Moscow dismissed Washington’s appeal for a global treaty banning chemical weapons as an effort to camouflage a buildup of American chemical arms. Reacting to the proposal made at the President’s news conference Wednesday, Tass said the United States’ real intention was to block agreement “by making patently unacceptable conditions for ‘verification’ and ‘enforcement.’ ” Mr. Reagan said he would offer a draft treaty for a world ban on the production, possession and use of chemical and toxic weapons with tough methods of verification. The draft is to be presented later this month by Vice President Bush to the 40-nation Disarmament Conference in Geneva. The swiftness of the Soviet response and its mocking tone indicated Moscow had no intention of showing interest in a disarmament proposal made by Mr. Reagan.
Thomas P. O’Neill Jr. said that President Reagan was personally responsible for the deaths of the 260 American servicemen killed in Lebanon. The criticism by the House Speaker was in response to the President’s accusation Wednesday that Congressional criticism had undermined Administration policy in Lebanon and encouraged terrorists. Mr. O’Neill termed the President’s charge “despicable.” “The deaths of the U.S. Marines are the responsibility of the President of the United States,” he told reporters. “He acted against the wishes of our top military in this country, and now he is looking for a scapegoat.”
Enemy militias in Lebanon exchanged fire across Beirut’s Green Line separating Christian and Muslim sectors as Lebanese President Amin Gemayel sought Syrian leader Hafez Assad’s help in cementing a cease-fire. Lebanese emissaries met with Syrian Vice President Abdel Halim Khaddam to work out a date for a Gemayel-Assad summit meeting. Four people were reported wounded by sniper fire in Beirut, while Israeli troops in the southern port city of Sidon shot and wounded seven Lebanese civilians after a grenade attack on on Israeli patrol there, witnesses said.
A knife-wielding hijacker was captured and 286 passengers were freed when a Turkish anti-terrorist squad stormed a Saudi Arabian Airline Lockheed L-1011 that the hijacker had forced to land at Istanbul’s Yesilkoy Airport, officials reported. The hijacker, identified as Hidir Ahmet Mahlej, 25, of Damascus, suffered a minor head wound, while a 56-year-old woman was seriously injured and two other women were hurt when they jumped from the plane’s exit doors to the tarmac. The hijacker’s motive was not immediately known. The flight was en route from Jidda, Saudi Arabia, to Stockholm.
Iran and Iraq claimed to have destroyed each other’s bunkers in heavy shelling along the Persian Gulf war front. Iraq said its forces demolished at least four Iranian infantry bunkers in the southern and south-central sectors and a fifth in the northern sector, according to a report by Baghdad radio. Iran’s official news agency said Iranian artillery set seven Iraqi bunkers ablaze on the disputed Shatt al Arab waterway, “destroying all the Iraqi troops stationed in them.” The Iraqi and Iranian reports could not be verified.
Israel’s opposition Labor Party unanimously chose Shimon Peres as its candidate for prime minister in the July 23 general elections. “The victory is not yet in our pocket, but it is not out of reach,” Peres said in his acceptance speech. Former President Yitzhak Navon, whose decision not to seek the party leadership paved the way for Peres’ third try for the top post, pledged to “join the concerted effort to bring about a change of government.”
Women anti-nuclear protesters evicted from makeshift camps around the Greenham Common cruise missile base huddled at campfires on public land, refusing to end their 22-year vigil. Authorities dismantled their peace camp at the main gate and five smaller camps around the air base, 50 miles west of London, for a road-widening project, but the women fled to nearby woods and vowed to continue their protest.
The Greek police said today that the gun that wounded a United States Army master sergeant this week was the same weapon used to assassinate two American officials serving in Greece. The chief of the Athens suburban police, Gregory Kartsonakis, said bullets fired at Master Sgt. Robert Judd Jr. on Tuesday came from the .45-caliber pistol that killed the Central Intelligence Agency station chief, Richard Welch, in 1975 and Captain George Tsantes of the Navy last November. Master Sergeant Judd, 36 years old, was transporting official documents and mail when two gunmen on motorcycles fired through the rear window of his car, wounding him in the shoulder and wrist. He was recovering today at the United States Air Force base here.
