A peace march planned in Beirut was canceled after its Muslim and Christian organizers became convinced that the demonstrators would probably be fired on by militiamen. Thousands of Beirut residents were said to have been ready to take part in the march. The marchers had intended to gather at the Green Line that divides East and West Beirut at noon today, put up a marble plaque saying, “Yes to Life, No to War” and release some white doves. Iman Khalife, a 29-year-old kindergarten teacher, who inspired the peace march with a poem she wrote about the yearning of the Lebanese people for an end to violence, refused to talk to reporters about her feelings concerning the demonstration’s cancellation. “People know how I feel,” was all Miss Khalife would say. Earlier, Miss Khalife had said she hoped the Lebanese, who she said had been terrorized for nine years by a “crazy” civil war, would finally come out of their living rooms and shout together, “Enough!”
The nonpartisan committee of Christians and Muslims that had organized the march decided to issue a statement late Saturday night canceling it because of some of the worst fighting in months along Green Line, which separates the predominantly Christian eastern part of the city from its largely Muslim Western sector. The intensity of the clashes in the Green Line area Saturday afternoon and early evening and the shelling of nearby residential neighborhoods, in which the police reported 22 people were killed and 132 were wounded, left the march organizers feeling they had little choice but to cancel. Organizers said the likelihood that the Christian and Muslim militiamen would fire on the peace marchers, as well as on each other, made holding the demonstration seem suicidal.
Many here said it was apparent that the Christian and Muslim militiamen, who knew the peace demonstration was directed against them, had stepped up their battles, seeking to prevent the march from taking place. They stopped fighting minutes after the demonstration was called off. All last week, militiamen went around West Beirut ripping down the posters advertising the march, which had been plastered on walls and placed in shop windows across town. The posters consisted of a simple stick drawing of a person holding signs reading, “Yes to Life, No to War.”
“We suspect that the shelling yesterday was aimed at us,” Dr. Najib Abu Haidar, one of the march organizers, said today. “The fighting groups like to lob shells on civilians and don’t like it if we protest. It is a shame that more people had to die because other people wanted to march for peace. We noticed that as soon as the Lebanese radios carried the news last night that the march had been canceled all of the shelling stopped.”
Five more Israeli settlers from the occupied West Bank have been detained for questioning in an investigation into charges of terrorist attacks by Jews against Arabs, Israel radio reported. The five arrests were made in the settlements of Ofra and Shiloh, bringing the number of suspects in custody to about 20. The newspaper Maariv, meanwhile, reported that a Jewish terrorist organization, uncovered after five bombs were found on Arab buses 10 days ago, is actually composed of four groups. These groups were also reported to be responsible for car-bomb blasts that maimed two Palestinian mayors four year ago.
Israelis, celebrating the Jewish state’s 36th anniversary, danced in the streets of Jerusalem at the end of a somber memorial day of prayers, tears and graveside visits in remembrance of the country’s 12,000 dead in six wars. “We never wanted to be a people that lives by the sword. Our enemies are different. They have always given us a choice of surrender or elimination,” Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir said in a memorial ceremony on Mt. Herzl. Earlier in the day, air raid sirens wailed for two minutes, bringing Israelis to attention for a moment of silent reflection.
The International Press Institute has sent a cable to Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir of Israel protesting his government’s decision to close an Israeli daily for four days for violating military censorship. Peter Galliner, director of the international press organization, said in a cable Friday to Mr. Shamir that the closure of the newspaper, Hadashot, caused “dismay and concern throughout the free world, and we urge you and your Defense Minister to ensure that such actions do not take place.” “In the past,” Mr. Galliner wrote, “Israel has been an outstanding example of a country where press freedom has prevailed in spite of the difficulties and provocations you have experienced.” The organization monitors the status of press freedom throughout the world.
