Emergency authority was invoked by President Reagan to provide El Salvador with up to $32 million in new military assistance after Congress did not approve supplementary funds before going on its Easter recess, Administration officials said. Their announcement was preceded by contradictory reports. They said the President’s action was an attempt to avoid an all-out confrontation with the House Democrats. The Democrats had offered a compromise of their own that the Administration appeared to accept only in part.
The mining of Nicaraguan ports was monitored closely by the House Select Committee on Intelligence after the panel was notified in January that the United States was involved, according to the committee chairman, Representative Edward P. Boland, Democrat of Massachusetts.
United States and Honduran soldiers, in the latest American exercise in Honduras, staged an airborne exercise today about 60 miles from the Nicaraguan border, the Pentagon announced. The one-day exercise involved about 170 Honduran special forces troops and 120 Army troops, the Pentagon said. It said the main action was a paratroop assault by 80 Hondurans and 40 Americans “to secure an operations base from which to stage an assault on an airfield.” The site was near Aguacate, 120 miles northeast of the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa.
An Iraqi war communique said today that Iraqi jet fighters carried out 147 raids against Iranian forces and Iraqi helicopter gunships and combat units attacked Iranian positions along the border. The Iraqi report said 25 Iranian soldiers were killed by Iraqi artillery. The communique, issued by the Iraqi military command in Baghdad, said Iranian gunners along the border shelled the southern city of Basra and several other border towns, killing an Iraqi civilian and injuring five others. The Iraqi communique said the jet fighters returned safely to base after carrying out the raids across the southern section of the border.
Most Israelis knew nothing of the hijacking of a bus south of Tel Aviv on Thursday night until they awoke this morning and turned on the radio or picked up their newspapers. After hours of uncertainty and conflicting reports over the fate of 35 hostages and 4 Arab hijackers, the army announced that the terrorists had died when troops attacked the bus at dawn today, 10 hours after it was taken over on the coastal highway. The driver had been forced to speed south into the occupied Gaza Strip. A 19-year-old soldier, one of the 35 hostages, died of wounds after Israeli troops stormed the bus. Seven other passengers were wounded, one seriously.
Although the outside world followed the drama through news reports, military censors barred Israeli radio and television from mentioning the hijacking until the hostages were freed. A lengthy television news program covered a Central Committee meeting of the governing Herut Party without hinting at the crisis that was unfolding in the Gaza Strip.
After the raid, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir warned on a national radio broadcast that Israel would carry out pre-emptive strikes against Palestinian guerrillas, the Associated Press reported. “We will prevent them. We will strike them before they reach us,” Mr. Shamir was quoted as saying. “We will strike them and destroy them.”
The Salvadoran Embassy in Israel was officially moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. El Salvador and Costa Rica are the only countries with embassies in the Israeli capital. In 1980, 13 countries moved their embassies from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv to protest the Jerusalem Law, which formally declared Israeli sovereignty over all of Jerusalem. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said the move was timed to coincide with a ceremony in San Salvador at which the new Israeli Ambassador to El Salvador would present his credentials. The spokesman recalled that the Israeli Embassy was closed about five years ago after it was attacked by rebels.
Thousands of French steelworkers marched through Paris to protest President Francois Mitterrand’s plans to reorganize the state-owned steel industry, which is expected to eliminate one in every four jobs over the next two years. Most of the job losses will be in the steel producing Lorraine region. The steelworkers, carrying an immense red cross decorated with union insignia, proceeded peacefully across Paris to the Eiffel Tower, itself a symbol of the French steel industry’s former strength. Violence erupted at the Eiffel Tower when small groups of workers clashed with riot policemen, according to Reuters.
The French Government has said it would not change its decision because of protests. In a televised news conference last week, President Mitterrand defended his industrial plan as necessary for the French economy’s long-term health. He said the country could no longer afford to pour over a billion dollars a year in state subsidies into the steel industry. As a result of the President’s firm stand, the only political figure of importance to join the steelworkers today was Georges Marchais, the leader of the French Communist Party.
