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Bo Angeles National Edition ON THE INTERNET: WWW.LATIMKS.COM CIRCULATION: 1,095,007 DAILY 1.385,373 SUNDAY TUESDAY, MAY 30, 2000 COPYRIGHT 20()O THE TIMES MIRROR COMPANY DAILY 50 CENTS AN EDITION OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES COLUMN ONE Recalling the Fallen War Between Eritrea and Ethiopia Heats Up Africa: Bombing of military airstrip is first attack on Eritrea's capital. Fighting continues to rage in border area. Official's late arrival forces delay in peace talks. 1. til 1 14 iti 'ii Li of Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Rancho WALLY SKALIJ Los Angeles Times Palos Verdes, Calif.

A6, A8 Linda Munoz searches for names of friends on replica Military Chief Seizes Government in Fiji Pacific: Martial law is declared. Talks to free hostages are under way. By MITCHELL LANDSBERG TIMES STAFF WRITER SUVA, Fiji The head of Fiji's military seized power Monday night and established martial law, saying he needed to restore order to a country that seemed to be quickly sliding toward mob rule 10 days after its top government leaders were taken hostage. Commodore Frank Bainimara-ma acted one day after an armed gang went on a rampage through the deserted center of Suva, the usually bustling capital, killing an unarmed police officer and wrecking the headquarters of the national television station. He said he was taking charge reluctantly but gave no indication of when he would be willing to restore civilian rule.

In Castoff Doors, the Makings of Castles For poor Mexican squatters living on the outskirts of Tijuana, garage doors discarded by Californians are building blocks for simple but comfortable houses. By MARIA ELENA FERNANDEZ TIMES STAFF WRITER TIJUANA Federico Fregoso and his wife, Guadalupe Valdovi-nos, have never lived better. For the first time in her life, Valdovinos can cook frijoles on a gas stove and watch novelas on a small black-and-white television. Her husband can boast of owning a home, one he built himself on a hilltop with panoramic views of the golden-brown mountains in the distance. Every day, the two pray thankfully at a simple altar above their bed, where a portrait of the Virgin of Guadalupe hangs next to a cross and a rosary.

They are grateful for all of their blessings but mostly they thank God for their four walls. Or seven doors, depending on which side of the border you live. Hundreds of small houses like theirs, made from wooden garage doors discarded by Southern California homeowners, have sprouted over the last few years on a treeless desert hillside at the eastern edge of Tijuana. Hauled across the border by enterprising middlemen, the doors are the raw materials with which a determined band of squatters, led by women, has turned a settlement of cardboard shacks into a small city known as Maclovio Ro-jas. Over the opposition of government officials and powerful foreign factory owners who also lay claim to the land, they have built homes, markets, churches and schools all out of garage doors.

Forty doors alone went into construction of a cultural center that features a poignant mural depicting the life of a garage door on its journey from California to Mexico. The story of Maclovio Rojas, however, is more than a tale of innovation and persistence. It is a telling illustration, observers say, of the dramatic economic disparities between Southern California and Tijuana. "The idea of pulling off an old wooden door, which is still in good condition, and replacing it with an aluminum one is typical of California," said Michael Schnorr, an art professor at a San Diego County community college who helped build the cultural center and teaches free classes there. "But for the Mexican people, building a garage-door house is like building a Renaissance building of marble.

It speaks volumes about American excesses and the most basic and unmet needs of our neighbors to the south." Fregoso, for one, is well aware that his one-room house wouldn't impress the Southern Californians who threw away the materials Please see DOORS, A14 Breath of Life: About 4,000 people drown every year in the U.S., and the inventor of the Heimlich maneuver thinks he has a better way to save victims. But he also has vehement opponents. A3 Movies and China: For Hollywood, the aftermath of the landmark China trade victory in the House brings the sobering reality that China is a market about as big as Peru and it will take years before it gets better. CI Moby's Hit: Millions of Americans have been exposed in the last year to the evocative music from "Play," an album that marries blues and gospel with electronica and deejay culture. Dl Sites Struggle as They Connect Women to Web By CHARLES PILLER TIMES STAFF WRITER SAN FRANCISCO After watching men colonize cyberspace, in the last two years women have populated it.

In February for the first time, more women than men surfed the Web. Why then is it so difficult to frame a successful online business around women? Ivillage and Women.com the most popular and the only publicly traded companies among such ventures-have seen their stocks go into free fall recently, placing them among Wall Street's basket cases in a fickle dot-com marketplace. Despite having devoted users and a clear focus, these sites and others like them face surprisingly grim prospects, analysts say. The missteps suggest that online women need something they haven't been offered yet and certainly something beyond an electronic spin on a traditional women's magazine. The full-service women's portalsone-stop guides for a female Web experience combine fashion tips, financial guidance and parenting insights with shopping and expert wisdom.

But their active ingredient is a sense of community. Consider Peg Gray, a resident of rural Pittsfield, Maine. Gray, 52, felt isolated as a breast-cancer survivor because support groups were at least an hour's drive away. Last fall, Gray turned to the anonymous Ivillage message boards and online chat groups. "I lurked for a while, reading things that the ladies were saying to each other, and finally mustered enough courage to post something myself," she said.

"The depth of compassion and empathy and the love and concern expressed for others is un-Please see WOMEN, A7 VW By ANN M. SIMMONS and JOHN-THOR DAHLBURG TIMES STAFF WRITERS ASMARA, Eritrea Warplanes bombed a military airstrip on the outskirts of this capital city Monday, taking Ethiopia's 2-week-old offensive deeper into Eritrean territory on the day a new round of peace talks was scheduled to begin. The daylight raid was the first attack on Eritrea's main city since the conflict between the two neighbors in the Horn of Africa flared two years ago. At least two civilians were reported injured. Diplomats and political observers in Asmara, home to about 500,000 people, said Ethiopia's attack threatened to overshadow intensifying peace negotiations and dimmed prospects for lasting stability in the region.

