A week after the unexplained postponement of a Warsaw Pact meeting revived questions about the health of Konstantin U. Chernenko, Soviet officials have been saying openly that he is ill. The degree and nature of his affliction have not been disclosed. Some reports have said that he is seriously ill and perhaps hospitalized, but that his life is not threatened. According to diplomats, Vadim V. Zagladin, a senior official of the Central Committee staff, told the visiting French Secretary of State for Foreign Relations, Jean-Michel Baylet, that Mr. Chernenko was ailing. Senator Gary Hart, the Colorado Democrat who left today after a six-day visit, was reportedly given similar information by Soviet officials. Even if Mr. Chernenko’s illness is not threatening, any prolonged absence in the ruling Politburo invariably touches off speculation in view of the secrecy surrounding the Kremlin’s affairs.
The mother of Anatoly B. Shcharansky said today that she had visited her son at a labor camp in the Ural Mountains and learned that he had been hospitalized since arriving there November 13. The woman, Ida P. Milgrom, said Mr. Shcharansky was brought to a special apartment reserved for such family visits. She said he was being treated for heart problems and reported being well cared for. Mrs. Milgrom said her son had gained 18 pounds in two months and reported feeling significantly better. The visit was the first in a year, and the first since Mr. Shcharansky was transferred back to the labor camp near Perm from Chistopol prison. He was sentenced in 1978 to a 13-year term on a charge of treason. He was to have served three years in prison, where conditions are harsher than in a labor camp, and the rest in a camp. But after the initial three years, he was sent back to prison for an additional three years.
A general from the Polish Interior Ministry offered testimony today that seemed to challenge the explanation of three security police officers about why they kidnapped a pro-Solidarity priest. In the first 15 days of the trial of the three officers a fourth officer has denied the charges against him the defendants have said the abduction and killing of the priest on October 19 grew out of a plan to frighten him into halting his political activities on behalf of the Solidarity union. But today, General Zenon Piatek told the court that shortly before the three officers abducted the Rev. Jerzy Popiełuszko, he had been assured by the Archbishop of Warsaw that the priest would be ordered to Rome.
The general said the Archbishop had pointedly told him that the problems the Interior Ministry was having with the priest were about to end, since the church intended to order the priest to halt his political activities. Grzegorz Piotrowski, a former captain and the leader of the team that pursued the priest, has insisted in court that he was inspired to move against Father Popiełuszko by superiors. He has testified, however, that the killing itself was not premeditated, but was an act induced by panic. If, however, General Piatek’s account of his conversation with the Archbishop, Boleslaw Dabrowski, is accepted — with its implication that Father Popiełuszko was to be sent to Rome and silenced — then the motives for the crime became more questionable.
Representatives of Britain’s striking miners and the National Coal Board met for the first time since October, but the talks ended with no signs of an end to the 10-month-old walkout. The National Union of Mineworkers said no further discussions are planned in the strike, which started March 12 to protest plans for mine closures and the elimination of 20,000 jobs. Meanwhile, 1,847 more miners abandoned the strike to return to work, bringing the number back on the job to 76,000, or 40% of Britain’s 187,000 miners, the board said.
The power of Britain’s labor unions has plummeted. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has won a series of changes that make it harder to maintain a closed shop, harder to win authority for a strike and easier to oust union officials.
Champion Anatoly Karpov and challenger Gary Kasparov agreed to a draw in the 44th game of their world chess championship match in Moscow. Karpov, who holds a 5–1 advantage and needs only one more win to retain his title, accepted Kasparov’s offer for a draw on the challenger’s 38th move.
The key Sunni Moslem political leader in southern Lebanon was critically wounded in a bombing at his home in the port city of Sidon, the state radio reported. The attack on the leader, Mustapha Saad, heightened fears of civil strife after Israeli forces withdraw from the Sidon area. Mustafa Maarouf Saad, Lebanese militia leader, loses his sight in a car explosion in front of his house in Sidon, which kills his daughter. The car bomb exploded today outside the home of the key Sunni Muslim leader in the southern Lebanese city, killing at least one person and wounding 37, Israeli military sources and hospital workers said. Israel television quoted security sources as saying 10 people were killed and 10 wounded in the bombing, but Lebanese police could not confirm the Israeli figures. The Israeli report said the blast signaled the start of a battle for control of this port, the largest of the Lebanese cities under Israeli occupation.
