A Soviet commentator said that President Reagan focused on “questions of second-rate importance” in discussing possible U.S.-Soviet summit talks, and that he ignored Soviet arms control proposals in order to placate conservative supporters. Alexander Malyshkin of the Novosti news agency said Reagan sought in a speech he made Wednesday to avoid responsibility for “a marked deterioration of Soviet-U.S. relations.” Reagan told an audience at a conference on U.S.-Soviet exchanges that he is eager for the United States and the Soviet Union to cooperate on such matters as improving the hot line linking the White House and the Kremlin.
Low-level talks aimed at agreement on a new treaty banning chemical weapons have resumed between the United States and the Soviet Union, a top Administration arms control official told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The Soviets are meeting with the United States on the sidelines of the 40-nation conference on disarmament in Geneva, said Kenneth L. Adelman, director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. The United States has proposed a wide-ranging ban on chemical weapons.
Bulgaria accused Italian judicial officials today of deliberately leaking false information about the 1981 shooting of Pope John Paul II to imply that it was a Bulgarian conspiracy. A commentary in the political weekly Anteni, distributed by the official B.T.A. news agency, said the Italian state prosecutor Antonio Albano misled the press and broke the rule of secrecy on the investigation in disregard of Italian law. It said misinformation was being passed right “through the front door of the Rome court” and “instead of sticking to investigation material, Albano introduces invented notions — unverifiable facts — and goes into ecstasies over the unverifiable.”
The commentary described as groundless Mr. Albano’s opinion in a leaked report that strong papal support for the Solidarity movement in Poland gave Bulgaria a motive for the plot. The Albano report, filed last month, recommended that three Bulgarians and six Turks be indicted and tried for conspiring to kill the Pope. An American journalist, Claire Sterling, who has followed the case closely, obtained a copy and wrote about it.
Firefighters battled to prevent 250,000 tons of crude oil from igniting on a supertanker hit in an Iraqi missile attack Wednesday that left eight crewmen dead and seven missing. The Swiss-owned, Liberian-registered Tiburon was hit shortly after being loaded with the oil, worth $45 million, at Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil terminal in the Persian Gulf. Iraq is seeking to cut off Iran’s oil exports, on which Tehran relies to pay for arms and munitions for the nearly 4-year-old war with Iraq.
A Soviet delegation left Iran after apparently making significant progress toward mending relations with the Tehran government, which were strained by Iran’s clampdown last year on the local Communist Party. The delegation, led by Deputy Power Minister Alexei N. Makukhin, reached agreements in principle with Tehran on completion of power plants being built in Ahvaz and Esfahan and construction of two dams on the Aras River. The Soviet Union withdrew 800 technicians working on the partly completed Ahvaz plant last February amid anti-Soviet rhetoric in Iran.
Israel and Syria exchanged prisoners of war today for the first time in 10 years. In an emotional five-hour ceremony in the Golan Heights town of Quneitra, Israel handed over 291 soldiers captured in the Lebanon War in 1982, along with 20 Golan residents who had been arrested for resisting the Israeli occupation. Most of the residents chose to return to their Golan villages. The Syrians delivered three Israeli soldiers captured in the Lebanon War and three diplomats stationed in Beirut who were seized May 1 after they drove their car into Syrian-controlled territory. Israel said they had got lost; Syria said they were spying. Syria also handed back the bodies of what are believed to be five Israeli soldiers, including a pilot, while Israel returned the bodies of 72 Syrian soldiers.
The Israeli Supreme Court in Jerusalem overruled election officials and ordered two parties from opposite ends of the political spectrum to appear on the ballot for the July 23 election. The court said the Central Elections Committee overstepped its authority in banning Rabbi Meir Kahane’s Kach party. which advocates expulsion of all non-Jews from Israel and the occupied territories, and the Progressive List for Peace, a joint Arab-Jewish grouping that supports creation of a Palestinian state.
Indian troops used speedboats today to rescue victims of floods that have killed up to 20 people and left almost one million homeless in West Bengal, the Press Trust of India reported. Operations to rescue thousands of marooned people were concentrated in the towns of Tarakeswar and Ilambazar.
