A team of U. N. specialists has concluded that chemical weapons have been used in the Persian Gulf war. In a report to U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar, the experts — toxicologists from Australia, Spain, Switzerland and Sweden — said that mustard gas and a nerve agent known as Tabun were used. The U.N. investigators said they examined unexploded and damaged bombs recovered from the war zone during a six-day visit to Tehran. However, the experts said they could not conclude which side in the war was responsible for using the weapons or to what extent the weapons were used.
Palestinian factions and Arab politicians, meeting in South Yemen, are forming a “broad front” against Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat, sources in Aden reported. After meeting with South Yemen’s leader, Ali Nasir Hasani, the participants agreed on a “strategic alliance between Syria, the PLO and the patriotic movement of Lebanon,” sources said. The Palestinian factions are demanding that Arafat resign because he has met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan’s King Hussein.
Queen Elizabeth II arrived in Jordan on a state visit amid heavy security. King Hussein, in a toast at a state banquet, said her visit “crowns the friendly relations between our two peoples and will be treasured for a long time to come.” The Queen, who had never before visited here, declared in a toast at a state banquet given by Jordan’s ruler, King Hussein, “This visit to Jordan fulfills a lifelong ambition.” She praised the King as having made Jordan a “beacon of stability” in the Middle East. King Hussein, in his toast, said: “This day will be recorded in the history of Jordan. It crowns the friendly relations between our two peoples and will be treasured for a long time to come.”
Both sovereigns mentioned the Palestinian problem, an overriding issue in a nation that is 60 percent Palestinian and lost the West Bank to Israel in 1967. King Hussein appealed to the “justice of the British people” for their help in resolving “the injustice arising from errors of the past.” Queen Elizabeth said: “My Government will continue to support all constructive efforts to achieve a peaceful, just and lasting solution to this problem.”
Sharpshooters stood watch on rooftops, security police were stationed every few hundred yards and soldiers ringed the field and lined the runway for the Queen’s arrival just before noon at Marka military airfield on the northern outskirts of Amman. Newly installed antimissile devices were clearly visible under the wings of the Queen’s British Airways jumbo jetliner.
An American diplomat was wounded by a gunman in Strasbourg. The diplomat received what doctors described as “superficial wounds.” The victim is Robert Onan Homme, a 43-year-old career diplomat who has been the United States consul general in Strasbourg since 1981. A group calling itself the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions took responsibility for the attack on the envoy.
Thousands of farmers dragged clattering milk cans through the streets, dumped manure at government buildings and created other disturbances in cities throughout France in protest against European Economic Community agricultural proposals calling for reduced farm price increases and a cutback in milk production. The action came as Common Market agricultural ministers met in Brussels to debate proposals designed to help cut expenditures for farm surpluses that have threatened to bankrupt the 10-nation community’s budget.
West German General Guenter Kiessling, who had been cleared of allegations that he was a homosexual, formally retired from the army with full honors at a military ceremony near Neustadt, West Germany. Among the 350 senior North Atlantic Treaty Organization and West German officials at the ceremony was West German Defense Minister Manfred Woerner, who had forced Kiessling into premature retirement last December 31 over a report that the 58-year-old bachelor officer had frequented homosexual bars. Kiessling denied being a homosexual and was reinstated on February 2 when the report proved to be unfounded.
The moderate Christian Democrats and the rightist Nationalist Republican Alliance were leading in returns from El Salvador’s presidential election. But Salvadoran and United States officials said a runoff election would probably be necessary since neither Jose Napoleon Duarte nor Roberto d’Aubuisson appeared likely to win more than 50 percent of the votes.
The size of the voter turnout in El Salvador impressed some Congressional Democrats who observed the presidential election. The United States Embassy estimated that 1.2 million Salvadorans cast ballots. As a result, the legislators said, Congress will be more likely to approve President Reagan’s request for more military aid to El Salvador.
Nicaragua said that U.S.-backed rebels overran the second largest city of northern Jinotega province and confirmed rebel claims that 30 Sandinista soldiers were killed. The Nicaraguans accused Honduran troops of participating in the attack on San Rafael del Norte, 132 miles northeast of Managua, over the weekend. The rebels said they occupied the city for five hours, the first time they have been able to even temporarily hold such a city.