Iraq said its warplanes hit a “large naval target” today in the Persian Gulf near the Iranian oil terminal at Kharg Island. Baghdad usually uses the phrase “large naval target” to refer to an oil tanker or cargo ship. It was the 18th target that Iraq claimed to have hit in the gulf this month. Only four of the reports have been confirmed.
President Junius R. Jayewardene announced that members of Sri Lanka’s majority Sinhalese population will be resettled in the country’s predominantly Tamil Northern province in the next two years. “We consider Sri Lanka as one land belonging to all citizens, consisting of the 75% Sinhalese and 25% of the other races. As such, we will settle Sri Lankans in this proportion throughout the island on state land,” Jayewardene said. The minority Tamils are demanding an independent state in Sri Lanka’s northern and eastern areas, which they claim as their traditional homeland.
Nine bombs exploded at a historic Buddhist temple early today, wrecking major sections of the 1,100-year-old shrine. No injuries were reported in the blasts at the Borobudur temple in central Java, but authorities said it had been heavily damaged. No group immediately claimed responsibility, but the authorities said Muslim extremists might have planted the bombs. President Suharto denounced those responsible, saying they “stand for people who have no sense of national pride, considering that the Borobudur temple constitutes a national, even a world monument.” Authorities said 11 bombs were planted among the 76 bell-shaped towers on the temple’s upper level. Nine bombs exploded, they said. The temple, 280 miles southeast of Jakarta, is a major tourist attraction and is considered one of the world’s archeological wonders. It was reopened in 1983 after an eight-year, $20 million restoration effort.
A Philippine general and five of his aides were wounded in a rebel ambush about 100 yards from a military headquarters on the southern island of Mindanao, military authorities reported. Brig. Gen. Pedrito de Guzman, 69, was shot several times in the back, legs and arm, officers said. The Philippine News Agency said the general was out of danger after surgery. Guzman was the highest-ranking military officer to be ambushed since Muslim separatists killed Brig. Gen. Teodulfo Bautista in 1977.
One of the world’s most important nickel-mining centers was the target of sabotage in France’s South Pacific territory of New Caledonia. Police reported almost $3-million damage to conveyor belts, trucks and other equipment. The sabotage delayed the planned reopening of the mine, announced less than 24 hours earlier by visiting French President Francois Mitterrand. The mine was closed for two months by militant Melanesian workers demanding a stronger voice in hiring policy.
The United States has formally asked New Zealand for permission to send a Navy warship there despite the antinuclear policy of that Government’s ruling party, State Department officials said today. The officials acknowledged that in asking for a port call for the warship, the United States could provoke a severe strain in the 34-year-old South Pacific alliance of the United States, Australia and New Zealand. Prime Minister David Lange, since his election last July, has remained committed to his Labor Party’s policy of forbidding port calls by ships carrying nuclear arms or powered by nuclear reactors, in effect making it impossible for any American warship to visit. The Administration would not disclose any details about the ship, which officials said they would like to send to New Zealand in March.
One of four Roman Catholic clergymen in Nicaragua’s Sandinista government, Edgard Parrales, said he is giving up the priesthood rather than obey Vatican orders to resign his post. Parrales is Nicaragua’s ambassador to the Organization of American States. He and three other priests in the leftist government had refused to resign and devote themselves entirely to the church. Last week, all four were ordered by Nicaragua’s bishops not to perform ecclesiastical functions.
Five Bolivian generals have been relieved of duty for resisting an order from President Hernan Siles Zuazo dismissing the head of the army, the Defense Ministry said. The army chief, General Jose Olvis Arias, who had been accused of plotting a coup, held out for 24 hours at his La Paz headquarters last month before accepting his dismissal. The generals relieved of duty include Hugo Gironda, chief of staff of the army command, two members of that command, a member of the military justice tribunal and Haroldo Pinto, commander of the 5th Division.