Two physicians told a Philippine commission that opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr. may have been struck by two bullets instead of one as previously thought. Pathologist Juanito Billote and private medical examiner Constantino Nunez testified in Manila that there are discrepancies in the original autopsy report, which said Aquino was killed on August 21, 1983, by a single bullet that entered the back of his head and emerged at his chin.
Dozens of children fathered by American soldiers in the Vietnam War left with their relatives today after a compromise between Hanoi and Washington over refugee quotas. The 69 Amerasian children and 124 accompanying relatives flew to Bangkok, Thailand, for final processing before heading for their new homes in the United States. Their departure raised to 1,372 the total number of children leaving Vietnam since the special flights began September 30, 1982. Another 1,624 relatives of the children have also gone to the United States under the program.
The passengers and crew of a luxury yacht that sank off the Canadian coast Wednesday formed a human chain and tried to bail out the craft in a “screaming” gale as 20-foot waves smashed over the deck. “We saw she was taking on water faster than we could bail,” said a crew member, Peter Landau of Vancouver. The 20 people aboard, Canadians and Americans, abandoned the Royal Princess before it sank. “It was the worst conditions I’ve been through,” said the yacht’s captain, Frank Stoney, 47 years old, of Nanaimo, British Columbia. “It was a very frightening thing.” All 20 survived, and were plucked from the rafts in wire-mesh baskets lowered from helicopters. Five people were taken to a hospital overnight and were in good condition today.
Twenty-six political prisoners being freed by Fidel Castro were picked up in Havana by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, along with 22 United States citizens who had been held there, mostly on charges related to drug trafficking. The Rev. Jesse Jackson returned to the United States tonight with freed American and Cuban prisoners, capping a dramatic exercise in personal diplomacy with President Fidel Castro of Cuba. Mr. Jackson’s chartered Boeing 707 arrived at Dulles International Airport just before midnight with 16 American prisoners aboard and 7 Cuban political prisoners. Also aboard were Andres Vargas Gomez, a Cuban, believed to have been a former American intelligence operative, who was released from a Cuban jail about two years ago but was barred from leaving the country. He had been imprisoned since the abortive Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. The elderly Mr. Gomez was accompanied by a female relative, variously described as a sister or a cousin.
Fidel Castro’s decision to release 48 American and Cuban prisoners to the Rev. Jesse Jackson was an attempt to gain a “propaganda victory,” according to Secretary of State George P. Shultz. In an interview, Mr. Shultz said the Cuban leader had not given any sign he was ready to moderate Cuba’s “subversive” policies in Latin America.
Curbs on travel to Cuba were restored by the Supreme Court. The Court accepted, by a vote of 5 to 4, the Reagan Administration’s argument that cutting off the flow of dollars to Havana was an urgent matter of foreign policy. The ruling overturned a decision by a federal appeals court.
Rebels took the key Salvadoran dam and held it for at least three hours in their most important military operation in the last six months. In an eight-hour battle with Government forces the insurgents destroyed the 135-megawatt Cerron Grande dam’s electrical generating substation but did not destroy the plant’s central computerized control room.
The Argentine Government of President Raul Alfonsin, faced by yet another critical interest-payment deadline Friday, said today that it would act to protect its creditor status. The nation’s Economics Minister, Bernardo Grinspun, returning from Washington today, declined to confirm the report in Clarin, the country’s largest-circulation newspaper, that said Argentina would pay on Friday all the foreign debt interest more than 90 days overdue. That totals $460 million. But after meeting with Mr. Alfonsin tonight, Mr. Grinspun said he would announce on Friday what measures the Government would take to meet the deadline. Argentina has been reluctant to pay the full amount itself, hoping for new loans from banks to help it out. But the banks have held off, waiting for Argentina to agree to an austerity program in negotiations with the International Monetary Fund.
Former member of South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU), Jeannette Schoon, and her six-year-old daughter, Katryn, are killed by a letter bomb at Lubango, in northern Angola.
President Reagan meets with Ambassador of the U.S. to the Democratic Republic of Madagascar.
