Ariel Da Silva, 36, the first person ever granted political asylum by U.S. authorities because he was fleeing persecution for being gay, died of AIDS last week in a Los Angeles hospital. The native of Mexico, previously known by the pseudonym Jose Garcia, was granted asylum in March after he told U.S. authorities that his life would be in danger because of his homosexuality if he were returned to Mexico. The case marked the first time that the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service acknowledged that a homosexual may belong to a persecuted social group that deserves asylum under the Refugee Act of 1980, his lawyers said at the time. He illegally immigrated to the United States in 1981 and applied for political asylum in October 1993.

Pepito Embil Domingo, 76, an actress and mother of famed opera tenor Placido Domingo, died Sunday of a liver ailment in Mexico City. She was a well-known actress in "zarzuelas," a form of light opera especially popular in Spain.

Louis E. Stahl, 80, father of CBS news correspondent Lesley Stahl, died yesterday of cancer in Salem, Mass. His chemical company, Stahl Finish, was sold to Beatrice Foods in the 1960s.