A French political realignment is expected to result from next week’s legislative elections. A week before legislative elections that are likely to bring a major political realignment, many people in France are searching for ways to sum up the five years since the Socialist Government came to power promising fundamental change. Amid the flood of analyses and retrospectives, one basic element seems to stand out. It is that France, long so proud of its eccentricities and its differences, has become more like the rest of the world in behavior as well as mood. France has long represented an idea both of cultural glory and of inner conflicts so arcane that most of the French assume that those living outside “the hexagon” — as they call their roughly six-sided country — are unable to understand them. But by the admission of many of its more thoughtful citizens, France has become, by necessity rather than choice, more open to the outside world, more receptive to its influences and more like other democratic countries in political behavior. As a result, alternating governments of the right and the left are possible.
Political figures close to General Wojciech Jaruzelski are having a hard time not sounding effusive as they discuss the visibly close relations that emerged between the Polish leader and Mikhail S. Gorbachev at the Soviet party congress. “General Jaruzelski clearly emerged as the first among equals,” said one party newspaper editor. Western observers at the Moscow meeting confirmed this view, pointing out that the Polish general, in civilian clothes, was shown more often on Soviet television than any other East-bloc leader, and that he and Mr. Gorbachev left the hall arm in arm in a gesture intended to signal their rapport. In Poland, the major proof of the general’s most favored status came when television here showed a surprise visit General Jaruzelski made in the middle of the party congress to Vilnius, Soviet Lithuania’s capital, which was for centuries a cultural center of the old kingdom of Poland and Lithuania.
An apparent Soviet defector now suspected of working for the KGB returned to the Soviet Union of his own free will after spending more than four months under the protection of West German counterintelligence, the magazine Der Spiegel said. The man was identified only as Skhuvalov, a high-ranking employee of a Soviet-West German trading company. The magazine added that the man alleged he was being held against his will by West German authorities.
Tens of thousands of Spaniards joined in a song festival and rally today that underlined the fact that the far left is providing the leadership in the drive against Spain’s membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A crowd variously estimated at 70,000 to 500,000 people joined in what was a mostly festive affair with rock music, movie star appearances and speeches in a park on the edge of the city. Spaniards are preparing to vote Wednesday in a referendum on whether to quit NATO. The rally today marked the end of the opponents’ campaign. Polls project that the country may vote to pull out of the alliance, and many of the people at the rally, seemingly confident of victory, came dressed in skeleton and other costumes.
Kurt Waldheim today repeated denials that he had been a member of two Nazi organizations and again charged that reports linking him to a hidden Nazi past were part of a “smear campaign.” “I was neither a member of the Brownshirts or of the student federation,” Mr. Waldheim, a former Secretary General of the United Nations, said in an 80-minute interview on Austrian television. Mr. Waldheim is now a candidate in Austria’s presidential election campaign. Voting is scheduled for May 4. He added: “I am gradually getting tired of constantly having things imputed to me that are not true, and of people apparently being more prepared to believe others — The New York Times, for example, which has spread the most grotesque things about me — than the man who has served his country faithfully for 40 years. This is a most deliberate smear campaign against me of a kind unprecedented in Austria’s postwar history.”
Israel’s right-wing Herut Party, linchpin of the Likud Bloc, opened its convention, and former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin named Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir as his choice to succeed him as leader of the divided party. Shamir, now foreign minister in a coalition with Prime Minister Shimon Peres’ Labor Party, is to take over as prime minister in October under an agreement with Peres. Shamir’s bid for the leadership was challenged, however, by Trade and Industry Minister Ariel Sharon and Housing Minister David Levy. Shamir can become prime minister regardless of the convention outcome but would be in an untenable position without party support.
An Israeli soldier and two Arab guerrillas were killed in a clash in Israel’s security zone in southern Lebanon, a military spokesman announced. Five Israeli soldiers were wounded in the fighting, three miles north of the Israeli border. Rifles and hand grenades were found alongside the bodies of the rebels, the spokesman said. No details were available on the size or affiliation of the guerrilla force.
