A prep course for the month-long World Cup soccer tournament, a worldwide pheno

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