Tony Harris/AP Ethnic Albanians take part in a rally in London's Trafalgar Square yesterday, where thousands of people gathered to demonstrate against atrocities allegedly committed against ethnic Albanians by Serb forces. Human rights activist Bianca Jagger and actress Vanessa Redgrave were among those who addressed the rally.

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia - Seeking to head off threatened NATO attacks, Yugoslavia's Serb leadership invited foreign experts yesterday to investigate massacres in Kosovo. A survivor supplied chilling new details of alleged atrocities against ethnic Albanian civilians.

The survivor, saying he was left for dead, described to human rights officials how he and a group of other civilian men were beaten, interrogated and then shot, one by one, by Serbian police.

The Serbs, anxious to appear responsive to Western calls for an end to their campaign against ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo, announced the withdrawal of combat forces from battlefields in the southern Serbian province. But ethnic Albanian sources claimed fighting continued along the border with Albania, where separatist guerrillas take sanctuary.

Yugoslavia's foreign minister, Zivadin Jovanovic, invited the International Red Cross and the U.N. refugee agency to send experts to Kosovo to investigate the killings.

The move came as the U.N. Security Council met in New York to condemn the massacres and as the United States prepared for possible NATO air strikes against Serb military positions.

International efforts to end the seven-month conflict gained momentum this week with reports that Serb police massacred dozens of ethnic Albanian civilians southwest of the provincial capital, Pristina. Kosovo is a province of Serbia, the main republic of Yugoslavia.

In the latest allegation, Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch said a wounded Albanian gave a graphically detailed account of how Serbian police beat and shot him and 13 others.

The man, whom Bouckaert did not name for security reasons, said he was the only survivor.

U.S., allies haggle over details of agreed plan

WASHINGTON - Bickering broke out yesterday between the United States and its rich allies even before the ink was dry on their action plan for combating a widening economic crisis that has already pushed a third of the world into recession.

All the wrangling was over a five-page communique the world's seven richest countries - the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Canada and Italy - issued Saturday night. The aim for the document is to serve as a blueprint for discussions in the next five days at the annual meetings of the 182-nation International Monetary Fund and its sister lending agency, the World Bank.

The disagreements underscored that despite a major Clinton administration effort to project unity and calm turbulent markets, the world's economic powers still disagree strongly over just what they should be doing to restore stability.

More than $100 billion in IMF bailout packages have been put together since the start of the Asian crisis. They provided help only after a country's economy was decimated and its resources depleted by investors seeking to flee.

The currency crises started in Thailand 15 months ago, then struck Indonesia and South Korea. In August, similar conditions triggered a disastrous free fall of the Russian economy, and that in turn raised anxieties that Latin America will be next.

Clinton, who has made two major speeches in recent weeks on the global financial crisis, will participate personally Monday in a 22-nation conference on the problem.

Legislative candidate draws fire from activists

SALT LAKE CITY - To Jackie Biskupski, her run for the Utah Legislature is about taxes, crime and growth in the sprawling suburban district she wants to represent.

For almost everyone else, it's about her sexuality.

Biskupski, 32, is the first openly gay candidate to run for Utah's staunchly conservative, overwhelmingly Mormon Legislature. Her candidacy has drawn fire from both the far right, which accuses her of living an ''immoral and illegal lifestyle,'' and some homosexual activists who feel she's turned her back on her own.

''I want to talk about the issues and everybody else wants to talk about this,'' said Biskupski, a Democrat and insurance adjuster who once wanted to be a police officer. ''I'm not trying to hide anything. I just want people to see me as something other than a gay candidate.''

Her Republican opponent, Bryan Irving, talks about ''hidden agendas.'' The conservative Utah Eagle Forum plans a similar campaign in coming weeks.

''Once we found out about it, we helped get the word out she was living a homosexual lifestyle,'' said Eagle Forum president Gayle Ruzicka. ''Why wouldn't we? It is certainly our business when a candidate is committing sodomy and living a blatantly immoral lifestyle.''

The right-wing attacks mirror problems faced by other homosexual candidates around the country. Three lesbians, all Democrats, have won primary races for Congress this year in California, Washington and Wisconsin. A fourth lost in Massachusetts. All were, to one degree or another, targeted by the Christian right.

Ohio HMOs to face future of cut services, mergers

AKRON, Ohio - Ohio's HMO industry is ill and might need some managed care of its own, according to state insurance records.

After losing $59.7 million last year, some experts predict the industry will have to charge higher premiums, cut services or merge with other HMOs to stay in business.

An annual report by the Ohio Hospital Association, based on information from the Ohio Department of Insurance, said only 10 of the 31 HMOs analyzed made money in 1997, and only three earned more than $1 million.

Despite steady gains in enrollment - one in four Ohioans now participates in a managed-care plan - profits have declined since 1994, when HMOs made a $77.7 million profit.

Profits are down because of rising prescription costs, price wars as insurers try to hold onto their share of the market and falling reimbursements from Medicare, the federal program for people 65 and older and the disabled, officials said.

Taft, Voinovich lead respective races in polls

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Republican George Voinovich had a commanding lead over Democrat Mary Boyle in the race for U.S. Senate, according to a Dispatch Poll released Sunday.

The poll also had Republican Bob Taft ahead of Democrat Lee Fisher in the battle for governor.

Voinovich, who has spent the last eight years as governor, was supported by 54 percent of those responding to the mail poll taken between Sept. 25 and Thursday. Mary Boyle had 40 percent and 6 percent did not know, the poll said.

In the race for governor, Taft, Ohio's secretary of state, got half of the vote to 41 percent for Fisher, a former Ohio attorney general. Seven percent did not know, while 1 percent went to Reform Party candidate John Mitchel and another 1 percent to independent Zanna Feitler, the poll said.

In the race to replace U.S. Sen. John Glenn, a four-term Democrat, Voinovich led Boyle in all regions of the state, although the race appeared to be tighter in northeastern Ohio. In that 20-county area, Voinovich had an apparent lead of 50 percent to 46 percent, the poll said.

University Professor panel to discuss OU education

A panel of five professors previously honored with the University Professor Award will meet from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in 203 Baker Center to discuss elements of university education.

The discussion is the kick-off of this year's University Professor Program, which honors outstanding professors and allows them to create and instruct a course of their choice. In addition to talking about their experiences as professors, the panel will discuss the goals and structure of education and emphasize the importance of the UP program.

Professors on the panel are Patricia Weitsman and Julie White, both assistant professors of political science; Arthur Marinelli, professor of law and management systems; Joan Safran, associate professor of education; and Schuyler Cone, assistant professor of human and consumer sciences.