ap_docs.txt

<NEW DOCUMENT>
A state weight inspector whose boss says
he tipped the scales at 500 pounds himself and ``kept growing out
of the uniforms'' is appealing his firing by the North Dakota
Highway Patrol.
Melvin Hansen of Wahpeton, who is awaiting a hearing before the
state Personnel Board on Wednesday, was given five reasons in
writing for being fired, including his weight, his lawyer, Hal
Stutsman, said Friday.
Hansen was dismissed July 31 from his job in a scale house where
he weighed trucks and inspected cargo.
``To say we terminated the guy because he was overweight is
basically unfair,'' said Brian Berg, superintendent of the Highway
Patrol. ``I feel bad for the guy. We tried to work with him to
improve his situation. He left us no alternative, in our opinion.''
Berg said Hansen's ``weight probably contributed to other
things. ... Personal health habits would be a polite way of saying
it.''
Highway Patrol policy requires employees to maintain
``appropriate health levels, weight levels and physical fitness
levels'' as determined by the department's doctor, personnel
officer Richard Anagnost said.
Anagnost said Hansen was informed that reasons for his firing
included his failure to follow the doctor's recommendations about
weight loss, his appearance and grooming and his inability to wear
a uniform while on duty.
Hansen weighed 325 in 1983 and 500 pounds when he was fired,
Berg said. ``He kept growing out of the uniforms. We refused to
keep altering them.''
Stutsman refused to discuss details of the appeal, and Hansen
referred all questions to his lawyer when contacted Friday.
Stutsman called Hansen a ``fairly good-sized man, that's for
sure,'' but he said his client's weight is disputed, in part
because ``they have never really had an adequate scale to weigh him
on.''
Hansen, in his 40s, had worked for the Highway Patrol since 1977
in the agency's truck regulatory division, Stutsman said. His exact
age was unavailable.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Fighting an image that Alaska is cold and
forsaken all year, the state tourism division is running new TV ads
that get a little good-natured revenge by poking fun at its
big-state rival, Texas.
Four years ago, former Texas Gov. Mark White said he didn't
believe anyone would want to visit Alaska, which he called a frozen
wasteland, said state tourism marketing director Mary Klugherz.
``We basically took that page from history'' in making the
series of six commercials, Klugherz said.
In the commercials, a governor visits Alaska to see for himself
why people come here. The governor's state is not identified, ``but
you can tell he's from Texas,'' Klugherz said. ``He's sort of an
LBJ look-alike.''
The governor also wears a 10-gallon hat and cowboy boots.
The first commercial shows the governor visiting Alaska and
discovering the summer weather is great. The second ad says the
governor's aides are coming north to look for him because he
apparently has decided he enjoys it in Alaska so much he stayed
longer than expected.
People still believe Alaska endures cold, snow and ice all year,
said Klugherz. ``We're trying to tell travelers the truth,'' she
said.
July temperatures in Anchorage average in the high 50s, with
daytime temperatures often in the 60- to 70-degree range.
In past ad campaigns, tourism officials have pitched the state's
scenery and wildlife, Klugherz said. This year, ``We're basically
hitting the weather head-on,'' she said.
The tourism division is spending $2.3 million to air the
commercials on network stations in 20 cities in the Lower 48. The
ads started running last month and will continue through April,
Klugherz said.
The ads will not run in Texas because it's too expensive to
advertise there, she said.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
The stock market closed out its worst week so
far this year, as prices fell for the second straight session.
The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials dropped 44.92 points
Friday to 1,978.95, finishing the week with a net loss of 108.42.
That marked the average's biggest weekly decline since it
dropped 143.74 points last Nov. 30-Dec. 4.
After tumbling Thursday in foreign exchange, the dollar showed
signs of steadying Friday. Interest rates, which had contributed to
the stock market's woes by rising Thursday morning, dropped back a
bit.
But analysts said investors were still leery of stocks. They
said Thursday's selloff dealt a significant blow to the tenuous
confidence that had been building up in the market's rally since
late last year.
In the absence of any news to explain the market's weakness,
brokers said many traders remained fearful that economic and
inflationary pressures might soon reach a point where they would
prompt the Federal Reserve to begin tightening credit.
Declining issues outnumbered advances by about 3 to 1 in the
daily tally on the New York Stock Exchange, with 385 up, 1,156 down
and 428 unchanged.
Big Board volume came to 163.17 million shares, against 184.91
million in the previous session. The NYSE's composite index lost
2.42 to 146.58.
As measured by Wilshire Associates' index of more than 5,000
actively traded stocks, the market lost $39.81 billion, or 1.52
percent, in value.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
The aging of America's population led to a
national record of 2.1 million deaths last year, but births topped
3.8 million for the highest number in 23 years, the government says.
The National Center for Health Statistics reported Friday that
deaths in 1987 totaled ``2,127,000, about 28,000 more than the
previous year and the largest number ever reported for the United
States.''
Deaths from heart disease, the nation's No. 1 killer, slipped
slightly, but cancer claimed more victims than in the year before,
the study showed.
The nation's overall death rate was about the same as in 1986,
at about 8.7 deaths per 1,000 people. That's because the number of
fatalities increased at about the same rate as the population grew,
the study noted.
The study also found that marriage and divorce rates changed
little, remaining at relatively low levels.
Births, which had dipped somewhat in 1986, climbed 3 percent the
following year to an estimated 3,829,000.
``The 1987 provisional total is the largest number reported
since 1964,'' the study said. The fertility rate was 66.1 live
births per 1,000 women aged 15-44, up from 64.9 in 1986.
The rising number of births that have occurred in recent years
has resulted from the large number of women born during the post
World War II Baby Boom who have now entered their main
child-bearing years.
That has prompted population experts to term the recent rise in
births an echo of the Baby Boom.
They insist it is not, in itself, another Baby Boom, however,
pointing out that birth rates have remained well below those of the
1950s and early 1960s.
Subtracting deaths from births, the study reported a natural
increase in population of 1,702,000 people last year, 3 percent
more than in 1986.
Just slightly over twice as many couples married as were
divorced during the year, the annual report found.
Marriages in 1987 totaled 2,421,000, 1 percent more than the
year before. That represented a marriage rate of 9.9 per 1,000
population. That was the lowest rate since 1977, when it was also
9.9.
Meanwhile, there were 1,157,000 divorces last year, a 1 percent
decline. The divorce rate was 4.8 per 1,000 people, about the same
as the year before and the lowest divorce rate since 1975.
The report also looked at causes of death reported across the
nation, and found a decline in heart disease fatalities, but an
increase in cancer deaths between 1986 and 1987.
Because it takes longer to compile the detailed figures, the
cause-of-death statistics were reported for the 12-month period
ending with November 1987, rather than for the calendar year.
For all causes, the 1987 rate was reported at 873.0 deaths per
100,000 people, down from 873.3 in 1986.
The rate for major cardiovascular diseases slipped from 401.8
per 100,000 in 1986 to 395.7 in 1987, the study said.
But at the same time, the death rate for all types of cancer
increased from 193.7 per 100,000 to 195.9.
Among the other causes of death reported were diabetes, 15.4 per
100,000, up from 15.2; stroke, 61.0, down from 61.6; pneumonia and
influenza, 28.2, down from 28.7; chronic lung disease, 31.7, up
from 31.3; chronic liver disease, 10.7, down from 10.8; accidents,
38.1, down from 38.9, and suicide, 12.1, down from 12.6.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
The Defense Department will try to prop up the
slumping U.S. bearing industry with a requirement that makers of
jets, submarines and other military systems use only American-made
bearings.
The ``Buy-American'' regulation, due to be published Monday in
the Federal Register, would be in place for at least three years,
said Rep. Nancy L. Johnson, R-Conn., who pushed for the rule. She
called it a ``tremendous victory'' for U.S. bearing makers.
The domestic industry has been severely eroded by foreign
competition in recent years. Nearly 65 percent of ball bearings
sold in the United States come from abroad, and 40 percent of the
roller bearing sales are from imports.
The Defense Department is a major buyer of bearings, making up
nearly 19 percent of the U.S. market. The Pentagon buys a majority
of the super-precision bearings used in jets and submarines.
Congressional proponents warn that the sagging domestic industry
would be unable to gear up for wartime production. They point to a
1986 Pentagon study that said the bearing industry is critical to
the nation's defense and warned that domestic manufacturers were in
``imminent danger of being unable to support national defense
needs.''
``This action is clearly needed to halt a trend that directly
jeopardizes our ability to defend ourselves,'' said Mrs. Johnson, a
founder of the Congressional Bearing Caucus whose western
Connecticut district includes several major bearing employers.
``This new policy will prevent the loss of even more business
overseas and give our bearings companies the breathing room they
need to regain their competitive edge,'' she said.
The new regulations would cover only combat-related systems and
not non-military items bought by the Pentagon such as bearings for
automobiles, according to Johnson aide Caroline Willson. Military
bearings make up more than half the bearings purchased by the
department.
About $40 million of the $350 million in military-related
bearings purchased by the Defense Department annually comes from
foreign countries. And that trend has been increasing, the
congresswoman said.
From 1980 to 1986, she said, the number of foreign manufacturers
authorized to sell bearings to the Pentagon increased from two to
12. Mrs. Johnson said that would have climbed to 30 companies by
1990 without the new regulations.
Mrs. Johnson and other industrial-area lawmakers are supporting
an industry request to the Commerce Department urging restrictions
on foreign imports. The department has until July to respond to
last summer's request and make a recommendation to President Reagan.
Since 1980, the industry has lost 15,000 jobs, a 20 percent
decrease. Thirty plant closings have left about 80 companies
remaining and 43,000 employees, Ms. Willson said.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Critics say President Reagan interfered with
the legal process by predicting that former White House aides
Oliver L. North and John M. Poindexter will be acquitted of charges
in the Iran-Contra affair.
In off-the-cuff remarks Friday, Reagan called the affair ``the
so-called scandal'' and said he still considers North ``a hero.''
But he refused to say whether he was considering granting any
pardons in the case.
``I just have to believe that they're going to be found innocent
because I don't think they were guilty of any lawbreaking or any
crime,'' Reagan said in response to a question at a seminar
sponsored by the Center for the Study of the Presidency.
North and Poindexter, along with arms dealers Richard V. Secord
and Albert A. Hakim, pleaded innocent Thursday to charges of
conspiracy, theft and fraud in the Iran-Contra case. The case
involved the sale of U.S. arms to Iran and the diversion of
proceeds to the Nicaraguan Contras.
Senate Majority Whip Alan Cranston, D-Calif., said Reagan's
comment about the innocence or guilt of people under criminal
indictment ``is highly inappropriate.''
``His statement could adversely and improperly influence the
execution of justice,'' Cranston told reporters on Capitol Hill.
``President Reagan has contributed to a prejudicial climate
which could make it extremely difficult to get an unbiased jury in
these cases,'' he said. ``The president has made a judgment about
guilt or innocence which only a jury is supposed to decide under
our system of justice.''
Professor John F. Banzhaf III of George Washington University
Law School, called Reagan's remarks ``highly inappropriate'' and
said they could influence jurors in the case.
``Millions of people feel strongly in favor of the president and
his views carry great weight. He has an awful lot of credibility,''
said Banzhaf, a consumer advocate who has been associated with
liberal causes. ``This is prejudging the case.''
In 1970, defense lawyers unsuccessfully sought dismissal of
murder charges against Charles Manson after then-President Richard
M. Nixon said Manson ``was guilty directly or indirectly of eight
murders without reason.''
Nixon subsequently issued a statement saying he had not intended
to proclaim Manson guilty, and that a person was presumed innocent
until proven otherwise.
White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater, questioned about
Reagan's remarks, said, ``He's a man who tells you what he thinks
and that's what he thinks.'' He said the president was ``a man of
rare insight and perception, just giving his perception there.''
White House chief of staff Howard H. Baker described the
president's remarks as ``personal views,'' and said the president's
``official position is that the system must operate.''
Reagan said that when he learned that proceeds from the arms
sales to Iran had been channeled to the Contra cause, he had top
aides brief congressional leaders and appointed a commission to
probe the matter. Reagan also noted that he had sought the
appointment of a special counsel to investigate the diversion.
``Now, that's the whole extent of the so-called scandal,'' he
said. ``What our intent was and what happened. And you know
something? After all the investigations, today I still don't know
who got that extra money or where it came from. I'm hoping to find
out.''
``But I wanted you to know that I have some definite reason for
still thinking Ollie North is a hero,'' he added.
Reagan previously had said he did not think any laws were broken
in the Iran-Contra affair, but had never gone so far as to predict
acquittals.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Five private exporters have been given the
green light for subsidized sales to the Soviet Union of 475,000
metric tons of hard red winter wheat, the Agriculture Department
says.
The government's Commodity Credit Corp. has approved in-kind
bonuses averaging $21.95 a ton in value to the exporters to send
the wheat to the Soviet Union in May, the Foreign Agricultural
Service said in a statement Friday.
Under the Export Enhancement Program, approved by Congress in
1985, grain companies and other exporters receive government-owned
crops as bonuses to spur overseas sales of American commodities.
Subsidized sales of wheat to the Soviets have totaled more than
10.8 million tons since last April, officials said. And the program
is playing an increasingly large role in the overall U.S. farm
export picture.
Melvin E. Sims, general sales manager of the Foreign
Agricultural Service, identified those receiving the bonuses and
the amounts of grain involved as Garnac Grain Company Inc., 50,000
tons; Richco Grain Ltd., 200,000 tons; Mitsubishi International
Corp., 25,000 tons; Artfer Inc., 50,000 and Louis Dreyfus Corp.,
150,000 tons.
The Soviets may still purchase an additional 525,000 tons under
a 2 million ton offer made by the United States on Jan. 29.
The United States also made the Soviets a further 1 million-ton
offer on Saturday.
The two countries are preparing to negotiate a new long-term
grain agreement to replace the one that expires Sept. 30.
It calls for the Soviets to buy 9 million metric tons a year, of
which 4 million must be wheat and 4 million corn. The remainder may
be in wheat, corn, soybeans or soybean meal, with every ton of
beans or meal counting as two tons of grain.
Despite the agreement wheat sales to the Soviets slumped badly
in 1986 but picked up against last year as the United States gave
that country the green light for purchases under the subsidy
program.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Giveaways of government surplus milk to poor
people are set to resume temporarily in June after a planned
suspension in May, according to the Agriculture Department.
Just how long the distribution of nonfat dry milk under the
Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program can continue beyond
June remains uncertain, the department said in a statement Friday.
Suspension of the nonfat dry milk and cheese distributions was
announced in February amid dwindling stocks of government-owned
commodities. USDA inventories, however, have again climbed to the
point that 8 million pounds can be distributed through local food
banks in June, the department said.
``At this time, we do not know if distribution of non-fat dry
milk can be continued beyond June,'' Assistant Secretary for Food
and Consumer Services John Bode said in a statement.
He said the department would ``monitor our inventories and keep
states informed of availability.''
``The same is true for cheese,'' he said. ``If we get more,
we'll give it away.''
Also announced in February was a suspension of rice and honey
distributions this month because of declining reserves.
The actions have drawn fire from Capitol Hill, where Senate
Agriculture Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., is holding
hearings on the problem of hunger and focusing on the TEFAP.
He planned a grocery-bagging session at a downtown Washington
food bank on Monday to draw attention to the issue.
Leahy said after the USDA announcement of June milk distribution
that he was ``pleased that there's an additional temporary supply
for the month but this does not address the long-term problem.''
More than 5 billion pounds of surplus food worth more than $5
billion has been distributed since 1981 when the program got under
way on orders from President Reagan, the department said.
Seven types of goods have been provided: cheese, butter, nonfat
dry milk, honey corn meal, flour and rice.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
USDA has set a May referendum for cattle
producers and cattle and beef importers on whether to continue
their current $1 per head promotional program.
The department announced Friday that anyone who produces cattle
or has imported beef or beef products since Oct. 1, 1986, will be
eligible to vote.
A simple majority of votes will determine whether to continue
the promotions, which have included television spots by actor James
Garner and actress Cybill Shepherd.
``Real food for real people'' has been the slogan of the
commercials.
The referendum will take place on May 10 in all states except
West Virginia, where the voting will be one day earlier.
Extension Service offices will distribute ballots in April and
absentee ballots will be available from them by mail.
The program is funded by a fee of $1 per head on all domestic
and imported cattle and an equivalent fee on beef imports.
It was established under federal legislation approved in 1985.
Agreement</HEAD>
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Republican conservatives in Congress are wary
of the Nicaraguan cease-fire, with one saying the United States may
have to ``take some action with external forces'' if the Contra
rebels quit the field.
``It's down to that,'' said Rep. Rod Chandler, R-Wash. ``It's
definitely a new era.''
Chandler was among GOP conservatives attending a retreat Friday
in Houston. In Washington, meanwhile, President Reagan said that
``there is reason to have caution'' about whether Nicaragua's
leftist government will keep its agreements.
Reagan's comments were his first statement in any detail on the
60-day nationwide cease-fire announced Wednesday in Sapoa,
Nicaragua, by leaders of the Sandinista government and the
U.S.-backed Contra guerrilla force.
``Of course we look forward to this and hope it continues, but
... just as in some other meetings that have gone on in which I
have been involved, I think that we should keep in mind that both
parties must be dedicated to the things that are said and agreed to
in those meetings,'' the president said.
``I think there is reason to have caution _ they have a past
record that indicates that we should be,'' he added.
Reagan was questioned by reporters as he prepared to meet with
President Joaquin Balaguer of the Dominican Republic.
In a formal statement as he appeared with Balaguer in the Rose
Garden after the meeting, Reagan commended the Dominican president
for hosting previous Nicaraguan peace talks, mediated by Roman
Catholic Cardinal Obando y Bravo.
``We both hope for democratic and peaceful solutions to the
problems of the region,'' he said. ``We want to see an end to the
pursuit of military solutions and to the massive Soviet armament
that fuels that pursuit.''
During his daily White House news briefing earlier, presidential
spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said the administration believes ``that
this agreement has been reached by both sides in good faith'' but
is ``skeptical of the compliance.''
``We're very hopeful that it works,'' Fitzwater said. ``We want
to do whatever we can to see that it works.''
The spokesman also said the administration is ``very hopeful''
that a package of humanitarian assistance to the Contras can be
approved by the House and Senate before Congress' Easter recess.
He said the United States had no intention of entering into
direct discussions with the Sandinistas, as suggested by Nicaraguan
President Daniel Ortega.
``We've discussed that two years,'' Fitzwater said. ``The answer
is no.''
At the Houston retreat, Chandler said that if the Contras fold
their tents and it is ``back to the usual Sandinista behavior'' of
totalitarian rule, the United States will have to ``take some
action with external forces ... external, including the United
States.''
Chandler, who has co-sponsored a plan to renew military aid to
the Contras, said he expected Congress in the meantime to approve
rapidly some new humanitarian support for the Contras with the
option of adding military aid if things turn sour.
In Washington, other conservatives criticized the agreement, but
appeared willing to put the Sandinistas to the test and wait to see
whether promised democratic reforms materialize.
``It's an agreement that's shaded on the bad side,'' said Sen.
James McClure, R-Idaho.
Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., said, ``A sense of euphoria is not in
order ... I don't believe I've ever heard of a leopard changing his
spots.''
Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said, ``The end product of what
they've agreed to still leaves a Soviet puppet state in Central
America.''
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Here are tentative schedules for the
presidential candidates for the week beginning March 27. The
information was provided by the candidates.

Sunday, March 27:

Democrats:
Dukakis _ Boston; Connecticut
Gephardt _ Washington, D.C.
Gore _ Connecticut
Jackson _ Hartford, Stamford, Bridgeport and New Haven, Conn.
Simon _ Wisconsin

Republicans:
Bush _ Palm Springs
Dole _ Washington, D.C.
Robertson _ down


Monday, March 28:

Democrats:
Dukakis _ Connecticut
Gephardt _ Green Bay and Milwaukee, Wis.
Gore _ Connecticut; New York City
Jackson _ Middlebury, Waterbury and New Haven, Conn.; New York
City
Simon _ upstate New York

Republicans:
Bush _ Milwaukee and Cedarburg, Wis.
Dole _ Washington, D.C.
Robertson _ down


Tuesday, March 29:

Democrats:
Dukakis _ Boston
Gephardt _ Green Bay and Milwaukee, Wis.
Gore _ New York; Wisconsin
Jackson _ New York
Simon _ Washington, D.C.

Republicans:
Bush _ Osh Kosh, Appleton, Stevens Point, Milwaukee and
Waukesha, Wis.
Dole _ open
Robertson _ down


Wednesday, March 30:

Democrats:
Dukakis _ Boston
Gephardt _ Wisconsin
Gore _ Wisconsin; Washington, D.C.
Jackson _ Wisconsin
Simon _ Wisconsin

Republicans:
Bush _ Madison, Eau Claire and Washington, D.C.
Dole _ open
Robertson _ down


Thursday, March 31:

Democrats:
Dukakis _ Boston; Colorado; Wisconsin
Gephardt _ open
Gore _ Washington, D.C.; Miami
Jackson _ Wisconsin
Simon _ Wisconsin

Republicans:
Bush _ open
Dole _ open
Robertson _ down


Friday, April 1:

Democrats:
Dukakis _ Wisconsin
Gephardt _ open
Gore _ Wisconsin
Jackson _ Wisconsin
Simon _ Wisconsin

Republicans:
Bush _ open
Dole _ open
Robertson _ down


Saturday, April 2:

Democrats:
Dukakis _ open
Gephardt _ open
Gore _ open
Jackson _ Colorado
Simon _ Wisconsin

Republicans:
Bush _ open
Dole _ open
Robertson _ open


Sunday, April 3:

Democrats:
Dukakis _ open
Gephardt _ open
Gore _ open
Jackson _ Colorado
Simon _ Wisconsin

