For the eighth time since Soviet forces invaded Afghanistan in December, 1979, the U.N. General Assembly has demanded an “immediate withdrawal of foreign troops” from that country. The resolution, approved on a 122–20 vote, also calls for continued humanitarian assistance for the 4 million Afghans who have taken refuge in Pakistan and the estimated 1 million in Iran. A Soviet Foreign Ministry spokesman in New York said his government is ready to settle the conflict and that 8,000 Soviet troops have been pulled out as a sign of good will. However, an estimated 115,000 Soviet troops remain to battle Afghan guerrillas.
The United States and the Soviet Union worked until late tonight in Vienna to see what arms control and other agreements they could salvage from last month’s summit meeting between President Reagan and Mikhail S. Gorbachev. It was the first high-level talks between the United States and the Soviet Union since the meeting in Iceland ended abruptly after coming close to a sweeping package of agreements. Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze met for three hours this afternoon at the American Embassy here. Their mood seemed convivial, even though earlier today they attacked each other’s policies on human rights and arms control in speeches to an East-West conference here. But this afternoon, while posing for pictures, Mr. Shevardnadze asked Mr. Shultz if he had spoken yet to the conference, indicating he was not yet aware of Mr. Shultz’s criticism.
There was a marked contrast in the teams of American and Soviet arms experts as Secretary of State George P. Shultz and the Soviet Foreign Minister, Eduard A. Shevardnadze, met here today. The American side included all of the principal arms-control officials in the Reagan Administration. And these officials were, in turn, supported by many lower-ranking arms-control experts By contrast, the only senior Soviet arms-control official who was known to be here was Victor P. Karpov, the chief Soviet negotiator in Geneva.
The Soviet Union is pressing ahead with a vigorous military modernization program while the U.S. defense buildup is flagging, the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies said. In its annual survey, “The Military Balance 1986-87,” the institute says the failure by the superpowers to agree on arms reductions at the Reykjavik summit gave new importance to their current military programs. The institute said that while the Soviets are maintaining their military procurement and research efforts, U.S. military programs are facing the need for deep budget cuts.
Despite the well-publicized releases of several Soviet dissidents in recent months, the Soviet Government remains one of the world’s worst violators of human rights, according to a 1986 report by the U.S. Helsinki Watch Committee. The committee, a private group that monitors compliance with the 1975 Helsinki Accords, said the Soviet Union and eight other countries that signed the accords nonetheless continued systematically to violate them. The eight others who were singled out were Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Rumania, Turkey and Yugoslavia.
The Soviet Union, in a bold effort to defuse criticism of its rights policies, proposed today that an international conference on human rights be convened in Moscow. Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze, in making the proposal in a speech at an East-West conference here, said the parley should consider human contacts, cultural and educational issues, and information policies. In the speech, Mr. Shevardnadze was critical of American accounts of the Iceland summit meeting last month, saying that the United States was deliberately ignoring Soviet concessions on arms control. But Mr. Shevardnadze, who later met with Secretary of State George P. Shultz, added that the understandings reached in Iceland were a solid basis for further progress.
Inessa Flerov arrived in Tel Aviv today after an eight-month struggle with the Soviet Government for the right to emigrate. She wants to give her bone marrow to a leukemia-stricken brother, Michael Shirman, who lives in Israel.
The French government has approved a $71-billion military spending plan that will finance a major effort to modernize the country’s nuclear arsenal over the next five years. Defense Minister Andre Giraud said the plan calls for a costly rearmament of conventional forces, including its first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and an airborne early warning system. Priority will be given to the French nuclear strike force, led by a fleet of six nuclear missile submarines, which will be refitted with the new M-4 missile, he added.
The British Broadcasting Corporation rejected Conservative Party charges today that its news coverage was biased, and said it would “resist undue influence from any political party.” In a rebuttal signed by Marmaduke Hussey, the BBC’s new chairman, the network defended its coverage of the American bombing raid on Libya in April as a “fair, accurate and thoroughly professional approach.” Conservatives have said the BBC’s coverage of the bombing was biased against the Conservative Government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Mrs. Thatcher permitted United States planes to fly from British bases for the raid. In its response, the BBC said, “We vigorously reject the suggestion that either consciously or by accident, the BBC correspondents, editors and scriptwriters fail to meet the high standards of impartiality which we guard so jealously.” Mr. Hussey’s role in the reply was considered significant, because some critics of his appointment said he was chosen by Mrs. Thatcher to be a more critical, day-to-day manager of BBC policy.
