February 23, 1991

As the Soviet Union pressed ahead with its attempt to broker peace in the Persian Gulf, President Bush today gave President Saddam Hussein of Iraq what he said was the alliance's final demand: Start withdrawing from Kuwait by noon on Saturday or face a huge ground attack. Administration officials said the ultimatum was based on an assessment that Mr. Bush should move swiftly to dictate terms of a withdrawal to Iraq now that five weeks of bombing have brought Baghdad to the point where it has agreed to a Soviet proposal for a pullout and is trying to negotiate the terms.

A County's Changing Face Along bustling Bergenline Avenue in Hudson County, N.J., Cubans once dominated the scene. Now Chileans, Colombians, Ecuadoreans and other groups of Hispanic origin have taken control of much of this area. Page 27 Gooden and Mets End Talks As the Mets opened camp, Dwight Gooden broke off talks with the team on a contract extension and insisted that he would become a free agent after the season. Page 43.

By ordering Saddam Hussein to begin getting out of Kuwait at high noon on Saturday, President Bush moved decisively to take control of the war's endgame. With the Iraqi leader facing military defeat, Mr. Bush decided that he would rather gamble on a violent and potentially unpopular ground war than risk the alternative: an imperfect settlement hammered out by the Soviets and Iraqis that world opinion might accept as tolerable.

A decade ago this suburb on the outskirts of Dallas was like other bedroom communities that sent their commuters down the freeways every morning. But in the 1980's Plano grew big and rich through a new form of urban development that is transforming the nation's economic geography. Now, at every rush hour there is traffic in both directions as commuters drive to and from Plano for jobs in office buildings, factories and warehouses that sprang up in the 1980's alongside the housing subdivisions and shopping malls.

In setting a seven-day limit for the withdrawal of Iraqi troops from Kuwait, the Bush Administration is seeking to deliver a decisive political blow to Baghdad while diminishing the Iraqi Army's war-fighting abilities, diplomats and American officials say. The hasty withdrawal of Iraqi forces would be a humiliating defeat for Baghdad, which could even lead to the downfall of President Saddam Hussein, the allied officials say. The short timetable is also intended to compel Mr. Hussein's forces to leave much of their equipment and supplies behind in Kuwait.