Another American was kidnapped in Beirut. William F. Buckley, first secretary in the political section of the United States Embassy, was forced out of his car at gunpoint as he was leaving for work and was driven off in another car. He was the third American to disappear from West Beirut since Muslim militiamen seized control of that part of the Lebanese capital February 6. Buckley will be murdered by his captors.
The Israeli military command is considering pulling back to a new line in southern Lebanon between the Zaharani and Litani Rivers, the Israeli radio reported today. The station’s military correspondent said the new line would leave in Israeli hands the towns of Nabatiye, Jezzin and Rasheiye as well as the southern flank of towering Jebel Baruk, where the Israelis have early warning facilities. Confirmation by the authorities was unobtainable. The Associated Press quoted a military source as saying that the new line would be about 14 miles closer to Israel, or about 21 miles from its border.
Convoys of Iraqi reinforcements poured into Basra today amid Iraqi reports that its forces had seized the northern end of the oil-rich Majnoon Island and were pressing south. Iran, in a dispatch monitored in London, dismissed the Iraqi reports as a “big lie” and said the Iraqi forces fighting for the island had been crushed Thursday night. Iran captured the Iraqi island, which lies in marshlands north of Basra, three weeks ago. Neither side reported new fighting today along the southern front near the port of Basra at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. An Iraqi military communique issued in Baghdad said 174 Iranians were killed Thursday night in fighting east of Basra, and Iran said more than 65 Iraqi soldiers were killed or wounded on various battlefronts in the last 24 hours.
An unidentified warplane flew over the Sudanese city of Omdurman today and dropped five bombs, and President Gaafar al-Nimeiry accused Libya of having ordered the action. The Sudanese radio said five people were killed and two wounded. Egypt, which has a mutual defense treaty with the Sudan, immediately sent Defense Minister Abdel Halim Abu Ghazala to Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, and pledged to stand by President Nimeiry’s pro-Western government against any further attack. An American diplomat said in a telephone interview from Khartoum, which is across the Nile from Omdurman, that two or three people were killed by the bombing. The bombs were said to have struck the chief government radio, two houses and an administrative building, but the diplomat said the damage was “not considerable.” President Nimeiry has repeatedly accused Libya and Ethiopia of supporting southern Sudanese rebels, and, according to Egypt’s Middle East News Agency, he charged after meeting with the Mr. Abu Ghazala that the raid today proved that Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi, the Libyan leader, was continuing his anti-Sudanese actions.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Warsaw Pact today resumed the negotiations on troop reductions in Central Europe that were suspended last December as part of a Soviet protest over the deployment of American medium-range missiles. The resumption of the talks in a Baroque Hapsburg palace that has housed them for a decade seemed to be a psychological lift for some European nations that are concerned about the deterioration of relations between the United States and the Soviet Union. But diplomats from both sides quickly cautioned against expecting a breakthrough.
At a news conference, Krzysztof Stronczynski, a Polish delegate who spoke for the Warsaw Pact, chastised the NATO side for not having used what he portrayed as an extended break to come up with a fresh position to match an Eastern draft agreement put forward last summer. “We have come to Vienna with full readiness to work in a businesslike atmosphere to achieve long-overdue results in the Vienna talks,” the Polish diplomat said. “We still hope that the West will change its position of hampering our negotiations and will make a constructive response to our proposals.”
The European disarmament conference in Stockholm ended its first session today with a strongly worded attack by the Soviet Union on NATO proposals for reducing the risk of war in Europe. After nine weeks of formal meetings, the 35-nation conference recessed for two months having made little progress but with most delegates insisting that initial contacts had been useful.
An American-Soviet agreement under which the United States and Soviet ambassadors were permitted to travel to and from their respective capitals aboard special flights was suspended by the United States. The agreement, signed in 1982, was suspended after the Soviet Foreign Ministry denied a third request this year by United States Ambassador Arthur A. Hartman for permission to leave Moscow on a special flight to Washington.
The Polish leader, General Wojciech Jaruzelski, said today that the Communist authorities wanted “good relations with the Roman Catholic Church,” but he warned against political activity under church banners. Opening a national conference of Communist Party members, the general, who is Prime Minister and party leader, did not directly mention the confrontation between church and state over the removal of crucifixes from public schools. But he appeared to be trying to defuse the situation by saying: “Neither the state nor the church needs a conflict. It would only suit Poland’s enemies, and would bring our country irreparable losses.”
At the same time, he spoke out against the increasing identification of many in the church with anti-Government activity and the heritage of the outlawed Solidarity union. “Deep distaste,” he said, “is aroused by the courting of the church and the misuse of its prestige by various mysteriously ‘converted’ and morally edified ones who try to turn the temples into rallying places or exhibition halls and to ply politics in churches.” The general said there were priests who “have confused the pulpit with the Radio Free Europe microphone.”
