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

eneral face lifting to persuade voters they had broken with the past . Here , th

e Communist Party is still agonizing over whether to take `` Communist '' out of

 its title and has failed to shake off the stigmas attached to it . `` Eighty pe

rcent of our members voted to keep the name , ` ` party Chairman Miroslav Greben

icek explained somewhat apologetically . Grebenicek readily agrees with Klaus an

d Ryvola that there is no chance of the Communists coming back to power here in 

the near future . The party , he explained , is badly fragmented , with its legi

slators split into three factions . But a weak , fragmented and only partially r

eformed Communist opposition is not the sole reason former Communists and Socali

sts have been marginalized here , according to Orenstein . He believes the secre

t to Klaus 's success lies in two strategies massive government subsidies to con

struct an extensive social safety net to soften the effects of wrenching economi

c reforms and a corporatist approach toward labor and business . Klaus has relie

d on such non-free-market practices as a law barring state-owned enterprises fro

m declaring bankruptcy while they are being privatized . Yet 61 percent of 767 i

ndustrial enterprises were insolvent as of March 31 , according to press reports

 . This refusal to allow bankruptcies has meant that hundreds of thousands of wo

rkers who would otherwise have been laid off have kept their jobs a practice not

 followed in Hungary or Poland . This has cost the Czech treasury billions of do

llars . Klaus has also implemented a program of make-work projects to create `` 

publicly useful jobs , '' such as street sweeping , to keep another 100,000 to 1

40,000 employed . In addition , the government pays out a `` living minimum '' w

age to 300,000 or more Czechs classified as being below the poverty line . These

 measures have allowed the government to boast that the Czech Republic has the l

owest unemployment rate less than 4 percent of any country in Europe today .

 DEIR BALAH REFUGEE CAMP , Gaza Strip At the edge of the shimmering waters and b

rilliant beaches of the Mediterranean lie 39 acres of dreary cinder-block warren

s , sandy alleys , open sewers and the dreams of 13,680 Palestinian refugees . A

mong them is Bassem Khaldi , 32 , a teacher , the sole breadwinner in a family o

f 24 people living in seven rooms and sharing one kitchen . Khaldi and his wife 

occupy one room with a corrugated tin roof . As much as he would like to flee th

is overcrowded camp , he has nowhere to go . `` Once , I dreamed of a house and 

a car , '' he said . `` Our dreams are something . Our hopes are something . But

 reality is different . I have no choice . I can't leave . I am the only one wor

king , and I have to support 24 people . '' His predicament helps explain much a

bout the land and people that Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser 

