The Mayor of Jerusalem and the head of a West German Jewish group said today that President Reagan should honor World War II concentration camp victims on a visit here next month. In a statement in Bonn, Werner Nachmane, chairman of the Executive Council of West German Jews, said it would be a fitting tribute “if the leading representative of the American people would remember the Jewish victims during his visit.” In Munich, Mayor Teddy Kellek of Jerusalem said it was “perfectly natural” for Mr. Reagan to visit a cemetery for German soldiers of World War II. But he added, “I just think he would have been better advised were he also to visit a concentration camp. Some American Jews and veterans’ groups have attacked Mr. Reagan’s decision to visit the military cemetery at Bitburg after ruling out a trip to the site of the Dachau concentration camp. In Washington, White House officials said the matter would be reviewed and indicated that another event — such as a visit to a synagogue — could be added to the schedule to mute the criticism.
The Soviet Communist Party newspaper Pravda today assailed President Reagan’s plans to visit a German military cemetery as an “act of blasphemy” mocking the memory of millions killed by the Nazis.
More than 70,000 people from 16 nations marked the liberation 40 years ago of the Nazis’ Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen death camps, the East German news agency ADN reported. The agency said that about 63,000 people, many of them former camp inmates, attended ceremonies at the site of Buchenwald in southwestern East Germany. It said that more than 10,000 assembled at a monument near the East Berlin suburb of Potsdam to honor the victims of Sachsenhausen. The report identified various European nationalities as among the death camp victims but made no mention of Jewish dead.
Jozef Cardinal Glemp, on the eve of a meeting in Rome with Pope John Paul II, chastised the Polish Government press today for its attacks on the Roman Catholic Church. In a sermon at the Warsaw Cathedral, Cardinal Glemp, the Primate of Poland, was ostensibly responding to a recent article in the party weekly Polityka that accused the Pope of joining with Western powers in an anti-Communist crusade. But priests and lay people in the cathedral clearly understood that the Cardinal was responding to a wide range of press attacks on the church that reflect a program contained in a secret white paper presented to the Council of Ministers on March 16. The anti-church campaign has been clearly growing in the last week, and Cardinal Glemp will discuss it with the Pope when they meet on Monday. Some churchmen here saw the spate of critical articles as linked to a two-part report in Izvestia, the Soviet Government newspaper, denouncing the social activism of the Polish church as a danger to party control, a line that was also taken in the white paper.
A bomb gutted the offices of a rightist newspaper in Paris today. It was the third bombing of the weekend for which the banned extreme-left group Direct Action claimed responsibility. The group, in a telephone call and written statement to a French news agency, said it had planted the bomb at the offices of the rightist weekly newspaper Minute. The predawn explosion, near the Arc de Triomphe, shattered windows hundreds of yards away. Direct Action also said it was responsible for bombings Saturday that damaged the Paris office of Bank Leumi of Israel and an immigration office. No one was wounded in the three attacks, the police said.
A Shia Muslim extremist group called Islamic Jihad (Holy War) is suspected of planting a bomb that killed 18 people Friday and destroyed the Descanso Restaurant near Madrid, Interior Minister Jose Barrionuevo said. No Americans were killed but 15 were injured. Islamic Jihad also took responsibility for suicide attacks on U.S. installations in Beirut in 1983.
Israel and its southern Lebanese militia allies are maintaining a secret prison just north of the Israeli border where captives are kept in appalling conditions and subjected to beatings and electricshock torture, according to a former prisoner quoted by the Christian Science Monitor. The 70 or 80 prisoners are held in underground cells beneath the former Lebanese army barracks at Khiam, just north of the border, he said. An Israeli spokesman said the prison exists but is run solely by Israel’s militia ally, the South Lebanon Army.
Israel’s Prime Minister was rebuffed by the hard-line wing of the Israeli national unity Government, which refused to authorize a visit to Cairo by Ezer Weizman, whose title is Minister in the Prime Minister’s office. He is an advocate of political flexibility toward the Arabs.
