requiring urg ent action : Rwanda is inflicting emotional and financial pain on the world comm unity . Let 's face it , whatever we do in Rwanda , there will be a bill to pay one way or another . Rwanda has become simultaneously a failed state and a deleg itimized state . It has failed because the previous government has self-destruct ed into semi-anarchy . It is delegitimized because the new self-proclaimed gover nment is by definition a pariah because of its determination to exterminate an e ntire ethnic group . A significant population is at risk . Indeed , in areas con trolled by the death squads , the Tutsi have essentially been wiped out . Genoci de is qualitatively a lot worse than any of the normal human rights situations w e worry about around the globe China , for example . For the above three reasons , the appropriateness of international intervention could not be more apparent . The fighting is clearly not susceptible to an early cease-fire , and even if a cease-fire could be arranged , the endangered populations would still be endang ered wherever there are death squads still roaming the countryside . In addition to the demand that a cease-fire be on hand before the dispatch of troops , the United States is making matters worse by insisting that any U.N. troops work fro m the outside to protect Rwandans fleeing the fighting in camps in the border ar eas . That tactic would only increase the number of refugees spilling over into neighboring countries , which cannot handle the ones already there . The only wa y what is left of the Tutsi population can be saved is for troops to work from t he center so that death squads will be intimidated into melting into the general population . By standing in the way of African troops intervening in Rwanda und er `` combat '' terms of engagement , the United States is effectively imposing upon the Security Council the same rule that it applies to itself . That is to s ay , the administration sees no vital American interest engaged in Rwanda , and therefore does not want U.N. troops to have a muscular mandate even though Afric an troops would be willing to take on such a difficult and dangerous assignment . Is the U.S. government worried that such an operation would constitute a slipp ery slope to eventual American troop involvement if the military situation gets worse rather than better ? With such a `` what if '' policy , the United Nations is effectively paralyzed from doing anything except traditional peace-keeping , which is exactly where it was during the Cold War . It may be too late to save the Tutsi of Rwanda . After three weeks of systematic killing that must be calle d `` genocide , '' we can probably only learn some lessons for the `` new world order , '' which seems to be eluding us . First , we should remember that while five big powers in the Security Council can veto action , they cannot force the Security Council to take action . That takes nine votes . When the Americans sou ght Security Council approval for military action against Iraq after it invaded Kuwait , a majority vote was not ensured . The non-aligned members of the counci l were dubious at first . Thanks to the hard work and support of Ethiopia and Za ire , the council voted to use force against Iraq . After the current wimpish ap proach to the genocide in Rwanda , will the three African Security Council votes be with us in the future when we need support for an action we consider to be i n America 's vital interest ? It may not be a sure thing . Second , Rwanda and B osnia appear to be setting a new ugly pattern in post-Cold War politics . Small groups of determined fanatics are willing to ride a wave of hatred and ethnic fe ar in order to obtain power or remain in power regardless of the human cost . Fo rmer communists in Serbia are now ethnic nationalists . Hutu extremists in Rwand a saw democracy coming and decided that genocide was the price to pay for remain ing in power . Where there is a history of ethnic animosity , it only takes a si mple `` Kill them before they kill us '' to set off the powder keg . Internation al inaction in Rwanda and insufficient action in Bosnia are sending a signal to nasty people everywhere : `` You can get away with it now . '' Finally , the Uni ted States and other important powers should start working to give the United Na tions the ability to put out fires while they are still smoldering . The U.N. se cretary general proposed such a rapid reaction capability in his `` Agenda for P eace '' proposal of July , 1992 , which has so far received very little attentio n . If the Agenda for Peace cannot be implemented throughout the world , why not start it at least in Africa ? At the opening of the Holocaust Museum , Presiden t Clinton pledged that `` we will never allow another Holocaust . '' Another Hol ocaust may have just slipped by , hardly noticed . WASHINGTON Last year , the caretakers of the Capitol blasted clean the corrodin g statue of `` Freedom '' that is perched above the imposing domed building . To day , the rest of the once-revered institution is finding itself in need of some serious clean-up and repair . Once again , scandal has landed on the grand marb le steps of the U.S. Congress with last week 's indictment of Chicago Rep. Dan R ostenkowski . And although the accusations against the powerful congressman are unproven at this point , they still seem to have succeeded in confirming the pub lic 's worst suspicions about an already scarred and battered body of government . Polls taken last week suggested that the majority of Americans believe most m embers of Congress are corrupt , and they furthermore believe that Congress is m ore corrupt today than it was 20 years ago . But former members , including some who left under the cloud of the House banking scandal of 1992 , as well as Cong ressional watchdogs believe that there is today a heightened sensitivity among m embers regarding their behavior . They believe that , while the lax rules of Con gress , the perquisites and privileges still lead to occasional abuses of power , the actions outlined in the Rostenkowski indictment are atypical . What is so striking about the list of charges against Rostenkowski , says former Rep. Vin W eber of Minnesota , `` is that it stands in contrast to the standards members ar e setting for themselves now . '' Weber , who left Congress in 1992 after 12 yea rs ( and 125 overdrafts on the now-closed House bank ) , believes that , a decad e ago , members were more cavalier , were in fact aggressive , about racking up the free lunches , the trips to Barbados , whatever perks or privileges they cou ld find . He believes that behavior was fostered by the great respect and admira tion , even awe , the public once bestowed on elected officials and the institut ion . `` People bowed and scraped a little too much in the old days , '' says th e former House Republican . `` We did have an imperial Congress in terms of the way the public treated elected officials . So the members thought , ` I must des erve all these goodies. ' ' ' In the last several years , he says especially sin ce the 1989 fall of former House Speaker Jim Wright over alleged ethics violatio ns the pendulum has swung in the other direction , with a public that has `` alm ost no regard for the institution . '' The days of the imperial Congress and , t hus , members expecting royal treatment are over , says the former congressman . `` The two go hand-in-hand . '' Former New York Rep. Stephen Solarz says the in creased scrutiny today deters abuses of power . `` If anything , people are exce ssively cautious , '' says Solarz , who lost his seat in 1992 , at least in part because he was found to have abused banking privileges with 743 overdrafts . `` They don't want to be snake-bit . With everyone looking over their shoulder and with the press eager to expose miscreants , most people bend over backward to s tay within the rules . '' But even staying within the rules when the rules are a s arcane , loosely defined and unenforced as some of them are often results in u nethical , albeit legal , behavior , Congress watchers say . `` When there is no t specific guidance on how to relate to certain perks and certain uses of money , you run the risk of seeing members stretch that to the limit , '' says Greg Ku biak , author of a book that examined congress . `` Laws are going to get strain ed and pushed until they get broken . '' Similarly , Ellen Miller , executive di rector of the Center for Responsive Politics , believes that the widespread corr uption in Congress `` mostly has to do with things that are legal and sanctified , but are still corrupt in the public 's mind. .. . What better evidence do we need than all the people caught up in the House banking scandal ? '' Indeed , be fore the House bank was shut down two years ago , there were no clear rules agai nst overdrafts there . Without much regulation , 325 former and sitting House me mbers had overdrawn their accounts anywhere from one to nearly 1,000 times in a three-year period . But Miller and other Congressional observers believe that ca mpaign financing with special interests allowed to contribute large sums of mone y to candidates in hopes of buying future influence and favors is the premiere a venue for institutionalized corruption on Capitol Hill . `` It leads to a lot of members losing touch with reality , starting to feel they deserve certain kinds of perks and privileges without realizing what those perks and privileges look like to the outside world , '' says Bob Schiff , staff attorney for Public Citiz en 's Congress Watch . Still , even such critics say there are signs that the cu lture of permissiveness that has long pervaded Capitol Hill what Fred Wertheimer of Common Cause calls `` a culture of lax rules and lax enforcement of rules '' is beginning to change . They note that the makeup of the legislative bodies ha s shifted , with many of the freshmen elected in 1992 having campaigned against `` business as usual '' and the entrenched elite , and more committed to reform than many of their more senior colleagues . And recently , the House and Senate passed bills that greatly restrict the gifts , meals and trips that members can receive from lobbyists . But Charles Lewis , executive director of the Center fo r Public Integrity , believes there is still an `` anything goes '' mentality in Congress , and fears that the recent passage of the gift ban legislation merely reflects a heightened concern about appearances . `` Their main preoccupation w as , not whether it was right or wrong , but how it would look , '' says Lewis . `` They 're trying harder to avoid the appearance of abuses . '' And others bel ieve such concessions are little more than token gestures by a legislature that knows the public is disgruntled , but has little interest in major reform . `` T he real ethical questions about issues like campaign finance reform haven't been answered , '' says Kubiak . Former members are quick to defend the institution and their colleagues , insisting they are an honest bunch who are unfairly tarre d by the actions or even the alleged actions of a few . `` It comes down to the character of the individual , '' says former Chicago Democrat Frank Annunzio , a 28-year House veteran . `` When you have such an aura of power , some people ca n't handle it. .. . ' ' The buzz on Wall Street these days is about `` Hard Assets . '' No , it 's not the name of a new Sylvester Stallone movie . It 's the strategy of investing in what market analysts like to call `` stuff-you-can-touch . '' Stuff like oil , g old , copper , aluminum , timber , coffee , orange juice , cocoa and , yes , eve n real estate . The concept is that this stuff will keep its value if rising int erest rates and mounting inflation seriously erode the value of stocks , bonds a nd currencies . In fact , the rush to invest in hard assets is well under way . Commodity prices have been rising sharply for six weeks , creating a whiff of in flation that has scared stock and bond investors . The ferment has prompted inve stors to wonder if there are any mutual funds that can help them keep pace with the emphasis on commodities and the growing demand for industrial materials . Th e answer is yes but indirectly . By custom and regulation , most mutual funds ar e effectively discouraged from taking part in the high-risk futures markets and from trading in such items as copper futures and grain futures . But funds can a nd do invest in the stocks of companies in the copper business or in the grain b usiness . And those stocks are a reasonably efficient way to reflect the changes in commodity pricing , according to Richard Fontaine , who runs the Fontaine Ca pital Appreciation Fund in Towson , Md. . Fontaine , for example , rode the upwa rd move in copper futures by investing in copper producers Phelps Dodge Corp. an d Freeport McMoran Copper & Gold Inc. . To get on the agricultural bandwagon , h e bought shares in Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. , a company that dubs itself `` su permarket to the world . '' However , Fontaine cautioned investors to remember t hat `` a stock is still a stock '' and thus can be hurt by market or company eve nts . If a stock drops in price , it also can affect a fund 's performance . To pursue the commodities theme , investors can choose from funds in several catego ries : precious and non-precious metals ; oil and gas ; and industrial materials and manufacturing equipment . There are also funds that focus on real estate . Remember that gold funds are notoriously volatile . Here , with the help of Morn ingstar Inc. , a mutual-fund research service , are several funds that might giv e investors a chance to keep up with the commodities boom , with higher inflatio n and the growing economic recovery . Warburg , Pincus Growth & Income Fund ( 80 0-257-5614 ; no load ) . Taking a contrarian , value-driven approach , manager A nthony G. Orphanos dumped most of his interest-rate-sensitive securities last ye ar and put 38 percent of his fund 's $ 78 million into industrial stocks that wo uld do well as the economy picked up . He also invested heavily in precious-meta ls stocks all of which reduced the fund 's yield but propelled it to a 37 percen t gain in 1993 . The strategy also helped bolster the fund during the recent mar ket slide , and it is up 6.6 percent this year . T. Rowe Price New Era Fund ( 80 0-638-5660 ; no load ) . This 25-year-old fund , managed by George A . Roche , h as invested 80 percent of its $ 823 million in oil and gas , precious metals , c hemicals , forest products , non-precious metals , miscellaneous resources and r eal estate . The Roche strategy is to diversify widely within these volatile sec tors and to anchor his fund in non-natural-resources securities such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. , in which the fund has invested almost 7 percent of its money . Wh ile this strategy has tended to mute the fund 's returns in recent years the fun d gained 15 percent last year it has taken on less risk than comparable funds . The New Era fund is up 1.6 percent this year . Fidelity Select Chemicals Fund ( 800-544-8888 ; 3 percent sales charge , plus exchange and redemption fees ) . An expanding economy requires a vast array of chemical products , and the companie s that supply them are benefiting by the increased demand . This $ 57 million fu nd , managed by Steve Wymer , has had a history of positive returns , except for 1990 . It gained 12.8 percent last year and is up 12.7 percent so far this year the best 1994 performance among 35 Fidelity Select funds . Fidelity Select Indu strial Materials Fund ( 800-544-8888 ; 3 percent sales charge , plus exchange an d redemption fees ) . Petroleum , chemicals and glass are among the industrial m aterials that have been in growing demand during the current economic recovery a nd this $ 131 million fund invests in these products and the railroads that tran sport them . The fund , under manager Louis Salemy , gained 21.4 percent last ye ar and is up 8.1 percent so far this year . Invesco Strategic Portfolios Gold ( 800-525-8085 ; no load ) . Manager Daniel B . Leonard targets North American gol d-mining companies with strong growth potential . These often include `` junior '' producers that are adept at cutting costs , exploring new territories and inc reasing bullion reserves . The fund , in recent years , has stayed out of South Africa and thus avoided some of the gains but much of the volatility of those st ocks . The fund , which has $ 362 million , gained a whopping 73 percent last ye ar but is down 8.4 percent this year . United Services World Gold Fund ( 800-873 -8637 ; withdrawal fee within 30 days of investing . ) . This is a gold fund wit h a difference . Manager Victor Flores packs the World Gold portfolio with `` ju nior '' mines and exploration companies . Flores has put about 35 percent of his $ 231 million in Australian , West African and Latin American mines . The rest is in North America , all of which gives the fund a conservative tone . The fund , whose charter bars investments in South Africa , gained 90 percent last year and is down 5.6 percent so far this year . Cohen & Steers Realty Shares ( 800-43 7-9912 ; no load ) . Co-managers Martin Cohen and Robert Steers invest chiefly i n real-estate investment trusts ( REITs ) , which have multiplied rapidly . The managers recently reduced their stake in apartment REITs in favor of those that specialize in shopping centers . The fund , which has $ 287 million , gained 18. 8 percent last year and is up 8.6 percent this year . The rankings for hard-cover books in the Washington , D.C. , area as reported b y selected book stores : FICTION : 1 . THE CELESTINE PROPHECY , by James Redfiel d . 2 . THE CHAMBER , by John Grisham . 3 . INCA GOLD , by Clive Cussler . 4 . R EMEMBER ME , by Mary Higgins Clark . 5 . `` K '' IS FOR KILLER , by Sue Grafton . NON-FICTION : 1 . IN THE KITCHEN WITH ROSIE , by Rosie Daley . 2 . STANDING FI RM , by Dan Quayle . 3 . BEYOND PEACE , by Richard Nixon . 4 . EMBRACED BY THE L IGHT , by Betty J. Eadie with Curtis Taylor . 5 . THE HALDEMAN DIARIES , by H.R. . ANN ARBOR , Mich. . According to Israeli law , if I revealed the names of the d irectors of the Shabak and Mossad , I could go to jail . The Shabak , a Hebrew a cronym , is the General Security Service , which combines the tasks of a police force and the U.S. . Federal Bureau of Investigation . The Mossad is Israel 's f oreign-espionage arm . Israeli law , as well as tradition and precedent , forbid s Israelis , regardless of where they reside , to publish or privately disclose the two names . Its origins go back to pre-statehood days and was inspired by Br itish emergency regulations targeting the Jewish underground and censoring the H ebrew press . Every few years , the government appoints two officials to the int elligence posts without making any formal announcement of who has been appointed . The problem is that virtually anyone who cares to know , including Israel 's arch enemies , can uncover this `` secret '' except the Israeli public . How can such a practice be justified and defended ? In Israel 's early days , there may have been some security justification for the imposed anonymity . The two Israe li directors , for example , could enjoy more freedom to maneuver in a country c onstantly challenged by war and terrorism . More than two years ago , however , even Britain abandoned its hush-hush tradition and revealed the names of its top two intelligence directors . The Israeli government , moreover , is less able t o justify the practice on national-security grounds . First , many well-informed Israelis already know the names of the Mossad and Shabak directors . Indeed , i t has become something of a game at parties to open conversations with `` The Sh abak chief told me the other day , ' ' or `` I met the head of the Mossad and he said .. . . '' Those who can't fill in the names are simply not `` in . '' The practice , at times , comes close to farce . The personal lifestyle and manageri al conduct of the Shabak chief were recently questioned in the Israeli press . A n official government committee also investigated whether he misused public fund s . All this was duly reported without naming the subject . The episodes ' major victim was the government 's claim that its heads of intelligence maintain a lo w-key posture in public life . Foreigners , whether friendly American agents or hostile Arab officials , usually have no trouble in lifting the cloak of secrecy . The director of the Mossad , for example , accompanied Israeli Defense Minist er Moshe Arens to a meeting in Washington two weeks before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait . As an experienced case officer who ran networks of Iraqi informers , h e was in a particularly good position to impress his CIA counterpart and other s enior officials of the Bush administration with his knowledge and understanding of the inner workings of Saddam Hussein 's regime . And the Shabak chief recentl y met in Cairo with officials of the Palestine Liberation Organization to coordi nate the transfer of authority in Palestinian-ruled Gaza and Jericho . In neithe r case did the intelligence head attempt to hide his identity . There seems only two remaining reasons for the Israeli government to maintain the practice of re fusing to name its chiefs of intelligence . It helps to preserve the mystique su rrounding the art of espionage and the heroic glory of spymasters . At the same time , it serves as an impediment to genuine , independent scrutiny of the secre t services by the Knesset , Israel 's Parliament , and the news media . This mon th , Israel 's supreme court will hear a petition filed by a newspaper in Jerusa lem seeking to overturn the law barring publication of the name of the Shabak ch ief . The Israeli government could do itself some good if it went ahead and free ly disclosed the name . Especially after Foreign Report , a British newsletter , disclosed in August 1993 that Jacob Pery runs the Shabak and Shabtay Shavit the Mossad . The new Israel , already shaking off many of its old practices in poli tics , economics and culture , should not be afraid to break one of its last tab oos . By confirming the names and identities of its current heads of intelligenc e or if they are soon replaced , naming their successors the Israeli government would make a small but significant gesture toward preparing the country for the new and exciting era of peace and security . FREDERICK , Md. . The body of Frank R. Olson , a government biochemist who plun ged to his death in 1953 after unwittingly taking LSD in a CIA experiment , was exhumed this week and handed over to forensic scientists trying to find out whet her he was murdered . Olson 's son , Eric , a Frederick psychologist , stood by with members of the scientific team as the concrete burial vault was hoisted fro m a hillside grave at Frederick Memorial Park . The dark wooden coffin was remov ed from the asphalt-sealed vault , wrapped in black vinyl and loaded into a van . Eric Olson , 49 , said he had been haunted by inconsistencies in government ac counts of his father 's death , and he expressed hope that his father 's body wo uld unlock the secrets that he believes have been kept for four decades . `` I d on't know if we 're going to find out what happened to my father , but I want to feel we did what we could do to find out , '' he said . `` I was only 9 years o ld when he died , and it was an overwhelming shock for me and something from whi ch , in a lot of ways , I 've never recovered . '' Frank Olson plummeted from a 13th-floor window at the Hotel Statler in New York in the early morning hours of Nov. 28 , 1953 , and authorities labeled his death an apparent suicide . The fa mily did not learn until 1975 that Olson , a civilian scientist working on top-s ecret germ warfare projects at Camp Detrick , Md. , had been subjected to an LSD test nine days earlier . In 1976 , the government paid Olson 's family $ 750,00 0 to settle claims that the CIA was responsible for his suicide . But new eviden ce showing foul play might lead to new legal action , Eric Olson said . CIA spok esman Dave Christian , calling Olson 's death `` a tragic event , '' said exhaus tive investigations into the role of agency employees `` indicated no reasons wh atsoever to suspect that homicide was involved . '' Frank Olson 's body was take n to a police laboratory in Hagerstown , Md. , and will be examined for a month by a team of investigators led by James E. Starrs , a George Washington Universi ty professor of law and forensic sciences . Starrs has conducted similar investi gations into the deaths of the ax-murdered parents of Lizzie Borden and assassin ated Louisiana Sen. Huey P . Long . The investigators will test for drugs and to xins , document bone fractures and use other modern techniques to test official explanations of Olson 's death . A final report could be released within a month . `` We certainly expect to find what the nature of the injuries were that he s uffered when he went out the window , '' Starrs said . `` Hopefully we 'll also find out whether he suffered any injuries before he went out the window , which might be attributable to .. . foul play . If we find nothing ( in toxicology exa minations ) , then there 's nothing that could have been found , I assure you of that . '' Olson said he and his brother , Nils , 45 , decided to have the tests performed at the same time they were transferring the body to the cemetery wher e their mother was buried last summer . Olson said his father 's body was well p reserved . `` They said the condition of the body was such that there were none of the tests they could not perform , '' Olson said . The autopsy performed at t he New York medical examiner 's office in 1953 was `` very cursory '' and includ ed no X-rays or graphs cataloguing Olson 's injuries . `` The doctor was misled . He was told that it was an out-and-out suicide , '' Starrs said . `` If he had known there was something more sinister , I 'm sure he would have gone much fur ther than he did . '' STUDIO CITY , Calif. . There it is , 65 seconds into the show , the first joke based on bodily functions : `` Order now and get the Nancy Poo books , about a g irl who dropped out ( of school ) and had to clean toilets . '' Yuk , yuk , you say . That 's really unfunny . But it gets a big laugh from the 9-to-teen-year-o ld studio audience , a reaction the creators of `` The Roundhouse '' are fully a nticipating . The show is a kind of `` Saturday Night Live' ' / `` Laugh-In '' f or pre- and mid-adolescents , surprising in its relative wit and occasional lite racy . In a television world where such grotesqueries as `` Beavis and Butt-head '' or `` Ren and Stimpy '' pass for youth culture , such qualities are worthy o f note . And , while vulgarity rules , the show also owes an unexpected debt to musical comedy , that old-fashioned American art form that keeps threatening to die but doesn't . The packaging may be grungily hip , but when you strip away th e style , what you 've got is a bunch of extroverted kids putting on a show , wi th a big , belting number in the middle . Few parents seem to know about `` The Roundhouse , '' which may be part of its charm . Now entering its third year on the Nickelodeon cable network , its devoted audience of about 2 million househol ds tunes in every Saturday night ( there 's a rerun on Sunday ) for a weekly hom ily encoded ( and sometimes obscured ) in a series of quick sketches , songs and choreographed hip-hop . The show is aimed at the ages when a kid is between ide ntities no longer a child but not yet a cool teen , worried about pimples and fr iends and what he 's supposed to like . One reason `` The Roundhouse '' may seem excessive to adults is that it reflects some of the social brutality of that ag e group . Grandmas might be appalled at the frequent jokes about the noises and substances that the body emits , but most parents have already been numbed and w illn't be too grossed out . It 's no use groaning at the mention of `` Napoleon Bonafart '' or Boogertown , or fake commercials for `` Fig Spewtons '' ( the coo kie that will make you really vomit so you don't have to go to school ) or `` Ch ia Pits '' that will grow instant hair under your arms . Each show centers on An yfamily , a massively dysfunctional takeoff on a `` stereotypical television fam ily . '' Dad Anyfamily tools around in a motorized recliner , with lamp and barb ecue attached . He is unemployed , stupid and spends all day watching television and eating pork rinds . Mom is usually baking cookies or lecturing the kids , a nd Sis is the perfect child . Skip Anykid ( also known as Doug , Joey and variou s other names ) is the quintessential goof-up , failing school and life in gener al . There are numerous recurring characters , such as the mean Neighbor Lady wh o keeps all the Frisbees and balls that land in her yard , and Where 's Walnut , a weird guy in a red-and-white-striped shirt who poses conspicuously in tableau x and asks the audience to find him , and the Principal , who sounds like George Bush and whose head is always covered by a loudspeaker . Few pop-culture figure s escape the vicious attack of the youthful `` Roundhouse '' writers not `` Vann a Very Very White '' ; not Michael Bolton ( whose hair is sold for dish scrubber s ) ; not `` Sylvester Shalom '' with a hanger in his jacket , `` coming soon ou t of a coat closet near you . '' There 's `` Dr. Seuss , M.D. , '' who talks onl y in rhymes : `` Open your mouth and say ah/ Raise your arm and say ha-ha-ha . ' ' And the `` Pointless Sisters , '' who are about to quit . `` We push the envel ope right out there without going too far , '' said Buddy Sheffield , 44 , who c reated the show with his ex-wife , Rita , 47 . `` Kids today know so much more t han we think they do . '' Don't expect great , profound thinking here . Like muc h of modern life , this show is fast , over almost before you know it , relying on an in-group familiarity with the characters and the shortcut vocabulary of te levision culture . Each half-hour episode , with an original script and music , plus fresh dances , is produced in one frantic week and played live before the a udience on Friday night . Tomorrow the show will be broadcast live without a net to kick off the summer season . It 's kind of like vaudeville in Doc Martens . A roundhouse , explains Rita Sheffield , is where trains come in and `` go anywh ere from . '' The first read-through of the script is on Monday afternoon . Seat ed at tables in a double-wide trailer next to the theater , the cast of 15 , who range in age from 17-year-old Natasha Pearce to 32-year-old John Crane , flies through the script with deliberate nonchalance . There are 33 `` items , '' or b its , in this 26-minute script , ranging from plot moments ( `` Our kid hates sc hool '' ) to commercial parodies ( `` Hooked on Moronics '' ) . After a few run- throughs they break for lunch in late afternoon , most of them turning to the ta ble of fruit and packaged goodies in the rehearsal room . `` They used to have a ll low-fat , healthy stuff here , '' said cast member Shawn Daywalt . `` We had to put a stop to that . '' Meanwhile , three teams of writers are laboring in a nearby office on future scripts , meeting occasionally at a long table supplied with Gummi Bears and Tums to audition their ideas for Buddy Sheffield , who laug hs appreciatively at many of them . And then cuts most . The show is done on wha t in television passes for a shoestring , reportedly around $ 300,000 per half-h our episode . ( Nickelodeon willn't say what the show 's budget is , or what its Nielsen ratings are , and had a press representative sit in on every interview . ) The low budget influenced the show 's creatively minimalist style there are no costume changes , the set pieces are movable and made of found objects , and when the actors break into a commercial parody they hold up a cardboard rectangl e to represent a TV . ( That is unless the commercial has been turned into a maj or bit , such as a recent skit about `` Tried-it , the pre-chewed gum collected by janitors across the country , '' or a sun tanning lotion called `` Toxzema , which contains actual material found at the beach cigarette butts , raw sewage a nd contaminated syringes . Give your skin that burnt blistery look the girls lov e . '' Alfred Carr Jr. , one of the cast 's two black members , then gave a test imonial : `` I used to be a white guy until Toxzema gave me a major dose of sun poisoning ! '' ) Although the Sheffields are divorced , they seem to work well t ogether , and the team now includes Rita 's husband , Benny Hester . All three a re listed as executive producers , but the division of labor is that Buddy is in charge of the scripts , Benny is in charge of music , and Rita does most of the directing . Benny and Buddy won a CableACE Award for the song `` I Can Dream . '' `` We 've all raised kids , so we know what they 're like , '' said Rita Shef field . `` Especially the teen-age years . By the time they are 20 you 've loose ned up a lot . '' The show is so fast it 's easy to miss something ; by the time you realize it , there 's something else center stage . The skits are never lon ger than two minutes because `` a kid 's attention span is much shorter , '' sai d Buddy Sheffield , who also wrote for the Fox show `` In Living Color . '' `` Y ou don't give 'em a chance to get bored . '' WASHINGTON In yet another blow to the perks of office , senators and their seni or staffers were notified this week that they no longer are entitled to free ass igned parking in underground garages unless they are willing to pay taxes on it . Underground parking at the Russell , Dirksen and Hart Senate office buildings will remain tax free for those willing to hunt for an open parking space . But s enators and their aides who insist on reserved parking will be socked with addit ional income taxes on the imputed value of that space , based on new Internal Re venue Service regulations governing employer-provided parking . `` I doubt there will be very many who will require reserved space , '' said James O . King , st aff director of the Senate Committee onRules and Administration , which issued t he notice May 25 . The new rules became effective on Wednesday . `` But that 's speculative . It might not be a choice spot , but there will be parking spaces a vailable ( for members and staff ) if you drive around long enough . '' The new tax regulations , which also apply to House members and their staffers , have ge nerated little grumbling on Capitol Hill so far , and for good reason . It was C ongress , after all , that approved a little-noticed amendment to the 1992 Energ y Policy Act requiring workers who receive free or subsidized parking from their employees to pay income taxes on the value above $ 155 a month . Rep. Robert T. Matsui , D-Calif. , drafted the amendment to raise revenue to offset the cost o f tax credits for employers who offer employees mass transit vouchers . A spokes man for Matsui said that his office has received a number of `` queries '' about the parking provision but no complaints . At the time the legislation was appro ved , some assumed that the parking-tax provision would apply primarily to well- paid corporate executives working in urban centers . But IRS regulations circula ted early this year indicated that the free , reserved underground spaces provid ed to members of Congress and their aides , were worth far more than $ 155 a mon th and were subject to taxation . A recent survey conducted by the accounting fi rm of Ernst & Young for the Architect of the Capitol showed that parking in the congressional office buildings has a fair market value of $ 290 a month . Techni cally , those continuing to receive free reserved underground space on Capitol H ill would be subject to taxes on $ 135 a month ( $ 290 minus $ 155 ) or $ 1,620 a year . Those in the 36 percent tax bracket would have to pay an additional $ 5 83 a year in taxes . However , executives at the IRS who were also subject to th e tax recently found a way to mostly sidestep the new law and save themselves hu ndreds of dollars annually , according to news reports . The IRS officials disco vered that a monthly permit at nearby commercial lots that guaranteed a space ev ery day but not a particular space cost only $ 178 a month . Assessing IRS parki ng that way would mean that officials who didn't insist upon a particular space would have to pay tax on only $ 23 a month the difference between the $ 178 fair market value of the space and the $ 155 threshold in the law . Now the Senate i s following the IRS 's lead , ruling that members and staff who agree to hunt fo r a parking space in the underground garages are not subject to additional taxes because the cost of comparable unassigned parking nearby is less than $ 155 a m onth . WASHINGTON As the acting chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee , Rep. Sam Gibbons , D-Fla. , has big shoes to fill . He also has some catching up to d o to match the prowess of Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , at filling campaign c offers . Membership on the tax-writing committee long has been a magnet for camp aign donations , especially from corporate America , where small changes in the federal tax code can greatly affect a firm 's bottom line . As one veteran commi ttee member remarked : `` I just send out the invitations ( to fund-raising even ts ) and the money pours in . '' Rostenkowski , who turned over the chairmanship to Gibbons under House Democrats ' rules , raised and spent $ 1.5 million in th e 1992 election , and spent $ 1.8 million more to win a contested primary electi on in March and pay legal fees in connection with the investigation that led to his indictment on corruption charges this week , according to Federal Election C ommission records . He still had more than $ 1 million in the bank as of March 3 0 . Gibbons , who has been chairman of the trade subcommittee , spent $ 960,000 in the 1992 election to win 53 percent of the vote over an opponent who spent ab out $ 50,000 . Gibbons had $ 41,000 in the bank after the close call . In the 15 months ended March 30 , he raised $ 490,000 and had $ 166,000 left in cash . Gi bbons has raised money from many of the same sources and in the same proportion as Rostenkowski , according to Josh Goldstein , of the Center for Responsive Pol itics , who analyzed Congress 's 1992 fund-raising habits for a forthcoming book . Gibbons and Rostenkowski raised about 60 percent of their money from politica l action committees ( PACs ) , the most visible source of special interest money . Each raised his largest chunk of money from financial circles , including ban ks , insurance and securities firms . Goldstein noted that Gibbons ranked 23rd a mong House members in receipts from health and insurance businesses with the big gest stake in health care reform . Rostenkowski ranked second . Goldstein added that the health care industry was still a major source of funding for the new ch airman . The only sector in which Gibbons outraised Rostenkowski in the 1991-92 election cycle was among donors identifying themselves as lawyers or lobbyists , the center 's analysis found . Gibbons 's son , Clifford , is a lobbyist , alth ough he is not listed as giving to his father or anyone else in the 1992 cycle . He does raise money for his father 's campaigns , according to news accounts , and has taken a client the president of Mutual Life Insurance Co. to meet his fa ther in the House dining room . `` That takes to an extreme level the incestuous relationship that exists between lobbyists and members of Congress that we see all the time in Washington , '' Goldstein said . Gibbons spokesman Rich Davis sa id the congressman and his son `` have a strict understanding . Son will not lob by father and father will not ask son about his clients , nor will he discuss bu siness before the Ways and Means Committee with his son . '' WASHINGTON Thegrown-ups leave the press conference looking like kids , carrying big cardboard `` toolboxes '' bigger than lunch boxes . In a landscape littered with fashionable new literacies , they 've been pitched yet another : `` media literacy , '' a set of skills for intelligent handling of one 's relationship wi th TV . The curriculum for kids , dubbed `` Master Control , '' is a refreshing break from mostly circular discussions about violence on TV and how to control i t . The favored current approach , especially by Congress , seems to be to jawbo ne the networks to change their ways and , every so often , make dark allusions to the possibility of censorship the rhetorical equivalent of my father 's once- habitual `` Turn that thing off , kids , or I 'll throw it out the window . '' C ontinental Cablevision , the cable company that 's launching the toolbox , has a n obvious interest in refocusing the discussion on how parents can influence the ir kids ' experience of TV from the kids ' end . Of course , teaching consumers to resist your own prime product is a double-edged task . The campaign 's tag li ne betrays that tug-of-war : `` Learn how kids can control the impact of TV and enjoy it more than ever ! '' But what they say makes sense . Producers and broad casters of violent programming , no matter how educationally minded , no matter how leaned upon by Congress , no matter how spattered by public-opinion spitball s , still are driven by a nearer and more urgent set of incentives to sell their products . Most consumer attempts to influence TV content directly are manifest ly ineffective . Boycotts , though popular , are clumsy , indirect and slow . Th e occasional family `` takes the pledge '' to manage without TV altogether or st arts a campaign to encourage others to do so ; this is especially popular among the home-schoolers ' and evangelical movements . But no one really expects socie ty to back away from TV altogether . How much better to give kids a cultural vac cination by teaching them how to approach their TV viewing intelligently , parse what they watch for bias and decide actively what 's worth watching . The liter acy `` toolbox '' is basically a kit for running school or family workshops , ac companied , of course , by videotapes ; the theme is that `` media are not windo ws on the world , media are not mirrors of society , but carefully manufactured products . '' The exercises expand on the notion . `` TV has a point of view . C hallenge it . TV isn't real life . Spot the illusions . TV manipulates . Identif y its techniques and your reactions . TV is limited . Guess what was left out . TV is a business . Understand your economic role-and power-as a viewer . '' That last point contains , if subtly , the most explosive concept in the package : t he notion that the viewer who doesn't like the answers to the questions can alwa ys turn the TV off . `` The on-off switch is the number one product control devi ce , '' says Continental Cablevision executive Henry James , `` and every TV has one . '' The opening workshop sequence on TV news coverage , which takes the L. A. riots/Rodney King coverage as its specimen for dissection , ends with the big question : `` Did parents consider the option of turning off the television whe n the events were being covered ? '' Not surprisingly , this concept is otherwis e handled in gingerly fashion . Most of the exercises use a measure of indirecti on , not just because , as James says , `` We believe there 's a lot of good stu ff on TV , '' but also because it 's more effective psychologically to let kids figure out by themselves that they may be watching too much . In one game , kids guess how much the family watches in a week and then check the estimate ( invar iably it 's low ) by keeping a notebook . Another is intended to illustrate the limits inherent in the standard evening-news version of any event : `` Think of something that happened to you today or yesterday . Something significant . Some thing you want to tell your family . Try to explain it in 90 seconds ( the avera ge length of a TV news item , according to the package ) . Can you do it ? What parts of the story might you decide to leave out if you only have 90 seconds ? ' ' The target isn't TV news per se but the tendency `` to watch TV , not TV progr ams , '' passively sitting in front of whatever 's on . And yet this is exactly the tendency on which networks depend , the one programming decisions are calcul ated to create . To many sponsors , any mention of the on-off switch is anathema . The resistance comes through also in the words of David Kleeman , director of the American Center for Children 's Television sponsor of the children 's telev ision `` Ollie '' awards who is hoping Congress will grant , and the networks wi ll agree to , an antitrust exemption so that networks can work together on devel oping the `` children 's educational programming '' mandated by a 1990 act . Kle eman recently mapped out a vision of the future if this exemption were granted : Ideally , networks would agree not to compete directly for the same hour , but instead to spread their children 's programming throughout the day , thus avoidi ng a `` roadblock '' a time when adults would have nothing to watch and might wa nder off . If segments could be shorter than the standard half-hour , `` a faile d experiment wouldn't ruin the entire schedule '' kids wouldn't turn off the set even if they got bored . Promotion departments would `` pitch the children 's h ours as too unpredictable to miss even a single day , '' and kids would `` quick ly make them ` appointment viewing. ' ' ' Children , Kleeman says , `` could ben efit from all the programs and not have to choose among them , providing kids wi th a lineup that ran straight from the end of school to dinner time . '' Great . Not exactly what you 'd hope if the aim is to `` evolve a practical definition of ` quality ' children 's programming , '' as the group states . But it does su ggest that network self-regulation no less than congressional ham-handedness off ers limitations . When it comes to the viewer and the off switch , the stuff in the toolbox sounds a lot more promising . WASHINGTON Cynical reporters generally act like blood-sniffing sharks when a me mber of Congress is indicted . But much of the coverage of Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , who has known some Washington journalists for 35 years , has been strikingly sympathetic . As a federal grand jury charged the Chicago Democrat this week wit h defrauding the taxpayers of more than $ 500,000 , a number of reporters and pu ndits portrayed the 17-count indictment as a Beltway tragedy . `` Anybody who th inks that what Rostenkowski did deserves a prison sentence , I think they 've go t a distortion of reality , '' Robert Novak said on CNN 's `` Capital Gang . '' Washington Post columnist David Broder called the charges `` a source of genuine sadness , '' writing that `` Rosty is a warrior , someone who is willing to tak e on tough fights . '' `` The idea that we 're even considering sending someone to prison for ( no-show employees ) strikes me as kind of a bizarre perversion o f the judicial process , it 's so widespread , '' Chicago Tribune columnist Jon Margolis said on `` Washington Week in Review . '' The obvious affection for the longtime House Ways and Means Committee chairman contrasts with the generally n egative coverage that surrounded the resignation of former House speaker Jim Wri ght , the sexual harassment allegations against Sen. Bob Packwood and the recent indictment of Sen. Dave Durenberger . Had another lawmaker been charged with em bezzling cash for House postage stamps and hiring `` ghost employees '' who mowe d his lawn and picked up his laundry , the press probably would have pilloried h im as a symbol of congressional corruption . James Warren , the Tribune 's Washi ngton bureau chief , said that while the congressman deserves the presumption of innocence , `` I find preposterous the notion of Rostenkowski as a victim of ch anging political and ethical mores . If what the indictment alleges is true , es pecially about ghost payrollers , jury tampering and other chiseling of federal funds .. . a lot of this is old-fashioned illegality . '' Yet Warren 's own pape r , in a front-page story , described the indictment as `` new politics taking s harp aim at the old ways . '' And the Tribune 's Margolis has called Rostenkowsk i a `` giant '' being `` toppled by pygmies . '' Some journalists acknowledge th at personal relationships can color their perceptions . Broder , a Chicago nativ e , said he feels `` a common bond '' with Rostenkowski because they have often chewed over Illinois and congressional politics . `` I have a real bias on this one , '' Broder said . `` I would hate to see Rosty end up in jail . My sympathi es are entirely with Rosty . '' Said Margolis : `` I concede that I kind of like him. .. . It still makes no sense to me that this guy would steal money in smal l amounts . '' Cokie Roberts said on National Public Radio that `` by way of ful l disclosure , I 've known Dan Rostenkowski for more than 30 years and consider him a friend , so I am not completely impartial about this , but I think that ev en people who don't feel that way about him can say that this is a sad end to wh at has been a noted political career . '' Roberts said in an interview that `` I just thought that was appropriate to say ; otherwise I 'd be criticized for not saying it . Even though he 's gruff and bluff , he 's a likable sort of guy . ' ' Novak , for one , says the press has treated Rostenkowski gently because `` he 's for all the things all the reporters are for big government , health care , redistribution of income . '' As for the indictment , Novak said : `` That 's th e trouble with the country we live in a federal prosecutor makes a charge and ev eryone thinks he 's guilty . '' Some South Florida hotels are pulling the plug o n the Fox station in Miami , saying its heavy diet of crime stories is scaring t heir guests . WSVN-TV helped popularize a tabloid news format that relies on sen sational headlines , slow-motion footage , dramatic music and such features as ` ` Crime Check '' and `` Most Wanted . '' But the formula has proved too lurid fo r some area hotels , which are blocking WSVN from their cable systems . Victor F arkas , who has shut off WSVN at his Thunderbird and Chateau by the Sea hotels , told the Miami Herald that the station is `` doing an injustice to local reside nts and especially to tourists . They look at Channel 7 and they 're afraid to g o out on the street . '' The Fox folks dismissed the criticism . `` Crime is the number one concern of our viewers , '' said Charlie Folds , WSVN 's director of press and community relations . `` We 're not going to censor the news to placa te the hoteliers . '' A Herald editorial backed the station , saying that `` ban ning any source of news is a dangerous gambit . '' Michael Kinsley is abandoning his prestigious `` TRB '' column in the New Republic , a name-brand franchise t hat is carried by The Washington Post , New York Post , Los Angeles Times , Phil adelphia Inquirer and about 20 other papers . `` I 've been doing it for 11 year s , '' said the co-host of CNN 's `` Crossfire . '' `` I thought I 'd quit while I 'm ahead . Most columns tend to peter out . The deadline pressure of writing a column is relentless . '' WASHINGTON `` Renaissance Man , '' Penny Marshall 's intellectually ambitious n ew comedy , is an extravagant and all-too-familiar Hollywood contradiction a mov ie that celebrates the life of the mind and the uniqueness of the individual but does so in glib slogans and is , itself , a sort of knockoff . Set in an Army t raining camp near Detroit , where an ex-advertising man named Bill Rago ( Danny DeVito ) is reduced to taking a job teaching underachieving recruits , `` Renais sance Man '' comes across at first glance as little more than an olive-drab rein carnation of `` Dead Poets Society . '' And that holds true for the second and t hird glance , too . Ostensibly based on the real-life experiences of Michigan sc reenwriter Jim Burnstein , the film picks up Rago 's life just as his downward c areer path lands him in front of a ragged bunch of would-be warriors who are an IQ point or two shy of being all that they can be . From the beginning , it 's c lear that Rago 's task to improve their `` basic comprehension '' is mighty . An d most of the first part of the film is spent scoring cheap points off this sad- sack group 's lack of brainpower . Still , this squad 's stupidity is irresistib le . Squeezed into their desks , they seem happy in their cluelessness , banteri ng and dissing each other cutely without a trace of genuine conflict , like some slightly older , racially balanced incarnation of the Little Rascals . They 're not troublemakers or bad eggs , and , from all evidence , they want desperately to be soldiers and fight for Uncle Sam . It 's just that they 're a trifle slow , and if Rago can't help them make progress , they 'll wash out and be tossed b ack into the hell of their real lives . It 's appropriate that Marshall has chos en an adman for her main character , because that 's the way she works here , in little message nuggets that she packages and sells to her audience . Early on , the recruits are marched in and introduced in the same easy shorthand fashion t hat the infantrymen were in old war films . There 's the inner-city kid with the thick Brooklyn accent , the quiet black football star , a couple of Midwestern rubes and the like , each one proudly and generically representing his stereotyp e . In addition , like contestants in the Miss America pageant , each recruit 's past is shaped around a relevant social issue . ( One is beaten by his father , another forgotten by her prostitute mother etc . ) Before Rago gets to know his squad , he grouses and harrumphs , making sure that everyone knows he hates eve ry minute of this khaki purgatory . But after the kids read their bios in class , each one telling a tale of heartache , poverty , neglect and worse , Rago chan ges his tune . At this point , there is a shift in the film 's tone as well , el iminating the last vestige of dramatic conflict . And when Rago decides that the best way to rescue these borderline illiterates is to teach them `` Hamlet , '' the movie loses all contact with reality . The rest of the picture is spent red ucing Shakespeare to the literary equivalent of fast food , while at the same ti me demonstrating how being smart builds character . `` Victory , '' says DeVito , pointing to his head , `` begins here . '' Marshall scores these facile intell ectual points with her usual proficiency , but her material here is far too thin for the audience not to see through it . Also , there 's no flow to her storyte lling ; we 're bumped along from one hard-sell episode to another . In some scen es like the one in which one of the recruits is carried off to jail for selling crack back home her tear-jerking is merciless . And from the shameless way she c asts her characters as symbolic victims you 'd think that the film was an act of penance . Still , finding uplift in tragedy is Marshall 's specialty and she 's gotten damn good at it . ( She 's the only woman filmmaker with two pictures `` Big '' and `` A League of Their Own '' to earn more than $ 100 million . ) This time , though , her manipulations throw us out of the story rather than pull us in . There are so many positive social messages flying around here that it 's a lmost impossible to keep track of them . And Marshall 's cast of charming young actors suffers most . In one scene , Stacey Dash ( who is sweetly appealing as t he only girl in the class ) is asked to sum up what she has learned from playing her character , Ophelia , and she answers , `` Suicide is not the way . '' As s trange as it sounds , DeVito 's performance is about the only aspect of the film that isn't wholly fraudulent , if only because his typical feisty abrasiveness protects him from sinking to the level of Marshall 's mawkishness . Still , thos e who found his Penguin repellent in `` Batman II '' will spit up their popcorn over his Gertrude . `` Hamlet '' may be the most indestructible of Shakespeare ' s plays , but `` Renaissance Man '' pounds it into politically correct dust . `` Renaissance Man '' is rated PG-13 . The ashtray may soon be a collector 's item . The nation 's 50 million smokers are feeling like an oppressed minority . Tobacco-control advocates have snuffed out cigarettes in airplanes , theaters , ball parks and shopping malls . Many ci ties prohibit smoking in restaurants and other public places . Congress is now c onsidering a hefty tax increase on cigarettes , a nationwide workplace smoking b an and legislation to put the sale and manufacture of tobacco products under the regulation of the U.S. . Food and Drug Administration . The states of Florida a nd Mississippi are suing tobacco companies , trying to recover costs of treating disease caused by smoking . To paraphrase a famous cigarette ad : We 've come a long way , baby . These accomplishments to curb tobacco use are even more remar kable considering the strength of the tobacco industry . The tobacco lobby is on e of the most powerful and well-funded . That lobby reflects the earning power o f the business in 1992 , a tobacco company , Philip Morris , was the most profit able business in America , netting almost $ 5 billion . One of tobacco 's most v ocal foes wears one of its most familiar names . In 1911 , R.J. Reynolds created Camel cigarettes today the fastest-selling brand in the country . And today R.J . 's grandson , Patrick Reynolds , 45 , works full-time as a lecturer and crusad er against the cigarette industry financing his ventures in part with an inherit ance rooted in the tobacco fields of North Carolina . When Reynolds was a teen-a ger , his father died of emphysema . Even that didn't stop the young Reynolds fr om taking up the tobacco habit . He finally kicked it in the mid '80s , after se lling all his tobacco stock . In 1986 , he shocked his family by testifying on C apitol Hill in favor of a ban on cigarette advertising , and quickly became a sp okesman for the growing tobacco-control movement . Before finding his calling as an anti-smoking crusader , Reynolds was an aspiring actor . He uses his thespia n skills and his famous name to hold the media 's attention and keep tobacco exe cutives ' feet to the fire . He works out of a modest home in Beverly Hills , Ca lif. , where he talked about the tobacco industry 's impressive political power and his vision of a smoke-free America . Q : There 's been all this activity con gressional hearings , FDA proposals to regulate smoking , workplace smoking bans . Have we reached some sort of critical mass in the anti-smoking movement ? A : I really hope so . I 've been calling for FDA regulation of cigarettes for a lo ng time , and now we have an FDA administrator , David Kessler , who 's saying t he same thing . He says he 's prepared to show that cigarette manufacturers mani pulate the levels of nicotine in their products , and he 's waiting for a mandat e from Congress . The greatest thing that will come out of FDA regulation is tha t manufacturers will have to print the ingredients on the packs so that people w ill know what chemicals they are ingesting when they smoke . Meanwhile , ( Rep. ) Henry Waxman ( D-Calif. ) has a bill to ban smoking in the workplace . That wo uld be a national ban , and , of course , the tobacco industry is fighting it to oth and nail , with all their power and might . But the core issue as I see it i s the power of the tobacco lobby . It 's a microcosm of what 's going on on a la rger scale . The special interests have often kept from being passed legislation which is in the best interest of the public health . So we have to get rid of t he power of the special interests . Q : What sort of regulation would you like t o see on the sale and marketing of cigarettes ? A : Appropriate regulation regul ation which at least duplicates what 's going on in other countries . We should have the warning label on the front of the pack , as Canada requires . Ban adver tising and raise taxes , as Canada has done . The difference between the Canadia n government and ours ? It 's the power of the special interests and the money t hat goes into the hands of the politicians . Another important regulation would raise the age for purchasing cigarettes to 21 . It would require merchants to ha ve a license to sell cigarettes , just like liquor . There are statistics which really make the case for this of all smokers , 60 percent start by the age of 14 years old , and 90 percent by the age of 19 . That means only one smoker in 10 starts after the age of 19 . If we can keep cigarettes away from kids until they reach 21 , we could go a long way towards eliminating the problem . So the purc hase of cigarettes must be regulated as seriously as alcohol . This means bannin g vending machines as well . You can't buy a beer in a vending machine . But ven ding machines are how children are getting cigarettes . ( Begin optional trim ) Q : Where do the 54 million people who smoke fit into this debate ? Don't we nee d to focus on them at some point . A : Yes , but I will tell you candidly that w e have limited dollars and it costs a lot more to get someone to stop smoking th an it does to educate children not to ever start smoking . It 's vastly more cos tly to get addicts off cigarettes . I don't think we can ignore or neglect the i ssue of smoking cessation however . And I think the tobacco industry 's assertio n that smokers have choice sounds good , but how much of a choice do smokers rea lly have when cigarettes are as addicting as heroin ? I do believe that if under Clinton 's health-care program , employers are going to pay for the health care of their employees , then smoking cessation programs should be included in the national health-care program . Q : Do you believe people have a right to smoke , and if so what rights do they have ? A : Smoker 's have a right to smoke , but the right of non-smokers to breathe clean air supersedes the right of smokers . So it is very appropriate to ban smoking in the workplace , in public places lik e restaurants and airports , in enclosed spaces where people have to breathe . B ut I don't believe in a cigarette prohibition . The tobacco industry would love to have tobacco-control advocates such as myself take the position that cigarett es should be banned , because then they could call us zealots or fanatics , and dismiss us . I take a moderate and what I feel is an appropriate position . ( En d optional trim ) Q : Some years ago you talked about achieving a smoke-free Ame rica by the year 2000 . It seemed like an outrageous idea just a few years ago , and now it 's seeming to be something that might almost be achievable . When do you think you can put yourself out of business ? A : I don't think I will be ou t of business in my lifetime . With hundreds of millions of addicts around the w orld , there will always be plenty of work for tobacco-control advocates . In my lectures I always point out that , a few years ago , we thought we 'd never get smoking off airplanes , and today we look back and wonder if it was really true that there ever was smoking on airplanes . So one day we are going to look back and say , `` You mean people used to actually smoke ? '' That day is coming , a nd that 's a promise . MADISON , WIS . President Clinton 's decision to continue China 's `` most-favo red-nation '' trade status , a favor enjoyed by virtually all nations , was more than a matter of economic expediency . Coming shortly after a bewildered Secret ary of State Warren Christopher was embarrassed in Beijing , the president 's ap parently agonized decision was a reluctant but definitive recognition that the U nited States cannot significantly influence the domestic politics of China . It is a lesson that should have been learned a half-century ago . Had it been under stood then , it might have prevented what proved to be a futile U.S intervention in the Civil War between Chiang Kai-shek 's Nationalists and Mao Tse-tung 's Co mmunists , with unhappy consequences for both China and America . But now that t he lesson is better appreciated than it was prior to the recent ( and probably f inal ) MFN debate over China , it would be unwise to embrace the opposing view t hat capitalist economic development will produce political democracy in China . This was the argument , with many variations , offered by those who lobbied in f avor of preserving China 's most-favored-nation status . Prominent among them , of course , were U.S. business interests including Boeing , IBM and AT&T who pro fit handsomely ( or anticipate doing so ) from trade and investment in China . ` ` Economic engagement , '' it is self-servingly maintained , is the best means t o bring about the democratization of China . Yet it requires an extraordinary me asure of gullibility to believe that foreign economic interests have any serious desire to promote democracy in China . Foreign capital is attracted to China , in large measure , because the country offers the services of a huge labor force that is disciplined , comparatively literate and , above all , inexpensive . In addition , the strong state guarantees `` stability and order '' ensuring that the labor force remains obedient . There is , understandably , little enthusiasm for any process of democratization that might , say , nurture the establishment of free trade unions for China 's huge and rapidly expanding industrial work fo rce now more than 200 million . On the matter of free workers ' unions , interna tional capitalism and the Chinese Communist Party stand together on common econo mic ground . To this the Communist Party , haunted since 1980 by `` the Polish f ear '' of the rise of a Solidarity-type movement , adds political considerations as well . But the political direction of the world 's most populous country whi ch can now claims the world 's third-largest economy as well as the most rapidly growing one will ultimately be determined not by foreign capitalism but rather by the workings of its own quasi-capitalist system . And here the prospects for some process of democratic evolution are less than promising not least of all be cause the peculiar Chinese version of capitalism lacks an independent capitalist class , a consequence of its communist origins . At the end of 1978 , when Deng Xiaoping began dismantling the old Soviet-style `` command economy '' in favor of what is now called a `` socialist market economy , '' China had no entreprene urial class . The Chinese bourgeoisie had largely been destroyed by the Communis t Revolution of 1949 , and what remained was gradually absorbed by the new state in the 1950s . Thus with the decision to pursue economic reform , a class of ca pitalist entrepreneurs had to be created to construct a market economy and permi t that market to function . The task of creating a capitalist class , ironically , could be performed only by the communist state itself . And it was , of cours e , bureaucrats of the communist regime who were best positioned to take advanta ge of opportunities the new market mechanisms offered and to heed Deng 's injunc tion to `` get rich . '' Thus it should not be surprising that the new Chinese b ourgeoisie ( or rural and urban `` entrepreneurial elites , '' if one prefers ) is not only a creature of the communist state and its policies but is actually l argely composed of party-state officials ( or ex-officials ) , their relatives a nd friends . While a portion of the bourgeoisie is `` private '' not having spru ng directly from the bureaucracy they are , nonetheless , dependent on bureaucra tic patronage for their existence and economic functioning . This dependence is reinforced by the eagerness of the most successful private entrepreneurs to join the Communist Party , an organization whose principal qualifications for member ship are now two : wealth and loyalty to the Communist regime . It has been note d that China 's new capitalists are hostile to popular democratic elections , wh ich they fear would be dominated by the country 's rural majority a hostility an d fear shared by the Chinese Communist Party . It is unlikely that a democratic political role will be played by a Chinese bourgeoisie so dependent on the state and indeed so much a part of the party-state bureaucracy . It is most improbabl e that a bourgeoisie whose economic fortunes are so dependent on the political f ortunes of the communist state will mount a serious challenge to the authority o f that state . Over several generations , it is conceivable that China 's new en trepreneurs will shed their bureaucratic roots , evolve into a genuinely indepen dent bourgeoisie and assert their interests ( which may or may not be favorable to democracy ) against the state . But for the time being , the members of China 's new capitalist classes from rural party cadres turned petty entrepreneurs to the sons and daughters of powerful communist leaders wheeling and dealing in in ternational finance and trade from high-rise offices in Shenzhen appear more age nts of the state than its antagonists . In fact , they are providing the bureauc racy with a lucrative economic base while at the same time providing the Communi st Party with a new social base . In playing this dual role , China 's capitalis ts contribute not to `` pluralism , '' as most Western observers reflexively ass ume , but rather further blur the line between state and society . The history o f China 's new moneyed elites thus far provides little support for the currently faddish notion of an emergent `` civil society '' that strives to separate itse lf from the clutches of the state . Indeed , the new entrepreneurs , having larg ely sprung from the bureaucracy , are psychologically as well as economically de pendent on the communist state and rely on that state for political protection . While the economic future of Chinese capitalism may be bright , there is little reason to expect it will be a politically democratic capitalism . Democratic pr omise in China today resides not in capitalism but rather in the illegal union a nd other organizing activities of those who seek protection from the working of the capitalist market and from the communist state the more than 100million work ers exploited in the burgeoning rural industrial sector , workers in state indus tries threatened with loss of job security and the peasants who are again the vi ctims of rapacious officials . WASHINGTON `` The Endless Summer II '' is one of those rare bits of movie margi nalia that are entirely without merit and , still , a pleasure to sit through . Directed by Bruce Brown , who 30 years ago made the same surfer 's trek around t he globe , the sequel is still the ultimate surfer 's home movie , and a great p art of its appeal is its unpretentiousness and lack of polish . But this handmad e quality is also its downside . Though marginally slicker , the movie is as fla t and corny in concept , sensibility and execution as its predecessor . The phot ography is ravishing but unimaginative , like the most banal calendar art . The continuity is jerky and arbitrary . And the narration is the worst sort of trave logue prose , alternating among the ungrammatical , the redundant and the hackne yed . Other than that , it 's perfection . Watching the film , you experience th e somewhat happy , somewhat disturbing sensation of being sucked into a time war p . About the only differences are the fashions and the performers , who in this bright-spirited sequel are the one major improvement . As before , the kids who se names are Patrick O' Connell and Robert `` Wingnut '' Weaver are surfers , no t performers , but they 're charmers nonetheless . The bleached-blond O' Connell , who rides a short board and runs up and down his waves like the arm of a lie detector , is a sort of happy idiot , giggling his way around the world . By con trast , Weaver is quieter , darker and more of a soul surfer , taking long , ele gant rides like the surf dudes of old on his long board . The movie definitely t ests your patience and begins to live up to its name . Regardless of the beauty of the setting , one wave looks pretty much like another , and Brown isn't enoug h of a filmmaker to break the monotony . But you have to love these kids . No ma tter what happens , they 're stoked . ` The Endless Summer II ' is rated PG , de spite the bare bosoms in France . ' JERUSALEM Israel sent reinforcements to the Lebanese border Friday in the wake of its raid on a Hezbollah training camp , as leaders of the Muslim group vowed revenge and thousands of Lebanese fled northward to avoid further hostilities . Hezbollah fighters rained Katyusha rockets into Israel late Thursday night in re taliation for the attack earlier in the day , but there were no casualties . Tho usands of Israelis were ordered to sleep in bomb shelters , and northern Israeli resorts reported a wave of cancellations as tourists fled . In Lebanon , shops , banks and schools were closed for a day of national mourning as the victims we re buried . Hezbollah said 26 fighters were killed when Israeli helicopter gunsh ips and warplanes attacked the training camp in Lebanon 's Bekaa Valley , close to the border with Syria . Others said the death toll could be as high as 45 . S heik Hassan Nasrallah , Hezbollah 's general secretary , delivered a defiant add ress to more than 15,000 who marched in Beirut 's southern suburbs to mourn the victims of the attack . Nasrallah declared that Hezbollah would avenge the death s with suicide bombers . `` Yesterday we had tens of suicide attackers . Today w e have not hundreds , we have thousands , '' Nasrallah said , according to the R euter news agency . The crowd shouted , `` Zionists wait , wait , Hezbollah are coming . '' The pre-dawn raid on the training camp was the deadliest single atta ck ever launched by Israel on Hezbollah , although last summer 's week-long Isra eli artillery bombardment of southern Lebanon killed 149 people , many of them c ivilians . The raid was the second recent Israeli incursion into southern Lebano n . Twelve days earlier , Israeli commandos kidnapped a Muslim guerrilla leader , Mustafa Dirani , from his house and flew him back to Israel . Both operations have heightened tensions between Israel and Hezbollah . According to witnesses , Israel sent heavy artillery to its northern border , as it often does in prepar ation for hostilities . Long convoys of armor and troops were seen heading towar d Lebanon . `` I hope Hezbollah and others understand that an attack on northern Israel will open them up for strong attacks by us , '' said Yitzhak Mordechai , commander of Israeli forces in the north . Security sources in southern Lebanon said civilians were fleeing villages and heading for Beirut to avoid further vi olence . Last year 's operation sent nearly a half-million Lebanese fleeing nort hward . Israel and its client militia , the South Lebanese Army , exchanged fire throughout the night Thursday with Hezbollah fighters in the buffer zone contro lled by Israel . Israeli analysts offered differing explanations for the timing of the raid , which was approved by the cabinet on Wednesday . Military and inte lligence officials said the training camp became a `` hot '' target because the fighters were there . `` We are carrying out the simple rule of rising up to kil l the one who seeks to kill you , '' said the Israeli military chief of staff , Lt. Gen. Ehud Barak . But others suggested that Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was taking advantage of an impasse in peace talks with Syria to strike at Hezbollah . This week , Rabin complained that the U.S.