Republicans:
Bush _ open
Dole _ open
Robertson _ open
<NEW DOCUMENT>
New Jersey Rep. James Howard, whose death at
age 60 leaves open a powerful congressional post, was a widely
admired lawmaker who loved a good legislative scrap almost as much
as he loved golf.
The 60-year-old Democrat died Friday, a day after suffering a
heart attack on a suburban Maryland golf course, his office said.
Howard, influential chairman of the House Public Works and
Transportation Committee, succumbed at the Washington Hospital
Center here at 1:46 p.m., said aide David Smallen.
A Roman Catholic funeral was planned for Tuesday in Spring Lake,
N.J.
Howard's office said the Spring Lake Heights lawmaker died ``of
complications arising from a heart attack ... from which his heart
never fully recovered.'' They did not elaborate.
Howard, a 22-year House veteran, was stricken Thursday while
playing the first hole of a morning round of golf. ``His last
memory was that he was wearing Irish green and hit a great shot
that landed him on the green in two,'' said his daughter Marie, who
was with him at the time.
Howard's wife, Marlene, and their two other daughters also were
with him.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., recalled Howard's fondness for
Kennedy's brother, the late President John F. Kennedy.
``The last time I saw him, last week, he asked me for another
PT-109 tie clip, and we reminisced again about Jack's 1960
campaign,'' Kennedy said in a statement.
House Speaker Jim Wright, D-Texas, said of Howard: ``He worked
hard, played hard, loved his family, his state and his country with
a burning intensity.''
Sen. Bill Bradley, D-N.J., said Howard was one of his first
friends in politics. ``He leaves a great legacy of
accomplishments,'' Bradley said.
Howard was known among colleagues as one of the House's toughest
horse traders. He was an aggressive and agile lawmaker who wielded
his considerable clout in an old-fashioned, behind-the-scenes way.
The committee he headed since 1981 is one of the least glamorous
but most powerful in Congress. It has jurisdiction over
multibillion dollar highway and water projects, as well as the
airline and trucking industries.
Once in 1985, Massachusetts lawmakers mounted a plan to legalize
dumping of their state's sewage off the New Jersey coast. Suddenly,
money for a much sought-after Boston Harbor tunnel slipped to the
bottom of the Public Works Committee's agenda.
Elected in 1964, he rose to become the second most senior member
of the New Jersey congressional delegation after Rep. Peter Rodino,
the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee who says he will not
seek re-election.
Howard represented the 3rd Congressional District along New
Jersey's central shorefront.
Rep. Glenn Anderson, D-Calif., the ranking Democrat of the
Public Works committee, is in line to succeed Howard. Any new
chairman must be approved by the House Democratic Caucus.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
A chronology of the Robert Chambers Jr. case:
_Sept. 20 and 26, 1985 _ Robert Chambers allegedly burglarizes
three apartments, stealing furs, jewelry, silver and art.
_Aug. 25, 1986 _ Chambers goes to the bar Dorrian's Red Hand
about 11:30 p.m. and runs into Jennifer Dawn Levin, 18, who arrives
shortly after midnight.
_Aug. 26, 1986 _ Chambers and Miss Levin leave Dorrian's for
Central Park about 4:10 a.m.
6:15 a.m. _ Bicyclist finds Miss Levin's body behind
Metropolitan Museum of Art; police officer spots Chambers sitting
on nearby wall.
2:15 p.m. _ Police pick up Chambers at his Manhattan home.
9 p.m. _ Chambers admits lying to police about whether he left
Dorrian's with Levin. Provides a written statement.
_Aug. 27, 1986 _ Provides videotaped statement.
_Sept. 10, 1986 _ Chambers indicted on two counts of
second-degree murder.
_Sept. 22, 1986 _ Chambers pleads innocent.
_Sept. 29, 1986 _ State Supreme Court Justice Howard Bell, the
trial judge, sets bail at $150,000.
_Oct. 1, 1986 _ Chambers released on bail after bar owner Jack
Dorrian puts up his house as collateral.
_Oct. 15, 1986 _ Chambers indicted on three burglary counts;
Bell orders an additional $7,500 bail.
_Oct. 21, 1986 _ Chambers attorney Jack Litman asks prosecutor
Linda Fairstein to turn over Jennifer Levin's diary, saying it
chronicles a kinky sex life.
_Dec. 23, 1986 _ Levin diary turned over to Bell.
_Jan. 28, 1987 _ Bell refuses to turn diary over to Litman.
_April 1, 1987 _ David Fillyaw, who identified Chambers as his
accomplice in two Sept. 26, 1985 burglaries, pleads guilty to
burglary.
_Oct. 16, 1987 _ Bell rules Chambers' written and video
statements will be allowed at trial.
_Oct. 21, 1987 _ Jury selection begins.
_Dec. 18, 1987 _ Jury seated.
_Jan. 4, 1988 _ Opening statements.
_March 1, 1988 _ Prosecution rests after calling 25 witnesses.
_March 4, 1988 _ Jury visits Central Park site of Miss Levin's
death.
_March 10, 1988 _ Defense rests after calling five witnesses.
_March 17, 1988 _ Deliberations begin.
_March 25, 1988 _ Chambers pleads guilty to first-degree
manslaughter.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
International Business Machines Corp. offered
last year to sell important computer chip technology to Digital
Equipment Corp. in an effort to keep Digital from becoming more
dependent on Japanese suppliers, a published report said Friday.
The New York Times, citing a forthcoming book and sources in the
industry, said IBM apparently believes the entire American
electronics industry could be weakened by growing dependence on
Japanese semiconductor technology.
IBM's offer is reported in a book entitled ``Trading Places: How
We Allowed Japan to Take the Lead,'' written by Clyde Prestowitz
and scheduled for publication in late April, The Times said.
Prestowitz, formerly the Commerce Department's chief trade
negotiator with Japan, wrote that in mid-1987, IBM approached
Digital, ``its most dangerous domestic rival, and offered to
transfer certain key technologies.
``At first DEC suspected a trick, then it realized the objective
was to prevent DEC from falling even further into Japanese hands,''
Prestowitz wrote. His book does not elaborate on what technology
was offered or whether Digital accepted the offer, The Times said.
Spokesmen for IBM and Digital would not confirm whether such
talks occurred, but other industry sources who declined to be
identified verified that IBM had made such an offer, the newspaper
said.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
A lone salamander made its way through a
tunnel built to prevent cars from crushing the amphibians during
their annual trek across a street in this college town.
``It was an historic event. It was the first salamander to go
through a tunnel all on its own,'' Shutesbury school teacher Ken
Lindsay said Friday.
But 39 other salamanders bypassed the tunnels, to the dismay of
onlookers.
Fifty people turned out on a drizzly Thursday night to watch the
salamanders cross Henry Street to reach a breeding pond _ a route
that results in death for many of the creatures each spring.
The watchers ended up barricading the street and carrying about
40 of the struggling yellow-spotted amphibians across the road. The
tunnels installed for the salamanders under the street were ignored
by all but the one.
Shouts went up when the salamander was discovered crawling along
a fence leading to one of the tunnels. The creature made it through
in 5 minutes, 20 seconds, said Lindsay, who lives about a mile from
the street.
The salamander tunnels were installed after a public outcry over
the amphibians' plight.
Local naturalist Robert Winston persuaded town officials to
close the street last year until all the salamanders had emerged
from their underground hibernation to make the nighttime trek
during warm rains, which usually takes a week.
The three 19-inch-high tunnels of polymer concrete were donated
by ACO Polymer Products of Cleveland and installed in November for
about $2,000. Volunteers erected fences in January to guide the
salamanders to the tunnels.
The fences failed their first test, but townspeople said it was
too early to tell how the experiment would fare.
``There were very few salamanders out, probably because there's
not enough of a saturation rate yet to rouse the rest of the
population,'' said Lindsay.
Townspeople had different theories to explain why all but one of
the salamanders bypassed the tunnels.
Lindsay, who also coordinated a contest for ``Salamander
Crossing'' sings, said the salamanders might have been hibernating
between the fence and the road.
Richard Minear, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, said the
tunnels may not have been wet enough for the salamanders' liking.
The town's superintendent of public works said he is in the
process of hanging the crossing signs, designed by Shutesbury
fourth-grader Rachel Mackintosh.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Dr. Louis Irwin Grossman, a pioneer in root
canal therapy, has died at age 86.
A professor emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania School of
Dental Medicine, Grossman in 1940 wrote one of the first textbooks
on endodontics, or root canal therapy, the removal of diseased soft
tissue from inside the tooth.
``Endodontic Practice'' is now in its 11th printing and is used
worldwide, said Phyllis Holzman, a university spokeswoman.
Grossman, who died Thursday at home, began teaching at the
dental school in 1926.
``Through his pioneering research in the field and his clinical
care, endodontics got started and is where it is today,'' he said.
Grossman developed methods for removing diseased pulp, the soft
tissue inside the tooth, sterilizing the hollowed area and filling
it with inert material to strengthen the tooth, said Dr. Malcolm
Lynch, the school's dean.
Before root canal therapy, abscessed teeth had to be extracted.
Grossman was named an honorary fellow of the Royal College of
Surgeons in 1984. He retired in 1968.
Grossman was born in a Ukrainian village near Odessa and was
brought to the United States by his family as boy.
He earned a doctorate in dental surgery from Penn in 1923 and a
doctorate in medical dentistry at the University of Rostock in
Germany in 1928.
Survivors include his wife, Emma May; a daughter, and a son.
pickup
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Stock prices declined sharply for the third
straight day in Tokyo Saturday, following an overnight tumble on
Wall Street.
On the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the Nikkei Average of 225 selected
issues, which lost 154.57 points Friday, shed 305.99 more points,
or 1.2 percent, during Saturday's half-day session to finish the
week at 25,320.72.
``Prices were down almost across the board prompted by
profit-taking selling,'' said Hiromi Yoneyama of Wako Securities.
He said investors sidestepped the market, following the second
straight tumble on Wall Street, and before the close of Japan's
1987 fiscal year, which ends on March 31.
Yoneyama, however, added investors appeared to be optimistic
about the prospects for the new fiscal year.
In New York Friday, the Dow Jones average of 30 industrials fell
44.92 points to 1,978.95 at the close of the market's worst week
this year.
On the first section in Tokyo trading, major losers included
large-capital issues, such as steels, heavy electricals and
shipbuildings. A light 400 million shares were traded during the
session.
The foreign exchange market is closed on Saturdays.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Syndicated columnist Abigail Van Buren
called on state legislators to pass a bill that would ban the use
of animal tests for cosmetics and household products.
``Dear Abby,'' as she is known to millions of readers of her
daily advice column, said at a news conference that she is not
opposed to animal testing for medical research when necessary. But
``it's not necessary for floor wax or lipstick,'' she said.
Some makers of cosmetics and cleaning products told lawmakers
that animal testing is necessary to ensure the safety of their
products for humans.
The Maryland appearance is not the end of Miss Van Buren's
campaign. ``I'm going to use my column as a platform to do this
nationally,'' she said.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Catherine Malfitano sang the title role in
Berg's ``Lulu'' for the first time at the Metropolitan Opera on
Friday night.
She sang it well, leaving only the question of whether the
luminous lyric quality of her soprano voice will survive a role
composed with so many shrieks on top and such angular intervals.
She is singing all six performances, which includes the Saturday
afternoon radio broadcast of April 2.
Tenor Ronald Hamilton, a native of Hamilton, Ohio, made his Met
debut as Alwa on Friday night. ``Lulu'' is a difficult opera in
which to judge voices but Hamilton certainly coped with the very
high range of a fairly large but thankless role.
Franz Mazura was excellent as Dr. Schon, Alwa's father. Tatiana
Troyanos was properly self-sacrificing as the Countess. James
Levine conducted, with the orchestra sometimes at times
overpowering the singers.
The John Dexter production, from 1977, captures the decadence of
the story in which everybody falls for Lulu, some to die of
suicide, murder or shock.
The Met performed ``Lulu'' for the first time in 1977 and
performed it with the third act added, making it a four-hour
evening, for the first time in 1980.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Nancy Reagan went two for three in goals as
she wielded a hockey stick during a ceremony to thank athletes for
promoting the ``Just Say No'' anti-drug campaign.
Mrs. Reagan made two goals in three shots during her appearance
before a sellout crowd at the Capital Centre just after the first
period of the Philadelphia Flyers-Washington Capitals game Friday
night.
When Mrs. Reagan was introduced, most of the sellout crowd of
18,130 stood and applauded. She was joined on the Capital Centre
ice by National Hockey League President John A. Ziegler Jr., and 30
``Just Say No'' skaters, including one dressed as the Peanuts
character Snoopy.
``Athletes are very important role models for our young
people,'' Mrs. Reagan said. ``I'm very grateful for all of their
help.''
Mrs. Reagan took a hockey stick and made three shots on
Washington Capitals goaltender Pete Peeters. Two shots went in.
Each of the 21 NHL teams will participate in a salute to the
Just Say No Foundation at games being played this week across the
United States and Canada.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
A federal appeals court will hear arguments
May 6 on whether to dismiss a contempt ruling against Eastern
Airlines for its attempt to sell its East Coast Air shuttle.
The hearing date was set Friday, when the court also refused a
request by Eastern to block a set of sanctions levied against the
carrier. The ruling by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals means
Eastern, at least temporarily, will have to halt its efforts to
sell the shuttle while it conducts a legal battle with its largest
labor union.
Judges David Sentelle, James L. Buckley and Laurence H.
Silberman all voted to deny Eastern's request to drop the sanctions.
On March 10, District Judge John H. Pratt found Eastern in
contempt for trying to sell its shuttle for $225 million. Eastern,
a subsidiary of Texas Air Corp., proposed selling the shuttle to a
new company to be created within Texas Air.
Pratt found that the proposed sale violated an order he issued
last July that Eastern not change the working conditions of its
12,000 employees represented by the International Association of
Machinists and Aerospace Workers.
Company officials had said Eastern was in the red and needed the
cash from the sale, but union leaders said the deal really was
intended to weaken the labor organization.
Monday, Pratt ruled that until the case was settled, Eastern
would have to halt all efforts to gain government approval of the
shuttle sale. The judge also threatened to fine the airline $10,000
daily for future violations.
Under Friday's ruling, the sanctions will remain in place until
Eastern's appeal of the contempt ruling is decided.
Settlement</HEAD>
<NEW DOCUMENT>
The Reagan administration is halting its
supply of Stinger missiles to the Afghan rebels because of concern
the weapons could be left to Afghan factions that couldn't be
controlled if U.S. military ties were severed, according to a
published report today.
The Washington Post, citing diplomatic and other U.S. sources
that it did not identify, also reported that the administration is
rushing at least $300 million in other weapons to the resistance
before an agreement is reached that would ban such outside
assistance.
Among the U.S.-purchased military equipment being rushed to the
resistance are 120mm Spanish heavy mortars and modern mine-clearing
weapons, the Post said.
The decision to stop supplying the anti-aircraft Stingers
apparently was reached late last month in anticipation of a peace
settlement in Afghanistan, the newspaper said.
``Certainly we would not want the war to end with a lot of them
unused,'' said Rep. Charles Wilson, D-Texas, a strong supporter of
the resistance who said he did not know if a decision had been made
to stop supplying the Stingers.
Last month, an Afghan guerrilla commander either sold or was
forced to hand over some Stingers to Iran. Pieces of a Stinger were
found on an Iranian gunboat involved in a shooting incident with a
U.S. helicopter helping the U.S. escort mission in the Persian Gulf
last October.
The Afghan rebels started receiving the Stingers in mid-1986 and
they reportedly have gotten more than 1,000 of them, the Post said.
A withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan was a major topic
discussed during this past week's visit to Washington of Soviet
Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Two Cubic Corp. employees were charged Friday
with falsifying test results on hand-held mine detectors produced
for the Army.
In announcing the indictment, U.S. Attorney Peter Nunez also
said that the San Diego-based defense contractor had agreed to pay
the government $7.25 million to settle a civil suit stemming from
the allegations.
William Bauder, 55, of Tullahoma, Tenn., and Dennis B. Fink, 39,
of San Diego, pleaded innocent in federal court Friday to
conspiracy to defraud the government, making false statements and
submitting false claims for payment.
Each of the 24 counts in the indictment carries a maximum
penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
Cubic held a $9 million Army contract to produce and retrofit
more than 8,500 detectors designed to locate mines in arid soil.
The Justice Department said the devices were never used in combat
by American forces.
Fink was the senior associate engineer on the technical staff,
while Bauder was the program manager for Cubic Defense Systems on
the contract signed in 1981.
Before full-scale production could begin, Cubic had to
demonstrate that it could mass produce mine-detectors that worked
as effectively as earlier prototypes, the indictment said.
The indictment alleged that the test results were falsified so
that the mine detectors appeared to function better than they
really did.
As a result of the false information, the indictment said, the
Army gave approval for full-scale production but terminated the
contract in 1984 because of equipment faults.
In the civil suit, prosecutors alleged Cubic knowingly presented
false claims for payment because some company officials were aware
that the detectors had failed the tests.
Under an agreement with the Army, Cubic company will remain a
government contractor.
``Since the events leading to the indictment, Cubic has taken
the necessary steps to avoid a recurrence of similar conduct,''
Nunez said.
^By RICHARD COLE</BYLINE>
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega has
failed for the first time to pay the 15,000 troops supporting him
as Panama's economic crisis deepens and the opposition promises
more confrontation.
Also Friday, the civilian government that acts for Noriega
threatened to revoke stores' licenses unless they stop observing a
week-long general strike and open to sell such essentials as food,
medicine and gasoline.
The strike has shut down more than 90 percent of the nation's
commerce. Cash and food are in short supply.
The opposition, meanwhile, said it was planning massive street
anti-Noriega demonstrations for Monday that appeared likely to
trigger a confrontation with troops loyal to the general.
Noriega, under indictment in the United States on drug
trafficking charges, once again claimed the United States, in a
desire to hold on to the Panama Canal, is behind his country's
troubles.
``A man is not the problem,'' Noriega said of himself on Friday.
``The problem is Panama's canal and the presence of a foreign army
in our territory.''
In an attempt to force Noriega into exile, the White House has
had Panamanian deposits in U.S. banks frozen and payments for use
of the Panama Canal withheld.
The former canal zone is headquarters to the U.S. military's
Southern Command. Under a 1977 treaty, the United States will cede
control of the canal by the year 2000.
Noriega denied any connections with drug-trafficking pilots
whose testimony led to his indictments last month, and joked about
reports he wields a $200 million fortune: ``Bring it to me, bring
it to me and I'll pay off Panama's foreign debt.''
He implied force might be used to make the nation's banks
re-open. On Thursday, they refused to hand over an estimated $70
million in their vaults so the government could pay the army on
Friday, pensioners Monday, and 130,000 public employees over the
next week.
Banks have refused to open, partly to support the general strike
and partly because they fear a panic run on their deposits.
``Those who understand such things consider it necessary to open
the banks,'' Noriega said.
Opposition leaders said they hoped Noriega's soldiers would stop
supporting him now that they have joined the 2.5 million
Panamanians who have gone without pay for up to a month.
But the anti-Noriega umbrella group, The National Civic Crusade,
suffered a surprising blow Friday when Roman Catholic Archbishop
Marcos C. McGrath failed to issue an expected statement strongly
condemning Noriega and supporting Monday's planned demonstration.
McGrath, who had met with Noriega on Thursday, would only say on
Friday that he planned to meet with again with the general, who
heads Panamana's Defense Forces.
Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., ended a two-day fact-finding trip
Friday saying he was ``still hopeful that at some time the Church
will be able to make a statement that will bring a happier remedy
than we have seen so far.''
Ackerman and Rep. Peter Kostmayer, D-Pa., issued a statement
saying ``there is absolute unanimity that Gen. Noriega should go,
and that his departure is only a function of time.''
That sentiment was echoed in Washington, where the Senate voted
92-0 to demand that President Reagan increase economic sanctions to
force Noriega out.
In the former canal zone, wives of the mostly American ship
pilots who guide vessels through the Panama Canal _ and could shut
the waterway down if they went on strike _ demonstrated in front of
the joint U.S.-Panamanian commission that runs the canal.
They complained they were being harassed by Panamanian troops
who set up roadblocks at intersections across Panama City,
questioning motorists and searching their cars.
``We feel like we are hostages within the political crisis
because we feel unsafe going into town,'' said Gloria Olsson, wife
of a canal pilot.
The problem was apparently resolved later Friday, but the Panama
Canal Pilots Association and the commission refused to say what
arrangements were made.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
A new medal being issued to honor American
prisoners of war features an eagle surrounded by barbed wire and
bayonet points and includes the inscription, ``For Honorable
Service While a Prisoner of War.''
The Pentagon announced Friday it was ready to begin issuing the
new military medals, which Congress authorized two years ago.
About 142,200 individuals or their families will be eligible for
the awards, the Defense Department said. The medals can be awarded
posthumously to legal next-of-kin.
The phone number for requesting an application form is
800-873-3768.
Personal letters requesting award of the medal or more
information should be sent to one of these three addresses:
_For former Army prisoners of war: U.S. Army Reserve Personnel
Center, Attn.: DARP-PAS-EAW, 9700 Page Blvd., St. Louis, Mo.
63132-5200.
_For former Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard prisoners of war:
U.S. Navy Liaison Office, National Personnel Records Center, 9700
Page Blvd., St. Louis, Mo. 63132-5199.
_For former Air Force and Army Air Corps prisoners of war: Air
Force Reference Branch, National Personnel Records Center, 9700
Page Blvd., St. Louis, Mo. 63132-5199.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
A new ``Fiscal Survey of the States'' finds
that most states tightened their budget belts last year and are
reluctant to start major new programs this year because of
uncertainty about the economy.
The report from the National Governors' Association, says most
states are in sound financial shape, although states such as
Louisiana and West Virginia are facing tough financial times
because of their reliance on the troubled energy industry.
Most states, however, are close to the financial edge, according
to the report released Friday. It found that the majority of states
will end the year with only small budget balances.
Those balances are expected to fall to 1.5 percent of total
expenditures at the end of next fiscal year, the lowest level since
the recession of 1983, when it was 1.3 percent.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
The Pentagon says this year's ``Ocean
Venture'' exercise will take place in the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of
Mexico and Caribbean Sea as well as at selected bases in Florida
and Puerto Rico.
More than 40,000 servicemen are expected to participate in the
exercise, which begins on April 1 and extends through April 22, the
Pentagon said Friday.
``Ocean Venture exercises are held every two years and are
designed to demonstrate the joint forces capability of the U.S.
Atlantic Command to rapidly project military power,'' the Pentagon
said.
The exercise will include aircraft carrier operations; airborne,
amphibious and infantry assaults; live-fire exercises, and port
security, harbor defense and combat search and rescue drills, the
Pentagon said.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Two senators say the United States should be
cautious about allowing the sale to Canada of highly secret U.S.
submarine technology.
Sen. James J. Exon, D-Neb., chairman of the Senate Armed
Services strategic weapons subcommittee, said Friday that U.S.
nuclear-powered sub technology had only been transferred once in
the past, to Britain, and he questioned whether Canada has ``the
money and the enormous infrastructure'' needed to safely operate
the subs.
Any accidents aboard Canadian subs which involve U.S. technology
would raise fears about U.S. subs and could hamper the American
Navy's operation, he said in a speech to the Senate.
Sen. John Warner. R-Va., said, ``before we approve this
decision, we need to know how Canada proposes to fund this program,
how Canada proposes to insure that the standard of nuclear safety
will be at least as high as the United States and the British.''
Canada is considering building vessels which are updated
versions of the British Trafalgar-class subs or the French
Rubis-class subs. The Trafalgars use U.S. technology, which means
the information could not be supplied to Canada by the British
unless the United States approves, both Exon and Warner said.
^By ELOY O. AGUILAR</BYLINE>
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Felipe and his wife Donilda, teachers
at government high schools who haven't been paid since mid-month,
are selling bootleg beer to feed themselves and their three
children.
They eat only twice a day. Even so, they are luckier than one
neighbor in the poor Villa Guadalupe neighborhood in the San
Miguelito hills on the outskirts of Panama City, who had sent her
children out to steal.
As the opposition exerts pressure to oust strongman Gen. Manuel
Antonio Noriega and cash grows increasingly scarce, many
Panamanians are relying on donated food to stay alive.
Families have sent their children to stay with relatives in the
countryside, where fresh milk and produce is at least more readily
available than in the capital.
Felipe, who insisted on not being further identified for fear of
reprisal, said several stores in his neighborhood, mostly owned by
Panamanians of Chinese descent, have been robbed during the past
couple of weeks.
``People are not stealing money, they are stealing food,'' he
said. ``This woman the other day told her kids to go in that store
and grab some milk. When the owner came chasing after them, she
faced him with a big stick and told him her kids had to eat and she
would kill him if he tried to stop them.''
``What do we tell the kids we are teaching?'' Felipe asked.
``We have suffered years of bad government in this country,'' he
said of 20 years under military rule. ``I am not very political,
but things must change ... Noriega's departure would be the
beginning of the political solution.''
The general, who heads the 15,000-strong Defense Forces and is
Panama's de facto ruler, is under U.S. indictment on charges of
trafficking in Colombian cocaine.
The United States, seeking to force him out, has frozen
virtually all Panama's funds in U.S. banks, including Panama Canal
tolls, the country's main source of revenue.
Since the U.S. dollar is Panama's currency, the cash shortage
became doubly acute. Most of the country's 118 banks have been
closed for three weeks, some for longer.
There have been street demonstrations, some of them violent, and
a general strike has paralyzed the nation since Monday. Noriega has
dug in his heels and refuses to leave.
Felipe and his wife, together normally net $170 a month after
deductions for taxes and payments on a government-financed mortgage
on their three-bedroom concrete block home.
Each got their last paycheck _ for $75 _ on March 15. It was the
last time the government paid employees, and many didn't get
anything.
Felipe used to make about $40 more a month refereeing soccer
matches. But the games haven't been played since the crisis began.
There is no money.
A strong, wiry man with a mustache and a tiny tuft of beard on
his chin, Felipe held his restless 4-year-old son Francisco, trying
to quiet him.
``We make adjustments, we survive,'' he said.
That morning, Felipe and his family had oatmeal, some cheese and
bread for breakfast. Donilda was planning to cook some fish and
rice for lunch. But there would be ``some tea and bread only in the
evening,'' she said.
Felipe said he hadn't paid his light and water bills.
With the schools closed until further notice, Felipe spends his
time doing odd jobs around the house, training his 12-year-old
daughter Zulia and other kids in the neighborhood in track and
field.
And he digs into his savings, buying American bootleg beer and
cigarettes which he resells, making about $4 profit on each case of
beer.
``A lot of people are doing that. People will always buy beer,''
he explained, sweating in Panama's tropical heat.
A few blocks away, several hundred people stood in line outside
the Christ Redeemer Roman Catholic Church, which has been donating
bags of food and running a soup kitchen for the destitute.
^With US-Nicaragua, Bjt
^By JAVIER PICHARDINI</BYLINE>
<NEW DOCUMENT>
President Miguel de la Madrid strongly
criticized the Reagan administration for stressing might over
diplomacy in its Central American policy _ at a high cost in death
and destruction.
``We oppose the justification for acts of intervention or
economic coercion'' in Central America, he said Friday during a
state dinner for visiting President Vinicio Cerezo of Guatemala.
``The protection of our security isn't associated with strategic
projects of doubtful standing,'' he added in comments clearly aimed
at the Reagan administration though not mentioning the United
States by name.
De la Madrid and Cerezo held two rounds of private talks Friday
in this Caribbean resort on the Yucatan peninsula.
Mexico's own interests in Central America are jeopardized by
instability in the region, de la Madrid declared in the rare attack
on his country's northern neighbor.
``Mexico perceives the overflow of the Central American conflict
as a risk affecting its legitimate interests and provoking disorder
and instability that threaten our institutions,'' he said.
De la Madrid referred to U.S. financing of the Contra rebels who
have been fighting Nicaragua's Sandinista government for six years
and the dispatch of 3,200 American troops to Honduras on March 17
after an alleged incursion by Nicaraguan troops chasing Contra
fighters.
Military sources in Honduras say the U.S. troops are going home
Monday, now that a Sandinsta-Contra truce is holding with the two
sides' agreement Wednesday to cease hostilities and seek to forge a
lasting peace.
De la Madrid also criticized U.S. trade and economic sanctions
against Panama that are aimed at forcing the ouster of that
country's military strongman, Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega.
``Stubbornness in imposing military options over diplomatic
efforts is producing a conflict whose high costs in death and
destruction we can neither tolerate nor view with indifference,''
the president said.
De la Madrid first voiced criticism of U.S. policy in the region
Monday, when he said ``it is not with the movement of troops, nor
with the financing of subversion from whatever origin that the
problems of the area which is vital to the interests of the Mexican
people are resolved.''
Conflicts in Central America stems from economic and social
causes, he said, declaring that his nation would search for
solutions that ``guarantee the legitimate interests'' of the region.
Cerezo and de la Madrid were scheduled to conclude their talks
today.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Eds: UPDATES throughout with NORAD spokesman saying object launched
from Soviet Union, eyewitness descriptions. No pickup.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Soviet space debris bigger than a railroad boxcar
re-entered the atmosphere in a brilliant atmospheric fireworks
display Friday night that triggered phone calls from curious
skywatchers in three states, officials said.
``I saw a meteorite once that was pretty spectacular, but this
one just blew that away. This was the most amazing celestial event
I've ever seen,'' said Chuck Farr, 33, of Round Rock, who watched
from his front yard.
``It was part of a package that was sent up a couple of days ago
from the Soviet Union'' said Lt. Col. Ivan Pinnell, a spokesman for
the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, in Colorado
Springs, Colo.
The object, which was ``larger than a railroad boxcar,''
re-entered the atmosphere around 10:50 p.m. CST, Pinnell said. The
chances of it causing any damage on the ground were highly
improbable, he said.
``When an object like that re-enters, it breaks up in the
atmosphere, and you have these smaller pieces and sometimes you
have quite a show,'' Pinnell said.
The re-entry was seen in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.
NORAD had been tracking the object by satellite, he said.
``We knew this was going to re-enter, but exactly where was hard
to predict, as far as the exact time and location,'' he said.
Most of the phone calls about the fiery re-entry came from the
Houston and Dallas areas, but the object was seen as far away as
Little Rock, Ark., Pinnell said.
Bill Hecke, a retired Air Force meteorologist who operates a
weather station from his home in Moody, 30 miles south of Waco,
said the object looked like a meteorite to him.
``It was closer and larger than anything I've ever seen anything
before, and I've been real active watching the skies since 1963,''
Hecke said.
He said he called a number of radio stations after the sighting
and said it had been seen in Lawton, Okla.
Cars along Interstate 35 pulled off the road to watch the
fireworks, said Jim Ribble, a newsman for Texas AP Network Radio
who was driving on the interstate when he saw the re-entry.
He said it looked like the sparks caused by a car whose muffler
has come loose and is dragging along the roadway.
``It just kept growing, like a sparkler,'' said Farr, a
33-year-old technical writer for Texas Instruments in Austin. ``It
went across the entire sky.''
<NEW DOCUMENT>
The ancient art of weaving baskets from
sweetgrass, brought over from Africa by slaves and passed down for
generations in South Carolina's Lowcountry, is threatened by the
modern-day condominium.
Booming coastal development of the past 20 years is reducing the
availability of the sweetgrass favored by local artisans for the
baskets, a popular purchase for tourists, folklorists said.
``What's at stake is the continuation of this traditional
African craft,'' said Myrtle Glascoe, director of the Avery
Research Center for Afro-American History at the College of
Charleston. ``If people can't get the grass, they won't continue to
do the craft.''
A conference on the problem was scheduled for today at the
Charleston Museum. Basket weavers, government officials, historians
and others were invited to attend.
Weavers have seen their access to local sweetgrass decline in
recent years, and have been forced to buy it from as far away as
Florida.
``It's getting scarce,'' said Elizabeth Fleming, a basket weaver
from nearby Mount Pleasant. ``People are building condominiums all
over and they don't want you to go on their property.''
The preferred type of grass for the ornamental baskets,
Muhlenbergia filipes, generally grows in the sand beyond the dune
line at the beach _ the area that has been developed extensively in
recent years.
``The grass is still there and certainly not all of it has been
built over,'' said Dale Rosengarten of the University of South
Carolina's McKissick Museum in Columbia. ``But many of the areas in
which it grows are restricted entry.''
Mrs. Fleming said that, in addition to the access problem, there
seems to be less sweetgrass available in areas still open to
gathering.
Mrs. Fleming said she buys some of her grass from suppliers in
Florida, but even that is not without problems. Once, two men who
supply her with the grass were arrested for gathering it, she said.
Some local artisans have resorted to making their baskets from
bulrushes, which aren't as pliable or bright as sweetgrass.
``You can't make a small basket with a bulrush because the
bulrush won't bend as easily,'' said Mrs. Fleming, who operates a
family basket stand in Mount Pleasant which her grandmother
operated before her.
Mrs. Rosengarten said the economic impact of basket sales is
probably slight. But she said it's hard to gauge their importance
to Charleston's tourism economy because visitors remember the
historic city as one of pastel houses, horse-drawn carriages _ and
basket weavers.
Mrs. Rosengarten said there are a number of things that can be
done. The Charleston Museum has a plot of land where officials hope
to cultivate sweetgrass.
``We'd like to see the (commercial) nurseries carrying the grass
and to see it used as an ornamental,'' Mrs. Rosengarten said. ``We
want people to be aware of the grass and what it is. It's great for
holding the dune'' against erosion.
``We're trying to take action before it's too late,'' she added,
