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

 Day recess . For Democrats in particular , the weeklong break could be a time o

f intense pressure from constituents and interest groups at home . Clinton 's he

alth care plan is encountering difficulties in all five congressional committees

 considering it . Democrats are also nursing their wounds from a special electio

n in Kentucky , hailed by Republicans as a referendum on Clinton 's policies , t

hat saw one congressional district fall into GOP hands for the first time in mor

e than a century . As Clinton left a session with House and Senate Democratic le

aders the first of three held with various groups in Congress he said his health

 care bill is `` something we very much want to do in a bipartisan fashion . '' 

But by the end of the third meeting , which was a pep rally for the entire Democ

ratic membership of the House , it was clear that Clinton was in a more confront

ational mood . `` The president told us something that was important for us to h

ear : If we really want to accomplish something , we 've got to fight for it , '

' said Rep. Henry A . Waxman , D-Calif. , who is one of Clinton 's chief House a

llies in the health care battle . Added Rep. Pat Williams , D-Mont. , another su

bcommittee chairman with jurisdiction over health : `` He used the word ` fight 

' a half a dozen times . '' Only one of the closed sessions included any Republi

can participants and it was Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell 's , D-Mai

ne. , idea to invite them . However , Democrats and Republicans alike said Clint

on had been solicitous at the session and eager to hear the views of both sides 

. Republicans said they told Clinton bluntly that the linchpin of his plan a req

uirement that employers pay for their workers ' health coverage will not pass . 

`` I told him , ` Mr . President , I support mandates . I will support mandates 

, but I think if this bill has mandates , it loses , '' said Sen. Bob Packwood ,

 R-Ore. Packwood is ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee , which i

s considered difficult territory for Clinton 's plan . ( Optional add end ) On a

 more positive note for the administration , a second House subcommittee managed

 to approve a version of the Clinton plan shortly before the president arrived o

n Capitol Hill . The House Education and Labor Committee 's labor-management rel

ations subcommittee , chaired by Williams , voted 17-10 in favor of the plan . I

t passed strictly along party lines , without a single GOP vote . The bill conta

ins the basic elements of the Clinton plan , but substitutes voluntary purchasin

g cooperatives for mandatory health alliances . It also contains more generous b

enefits in such areas as women 's health , mental health and dental care , and i

ncreases subsidies to help small businesses afford their workers ' coverage .

 RIVERSIDE , Calif. . Two 19-year-olds were arrested Wednesday in the slaying of

 a 62-year-old German tourist and the attempted killing of her husband last week

 at a remote mountain overlook . Authorities said the two men were associates of

 an Asian street gang , but that gang activity was not believed to be a factor i

n the attack on the German couple . The victims were shot at a scenic viewpoint 

alongside California 243 , in the San Jacinto Mountains . A third suspect remain

s at large , Sheriff 's Department spokesman Deputy Mark Lohman said . The arres

ts came nine days after the Germans were attacked during an apparent robbery , w

hich left Gisela Pfleger dead from gunshot wounds to her head . Her husband , Kl

aus Pfleger , 64 , was critically wounded with two gunshots to his face and anot

her in his shoulder . At a news conference Wednesday , Lohman offered no details

 of the investigation that led to the arrest of the two teen-agers following an 

all-night interrogation . He said the handgun believed to have been used in the 

shootings , as well as the suspected getaway car , were seized by detectives who

 searched four homes in the Banning , Calif. , area Tuesday . Three other teen-a

gers who were taken in for questioning Tuesday afternoon were released Wednesday

 . All five had been rounded up without resistence . Lohman identified the shoot

ing suspects as Xou Yang and Khamchan `` Brett '' Ketsouvannasane . Both were bo

rn in Laos and are legal U.S. residents , he said . They were held at a Riversid

e County detention center on $ 250,000 bail , and were expected to be arraigned 

on Friday . Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Richard Bentley said his o

ffice would decide Thursday whether to prosecute the suspects as defendants in a

 capital case , because of the special legal circumstances involving alleged mur

der committed in the commission of a robbery .

