Bulgaria’s secret services recruited the man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981 in a plot to weaken the Solidarity movement in Poland, according to a report filed in court by an Italian State Prosecutor. The report was based on about 25,000 pages of documentation gathered by Judge Ilario Martella in his investigation of the attempt to assassinate the Pope. It asks for the indictment and trial of three Bulgarians and six Turks, including Mehmet Ali Ağca, who has been convicted of shooting the Pope on May 13, 1981.
Although the K.G.B., the Soviet intelligence and internal security agency, is not mentioned by name, the report, speaking of the turmoil in Poland, says that “some political figure of great power took note of this most grave situation and, mindful of the vital needs of the Eastern bloc, decided it was necessary to kill Pope Wojtyla.” The Prosecutor’s report makes these additional points:
- Mr. Ağca was promised more than $400,000 by the Bulgarians to kill the Pope but has not received it.
- The man who was supposed to help Mr. Ağca escape was spirited out of Italy in a sealed diplomatic truck of the Bulgarian Embassy. The truck was sent to Bulgaria under a diplomatic procedure not used before or since by the Bulgarians. Since then, no one has reported seeing the man, Oral Çelik, a leader of Turkey’s neo-Nazi Gray Wolves and a close friend of Mr. Ağca.
- Mr. Ağca did not start to confess until a year after the shooting. He apparently concluded that he had been abandoned by the Turks and Bulgarians who he thought would manage to obtain his freedom.
- The authorities think Mr. Ağca’s testimony against the Turks and Bulgarians is accurate, despite his earlier lies, because such a preponderance of the details he provided have been independently confirmed in the investigation.
Soviet citizens spend more time in queues for basic goods than they did 10 years ago, and the strain of household shopping is a major cause of domestic conflict. the Soviet newspaper Pravda said. Soviets now spend a total of 37 billion hours a year standing in line, compared with 30 billion in the mid-1970s, the newspaper said. That means the average Soviet adult spends about 190 hours a year in lines.
President Reagan attended summit sessions. Easier credit terms for some third world countries were pledged by the leaders of the major industrial democracies at the conclusion of their economic summit conference in London. The leaders also promised to continue their own hardline policies against inflation and voiced their support of “precise commitments” to the “nonuse of force” by both the East and West. In a long economic communique and three shorter political statements issued at the end of the 10th economic summit meeting here, President Reagan and six other government leaders touched on most of the issues they had discussed, but there were signs that in several important cases they had been unable to agree on specifics.
As the leaders concluded their deliberations at Lancaster House, tens of thousands of antinuclear demonstrators marched through the streets of central London, carrying banners and placards denouncing American policy. The organizers said more than 150,000 people took part. They were kept well away from the conference sites by the police, but traffic was paralyzed and more than 170 people were arrested for obstruction during the march and two smaller protests.
President Reagan showed allied leaders a model of a permanent manned space station today and invited them to join in the project. Mr. Reagan told Congress in January that he would ask for $8 billion to build the station, which is scheduled to be launched in the early 1990’s to conduct research into the peaceful uses of space. United States officials said they believed Congress would provide the money. Countries making substantial investments in the project would have priority in working with the United States in space research. Mr. Reagan briefed the leaders of Britain, France, West Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan on the project this morning.
The President and First Lady enjoy a black tie dinner hosted by the Queen of England.
For President Reagan, the London economic summit conference marked the culmination of a 10-day European trip that White House strategists count as one of their most successful efforts to project Mr. Reagan’s strengths as a leader. It also brought support for his Administration’s approach to the Soviet Union, though something less than the full vindication he had sought for his economic policies. In the view of his aides, Mr. Reagan has in effect campaigned on three different levels in his visit to Ireland, France and the economic conference in London.
First, he was aiming a message to the American electorate that he has come of age as a statesman, and he used a rich array of backdrops to reinforce the point. Second, Mr. Reagan was eager to assure Europeans about the strengths of the American commitment to Europe, after two trips in six months to Asia in which he and other top officials explicitly said that the future of the United States lay most of all in the Pacific. And third, Mr. Reagan said repeatedly this week that he was sincere in asking the Soviet Union to resume arms-control negotiations but that he felt no particular pressure from Western allies to make specific concessions to get them restarted.
