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

luding Vermont Gov. Howard Dean , participated too . The production team operate

d out of Craven 's and O' Brien 's home , an 1821 farmhouse in Barnet , a town o

f about 2,000 . The ups and downs of Craven 's personal life have made him parti

cularly interested in the relationship between the two main characters in `` Riv

ers . '' He empathizes with them both , but particularly with the logger . `` No

el is a tough guy with vulnerability he can't fully face , '' he says . `` He ta

unts the gods and has to do things his way . He takes on lost causes and difficu

lt jobs that would be simpler to do another way . I can identify with that . ''

 LYON , France A resurrection of `` city-states '' and regions is quietly transf

orming Europe 's political and economic landscape , diminishing the influence of

 national governments and redrawing the continental map of power for the 21st ce

ntury . As the revolution wrought by information highways , rapid means of trave

l and global capital flow gathers momentum , the traditional dominance of capita

ls such as Paris , Rome and London is being challenged by provinces whose locati

on and infrastructure seem better adapted to the continent 's modern demands . W

ith remarkable speed , the areas surrounding Lyon , Milan , Stuttgart and Barcel

ona have emerged as the `` four motors '' driving the process of European integr

ation . Since signing a co-operation pact in 1988 , the four partners have parla

yed their skilled industrial work forces and affluent markets into a dynamic par

tnership that transcends national loyalties . These poles of prosperity are suck

ing in huge investments and making new demands for greater autonomy . Some exper

ts believe the emerging urban economies are creating a new historical dynamism t

hat will ultimately transform the political structure of Europe by creating a ne

w kind of `` Hanseatic League '' that consists of thriving city-states . ( The H

anseatic League was an alliance of northern port cities in Europe whose commerci

al success enabled them to become sovereign entities in the 15th and 16th centur

ies . ) . Stuttgart , the capital of Baden-Wurttemburg , one of Germany 's wealt

hiest regions , already enjoys enormous autonomy in the country 's decentralized

 political system and has started to seek partners abroad as it develops its own

 `` foreign policy . '' Milan , the capital of Italy 's Lombardy that has long s

erved as the country 's industrial base , is the home of the Northern League led

 by populist Umberto Bossi . Capitalizing on voter dismay with the massive corru

ption scandals and tax money lavished on `` white-elephant '' projects in the po

orer south , Bossi has built solid support in Milan for his call to break Italy 

into three autonomous regions . Barcelona , the capital of the Catalonia region 

, has long enjoyed substantial political autonomy in Spain and now wants the pow

er to raise and keep its own share of income tax away from Madrid . The city tur

ned north to build a bustling economic triangle with Toulouse and Montpelier in 

France that sees itself as the crossroads of the Mediterranean . Lyon , France '