 In a letter to Newsday , presidential spokesman Jean Musitelli Wednesday implic

itly acknowledged the charge against Mitterrand of `` silence and inaction '' fo

r at least five weeks in the summer of 1992 . But he added more fuel to an issue

 of political volatility in France by turning the charge around and suggesting t

hat it also applied to the Bosnian leaders who made it . PICKUP 3rd graf : Newsd

ay xxx

 WASHINGTON In seeking to implement quickly a new program for processing Haitian

 boat people and answer its critics , the Clinton administration is relying on a

 set of calculations that involve a peculiar mix of mathematics and morality . C

urrent plans call for facilities that can handle as many as 5,000 Haitians at a 

time , according to a defense policy official . But administration officials say

 that an operation on that scale can only succeed if they can rapidly decide who

 is eligible for refugee status and then quickly return the rest to Haiti . If t

hey do not send back those who fail to qualify , administration officials insist

 , there will be a mass exodus . A nightmare scenario underlies both the adminis

tration 's planning process and its argument against more lenient treatment of r

efugees . It goes something like this : Encouraged by hope that they might get a

 permanent home outside Haiti , thousands of Haitians set out to sea , overwhelm

ing the facilities set up to accommodate them . Many are forced to stay afloat i

n rickety boats while awaiting a place and eventually a shipwreck kills hundreds

 . Officials insist that this gruesome vision lies at the heart of a policy-maki

ng process in which every statement and gesture must be weighed in terms of how 

many Haitians it might prompt into a reckless sea voyage . Given the large numbe

r of people who want to leave the island , officials worry that false hopes coul

d prompt a disaster . Explaining why the administration has rejected proposals t

o create a refuge for all Haitian boat people , State Department spokesman Mike 

McCurry said Wednesday , `` It has been our concern that the creation of a so-ca

lled safe haven might encourage people to use very unsafe means of migration to 

try to arrive at a safe haven . '' The administration 's critics , who have an i

nterest in minimizing the number of potential refugees and the dangers they face

 , contend that the White House is using the nightmare scenario as an excuse to 

avoid taking necessary steps . `` They have talked themselves into fearing a mas

s exodus , and now they are trying to talk everybody else into it as way of just

ifying inaction , '' said Jocelyn McCalla , executive director of the National C

oalition of Haitian Refugees . The number of Haitians who might set out in boats

 if they had a realistic hope of escaping their homeland is a matter of speculat

ion and debate . The administration is operating on an assessment that as many a

s 1,500 to 2,000 people a day could go to sea , and eventually the numbers could

 reach between 50,000 and 100,000 if none were to be sent back , a source said .

 Shep Lowman , director of refugee affairs for the U.S. Catholic Conference , ar

gues that such numbers are exaggerated . Instead , Lowman said , the numbers wou

ld be somewhere between the 1,300 people who have left in the past two weeks and

 the 5,000 a month that was the peak flow in the aftermath of the 1991 military 

takeover . Other advocates like McCalla put the number even lower , saying that 

less than 20,000 people would show up if the United States created a safe haven 

. In the face of protests from these critics , President Clinton abruptly announ

ced on May 8 that the U.S. would halt its policy of automatically returning all 

boat people intercepted by the Coast Guard to Haiti and instead would create som

e kind of processing facility where the Haitians could apply for refugee status 

. Those rejected and Clinton warned they would be the overwhelming majority woul

d still be sent back . In the two and a half weeks since then , the government h

as been busy on many fronts , lobbying foreign governments to allow a processing

 facility on their territory , chartering ships and hiring personnel . But no co

ncrete plans have been announced . The delay is unavoidable , administration off

icials argue , because the delicate calculations of refugee flows demand that a 

complete processing and resettlement plan be in place the day the program opens 

. `` In humanitarian terms it would be morally irresponsible to create a large m

agnet by effecting this change in policy before it can be fully implemented , ''

 said a senior administration official . `` Lives are at stake . '' This view fi

nds some support from immigration experts . `` There is going to be a very subst

antial bubble in the number of people up front , and that is where you cannot af

ford to make any mistakes , '' said Demetrios Papademetriou , director of the im

migration policy program at the Carnegie Endowment . Unless the administration o

ffers some form of safe haven , the only way to avoid being overwhelmed , he sai

d , is `` by showing from the start that people who are simply fleeing poverty w

ill not end up in Miami , and you cannot do that unless you have set up a proces

sing facility that is big enough and then some . So you have to be able to guess

 right on the numbers you 'll face . '' But some advocates argue that the decisi

on of whether to risk life and limb for a chance to reach the United States is o

ne that only the refugees themselves can make . `` The idea that it would be mor

ally incorrect to allow Haitians the opportunity to seek asylum because it would

 put them in danger is very paternalistic , '' Lowman said . `` That kind of thi

nking would paralyze refugee operations all over the world . I 'm sorry , that i

s a decision you have to leave to the refugee . They are aware of the dangers of

 the sea . ''