-mediated effort was `` exhausted . '' Syria is the main power broker in the region where Hezbollah operates . South Carolina Gov. Carroll Campbell , a Republican who has been actively testi ng the waters for a possible 1996 presidential campaign , abruptly announced Fri day that he would forego the race to become president of the American Council of Life Insurance when his term expires next January . Campbell , the current chai rman of the National Governors ' Association , was seen in Republican circles as a longshot for the Republican nomination but a potential vice presidential cand idate in 1996 . But his press secretary Tucker Eskew said that after weighing th e odds and the offer from the life insurance council , `` He came to the conclus ion that he didn't want to run around the country for two years for the possibil ity of a vice presidential nod . '' Campbell made the decision to enter the priv ate sector a week ago after consulting with his family , who reportedly were not enthusiastic about a grueling presidential campaign in 1996 . Although friends said they believed Campbell personally wanted to run for president , Eskew said , `` He came to the conclusion that it was about a 15 percent chance ( of winnin g the nomination ) and a 30 to 35 percent chance for the vice presidency . '' Gi ven those long odds , Campbell opted for the private sector and the opportunity to build some financial security for himself and his family . Campbell was on hi s way to Kentucky to speak to a Republican Party event Friday when the announcem ent was made , an indication of the intensity with which he had begun to explore a presidential campaign . He has made several trips to Iowa and New Hampshire , and was well received at party events in the South and elsewhere . Campbell saw himself as a conservative , southern alternative to President Clinton , but con cluded other Republicans had larger electoral bases and greater financial resour ces to launch a presidential campaign . The conservative Campbell is finishing h is second term as governor and cannot run for a third . During his tenure he has reshaped the Republican Party in his state and has been a leader among governor s on educational reform . He served four terms in the House before running for g overnor . Campbell was a political soulmate of the late GOP strategist Lee Atwat er , a fellow South Carolinian . In 1988 , he was one of George Bush 's stronges t supporters and , with Atwater , helped to engineer the beginning of a southern sweep for Bush that locked up the Republican nomination . On health care , Camp bell has been a vocal and often partisan voice , wearing his two hats as NGA cha irman and Republican partisan . He has called for modest reforms to assure healt h insurance for more Americans , but has vehemently attacked Clinton 's proposal as a big-government intrusion that would hurt the economy . He will succeed for mer Republican senator Richard Schweiker at the American Council of Life Insuran ce . MOSCOW When Soviet athletes and artists visited South Korea for the 1988 Olympi cs after decades of hot and cold war , many envisioned a Moscow-Seoul friendship that would blossom into love , enriching both nations and sparking jealousy in the rival capitals of Beijing and Tokyo . This week , with South Korean Presiden t Kim Young Sam in town for his first official Moscow summit , it is clear that the rosy expectations have not been fulfilled . Relations are correct but not wa rm , and if anyone has turned into a wallflower , it is Russia , not China or Ja pan . `` Seoul is having all the fun , '' the chief editor of Izvestia , Igor Go lembiovsky , wrote this week with Sergei Agafonov . `` Moscow is reduced to the unenviable role of a passive extra , engrossed in its internal problems . '' Und oubtedly , the establishment of relations between the Soviet Union and South Kor ea in 1990 helped stabilize regional politics . For Seoul , recognition from Mos cow after an 86-year hiatus carried special benefits , isolating rival North Kor ea , easing Seoul 's opening to China and legitimizing South Korea 's claim to w orld recognition . Russia also has handed over documents and the black box from the Korean Air Lines airliner shot down by the Soviets in 1983 . This week , Pre sident Boris Yeltsin gave Kim documents the Russians said will prove that North Korea started the Korean War of 1950-53 , as Seoul always has contended . But in 1988 , and again in 1990 when Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev first met Sout h Korean President Roh Tae Woo in San Francisco , the expectations especially in Moscow were considerably higher . South Korea , with its dynamic economy and ra pidly advancing technology , would provide Russia an entry into Asia while jump- starting the economy of Russia 's Far East . Japan 's long-standing territorial dispute with the Soviet Union meant it would not soon agree to increased economi c ties , the theory went . But Seoul would be eager to step into Japan 's place , buying Russia 's raw materials and investing and upgrading Soviet technology . As a first step , the South Koreans promised $ 3 billion in loans . But as of J une 1993 , South Korea had invested a mere $ 26 million in Russian projects . It s investment in China , by comparison , has grown from $ 6 million in 1987 to $ 598 million last year , according to South Korean official statistics . Even the far smaller economies of the former Soviet republics of Central Asia have attra cted more Korean investment than Russia has . Before the Soviet Union collapsed , Seoul did lend Moscow about $ 1.5 billion , much of it tied to the purchase of Korean goods . But Russia has not repaid that money , giving Seoul a welcome ex cuse not to lend any more . `` No major joint projects , conceived and lauded at a top level , were completed or even launched , '' Izvestia noted . South Korea n officials said this week that their companies have stayed away for familiar re asons : instability , corruption and lack of clear legal protection for foreign investment in Russia . `` It 's not only Korean investment , but also investment in general , '' said South Korea 's foreign minister , Han Sung Joo . `` Indivi dual decisions are made by individual firms on the basis of profitability and fu ture prospects and so far , there was a clear tendency , in many cases , for inv estments in China or Southeast Asia . '' Trade between the two countries has ris en , from a total turnover of $ 889 million in 1990 to $ 1.6 billion last year , with the balance shifting to Russia 's favor . South Korea imported mostly fish and raw materials , while selling machinery , electronic goods and vehicles . T he opening of relations also has spurred an active trade by Russians who travel back and forth , carrying huge bags of clothes and other goods to sell in open m arkets . And South Korean firms have taken advantage of Russian economic trouble s to hire a large number of scientists to work in computer , aerospace and other high-tech industries . But bilateral trade still makes up only 1 percent of Sou th Korea 's overall trade volume . Russian Trade Minister Oleg Davydov recently complained that South Korea not only refuses to provide credits but also will no t provide state insurance for trade or investment here , thus crimping chances f or rapid growth . In a brief interview this week , South Korean Trade Minister P ark Chol Su said he is confident Seoul 's investment here will grow . He said So uth Korea is particularly interested in developing and importing natural gas fro m Sakhalin Island and from the vast Siberian territory of Yakutia . `` It 's obv iously a country with a great potential , although they are currently in economi c difficulties , '' Park said . `` The investment climate here is improving . '' In a Kremlin news conference Thursday , both presidents hailed the prospects fo r their countries ' future relations . But the only concrete accomplishment they announced was a program of youth exchanges , and Yeltsin hinted at Russia 's di sappointment with the accomplishments thus far . `` We have repeatedly stressed that we are interested in full-scale economic relations , '' the Russian preside nt said . `` We would like to see a growth of investments by South Korean firms in our economy , especially in the Far East . '' WASHINGTON No , that 's not a pistol in Woody Harrelson 's pocket , it 's his r aison d' etre . Leastways , it sure seems that way after you get a load of the s howboating buckaroo in `` The Cowboy Way . '' A really crummy rip-off of `` Croc odile ' Dundee , '' this rode-hard horse opry is supposed to be a buddy comedy , but as far as Harrelson is concerned , co-star Kiefer Sutherland is just scener y for his strut fest . Uninventively directed by Gregg Champion from Bill `` Lon esome Dove '' Wittliff 's screenplay , the movie follows Pepper ( Harrelson ) an d his disgruntled rodeo partner , Sonny ( Sutherland ) , from their New Mexico s tomping ground to Manhattan . After the pair bust a couple of broncos , they hea d east to find Nacho ( Joaquin Martinez ) , a friend who disappeared while searc hing for his daughter ( Cara Buono ) . The girl , a Cuban immigrant smuggled int o New York to work for a sweatshop , is now in the hands of the ring 's evil lea der ( Dylan McDermott ) , who decides to keep her for his own amusement a plot l eft over from the Lillian Gish era . Unlike Dundee , McCloud or even the Muppets , the cowboys act more like rube conventioneers than fish out of water . They o rder an expensive dinner at a posh hotel , where Pepper beguiles the ladies with tongue tricks , and later they visit Central Park , where they meet a mounted p olice officer ( Ernie Hudson ) and his pretty horse . When they do get down to b usiness , they don't employ their rodeo skills , they just speed around town in their pickup truck . Sonny , who is captured by the bad guys , remains on ice wh ile Pepper goes to a glitzy party , does a striptease and becomes an underpants model for Calvin Klein . Harrelson rustles up a guffaw or two with this bump and grind . This is , however , something of a comedown after an earlier nude scene in which he manages to hang a 10-gallon hat on his raison d' etre . Harrelson i s perhaps overcompensating because the role was originally intended for Kevin Co stner , who no longer takes it off to get attention . Then again , maybe he was just trying to distract the audience from his face . Swear to God , the man look s like a talking onion . And old Mr . Onion Head hasn't got the stuff to disguis e a plot with more holes than Miss Kitty 's fishnet stockings . The film finally attempts to live up to its premise as the partners commandeer horses from the m ounted cop and charge after the bad guy , who 's aboard a crosstown subway . The y may be bumpkins , but they never have to stop and ask directions because that 's not the cowboy way . ` The Cowboy Way , ' is rated PG-13 for profanity , viol ence and sexual innuendo . Thomas B . Edsall , a Washington Post reporter , has won the Carey McWilliams A ward for political coverage . The $ 500 award , bestowed by the American Politic al Science Association , is made annually `` to honor a major journalistic contr ibution to our understanding of politics , '' the group said . Edsall has writte n extensively on the intersection of race and politics , the changing demographi cs of the Democratic and Republican political parties and the new crop of GOP bi g-city mayors . Edsall , 52 , joined The Post in 1981 from the Baltimore Sun . H e is the author of three books about politics , most recently `` Chain Reaction : The Impact of Race , Rights and Taxes on American Politics , '' written with h is wife , Mary D. Edsall . The award committee consisted of Kathleen Hall Jamies on , dean of the University of Pennsylvania 's Annenberg School of Communication s ; Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institution and Kathleen Frankovic of CBS News . NETTUNO , Italy He came on a mission of remembrance , a young man paying homage to the sacrifice of so many young men who died to make a world free . President Clinton arrived at the beautiful , mournful Sicily-Rome American cemetery here on a muggy , cloud-dappled day to give thanks to the thousands of GIs who surviv ed the bloody campaign to liberate Italy and to the 7,862 dead who are buried he re . To the crash of cannon and the haunting strains of Chopin 's `` Funeral Mar ch , '' a somber Clinton saluted the more than 1,000 military veterans and guest s at the Nettuno memorial service . `` You cannot leave memory to chance , '' he said . `` We are the sons and daughters of the world they saved . '' Friday 's ceremony was the first of three major commemorative events to mark the 50th anni versary of the beginning of the end of the bloodiest conflagration in history . At Nettuno , 40 miles south of Rome , Clinton honored the men who struggled thei r way from Sicily northward , up the mountainous spine of the Italian peninsula through a winter of ice and mud , hardship and death . The caps of the aging vet erans spelled out the names of the units that shed their blood so that the peopl e of Italy might be free of the blight of fascism and German occupation : the 36 th Infantry Division , the 45th , the Tenth Mountain , the 14th , the 85th . The ir name tags bore the names of places of horror that will live in history , Sale rno , Anzio , Monte Cassino . The Nettuno cemetery lies just inland from Anzio , the port where Allied troops landed in January 1944 to stiff German resistance . They were pinned down under intense artillery and air bombardment until late M ay , when they broke out , linked up with other troops who finally pushed throug h the fortified German Gustav line and marched into Rome 50 years ago Saturday . Clinton noted that his father , William Jefferson Blythe , served in Italy and recalled a story told to him about his father , who died in 1946 three months be fore Clinton 's birth . `` Back home , his niece had heard about the beautiful I talian countryside and wrote him asking for a single leaf from one of the glorio us trees here to take to school , '' Clinton said . `` My father had only sad ne ws to send back there were no leaves ; every one had been stripped by the fury o f the battle . '' The leaves have now returned , and the Nettuno cemetery is a l ush memorial garden of evergreen holly oak and cypress trees . Row on row of per fectly aligned white marble crosses mark the graves . Before Friday 's ceremony , Italian school children placed Italian and American flags and a single red or yellow carnation upon each grave . `` We stand today in fields forever scarred b y sacrifice , '' Clinton said , in one of his most eloquent and brief speeches a s president . `` But amid the horror of the guns , something rare was born a dri ving spirit of common cause . '' ( Begin optional trim ) In a gesture of concili ation , Clinton honored his chief nemesis on Capitol Hill , Senate Minority Lead er Robert Dole , who as a 21-year-old platoon leader with the Tenth Mountain Div ision was gravely wounded in Italy . Dole was joined at the Nettuno ceremony by three other Senate veterans of the Italian campaign : Daniel Inouye of Hawaii , who lost an arm to his war wounds in 1945 ; Ernest `` Fritz '' Hollings of South Carolina ; and Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island . `` We honor what they did for u s here , '' Clinton said . He called them `` each a young American who came of a ge here ; each an American patriot who went home to build up our nation . '' ( E nd optional trim ) Clinton and Italian President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro laid a wre ath at the steps of the American-built memorial , near the base of a statue depi cting an American soldier and sailor linked as brothers in arms . `` Why war ? ' ' Scalfaro asked in his remarks . `` Why destruction and death ? And the answer is only one : because violence and thirst for power prevailed over reason ; beca use the natural and inviolable rights of the human person were transgressed by d ictators , with the idea of hegemony of a ` superior race ' that kills human bro therhood and generates extermination and genocide . '' ( Optional add end ) He s aid that Italian history its embrace of fascism and its alliance with Nazi Germa ny cannot be rewritten . But he but vowed that Italy would remain committed to a democratic course and alliance with the free peoples of Europe and America . As the ceremony concluded , three waves of jet fighters roared overhead in the mis sing-man formation . The third group wreathed the cemetery in smoke in red , gre en and white , the Italian national colors . Afterward , Clinton hosted a recept ion at the cemetery for several hundred veterans of the Italian campaign . Later in the day , Clinton spoke to embassy employees and toured ancient Roman ruins . The evening was spent at a formal dinner given by Scalfaro at the Quirinale Pa lace . It was closed to the news media . WASHINGTON In a significant policy shift , the White House has concluded it wil l be unable to reduce America 's growing trade deficit with Japan during Preside nt Clinton 's first term in office , and no longer considers it a key political objective , the administration 's chief trade negotiator said Friday . Instead o f aiming for a specific reduction in the U.S.-Japan trade deficit , currently ab out $ 60 billion a year , the administration will emphasize Clinton 's efforts t o increase exports in key industries , said U.S. . Trade Representative Mickey K antor . In an interview with Los Angeles Times reporters , Kantor sought to down play the notion that the administration has backed away from its previous attemp ts to get tough with Japan on trade . He noted that talks are continuing on deve loping a new framework for trade relations between the two nations in a number o f key industrial sectors . Still , it appears the administration has effectively backed away from the notion of attempting to set specific targets for reducing the overall U.S.-Japan trade deficit , which has become a political lightning ro d for frustrations about America 's global competitiveness . The absolute size o f the U.S.-Japan deficit `` is less important .. . than the content of the defic it , '' Kantor said . `` You can find no correlation between the size of the tra de deficit and whether or not you 're creating or not creating employment , '' h e said . `` What has worried us most about the closed markets in Japan , and wha t the framework talks are aimed at , are those sectors where we have the highest potential growth : semiconductors , electronics , computers , super-computers , auto and auto parts , services like insurance and financial services . '' In an other candid observation , Kantor said America 's trade gap with China ultimatel y could rival in size the troublesome deficit with Japan . Speaking just a week after Clinton announced renewal of Beijing 's most-favored-nation trade status , he said tough negotiations lie ahead to ensure China complies with internationa l trade laws as it grows into a trading powerhouse . `` If we don't continue to be aggressive and work with China on a day-to-day basis and , in fact , insist t hat they adhere to the same norms as the rest of the major nations .. . who have access to our market , then yes , we 're going to create a problem for ourselve s , '' he said . Kantor said he met with China 's ambassador to the United State s on Thursday , and engaged in a `` very candid discussion '' on trade issues . In Friday 's breakfast session at the Times Washington Bureau , Kantor complaine d about China 's refusal to abide by international rules governing intellectual property rights . He cited in particular rampant production of bootleg versions of Western music . `` They don't protect intellectual property , '' Kantor said . `` They have 26 plants in Southern China which last year produced 75 million c ompact discs , only 2 million of which were consumed in China 73 million were ex ported . '' And it 's not just the U.S. music industry that is being hurt , he s aid . `` It is also computer software , computer hardware , pharmaceuticals , yo u name it . That 's a serious situation we have to address . '' Kantor 's remark s contrast with those of Commerce Secretary Ron Brown , who said last month that the renewal of most-favored-nation status would help shrink or even eliminate A merica 's growing trade deficit with China . In 1993 , the United States logged a $ 23 billion deficit with China , second only to the gap with Japan . Critics have warned that future growth of U.S. exports to China will not offset the pote ntial expansion of imports from multinational corporations that relocate manufac turing plants in China to take advantage of the country 's extremely low wages . ( Optional add end ) Meanwhile , Kantor said the administration is beginning to rethink U.S. policy toward exports of American cigarettes and other tobacco pro ducts . At a time when the tobacco industry is facing mounting pressure at home , it has seen international markets as an important source of future profits and growth . But Kantor said the administration has already reversed a Bush adminis tration policy by no longer opposing efforts by other nations to block sales of U.S. cigarettes because of local health and safety regulations . Before the poli cy shift , the United States objected to such obstacles on the grounds that they represented unfair trading rules . `` Past administrations would , from time to time , challenge health-based regulations or advertising prohibitions regarding cigarettes used by other countries as a burden on trade , '' Kantor said . `` W e willn't do that . We 've changed our policy . If it 's a legitimate health-bas ed standard or an advertising prohibition that affects all cigarettes , then we will not challenge those . '' Kantor said the administration would not attempt t o reverse such policies as long as American brands are treated no different than local tobacco products . A Bush administration challenge to health-related rest rictions imposed by Taiwan on cigarette sales already has been allowed to lapse , Kantor said . He indicated that other countries , which he would not identify , could impose similar restrictions . Kantor said he has established a joint com mittee with Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala to further study t obacco trade policy . TOKYO Emperor Akihito said Friday that he feels grief for the millions who died or suffered during World War II , but he declined to say anything about Japan ' s role in starting the Pacific war or about the responsibility of his father , t he late Emperor Hirohito . At a rare palace news conference prior to a state vis it to the United States that begins next week , Akihito , 60 , and Empress Michi ko , 59 , said their goal in America was simple : `` to advance our friendly rel ations based on mutual understanding . '' The couple met the press in a large re d-carpeted meeting room in the Imperial Palace , simply furnished and lined with traditional rice-paper shoji screens . Akihito wore a stylish , double-breasted , gray flannel suit . Michiko wore a dress of burnt amber with a glittering pea rl-and-diamond brooch and a single strand of perfectly matched pearls around her neck . Under Japan 's postwar constitution , written by American occupation for ces , the emperor is nothing more than a `` symbol of the state , '' with no gov erning authority . His travels and speeches are decided for him by the nation 's political leadership . The upcoming 16-day trip , with stops in 11 American cit ies , has become a political issue because of one stop the royal couple will not make . The government canceled Akihito 's visit to the USS Arizona Memorial in Honolulu , which commemorates the 2,400 Americans who died in the Japanese attac k on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 , the event that started the war in the Pacif ic . The cancellation was strictly a matter of domestic politics . The governmen t reportedly feared that an imperial trip to Pearl Harbor might be taken as an a pology for the surprise raid and there are some elements in Japanese society who strongly oppose any apology to Americans . Friday , Akihito declined to discuss the Pearl Harbor raid , and he ducked all questions dealing with Japan 's respo nsibility for the war . Rather , he said , `` My heart grieves when I think of t he many dead or wounded in the war , or those who had to bear great suffering . '' As with every public function of Japan 's royalty , the session was planned t o the second and scripted to the last comma . Officials of the Imperial Househol d Agency , the bureaucracy that overseas palace events , gave the reporters assi gned seats and detailed instructions on the correct way to introduce oneself whe n asking a question . Reporters were warned to turn off pagers , portable phones and alarm watches so that `` the atmosphere will not be spoiled with beeping . '' The questions for the session were written out in advance by the palace press corps using a stylized formal language rarely heard in normal conversation and assigned to individual reporters . The answers had been scripted by the bureaucr acy ; both emperor and empress appeared to have memorized every word they said F riday . I was assigned to read the question about the Pearl Harbor attack . It i s impossible to convey in English the hierarchical honorifics the Japanese use w hen talking to an emperor , but a direct translation of the question will give t he general idea . `` I humbly direct my respectful question to his royal majesty , '' I began . `` What might your honorable opinion be , your highness , on the question of whether the Japanese military raid on Pearl Harbor in 1941 was just ified ? '' Akihito handled this question the same way he likely will handle any specific question about the war during his visit to the United States : He decli ned to answer . `` It is extremely important to get to the truth about these his torical questions , '' he said . `` But in my position , I cannot comment on suc h matters . '' TOKYO Japanese Emperor Akihito evaded questions on Friday about the `` war resp onsibility '' of his father , the late Emperor Hirohito , and whether Japan 's 1 941 attack on Pearl Harbor was justified . But in a scripted news conference , h e said that an awareness of `` the lives that were lost , the wounds that were i nflicted , the feelings of those suffered anguish never disappears from my heart however many years and months pass . '' The statement referred to the war that Japan began in China in 1931 , expanded into World War II with its attack on Pea rl Harbor in 1941 , and ended , as the emperor put it , `` many years and months ago '' in 1945 . He repeated the same thought in partial reply to both of the q uestions that remain so sensitive in a country still divided over whether its ol d record of colonialism and invasion constitute aggression or not . Just last mo nth , a Cabinet minister was ousted for disclaiming World War II aggression . Pe arl Harbor , originally included in an itinerary for a 17-day imperial tour of 1 1 American cities that will begin next Friday , was dropped from the schedule be cause of fears of stirring political controversy in Japan . As to whether the su rprise attack was justified `` considering the situation in 1941 , '' the empero r said `` understanding correctly historical facts is very important . But in my position , I would like to refrain from commenting on this kind of problem . '' His father , Emperor Hirohito , he added , `` treated peace more importantly th an anything , '' but `` acted by obeying the Constitution . I imagine he endured many hardships . '' Hirohito himself declared in 1971 that he had always acted as `` a constitutional monarch '' obeying decisions of the country 's political leaders , as his grandfather , the Emperor Meiji , had instructed him . It was i n the name of Hirohito , who died in 1989 after a reign of 62 years , that Japan declared war on the United States shortly after its bombers raided Pearl Harbor . And it was in his name that Japan agreed to `` bear the unbearable '' in surr ender four years later . Akihito , who was 8 when Pearl Harbor was attacked , wi ll lay wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington and at the Punch Bow l Cemetery in Honolulu . The emperor , 60 , said his wife , who collapsed on her 59th birthday last Oct. 20 and lost the ability to speak , still has not recove red completely . `` Her voice is still very weak and she gets rather tired when speaking , '' he said . `` I am worried about her because of the busy schedule i n the United States and the burden it will impose upon her . '' He indicated she had remained stricken until about a month ago . ( Optional add end ) `` I canno t say I have absolutely no unease in making this trip with its long schedule , ' ' Michiko confessed in a voice so soft it often became inaudible . `` But I will do my best to take care of myself and perform my duties . '' Like almost all of the imperial couple 's appearances , the news conference was scripted from star t to finish . Reporters read presubmitted questions , and though neither Akihito nor Michiko held any notes , both gave what appeared to be memorized answers . One reply did break the tone of studied tact . Asked by American reporters what concerns she had about her own country , Michiko appeared to criticize Japan for possessing only a passive desire for peace , for indulging in decadence and for losing its traditional value of courtesy . `` Peace is not merely the passive c ondition of not being at war but rather an earnest desire and a strong will to c ontinue the state of peace. .. . Wisdom and effort are necessary to realize this , '' she said , adding , `` It would be a source of joy if the thinking and the culture of the people should be directed not toward decadence but to a higher l evel of strength and refinement and if we Japanese could always preserve a sense of modesty , respecting other people and other nations . '' TUNIS , Tunisia The Palestine Liberation Organization has conducted two rounds of meetings with the Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas and has received assuran ces from a range of opposition organizations that they will not create clashes i n the new autonomy zones , PLO leadership sources say . Hamas leaders , who met with an envoy of PLO chairman Yasser Arafat last week in Jordan , had appeared c lose to an agreement for accepting seats on the new 25-member Palestinian Author ity before the talks were derailed by leaks in Tunis and Amman , the sources sai d . But Abbas Zaki , a leader of Arafat 's mainstream Fatah faction , said he wo n assurances from radical groups such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command which had called for the streets to be washed in Araf at 's blood in the wake of his accord with Israel that opponents will mount no a ttacks against the PLO leader or members of the new Palestinian Authority . `` T hey will not join , '' he said in an interview , after meeting with opposition l eaders such as Nayef Hawatmeh of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Pale stine , Abu Ali Mustafa of the Popular Front and two leaders of the PFLP-GC . `` But they let me know that if we deal with them in good will , and allow everybo dy to have his own opinion , we can prevent any clashes. .. . ' ' Arafat so far has packed the governing authority with his supporters , most from his Fatah org anization and the tiny Palestinian Democratic Union , which also backs the peace plan with Israel . With 20 seats filled so far , the PLO chairman has left open the last bloc of seats in the hope of attracting the opposition into the peace fold . Key among those groups is Hamas , whose threat to continue a violent camp aign against the Israeli occupation could derail the fledgling autonomy effort i n Jericho and the Gaza Strip . ( Begin optional trim ) Zaki said he met with a H amas delegation May 25 in Amman to try to learn the organization 's conditions f or backing the peace effort . He said they discussed Hamas having seats on the r uling council : `` I told them , ` Come . ' I offered to them the seats and I as tonished them . They said , ` How many members ? ' I said , ` I don't know , but .. . maybe four or five . ' They said , ` Tell me , is there any condition from Israel or ( Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak ) Rabin ? ' I said to them , ` I rep resent Arafat , and I don't know what Rabin wants . Arafat told me if you want , it 's good. ' .. . They said , ` Please keep it a secret , we can study this wi th our leadership and tell you after two days . '' ' Meantime , another delegati on led by purported Hamas leader Sheik Said Bilal headed to Tunis for direct tal ks with Arafat ; Zaki proceeded to Syria for meetings with left-wing opposition groups , in and out of the PLO fold . ( End optional trim ) Arafat advisers said after the Hamas meetings in Tunis that they believe there are factions within H amas leaning toward cooperating with the peace agreement . They said part of the talks with Hamas focused on an attempt to win a pledge that there would be no m ore attacks against Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel . ( Option al add end ) The PLO pressed Hamas leaders for information on the perpetrators o f the recent attack against two alleged collaborators , as well as the Hamas-cla imed attack on two Israeli soldiers near the Gaza Strip . But PLO officials admi tted there are few immediate hopes of persuading any opponents to join the autho rity early on . `` The attempts are still going on . I don't want to say whether we succeed or fail . Even though some of these organizations declare they refus e , that doesn't mean anything in politics . It 's a position to improve one 's conditions , '' said one senior Arafat adviser . In CLINTON-SUIT-ANALYSIS adv12 ( Denniston , Sun ) sub for 24th ( penultimate ) graf ( Changing year from 1991 to 1981 ) xxx Fitzgerald . Powell , trying to dr aft an opinion for the apparent majority , told Burger in mid-December 1981 : `` I am now prepared to defer to the wishes of you , Bill Rehnquist and Sandra , a nd prepare a draft opinion holding that a president has absolute immunity from d amage suit liability '' for the reasons he had spelled out in the broadest of al l of his earlier drafts . PICK UP 25th ( last ) graf : He also xxx : NAIROBI , Kenya For two months , the world has looked on with horror at the gen ocidal killing in Rwanda . But , in testimony to the limits of outsiders ' power , no international effort has been able to stop it . `` Enough of this blood , '' pleaded Pope John Paul II , and from Washington and London to the capitals of Africa , similar calls have echoed across the bloodied Rwandan countryside . Bu t they have stopped not a bullet nor saved a life . Now , with the Rwandan Patri otic Front closing in Friday on Gitarama seat of the interim government and batt ling a defiant but crumbling army in the capital , Kigali , a rebel victory seem s increasingly likely . Most human-rights groups even those with no particular a ffinity for the rebels would welcome such a victory as the fastest way to stop t he appalling massacre of civilians . When Kigali falls , it will join Kampala , Uganda , in 1978 , and Addis Ababa , Ethiopia , and Mogadishu , Somalia , in 199 1 , as the only African capitals in recent times to succumb to a rebel army . Ki gali 's collapse will be a reminder of how much has changed in Africa since the not-so-distant days when European powers were willing to rush in troops to prop up their former colonies . Britain always stood ready to guarantee the stability of Kenya and still conducts military exercises here . France used troops at lea st a dozen times to stave off coups in its former African colonies ; a decade ag o , Paris might well have sent combatants into French-speaking Rwanda , whose mi litary France armed and advised . As often as not , the mere landing of European troops in Africa was sufficient to restore order . But in Rwanda the world has done little more than shed a tear and shrug helplessly . Rwanda 's two former co lonial masters , Germany and Belgium , have declined a U.N. request for help . O nly three African nations Ethiopia , Senegal and Ghana have agreed to participat e in an African peacekeeping force for Rwanda . But their offer of 2,100 troops fell far short of the 5,500 soldiers that the United Nations requested and it wa s never clear who would equip or pay for the mission . What is apparent from the world 's reluctance to enter Rwanda , Western diplomats say , is that governmen ts realize there is little they can do militarily to pacify dedicated , warring factions unless they are willing to bring to bear the full power of their guns . In Somalia , they weren't ; the lesson was a painful one . Somalia started as a humanitarian mission , just as any effort in Rwanda would . But when , inch by inch , the peacekeepers ' military resolve was tested as it surely would be in R wanda the U.N. response was at first confused and timid . The more undefined the response became , the bolder the belligerents grew , until , in the end , they came to understand that none of the governments in the peacekeeping force had na tional interests they were willing to stand and fight for in Somalia . The same scenario could be repeated in Rwanda , the most destitute of African countries . ( Optional add end ) Although the world will remain morally haunted by its pass ivity , the fact is that politically , economically and militarily , Rwanda hold s importance for not a single nation , except perhaps for neighboring Burundi . With peace talks between the rebels and the army having broken off in Kigali Thu rsday and no future sessions planned , that leaves the international community t o hope that one side or the other will achieve military dominance , thus ending the slaughter . But even if the predominantly Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front defe ats the Hutu-controlled army , African observers are less than confident that Rw anda 's troubles will be over . NETTUNO , Italy With the graves of nearly 8,000 young Americans arrayed in star k symmetry before him , President Clinton Friday honored the generation that fou ght to liberate Italy during World War II and summoned his own generation , `` t he sons and daughters of the world they saved , '' to remember and honor their s acrifice . Hundreds of American veterans of the Italian campaign some missing li mbs , some tearful , all grown old listened in rapt silence as their struggles o n Nettuno Beach and Anzio 50 years ago were remembered . John Shirley , a Califo rnian who was part of the battle to break out of the beachhead and to liberate R ome , vividly recounted the story of the bloody months on the Italian coast that produced nearly 30,000 Allied casualties . Clinton followed with a brief tribut e , recalling not only the dead who are buried here in row upon row of graves ma rked with simple white crosses or Stars of David , but the men and women who wen t home to build up their nation . `` Fifty years later , we can see the differen ce their generation has made , '' he said , `` America is strong ; freedom is on the march. .. . Our job is not only to praise their deeds but to pursue their d reams ; not only to recall their sacrifice for freedom but to renew freedom 's p romise once again . '' At the end , the silent crowd raised its eyes to the soun ds of American jets , flying in the missing-man formation , and to the sight of Italian jets dropping a gentle blanket of green , red and white smoke , the colo rs of the Italian flag , over the American graves as a final tribute . The cerem ony , amid the 77 gently sloping acres of graves in the Sicily-Rome American Cem etery , is the first of a series of commemorations the president will lead acros s Italy , England and France , culminating June 6 at the 50th anniversary observ ance of the Allied landing at Normandy . Many of the veterans here were thankful that `` their '' war , the Italian campaign , received its moment of acknowledg ment in this ceremony before the D-Day observances take center stage . Before hi s speech , Clinton walked through the rows of graves , stopping at a handful to speak with relatives or friends of those buried here . At one grave , that of Am erican Red Cross nurse Ophelia Tiley , he was greeted with a smart salute by Jun e Marion Wandrey , 74 , dressed in her perfectly preserved brown-wool World War II Army Nurse Corps uniform . Although Clinton 's efforts to avoid service in Vi etnam , a war he opposed , have rankled some veterans , his lack of military exp erience seemed to have little relevance to Wandrey and other veterans at the cer emony , many of whom lauded the president for coming here to recognize them . `` I have to look at it this way : He 's my president , and I respect the office , '' said Wandrey . Asked if it was time to move on from Clinton 's past , she pa used , looked down for a moment and answered : `` Well , each to his own . You h ave to look in your own heart and see what you can forgive . '' Muriel Flake , a psychologist from Houston whose late husband fought in the Italian campaign , e ndorsed the president 's message of remembrance in a voice choked with emotion . `` He said it is your responsibility to carry on and preserve what these men fo ught for , '' she said , noting that her children 's generation `` doesn't have a sense of what these men gave . Many of my high school and college friends were killed at Normandy . They were just gone . So young . '' John Bender of Aberdee n , Md. , watching Clinton from the sidelines , said the president 's war protes t as a young man `` bothers me a little , '' but `` he grew up . Maybe he has ch anged . He should be aware of things . I think he is , since he is here . There 's so much at stake . '' Bender , who said he was a Republican , was as pleased to see Robert J. Dole , R-Kan. , the Senate majority leader , as he was Clinton . Dole was one of four senators who fought in the Italian campaign and were invi ted here for this ceremony . Like Dole , Bender suffered a serious wound that co st him the use of his arm . `` My arm is crippled , like Dole 's , '' he said pr oudly , noting he had had his picture taken with the senator . The Republican , at odds with Clinton on virtually everything in Washington and a potential presi dential opponent , received a salute from Clinton as they shared a platform at t he ceremony . Clinton cited Sens. Dole , Ernest Hollings , D-S.C. , Daniel K. In ouye , D-Hawaii , and Claiborne F. Pell , D-R.I. , as `` young Americans who cam e of age here , each an American patriot who went home to build up our nation. . . . We honor what they have given to America . '' Clinton , in his eight-minute address , also touched on the need for Americans to remember their history . `` Too many Americans , '' he said , `` do not know what that generation did. .. . We cannot leave memory to chance . We must recall Elie Weisel 's commandment to fight forgetfulness . And we must apply it to the valor as much as to the horror for to honor , we must remember , and then , we must go forward . '' Clinton 's moment of memory came in his recounting of a story about his father , William B lythe , who served in Italy . Back home , Clinton said , a niece had heard of It aly 's beauty and asked Blythe to send her a single leaf from one of the trees t o take to school . `` My father had only sad news , '' he said . `` There were n o leaves . Every one had been stripped by the fury of the battle . '' MEXICO CITY A government prosecutor investigating the assassination of Mexico ' s leading presidential candidate is backing away from his own widely publicized conspiracy theory , saying now that the accused gunman appears to have acted alo ne . Special prosecutor Miguel Montes Garcia said in a statement that he will co ntinue searching for evidence against three men accused of assisting alleged gun man Mario Aburto Martinez in the March 23 shooting death of ruling party candida te Luis Donaldo Colosio . But he acknowledged no new evidence has surfaced again st the three , all of whom were arrested and charged on the basis of photographs depicting suspicious-looking actions by them moments before Colosio was shot at a Tijuana campaign rally . Montes 's statement , issued late Thursday , was onl y the latest development effectively slowing the investigation into Colosio 's d eath while the nation gears up for hotly contested presidential elections on Aug . 21 . Officials of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party ( PRI ) say the y fear that voter cynicism prompted by an inconclusive investigation could harm the party 's chances . It has not lost a presidential election in 65 years . Oth er factors affecting the inquiry 's progress include : A federal judge threateni ng legal action on Thursday against two of Colosio 's government-appointed bodyg uards one of whom is an army general for defying a court summons to testify in t he case . The governor of Baja California , where Tijuana is located , saying We dnesday that he had suspended a probe into the killing of Tijuana police chief J ose Frederico Benitez , because he could not guarantee the safety of his investi gators . In late April , Benitez , who claimed to have independent evidence sugg esting a second gun was involved in Colosio 's shooting , was shot to death whil e driving on a Tijuana street . In an interview the day before his death , he sa id files he kept on suspects in the Colosio case had been stolen from his office . A committee appointed by President Carlos Salinas de Gortari to conduct an in dependent investigation resigning , with members complaining Salinas never gave them legal or constitutional authority to carry out their mission . Salinas two weeks ago replacing Montes 's boss , attorney general Diego Valades , who had be en accused by opposition parties of politicizing the Colosio investigation . Sal inas named the five-member independent investigative committee in April to help eliminate what he called `` a climate of suspicion '' surrounding Colosio 's ass assination . Opinion polls at the time showed one-third of respondents believed the PRI was behind the killing . Last week , PRI workers began painting over old Colosio campaign signs with new ones promoting the party 's replacement candida te , Ernesto Zedillo . Although Zedillo has repeatedly called for a thorough gov ernment investigation into the Colosio case , PRI officials acknowledge that lin gering public suspicions about the party 's involvement in the killing may be hu rting the new candidate , whose popularity has dropped dramatically in some poll s . `` We are the object of all of these conspiracy theories . The Colosio assas sination was put on our liabilities sheet from day one , '' said Jose Angel Gurr ia , a senior PRI official . `` The proliferation of conspiracy theories will co ntinue until this is resolved . '' Prosecutor Montes said he has collected 80 vi deotapes and 1,621 photographs related to Colosio 's assassination , which occur red as the candidate was passing through a crowd of roughly 3,000 supporters . S ince the beginning , Montes said , he has pursued the investigation based on two theories : that Aburto acted alone , or that he was aided by several accomplice s who coordinated to block Colosio , impede his bodyguards and clear a path so A burto could gain close access . Montes said that he has always presumed the assa ssination was the result of a `` concerted action '' and that three men currentl y in jail with Aburto Tranquilino Sanchez , Vicente Mayoral and his son , Rodolf o Mayoral played key roles in assisting Aburto . `` I must note in good faith th at .. . up to now , the investigation has not uncovered new elements of proof '' to bolster the case against the three other defendants , Montes said . `` In th e light of recent investigations .. . the hypothesis has been bolstered that the homicide was committed by one single man : Mario Aburto . '' Early in his inves tigation , Montes distributed photographs to the news media appearing to show Sa nchez and Rodolfo Mayoral speaking with Aburto moments before Colosio was shot . Sanchez also is shown in photos appearing to grab one of Colosio 's bodyguards around the neck at the same time a shot is fired . Colosio was shot twice at poi nt-blank range , with one bullet entering his head from his right side and anoth er entering his abdomen from the left . Montes said he believes only one gun was used in the shooting and that Aburto was the only gunman . The seemingly opposi te trajectories of the bullets , he explained , were the result of Colosio 's bo dy spinning reflexively after the first shot to the head . WASHINGTON The unemployment rate fell sharply across the nation during May as t he economy continued to generate steady job growth , the Labor Department report ed Friday . The national jobless figure fell to 6 percent , down from 6.4 percen t in April . But government officials said the sizable decline appears to overst ate the actual improvement in the nation 's labor market last month . While the declines in the official unemployment rates were impressive , a separate calcula tion of the number of people working across the country showed the economy gener ated fewer than 200,000 new jobs in May . The figure was smaller than expected , and some economists said it could signal that the pace of the recovery is slowi ng to a more moderate level . The prospect of more restrained growth appeared to reassure the stock and bond markets , where investors have expressed growing co ncern that the robust growth of recent months could lead to a resurgence of infl ation . The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 13.23 points to close at 3,772.22 , while the yield on the Treasury 's 30-year bonds , a key indicator of long-ter m interest rates , fell to 7.27 percent from 7.35 percent a year earlier . Lower yields suggest that investors are more confident that inflationary pressures re main under control . Clinton administration officials welcomed the jobs report , insisting that their policies will lead to steady growth without significant pr ice hikes . `` The economy is entering the summer in exceedingly good shape , '' Labor Secretary Robert Reich said at a White House briefing . `` We are deep in a jobs recovery , a jobs expansion . '' But Reich expressed concern about the w idening gap between the prospects of skilled , high-wage Americans and those wor kers who lack the necessary education and training to fully enjoy the benefits o f the economic resurgence . He noted that 20 percent of the Americans currently without jobs have been unemployed for six months or more . The sharp drop in the national jobless rate is somewhat exaggerated because the government has change d the way it conducts its monthly surveys and adjusts the results to reflect con ditions affecting the nation 's total labor pool of more than 130 million worker s . Such statistical changes could account for as much as half of last month 's decline , said Katherine Abraham , Commissioner of Labor Statistics , suggesting that the true rate of unemployment could be closer to 6.2 percent . The agency 's separate survey of business payrolls showed a net increase of 191,000 jobs in May , a figure that includes 71,000 people who returned to work after the end o f the trucking industry strike . The payroll survey is considered a more reliabl e measure of employment conditions than the household poll used to calculate the unemployment rate . While the employment figure signaled that the recovery is s till on track , it was slightly smaller than expected and fell short of the aver age monthly job growth of 247,000 so far during 1994 . An increase of 191,000 jo bs `` is not the type of figure that should panic the markets , '' said Martin R egalia , chief economist for the U.S. . Chamber of Commerce . `` This is a conti nued verification of our expectation that the economy is slowing somewhat from t he pace at the end of last year and during the first quarter . '' ( Optional add end ) Nationwide , job growth was noticeably more robust in April , when the ec onomy added a revised 358,000 non-farm jobs , and in March , when payrolls swell ed by 379,000 . Last month 's job gains came mostly in services , particularly t he motion picture industry and retailing . Job losses continued in manufacturing , especially defense and aerospace-related fields , along with the finance , in surance and real estate . The `` hemorrhage '' of defense jobs , which disappear ed at the rate of 15,000 jobs a month last year , has slowed to about 8,000 mont hly , according to Thomas Plewes , associate commissioner of labor statistics . DETROIT Ford Motor Co. grounded its fleet of electric vans Friday following an early-morning fire that erupted in a vehicle battery as it was being charged at a Southern California facility . The fire is the second to occur in the last mon th in a Ford Ecostar , the company 's test electric-powered vehicle . On May 2 , a Ford electric vehicle was damaged by a similar battery fire . No one was hurt in either incident . In Friday 's fire , damage largely was confined to the bat teries , which are located in the rear of the vehicle , under the van bed . The vehicles are powered by sodium-sulfur batteries made by ABB , a Swedish electric al engineering firm with battery operations in Canada and Germany . Sodium-sulfu r batteries provide good range and acceleration . But safety has been a concern throughout their development , because the batteries must be kept at a constant temperature of 600 degrees Fahrenheit . Ford has 34 electric vehicles being test ed nationwide by 12 customers , mostly utilities . In the wake of Friday 's inci dent , it has asked the customers not to use the vehicles and to park them outsi de until the cause of the fires can be determined . After the first fire , Ford said the problem had been traced to faulty welds in the battery cells . Other ba tteries built using the same procedure have not been placed in service . But the second fire on Friday is forcing Ford and ABB to re-evaluate . `` We thought th e first fire was an isolated incident , '' said Ford spokeswoman Pam Keuber . `` We want to proceed very cautiously . '' ARB spokesman Bill Sessa said the Calif ornia Air Resources Board had been testing the Ecostar for a couple of weeks . A n employee discovered Friday 's fire upon arriving at work about 6:40 a.m. . `` These are research vehicles , '' said Sessa . `` Anytime you conduct research , you can expect setbacks as well as steps forward . '' WASHINGTON The Clinton administration describes the stakes in its tense standof f with North Korea as crucial to regional and global peace , yet Washington has stepped gingerly around the question of how far it would go to stop development of nuclear weapons by the reclusive Communist regime . For now , the United Stat es has settled on trying to place economic sanctions on North Korea , an effort no one expects to stop the nuclear program in its tracks . Imposing sanctions al so runs an ironic risk . Meant to force North Korea to confess to past efforts t o create a bomb , they may prompt Pyongyang to retaliate by formally withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty . That would free North Korean nuclear engineers of even the minimal constraints they have observed for the past two y ears , and possibly help them to build more nuclear devices than they already ma y have . One U.S. official said that risk is the prime reason for not going furt her now . `` We are doing all that we reasonably should do to not provoke the No rth Koreans to stop cooperating on the most important issue , '' which is ensuri ng continued inspections to prevent diverting fuel to build new bombs , the offi cial said . `` One doesn't throw the baby out with the bath water , '' the offic ial said . Beyond sanctions , no one seems clear on which direction the policy m ight go , should North Korea resist and simply continue to build its weapons . W ill Washington simply try to wait out North Korea in the expectation that Pyongy ang will at some point choose to join the world rather than hoard a few atom bom bs ? Encourage the overthrow of North Korean government ? Go to war to destroy t he weapons and facilities ? One U.S. official warned that there may be no signif icant progress on the issue until North Korea 's octogenarian leader Kim Il Sung dies and is replaced . But there is no guarantee his replacement will be more a menable to U.S. interests . In the meantime , administration officials say , san ctions are a necessary means of maintaining Washington 's credibility and that o f the International Atomic Energy Agency , which is responsible for policing glo bal nuclear arms proliferation . North Korea 's defiance must be shown to have c osts , they say . `` What is immediately at stake is the IAEA safeguards regime . The regime would be seriously challenged and put in jeopardy if the internatio nal community does not respond properly , '' said a senior administration offici al . The U.S. push for sanctions is likely to face resistance , however . China , with a veto in the United Nations Security Council , is reluctant to endorse t hem . Russia has proposed an alternate route , an international conference , but has not ruled out supporting sanctions . Following its longstanding habit of ma king bellicose threats , North Korea has said sanctions would be an act of war . But many South Korean officials say they do not expect any North Korean militar y action . There have been hints from North Korea that the `` act of war '' stat ements merely signify that enactment of sanctions would violate the armistice ag reement that ended the Korean War . But the risk of war is attested by the hundr eds of thousands of troops who line the heavily fortified border between North a nd South Korea . North Korea may have built at least one nuclear bomb , and poss ibly two , U.S. intelligence analysts say . It is evidence of this process the I AEA is being blocked from examining . North Korea may be able to build four to s ix more by year 's end , if they proceed with diversion of plutonium and spent r eactor fuel from their nuclear facilities . For now , IAEA inspectors are permit ted to be on guard against diversion . Such bombs could in theory be carried by boat or plane , although North Korea has visions of more sophisticated vehicles . It is developing a ballistic missile capable of reaching Japan . U.S. analysts expect the missiles could be armed with nuclear warheads by decade 's end . A b ig risk with sanctions is that , in practice , they take time to produce results , if they succeed at all . Already , North Korea has used a year 's worth of ne gotiations to increase its capacity for producing weapons from nuclear fuel . In Haiti , more than two years of heavy commercial isolation has yet to force a ch ange in regime and the Clinton administration is pondering an invasion to overth row the government . Serbia has resisted two years of United Nations sanctions a nd continues to aid insurgent Serbs in neighboring Bosnia . Five years after the sabotage of Pan Am Flight 103 , Libya has refused to give up a pair of suspects , despite bans on imports of oil equipment , military supplies and other machin ery . Saddam Hussein perseveres in power despite a grab bag of U.N. sanctions th at permit nothing more than humanitarian supplies and food to enter . The threat to isolate an already largely-isolated North Korea seems minimal considering th e stakes as defined by the administration . Non-proliferation is a central facet of Clinton 's foreign policy . Washington fears that North Korea could trigger an arms race in East Asia , with a nervous Japan prompted to rearm . The 40-year old armistice line between North and South Korea would become a more dangerous flashpoint with the introduction of nuclear bombs . `` This conjures up a vision of an isolated and embattled North Korea run by a personalistic regime , with a nuclear weapons arsenal and a large conventional army on the border of South Ko rea . This is not a recipe for a secure East Asia , '' the U.S. official said . Outside of East Asia , other nuclear-ambitious countries , including Iran , Iraq and Libya , are watching to see whether IAEA inspections can be repelled with e ase , a senior U.S. official said . The agency has never turned to the U.N. . Se curity Council to help it implement inspections . `` This is the first test , '' the official said . North Korea also sells military equipment to states that th e Clinton administration describe as rogue . Beyond missiles and technology , U. S. officials worry about North Korea selling an off-the-shelf bomb . Washington rejects simple deterrence as a solution , which would threaten annihilation if N orth Korea used the weapons . Deterrence theory based on forty years ' experienc e with the Soviet Union is not applicable , officials say , because Washington w ants to block Korea 's acquisition of a nuclear arsenal , not just its use of on e . That is the goal in part because the dynamic of Korea 's ancient rivalry wit h Japan is unpredictable , as is the chance of a conflict with South Korea . `` No one can be confident that ( nuclear ) accidents or incidents willn't take pla ce , '' a senior official said . `` We much prefer to prevent the chance from ev er arising . '' WASHINGTON Haiti 's exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide stepped up his bare ly veiled call for U.S. military intervention Friday , asking the Clinton admini stration for `` swift and determined action to remove the coup leaders .. . and restore democracy . '' Aristide said he could not call explicitly for military a ction , claiming that Haiti 's constitution prohibits him from inviting foreign troops to intervene . `` However , I do believe that action can be taken to rid the nation of the thugs who have taken her hostage , '' he said . Aristide 's ch ief American adviser , former Democratic Rep. Michael D. Barnes of Maryland , ad ded : `` We all know what he means ; he 's just constrained from saying it expli citly . '' The exiled Haitian president made his statement in a speech , deliver ed in English , in a U.S. Senate hearing room part of a concerted effort to mobi lize pressure by members of Congress and human rights groups in favor of a U.S. invasion of his homeland . Clinton administration officials said they have made no decision to invade Haiti to topple the military regime that overthrew Aristid e , the nation 's first democratically elected leader , in 1991 . Deputy Secreta ry of State Strobe Talbott said the administration still hopes the military rule rs can be forced from office peacefully , through economic sanctions . But Clint on has also said he would not rule out the option of military force if economic sanctions fail , and other officials have said an explicit invitation from Arist ide would make it easier for the United States to act . One U.S. official said A ristide 's not-quite-explicit plea Friday did not go significantly beyond earlie r statements . But the Haitian leader 's speech , at a conference sponsored by T ransAfrica , an African-American foreign policy lobby , signaled a stepped-up ef fort to pressure the administration toward military action . `` I am in favor of intervention , '' said TransAfrica director Randall Robinson , who helped push the administration to provide hearings for Haitian refugees by holding a hunger strike last month . He said a multinational force could overthrow the Haitian mi litary `` in a matter of days .. . ( and ) could be very quickly replaced by Uni ted Nations peacekeepers . '' Aristide offered a four-step plan for solving the Haitian impasse : `` Swift and determined action should be taken to remove the c oup leaders . '' `` The immediate deployment in Haiti of .. . ( a ) United Natio ns technical assistance mission , '' numbering as many as 4,000 , to retrain Hai ti 's military and police forces . `` Third , my prompt return to Haiti . '' Fou rth , implementation of internationally supervised judicial reform and economic aid programs . ( Optional add end ) Aristide said he does not favor a `` militar y occupation '' of Haiti , but added that he would accept the deployment of U.N. -sponsored military trainers in his country for at least six months and probably longer . A U.S. official involved in Haiti policy said any U.N. trainers would need to be a virtual military force because of the need to defend themselves . ` ` There 's no reason to believe that Haiti would somehow be quiet .. . if Aristi de were restored , '' he said . As a result , the United States is discussing th e formation of a larger , better-equipped U.N. force for Haiti with its allies . Until that is accomplished , he said , the administration and its allies aren't quite ready for a change of power in Haiti . North Korea , often dubbed `` The Hermit Kingdom '' because it has kept itself so isolated from the world community , has vaulted onto front pages as the Pyong yang and Washington governments argue about a difficult issue nuclear proliferat ion . In brief , does the North have nuclear weapons or doesn't it ? And if it h as , what dangers does that pose to South Korea , the region and the world ? Her e 's a briefing on the key elements in this controversy . Q : Why are the United States and North Korea at odds ? A : The United States suspects that North Kore a has acquired nuclear weapons . But Pyongyang willn't allow international inspe ctors to test its reactor and other nuclear plants so they can tell for sure . U nder the international nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty , Pyongyang is obliged t o allow inspectors to do their work . It hasn't . Q : Does North Korea actually have nuclear weapons now ? A : No one really knows . The Central Intelligence Ag ency believes that Pyongyang probably has processed enough plutonium to manufact ure at least one nuclear bomb and may well have one or two more such weapons in its arsenal . North Korea denies having any nuclear weapons and hasn't yet teste d any . Q : Why should anyone care whether Pyongyang has a nuclear arsenal ? A : Two reasons : First , North Korea would be able to use its nuclear weapons to t hreaten South Korea , Taiwan and Japan intensifying pressures in the entire regi on . Second , Pyongyang also could sell nuclear bombs to other countries , such as Iraq , Iran , Libya and Syria as it has in the case of missiles and other wea pons . This would worsen the problem of spreading nuclear arms around the globe . And if North Korea had a bomb , South Korea , Taiwan and Japan most likely wou ld push to acquire their own nuclear weapons . ( Begin optional trim ) Q : What are nuclear fuel rods and why are they so important ? A : Fuel for a nuclear rea ctor is shaped into thousands of rods , which are inserted into the reactor 's c ore . In North Korea 's case , the fuel that it uses is unenriched uranium a che ap material that it can cart off from its own mines . The problem is , it is als o very easy to turn unenriched uranium into into weapons-grade plutonium-239 the material needed to provide the explosive power for nuclear weapons . This is do ne simply by removing used fuel rods from a reactor and extracting the plutonium during reprocessing . The reactor core at Yongbyon holds seven to 10 tons of fu el enough to provide plutonium for four or five nuclear bombs . Q : What is the International Atomic Energy Agency and why does it have any business in North Ko rea ? A : The IAEA is a U.N.-related organization set up to serve as a clearingh ouse and inspection agency to help administer the nuclear Non-Proliferation Trea ty . Based in Vienna , Austria , it maintains a staff of about 100 bureaucrats a nd nuclear scientists to help carry out this task . Q : How can IAEA inspectors use the disposed fuel rods to determine whether a country such as North Korea is diverting its spent fuel to make nuclear bombs ? A : They analyze the fuel to s ee how much radioactive waste and contamination they contain , which tells them how old the fuel is and , therefore , how recently the North Koreans replaced th eir spent fuel . That , in turn , can help them tell whether fuel has been repro cessed . Q : But hasn't North Korea been permitting some inspections by the IAEA ? News reports said that the team was there last week ? A : It has , but the in spectors have been very restricted , and the North Koreans have denied them perm ission to take the necessary samplings and make the tests that they need . Essen tially , Pyongyang has been playing a cat-and-mouse game for 15 months . ( End o ptional trim ) Q : What brought on the current crisis ? A : North Korea decided abruptly two weeks ago to shut down its reactor and begin removing fuel rods lea ving IAEA inspectors high and dry . IAEA officials thought they had a few more m onths to negotiate over inspection rights . But the shutdown meant they had to a ct quickly or they would lose the chance to analyze the spent rods completely an d tell for sure whether Pyongyang has been making nuclear weapons . IAEA inspect ors were denied access to the materials and records that they needed , and the N orth Koreans removed the spent fuel rods so rapidly that the IAEA inspectors wer e unable to complete their work in time . As a result , while the IAEA has confi rmed that North Korea isn't now diverting spent fuel for use in nuclear weapons , it could not tell whether the Koreans did so in 1989 the last time the reactor was shut down . That was the key point in determining whether Pyongyang actuall y has nuclear weapons . Because the United States had warned repeatedly that tha t would be the critical point in its dealings with North Korea , the administrat ion has begun a push to get the U.N. . Security Council to impose punitive econo mic sanctions against Pyongyang . Q : How likely is it that the administration w ill succeed in persuading the Security Council to impose sanctions ? A : It 's u nclear . Although the Western allies generally agree it 's time to crack down on North Korea , China and Russia two of five permanent members of the Security Co uncil , who have power to veto a sanctions resolution say they still aren't read y to support punishments for Pyongyang . The administration is trying to work ou t a compromise . But it may have to settle for gradual imposition of sanctions . China 's vote is crucial . If Beijing were to veto a sanctions resolution , the United States would have to try to go outside the Security Council to muster a coalition . And the sanctions likely would be far less effective . Washington al so faces resistance from South Korea and Japan , both of which fear that imposin g sanctions on North Korea might spur Pyongyang into military action . The North Koreans already have warned repeatedly that they would regard sanctions as an a ct of war . North Korea has 80 percent of its 1.2 million heavily armed troops m assed near the South Korean border , ready to invade . And it has long-range mis siles admittedly crude , but still dangerous that could reach portions of Japan . Q : What impact would imposing sanctions have ? A : Proponents say that imposi ng sanctions would squeeze North Korea economically and , hopefully , force the regime of long-time leader Kim Il Sung to halt its nuclear program and become le ss-aggressive toward its neighbors . The North Korean economy already is in dire straits . Food is at a premium . And fuel supplies are short . Others mainly th e Russians and Chinese argue that tightening the noose now will only make the re gime more desperate and force it to become even more recalcitrant . There also i s some question even among Western economists about how effective sanctions woul d be . Q : Would the United States be ready to intervene militarily if the situa tion got worse ? And who would be the winner of such a conflict ? A : Presumably , it would . The Clinton administration already has pledged to protect South Ko rea with all the resources at its command . The United States has some 37,000 tr oops in the country . Over the past few months , the Pentagon has begun beefing up U.S. forces in the region , sending Patriot missile batteries to help protect South Korean cities and military bases , and it is deploying more fighter aircr aft and expanding supplies . But the U.S. would only act in defense that is , No rth Korea would have to be preparing to launch an attack . There 's little doubt that the United States and South Korea have the firepower and troops ultimately to win a war with the North . But the allies are certain to take heavy casualti es in the process . Not only is North Korea 's army sizable about double the siz e of the 650,000-person South Korean force but it 's capable of doing extensive damage to Seoul , which is only a few miles from the border . In short , the all ies clearly would win , but the price could be very high . In CLINTON-TIMES ( Broder ) sub for 10th graf ( adding `` Stars of David '' ) x xx battle . '' The leaves have now returned , and the Nettuno cemetery is a lush memorial garden of evergreen holly oak and cypress trees . Row on row of perfec tly aligned white marble crosses and Stars of David mark the graves . Before Fri day 's ceremony , Italian school children placed Italian and American flags and a single red or yellow carnation upon each grave . PICK UP 11th graf : `` We xxx : WASHINGTON Insistent advice from Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan to President Clinton during the presidential transition and early in the new adm inistration led Clinton to pursue lower deficits at the expense of the economic populism of his campaign , according to a new book . The book , `` The Agenda : Inside the Clinton White House '' by Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor B ob Woodward , is an intimate look at how the new Democratic president and his st umbling , feuding team of advisers struggled to formulate and adopt an economic program during Clinton 's first year in office . It depicts a chaotic policy-mak ing operation , crucial intercessions by Hillary Rodham Clinton and an active po licy role played by four outside political advisers . The four were given open a ccess to the White House , which they used in part to criticize the economic tea m . They complained that Clinton 's fall in popularity was a result of policies being promoted by the economic advisers or at least the way those policies were packaged for sale to the public . The two groups are described as virtually at w ar with each other . The book describes Clinton temper tantrums , and it depicts him as frequently indecisive and reluctant to delegate . It portrays virtually every member of Clinton 's inner circle , including Hillary Clinton , as critica l of the president 's management style . On the vital economic front , Greenspan is described as a central player , albeit once removed from the inner circle . The book recounts what Woodward calls a crucial meeting between Clinton and Gree nspan in Little Rock , Ark. , in December 1992 , the month before Clinton 's ina uguration . During the 2 1/2-hour session , the Fed chairman told the president- elect that reducing the long-term federal budget deficit was `` essential '' and that the economic recovery could fall on its face if policies credible to Wall Street , particularly to bond-traders , were not advanced . Greenspan , in later conversations with Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen , put a number on what woul d be credible : cutting the deficit $ 140 billion or more by 1997 . By tradition and law , the Fed is an independent agency it sets monetary policy while the Wh ite House and Congress decide how much the government will spend , raise in taxe s and borrow . It is customary for the president and the Fed chairman to hold pe riodic meetings . But in Woodward 's recounting of their relationship , Greenspa n , a Republican appointed by President Ronald Reagan and reappointed by Preside nt George Bush , comes across as a senior adviser , almost a teacher to Clinton . In what became a pattern , the Fed chairman made suggestions , Clinton acted o n them , and Greenspan rewarded the action with approving words to Congress , or other public comments meant to signal his approval . Greenspan outlined to Clin ton an economic policy Woodward calls the `` financial markets strategy , '' in which policy was constructed to send a message to Wall Street , which responded by driving down in long-term interest rates that allowed Greenspan to keep short -term rates down as well . According to the theory , the economy would then impr ove , Clinton would have more to spend on favored domestic programs in later yea rs and ultimately would be re-elected . But the theory , and the policy Clinton adopted , bore little resemblance to the economic program on which Clinton had c ampaigned . Clinton 's `` Putting People First '' campaign banner stressed gover nment `` investment '' in programs that would improve the lives of middle-class Americans such as job training , early education , government promotion of cutti ng-edge technology . A middle-class tax cut and health care for all Americans we re additional sweeteners . As events developed , Greenspan 's economic scenario was not entirely accurate either . The bond market did react positively to Clint on 's economic package initially , but then early this year nervousness about in flation began to push interest rates up again , and Greenspan 's Fed raised its basic lending rate by 1.25 percent . Today long-term interest rates are nearly i dentical to what they were when Clinton took office . But the economy is stronge r now than in January 1993 and has added 3 million jobs since then . Woodward 's 334-page book recounts the anguish and infighting produced by the transition fr om Clinton 's winning campaign platform to a national economic policy . It attri butes words and thoughts to participants in the debate , including both Clintons and virtually all of their top aides , without saying directly who provided the se words to the author . In an introduction Woodward writes that whenever he quo tes someone , the quotation comes from `` at least one participant , from memos , or from contemporaneous notes or diaries of a participant. .. . ' ' It appears that Woodward has talked to all the principals in his narrative , including the Clintons and Greenspan . He writes that all his interviews were conducted on ` ` ` deep background , ' which means that I agreed not to identify these sources . '' The Washington Post will publish four excerpts from `` The Agenda '' beginn ing Sunday . The book goes on sale next week . Greenspan 's advice to Clinton th at a long-term deficit-reduction program was of paramount importance was backed not only by Bentsen , but also by Budget Director Leon E. Panetta and his deputy , Alice M. Rivlin , according to the book . The president 's economic advisers , with his assent , quickly jettisoned the tax cut , delayed health care reform , and then added an energy tax and spending cuts . Clinton 's political team cam paign advisers James Carville and Paul Begala , media adviser Mandy Grunwald and pollster Stan Greenberg are portrayed as horrified and disgusted with this effo rt to please the market . Carville is quoted as joking he used to want to die an d come back in a second life as the pope or president , but now he just wanted t o be the bond market because it seemed to run the world . The four seem to have spent much of last year decrying what that saw as mismanagement at the White Hou se and firing off memos arguing that the president and some of his aides had los t their souls to the deficit-cutters . In one memorable scene depicted in the bo ok , Grunwald told White House deputy economic adviser Gene Sperling who had hel ped formulate the campaign budget plan that his new emphasis on deficit-cutting was coming `` dangerously close '' to betraying the themes that had gotten Clint on elected . Later , Grunwald told others that Sperling 's body had been snatche d by Washington insiders and deficit hawks and that `` hostile forces '' were se izing control of Clinton 's White House . Even Clinton , while intellectually ac quiescing in the devastation of his investment programs , raged nonetheless at h ow it happened . While the book depicts him as highly intelligent and energetic , it recounts several Clinton temper tantrums , quoting senior aide George Steph anopoulos as calling them `` the wave '' overpowering , prolonged rages that sho cked outsiders and often seemed far out of proportion to their cause . In one sc ene late in the campaign , a low-level aide had told an audience that Clinton di d not want local voters at an event . The president , discovering this , angrily said of the culprit , `` I want him dead , dead . I want him horsewhipped . '' He sent aides to Little Rock to find and fire the young man . After he cooled do wn , Clinton relented . In another scene , with the campaign en route to Chicago , Clinton discovered his staff had told Mayor Richard M. Daley the candidate ha d no time for a requested meeting with him . A furious Clinton asked , `` Who th e hell could make such a dumb .. . mistake ? '' and ranted on and on . White Hou se counselor David R. Gergen , witnessing the Clinton temper for the first time , is said to have been so alarmed that he raised it with Stephanopoulos , the fr equent recipient of Clinton 's verbal abuse . Stephanopoulos brushed it off as p art of Clinton 's personality . A recurring theme in the book is Clinton 's inab ility to terminate debate and make a decision and his reluctance to delegate . A mid the internal debate over the budget , Clinton is portrayed as holding repeat ed , seemingly endless meetings at which issues rarely were decided , and during which he frequently changed his mind . Once the budget was passed by one vote i n the House and a tie-breaking Senate vote by Vice President Al Gore Bentsen is said to have taken Clinton aside and warned him he was mismanaging the presidenc y by trying to make every small decision and refusing to delegate . Bentsen beli eved Clinton had a superior , inquisitive mind and was capable of genuine vision , Woodward reports . Bentsen compared Clinton to Jimmy Carter displaying admira ble energy and intellect but getting bogged down in the range of opinion and deb ate he demanded inside his government . Clinton `` could not contain his own dou bts , '' Bentsen told associates . `` The lapses of discipline and restraint '' kept him from acting methodically as a president should . Some of those concerns appeared to grow out of a White House with little management structure , in whi ch the four political aides had unusual status . Outside the normal avenues , th ey sent anguished , internal memos into the White House warning of the near-coll apse of the Clinton presidency and demanding meetings with the president and sen ior advisers . One of the memos , written in July as the White House headed into the crucial month leading up to the budget vote , warned apocalyptically that t he `` current course , advanced by our economic team and congressional leaders , threatens to sink your popularity further and weaken your presidency . '' The m emo , referring to extensive polling and focus groups , recommended dropping the gasoline tax , paring back the deficit-reduction package , and repackaging and reselling an economic program so it was not about taxes but about getting the na tion 's economic house in order . The memo prompted Hillary Clinton to go to Whi te House Chief of Staff Thomas F. `` Mack '' McLarty and insist it was `` panic time , '' with no plan to sell the program they were about to send to Congress , no strategy and no decisions made on key elements . Hours of debate , presided over by the president , ensued among the political team and policy advisers . On e of the advisers , congressional liaison director Howard Paster , is described as being in a `` slow burn '' over the series of meetings and arguments from the outside consultants . Paster thought `` it was outrageous the outside consultan ts were providing the president with major policy option papers in confidential memos '' many senior staffers never saw , according to the book . The consultant s got `` valuable inside information '' and `` conflicts abounded . '' The consu ltants were trying to remake policy to respond to polls , a risky course , Paste r felt , according to Woodward 's account . At one crucial meeting last July att ended by the president and the first lady , Hillary Clinton chastised both the e conomic and political teams for ill serving Clinton , for lacking organization a nd planning , for creating a `` dysfunctional '' White House . She complained th ey had allowed Clinton to appear to be a `` mechanic-in-chief , '' erased his `` moral voice '' and changed his economic program from a `` values document '' to a bunch of numbers . `` I want to see a plan '' for selling the program , she d emanded . Most saw Hillary Clinton 's denunciations in that meeting , which were followed by a burst of anger from Clinton himself at his staff , as an indictme nt of McLarty , whom the book portrays as an ineffective , sometimes bumbling ch aracter with no feel for politics and a fundamental misunderstanding of congress ional relations . Hillary Clinton 's July critique , Woodward writes , amounted to a `` scalding indictment of McLarty . At crucial moments like this , Hillary was often de facto chief of staff . '' She insisted on the creation , with her a ssistance , of a campaign-like war room to run the budget operation . At the end of the budget battle , Paster resigned , citing a desire to return to private l ife . Woodward attributes the resignation to McLarty 's failure to manage the Wh ite House . `` Everyone and anyone freelanced , '' Paster is quoted as saying , and his job had been made impossible . The book describes tension between Gergen , the Republican brought in by McLarty on the advice of Sen. David L. Boren , D -Okla. and many of Clinton 's advisers , such as Stephanopoulos and the outside political consultants . Gergen concluded that the campaign team was captive of a mentality that needed someone to be against , and he was that someone . Carvill e and Begala argued against Gergen incessantly and Stephanopoulos is described a s finding him `` almost intolerable . Whenever Clinton did something Republican , Gergen proclaimed that the president was standing up for principle . Whenever Clinton did something Democratic , it was caving . '' WASHINGTON U.S. officials began consultations here and at the United Nations Fr iday over how to deal with North Korea 's defiance of international nuclear insp ectors . But the officials stressed in public and private comments that their ai m was to nudge North Korea back to the bargaining table , not to provoke a confr ontation . President Clinton telephoned Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Sout h Korean President Kim Young Sam , who agreed that the U.N. . Security Council s hould be asked to consider economic sanctions against the Pyongyang regime , a W hite House statement said . Assistant Secretary of State Robert Gallucci , the C linton administration 's point man on the Korean nuclear issue , said sanctions on impoverished , isolated North Korea are necessary to show any nations bent on acquiring nuclear weapons that violating the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty `` is not a cost-free exercise . ` ` Gallucci met with South Korean and Japanese o fficials here Friday and is scheduled to do so again Saturday to discuss possibl e next steps . At the United Nations , U.S. . Ambassador Madeline K. Albright sa id `` the next steps must include consideration of