The Government said Wednesday that the nuclear reactor on fire in the Soviet Ukraine may continue to burn for weeks, spewing radioactive material into the atmosphere. A growing number of countries throughout Europe reported finding evidence of fallout from the crippled Chernobyl power plant, as the Soviet Government said in a statement that the chain reaction in the damaged plant had ended and that emissions of radioactive material were decreasing. In an official report on the incident at the atomic energy station, a special American interagency task force said the “major accident” probably occurred Saturday, at least 48 hours before the West learned about it. It caused a “violent explosion” and “major damage” to one of the four reactors at the site, the report said. Some American sources said there may have been damage to a second reactor at the plant that constituted a “meltdown,” the melting of the installation’s fuel rods after a cooling system failure, but other experts discounted this suggestion. A member of the task force said that while he would prefer to use the term “burn-up,” there is no question that the first reactor suffered the equivalent of a meltdown, spewing radioactive material into the atmosphere.
President Reagan receives word that there has been a nuclear power plant emergency in Chernobyl, Russia and that a radio active cloud is spreading. From the president’s diary:
“This was to be a day off like in Hawaii. It was interrupted by a briefing on the nuclear plant emergency in Chernobyl Russia. As usual the Russians won’t put out any facts but it is evident that a radioactive cloud is spreading beyond the Soviet border.”
Federal officials said today that the stricken Soviet nuclear reactor at Pripyat had apparently been so heavily contaminated by radioactive material that it would be difficult for workers to bring the accident under control, much less return the reactor to operation. These officials said they did not yet know what caused the accident, but that it apparently involved a loss of coolant in the reactor, perhaps triggered by a pipe break, a loss of electrical power or a malfunction in a refueling machine. Officials theorized that once the cooling system failed, the nuclear fuel rods and their zirconium surfaces probably began to melt, triggering chemical reactions that led to a “violent explosion” that dispersed “considerable amounts” of radioactive material, according to the top Federal expert on reactor accidents, Harold Denton of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Today, fire was reported to be still burning in a 1,000-ton molten mass of fuel and graphite, according to Mr. Denton. He likened the situation to “a giant coal pile that’s burning” with an intense heat source, namely the molten fuel, inside.
The Soviet Union said today that radioactive material was continuing to escape from a damaged nuclear power plant in the Ukraine, but that the chain reaction in the reactor had stopped. Moscow said the emission of radioactive substances had decreased in the last 24 hours. In its third statement in three days about the reactor accident, widely believed by Western authorities to be the worst in the history of nuclear power, Moscow denied Western reports that there had been thousands of casualties. It said 197 people had been hospitalized as a result of the accident, 49 of whom were discharged after examination. Soviet Reported 2 Deaths On Tuesday the Government reported that two people had been killed and that four settlements around the reactor site had been evacuated.
The Soviet nuclear reactor accident has showered Scandinavia with traces of 14 radioactive substances, some of which are likely to persist for a long time, scientists here said today. Although the fallout that has drifted here from the Ukraine has probably not jeopardized Sweden’s health, the finding of many different radioactive isotopes, or radionuclides, underscored the gravity of the Soviet accident. Dr. Ulf Baverstam, a nuclear physicist at the principal Swedish institute investigating the accident, said in an interview that fallout over Sweden had markedly declined in the last day, partly becuse of a shift in prevailing winds and partly because of rain here that washed much of the radioactive material out of the air. Nevertheless, feverish activity continued at the three-story yellow stucco building that houses Sweden’s principal agency for monitoring nuclear contamination. Despite the beginning of a spring holiday today that will last until next Monday for most Swedes, the the National Institute of Radiation Protection was working around the clock, its 40 scientists relieving each other to allow snatches of sleep.
Several Western European countries took steps today to insure the safety of their people from radioactive fallout. In Austria, mothers in the province of Carinthia were being advised to keep infants and small children indoors. In Sweden, officials warned people not to drink water from casks that collect rain water for summer cottages, and the import of fresh meat, fish and vegetables from the Soviet bloc countries was banned because of possible contamination. The steps followed reports from Poland on Tuesday that iodine tablets were being issued to infants, children and pregnant mothers to protect the thyroid gland against poisoning.
Western European foreign and defense ministers demanded today that the Soviet Union make public all available details on the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and strongly criticized the secrecy surrounding the accident. Scandinavian governments, meanwhile, stepped up their criticism of the Soviet Union for delaying the announcement of an accident at a nuclear-power plant 70 miles north of Kiev. The protests were particularly sharp from Sweden and Denmark, two Governments with which Moscow has recently tried to establish closer relations.