Arafat will govern when he takes over the Gaza Strip in the weeks ahead . Two ou

t of three people under Arafat 's new domain are refugees from the 1948 war and 

their descendants . They are the poorest of the Palestinians , those who are mos

t desperately in need of new housing and economic revival . Yet they may be the 

most difficult to help , for reasons both political and economic . The Gaza refu

gee camps Beach , Jabaliyah , Khan Younis , Rafah , Nuseirat , Bureij , Deir Bal

ah and Maghazi are where the Palestinian uprising caught fire six years ago , an

d where resentment and pride still burn deep . A recent study of Palestinian soc

iety by a Norwegian institute found that `` the single most embittered sector of

 the population is the first generation '' of Palestinian men in the Gaza refuge

e camps . Here , Arafat remains a powerful figure . On a recent afternoon , the 

sun-baked walls here were resplendent with a freshly painted , elaborate Arabic 

graffito hailing the PLO and pledging `` All the glory to our martyrs . '' Red a

nd green paint ran in glistening rivulets through the sand below . The name Deir

 Balah means `` Monastery of the Dates , '' recalling an earlier era when this w

as a balmy stretch of plantations . But today the refugee camp , Gaza 's smalles

t , is a dense honeycomb of families surviving in identical square cinder-block 

cells built for them in 1960 . There is 124 square feet of living space for each

 of the 13,680 residents of the camp . To an outsider looking at the Gaza coast 

, the refugee camps might seem an obvious target for razing and resettlement . B

ut starting over with the refugees has long been problematic . For five decades 

, the camps were a symbol to Palestinians of what they believed was the temporar

y nature of their exodus . Israel sought to carry out a resettlement effort in t

he 1970s , and several thousand refugees took advantage of it , but there was cr

iticism that it would mean the end of their claims to land and villages they los

t when Israel was created in 1948 . The refugees ' claims are not expected to be

 negotiated until the talks on the permanent status of the Gaza Strip and West B

ank in several years . At least theoretically , Arafat probably does not want to

 give up any cards or leverage before those negotiations by dismantling the camp

s now . But attitudes in the camps are changing , albeit slowly . The enormous p

ressures of decades of overcrowding and poverty have spurred a steady stream of 

refugees to leave the camps on their own . ( They retain their status as refugee

s , eligible for benefits from the U.N. Relief and Works Agency , even when they

 move out of the camps . ) The Gaza refugee population has grown from 200,000 in

 1951 to 625,000 today , about half of them in the camps . `` In the period 1948

 to 1953 , for the people who were there , ( the camps were large ) enough to ac

commodate those numbers , '' said Palestinian lawyer Shasabeel Alzaeem , a consu

ltant to the U.N. agency . `` But the person who back then had one bed and one k

itchen , now he is a grandfather with 10 sons . So , they cannot continue expand

ing . This is why so many have left . '' `` It doesn't mean they forgot Jaffa or

 Haifa , '' he added , referring to towns with a large pre-1948 Arab population 

. `` But they understand they cannot return to Jaffa and Haifa . '' `` The old p

eople still remember the land , the village , '' Khaldi said . `` If you ask som

eone where they are from , they will never say Deir Balah . When we register the

 children in our school , we still write down the name of the original village .

 '' Most of those in the camp were refugees from towns and villages along the so

uthern coast of Palestine , near what is now the Israeli towns of Ashdod and Ash

kelon . `` But , to be honest , they don't feel they have a good chance of going

 back , '' he added . `` It 's not fair . But it 's realistic . They have no oth

er choice . '' Salah Musa arrived in Deir Balah when he was 15 . At first he liv

ed in a tent ; later , in a mud-brick shanty with an asphalt roof that leaked in

 winter rains . Musa became the mukhtar , or village leader , of Deir Balah and 

saw his own experience multiplied . `` Most people have been living in a crisis 

for a long time . The housing , the living conditions and the economy completely

 deteriorated . The people are psychologically broken . '' Smoking cigarettes an

d sipping sweet tea , Musa looked out his door at the beach and camp a striking 

contrast of natural beauty and man-made squalor . He said no one had forced him 

to remain here . He simply had no alternative . `` I haven't decided to live in 

a refugee camp , '' he said . `` If I find a house , a beautiful house , there i

s nothing stopping me from leaving . But no one came and gave me money to build 

a house , so what can I do ? Tell me ! '' `` The situation is completely differe

nt since 1948 , '' he said . `` Then , it was only me and my wife . Now , 35 peo

ple live here . I sure don't want to live in this house it 's crowded . I hope t

he Palestinians who control this place will build me a new house . '' But practi

cally speaking , Arafat 's new government will not be in a financial position to

 rebuild Deir Balah or the other camps for many years , if at all .

 WASHINGTON To say the pickings have been slim of late for builders of commercia

l airliners would be to exaggerate . But there may be help on the horizon becaus

e of the slowly improving condition of the airlines and because of something cal

led the Airport Noise and Capacity Act of 1990 . The noise act says that every l

arge commercial jet in the United States has to meet quieter `` Stage 3 '' noise

 requirements by Dec. 31 , 1999 , and 1,223 of the 3,335 jets in service today a

re in violation . Given a two- to three-year lead time between placing an order 

for an aircraft and taking delivery , the orders for aircraft are going to have 

to start coming in soon , manufacturers hope . Just as quieter planes would be a

 change for people living along airport flight paths , it also would be a change

 for those who make the planes . According to a recent survey by the magazine Ai

rline Business , the Big Three of the commercial aircraft manufacturing world ha

d exactly zero net orders in 1993 , with Airbus Industrie and McDonnell Douglas 

Corp. actually having more cancellations than orders and Boeing having only 33 p

lanes on the plus side . Altogether , Boeing 's latest market forecast , release

d Monday , projects the worldwide market for aircraft having between 70 and 170 

seats at about 3,000 planes by the year 2000 . That combines replacement of olde

r planes and additions to airline fleets . That 's actually down about 2 percent

 from last year 's forecast , according to Richard L. James , Boeing 's marketin

g vice president , but he says it will be more than enough to keep all three man

ufacturers ' lines humming , once airlines break out of the doldrums into which 

they have dropped over the past two or three years . Assuming they do , replacem

ent of noisy planes will be part of the equation . While the formulas are comple

x , Dale McDaniel of the Federal Aviation Administration says that , in terms of

 total noise impact on a community , `` you could have 10 Stage 3 operations bef

ore it would equal one Stage 2 . '' In 1990 , 2.7 million people were exposed to

 an average of 65 decibels or higher over a 24-hour period . `` That is non-comp

atible with residential use . By 2000 , that will down to 400,000 , '' McDaniel 

said , although those in the path of those aircraft might not be happy no matter

 what the noise stage classification . The deadline `` provides some continuing 

stimulation . The fact that it remains a target continues to drive ( airlines ) 