Iraq charged that Iran is planning a new attack along the southern front of their Persian Gulf War. “They (the Iranians) are mobilizing great numbers of troops east of (the Iraqi port of) Basra,” said Hassan Tawalba, an official in Baghdad’s Information Ministry. “We don’t have the exact time when the Iranian side may attack,” he said. “Given their unpredictability, an attack may come in weeks, it may come tomorrow.” He asserted that Iran’s army has been ordered to attack but is delaying until the country’s Islamic clerical leadership accepts its demand to provide adequate supplies.
The Soviet Communist Party, reflecting President Konstantin U. Chernenko’s orthodoxy and reported interest in films, criticized ideologically “weak” movies and their producers and ordered the industry to get back on the party line. In a sweeping proclamation that took up a third of Pravda’s front page, the party called for rebuilding of the Soviet film industry. Chernenko has frequently stressed the role of film makers in Communist propaganda and the battle against “harmful” outside influences.
Police arrested 17 people during a second day of rioting in Northern Ireland marking the third anniversary of the death of Irish Republican Army hunger striker Bobby Sands. Fourteen were seized in Lurgan, in County Armagh, after a crowd. leaving a club attacked a police station, injuring eight officers. Three people were arrested in Strabane, in County Tyrone, after gangs of youths attacked police.
Polish prosecutors have filed criminal charges against at least 28 of 100 people detained in May Day disturbances in the Gdansk area, press reports indicated. One of the suspects in the Solidarity-led demonstrations carried a Mauser pistol, ammunition and “radio communication devices,” a communique from security officials in Gdansk said.
South Korea ordered mental tests for a young man accused of brandishing a cap gun near Pope John Paul II’s motorcade route. The Pope elevated 103 Catholic martyrs to sainthood in a ceremony in Seoul.
Salvadorans turned out to vote for President in the first such election the military has not interfered with in more than 50 years. The voting took place in circumstances less confused than they were in the preliminary round March 25. Guerrilla harassment was negligible, officials said.
Panama’s first Presidential election in 16 years brought out many voters in orderly proceedings. The candidates are an 82-year-old physician and three-time former president, Dr. Arnulfo Arias Madrid, and Nicolas Ardito Barletta, a former vice president of the World Bank.
Ecuadoreans elected a new President. He is Leon Febres Cordero Rivadeneira, who won a narrow victory. A wealthy businessman and a member of the conservative National Reconstruction Front, he said he would govern Ecuador according to free-market principles. The loser was Rodrigo Borja Cevallos of the Democratic Left Party. Rightist businessman Leon Febres Cordero defeated leftist lawyer Rodrigo Borja in Ecuador’s presidential runoff election, and his followers swarmed into the streets to celebrate. With the vote count nearly complete, the government’s National Election Bureau gave Febres 52.1% of the vote to 47.9% for Borja. In a national television appearance from the port city of Guayaquil, his hometown, Febres proclaimed, “I am the winner!” A spokesman at Borja’s headquarters said, “We are pessimistic.” Voting was reported to be orderly and peaceful, although soldiers with fixed bayonets guarded the polls. Febres, 54, is to succeed President Osvaldo Hurtado on August 10.
The Sudanese security forces have arrested 1,540 people on drug and alcohol charges in the last two days, Egypt’s Middle East News Agency reported in a dispatch from the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. Drugs and alcohol are banned under the Islamic code that President Gaafar al-Nimeiry imposed last September. The dispatch Saturday quoted the Sudanese daily Al Sahafa as saying the prisoners, who are accused of dealing in the substances, will be tried before special courts established under the state of emergency that Mr. Nimeiry proclaimed last weekend. Conviction could result in prison terms of up to 10 years and fines of up to $5,000, the Egyptian dispatch said.
Joshua Nkomo, the Zimbabwean opposition leader, has urged Prime Minister Robert Mugabe to convene a broad-based conference to resolve the country’s growing political and security problems. In an interview after he returned from a two-week visit to London, Mr. Nkomo said he believed Zimbabwe was heading for a “crash.” “Zimbabwe is plagued by instability, suspicion and fear among the people, especially those who support the minority parties,” he said. “I believe the best solution is a broad-based conference involving all Zimbabwean sectors and political groupings.” Reacting to Mr. Nkomo’s statement, Zimbabwean officials said Mr. Mugabe was unlikely to heed Mr. Nkomo’s call for a conference.
