The White House spokesman agreed today with Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the Soviet leader, that the first round of the Geneva arms-control talks had been fruitless, but said it was the Soviet Union that was responsible. The spokesman, Larry Speakes, made the statement as President Reagan met with the American negotiators before their return to Geneva for a new round of talks starting on Thursday.
A new Pentagon nuclear war plan being devised calls for integrating offensive nuclear forces with the Administration’s planned antimissile shield, according to United States and Canadian officials. In the most extensive review of nuclear strategy in more than 10 years, the officials said, the plan was aimed at joining the nuclear sword with the antimissile shield in what one Reagan Administration official called a “good, coherent posture,” possibly under the control of a new nuclear war-fighting command. That official, who is in a policy-making position, said in an interview that the review was intended “to update nuclear employment plans and guidance for the transition from offense to defense in the 1990’s.” The official spoke on condition that he not be identified.
Reagan Administration officials said today that the United States and the Soviet Union had agreed to exchange views on two more world regional issues – southern Africa and Afghanistan. The two sides met in February to discuss the Middle East. The meeting on southern Africa is to be held Thursday in Paris, with Chester A. Crocker, an Assistant Secretary of State for African affairs, representing the United States, and Vladilen M. Vaeev, chief of the Foreign Ministry’s department for eastern and southern African affairs, representing the Soviet Union. The meeting on Afghanistan, where the Soviet Union is helping the Marxist Afghan Government fight an Islamic insurgency, is to be held in late June.
Chancellor Helmut Kohl and President Francois Mitterrand held talks today in which they discussed sharing Western European high technology. But they were apparently unable to bridge their differences on President Reagan’s plan to develop a space-based antimissile system. The two leaders talked for five hours in the southern German town of Constance in an effort to smooth over disagreements that arose during the conference meeting of industrial democracies in Bonn earlier this month. At the Bonn meetings, Mr. Mitterrand abruptly announced that France would not take part in President Reagan’s plan, popularly known as “Star Wars.” He charged it would reduce European participants to mere “subcontractors” and would lead to a loss of scientific talent to the United States. Mr. Kohl broadly embraced the American effort at the conference, although in recent days he has begun to sound somewhat more skeptical.
The prosecution’s main witness in the purported plot to kill Pope John Paul II repeated in testimony today that he was Jesus Christ and that the world was about to end. The witness, Mehmet Ali Ağca, made the remarks on the second day of the trial of three Bulgarians and five Turks, who include Mr. Ağca. Mr. Ağca has already been convicted of having shot and wounded the Pope at the Vatican in 1981. Bulgarian diplomats observing the trial expressed delight at Mr. Ağca’s words, and Giuseppe Consolo, a lawyer for the Bulgarians, described Mr. Ağca’s testimony as “proof that he has led Italian justice around by the nose for three years.”
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Poul Hartling asked Western Europe to lower barriers to Third World refugees seeking asylum, saying some are being “tossed around like Ping-Pong balls from airport to airport.” The commissioner told officials from more than 20 countries that he is deeply concerned about restrictive policies in Europe toward asylum seekers from developing countries.
The European Court of Human Rights today found the British Government guilty of sex discrimination in immigration laws that permit men who are legally settled to bring their wives to Britain but do not permit women residents to bring their husbands. The ruling could affect as many as 2,000 couples a year, according to the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, which helped to bring the case before the court in Strasbourg, France. A spokesman for the British Government said today that it would abide by the court’s decision.
Two Polish Roman Catholic priests who took part last December in a student sit-in protesting removal of crucifixes from a trade school in Wloszczowa have been indicted on charges of organizing an illegal protest, a church official said. The trial of Fathers Marek Labuda and Andrzej Wilczynski is to begin next Monday in the southern town of Jedrzejow, according to a communique from the Kielce diocese.
An American businessman accused of illegally exporting nuclear trigger devices to Israel appeared in court today on 30 felony charges. The businessman, Richard Kelly Smyth, did not make a plea and said he intended to plead not guilty next Monday when he is scheduled to appear before a Federal judge. Mr. Smyth, who was ordered to surrender his passport, remains free on $100,000 bond. Mr. Smyth, 55 years old, is accused of exporting 15 batches of trigger devices without an export license. He is also charged with making 15 false statements to United States Customs officials.