Tens of thousands of striking coal miners and their families marched through Edinburgh today, bringing the center of the Scottish capital to a standstill. A 13-week-old coal dispute has left three-quarters of Britain’s 175 mines idle as coal miners in Scotland and northern England protest plans by the state-run National Coal Board to close 20 to 25 mines by March 31, 1985. The peaceful march today wound through the city center to a rally at Holyrood Park. The police estimated that more than 30,000 demonstrators joined the procession. Mick McGahey, leader of Scotland’s miners, asserted that 100,000 people, including supporters from rail and transport unions, attended the rally.
“Stand firm and united and we will win,” Mr. McGahey told the crowd. Jimmy Knapp, leader of the National Union of Railwaymen, pledged that his members would stop coal shipments in Nottingham in central England, the second-largest coal mining area in Britain and the center of resistance to the strike by about 50,000 rebel miners.
In Paris, two men and a woman have been charged with having intelligence contacts with agents of a foreign power, believed to be the Soviet Union. Judge Bruno Laroche allowed the three French citizens to remain free after their indictment on Friday, but ordered them to surrender their passports and report regularly to the police. The action followed an investigation by French security officials into reports of the passing to Soviet agents of technical and commercial documents involving the aeronautics industry. The information was not considered sensitive. The three were identified as Bernard Godefroy, 57 years old, Claude Pejon, 57, and Mr. Pejon’s wife, Marie-Paule Simon, 42.
Tens of thousands of Israelis gathered in downtown Tel Aviv to demonstrate against Israel’s two-year-old occupation of southern Lebanon and Jewish extremism in the occupied West Bank of the Jordan River. The demonstration. sponsored by the anti-war group Peace Now, was Israel’s largest such rally since February. Most of the protest signs were critical of the activities of ultranationalist Jewish West Bank settlers, 27 of whom have been arrested on charges of terrorism against Palestinians.
Sikh terrorists were held responsible for six more slayings reported in Punjab Saturday but the day was one of the least violent in the Indian state in the last four months.
The Philippine government raised the official price ceilings on many basic items as part of an austerity program, sending up the cost of eating and washing by at least 14%. Trying to deal with chronic foreign debt and other economic problems, the government has allowed the peso to float against the dollar, resulting in a 22% devaluation. Prices of gasoline and cooking gas rose an average of 20%, and the costs of price-controlled items such as rice, eggs, fish, soap, and sugar were raised.
Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos ordered prosecutors to speed up the murder trials of eight Roman Catholic churchmen after two priests rejected a pardon that would have required them to immediately leave the country. Marcos issued the order after Father Brian Gore of Australia, Father Niall O’Brien of Ireland and six Philippine church workers refused the pardon offer. The churchmen-charged with the ambush slaying of Pablo Sola. mayor of a town in Negros Occidental province-say the charges were contrived because they had been teaching peasants to fight abuses by soldiers and plantation owners.
Despite grumbling by Hondurans that they are being overrun by American and Salvadoran troops training there, joint military maneuvers with U.S. troops will continue indefinitely, said Gen. Walter Lopez. Honduran armed forces leader. Lopez made the statement at the close of Grenadier I, the first U.S.-Honduran maneuvers ever joined by Salvadoran troops. The United States, he said, “is the most powerful champion of world democracy, and its advanced military technology, its tactical and strategic concepts and the quality of (its) armament” help its allies modernize their armies.
A 30-day nationwide state of emergency and suspension of civil rights began in Peru as the civilian government sought to end a week of violent strikes. At least 50 people were arrested. As national police went on alert, the government branded as subversive tens of thousands of teachers and civil servants who have been on strike since Monday. Workers refusing to abandon their demonstration threatened to broaden their protest with mass hunger strikes and seizure of government offices.
Oscar Bonifaz Gutierrez, a Christian Democratic Congressman and former Commerce Minister, was sworn in as the third Finance Minister this year in Bolivia. He succeeds Flavio Machicado, who resigned two weeks ago in protest of the Government’s handling of a strike by employees of the Central Bank. Mr. Bonifaz, a lawyer and mining company manager, was the Minister of Industry and Commerce for 20 days earlier this year, but resigned under pressure from unions after he decided to raise food prices.