noting that if the sweetgrass becomes an endangered species, no
one, including the basket weavers, would be able to pick it.
voting begins at 10 a.m. EST; TOP prospects uncertain.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Republican Bob Dole, saying ``I can read the
numbers,'' admits his race for the White House is all but over, as
Democrat Richard Gephardt faces the prospect that today's Michigan
caucuses could write the end to his campaign.
The Democratic hopefuls searched Michigan for every last vote
Friday, with front-runners Michael Dukakis and Jesse Jackson
exhorting their backers to ignore the polls and make a final push
for victory.
Dukakis closed his campaign with a noisy gathering at a
Polish-American center in Detroit, while Jackson wrapped up his day
with thunderous rallies across the state.
Gephardt told supporters in a series of stops that he can pull
off a stunning upset here. Despite showing some late strength, the
Missouri congressman was still third in the polls and aides were
talking about a race for re-election to his House seat.
``We will pull off a miracle in Michigan tomorrow,'' Gephardt
told a crowd in Taylor, Mich.
Neither Sen. Albert Gore Jr. of Tennessee nor fellow Democratic
contender, Sen. Paul Simon of Illinois, had made significant
organizational and advertising efforts in Michigan. Both have spent
more time in the upcoming primary states where they saw better
chances for a breakthrough.
On the Republican side, Dole stunned a Washington audience with
a frank admission that Vice President George Bush is almost
certainly the Republican nominee.
``I can read the numbers and I know probably what's going to
happen,'' the Kansas Republican told reporters after the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce meeting.
``I think it's probably a foregone conclusion what's happening
on the Republican side,'' Dole told the group.
Asked if he would continue until the Wisconsin primary on April
5, Dole had this to say: ``I may tell you that later this week,
probably next week.''
But a spokesman was quick to deny that Dole was conceding the
race.
For his part, Bush said Dole's comments won't change any of his
plans.
``This doesn't say it's over. So I'm going to just keep going
right down to the wire and not speculate on somebody else's
campaign or on the Democratic side,'' he said after a campaign
appearance in Denver.
Bush brushed aside questions about potential running mates as
well.
``It's too early for me to start thinking about any running
mates. That would project a certain arrogance or presumption that I
don't want to do.''
In Washington, White House chief of staff Howard H. Baker Jr.
was asked on Cable News Network's ``Evans & Novak'' if he would
accept the vice presidency if Bush turned to him.
Baker said he did not believe he would be the choice, but when
pressed, he said: ``You know, most of my adult life I've spent in
public service, and if someone asked me to do it, I would have a
very difficult time trying to figure out what I was going to say.
``But I do not wish that to happen. I do not think that will
happen, and I do not expect it.''
The Democratic spotlight was on Michigan, the latest in the
series of big-state primaries that may decide the party's 1988
nominee.
Dukakis, leading in the delegate count for the nomination, hoped
his strength across the state would give him a large share of the
135 delegates at stake as well as the popular vote victory. The
Massachusetts governor, making a joke about his heavy, dark
eyebrows, asked his people to work hard in the final hours.
``When you make those phone calls tonight and tomorrow _ and I
hope you will because you know in caucuses particularly turnout is
very important _ you just tell them to go with the guy with the
eyebrows and we'll have a very good Saturday,'' he told the
Polish-American Century Club in Hamtramck, Mich.
At his side were Mayor Coleman Young of Detroit and Sen. Don
Riegle.
In Flint, Jackson named rivals Dukakis and Gore and said he was
outspent 50-to-1 by them in the South ``yet we got the most votes.''
``If they had my budget, they would surrender. If I had their
budget, they could not compete,'' he said.
Later, Jackson spoke at a Baptist church where the crowd was so
large that people stood outside unable to get in.
Gore began suggesting that the Wisconsin primary on April 5 will
be where he tries again to win one from Dukakis and Jackson, who he
suggested are more liberal than he. In Detroit, Gore took the
opportunity of a question on his defense ideas to restate his claim
to be the moderate among the Democrats.
``It's not conservative. I've never used that word. Let me
hasten to add, you don't have to be very far to the right to be to
the right of this crowd,'' he said.
Dukakis held a slim lead over Jackson in the AP delegate count,
with 548.55 votes to 520.55 for the civil rights leaders. Gore had
362.8 votes, Gephardt, 154 and Simon 171.5. A total of 354.6 votes
are currently in the uncommitted column.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
On Aug. 25, 1986, Dorrian's Red Hand was just
another bar on Manhattan's Upper East Side catering to the young
and upwardly mobile: a hangout for yuppies and preppies, where the
Izod crowd came to knock back a few.
Twenty-four hours later, all that changed.
With the death of Jennifer Dawn Levin early on the morning of
Aug. 26, Dorrian's became _ fairly or unfairly _ a symbol of
youthful decadence, of teen-agers with too much money and no place
to go.
Among them was Robert Chambers Jr., who sat at the bar drinking
shots of tequila with beer chasers the night he killed Miss Levin.
``He fouled everybody's life up,'' bar owner John F. ``Jack''
Dorrian said recently. ``Who needs this guy?''
After Miss Levin's death, investigators returned to Dorrian's
and closed the bar for 10 days for serving underage patrons in
November 1986. Dorrian has put the bar up for sale; no buyer has
been found.
Chambers, now 21, had been a regular at Dorrian's. He also was a
college dropout who had a very proper upbringing.
Dinner at the Chambers house, located next to the former Andrew
Carnegie mansion a few blocks north of Dorrian's, ``always had
silver involved,'' said Ralph Destino, a friend of Chambers,
shortly after Chambers' arrest.
Chambers apparently had no steady job at the time of his arrest,
yet was drinking and flirting ``five or six nights a week'' at
Dorrian's, said its owner.
Interviews in the months since the slaying indicate that
Dorrian's remains attractive, a place where young people can gather
in front of an ornate fireplace and play backgammon at the tables.
Regulars said they avoided Dorrian's after Miss Levin died,
fearing the bar had been taken over by the curious. But the young
men and women who grew up in the wealthy neighborhood and knew one
another in the best prep schools came back.
Miss Levin was not a regular at Dorrian's but was known there.
Patrons don't talk much about the case, they said.
``I come here when I feel like sitting around like I'm in my
living room,'' said Alyssa Donati, 21, who said she has been
frequenting Dorrian's for five years.
Dorrian himself knows who's who in the bar; he can point out the
child of a well-known writer and the daughter of a presidential
adviser. John Zaccaro Jr., son of ex-Democratic vice presidential
nominee Geraldine Ferraro, was tending bar the night of the death.
Chambers would no longer be welcome, Dorrian said. Other
regulars would say tourists, out-of-towners and the curious are not
welcome either.
``Parents like their kids to come here,'' Miss Donati said.
``Here they know the people are from at least good families,
they've been to good colleges, and they're not out to rape people.''
Want'</HEAD>
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Gov. Evan Mecham, defending himself
against charges he misused $80,000 from a protocol fund, said he
was never told it was public money and was given carte blanche to
do nearly anything he wanted with it.
Mecham testified at his Senate impeachment trial Friday that
when the proceeds of his inaugural ball were converted into a
protocol fund, nobody questioned whether it should be considered
public money instead of private.
Mecham, taking the stand for the second time in his trial, said
inaugural committee Chairman Bill Long told him, ``We've gone
through all of this rigamarole'' in determining that the inaugural
funds could not be used to pay off campaign debts.
Mecham said Long told him, ```You can spend it for any damn
thing you want' _ those are his words _ `except you can't spend it
for politics or for personal living expenses.'''
Mecham is accused of misusing $80,000 from the $92,000 protocol
fund by loaning it to his car dealership, Mecham Pontiac.
The governor is scheduled to resume testifying Monday.
Mecham has testified on the first charge against him: that he
tried to thwart an investigation of an alleged death threat by a
state employee.
The Senate plans to begin hearing testimony next week on the
third charge: that Mecham concealed a $350,000 campaign loan.
Mecham, 63, also faces a recall election May 17 and an April 21
criminal trial on six felony charges of hiding the $350,000 loan.
The prosecution contends the protocol fund was state money, and
that Mecham Pontiac needed the loan to meet its July payroll. A
prosecution witness testified earlier this week that the dealership
had about $3.7 million in loans against an appraised value of $3.35
million.
Prosecutors have said Mecham tried to conceal the $80,000 loan.
Mecham and his 37-year-old son, Dennis, who has been the
dealership's general manager since his father ran for governor in
1986, sought to paint a rosier financial picture.
Dennis Mecham said he borrowed the money simply because his
father offered it in an effort to get a higher interest rate for
the protocol fund. He said he could always use additional capital
in an effort to generate more profits.
``The rumor mill has been rampant about Mecham Pontiac since day
one. We've had our lives, every scrap of it, demonstrated to our
competitors ... and God and his angels,'' the younger Mecham said.
Defense attorney Jerris Leonard led the governor through a
series of calculations that he said showed that Mecham Pontiac had
$2.5 million worth of unencumbered property.
Later, Leonard told reporters, ``The numbers are obvious. There
was at least $2.5 million worth of real estate value behind an
$80,000 loan. I'll take that deal anytime.''
However, the governor acknowledged that in July 1987 _ the same
month the $80,000 loan was made _ he was notified that he was
behind on repaying a $101,905 loan from Valley National Bank.
``Quite frankly, I wasn't watching my details,'' Mecham said.
``I was a little red-faced when this caught up with me.'' He said
he paid part of the loan and refinanced the rest in a transaction
handled by telephone.
A two-thirds vote of the 30-member Senate is required to convict
Mecham, and lawmakers also could decide to bar him from holding any
future office. Mecham is the first U.S. governor to be impeached in
six decades.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Robert Joffrey, the acclaimed choreographer
whose vision created the Joffrey Ballet and made it one of the
nation's foremost dance companies, has died after a lengthy
illness. He was 57.
Joffrey died early Friday at New York University Medical Center
of liver, kidney and respiratory failure, hospital spokeswoman
Terrie LoCicero said.
As artistic director of the Joffrey Ballet for three decades,
Joffrey guided the troupe from its early days as a struggling
six-member company traveling in a borrowed station wagon to
international acclaim.
``Robert Joffrey brought an unbridled passion for ballet in
every form to our profession,'' said Mikhail Baryshnikov, artistic
director of the American Ballet Theater.
``His love of the heritage of ballet was an inspiration to
everyone,'' Baryshnikov said. ``He was also committed to seeking
out new choreographers and often was not afraid to put the most
untried choreographers on a ballet stage for the first time. We
salute his taste and his ingenuity.''
The Joffrey Ballet, appearing in Chicago, dedicated Friday
night's performance to its founder.
Joffrey became ill in April 1986. He was diagnosed as having
severe myositis, which causes deterioration of the muscles,
enlarged liver and asthma. Medication that he was receiving for
asthma and the muscle condition caused his fatal liver ailment,
hospital spokeswoman Pennie Curry said.
Because of his asthma, a doctor had recommended that Joffrey
take up dancing as a 9-year-old to improve his health.
Joffrey was born Abdullah Jaffa Anver Bey Khan in Seattle on
Dec. 24, 1930, the son of an Italian mother and an Afghan father.
He started dance classes in Seattle, also studied at the School
of American Ballet in New York and studied with two modern-dance
teachers.
His short performance career began with a solo concert of his
own works in Seattle. He danced with Roland Petit's Ballets de
Paris in 1949; from 1950 to 1952 he sometimes danced in the concert
group of one of his teachers, May O'Donnell.
The Robert Joffrey Ballet Concert performed at a New York YMHA
in 1954, but Joffrey dated the founding of his company to 1956,
when he taught six dancers four pieces he had choreographed and
sent them on an 11-state tour in a borrowed station wagon.
Within 10 years of that tour, the Joffrey Ballet had performed
at the White House, in the Soviet Union and the Far East.
The Joffrey now ranks with the New York City Ballet and American
Ballet Theater as one of America's big three ballet companies.
``He had a passion and a love for dance. He loved to bring dance
to parts of the world that had never seen it,'' said Gary Chryst, a
member of the Joffrey troupe for 11 years and one of its best-known
dancers.
``Robert Joffrey was one of a handful of artists who made their
personal visions into a public statement. The company he started
will continue to bring that vision to audiences all over America,''
said Charles B. Raymond, managing director of the New York City
Ballet.
Among Joffrey's accomplishments was his recreation of Vaslov
Nijinsky's 1913 ``The Rite of Spring.'' Joffrey engaged two dance
historians to recreate the ballet, danced only eight times
previously. It premiered in September 1987 in Los Angeles.
His own ballets include ``The Nutcracker'' in 1987 and his
striking 1967 ``Astarte,'' in which a couple dance in front of a
billowing white silk curtain on which a movie of them dancing is
projected.
He left no immediate survivors.
The funeral will be private. A memorial service will be
scheduled later.
^By RODOLFO GARCIA</BYLINE>
<NEW DOCUMENT>
The nation's largest opposition
coalition praised the Sandinista-Contra peace accord but assailed
the government's pact to negotiate political reform with a small
segment of the opposition.
In other developments Friday, the Sandinista government's
newspaper Barricada said citizens should now prepare for
ideological warfare. And the U.S.-supported Contra rebels indicated
they would resume fighting if reconciliation talks don't achieve
greater political freedom.
The Defense Ministry said a 5-day-old cease-fire appeared to be
holding.
The Nicaraguan Democratic Coordinate, a coalition of four
leading political parties, two labor unions and professional and
business organizations, said Wednesday's peace accord represented
``positive advances to obtain real and effective peace in
Nicaragua.''
But the coalition rejected the `National Dialogue'' agreement
the leftist government signed two days earlier with eight smaller
political parties not affiliated with the Coordinate.
In a statement, it called the agreement ``contrary to the
interest of the people of Nicaragua in their efforts (to promote)
democratization and freedom.''
By signing the pact, the Sandinistas sought to separate
negotiations on democratic reform from talks with the Contras, the
Coordinate said.
The Sandinistas and Contras agreed Wednesday to maintain their
cease-fire until June 1, hoping negotiations to begin April 6 in
Managua will by then have forged a lasting peace.
The Contras agreed not to accept any more U.S. military aid.
Under the agreement, reached in the southern border town of
Sapoa, the Sandinistas promised a gradual amnesty and unrestricted
freedom of expression that would allow the Contras a role in
Nicaragua's political process.
But the Contras' future political role is unclear _ and that
concerns the Coordinate. Under the Sapoa agreement, up to eight
Contra leaders would be allowed to participate in the so-called
National Dialogue.
Ramiro Gurdian, Coordinate vice president, said he hoped Contras
will begin a ``tripartite dialogue'' with the government and the
Coordinate.
The National Dialogue, begun in October with 15 opposition
parties, reached an impasse two months later when the government
refused to discuss opposition proposals for modifying a new
constitution that went into effect in January.
Carlos Huembes, president of the Coordinate, said Friday that
domestic economic and political pressures, as well as international
opinion, had forced the Sandinistas to the negotiating table.
``We all know about the decomposition and lack of political
pluralism existing in Nicaragua. We all know and understand the
economic crisis the Sandinista government is foundering in and the
lack of international credibility and aid that the Sandinista front
has lost,'' he said.
Barricada said in an editorial that the cease-fire agreement
means the 6-year-old civil war will enter a new phase: ``On an
internal political level, this means the incorporation of pressure
groups, that even though disarmed, continue to be armed
ideologically against the popular power and its conquests.''
Jorge Rosales, a Contra spokesman in Miami, indicated that if
democracy is not achieved through the Sapoa accords, the Contras
could renew their armed fight: ``If we can't do it peacefully, if
the Sandinsitas do not want to achieve democracy, then the reasons
Nicaraguans took up arms will still be there.''
Carlos Huembes, president of the Coordinate, said Friday that
domestic economic and political pressures, as well as international
opinion, had forced the Sandinistas to the negotiating table.
``We all know about the decomposition and lack of political
pluralism existing in Nicaragua. We all know and understand the
economic crisis the Sandinista government is foundering in and the
lack of international credibility and aid that the Sandinista front
has lost,'' he said.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
The 3,200 U.S. troops President
Reagan sent to counter Nicaragua's alleged military incursion into
Honduras will return home Monday after an 11-day stay, U.S.
military officials said.
On Friday, the light infantry and paratroopers continued joint
training exercises with Honduran troops at four bases throughout
the country, said Cap. Brian DeLoche, a public affairs officer at
Palmerola Air Base.
In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Maj. Mike Stepp said the
soldiers from the 7th Infantry Division and the 82nd Airborne
Division, sent to Palmerola March 17 ``will begin redeploying from
Honduras to their home bases in California and North Carolina on
Monday.''
Honduran President Jose Azcona Hoyo had asked for the troops
after Sandinista troops allegedly crossed the border in pursuit of
Contra rebels.
On Wednesday, Contra and Sandinista leaders signed an agreement
to continue until June 1 a cease-fire that began Monday with the
hope they can forge a lasting peace.
The U.S. soldiers' arrival from Fort Bragg, N.C., and Fort Ord,
Calif., boosted the American military presence here to more than
6,000 personnel. The deployment was intended only as a show of
force.
Calm prevailed along the border on Friday, government officials
said.
``It's peaceful on the border with Nicaragua because there are
no Nicaraguan troops,'' said presidential spokesman Lisandro
Quesado.
At the height of the alleged incursion, Sandinista troops
penetrated an area of about 36 square miles in the border province
of Olancho during their pursuit of more than 1,000 Contra fighters,
Honduran military intelligence sources said.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
A young Irishman, in jail on a murder charge
while the woman who crossed an ocean to see him lies comatose, says
he hopes they still can have a life together.
``I'm scared out of my wits,'' Daniel Stokes, 21, said in a
telephone interview Friday from the Cook County Jail, where he is
being held on a murder charge that could bring the death penalty if
he is convicted.
Margaret Hanley, who flew from her home in Ireland to see Stokes
in jail, remains in a coma at Weiss Memorial Hospital after being
hit by a car on St. Patrick's Day. She is in critical condition.
``I hope that one day I should walk away from this and make a
life for both of us,'' Stokes said.
Stokes and Miss Hanley met in August 1987, when Stokes returned
to Ireland from Chicago, where his mother lives and he lived
briefly.
Miss Hanley, 22, was an actress for Stokes' father, a theater
company owner in Dublin, Stokes said. That's where their love story
began.
``I met her the very day I got off the plane. She was over at my
house. She came over on her tea break because she and my sister are
best friends,'' Stokes recalled.
Romance ``was in the air,'' he said. ``We got very serious after
a couple of weeks. We found that we were very compatible.''
But Stokes, a cabinetmaker, found hard economic times in Dublin,
so he returned to Chicago in November.
On Dec. 29, Stokes was charged with bludgeoning his landlord to
death in the man's apartment, said Lisa Howard, a spokeswoman for
the Cook County State's Attorney's office.
Stokes allegedly took hundreds of dollars and the man's car
before fleeing, she said. He is charged with first-degree murder,
residential burglary, armed robbery, home invasion, armed violence,
and possession of stolen motor vehicle, Ms. Howard said.
Stokes, who declined to discuss the case, pleaded innocent and
has a pretrial hearing scheduled for March 31.
Despite the murder charge, Miss Hanley and Stokes' sister Susie,
20, flew to Chicago on Feb. 23. Miss Hanley knew Stokes was in
jail, but wanted to help him, he said.
She wrote him letters ``saying that no matter what, she wanted
to be there for me,'' Stokes said.
Their reunion at the jail ``was very emotional,'' he said. ``I
think she was more or less speechless.
``I was delighted, I was overwhelmed because it proved something
to me ... that a woman willing to travel 1,000 miles to see me must
be worth keeping.''
But he said ``the emotional stress of seeing me behind bars''
was hard for Miss Hanley to accept.
She called her family, telling them she planned to return home
March 18.
``She said she'd explain it all to us later,'' said her father,
Stephen Hanley.
But she was hit by the car March 17.
Her parents flew to Chicago after the accident and have kept a
vigil at their daughter's bedside.
Stokes said he still hopes he and Miss Hanley will be together
again.
``I'm madly in love with her. There's something there that no
other woman has shown,'' Stokes said.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
The United Nations will send a team of
experts to Iran next week to examine victims of poison gas attacks
blamed on Iraq that killed thousands of people.
Iran said the chemical attacks have been aimed at Kurdish rebels
in a portion of northeastern Iraq claims to have captured. A
Kurdish leader asked Friday for medical aid for the victims.
In a related development Friday, Iran's U.N. ambassador,
Mohammad Ja'afar Mahallati, said Tehran would send a special
emissary to the United Nations for talks on seeking an end to the
7{-year-old Iran-Iraq war.
Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar had requested the
talks and the U.N. decision to send the team to Iran was an
apparent compromise.
Earlier Friday, Mahallati had accused the United Nations of
foot-dragging on Iran's request for a U.N. mission to investigate
allegations Iraq used chemical weapons on Kurdish rebels, in
violation of international agreements.
He had indicated that lack of action on the request could lead
to delays in reaching a cease-fire, as called for in a July
resolution passed by the U.N. Security Council.
``It means if the United Nations remains inactive regarding all
aspects of the war, a political solution would be more and more
difficult,'' Mahallati told a news conference.
A Kurdish rebel leader appealed for urgent medical aid for
Kurdish villagers he said were affected by Iraqi poison gas attacks
this week.
``The situation is getting desperate as we do not have any
facilities to cope,'' said a statement issued by the office of
Massud Barzani's Kurdish Democratic Party in London.
The statement claimed at least 50 Kurdish villagers were killed
and scores wounded in the last such chemical weapons attack
Thursday, when Iraqi planes bombed Seyo and Senan villages in
northeastern Iraq.
The villages are near Halabja, where Iran said 5,000 Kurds died
last week after an alleged Iraqi air raid with internationally
banned poison gas bombs.
After late-afternoon consultations with Perez de Cuellar,
Mahallati announced that the expert mission would arrive in Iran on
Monday and an Iranian emissary would meet with the
secretary-general in New York.
The United Nations had been hesitant to send a team to the scene
of the purported attack because it is in Iraqi territory now held
by Iran. Baghdad has not granted permission for such a mission to
visit its territory.
The United Nations has investigated and condemned Iraq for using
chemical weapons in previous years, but those incidents occurred on
Iranian territory.
Perez de Cuellar said Iraq agreed to send a special envoy for
talks April 4-5. Mahallati would not say when the Iranian emissary
would meet with the secretary-general.
Francois Giuliani, Perez de Cuellar's spokesman, confirmed the
two-person team, including a doctor, will be sent to Iran to see
chemical attack victims.
Iraq claims Iran was responsible was the gas attacks, but Perez
de Cuellar said Friday that it appeared Baghdad was at fault.
``Sadly, there is considerable and most serious evidence in the
public domain that chemical weapons have again been used by Iraqi
forces in the past few days, causing a high number of casualties,
including civilians of both Iran and Iraq,'' he said in a statement.
Massud Barzani's party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan have
been fighting the Iraqi government with Iranian support in recent
years, seeking autonomy for the 3.5 million Iraqi Kurds.
Iraq has been condemned by the United Nations on four previous
occasions since 1984 for using chemical weapons in its war with
Iran.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Contra leader Adolfo Calero says the newly signed
cease-fire pact with the Sandinistas is an ``acid test'' of the
Nicaraguan government's sincerity, and the rebels will keep their
weapons just in case.
``We're not signing off any leverage, any power,'' Calero said
Friday on his return from Sapoa, Nicaragua, where the pact was
signed.
``We're keeping our weapons,'' he said. ``We aren't simply
letting things develop any other way except the way they're
signed.''
Calero, one of three top rebels who signed the preliminary peace
accord Wednesday in hopes of ending the bitter seven-year civil
war, acknowledged his skepticism toward the Sandinista government.
``We feel this is the acid test that will bring the Sandinistas
to the moment of truth,'' Calero said. ``If they don't comply, it
will be very difficult for anyone to believe them.
``We have the right to break this accord if they don't comply,''
he said.
President Reagan and Nicaraugan exiles living in Miami have
expressed doubt that Nicaragua's Marxist-led government will live
up to the agreement. Some exiles have criticized the rebel
leadership for negotiating the truce.
Silvio Arguello Cardenal, a former vice president of Nicaragua,
told The Miami Herald it would be ``political suicide'' for the
rebels to turn in their weapons before the country was fully
democratic.
``There is no guarantee, just a Sandinista promise,'' Cardenal
said.
Calero said the decision to sign the agreement was one that had
to be made, whether or not the exiles favored it.
``This is a good decision,'' he told a news conference at Miami
International Airport. ``We had the courage to make it ... and
strength to make sure that if it fails, we can hold our own.''
The Nicaraguan Resistance, a Contra umbrella group, was
completely behind the agreement, Calero said.
``I think all this talk on the local radio stations that we've
sold out to the Sandinistas, I don't think we have,'' said Contra
spokeswoman Marta Sacasa. ``Some exiles don't really understand the
situation well.''
The resistance assembly, which regularly meets to discuss
developments, began a three-day, closed-door conference here Friday
and planned to review the nine-point agreement signed with the
Sandinistas, Ms. Sacasa said.
Under the peace accord, the temporary truce now in effect would
run into a 60-day cease-fire starting April 1. On Monday,
government and rebel commissions will meet to designate zones the
rebels will occupy for the 60 days.
As Contras move into the zones, the Sandinistas will begin
releasing political prisoners including Contras and former members
of the pre-revolutionary National Guard.
Negotiations are to resume April 6 on a permanent cease-fire,
including terms of rebel disarmament.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Police and firefighters declared
victory and ended a two-day sick-out after city officials agreed to
meet with them and appoint a commission to investigate workers'
wage complaints.
The ``blue flu'' began Thursday after the city announced a 2
percent pay raise for city employees to take effect July 1. Police
and firefighters complained the raise was inadequate and would be
devoured by higher city garbage fees that would be used in part to
fund the pay raises.
The officers and firefighters ignored back-to-work orders from
the city council, mayor and a circuit judge, but began returning to
work Friday afternoon.
Officers will meet with five city council members Monday to
discuss their grievances, said police Cpl. Monon Taylor, president
of the Fraternal Order of Police chapter.
``We got what we wanted _ a meeting with the council,'' Taylor
said. ``We haven't discussed money yet, but we feel we're worth
more than 2 percent.''
Officers are hoping for a 5 percent pay increase, Taylor said.
But Mayor Chuck Gardner said there was no money for larger
raises. ``Let them come forward and show me where the money is,''
he added.
Earlier Friday, Gardner ordered police and firefighters to end
their walkout and threatened to fire those who ignored the order.
But Patrolman Andrew Pickens said the threat had no effect on
the decision to return to work.
``I think they're eager to come back,'' Pickens said. ``It took
a lot for us to take off work. We didn't come back because the
mayor said to. If we didn't come back for a circuit judge, we
wouldn't come back for the mayor.''
Taylor added, ``We think we got our point across.''
After the walkout ended, Gardner lifted a civil emergency
declaration he issued Thursday.
Firefighters and police who returned to work faced no
punishment, Gardner said, but must have a doctor's excuse.
Officers who had been off the job said they were collecting the
required excuses. Taylor said he visited a doctor Thursday to
obtain an excuse because of ``an old, nagging backache.''
``I think everyone will have a doctor's excuse,'' Taylor said.
The city budget, approved Monday, includes appropriations for
165 policemen, 147 firefighters and 10 paramedics. The 2 percent
raise averages $438 per employee annually, city officials say.
Salaries for uniformed police officers range from $18,589 for a
patrol officer with three years' experience to $27,673 for a
captain with 20 years' experience.
City firefighters' pay ranges from $18,409 for a first-year
firefighter to $27,673 for an assistant fire chief with 20 years'
experience.
Spaceport</HEAD>
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Gov. Bob Martinez wants to develop
America's first commercial spaceport here, but the project faces a
number of hurdles and an uncertain future.
Martinez said Friday that he will ask the Legislature next week
for $500,000 for a feasibility study of the project called
Spaceport Florida.
He was vague about how the spaceport would be developed and
operated, saying only that ``we feel with the money we can acquire
the necessary consultation and advice.''
If the Legislature approves the money, part of a supplemental
budget request, the state Department of Commerce will seek bids on
a feasibility study that would begin in July.
However, legislative leaders already have warned they expect
difficulty finding money for new programs in the 1988 session
beginning April 5.
The governor spoke Friday to about 80 aerospace executives and
legislative leaders outside the Space Museum at the Cape Canaveral
Air Force Station.
Martinez said the facilities at Cape Canaveral and the adjacent
Kennedy Space Center give Florida a clear advantage over Hawaii and
other states contemplating developing facilities for commercial
launches.
``We have the tracking systems, the launch pads, the support
services, and most importantly we have the people to make Spaceport
Florida a reality,'' he said.
Asked how a commercial customer would benefit from going to
Spaceport Florida rather than dealing directly with a rocket maker,
as is done now, Martinez replied, ``Maybe our role is to provide
the opportunities for the companies to do business.
``We could guarantee them a launch date months in advance,'' he
added.
Before reporters could ask how, he cut off questioning.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Air
Force have launch pad priority. It is doubtful Spaceport Florida
could guarantee a launch date unless it builds its own launch pads,
control centers and tracking facilities, an expensive undertaking.
All launch facilities in the United States are controlled by the
federal government, and commercial payloads such as communications
satellites have to compete for rocket space with NASA and Defense
Department launches.
U.S. launches have been scarce since the space shuttle
Challenger and two major unmanned rockets exploded in 1986. This
has created a huge backlog of payloads, and the military and NASA
will have priority when shuttle flights resume, now scheduled for
August.
The United States is building a new family of unmanned rockets,
but these are also heavly booked by the Pentagon, NASA and
commercial customers dealing directly with rocket makers.
Many American companies are seeking launch services from the
Europeans and Japanese, but those launch pads also are crowded.
``Because of the backlog of commercial payloads, there is a
great demand in the private sector for launch facilities,''
Martinez said.
``Our goal is to launch one commercial mission each month from
Spaceport Florida,'' he said. ``At the current rate of $45 million
per launch, this would directly inject $540 million per year into
our state's economy.''
He predicted the spaceport also would attract much of the
private sector space industry, which he projected would be worth
$60 billion by the end of the century.
Straight Year</HEAD>
<NEW DOCUMENT>
=
<NEW DOCUMENT>
China's finance minister says the government's
$71.2 billion budget will run a multibillion-dollar deficit for a
third straight year despite plans to impose new taxes, issue more
treasury bonds and slash spending.
And in a speech today, Vice Premier Yao Yilin warned the
National People's Congress that ``wining and dining and giving
gifts out of public funds have become a bane to society.''
Finance Minister Wang Bingqian, addressing the congress Friday,
said China's deficit in 1988 will be 8 billion yuan ($2.2 billion),
the same as in 1987 and up slightly from 1986.
Wang urged greater controls over government taxing and finances,
saying tax evasion, withholding of profits, extortion and doctored
accounts have led to ``loss of an enormous amount of state revenue
and ... also sabotaged party policies and principles.''
He said substantial revenues are needed as China transforms its
socialist economy to a more market-oriented model and strives for
rapid economic growth.
``It therefore will be hard to eliminate the deficit within the
next two or three years,'' Wang said, speaking on the second day of
the annual congress, which is China's legislature.
In his speech Friday, Acting Premier Li Peng stressed that China
must make greater efforts to control inflation and increase
agricultural production as it forges ahead with economic reforms.
Wang said state revenues rose 6 percent in 1987 to $63.4 billion
while expenditures also rose 6 percent to $65.6 billion. The draft
budget for 1988 calls for revenues of $69 billion.
He said $3.5 billion in revenues will come from foreign loans,
up from $2.8 billion in 1987, and that increased revenues will also
be sought by imposing a new tax on land use in urban areas. In
addition, state treasury bonds worth $2.4 billion will be issued,
$811 million more than last year.
Wang said the government will continue to suppress spending on
capital construction and hold down administrative costs, steps
taken after overall spending jumped 20.1 percent in 1985.
He said the state will substantially boost spending in
agriculture, up 14.6 percent in 1988 to $4.2 billion.
Officials have stressed the need for more investment in rural
areas following several years of listless grain production and a
trend among individual farmers to use profits to build houses and
buy TVs rather than further develop their land.
The budget for capital construction is slated to fall about 4.5
percent to $17.1 billion; education, science and public health is
to receive $12 billion, up 15 percent; and defense is allotted $5.8
billion, up 5 percent.
Yao, who also heads the State Planning Commission, asked
high-spending officials to remember ``China is as yet very
underdeveloped economically, with numerous tasks to undertake and
inadequate funds and materials.''
He outlined four goals for 1988, topped by the promotion of
agriculture production.
Yao said China will continue to reform its pricing system so
that prices, now kept artificially low by government subsidies,
better reflect market values. Local authorities will provide direct
subsidies to workers to help compensate for price rises of those
foodstuffs that are rationed, he said.
The second goal is building up the nation's infrastructure to
provide the materials and energy, now often in short supply, needed
for expanding industries.
Third, he said, more emphasis will be put on improving science
and technology levels, as well as the education system.
Finally the government should back the proposal, put forth by
party chief Zhao Ziyang, to open up coastal regions for
export-oriented industries.
Yao said the government will set up national investment
corporations to better monitor projects and reform China's foreign
trade system to make it more responsive to the international market.
Yao predicted the gross national product, which topped $270
billion in 1987, will grow by 7.5 percent in 1988. Agricultural
production will rise 4 percent, and industrial output by 8 percent,
he said.
He did not estimate the inflation rate, which has run at
double-digit levels in the past year, but said incomes ``will be
slightly higher'' than last year after adjustments for price rises.
Killed</HEAD>
<NEW DOCUMENT>
About 200 leftist guerrillas
blasted their way into the country's largest prison and battled