The Soviet nuclear disaster has brought to the fore a debate regarding reactor design that began almost a half century ago during the development of the University of Chicago “pile” that produced the world’s first chain reaction. The discussion concerns how best to slow neutrons in the reactor sufficiently to sustain a chain reaction. When a uranium atom is split it ejects neutrons at such high velocity that they are unlikely to split other atoms. Unless the neutrons are slowed, or moderated, a chain reaction cannot occur.
Western experts on nuclear technology asserted yesterday that the Soviet Union had the worst nuclear safety planning of any nation, even worse than that in developing countries and the rest of the Soviet bloc. As a result, they suggested, the Russians have taken far more risks in their nuclear power program. That practice is probably linked directly to the nuclear plant disaster near Kiev in the last week, the experts said. “In order of safety, one would put the Germans first, the Americans in the middle and the Russians at the bottom,” said Dr. Bennett Ramberg, an expert in international reactor safety at the Center for International and Strategic Affairs at the University of California at Los Angeles.
The authorities in Bonn said today that the Soviet Union had cut short an effort to obtain technical advice and assistance from the West in handling the Chernobyl reactor accident. But it remained unclear whether it had stopped entirely or merely interrupted the appeal, which was made Tuesday to organizations and companies in West Germany and Sweden. The reported withdrawal coincided with a broad-based diplomatic initiative in Europe to assure governments that the situation was under control and there was no danger to civilian populations. Experts and Government officials here said it appeared to indicate either that conditions at the accident site were under control, or at least that the Soviet Union urgently sought to create that impression.
To the world outside, almost as striking as the nuclear accident that sent radioactive debris over hundreds of miles, was the extraordinary Soviet effort to restrict information about it. It was a reflexive retreat into secrecy that again seemed to show the Kremlin loath to concede any failing before its people and a hostile world. It was only after Sweden, 800 miles from the stricken Chernobyl power plant, detected steep increases in radioactivity and spent a full day demanding information that the Soviet Government issued its first statement — 44 bland words barely acknowledging that an accident had occurred. Two days later, while the Western world concluded that this was the most serious accident in the history of nuclear power generation, the Soviet Union has yet to divulge the most basic facts: What happened? When? How much radioactivity has escaped and over how broad an area? How many people have been exposed? Was the leak of radioactivity continuing?
The Soviet Union is helping Cuba to install two nuclear reactors that are different from the type that malfunctioned in the Ukraine, but would almost certainly affect the United States in the event of a serious accident, scientists and nuclear industry analysts said yesterday. The reactor complex is being built near Cienfuegos, about 250 miles due south of Miami along Cuba’s southern coast. Marcelo Alonso, a Cuban-born physicist who monitors the Cuban nuclear program, said the Cuban Government had indicated it expected the first of what it said would eventually be four units to go into operation sometime next year, and a second in 1989. Nuclear energy experts and specialists in Cuban affairs said the reactors under construction were not of the graphite core type, in contrast to the one at Chernobyl in the Ukraine, where earlier this week a major nuclear accident was acknowledged. Like most recent Soviet export reactors, the units being installed in Cuba are pressurized water reactors apparently being equipped with containment shells, they said.
FBI Director William H. Webster told a Senate subcommittee that three-fourths of the 2,000 Libyan students in the United States are financed by Colonel Muammar Qaddafi and could be a terrorist threat. Webster, testifying for an FBI budget increase, said his agency has “taken a number of terrorists out of circulation” but that the potential for domestic terrorist violence is “quite real.” Attorney General Edwin Meese III said earlier in the week that he planned to meet with immigration officials to consider what action might be taken to force Libyans out of the country.
Against the backdrop of a pale yellow city hall, Kurt Waldheim stood in a drizzly square today and made his pitch to Austrians old enough to remember the war — or proud enough of their fathers who fought in it. In a high-pitched, campaign-worn voice, the Austrian presidential candidate, 67 years old, denounced his political foes and the World Jewish Congress — which has linked Mr. Waldheim to war crimes in the Balkans — for “damaging our esteem abroad.” The former United Nations Secretary General told a polite, curious crowd of several hundred mostly elderly and middle-aged people: “What really troubles me is that this congress tries to ruin the reputation of a whole generation and make all these people bad people. But we will not allow it. We were not doing anything but our duty as decent soldiers. We were not criminals but decent men who faced a terrible fate.”