sanctions '' because `` North Korea has chosen to thwart the will of the international community . '' But Fri day 's statements by U.S. officials , taken in the aggregate , left open the pos sibility that North Korea could still avoid international retribution by providi ng information sought by the International Atomic Energy Agency ( IAEA ) . Offic ials stressed that the Clinton administration still hopes to resolve the Korean nuclear issue through negotiation rather than punitive steps that might provoke North Korea into desperate action . `` Nobody wants sanctions for the sake of sa nctions , '' several officials said , as if quoting each other . As expected , I AEA director General Hans Blix notified the U.N. . Security Council Friday that his agency 's ability to reconstruct the history of the North Korean reactor at Yongbyon had been destroyed by North Korea 's refusal to allow inspectors to tak e samples of fuel rods currently being removed . But Gallucci and other U.S. off icials said it is still possible for North Korea to provide enough information a bout past plutonium production to satisfy IAEA requirements . The agency 's abil ity to determine if North Korea diverted plutonium from fuel rods removed in 198 9 has been `` seriously eroded . That does not mean destroyed , '' Gallucci said at a State Department briefing . Albright said Blix 's conclusions were `` not unexpected but they were alarming nonetheless . '' Russian Ambassador Yuli Voron tsov , however , took a view more in line with Gallucci , saying Blix `` didn't sound absolutely hopeless on this issue . He didn't sound desperate . He said th ere are other methods '' of determining if North Korea has hidden weapons-grade plutonium . The possibility that North Korean intransigence might require the Un ited Nations to impose economic sanctions has been discussed in many forums sinc e North Korea announced early last year that it was pulling out of the Nonprolif eration Treaty . But it is far from clear that China , Russia or other Security Council members agree that sanctions should be imposed or , if they are , what t hey should cover . North Korea is totally dependent on imported oil , for exampl e , but its two main suppliers are China and Iran . If China vetoes a Security C ouncil resoultion , no oil embargo is possible . If China accepts an oil embargo , Iran is unlikely to comply with it , many analysts have said . Albright said the United States `` will begin to consult with other ( Security ) Council membe rs regarding the timing , the objective and the substance of a sanctions resolut ion in the near future . '' Japan has been widely reported to be uncomfortable o ver sanctions on North Korea because the Korean community in Japan is extensivel y involved in legal business dealings with North Korea . Disrupting that commerc e might cause unrest in Japan , according to several analysts . But Foreign Mini ster Koji Kakizawa said the Japanese parliament yesterday that Tokyo would `` do its utmost to cooperate '' if the United States , Japan and South Korea were to agree on a set of punitive economic restrictions against Pyongyang . FAIRFAX , Va. . The drops fell through the sunroof and onto Philip Bayer as he backed his 1988 BMW sedan out of the driveway of his Washington suburban home Th ursday evening . Probably sprinkles from scattered clouds , Bayer thought as he stopped the car to close the roof . `` Then the smell hit me , '' Bayer , 46 , r ecalled Friday . `` The smell was unmistakable . It was human poop . '' His spor t coat was covered with brown splotches , Bayer said , and the black car had abo ut a half-dozen spots per square foot , including the leather upholstery . About 2,000 feet overhead , Bayer said , a jet was flying toward Dulles International Airport , about four miles west of his house . The only explanation for the dum ping , he said , is that a plane discharged its waste before landing . `` Do I n eed to wear a hat ? Wear protective clothing ? Carry an umbrella all the time ? '' Bayer asked sarcastically . `` This can't be permitted to happen . '' It isn' t , said airline and Federal Aviation Administration officials , who are investi gating what aircraft landed at Dulles between 6 and 6:30 p.m. Thursday , when Ba yer says the incident occurred . About seven private and commercial planes lande d during that time period , the FAA said . Officials said they aren't sure what the substance was . A spokeswoman for Boeing said `` I can't think of anything ' ' that could leak from an airliner . The fuel system , for example , is a pressu rized storage system ; a leak there could lead to a fire . A valve that seals wa ste into tanks on most planes could have been loose , FAA officials said , causi ng liquified sewage to leak . Airline maintenance crews at Dulles would have to report such a leak , and the FAA was checking yesterday to see whether anyone ha d . Pilots can't dispose of waste while in flight . The tanks can only be opened and drained when a plane is serviced at an airport . Chemicals that break down solid waste and disinfectants and perfume are added to the tank , and the blue l iquid can leak through the valve outside the plane if it is not closed properly . At high altitudes , the liquid freezes and sometimes falls in its frozen form . Bayer surmises that the liquid thawed at a lower altitude as a plane approache d Dulles . The drops apparently fell only on Bayer 's car and a Dodge Omni parke d next door at the home of Skip Gerdes , who said it was strange that none of th e drops landed on the driveway or house . `` I don't know what it is '' on the c ar , Gerdes said . A spokesman for the Air Transport Association , an airline in dustry organization , said the event is rare because waste disposal units on air liners are closed systems . At any rate , spokesman Timothy Neale said , solid w aste cannot escape through the narrow valve . `` To be hit with excrement is ver y perplexing , '' Neale said . Not to mention messy . Bayer spent the next eight hours taking a shower , washing his clothes , scrubbing the car seats and havin g the car cleaned at a car wash . He was dressed in a sports coat and polo shirt and was to meet his wife , Linda ; 9-year-old-daughter , Lindsay ; and other re latives at a restaurant to celebrate a niece 's high school graduation . He didn 't make it . Bayer , a program manager for a systems integration company , said he also made some phone calls . He said he reported the incident to police , the FAA and Dulles Airport 's operations office . And like any distressed suburbani te , he called his homeowners association , whose representative told him there hadn't been any other reports of droppings from not-so-friendly skies . Bayer , a frequent business flier , said residential areas must be protected from such d ischarges . `` I willn't harass their pilots , '' he said , `` if they don't poo p on my kids and me . '' LOS ANGELES A small park in the heart of the working-class neighborhood where h e grew up may soon be renamed `` Ritchie Valens Park '' to honor the late rock ' n' roll legend . The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Friday to rename Paxton Park , drawing applause from half a dozen of Valens ' family and friends who carried a banner and photo of the teen rock star . The name change must be approved by the city 's Recreation and Parks Commission . Born Richard Valenzuel a in the Pacoima area of the San Fernando Valley , Valens gained fame in the 195 0s before dying at 17 in a 1959 plane crash that also claimed the life of singer Buddy Holly . Valens received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1990 afte r the movie `` La Bamba '' recounted his life and sparked a resurgence of intere st in the young musician . The U.S. Postal Service later issued a 29-cent stamp bearing his likeness . Councilman Richard Alarcon , who represents the neighborh ood , said he proposed the name change so that children in the area can remember Valens ' humble background and emulate his accomplishments . `` Ritchie Valens was someone I admired while growing up , '' Alarcon said . `` He came up against all the odds . '' ( Optional add end ) Francisco Flores , a community activist and friend of Valens ' family , echoed those sentiments . The park should be ren amed `` so children can have a role model and shoot for the stars , just like Ri tchie did , '' he told the council . Valens rose from obscurity as a teen-age gu itar player in Pacoima to gain international attention for such hits as `` Come On , Let 's Go '' and `` Donna , '' a love song about his high school sweetheart . But he will probably be best remember for `` La Bamba , '' a rock rendition o f a Latino folk dance tune that was on the flip side of `` Donna . '' NETTUNO , Italy At a quiet ceremony before a broad field of white marble crosse s and Stars of David , Judah Rosenblatt of New York City listened to President C linton pay tribute to the American GIs who fought in the `` forgotten '' Italian campaign of World War II and said he was glad he had finally returned to the sc ene of such fierce battles long ago . `` I was always afraid to walk in cemeteri es , ordinary cemeteries . But not here , '' where so many friends are buried , the 77-year-old retired accountant said , his old Army jacket with the First Arm ored Division insignia draped over his shoulders and a faded Yankees cap on his head . `` It 's the first time I 'm back in 50 years , and time was getting away from me , '' he added ruefully . `` I 'm getting old . '' On a European tour co mmemorating World War II anniversaries , the president Friday went to the U.S. . Cemetery near Anzio Beach to pay tribute to the U.S. soldiers whose liberation of Rome 50 years ago Saturday was quickly overshadowed by the D-Day invasion of Normandy that followed two days later . `` We stand today in fields forever scar red by sacrifice , '' Clinton declared before an audience of perhaps 1,000 veter ans and their families , as well as hundreds of local residents from this Medite rranean village . `` Today it is hard to imagine , ( now ) that this is .. . a p lace of peace . It is lush with the pines and the cypresses . But 50 years ago , when freedom was in peril , this field ran with the blood of those who fought t o save the world . '' The soldiers who were slender young men then are stooped o ld men now . They wore their medals pinned to suit jackets and windbreakers as t hey strolled in the spring sunshine among the curving rows of graves , peering a t the marble engravings for a familiar name . Rosenblatt was looking for the gra ve of a guy named Feinstein who , he recalled with a laugh , was always singing `` Minnie the Moocher '' until he was killed at Anzio by an artillery shell . Cl inton noted that his father , William Jefferson Blythe II , who died in a car ac cident before he was born , had served in Italy about 100 miles north of here . A niece wrote him about the beautiful Italian countryside she had heard about , he said , and asked that he send a single leaf home for her to take to school . `` My father had only sad news to send back , '' he said . `` There were no leav es ; every one had been stripped by the fury of the battle . '' To his side sat four U.S. senators who served in the Italian campaign ; two were disabled by the wounds they received . Nodding to Sens. Bob Dole , R-Kan. , Daniel Inouye , D-H awaii , Claiborne Pell , D-R.I. , and Ernest Hollings , D-S.C. , he called `` ea ch a young American who came of age here ; each an American patriot who went hom e to build up our nation . '' And Dole , who lost the use of his right arm durin g a 1945 battle in the Italian mountains , was hailed as a hero by other veteran s before the ceremony began as he walked among the rows of men . `` When you dri ve into this cemetery , you know what it 's all about all these fine people , 8, 000 Americans ( buried ) here , '' the senator said . `` Smile for me , '' one v eteran shouted at Dole as he snapped a photograph , adding approvingly , `` Our next president . '' While the audience was respectful of Clinton , some of the v eterans expressed quiet disapproval of his efforts to avoid military service dur ing the Vietnam War . ( Begin optional trim ) `` It bothers me a little , his ac tivities during war protests and so forth , '' said John Bender , 71 , of Aberde en , Md. , whose arm was crippled by a mortar shell during the liberation of Rom e . `` He 's my president and I respect the office , '' said June Marion Wandrey , 73 , of Portage , Mich. , who was wearing her old dark green Army uniform and brown boots of the Army Nurse Corps as she waited to give Clinton a briefing ab out one of the graves . Asked if it was time to move on from questions about his military history , she looked down for a moment . `` You have to look in your o wn heart and see what you can forgive , '' she said . When Clinton arrived , she greeted him with a smile and smart salute ; he returned the salute , but tentat ively . ( End optional trim ) But Ignatius Turnes of Long Island , asked about C linton , replied with the fervor of the youthful field medic he once was . `` As commander in chief , if he called us , we would do whatever we had to do , '' h e vowed . During the ceremony , he began to weep . `` I never wanted to come bac k here in 50 years because it brought back bad memories , '' he said , recalling the 157th Infantry 's battles in Sicily and southern France and its liberation of the Dacchau concentration camp in Germany . But after the fighter jets had ro ared overhead in the `` missing man '' formation and two buglers had blown a pla intive `` Taps , '' he said he felt overwhelmed and gratified . `` God spared me to come back , '' he said . WASHINGTON The nation 's unemployment rate took an unexpected nose dive last mo nth to 6 percent from 6.4 percent in April as more than a half-million workers f ound jobs , the Labor Department reported Friday . But the report contained mixe d signals , as the department 's separate survey of business and government payr olls found a more modest rise of 191,000 jobs last month , compared with an aver age gain of 315,000 in the three previous months . Most analysts had expected a larger increase in payroll employment , particularly since about a third of last month 's increase was due to the return to work of 70,000 striking truck driver s . The smaller increase in payroll was in line with other recent data suggestin g the heady pace of economic growth late last year and early this year is slowin g to what is likely a more sustainable , non-inflationary pace , a number of pri vate analysts said . `` All of this is good news for American workers , American businesses and American families , '' Laura D' Andrea Tyson , chairman of the p resident 's Council of Economic Advisers , told reporters at the White House . ` ` So far the good news on the employment front has also been accompanied by good news on the inflation front . '' At a separate news conference , Katharine G. A braham , commissioner of labor statistics , said the unusually large drop in the unemployment rate should be interpreted `` cautiously . '' When there have been such large monthly movements in the past , `` the magnitude of those changes of ten turns out to have been overstated once additional data become available . '' In addition , analysts are uncertain about the accuracy of the jobless statisti cs since the Labor Department made significant changes in the questions about jo bs asked each month of 60,000 U.S. households in January . But Abraham said that with the latest numbers , despite all the uncertainties , it is `` nonetheless clear that unemployment continues to trend downwards . '' The disparate messages from the separate surveys of households , on which the unemployment rate is bas ed , and payrolls made the Labor Department report particularly hard to interpre t . Tyson said the payroll survey probably gave more reliable information about the state of the economy . However , the sharply smaller number of jobs added to payrolls last month does not yet signal a trend toward lower employment gains , she said . Some analysts thought otherwise . `` The May employment report was m ore confusing than most , '' said Bruce Steinberg , macroeconomics manager for M errill Lynch & Co. in New York . `` The most important message : Economic moment um is slowing . '' Steinberg said the lower-than-expected payroll gain `` is con sistent with other data showing that the consumer and housing sectors are slowin g sharply in the second quarter and that industrial momentum is easing . '' Supp orting that point was a small drop in the amount of overtime hours in manufactur ing and an absence of hiring by firms in that sector for the first time in sever al months . Analysts said that as a result , figures on industrial production wi ll be up only slightly for last month . Most of last month 's payroll increases came in industries that provide various services , including education and healt h care . Retail trade employment was also up by 31,000 . Abraham also released r evised monthly figures for payroll employment over the last two years based on m ore complete information from businesses ' unemployment insurance tax returns . The revisions raised the number of payroll jobs by 239,000 in March 1993 , the l ast month for which full official tax return data is available . In addition , t hose revisions and other factors raised the monthly increases in payroll jobs fr om that month through April by almost 600,000 jobs . Abraham also announced Frid ay that as a cost-saving measure the Labor Department would no longer conduct a separate survey to determine the national , monthly unemployment rate using the method employed before January . Congressional Democrats had pressed for the sec ond survey using the old method because they feared the new method would result in a higher unemployment rate . But the old method resulted in an unemployment r ate higher rather than lower than the new method . In a rare corporate rebellion , K mart Corp. shareholders defeated a controvers ial stock plan Friday , striking a blow to the top management of the nation 's N o. 2 discount retailer . The plan called for K mart to issue stock linked to the performance of its specialty stores : Sports Authority , Waldenbooks-Borders Bo okShop , OfficeMax and Builders Square . But dissidents , frustrated by the lack of progress in recent years under Chairman Joseph Antonini and openly skeptical of his plan , pulled off a surprise victory at the annual meeting at company he adquarters in Troy , Mich. . They said K mart should find ways to bolster sales at its flagship discount stores , which contribute most of the company 's revenu es , and which have been losing sales to other big discount retailers such as Wa l-Mart , the nation 's No. 1 chain , and Target Stores . Although management gar nered a majority of the shares voting , it needed a majority of the shares outst anding for its plan to win . It got only 44 percent . Institutional investors ha ve become more vocal in recent years , but it 's still rare for management to be defeated in a shareholder vote . `` Joe Antonini has more pressure on him now t han at any time during his tenure , '' said Wayne Hood , an analyst at Prudentia l Securities in New York . `` He probably has three more quarters to get the bus iness stabilized and improving . '' The retailer lost nearly $ 1 billion last ye ar and has seen its stock drop roughly 40 percent since November . The victory s urprised even dissidents , who as late as Thursday were saying that they expecte d to lose but hoped they could send management a message . The State of Wisconsi n Investment Board , which owns 3 million K mart shares , led the campaign to ov erturn the stock issue . It hired people to call other investors and took out ad s in the Wall Street Journal . Antonini expressed disappointment that his propos al had failed . `` K mart 's management and board will assess the alternatives a vailable , '' he said . Five directors were re-elected , even though dissidents opposed this move also . UNITED NATIONS Haiti 's remaining lifeline to the outside world , commercial fl ights that transport thousands of people a week in and out of the country , will soon be cut , diplomats here said Friday . `` It 's going to start happening as of next week , '' Dante Caputo , the U.N. and Organization of American States s pecial envoy to Haiti , told Newsday . U.S. officials attending Friday 's meetin g on the issue said the United States would send telegrams asking U.N. member na tions to ban commercial flights to and from Haiti , according to a Latin America n diplomat at the meeting . The U.N. . Security Council imposed a near total tra de embargo on Haiti two weeks ago , but continued to allow air traffic between H aiti and the outside world . Laura Hurd , a spokeswoman in Fort Worth , Texas , for American Airlines , the largest carrier flying to Haiti , said she has heard rumors that the United States is planning to stop flights in about a week . But she has not received any official word on the matter , she said . President Cli nton 's special ambassador to Haiti , former Rep. William Gray , had lunch with top foreign affairs officials from France , Canada , Venezuela and Argentina , a nd discussed the air cutoff , sources here said . The countries are collectively known at the United Nations as the Five Friends of Haiti because of their conti nuing interest in the Haitian crisis . Neither Gray nor his deputy , James Dobbi ns , was available for comment after diplomats ended their formal meeting Friday afternoon . The group issued a statement expressing `` their readiness to consi der .. . further measures such as suspension of commercial air flights . '' Ques tioned as he left the meeting , Caputo said the cutoffs would begin next week , but he did not say which nations would make the first move . Besides American , airlines from Panama , France and the Dutch Antilles fly to Port-au-Prince , dip lomats said . France was described by the Latin American diplomat Friday as relu ctant to order Air France to stop its flights . In CLINTON-NDY ( Page , Newsday ) sub for penultimate graf ( Correcting spellin g of Dachau ) xxx to weep . `` I never wanted to come back here in 50 years beca use it brought back bad memories , '' he said , recalling the 157th Infantry 's battles in Sicily and southern France and its liberation of the Dachau concentra tion camp in Germany . But after the fighter jets had roared overhead in the `` missing man '' formation and two buglers had blown a plaintive `` Taps , '' he s aid he felt overwhelmed and gratified . PICK UP last graf : `` God spared xxx . In CLINTON-NDY ( Page , Newsday ) sub for penultimate graf ( Correcting spellin g of Dachau ) xxx to weep . `` I never wanted to come back here in 50 years beca use it brought back bad memories , '' he said , recalling the 157th Infantry 's battles in Sicily and southern France and its liberation of the Dachau concentra tion camp in Germany . But after the fighter jets had roared overhead in the `` missing man '' formation and two buglers had blown a plaintive `` Taps , '' he s aid he felt overwhelmed and gratified . PICK UP last graf : `` God spared xxx . WASHINGTON Even as the Clinton administration Friday took its first steps towar d seeking economic sanctions against North Korea , key lawmakers and experts inc reased pressure for military moves to end Pyongyang 's nuclear ambitions and det er any attack on South Korea . After 15 months of patient , cautious , U.S. dipl omatic efforts to persuade North Korea to permit inspections of its nuclear faci lities , Assistant Secretary of State Robert Gallucci said the basis for continu ing the dialogue `` has been destroyed '' and `` we need to discuss alternative options . '' North Korea 's refusal to permit inspections by the United Nations ' International Atomic Energy Agency , Gallucci said , has all but destroyed any way of learning whether Pyongyang is or has been illegally diverting plutonium from its small nuclear reactor for the purpose of making nuclear weapons . North Korea has denied that it is developing nuclear weapons . North Korea signed the 1968 worldwide nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty , under which it is required to submit its nuclear program to inspections . The U.N. . Security Council has thr eatened economic sanctions if North Korea refuses to abide by its treaty obligat ion . Gallucci said the United States has begun consulting with other members of the Security Council `` on appropriate next steps in response to North Korea 's actions , including sanctions . '' He would not say when a sanctions resolution might be presented to the council , but he said `` certainly the intensity of t hose consultations will pick up next week . '' North Korea has warned that econo mic sanctions would be regarded as an act of war . And China 's traditional oppo sition to sanctions remains an obstacle to Security Council action , administrat ion officials said . A leading congressional critic , Sen. John McCain , R-Ariz. , said the United States should take a tougher stance to gain China 's support and to discourage North Korea from carrying out its military threats . McCain , a Vietnam veteran and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee , opposed us ing military force in Bosnia , Somalia and Haiti . But he argues , as he did in a lengthy speech on the Senate floor May 24 , that the administration 's weaknes s and a policy of `` appeasement '' have permitted North Korea to build its stoc kpile of plutonium while stalling in negotiations . He noted that the United Sta tes has repeatedly retreated on its policies toward North Korea for the sake of continuing negotiations . Although President Clinton had pledged that North Kore a would not be allowed to develop a nuclear bomb , there is evidence it has one or two such weapons , according to U.S. intelligence agents . The United States shifted its position , warning North Korea against diverting any more plutonium for possible new bombs . Although North Korea is defying that warning and has fa iled to live up to its promises in talks with Washington , the administration ho pes sanctions will persuade North Korea to begin negotiating again , Gallucci sa id Friday . South Korea and Japan , which would be vulnerable if North Korea is provoked , have called on the United States to proceed with caution . China has counseled patience . But McCain accused the administration of `` a failure of ne rve '' and said the United States , in seeking sanctions , `` should make clear to China , quietly but very forcefully , that there is no other issue involved i n our relations of comparable importance . '' While seeking sanctions , McCain s aid the United States should warn North Korea that it faces destruction if it mo ves to attack South Korea , as it did 44 years ago this month . To deter such an attack , McCain said , the United States should beef up its 37,000 forces in So uth Korea , deploy additional fighter aircraft and helicopters and send an aircr aft carrier force and bombers and tankers to the region . ( Optional add end ) E choing McCain , Sen. Richard Lugar , R-Ind. , a ranking member of the Senate For eign Relations Committee , has been telling constituents during the current cong ressional recess that the United States should be sending back some tactical nuc lear weapons that were withdrawn from South Korea more than two years ago . He c alled on Clinton to prepare the American people for a possible confrontation . J ames R. Lilley , former U.S. ambassador to South Korea and China , said on Fox M orning News Friday that sanctions could pressure North Korea into compliance if China supports them . But beyond sanctions , he added , it 's time to get tough with North Korea . `` If you appease the North Koreans , they 'll take advantage of you , '' he said . `` What you need is a very strong , unambiguous deterrent . If they turn to force , they will be obliterated . '' WASHINGTON After months of disagreements and recriminations with the United Sta tes , exiled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide Friday spoke encouragingly of President Clinton 's recent policy changes while urging more aggressive step s against Haiti 's military rulers . In a veiled endorsement of military interve ntion , Aristide called for `` swift and determined action '' to remove the army generals who deposed him in 1991 and for the deployment of a large internationa l force to help him reestablish democracy in Haiti . Aristide 's comments signal ed an important convergence with the administration on the Haitian crisis . Unti l recently the administration had urged Aristide to reconcile with his political opposition , a move the deposed president refused to make . The administration has since dropped that line . Now both Clinton and Aristide are talking about th e need to oust the Haitian military and the possibility of doing it by force . M aking his first extensive public remarks since Clinton took a new stance on Hait i , Aristide said , `` President Clinton needs help , and I am helping him as he can help us . '' Aristide said the tightened embargo against Haiti promoted by the administration is `` a good step '' and he avoided any direct criticism of C linton 's new policy toward Haitian refugees . The kind words were all the more remarkable because they came at a Capitol Hill luncheon sponsored by the TransAf rica lobbying group , which has led the opposition to Clinton 's Haiti policies among civil rights groups and refugee advocates . Responding to a 27-day hunger strike by Randall Robinson , executive director of the group , Clinton announced May 8 that the United States would begin offering Haitian boat people a chance to seek refugee status rather than automatically returning them to their homelan d . The new policy won an important measure of international support Friday when the Turks and Caicos Islands , a British dependency in the Caribbean , agreed t o let the United States set up a 5-acre refugee processing facility on Grand Tur k Island . Two days earlier , Jamaica had offered to allow the United States to conduct processing aboard ships anchored in its territorial waters . `` It buys them time , '' Rep. Kweisi Mfume , D-Md. , said of the administration 's success in winning support from the Caribbean states . Mfume , chairman of the Congress ional Black Caucus , emphasized that he does not agree with the administration ' s approach but acknowledged , `` It certainly allows them for some time to work with other nations in the region . '' In stepping up the pressure on Haiti 's mi litary and in dealing with the refugees fleeing the island republic , the Clinto n administration has emphasized its determination to find international solution s that will win the endorsement and participation of other countries in the regi on . In calling for the ouster of the military , Aristide also emphasized the ne ed for multilateral action . Aristide , who was elected by an overwhelming major ity but only ruled for seven months before the military overthrew him in 1991 , was careful not to openly invite the invasion of his homeland . But he nonethele ss made his intentions clear . `` As you know , we do not seek military occupati on , '' he said , `` and if I were to ask for a military intervention , I would be impeached under my constitution . However , I do believe that action can be t aken to rid the nation of the thugs who have taken her hostage and restore democ racy to Haiti . `` Therefore , swift and determined action should be taken to re move the coup leaders within the framework of the Governors Island agreement . I will not waste time describing what this action would be . The international co mmunity knows how to proceed . '' Aristide was referring to an agreement signed under the United Nations 's auspices last July 3 , in which the commander of the military government , Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras , promised to leave office and allo w Aristide to resume power by last Oct. 30 . Cedras failed to fulfill several pr eliminary steps to the accord and it collapsed last fall . `` The military breac hed the agreement , and Aristide is just calling on the international community to enforce it , '' said Michael Barnes , the former Maryland congressman who adv ises Aristide . Aristide argued Friday that after Cedras and the other top offic ers are removed from power , the other provisions of the agreement should be imp lemented . These include the dispatch of a sizable international mission to refo rm the Haitian military and other measures to promote democracy . Aristide sugge sted that with sufficient international support , no prolonged occupation of Hai ti by the U.S. military would be necessary . Yet even as he offered Clinton a me asure of encouragement , Aristide urged his supporters to keep pressing the pres ident : `` Once we keep the pressure on , he will continue , I hope , I wish , I think , he will continue building the pressure on the military , on the thugs t o get rid of them . '' Strong national job figures released Friday managed to signal economic growth w ithout alarming the stock and bond markets about inflation . The markets ' subdu ed response stemmed partly from the mixed messages out of the U.S. . Labor Depar tment . While the national unemployment rate dropped to 6 percent in May from 6. 4 percent in April the biggest one-month drop in 11 years a separate count of jo b growth came in at 191,000 , much below the expected 300,000 . Economists and m arket analysts interpreted the numbers as indicating slow but continued growth . They don't want the news to be too good , for fear the Federal Reserve Board wi ll renew its anti-inflation activity . The Fed already has raised interest rates four times this year , even though inflation is running at less than 3 percent . Higher rates hurt the value of stocks and bonds and could slow the nation 's e conomic recovery . On Wall Street , the Dow Jones industrial average gained 13.2 3 points to 3,772.22 , ending the week up 15.08 . Standard & Poor 's 500-stock i ndex rose 2.48 to 460.13 , up 2.80 for the week . The price of the 30-year Treas ury bond traded up 13-16 point . Its yield , which moves in the opposite directi on , fell to 7.26 percent from 7.34 percent Thursday . The dollar advanced again st other major currencies , rising to a two-week high against the German mark . In New York , the dollar closed at 1.6700 marks , up from 1.6535 . Republic Nati onal Bank quoted gold at $ 380.60 an ounce , down $ 3.30 . On the New York Commo dity Exchange , silver for current delivery brought $ 5.292 an ounce , down from $ 5.369 . Two of the nation 's largest cable television companies tentatively agreed Frid ay to a $ 2.3 billion merger , part of a move among the country 's balkanized ca ble systems to unite into regional powerhouses . Cox Enterprises Inc. , the Atla nta-based newspaper and TV company , reached a tentative agreement to buy the ca ble systems owned by Times Mirror Corp. , publisher of the Los Angeles Times and Baltimore Sun , Times Mirror said . The deal would bring under one management a nearly seamless string of cable systems running from San Diego to Los Angeles , one of the most populous and wealthiest regions in the country . It would creat e the nation 's third-largest cable company , with 3 million subscribers in Cali fornia and other states . Cable companies generally have scattered holdings the Washington area is served by more than a dozen companies . But the consolidation envisioned by Cox and Times Mirror would permit the companies to compete on a m ore equal basis with Pacific Bell , California 's regional phone company , which is planning to enter the TV business . The cable and phone industries are racin g each other to upgrade their networks of wires to enter each other 's business and provide a new generation of communications and entertainment services the `` information highway . '' Cox not only hopes to be in cable and telephone market s , it also has a tentative license to offer `` personal communications services '' new wireless phone and data links to people on the go-in southern California . Bigger and more concentrated cable companies may be the wave of the future , analysts say , because such companies could more efficiently complete the job of rewiring millions of households . `` You 're going to see more trading , buying and consolidating '' of cable systems to achieve mass , an industry executive i nvolved in the bidding for Times Mirror cable said Friday . `` Just as telephone companies have a seamless network in their markets , a cable operator needs a s imilar effect to be competitive . '' In fact , Tele-Communications Inc. ( TCI ) , the nation 's largest cable company , is attempting to assemble a regional str ing of cable systems in the San Francisco Bay area . Thus , both TCI and Cox wou ld take on Pacific Bell , which has said it will spend as much as $ 18 billion i n the next few years to make its ubiquitous phone network capable of carrying TV pictures . At the same time , Time Warner Inc. , which owns most of the cable T V systems in New York City , is reported to be discussing a buyout of the Long I sland cable systems owned by Cablevision Systems Inc. . Wall Street analysts and other observers said the announcement also indicates that another wave of mega- deals may be building in the cable and phone businesses after a brief period in which several mergers fell apart . Only a few months ago , cable-industry execut ives , including those at Cox , were blaming recent price rollbacks ordered by t he federal government for scuttling alliances that were aimed at accelerating co nstruction of the information highway . Among the deals that went sour in the wa ke of a Federal Communications Commission order to cut rates by 17 percent were Bell Atlantic Corp. 's proposed $ 26 billion purchase of TCI , and a proposed mu ltibillion-dollar partnership between Cox and regional telephone company Southwe stern Bell Corp. . Now , however , `` I think what Cox is saying is ` This is st ill a good business , ' ' ' said analyst John Reidy of Smith Barney Inc. in New York . `` This is the beginning of a new look . '' Reidy predicted major telepho ne companies will be investing in cable companies again within six months . In f act , two telephone companies , Bell Atlantic and GTE Corp. , were early bidders for the Times Mirror cable systems , but both dropped out as the bidding rose , sources said Friday . FCC chief of staff Blair Levin stopped short of declaring vindication for the agency 's action on cable prices . But he said , `` Mergers occur because of people 's view in the long term , not the short term . Both Co x and Times Mirror understand the long-term strength of the cable industry . '' NEW YORK When 7-year-old Kenneth Yeglinski II was struggling against a big rott weiler that had a hold on his neck , he knew what to do . He kicked the dog in t he neck , using the same technique he 'd learned in studying tae kwon do for the past year . Thanks to his timely kick , the freckled , red-haired first-grader was around Friday to tell the story of a harrowing attack from a 3-year-old , 12 1-pound male rottweiler . `` I was scared , but I didn't show it , '' he said in a news conference at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn . Ken , who plays wi th two rottweilers at home , was visiting a friend 's home in Brooklyn Thursday when he went to pet a dog owned by a tenant in the building . `` The dog jumped on me . He started biting on my neck , '' Ken said Friday. `` .. . Then I kicked him in the neck . Then I went in the house for ice . '' Ken was bitten severely on the neck not far from the jugular vein , on his right ear and chin , officia ls said . Dr. David Feldman , who performed plastic surgery on Ken at Maimonides , said it was the worst bite he 'd ever seen . `` If that dog had been on him a little longer , it could have been a lot worse , a lot worse , '' he said . Ken was quiet but proud Friday . Other kids who hadn't studied tae kwon do `` would have kicked him but not gotten him off , '' he said . His father , Port Authori ty Police Sgt. Kenneth Yeglinski , was relieved . `` My wife and I , we cried ga llons , asking God for help , '' he said . The dog is being held by the ASPCA an d will be examined . City Health Department spokesman Steve Matthews said there could be a ruling that the dog be muzzled , trained or destroyed . Ken 's father said that while his initial , emotional reaction was `` to go shoot the dog mys elf , '' now he 's not so sure . He 's just glad to have his son . The tae kwon do , he said , `` saved his life , absolutely . '' WASHINGTON The nation 's unemployment rate in May continued to drop virtually a cross the board , the government reported Friday for men and women , blacks and whites , adults and teen-agers . For everyone , that is , except black teen-gers . Among black teen-agers looking for jobs , 40 percent can't find them , the La bor Department said in its monthly survey , up from 32 percent rate in January . By contrast , joblessness for white teenagers has been declining , dropping to 15 percent last month . For the 740,000 black teenagers who have either graduate d from high school or dropped out of school , the news is equally bleak : Only 3 3 percent have either full- or part-time jobs . For white teen-agers , the compa rable figure is 60 percent . Experts Friday warned that persistently high levels of unemployment are leading to a growing alienation of black youth from the lar ger economy , aggravating other social problems . `` I think it should be pretty obvious that if these kids don't get a foothold in the legitimate economy , we can expect a fair number of them to turn to hustling of some kind , '' said Rona ld Mincy , an expert on youth employment at the Ford Foundation . Economists off er several standard explanations for high rates of joblessness among black youth . Most of the new jobs being created , they argue , call for higher levels of s kill and education than most non-college graduates can offer . Most of the new j obs also are being created at firms located in suburbs far from the inner cities where many African American families live . Experts also say that because black youths come from neighborhoods where rates of adult employment are low , they a re less likely to take advantage of the sort of informal networking through whic h people learn about jobs and get hired . But Jared Bernstein , a labor economis t with the Economic Policy Institute in Washington , said various studies show t hese factors do not fully explain the widening job gap between black and white t een-agers . Like Joshua Denbow , 18 , he suspects that various forms of discrimi nation also play a role . Denbow , a 1993 graduate of Ballou Senior High here , recalled trying to apply for a job at a mall , when a manager turned away from h im . `` I saw him give out an application to another teen-ager , '' he said . `` I approached the store and he turned his sign over to closed . Ten minutes late r , when I walked back past it , it was open . '' `` Because we 're young , blac k teen-agers , they think we sell drugs , '' Denbow said . Brandee Baggatts , 16 , an 11th-grade student at Dunbar , has applied at numerous stores , including Footlocker , the Gap and Fashion Bug . Most of the places never called her and t hose who did said they weren't hiring . As bad as the job situation is for Brand ee , however , it 's worse for her male friends , she said , because of the ster eotypes many employers hold about black teen-agers . `` They think about all the killings , but not every black boy is bad . We have some good ones , '' Brandee said . `` They just don't want to hire them because they are afraid of us . '' Much the same point was made by sociologist Elijah Anderson of the University of Pennsylvania , whose book , `` Streetwise , '' is based on three years spent ha nging around a corner in a black neighborhood in Chicago . Anderson said that wh ile most kids from such neighborhoods want to enter the economic mainstream , th ey often adopt some of the `` emblems '' of an what he calls the `` oppositional culture '' certain dress , mannerisms and ways of speech . `` White society has little ability to distinguish between the decent and the street kids , '' Ander son said . `` As a result , discrimination has remained a persistent part of the culture of the workplace . '' But even when they dress neatly and speak well , black teen-agers can be at a disadvantage . Margaret Simms , an economist with t he Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington , cited tests t hat used teen-agers with similar resumes , wearing similar clothes and coached t o say the same things . White job applicants , she said , were chosen disproport ionately over the black applicants . Simms and other analysts said that because black teen-agers and their friends have such trouble getting jobs , many become discouraged and simply stop looking . The Labor Department survey for May showed that only 36 percent of black teen-agers were active participants in the labor market , compared with 57 percent of white teen-agers . WASHINGTON The Federal Aviation Administration ordered Friday a broad-scale ret reat from one of the most ambitious computer modernization projects undertaken b y the U.S. government . FAA Administrator David Hinson said the agency will canc el outright two components of the modernization of the nation 's air traffic con trol system . He has ordered an intensive 90-day review of a third key component . Deputy Administrator Linda Daschle said the government will save `` hundreds of millions of dollars '' as a result of the decisions , which also will mean th e loss of an undetermined number of jobs at the former IBM Federal Systems unit in Montgomery County , Md. , now owned by Loral Corp. . This allows companies su ch as BDM International Inc. , Hughes , Unisys and Raytheon to win portions of a contract still expected to run and valued in excess of $ 5 billion by the time it is completed after the year 2000 . The overall FAA project , called the Advan ced Automation System , was supposed to provide air traffic controllers with sta te-of-the-art computers , systems and workstations that would tie the vast array of radars , satellites and communications facilities that help guide thousands of flights across the country . Many current computer facilities date to the 196 0s . `` The fact that it is a smaller program is not discouraging to Loral . It will turn out to be a better program , '' said Loral Chairman and chief executiv e Bernard L. Schwartz . Schwartz says Loral is assessing the number of jobs that will be affected and expects an answer within the next two weeks . `` We owe it to our people and to subcontractors to come out with as quick an answer as poss ible , '' he said . Hinson said the remaining $ 2 billion software program desig ned to give air traffic controllers sophisticated new workstations will be revie wed by an expert team from the Lincoln Laboratories and Carnegie-Mellon Institut e working together with FAA and Loral experts . Hinson said he ordered this revi ew because he was confronted with conflicting opinions about the program 's feas ibility and wanted a third viewpoint . The FAA has already spent $ 1 billion ; i f the program is scrapped , that money will be lost . An earlier study for the F AA by the Center for Naval Analysis found the software design being used by IBM ( now Loral ) `` seriously flawed '' and riddled with errors , a position Loral disputes . Schwartz said in an interview Friday that Hinson 's announcement `` d emonstrates the FAA 's determination to proceed with this important modification program . It validates the overall conceptual approach subject to the fact that the software does what it is supposed to do . '' Of the new study , Schwartz sa id , `` If I were he , I would do the same . '' Some of Friday 's steps could pr olong the automation project since some of it is to be put out for a new `` comp etition '' among prospective contractors , often a time-consuming process . The initial program , which dates to the early 1980s , was in deep trouble when the Clinton administration took office . But officials insisted it could be salvaged . A broad review ordered by Hinson and Transportation Secretary Federico Pena i nitially questioned the premise and said that if it could be completed at all , the cost would escalate by almost $ 2.2 billion from Bush administration estimat es . Friday , with the FAA facing a five-year budget freeze , they acknowledged even that may not be possible and embarked on the new , streamlined strategy . I n addition to the review of the Loral software program , Hinson canceled : -- A major computer program that would have linked segments of the nationwide system , speeding up the integration and flow of information . Its price : $ 1 billion . -- A similar program to consolidate computer activities in areas of very heavy air traffic , with a projected cost of $ 654 million . Also , a program to mode rnize the equipment in airport towers was slashed to cover about 70 of the busie st airports from the 150 envisioned initially . That program was to have cost ab out $ 447 million . A sub-set of the remaining disputed Loral program the replac ement with electronic data of paper strips controllers use to track each flight also is being cancelled . Its cost was put in the hundreds of millions of dollar s and it was opposed by air traffic controllers . Not all of the money in these canceled or reduced programs will be saved since some of the roles they were des igned to do will remain functional . Instead of relying on Loral to do them , ho wever , they will be open for new bidding or Loral will be directed to turn to o ff-the-shelf technologies . FAA officials declined to put a price on these parts of the project . WASHINGTON The Clinton administration began consultations Friday with key U.S. allies on imposing punitive sanctions against North Korea , but officials said t he plan initially calls for only mild restrictions , to avoid pushing Pyongyang into further isolation . Robert L. Gallucci , assistant secretary of state for p olitical-military affairs , met separately in Washington with South Korean and J apanese officials in preparation for a broader conference involving all three al lies Saturday . . At the same time , senior administration policy-makers traveli ng with President Clinton in Europe conferred privately with British , French an d German counterparts . They also telephoned Chinese officials , whose support i s considered crucial for approval of a sanctions resolution . Clinton himself ca lled South Korean President Kim Young Sam , who agreed on the broad American str ategy . The president also phoned Russian President Boris N . Yeltsin , rejectin g a new Russian proposal to convene an international conference to discuss the s tandoff over North Korea 's nuclear program . The flurry of activity marked the start of what is expected to be a complex effort to build a coalition in favor o f some sort of sanctions by the middle of next week , officials hope , when the U.N. . Security Council is scheduled to take up the issue . Hans Blix , director -general of the International Atomic Energy Agency , briefed Security Council me mbers on his agency 's conclusion that Pyongyang has made it all but impossible for inspectors to determine whether it has diverted spent fuel to make nuclear w eapons . Meanwhile , North Korea appealed for a new round of talks with the Unit ed States . But it was rebuffed by the administration , which repeated its inten tion to pursue imposition of sanctions instead . Pyongyang also test-fired anoth er anti-ship missile . There were some initial signs that China might be easing its longstanding opposition to U.N. sanctions against North Korea possibly a res ult of Clinton 's decision last week to continue special trade preferences for B eijing . Both American and foreign officials indicated that the discussions invo lving the Japanese and South Koreans were preliminary and did not result in deci sions . `` It 's really too early at this point , '' one insider said . But Wash ington-based diplomats said the administration is considering the possibility of pushing for relatively modest sanctions at first to avoid provoking Pyongyang i nto withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty , which governs reacto r inspections . If Pyongyang still does not yield , the allies then would press for a freeze on North Korea 's financial transactions , and , finally , for a cu toff of oil and food supplies the most drastic step in the proposed sanctions ar senal . ( Optional add end ) One concession that Washington wants Pyongyang to m ake immediately is to allow international inspectors to take samplings and measu rements at its two major radioactive waste sites an alternative to analyzing spe nt fuel rods in its reactor , which already has been emptied . All sides concede d that pushing a sanctions resolution through the Security Council is likely to be difficult . Even Japan , which opposes North Korea 's nuclear program , said it wants the United Nations to issue another warning before invoking sanctions . Han Seung Soo , South Korea 's ambassador to the United States , said in a tele phone interview that the contents of the allies ' proposed sanctions resolution could vary widely , `` depending upon the reactions from China and Russia . '' ` ` China has repeatedly said they prefer dialogue , '' he said . `` Unless we are assured that they will abstain from a Security Council resolution , it would be very difficult '' to pass a formal proposal , even for gradual imposition of sa nctions . Gallucci told reporters that the United States would `` not be intimid ated '' by Pyongyang 's continual warnings that it would regard any imposition o f sanctions as an act of war . One of only two low-level nuclear waste dumps in the nation will close to most outsiders at the end of June , a move that will leave 31 states with no sanction ed disposal site . The decision by the South Carolina legislature to limit acces s to their facility at Barnwell will mean that hospitals , biomedical companies and other industries in states that use radioactive materials must store their o wn nuclear waste . South Carolina officials gave no reason for their decision to limit access to the Barnwell dump to eight southeastern states , Alabama , Flor ida , Georgia , Mississippi , North Carolina , South Carolina , Tennessee and Vi rginia . Closure of the South Carolina dump means that `` 65 percent of all radi oactive waste in the nation will have to be stored at the point of generation , '' said Holmes Brown , a spokesman for the Low-level Waste Forum , an organizati on of state officials who work on nuclear waste issues . In California alone , a bout 100,00 cubic feet of contaminated waste are produced each year . Many of th e facilities that are now forced to store their own radioactive waste are in pop ulated areas . `` Hospitals and biotech companies completely surrounded by resid ential neighborhoods certainly aren't the best places to be storing this stuff , '' said Donald Womeldorf , director of the Southwestern Low-level Radioactive W aste Commision , which represents four states California , Arizona , North Dakot a and South Dakota . ( Begin optional trim ) The perils of keeping nuclear waste on site , instead of burying it in a licensed dump was underscored by the Jan. 17 Los Angeles earthquake , which damaged storage facilities at three hospitals , according to Cathleen Kaufman , head of radiation management for the Los Angel es County Department of Health Services . There were no reports of contamination after the earthquake . But at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles , the loss of storage space because of earthquake damage may put a crimp in medical re search . `` I have put researchers on notice that after the first of the year th ey may find the use of radioactive materials restricted , '' said Donna Early , the hospital 's director of radiation and environmental safety . ( End optional trim ) Apart from the South Carolina facility , a dump in Richland , Wash. is th e only facility in the country that accepts low-level waste . The Washington dum p , however , serves only 11 western states , Alaska , Colorado , Hawaii , Idaho , Montana , Nevada , New Mexico , Oregon , Utah , Washington and Wyoming . The two dumps are classified as `` low level '' to distinguish them from facilities designed to accept spent fuel rods and other debris from nuclear power plants co ntaminated with highly toxic , long-lasting substances , such as plutonium that can remain dangerous for many thousands of years . But even `` low-level '' dump s can accept some long-lasting radioactive materials . ( Optional add end ) Unde r a 1980 law , several states assumed responsibility from the federal government for disposing of low-level nuclear waste . Regional compacts were formed with t he idea that each would be served by existing dumps in Nevada , South Carolina a nd Washington or by one of four new ones that were supposed to be in operation b y now . Until the new dumps opened , the three states with existing dumps agreed to accept waste from states outside their compacts . Those arrangements , howev er , were not popular with public officials in the those states , who feared the y would become permanent repositories for the nation 's nuclear waste . Nevada s ubsequently closed to all users . Closing the South Carolina dump will increase the pressure on California to build the proposed Ward Valley disposal facility i n the eastern Mojave desert , a controversial project currently tied up in litig ation and the focus of bitter opposition for a decade by anti-nuclear and enviro nmental organizations . MEXICO CITY A lone gunman assassinated presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colo sio in March , according to the special prosecutor 's latest theory , which was roundly rejected by human rights activists , opposition politicians and citizens on Friday . Late Thursday , special prosecutor Miguel Montes Garcia sharply bac ked away from the government 's previously described view that a conspiracy was responsible for the death of Colosio , who was widely expected to be the next pr esident of Mexico . `` Recent investigations .. . strengthen the theory that the murder was committed by one man alone : Mario Aburto Martinez , '' Montes said in a statement . It came three days after a special commission to investigate th e assassination disbanded because the panel 's five members said they could not gain access to needed information . A Mexican congressional committee , created to investigate the crime , has made similar complaints . According to surveys , many Mexicans believe the government is covering up a high-level conspiracy to a ssassinate Colosio . In his statement , Montes denied rumors that Aburto , who h as been imprisoned while he awaits trial on charges connected with the assassina tion , is not the same suspect who was originally arrested . He also denied asse rtions that the one-inch difference in the size of the two bulletholes in Colosi o 's body indicates that the wounds were made by bullets of different calibers . Montes did not say where Aburto obtained the gun he allegedly used in the assas sination . He also did not discuss whether Aburto belonged to a political group , as relatives and friends have indicated . Nor did he mention a motive . Montes ' spokesman denied that the prosecutor 's statement signaled the end of an inve stigation that has embarrassed the government and overshadowed the presidential campaign . Even so , the latest development in the inquiry met with wide skeptic ism . ( Begin optional trim ) `` It 's a joke , '' said Sergio Aguayo , chairman of the independent Mexican Human Rights Academy in the capital . `` It is unacc eptable , a public relations game . They play with us all the time . That 's the problem with a totalitarian regime . '' Pedro Chavez , a 27-year-old news vendo r , chalked up Montes ' statement to pressure . `` The government and the people want an answer before the ( Aug. 21 presidential ) elections , '' he said . `` Still , the majority of the public says it is a conspiracy , and this will make the public more demanding than ever of a satisfactory answer . They have to get to the bottom of this . It 's not as simple as just going back to the original t heory . '' But Baja California Gov. Ernesto Ruffo Appel said the probe indeed ap peared to have returned to square one , telling reporters Friday in Tijuana : `` It seems that the information is concentrating on a scenario that existed in th e first days of the investigation . The scenario is the same one that there was two months ago . '' ( End optional trim ) Immediately after Colosio 's March 23 killing at a campaign rally in a working-class Tijuana neighborhood , police had portrayed the assassination as the act of a disturbed young man . But investiga tors shifted to a conspiracy theory after broadcasters aired a videotape that ap peared to show another man clearing a path for Aburto toward Colosio . Largely b ased on that tape and two other videotapes , three men have been imprisoned alon g with Aburto . They are awaiting trial as alleged accomplices in the killing . Citing a lack of evidence , a judge dismissed charges against a fifth man , who had recruited the accused accomplices for crowd control at the rally . `` To dat e , the investigation has not turned up new evidence that would strengthen ( the material ) used to jail Tranquilino Sanchez Venegas , Vicente Mayoral Valenzuel a ( and ) Rodolfo Mayoral Esquer , '' Montes said . Angel Terrazas , the Mayoral s ' Tijuana lawyer , said he plans now to seek his clients ' release . The charg es against them were based on a hasty prosecution and thin evidence , he said . But Jorge Mancillas , a University of California , Los Angeles , professor and h uman rights activist who is acting as an adviser to the Aburto family , accused the Mexican government of trying to put an end to the Colosio case without a tho rough investigation of the possibility of a high-level plot . ( Optional add end ) Aburto 's behavior and prior contacts with suspicious people connected to the Colosio case , his family said , make them suspect that he was part of a wide-r anging plot . His father has said that Aburto had spoken of attending mysterious political meetings in Tijuana with two of the suspects , the elder Mayoral and Sanchez , as well as two federal security agents who were investigated but not c harged . Aburto 's relatives believe that the guards and others were trying to d raw the 23-year-old factory worker into a plot in which he would be set up as a scapegoat , Mancillas said . The Aburtos remain willing to accept the special pr osector 's request that they give formal declarations about what they know to in vestigators , Mancillas said . But the elder Aburto has not acted on that reques t , said Montes spokesman Miguel Angel Sanchez de Armas . In JAPAN-TRADE ( Risen , Times ) sub for 4th-7th grafs ) ( Clarifying , adding grafs ) xxx industrial sectors . Still , it appears the administration has effec tively backed away from the notion of attempting to set specific targets for red ucing the overall U.S.-Japan trade deficit , which has become a highly visible r eminder of America 's uncertain standing in the increasingly competitive global marketplace . Administration officials and many private economists agree that th e level of U.S. exports is a more direct measure of America 's ability to elimin ate the barriers that make it difficult for U.S. companies to do business in for eign markets . That is because the trade deficit also reflects purchases of fore ign goods by Americans , and the gap can widen even if U.S. exports are rising a nd contributing to job growth in this country . The absolute size of the U.S.-Ja pan deficit `` is less important .. . than the content of the deficit , '' Kanto r said . `` You can find no correlation between the size of the trade deficit an d whether or not you 're creating or not creating employment , '' he said . `` W hat has worried us most about the closed markets in Japan , and what the framewo rk talks are aimed at , are those sectors where we have the highest potential gr owth : semiconductors , electronics , computers , super-computers , auto and aut o parts , services like insurance and financial services . '' During the 1992 el ection campaign , Clinton cited the growing deficit with Japan as evidence that the Bush administration had not moved aggressively enough to open up restricted markets . He promised to make vigorous trade policy a central element of his str ategy for economic renewal , estimating that every $ 1 billion in additional U.S . exports would create 20,000 to 30,000 new jobs in this country . Kantor , addr essing another touchy competitiveness issue , said America 's trade gap with Chi na ultimately could rival in size the troublesome deficit with Japan . Speaking just a week after Clinton announced renewal of Beijing 's most-favored-nation tr ade status , he said tough negotiations lie ahead to ensure China complies with international trade laws as it grows into a trading powerhouse . PICK UP 8th gra f : `` If we xxx . Greenspan outlined to Clinton an economic approach Woodward calls the `` financ ial markets strategy . '' Policy was to be designed to send a message to Wall St reet and ultimately , drive down interest rates . According to the theory , the economy would improve and as a result , Clinton would have more tax revenue to s pend on favored domestic programs and be re-elected in 1996 . The theory , and t he policy Clinton adopted , bore little resemblance to the economic program on w hich Clinton had campaigned . Clinton 's `` Putting People First '' campaign ban ner stressed government `` investment '' in programs that would improve the live s of middle-class Americans such as job training , early education , government promotion of cutting-edge technology . A middle-class tax cut and health care fo r all Americans were additional sweeteners . WASHINGTON Workers should not be forced to speak only English on the job unless their employer can prove such a rule is necessary for business reasons , the Ju stice Department told the U.S. Supreme Court this week . `` Depriving persons of the opportunity to use the language in which they communicate most effectively cannot be characterized as a ` de minimius ' ( minor ) injury , '' Justice Depar tment lawyers said in a brief filed on behalf of two Latino in California challe nging their employer 's English-only requirement . The court had requested the b rief before deciding whether to accept the case . The dispute over whether emplo yers can legally bar employees from speaking languages other than English on the job is seen by many lawyers and lawmakers as a symptom of concern over increase d immigration to the United States . But others see the issue revolving around i mmigrants ' ability to preserve their ethnic heritage . In the California case , the two Latinos were accused of making racist remarks in English and Spanish to three co-workers one black , one white and one Chinese at Spun Steak , a compan y that processes beef into frozen meat patties . Besides instituting a policy ba nning racial harassment and separating the two Latino employees , the company is sued a regulation requiring workers to speak only English on the job . The Latin o employees won a discrimination claim before the federal Equal Employment Oppor tunity Commission and sued when the company refused to settle . But Spun Steak ' s policy , struck down by a federal judge , was upheld by a federal appeals cour t , which said it would be illegal only if imposed on workers who spoke little o r no English . The workers appealed to the Supreme Court . The case is not an is olated one , government officials say . Jennifer Goldstein , a lawyer for the EE OC , said Friday that 120 such claims against 67 employers are pending . In urgi ng the Supreme Court to hear the case , the Justice Department said the federal court decision upholding the English-only rule was `` wrong '' and makes it too difficult for ethnic groups to challenge such rules that weren't promulgated str ictly for legitimate business reasons . ( Begin optional trim ) `` It is disappo inting to see that the Clinton administration is trying to eliminate English-in- the-workplace rules , '' said George Tryfiates , executive director of English F irst , a Virginia-based advocacy group that wants English declared the nation 's official language . Tryfiates said the administration has done `` everything in its power to divide America along language lines . '' Rep. Toby Roth , R-Wis. , has introduced a bill that would make English the official language and repeal federal funding for bilingual education . But Ed Chen , director of the American Civil Liberties Union 's Northern California office , said English-only rules ` ` send a message to would-be job applicants , that if you 're going to work here you have to leave your ethnicity at the door . '' ( End optional trim ) The EEO C issued guidelines in 1980 declaring English-only rules legal only when there w as a business reason for them . For example , Goldstein said , a hospital could require that all personnel working in an operating room speak English because it is imperative everyone understand one another instantly . `` I 'm disappointed but not surprised , '' Kenneth Bertelsen , president of Spun Steak , said of the Justice Department brief . Bertelsen said he believes the EEOC guideline is fla wed and that the 1964 civil rights act `` guarantees equal opportunity , not the right to discuss your ethnic background or heritage in the workplace . '' NEW YORK The rattlesnakes were hungry , so the cops were very , very careful . As police investigated a reported burglary , they stumbled across a veritable ra ttlesnake clearing house hidden behind the tinted windows of a storefront in Que ens early Friday . Authorities found 62 live western Diamond-back rattlesnakes i nside a Plexiglas-topped wooden box in the store , whose marquee read `` Queens health store . '' Inside a freezer police found about 40 dead snakes , twirled a round each other tightly as if they had continued coiling after being placed the re . They had not been packed in boxes or bags . Displayed on shelves were jars ranging from pint- to quart-sized , containing snake eggs packed in alcohol . Mo re dead snakes were curled in stewpots one pot contained several snakes and was still warm when police arrived , filling the storefront with a strong odor . Sma ller reptiles , about a foot long , were pickled in pint-sized vodka bottles als o displayed on shelves . `` I heard the rattling , but I thought it was steam , '' said Police Officer Robert Charlton of Emergency Services . `` Who knew the t hing would be filled with snakes . '' Bronx Zoo snake expert John Behler said th e live reptiles , ranging from 2 to 4 feet in length , appeared to be dehydrated . He said they had not been fed or washed for several days . `` They can be ver y dangerous , '' Behler said . Queens patrol Capt. Rocco Romano said the snakes were used and sold for food and , when boiled into an herb soup , as a tradition al Korean cure for various ailments . Bags of the root , ginseng , and other her bs were also found inside the store . Because it is illegal in New York state to possess live poisonous snakes , police arrested the owner of the store and two clerks , all of whom are related . Arrested were Chang Kim , 27 , Chung Kim , 27 , and Jung Kim , 45 . They were charged with felony endangerment and violations of state environmental conservation law . The trio faces fines of up to 15 days in jail and $ 250 for each violation . Fines could total $ 20,000 . Police offi cers and Bronx Zoo workers removed the snakes one at a time from the box using t ongs and hooks , placing them into yellow , steel salvage cans to be taken to th e Bronx Zoo . Behler said the zoo will try to find a home for the snakes at a zo o or a research group . It is not against the law to own dead snakes , so those remained inside the business , police said . Police also left behind the six hot plates apparently used to boil the rattlers . The business was then padlocked . `` The family said they use the snakes for their own medicinal purposes , '' sai d Romano . Snakes have long been used as a medicinal remedy in many Asian societ ies , including Korea and China . Korean herbologists often boil the reptile int o a soup that is believed to cure fatigue and improve vitality , even the sex dr ive . SAN FRANCISCO Federal agents sifted through smoking rubble Friday in a search f or clues to a massive explosion that killed three people , demolished an unoccup ied three-story building and sparked a fire in a neighborhood near Union Square . The blast , which occurred shortly before 10 p.m. PDT Thursday , shattered win dows for blocks around and hurled boulder-sized chunks of debris hundreds of yar ds . One brick shot through the window of a passing car , leaving the driver wit h severe facial injuries . Four other people also were injured , none critically . Witnesses said the mysterious explosion packed the force of a bomb and gave t he intersection of Post and Hyde streets below Nob Hill the look and feel of a w ar zone . `` The force was incredible 100 times worse than an earthquake , '' sa id Elisa Magidoff , who was standing outside a neighboring grocery store and was badly cut by flying glass . `` It came up from the ground , lifted my body and knocked me right over . Then there was screaming , smoke and chaos . '' Lisa Dem itro , a palm reader , was closing her shop for the night when the explosion ble w out her front windows , shattered her crystal ball and knocked her sideways . `` I got jolted , and suddenly the street was filled with a big orange ball of f ire , '' Demitro said . `` Then that building just disintegrated . Big pieces of it came flying down the street . '' Ten structures were damaged by the explosio n , and 11 cars were battered by falling rubble . Fractured window frames , glas s and mattress stuffing littered the pavement , and bedsheets hung from lamppost s and overhead wires . About 50 people were evacuated from neighboring apartment s ; 34 of them spent Thursday night on cots in the ballroom of the St. Francis H otel . ( Optional add end ) The explosion obliterated the 1907 apartment buildin g , leaving only a blackened hole . The structure was owned by Margarita Delpeck , who was its sole occupant and lived there only part-time . She was elsewhere at the time of the blast . By late Friday , investigators with the San Francisco Fire Department and the federal Bureau of Alcohol , Tobacco and Firearms had no t pinpointed the source of the blast . Their hunt for clues in the rubble was sl owed when the one wall left standing had to be demolished for safety reasons . S everal neighbors reported smelling gas in recent weeks , and noted that utility crews had done some work on their street just last month . But Pacific Gas & Ele ctric officials said a survey turned up no leaks or other evidence suggesting th at natural gas was to blame . The meter to the building was intact , as were pip es leading inside . And a check of the street work , concluded in early May , sh owed nothing was amiss , PG&E spokesman Paul Ward said . Speculation also center ed on the possibility that a methamphetamine lab had operated clandestinely in t he basement of the building . Neighbors , meanwhile , wondered whether there was a connection with the building owner 's long-running feud with drug dealers and prostitutes who work the neighborhood . Delpeck 's brother was assaulted after an argument with the loiterers more than a year ago , they said . NEW YORK Touched by the magic of Hollywood greats , bidders spent thousands of dollars at Christie 's auction house for the one-time personal belongings of suc h stars as Clark Gable , Orson Welles and Harriet Brown . Harriet Brown ? Better known , no doubt , as G.G. , or Greta Garbo who wanted to be alone . A collecti on of handwritten letters from Garbo to Hollywood hairstylist Sydney Guilaroff f etched $ 10,925 at the Thursday night sale . The letters were addressed to `` Da rling Gilly '' and signed , `` Love , Harry , '' a reference to Garbo 's alias , Harriet Brown . In her last letter to Guilaroff , true to her `` vant-to-be-alo ne '' legend , Garbo wrote , `` I am sorry , but for the moment I can speak to n o one . G.G. . '' Going for $ 5,750 was Gable 's monogrammed dressing gown , and bringing in $ 9,200 was a set of his golf clubs . An autographed cast photo of `` The Misfits , '' his last film and also that of Marilyn Monroe sold for $ 8,0 50 . The film was released shortly after he died . But it was a Welles item a sc ript of the 1938 radio play `` War of the Worlds '' that brought the best price in the sale . The broadcast frightened many listeners out of their wits because they believed they were hearing a live news broadcast about Martians landing in New Jersey , and the notoriety skyrocketed to fame the man who would drink no wi ne before its time . The script brought $ 32,200 . LOS ANGELES In a complex deal worth $ 2.3 billion , Times Mirror Co. is plannin g to spin off its cable television operations to form a new , publicly held comp any with Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises Inc. . The combination of the two compani es ' cable units would create the nation 's third-largest cable operator , with 3 million subscribers . Cox would acquire the cable system by assuming about $ 1 .4 billion worth of Times Mirror debt , and swapping about $ 900 million worth o f privately held Cox shares , sources said . Analysts called the deal equivalent to about 11 times the expected 1994 cash flow for Times Mirror 's cable operati ons positive for both sides . `` We think Times Mirror is getting a very good pr ice and Cox is getting a very good system , '' said John Reidy , who follows the cable industry for Smith Barney Shearson in New York . `` Times Mirror sharehol ders may well end up with ( stock in two companies ) which sell for more than to day 's one . '' Analysts said the deal could signal a new round of consolidation in the cable industry , driven by the massive technology investments required t o compete with the telecommunications industry for control over the coming era o f interactive communications . Tele-Communications Inc. , the country 's largest cable operator , and Viacom Inc. , the 13th-largest operator , are said to be c lose to an agreement to combine their cable systems in San Francisco and Seattle . Times Mirror stock closed up 4 Friday , at 36 a share on the New York Stock E xchange . The company whose holdings include the Los Angeles Times , Newsday in New York as well as magazine and book publishing interests issued a statement co nfirming an `` agreement in principle for the disposition of its cable televisio n business to Cox Enterprises , '' but declined further comment on the continuin g negotiations . The deal , first reported in USA Today on Friday , is expected to be finalized this weekend . Cox is expected to manage the company , but it wa s not immediately clear how big a stake Times Mirror shareholders would have . S ources said the Outdoor Channel , the first effort of Times Mirror 's new cable programming division , would be guaranteed a spot on the new system 's lineup . The cable programming arm will remain part of Times Mirror . Cox 's cable unit i s the nation 's sixth-largest cable company with 1.8 million subscribers , inclu ding systems in San Diego , southeastern Virginia and the New Orleans area . Tim es Mirror Cable is ranked 11th with 1.2 million cable subscribers , including sy stems in Phoenix , Ariz. , Orange County , Calif. , and suburban San Diego . The agreement also could mark the beginning of a trend in which media conglomerates move to separate information and entertainment divisions , such as those that p roduce newspapers and programming , from the delivery systems , at a time when e ach is taking on new roles . `` This is the inverse of the Time Warner merger , '' said Jonathan Seybold , a Malibu , Calif.