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

ee-quarters believe complicity by German society and bureaucracy made the Nazis 

' war crimes possible , and more than 90 percent are certain that Germany commit

ted mass murder against Jews and other groups . On the other hand , 24 percent c

onsider the basic ideas of Hitler 's National Socialism `` really not so bad . '

' Reflecting the ambivalence many Germans feel , 53 percent said the time had co

me to `` draw a line '' under the Nazi era and relegate it to the distant past ,

 while 41 percent disagreed . As part of the relentless German search for expiat

ion , symbols of atonement have been much in evidence lately . This week , for e

xample , Kohl returned to French President Francois Mitterrand 28 art masterpiec

es including paintings by Claude Monet , Paul Cezanne and Paul Gauguin taken fro

m France by Nazi occupiers during the war and later kept by communist East Germa

ny . Mitterrand answered the gesture of reconciliation by inviting German soldie

rs to march with their French counterparts down Paris ' Champs Elysees on Bastil

le Day next month . As a counterpoint to Normandy , Germans have also focused on

 their own meaningful dates this summer . The last Russian troops will leave Ger

man soil in August , marking the end of nearly five decades of occupation in wha

t was East Germany . Kohl will also attend a July 20 ceremony in Berlin commemor

ating the 50th anniversary of the failed plot by German military officers to kil

l Hitler with a bomb . The ceremony plans turned sour this week when Kohl 's opp

onent in the fall election , Rudolf Scharping , bitterly complained of being exc

luded from the event even though his Social Democratic Party was persecuted duri

ng the Third Reich . Beyond the imminent departure of Russian soldiers , much of

 Bonn 's attention has been riveted on May 8 , 1995 , the 50th anniversary of Ge

rmany 's surrender and the end of the war in Europe . Kohl has accepted an invit

ation to commemorate the event in London , where festivities are also intended t

o celebrate the birth of modern Europe . In the intervening 11 months , however 

, Germans will be subjected to a sequence of other World War II anniversaries , 

including : the liberation of Paris and other West European cities ; the Battle 

of the Bulge ; the crossing of the Rhine by Allied troops ; and the linkup of Am

erican and Soviet forces on the Elbe . Contrary to fears in Bonn earlier this ye

ar , neither Normandy nor any other war commemorations has been effectively used

 by the German far right to suggest that a humiliated Germany should feel ostrac

ized by its neighbors . Elections for the European Parliament fall on June 12 , 

but whatever success rightist candidates may have is likely to come as a consequ

ence of stressing pocketbook themes and domestic xenophobia . `` Maybe the right

 wing understands the general reluctance of people as a whole to rise to the bai

t on issues such as Normandy , '' Kielinger said . Some Germans suggest that the

ir fellow citizens are simply too preoccupied right now to fret about what 's ha

ppening on the French coast , several hundred miles to the west . `` The only th

ing Germans care about is health and wealth . They 're very selfish at the momen

t and aren't thinking about other things , '' said Schwendler `` For me personal

ly , Normandy 's not a big deal . ''

 ROME So he chatted with the pope , captivated clerics , hobnobbed with a billio

naire prime minister and supped from one of the world 's great cuisines . In the

 hot streets of Rome Thursday , it was mostly Roman passersby and accidental tou

rists who witnessed President Clinton 's visit to celebrate what he characterize

d as an extraordinary , all-in-the-family relationship between the United States

 and Italy . Indeed , Clinton seemed as much awe-struck as awe-inspiring to Roma

ns as he made a relaxed , tourist-like debut in the Eternal City . `` I came all

 they way from Omaha , Neb. , to see this . I can't believe it ! The tour direct

or had tickets for the president , so we just abandoned the tour , '' said Morin

e Dosert in the majestic Piazza Campidoglio where Clinton spoke before Rome 's c

ity hall . If Romans behaved almost as if an old friend had dropped in to call ,

 not all of them were pleased . Clinton was not good news for sidewalk carver Ka

vir Ahmed , who makes his living inscribing `` Your Name on a Grain of Rice . ''

 `` A tourist from Vienna named Kurt had me put his name on one side of a grain 

and Clinton 's on the other , but business is lousy . A lot of people are stayin

g away , and the rest don't seem to care that he 's here , '' said Ahmed , a 28-

year-old Bangladeshi . Throbbing in routine weekday anarchy , central Rome in of

f-handed fashion digested the friendly invasion by a president commanding more l

imousines and security cars than Hannibal had elephants . People went to work . 

