East-West relations are in their worst state since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, and there is little hope for a quick reversal of the growing use of violence around the world, the International Institute for Strategic Studies said in its 1983-’84 survey. The London-based, independent think tank cited “excessive rigidity” of world leaders but said it does not believe the world is closer to war because both superpowers realize the futility of such action.
Defense ministers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, winding up a two-day meeting in Brussels, agreed to develop high-technology conventional weapons and adopted goals to rectify “the most critical deficiencies in NATO’s conventional defense posture” by 1990. Officials said NATO will develop weapons that seek out their targets, long-range surveillance radar and advanced communications systems that will be secure against electronic jamming.
Poland joined the Soviet Union and eight other countries in announcing that its athletes would not take part in the Olympic Games in Los Angeles this summer. In what it called “an unpleasant decision,” Poland today became the 10th nation to announce that its athletes would not take part in the Olympics in Los Angeles this summer. After voting to follow the Soviet lead, the 45-member Polish Olympic Committee said it was “fully aware” its decision was unpleasant for its athletes and “for the millions of sports fans in Poland.” Like Moscow, it criticized the security arrangements made for athletes in Los Angeles, but it did so in milder terms than those of the Soviet Union. The Polish announcement came nine days after Moscow said it was withdrawing from the Games.
The Conservative Party of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher holds a lead of only 2 percentage points over the Labor Party, a drop of 2½ points in a month, according to a Gallup poll conducted for the Daily Telegraph newspaper. It said that 38.5% of sampled voters support the Conservatives, 36.5% back Labor and 23% favor the Liberal-Social Democrat Alliance. The poll indicates the lowest rate of support for Conservatives since elections last June gave them a 140-seat parliamentary majority.
Prince Charles calls proposed addition to the National Gallery, London, a “monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend,” sparking controversy on the role of the Royal Family and course of modern architecture.
Two gunmen shot and seriously wounded Roman Catholic journalist Jim Campbell as he opened the door to his Belfast home, Northern Ireland police said. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the shooting. The Belfast editor of the Dublin-based Sunday World newspaper, Campbell, 45, is best known for his outspoken column in the newspaper’s northern edition.
Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s regime said that hit squads are being formed to hunt down and kill Libyan dissidents abroad. “The masses have decided to form commando groups to chase traitors, fugitives and stray dogs wherever they are and liquidate them,” the official news agency said. Agents of Qaddafi previously were blamed for the killings of at least nine Libyan dissidents in Western Europe in 1980 and for a string of bombings in Britain earlier this year that appeared to be aimed at Qaddafi foes.
At least one woman was killed and three teen-age boys were wounded today when gunmen opened fire on demonstrators in a Lebanese Palestinian refugee camp, according to witnesses who said the shots were fired by Israeli-supported militiamen. An Israeli account of violence inside the camp said two women were shot dead, but it did not blame Israelis or Israeli-backed militia for the shooting. The demonstrators were protesting an Israeli sweep of the Ein el-Hilweh camp here on Wednesday. In the sweep the Israelis blew up some houses, seized weapons and arrested young men in an action that left 20 people injured, residents and United Nations relief officials said. In Beirut, sniper and rocket-propelled grenade fire kept tensions high along the Green Line. The police reported no casualties.
In the camp incident, residents said, members of the Home Guard militia opened fire in a confrontation with the demonstrators. A United Nations relief official, Bernard Mills, said the militiamen were arresting four youths when they clashed with the demonstrators. The militiamen again fired their guns when protesters marched to the camp’s gate, residents said.
Pakistani officials told Vice President Bush today that two Soviet MIG’s and two helicopter gunships had bombed an Afghan village seven miles west of a Pakistani border post 90 minutes before Mr. Bush inspected the post. “Oh boy, this brings the Afghan war close to home, pretty much,” Mr. Bush said when Colonel Azmat Riaz of the Khyber Rifles border troopers told him of the attack at Lalpura. General Mohammad Zia ul-Haq, the President of Pakistan, and Foreign Minister Sahabzada Yaqub Khan were with Mr. Bush. “Explosions and the noise of bombs were heard after the Soviet MIG’s and gunship helicopters were spotted,” Col. Riaz said.
A 19-year-old American who went looking for buried treasure in Vietnam and was imprisoned for 11 months was freed today. “I feel great,” Frederick Graham of Belmont, California, said when he arrived in Bangkok on his way home from Hồ Chí Minh City. Mr. Graham was captured last June off the Vietnamese island of Phú Quốc along with a British companion, Richard Knight, 47. They were looking for treasure they thought was buried by the 17th-century pirate Captain Kidd. Mr. Graham was released after his family paid a $10,000 fine. Mr. Knight, who has been unable to raise the money for his release, was still being held.
Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos, facing a possible election setback, ordered new measures to revive his country’s sagging economy. They include a 5% cut in government spending and a 3% increase in petroleum prices-designed to decrease consumption and reduce the oil-import bill. An independent watchdog group said that with 58% of the votes counted, the ruling party was leading in 89 contests and the opposition and independents in 83, with 11 still undetermined. The government-run Philippine News Agency reported that Marcos’ party has won 120 seats.