Prisoners rioted in five British prisons today, burning one to the ground and starting fires in two others. In the confusion, a total of more than 50 inmates escaped, the police said. The violence began after most of the country’s 18,500 prison guards refused to work overtime in a dispute with the Government, leaving many prisons understaffed. Prisoners grew angry when told the understaffing meant they would have to spend up to 23 hours a day locked in their cells, authorities said. At Erlstoke prison, a youth detention center in southwest England, 40 of the 130 inmates escaped during disturbances in which several small fires were started. Ten of them were later caught. The Northeye minimum-security prison on the south coast of England was virtually destroyed by fire after 60 of the 450 inmates rioted and started several blazes. The police said 12 inmates were believed to have escaped during the violence. At Horfield prison in Bristol, about 100 policemen, some in riot gear and others with guard dogs, entered the building tonight after about 60 prisoners had seized control of two wings, smashing furniture and forcing prison guards to withdraw.
Youssef Molki, leader of the Palestinian hijackers of the cruise liner Achille Lauro, killed passenger Leon Klinghoffer “simply because he was American, Jewish and handicapped,” according to a report by Italian magistrate Francesco Catellano. He ordered the trial of 14 people on charges including murder and hijacking starting June 18 in Genoa. Molki and seven other defendants are jailed in Italy. Six will be tried in absentia, including Abul Abbas, leader of the Palestine Liberation Front. The report said Abbas organized the hijacking last October to demonstrate his group’s policy of direct action in contrast to the efforts at negotiations by Yasser Arafat of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi will leave office next spring to resume control of his Socialist Party, a party official was quoted as saying. Craxi has been prime minister for more than 22 years, a postwar record. Assistant Secretary Claudio Martelli told party officials that Craxi will switch jobs at the start of the 1988 parliamentary election campaign. The prime minister submitted his resignation after disagreements within Italy’s governing coalition over the Achille Lauro hijacking, but the resignation was rejected.
Johnny Carson threw a pie at an actor portraying a Frenchman a few days ago. It was part of a spoof on American anger at France for refusing to let American planes fly over French territory on their bombing raid against Libya this month. On Sunday night the pie-throwing scene was included among the major news items on one of France’s three state-run stations. French viewers were not amused. By all appearances, France is becoming increasingly irritated by what it sees as the unwarranted anti-French campaign being waged by Americans to punish the country for having rejected cooperation with the United States in its attack on Libya. Some commentators concede that Americans have canceled summer vacations here partly because of the declining value of the dollar and because they fear terrorist attacks in France. But most see the vacation moves as politically inspired, a campaign likely to hurt the French economy.
Lebanese army units battled pro-Syrian Muslim militias near President Amin Gemayel’s stronghold at Bikfaya in the mountains northeast of Beirut. Military sources reported one soldier killed and several wounded. Each side blamed the other for starting the clash, which followed an appeal by the pro-Syrian Druze Progressive Socialist Party “for an end to the war in all its forms.” Lebanon has been torn by 11 years of conflict.
Libya ordered the expulsion of more than 100 Britons, Spaniards and Italians today, apparently in retaliation for the deportation of Libyans from London, Madrid and Rome. The order, which Britain condemned as arbitrary, added tension to the already strained relations between Western European countries and Libya after American air strikes against Tripoli and Benghazi on April 15. Responding to the Reagan Administration’s demands for tougher action, at least five European countries have expelled Libyans since the air raids. In a further move today, the European Community suspended all sales of butter to Libya.
Qatari troops are pulling out of a disputed construction site on a Persian Gulf coral reef seized last week from Bahrain, and arrangements are under way to free 29 construction workers detained by Qatar, diplomatic sources said. The apparent end to the brief confrontation between the neighboring gulf emirates followed diplomatic moves led by Saudi Arabia. Bahrain and Qatar have disputed the ownership of the reef and other nearby offshore areas for more than 50 years.
Iran reported new gains by its troops on the Faw Peninsula in southern Iraq. A Tehran communique on the 52-year war said 5,100 Iraqis were killed and wounded in two days of fighting. Iraq made only brief mention of ground fighting, reporting that its forces checked an Iranian assault, but a spokesman in Baghdad claimed that the Iraqi navy destroyed two vessels near the Iranian coast in the Persian Gulf. There was no independent confirmation of the reports.
Indian paramilitary policemen, stepping up the battle against Sikh radicals, swept through the Golden Temple at Amritsar Wednesday and arrested 200 militants who had held control of the shrine for the last three months, according to reports received here. In an early-morning broadcast, the Government-run All India Radio said that one person was killed and two wounded in a 12-hour sweep that ended at 5 A.M. It was not clear how the casualties occurred, or who they were. No major resistance was reported at any point during the operation, although about 70 radicals led by a religious fundamentalist took shelter in a holy sanctuary in the temple. They finally surrendered just before dawn.