Palestinian forces counterattacked from a besieged refugee settlement in Beirut, killing 20 Shiite Muslim militiamen and Lebanese Army soldiers and wounding 62 people, according to the authorities. The Palestinian attack came as the fighting around the Sabra, Shatila and Burj al Brajneh settlements entered the 10th day. The Palestinians emerged from underground tunnels and briefly recaptured a seven-story building in the 10th day of fighting around the three refugee settlements. Shiite Amal militiamen and members of the army’s predominantly Shiite Sixth Brigade, which the Shiites said last week were in full control of Sabra and nearby Shatila, later hit back with tank and artillery fire and retook the building. The nursing home has strategic value because it overlooks Sabra and Shatila. From the building, the Palestinians threatened the Shiite attackers’s main supply lines.
Beirut gunmen seized an American, David Jacobsen, the director of the American University of Beirut medical center. He is the sixth United States citizen being held by kidnappers in Lebanon. Jacobsen, head of the American University of Beirut medical center, was seized as he walked to work. He was on his way from his residence on the university campus to the hospital complex when he was intercepted by six assailants who jumped out of a parked van.
Baghdad and Tehran both came under attack today as Iraq and Iran continued intensive air and missile strikes on civilian areas across their borders. In the third day of the air war that resumed Sunday, Iran said it fired a surface-to-surface missile at Baghdad after Iraqi jets attacked residential areas of Tehran in an early morning raid that killed at least 9 people and wounded 15. Later, the Iranian press agency, I.R.N.A. said in a report mnonitored in London that Iraqi planes raided the capital again tonight. Baghdad residents reported a big explosion at about the same time as the morning raid on Tehran, but could give no details of its location or on damage or casualties.
Soviet troops have begun an offensive in Afghanistan, sending tanks to break an 11-month-long rebel siege, Western diplomats and Afghan exiles said today. The reported assault, in the Kunar valley near Pakistan’s border, is aimed at breaking the guerrilla encirclement of the Afghan Army garrison at Barikot and cutting rebel supply lines from Pakistan, the diplomats said.
Today, four days after a cyclone devastated the lowlands of southeastern Bangladesh, thousands of peasant families on this tiny delta island were burying their dead and struggling for food and shelter in a landscape strewn with human corpses and carcasses of sheep and cattle. A military helicopter arrived in Urir Char for the third day in a row, bearing food as well as plastic sheets for the peasants to use for temporary shelter. Government Cautious on Toll Urir Char was one of several delta islands ravaged last weekend when a cyclone – the term used in the Indian Ocean region for a hurricane – hit, washing thousands of people away in its fury. Although there have been random estimates and guesses that tens of thousands may have died in the storm, Government officials have remained cautious about the actual toll.
South Korean police said 25 leaders of a three-day sit-in at the U.S. Information Service building in Seoul have been formally charged and face up to seven years in prison if convicted. Of the 73 university students who occupied the building-demanding a U.S. apology for the alleged U.S. role in crushing a 1980 insurrection in the city of Kwangju-43 were referred to summary courts and could get 30-day sentences. Five others were released with a warning, and police are seeking five leaders of the National Student Federation, who planned the sit-in but did not participate.
North and South Korean Red Cross representatives ended two days of talks today, agreeing in principle to permit “free travel” by people searching for relatives lost during the 40-year partition of this peninsula. The concept of “free travel” had been offered Tuesday by the North Koreans in the first high-level negotiation to be held by the two Red Cross societies since 1973. Both sides also agreed in principle to discuss ways to reunite separated Korean families as part of a “comprehensive” package, as the North Koreans had recommended. But no details were settled, or even discussed significantly. In fact, even the basic concepts were so vague that there was no way to tell whether they could eventually lead to reunions of millions of Korean families.
Left-wing separatist guerrillas fighting Indonesia’s rule in East Timor said today that they had killed or wounded more than 600 Indonesian soldiers since August 1983 and had established a radio transmitter in the territory. Abilio Araujo, chief foreign representative of the group fighting for the independence of East Timor, told a news conference in the Portuguese capital that the radio began transmitting from East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, in January. Mr. Araujo said the radio was smuggled into the area last year.
Five Filipino workers at U.S. military bases in the northern Philippines died of cancer during the last seven years, but there was no indication their deaths were work-related, the U.S. Embassy said. The statement was in response to a newspaper report that 20 Filipinos died of asbestos poisoning over several years at the Subic Bay navy base and eight from radiation-induced cancer at two Air Force communications stations also on Luzon Island.
A general strike paralyzed Cochabamba, Bolivia’s third largest city, and strikers threatened to cut electricity to mines today if their demands for government funds and other help are not met. The citizens’ group that called the strike in Cochabamba province, 330 miles southwest of La Paz, is demanding funds to extend the airport, build a road to the neighboring province of Beni, stimulate industry and oil production, build a dam and provide tractors to farmers.