 WASHINGTON President Clinton delivered an attack on congressional Republicans W

ednesday and told a closed-door meeting of House Democrats they must `` fight ba

ck '' against efforts to sabotage the health bill and other key administration l

egislation if they are to survive the November election . With growing bipartisa

n concerns over whether any comprehensive health care bill is possible this year

 , Clinton held a pro forma outreach session with the leading Senate players on 

health care issues from both parties , but he blasted the Republicans in a caucu

s with his fellow Democrats moments later . Before the camera lights and microph

ones , leaders of both parties pronounced the three Capitol Hill sessions `` pro

ductive '' and `` constructive . '' But House Democrats , who met separately wit

h Clinton in a Democrats-only caucus , quoted him as saying Republicans hope to 

reap election gains by blocking his legislative program . `` Their strategy is n

ot to cooperate on anything , '' one note-taking House member quoted Clinton as 

saying . Urging the Democrats to finish action this year on the crime bill , hea

lth care and the worldwide trade agreement , Clinton reportedly said history sug

gested Republicans would make gains in November and warned that the new GOP memb

ers `` will be right-wing fanatics , not moderates , '' according to a listener 

's notes . `` The only way you win is to fight back , ` ` he said . Members and 

staff said there were no new positions taken on health care legislation , which 

was the ostensible subject of the Capitol Hill visit . They said no compromises 

were reached , and there were no hints of how the administration might deal with

 the central issue that could cause the yearlong effortto fail : how to pay for 

universal coverage . `` I 'm concerned that in these meetings we always sort of 

say the same things , '' said Sen. John Breaux , D-La. , one of the only Democra

ts in a meeting to voice opposition to the requirement that employers pay part o

f their workers ' coverage . This is the main financing method in most bills und

er consideration . In a meeting with Democratic leaders and committee chairmen a

nd then in a bipartisan session that included Minority Leader Robert J. Dole , R

-Kan. , and the sponsors of the major Republican bills , Clinton heard the kind 

of committee-by-committee status reports and positions that dozens of White Hous

e aides are paid to give him at a moment 's notice . Democrats told him , accord

ing to participants , that three House committees and two Senate committees are 

working to craft bills that can win approval , but even the leader of the pack ,

 the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee , has been forced to delay compl

etion until after the Memorial Day recess , the last unofficial deadline for com

mittee action . `` I don't want to minimize the difference between members of bo

th parties and between the members of each party , '' said Senate Majority Leade

r George J. Mitchell , D-Maine . At the last minute , the White House scheduled 

the session with the Senate Republica ns . The White House had earlier said the 

president would meet with Republicans on health care after the recess , but afte

r objections were raised by the congressional relations and communications staff

s , the meeting was hastily squeezed in Wednesday . `` It got added for the reas

on that we didn't want to give the Republicans ammunition '' to argue the admini

stration is not operating on its promised bipartisan basis , one official said .

 WASHINGTON President Clinton is expected to announce Thursday that he will rene

w China 's trade privileges , but he may impose extremely limited sanctions on C

hinese-made guns and ammunition , according to sources who were briefed on the W

hite House decision . The sources said Wednesday that the Clinton administration

 also plans to set up a new commission to examine human rights abuses in China .

 The commission reportedly would be headed by former President Jimmy Carter , wh

o established diplomatic relations with the Beijing regime in 1979 while he was 

in the White House . The new commission would be designed as a replacement for t

he approach that Clinton proposed last year but will now abandon : using trade a

s leverage to improve human rights in China . In recent days , human rights grou

ps have denounced the idea of a human rights commission for China as a meaningle

ss exercise . `` It would have no authority , no clout and no teeth , '' said Mi

ke Jendrzejczyk , Washington director of Human Rights Watch ( Asia ) . The admin

istration is facing a deadline of June 3 to decide whether to renew China 's mos

t-favored-nation trade benefits , which permit Chinese goods to be sold in this 

country under the same low tariffs enjoyed by virtually all other countries . La

st year , Clinton suggested that China should make `` overall significant progre

ss '' on human rights if it wanted renewal of these benefits for next year . The

 president 's decision to renew the trade benefits would stand unless both house

s of Congress pass a resolution to revoke it . As Clinton prepared to announce h

is decision on future policy toward China , the White House struggled throughout

 Wednesday to win the critical support of Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitch

ell , D-Maine , the principal architect of the policy of linking trade benefits 

to human rights . In the last few days , the main question was not whether Clint

on would renew China 's overall trade benefits , since all sides have agreed for

 weeks that he would do so . Rather , the issue was whether he would impose sanc

tions on Chinese imports in response to human rights abuses . Administration off

icials hope to avoid the embarrassment of a split with Mitchell , who has been u

rging the White House to impose some significant sanctions on Chinese products .

