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

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