The South Korean airliner that was shot down by a Soviet fighter last September 1 with the loss of all 269 on board was participating in an intelligence-gathering mission involving the U.S. space shuttle Challenger, a British magazine claimed. According to a report in the London Observer, the magazine, Defense Attache, stated that the airliner purposely flew over Soviet territory to test the Soviet air defense system. A White House spokesman said there was “nothing to the story.”
[Ed: Dezinformatsia. The Soviets could always find someone to spread it.]
Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger has sent a classified report to Congress saying West European defense spending is falling well below NATO’s goal of a 3% annual real increase, North Atlantic Treaty Organization sources said. One source said the report showed West European military spending rose by an average of just over 1% after inflation last year. The “burden-sharing report has provided fresh ammunition for senators who want to link the continued presence of 350,000 U.S. troops in Western Europe to greater defense efforts by the Atlantic Alliance.
Soviet nuclear warheads outnumber those of the United States, according to a new Defense Department estimate, which was obtained by advocates of arms control. The Defense Department estimate indicates that the Soviet Union has about 34,000 nuclear warheads for its bombers, long-range and medium-range missiles, artillery and cruise missiles compared with 26,000 for the United States. The Soviet Union’s arsenal of nuclear warheads caught up with the United States total five years ago, the Pentagon report said.
Jordan’s King Hussein offered to send troops to aid Iraq in the Persian Gulf War if the Baghdad regime asks for the help. “If there was a need, we would send them (to Iraq).” Hussein said in an interview on Britain’s Independent Television Network. “We stand on principle (in supporting Iraq) and stand with a country we believe responsive to every attempt to negotiate a settlement…. ” Hussein added. Iran, meanwhile, rejected an Iraqi charge that its forces bombarded residential areas of Iraq in violation of a limited truce agreement.
Twenty-two Jews accused of committing terrorist acts against Arabs in the occupied West Bank went on trial in Jerusalem today after a courtroom protest against the presence of an Arab lawyer. The lawyer, Darwish Nasser, said he was observing on behalf of former Mayors Karim Khalaf of Ramallah and Ibrahim Tawil of El Bireh, whom some of the defendants were charged with trying to murder in 1980. The courtroom outburst occurred shortly before the judges entered the room. An army officer in the visitors’ gallery said he recognized the lawyer as a Palestine Liberation Organization suspect he had once interrogated.
After the judges took their places, Yosef Yeshurun, one of the dozen defense attorneys, asked that the Arab be removed from the room. The defense attorneys then pressed for a postponement of the trial. They said their clients could not expect a fair trial because of the news coverage. The court reserved its decision on the various requests. The Justice Ministry spokesman said later the trial would probably continue after the summer recess in July and August.
An Afghan resistance leader said more than 1,000 Afghan civilians have been killed in the past two weeks by a Soviet offensive around Herat in western Afghanistan. Burhanuddin Rabbani, who heads the Jamiat-i-Islami, regarded as a major guerrilla force in Afghanistan, said at a news conference in Pakistan that 1,500 homes in 50 villages have been destroyed in the attack by 15.000 Soviet troops and in bombing by Soviet aircraft. There was no confirmation of his account, but Kabul radio reported heavy fighting in the Herat region near the Iran border. Rabbani called the attacks at Herat and in the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul “very serious and very catastrophic.”
Pakistan protested to Afghanistan today about an air attack that killed six Afghan children at a border crossing. The Foreign Office said two jets bombed a group of Afghans who lived in a refugee camp in Pakistan as they approached an Afghan checkpoint to cross into Pakistan Saturday.
Thousands of Sikh worshipers in India donned black turbans and shawls in a day of protest against the June 6 military assault on the Golden Temple in Amritsar, their most sacred shrine. No violence or arrests were reported. The Indian government, apparently fearing that Sikhs abroad might return to join the campaign for Sikh autonomy, required citizens of all Commonwealth countries to obtain visas to enter India beginning today.
About 4,000 people in Japan demonstrated today against United States plans to equip Navy vessels with cruise missiles as an American nuclear-powered submarine capable of carrying such missiles was berthed at Yokosuka. The police said a leader of the march was arrested for directing about 30 demonstrators to stage a “die in” on the street during the march. The 3,640-ton nuclear submarine USS Tunny arrived here last Thursday. It is one of 37 Sturgeon-class submarines, 22 of which are to be equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles capable of carrying either nuclear or conventional warheads.