Relief officials yesterday welcomed Sudan’s offer to let all Ethiopian refugees go, saying that it was expected to allow Jews to go to Israel indirectly. However, the officials said they did not expect other countries to accept many Ethiopian refugees. Nicholas van Praag, a spokesman for the Washington office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said that the office had not “heard of other countries, aside from Israel” showing an interest. Mr. van Praag said that resettlement outside of Africa was not a practical or even desirable solution for the three million to four million African refugees.
President Reagan is sworn in during the 50th Presidential Inaugural Ceremony. President Reagan opened his second term, saying the nation now faced “a moment of hard decisions” that demanded further limits on the cost, size and power of the Federal Government. Mr. Reagan addressed a packed, standing crowd in the Capitol’s Rotunda.
Legislators from both parties applauded President Reagan’s call for a bipartisan approach to the nation’s major problems, but many Democrats charged that Mr. Reagan is not willing to make the tough and unpopular decisions necessary to trim budget deficits and that he is leaving the dirty work to Congress.
President Reagan drew cheers and a brass serenade as he made a consolation visit to the 57 marching bands that never got to strut down Pennsylvania Avenue because of the cold. Mr. Reagan led many activities of the improvised celebration.
The Reagans went from ball to ball to mark the inauguration of the President’s second term. The nine inaugural balls took on added importance after frigid weather prompted the cancellation of an outdoor inauguration and a parade down Pennsylvania Avenue.
Jessye Norman sings “Simple Gifts” at the second inauguration of U.S. President Ronald Reagan in Washington, D.C.
Tens of thousands of abortion opponents around the nation, including President Reagan who will address demonstrators gathered on the Ellipse behind the White House from a special phone hookup in the executive mansion, plan to mark today’s 12th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortions. The protest, which in previous years has attracted thousands of anti-abortion demonstrators, seeks to build political sentiment for a constitutional amendment to overturn the court rulings. “We are telling everybody the program is on,” a spokesman for the March for Life committee said in Washington.
An unprecedented cloak of secrecy at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida was imposed for the start of the shuttle Discovery’s countdown to blastoff sometime Wednesday afternoon on a classified flight to place an Air Force spy satellite in orbit. Air Force forecasters predicted good weather for launch day, but a cold front that swept across Florida slowed work at the pad to ready Discovery for blastoff.
As the world epidemic of acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS, continues unabated, a new apprehension has begun to take hold among some medical experts. They say their suspicion is growing stronger that the disease may now pose a threat to the heterosexual community, though they hasten to add that this suspicion is based on preliminary interpretations of figures collected mainly in Africa and Haiti and on only scant data from the United States. Other health authorities still contend, however, that the risk to heterosexuals in the United States is so small that no new public health recommendations are warranted. At present, the established risk groups are homosexuals, intravenous drug users, hemophiliacs and Haitians who recently moved to the United States.
Since 1981, when the baffling disease was first recognized in New York and California, medical researchers have made enormous strides. They have discovered a virus believed to cause AIDS, and they have begun to unravel some of the mysteries of the natural history of the affliction that has been diagnosed in 37 countries. Most of the cases have been reported in the United States. Still, AIDS continues to be marked by confusion, frustration and dread. It is usually fatal in a slow, agonizing course. There is no effective treatment for it, and only changes in life style may prevent it. No one has learned why many who develop evidence of infection from the AIDS virus become ill and die, while some others do not. The growing concern has led some experts to issue public warnings that heterosexuals, like homosexuals, ought to avoid promiscuous sex. Others say the threat remains too weak to justify the urging of people to change their behavior.
Doctors quickly discovered that AIDS affected both sexes; the earliest diagnosed cases in females were among intravenous drug users and Haitian women living in the United States. Knowledge that the infection could be spread through heterosexual contact first came from doctors at Montefiore Hospital and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx. They reported in 1983 that AIDS had developed among seven female sexual partners of male intravenous drug users who had AIDS. Initially, some Federal health workers were skeptical because they suspected the women involved might also be drug users, but now believe heterosexual transmission of AIDS is occurring in the United States, according to Dr. Harold W. Jaffe of the AIDS team at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.