guards, allowing about 10 inmates to escape and killing two prison
workers, officials said.
No guerrilla casualties were reported in half-hour battle Friday.
The rebels entered the Mariona penitentiary, just north of the
capital of San Salvador, by blowing a hole in its wall, Gen.
Rinaldo Golcher, deputy security minister, told reporters. The
facility normally holds 1,000 inmates.
Seven guards were wounded by rifle fire and grenade shrapnel and
``some prisoners'' also were injured, Golcher said, adding that 10
inmates escaped as the guerrillas withdrew.
A guard interviewed by journalists as he left the prison said
two civilian employees were killed. Some inmates set fires as the
rebels launched their attack in the early afternoon, according to
the guard.
He said ``about 200'' guerrillas launched the assault. Golcher
said a large number managed to get into the prison grounds during
the ``very strong'' attack.
A first-aid worker said three civilian employees suffered
serious bullet wounds and were taken by ambulances to hospitals.
Journalists were kept hundreds of yards away from the
penitentiary as scores of soldiers were rushed to the prison. Two
helicopters flew over the compound.
Officials did not give a breakdown on the number of common
criminals and the number of rebels held in Mariona.
The guerrillas have been fighting the U.S.-backed government
since 1979.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
BOGOTA, Colombia _ Two and a half years after killing 23,000
people, a volcano rumbled back to life, sending ash miles upward,
spewing fresh lava and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of
farmers from surrounding hillsides.
The Nevada del Ruiz volcano's activity had stabilized by Friday
night and there appeared to be little immediate danger of a major
eruption, said Eduardo Parra, director of Colombia's Volcano
Institute in Manizales.
``The evacuations are for avoiding any ugly surprises,'' he said
in a communique.
Airline pilots reported seeing steam and ash rising to 28,000
feet above the volcano, the Colombian Civil Aeronautics
Administration said.
About 1,900 people in the villages of Libano, Murillo and
Palestina, all on the volcano's western slope, were being moved out
Friday night, the government's National Emergency Committee said in
a communique.
Before dark Friday, about 600 people living on farms on the
sides of the volanco were evacuated, the emergency committee said.
The Volcano Institute upgraded its alert at nightfall Friday,
advising people living along rivers up to 20 miles away to be ready
to flee if the volcano erupts.
An estimated 50,000 people live within a 15-mile radius of the
volcano in what is considered the danger zone if there is a major
eruption.
The Andes Seismological Institute in Bogota said it was
recording almost constant tremors, but none strong enough to
register on the Richter scale.
The river danger zones were established by a National Emergency
Committee after the devastating Nov. 13, 1985 eruption. They
includes the rivers Guali, Lagunilla, Azufrado, Recio and Sabandija
to the east of the volcano and the Chinchinica River to the west.
Residents of Honda, 20 miles northeast of the volcano and at the
confluence of the Guali and Magdalena Rivers, suspended their
annual fishing festival.
The dancing, parades, parties and heavy drinking mark the
movement of millions of fish up rivers to spawn, a boon to
fishermen.
Sight of the awesome column of steam and ash sobered up many
revelers, the RCN radio network said.
About a quarter-inch of ash covered the town of Manizales about
20 miles to the northwest of the volcano, RCN reported. Manizales
is not considered to be in danger because it is outside the
flooding zones.
Friday's volcanic activity was the highest since the 1985
eruption, when melting glaciers on the volcano created flooding
that left trees, boulders and other debris blocking the Lagunilla
River on the western slope.
The blockage burst, and a 10-story-high wall of mud roared down
the river canyon, burst onto a plain and wiped out the town of
Armero in seconds.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
``His love of the heritage of ballet was an inspiration to
everyone.'' _ Mikhail Baryshnikov, on the death of Robert Joffrey,
founder of the Joffrey Ballet.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
``President Reagan has contributed to a prejudicial climate
which could make it extremely difficult to get an unbiased jury in
these cases'' _ Senate Majority Whip Alan Cranston, D-Calif.,
commenting on Reagan's prediction that former White House aides
Oliver L. North and John M. Poindexter will be acquitted of charges
in the Iran-Contra affair.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
``A man is not the problem. The problem is Panama's canal and
the presence of a foreign army in our territory.'' _ Gen. Manuel
Antonio Noriega of Panama, who claims the United States is behind
his nation's unrest and has rejected calls to step down.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Unidentified gunmen killed the military
commander of Yasser Arafat's Fatah guerrilla group in a shootout at
the Ein el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon,
police reported today.
The PLO commander, Farid Hourani, was killed in a 30-minute gun
battle Friday in the camp on the southeastern outskirts of the port
city of Sidon, 25 miles south of Beirut, police said.
Three Fatah guerrillas with Hourani were wounded, police said,
who gave no other details of the shootout.
There have been frequent clashes between Palestinian guerrilla
factions supporting Arafat and those who oppose the Palestine
Liberation Organization leader's policies.
Ein el-Hilweh, the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon,
houses 30,000 refugees registered with the United Nations Relief
and Works Agency.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
President Eisenhower considered dropping nuclear
bombs on Communist China in the 1950s to defend the Nationalist
Chinese islands of Quemoy and Matsu, a historian says.
Eisenhower ``actually brought the country to the `nuclear
brink,' far closer to war than a distraught public feared in
1955,'' said Gordon H. Chang, a historian at the International
Strategic Institute at Stanford University.
Chang, citing declassified documents, made the comment in an
article for the spring issue of the Harvard University-based
journal International Security.
``The possibility of using nuclear weapons was indeed
considered,'' said a former senior counselor to Eisenhower,
speaking on condition of anonymity.
``The president was definitely considering this alternative,''
the former official said Friday. ``The use that was discussed was
of small nuclear weapons to be used against mainland airbases which
were close enough to Quemoy and Matsu to provide air cover.''
The official said the tentative plan called for several atomic
bombs of 10 to 15 kilotons each _ about the yield of the bomb that
destroyed the Japanese city of Hiroshima _ to be dropped on the
coastal air bases, whiche were in populated areas.
Eisenhower and key aides were aware that civilian casualties
could number in the millions from such attacks, the official said.
Consideration of a nuclear attack began little more than a year
after Eisenhower conditionally approved a plan in May 1953 to end
the lingering Korean War with a full-scale military attack that
might have included the use of atomic weapons against the Chinese.
When the Chinese began shelling Quemoy in September 1954, acting
Secretary of Defense Robert Anderson alerted Eisenhower that the
intensity of the attack on the Nationalist Chinese-held island
seemed to herald an all-out assault.
``Over the next nine months, the United States, in support of
the Nationalists' defense of these islands, lurched toward
disaster,'' Chang wrote.
But the Communist Chinese unexpectedly defused tensions. On
April 23, 1955, Premier Zhou Enlai announced that his government
was willing to negotiate with the United States on the reduction of
tensions in the Taiwan area.
Chang, in a telephone interview from Palo Alto, Calif., said
much of his article was based on material declassified in the last
two or three years.
He cited an excerpt that he said records the substance of a
March 28, 1955, discussion between Secretary of State John Foster
Dulles and Robert Bowie, head of Eisenhower's policy planning staff.
``Mr. Bowie advanced the idea that we might serve notice that if
the CHICOMs (Chinese Communists) took Quemoy and Matsu, we would in
future, from time to time, drop a bomb on them, in order to
neutralize them and give the CHICOMs no advantage by their
capture,'' the excerpt said.
``The secretary disagreed, saying that this would be a
considerable waste of armament; and we would accomplish nothing but
the killing of a number of harmless fishermen, whom the CHICOMS
would put on the island in such an event,'' it said.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
A wintry storm packing snow and winds gusting to 35 mph blew
through the upper Midwest today as rain fell in the Northwest and
the Gulf Coast states.
Snow and gusts of 25-35 mph cut visibility to near zero between
Fargo, N.D. and Barnsville, Minn.
Showers and a few thunderstorms lined the Gulf Coast from
Mississippi through northern Florida late Friday, causing heavy
downpours and local flooding.
Flood warnings were posted for the lower Pearl and Bogue Chitto
rivers in southeast Louisiana.
Five to 7 inches of rain fell north of Franklinton and Bogalusa,
La., on Friday, triggering sharp rises in the river levels.
Thunderstorms produced three-quarters of an inch of rain within an
hour late Friday at Mobile, Ala.
Showers and isolated thunderstorms traveled ahead of a cold
front slowly moving across the Ohio and Tennessee valleys Friday
night. Thunderstorms produced small hail and gusty winds across a
small part of southeast Kentucky. A half-inch of rain was reported
across northwest Ohio, prompting flood warnings for the Tiffin and
St. Joseph rivers. Showers also extended from upstate New York into
Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Other rain showers and thunderstorms were scattered across
northern and central Missouri, and showers were scattered across
the Northwest.
Heavier rainfall in six hours overnight included nearly 1\
inches at Mobile and nearly three-quarters of an inch at Rochester,
N.Y.
Today's forecast called for scattered showers and thunderstorms
along the East Coast from southern New England to northern Florida
and in southern Mississippi and Louisiana; rain showers in the
northern and central Appalachians, the upper Ohio Valley and the
southern Great Lakes; snowshowers from northern Michigan to
northern Minnesota; and rain from the Northwest to northwest
Montana.
High temperatures were expected to be in the 20s or 30s from
northern Michigan across Minnesota to eastern North Dakota; the 40s
or 50s in portions of New England and from the Great Lakes region
to Illinois, the Missouri Valley, the northern Rockies and the
Northwest; the 80s over Florida, parts of Mississippi, most of
Louisiana and southern Texas; and the 80s or 90s in the desert
Southwest and Southern California. Elsewhere, highs were predicted
in the 60s or 70s.
Temperatures around the nation at 2 a.m. EST ranged from 17 at
Devils Lake, N.D., to 76 at Los Angeles.
Other reports:
_East: Atlanta 59 foggy; Boston 52 windy; Buffalo 46 partly
cloudy; Charleston, S.C. 67 cloudy; Cincinnati 46 fair; Cleveland
46 cloudy; Detroit 44 fair; Miami 73 fair; New York 49 windy;
Philadelphia 61 windy; Pittsburgh 48 cloudy; Portland, Maine 42
drizzle; Washington 62 cloudy.
_Central: Bismarck 29 windy; Chicago 46 partly cloudy;
Dallas-Fort Worth 57 fair; Denver 36 fair; Des Moines 46 fair;
Indianapolis 42 fair; Minneapolis-St. Paul 26 snow; Nashville 44
fair; New Orleans 71 foggy.
_West: Albuquerque 50 fair; Anchorage 29 cloudy; Las Vegas 59
fair; Los Angeles 75 fair; Phoenix 71 fair; Salt Lake City 40 fair;
San Diego 68 fair; San Francisco 56 fair; Seattle 49 rain.
_Canada: Montreal 43 rain; Toronto 41 foggy.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
President Reagan sent a note of thanks to
a wildlife ranger who plucked a wayward bald eagle from a beach in
Ireland and helped it resettle in the United States.
The bird, believed to be the first American bald eagle sighted
in the British Isles, was flown to the United States amid much
fanfare in December.
Although some doubted that the bird actually flew the 3,000
miles across the Atlantic Ocean to Ireland, Reagan lauded Pat
O'Connell for nursing the eagle back to health and escorting it to
its native continent.
``I and the American people thank you for your dedication in
rescuing this eagle and ensuring its safe return to the United
States,'' Reagan wrote.
The letter was dated Feb. 18, but a U.S. embassy official said
it was sent by diplomatic mail and received only recently.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Deliberations in the ``preppie murder'' trial
stalled because the jury could not agree on Robert Chambers Jr.'s
state of mind at the time of the killing, a juror says.
Chambers, who could have been convicted of second-degree murder,
pleaded guilty Friday to first-degree manslaughter in the Aug. 26,
1986 death of Jennifer Dawn Levin, bringing those deliberations to
a halt on their ninth day.
Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said the prospect
of a possible mistrial, the strain on the Levin family and
circumstantial evidence prompted him to agree to the plea bargain.
``There was one critical issue that kept swaying people back and
forth. That issue was understanding the concept of operation of the
mind,'' juror Mike Ognibene said after Chambers entered his plea.
``We had the facts, we'd put it all together. The only thing
lacking was what was going on in his mind at the time,'' Ognibene
said.
Jury forewoman Debra Cavanaugh said the panel was frustrated by
the amount of circumstantial evidence.
``Both sides proved their points. Both sides' stories could be
true,'' she said.
Morganthau said three jurors sent notes to the judge saying they
could not go on.
A prosecution source who spoke on condition of anonymity said a
black juror ``thought a couple of the other jurors were racists,''
a woman juror was concerned because she had been scheduled to begin
a new job on March 1 and the third ``just wanted out.''
The jury's vote swung from 8-4 for acquittal to 9-3 for
conviction and ended up 7-5 for acquittal on the second-degree
murder charge, Ognibene said.
``This was the most incredible experience of my life and I am
satisfied the jury system works,'' he told reporters who mobbed him
as he left the courthouse.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Jack Paladino is going all the way to
Iowa for people to pump gas and check oil at the Exxon station he
manages in affluent Greenwich, Conn.
``We just can't find anybody to pump gas out here,'' Paladino
said in a telephone interview from Greenwich this week. ``We
already have three or four people from Iowa,'' and he's advertising
in Iowa newspapers for more.
This weekend, an employee of Paladino's will be in Iowa City and
Cedar Rapids to interview some of the 50 people who have submitted
job applications in response to the ads.
The process already has led to a job for Tony Moran of Van
Horne, who replied several weeks ago to an ad in The Cedar Rapids
Gazette.
The ad promised terms unheard of for similar work in Iowa: ``We
offer $305 a week, free housing and benefits, plus free flight
out.''
This seeming generosity, Paladino explained, stems from a severe
shortage of people willing to take service jobs in the high-income
Greenwich area.
``It's so bad here that the fast-food places have vans so they
can bus people out here from New York City,'' he said. Some of
those jobs pay $6 to $8 an hour.
Because of the labor shortage, Paladino placed newspaper ads in
upstate New York, Pennsylvania and Iowa, where he'd heard
unemployment rates were high.
``We've had better response from Iowa,'' he said.
Moran, 20, is enthusiastic about his new job.
``It's working out great here,'' he said. ``It's everything I
expected. I was excited by the idea of living close to New York, I
like the idea of working with cars, I like the pay. I like the
apartment.''
<NEW DOCUMENT>
California cockroach catchers are beating
the bushes in search of big bugs and big bucks.
The owner of the largest cockroach _ unsquashed _ gets a shot at
a $500 prize and the national championship, which offers the winner
a $1,000 prize.
``We're looking for the largest one from the tip of his head to
the end of his body. Feelers don't count,'' said Nancy Dunvant,
executive secretary of Western Exterminators Co. of Irvine, local
sponsor of the contest.
The biggest bug in the region will compete against cockroaches
from six other regions in the second annual Great American
Roach-Off.
This year's cockroach colossus will be chosen in June by judges
meeting in New York.
In California and Arizona, Western Exterminator will begin
accepting entries April 1, Ms. Dunvant said. Judging will be
assisted by a University of California, Riverside, roach expert.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
International Business Machines Corp. offered to
sell important computer chip technology to a major U.S. competitor
because it feared American electronics companies were relying too
much on Japanese technology, a newspaper reported today.
IBM made the offer last year to Digital Equipment Corp. in an
effort to keep Digital from becoming more dependent on Japanese
suppliers, The New York Times reported, citing a forthcoming book
and sources in the industry.
The book, titled ``Trading Places: How We Allowed Japan to Take
the Lead,'' did not elaborate on what technology was offered or
whether Digital accepted the offer.
The book was written by Clyde Prestowitz and is scheduled for
publication in late April, The Times said.
Prestowitz, formerly the Commerce Department's chief trade
negotiator with Japan, wrote that in mid-1987, IBM approached
Digital, ``its most dangerous domestic rival, and offered to
transfer certain key technologies.
``At first DEC suspected a trick, then it realized the objective
was to prevent DEC from falling even further into Japanese hands,''
Prestowitz wrote.
The book said IBM apparently believes the entire American
electronics industry could be weakened by growing dependence on
Japanese semiconductor technology.
Spokesmen for IBM and Digital would not confirm whether such
talks occurred, but other industry sources who declined to be
identified verified that IBM had made such an offer, the newspaper
said.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Despite some misgivings, Wisconsin state
senators have approved a measure allowing blind people to hunt deer
and other game if accompanied by a sighted hunter.
``Do we really want people out there shooting guns when they
don't know where they're shooting?'' Sen. Alan Lasee asked during
debate Friday night. ``As much as I have empathy for the visually
handicapped, I don't believe I can support this.''
Sen. Brian Rude supported the proposal and noted that the
Department of Natural Resources can issue licenses to handicapped
hunters.
People confined to wheelchairs are allowed to shoot or hunt from
an automobile parked off a highway and more than 50 feet from the
center of a roadway, he said.
The bill extends eligibility for a special permit to people who
present medical evidence that they are unable to hunt alone because
of a permanent physical disability or handicap, including blindness.
Under the measure, a visually handicapped hunter would have to
be accompanied by someone who could assist in sighting the firearm.
A 27-6 vote sent the measure to Gov. Tommy G. Thompson.
Picks up 13th graf, `Bill Hecke ...'
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Part of a rocket launched by the Soviet Union to
resupply its manned space station re-entered the atmosphere over
San Antonio, lighting up the sky with celestial fireworks seen in
three states, officials said.
The rocket burned up on re-entry around 10:50 p.m. Friday,
blazing its way across the Texas sky from southwest to northeast in
a light show visible for more than a minute in Texas, Arkansas and
Oklahoma.
Radio stations, police and the National Weather Service in Fort
Worth said they were besieged by calls from curious skywatchers.
``I saw a meteorite once that was pretty spectacular, but this
one just blew that away. This was the most amazing celestial event
I've ever seen,'' said Chuck Farr, 33, of Round Rock, who watched
from his front yard.
Although the rocket was bigger than a railroad boxcar, it was
unlikely that it caused any damage on the ground, said Lt. Col.
Ivan Pinnell, a spokesman for the North American Air Defense
Command, or NORAD, in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Pinnell said the rocket was used to launch a cargo satellite
carrying food and other supplies to the Mir space station manned by
two cosmonauts.
The Soviet Union launched the Progress 35 satellite Thursday,
according to a report by the Soviet news agency Tass. Pinnell said
NORAD had been tracking the rocket since its launch and had
expected the re-entry, but had not known when or where.
The reference book ``Soviet Military Power'' lists the SL-4 as
the type of rocket normally used by Soviets to launch such a
payload, Pinnell said.
The SL-4 weighs about 720,000 pounds and is about 91 feet long,
Pinnell said, citing the March 1988 issue of Aviation Week and
Space Technology.
``When an object like that re-enters, it breaks up in the
atmosphere, and you have these smaller pieces and sometimes you
have quite a show,'' Pinnell said.
He said he didn't know if the supplies had made it to the space
station, were on their way, or burned up on re-entry. ``I would
have to refer you to Tass,'' the spokesman said.
In Moscow, the Soviet news agency Tass reported that the
Progress 35 cargo spacecraft carrying food, fuel, mail and
equipment docked with the Mir space station today. There was no
mention of the rocket re-entry.
Bill Hecke, a retired Air Force meteorologist who operates a
weather station from his home in Moody, 30 miles south of Waco,
said the object looked like a meteorite to him.
``It was closer and larger than anything I've ever seen anything
before, and I've been real active watching the skies since 1963,''
Hecke said.
Motorists on Interstate 35 south of Waco pulled over to the side
of the highway to watch the fireworks, said Jim Ribble, a newsman
for Texas AP Network Radio.
Ribble said it looked like the sparks caused by a car dragging a
loose muffler on the road.
``It just kept growing, like a sparkler,'' said Farr, a
33-year-old technical writer for Texas Instruments in Austin.
``It went across the entire sky,'' he said. ``It took from 45 to
75 seconds. It gave me enough time to yell to the kids, and they
saw it, too.''
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Suzuki Motor Co. may continue to import its tiny
Samurai sport-utility vehicle as a truck rather than a car because
it enters the country without back seats, the U.S. Customs Service
has ruled.
``I don't like making any decision which seems illogical. This
decision doesn't make any sense when people see how these vehicles
are being used in the United States, but in this case the Customs
Service has no choice,'' said Customs Commissioner William von Raab.
``These are `trucks' under the law when they enter this
country,'' he said in announcing the decision Friday.
Suzuki's Samurais are imported into the United States as trucks
because Suzuki doesn't have a large enough allocation under the
Japanese government's voluntary export restraints to ship them as
cars or sport-utility vehicles.
Instead of paying a 2.5 percent car tariff, Suzuki pays a 25
percent truck tariff on each of the vehicles, which are shipped
without back seats to qualify as trucks.
Rear seats are added either at the port of entry or at
dealerships. Few of the small, Jeep-like vehicles are sold without
rear seats. Suzuki sold 81,349 Samurais in this country in 1987 and
said it plans to sell 100,000 this year.
Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., chairman of the U.S. House Energy
and Commerce Committee, criticized von Raab's decision.
``It appears that Customs is still winking at the fact that the
Japanese are shipping seats into the U.S. separately, then
installing them here to evade both Customs laws and the (voluntary
export restraints),'' he said.
Last year, Customs and Commerce Department officials said the
U.S. government had little interest in helping the Japanese
government enforce its export limits, particularly since federal
government takes in more money when a maker opts to pay the 25
percent tariff instead of the lower fee.
Other Japanese companies that follow Suzuki's practice include
Nissan Motor Corp., Isuzu Motor Corp., Mitsubishi Motors Corp. and
Toyota Motor Corp., the companies said last year.
Rally</HEAD>
comment by organizer. Pickup 6th graf pvs: ``The massive...''
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Riot police backed by water cannons beat
and arrested hundreds of Roman Catholics in western Czechoslovakia
who staged a rare demonstration for religious freedom, Western
reporters said today.
About 2,000 people in the Slovak capital of Bratislava gathered
Friday night in front of the National Theater for a candlelight
rally banned by Communist authorities, who tightly control
religious activities.
Witnesses said authorities broke up the demonstration by pushing
into side streets protesters who had been singing Slovak and Czech
national anthems, praying and holding candles.
Hundreds of people were arrested and many were beaten by police,
including some journalists, reporters said.
There is growing discontent among Catholics at authorities'
refusal to agree to Vatican candidates to fill 10 vacant
bishoprics. No new Czechoslovak bishops have been named since 1973
and the three alive are all over 75.
Jan Cernogursky, who helped organize the rally, said in a
telephone interview from Bratislava that if there were similar
protests in future, ``then the government will no longer be able to
freely decide over the heads of the citizens.''
``It was a new form of civil protest in this country after 40
years, because a previously announced demonstration of citizens ..
. has practically never taken place here before,'' he told Austrian
radio.
The massive police turnout and violent action to disperse the
crowd appeared designed to discourage opposition by Catholics,
430,000 of whom are said to have so far signed a petition for
religious freedom and the appointment of bishops and priests.
Otto Hoermann of Austrian state television ORF said his crew was
dragged away by policemen, who appeared drunk, and taken to police
headquarters for 2{ hours. Two other ORF journalists were held for
eight hours. A team of the West German ARD TV network also was
detained.
Hoermann said he saw scores of people, drenched by water cannon,
lined up at police headquarters with their faces to the wall. The
exact number of arrests could not be determined.
Bratislava is near the Austrian border, 40 miles east of Vienna.
Negotiations between the government and a Vatican delegation in
Prague in January were inconclusive, largely because the Holy See
refused to agree to candidates belonging to the pro-government
Pacem in Terris organization of clergymen, which is banned by the
Vatican.
The talks are scheduled to resume in Rome next month.
The 31-point petition being signed by hundreds of thousands of
Catholics nationwide _ an unprecedented manifestation of
Catholicism in the Soviet bloc _ has made authorities increasingly
nervous.
It calls for more bishops, more priests and separation of church
and state as well as the right to question Marxist dogma and to
petition authorities without harassment.
The petition's author, Augustin Navratil, was arrested earlier
this month and charged with committing ``slander of a state organ
and of a public organization,'' which carries a term of up to one
year imprisonment.
Frantisek Miklosko, a Slovak Catholic activist, had announced
the rally to authorities ``on behalf of several faithful fellow
citizens'' and organizers expected up to 70,000 participants.
But authorities on Thursday issued a ban, saying the planned
demonstration was ``an event guided from abroad'' that was directed
against the socialist system.
patrols in Stepanakert, ADDS background of Sumgait rioting. Pick up
14th graf pvs ``Meanwhile, the...'' TRIMS thereafter.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Armenia's capital of Yerevan was like ``a dead
city'' today as residents pressing for annexation of a disputed
region of neighboring Azerbaijan stayed home to protest a crackdown
on activism, dissidents reported.
Soldiers and police with attack dogs were the only people on the
streets while army helicopters hovered over the city of 1.4
million, said Andrei Bavitsky, of the dissident journal Glasnost,
quoting sources there.
Thousands of Azerbaijani police in Stepanakert, capital of the
disputed Nagorno-Karabahk region, kept a tight hold on the city and
Armenian residents there also stayed home in protest, Bavitsky
said, quoting sources in that city. Armenians account for more than
three quarters of the 160,000 residents of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Four vocal leaders of the annexation campaign were arrested in
Yerevan Friday after police ordered the dissolution of a committee
organizing the quest for Armenian control of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Both Bavitsky and Alexander Ogorodnikov, a Christian rights
activist, said they were told by contacts in Yerevan that Armenians
had decided to protest a clampdown on public demonstrations by
refusing to go out of their apartments for the weekend. They said
the silent protest was being adhered to by virtually the entire
city.
``There are no children outside, no cars on the street, no
activity whatsoever except for the troops occupying the city,''
Ogorodnikov said. ``Yerevan is like a dead city.''
He said activists told him 60,000 soldiers were patrolling the
city.
Mass demonstrations staged in Yerevan in late February triggered
rioting in the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait, where at least 32 were
killed, 197 injured and 400 arrested for murder, rape, robbery and
other crimes.
Authorities had threatened criminal action against those taking
part in any future illegal protests to press for annexation of
Nagorno-Karabakh, a predominantly Armenian region that has been
part of Azerbaijan since 1923. Armenians are predominantly
Christian while most Azeris are Moslem.
Those arrested Friday in the southern republic were identified
as Paruyr Arikyan, Mofses Gorgisyan, Georg Mirzoyan and Mekhak
Gabrielyan, said Ogorodnikov and Bavitsky. All four arrested had
been pressing the annexation cause and providing information to
foreign journalists.
Soviet authorities have forbidden foreign correspondents to
travel to the region. Telephone contact has also been disrupted.
Numerous attempts to telephone Yerevan today were unsuccessful.
Even calls to police stations and news offices went unanswered.
Ogorodnikov said he was arrested and sent back to Moscow after
arriving in Yerevan Friday night on an Aeroflot flight, and
Bavitsky said Glasnost magazine's office was broken into overnight
and ransacked in what might have been an official effort to
discourage continued involvement in the dispute.
Glasnost editor Sergei Grigoryants is Armenian and has been
serving as an information liaison with Western news organizations.
Meanwhile, a national newspaper today accused the Communist
Party leadership of trying to suppress the sensitive ethnic dispute.
Komsomolskaya Pravda said the ``organs of power'' should instead
have openly discussed the proposal with Armenians.
The critical commentary in the party youth newspaper contrasted
sharply with articles Friday in two official newspapers, Pravda and
Izvestia, that accused annexation activists of resorting to
pressure tactics.
Trud, the labor newspaper, criticized the state-run press today
for failing to accurately report the Nagorno-Karabakh issue out of
fear that it would stir up passions among the more than 100 Soviet
nationalities.
The Armenian government on Friday ordered the disbanding of an
organizing committee spearheading the annexation drive, and Radio
Moscow reported that self-appointed groups of activists,
intellectuals and republic political leaders were ``disbanding
themselves.''
Morning broadcasts of Radio Moscow carried no news from Armenia
or Nagorno-Karabakh.
Another round of strikes and demonstrations had been called in
Armenia today, when the unofficial organizing committee was to
meet. But activists called off the protests to avoid confrontation
with security forces.
The Communist leadership has taken a hard line against the
annexation campaign and public activism, though at the same time
attempting to appease Armenians who fear Nagorno-Karabakh is losing
its traditional ethnic character.
The Politburo has ordered a major improvement in living
conditions in the region, including steady reception of
Armenian-language television programming and more Armenian
literature.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Five school children believed exposed
to a rabid bat are getting shots to prevent them from getting
rabies, and officials say more children may need treatment.
Officials of Alvin Dunn Elementary School said Friday they have
advised parents of at least 31 children who may have been exposed
to contact physicians to determine if treatment is necessary, said
Dennis Stokes, assistant principal.
``I would guess we would have six to eight children get the
shots before this is over,'' said Dr. William Townsend, chief of
the county's Division of Communicable Disease Control.
Stokes said three boys found the bat Tuesday while playing near
an apartment complex in this town about 25 miles north of San
Diego. They put it in a box and brought it to school for ``show and
tell'' the next day, where many fifth- and sixth-graders either saw
or touched the bat, he said.
It is not believed that the bat bit any children, but the animal
was salivating and the saliva carries the deadly virus.
The bat was determined to be rabid after a parent at the
apartment complex saw one of the boys with the animal, confiscated
it and contacted health authorities.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Two men have been charged with
murdering two British soldiers during a funeral for an IRA member
in which the soldiers were beaten, stripped and then shot
execution-style.
Alexander Murphy, 30, and Henry Maguire, 28, both of Belfast,
were charged Friday night with the murders of army corporals Derek
Wood and David Howes, police said.
Maguire pleaded innocent today in court, but Murphy entered no
plea.
Judge Tom Travers ordered them held in custody until their next
court appearance on April 22.
The soldiers were killed March 19 after they drove up to the
funeral procession of IRA member Kevin Brady. Mourners dragged them
from their car and beat them unconscious. They were later shot
behind a wall in a soccer stadium.
The outlawed IRA claimed responsibility for killing the
soldiers, both members of the Royal Corps of Signals, in the
staunchly Roman Catholic Andersonstown district of west Belfast.
Murphy and Maguire smiled and nodded to relatives in the small
courtroom during the hour-long proceeding.
The detective in charge of the murder investigation told the
court that bloodstained fragments of glass were found on the
clothing of the two accused.
``There was also bloodstaining found on the trousers worn by the
accused (Maguire) when he was arrested and which have been
identified as being consistent with the blood of Cpl. Howes,'' the
detective said.
``An examination of the jacket belonging to Maguire contained
fibers consistent with fibers belonging to a sweater identified as
Cpl. Wood's.''
The Royal Ulster Constabulary, Northern Ireland's police force,
does not release the names of its investigating officers for
security reasons.
The Times of London said the accused men were arrested in a
black taxi in the Andersonstown area shortly after the killings.
Brady was one of three people who died when a Protestant gunman
opened fire and hurled grenades at the March 16 funeral of three
IRA guerrillas slain March 6 by British commandos in Gibraltar.
Authorities said the guerrillas were planning a bomb attack.
The mainly Catholic Irish Republican Army is fighting to end
British rule in Northern Ireland. It wants to unite the
predominantly Protestant province with the overwhelmingly Catholic
Republic of Ireland under socialist rule.
A total of 391 British Army soldiers and 172 members of the
Ulster Defense Regiment, a locally recruited militia, have been
killed in Northern Ireland since sectarian and political violence
flared in 1969.
Michael Stone was charged with murder Tuesday in the slayings of
Brady and the two others at Milltown cemetery in west Belfast on
March 16. He also was charged with murdering three other Catholics
in separate attacks. Stone, 33, has told police he was on a revenge
mission against the IRA.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Barbara Bush, wife of Vice President George Bush,
said in an interview published today that she feels no need to
defend her husband against the perception that he is a wimp.
``That's a figment of some cartoonist's imagination. George
hasn't changed,'' Mrs. Bush said in the interview with The Denver
Post.
The Bushes were in Denver for a campaign appearance and rally at
the University of Denver Field House, which was packed with
supporters of his campaign for the Republican presidential
nomination. The interview was conducted on Friday.
If she becomes first lady, Mrs. Bush said, she would be active
``within my interests.'' One of those is fighting illiteracy.
Lack of education is the greatest problem facing America, she
said, ``because that affects everything.''
She has proposed a business and volunteer effort to help reduce
the rate of U.S. illiteracy, which affects one of five Americans.
``Many of this country's problems would be solved, or at least
reduced, if more people could read,'' she said. ``Education covers
everything I'm interested in. Almost everything I worry about would
be solved if more people were educated.''
She named some worries: prison recidivism, drug use, the numbers
of abused women and children, and teen-age pregnancy. ``It breaks
my heart to see a 14-year-old who's been tricked by life into
getting pregnant,'' she said.
Her husband probably agrees with her concerns, she said, ``but I
won't wait for him. I work in the private sector. I do think I've
had some influence on him, opened him up to things he hadn't
considered.''
Bush has 10 grandchildren, two of whom appeared on the podium
with their parents, Denverites Neal and Sharon Bush.
Mrs. Bush said she would like to leave her grandchildren a
legacy of peace. ``I've lived through war, and I hope my
grandchildren won't have to.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Testimony in the Lyndon LaRouche trial will be
halted so a judge can investigate whether prosecutors should be
sanctioned for withholding evidence from the defense.
U.S. District Judge Robert E. Keeton made the announcement
Friday after Assistant U.S. Attorney John Markham conceded
materials he recently surrendered to defense lawyers should have
been turned over before the trial began in December.
The material concerns a former LaRouche consultant the defense
contends was used by the FBI to entrap the political extremist, six
