Britain broke diplomatic ties with Libya and ordered the occupants of the Libyan Embassy in London to leave the country by next Sunday. Britain acted because of the refusal of the Libyan Government of Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi to cooperate in an inquiry into a shooting incident last Tuesday outside the Libyan Embassy. In that incident, a British constable was killed and 10 protesters were wounded. British officials say they believe the embassy’s occupants include the gunman responsible for the death of Constable Yvonne Fletcher and the wounding of the others.
Libya responded to Britain’s decision with “surprise and indignation” and accused the Thatcher Government of “launching a campaign of hatred and racism against the Libyan Arab people.” The Foreign Ministry in Tripoli said, however, that the Government would continue to provide security and protection for the 8,000 British citizens living in Libya.
The Israeli army, under pressure to explain the deaths of two Palestinian guerrillas, announced that it is launching an inquiry. After four guerrillas commandeered an Israeli bus, all four were reported killed when the bus was stormed by troops 11 days ago. But witnesses said they saw only two or three bodies afterward, and a picture taken by a news photographer shows what appears to be one of the hijackers, still alive. being led away by soldiers. Military censors have forbidden publication of the photo, but relatives have reportedly identified the man in the photo as one of those named by the army as a hijacker.
Jordan’s King Hussein, using “helicopter diplomacy,” held at least 11 secret meetings with Israeli leaders in the decade after the 1967 Middle East War, according to the New York Times. An article in the newspaper’s Sunday magazine, quoting unidentified senior American, Jordanian, and Israeli officials, said Hussein traveled to the meetings alone or with a single co-pilot. The meetings lasted from the end of the 1967 war, in which Jordan lost the West Bank and the Old City of Jerusalem, until 1977, when the government of Menachem Begin assumed power, the article said.
With a cease-fire holding in most parts of Beirut for the third day. Lebanese opposition leaders met in Damascus, Syria, for talks aimed at widening their role in the Christian-dominated government. Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and Sunni Muslim militia leader Ibrahim Kolleilat met for the first time since their militias clashed for control of West Beirut last month. The meeting was presided over by Abdel Salam Jalloud, key aide to Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi, whose country finances the rival militias of both Jumblatt and Kolleilat.
Tens of thousands of people marched in Hamburg and the Ruhr area of West Germany in peaceful protests against the deployment of U.S. Pershing 2 and cruise nuclear missiles in Europe and against U.S. policies in Central America. Hamburg police said that about 19,000 protesters converged in a star-shaped formation near the city hall to hear anti-missile speeches by Social Democrats, members of the environmentalist Greens party and Communist leaders.
The Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktash, said today that Greece should not consider sending troops to the Greek Cypriot sector of Cyprus, implying that such a move might risk war between Greece and Turkey. “Greece should be aware that it would be reducing its defense forces by sending 15,000 troops to Cyprus,” Mr. Denktash said in a statement issued in the Turkish sector of Nicosia. He added, “I hope the number of insane people in Greece who will risk a war with Turkey for the sake of the Cyprus problem, which can be solved at the conference table, is not great.” There have been press reports that Greece is considering sending troops to back up the 10,000-member Greek Cypriot National Guard after the Turkish Cypriots proclaimed an independent state in November. The northern sector of the island, split from the south since Turkish forces invaded in 1974, is held by 18,000 Turkish troops from the mainland and a local force of 4,500.
Cambodian rebels today drove Vietnamese forces out of a position the Vietnamese forces had captured in recent fighting, a Thai Army general said. The officer, Major General Pichit Kulawanit, said about 500 rebels counterattacked at dawn, pushing westward from their base at Ampil, 120 miles northeast of Bangkok, toward heavily mined Vietnamese positions. He said the Cambodian rebels “have managed to push the Vietnamese troops from Beoung Ampil.” Beoung Ampil, a small lake two miles west of Ampil, the Cambodian rebels’ main military headquarters, was captured by Hanoi’s troops last Sunday.
The Pentagon is ready for combat in Central America should President Reagan give the order, military specialists and members of Congress say. They say the Pentagon has achieved this state of readiness over the last year, with the coordinated buildup of United States forces in the region and the construction of new military installations.
A communique from Salvadoran rebels denied responsibility for the killing of Joaquim Zapata Romero, the highest-ranking Salvadoran security officer working at the U.S. Embassy. The Popular Liberation Force communique, read over the rebels’ clandestine radio, said the organization “is not responsible for the assassination of Zapata.” A note left at a San Salvador radio station the day after Zapata’s death said the rebel group took action because of the Salvadoran’s alleged links to rightist death squads.
El Salvador’s interim President Alvaro Magana said he regrets Egypt’s breaking of diplomatic relations over the move of the Salvadoran Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. He called the move “a necessary decision for the interests of the country.” Magana did not elaborate. but diplomats said El Salvador is trying to improve relations with Israel as a backup arms supplier to the United States. Israel has sold some aircraft to El Salvador.