Jesse Jackson disavowed as “reprehensible” comments by Louis Farrakhan, a Black Muslim leader who has described the creation of Israel as an “outlaw act” and has called countries that support Israel “criminals in the sight of Almighty God.” In a statement issued through his campaign office here, the black Democratic Presidential contender said: “I find such statements or comments to be reprehensible and morally indefensible. ‘I am a Judeo-Christian and the roots of my faith run deep in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Such statements and thoughts have no place in my own thinking or in this campaign.”
In breaking with Mr. Farrakhan’s remarks today, Mr. Jackson sought to minimize the role the Nation of Islam leader had played in his campaign. As recently as April, Mr. Farrakhan was prominently featured at rallies in Mr. Jackson’s behalf. Mr. Jackson brought the Muslim leader into his campaign with great fanfare, accompanying him and several dozen followers to Chicago City Hall to register to vote for the first time. Only slowly has he separated himself from the man who called Hitler “wickedly great” and who appeared to threaten the life of a reporter who told of Mr. Jackson’s use of the terms “Hymie” and “Hymietown” to refer to Jews and to New York.
The Federal bankruptcy system would be overhauled under compromise legislation. House-Senate conferees agreed to limit employers’ freedom to escape union contracts by declaring bankruptcy. That was the last major impediment to passage of the legislation after two years of struggle.
President Reagan receives the first George Washington Award from a group of National Guard Generals.
The President and First Lady attend a private dinner hosted by Mr. and Mrs. George F. Will.
The House refused a Reagan Administration request to raise the federal debt limit — the government’s authority to borrow money — and Democrats vowed to keep voting against raising the limit until Senate Republicans agree to cut the defense budget. By a 282-138 vote, the House rejected a bill that would increase the government’s line of credit by another $53 billion to $1.573 trillion. Treasury Secretary Donald T. Regan says the government won’t have enough money to pay its bills beyond “early July.”
A plan to allow religious meetings by students in public high schools before and after regular school hours was sidetracked by House Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill Jr. despite overwhelming support for it in both chambers of Congress.
Massachusetts Governor Michael S. Dukakis signed an order rejecting federal plans that call for 6 million residents to flee the state in case of nuclear war. “Simply and practically speaking, there are no safe havens from a potential nuclear attack.” Dukakis said at a Boston ceremony. By signing the order, Dukakis joined the governors of several other states — including California, Maryland and New Mexico — who have rejected Crisis Relocation Planning.
Pressing on with his much-publicized search for a vice-presidential running mate, Walter F. Mondale said that women and blacks under consideration should not be expected to match white males in experience. Mondale made the remark moments after a 22-hour meeting with Philadelphia Mayor Wilson Goode, the second black candidate he has interviewed since starting his formal search for a running mate. The meeting took place in Washington as pressure mounted on the apparent nominee to select a woman or a black running mate.
A federal judge turned down a request to stop the killing of 22,000 North Pacific male fur seals in Alaska, scheduled for next week. U.S. District Judge Gerhard Gesell, in Washington, rejected motions by three animal-welfare organizations, which argued that the government’s decision to allow the killing beginning Monday violates federal laws and an international treaty. Earlier this month, the Commerce Department cleared the way for the seal killings, and agreed to pay native Aleut Indians $500,000 to kill the animals on the Pribilof Islands.
Scientists at the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta said that contrary to two other studies, their research still shows no link between oral contraceptives and breast cancer. The CDC, in response to those two studies, did more analysis of the numbers in its survey of the pill and breast cancer. which was first reported in March, 1983. The new research confirms the previous findings that “women who took the pill are not any more likely to develop breast cancer than women who did not,” said CDC researcher Linda Webster.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced that they have discovered part of the structure of the human T-cell receptor. T-cells are the warriors of the human body, attacking foreign invaders. The receptors are the mechanism the cells use to identify invaders. Professor Susumu Tonegawa, who headed the research team, said it may be possible to instruct the cells to attack cancer and other abnormal cells.
No federal criminal charges will be filed against three white Milwaukee police officers in the case of a young black who died in their custody, the Justice Department said. The dead man, Ernest Lacy. was arrested as a rape suspect in 1981 but was cleared. State charges against the officers, Thomas Eliopul, James Dekker and George Kalt, also have been dismissed.
