A “chemical detonation” possibly caused by a bomb may have ripped through the front cargo hold of an Air-India jetliner last year, according to a team of five Indian scientists. The Boeing 747, flying from Montreal to London, crashed in the Atlantic off Cork, Ireland, killing all 329 people on board. The Indian scientists said they could not identify the chemical nature of the explosive material that might have destroyed the plane. But the scientists indicated that the evidence pointed to a bomb. “No part of the explosive device, its detonator or timing mechanism was recovered,” the scientists were quoted as saying in a report. The findings disclosed today, which came after months of tests, were reported by the Press Trust of India news agency. Indian officials have publicly said they think the Air-India plane was sabotaged. Some investigators have theorized that the crash was caused by a bomb, possibly planted by Sikh extremists. But until today, there had been no findings that pointed with such certainty to an explosion, much less to a bomb.
In October, the United States National Transportation Safety Board said holes found in fragments of fuselage recovered from 6,700 feet of water pointed to the possibility of a bomb. But officials refused to speculate on the cause. Other investigators have said it is possible that debris tossed about inside the plane during a breakup might have caused such punctures. After the crash last June, an anonymous telephone caller who identified himself only as a member of a Sikh extremist organization said his group had placed bombs aboard the jumbo jet. The case is politically sensitive in India because of the tension and outbreaks of violence between Sikhs and Hindus. Sikh extremists have carried out a terrorist campaign in India seeking independence for the state of Punjab, where Sikhs are in the majority. In November, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested two Sikhs from Vancouver, Canada, in connection with the crash. The Canadian investigation is still under way, and officials have said they do not know when their findings might be announced.
One engine of the jet that crashed in Gander, Newfoundland, on December 12, killing 248 American servicemen, was delivering less power than the three other engines at the moment of impact, according to investigators. Peter Boag, chief investigator of the crash for the Canadian Aviation Safety Board, told a news conference here that the phenomenon — which involved the turbine rotating at a slower rate than that of the other engines — could have contributed to the crash, if combined with other developments such as failure to remove ice from the plane’s wings. But, he said, such an engine malfunction, by itself, is normally not enough to abort a takeoff. All the servicemen and eight crew members were killed in the accident. Mr. Boag also reported that searchers have found two more bodies, bringing the total number recovered as of Friday to 137. The two, which were not identified, were sent to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Dover, Delaware, this morning, he said.
Great Britain and France announced plans to build the Channel Tunnel. London and Paris Government leaders approved building a 30-mile-long double railway tunnel below the sea between Dover and Calais and said they also wanted a separate drive-through tunnel built by the end of the century. At a meeting in this northern French city, President Francois Mitterrand and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher gave the go-ahead for construction of a double railway tunnel running for 30 miles under the sea between Dover and Calais. In addition, they called for a separate motor tunnel to be built by the end of the century. Work on the privately financed tunnel, which is expected to cost almost $7 billion, will start next year and is expected to be completed in 1993. Cars, buses and trucks will then start making the 30-minute journey between Britain and France aboard special trains running some 130 feet beneath the Channel bed.
Britain and France have dreamed about digging a tunnel under the English Channel for at least 200 years. Until now, every attempt to do so has been disrupted by age-old antipathies between the two countries or by financial problems.
Poland’s leading space scientist, Jan Hanasz, and three colleagues went on trial, accused of having interrupted a state television transmission last year to urge voters to boycott elections. The four, who face possible three-year prison terms, were seized in Torun, where Hanasz headed the astrophysics laboratory at the Copernicus Astronomy Center. They allegedly used a home computer, a synchronizing circuit and a transmitter to flash messages on local television screens.
The Soviet dissident Yelena G. Bonner was released from the hospital today, one week after undergoing coronary bypass surgery, and she returned to suburban home of her family to recuperate. Miss Bonner, 62 years old, the wife of the Soviet physicist Andrei D. Sakharov, left Massachusetts General Hospital about 2 PM, hospital officials said. “Dr. Bonner has recovered well from the operation,” Dr. Adolph Hutter, her cardiologist, said in a statement.