to modernize , '' McDaniel said , adding a dash of fiscal reality by noting that

 now the airlines `` just have to have the funds to do it . '' The dramatic loss

es of the past three to four years have led almost every major U.S. carrier and 

many foreign ones not only to stop ordering new planes but also to cut back on e

xisting orders . USAir disclosed last week , for example , that it is delaying d

elivery of 40 planes and forgoing options on another 70 . Yesterday , British Ai

rways , which still is making money , said it is placing no new orders this year

 and is letting options expire on 25 Boeing planes . `` Downsizing '' has been m

ore of a buzzword in U.S. airline planning circles lately than growth . But smal

ler fleets do not mean orders for new aircraft can be shelved forever , especial

ly with the noise deadlines looming . Most airlines plan purchases several years

 in advance and last-minute orders often can be very expensive , especially if t

he market begins to tighten up . Boeing 's James said airline balance sheets `` 

are coming back into balance now . A lot of carriers are stirring and looking be

yond immediate quarter . We are at a low point in terms of orders . In 18 months

 to two years , the books should turn . ''

 WASHINGTON Who would have thought a high-tech security system developed to prot

ect the Pentagon 's nuclear arsenal would be safeguarding a huge stockpile of bl

ue jeans ? Thanks to ever-cheaper microchips , a rudimentary form of artificial 

intelligence developed by GRC International Inc. of Vienna , Va. is being used b

y Gap Inc. to keep thieves or other intruders out of its warehouse in Edgewood ,

 Md. , which serves Gap stores from Maine to Florida . Given the ungainly name o

f `` automated assessment signal processor '' by GRC , the device is what 's kno

wn in the computing world as a neural network a system that mimics the human bra

in 's ability to take in lots of information from the body 's eyes , ears , nose

 and skin but discard most of it and focus only on what 's important . And it ca

n learn to distinguish between nuisance noise wind ; birds , raccoons and other 

small animals ; rustling leaves and noise that should trigger an alarm : unautho

rized entry by people . It 's taught by being presented with and told to ignore 

simulations of certain sounds . It can be hooked up to a variety of sensor syste

ms microwave , radar , fiber optic that create electronic fences around property

 . It interprets the information that those sensors are constantly collecting . 

Since being installed four months ago to protect a warehouse 14 acres in area , 

`` It 's paid for itself many times over , '' said Gap security supervisor Jim T

oscano .

 WASHINGTON It was a gray day in Red Square when Chris Ihlenfeld dropped to one 

knee and proposed to a Russian woman he 'd met four days earlier . At the cobble

d foot of St. Basil 's onion spires , Anastasia Fedorchoukova smiled sweetly dow

n at the divorced computer technician from Northern Virginia . She said yes . Th

ey married six months later , on March 25 at the Arlington County , Va. . Courth

ouse. Now , amid coos and cuddles in a small apartment with a large stereo , the

 young couple is living a fantasy that started with a magazine ad their very own

 Russo-American dream . The Ihlenfelds ' union is a product of the growing mail-

order bridal bazaar that has sprouted since Soviet Communism died . With Soviet 

emigration barriers dismantled , about 350 Russian women entered the United Stat

es last year as fiancees of American men . In 1988 , only 11 women came from the

 Soviet Union to marry Americans . The Ihlenfelds ' marriage is the first arrang

ed through Berel and Natasha Spivack , an American-Russian couple from Bethesda 

, Md. . The Spivacks are cashing in on the lucrative business of showering Washi

ngton with brides from Russia with love . Last July , the Spivacks started a bus

iness called Encounters International to introduce American men to Russian women

 . More than 50 Washington area men , many of them federal employees , have come

 to their office and grazed through photo albums and videotapes of about 300 Rus

sian women . Two couples have married , six are engaged , and others are busily 

faxing letters and pictures back and forth , sifting for true and everlasting lo

ve . About every two weeks now , another Washington area man travels to Moscow a

nd becomes engaged . That heavy traffic to Russia is a new wrinkle in the Washin

gton dating scene , where the oversupply of single women is legendary . Magazine

s and gossip columns regularly wail about the imbalance between eligible women a

nd men in the nation 's capital . Still , the Spivacks ' male clients are shelli

ng out $ 3,000 to $ 4,000 to search for romance in a cold , gray city 5,000 mile

s away . In several interviews , American men and Russian women involved in the 

program struck remarkably compatible themes . The men said they are sick of care

er-obsessed American women running to the subway in business suits and tennis sh

oes . The women said American men were more likely than Russian men to treat the

m as equal partners . `` I was tired of American women , '' said Ihlenfeld , 24 

, sitting on his living room couch , stroking his 22-year-old wife 's long , blo

nd hair . `` All they cared about was their work . '' According to an Encounters

 International flier , Russian women are `` much less materialistic '' than Amer

ican women , as well as `` more willing to follow their husband 's lead '' and `

` more appreciative of men . '' They also have `` old-fashioned traditional fami

ly values that are getting harder to find '' in America , the flier says . On to

p of that , the brochure says , the `` dating scene in Russia is almost non-exis

tent , and a woman over 22 is considered past her prime . Wars and alcoholism ha

ve taken their toll on eligible Russian men and created a large number of single

 women .. . . Many beautiful Russian women dream of having an American husband .