A vast overhaul of the military will be sought this year by a diverse group of experts. The group, ending an 18- month study, contends that the current organization of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is paralyzed by rivalries among the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. A draft report by the group, arguing that such divisions are the underlying cause of bloated budgets, poor combat readiness and a lack of coordination, urges that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs be given new powers.
The federal jury in Ariel Sharon’s $50-million libel lawsuit in New York against Time Inc. adjourned for the night after beginning a second week of deliberations, trying to determine if a TIME article about Sharon was published with the knowledge it was false, or with reckless disregard of whether it was false. The burden of proof lies with the former Israeli defense minister, and in the first five days of deliberations the jury has found for Sharon on two issues: that a key paragraph of a 1983 TIME magazine cover story about a massacre in Lebanon was defamatory, and that it was false.
Galaxy Airlines Flight 203 crashed into a Reno field at South Virginia Street and Neil Road just after 1 a.m. January 21, 1985, carrying football fans on a charter flight from Minneapolis to Reno. Of the 71 passengers and crew on board the charter flight bound for Minneapolis, only one — 17-year-old George Lamson Jr. — survived. It remains the deadliest aviation accident in Nevada history. Some of the group went by bus to Stanford, California to attend the Super Bowl game between the San Francisco 49ers and Miami Dolphins, while others traveled to Lake Tahoe and watched the game at Caesars Tahoe.
The charter group reunited late on the night of January 20, 1985, at Reno-Cannon International Airport and Galaxy Airlines Flight 203, a Lockheed Electra 4-engine turboprop fully loaded with fuel, took off just after 1 AM. A minute after takeoff, the co-pilot notified the Reno tower of a severe vibration and requested an immediate return to the airport. Seconds later, the plane went down just east of South Virginia Street and south of Neil Road. It caromed into a berm — the old right-of-way for the V&T Railroad — and broke in half, just in front of the row where Lamson and his father were seated. A huge fireball followed. Lamson, strapped in his seat, was launched through the fireball, the seat coming to rest on South Virginia Street. Two other passengers, George Lamson Sr. and Robert Miggins, initially survived the crash, but both died in the hospital days later. George Lamson Jr. was released from the hospital after eight days and returned to Minnesota, accompanied by his mother.
The prosecution’s ability to insure that people with qualms about capital punishment do not serve on juries in murder cases was enhanced by the Supreme Court. The 7-to-2 decision set a new standard for judges to use in deciding when a potential juror is so troubled by the death penalty that he cannot give the prosecution’s case a fair hearing.
An elderly plumber who shot and killed a knife-wielding teen-ager, one of two assailants, during an apparent robbery attempt in Chicago surrendered to police and was released as soon as authorities decided not to file charges against him. “I’m sorry for what happened,” Harold Brown, 68, said as he left police headquarters. “I still feel afraid.” The shooting occurred Thursday night as Brown was carrying two bags of groceries home, and police implored him to turn himself in for questioning. Brown at first held off, saying through an intermediary that he feared retaliation and extensive publicity.
Three people died and 14 were overcome by carbon monoxide in a Georgia church warmed by propane gas heaters and sealed tightly against record cold temperatures, the authorities say. The Greene County Sheriff, Jimmy Finch, attributed the deaths to a large beater that he said was improperly vented to the outside. All 17 people in the Church of God near Greensboro were found unconscious shortly before 11 PM Sunday when Pope Thurmond, the father of one of the victims, went to the church to find out why his son had not come home from a revival service. Mr. Thurmond’s son, Billy, Gindra Geter and Carolyn Swilley were dead on arrival at Minnie G. Boswell Hospital in Greensboro, and 10 other adults and four children were admitted. Fire Chief Omer Cook said church members had stuffed sheets and paper into cracks around doors and other openings, blocking ventilation. Temperatures in the area fell to near zero Sunday night.
More than 11,000 employees of the International Harvester Company returned to work today after union and company officials reached a tentative agreement that ended a weekend strike against the truck and diesel engine manufacturer. The walkout by members of the United Automobile Workers began at midnight Friday and ended Sunday. Officials of the company and the union refused to disclose details of the proposed three-year pact. The Chicago Sun-Times quoted unidentified union officials today as saying that the contract called for a 2.25 percent pay increase, effective next October 1, and an increase of 31 cents an hour in a cost-of-living allowance, retroactive to last October 1. Ratification meetings at the 23 U.A.W. locals included in the negotiations were scheduled for this week.