The United States negotiator on Middle East issues, Richard W. Murphy, stepped up discussions in Europe today with Jordanian and Israeli leaders on convening a Middle East peace conference, Administration officials said. They said Mr. Murphy, who met Saturday with King Hussein of Jordan in London, conferred Sunday night and today with Prime Minister Shimon Peres of Israel in The Hague. Mr. Murphy then flew back to London tonight for further discussions with King Hussein, the officials said. If such a conference can be arranged, it would serve as a backdrop for direct peace talks between Israel and a Jordanian-Palestinian delegation.
The fate of three Spanish Embassy officials kidnaped by gunmen near Beirut airport remained uncertain despite a report that two of them had been released unharmed. There was no confirmation of the report, received in Madrid from the Spanish ambassador, that embassy chancellor Assad Abdo and his deputy and brother, Gaspar Abdo, both Lebanese, had been freed. The kidnapers are demanding the release of Shia Muslims serving prison terms in Spain for killing a Libyan diplomat in 1984.
Nazi hunter Beate Klarsfeld returned to West Beirut to pursue efforts to free five Lebanese Jews feared kidnaped by a Shia Muslim group. Klarsfeld, 46, was allowed to continue her solo mission after West German Ambassador Antonius Eitel intervened with Lebanese immigration officials who had detained her overnight and planned to expel her for illegal entry. She said she has been promised a visa valid for a month.
Prime Minister Rashid Karami called today for a new political system for Lebanon, including an immediate end to Christian dominance, as a substitute for a foiled Syrian-sponsored peace accord. Mr. Karami, apparently alluding to President Amin Gemayel, a Christian, said the presence of a “party man” as head of state was a mistake. The Prime Minister, a Sunni Muslim, said it might put the nation “at the service of the party instead of the people.”
Libyan high schools give military courses along with algebra, chemistry and literature. The weekly military lessons include rocket launching, hand grenade tossing, signals and communication, and machine gun assembly and maintenance.
An Iraqi missile attack killed an Australian diver and wounded 10 other seamen aboard a Dutch supply ship assisting in the construction of Iranian oil terminals in the Persian Gulf, shipping officials in Bahrain reported. The vessel, the Smit Maassluis, was reportedly set ablaze by a French-made Exocet missile fired by an Iraqi warplane. The fire was later contained, and the ship was being towed across the gulf to the emirate of Dubai. Iran and Iraq have been at war for more than five years.
Rebellious Marxist forces appeared to have the upper hand in most of Southern Yemen tonight, according to refugees reaching here and diplomats’ assessments. But with communications still cut, the political situation in the Soviet-allied nation remained confused. Transmissions on the frequency of the official state radio — 1200 on the AM band — said that President Ali Nasser Mohammed al-Hassani had been ousted and that the “collective leadership” of the ruling Yemeni Socialist Party was in charge.
The trial of three men accused of conspiring to assassinate Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ended last week with the chief defense lawyer saying that the “real assassin” had been allowed to escape. The defense lawyer also accused the Government of concealing and tampering with evidence to cover up a conspiracy in Mrs. Gandhi’s own family to kill her. He said the conspiracy even involved her son and successor, Rajiv. Judge Mahesh Chandra said he would issue a verdict Wednesday. If convicted, the defendants, all of whom are Sikhs, could be hanged or sentenced to life in prison.
North Korea said today that it would suspend economic and political talks with South Korea to protest joint military maneuvers scheduled next month by the United States and South Korea. The suspension was announced about a week after North Korea offered to halt military exercises in February and called on the United States and South Korea to postpone their annual war games. A statement carried by the North Korean Central News Agency received in Tokyo said talks with the South would resume after the maneuvers “when a favorable atmosphere is created.”
Seven weeks after his reinstatement after a trial on charges of involvement in the murder of the opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr., General Fabian C. Ver continues to receive the tacit support of his cousin and patron, President Ferdinand E. Marcos, despite strong American pressure to remove the general as Chief of Staff of the armed forces. The general, who turned 66 years old today, told troops assembled for a birthday ceremony that “as a good soldier, I have always indicated my readiness to retire.” It was a restatement of the stand he has taken from the start. But Mr. Marcos, who relies heavily on the general as his link to the military, has remained evasive about his plans for the future of General Ver.