Israel signed an agreement with the United States today paving the way for Israel’s participation in research on the Strategic Defense Initiative, an Israeli Defense Ministry spokesman said. Israel is the first non-North Atlantic Treaty Organization country to take part in the project, popularly known as “Star Wars.” The agreement provides for Israel to undertake research on tactical ballistic missile defense systems, the spokesman said. According to officials familiar with the agreement, the value of research funding is estimated at $5.1 million. The contract today, signed by David Ivri, director general of the Israeli Defense Ministry, and Gordon Smith, deputy director of the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization, is based on a memorandum of understanding reached in May between Israel and the United States.
Complaining about the speculation surrounding his efforts to free American hostages in Lebanon, the Anglican envoy Terry Waite announced today that he had ruled out an immediate return to Beirut. Mr. Waite said the delay had been forced upon him by rumors and political infighting in the Middle East about the reported reasons for the release on Sunday of an American captive At a news conference here Tuesday, Mr. Waite said he expected to hear from his Middle East contacts on whether to return to Beirut “in the next 24 hours.” He also said that there were “reasonably strong” expectations, on the basis of these contacts, that the release of two more Americans held in Beirut might be imminent.
The war with Iraq and a desperate economic situation have intensified the internal turmoil in Iran, prompting Iranian leaders to rethink some aspects of foreign policy, according to diplomats and experts on Iran. In addition, these experts say that some Iranian leaders may be questioning the wisdom of giving unlimited support to radical Islamic groups abroad, and that a campaign has been stepped up to discredit Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri, the designated successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Iranian spiritual leader. Mr. Montazeri is a passionate promoter of exporting revolution. “Because of very low reserves in hard currency and gold, the regime is in a tight economic bind,” said Shahrough Akhavi, professor of government at the University of South Carolina. “Iran needs arms; it needs to sell its oil, and for these reasons it may be trying to project a better image abroad.”
The Reagan Administration said today that it was pursuing the release of the remaining American hostages in Lebanon through many channels. A senior Administration official confirmed that the United States was working with other countries to try to free the hostages and refused to rule out that Iran might be one of them. Donald T. Regan, the White House chief of staff, said that the United States was “using many different channels” to gain the hostages’ release, but that it would not give in to outrageous demands. “Negotiation means many things to many people,” he told Cable News Network. “Are we giving into demands? No. But are we willing to talk and discuss and things of that nature? Yes.”
Sri Lankan security forces today killed five Tamil guerrillas, including a leader, and rebels killed two civilians who refused to give them food in eastern Sri Lanka, the Government said. It said Chitravel Sittampalam, a long-sought leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, and another guerrilla were killed in eastern Muttur district. The Government report also said troops shot three guerrillas who tried to rob villagers at Kirimichchiya, inhabited mainly by majority Sinhalese. In a separate incident, about 30 guerrillas surrounded the house of two prominent citizens of Thiriyaya village and shot them dead when they refused to hand over food supplies brought for the villagers, a Government statement said. The guerrillas are fighting to set up an independent homeland for minority Tamils in northern and eastern areas.
As brass bands played, three United States Navy warships, each flying China’s flag, tied up here today and became the first American vessels to visit China since the Communists took power. A gray early-morning haze shrouded the harbor as guns from the arriving American ships fired a 21-gun salute in honor of the Chinese Navy. Then, nudged gently by large white tugboats, the guided-missile frigate Rentz loomed through the mist with sailors in blue pea jackets and white caps standing at attention along her entire length. Three elderly Chinese ships, a destroyer, a frigate and a submarine, were moored nearby with dozens of colorful signal flags flapping from their rigging. Chinese sailors stood at attention on deck while a United States Navy band aboard the guided-missile cruiser Reeves struck up “Happy Days Are Here Again.”