 The White House was considering limited economic sanctions on Chinese weapons ,

 or no penalties at all . But Mitchell was pressing for broader , more significa

nt penalties on all Chinese products made by the People 's Liberation Army or by

 defense-related companies . Not only is Mitchell the Senate majority leader , b

ut he also has done more than anyone to create the China issue that was used for

 years by congressional Democrats against former President Bush . In the years a

fter China 's bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations , he pressed

 for legislation attaching conditions to the renewal of China 's trade benefits 

. Eventually , Clinton embraced Mitchell 's approach during the 1992 campaign , 

when he accused Bush of `` coddling dictators '' in Beijing and criticized Bush 

for vetoing legislation on the issue that Mitchell had sponsored . Now , after a

 year in the White House , Clinton is backing away from Mitchell 's policy . Adm

inistration officials said he plans to drop , for the future , the presidential 

executive order he issued last year attaching a series of human rights condition

s to the renewal of China 's trade status . By imposing penalties exclusively on

 Chinese-made guns and ammunition , the Clinton administration would , in effect

 , convert the China trade issue into a gun-control measure . Mitchell has objec

ted , saying the penalties on Chinese-made guns and ammunition do not go far eno

ugh . China exports more than $ 31 billion in products to the United States and 

the guns and ammunition make up only a tiny share of these sales . ( Optional ad

d end ) `` Mitchell ` s trying to ( penalize ) all products of defense-industria

l companies ( in China ) . And the administration is trying to say , ` arms only

 , ' ' ' one congressional source said Wednesday . The administration has been u

nder intense pressure from the American business community to renew China 's tra

de benefits . U.S. companies fear that , if the benefits are revoked , China wil

l retaliate against American companies and simply deal instead with their Europe

an and Asian competitors . The executive order that Clinton issued last year put

 the administration in an awkward position . Officials believed at the time that

 the human rights conditions they imposed were so reasonable and limited that Ch

ina would be able and willing to meet them . Under the 1993 order , China was re

quired to open the way for emigration of the families of some dissidents and to 

take action to curb the export of goods made with prison labor . In addition , C

hina was supposed to make `` overall significant progress '' on releasing dissid

ents from prison , on stopping the jamming of Voice of America broadcasts and on

 preserving Tibet 's cultural heritage . China has repeatedly denounced impositi

on of these conditions and has said that it will never be pressured into changin

g its domestic policies . Over the last few months , while releasing a handful o

f well-known political prisoners , Chinese authorities also have rounded up a nu

mber of other dissidents . In April , for example , China once again arrested We

i Jingsheng , China 's best-known proponent of democracy , who had been released

 last September after serving more than 14 years in jail . Wei is still being de

tained .

 In a report likely to influence the national debate on the issue , a New York s

tate task force unanimously has rejected the idea of legalizing euthanasia and a

ssisted suicide . Instead , the report , released Wednesday by the New York Stat

e Task Force on Life and the Law , urges that medical professionals do better at

 treating pain and depression two prime factors behind patient requests for assi

sted suicide . Though some of the task force 's 23 members believe that assisted

 suicide can be ethical in rare cases , they agreed that legalizing it carries a

 large risk of abuse , especially `` to those who are poor , elderly , members o

f a minority group or without access to good medical care . '' In some cases , t

he report said , `` patients may be pressured to consent to euthanasia when thei

r care is expensive or burdensome to others . As one commentator has argued , ` 

Advocating legal sanction of euthanasia at a time and in a society where access 

to care is so limited and its cost so critical , the so-called `` right to die '

' all too easily becomes a duty to die. ' ' ' The report more than 200 pages lon

g and two years in the making follows two events that offered hope to supporters

 of assisted suicide . On May 2 , a Michigan jury acquitted Dr. Jack Kevorkian o

f charges that he helped a terminally ill man kill himself , in violation of a M

ichigan law aimed at Kevorkian . The next day , a federal judge in Seattle struc

k down the state 's ban on the practice , finding a right to assisted suicide im

plicit in the constitutional guarantee of liberty . The New York report finds no

 such right in the state or federal Constitution . `` Even though momentum has b

een building , the task force is sending a clear warning signal that society sho

uld slow down and take a hard look at who would be at risk , '' said Tracy Mille

r , the task force 's executive director . As the Seattle and Michigan cases mov

e toward the Supreme Court , the report is likely to be influential . `` This is

 the first public body that has put out a thoughtful , deliberative report , '' 

said Arthur Caplan , director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of P