aides and five LaRouche groups. They are charged with plotting to
obstruct a grand jury investigation of alleged credit card and loan
fraud during LaRouche's 1984 presidential campaign.
Keeton said he also would hold hearings next week to determine
whether other documents given to the defense lawyers this month
should have been surrendered earlier. Those documents discuss
alleged FBI and CIA infiltration of LaRouche groups and include a
memo between two pivotal figures in the Iran-Contra scandal.
Keeton said the jury would be called into court briefly Monday
so Markham could finish questioning a former LaRouche aide about
the organization's hierarchy and fund raising.
Then Keeton will hold a hearing focusing on Ryan Quade Emerson,
a longtime FBI informant who also worked as a consultant to
LaRouche.
Emerson was listed as a prosecution witness until earlier this
month, about the same time the defense received copies of FBI
documents indicating a Virginia agent sought Emerson's help with
the LaRouche investigation. LaRouche's headquarters is in Leesburg,
Va.
Markham has said Emerson played a minimal role in the
investigation, but the defense claims the FBI had him make
erroneous statements to LaRouche aides about the case.
Included in the hundreds of notebooks seized by investigators
are several passages quoting Emerson, including one in which he
said LaRouche had been successful in blocking the grand jury
investigation.
Markham said the comment was evidence of a conspiracy to
obstruct the investigation. The prosecutor and the FBI agent who
sought Emerson's help deny that Emerson was told to make the
statement. Emerson, in an affidavit, said he had lied to the
LaRouche groups throughout his association with them.
LaRouche lawyers also learned this week that Emerson recorded an
interview he had with a private investigator hired by a defense
lawyer, and that he played the tape for Markham and another
prosecutor. During the interview, conducted prior to the trial, the
investigator discussed defense strategy.
At Monday's hearing, Emerson and several FBI agents are
scheduled to testify about his dealings with the agency.
Possible sanctions Keeton can impose range from a continuance to
allow further defense preparation to dismissal of the case.
Then, provided the case is not dismissed, Keeton is to hold
hearings to determine whether Markham should have surrendered to
the defense prior to trial memos discussing possible FBI and CIA
infiltration of LaRouche groups.
Among those is a memo in which retired Air Force Maj. Gen.
Richard Secord told then-White House aide Oliver North that an
associate had ``collected info against LaRouche.''
<NEW DOCUMENT>
China's State Council has begun a high-level
investigation of a train collision in Shanghai that killed 28
people, including 27 Japanese, official reports said today.
A preliminary investigation found that brake failure caused the
two trains to crash head-on Thursday, but it was not known why they
failed, Fu Yatao of the Shanghai Foreign Affairs office said.
Ninety-nine people were injured in the crash, China's fourth
fatal train wreck this year. The collision occurred when a train
heading south to scenic Hangzhou slammed into a northbound train
from Changsha.
The Hangzhou-bound train was carrying 193 Japanese high school
students and teachers on a tour of Shanghai and nearby cities.
In all 169 people died in the four accidents. Another 108 people
died in a plane crash in January.
Senior leaders responded to the string of accidents with demands
for greater attention to safety, and China's railway minister
resigned earlier this month in disgrace to take responsibility for
several train disasters.
The official Xinhua News Agency said the State Council appointed
Deputy Railway Minister Li Senmao, Vice Foreign Minister Zhu Qizhen
and two Shanghai vice mayors to head the group investigating the
latest crash.
``This shows that the State Council attaches great importance to
the work of improving transportation safety,'' said Fu.
State Council General Secretary Chen Junsheng, representing
acting Premier Li Peng, was in Shanghai today visiting the injured
Japanese students and meeting with Japanese officials, Fu said.
The nationally televised evening news broadcast lengthy footage
of Chinese officials and weeping Japanese relatives bearing flowers
and food visiting the 24 students who remained hospitalized.
Relatives of the Japanese victims flew to Shanghai by a charter
plane Friday, and visited the site of the crash Saturday, where
they laid flowers in honor of the dead.
Three Japanese doctors arrived on Saturday to help treat the
injured. Fu said two Japanese students remained in critical
condition.
A Japanese Foreign Ministry official in Tokyo said the bodies of
the 26 students and one teacher will be sent home by charter plane
Sunday. However, Fu said three of the dead will be cremated in
Shanghai at the request of the family.
The news broadcast said train service was restored on the line
this afternoon.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Scorching Southern California temperatures
sparked beach brawls among gang members and contributed to this
year's first round of brushfires, authorities say, but some relief
is on the way.
Sunny but slightly cooler weather is forecast Sunday, but with
hot Santa Ana winds in the evening and Monday.
The mercury climbed to the 90s throughout the area Friday and
hit 100 degrees in Thermal and Anaheim, setting new records for the
second day in a row as tens of thousands sought escape at the
beaches.
At the downtown Civic Center, a sizzling 96 degrees shattered
the previous high for the day of 89, set in 1978. Thursday's high
of 94 topped the previous mark of 89, set in 1930.
San Diego sweltered in record-breaking 89-degree heat, which
topped the previous record of 86 degrees on March 25, 1947.
``It's so hot my shoes are melting on the pavement,'' complained
Susan Seeger during a mid-day walk in downtown Los Angeles.
Postcard-clear skies teamed up with the heat and a medium surf
to draw 250,000 people to Los Angeles County beaches, lifeguards
reported.
But at Zuma Beach the scene was far from idyllic. An estimated
100 to 200 members of two rival street gangs broke car windows and
started two brawls. Two 16-year-olds were taken to a hospital with
bruises and head injuries and four people were arrested, sheriff's
deputies said.
The high temperatures combined with hot Santa Ana winds launched
the unofficial start of fire season as two different blazes burned
nearly 200 acres Friday.
In northern San Diego County, firefighters were still mopping up
today after a 100-acre fire in rugged terrain that investigators
believe was caused by a spark from state Conservation Corps
equipment. One firefighter was treated and released for a minor
injury.
In Riverside, a discarded cigarette was believed to have caused
a fire which burned about 80 acres of a rocky hillside on the
city's northeast edge, city fire Capt. John Coryell said today.
Many of those who couldn't enjoy the day at the beach turned on
their air conditioners.
Southern California Edison reported a 3 p.m. peak power use of
12,292 megawatts, about 1,500 megawatts above normal and a record
for the date.
The National Weather Service says some relief is due Sunday as
the high-pressure system causing the heat spell moves eastward,
allowing an increased marine influence.
Temperatures Sunday will hit the low to mid-70s in Los Angeles,
slightly above normal for this time of year, and the mid-70s in San
Diego, about normal. Highs in the desert areas will rise to the 80s
to low 90s.
Skies will remain clear except for some patchy clouds along the
coast during morning hours, and more Santa Ana winds are due in the
area Sunday night and Monday.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
An American photographer went on trial
today for smuggling cocaine, and a U.S. narcotics agent testified
that a drug ring tricked the photographer into transporting their
cocaine.
Conan Owen, a 23-year-old freelance photographer from Annandale,
Va., is charged with smuggling more than four pounds of cocaine
into Spain in a false-bottomed suitcase on March 13, 1987.
The prosecution is asking for 10 years in prison on charges of
contraband and violating public health laws that prohibit the
transport or sale of dangerous drugs.
The defense contends that Owen didn't know the cocaine was in
the suitcase.
Owen has spent the past year in pre-trial detention in
Barcelona's 85-year-old Model Prison without possibility of bail.
He told the court he had carried a suitcase to Barcelona from
Santiago, Chile, while on assignment to take travel brochure
photographs for George Barahona, an Ecuador-born, naturalized
American living near Washington, D.C.
Barahona on Feb. 5 pleaded guilty to a one-count charge of
conspiracy to smuggle drugs in U.S. District Court in Alexandria,
Va.
He received a two-year suspended sentence after he provided
information that led to the indictment of three Spaniards and three
Bolivians in a conspiracy to smuggle illegal drugs. They remain at
large.
Barahona told an American court he had shared a hotel room with
Owen in Santiago and planted the cocaine-lined suitcase on Owen.
Owen said he thought the suitcase contained only travel
brochures and film and said Barahona had represented himself as one
of the owners of the Sorosa Travel Agency in suburban Washington.
Special Agent James Kibble of the Drug Enforcement
Administration testified for the defense that he became interested
in the Owen case while assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Madrid
because Owen was from the Washington, D.C. area, and the DEA was
investigating a cocaine-smuggling ring the agency believed operated
out of northern Virginia.
``I have found that there is a group of people involved in
sending drugs from South America to Spain using unsuspecting people
as carriers,'' Kibble testified.
Kibble also testified he came to the conclusion Owen was
``innocent _ or stupid _ but innocent.''
Assistant U.S. District Attorney Justin Williams testified for
the defense that testimony obtained from Barahona following a
plea-bargain arrangement with his attorney indicated Owen had
unwittingly taken the cocaine-laden suitcase to Spain.
``He (Barahona) specifically told us that Conan Owen had no
knowledge that there was cocaine in the suitcase he carried into
Barcelona airport March 13,'' Williams said.
There are no jury trials in Spain, and Judge Jose Presencia
Rubio said at the close of the 2{-hour trial he would deliver his
verdict later.
Owen wore a grey suit and stood with his hands clasped behind
his back when addressing the court.
He spoke in Spanish with occasional assistance from a
court-appointed interpreter.
His parents Ernest and Raquel Owen of Annandale, Va., sat
directly behind him. His 25-year-old brother, Evan, also was
present.
Prosecutor Teresa Calvo called only two witnesses _ the
paramilitary Civil Guard on duty at El Prat Airport who discovered
the cocaine _ and the chemist who analysed the drug as being
84-percent pure cocaine.
Defense attorney Ana Campa said the prosecution had not proven
Owen knew there was cocaine in the suitcase and said the defendant
had never denied taking the luggage from Santiago to Barcelona.
Owen told the court he had always obeyed the laws of the country
in which he was and said he could have been ``stupid _ but that is
not a crime.''
Owen is a graduate of Syracuse University.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Queen Sofia joined more than a 1,000
mourners at a funeral Saturday for 10 children and five adults
killed in an accident involving a train and a nursery school bus,
Spanish National Radio reported.
Lerida Roman Catholic Bishop Ramon Malla Call read a telegram
sent by Pope John Paul II offering condolences for the families of
the dead and prayers for quick recoveries of the 17 children
injured in Friday's crash, the radio said.
The accident in the nearby town of Juneda occurred when a bus
carrying the children from the Los Angeles nursery school went past
a stop sign at a rail crossing and was rammed by a high-speed
passenger train bound for Barcelona, police said.
The crash killed six boys and four girls, four women in their
20s, including one who was seven months pregnant, and the bus
driver, a Lerida province spokesman said.
Eleven children remained hospitalized Saturday.
One 3-year-old girl was in a coma with severe head injuries, and
another was in serious condition, a spokesman at San Juan de Dios
Hospital in Barcelona said.
The rest were in stable condition, hospital spokesmen said.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
President Corazon Aquino on Saturday
ordered an investigation into allegations by an anti-nuclear
activist who said he was tortured at headquarters of her security
force and his companion murdered.
Presidential Executive Secretary Catalino Macaraig said that
Mrs. Aquino told the National Bureau of Investigation, which will
carry out the inquiry, to ensure the safety of the activist. The
bureau is a civilian agency.
Hilario Bustamante Jr., 18, was recovering in a hospital. He
suffered a deep cut in the back of the neck which doctors said may
have been inflicted with a machete or ax.
The injury was similar to that which killed his companion, Rey
Francisco.
Bustamante told reporters on Friday that he, Francisco and five
other members of the leftist organization Youth for Democracy and
Nationalism were attacked March 19 while putting up posters
condemning nuclear arms and U.S. military bases. Bustamante said he
and Francisco were chased by a gang of armed men who were wearing
civilian clothes but identified themselves as police.
He said the men caught him and Francisco and took them to a
military compound behind the presidential palace, where they
tortured the two and accused them of belonging to the communist New
People's Army. The compound houses the president's security forces.
Bustamante said they were beaten with iron rods and burned with
cigarettes as they were kept blindfolded and handcuffed.
He said three men loaded them into a car Monday night and took
them to a field on the outskirts of Manila, where they were hacked
in the back of the neck.
Col. Voltaire Gazmin, commander of the presidential security
group, has denied his unit was involved. He added in a separate
statement that his unit was investigating Bustamante's allegations.
But in his statement, Macaraig said that Mrs. Aquino ordered
Gazmin and the Manila-area command of the Philippine Constabulary
to drop any investigations and leave the matter entirely to the
National Bureau of Investigation.
Earlier this month, Amnesty International, a London-based human
rights group, charged that the Philippine military was using
torture and murder to fight a 19-year-old communist insurgency.
Mrs. Aquino called the report one-sided.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
About 5,000 teen-agers marched 22 miles
Saturday to demand that the government find jobs for them and the
estimated 10 million unemployed people in the country.
Mohammad Helaluddin, general secretary of the Bangladesh Youth
Union, told reporters the march was to call attention to government
injustice and the suffering of the unemployed and their families.
The union sponsored the protest.
Helaluddin called on the government to end a hiring freeze
imposed 2{ years ago. The ban was issued because of financial
contraints.
Bangladesh, with a population of 105 million, is one of the
poorest nations in the world, with a per capita annual income of
$160.
The marchers took about nine hours to walk from the National
Mausoleum at Savar northwest of the capital to a monument in
downtown Dhaka.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
At least 40 people, including six
children, were injured when bombs set off by robbers at a rural
fair exploded, police said Saturday.
More than 20 bombs went off Friday during a fair in the village
of Kaliakandipara in Sirajganj district, about 50 miles northwest
of Dhaka, according to police interviewed by telephone.
A 7-year-old boy and five adults were critically injured, they
said. The fair, an annual event in the village, draws thousands of
farmers and traders.
``Some miscreants exploded bombs to loot the carnival,'' one
policeman said. Officers said many stalls set up by traders were
robbed, but the amount of money and goods taken was not known. The
robbers escaped, they said.
was...,'' to after 12th graf: ``On another....'' Pick up 13th graf
pvs: ``Tehran Radio...''
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Iraq said it fired two long-range
missiles into Tehran today, and Iran said its fighter-bombers
pounded Iraqi troops in a battle for a strategic region in
northeastern Iraq.
The Al Hussein missile strike ended a two-day lull in Iraq's
bombardment of the Iranian capital during a month-long exchange
known as the ``war of the cities.'' Missiles fired by Iraq and Iran
have killed hundreds of civilians during the latest outbreak.
The official Iraqi News Agency quoted an unidentified military
spokesman as saying: ``The only reply we have to those who refuse
peace and attack our cities and borders is death and destruction.
We are going to ... level their cities.'' INA was monitored in
Nicosia.
There was no report from Tehran about where the missiles
exploded.
Meanwhile, Tehran Radio, also monitored in Cyprus, reported that
Iraqi warplanes bombed residential sections of the western city of
Ilam today. There was no immediate word of casualties.
Iran said at least 53 civilians were killed and 112 wounded in
Iraqi air raids on Borujerd and other western Iranian towns Friday.
Fighting in a key Iranian offensive in northeastern Iraq also
was fierce. Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency said today
Iranian fighter-bombers attacked troops there as Iranian
Revolutionary Guards were reported thrusting into the Kurdistan
mountains in the 11-day-old offensive.
The strategic area lies east of the Kirkuk oilfiends, which
produce about 1.5 million barrels of oil a day, more than half of
Iraq's current daily output. The Iranians claim they have killed or
wounded 11,500 Iraqis, captured 4,500 and destroyed 200 tanks and
armored vehicles since they launched the offensive March 16.
Iranian communiques said their forces advanced 10 miles into
northeastern Iraq and that Iraqi warplanes dropped chemical bombs
on three towns overrun by the invaders, killing 5,000 Kurdish
civilians and injured 5,000 more.
The United Nations has said it will send a team of experts to
investigate the reported Iraqi use of chemical weapons, outlawed
under a 1925 Geneva agreement.
On another front, the Iranian news agency said other Iranian
warplanes heavily bombarded Iraqi troop concentrations and defense
lines around the strategic southern port of Basra today.
It was the third straight day the Iranians have hit that sector.
An estimated 250,000 Revolutionary Guards and volunteer fighters
have amassed east of Basra in past weeks for a long-expected
offensive.
Tehran Radio said two French-built Iraqi Mirage F-1s were downed
by Iranian interceptors Friday over the northern gulf while two
Soviet-built Sukhoi-22 fighter-bombers raiding the Iranian city of
Borujerd also were shot down by anti-aircraft missiles.
Iraq said only one of its jets was lost Friday in 343 combat
missions, the highest one-day total in a year. Iraq also claimed
Friday to have shot down four U.S.-built F-5 jets in the
northeastern fighting, but Iran denied the claim.
The Iranian claims raised to eight the number of Iraqi jets
reported shot down in dogfights or by ground fire Friday.
Iran's President Ali Khamanei declared late Friday that he will
send an envoy to New York for talks with U.N. Secretary-General
Javier Perez de Cuellar on a Security Council resolution calling
for a cease-fire in the 7{-year-old war. But it quoted him as
saying he held out little hope of an agreement.
Iraq has also said it's ready to engage in the indirect
discussions.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
The political invectives exchanged between
China and Taiwan for decades can barely be heard over a new chorus:
``Let's do business together.''
Merchants are scrambling to trade across the Taiwan Straits as
China presses ahead with its modernization program and Taiwan eases
its no-contact policy with the Communist mainland.
The development could profoundly influence future political
relations between the countries, some political experts say.
``How can you help but find that relations will just keep on
rolling after this?'' said Byron Weng, a political analyst at
Chinese University of Hong Kong. ``To be able to do business ...
necessarily leads to (political) cooperation.''
Taiwanese officials say direct trade will remain outlawed for
the present. But signs of increased business ties, made through
legal and illegal channels, are apparent in both countries.
Taiwanese markets openly display Chinese medicinal herbs,
ginseng, dates, walnuts and other foodstuffs from the mainland.
Mouthwatering mainland specialties _ dried duck from Nanking,
salted fish from Canton and whole hams from Jinhua in Zhejiang
province _ also are available in Taiwan.
In China, factory tours often reveal a Taiwanese connection. The
state-of-the-art Haide Polyester Plant on Hainan island uses
polyester chips from Taiwan. Shenzhen Plastics Corp. in Guangdong
province boasts that money of an American-Taiwanese investor helped
the firm gain favorable treatment from Chinese authorities.
The signs of cooperation arise against a backdrop of years of
enmity.
After losing a civil war to the Communists on the Chinese
mainland and fleeing to Taiwan in 1949, the Nationalist government
strictly prohibited Taiwanese from doing business with the
Communists. Anyone caught doing so was considered a traitor.
But the Nationalists, while continuing to reject official
contact with the mainland, recently eased restrictions on
people-to-people ties. They also gave a boost last year to now
flourishing indirect trade by allowing imports of several mainland
food items through third countries.
Much of the business comes through the British colony of Hong
Kong on the southeastern China coast, where last year indirect
trade between Taiwan and China totaled $1.5 billion, up 58 percent
from 1986.
Taiwan's exports accounted for $1.2 billion of the trade and
consisted primarily of textiles, machinery and electrical
appliances, according to Hong Kong government trade statistics.
A group of Hong Kong Chinese merchants with ties to the
Nationalist government recently opened the Taiwan Trade Center in
Hong Kong to facilitate trade with China. About 150 Taiwanese
companies display exhibits there to entice mainland Chinese
companies to buy everything from machine tools to cosmetics.
``In the future, we will open the market in China,'' said center
representative Tina Lee N. Hwai, ``so I think this is the bridge.''
The mass-circulation United Daily News of Taiwan recently
reported an increasing number of companies have invested or plan to
invest in China in textiles, footwear, fertilizers, chemicals and
food processing. Such activity would have to be carried out through
third countries.
A Chinese official this month disclosed plans to set up in
southern Guangdong province a product-processing zone for Taiwanese
companies that would receive preferential treatment.
Weng, the political analyst, said China might use such contacts
with Taiwanese businesses as a way to reach ``people who are not in
the political field.''
Political leaders have been deadlocked for 40 years, with each
group claiming to be legitimate rulers over the mainland. Each
country says it is committed to reunification _ but under its own
terms.
Despite the increasing trade, Taiwanese officials are still
balking at too much contact too soon with the mainland.
``Too much direct trade will have a negative impact on our
efforts to restructure our industries,'' said Taiwanese Premier Yu
Kuo-kwa recently. ``We want our companies to produce more
sophisticated products, but the mainland market is only a market
for low-end consumer goods.''
Some Taiwan merchants, however, argue that profits from selling
low-end goods to China can be used to acquire advanced technology
and equipment from the West.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
A judge has lifted a freeze on the
city's bank accounts that had threatened to cast the community into
bankruptcy, it was reported Saturday.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch said a compromise has been reached
between the city and the lawyer for a family seeking payment of $4
million jury award, permitting the lifting of the freeze.
The lawyer, Clyde L. Kuehn, and city spokesman James Ingram
would not comment on the report.
However, a spokesman for the Union Bank of East St. Louis said
the bank received a copy of the judge's order releasing the
accounts, according to the newspaper. It did not identify the
spokesman.
St. Clair County Circuit Judge Roger M. Scrivner imposed the
freeze Wednesday in response to a motion filed by Kuehn, who
represents Walter DeBow of Granite City.
DeBow suffered permanent brain damage in 1984 after being beaten
by a cellmate at the East St. Louis jail. He was awarded $4
million, and the Illinois Supreme Court ordered the city of 55,000
residents to pay the settlement.
Kuehn successfully petitioned Scrivner to freeze the bank
accounts to force the city to comply with the order.
The latest action will allow at least $85,000 in outstanding
checks to be cashed and probably came in time to enable the city to
meet next week's payroll for its 300 employees, Treasurer Charlotte
R. Moore said.
The Post-Dispatch reported that the agreement calls for payments
to DeBow of $25,000 Tuesday and a further $54,000 by May 17 to
bring interest on the settlement current.
The newspaper said the agreement also calls for monthly payments
of $20,000 to meet interest of 6 percent while setting up a payment
plan, and a restructuring of the city's utility tax bonds to pay
off the award.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
A mild earthquake shook parts of the Los
Angeles area Saturday, but there were no reports of damage or
injuries, authorities said.
The quake was centered three miles southwest of coastal Malibu
and measured 3.9 on the Richter scale of ground motion, said Robert
Finn, spokesman for the California Institute of Technology. It
struck at 6:54 a.m., he said.
Residents in the San Fernando Valley, Beverly Hills, Santa
Monica and West Los Angeles reported feeling the tremor, Finn said.
Police in the valley and West Los Angeles said they received one
phone call each, but there were no reports of damage or injuries.
Malibu is about 30 miles west of downtown Los Angeles.
The Richter scale is a measure of ground motion as recorded on
seismographs. Every increase of one number means a tenfold increase
in magnitude.An earthquake of 3.5 on the Richter scale can cause
slight damage in the local area, 4 moderate damage.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Rewriting his own rules for superpower
summitry, President Reagan is preparing to go to Moscow for talks
with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev that appear unlikely to
produce a new arms treaty or resolve major disputes.
With the end of his presidency fast approaching, Reagan has
decided to ignore his requirement that a summit must hold the
promise of success and must lead to the signing of a substantial
agreement.
``The man is 77 years old, and I think he wants to come out in
the history books as somebody who has done tremendous things in
superpower relations for the long-term benefit of U.S. national
security,'' said William J. Taylor, vice president for
political-military affairs at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies.
``I subscribe to the theory that Ronald Reagan wants to make a
strategic arms agreement a centerpiece of what he will have
accomplished over eight years,'' Taylor said. ``I think it's
possible he can do it before next January but I certainly don't
think it's going to happen at the May-June summit.''
Reagan will visit Moscow from May 29 to June 2, the first
American president to go to the Soviet capital in 14 years.
The president had cited his insistence on guaranteed success in
refusing to meet with Soviet leaders Leonid Brezhnev, Konstantin
Chernenko and Yuri Andropov. He bent the rule to hold an
introductory meeting with Gorbachev in 1985.
However, the rule was back in force in 1986 when Reagan met with
Gorbachev in Reykjavik, Iceland. With no advance prospects of
agreement, Reagan doggedly refused to call it a summit.
For their third meeting _ the Washington summit last December _
an agreement was ready for signing to abolish intermediate-range
nuclear missiles.
Gorbachev had refused to come to Washington until that treaty
was completed. But in inviting Reagan to Moscow, the Soviet leader
made no demand for the completion of an even more ambitious arms
agreement, the strategic arms accord that would cut deeply into
long-range nuclear weapons.
Reagan and Gorbachev both appear content to meet, merely for the
sake of meeting.
Even with no agreements, there are sure to be political rewards
for both leaders.
Reagan and Gorbachev both will get credit for continuing the
superpower dialogue at the highest level and for struggling with
the difficult problems of arms control, analysts say.
For Gorbachev, the summit will showcase his foreign policy
achievements before a Communist Party conference later in June.
For Reagan, it will highlight efforts toward peacemaking as the
presidential campaign moves toward the Democratic and Republican
nominating conventions.
``It will give the perception of progress in dealing with the
Soviet Union, which certainly will help George Bush,'' the expected
GOP nominee, said William Schneider, an analyst at the American
Enterprise Institute.
``Both sides (Reagan and Gorbachev) get political benefit in
showing progress is being made. It's hard to have a summit and not
come up with something,'' Schneider said.
Taylor said Reagan also will score points in Europe, where polls
show Gorbachev is perceived more of a peacemaker than Reagan.
Yet it appears unlikely they will be able to sign a new arms
accord. ``I wouldn't want to lay you odds,'' Secretary of State
George P. Shultz said, when asked if a treaty would be ready.
Similarly, the superpowers have deep differences about
Afghanistan, Central America and the Middle East that were not
resolved by three days of talks between Shultz and Soviet Foreign
Minister Eduard Shevardnadze last week.
Putting a positive spin on the summit, White House spokesman
Marlin Fitzwater said: ``It will be well prepared. There will be
substance to discuss. There will be good prospects for success.
There will be a number of important and substantive and meaningful
issues to be resolved, and all of those will occur at the Moscow
summit.''
Asked how that would meet the old criteria of having a major
agreement ready for signing, Fitzwater said, ``It meets all the
criteria that needs to be met.''
<NEW DOCUMENT>
1980 and is The Associated Press' White House correspondent.
and Lughud, State Department saying he'll return to Middle East.
Pick up 3rd graf pvs: ``Officials at...'' EDITS thereafter to
conform.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
A Palestinian man died today of wounds suffered
in a clash with Israeli troops, the army said, and the mayor of
Gaza City heeded a PLO call for Israeli-appointed mayors in West
Bank and Gaza Strip to resign.
Arab reporters said troops in the Gaza Strip continued a pattern
of overnight arrests in an apparent attempt to stifle
demonstrations planned for Palestinian ``Land Day'' next Wednesday.
The army had no comment on reports of arrests.
Secretary of State George P. Shultz met today in Washington with
two members of a group affiliated with the Palestine Liberation
Organization. The State Department announced that Shultz will
return to the Middle East next week to push his initiative for
peace.
Shultz invited professors Edward Said of Columbia University and
Ibrahim Abu Lughud to visit him at the State Department.
Israeli officials had reacted angrily to the meeting, saying it
violated a U.S. commitment not to talk to the PLO. Said and Lughud
belong to the Palestine National Council, the PLO's
parliament-in-exile.
Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir had protested the meeting to U.S.
Ambassador Thomas Pickering.
Officials at Al Ittihad Hospital in Nablus said Ayed Salah, 21,
of nearby Zawata village, died at 4 a.m. of gunshot wounds to his
spinal cord and liver. The army confirmed the death.
Israel Radio quoted a military source as saying Salah was shot
in a clash between soldiers and protesters who blocked the
Nablus-Tulkarm highway with burning tires. Another Arab was wounded
in the same clash, it said.
Today's death brings to 112 the number of Palestinians killed
since unrest erupted Dec. 8 in territories captured by Israel
during the 1967 Middle East war, according to U.N. figures. One
Israeli soldier has been killed.
Protesters in several West Bank and Gaza cities demanded the
resignation of muncipal councils, answering the call of a
clandestine PLO leaflet that called today ``the day of struggle
against municipal councils and appointed village councils.''
Municipal officials confirmed that the Israeli-appointed acting
mayor of Gaza City, Hamza Turkmani, had offered his resignation and
expected a reply later in the week. The officials insisted they not
be identified by name for fear of angering either Israel or
Palestinian nationalists.
Former Gaza City Mayor Rashid al-Shawwa told The Associated
Press that Turkmani was on loan to the municipality from his job in
the Interior Department.
``He has resigned from the Interior Department, thus he has
resigned from the municipality,'' he said.
The PLO leaflet called for marches and demonstrations ``to rid
us of these appointed councils, and the people of the uprising will
be severe with anyone who remains outside national consensus and
refuses to resign immediately.''
In the West Bank town of El Bireh, Arab protesters marched to
the municipal council building demanding the resignation of council
members, and troops responded with tear gas and rubber bullets, the
Palestine Press Services said.
In Bethlehem, an Associated Press reporter saw about 70 youths
hurl rocks at soldiers and the municipality building on Manger
Square. Troops responded with rubber bullets and warning shots in
the air.
An Arab reporter said troops used tear gas and rubber bullets in
a clash with about 150 Arab youths who marched through the Gaza
Strip village of Beit Hanoun carrying banners demanding the village
council resign.
The reporter also said troops forced closure of shops along Gaza
City's central Omar el Mukhtar street, which was blocked with rocks
and burning tires, and chased away street venders selling
vegetables.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Pakistan's chief negotiator at the Afghanistan
peace talks said Saturday that an agreement could be clinched if
the Soviets would agree with the United States to suspend all aid
to the warring parties.
Acting Foreign Minister Zain Noorani said that since another
outstanding issue _ that of a transitional government _ appears to
have been resolved in principle, ``we feel that as soon as the two
guarantors resolve the issue of symmetry, the instruments can be
signed.''
By ``symmetry,'' he was referring to Washington's position that
it would be a guarantor of a settlement only if the Soviet Union
stops military aid to the Kabul government at the same time the
United States ceases military aid to the Moslem guerrillas fighting
the government.
The Soviets have rejected that demand as amounting to
interference with relations between two sovereign states bound by
international treaties.
The Washington Post reported Saturday that the Reagan
administration is cutting off its supply of Stinger anti-aircraft
missiles to the Afghan resistance but is rushing at least $300
million in other weapons to them before an agreement is reached.
The Post cited diplomatic and other U.S. sources, who were not
identified. It said the decision to stop supplying Stingers
apparently was reached late last month in anticipation of a peace
settlement in Afghanistan.
Among the U.S.-purchased military equipment being rushed to the
resistance are 120mm Spanish heavy mortars and modern mine-clearing
weapons, the Post said.
Noorani, briefing reporters, said the Soviet Union is not
prepared to stop or suspend aid to Kabul. ``It seeks the unilateral
right to continue to supply arms to the Peoples Democratic Party of
Afghanistan.''
He said ``a Soviet willingness to assume equal and reciprocal
obligations as a guarantor can clinch the Geneva agreements and a
political settlement of the Afghan problem.''
Noorani said Pakistan has told U.N. mediator Diego Cordovez
``that the texts of the four instruments (of an agreement) are now
complete and that Pakistan does not seek any amendments or changes
or modifications in the drafts.''
He noted that the issue of a transitional government appeared to
have been resolved following last week's meeting between Secretary
of State George P. Shultz and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard
Shevardnadze.
Pakistan has insisted during the talks that a broad-based
transitional government would be needed in Afghanistan to ensure
peace in the country following the withdrawal of the estimated
115,000 Red Army troops. Moscow had balked, saying this was outside
the scope of the peace talks.
But a U.S. official said in Washington on Thursday that Moscow
had indicated support for having Cordovez act in a personal
capacity to promote an intra-Afghan dialogue.
In a related development, diplomatic sources said that Nicolay
Kozyrev, the special Soviet envoy who has followed the talks from
the wings since the latest round began March 2, met Noorani
Saturday to brief him on the Shultz-Shevardnadze talks.
The U.N.-sponsored talks are due to resume Monday, following a
weekend recess.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
The State Department was close to proposing a
halt in covert U.S. military aid to the Afghan resistance in
exchange for an agreement by the Soviets to withdraw from
Afghanistan, but President Reagan rejected the idea, say current
and former administration officials.
Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze said after talks
last week in Washington that Reagan's tougher line was the final
obstacle to Kremlin acceptance of a U.N.-brokered deal to get the
Red Army out of Afghanistan. But he said the Soviets might pull out
even without a U.N. agreement.
Last December, Reagan said publicly that military assistance to
the Afghan mujahedeen would continue until the Soviets were
completely out of Afghanistan. But the Washington Post reported
Saturday that the administration already is ending the supply of
Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to the resistance in anticipation of
a peace settlement.
At the same time, the Post reported, the administration is
rushing at least $300 million worth of other U.S.-purchased
military supplies, including 120mm Spanish heavy mortars, to
Afghanistan in an effort to get the weaponry there before any pact
barring future aid takes effect.
The newspaper, quoting unidentified diplomatic sources, said the
Stinger cutoff reflects a general nervousness by the administration
about leaving a large number of the missiles in the hands of Afghan
factions that cannot be controlled after U.S. ties are cut. Iran
already has obtained some of the missiles, perhaps through force,
from one guerrilla commander.