-based new media analyst , referring to the largest media merger in history , in which movie , record and TV product ion was merged with cable and magazine operations . Time Warner is the nation 's second-largest cable operator . But in an age in which information , entertainm ent and advertising can be easily converted to digital formats and sent over del ivery mechanisms ranging from the global computer web known as the Internet to w ireless personal communications devices , some argue that it may make more sense for producers of such content to operate unfettered by the interests of any par ticular transmission system , and vice-versa . ( Optional add end ) Times Mirror has been exploring delivery of its magazine and newspaper content via CD-ROM an d the Prodigy on-line service , which could be viewed as competitive with cable delivery . Under the Cox-Times Mirror deal , Cox 's cable systems would also app arently be spun off into the new entity . `` In the end a content company should be in the position of delivering its content over any and all delivery mechanis ms , and a company that operates the pipelines and the servers should be offerin g the broadest possible content over its services , '' Seybold added . The ongoi ng consolidation of the cable industry was interrupted over the last year as cab le and phone companies flirted with the idea of joining forces across industries to pay for the costly roll-out of the `` information superhighway . '' But two such planned alliances Bell Atlantic 's with Tele-Communications Inc. and Cox 's with Southwestern Bell collapsed this year when the Federal Communications Comm ission slapped stiffer rate regulations on the cable industry and company stocks slipped precipitously . Now that the Baby Bells appear to have decided to go it on their own , analysts say , consolidating resources within the cable industry is even more crucial . And with FCC Chairman Reed Hundt signaling at the nation al cable conference last month that the worst of his agency 's actions were over , the regulatory environment appears more receptive to mergers of this kind . ` ` Over the next several years the cable business is going to get more competitiv e , require bigger investments in technology , and become much more difficult to manage , '' said Melissa Cook , an analyst at Prudential Securities in New York . `` Only the biggest companies have a chance of surviving . '' In paying a hea lthy premium for Times Mirror 's cable systems , Cox appears to be giving a vote of confidence to the industry , which has been rocked by rate rollbacks , climb ing interest rates and the perception that the phone companies have the upper ha nd in the digital highway race . Times Mirror 's cable unit accounted for 28 per cent of the company 's pretax profit year ( after accounting for one-time charge s ) , and 13 percent of its revenue . Earnings for the cable division came to $ 106.5 million . MIAMI In the first successful criminal prosecution of new federal oil pollution laws enacted after the Exxon Valdez spill , the owners of a cruise ship Friday pleaded guilty to dumping bilge oil into the Atlantic Ocean . The Viking Princes s , a Panamanian flag passenger ship , was returning to Palm Beach when it was e nsnared in an unprecedented high-tech sting operation carried out by Coast Guard planes and cutters in February 1993 . The sting operation , part of a get-tough policy by the Coast Guard to catch oil dumpers , will continue again this month along the coast from Florida to North Carolina . In the case of the Viking Prin cess , a Coast Guard Falcon jet , outfitted with side-viewing radar system calle d AIREYE , spotted an oily slime trail snaking some two miles behind the cruise ship as it sailed home after a day lolling in international waters , where it is legal for its passengers to gamble . Coast Guard cutters , with Environmental P rotection Agency and FBI agents aboard , took samples of the oily water , as jet s overhead videotaped the sheen around the vessel . Friday in federal court here , Asbjoern Junger , executive vice president of the Viking Princess 's owner , Palm Beach Cruises , S.A , pleaded guilty to two felony counts of violating the Oil Pollution Prevention , Response , Liability and Compensation Act of 1990 , w hich was written to include criminal penalties after the Exxon Valdez spill off Alaska in 1989 . Under a plea agreement reached with federal prosecutors , the c ompany said it would pay $ 500,000 over the next five years . The maximum fine i s $ 1 million . Coast Guard officials have complained in the past that they ofte n see evidence of oil dumping , but that the cases are difficult to prosecute . The new oil pollution act makes it easier and the penalties greater . `` We thin k of this as a foghorn to the industry to stop polluting , '' said Lois Schiffer , assistant attorney general for the environmental crimes division of the Justi ce Department , which has been criticized in the past for not vigorously prosecu ting environmental scofflaws . Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Jim Howe said that over the years his service routinely spots ships that appear to be dumping oil out of th eir bilges . Indeed , until recently it was common practice for vessels to pump out the oily water that collects in areas beneath their engines . While the indi vidual bilge releases are not considered sizable , as oil spills go , their cumu lative effects are large . Moreover , they are intentional . Until the new law w as passed , it was difficult to prosecute dumpers who were more than three miles offshore . Many times , the Coast Guard simply had to inform the ship 's flag c ountry ( most often Liberia or Panama ) that one of the vessels was suspected of dumping . The new law makes it easier to prosecute cases involving dumping out to 12 miles , and in some cases as far as 200 miles . Advanced clean-up technolo gy , which makes it possible to separate oil from water aboard the ships , also has made it less necessary to dump oily water out of bilges . Dumping by the Vik ing Princess was a rather egregious example , Howe said . A sheen more than two miles long followed the boat , and when the ship turned , the oil followed it . Friday in federal court , U.S. . District Judge Stanley Marcus warned the cruise ship 's owners that he may not accept the plea agreement , and instead may sent ence the dumpers to the maximum fine . Sentencing is set for October . WASHINGTON The Justice Department is investigating allegations that Air Force O ne , the president 's jet , and almost 7,000 other government and military plane s may be equipped with faulty engines that could fail in mid-flight . The allega tion that the General Electric Co. engines are unusually prone to flame-out or s tall-out in flight is in a lawsuit brought against the company by Ian Johnson , a British citizen employed as an electrical engineer at GE 's aircraft engine di vision in Evendale , Ohio . However , Justice and other federal officials emphas ized that their investigations should not be taken as proof of a defect . To dat e , according to federal and GE officials , there have been no known incidences of aircraft failure due to the alleged defect , federal officials said . The Air Force , which operates Air Force One , is taking all necessary steps to ensure the safety of President Clinton and his staff aboard the jet , said White House spokeswoman Ginny Terzano . `` The Air Force is fully confident that Air Force O ne is completely safe to fly , '' she said . Johnson 's petition , filed in Dece mber in U.S. . District Court in Cincinnati and unsealed Thursday , contends tha t GE was aware of test results showing that the engines were susceptible to elec tromagnetic interference and , thus , could malfunction in a way that could lead to engine fires or sudden losses of power . The Federal Aviation Administration , Defense Department and the FBI are examining Johnson 's charges , the White H ouse confirmed yesterday . The investigation was first reported by the Cleveland Plain-Dealer . GE , in a pointed rebuttal , called the charges `` frivolous and outrageous , '' and said they have `` no basis in fact . '' `` GE engines have the world 's best safety and reliability record . . . meet or exceed all safety requirements-and have safely powered hundreds of thousands of military and comme rcial flights over the past two decades , '' the company said . `` Despite its h yped rhetoric , the complaint itself does not cite even one instance of an in-se rvice aircraft engine failure due to '' the alleged product defects , the compan y said in a prepared statement . TASHKENT , Uzbekistan Uzbek authorities arrested two key opposition figures thi s week before they were to meet with Sen. Arlen Specter , R-Pa. , who said the e x-Soviet republic 's `` deliberate pattern '' of repression could threaten relat ions with Washington . Specter said he was `` absolutely not '' satisfied with a n official response by President Islam Karimov about the detention of the two wo men . He quoted Karimov as asserting during a 75-minute meeting , `` These two w omen are not so important to take up our time . '' Karimov 's government , widel y regarded as the former Soviet Union 's worst human rights offender , routinely has detained perceived opponents and also has kidnapped them from abroad . Thug s have beaten dissidents severely , leaving them hospitalized for weeks . Most o f the president 's leading critics have fled the republic . One of the women Spe cter was to meet Thursday , Vasilya Inoyatova , is a leader of Birlik , believed to be the leading opposition group . She was tried last year for allegedly insu lting Karimov in a poem , and this was at least her second arrest this year . Th e other was Diloram Iskhakova , a spokeswoman for a smaller party , called Will , which also has been banned . Specter said that he was scheduled to meet the wo men for breakfast at the home of U.S. . Ambassador Henry Clarke but that drivers sent for them returned without passengers . A third , little-known opposition f igure , Ibrahim Buriyev , reached the meeting . In a letter to Karimov , release d to reporters by the U.S. . Embassy , Specter said : `` I protest this interfer ence with the rights of Uzbekistan citizens to meet with me and my rights to mee t with them. . . . The denial of normal contacts between individuals of our two countries creates a serious obstacle to closer relations . '' In a news conferen ce , Specter noted that the Uzbek government also had detained opposition figure s who were to meet Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and Carter-era natio nal security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski in separate visits late last year . `` It is a deliberate pattern , '' Specter said , `` and it is the pattern that is of great importance . '' Central Asia has attracted Western interest over its la rge deposits of oil , natural gas , gold , chrome and uranium . But it is the mo st politically and economically conservative region of the former Soviet Union , with all five republics retaining some form of Soviet-style authoritarianism . Elections and referendums are routinely decided by 99 percent majorities , and g enuine opposition parties operate freely only in tiny Kyrgyzstan . Uzbekistan , however , has come under the greatest Western criticism after a series of show t rials and severe beatings of political critics . No opposition newspapers operat e , and Karimov has banned most Moscow-based publications , including Izvestia a nd Nezavisimaya Gazeta , which have published scathing reports on his government . Still , Karimov has retained wide popular support at home , largely by pointi ng in televised speeches to problems in Moscow and arguing that too much politic al and economic liberalization can lead to chaos and social upheaval . At the sa me time , Karimov has remained almost impervious to Western criticism , dismissi ng it as interference . Some analysts say they believe he is aiming toward a sem blance of Chinese-style economic reform while maintaining tight political contro l . He has the usual trappings you might expect of a wealthy Saudi prince a 130-roo m palace in Riyadh , a Bedouin bodyguard , his own Boeing 727 and one of the wor ld 's most luxurious yachts to navigate the waters of the French Riviera . But P rince Waleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud is gaining a reputation as more tha n a flamboyant royal . The 37-year-old , American-educated prince also is the sa vvy investor who last week agreed to acquire a $ 400 million to $ 500 million st ake in the struggling French theme park Euro Disney . If the prince 's former in vestments are any guide , Euro Disney may be poised for a rebound . In 1991 , bo ught an $ 800 million stake in the then-staggering financial giant , Citicorp . Though it was considered a risky venture at the time , the prince 's $ 600 milli on investment in preferred stock is now worth about $ 2 billion , and some inves tment analysts describe it as one of the most profitable deals of the decade . T he prince , who is a grandson of the founder of Saudi Arabia and a nephew of Kin g Fahd , also owns a 10 percent interest in the Saks Fifth Avenue department sto re chain and is working on a deal to take control of Air France 's four-star lux ury hotel chain , Meridien . `` He is a brilliant financial analyst , '' said St ephen L. Norris , a partner in the Washington-based Carlyle Group who advised th e prince on both the Citicorp and Euro Disney deals . But others say he is far m ore than a clever investor . `` He is a rising star in the Middle East , '' said a Washington lawyer who knows Waleed . He noted that the image of Middle Easter n business executives has been tarnished in recent years by names such as Adnan Khashoggi and Ghaith Pharaon , and that Waleed is a welcome standout among both royals and the Saudi commercial elite . `` His name is magic here because of his business acumen , '' said Vernon A . Cassin Jr. , a corporate attorney with Jon es , Day , Reavis & Pogue in Riyadh who has had dealings with the prince . `` Bu t he is also making investments that are strategic , not just opportunistic. . . . He 's a great advertisement for what a responsible young royal family member should be doing building bridges with business leaders in other countries . '' T he prince is Western in much of his education and thinking . After graduating wi th honors from Menlo Park College in California in a little over two years , he received a master 's degree from Syracuse University . He speaks Arabic , Englis h and French fluently and , like some other westernized Saudis , he has only one wife , though his Muslim religion allows him four . He indulges in the occasion al flamboyant gesture . At a birthday party several years ago for his son , Khal id , for example , the entertainment was provided by the American rapper , Hamme r , in the ballroom of the Georges V Hotel in Paris . Yet for a prince , he live s relatively unostentatiously , according to lawyers , preferring to spend his w eekends in the desert when he is home in Saudi Arabia . Unlike some internationa l investors who rely solely on a team of advisers and bankers to do their deals , the prince is a hands-on investor who frequently flies to New York to talk wit h Citicorp management and who is intimately involved in the details of his busin esses and investments . His mornings are spent in the chairman 's office of the United Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia , a once-troubled bank he purchased in 19 88 . It is one of the Middle East 's most profitable financial institutions , ac cording to analysts . After his midday prayer break , the prince spends the rest of the day in the office of Kingdom Establishment for Trading and Contracting , his diversified holding company that includes interests in real estate , constr uction , communications , travel and supermarkets in Saudi Arabia . `` I don't k now when he sleeps , '' said Norris . `` He often calls me at two or three in th e morning Riyadh time . He frequently stays at his office until the markets clos e in the U.S.-which is midnight Riyadh time . '' When the details of the Citicor p investment were being worked out , Waleed did not think it would be appropriat e for him , as a member of the royal family , to leave his country while it was under attack in the Persian Gulf War , according to Norris . So Waleed spent hou rs on the telephone with Norris , working on the details . In the Euro Disney de al , he waited and watched for many months before making his investment , accord ing to sources . His cash infusion , which includes a pledge to build a conventi on center that would draw more tourists and business people during the park 's o ff-season , may mean a turnaround for the company , analysts said . `` It 's cer tainly a good investment . But it will take quite a few years to find out if it 's truly a great investment , '' said Alan Snyder of Snyder Capital Management , who follows Disney . But the real question may be whether the Disney perks will top those of Citicorp . Through the bank the prince was able to purchase his ya cht , the former Trump Princess , when Donald Trump was having financial difficu lties . Rechristened `` Kingdom '' by the prince , the yacht features a helipad , an operating room and a movie studio . Maybe Disney will provide him with a ma gic carpet . TBILISI , Georgia Georgia , which has just begun to find a measure of peace aft er more than two years of civil war , is now grappling with one of the most seve re economic crises in the former Soviet Union . Much of the country is without h ot water , heat or , very often , electricity . The new currency , the Georgian coupon , is devaluating so quickly that a can of Coca-Cola costs nearly 1 millio n of them . The average wage is about 50 cents a month , with the government for ced to provide bread rations . The country 's production slump is so severe that Russia 's more gradual collapse seems like a boom in comparison . Refugees , di splaced by the fighting , clog rooms and corridors in Tbilisi hotels . Georgia ' s leader , former Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze , does not even tr y to take an optimistic tone . `` Economically , we are one of the worst , '' a glum Shevardnadze said during a recent interview in his office . The sudden coll apse of the Soviet Union and its massive , Kremlin-controlled economy 2 years ag o left the country 's 15 republics in desperate economic shape . Some , such as Latvia , Lithuania and Estonia , have begun , painfully , to inch toward recover y . Many , including Russia , are fitfully trying to put the building blocks of a new economic order in place , with mixed success . But in Georgia and several other southern republics that have been ravaged by war since the Soviet Union 's collapse , no signs of turnaround have emerged . The situation has so deteriora ted that many Georgians find cause for optimism simply in the fact that the diso rder has not seriously worsened . `` We have a stable , catastrophic situation , '' said George Nodia , chairman of the Caucasian Institute for Peace , Democrac y and Development . Indeed , with the grimmest winter of recent history behind t hem and the civil and separatist wars over for now , the country seems at least calmer than it has for many months . Paramilitary groups , which terrified the c apital city by wandering its tree-lined streets in camouflage gear with automati c weapons slung over their shoulders , have given way to armed policemen . Renov ations of the main government building wrecked in the internecine battles is und erway . With warmer weather , food has returned to the farmers ' markets and sto res , although not with the abundance and variety for which Georgia was once kno wn . But in most other ways , the future of this nation of 5.4 million people , which used to be known as the most lively and successful in the Soviet Union , l ooks bleak . A recent report by Nodia 's institute noted that Georgia 's gross n ational product fell in 1993 to its 1960s level . The annual inflation rate , me anwhile , was about 9,000 percent . Real estate values have fallen because so ma ny people have fled the country for Russia , the United States , Turkey or any o ther place else that will take them . There is virtually no prospect of new fore ign investment . Many factories , farms and shops are shuttered because of the e nergy crisis , and some estimates suggest that fully half of Georgia 's working population is unemployed or on permanent leave earning a mere 50 cents a month . `` For most people it almost doesn't matter if they get their salary or not , s ince it 's so small , '' said Nodia . Most people eke out a living by finding so mething to sell or getting support from friends or family members outside Georgi a . At the Tbilisi farmers ' market , crowded with refugees selling bits of food and clothing or just begging , an old woman grimaced and waved her hand in disg ust when asked whether she thought things would get any better . `` We don't liv e here , '' she said . `` We just survive . '' Nearby an old woman shoeless , he r hands wrapped in bandages and her face drained of color lay motionless on the ground , barely breathing , as people hurried by . The silver-haired Shevardnadz e , who returned to his homeland two years ago to `` save '' it from the post-co mmunist chaos , has had his reputation severely tarnished by the collapse . His government , although not Shevardnadze personally , is considered thoroughly cor rupt by many Georgians . It has yet to come up with any comprehensive plan for r evitalizing the country . Many blame him for losing the war with Russian-backed Abkhazian rebels , who bested Georgian government irregulars in a long , bloody battle and now control their native Black Sea region . Nationalists lambaste him for striking a `` devil 's deal '' with Russia , which will allow Russian troop s to remain based in Georgia in exchange for Russia 's help in settling the Abkh azia problem and , possibly , in setting up a new Georgian army . A few also cri ticize him for agreeing to join the Commonwealth of Independent States , the wea k organization of former Soviet republics that many Georgians believe Russia wil l use to reassert its empire . Georgia had refused to join the commonwealth unti l this spring . `` This is treachery against Georgia , capitulation , '' said Ge orgian nationalist leader Nodar Natadze , who asserted that most of Georgia 's c urrent troubles were instigated by Russia specifically to `` force us to kneel . Now we can see what the ambitions of the Russian empire in the Soviet Union are . '' Shevardnadze said that Russia , Georgia 's huge neighbor to the north , re mains key to his country 's stability and revival . Economic and political ties , severed by the country 's anti-Russian nationalist leader in 1991 , had to be restored for that reason . `` Those who wish to gain cheap popularity might say I 'm too pro-Russia . But what I am in reality is a realist , '' Shevardnadze sa id . `` Russia has its interest in the Transcaucasus , but Georgia has its own i nterests in Russia as well . We willn't be able to overcome the crisis unless we revive and reestablish relations . '' But Shevardnadze did not seem too optimis tic about the future . `` Very many people really are starving , '' he said , as he sat in his office in the deserted , darkened government building . `` Maybe in two or three years ' time we 'll see the revival of the economy . The main th ing now is that Georgia must be saved , and by whose hand is not that important . '' BEIJING The young man came up beside me in the bike lane on the west side of Ti ananmen Square Friday and silently glided until he matched my slow cadence of pe daling . `` Today is a kind of special day , isn't it , '' he murmured , steadfa stly gazing straight ahead . `` Of course , '' I said noncommittally , not knowi ng if he was partners with the public security agent who had been cycling about 75 yards behind me almost since I left my apartment about a half hour earlier . Friday , of course , was the onset of the fifth anniversary of the two-day perio d in which the Chinese army killed hundreds of unarmed protesters near this squa re in the center of Beijing . Nothing much of note went on here Friday , except an impressive display of the Chinese Communist Party 's fear of it own people . As a result of the Tiananmen anniversary , the government security apparatus has been locking down China 's capital for weeks now . And by Friday , all the scre ws seemed to be firmly in place . Nevertheless , it was a bright , sunny day , a good day for a bike ride to a place and a symbol that has been never far from t he heart of the story that I 've been covering for most of the last five years . `` You 'd better be careful , '' I told my new cycling companion , motioning be hind me with my thumb . `` Public security . '' `` Just ride , '' he said , neve r looking my way . And so we pedaled on in parallel , I and this man in his late 20s whose true purpose I could not guess and likely would never entirely fathom an apt metaphor for much of what the foreign new media encounter here . We roll ed past the public-security and armed-police vans and buses parked every 40 to 5 0 feet on the sidewalk between the Great Hall of the People and the massive squa re . Past the clumps of plainclothes agents , many of whom apparently were issue d the same straw sun hats . And past the Monument to the People 's Heroes , the obelisk erected in memory of those who died for the Communist revolution and the site where five years ago Thursday the last Tiananmen protesters courageously h ung on . `` Many people have forgotten , '' my fellow cyclist said as we hit the south end of the square and sliced through the edge of Qianmen , a busy shoppin g district enlivened by the consumption boom that has swallowed Beijing and othe r Chinese cities in recent years . My tail the agent riding behind us was still there . But Qianmen 's commotion seemed to temporarily mute his presence . `` Th e government would like to pretend it never happened , '' the young man said . ` ` But it willn't let us . '' We slowly turned north to cycle along the east side of the square . In the weeks after the crackdown on the Tiananmen protests in 1 989 and again on its first anniversary in 1990 , foreign reporters coming around here could easily end up with assault rifles pointed at the tips of their noses . It wasn't fun . Two years ago , a colleague working for a U.S. TV network was so badly beaten up on the square that he still is disabled by the neurological damage . Authorities have never recognized the incident . No guns were openly ev ident Friday . In recent years , Chinese security `` apparatchiks '' seemed to h ave gained a degree of experience in handling these matters in less heavy-handed ways . But their para-military presence was as unsubtle as ever . Within a base ball 's throw of the People 's Heroes monument , more than half the would-be tou rists lingering around appeared to be agents . Many were readily identifiable fr om their not-so-concealed beepers , portable phones , briefcase cameras or binoc ulars . ( Begin optional trim ) The overkill was consistent with the last couple of weeks here in which the government faced with relatively little challenge fr om the few dissidents still in the open has acted as though it was under siege . This has been so much the case that it 's prompted some foreign reporters and d iplomats to muse that the government must know something that the entire China-w atching corps is missing . Or it could just be a kind of dress rehearsal for how the regime will handle the death of Deng Xiaoping , China 's elderly and ailing paramount leader . Aside from aggressively harassing dissidents , following for eign reporters and tapping phone lines all of which have become standard practic es this time each year security agents have been noticeably more quick this spri ng to react to any ripple that might infringe on their sense of control . Gather ings primarily of foreigners parties , charity bazaars , film viewings have been canceled by authorities . The usual excuse has been an electrical power failure , a problem that typically arises at the last minute and lasts only as long as the scheduled event . Beijing hotels Thursday were ordered by police to turn off their satellite TV broadcasts of the U.S.-based Cable News Network . In the cit y 's foreign-apartment compounds , CNN was still was available , but the broadca sts were blacked out whenever a news item about China came on . ( End optional t rim ) `` What do they have to fear ? '' the young cyclist asked as we reached th e north end of the square and turned into the much larger swarms of riders flowi ng down the Avenue of Everlasting Peace , the broad boulevard that bisects Beiji ng from east to west . `` They have all the power , '' he said in answer to his own question . I thought a moment , was about to say something and found he wasn 't at my side any longer or anywhere within the mass of bikes now around me . In this crowded Beijing street , I suddenly was alone again except for the thug on the bike still behind me . PORT-AU-PRINCE , Haiti The generals still give the orders and their gunmen stil l rule the streets . But as diplomats and Haitians look to scenarios for the fut ure , the vision isn't pretty especially , they say , if the United States succe eds in restoring President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power . Almost every Haitia n expert and most foreign sources interviewed over a week 's time agreed that , as one leading businessman put it , `` there is no other option to the ( U.S. ) military option '' to put Aristide back in office more than 32 months after he w as driven into exile by the Haitian army . This conviction has been strengthened by Aristide 's statements last week giving qualified approval to a limited U.S. military strike to remove Haiti 's ruling army officers . With the prospect tha t the deposed leader might somehow be back , sources all of whom opposed the Sep tember , 1991 , coup and have worked to end military rule are showing signs of g reat caution , if not outright fear , of an Aristide government . This concern i s based on what they say have been shortsighted U.S. policies and the uncompromi sing opposition by the ousted president to broadening his government to include differing political and economic views from his populist and partisan approach . `` It 's the same old thing , '' said a Haitian diplomatic expert who said he v oted for Aristide and wants him restored `` as a matter of democratic principle . '' `` Aristide and his advisers in Washington ( where the ousted president liv es ) think they can rule alone , that anyone who opposes a policy is an enemy , '' he said . His view , shared by many of those interviewed , is rooted in what is seen as duplicitous Aristide actions over the last year , particularly in ins isting that he has accepted the need for a broader government . He did this , a political analyst said , `` only under American pressure and to keep American su pport . Now that it seems certain that he will come back , he 's the same old Ar istide . '' The expert 's main example is Aristide 's failure to nominate a new prime minister to replace Robert Malval , the moderate who resigned over Aristid e 's refusal to accept a broadened government . `` If Aristide had learned anyth ing or was sincere in seeking reconciliation , he would certainly have named a p rime minister acceptable to more people , '' he said . `` I know his advisers ar e telling him there 's no need now , that he will come back and do whatever he w ants . '' ( Begin optional trim ) This source , contacted after word of Aristide 's acceptance of possible U.S. military action here , said even the limited end orsement was a sign of Aristide 's ambiguous attitude . `` You note he called fo r a surgical strike , for the American forces to come in and get out and only to remove the military , '' the analyst said . Aristide `` said nothing about the structural changes we need and can only be accomplished if there is stability im posed from the outside . '' `` You know what is going to happen ? '' he asked . `` Right after he gets back and Cedras , Biamby and Francois are forced out , Ar istide is going to condemn ` American intervention ' and demand the U.S. forces leave . '' The source was referring to Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras , the military coup leader ; army chief of staff Gen. Philippe Biamby ; and Police Commander Michel -Joseph Francois . The three are seen as architects of the coup and the brutal p olicies that have followed . ( End optional trim ) Other concerns , which appear to reflect class and economic distinctions as well as differing political views , are based on a belief that in the seven months of Aristide 's government , he was violently anti-business and instigated the nation 's poor the overwhelming majority here against Haiti 's middle and upper classes . `` There was less huma n rights abuse ( under Aristide ) than at any time in Haitian history , '' said a onetime Aristide associate . `` Economic measures were improving . The problem was his lack of a political vision , his lack of understanding of the political process and his inability to realize he was a politician and needed more than a vision from God to govern . '' Now , the source said , `` Aristide believes tha t his only problem the ( Haitian ) military will be removed . He doesn't underst and that Haiti 's problems are far deeper than a corrupt and abusive army . '' O thers said that misunderstanding goes beyond Aristide to include the Clinton adm inistration , which , one source said , `` is now driven entirely by domestic po litical concerns and seems based on the idea that if the military is driven out , the United States can forget Haiti . '' Of possible U.S. military action , a p olitical expert , once favored to be a senior Aristide Cabinet official , observ ed : `` It is all well and good . But the Americans are totally crazy if they do n't look at the day after '' the U.S. troops arrive . Under the best of circumst ances , Aristide 's return will present huge challenges not only to him but to l ong-range U.S. interests here the creation of a stable economic and political cl imate to finally remove the threat of massive Haitian migration to the United St ates . While Aristide is still judged to hold the support of most of the 70 perc ent who made him Haiti 's first democratically elected president , his enemies w ill remain powerful and determined to protect their economic and social advantag es . He has no political party and what little support he had in the Parliament is dissipated , one diplomat said , pointing out that `` Aristide is a lame duck with little more than a year and a half before he 's out of office . '' `` So f igure it out , '' the source said . Aristide is `` returning on the backs of Ame rican troops ; that weakens him among nationalists . He has virtually lost the t rust of the middle and progressive upper classes and the business sector , even the ones who opposed the coup . You know the Americans dislike him and just want to get rid of him and Haiti . And there is the brutal opposition he will face f rom all aspects of the politicians here . It will be a mess . '' ( Optional add end ) But that is not necessarily true , a former Aristide associate said , noti ng : `` Look , first of all , Aristide will have to use some of the very people you have interviewed , if for no other reason that he needs technically aware pe ople to run the central bank , to administer aid to just run the government . An d the lame duck argument can be turned around . He 's only in office for 18 more months or so . He willn't have time to do any real harm , and all those politic ians who will be staking out the future for themselves certainly willn't let him . '' Another source , though , who seemed to voice the prevailing mood , said t hat `` if nothing is done beyond disbanding the military and there are no seriou s efforts to dismantle the old institutions , then Haiti will remain the same . In 10 years we 'll still be the mess we are . '' JERUSALEM For six weeks , Israeli women have not been able , except in a few em ergencies , to get the official approval required for abortions . Cases of suspe cted child abuse have gone largely uninvestigated . Judges have been unable to d ecide child custody in divorces . And the elderly have not been able to get home health care . Israel 's extensive social safety net , in short , has all but di sappeared with a strike by the country 's 9,500 social workers and the governmen t 's refusal to pay the cost of restoring their services a virtual doubling of t heir poverty-line salaries . `` Our job is to help people at the most difficult times of their lives , and we are not there , '' said Nehama Feder , deputy dire ctor of social services at a Jerusalem hospital . `` For society , the line of d efense that protects abused children and battered wives , that rehabilitates dru g addicts , that comforts the victims of terrorism is gone . '' ( Begin optional trim ) For those directly affected , the strike in its 45th day as negotiators on both sides press for a settlement this weekend has added greatly to their pri vate traumas : A woman , 43 , discovered in her 20th week of pregnancy that she was carrying a baby with Down 's syndrome and applied for an abortion . But no s ocial worker was available for the panel that , under Israeli law , had to appro ve the operation and had to have a social worker as a member . A 12-year-old gir l telephoned her caseworker to complain that her father was sexually abusing her again , but all the social worker could do was call the girl 's school counselo r . Normally , the social worker would interview the girl , bring in the police and obtain court orders to protect her . An elderly widower , recovering from a heart attack , has been kept in a Tel Aviv hospital for an additional month , no t permitted by physicians to return home until he can have regular care there . The social workers who must authorize home care , and would do so routinely , ar e on strike . Taken cumulatively , the social workers ' caseload could prove tra gic if left unattended much longer . ( End optional trim ) Social workers regula rly check on the well-being of about 1,600 children who have suffered abuse in t heir homes or who have been abandoned by their families . By law , only social w orkers can interview children in cases of domestic violence and sexual abuse . S ocial workers must make recommendations on all adoptions and child custody cases . Ora Namir , minister of labor and social affairs and a social worker by profe ssion , ordered 70 strikers back to work to deal with urgent cases , and the Cab inet has authorized her to bring 710 more back under emergency regulations . `` I can't wait any longer and take responsibility for the damage being done to the needy , '' Namir said . The strikers ' grievance is low pay . A starting social worker is paid $ 623 a month after a welfare supplement of more than $ 200 to b ring the salary above Israel 's minimum wage of $ 500 a month . After 17 years , a social worker gets $ 900 a month . Israeli professionals with similar trainin g in psychology or sociology earn about $ 335 more a month at most levels than d o social workers . ( Optional add end ) Social workers fell behind in wages beca use of poor union leadership and the fact that 87 percent of social workers are women , whose salaries are regarded as supplemental family income . The social w orkers , who have been without a contract for 17 months , initially demanded an across-the-board pay increase of $ 965 , more than doubling most salaries . The current demand is for an additional $ 635 a month , effective immediately . The government is offering a raise of $ 535 , but spread over nearly four years . `` The law has given us tremendous responsibility for individuals and for society , '' said Esther Sapira , chief of a social work team in Jerusalem . `` To do th at , we must be paid decently . '' BUJUMBURA , Burundi All but forgotten by the world , this nation hangs in nerve -racking suspension , balanced between forces that dare pray for conciliation an d those who would turn this troubled land into another Rwanda . The slightest mi sstep could tip the balance . And after a year in which Burundi witnessed its fi rst free elections , the murder of two of its presidents and a massacre that cla imed as many as 100,000 lives , the specter of uncontrolled slaughter in a neigh boring land is very real , very chilling . `` Rwanda is terrifying and terrible , '' said Venerand Bakevyumusaya , Burundi 's minister of labor . `` One would t hink it would have taught us to avoid that kind of madness , but there is a very real danger that what happened there could happen here . The calm you see here now is not a reassuring calm . '' In colonial times , the two countries were gov erned first by Germany , then Belgium , as part of a single territory known as R wanda-Urundi . As in Rwanda , the Tutsis here are a minority , making up 15 perc ent of Burundi 's 6 million people . But unlike in Rwanda , the Tutsis still con trol the army , and that , people here say , is what has spared them from genoci de . The deep mistrust between the Tutsis and Hutus in Burundi , combined with f ears that chaos in Rwanda could inflame extremists on both sides here , has fill ed this ramshackle capital with anxiety and a well-founded xenophobia . The coun tdown is under way , but no one knows if it is toward war or peace . Sadly , onl y last June , Burundi was being hailed as a model of democratic reform in Africa . Its president , Col. Pierre Buyoya , a Tutsi , was soundly defeated by the ci vilian Hutu candidate , Melchior Ndadaye , in the country 's first free election s . And , much to everyone 's surprise , Buyoya agreed to honor the results . Nd adaye pledged a new era in human rights . Four months later , in October , Ndada ye was spirited away one night to an army camp where he was beaten , stabbed and strangled . The vice president and several other senior government officials al so were killed . In a response that drew little attention in the world , Hutu mo bs throughout the countryside hunted down and killed as many as 100,000 Tutsis . The Hutus called the massacre a preemptive strike . Five days after the assassi nation , Foreign Minister Sylvestre Ntibantunganya , a Hutu and the de facto hea d of government , summoned Bujumbura 's tiny diplomatic corps , which includes N orth Korea and Russia as a holdover from Cold War days . The diplomats pleaded w ith Ntibantunganya whose wife had been killed in the blood-letting and who himse lf had barely managed to escape with his life to denounce the killings and to ac t to end the bloodshed . `` Ntibantunganya was unmoved , '' said an envoy at the meeting . He told the diplomats that they were asking for something he could no t do . The assassination apparently convinced Hutu extremists that even though t hey had won political power via elections including 80 percent of the seats in P arliament and 60 percent of the Cabinet posts real power would not be theirs unt il they controlled the guns . In clandestine fashion , they began arming civilia ns with South African weapons slipped into the country from Rwanda via Zaire . T he shipments gave rise to a rebel army , created , ironically enough , by a gove rnment wanting to protect itself from its own institutions . Hundreds of Tutsis took to the streets in Bujumbura on April 6 to dance and march in celebration wh en the Hutu presidents of Burundi and Rwanda Cyprian Ntaryamira and Juvenal Haby arimana , respectively were killed in Kigali . The crash of their plane , which had been hit by a rocket , unleashed an orgy of massacres in Rwanda . To date , aid workers estimate the blood-letting has claimed 200,000 to 500,000 lives . ( Optional add end ) In Bujumbura , Ntibantunganya , apparently having learned som e lessons from the October massacres , went on national television within hours of the crash . Flanked by the minister of defense and army chief of staff , he u rged his countrymen to stay calm . Their presence signaled that the army and the government had reached some sort of understanding . Ntibantunganya also gave hi s approval for the army to disarm the recently equipped civilian militia . But a cordon operation in Kamenge and other Hutu neighborhoods turned up relatively f ew weapons . Western diplomats said most of the leaders of the makeshift rebel a rmy appeared to have slipped away into the mountains or into Zaire . TBILISI , Georgia Eduard A . Shevardnadze , who helped keep the world from expl oding as he negotiated the end of the Cold War , somehow has been unable to do t he same in his own small , forgotten homeland . Shevardnadze , the last Soviet f oreign minister , the diplomat who was the toast of the world as he oversaw the dismantling of the Berlin Wall and the growth of the Soviet Union 's friendship with the United States , now spends his days surrounded by bodyguards , increasi ngly disregarded and even reviled as Georgia destroys itself . Shevardnadze retu rned to his newly independent nation in March 1992 to rescue it from civil war . He was quickly elected chairman of the Parliament by a grateful citizenry who s aw him as a savior . Now , instead of leading a hero 's life , he is suffering t he bitter harvest of the new world order he helped create . `` The demise of the empire was unmanageable , '' he said in a late-evening interview . `` I favored the idea of a transition period , but somehow the coup in August 1991 hastened this process and it all happened in an unmanageable way . `` Then the Georgian g overnment took a wrong turn , which led the country to isolation and confrontati on . Now we are bearing the fruit of that confrontation . '' Georgia began to fa ll apart when the terrifying power that had silenced ethnic desires and rivalrie s for so many years lost its grip . Its first leader after independence , Zviad Gamsakhurdia , was ousted in a coup in January 1992 after behaving erratically . He fled the country , but he returned to launch an offensive against the govern ment last fall . At the same time , separatists from the Abkhazia region along t he Black Sea took up arms in earnest . Shevardnadze flew to the regional capital of Sukhumi to rally his troops and vowed to defend the city to the end . But hi s troops were routed , and he barely escaped with his life . About 250,000 Georg ians were driven out of their homes by the minority Abkhaz ethnic group , and ma ny now are living a bleak existence in Tbilisi hotels . Another ethnic battle is being waged in South Ossetia . Between the two regions , Georgia has lost contr ol over about one-fifth of its territory . `` Georgia is in the worst trouble ec onomically of all the former republics , '' Shevardnadze said , speaking quietly , almost sadly in his large , spartan office after having spent the day arguing with his fractious Parliament . War and political uncertainty have very nearly destroyed the economy . The average wage in the country is 50 cents a month , do wn from $ 1 a month last fall . Georgia issued its own currency , called the cou pon , a year ago because it couldn't get enough rubles from Russia . The coupon , which was introduced at parity to the ruble , now sells for a million to the d ollar , while the ruble trades for about 1,800 to the dollar . ( Begin optional trim ) The demise of the currency has nearly destroyed the older generation . Th e pension of Tsiala Mchedlishvili , 64 , is now worth 9 cents a month . `` I wor ked all my life in construction , '' she said as she walked along Leselidze stre et . `` I had to haul cement and drag blocks . `` Now , '' she said , throwing h er arms out , `` nothing . '' `` My whole month 's pension will only buy half a cup of yogurt , '' she said . Like other Georgians , Mchedlishvili spent the win ter with intermittent electricity and without heat or hot water . Georgia can no longer afford to buy much fuel from Russia , another consequence of the breakup of the Soviet Union and one that prevents most factories from operating . While people suffer , the politicians hurl accusations at each other . Shevardnadze ' s nationalist critics accuse him of humiliating Georgia by crawling to Russia fo r help . Many Georgians loathe Russia , certain that it intends to rebuild its e mpire . Russians are accused of fighting on the Abkhazian side an assertion dipl omats here support to weaken Georgia so it would seek Russian protection and to sabotage Shevardnadze , who , paradoxically , is blamed by Russians , especially in the military , for destroying the Soviet Union . In fact , as soon as Shevar dnadze agreed to join the Commonwealth of Independent States and promised milita ry bases to Russia , Russia intervened and put a stop to the fighting in Abkhazi a . A cease-fire was signed in Moscow May 14 , but clashes still have been repor ted . ( End optional trim ) Georgia is deeply important to Russia , said George Tarkhan-Mouravi , a member of the board of the institute , even though it should n't be . `` Rationally , Georgia would only weaken the ruble zone , '' he said . `` Mostly , Russians feel a sense of loss , that they lost something that belon ged to them . '' Nodar Natadze , a member of Parliament and head of the national ist Popular Front party , said Russia wants nothing less than the restoration of its empire . `` Oh yes , oh yes , oh yes , '' said Natadze , `` they want the e mpire . The average Russian has no hope of prospering personally . He knows he ' ll never win in a peaceful competition with Germany or America . The only satisf action he can feel as a man is to know Russia as a superpower and to know his co untry as all powerful . `` And if he can only achieve that by sacrificing democr acy and his personal welfare , he will do it . The only way to lure the average Russian to democracy is to make him lose any hope of restoring the empire . '' V ladimir V. Zemsky , Russia 's ambassador to Georgia , denied that Russia has any wish to rebuild the empire . `` We want a strong , healthy Georgia , '' he said . `` Russia wants peace on its southern border . '' Natadze , 65 , a courtly li nguistics professor , praised Shevardnadze for bringing Georgia out of internati onal isolation . But he said he is too steeped in the past to save Georgia . She vardnadze counters that some criticize him for being too pro-Russian and others for not being pro-Russian enough . `` I 'm a realist , '' he said . `` At this s tage , only Russia can help . We have nothing . We don't even have guns for our police . There is no other way . '' ( Optional add end ) Georgia , a small natio n of 5 million people , must find peace and stability to attract investment . So far , there are only two signs of Western investment here : Coca Cola , which h as lots of flashy advertisements but a market of paupers , and a lovely , four-s tar Austrian-built hotel a $ 175-a-day island of luxury . Back in the late 1970s it was Shevardnadze who persuaded his friend Mikhail S. Gorbachev that the Sovi et system was rotten and needed rebuilding . The glory days of perestroika ensue d . Now most of the world has forgotten those euphoric days of watching as an em pire slowly freed itself of a repressive past . No one 's thanking Shevardnadze any more , though Maria Barlett , a former music teacher in St. Mary 's County , Maryland , who answers his English correspondence , says former U.S. Secretary of State James A . Baker III still writes . But in Georgia , Shevardnadze looks a tragic figure indeed . He seems very alone in his large office , tired and dis pirited , though pink-cheeked and charming as ever . He answers slowly and thoug htfully questions that he has been asked many times before , as if for the first and most important time . `` Personally , I 'd be happier if I could be in Gorb achev 's situation , '' he said . `` But my personal happiness would be incompat ible with my country 's . I must be here if my country needs me . '' And , while no one is thanking him here , no one can come up with a better alternative , ei ther . `` Georgia must be saved , '' said Shevardnadze . `` By whose hand it 's saved is not important . '' MEXICO CITY Bracing for a long throw , the young man in the print shirt drew hi s arm back and let fly an egg . The crowd behind him cheered as yolk splattered across the district offices of the Institutional Revolutionary Party that has ru led Mexico for 65 years . No party faithful rushed out to stop the vandalism ; t he egg-thrower and his cheering section are party faithful . They were sullying their own headquarters to protest the selection of labor boss Carlos Aceves as c andidate for federal deputy in their district . They supported a different local leader . Across Mexico , grass-roots activists have blocked streets and roads , occupied party offices and resigned from the PRI , as the governing party is kn own , in protest over the congressional candidate roster for the Aug. 21 federal elections . Officially , party leaders pass off the protests as signs of health y competition . But privately , some PRI members worry that disappointed rank-an d-file activists may stay away from the polls in protest or even vote for the op position . `` Face it , '' one longtime party member said . `` They picked some really bad candidates this time . '' In too many districts , he said , candidate s have influence inside the PRI because of their ties to labor unions , farm gro ups and party leaders but little popular recognition , much less support . Getti ng them elected will be tough . Beyond the quality of the candidates , the prote sts reflect conflicts over the selection process and the PRI 's identity as a pa rty . Traditionally , the PRI is made up of three groups : labor unions , peasan t farmers and a nebulous `` popular sector . '' The party also has a parallel re gional structure of municipal- and state-level activists . Candidate selection i s a power struggle among those groups . The popular sector and regional groups p ress for a more openly democratic selection process that favors local leaders wh o will represent each district 's interests . Unions and farmers press for their quotas of congressional seats to look after their interests . Those seats are u sually assigned by the party leadership , often ignoring the wishes of grass-roo ts activists . This month , dozens of those activists refused to be ignored . Br eaking party discipline , those `` natural leaders , '' as they called themselve s , registered their candidacies at party headquarters , even though they had no t received the nod from higher-ups . That forced a vote at their local conventio ns instead of the usual selection by unanimous acclaim . ( End optional trim ) G etting union and farm candidates approved by local convention delegates in the f ace of competition required fancy footwork in some cases . A lexicon of dirty tr icks that has grown up around election fraud came into play . There is `` the cr azy mouse , '' changing the location of a convention at the last minute without advising delegates ; `` madruguete , '' changing the time ; and `` acarreo , '' bringing in outsiders to vote as delegates . Mexican newspapers published accusa tions of and in some cases documented the use of each of those tricks during loc al party conventions this month . Some grass-roots activists tried pre-emptive s trikes , such as taking over party offices . After the egg-throwing did not conv ince party leaders that they were serious , members of the Independent Popular O rganization invaded district headquarters to prevent the local convention . ( En d optional trim ) As pressure grew , some labor candidates such as Juana Maria G onzalez in the mining state of San Luis Potosi who resigned for health reasons s tepped down in favor of local candidates . Party leaders tried to calm protests by offering disappointed candidates congressional seats as party representatives offices that are distributed after the election based on the percentage of vote s each party receives . But for many , consolation prizes were not enough . Emil io Serrano , president of the Neighbors Committee of Iztacalco , a working-class borough of Mexico City , resigned from the PRI after losing the party nominatio n for city assemblyman . `` Other parties have offered me a candidacy , particul arly the PRD , '' he explained , referring to the Democratic Revolutionary Party , whose leadership includes former PRI activists . However , Serrano may be dis appointed with that party as well . `` None of us can be completely happy with t he way our candidates were chosen , '' PRD Chairman Porfirio Munoz Ledo acknowle dged at a swearing-in ceremony for those candidates . He proposed `` re-founding '' the party to better ensure respect for democratic ideals . CHICAGO On the sun-swept streets of Kostkaville , on sandlot ball fields and in the pews of cavernous limestone churches , there is no confusing the plight of the neighborhood congressman with the fate of the nation . Named after a Polish saint , this grid of row houses is the heart of Rep. Dan Rostenkowski 's home ba se , a place where the embattled House Ways and Means chairman matters more for the little things he does than for his legendary Washington clout . It is the li ttle things toasters and appliances for the sisters of St. Stanislaus Kostka , p ark fees for fast-pitch softball teams , a lucrative fund-raiser for the Polish Museum of America that many of Rostenkowski 's constituents fear they will miss most if he is convicted in the 17 federal criminal charges leveled against him T uesday . `` This is a guy who 's always giving back to the community , '' said K elly Torres , a city supervisor at Pulaski Park , a square-block field across th e street from Rostenkowski 's home . `` He helps people around here in a thousan d different ways . Nobody wants to see him go . '' His prominence atop the commi ttee overseeing the nation 's tax laws has helped Rostenkowski become Congress ' leading earner of honorariums , fees that legislators earn for making personal appearances before lobbyists and special interest groups . Last year , Rostenkow ski made $ 80,500 in honorariums . Under federal law , the fees must go to chari ty , providing Rostenkowski with ample amounts to donate to pet causes ranging f rom orphanages to hot dog lunches for neighborhood children . Those who rely on the chairman 's speaking engagements and on excess funds from his campaign coffe rs are , predictably , among his most ardent loyalists . They talk protectively of his generous nature a side of Rostenkowski they insist the outside world rare ly sees . And they worry that any successor might sorely lack his human touch . `` People realize that if we lose him , we lose something special , '' said the Rev. Joseph Glab , a priest at St. Stanislaus Kostka , Rostenkowski 's home chur ch . `` He has a real connection with people in this neighborhood . A city is on ly as important as its neighborhoods and he 's part of ours . '' ( Begin optiona l trim ) It was Rostenkowski who quietly wrote a check to the church 's nuns aft er he learned in a conversation with Glab that the appliances in their convent h ad fallen into disrepair . And it was Rostenkowski who made the largest donation six years ago to a $ 140,000 renovation campaign to repair the church 's bell t ower , electric system and scarred interior . Rostenkowski has chipped in for tr ophies and park fees for neighborhood Little League teams and bought uniforms fo r the Deadmen , an amateur football club . A contribution from his campaign fund s paid for a Polish Constitution Day performance by the Li ' l Richard Polka Ban d which replied in kind by playing `` The Danny Rostenkowski Polka . '' There ar e times when goodness has little to do with altruism and much to do with the uns poken quid pro quos of politics . Joanna Janowski , the curator of the Polish Mu seum of America , is grateful for Rostenkowski 's occasional contributions . But she appreciates even more the donations that have come in his honor . When Rost enkowski was awarded the Polish Spirit Award at the museum 's annual Summer Ball in June 1992 , his presence brought the museum $ 85,000 in donations more than four times what it normally brings in for the event , Janowski said . Among the contributors were lobbying and commercial giants like the Philip Morris Co. ( $ 5,000 ) , the Sara Lee Corp. ( $ 5,000 ) and the National Food Processors Associ ation ( $ 2,000 ) . ( End optional trim ) But others in his district concede tha t Rostenkowski calls in on old favors from those he has helped with his charity . In the furious final days of last March 's Democratic primary , Rostenkowski ' s aides boasted that his extensive network of prominent friends helped dispel th e stigma of corruption that hampered his re-election bid against two Democratic Party challengers . Rostenkowski was praised in letters written on behalf of his campaign by Rev. James Close , director of the the Mercy Home for Boys and Girl s , a well-known local orphanage , and by Rev. John Smyth , head of the Maryvill e City of Youth , a Catholic academy . After President Clinton determined last month to extend normal trading arrangem ents with China , the Beijing regime responded that `` the current situation off ers a historic opportunity for the enhancement '' of bilateral relations . With North Korea pushing ahead with its nuclear weapons program , that `` historic op portunity '' is already at hand . China holds the key to effective international sanctions against Pyongyang . If it turns that key , it would not be due to U.S . pressure ; it would reflect China 's assessment of its own national interests . Having de-linked trade and human rights issues , the United States should not try to link China 's nuclear non-proliferation policies with any other significa nt feature in the relationship . If we are to have mature ties with Beijing , th ey must be based on respect , not threat . This will be the best way to deal wit h the Hong Kong and Taiwan questions as well as the immediate crisis posed by No rth Korea . The pressure is on Beijing as the Security Council nears considerati on of international sanctions against Pyongyang . Will China vote yes , abstain ( most likely ) or cast a veto ? As the major supplier of food , oil and coal to North Korea , it is loath to weaken a fellow Communist regime right on its bord er . Yet it also has reason to fear the instability that would be created by a n uclear North Korea threatening war against South Korea and stimulating Japan to develop its own nuclear capability . Obviously these considerations must loom la rge in Chinese calculations . Beijing should seize the moment to demonstrate tha t it is ready to play a vigorous role in stopping the spread of nuclear weapons . North Korea has rebuffed International Atomic Energy Agency inspection of its Yongbyon nuclear reactor . As a result , the IAEA has lost any chance of determi ning if fuel has been diverted for bomb-making purposes . This being the case , a tough new question arises : How should North Korea be punished for its past vi olations without jeopardizing any chance for bringing future North Korean nuclea r operations under control ? Unlike Somalia or Bosnia or Haiti , North Korea wou ld challenge vital U.S. security interests if it succeeds in setting a precedent that nations can violate the Non-Proliferation Treaty with impunity . Therefore , global economic sanctions are needed . There are , however , ways to steer th is situation to a solution short of a second Korean war . The sanctions could be gradual and tailored to China 's wishes . Russia 's proposal for an internation al conference could give North Korea the chance for a climb-down without loss of face . Japan could move to curb more than $ 1 billion a year in remittances fro m expatriate North Koreans to their homeland . And the United States could expli citly raise the prospect of full diplomatic relations with North Korea if it sto ps defying international rules of conduct and becomes a law-abiding nation . Chi na , however , is the decisive factor . Clearly , the situation cries out for Si no-American cooperation at a level never achieved before . WASHINGTON Helen Briggs Ramsey spent two years in Europe during World War II he lping injured soldiers of the Army 's 101st Airborne Division as one of the Red Cross 's `` Donut Dollies . '' By all accounts a gutsy woman , she once tried in vain to persuade the paratroopers to take her on a jump . For the rest of her l ife , `` Briggsy '' had a special place in her heart for the airborne soldiers w ho landed in Normandy on June 6 , 1944 . She attended many of their reunions and even considered going to France with the veterans for the 50th anniversary cele brations taking place during the next few days . A friend who visited her in her Capitol Hill home on Memorial Day found her videotaping shows about the D-Day i nvasion . Early Tuesday , a burglar broke into her house while she was outside s ummoning her cat , Canteen . He bound and gagged her , beat her up and stole som e small objects , police said . Ramsey , 78 , died of her injuries Thursday . Ac ross the area last week , Ramsey 's friends remembered her dedication to the mil itary and the hundreds of photographs , plaques and other memorabilia she kept i n her home . They remembered how her eyes lit up when she talked about `` my guy s '' and the enthusiasm with which she was anticipating the D-Day anniversary on Monday . Steve Baka , president of the District of Columbia chapter of the 101s t Airborne Division Association , a veterans group , met Ramsey at the commemora tion of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial a decade ago . He said many of her friends are in France for the anniversary and aren't aware that she had been slain . `` Everyone is going to be devastated , '' he said . On Sunday , he said , she was with a group of veterans who laid wreaths at the Wall and at the 101st Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery in honor of members of the division who died in battle . `` She was something else , '' said D.C. police Capt. Glenn Hoppert , a longtime friend of Ramsey . `` She probably knows more generals than any woman I know . She was well liked among the members of the 101st . '' D.C. police have made no arrests in the slaying of Ramsey , who had lived alone in a two-story r ow house on Capitol Hill since she was widowed 20 years ago . Military officials , many of whom got to know Ramsey during her volunteer work organizing reunions for the 101st , were shaken by the news of her death . Gen. J.H. Binford Peay I II , Army vice chief of staff and commander of the 101st Airborne Division durin g Operation Desert Storm , said through a spokesman that he was not aware of Ram sey 's death until a reporter called his office . He had spoken with her recentl y and knew her well . `` Not only will I and other members of the 101st Airborne Division Association miss Briggsy , but also the members of the United States A rmy , '' he said . `` She selflessly contributed her time and talent to the men and women in the Army from World War II to the present , and for that we are gra teful . '' Ramsey worked for the Red Cross as a civilian for two years during Wo rld War II , and at one point operated a hotel for transient Red Cross volunteer s in Europe . She also ran a night club for the soldiers . Though Ramsey never g ot to make her parachute jump during World War II , she fulfilled that dream las t year when she parachuted in tandem with a member of the Golden Eagles jump tea m near Fort Bragg , N.C. . LOS ANGELES The University of California , Los Angeles , has paid out more than $ 1 million in confidential settlements over four years to women who were raped , sexually harassed or faced gender discrimination at the school , according to documents released by the school . In one case , the school paid $ 300,000 to a female student who was raped by two men at Reiber Hall , a student dormitory , and in another it paid $ 330,000 to an employee who was allegedly raped , molest ed and subjected to sexual abuse by a supervisor described by the employee 's at torney as a figure of `` power and prestige within the university . '' More than 1,600 pages of documents from four secret settlements were released last week u nder a recent court order obtained by the Daily Bruin , the UCLA student newspap er . The Bruin filed its lawsuit after Chancellor Charles E . Young mentioned th e settlements in a 1992 news conference but refused to provide further details . Joe Mandel , UCLA 's vice chancellor for legal affairs , said Friday that unive rsity officials consider any case of sexual misconduct or discrimination regrett able , but he said the number and amounts of the confidential settlements were m odest for a campus with 20,000 employees , 33,000 students and an annual budget of $ 1.5 billion . Mandel said the confidential settlements were intended to do the right thing for the victims while saving taxpayers money by avoiding the pot ential expense of litigation . The attorney for one of the victims , however , s aid UCLA 's response to her client 's sexual harassment allegations were pitiful and excruciatingly slow . Lisa Bloom , the attorney , also said it was the univ ersity , not her client , who insisted the final 1993 settlement be confidential . The documents show that UCLA agreed to pay more than $ 163,000 to Bloom 's cl ient , a former manager in the school 's Department of Business Enterprises who supervised a crew of 40 to 60 student employees . The woman complained that on h er first day of work in 1988 , her boss came into the room and unzipped his pant s to tuck his shirt in . She also complained that he made profane and sexual rem arks , discussed his vasectomy and its subsequent reversal , and once declared t hat he was going home to have `` industrial sex '' with his wife to conceive a c hild . An internal university fact-finding report , dated July 1992 , upheld the woman 's complaints and confirmed that her supervisor 's behavior contributed t o a department `` filled with sexual language , gestures , racial jokes , storie s of rape and even an alleged suicide attempt . '' Mandel said the supervisor wa s fired . In another case , UCLA agreed in May 1990 to pay $ 330,000 to a woman who accused a married faculty member of coercing her into having sexual contact as a condition of her employment . She said the faculty member raped her twice o ne evening in his home , then continued to harass her on campus , making sexual remarks and locking her in his office to watch him masturbate . The woman eventu ally suffered an emotional breakdown . Although the faculty member maintained th at the sexual relationship was consensual , the university concluded that the wo man was a victim of sexual harassment . Mandel said Friday that the faculty memb er was suspended without pay in the wake of the allegations but gave no other de tails . In a third case , UCLA paid $ 300,000 in 1990 to a female student who wa s raped by two intruders in January 1987 in Reiber Hall . Her attorney , Daniel C. Cathcart , said Friday that the university agreed to the settlement after a c ivil court jury deadlocked over charges that UCLA was negligent because it faile d to provide security in the dorm . In the fourth case , UCLA paid $ 255,000 in 1992 to a woman who said she was discriminated against on the job because of med ical leave she took in the early 1980s due to complications from a pregnancy . T he woman said she was harassed because she wanted to work a four-day schedule . MOSCOW The world 's leading industrial nations agreed Saturday to reschedule mu ch of Russia 's debt for 1994 , giving the country 's troubled economy some badl y needed breathing space . The agreement , reached after two days of negotiation s in Paris , reflected the West 's desire to support Russian President Boris Yel tsin and his economic reforms . It also reflected a degree of realism , since Ru ssian officials have said they are unable to repay all of the Soviet debt now fa lling due . Russia owes about $ 80 billion to foreign governments and banks , mo st of that inherited from the Soviet Union , which collapsed in 1991 . According to initial reports , the agreement reached Saturday will save Russia about $ 7 billion this year . Yeltsin and his government have promised to make good on the Soviet debt eventually , but they have asked for reschedulings to ease the curr ent painful transition from socialism to a free market . Some Western economists have criticized Western governments and banks who come together in groups known respectively as the Paris Club and the London Club for not being more forthcomi ng in rescheduling Russia 's debts at a time when Yeltsin is under strong politi cal pressure at home . Despite all the talk about Western aid , the critics have said , Russia has had to pay more in interest on old debts than it has received in new aid . But Western officials and bankers have maintained that an orderly rescheduling of debt , rather than a write-off or default , is important in orde r to maintain Russia 's credit-worthiness and allow it to continue borrowing on the international market . Russia 's acting finance minister , Sergei Dubinin , who led the negotiations in Paris , welcomed Saturday 's agreement but said Russ ia would soon seek a longer-term , more comprehensive debt rescheduling . Saturd ay 's agreement , Dubinin said , `` creates a very favorable external economic e nvironment that will allow us to work within the country to get out of the crisi s . '' But he added that he expects `` fairly difficult negotiations '' this fal l on a longer-term rescheduling . The rescheduling reflects a vote of Western co nfidence not only in Yeltsin but in Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and his e conomic team . To the surprise of some critics here and in the West , Chernomyrd in has maintained a relatively tight budget policy , which has helped reduce Rus sia 's monthly inflation rate from more than 20 percent last fall to less than 1 0 percent this spring . Many in the West feared that the triumph of communists a nd nationalists in last December 's parliamentary election , followed by the res ignations from the government of leading reformers Yegor Gaidar and Boris Fyodor ov , would spell the end of Russia 's tight-money policy , its radical privatiza tion program and perhaps its reforms altogether . But Chernomyrdin , Dubinin and their team have kept the reform program more or less on course , according to m ost observers here . The International Monetary Fund responded earlier this year by agreeing to loan Russia another $ 1.5 billion , with a $ 4 billion credit po ssible later this year . The agreement reached with the Paris Club Saturday is r oughly similar to one negotiated last April , rescheduling payments coming due i n 1992 and 1993 . According to officials in Paris , Russia owes the Paris Club g overnments about $ 45 billion and London Club banks about $ 26 billion , with ot her countries , such as South Korea , and banks claiming the rest . So far , som e $ 22 billion of the $ 45 billion owed to the wealthiest nations has been resch eduled , the officials told the Reuter news agency . The new schedule of repayme nts is intended to give Russia as much leeway as possible during the next two or three years , assuming that the economy will gradually gather strength . Some p ayments have been set back as many as 17 years , Dubinin said . But Russia is st ill expected to have to pay back more than $ 4 billion this year in principal an d interest , officials said . BEIJING Chinese authorities arrested a provincial labor organizer and a leading Shanghai dissident , part of an effort to ensure that Saturday 's fifth anniver sary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown passed quietly . Zhang Lin , 31 , a pro-d emocracy organizer , was arrested in Beijing and sent to a detention center in h is native Anhui Province , his wife said by telephone . Zhang , a member of a re cently formed independent labor organization , has been on the run for two month s . The group models itself on Poland 's Solidarity and claims to have 300 membe rs nationwide . Zhang suggested that dissidents were going to try to stage symbo lic commemorative acts to mark the June 3-4 Chinese army crackdown on demonstrat ors five years ago , in which hundreds , perhaps thousands , were killed . Publi c security directives were sent out weeks ago and hundreds of police as well as office workers were mobilized to prevent even the smallest protest in Beijing 's Tiananmen Square or the sensitive university district . The hunger strike of Di ng Zilin and Jiang Peikun , two People 's University professors whose 17-year-ol d son was killed by Chinese soldiers , was the only known public protest on the anniversary . Zhang 's wife , Ji Xiao , said she received a police notice Thursd ay saying Zhang had been turned over to authorities in their hometown of Bengbu , in central China 's Anhui Province . She was not told when he was arrested by Beijing authorities or what charges he may face . The couple 's home has been un der heavy surveillance for two months . Zhang was nearly caught a few weeks ago when he returned home because his wife was about to have a baby , he said in an interview before his arrest . `` They said he had done a lot of bad things , '' said Ji , who had her baby on May 21 . Zhang , a nuclear physics graduate from p restigious Qinghua University in Beijing , has been jailed five times . Five yea rs ago , while thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators poured into Tiananmen Sq uare , Zhang led local demonstrations and hunger strikes in Bengbu , an industri al city of 700,000 . In Shanghai , dissident Bao Ge , one of the would-be founde rs of a human rights group , was arrested late Friday night , according to news agency reports . Bao , a Christian , had planned to visit a Shanghai Protestant church today to pray for those killed in 1989 . Bao had sent an open letter to t he government asking for a national human rights group to be set up , his sister Bao Yin was quoted by the Reuter news agency as saying . The purpose of the org anization was to investigate issues such as the rights of peasants , free labor unions and freedom of religion . Shortly before midnight , about 10 plainclothes men burst into his apartment and took him away . CAMBRIDGE , England With the mournful , bagpiped notes of `` Amazing Grace '' e choing across acres of simple graves , President Clinton Saturday continued his World War II journey of remembrance with a salute to the American airmen who `` completed their mission , whether they walk among us or lie among us today . '' Nostalgic remembrances the music of Glenn Miller and 1940s chocolates and gum fo rmed part of the setting as solemn British and American veterans gathered in the U.S. . War Cemetery here beneath the skies where thousands of bombing raids aga inst the Nazis were flown . One of those airmen , Lloyd Bentsen , now the secret ary of the treasury , began flying combat missions in 1944 , eventually completi ng 35 across Europe . It was , he said , a time of `` numbing fatigue . Faceless danger . Fiery death . These were an airman 's constant companions . In the fac e of this , these men not only flew and fought , they soared and triumphed . Man y never had the chance to walk the land their sacrifice helped liberate . '' The se fallen airmen , Bentsen said , `` live on Saturday on the wings of our dreams dreams of freedom . Heroes every one . May they rest in peace . '' Part of a we ek-long commemoration of World War II in Italy , France and England , Saturday w as a day to look to the skies to honor American airmen , including the 57,000 wh o died in the European theater . It was also a day of transatlantic friendship . British Prime Minister John Major , joining Clinton at the cemetery , recalled that for a period during the war , every 30th person in Britain was a member of the U.S. armed services . Fifty years ago this week , more than 1.5 million Amer ican military personnel were serving in Britain . `` Those who came here from Am erica were not , as we were , protecting their homes and families , '' Major sai d , but were fighting to defend freedom and democracy , `` to help liberate the people of Europe from tyranny and to seek to build a better world . '' Clinton r ecalled the infusion of Americans to the British countryside , where hundreds of Allied air bases sprang up and where almost 4,000 Americans are buried in the w ar cemetery , each grave marked with a simple white cross or Star of David . On the cemetery 's Wall of the Missing , more than 5,000 other Americans lost in th e war are remembered . One is Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. , brother of President J ohn F. Kennedy ; another is Glenn Miller , whose `` Moonlight Serenade '' and ot her tunes , played here by the U.S. . Air Force European Band , brought smiles t o the faces of those who remembered first dancing to them more than five decades ago . In recalling the Allied air campaign in Europe , Clinton noted that by D- Day , June 6 , 1944 , the Allies controlled the skies , helping them , after lon g bloody months , to control the ground in time to win the war . In a traditiona l salute at the ceremony 's conclusion , British and American jets performed a r oaring fly-over in the missing-man formation in which one of their number abrupt ly soars into the clouds and out of sight . At the end , planes returned , but t his time they were planes of 50 years ago . The B-17 Flying Fortress , used for the first U.S. attack against Germany in 1943 , the P-51 Mustang fighter and the British Spitfire flew over the heads of airmen who once piloted them . The cere mony blended into the opening of D-Day observances in Portsmouth , where Clinton and Major joined with 12 other heads of state in driving , bitterly cold rain t o officially open the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Operation Overlor d , the Allied invasion that began the liberation of Europe . It was from Portsm outh on the British coast and other nearby ports that the massive invasion floti lla of Allied ships was launched toward the beaches of France on June 5 , 1944 . Joining the United States and Britain in the operation were Australia , Belgium , Canada , Czechoslovakia , France , Greece , Luxembourg , the Netherlands , Ne w Zealand , Norway and Poland . Queen Elizabeth II , in a dinner this evening fo r leaders of all of the nations that participated in the D-Day invasion , repeat ed a portion of the address her father , King George VI , delivered to the Briti sh people on June 6 , 1944 . In that speech , he asked the nation to face `` the supreme test '' in a `` fight not to survive but to win the final victory for t he good cause . '' The queen called Overlord `` a mighty deed '' undertaken by n ations coming together in a common cause . `` We are right to look back on it wi th pride , '' she said , calling on the world leaders and veterans at the dinner to `` keep faith with those who landed on the