Federal safety investigators today began questioning employees of the Emery Mining Corporation about the mine fire that took 27 lives in December. The hearings by the Federal Mine Safety and Health Administration were being held at the College of Eastern Utah, about 40 miles north of the still smoldering Wilberg mine, and were expected to last at least five days. The first witness was Harold Brock, a mine foreman. A spokesman for the Federal agency said no conclusions would be reached until investigators had collected and examined evidence from the mine. The fire started the night of December 19. Rescuers left the dead in the mise after the fire forced them back on December 23. The mine was then sealed. Emery officials have said that it could be months before it would be safe to re-enter the mine.
A South Shore Line train packed with commuters slammed into another commuter train on the same track during the evening rush hour and at least 129 persons were injured, none seriously, authorities said in Gary, Indiana. Sub-zero weather was blamed for damaging overhead electrical lines, said Richard Bunton, a spokesman for the line.
Dancing is not a form of expression protected by the First Amendment, an appeals court ruled in St. Louis. The federal court decided against a group of parents who had sued Vilonia School District No. 17 in Faulkner County, Arkansas, over the right to hold high school dances in the school gymnasium. The parents contended that dancing is a form of expression protected by the First Amendment, and that school property was a public forum.
A judge in Ossipee, New Hampshire, threw out negligent homicide charges and issued a directed verdict of acquittal in the trial of three persons accused of provoking an argument that ended with a fatal heart attack. Perley Ryder, his wife, Linda, and her brother, Daniel Moody, were charged in the July 15, 1984, death of Donald Dodier, 56. The prosecution contended that the defendants knew Dodier had chronic heart problems when they argued with him over back rent. But Judge Richard Dunfey said, “The necessary causal relationship for criminal negligence has not been established.”
Protests by thousands of farmers and small-business men were held in St. Paul and Chicago over the financial plight of family farms.
-19°F (-28°C), Caesar’s Head, South Carolina (state record).
-34°F (-37°C), Mt Mitchell, North Carolina (state record).
Dennis Potvin ties Bobby Orr’s career record of 270 NHL goals.
The Super Bowl champion San Francisco 49ers and their coach, Bill Walsh, led a victory parade down Market Street today, greeted by thousands of jubilant fans who jammed downtown. Spectators stood 10 feet deep along the route, perched from office buildings, street lights, telephone booths and statues. Rolls of paper poured from high-rise hotel and office windows. The 49er players stood on two flatbed trucks, which were decorated like 49er football helmets, with their wives and children. Walsh, Edward DeBartolo Jr., the team’s owner, and Mayor Dianne Feinstein preceded them, waving from a vintage Jaguar limousine. The mood was considerably more rowdy Sunday night after the 49ers’ 38-16 victory over the Miami Dolphins, when several thousands of fans halted traffic, overturned a car, exploded firecrackers and set small trash bonfires in a citywide celebration that went on well after midnight. The police made at least 128 arrests.
Several stock averages rose to record levels in an unexpected wave of buying. The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 34.01 points, to 1,261.37, Standard & Poor’s 500-stock composite index rose 3.91 points, to a record of 175.23, and the New York Stock Exchange composite index rose 2.08 points, to a peak of 101.12.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1261.37.
Born:
Ryan Suter, Team USA and NHL defenseman (Olympics, Silver Medal, 2010, 4th, 2014; NHL All-Star, 2012, 2015, 2017; Nashville Predators, Minnesota Wild, Dallas Stars, St. Louis Blues), in Madison, Wisconsin.
Dan Gronkowski, NFL tight end (Detroit Lions, Denver Broncos, New England Patriots, Cleveland Browns), brother of Rob Gronkowski, in Amherst, New York.
Logan Payne, NFL wide receiver (Seattle Seahawks), in Lutz, Florida.
Sasha Pivovarova, Russian model, in Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union.
Died:
Eddie Graham, 55, American professional wrestler and promoter.
James Beard, 81, American culinary expert and author (“Delights & Prejudices”).
History Diaries 