Both New Zealand and Australia rejected the U.S. call for economic sanctions against Libya, accused of supporting guerrillas responsible for terrorist attacks last month on airports in Rome and Vienna. Australia said it will not join in the sanctions unless they receive widespread international support. Foreign Minister Bill Hayden said Australia plans limited steps, including a review of official Libyan representation in the country and a temporary ban on additional Libyan students. New Zealand Prime Minister David Lange said there is no agreement on the desirability and effectiveness of sanctions.
Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa, denied a personal victory in the December 2 provincial election that returned his Liberal Party to power, easily won a seat in the National Assembly in a special by-election. The vote was held in a Liberal stronghold in Montreal that was not contested by the opposition Parti Quebecois. Bourassa, 52, campaigned on the need for a revitalized provincial economy.
Activists of the environmental group Greenpeace, who tried last year to snare an unarmed United States cruise missile with a giant fish net, headed toward a northern Canadian military base today to protest a new round of test launches. Five members of the group left Vancouver Sunday for the Cold Lake test range, 150 miles northeast of Edmonton, Alberta, to protest the scheduled firing Tuesday of the unarmed cruise missile on a 1,500-mile trajectory over the Arctic.
Shock waves from nearby aerial bombing and power blackouts have brought the civil war close to the capital of El Salvador in the last three days. According to government sources, up to 85 percent of the country was without electricity at times this weekend as rebels blew up power transmission lines. The sabotage appears to be timed to coincide with the political problems of President Jose Napoleon Duarte, who is facing opposition as he prepares to announce austerity measures. Although Government army commanders say they are hurting the rebels more than ever, Salvadorans in the capital seemed more impressed today by the fact that the army was fighting just outside the city limits against rebel bases on the nearby Guazapa volcano. The heavy thud and shock of bombs reverberated across the capital.
Relations between the military Government of Uganda and a powerful rebel army remain tense a month after the two groups signed a peace agreement, and prospects that the accord will be fully carried out are not good, according to Western diplomats and Ugandan journalists. The Government continues to accuse the rebels, who call themselves the National Resistance Army, of attacking army installations, and the rebels insist that Government troops are committing atrocities against innocent civilians. The peace accord called for the rebel leader, Yoweri Museveni, to become deputy chairman of a reconstituted military council — he had demanded the position since the peace talks began in August — but he has yet to take the post. The diplomats and the journalists said Mr. Museveni had also failed to nominate members for the council, as required in the accord, thus hindering its formation and leaving all decisions in the hands of Uganda’s military ruler, Maj. Gen. Tito Okello.
A military coup in Lesotho ended two decades of increasingly autocratic rule by Chief Leabua Jonathan. South Africa, which encircles independent, black-ruled Lesotho, seemed to signal approval of the new Government by easing a 20-day blockade that diplomats say contributed to tensions preceding the takeover.
Twenty-two black dissidents went on trial today in South Africa on charges of murder and of seeking to overthrow the Government. They pleaded not guilty to the charges, which carry a possible death penalty. The murder charges stem from killings of black members of local councils in the Vaal Triangle, an industrial area south of Johannesburg, in September 1984. Relatives and well-wishers crowded into a magistrate court today at Delmas, a small town 40 miles east of Johannesburg. The trial, which is expected to last at least a year, was moved here for security reasons. The accused range from 21 to 61 years old. Some have been in prison for 16 months, and all have been refused bail.
The United States observes the first federal holiday in honor of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. Thousands marched through Atlanta where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born and buried as the nation marked the first federal holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader. Church bells tolled, choirs sang and citizens paused to recall Dr. King, who was eulogized in speeches and church services as the man best remembered as the nation’s “drum-major for justice.” The day’s stirring oratory, like the ranks of marchers moving in deliberate steps through downtown streets, was sharply evocative of another time, when Dr. King led similar marches through the streets of Selma, Montgomery and dozens of other cities. In Atlanta, speakers at a service said that the best way that people could honor Dr. King was to live his dream. “Go out into the hedges and the highways and lift up those who are oppressed, and then Martin will have a gift,” said the Rev. Joseph L. Roberts Jr., pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Dr. King was once co-pastor.
