The Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously approved a resolution condemning recent Soviet actions against dissident physicist Andrei D. Sakharov and his ailing wife, Yelena Bonner. Sakharov is said by friends to be entering the third week of a hunger strike designed to pressure Moscow authorities into letting his wife leave the Soviet Union to receive medical treatment. Sakharov is in internal exile in the city of Gorky.
The chief justice of an Afghan civil court who defected to Pakistan said that a majority of judges in his homeland have either fled the country or have been imprisoned or killed. Sayed Gharib Nawaz, whose court was in Kabul, told Pakistan radio that only 50 of 230 courts in Afghanistan are functioning. He also said that a 30-member committee of Soviet advisers called the Revolutionary Court has been entrusted with the investigation of political matters — including the Muslim-led rebellion against the Soviet-backed government.
Israel radio reported that Syria has been evacuating Iranian troops from Lebanon. The broadcast said that the Iranians — 1,000 or so paramilitary Revolutionary Guards, dispatched by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s regime to Lebanon two years ago to oppose Israel’s invasion force — are all expected to be withdrawn by the end of this week. An Israeli expert on Lebanese affairs said the evacuation was urged by Lebanese Premier Rashid Karami, who is trying to rebuild his country’s ties with Syria, an ally of Iran.
A Russian-born woman whose husband, a British banker, died under mysterious circumstances in Moscow told a coroner’s inquest today that he had had contacts with both Soviet and British agents. The banker, Dennis G. Skinner, the Moscow representative of Midland Bank of London, plunged to his death last June from the window of his 11th- floor apartment in Moscow. Two days earlier he told friends he had discovered the identity of a traitor in the British Embassy there. The Foreign Office has said the 54-year-old banker’s death had no national security implications. Mr. Skinner’s widow, Lyudmila, who lives in Britain, testified today that Soviet security officials had tried to use her as an intermediary with him before their marriage in 1973 when both worked in the Moscow office of International Computers Ltd., Britain’s largest computer maker.
Prime Minister Milka Planinc announced nine new Cabinet members today in Yugoslavia’s biggest Government shuffle since World War II. At the same time, a new nine-man slate was sworn in to the collective presidency. Mrs. Planinc, 59 years old, won parliamentary support Monday to stay in office for two more years. The new presidency includes Lazar Mojsov, 64, who was Foreign Minister, and Stane Dolanc, 59, the former Interior Minister.
West Germany’s Audi auto company announced that it will join BMW in closing its plants by the end of the week as a strike by 13,000 metalworkers at 15 car parts factories went into its second day. Other employers in the Stuttgart area said they plan a series of lockouts at unspecified plants to combat the strike.
In Ankara, the martial law authorities today blocked publication of a petition signed by 1,256 Turkish intellectuals denouncing press censorship and other features of military rule, newspaper editors said. The petition, signed by leading academics, artists, lawyers, journalists, doctors and others, was given to the Government this morning, a spokesman for the signers said. Hours later, newspaper and news agency editors said they had been told not to publish the document until the government had responded to the charges in it. There was no sign when that would be. The petition said torture of prisoners had become a common practice.
Vice President Bush, ending a four-day visit to India, today defended American arms sales to Pakistan’s military Government and expressed hope that Pakistan would ”move forward to its democratic objectives.” His comments came at a news conference at which he said he had tried to assure Indian leaders that the arms sales were not intended ”to destabilize or adversely affect Indian interests.” He said the United States was committed to helping Pakistan remain strong while Soviet troops are in neighboring Afghanistan. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had reportedly expressed concern to him about the arms sales. After the news conference, Indian officials said they had not been totally convinced by his presentation. ”His sincerity was evident,” one of them said, ”but whether sincerity is enough to allay suspicions is open to question.” The Vice President called for closer contacts between India and Pakistan, which have fought three wars in 37 years. He then flew to Pakistan.
Vice President George Bush, arriving in Pakistan after a visit to India, stressed the U.S. commitment to keep Pakistani forces strong in the face of the Soviet presence in nearby Afghanistan. In New Delhi, he had tried to assure Prime Minister Indira Gandhi that U.S. arms sales to Pakistan do not pose a threat to India’s security.
An American couple held captive for five days by separatist Tamil guerrillas in Sri Lanka was released unharmed in the northern city of Jaffna. Stanley B. Allen and his wife, Mary Elizabeth, of Columbus, Ohio, were left at the residence of the Roman Catholic bishop in Jaffna, authorities said. The kidnappers had threatened to kill them unless the government handed over $2 million in gold and freed 20 jailed rebels. Allen is employed by an Ohio firm on a U.S.-financed water project.
Opponents of Ferdinand E. Marcos appeared to be on the way to winning a larger bloc of seats in the Philippines’s new National Assembly than had been expected before Monday’s elections.
Clandestine killings in Indonesia were said to have totaled at least 3,000 since President Suharto began a vigorous anticrime campaign 18 months ago. The killers, unknown in the neighborhood or village, appear at a home in the middle of the night and, by force, take away a man later identified by the authorities as a criminal. In a day or so his bullet-riddled body is found.