G.M. is acquiring a computer company. The No. 1 American auto maker moved decisively to acquire a stake in the electronics industry by agreeing to pay $2.5 billion for the Dallas data-processing company founded by H. Ross Perot, the Texas billionaire. The acquisition would be the biggest by General Motors, and its first in the computer-services area.
John Z. DeLorean’s secretary and housekeeper at his New Jersey estate has been arrested on cocaine trafficking charges in a motel in Clinton Township, New Jersey, with three other people. The secretary is 30-year-old Cynthia Lee Brady.
The private William Mitchell College of Law said Wednesday that it had settled a $3 million sexual harassment lawsuit filed by eight women. The school’s trustees did not disclose the terms of the settlement. But The St. Paul Pioneer Press and Dispatch today quoted an unidentified source close to the case as saying the school agreed to pay $300,000 to the women in exchange for their dropping the lawsuit. “In settling the case, the board of trustees recognizes that the plaintiffs asserted their claims of sexual harassment in good faith,” the school said in a statement. “The board trusts that the settlement of this lawsuit will restore any loss of compensation, dignity and reputation which plaintiffs have suffered.” The lawsuit, filed in March, listed as defendants the college, four individuals employed at the school and a law firm representing the school. The eight women who brought the suit charged that they had been inappropriately touched or subjected to suggestive remarks.
The Unitarian Universalist Association voted today to approve religious blessings on homosexual unions, becoming the first major church to do so. After 30 minutes of debate, the 1,300 delegates representing the Protestant denomination’s 175,000 members voted overwhelmingly by voice vote to affirm “the growing practice of some of its ministers of conducting services of union of gay and lesbian couples.” “This is an important part of the Unitarian Universalist affirmation of the inherent worth and dignity of every person,” Eugene Pickett, president of the church, said at the group’s international General Assembly meeting in Columbus. “We believe it is important to respect the commitment of two people to each other in a ceremony which has personal and religious significance, even if it doesn’t have legal validity,” he said.
The 17th San Diego Comic-Con International opens at Hotel San Diego.
Dwight Evans hits a 3-run walk-off home run in the bottom of the 11th inning to complete the cycle and give the Boston Red Sox a 9–6 win over Seattle. Evans’s homer, his 13th, came on the reliever Ed Nunez’s first pitch of the game.
The Baltimore Orioles beat the Chicago White Sox, 2–0, as Gary Roenicke doubled home two runs in the ninth inning to break a scoreless tie. The Orioles’ Mike Flanagan (8–5) struck out eight and walked four in eight innings. Tom Seaver (6–6) did not give up a hit until two were out in the fifth. when Roenicke hit an infield single. Seaver, who went nine innings, walked five and struck out two.
Kevin Bass cracked a two-run double in the ninth inning tonight to complete a comeback that gave the Houston Astros a 7–6 victory tonight over the Philadelphia Phillies. The Astros had trailed by 6–1 going into the eighth inning. Enos Cabell led off the ninth with a single off the reliever Al Holland and Phil Garner walked. After Jose Cruz sacrificed, Bass lined a ball down the left-field line to score Cabell and Garner.
Steve Garvey smacked three hits and scored three runs, and Alan Wiggins had three hits in a 15-hit attack for San Diego as the Padres thumped the St. Louis Cardinals, 7–3. Mark Thurmond (5–3) went six innings before being relieved Luis DeLeon and Rich (Goose) Gossage as the Padres, in first place in the National League West, won for the fifth time in six games.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1126.55 (+9.83).
Born:
Gosder Cherilus, Haitian-American NFL tackle (Detroit Lions, Indianapolis Colts, Tampa Bay Buccaneers), in Haiti.
Gerald Alexander, NFL safety (Detroit Lions, Jacksonville Jaguars, Carolina Panthers, Miami Dolphins, New York Jets), in Los Angeles, California.
Clay Zavada, MLB pitcher (Arizona Diamondbacks), in Streator, Illinois.
Tamara Ecclestone (Rutland), British model, socialite, and television personality, in Milan, Italy.
History Diaries 