A U.S. Army major was fatally shot in East Germany by a Soviet guard near a Soviet military installation, American officials said. American sources said that the 37-year-old officer, Maj. Arthur D. Nicholson Jr., was shot in the chest Sunday as he was observing Soviet tank sheds. Major Arthur D. Nicholson Jr., an Army military intelligence officer, was shot by a Soviet sentry while engaged in intelligence-gathering activities as part of an authorized military liaison mission which operated under reciprocal U.S.–Soviet authority. Military liaison missions were liaisons between the British, French and U.S. forces and the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany (East Germany), but they had a known intelligence-gathering secondary mission and an important role to verify that offensive action was not being prepared. Reciprocal groups were authorized and operated by both the British, French and U.S. (in East Germany) and the Soviet Union (in West Germany) during the Cold War. Nicholson is officially regarded by the U.S. Department of Defense as having been a victim of “murder” and the final “victim” of the Cold War. Nicholson’s death led to a U.S.–Soviet crisis and intense negotiations regarding the military liaison missions.
The Soviets contended that the response of Sergeant Ryabtsev, as a guard, had been appropriate in confronting an “unknown intruder who did not comply with the warnings of the sentry”, and also stated that the area that Major Nicholson was in was “off-limits” to military liaison mission operations, as well as placing blame for the incident on the United States.
At a subsequent meeting between General Otis and General Mikhail Zaitsev, the commander of Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, General Otis made it clear that the U.S. Army believed that Nicholson’s murder was “officially condoned, if not directly ordered.” Following this, a Soviet diplomat was ordered out of the U.S. and the U.S. canceled plans to jointly celebrate the 40th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe with the Soviets.
In 1988, Soviet Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov officially apologized for the death of Major Nicholson to U.S. Defense Secretary Frank C. Carlucci at a summit conference in Moscow.
Democrats warned the Soviet Union that it must comply with existing arms control treaties or risk the most “serious consequences for the future of arms control.” The warning was contained in a letter sent to Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the new Soviet leader, by a group of powerful liberal and centrist Democrats in the House. The highly unusual form of communication specifically stated that prospects for a limit on space-based defenses, which is widely seen as Moscow’s major goal in the arms control talks in Geneva, “would become much more difficult” without strict treaty compliance. The 23 Representatives who signed the letter included three who will deal with future arms treaties.
The Irish Republican Army said it killed a man who had provided information to police, and it offered what it called a 14-day amnesty to other informers. An IRA statement in Dublin said John Corcoran, 45, father of eight, was killed after revealing “under questioning” that for several years he had provided police with information, including that which led to the arrest of three men charged with a 1981 post office robbery. Corcoran’s body was found in a County Mayo farmhouse in the Irish Republic.
A London newspaper, The Mail on Sunday, reported today that Ireland and Britain are on the “threshold of historic agreement” to bring peace to Northern Ireland. Officials in London and Dublin said the report was very premature.
Strikes and lockouts spread across Denmark in the first major work stoppage in 12 years. Three hundred thousand people went on strike today in a dispute over wages and hours. Unions ordered strikes in key sectors after talks with private employers collapsed Thursday. The unions want a shorter workweek and wage increases of more than the 2 percent they say the employers have offered. Many Danes were left without heating, ferry and air service and newspapers. The dispute followed the collapse of five months of negotiations between the Assn. of Employers and the National Federation of Trade Unions over union demands for a 35-hour week and annual pay raises of 5% to 6%.
Hundreds of Ethiopian Jews marched in Jerusalem in renewed protests against what they feel is insensitive and insulting treatment from the nation’s chief rabbi and some other Israelis. Representatives of the marchers — who were among those airlifted late last year by Israel — said they are especially angered by a rabbinical requirement that all Ethiopian Jews undergo a symbolic conversion. The Ethiopians find this offensive, noting that they have preserved their Jewishness through the ages despite living in isolated African towns.
A vice president of CBS News, Ernest Leiser, met today with senior Israeli officials and said he received a detailed explanation of how two CBS cameramen were killed by an Israeli tank shell in Lebanon last week. Mr. Leiser met for two hours at the Prime Minister’s office with Uri Savir, the spokesman for Prime Minister Shimon Peres, and Lieut. Col. Raanan Gissin, from the Israel Defense Force spokesman’s office. Mr. Leiser said in an interview after the meeting that “if the Israel Defense Force account is to be believed, the shooting could have been a tragic mistake.” He added: “The Israeli tank crew could have been far enough away so that they could not have identified the cameramen. However, the Israeli account does not jibe with what we were told, and are continuing to hear, from witnesses in Lebanon, who said that the Israeli tank commander could easily see that the CBS car was a press car, with a press crew, and that no shooting was coming from around them.”
