Britain ordered the deportation of two Libyans, and completed the search of the vacant Libyan Embassy. The two, Abd al Razzaq and Sami Saleh Lataief, were to be deported today along with four other Libyan “political students.” Razzaq was reported to have become head of the revolutionary student movement in London after Britain broke relations with Libya during the 11-day siege following the killing of a policewoman. In the search of the Libyan Embassy, police said, they found seven pistols, thousands of rounds of ammunition, eight flak jackets, and clips and accessories for submachine guns. Meanwhile, in Tripoli, Libya announced that it had found handguns and ammunition in the vacated British Embassy, but Britain immediately denied the charge.
Soviet airborne commandos have attacked key northern supply routes to Afghanistan’s Panjshir Valley and probably blocked the pass leading into the rebel stronghold, according to rebel reports reaching Pakistan. One rebel report said that Soviet commandos had been flown into the Andarab Valley. just north of the Hindu Kush mountain range, and are now fighting rebel forces there.
Three Israelis have “confessed” they were on a “spying mission” when they were captured by Syrian troops in Lebanon on Tuesday, according to a senior Syrian official. There was no independent confirmation of the Syrian’s statement. Israeli officials have said repeatedly that the three captured men were diplomats who accidentally strayed into Syrian-controlled territory while on a May Day sightseeing trip. The Syrian official confirmed Lebanese Army reports that the Israelis engaged in a shootout with Syrian troops before they were taken into custody.
The Soviet Union accused China of taking only scant notice of Washington’s “militarist course” while actively seeking improved relations with the United States. An unsigned assessment of President Reagan’s visit published by Tass said Mr. Reagan had given the visit a “provocative anti-Soviet orientation” and had sought to play “the China card” against Moscow.
A prolonged spell of dry weather is affecting the Soviet Union’s grain crop, making it likely that the harvest will fall short of the government’s target for the sixth year in a row, Western agricultural experts say. The official Soviet media have indicated growing alarm in the Kremlin over the drought, which caused part of the winter crop to be lost and is now threatening spring grains in prime areas. The government has called for a grain crop of 240 million metric tons this year.
Two explosions erupted in a crowded cafe and busy square near Paris where a monument was recently erected in memory of the victims of the alleged Turkish massacre of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915. The blasts injured at least a dozen persons. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The monument in the suburb of Alfortville was unveiled during a ceremony Sunday at which Turkey was accused of “obliterating the historical reality” of the massacre.
Congress made “virtually no effort” to check on the CIA’s activities in Southeast Asia during the years that led to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, a congressional report said. The study prepared by Library of Congress researchers for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee came amid Senate efforts to tighten monitoring of CIA activities, and rising concern that the Reagan Administration’s policies for combating communism in Central America could lead to a Vietnam-style war in the region.
The Pope began a four-day visit to South Korea by expressing the hope that the country’s economic progress would lead to “a more human society of true justice and peace.” Speaking at a stiffly ceremonial airport reception, John Paul II said he prayed that the Korean peninsula, which has been divided for nearly four decades, would be reunited “through dialogue and brotherly love.”
Sixteen extremists occupying three Sikh temples in India’s Punjab state surrendered, ending a weeklong siege and freeing 350 hostages. A government spokesman said there were no casualties in the release, which ended Sikh plans to send commando squads against police besieging the temples in the town of Moga. In New Delhi, police briefly arrested 6,000 opposition members here today for violating a ban on rallies in the capital to protest what they called Government failure to curb terrorism in the Punjab. The opposition is demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s Government on the issue.
Among those detained were former Prime Minister Charan Singh and former Foreign Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who are the leaders of an opposition front called the National Democratic Alliance, and at least 9 Members of Parliament and 40 state legislators. Mr. Vajpayee said thousands of opposition members would peacefully volunteer to be arrested for a week longer. Policemen ordered the demonstrators, who were gathered at a protest center near Parliament, to get into waiting buses. They were driven to a sports stadium and freed after about two hours.
The security forces of Nicaragua and Costa Rica exchanged fire at Penas Blancas, a Nicaraguan border town near the Pacific Coast, Interior Minister Alfonoso Carro of Costa Rica announced. Carro said that he had no immediate reports of casualties. Relations between Nicaragua and Costa Rica are tense because of the presence of U.S.-backed Nicaraguan rebels in Costa Rica. The government of Costa Rica, which has a small national constabulary but no army, says it cannot control the rebels, especially in remote jungle areas.
President Reagan defended the American Ambassador to El Salvador, Thomas R. Pickering, against sharp criticism made Wednesday by Senator Jesse Helms. The Republican Senator from North Carolina accused Mr. Pickering of interfering in the Salvadoran presidential runoff election and demanded his immediate recall. Congressional leaders of both parties joined Mr. Reagan in expressing their confidence in the Ambassador.
The President may blame Congress in an address this month if the Salvadoran Government is not given the military aid he says it needs, White House officials said.
