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

 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