Four French television crew members were abducted in West Beirut on Saturday, and an anonymous telephone caller said today that they had been seized by the Islamic Holy War organization. The same shadowy fundamentalist group said last week that it had killed a Frenchman it had held for 10 months. In a call to a Western news agency here today, an Arabic-speaking man said Islamic Holy War wanted to question the French television crew about what he termed its “suspicious movements in the Islamic suburbs.” The call came as a senior French diplomat arrived to investigate the abductions of French citizens in West Beirut, the predominantly Muslim part of the capital, in the last year.
Seeking to avoid a complete break with King Hussein of Jordan, the Palestine Liberation Organization has accused the United States of causing the collapse of the Middle East peace initiative between the King and Yasser Arafat, the P.L.O. leader. The formal statement, issued Saturday night after a P.L.O. leadership meeting in Tunis, apparently reflected the victory of Mr. Arafat’s strategy of a low-key response. Last month King Hussein broke off the flagging, yearlong peace initiative, and in a three-and-a-half-hour televised speech said he would not deal with the P.L.O. “until such time as their word becomes their bond.” The King has since accused the P.L.O. of reneging on promises to recognize the key United Nations Resolution 242, which accepts Israel’s right to exist, and, in interviews in speeches, he has openly challenged Mr. Arafat’s leadership. The official P.L.O. response said the talks had broken down because “the United States went back on all of its commitments.”
A battle between armed opium farmers and Pakistani paramilitary forces sent to burn their poppy fields killed 13 people and injured 44, the newspaper Dawn reported. The government has moved against poppy growers in recent weeks in an effort to curb heroin exports; Pakistan is one of the world’s main sources of heroin. In Islamabad, more than 20 members of Parliament walked out to protest the police action.
The Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto intends to end her exile in London and return home at the end of March, risking arrest by doing so, her spokesman said today. The spokesman, Bashir Riaz, said Miss Bhutto, the daughter of the executed former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, would begin a political tour of Pakistan. Her return would test a Government pledge to allow free political activity after over eight years of martial law, which ended January 1, Mr. Riaz said. Miss. Bhutto, 32 years old, went to London last November after being held under house arrest by President Mohammad Zia ul-Haq’s military Government.
The Roman Catholic primate of South Korea, Stephen Cardinal Kim Sou Hwan, gave his support today to opposition party demands for swift constitutional changes that would permit direct presidential elections. Cardinal Kim, in a midday sermon at Myongdong Cathedral in Seoul, called on President Chun Doo Hwan to make the necessary revisions before his term expired in March 1988 so a successor could be chosen under an amended constitution. At present the president is chosen by an electoral college. The issue of constitutional change has brought the South Korean Government and the main opposition party into direct conflict for the last month. Today the Cardinal, in a sermon that was unusual for its political content, warned that how they resolve the matter “will determine the survival and future of our nation.”
Philippine President Corazon Aquino is considering proclaiming a revolutionary government to force out officials appointed by Ferdinand E. Marcos, her deposed predecessor, spokesman Rene Saguisag said. Addressing about 5,000 women celebrating International Women’s Day, Aquino said she plans soon to announce price cuts on unspecified goods. She appealed for “a little more patience and understanding” from the Philippine people. President Corazon C. Aquino moved her Government today from an office building to its permanent quarters in a guest house on the grounds of Malacanang Palace. First on her agenda was a meeting with advisers, at which one of them said they would discuss the possibility of declaring her Administration a “revolutionary government.” The Political Affairs Minister, Antonio Cuenco, today joined other officials who have predicted such an action, which Mrs. Aquino herself has said she is considering. Mr. Cuenco said the designation would involve the promulgation of a new Constitution and the holding of elections for local officials in November. Mrs. Aquino’s spokesman, Rene Saguisag, said no decision had been taken, although he said, “The best legal minds in Government are for going revolutionary.”
When Ferdinand E. Marcos arrived here February 26, Gov. George R. Ariyoshi greeted the deposed Filipino President warmly at Hickam Air Force Base, put an arm on his shoulder, and invited him to remain permanently in Hawaii. At the time many if not most Hawaiians, who have a reputation for tolerance and extending a friendly welcome to newcomers, seemed to support the Governor. Most of the 70,000 people who responded to a nonscientific telephone poll conducted by a local television station said they agreed that Mr. Marcos should be welcomed here. But since then, public opinion seems to have shifted strongly against both Mr. Marcos and Mr. Ariyoshi, a 59-year-old Democrat who has been in office for about 13 years.