The Chilean Government today decreed two nights of curfew in the capital on the eve of scheduled protests against military rule. General Rene Vidal, commander of the Santiago military garrison, ordered the curfew under special powers assumed by the armed forces under a state of emergency imposed Saturday. The emergency enables regional military commanders to declare curfews, censor publications and ban meetings. Pedestrian and vehicle traffic were barred from the streets of Santiago, the surrounding metropolitan region and the nearby port of San Antonio from 10 PM today to 5 AM Tuesday and from 8:30 PM Tuesday to 5 AM Wednesday, he said. Almost half of Chile’s 11 million people live in the area.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have staked out a suburban Montreal house owned by the wife of a former chief of police of Mexico City, who faces charges in Mexico involving weapons, tax evasion and smuggling. Police and immigration officials said the Mounties were on the lookout for Arturo Durazo, Mexico City’s police chief between 1976 and 1982. “We know for certain that he has invested his money here,” one immigration official said, adding that Mr. Durazo had deposited millions of dollars in a Canadian bank. Mexican officials want Mr. Durazo on charges of illegal possession of weapons, tax evasion and smuggling electronic equipment, cars, liquor, and motorcycles. Mr. Durazo’s wife said her husband and their 22-year-old son were in Paris.
An Indian government official claimed that Pakistan has exploded an atomic bomb. M.K. Rasgotra, an Indian Foreign Ministry secretary, told foreign reporters that the blast occurred 10 months ago in the Lop Nor desert in the remote northwestern Chinese province of Sinkiang. He said China may have helped detonate the bomb. Although it is known that Pakistan is pursuing a nuclear program, Rasgotra’s assertion was the first time that India had publicly accused its neighbor of exploding a bomb.
The military government today marked the 13th anniversary of Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan by lifting a ban on political activity and freeing 215 political detainees, including three former Cabinet ministers. A senior Interior Ministry official said free political activity, prohibited after clashes between the police and opposition activists in November, would be allowed starting today, as promised last month by President Hossain Mohammad Ershad.
A joint South African-Mozambican security commission held its first meeting in Maputo, Mozambique’s capital, charged with carrying out a recently signed nonaggression pact aimed at ending attacks on both countries by guerrilla exiles. A statement said the session, headed by South African Police Commissioner Johan Coetzee and by Colonel Sergio Vieira, Mozambique’s deputy defense minister, was conducted in a “frank and constructive atmosphere.”
President Ahmed Sekou Toure, who led Guinea to independence and was known as the “Elephant” for his strength of rule over three decades, died tonight in the United States of an apparent heart attack, Radio Guinea reported. He was 62 years old.
Democratic voters in Connecticut will cast ballots today in the state’s Presidential primary election with prominent party leaders divided among Gary Hart, Walter F. Mondale and the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Mr. Mondale apparently won in the final round of caucuses in Virginia, Mr. Jackson appeared to be in second place, and Senator Hart was trailing.
A volatility among Democrats was reflected in the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll, which found that nearly half the Democrats had changed their choice for their party’s Presidential nomination in the last month. Moreover, two-thirds of those who switched their preference and nearly half of those who did not switch show only weak support for their present preference, suggesting possible future shifts.
The unexpected results in some Democratic Presidential primaries, especially Gary Hart’s big victory in New Hampshire, are attributed by observers to a gap between voters and campaign professionals. Most explanations center on a belief that the professionals operate on a far different set of assumptions and values than voters do.
Gary Hart’s campaign received more contributions in February, when he finished second in the Iowa caucuses and won the New Hampshire primary, than during the preceding four months, according to Federal Election Commission reports.
President Reagan places a call to Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.
The President and First Lady host the Medal of Freedom Lunch.
Four Portuguese were sentenced in the rape of a young woman in a New Bedford, Massachusetts, tavern and sent to prison in a heavily escorted police van. Superior Court Judge William G. Young imposed maximum-security prison terms of 9 to 12 years each for three of the convicted men and a term of 6 to 8 years for the fourth man. The four are in their 20’s.
Attorney General William French Smith, a multimillionaire, recently reimbursed the government about $11,000 for his wife’s use of a government car, White House spokesman Larry Speakes told reporters. The Washington Post reported that the Justice Department conducted an internal investigation of Smith following allegations that his wife, Jean, had used a government limousine for numerous personal trips. Justice Department spokesman Thomas P. DeCair said the department recently changed its interpretation of federal rules for the use of government cars by the spouses of Cabinet officers. “Since the attorney general was about to leave the department, he didn’t want to leave an open question behind, so he reimbursed the government,” DeCair said.
Mary Evans, the attorney who engineered the escape of the killer she loved, surrendered her law license in a letter to the Tennessee Supreme Court, saying she wanted to show “her respect for the profession.” A county judge in Clinton implied he would accept a plea bargain from Evans, 27, today that would let her avoid prison. She pleaded guilty March 3 to aiding the escape of Tim Kirk, 37, the convict she was representing on prison murder charges. Psychiatrists will testify at the hearing that Evans is so deranged she needs “prolonged hospitalization,” defense lawyers said.