Kim Dae Jung, the South Korean opposition leader, said today that he would renounce his plans to run for President in 1988 if the Government heeded the opposition’s call for direct elections. “I want to make some breakthrough in a positive direction,” Mr. Kim said. “I see a dangerous situation in the near future. Since 1980, this Government has been afraid of my becoming President. I must do something, even at the sacrifice of my personal hopes, to protect our democracy.”
President Corazon C. Aquino today set May 11, 1987 as the date for elections that are to create a new national legislature that she called an essential part of her Government’s normalization. Mrs. Aquino, in a televised interview, said elections for local office would be held soon afterward, to replace “officers in charge” appointed by her Government. The two ballots would follow a nationwide vote set for Feb. 2 on a proposed new constitution that would put the Aquino Government on a firm legal basis. “I believe we should heed as soon as possible the clamor of our people to elect the legislators as well as the local officials of their choice,” she said.
South Pacific nations, objecting to the continued colonial presence of France in the region, have begun seeking international support for their campaign to end French rule in New Caledonia. In August, the 13 nations of the South Pacific Forum, which inlcudes Australia and New Zealand, decided to refer the issue to the United Nations decolonization committee. In September, the Nonaligned Movement was asked to give observer status to a New Caledonian independence organization. Both moves are intended primarily to draw world attention, diplomats say.
A Nicaraguan People’s Tribunal is considering a prosecution request for more time to present evidence against captured American flier Eugene Hasenfus, charged with terrorism and gun-running for U.S.-backed contras. The prosecution said it asked for the four-day extension so that investigators can further inspect the area where Hasenfus’ C-123 cargo plane crashed October 5 after being shot down by Nicaraguan troops. Meanwhile, at a news conference, former U.S. Attorney General Griffin Bell said that Sally Hasenfus, the flier’s wife, has submitted a written plea for compassion to the court.
Griffin Bell, a legal adviser to the family of Eugene Hasenfus, the captured air freight handler, hinted today that the Rev. Joseph Lowery of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference might be able to play a role in gaining Mr. Hasenfus’s release. Mr. Lowery is here to observe the Hasenfus trial at the invitation of the Nicaraguan Government. In an interview today, he said he planned to meet with “all the principals in the case,” including Minister of Justice Rodrigo Reyes, who is the chief prosecutor.
Officials of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies have turned over to Venezuelan authorities in Miami the names of three suspected Nazi war criminals believed to be living in the South American country. Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Los Angeles-based center, said one was a member of a Lithuanian murder squad, another is also accused of involvement in the murder of Jews in Lithuania and the third worked for an anti-Semitic newspaper in Latvia. The center has promised to identify within the next six months up to 5,000 suspected Nazi war criminals.
Argentine President Raul Alfonsin will reschedule a trip to the United States because of the latest dispute with Britain over the Falkland Islands, a government source said. Alfonsin originally planned a lecture tour of the United States beginning November 16, with a possible stop in Washington, causing speculation that he would meet with President Reagan. But Reagan is scheduled to meet with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in Washington on November 15. Last week Britain claimed a 200-mile fishing zone around the Falkland Islands, setting off diplomatic protests from Argentina.
Jean-Bedel Bokassa, the former self-proclaimed emperor of the Central African Republic who returned home unexpectedly last month, will go on trial November 26 on a wide range of charges, the Government said today. Mr. Bokassa, who was ousted in a coup in 1979, was sentenced to death in absentia in 1980 for crimes ranging from killing children and concealing corpses to embezzling public money and goods. An official announcement said the trial was expected to last one month. Mr. Bokassa ended his exile in France apparently convinced he would be welcomed back by his countrymen.
The South African authorities announced the closing today of an additional 40 black schools in the restive Eastern Cape and said they would not be reopened until students proved they were ready to return to classes. The condition for reopening the schools, which have been hit by classroom boycotts, seemed to represent a toughening of official attitudes toward the unrest in some of the nation’s black high schools. The authorities had previously closed 31 black schools in the Eastern Cape and 10 in Soweto, Johannesburg’s sprawling black satellite. At the time of those closings, the authorities said the schools would reopen on Jan. 1. But officials indicated today that the deadline might slip if students failed to give firm commitments that they would return to their classes.
