The body of a missing Polish priest was sought by divers in the Vistula River. The Interior Ministry says the pro-Solidarity priest, Jerzy Popiełuszko, was abducted and possibly killed by three officers. An Interior Ministry communique said the body of the priest was not found by divers using “specialized equipment” in two places along the Vistula River near where he was kidnapped October 19 on a highway outside of Torun. As the search was carried out, about 1,000 Solidarity supporters in the southwestern city of Wroclaw were reported to have protested Father Popiełuszko’s abduction until the police dispersed them. The police denied the reports. In Warsaw, Solidarity supporters called off a planned strike at a steel factory after Lech Walesa, the founder of the banned union, appealed for calm, a senior union figure said.
Poland’s Interior Minister, General Czeslaw Kiszczak, said a captain and two lieutenants of the Interior Ministry have been arrested in connection with the abduction. A communique issued today indicated all three had said the priest was thrown into the Vistula. In a nationally televised address Saturday, General Kiszczak said the captain admitted he killed Father Popiełuszko, 37 years old, a fervent nationalist who was known as one of the nation’s strongest supporters of the Solidarity trade union. The general said the captain’s statement had not been confirmed because the three officers gave conflicting accounts of the priest’s fate and because no body had been found.
The Soviet Union is halting all deliveries of coal and other forms of fuel to Britain in support of striking coal miners there, Alexander Belousov, a Soviet trade union official, announced in Moscow. The measure is expected to have little impact, because Britain imports relatively little fuel from the Soviets. Meanwhile, in London, Norman Willis, head of the Trades Union Congress, Britain’s equivalent of the AFL-CIO, condemned a meeting between leaders of the striking miners and Libyan representatives, including Colonel Muammar Qaddafi. Willis said he has been assured by mine union leader Arthur Scargill that no financial aid has been received from Libya.
OPEC agreed to cut production by 1.5 million barrels of oil a day, to 16 million, to support weakening prices. However, after a day of talks, the group failed to agree on the critical issue of how to distribute the cuts among its members. The announcement was greeted with skepticism by many oil analysts, who pointed out that present production of the 13 OPEC nations was already 16 million barrels a day.
Palestinian students at Bethlehem University, angered by a rocket attack Sunday on an Arab bus in Jerusalem, stoned Israeli vehicles in the West Bank today. Israeli soldiers dispersed the students with tear gas and warning shots. Arab sources said one protester was shot in the leg. The Israelis kept the campus under siege until shortly before nightfall, when an agreement was worked out between the military and school authorities that enabled the troops to withdraw and the students to go home. The clashes occurred in the streets near the campus, 15 miles from Jerusalem. Using slingshots and hiding their faces behind scarves, the demonstrators stoned vehicles bearing Israeli license plates as well as troops who reached the scene. After the Israelis succeeded in driving the demonstrators back to the campus, the students raised a Palestinian flag and continued sporadic stoning.
The Lebanese Government today issued strict instructions to all ships entering the 12- mile territorial limit to call only at legitimate harbors and to avoid illegal ports operated by private militias. A communique issued by the army command gave Saturday as a deadline for ships to abide by the new regulations or, it said, face destruction. The warning follows decisions made by the Cabinet last Saturday to close illegal harbors that have deprived the Treasury of half its customs duties. Altogether, eight ports are operated by Christian and Muslim militias. Importers have been using these ports for bringing merchandise and weapons into the country illegally. Merchants pay the militias about one-third the normal duties. The army listed Beirut, Junieh and Tripoli as the only legitimate ports.
The Sudanese radio said today that the security police had thwarted a Libyan-backed plot to overthrow the Government of President Gafaar al-Nimeiry. The radio said the conspirators included members of the army and retired army officers. Their numbers were not disclosed. The report also said that “several” traitors, mostly from the southern Sudan, had been arrested along with the head of the purported conspirators, a leader of the southern Nubian tribe. Mr. Nimeiry ordered immediate trials for the accused, who had planned to create a popular uprising and overthrow the Government, then ask for Libyan and Ethiopian assistance to restore order, the radio said.
Iraq has attempted to buy 75 pounds of weapons-grade plutonium from an international arms-smuggling ring, according to a study by the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The date of the attempt and whether Iraq received the material was not known. The study also reported that “virtually all the eight emerging nuclear countries-India, Pakistan, Israel, Libya, Iraq, Argentina, Brazil and South Africa-took important steps toward building or expanding nuclear weapons capabilities between mid-1983 and mid-1984.”
