Four Polish officers were convicted and sentenced to prison for their role in the abduction and slaying of a pro- Solidarity priest. The 25-day trial was believed to be the first in which a Communist country has publicly prosecuted members of its internal security forces for murdering a dissident. The five-judge tribunal sentenced two senior defendants, both police supervisors, to terms of 25 years, the longest prison sentence under Polish law; the two lower-ranking men received 15 and 14 years. In accordance with Polish law, the judges determined guilt and levied punishment. The prosecution had asked that one of the senior defendants, a cashiered police captain, be given the death penalty. The slaying of the priest, the Rev. Jerzy Popiełuszko, and the subsequent implication of the four men jolted the Government as no other event has since the start of the Solidarity movement in 1980. The prosecution sought to show that the four had acted on their own, without the involvement of higher-ups. The security police are a branch of the Interior Ministry.
Soviet President Konstantin U. Chernenko, who has not appeared in public since December 27, addressed the weekly meeting of the ruling Politburo at the Kremlin, the Tass news agency reported. This was the first official word that Chernenko, who is reportedly ill, has returned to work. The main evening television news program announced Chernenko’s participation but showed no videotape or still pictures of the session.
Moscow’s desire for U.S. computers is expected to be satisfied by new, more liberal high-technology trade regulations adopted by Washington and its allies. Industry sources say Soviet officials have begun negotiations to buy large numbers of Western-made personal computers, apparently for Soviet scientific institutes and schools.
A Soviet anti-corruption drive continues to punish middle-level officials and managers. According to news accounts, bank managers, collective farm chairmen, doctors, trade union officials, deputy ministers and even some Communist Party officials are still being sent to labor camps for such offenses as bribe taking and embezzlement.
Bulgarian security forces are reported to have killed as many as 100 ethnic Turks, during roundups to force them to adopt Bulgarian names. A series of reports, which have reached foreign diplomats, come from reliable witnesses, and add up to 100 dead. The figure itself has not been confirmed.
Italy has asked Bulgaria to extradite a Turkish businessman, Bekir Celenk, on charges of plotting to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981, the Italian news agency ANSA said today. Mr. Celenk was among seven people indicted last October for involvement in the alleged conspracy to kill the Pontiff.
Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi urged the French Government today to extradite Italian terrorist suspects, noting that some of them might have been involved in recent attacks elsewhere in Europe. Mr. Craxi, in an address to Parliament, said terrorism against North Atlantic Treaty Organization targets in Europe had followed a pattern set by the Italian terrorist group known as the Red Brigades, “The anti-NATO themes inspiring the new terrorism were present in Italian terrorism in 1980 and 1981, when the Red Brigades singled out the men and structures of the Atlantic alliance as primary targets for their strategy,” Mr. Craxi said. He noted that when French authorities arrested members of the anti- NATO terror group Direct Action, seven of those picked up were Italians accused of terrorism — “All fugtives and all dangerous,” Mr. Craxi said.
A six-story apartment building weakened by water seepage collapsed into a street in the southern Italian town of Castellaneta, killing at least 31 residents. Civil defense officials, who gave the casualty figures, said that five children were among the dead and that the final toll probably will not be determined until today. Prosecutors reportedly were preparing to file charges against the company that built the apartments and against the town’s building inspectors.
The United States has been assured that none of its funds for United Nations-aided population programs would be used for abortions, a high United Nations official said today. Rafael Salas, head of the world organization’s Fund for Population Activities, was responding to a report that Washington would withhold $23 million in funds for fear that some of the money might go for coerced abortions in China. Mr. Salas, who returned to his office today from talks in Tokyo, said in an interview that the American authorities had not transmitted to him any decision about withholding funds. “What is more,” he said, “we have already assured the United States that none of their money will be involved in issues that they feel are controversial.”
An American transmitter in Israel to enhance Voice of America broadcasts to the Soviet Union has been approved by the Israeli Government, political sources in Jerusalem said. The decision in principle by the national unity Government of Prime Minister Shimon Peres was conveyed to Washington several weeks ago, the sources said. Nonetheless, Israeli Government officials today declined to comment on the decision for fear of drawing any more attention to the transmitter, which they fear might cause problems for Soviet Jews.
