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

 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