About 20,000 miners in Lancashire, South Derbyshire, the Midlands and Northumberland voted to stay on the job. The industry’s chief executive vowed to press on with the job reductions that touched off the labor strife. The strike began Monday to protest the industry’s announcement last week that 20,000 jobs would be cut in the next 12 months though mine closings. Miners in Yorkshire in northern England, in Kent in the southeast, in Scotland and in South Wales began the strike, vowing to spread the stoppage throughout the industry by the end of this week. Only 21 of Britain’s 174 state-run coal mines were operating normally today. It was not known whether the mines where workers voted against striking would try to resume production.
President Reagan welcomes Prime Minister of Ireland, Garret FitzGerald, to the White House. President Reagan joined Prime Minister Garret FitzGerald of Ireland today in calling for an end to terrorism in Northern Ireland and reconciliation between the British province’s Roman Catholics and Protestants. Mr. Reagan, who is to visit Ireland in June, spoke at a White House luncheon for Mr. FitzGerald after they held talks.
An American photographer for Newsweek magazine was shot and killed in El Salvador today when he was caught in crossfire between government and guerrilla troops about 16 miles north of the capital of San Salvador. The photographer, John Hoagland, a 36-year-old native of San Diego, died moments after being shot once in the back by a large-caliber rifle at about 12:45 P.M., according to a colleague who was with him. It was not known whether he was hit by fire from the guerrillas or the Salvadoran Army. “John was on one knee, just about to go down and dig into the dirt, and he yelled he was hit,” said Robert Nickelsberg, a photographer for Time magazine. “The dirt was coming all over us from the bullets. He fell, and he expired no more than 15 seconds after that.”
Former Finance Minister John Turner, who left the Government of Pierre Elliott Trudeau eight years ago, officially declared his candidacy today for the leadership of the Liberal Party, taking on the role of front-runner among the announced candidates. Even before Mr. Trudeau declared on February 29 that he would step down as Liberal leader and Prime Minister, Mr. Turner, a 54-year-old lawyer and businessman, was being widely described in Canadian newspapers as the Liberal Party’s “heir apparent.” Over the preceding months he had cemented ties with influential politicians, leading many Canadian political commentators to say his selection at the June 14 nominating convention was virtually assured.
On Thursday, as the British-born politician arrived here from his home in Toronto, six members of the Cabinet, representing all factions in the Liberal Party, announced their support. In his statement Mr. Turner singled out the creation of jobs, particularly for unemployed youth, and the reduction of a $30 billion budget deficit as his major policy objectives.
Mozambique and South Africa signed a nonaggression treaty, promising to withhold support for each other’s internal foes. It was the first such pact between South Africa and a black-ruled African country. Both countries are bitter ideological adversaries. The pact was a major diplomatic victory for South Africa in its campaign against the African National Congress, the most prominent of the exiled groups fighting South Africa’s apartheid policies from bases in Mozambique.
Lower levels of military spending were agreed on by President Reagan and Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger, but only after Senate Republican leaders committed themselves to no further cuts, Congressional officials said.
President Reagan speaks with newly appointed Archbishop of New York, Bishop John J. O’Connor.
Edwin Meese 3rd said that critics of his nomination to be Attorney General were making “false and misleading statements.” He said in a statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is conducting his nomination hearings, “I have engaged in no improper conduct,” a reference to his financial affairs, which have dominated the hearings. He urged critics to wait until he can explain his activities when he returns to testify again.
Arrears of $431 million were paid since last May by the Department of Agriculture to American banks on guarantees on loans to four countries — Brazil, Rumania, Peru and Morocco. The loan payments that fell into arrears last year have been rescheduled with payments stretching out five years or more. The loans were guaranteed by the government to stimulate export sales of American farm products. The only country officially reported to have defaulted on such loans is Poland, which owes the government $1.4 billion.
Organized labor in Michigan and Democratic officeholders are working furiously to deliver the first major industrial state to Walter F. Mondale, who is looking to the Democratic caucuses in Michigan and four other states today for a surge to boost his chances of going into the Illinois primary Tuesday.
Senator Gary Hart, in a foreign policy speech that sought to draw the contrasts between himself and Walter F. Mondale, today urged “restraint” in United States relations abroad “rather than intervention, military action and covert operations.” At the same time Mr. Hart, speaking to the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, delivered a blunt and sweeping attack on the Reagan Administration’s foreign policies. “Under two Secretaries of State, three national security advisers and one part-time President, this Administration has antagonized our allies, embittered the third world, deceived on occasion the Congress, excluded the press and convinced the Soviet Union that it can hold no serious dialogue with this country so long as Ronald Reagan is President,” Mr. Hart told his audience at the Americana Congress Hotel.