Two masked gunmen shot to death a retired Spanish army officer outside a Pamplona fruit market today, and two national policemen died when the gunmen’s booby-trapped car exploded, the authorities said. The retired commander, Jesus Alcocer, 65 years old, was shot twice in the head as he entered the market on the outskirts of Pamplona to buy produce for his three supermarkets, the police said. His attackers, who authorities said were believed to be members of the Basque separatist group E.T.A., escaped in a green Renault, the police said. Three national police officers, alerted by a bulletin on their car radio, spotted the getaway car parked outside a high school. When officers Tomas Palacin Pellejero, 42, and Juan Vicedo Calero, 26, tried to open the trunk, it exploded, police sources said, killing them.
Street battles flared in central Frankfurt, West Germany tonight between the police and thousands of young people during a march to protest the opening of a new runway at Frankfurt International Airport. Environmentalists objected to destruction of forests to make room for the runway. Witnesses said the police used nightsticks and turned water cannon on a crowd of 3,000 people after the officers were pelted by paint and stones during the march through a shopping district. The police reported 15 arrests in the evening clash and 25 arrests during an afternoon confrontation between the police and 250 protesters outside a city jail. The city had forbidden the rally, which was called to protest the arrest of demonstrators during the three years it took to build the $86 million runway.
The West German Government of Chancellor Helmut Kohl is growing increasingly concerned about the implications of the Reagan Administration’s proposals to develop antisatellite weapons and antimissile defenses. Officials here say they fear the proposals could start a new arms race and strategically divide the United States from its European allies. Among the most serious doubts are those voiced by Defense Minister Manfred Wörner, who discussed his skepticism about the Reagan program at a gathering of NATO defense ministers last week. Mr. Wörner has the reputation of being one of the most pro-American Cabinet members and is said to pride himself on his good personal relations with Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger.
President Reagan meets with Prime Minister Tinsulanonda of Thailand.
President Reagan announced today that the United States would sell Thailand 40 M-48 tanks because of the threat posed by Vietnamese troops in neighboring Cambodia. The sale will nearly double Thailand’s tank force. Mr. Reagan made the announcement after talks with the Thai Prime Minister, General Prem Tinsulanonda. He also said the United States supported Thailand’s request to buy advanced American F-16A fighter planes. They have not been cleared for sale to Thailand. A senior Administration official said Thailand would buy 40 tanks, valued at $30 million. Thailand already has about 60 tanks, the official said. In addition, Congress will be asked to provide 30-year repayment terms on future military sales.
A mayors’ group and opposition politicians in the Philippines protested today over the unsolved slayings of six municipal officials in the last month, apparently in connection with the parliamentary election May 14. The Municipal Mayors League of the Philippines urged the Government to investigate a raid Wednesday night on an opposition rally in Camarines Sur Province, which resulted in the death of Deputy Mayor Rosita Villafuerte of Sipocot and two of her aides. The military authorities said the killings were carried out by the Communist New Peoples Army, which they say is trying to disrupt the election.
Richard Craig Smith, a former Army counterspy, pleaded not guilty today to five counts of selling the Soviet Union information about secret United States double-agent operations aimed at penetrating the Soviet KGB espionage agency. One of Mr. Smith’s attorneys, William Cummings, entered the plea and requested a jury trial as the 40-year-old defendant from Bellevue, Wash., stood silently during his arraignment in Federal Court. Mr. Smith has been charged with selling a KGB agent details of six United States double agent operations in which United States servicemen posed as traitors to learn the targets, methods and personnel of the KGB.
Space shuttle Challenger landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California, after a seven-day mission that opened an era of servicing and repairing satellites as they orbit the earth. Bad weather diverted the shuttle from the preferred landing site in Florida. A space official called the seven-day flight “a great mission.” “The crew rendezvoused with and captured the Solar Max satellite and they repaired and returned it to orbit,” said Burton Edelson, head of National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Office of Space Sciences. “It appears to be working well. And that was the purpose of the mission.”
