President Reagan has decided to send at least one AWACS surveillance aircraft to Egypt, Administration sources said, because of Friday’s bombing attack on Sudan. The U.S. dispatched two AWACS to Egypt to bolster air defenses in the Sudan against a repetition of last Friday’s air raid on the city of Omdurman. Administration officials said the dispatch of the surveillance planes, which was carried out in secrecy, was authorized by President Reagan after a joint request was received from the Egyptians and the Sudanese, who have a defense treaty. American officials said that Friday’s attack was carried out by Libya.
Administration officials said they have no doubt that it was a Libyan air force TU-22 that bombed Omdurman, a city of 300,000 across the Nile from Khartoum. The U.S. airborne warning and control system planes, which can conduct radar surveillance across a 200-mile range, are to aid the Egyptian air force in defending Sudan. Cairo has sent troops to its southern neighbor. with which it has a joint defense treaty. AWACS jets were sent to the region twice last year, in response to Libyan threats against Sudan and Chad.
Muslim militiamen and loyalist Lebanese Army soldiers exchanged machine-gun, rocket, and mortar fire today along the Green Line dividing Muslim and Christian parts of Beirut. The fighting was heavy at times, and residents and partisan radio stations reported that civilian areas were shelled in both East and West Beirut. At least 15 civilians were killed and as many as 40 wounded in weekend fighting, the police said.
In southern Lebanon, Israeli troops occupying the area below the Awali River were attacked in two incidents. In Sidon, a roadside bomb exploded near an Israeli patrol. The Israeli military command said one soldier was wounded, but witnesses speaking on the Beirut state radio said four soldiers had been hurt, three of them only slightly. A bomb also exploded near the town of Nabatiye. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Kidnapping Investigation
An American Embassy spokesman, Maj. Robert McLean, said no new information had been turned up in the kidnapping Friday of an American diplomat, William F. Buckley. But one American official said that he was believed to be alive. Lebanese security sources and American officials discounted a Christian Phalangist radio report that the kidnappers had been identified.
Iran again accused Iraq of using lethal gas and germ warfare on the southern battlefront in the lengthy Persian Gulf war. Tehran’s official news agency said 460 Iranian soldiers on the Kheibar front, near the Iraqi port of Basra, were injured by “microbic and nerve bombs” and more than 200 “are suffering from nervous spasm due to being exposed to the nerve bombs.” Iraqi officials denied the Iranian report and said that Iraqi helicopter gunships killed 119 Iranian troops east of Basra.
Poland’s Communist Party ended a national conference with an endorsement of the 20-month period of martial law rule, saying it “prevented civil war, put an end to the anarchization of social life and the destruction of the economy, guaranteeing security for citizens of the socialist state.” Martial law, which was lifted last July, was imposed in December, 1981, to suppress the Solidarity trade union movement. The conference acknowledged that economic difficulties remain but said reforms adopted during martial law are starting to yield results.
The British government sent thousands of police reinforcements to coal mines to prevent renewed violence among the nation’s 175,000 miners, who have split over whether to take part in a widespread, week-old strike. Last week, one miner was killed in clashes in Nottinghamshire, 100 miles north of London. Miners there voted overwhelmingly against joining the nationwide walkout, which began March 12 in protest against a government move to close 20 unprofitable mines that would result in a loss of 20,000 jobs.
Greece has swung sharply to the left under Andreas Papandreou and his Socialist party that came to power in 1981, upsetting 40 years of almost continuous right-wing domination. While building new links with Eastern Europe, the Papandreou Government has adopted an aggressive foreign policy appearing in many ways to be anti-American, clashing repeatedly with the United States and its other partners in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and in the European Economic Community.
Diplomatic initiatives were taken by President Francois Mitterrand of France to prevent Common Market summit talks scheduled to start today in Brussels from breaking down again. Mr. Mitterrand is chairman of the meeting, which is widely regarded as decisive for the future of the 27-year-old European Economic Community. Such issues as soaring farm subsidies and Britain’s demand for a $1.5 billion budget rebate threaten the disintegration of the organization.
