The President will visit a death camp as well as a German military cemetery next month, Mr. Reagan announced. However, his decision, reversing an earlier announcement, did not halt criticism of his plan to lay a wreath in a German war cemetery that includes graves of Waffen SS members. The President’s announcement, at a religious conference here, followed his earlier decision, announced March 21, not to visit a concentration camp. Mr. Reagan said at that time that he felt “very strongly” about not “reawakening the memories” of the past and had decided against a plan to visit a camp site at Dachau, near Munich, as part of the commemoration of the 40th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s surrender in World War II.
Chancellor Helmut Kohl urged a visit by President Reagan to a former Nazi death camp or to another monument to the “victims of the fascist terror,” according to excepts of a letter delivered in Washington on Monday and made public in Bonn.
President Reagan meets with a Congressional Delegation to discuss their recent trip to the Soviet Union.
The slaying of an American major by a Soviet guard in East Germany last month prompted a meeting in Potsdam last Friday between the American and Soviet military commanders in Germany. As a result, the State Department said, Moscow has told Washington that Soviet military personnel have been ordered not to use force or weapons against American patrols in East Germany. Providing details on the meeting in Potsdam, East Germany, last Friday between the American and Soviet military commanders in divided Germany, the department said there had been no agreement on a formal apology or compensation by the Soviet side for the slaying last month of Major Arthur D. Nicholson Jr. He was on patrol in East Germany when he was shot by a Soviet guard.
Since the end of World War II, Soviet forces in East Germany are allowed to maintain liaison missions with the American, British and French Armies in West Germany and send observer teams around West Germany. The Western allies, in turn, maintain liaison missions in East Germany and observe the Soviet forces. Although these patrols are often stopped and detained by the other side, until the death of Major Nicholson no American had been killed on such a mission.
The United States and Poland signed an agreement today to resume within two weeks the commercial flights that Washington suspended after the Polish Government imposed martial law in December 1981.
Richard W. Murphy, President Reagan’s special Mideast envoy, met in Jerusalem with Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin and with senior Foreign Ministry officials. Later, a group of Palestinians from the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip gave Murphy a petition saying they view the Palestine Liberation Organization as the sole representative of the Palestinian people. The United States and Israel refuse to talk to the PLO until it recognizes Israel’s right to exist.
Ezer Weizman, an Israeli Cabinet minister, met today with President Hosni Mubarak and said afterward that chances for a meeting between Mr. Mubarak and Prime Minister Shimon Peres of Israel were “very good.” But Mr. Weizman, a former air force commander who played a key role in talks that led to the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty of 1979, said such a meeting would require “certain preparations” before it could be held.
Muslim militias battled in the streets of West Beirut for the first time in months, driving noncombatants to cover with rockets, grenades and automatic weapons. At least two people were reported dead and 23 wounded in the fighting, which affected the main shopping and residential districts of the Lebanese capital’s Muslim sector. The battle was between Amal, the main Shia Muslim militia, and the Murabitoun militia of the Sunni Muslims. In the southern port of Sidon, meanwhile, Christian militiamen continued to exchange artillery and sniper fire with Muslim and Palestinian fighters.
On the eve of a state visit by President Chadli Benjedid of Algeria, the Reagan Administration said today that it would examine any Algerian requests to buy arms from the United States in the light of how the sale would affect the military balance in North Africa. “The primary criterion for determining whether to go ahead will be how it would affect the regional military balance,” a senior Administration official said. A State Department spokesman, Vivienne Ascher, said President Reagan signed a document last week making Algeria eligible for military sales from the United States.
Iraqi warplanes attacked a Cypriot-registry tanker near Iran’s Kharg Island oil terminal in the Persian Gulf. Lloyd’s shipping agency in London reported that the 122,841-ton tanker Kypros was in flames 80 miles southeast of Kharg after being struck by an Exocet missile. In another Persian Gulf War development, about 45 Iranian soldiers reportedly suffering from chemical weapons poisoning arrived at the Vienna airport and were dispersed to hospitals in Western Europe. Iran renewed its charges that Iraq is using chemical weapons, forbidden by international law, against Iranian troops on the battlefield.