The apparent confusion over U.S. policy results from what former
and current White House, Pentagon, State Department and
congressional officials say has been a poorly coordinated ``end
game'' strategy for Afghanistan.
``My phone rang one day, and it was someone asking what our
policy was on cutting off aid to the mujahedeen,'' said a former
White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity. ``I said
that our policy was to continue the aid until the Soviets were
completely out. Then, I called over to the State Department, and
found out they had other ideas.''
Later that same day, Dec. 3, Reagan forced the State Department
to scramble when a reporter asked if aid to the guerrillas would
cease when the Soviets began to withdraw. Reagan said:
``I don't think we could do anything of the kind, because the
puppet government that has been left there has a military ... You
can't suddenly disarm them and leave them prey to the other
government.''
The State Department then formulated a new policy, still not as
hard as the president's, telling Congress that U.S. aid would end
once the Soviet withdrawal began, but would be resumed if Moscow
continued to supply its client regime in Afghanistan with wepons.
``We will continue our assistance to the Afghan resistance until
it is no longer needed,'' Deputy Assistant Secretary of State
Robert Peck told the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Asian
and Pacific Affairs on Feb. 25.
And Peck denied assertions by two congressional backers of the
Afghan resistance, Sen. Gordon Humphrey, R-N.H., and Rep. Charles
Wilson, D-Tex., that the department cut a secret deal with the
Kremlin to stop aid to the guerrillas.
``There have been no secret deals. No deals at all,'' said Peck.
Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., still found the
State Department position too soft, and pushed through Congress a
resolution calling for aid to continue until the last Soviet
soldier leaves Afghanistan.
Still unhappy with the State Department position, Byrd warned
Reagan in a letter last Tuesday that ending U.S. and Soviet aid at
the same time would have a ``shocking result'' and ``telegraph the
end of our commitment to the mujahedeen while the Soviets maintain
the major portion of leverage in Afghanistan.''
He urged Reagan to ``make a thorough review of any commitments
which may have been made without your full support or knowledge.''
Talk of a secret deal apparently stemmed from a letter from
Deputy Secretary of State John C. Whitehead to U.N.
Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cueller in December 1985
describing U.S. ``willingness to play an appropriate guarantor's
role in the context of a comprehensive and balanced settlement
...'' Whitehead's letter was little noticed at the time, although
he discussed it in a speech on Dec. 13, 1985.
One of the provisions of the still-secret U.N. plan would
``require Pakistan to cease permitting the use of its territory as
a conduit for military assistance to the mujahedeen'' within 60
days after the pact was signed, according to a Senate Foreign
Relations Committee report issued last week.
The Whitehead letter and the demand that Pakistan shut down the
supply pipeline apparently led the Kremlin to believe that Reagan
was ready to end aid to the guerrillas when the Red Army began to
pull out.
``Back in 1985, no one really believed that the Soviets would
pull out, so I guess no one really thought the policy through,''
said a State Department source, speaking on condition of anonymity.
``When we got closer to an agreement, to the end game, we began to
rethink the position.''
<NEW DOCUMENT>
In their tenth month of crisis, many
Panamanians are adopting the American view that officials in
Washington can't see beyond the Potomac River.
As Panama's problems have grown from bad to desperate, the word
out of Washington has been that the days, even hours, of Gen.
Manuel Antonio Noriega are numbered.
Panamanians aren't convinced.
Jose Mulino, a leader in the opposition National Civic Crusade,
says Panama's military strongman shows no signs of throwing in the
towel soon.
As an anti-Noriega strike ended its first week Friday, Mulino
rolled his eyes when asked by a reporter if the defense chief's
ouster appeared close.
``I don't think so,'' he replied. ``I don't know what it is
going to take to get him out, but the strike will continue.''
The very different view of Washington was illustrated late last
week by a visiting U.S. congressman.
``When we were stateside, we were given a picture of a very
short frame of reference,'' said Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y. ``We
were told we were looking at a time frame of a very few days in
which Noriega might be expected to depart, cave in, what have you.''
That assessment came from State Department officials who briefed
Ackerman and Rep. Peter H. Kostmayer, D-Pa., before they left
Thursday on their two day fact-finding trip for the House Foreign
Affairs Committee.
Less than 24 hours later in Panama, Ackerman and Kostmayer had a
new frame of reference.
``The view we're getting here is quite different _ from the U.S.
embassy, from the American military and from Panamanians we've
talked with,'' Ackerman said. ``Nobody's talking about hours,
nobody's talking about days. And that's for sure.''
A few days earlier, a Panamanian woman pleaded for U.S. help as
she ran past an American reporter watching soldiers clear a street
of demonstrators with tear gas and shotgun pellets.
``What's the United States waiting for?'' she yelled. ``Can't
you see what's happening? There are our soldiers. Where are yours?''
Many Panamanians want the United States to do more in a bid to
force Noriega's exit. Some speak openly of military intervention _
something President Reagan has ruled out unless the Panama Canal is
clearly threatened.
Even the wife of Eric Arturo Delvalle _ the president in hiding
whose ouster by Noriega last month fueled Panama's current crisis _
has suggested publicly that the United States may have to send in
troops as a last resort.
But the canal appears safe for the moment, and American military
intervention seems unlikely.
``I don't think anybody _ even if their elevator doesn't go all
the way to the top floor _ would consider jeopardizing the canal,''
Ackerman said.
While Washington has been counting hours until Noriega's
anticipated departure, Panamanians have heard their clocks tick
through an escalating series of constitutional and financial crises
that have left their once prosperous country destitute, their banks
and businesses closed and many people without cash or food.
Washington has been partly responsible for the fiscal crisis
through its economic sanctions. But most of the crunch stems from
years of unbridled spending by military-dominated governments that
have held sway in Panama since 1968. They have given the country a
$4.8 billion foreign debt, one of the highest per capita in the
world.
The country is in such bad shape that Washington is worried
further economic sanctions could leave it a dead prospect for any
future, democratic government. That's one reason Reagan hasn't
imposed a total trade embargo against Panama, limiting American
sanctions instead to a series of half measures, taken a step at a
time.
``It's a very delicate line we walk,'' Ackerman said. ``Nobody
wants to sink the ship in order to get at the captain.
``We have boxed ourselves in on this one. Noriega is to a great
extent a Frankenstein of our making, and the people of this country
are counting on us to do something.''
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Three small children burned to death
in a village in central Yugoslavia while their parents were away,
the state news agency Tanjug reported Saturday.
The agency said a 3-year-old boy and his sisters, aged 2 and 4,
died as fire consumed their wooden home in the village of Imljani.
The village, on Mount Vlasic, is 155 miles southwest of Belgrade,
the capital.
Only their 5-year-old sister was pulled to safety by a neighbor,
the agency said.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Six Moslem fishermen were shot and
killed off the eastern coast of Sri Lanka, and nine of their
companions were missing and feared dead, a Sri Lankan military
official said Saturday.
The official said six bullet-riddled bodies washed ashore
Saturday near the eastern port of Trincomalee. The men and nine
others had set out a day earlier from the village of Nilaweli,
north of Trincomalee harbor, he said.
Trincomalee is 150 miles northeast of Colombo.
The official said he had no information on who might have killed
the fishermen. He briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.
A Sri Lankan news agency blamed the attack on the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the largest of the rebel groups that has
been waging a nearly five-year war for an independent Tamil
homeland in the north and east of the island.
The United News of India quoted residents of the area as saying
they heard the sounds of motor boats and gun shots off the coast
Friday night.
UNI said several hundred angry fishermen surrounded the police
station at the village of Muttur just south of Trincomalee to
protest the slayings.
Tamils, most of whom are Hindus, make up 18 percent of the
nation's 16 million population. They claim they are discriminated
against by the majority Sinhalese Buddhists.
The Sinhalese, who comprise about 75 percent of the population,
control the central government and the military. The rest of Sri
Lankans are Moslem descendants of early Arab traders or Christian
descendants of Western colonial settlers.
Tamil militants have, in the past, attacked Moslems in the east
to underscore their claim to the region.
India signed a peace accord with Sri Lanka last July aimed at
ending the Tamils' insurgency. But the Tigers have rejected the
accord and have continued their guerrilla war.
India, which has a large Tamil population in its south, has more
than 50,000 troops on the island to try to enforce the peace pact.
On Saturday, the Daily News, a pro-government newspaper, said
the government has taken at least 300 Sinhalese into custody on
suspicion they are members of the outlawed Peoples Liberation Front.
The front has pledged to kill anyone who supports the
Indian-brokered peace accord, contending that it makes too many
concessions to Tamils.
The front has been blamed for killing at least 220 people and
injuring 170 in the past five months.
Another paper, the independent Sun, put the arrest total at
around 650 in the past six months. Both quoted unnamed police
sources.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
The cease-fire agreement signed this past week
between Nicaragua's leftist government and the Contra rebels
represents the most significant turning point for that country
since the United States first began backing the insurgents in 1981.
Barring unexpected developments, the agreement will probably
bring the war to an end and leave the ruling Sandinistas with a
firm grip on power. The Sandinistas have ruled Nicaragua since
their 1979 revolution.
President Reagan expended considerable political capital over
the years attempting to convince his countrymen that Sandinista
power, left unchecked, would mean a Soviet beachhead in Central
America and grave national security risks for the United States.
But Reagan was unable to muster consistent majority support for
his policy. There were too many in Congress who felt that the human
costs of sustaining the war were too high when compared with the
benefits Reagan saw in trying to overthrow the Sandinistas.
The price paid by Nicaraguans over the past seven years has been
obvious. The war has claimed more than 40,000 lives and left the
economy in a shambles.
The policy never had much enthusiastic support beyond the
conservative wing of the Republican Party. In Latin America it was
difficult to find any president willing to express support for
Contra aid, even in those Central American countries which Reagan
said would be most affected by the collapse of the rebels.
For all the energy Reagan spent in support of the Contras,
Congress approved only about $209 million for them over seven years
_ equivalent to what the administration says the Soviet Union
provides to the Sandinistas every few months. During the height of
the Vietnam war, the United States committed thousands of troops
and spent that much every few days.
Now, it appears there is little the United States can do to
influence events in Nicaragua. The administration has used
extensive diplomatic and economic pressures to force the
Sandinistas' hand with minimal results and now it has been deprived
of what Reagan and the Contras believe is their most effective
lever _ military pressure. The best the Contras can hope for now is
a humanitarian aid package the Congress will take up next week.
Given its past statements, the administration may try to take
advantage of the new mood of reconciliation in Nicaragua and
explore ways to achieve a more normal relationship with the
Sandinistas. There have been no serious talks between the two
governments in more than three years.
There are several theoretical scenarios under which what was
done last week could be undone, and the war resumed. Under
administration prodding, the Congress could decide to commit itself
next week to an early vote on additional Contra military aid if the
peace process breaks down and Reagan makes an aid request.
But it appears a majority in Congress, worn down by the Contra
aid issue, does not want to give the president that authority.
The most likely outcome is a Contra surrender to terms set forth
by the Sandinistas during talks due to start on April 6 on a
permanent truce.
Under the agreement, the Contras will be allowed to take their
arms with them to mutually agreed cease-fire zones. But their
supplies are running low, there is little prospect for
replenishment, and nothing prevents the Sandinista Army from
surrounding these zones while talks on a permanent settlement are
carried out. The Contras will be at a severe disadvantage.
After a year in which the Contras had emerged as an effective
fighting force, dispatching thousands of troops into Nicaragua from
sanctuaries in Honduras, 1988 has marked a steady downward spiral.
The House defeated a key Contra aid vote on Feb. 3 and the
Congress decreed an end to all aid shipments on Feb. 29. The
Contras agreed less than a month later to a cease-fire proposal
that fell far short of their demands even though they won some
concessions from the Sandinistas, including the promise of free
speech and Contra participation in a national dialogue.
The administration has praised the agreement but this is one
instance in which there is a wide gap between the publicly stated
view and the private assessment.
Officials felt it was inappropriate to criticize the Contras for
signing an agreement after a lack of U.S. steadfastness forced
their hand.
``The Contras made their own decision and they made it
courageously, and we must not do anything to undo it,'' said White
House chief of staff Howard Baker in an interview on Cable News
Network's ``Evans & Novak'' Saturday. ``We've got to wish them
well, as indeed we do.''
Some of the most optimistic statements are being voiced by the
Contra leaders themselves, including Adolfo Calero, who is among
the most conservative of that group.
``Today we have taken a first but firm step to end this
fratricidal war,'' Calero said Wednesday night after the agreement
was signed.
``It is a very serious obligation that we are undertaking, the
government of Nicaragua as well as we in the resistance. I am
certain that we will both comply.''
If Calero is right, then Reagan may be proved to have been wrong
all along about the nature of the Sandinista government.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
EDITOR`S NOTE _ George Gedda has covered foreign affairs for the
Associated Press since 1968.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
The Marine Corps has discharged a mechanic
who said he cross-connected instrument switches on a helicopter to
prove that pilots were flying the aircraft even when it appeared to
be unsafe.
Cpl. Kirk Hill agreed to the discharge rather than face a
special court-martial for allegedly tampering with a CH-53D ``Sea
Stallion'' helicopter before an Oct. 26 night flight, Cpl. Joe
Velez, a spokesman for the Marine Corps' El Toro air station, said
Friday.
Hill, 22, will be demoted one rank to lance corporal and receive
an administrative discharge under other-than-honorable conditions,
Velez said.
Hill faced charges of willful dereliction of duty, intentionally
trying to damage a helicopter, attempting to destroy the national
defense, using marijuana and disobeying orders by placing a foreign
substance into a urine sample sought for drug tests.
In previous testimony, the pilots testified that they detected
an instrument malfunction before take-off, but other system checks
showed nothing was wrong with the helicopter. They reported the
malfunction after their 45-minute flight ended.
Saturday.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Secretary of State George P. Shultz will go to
the Middle East at the end of next week to push his initiative for
peace in the region, the State Department announced today.
The secretary, after a stopover in Rome and talks with Italian
officials, will arrive in Jerusalem on Sunday, April 3.
He will later travel to Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia,
returning to Washington April 8, State Department spokesman Charles
E. Redman said.
Shultz has been trying to arrange negotiations that would lead
to a settlement between Israel and the Palestinians and made a trip
to the region several weeks ago.
``We are continuing to work on his proposals for peace in the
region,'' said Redman.
He said Shultz made the decision to return to the Middle East on
Friday after meeting Philip Habib, his chief negotiator on Mideast
problems.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Newspapers and television are coming under
increasing fire from governments across the world, which claim
their coverage of violence and unrest only creates more of the same.
In some cases, coverage has been limited. In others, it has been
banned outright.
A graphic television film of recent bloody rampages at two
Northern Ireland funerals prompted strong complaints from the
British government. That reaction was mild compared with other
countries.
In Israel, the army regularly bars reporters and television
crews from the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip, rocked by
protests since Dec. 8. In South Africa, photographing or filming
unrest and security force actions is prohibited in a state where
anti-apartheid protests are common.
Tibet is closed to foreigners whenever an anti-Chinese protest
occurs, and no Western reporter has been allowed to the troubled
Soviet republics of Armenia or Azerbaijan.
``There does seem to be a trend to keep the television cameras
away,'' said Philip Spender, deputy editor of the Index of
Censorship, a London periodical that monitors media freedom
worldwide.
``A very vivid picture says volumes, and it's very hard for a
government to deny it's presiding over the mistreatment of
people,'' Spender said in a recent interview.
Some observers say in the long run, censorship won't work.
``If you look at South Africa at the moment, the people who are
being fooled by the turning off of the cameras are essentially the
whites; certainly not the blacks,'' said Leonard Sussman, executive
director of Freedom House, a private human rights agency in New
York. ``The blacks know exactly what's happening. They either see
it with their own eyes or they hear rumors, and rumors tend to
exaggerate, and that builds new problems.''
Observers say many governments use the possibility of increased
violence to mask their real concern: their image abroad. Other
governments are more forthright.
Panama, for example, has expelled or refused to admit foreign
reporters and warned others it will not tolerate what it calls
``the continuation of disinformation'' that ``damages the image of
our country abroad.''
Many Israelis are angry because television has documented
Palestinian unrest and Israeli attempts to crush it _ in
particular, recent CBS-TV shots of soldiers beating two unarmed
Palestinians.
Israeli President Chaim Herzog recently referred to news reports
as a ``weapon'' being used against Israel.
``I ask myself whether I'm permitted, in a very liberal and
democratic approach, to allow this weapon to be turned against my
children and my country,'' he said.
Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and New York
Mayor Ed Koch have both suggested Israel ban television crews from
the occupied territories altogether.
Before imposing stringent media controls, South African
officials had complained that TV coverage encouraged unrest.
But their main complaint was that the coverage gave a false or
exaggerated impression of black dissent and encouraged sanctions
and disinvestment moves.
Sussman and others acknowledged that news reports can stir up
trouble.
``But I think you have to weigh the damage that's done by the
opposite, by the clampdown,'' he said.
Journalists should police themselves, he said.
``They have to be wary that they're not being used, or
exploited, by either of the parties, whether it's the government or
the objectors,'' he said.
Sussman said that censorship is justified when lives are at
stake ``because of a really volatile situation.''
``But usually governments take the easier road of stepping in
well before that point's arrived, and that's the damage (to
freedom),'' he said.
The London-based International Press Institute said it opposes
any attempt to curb news gathering.
``Whether cameras can incite, I think there's no doubt that they
do,'' its spokesman said. ``But the question is, which is the
greater ill. You have to inform the public.''
In Britain, few suggest the government should limit media
coverage in Northern Ireland, where nearly 2,700 people have died
in almost 20 years of sectarian fighting.
Indeed, public debate over the television footage of the bloody
funeral has focused primarily on British police efforts to obtain
untransmitted videotape to identify suspects.
On Thursday, after threats of prosecution under anti-terrorist
laws, British and Irish TV networks gave police untransmitted
videotape of an Irish Republican Army funeral procession that ended
with the slayings of two British soldiers.
The networks had initially refused to hand over the tape on
grounds it would endanger the lives of their crews working in the
British province.
To Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, it was a much simpler
issue, as she outlined it to the House of Commons.
``Either one is on the side of justice in this matter, or on the
side of terrorism,'' she said.
1280</1ST_LINE>
a week xxx, (grafs 2 and 3 of add) to CORRECT timing of Hart's
withdrawal
<NEW DOCUMENT>
As George Bush amazed the pundits with a
political resurrection, the Democrats lost a front-runner off the
good ship Monkey Business, staged what looked like candidate-a-week
auditions for a replacement and now worry about a convention
without a clear winner.
At its midpoint, the 1988 presidential campaign can claim more
than its share of unexpected twists and turns.
Without a front-runner, the lesser known Democrats found it hard
to get attention and gain stature.
The race became ``a series of isolated judgments,'' said Bill
Carrick, campaign manager for Rep. Richard Gephardt. Carrick
referred to the phenomenon of no Democratic being able to put
together a series of victories.
And as both parties looked ahead to November, they expressed
pessimism.
``This looks to me like 1960 all over again,'' said Donald
Devine, a conservative Republican and adviser to Kansas Sen. Bob
Dole's presidential campaign. That was a year the Democrats
recaptured the White House at the close of Republican Dwight
Eisenhower's second term.
Once again, said Devine, ``You have an aging president, who's
kind of loved and recognized as doing a decent job.''
``This is the Democrats' year,'' he lamented. ``The Republicans
are going to have to work real hard to change that and the
Democrats are going to have to help them a little in this
nomination process, which I think they're going to do.''
Some Democrats agree that they could easily give the Republican
the help they need.
Gov. Mario Cuomo of New York predicted there'll be some
brokering before the party's nominee can be selected, and he warned
that if it takes place at the Democratic National Convention next
summer in Atlanta ``the whole United States will see you in the
grubby business of cutting deals.''
Two Democrats _ Gary Hart and Joseph Biden _ were knocked out of
contention long before any votes were cast. Television evangelist
Pat Robertson startled Republicans with his organizational skill,
and even more with his accounts of conversations with God.
Southern Democrats tried to give their nominating process a
conservative cast and created Super Tuesday which gave the biggest
boost to a pair of liberals _ Jesse Jackson and Michael Dukakis.
Iowa's reputation took a beating and so did momentum.
Voters demonstrated repeatedly they don't always do what the
pollsters predict they will.
And once again, money proved the indispensable element of
campaigns for everybody but Jackson.
After Ronald Reagan, who?
Among Republicans, the debate centered on who could legitimately
claim his conservative legacy and retain some of his electoral
magic. For the most conservative element in the party, it also was
the year to determine whether they or GOP moderates, represented by
Bush, would control the party in the post-Reagan era.
The Democrats looked forward to a presidential campaign without
Reagan on the ballot, but also were aware they had lost four of the
last five national elections, being virtually shut out in the South
and West.
They, too, talked of a fight for control of the party's future.
Both parties started out with bumper crops of candidates and
near candidates.
Remember Donald Rumsfeld? A former Illinois congressman, White
House chief of staff and defense secretary, he had a resume that
rivaled Bush's and a speaking style that was a sure cure for
insomnia. He appeared at Republican events around the country
trying to drum up support for a presidential bid before finally
giving up on April 2, 1987.
Former Sen. Paul Laxalt of Nevada, best known as Reagan's close
friend, also dipped a toe into the presidential waters but pulled
it out when he discovered how tough it could be to raise millions
of dollars.
Conseratives were titillated by the prospect that Pat Buchanan,
the former White House communications director, or Jeane
Kirkpatrick, the former United Nations ambassador would run. Both
eventually said no.
The Democrats had their share of reluctant dragons.
Sen. Sam Nunn of Georgia considered running and then didn't;
Sen. Bill Bradley of New Jersey said, no, no, a thousand times no.
Sen. Dale Bumpers of Arkansas and his governor, Bill Clinton,
decided against running. Rep. Pat Schroeder of Colorado wanted to
run but found raising enough money too great a hurdle.
And then, of course, there was the ubiquitous Governor Cuomo of
New York.
``I will not be a candidate,'' Cuomo declared in 1987, setting
off still more speculation on whether or not he was running.
``Why don't you want to be president?'' he was asked a year
later.
``Who said I don't want to be president?'' he retorted.
``Do you want to be president?'' pressed the questioner.
``No,'' he replied.
But there plenty of real candidates.
Bush, Dole, Robertson, Rep. Jack Kemp of New York, former Gov.
Pete du Pont of Delaware and former secretary of state Alexander M.
Haig Jr. on the Republican side.
Hart, Biden, Dukakis, Jackson, Rep. Richard Gephardt of
Missouri, Sen. Paul Simon of Illinois, former Gov. Bruce Babbitt of
Arizona and Sen. Albert Gore Jr. of Tennessee for the Democrats.
The race began early with Democrats Gephardt, Biden and Babbitt
taking the traditional route throught the small towns of Iowa,
campaigning for legislative candidates in the 1986 elections. Dole,
Kemp and du Pont did much the same thing on the Republican side.
Meanwhile, Michigan Republicans tried to grab some of the
presidential campaign spotlight. In the summer of 1986, they
elected thousands of precinct level party officials who eventually
would decide the allocation of the state's 77-member delegation to
the GOP convention in New Orleans in August 1988.
The Bush campaign liked the idea. The vice president beat Reagan
in Michigan's 1980 primary.
But Robertson was already at work and his forces matched the
vice president's at the crucial task of recruiting candidates for
the Michigan election. That was the first indication of Robertson's
potential.
It was bad news for Bush and even worse for Kemp.
Then came Iran-Contra and the disclosures that the
administration had been involved in covert arms sales to the
Ayatollah.
It was a bleak moment for the administration and it looked like
Bush would be the principal political victim.
Dole's advisers were split on the likely impact, but the senator
was among those who thought it would severely wound Bush.
``I thought it was serious,'' said Lee Atwater, Bush campaign
manager. ``But I never thought it would deprive the vice president
of the nomination.''
Iowa's economy would prove an even greater hurdle for Bush.
Throughout the Reagan presidency, things had gone from bad to
worse in the state and it was one of the few soft spots in Reagan's
generally strong approval from Americans.
Dole campaigned there as a fellow Midwesterner with a rural
background and an understanding of the problems of farmers.
``I'm from Russell, Kansas, and proud of it,'' he told countless
audiences.
The campaign began to get nasty.
``He's sort of had a charmed life in politics, he's gotten quite
a ways without ever doing much,'' Dole said of the vice president.
As Dole continued to portray Bush as a vice president who had no
more than a passive role in administration affairs, the Bush
campaign accused the senator of being ``mean-spirited'' and
practicing ``cronyism.''
Dole later accused the Bush campaign of deliberately trying to
provoke him.
``I think that was the effort,'' he said. ``I was a bit testy a
time or two. I was getting angry.''
today, picking up 6th graf pvs, ``I'll feel ....'
^LaserPhotos NY9,11
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Robert Chambers Jr. surrendered today after
pleading guilty to strangling a young woman during a Central Park
tryst. His plea ended the 10-week-long ``preppie murder'' trial
that focused attention on the lifestyles of the young rich.
Chambers, 21, admitted guilt Friday to a lesser charge of
first-degree manslaughter, halting jury deliberations that lasted
nine days and raised fears of a possible mistrial.
Chambers' plea calls for a sentence of five to 15 years in
prison, and he surrendered about 10:30 a.m. today at Criminal Court
in Manhattan, where he began processing before being sent to the
city jail at Rikers Island. Formal sentencing is scheduled April 15.
Chambers admitted that he intended to seriously hurt Jennifer
Dawn Levin, 18, the night of her death. Her battered, partly nude
body was found under a tree behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art
on Aug. 26, 1986.
The agreement under which he made his plea was approved by Miss
Levin's family. Chambers must serve five years before being
eligible for parole.
``I'll feel better ... when he's in jail, where he should be,''
said Ellen Levin, the victim's mother. ``He wasn't the lily-white
altar boy he appeared to be.''
During the trial, Chambers' defense had been that he had lashed
out at Jennifer Levin when she hurt him during rough sex, and that
he had not meant to kill her.
Chambers' parents, Robert and Phyllis Chambers, stared silently
and showed no emotion as their only child reluctantly entered his
plea.
He seemed both angry and sad as he stood before State Supreme
Court Justice Howard Bell, who asked Chambers whether he had
``intended to cause serious physical injury'' to Miss Levin _ the
key element for the manslaughter charge.
``Looking back on everthing, I'd have to say yes,'' Chambers
replied in a lowered voice as he appeared to choke back sobs. ``In
my heart that is not what I intended.''
The jury could have convicted Chambers of second-degree murder,
a more serious charge, but Manhattan District Attorney Robert
Morgenthau said the prospect of a possible mistrial, the strain on
the Levin family and the circumstantial evidence in a murder trial
prompted the plea bargain.
A prosecution source told The Associated Press that among their
considerations were notes from three jurors who wanted to leave,
leading to the concern over a mistrial. The source spoke only on
condition of anonymity.
The slaying was dubbed the ``preppie murder'' because the victim
and the prime suspect were products of New York's monied elite, who
went to private schools and came from wealthy families.
Chambers, a former altar boy, flunked out of the exclusive
Choate school before entering and graduating from York Prep in
Manhattan.
He dropped out of Boston University in his first year and
developed a cocaine habit for which he was institutionalized twice.
To help feed the habit, he committed burglaries, a prosecutor said.
Chambers, who had been charged with three counts of burglary,
pleaded guilty to one of those counts Friday.
Miss Levin went to the park with Chambers after telling friends
he was the best sex partner she ever had and that she was
determined to have sex with him that night.
Shortly after his arrest, Chambers told police in a videotaped
statement that he had never intended to hurt Miss Levin.
He said she had molested him sexually and hurt his genitals, and
he killed her accidentally. He said Miss Levin had tied his hands
behind his back with her panties, sat on his chest facing his feet
and grabbed his genitals.
Chambers said he freed his hands, reached up with his left
forearm and yanked back against her throat, flipping her off him.
Assistant District Attorney Linda Fairstein called Chambers'
story ``ludicrous.''
She told the jury that he attacked Miss Levin in a rage, punched
her, chased her when she tried to flee, caught her and ``squeezed
the life out of her.''
Fairstein, holding a photo of Miss Levin taken in Dorrian's Red
Hand bar hours before her death, said, ``One can't help but look at
that photograph and pray for time to stand still, for time to grab
her and say, `Don't go with Robert Chambers.'''
picking up 3rd graf pvs, `Under the ....' SUBS last graf with 1
graf to UPDATE with House approval of revenue sharing delay.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
The Legislature today approved a bill
giving Gov. Buddy Roemer unprecedented power to deal with
Louisiana's fiscal crisis by slashing government spending, after
several lawmakers said the state had no other choice.
By a 32-4 vote in special session Friday, the Senate sent the
budget-cutting bill to the House for consideration of amendments.
The House concurred by a 101-0 vote today, sending the measure to
Roemer's desk for his signature.
Under the bill, Roemer would have the authority until June 30 to
cut up to 20 percent from department budgets, eliminate entire
programs and close institutions if necessary to keep the state from
running out of cash.
The governor has said the state will run out of money sometime
in early May if emergency steps are not taken. The special
legislative session to consider his program was to continue today.
In proposing the legislation, Roemer said lawmakers would be
able to reverse his cuts while formulating the budget during the
regular legislative session beginning April 18.
At the center of the Senate debate was the issue of whether the
Legislature should be handing over such authority.
Sen. Ron Landry questioned the constitutionality of the bill.
``We're supposed to have a constitutional separation of
powers,'' he said.
But other lawmakers said the state had no other practical choice.
``It is either this or a much greater evil,'' said Sen. Fritz
Windhorst. ``If we don't like what he does, we can undo it during
the regular session.''
Also Friday, lawmakers sent to Roemer a bill that is the
keystone of the governor's plans to reorganize state government _
the splitting of the Department of Health and Human Resources into
two agencies. The House approved the bill 97-3, and the Senate
later concurred with House amendments.
The measure is aimed at better management of health and welfare
services that fall under the agency's $2 billion budget. With about
27,000 employees, Health and Human Resources is the state's largest
agency and is the frequent target of charges of mismanagement.
The bill would create two agencies: one to deal with welfare and
other social programs and the other to supervise health and
hospital programs.
In addition, the Senate approved a bill that would allow Roemer
to reappropriate funds in his office without legislative approval
and another measure authorizing a delay in the state's final
1987-88 revenue sharing payment of about $30 million to city
governments from May 15 to June 30.
The House gave final approval to the revenue sharing measure
today.
graf, Department spokesman, to include more detail on Shultz trip.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Secretary of State George P. Shultz met today
with two members of a group affiliated with the Palestine
Liberation Organization and the State Department announced Shultz
will got to the Middle East next week to again push a U.S. peace
initiative.
Professors Edward Said of Columbia University and Ibrahim Abu
Lughud met for more than an hour with Shultz, who had invited them
to the State Department.
``We conveyed to Secretary Shultz the urgent need to lift
Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza as a preparatory step
on the road to achieving peaceful coexistence between Palestinian
Arabs and Israeli Jews,'' Said said after the meeting. The
professor earlier said he had been in touch with PLO Chairman
Yasser Arafat about the meeting with Shultz.
The State Department rejected news organizations' requests to
photograph Shultz and the Palestinian leaders, both U.S. citizens,
at the start of their meeting.
The secretary, whose last Mideast peace-seeking trip was a month
ago, has been trying to arrange negotiations that would lead to a
settlement between Israel and the Palestinians. Israel rejects PLO
participation in any negotiations.
Department spokesman Charles Redman said Shultz made the
decision to return to the Middle East on Friday after meeting
Philip Habib, his chief negotiator on Mideast problems. He will
arrive in Jerusalem Sunday, April 3, and visit Jordan, Egypt, Syria
and Saudi Arabia the following week, Redman said.
State Department spokeswoman Phyllis Oakley called the visitors
``prominent Americans with an intimate knowledge of contemporary
Middle Eastern politics.'' She also confirmed they are members of
the Palestine National Council, which is often called the PLO's
legislative arm.
Under U.S. law, administration officials are barred from holding
meetings with PLO officials, but Mrs. Oakley stressed that the two
guests are U.S. citizens and said the meeting did not represent a
change in U.S. policy.
Both the United States and Israel have called the PLO a
terrorist organization.
Asked in a telephone interview Friday if he received permission
from Arafat to attend the session, Said replied he did not need
such a ``green light.''
He added, however, ``We did notify Chairman Arafat, and that was
fine with him _ absolutely.'' He said he and Abu-Lughud were
