June 25, 1983

Syria expelled Yasir Arafat today, one day after the guerrilla leader accused President Hafez al-Assad of orchestrating the anti-Arafat rebellion among Palestine Liberation Organization troops in Lebanon. A statement by the official Syrian press agency said, ''Because of Arafat's continued slanders against Syria and its sacrifices, and its positions of principle, he was informed today of Syria's desire for him not to continue coming to its territory.'' The statement was issued several hours after Mr. Arafat was escorted to the Damascus airport by Syrian security officials in six cars and put aboard a regularly scheduled Air Tunisia flight for Tunis. Given 3 Hours to Leave Syrian officials said the expulsion order was written by the Syrian Army Chief of Staff, Maj. Gen. Hikmat Shehabi, who had it delivered to Mr. Arafat's Damascus office at 11 A.M. According to the officials, the letter gave Mr. Arafat three hours to get out of the country, ''otherwise we will make sure you leave ourselves.''

Finally, a chance to get even. Ridiculed and rarely praised, New Jersey put itself on display here this week. In a bit of unabashed hyperbole, Governor Kean bragged that the state had the ''best tomatoes in the world.'' State officials spent $60,000 re-creating the Atlantic City Boardwalk. And squads of eager agricultural students tended hundreds of potted fruits and vegetables - all in the name of the Garden State. And who could blame them. The Smithsonian Institution had invited New Jersey to be the featured state in this year's Festival of American Folklife. It was a chance to give an expected crowd of one million to two million people a positive image of a much-maligned state. And excesses aside, the $410,000 exhibit seemed to do just that - and more.

The following article is based on reporting by Raymond Bonner and George Volsky and was written by Mr. Bonner. On the redwood deck between the swimming pool and Biscayne Bay, Alberto Duque Rodriguez last month played host to the Mayor of Miami, one of Vice President Bush's sons, and some of Miami's most prominent bankers and lawyers. In deference to the Arab bankers who were the guests of honor, the 33-year-old host invited no women to the lavish dinner. The May 3 party was the most recent sign that Mr. Duque, who came to Miami only six years ago, had made it into the highest reaches of the city's financial and political circles. But only a few days after the dinner, Mr. Duque's high living came to an abrupt halt. His financial empire collapsed, leaving debts of more than $100 million, widespread allegations of fraud, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation sifting through the financial rubble.

Dioxin has rapidly become the most feared of all toxic chemicals in this country, but now there is an emerging argument over whether the fear has outstripped the hazard. President Reagan became the latest to join the fray when he suggested Thursday that news reports about dioxin ''have frightened a good number of people unnecessarily.'' He was reacting to a resolution approved Wednesday by the American Medical Association that condemned the news media for conducting a ''witch hunt,'' generating ''unjustified public fright'' and ''hysteria.'' Two scientific publications have also editorialized recently that dioxin is less worrisome than popularly thought. Science, the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, said dioxin is highly toxic when swallowed but when bound to soil, as is the case in most sites where it is found, ''it does not pose much of a hazard.'' Chemical & Engineering News, a publication of the American Chemical Society, said it was ''fair to say that dioxin is far less toxic to humans than the public has been led to believe.''

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously today that the Reagan Administration had improperly revoked a Federal requirement that new cars be equipped with airbags or automatic seat belts. The decision was a major and unexpected blow to the Administration's deregulation program. Withdrawal of the airbag rule in October 1981 was a cornerstone of that policy. Today's ruling that the action was ''arbitrary and capricious'' was therefore important both in substance and as a symbol. The rule, which was under study for 10 years before the Carter Administration issued it in 1977, was to have gone into effect this September. The Court suspended that deadline indefinitely today to give the Administration time to reopen the administrative record in the case. The ruling ordered the Department of Transportation either to carry out the requirement or to provide a precise justification of its refusal to do so.