Latest on Iraq
      U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Iraq signed a breakthrough
 deal Monday that allows U.N. arms monitors full access to suspected
 Iraqi weapon sites, including the presidential palaces that have been
 at the heart of the four-month standoff. "We have a good agreement,"
 Annan said shortly before signing the deal. "It was quite difficult
 in the sense the positions have been entrenched so long."
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    Suspicions about airliner disappearance linger 31 years later
 Continued from News-055 (more below)
     Some South Africans have speculated that the plane was blown up
 by a faction in the government to kill passenger J.P. Bruwer, an
 Afrikaner leader who was beginning to doubt the system of white
 rule.
     Bruwer's son, Johan Bruwer, says right-wing factions had reason
 to eliminate his father, acting chairman of the Broederbond, a pow-
 erful group that helped decide Afrikaner government policy.
     Bruwer had publicly said apartheid was racial discrimination,
 and reportedly was considering becoming a roving ambassador, possi-
 bly to establish detente with neighboring black-run governments.
     Cecil Margo, the judge who headed the plane crash probe three
 decades ago, told The Associated Press he had no evidence to support
 an assassination theory. The official report said it was improbable
 the plane crashed because of sabotage.
     Margo, now 82 and retired, said witnesses saw the plane fly into
 the ocean with its lights on, meaning it hadn't experienced a power
 failure. No mayday was transmitted.
     "Heart attack was one cause that could not be excluded," he said
 in a telephone interview. He dismissed reports that wreckage was
 found as "rubbish."
     Helen Brown, whose aunt was aboard the plane, says the response
 from President Nelson Mandela's government to the relatives' concerns
 has been "tremendous."
     A member of the government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission
 attended a recent meeting of the relatives. If the plane was sabo-
 taged for political reasons, it could become a matter for the com-
 mission investigating apartheid-era human rights abuses.
     Ms. Brown hopes the plane will be recovered.
     "For us, it will be a finality," she said. "If we can get the
 remains, we might be able to bury our people. ... And maybe what the
 previous government did can be exposed. I'm not saying I'm certain
 they sabotaged the plane, but if nothing was sinister, why was there
 a coverup?"
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   Last Two Widebody A-300s Grounded - Pan Am Struggles to Survive
      MIAMI, Feb. 20 - Pan American World Airways will lay off about
 225 employees, ground two of the largest planes in its fleet and cut
 back routes as the newly restarted airline struggles to survive. The
 moves are intended to cut costs and allow the carrier to increase
 service on some major routes, David A. Banmiller, Pan Am's president
 and chief executive officer, said Thursday.
                  Some Daily Flights Canceled
    The Miami-based airline will cancel daily flights from New York's
 Kennedy Airport to the Bahamas; Ponce, Puerto Rico; and the Dominican
 Republic. The layoffs will be at the airports where service is being
 cut and at the airline's operations base in Dania, near Fort Lauder-
 dale, Fla.
     The cuts leave 1,250 employees and 44 daily flights nationwide.
 The airline serves Florida, the Northeast, Midwest and Puerto Rico.
 The company pushed up the date for grounding its two widebody A-300
 jetliners to next Wednesday, after previously announcing the jets
 would fly until April 30. Pan Am is still flying Boeing 727s and
 737s.  In addition to the Airbus A-300s, Pan Am's fleet includes
 Boeing 727-200s, 737-400s and 737-200s.
     "An airline of Pan Am's size cannot bear the expense burden of
 operating four different aircraft types," Banmiller said. The air-
 line hopes to add 737-400s and 737-300s to its fleet, he said.
              Layoffs Come Despite Carnival Merger
     Last March, Pan Am merged with Fort Lauderdale-based Carnival
 Airlines. Carnival's billionaire owner Micky Arison contributed $30
 million to become the controlling shareholder, while Pan Am put its
 famous blue-globe logo on Carnival Airlines' larger fleet. The two
 carriers had been competing on routes primarily linking the North-
 east and Florida, but the Pan Am name was considered far more
 marketable.
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