s second city , is developing into one of Europe 's faster-growing regions by bu

ilding connections with Geneva and Turin . Lyon now does twice as much business 

with northern Italy as with Paris . The trend is expected to accelerate when a n

ew high-speed train tunnel bored through the Alps cuts the travel time between L

yon and Turin to 70 minutes . While talk of political autonomy from Paris is mut

ed compared to its other regional partners , Lyon is slowly asserting its own in

dependence as the capital of the Rhone-Alps region . It now operates nine office

s abroad , as far away as Toronto and Shanghai , to carve out its own foreign co

mmercial policy . `` In a way , Europe is returning to its roots by building aga

in on the regions , '' says Jean Chemain , director of Lyon 's Chamber of Commer

ce . `` The Romans settled here because access to the rivers and roads made it a

 natural base for their empire . Business is doing it for the same reasons , and

 those enterprises are the key building blocks of Europe , not national governme

nts . '' The process was hastened by the announcement of the European Union that

 it would tear down national barriers by the end of 1992 . Instead of worrying a

bout tedious delays and dozens of customs documents at frontiers , companies rea

lized they could finally concentrate on locating production and distribution cen

ters close to their customers . `` It was a race to get to the hottest points on

 the map , '' recalls Jean-Louis Ouellette , distribution director for Ikea , th

e popular Swedish furniture maker with more than 120 stores in 25 countries . ``

 We wanted to serve as many places in Europe as possible within 24 hours , and w

e think we found the most strategic spot . '' Ikea 's executives pored over char

ts and maps until they settled on a piece of land for their main warehouse near 

Lyon 's Satolas airport , which offered express-train connections and a modern h

ighway nexus that put them less than five hours from affluent metropolitan cente

rs in three countries Paris , Barcelona and Turin . Other cities and towns acros

s Europe are reaching across borders for new economic partnerships based on stra

tegy and location . Antwerp and Rotterdam have forged an alliance across the Bel

gian-Dutch border linking two of Europe 's biggest ports . Maastricht , Liege an

d Aachen have revived their medieval community in a prosperous triangle across D

utch , Belgian and German frontiers once rooted in shared waterways . Other regi

ons where common economic interests are conquering national boundaries include t

he `` Atlantic Arc '' ( Ireland , Wales , Brittany , the Basque region , Galicia

 and Portugal ) , the Baltic-North Sea connection ( Scotland , Scandinavia , Ham

burg and Poland ) and the Eastern Triangle of Vienna , Prague and Budapest . In 

Europe as elsewhere , globalization forces now at work appear to be making citie

s more important than nations . By the year 2000 , says Pascal Maragall , the ur

ban economist who is Barcelona 's mayor , there will be 19 cities with at least 

20 million people in the greater metropolitan area . `` Cities , not nations , w

ill become the principal identity for most people in the world , '' Maragall say

s . Ricardo Petrella , the European Community 's director of science and technol

ogy forecasting , predicts that a desire to bring government closer to the peopl

e could make nationhood obsolete . By the middle of the next century , he believ

es there could be multinational security alliances while real government is carr

ied out by what he calls `` the international metropolitans . '' `` In just a fe

w decades , nation-states such as the United States , Japan , Germany , Italy an

d France will no longer be so relevant . Instead , rich regions built around cit

ies such as Osaka , San Francisco and the four motors of Europe will acquire eff

ective power , because they can work in tandem with the transnational companies 

who control the capital . '' Such regional alliances are increasingly seen as a 

pragmatic and logical approach to building a more united and prosperous Europe .

 The same desire to preserve local identity that motivated much of the oppositio

n to the Maastricht treaty on European Union is prompting many voters to demand 

that national governments yield more power to the regions . Indeed , an overlook

ed section of the treaty calls for a Council of Regions that many believe will q

uickly assume wider responsibilities and possibly evolve into a kind of European

 Senate . Those who are ardent defenders of the European dream now hope to win m

ore converts among voters by contending that the regional approach will invest m

ore power and administrative control closer to the people . At the same time , d

efense and foreign policy would be co-ordinated by national governments and rais

ed to a higher level .

 LYON , France Much of the criticism leveled by national governments and the Eur

opean Community 's executive commission against the `` Four Motors '' partnershi

p is that they are only interested in sustaining their high level of prosperity 

to the exclusion of poorer neighboring regions . The commission wants the richer

 areas to `` adopt '' a poor region , or their funding may be cut . But Europe '

s wealthier regions are looking elsewhere . They are now reaching out to counter

parts in Asia to lure even more lucrative investments , widening the disparity w

ith their poorer neighbors in Europe even more . Alsace , for example , was so e

ager to capture new Japanese investment that the regional fathers hired a film-m

aker to produce a soap opera for Japanese television that extolled the virtues o

f their region . The show , called `` Blue Skies Over Alsace , '' is credited , 

along with the presence of a Japanese school in Mulhouse , with attracting inves

tments by leading Japanese corporations that have produced more than 5,000 new j

obs . `` A lot of the attacks are based on the view that we are only a club of t

he rich , '' acknowledges Thierry Bernard , general manager of the Rhone-Alps ``

 foreign relations '' department . `` It 's true that to join our partnership , 

we insist on the same high level of industrial development , to have similar tra

ining and economic policies and to be within one day 's travel time . '' Those l

inks are intensifying in different areas , including culture , education , envir

onment and social policies as well as transport and communications . Business an

d law students in the `` Four Motors '' cities now must spend at least one year 

at universities in one of the other three cities in order to earn their degree .

 The aim , says Bernard , `` is nothing less than to create the kind of European

 scholar that existed at the time of Erasmus , who moved about from one great un

iversity to another and felt at ease in several different cultures . That 's the

 best way to prevent wars . ''

 KWADABEKA , South Africa The words painted on the red brick wall at Phephile Pu

blic Primary School spell out a motto that could easily apply to KwaZumba Africa

n Builders . `` The sky is the limit , '' they say . For Cyril Gwala , managing 

director of the Durban-based construction company , the pledge of South Africa '