Argentina’s new center-left democratic government has shipped $2.5 million worth of arms to Honduras this year, with the arms intended eventually for use by rebels fighting the left-wing Nicaraguan regime, military and government sources in Buenos Aires told the Washington Post. The arms deliveries-made to fulfill earlier contracts-took place despite the move by President Raul Alfonsin. soon after his inauguration last December, to end Argentina’s involvement in anti-leftist military activities in Central America and to support the Contadora Group in seeking a negotiated settlement.
South-West African leaders were held by policemen. Security officers detained 30 leaders and supporters of the internal wing of the insurgent South-West Africa People’s Organization, which is battling South Africa’s control of the territory.
Queen Regent Ntombi of Swaziland dismissed four top officials of her Government on Friday as an investigation continued into a customs fraud case said to involve $10.4 million in this mountain kingdom on the eastern border of South Africa. Prime Minister Bhekimpi Dlamini announced the dismissals of the Foreign Minister, Finance Minister, army commander and police chief. The statement gave no reason for the action, and there was no indication whether the officials were suspected of involvement in the fraud or were dismissed because of the slow progress of the investigation.
Senator Gary Hart will not drop out of the race for the Democratic Presidential nomination, he said in Denver. He reminded delegates that under party rules they are free to switch from Walter F. Mondale to his side. But, in an apparent acknowledgement of the urging by party leaders that he tone down the conflict with Mr. Mondale, the Colorado Senator said, “I will do nothing to hurt the Democratic Party and I will do everything to achieve a Democratic victory in 1984.” In a carefully prepared speech delivered to about 3,000 delegates attending the state Democratic convention here, Mr. Hart avoided direct criticism of Mr. Mondale by name, another signal that he was shifting his campaign emphasis away from personal confrontation and toward broad issues. There were implied criticisms of the former Vice President, however, as Mr. Hart sounded the main themes of his candidacy, saying that the party needed new leadership and to break the hold of interest groups.
In a three-day convention, the National Right to Life Committee has affirmed its dedication to seeking President Reagan’s re-election as a means of achieving its goal of banning abortion. “There is no question as to the major issue in front of us: the fall election,” Dr. John Willke, the group’s new president, said at the convention, which ended today. A videotaped address by Mr. Reagan and a prayer breakfast led by the Rev. Jerry Falwell of Moral Majority were among highlights of the committee’s 12th annual convention, which drew more than 1,000 participants. Politics and the Presidential election dominated the convention, with many sessions aimed at helping the 2,000 local chapters become more active politically. “The choice is very clear-cut,” Dr. Willke said. “It is Mr. Reagan.”
Mr. Reagan has consistently supported efforts to reverse, or override by Constitutional amendment, the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. In contrast, abortion rights have been endorsed by the leading Democratic contenders, former Vice President Walter F. Mondale, Senator Gary Hart of Colorado and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, as well as the Democratic party leadership. Furthermore, the Democratic candidates and party have expressed support for passage of a Federal equal rights amendment, which Mr. Reagan opposes.
Domestic programs have survived despite budget cuts made under the Reagan Administration, according to a study by the Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton University. The study found that most of the programs begun by the Federal Government in the last three decades were intact because in many cases states replaced significant amounts of the lost Federal money as the programs were placed under state control. A major exception, the study said, was the program that extended welfare benefits to the working poor.
Cutbacks in Medicare and other major changes in Federal health programs could follow negotiations in the House and Senate this week that will attempt to resolve differences in deficit-reducing plans passed by the two houses.
Directors of the company that publishes U.S. News & World Report have agreed to sell the firm to a Boston real estate developer who owns The Atlantic magazine, a source close to the company confirmed. The announcement of the sale of the weekly news magazine to Mortimer Zuckerman, who reportedly will pay between $150 million and $200 million, is expected to be made on Monday. Executives at the firm have said they intend to put the sale proposal to a vote by employees. U.S. News & World Report. with a circulation of more than 2.1 million, is the nation’s third-largest weekly news magazine.
A federal judge refused to dismiss the government’s lawsuit against General Motors Corp. for allegedly marketing 1980 X-cars even though it knew of safety problems stemming from a defect that could cause the rear wheels to lock. General Motors, which has not yet presented its defense, argued that the government had failed to contradict GM’s contention that its engineers “felt the cars were safe to be released to the public.” U.S. District Judge Thomas Jackson ruled in Washington that there was not “such a failure of proof” as to merit dismissal. The suit seeks the recall of all 1.1 million 1980 X-cars and imposition of a $4-million fine.