Iraq has halted plans for a U.S.built, $1-billion oil pipeline to the Jordanian port of Aqaba, diplomats said. The 540-mile pipeline was to have been constructed by the U.S. Bechtel Group, with 85% of the funding to come from the U.S. Export-Import Bank. Diplomats said that Iraq seemed to lose interest in the project after Israel intercepted an Iraqi cargo vessel in Jordanian territorial waters October 14. Iraq was reported pressing ahead with plans for pipelines to Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
An Indonesian marine corps munitions dump blew up near Jakarta, sending tons of bombs, mortar shells and other explosives raining down on nearby neighborhoods. At least 25 people were killed and scores were injured, authorities said. Thousands of villagers fled in panic as the explosions continued for several hours. Informed sources said the blasts were caused by a fire that spread to the ammunition dump.
Canadian workers ratified a three-year contract with General Motors Corp., ending a 13-day strike that shut down the auto maker’s 13 plants in Canada and triggered more than 40,000 GM layoffs across the United States. Some plants could resume production as early as today, officials said. About 80% of the votes, in nine locals affecting 36,000 Canadian members of the United Auto Workers union, supported the contract, according to unofficial results. The average hourly wage will increase by $2.52 to $15.59 over three years under the agreement, which was reached over the weekend at a 31-hour bargaining session.
The Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, opened a conference of Communist leaders in Havana today with a criticism of the United States for what he said were its attempts to “wipe socialism off the face of the earth.” “We are meeting here at a time of grave dangers to world peace, and particularly in Central America and the Caribbean, which are apprehensive about imperialist threats,” he said at the opening session of the annual meeting of Comecon, the Communist trade alliance. The meeting of heads of government is being held outside Europe for the first time. Mr. Castro discounted recent conciliatory speeches by President Reagan as electoral maneuvers. “They hope to wipe socialism off the face of the earth,” he said of American officials. Cuba has stepped up its defenses in recent months, he said, and if the United States mounted any attack, “it would pay an unpayable price.”
Leftist guerrillas raided a military guard post on the slopes of Guazapa Volcano, 20 miles north of San Salvador, after battling government troops all weekend in eastern El Salvador. The fighting appeared to be the fiercest since President Jose Napoleon Duarte and guerrilla leaders held peace talks October 15. The raid on the volcano post lasted four hours, but no casualties were reported.
A Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala City was shot in the head and killed early Sunday morning several blocks from the Peace Corps office and his residence, Peace Corps officials said here today. The 27-year-old volunteer, Peter Harper Wolfe, from Belmont, Mich., had been working on environmental improvement projects in Guatemala for 18 months, the officials said. There are 173 Peace Corps volunteers in the Central American country. Police reports from Guatemala City indicated that the motive was robbery, although Peace Corps officials in Washington said they had received conflicting reports. According to the agency, it was the seventh death by violence since the Peace Corps was established in 1961.
Bolivian President Hernan Siles Zuazo ended a four-day hunger strike called to protest congressional criticism of his record in fighting cocaine traffickers. President Hernan Siles Zuazo ended his hunger strike in its fifth day today, saying he had succeeded in “creating a climate of reflection and peace” in Bolivia. The 70-year-old President told 300 followers gathered at the presidential palace that he had accepted an offer by the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops to arrange a “dialogue” with the opposition-controlled Congress. He began his fast last Thursday, saying he would take nothing but water until Congress withdrew its censure of his antinarcotics program. Mr. Siles Zuazo did not elaborate on the agreement with the bishops or say when the talks with the conservative opposition would be held.
140 Chileans were exiled to areas distant from their homes as the military Government moved to crack down on protesters calling for a speedy return to democracy. Santiago and four provincial capitals were shaken by at least 12 bombings that damaged buildings and telephone links, but caused no injuries. The action came just hours before opposition parties began two days of national protest that are to culminate Tuesday in what organizers hope will be a general strike. During the night, Santiago and four provincial capitals were shaken by at least 12 bombings that damaged banks, government offices and telephone links but caused no injuries. No one took responsibility for the blasts. President Augusto Pinochet warned today in a speech in the seaside resort of Piña del Mar that if the unrest continued, he might impose a state of siege on “all or part of the national territory.”
The fossil-hunting Leakey family of Kenya is synonymous with the study of human origins. With their many expeditions and discoveries, the Leakeys have been major figures in reconstructing the context of early life and human evolution.