s new black-run government to build 1 million houses in five years means unprece

dented opportunity . As the new South Africa gets started , no other industry st

ands to gain more from the political and economic reconstruction of the country 

. `` We don't expect results overnight , but there is a lot to be done in this c

ountry , especially with low-cost housing , and that is where the black builder 

will have a chance to rise to the occasion , '' said Gwala , president of the Af

rican Builders Association . The ability of the new government to bring blacks i

nto the white-dominated economy will be one of the first tests of whether politi

cal change will result in genuine wealth-sharing in South Africa . `` Unless the

re is participation at levels that matter , economic empowerment for black build

ers will remain forever an illusion , '' said Joas Mogale , secretary general of

 the Johannesburg-based Foundation for African Business and Consumer Services , 

a leading business organization in South Africa . The foundation calculates that

 there is a backlog of 1.4 million homes in South Africa . As of mid-May the ind

ustry was putting up only about 30,000 homes a year . South African President Ne

lson Mandela made the five-year homebuilding plan a campaign centerpiece . That 

means millions of dollars will be spent by the new multiracial government on hou

sing , along with millions more anticipated from international donors . For an i

ndustry that has been in a major slump for several years it has shed 60,000 jobs

 since 1986 the formal end of the apartheid system of racial separation means th

e beginning of a boom . Including black builders in the national building campai

gn will not be easy . Because apartheid limited the kind of work that black cont

ractors could do , most are not equipped to handle the large-scale building that

 will take place , Mogale and others acknowledge . The builder of a new housing 

complex in a community just outside Johannesburg is already running into a probl

em of finding black contractors able to secure financing to participate in the p

roject . Graceland , with its pastel-colored single-family homes and streets cal

led Sunhill Lane and California Grove , is designed to be a model for the new So

uth Africa . It has been developed by a subsidary of Murray & Roberts , one of t

he larger white-owned construction companies in South Africa . The first of its 

kind , Graceland was planned as a multiracial development of between 500 and 800

 low-cost homes built near an industrial park . Murray & Roberts has imposed its

 own goal of 10 percent participation by black builders in the Graceland project

 . However , making that quota is already proving difficult , because banks cont

end that black builders are a high risk and therefore are reluctant to extend cr

edit to them . Uhuru Madida , a development consultant with Bernhardt Dunstan & 

Associates , a housing consultant firm working on Graceland , said there is conc

ern that the government will be under pressure to build houses irrespective of w

ho is doing the building . Already , builders black and white say the constructi

on industry isn't able to pump out more than 100,000 homes a year . `` You can't

 say to the people , ` We can't build enough houses because we are developing bl

ack builders , ' ' ' said Nhlanhla Mjoli-Mncube , who does development strategy 

for Bernhardt Dunstan . Under apartheid , blacks were shut out of skilled constr

uction work and management training . Even when the government decided to build 

hundreds of thousands of low-cost homes for blacks in racially segregated townsh

ips , the contracts went to white-owned construction companies . Under apartheid

 , many loans to black businessmen did not come from banks but from stokvels , i

nformal groups of black people who used savings to boost black business . Inspec

tors were routinely bribed to get necessary permits , and suppliers demanded cas

h for all building materials . Suppliers traditionally have reserved credit for 

white-owned businesses . But in the new South Africa , a few builders already ar

e succeeding by teaming up with white-owned companies . KwaZumba , for example ,

 is thriving because of a partnership with a subsidary of Murray & Roberts . Gwa

la struck a deal with Amalgamated Construction Co. , which essentially provides 

the black builder with technical and financial assistance . KwaZumba 's annual r

evenues have soared from about $ 250,000 to more than $ 2 million in just two ye

ars .