The Mexican Government has disclosed that two unidentified men threw firebombs at the National Palace during a May Day parade and wounded three people. Late Wednesday President Miguel de la Madrid attributed the attack to “minuscule groups of agitators in which we recognize foreign interference.” In tones that were abnormally harsh for a Mexican leader, President de la Madrid said “Mexico will not be destroyed by anybody.” A spokesman for the President declined today to be more specific about the foreign interference, but he said the groups in the bombing had been manipulated by leftist organizations. “They were boys of 18 or 19 years old,” he said. “And they were students, not workers, who shouldn’t have been in the parade.” The spokesman said no arrests had been made. The incident occurred in the fifth hour of the parade, among the largest held here in recent years. The men threw the firebombs at a grandstand only 50 yards from the balcony where President de la Madrid was standing.
In another development, Mexico protested to Guatemala that “men wearing uniforms of the Guatemalan Army” crossed into Mexican territory on Monday and killed six people in a refugee camp at El Chupadero. Mexico announced earlier this week that it will relocate 46,000 Guatemalan refugees deeper inside Mexico. Most of the refugees fled during the last two years to escape counterinsurgency campaigns. The refugees say the Guatemalan Army has massacred hundreds of people and burned dozens of villages.
South Africa intends to release 54 South-West African guerrillas being held at the Mariental internment camp, South- West Africa’s Administrator General has announced. The official, Dr. Willie van Niekerk, made the announcement Wednesday, adding that the release of more guerrillas was being considered. The group has been fighting for 17 years to end South African control of the territory, which is also called Namibia. There are an estimated 146 detainees at Mariental. Forty others are in South African jails. Dr. van Niekerk said today that the detainees who are being freed were those who “no longer pose a threat to law and order.”
A military budget reduction plan was delivered to Congress by Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger. The plan bows to bipartisan pressure to shrink the Federal deficit but saves the scope of the military buildup by stretching out purchases of conventional weapon programs. The plan would reduce the military appropriation for the fiscal year 1985 to $291.1 billion from $305 billion. This would bring 7.8 percent real growth in the military budget.
Low-cost electric power from the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River would continue to be sold to private and public power companies in southern California, Nevada and Arizona under a 50-year-old arrangement that the House voted to renew for 30 years. After a spirited debate that pitted the Sun Belt against the Frost Belt, the House approved the renewal by a vote of 279 to 95. The Administration supports the legislation.
President Reagan meets with head football coach Eddie Robinson of Grambling University.
The President and First Lady leave for Camp David.
A federal grand jury will be convened next week to hear sworn testimony as part of a special prosecutor’s month-old investigation of Attorney General-designate Edwin Meese III, officials said in Washington. Three officials of the Merit Systems Protection Board reportedly will be among the first witnesses called. Merit board Chairman Herbert Ellingwood and administrators Richard Redenius and Jackie Bradley are expected to be asked about their role in hiring Gretchen Thomas, who came under investigation because she got a job in San Francisco with the Merit Systems Protection Board after she and her husband gave a $15,000 interest-free loan to Meese and his wife.
Charles T. Masnatt, the Democratic national chairman, said today he expected the Democrats to gain as many as four million votes from John B. Anderson’s decision not to run for President in 1984. Speaking to the Women’s National Democratic Club, Mr. Manatt listed the absence of Mr. Anderson, the former Republican and independent candidate in 1980, as a major plus for the eventual Democratic nominee. Mr. Manatt said Mr. Anderson might pull as many as four million votes running on a third-party ticket and “four out of five of those would be our votes.”
The author of “How Anyone Can Stop Paying Income Taxes” has lost his own case before the U.S. Tax Court and has been penalized for fraud. The court ordered Irwin A. Schiff to pay $19,633 in income taxes for 1974 and 1975, plus penalties of $9,816 for fraud and penalties of $665 for failure to pay estimated taxes. Schiff’s book, published in 1976, advocated a revolt against the Internal Revenue Service and outlined various tactics and arguments to get out of paying taxes. The IRS investigated Schiff and discovered that he hadn’t filed adequate income tax returns since 1973.
Fire erupted in a Philadelphia building undergoing renovation and quickly spread to other downtown buildings, forcing authorities to evacuate 25,000 persons from one of the city’s largest shopping centers and nearby office buildings. At least two firefighters suffered minor back injuries before the fast-moving blaze was controlled after three hours. The blaze began at mid-afternoon in the Harrison Court, a six-story vacant building, when sparks from a worker’s torch dropped down an elevator shaft and ignited rubbish in the basement.
James Martin, Philadelphia’s former Deputy Police Commissioner, and 14 officers were indicted today on charges of obstructing justice in a reported conspiracy to protect illegal gambling. The authorities said the gambling generated $350,000 in payoffs. In addition to Mr. Martin, who quit last month as Philadelphia’s No. 2 police officer, new defendants included former Chief Inspector Joseph DePeri and Lieutenant Henry Pecic. The new indictment replaces one returned last month that accused 13 officers of a pattern of racketeering and protection of video poker machines used as gambling devices in taverns and clubs.