Widespread housing frauds have been carried out against the Department of Housing and Urban Development, according to Federal investigators. They said they had uncovered a pattern of frauds involving falsified documents used to obtain tens of million of dollars in government-backed mortgages. More than a dozen real estate agents and mortgage industry officials have been indicted or convicted because of their involvement in such schemes in southern New Jersey. In the last year, similar swindles have been reported in Houston, Seattle and Milwaukee. The housing agency said it appeared that the frauds were related. “We’re very alarmed because there seems to be some sort of whispering campaign among these people,” said Robert E. Nipp, an agency spokesman. “These schemes go from city to city, and it looks like they use the same routine.”
A comptroller told the President for the first time ever precisely what reductions he must make in Federal spending. The Comptroller General, Charles A. Bowsher, acted under a new budget-balancing law that does not permit the President to make any modifications in the Comptroller General’s report. The Reagan Administration, which has strongly supported the new law in concept, says this provision violates the Constitution because it makes the President subservient to the Comptroller General, whom he appoints. The cuts listed in Mr. Bowsher’s report, which total $11.7 billion, go beyond the recommendations he received last week from James C. Miller 3d, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, and Rudolph G. Penner, director of the Congressional Budget Office.
President Reagan places a call to Roy M. Brewer, Labor Consultant, Local #695, Sound Technicians Union, Los Angeles.
Two American women were reunited with their Soviet husbands after years of separation when the two men, along with a Soviet-American couple reunited in West Germany on Sunday, arrived at Newark, New Jersey, International Airport. The Kremlin promised before the Geneva summit to allow 10 couples to reunite in the West. But Sandra Gubin, 38, of Kalamazoo, Michigan, who was again with her husband, Alexei Lodisev, 34, after 4 ½ years, said there are at least 20 other couples being kept apart. Also reunited were Robin Rubendunst, 25, of New York City, and her husband, Leonid Ablavsky, 38.
Jury selection begins today in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, for the trial of only the third active judge in the 197-year history of the federal bench to be tried for alleged crimes committed in office. Judge Walter L. Nixon Jr., 57, chief federal judge of the southern district of Mississippi, is charged with accepting an illegal gratuity and perjury. Nixon has denied all wrongdoing.
136 senior federal judges have stopped working because, under a recent change involving Social Security, their income is higher if they stay home. Their absence has brought some courts to a near halt and has sharply increased the caseloads for judges in others.
Applications from nearly 500 journalists hoping to fly aboard the space shuttle arrived at the University of South Carolina in Columbia over the weekend, bringing the number of candidates to more than 1,600. Most applications beat the January 15 deadline. After undergoing tests and interviews, seven senior advisers from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration will name the finalist and a backup on April 17. The journalist will ride aboard a space shuttle flight next fall.
A metal reaction vessel cracked at a federal uranium-processing plant and a small cloud of radioactive gas leaked inside a building, but no workers were injured, authorities said in Cincinnati. The undetermined amount of uranium hexafluoride gas did not escape the building at the Feed Materials Production Center in Fernald, north of Cincinnati, in the incident late Sunday, said plant spokesman Pete Kelley. It was the third leak of uranium hexafluoride reported this year.
Barry Bingham Jr. said in Louisville, Kentucky, that he has patched up differences with his father and will remain as editor and publisher of the Courier-Journal and the Louisville Times until the newspapers and two other family companies are sold. Bingham, who offered his resignation after his father announced the sale of the family’s media empire on January 9, also said he would continue as vice chairman of WHAS Inc., which owns a television station and two radio stations, and Standard Gravure Corp., which prints Sunday newspaper magazines.