The trial of three Solidarity activists accused of fomenting public disorder was postponed indefinitely today because they are ill, defense lawyers said. They said judges in Katowice had ordered the release from prison Friday of Anna Walentynowicz, who is said to be suffering from cancer. The judges will decide Friday whether to release Ewa Tomaszewska, who is receiving treatment for diabetes, the lawyers said. The third defendant, Kazimierz Switon, was released from prison several weeks ago to undergo a stomach operation. The three were arrested in December while trying to erect a plaque at the Wujek coal mine near Katowice in memory of 11 miners killed by the police during protests after martial law was declared in December 1981.
Masked French steelworkers in Longwy, in the Lorraine region near the Belgian border, hurled rocks, acid and bolts at police, burned down a building and smashed bank windows during eight hours of rioting over plans to eliminate 25,000 jobs in the government-owned steel industry. Fifteen demonstrators were injured, including a man who lost several fingers when a firebomb he was holding exploded. In Paris, Premier Pierre Mauroy announced the creation of a $60 million fund to create new industries and jobs in Lorraine.
A Swedish company was charged by the Justice Department with illegally exporting American electronic parts and equipment to the Soviet Union that gave the Russians advanced military radar capability. The department said the company had criminally violated the terms of an export license it was granted by the United States in 1977.
Extra military aid for El Salvador totaling $61.75 million and $21 million in funds for Nicaraguan rebels were approved by the Senate. The vote was 76 to 19, with 53 Republicans and 26 Democrats supporting the compromise bill.
Britain was accused of passivity during the Grenada crisis by a bipartisan committee of the House of Commons. The panel concluded that British officials were too slow to respond to danger signals in the region and too insensitive to the attitudes of Commonwealth countries there, such as the desire of Barbados that Britain take part in any intervention. President Reagan deliberately withheld information from Britain about the U.S.-led invasion of Grenada last year, the Foreign Affairs Committee of Britain’s House of Commons said in a report. The Caribbean island is a former British colony and still a member of the British Commonwealth. The report said the British government was not made fully aware of U.S. intentions until the evening before U.S. troops landed on the island October 25. The invasion followed a military coup.
General Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, the ousted commander of the Honduran armed forces, flew to Miami today from Costa Rica. He was met by United States officials and left the airport by a side exit. The general, who was regarded as the Honduran strongman and an ally of the United States, was dismissed Saturday and was flown to Costa Rica. On Wednesday, he was given a visa to enter Venezuela, where he has friends and relatives.
The leader of the African National Congress said today that he had not told Zimbabwe’s semiofficial press agency that rebel activity in South Africa would increase significantly within three months. The rebel leader, Oliver Tambo, was quoted by the Zimbabwe Inter-African News Agency on Wednesday as saying the guerrilla struggle in South Africa would soon reach its “highest peak” because of the nonaggression pact between Mozambique and South Africa. The press agency today quoted Mr. Tambo as denying that he made the statement. He also was reported to have denied other statements the press agency quoted Wednesday, including saying that African National Congress guerrillas were deployed for a “final onslaught” and that South Africa should brace for a “bloody war.”
The House approved a budget outline that the Democratic leadership says will reduce deficits by $181.7 billion over three years. The vote was 250 to 168, with 21 Republicans joining the Democratic majority and only 29 Democrats opposed. Both parties agreed that the $206.8 billion budget deficit that was projected by the Congressional Budget Office for the next fiscal year must be reduced, but they differed on how to do it. Each party wants to be seen in an election year as the champion of deficit reduction. The plan adopted this evening is designed to bring the 1985 deficit to $175.8 billion, against a projected deficit of $185 billion in this fiscal year. The Democrats’ plan projects deficits of $172.3 billion in the 1986 fiscal year and $182 billion in 1987.
