May 23, 1992

An ambitious program to rebuild Kennedy International Airport as the nation's premier international gateway into the next century ended up wasting at least $100 million before it was scrapped, the head of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey acknowledged yesterday. The plan, which was intended to ready the airport for half again as many passengers and which had at its center a $1 billion glass-domed central terminal building the size of Shea Stadium, was excessively optimistic and based on questionable assumptions, the head of the authority, Stanley Brezenoff, said in a report sent to Gov. Mario M. Cuomo.

After nearly two weeks of intense and often acrimonious negotiations, 98 countries adopted a treaty today on preserving the world's plant, animal and microbial species. But it was not immediately clear if the United States, Japan and other industrialized countries would sign it. The treaty is one of two binding agreements that will be presented for signing at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro next month.

The Bush Administration, trying to take the initiative after weeks of apparent inaction in the face of Serbian aggression in Bosnia, today announced new sanctions against Belgrade. The measures, while limited, put the United States ahead of Europe in efforts to deter the Serbian leadership of Yugoslavia. The Administration ordered Yugoslav consulates in New York and San Francisco closed and their diplomats expelled. The Government also expelled Belgrade's military attaches in Washington, Secretary of State James A. Baker 3d announced here tonight. The third consulate, in Chicago, will remain open.

Thai Premier Abandoned The coalition that appointed Thailand's unpopular Prime Minister effectively asked him to resign. Page 3. Violence in Delivery Dispute A replacement driver in the newspaper delivery dispute has been critically injured, the police said. Page 25. Audit Stymied at Columbia Records detailing more than $60 million in Federal research at Columbia have been destroyed. Page 25.

Ignoring concern being voiced in Washington and London that they may be undermining NATO, the leaders of France and Germany today approved formation of a 35,000-member joint army corps with the aim of turning it into the nucleus of a future European army. Meeting in the western French port of La Rochelle, President Francois Mitterrand and Chancellor Helmut Kohl said the so-called European Corps would become operational on Oct. 1, 1995, and would have European defense, peacekeeping outside Europe and humanitarian actions as its main missions. They argued that it would help give the European Community its "own military capability."