The U.S. has refused a Beirut appeal, according to Reagan Administration officials and Lebanese informants. They said the Administration had turned down a request from President Amin Gemayel for increased use of American naval and air power in direct support of his government. They said Wadi Haddad, Mr. Gemayel’s national security adviser, met in Washington late last week with White House, State Department and Defense Department officials. He sought an American commitment to come to the aid of the Lebanese Government in case of a major military push by Syrians or Syrian-backed Lebanese across existing military lines near Beirut. Because of the lack of success by Mr. Haddad in his talks here, Mr. Gemayel is resigned to working out a political formula with the Syrians, State Department officials said.
President Amin Gemayel has decided to abrogate the May 17 Israeli-Lebanese withdrawal accord, according to Lebanese Government and opposition informants. He is expected to go to Damascus soon for a meeting with President Hafez al-Assad. Lebanese sources said they expected Mr. Gemayel to go to Damascus for a meeting with President Hafez al-Assad in the next two days. Mr. Gemayel is reported ready to scrap the Israeli- Lebanese agreement signed last May 17, but is seeking some face-saving compromise from Syria such as an offer to remove some of its troops from the Shuf Mountains near Beirut, the Lebanese said. In Beirut, Government and opposition sources gave a similar assessment.
Americans have resumed instructing new Lebanese soldiers for a fighting force loyal of the Government of President Gemayel despite the defeats of the Lebanese Army.
The U.N. Security Council failed again today to vote on a French proposal to establish an international force for Beirut. Diplomats said a vote on a modified proposal was likely Wednesday. A vote on the original proposal was put off Monday. Diplomats leaving the Security Council early this evening, after closed-door informal consultations, said a vote had been delayed by Soviet objections to wording in the French proposal calling on all foreign forces to leave Lebanon. The Russians, whose Syrian allies occupy most of northern and eastern Lebanon, have all along opposed any blanket requirement that all foreign forces leave the country. Thus, various drafts of the original French proposal have dealt with that issue in different ways, some mentioning only Israeli troops in Lebanon by name, others referring to all foreign forces.
Iraq renewed a threat to attack any ship approaching Iran’s main oil exporting terminal. Baghdad also said its troops had driven Iranian forces back from the last position they had captured in Iraq on the southern front. “Iraq’s flag was hoisted at the last fortified position held by the Iranians at the Iraqi village of Al Beidha,” a battle commander said in a message to President Saddam Hussein, according to a broadcast by the Baghdad radio. “All enemy forces have been crushed except for those who surrendered.”
Iran issued no new reports on the fighting on the southern front, where its troops reportedly began an offensive last Wednesday in an effort to cut the highway connecting the oil port of Basra and the capital, Baghdad. Iran dismissed as “imaginary and without foundation” the announcement Iraq made on Monday that its warplanes had struck at oil tankers berthed at Kharg Island. In Washington, officials expressed doubt about the Iraqi claim. But a shipping agency source in Bahrain who monitors movements in the Persian Gulf region said today that the Iraqi attack had taken place. The source said information reaching Bahrain was that some tankers had been hit and that one of them was British. The Iraqi statements on Monday said warplanes attacked tankers at Kharg Island but did not mention damage.
Meanwhile, the Iranian revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, denounced President Reagan for his statement last week reiterating an American vow never to allow the closing of the Strait of Hormuz. The Ayatollah said, according to the Tehran radio, that President Reagan thought, in making such a statement, that “the situation is as it was before” the Iranian revolution toppled Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi. “It is the people of Iran who did not permit you to stay here,” the Iranian leader said, alluding to the closing of the American Embassy in Tehran. He said it was “up to the Iranian people to grant you permission” to keep the strait open. Ayatollah Khomeini said Iran would fight on until President Hussein of Iraq fell. “And neither America nor any other power can keep him in office,” the Ayatollah said.
Afghan guerrillas staged coordinated attacks on the Soviet Embassy and Afghan government buildings in Kabul to mark the fourth anniversary of rebellion against Soviet intervention, Western diplomats in Pakistan said. The rocket, mortar and small-arms attacks last week were the biggest guerrilla offensive in nearly two months, they said. The diplomats also reported serious infighting in the Afghan army’s 17th Division in the western city of Herat.