beaches of Normandy . . . by cont inuing vigilance in defense of peace and freedom . '' Clinton and First Lady Hil lary Rodham Clinton were to spend the night on the Britannia , the British royal yacht . On Sunday , they are scheduled to participate in the Drumhead ceremony , in which an international flotilla will be sent off in commemoration of the tr aditional British religious ceremony of `` the Forces Committed , '' the point a t which troops cannot be pulled back from battle . The flotilla , with Clinton a board the aircraft carrier USS George Washington , will cross the English Channe l overnight to arrive at the French invasion beaches before dawn on June 6 , jus t as the D-Day operation did . VIENNA , Austria Hungary 's Socialist Party named its chairman , Gyula Horn , S aturday to be the country 's next prime minister , bringing to the forefront of Hungarian politics a man who is still trying to live down his past as a hard-lin e Communist . The Socialists , who won an absolute majority in last month 's ele ctions for Parliament , had held off naming an official candidate for this centr al post because of Horn 's controversial history and uncertainty over its impact on finding a coalition partner . At one point , leaders of the Alliance of Free Democrats said they would not join a government led by Horn because of his past . They questioned whether he was fit to preside over ceremonies scheduled for O ctober to commemorate the failed 1956 uprising against the Soviet-backed Communi st regime . The Socialists also voted today to open negotiations to form a coali tion with the Free Democrats , who had the second-highest vote total in the elec tions . If the Free Democrats refuse , the Socialists have the votes to form a g overnment on their own , but a coalition partner would broaden their support in the difficult economic times expected . During the 1956 revolution Horn , now 61 , belonged to several secret police units that were instrumental in restoring a Communist regime after the Soviet invasion that crushed the revolt . But three decades later , he was part of the reformist wing of the Hungarian Socialist Wor kers Party that handed over power peacefully after the first democratic election s in 1990 . Horn thus projects contradictory images out of different chapters of his 40-year political history-one as a dedicated communist and the other as a n onideological , pragmatic reformer . Though he says his conscience is clear and he `` never mistreated or abused anybody , '' he still seems extremely ill at ea se with his 1956 role whenever reporters ask him about it . He has been known to end interviews when the question is raised . He told a local newspaper recently that he was ready to go to the Koztemeto Cemetery in Budapest , where many of t he leaders of the 1956 revolt were buried after being executed , to `` ask for f orgiveness from the nation . '' Apparently , it is an act he has yet to perform . Trained as an economist , Horn was educated partly in the Soviet Union , where he attended the School of Public Accounting in Rostov for four years . After wo rking in the Finance Ministry , he became a diplomat and rose to foreign ministe r . His father , also a dedicated communist , took part in a 1919 communist revo lt led by Bela Kun and was killed by the Nazis in 1941 . During the campaign , l eaders of the ruling Hungarian Democratic Forum sought to discredit Horn by comp aring him to former Austrian president Kurt Waldheim , whose World War II servic e as a German army officer in the Balkans was exposed after his term as U.N. sec retary general . Unlike Waldheim , however , Horn has not tried to conceal his r ole in the 1956 revolution , although whether he has told the whole truth is not totally clear . In his autobiography , `` Stakes , '' Horn wrote about his acti vities starting on Oct. 30 , 1956 , seven days after the initial democratic upri sing in Budapest , when he said he was called up to serve in the National Guard patrolling the streets . One of his duties , he wrote , was saving pro-Soviet se cret police agents from the fury of the crowds . On Dec. 12 , about six weeks af ter Soviet forces had moved in to crush the revolution , Horn said he was called in by the Communist Party and `` asked to serve '' in a special police unit , t he Janos Hunyadi Brigade named after a 16th-century Hungarian patriot who fought against Turkish invaders . The brigade 's job , according to Horn , was `` to s ecure the legal order in the country , '' first by guarding strategic points in the city and then by `` helping to restore public security . '' Horn 's critics say his brigade also helped hunt down and arrest democratic activists . On Dec. 15 , his brother Geza , who was trying to organize the Communist Party in the Bu dapest suburb of Sashalom , was caught by a crowd of revolutionaries , taken to a park and lynched after his body was mutilated . In January 1957 , Horn joined another police unit , the R Group , for six months . This unit also was apparent ly involved in tracking down and arresting revolutionaries . Horn wrote that he once intervened to stop a detainee from being beaten and was denounced as `` a t raitor '' for this by his colleagues . But his reputation apparently remained in tact . According to a recommendation written by his superiors at the Finance Min istry in 1957 , Horn was a `` very well-trained comrade '' and a `` firm working -class fighter . '' He had helped establish the party cell at the ministry and ` ` stood firmly on the side of the party and working class during the counterrevo lution , '' as the Communists called the 1956 uprising . Horn sought to recast h is image in the late 1980s , when he took the side of Communist Party reformers who put an end to Janos Kadar 's 30-year rule and held free elections that broug ht the anti-communist Democratic Forum to power . Horn 's great moment of fame c ame as foreign minister on the night of Aug. 22 , 1989 , when , after consulting Moscow , he cast aside a treaty with East Germany and opened Hungary 's border with Austria . This act allowed tens of thousands of East German refugees to fle e to the West a fatal blow to the communist system in Eastern Europe . The world should never forget what happened five years ago in Tiananmen Square . The searing image of a lone , unarmed Chinese demonstrator facing down tanks i s a chilling reminder that Beijing turned its army and its guns on peaceful prot esters . On June 3 and 4 , 1989 , an orderly , seven-week demonstration on behal f of greater freedom turned into a bloody confrontation . Hundreds were killed , injured or imprisoned . To this day , many are still in jail or unaccounted for . Only recently did the government release two of the most important Tiananmen dissidents , Wang Juntao and Chen Ziming . Now , as China seeks to become a resp ected citizen of the world , Beijing is tarnishing its march toward modernizatio n by its continuing policies of repression . Over the last several days it has b lanketed Tiananmen Square with tight security to prevent any commemoration of th e 1989 demonstrations . Police ordered hotels to turn off the Cable News Network , apparently fearing it might broadcast pictures of the 1989 events . But while the blood of those June days long has been washed from the streets , the horror of Tiananmen Square remains indelibly in the mind . The demonstrations began in mid-April in 1989 upon the death of Hu Yaobang , the reform-minded leader of th e Communist Party who was forced to step down in 1987 . Students turned out to m ourn his death and to protest rampant official corruption and nepotism . But at no time during the demonstrations did they ever attack the authority of the Comm unist Party , nor did they demand a multi-party system . The government responde d first with patronizing equivocation , then with threats and finally with bruta l repression . In the years since , China has opened up to trade , investment an d technology . That has exposed many Chinese to new ideas . But Beijing 's human rights record has not significantly improved . The abuses include use of prison labor and imprisonment of Tibetans demanding political and religious independen ce . Washington tried unsuccessfully for a year to use trade privileges as lever age to persuade Beijing to make improvements . President Clinton took heavy crit icism last week when he decoupled trade from human rights in an effort to build a long-term security , political and economic relationship with Beijing . That w as a hard decision and an unavoidable one . Clinton is betting that , as in othe r Asian nations like South Korea and Taiwan , prosperity will result in a more o pen society . So the United States will now pursue a low-profile human rights st rategy , including broadcasting to China over the new Radio Free Asia , developi ng voluntary human rights standards for U.S. firms doing business in or with Chi na and promoting international attention to and support for human rights in Chin a . For its part , Beijing must be willing to play by international rules beyond the rules of trade . Only progress in human rights will earn China the respect it covets . But Beijing has not signed the U.N. . Universal Declaration of Human Rights ( although it says it supports the document 's key ideas ) and it has ye t to agree in talks with the International Committee of the Red Cross to permit prison visits . Thanks to television , Beijing 's human rights abuses in Tiananm en were put on worldwide display . Now China strives to hide its repression unde r a cloak of national sovereignty . It is fooling no one . CAMBRIDGE , England President Clinton looked skyward on a sodden English mornin g Saturday to salute the Allied airmen who mastered the skies over Europe in Wor ld War II at a grievous cost in lives . Speaking in a steady drizzle before a fi eld of crosses at the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial , Clinton honored the pilots , bombardiers and ground crews who `` walk among us or lie among us today . '' Clinton called the airmen `` knights borne on wings '' and said they helped turn the tide of the war and made possible the D-day landings that he has journeyed to Europe to commemorate . The lush Cambridge cemetery holds the grav es of 3,812 Americans and memorializes more than 5,000 others officially listed as missing in action . Among the names enshrined on the Wall of the Missing are those of bandleader-turned-airman Glenn Miller , whose flight vanished in 1944 , and Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. , the older brother of the late President Kennedy . J oseph Kennedy was a Navy pilot killed when his plane blew up during a special bo mbing mission . `` America gave to England an infusion of arms and men and mater iel , '' Clinton said . `` The British gave our troops the feeling that they wer e not so far from home after all . The British gave us inspiration ; the America ns gave , in return , hope . At every level , Yanks and Brits worked together li ke family . '' England was the second stop of Clinton 's three-nation trip to co mmemorate D-day . The president earlier visited Italy and is to cross the Englis h Channel to France Sunday . Unlike the somber and restrained memorial event at the American cemetery at Nettuno , Italy , on Friday , Saturday 's commemorative events had an almost festive feel . An Air Force ensemble entertained the guest s with Miller swing standards like `` Moonlight Serenade , '' `` In the Mood '' and `` St. Louis Blues March . '' White House officials and politicians worked t he crowd before Clinton and British Prime Minister John Major spoke . The ceremo ny ended with a flyover by vintage aircraft , including a lumbering B-17 bomber as well as a British Spitfire and American P-51 Mustang zooming through acrobati c maneuvers . As they left the memorial service , Clinton and Major walked among guests , shaking hands and posing for pictures . In his remarks , Major spoke o f the `` invasion '' of England by GIs preparing for the landings on the Europea n Continent . He noted that , just before D-day , more than 1.5 million soldiers and airmen were based on British soil under the command of Supreme Allied Comma nder Dwight D. Eisenhower . `` For a while , '' Major said , `` every 30th perso n in Britain was an American serviceman . '' And he recalled the sacrifice they made to free Europe from tyranny 150,000 lives in the European theater , includi ng 57,000 airmen . `` We remember today why those lives were given . Those who c ame here from America were not , as we were , protecting their homes and familie s , '' Major said . `` They didn't come here for national glory , not for profit , not for material gain . `` They came , many of you here today came , above al l , to defend the values which Britons and Americans hold sacred : to defend fre edom and democracy , justice and human rights , '' the prime minister said . ( B egin optional trim ) Perhaps the most affecting remarks of the day came from a f ormer B-24 bomber pilot who flew 35 missions over Nazi-held territory , includin g the vital Ploesti oil fields in Romania . The pilot 73-year-old U.S. Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen said that during the war `` boys grew into men far too f ast . '' He recalled the daily routine of the flight crews : `` Scared ? Of cour se . Anyone who wasn't was either a fool or didn't have any imagination .. . Num bing fatigue . Faceless danger . Fiery death . Those were an airman 's constant companions . In the face of this , these men not only flew and fought , they soa red and triumphed . '' ( End optional trim ) Clinton and Major met privately aft erward at Chequers , the prime minister 's country home near Oxford . The two le aders said they discussed Bosnia-Herzegovina , agreeing that they would continue to press all sides to settle the territorial issues still in dispute . Major sa id that continued fighting would yield no significant territorial gains and woul d only `` continue to strain international patience . '' Neither he nor Clinton said what they were prepared to do about the 2-year-old civil war in the former Yugoslav republic if their patience actually ran out . From Chequers , Clinton t ook a motorcade to a hotel 15 minutes away for a brief courtesy call on Margaret Beckett , the acting leader of Britain 's opposition Labor Party . She assumed the leadership of the party last month after the sudden death of party leader Jo hn Smith . Later , Clinton attended an elaborate garden party and a formal dinne r hosted by Queen Elizabeth II in the English Channel city of Portsmouth , one o f the chief jumping-off points for invasion forces . ( Optional add end ) The en tertainment included U.S. . Air Force personnel dancing the Lindy hop and Britis h sailors in a rigging and climbing exhibition . It was at times difficult , ami d all the distractions , to remember the solemnity of the occasion that thousand s were gathered to commemorate . The queen , in a rare speech at the black-tie d inner for visiting dignitaries , reminded her guests of the sacrifice of those w ho fought for liberation . She said that today 's generations must keep faith wi th those who landed on the beaches and those who prayed for their success . `` I t is up to us to make sure that the prayers of 50 years ago are truly answered , by rededicating ourselves to the creation of a world at peace , '' the queen sa id . A 125-foot ship carrying 61 Cuban refugees reportedly was fired on by a Cuban a rmed vessel as the refugee boat moved in international waters early Saturday . F our Cubans were seriously injured . The Coast Guard , responding to a distress s ignal relayed by a ham radio operator in Panama at about 4 a.m. , sent out a sea rch jet , a cutter and helicopters , which located the refugee vessel about 67 m iles southwest of Key West , Fla. Coast Guard officials said the boat was boarde d at 8:45 a.m. . The injured four were airlifted to Florida Keys Memorial Hospit al in Key West . A hospital spokesman said Saturday afternoon that one had been released . Another , in stable condition , had been airlifted to Jackson Memoria l Hospial in Miami . A third had been admitted to the Key West hospital , and th e fourth in critical condition with gunshot wounds was in surgery . Three other persons were slightly injured , though not by gunfire , and were treated aboard the refugee ship after the Coast Guard took control of it , officials said . A C oast Guard spokesman said there was no sign of an attacking vessel at the time t he refugee ship was located , and reports that a Cuban gunboat had attacked and inflicted the injuries were based on accounts from passengers . He said refugees discovered at sea in the area usually are taken to Key West . Larisa Cuesta , a daughter of one of the refugee boat 's officers , was quoted by the Associated Press as having told a Miami radio station : `` They kept shooting at us . We sh owed them the children , they still kept shooting . We shouted , `` One of them is dead , ' and they still kept shooting . At one point they threw ropes to try to drag us in ; we cut the rope to get loose again . '' Ninoska Perez of the Cub an American National Foundation , an exile organization with centers in Miami an d Washington , said in a telephone interview from Miami that she had spoken to C uesta by phone and that Cuesta 's father was one of the four persons shot . She said he had been shot in the neck in his case and was in serious condition . Per ez said she had been told that the refugee ship took off secretly from Mariel , Cuba , at 1 a.m. and was about 30 miles off the coast of Havana in international waters when attacked by Cuban craft . She said occupants of the refugee boat ha d shouted that a child had been killed in an effort to stop the firing , but act ually no child had been killed . The Coast Guard center in Miami identified the ship as the Rene Bedia Morales . A State Department spokeswoman said that accord ing to information received by the department , the refugee ship left Mariel wit h 61 people aboard . Cuban patrol craft may have pursued and fired on it , then abandoned the chase , she said . Coast Guard officials said that so far this yea r , 2,647 persons from Cuba had been found on boats and rafts seeking to reach t he United States . Perez , who said her group monitors ham radio operators to tr ack incidents such as Saturday 's , said `` this has happened on many occasions '' inside Cuban territorial waters and had been reported , but `` nothing happen s '' because such incidents have been viewed as a Cuban internal matter . The re ported Rene Bedia Morales incident is only the latest in numerous acts against C ubans attempting to flee the impoverished communist nation . For example , a yea r ago , according to news accounts , the Cuban coast guard shot and killed three Cubans as they boarded a speedboat in Cojimar , near Havana , a sleepy fishing town , for an escape to the United States . Last October , Cuban security forces shot and killed one man and captured five others in what Cuban papers called a plan by `` anti-social and dangerous '' would-be emigrants to escape the country using a small boat . Last July , a dozen others were wounded , according to a n ews report . ATLANTA Barron Williams , his suit jacket buttoned on a Saturday morning , pivo ted in the hotel lobby , thrust out his hand and introduced himself to the fast- walking man with the African name written on the oversized tag around his neck . `` What I 'm trying to do is find a trading partner , a teaming partner , whate ver you want to call it , '' Williams , owner of a computer systems company outs ide Atlanta , explained to an onlooker . Williams , like other entrepreneurs eng aged in a fury of networking in the lobby , was hoping to reach across 8,000 mil es and line up business deals between American and South African firms . Hunting for deals is commonplace at business conferences , but this one was unusual bec ause the host was the federal government and it had diplomatic as well as financ ial objectives in mind . The U.S. . Information Agency invited 400 leaders from the business , government and nonprofit sectors of the two countries to the two- day conference , which ended Saturday , to stimulate U.S. ties to South Africa . About an equal number of observers showed up uninvited . The agency organized a similar meeting in St. Louis last October for Russia and other independent stat es of the former Soviet Union . In the case of those emerging nations , the Clin ton administration 's goal has been to help build market economies where none ex isted . With South Africa , administration officials aim to boost a market econo my that contracted in the face of international sanctions and needs investment t o expand and raise the standard of living of its black majority under the post-a partheid government . `` The key to the future of South Africa and of our relati onship will be the private sector , '' Vice President Al Gore said at a dinner T hursday night . `` That 's where the long-term jobs will be created . That 's wh at will create the infrastructure . That 's what will create the income . '' Sou th African Deputy President Thabo Mbeki said participants from his nation `` hav e not come carrying a begging bowl '' but instead sought to increase U.S. invest ment , `` two-way trade '' and `` mutually beneficial technology and skills tran sfers . '' The Clinton administration is considering the creation of a governmen t fund to stimulate joint ventures with South Africa . `` That 's something the administration is looking at closely , because it 's had some success in Poland and elsewhere in the world , '' said Ernest Wilson , director of international p rograms at the National Security Council . Private entities announced a dozen jo int ventures during the conference , while Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown an d South African Minister of Trade and Industry Trevor Manuel said the government s have formed a joint committee to promote business deals . Brown predicted Amer icans soon would invest `` hundreds of millions '' in South Africa . `` South Af rica is one of the few countries in the world where there 's no McDonald 's , '' Manuel said . `` While Secretary ( Brown ) may want South Africans to get accus tomed to McDonald 's , we want Americans to get used to boerewors , and pap and vleis . '' He was referring to sausages and a meat stew over corn meal eaten in South Africa . Major American companies that withdrew investments from South Afr ica to protest apartheid are slowly returning . The South African Embassy in Was hington has received 20 calls a day in response to a mailing to small businesses . But U.S. and South African officials acknowledged that attitudinal barriers , as well as fears of political violence , could block interest from turning into investment . Gore criticized `` Afro-pessimism , '' a view among some foreign p olicy specialists that political and civil upheavals preclude sustained developm ent in Africa . A similar opinion was once held about Asia where some countries are growing rapidly `` and they 're wrong about Africa , as well , '' he said . During a meeting with international business leaders about investing in South Af rica , Manuel recalled , an American contractor inquired about political tumult in the African nation of Zaire . `` We 're far from Zaire , '' Manuel said . `` Zaire is to South Africa what Colombia is to the United States , and I don't qui te see the Medellin cartel operating as well in the United States . '' Deputy Pr esident Mbeki cited a potential for U.S. investments in building new housing , p rocessing raw materials such as platinum and constructing hotels for tourism . S outh African entrepreneur Rob Williams and Douglas Jerome Brown , an agribusines s adviser with the U.S. . Agency for International Development , chatted about t he possibility of joint ventures to export South African wine , which is known f or its high quality and low price . `` The ( South African ) rand is so weak you can buy a bottle of wine for about a dollar .. . good table wine , '' Williams said . Allan A . Boesak , economic affairs minister in the Western Cape province , said such networking must to yield `` concrete results '' for ordinary South Africans to be beneficial . `` If it doesn't do that , '' Boesak said , `` this is a handshaking exercise that doesn't have much meaning at all . '' PORTSMOUTH , England Standing in a chill rain at a cemetery in the English coun tryside filled with the graves of fallen American airmen , President Clinton vow ed Saturday that the political heirs of the D-Day generation would remember its sacrifices and carry on its work of expanding democracy . `` The victory of the generation we honor today came at a high cost , '' he said in a somber address a t the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial . `` After D-Day it took freedom another year to reach the Elbe ; it took another 44 years to reach Warsaw and Pr ague and East Berlin . And now it has reached Kiev and Moscow and even beyond . `` The mission of this time is to secure and expand its reach further , '' he de clared . Then , speaking of the 3,812 Americans buried in the cemetery and the 5 ,126 more missing in action who are memorialized on a long marble wall , he decl ared : `` We shall always carry on the work of these knights borne on wings . '' The speech sounded the theme Clinton is to strike again at Monday 's climactic ceremonies in Normandy commemorating the 50th anniversary of the D-Day invasion , the massive amphibious assault that turned the tide in World War II . Clinton , born a year after the war ended , has begun to talk in broad terms about the c ontinuing obligations facing a new generation that has benefited from the sacrif ices of the generation that fought World War II . But the difficulty of deliveri ng on that powerful rhetoric was underscored a few hours later when Clinton met with British Prime Minister John Major at Chequers , the British leader 's offic ial country retreat . They spent most of the session discussing the escalating n uclear crisis with North Korea and the continuing bloodshed in Bosnia , where th e West has failed to end a two-year campaign of `` ethnic cleansing '' and civil war . Both men urged the Serbs , Muslims and Croats to accept a peace plan and end the fighting in the former Yugoslav republics . `` Continued war will not ad vance their positions but would continue to strain international patience , '' M ajor said . And Queen Elizabeth II alluded to Bosnia in her toast at a spectacul ar state dinner here Saturday night for the 14 heads of state from the countries that participated in D-Day . `` We have seen that the peace which victory broug ht is a fragile thing , '' she said , glittering in a sapphire-encrusted crown a nd matching earrings and necklace at the black-tie dinner at Portsmouth Guildhal l . `` Events ' round the world , some of them close to home in Europe , prove t hat to us day after day . It is up to us to make sure that the prayers of 50 yea rs ago are truly answered by rededicating ourselves to the creation of a world a t peace . '' This seaside town was the scene of celebration , with troops marchi ng , bands playing and entrepreneurs selling commemorative T-shirts and `` crick ets , '' the tiny noisemakers issued to the D-Day troops as a means of signaling one another . The president and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton spent the nig ht as the queen 's guests aboard the royal yacht Britannia . But the redoubtable British weather provided the same sort of challenge it did a half-century ago , when driving rains forced Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower to delay the invasion for a day . A fierce , cold rain rattled the tents on the Po rtsmouth docks and jeopardized some of the plans for a commemorative naval armad a to cross the choppy English Channel Sunday night . ( Optional Add End ) `` It would have been historically incorrect to have good weather , '' Gen. John Shali kashvili , chairman of the U.S. . Joint Chiefs of Staff , said at a rain-drenche d garden party hosted by the Queen Mother . Earlier , at the Cambridge cemetery , the rain had been gentler and the mood grayer . An Air Force band played the s ongs of bandleader Glenn Miller `` St. Louis Blues , '' `` String of Pearls , '' `` Pennsylvania 6-5000 '' that make up a sort of soundtrack of the World War II era . Miller , lost as he flew to France for a Christmastime concert in 1944 , is one of the names on the `` Wall of the Missing '' ; so is Lt. Joseph P. Kenne dy Jr. , older brother of President Kennedy who was killed on a bombing mission . U.S. Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen , a bomber pilot and squadron leader in the war , recalled the terror of battle . `` Scared ? Of course , '' he said . ` ` Anyone who wasn't was either a fool or had no imagination . '' PORTSMOUTH , England President Clinton said Saturday that North Korea can avoid international sanctions if it complies with inspections of its nuclear program . While standing firm on U.S. demands , he rejected as `` saber rattling '' Nort h Korea 's claims that sanctions would be an act of war . `` I do not want a lot of saber rattling over this , or war talk , '' Clinton said . `` This is peace talk . We 're trying to enforce '' the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty , which North Korea has signed . His comments came in a short exchange with reporters fo llowing a meeting with British Prime Minister John Major . Clinton 's statements underscored U.S. determination not to back down from its demands on North Korea despite the warnings from Pyongyang . At the same time , the president made cle ar that the administration is pursuing what it sees as a diplomatic not a milita ry solution to the standoff . The United States is discussing sanctions with mem bers of the U.N. . Security Council following certification by international ins pectors earlier this week that North Korea is not complying with nuclear plant i nspection regimes it had agreed to under the treaty . At the same time , a senio r official traveling with Clinton said that China , with which North Korea retai ns friendly relations , is continuing to try to persuade Pyongyang to comply wit h the inspections without the threat of sanctions . China has stated its opposit ion to sanctions , but U.S. officials say it has not yet said it would veto a sa nctions resolution at the United Nations . The senior official said `` it would be both premature and possibly wrong to assume that the Chinese would veto '' a sanctions resolution . While they `` have been very unenthusiastic '' about such a move , he said , they have not said either publicly or privately that they wo uld veto . The official said the United States would be engaged in `` a good bit of consulting '' to construct a sanctions response that both conveys `` the max imum amount of leverage '' with North Korea and also has behind it a broad inter national consensus . Clinton , in his comments , dismissed North Korea 's conten tion that sanctions are an act of war . `` Clearly , any sanctions are not an ac t of war and should not be seen as such , '' the president said . `` All we want them to do is keep their word . '' Repeating his call for North Korea to allow International Atomic Energy Agency inspections of its nuclear reactor activity , as required under the Non-Proliferation Treaty , Clinton said , `` There 's sti ll time for North Korea to avoid sanctions actually taking effect .. . but this is in their hands . '' Clinton made the remarks at the British government 's cou ntry retreat during a stop on his week-long trip to Europe for the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the D-Day invasion . The United States began consult ations Friday with South Korea , Japan and Russia on how to retaliate for North Korea 's removal from its Yongbon reactor of vital evidence about its nuclear we apons capability . The talks explored options ranging from a full cutoff of trad e to milder measures . In a joint statement issued in Washington Saturday , the United States , Japan and South Korea said `` the situation demands that the int ernational community , through the U.N. . Security Council , urgently consider a n appropriate response , including sanctions . '' The three nations also agreed that `` North Korea 's actions created a serious situation on the Korean peninsu la and a threat to the peace and stability of the Northeast Asian region as well as to international non-proliferation efforts . '' Assistant Secretary of State Robert Gallucci , who read the statement to reporters outside the State Departm ent , refused to answer questions on it . In Rome on Friday , Clinton telephoned Russian President Boris Yeltsin and South Korean President Kim Young Sam , who was visiting Moscow . Yeltsin has proposed an international conference on the No rth Korean crisis . The White House said Clinton told Yeltsin `` such a meeting might be appropriate at some point , while underscoring the need first to return the North Korean nuclear issue to the U.N. . Security Council . '' A senior off icial said Secretary of State Warren Christopher will be consulting with his Rus sian counterpart on a conference but said that the United States believes Russia will not block sanctions , if it comes to that , with or without a conference f irst . Christopher and British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd also had extensive discussions on North Korea here Saturday , the senior official said . The offic ial said each man also talked with South Korean Foreign Minister Han Sung Joo , who stopped in London en route from Moscow to U.N. headquarters in New York , as part of the effort to construct a sanctions package . In Seoul , government sec urity officials met in emergency session Saturday and set up a task force to ass ess military readiness . `` We and the United States are fully prepared and have enough military power ready to meet any emergencies , '' President Kim said in Russia , according to South Korea 's Yonhap news agency . Japanese newspapers re ported Saturday that the Tokyo government has prepared a 10-point draft package of sanctions against North Korea , including bans on trade , flights and all cas h transfers , including an estimated $ 600 million a year carried into the count ry by Koreans from Japan . The government refused comment on the reports . WASHINGTON President Clinton stepped up efforts Saturday to increase diplomatic pressure on North Korea by calling it `` virtually imperative '' that the world community impose economic sanctions on Asia 's nuclear renegade . With British Prime Minister John Major by his side during a D-Day appearance in Portsmouth , England , Clinton sought to quell talk of armed conflict , saying sanctions were `` clearly .. . not an act of war and should not be seen as such . '' But North Korea 's ambassador in Beijing , Chu Chang Jun , repeated warnings Saturday tha t `` any kind of economic sanctions '' against North Korea would be regarded as `` a declaration of war . '' In Washington , the United States , Japan and South Korea greeted new evidence of North Korea 's nuclear bomb-making activity with a unified call for economic sanctions . The allies ended two days of talks Satur day warning of `` a serious situation on the North Korean Peninsula '' caused by Pyongyang 's efforts to thwart inspections designed to determine how plutonium North Korea possesses . American diplomat Robert L. Gallucci , flanked by a Sout h Korean special ambassador and a senior official of the Japanese Foreign Minist ry , said the three countries agreed that the U.N. . Security Council must `` ur gently consider an appropriate response , including sanctions '' to bring North Korea to heel . And in Seoul , South Korean government officials met in an emerg ency session Saturday and set up a task force to assess national readiness . Pre sident Kim Young-sam told reporters that U.S. and South Korean forces `` are kee ping a round-the-clock surveillance on the North 's ( military ) movements , '' and added that the two allies `` are fully prepared and have enough military pow er ready to meet any emergencies . '' The latest swirl of rhetoric and diplomacy came two days after the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Age ncy , Hans Blix , told members of the Security Council that North Korea had shif ted spent fuel rods inside its principal nuclear reactor in ways that would obsc ure any efforts to use plutonium to manufacture nuclear bombs . The disclosure d eepened suspicions about North Korea 's nuclear intentions and added urgency to international efforts aimed at halting the nation 's nuclear program . Clinton a dministration officials have said that , in light of Blix 's testimony , Pyongya ng should allow IAEA inspectors to take samples and measurements at the nation ' s two major radioactive waste sites . That would give inspectors an alternative to analyzing spent fuel rods as a means of accounting for North Korea 's weapon- grade plutonium . `` All we want them to do is keep their word , '' Clinton said Saturday . `` There 's still time for North Korea to avoid sanctions actually t aking effect .. . but this is in their hands . '' Washington hopes to escalate p ressure on North Korea gradually in an effort to persuade the Pyongyang governme nt to let inspectors in . If Pyongyang still refuses to yield after an initial t ightening of trade , the allies would press for a freeze on North Korea 's finan cial transactions and , finally , for a cutoff of oil and food supplies . ( Opti onal Add End ) Clinton administration officials acknowledged Saturday that negot iating a sanctions strategy that would both pinch North Korea and win the suppor t of reluctant allies has proven a difficult and delicate task . In an effort to win international backing for sanctions , the United States has pressed high-le vel contacts with Russia , as well as with China . The opposition of either coun try could veto any bid to tighten sanctions on North Korea . Both have been relu ctant to go along with sanctions until further diplomacy has been tried . RICHMOND , Va. Oliver North , the ramrod Marine who emerged from the Iran-Contr a scandal as a conservative icon , won the Virginia Republican Senate nomination Saturday . His victory virtually ensured an unpredictable four-way contest for the seat now held by embattled Democrat Charles S. Robb . At a tense and emotion al party convention here , North comfortably defeated fellow conservative James C. Miller III , who had centered his campaign on the argument that North could n ot win in the general election . North carried 55 percent of the delegates ' vot es , to 45 percent for Miller , former director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Reagan . `` Bring on the liberal elites : ( President ) C linton , Congress , ( Ted ) Koppel and above all Chuck ( Robb ) , '' North decla red exuberantly in a speech just before the vote . `` It 's time to take a stand : Whose side are you on ? '' In selecting North an intense , charismatic former lieutenant colonel who drew both reknown and disdain for his combative 1987 tes timony to a Congressional committee investigating the Iran-Contra arms-for-hosta ges scandal the state party ensured a public split with its top-ranking federal official . Republican Sen. John W. Warner has condemned North as unfit to serve in the Senate and said he will back an independent candidacy by Republican J. Ma rshall Coleman , a former Virginia state attorney general . Although Coleman has not formally declared his candidacy , he seems certain to run now that North ha s been nominated . North 's victory also makes virtually certain a second indepe ndent candidacy from former Democratic Gov. L. Douglas Wilder , who contends his arch-rival , Robb , is so politically weakened that he cannot retain the Senate seat for the Democrats in November . At the convention , North 's strength was greatest in the southern part of the state . He ran particularly well among rura l voters and evangelical Christians , who responded enthusiastically to his Reag anesque appeals to family values and populist attacks on Washington . North 's p re-vote speech centered on the conservative agenda for restraining government th e balanced budget amendment , line item veto and term limits as well as oppositi on to abortion . ( Begin optional trim ) North has acknowledged misleading Congr ess during the Iran-Contra affair , in which the Reagan administration traded ar ms to Iran for the release of American hostages in Lebanon and used part of the proceeds to fund the Nicaraguan contras . In proceedings brought by special pros ecutor Lawrence Walsh , North was convicted of shredding government documents , accepting an illegal gift of a home security system and obstructing Congress . B ut his convictions were overturned in 1990 by a Federal appeals court , which ru led that North 's trial was tainted by testimony he gave to Congress while under a guarantee of immunity for prosecution . In the aftermath , North quickly buil t a national following in conservative circles through speeches and extensive di rect mail appeals for a foundation and political action committee he established . ( End optional trim ) Although Miller and North differed little on issues , t he race polarized their supporters . At receptions , in hallways , waiting on li ne for credentials , the nearly 15,000 delegates here regularly combusted into s pontaneous debates that inevitably turned on the same questions . Could North wi n a general election ? Would Miller send to Washington the same stick-in-the-eye message as North ? ( Begin optional trim ) Outside the party dinner Friday nigh t , Robert Dunn , an engineer from the Richmond suburbs , was explaining why he supported North when Mark Roseneker , a Miller supporter from Northern Virginia , challenged him . `` Why gamble for ideology when you can win the election , '' Roseneker asked Dunn . `` We are talking about a candidate ( North ) who reflec ts poorly on the Republican Party . '' Dunn replied : `` I believe Oliver North can articulate the issues better , motivate the people better , give them a bett er direction . I believe we need somebody who can really send a message very cle arly not muddled like it has been for so long . '' ( End optional trim ) In the weeks leading up to the vote , North had endured a steady barrage of criticism f rom fellow conservatives and former colleagues , ranging from Reagan to former c hairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell , who had raised questions abo ut his character and veracity . The Democrats will select their nominee in a Jun e 14 primary . Robb , who has been battered by revelations of marital infidelity , faces conservative state Sen. Virgil H. Goode Jr. , Richmond lawyer Sylvia Cl ute and Nancy Spannaus , a supporter of political extremist Lyndon H. LaRouche J r. . Polls have shown Robb with a substantial lead , but Goode has been pounding Robb with mailings and television advertisements citing memos from the senator 's own staff detailing allegations that he had committed adultery ; Goode 's tel evision ads accuses Robb of associating with `` prostitutes and drug criminals . '' Wilder and Coleman have until 7 p.m. on June 14 , when the polls close in th e Democratic primary , to file the relatively modest 15,000 signatures needed to launch an independent campaign . If the four-way race materializes , Virginia v oters will face a tough choice . Keeping track of the grudges alone is a formida ble task . Robb and Wilder have a long-standing feud ; Coleman lost the 1981 gub ernatorial race to Robb , and a second round to Wilder in 1989 . The religious c onservatives fervent for North still bristle at Coleman for abandoning his oppos ition to abortion in the 1989 race . The political calculations are equally intr icate . Paradoxically , the proliferation of candidates may actually help all of the contenders each of whom , for different reasons , would likely have difficu lty attracting an absolute majority of votes . In a race with four candidates , though , the winner may need only about 40 percent of the vote a prospect that h elps the candidate with the strongest base of committed supporters . North has s uch a base among evangelical Christians and other ideological conservatives , Wi lder among African-Americans ( who constitute between 15-20 percent of the state wide vote in a general election ) ; Robb has already won endorsements from the i nstitutional ligaments of the Democratic Party organized labor , the teachers ' union , and abortion rights groups . To the extent Coleman can match such assets , it will be through what is expected to be the vigorous support of Warner , wh o remains extremely popular in the state . CAMBRIDGE , England When the speeches were over Saturday at the Cambridge Ameri can Cemetery and Memorial , a handful of those who rushed forward were not tryin g to shake President Clinton 's hand but were trying to get the autograph of the aging New York veteran who had formally introduced him during the program . Ed MacLean , 72 , a retired business executive from Valley Stream , N.Y. , had remi nisced about his days as a 22-year-old fighter pilot flying P-47 Thunderbolts in the skies over Germany 97 treacherous missions in all . During the D-Day invasi on he had shepherded gliders to Normandy ; later he was part of the `` flying ar tillery '' that supported Gen. George Patton 's third Army drive into France . ` ` Back then , we were a bunch of scared kids who had a job to do , and those who died over here were brave individuals doing a tough job under hazardous conditi ons , '' the portly , balding man told the audience as Clinton looked on . MacLe an added that the harsh memories of war `` survive , no matter how deeply buried , and sometimes , like today , they emerge . '' In introducing the president , he said the nation was `` blessed with a commander-in-chief who knows that the m ilitary 's ability to meet its commitments still depends on the people who we ho nor here today . '' The White House asked World War II veterans to introduce Cli nton at each of three major speeches he is giving at U.S. cemeteries during a Eu ropean tour commemorating the 50th anniversary of D-Day . MacLean , president of the 9th Army Air Force Veterans Association and a recipient of the Distinguishe d Flying Cross and the Air Medal with 16 clusters , was chosen for Saturday 's s ervice honoring the crews that flew from bases in England . MacLean , whose figh ter often escorted lumbering B-17s on bombing runs , was introduced by Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen , himself a bomber pilot during the war . `` Ed , on beh alf of every bomber pilot who enjoyed the protection of our fighter planes , tha nk you , '' Bentsen told MacLean . Later , as Scottish pipers played `` Amazing Grace , '' tears rolled down MacLean 's cheeks ; his wife , Genevieve , patted h is arm . `` It 's very sad , '' he said later . RICHMOND , Va. Oliver L. North won the Republican nomination for the Senate her e Saturday and immediately set the stage for a four-man campaign for the seat of the embattled Democratic incumbent , Charles S. Robb . North defeated James C. Miller III , a former Reagan administration budget director , with more than 55 percent of the vote at a noisy but generally orderly party convention at the Ric hmond Coliseum . The success of the hard-line conservative figure from the Iran- Contra affair was expected to draw two more candidates into the race as independ ents , Democratic former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder and Republican former state Atto rney General Marshall Coleman . Both already are circulating petitions that woul d qualify them for the ballot by the deadline June 14 , the same day Robb is exp ected to win renomination in a Democratic primary . The Senate election in Virgi nia has been taking on added importance in the past few weeks as political profe ssionals in both parties have come to the view that there is a realistic chance the Republicans could win the seven seats they need to control the Senate in the next two years of President Clinton 's term . Conceding his loss , Miller offer ed a quick , if perfunctory , promise to put the bitter contest for the nominati on into the past . `` It is important , ladies and gentlemen , '' he told more t han 13,000 delegates , `` that we now unite . We will get rid of Chuck Robb and put Bill Clinton on the run . '' Gov. George Allen , who had remained neutral in the North-Miller competition , also joined the call for Republican unity . `` I 'll be in the trenches with you , '' he declared . But many of the Miller deleg ates pointedly avoided joining the demonstration of unity and quickly left the h all suggesting that they have not changed their view that North 's 1987 convicti on on three felony counts , later reversed on appeal , makes too much political baggage for him to carry against Robb . North was characteristically defiant in victory , saying his success would send a message to the politicians in Washingt on that : `` This is our government , they stole it , and we 're coming to take it back . '' Deriding the `` Washington crowd '' with his usual vehemence , he t old cheering admirers , `` They 'll never see Ollie North crawl up Capitol Hill to kiss their big , fat rings . '' North 's convention victory fulfilled almost precisely his campaign 's predictions . He won seven of Virginia 's 11 congressi onal districts and held his losses in strong Miller areas to minimal figures . I n the 11th District in the Washington suburbs , for example , Miller won only by 758-708 . Statewide , it was North 4,858 , Miller 3,724 . The post-convention r hetoric did little to paper over the basic schism in the party over which Republ ican would have the best chance of defeating Robb , whose negatives in opinion p olls are as high as North 's because of Robb 's personal indiscretions when he w as governor of the state . Miller originally had been given little or no chance of mounting a serious challenge to North . But assaults on the former Marine off icer by such fellow Republicans as Sen. John W. Warner , Virginia 's most popula r politician at the moment , former President Reagan and former Gov. Linwood Hol ton nourished open doubts among regular Republicans about North as a viable cand idate , even in a race against a compromised Democratic incumbent . And opinion polls showed that Miller , but not North , could defeat Robb in the November gen eral election . ( Optional Add End ) `` Many powerful people will try to stand i n our way , '' North said in an obvious reference to Warner 's promise to help C oleman 's independent candidacy , `` but I 'd rather do what is right than be an ointed by some professional politician . '' The prospect of two independents wit h some political standing has set off puzzled speculation among political handic appers . Wilder , the first black ever elected to a state governorship when he w on here in 1989 , would be expected to get overwhelming support from black voter s who might make up 17 percent to 18 percent of the total meaning that even with a modest white vote he could be a contender in a four-way race in which there i s no runoff requirement . Coleman 's potential is harder to measure . He has bee n advanced by Warner and others as a way to provide moderate Virginia Republican s a palatable alternative in the general election to North . But Coleman already has lost three statewide races , and some Virginia strategists question his pot ential to match North 's following among devout conservatives and voters from th e religious right . RICHMOND , Va. Oliver L. North won Virginia 's Republican nomination for the U. S. Senate Saturday , beating back a vigorous challenge from James C. Miller III and then launching a blistering attack on `` the tyranny of professional politic ians . '' In a state party convention jammed with about 14,000 delegates , North won about 55 percent of the vote to Miller 's 45 percent . The theme music from the movie `` Rocky '' boomed through the Richmond Coliseum , as he acknowledged his victory and served strident notice of the way he would run this fall . `` V irginians are sick and tired of a Congress run by back-slapping good old boys an d a White House governed by a bunch of twentysomething kids with an earring and an axe to grind , '' he told roaring delegates . `` I 've got news for them . Th ey will never see Ollie North crawling up the steps of Capitol Hill to kiss thei r big fat rings . '' Flashing the gap-toothed grin made famous during his 1987 t estimony before Congress on the Iran-Contra scandal , the retired Marine lieuten ant colonel laid out the themes that advisers said will form the primary thrust of this , his first campaign . He attempted to link the Democratic incumbent , S en. Charles S. Robb , with President Clinton , and cast himself as a renegade po pulist waging a one-man war against `` the Washington establishment . '' `` Toda y , we send the Clintons and their cronies a simple but unmistakable message , ' ' he said . `` This is our government . You stole it . And we are going to take it back . But North 's 10-point victory margin fell short of the predictions his campaign made early this year and exposed his political weaknesses as he enters the general election . Despite spending more than $ 6 million on the race so fa r , he ran well behind Miller in the critical urban centers of Northern Virginia , Richmond and Hampton Roads . North , 50 , also faces the immediate prospect o f a revolt by members of his own party who consider him too conservative or unwo rthy of support because of his role in the Iran-Contra affair . Former State Att orney General J. Marshall Coleman is considering renouncing the GOP to run for t he Senate as an independent . Coleman would not comment Saturday , but a key boo ster said a petition drive to put him on the ballot has gathered more than 20,00 0 signatures , several thousand more than is needed . Along with Coleman , forme r Gov. L. Douglas Wilder , a Democrat , is moving toward an independent candidac y , setting up the prospect of a four-way Senate race this fall . The Democratic nominee will be chosen in a June 14 primary election , with Robb favored over t hree challengers . Political analysts said Saturday that North 's core of intens ely loyal supporters gives him a stong start in a contest with several candidate s . But they said his poor showing in urban Virginia shows how hard it will be f or him to expand his base . `` Ollie North has a very fervent following , but it will be a tall order for him to credibly appeal to voters in Northern Virginia , '' said Mark J. Rozell , a political scientist at Mary Washington College . `` He lost that vote even within his own party , among conservatives . '' As media from around the world recorded the partisan speeches and merrymaking of one of the largest nominating conventions in U.S. history , North 's ebullient supporte rs took no notice of any losses . Their man played unashamedly on emotion and ad renaline , and when he spoke , there was genuine electricity in the air . The Ma rine Hymn preceded his first appearance on the podium , and after he concluded h is nominating speech , his wife , Betsy , and three children joined him there . The voting started about 1:30 p.m. and continued for more than an hour . The are na broke into booming cheers as soon as Fairfax County Board Chairman Thomas M. Davis III announced North 's tally and put him over the top . Miller , a former federal budget director who was given very little chance of winning early this y ear , benefited substantially from anti-North sentiment . Many party activists s aid Saturday that Miller 's campaign had gained credibility and skill in the con test 's closing weeks . In the end , he won four of the state 's 11 congressiona l districts . `` Give 'em credit , '' said Mark Goodin , a senior North adviser . `` They did a very good job . '' As he conceded the nomination , Miller , 51 , pledged his support to North , but he was obviously shaken and dejected . `` I am hurt but I am not slain , '' he told the convention , quoting from a work he identified as `` The Ballad of Sir Andrew Barton . '' `` I will lay me down and bleed a while , '' Miller said . `` Then I will rise and fight again . '' Both m en-onetime members of the Reagan administration-are expected to appear together here Sunday at a Republican `` unity breakfast , '' an occasion designed to demo nstrate that the party is already beginning to heal its wounds . But the task of healing will be extremely difficult , and in some cases impossible . North hard ly had finished his victory speech when one local party official from Nottoway C ounty in Southside Virginia announced on the floor that he was resigning his pos t . `` There is no way in hell I can support Ollie North , '' said Greg Eanes , 35 , a 15-year Air Force veteran who is chairman of the 61st House of Delegates District GOP committee . Referring to North 's admitted lies before Congress , E anes said , `` He betrayed the Constitution . '' Party officials played down the prospect of a rupture , saying that the vast majority of those attending would back North . Every delegate who attended Saturday 's convention signed a loyalty oath , pledging in advance to support the winner of the contest . Rep. Thomas J . Bliley , of Richmond , was one of Miller 's strongest supporters . But after t he vote he said that North `` will be a very charismatic candidate . He 'll camp aign very hard , and he 'll have all the money he needs . '' Bliley predicted a tough race , but he said he believes North will win . What few people mentioned were the polls showing that North would lose badly against Robb . Some moderate Virginians have said they view him less as an anti-establishment hero than as a reckless ideologue . North 's rousing acceptance speech likely gave them and cer tainly Democrats further concern . He railed about `` a liberal government that is up to its caboose in the peccadilloes and personal distractions of its presid ent . '' He also made clear that he would not run from his past as a staff membe r of Reagan 's National Security Council , a position in which he secretly negot iated to trade arms in exchange for U.S. hostages . He called for new leadership in a boastful reference to his days on Reagan 's National Security Council and his role in trading arms to Iran for hostages : `` In our hearts , we know it 's just this simple : Our government is being held hostage a captive of the potent ates of pork who live high on the hog off of big government . Well , I know some thing about liberating hostages . '' Aides to North acknowledged after his victo ry that his defeat in Virginia 's most populous areas is a significant problem f or him . But they say North will overcome it by reintroducing himself to voters in those areas with a barrage of television advertising . North is on track to c hallenge the all-time record for fund-raising by a Senate candidate , $ 12.5 mil lion , and political observers expect him to be a formidable presence on the sta te 's airwaves this fall . Despite the convention 's enthusiastic conclusion , t he party 's differences were apparent . Sen. John W. Warner a 16-year Capitol Hi ll veteran who is the party 's longest-serving and most popular statewide offici al came under assault from party conservatives for his repeated criticisms of No rth . But they failed in an effort to change party rules in a way that could dam age his renomination prospects in 1996 . Warner was traveling in Europe Saturday and could not be reached for comment . He said recently that he would support a bid by Coleman , and he threatened to seek reelection himself as an independent in 1996 . SALT LAKE CITY In a triumphant but somber funeral , the world 's 8.8 million Mo rmons bid farewell Saturday to Ezra Taft Benson , the Idaho `` plowboy '' who ro se to become the 13th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Sain ts and the man whom the faithful considered to be God 's prophet on earth . Held in the Mormon Tabernacle , just a few yards from the historic Mormon Temple wit h its heroic gilded statue of the angel Moroni blowing a trumpet atop a stylized Gothic steeple , the funeral drew an estimated 5,000 Mormons and others , and m essages from President Clinton , Vice President Al Gore , U . N. Secretary-Gener al Boutros Boutros-Ghali , Utah Gov. Michael O . Leavitt and other dignitaries . The Mormon Tabernacle Choir sang several of Benson 's favorite hymns , includin g `` Love at Home , '' and `` An Angel from on High . '' Benson , who served as Secretary of Agriculture in the Eisenhower administration and became president-p rophet of the Mormon church in 1985 , died May 30 of congestive heart failure . He had been incapacitated for the past two years . He was 94 . Thousands of peop le lined the highway between Salt Lake City and Whitney , Idaho , as the funeral procession made the two-hour drive to Benson 's birthplace . There , surrounded by the faithful , including his children , grandchildren and great grandchildre n , he was buried in a rural cemetery beside his late wife , Flora , who died in August , 1992 . It was the only second time a president-prophet of the church h ad been laid to rest outside the state of Utah . Former Los Angeles attorney How ard W. Hunter , the most senior member of the Council of the Twelve Apostles , i s expected to succeed Benson within a matter of days , church officials said . H unter , 86 , who spoke with a sometimes frail voice and required assistance to r each his chair and the podium , said Benson would be remembered for his love of the Book of Mormon . Hunter drew some appreciative laughter when he said that al though Benson 's passing was a time of sadness , `` it thrills us to think of th e joyful reunion President Benson is having with his beloved sweetheart , Flora , who has been waiting patiently or perhaps even a little impatiently for her hu sband of 66 years to join her on the other side . '' Mormons believe in life aft er death and that marriages are eternal . Tributes to Benson were numerous . Cli nton hailed Benson as `` a spiritual man .. . and someone who believed the pries tly idea that families come first . '' Thomas S. Monson , Mormon president and f ormer second counselor to Benson , recalled Benson 's work in Europe following W orld War II in bringing food and clothing to the hungry and homeless . He was ha iled for his work with the Boy Scouts of America and for his ardent anti-communi sm . Gordon B . Hinckley , another Mormon president and former first counselor t o Benson , said he had no doubt that the sight of war-ravaged Europe and despera te people was responsible for Benson 's outspoken anti-communism . Benson once o ffered outspoken support for the ultraconservative John Birch Society . ( Begin optional trim ) `` I am confident that it was out of what he saw of the bitter f ruit of dictatorship that he developed his strong feelings , almost hatred , for communism and socialism , '' Hinckley said . Over the years , however , Benson directed his fullest attention to the church . During his eight years as preside nt , he stressed the importance of missionary work and for his exhortations to M ormons to read the church 's sacred Scripture , the Book of Mormon and pattern t heir lives after the prophets and Jesus Christ . He had been a force within the denomination since 1943 when he became an apostle , a high-ranking position in t he church 's all-male hierarchy . ( End optional trim ) But the recurring theme Saturday was that of a simple farm boy who rose to political greatness and spiri tual heights . `` The plowboy who became God 's prophet has gone home , '' Monso n said . Moments later , Hinckley returned to that theme . `` He was a farm boy , literally and truly , an overall-clad , sunburned boy who at a very early age came to know the law of the harvest : ` Whatsoever a man soweth , that shall he also reap ' , '' Hinckley said , quoting from Galatians 6:7 . The funeral servic e was broadcast by satellite to 3,000 church locations throughout the United Sta tes and the world . BUENOS AIRES , Argentina When ABC Television aired Sam Donaldson 's in-your-fac e interview with Erich Priebke early in May , the American network not only reve aled the presence of an accused Gestapo war criminal in southern Argentina . It also put a prime-time spotlight on this South American country 's shadowy role a s a haven for World War II Nazis . Priebke , a former German SS captain who part icipated in the execution of 335 Italian civilians in 1944 , has lived peacefull y and quietly in Argentina since 1948 . He and hundreds of other Nazis who came to South America after the war found anonymity and security , precious commoditi es for men who were hated and hunted elsewhere in the world . How Third Reich ki llers and collaborators were able to hide out in this country is now becoming in creasingly clear : In the past two years , the Argentine government has opened p reviously secret archives to researchers who want to trace the steps of Nazis in this country . And as the painstaking research proceeds , under the auspices of Argentina 's Jewish community , it is turning up documents that detail a histor ical pattern of tolerance and complicity on behalf of fugitive Nazis . `` There was a network of protection if not legal , at least bought that made it very dif ficult to find them and bring them to justice , '' says Ruben Beraja , leader of the Delegation of Argentine Israelites Associations , which is sponsoring the r esearch dubbed Project Testimony . Exactly how the protective systems worked and who was involved has long been a subject of speculation . Nazi-hunters have dis covered some of the puzzle 's pieces over the years as they tracked down war cri minals in Argentina , including the notorious Adolf Eichmann . But important inf ormation in the form of official documents diplomatic notes , police reports , a dministrative memoranda was largely out of reach until Project Testimony . Altho ugh the documents uncovered have yet to be catalogued and cross-referenced , res earchers showed the Los Angeles Times copies of hundreds of pages containing int riguing information on notable Nazi figures . Many of the documents show that Na zis entered Argentina with travel papers issued by the International Red Cross , reinforcing allegations of Red Cross negligence or complicity in the flight of Nazi war criminals to South America . Red Cross officials now say that it was no t the organization 's job to investigate applicants for travel documents . An Ar gentine Federal Police memorandum from 1964 notes that death-camp doctor Josef M engele `` entered the country on 20 May , 1949 , carrying passport No. 100,501 , issued by the International Red Cross in the name of Gregor Helmut . '' That do cument also shows that German authorities were also careless , at the very least , in Mengele 's case . `` In November of 1956 , '' the memo says , `` he presen ted his birth certificate with his true name , certified by the Embassy of the F ederal German Republic in our country , and requested the rectification of his n ame and surname . '' Argentine authorities issued him a new identification card with his real name . Mengele was known as the `` Angel of Death '' for his role in the extermination of thousands of Jews at the Auschwitz death camp , where he performed experiments on prisoners . Other documents found by Project Testimony say Mengele practiced medicine here , reportedly specializing in illegal aborti ons . One paper explains Argentina 's refusal to arrest Mengele for extradition because `` the crimes attributed to the subject are political in nature . '' An order for his arrest was finally issued in 1961 , but he was never found . Menge le later lived under another name in neighboring Brazil , where he drowned at an Atlantic resort in 1979 , according to Brazilian authorities and international investigators . Another Nazi war criminal who came to Argentina was Josef Schwam mberger , an SS sergeant who participated in thousands of killings as the comman der of Jewish slave labor camps in southeastern Poland during the war . An Argen tine police document says Schwammberger entered the country in 1949 . The only N azi war criminal ever extradited from Argentina , Schwammberger was convicted in Germany and sentenced to life in prison in 1992 . In several notable cases , Ar gentine authorities have refused to extradite Nazi war criminals . In 1947 , for example , the Communist government of the former Yugoslavia requested the extra dition of Ante Pavelic , a former Croatian leader and Nazi collaborator , for wa r crimes . A previously secret Argentine Foreign Ministry document recommended r efusal . `` The ` war crime ' is what we could call a recent juridical creation .. . akin to that of political crime , '' the document said . `` Argentine legis lation only contemplates extradition for common crimes , and it prohibits it for political crimes . '' ( Begin optional trim ) A June 1947 letter from the U.S. . Embassy in Buenos Aires asked Argentina not to admit Milan Stoyadinovich , a p ro-Nazi former premier of Yugoslavia . On Sept. 22 , a man named Branko Benzon a sked Director of Migration Pablo Diana to allow Stoyadinovich and his family to enter Argentina . The next day , Diana authorized the entry . According to Proje ct Testimony , the Yugoslav-born Benzon was a member of a secret commission that advised Diana 's office on entrance permits for refugees from Europe , and the commission 's members were natives of European countries who frequently made rec ommendations in favor of Nazis . Project Testimony is preparing to release a doc ument that shows how the commission played a key role in influencing immigration policy on behalf of fleeing Nazis . ( End optional trim ) Admiration for German y was widespread in South American countries during the 1930s . President Juan P eron , who governed Argentina with an authoritarian hand from 1946 to 1955 , has been accused of neo-Nazi tendencies an accusation heatedly denied by Peronists . Project Testimony coordinator Beatriz Gurevich emphasized that Argentina was n ot the only Nazi haven and not all Argentine officials were pro-Nazi . `` It wou ld be mistaken to think that in Argentina there was a generalized anti-Jewish an d pro-Nazi attitude , because it wasn't so , '' she said . Some documents uncove red by Project Testimony have shown that some Argentine diplomats in Europe help ed protect Jews from persecution before and during the war . Others , however , denied visas to Jews and helped Nazis after the war . Argentine diplomats in Chi na sold visas to Jews and Nazis alike for up to $ 2,500 , according to researche rs . In the Foreign Ministry files , researchers have discovered a 1946 note fro m the U.S. . Embassy that speaks of large-scale efforts to sneak Nazis into Arge ntina . `` There exists a concerted plan to arrange the clandestine departure fr om Spain and entry into Argentina of former German agents , '' the note says . ` ` It appears that it is becoming increasingly difficult for such German agents i n Spain to remain concealed and that , as a consequence , some 150 to 200 German s expect to come to Argentina under false identification . '' ( Begin optional t rim ) Project Testimony is being carried out by a handful of researchers . Gurev ich keeps copies of some key documents in her office but often is unable to loca te requested papers . Only one researcher is assigned to the laborious work of e ntering all the data in computers . Research in the government archives is labor ious . Uncounted boxes of documents , often in disorder and without indexes , re main to be studied . Gurevich said many documents will never be found because th ey have been thrown away or purged . Information on Nazi arch-criminal Eichmann , she said , `` is almost all purged . '' The government says the Eichmann files were lost . Eichmann , mastermind of Hitler 's genocidal policy against Jews , was abducted from Argentina by Israeli agents in 1960 , tried in Israel and hang ed . ( End optional trim ) So far , the archives have yielded no information on Priebke , the former Nazi now being held in southern Argentina at Italy 's reque st . Gurevich said she had no knowledge of most other Nazis said to still be liv ing in Argentina . Her project 's purposes are historical , she said , with no p riority on tracking down or gathering evidence against living war criminals . ( Optional add end ) The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles has proposed that Argentina form a special task force to look for Nazi war criminals in this count ry . Argentine President Carlos Saul Menem recently said he thought such an inve stigative group would be a good idea . Menem also has said that Priebke would be extradited `` immediately , if all the documents are in order . '' But Leonidas Moldes , the judge now in charge of the Priebke case , ruled in 1988 against th e extradition of Abraham Kipp , a former SS policeman from the Netherlands who h as lived in Argentina since 1949 and been convicted in absentia of war crimes by a Dutch court . Priebke has admitted that he was the second-in-command of troop s that executed 335 Italians , including about 75 Jews , at the Ardeatine Caves south of Rome . But he told Argentine reporters recently that all the victims we re Communist terrorists and were killed in reprisal for an attack that killed 33 Nazis . In late May , after Priebke 's house arrest , the Italian Embassy asked Argentine authorities to take special security measures to prevent the ex-Nazi from escaping with the help of `` organized groups . '' Priebke , 81 , is report ed to be deeply depressed and in poor health , with high blood pressure and an i rregular heartbeat . It remains to be seen whether he will live to become the se cond Nazi war criminal to be extradited from Argentina . The Federal Aviation Administration 's top scientist warned prior to two fatal airplane accidents that wake turbulence from Boeing 757 jetliners would cause a `` major crash '' if the agency failed to take preventive measures , internal do cuments show . The documents reveal for the first time that experts within the F AA itself had , before the tragedies in Billings , Mont. , and Santa Ana , Calif . , expressed serious concerns about the potential danger to planes operating be hind 757s . Eleven days before the Dec. 18 , 1992 Billings crash killed eight pe ople and a year before the Dec. 15 , 1993 , Santa Ana accident claimed five live s , chief scientist Robert E. Machol predicted a `` catastrophe '' due to 757 wa ke turbulence at a a special meeting with the FAA 's hierarchy . Yet it wasn't u ntil after the Santa Ana accident that FAA Administrator David R. Hinson first d rew nationwide attention to the problem , issuing a bulletin instructing air tra ffic controllers to routinely alert pilots to the threat posed by 757s . The pla ne 's unique , fuel-efficient design creates invisible , `` horizontal tornadoes '' emanating from each wingtip that are more powerful and last longer than any produced by other aircraft its size . `` It 's true , '' Machol said in a recent interview . `` I was the first guy within the agency who got up and said we 're likely to have a catastrophe , a real catastrophe , probably involving a DC-9 o r a Fokker , and lose 70 to 100 people , if we don't do something . `` I wanted to speak to the associate administrators because I was scared . '' The 226 pages of FAA letters and memorandums were obtained by the Los Angeles Times under the Freedom of Information Act , after officials fought their release . An FAA spok esman said last week that the agency is investigating whether the records were w ithheld in violation of the federal disclosure law . Sources have also provided the Times with documents indicating that agency officials were concerned about h ow Machol 's warnings might be viewed . On one of Machol 's memos , an official jotted a cautionary note that Machol should temper his words lest someone interp ret the document to be a `` smoking gun . '' The FAA has resisted efforts to inc rease separation distances between 757s and tailing airplanes because it could p otentially decrease the number of flights at airports . That could cut into reve nues of the fiscally hobbled airline industry . Even mid-sized passenger jets su ch as MD-80s , DC-9s and Boeing 737s , which can carry 100 passengers or more , can be `` rolled '' and knocked out of control when they encounter the 757 's `` wake vortex . '' The hazard is greatest during landing and take-off when the sm aller plane can inadvertently fall below the 757 's flight path and find itself entangled in a danger zone of swirling , hurricane-force winds . Tony Broderick , the FAA 's associate administrator for regulation and certification , attended the Dec. 7 , 1992 meeting and recalls Machol `` expressing concern about wake v ortices on a 757 , '' he said . But Machol failed to provide `` specific data '' to justify the agency 's immediate intervention , Broderick said . Yet when Hin son recently announced a set of new policies on 757s including a requirement tha t pilots of smaller planes landing behind 757s maintain a one-mile greater dista nce it came with no new data other than the two fatal accidents and three seriou s incidents over the past 18 months . Most of the new policies , which require a ir traffic controllers to be more cautious when dealing with planes trailing 757 s , take effect this summer . In retrospect , Broderick acknowledged , the FAA c ould have acted sooner . `` I think it 's certainly fair to say that these two t ragic accidents caused us to place more emphasis on the wake vortex ( research a nd development ) project than we had in the past , '' Broderick said . The combi nation of the accidents , Machol 's concerns and the existing research on 757s , he said , `` convinced us that there were an awful lot of holes in our knowledg e . '' ( Optional Add End ) Leo Garodz , a former FAA manager who expressed his concerns about 757 wake turbulence to the FAA in 1991 as a consultant , was surp rised to learn that Machol had raised red flags on the agency 's wake turbulence policies as far back as 1989 . `` They had their own guy saying the same thing and they still kept it quiet . That 's amazing , '' said Garodz , a former fight er pilot who worked in the FAA 's wake turbulence program for two decades before retiring in 1986 . Machol , who retired from the FAA April 30 , said it was not unusual that his warnings went largely unheeded . `` Well , it is , in general , true that the FAA does not put a significant amount of time and money into som ething until they have a tragedy , '' he said . Reflecting the sobering calculus that the FAA and the airline industry employ , Machol said that the 13 deaths i n 18 months was not an alarming- enough figure to prompt drastic action . `` The 13 ? That 's not much , really , '' he said . `` We fly about 500 million peopl e a year in the United States , and .. . about 100 ( are killed ) , on average . That 's not a bad number . '' WASHINGTON Rep. Dan Rostenkowski 's trial on charges of fraud and embezzlement may be months away but many of his fellow lawmakers particularly Democrats fear that the public has already found the entire Congress guilty . `` No matter how it turns out for Rosty , we 've all been indicted in the public 's mind .. . and sentencing is set for Nov. 8 , '' said a House leadership aide , referring to t he widespread concern that Congress ' latest scandal will fuel voter anger at in cumbents seeking re-election this fall . Thomas Mann , director of governmental studies at the Brookings Institution , said the Chicago Democrat 's alleged misd eeds are far from typical of the way lawmakers behave . Despite that , he said , the allegations are likely to confirm the prejudices of disillusioned voters wh o think that the very word `` Congress '' has but two synonyms : pork and corrup tion . For worried Democrats , Rostenkowski 's indictment earlier this week on 1 7 felony counts also raises the specter of a high-profile trial that will refocu s public attention just before congressional elections on the way they have run the institution . `` Congress as a whole and the Democratic leadership in partic ular will in some ways be on trial with Rostenkowski , and that has a lot of peo ple concerned about what will happen in November , '' said the House leadership aide . Some Democratic strategists are still hoping that the political damage wi ll be minimal . Unlike the House bank scandal two years ago , when many members were found to have abused the free overdraft priviliges that went with their con gressional checking accounts , the current allegations involve only Rostenkowski , an Illinois Democrat who is accused of defrauding taxpayers of more than $ 50 0,000 through a series of illicit transactions that allegedly included kickbacks , misuse of government funds and fraudulent stamps-for-cash swaps at the House post office . As for its repercussions in November , `` this has nowhere near th e importance or the dimensions of the House bank scandal , where you had widespr ead personal culpability , '' said Democratic pollster Mark Mellman . The case a gainst Rostenkowski remains unproved . But the allegations that he padded his pa yroll with ghost workers and that he obtained thousands of dollars worth of free stamps and illegally converted them into cash at the House post office are so j uicy that Republican strategists hope to use them against all incumbent Democrat s in the fall . While paying lip service to the notion that the deposed Ways and Means Committee chairman is innocent