[Welcome to China! {P.S.- Your room is bugged.}]
U.S. President Ronald Reagan visits China. The President and First Lady are welcomed to the People’s Republic of China by President and Mrs. Li with the first ever 21-gun salute for an American President. American-Chinese amity will be stressed today by President Reagan in a speech that aides said was designed to set the tone of his six-day visit to China. Mr. Reagan planned to call for Peking and Washington to set aside their “fundamental differences” and join as friends in writing “a new chapter for peace and progress.”
A last-minute concession by Peking has opened the way for the United States and China to initial an agreement Monday on the peaceful uses of atomic energy, according to commerce officials accompanying President Reagan in Peking.
Four antiterrorist bills were submitted to Congress by President Reagan. The legislative package, which is aimed at improving the detection and prosecution of people involved in international terrorism, calls for prison terms of up to 10 years and big fines and forfeitures.
The Soviet Union formally rejected a U.S. proposal for a treaty outlawing chemical weapons, telling the 40-nation Geneva disarmament conference that the plan will seriously set back negotiations on the issue. Moscow’s chief delegate, Viktor Issraelyan, said the U.S. draft, presented last week by Vice President George Bush, contains “deliberately unacceptable” provisions for verification and is aimed at concealing U.S. plans for a major chemical rearmament program. U.S. negotiators said they are willing to consider alternate proposals.
Soviet President Konstantin U. Chernenko is drafting a new doctrine to replace Nikita S. Khrushchev’s discredited 1961 program that forecast Soviet leadership of world economic development and the death of capitalism. The party daily Pravda reported that Chernenko outlined his basic ideas for the new policy to a special commission of the Communist Party’s Central Committee and stressed that, above all, it should be realistic. The 1961 program, still theoretically in force, predicted that the Soviet Union would overtake the West economically by 1980 and begin building a truly communist society based on high living standards for all.
A United States Army helicopter flying over West Germany last week strayed six miles into Czechoslovak airspace, the Pentagon acknowledged. It said that “pilot error” had led to the incident in which the helicopter was fired on by two Czechoslovak fighter planes.
Communist Party-sponsored labor unions that replaced the outlawed Solidarity union in Poland launched an unprecedented campaign of criticism of the government, condemning recent price increases on gasoline, media licenses. fish and other products. In a letter to the premier. General Wojciech Jaruzelski, the unions complained they were not consulted about the increases and said the government is undermining their independence and contributing to inflation.
The British-Libyan crisis eased after 10 days of confrontation since the slaying of a British police constable by a gunman in the Libyan Embassy in London. A planeload of Libyan officials and their dependents returned to Tripoli from London, and a first group of 30 Britons returned from the Libyan capital.
Singing “Rule, Britannia” and shouting “Hip, hip, hooray!” British family members left Tripoli for London tonight in the first phase of a simultaneous repatriation of British and Libyan diplomats from their respective missions. Libyan officials delayed the Britons’ departure for nearly five hours at the Tripoli airport. Several hours later, just before midnight, 137 Libyan family members, mostly women and children, arrived here from London. They were greeted at the airport by relatives and a small reception committee that shouted patriotic slogans. In all, 30 Britons, including an infant and three women from the embassy, took off in a special plane just before 8 PM. Left behind were 14 other British diplomats, all men, who were expected to leave this weekend at the same time as a final group of Libyan officials leave Britain. The repatriations were the result of Britain’s decision to break diplomatic relations with Libya in the aftermath of a shooting incident at the Libyan Embassy in London last week in which a British police constable was killed.
Liverpool’s Cavern Club reopens.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan withdrew his resignation as vice chairman of the Senate intelligence committee after the Director of Central Intelligence, William J. Casey, apologized for not keeping the panel better informed about covert United States operations in Nicaragua. Mr. Casey also told the committee that the mining of Nicaraguan harbors had been halted.
Salvadoran President Alvaro Magana confirmed that he vetoed a controversial change in the law governing the May 6 presidential runoff election. The law, passed by a rightist coalition in the Constituent Assembly, would have barred the use of registration lists, which created confusion in the first round of voting. Rightist candidate Roberto D’Aubuisson wanted the lists eliminated in the hope that more votes would be cast in his race against moderate Jose Napoleon Duarte, who opposed the change.
Calm returned to the Dominican Republic, under tight military control after three days of rioting over higher food prices and increases for other goods. Officials put the riot toll at 54, most of them killed by gunfire from security forces. Hundreds of people were injured, and more than 4,000 were reported arrested. The government announced that it will distribute U.S. surplus cheese, powdered milk and flour free to the poor, hit hardest by the price boosts.
Marxist guerrillas in Peru slaughtered 32 villagers, including children, in a hamlet in the Andes after accusing them of being police informers, police reported. Survivors said the rebels entered the village of Pampacancga, in Ayacucho province, and selected the 32 victims, who were shot, stabbed or strangled in the village square. Police said the guerrillas belong to Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path). which has been waging a four-year-long battle against the government of President Fernando Belaunde Terry. Earlier this week, the Civil Guard said guerrillas had hanged a mayor and shot a lieutenant governor.