Strikes paralyzed transportation in London and many other British cities and interrupted other public services as tens of thousands of workers protested a ban on unions at a top-secret intelligence center. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher told lawmakers that the strikes provide further justification for her ban on unions at the Government Communications Headquarters in Cheltenham, west of London. She says the union ban, which takes effect Thursday, is needed to guarantee there is no disruption in the center’s monitoring of worldwide communications, as there was during pay disputes in 1979 and 1981.
A House subcommittee voted to restructure U.S. aid to the Philippines, cutting military aid while increasing economic assistance. The Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Asia endorsed the proposal of Rep. Stephen J. Solarz (D-New York) to cut fiscal 1985 military aid to $25 million from the Administration’s requested $85 million and raise economic aid to $155 million from $95 million. The measure now goes to the full Foreign Affairs Committee.
Foreign ministers of the four Contadora Group countries indicated at the end of a two-day meeting in Panama City that they believe elections this year in Central America can help reduce tension in the troubled region. A communique cited “the democratic processes as tools of internal reconciliation.” Three Central American countries — El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala — have scheduled elections for this year. The Contadora nations, who are seeking a peaceful solution to the area’s problems, are Panama, Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela.
Leftist guerrillas blew up and then machine-gunned two trains north of here Monday evening, killing at least 8 people and wounding 18, the authorities said. Humberto Anderson, an engineer on one of the trains, said eight passengers were killed, including two children, in the simultaneous attacks Monday evening a few miles apart near the Sucio River. Mr. Anderson said the rebels opened up with machine guns and automatic rifles on the two wrecks, starting a 90-minute firefight with about 20 agents of the treasury police guarding the trains. He said one train carried only freight, while the other carried freight and civilians.
Colonel Jaime Flores, head of the Salvadoran Army’s First Brigade, said one of the trains was blown up as it crossed a bridge over a ravine. The train, or parts of it, fell into the ravine and the attackers then opened fired, he said. “Eighteen of the 20 treasury police on board were killed or wounded as well as an unknown number of civilians,” Colonel Flores said. Reporters on the scene saw at least 12 civilians among the wounded.
Argentina’s fledgling civilian government forced an outspoken air force general into retirement, signaling that President Raul Alfonsin plans to fulfill his pledge to subordinate the military to civilian decision-makers. The Defense Ministry announced that Brigadier General Alberto Simari, the air force’s instruction commander, presented his resignation and it was accepted immediately. According to widely publicized military leaks, Simari last week objected strongly to Alfonsin’s plans to restructure the armed forces. including limiting their policy-making powers.
The Argentine Supreme Military Council today ordered former President Leopoldo Galtieri, the general detained on charges of incompetence in the 1982 Falkland Islands war with Britain, held under “rigorous preventive arrest” — a type of detention applied to defendants facing charges punishable by sentences of more than two years in prison. General Galtieri was ordered held at the disposition of the council last week after he had testified on a report by an investigative commission.
Seven British mercenaries captured eight years ago in Angola’s civil war were freed and flown to London, where they were welcomed by families and friends. All had been convicted of fighting for the South African-backed National Union for the Total Independence of Angola and sentenced to terms from 16 to 30 years. Two American soldiers of fortune, Gary Acker, of Sacramento, and Gustavo Grillo, of New Jersey, were freed by Angola in 1982. But four comrades, including Daniel Gearhart, 34, of Kensington, Maryland, were executed in 1976.
Muslim extremists rioted in the eastern Nigerian town of Yola, and at least 60 people were killed, officials said in the capital of Lagos. At least four policemen were reported among those slain. Hospital sources said most of the dead had been hacked with machetes, axes or swords. News reports identified the extremists as followers of the late Muhammadu Maitatsine, who was killed during religious rioting in the northern city of Kano three years ago in which hundreds died.
