March 26, 1994

Rates Hit a 10-Month High And Stocks Drop Sharply Long-term interest rates jumped to their highest levels in 10 months while stock prices fell sharply, capping a decline that has wiped out nearly all of the stock market's gains so far this year. Page 37. India Bars Narrow Arms Pact India told the United States it would not accept a halt to nuclear arms production if such a deal was limited to India and Pakistan. Page 3. Schools Lose Private Funds A poor Bronx school district, a model for corporate involvement, lost private support after a court upheld the superintendent's removal. Page 21. UConn Out; B.C. Moves On Florida beat Connecticut and Boston College upset Indiana in the N.C.A.A. basketball tournament to advance to the East Regional final. Page 29.

As they were bounced from line to line in a bureaucratic blur of forms and interviews, hundreds of residents left homeless by a thunderous gas explosion and fire here learned today that it would not be easy to piece together their lives without the conveniences most people take for granted. Waiting this morning to speak to an insurance adjuster for the first time, Danielle Rhodes glanced at a crumpled list that she had begun jotting after her home at the Durham Woods apartments was destroyed late Wednesday night. Occasionally she sighed and, like others waiting at the disaster relief center in Edison High School, added new items to her plans for the day:

A majority of Western industrialized nations agreed in Geneva to stop exporting hazardous wastes to developing lands, Eastern Europe and former Soviet republics. But the United States dissented, and the bulk of such exports -- material destined for "recycling" -- would be exempt till 1998. Article, page 3.

There was no official flag-lowering today, just a brief handshake between an American Marine officer and an Egyptian captain at the airport. Then, shortly before noon, after a dozen Marine helicopters lifted off in a blizzard of sand, the remaining amphibious vehicles were driven single file into the ocean to waiting ships, and the American expedition in Somalia came to a close. With the 1,100 marines went the frustrations and contradictions of a mission that the Government called Operation Restore Hope, which for a time lived up to its name. When the first American troops waded ashore into the glare of television lights 15 months ago, they carried with them the hopes of a world appalled by anarchy and famine. Initially they succeeded in restoring order and helping to end the widespread starvation brought on by civil war. On that first day, Dec. 9, 1992, troops were greeted by cheering Somali crowds. Scavenging What Remains Today there were none. Instead, there was scavenging and even looting at the American camps even as troops were packing. Men, women and children sifted through mounds of garbage and searched empty huts, carrying away brooms, mattresses, prepackaged military meals.

A prolonged effort by union leaders at United Airlines to gain control of the airline cleared all but the last hurdle yesterday, setting the stage for a shareholder vote this summer on the $5 billion proposal, which would create the nation's largest employee-owned company. Despite the prosaic nature of yesterday's news -- the company and the machinists' and pilots' unions signed the final paperwork -- the agreement is significant because it resolved a laundry list of sticking points that had emerged in recent weeks and appeared to seriously threaten the deal.