Urging that the United States “move beyond the pain of a war which cost more than one million lives,” about 150 prominent American religious and political leaders, academicians and former antiwar activists have called on President Reagan to pursue normal diplomatic relations with Vietnam. The letter was presented to the White House before Mr. Reagan’s meeting in Bali with leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Signers included Julian Bond, State Senator from Georgia; Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa; George McGovern, the former Senator; Dr. Benjamin Spock, the antiwar activist; the Rev. Jesse Jackson, chairman of the National Rainbow Coalition, and the actors Edward Asner and Mike Farrell.
In a departure from previous statements, President Chun Doo Hwan said today that he would conditionally agree to opposition demands that the Constitution be changed before his term expires in 1988. Mr. Chun said he would go along if the National Assembly agreed to draft constitutional changes and set a new timetable for carrying them out. The main opposition demand is for direct, popular presidential elections. The opposition contends the present electoral college system favors the party in power. The Parliament is controlled by Mr. Chun’s Democratic Justice Party, which has opposed constitutional changes until after 1988.
The Vice President of the Philippines said today that the Government of Corazon C. Aquino was “beset” with problems and would need “much more” assistance than the $150 million in additional aid announced last week by President Reagan. The Philippine official, Salvador H. Laurel, speaking in an interview on the eve of a meeting here on the Indonesian island of Bali Thursday with Mr. Reagan, said the problems ranged from internal insurrections to a “dead broke” treasury. Earlier, in a news conference, Mr. Laurel said he would seek personal assurance from Mr. Reagan when they meet to clear up lingering “cobwebs of doubts” about his full support for the Aquino Government. Mr. Laurel described the state of United States-Philippine relations as “warm but not hot.” Mr. Laurel said that, in a meeting today with Secrtary of State George P. Shultz, the Secretary had provided additional assurance that Mr. Reagan wanted the Aquino Government to succeed. He said Mr. Shultz thereby reaffirmed the message that Mr. Reagan had articulated in a telephone call last Saturday in Honolulu to Mrs. Aquino’s predecessor, Ferdinand E. Marcos.
A major earthquake shook the Mexican capital and four coastal states today, creating panic reminiscent of that caused by a catastrophic tremor last September. Initial reports indicated that the quake and two aftershocks caused no major damage or injuries. Mexican seismological experts said the quake measured 6.5 on the Richter scale and lasted 65 seconds. The initial quake last September was put at 8.1 on the Richter scale, with an aftershock that was measured at 7.3. The tremor today was the strongest to hit the capital since the quakes in September, which killed about 9,500 people, damaged or destroyed 3,000 buildings and left tens of thousands of people homeless. The quake today set buildings swaying and sent many terrified residents rushing from their homes in pajamas and bathrobes. Some grabbed a few family possessions as they dashed outside. The quake also rocked the Pacific coast states of Guerrero, Colima, Jalisco and Michoacan, according to Red Cross officials in each state. The area includes the cities of Acapulco and Puerto Vallarta. A tour of downtown and surrounding neighborhoods in Mexico City by reporters showed no apparent structural damage, but blackouts were evident in several neighborhoods. There were reports of natural gas leaks caused by ruptured lines that were quickly repaired.
A mob of about 100 armed civilians stoned Paraguay’s leading radio station Tuesday in an attack that opposition politicians said could signal the appearance of paramilitary groups linked to the Government of President Alfredo Stroessner. The crowd, shooting firearms into the air, destroyed windows and electronic equipment at the Nanduti radio station on Tuesday. The radio station was shut down twice last year when the government charged it with subversion. A group of opposition political parties today accused the Government of responsibility for the attack. “Violence is the Government’s only response to the people’s demand for greater democracy,” the group said.
In an unprecedented show of black union strength, hundreds of thousands of South African blacks plan to walk off their jobs today in recognition of May Day. Labor experts fear the strikes could bring more clashes in black townships, where about 1,500 people have died in 26 months of intermittent violence.
In one of its most important criminal law rulings in years, the Supreme Court today acted to protect the rights of black defendants by making it more difficult for prosecutors to exclude blacks from juries. The 7-to-2 decision, which overturned in part a major 1965 ruling by the Court, held that prosecutors may not exclude blacks from juries because of concern that they will favor a defendant of their own race. The Court also established an evidentiary standard that made it easier for black defendants to prove unconstitutional discrimination by prosecutors who exclude blacks from juries. The case involves the use of a legal device, the peremptory challenge, to prevent seating a juror. Under Federal and state laws, prosecutors and defense lawyers alike may use such challenges to exclude specified numbers of prospective jurors from a panel without giving a reason. Lawyers can also ask the trial judge to exclude other jurors on the ground that their answers to questions disclose potential bias; that is, “for cause.”