Ugly orange buses growled messily . Motorini buzzed busily . Helicopters coptere

d . Everybody knew that Clinton would make the traffic worse , if that is possib

le . He did . There were American flags here and there , cops galore , bunches o

f people , but few crowds to speak of except at the Campidoglio . There , in a f

olksy speech partially translated by Budget Director Leon Panetta , an Italian-A

merican , Clinton evoked Marc Anthony 's `` Friends , Romans and countrymen , ''

 hailing Italians , in Italian , as `` Alleati , amici , una famiglia . '' ( All

ies , friends , one family . ) `` I shaked his hand , '' shouted Jude Jeyankacha

n , 10 , with greater exuberance than grammatical nicety . A police band played 

`` Cheek to Cheek , '' as Clinton warmly greeted seven Romans born on June 4 , 1

944 the World War II Liberation of Rome by American troops and all named Italian

 variations of `` America . '' `` From the hearty atmosphere and the number of p

eople here , America is alive and well in Rome , '' said Sister Brigid Murphy , 

a teacher at Marymount International School amid a forest of Italian and America

n flags before city hall . Like Hilary Rodham Clinton , who swapped M & M 's for

 smiles with chanting , delighted Italian school kids in the Piazza Navona ( `` 

EE-la-ree ! EE-la-re ! '' the children cried ) , the president seemed to enjoy t

he experience at every stop on a cloudless Roman day more summer than spring . `

` It 's unbelievable , '' said Clinton , enjoying Michelangelo 's restored fresc

oes in the Sistine Chapel . ( Optional add end ) Even a long news conference wit

h new Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi , one of Europe 's richest men , was outd

oors in a landmark 17th century courtyard of the distinguished old Palazzo Chigi

 . Then on to a glittery , caloric , black-tie state dinner in a Renaissance vil

la designed by Raffaello . At the height of Rome 's tourist season , many who sa

w Clinton Thursday just happily happened upon him . `` The first president I 'll

 have seen since LBJ , '' said Jim Tudor of Chicago , who stopped in curiosity o

n Via del Corso and was rewarded with a motorcade . Thomas Kubik , a German from

 Frankfurt for a long weekend , observed of the president : `` He 's worth waiti

ng for ; some of us see him as a new JFK . '' `` What a coincidence . We missed 

him at home , '' said Nancy Brown of Honolulu . `` Splendid advertising for us ,

 '' said Raffaele Ciarelli , leading a demonstration for immigrants ' rights tha

t city authorities had unaccountably forgotten to reschedule for another day . C

linton , who jogged his way through jet-lag in a red baseball cap and a gray T-s

hirt that said `` Radio City , '' got his first view of the day of the Italian c

apital from a famous , much-beloved hilltop lookout called the Pincio . After hi

s encounter with a stiff , frail-looking Pope John Paul II , who is recovering f

rom a broken thigh , Clinton was buoyant and beaming in an encounter with 140 Am

erican priests and seminarians . Striding into a baroque salon at the Apostolic 

Palace , the president told the black-suited clerics that his encounter with the

 pontiff was `` an awe-inspiring experience . '' When Raymond Flynn , former Bos

ton mayor and American ambassador to the Vatican , assured Clinton that all the 

priests were Democrats , Clinton turned to accompanying Cardinal Angelo Sodano a

nd joked : `` After that political comment he ( Flynn ) made , he has another go

od reason to go to confession now . ''

 WASHINGTON Five deaths in a 1993 hepatitis drug trial were an `` unavoidable ac

cident , '' an advisory panel of the National Institutes of Health concluded Thu

rsday . The new report , which clears the NIH 's scientists of wrongdoing , cont

radicts the view of the Food and Drug Administration , which said last month tha

t researchers in the NIH drug trials had committed `` serious violations '' of f

ederal regulations . The advisory panel , a subcommittee of the Advisory Committ

ee to NIH director Harold Varmus , found that `` only in retrospect are there cl

ues '' to the hidden toxicity of the experimental drug fialuridine ( FIAU ) . Fi

aluridine was believed to be a promising treatment for chronic hepatitis B . The

 disease , which can cause liver damage and death , has no other satisfactory tr

eatment . Two previous human trials of the drug produced no apparent toxic effec

ts . But in the 1993 tests , five of the 15 NIH patients died and two others sur

vived only after receiving liver transplants . After the deaths , the FIAU resea

rchers had said the drug 's deadly effects were hidden because they resembled sy

mptoms of hepatitis B and tended to occur months after the initial doses . The N

IH advisory panel agreed : `` There is no villain other than the emergence and i

dentification of a new and unique form of delayed drug toxicity , '' they conclu

ded Thursday . `` The FIAU studies represent the best of current practice in cli

nical investigations and exceeded regulatory requirements where such applied . '