A leader of the Philippine opposition said today that opposition leaders, candidates and workers had been told to use citizens’ arrests if necessary to prevent fraud in the counting of votes from the elections on Monday for the National Assembly. Salvador H. Laurel, president of the United Nationalist Democratic Organization, said members of the group had been advised to meet “force with force” if they encountered resistance from local election officials caught cheating. He accused President Ferdinand E. Marcos and the Philippine military of trying to alter the results of several contests. No official breakdown has been issued, but Mr. Marcos said today that his candidates were winning in about 140 of the 183 Assembly races.
The White House bypasses Congress and exceeds spending limits set by Congress in financing military and intelligence activities in Central America, according to Administration officials, members of Congress and classified documents. The officials and documents revealed that the methods involve accounting procedures and circuitous transfers that disguise both the value and quantity of military aid.
American policy in Central America was criticized in a new study by the Inter-American Dialogue, an organization of 50 prominent United States and Latin politicians, diplomats, businessmen and scholars. The group said that the situation in Central America was deteriorating rapidly and that American military involvement was a major cause.
A trial date of May 23 was set for five Salvadoran national guardsmen accused of killing four American churchwomen. A list of potential jurors was selected from a black bowl, but the names will remain secret, Judge Bernardo Rauda Murcia said. The women, three nuns and a layworker, were killed on their way from the airport to San Salvador on December 2, 1980. Their bodies were found in a shallow grave.
Mexican President Miguel de la Madrid returned home from his first official visit to the United States and said, “The interests of Mexico have been protected.” De la Madrid plans to make a full report to the nation today. De la Madrid and President Reagan held an hour-long breakfast meeting before the Mexican leader left Washington.
A nerve gas weapon was opposed by the House. Ignoring a last-minute appeal by President Reagan, the representatives voted overwhelmingly to strike $95 million earmarked for binary nerve gas from a $208 billion military authorization. The vote, 247 to 179, came on an amendment sponsored by Representative Ed Bethune, an Arkansas Republican. The money was eliminated from a $208 billion authorization bill for the Defense Department as the House debated the legislation for a third day and then recessed for the weekend. In addition, Congressional officials said today that a Senate subcommittee had given Mr. Reagan another setback by approving funds in a closed session for only 21 MX missiles, instead of the 40 the President had requested for the 1985 fiscal year.
President Reagan is trying for the third year to win approval from Congress for renewed production of a new form of nerve gases known as binaries. The name derives from the fact that the gas is composed of two inert compounds that become lethal when combined during delivery. The United States has voluntarily halted production of nerve gases since 1969, but still retains large stockpiles of chemical weapons. The President has won a few victories on the issue, mainly in the Senate, but Congress has never appropriated funds for nerve gas production. The military bill contained $95 million to produce component parts for chemical weapons, such as artillery shells. But the legislation stipulated that actual production of the completed weapons would occur only after a Presidential commission studied the matter and made a report to Congress.
A deficit reduction plan passed in the Senate after five weeks of debate. The “down payment” plan is designed to save $142 billion through 1987. The crucial test vote on the package was 65 to 32 to approve the Republican leadership’s amendment attaching spending cuts to a previously approved increase in taxes. Less than half an hour later, the entire package was approved on a 74-to-23 vote, with 52 Republicans and 22 Democrats voting for final passage and one Republican and 22 Democrats voting against the package, which now goes to conference with the House of Representatives. The vote did not reflect enthusiasm for the plan; both Republicans and Democrats had tried unsuccessfully to further reduce the deficits with more spending cuts and tax increases.
President Reagan holds meetings regarding television advertising spots for his campaign.
President Reagan receives news that the deficit is going to be smaller than many originally anticipated.
President Reagan holds a meeting with Dick Wirthlin.
Senator Gary Hart began his New Jersey campaigning today by visiting two toxic-waste dump sites in the state that are among the country’s most hazardous, according to the Federal Environmental Protection Agency. Standing on the periphery of a 210- acre landfill in Mount Holly with the rutted, clay-red earthen berm as a backdrop, Mr. Hart said that New Jersey had been “plagued” by a lack of leadership on the part of the Reagan Administration in stemming the flow of hazardous wastes and speeding the cleanup of dump sites. Acknowledging that former Vice President Walter F. Mondale, his major rival for the Democratic Presidential nomination, had taken similar positions on clean air, clean water and conservation, Mr. Hart said Mr. Mondale had not matched his own record as one of the major initiators of legislation in the field.
Later, at the 20-acre Kin-Buc landfill in Edison, the scene over the last three years of efforts to remove millions of gallons of toxic liquids laced with polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCB’s, Hart’s language was stronger. “Ronald Reagan doesn’t care about the toxic-waste problem,” he said. He noted that the Reagan Administration had favored deregulation in the area and was now trying to delay Congressional action to re-authorize major programs dealing with environmental quality.