President Reagan attends several campaign rallies in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. President Reagan evoked noisy, emotional responses from both backers and protesters as he opened the final week of his re-election drive, which aides said would concentrate on the Democratic strongholds of the Northeast and the Middle West. Mr. Reagan’s advisers asserted that his lead in the polls made it possible for him to seek a 50-state victory and heavy Republican inroads in Congress.
Walter F. Mondale’s mood and campaign are tenaciously upbeat in the face of polls that show a widening lead for President Reagan. The Democratic Presidential candidate and his closest aides voice confidence that, in the final campaign week ahead, Mr. Mondale will turn the tide and spark the biggest Presidential upset since Harry S. Truman’s victory in 1948.
Geraldine A. Ferraro deplored President Reagan’s “base implications that my party is soft on anti-Semitism.” The Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate spoke at a synagogue in Manhattan.
Baby Fae’s condition improved three days after she was given a baboon’s heart. Doctors in Loma Linda, California, removed the 17-day-old infant’s name from the critical list and said she had good color and was breathing easily on her own without the aid of a mechanical respirator. The doctors responded to ethical questions raised by the surgery.
An auto labor pact was approved by workers at the 13 General Motors plants in Canada, ending a strike that forced more than 40,000 layoffs in the United States. Meanwhile, the United Automobile Workers announced that its members had approved a new three-year contract with the Ford Motor Company by a margin of 64 percent to 36 percent.
A National Institutes of Health advisory panel refused to bar experiments in which genes are transferred into other species. The ruling was in response to a suit by Jeremy Rifkin, who heads the Foundation on Economic Trends, and the Humane Society of the United States against the Department of Agriculture, which is trying to produce larger sheep and pigs by injecting animals with a synthetically produced human growth-hormone gene. The Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee said the experiments were important for research.
Two states executed condemned murderers early today, after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to stay their sentences. Thomas Andy Barefoot, 39, a former oilfield roughneck convicted of murdering a police officer, was put to death by lethal injection in Texas, minutes after Earnest Knighton Jr., 38, was electrocuted in Louisiana for shooting a service station owner to death. Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards and Texas Governor Mark White had also refused to grant stays of execution.
Frank Lentino, a hotel and casino workers union organizer who was to be tried with former Atlantic City Mayor Michael J. Matthews on influence-peddling charges, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and implicated Matthews, but the judge reserved decision on accepting the plea. Lentino, 73, has been described by authorities as the go-between in a mob plot to take over the city’s government.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission warned of the continuing dangers of some nursery equipment, despite recently mandated safety improvements. Commission officials estimated that nursery equipment has caused 1,300 deaths since 1973 and results in 90,000 injuries annually. Chairman Nancy Steorts advised parents to throw out cribs made prior to a government order 11 years ago that crib slats be more narrowly spaced to prevent strangulation of infants. Commissioners also warned that accordion-like wooden gates and “corral” enclosures have “scissored” children’s necks and strangled them.
U.S. District Judge Alcee Hastings barred the public release of any photographs of the dead body of David Kennedy at the request of family members. In a Miami hearing, Hastings ordered the photographs be kept private until another federal judge can review them. David Kennedy, 28, son of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy, was found dead April 25 in a Palm Beach, Florida, hotel, from an overdose combination of cocaine and the prescription drugs Demerol and Millaril. A Palm Beach County Circuit Court judge ruled 10 of the photographs must be turned over to defense attorneys representing two men charged in the death. Under Florida law, material given to defense attorneys becomes public record.
A man and a woman charged with killing her 4-year-old daughter by burning her in an electric oven must undergo psychiatric examinations, a Maine State District Court ruled today. The two, John Lane, 36 years old, and Cynthia Palmer, 29, who shared an apartment, were also ordered held without bail by Judge L. Damon Scales Jr. They did not enter pleas to one charge each of murder. Neighbors said the victim, Angela Palmer, called out for help after being put in the oven. The police said the door had been propped closed. An autopsy Sunday showed that Angela had died of “extensive burns,” and evidence indicated she died in the oven, said Fernand LaRochelle, an assistant attorney general. Mr. LaRochelle said the victim’s 5-year-old sister, Sarah Palmer, was not injured. The State Human Services Department has taken custody of the child.