Moroccan troops pushing eastward in their eight-year war against Polisario Front guerrillas are now in full control of Hawza, a deserted village once held by the Polisario Front as its provisional capital. For the first time, foreign correspondents were invited this week by the Moroccan authorities to visit the latest stretch of the defense wall they built in April in the former Spanish colony. A 10-foot-high sand rampart protected by landmines and electronic surveillance equipment stretches 200 miles from Zag in the east to the previous wall skirting Smara. Colonel Ahmed Wali, in charge of the central sector of the wall, said Morocco lost 38 killed and 100 wounded during the construction. Rebel losses were about 250 dead and wounded, he said.
Voting for the European Parliament dealt defeats for both the left and right, with the French left apparently the biggest loser, according to computer projections and partial results. Government parties, both of the left and right, suffered defeats in balloting for the European Parliament in the 10 member countries of the Common Market, according to computer projections and partial results released today. The most striking loser appeared to be the French left, with the French Communist Party making its poorest showing since World War II, according to the projections. In Britain, the Conservatives lost seats to the Labor Party, and in West Germany, the Christian Democrats also lost ground. The biggest successes were also divided between left and right. In Italy, computer projections indicated that the Communist Party, benefiting from a strong sympathy vote after the death of its leader, Enrico Berlinguer, was running even with the Christian Democrats, raising the possibility of the Communists becoming the country’s biggest vote-getter in a national election for the first time.
Poles seemed unenthusiastic as they voted for local councils throughout the country in the first election since martial law was imposed in December 1981. The atmosphere was calm, and the clandestine calls in Warsaw for demonstrations were overwhelmingly ignored. Only two perfunctory protests were observed as legions of plainclothesmen maintained vigilant patrols at the polling places and in the streets. The louder appeals for an election boycott, made directly and obliquely by influential opponents of the Government, appear to have been heeded though it remained unclear in what measure.
Mexico retracted a statement issued last week saying it has agreed to act as an impartial observer at proposed talks between Nicaragua and the United States. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said that “no presence of any kind has been defined for Mexico” in such talks and that Mexico will simply use its influence to try to get the two countries to meet. The possibility of U.S.-Nicaraguan talks grew out of the June 1 visit to Managua by Secretary of State George P. Shultz, a visit promoted by Mexican President Miguel de la Madrid during his May visit to Washington.
Daniel Ortega Saavedra, head of the Nicaraguan junta, arrived in Moscow today on a working visit, the official Soviet press agency Tass reported. It said Mr. Ortega and other Nicaraguan officials were met at the Moscow airport by Boris N. Ponomarev, a nonvoting member of the Politburo. The agency gave no other details.
Latin American leaders expressed concern for the safety of Uruguayan opposition leader Wilson Ferreira Aldunate, 65, who was arrested by the military government as he returned from 11 years of exile to take up the presidency of his party. The president of Venezuela and spokesmen for Bolivia and Argentina criticized the arrest and voiced concern for Ferreira, who reportedly is being held at a military barracks 100 miles north of Montevideo. Brazilian legislators went to Montevideo to urge his release
Transition talks in Uruguay with the ruling military were broken off by the National Party, one of the country’s two dominant parties, until the Government releases the party’s Presidential candidate and his son. The candidate, Wilson Ferreira Aldunate and his 31-year-old son, Juan Raul, were arrested Saturday as they entered Uruguayan waters from exile in Buenos Aires.
President Reagan is set on cutting off aid to international population control programs that practice or advocate abortion, White House officials said. The proposed change in United States policy, which is outlined in a draft paper being circulated within the Administration, would come at time when many developing countries are intensifying their family planning efforts to ease social and economic stress.
A committee of the Democratic-dominated U.S. Conference of Mayors signaled strong bipartisan concern over the federal deficit by endorsing pet Republican budget-balancing measures, including line-item veto authority for the President. The measures, among dozens approved by the 41-member Resolutions Committee during the second session of the mayors’ annual gathering in Philadelphia, still need final approval by the full conference, which will meet today.
A majority of Americans favor deporting illegal aliens and penalizing firms that knowingly hire them, but 52% oppose the concept of a national identity card, according to a poll in the current issue of Newsweek. In the telephone poll, conducted by the Gallup organization, 55% of those interviewed were in favor of arresting and deporting illegal aliens, but 34% would support an amnesty allowing most of them currently in the United States to remain here legally. Sixty-one percent would also support a penalty for companies that hire workers they know to be illegal aliens.