Soviet soldiers backed by surface-to- surface missiles, jets and heavy artillery staged their largest offensive against Afghan rebels this year, diplomats said today. The offensive against a large group of Afghan rebels in the Maidan valley, about 25 miles west of the Afghan capital, Kabul, began April 9 or 10, the two Western diplomats said. Foreign reporters are not routinely allowed to enter Afghanistan, where 115,000 Soviet soldiers backing the Government of President Babrak Karmal have been battling the rebels since 1979.
Soviet troops are using Frog 7 surface-to-surface, truck-mounted missiles with 1,200-pound warheads in Afghanistan, Western diplomats said. Quoting reports from Kabul, the Afghan capital, the diplomats said the non-nuclear missiles were used in one of two major preemptive attacks on rebel centers west of Kabul. The reports could not be independently confirmed. The envoys added that hundreds of tanks, planes and helicopters backed up the operations late last week and that Soviet forces suffered heavy casualties when they were ambushed near the village of Jelez.
The White House, pressing for $14 million in aid for Nicaraguan rebels, has told Congress that it wants to expand the insurgent forces to put more pressure on the Nicaraguan Government. A document sent to two Congressional committees said the Administration had for now ruled out “direct application of U.S. military force,” but warned that this course “must realistically be recognized as an eventual option, given our stakes in the region, if other policy alternatives fail.” Publicly, President Reagan has given no indication of any plan to expand guerrilla forces. Talking to trade association lobbyists at a White House gathering today, he accused Congress of being “paralyzed over a mere $14 million in humanitarian aid.”
The top Republican in the House of Representatives urged President Reagan today to be ready to compromise on his request for $14 million in aid to rebels seeking the overthrow of the Nicaraguan Government. The Representative, Robert H. Michel of Illinois, the minority leader, gave the advice to Mr. Reagan as proponents of the aid argued on Capitol Hill that it was necessary for national security. Mr. Michel, according to a spokesman, told the President that he needed the flexibility to accommodate demands by Democratic House leaders if an aid commitment was to be won from Congress. The spokesman said Mr. Michel did not specifically tell the President that the proposal was otherwise dead.
Southern Sudanese rebel representatives opened talks with the new regime on representation in a proposed civilian government. However, a southern leader, Samuel abu Bol, said the region will not accept a continuation of controversial Islamic law unless flogging and maiming are abolished as punishments. “We consider the cutting off of limbs and flogging inhuman and a declaration of hostility,” he said. The northern Sudan is Islamic while the south is predominantly Christian and animist. The southerners are insisting that the new regime accept the south as an autonomous region federated with the north, Abu Bol said.
President Reagan meets with President of the Republic of Senegal Abdou Diouf to discuss private enterprise in Africa.
Secretary of State George P. Shultz declared today that there should be a national consensus that “apartheid must go,” but he said the Reagan Administration continued to oppose any economic sanctions against South Africa. In a long policy speech timed for the start of Congressional hearings on 20 bills involving South Africa, Mr. Shultz said the measures were “well intentioned” but would have the counterproductive effect of reducing American influence on South African policy and would not help South Africa’s blacks. “The only course consistent with American values is to engage ourselves as a force for constructive, peaceful change,” he said in a speech to the National Press Club. “It is not our business to cheer on, from the sidelines, the forces of polarization that could erupt in a race war; it is not our job to exacerbate hardship, which could lead to the same result.”
The decision to repeal South African laws forbidding interracial marriage and sex was widely hailed here today as a major departure from the attitudes that produced apartheid. But while the repeal of the laws, announced in Parliament on Monday, was welcomed by all but the extreme right in this country, apartheid opponents said the move was largely cosmetic and did not address the lack of political rights for the 23 million blacks who constitute a 73 percent majority. The laws forbidding marriage or sexual relations across racial lines “encapsulate all that is hurtful in racism and the stigma of their grotesque intrusion into people’s private affairs,” The Argus, a Cape Town daily, said in an editorial today.
The deputy director general of UNESCO, Gerard Bolla, resigned, citing a disagreement with Amadou Mahtar M’Bow, the agency’s director general, over the length of his expiring contract. Bolla said his resignation had nothing to do with changes made by M’Bow to a report Bolla submitted on administrative reforms proposed by member states of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Bolla said he had wanted to stay on until after next month’s meeting of the UNESCO executive board but that M’Bow would only extend his contract until the end of April.