The helicopter carrier Leningrad, largest Soviet warship ever to operate in the Caribbean, apparently is heading home after seven weeks of maneuvers with the Cuban navy and visits to Cuban ports, U.S. defense officials said. The 20,000-ton Leningrad is accompanied by an advanced guided-missile destroyer, a diesel-powered submarine and a tanker. The squadron’s appearance in the Caribbean in March had caused U.S. officials some concern.
The Central Elections Council in El Salvador late tonight rejected the petition by the far-right candidate for a recount of the vote in the presidential election. The council’s president, Armando Rodriguez Eguizalbal, said Jose Napoleon Duarte, the Christian Democratic candidate, would be officially named president-elect in a ceremony that had been planned for Wednesday. Roberto d’Aubuisson, the presidential candidate for the far right, formally challenged the Elections Council’s final results on Monday evening. Those results, announced on Friday, gave Mr. Duarte 53.6 percent of the vote. Mr. d’Aubuisson, the leader of the Nationalist Republican Alliance, known as Arena, got 46.4 percent of the vote. ”The petition has been denied, this is a final decision,” said Mr. Rodriguez, who declined to say whether the vote by the five-member council had been unanimous.
Two former Sandinista officials are potential opposition candidates for the presidency in Nicaragua’s scheduled November 4 elections, the pro-government newspaper El Nuevo Diario said. It said that either Arturo Cruz or Virgilio Godoy Reyes, who both resigned from the government over differences with Nicaragua’s Marxist leaders, may run. Cruz resigned two years ago as president of Nicaragua’s Central Bank, a member of the junta and ambassador to the United States. Godoy Reyes resigned as labor minister earlier this year.
Disagreements over Central America were expressed by President Reagan and President Miguel de la Madrid at a White House welcoming ceremony. The Mexican leader warned that the “risk of a generalized war” was growing in the region. Mr. Reagan said that responsible governments “cannot afford to close their eyes to what is happening or be lulled by unrealistic optimism.”
The President and First Lady host a State Dinner for President De La Madrid of Mexico at the White House.
3,000 American medical students have been cut off from classes in the Dominican Republic as a result of the closing of two large medical schools implicated in schemes to sell medical diplomas. The schools were ordered closed after Government investigators found evidence of widespread trafficking in bogus medical degrees, according to officials at the Dominican Embassy.
A very close vote on the MX missile is likely today in the House. As the representatives began a crucial debate on the future of the missile, President Reagan pressed his support for it in personal meetings with key congressmen, most of them Democrats, while Walter F. Mondale telephoned some wavering legislators to stress his opposition to the weapon. Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill Jr. (D-Massachusetts) said the House will vote to virtually scuttle the $26-billion MX missile program and send President Reagan the message that “The people want arms control — now!” As the House opened debate on a $285-billion Pentagon spending package, O’Neill declared he had 220 votes, two votes more than needed. O’Neill offered a similar prediction a year ago, only to lose by nine votes.
A bill to enable students of public high schools to meet voluntarily in school for religious purposes when they are not attending classes was narrowly defeated in the House. The measure was supported by 270 votes to 151 opposed, but that was 11 votes short of the two-thirds needed for approval under a special procedure.
President Reagan attends a Cabinet Council meeting on family affairs.
Gary Hart won Nebraska’s Democratic Presidential primary. One hour after the polls closed, Walter F. Mondale issued a statement conceding defeat and congratulating Governor Bob Kerrey for spearheading Senator Hart’s victory.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee rejected President Reagan’s nomination of Leslie Lenkowsky as deputy director of the U.S. Information Agency. On an 11–6 vote, the Republican-controlled committee refused to send the nomination to the Senate floor. Acting Deputy Director Lenkowsky, the first of Reagan’s nominees to be rejected outright by a Senate panel, has emerged as a central figure in a controversy over the blacklisting of liberals and others from the agency’s speakers’ program.
The Pentagon said its readiness to fight a war has increased in the last four years but remains “short of our goals” despite the influx of more weapons, spare parts and manpower under the Administration’s military buildup. The conclusions appeared in a 124-page Pentagon report prepared for the chairman of the Senate Armed Service Committee, John Tower (R-Texas) and the panel’s ranking Democrat, Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia. The study was made public as the House began consideration of the $291-billion defense budget for fiscal year 1985.
Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pennsylvania) urged Congress to further restrict presidential authority under the War Powers Act, but at the same time former President Gerald R. Ford said the law already “handicaps” the chief executive’s power to “maintain the peace.” Specter introduced a bill that would require congressional approval before troops are sent into combat. Under his proposal, the only time a President could act without seeking authority from Congress would be in the event of an enemy attack or other “sudden emergency that must be met with military intervention.”