The final vote on the package came after the House, over two days, defeated seven alternative proposals, including a $204.9 billion deficit-reduction proposal offered by the House Republican leadership with the backing of the White House. The vote on this proposal was 107 to 311, with 55 Republicans joining the Democrats. Only two Democrats voted with the Republicans. In contrast with the first two years of the Reagan Administration, the Democratic House leadership was able to keep its often fractious party together on all eight votes over two days. One of the strategies that helped was allowing members the opportunity to vote first on alternatives they preferred. then when these lost, the leadership plan became acceptable as the best compromise.
The most restrained major debate of the year’s campaign was held by the three major Democratic Presidential aspirants. Walter F. Mondale and Gary Hart avoided the free-swinging exchanges that marked their debate in New York last week and differed politely on their approaches to rebuilding Pennsylvania’s troubled industries. The Rev. Jesse Jackson stressed he represented a “new direction” in politics.
The televised debates held by the Democratic Presidential contenders over three months have proved a major force in shaping the campaign, according to Theodore H. White, the author of “The Making of the President” series of books. Observing there are no longer any street crowds of any size in the campaign, Mr. White concluded that the voters were now content to accept televised experience as all that is needed to choose a candidate.
President Reagan attends the Fifth Women Business Owners of New York Conference. President Reagan defended women in an address before a group of businesswomen in Manhattan. He denounced sex discrimination as an “evil” equal to racial and religious discrimination.
President Reagan visits the Hudson Gulid Day Care Center in New York.
Social Security will be able to pay benefits on time “well into the next century,” the system’s trustees assured Congress. But the trustees, President Reagan’s secretaries of the Treasury, Labor and Health and Human Services, also reported a slight actuarial deficit over the next 75 years for the old age, survivors and disability trust funds. The Social Security trustees, who sent Congress their annual report card and forecast on the $230 billion-plus that supports 36 million retirees, also reiterated warnings that Medicare is headed for bankruptcy in the early 1990s.
A House subcommittee has approved renewal of the “superfund” toxic waste cleanup program, but the panel’s chairman says the way the legislation was amended makes it “the equivalent of doing nothing.” The subcommittee voted 5 to 4 to renew the superfund at its current spending level, $1.6 billion, once the law expires at the end of 1985. However, the chairman, Rep. James J. Florio (D-New Jersey), and 10 other lawmakers from both parties wanted a $10 billion superfund reauthorization that would make the program permanent.
The US. Synthetic Fuels Corp. playing “Beat the Clock” with congressional opponents who are trying to shut it down before it can spend nearly $15 billion in public funds, agreed to hand over nearly $4.5 billion in federal subsidies to six synfuel projects. The quasi-government corporation’s four-member board of directors notified the Treasury Department to set aside $4.388 billion in government aid for projects in California, Colorado, Louisiana, Kentucky, Texas and Maine.
The prime lending rate was raised one-half percentage point, to 12 percent, by the nation’s leading banks. It was the second increase in this key rate within three weeks, bringing it to the highest level since October 1982. As a result, the interest charged on loans to consumers appears likely to increase.
Richard M. Nixon declined an invitation from a friend to tell the American people for the first time that he was sorry about his behavior in the Watergate scandals. In an unusual television interview to be broadcast next week, Mr. Nixon replied that his resignation from the Presidency in 1974 “said it all, and I don’t intend to say any more.”
Edwin Meese 3rd’s statements disclosing his finances for 1981 and 1982 fail to list more than a dozen trips in which organizations paid thousands of dollars of his expenses, according to a comparison of the disclosure statements and a compilation by his office of his travels while Presidential counselor. Government officials are required to report all such expenses over $250. According to information just released that was provided more than a month ago by the White House to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Meese failed to list trips to Hawaii, California, Florida and other locations that were paid for mostly by universities and political groups, the Washington Post reported. Meese’s nomination was put on hold last month by the Senate Judiciary Committee after the Justice Department began an investigation into questions about his finances and other matters.
