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

 that `` their '' war , the Italian campaign , received its moment of acknowledg

ment in this ceremony before the D-Day observances take center stage . Before hi

s speech , Clinton walked through the rows of graves , stopping at a handful to 

speak with relatives or friends of those buried here . At one grave , that of Am

erican Red Cross nurse Ophelia Tiley , he was greeted with a smart salute by Jun

e Marion Wandrey , 74 , dressed in her perfectly preserved brown-wool World War 

II Army Nurse Corps uniform . Although Clinton 's efforts to avoid service in Vi

etnam , a war he opposed , have rankled some veterans , his lack of military exp

erience seemed to have little relevance to Wandrey and other veterans at the cer

emony , many of whom lauded the president for coming here to recognize them . ``

 I have to look at it this way : He 's my president , and I respect the office ,

 '' said Wandrey . Asked if it was time to move on from Clinton 's past , she pa

used , looked down for a moment and answered : `` Well , each to his own . You h

ave to look in your own heart and see what you can forgive . '' Muriel Flake , a

 psychologist from Houston whose late husband fought in the Italian campaign , e

ndorsed the president 's message of remembrance in a voice choked with emotion .

 `` He said it is your responsibility to carry on and preserve what these men fo

ught for , '' she said , noting that her children 's generation `` doesn't have 

a sense of what these men gave . Many of my high school and college friends were

 killed at Normandy . They were just gone . So young . '' John Bender of Aberdee

n , Md. , watching Clinton from the sidelines , said the president 's war protes

t as a young man `` bothers me a little , '' but `` he grew up . Maybe he has ch

anged . He should be aware of things . I think he is , since he is here . There 

's so much at stake . '' Bender , who said he was a Republican , was as pleased 

to see Robert J. Dole , R-Kan. , the Senate majority leader , as he was Clinton 

. Dole was one of four senators who fought in the Italian campaign and were invi

ted here for this ceremony . Like Dole , Bender suffered a serious wound that co

st him the use of his arm . `` My arm is crippled , like Dole 's , '' he said pr

oudly , noting he had had his picture taken with the senator . The Republican , 

at odds with Clinton on virtually everything in Washington and a potential presi

dential opponent , received a salute from Clinton as they shared a platform at t

he ceremony . Clinton cited Sens. Dole , Ernest Hollings , D-S.C. , Daniel K. In

ouye , D-Hawaii , and Claiborne F. Pell , D-R.I. , as `` young Americans who cam

e of age here , each an American patriot who went home to build up our nation. .

. . We honor what they have given to America . '' Clinton , in his eight-minute 

address , also touched on the need for Americans to remember their history . `` 

Too many Americans , '' he said , `` do not know what that generation did. .. . 

We cannot leave memory to chance . We must recall Elie Weisel 's commandment to 

fight forgetfulness . And we must apply it to the valor as much as to the horror

 for to honor , we must remember , and then , we must go forward . '' Clinton 's

 moment of memory came in his recounting of a story about his father , William B

lythe , who served in Italy . Back home , Clinton said , a niece had heard of It

aly 's beauty and asked Blythe to send her a single leaf from one of the trees t

o take to school . `` My father had only sad news , '' he said . `` There were n

o leaves . Every one had been stripped by the fury of the battle . ''

 MEXICO CITY A government prosecutor investigating the assassination of Mexico '

s leading presidential candidate is backing away from his own widely publicized 

conspiracy theory , saying now that the accused gunman appears to have acted alo

ne . Special prosecutor Miguel Montes Garcia said in a statement that he will co

ntinue searching for evidence against three men accused of assisting alleged gun

man Mario Aburto Martinez in the March 23 shooting death of ruling party candida

te Luis Donaldo Colosio . But he acknowledged no new evidence has surfaced again

st the three , all of whom were arrested and charged on the basis of photographs

 depicting suspicious-looking actions by them moments before Colosio was shot at

 a Tijuana campaign rally . Montes 's statement , issued late Thursday , was onl

y the latest development effectively slowing the investigation into Colosio 's d

eath while the nation gears up for hotly contested presidential elections on Aug

. 21 . Officials of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party ( PRI ) say the