A least 10 people were killed in weekend battles in Sidon that pitted Christians against Muslims and Palestinians, the police said today. Residents called it the most violent fighting since clashes began 17 days ago. In Tyre, also in southern Lebanon, Israeli troops took more than 60 men from a Palestinian camp at the city’s edge, reporters said. Israeli military sources called it “routine activity” and said dozens had been held for questioning but no weapons had been found. In Sidon, the nation’s second largest city with 200,000 people, battles between the Lebanese Forces, a Christian militia, in the hills to the east and Muslim and Palestinian fighters on the city’s edge continued today. The battles subsided into sporadic sniping by afternoon, but shelling resumed just before dark.
India’s attempt to bring peace to the troubled Punjab state gained ground when Sikh political leaders postponed a planned protest campaign. Instead, public rallies celebrating a harvest festival and commemorating a massacre by British-led troops 66 years ago in the Sikh holy city of Amritsar passed peacefully under tight security. The main Sikh party, the Akali Dal, postponed its protest until June 1 after Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi agreed to its demand for an inquiry into anti-Sikh riots that followed the murder of his mother, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, by Sikh guards last year.
Vietnam plans to withdraw one-third of its troops from Cambodia by the end of this year, Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach said. He added that by 1987, troop strength will be halved from the present level, even if no settlement is negotiated, and that it will be cut progressively until 1995, when Cambodia’s armed forces will be able to defend the country alone. Western diplomats say that previous Vietnamese withdrawal announcements have merely disguised troop rotations.
The White House campaign for aid to Nicaraguan rebels will focus on the Reagan Adminstration’s assertion that Nicaragua is exporting Marxist revolution throughout all of Central America, Administration officials say. Interviews with the officials, members of Congress and others indicate that there is ample evidence that Nicaragua has aided the leftist rebels in El Salvador who are trying to change or overthrow the Government, but they acknowledge that they have little evidence that the Nicaraguan Government is actively supporting Communist insurgency elsewhere in Central America.
Nicolae Ceaușescu, the Rumanian leader, arrived in Ottawa today for a five-day visit expected to center on the sale of Canadian nuclear technology Canada has been trying to sell Rumania its Candu nuclear reactor for several years. The issue will be discussed by Mr. Ceaușescu and Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, officials said Mr. Ceausescu and his delegation will spend two days in Ottawa before going to Toronto and Montreal.
A runoff election in Peru seemed likely to follow the presidential election in which a 35-year-old Social Democrat, Alan Garcia Perez, took first place but was unlikely to win the clear majority needed to avoid a runoff. In the race for second place, early returns gave a solid lead to the Marxist Mayor of Lima and nominee of the United Left alliance, Alfonso Barrantes Lingan, over the principal conservative candidate, Luis Bedoya Reyes.
President Leon Febres Cordero of Ecuador arrived in Cuba today on an official visit. Mr. Febres Cordero, who is considered a conservative, was welcomed by Fidel Castro at José Marti Airport. The two leaders are to hold two days of talks that are expected to center on the Latin American debt problem and on unrest in Central America.
Brazilian President-elect Tancredo Neves’s condition deteriorated today, and his spokesman said that “there is nothing new that can be done” to treat him. Antonio Brito, the presidential spokesman, said Mr. Neves’s condition was “almost irreversible.” Mr. Neves, 75 years old, has had seven operations in a month. Doctors conducted tests today in an attempt to locate an infection that has caused a fever and a rapid heartbeat. But Mr. Britto said it had become “impossible” to find the infection. Reading a medical bulletin, he said an inflammation in Mr. Neves’s lungs also had grown worse, causing an “extreme drop in the oxygen level in his blood. Mr. Neves remained on a respirator and was undergoing his third day of dialysis, which filters blood by machine when the kidneys fail.
South Africa’s government is expected to announce today that it will propose the repeal of laws banning sex and marriage between whites and nonwhites, government sources, quoted by the moderate newspaper Argus, said. The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act was passed in 1949, and the section of the Immorality Act that makes sexual relations across the color line an offense goes back to 1957.