Muslim and Christian militiamen clashed with machine guns and rocket propelled grenades today on the old Green Line that divides Beirut. It was the worst flareup of violence between the two sides in nine months. Two of the four crossing points between Muslim West Beirut and the Christian East were closed. Traffic at the other two crossings dropped to a trickle. Lebanese Army soldiers were caught in the crossfire that broke out Saturday night and continued today despite efforts to stop it by a security committee made up of representatives of many of the factions.
The most reliable United States ally in the Persian Gulf since the Iranian revolution is now Oman, according to Western, Omani and other Arab officials. This development, the officials said, has largely been the result of the influence of about 20 American, British and Arab advisers on the Oman’s reclusive and absolute ruler, Sultan Qabus bin Said. Oman has become a base for Western intelligence operations, military maneuvers and logistical preparations for any defense of the oil-rich Persian Gulf.
Iran said today that it had launched a missile attack on Baghdad and that Iraqi aircraft had hit Tehran. There were no immediate reports of casualties in either attack. The Iranian press agency, monitored in London, reported that Iraqi supersonic planes had fired three rockets at a sparsely populated area of Tehran. Earlier the agency said Iran launched a missile attack on Baghdad before dawn in retaliation for an Iraqi attack on shipping in the Persian Gulf. On Sunday, Iraq said it had hit two “large targets,” a term that usually means oil tankers, near Iran’s oil terminal at Kharg Island. Iran announced Saturday that it had stopped attacks on Iraqi cities but would retaliate if Iraq attacked Iranian cities or Persian Gulf shipping.
Chad’s President Hissen Habre said Libya is reinforcing its troop positions in the north of his country but that more than 3,000 southern dissidents have rallied to his government this year. Habre said Libya has 7,000 troops in the northern region in violation of a pullout agreement and has installed planes, tanks and air defense equipment. Under a mutual agreement, France last fall withdrew troops supporting Habre, and Libyan forces also were to have pulled out.
Tax cuts proposed in India represent a break with past policies by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. His program, which would reduce taxes for businesses and wealthy individuals and relax government regulation in key parts of the economy, resembles some of President Reagan’s “supply side” initiatives. Consciously or not, Mr. Gandhi seems to have borrowed a page from Mr. Reagan’s textbook in an effort to shake up the Indian economy. The program, introduced in his government’s budget last week, has drawn praise from several quarters, including some associated with the political opposition.
Two political leaders were shot to death in Chandigarh, capital of Punjab, a day after Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi visited the state, police said. Krishnan Lal Manchanda, a leader of the Hindu opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, was shot by two men who called at his home. Makhan Singh, a student leader who supported Gandhi’s Congress-I party, was shot by two men near his home. Police said they suspect Sikh extremists. Militant Sikhs have been campaigning for more autonomy for Punjab.
A Soviet diplomat who disappeared a week ago in New Delhi has been given political asylum in the United States, Indian authorities said. They said information about the diplomat, Igor Gezha, came from Gordon L. Streeb, the United States deputy chief of mission in New Delhi. Mr. Streeb was understood to have told the Indian Government that there was no connection between Mr. Gezha’s asylum and the killing of another Soviet diplomat, Valentin Khitrichenko, in New Delhi Thursday. The police said they were unable to turn up information about either incident. Although a Ukrainian nationalist group in New York City has said it was responsible for the shooting, the Indian police are still speculating that it could have been carried out by one of the anti-Soviet Afghan groups that operate in New Delhi.
South Korea announced that it will return a Chinese navy torpedo boat that it seized Friday in South Korean waters. The ship was found with six slain crewmen aboard, but a Korean government spokesman said investigators concluded that the killings were not politically motivated but were sparked by two disgruntled crewmen. The spokesman said the 13 remaining crewmen said they wanted to go home and will be released with the boat. China and South Korea, which have no formal relations, reportedly negotiated the release through channels in Hong Kong.
Mexican officials quietly fired the police commander who led an investigation into the abduction and slaying of U.S. drug agent Enrique S. Camarena, the newspaper El Sol reported. Armando Pavon Reyes, commander of the federal judicial police, an unnamed deputy commander and a police squad chief were all dropped from the national police force, the newspaper said. Pavon Reyes drew criticism for allegedly not stopping Rafael Caro Quintero, a key suspect in the Camarena case, from leaving Mexico.