A judge delayed a scheduled Wednesday execution and ordered a competency hearing for a Tennessee inmate who has resisted attempts to stall his execution. U.S. District Judge John T. Nixon said evidence shows that nerve-calming drugs were given to Ronald Richard Harries, 33, in prison, raising questions about his ability to make his own decision to drop his appeals of a 1981 first-degree murder conviction. There was no immediate word from the state attorney general’s office whether an appeal of the stay would be filed. Nixon set the hearing for Wednesday. He ordered the state to take Harries off all medication.
Lawyers for Joel Caulk, a convicted rapist, are to argue before the New Hampshire Supreme Court on Monday that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution prevents the state from depriving Mr. Caulk of the “liberty” to die without due process of law. Mr. Caulk has said he wants to starve himself to death. The lawyers say they also will contend that the First Amendment and the New Hampshire Constitution embrace “freedom of expression in conduct and in the mind” as well as freedom of religion, speech and the press. Mr. Caulk, a native of Porterville, California, stopped eating February 26. He weighed 180 pounds when he entered prison. He now weighs 123. On May 25, when the state was granted its request to force-feed the prisoner, Mr. Caulk told a Superior Court judge, “The reason for dying is simple: I’m tired.”
Sixty Haitians who survived the capsizing of their Florida-bound sailboat were returned to Haiti aboard a Coast Guard cutter, and a spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in Washington said the survivors would not be persecuted in their homeland. Haitian and U.S. Embassy officials were on hand for their arrival in Port-au-Prince. At least 70 persons were on the sailboat, which capsized Wednesday night as INS agents attempted to board. Seven Haitians drowned.
The Olympic torch seems to ignite some special feelings tied less to the Olympics and more to patriotism as it is carried across the nation to its destination in Los Angeles. The crowds that gather when the torch is passed on to another runner are emotional and they sing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” or the national anthem, and sometimes instead they let out a prolonged cheer.
Computer information about people may be outpacing legal and ethical safeguards against misuse of the information, Congressional committees, academic experts and business organizations fear. The growing concern about the possible misuse of the computers now centers on their possible use as a dossier bank by political groups, business concerns and law- enforcement agencies.
NASA suffers a launch vehicle failure launching Intelsat 509. An Atlas-Centaur rocket carrying a $30-million communications satellite tumbled out of control over the Atlantic minutes after liftoff from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, and officials said there was no way to save the satellite. The rocket and satellite, still attached, were orbiting about 193 miles above the Earth. National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials reported. well below the intended orbit of 22,300 miles. The Intelsat-5 communications satellite was designed to handle 12,000 telephone calls simultaneously plus two color television channels. Officials said eventually the rocket and satellite would burn up from friction because of the low orbit, but could not estimate when. The spacecraft’s owner, the 108-nation International Telecommunications Satellite Organization, paid NASA $60 million for the launch. John Gibbs, Atlas-Centaur project manager, told a news conference that officials did not know what went wrong. He said the National Aeronautics and Space Administration would have to analyze data relayed from the rocket in order to determine the cause.
An anti-cancer drug has proven “very effective” in treating rheumatoid arthritis, according to a study presented at the American Rheumatism Assn.’s annual meeting in Minneapolis. The drug, Methotrexate, helped reduce pain and swelling in more than half of the arthritis sufferers who used it in an 18-week nationwide trial, said Dr. John R. Ward, a physician at the University of Utah. Rheumatoid arthritis, which afflicts 6.5 million adults in the United States, is the most common type of crippling arthritis. Ward said.
Concerned about the treatment of animals at the Atlanta Zoo, the Milwaukee Zoo has removed two monkeys it lent the facility more than three years ago, a Milwaukee Zoo official said. The Atlanta Zoo lost its accreditation in March and has been the target of criticism from professional organizations, including the Bronx Zoo, which asked for the return of two of its animals two weeks ago. The Milwaukee monkeys, a pair of wonderoo macaques, were sent to the Atlanta Zoo on a breeding loan in November 1980, said Kerry Bublitz of the Milwaukee Zoo. The monkeys’ status was evaluated last month and it was decided to send them to a facility in Knoxville, Tennessee, Miss Bublitz said. She cited the Atlanta Zoo’s financial problems and concerns over what might happen should the monkeys need medical care.