y fear that voter cynicism prompted by an inconclusive investigation could harm 

the party 's chances . It has not lost a presidential election in 65 years . Oth

er factors affecting the inquiry 's progress include : A federal judge threateni

ng legal action on Thursday against two of Colosio 's government-appointed bodyg

uards one of whom is an army general for defying a court summons to testify in t

he case . The governor of Baja California , where Tijuana is located , saying We

dnesday that he had suspended a probe into the killing of Tijuana police chief J

ose Frederico Benitez , because he could not guarantee the safety of his investi

gators . In late April , Benitez , who claimed to have independent evidence sugg

esting a second gun was involved in Colosio 's shooting , was shot to death whil

e driving on a Tijuana street . In an interview the day before his death , he sa

id files he kept on suspects in the Colosio case had been stolen from his office

 . A committee appointed by President Carlos Salinas de Gortari to conduct an in

dependent investigation resigning , with members complaining Salinas never gave 

them legal or constitutional authority to carry out their mission . Salinas two 

weeks ago replacing Montes 's boss , attorney general Diego Valades , who had be

en accused by opposition parties of politicizing the Colosio investigation . Sal

inas named the five-member independent investigative committee in April to help 

eliminate what he called `` a climate of suspicion '' surrounding Colosio 's ass

assination . Opinion polls at the time showed one-third of respondents believed 

the PRI was behind the killing . Last week , PRI workers began painting over old

 Colosio campaign signs with new ones promoting the party 's replacement candida

te , Ernesto Zedillo . Although Zedillo has repeatedly called for a thorough gov

ernment investigation into the Colosio case , PRI officials acknowledge that lin

gering public suspicions about the party 's involvement in the killing may be hu

rting the new candidate , whose popularity has dropped dramatically in some poll

s . `` We are the object of all of these conspiracy theories . The Colosio assas

sination was put on our liabilities sheet from day one , '' said Jose Angel Gurr

ia , a senior PRI official . `` The proliferation of conspiracy theories will co

ntinue until this is resolved . '' Prosecutor Montes said he has collected 80 vi

deotapes and 1,621 photographs related to Colosio 's assassination , which occur

red as the candidate was passing through a crowd of roughly 3,000 supporters . S

ince the beginning , Montes said , he has pursued the investigation based on two

 theories : that Aburto acted alone , or that he was aided by several accomplice

s who coordinated to block Colosio , impede his bodyguards and clear a path so A

burto could gain close access . Montes said that he has always presumed the assa

ssination was the result of a `` concerted action '' and that three men currentl

y in jail with Aburto Tranquilino Sanchez , Vicente Mayoral and his son , Rodolf

o Mayoral played key roles in assisting Aburto . `` I must note in good faith th

at .. . up to now , the investigation has not uncovered new elements of proof ''

 to bolster the case against the three other defendants , Montes said . `` In th

e light of recent investigations .. . the hypothesis has been bolstered that the

 homicide was committed by one single man : Mario Aburto . '' Early in his inves

tigation , Montes distributed photographs to the news media appearing to show Sa

nchez and Rodolfo Mayoral speaking with Aburto moments before Colosio was shot .

 Sanchez also is shown in photos appearing to grab one of Colosio 's bodyguards 

around the neck at the same time a shot is fired . Colosio was shot twice at poi

nt-blank range , with one bullet entering his head from his right side and anoth

er entering his abdomen from the left . Montes said he believes only one gun was

 used in the shooting and that Aburto was the only gunman . The seemingly opposi

te trajectories of the bullets , he explained , were the result of Colosio 's bo

dy spinning reflexively after the first shot to the head .

 WASHINGTON The unemployment rate fell sharply across the nation during May as t

he economy continued to generate steady job growth , the Labor Department report

ed Friday . The national jobless figure fell to 6 percent , down from 6.4 percen

t in April . But government officials said the sizable decline appears to overst

ate the actual improvement in the nation 's labor market last month . While the 

declines in the official unemployment rates were impressive , a separate calcula

tion of the number of people working across the country showed the economy gener

ated fewer than 200,000 new jobs in May . The figure was smaller than expected ,

 and some economists said it could signal that the pace of the recovery is slowi

ng to a more moderate level . The prospect of more restrained growth appeared to

 reassure the stock and bond markets , where investors have expressed growing co

ncern that the robust growth of recent months could lead to a resurgence of infl

ation . The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 13.23 points to close at 3,772.22 

, while the yield on the Treasury 's 30-year bonds , a key indicator of long-ter

m interest rates , fell to 7.27 percent from 7.35 percent a year earlier . Lower

 yields suggest that investors are more confident that inflationary pressures re

main under control . Clinton administration officials welcomed the jobs report ,

 insisting that their policies will lead to steady growth without significant pr

ice hikes . `` The economy is entering the summer in exceedingly good shape , ''