Gen. Kenan Evren, President of Turkey, says the Turkish-Greek dispute over Cyprus cannot be solved while “the Greek Cypriots enjoy the recognition of the West as the sole Government of Cyprus,” Newsweek magazine reported today. “A shooting war would be sheer madness,” General Evren said, expressing hope for “a federal solution,” the magazine reported in its March 26 issue. “If Greece displays some understanding there will be no problem,” he added. Turkey will keep troops in northern Cyprus and continue to give money to Turkish Cypriots “as long as the two sides fail to arrive at a solution,” General Evren said.
Diplomatic sources and relatives of prisoners say that as many as 12 people have fasted to death in Turkish jails over the last few weeks in protests against prison torture and bad living conditions. They said the biggest hunger strike so far was in the military prison in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir where most inmates are Kurds accused of separatist militancy. There has been no official confirmation of prison deaths or official statements on hunger strikes, which have taken place in areas under martial law. Relatives of Diyarbakir prisoners came here and told Turkish and foreign reporters that 11 inmates had starved themselves to death in a hunger strike that began in early January. Diplomatic sources said they had confirmed seven hunger strike deaths in Diyarbakir while unconfirmed reports said a further four people had died. Another report said the fast was called off earlier this month.
U.S. influence in the Philippines was scorned by President Ferdinand E. Marcos, who said in a televised campaign speech that Americans have “no business” in Philippine politics nor any say on who his country’s President should be. He ridiculed opposition leaders who go “begging” in the United States for an end to its support for his government. Marcos denounced meetings between U.S. congressmen and Philippine opposition leaders seeking American support before key parliamentary elections. “It is not for the Americans to decide who should go to the Batasan Pambansa (National Assembly).” Marcos told a nationally televised rally of 80,000 cheering supporters. Several opposition leaders, including former Senator Salvador Laurel, have visited the United States and urged a reduction of military aid to the Philippines in an effort to ensure clean parliamentary elections May 14.
About 300,000 striking Indian dock workers paralyzed ports. stranding 140 ships anchored at 10 cities. The walkout caused supplies of grain, oil and industrial raw materials to dwindle. Shipping Ministry sources said, and oil industry officials in Bombay said refineries there have only about a week’s supply of fuel left. The port affected most by the strike is Calcutta.
Guerrillas ambushed and killed 10 Nicaraguan soldiers and an Education Ministry official as they were returning from Bocay, about 170 miles north of Managua, according to Nicaraguan Army Commander Javier Lopez. Government officials say that U.S.-backed rebels based in Honduras have launched their biggest offensive since the leftist Sandinistas took power in July, 1979. “At this moment, thousands of soldiers from different parts of the north have started a new level of penetration into our territory.” said Lenin Cerna, chief of state security.
A soccer match in San Salvador staged by El Salvador’s right-wing National Republican Alliance as a metaphor for the national election campaign pitched a right-wing squad against a group of 11 purported Communists. The rightists won.
Argentina’s economic crisis is unprecedented, according to its Under Secretary of Defense, Horatio Jaunarena. He and other members of the government of President Raul Alfonsin are struggling to pull the country back from the brink of collapse. The new government, which restored democracy after eight years of military dictatorship, also faces opposition from pro-military Peronist unions.
President Fidel Castro and President Jose Eduardo dos Santos of Angola have begun talks here with discussions focusing on southern Africa, the Cuban press agency reported today. Mr. dos Santos, accompanied by Defense Minister Pedro Maria Tonha and Agriculture Minister Evaristo Domingos, arrived Saturday on a three-day working visit. Diplomats said they believed Mr. Castro and Mr. dos Santos would give priority to analysis of recent negotiations between Angola and South Africa, the status of South-West Africa, also known as Namibia, and the continued presence of Cuban troops in Angola. Angola’s Ambassador to Cuba, Mawete Joao Baptista, said last week that the presence of an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 Cuban troops in Angola “has nothing to do with anybody apart from Cuba and us.” Mr. Castro has said the troops would remain as long as the Angolan Government asked them to stay.
Edwin Meese 3d has come under the first stage of a Justice Department investigation into his financial dealings, the White House announced. Mr. Meese, the Presidential counselor, said he had asked for a postponement of further Senate hearings on his Attorney General nomination.