interested in ``an exchange of views'' with Shultz. They want to
know more about the U.S. proposal for Arab-Israeli negotiations and
``we're going to tell him about the Palestinians' view of the
matter,'' Said commented.
Israeli Ambassador Moshe Arad protested Shultz's invitation to
the two as in conflict with a 13-year U.S. policy against dealing
with the PLO, which is pledged to dismantling Israel as a Jewish
state.
For several weeks, Shultz has been trying to open negotiations
by May 1 to provide self-rule for the Palestinians and move toward
an overall Middle East peace agreement. The plan, designed to
overcome Israeli objections to talking to the PLO, envisions
participation in talks by PLO-approved Palestinians as part of a
Jordanian delegation.
None of the parties in the region has accepted the plan.
In January, Shultz met here with two Palestinian Arabs, Hanna
Siniora, a Jerusalem editor, and Fayez Abu Rahme, a Gaza lawyer.
During a Mideast shuttle trip last month, Shultz tried to
arrange a meeting in Jerusalem with 15 Palestinian Arabs, but none
showed up, apparently by order of the PLO.
The State Department, meanwhile, issued a warning to Americans
not to travel to the Israeli-held West Bank and Gaza, where 111
Palestinians and an Israeli soldier have been killed in clashes
since January 9.
There was no explanation for the timing of the advisory, but it
coincided with the approach of Easter and Passover holidays that
usually attract U.S. tourists to the holy land, including sites on
the West Bank.
Israel is safe for American travel, Mrs. Oakley said.
The West Bank was held by Jordan and Gaza by Egypt from 1949
until 1967 when the Arabs lost the territories to Israel in the
Six-Day War. About 96 percent of the population is Palestinian.
The situation in East Jerusalem was described as
``unpredictable'' and Americans were advised to check with U.S.
diplomats in the city before entering the area.
``Under all circumstances, Americans should avoid demonstrations
and other situations that have the potential to lead to violence,''
the advisory said. ``American travelers should carry their U.S.
passports at all times.''
Veto</HEAD>
<NEW DOCUMENT>
President Reagan's defeat last week on a major
anti-discrimination bill demonstrates the chasm between his
administration and the rest of America when it comes to civil
rights, say those who fought for passage of the measure.
Some conservatives counter that Reagan's positions are very much
in tune with the American mainstream.
The enactment of the Civil Rights Restoration Act over Reagan's
veto was the latest skirmish in the administration's rocky
seven-year attempt to redefine _ and some say erase _ the federal
government's role in ensuring basic rights to all citizens.
Reagan and his conservative allies contend they are committed to
a ``colorblind'' society and reject the idea that they are less
concerned about discrimination than those who support stronger
remedies.
But their vision has led to years of confrontation with
Democrats and liberals and often with moderates, conservatives,
Republicans and business people as well.
``People simply don't want to go back and undo things that have
been accomplished over the last 20 years,'' says veteran civil
rights attorney William Taylor, who helped draft the restoration
act.
But some conservatives say the administration's victories have
not drawn the attention they deserve and do, in fact, reflect the
public's feelings.
``The picture is more mixed than perhaps some would have people
think about the Reagan administration and its civil rights policy
and how much it's in sync with the public,'' said former Associate
Deputy Attorney General Bruce Fein, now a fellow at the
conservative Heritage Foundation.
Fein said the media has not fairly portrayed the
administration's progress toward its civil rights goals. ``On the
victories, they end up with a little three-graf snippet on page
25,'' he complained.
But Ralph Neas, executive director of the 185-group Leadership
Conference on Civil Rights, said the victories have been small
and-or temporary.
``Congress and the Supreme Court have reined in the excesses of
the Reagan administration,'' he said. ``The only time they (the
administration) have been able to do anything or change anything is
when they have acted by executive fiat.''
The administration provoked an uproar early in 1982 when it
tried to reverse a longstanding policy of not giving tax breaks to
segregated schools and caused more controversy a year later by
firing three liberal members of the supposedly independent Civil
Rights Commission.
Among other things, the administration has also tried and failed
to:
_Block strong economic sanctions against the South African
government for its apartheid policy.
_Dismantle or weaken ongoing school busing and affirmative
action plans.
_End affirmative action goals and timetables for government
contractors.
_Block a tough new extension of the Voting Rights Act in 1982
and win a different interpretation of it three years later in the
Supreme Court.
_Dissuade Congress from enacting a new holiday honoring Martin
Luther King.
_Elevate the architect of its civil rights policies, Assistant
Attorney General William Bradford Reynolds, to associate attorney
general.
Those are the major defeats. Where are the comparable victories?
Some point to the Supreme Court's 1984 decision narrowing
protection under four civil rights laws to specific federally
assisted programs, rather than prohibiting an entire institution
from discriminating if any part of it receives aid. But that ruling
was reversed last week with the veto override.
There were also two Supreme Court rulings in which the justices
found newer minority employees were improperly shielded from
layoffs while innocent white workers with more seniority were let
go.
But the Justice Department later was rebuffed when it asked 51
local jurisdictions to scrap hiring and promotion plans on the
basis of the court rulings on seniority and layoffs. One Republican
mayor, William Hudnut of Indianapolis, said he refused to comply
with the request because he felt it was wrong constitutionally,
morally and politically.
The high court went on to deal a double blow to the
administration in 1986, approving the Cleveland Fire Department's
plan to reserve half of all promotions for minority candidates and
endorsing a labor union's use of racial quotas to help more
minorities get jobs.
Fein cited several lower court rulings that threw out racial
quotas in government contracting and said the Supreme Court would
review them. He also noted a federal appeals court decision this
month striking down racial quotas used to avert ``white flight'' at
an integrated Brooklyn housing development, Starrett City. The
decision stemmed from a 1984 suit filed by the Justice Department.
Taylor and others in the civil rights community do say that
Reagan has succeeded in dismantling much of the federal civil
rights law enforcement machinery and has kept advocates busy for
seven years with rearguard actions.
On the other hand, they say, in their forced re-examination and
re-evaluation of the nation's civil rights policies, Congress and
the courts have deemed them essentially sound.
``The basic threat the administration posed was turning the
clock back and turning the country in a different direction,''
Taylor said. ``They sure tried hard. They failed every time. To me,
that is a very encouraging development.''
<NEW DOCUMENT>
A Lumbee Indian activist and candidate
for Superior Court judge in racially troubled Robeson County was
shot to death at his home, the FBI said today.
Julian Pierce was killed sometime Friday night or early this
morning, agent Paul Daly said.
``We've been notified that Julian was found dead,'' Daly said,
adding that there had been ``an apparent burglary'' at Pierce's
home. He said agents from the FBI and State Bureau of Investigation
were assisting Robeson County sheriff's deputies.
Pierce, 42, was a candidate for a newly created Superior Court
judgeship. He was running against District Attorney Joe Freeman
Britt in the May 3 primary.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Here is a chronology of U.S.-Nicaraguan
relations, dating back nearly a decade. It ends with the
Sandinistas and Contra rebels signing a tentative peace accord last
week:
1979
JULY 17 _ Anastasio Somoza, the Nicaraguan president, resigns
and flies to Miami, ending more than four decades of rule by his
rightist, pro-American family. Somoza had been weakened from both
inside and outside the country. His refusal to allow democracy and
freedom alienated businessmen, professionals and students, while
his ties to Washington were weakened by President Carter's concerns
about human rights abuses in Nicaragua. Two days after Somoza
flees, the leftist Sandinista rebels take control of Managua.
Somoza dies in 1980.
1982
NOVEMBER _ First reports emerge alleging covert U.S. aid to
anti-Sandinista rebels. The aid actually had begun secretly in 1981
as part of legislation on intelligence activities and had been
managed by the Central Intelligence Agency.
1983
MAY 1 _ Nicaragua claims violations of its territory by U.S. spy
planes and warships.
1984
APRIL 6-7 _ Congressional and Reagan administration sources
reveal that U.S.-trained commando units, operating from a U.S. ship
off the Nicaraguan coast and directed by the CIA, had placed mines
in Nicaragua's ports.
APRIL 9 _ Nicaragua asks the World Court to order the United
States to halt the mining and cease aiding attacks on Nicaraguan
territory. A day earlier, in anticipation of Nicaragua's move, the
Reagan administration had announced that, for a two-year period, it
would not accept the court's jurisdiction in U.S. disputes
involving Central America.
JUNE 25 _ Senate votes to shelve the administration's request
for $21 million in military aid to the Contra rebels, a month after
the House also rejected the aid.
1985
JAN. 10 _ Daniel Ortega inaugurated as Nicaraguan president.
JAN. 18 _ The United States withdraws from World Court
proceedings involving Nicaragua's suit against U.S. aggression,
claiming the case presents political questions ``that under the
United Nations Charter are not intended for the World Court.''
MAY 1 _ President Reagan announces a trade embargo against
Nicaragua.
AUG. 8 _ Reagan signs a foreign aid bill into law that resumes
aid to the Contras _ $27 million in ``non-lethal'' assistance.
1986
MARCH 20 _ The House defeats Reagan's proposal for $100 million
in military and humanitarian aid to the Contras.
JUNE 25 _ After an intensive lobbying campaign by Reagan, the
House reverses itself and approves the $100 million aid package for
the Contras.
JUNE 27 _ The World Court denounces U.S.-sponsored military
actions against Nicaragua and U.S. support for the Contras as a
violation of the U.N. Charter ban on the use of force.
AUG. 13 _ The Senate approves Reagan's $100 million aid package
for the Contra guerillas.
OCT. 5 _ An American-manned military cargo plane is shot down in
southern Nicaragua. Two Americans are killed; the surviving crew
member, Eugene Hasenfus, is captured and implicates the CIA in the
Contra-supply operation.
NOV. 25 _ Attorney General Edwin Meese III discloses that some
of the profits from the sale of American arms to Iran had been
secretly diverted to the Contras. It is later revealed that some
foreign countries have donated money to aid the Contras.
1987
AUG. 7 _ Five Central American presidents sign a peace plan
calling for cease-fires and additional steps toward democratization
in the region.
SEPT. 30 _ The last of the $100 million Contra aid package
technically expires, but money and materiel still in the
``pipeline'' continue to flow to the rebels into 1988.
DEC. 22 _ Reagan signs a pair of spending bills for fiscal year
1988 that include $8.1 million in non-lethal aid for the Contras.
The aid expires Feb. 29, 1988.
1988
FEB. 3 _ The House rejects Reagan's request for $36.2 million in
new aid for the rebels. The next day, the Senate votes in favor of
the plan in a purely symbolic move.
MARCH 3 _ Liberal Democrats, who oppose all aid, and
conservative Republicans, who want military aid, join in the House
to defeat a Democratic alternative package of humanitarian aid for
the Contras.
MARCH 16 _ White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater announces that
the United States is sending 3,200 troops on an ``emergency
deployment'' exercise to southern Honduras in response to the
reported incursion of Nicaraguan forces into that country.
MARCH 21 _ The Nicaraguan Sandinista government and the Contras
open peace talks.
MARCH 23 _ The Sandinistas and Contras sign an agreement for a
60-day cease-fire to start April 1. Both sides schedule a meeting
in Managua for April 6 to start negotiations on a definitive truce.
Remain</HEAD>
<NEW DOCUMENT>
President Reagan said Saturday that pre-summit
talks have ``made clear how difficult the issues are between the
United States and the Soviet Union'' and it remains to be seen how
much good the Moscow summit will do.
Reagan opened his weekly radio address with a review of his
meeting Wednesday with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze,
during which he announced that he and Soviet leader Mikhail
Gorbachev will meet in Moscow May 29 through June 2.
``My talks with him were cordial but, as you might expect, to
the point,'' he said.
``Let me also say that while lengthy talks held between
Secretary (of State George P.) Shultz and Mr. Shevardnadze at the
State Department were useful, they also made clear how difficult
the issues are between the United States and the Soviet Union,''
the president added.
``Some progress was made here and there in various areas, but
much more remains to be done, given the importance of the topics
discussed.''
Touching on arms control, human rights and other issues between
the two countries, Reagan told his audience that ``the United
States will sign only those agreements that are in our best
interest.''
``We've come a long way in our attempts to deal with the Soviets
and to further the cause of peace and freedom around the world,''
the president said.
``The next summit will help,'' he said. ``How much we'll have to
see.''
Reagan also used his speech to urge Senate approval of the
treaty limiting intermediate- and shorter-range missiles that he
and Gorbachev signed in Washington in December. The Foreign
Relations Committee is scheduled to vote on the treaty during the
coming week.
Reagan also discussed an international trade bill being
considered by a House-Senate conference committee, saying some
administration objections to it have been met but that it ``still
contains provisions that would restrict trade, deter investment in
the United States, require mandatory retaliation that invites trade
wars, and unnecessarily hamper my prerogatives as president.''
``For example, one proposal still very much alive would create
an obligation for the government to help each and every company
that can't keep up with legal, totally fair imports _ in effect, an
entitlement program for businesses that can't compete,'' he said.
He urged Congress to ``stay on course and ... settle on a bill
that avoids the great danger of choking off international trade and
slowing down economic growth.''
``I will not sign a bill that imperils our economy and threatens
growth,'' he said.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
A large section of Jesse James' tombstone,
which historians thought had been chipped away decades ago by
souvenir hunters, has been found intact and will be delivered to
the outlaw's old Missouri home.
The section of the marble tombstone is about 18 inches high and
contains James' name and the date April 3, 1882, when he was shot
to death by Robert Ford in St. Joseph, Mo., officials said.
The tombstone had been about 8 feet high originally.
``We thought it disappeared 60 years ago, but it showed up
recently,'' said Milt Perry, curator of historical property for
Clay County. Perry said he found the section of the tombstone in
Kansas City, but refused to give details.
The tombstone disappeared from Mount Olivet Cemetery in Kearney,
a town of about 1,400 people 15 miles northeast of Kansas City,
where James' grave was moved in 1902.
County officials plan to unveil the recovered section Thursday
and put it on display at the James farm near Kearney.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
State District Judge Don Leonard says
he understands a man's fondness for his cowboy hat, but don't try
wearing one in his court.
``The judge asked if I would remove it and said he could give me
six months or a $5,000 fine,'' said Keven Beaird. ``I told him I
wouldn't, his gavel fell, and it was 10 days in the county jail.''
Leonard sentenced the General Dynamics toolmaker for contempt of
court Monday for refusing to take off his hat in a jury assembly
room. The judge released him three days later after Beaird
apologized.
``He said he was sorry, that he knew he had to follow the rules
of the court,'' Leonard said Friday. ``I told him I admired his
belief, but to save himself for the big battles of life.''
District Judge Joe Drago said he supports Leonard's decision.
``I've never heard of specifically a hat. But I've asked people
to take off hats before, and no one has ever refused,'' Drago said.
``He must like his hat.''
``I don't like anybody to tell me to take my hat off,'' Beaird
said. ``I just won't do it, but I guess if I go to court again .. .
well, I believe I would take it off.''
<NEW DOCUMENT>
The Environmental Protection Agency says that
three out of four municipal waste treatment plants it surveyed
aren't able to stop water pollution from industrial toxics.
The EPA audit, made public at a House hearing last week, is
likely to rekindle a long-standing debate over whether the agency
has properly enforced the anti-toxics provisions of the Clean Water
Act.
The audit focused on 265 of the 1,500 publicly owned sewage
treatment plants with EPA-approved plans, which are supposed to
minimize the amount of toxics reaching the environment.
The audit said that 57 plants have been generally unsuccessful
in carrying out their plans, while another 147 plants have been
only partially successful in meeting the EPA-approved goals.
Only 61 plants _ 23 percent of the total surveyed _ ``have
implemented a generally successful program and are effectively
carrying out program responsibilities,'' the audit said.
James Elder, director of EPA's Office of Water Enforcement and
Permits, said the audit indicates ``that the toxic impacts on
receiving waters from publicly owned treatment works is more
significant than previously thought.''
The audit focused on the so-called pre-treatment aspects of the
Clean Water Act, which is considered one of the nation's most
successful environmental laws because it has halted much direct
discharging of untreated human waste into waterways.
According to EPA, between 100,000 and 200,000 industrial
concerns of varying size pump their wastes directly into sewers
along with the wastes of millions of households and other non-toxic
sources.
The municipal plants are geared principally to treat human and
other organic matter so it can be pumped into waterways with
minimal environmental impact.
Toxic waste from industry, however, remains largely untreated in
the process, exiting plants either in the pumpings into waterways
or trapped in sewage sluge, the residue that is disposed of in a
variety of ways, including landfills.
In order to minimize the amount of toxics reaching a treatment
plant, the law requires manufacturers to pre-treat waste to remove
chemicals, often an expensive proposition.
Under the pre-treatment program, begun in the mid-1970s, EPA
generally leaves it up to municipalities to police the toxic
sources for compliance with EPA-approved pre-treatment plans.
The audit, with findings similar to a smaller survey in in 1985,
showed that 104 of the 267 plants had basically failed to implement
their pre-treatment programs.
The audit also said that municipalities are also hampered in the
battle against toxic waste in the sewage stream by inadequate legal
authority, ineffective enforcement and too little money committed
to the job.
``The results are shocking,'' Frances Dubrowski, a lawyer
formerly with the National Resources Defense Council, told the
hearing by two Merchant Marine and Fisheries subcommittees that are
taking an in-depth look at pollution of coastal waters.
``Extrapolating this data nationwide, some 500 to 900 (plants)
merited enforcement for failure to implement the pre-treatment
program as Congress intended,'' she said. ``Yet EPA referred only
10 enforcement cases for failing to implement pre-treatment.''
The EPA's Elder said that while increased emphasis on the toxics
problem is ``making an impact, I agree we still have a lot to do.''
Ms. Dubrowski said that EPA should require treatment plants to
develop local limits for 126 toxics cited by Congress in the 1987
updating of the Clean Water Act. EPA has issued requirements for
only 10.
She also said EPA should finally issue standards to regulate the
toxic content of sewage sludge, which can contaminate groundwater
if deposited in a leaking landfill. EPA missed sludge standards
deadlines in 1978 and 1987, but officials say standards are in the
works.
Ms. Dubrowski and Reps. Gerry Studds, D-Mass., and William
Hughes, D-N.J., said that EPA and the states might need to take a
more active role enforcing pre-treatment requirements, rather than
leaving this to municipalities.
``For a city to decide to take action against its biggest
employer takes a big dose of political backbone,'' Studds said.
``But it's very clear a major part of the problem is political will
at all levels of government.''
Hughes said that unless enforcement is brought against more
violators of the Clean Water Act, ``it's like the drug traffickers:
they don't feel a risk because the chances of their being targeted
are very low.''
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Shaking down shopkeepers. Taking protection
money from criminals. Dealing drugs. Collecting kickbacks.
Demanding bribes. This, prosecutors say, is how some municipal
employees spend their days.
The problem is as old as government and the prognosis for a cure
is as bleak as ever.
``There's always going to be people who take advantage of the
system. Eight percent of the Apostles were corrupt, and look at who
screened them,'' said U.S. Attorney Andrew Maloney.
Maloney displayed the latest example of his thesis last week,
announcing charges that 28 current and former city health
inspectors and supervisors extorted payoffs from restaurateurs by
threatening sanitary law citations.
The alleged scam may have been ``repellent and painful,'' as
Health Commissioner Stephen Joseph said, but it was not
particularly new or clever.
``It's a classic shakedown situation,'' said Maloney.
It was just another in a long string of cases alleging municipal
corruption in the city in recent years, ranging from high officials
taking massive kickbacks to functionaries skimming or extorting
cash.
``It's pretty simple: human nature and greed,'' said Kevin
Frawley, the city commissioner of investigation. ``It's going after
something that is tempting to you, which is an easy buck.''
The local FBI chief, James M. Fox, blamed some of the temptation
on the city government itself.
``The vast majority of government workers in New York are honest
and competent _ and grossly underpaid,'' Fox said. ``If you want to
maintain integrity in any profession, you must pay a living wage to
the employees. Government is not doing that today, and that is part
of their problem.''
The end result: corruption that runs across the range of
government activities. Among the most prominent is the case of
Wedtech Corp., a military contractor accused of paying off state
and federal politicians for favored treatment. Another is the
Parking Violations Bureau case, in which some top city political
leaders were convicted of taking kickbacks for contracts.
But if those lead the list, it is the litany of cases that
indicate the extent of corruption:
_In a sting operation revealed in January, state prosecutors
said court representatives stole property from the apartments of
people they thought had died without family or a will.
_In October, 35 workers for a company hired by the city to empty
the cash from parking meters were accused of skimming nearly $1
million in quarters.
_In July, authorities charged that guards at a city yard where
illegally parked cars are towed took bribes to release vehicles to
their owners.
_In May, nine current or former maintenance workers and
supervisors in the city school system were indicted in a nine-year
kickback scheme; 19 people were charged in 1986.
_In November 1986, prosecutors charged more than a dozen police
officers at the 77th Precinct in Brooklyn with crimes ranging from
selling cocaine to stealing garbage cans.
_In June 1986, U.S. District Judge Leonard Wexler sentenced two
former Housing Authority officials to prison for extorting kickback
money. Said Wexler, ``Corruption is turning the city into a
cesspool.''
Frawley, the city's in-house corruption investigator, has
another view: New York corruption is no greater than in other
governments or in private business, he said. But in New York,
grifters get caught.
``It's a two-edged sword. You go after it vigorously, you
announce arrests. And the public perception is, `Oh, well, more
corruption,''' Frawley said. ``If you closed your eyes you wouldn't
see it. This agency and the federal government work very hard to
expose it.''
Indeed, Frawley noted that the FBI's local office has beefed up
its corruption squad and the budget for his own department has
doubled since 1985. ``We have a number of active investigations''
he said.
Just since the restaurant inspectors arrests, the FBI's New York
office has received several calls reporting graft in government,
enough to persuade it to open a 24-hour hotline for corruption tips
this week.
``We're looking harder than we ever have,'' said Fox. ``You say
there's been a lot of cases. There are more coming.''
Allies</HEAD>
<NEW DOCUMENT>
The cease-fire pact between the
Sandinistas and Contra rebels puts new pressure on the United
States to hold direct talks with the Nicaraguan government _
something Washington has long refused to do.
It also highlights how little progress U.S. allies in Central
America have made in negotiating cease-fires under a regional peace
plan.
Before last week's agreement, many observers doubted the leftist
Sandinistas would ever make political concessions to the
U.S.-backed Contras.
For years, the Sandinistas flatly refused to talk to the rebels.
The Nicaraguan government insisted the only path to peace was
direct negotiations with the Reagan administration, which it saw as
the true instigator of the civil war.
But the United States said it would only talk to the Sandinistas
after they and the Contras made significant headway toward settling
their differences.
That headway appears to have been made and, after signing the
pact Wednesday in the border town of Sapoa, Nicaraguan President
Daniel Ortega renewed his call for direct talks with Washington.
The last U.S.-Nicaragua talks were in 1984.
``Now is the time for the government of the United States to
respect the force of peace and dispose itself to normalizing its
relations with Nicaragua,'' he said.
On Friday, however, White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said
the administration has no plans for direct talks with the
Sandinistas.
``We would be willing to talk on a multilateral, regional
basis,'' he said.
The Reagan Administration says it is skeptical about the
Sandinista promises made in Sapoa.
In the agreement, the Sandinistas promised to gradually end the
more than six-year war, restore all democratic freedoms and grant
amnesty to political prisoners.
In so doing, Nicaragua could become the first Central American
nation other than Costa Rica _ which has no war and no armed forces
_ to fully comply with the accord signed Aug. 7, 1987, by Costa
Rican President Oscar Arias, Ortega and the presidents of El
Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.
Neither El Salvador nor Guatemala, both U.S. allies, have come
close to working out agreements with their leftist insurgents.
Chronic guerrilla wars persist in both countries.
When they began the cease-fire talks last Monday, the Contras
and the Sandinistas faced intense pressure.
Overt U.S. military aid to the rebels had recently ended, and
President Reagan was having trouble convincing lawmakers that it
should resume. The CIA has backed the Contras since 1981, but
Congressional funding has been an on-again-off-again proposition.
The Sandinistas faced pressure from chronic food shortages, the
military draft and an economy shattered by a war that the
government says has cost more than $3 billion and killed more than
50,000.
The Soviet bloc supplies the Sandinistas. The Reagan
administration, which contends the Sandinistas are the beachhead of
a hemispheric communist threat, stopped economic aid to Nicaragua
in 1981 and imposed a trade embargo in 1985.
In January, the Sandinistas moved to comply with Arias' peace
plan by lifting a state of emergency that had barred most basic
freedoms since 1982.
It resulted in the most open expressions of discontent since the
leftists came to power in a 1979 revolution. There have been
demonstrations, strikes, media criticism and public complaints that
the Sandinistas reneged on their revolutionary pledge of democracy
by becoming a Marxist regime.
But Sandinista critics in Nicaragua are now praising the
agreement with the Contras, in contrast to the Reagan
administration's pessimism.
``Perhaps the Sandinista Front will finally comply with its
word,'' said Enrique Bolanos, head of a private enterprise council.
The Contras say they will resume fighting if the agreement falls
through.
The Sandinistas, in their newspaper Barricada, said Friday the
Contra war is moving from the battleground to the political arena.
It said the Contras, ``even though disarmed, continue to be
armed ideologically against the popular power and its conquests.''
Arias, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for designing the
regional plan, said the Nicaraguan pact offers ``a new and firm
hope that all Central Americans can live in peace.''
The regional plan is aimed at ending the wars in El Salvador and
Guatemala as well as Nicaragua. It calls for political amnesties,
democratic reforms, and an end to support for insurgencies _ but
the key provision is the one calling for cease-fires.
So far, the only one to be reached in the region is the one
between the Sandinistas and the Contras, who suspended offensive
military operations Monday and agreed to begin a formal 60-day
cease-fire on April 1.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Central American correspondent Bryna Brennan has
been covering the region for The Associated Press for two years.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Tens of thousands of people marched through central
Rome on Saturday to call for more job opportunities for women and
tougher laws against sexual abuse.
Organizers estimated that 100,000 people took part in the
afternoon demonstration, in which marchers slowly made their way
across the city's historic center.
The marchers, including large numbers of men as well as women,
came from all parts of Italy by car, train and special buses. They
carried banners, chanted slogans and blew whistles.
The demonstration was organized by the country's three main
labor federations. Their slogan was ``A job for everyone. A
different kind of work. A society without violence.''
They are seeking more jobs and better conditions for women,
including flexible schedules for working mothers. The groups noted
that the national unemployment rate for women is 19 percent,
compared with 8 percent for men, with 32 percent of women without
jobs in the Mezzogiorno, the underdeveloped south.
The women are also pushing for new laws against sexual violence,
with the aim of making a sexual offense a crime ``against the
person'' rather than a crime ``against morals'' as it is considered
now.
Contras</HEAD>
<NEW DOCUMENT>
President Reagan should show his support of
the Nicaraguan cease-fire agreement by refraining from pushing for
renewed military aid for the Contra rebels, a House Democratic
leader said Saturday.
``Old policies _ like old habits _ die hard. We must resist the
temptation to say `we know better' by approving military aid before
the peace plan has a chance to succeed,'' Rep. Tony Coelho,
D-Calif., said in the Democrats' weekly radio address.
Coelho, the assistant House majority leader, said: ``The burden
on President Reagan is to recognize that diplomacy works ... and
make peace his highest priority.''
The president, commenting Friday on the cease-fire accord
reached Wednesday, said ``there is reason to have caution'' about
whether Nicaragua's Sandinista government will abide by the pact.
The Sandinistas ``have a past record that indicates that we should
be'' cautious, Reagan told reporters.
The administration is pushing for approval of a package of
humanitarian aid to the Contras before Congress recesses for
Easter. Coelho said House Speaker Jim Wright of Texas is ready to
schedule a vote this week.
``If our Republican colleagues help us write and pass a plan, we
can speed humanitarian aid to the Contras. And the chance for a
truly bipartisan policy toward Central America would be at hand,''
Coelho said.
Earlier this month liberal Democrats opposed to any aid for the
Contras and conservative Republicans pushing for military aid
teamed to defeat a humanitarian aid bill offered by Wright.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Top television series such as ``The Cosby
Show'' and ``Moonlighting'' have had their seasons shortened and
anxious advertisers have broken ranks to sign separate contracts as
scriptwriters and commercial actors turn up the heat in their
strikes.
Hollywood labor's spring offensive against motion picture and
television producers and advertisers has put more than 109,000
people on strike and forced more than 1,100 others out of their
jobs due to the resulting shutdown of projects.
The action has cost workers $4 million in lost salaries and
benefits and threatened network advertising revenue by forcing
early reruns.
On Monday, the 9,000-member Writers Guild of America enters the
fourth week of its strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture
and Television Producers.
Guild spokeswoman Cheryl Rhoden said Friday that informal talks
were taking place between the union and producers; alliance
spokesman Herb Steinberg refused comment.
Meanwhile, 100,000 members of the Screen Actors Guild and the
American Federation of Television and Radio Artists who work on
commercials enter the second week of a strike against the Joint
Policy Committee of the American Association of Advertising
Agencies and the Association of National Advertisers.
The actors, many of whom make their livings off commercials, and
advertisers have agreed to meet April 6.
Of the two labor actions, the writers strike has done the most
immediate damage to the industry.
Networks will be forced to show reruns as early as next month in
order to save some new product for the critical May ``sweeps''
ratings period, when advertising rates for local stations are
determined.
Among the shows that will fall short of a full schedule this
season are NBC's ``Cheers,'' short one show; ``L.A. Law,'' short
two shows, and ``The Cosby Show,'' short three episodes, said David
Brokaw, a spokesman for ``Cosby's'' Carsey-Werner Productions.
``It hurts,'' said Brokaw. ``Those were three scripts that
weren't written, and three shows that won't be produced. And you
can't make those up later.''
In addition, NBC's ``Saturday Night Live,'' ``Late Night With
David Letterman'' and ``The Tonight Show'' will all be in reruns
until the strike is resolved.
A much-publicized 3-D sequence for ABC's ``Moonlighting'' that
was to be shown during the May sweeps will not be produced.
Last week's ``Moonlighting'' episode ended early, leaving the
cast filling in with a lip-synched rendition of the rock oldie
``Wooly Bully.'' Stars Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis explained
the script couldn't be lengthened because the writers were on
strike.
Also shut down on ABC is ``thirtysomething,'' one episode shy of
a full season, which is usually 25 episodes.
On CBS, three shows in production were affected, with
replacement series ``The Dictator,'' starring Christopher Lloyd,
taken off the schedule for its March 15 debut. Only six of eight
shows were shot for ``Coming of Age,'' a new half-hour comedy.
The new ``Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour'' will go ahead with at
least three shows written before the strike.
Daytime soap operas, usually the first affected by a talent
union strike, were able to stockpile several weeks of scripts,
although some could be in trouble by mid-April.
On the advertising strike front, there were signs of erosion in
management solidarity with separate interim contracts being signed
between SAG and AFTRA and 41 advertising agencies and 42 production
companies.
John McGuinn, chief negotiator for the advertisers, said he had
expected the interim agreements. ``When they sign P&G (Procter &
Gamble, which has a massive advertising budget), I'll take note,''
he said.
Writers struck over creative control, demands for a greater
share of residuals for foreign-distributed products and rejection
of producers' reformulation of residuals for syndicated one-hour
television shows.
Writers made more than $57 million in residuals last year.
The two sides are so far apart that the producers claim their
offer is a $50 million increase over the life of the
three-year-contract, while guild officials claim it would be a
$37.8 million loss. The guild says its own package would net its
members an $8.7 million increase.
Actors striking against advertisers want to keep a
cost-of-living formula written into their contract 10 years ago,
and seek a new formula for increased residuals for commercials
shown on cable television.
Advertisers say they have offered significant increases for all
types of fees in return for surrendering the cost-of-living clause.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Here is a text of the Democratic radio address
delivered Saturday by Rep. Tony Coelho, D-Calif.:
This is Congressman Tony Coelho.
There is no harder decision in a nation's life than to abandon a
failed course even at a time new policies could promise success.
History is never generous in offering such moments, and it seldom
selects leaders with the wisdom to seize them.
But one such moment arrived late Wednesday in a Central American
border town. Two hardened enemies _ the Sandinistas and the Contras
_ decided to stop killing each other and signed a plan bringing
political freedom to Nicaragua. America should honor this pact and
their courage for signing it.
The Contras showed great character simply by sitting down with
the Nicaraguan government. Days before, Sandinista troops crossed
the Honduran border and jeopardized the Contra's war supplies.
Honoring engrained habits, the Contra leadership could easily have
appealed to American anger and urged renewed military aid. This
they did not do.
The Sandinistas also resisted the practices of the past. When
President Reagan deployed 3,200 American soldiers in support of the
Hondurans, many predicted Nicaragua would break off the peace talks
and ask Moscow for a fresh infusion of weapons. Such a request
would have likely rendered Nicaragua's cycle of war unbreakable;
its search for peace unachievable.
