The Japanese Defense Ministry will try to buy 65 advanced U.S.-made F-15 jet fighters during the next five years as part of a plan that would boost overall defense spending to the highest level since 1945, a Tokyo newspaper reported. The daily Asahi said the ministry’s plans would require a defense budget of at least $76 billion for the five years beginning in fiscal 1986. If approved, the five-year budget would exceed 1% of the gross national product, a self-imposed limit since 1976, the paper said. The United States has been calling for greater Japanese defense efforts.
French President Francois Mitterrand indicated doubts as to whether France should accept the U.S. invitation to join the research for President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, known as “Star Wars.” In a Paris television interview, Mitterrand described the space-based defense program as “a project whose content I do not know” and added that it may lead to a heightened arms race. “The technology may be interesting, but I have doubts about the strategy,” he said. “France must consider where its interests lie.”
The Soviet Union decreed a limited amnesty for convicts to mark the 40th anniversary of the end of World War II. The amnesty, excluding political prisoners and those jailed for violent crimes and corruption, will provide freedom or reduced sentences for some World War II combat veterans, war widows, invalids, pregnant women, minors, and others. A decree published by the government newspaper Izvestia did not say how many people will be included.
A senior Solidarity activist who discussed human-rights issues this month with the British Foreign Secretary, Sir Geoffrey Howe, has been dismissed from the Polish Academy of Sciences, opposition sources said today. Prof. Bronislaw Geremek, 53 years old, a historian and medievalist who had worked at the academy for 30 years, was told of his dismissal Friday and was given no explanation, they added. Mr. Geremek served as a close adviser to Lech Walesa, the founder of Solidarity, before the independent trade union was suppressed under martial law in 1981. He was interned for a year after the military takeover and also spent three months under arrest in 1983 for dissident activities. Mr. Geremek was one of five supporters of the union who were invited to meet Sir Geoffrey to discuss Solidarity’s difficulties when the British minister visited Warsaw earlier this month.
Spain’s Foreign Minister said in an interview published here today that Madrid would demand a cut in the more than 12,000 United States troops stationed here. Foreign Minister Fernando Moran said in the interview with the Spanish news agency EFE that Spain would ask the United States to begin talks on the reduction before a Spanish referendum planned early next year on whether to withdraw from NATO.
Controversy in West Germany sharpened over President Reagan’s impending state visit, but Chancellor Helmut Kohl was reported to be determined to go forward with a stop at a German military cemetery in Bitburg next Sunday. Political commentators and politicians agreed that the dispute over Mr. Reagan’s itinerary had put enormous strains on West German-American relations. ”My impression is that he remains where he was,” said a senior member of the governing West German Christian Democratic Party, who said he had spoken with the Chancellor today. ”It will be Bitburg.”
Criticism of the President’s plans to visit a German military cemetery has ”upset” and ”wounded” him, said the White House chief of staff, Donald T. Regan. He said in a television interview that Mr. Reagan plans to press ahead with the visit.
President Reagan speaks with former President Gerald Ford to discuss the Presidents’ upcoming visit to Germany.
According to Administration sources in Washington, Henry A. Kissinger, the former Secretary of State, has told the White House that he believes Mr. Reagan should not cancel his visit to the Bitburg cemetery because to do so would damage relations with West Germany. It is unclear whether Mr. Kissinger offered his expression of support directly to Mr. Reagan or through a senior Administration aide.
President Reagan’s standing rose moderately in Western Europe over the past year, according to polls and interviews — aside from the recent controversy over his plans to visit a German military cemetery. For large segments of public opinion in Western Europe, the reopening of nuclear arms negotiations in Geneva, and Mr. Reagan’s repeated expressions of interest in meeting with Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the Soviet leader, are positive developments that have enhanced the President’s reputation. The strong performance of the American economy in comparison with those in Europe has also increased admiration for Mr. Reagan. But skepticism and contempt about Mr. Reagan remain intact among many Government officials, political scientists and editorial writers.
Many former inmates of Dachau were among the thousands of people who attended ceremonies in West Germany on the 40th anniversary of the camp’s liberation.