Meanwhile, Mr. Mondale, campaigning in Rockford, Illinois, in advance of next Tuesday’s Presidential primary in this state, visited a Chrysler plant. He used the occasion to dramatize his support for the Government’s loans to the Chrysler Corporation while pointing out that Mr. Hart opposed those loans. Speaking of Mr. Hart, Mr. Mondale said, “If he had had his way, this plant would be still. These workers would be unemployed. Since Mr. Hart voted against the loan, 570,000 Omnis have been produced.”
John Glenn withdrew from the race for the Democratic Presidential nomination. The Ohio Senator, once regarded as the most serious challenger to Mr. Mondale and the Democrat with the best chance of defeating President Reagan, had failed to place better than a weak second in the first dozen political tests of 1984.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, making a drive through this state on the eve of precinct caucuses Saturday, said today that the Presidential bid of Senator John Glenn of Ohio had suffered from “miscalculations” that the Democratic Party was ready to move toward President Reagan. Mr. Jackson said in addition that Mr. Glenn suffered from a “macho defense policy that didn’t make Americans feel more secure.” Later, Mr. Jackson said of Mr. Glenn’s decision to withdraw, “Mr. Glenn’s parachute hit the ground this morning. His plane crashed two weeks ago.”
A man being returned to stand trial on charges of kidnapping a 12- year-old boy was shot in the head by the youth’s father at the airport here tonight, the police said. The suspect, Jeffery Paul Doucett, 25, was taken to Earl K. Long Hospital where he was being kept alive on life support systems. The gunman, identified by the authorities as Gary Plauche, 39, was arrested and was being questioned.
“The man who pulled the trigger is the father of the kid who was kidnapped,” said Ed Buggs of WBRZ-TV, who was reporting Mr. Doucett’s return from California. Mr. Plauche’s son, Jodie, was kidnapped here February 19 and found unharmed when Mr. Doucett was arrested March 1 in Anaheim. The reporter said an officer escorting Mr. Doucett asked the gunman, “Gary, why did you do it?” “If it were your son, you would have done the same thing,” Mr. Buggs quoted the man as saying.
Hundreds of police in Miami continued to patrol large sections of the some of the city’s predominantly black neighborhoods where demonstrations broke out after an all-white jury acquitted a Hispanic police officer in the shooting death of a young black man in a video game arcade in December 1982. Stone and bottle throwing, garbage dumpster fires and reports of scattered looting erupted late Thursday night after an all-white jury acquitted Luis Alvarez, a 24-year-old Hispanic police officer, of the shooting death of Nevell Johnson Jr., a 20-year-old black youth, in a video games arcade in December 1982. Tentative police and civil defense reports said that 13 people had been injured in Thursday night’s violence, none seriously. Four of the injured were police officers.
The Producer Price Index climbed a moderate four-tenths of 1 percent in February, despite the upward pressure of a sizable increase in food costs and the biggest jump in more than four years in prices for home heating oil, the Labor Department reported today. February’s increase followed a January rise of six-tenths of 1 percent in the department’s Producer Price Index for finished goods. The January rise was the steepest in 14 months. So even though the rate of increase slowed in February, prices so far this year are still running at a pace that would give 1984 the highest inflation in three years. But Government and private economists said the big food and energy price increases had been mostly because of bad winter weather and would fade this spring.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who pleaded guilty in September to possessing heroin, today began two years of probation. Presiding Judge Marshall P. Young of Seventh Circuit Court ordered the 30-year-old Mr. Kennedy to take periodic tests for drug use, treatment, join Narcotics Anonymous and perform 1,500 hours of community service. The son of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy will remain in New York during the probation. If he meets the conditions, the felony conviction will be sealed and his court record legally erased.
If he violates probation, he will face two years in the penitentiary, the judge said. He added that the sentence “has nothing to do with your name or anything else.” Mr. Kennedy was arrested on an airline flight from Minneapolis to Rapid City on September 11, 1983. A search of his flight bag uncovered 183 milligrams of heroin, the authorities said. Two days later he voluntarily entered a drug treatment center in New Jersey.
The New York Mets sign suspended outfielder Jerry Martin as a free agent.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1184.36 (+16.96).
Born:
Lyle Sendlein, NFL center (Arizona Cardinals), in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Levi Brown, NFL tackle (Arizona Cardinals), in Jacksonville, North Carolina.
Brandon Prust, Canadian NHL left wing (Calgary Flames, Phoenix Coyotes, New York Rangers, Montreal Canadiens, Vancouver Canucks), in London, Ontario, Canada.
Harvey García, Venezuelan MLB pitcher (Florida Marlins), in Caracas, Venezuela.
Died:
Roloff Beny, 60, Canadian painter and photographer (“A Time of Gods”), of a heart attack.
History Diaries 