A total of 89 foreign captives held by anti-Marxist rebels in Angola were released to the Red Cross and flown to Johannesburg, South Africa. Most of the group, the largest freed so far by the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, were captured during a February raid on Kafunfo, a town in Angola’s northeastern diamond mining area. They included 66 Portuguese, 15 Filipinos and 8 missionaries from 17 countries. A spokesman for the Red Cross at its headquarters in Geneva said he had negotiated the release at an undisclosed location in Angola with members of the Union for the Total Independence of Angola, which is fighting the Marxist Government in Luanda. The spokesman said he thought that the guerrillas no longer had any Portuguese hostages but that they were still holding 16 Britons, 20 Czechoslovaks and a Yugoslav. To attract international attention to their fight, the rebels, led by Jonas Savimbi, have frequently taken foreign hostages in attacks in Government- held territory and then released them.
Unrest in black schools flared again today as thousands of pupils at all schools in the township of Atteridgeville, outside Pretoria, boycotted classes, marched through the township and stoned a school building. In Cradock in eastern Cape Province, another area that has been hit by school boycotts, six gasoline bombs were thrown into the homes of residents of the black township outside the town. In all six cases, the homes belonged to township figures who may have incurred the hostility of boycotting pupils. None of the bombs ignited, and no injuries resulted from the attacks. Boycotts of classes by pupils protesting the racially separate education system have been taking place sporadically in at least five black townships since the start of the year.
A meeting on sexual abuse of children opened with a startling disclosure. Senator Paula Hawkins, Republican of Florida, told a crowded hearing in Arlington, Virginia, that she was abused when she was 5 years old by a “neighbor, a man around the corner, who baby-sat for all the kids.” She later told a reporter that except for her mother, “I have never told anyone till now, not even my husband.”
A bill to revise federal income taxes by imposing a flat 25% tax rate, eliminating most deductions and exempting most working poor from taxation, was introduced in Congress by a group of Republicans headed by Rep. Jack Kemp of New York. Sponsors said the measure would produce about the same amount of revenue as the present system. Under the plan, a four-member family with an annual income of less than $14,375 would pay no tax. The bill would preserve tax indexing and deductions for charitable contributions, interest paid, real estate taxes and medical expenses that exceed 10% of income. It would raise the capital gains tax and overhaul the corporate income tax.
The Senate approved $4.3 billion in deficit reductions that would require the federal government to cut spending for travel, consultants, and public relations and to step up collection of overdue debts. Members overrode the objections of Senate leaders, who said the amendment by Senator Dennis DeConcini (D-Arizona) was unworkable. The amendment to a $144-billion, three-year deficit reduction bill worked out by President Reagan and Republican leaders was approved by voice vote after an effort to kill it failed, 78 to 15.
A consumer group has charged that motorists are not being warned of reports of brake-locking problems in 1981-83 model General Motors X-cars, a defect similar to that experienced with 1980 models, which the government is pushing to be recalled. The Center for Auto Safety said that more than 1,000 reports have been filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration involving 1981-83 models that skidded after the rear brakes locked. The incidents involved 10 deaths, including two this year, the group said.
Campaigning across Texas today, Walter F. Mondale attacked both President Reagan and Senator Gary Hart. He said the President’s leadership was “second-rate,” that he had an “appalling” record in education and “anti- intellectual” Administration. At the same time, speaking in the pulsing heat of the Fort Worth Livestock Exchange, he drew a blunt and pointed contrast between himself and Mr. Hart, his chief rival for the Democratic Presidential nomination. Texas represents the next major block of votes, with caucuses on May 5 at which 169 of the state’s 200 delegates will be at stake. “Here in Texas Mr. Hart is running as an antilabor candidate,” said Mr. Mondale. “He can’t say one good thing about working people. What he won’t tell you is he wasn’t singing that tune in Pennsylvania and Illinois and New York. It’s a new tune, a new ditty here in Texas.”
A stay of execution was granted to Mississippi Death Row inmate John Earl Booker while the full Supreme Court considers whether to review his double-murder conviction. The stay, granted by Justice Byron White, delays the scheduled May 2 execution of Booker, who pleaded guilty to the murders of two Charleston, Mississippi, men.
A jury in Ivanhoe, Minnesota, convicted 18-year-old Steven Jenkins of murder for fatally shooting two bankers on his father’s repossessed farm last September. The panel found Jenkins guilty of first-degree murder in the death of bank President Rudy Blythe Jr. and second-degree murder in the death of loan officer Deems Thulin. The defense contended it was Jenkins’ father, James Jenkins, who lured the bankers to the site and killed them. James Jenkins had owned the dairy farm but lost it to Blythe’s bank in 1980. Three days after the killings, James Jenkins died in Texas, an apparent suicide, and his son surrendered to authorities.