Italian journalists working for newspapers and the Government broadcasting network went on strike today, creating a news blackout in the country. Journalists have stopped work several times, but today was the first time in several years that the country was simultaneously without news from newspapers, radio and television. Millions of soccer fans were deprived of weekly minute-by-minute radio commentary of leading games. The broadcasting network made plans to have nonjournalists read news bulletins on the air Monday. The journalists’ union called the stoppage after rejecting a compromise proposal by Labor Minister Gianni de Michelis on a new wage contract with employers.
The Roman Catholic Church and the Mediterranean nation of Malta have settled a dispute over tuition at Catholic schools on the island, a Vatican statement said. In a long church-state feud, Malta’s socialist government has been demanding tuition-free schools in the overwhelmingly Catholic nation. The Vatican statement disclosed an agreement for eventual free tuition at secondary schools, adding that a mixed commission will be named to study other church-state issues.
Druze forces took control of the coastal road linking Beirut with the southern port of Sidon today while other Moslem militiamen continued their advance against Christian positions in the hills east of the port. Druse members of the Progressive Socialist Party occupied six Christian villages along the Mediteranean coastline and Iqlim al Kharoub at the foothills of the Shuf mountains. They also took over the small port of Jiyeh, which had been used by Christian refugees fleeing the fighting of the last few days.
Indian police opened fire on 30,000 rioters who set fire to a slum colony in Surat, Gujarat state, during protests against a government policy setting education and job quotas for lower-caste Indians, the Press Trust of India news agency said. At least 200 huts were destroyed, hundreds arrested and four injured in the rioting, the agency said. In other violence in the state, a man was stabbed to death in Kadi, north of Ahmedabad, state police said.
Seven soldiers were killed today by a land mine that blew up a truck in a convoy in northern Sri Lanka, officials said. The explosion took place 12 miles from the northern town of Jaffna. About 50 homes were set afire when fresh clashes broke out between Muslims and Tamils in the east coast town of Valachchenai. Separatist guerrillas are fighting to set up an independent state for the island’s 2.5 million Tamils.
Vietnamese forces, apparently trying to prevent Cambodian guerrillas from re-establishing bases before the rainy season begins, have been attacking the guerrillas at several points along the Thai-Cambodian border in recent days. Fighting has been reported this week at Prey Chan, formerly Nong Chan, and at Rithisen, two non-Communist guerrilla camps in Cambodia north of the Thai border town of Aranyprathet.
Ten years after the United States withdrew from Phnom Penh and the Khmer Rouge Communists marched into the city, the issue of what Americans should do about Cambodia is again a matter of political dispute. Among the subjects causing controversy among some academics, relief workers, politicians and foreign policy analysts are how to view Vietnam, whose troops drove out the Khmer Rouge in 1979 and continue to occupy the country against Khmer Rouge and non-Communist guerrilla forces, and whether the United States should continue to withhold recognition from the Government that Hanoi set up.
The core of China’s future leadership is 1,000 middle-aged officials chosen by the Communist Party apparatus at the command of Deng Xiaoping, China’s pre-eminent leader, who wants to entrench the policies he has introduced. A front-page article today in People’s Daily, the main party organ, said the officials had been designated over the last year. It said they had been chosen from ”different parts of China” on the basis of recommendations by current leaders and by ”a vast number of ordinary people.”
Nicaraguan Defense Minister Humberto Ortega charged that the United States is providing antiSandinista rebels with Soviet-made surface-to-air missiles acquired by the CIA. Ortega warned that such shoulder-fired SAM-7s could be obtained by “irregular forces that fight in other countries, such as El Salvador” and be used “for terrorist ends.” Leftist guerrillas are fighting the U.S.-backed government in El Salvador, and the Reagan Administration has accused Nicaragua of supplying them with Soviet-made weapons.
The Argentine federal police said today that the director and another administrator of a private hospital were being held for questioning about the cause of a fire in which 79 people were killed and 247 injured. ”They are detained incommunicado,” said Omar Benedictis, a police spokesman. The fire broke out Friday evening on the fourth floor of the six-story St. Emilienne Neuro-Psychiatric Institute in the working-class neighborhood of Saavedra. It quickly went out of control and destroyed most of the building.
Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi has promised to stop aiding southern Sudan’s rebel movement, the new Sudanese defense minister, Brigadier Osman Abdullah Mohammed, told reporters. Sudan and Libya last week announced the normalization of ties, which were strained during the presidency of the now-deposed Jaafar Numeiri of Sudan. The nation’s new military leader, General Abdul-Rahman Suwar Dahab, has sought talks with rebel leader John Garang, who commands about 15,000 guerrillas.
A dusk-to-dawn curfew has been imposed on the northern Nigerian town of Gombe, where more than 100 people have died in religious riots, an official statement said today. Officials said the deaths occurred in two days of fighting between the police and members of the banned fundamentalist Maitatsine Islamic sect. The Bauchi state government said that anyone violating the curfew ”will be regarded as a fanatic and will be shot on sight.” The statement said the situation in Gombe was under control and most members of the sect were fleeing the town. A total of 146 suspected members of the sect had been arrested, it added. Shooting broke out at dawn on Friday when the police tried to arrest Yusufu Adamu, the sect’s leader in Gombe. Officials said nothing had been heard of him since, and it was unclear whether he was among those killed. The initial police action cleared the sect out of its stronghold, but Nigerian television said many more lives were lost that night when the sect killed local people they had taken hostage.
President Reagan’s popularity among Iowa farmers has plummeted since the November election because of discontent with the government’s handling of the farm debt crisis, a poll showed. Sixty-three percent of the Iowa farmers interviewed for a Des Moines Sunday Register survey said that they disapprove of the job Reagan is doing. Farmers supported Reagan by a margin of 2 to 1 in last November’s election.
The shortest turnaround between shuttle missions was the aim of space agency officials as the Challenger was prepared for launching at Cape Kennedy, Florida. The shuttle’s scheduled liftoff at noon tomorrow with a crew of seven will take place only 17 days since the last mission. The Challenger’s mission will be mainly devoted to medical and technical experiments, and monkeys and rats are aboard for observation.
President Reagan spends the day at the White House doing homework.
The average American taxpayer would meet his tax obligations to federal, state and local governments Tuesday if every dollar earned since January 1 had been paid to the tax collector, a tax watchdog group said. “The average taxpayer now works 120 days (each year) for the revenue collector,” the Tax Foundation said in Washington. “For nine of the past 10 years, that obligation took even longer. As recently as 1981, the U.S. worker put in 126 days — until May 6 — just to pay tax bills,” the group said.
The “blue wall” of silence surrounding New York police brutality allegations is starting to give way, a prosecutor said. Queens District Attorney John Santucci said that he intends to bring allegations of police brutality before a grand jury Tuesday. He said he hopes to get more police officers to cooperate, but added: “I believe I have enough (evidence) to go now.” Four officers in the 106th Precinct in Queens were arrested and a fifth was suspended after four men complained that they had been beaten and tortured by officers.
An explosion in a natural gas line Saturday night killed five people, gouged a 20-foot-deep crater and flattened six buildings in a tiny community about a mile east of Beaumont, Kentucky, the authorities said today. The blast set off fires visible 20 miles away, they said. Three people were seriously injured. The blast ripped up a section of Kentucky Route 90, devastated a 12-acre area and forced the evacuation of about 55 people, according to the authorities.
Philadelphia opened its 9.4-mile Airport High Speed Line, creating the first rail link to Philadelphia International Airport. The $105million line, which began service when a 6 a.m. train left downtown Suburban Station, is expected to carry 1,600 passengers daily from New Jersey, Center City and other stations to the airport in South Philadelphia. “It’s going to have a tremendous beneficial effect,” said William Malone, a spokesman for the airport, which handles an average of 10.2 million passengers a year.
Private companies are edging into the business of public mass transit with the strong encouragement of the Reagan Administration. The Administration has taken actions and is considering more to promote greater involvement by private industry in this mass transit as part of its overall strategy to transfer a wide range of public assets and programs to private enterprise.
A new union for air controllers to be affiliated with the Air Line Pilots Association has been proposed by leaders of the pilots’ union and will be submitted for formal approval to the pilots’ 48-member executive council in mid-May.