until proven guilty , the Republicans are already touting Rostenkowski 's indictment as proof that corruption has been all owed to run rampant in a Democratic Congress . `` Rosty deserves the right to pl ead innocent just like any other American but , when it comes to enforcing ethic s in Congress , the Democrats who 've controlled the House for 40 years are guil ty of criminal negligence , '' said Rep. Dick Armey of Texas , chairman of the H ouse Republican Conference . Other analysts caution , however , that a strategy that relies too heavily on Congress-bashing and anti-incumbency could easily bac kfire on the Republicans . `` Once you stir up anti-incumbency sentiments , it ' s very hard to steer them in a particular direction , '' said William Schneider , a political analyst at the American Enterprise Institute . ( Optional Add End ) `` The risk for Republicans in raising the Rosty issue is that the public will n't see it in partisan terms '' and that all incumbents will suffer , he added . The Republicans , moreover , have some ethical baggage of their own . The ranki ng Republican on the House Appropriations Committee , Rep. Joseph M. McDade of P ennsylvania , has been under indictment on rackteering charges for two years . I n the Senate , Republican Bob Packwood of Oregon is being investigated by the Et hics Committee on charges of sexual misconduct . SARAJEVO , Bosnia-Herzegovina In some Bosnian Serbs , the bushy-haired psychiat rist who claims to be their political leader evokes emotions of resentment , ang er and disgust . While the outside world sees Radovan Karadzic as the defender o f Serbian interests in this savaged republic , many of those he claims to speak for condemn his nationalist course and accuse him of destroying their country . `` To me , he is not a president but a war criminal , '' says housewife Gordana Kitic , squeezing the air out of a collapsible baby bottle as she prepares to fe ed her 3-month-old daughter . `` He represents only a minority of Serbs in Bosni a , '' insists biology professor Ljubomir Berberovic , poking at a sheaf of stat istics contending that a greater number of his fellow Serbs have fled the countr y or remained loyal to the Sarajevo government . `` Who elected him ? No one . S o why does the world accept him as our leader ? '' asks publisher Gavrilo Grahov ac , a look of incredulity coming over his bearded face . Grahovac and other Ser bs who reject the aggressive , segregationist course charted by Karadzic concede that they know very well why the world deals with the rebel leader accused of c ommitting atrocities in pursuit of ethnically `` pure '' territory for Greater S erbia . Regardless of whether they are legitimate representatives or renegades , Karadzic and his nationalist patrons are backed by the awesome arsenal of the Y ugoslav army . In the might-makes-right reality of the Balkans in this third yea r of war , the voices of moderation are routinely drowned out by those whose wor ds are punctuated with gunfire . Yet despite their lack of military clout , Bosn ian Serbs who have refused to side with their bellicose brethren have banded tog ether and insist on at least a peripheral role in international efforts to resol ve Bosnia 's crisis . Grahovac and other members of a newly constituted Bosnian Serb Assembly have traveled to Moscow and to West European capitals to explain t heir objections to ethnic partitioning , and some international mediators are no w weighing their views along with those of Karadzic . `` We 've proposed to all the negotiators that they at least stop dealing with Karadzic as the sole repres entative of the Serbs in Bosnia-Herzegovina , '' says Mirko Pejanovic , a vice p resident of Bosnia and president of the Bosnian Serb Assembly . `` I think there is a growing acceptance that he does not speak for all of us . '' An inaugural session of the Serb Assembly in March was attended by U.S. special envoy for the Balkans Charles Redman , as well as by the American , British , French and othe r ambassadors recently posted to Bosnia . Diplomats report that their government s are in a quandary about how to deal with the rival Bosnian Serb faction , part icularly since they find the assembly 's support for a multicultural Bosnia more politically palatable than the nationalists ' bloody quest for ethnic segregati on . `` We support their views , but we have to recognize they have no power , ' ' one senior Western envoy said of the loyalist Serbs . `` The reality is that K aradzic has the weaponry and the JNA ( Yugoslav army ) behind him , which is a f actor that cannot be ignored . '' Berberovic , who was the last rector of Saraje vo University before education was disrupted by the Serbian rebellion against in dependence in April 1992 , has compiled an analysis of the fate of Bosnia 's Ser bs . He has concluded that Karadzic is supported by only a subjugated minority . ( Optional Add End ) His research contends that of the 1.4 million Serbs in pre war Bosnia , at least 350,000 took refuge in Serbia , mostly to escape the hazar ds of rebel artillery attacks against the integrated towns and cities they lived in . Records of the Office of the U.N. . High Commissioner for Refugees , respo nsible for feeding and providing shelter for the displaced , suggest that this e stimate is not far off . A report compiled by the U.N. agency late last year set the number of Bosnian refugees in Serbia at 322,000 , nearly all of them ethnic Serbs . Of the 1.2 million Bosnian refugees who scattered beyond the former Yug oslav federation , at least one-third are thought to be Serbs . Presumably , Ber berovic says , many fled in opposition to the nationalist attacks on their fello w Bosnians or to escape being conscripted into the rebel army . Berberovic also claims that 100,000 Bosnian Serbs have been killed in rebel-held territory over the course of the war and that at least 150,000 Serbs remain in those areas of B osnia still under government rule . Those figures , however , are regarded by fo reign aid agencies and diplomats as somewhat inflated . Considering the number o f refugees , fatalities and loyalists , Karadzic rules over only about 500,000 B osnian Serbs , Berberovic argues . However , Sarajevo high school teacher Bozo D jondovic notes that not all of those in government territory are remaining there of their own free will . `` There are a lot of people , and not only Serbs , wh o can't wait to leave this city , '' says Djondovic , who like all adult men in the Bosnian capital is prevented from leaving by a wartime security order . `` I still wouldn't go to Karadzic 's side . My family is in Montenegro , and I woul d go to join them in a minute if I could . It will not be much better there , bu t it couldn't be as bad as it is here . '' After the Serb Assembly proclaimed it s aim of restoring Bosnia 's territorial integrity and restated its commitment t o ethnic tolerance , an anti-nationalist underground movement based in the rebel stronghold of Banja Luka contacted the Serbian loyalists in Sarajevo through a circuitous network of supporters reaching as far as Australia . `` If there are some brave enough to risk contacting us , we have to assume that there are a lot of people who don't support Karadzic but are too frightened to show any sign , '' says Stevo Latinovic , a Serbian journalist working for Bosnia 's government- controlled radio . SARAJEVO , Bosnia-Herzegovina In some Bosnian Serbs , the bushy-haired psychiat rist who claims to be their political leader evokes emotions of resentment , ang er and disgust . While the outside world sees Radovan Karadzic as the defender o f Serbian interests in this savaged republic , many of those he claims to speak for condemn his nationalist course and accuse him of destroying their country . `` To me , he is not a president but a war criminal , '' says housewife Gordana Kitic , squeezing the air out of a collapsible baby bottle as she prepares to fe ed her 3-month-old daughter . `` He represents only a minority of Serbs in Bosni a , '' insists biology professor Ljubomir Berberovic , poking at a sheaf of stat istics contending that a greater number of his fellow Serbs have fled the countr y or remained loyal to the Sarajevo government . `` Who elected him ? No one . S o why does the world accept him as our leader ? '' asks publisher Gavrilo Grahov ac , a look of incredulity coming over his bearded face . Grahovac and other Ser bs who reject the aggressive , segregationist course charted by Karadzic concede that they know very well why the world deals with the rebel leader accused of c ommitting atrocities in pursuit of ethnically `` pure '' territory for Greater S erbia . Regardless of whether they are legitimate representatives or renegades , Karadzic and his nationalist patrons are backed by the awesome arsenal of the Y ugoslav army . In the might-makes-right reality of the Balkans in this third yea r of war , the voices of moderation are routinely drowned out by those whose wor ds are punctuated with gunfire . Yet despite their lack of military clout , Bosn ian Serbs who have refused to side with their bellicose brethren have banded tog ether and insist on at least a peripheral role in international efforts to resol ve Bosnia 's crisis . Grahovac and other members of a newly constituted Bosnian Serb Assembly have traveled to Moscow and to West European capitals to explain t heir objections to ethnic partitioning , and some international mediators are no w weighing their views along with those of Karadzic . `` We 've proposed to all the negotiators that they at least stop dealing with Karadzic as the sole repres entative of the Serbs in Bosnia-Herzegovina , '' says Mirko Pejanovic , a vice p resident of Bosnia and president of the Bosnian Serb Assembly . `` I think there is a growing acceptance that he does not speak for all of us . '' An inaugural session of the Serb Assembly in March was attended by U.S. special envoy for the Balkans Charles Redman , as well as by the American , British , French and othe r ambassadors recently posted to Bosnia . Diplomats report that their government s are in a quandary about how to deal with the rival Bosnian Serb faction , part icularly since they find the assembly 's support for a multicultural Bosnia more politically palatable than the nationalists ' bloody quest for ethnic segregati on . `` We support their views , but we have to recognize they have no power , ' ' one senior Western envoy said of the loyalist Serbs . `` The reality is that K aradzic has the weaponry and the JNA ( Yugoslav army ) behind him , which is a f actor that cannot be ignored . '' Berberovic , who was the last rector of Saraje vo University before education was disrupted by the Serbian rebellion against in dependence in April 1992 , has compiled an analysis of the fate of Bosnia 's Ser bs . He has concluded that Karadzic is supported by only a subjugated minority . ( Optional Add End ) His research contends that of the 1.4 million Serbs in pre war Bosnia , at least 350,000 took refuge in Serbia , mostly to escape the hazar ds of rebel artillery attacks against the integrated towns and cities they lived in . Records of the Office of the U.N. . High Commissioner for Refugees , respo nsible for feeding and providing shelter for the displaced , suggest that this e stimate is not far off . A report compiled by the U.N. agency late last year set the number of Bosnian refugees in Serbia at 322,000 , nearly all of them ethnic Serbs . Of the 1.2 million Bosnian refugees who scattered beyond the former Yug oslav federation , at least one-third are thought to be Serbs . Presumably , Ber berovic says , many fled in opposition to the nationalist attacks on their fello w Bosnians or to escape being conscripted into the rebel army . Berberovic also claims that 100,000 Bosnian Serbs have been killed in rebel-held territory over the course of the war and that at least 150,000 Serbs remain in those areas of B osnia still under government rule . Those figures , however , are regarded by fo reign aid agencies and diplomats as somewhat inflated . Considering the number o f refugees , fatalities and loyalists , Karadzic rules over only about 500,000 B osnian Serbs , Berberovic argues . However , Sarajevo high school teacher Bozo D jondovic notes that not all of those in government territory are remaining there of their own free will . `` There are a lot of people , and not only Serbs , wh o can't wait to leave this city , '' says Djondovic , who like all adult men in the Bosnian capital is prevented from leaving by a wartime security order . `` I still wouldn't go to Karadzic 's side . My family is in Montenegro , and I woul d go to join them in a minute if I could . It will not be much better there , bu t it couldn't be as bad as it is here . '' After the Serb Assembly proclaimed it s aim of restoring Bosnia 's territorial integrity and restated its commitment t o ethnic tolerance , an anti-nationalist underground movement based in the rebel stronghold of Banja Luka contacted the Serbian loyalists in Sarajevo through a circuitous network of supporters reaching as far as Australia . `` If there are some brave enough to risk contacting us , we have to assume that there are a lot of people who don't support Karadzic but are too frightened to show any sign , '' says Stevo Latinovic , a Serbian journalist working for Bosnia 's government- controlled radio . LAS VEGAS Sounding like a conservative politician and preacher , Nation of Isla m leader Louis Farrakhan spoke reproachfully Saturday night of a vain society `` where greed , lust and an inordinate self-interest have taken over , '' and sco lded blacks for not organizing and taking more economic control of their communi ties . Speaking in Las Vegas , the 61-year-old Muslim leader avoided much of the politically explosive language that in the past 10 years has made him a controv ersial figure and drawn the enmity of a broad spectrum of political and religiou s leaders . Instead , Farrakhan emphasized his theme of self-empowerment and sel f-discipline among blacks , urging them to organize economically and socially . `` The Polish organize , the Jews organize , '' he said in a speech before 6,000 at the Thomas & Mack Center at the University of Nevada Las Vegas . `` What is wrong with you ? .. . You have been here longer than any racial or ethnic group , and you have less to show for it . '' Six days after his former spokesman was shot in Riverside , Farrakhan did not comment directly on the ambush , but said : `` We live in such a dangerous hour. .. . To hurt people because you disagree with them is totally unacceptable in civilized society . '' Farrakhan spent much of his speech addressing the much-publicized criticism of him . `` While talk o f racism and anti-Semitism swirl around my head , I 'm here to let you know that calling Farrakhan a racist and a bigot and an anti-Semite is not going to help you solve your problems , '' he said to sustained applause . `` I deplore racism . I am saying it again : I deplore racism . `` To be a racist , to me , is to b e one who promotes his or her race as superior to , or better than .. . any othe r race. .. . That 's wickedness . '' Farrakhan spoke extemporaneously for severa l hours . In a thundering voice , he railed against depriving other human beings of their rights . `` Although I want to see black people uplifted , '' he said , `` I will never resort to evil to uplift black people at the expense of others . '' He also described the notion of him being against white people as `` silly . '' `` We have done nothing to keep white people from being successful . We ha ve done nothing to keep Jewish people from being successful . We do not marshal our energy , time , money or talent to block any individual from achieving their talents , '' he said . `` So do not use false labels to describe Louis Farrakha n . '' Farrakhan 's remarks were dramatically different in tone from those by Kh allid Abdul Muhammad , who spoke a week ago in Los Angeles . Muhammad , who had been suspended as a top aide and spokesman because of anti-Semitic and anti-whit e remarks during a speech in November , reiterated those sentiments last week . Farrakhan who had gotten in trouble in February for saying he basically agreed w ith Muhammad did not make any direct reference to the shooting of Muhammad in Ri verside , Calif. , allegedly by an ousted Nation of Islam member . Farrakhan sus pended Muhammad , 46 , as his senior aide after a speech in which Muhammad calle d Jews `` the bloodsuckers '' of the black community , criticized the Pope and u rged the killing of South African whites . Muhammad was shot last week in the le gs in an ambush in which four of his bodyguards and a bystander were also wounde d . ( Optional add end ) James Edward Bess , 49 , an ousted minister of the Nati on of Islam , pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder and assault . Po lice believe he acted alone . In his speech Saturday , Farrakhan apologized to t he audience for the stringent security requirements . Everyone in the arena was searched with hand-held metal detectors and frisked before being allowed to ente r . Mindful of his venue , Farrakhan also noted that `` gambling is forbidden in the Koran , '' and called Las Vegas `` a city founded in sin . '' He said prepa id reservations at a hotel were canceled at the last minute , forcing him to mak e a last-ditch effort to find a room to stay so he could speak . Saying that his reservations were canceled because `` they must have found out it was I who was coming , '' Farrakhan said : `` Since I 've been here , I have felt like Mary t rying to find a place to give birth to her baby . '' The following editorial appeared in Sunday 's Washington Post : North Korea has flagrantly and deliberately broken the rules by which the world is trying to pr event the spread of nuclear weapons . President Clinton is right to demand sanct ions , but to be effective , sanctions will require vigorous enforcement by Chin a , Japan and Russia . Clinton has to build an alliance among a group of countri es that are all , in varying degrees , unenthusiastic and disinclined to take re al action . But to fail to respond to North Korea 's transgressions would be hor ribly dangerous , especially for its neighbors . If the North Koreans can build warheads with impunity , they already have missiles capable of reaching Beijing , Osaka and Vladivostok . And the risks don't end at the 1,000-kilometer radius . The North Koreans have been willing to sell missiles to anyone with cash and m ight be ready to do the same with warheads . If the world lets their present beh avior pass without response , it might as well abandon any further attempts to e nforce the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty where it counts . That will send an unambiguous message to Iran , Iraq , Libya and all the other despotisms with lar ge ambitions and scores to settle . The North Koreans have said they would regar d sanctions as an act of war . That would be national suicide , but it 's imposs ible to be sure that they wouldn't attack . The United States has rightly said t hat the rest of the world can't allow that kind of threat to deter penalties for violating a crucial treaty . It is , unfortunately , worth chancing a war to en force the nuclear rules in North Korea , just as it was worth a war to enforce t hem in Iraq . In Iraq the United States was able to organize rapidly an alliance that drew on some of its longstanding NATO allies in Europe , as well as Arab c ountries that it had armed or otherwise helped over the years . Building a simil ar alliance in the Pacific will be much harder . This country has a deep relatio nship with Japan , but it 's characterized in security matters by Japanese passi vity reflecting the strain of pacifism in Japanese politics . Russia is in the t urbulent process of working out an entirely new posture toward this country . As for China , it still regards the United States with deep suspicion as an advers ary if not an enemy . The North Korean nuclear case is the anvil on which Americ an diplomacy will now try to hammer out this new Pacific alliance . If it fails , the costs could be enormous . If it succeeds , it will not only make all count ries safer , but also will set an impressive precedent for co-operation among wh at may well be , in the next century , the world 's four most powerful states . COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER , France One was a hunter with Indian blood in his veins who trapped coyotes and could fix anything mechanical . Another had dark hair and w ore glasses and remains something of a mystery . Another was a quiet boy who wei ghed maybe 100 pounds and probably should have leaned a bit more on the trigger of his machine gun . For 50 years the three have lain here among thousands of ot hers , beckoning relatives and friends who wish they had known them better . `` I think he said he was married , '' says George Wilson , 73 , of the quiet , thi n buddy he has come to visit at the American cemetery and memorial for the first time in a half-century . Nearly 4,000 visitors are defying chilly weather to pa ss through this resting place above Omaha Beach for the 50th anniversary of the Normandy invasion . The parade includes veterans from other World War II campaig ns , history buffs , the curious and John Q . Public. For these visitors the whi te Italian marble crosses and Stars of David symbolize the massive scope of an e vent that freed Europe and changed history . But for people like Wilson each pie ce of marble has a face . `` Every chance we got , me and him were together , '' says the Rockford , Ohio , farmer here for his first visit since landing near P ointe-du-Hoc on June 6 , 1944 . `` Probably be my last , '' he says . All day th e visitors file into a cemetery reception center with names written on scraps of paper . A woman opens a fat book and runs her finger down the list on one of th e pages . The questioners watch until it stops . If the person asking is a relat ive , an electric cart pulls up to take him or her to the gravesite . A caretake r wipes the marble face with wet sand from Omaha Beach to bring out the letters . Then he takes a snapshot that is given to the relative free of charge . Others , for whom the names represent friends , are given locator maps of the burial s pot amid the 9,386 sites . Then they set off for the last part of a pilgrimage t hat sometimes started an ocean away . One of the main reasons Wilson returned wa s to find the grave of his friend Russell Woodward . He was about 20 , didn't sm oke or drink and liked Red Cross donuts . `` He was kind of like me , '' Wilson says . Sometimes for the men who come here the experience is a confrontation wit h how little they actually knew about someone upon whom they often depended for their lives . Even though he and Woodward were good friends , Wilson did not kno w what his job was before the war or where to locate his relatives . What he doe s remember is seeing his friend battle a Nazi machine-gun nest . Woodward was ne w to the gun and peppered the Germans with small bursts instead of a steady stre am of fire . The enemy knew better . In seconds Woodward was slumped over his gu n , Wilson says . Sometimes the face on the marble reflects only a photograph . Joanne Miller was born after the war and never knew her uncle except as a dark-h aired man with spectacles in a photo . The Boston woman knows that William Babbi tt was past draft age and didn't have to go to war but chose to anyway . He was hit in the head by a sniper a month after landing on Omaha Beach . This is her f irst visit to the cemetery , and she wishes she had known him . In a book that r elatives fill with comments , she simply writes , `` God bless . '' When Harold Lucey looks at the cross on his brother 's grave , he sees a stocky hunter who s hot rabbits and trapped coyotes in rural Nevada . His brother , Raymond , 23 , m ade it safely ashore on Utah Beach but was killed by shrapnel in mid-July in the battle for St. Lo . Raymond , like his brother one-fourth Shoshone Indian , was always helping out neighbors when their cars and lawn mowers broke down , and d espite being his big brother , never shooed him away on his frequent hunting tri ps . Even after 50 years , Luceycan hardly talk about the loss without being ove rcome by his emotions . Lucey wants his two grandchildren he brought on the trip to know the reason the cross is there . `` I want them to know the reason he di ed , '' he says . `` It can't be forgotten . It 's that simple . '' Traveling the battlefields of Europe , President Clinton got what he called `` good news from the home front '' as the unemployment rate dropped sharply from 6 .4 percent to 6 percent in May , the lowest level since 1990 . That wasn't the o nly good news . During the month 191,000 new jobs were created much less than th e 285,000 feared on inflation-antsy Wall Street but well over the 170,000 monthl y rate required for Mr. Clinton to achieve his goal of 8 million new jobs by ele ction day , 1996 . Financial markets remained calm . The May numbers are likely to heat up debate among economists and within the administration about what cons titutes `` full employment '' the optimum number of jobs that can be filled with out triggering inflation . In the 1970s , Democrats and labor unionists aimed at getting unemployment below 4 percent . But with increased volatility in the wor k force , as more people move more rapidly to different kinds of jobs , there is a growing consensus that 6 percent is the more correct number . If so , the May figure ( which is subject to readjustment , probably higher ) would indicate th at the Federal Reserve Board had it about right by pushing up short term interes t rates from 3 percent to 4.25 percent in the February-to-May period . The large r question now is whether further increases will be necessary to keep the econom y from overheating . On this , the various economic indicators are mixed . Laura Tyson , the president 's chief economic adviser , offers as good a diagnosis as any when she says the `` economic expansion continues right on track . '' By he r definition , this would be 3 percent growth rate this year and 2.9 percent nex t a pattern that leads Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen to say the economy appea rs stronger than at any time in the past 20 years . Bentsen and Tyson have consi stently refrained from criticism of the Fed 's interest rate increases while sof tly suggesting enough is enough . If this is constructive caution , it is clearl y attuned to the president 's wishes . History shows that while former President Carter succeeded in pushing down the unemployment rate from 7.7 percent to 5.8 percent during his first two years , he also ignited the double-digit inflation that led to his defeat in 1980 . That is a pattern President Clinton must want t o avoid . Politicians exult in job growth for the 8 million currently unemployed , but wise ones know that inflation is a curse that affects the entire voting p ublic . So while Fed chairman Alan Greenspan takes his licks from growth-minded Democrats , Clinton seems well and rightly content to let interest rates rise an d unemployment rates drop to levels where they are in equilibrium . The economy seems to be in that pleasant state right now , which is indeed good news from th e home front . RIVERSIDE , Calif. . As story lines go , this one could rejuvenate a flagging s oap opera : A freshman congressman picks up a known prostitute , parks his car o n a side street and is caught by police with his pants unzipped . He starts to f lee but thinks better of it . For five months , the police withhold information about the incident and the congressman stonewalls , saying `` nothing happened'' -until the local newspaper sues the city for the police reports . Then the congr essman confesses to being found `` in an extremely embarrassing situation , '' b ut says he didn't know the woman was a prostitute , didn't pay for sex and thus didn't do anything illegal . He apologizes for his `` inappropriate '' behavior and attributes the escapade to his father 's suicide and the breakup of his 15-y ear marriage . He asks for understanding , notes he has sought counseling and ge ts on with his reelection campaign . Do the voters believe he has told the whole truth ? Will they forgive him ? Find out Tuesday night after the polls close in the California primary and The Days of Ken Calvert 's Life continue . Calvert , R-Calif. , a real-life lawmaker who barely won his seat two years ago , is tryi ng to fend off a Republican challenger and recover from a damaging scandal that has made him the subject of jokes in his own community and good material for Jay Leno as well . While President Clinton grapples with the future political conse quences of the Whitewater affair and a pending sexual-harassment lawsuit , at le ast a dozen members of Congress have seen their own careers jeopardized by eithe r personal indiscretions , alleged ethical breaches or allegations of criminal m isconduct . The most powerful , Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , was indicted la st week on 17 felony counts of fraud and embezzlement and forced to surrender hi s Ways and Means Committee chairmanship . He maintains he is innocent . Although the number of scandalized lawmakers is relatively small , and the controversies surrounding them vary in severity , each new episode adds a layer to the public 's deep suspicions about their politicians . `` Nobody feels good about who 's representing them anymore , '' said Sande Burman-Wilson , a mortgage lender inte rviewed at a candidates ' forum in Riverside . `` It used to be a highly touted kind of job . '' Calvert 's race in western Riverside County is being watched na tionally as a barometer of how voters respond to tainted incumbents . The Capito l Hill newspaper Roll Call named Calvert the most vulnerable House member facing re-election . Democrats , who came within 519 votes of beating Calvert two year s ago , are salivating at the thought of a rematch this year . Republicans , eve n some of those who support him , are nervous about the general election should Calvert dispose of his conservative GOP challenger , who has strong support from evangelical Christians . Interviews conducted in Calvert 's district last week indicate several strains of dissatisfaction among voters . Some are upset with C alvert , believing he exercised poor judgment and then tried to cover up his act ions . Other voters are upset with the news media for what they see as too much scrutiny of politicians ' private lives . Still others have grown so accustomed to the transgressions of elected officials that they have tuned out . As they se ek another term , lawmakers whose political reputations have been jeopardized by controversy are employing varying strategies to combat their problems and impro ve their images . Rep. Walter R. Tucker III , D-Calif. , reportedly a target of an FBI bribery investigation of Compton city government , has portrayed himself as the latest victim of a `` pattern of attacks on African-American politicians '' that is a carryover from Republican administrations . A former Compton mayor and member of a prominent political family , Tucker took out an ad in a communit y newspaper circulated among black churches proclaiming his innocence and planti ng the notion of a racially motivated conspiracy . Rep. Martin R. Hoke , R-Ohio , who was caught on videotape referring to a TV producer 's `` beeeg breasts '' and denied an allegation by a law firm 's secretary that he pinched her on the t high , has been meeting periodically with leaders of women 's groups in his dist rict . At their urging , he recently held a town hall meeting on women 's issues . Rep. Joseph M. McDade , R-Pa. , who has been under indictment since 1992 for allegedly taking more than $ 100,000 in bribes and illegal gratuities , said , ` ` There 's no strategy . I 've announced I 'm innocent and fighting the charges . Plain and simple , my people don't believe it . '' McDade also reminds voters that he is the ranking Republican on the House Appropriations Committee , a lawm aker with seniority . `` The guy is bringing home bacon , '' said a Democratic o fficial , who acknowledged being unable to mount a serious challenge against McD ade . Sen. Charles S. Robb , D-Va. , trying to address lingering questions about his personal life , released an extraordinary five-page letter before announcin g his re-election campaign . In it , he denied ever using drugs but admitted to behavior `` not appropriate for a married man . '' Calvert , a 40-year-old real estate developer from a prominent Riverside County family , tried the Robb appro ach , releasing a statement on April 22 to explain his actions after midnight on Nov. 28 , 1993 . That is when Corona police , checking on a driver they suspect ed was asleep or unconscious , found Calvert in a parked car with Lore Lindberg , a twice-convicted prostitute with a heroin habit . His campaign manager says p olling indicates the episode is not hurting Calvert and shows him with a big lea d over S. Joseph Khoury , a finance professor at the University of California at Riverside who finished second in the 1992 GOP primary . ANAMOSA , Iowa Richard Schwarm , Iowa 's Republican Party chairman , describes Rep. Fred Grandy , R-Iowa , as a `` risk-taker . '' He earned that reputation in 1986 , when he returned to his home state and recaptured for the GOP a House se at Democrats had held 12 years . That made Grandy , an actor whose best-known ro le was as `` Gopher , '' the purser in the television series `` The Love Boat , '' a hero to Iowa Republicans . But these days Grandy 's hero status has been se verely tarnished in the eyes of many Iowa Republicans because of another high-ri sk venture his primary challenge to three-term Gov. Terry E. Branstad , R , that has exposed deep fissures in the state party . During the last two weeks before Tuesday 's primary , Grandy has roamed Iowa 's back roads in a recreational veh icle dubbed `` The Guv Boat , '' assailing Branstad for `` a pattern of abuse an d mismanagement '' of state government and pressing a Bill Clinton-type theme ch ange . With the public growing increasingly sour toward politics , and the term- limits movement gaining momentum , Branstad 's 12-year tenure in office is both a major campaign issue and probably his most serious handicap . Part of the GOP establishment has rallied to his side , including Schwarm , former Gov. Robert R ay , who served a record 14 years , and Sen. Charles E. Grassley , R-Iowa , who last month suggested Grandy should quit the race . `` He 's got a future in Iowa politics if he wants to be patient , '' Grassley said . But the toll of 12 year s in the executive mansion and a distant relationship with GOP legislative leade rs have come back to haunt Branstad . Harold Van Maanen , Republican speaker of the Iowa House , has endorsed him , but other top GOP legislative leaders are ba cking Grandy . So is state Auditor Richard Johnson , only Republican besides Bra nstad to hold statewide elective office . `` He 's been there so long , there 's an anti-Branstad mood , '' said state Senate Minority Leader Jack Rife as he an d Johnson campaigned with Grandy last week . `` There are people who think this is his career , this is his life. .. . I personally want new vision . I want cha nge . '' Less than two years before Iowa Republicans , meeting in precinct caucu ses , will make the first meaningful judgment of their party 's 1996 presidentia l contenders , this rare contested primary could provide a glimpse of the GOP mo od here . Democratic candidates carried the state in the last two presidential e lections , and Iowa Democrats have built a 100,000-vote advantage in voter regis tration . Meanwhile. the conservative Christian Coalition has been gaining GOP s trength and this year seized majority control of the state central committee . T o preserve its tax-exempt status , the coalition does not endorse candidates , b ut few here doubt its members and sympathizers will provide strong backing to Br anstad , which could be decisive in a low-turnout primary . In a voters ' guide distributed by the coalition , Grandy differed with Branstad and the coalition o n several issues , including flag burning , homosexuals in the military and gove rnment grants for `` obscene arts . '' `` Anyone reading this voters ' guide cou ld pretty much know '' how coalition members are likely to vote , said Ione Dill ey , the organization 's president . Grandy does not say so directly , but he is clearly running in part to stem the growing influence of conservative religious activists in the Iowa GOP . After speaking at a restaurant here , he was told b y a local official that a woman in the audience who wore a veil was an evangelic al activist in the home schooling movement and has converted her home into a chu rch to gain a tax exemption . `` If that is now the Republican Party in Iowa , y ou have to ask yourself if it 's worth the struggle , '' Grandy said . `` A lot of this campaign is to recapture the heart and soul of this party . '' Branstad , 47 , has come under fire from state Auditor Johnson for allegedly keeping `` t wo sets of books '' to conceal a state budget deficit . He also angered politica l and business leaders in populous river towns such as Davenport by what critics charge has been his wavering , indecisive attitude toward the future of riverbo at gambling in the state . But Branstad is a seasoned , indefatigable campaigner who has a clear organizational advantage over an opponent making his first stat ewide race , who fired his first campaign manager and more recently changed medi a consultants . Asked in an interview about Grandy , he said , `` What you 've g ot is an ambitious guy who , I guess , was bored with being in Congress and deci ded he wanted to try this . '' The Harvard-educated Grandy , 45 , is nothing lik e the dim-witted character he played in `` The Love Boat . '' He said he never p lanned to make the House his career and speaks with an edge of disdain about tha t institution , where Republicans have been in the minority for more than 40 yea rs . `` It 's either this ( the gubernatorial campaign ) or work myself up to so me ranking minority membership on some subcommittee , '' he said . OMAHA First came the delegation from the American Association of Retired Person s ( AARP ) , seeking assurance the long-term care and prescription benefits prom ised by President Clinton will be in the health bill passed by Congress . Next R ep. Peter Hoagland , D-Neb. , sat down with executives of 10 major insurance fir ms , among them several of the city 's largest employers . They wanted to be sur e the legislation will keep them in business , impose no price controls on their policies and rid them of the increasing threat of restrictive state regulation . Immediately afterward , Hoagland returned to his office to find 10 labor leade rs , led by the state AFL-CIO president , waiting to tell him to support a requi rement that all employers buy health insurance for their workers and to fight ta xation of health benefits . Hoagland 's situation is typical of the cross-pressu res nervous incumbents of both parties faced at home last week on their last bre ak before House and Senate committees must make critical decisions on health car e legislation . The 52-year-old third-term congressman , an uncommitted swing vo te on the Ways and Means Committee and a politician who carried his district wit h just 51 percent of the vote in 1992 , took it all in stride until he was most of the way through the meeting with labor . He had tried to give each group some comfort , while making it clear Congress could not satisfy all their demands . Suddenly he found himself talking about his own quandary . `` This Congress , we 've already made so many tough decisions , '' he said . `` Assault weapons . Th e Brady bill . The budget . Tax hikes . The stimulus package . What else ? '' `` NAFTA , '' prompted one of the unionists , a reminder of Hoagland 's vote for t he trade pact bitterly opposed by most of the people in the room . `` Right , '' Hoagland said ruefully . `` You know , I used to think the fault lines in polit ics ran between the Republicans and the Democrats or the liberals and the conser vatives . Now , '' he said , drawing an imaginary line from his navel to the top of his nose , `` the fault lines runs right through yours truly . '' In Massach usetts , freshman Rep. Peter I . Blute , R , was trying to balance conflicting c onstituent demands while looking out for his political survival in a district th at tilts decidedly toward the Democrats . `` I predict we will see some type of reform bill in October , '' Blute told senior citizens eating lunch in a Plainvi lle , Mass. , church basement . `` I think it will be a much more modest plan th an originally envisioned . '' But his potential Democratic opponents are prepare d to make an issue of health care if Blute supports something they see as too mo dest . He is under pressure from major health maintenance organizations in his d istrict to support something more significant than many conservative Republicans in Congress may like . Hoagland is one of four Ways and Means Democrats who hav e withheld the votes needed to clear a variant on the Clinton health plan , and his position has made him a special target for pressure . While meeting with ret irees , insurers and labor , his office phones periodically were ringing off the hook . Opposing lobbies the pro-Clinton Health Care Reform Project and the anti -Clinton Citizens for a Sound Economy were running radio and TV spots that inclu ded his Omaha office phone number . `` You can tell when one of them goes on , ' ' said a harried aide . `` All the phone lines light up . '' Hoagland said he fi nds the public 's response to advertising simplicities `` distressing . '' But t he sophisticated people in the three delegations that came to plead their cases were having problems figuring out just what they want done . `` We met before we went in to see him , and we don't all agree among ourselves , '' said AARP memb er Jerry Austin . `` I hope they ( members of Congress ) just use their common s ense . '' Frank Barrett , a lawyer who put together the consortium of insurance executives , said , `` It took us two years to get where we are-and there are st ill differences among our members . '' But the public 's ambivalence and interes t groups ' conflicting agendas make Hoagland 's job tougher , not easier . What he is saying , with different emphasis for each group , is that he cannot suppor t the Democratic bill the Ways and Means health subcommittee put before the full panel , the bill acting Chairman Sam Gibbons , D-Fla. , said he wants to use as his starting point when Congress returns from its Memorial Day recess . That bi ll would expand Medicare to bring in what Hoagland said could be as many as 100 million more people . `` I think we should give managed competition and the mark etplace much more of a chance before we expand the government , '' Hoagland said in all his meetings . Hoagland will vote for employer mandates , with big escap e hatches for small business and retail firms . That makes labor , AARP and the insurance executives happy , but not the small merchants he met with the previou s day . But he also said he does not see the votes to pass mandates this year , something none of the other three delegations wanted to hear . He said he thinks Sen. John H. Chafee , R-R.I. , is right in saying that insurance reforms and ma naged competition should be required to produce projected savings before Clinton 's promise of universal coverage is implemented , `` even though that means a r eal delay in reaching an important objective . '' But he does not support Chafee 's requirement that every individual buy health insurance . `` We should take t he first step this year , '' he said , `` and realize we 'll have to come back t o this issue in every Congress to come . '' That is not a position that fully sa tisfied anyone , especially not seniors and unionists who are at the heart of hi s constituency . `` It 's going to be very hard to do something that makes sense to everyone . '' Blute , like Hoagland , favors a go-slow approach this year an d feels pressure for significant reform has waned . `` It 's somewhat faded as a major issue , '' he said . `` Crime has overtaken it . '' That was evident in P lainville , when he talked to senior citizens . After outlining his views of hea lth care and talking about other issues , he asked for questions . No one asked about health care . `` The seniors don't know where it 's going or what it 's go ing to cost them or whether they 'll be covered , '' said Pauline Kirby , who he ads the Plainville Council on Aging . `` They 're more worried than enthusiastic . '' -- Broder reported from Nebraska , Balz from Massachusetts . POMONA , Calif. . One day last summer , the Latino mayor of this inland valley town more than 100 miles from the Mexican border was stopped by Border Patrol ag ents and ordered to produce his papers , documents to prove that he is a legal r esident . Eddie Cortez , dressed in jeans and sitting at the wheel of his pickup , argued and then , facing the threat of being detained , pulled out his mayor 's badge . The patrol officers , he recalled recently , `` stumbled over themsel ves to make excuses '' before they let him go . `` If they can treat a mayor lik e this , who knows how they treat a normal , Hispanic person just going about hi s business . The whole immigrant population is at risk , '' said Cortez , who wa s elected 1 years ago on a law-and-order platform . Cortez 's story is being sha red by many California Latinos who use it to illustrate how embattled they feel by increasing attacks on immigration . This year , about two dozen new or rejuve nated `` anti-immigrant '' bills are winding through the state legislature , and voters will decide this fall on an initiative that would dramatically cut servi ces to undocumented immigrants . Immigration is the election-year issue that is testing and dividing the state where nearly one-third of the 32 million resident s identify themselves as Hispanic and where as many as 1.3 million people are es timated to reside illegally . A soon-to-be released poll by the Field Institute , a public opinion survey group here , has found that proposals to limit service s to illegal immigrants have polarized Californians . There is broad agreement a mong all ethnic groups that border restrictions should be enforced or enhanced . But the differences come in what services should be provided . Non-Hispanic whi tes generally agree on restrictions of services while Latinos are increasingly r ejecting proposals to deny them , according to Mark DiCamillo , the institute 's vice president . It is clear to politicians which side offers the biggest advan tage : Although Latinos account for 28 percent of all Californians , they are ab out 10 percent of the actual voters . `` It 's an interesting but troubling deve lopment , '' DiCamillo said . `` It 's an issue that has long been lurking in Ca lifornia : You may have an electorate that votes in a way that may not be repres entative of the state 's population . '' Since February , dozens of community-ba sed Latino groups have attempted to build alliances and political muscle by join ing a newly created California Latino Civil Rights Network . Last month , the co alition kicked off a drive to register voters and encourage citizenship and rall ied tens of thousands of Hispanics . They marched across the lawn of the Los Ang eles City Hall to protest what political organizers Mario Salgado call a `` sea change toward immigration . '' Money is at the heart of the turmoil as it has be en throughout California 's history . Chinese workers were singled out during a 19th century economic downturn . In the 1920s and again in the 1950s , during ha rd economic times , Latinos became the targets . This year , two former immigrat ion officials who have been lobbying for several years to cut back the illegal t ide from Mexico have proposed an initiative that appears to have captured the fr ustrations of many people within this economically fragile state . Known as the Save Our State initiative SOS to its proponents it would deny state services , i ncluding education and health care , to undocumented immigrants and their childr en . The cost savings , according to an estimate prepared by Gov. Pete Wilson 's administration , would be $ 3.1 billion . Last week Wilson , a Republican who i s facing a surprisingly strong primary challenge from computer software milliona ire Ron Unz , indicated that he supports the initiative . `` People can try to m ake this into a racial thing or an anti-immigration thing but that 's not true , '' said Alan Nelson , a sponsor of the measure who was Immigration and Naturali zation Service commissioner during the Reagan administration . `` People are jus t realizing there 's huge cost associated with illegal immigration and we have t o do something about it . '' Eddie Cortez is a staunch Republican in a town of 1 35,000 that has seen its Latino population spiral upward from 30 percent to 51 p ercent over the past 15 years . But he believes the proposal , paired with the g overnor 's unrelenting campaign , is creating an atmosphere that threatens civil rights and erodes respect . It also devalues immigrants ' contributions , he sa id . There are conflicting reports about the costs and benefits of illegal immig rants , but a recent study by the Urban Institute , a Washington think tank , sh ows immigrants nationwide contribute $ 30 billion more in taxes each year than t hey receive in benefits and services . `` Not only does the rhetoric have an eff ect but it 's the cause of what we 're seeing here , '' said Cortez . `` At the least , it 's promoting discrimination . At the worst , it 's racism . '' On a p ersonal level , it also means the loss of at least one Latino vote for Wilson . Cortez , who voted for the governor last election , said he willn't this year . Pomona 's mayor and its city council , one of the few in California with a Latin o majority , were so angered by a Border Patrol arrest of two illegal immigrants last month near an elementary school-an arrest witnessed by local children-that they protested to federal immigration and justice officials . But Border Patrol officials insist the political climate has had no effect on their patrols or ar rest rate , which increased only slightly from the previous year . `` All we 're doing is what we normally do , '' said Allen Kenrick , assistant patrol agent i n charge of the inland region . `` They just don't like us . '' The debate over illegal immigration has pointed out a serious political flaw for Latinos . Their lack of statewide organization and political heft has become a liability that s huts them out of serious discussions about who is welcome at the American border . `` The game going on at the ( U.S.-Mexican ) border is not new , '' said Kevi n McCarthy , a Rand Corp. researcher who specializes in immigration issues . `` But this is an election year and it 's likely to be a tight election year and I think there 's a bigger question here . Is this a short-term phenomenon or are p eople looking to cut off immigration generally ? '' Since January , Wilson has t rekked to the Mexican border to spotlight the tide of illegal aliens who jump th e border , flown to Washington four times to lobby for money to pay for illegal immigrant services , and joined lawsuits filed by Florida and Arizona governors to try to force the federal government to pay for immigrant services . Wilson , whose latest television advertisement shows illegal immigrants toppling down the hills of Tijuana toward California , is the most obvious target of Latino ire . But few politicians have shied away from illegal immigration as a threat to Cal ifornia 's future . Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein , facing a challenge from m illionaire Republican Michael Huffington , has proposed a border toll to help of fset the costs of border protection . Last year , Sen. Barbara Boxer , D , sugge sted that the National Guard assist the Border Patrol in closing the border . St ate Assemblyman Richard Polanco , a Los Angeles Democrat who is chairman of the Latino Caucus , said he has been disheartened by the tone and intent of what he sees as a neo-nativist campaign , spawned by economic fears and manipulated for political gain . Last year , Polanco watched nearly two dozen bills , described as anti-immigrant by Latino activist groups , come up for vote in the Assembly . Four of them became law , including provisions that : allow local police to coo perate with immigration agents in locating and arresting illegal immigrants ; re quire state corrections personnel to help deport prisoners who are illegal ; and require proof of residency for job seekers and driver 's license applicants . ` ` These are ugly times . These are very difficult times , '' Polanco declared . `` After all is said and done , what remains is that Californians will still hav e problems that need to be addressed . And you have to ask whether we 'll be too polarized psychologically to do that . '' BERLIN A small building set in a grove of chestnut trees on Berlin 's once-gran d Unter den Linden houses Germany 's central war memorial : Inside its walls , h eavily incised by machine-gun fire from half a century ago , stands a single bro nze sculpture of a woman cradling the body of her son . `` To the victims of war and tyranny , '' reads the inscription . If there were any interest on the part of Germans in commemorating the Normandy landings Monday , it ought to be be ev ident here . Young men drafted into Adolph Hitler 's Wehrmacht were , after all , victims of war about 100,000 German soldiers died in the two months it took th e Allies to consolidate a front in northern France . But in unavoidable contrast to the surging crowds and victors ' pageantry marking D-day 's 50th anniversary 700-odd miles to the west , this shrine stands silent and largely empty . A lit tle rain falls through the open-air skylight above the sculpture ; a few wilted bouquets lie on the stone floor in front of the statue ; visitors trickle silent ly in and out of the door . That is all . `` Germany looks at the D-day festivit ies with mixed feelings , '' said Klaus Bering of the German news agency Deutsch e Presse Agentur . `` While the Allies celebrate , the Germans are just watching from the sidelines . '' Indeed , there are no ceremonies in Germany Monday , no government pronouncements , no scheduled moment of silence . German television is airing `` The Longest Day , '' and a few German veterans are making independe nt pilgrimages to the French beaches , but , on the whole , the proceedings that have captured so much attention in the United States have made for a virtual no n-event here . True , for Germany , the landings in Normandy were really just a sideshow to the 1942-43 Battle of Stalingrad , which for this country was the tu rning point of World War II . And Germany doesn't commemorate that high-casualty catastrophe either , because the Allied occupiers banned veterans groups here i n the first years after the war , and a clubby veterans tradition hasn't flouris hed in Germany the way it has in the United States . But Germany 's reluctance t o note the passing of the D-day anniversary is more than just a reflection of ho w few veterans groups there are or of how much greater emphasis Germans place on the Eastern Front than on France . It is also a reflection of Germany 's everla sting struggle to come to terms with its past . Even 50 years of good relations with the Western democracies and a successful grafting of democratic tissue onto the German character have not been enough to erase the horror of the Third Reic h . So reluctant are most Germans today to connect with their collective past th at they are slow even to salute their dead . In Bonn , for instance , there were hurt feelings when the French left Chancellor Helmut Kohl off the official Norm andy guest list . Yet Kohl merely responded that he hadn't wanted to go to Norma ndy , anyway , and went on to forbid German diplomats to participate in most D-d ay events . `` Let these people celebrate this day , '' Kohl said in a recent in terview with the British Broadcasting Corp. . `` Let the survivors commemorate i t in honor of their fallen comrades ... . This is no day for us Germans to join in the commemoration . '' ( Optional Add End ) Indeed , to the extent there has been discussion of D-day among German commentators in the past week , virtually all has `` looked forward , '' dealing with the years since World War II and not the war years themselves , or any other aspect of National Socialism . Much of the commentary has been upbeat , concentrating on the achievements of the past h alf century and the fruitful association with the United States , and calling th e fall of the Third Reich a `` liberation '' for Germans too . But a recent surv ey highlights the difficulty Germans still have , half a century after the war , in coming to grips with the rise of Hitler and agreeing upon what it may say ab out German society . When asked who was to blame for the start of World War II , 56 percent of those surveyed named Germany , but a full quarter said they blame d `` the confused international situation . '' More than 90 percent said they di d not doubt that the Nazi Holocaust had happened , but when asked how they viewe d the political concepts of the Nazis , nearly a quarter 24 percent said they we re `` not so bad at all . '' The German weekly Die Woche , which published the s urvey results , called this level of tolerance for Nazi ideology `` alarming '' and noted that the only good thing about such a figure was that it was smaller t han it had been in previous surveys . In 1955 , according to Die Woche , almost half of West Germans said they would have considered Hitler a great statesman if he hadn't tried to wipe out the Jews , and in 1989 another survey turned up 46 percent of Germans saying they could find some good things about National Social ism . PORTSMOUTH , England Senior U.S. officials , worried that China will veto a U.N . attempt to impose economic sanctions on North Korea , have begun to explore av enues outside the United Nations to thwart the Pyongyang regime 's purported nuc lear ambitions . Defense Secretary William J. Perry said Sunday that it was `` e ntirely possible '' that China would block a U.N. . Security Council resolution against North Korea , which has incurred international wrath because of its susp ected nuclear weapons program . Perry suggested publicly for the first time Sund ay that Washington would be prepared to go outside the United Nations to rally A sian and European allies to isolate North Korea economically . Perry and other s enior officials here for ceremonies commemorating the 50th anniversary of D-day insisted that the administration will continue to work through the United Nation s and privately with Beijing to try to reach a consensus on a U.N. sanctions res olution . But officials noted China 's continued reticence about punishing and p ossibly provoking its communist neighbor and important trading partner , and the y are making plans to move unilaterally or create a coalition outside the United Nations to act against the Pyongyang regime . Perry , interviewed on NBC 's `` Meet the Press '' program , said that the specific form of sanctions the United States was seeking has not yet been decided . `` We have discussions under way w ith our allies at this point on the particular sanctions , and we 'll be discuss ing that with the other members of the Security Council , '' Perry said . `` The re 'll be intensive and detailed discussions over the next week or so . I think it 's premature to try to specify at this point what kind of sanctions are going to come out . '' Other officials caution that the administration sees sanctions as a difficult and potentially dangerous step and would prefer to compel Pyongy ang to accept international oversight of its nuclear facilities through less dra stic means . But North Korea said Sunday that it would not bow to outside pressu re to open up its nuclear program , which it insists is peaceful . `` We do not want confrontation , '' said the North Korean Workers Party daily Rodong Sinmun , according to the official Korean Central News Agency monitored in Tokyo . `` B ut we do not have the intention to meet an unjustifiable demand under continued pressure and cannot tolerate our sovereignty encroached upon . '' President Clin ton said Saturday that North Korea could avoid sanctions by complying with Inter national Atomic Energy Agency inspections . IAEA inspectors say North Korea has made it impossible to verify whether or not it diverted weapons-grade plutonium from an experimental nuclear reactor . ( Optional Add End ) Perry also tried to downplay talk of possible military confrontation with North Korea over the nucle ar issue . But he said that the United States is prepared to defend its ally Sou th Korea and enforce adherence to international obligations . `` Certainly we 'r e not seeking , we will not provoke , a war , '' Perry said . `` But at the same time , we will not invite a war by not being ready. .. . We have been building up our forces over the last six months . We will continue to develop them as nec essary as the situation on the ground warrants . '' Perry said the United States and South Korea believe their military forces are adequate to deter an attack f rom the North . But he said that if North Korea moves its forces closer to the b order or makes other threatening moves , `` we will take whatever actions are ne cessary . '' Adm. Jeremy Boorda , the chief of naval operations , said that the Navy was involved in a major military exercise in the Sea of Japan involving the aircraft carrier Independence and its battle group plus warships from several o ther nations . He said that while the exercise had been planned for several year s , the armada would send a message to Pyongyang . The admiral said `` It 's a v ery serious situation and the United States is taking it seriously . '' MOSCOW Russian officials and veterans have expressed bitter resentment that the y were not invited to the D-Day commemoration in Normandy where President Clinto n , Queen Elizabeth II and other world leaders will preside on Monday . Many als o have expressed irritation at Western news media accounts that treat the D-Day landing as the key turning point in the war . Soviet troops of course did not jo in with the American , British and Canadian soldiers who conducted the daring am phibious assault 50 years ago . But most Russians believe that it was their sacr ifice on the eastern front and particularly their long and almost unbearably cos tly victory at Stalingrad that broke the back of the Nazi army and allowed the D -Day invasion to succeed . `` Only two of the most important participants in the war were not invited to the commemoration , '' the Rossiskaya Gazeta newspaper commented on Saturday . `` The first is clearly understood : After all , it is G ermany that was defeated in the war . `` But probably it is also clear why Russi a was not invited , '' the newspaper wrote . `` It would be uncomfortable to hig hlight your own military successes in the presence of those who made the main co ntribution to the victory over Hitler 's Germany . '' The Russian resentment at being excluded Monday is part of a wider sense among many here that the West doe s not accord this nation the respect it deserves as a great power . Many politic ians and others here are convinced that Washington and its traditional allies ar e happy to see Russia poor and weakened and would do whatever is necessary to ke ep this country on its knees . The unhappiness over D-Day follows a similar disp ute with Germany , which has scheduled a host of triumphal ceremonies in Berlin to mark the departure of Allied troops from that city without including the Russ ians in the celebrations . German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Russian President B oris Yeltsin instead will lead a lower-key ceremony in Weimar to mark the depart ure of the last Russian troops , whom most Germans viewed as occupiers rather th an liberators . But the exclusion from the D-Day commemoration has touched an es pecially sensitive nerve , rekindling longstanding resentments about the West 's role in what Russians call the Great Patriotic War . Soviet textbooks , while p aying scant attention to the war in the Pacific , taught that the West waited to o long to open a western front against Germany , allowing Russia to bear the bru nt of Nazi might . More than 20 million Soviets were killed during the war compa red with 405,000 Americans with 1.1 million dying during the Battle of Stalingra d alone . Scarcely a Soviet family escaped without some loss . Last week , a spo kesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry made clear that Russia 's view of that p articular part of history has not changed , despite all the other reassessments since the Soviet Union 's collapse . `` History attests that Moscow wanted the A llies to open a second front from the very beginning of the war against Germany , '' the official spokesman , Grigory Karasin , said Thursday . But the Allies d elayed , he said , `` in keeping with their strategy of safeguarding the lives o f their soldiers . '' Only when the Western powers concluded that further delay `` would be prejudicial to their postwar position in Europe '' did the Western A llies begin the operation , Karasin said . `` While giving due to this successfu l Allied operation carried out 50 years ago , we remember that its success had b een ensured by all the preceding actions of the Soviet armed forces , '' he conc luded . Even after the Allied assault on Nazi positions in France began , Russia continued to shoulder the heaviest burden , Krasnaya Zvezda , the Russian army 's official newspaper , wrote . While 292,902 German soldiers died on the wester n front , the paper said , 916,860 Germans died under Soviet attack in Byeloruss ia during exactly the same period . `` The world has begun to forget to whom it owes the victory over fascism , ` ` agreed the Nezavisimaya Gazeta . Maj. Gen. V alentin Larionov , a veteran of the Soviet capture of Berlin , told the Moscow T imes that he found Russia 's exclusion from the ceremonies `` offensive . '' `` It is a great blow to the dignity of all those who participated in the war , '' he said . SAINTE-MERE-EGLISE , France Forty-one aging paratroop veterans , who leaped int o history 50 years ago , reclaimed their chutes and jumped again Sunday , this t ime into the hearts of France . On a day when the hedgerowed checkerboard of Nor mandy glowed rich and green under a warm spring sun , the members of the Return to Normandy Association floated down out of a cloud-flecked sky , laden with fla gs and memories of World War II dead they had vowed to honor with their jump Sun day . Gazing up at them from below were politicians and dignitaries , Pentagon b rass and brass bands , hundreds of French and American troops and more than 30,0 00 flag-waving spectators , picnicking with baguettes and red wine in pastures d usted with buttercups . The day was filled with D-Day commemorative pageantry , but they were all anyone really cared about . `` Quand sont les anciens ? '' ask ed little boys pedaling bicycles and old women peddling sausage sandwiches . `` When do we see the old guys ? '' Guests in the VIP area ignored Ambassador to Fr ance Pamela Harriman and Postsmaster General Marvin Runyon unveiling a special c ommemorative stamp in order to shake the veterans ' hands and get their autograp hs . Even a massive re-enactment drop of hundreds of younger airborne troops fai led to claim the crowd 's full attention . How about those old guys ? `` I was c oming down between this cow and the river , '' said a mud-covered Richard Tedesk y , 73 , of the Bronx , explaining his late post-jump arrival at the ceremony ar ea . `` I avoided the cow . '' Tedesky , a 5-foot-4 ( `` and 135 pounds of pulsa ting fury '' ) scaffolding man in the New York construction trades , had landed north of here 50 years ago and had to fight his way into town . It was easier th is time , he said . `` Even with my arthritis and everyone wanting autographs . '' The old guys provided both drama and suspense . Earl Draper , 70 , of Florida found himself with a tangled main parachute and a malfunctioning emergency rip cord . When he reached 1,000 feet , a safety device automatically triggered , de ploying the reserve chute he rode to a bumpy landing in a ditch conveniently nea r the first aid tent . A French doctor pronounced him healthy but he was taken t o a local hospital as a precaution . Rene Dussaq , the 83-year-old former revolu tionary , soldier of fortune and Hollywood stunt man who parachuted into Normand y before D-Day to coordinate the French underground , failed to turn up in a pos t-jump muster at the drop zone in nearby Amfreville . He was eventually discover ed several hours later peacefully signing autographs here in town where he had b een carried by local farmers after riding wind gusts for several miles . Other j umpers rode back from their landing in an ambulance , but only because that was the quickest way through the narrow traffic-clogged country roads . `` It was a hell of a lot of work and I feel really good about the day , '' said Richard Man dich , the 69-year-old San Diego engineer and 101st Airborne veteran who founded the Return to Normandy Association and organized the memorial jump . `` But rem ember , we 're not the real story . The story is why we 're here . '' Mandich an d a handful of other veterans had been working since last fall to make their jum p the centerpiece of D-Day activities here . With a fierce sense of personal mis sion , they believe they owed it to the thousands of airborne veterans killed du ring the war eight out 10 in many units to make certain their deaths are not for gotten . Guy Whidden , 70 , a soft-voiced retired school teacher from Frederick , Md. , carried the names of 3,000 airborne dead , and , in response to TV repor ters asking about any fears during his jump , read instead a prayer for war-slau ghtered comrades that he had written and recited on landing . Rolland Duff , 79 , of Fort Myers , Fla. , displayed on his jump an American flag that had covered the casket at his brother 's military funeral . He had landed close to where he had landed 50 years ago , as part of a group of `` pathfinders '' advancing the D-Day airborne drop with radar locator beacons . Of the 20 men who jumped with him , only six survived the battle they found on landing . The seriousness of pu rpose of `` les anciens , '' far from sobering their visit for the French , has endeared them a hundred times more . When the Pentagon spurned the association ' s request for assistance getting here , the French showered offers of help . Fam ilies fought for the privilege of housing them . Mayors vied to hold dinners . F riday night in the little village of Baron-sur-Odon , after a celebration at the local high school , families lined up like airport chauffeurs for an incoming f light , proudly displaying on cards the name of the veteran who would be their g uest . The following afternoon the whole village turned out in a pouring rain fo r a jam-packed home-cooked luncheon for the veterans in the workshop-garage of M ayor Pierre Collard , whose wrenches and screwdrivers adorned the walls above th e pate being served . The luncheon was capped by the mock-formal installation of four Return to Normandy members in the proudest gastronomic society of Caen , T he Golden Order of Tripe-Eaters . While few outside France might leap at the cha nce to eat pieces of stewed cow stomach , the veterans brightened on discovering that the tripe had been stewed in Calvados , the famous apple brandy of Normand y . `` The tripe worried me more than the jump , '' said Ed Manley , 72 , of Bri ney Breezes , Fla. , on later reflection . The veterans ' adulation from the Fre nch , however , has involved more than tripe and Calvados . They have been headl iners in newspapers and magazines and the subject of nationwide television speci als . They are recognized and applauded on the street . Sunday , when their bus halted at a crossroads between here and Amfreville , women in nearby houses race d to shower them with all the flowers in the garden . `` What they do is very be autiful , '' said Veronique Debouillet , 22 , who drove all the way from Caen to see the veterans . `` I think it is magnificent that they jump at their age for this memory . No one my age is so formidable . '' PORTSMOUTH , England President Clinton , Queen Elizabeth II and a shipload of A llied leaders sailed in a massive flotilla late Sunday from this historic Englis h Channel port for France to observe the 50th anniversary of D-day . En route , the fleet dropped wreaths in the Channel . Two million red poppies , symbolizing remembrance , fluttered down from a low-flying World War II-vintage Lancaster b omber . The armada planned to anchor offshore before going on to the five D-day beaches two stormed by American troops , two by British and one by Canadian . In a commemorative message that had overtones of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower 's mess age to the troops on D-day , Clinton declared , `` The heroic men who fought and died during those difficult days helped to give rise to a new era of hope and p rogress , starting a trend toward democracy and human dignity that continues to this day . `` The peoples of nations around the world persist in throwing off th e shackles of tyranny and in seeking the blessings of liberty . On this historic occasion , we , the benefactors of the freedom won by our courageous armed forc es , rededicate ourselves to embracing these epic changes . `` In memory of all those who lost their lives on Normandy 's shore , we reaffirm our commitment to building a safer , more peaceful world for the generations to come . '' The flee t of ships steamed Sunday afternoon from this main invasion supply port after da ylong ceremonies . The seaside was lined with tens of thousands of Britons and A mericans , young and old , who turned out to see off the armada heading for Norm andy . They waved farewell to the ships , watching as they moved past concrete f orts in the harbor , just as previous generations had done at this ancient navy town . Many with binoculars could spot the national flags of the warships and ca ll out the identifications to their children . A vendor moved among the crowd ch anting , `` Cockles , mussels , prawns . '' Many families picnicked on the green lawns of the seafront in a festive Sunday outing , listening to radios describi ng the events . Clinton boarded the nuclear-powered carrier George Washington at 97,000 tons , the world 's largest whose crew he addressed when he was brought aboard in the afternoon . Earlier , Queen Elizabeth II , with many visiting head s of state , boarded the royal yacht Britannia to review naval warships of the A llied nations that participated in the D-day landings June 6 , 1944 . Among thos e present were British Prime Minister John Major , Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien , Polish President Lech Walesa , Czech President Vaclav Havel , Slovaki an President Michal Kovac , Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating , New Zealand Prime Minister Jim Bolger , King Harald of Norway , King Albert II of Belgium a nd Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands . They were joined by members of the Briti sh royal family , including Princess Diana . The yacht arrived in France later t o the cheers of thousands of well-wishers . In contrast to the drenching , cold weather that dampened the spirits of Saturday 's ceremonies , the weather in Por tsmouth Sunday was crisp and clear , though changeable . The morning began here with a Drumhead Ceremony , which was once the traditional religious observance t o bless the colors and uplift the hearts of the soldiers and sailors `` at the p oint at which troops cannot be pulled back from the battle . '' ( Begin optional trim ) The archbishop of Canterbury , assisted by a dozen other clergymen , ble ssed the fleet that was preparing to leave for Normandy and large-scale , daylon g observances and events Monday . Senior U.S. military officers , including memb ers of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , attended the ceremony which was also watched by thousands of visitors . As an estimated 4,000 small craft , from yachts to di nghies to motor launches , bobbed around the bigger warships , 40 ships particip ated in the naval review including the Canberra , a luxury liner that ferried Br itish fighting battalions to the Falklands , and the Fearless , which carried Ro yal Marine commandos in that action . ( End optional trim ) The fleet review was preceded with a flyover by World War II aircraft : an old biplane Swordfish tor pedo bomber , British Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane fighters , a U.S. . B-17 Fly ing Fortress bomber , a P-51 Mustang fighter and a C-47 Dakota transport followe d by low-flying modern jet fighters from Allied nations , some forming the numbe r `` 50 . '' ( Optional Add End ) On board the George Washington , President Cli nton told the crew : `` You are , beyond question , the best-trained , the best- equipped fighting force the world has ever known . And I want you to know that I am committed unequivocally , absolutely , to ensuring that you continue to have what you need to do your job . You deserve it . Our security demands it . '' Th e president added , `` The strength of our military is not really in our ships , our tanks or our aircraft , it is in you the dedicated professionalism of the m en and women of the United States armed forces . '' `` You know what encapsulate s this all for me ? '' the president asked . `` Eisenhower 's words , in which h e said that D-day was the fury of an aroused democracy . Those words say it all . '' WASHINGTON Insistent advice from Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan to President Clinton during the presidential transition and early in the new adm inistration led Clinton to pursue lower deficits at the expense of the economic populism of his campaign , according to a new book . The book , `` The Agenda : Inside the Clinton White House '' by Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor B ob Woodward , is an intimate look at how the new Democratic president and his st umbling , feuding team of advisers struggled to formulate and adopt an economic program during Clinton 's first year in office . It depicts a chaotic policy-mak ing operation , crucial intercessions by Hillary Rodham Clinton and an active po licy role played by four outside political advisers . The four were given open a ccess to the White House , which they used in part to criticize the economic tea m . They complained that Clinton 's fall in popularity was a result of policies being promoted by the economic advisers or at least the way those policies were packaged for sale to the public . The two groups are described as virtually at w ar with each other . The book describes Clinton temper tantrums , and it depicts him as frequently indecisive and reluctant to delegate . It portrays virtually every member of Clinton 's inner circle , including Hillary Clinton , as critica l of the president 's management style . On the vital economic front , Greenspan is described as a central player , albeit once removed from the inner circle . The book recounts what Woodward calls a crucial meeting between Clinton and Gree nspan in Little Rock , Ark. , in December 1992 , the month before Clinton 's ina uguration . During the 2-hour session , the Fed chairman told the president-elec t that reducing the long-term federal budget deficit was `` essential '' and tha t the economic recovery could fall on its face if policies credible to Wall Stre et , particularly to bond-traders , were not advanced . Greenspan , in later con versations with Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen , put a number on what would be credible : cutting the deficit $ 140 billion or more by 1997 . By tradition and law , the Fed is an independent agency it sets monetary policy while the White House and Congress decide how much the government will spend , raise in taxes an d borrow . It is customary for the president and the Fed chairman to hold period ic meetings . But in Woodward 's recounting of their relationship , Greenspan , a Republican appointed by President Ronald Reagan and reappointed by President G eorge Bush , comes across as a senior adviser , almost a teacher to Clinton . In what became a pattern , the Fed chairman made suggestions , Clinton acted on th em , and Greenspan rewarded the action with approving words to Congress , or oth er public comments meant to signal his approval . Greenspan outlined to Clinton an economic approach Woodward calls the `` financial markets strategy . '' Polic y was to be designed to send a message to Wall Street and ultimately , drive dow n interest rates . According to the theory , the economy would improve and as a result , Clinton would have more tax revenue to spend on favored domestic progra ms and be re-elected in 1996 . The theory , and the policy Clinton adopted , bor e little resemblance to the economic program on which Clinton had campaigned . C linton 's `` Putting People First '' campaign banner stressed government `` inve stment '' in programs that would improve the lives of middle-class Americans suc h as job training , early education , government promotion of cutting-edge techn ology . A middle-class tax