A warning that Irish Republican Army terrorists might try to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II of Britain as she visits Australia caused a nationwide alert by the authorities, newspapers said today. Despite the report, the Queen and her husband, Prince Philip, rode in an open carriage to a ceremony after their arrival today in Adelaide. It was the final stop on their three-week tour, which has been marked by peaceful political protests. Two newspapers, The Sun-Herald and The Sunday Telegraph in Sydney, said Interpol, the international police agency, had warned Australian officials that I.R.A. terrorists might try to enter Australia to attack the Queen. The authorities confirmed there was an alert but would not release any details. The royal couple is scheduled to leave Thursday.
Nicaragua announced price increases for essential goods and services. The biggest increase came in the price of beans, a staple for Nicaraguans, which rose by about 300%. Prices for foods such as rice, sugar and milk went up nearly 100%. All salaries were also raised by 50%, a presidential decree said. The moves were linked to the military effort to defeat the U.S.-supported contra rebels.
General Frank Vargas Pazos, Ecuador’s ousted armed forces chief, was warned today to leave the Manta air base where he took refuge Friday or face a military showdown. The rebellious general responded by asking to be judged “within military law” by a commission of fellow officers. General Vargas and about 200 officers and soldiers took over the air base Friday after President Leon Febres Cordero dismissed him for insubordination for demanding that the defense minister resign. The general’s replacement, General Jorge Andrade, told General Vargas late Saturday in a television address from Guayaquil to surrender or “pay the consequences and take the responsibility for them.” The supporters of General Vargas who accompanied him to Manta said in a telegram today to President Febres Cordero that they recognized the dismissal of General Vargas as “irreversible and we respect your decision,” but suggested that he “should leave with all the honors he deserves.”
The National Resistance Army, which seized power in Kampala in January, said today that it had captured the northern Uganda town of Gulu, the chief remaining outpost of troops loyal to the former Government. The Defense Ministry said Gulu was seized Saturday evening after three hours of fierce fighting against troops loyal to the former army commander, Basilio O. Okello, who had vowed to defend the area to the last man. Many Ugandans in Kampala said the vow appeared meaningless because the Okello forces were demoralized and widely hated because of their brutality. Troops of the former Government army went on a rampage of killing and looting while fleeing Kampala after the rebel takeover on January 26. The capture of Gulu means the Resistance Army controls almost all of Uganda.
Zimbabwe opposition leader Joshua Nkomo said that he and Prime Minister Robert Mugabe have settled most of their differences and intend to merge their political parties as a prelude to forming a one-party state, long a Mugabe objective. Nkomo has charged that his Ndebele followers have been persecuted, tortured and slain by Mugabe’s Shona-dominated government. However, in urging a crowd of 30,000 supporters to forget the past, Nkomo said his Zimbabwe African People’s Union and Mugabe’s governing Zimbabwe African National Union “will form a one-party state on socialist principles.” Division of Cabinet posts and Parliament seats must still be worked out, he said.
The South African police said today that they had arrested a white woman as part of an investigation into a series of recent bomb explosions, one of them at a police station in Johannesburg. A police spokesman refused to reveal details of the arrest or identify the woman, but said three mines similar to those that caused the blasts had been seized when the woman was detained. Two days after South Africa lifted a seven-month emergency decree, meanwhile, the police reported widespread violence in 15 segregated black townships, and said four people had been killed, two of them by the police. In another development, the South African military disclosed that it had developed its first combat helicopter in a further response to the embargo on arms sales to this nation, which has resulted in the growth of a substantial domestic arms industry since the ban was imposed by the United Nations Security Council in 1977.
Vega 2, the second of the Soviet Union’s two unmanned missions to Halley’s comet, flew within 5,200 miles of the comet’s nucleus today and sent data apparently confirming theories that the elliptical nucleus is solid. Data from Vega 2 also seemed to confirm Vega 1’s indications last week that the nucleus is surrounded by a thick, active envelope of dust filled with tiny particles, many accelerating outward from the icy core. Vega 2 encountered a far broader area of thickly packed microscopic dust particles, according to scientists participating in the mission. The unexpectedly heavy bombardment apparently rendered two experiments and 45 percent of the solar panels useless. Another experiment failed hours earlier. An American experiment was reported to have encountered no problems.