The commander of the mission, Capt. Robert L. Crippen of the Navy, guided the shuttle to a perfect landing in the Mojave Desert at 5:38 AM, Pacific time, as the rising sun washed the seven-mile runway in hues of pink and orange. Flying with Captain Crippen were Francis R. Scobee, the pilot, Dr. George D. Nelson, Dr. James D. van Hoften and Terry J. Hart. The 98-ton Challenger kicked up dust clouds in the cool morning air before it rolled to a stop before a handful of spectators. On greeting the astronauts, Guy Gardner in Mission Control quipped, “Welcome back on Friday the 41-Charlie.” It was a standing joke. The mission had been formally designated STS- 13 shuttle flight, but the astronauts had changed their every mention of 13 to “41-C” or “41-Charlie,” using arcane code numbers that more specifically described the mission.
Plans for the mission called for a landing at the Kennedy Space Center, where the space shuttle was launched and where it would have been easier, cheaper and less time-consuming to prepare the next shuttle flight. But the Florida landing was scrubbed at the last minute because of bad weather. Although two out of three attempted landings at Kennedy have now been scrapped, officials in general were nonetheless quite pleased. “We’re absolutely delighted that the mission was so successful” Mr. Edelson, the NASA official, said at a news conference after the landing. “It’s going to lead to great things in the future. We’re going to count on this for the repair of other satellites, like the Landsat, and we’re going to count on it for the routine servicing of major spacecraft, such as the space telescope and gamma ray observatory.”
A slowdown in industrial output last month was reported by the Federal Reserve Board. Declining from the robust pace of the start of the year, industrial production rose only four- tenths of 1 percent in March, after increases of 1.4 percent in January and 1 percent in February and regular monthly increases of 1 percent or more through most of last year. The figures and other economic indicators seem to have persuaded experts that the long-expected slowdown of the economy has begun.
The Senate approved a tax increase of $47 billion in its first step toward a $143 billion deficit reduction. The bill raises liquor taxes, modifies some individual tax breaks and restricts some business tax breaks. A provision diminishing the tax-shelter value of real estate investments could raise taxes for some individuals and corporations.
President Reagan receives the Life Achievement Award from the All-American Collegiate Golf Association.
President Reagan attends the annual White House Correspondents Dinner.
President Reagan quoted an old Scottish ballad Friday night as he commented on issues raised by congressional opposition to military aid to El Salvador, promising an enthusiastic convention of more than 10,000 Baptist fundamentalists to “lie us down and rest a bit/and then we’ll fight again.” After an introduction by the Rev. Jerry Falwell, Reagan devoted most of his warmly applauded quarter-hour talk to quotations from a letter from Lieutenant Commander Arnold E. Resnicoff, a Jewish chaplain attached to the 6th Fleet who joined with Christian clergy to minister to casualties at the bombing last October of the Marine headquarters in Beirut.
Reagan’s reading was interrupted briefly by a handful of demonstrators brandishing a banner and shouting “bread not bombs” from a walkway at the top of a block of seats to the President’s extreme right in the cavernous Washington Convention Center. Reagan suggested that “it would be nice if a little of that spirit would rub off and they would listen,” then fell silent for about 90 seconds while security men wrestled with the demonstrators and hustled them out of the hall.
Social Security disability benefits will continue to be provided for the 40,000 people who challenged their removal from the rolls by the Reagan Administration. The Administration suspended its efforts to cut off payments for several hundred thousand recipients. Margaret M. Heckler, Secretary of Health and Human Services said she was suspending the disability review process “until new disability legislation is enacted and can be effectively implemented.”
A man who shot and killed himself in Colebrook, New Hampshire, was tentatively identified as Christopher Wilder, a suspect in the kidnapping and murder of several young women. This is later confirmed.
