WAR IN BRIEF : NEW YORK : Pan Am to Lift Ban on Iraqi Passengers

Pan American World Airways has decided to lift its controversial policy banning travelers with Iraqi passports from its flights, airline officials said. New York’s human rights commissioner, Dennis deLeon, had threatened to seek an injunction and charge the airline with violations of city human rights laws if it did not retract the policy, instituted last month at the onset of the Gulf War. The policy came to light when an Iraqi refugee filed suit in federal court in Manhattan charging that the airline illegally refused to allow him to fly to Czechoslovakia, where his wife was born.