The Senate, in a move that could hinder chances for a Republican compromise on the budget, voted this evening to restore the Work Incentive Program, one of the few programs the Senate Budget Committee proposed to end. The vote on the amendment, which was proposed by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, was 55 to 42. It brought the Senate Republican leader, Bob Dole of Kansas, to the Senate floor in a glum mood.
President Reagan is endorsing a move to weaken the minimum-wage requirements for construction workers on government projects, Administration officials said today. The officials discussed Mr. Reagan’s decision on condition that they not be identified. The law in question, the Davis-Bacon Act, requires that contractors on federally financed construction projects pay “prevailing” wages in a given area, which usually means union rates. The law was passed in 1931 primarily to keep contractors from importing unemployed Southerners, mostly black, to work for low wages on Federal construction projects, undermining local employers who might be paying more.
Dr. James C. Fletcher easily won the approval of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation today to return as Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, but only after a debate over whether he had sown the seeds of the space agency’s current troubles. Dr. Fletcher received the committee’s endorsement by a vote of 15 to 1, virtually assuring that he will win confirmation from the full Senate within a week. He would then become the first permanent Administrator of NASA since before the Jan. 28 destruction of the space shuttle Challenger, the biggest disaster in the agency’s history. The sole dissenter in the vote was Senator Albert Gore Jr., Democrat of Tennessee. Citing two articles that appeared in The New York Times a week ago detailing audit reports of cost overruns, mismanagement and safety shortcuts in the development of the shuttle program, many in Dr. Fletcher’s tenure as the agency’s chief from 1971 to 1977, Senator Gore said he had found the nominee’s responses to the charges unsatisfactory.
The Pentagon budget over the last five years had $44.5 billion that wasn’t needed because inflation fell faster than anticipated and most of the money was used to pay for other defense programs, Comptroller General Charles Bowsher, who heads the General Accounting Office, said. But the Defense Department told Congress that “no windfall exists” and said any use of the extra money was approved by Congress. The dispute before a House Armed Services subcommittee was the latest round in a fight between the Pentagon and its critics that began last spring when Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger announced that an extra $4 billion had turned up.
House Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill Jr. said today that he has scheduled another vote on military aid to the rebels fighting the Nicaraguan Government for the week of June 9. Mr. O’Neill, a Democrat of Massachusetts, made his commitment as Republican leaders in the House acknowledged that they would not get the 218 signatures they needed on a special petition that would force a separate vote on military aid to the rebels, known as contras, by May 12.
A high-ranking Pentagon official announced he was dropping negotiations with publishers for a novel on life in the corridors of power, saying he couldn’t afford “even the appearance of impropriety.” Richard N. Perle, the assistant defense secretary for international security policy, denied in a two-page statement that he had ever contemplated writing a novel that would “reveal sensitive or classified information. . . .” Perle dismissed complaints by Senator Sam Nunn (D-Georgia), whose protests touched off a conflict-of-interest inquiry by the Pentagon’s general counsel.
The missile defense research chief suggested a policy stating that such defenses should cost less than Soviet countermeasures may be replaced by a standard that the defense should be “affordable.” Many experts say that such a system might cost several hundred billion dollars.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has agreed to decide whether the federal government’s patent for the AIDS blood test should be revoked in favor of a French application. The issue is whether the test was invented first by American scientists, or by French scientists at the Pasteur Institute in Paris who have also applied for a patent. The test, used in blood banks, determines whether a blood donor has been exposed in the past to the virus that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome.
John A. Walker Jr. acknowledged today that he never directly informed his Navy colleague, Jerry A. Whitworth, that they were supplying the Soviet Union with military secrets. To win conviction on the most serious counts against Mr. Whitworth, a retired Navy radioman who is on trial for espionage, prosecutors must prove that he passed the secrets to Mr. Walker while knowing that they were being sold to the Soviet Union. In Mr. Walker’s third day of testimony, prosecutors attempted to show that Mr. Whitworth must have suspected that the Soviet Union was involved because of questions that he asked Mr. Walker in recent years. The Government contends that Mr. Whitworth used his position as a Navy communications specialist to photograph classified documents for Mr. Walker, who paid him thousands of dollars.