Costa Rican-based Nicaraguan rebels have been bribing public officials there, using cash received from the Central Intelligence Agency, Costa Rican officials said. Officially, the Costa Rican Government has denied charges by the Nicaraguan Government that the rebels are bribing public officials, but a senior Costa Rican law-enforcement official says the payoffs have taken place.
The President began his trip to China, on what he said was “a long journey for peace.” The trip is expected to be a mixture of sightseeing and talks aimed at easing tensions that have arisen in American relations with China in the last two years. President Reagan arrives in Hawaii, the first leg of his trip to Hawaii, Guam, China and Alaska.
Western Saharan guerrillas killed 63 Moroccan soldiers Saturday, wounded dozens more and destroyed 14 vehicles, the Algerian press agency reported today. The agency, quoting the Information Ministry of the self-proclaimed Saharan Arab Democratic Republic, said there were estimated to be 17,000 Moroccan troops in the area where the fighting occurred. It did not pinpoint the location. Earlier, the rebels said in a communique published by the Algerian agency that more than 30,000 Moroccan troops had concentrated for the last week around the stronghold of Zag less than 30 miles from the Algerian border. The rebels said Moroccan troops were being concentrated to “complete the second phase of the wall policy,” a reference to lengthy fortifications of sand and rock defended by minefields intended to seal off the Western Sahara and preventing guerrilla incursions.
A jeep loaded with dynamite exploded on a street in the Angolan town of Huambo, killing about 30 people and injuring more than 70, the official Yugoslav news agency Tanjug reported. In Paris, a statement from the Angolan rebel group UNITA, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola. claimed responsibility for the blast. The UNITA statement said the bomb destroyed a building housing Cuban and Soviet officers, killing more than 200 people. Two Soviet army lieutenant colonels were reported among those killed.
Congress faces major decisions on aid to the Central America and efforts to trim growing budget deficits when it returns from its Easter recess tomorrow. But its leaders seem in no hurry to step up the pace of what has been a relatively lethargic session. Speaker of the House Thomas P. O’Neill Jr. will take an extra week of vacation on a trip to Africa and Europe. The House session will resume with a bill on Arctic research.
The President and First Lady attend an Easter Service at St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Honolulu, Hawaii.
A possible redefinition of poverty is being prepared for by the Reagan Administration with the convening of a panel of eight consulting economists who will suggest ways of measuring the value of such noncash benefits as food stamps, Medicaid and housing subsidies. The issue is one with broad political implications because many people might become ineligible for benefits if they are no longer considered poor.
Studies of acid rain found that rainfall in most of the Eastern United States and Canada is 20 to 40 times as acidic as natural or unpolluted rain. In the Western United States, rainfall averages up to 25 times as acidic as natural rain, the National Wildlife Federation reported after a yearlong study that tied together hundreds of government and private scientific studies. Jay Hair, executive vice president of the federation, said the findings clearly show “that acid rain is a crisis that the Administration and Congress must move quickly to solve. Sulfur dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants were identified as the main cause of acid rain. One finding of the report related to fog measured at Pasadena’s Caltech that was as much as 2.500 times more acidic than natural precipitation.
In a test of the government’s draft registration enforcement program, the Supreme Court will hear arguments today in a case challenging the link between registration and student financial assistance. At issue is a law requiring any draft-age young man applying for federal student aid to sign a statement saying he has registered. Those who have not signed up will not be eligible for federal college aid, including loans. grants and work assistance. Last year a federal judge ruled that this unconstitutionally requires students to provide incriminating information “that could also furnish a link in the chain of evidence used to prosecute the non-registrant.”
Murder suspect Ottis Elwood Toole, linked with killer Henry Lee Lucas to a murder spree that might have claimed more than 100 victims. goes on trial today in Jacksonville, Florida., on charges of killing a 64-year-old man. It will be the first trial for Toole on the 10 murder charges he faces in Florida, Texas, and Louisiana.
The Pacific Gas and Electric Company will put off the start of tests at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in California until at least midweek to repair a leaking seal discovered today in one of its two reactors. Officials were poised to start the reactor for low-power tests, its first nuclear operation, when the leak in one of four coolant pumps was detected. A spokesman said the utility would fix the leak before starting the reactor, though the postponement was not required. Meanwhile, 10 people were arrested for investigation of trespassing at the plant after a protest today in which 100 people marched peacefully from nearby Avila Beach to the plant gates. Court battles, demonstrations, and construction problems for years have delayed the starting of the $4.9 billion plant, built over a fault in the earth. Last week P.G.&E. won the latest legal round when a Federal appeals court in Washington refused to grant an injunction to halt the testing.