Prosecutors began detailing complicated business records as the state Supreme Court began hearing the trial of State Attorney General Paul L. Douglas — the first Nebraska public official impeached this century. Douglas’ attorney entered a plea of not guilty to the six-count articles of impeachment returned by the Legislature on March 14. The charges stem from his conduct in office and his personal business dealings with the failed Commonwealth Savings Co. and a former Commonwealth officer.
Louisiana Legislators last night ended a special session in which they enacted a tax increase projected to yield $727 million. The new taxes had been sought by Governor Edwin W. Edwards, a Democrat, who just succeeded David C. Treen, a Republican. Mr. Treen spent his last months in office trying to cope with declining oil and gas revenues, high unemployment and reduced state income taxes. In his campaign, Mr. Edwards warned Louisiana voters that tax increases would be necessary. His first act after his inauguration earlier this month was to call the special session. Legislators raised the state’s sales tax to 4 percent from 3, which will give New Orleans a sales tax of 9 percent, and raised the gasoline tax to 16 cents a gallon from 8. Among others, they passed a new 5 percent tax on wine, beer and alcoholic drinks and they raised the tax on a pack of cigarettes to 16 cents from 11.
The brother of missing candy heiress Helen Vorhees Brach asked a judge in Chicago to have her declared “presumed dead” so he can collect his share of her $35-million estate, which is mostly earmarked for animal welfare. Brach, third wife of the late candymaker Frank V. Brach, vanished seven years ago. She was 65 at the time. Her brother, Charles Vorhees, a retired railroad worker living in Hopesdale, Ohio, is beneficiary of a $500,000 trust fund established in her will.
The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that breath analysis machines are legally reliable in measuring levels of intoxication in drunken driving cases. The court denied claims by seven men arrested for drunken driving who charged in a class action suit that the machines were not always reliable. The ruling was the first decision by any state high court to squarely address the issue of whether the devices are reliable, officials said.
The 26,000-member Culinary Union has set a strike deadline for next Monday and the hotel owners in Las Vegas say they will fight the union. The owners say they will not shut down, as they did in 1976, but will hire new workers if needed and spend extra on advertising in the city’s top tourism markets. April is one of the city’s best tourism months; last April accounted for 1.3 million of 1983’s 12.4 million visitors. Some 85,000 convention-goers are already booked for this April. “We are prepared for the eventuality there will be a strike, and the hotels will remain open,” said Vincent Helm, director of the Nevada Resort Association. The 21-member group includes most major Las Vegas resorts. The Culinary Union represents kitchen employees, food servers, cocktail servers, cashiers, porters, change people, and bellhops. Their four-year contract expires April 1 and workers voted overwhelmingly last week to authorize a walkout April 2 if a new pact was not reached.
Bartenders are being asked to cooperate this week in a campaign by the mayor and a hospital to put Boca Raton, Florida, on the wagon. “We would like people to know that alcohol is a drug,” Donna Curley Hearn, originator of Alcohol Awareness Week, said today. “We would like people to know that many people who are alcoholic can go one week without drinking.” “Last call” was midnight Saturday for those answering Mayor William Konrad’s proclamation of an alcohol-free week. It ends at 12:01 AM Sunday.
Middle-aged men who are heavy smokers will suffer an average of $59,000 each in extra medical bills and lost earnings during their lifetimes, according to a study of the hidden costs of cigarettes. Making up this loss for all smokers would require an additional tax of $3 on every pack of cigarettes, the researchers concluded. The study, conducted at Policy Analysis Inc., a Brookline, Massachusetts, firm that researches health cost issues, was released at a meeting of the American College of Cardiology in Dallas.
Autoerotic asphyxia is of increasing concern to scientists. Teenage boys and others are using the extremely dangerous sexual practice of enhancing erotic pleasure by near asphyxiation, usually induced by a noose around the neck. Researchers believe that the resulting deaths are often mislabeled suicides, sometimes after horrified parents have removed all evidence of the sexual nature of their child’s death.
Love poems by William Faulkner will be published for the first time by the University of Texas Press. The author bound the lengthy cycle of 14 poems by hand in 1921 and presented them to his future wife shortly before he abandoned poetry to become a major novelist.
Jackie Robinson, who broke baseball’s color line playing for the Dodgers in 1947, is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously by President Reagan. Rachel Robinson, on behalf of her late husband, accepts the award, the highest civilian honor given in the United States.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1152.95 (-1.89).
Born:
Greg Moore, NHL right wing (New York Rangers, Columbus Blue Jackets), in Lisbon, Maine.
Stéphanie Lapointe, French Canadian singer (Star Académie), in Brossard, Quebec, Canada.
Sara Jean Underwood, American model (Playboy Playmate of the Year 2007), in Portland, Oregon.
Died:
Ahmed Sékou Touré, 62, first President of Guinea (1958-84), of a heart attack.
History Diaries 