The United Nations official in charge of emergency aid operations in Ethiopia said today that virtually all of the food sent to this country had been accounted for. The official, Kurt Jansson, made the statement in response to a report that up to 30,000 tons of the food arriving here each month “is disappearing.” The charges, quoting unnamed “foreign experts working on the ground,” appeared in the French newspaper Le Monde last Thursday. Mr. Jansson said 622,501 tons of food had arrived in Ethiopia since December 1. Of that, he said, only 227,000 tons have been distributed, with 384,000 tons still in ports and warehouses. The remaining 11,501 tons are unaccounted for.
The first senior U.S. official to visit Sudan since a military coup last month arrived in Khartoum and pledged continued American assistance for the impoverished country. Chester A. Crocker, assistant secretary of state for African affairs, met with Sudan’s new leader, Gen. Abdul-Rahman Suwar Dahab. Washington sources said the issues discussed included Sudan’s renewal of diplomatic relations with Libya, its announced intention to improve relations with the Soviet Union and conditions for continuing high levels of U.S. aid.
A South African commando captured by Angola said today that he had been sent to blow up a Gulf Oil storage depot in northern Angola and not to gather intelligence, as his Government said. The commando, Winan Petrus du Toit, was wounded and two others were killed.
A bomb ripped through a South African army medical center, injuring at least 16 people and shattering windows in its Johannesburg office tower. A medic spotted the bomb 10 minutes before it went off, giving most people time to evacuate and probably saving at least six lives. The limpet mine was the type often used in sabotage attacks by the African National Congress, an outlawed black nationalist group. Meanwhile, in Angola, a captured South African commando said at a news conference that he and his men were sent to blow up a Gulf Oil depot, not simply to gather intelligence as South Africa has maintained.
President Reagan makes an Address to the Nation on Tax Reform. President Reagan urged Americans to back the transformation of an “un-American” income tax system into one that is “clear, simple and fair for all.” Opening his drive for overhauling the Federal tax code, Mr. Reagan declared that his plan would “reduce the tax burdens of the working people of this country” and halt “the special interest raids of the few.”
A majority of taxpayers would find their income tax bills reduced under President Reagan’s tax revision plan if Congress adopts it. The tax savings would result from the combination of a big increase in personal exemptions, smaller increases in the standard deduction and lower average tax rates. About one taxpayer in five would see his income tax bills go up, largely because the plan eliminates or scales back a broad range of deductions, exclusions and credits. Over all, individuals would pay about 7 percent less in taxes than they do now, while corporations would pay more. Under the initial Treasury plan, proposed last November, individuals were to receive an even larger tax cut, of 8.5 percent. But the White House decided to lessen the tax increase for business, and as a result had to limit the reduction for individuals to maintain the level of revenue that the Treasury now gets.
Like all Presidents, Ronald Reagan wants to use the Federal income tax to rearrange the economy and the structure of society to suit his own vision. Beyond all else, that was the message of his speech tonight. Unlike the piecemeal changes that other Presidents pursued, such as Jimmy Carter’s unsuccessful 1978 assault on the business lunch, or John F. Kennedy’s sponsorship of the investment tax credit to stimulate business, President Reagan would revamp, wholesale, the income tax system that has developed since World War II. His new plan seeks a system that fosters smaller government, free markets, entrepreneurship and the accumulation of wealth, and also nurtures the American family – “the bedrock,” the President said, “of our society.”
Democrats generally voiced support for most of President Reagan’s tax restructuring proposals. Representative Dan Rostenkowski, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, called the plan “a starting point” that the Democrats would seek to revise “to make it fairer.”
American industry may have to almost double spending on hazardous waste disposal in the next five years to meet new federal requirements, according to a study by the Congressional Budget Office. This could mean price increases for products made by firms that generate a lot of hazardous waste and the closing of some plants unable to meet the new costs, said the study prepared for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. The study examined 70 broad industry groups and found three groups — wood preserving, plastic and primary metals and rubber — that would have to spend more than half their projected 1990 profits to meet the increase in disposal costs unless they can generate less waste.
President Reagan and other leaders must help assure that the news media are allowed to cover combat zones without undue restrictions, a group of journalists, scholars and military men said. But, in a report released in New York called “Battle Lines,” the Twentieth Century Fund’s Task Force on the Military and the Media cautioned that a “cultural divide” has exacerbated tensions between soldiers and reporters and that both sides must work together to improve relations.
Medicare payments were set too high for hospitals this year and must be frozen next year to correct the 6.1 percent error, the Reagan Administration has concluded.
Bowing to a court order, the Agriculture Department on June 17 will change its regulations that ban the sale of soft drinks, candies and some snacks from school lunchrooms while meals are being served. “In other words, restrictions on foods sold on school premises outside the food service area may now be imposed at state or local discretion but are no longer imposed by the department,” officials said.