Attempts in space to salvage the Leasat communications satellite may be made Tuesday. Controllers made elaborate plans to have space shuttle Discovery’s crew inspect the disabled satellite and perhaps use the shuttle’s mechanical arm to make repairs. Space agency officials said they had ruled out the possibility of sending astronauts on a space walk in “close proximity” to the satellite.
President Reagan returns to the White House from the week long Easter Vacation at the Reagan Ranch in California.
Congress faces intense lobbying at the end of the Easter recess from the Reagan Administration on its request for aid to the Nicaraguan rebels and a spending program aimed at cutting $52 billion from next year’s Federal budget. David A. Stockman, the budget director, called on Congress to pass the program or take responsibility for huge tax increases.
Another artificial heart implant was made by surgeons at Humana Hospital Audubon in Louisville, Ky., the third there since November. Jack C. Burcham, a 62-year-old retired railroad engineer received the permanent artificial heart in an operation that took six hours, longer than expected because surgeons had difficulty fitting the fist-sized device into his chest. With the operation, his surgeon, Dr. William C. DeVries, passed the halfway point in a series of experiments designed to establish whether a mechanical heart can work well in a human.
Gary Dotson is “still pretty blue” after being returned to prison in Illinois for a rape that his accuser now says did not occur, but his lawyer said his spirits were bolstered by the support of those who signed petitions calling for his release. Dotson, 28, was ordered to resume serving a 25- to 50-year sentence when a judge rejected a claim by Cathleen Crowell Webb that she had made up the rape story in 1979. Dotson’s aunt, Barbara Harenberg, said she plans to send petitions, bearing at least 5,000 signatures, to Governor James R. Thompson and the Illinois Prisoner Review Board.
Tougher immigration laws are favored by 55% of Americans, and 46% believe that illegal immigrants already in this country should be deported, a Media General-Associated Press poll found. And 46% of the poll respondents said political refugees should not be given priority to immigrate over other types of applicants. The nationwide telephone poll of 1,532 adults found that whites were more likely than blacks to favor stiffer immigration laws, and Republicans favored stricter laws more frequently than Democrats.
Two young couples, who say they were following God’s orders when they undertook an anti-abortion mission in three Christmas Day bombings, go on trial today on charges of violating federal firearms and explosives laws in Pensacola, Fla. Matthew Goldsby and James Simmons, both 21, were arrested shortly after the blasts at offices where abortions were performed. They pleaded innocent, and an insanity defense is planned, according to court papers. Goldsby’s fiancee, Kaye Wiggins, and Simmons’ wife, Kathren, both 18, also have pleaded innocent.
The spiritual leader of 560,000 Roman Catholics in Minnesota finished his drunken driving jail sentence in time to celebrate Mass at the St. Paul Cathedral and urge followers to keep faith in Christ. John Roach, archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis, spent 38 hours in the Ramsey County Jail. Roach was kept apart from other prisoners and spent most of his time reading in the dayroom, a jail spokesman said. The 63-year-old past president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops vowed to quit drinking after his arrest February 21.
Henry Lee Lucas, who reportedly has recanted his confessions to 600 murders across the country, will testify Wednesday in Waco, Tex., before a grand jury that is investigating a task force set up to handle his case, prosecutors said. “Right now, the main focus (of the investigation) appears to be the actions of the task force,” McLennan County (Tex.) District Attorney Vic Feazell said. Lucas has told the Dallas Times Herald that most of his confessions were hoaxes.
A federal mediator helped settle a contract dispute that had halted delivery of the Philadelphia Inquirer and also threatened publication of the Philadelphia Daily News, a spokesman for the newspapers said. Porters, janitors and elevator operators had walked off their jobs and set up picket lines outside the newspapers’ offices. Members of Teamsters Local 628, who had been working almost a year without a contract, voted 72 to 1 to accept the agreement.
The Kansas Legislature has approved a bill that would let voters decide next year whether to end the state’s century-old ban on saloons and legalize liquor by the drink. Voters would decide in November, 1986, on the amendment, which would legalize public bars only in counties that pass the measure and would restrict the sale of liquor to facilities that earn at least 30% of their profits from the sale of food. The bill was sent to Gov. John Carlin, who has strongly favored legalization of taverns.