 '' There are tough requiremements for those women , who must pass entrance inte

rviews with the Spivacks ' staff member in Moscow . Women are accepted only if t

he interviewer deems them reasonably slender and attractive , if they are 17 to 

about 55 years old , have one or fewer children and speak some English . Natasha

 Spivack said 600 to 800 women have applied to the service , but only 300 have m

et the qualifications . Men using the service range in age from 22 to 71 , but t

hey are mostly in their forties , and many are divorced . There are no specific 

eligibility qualifications . `` When I knew him more , I really began to love hi

m , '' she said . The Immigration and Naturalization Service has found no partic

ular problems with American-Russian marriage services , spokesman Richard Kenney

 said . He said women entering the country on a `` fiancee visa '' must be marri

ed within 90 days , and they are granted permanent resident status after two yea

rs . `` Home free , '' he said . Some marriages between American men and Russian

 women make sense , according to Harley Balzer , director of the Russian Area St

udies Program at Georgetown University . Balzer said many Russian men do not con

sider women equal partners in marriage . `` Even men I know who write about wome

n 's rights wouldn't get up from the dinner table to clear the dishes , '' he sa

id . Balzer said the struggle of single women has been a common theme of the mos

t successful Russian movies of the last 20 years . `` You 've got this funny sit

uation where the American man is looking for an unliberated woman , and the Russ

ian woman is looking for a slightly more liberated man , '' he said .

 Magazines , especially women 's magazines , have been hot on the Hillary Rodham

 Clinton story for a year and a half now , delivering not much of interest . Thi

s week 's New Yorker brings the first truly heavyweight piece on the First Lady 

, but before we get to that , a few tips on how to prepare for reading it . Firs

t , go to your local newsstand and look at the June issues of Working Woman and 

the American Spectator , which basically represent the poles of current thinking

 about the First Lady . You don't have to venture beyond the cover of either to 

know what lies inside . The cover of Working Woman offers the headline `` Hillar

y Hangs Tough '' plus a flattering photo of the First Lady in a sensible busines

s suit , poised patron saint of Uber-women everywhere . On the American Spectato

r 's cover , Mrs. Clinton is drawn as a witch , malevolent and defiant as she si

ts astride a jet . Inside is David Brock 's version of the White House travel-of

fice scandal of last year , the latest installment in that magazine 's crusade t

o show that Hillary is the antichrist of American politics . Is the First Lady g

ood or evil ? Ponder deeply now , for it seems to be the question of the hour . 

The last several days ' photos and film footage of Jacqueline Kennedy flawlessly

 doing the First Lady 's job the old way have made Mrs. Clinton 's chameleonism 

all the more unsettling . To further unsettle yourself about her situation , nex

t read Leslie Bennetts 's account of an interview with an edgy , angry Hillary i

n the June issue of Vanity Fair . No big news here , but Bennetts 's sporadic re

ferences to her dealings with Hillary 's handlers will tell you everything you n

eed to know about the state of the First Lady 's relations with the press . One 

flack hovers nearby throughout the interview , demanding at one point that a ben

ign exchange on Vince Foster be retroactively taken off the record . Bennetts de

clines . What are we to make of this First Lady of a thousand faces , overexpose

d in every medium in the land yet somehow still unknowable , willfully and perha

ps wisely withholding parts of herself from inquiring minds ? Enter Connie Bruck

 , whose lengthy cover story in this week 's New Yorker looks to be the new yard

stick by which magazine profiles of Hillary Clinton will be measured . Titled ``

 Hillary the Pol , '' this exhaustively researched piece portrays her basically 

as the CEO of the Clinton political partnership , the shrewd operator who resurr

ected his ( and their ) career after he lost the Arkansas governorship in 1980 ,

 and who in many ways still guides it today . It 's the Hillary you may have bel

ieved was there all along , behind the multiple facades : hyper-intelligent , op

portunistic , relentless in pursuit of her own political agenda . Bruck traces t

he First Lady 's political skills back to Arkansas . In one instance , she descr

ibes how , after Bill 's gubernatorial defeat , Hillary set out to neutralize an

 Arkansas newspaper columnist who had been an antagonist of Bill 's . Hillary wi

ned and dined the man , and he left Clinton alone for years . There are many oth

er such stories , but the message is always the same : She had her idealistic vi

sion for improving the world , but she also did what it took to reach short-term

 goals along the way , whether they were political , legislative or financial . 

Mrs. Clinton didn't have time to be interviewed for the piece , we learn , but t

he president was able to give Bruck nearly two hours . What does that tell you ?