Navy divers have found the crew compartment of the space shuttle Challenger, containing remains of the astronauts who died after the craft exploded high above the Atlantic 40 days ago, space agency officials said today. Efforts were under way tonight to retrieve the cabin debris, which is resting in 100 feet of water about 15 miles northeast of here, and to return the remains for positive identification, the officials said. Late tonight, a Navy spokesman would neither confirm nor deny reports that some of the astronauts’ remains had been brought ashore. “On Saturday morning, after securing operations during the night for safety reasons, the U.S.S. Preserver, whose divers are thoroughly briefed on debris identification and who have participated in similar recovery operations, began to work,” the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said in a statement issued here today. “Subsequent dives provided positive identification of Challenger crew compartment debris and the existence of crew remains.”
The agency said that family members had been notified and “in deference to family wishes, NASA will not make further comments until recovery operations and identifications are complete.” It said recovery efforts might take “several days,” depending on weather and sea conditions. It was windy here today, and large waves pounded the shore. The agency would not comment on whether all seven astronauts had been accounted for, or on the condition of the remains. The discovery could allow forensic scientists to determine not only how the crew died but also whether new safety features might save the lives of future astronauts. Francis W. Scobee, whose son was the Challenger’s commander, echoed several other astronaut relatives today in saying that finding the remains “just opens a lot of wounds again.” In addition to the commander, Francis R. Scobee, the Challenger crew were the pilot, Comdr. Michael J. Smith, Dr. Ronald E. McNair, Dr. Ellison S. Onizuka, Dr. Judith A. Resnik, Gregory B. Jarvis and Christa McAuliffe, a New Hampshire schoolteacher who was aboard as an observer. Commander Smith’s brother Patrick said he had hoped that NASA would not raise the cabin debris. “I’m sure there will be some disposition of the remains, but whatever services are held will be very, very brief, and probably private,” Mr. Smith said.
NASA officials differed sharply with John W. Young, the chief of the agency’s astronaut office, who said that astronauts have repeatedly been exposed to potentially “catastrophic” hazards because of pressures to maintain launching schedules. NASA safety experts said the most critical items described in a long list of safety concerns raised in Mr. Young’s memorandum to his fellow astronauts were identified long ago, and that NASA has worked hard to correct them. No safety concerns, the officials said, were being ignored to preserve a schedule. “What you are reading is old stuff,” said Gilbert L. Roth, the staff director for the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, a NASA panel of outside experts who monitor the agency’s attention to flight hazards. “If he has really felt that strongly about these issues, why did he write the memo now instead of six months ago? I don’t understand the reason behind it.”
In Houston, Arnold D. Aldrich, the No. 2 NASA official in charge of the shuttle program, said he had not read the memorandum, which included what Mr. Young called an “awesome” list of safety problems. “I’m not going to comment until I’ve read the whole thing and talked to John,” Mr. Aldrich said. “But I can tell you that we have emphasized flight safety first for 25 years.” The reaction appeared to mark a fissure within NASA that has been widening since the January 28 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, which killed seven astronauts. Already officials of the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, who approved the flight despite warnings from engineers for the manufacturer of the shuttle’s now-suspect right booster rocket, have found themselves at odds with colleagues in other parts of the agency. But the harsh public criticism of NASA from Mr. Young, an influential astronaut, is the strongest evidence that the Challenger disaster has become a highly divisive issue within the space agency. It is particularly damaging, NASA officials conceded privately yesterday, because it suggests that at least some astronauts do not believe the agency’s repeated insistence that safety has taken priority over every other consideration.
The President and First Lady return to the White House after their stay at Camp David.