The Rev. Everett Sileven, director of the illegal Faith Christian School, was held in contempt of court in Plattsmouth, Nebraska, and sentenced to eight months in jail. Cass County District Judge Ronald Reagan said Sileven could be released temporarily if he gave the judge assurances that all former pupils had enrolled in schools certified by the Nebraska Department of Education. Supporters of the controversial fundamentalist school murmured “crackpot” and “oh, God” as Reagan announced his decision.
Kathy Boudin, in a dramatic shift, pleaded guilty to murder and robbery charges in the 1981 Brink’s holdup in which a guard and two police officers were slain. Miss Boudin, addressing Judge David S. Ritter, spoke firmly of her role in the robbery and killings and of her remorse over the consequences. Judge Ritter said he would sentence the 40-year-old Miss Boudin to 20 years to life in prison.
A fire today destroyed one of the nation’s top roller coasters and most of the 90-year-old Idora Park amusement complex, but a historic merry-go-round and the park ballroom survived the blaze. Max Rindin, 80 years old, one of three park owners, said it would cost at least $1.5 million to replace the Wildcat roller coaster destroyed in the blaze. The 45-year-old Wildcat was rated fifth in the nation by the Roller Coaster Enthusiasts of America. “I don’t feel very good at all,” said Mr. Rindin, who began working at Idora in 1925.
Lawyers for a group of Haitian refugees are challenging a recent Federal appeals court ruling denying constitutional rights to foreigners seeking admission, asylum or parole in this country and upholding the Government’s right to detain them indefinitely. The ruling here by the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in late February reversed a sweeping order issued last year by a three-judge panel of the court, which said the Reagan Administration had unconstitutionally discriminated against Haitian refugees by selectively detaining them but not other aliens in the early 1980’s, after nearly two decades of granting immediate parole to aliens pending a decision on their admissibility. The Administration maintained that it had adopted a new policy with respect to the release of aliens seeking entry into the country but that the new policy was not discriminatory.
A libel suit was won by the actress Shirley Jones and her husband, Marty Ingels. The National Enquirer has promised the couple, who had sought $20 million, a complete retraction and an undisclosed amount of compensation for a 1979 article asserting that Miss Jones was too drunk to go to work on a television series because Mr. Ingels had driven her to drink, he said.
A stenographer credited with bringing about Florida’s new simplified divorce rules was sentenced to 30 days in jail today by Florida’s Supreme Court, which said she practiced law without a license. The court held Rosemary Furman, 56 years old, of Jacksonville, in contempt of a 1979 order prohibiting her from giving advice while selling sample legal forms to the mostly poor customers of her Northside Secretarial Service. The furor over her sale of “do-it- yourself” divorce kits brought sweeping changes in Florida’s legal system, including the adoption of simplified divorce rules. Miss Furman said, “I actually expected the decision on Good Friday. That is the day you’re supposed to get crucified, isn’t it?” The Florida Bar filed suit against her in 1977, accusing her of practicing law without a license. The Supreme Court’s 1979 injunction ordered her not to give anyone legal advice and set strict guidelines for lay legal assistants.
David A. Kennedy’s coffin was taken to the family home in McLean, Virginia. In the 16 years since the assassination of his father, Robert F. Kennedy, the son’s anguished life was dominated by drugs, alcohol and a seeming inability to handle the pressure of being a member of the most closely watched family in America. A former colleague recalled of young Kennedy, “He seemed to be struggling against demons.”
Count Basie died of cancer in a Hollywood, Florida, hospital at the age of 79. The jazz pianist’s spare, economic keyboard style and supple rhythmic drive made his orchestra one of the most influential groups in the Big Band era.
A massive spring blizzard buried parts of the Rockies under snow four feet deep and spawned tornadoes that crushed dozens of homes in the Plains. A tornado hit suburban Minneapolis-St. Paul, heavily damaging a shopping center, injuring at least 18 persons with flying glass, and overturning cars and trucks. Three homes were leveled by a twister in Topeka, Kansas. The storm unloaded heavy snow from Montana to Arizona, with accumulations as high as four feet in the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming and the Black Hills of South Dakota.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1175.25 (+11.72).
Born:
Emily Wickersham, American actress (“NCIS”), in Kansas.
Ryan O’Donohue, American actor (“Byrds of Paradise”, “Boys are Back”), in Pomona, California.
Shawn Kelley, MLB pitcher (Seattle Mariners, New York Yankees, San Diego Padres, Washington Nationals, Oakland A’s, Texas Rangers), in Louisville, Kentucky.
Brian Omogrosso, MLB pitcher (Chicago White Sox), in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.
Steve Pinizzotto, Canadian NHL centre (Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers), in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
Thomas Clayton, NFL running back (New England Patriots, Cleveland Browns), in Alexandria, Virginia.
Died:
Count Basie, 79, Jazz pianist, organist, and bandleader (“One O’Clock Jump”; “April in Paris”), of pancreatic cancer.
May McAvoy, 82, American actress (“Ben Hur”), after a heart attack.
History Diaries 