cut and health care for all Americans were additional sweeteners . As events developed , Greenspan 's economic scenario was not entir ely accurate either . The bond market did react positively to Clinton 's economi c package initially , but then early this year nervousness about inflation began to push interest rates up again , and Greenspan 's Fed raised its basic lending rate by 1.25 percent . Today long-term interest rates are nearly identical to w hat they were when Clinton took office . But the economy is stronger now than in January 1993 and has added 3 million jobs since then . Woodward 's 334-page boo k recounts the anguish and infighting produced by the transition from Clinton 's winning campaign platform to a national economic policy . It attributes words a nd thoughts to participants in the debate , including both Clintons and virtuall y all of their top aides , without saying directly who provided these words to t he author . In an introduction Woodward writes that whenever he quotes someone , the quotation comes from `` at least one participant , from memos , or from con temporaneous notes or diaries of a participant. .. . ' ' It appears that Woodwar d has talked to all the principals in his narrative , including the Clintons and Greenspan . He writes that all his interviews were conducted on ` ` ` deep back ground , ' which means that I agreed not to identify these sources . '' The Wash ington Post will publish four excerpts from `` The Agenda '' beginning Sunday . The book goes on sale next week . Greenspan 's advice to Clinton that a long-ter m deficit-reduction program was of paramount importance was backed not only by B entsen , but also by Budget Director Leon E. Panetta and his deputy , Alice M. R ivlin , according to the book . The president 's economic advisers , with his as sent , quickly jettisoned the tax cut , delayed health care reform , and then ad ded an energy tax and spending cuts . Clinton 's political team campaign adviser s James Carville and Paul Begala , media adviser Mandy Grunwald and pollster Sta n Greenberg are portrayed as horrified and disgusted with this effort to please the market . Carville is quoted as joking he used to want to die and come back i n a second life as the pope or president , but now he just wanted to be the bond market because it seemed to run the world . The four seem to have spent much of last year decrying what that saw as mismanagement at the White House and firing off memos arguing that the president and some of his aides had lost their souls to the deficit-cutters . In one memorable scene depicted in the book , Grunwald told White House deputy economic adviser Gene Sperling who had helped formulate the campaign budget plan that his new emphasis on deficit-cutting was coming `` dangerously close '' to betraying the themes that had gotten Clinton elected . Later , Grunwald told others that Sperling 's body had been snatched by Washingt on insiders and deficit hawks and that `` hostile forces '' were seizing control of Clinton 's White House . Even Clinton , while intellectually acquiescing in the devastation of his investment programs , raged nonetheless at how it happene d . While the book depicts him as highly intelligent and energetic , it recounts several Clinton temper tantrums , quoting senior aide George Stephanopoulos as calling them `` the wave '' overpowering , prolonged rages that shocked outsider s and often seemed far out of proportion to their cause . In one scene late in t he campaign , a low-level aide had told an audience that Clinton did not want lo cal voters at an event . The president , discovering this , angrily said of the culprit , `` I want him dead , dead . I want him horsewhipped . '' He sent aides to Little Rock to find and fire the young man . After he cooled down , Clinton relented . In another scene , with the campaign en route to Chicago , Clinton di scovered his staff had told Mayor Richard M. Daley the candidate had no time for a requested meeting with him . A furious Clinton asked , `` Who the hell could make such a dumb .. . mistake ? '' and ranted on and on . White House counselor David R. Gergen , witnessing the Clinton temper for the first time , is said to have been so alarmed that he raised it with Stephanopoulos , the frequent recipi ent of Clinton 's verbal abuse . Stephanopoulos brushed it off as part of Clinto n 's personality . A recurring theme in the book is Clinton 's inability to term inate debate and make a decision and his reluctance to delegate . Amid the inter nal debate over the budget , Clinton is portrayed as holding repeated , seemingl y endless meetings at which issues rarely were decided , and during which he fre quently changed his mind . Once the budget was passed by one vote in the House a nd a tie-breaking Senate vote by Vice President Al Gore Bentsen is said to have taken Clinton aside and warned him he was mismanaging the presidency by trying t o make every small decision and refusing to delegate . Bentsen believed Clinton had a superior , inquisitive mind and was capable of genuine vision , Woodward r eports . Bentsen compared Clinton to Jimmy Carter displaying admirable energy an d intellect but getting bogged down in the range of opinion and debate he demand ed inside his government . Clinton `` could not contain his own doubts , '' Bent sen told associates . `` The lapses of discipline and restraint '' kept him from acting methodically as a president should . Some of those concerns appeared to grow out of a White House with little management structure , in which the four p olitical aides had unusual status . Outside the normal avenues , they sent angui shed , internal memos into the White House warning of the near-collapse of the C linton presidency and demanding meetings with the president and senior advisers . One of the memos , written in July as the White House headed into the crucial month leading up to the budget vote , warned apocalyptically that the `` current course , advanced by our economic team and congressional leaders , threatens to sink your popularity further and weaken your presidency . '' The memo , referri ng to extensive polling and focus groups , recommended dropping the gasoline tax , paring back the deficit-reduction package , and repackaging and reselling an economic program so it was not about taxes but about getting the nation 's econo mic house in order . The memo prompted Hillary Clinton to go to White House Chie f of Staff Thomas F. `` Mack '' McLarty and insist it was `` panic time , '' wit h no plan to sell the program they were about to send to Congress , no strategy and no decisions made on key elements . Hours of debate , presided over by the p resident , ensued among the political team and policy advisers . One of the advi sers , congressional liaison director Howard Paster , is described as being in a `` slow burn '' over the series of meetings and arguments from the outside cons ultants . Paster thought `` it was outrageous the outside consultants were provi ding the president with major policy option papers in confidential memos '' many senior staffers never saw , according to the book . The consultants got `` valu able inside information '' and `` conflicts abounded . '' The consultants were t rying to remake policy to respond to polls , a risky course , Paster felt , acco rding to Woodward 's account . At one crucial meeting last July attended by the president and the first lady , Hillary Clinton chastised both the economic and p olitical teams for ill serving Clinton , for lacking organization and planning , for creating a `` dysfunctional '' White House . She complained they had allowe d Clinton to appear to be a `` mechanic-in-chief , '' erased his `` moral voice '' and changed his economic program from a `` values document '' to a bunch of n umbers . `` I want to see a plan '' for selling the program , she demanded . Mos t saw Hillary Clinton 's denunciations in that meeting , which were followed by a burst of anger from Clinton himself at his staff , as an indictment of McLarty , whom the book portrays as an ineffective , sometimes bumbling character with no feel for politics and a fundamental misunderstanding of congressional relatio ns . Hillary Clinton 's July critique , Woodward writes , amounted to a `` scald ing indictment of McLarty . At crucial moments like this , Hillary was often de facto chief of staff . '' She insisted on the creation , with her assistance , o f a campaign-like war room to run the budget operation . At the end of the budge t battle , Paster resigned , citing a desire to return to private life . Woodwar d attributes the resignation to McLarty 's failure to manage the White House . ` ` Everyone and anyone freelanced , '' Paster is quoted as saying , and his job h ad been made impossible . The book describes tension between Gergen , the Republ ican brought in by McLarty on the advice of Sen. David L. Boren , D-Okla. and ma ny of Clinton 's advisers , such as Stephanopoulos and the outside political con sultants . Gergen concluded that the campaign team was captive of a mentality th at needed someone to be against , and he was that someone . Carville and Begala argued against Gergen incessantly and Stephanopoulos is described as finding him `` almost intolerable . Whenever Clinton did something Republican , Gergen proc laimed that the president was standing up for principle . Whenever Clinton did s omething Democratic , it was caving . '' ALGIERS Ending a two-month lull , Islamic insurgents in the third year of a blo ody struggle to turn Algeria into an Islamic republic have resumed attacks again st government targets from barracks to troop convoys , dashing President Liamine Zeroual 's hopes of quelling the rebellion by a combination of force and dialog ue . The country , North Africa 's largest and endowed with oil and gas riches , thus seems headed for still more low-grade violence as a majority of the popula tion persistently refuses to choose between the Islamic underground and an army- based government seeking to preserve the secular state that emerged when Algeria won independence from France in 1962 . The rebels ' renewed military operations have undercut Zeroual 's innovative twin-track policy , designed to crack down on guerrilla activity while initiating controversial contacts with jailed leader s of the Islamic Salvation Front . As a result , a stalemate appears to have set in nearly 29 months after the army precipitated the conflict by canceling indep endent Algeria 's first free multiparty elections when the Islamic Front seemed headed for victory . The attacks also tarnished major government success in winn ing support from international financial institutions and creditor governments f or rescheduling Algeria 's crushing $ 26 billion foreign debt , devaluing an ove rvalued currency by 40 percent and adopting its command economy to market forces . Coupled with the failure of Zeroual 's initial contacts with Islamic Front le aders , the surge in fighting has heightened concerns in Paris , Madrid , Rome a nd Washington about Algeria 's potential disintegration and repercussions in nea rby southern Europe , already the main destination for thousands of Algerian emi grants . In an apparent hedging of bets that has troubled Algerian officials , U .S. diplomats in Washington said the Clinton administration has initiated contac ts of its own with Islamic Front representatives . But Foreign Minister Mohammed Saleh Dembri , citing Russia , argued in an interview that Algeria deserves the same special treatment as other countries making a transition away from single- party politics and command economies . As if to underline their staying power an d ability to strike seemingly at will , in the past two weeks Muslim guerrillas have killed dozens of draftee soldiers , often by slitting their throats , in wi dely separated parts of the country . Despite an official news blackout , key Al gerians and foreign diplomats reported clashes at Telagh , 50 miles south of the western port city of Oran ; in Tenes , on the Mediterranean coast 75 miles west of Algiers , the capital ; in Medea , 50 miles south of Algiers ; and around th e port of Jijel , nearly 200 miles to the east . Diplomats said the insurgents ' operations were only the most spectacular incidents in day-in , day-out violenc e in which the terrified citizenry is cut down by Islamic killers or shadowy gov ernment death squads conducting summary executions in random reprisal . Although information from within the Islamic movement is sparse , specialists here say t hey are convinced the imprisoned Islamic Front leadership cannot direct the smal ler , more radical Armed Islamic Group , led by veterans of the Afghanistan war , and may not be in total control of the Islamic Front 's own military wing , th e Armed Islamic Movement . Because of Algeria 's government censorship , no offi cial casualty statistics are published , apparently for fear of panicking the co untry 's 27 million citizens and its neighbors on both sides of the Mediterranea n . Often the only widely publicized deaths are those of prominent citizens such as the rector of one of Algiers University 's campuses , who was assassinated t his week . But educated guesses suggest that some 4,000 Algerians were killed in the first two years of strife and that in the last few months the accelerating toll has reached up to 40 fatalities daily , including many civilians . Foreigne rs have been specifically targeted since September . Thirty-seven have been kill ed by Islamic extremists , provoking the departure of most of the foreign commun ity and discouraging desperately needed investment from abroad . Foreigners stil l here lead circumscribed lives , often without their families , who have been s ent abroad for safety . Diplomats rarely leave their embassy grounds . Other for eigners constantly vary their movements and do not stray far from neighborhoods reputed to be safe . Algiers streets , clogged with car traffic and strolling pe destrians during the day , are generally deserted by nightfall , well before the curfew , from 11:30 p.m. to 4 a.m. , takes effect . Further sapping Algerian so ciety is the flight abroad of thousands of doctors , lawyers , architects , prof essors , journalists , managers , engineers and others who considered themselves likely targets for Islamic assassins . Timid hopes of initiating meaningful pea ce negotiations between the army and the Islamic Front foundered late last winte r . The failure has frustrated many mainstream Algerians ' dreams of reconciling moderate political Islam with secular institutions . Zeroual 's mid-winter deci sion to meet jailed Islamic Front leaders Ali Benhadj and Abassi Madani in Blida prison outside Algiers broke a taboo . But it frightened many in the so-called democratic parties representing educated , Westernized Algerians . They feared t he army and Islamic Front might cut a deal excluding their rival constituencies , often disorganized but important . Two of these parties won seats in the first round of the 1991 elections-before the second round was canceled-although the t wo parties finished far behind the Islamic Front . They are the Socialist Forces Front , strong among the ethnic Kabyle minority , and the National Liberation F ront , which monopolized power after Algeria 's independence from France but has tried to move toward democracy over the last half-dozen years . The 150,000-man army , made up overwhelmingly of conscripts , is widely viewed as the last inst itutional bastion of the secular state , even by critics who bemoan its lack of imagination , denounce its human rights violations and say they wish it would ne gotiate a settlement with its Islamic adversaries . Whatever its shortcomings , the army has confounded predictions of inevitable collapse . These were first ma de after key generals violated Algeria 's institutional legitimacy by forcing th en-President Chadli Bendjedid from office and canceling the elections on Jan. 11 , 1992 , reversing what had been a limited but noticeable move toward increased democracy . Nonetheless , conversations with politicians , military men , forme r cabinet ministers , doctors , business people , housewives , analysts , journa lists and diplomats revealed a profound pessimism about the future . In one meas ure of the atmosphere , all refused to allow their names to be published . `` Th e population refuses to take sides , '' a retired senior military officer said . `` The overwhelming majority of Algerians reject the regime because they want n ew faces after more than 30 years of the same people in power . Equally overwhel mingly , Algerians reject an Islamic republic because they are convinced the Isl amic resistance is nihilist and incapable of running the country . '' RICHMOND , Va. . One day after Oliver L. North won Virginia 's Republican nomin ation for the U.S. Senate , Senate GOP leader Robert J. Dole rained on North 's victory celebration by refusing to endorse him and reaching out to potential Nor th opponent J. Marshall Coleman . Dole , of Kansas , said in a nationally televi sed interview Sunday that `` it 's going to take a while '' before he decides wh ether to support North , and that North 's victory `` makes it very difficult fo r some in the Republican Party '' to stay loyal . He also said he plans to meet this week with Coleman , a former state attorney general who appears likely to b olt the Republican Party and run for the Senate as an independent . Although Dol e said `` I don't know what ( Coleman ) has to say , '' some political analysts immediately interpreted the meeting as a highly public slap at North . North got more unwelcome news from another Republican senator , John McCain of Arizona , and from the man he beat Saturday , former federal budget director James C. Mill er III . Both offered North tepid support , but McCain , appearing with Dole on the CBS News program `` Face the Nation , '' said he thinks North is a weak cand idate . Miller , in remarks to reporters after a GOP breakfast here this morning , said he has no plans to campaign for his erstwhile rival . In a press confere nce this afternoon , North minimized the statements by Dole and McCain , noting that they came from two lawmakers `` neither of whom are running in Virginia . ' ' `` I 'm running for the families of Virginia , '' he said . `` I 'm not runnin g anywhere else but Virginia . '' North had hoped to start his general election drive on an emotional high note Sunday , attending a `` unity breakfast '' with Virginia Republicans and beginning a four-day bus tour through rural Virginia . He vowed to press ahead , even though his hoped-for political honeymoon lasted l ess than 18 hours . `` The only thing that 's going to slow this parade down , ' ' North said , `` is a flat tire between here and Danville . '' The criticism of North by senior members of his own party `` is simply remarkable , '' said Robe rt Holsworth , a political scientist at Virginia Commonwealth University . `` No rth 's candidacy is already becoming a national issue ... . You have an extraord inarily divided Republican Party in Virginia at the moment . ( North ) is perhap s the most polarizing figure on the political scene . '' North and Coleman are o nly two contenders in what could become an unprecedented four-man field in this year 's Virginia Senate race . Democratic incumbent Charles S. Robb faces three underdog challengers in a party primary election June 14 . If Robb wins , former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder appears likely to break away from the Democrats and moun t his own campaign as an independent . Sunday started well enough for North , as he and Miller addressed a breakfast of about 300 Republicans who offered both m en enthusiastic applause . Gov. George Allen , who had shied away from any invol vement in the Senate race , appeared wearing a North sticker on his lapel and to ld the crowd , `` Ollie 's army won fair and square . '' The morning 's featured speaker , Mississippi Gov. Kirk Fordice , invoked Dole 's name , saying that by electing North , Virginians could help change Dole 's title from Senate minorit y leader to Senate majority leader . But while the breakfast was under way , Dol e was taping the `` Face the Nation '' interview in which he distanced himself f rom North . `` I intend to meet with Marshall Coleman , I think , on Wednesday o r Thursday of this next week and see what he has to say , '' Dole said . When as ked whether Republicans should rally around North , he said , '' I think it 's g oing to take a while to sort that out . `` There may be another candidate in the race , a Republican may enter the race as an independent ... . So we 're not ce rtain what 's going to happen ... . It makes it very difficult for some in the R epublican Party . '' Dole was later joined on the show by McCain , who said he w ill support North but `` I think that from a clear political standpoint our chan ces of winning that seat are dramatically diminished ( by North 's nomination ) . There 's no doubt about that . '' In remarks to reporters after Sunday 's brea kfast , Miller seemed equally unenthused about the coming campaign . Miller has pledged to support North , but said that `` I have no specific plans '' to campa ign for the nominee and that `` I 'm not sure what I could do '' on North 's beh alf . `` You wouldn't believe all the jobs I have backed up , '' Miller said , t icking off a list of personal concerns that included tending to his finances and cleaning out his swimming pool . `` Those are going to be my top priorities . ' ' Coleman declined to comment Sunday on any of the remarks . Asked whether he in tends to seek Dole 's backing , he said , `` I 'd be honored to have anyone 's s upport . Dole has been traveling in Europe for the past week with a Senate deleg ation that includes Sen. John W. Warner of Virginia , the Republican who has eme rged as North 's most vocal critic . Warner said before North was nominated Satu rday that he likely would support Coleman in the event of a North victory . Warn er was in France Sunday and could not be reached for comment . But his top aide , Susan Magill , said the coming meeting between Dole and Coleman `` is not a me eting that we requested . '' Virginia Republican Chairman Patrick M. McSweeny ch ided Dole Sunday , saying the Senate leader `` ought to know better '' than to i nterfere in a state election . But he admitted that the prospect of a damaging d ivision remains . He said the shots from Dole and McCain `` foretell what 's goi ng to come . This is not a contest between Republicans and Democrats , but betwe en insiders and outsiders . '' `` It 's obvious things are not resolved yet with Dole , '' McSweeney said . `` But we 're not going begging , particularly to so mebody from out of state , not even to John Warner , to accept our nominee . '' SAINTE-MERE-EGLISE , France Thomas Rice , a retired San Diego high school teach er , gave the thumbs-up sign to his comrades Sunday and then stepped out of a pl ane 3,500 feet above France . As a brisk wind opened his parachute and snapped a t the crease in his new pants , Rice looked down on the green fields of Normandy . `` I just kept thinking I didn't want to land in that field with the three bu lls in it , '' the 73-year-old Rice said moments later , safely on the ground , his angular face smeared with mud . `` But , thank goodness , I just got a littl e wet . '' Rice and 39 other World War II veterans , ranging in age from 68 to 8 3 , parachuted near this village Sunday , re-enacting their daring invasion of G erman-held France 50 years ago . With a crowd of dignitaries and a fully equippe d medical unit waiting below , the men filled the sunny afternoon sky like multi colored confetti . `` We did it because , well , a lot of our friends were kille d here 50 years ago , '' said Rice , who had been a platoon leader in the 101st Airborne on D-day and suffered shrapnel wounds to a leg and arm . `` And sometim es over the years we have felt some guilt about that . But today I feel like I c an bury that guilt and not worry about it anymore . '' Added Robert Dunning , 73 , from Atlanta : `` It was a great feeling . Back in 1944 , it was 2 a.m. , we were under sniper fire and I missed the target by 20 miles . It was easier this time . Nobody was shooting at us . '' But winds did push several of the veteran paratroopers off course . Rene Dussaq of Los Angeles , the oldest of the veteran jumpers , landed miles away from the drop zone , and U.S. spotters in helicopte rs lost sight of him . He was eventually found by French firefighters , and two hours later Dussaq was having a drink in Sainte-Mere-Eglise . `` There was a lit tle wind , but it was not too bad , '' Dussaq said . `` It was very pleasant . Y ou could look around at the countryside . It was very beautiful . '' In the town square of Sainte-Mere-Eglise , a crowd of more than 8,000 turned up to greet th e jumpers and other returning U.S. veterans . The grinning jumpers , wearing rep licas of the uniforms they wore in 1944 , signed autographs , shouted `` Bonjour '' to well-wishers and accepted kisses from women in the crowd . Despite widesp read fears for their safety , not the least from their own families , only two o f the aging paratroopers were injured in the jump . One twisted his ankle , and a second , Earl Draper , 70 , of Inverness , Fla. , was hospitalized with minor back injuries . Draper 's main chute opened , but the lines became snarled . As the crowd watched in fearful silence , he deployed an emergency backup chute , w hich is harder to control , and landed a few dozen feet from the MASH unit . He was taken by helicopter to a local hospital , where an Army spokesman said he wa s `` doing fine . '' `` Mr. Draper did just the right thing , '' said U.S. . Arm y Col. Richard M . Bridges , himself a paratrooper . `` My hat 's off to him . H e did a terribly courageous thing . But I 'm proud of them all . I just hope I c an do that when I 'm their age . '' The veterans ' jump was followed by a specta cular jump by 700 U.S. and French paratroopers , who alighted without incident o n the pastures amid the yellow buttercups . The show was part of a daylong celeb ration at Sainte-Mere-Eglise , which was the first French town liberated on D-da y , freed by U.S. paratroopers even before Allied troops landed at the nearby Ut ah and Omaha beaches . The town has hosted U.S. veterans and their families ever y year since the war , and for years the mayor 's wife wrote to families of U.S. servicemen and tended the graves of those who died here . ( Optional add end ) On Sunday , the community was bedecked with U.S. and other Allied nations ' flag s . One sign in the crowd read , `` We Never Forget You Guys . '' Among those on hand to welcome the veterans was Prime Minister Edouard Balladur and Sam Gibbon s , D-Fla. , the House Ways and Means Committee chairman and D-day veteran who i s President Clinton 's representative to the festivities . `` We came to see the m because of the memories , '' said Jean-Charles LePouder , 38 , who brought his wife and two children from a nearby town . `` This is really an important part of our history . '' A full day of activities , attended by Clinton and other hea ds of state , was scheduled for Monday in Normandy . Clinton will first address veterans at Pointe de Hoc , the cliff taken by courageous U.S. . Army Rangers in 1944 . Later , he will talk to several thousand veterans at the American Cemete ry on the cliff above Omaha Beach . ABOARD THE USS GEORGE WASHINGTON A young sailor , watching President Clinton so mewhat stiffly address sailors and officers aboard this nuclear-powered aircraft carrier as it steamed toward the beaches of Normandy , remarked with sympathy o n Clinton 's record of trying to avoid military service in Vietnam as a young ma n . `` I think he feels the stigma more than we in the military do , '' he said , adding , `` He said all the right things here . '' If Clinton , the first pres ident born after World War II and one of the few without military service , feel s any stigma , he showed no sign of it here on the eve of the observance of one of the greatest military triumphs in U.S. history , the D-Day invasion that help ed liberate Europe . Aboard the George Washington , Clinton was the commander-in -chief who saluted the crew of 6,000 and spent chunks of his evening eating with enlisted sailors and shaking hands with dozens upon dozens of them . `` Exactly 50 years ago at this very time , '' he told the sailors , `` young people just like you were right here in this channel on some 5,000 ships ... . Imagine how t hey must have felt . '' As the nation honors those who served in World War II , he said , `` we must also honor those who serve now , who are continuing the leg acy they left us ... . Your country is deeply in your debt . '' Clinton began hi s day in the company of the leaders of 12 nations that participated in the D-Day invasion 50 years ago this night . A traditional religious ceremony for ships e mbarking on military action was held in Portsmouth , England , and then a huge f lotilla , led by Queen Elizabeth 's giant yacht , the Brittania , set sail acros s the channel to Normandy . A sunrise ceremony off the coast will begin the offi cial D-Day observances . The Brittania first sailed past this carrier before del ivering Clinton , and the George Washington gave him a one-of-a-kind salute . Hu ndreds of sailors lined up in formation on deck , who lifted their hats in uniso n and chanted , three times , `` hip-hip-hooray '' into the chilly winds . Some of the sailors here said that before Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clint on arrived , there had been some grumbling about his lack of military service , of downsizing the Navy and of Democratic presidents in general . Eldon Cline , a sailor from Savannah , Ga. , said some of those complaining the loudest were pu shing the hardest to shake Clinton 's hand and meet the first lady . Cline , in his respect for the office of the presidency , seemed to reflect an attitude rep eated frequently by others aboard this ship , if not throughout a military that has had an uncomfortable time its first 18 months with a new president who has s eemed less than at ease with things military . If the gods had devised a week of torture for someone discomfited by the military , this would be it : one milita ry ceremony after another of sad , moving tributes to the memory of the thousand s of young men who died to liberate Europe from the Nazis . Cline , in describin g his joy at seeing Clinton , said : `` Hey , it 's got nothing to do with his p olicies or anything like that . I joined the Navy to defend the country . He is my commander-in-chief . I 've never seen a president before . It was great . '' His face crinkled in disgust at the actions of one of his fellow sailors , Antho ny Bonnici , who literally begged television correspondents to interview him abo ut his dislike for the president . Bonnici said Clinton dodged the draft and sho uld not be leading the nation 's commemoration of D-Day . He said Clinton `` nev er served one day of his life in the military '' and could not possibly understa nd what motivates military men and women . He said a lot worse about the Clinton s , quoting conservative radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh and G. Gordon Liddy , both of whom he listens to frequently . He said he wanted to meet the person i n charge of the country , and the president too a dig at Hillary Rodham Clinton . A half-hour later , the ecstatic Bonnici , of Virginia Beach , was back with a picture of both Clintons that he had talked each into autographing . He also go t the Clintons to autograph a picture of his child . `` Hey , I don't have to li ke the guy , '' he said , `` He is the president . How many times in your life d o you get to meet the president ? '' JERUSALEM With its whole system of social services on the point of collapse , t he Israeli government agreed Sunday to raise the pay of its 9,500 striking socia l workers by an average of $ 550 a month , almost doubling the salaries of three -quarters of them . Eli Ben-Gara , secretary general of the Israel Social Worker s Union , said the 46-day strike had wrought `` a very significant revolution '' in forcing the government to rethink its spending priorities and treat social w orkers once again as professionals . The strike had closed shelters for battered wives , shut down drug rehabilitation programs , kept patients otherwise ready for release in mental hospitals and left runaway children in the streets . Abort ions , adoptions and divorces , all of which must involve social workers here , were held up . `` I think the social workers deserved ( the raise ) because they really work on the front lines of distress , '' said Shalom Granit , the govern ment 's chief wage negotiator . `` The fear is always what will others say .. . because everyone has a reason on why they deserve a significant raise in pay . ' ' Under the old salary scale , starting social workers were paid $ 625 a month , including a supplement to bring them above the legal minimum wage ; a veteran w ith 17 years experience was paid $ 900 a month . The social workers had original ly demanded across-the-board raises of $ 965 a month , and the government offere d 18 percent over four years . PORTSMOUTH , England President Clinton , under fire from critics who have accus ed him of being too soft in opposing North Korea 's purported nuclear ambitions , significantly stepped up his rhetoric Sunday , saying that the United States w ould consider imposing sanctions without the United Nations if the Security Coun cil proves unable to make a decision . He also warned that the North would risk `` certain , terrible defeat and destruction '' if it retaliated . The remarks , made in nationally televised interviews as Clinton sailed toward France for the commemoration of the D-Day landing , came only a day after the president had sa id he did not want `` a lot of saber-rattling talk over this . '' Together , the president 's comments illustrate the narrow line he and his top aides are tryin g to walk as they try to manage the crisis that has developed from North Korea ' s refusal to allow International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA inspections of its nu clear facilities . On the one hand , the administration wants to counter the att acks of domestic critics who have accused Clinton of being weak and vacillating in his foreign policy . On Sunday , for example , Sen. John McCain of Arizona , a leading Republican foreign policy spokesman , charged the administration with `` appeasement '' of the North Koreans and said Clinton was acting in the `` tra dition of Neville Chamberlain , '' the British prime minister who appeased Hitle r in seeking to avoid war over Czechoslovakia before World War II . McCain made his comments on the CBS `` Face the Nation '' program . At the same time , Clint on and his aides want to play down the talk of war that has buzzed through Washi ngton in recent days , fearing , among other things , that bellicose language fr om U.S. officials could get out of hand , potentially prompting the unpredictabl e North Korean leaders into a preemptive strike that could open a full-scale war . The United States , Japan and South Korea have agreed to seek sanctions again st North Korea in the wake of the declaration by the IAEA that North Korean acti ons had made it impossible to verify whether or not Pyongyang had diverted weapo ns-grade plutonium from an experimental nuclear reactor . Such acts by North Kor ea would violate the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty . In the past , North Kore an spokesmen have said any sanctions would be considered an act of war , but Ame rican officials have dismissed those statements as bluster . Clinton , interview ed by ABC News , said he did not believe the North Koreans would carry through o n those threats . `` I don't think that they would risk the certain , terrible d efeat and destruction that would occur if they did that , '' he said . But while the administration proceeds to seek sanctions from the United Nations , senior U.S. officials , worried that China will veto any sanctions resolution , have be gun to explore additional avenues to thwart the Pyongyang regime . Defense Secre tary William J. Perry said Sunday on NBC 's `` Meet the Press '' program that it is `` entirely possible '' that Beijing would block a U.N. . Security Council r esolution against North Korea . And Clinton , interviewed by NBC News , said tha t while he still hopes support from China and from Russia will allow the United Nations to move forward , `` if it doesn't we 'll have to look at who else wants to do it , and what else we can do . '' Sanctions could be imposed by a `` so-c alled coalition of the willing , '' Clinton added . Perry and other senior offic ials here for ceremonies commemorating the 50th anniversary of D-Day insisted th at the administration will continue to work through the United Nations and priva tely with Beijing to try to reach a consensus on a U.N. sanctions resolution . B ut officials noted China 's continued reticence about punishing and possibly pro voking its Communist neighbor and important trading partner . ( Optional Add End ) Other officials caution that the administration sees sanctions as a difficult and potentially dangerous step and would prefer to compel Pyongyang to accept i nternational oversight of its nuclear facilities through less drastic means . Bu t North Korea said Sunday that it will not bow to outside pressure to open up it s nuclear program , which it insists is peaceful . `` We do not want confrontati on , '' said the North Korean Workers Party daily Rodong Sinmun , according to t he official Korean Central News Agency monitored in Tokyo . `` But we do not hav e the intention to meet an unjustifiable demand under continued pressure and can not tolerate our sovereignty encroached upon . '' Clinton and Perry both tried t o downplay talk of possible military confrontation with North Korea over the nuc lear issue . `` I do not think we are facing imminent danger , '' Perry said . ` ` I think this whole talk of war is quite premature and it 's creating a sort of hysteria which is not appropriate to the present situation . '' SAN MARINO , Calif. . Two young people wielding semi-automatic weapons sprayed gunfire through a high school graduation party at a home in one of the nation 's wealthier cities early Sunday , killing two students and wounding seven other p eople , authorities said . A 14-year-old boy died at the scene , a house valued at nearly $ 1 million on a cul-de-sac in northeast San Marino , a city of 13,000 located eight miles east of downtown Los Angeles . Another victim , an 18-year- old man , died at a hospital , a Los Angeles County sheriff 's department spokes man said . Authorities said the wounded were between 17 and 21 . The assailants were a young man and a young woman who fired semi-automatic weapons into the cro wd at 1 a.m. , according to a San Marino High School student who was wounded in the fusillade . `` It was a gang thing , '' the wounded student told reporters w hen he returned to the house with his parents Sunday afternoon . `` I don't want any pictures . I don't want any identification because I 'm afraid of retaliati on . `` I 've just seen one of my friends shot in the intestines , and one was s hot in the chest . And we 're all very scared . '' About 100 students had shown up at the party , an `` End of the Year Jam '' that charged $ 2 at the door . Fl yers advertising the event said it would run `` from 7:30 to whenever the pigs c ome . '' The high school student who was wounded at the party and asked that his name not be used described the moment : `` I thought I was going to die because it was just rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat . They didn't say anything . I just heard my friends yell , ` Duck ! Duck ! ' There were eight of us all in a row , and we al l got shot . '' The young man described an argument at the party between the dis c jockey and several people , two of whom later came back shooting . After the g uests argued with the disc jockey , they reassured others that `` everything was OK , '' the teen-ager said . `` But they were just fooling us . They were setti ng us up for the slaughter . '' Deputies said between eight and 12 suspects , wh o had left the party after the dispute , returned in three separate cars . The t wo who did the shooting went into the back yard , armed with semi-automatic weap ons , and `` opened fire at the partygoers , spraying the exterior and the inter ior of the house , '' a deputy said . No arrests had been made as of midday Sund ay . The suspects were described as `` predominantly Asian males and females . ' ' The wounded student and several friends were playing cards in the back yard `` when all of a sudden they came back . '' He said the man carried what he though t was an AK-47 assault rifle , and the young woman with him had a pistol . As th e pair were shooting , deputies said , other suspects were damaging cars parked in front of the home . ( Optional add end ) San Marino residents pride themselve s on their good school system and manicured lawns . The community , founded by o ld California families southeast of Pasadena , has become home to a new Asian-Am erican gentry virtually overnight . An American-born real estate agent of Asian descent described the community two years ago as being `` like Beverly Hills to Asians . '' The city is the birthplace and boyhood home of WWII tank commander G en. George S. Patton and home to the Huntington Library , which houses a renowne d collection including Thomas Gainsborough 's `` Blue Boy , '' Thomas Lawrence ' s `` Pinkie , '' a Gutenberg Bible , a manuscript of Chaucer 's `` Canterbury Ta les , '' and many other works of art and literature . LOS ANGELES Times Mirror Co. confirmed Sunday that it has agreed to spin off it s cable operations into a new venture with Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises Inc. fo r $ 2.3 billion as part of a long-term strategy to become a major player in prov iding information services for the digital age . Cox will manage the cable compa ny created under the deal , which will become the nation 's third-largest , with 3.1 million subscribers . Times Mirror 's shareholders will retain 20 percent o f the new company . In addition , Times Mirror will receive about $ 932 million worth of Cox Cable 's common stock , and Cox will also assume $ 1.364 billion in new Times Mirror debt . Times Mirror plans to use at least part of the proceeds to develop new programming ventures . As part of the strategy , it will form a partnership with Cox to develop new cable TV channels to be carried over the com bined systems . At a time of on-again , off-again media mergers when companies a re struggling to deal with technological changes that could dramatically alter t he way consumers receive information Times Mirror in effect has decided to divid e itself in two . The move separates the production of information which has tra ditionally been the company 's core business from its delivery . `` You come to a fork in the road where you have to decide what to do with your business , and we took the content side , '' said Times Mirror Chairman and Chief Executive Rob ert F. Erburu. `` Our feeling is that in order to be successful in cable you hav e to get a lot bigger , and to do that would have interfered with our intention to focus on content . '' With the cable business consolidated under Cox , the pu blishing giant will turn its attention to new ways of leveraging its existing as sets : the Los Angeles Times , Newsday and New York Newsday , The Baltimore Sun , The Hartford Courant and some smaller papers ; consumer magazines such as Popu lar Science and Outdoor Life ; a profitable professional and textbook publishing business ; and a recently launched television programming division . Concerns a bout the future of newspapers in their current form is another reason Times Mirr or is focusing on developing new modes of production and a wider breadth of medi a . Some analysts believe that most information will be delievered electronicall y in the future , rather than on paper . `` A substantial part of our business w ill still be the traditional newspaper business in five years , '' Erburu said . `` I don't think things are going to change that fast . But the challenge for u s will be to build the new businesses as fast as we can because that is the only hedge we have against something happening to the traditional business faster th an we think . '' After agressively moving into cable TV in the 1970s , Times Mir ror has not substantially expanded its holdings recently . In a statement Sunday , Cox said that the Times Mirror systems in Orange County , Calif. , Phoenix , Ariz. , and other places would continue to operate as usual for the coming month s . Cox added that the new company may not go into effect until the start of 199 5 . Cox is currently the nation 's sixth largest cable operator , with subscribe rs in San Diego , New Orleans and Virginia , among other places . The combined o perations will form a regional cluster of systems in the Southwest . For private ly held Cox , the deal signifies a commitment to become a major force in deliver ing information services and entertainment . The Atlanta-based company , whose h oldings include the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and several TV and radio statio ns , has been in an agressive mode recently . Last year , it offered $ 500 milli on toward QVC 's failed bid for Paramount Communications . The company also trie d to merge its cable system with Southwestern Bell in a deal that ultimately fai led over regulatory problems and other complications . At a time when cable , ph one , computer and consumer electronics firms are all squabbling over what the v arious forms of delivery systems will look like , analysts have noted that the c ompanies producing the most versatile programming are in a particularly strong p osition . To that end , Times Mirror and Cox said they plan to `` explore a coll aborative test '' to provide an array of interactive information and entertainme nt services to homes and businesses over a fiber network in the Southern Califor nia community of Irvine later this year , as many other phone , cable and progra mming companies are doing in superhighway test-beds around the country . Indeed , the company has already signaled its interest in providing information that ot hers can relay to consumers . In January , Times Mirror joined with Pacific Tele sis Group in a venture that will offer electronic-shopping services . In April , it invested in Digital Pictures Inc. of San Mateo , with plans to provide inter active versions of Times Mirror 's magazines and newspapers to be distributed on CD-ROM . And distribution of an interactive version of the Los Angeles Times vi a Prodigy Co. 's on-line computer service is in the works . Still , some analyst s question the logic of dividing production from distribution , especially when cable generated 28 percent of Times Mirror 's pre-tax operating profit last year nearly equal to that of the newspaper group , which accounted for 53 percent of its revenue . While the newspaper group 's operating profit plunged to $ 107.3 million in 1993 , from $ 310 million in 1989 , cable 's earnings steadily climbe d to $ 106.5 million last year , from $ 58.1 million in 1989 . ( The profit figu res take into account various restructuring charges . ) ( Begin optional trim ) The loss of cable 's profits `` is a very valid concern '' to Times Mirror going forward , said Douglas M. Arthur , an analyst with Kidder Peabody & Co. . `` Wh y sell it ? Strategically , having the cable operation might be a great vehicle down the road . '' But most analysts believe that consolidation in the cable ind ustry is inevitable , as the race to rewire the nation with high-speed fiber cab les requires bigger and bigger outlays of capital . And the consensus is that Ti mes Mirror got a good price . The spinoff will enable the company to avoid a sha rp tax bite that it would have incurred had the company sold the cable business for cash , and its transfer of debt to the new venture will vastly improve Times Mirror 's balance sheet , analysts said . ( End optional trim ) Following the s ale of the cable operations , Times Mirror said it expects to cut the quarterly dividend on its common stock to between one-fifth and one-third its current leve l of 27 cents . Times Mirror will first spin off all of its businesses other tha n cable into the new Times Mirror company , and all Times Mirror shareholders wi ll receive one new Class A or Class C common share for each share they owned in the old Times Mirror . Voting interests in the new Times Mirror will thus remain unchanged . ( Optional Add End ) The Chandler family , the company 's largest s hareholder , which through two trusts owns 31 percent of Times Mirror 's equity and over 50 percent of its voting stock , will not receive any shares of Cox Cab le in the merger , because the terms of their trusts do not allow it . Instead , they will receive a new class of dividend-paying , non-voting preferred stock i n the new Times Mirror , which will be equivalent to their proportionate interes t in the stock distributed to other shareholders . While many industry observers believed the Chandlers ' desire for greater liquidity had fueled the search for a cable partner or buyer , Times Mirror executives said the Chandlers were not expected to sell their shares . Cox Chairman James C. Kennedy will serve as chai rman of the new Cox Cable , and James O . Robbins , the current president of Cox Cable , will be president and chief executive officer . Erburu has been invited to take a seat on the company board of directors , but he said he has not yet r esponded to the offer . ON THE ENGLISH CHANNEL A flotilla of battleships , aircraft carriers , cruisers and ferries crossed the English Channel Sunday night on a celebratory re-enactm ent of the D-day invasion that began Europe 's liberation 50 years ago Monday . A queen ( of England ) , a king ( of Norway ) , four presidents , four prime min isters and tens of thousands of sailors , soldiers and citizens prepared to arri ve Monday morning on the Normandy beaches to commemorate the massive amphibious assault that marked the beginning of the end of World War II . `` Exactly 50 yea rs ago , at this very time , young people just like you were right here in this channel on some 5,000 ships preparing for the most important battle of the centu ry , '' President Clinton told the crew of the aircraft carrier George Washingto n late Sunday . `` Imagine how they must have felt , in choppy seas and bad weat her . Imagine how they must have looked to the enemy when they came across the h orizon . '' The lesson from that `` magnificent , heroic , almost unbelievable e ndeavor , '' he said , was `` that if the Allies would stay together and stay st rong , we would never need another D-Day . '' Earlier the president and first la dy Hillary Rodham Clinton visited the Jeremiah O' Brien , an authentic World War II liberty ship that made 11 shuttle voyages to the Normandy beachheads after J une 6 , 1944 . It was the only ship that participated in the invasion to also be a part of the anniversary armada . After crossing the Channel on the George Was hington , which was scheduled to moor off the French coast , the president was t o attend a sunrise ceremony Monday . Then he was to travel by helicopter Monday morning to Pointe du Hoc for an address to the U.S. Rangers who scaled that clif f in the bloody battle for Omaha Beach . His speech later Monday at the American Cemetery at Colleville sur Mer overlooking Omaha is to be the climax of his eig ht-day `` journey of remembrance '' across Europe that has revived memories of a time when the world was at war and the future at risk . At mid-Channel Sunday n ight , a World War II British Lancaster bomber flew low and dropped red poppies , one for each of the soldiers who took part in the initial invasion . Ships rep resenting the 14 nations whose troops were involved at Normandy laid wreaths at sea to honor those who died . `` If somebody asks me what it was like , I say he ll , '' recalled Harry Pickford , 71 , a British Navy veteran who landed at Norm andy `` about tea-time the second day '' of the invasion . Leaning on a cane , f aded medals pinned to his jacket , he was one of perhaps 100,000 people who atte nded a `` Drumhead '' ceremony on Southsea Common in Portsmouth to bless the fle et . ( Optional add end ) `` You want to come and you don't , because .. . it br ings a lot back which I didn't want , '' the retired bricklayer said of the comm emoration . `` But you don't want the next generation to forget , because if you know what it was like , you 've got a better chance of avoiding it again . '' U nlike 50 years ago , when a driving storm almost prompted Supreme Allied Command er Dwight D. Eisenhower to postpone the invasion , the weather Sunday was clear and cold , with brisk winds snapping the flags and chopping the water . The oute r harbor , called the Solent , was filled with thousands of sailboats and powerb oats jostling for a view of the warships and the dignitaries . With a boom , the British aircraft carrier Illustrious fired a 42-gun salute across the Portsmout h seafront , and the royal yacht Britannia its decks lined with the leaders of t he allied nations whose troops had taken part in D-Day reviewed the fleet . Dist ributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service . LOS ANGELES By merging its cable TV assets with Cox Enterprises , Times Mirror Co. is signaling that the old rules that shaped the diversified media conglomera tes of the past 30 years may no longer apply in an era of rapid technological ch ange in communications . After decades of following a cautious path and staying close to its publishing roots , Times Mirror is dramatically repositioning itsel f as a `` content provider '' for the coming age in which information and entert ainment will be received over everything from computers to interactive TV 's . ` ` The fundamental decision is that we want to focus on the content side , '' say s Robert F. Erburu , chief executive of Times Mirror . `` That 's the strength w e 're best able to build upon in the future . '' As Times Mirror executives envi sion it , becoming a content provider means everything from launching and invest ing in cable TV networks , such as The Outdoor Channel , to using the informatio n gathered by its newspapers and magazines for new programming services and idea s . The emphasis on content also means that Times Mirror does not have to worry about which `` platform '' cable TV , telephone lines , wireless personal commun ications services or satellites delivers the information into the home and can b ecome a provider to all of them . Times Mirror 's decision to spin-off its 1.2 m illion subscriber cable TV assets to Cox comes at a time when all major media co mpanies are looking to what role they will play in the coming so-called informat ion superhighway , where it 's expected that consumers will be able to order mov ies-on-demand , play video games and shop electronically over their cable TV . M edia companies like Times Mirror also face a thundering heard of competition , f rom local phone companies to giant entertainment conglomerates and computer firm s , which all want to cash in on ways to deliver information to the consumer at home and work . The plan , perhaps most significantly , indicates that Times Mir ror is bearish about the company 's long-term prospects as a cable TV operator , and would rather provide information that cable firms , telephone companies and other electronic distributors can sell to the public . `` It pretty clearly tel ls you that Times Mirror feels the future of the business is providing content i nto the business-oriented distribution market , '' said James D. Dougherty of th e investment bank of Dean Witter Discover & Co. . The company believes , he adde d , that `` it 's better for Times Mirror to be out of the ( cable ) business wh en they can get a good price for it , and when they feel the returns on cable ar e just going to shrink over a long period of time . '' Erburu , however , said t hat making the capital investments to build the broad-band infrastructure would use up Times Mirror resources at a time when it wanted to invest the money elsew here . Once a diversified media conglomerate , Times Mirror in recent years has refocused on its core business of big-city newspapers and professional-textbook publishing , as well as making some forays into new media technologies . Such a strategy is unusual in the clubby world of media empires , where the conventiona l wisdom has been that stakes in as many areas as possible newspapers , broadcas ting , cable TV , magazine and book publishing is the best way to hedge bets and ensure growth . The shift in Times Mirror 's strategy also has been accompanied by a move away from a family-run business to a multibillion-dollar corporation run by professional managers . Although the founding Chandler family still contr ols more than 50 percent of Times Mirror 's voting stock and have four seats on its 14-member board , no one in the family has been involved in the top manageme nt since Otis Chandler retired as publisher of the Los Angeles Times in 1980 . B eginning in the 1960s , after it went public , Times Mirror aggressively expande d , buying TV stations , cable TV systems , major newspapers , magazines , and b ook publishing companies . The strategy paralleled that of other media firms . I ndeed , over a 30-year period Times Mirror spent $ 2.2 billion in cash and stock on acquisitions and another $ 3.4 billion in capital expenditures . The acquisi tions propelled Times Mirror into the leading ranks among media companies and ea rned it a spot as No. 135 on the Fortune 500 as recently as 1991 . But Times Mir ror 's diversification strategy included a string of misfires along the way . Fo r example , it eventually had to unload unprofitable newspapers in Dallas and De nver , taking a $ 65 million charge against earnings in 1991 when the buyer of t he Denver paper couldn't pay its note . A $ 650 million investment in The Baltim ore Sun will take years to pay off . A trade magazine it bought in 1987 for $ 75 million was sold four years later for $ 32 million . And last year Times Mirror sold its four network affiliate TV stations at the bottom of the market for $ 3 20 million , only to have the buyer sell them six months later for $ 717 million . ( Optional add end ) Not surprisingly , the missteps coupled with the economi c downturn in the markets where Times Mirror owns newspapers advertising at The Times is off $ 150 million since 1991 have made the company 's stock one of the worst performers among media companies over the last two years . Although the st ock market achieved record highs , Times Mirror 's stock price has languished be tween $ 25 and $ 38 per share since 1990 , far off its 1987 peak of $ 52 . The s potty record in diversifying a notable exception has been the specialty book and professional publishing division , which now accounts for one-third of Times Mi rror 's revenues and more than half its operating profits and sagging stock pric e has led to speculation that the Chandler family is unhappy and wanted to take cash out of the company . Most of the Chandler holdings in Times Mirror are lock ed up in trusts that cannot be dispersed until sometime toward the end of the fi rst quarter of the next century . Tom Untermann , general counsel of Times Mirro r , said that it is not anticipated that the preferred shares that the Chandlers Trusts receives as part of the deal will be sold . Erburu said that , `` The Ch andler Trusts were solidly behind this arrangement , as were outside directors . There 's unanimity among the Chandler Trusts , the management , and independent directors . '' The proposed merger of Times Mirror 's cable television operation into Cox Cabl e Communications would create the nation 's third-largest cable television opera tor in terms of subscribers . Here is a look at the two parent companies behind the deal : TIMES MIRROR CORP. . Headquarters : Los Angeles Chief Executive : Rob ert F. Erburu Employees : 26,936 Major holdings : Publishes five metropolitan an d two suburban newspapers and nine special-interest magazines . Also publishes m edical , business , aviation , economics , art and law books . Its cable televis ion division is the nation 's 10th-largest , with more than 1.2 million customer s in 13 states . 1993 revenue : $ 3.7 billion Approximate revenue and percent by division , in millions of dollars : Division Revenue Percent of total Newspaper s $ 1,981 53 Cable Television 470 13 Book , Magazine & Other Publishing 1,263 34 1993 profit : $ 317.2 million Earnings per share : $ 2.46 Friday stock price : $ 36 , up $ 4 a share -0- COX ENTERPRISES INC. . Headquarters : Atlanta Chief Ex ecutive : James C. Kennedy Employees : 31,000 Major holdings : Publishes 18 dail y and eight weekly newspapers , six broadcast TV stations and 13 radio stations . It owns 24 cable television systems , the nation 's sixth-largest cable operat ion , with 1.8 million subscribers . 1993 revenue : $ 2.7 billion Approximate re venue and percent by division , in millions of dollars : Division Revenue Percen t of total Newspapers $ 802.5 30 Cable television 668.8 25 Automobile auctions 6 15.3 23 Broadcasting 588.4 22 1993 profit : As a private company , not reported PORTSMOUTH , England The daily news summary faxed across the Atlantic Ocean Sun day for President Clinton and his senior aides didn't include anything about the story that has riveted and dismayed the White House most : The first excerpt fr om Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward 's new book on Clinton . The book , `` The Agenda : Inside the Clinton White House , '' portrays the president as indec isive , his staff as fumbling and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton as the de fa cto chief of staff . Asked for his reaction during a morning jog Sunday that too k him through the Portsmouth dockyards , Clinton , wearing a `` Commander-in-Chi ef '' cap , ignored the question and ran on . But ignoring the book willn't make it go away , officials privately concede . It comes as one more blow at a time when Clinton 's approval rating has been on a slide . And his eight-day European trip , which in some ways has burnished Clinton 's standing , also has revived the public debate over whether his efforts to avoid the draft during the Vietnam War should be held against him . Now , the book , written by the country 's mos t prominent investigative reporter and based on interviews with members of the a dministration , is sure to reinforce questions about the competence of the Clint on White House . Senior White House officials traveling with the president in Eu rope generally have dismissed the particulars of the book as `` old news , '' no ting that accounts of chaos in the White House operation already have been widel y reported . `` I don't think there 's anything new , '' press secretary Dee Dee Myers said . ( Begin optional trim ) `` A lot that 's there we 've read before about process , '' White House counselor David Gergen said in an impromptu sessi on with reporters in Portsmouth Sunday . `` We have a strong feeling that the pr esident ought to be judged by results . '' But when he was asked if the book wou ld erode Clinton 's reputation , Gergen glared at the questioner , shook his hea d and left . ( End optional trim ) White House officials had hoped Clinton 's Eu ropean tour would improve his public image , especially the perception of him as commander in chief . In Italy and England , he presided over emotional ceremoni es in historic places , paying tribute to the U.S. armed forces and pledging his support for a strong defense . But his reception from the World War II veterans he has addressed has been more respectful than enthusiastic . In Italy , at the U.S. . Cemetery in Nettuno on Friday , some of the veterans seemed more excited about seeing Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole , R-Kan. , who was wounded in the Italian campaign . `` You have to be a veteran to understand about all this , an d he 's not a veteran , '' Norman Myhra , a retired postmaster from Stevens Poin t , Wis. , said of Clinton . Now 69 , Myhra was a teen-ager when he lost both ha nds to a German booby trap during the invasion of Italy . Paul Wagner , 81 , a r etired school superintendent from Ashland , Pa. , said Clinton `` definitely '' shouldn't have avoided the draft . `` It 's our country , '' he protested . In E ngland Saturday , at the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial , members of t he U.S. congressional delegation discussed Clinton 's military history as they w aited for the president to arrive . `` I don't think it 's something he can shak e , '' said Rep. Robert Dornan , R-Calif. , one of Clinton 's most vociferous cr itics . `` A lot of vets I 've talked to thought he should have sent Al Gore , ' ' the vice president and a Vietnam veteran , to the D-Day commemoration . He cal led Clinton `` a draft dodger , '' and added , `` Every time we see the presiden t at a grave , we just feel total phoniness . '' But J.J. . Pickle , D.-Texas , who served in the Pacific theater for more than three years during World War II , angrily called Dornan 's comments `` totally inappropriate . '' He said of Cli nton , `` I think he has every right in the world to be here and I admire him fo r coming here . '' ( Optional add end ) At a ceremony in Portsmouth to bless a c ommemorative D-Day armada Sunday , some of the aging British veterans considered the question of Clinton 's global leadership . `` People here are doubtful , '' said Harry Pickford , 71 , of Manchester . `` You want some better people behin d him , more than he 's got . '' `` They wanted a youngster , '' Leonard Adgingt on , 74 , of Birmingham , said of U.S. voters , `` and they got one . '' Distrib uted by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service . Some of Wall Street 's long-favorite consumer growth stocks have quietly become the market 's leaders again , after two years or more in the doghouse . Softwar e giant Microsoft , retailer Home Depot and beer king Anheuser-Busch are among t he classic 1980s growth issues that have rebounded sharply this year , after tum bling in 1993 . The return of these old favorites is sparking debate over which stocks are likely to lead the next market rally , assuming the bull market that began in 1990 is intact . In 1992 and 1993 , `` value '' stocks were by far the market 's best performers . The value group includes many industrial , financial and utility shares that typically sell for relatively low prices compared to th eir per-share earnings hence the term `` value . '' `` Growth '' stocks , meanwh ile , usually sell for higher prices relative to earnings , but for a reason : A s the category name implies , these companies typically boast above-average and consistent earnings growth , as opposed to the often-cyclical earnings of value stocks . Growth stocks had a terrific run between 1989 and 1991 , far outperform ing value stocks in each of those years . But by the beginning of 1992 , the tid e turned in favor of value stocks , for two big reasons . Many growth stocks had become overpriced after their 1989- '91 run-up . And when earnings growth for s ome major drug companies and food companies began to slow in 1992 ( victims of h ealth care reform and slower consumer spending , respectively ) , investors beca me suspicious of the entire growth-stock universe . Wall Street began to bet hea vily on a turnaround for large industrial companies , as demand for their produc ts increased and as years of cost-cutting translated into vastly improved earnin gs potential . Financial stocks also surged as interest rates continued to fall . The end result : Value stocks handily beat growth stocks in 1992 and in 1993 , the first time value had back-to-back better years than growth since 1983- '84 . Wilshire Associates , which tracks separate growth and value stock indexes , s ays its value index rose 14 percent in 1992 , versus a 5.6 percent rise in the g rowth-stock index . In 1993 , value rose 12.7 percent while growth fell 0.8 perc ent . ( All figures are total returns : net price change plus dividend income . ) So far this year , both Wilshire indexes were down about 2 percent through the end of May . The growth sector has been hurt by continued weakness in some big- name stocks , including Coca-Cola and Wal-Mart . The value sector has suffered f rom declines in utilities and some major industrial names , such as the Big Thre e auto stocks . But measured since last October when the market began to rally b riskly after stagnating for much of 1993 growth stocks have been outrunning valu e stocks by a wide margin , says Wilshire Associates analyst Mike Palmer . From October through May , Wilshire 's growth index was up 2.2 percent , while the va lue index dropped 5.2 percent , Palmer says . Even if you consider only year-to- date performance , the simple fact that growth and value are about even in perfo rmance may suggest that investors are less interested in buying value stocks , a nd perhaps less interested in selling growth stocks as well . `` One could argue that value stocks ' outperformance has come to an end , '' Palmer says . Howeve r , other yardsticks still give value an edge . The Standard & Poor 's /Barra In c. growth and value indexes , which split the S&P 500 into the two camps , show value up 0.4 percent through May and growth down 2.3 percent . In any case , it 's clear that value is no longer way out in front . And the powerful resurgence this year of classic growth stocks such as Microsoft and Home Depot demonstrates that Wall Street 's appetite for its old favorites has improved markedly from 1 993 . Why the return to growth stocks ? William Dodge , strategist at Dean Witte r Reynolds in New York , says growth stocks are benefiting in part because inves tors realize that at this stage of the economic cycle , `` just any old ( indust rial ) stock isn't going to work anymore . '' Two years ago , you bought auto st ocks because auto sales were still depressed but sure to rebound eventually . To day , after two years of strong sales , it 's reasonable to wonder how much bett er things can get for the auto industry . If you believe auto company earnings w ill peak in 1995 , you probably aren't going to buy the stocks now . At the same time , earnings of many classic growth companies have continued to rise at annu al rates of 15 percent or better since 1992 , even as the stocks have been dashe d . The result : Price-to-earnings ratios , or P-Es , of growth stocks are in ma ny cases significantly lower today than two years ago . If Wall Street takes an increasingly dim view of the earnings potential in value stocks , investors will naturally look to growth stocks as an alternative . And if they find lowered P- Es on those stocks , the justification for buying them becomes that much greater . Of course , it may still be too early to say that growth stocks are taking ov er for value stocks . We may be in a stock-picker 's market where some issues in both camps will do well , while the aggregate indexes perform poorly . But it ' s worth noting that Wall Street responds to momentum . If more investors begin t o perceive that the momentum is shifting back to growth stocks , their rebound c ould become a self-fulfilling prophecy . WASHINGTON As if the Democrats didn't already face enough trouble forestalling big Republican gains in the Senate this year , Sen. Edward M. Kennedy , D-Mass. , may have a serious re-election challenge for the first time in decades . A rec ent poll by the Boston Globe found that a majority of Massachusetts voters belie ve someone else should be given a chance to serve . Kennedy , who is seeking a s eventh term , is expected to be opposed by W. Mitt Romney an articulate venture capitalist and the son of former Michigan Gov. George Romney who has the backing of the Massachusetts GOP and is likely to be well-financed. .. . Although Kenne dy 's supporters maintain that the 32-year incumbent has reversed his plunge in voter esteem resulting from the 1991 rape trial of his nephew William Kennedy Sm ith , the Senate titan has shown surprising signs of vulnerability in other poll s as well . At a minimum , the challenge will force the liberal lawmaker to expe nd considerable time and resources campaigning at a time when he is a key player in President Clinton 's health care reform effort. .. . Said one national Democ ratic strategist : `` He is taking this ( election ) very seriously. '' .. . The Democrats , who have a 56-44 Senate majority , are bracing for an overall loss of several seats in November 's mid-term elections . -0- WATKINS REDUX : With hi s notorious helicopter-borne golf outing , former White House aide David Watkins destroyed on one balmy afternoon the personal ties to Clinton that he had been profitably cultivating for years . Or did he ? .. . Washington lobbyists and som e White House aides believe Watkins would be a prime catch for the lobbying trad e , and some wouldn't be surprised to hear that he had landed a six-figure job . Although the flap over the trip sorely strained Watkins ' relationship with som e administration heavyweights , he still has close ties to some in the Arkansas crowd . During Clinton 's 1992 campaign and since , Watkins proved he could get things done , aides say . And ethics rules , while making the White House off li mits , wouldn't keep him from lobbying Congress or federal agencies on most kind s of business. .. . Watkins said lobbying was not one of the opportunities he wa s exploring . But he conceded that he 's `` not ruling anything out. '' .. . One big problem remains : Such a career move would renew complaints about the flexi ble ethics of a White House crowd that had once pledged to end such practices . -0- WITH FRIENDS LIKE THIS : Guess who is racing to Clinton 's defense in the Wh itewater flap ? Political extremist Lyndon LaRouche . A slick , 64-page magazine put out by LaRouche followers suggests the attack on Clinton is a plot by Briti sh intelligence , angered by U.S. opposition to the International Monetary Fund 's policy of `` shock therapy '' for Russia . `` It is your presidency they are assaulting , '' the journal declares with alarm . -0- NO MORE MR . NICE GUY ? A month after he was passed over for a seat on the Supreme Court , Interior Secret ary Bruce Babbitt has begun to develop cracks in his much-heralded even temper . Babbitt is known for his consensus-building style , but when Sen. Hank Brown , R-Colo. , last week started slamming the compromise Babbitt had carefully crafte d on grazing fees for federal lands , Babbitt got steamed . He packed his bags a nd headed to Colorado to stare down Brown on his own turf . Brown had been a key player in the grazing compromise and Babbitt was apparently furious that he had started bad-mouthing the plan. .. . Babbitt 's fit of pique came after the laid -back Arizonan unleashed a string of public epithets against the mining industry , which is fighting a sweeping reform plan passed by the House . WASHINGTON On a Thursday afternoon in late May , the justices of the Supreme Co urt gathered together in an ornate conference room for a music recital . Justice Harry A . Blackmun , who had conceived the idea and invited six distinguished m usicians , said he thought listening to music together would have a salutary imp act on his often-combative colleagues . The recital and the reception that follo wed would `` increase the level of joviality among the justices at this time of year , '' Blackmun commented in introducing the program . For the Supreme Court , `` this time of the year '' is decision time . In the last week of May and fir st weeks of June , the justices must finally decide their cases , some of which have been pending since the first week in October . Chief Justice William H. Reh nquist , a stickler for working by the clock , insists that all the opinions be ready for announcement by the last week in June . While the court has heard fewe r cases during this term , it now finds itself in the usual spot with the hardes t cases left for last . Here are highlights among the 35 cases still awaiting de cision : ABORTION PICKETING Can a judge block anti-abortion protesters from pick eting and praying at the gates of an abortion clinic , or does such an order vio late their free-speech rights ? A ruling in the case of Madsen vs . Women 's Hea lth Center could affect the constitutionality of the newly enacted federal law d esigned to protect abortion facilities . CABLE TV Does the 1992 law that require s local cable operators to broadcast virtually all the nearby over-the-air stati ons violate the First Amendment rights of the cable companies ? If the justices agree with the cable TV industry , the ruling in the case of Turner Broadcasting vs. FCC could have broad impact in the communications field . DEATH PENALTY Is the California death penalty law unconstitutional because it permits jurors to c onsider vague factors when deciding upon life in prison or death for a convicted killer ? A ruling in Tuilaepa vs. California could affect the fate of all 375 i nmates on Death Row , but the justices indicated during the March argument that they would likely uphold the law . VOTING RIGHTS Is a state required to maximize the number of legislative seats for blacks and Latinos when drawing boundaries ? This case from Florida raises a series of complicated questions because benefi ting blacks can hurt Latinos and vice versa . The justices heard arguments in Jo hnson vs. DeGrandy on the first Monday in October , but have struggled since the n to issue a decision . RETROACTIVE TAXES Can Congress repeal a tax benefit afte r a taxpayer has taken advantage of it and order the Internal Revenue Service to seek retroactive payments ? Since the 1930s , the high court has given state an d federal officials broad powers to impose retroactive taxes , but the case of U .S. vs. Carlton has forced the justices to rethink that doctrine . RELIGION Can a state carve out a special school district so as to serve a separatist religiou s sect ? If the answer is `` yes '' in this New York case , other sects are like ly to seek the same benefits . But the ruling in the Village of Kiryas Joel vs. Grumet is likely to be narrowly focused and will not have a broad impact on othe r cases involving the separation of church and state . ( Optional Add End ) UNIT ARY TAXES Is California 's now-repealed unitary tax on multinational corporation s unconstitutional ? A loss in the case of Barclay 's Bank vs . Franchise Tax Bo ard could cost the state as much as $ 4 billion , but during the oral argument t he justices sounded as though they will reject the bank 's claim . SIGNS Can a c ity outlaw the display of all signs and billboards , except those necessary to i dentify a residence or business ? If the court were to rule for the city in Ladu e vs. Gilleo , local officials would have far broader authority to ban billboard s and other `` visual clutter . '' PROPERTY RIGHTS Can city officials force a st ore owner to give up some of his property to a bike path as a condition of getti ng a building permit , or is that requirement an unconstitutional `` taking '' o f private property ? In a 1987 case involving a Ventura , Calif. , beachfront ho me , the court said it would frown on a public agency 's demands that amounted t o `` extortion '' of property owners , but the justices have been unable to agre e on a clear standard . The case of Dolan vs. Tigard gives them another chance . ATLANTA The Clinton administration is stepping for the first time into the unce rtain , but potentially lucrative business of trying to guide the economic resur gence of a newly democratic South Africa . But the job of redrawing the nation ' s economy in a way that ensures that the transition to democracy translates into fundamental improvements in living standards for all South Africans is easier s aid than done . Just listen to Trevor Manuel , once an African National Congress intelligence officer and now South Africa 's minister of trade and industry . ` ` We 've inherited an economy that is fairly skewed , '' said Manuel , a man who displays a penchant for flowery ties and down-to-earth rhetoric . The Johannesb urg stock exchange is the 10th largest in the world , he notes , yet `` South Af rica is one of the few countries in the world where there is no McDonald 's . '' With personal encouragement from Vice President Al Gore and South African Execu tive Deputy President Thabo Mbeki , senior U.S. and South African officials team ed up with business executives from both countries in Atlanta over the weekend t o begin wrestling with the economic needs facing the new multiracial government . `` We want to build an economy , '' said Harry L. Schwartz , South Africa 's a mbassador to the United States . `` We have tremendous resources to become a maj or economic power . '' True , say less-biased observers , eyeing a potential $ 2 0 billion market . But what about the promises Nelson Mandela made to the black majority as he campaigned successfully to become the country 's first black pres ident ? What about building houses in black townships , supplying them with elec tricity and clean water , and revamping the educational system ? At its heart , the dilemma is this : Can South Africa attract the outside investment it needs f or growth and wealth redistribution , while also meeting the political goal of r econciliation of the races and the economic goal of raising living standards of the black majority ? Gore is among those who answer affirmatively . The blueprin t for change drafted by the African National Congress `` doesn't ask for utopia , '' Gore said . `` It asks for running water , flush toilets , schools , health clinics . But how can South Africa finance even these things in a country where the majority of the people have less than 10 percent of the wealth ? '' Accordi ng to South African officials , the commitment to both democracy and the free ma rket is unwavering . `` We have not come carrying a begging bowl , but a nationa l commitment to invest in people by investing in democracy , '' said Mbeki , who is calling for increased U.S. investment and two-way trade between the United S tates and South Africa . How important is outside investment ? `` It is vital , '' he said . The Clinton administration has committed itself to providing $ 200 million a year for three years in grants , loans and loan guarantees to assist i n the process . But the real investment must come from outside government . `` T he key to the future of our relationship will be the private sector , '' Gore sa id . `` That 's what will create the jobs . That 's what will create the income . '' Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown says there is a short-term need for `` h undreds of millions of dollars '' of U.S. investment . The U.S.