March 4, 1999

Analysts for years have been predicting demise of Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), but its recent election victories have undermined those arguments; debate over party's past and future dominate Mexico as Pres Ernesto Zedillo and 2,000 party stalwarts prepare to celebrate its 70th anniversary on March 4; party for decades was tool of successive presidents using authoritarian methods to insure one-party rule; over last 20 years, opposition parties have chipped away at monopoly and currently control Congress and 10 of 32 state capitals; dozens of PRI leaders have defected to opposition; PRI has never lost presidency; polls suggest that party can win presidential election next year, but only if it can avoid damaging split; Zedillo says that unlike his predecessors he will not handpick his successor; photo (M)

U.S. Imposes Tariffs And Vows to Ban Concorde The United States escalated two politically contentious trade disputes with Europe, imposing 100 percent tariffs on $520 million in European products and threatening to ban Europe's supersonic pride, the Concorde, from landing in the United States.

Senior US officials say suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden and Taliban, his protectors in Afghanistan, have had violent falling-out, raising possibility that his days of refuge may be numbered; say fight broke out between bin Laden's bodyguards and Taliban officers assigned to watch over him; say bin Laden was expelled from Kandahar; say he was isolated in countryside and stripped of his satellite telephones, which allow him to plot with fellow radicals throughout world; Taliban has shown no sign that it is willing to deliver bin Laden to US; Taliban official says Afghanistan has sent emissary to US asking how to deal with him (M)

US heats up two politically contentious trade disputes with Europe, slapping 100 percent tariffs on $520 million in European products and threatening to ban Concorde from landing in US; tariffs imposed by Clinton Administration on luxury goods are part of six-year battle over trade in bananas; threat to ban Concorde is in bill passed overwhelmingly in House, in retaliation for European ruling that would ban many older American airplanes from landing in Europe; both battles are really about tensions that have erupted between US and Europe newly unified by common currency; Washington and European Union find themselves unable to resolve seemingly ordinary economic disputes, with each accusing other of defying World Trade Organization (M)

Long-distance truckers are now equipped with state-of-art technology that far exceeds what is available in the most expensive sports cars; truckers have access to Global Positioning Systems (GPS) tracking systems, on-board radar and mobile E-mail among other devices that make driving easier and safer; Marilyn Cochrane, driver with 17 years experience, comments on her use of such technology (L)