Democrats rejoiced at taking control of the Senate by a 55-45 margin as a result of Tuesday’s elections. The Democrats declared yesterday that their triumph in the elections Tuesday marked the end of an era of Republican ascendancy, but they confronted the most popular President in recent American history without a clearly defined mandate for a new political agenda. The Democrats’ victory in the Senate and their renewed majority in the House gave the party control over the nation’s legislative machinery in the final two years of Ronald Reagan’s Presidency. The results of the election also substantially altered the shape of American politics leading into the 1988 elections, when both parties will seek new Presidential nominees. With an edge of 55 seats to 45 in the Senate, including sweeping gains in the South and a strong showing in usually Republican Western states, Democrats argued that the elections marked the end of Mr. Reagan’s control over the national political debate and the limits of his hopes for creating a new and lasting Republican majority. “We can say it all in four words: The Democrats are back,” said Paul G. Kirk Jr., the Democratic national chairman, recalling Mr. Reagan’s successful slogan in the 1984 elections.
President Reagan pledged today to “complete the revolution that we have so well begun” and said that his domestic and foreign policy agenda remained unchanged despite the Republicans’ loss of control of the Senate. Mr. Reagan’s comments, to staff members and aides at the Old Executive Office Building, came as some White House and Administration officials conceded privately that Mr. Reagan’s programs in the final two years of his Presidency faced serious difficulties. In areas ranging from judiciary appointments to the President’s space-based missile defense system, from aid to Nicaraguan rebels to budgetary priorities, officials said that a Democratic-controlled Senate and House made control of the national agenda far more slippery for Mr. Reagan. “There’s no question that the election will make it far more difficult for the White House to be in charge of the agenda,” said Edward J. Rollins, a Republican strategist and former White House political director. “With a new Democratic leadership in the House and a new Democratic majority in the Senate, the Democrats can now set their own agenda. The White House is going to have a very difficult row to hoe.”
By recapturing control of the Senate, the Democrats have a new and more visible platform from which to advance party ideas and personalities in the final two years of Ronald Reagan’s Presidency and in the campaign to replace him. There was speculation that the Democrats’ victory in the elections Tuesday might lead to legislative gridlock with the White House or to a form of coalition government in which they would be forced to share power with the Republicans. But, starting today, a rejuvenated Democratic Party takes center stage on Capitol Hill and starts playing out a drama of power and ambition within its own ranks. New committee chairmen will be in a position to set the legislative agenda on a wide range of issues, from trade with Asia to support for the Nicaraguan rebels. Even more important, the Democrats will be able to modify many initiatives from the White House, particularly Mr. Reagan’s drive to fill the Federal judiciary with conservative nominees.
Democratic victories in Tuesday’s elections assure that Congress will try to enact a major new trade law restricting imports of foreign goods, leading members of both parties said today. But they added that they doubted the legislation would be as harsh as the oratory of the campaign implied. And it appeared that President Reagan, who just barely blocked Congress’s attempts to enact trade restraints this year, will try to work with the legislators next year to produce a trade law. “This Administration is not about to embrace a protectionist modus operandi,” said Clayton K. Yeutter, the United States’ special trade representative. “At the same time, we recognize there will be additional members of Congress who will wish for legislation in this area, and we’ll have to attempt to reach a reasonable accommodation with them.”
The nation rebuffed President Reagan on Tuesday, turning its back on his vision of a political revolution, because he was unable to convince a majority of voters that the Democratic Party would wreck the economy and prove too pliant on questions of national security. Those were the themes that the President sounded again and again as he visited 22 states in an attempt to assure continuing Republican control of the Senate and perhaps to gain a few seats in the House of Representatives for his party. But the final results of a poll of thousands of voters just after they cast their ballots, carried out by The New York Times and CBS News, showed that he failed to put his case across and, indeed, that the Democrats were able to recover much of the tactical ground they lost in recent years. There was agreement in both parties, and among adherents of both right and left, that the Democrats had opened new opportunities for themselves in the 1988 Presidential campaign. Now, said Peter Hart, the Democratic poll taker, the question is whether “the party can find some good new tunes to sing.”