Thousands of people filled San Salvador’s main cathedral and the square outside today for a mass marking the fifth anniversary of Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero’s assassination. Archibishop Romero’s successor, Archbishop Arturo Rivera y Damas, told the crowd of about 6,000 that the authorities should reopen an investigation of the killing. Calling Archbishop Romero “a martyr,” Archbishop Rivera y Damas said that “his death must be clarified and those guilty must be punished.” Archbishop Romero, an outspoken advocate of human rights, was slain on March 24, 1980, while saying mass at a hospital chapel. Rightist death squads are believed to have been responsible. The gunman was never captured. Archbishop Rivera y Damas also said he deplored the killing here Saturday of Jose Alberto Medrano, a retired general who was active in far-right politics. Anonymous callers told news organizations that leftist guerrillas were responsible for the slaying.
Steps to protect white residents near a black township in South Africa’s Eastern Cape were taken by army and police units. A protective ring was thrown around white residential areas near Kwanobuhle, where five black people were hacked and burned to death in revenge for killings Saturday. Three more blacks were reported killed by police fire. The three died when a police patrol fired on crowds setting fire to a liquor store. That brought to 29 the number of people killed since the police opened fire on a crowd of blacks in Langa Township on Thursday.
A compromise on military spending between the Reagan Administration and Senate Republicans might be possible, Donald T. Regan, the White House chief of staff said. It was the first time a White House official has said publicly that President Reagan could be swayed from his insistence that his proposed military budget should not be cut. A senior White House official said tonight that Mr. Regan’s comments reflected a new “willingness to look at suggestions of compromise.” The official said that the mood within the White House was to “look at programs, not deal in percentages.”
President Reagan spends the day making phone calls to support the MX Missile program.
President Reagan has “abandoned” the human rights policies of the Jimmy Carter Administration and has avoided taking responsibility for anything “unpleasant” or unsuccessful, former President Carter said. “What will be the Reagan heritage is too early to say. I cannot think of a single international or diplomatic achievement that’s been realized by Ronald Reagan,” Carter said on CBS-TV’s “60 Minutes.”
[Ed: LAUGH MY ASS OFF. Yeah, Jimmuh, we also abandoned double-digit inflation. And let’s not forget those other Carter accomplishments: Losing Iran to the Crazies, the Hostages, record prices for oil, losing Nicaragua to the Communists, failing to understand the Soviets saw détente as a cynical game which in no way obligated them not to invade Afghanistan or threaten Poland. And On and On. Sit Down and Shut Up, you pathetic little muppet failure. And watch the Cold War end.]
The value of combined welfare and food-stamp benefits for a family of four with no other income dropped 22% nationwide from 1972 to 1984, according to a study by the House Ways and Means Committee. The main reason was that states’ cash welfare payments failed to keep up with inflation, the report said. In 1972, the average welfare family of four with no other income received $8,894 in welfare and food-stamp benefits, measured in constant 1984 dollars. The combined Aid to Families with Dependent Children program and food-stamp benefit level for a family of four without other income averaged $6,955 nationwide in 1984, or 21.8% below the 1972 level.
Bernhard H. Goetz “can hardly wait” to testify about the December 22 shooting on a New York subway train of four youths who he claims menaced him and demanded $5, his lawyers said. Goetz would be able to appear before a grand jury on Tuesday, one day after a deadline imposed by the jurors, lawyer Barry Slotnick said. The offer will be presented to the grand jury today, a spokesman for Manhattan Dist. Atty. Robert Morgenthau said.
Minorities and women made significant gains in employment during the 1970s, due largely to affirmative action programs, and the guidelines should be continued despite criticism from the Reagan Administration, a report said. The study, by the Washington-based Potomac Institute, found that blacks’ share of the job market increased by 15% during the decade, with the majority of those jobs in higher-paying categories. Women increased their share in the job market by 19%.
New air-traffic procedures to prevent a repetition of the many flight delays in last year’s heavy travel months will be put into effect in April by the Federal Aviation Administration. The changes include alterations in routes and procedures for planes flying to the New York area from the Southwest; acceleration of a program to resolve bottlenecks in the airways as they develop, and a relaxation of restrictions on the separation of planes in flight. The changes will start going into effect after the expiration next Sunday of an agreement the airlines made last fall to adjust rush-hour schedules to reduce congestion. New schedules for this year’s heavy travel season go into effect with daylight saving time on April 28, with traffic forecast to increase 6 to 10 percent. The airlines have assured the Government they have no intention of reverting to the excessive bunching of flights that contributed to last year’s snarls. This assurance, plus the plans for improved procedures, have generated moderate optimism among Government and industry officials that delays will be down significantly this year, provided the weather cooperates.
An expected boycott of the nation’s first mandatory test of experienced teachers fell through because many educators feared they would lose their jobs, an opponent of the examination said today. Officials of the Arkansas Education Department say that up to 92 percent of the state’s 27,000 certified teachers and administrators took the tests of basic skills in reading, writing and mathematics Saturday. The state’s largest teacher organization, the Arkansas Education Association, had predicted that up to a third would boycott the examination. But a social studies teacher, Walter Roberts, said most took it because they were afraid of losing their jobs.