Svetlana Ogorodnikov, who has recanted her confession to spying charges, today told the jury in Federal District Court in the espionage trial of Richard W. Miller why she changed her stand. Referring to Mr. Miller, a former agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Mrs. Ogorodnikov said, “We’re not guilty of this crime.” Mrs. Ogorodnikov made her comments in response to questions from a defense attorney, Stanley Greenberg, who asked her to explain why she implicated Mr. Miller and pleaded guilty to espionage conspiracy 11 months ago. “I didn’t have any other choice,” she said. “When I was arrested everybody was lying. Miller, because he was in shock, he mixed up everything and I was always drunk. When I used to come to court I saw that everything was against me.” Mr. Miller is accused of giving the Soviet emigre classified documents for the Soviet Union in exchange for promises of $65,000 in gold and cash.
A federal judge in Lubbock, Texas, issued a preliminary injunction limiting the federal program that pays dairymen to slaughter their cattle. The injunction orders the Department of Agriculture to limit the number of animals sent to market. The action grew out of a suit filed in April by beef cattle producers from Texas and Montana upset over falling prices. They said the program, designed to reduce dairy herds and cut surplus milk production, had cost the cattle industry $25 million in lost revenues during the first week of April.
Prosecutors rested their case in the racketeering retrial in New Orleans of Governor Edwin W. Edwards. U.S. Attorney John Volz said he was happy with the case that he and his assistants had presented over the last four weeks. Edwards, his brother, Marion, and three business associates are accused of racketeering and fraud in connection with a $10-million hospital and nursing home investment venture.
An appeals court today upheld the first-degree murder conviction of Roswell Gilbert, who told jurors he had killed his terminally ill wife out of love. The ruling by the Florida Court of Appeal for the Fourth District affirmed the verdict last May by a Circuit Court jury. Mr. Gilbert was sentenced to a mandatory minimum term of 25 years in prison. Mr. Gilbert, a 76-year-old retired engineer, is at the Avon Park Correctional Center. Mr. Gilbert said he shot his wife of 52 years, Emily, in March 1985. She had Alzheimer’s disease and osteoporosis.
Fire raged through a block-long building at a marina in North Miami Beach, Florida, destroying millions of dollars of pleasure boats ranging from small outboard sport-fishing rigs to high-tech speedboats. There were no injuries. Damage was estimated at $5 million. Among the craft were cigarette boats, high-speed catamarans that are popular among drug smugglers and law enforcement agencies because they can travel at speeds up to 60 mph. The cause of the fire was not known.
Chicago’s Mayor outlined his plans for the year remaining in his term a day after runoff elections gave him a working City Council majority for the first time since he took office three years ago. The Mayor, Harold Washington, said his priorities were to win approval of the 63 people he has nominated to various posts, to adopt an ethics ordinance and to eliminate a $78 million budget deficit.
Bankruptcy court officials, bolstered by 48 additional people hired at the expense of A.H. Robins, handled a flood of last-minute claims of injury by the Dalkon Shield, the intrauterine device linked to health problems. The deadline for filing claims was midnight. The bankruptcy court clerk, Mike Sheppard, said the court expected up to 300,000 claims to be filed against Robins, the pharmaceutical concern that formerly marketed the device. Processing the claims has been an around-the-clock job at the bankruptcy court since Robins sponsored a $5 million advertising campaign to publicize the deadline. The concern had paid $378 million to settle 9,200 claims before seeking reorganization under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy law last August.
Thunderstorms riding a wave of cold air rumbled across the Midwest, bombarding Nebraska with baseball-size hail and forcing the evacuation of more than 100 people from a flooded mobile home park in Iowa. Showers and thunderstorms stretched from the southern Great Lakes into Nebraska. Showers also dotted the upper Great Lakes and the rest of the Plains. In Iowa, 4 ½ inches of rain fell at Adel, while 3 ½ inches of rain drenched Des Moines.
Ashrita Furman performs 8,341 somersaults over 12 miles.
Bill Elliott sets all-time NASCAR qualifying record, winning pole for the Winston 500 at Talladega Superspeedway; 212.809 mph (342.483 km/h; 44.998 seconds).
Major League Baseball:
The New York Mets won another game tonight, almost routinely beating the Atlanta Braves, 8–1. They had the necessary elements in proper order: Dwight Gooden pitched typically well, Darryl Strawberry had a career-high five hits and drove in three runs, the offense rapped the sagging Braves for 13 hits. And the streak continues. Now, it is 11 consecutive victories, matching the club record set in 1969 and tied in 1972. The Mets finished April with a 13–3 record, the best start in their history. Perhaps the time for comparisons is here. The 1984 Detroit Tigers, who began their season 35–5, were 18–2 in April and 15–1 in their first 16 games. They led from opening day and coasted to the American League East title.