-South Africa Con ference on Democracy and Economic Development was the first effort to bring the new South African elite together with those in the United States who are in a po sition to provide assistance without a massive commitment of government funds . `` If you just throw money at South Africa , you willn't necessarily create a su ccessful economy . The South Africans don't have the skills in public administra tion .. . that are part of a market economy , '' said a U.S. official involved i n organizing the meeting . From the South African perspective , the objective is much broader . `` The battle in South Africa is to ensure we can give this hard -won democracy some content .. . and reposition South Africa in the global econo my , '' Manuel said last week in Washington . On the positive side , said Witney Schneidman , senior vice president of Samuels International Associates , an int ernational trade and investment consulting firm , `` the prospects are quite goo d . '' South Africa , Schneidman said , `` has a first-world infrastructure . '' He cited its banking network , an established system of contract law , a relati vely open , market-based economy , and a geographical location that provides acc ess to markets in other regions , such as the Indian Ocean rim . South Africa 's $ 112 billion economy is beginning to grow , after four years of recession , an d it has major deposits of gold and platinum . ( Optional add end ) On the other hand , `` there are a lot of misplaced expectations , '' Schneidman said . `` M ost people don't understand the gap between the white business Establishment and black business . '' The unemployment rate in South Africa is approximately 46 p ercent , average income of blacks is one-tenth that of whites , and the black li teracy rate is half that of whites . In fact , the upbeat tenor of the current d iscussions may involve a considerable amount of `` blue-sky '' expectations , sa id Walter Kansteiner , an African affairs expert who served on the National Secu rity Council staff during the Bush administration . `` You 're not going to achi eve reconciliation with the white community if you 're going to slap huge taxes on the whites and go into a budget deficit , '' Kansteiner said in an interview . The increasingly loud debate over whether the U.S. economy is overheating or in danger of it will increase a few decibels as a result of the Labor Department ' s employment report for May released last week . Confounding the forecasters , w ho had expected it to remain stable , unemployment fell to six percent , down fr om 6.4 percent April . This pushed joblessness well below what many conservative s consider the `` natural rate of unemployment '' which they define as the point beyond which further improvement would cause an escalation in wage demands and a new inflationary spiral that can only be cured by bludgeoning the economy back into a recession . The thinking at the Federal Reserve Board these days is that the `` natural '' rate is somewhere above six percent . So the improvement in M ay will not only be used to justify the successive interest rate increases alrea dy put in place this year but strengthen the voice of those at the Fed who argue d strongly that the central bank should have gone even further to apply brakes t o the economy . The trouble with the `` natural '' rate is that it cannot be set with precision and indeed there are strong arguments in favor of the notion tha t recent changes in the economic climate have driven the natural rate far lower than the militant inflation fighters would have you believe . Indeed , there wer e periods in the post World War II era when six percent or 6.4 percent would hav e been considered an abnormally high jobless rate . In the early 1950s unemploym ent fell below three percent . In the late 1960s it stayed below four percent . This isn't the 50s or 60s , of course , but neither is it the 70s or 80s . The s harp decline in union membership as a percentage of the work force and the weake ned position of unions in pace-setting industries steel , automobiles , trucking come to mind argue strongly that the natural rate is significantly lower than i t was 15 years ago . So do several other trends . Increased price competition in the 1990s is another factor . It has resulted from cultural changes in U.S. cor porate management , increased foreign competition and greater consumer awareness of price . Whatever , it means that even with a lower unemployment rate and hig her wage demands , corporations are finding it far more difficult to make price increases stick and therefore far more likely to control costs through technolog y and innovation . But what , really , is the big difference between a six perce nt unemployment rate and a five percent unemployment rate , especially if the hi gher rate buys us insurance against the possibility , however remote , of a resu rgence of inflation ? I 'll tell you what it is . Lower unemployment not only me ans fewer families in a state of economic distress . It means thousands of worke rs more likely to switch out of jobs they hate . It means that desperate middle- aged victims of corporate downsizing have a far better chance at re-employment . It means increased opportunity in the states and regions where joblessness is s till at recession levels despite the general improvement nationwide . It means t hat thousands of underemployed , part-time and temporary workers will have a cha nce for something better . These are all things that most decent people would th ink of as both `` natural '' and desirable in a fair society . SHIROTORI , Japan Far from the high-tech dazzle of an economic superpower , the people in this small seaside village still labor by hand and worry that their l ivelihoods may become obsolete . One of the most prominent local industries glov e-making is struggling to survive amid a labor shortage , the yen 's appreciatio n and brisk competition from China , the Philippines and other countries with lo w-cost labor . `` Everyone is wondering , ` What shall we do ? ' ' ' lamented Ke nji Tanaka , special assistant to the president of Urushihara Co. , a local glov e-maker . `` No one knows what the future will bring . '' Shirotori is in Kagawa , the smallest prefecture on the smallest of four main islands of Japan , and i ts quandary exemplifies the quiet struggles of Japan 's far-flung provinces . Th ey are places that technological advancement and rapid industrial growth have in varying degrees by-passed . `` Most foreigners think of Japan as a high-tech co untry , but in the provinces there are still a lot of labor-intensive industries , '' said Yoshihisa Goto , a planning specialist with the Ministry of Internati onal Trade and Industry . The provinces are not taking their fate passively : Fr om the glove-makers here on Shikoku Island to central Honshu 's textile firms , from Hokkaido 's fish processors to the shipping suppliers of Kyushu , the provi nces are aiming to revamp and revitalize . Prodded by mounting cries for help , parliament passed a special law in 1992 establishing a 10-year program to help r esuscitate local industry through subsidies , low-interest loans , tax breaks an d other financial schemes . The government has also renewed a program to help sa ve traditional industries , crafts that create such culturally unique items as l acquerware , pottery , dolls and wooden sandals . The program , first begun in 1 974 and renewed in 1992 , grants subsidies to train young successors to the mast er artisans and to develop new products using traditional techniques for modern- day goods , for instance . But the challenges facing local and traditional indus tries are formidable . Few young people want to succeed the aging artisans , who labor by hand in small mom-and-pop operations . In the lacquerware industry , f or instance , an onslaught of cheap products from China and South Korea is under selling Japanese goods . And the increasing Westernization of lifestyles here ha s shrunk the demand for traditional items , industry officials say . Many young consumers would prefer to buy Tiffany crystal than Japan 's famous Wajima lacque rware . The exquisite pieces featuring glossy black surfaces painted with gilded cranes and other traditional scenes command as much as $ 950 for a single sake cup . Overall , manufacturing output in Japan 's traditional industries has decl ined from $ 5.3 billion in 1983 to $ 4.7 billion in 1992 . The number of workers has dropped from 290,000 in 1979 to 210,000 in 1992 . And as young people of th e province are drawn to the bright lights of Tokyo and Osaka , the percentage of workers aged 30 and younger has declined from 28.7 percent in 1973 to just 10.3 percent in 1992 , according to MITI figures . `` It 's a serious situation , '' said Ryosuke Chiba of MITI 's traditional industries division . `` Whether Japa n likes it or not , cheap imports are coming in . There is nothing we can do but develop new products . '' In the provinces themselves , however , that is far e asier said than done . Take , for instance , Japan 's lacquerware industry . Aiz u-Wakamatsu , a town nestled in a resort area of mountains and lakes 115 miles n orth of Tokyo , has long been known as one of Japan 's chief lacquerware centers . The craft came to the region more than 100 years ago when the reigning feudal lord sent for a Kyoto artisan to develop it locally . The painstaking process i nvolves several steps , from mixing the pitch-black lacquer brew to shaping the wooden bowl or tray , to applying the lacquer and then painting it with delicate designs . Most craftspeople specialize in just one of the steps . But these day s , Chamber of Commerce chief Yoshihiro Ichinose and lacquerware association hea d Tsutae Baba see their proud heritage about to disappear . The recession of the last few years has pushed sales down by 20 percent . Already , the association has lost 16 of its members to bankruptcy . The average age of craftspeople is 60 . Although the association is sponsoring a successor 's training school with 12 students , that is hardly adequate to replace the imminent wave of retirees , B aba said . `` Working conditions in the lacquerware industry don't suit today 's young people , '' he fretted . `` Who wants to work until the middle of the nig ht in a small , dark room ? Young people want to work in big companies . '' ( Be gin optional trim ) To make matters worse , the area is reeling from the impact of cheap Chinese lacquer , whose wholesale price is one-fourth that of the Japan ese products . Aizu-Wakamatsu is more vulnerable to the competition than its riv al to the south , Wajima , which has carved out a high-priced niche for itself . Wajima lacquer is viewed as more art than utilitarian , with an elegant workman ship that the Chinese cannot yet match . But Aizu-Wakamatsu made a fateful decis ion in the 1960s to downgrade its product , after the supply of cheap raw lacque r from China was cut off in a diplomatic row . Now , more than 90 percent of its product uses a plastic base instead of the traditional wood ; on many items , a synthetic coating instead of authentic lacquer is used . The decision was smart at the time , as lacquered soup bowls , trays and boxes were moving into mass u se for the first time . Exports began to boom . But now the low-end items can be duplicated by Japan 's Asian rivals . Already , most Japanese lacquerware artis ans use half-completed products from Korea and China and apply the all-important finishings themselves . What concerns officials here is the growing number of f inished products entering the market and the discernible improvement in quality . `` Lacquerware is becoming a product of developing countries , '' Haruo Fukuni shi , the industry association president , said with a sigh . But suggest that t he region should give up the craft , or seek to benefit from China 's competitiv e advantage by importing more of it , and the response is sharp : `` Our intenti on is to preserve and protect the tradition of Aizu-Wakamatsu , '' Baba said . ` ` If Aizu-Wakamatsu became known only as a place that sells Chinese lacquer , ou r name and meaning would disappear . '' Solutions , however , are elusive . The industry petitioned the central government for an import ban on Chinese products but was rejected . Now , there is talk of designing new products , but few idea s have surfaced : lacquered nameplates or telephone cards , the use of lacquer i n construction , such as doors or interior accents . ( End optional trim ) Over in Shirotori , glove-making executives and officials are less bound to preserve a culture and tradition . They mainly want to preserve jobs and long-established knitting and sewing techniques that have made the town the glove-making capital of Japan . As a result , rather than fight China and other Asian nations , they are working with them . The Swany Corp. first moved to China in 1984 and now ha s four companies making gloves near the Shanghai area . President Etsuo Miyoshi 's company was one of the first in Shikoku to go abroad , setting up Korean fact ories as early as 1972 , when labor rates in Japan started to rise . `` In the p ast 20 years , we 've moved from exporting gloves to importing them , and 90 per cent is from China , '' he said . `` That 's a very big change . '' Other promin ent glove-makers , such as Kazuyoshi Urushihara , plan to automate more of their production , investing heavily in robotics to combat both the labor shortage an d rising labor costs . Just as young people balk at becoming traditional artisan s , they also shun the manual labor of the glove industry . But such options are out of reach for most of Shikoku 's 170 glove-makers , said Eiichi Nagata , dir ector of the Kagawa office of the Japan External Trade Organization . `` Oversea s production , mechanization with robots and other measures require huge capital , and these companies can't afford to do it so easily , '' Nagata said . `` If I were mayor , '' said Urushihara , who doubles as chairman of the Japan Glove I ndustries Association , `` I 'd forget about the glove industry . It does not ha ve a bright future . '' PRESCOTT , Ariz . Once a brash , bawdy territorial capital where the faces of i ts painted women rivaled the brilliant hues of its majestic Granite Mountain Wil derness Prescott has been metamorphosed into a tranquil valley where California equity barons battle longtime landowners for available space . Where ranchers an d miners once shook hands on business deals in bars decorated with cattle horns , an older generation of Americans has come to look on this city of 29,000 as a retirement mecca . They arrive by the dozens sometimes hundreds each month . Esp ecially since Money magazine earlier this year proclaimed Prescott , with its te mperate climate and intemperate history , the most desirable area in the country for those seeking affordable respite from teeming cities and soaring crime rate s . Peggy Collins , tourism director for Prescott 's Chamber of Commerce , notes with satisfaction that phone inquiries are up 33 percent over 1993 and mail res ponses have risen 240 percent . But many in what may be the last major true fron tier city in the West do not share her good humor . There are new Prescott-ites , caught in an inflationary spiral that threatens their Social Security income , who prefer that the spotlight on their city quickly fade . And there 's an equa l or greater number of Prescott pioneers who share that sentiment . Founded in 1 864 as the first territorial capital of Arizona , Prescott despite its reputatio n for hangings and gunfights has always had a softer side . The women 's Monday Club began collecting for a Carnegie Library that today boasts a 110,000-volume collection that much larger cities would envy . There are museums , concert hall s , a community college , a liberal arts college and an aeronautical university . Victorian homes are restored and open to tours . College students make up the vast majority of Prescott 's working class earning $ 4 to $ 5 an hour at grocery stores , hotels and gas stations . The other end of the economic scale belongs to those whose fathers and grandfathers staked out the wilderness and then subdi vided it into great wealth . Says L.W. . `` Budge '' Ruffner , whose family root s here date to the post-Civil War days and who is a Western historian of some no te , `` There really isn't ( much of ) a middle class . '' Those arriving add to the disparity . They include Californians and others with hundreds of thousands of equity dollars in the modern equivalent of their saddlebags . Other newcomer s bring only fixed pensions and optimism . All are greeted by realtors known for elevating prices when out-of-town license plates are spotted on the curving hig hway leading to the top of the mountains . And while Prescott 's growth is limit ed by the mountains that encircle it , Prescott Valley ( once known more imprope rly as Jackass Flats ) remains there for the taking . Today it is the third-fast est-growing area in Arizona , Collins says . The 150-member Yavapai tribe , indi genous to the Prescott area , is making its presence known by licensing a giant shopping center and hotel complete with gambling on its reservation . But Presco tt will see little if any tax revenue from the shoppers and gamblers because the center sits on federal land . Prescott 's antecedents are a glossary of things as varied as the landscape itself : The Samuel Hill Hardware store is supposedly the source of the old expression , `` What the Sam Hill ? '' a phrase that was a tribute to Hill 's floor-to-ceiling inventory of almost everything imaginable . Barry Goldwater thought of Prescott as his good-luck city and launched his pol itical campaigns there . Fiorello LaGuardia spent many of his high school years in Prescott , where his Army officer father was stationed as the local military bandmaster . He and Ruffner 's father became friends , and Ruffner fought for ye ars to build a lasting monument to the former New York mayor . Today there rises above Granite Creek a bridge named in his honor . Sinclair Lewis also would hav e loved Prescott ; there is a tribe of Babbitts entwined in the city 's past who se descendants include Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt . So Prescott sits poise d between its past where tour groups today are told that the old whorehouse abov e the Palace Bar ( opened in 1901 ) was a `` hotel , '' and its present where it s reputation as a mecca for retirees threatens to push its average age to a stat istic rivaling the elevation of the mountains . So if you wish to help those who pine for the past , forget you read this . But if you promise not to tell , it still is a city where people actually turn around when your car burglar alarm go es off . PANAMA CITY You would think Jasmine Nelson , a Panamanian law student , would h ave more reasons than most people to want to see an end to 90 years of U.S. domi nation of her country . After all , U.S. firepower destroyed her neighborhood du ring the 1989 invasion that ousted Gen. Manuel A . Noriega. She spent her format ive years schooled in the anti-imperialist rhetoric of the 1980s . She believes that the Panama Canal ought to be run by Panamanians and that U.S. military inst allations that control her country 's midsection are an affront to national sove reignty . But she says she wants to be realistic . `` If the gringos go , there goes our economic stability , '' she says . `` Without the dollar , we are nothi ng . We don't want the gringos to go . '' For years , Panamanians dreamed of the day they would take charge of the canal and the acres of U.S.-controlled real e state attached to it . As the deadline for the hand-over inches closer , however , they are racked with doubts and fears about whether they are ready and whethe r perhaps they are losing more than they are gaining . The election last month o f a president whose government will handle most of the transition has focused ne w attention on Panama 's spotty preparations to receive the canal and the networ k of U.S. military bases built along it . President-elect Ernesto Perez Balladar es promises a smooth transfer at century 's close . But his words have yet to ca lm the uncertainty , which in many ways highlights the longstanding ambivalence Panamanians have felt toward the United States and toward their own sense of nat ional identity . Created as a nation so the canal could be built , Panama faces daunting questions about whether it can operate the waterway efficiently and pro perly develop the accompanying 500 square miles of land . And the departure of U .S. troops attached to the Panama-based U.S. . Southern Command will mean a huge loss of income and jobs . Under 1977 treaties , the United States must hand ove r the canal and all property ; all troops which until last week numbered close t o 10,000 must leave by Dec. 31 , 1999 . Governments until now have done little t o get Panama ready . Although the date for concluding the transfer may seem far off , the prerequisite changes are monumental . Only recently has the pace of bo th the turnover and the preparations quickened : A government commission has fin ally drafted a plan for the canal 's future operation , and an autonomous agency is entertaining development projects for the land that is coming under Panamani an control . As the first contingent of U.S. troops began pulling out on Friday , senior U.S. officers said they hope that the withdrawal of the 193rd Infantry Brigade will force Panamanians to overcome their doubts and realize that the Uni ted States is serious about leaving . The issue of Panama 's readiness weighs he avily on governments such as Japan , whose trade relies on transit through the c anal , and on the multibillion-dollar shipping industry . Yet for thousands of w orkers who depend on the canal and the military bases , there are much more basi c questions about jobs and livelihoods . Panama is home to multiple generations of both Panamanians and Americans whose lives are intertwined with the canal , a nd the world they have known is ending . Beverly and Joe Wood are part of the dw indling community of Americans connected to the canal . Once called `` Zonians , '' the Americans had numbered more than 4,000 , but now there are fewer than 80 0 . As the canal is transferred to Panamanian control , Americans are being phas ed out of the operation , and the Woods must leave their home next year . Second -generation canal employees , the Woods had what they considered ideal lives , s erving their country , serving the world and residing in paradise . They were bo rn here and met , married and had children in the territory once known as the Pa nama Canal Zone a strip of land around the waterway that was physically part of Panama but that administratively belonged to the United States . It was a separa te and privileged world of neat clapboard homes and manicured lawns lined with p alm trees and orchids . The Zonians had their own schools , stores and hospitals a last bastion of U.S. colonialism that is fading . The Woods , in essence , mu st find a new country . ( Begin optional trim ) `` The whites who were in South Africa , the British who were in India .. . they probably had similar feelings , '' Joe Wood said , seated on the couch in his home in Balboa , once a part of t he Zone off limits to Panamanians without special permits . `` Our home is gone . Our kids can't come back . It 's a wonderful life that is coming to an end . ' ' The Zone officially was dissolved as one of the first steps of the 1977 treati es . Now called the Panama Canal Area , parts still belong to the United States , but it no longer has a separate U.S. governor or U.S. police force . Under the treaties , the commission will cease to exist and land totaling 17 percent of n ational territory will revert to Panama as the U.S. . Southern Command and its t roops withdraw . Some estimates value the land which includes hundreds of vintag e 1940s buildings and a corridor of triple-canopy jungle full of exotic birds , big cats and lemurs at $ 30 billion , but only if developed wisely . Most of wha t has transferred thus far has been badly neglected . What Panama loses , at lea st in the short term , is $ 300 million to $ 400 million in annual income and at least 4,000 well-paying jobs . ( End optional trim ) Luis Salazar has spent 21 years collecting the trash and repairing the plumbing at Fort Davis and Fort Esp inar on the Atlantic end of the canal , near the city of Colon . Like many Panam anians , he has little faith that the country 's traditionally corrupt governmen ts can be trusted to administer the canal and the potential windfall from the la nd grants . `` They ( government leaders ) want more and more and more , and the n they can't handle the burden , '' he said of the haphazard land acquisition . `` Instead of moving forward , we are just falling behind . '' Standing at Fort Espinar , Salazar looked with disgust at the row of three-story barracks that on ce housed American troops , then Noriega 's army , but that have remained empty for years . Since being turned over to the Panamanian government , the buildings have fallen into woeful disrepair . Nearby is the original School of the Americ as , the U.S. military 's controversial training center for Latin armies for dec ades until its transfer to Fort Benning , Ga. , in 1984 . The school was the cen ter of a U.S. hemispherical military strategy aimed at fighting communism . The once-imposing building is a shambles ; scavengers have chipped away the marble w alls , and granite columns lie toppled on the ground , which is overgrown with w illows and weeds . Upkeep for the 10 bases still under U.S. control costs the Am erican government $ 80 million a year . If structures are not maintained in the humid tropics , they are rapidly lost to the jungle . Panamanian officials conte nd they can't afford to pay for the maintenance . Joaquin J. Vallarino , one of Panama 's richest men and head of the presidential commission assigned to draft a transition plan for the canal , acknowledged that doubts about Panama are just ified . `` Many things were done badly .. . both sides , '' Vallarino said . `` The Panamanians themselves have doubts . They are frightened . But it is perfect ly within the capacity of Panamanians ( to manage the canal ) , as long as it is not politicized . '' Now that there are new nutrition labels on food packages , what happens to the claims about those same products made by advertisers ? Will it all be consistent ? The answer , like many in the world of government regulation , is as complex as a fine wine . Here 's a brief outline : As of May 8 , manufacturers have had to comply with the Food and Drug Administration 's new labeling law , meaning th at every jar of jam or pickle relish leaving a factory has to list exactly what 's in it for example , the amount of fat , saturated fat , cholesterol and sodiu m . Many of the new labels are already appearing on food packages , but it may t ake a while before they all get through the pipeline and onto supermarket shelve s . As part of the law , FDA also defined a host of terms , such as `` low fat , '' `` reduced calorie '' or `` high in fiber , '' and sanctioned five diet-and- disease claims ( such as calcium reducing the risk of osteoporosis ) for product s that comply with certain nutrient guidelines . Meanwhile , meat and poultry pr oducts regulated by the Department of Agriculture will have until July 8 to comp ly with the new law . Now here 's where it gets even more complicated . Neither of these agencies FDA or USDA is responsible for overseeing food ads . That 's t he bailiwick of the Federal Trade Commission , which operates under a different set of bureaucratic authorities and philosophies . The FTC does not preapprove a ds or dictate what advertisers may say ; it challenges claims it finds false and misleading . But given the broad changes brought about by FDA 's labeling law , the FTC wanted to clarify its position . So on May 13 the agency announced it w ould seek to reconcile its policies with FDA 's new regulations to `` the fulles t extent possible . '' `` Our goal is to help ensure that the messages consumers get from food advertising are consistent with those they see in food labeling t oday and in the future , '' said FTC Chairman Janet D. Steiger . But at least on e watchdog group believes consumers could end up getting a lot of mixed messages instead . `` The FTC 's policy is filled with loopholes that will permit food c ompanies to make food and nutrition claims in advertising that are not permitted in labeling , '' said Sharon Lindan , assistant director of legal affairs for t he Center for Science in the Public Interest . Lindan cited a number of examples where she believes consumers might find confusing inconsistencies . For example , the FDA allows manufacturers to use terms such as `` less '' fat or `` reduce d '' cholesterol only if there has been at least a 25 percent reduction in the n utrient . Under the FTC 's policy , advertisers would be allowed to make a `` le ss '' or `` reduced '' claim if the reduction is less than 25 percent , so long as the ad indicates exactly what the reduction was ( `` 20 percent less fat in o ur frozen entree as compared to Brand X '' ) . Nevertheless , the FTC said it wo uld carefully scrutinize claims that differ from the FDA 's 25-percent reduction rule . And while advertisers would have to follow the FDA 's definitions for te rms such as `` low , '' `` high '' and `` lean , '' when describing nutrients su ch as fat , saturated fat or fiber , they may use any synonyms so long as they ' re not deceptive . `` I understand the need to market products with catchy phras es , '' said Lindan . She cited an ad for a frozen turkey dinner that says `` yo u get a lot of taste and not a lot of salt . '' `` Is that low sodium ? '' she a sked . `` If so , the product doesn't meet the FDA 's definition . '' Ann Maher , assistant director of the division of advertising practices at the FTC , said the few exceptions in the agency 's policy `` reflect the limits to our authorit y . '' It can't ban ads that aren't deceptive . So what does the food industry t hink ? `` In its ( the FTC 's ) effort to harmonize , we think they went farther than they needed to go , '' said Toni Guarino , general counsel of the Grocery Manufacturers of America . Still , it may be too early to tell , she said . `` B efore anybody makes too many dire predictions about how horrible or wonderful it ( the policy ) is , we should see how it pans out . '' YOUNTVILLE , Calif. . Dawnine Dyer 's footsteps echo as she walks the concrete floor of Napa Valley 's Domaine Chandon winery . Six dozen 14,000-gallon stainle ss-steel tanks tower above her , as if standing at attention for the 43-year-old winemaker . `` It 's amazing how much is going on in here , '' says Dyer . `` B ut you can't see it , because all the action the fermentation , everything is go ing on inside the tanks . '' Dyer seems right at home in this American subsidiar y of the renowned French holding company Louis Vuitton-Moet-Hennessey . And she should be , having helped build the 17-year-old sparkling-wine facility . Dyer j oined Domaine Chandon as a chemist while the facility was under construction . H er mission : to design and develop a lab for a quality-control program . Today s he 's the chief winemaker and vice president . Dyer is one of the new breed of t his nation 's winemakers : young , energetic , well educated and female . Today , in California , the nation 's leading wine-producing state , there are at leas t half a dozen women executives running big wineries , more than three dozen wom en winemakers and scores more working in the vineyards , cellars , labs and mark eting departments . `` It seems like a sudden explosion of women , '' says Janet Pagano , general manager and director of winemaking at Codorniu Napa winery , t he American subsidiary of the Spanish Codorniu sparkling-wine producer , `` but women have been working their way up the ranks . It 's only in the last several years that they 've emerged in positions of responsibilities , '' says the 36-ye ar-old executive , who was tapped to head Codorniu Napa in 1989 . Ask wine exper ts about top-notch woman winemakers and executives and names quickly tumble out : Dyer , Pagano , Zelma Long at Simi Winery , Eugenia Keegan at La Bouchaine Vin eyards , Cathy Corison at Corison Winery , Michaela Rodeno at St. Supery Vineyar ds & Winery , Margaret Davenport at Clos du Bois , Eileen Crane at Domaine Carne ros , Alison Green at Firestone Vineyards , Christina Benz at Murphy-Goode Winer y . It 's a growing list and one that 's hard to fathom when you consider that , for many centuries , women weren't even allowed to touch wine as it was being m ade their mere presence , it was believed , could contaminate the wine . Even af ter that primitive superstition faded , women were still not welcome in the wine ries . Among other things , owners believed they lacked the requisite physical s trength and emotional makeup . Consider a 1943 `` Women in Wineries '' article i n The Wine Review , which earnestly discussed the prospect of wineries ' hiring women during World War II . `` Employing women in your winery is nothing to worr y about if you go at it in the right spirit and proper care , '' the article sai d . Among other things , the piece cautioned : `` Women tire faster than men , a nd where possible , they should be seated at their work . Also they are more sen sitive to noise , dirt , unpleasant odors , which far from being a problem tends to promote orderliness and sanitation in the bottling room , which is as it sho uld be . '' It was only in the late 1970s and early '80s that women started livi ng down these preconceptions . It was a particularly propitious time for women , recalls Rodeno , chief executive officer of St. Supery. `` The California wine industry was just starting to expand . There were lots of opportunities then for anyone man or woman . And everyone who was interested in wine took them . '' Wh at 's more , she adds , `` there were fewer social barriers '' to overcome in th is relatively new industry than in the more entrenched , male-dominated distribu tion end of the business . Rodeno , now 47 , first worked as a tour guide for Be aulieu Vineyards in fact , she was BV 's first female tour guide . Within months , though , she learned that Moet-Hennessey was going to build a sparkling-wine facility in Napa . Fluent in French , Rodeno introduced herself to the head of t he new Domaine Chandon winery and told him she could help . She was hired as ass istant to the president and became vice president for marketing and communicatio ns before she was hired by another French company to head St. Supery six years a go . Take a tour of St. Supery and one of the first things you 'll notice is a p icture of the management team : five women , one man ( the winemaker ) . It 's n ot intentional , Rodeno says . Every time there 's an opening , `` I try hard to find a guy , but then a woman walks in and blows every other candidate out of t he water . '' Ironically , it 's the Europeans doing business in America who see m the most open to hiring and promoting women . `` Doing business in America is probably so different for a European company that having a woman manager is just one more thing different about America , '' says Codorniu Napa 's Pagano . Amer ican men , on the other hand , often have a hard time accepting women at the top , Pagano adds . `` When I was hired by Codorniu Napa , I was asked repeatedly b y men in the industry how I happened to get this job . They were genuinely baffl ed , and the obvious answer that I was the most qualified wasn't evident to them . '' Among the first women to break into the production end of the business was Simi 's Zelma Long , now considered one of the nation 's leading winemakers , r acking up industry awards year after year . So far in 1994 , she 's won the Woma n of the Year Award from the Roundtable for Women in Food Service and was a fina list for the James Beard wine and spirits professional-of-the-year award . Her e ntry into the business `` was definitely by happenstance , '' says the 50-year-o ld Long , who trained as a dietitian `` at a time when nutrition got no respect . '' When her husband 's parents bought a vineyard in Napa Valley , Long decided to get a master 's in enology at the University of California at Davis . `` It was one of those seriously considered career decisions , '' she says with a big grin . That was in 1968 , and Long was only the second woman to enter Davis 's e nology program . She was only halfway through when the Robert Mondavi Winery woo ed her away . It was the harvest , and `` they were desperate , '' she says . On ce at Mondavi , `` I fell in love with the business '' and stayed . Long 's pres ence has helped open the door for many other women partly because she gave many their first jobs , including Dyer of Domaine Chandon and Davenport of Clos du Bo is . `` She helped send a lot of people on their way , '' says Davenport . YOUNTVILLE , Calif. . One of the few women entrepreneurs in the wine business i s Cathy Corison , whose Corison Cabernet Sauvignon has won critical acclaim ever since it was first released in 1987 . For those who praise her wines , it 's ha rd to believe that Corison was rejected for a cellar job 18 years ago . Winery o fficials at Freemark Abbey Winery doubted that the petite Corison , now 40 , was strong enough for the physically demanding job . When the man who won the job d idn't work out , winery officials reluctantly agreed to hire her a year later , making her the first woman to hold a cellar position in Napa Valley since Prohib ition . ( Long , by contrast , started her career in the lab . ) Eventually , Co rison became top winemaker at Chappelet Vineyard , producing highly rated cabern ets . Yet that was not enough for her . `` I was using their vineyards , their c oncepts , their budget . I wanted a chance to make wine the way I wanted to . '' So in 1987 she went part-time to produce her own wine . `` I was clearly crazy . '' And also successful . This past year she released 2,500 cases of her wine a nd sold out within two months . Now Corison , working full time for herself , ha s discovered another challenge that faces women winemakers : juggling a wine car eer and motherhood . Her first child , Rose ( named after the flower , not the w ine , Corison says ) was born last January . `` It was the most carefully timed baby , '' she jokes . `` She came in our only slow time of the year . '' This lime-flavored shrimp and vegetable salad is perfect for hot summer nights when you want to escape the kitchen for dinner on the porch or balcony . SHRIMP SALAD WITH CUMIN LIME DRESSING ( Makes 4 servings ) 1 large red bell pepper 2 ta blespoons plus cup olive oil pound snow peas , cleaned 3 cloves garlic , finel y chopped 1 jalapeno pepper , finely chopped 2 tablespoons chopped fresh ginger root 1 teaspoons cumin powder ( or more to taste ) 1 teaspoons sugar 1 tablespoo ns fresh lime juice Salt and pepper to taste 1 pound shrimp , shelled ( and deve ined if desired ) cup fresh cilantro , cleaned and coarsely chopped Cut the bel l pepper into 4 slices , cutting from the top to the bottom of the pepper . Disc ard the inner ribs and seeds . Very lightly coat the skin of the slices with abo ut 1 tablespoon of the olive oil . Broil under a hot broiler for 5 minutes , unt il the slices begin to blacken slightly . Cut the slices into inch strips . Set aside . Blanch the snow peas in boiling water for 3 minutes , until slightly te nder . Rinse in cold water . Set aside . In a saute pan or skillet , saute the g arlic , jalapeno and ginger in 1 tablespoon of olive oil for 2 minutes , or unti l the garlic starts to color . Transfer the mixture to a small bowl with a slott ed utensil , leaving as much oil in the pan as possible . To the bowl , add the cumin , sugar , lime juice , salt , pepper and the remaining cup olive oil . St ir vigorously to mix . Set the dressing aside . Reheat the saute pan until it is almost smoking hot . Toss the shrimp in the pan , and cook briefly on each side , until pink ( about 15 to 20 seconds on each side ) . If your pan is not big e nough to hold all of the shrimp in one layer , then cook the shrimp in batches . Combine the shrimp , snowpeas , pepper slices , dressing and cilantro , and tos s gently . Serve immediately or refrigerate and serve later . The premiere issue of Saveur , the American version of the French food magazine , is out this month with a cover story on Oaxacan cooking and a hefty price tag : $ 5 . The bimonthly magazine also has some heavy-hitter names on the masthead , including Metropolitan Home 's founding editor Dorothy Kalins as editor-in-ch ief , restaurant critic Colman Andrews as executive editor and Bill Sertl , form erly with Travel and Leisure , as travel editor . The first issue 's stories are somewhat scattershot : yet another gee-whiz paean to Parma 's prosciutto and pa rmigiano , an affectionate tour of Charleston 's Low-country cooking , a treatis e on eggs and a wine story on a duo whom Andrews calls `` the Beavis and Butthea d of the Santa Barbara County wine scene . '' A little something for everyone , obviously . -O- Life really is a bowl of cherries this month . California Bing c herries are in season , and the state is reporting the biggest crop since 1987 . That 's good news for consumers , who can expect to pay lower prices this year . California cherries should be at their peak for the next two to three weeks , then Northwest cherries will be arriving . -O- SOS ! Share Our Strength , a not- for-profit group dedicated to feeding the hungry , is raising money for food by selling culinary art that looks great , and that you can feel good about having or giving . The gift collection includes fruit-and-vegetable-decorated aprons , pins , scarves , ties and T-shirts ( $ 12 to $ 70 ) . Alternatively , there 's a lso the SOS Hot Chefs Crate ( $ 34.95 ) , a collection of hot salsas and sauces from three-star SOS chefs Mark Miller , Larry Forgione and Chris Schlesinger . T o order , or to request a gift brochure , call 1-800-969-4767 . WASHINGTON The cut-flower garden combines the ornamental richness of perennials with the productivity of annuals . Indeed , no other blend more satisfactorily delivers cottage-garden charm without the time and commitment required for a cut ting garden of perennials alone . The cut-flower garden is grown , simply , to p rovide a wide array of flowers for indoor bouquets throughout the growing season . Traditionally , it was planted as part of the `` working '' garden , the site that served as the primary source of food and medicine for families and communi ties . Today , the tradition of cut-flower beds as part of the backyard garden c ontinues in many parts of the world , especially Europe . In American gardens , however , the practice of planting or sowing a flower bed specifically for harve sting stems is still a scarcity . Yet there is a demand for cut flowers : Witnes s the success of market gardeners and farmers who sell them at farmers ' markets . Flowers for cutting are grown in the same enriched garden soil that suits har d-working vegetable varieties : plenty of organic matter , a neutral pH ranging from 6.5 to 7.5 , good drainage and a tilled or dug depth of six to eight inches . A boost of organic fertilizer before seeds are sown or seedlings planted is a lways a good idea . The cut-flower garden , like the vegetable garden , will req uire periodic applications of the same fertilizer , when plants are 2 to 3 weeks old , again one month later and finally in early September . I prefer organic f ertilizers because they don't cause excessive foliage growth at the expense of f lower production . A formula containing nitrogen , phosphorus and potassium ( N- P-K ) within a couple of numbers of each other ( 5-4-2 or 8-6-4 , for example ) is good . And there is a wonderful forgiving quality about organic fertilizers : The concentrations don't have to be precise . Cut-flower gardens are less flexi ble when it comes to sunlight . The sunnier the better . They will still flower in partial shade but full shade will be a bust . This doesn't mean you have to g ive over the choicest sunny spot in the garden to them many blooms will fit into a small area , say , four feet square . Also , they can be planted within or ar ound the vegetable garden or in an existing border . The flowers themselves can be a combination of annuals and perennials or all annuals . The goal is to have a variety of flowers blooming at all times . It can take years of trial and erro r and of effort and patience to achieve this in a perennial garden ; but with an nuals , which bloom continuously all summer , getting a good selection for indoo r bouquets is nearly instantaneous , once plants are established . In selecting flowers , consider what you want , whether it is ease of care , height , scent , color or flower form . The availability of plants in garden centers also will i nfluence what will go into the cut-flower garden , although many excellent annua ls can be sown from seed now and still produce a spectacular show by midsummer . Plants that grow tall are more versatile as cut flowers than dwarf or miniature varieties . Flower stems on tall varieties are generally longer than on small o nes and the foliage itself can contribute to dramatic arrangements . In this reg ard , cosmos stands out as one of the most desirable and useful of the cutting f lowers . Easily grown from seed , this rugged annual belies the delicacy of its bloom and foliage . Cosmos comes in a range of colors and even styles . There ar e two distinct strains , one producing sunny yellow , gold and orange ruffled bl ooms and the other sporting fragile-looking daisy-faced blossoms in shades of de ep red , pink , purple , lilac and white . Today 's varieties include scalloped , ruffled , single and double flowers . All make stunning cut flowers , either a lone or in combination with others . Depending on the variety , cosmos ranges in height from two to five feet , and the taller and most commonly available ones will need support , either against a wall or trellis or with caging . For scent , nicotiana is a good choice . This aromatic member of the tobacco family produc es a profusion of slightly trumpeted , open-faced blooms , varieties ranging in color from deep red to white , with pinks in between . There is a dwarf version , which gets up to about two feet tall ; the traditional form grows to three or sometimes four feet . Other scented annuals that lend themselves to cutting incl ude stock , sweet peas and nasturtium . For sheer endurance , one of the most re liable annuals is the zinnia . For some reason there seem to be fewer choices of this trusty variety than there once were ; I can remember when catalogs routine ly devoted two or three pages to the zinnia . Cut and Come Again is perhaps the most durable of the zinnias , yielding an abundance of brilliant , multicolored blooms between two and three inches across , borne atop stiff stems throughout t he summer . Their name reflects reality the more you cut them , the more they 'l l bloom . Generally , this rule applies to all annual flowers . The cut-flower g arden is primarily a harvesting garden , handled the same way as tomatoes or str awberries . If flowers are left to mature into seed pods , plants will tend to s top blooming . In addition , virtually all the annuals withstand and even benefi t from severe pruning of the sort that accompanies harvesting for bouquets folia ge and all . Cutting flowers that can be sown from seed now include cosmos , zin nia , nasturtium , honesty and sunflowers . Dahlia tubers also can be planted ; be sure to add plenty of decomposed organic matter , such as old leaves . Flower s to put in as plants include gerbera , dahlia , dianthus , cockscomb , statice and daisies . Drying for winter arrangements takes special techniques , but a gr oup known as everlastings dry naturally . They include honesty , pearly everlast ing , globe amaranth , strawflower and statice . Stock up on beetle traps now if you had problems with Japanese beetles last yea r . In mid-June traps should be put in place , well away from prized plants . Tr aps put too close to plants will result in much-greater damage from beetles than if no controls are used . The following editorial appeared in Monday 's Washington Post : Having taken a week off , Congress returns to the subject of health-care reform with none of th e problems having become any easier or gone away . There continue to be two cont radictory goals to expand the health-care system while containing its cost . The president has wrapped himself in the first of these . He wants universal covera ge , from which he and his aides believe all else will follow . Politically that may be the best way to proceed . You order the lunch and only then discuss the price . But this is the wrong way around . Congress , following the president 's lead , has tended to put the question of cost containment aside for the moment . Yet health-care costs are eating up every budget in the country , crowding out much else . That 's as true for businesses and too many families as it is for t he federal and state governments . Without cost containment , the country can't afford even the health-care system it has , much less an expanded one . Here is a Congress nervous about imposing either employer mandates or new taxes , but no t wanting to discuss serious cost containment , either . How else does it propos e to raise the large amount of money that expanded coverage will cost ? Cost con tainment means saying no , at some point , to someone . There are only so many w ays to do it , and each has its detractors . The president would rely in the fir st instance on a system of regulated competition health plans competing for busi ness in large pools on the bases of quality and price . As a backup he would loo k to premium caps limits on the amount that insurance premiums could go up each year . The effect would be to limit the funds available to the health-care syste m and thereby total health-care spending . Critics oppose such premium caps on g rounds they would amount to either government rationing or government price cont rols , take your pick . The so-called single-payer system is likewise denounced on grounds that it would give too large a role to government . The alternative i s said to be managed competition , which relies much more on market forces . But it , too , is denounced on grounds that it would end up giving too much power t o the insurance companies that are busily transforming themselves into managed-c are providers . Congress has thus far finessed the issue . The debate there has mainly been about constructing a benefit system : Who should be guaranteed what , and who should pay ? Those indeed are difficult questions , but Congress has c reated benefit systems before ; it knows how to answer them . Not so with regard to cost containment ; that 's new territory and will be the great test as Congr ess tries between now and October to write a bill . Health care today consumes a seventh of all the dollars Americans have to spend , and the figure is said to be rising toward a fifth . That 's too large a share . A bill to broaden the hea lth-care system without at the same time containing its cost would end up doing the country more harm than good . BURBANK , Calif. Renate Leuschner handles hair the way a grocer handles fresh e ndive , the way a haberdasher fingers Italian silk . Each time her supplier rece ives a new shipment of human hair , in cropped bundles , she hurries down to pic k through the lot . `` The best hair comes from poor countries where the women s till wear it long and will sell it , '' Leuschner says . `` These women get paid almost nothing . '' Some strands are too thick and difficult to weave . Dark ha ir must be chemically treated , bleached and dyed , making it stiff . Only fine brown and blond locks from Eastern Europe suffice . This stock ends up , sorted by length and color , in clear plastic containers that line the shelves of Leusc hner 's Burbank studio . And this is where well-known actors come when they need a wig to make them look curly or sexy or prim , when they need a wig to look li ke they were born on a different continent or in a different era . In this tiny workshop down the driveway , through the back yard and above a three-car garage Hollywood 's fantasies are reduced to the stuff of their facades . Sharon Stone amounts to nothing more than a pile of brown and blond bundles . Robin Williams is a dummy 's head , carefully measured , made of gray cloth and featureless . ` ` And big , '' Leuschner says . `` Robin , even for a man , has a big head . '' Theater and wigs share a long history . Greek characters marked themselves by th e color of their coif : black for the tyrant , blond for the hero and red for th e comic servant . Modern actors don wigs to protect their natural hair from stag e lights and to avoid the damage of continual cutting , styling and coloring wit h each new role . The hairpieces they purchase from Leuschner are custom-fitted and hand-sewn , strand by strand , at a price of $ 3,000 . On a recent morning , the wig-maker and her two young assistants , Natascha and Hildegard , hurried t o finish an order of seven wigs for a fashion show . The girls were sewing while their mentor brushed and clipped a completed piece . There was very little talk , all of it in thick accents , while insistent Chopin played from a stereo in t he corner . Scissors and combs lay scattered about the place , along with gray h ead forms . In addition to the Williams facsimile , used for his `` Mrs. Doubtfi re '' curls , there were faceless likenesses of Bette Midler , Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise , who needed a wig for `` Interview With a Vampire . '' Demi Moore w as there in form too . `` Tiny head , '' she says . `` You can hardly mistake he r for anyone else . '' The names of actors mark many of the containers on the sh elves : Ann-Margret , Melanie Griffith , Carol Burnett . Other containers are no ted by color : `` Light blond to medium light blond . '' Each wig that Leuschner makes begins with a fitting session , during which she measures the actor 's he ad and takes note of his or her facial features . Perfectly even hairlines are g ood . Wide foreheads are bad . Oval faces , yes . Round faces , no . Cher , it s eems , was put on this earth to wear a wig . Next comes a form-fitting lace cap , the edges of which can be blended into skin with makeup . Hair is sewn into th is cap in much the same way a rug is hooked , one strand at a time in front and several at a time in back . ( Begin optional trim ) To look real , a wig must in clude strands of various shades and the roots must be darker than the ends . A b rown wig , for example , will contain a quantity of brown hair as a base , with darker and lighter strands to provide the highlights . But before the sewing beg ins , a sample of the hair must be screen-tested . Bright lights and camera filt ers can alter hue . When Bette Midler was cast as a witch in the 1993 film `` Ho cus Pocus , '' she ordered a red wig from Leuschner . Midler 's scenes were shot in dim lighting to simulate night and a truly red wig would have shown up purpl e on film . Renate used strands that were dyed fire-engine red and orange . Once the color is perfected , the hair is sewn onto its lace cap . This can take a w eek or more and is often performed by the assistants . `` I like hair , '' Hilde gard says . Then Leuschner must return to the movie set to fine-tune the styling . For `` Mrs. Doubtfire , '' the fine-tuning required numerous visits . `` We h ad to adjust certain things to make him look feminine and not like a drag queen , '' she says . `` Honestly , it wasn't easy . '' ( End optional trim ) Trained as a stylist in her native Germany , she came to Hollywood and grabbed the only job she could find , in a wig shop . In 1972 , she was hired to work on `` The S onny and Cher Comedy Hour '' which , short of garnering an exclusive contract wi th Dolly Parton , was pretty much the Valhalla of wig-making . `` I 've made 100 , maybe 120 wigs for Cher over the years , '' Leuschner explains . `` She has a lways been my major client . And when I was doing that show , everyone wanted to look like Cher , so that 's how my business got started . '' HOLLYWOOD James Garner does not go to the movies . `` Ohhh , I don't like to si t there too long , '' he explains in a perfect Jim Rockford-esque grumble of a d rawl . `` I don't like the crowds , I don't like to get out of the house if I do n't have to . Parking. It 's such a chore . '' Yet , here he sits in the Hotel B el Air dining room , cheerfully saying you 're going to want to do all those thi ngs to see his new movie , `` Maverick . '' `` It 's going to be a kick , '' he says . `` We did have a ball making it . I asked ( director ) Dick Donner the se cond week , ` We 're having so much fun , are we laughing ourselves into trouble here ? ' ' ' It has been 37 years since Warner Bros. officials called over to J apan where Marlon Brando was filming `` Sayonara '' and asked the producers to h urry up and send home a young contract actor , James Garner , to play Bret Maver ick in their new television series . By the time Garner was finished with `` Mav erick , '' the tongue-in-cheek Western had supplanted most others and Garner was on his way to being a star . `` Well , we just killed Westerns , '' Garner says chuckling . When a character once declared `` He went that-a-way , '' Maverick looked at him and deadpanned , `` And you know a shortcut , right ? '' In fact , `` Maverick '' established two seminal things about Garner . One was that he is brazen enough to stand up to a studio in a legal battle . ( Long before his fam ous 1980s suit against Universal , he successfully sued Warners for laying him o ff his 52-week contract during a writers ' strike . ) The second was that he is the master of the wry , bemused everyman character . In the four decades of his career , Garner has proved to be one of the most enduring and endearing actors i n the business , accessible enough for television , commanding enough for movies , unpretentious enough for commercials . He has done things you 've probably fo rgotten `` The Americanization of Emily '' and `` Victor/Victoria , '' both with Julie Andrews and things he 'd rather forget about . ( `` A Man Called Sledge ' ' is what he regularly offers up when asked for his biggest stinker . ) And alon g the way there were films like `` Support Your Local Sheriff , '' `` Grand Prix '' ( he loved that because he got to drive race cars ) , `` The Children 's Hou r '' and `` The Great Escape . '' But it has been television that let him distin guish himself from the pack , first with his charming gambler-adventurer , Bret Maverick , and then later with the witty , beleaguered private detective , Jim R ockford , of `` The Rockford Files . '' In 1993 , he starred in HBO 's Emmy-winn ing version of `` Barbarians at the Gate , '' but for most TV fans , Maverick an d Rockford were the quintessential Garner roles . In many ways , Rockford was a 1970s reincarnation of Bret Maverick and had a similar skewering effect on TV pr ivate eyes . `` We kept sticking our tongue in our cheek , and that ruined a lot of detective shows , '' says Garner . `` People would get to thinking , ` What would Rockford have done ? He wouldn't have gotten a gun and gone chasing him. ' ' ' Bret Maverick has never been quite out of circulation , living on in fans ' fond memories and getting resuscitated in a short-lived 1981 series that Garner says never made him particularly happy . But now , there 's a big screen rebirt h , and Garner is passing on the torch to Mel Gibson , who plays the glib gamble r in Richard Donner 's movie `` Maverick , '' which also stars Jodie Foster and Garner . Here , the actor says , he 's content to sit by at the poker table and on the stagecoach playing straight lawman Zane Cooper to Gibson 's wisecracking Maverick . Garner says his Maverick days are over . `` That was a long time ago , '' he says . `` I don't own it . It 's wonderful to see Mel play it . He has s uch charm and wit . I 've said before I don't know anybody who could play it lik e Mel could . '' At 66 , Garner is a veteran of bypass surgery who no longer smo kes ( well , he sneaks one now and then ) and drinks only wine . ( Begin optiona l trim ) `` I had 'em working nights trying to make enough whiskey for me to dri nk , '' he recalls of his hard-liquor-drinking days that ended , he says , when he was 27 . He allows himself about six ounces of beef a week and this from a gu y once famous for beef commercials . `` I got letters from people : ` I hope you die eating beef . ' All these vegetarians . '' He 's aging about as well as , o h , say , Warren Beatty ( Garner is older ) , which is to say quite well . Tall and broad shouldered , Garner is dressed in a black sweater and black slacks , a black leather jacket tossed across the seat . The face is ruddy pink , thicker and not as chiseled as in his Rockford days . ( End optional trim ) It was only nine years ago that his performance in `` Murphy 's Romance '' as the pharmacist who falls slowly in love with Sally Field won him an Oscar nomination for best actor . It 's one of his favorite roles and he plays Murphy as an unapologetic e ccentric , comfortable with his life and his thickening waist , even sexy . `` C areful , girl , '' he says when this observation is made . He says he has never tried to project himself as a sexually alluring figure . `` I just don't see mys elf like that . '' ( Begin optional trim ) He thinks movies are too violent toda y and laments the loss of the understated picture. ` ` ` Murphy 's Romance ' was a good example , '' he says . `` It has no violence , no sex as we 've come to know it in movies . And it was a charming film . ` Driving Miss Daisy ' is anoth er example . But they don't make many of those . They want to make the ones wher e they kill everybody . '' ( End optional trim ) Garner is in some ways an old-f ashioned Hollywood story . He never made it through 10th grade , leaving Norman , Okla. , where he 'd been a high school athlete , for Hollywood , where his fat her had relocated and was working as a carpet layer . He briefly enrolled in Hol lywood High School , earned some money doing swimsuit modeling and then shipped out with the merchant marine . Later , he spent 21 months in the Korean War wher e he earned two Purple Hearts . When he returned to Hollywood after his stint in the Army , he considered himself qualified for nothing . So he went off to see an agent friend who had once told him he ought to be in pictures . The agent sig ned him that day , and Garner has never wanted for work since . He 's married to his first and only wife , Lois , whom he met at an Adlai Stevenson rally 37 yea rs ago . With the exception of a two-year separation more than a decade ago , th ey 've been together ever since . ANNAPOLIS ROYAL , Nova Scotia One of the longest Main Streets in Canada runs al most 200 miles , from Yarmouth clear to the outskirts of Halifax . It seems to r oll halfway across the world , from France and Scotland to colonial America . To oling along its two-lane blacktop , you 'll pass Gargantuan wooden churches buil t by faithful French settlers , stockaded fortresses almost 400 years old , past oral valleys stippled with fruit-heavy trees , mile after mile of rugged and roc ky seacoast , bays packed with fishing boats , and villages that put even the pr ettiest of postcards to shame . They call it the Evangeline Trail , a route name d for the tragic heroine of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 's epic poem about the ex pulsion of the first European settlers of Nova Scotia , the French . The settler s were driven from their adopted homeland in 1755 , victims of the long struggle between France and England for mastery of the New World . Nova Scotia 's French settlers scattered throughout British colonies from Massachusetts to Louisiana , where an isolated group of French-speaking Americans came to be known as the C ajuns . Cajun came from l' Acadie , or Acadia , as the French called their stret ch of Nova Scotia coastline . It was a place of rural peace , a pastoral paradis e . And as increasing numbers of visitors are discovering , it still is . The hi storic heart of old Acadia is Annapolis Royal , the cradle of Canada . For Canad ians , it 's Jamestown , Plymouth Rock and Philadelphia rolled into one . Ironic ally , the town looks as if it might have been transplanted from New England 's rocky soil . In a sense it was . Yankee loyalists fleeing the American Revolutio n flocked to Nova Scotia , and many settled in the area around the Annapolis Riv er . More settled around the rim of the Annapolis Basin , a handsome estuary lin ked to the Bay of Fundy by Digby Gut ( a channel , not a local intestinal diseas e ) . Anyway , Annapolis Royal has more than its share of historic landmarks . N earby there 's Port Royal National Historic Park , marked by a faithful replica of Canada 's first settlement the stockaded trading post founded by French adven turers Samuel de Champlain and Sieur de Monts in 1605 . The post-and-beam extrav aganza , reconstructed by the last of the region 's old-time shipwrights , is a wonder of craftsmanship . In town , the Fort Anne National Historic Site belongs to a later era . This is the fourth fort built to defend the town , which seesa wed between the French and the English during 100 years of struggle for control of the region . The first fort was built in 1643 , when the French-ruled town wa s known as Port Royal . When the English finally assumed dominion in 1710 , they dubbed the place Annapolis Royal , after Queen Anne . Today visitors can ramble over massive earthworks surrounding the fortress and can sight down ancient can nons still aimed downriver . Less than a cannonball 's flight distant , Annapoli s Royal Historic Gardens display garden styles from Canada 's past . Within its 10 manicured acres are formal Victorian arrangements , European-style knot garde ns and a re-created Acadian cottage and adjoining vegetable plot . The gardens o verlook a salt marsh veined with dikes built by the Acadians to turn marsh into farmland . Back downtown , you can take in the sights on a self-guided walking t our . The free `` Footprints With Footnotes '' brochures that guide the way are widely available around town . Like many Nova Scotian towns , Annapolis Royal ha s fallen on hard times , and the windows of once elegant shops now advertise use d clothing for sale . But there 's still a chic shop or two in town , not to men tion a few fine restaurants and plenty of historic buildings , so it 's a deligh tful place for strolling . Most explorers are drawn to the waterfront , where do cks reach out into the Annapolis River . Across the waterway lie the picturesque white steeples and snug frame houses of Granville Ferry , one of the most photo graphed towns in the Canadian Maritimes . The river , rushing out of the orchard -filled Annapolis Valley , is just the place to appreciate the quicksilver tidal changes for which the Bay of Fundy is famed . The tide rises and falls so quick ly , you can literally watch it . A marker on one of the piers charts tidal chan ges of about a foot every 15 minutes . The moving water 's power is harnessed by the Annapolis Royal Tidal Power Project , where the whooshing tides churn huge turbines to generate electric power . The facility is open for tours . The next stop southbound on Nova Scotia 's Main Street is Digby , home port for one of th e world 's biggest scallop fishing fleets . The town is also known for its smoke d herrings , dubbed Digby Chicks after a stark Christmas Day when the locals had nothing else to eat . Fanning out across the base of a low hill , Digby is an i nviting place for a walk , especially when morning fog blankets the basin , the fleet is in and clouds of gulls whirl through the skies . The best thing about D igby is Digby Neck , a 30-mile splinter of stone jabbing into the Bay of Fundy . The whole peninsula is ideal for picnicking , hiking , gazing at spectacular ro ck formations or just admiring bays where quaint fishing villages are anchored . The villages , strung along the shore like brightly painted bobbers , are piled high with lobster traps , fishing buoys and boats colored in Kodachrome hues of red , blue or yellow . Part of each day , retreating tides leave the ships maro oned on mud flats , like tossed-off toys . ( Optional add end ) At Gulliver 's C ove , named for a pirate said to have buried his treasure nearby , visitors can poke around old fishing boats and examine the net and log weirs that local fishe rmen construct to trap fish swept back and forth by the sluicing tides . Though you willn't unearth Gulliver 's treasure , you might uncover a semiprecious ston e or two on the beach . Overlooking the white clapboard churches and prim homes of Sandy Cove , the Bay of Fundy and St. Mary 's Bay is Mount Shubal . A quick c limb through a moss-floored spruce forest deposits you on its stony brow , where the region 's most panoramic views unfold . Locals say there 's no better spot to watch a sunset . Farther on , villages and rock formations invite prowling . At the end of the line , super-scenic Brier Island and the little burg of Westpo rt attract nature lovers , artists and photographers by the carload . Another wo rthwhile detour from Digby leads to Bear River , the self-proclaimed `` Switzerl and of Nova Scotia . '' Tiny Bear River , with its houses and shops perched on s tilts and cantilevered out over a tidal river , is another of those communities settled by American Revolution refugees . In this case , loyalists and Hessian m ercenaries were rewarded with a tract of Nova Scotia land . For a time this was a thriving community . Seven shipyards pumped out sailing vessels , and lumber c ut from the surrounding hills was shipped as far as Hong Kong and Bombay . Today there 's little sign of that past industry . Bear River is now a backwater with a few craft shops , a couple of bed-and-breakfasts and great charm . Back on Ma in Street , the road runs south through old Acadia . Here there 's no shortage o f quaint towns and dramatic seascapes . Numerous roadside eateries offer beignet s a la rapure , or a rappie pie , a starchy specialty made from grated potatoes that 's a tradition in these parts . After a while , distinctions between the to wns seem to blur . Each knot of brightly painted houses looks more and more like the previous one . And Main Street just keeps rolling on . HOLLYWOOD Perhaps no other profession in the world requires you to show up for work bringing your own bags of dirt . Vivian Turner 's does . As a wardrobe styl ist to the stars , she works in one of Hollywood 's quirkiest professions . She must be able to size up a celebrity , shop for clothes and arrive on a set with everything necessary to make him or her look great . She 's part miracle worker , part invisible woman , part lingerie expert , part best friend . And yes , she brings her own dirt . It 's actually Fuller 's Earth , a powdered stone in diff erent shades used to age clothing on the spot , and it 's just one of a dozen it ems in her bag of tricks . Turner has put Christian Slater in young hunk clothes to host the MTV awards , to shoot editorial layouts and meet the press . Geena Davis wore her choice of sexy ruffles for the February cover of Premiere magazin e . Turner dressed Axl Rose in wedding-day finery for his elaborate `` November Rain '' video . In nine years of styling , she 's always been on target , never once having the star or director reject everything on her wardrobe rack . Turner 's secret for success , says Susan Culley , head of Susan Culley & Associates , which represents Slater , is that you can't tell she was there . `` Celebrities want to look like themselves , '' says Culley , `` and a lot of stylists pull t hings that the celebrity would not wear . Vivian has this incredible knack for p icking things out that the client and the magazine both love . '' Her career beg an when , as a favor to her boyfriend , Turner prepared some clothes for bands h e represented . One member , Charlie Sexton , was to go in front of the camera o f top photographer Greg Gorman , who noticed the ease with which Turner clothed the singer . Gorman asked her to come the next day and help out with Arnold Schw arzenegger , and the day after that with Alexander Godunov . The next day the ph otographer asked Turner to be his in-house stylist . Turner now works free-lance through the Cloutier Agency . `` I started at the top and I didn't have the bac kground , '' says Turner . `` I didn't even know what Topstick was . '' ( That ' s the double-stick toupee tape used between the star and the strapless gown so t he gown stays up . ) `` We did a shoot with Keanu Reeves last year and he 's not known for doing , or enjoying , photo sessions , '' says Gorman , recalling one of the biggest challenges the two faced together . `` She put him in a dozen ch anges and it was amazing . The clothes made him feel comfortable and he was incr edible . '' For `` The Hideaway , '' the modern-day thriller Jeff Goldblum is wa s shooting in Vancouver , the clothes-savvy star requested that Turner design an d style his costumes . One recent prep day she presented him with a rack of Calv in Klein , Industria , Donna Karan and custom-made shirts , jackets and pants fo r approval . `` She 's brilliant , '' Goldblum says simply . `` She 's great and she 's got great ideas . '' `` Vivian tells people ` This is what your needs ar e , ' and she says it in an inoffensive way , '' says Maxfield sales manager Jan et Gaertner , who 's always happy to see Turner coming in the door . People resp ect this honesty , says Gaertner . `` I 'll see Vivian shopping with an actress again after the film is over . '' `` You 're working with individuals , and ther e 's something that makes them who they are . You tap into that , '' says Turner . `` You enhance a personality , not take it away . '' e ( ATTN : Feature editors ) ( Includes optional trims ) Hopi Leader Sees Himse lf as Bridge Between Two Worlds By Connie Koenenn ( c ) 1994 , Los Angeles Times Ferrell Secakuku , the new chairman of Arizona 's Hopi tribe , grew up working in his father 's trading post , where groceries were often exchanged for the pot tery , baskets and silver jewelry that are the Hopi artisan 's signature . `` Th at was the traditional way , '' says the soft-spoken Secakuku , 56 , who spent h is early years on the Hopi reservation , a series of arid villages in the high d esert of northeastern Arizona . When his father sent him to Ganado Mission High School , run by the Presbyterian Church on the Navajo reservation , he had known little beyond his birthplace , the land the Hopi regard as the center of the un iverse . `` It was a total shock , '' he recalls . `` I was a full-fledged Hopi . I didn't even know how to speak English and I had no idea the world was made u p of many difficult , different environments . '' But Secakuku learned fast . Ve ry few Hopi went to college in the 1950s , but Secakuku 's father had sent him o ff with instructions to `` be somebody . '' Secakuku graduated from Northern Ari zona University with a business degree . `` He told me to learn the white man 's ways and lifestyle , and learn their business , and then come back and help dev elop our people . There were no jobs on the reservation . '' Secakuku came home with his business degree and converted the family trading post to the only super market on the reservation . Secakuku may have learned the white man 's ways , bu t he never abandoned tradition . He is the first chairman of the Hopi tribe to b e both a businessman and fully initiated into the Hopi religious societies . `` I 'm a member of the Snake Clan we dance the religious dances . '' When he decid ed two years ago to run for chairman of his 10,000-member tribe , he turned over the business to his family . `` I have six daughters and they grew up in the bu siness , '' he says . `` I like to say that the best man for the job is a woman . '' Describing himself as a bridge between two worlds , the Hopi chairman has a n ambitious agenda for development projects in education , jobs , communications , business and health care . His blueprint for the Hopi people was reiterated o n a large scale recently as Native American leaders from throughout the country sat down with Clinton administration officials for a `` listening conference '' that followed a high-profile meeting with the president at the White House . Alt hough the 500-plus Native American tribes have various special needs , a common thread running through the discussions was a need for more tribal sovereignty . Says Secakuku : `` We want to move into the 21st century on our own terms . '' F or the Hopi , heading the action list is an issue as old as the tribe itself wat er . On the landlocked Hopi reservation which has an average annual rainfall of 10 inches the sustaining water supply is a naturally pure aquifer , a layer of p orous rock 3,000 feet underground containing water that bubbles up to the surfac e in springs and washes . Water shapes the entire culture . Not only have the Ho pi used aquifer water for farming , drinking and bathing for 900 years , Secakuk u says , but `` water is so sacred to the Hopi that is it like a bloodline to ou r heart . '' But for the past few years , the water has been drying up , leading to a classic water-rights dispute . Under a lease signed 24 years ago , the St. Louis-based Peabody Western Coal Co. mines coal from the Hopi Black Mesa . To t ransport it to Southern California Edison 's plant in Nevada , Peabody pulverize s the coal , mixes it with ground water and delivers it through a pipeline . The unusual process gulps up a billion gallons of aquifer water a year , more than the Hopi use in a decade . And although the Hopi , and the neighboring Navajo Na tion , leased both the water and coal rights to Peabody and consider the mining a business partnership the Hopi now see the slurry line as draining away their v ery existence as a prolonged drought makes water more precious . `` Without wate r , our entire culture and people are at risk , '' says Secakuku . Revenues from the mining partnership are essential to the tribal budget and Secakuku emphasiz es that `` no one wants the mining operation to end , but after making one mista ke , we don't want to further it . '' The Hopi have suggested substituting pipel ine water from Utah 's Lake Powell for the ground water . In St. Louis , Peabody spokesman Ron Greenfield reiterated the company 's position that the pumping is not the culprit . `` Several studies have been done and they 've all shown no e ffect , '' he says . Nevertheless , Peabody has agreed to study alternatives . S ecakuku and other tribal leaders were in Los Angeles last month to attend a foru m , `` Energy 2000 and Beyond , '' at the Sheraton Grande . Relaxing in the hote l lobby before lunch , they talked about Hopi self-determination . `` On one han d we want to diversify our economy , '' Secakuku says . `` On the other , we are trying to reach back and find ourselves as Hopi people . '' The two goals are e qual in priority , adds Wayne Taylor , 39 , the tribe 's new vice chairman . Tha t was the message they got from voters when they went door-to-door campaigning b efore the election in February . ( Optional add end ) There is concern that youn g people aren't carrying on the traditions . `` We 're worried that young Hopi n o longer speak their language , '' says Taylor , who has a business administrati on degree from the University of Arizona . `` We 're worried about the brain dra in our people move to Flagstaff and Phoenix for jobs . We want to develop our ec onomic base . '' Education and scholarships are major items , along with economi c development , on the action plan Secakuku has drawn up for his four-year term as chairman of the Hopi Tribal Council . Looking toward the 21st century , they also can see potential in tapping Arizona 's abundant solar energy for rural are as , and in producing their own electrical energy through a tribal utility autho rity . `` We 're doing a feasibility study for a wireless communication system t hroughout the reservation , '' Taylor says .