Reversing policy, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that unions must show majority support among workers to gain bargaining rights, regardless of unlawful conduct by the company, including discriminatory discharge, threats of discharge and retaliatory imposition of harsher working conditions to stop union organizing. The 4–1 decision was the latest in a series of policy reversals issued by the NLRB since appointees of President Reagan took control of the independent agency that oversees enforcement of federal labor laws.
In a series of unusual transactions over the last three years, the campaign committee of Sen. Roger W. Jepsen (R-Iowa) transferred more than $41,000 to the incumbent senator personally, to his private Senate account and to pay Senate restaurant bills, according to documents filed with the Federal Election Commission. The Jepsen ’84 Committee reportedly mingled a variety of funds controlled by Jepsen and may raise sticky tax issues for him personally. But the transactions do not violate Senate ethics rules and fall into an unclear area under federal election laws. “It’s not his money. It’s just for expenses,” Jepsen spokesman Jim Sims said. The Des Moines Register said that Jepsen — who faces a tough reelection challenge from Democratic Rep. Tom Harkin — owes federal income tax on the money for 1981, 1982, 1983 and 1984 under one Internal Revenue Service ruling. Jepsen disagrees.
Big withdrawals from the Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company prompted the federal government to provide the biggest aid package it has ever assembled — $2 billion in new capital and an expanded line of credit for $5.5 billion. The assistance will continue until a permanent solution to the troubled bank’s problems is achieved or until a buyer can be found to take it over. Also, Continental said, the Federal Reserve System has agreed to meet any “extraordinary liquidity requirements.”
An ex-Wall Street Journal reporter and four other individuals were charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission with engaging in a scheme of “fraud and deceit” by trading securities on the basis of advance knowledge about articles in the Journal. A 55-page civil complaint alleges that, by using the information provided by the reporter, R. Foster Winans, the defendants realized profits of $909,000.
Japanese-Americans were rebuffed by a Federal District judge who dismissed a suit brought on behalf of the 120,000 people who were removed from their homes and detained in camps in World War II. The judge, Louis F. Oberdorfer, ruled that a six- year statute of limitations precluded the filing of such a suit.
Ten Ku Klux Klansmen, including top leaders of the hooded organization in Alabama, were charged in Birmingham with federal civil rights violations in a bloody 1979 clash with black protest marchers and police in Decatur. A lawyer who filed a suit that led the U.S Justice Department to reopen the investigation last July called it “the largest indictment of Klan leaders ever.” The indictment charges nine of the Klansmen with conspiring to disrupt a Southern Christian Leadership Conference march held in support of a black man charged with raping a white woman.
The emotional state of battered women should be considered when they stand trial on charges of killing men who continually beat them, the Washington state Supreme Court ruled in Olympia. The unanimous decision reversed the 1980 second-degree murder conviction of Sherry Allery, who pleaded self-defense in the shooting death of her husband, Wayne Allery, and ordered a new trial.
A bipartisan group of House members introduced a bill that would allow a person to exempt from federal taxes up to $5,000 of interest earned each year from a passbook savings account. The aim, sponsors said, is to encourage greater passbook savings which would lower lenders’ cost of money and, in turn, permit a reduction in interest rates charged for mortgage, consumer and business loans.
Huge amounts of cocaine are being smuggled into the United States from Latin America aboard small, private aircraft, according to senior Reagan Administration officials. The Customs Service wants the Defense Department to take over all responsibility for detecting the planes, generating a major dispute.
Researchers announced they had achieved a major advance in particle beam fusion research by focusing an intense beam of ions to the smallest size ever — roughly a pinhead. Scientists at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, have been working for years to duplicate in the laboratory the process of fusion, the energy source that powers the sun. Recent experiments greatly increase confidence that ion beams can be used successfully to ignite a fusion pellet as scheduled in tests to begin in 1988, the scientists said.
Marvin Creamer becomes the first known person to sail around the world without navigational instruments, arriving back in Cape May, New Jersey. Creamer and the crew of his 36-foot boat, Globe Star, circumnavigated the globe without a compass, sextant, watch, or other instrument. The ship spent 511 days at sea. As general guides, Creamer observed the sun and stars, currents, and occasionally the regional biological setting.
Mai Shanley, 21, of New Mexico is crowned the 33rd Miss USA. Her mother is ethnically Chinese and is from Taiwan, while her father is Irish and was born in Ireland. She also edged out two former Miss America state titleholders in the top five, Kelly Anderson (Miss West Virginia 1982) and Desiree Denise Daniels (Miss Tennessee 1982), who placed second and third, respectively.
In the 3rd inning at Cincinnati, Mario Soto strikes out four Cub batters (Tom Veryzer, Dick Ruthven, Bob Dernier and Ryne Sandberg) en route to a 5–3 Reds victory. Eric Davis pinch hits for the Reds wearing no number. Like Joe Horlen in 1961, the only road uniform available has no number.
In the Padres 5–4 win over the Expos, Alan Wiggins has 5 stolen bases, tying a National League record.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1142.27 (-10.89).
Born:
Lena Waithe, American screenwriter, actress and producer (“Master of None”), in Chicago, Illinois.
Nate Raduns, NHL right wing (Philadelphia Flyers), in Sauk Rapids, Minnesota.
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