Defense and prosecution lawyers made their final arguments today in the trial of Federal District Judge Harry Claiborne on bribery and income tax evasion charges. The jury that has been hearing the case deliberated for about 20 minutes today and is to resume deliberations tomorrow. A Government prosecutor said the evidence showed Judge Claiborne accepted $85,000 in bribes from Joe Conforte, a brothel operator, although there appeared to be “some inconsistencies” in the testimony heard. Judge Claiborne, 66 years old, of Las Vegas, was indicted on seven counts of bribery, wire fraud, tax cheating and lying on a judicial ethics report. If found guilty, he could face 39 years in prison and would become the first federal judge to be convicted of a crime committed while on the bench.
The Nebraska Legislature passed a bill that provides a way around the controversial teacher certification requirements that have pitted the state against some church-operated schools. Since the late 1970s a handful of fundamentalist church schools have contended that Nebraska’s education laws, including those requiring the use of state-certified teachers, violate their religious freedom. The bill would let the state Education Department use teacher competency information as only one factor in evaluating private schools.
A 10-year-old girl gave birth in Chicago to a 6-pound, 4-ounce baby girl, becoming one of the youngest mothers on record. Cook County Hospital spokesman Ron Wise described the birth as “a normal straightforward delivery.” Chicago police said they were questioning a man suspected of raping the girl. She was the youngest mother to give birth naturally in Chicago, Wise said.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation started a nationwide search today for Christopher Bernard Wilder, a 39-year- old racing-car driver charged with kidnapping one woman and suspected in the death or disappearance of six others from Florida to Nevada. The bureau called reporters to an unusual news conference to announce that Mr. Wilder had been added to its list of 10 most wanted fugitives and to appeal for help from the public in apprehending him. “We don’t normally do this,” said Oliver (Buck) Revell, assistant FBI Director, referring to the news conference. But, he said, Mr. Wilder “represents a significant danger. He’s extremely active, very dangerous, and this approach may lead to his apprehension.” Mr. Revell said the FBI has no information on Mr. Wilder’s whereabouts since Sunday, when he was spotted in Las Vegas, Nevada. On that day, Michele Korfman, 17 years old, was last seen at a Las Vegas shopping mall. Hers is one of the disappearances in which Mr. Wilder is wanted for questioning.
Reports of copycat tampering of bakery goods spread to new products today, one day after the Girl Scout Council of Chicago halted this year’s cookie drive because of cookies sabotaged with pins, staples and glass. Girl Scout cookie sales were also postponed in parts of Indiana and Michigan while local and federal officials investigated more than 150 tampering cases in 24 states. Authorities believe the incidents, which began three weeks ago in St. Louis, are the work of unrelated “copycats.” “It has to be a copycat type of thing,” said a Chicago police officer investigating a report that a South Side teen-ager swallowed a staple after biting into a Ho-Ho cake made by the Hostess.
The Challenger was set to begin an ambitious mission to repair a malfunctioning satellite and thus show the ability of astronauts to make orbital service calls to prolong the usefulness of space facilities. Liftoff of the space shuttle was scheduled for 8:58 A.M. tomorrow. The five-man crew plans to rendezvous with the wobbling, rolling satellite, Solar Max, capture it and bring it aboard to replace its malfunctioning systems. This is to involve two space walks, after which the satellite, if the repairs succeed, will be redeployed to resume its observations of the sun’s turbulent behavior. The Challenger’s commander, Captain Robert L. Crippen of the Navy, said the repair operation was critical to many future plans calling for shuttles to refuel, supply, retrieve or assemble orbital vehicles.
Galt MacDermot and William Dumaresq’s musical “The Human Comedy”, based on the novel by William Saroyan, opens at Royale Theater, NYC; runs for 13 performances.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar breaks Wilt Chamberlain’s all-time NBA career scoring record of 31,419 points (31,421)
At Jack Murphy, Steve Garvey has a homer and 4 RBIs as the Padres beat the Pirates, 8-6. Doug Frobel hits a grand slam for the Bucs and Johnny Ray has 4 hits.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1130.55 (-18.01).
Born:
Marshall Allman, American actor (“Prison Break”, “True Blood”), in Austin, Texas.
Died:
Arthur Harris, 91, British RAF Commanding Chief known as “Bomber Harris” for commanding the bombing campaign against Nazi Germany.
History Diaries 