Walter F. Mondale tried to cut down Gary Hart’s “new ideas” campaign theme in a debate in Chicago two days before the important Democratic Presidential primary in Illinois. He and Mr. Hart also clashed repeatedly over the local issues that have divided Chicago’s Democrats along racial lines. The 60-minute debate also included the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who said that by finishing ahead of his two competitors in the South Carolina caucuses Saturday he had brought “peer politics” to the nomination struggle.
President Reagan calls Henry A. Kissinger.
The President and First Lady return to Washington, D.C. from Camp David.
Rep. George Hansen (R-Idaho) faces trial today on charges of failing to disclose $333,978 in financial transactions. He will become the first public official to be tried on charges of violating the Ethics in Government Act, which requires congressmen and other high-ranking government officials to file annual reports disclosing their income and other financial transactions. If convicted, Hansen could get a maximum five years in prison and $10,000 fine for each count. Hansen’s lawyers claim the omissions are not a willful violation of any law because Congress did not intend to use the statements for anything.
John J. O’Connor, a career Navy chaplain, was sworn in as the eighth Roman Catholic archbishop of New York. “Please be kind to me.” O’Connor, 64, told an audience of 3,000 priests, nuns, brothers and seminarians at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. “I wish I were far holier, far wiser. But here I am for what I am.” Archbishop Pio Laghi, the papal representative in the United States. read Pope John Paul II’s letter that legally transfers control to O’Connor, formerly bishop of Scranton, Pennsylvania. He succeeds the late Cardinal Terence J. Cooke as head of the archdiocese of 1.8 million Catholics. A more elaborate ceremony was planned for today when O’Connor will be installed as archbishop.
The authorities said today that a revised antiriot strategy and efforts by black residents helped Miami avoid racial rioting after a Hispanic police officer was cleared in the slaying of a black man. “Basically, we had a contingency plan we were able to implement prior to the outbreak occurring,” said City Manager Howard Gary. Blacks in the Overtown, Liberty City and Coconut Grove neighborhoods tossed stones and bottles and looted a dozen businesses Thursday night after Officer Luis Alvarez, 24 years old, was found not guilty of the death by shooting in 1982 of an Overtown resident Nevell Johnson Jr., 20. About 550 arrests were made this weekend but no deaths or serious injuries were reported.
Two agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation infiltrated gambling circles in Cleveland, maintaining false identities as gamblers even after they were arrested and convicted, according to a newspaper report. The agents operated the Lake Shore Vending Company in suburban North Royalton, and took out a one-line advertisement in the Yellow Pages, The Plain Dealer reported today. The investigation resulted in the indictments of three suburban mayors and 10 other men last month. The FBI would not discuss the operation here, but court records and other sources disclosed some details. The agents took the name of Charles H. Lorenzo and John Case. In April 1982, they were arrested in a raid in Lakewood and convicted in June 1982. The agents were given suspended jail sentences and fined $300 plus court costs. “Mr. Lorenzo” paid his fine. “Mr. Case” owes $371.80, according to court records.
Two chemical fires at separate sites in the Providence, Rhode Island area resulted in injuries to 49 firefighters and two police officers this weekend, according to the authorities. The state police evacuated nearby residents for several hours after a fire broke out at 11 PM Saturday at Carroll Products Inc., a chemical processing concern, in the village of Wood River Junction. The blaze destroyed a metal building where the authorities said hazardous chemicals were stored, and 34 firefighters were taken to a nearby hospital. Only one remained hospitalized today. In the second incident, 15 firefighters and two policemen were treated for chemical burns, respiratory problems and nausea Saturday morning after battling a small fire in a building at the Mel-Ric Plating Company in West Warwick.
An unidentified man called the authorities Friday and tried to warn them that someone might try to harm a kidnapping suspect minutes before the suspect was fatally shot by the father of the kidnapping victim, according to a sheriff’s deputy. And, Sgt. Ricky Murphy said, the same caller was apparently on the phone moments later with Gary Plauché, 39 years old, when Mr. Plauché turned and shot to death Jeffery Doucet, 25, said to be the abductor of Mr. Plauché’s son. Mr. Doucet died about noon Saturday. The charge against Mr. Plauché was changed from attempted second-degree murder to second-degree murder. Mr. Doucet had been extradited from Los Angeles to face a kidnapping charge. The informer called the sheriff’s office Friday night, about 10 minutes before Mr. Doucet stepped off a plane at the Baton Rouge airport, said Sergeant Murphy, who talked to the man.