A drug that tricks the body’s disease-fighting system into combating cancer cells shows promise as a treatment for the nation’s No. 2 killer, researchers said. The drug, trademarked Ampligen, appears to stimulate the production of cancer-killing interferon in the body’s immune system and amplify that effect by halting the spread of cancerous cells on its own. Ampligen, unlike most cancer chemotherapies, stimulates the body’s immune system instead of depressing it. Researchers at Hahnemann and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore have received a three-year, $5.5-million federal grant to test human responses to the drug.
Edward Hanley, president of the Hotel and Restaurant Workers International Union, invoked the Fifth Amendment 35 times in refusing to answer questions by the Senate permanent subcommittee on investigations. Hanley, appearing under subpoena, gave only his home address in Illinois. The panel has been investigating charges that Hanley got his job because of alleged ties to organized crime figures such as Anthony (Big Tuna) Accardo. Accardo, also called to testify before the panel, did not appear. He was hospitalized in Chicago.
Three West Virginia lung cancer victims have sued 14 tobacco distribution and advertising corporations, asserting that they were not warned that cigarettes were addictive. The $9.3 billion suit contends that the major tobacco companies negligently and intentionally failed to warn the public that tobacco products were physically and psychologically addictive. ”The plaintiffs relied upon this intentional omission of material fact,” the petition says. It was filed Monday in Kanawha County Circuit Court.
Overpricing in private real estate was cited in a Federal Trade Commission staff report, which said that many buyers and sellers of homes were paying brokers more than they had to because of real estate practices and a lack of knowledge. The report culminated two years of surveys and three years of study, but the commission put off any action for at least 10 months.
Curbs on arrests without warrants in private homes were strengthened by the Supreme Court. The Court ruled, 6 to 2, that the police are almost never justified in entering a private home without a warrant to arrest someone for a minor offense.
A Compton, California mother of five whom prosecutors have called the ”kiddie porn queen” was sentenced today to a maximum of four years in prison for distributing child pornography. She must serve at least nine months in prison. The woman, Catherine Stubblefield Wilson, 44 years old, who was said to have earned $500,000 a year from the child pornography business, pleaded guilty to a single felony count February 14, the day her trial was to have begun. Prosecutors asserted that Mrs. Wilson used a mail-order business to control 80 percent of the market for movies of explicit sex acts involving children.
A city may bar all signs, including campaign posters, from public property without violating the free-speech rights of candidates and their supporters, under a Supreme Court ruling.
The top midshipman of the 1,005 graduates in the U.S. Naval Academy’s class of 1984 is a woman, the first to graduate at the head of the class at a service academy since women were admitted in 1976. Kristine Holderied, 21, of Woodbine, Maryland, completed her four years at the academy with a grade point average of 3.88 out of a possible 4.0, the academy announced in Annapolis. Dean A. Miller of Dunwoody, Georgia, who will graduate second at commencement exercises May 23, finished with a grade point average of 3.9. The third-ranking graduate, John Abbot of Birmingham, Alabama, holds a 3.94. Class standing at the Naval Academy is based on both academic grades and marks in military performance. Holderied’s high marks in professional training helped boost her ahead of Miller and Abbot. Holderied, an oceanography major, was commander of the 4,300-member brigade of midshipmen, the top student office at the academy, during the winter term, and currently is deputy brigade commander.
[Ed: Holderied became the first woman to graduate as valedictorian not only at the Naval Academy, but from any of the service academies. During her time as a midshipman, Holderied was also a Trident Scholar and deputy brigade commander. After leaving the Academy, Holderied worked in meteorology and weather forecasting for the Navy. She received a graduate degree from a combined MIT/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution program.]
A vigorous storm bringing heavy rain and snow swept into the Rocky Mountains, where three days of flooding and mudslides from a melting snowpack have crushed buildings and routed hundreds of persons from their homes. Thunderstorms with winds gusting up to 74 m.p.h. knocked down trees and caused power outages in Idaho and brought snow to central Nevada, where six inches fell at Austin. Elsewhere, warm temperatures in the 80s and 90s brought rapidly melting snow and flooding in parts of Utah, Idaho, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming.
It’s a day for hitting pitchers.
Good hitting Tim Lollar leads the way by collecting all 4 RBIs, but his Padres lose 6–4.
The Cards win 9–1 over the Braves as Joaquin Andujar, a poor hitter, hits a grand slam. Just before his blast, Andujar looked into the Cards’ dugout, then gestured to the right field stands.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1150.86 (-0.21).
Born:
Kregg Lumpkin, NFL running back (Green Bay Packers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, New York Giants), in Albany, Georgia.
Bryan Mattison, NFL defensive end (Baltimore Ravens, St. Louis Rams, Kansas City Chiefs), in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Everett Teaford, MLB pitcher (Kansas City Royals, Tampa Bay Rays), in Alpharetta, Georgia.
Jeff Deslauriers, Canadian NHL goalie (Edmonton Oilers, Anaheim Ducks), in St. Jean-Richelieu, Quebec, Canada.
Mahmoud Chouki, Moroccan jazz and world music guitarist, banjo, Algerian mandole and oud player, in Kenitra, Morocco.
Died:
Lionel Charles Robbins, 85, British economist.
History Diaries 