May 28, 1991

Japan Raises the Stakes Angered by cuts that threaten its role in the American space station project, Japan says it may refuse to help pay for other big science projects. Science Times, page C7. Battle Over AIDS Policy

Declaring that he is "trying to chart a moral course through a world of lesser evils," President Bush said today that he would continue China's trading privileges for another year. But he sought to lessen the political effect of his decision by imposing new restrictions on missile technology exports to China. "We want to promote positive change in the world through the force of our example, not simply profess our purity," Mr. Bush said in a speech to the graduating class at his alma mater, Yale University, that embodied his most detailed explanation to date of a China policy that has put him in regular conflict with Congress.

Ebullient with victory in the Persian Gulf and the end of a half-century of cold war, people across the New York metropolitan area paused on a sumptuous Memorial Day yesterday to remember the nation's fallen warriors and to reflect again on the lessons of Gettysburg, the Argonne, Tarawa and Khe Sanh. Across the region, people marked the long holiday weekend with an American medley of parades, music festivals, barrages of fireworks, battle re-enactments and air shows featuring wasplike jet fighters and gracefully lumbering B-17's out of the 1940's.

Many retailing analysts and consultants say they think Sears's stores will remain mired in a sales slump for many quarters. Nonetheless, some of these experts say the stock may be a good investment. Either Sears's results will improve, they say, or shareholders will benefit from drastic changes that may be forced on the company. Assuming that sales stay depressed, they predict that disgruntled shareholders will eventually force Sears, Roebuck & Company to split into its component parts: the Sears Merchandise Group retail operation, Dean Witter financial services, Allstate insurance and Coldwell Banker real estate.

President Hashemi Rafsanjani and three other senior officials called today for vastly increased economic and political cooperation with the West and for closer ties with Iran's Persian Gulf neighbors. Addressing 250 Western, Asian and Arab oil officials in the largest international conference held in Iran since the Islamic revolution of 1979, these Iranian leaders left little doubt that they were reorienting their diplomacy away from the confrontational policies of the last decade.