Two NASA space shuttle astronauts successfully rigged handmade plastic and wire snares to the tip of the Discovery’s mechanical arm in preparation for an ingenious attempt tomorrow to activate a dormant communications satellite. The task was completed by Dr. Jeffrey A. Hoffman and S. David Griggs in a three-hour unrehearsed, but smooth space walk in the space shuttle’s open cargo bay. When the decidedly low-technology devices were strapped on and clamped down, Mr. Griggs stood aside, pleased, and asked the viewers in Mission Control, “Is that beautiful or is that not beautiful?”
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has put in place the final pieces of the first part of an $8 billion program for a manned station in space by awarding two $27 million design contracts. The contracts were awarded Monday to the McDonnell Douglas Corporation and the Rockwell International Corporation. Jeff Fister, a McDonnell Douglas spokesman, said the two companies would be among those competing for a $3 billion contract from the space agency, scheduled to be awarded in early 1987, to build the basic structure of the 400-foot-long space station.
[Ed: This iteration of the space station would be cancelled after the Challenger accident in 1986.]
James A. Baker 3d is very powerful as a result of a major White House reorganization announced by President Reagan last week. Deputy Treasury Secretary Richard G. Darman will also have wide new authority. Mr. Reagan said that seven Cabinet councils, each managed by a Cabinet officer, would be consolidated into two, including an Economic Policy Council under Treasury Secretary Baker.
The chance of a meltdown in a nuclear reactor somewhere in the country in the next 20 years is nearly 50-50, on the basis of mathematical probability, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The estimate concerns the chance of a “severe core melt accident,” which could be much more serious than the partial core melting at the Three Mile Island plant in 1979.
The C.I.A. won broad discretion from the Supreme Court to withhold from public disclosure the identities of its sources of intelligence information. Under the 9-to-0 ruling, information that the agency says it needs is exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.
People convicted of moral turpitude and a variety of petty offenses were disenfranchised under a 1901 provision of the Alabama Constitution. The Supreme Court, voting 8 to 0, struck down the provision on the ground of racial discrimination.
The Federal Aviation Administration for the first time set a maximum blood alcohol standard for members of airline crews. When the rule goes into effect on June 17, flight personnel will be considered under the influence if the alcohol level is .04% or higher. This is in addition to a rule prohibiting drinking or drug use for eight hours before a flight. The FAA also proposed that crew members be subject to license revocation if they refuse to submit to alcohol testing. The actions were based on a study showing that many general aviation and commuter airline fatalities are linked to alcohol use.
New computerized telephone equipment will not be used to catch whistle blowers or violate privacy rights of federal employees, the Reagan Administration said in an effort to allay fears of some members of Congress. The Office of Management and Budget also stated that “in no instance” will the Administration “monitor, listen-in, or record phone calls” of government workers. Reps. Don Edwards (D-California) and Patricia Schroeder (D-Colorado) had written the budget office, saying the proposed review “raises the specter of Big Brother at its most ominous.”
A federal judge in Atlanta blocked the deportations of 13 Cuban refugees scheduled to leave this week on the third of a series of flights to Havana. U.S. District Judge Charles A. Moye Jr. said the government had failed to show that the Cubans are dangerous. His order will not stop the expulsion of 21 others who are not fighting deportation. Moye also said that another Cuban, Eduardo Crespo Gomez, who has been charged with drug possession, should not be deported without additional evidence that he is dangerous.
Subway gunman Bernhard H. Goetz, once flooded with “nickel-and-dime” offers of help, will take out newspaper ads to ask for more money to help pay mounting legal bills, one of his lawyers said. The attorney said that while Goetz already has received hundreds of donations under $10 from people across the country, he still needs an estimated $100,000 to pay costs in his upcoming criminal and civil court cases stemming from his shooting of four youths on a New York subway train December 22.
The federal recount of Indiana’s disputed 8th District congressional race ended in Mount Vernon, Ind., but party officials were unable to agree on which candidate was ahead. Democrat Frank McCloskey picked up one vote over Republican Richard D. McIntyre in Posey County. Democrats said the increase gave McCloskey a two-vote lead in the whole district, while Republicans said it made the contest a tie. Both parties agreed that the outcome will not be clear until a House task force decides sometime later this week whether to count 24 technically flawed ballots.
Police officers in riot gear moved in at dawn today and arrested 158 chanting protesters who took part in a weeklong demonstration against the Universty of California’s investments in South Africa.