President Reagan holds a dinner honoring Dillon Ripley’s 20 years of service with the Smithsonian.
The President and First Lady return to the White House from Camp David.
National Walter F. Mondale’s solid victory in the Texas caucuses set the stage for a critical round of primaries Tuesday and an increasingly heated struggle among the Democratic Presidential candidates over national convention delegates. Predictions by many Democratic leaders that a victory in the Ohio primary Tuesday on top of what Mr. Mondale described as a “spectacular victory” in Texas on Saturday could ensure his party’s nomination were played down by Mr. Mondale.
A bill broadening the scope of Federal laws against discrimination on the basis of sex, race, national origin and handicap, has divided the Reagan Administration. Officials of the Justice Department and the Office of Management and Budget said they had opposed the bill as an unwarranted expansion of Federal authority. The bill has had bipartisan support in Congress.
Social Security’s re-evaluation will be needed before the end of the decade to determine whether upper-income retirees should continue to receive benefits, Treasury Secretary Donald T. Regan said. In a television interview, Mr. Regan said “at the lower end of the scale we shouldn’t do anything to Social Security,” but “at the upper end of the scale, I think we better re-examine it.”
Easing U.S. customs inspections for visitors to this country have hit roadblocks, Senate aides and Reagan Administration officials say. Reorganization of entry inspections, urged for more than 30 years, is being threatened by power battles between the Customs Service and the Immigration Service, that are joined by Congressional committees and the Treasury and Justice Departments. Calls for change have increased with the approach of the Olympic Summer Games in Los Angeles.
Shortly after an official of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration testified he drove former OSHA chief Thorne G. Auchter to a meeting with brewery magnate Joseph Coors, Auchter testified under oath that he had met Coors only “on one of my earlier trips.” Auchter never mentioned the second meeting with Coors under questioning by a lawyer who was trying to determine whether the Adolph Coors Co. of Golden, Colo., had influenced OSHA personnel decisions. The lawyer represented Curtis A. Foster, the former OSHA regional administrator in Denver, whose ouster was recommended by Auchter in May, 1982, and was made final four months later. Foster has alleged in sworn testimony that the Coors company received favored treatment from OSHA while Auchter headed the agency.
Eleven cars of an 83-car westbound Union Pacific freight train derailed in the Columbia River gorge Saturday night, railroad officials said. No injuries were reported in the accident, which officials said may have been caused by vandals throwing a switch. The train derailed about 9:20 PM near Bridal Veil, 22 miles east of Portland, its destination. A railroad spokesman said one derailed car carried a flammable gas but was not leaking.
Many Methodist leaders called for a burst of evangelistic spirit to reverse recent membership declines among the United Methodists, the largest Methodist denomination in the United States. The call came at their General Conference in Baltimore.
Japanese technological progress is getting more attention from American companies and the United States Government after years of scant attention. Technology experts believe that the United States has not done enough to keep track of what the Japanese are doing in such competitive fields as electronics and biotechnology.
The top Ethiopian diplomat in Washington is seeking political asylum in the United States and plans to speak out against political repression by his country’s Marxist government, a congressional aide said. Tesfaye Demeke, the charge d’affaires of the Ethiopian Embassy, filed a formal application for political asylum on Friday with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, said David Lonie, Republican staff consultant for the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa. Demeke, 40, was appointed charge d’affaires four years ago after the Ethiopian government downgraded diplomatic relations with the United States.
A freeze on nuclear weapons and their delivery systems would not seriously damage the nation’s economy and might bring great economic benefits, said a study released by the Council on Economic Priorities. The private, New York-based group has been critical of the Reagan Administration’s defense buildup. Author William Hartung said the freeze proposal should not be “tagged with the fear that we’re going to destroy the whole economy if we stop building these weapons.” The report contended that the freeze would save the federal government at least $98 billion over the next five years and $380 billion to $425 billion by the year 2000.