Claus von Bülow’s former mistress, Alexandra Isles, testified that Claus von Bülow had told her he spent most of December 27, 1979 watching his wealthy wife, Martha, slip deeper onto coma, but then decided “he couldn’t go through with it” and called a doctor. It was the first time Mrs. Isles said publicly what her former lover had told her about the events of that day, one of two dates on which he is accused of trying to kill his wife with an overdose of insulin. Mrs. Isles, taking the stand at the last minute, as she did as a key witness at Mr. von Bülow’s first trial, repeated today much of the testimony she gave then. She said she had told the defendant to leave his wife by Christmas 1979 or she would break off with him.
A father-son spy team “badly hurt” United States security, according to Patrick J. Leahy, the ranking Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee. He spoke in an interview as the Government indicted John A. Walker, a retired Navy communications officer, and his son, Michael, a seaman, on charges of spying for the Soviet Union.
The Navy communications specialist charged with spying for Moscow, John A. Walker, projected the image of a gadget-loving, politically ultra-conservative detective who romanticized undercover assignments that often went awry.
The NASA space shuttle orbiter Discovery moves to the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida for mating with the external tank and solid rocket boosters for the STS 51-G mission.
The United States Supreme Court late today cleared the way for the scheduled execution of Marvin Francois, who was sentenced to die for murdering six people in a robbery. The court, by a 7-to-2 vote, denied the killer’s plea to postpone the execution, set for 7 A.M. Wednesday in the Florida State Prison’s electric chair.
The names of the five surviving Frustaci septuplets and their two dead siblings were announced today at a packed news conference that their mother, Patti, was too weak to attend. Previously known only by initials A through G, the babies were named in order of birth: A is Patricia Ann, B is James Martin, C is Stephen Earl, D is Bonnie Marie, E is Richard Charles. Baby F, nicknamed Peanut because he was so small, died Friday; he was named David Anthony. Baby G, a stillborn girl, was named Christina Elizabeth, said Tes Pane, director of obstetrical nursing at St. Joseph Hospital. Patricia, Stephen and Richard were doing “extremely well” today, said Dr. Carrie Worcester, director of neonatal intensive care at Childrens Hospital of Orange County. “There is no reason for me to think these babies won’t have a full chance for survival and normal development,” she said of the three.
The police arrested 200 Christians in demonstrations outside the White House, the Soviet Embassy and other major buildings in Washington. The activists arrested were among more than 1,000 people protesting on a range of issues, including nuclear arms, war in Central America and the death penalty.
A Texas grand jury returned 33 indictments against eight high school students who allegedly belonged to the Legion of Doom, a vigilante group accused of violence against other students. The eight young men were charged with an array of felonies and misdemeanors stemming from pipe bombings and other activities at Paschal High School in Fort Worth, Texas. The group, composed mostly of honor students and athletes, resorted to violence in a misguided attempt to rid the school of crime and drugs, police have said. Assistant District Attorney Scott Wisch said there was no evidence that the group was tied to outside extremists.
Lawyers may use printed advertising to seek clients for specific cases, the Supreme Court ruled. The 5-to-3 decision was the most expansive in an eight-year series of Supreme Court rulings on the constitutional right of lawyers to advertise.
Artificial heart recipient William J. Schroeder is gaining movement in his right hand and attempting to speak as he recovers from a recent stroke, a hospital spokeswoman said in Louisville, Kentucky. Schroeder, 53, suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and stroke and was returned to Humana Hospital Audubon on May 6 after spending 30 days in a nearby apartment.
Alpha Industries has agreed to plead guilty to one count of violating the Federal Anti-Kickback Act under a settlement that allows the company to resume bidding on new defense contracts, officials said in Boston. The suburban Woburn, Mass., company will also pay a $10,000 fine and a civil settlement totaling $87,000, company and military officials said. Alpha had been indicted on charges of improperly trying to influence an employee of a prime Air Force contractor in violation of the anti-kickback law.
A man with a semi-automatic weapon opened fire at night on traffic along a highway at St. John, Indiana, then shot his way into a department store, killing three persons before he was slain in a shoot-out with police. Six persons were wounded. The dead included a motorcyclist, a woman store employee, the gunman, identified as James Kosgrove, 32, of St. John, and another woman who may have been a customer in the store, authorities said.
John McEnroe needed 102 minutes to eliminate Ronald Agenor, who ranks 126th in the world, by 6-0, 6-2, 7-5 in the first round of the French Open tennis championships today. Ivan Lendl, Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert Lloyd won comfortably, and Jimmy Connors also triumphed in his first match. Vitas Gerulaitis, the Long Islander who has been falling in the rankings in the last year, was toppled by 17-year-old Boris Becker of West Germany, 6-3, 6-7, 6-1, 6-1.