California Governor George Deukmejian won a landslide victory over Tom Bradley, the Mayor of Los Angeles. Senator Alan Cranston won a fourth term by narrowly defeating Representative Ed Zschau, a Republican.
In large numbers, New York State voters on Tuesday rejected party-line voting at the top of the ticket, taking their cue from the candidates who had detached themselves from their political parties during the campaign. Moving back and forth across the ballot, the voters elected two Democrats, Governor Cuomo and Attorney General Robert Abrams, and two Republicans, Senator Alfonse M. D’Amato and State Comptroller Edward V. Regan. What made their performance even more extraordinary, politicians agreed yesterday, was that the voter turnarounds were drastic, contributing to landslide victories for all four candidates.
Mario Cuomo alienated Democrats in his landslide victory. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan said that Governor Cuomo had failed to provide enough help to other New York Democratic candidates.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration today announced a new management structure designed to strengthen the space shuttle program and to eliminate the flaws discovered after the Challenger disaster. Rear Admiral Richard H. Truly, associate administrator for space flight, said the changes were designed to provide “very clean program lines of communication and authority” so that “everybody knows precisely who they work for and who works for them.” The key element in the reorganization is a new position at NASA headquarters in Washington, director of the national space transportation system, which will focus solely on the shuttle program, with full responsibility for budgets, schedules and balancing various shuttle programs. The position will first be held by Arnold D. Aldrich, who will be promoted from his current position as manager of the shuttle program at the second administrative level, just below the headquarters level. Mr. Aldrich, who has been based in Houston, was one of the few high shuttle officials to escape condemnation in the numerous investigations that followed the Challenger explosion, which killed seven astronauts January 28. He will head a small staff that will be based in Washington.
President Reagan addresses the White House staff who were involved with the campaign on election results.
President Reagan speaks with former President Richard M. Nixon.
President Reagan on Thursday will sign a comprehensive immigration bill that prohibits the hiring of illegal aliens and offers legal status to many such aliens already here, the White House said today. The chief sponsor of the bill, Senator Alan K. Simpson, Republican of Wyoming, said last month that the President was willing to sign the measure. But the White House did not confirm the President’s plans until today. Various forms of the bill have been under consideration in Congress since 1981. The final version was approved last month in the House of Representatives, by a vote of 238 to 173, and in the Senate, 63 to 24. The bill would offer legal status to aliens who could show that they entered the United States before Jan. 1, 1982, and have resided here continuously “in an unlawful status” since that date. Employers hiring illegal aliens would be subject to civil penalties ranging from $250 to $10,000 for each illegal alien.
Mexicans emigrating illegally to the U.S. say the new immigration law will lead to more discrimination and exploitation of illegal workers. As Mexican citizens gathered in Tijuana recently, hovering at the edge of the area where they hope at twilight to make an illegal crossing into the United States for jobs, the talk has increasingly focused on the new immigration law in the United States. Many of these people — the Mexicans call them “indocumentados,” or “the undocumented” — have a rudimentary knowledge of the new law, although their understanding is often faulty because it is based on rumor, something heard on Mexican television or an article in a Mexican newspaper. But views expressed at the crossing area, although lacking in sophistication, are virtually the same as those of Mexican academics and politicians who have spoken out against the landmark immigration legislation. Both groups doubt the law will do much to slow the flow of Mexicans across the border. Rather there is fear that it will lead to more discrimination and to exploitation of illegal workers once they are on the other side.
A White House official who dealt with a Bronx company’s successful bid for a military contract later became the contractor’s chief Washington representative, company officials said yesterday. The role of the official, James E. Jenkins, drew attention when it became known that Lyn Nofziger, a former top political aide to President Reagan, had written Mr. Jenkins on behalf of the contractor, now the Wedtech Corporation, in 1982, shortly after Mr. Nofziger left the President’s service. Yesterday, the Justice Department said it had begun a review to determine whether a law requiring appointment of a special prosecutor in certain ethics cases applied to Mr. Nofziger. Federal officials are restricted from making contacts with the Government for private clients after leaving office.