At the same time, fighting continued to rage at the center of Eritrea's front line in the south, as each side pounded the other with shells and mortar fire. Asmara claimed to have repulsed an intense Ethiopian offensive a few miles from the town of Adi Quala about 65 miles south of the capital where dozens of bodies of what were said to be Ethiopian soldiers littered the rocky landscape. In addition, the Ethiopian foreign minister's late arrival Monday for peace negotiations in Algiers forced the talks' postponement until today. U.S. mediators led by special envoy Anthony Lake the former national security advisor and a European Union delegation also were sent to the Algerian capital to take part in the negotiations.

The four Ethiopian MIG-23s that swept over Asmara's international airport, just three miles from the city center, fired rockets and bombed a military airstrip 400 yards to the west. Two Eritrean MIG-29s took off in quick pursuit, and the buzzing of military aircraft could be heard for much of the day. Witnesses said they heard the jets whizzing overhead, along with loud booms, then saw a huge mushroom cloud on the horizon spewing black smoke. Sirens screamed as ambulances and fire engines rushed to the airport. Eritrea's Foreign Affairs Ministry said the bombing failed to damage any military installations, although a guard outpost on the periphery of the runway was demolished.

Western diplomats said their governments were assessing the security situation to determine whether to evacuate their remaining nationals from Eritrea, although most nonessential personnel were ordered to leave when the recent fighting began May 12. Please see AFRICA, A5 Obsession Associated Press President Annette Lu. For Cruise Ship Workers, Voyages Are No Vacations Agence France-Presse Commodore Frank Bainimara-ma, the head of Fiji's military. Government spokesman Evoni Volavola said today that the military had already begun negotiating for the release of the hostages and that they would probably be Please see FIJI, A 1 Below, in the crew quarters, the scene is less festive. As on scores of ships throughout the North American cruise industry, these workers retreat at shift's end to row upon row of small, grim cabins, where they will sleep off another 14-hour day and rise to wonder if they can endure the months ahead without a day off.

While their families and relatives stay behind in Manila or Bali or Bombay, crew members flock to Los Angeles, Miami and other North American ports for the chance to creep up a wage scale Please see CRUISE, A10 White House Race Is Styled by Substance By MARK Z. BARABAK TIMES POLITICAL WRITER- Sift through the sound bites and look beyond the polls and you'll find something striking about this year's presidential campaign: a remarkable amount of substance. Over the past several months and particularly in the last few weeks Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush have disgorged a raft of policy proposals, addressing everything from arms control to education to Medicare and campaign-finance reform.

Soon to come: issues affecting families. No one is likely to mistake the campaign for a graduate course in public policy. There's plenty of superficial sniping and no shortage of diversionary antics from both presumptive nominees to keep the presidential contest from becoming too scholarly. Even so, many political observers say this election has already presented the American public with more serious policy initiatives covering a broader range of issues than any presidential campaign they can recall. "It's a wonkfest," said Marshall Wittman of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank.

"There's a lot of information out there," agreed Brad Rourke, director of the Project on Campaign Conduct, an election watchdog group. "It's not like choosing Coke over The civic-minded may see nothing but goodness in this clash of ideas. But each candidate has tactical reasons for trying to out-wonk the other. For Bush, it is part of a strategy to seize the political center by redefining the Republican approach to various issues including some, Please see CAMPAIGN, A6 INSIDE TODAY'S TIMES DEADLY MISTAKE Lori Gonzalez, the 20-year-old granddaughter of Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks, was shot to death Sunday night as she drove away from a fast-food restaurant.

Police said the attacker apparently targeted a male passenger, who was uninjured. A8 in nmmmmmmmmm tj A Sister's Rise, a Brother's By CHRISTOPHER REYNOLDS and DAN WEIKEL TIMES STAFF WRITERS ABOARD THE CRUISE SHIP ELATION Every Saturday night, as this Carnival ship glides toward its home port of Los Angeles, a thousand passengers holler and applaud when their waiters and busboys parade past them on the Atlantic Deck. Recruited from some of the world's poorest nations, the workers now sport star-spangled vests and raise their accented voices in a rousing rendition of "God Bless America." California News A8 Crossword D8 Editorials A12 Laugh Lines D8 Lottery A9 Morning Briefing B2 Morning Report D2 Obituaries All Perspectives on the TV Listings D8 TV Sports B2 Weather B8 ON THE INTERNET: http:www.latimet.com '85944 11 00050 Taiwan: Vilified by Beijing, new Vice President Annette Lu has a sibling whose attraction to mainland puts them at odds. By CHING-CHING NI TIMES STAFF WRITER TAIPEI, Taiwan At 56, Annette Lu has never married. But she did have a very important man in her life her older brother, Lu Chuan-seng.

He helped her avoid an arranged marriage when she was just 4 years old. And he was her earliest role model on her way to taking office this month as Taiwan's first female vice president. These days, though, the 64-year-old lawyer has little influence on his sister, a feisty feminist and former political prisoner who is both a poster child for women's progress on this island and a misfit in a society still uneasy with unconventional personalities. As new President Chen Shui-bian takes a more centrist position, Annette Lu has been increasingly vilified as the standard-bearer for Taiwanese independence by a hostile mainland that claims Taiwan as an undeniable part of China. Critics on the island have not been much kinder to her, with some pub licly describing her as an egotist and a political 5 Taiwan's Vice Please see TAIWAN.

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