Aided by four power-play goals, two by Wayne Gretzky, and Grant Fuhr’s save on only the third penalty shot in the history of the Stanley Cup finals, the Edmonton Oilers raced to a 5–3 victory over the Philadelpia Flyers. The triumph, their 15th straight playoff victory at Northlands Coliseum, gave the Oilers a three-to-one lead in the four-of-seven game series. The Oilers can capture their second consecutive Stanley Cup championship on Thursday night. If the Flyers win Thursday, the series will return to Philadelphia for a sixth game. The victory tied the mark for consecutive home victories set by the Montreal Canadiens from 1968 to 1971.
Major League Baseball:
Tony Perez, getting a rare start at first base, drove in four runs with a homer and a double tonight, leading the Cincinnati Reds to a 13–11 come-from-behind victory over the Chicago Cubs. John Franco (2–1) pitched the last three innings to pick up the victory while Lary Sorensen (1–1) suffered the loss. The Reds, who snapped a three-game losing streak, broke an 11–11 deadlock with two runs in the seventh inning.
Willie McGee drove in three runs, including two in a seven-run fourth inning, and Jack Clark had four hits to pace a season-high 19-hit attack for St. Louis as the Cardinals thumped the Braves, 9–3. Bob Forsch (4–2) gave up six hits over six innings to earn the victory, with the reliever Jeff Lahti pitching the final three innings to earn his third save.
Andre Dawson, 0 for 20 entering the game, came off the bench to drive in three runs-two on a tie-breaking, two-out double off Goose Gossage in the eighth inning-to push the Expos past the Padres, 8–5, at San Diego. Dawson delivered a run-scoring pinch single in the sixth inning to put the Expos ahead, 5–4, only to have the Padres tie it on a double by Terry Kennedy and a single by Carmelo Martinez. Steve Garvey and Kevin McReynolds each hit his seventh home run of the year for the Padres.
Junior Ortiz blooped a bases-loaded single over a drawn-in Astros’ infield in the top of the 12th inning to give the Pirates a 4–3 victory at Houston. Houston tied the score, 3–3, in the seventh on Terry Puhl’s sacrifice fly. Pittsburgh took a 3–0 lead in the fourth on run-scoring singles by George Hendrick and Tony Pena, and Bill Almon’s sacrifice fly. The Astros scored on an error by shortstop Almon in the fourth, and Kevin Bass singled home a run to make it 3–2 in the sixth.
The Blue Jays downed the White Sox, 6–1. Dave Stieb pitched a three-hitter, and Ernie Whitt drove in two runs with a homer and two singles as Toronto won a club-record eighth straight game. The loss was the seventh in a row for the White Sox. Stieb (5–3) won his fourth straight game. Richard Dotson (2–3), held the Blue Jays hitless until Len Matuszek tripled to open the fifth inning and scored on a single by Whitt.
Burt Hooton scattered seven hits and Oddibe McDowell knocked in two runs with a double and a sacrifice fly at Kansas City, and the Rangers’ halted the Royals’ six-game winning streak, beating Kansas City, 6–1. Ex-Dodger Hooton (2–1) scattered seven hits, struck out four and did not walk a batter while pitching his first complete game in the American League. McDowell’s drag bunt bounced into right field for a run-scoring double off Mark Gubicza (1–3) in the third and he added a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0 in the fourth.
Moose Haas and Rollie Fingers combined on a five-hitter as the Brewers held off the Indians at Milwaukee, winning, 3–2. Haas (5–2) left with one out in the eighth, when the Indians scored both their runs. Fingers picked up his seventh save. The Brewers took a 1–0 lead on doubles by Paul Molitor and Charlie Moore off Neal Heaton (3–4) in the first inning.
St. Louis Cardinals 9, Atlanta Braves 3
Toronto Blue Jays 6, Chicago White Sox 1
Chicago Cubs 11, Cincinnati Reds 13
Pittsburgh Pirates 4, Houston Astros 3
Texas Rangers 6, Kansas City Royals 1
Cleveland Indians 2, Milwaukee Brewers 3
Montreal Expos 8, San Diego Padres 5
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1301.52 (-0.45)
Born:
Colbie Caillat, American folk-pop singer-songwriter (“Breakthrough”; ” Bubbly”; “Brighter Than the Sun”), in Malibu, California.
Carey Mulligan, British actress (“An Education”, “Promising Young Woman”), in London, England, United Kingdom.
History Diaries 