Pope John Paul II will visit eight Southern and Western cities in the United States next year, celebrating a series of outdoor masses like the ones that drew millions of Americans on his 1979 trip to Eastern and Middle Western cities, the nation’s bishops announced today. The cities he will visit in September 1987, announced officially for the first time, are Miami; Columbia, South Carolina; New Orleans; San Antonio, Texas,; Phoenix, Arizona; Los Angeles; Monterey, California, and San Francisco. Besides the open-air Roman Catholic masses and meetings with Catholic groups, he is also to meet with Jewish leaders in Miami and take part in a prayer service with representatives of various faiths at a stadium in Columbia, South Carolina, according to the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The Tax Reform Act of 1986 contains many changes that will have a fundamental impact on small businesses, from the “mom-and-pop” grocery store to the schoolteacher who designs dresses at home at night. For many businesses, the new law is very much a mixed bag. Many small businesses that are incorporated, for example, will discover inducements to change their legal form. And people with sideline businesses will be encouraged to show a profit to protect their future deductions. Self-employed individuals get a new deduction for part of the cost of their health insurance premiums. And the new law doubles the amount of business equipment that can be written off immediately rather than depreciated over a period of years.
In one of its largest enforcement actions, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will seek $910,000 in fines against the Chrysler Corporation for what the agency says was the company’s “willful” failure to keep accurate records about employee injuries at its assembly plant in Belvidere, Ill. The agency said today that it ahd found 182 instances of work-related injuries that had not been recorded in company records, as required by Federal regulations. Many of the injuries were of a “serious nature requiring medical care and in some cases surgery, the agency said. The agency said that In at least 17 instances Chrysler crossed off recorded injuries after listing them in its records.
Some $1.5 billion in construction will be started before the end of the decade at the Texas Medical Center in Houston despite the city’s economic slump resulting from the sharp drop in oil prices.
Nearly half of Americans said religion was gaining in impact on American life, according to a Gallup Poll. Forty-eight percent said religion was increasing its influence, while 39% said it was decreasing in impact and 6% said it stayed the same. The proportion saying that religion’s influence was increasing was three times that recorded in 1969, when 14% said religion was increasing its influence and 70% said it was losing impact. The survey also showed that 57% hold the belief that religion can answer all or most of today’s problems, down from 61% last year, while 23% disagreed.
The Environmental Protection Agency expressed alarm today over a new assessment of the dangers posed by lead in drinking water and said it was considering rules to reduce by more than half the amount officially tolerated as safe. The rules are now under consideration by the agency on the basis of requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act. They have not yet been formally proposed. The agency, which says the health of millions of Americans is now at risk, expects to make the proposals next year, officials said. The government could curb IQ losses in thousands of children and reduce adult risks of hypertension and pregnancy problems by limiting the allowable lead content in drinking water, a study said. The research by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Policy Planning and Evaluation was designed to analyze likely benefits of a proposal to limit lead levels in community drinking water systems to 20 micrograms per liter. The current limit is 50 micrograms per liter. An estimated 40 million Americans use drinking water that contains more than 20 micrograms per liter of lead.
A Virginia man linked to an alleged $1-million credit card fraud to finance the presidential bid of political extremist Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr. was arrested in Boston as he arrived from Paris. Paul Neil Goldstein, of Leesburg, was taken into custody at Logan International Airport on a charge of obstruction of justice. Goldstein was one of 10 individuals and five LaRouche fund-raising organizations named in a 117-count federal indictment handed down October 6. Goldstein entered a plea of not guilty at his arraignment before U.S. Magistrate Robert Collings.
A federal judge in New Orleans sentenced 13 defendants in a thwarted plot to overthrow the military government of Suriname. U.S. District Judge Lansing Mitchell handed down the heaviest penalty, a 2-year prison term, to Tommy Lynn Denley of Grenada, Mississippi, the organizer of the scheme. He and two others pleaded guilty to violating the federal Neutrality Act and another pleaded no contest. The others pleaded guilty to misdemeanor weapons charges.