The 16 jurors in the attempted murder retrial of Claus von Bülow will be sequestered for the expected two-month trial to isolate them Judge Corinne Grande ruled in from publicity, Superior Court Providence, Rhode Island. The decision delighted prosecutors and disappointed Von Bülow and his attorneys. Grande said the jury had to be isolated to preserve the integrity of the trial, which has attracted about 200 reporters from around the world. Two vacancies have yet to be filled on the panel. Von Bülow is charged with trying to kill his heiress wife so he could inherit $14 million and marry his girlfriend.
Three nurses have been suspended for injecting an 84-year-old patient in an Auburn, New York, hospital with 10 times the amount of morphine prescribed by his doctor. The error left Carl Smith of Weedsport, New York, in an irreversible coma. The incident was the second case of a mistaken injection in a New York hospital within two months.
An American Airlines Boeing 727 jetliner carrying 89 passengers and crew members lost an engine over Arizona today but landed safely in San Diego, officials said.
The dollar value of human life should be weighed when considering how to regulate cancer-causing asbestos. That view represents the policy of the White House budget office, according to officials of the Environmental Protection Agency. They told a House panel that the budget office had been pressing them to accept a policy they considered unethical.
A vaccine for childhood meningitis has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The vaccine – the first for the disease – protects children against the leading cause of childhood meningitis and serious related diseases that kill about 1,000 children each year in the United States.
47 % of American households benefit from one or more Federal Government programs such as Social Security, Medicare or food stamps, according to the Census Bureau. Census officials said the figure was higher than they had expected.
Great Society programs instituted by Lyndon B. Johnson are being reduced somewhat by Ronald Reagan, but its bedrocks — Medicare, Medicaid and Federal aid to education — have become permanent aspects of American life.
The 467,000 Vietnamese refugees who have fled to the United States in the decade since the collapse of South Vietnam have had widely different experiences. Some have emerged successfully, but leaders in the Vietnamese exile community and Americans who have worked most closely with the refugees say that for many, if not most of them, life in this country has proved to be much harder than they imagined.
“Grind” opens at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC for 79 performances.
Major League Baseball:
Ron Darling and Jesse Orosco combine on a one-hitter as the Mets edge the Pirates, 2–1, scoring the game-winner in the top of the 9th. Jose DeLeon strikes out 14 Mets in 8 innings.
At Wrigley, Dennis Eckersley goes 10 innings, striking out 11, as he shuts out the Phillies, 1–0. Dernier’s RBI single in the 10th drives home the winner. The Cubs fans get in the act in the 8th as Larry Bowa hits a ball to left field and Phils outfielder Jeff Stone loses a shoe chasing it down. Before he is able to reach the ball a helpful bleacherite tosses a shoe out on the field. Another quickly follows before a storeful of shoes rains down on the turf. Dernier makes the catch.
Astros touch Steve Howe, Tom Niedenfuer and Ken Howell for six runs in the ninth to shock the Dodgers, 7-3. Kevin Bass’ double starts the rally which makes a winner of Dave Smith. The key play occurs when Howell misfires on Bill Doran’s suicide squeeze bunt, allowing two Astros to score.
Cincinnati Reds 2, Atlanta Braves 1
Philadelphia Phillies 0, Chicago Cubs 1
Baltimore Orioles 3, Cleveland Indians 6
Milwaukee Brewers 1, Detroit Tigers 2
Boston Red Sox 0, Kansas City Royals 2
Houston Astros 7, Los Angeles Dodgers 3
Chicago White Sox 4, New York Yankees 5
Seattle Mariners 7, Oakland Athletics 9
New York Mets 2, Pittsburgh Pirates 1
San Francisco Giants 1, San Diego Padres 2
Texas Rangers 9, Toronto Blue Jays 4
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1269.55 (+2.77)
Born:
Luol Deng, Sudanese-born British NBA small forward and power forward (NBA All-Star, 2012, 2013; Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat, Los Angeles Lakers, Minnesota Timberwolves), in Wau, South Sudan.
Benjamín Rojas, Argentine actor and singer, in La Plata, Argentina.
Died:
Scott Brady [Gerald Tierney], 60, American actor (“Shotgun Slade”, “China Syndrome”, “Gremlins”, “Johnny Guitar”), of pulmonary fibrosis.
History Diaries 