Crews from three states cleaned up today after wildfires that destroyed nearly 6,000 acres of parched coastal woodlands, and some of them began going home. Spokesmen for the United States Forest Service said the agency had sent firefighters to North Carolina from Mississippi, Georgia and Kentucky. Charles Crail, a spokesman for the agency, said the wildfires burned 5,695 acres of private and Federal land. He said it cost about $76,500 to put them out, most of it spent on equipment rental, transportation and food for the hundreds of marines, forest rangers and volunteers who fought the blaze. ”We figure if the fire had been allowed to burn out of control there would have been about $7 million damage done” to nearby homes and natural resources, Mr. Crail said.
In Houston, Federal District Judge Norman Black has ordered two high schools to allow students to conduct meetings of a ”Christian club” on school property. It was one of the first tests of a law passed by Congress last year that allowed religious-oriented meetings at public schools. Tony Amidei, a senior at Westchester High School, sued the Spring Branch School District in November. Administrators had rejected his request for a meeting place for ”a small group of students who have a common interest in Christianity,” the suit said. Students at another school joined the suit. The school district argued that the law was unconstitutional because it violated the requirement for separation of church and state. Judge Black did not specifically refer to the law at a brief hearing Friday but ordered the schools to permit students to conduct religious meetings, said Harvey Brown, the students’ lawyer.
U.S. companies are cutting back or selling off their South African operations, publicly citing declining profitability there. But analysts and some company officers say the increasingly militant campaign against American involvement in South Africa is also having an impact. Ford and Coca-Cola have recently reduced their visibility there.
United Press International, the country’s second-largest news agency, filed documents today seeking protection from its creditors under Chapter 11 of the Federal bankruptcy code. A company spokesman said U.P.I. took the action in order to gain ”breathing room to reorganize and restructure,” its troubled finances. Documents submitted to the Federal Bankruptcy Court for the District of Columbia in connection with the request showed the 78-year-old news agency had debts totaling nearly $45 million, more than twice its estimated $20 million in assets.
A Detroit River bank is green again, as it was before the surrounding area became known as the Warehouse District. A three-mile long eastern riverfront area, from the Renaissance Center, on the edge of Detroit’s downtown core, to the mid-river Belle Isle Park, is undergoing renewal. The city hopes that the renewal project will establish a population that lives as well as works downtown and encourages economic development.
Roving youths attacked and harassed marchers in a fund-raising March of Dimes walkathon in and around New York’s Central Park, snatching neck chains, purses and other property. Seven people were injured, 17 youths arrested, and 52 robberies and larcenies reported to the police.
Flash floods spawned by violent thunderstorms swept several cars off roads in northern Texas and left seven persons dead, authorities said in Dallas. Three persons, including a fire chief attempting a rescue, died in a flash flood in Rockwall. In Duncanville, a man died and his wife and two children were missing after their car was swept away by a rampaging creek. The other deaths were in separate flood-related accidents, authorities said. Elsewhere in the area, wave after wave of funnel clouds passed over Smith County, where three tornadoes touched down. No injuries were reported.
The Mormon Church has released the contents of a 155-year-old letter that some historians say could cast doubt on the official version of the way the church was founded. The Salt Lake City Tribune said that the letter, purportedly written by early church member Martin Harris to newspaper editor W.W. Phelps, mentioned certain magical events and told of how a spirit turned into a white salamander to temporarily prevent Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, from getting the golden plates, which church tradition says. contained the Book of Mormon.
The Pennsylvania Animal Rights Coalition has repeated its call for an end to experiments on baboons in research at the University of Pennsylvania on head injuries. The group held a rally here Saturday. Organizers said demonstrators had been attracted by nationwide distribution of videotapes describing the experiments. Videotapes were stolen from the laboratory in May. The laboratory uses primates in researching severe brain damage, said Dr. Barry Cooperman, the university’s vice provost for research.
Major League Baseball:
After the Yankees lose to the White Sox 4–3 on a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the 9th, manager Yogi Berra is replaced by Billy Martin, who begins his 4th term in the job. Martin, who was removed as Yankee manager at the end of the 1983 season and named special scout, will join the team in Arlington, Texas, Monday, where the Yankees will open a three-game series. The bad news is delivered to Yogi by pitching coach Clyde King, and a furious Berra vows to never set foot in Yankee Stadium as long as George Steinbrenner is the owner. The appointment of Martin marks the 12th managerial change since Steinbrenner led a group that purchased the Yankees from CBS in 1973.