Lebanese gunmen seeking freedom for jailed associates seized a Cyprus Airways jetliner at the Beirut airport today and threatened to kill 12 hostages, but surrendered five hours later, Lebanese officials said. The five gunmen, all Shiite Muslims, had given the Cypriot Government a 12-hour ultimatum, saying they would begin killing their hostages unless Cyprus freed two convicted hijackers, security sources said. The nine crew members held hostage aboard the Boeing 707 jetliner were reported to have been freed unharmed after the five-hour ordeal. The Shiite Muslim militia radio said the episode ended when the gunmen climbed down from the plane, leaving their hostages behind under terms of an agreement with Cyprus to free the two jailed hijackers. In Cyprus, sources close to the Government said the two prisoners would not be released immediately but that their cases would be reviewed.
Four Britons freed after nine months’ detention in Libya flew home to an emotional welcome today, and Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi, the Libyan leader, said he hoped his diplomatic rift with London would end “as soon as possible.” “We should be delighted to restore relations,” Colonel Qaddafi said in a British Broadcasting Corporation interview in Tripoli. The brief interview was televised in Britain shortly after the four men landed at rain-swept Gatwick Airport to a tearful reunion with relatives. Colonel Qaddafi said he wanted to resume cooperation with Britain in various fields. “There are mutual interests of both countries which we must not give away nor give up under any circumstances,” he said. But relations remained clouded by the trial of four Libyan students that began in Manchester on Monday. The four were arrested after bombing attacks against Libyan exiles in Britain who oppose Colonel Qaddafi. Britain severed diplomatic relations with Libya last April after shots that authorities said came from the Libyan Embassy killed a London policewoman and wounded several anti-Qaddafi demonstrators. Libya responded in May by detaining the four British workers in Tripoli, its capital.
About 27,000 Bangladesh Government doctors, engineers and agriculture specialists went on strike today demanding withdrawal of some administrative measures they say affect their services. The professionals are demanding better service facilities and withdrawal of a government order placing services of rural doctors, engineers and agriculturists under the authority of the 460 rural subdistricts.
Laos will allow excavation of a site where 13 Americans are presumed to have died when a U.S. military plane was shot down in the Vietnam War, the State Department announced. The excavation is planned for February 10-21 in the Laotian jungle where the C-130 transport went down in 1972. President Reagan last July had announced an agreement in principle for the excavation. The State Department spokesman, Bernard Kalb, said Laos had agreed to the excavation “prompted by its humanitarian policy toward the families of the Americans missing in action” during the Southeast Asian war. Laos agreed in principle to the excavation last July. The site is northeast of Pakse.
The trial of Philippine General Fabian C. Ver and 25 others accused in the assassination of the opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr. was postponed today for at least two weeks as a hearing meant to speed up proceedings turned into a three-hour quarrel. The purpose of the hearing was to get agreement that some matters would be accepted as fact. But after three hours, the only item both the prosecution and defense agreed on was that General Ver and the 24 military men accused with him were public servants. The 26th defendant is a businessman, Hermilo Gosuico. General Ver, armed forces chief until he went on temporary leave, won a small victory when Judge Manuel Pamaran agreed to strike his name from the title of the case on the ground that the general was charged only as an accessory, not as one of the principal accused.
In Manila’s suburbs today, more than 4,000 people, including Mr. Aquino’s widow, Corazon, marched to protest the detention in a military prison of 40 people arrested in a recent anti-Government rally.
President Reagan meets with Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia Robert Hawke. Australia took a middle position between its two allies in the ANZUS pact. Prime Minister Robert Hawke said that Australian forces would hold separate military exercises with the forces of the United States and New Zealand until an apparent breakdown in military cooperation between those two allies could be repaired and the three-member alliance could again function normally.
Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo orders the kidnapping of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena in Guadalajara, Mexico. U.S. drug agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena is tortured and killed at a house in Guadalajara in the presence of a half-dozen top Mexican officials. Camarena was kidnapped by police officers hired by the Guadalajara Cartel. After being brutally tortured for information, Camarena was eventually killed. The U.S. investigation into Camarena’s murder led to ten trials in Los Angeles for Mexican nationals involved in the crime. The case continues to trouble U.S.–Mexican relations, most recently when Rafael Caro Quintero, one of the three convicted traffickers, was released from a Mexican prison in 2013. Caro Quintero was again captured by Mexican forces in July 2022, reigniting discussions surrounding Camarena’s murder and its impact on enforcing drug policies domestically and abroad.
A phased withdrawal from Grenada was announced by Washington. It said that all foreign troops, including 250 American military personnel, would leave the Caribbean country over five and a half months starting in mid-April. The State Department announced that the remaining 250 American troops and 400 military personnel from other Caribbean nations will begin a phased withdrawal from Grenada in mid-April. Spokesman Bernard Kalb said the withdrawal will be completed by mid-September. The American troops led forces from Caribbean nations in an invasion of Grenada on October 25, 1983, after the assassination of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop by radical elements of his government.
Seven servicemen who tried to smuggle captured Soviet-made AK-47 rifles home after the U.S.led invasion of Grenada were court-martialed, but the admiral who commanded the entire operation received only a “caution” after doing the same thing, officials said. U.S. Customs officials said Navy Vice Admiral Joseph Metcalf III was prevented from unloading 24 AK-47’s on November 3, 1983, as he returned from Grenada, and a Navy spokesman confirmed that Metcalf was “cautioned” about the rules. In contrast, five servicemen were court-martialed and sentenced to prison, the Army said. Two Marines also were court-martialed.
El Salvador’s Supreme Court threw out a version of the electoral law signed by President Jose Napolean Duarte and upheld one favored by his conservative opposition. The court decision means that rightist parties can legally form coalitions to oppose Duarte’s moderate Christian Democrats in legislative and municipal elections March 31. Duarte had signed an Assembly-approved electoral law in December but had vetoed provisions to allow opposition coalitions.
South Africa announced that it will establish a special parliamentary commission to prepare legislation repealing laws that prohibit interracial sexual relations and marriage. Home Affairs Minister F.W. De Klerk told Parliament that repeal of these laws would not lead to integrated housing, schools or other facilities. The government acted after members of the new Asian and Colored (mixed race) houses of the tricameral Parliament called for repeal. Parliamentary study groups in the past have suggested changing the laws, and the move now has considerable acceptance among South African whites.
Rises in Social Security payments are not sacrosanct, in the view of Senate Republican leaders. Senate Republican leaders said today that they would propose a one-year elimination of the cost-of-living increase for Social Security pensioners as part of a package aimed at reducing government spending by at least $50 billion in 1986. The Senate majority leader, Bob Dole of Kansas, stressed that the Republicans would support the elimination, beginning next January, only as part of a larger package that included cuts in other domestic programs and in the military budget. Meanwhile, Republican and Democratic members of the Senate Budget Committee bluntly told Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger that he should expect President Reagan’s military budget request to be reduced.
President Reagan participates in a swearing in ceremony for the new Secretary of Energy, Secretary of Education and Secretary of the Interior Donald Hodel.
President Reagan’s military budget is “bloated and unbalanced,” lavishing money on nuclear arms and the Navy “at the expense of nearly everything else,” according to former Pentagon officials associated with Democratic administrations.
Fewer federal investigators are sought by President Reagan in his proposed 1986 budget. Mr. Reagan, who has often deplored “waste, fraud and abuse” in the government, has proposed cuts in funds for the inspectors general of every major agency except the Pentagon.
Former Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr. blamed President Reagan today for some of the controversy surrounding the Administration’s space weapons program. In testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mr. Haig, who was President Reagan’s first Secretary of State, said: “I thought the President’s speech” two years ago, when he first announced the “Star Wars” program, “was ill-timed, ill-advised and created the problems we have today. I wish he hadn’t made it.” The reason, Mr. Haig said, is that the program “is such a complex issue that it required months of preparation” before it was discussed in public. Now, he said, America’s allies, as well as political leaders in the United States, are confused about what the program would actually do.