The Mariners strike out 16 more times today in a 9–4 loss to the Red Sox, setting a Major League record of 36 strikeouts in 2 consecutive games. “You know things are going bad for them when I come in and strike out two batters in a row to end the game,” said Bob Stanley, the Boston relief ace. Stanley, noted more as a sinkerball pitcher than a strikeout artist, was only half-kidding after the Seattle Mariners lost to the Red Sox tonight.
Ron Kittle’s two-run homer capped a six-run third inning for Chicago, as the White Sox downed the Orioles, 8–6. Harold Baines added a two-run double in the inning off Storm Davis (1–1), while Bobby Bonilla drove in two runs with a single in the third and a triple in the fifth. Richard Dotson (1–2) pitched the first five innings, giving up five runs, to earn his first victory since June 2, 1985. Bill Dawley relieved Dotson and Bob James worked the ninth for his fourth save. Eddie Murray had hit a three-run homer in the top of the third to give Baltimore a 4–0 lead.
The Expos shut out the Reds, 8–0. Jay Tibbs beat his former teammates on four hits, and Tim Raines, Hubie Brooks and Tim Wallach led a 13-hit Montreal attack. Raines had three singles and a double, Brooks drove in four runs and Wallach added his fourth homer as the Expos handed Tom Browning, a 20-game winner as a rookie last season, his third loss in three decisions. Tibbs, making his first start against the Reds, allowed four singles and struck out eight as Cincinnati was shut out for the third time in its last four games. It was the second shutout and second complete game for Tibbs (3–0).
Willie Wilson’s one-out single through a drawn-in infield highlighted a five-run ninth inning tonight that led the Kansas City Royals to a 7–3 victory over the Detroit Tigers. The Royals entered the ninth trailing by 3–2, but Dan Petry walked the leadoff batter, Darryl Motley. Petry was relieved by Willie Hernandez (1–1), and Lynn Jones, batting for Jamie Quirk, sacrificed Motley to second. Angel Salazar followed with a double to right to score Motley and tie the score. Jim Sundberg, batting for Rudy Law, singled to short left field to put runners at first and third, and Wilson grounded a single to left to score Salazar. George Brett then singled to right to score Sundberg and knock out Hernandez. Frank White was intentionally walked by Chuck Cary to load the bases and George Orta lined a two-run single to right for a 7–3 Royals advantage. White was thrown out trying to reach third on Orta’s hit for the second out. Randy O’Neal then replaced Cary and got Steve Balboni on a groundout to end the inning. Charlie Leibrandt worked eight innings, striking out three and walking none to raise his record to 4–0. Dan Quisenberry worked the ninth. Darrell Evans cracked a bases-empty home run leading off the eighth to give the Tigers a 3–2 lead.
Mike Marshall, Franklin Stubbs and Steve Sax each hit home runs and Bob Welch scattered six hits for Los Angeles, as the Dodgers blanked the Cubs, 4–0. Welch (3–1) was hit on the left instep by a ground ball off the bat of Chicago’s Bob Dernier in the sixth inning, but remained in to complete his second shutout of the season.
The Brewers beat the A’s, 5–1. Teddy Higuera scattered five hits and Mike Felder drove in three runs with a single and a triple for Milwaukee. Higuera raised his record to 3–1 with his second straight complete game. Jose Rijo (1–2) was the loser despite allowing only four hits in seven innings. The Brewers broke the game open with a three-run seventh. Billy Jo Robidoux walked and was sacrificed to second by Ben Oglivie. After Jim Gantner’s intentional walk, Felder tripled into the gap in right center to make the score 4–1. Felder scored on Charlie Moore’s one-out bouncer.
The Yankees needed something to make everyone forget Kirby Puckett’s prodigious clout into the memorial park section of Yankee Stadium last night, and Don Mattingly gave it to them. He hit his first home run of the season, a three-run blow that gave the Yankees a 3–2 victory over the Minnesota Twins. Mattingly, though, was not alone in helping the Yankees establish a team record with 14 victories in April. Brian Fisher, whom George Steinbrenner castigated for his role in the team’s loss last Sunday to Cleveland, rebounded with a strong three-inning relief effort that secured Joe Niekro’s third victory against no defeats.