Protesters demanding more black teachers in city schools in Hattiesburg, Mississippi ended a six-day sit-in at school district offices today after the school board in a special meeting agreed to develop a minority hiring program. The board in a seven-hour meeting also agreed to suspend fees for day-care services, increase business with minority contractors and encourage more blacks to participate in extracurricular activities.
The head of Massachusetts’s personnel office has declined to approve the appointment of 54 new police officers in Boston, saying that he believes the list of candidates has been changed for political reasons. The 54 graduates of the police academy joined the force October 18, but some of their appointments may be invalidated, the head of the state Department of Personnel Administration, David Haley, told The Boston Herald. Mr. Haley would not say how many appointments might be invalidated but he did say that as many as 20 people certified as eligible for appointment were illegally passed over. Peter Welsh, the chief of administration for the police department, said Mr. Haley’s assertion was irresponsible.
The Scott County (Minnesota) attorney, Kathleen Morris, who charged 26 adults in 1983 and 1984 with sexually abusing more than 40 children before dropping charges against most of them, was defeated by a political newcomer Tuesday in her attempt for a third term. Her opponent, James Terwedo, a 28-year-old lawyer who has been practicing law for a year, received 10,685, or 64 percent, of the vote in Scott County, to 5,978, or 36 percent, for Ms. Morris, according to complete unofficial returns.
A woman escaped from a Federal prison today when a man believed to be a fugitive who escaped from the same facility October 28 swooped into one of the prison’s yards in a hijacked helicopter and flew her away, the authorities said. The escape occurred about 11:48 AM at the Federal Correctional Institution at Pleasanton, California, a low-security prison that houses men and women.
Bones thinned by osteoporosis regained some thickness with a new treatment that shows promise for millions of Americans suffering from the disease, a researcher said. “I wouldn’t want anyone to think we’ve come up with a cure for osteoporosis,” said Dr. Robert Neer, who headed two preliminary studies at Massachusetts General Hospital. “The results are encouraging, but they are also preliminary.” The new treatment involves daily injections of a synthetic form of the parathyroid hormone, which regulates the body’s use of calcium.
The president of Beech-Nut Nutrition Corp. and five others were indicted on charges they sold flavored sugar water labeled as apple juice for babies from 1978 to 1983. The company in a statement denied the charges and said its suppliers had provided phony juice concentrate. The indictment handed down by a Brooklyn, New York, federal grand jury said the company shipped adulterated and misbranded juice to 20 states, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and five foreign countries. Among those charged was Neils L. Hoyvald, president and chief executive officer of Beech-Nut.
A group of well-educated and affluent young men, whose parents are among the most prominent in Los Angeles, are expected to tell a jury in the coming weeks that the activities of a cult-like business and social club led to murder. The young men are to testify at the trial of the club’s leader, Joe Hunt, who, along with three others, is accused by Los Angeles County prosecutors of killing two wealthy men for “profit and revenge.” One of the bodies of the reputed victims has not been found. The men, in their early 20’s, are children of privilege, with entree to the wealthiest homes in Beverly Hills and Malibu. They drove sleek cars, attended the exclusive Harvard School in Studio City, and, seeking ways to impress their families, formed the group they called the Billionaire Boys Club.
Stock prices rose modestly yesterday, as investors concluded that the gains made by the Democratic Party in the Congressional elections would not have a major impact. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 6.60 points, to 1,899.04, putting it within easy striking distance of its record close of 1,919.71 on September 4. But the big story was the volume on the New York Stock Exchange, where takeover speculation continued to spur trading. Turnover on the Big Board jumped to 183.2 million shares, its 14th-busiest session, compared with Tuesday’s 163.2 million.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1899.04 (+6.60)
Born:
Ian Mahinmi, French NBA center (NBA Champions-Mavericks, 2011; San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks, Indiana Pacers, Washington Wizards), in Rouen, France.
BoA [Kwon Boa], South Korean singer, in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea.
Died:
(Ulysses) Bobby Nunn, 61, American singer (The Robins; The Coasters — “Charlie Brown”; “Youngblood”), of a heart attack.
