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

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