Glenn Davis hit his fourth home run of the season tonight to give the Houston Astros a 1–0 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies. Davis hit a 1–1 pitch from Kevin Gross (1–3) over the left-field fence with one out in the fourth inning to give Mike Scott (3–2) the victory. Scott gave up six hits in six and one-third innings and struck out seven, but he needed relief from Frank DiPino, Charles Kerfeld and Dave Smith, who gained his seventh save.
The Padres blanked the Cardinals, 5–0. Mark Thurmond pitched six and one-third perfect innings and finished with a one-hitter to lead San Diego. Thurmond (2–1) retired the first 19 batters he faced before Willie McGee hit a blooper behind second base with one out in the seventh inning. The ball fell beyond the outstretched glove of shortstop Garry Templeton and in front of Kevin McReynolds, who was charging from center field. Rick Horton (0–3) was the loser.
Chris Brown, who tied the game with a sacrifice fly in the ninth inning, singled with the bases loaded and two outs in the 12th for the Giants to beat the Pirates, 6–5. Rob Thompson led off the 12th with a single against Bob Patterson (0–2) and took second on a bunt single by Joel Youngblood. After Bob Brenly sacrificed, Dan Gladden was walked intentionally, loading the bases. Will Clark struck out before Brown singled to left-center. Scott Garrelts, who was the Giants’ top reliever last year before being switched to a starting role this season, came out of the bullpen and pitched one inning for the victory, his third against two defeats. The Giants tied the game at 5–5 in the ninth when Gladden drew a one-out walk from Bob Walk. Clark followed with a single to right, sending Gladden to third and bringing on Jim Winn to pitch. Brown’s sacrifice fly tied the score. Juan Berenguer, making his National League debut, was touched for Sid Bream’s leadoff homer in the second to give Pittsburgh a 1–1 tie. It was Bream’s fourth home run of the season.
The Indians defeated the host Texas Rangers, 6–4. Pat Tabler hit a two-run homer and Julio Franco added a two-run double for Cleveland, which won its fourth straight game. Don Schulze (2–0) got the victory in relief. The Rangers got 12 hits — but left 11 men on base.
Jesse Barfield hit a three-run homer in the eighth to pace the Blue Jays to a 6–4 win over the visiting Angels. With one out, Willie Upshaw got his third hit of the game, an infield single to shortstop. Donnie Moore (1–1) relieved Terry Forster and allowed a single to George Bell. Barfield, who had hit only one homer in his previous 74 times at bat this season, hit his second of the year over the right-field fence. The homer made a winner of Doyle Alexander (3–1), who went the distance for the second time this year. He struck out five and walked one while allowing eight hits. Rick Burleson’s home run had given the Angels a 4–3 lead in the seventh. Burleson’s bases-empty shot in the seventh inning — his first since September 9, 1981 — came on a 3–2 pitch from Alexander.
New York Mets 8, Atlanta Braves 1
Seattle Mariners 4, Boston Red Sox 9
Baltimore Orioles 6, Chicago White Sox 8
Montreal Expos 8, Cincinnati Reds 0
Kansas City Royals 7, Detroit Tigers 3
Chicago Cubs 0, Los Angeles Dodgers 4
Oakland Athletics 1, Milwaukee Brewers 5
Minnesota Twins 2, New York Yankees 3
Houston Astros 1, Philadelphia Phillies 0
St. Louis Cardinals 0, San Diego Padres 5
Pittsburgh Pirates 5, San Francisco Giants 6
Cleveland Indians 6, Texas Rangers 4
California Angels 4, Toronto Blue Jays 6
The stock market suffered its worst single-day point loss ever yesterday as mounting concern over the Soviet nuclear accident gave investors an excuse to cash in some profits from the market’s strong advance of recent months. The Dow Jones industrial average of 30 blue-chip stocks fell 41.91 points, to 1,783.98, losing 2.3 percent of its value. The previous record point decline was 39.10 on January 8. The Dow, after losing 17.86 points on Tuesday, dropped almost steadily throughout yesterday’s session. Utility stocks were among the hardest hit as investors feared that the Soviet disaster might hurt the American nuclear power industry. But stock price declines swept through virtually every sector of the market. Losing issues outnumbered those gaining in price by nearly a 4-to-1 margin.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1783.98 (-41.91)
Born:
Jason Smith, NFL tackle (St. Louis Rams, New York Jets), in Dallas, Texas.
Tim Kennedy, NHL left wing (Buffalo Sabres, Florida Panthers, San Jose Sharks, Phoenix Coyotes), in Buffalo, New York.
Dianna Agron, American Actress (‘Quinn Fabray’ — “Glee”), in Savannah, Georgia.
History Diaries 