A jury has awarded $4.2 million to a man whose pregnant wife died when Miami hospital employees gave her 10 times the prescribed dose of the mood-altering drug Thorazine and then waited an hour before seeking help in reviving her. The jury found Highland Park Hospital guilty of malpractice in the death of Andrea Carol Anderson, 33, and awarded the money to the woman’s husband, Joseph Anderson of Grand Cayman Island.
An estimated 200,000 persons, led by the wife of jailed Soviet dissident Anatoly Shcharansky, marched in New York to protest Moscow’s treatment of Jews and its crackdown on emigration to Israel. “As long as you are silenced, we will be your voice,” Governor Mario M. Cuomo said of the 2.5 million Jews frustrated in their efforts to leave the Soviet Union.
Arizona Governor Bruce Babbitt called out National Guard troops to keep the peace in two copper-mining communities where weekend violence erupted in a 10-month-old strike. At least 11 persons were arrested when about 400 strike supporters gathered in the Clifton and Morenci areas and rock-throwing broke out.
Video cassettes are money-makers in Hollywood, despite fears of film producers that they would be a potential drain on movie theater attendance. In the late 1970’s video cassettes did not exist as a source of revenue for Hollywood. By 1982, a typical movie earned 8 percent of its revenue from cassettes, according to Wertheim & Company, a New York investment banking house, and last year that figure rose to about 13 percent.
More than 200 acres of land near Tarpley, Tennessee, and a secluded, luxurious log cabin reported to have been a distribution center in a large illegal drug operation were sold at auction Saturday for the benefit of the Federal Treasury. A young Alabama lawyer paid $150,000 for the 7,000-square-foot cabin and 90 acres of land. A recent retiree from Canada paid $64,000 for a house and 140 acres.
A total of 595 labor contracts affecting 344,000 workers in Middle Atlantic states are up for renegotiation in 1984, the fewest in recent years, the United States Labor Department said today. The number was substantially less than the 1980 peak of 873 contracts covering 555,900 workers in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia, said Alvin Margulis, regional commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics in Philadelphia. Mr. Margulis said 384 contracts affecting more than 186,000 workers end this year in Pennsylvania, the region’s largest state. There are 66 contracts in Maryland, 57 in Virginia, 32 in West Virginia, 23 in Delaware and 43 in the Washington area.
Heavy thunderstorms accompanied by tornadoes, large hailstones and strong winds, pounded the Southeast. They lifted mobile homes off their foundations and severely damaged homes and businesses in Kentucky, where two persons were killed and at least nine others were injured. Tornadoes struck London and Glasgow, Kentucky, the National Weather Service said. Elsewhere two other tornadoes that touched down in Florida damaged one mobile home but caused no injuries, authorities said. In Tennessee, two persons were killed in flooding that accompanied the storms, authorities said.
Cal Ripken hits for the cycle in Baltimore’s 6–1 win over the Texas Rangers, completing the feat with a solo home run in the 9th inning.
The Houston Astros club 19-year-old phenom Dwight Gooden with eight runs in the third on their way to a 10–1 drubbing of the Mets. Nolan Ryan, almost twice Gooden’s age, scatters six hits for the victory. Ryan contributes a bunt hit over Gooden’s head in the rally while Mark Bailey drives home the first and last runs of the frame.
Born:
Adam Carriker, NFL defensive end (St. Louis Rams, Washington Redskins), in Hastings, Nebraska.
Anton Babchuk, Ukrainian-Russian NHL defenseman (Chicago Blackhawks, Carolina Hurricanes, Calgary Flames), in Kiev (today Kyiv), Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union.
Oliver Lafayette, NBA shooting guard (Boston Celtics), in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Died:
Mary Cain, 79, Mississippi newspaper editor and conservative, pro-segregation politician.
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