A man who won a $4.4 million state lottery jackpot in September now faces charges of writing bad checks, the police said today. Raymond Lenox of Philadelphia, who owns two restaurants, collected $168,452.20 last fall as the first of 21 annual installments on an $8.8 million jackpot he split with another bettor Sept. 20, a lottery spokesman, Michael Keyser, said today. Detectives said the checks involved the purchase of a piano and carpeting, but they declined to provide details about the amount of money involved. Mr. Lenox, who is 40 years old, was arraigned on fraud charges Wednesday and allowed to sign his own bond on $100,000 bail. “I figured he was good for the money,” Municipal Judge Alan Silberstein said.
Doctors in Racine, Wisconsin, say 15-year-old Kristen Rowland, who watched an eclipse of the sun for 90 minutes, will not recover the loss of 75 percent of the vision in her left eye and 50 percent in her right eye. “I didn’t think it could happen to me,” said Miss Rowland, who had reclined out-of-doors May 30 to watch the sun as it was partly eclipsed by the moon. The Milwaukee Sentinel quoted her as saying she felt no immediate effects, but when she went to bed that night, she saw white spots before her eyes. The next day in school she told a friend she could see the friend’s arms, legs and head, but nothing in between. An ophthalmologist looked at Kristen’s eyes and determined she had burned the part of the eye that controls the center portion of vision, and that blisters in each eye were preventing light impulses from being received properly.
Donald Duck’s 50th birthday is celebrated at Disneyland. Donald Duck celebrated his 50th birthday here today by being named an honorary Marine and marching down Disneyland’s Main Street U.S.A. in a shower of ticker tape. The ceremonies include inspection of the troops at the El Toro Marine Corps Base and a visit by Clarence (Ducky) Nash, 79 years old, who is Donald Duck’s voice. A rally and parade were being held at Disneyland, featuring Donald, Daisy Duck, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Goofy and other cartoon colleagues.
Weird Al Yankovic gives a live performance at Starlight Amphitheater.
Cyndi Lauper gets her first U.S. #1 hit with “Time After Time.”
Polygram’s Hanover, Germany plant produces its 10-millionth CD.
Jurgen Hingsen of West Germany sets record for decathlon, 8,798 pts.
Greg Luzinski becomes the 10th player in Major League history to hit grand slams in consecutive games when he connects off the Twins Mike Walters in the 7th inning of an 8–4 White Sox victory. The previous day, Luzinski sparked the Sox to a 6–1 win with a first-inning grand slam off Frank Viola.
Pete O’Brien’s bizarre sacrifice fly gives Texas a 4–3, 12-inning win over Oakland. With the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the 12th, A’s left fielder Garry Hancock catches O’Brien’s deep fly ball, then intentionally drops it when he realizes he is in foul territory. The umpires rule that the catch had been made, however, and Wayne Tolleson trots home from third base with the winning run.
For the second time in a week, Orioles Mike Flanagan beats the Tigers, this time shutting them, 4–0, out on 7 hits. The Tigers stay in front by 5½ games. Carl Willis, drafted on the 23rd round last year, debuts with 2 scoreless innings. Willis is one of the lowest drafted players to be one of the first three from his class to debut.
116th Belmont: Laffit Pincay Jr aboard Swale wins in 2:27.2.
French Open Women’s Tennis: Martina Navratilova beats Chris Evert 6–3, 6–1; 2nd women in Open Era to hold all 4 Grand Slam titles at once.
Born:
Yulieski Gourriel, Cuban MLB first baseman and third baseman (Houston Astros, Miami Marlins), in Sancti Spíritus, Cuba.
Matt Gutierrez, NFL quarterback (New England Patriots, Kansas City Chiefs), in Concord, California.
Kaleth Morales, Colombian vallenato folk music singer and songwriter (“Vivo en el Limbo” – ‘I Live in the Limbo’), in Valledupar, Cesar, Colombia (d. 2005).
History Diaries 