Three former policemen, a former reporter and the police superintendent of Belize were among 42 people charged Wednesday with smuggling nearly eight tons of cocaine into the United States, the authorities said. Twenty of those named in the indictments have been arrested and many of the others, including a man believed to be the ringleader, are believed to be hiding outside the United States, the authorities said. The ring was responsible for flying 15,837 pounds of cocaine into the United States from June 1982 to November 1983, said Robert Dempsey, Commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Among those indicted were James Edwin Malone, a former reporter for The Miami Herald; three former Metro-Dade detectives, Leif Hernandez, Evelio Mariel Lopez-Mata and Julio Ojeda; Vallan Gillett, police superintendent in Belize, and Jules Weatherburne, supervisor of the Belize International Airport.
Edward M. McIntyre, Mayor of Augusta, Georgia, resigned today, five days after being convicted of extortion. He said he was stepping down “so the city can continue to move forward.” Mr. McIntyre, 52 years old, was convicted on federal charges of using his position to extort money from developers in exchange for his help in obtaining city-owned riverfront property. Mr. McIntyre said his resignation was not an admission of guilt. Mr. McIntyre, who is expected to appeal his conviction, was elected in 1981.
Two huge Las Vegas Hilton hotels reached agreement with four striking unions today, the first major break in a bitter labor dispute that has crippled 29 desert gambling spas for 32 days. Picket lines could be removed within hours at the Las Vegas Hilton and Flamingo Hilton, clearing the way for 3,000 strikers to return to work before midnight, officials said. “We have an agreement,” said Jeff McColl, secretary-treasurer of Culinary Local 226, following 4½ hours of negotiations today. “They may go back to work tonight.” Earlier in the day, the strike expanded when employees at more than a half dozen resorts walked off their jobs in sympathy with the 17,000 strikers who stopped working April 2.
Boeing Co. negotiators will travel to China next week to discuss the possibility of having jetliners assembled there, the aircraft company announced in Everett, Wash. Boeing spokesman Harold Carr said the negotiators will discuss “the possible sale and final assembly of Boeing 737-300 aircraft to and by a Chinese company.” Earlier, the Everett Herald reported that it had acquired an internal Boeing memo that said company officials had been putting the final touches on a detailed plan to help the Chinese open an assembly plant in Shanghai, where 15, 25 or 40 737-300s could be built by the end of 1990. A new 737-300 sells for about $25 million, which could place the value of the deal as high as $1 billion.
The Senate Finance Committee authorized trade retaliation against countries that fail to act against companies that counterfeit American products. The panel, estimating that counterfeiting of everything from jeans to stethoscopes costs the United States 130,000 jobs and $8 billion in lost sales, voted to allow the President to deny preferential trade treatment to exports from offending nations. “This…sends the clear signal that the United States will no longer tolerate the wholesale piracy and counterfeiting of American merchandise,” said Senator William L. Armstrong (R-Colorado).
Faced with the threats of liability lawsuits and of individual states enacting tougher anti-fire standards, the Washington-based Tobacco Institute has dropped its opposition to a federal study on how to prevent untended cigarettes from starting fires. Senator Alan Cranston (D-California), who said 2,000 persons die each year from fires started by cigarettes, said the tobacco industry lobbying group’s decision clears the way for passage of a “safe cigarette” bill he is co-sponsoring. Rep. Joe Moakley (D-Massachusetts), sponsor of a similar measure in the House, called the decision “a historical step in the movement to eliminate fire deaths in this country.”
Data on David A. Kennedy’s death was barred from being made public by a Florida judge on the ground that such information would hamper a police investigation.
Alan Schneider died in London as the result of head injuries he received when he was struck by a motorcycle on Monday. The 66-year-old Mr. Schneider was the primary American director of plays by Samuel Beckett and also a notable director of the works of Edward Albee, Harold Pinter, Bertolt Brecht and many other playwrights.
Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey’s stage adaptation of her 1978 novel “A Woman of Independent Means”, starring Barbara Rush, opens at Biltmore Theatre, NYC; runs for 13 performances.
Bobby Ojeda strikes out a career-high 10 batters and outduels Jack Morris as the Red Sox beat the Tigers 1–0, handing Detroit (19—4) a 2nd consecutive loss.
Kansas City first two hitters — Daryl Motley and Pat Sheridan — reach Milwaukee’s Don Sutton for home runs, but the Brewers come back to win, 6–5, in 10 innings. Reliever Tom Tellmann wins when Mark Brouhard strokes a bases-loaded single.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1181.53 (-5.03).
Born:
Demetress Bell, NFL tackle (Buffalo Bills, Philadelphia Eagles), in Summerfield, Louisiana.
Cheryl Burke, American professional dancer (“Dancing with the Stars”), in San Francisco, California.
History Diaries 