 Labor Secretary Robert Reich said at a White House briefing . `` We are deep in

 a jobs recovery , a jobs expansion . '' But Reich expressed concern about the w

idening gap between the prospects of skilled , high-wage Americans and those wor

kers who lack the necessary education and training to fully enjoy the benefits o

f the economic resurgence . He noted that 20 percent of the Americans currently 

without jobs have been unemployed for six months or more . The sharp drop in the

 national jobless rate is somewhat exaggerated because the government has change

d the way it conducts its monthly surveys and adjusts the results to reflect con

ditions affecting the nation 's total labor pool of more than 130 million worker

s . Such statistical changes could account for as much as half of last month 's 

decline , said Katherine Abraham , Commissioner of Labor Statistics , suggesting

 that the true rate of unemployment could be closer to 6.2 percent . The agency 

's separate survey of business payrolls showed a net increase of 191,000 jobs in

 May , a figure that includes 71,000 people who returned to work after the end o

f the trucking industry strike . The payroll survey is considered a more reliabl

e measure of employment conditions than the household poll used to calculate the

 unemployment rate . While the employment figure signaled that the recovery is s

till on track , it was slightly smaller than expected and fell short of the aver

age monthly job growth of 247,000 so far during 1994 . An increase of 191,000 jo

bs `` is not the type of figure that should panic the markets , '' said Martin R

egalia , chief economist for the U.S. . Chamber of Commerce . `` This is a conti

nued verification of our expectation that the economy is slowing somewhat from t

he pace at the end of last year and during the first quarter . '' ( Optional add

 end ) Nationwide , job growth was noticeably more robust in April , when the ec

onomy added a revised 358,000 non-farm jobs , and in March , when payrolls swell

ed by 379,000 . Last month 's job gains came mostly in services , particularly t

he motion picture industry and retailing . Job losses continued in manufacturing

 , especially defense and aerospace-related fields , along with the finance , in

surance and real estate . The `` hemorrhage '' of defense jobs , which disappear

ed at the rate of 15,000 jobs a month last year , has slowed to about 8,000 mont

hly , according to Thomas Plewes , associate commissioner of labor statistics .

 DETROIT Ford Motor Co. grounded its fleet of electric vans Friday following an 

early-morning fire that erupted in a vehicle battery as it was being charged at 

a Southern California facility . The fire is the second to occur in the last mon

th in a Ford Ecostar , the company 's test electric-powered vehicle . On May 2 ,

 a Ford electric vehicle was damaged by a similar battery fire . No one was hurt

 in either incident . In Friday 's fire , damage largely was confined to the bat

teries , which are located in the rear of the vehicle , under the van bed . The 

vehicles are powered by sodium-sulfur batteries made by ABB , a Swedish electric

al engineering firm with battery operations in Canada and Germany . Sodium-sulfu

r batteries provide good range and acceleration . But safety has been a concern 

throughout their development , because the batteries must be kept at a constant 

temperature of 600 degrees Fahrenheit . Ford has 34 electric vehicles being test

ed nationwide by 12 customers , mostly utilities . In the wake of Friday 's inci

dent , it has asked the customers not to use the vehicles and to park them outsi

de until the cause of the fires can be determined . After the first fire , Ford 

said the problem had been traced to faulty welds in the battery cells . Other ba

tteries built using the same procedure have not been placed in service . But the

 second fire on Friday is forcing Ford and ABB to re-evaluate . `` We thought th

e first fire was an isolated incident , '' said Ford spokeswoman Pam Keuber . ``

 We want to proceed very cautiously . '' ARB spokesman Bill Sessa said the Calif

ornia Air Resources Board had been testing the Ecostar for a couple of weeks . A

n employee discovered Friday 's fire upon arriving at work about 6:40 a.m. . `` 

These are research vehicles , '' said Sessa . `` Anytime you conduct research , 

you can expect setbacks as well as steps forward . ''

 WASHINGTON The Clinton administration describes the stakes in its tense standof

f with North Korea as crucial to regional and global peace , yet Washington has 

stepped gingerly around the question of how far it would go to stop development 

of nuclear weapons by the reclusive Communist regime . For now , the United Stat

es has settled on trying to place economic sanctions on North Korea , an effort 

no one expects to stop the nuclear program in its tracks . Imposing sanctions al

so runs an ironic risk . Meant to force North Korea to confess to past efforts t

o create a bomb , they may prompt Pyongyang to retaliate by formally withdrawing

 from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty . That would free North Korean nuclear