A tearful man armed with a shotgun disconnected life-support equipment from his comatose brother, then surrendered about two hours later while police were planning to storm the hospital room, Phoenix authorities said Monday. John P. Whipple, 28, was breathing on his own but remained in critical condition, authorities said. He was admitted to John C. Lincoln Hospital on Thursday after an apparent drug overdose, police said. Robert Whipple, 19, was booked for investigation of attempted murder, and released on his own recognizance.
Eastern Airlines slashed the pay of its flight attendants and lengthened their workweek. The airline also said it would lay off 1,010 of the 7,000 attendants by February 4. Eastern acted in an effort to stay out of default on its $2.5 billion debt. The carrier said it would be able to maintain the same quality of service by having the attendants work longer. The leader of their union, Robert Callahan, said at an emotional news conference that the cuts, and particularly the layoffs, were “totally a hurt to my soul.” But he said the union would not strike at this point.
Minnesota’s Governor Rudy Perpich called out national guardsmen to help preserve order in the strike by Hormel meatpackers in the town of Austin. About 1,500 meatpackers have been on strike since August 17. Beginning early this morning some of the workers who have been on strike since August used their cars to block the two gates to the sprawling plant, so that applicants and new workers could not enter and those in the plant could not leave. About 150 strikers gathered at two main gates to the plant, and small groups of strikers took up picket posts at other gates. A company photographer who plant officials said was kicked by pickets was reported to have been slightly injured.
Members of a local of the United Automobile Workers in Allentown, Pennsylvania will urge the international union to approve wage and benefit cuts demanded by Mack Trucks Inc., according to Eugene McCafferty, president of the local. Mr. McCafferty said Sunday that the workers hoped to reverse the company’s decision, announced Saturday, to move its assembly operation to another state.
A judge today denied a motion for a mistrial in a four-month murder-by-neglect trial involving a San Antonio nursing home and four individual defendants. Judge Don Morgan of the state District Court in Galveston denied the motion, which was sought by the defense after the prosecutor asked a defense witness if he had invoked the Fifth Amendment before a grand jury. The witness was Dr. Weldon Kolb, who treated Elnora Breed for 27 years until she entered an Autumn Hills nursing home. The home and the four former or current employees are charged in the death of the 87-year-old woman on November 20, 1978.
The Air Force and Navy are losing experienced pilots at an increasing rate in a manpower drain that officials attribute to stepped-up hiring by commercial airlines. Figures covering fiscal 1985, which ended last September 30, show the pilot retention rates of both services declined for the second consecutive year. The Air Force’s retention rate dipped to its lowest level in four years. The continuing exodus of pilots had been predicted last year by the Pentagon during budget hearings before Congress.
A Pentagon survey of drug abuse in the American military forces indicates that the number of military people who say they use marijuana, the most prevalent illicit drug, has declined by two-thirds in the last five years. The survey found that about 12 percent said they had used marijuana in the last 30 days compared with about 37 percent in 1980.
The cost of attending the nation’s four-year public colleges and universities has rise more than 7 percent since last year to an average of $4,587 a year for tuition, room and board, a survey reported today. The survey, by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, indicated that tuition alone jumped by 8 percent for students attending college in their home state and by 11 percent for out-of-state students. The steepest increases, in percentage terms, were in Texas, for years the home of the nation’s least expensive public universities. Tuition and fees for state residents jumped 57 percent to $701 a year, from $446, while the bills for out-of-state students soared 162 percent to $3,764 from $1,437.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1529.13 (-7.57)
Born:
David Lough, MLB outfielder (Kansas City Royals, Baltimore Orioles, Philadelphia Phillies), in Akron, Ohio.
J.J. Jansen, NFL long snapper (Pro Bowl, 2013; Carolina Panthers), in Phoenix, Arizona.
Bryan Lerg, NHL centre (San Jose Sharks), in Livonia, Michigan.
Kevin Parker, Australian singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer (Tame Impala — “The Slow Rush”), in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Saleisha Stowers, American model and actress (Lani Price — “Days of Our Lives”), in Los Angeles, California.
Died:
Franz Kemser, 75, German bobsledder (Olympic gold medal, Four man, 1952).
History Diaries 