The selection of Jim Wright of Texas to be Speaker of the House in 1987 is virtually assured, according to most Democrats. Representative Wright, who is now the House majority leader, asserted that about three-quarters of present House Democrats had pledged to vote for him as Speaker when the 100th Congress convenes two years from now.
The next space shuttle flight, with Senator Jake Garn aboard, will be launched March 3, 11 days late because of troublesome thermal tiles, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced today. NASA officials had said Monday that the launching of the Challenger would probably be delayed at least a week beyond the original February 20 date. The seven-member crew for the 16th space shuttle mission includes Mr. Garn, a Utah Republican who is chairman of the committee that oversees NASA’s financing. He is going along as a Congressional observer. Other crew members are Commander Karol Bobko; Donald Williams, the pilot; three mission specialists, Rhea Seddon, David Griggs and Jeffrey Hoffman, and a French astronaut, Patrick Baudry.
The Treasury Department’s tax simplification plan would wipe out $16.5 billion in indirect federal aid for education, Albert Shanker, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said. The figure is the amount the real burden of school taxes would increase if taxpayers could no longer deduct state and local taxes from their federal tax returns, Shanker said at a Washington news conference with Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-New York). Moynihan predicted that the plan “will (have) an astonishing impact on education.”
A $3.9-million settlement has been reached on lawsuits stemming from the 1979 nuclear power plant accident at Three Mile Island, near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, with the two largest awards going to parents of children born with birth defects. The personal injury suits were filed on behalf of 72 children and four men. The suits charged the defendants suffered radiation exposure and other ill-effects from the accident, the worst in the history of the U.S. commercial nuclear industry.
The House, controlled by the Democrats, voted 221 to 180 to refuse to seat Indiana Republican Richard McIntyre, who has been certified the winner by 418 votes over one-term Democratic Rep. Frank McCloskey in the recent congressional election. One angry congressman called it “a rape of the system.” The House Administration Committee was ordered to investigate the dispute and report back within 45 days.
Bernhard H. Goetz has confided that long before he had his famous encounter with four youths in the subway, he pulled a gun to protect himself from two muggers. That time, he did not shoot. Twice, he also came to the aid of women being mugged, though he did not take out a gun either time, said his lawyer, Joseph Kelner. “It shows he’s not an irresponsible man — he didn’t just shoot, unless he had to,” said Bernard Goldstein, a Goetz friend. Goetz, 37, a self-employed electronics expert, remains free on bail while awaiting trial on weapons charges. On December 22, he shot four youths who he claims were menacing him on the subway.
A man fatally shot a praying priest, a janitor and a parishioner in Onalaska, Wisconsin, outside La Crosse. The police said the man apparently became enraged because girls were reading from the Bible at a special children’s mass. Officers arrested a suspect after a half-mile chase. The police chased down the suspect, who was said to have identified himself as Elijah, after the prophet who saw his mission as crushing the worship of foreign gods by the Israelites. The gunman, armed with a 12-gauge shotgun, opened fire inside St. Patrick’s Church after the children had filed out, killing the 64-year-old pastor, the Rev. John Rossiter; the janitor, William Hammes, and Ferdinand Roth, a parishioner.
A leading Boston bank pleaded guilty in Federal District Court to failing to report $1.2 billion in cash transfers with Swiss banks and was fined $500,000. The fine against the First National Bank of Boston was the largest penalty ever imposed on a bank for violating the 1980 Federal currency reporting law.
Colorado Governor Richard D. Lamm criticized high-tech medical research responsible for prolonging the life of artificial heart transplant patient William J. Schroeder and chided Americans for denying death. Lamm, who last year said elderly patients were too often kept alive needlessly, told a group of health professionals at a meeting in Glenwood Springs that every institution that is causing health prices to rise should be revamped. He suggested increased emphasis on preventive medicine.
A special crisis commission appointed by Governor Rudy Perpich agreed that 69 of Minnesota’s 87 counties should be declared economic emergency areas to point up the need for federal help for farmers and the chronically unemployed. The proclamation would declare an emergency in every county where the unemployment rate is at least 10% or where agriculture is the main occupation of at least 10% of the population. “In effect, we’re declaring a catastrophe,” said Tom Triplett, a chief aide to Perpich. “Frankly, there’s a question of whether the federal government will pay any attention to it.”