 engineers of even the minimal constraints they have observed for the past two y

ears , and possibly help them to build more nuclear devices than they already ma

y have . One U.S. official said that risk is the prime reason for not going furt

her now . `` We are doing all that we reasonably should do to not provoke the No

rth Koreans to stop cooperating on the most important issue , '' which is ensuri

ng continued inspections to prevent diverting fuel to build new bombs , the offi

cial said . `` One doesn't throw the baby out with the bath water , '' the offic

ial said . Beyond sanctions , no one seems clear on which direction the policy m

ight go , should North Korea resist and simply continue to build its weapons . W

ill Washington simply try to wait out North Korea in the expectation that Pyongy

ang will at some point choose to join the world rather than hoard a few atom bom

bs ? Encourage the overthrow of North Korean government ? Go to war to destroy t

he weapons and facilities ? One U.S. official warned that there may be no signif

icant progress on the issue until North Korea 's octogenarian leader Kim Il Sung

 dies and is replaced . But there is no guarantee his replacement will be more a

menable to U.S. interests . In the meantime , administration officials say , san

ctions are a necessary means of maintaining Washington 's credibility and that o

f the International Atomic Energy Agency , which is responsible for policing glo

bal nuclear arms proliferation . North Korea 's defiance must be shown to have c

osts , they say . `` What is immediately at stake is the IAEA safeguards regime 

. The regime would be seriously challenged and put in jeopardy if the internatio

nal community does not respond properly , '' said a senior administration offici

al . The U.S. push for sanctions is likely to face resistance , however . China 

, with a veto in the United Nations Security Council , is reluctant to endorse t

hem . Russia has proposed an alternate route , an international conference , but

 has not ruled out supporting sanctions . Following its longstanding habit of ma

king bellicose threats , North Korea has said sanctions would be an act of war .

 But many South Korean officials say they do not expect any North Korean militar

y action . There have been hints from North Korea that the `` act of war '' stat

ements merely signify that enactment of sanctions would violate the armistice ag

reement that ended the Korean War . But the risk of war is attested by the hundr

eds of thousands of troops who line the heavily fortified border between North a

nd South Korea . North Korea may have built at least one nuclear bomb , and poss

ibly two , U.S. intelligence analysts say . It is evidence of this process the I

AEA is being blocked from examining . North Korea may be able to build four to s

ix more by year 's end , if they proceed with diversion of plutonium and spent r

eactor fuel from their nuclear facilities . For now , IAEA inspectors are permit

ted to be on guard against diversion . Such bombs could in theory be carried by 

boat or plane , although North Korea has visions of more sophisticated vehicles 

. It is developing a ballistic missile capable of reaching Japan . U.S. analysts

 expect the missiles could be armed with nuclear warheads by decade 's end . A b

ig risk with sanctions is that , in practice , they take time to produce results

 , if they succeed at all . Already , North Korea has used a year 's worth of ne

gotiations to increase its capacity for producing weapons from nuclear fuel . In

 Haiti , more than two years of heavy commercial isolation has yet to force a ch

ange in regime and the Clinton administration is pondering an invasion to overth

row the government . Serbia has resisted two years of United Nations sanctions a

nd continues to aid insurgent Serbs in neighboring Bosnia . Five years after the

 sabotage of Pan Am Flight 103 , Libya has refused to give up a pair of suspects

 , despite bans on imports of oil equipment , military supplies and other machin

ery . Saddam Hussein perseveres in power despite a grab bag of U.N. sanctions th

at permit nothing more than humanitarian supplies and food to enter . The threat

 to isolate an already largely-isolated North Korea seems minimal considering th

e stakes as defined by the administration . Non-proliferation is a central facet

 of Clinton 's foreign policy . Washington fears that North Korea could trigger 

an arms race in East Asia , with a nervous Japan prompted to rearm . The 40-year

 old armistice line between North and South Korea would become a more dangerous 

flashpoint with the introduction of nuclear bombs . `` This conjures up a vision

 of an isolated and embattled North Korea run by a personalistic regime , with a

 nuclear weapons arsenal and a large conventional army on the border of South Ko

rea . This is not a recipe for a secure East Asia , '' the U.S. official said . 

Outside of East Asia , other nuclear-ambitious countries , including Iran , Iraq

 and Libya , are watching to see whether IAEA inspections can be repelled with e

ase , a senior U.S. official said . The agency has never turned to the U.N. . Se

curity Council to help it implement inspections . `` This is the first test , ''

 the official said . North Korea also sells military equipment to states that th

e Clinton administration describe as rogue . Beyond missiles and technology , U.

S. officials worry about North Korea selling an off-the-shelf bomb . Washington 

rejects simple deterrence as a solution , which would threaten annihilation if N

orth Korea used the weapons . Deterrence theory based on forty years ' experienc

e with the Soviet Union is not applicable , officials say , because Washington w

ants to block Korea 's acquisition of a nuclear arsenal , not just its use of on

e . That is the goal in part because the dynamic of Korea 's ancient rivalry wit

h Japan is unpredictable , as is the chance of a conflict with South Korea . `` 

No one can be confident that ( nuclear ) accidents or incidents willn't take pla

ce , '' a senior official said . `` We much prefer to prevent the chance from ev

er arising . ''

 WASHINGTON Haiti 's exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide stepped up his bare

ly veiled call for U.S. military intervention Friday , asking the Clinton admini

stration for `` swift and determined action to remove the coup leaders .. . and 

restore democracy . '' Aristide said he could not call explicitly for military a