Withdrawal of the U.S. Marines from Beirut was completed, 17 months after they were sent to Lebanon. The bunkers they had occupied around the airport were immediately taken over by Shiite Muslim militiamen and rebel Lebanese Army units. Soon after the last marine had left, two American warships fired on Syrian gun positions in the hills. The Italian and British contingents in the multinational force have also left, leaving only the 1,250-man French unit in Beirut. The French are apparently waiting for a United Nations force to replace it.
Fighting worsened in Beirut between Muslim militiamen and Lebanese Army soldiers along the green line dividing Christian and Muslim parts of the capital. Residential neighborhoods on both sides of the boundary were shelled.
The rules of engagement for American forces in Lebanon limit naval gunfire and air strikes to firing back after hostile fire had been aimed at Americans, Pentagon spokesmen said. But they acknowledged that the source of almost any fire into Beirut from Syrian forces or from areas controlled by Syrian allies in Lebanon would be subject to attack from United States ships and planes. Circumstances under which gunfire and air strikes could be used by the United States fleet of about 25 warships off Lebanon have been intensely debated in Washington.
Yasser Arafat and King Hussein of Jordan met in Amman for talks that were expected to focus on coordinating their approach to the Middle East peace process.
Voters in Spanish elections let the moderate Basque National Party keep its hold on the regional Parliament, but did not give it the clear majority that would allow it to rule unchallenged. The Socialist Party, which controls the central Government in Madrid, did better than expected, consolidating its position as the second party in the three northern provinces.
Former Solidarity leader Lech Walesa said in Warsaw that the banned trade union’s underground will no longer call for strikes or demonstrations to protest the policies of Poland’s Communist regime. He said such actions have been unsuccessful, but he insisted in remarks to Western reporters that the “peaceful, hard-working operation of the union will continue.” He said the underground is working to develop long-range plans “which will be used when the opportunity arises.” Walesa also called for the release of political prisoners, reported by Solidarity’s underground radio to number about 300.
“We must strive peacefully for the release of the prisoners,” Mr. Walesa said as he left the Church of St. James in Warsaw. He had attended the christening of his godson Andrzej Tomasz Celinski, son of his former deputy, Andrzej Celinski. Mr. Walesa, the 40-year-old founder of Solidarity, won the Nobel Peace Prize last year. In addition to making his call for the release of some 200 political prisoners, Mr. Walesa said he and his advisers were drafting position papers dealing with Poland’s crippled economy and the Government’s faltering efforts to remedy it. “Our plans and their implementation will not be spectacular,” Mr. Walesa said as he left the ceremony. “I am against creating disorder. We should continue to work calmly and resolutely. Those striving for disorder will be disappointed, but I cannot proceed otherwise.”
Truck drivers from six West European nations blockading the Brenner Pass between Austria and Italy have decided to continue indefinitely a protest against Italian customs procedures, a spokesman said. He added that the truckers’ committee has demanded that Italian customs officials be replaced within four days by Finance Ministry personnel, who are not allowed to strike. A slowdown by Italian customs officials sparked a massive truckers’ protest in France last week. The customs slowdown was lifted last week, but the protest has continued at the Brenner Pass.
Swiss voters upheld the national draft today, a firmly anchored tradition that all able- bodied men must be ready to take up arms in defense of their Alpine homeland. They rejected by an overwhelming majority a proposed amendment to the federal Constitution that would have introduced a civilian national service as a substitute for objectors to the now compulsory service in the country’s army of militiamen. The vote was 1,360,960 to 770,891, with a 52 percent voter turnout. The proposal was initiated by mostly left-wing and human rights groups who collected the necessary 100,000 signatures of registered voters to have it submitted to a national referendum.
Police barricaded streets around India’s Parliament, and a full military alert was called as a general strike began in New Delhi to protest violence in northern Punjab state between Hindus and Sikhs agitating for greater autonomy. A Hindu party called the one-day strike. which closed most schools in New Delhi and stopped a number of city buses when strikers deflated their tires. Meanwhile in Punjab, three Hindu households were sprayed with machine-gun fire, killing five people and raising the death toll to 83 in 13 days of violence.
The Philippine opposition party of slain leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr. voted to take part in May elections, regarded as the first electoral challenge to the regime of President Ferdinand E. Marcos since Aquino’s assassination last August. A resolution at the end of a two-day conference of the Democratic Party Lakas Ng Laban coalition vowed to “campaign against the Marcos dictatorship on all fronts, through all peaceful means and through all types of political activities.”