Two crewmen were killed and two others injured in a collision involving three Burlington Northern Railroad coal trains at Pedro. Wyoming. A railroad spokesman said one eastbound train had moved onto a siding for a crew change, and a second train with 110 cars had stopped next to it on the main line to pick up the crew. He said a third eastbound train with 115 cars and traveling at about 30 m.p.h. struck the caboose of the stationary train on the main line, killing a brakeman and a conductor in the rear car and injuring the engineer and head brakeman in the locomotive of the moving train. Those killed were identified as Robert E. Almandinger. 56. of Custer, South Dakota, the conductor, and Michael L. Barney, 31, of Hill City, South Dakota. The injured crewmen in the other train were not identified.
A minor earthquake struck the East Coast, shaking an area from Washington to New York, but no damage or injuries were reported. The quake’s epicenter was about 15 miles south of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and it measured 4.1 on the Richter scale. A quake of that magnitude can cause damage, but none was reported immediately. In New Jersey. “swinging lamps or vibrating” of homes was reported by 10 callers at about the same time, according to an officer in Hunterdon County. “I thought it was a strong wind at first. the way the building was shaking.” a state trooper said in Media, Pennsylvania.
Sarah M. King, president of the Daughters of the American Revolution, says the organization is stronger after a closely watched convention that ended last week. “Honey, we’ve been in the news — big,” said Mrs. King, whose impeachment had been urged by a few members. “Some of those things have really hurt, but in a way it’s been good for us. I think we’ve come out of it stronger and more unified.” Since taking office a year ago, Mrs. King has had to deny charges of race and sex bias. Now she is appointing a committee to investigate any allegations of discrimination and has backed away from a proposal to require proof of “legitimacy” for membership, which critics said would disqualify some blacks descended from slaves.
Last month Lena Ferguson, a descendant of a white man who fought in the Revolutionary War, said she was denied membership in the Mary Washington chapter because she is black. Mrs. King invited Mrs. Ferguson to attend the weeklong congress and sent her a letter conceding that her case was “very inappropriately handled.” Mrs. Ferguson accepted the invitation and said Mrs. King’s letter made her change her mind about the group.
Time magazine has picked the nation’s top 10 newspapers. Time said it had compiled its list by examining “imaginative staff coverage of regional, national and foreign issues; liveliness in writing, layout and graphics; national impact achieved through general enterprise, command of some particular field of coverage or track record of training top-rank younger journalists.” Included in the list are the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the Chicago Tribune, the Des Moines Register, the Miami Herald, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the St. Petersburg Times, and the Wall Street Journal.
Computer tests of campaign strategy have been developed by President Reagan’s re-election committee. The computer system, based on one used in the 1980 campaign, will now also analyze census data, economic conditions and other information for help in campaign decisions.
Tornadoes in Mississippi destroyed two-thirds of Water Valley, a town in northern part of the state. The tornadoes swept through 10 northern counties and killed 15 people, including seven in the town of Water Valley, and injured more than 100. Easter services were held in Water Valley’s rubble.
A 31-foot harpoon boat used by whalers around the turn of the century has been recovered intact from an uninhabited Arctic island. Yankee whalers of the 19th century used thousands of the small boats, but only a dozen have survived in good enough shape to be refurbished for museum display, said John Bockstoce, curator at the New Bedford Whaling Museum in Massachusetts. The excellent condition of the boat, found some 10 miles north of Prudhoe Bay on a gravel spit in the Beaufort Sea, was attributed to the dry Arctic conditions. Researchers believe the boat was used and modified by Eskimos after it was abandoned on the island.
Ansel Adams died at a hospital near his home in Carmel, California, at the age of 82. Mr. Adams’s black-and-white landscapes of America’s West and his devotion to clarity and precision made him probably the best-known American photographer.
CBS premiere of TV film “Pope John Paul II,” starring Albert Finney in title role.
Darryl Motley of the Royals opened a game in Cleveland with a home run. The Indians were ahead, 6–1, when the game was rained out with two out in the bottom of the fourth inning.
The Tigers roll over the White Sox, 9–1, with Kirk Gibson hitting his 4th homer of the year in the first inning. Juan Berenguer goes 7 innings for the win, with Lopez and Hernandez finishing up for Detroit. Chicago finishes up with first baseman Mike Squires on the mound for the last batter.
The Dodgers collect 18 hits — 11 for extra bases — as they pound the Padres, 15–7. Mike Marshall leads the offense with 5 hits, including a double and two homers, and drives in 6 runs. Six other players have two or more hits for Big Blue. Kevin McReynolds has 4 hits and scores 3 for the Padres.
Born:
Amelle Berrabah, Moroccan-British singer (Sugababes – “Round, Round”), in Aldershot, Hampshire, England, United Kingdom.
Michelle Ryan, English actress (“Eastenders”, Lady Christina de Souza – “Doctor Who” episode “Planet of the Dead”), in Enfield, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom.
Bryan Rodney, Canadian NHL defenseman (Carolina Hurricanes, Edmonton Oilers), in London, Ontario, Canada.
Died:
Ansel Adams, 82, American landscape photographer and environmentalist (Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1980).
History Diaries 