Retired Major General George Godding, who served as General William C. Westmoreland’s intelligence chief, testified there was an “understatement” of enemy strength in Vietnam preceding the 1968 Tet offensive, and sometimes Viet Cong were not counted until they were dead. Godding made the admission as the third week of testimony began in Westmoreland’s libel suit against CBS over a 1982 documentary. “The Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Deception,” which asserted that he lied about enemy troop strength.
Federal officials accused 23 people today of conspiring to defraud the Navy in a bribery scheme involving ships’ stores and various small items needed for maintenance. Companies set high prices for the items, the officials said, to cover up the cost of bribes paid to Navy enlisted personnel who had authority to choose suppliers. For example, they said, pre-cut bits of brass, which cost a Federal undercover company 23 cents each, were sold to the Navy for 45 cents each, and rivets that cost 8 cents were sold to the Navy for 88 cents each.
Among the accused were 16 enlisted personnel here and in San Diego, most of whom were chief petty officers or petty officers. To investigate the suspected scheme, two commercial companies were established in 1982 in Emeryville and Alameda, California, by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Navy Investigative Service. Officials said today that a San Francisco businessman, whom they did not identify, touched off the investigation by reporting to the bureau in May 1982 that he had been approached to take part in a bribery scheme.
The manufacturer of the discontinued Dalkon Shield urged women still using the intrauterine birth control device to have them removed and offered to pay for the procedure. A.H. Robins Co. suspended sales of its Dalkon Shield 10 years ago after reports of health problems among some users. Robins has paid $245 million to women injured by the Dalkon Shield.
The release of most mentally ill patients from hospitals to communities is now widely regarded as a major failure. The ill-fated policy was pressed by cost-conscious officials quick to buy optimistic projections that were, in some cases, buttressed by misinformation.
[Ed: But 40 years later, we are still doing it.]
Special scholarships to attract top students are not very important in students’ choice of a college, according to a study made public by the College Board. The study found that fewer than 20 percent of top high school seniors were induced to choose one college over another by a “no need” scholarship.
A disposal site in Niagara Falls, New York, to which toxic wastes from the Love Canal and other dumps were sent may be leaking and may pose a danger to nearby residents, according to a report by the Environmental Protection Agency.
NFL Monday Night Football:
Seattle Seahawks 24, San Diego Chargers 0
Dave Krieg passed for 282 yards, Steve Largent caught three touchdown passes and Kenny Easley intercepted three passes as the Seattle Seahawks routed the San Diego Chargers, 24–0, tonight. The outcome gave the Chargers (4–5) the only losing record in the American Conference West. All of their losses have come against teams in the division. The Seahawks (7–2) moved into a second-place tie with the Los Angeles Raiders, one game behind the Denver Broncos. It was a painful evening for Dan Fouts, the Chargers’ quarterback, who was playing without his top receivers, Kellen Winslow and Wes Chandler, both sidelined by injuries. The Seahawks sacked him six times and handed San Diego its first shutout in five years. Krieg completed 23 of 29 passes, directing touchdown drives of 96, 81 and 63 yards. On the first scoring drive, he connected with Daryl Turner on a 60-yard pass. Largent, who now has caught passes in 100 consecutive games, made scoring receptions of 11, 13 and 16 yards. For the fifth straight game, his first reception was a touchdown. Easley, a defensive back, stopped three San Diego drives into Seattle territory. In the first period, he picked off a pass at his own 4-yard line. No Seahawk has ever intercepted three passes in a game before. With Norm Johnson kicking a 42- yard field goal, the Seahawks took a 17–0 lead at halftime.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1201.41 (-3.54)
Born:
Eric Staal, Canadian National Team and NHL centre (Olympics, gold medal, 2010; NHL Champions, Stanley Cup-Carolina, 2006; All-star, 2007-2009, 2011, 2018, 2020; Carolina Hurricanes, New York Rangers, Minnesota Wild, Buffalo Sabres, Montreal Canadiens, Florida Panthers), in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada.
José Mijares, Venezuelan MLB pitcher (World Series Champions-Giants, 2012; Minnesota Twins, Kansas City Royals, San Francisco Giants), in Caracas, Venezuela.
Mario Henderson, NFL tackle (Oakland Raiders), in Lehigh Acres, Florida.
Keenan Burton, NFL wide receiver (St. Louis Rams), in Louisville, Kentucky.
Chris Baio, American rock bassist (Vampire Weekend – “A-Punk”; “Oxford Comma”), in Bronxville, New York.
History Diaries 