' The recent FDA investigation produced very different results . The `` complian

ce letters '' released last month detailed numerous violations of FDA regulation

s , including not informing the agency immediately of adverse side effects . The

 drug 's sponsor , Eli Lilly & Co. , and the trial 's principal investigator Jay

 H. Hoofnagle of the NIH have until the end of June to respond to the FDA letter

s . An earlier FDA report suggested that optimism on the part of researchers may

 have led them to evaluate information in too favorable a light and to miss warn

ing signs . In that November 1993 report , the FDA said that four patient deaths

 prior to the 1993 trial might have been caused by FIAU , but were attributed to

 other causes . Liver toxicity had also showed up in two healthy patients who we

re given FIAU by Lilly , the FDA said , but the incidents were not reported unti

l after the 1993 FIAU patients had begun to die . The FDA is formulating new rul

es requiring scientists to gather more data about side effects and obliging them

to assume from the outset that medical problems in test subjects are caused by t

he drug . FDA spokesman Jim O' Hara said Thursday that agency officials had not 

yet had a chance to review the NIH panel 's report , but `` we stand by our repo

rt of November and the compliance letters that were issued in May . '' The NIH p

anel said that some of the FDA recommendations especially one that called for al

l new drug trials to track patients for an extended period to catch other exampl

es of delayed toxicity would be too expensive , and suggested that such steps on

ly be taken where such toxicity might be expected . But the panel recommended th

at animal tests for new drugs mimic as nearly as possible the treatment that hum

an test subjects will receive . Animals were injected with FIAU ; humans took th

e drug orally . Subsequent animal tests have shown toxicity with oral doses . Th

e stark difference between the two reports which NIH panelists referred to only 

as an `` apparent discrepancy '' could be seen a conflict between regulators at 

the FDA and the scientists at NIH . NIH panelists said that the FDA report was c

oncerned mainly with whether the agency 's procedures were followed in the trial

s . The NIH panelists , many of whom are experienced clinical researchers , went

 through a four-foot stack of patient reports , charts and diaries to determine 

what the researchers knew or should have known at each step of the process and i

nterviewed the scientists , nurses and surviving patients at length . Critics of

 the 's panel 's conclusions said that the NIH investigators were overly charita

ble about signals the FIAU researchers might have missed . Rep. Edolphus Towns ,

 D-N.Y. , who has been sharply critical of the NIH , called the report a `` whit

ewash '' which showed that `` NIH is simply not sufficiently removed from culpab

ility to evaluate impartially the tragic events that occurred . '' A surviving p

atient from the FIAU trial , Carl Schmid , complained Thursday of his interview 

with the NIH panel , saying `` I don't think it was a thorough review or a thoro

ugh follow-up , and that was disappointing . '' The Department of Health and Hum

an Services has said it will request a separate study of the FIAU affair by the 

independent Institute of Medicine ; NIH panel members said Thursday that the IOM

 might be able to reconcile the FDA and NIH versions of events . Stephen Straus 

, one of the chief FIAU researchers , said that panel members interviewed him fo

r four hours and that he was gratified by the result : `` They did a fabulous jo

b of investigating and unraveling a complex and tragic series of events . '' All

an J. Weinstein , vice president of Lilly Research Laboratories , said `` We 're

 pleased that an independent group of outside experts has concluded that this wa

s a novel toxicity and an unpredictable one . '' As for the tougher response by 

the Food and Drug Administration , Weinstein said , `` We respectfully disagree 

with the FDA . '' NIH director Varmus said he pressed the panelists to be `` cri

tical '' and `` skeptical '' because at the outset , `` I was concerned somethin

g was wrong '' in the FIAU drug trials . Opening the advisory panel meeting Thur

sday morning , Varmus cited the FIAU trials and the recent scandal concerning ta

inted data in breast cancer studies , and said `` the confluence of these two ep

isodes '' had been cause for `` concern about the state of clinical trials in th

is country . ''