The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s self-exiled god-king, said today that China has built a Bamboo Curtain on its border and an Iron Curtain in its mind to keep out good ideas. Although he hopes to visit his Chinese-controlled homeland this year, he said he has ruled out a permanent return because he can help his people more in exile. The Chinese seized Tibet in 1950. The Dalai Lama and his followers fled to India in 1959 after an abortive revolt. The Chinese have been urging the Buddhist leader to visit or return in order to legitimize their control over Tibet and help restrain continuing Tibetan opposition to Chinese domination.
The death toll rose to 81 in a gasoline pipeline fire that raced through a Brazilian shantytown. near the industrial city of Cubatao, southeast of Sao Paulo, a spokesman for the mayor’s office reported. The 11 new deaths included three victims whose remains were found in the rubble as well as people who died of burns in the hospital. The number of those injured is now estimated at 150 to 200, of whom 27 are hospitalized in critical condition, the municipal spokesman said.
South Africa and Angola, with American help, agreed to begin monitoring a 10-day-old cease-fire in southern Angola on Thursday. A U.S. official attached to a four-man American liaison team in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia (South-West Africa) said a South African-Angolan truce meeting was “successful in terms of beginning to make the agreement work.” The U.S. team will be “one of the channels of communication” between the black, Marxist government of Angola and Pretoria’s white authorities in preventing guerrilla troop movements in border territory vacated by South Africa, he said.
Foreign Minister Roelof F. Botha said tonight that South Africa had expressed “extreme concern” to the Angolan Government that black guerrilla activity was endangering a three-week- old cease-fire. Mr. Botha said a joint South African-Angolan monitoring commission met Saturday in Cuvelai, a war-battered town in southern Angola, to discuss Pretoria’s complaint. Angolan representatives at the meeting said they shared South Africa’s concern and would consider ways to solve the problem, he added. South Africa and Angola agreed 10 days ago in Lusaka to a cease-fire in the border region, the site of a 17-year- long bush war. Officials said that in return for South Africa’s military pullback, begun nearly two weeks earlier, Angola agreed to curtail activity by the South-West Africa People’s Organizations, known as SWAPO.
President Reagan is unlikely to seek to negotiate a comprehensive ban on anti-satellite weapons with the Soviet Union because an interagency study has concluded that it would be impossible to verify such an accord, according to Administration officials. “We want to negotiate in good faith,” an official said, but he posed the question, “How do we do that when it can’t be verified?” the Washington Post reported. The official said that the senior arms control policy group in the White House is still grappling with the problem and that a decision is expected soon. The legislative language forcing the discussions calls for the President to “endeavor in good faith to negotiate a mutual and verifiable ban on anti-satellite weapons.” the newspaper said.
Reverend Jesse Jackson acknowledges that he called New York City “Hymietown.” The Rev. Jesse Jackson acknowledged tonight that he had used the word “Hymie” in a private conversation to refer to Jews. Appearing at a synagogue here, Mr. Jackson, who is seeking the Democratic Presidential nomination, sought to put to rest a controversy that has dogged his campaign in New Hampshire for more than a week. “It was not done in the spirit of meanness,” he told an overflow crowd in the synagogue, Temple Adath Yershurun. “However innocent and unintended, it was wrong.” The word was attributed to him in a recent article in The Washington Post, which also said he referred to New York City as “Hymietown.” Mr. Jackson had previously said he could not recall having used the terms.
The battle for political position in the first Democratic Presidential primary of 1984 heightened as Senator Gary Hart predicted that he would defeat Senator John Glenn for second place in New Hampshire. Mr. Glenn said he thought he could hold onto second-place, a showing that his advisers regard as essential if his campaign is to continue.
The President and First Lady host a dinner in honor of the Governors of the States and Territories.
The executive committee of the National Governors Association called upon the Administration today to increase taxes and avoid linking income taxes to inflation to help reduce the projected deficit by more than half. The governors’ panel also urged a reduction in spending, a freeze on cost-of-living increases for Federal employees and a cutback in military spending. The actions were adopted by the association’s nine-member executive committee, and will be submitted to the full membership Tuesday.