Delays in I.R.S. return processing have never been greater than they are now, even though the agency is using a new $100 million computer processing system. An official of the Internal Revenue Service says its effort to enter the sophisticated age of data processing has become a “colossal computerized disaster.”
U.S. military forces are stronger in some ways than ever despite the battering they took in the Vietnam War. The impression among some civilians that forces learned little from Vietnam and forgot most of that does not bear scrutiny as the 10th anniversary of the fall of South Vietnam approaches. In many measures of capability the services are clearly better today than in 1965, when the Army arrived in Vietnam well-trained, well-motivated and well-led.
A history of American war brides is being recorded at a meeting in Long Beach, California of 300 women, mostly British, who married American servicemen in World War II. The gathering is being held on the Queen Mary, the luxury liner that became a troop ship during the war and later brought many of the brides to the United States, and is now a tourist attraction. The meeting was the idea of two daughters of war brides. The reminisences of the women will become part of the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America in Cambridge, Mass.
Research on a “safe” cigarette conducted for the last 10 years by the Department of Agriculture, which is spending $5.3 million a year in the effort to develop the tobacco, is criticized as improper by antismoking advocates in the Administration and Congress, but defended by others, including the farm agency.
“Take Me Along!” opens/closes at Martin Beck Theater NYC.
Ahmed Salah wins 1st World Cup marathon (2:08:09).
49th US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: Bernhard Langer wins by 2 strokes from Seve Ballesteros, Curtis Strange & Raymond Floyd; first German champion.
Major League Baseball:
At Atlanta, the Braves defeat the Padres, 3–1, behind Rick Mahler and second baseman Glenn Hubbard, who has a Major League-record tying 12 assists. Second base also sees action on the Pads side as Tony Gwynn throws out 2 runners there. LaMar Hoyt gives up the 3 Braves runs in 4 innings of work. In 6 days, on April 20, Juan Samuel, second sacker of the Phillies will be the next to match the 12 assists in a 7–6 Philadelphia win over the New York Mets. Monte Ward, for Brooklyn in 1892, was the first to make 12 assists.
In a battle between the major-league’s top two strikeout artists of all time, the Houston Astros’ Nolan Ryan defeats Steve Carlton and the Philadelphia Phillies, 5–3. Ryan increases his career strikeout lead over Carlton to ten (3,887 to 3,877). Jose Cruz supports with three hits.
Carlton Fisk hits a 3-run homer and the White Sox pummel the Red Sox, 11–6. For Boston, it is the fifth game in a row that they have scored 6 runs or more to start the season, a team record.
The Royals send Mike Brewer to the Indians for a player to be named later. Brewer himself is the player to be named later, returning to the Indians on September 17.
Dale Murphy, playing in his 500th consecutive game, belts his 4th homer in four games to help the Braves beat the Padres, 3–1. Only 30 players have played 500 consecutive games.
San Diego Padres 1, Atlanta Braves 3
Toronto Blue Jays 5, Baltimore Orioles 3
Chicago White Sox 11, Boston Red Sox 6
Montreal Expos 2, Chicago Cubs 4
New York Yankees 2, Cleveland Indians 1
Philadelphia Phillies 3, Houston Astros 5
Detroit Tigers 5, Kansas City Royals 1
San Francisco Giants 8, Los Angeles Dodgers 4
Cincinnati Reds 0, New York Mets 4
California Angels 1, Oakland Athletics 8
St. Louis Cardinals 10, Pittsburgh Pirates 4
Minnesota Twins 1, Seattle Mariners 5
Milwaukee Brewers 8, Texas Rangers 1
Born:
Grant Clitsome, Canadian NHL defenseman (Columbus Blue Jackets, Winnipeg Jets), in Gloucester, Ontario, Canada.
Brian Salcido, NHL defenseman (Anaheim Ducks), in Los Angeles, California.
Died:
Noele Gordon, British actress (“Crossroads”).
History Diaries 