Mickey Hatcher goes 4-for–5 as the Twins post their 8th consecutive win, 10–1, over Oakland. Hatcher was 5-for–5 the day before, tying Tony Oliva’s team record of nine consecutive hits and came within three of the major-league record of 12 that was set by Mike Higgins of the Boston Red Sox in 1938 and matched by Walt Dropo of the Detroit Tigers in 1952.
Frank White hit two bases-empty home runs and a double for the Royals, who beat the Red Sox, 5–2. George Brett also had three hits, including a double, as Kansas City got to Dennis (Oil Can) Boyd, who had a career high 12 strikeouts, for 11 hits.
The Baltimore Orioles edged the Indians, 8—7. A two-run double by Eddie Murray tied the score, and the pinch-hitter John Lowenstein’s sacrifice fly scored the winning run in the three-run eighth inning. Pat Tabler tripled with the bases loaded to key a six-run second- inning rally for Cleveland and extend his hitting streak to 15 games.
Darryl Strawberry hits a grand slam in the first inning at New York but it takes another five hours before the Mets score again. Mookie Wilson scores from third base when Clint Hurdle’s grounder went through the legs Pittsburgh first baseman Jason Thompson for an error in the 18th inning to give the Mets a 5–4 victory in a game that lasts 5 hours 21 minutes. Lee Tunnell, the Bucs 7th pitcher, takes the loss. A defensive gem by Rusty Staub, robs the Pirates of at least one run in the top of the 18th. Staub, 41, who weighs 230 is pressed into service when the Mets ran out of players in the 12th inning. Staub played right field when right-handed batters came up and left field when left-handed hitters batted. He was playing right in the top of the 18th. With Tunnell on second and two out, pinch hitter Rick Rhoden hits a looping fly ball down the right field line and Staub makes a running catch to save a run. In the bottom of the 18th, Gary Carter draws a walk and Wilson, running for him, goes to third on Strawberry’s single to right. When Hurdle’s grounder went through Thompson, it ends the longest game in 3 years. Through one stretch in the marathon, in which 43 players were used, Pirate pitchers hold the Mets hitless for 10 innings.
Pinch-hitter Enos Cabell doubled with two outs in the ninth inning to drive in Alan Ashby from first base with the winning run, as the Astros edged the Braves, 2–1. Dave Smith (3–1) pitched two innings for the victory.
The Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs, 3–2. Kevin Gross, a late replacement for Steve Carlton, pitched six strong innings before getting relief help from Larry Andersen to help the Phillies beat Rick Sutcliffe.
Tony Gwynn hit a one-out home run in the top of the ninth inning to give the San Diego Padres a 1-0 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers today. Fernando Valenzuela sets record of 41⅓ scoreless innings to start the season. Valenzuela (2-3) ran the record to 41⅓ innings when he retired Jerry Royster to lead off the ninth. But Gwynn hit a home run on the next pitch.
Steve Rogers pitched five innings and got help from two relievers as Montreal won its sixth straight game, downing the Cardinals, 5–3. The start of the contest was delayed by rain for 2 hours 43 minutes. No major league games have been rained out yet this season.
Cleveland Indians 7, Baltimore Orioles 8
Kansas City Royals 5, Boston Red Sox 2
New York Yankees 3, Chicago White Sox 4
Atlanta Braves 1, Houston Astros 2
San Diego Padres 1, Los Angeles Dodgers 0
Detroit Tigers 5, Milwaukee Brewers 0
Oakland Athletics 1, Minnesota Twins 10
St. Louis Cardinals 3, Montreal Expos 5
Pittsburgh Pirates 4, New York Mets 5
Chicago Cubs 2, Philadelphia Phillies 3
California Angels 2, Seattle Mariners 1
Cincinnati Reds 1, San Francisco Giants 2
Toronto Blue Jays 6, Texas Rangers 3
Born:
John Gaub, MLB pitcher (Chicago Cubs), in St. Paul, Minnesota.
History Diaries 