 ROME President Clinton sought common ground with Pope John Paul II Thursday des

pite their disagreement over abortion as he opened his European tour with a day 

of maneuvering through political and diplomatic minefields . Among those minefie

lds was a session with Italy 's new prime minister , Silvio Berlusconi , whose i

nclusion of the neo-fascist-rooted National Alliance in his governing coalition 

has ignited fears in Europe and elsewhere of a fascist resurgence . Clinton said

 Berlusconi assured him that all members of his government `` from top to bottom

 '' are `` unequivocally committed to democracy , '' and the president added tha

t the United States would judge the government by its actions . Later , in an ev

ent characteristic of Clinton 's trips abroad , the president saluted Italian-Am

erican friendship before a crowd of Romans waving tiny American and Italian flag

s in front of City Hall , atop Capitoline Hill . He plunged into the surging cro

wd , his security agents pushing him along , for a round of handshaking . Of his

 40-minute session with the pope , Clinton said the pontiff urged him not `` to 

be insensitive to the value of life or appear to be advocating policies that wou

ld undermine the strength of the family , '' a reference to the Clinton administ

ration 's support for abortion rights and the immediate concern over a U.N. conf

erence in Cairo later this year on stabilizing population growth . The United St

ates is backing more liberal abortion language in a proposed population-control 

plan , and its stance is a reversal of policies of the last two Republican admin

istrations . But Clinton insisted Thursday his administration does not support a

bortion as a means of family planning . Clinton said there was `` genuine disagr

eement '' between him and the pope on birth control and its use to slow the rate

 of population growth . `` We do support active and aggressive family-planning e

fforts ; we do have differences over contraception , '' he said . He noted `` a 

common commitment to the family '' with the pontiff . White House Press Secretar

y Dee Dee Myers said the draft statement for the September conference in Cairo i

s still being worked on but that Clinton does not read the document language in 

as narrow a manner as the Roman Catholic Church does . She said the administrati

on 's support for the availability of abortion for women in poor counties is not

 support for abortion on demand , abortion as a method of family planning or coe

rced abortion . The Vatican and the Clinton administration basically have irreco

ncilable differences on the issue of abortion , she said . A papal aide stressed

 that these differences could be narrowed only if the president moved closer to 

the pope 's opposition to abortion . The president already has received a letter

 of protest from the U.S. . Conference of Catholic Bishops and had been warned b

y Raymond Flynn , the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican , that the pope had express

ed great anger over the administration 's position and intended to put it on the

 top of his agenda for discussion . Clinton went from that touchy session with t

he pontiff to a lengthy meeting with Berlusconi , who took office May 11 after a

 meteoric political rise that culminated in his election March 28 at the head of

 a three-party conservative coalition . Berlusconi 's meeting with Clinton was h

is first with a Western leader since he took office , and the new prime minister

 repeatedly offered reassurances in a news conference that his government had no

 fascist leanings and his nation no nostalgia for the years when fascist dictato

r Benito Mussolini sided with Adolf Hitler during World War II . Berlusconi said

 within the government he has chosen `` there is not and there could never be , 

any minister or any official ( who is ) not democratic in nature , that truly an

d deeply believed in freedom and democracy and that believed completely that tot

alitarianism needs to be fought always and at all costs . '' The Italian media h

ave interpreted a Clinton interview broadcast here last week and his statements 

Thursday as an endorsement of the Berlusconi government , and neither the presid

ent nor his senior advisers raised concerns about that government here . Clinton

 said `` extremists '' attempting to play on economic and social frustrations ar

e a fact of political life across the globe where people yearn for `` a certain 

sense of order and discipline and hopefulness '' and that the way to neutralize 

extremist movements such as neo-fascism was successful governing . As to neo-fas

cist leanings in the Berlusconi government , Clinton said many political parties

 around the world `` have their roots in a less-democratic past . I have found i

t not only useful but the only reasonable approach to judge all people in govern

ments by what they do , what do they say and what do they do when they are in po

wer . '' A senior official who briefed reporters later said that in private , Be

rlusconi had offered `` strong assurances '' of his government 's commitment to 

democracy and that the United States is `` well pleased by what they said here a

nd what they have done '' in the period since the March elections that brought t

he conservatives to power as the 54th government since World War II . In his pub

lic address and in toasts at a state dinner Thursday night , Clinton reiterated 

the theme that the post-World War II generations must secure the peace across Eu

rope that those who fought that war sacrificed to ensure . `` For 50 years , we 

have stood together to help build peace and prosperity in Western Europe , '' Cl

inton said , `` now let us expand those blessings across a broader Europe . '' L

et us hope , he concluded , that 50 years from now `` the world will say of us t

hat the children of freedom and democracy were the builders of the lasting peace

 . '' The president , whose major purpose on this trip is to observe the 50th an

niversary of the D-Day invasion that led to the liberation of Europe from the Na

zis and the end of World War II , recalled the liberation of Rome in his address

 and read out the battle names from Italy and France . `` We must resolve never 

to forget such hallowed words as Anzio , Nettuno , Salerno , Normandy . These na

mes speak of the sacrifices of our parents and the freedom of their children and

 grandchildren , '' he said .

 PHILADELPHIA A recent Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that saying no to a sex

ual assailant is not sufficient grounds for a woman to prove she was raped has a

larmed victims advocacy groups and prosecutors who contend it marks a major setb

ack for rape victims here . The state 's highest court unanimously ruled last Fr

iday in what is known here as the `` No Is Not Enough '' case that merely provin

g a woman did not consent to a sexual encounter does not constitute rape under P

ennsylvania law , which requires proof of `` forcible compulsion '' or the threa

t of force . The seven-man panel said it had accepted the appeal of the 1988 cas

e , Commonwealth vs. Berkowitz , involving two East Stroudsburg University stude

nts who knew each other , to address `` the precise degree of force '' necessary

 to prove forcible compulsion , which the law does not define . The court upheld

 a lower court 's decision reversing the man 's rape conviction but reinstated h

is conviction for indecent assault , a lesser charge . The court opinion states 

that the victim said `` no '' throughout the encounter . Addressing the question