At least 80,000 marchers supporting the right to abortion passed the White House today and gathered at the Capitol in what some leaders of the women’s movement called a sign of its rejuvenation. The march, organized by the National Organization for Women, was aimed at getting the women’s movement “back into the streets,” in the words of NOW’s president, Eleanor C. Smeal. It was also a counter to the annual antiabortion marches that have been held on Jan. 22. After the marchers reached the West Front of the Capitol today, Mrs. Smeal said, “I’m convinced you’re going to see a total turning of the tide on women’s issues, and if we don’t, we’ll be out again.”
Smaller Federal budget deficits are in view, according to Government and business economists. They see widespread signs that $200 billion deficits are a thing of the past. Such prospects, they say, will bring about important changes in the debate over economic policies. Some see smaller deficits leading to a far healthier economy. They found confirmation for such optimism Friday when the Federal Reserve Board cut its basic lending rate. The expected ripple effect on rates throughout the economy means the Government would pay less to finance the national debt, now nearly $2 trillion. Others, however, fear that forecasts of smaller deficits could divert attention from the deficit problem before it is really solved.
The Reagan Administration is preparing legislation to create a special court for the thousands of Social Security disputes that now go through the federal court system, a Justice Department spokesman said. The Justice and Health and Human Services departments prepared the measure, now being readied by the Office of Management and Budget for submission to Congress, the spokesman said. The regular courts have been deluged with the cases of people who claim that they have been improperly denied Social Security or retirement benefits.
The number of Cubans imprisoned by immigration officials to await deportation is growing and putting new pressure on Federal agencies already straining to deal with overcrowding and violence among 1,860 Cubans housed in the Federal penitentiary in Atlanta. Federal prisons said that the Cubans were being kept “like animals in cages.” Because the Federal Bureau of Prisons has no more room for Cubans in the Atlanta prison, the Immigration and Naturalization Service has had to scramble to find space for another 700 in other jails and prisons, and officials say the cost is rising steadily. The imprisoned Cubans were among more than 125,000 who arrived in Florida in 1980 from the Cuban fishing port of Mariel. A group of dangerous criminals and mentally incompetent people were ruled ineligible for immigration and detained when they arrived, and others have since been convicted of violating American laws. They are being held pending deportation, but Cuba refuses to take them back.
In his first response to a critical report on the police confrontation with the radical group Move, Mayor W. Wilson Goode delivered a formal apology tonight, expressing sorrow and contrition to “each and every Philadelphian who has suffered.” “All of you deserve much more,” Mr. Goode said in a televised eight-minute address. It was his first public acknowledgment that the Move affair had caused his administration to “lose momentum.” Six adults and five children died and 61 homes were destroyed by fire after the police dropped a bomb on a house occupied by the radical group Move. The May 13 fire ended a daylong siege that began when the police came to the house to serve arrest warrants on several Move members.
Since John A. Walker Jr. was arrested last year, he has remained a tantalizing puzzle, unwilling to comment publicly about his decision to become a Soviet spy and recruit his son and brother into espionage. But the public silence is expected to end within the next few weeks, and Federal prosecutors are now offering a preview of Mr. Walker’s testimony at the trial of his colleague, Jerry A. Whitworth, accused of being the fourth member of the Navy spy ring. The preview is contained in court papers recently filed in Federal District Court here. The documents provide new details of how Mr. Walker says he recruited Mr. Whitworth, a radioman who has since retired from the Navy. The papers portray Mr. Whitworth as a man who became an international spy without knowing he was directly aiding the Soviet Union, and who was later threatened with violence when he discussed ending his spying career.
Dairies in Arkansas and Oklahoma recalled more than 60,000 gallons of milk after tests showed it contained too much of a banned pesticide, state health officials said in Little Rock, Arkansas. Meanwhile, the number of dairy farms in Arkansas quarantined because they received cattle feed contaminated with the pesticide heptachlor rose to 38, officials said. Gold Star Products, based in Little Rock, voluntarily recalled 60,000 gallons of tainted milk. Heptachlor is suspected of causing cancer, said Dr. Ben Saltzman, Arkansas Health Department director. The milk is distributed in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Mississippi under several different labels. Most of the recalled milk was believed to be in warehouses.
Researchers have isolated the genetic blueprint of a brain protein that appears to play a key role in the mental deterioration caused by Alzheimer’s disease, a neurologist said. By learning the exact makeup of the protein, it may be possible to devise a test that would detect a hereditary form of the disease before symptoms develop, Dr. Dennis J. Selkoe of the Center for Neurologic Diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital said in a report published in the Boston Globe.