The resolution was approved despite a speech earlier today by Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger, who argued that the military budget reflected the Administration’s assessment of national security needs. Mr. Weinberger said the military budget was not a factor in the high deficits and predicted that military spending could decline in a couple of years, once “modernization” had been achieved.
A senior U.S. Information Agency official ordered the disposal of internal documents relating to a “blacklist” of outside speakers within days after a reporter first inquired about the list late last month. USIA General Counsel Thomas Harvey said that he had directed subordinates to throw out all copies. Harvey said that he had not reviewed the documents, was not aware that they contained comments by officials and believed, in retrospect, that the papers should have been retained.
Three Justice Department prosecutors sharply criticized by a federal judge have asked an appeals court to block publication of his ruling, which already has survived one attempt to suppress it. The three are Thomas D. Blondin, Jared J. Scharf and Steven L. Snyder. Federal Judge Fred Winner’s opinion granted a new trial to Littleton, Colorado, businessman William Kilpatrick on obstruction of justice charges and criticized the three prosecutors for “repeated excesses” in their handling of the case.
The number of criminal actions filed against drug violators jumped by more than 35% between 1980 and 1982. a Justice Department report said. But the report noted that persons convicted of violating federal drug laws are, on the average, sentenced to less than half the prison time that bank robbers receive. The report, the first to study Justice Department statistics on drug law violations, said the number of federal actions against drug violators in federal courts decreased from 7,819 in 1978 to 6,678 in 1980. However, it increased sharply in 1981 to 8.149 and to 9,085 in 1982.
The official search for Japanese adventurer Naomi Uemura has been called off in Anchorage, Alaska, in the belief that the man who made the first solo winter climb of Mt. McKinley is dead and buried under the snows. “In my opinion, it is almost conclusive he is dead,” said veteran U.S. climber Jim Wickwire. who helped lead a six-day search for Uemura.
American and foreign firms illegally exported millions of dollars’ worth of computer technology to the Soviet Union via bridges linking New York state and Canada, a Customs Service official said in Washington. “We’re talking about a case that is pre-indictment so we’re severely limited in what we can say,” said Roger Urbanski, head of the U.S. Customs technology investigation branch in Washington. He said the case involves several U.S. and foreign firms and several million dollars’ worth of “controlled commodities… whose uses in the Soviet Union are presumed to be primarily military.”
Two Conrail trains collided in Pennsylvania, derailed and caught fire today, injuring at least two railroad workmen and causing an evacuation of nearby residents as a precaution. About 50 residents of the village of White Station, half a mile from the scene, and an unspecified number of residents from neighboring Tunnelton were evacuated shortly after the collision, the authorities said. The evacuation was ordered because authorities were uncertain about the contents of cars that caught fire. “We haven’t been able to determine whether there was hazardous material on the train,” said a Conrail spokesman.
State legislatures’ efforts to control health-care costs were greater in 1983 than in other recent years, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The organization said that legislatures enacted more than 300 health-care cost containment laws last year and are considering 400 others this year.
Problems in building nuclear plants are often exacerbated by the industry itself, the utilities and their critics increasingly agree. They say many of the worst problems are caused by poor management and lax quality control. Utilities say they are hampered as well by excessive and unpredictable government regulations and the antinuclear movement.
New attention on the Black Muslims and on a split in their movement has followed the political ascendancy of the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Louis Farrakhan, a leader of one of the two factions within the movement, supports Mr. Jackson’s Presidential ambitions and has urged his followers, who were discouraged from any political activity, to vote.
A blustery storm that dropped up to three feet of snow on southern Colorado’s mountains battered eastern Texas and the lower Mississippi Valley with waves of heavy thunderstorms. Northern Texas had a highway-blocking blizzard. The storm spawned seven tornadoes that struck near Victoria and Brokeland in southern Texas, but property damage was described as minor. Snow, driven by winds averaging more than 40 m.p.h. and gusting to 72 m.p.h., reduced visibility in the Texas Panhandle to near zero. The wind also knocked down power lines throughout the area. Texas Highways 287 and 87 in and north of Amarillo were closed by drifting snow and stranded vehicles.
Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Penn Warren is named the first US poet laureate.
Born:
P.J. Pope, NFL running back (Green Bay Packers, Denver Broncos), in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Natalia Lafourcade, Mexican singer, in Mexico City, Mexico.
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