Combat medical care is deficient, the Defense Department says. The armed forces have begun a $2.6 billion, five-year program to correct it. Its principal aim, according to Dr. William E. Mayer, Assistant Secretary of Defense for health affairs, is to provide care for all the wounded in combat by 1990. He said that currently care could be given to only three of 10 combatants.
The Pan Am strike settlement was criticized by some leaders of Local 504 of the Transport Workers Union, which represents 4,000 of the 5,800 workers who walked out at Pan American World Airways. Financial analysts said the tentative contract, announced Saturday, could significantly help the ailing airline.
Seven followers of the Rev. D. Douglas Roth, a dissident Lutheran minister, were arrested outside their padlocked church after police said that they ignored orders to leave. The seven were charged with failure of disorderly persons to disperse after they prayed for about 10 minutes outside Trinity Lutheran Church in Clairton, Pennsylvania, a Pittsburgh suburb. Roth was not at the service. Roth, 33, served 112 days for civil contempt of court for defying orders from a judge and church leadership about his support of militant pro-labor groups.
Chief Justice Joseph A. Bevilacqua of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, under fire for his associations with criminals, has bought credits in the state pension system, guaranteeing him an income of about $63,000 a year if he retires. Chief Justice Bevilacqua, 66 years old, could not be reached for comment today.
A gas explosion blew the roof off a Los Angeles department store in a shopping center today, injuring at least 21 people and possibly burying more beneath the rubble of the building, the officials said. Two of the injured were critically burned in the explosion at the Ross Dress for Less department store in the Park-La Brea Center, according to hospitals that treated tthe victims. Two store employees were unaccounted for, Ed Reed, a spokesman for the Fire Department, said. Windows in stores a block away were blown out, and homes and stores in a four-block area were evacuated. The cause of the late afternoon blast had not been pinpointed, but flames could be seen leaping from the ground around the store for four hours afterward. A Fire Department spokesman said the source of the explosion was natural gas. A spokesman for Southern California Gas said fuel from the company was not the sources of the explosion and that officials were investigating to determine the exact cause.
Persons from Tennessee to Florida saw in the night sky a streaking object they described as “much bigger and brighter than a shooting star.” Reports of the object, which pilots said “changed from red to green to orange,” were typical of descriptions of a meteor, said Ken King, the Federal Aviation Administration supervisor at Huntsville, Ala. In Washington, FAA spokesman Dennis Feldman said, “Our people report a fireball as far north as Chattanooga and as far south as Orlando. We have no idea what it was.”
Hugh Hefner has a new outlook on life since his stroke early this month, his spokesman said today, and has given up his wild hours, ubiquitous Pepsi bottle and trademark pipe. Mr. Hefner, who is 59 years old, has made a complete recovery from the mild stroke he suffered March 6, according to his aide, Don Rogers.
Nearly half of the nation’s population would rather live in small towns, a Gallup Poll said. But the poll also showed that only 34% of those living in cities were dissatisfied with their communities. Presented with seven choices ranging from a large city with at least 1 million persons to rural areas, 48% said they would rather live in a town with a small population, said the survey appearing in the New York Times.
A rare toucan, the first of its kind hatched in captivity in this country, has apparently been stolen from the Audubon Zoo. The four-inch-tall female toucan, one of two hatched at the zoo in October, was found to be missing Thursday, the bird curator, Peter Shannon, said. The bird, raised by zoo personnel, was moved into a small cage in the zoo’s tropical rain forest exhibition Tuesday. The cage door was found open Thursday, Mr. Shannon said.
5th Golden Raspberry (Razzie) Awards: “Bolero” wins.
David Bowie delighted 10,000 rock fans in the industrial city of Birmingham, England, by joining Tina Turner for the finale of her British tour. Bowie’s surprise stage appearance was his first in two years. He and Turner sang “Tonight,” a track they recorded together for Bowie’s recent album of the same name, as well as a rock version of the ’60s classic “Let’s Dance” by Chris Montez and Bowie’s own 1983 composition also entitled “Let’s Dance.” “Standing next to her up there was the hottest place in the universe,” Bowie said afterward.
Third straight WTA Tour Championship for tennis legend Martina Navratilova; she beats Helena Suková 6–3, 7–5, 6–4 at Madison Square Garden, NYC
Born:
John Greco, NFL guard and center (St. Louis Rams, Cleveland Browns, New York Giants), in Youngstown, Ohio.
Brock Bolen, NFL running back (Jacksonville Jaguars), in Germantown, Ohio.
Haruka Ayase, Japanese actress and model, in Hiroshima, Japan.
History Diaries 