Officials revoked parole today for a former graduate student who murdered his Stanford University mathematics professor and refused to promise he would never kill again. Theodore Streleski, who spent 19 years unsuccessfully seeking a doctoral degree, had been paroled March 8 after serving more than five years in prison for the 1978 hammer slaying of Professor Karel deLeeuw. But Mr. Streleski’s parole was revoked the same day after he refused to cooperate with parole procedures. Parole officials said Mr. Streleski, 47, had told authorities he intended to violate his parole “in a nonviolent way” when he arrived in Orange County in southern California.
A man donated blood 13 times in northern California over the past four years before discovering he had AIDS, and 12 people are known to have received his blood in transfusions, doctors say. Nine of the 12 recipients died, but their deaths were unrelated to the transfusions, Dr. Sudhir Gupta of the University of California-Irvine Medical Center said Thursday. Of the three who survived, only one has abnormalities that may indicate acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS, said Dr. Edgar Engleman of the Stanford University blood center. “The finding doesn’t necessarily mean he’s going to get AIDS,” Dr. Engleman said. A second survivor has no signs of AIDS, and the third recipient, who has just been found in Los Angeles County, has not yet undergone blood tests.
Federal agents arrested the head of a church-sponsored refugee shelter today on charges of transporting illegal Salvadoran aliens, ending a two-day standoff between the government and the sanctuary worker. Supporters of the movement to give sanctuary to people fleeing violence-torn Central America say it was the first time that the Federal authorities have entered church property to make such an arrest. Jack Elder, 40 years old, had been awaiting arrest since Tuesday when he was indicted by a Federal grand jury on three counts of transporting the Salvadorans.
The inquiry into medical licenses is expected to widen with the participation for the first time of a high-level Federal group and the naming of special panels in New York State and the Dominican Republic. In Washington, Richard Kusserow, Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services, said he had called a meeting on Tuesday with representatives of five Federal agencies and professional organizations. In New York alone the number of people whose credentials are under investigation now totals 500.
A Federal judge today overturned the vote fraud convictions of Maggie Bozeman and Julia Wilder, black women whose case inspired a 1982 voting rights protest that helped win extension of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Judge Truman Hobbs ruled the women had been improperly tried by the state. Mrs. Bozeman, now 53 years old, and Mrs. Wilder, now 72, both active in civil rights causes in west Alabama’s Pickens County, were accused of submitting absentee ballots for black voters who had not authorized it. Both said they were encouraging voter participation from blacks who had difficulty voting. The two women said they thought the absentee ballots were properly authorized and handled.
Sir John Gielgud’s 80th birthday was celebrated at the Old Vic in London, where he made his stage debut as the Herald in “Henry V,” in 1921 when he was 17. His friends, mostly actors and actresses, joined him in the recently renovated theater for a recounting of his adventures over the years.
Pete Rose lashes a double off Jerry Koosman in a 5–1 Expos victory over the Phillies to join Ty Cobb as the only other player to reach 4,000 career hits.
In their home opener, the Cubs score 6 runs against Dwight Gooden in 3+ innings and go on to beat the Mets, 11–2. Steve Trout is the complete-game winner. Gary Matthews helps with 3 hits, including a homer.
The red-hot Tigers drop 8 runs on the Red Sox in the first inning at Boston as all 3 outs in the frame are made by Lance Parrish. He strikes out and grounds into a DP, though he later homers. Boston counters with 5 runs in the bottom of the 1st, but Detroit hangs on for a 13–9 win.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1150.13 (-7.01).
Born:
Jeff Tambellini, Canadian NHL left wing (Los Angeles Kings, New York Islanders, Vancouver Canucks), in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Lennart Petrell, Finnish NHL center (Edmonton Oilers), in Helsinki, Finland.
Matt Willis, NFL wide receiver (Baltimore Ravens, Denver Broncos), in Dallas, Texas.
Manuel Wright, NFL defensive tackle (Miami Dolphins, New York Giants), in Compton, California.
Hiro Mizushima, Japanese actor, born in Tokyo, Japan.
Died:
Christopher Wilder, 39, Australian serial killer.
Richard Hurndall, 73, British actor (“Doctor Who”, “The Inheritors”, “It’s Murder But is it Art”), from a heart attack.
History Diaries 