 The King hath note of all that they intend , By interceptions which they know n

ot of . `` Henry V , '' Act 2 , Scene 2 BLETCHLEY , England Shakespeare was writ

ing about another invasion of France , of course , but his words , inscribed on 

a plaque in the oak-paneled manor house at Bletchley Park , tell as much about w

hat really happened 50 years ago June 6 as all the tales of blood and valor on t

he beaches of Normandy . For what is still far too rarely appreciated , even hal

f a century later , is how much the climactic battle of World War II was fought 

and won in the shadowland of stealth and deception . It was a victory achieved i

n no small part by an anonymous army of toymakers , scenery painters , illusioni

sts and purveyors of electronic make-believe , all guided by a legion of cryptog

raphic skulkers so secretive that their work is still not fully known . The de f

acto headquarters of this looking glass war lay here 46 miles north of London on

 the 55-acre , still barbed-wire-rimmed remnant of a once-grand Victorian estate

 . Here , in a series of drafty frame huts and dank concrete bunkers shaded by h

uge flowering chestnut trees , some 7,000 people labored feverishly on the eve o

f D-Day to secure the invasion of Hitler 's Europe by first invading and manipul

ating Hitler 's mind . So successful were they at skewing his version of reality

 that even as the largest invasion fleet in history hove into sight off Normandy

 , the crucial strength of the German war machine was occupied elsewhere , ambus

hing imaginary armies , bombarding invisible fleets and repelling thousands of 3

-foot-tall paratroopers made of straw . `` If you ask me were the deceptions eff

ective , I would say they were absolutely vital on D-Day , '' says military hist

orian M.R.D. . Foot , a slim , silver-haired septuagenarian who spent the war st

aging commando raids for the British Army . `` We would have been mad to attempt

 the invasion without them , precisely because Hitler had so many more divisions

 in France than we could land quickly . Had he been able to mass them to meet us

 , we would have been finished . And it was a near enough thing as it was . '' B

ut goaded by psychological feints at other corners of his empire , Hitler ignore

d an ageless maxim of military strategy : Try to be strong everywhere and you 'r

e not strong anywhere . Alerted by hundreds of landing craft spotted in the loch

s of Scotland , 16 divisions of German troops ( Hitler had only seven in Normand

y ) , stood poised across the North Sea awaiting an imminent invasion of Norway 

. The Scottish landing craft were plywood stage props , the Norwegian invasion a

 myth . Alarmed by aerial reconnaissance showing hundreds of troop encampments a

nd tank divisions in southeast England , Hitler held six armored divisions and 1

9 other divisions north of the Seine to meet the Allied landing that was certain

 to come between Dunkirk and Dieppe at the narrowest part of the English Channel

 in the Pas de Calais . The tents in England were empty , the tanks made of wood

 . Other German divisions garrisoned southern France in response to an appearanc

e in Gibraltar by an actor disguised as British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery

 . In the pre-dawn June 6 darkness northeast of Normandy between LeHavre and Bou

logne , fleets of small launches trailing radar-reflecting balloons pitched and 

rolled their way toward shore while above them two squadrons of Royal Air Force 

bombers loosed a specially designed pattern of aluminum chaff and electronic sig

nals designed to appear on German radar as a huge fleet of warships . Ten miles 

offshore , screened by banks of smoke , the launch crews switched on sound ampli

fiers , touching off the rattling of anchor chains , the squeal of steam derrick

s lowering heavy objects and the thump of landing craft banging the sides of tra

nsports . They were all illusions , only a few among thousands in a strategy of 

deception as old as the Trojan horse , and often imbued with what one historian 

referred to as `` the Monty Python element . '' But as captured Wehrmacht docume

nts would later show , it was tremendously effective . It hopelessly confused th

e Germans and forced them to reserve or divert armored units that , properly pos

itioned , would have blown the Allied landings off the map . Still , as Foot and

 others emphasize , the deceptions would have been useless without the work at B

letchley Park , where a bizarre band of eccentric geniuses had broken the German

 codes in the war 's earliest years and had been reading Germany 's most secret 

radio traffic ever since . `` What you have to remember about deceptions , '' sa

ys F.H. Hinsley , the Cambridge professor who authored the official history of B

ritish intelligence in World War II , `` is that if they 're to be successful , 

two things are imperative : First , the enemy must be kept totally in the dark a

bout what you don't want him to know , and second , you must know everything he 

's thinking all the time , especially when he 's confronted with what you want h

im to believe . '' Thanks to Bletchley 's early and long-secret penetration of G

erman radio traffic , Hinsley says , `` we were able to locate , early on , the 

entire German espionage network in Britain , eliminate parts of it and use other

s to feed Hitler disinformation . We were also able to learn Hitler 's thinking 

about where and when the invasion would eventually come , play to his prejudices

 and hunches , and learn when and whether he took our bait . We were reading his

 mind all the time . '' In the nearly 20 years since F.W. . Winterbotham 's book

 `` The Ultra Secret '' first made public the extent of Allied code-breaking in 

World War II , much has been written about Bletchley Park and its cast of code-c

racking irregulars : the sputtering Oxford dons , neurasthenic chess champions a

nd rumpled , unwashed linguists recruited to attack and analyze the Germans ' su

pposedly impenetrable Enigma cipher . What novelist , after all , could dream up

 a cryptographic protagonist like Alan Turing , the stammering , nail-biting mat

hematical genius and computer pioneer , who bicycled in a gas mask to avoid hay 

fever , ran long distances in tweeds , listened nightly to a BBC children 's pro

gram about Larry the Lamb and , nine years after the war , killed himself by coa

ting an apple with cyanide and biting into it ? It was Turing , building on cryp

tanalytic breakthroughs made before the war by a band of brilliant Polish mathem

aticians , who led the frenzied intellectual scramble at Bletchley Park , aided 

by several thousand tireless young female clerks and the army of abstract academ

ics one clerk remembers as `` just absolute boffins. .. . They just weren't in t

he real world at all . '' Their work consisted of three basic areas . First , it

 involved the technical challenge of engineering what became the first electroni

c programmable computers , not only to solve the increasing number and complexit

y of German ciphers , but to greatly reduce the time for decoding individual mes