Objections to a Pentagon plan to spend $600 million over five years to develop a new generation of computer-based military systems have come from some scientists. The opposition focuses on the immediate goals of the project, contending that the aims cannot be achieved and that the project will substantially increase the chances of war.
Walter F. Mondale’s labor backing has been vindicated by his apparent victory in the Democratic campaign for President, union leaders said. They maintain that their backing was crucial in turning union members in favor of Mr. Mondale over Senator Gary Hart.
Katherine Ann Power, one of the last 1960’s radicals still at large, has been dropped from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s list of most wanted fugitives. “It defeated the purpose of the ‘top 10,’ which is to provide tips and leads,” Jack French, an FBI spokesman, said in reference to keeping Miss Power on the list, as she has been since October 1970. A 20-year-old Brandeis University senior at the time, Miss Power was indicted for first-degree murder in the killing in Boston of a police officer, Walter Schroeder. He was shot in the back as he responded to a robbery alarm at the State Street Bank and Trust Company, where five people stole $26,585. Four people have been arrested in connection with the robbery, the last in 1975. Mr. French said Miss Power was dropped from the list earlier this month. The FBI search also is hampered by a lack of fingerprints. Mr. French said it was a “logical presumption” that she had substantially changed her appearance in the last 14 years.
The Federal brake on medical costs sought in recent Government actions preoccupied the opening of the 133rd annual convention of the American Medical Association in Chicago. Members were both apprehensive and defensive over the effect of the new laws. Dr. James H. Sammons, the A.M.A.’s chief executive officer, warned that Federal budget deficits and health care costs could lead to “an increasing rationing” of services and many health care facilities might become insolvent and close.
Internal Revenue Service investigators impersonating physicians at least should be monitored by the American Medical Association to prevent abuses, an AMA committee recommended in Chicago. The IRS issued new guidelines in May allowing its investigators to impersonate physicians, among other professionals. “We imagine they’re after physicians they think are cheating, but they also might be trying to get information from some patients somehow,” said an AMA official who asked not to be identified. “In any case, we don’t like it, but we’re not sure yet whether we should flatly oppose it.”
Concern over ibuprofen’s safety when it is used without a physician’s supervision has been expressed by medical specialists and researchers a month after the Food and Drug Administration approved the nonprescription sale of the pain reliever Ibuprofen, available by prescription since 1974, was offered as an alternative to aspirin and the compound acetaminophen, which is sold under such brand names as Tylenol.
President Reagan gives the opening remarks at the 3rd annual International Games for the Disabled in New York. President Reagan opened the International Games for the Disabled today by hailing the assembled athletes as world champions of the human heart. “There’s something that each of you understands that no one else can ever fully appreciate,” the President told the 1,800 athletes gathered at Mitchel Park. “Something that has to do with courage, with willpower, and with the utter refusal to give up, that has enabled you to rise above your disabilities and compete.” Mr. Reagan looked out from an audience of about 10,000 upon athletes from 53 countries who will be participating in 22 sports over the next two weeks.
Heavily armed police blocked roads in a swampy area near the Vermont-Canadian border to try to capture two convicts who escaped from a Virginia prison’s Death Row 18 days ago. Quebec police said they believed they had isolated the convicts, brothers James and Linwood Briley, in a two-square-mile area. The blockade was set up after three women said they spotted the men. More than 50 police officers blocked off the swampy, hilly area and two helicopters, a bloodhound and officers from the U.S. Border Patrol helped in the search, police said.
An imprisoned drug trafficker convicted of obstructing justice in the killing of a federal judge has pleaded guilty to plotting to kill a federal prosecutor who was heading a series of drug investigations. The prisoner, Jamiel Chagra, 39 years old, pleaded Saturday before Federal District Judge William Sessions. He could face a life prison term. Earlier, Mr. Chagra was convicted of obstruction of justice in the investigation of the killing of Federal District Judge John H. Wood Jr., shot to death outside his San Antonio home May 29, 1979.
More than 300 firefighters battled two fires that ravaged more than 1,000 acres of the George Washington National Forest on the border between Virginia and West Virginia, but officials said several smaller blazes were extinguished. Officials said the stubborn fires on Massanutten Mountain continued to plague federal firefighters and volunteers who navigated rocky terrain to draw fire lines around the blazes.