The acting secretary general of the Organization of African Unity said today that the O.A.U. was nearing “paralysis” because members had failed to pay more than $43 million in contributions. The General Secretariat “lives literally from hand to mouth,” the official, Peter Onu, said. He told the O.A.U.’s Council of Ministers that only 5 of the 51 member nations had fully paid their contributions. Thirty-five have still made no payment for the current year, and an undisclosed number have made none since 1970, he said.
The President and First Lady welcome President of the Republic of Austria and Mrs. Rudolf Kirchschlager to the White House.
Senator Gary Hart of Colorado won the Democratic Presidential primary in New Hampshire in a startling upset over former Vice President Walter F. Mondale. Mr. Hart, a self-described “long shot” who made leaping gains in popularity in the last few days, also finished far ahead of Senator John Glenn of Ohio. Trailing the top three candidates were the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader; George McGovern, the former Senator from South Dakota; Senator Ernest F. Hollings of South Carolina; Senator Alan Cranston of California, and Reubin Askew, the former Governor of Florida. The Vote Tally
With 88 percent of 298 precincts reporting, the vote was: Hart 29,843 (41%), Mondale 20,240 (28%), Glenn 8,702 (12%), McGovern 4,224 (6%), Jackson 3,985 (6%), Hollings 2,647 (4%), Cranston 1,668 (2%), and Askew 809 (1%). President Reagan, with no opposition, rolled to victory in the Republican primary and also won about 5 percent of the vote in the Democratic race as a write-in candidate.
Senator Hart, addressing 300 jubilant backers packed into a sweltering restaurant in Manchester, New Hampshire, said, “New Hampshire voters are cantankerous, independent, make up their own minds and they are also very smart.” Earlier, Senator Hart said that fund raising was the vital goal for the next several weeks in his quest for the Democratic Presidential nomination.
President Reagan meets with actress Shelley Long who will be chairing the administration’s bond sale program.
Most governors rebuffed President Reagan with a resolution asking for higher taxes and lower military spending to curb budget deficits. After a sharp partisan debate at the end of the winter meeting of the National Governors Association, the Democrats prevailed and the governors adopted the resolution by a vote of 28 to 10.
The Administration was upheld by the Supreme Court in its narrow interpretation of a 1972 Federal law that prohibits sex discrimination by schools and colleges that receive Federal aid. The Justices said the law barred sex discrimination only in those departments or programs that receive the aid.
Key proposals to cut the deficit in the Federal budget made by a Presidential commission would save much less money than the panel asserted, according to Congressional auditors. The panel said its nearly 2,500 recommendations would save $424.4 billion over three years, but the Congressional auditors said they could document only $97.9 billion in savings from the major proposals.
A new budget-cutting step was taken by the Senate Finance Committee. The panel approved more than $10 billion in tax increases and about $2 billion in spending reductions, both over three years.
The Senate voted to prohibit the export of nuclear technology and sensitive materials to countries that have not agreed to safeguards intended to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. The Senate adopted by voice vote an amendment that would prohibit export of such material to nations that have not signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, which includes such safeguards as international inspection of nuclear plants to assure that materials are not diverted to weapons. Earlier, the Senate defeated 55 to 38 an alternative offered by the Reagan Administration that would have allowed more discretion in nuclear exports.
The Environmental Protection Agency is considering a ban on leaded gasoline in light of mounting evidence of its danger and recent surveys showing that nearly one-fifth of U.S. motorists improperly fuel their cars with leaded gasoline. EPA Administrator William D. Ruckelshaus said that the benefits of banning lead would outweigh the economic effects of such a rule. About 120 million pounds of lead are discharged annually into the air nationwide, most of it from vehicle exhaust.
A jetliner skidded off the end of a rain-slicked runway in landing at Kennedy International Airport in light fog and came to a halt with its nose in a marshy channel off Jamaica Bay. Officials said there were no major injuries among the 163 passengers and 14 crew members aboard the Scandinavian Airlines Systems’ DC-10, though eight passengers were treated for exposure.