The Justice Department, reporting on a study of American prison operations, said that prison officials increasingly are turning to private industry to employ convicts in efforts to generate much-needed revenue and give inmates an alternative to idleness. The study found that nearly 1,000 prisoners working for 19 private companies in 17 state correctional facilities across the country generate sales of $21 million annually. Their wages, as high as $7.75 an hour, help to cover skyrocketing prison costs, allow the inmates to make restitution to crime victims and help them support their families, the report said.
The Archdiocese of New York is threatening to drop its support of a medical college that it saved from financial failure eight years ago unless two city hospitals affiliated with the school stop performing abortions. John Cardinal O’Connor, the Archbishop of New York, said in an interview that if the hospitals, Lincoln and Metropolitan, did not stop performing abortions, the school, New York Medical College, would either have to give up its $24 million-a-year contract to supply them with medical services or drop its ties with the archdiocese. “The choice for the college is either the church or the two hospitals,” Cardinal O’Connor said. “If the choice is the two hospitals, that would be it,” he said, adding he would be forced to sever the ties the archdiocese made with the college, which is in Valhalla in Westchester County, eight years ago. The Cardinal said that “abortions violated Catholic principles and the sacredness of the human person” and that they should not be performed by physicians or in any hospital affiliated with the archdiocese.
A man apparently enraged at the breakup of his engagement opened fire with a pistol today in a La Puente, California church, killing his former fiancée’s brother-in-law and wounding two women, officials said. The gunman, identified as Carlos Thomas, 25 years old, sped off in a car after the shootings, and was being sought, sheriff’s deputies said. A witness said the gunman “just sat there and laughed” during services at the Church of Christ, then suddenly stood up and fired on three people kneeling at a pew behind him.
A Superior Court judge says a decision to hire only women and black men in the Seattle Fire Department’s last recruit class discriminated against qualified white men who had also applied. Judge Jerome Johnson ordered the fire department Friday to accept Tom Waleryszak, who is white, in its next recruit class. The judge said Mr. Waleryszak, and other white men who had applied for the positions “were treated as a group less favorably than the women and the minorities,” in violation of their rights under state law.
Supermarkets and banks received the highest ratings from the American public on the quality of their services, while auto repair shops, local governments, real estate agencies and public transportation were rated lowest. Rated between the extremes were airlines, restaurants, hospitals, hotels, department stores and insurance companies, the Gallup Poll reported. Under the Gallup system of indexing for quality, supermarkets were rated 58%, banks 52%, airlines 47%, restaurants 46%, hospitals 44% and hotels 41%.
A study found that death rates vary among intensive-care wards, and that some save nearly three times as many lives as others. The federally sponsored study also found that death rates in hospitals affiliated with medical schools were not necessarily lower than those at other hospitals, despite a feeling among medical academicians that teaching hospitals are superior, the New York Times reported. Researchers studied 5,030 cases in 13 hospitals, which were not named, and published the results in the March issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Smaller is better for some colleges throughout the country as they consider the declining number of 18-year-olds in the population. As the new demographics change the face of American higher education, a number of institutions have reduced the size of their entering classes to avoid lowering academic standards. Others are arranging mergers, while some women’s colleges are weighing coeducation.
16th Easter Seal Telethon raises $30,100,000.
33rd ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament: Duke beats Georgia Tech, 68–67.
Gilbert Perreault of the Buffalo Sabres becomes the 12th NHLer to score 500 career goals, in a 4–3 win over New Jersey Devils.
Born:
Bryan Bickell, Canadian NHL left wing (NHL Champions, Stanley Cup-Blackhawks, 2010, 2013, 2015; Chicago Blackhawks, Carolina Hurricanes), in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada.
Colin Greening, Canadian NHL centre and left wing (Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs), in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.
Damien Brunner, Swiss National Team and NHL centre and right wing (Olympics, 2014; Detroit Red Wings, New Jersey Devils), in Oberlunkhofen, Switzerland.
Brittany Snow, American actress (“Pitch Perfect”), in Tampa, Florida.
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