A woman who sued the town of Ware, Massachusetts, for negligence in the deaths of her husband and daughter, who were killed in a car crash with a driver she contended was drunk, will get $237,500 in an out-of-court settlement, officials said today. A town official said the settlement was “not an admission of wrongdoing by either party.” In her suit, the woman, Debbie Irwin, contended the town police had failed to stop a driver, whom she maintained was drunk, before a car crash that killed her husband, Mark Irwin, 19 years old, and their 20-month-old daughter, Misty Jane, on May 14, 1978. The driver, Donald Fuller, 19, was also killed in the crash. In 1983, a Superior Court jury awarded Mrs. Irwin, 25, and her surviving 9-year-old son, Steven, $873,000. However, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court said testimony purporting to show Mr. Fuller had been drunk was improper and ordered a new trial.
The police director of Newark, New Jersey, Hubert Williams, has been named president of the Police Foundation, succeeding Patrick V. Murphy, who is resigning in May after heading the Washington-based nonprofit research organization for 12 years. Williams, 45, is the founding president of the National Organization for Black Law Enforcement Executives.
An examiner recommended today that the Wisconsin Board of Nursing revoke the license of a nurse who disconnected the respirator of a dying man. The nurse, Thomas P. Engel, 29 years old, told the board in October that he disconnected the respirator of Joseph Dohr, 78, on September 14, 1983, in what he considered to be the best interests of the patient and family. Mr. Dohr had been admitted to St. Michael Hospital in Milwaukee a few weeks earlier after suffering a stroke that caused brain damage. He was comatose when Mr. Engel disconnected the respirator. The recommendation, which is not binding, goes to the board, which is scheduled to meet March 18.
An Indiana dentist was responsible for transmitting hepatitis to eight of his patients, two of whom died, Federal health officials said today. The dentist was linked to the disease after nine cases of hepatitis B were reported in a rural Indiana county between April and December 1984. An investigation found that eight of the patients had been treated by the same dentist, the national Centers for Disease Control said today. The dentist has voluntarily suspended his practice.
The national Centers for Disease Control has lowered the amount of lead in the blood that is considered poisoning and recommended today that all children be screened. The agency lowered the amount of lead in the blood that is considered toxic and recommended that all children be examined for possible lead poisoning, which can affect behavior and intelligence. The guidelines contained in the agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report defined lead poisoning as a lead level of 35 micrograms per deciliter, down from the previous level of 50 micrograms per deciliter, issued in 1978. The agency now defines an elevated blood lead level, which reflects excessive absorption of lead, as a concentration of lead in whole blood of 25 micrograms of lead per deciliter, compared with a level of 30 micrograms per deciliter in its previous definition.
Union membership continues to drop, according to new statistics. The Government reported that union membership dropped to 18.8 percent of wage and salary workers in 1984, from 23 percent in 1980.
“New York, New York” becomes the official anthem of New York City.
Marshall U’s Bruce Morris scores a basket from 92’5″.
New Jersey Devil Don Lever becomes 57th NHLer to score 300 goals.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1290.08 (+9.49)
Born:
Deborah Ann Woll, American actress (“True Blood”; “Daredevil” (TV series), in New York, New York.
Tina Majorino, American actress (“Waterworld”, “When a Man Loves a Woman”), in Westlake Village, California.
Bernard James, NBA center (Dallas Mavericks), in Savannah, Georgia.
Josh Hennessy, NHL centre (Ottawa Senators, Boston Bruins), in Brockton, Massachusetts.
Died:
Albert Dondeyne, 83, Belgian philosopher and theologist.
Matt Monro [Terence Parsons], 54, English pop singer (“Softly As I Leave You”), dies from liver cancer.
[Ed: All smiles for the cameras. Probably less so later.]
[Ed: Michael Dukakis should have taken notes on How Not to Look Like a Dork…]
History Diaries 