Saying that “everybody who was in there was guilty,” a young woman in a Fall River, Massachusetts, courtroom in morning testimony identified two men she said took turns raping her on a pool table while others in a barroom cheered. The 22-year-old woman, who spent her third day on the witness stand, said two men who took turns raping her on March 6, 1983, were being tried in an afternoon trial. Daniel Silvia and Joseph Vieira, both 27, are being tried on charges of aggravated rape in the afternoon session. Four other men, Victor Raposo, John Cordeiro, Virgilio Medeiros and Jose Medeiros are being tried in a morning session.
Police said that after the spring thaw they will search for the graves of 13 long-missing Anchorage dancers and prostitutes, using a map kept by convicted killer Robert Hansen, 44, sentenced to life plus 461 years in four similar slayings. Hansen was sentenced Monday after he confessed to killing four women and burying their bodies in the Alaskan wilderness.
The Michigan state Court of Appeals blocked the “chemical castration” sentence of a pharmaceutical company heir who pleaded no contest to a sex charge involving his 14-year-old stepdaughter. Roger A. Gauntlett, 42-year-old heir to the Upjohn Co. fortune, was to have started treatments today with the Upjohn drug Depo-Provera, a synthetic hormone. The treatments were a provision of a sentence imposed after Gauntlett pleaded no contest to first-degree criminal sexual conduct. The appeals court blocked the drug treatment, but said the other probation conditions, including a one-year jail term, would remain in effect while it considers the case.
A plea bargain on Three Mile Island was proposed by the Metropolitan Edison Company. It offered to plead guilty to one charge of violating testing requirements at the now-crippled Pennsylvania nuclear plant. The utility also offered not to contest six other charges, generally involving falsification by employees of data on cooling system tests, and to pay $1 million for area emergency planning. A Federal District judge’s decision on the offer is expected to be announced today.
The former operator of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant pleaded guilty in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to one count of falsifying records, was fined $45,000 and pleaded no contest to six other charges. It was the first criminal case of its kind. U.S. District Judge Sylvia Rambo delayed until today whether to accept the plea bargain and the no-contest pleas. The charges stemmed from a grand jury indictment in November that alleged that the utility falsified and covered up key leak rate records at Three Mile Island before the accident at its Unit 2 reactor in March, 1979, the worst in U.S. commercial nuclear history.
Haitian refugees seeking asylum in the United States have no constitutional right to challenge immigration decisions, a federal appeals court said in reversing a lower court. However, “The courts do have authority to review the decision of executive officials in the immigration area to ensure” they have followed regulations, the 12 judges of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in Atlanta.
A state holiday commemorating the birth of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has been approved by the Virginia Legislature, ending a struggle of nearly a decade. The bill, approved Monday by the House of Delegates in a 67-to-27 vote, moved the holiday from New Year’s Day to the third Monday in January, closer to Dr. King’s January 15 birthday and the Federal holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader. The bill goes to Governor Charles S. Robb, who has promised to sign it. Under the bill, Dr. King’s birthday would be celebrated on the same day that Virginians honor the memories of two Confederate generals, Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson.
A major storm gave the Middle West its heaviest snows of the winter and moved into parts of the Northeast at near-blizzard strength, crippling many cities. A storm coming from the Rocky Mountains Tuesday gave the Middle West its heaviest snowfall of the winter and moved into the Northeast at close to blizzard strength, crippling many cities with six- foot drifts. At least 29 people were killed in the storm that dropped up to three feet of snow in Colorado and Utah over the weekend and then moved eastward, leaving almost two feet of snow in parts of Missouri and well over a foot in much of the Middle West. Governor Richard F. Celeste of Ohio declared a statewide emergency Tuesday and offered local authorities the help of National Guard troops, as the governors of states to the west had done earlier.
British satirical puppet show “Spitting Image” premieres on ITV.
26th Grammy Awards: Michael Jackson wins 8 Grammys.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1157.14 (-22.82).
Born:
Karolína Kurková, Czech supermodel, born in Děčín, Czechoslovakia.
Quincy Black, NFL linebacker (Tampa Bay Buccaneers), in Chicago, Illinois.
Manase Tonga, NFL fullback (Oakland Raiders), in San Mateo, California.
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