Actor James Cagney was taken to a hospital in the resort area of Boothbay Harbor, Maine, after he suffered shortness of breath Saturday night, but was feeling better, officials said. Cagney, 84, best known in his six-decade movie career for his roles as tough gangsters, was taken to St. Andrews Hospital, where he was to undergo tests.
Three Tibetan lamas traveled to a wild slope in the Berkshire hills near Hawley, Massachusetts, to bless the site where a Buddhist temple will be rebuilt after it was torched by Vietnam veterans. Other veterans will help in the rebuilding. The temple was burned on New Year’s Eve by three veterans to bring attention to a lack of Veterans Administration facilities for Vietnam veterans, authorities said. Last week, two men, Roland Voudren 33, and Donald Taylor, 37, who had pleaded guilty, were placed on three years’ probation. A third veteran, Richard Papineau, 35, is being held in a federal prison for violation of parole from a 1972 armed robbery conviction. No one was injured in the blaze that destroyed the Mahaddhi Myingmapa Center.
Bands of thunderstorms dumped more rain yesterday across the sodden upper Midwest, causing new flooding in South Dakota and Wisconsin, while thousands of acres of farmland and towns remained under water along the swollen Missouri. The storms came after a week of thunderstorms that left rivers high and ground saturated. La Crosse, Wisconsin, got 3.9 inches of rain in 24 hours as of yesterday morning and more than 5 inches fell at Tomah and Coon Valley, while Mason City, Iowa, got 2.4 inches.
Swale, winner of the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes, died after collapsing outside his stable at Belmont Park. Veterinarians initially assumed that the three-year-old son of Seattle Slew had died of a heart attack, but an autopsy did not support that early diagnosis.
John McEnroe, the top-seeded player, beat Leif Shiras in a stormy 6–1, 3–6, 6–2 final today to win the $203,000 Queen’s Club tennis tournament, a key grass-court warmup for next week’s Wimbledon championships.
Top-seeded Pam Shriver, playing in her first singles tournament in four months, defeated Anne White, 7–6, 6–3, today in the final of the Edgbaston Cup women’s tennis tournament.
At Yankee Stadium, with one out in the 8th inning, Baltimore’s Gary Roenicke hits a grand slam for the O’s, as they beat the New York Yankees, 6–2. Mike Flanagan benefits, but he’s not the only winner as the home run makes Anne Sommers of College Park, Maryland a million dollars. Ms. Sommers had entered the Equitable Bank’s Sweepstakes.
Tom Brookens’s two-run triple sparked a five-run fifth inning that carried the Detroit Tigers to a 7–4 victory today over the Milwaukee Brewers and a sweep of their three-game series.
Al Oliver and Jeff Leonard hit RBI singles in the 15th inning to give the San Francisco Giants a 5–3 win over the San Diego Padres. Oliver tied the game in the 8th with an RBI single.
Daryl Strawberry had two homers, the second an inside-the-park home run, but the St. Louis Cardinals beat the New York Mets, 6–3.
Ozzie Virgil got four hits, including a home run, and knocked in three runs today to lead the Philadelphia Phillies to a 9–7 victory over the Chicago Cubs and a sweep of their four-game series. With the Mets’ loss, the Phillies took sole possession of first place in the National League East.
Nolan Ryan allowed three hits over eight innings in his return from the 15-day disabled list and Terry Puhl doubled home a fifth inning run to give Houston a sweep of their four-game series, as the Houston Astros shut out the Los Angeles Dodgers, 1–0.
Born:
John Gallagher Jr., American stage and television actor (“The West Wing”, “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”), in Wilmington, Delaware.
David Herron, NFL linebacker (Minnesota Vikings, Kansas City Chiefs, San Diego Chargers), in Warren, Ohio.
Allan Ray, NBA shooting guard (Boston Celtics), in the Bronx, New York, New York.
Died:
Chet Allen, 45, American child actor (“Amahl and the Night Visitors”), suicide by overdose.
Klavdiya Shulzhenko, 78, Soviet jazz and pop singer (“Let’s Smoke”), dies at 78.
Swale, race horse, 1984 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winner, collapses & dies of a heart problem eight days after the Belmont Stakes.
History Diaries 