Drinking three cups of coffee a day can leach significant amounts of calcium from the body, a Washington State University scientist said in Pullman. Ingesting 300 milligrams of caffeine, about the amount in three cups of coffee, caused 30 milligrams of calcium loss, said Linda Massey, associate professor of food science and human nutrition, who conducted the study. “This 30 milligrams isn’t very much each day, but over 10 or 15 years it can cause a problem with osteoporosis,” the condition in which bones become fragile and break easily. Massey said.
The Civil Aeronautics Board meets today in Washington to decide whether to ban cigarette smoking on airplanes during short domestic flights, a prohibition opposed by the tobacco industry and the nation’s airlines. The CAB voted tentatively last year to prohibit smoking on flights lasting either one hour or less or two hours or less. It also acted provisionally to ban smoking on aircraft with 30 seats or fewer or with 60 seats or fewer. During today’s public meeting, the board will tell the staff whether it still wants the ban. If the answer is yes, the panel will spell out the prohibition, setting the exact flight duration and aircraft size.
A leader of a group of religious activists shepherding a family of seven Guatemalan Indian refugees who are on a cross-country “underground railroad” as illegal immigrants reminded the group that the government does not approve of their views. The Rev. Michael McConnell of Chicago told the congregation of the Neil Avenue Mennonite Church in Columbus, Ohio, “What you are doing, according to our government, is a criminal act.” The caravan, which started in Chicago with 12 vehicles and 50 persons, was down to eight vehicles and 40 persons. Caravan leaders said they are on their way east to sanctuary with a group of Benedictine monks in New England in defiance of immigration authorities.
In 1982, when overall inflation was 3.9%, county spending on health increased 20% and hospital costs were up almost 13%. the Census Bureau said. The bureau, in its annual report on county government expenditures, said spending for health was $3.8 billion in 1982, only 5.7% of the total outlays. But the total was 20.5% higher than 1981 health spending. Hospital costs paid by counties rose to $7.3 billion, close to 11% of total county budgets. The bureau said counties continued to spend the largest part of their budgets on public welfare programs, whose costs rose 6.5% from 1981 to $10.4 billion.
Renewal of North Philadelphia, a community that decayed while Temple University grew around it, is the goal of the university. One of the projects the university has established to help its renewal efforts is the retraining of retired teachers to teach illiterate adults.
A blizzard that left up to 2 feet of snow in Utah blew out of the Rockies into the Plains yesterday, closing highways with windblown snow. The weekend storm also contributed to more than 200 avalanches in Colorado, including one that swept a cross-country skier to his death Saturday two miles east of Vail. Another avalanche swept three mountain climbers about 2,000 feet down the side of Quandary Peak near Hoosier Pass. All three survived. Thunderstorms with violent winds and hail raked northern Texas, northeast Oklahoma, northwest Arkansas and southwest Missouri. Blizzard conditions were reported in southeastern Colorado. The Colorado authorities closed Interstate 70 from Limon to the Kansas border. Six state highways were barricaded because of poor visibility.
White Sox coach Charlie Lau, renowned hitting instructor, dies at the age of 50 after a long bout with cancer. Lau, whose Major League average was .255, earned his fame as the Royals batting coach from 1971-78, where his star pupil was George Brett.
Born:
Vonzell Solomon, American Idol Contestant, CEO of her independent record label, Melodic Records, in Baxley, Georgia.
Omar Gaither, NFL linebacker (Philadelphia Eagles, Carolina Panthers, Oakland Raiders, Atlanta Falcons), in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Jonas Johansson, Swedish NHL right wing (Washington Capitals), in Jonkoping, Sweden.
Died:
Charlie Lau, 50, Major League Baseball Chicago White Sox coach, renowned hitting instructor, of cancer.
Paul Frances Webster, 76, lyricist, of Parkinson’s disease.
History Diaries 