But after six years of battle, and 40,000 Nicaraguans dead, the
Sandinistas and the Contras concluded that war had become a
cowardly and costly escape from the problems of peace.
Instead, they negotiated an historic accord that offered a road
to democracy for Nicaragua and new avenues of aid for America. The
agreement provides a 60-day cease-fire, an amnesty for political
prisoners, and freedom for estranged Nicaraguans to return home. It
guarantees press freedom and rights for the Sandinista's opponents
to run for political office. In almost every respect, this accord
satisfies the concerns which prompted us to fund the Nicaragua war
in the first place.
The agreement bears the witness of Nicaragua's Cardinal Obando
and the Organization of American States. And it assigns the United
States a role to ensure fulfillment. Under its terms, we can
provide strictly humanitarian aid to the Contras, providing the aid
is delivered to the resistance forces by neutral parties.
If it works, the agreement will take on the aspect of modern
art, with Republicans and Democrats each finding in it qualities
that conform to their own political agendas.
Any politician who wants to claim credit will surely do so, but
let's remember one central point: Nicaraguans from both sides of
the civil war have closed ranks behind a blueprint for peace. And
the United States will underscore their efforts or undermine the
agreement depending upon how we respond.
Old policies _ like old habits _ die hard. We must resist the
temptation to say ``we know better'' by approving military aid
before the peace plan has a chance to succeed. The burden on
President Reagan is to recognize that diplomacy works, join our
call to end partisanship, and make peace his highest priority.
Speaker Wright wants to put the new agreement to the test. He's
ready to schedule a vote on a humanitarian aid bill next week. If
our Republican colleagues help us write and pass a plan, we can
speed humanitarian aid to the Contras. And the chance for a truly
bipartisan policy toward Central America would be at hand.
At another time, at another struggle, Robert F. Kennedy said of
Latin America: ``A revolution is coming _ a revolution which will
be peaceful if we are wise enough; compassionate if we care enough;
successful if we are fortunate enough. While we cannot alter its
inevitability,'' he wrote, ``we can affect its character.''
This is the moment all Nicaraguans have been waiting to seize.
But in a very real sense, it is our moment too. They have pledged
to bury past hatreds and forge new beginnings. We can do the same.
This week, Americans welcomed the arrival of spring and prepared
to observe the Easter and Passover holidays. It is a time to
celebrate rebirth and redemption of people and the resurrection of
a savior. It is a time for renewal.
This year, in the prayers of all Americans, let us remember the
struggle and the sacrifice of the Nicaraguan people, who have known
too much war, too much repression, and too little freedom. Let us
hope, this time that they find the peace that has eluded them for
generations.
Thank you, and God bless you.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Here is the text of President Reagan's radio
address from the White House on Saturday:
My fellow Americans, this week, as our thoughts begin to turn
toward Easter, the cause of peace among nations is foremost in our
minds, a cause that was also at the top of our work agenda here in
Washington as I received Soviet Foreign Minister Shevardnadze at
the White House.
My talks with him were cordial, but, as you might expect, to the
point. During Mr. Shevardnadze's stay, I announced May 29 through
June 2 as the dates for my summit meeting in Moscow with the leader
of the Soviet Union, General Secretary Gorbachev. And, of course,
this was good news.
The last U.S.-Soviet Summit in the USSR was 14 years ago. So
this meeting will give me and, in a sense, you the American people,
an opportunity to convey the message of peace and freedom to the
Soviet people. But let me also say that while lengthy talks held
between Secretary Shultz and Mr. Shevardnadze at the State
Department were useful, they also made clear how difficult the
issues are between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Now some progress was made here and there in various areas, but
there's much more that needs to be done given the importance of the
topics discussed. Our agenda with the Soviet Union deals not only
with arms reductions, but also regional matters, human rights, and
people-to-people exchanges. And as our discussions continue in each
of these areas I can assure you that the United States will sign
only those agreements that are in our best interest.
Let me also assure you as negotiations continue on efforts to
further reduce U.S. and Soviet strategic nuclear arms, that my
administration will carefully review such proposals. Still, we've
come a long way in our attempts to deal with the Soviets and to
further the cause of peace and freedom around the world.
The next Summit will help; how much, we'll have to see. An
important accomplishment of the first few summits however, will be
before the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee next
week for approval. This is the INF Treaty on intermediate-range
nuclear forces that Mr. Gorbachev and I signed when he was here for
the Washington Summit last December.
It's an important vote, and I'm hopeful the Senate will, as it
exercises its Constitutional duty, speedily approve what amounts to
the first real nuclear arms reductions ever achieved.
Now, some of you heard me say before that our progress with the
Soviets is based on their awareness that we have no illusions about
them. And on our determination to deal from a position of strength.
Now, that strength means, of course, keeping our defenses ready and
second to none. But it also means a strong and vigorous economy and
a place for America as the world leader in trade.
That's one of the other matters that is being considered in the
Congress that is of critical importance. That is the legislative
conference on trade legislation. Last year, there was trade
legislation coming through the Congress that would have meant
serious risks to America's prosperity, and indeed, the world's.
Fortunately, working with our administration, Congress has made
some progress in producing a sounder bit of legislation. Now, the
legislation now before the conference committee still contains
provisions that would restrict trade, deter investment in the
United States, require mandatory retaliation that invites trade
wars, and unnecessarily hamper my perogatives as President.
For example, one proposal still very much alive would create an
obligation for the government to help each and every company that
can't keep up with legal, totally fair imports. In effect, an
entitlement program for businesses that can't compete. So my hope
is that the Congress will stay on course. And that we will settle
on a bill that avoids the great danger of choking off international
trade and slowing down economic growth.
I will not sign a bill that imperils our economy and threatens
growth. And by the way, that economic growth keeps coming right
along. Only this week we heard that the gross national product
growth for last year was four percent. Now, this was higher than
our own expectations. Expectations that by the way were criticized
as too rosey a scenario when we first made them. Well, the rosey
scenario was even rosier than the one the critics were down on.
It just shows what can happen when spending and taxes are held
down, and trade is encouraged. In fact, right now much of our
economy is being driven by the growth in exports that bad trade
legislation would discourage. So you can see there's much on our
minds this week in Washington.
And before anyone looks prematurely forward to the arrival of
the Easter Bunny, I hope Congress will stay focused on the
important matters this week; the INF treaty, and trade legislation.
Until next week, thanks for listening and God bless you.
Takeovers</HEAD>
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Congressional and administration negotiators
have agreed to give the president authority to block foreign
takeovers of U.S. companies if the change in ownership would
threaten national security.
Treasury Department officials agreed Thursday to support the
provision in a catch-all trade bill pending in a House-Senate
conference committee, Sen. James Exon, D-Neb., said Friday.
The president would not be required block a foreign takeover,
``but if anyone calls to the attention of the president a threat to
national security, this bill gives the president the tool to stop
it without declaring a national emergency,'' said Exon, who had
proposed a similar measure that was approved by the Senate.
He said he expected the House and Senate conferees to adopt the
compromise on Tuesday.
The administration initially opposed the proposal, fearing that
the bill would chill foreign investment in the United States.
The compromise would give the president or someone he designates
the power to investigate a takeover or a merger when a foreign
person or company is involved.
The investigation would be limited to 45 days, a provision added
to re-assure the business community that it wouldn't be prolonged.
The president then would decide whether to intervene by issuing an
executive order.
During the negotiations, several changes were made at the
administration's insistence, Exon said. Those changes included
dropping a provision that would have allowed Congress to veto a
presidential decision to block a takeover and the addition of
assurances that any information obtained during the investigation
from the U.S. or the foreign entity involved would be kept
confidential.
first name to Charley, sted Charlie, in first graf
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Country music singer Charley Pride says the
ribbing he took as a skinny kid taught him not to be afraid of
life's challenges.
Pride, in town for the taping of the 20th anniversary show of
television's ``Hee Haw,'' said he was often teased and told,
``You're so skinny, you ain't going to be nothing.''
The singer, now a well-built man who has won nearly every award
given by the music industry, wears a gold astrological medallion of
two fish swimming around the letters ``G.I.D.,'' standing for ``get
it done.''
``It's a challenge when people tell you that you can't do
something,'' Pride said Friday, ``but what is it that isn't
attainable? I was given incentive by my dad, who always says, `If
you're going to do it, get it done.' So I had to prove something
after hearing people keep saying that.''
The anniversary show of the syndicated country variety program
is scheduled for Wednesday at the Lazy E Arena in Guthrie.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Armenians abandoned the streets of their capital
to soldiers and attack dogs Saturday to protest an official
crackdown that prompted activists to cancel a nationalist
demonstration, dissidents said.
One activist said most Armenians heeded the call to stay inside
and made Yerevan look like a ghost town.
``There are no children outside, no cars on the street, no
activity whatsoever except for the troops occupying the city.
Yerevan is like a dead city,'' said Christian rights activist
Alexander Ogorodnikov of Moscow, who said he talked to witnesses by
telephone.
The vast majority of people in Armenian-dominated
Nagorno-Karabakh, in the neighboring republican of Azerbaijan, also
refused to go outside, the dissidents' reports said.
Armenians campaigning for annexation of Nagorno-Karabakh had
called for protests Saturday, when an unofficial committee
spearheading the drive was to meet. But authorities threatened
criminal action against those taking part in illegal protests in
the region south of the Caucasus Mountains.
Nagorno-Karabakh has been part of the overwhelmingly Moslem
Azerbaijan republic since 1923. Most Armenians are Christians, and
many fear the ethnic character of Nagorno-Karabakh is being diluted.
In Moscow, Armenian church official Tiran Gureghian said about
15 young Armenians gathered Saturday at a small church inside
Yerevan's Armenian cemetery to discuss Nagorno-Karabakh. Gureghian
said police prevented them from going into the cemetery, which had
been posted with a sign advising visitors to obtain permits before
entering.
An Armenian telephone operator said in a phone interview that 20
to 30 people gathered near the Yerevan Opera Theater, the scene of
huge demonstrations last month. The operator, who spoke on
condition of anonymity, said that group was also talking about
Nagorno-Karabakh.
The operator said Armenians were disappointed that their demands
for annexation had been rejected. ``They believed it would be ours.
It probably won't be,'' she said.
Police patrolled Yerevan's streets and helicopters crisscrossed
its skies. Radio Yerevan, monitored in London, appealed for calm
and restraint.
Leaders of the unofficial Karabakh Committee in Yerevan had
called off the strikes and demonstrations earlier in the week to
avoid confrontation. But the Armenian government on Friday ordered
police to ``put an end to the activities of the Karabakh
Committee,'' Radio Moscow reported.
Four Armenian activists were arrested Friday as authorities
moved to prevent protests.
Andrei Bavitsky of the dissident journal Glasnost said he was
told Nagorno-Karabakh's central city, Stepanakert, was occupied by
15,000 Azerbaijani policemen on Saturday. He said residents of the
region were staying indoors to protest the show of force.
Local authorities said little of the situation. Someone who
answered the telephone at the Armenian Ministry of Internal Affairs
refused to give his name and said Saturday's activity was normal.
Soviet authorities have forbidden foreign correspondents to
travel to the area.
It was not clear how many Armenians stayed home out of fear of
confronting authorities and how many stayed home to signal their
displeasure. Bavitsky said he was told 60,000 troops were
patrolling Yerevan, a city of about 640,000 people.
A national newspaper accused the Communist Party leadership of
trying to suppress the sensitive ethnic dispute. Komsomolskaya
Pravda said authorities should have openly discussed the proposal
with Armenians.
The critical commentary in the party's youth newspaper
contrasted sharply with articles Friday in the nation's two most
official newspapers, Pravda and Izvestia.
Despite its hard line, the Soviet Politburo has ordered a major
improvement in living conditions in the region, including improved
reception of Armenian-language television programming and more
Armenian literature.
Soviet authorities, meanwhile, allowed nationalist displays in
Latvia and Estonia on Friday, activists said. They said the
displays marked the anniversary of Soviet leader Josef V. Stalin's
1940 deportation of thousands of anti-communists before the Soviets
took over the states on the Baltic Sea.
In the Baltic, as many as 3,000 people were reported to have
joined in a nationalist display in the Latvian capital of Riga and
about 5,000 in the Estonian capital of Tallinn.
One resident, Ints Zalitis of Riga, said human rights activists
were warned against organizing mass demonstrations. He said
Latvians showed up in small groups to lay flowers at a central
monument, and police did not disturb those who left quickly.
The official news agency Tass quoted Latvian newspapers
reporting several hundred people gathered around Riga's Freedom
monument to make a ``blasphemous provocation.''
Nine people were detained for trespassing and disrupting
transportation, Tass said.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
The pastor selected to lead a group of
moderate Baptists for the next year says his alliance seeks only a
return to religious freedom within the fundamentalist-dominated
Southern Baptist Convention,
But the moderates are willing to act independently, for the time
being, if necessary, said the Rev. John Thomason, elected president
of the Southern Baptist Alliance at its annual meeting in Macon
last week.
The group celebrated its first year of existence by poking fun
at itself and at the fundamentalists, but also worrying about what
fundamentalist control is doing to the church.
Delegates often likened the meeting to a family reunion, without
the tensions that have grown up around their denomination's annual
meeting.
The alliance meetings ``have reminded us of former days when
Southern Baptists could gather without hostility to learn together
and share in the gospel ministry,'' said the Rev. Henry Crouch, who
stepped down as president of the group.
``I have a home with you and do not have to explain or defend
myself,'' said Anne Thomas Neil, a former missionary in Africa who
was elected first vice president.
Leaders of the alliance insist they do not plan to split from
the 14.7-million member Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's
largest Protestant denomination.
At the same time, however, the alliance is publishing books,
setting up an office to help place moderate pastors with moderate
congregations, and discussing providing Sunday school material and
the possibilities of a new Baptist seminary or divinity school.
``Whenever we take specific steps like that, we are acting
independently of the institutions of the Southern Baptist
Convention and that gives the appearance of independence,'' said
Thomason, whose 561-member Northminster Baptist Church in Jackson,
Miss., was the third to join the alliance.
The words of some of the speakers at the meeting appeared
intended to keep open the door for flight.
``We would find it very uncomfortable to support indefinitely
the present trend of (SBC) leadership,'' Crouch said in his status
report to the delegates at Mercer University, a Baptist-supported
school that avoided a fundamentalist takeover attempt last year.
One sentence later, however, Crouch was applauded when he said,
``Pulling out has not been our goal or intention.''
Thomason admitted the words and actions don't necessarily match.
But, he said, ``we have to be advocates of groups that we feel to
be disenfranchised'' by the fundamentalist control of the
denomination's offices.
The alliance was formed in Charlotte, N.C., in February 1987 by
moderates who felt shut out of their church through nine years of
losing the Southern Baptist Convention presidental election to
fundamentalists.
Although both groups are generally conservative, they differ on
key points, and victorious fundamentalists have used the
presidency's broad appointive powers to put their supporters on the
boards of Baptist agencies and institutions.
Fundamentalists maintain that the Bible is literally,
word-for-word, without error, while moderates hold there is room
for interpretation, especially in historical and scientific
concepts.
Also, fundamentalists oppose ordination of women; the alliance
has made one of its main activities welcoming female pastors.
The alliance unanimously passed a resolution supporting W.
Randall Lolley, who resigned as president of Southeastern Baptist
Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., rather than follow the
orders of a fundamentalist-controlled board of directors that said
only biblical inerrantists could be hired as professors.
Another resolution decried ``restrictive understanding of
Scripture,'' saying the emphasis placed on biblical inerrancy
``undermines free inquiry and diversity of opinion which have been
a hallmark of Baptist life.''
Alliance leaders are quick to point out that other groups within
the denomination are political, but that the alliance is
philosophical, intent on upholding what it sees as Baptist
principles.
Many of the alliance leaders admit, however, that the convention
election in San Antonio, Texas, next June may determine if
moderates will retain a place in the denomination.
Impeachment</HEAD>
<NEW DOCUMENT>
The two lives of Evan Mecham _ embattled
governor and wheeler-dealer car salesman _ have emerged in the
second act of his impeachment trial as witnesses sketch a complex
saga of money, politics and family ties.
Mecham, fighting to save his political life, is in his second
round of testimony in the trial as the Senate considers the second
of three charges. His son, Dennis, has stepped forward in a
supporting role to help Mecham explain why an $80,000 loan from a
protocol fund to the family car dealership wasn't illegal.
The governor, admitting he was ``not enthused'' about having his
personal finances spread out in public, said he was told he could
use the protocol fund for practically anything he wanted.
``I never heard the words discussed, `public funds,''' said the
first-term Republican who is the first U.S. governor to face an
impeachment trial in six decades.
The Senate is examining a charge that Mecham misused state funds
by borrowing the $80,000 originally raised by his inaugural ball.
When state law barred his inaugural committee from using the
funds to pay off campaign debts, a ``protocol fund'' was set up
instead to promote Arizona through events and gifts to visiting
dignitaries.
The defense contends the fund always remained private money to
be used at the governor's discretion. The prosecution says it was
clearly transformed into a public fund by an agreement between
Mecham's inaugural chairman, William Long, and the Maricopa County
attorney.
The governor, whose testimony is to continue Monday, said Long
told him exactly what to do with the money.
``Mr. Long said, `We have gone through all of this rigamarole
and you can spend it for any damn thing that you want,' those were
his words, `except you can't spend it for politics or personal
living expenses,'' Mecham testified.
What he used it for, the prosecution contends, was to save his
auto dealership from financial disaster. They presented evidence of
overdue loans and bounced checks at the car company.
Mecham and his son insist that Mecham Pontiac was on sure
financial footing and that Mecham's only motive for borrowing the
$80,000 was to increase the fund by paying higher interest than it
was getting in a bank.
To evaluate the opposing views, senators were given an education
in the car dealership business. At the end of a week in which they
examined loan agreements and check receipts and heard about car
``floor planning'' and cars ``sold out of trust,'' the senators who
sit as judges and jury appeared perplexed.
``Mr. Mecham, I'm absolutely baffled and confused!'' state Sen.
Tony West told Dennis Mecham at the end of a long discourse on
deeds of trust, interest rates and loan agreements. He questioned
the extensive ``paper trail'' of checks linking Mecham Pontiac to
assorted members of the Mecham family and an organization called
Constituent Communications.
Asked what that group was, Dennis Mecham, 37, who received a
$15,000 loan from it, said he had no idea except ``I know my uncle
Wayne controls the checkbook.''
Wayne and Willard Mecham, brothers of the governor, were among
those who loaned money in a hurry when Mecham Pontiac was asked to
pay back the $80,000 last Oct. 22. Dennis Mecham said the family
loans were interest-free and were quickly repaid.
He remembered that Mecham chief of staff Jim Colter called and
said that ``a political question'' had arisen and the money had to
be replaced right away. But Dennis Mecham couldn't remember until
he was reminded by a prosecutor what political crisis spurred the
Oct. 22 call.
That was the day after Phoenix newspapers broke the story of
Mecham's secret $350,000 campaign loan from developer Barry Wolfson.
The charge that Mecham concealed that loan is the basis of the
next count to be addressed at his impeachment trial and is the
subject of felony criminal charges on which the governor and his
brother Willard face trial April 21. The first count before the
Senate involved allegations that Mecham tried to halt an
investigation of an alleged death threat by a member of his staff.
title. Picks up 20th, ```He (Barahona) ...
<NEW DOCUMENT>
An American photographer stood trial
Saturday on drug smuggling charges and testified that his only
crime was being stupid enough to let a cocaine ring dupe him into
doing its dirty work.
The trial of 23-year-old Conan Owen, whose case has drawn the
attention of Attorney General Edwin Meese III, began and ended
Saturday. The three-judge panel that took testimony for 2{ hours
wasn't expected to issue a verdict for about a week.
The free-lance photographer from Annandale, Va., is charged with
smuggling 4.13 pounds of cocaine into Spain in a suitcase on March
13, 1987.
James Kibble, a special agent for the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration, testified that Owen was tricked by a drug
trafficking ring into carrying the cocaine. Owen, he said, is
``innocent _ or stupid _ but innocent.''
The prosecution is asking for 10 years in prison on contraband
charges and on charges Owen violated public health laws that
prohibit the transport or sale of dangerous drugs.
The defense contends Owen thought the suitcase only contained
travel brochures, photographs and film.
Owen, a 1986 graduate of Syracuse University and a former summer
intern in Vice President George Bush's office, has spent the past
year in Barcelona's 85-year-old Model Prison without possibility of
bail.
He told the court Saturday that he carried a suitcase to
Barcelona from Santiago, Chile, for George Barahona, an
Equadorean-born naturalized American who was living near
Washington, D.C.
Owen said Barahona represented himself as one of the owners of
the Sorosa Travel Agency near Washington, D.C. and offered him
$1,000 to take travel brochure pictures in Spain. Owen said
Barahona gave him a suitcase to take with him, which he believed to
contain the brochures and film.
The suitcase contained $200,000 in cocaine.
Owen told the court he had always obeyed the law and
acknowledged he had been ``stupid _ but that is not a crime.''
Judge Jose Presencia Rubio, who heads a three-member panel
hearing the case, refused to admit as evidence testimony about a
polygraph test Owen took.
Owen's lawyer, Ana Campa, said the test, administered by a DEA
agent, indicates Owen was telling the truth when he said he knew
nothing about the drug.
Federal agents allege Barahona is part of a drug ring that moves
cocaine from South America to Spain.
On Feb. 5, Barahona pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to
smuggle drugs in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va.
He received a two-year suspended sentence after providing
information that led to the indictment of three Spaniards and three
Bolivians in a conspiracy to smuggle illegal drugs. They remain at
large.
When Meese came to Spain to sign an annex to a 1970 extradition
treaty Feb. 9, he handed over copies of Barahona's testimony to
Spanish judicial authorities.
Prosecutor Teresa Calvo called only two witnesses _ the
paramilitary Civil Guard on duty at El Prat Airport who discovered
the cocaine and the chemist who analyzed the drug as being 84
percent pure cocaine.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Williams of Alexandria, Va.,
testified for the defense that statements obtained from Barahona
following the plea-bargain arrangement indicated Owen had
unwittingly taken the cocaine-laden suitcase to Spain.
``He (Barahona) specifically told us that Conan Owen had no
knowledge that there was cocaine in the suitcase he carried into
Barcelona airport March 13,'' Williams said.
Kibble, also testifying for the defense, said he became
interested in the Owen case because Owen was from the Washington,
D.C. area and the DEA was investigating a cocaine-smuggling ring
that operated out of northern Virginia.
``I have found that there is a group of people involved in
sending drugs from South America to Spain using unsuspecting people
as carriers,'' Kibble testified.
``The DEA was interested in the details Conan Owen had to tell
for the conspiracy case we were working on,'' he said.
Owen wore a gray suit and stood with his hands clasped behind
his back when addressing the court.
He spoke in Spanish with occasional assistance from a
court-appointed interpreter.
His parents Ernest and Raquel Owen of Annandale, Va., sat
directly behind him. His 25-year-old brother Evan was also present.
According to the U.S. Embassy in Madrid, as of last month there
were 25 U.S. citizens in jail in Spain. Six are serving prison
terms following conviction on drug-related charges, and another
eight, not including Owen, are awaiting trial.
There are no jury trials in Spain, and courts generally take
about a week to issue verdicts.
Azcona. Picks up 7th graf, `But the ...
<NEW DOCUMENT>
The 3,200 American soldiers sent to
Honduras on an emergency mission 10 days ago are training up to the
last minute before they begin an airlift home, a U.S. military
spokesman said Saturday.
Maj. Gary Hovatter, U.S. public affairs officer at Palmerola air
base, said the troops were training at four sites throughout this
country of 4.5 million people. Palmerola is about 40 miles
northwest of the capital.
``We're just training down to the wire. It's nothing exotic,''
Hovatter said in a telephone interview.
He said about 6,000 American soldiers currently are stationed in
Honduras, including the 3,200 from the 82nd Airborne Division at
Fort Bragg., N.C., and the 7th Light Infantry Division at Fort Ord,
Calif., who will begin the trip home Monday.
President Reagan rushed the soldiers to Honduras on March 17 and
18 after Sandinista troops from neighboring Nicaragua reportedly
entered Honduras in pursuit of U.S.-backed Contra rebels.
The U.S. government billed the current military presence in
Honduras an emergency training exercise meant both as a show of
support for Honduran President Jose Azcona Hoyo and a warning to
the leftist Sandinistas against further actions in the region.
But the Nicaraguan government denied Sandinista troops were
inside Honduras and charged that the Americans came to Honduras in
order to leave behind weapons and equipment that the Contras could
use.
Hovatter said Saturday that three auditors from the General
Accounting Office were staying at Palmerola, the headquarters for
U.S. military operations in Honduras, to ensure that the all the
equipment brought in by the Americans got back to the United States.
The equipment includes two Sheridan tanks, a dozen 105mm
howitzers, more than 100 machine guns, several thousand M-16
automatic rifles, mortars and ammunition.
``There will be a full accounting of all ammunition,'' Hovatter
said.
Tensions rose in the region after the American troops arrived,
however, and the Honduran air force said it twice bombed the Bocay
border region inside Honduras where Sandinista activity was spotted.
Hovatter said Saturday the exercises here, nicknamed ``Golden
Pheasant,'' have been productive because they gave American
soldiers the opportunity to practice in the field.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Soviet and American representatives agreed
on how to defuse international tensions at a just-ended ``special
session'' that marked unparalleled cooperation between the
superpowers _ but it was only on paper.
The Soviets and Americans were students.
They met at Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and
Diplomacy in a U.N. Security Council conference mock-up. Unlike
their diplomatic counterparts at United Nations headquarters, they
found quick solutions to delicate problems.
Take the Gulf War, for instance.
It took months last summer for the real Security Council to draw
up a resolution with language acceptable to both superpowers. The
two-day mock meeting, which ended Saturday, accomplished the same
feat in just hours.
The two sides at the mock session also found common ground on
Southern Africa and the Israeli-occupied territories, issues that
have split East and West at the United Nations for years.
And unlike the normally somber, ponderous affairs at the real
Security Council, the simulated meeting also generated laughter,
applause and a palpable sense of enthusiasm.
``I think you can get an objective idea of the positions of
different countries,'' said Vladimir Titov, a 25-year-old from the
Moscow State Institute on International Relations. ``At the same
time, we learn to understand each other.''
The Americans also were enthused.
``It's working beautifully,'' said Pam Burianek, 25, from
Atlanta. ``We are really experiencing a great rapport with the
Soviets who are here.''
Four Soviet students and four from the Fletcher School were
paired to act out the negotiating and maneuvering of a Security
Council meeting. They joined 22 other students from other colleges
and countries to represent the 15 member nations of the Security
Council.
The Soviets came to the United States under a program sponsored
by the U.S. United Nations Association and the United Nations
Association of the Soviet Union.
Spokesman Jim Muldoon of the privately funded U.S. United
Nations Association suggested the event had more than symbolic
significance because students later would use the lessons they had
learned.
``At least on the Soviet side, many of them will be brought into
the Foreign Ministry,'' he said. ``Many of the students that are at
the school from elsewhere are already in their ministries.''
For Burianek, who wants to join a non-profit international
organization after graduation, ``the shaking of hands, the eye
contact, the upfront discussion'' will remain as impressions with
``much more educational value that something that's in books.''
Titov, who teamed up with Fletcher student Alison Avery to
represent communist Bulgaria, said he was most impressed by the
cooperation of the U.S.-Soviet teams despite different ideological
backgrounds.
``Now I know it's possible to bridge any gap,'' he chuckled.
``Both of us are working very hard for Bulgaria here.''
<NEW DOCUMENT>
The U.S.
Navy Saturday escorted its 40th convoy of reflagged Kuwaiti tankers
into the Persian Gulf. Followed by merchant vessels from other
nations seeking informal U.S. protection against an upsurge in
attacks by Iranian gunboats.
A procession of as many as nine vessels, including two American
warships, three U.S.-flagged tankers and at least four non-U.S.
ships, slipped through the Strait of Hormuz and past the Iranian
gunboat base at Abu Nusa at 11 a.m. local time, where the convoy
briefly encountered an Iranian warship that steamed down the
majestic line of vessels.
The Navy was assigned only to accompany the ships flying the
Stars and Stripes. But its presence appeared to suspend for a while
the Iranian warship's radio challenges to merchant shipping that
often fall victim to Iranian gunboats in the Iran-Iraq tanker war.
The parade of five U.S. ships included two Kuwaiti tankers _ the
290,085-ton Middletown, a products carrier, and the 46,723-ton
liquefied gas carrier Gas Princess _ and the 39,000 ton MV Courier,
a U.S. Navy fuel tanker.
The escort was provided by this guided missile frigate, making
one of the last voyages in the gulf before returning home to Long
Beach, Calif.
Four unidentified tankers joined the convoy as hitchhikers as it
passed through the so-called Silkworm Envelope, a 100-mile stretch
of the Hormuz passage where vessels come within the 60-mile range
of Silkworm anti-ship missile batteries installed by Iran a year
ago but never fired.
Some of the ships turned off on other courses as they cleared
what Comdr. John J. Kieley III, skipper of the Reuben James, calls
the ``Worm Hole.''
As the convoy approached the next perilous stretch, the waters
around the Abu Musa Island base for Iranian gunboats, two more
tankers lined up behind the American group. The line of vessels,
with Middletown in the lead and Reuben James directly behind it,
extended four miles long.
Kieley, of Huntington Beach, Calif., said it was commonplace for
non-U.S. flag tankers to tag along with American convoys in the
narrow strait. ``But it is sometimes hard to tell whether they're
actually trying to join us. Everybody has to go use the same
traffic separation channels in the strait.''
As the convoy neared the Abu Musa area, the frigate peeled
sharply out of its slot just behind the lead ship, Middletown,
surged ahead at 25 knots and maneuvered into a position to screen
the convoy from an Iranian navy ship, the Bushehr, which had turned
up in the area. Issuing radio challenges to other commercial
vessels to identify themselves and their destinations.
Farther back in the convoy, the frigate Samuel B. Roberts did
the same.
As the Bushehr, a 3,100-ton supply ship, approached on the
Reuben James' starboard side, Kieley radioed him to ``state your
intentions.''
The Iranian replied: ``This an is Iranian warship. We are in
normal patrol in this area of international waters.''
Kieley told him to ``stay clear'' of the convoy. The Bushehr
held to its passing course, about two miles away.
In rapid-fire sequence, an Iranian aircraft also showed up on
the radar, approaching Abu Musa from about 48 miles away from the
convoy.
But the flurry of activity eased as quickly as it had developed.
The American warships fell back in line as the Bushehr vanished
behind. The approaching aircraft were identified as non-hostile.
The small boats proved to be fishing craft.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Vice President George Bush on
Saturday picked up the support of California backers of Bob Dole,
another sign that the Kansas senator's Republican presidential
campaign is fading fast.
The converts said they wanted to unify the Republican Party.
``It's vital to party unity that we rally around our nominee,
which you appear to be,'' said Jim Nielsen, former Los Angeles area
campaign leader for Dole.
``It's a very important signal for those across the country that
we can bring things together,'' Bush said after receiving the
pledges of support.
Bush said he would keep driving for the GOP nod, despite Dole's
statement Friday that the vice president's nomination appeared to
be ``a forgone conclusion.''
``I don't think there's any such thing as a free lunch,'' Bush
said.
Bush later toured the TRW Space and Research Center. Company
officials showed Bush a high-orbit spacecraft-tracking satellite
expected to be the first cargo for the renewed space shuttle
program.
The vice president and his wife, Barbara, will spend most of the
weekend at the Rancho Mirage estate of Walter H. Annenberg, a major
California Republican power and longtime friend of President Reagan.
A fund-raising cocktail party for Bush was scheduled Saturday
night with a target of $325,000.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Gunmen killed the military commander of
Yasser Arafat's Fatah guerrilla group and two bodyguards and
wounded nine others in a raid on a refugee camp in south Lebanon,
police reported Saturday.
The commander, Farid Hourani, was killed when unidentified
gunmen raked a military convoy driving through the Ein el-Hilweh
refugee camp on Sidon's southern flank Friday.
Police initially said Hourani was killed in a shootout with
gunmen who may have been members of a rival Palestinian group.
They later said Hourani and Jamal Suleiman, commander of Fatah's
Ein el-Hilweh Martyrs' Battalion, were on their way to arrest a
guerrilla linked to drug trafficking when the convoy was ambushed.
Suleiman escaped unscathed, but his brother, a Hourani
bodyguard, was killed along with a second bodyguard. The
bodyguards' names were not available.
Ein el-Hilweh's 60,000 inhabitants went on strike Saturday to
protest the killings.
All shops, schools and businesses were closed in the camp, the
largest in Lebanon. Angry Palestinians blocked approaches to the
shantytown with burning tires and rocks.
After the killing, Suleiman placed Fatah guerrillas on alert and
warned of possible attacks on Arafat loyalists, who make up the
majority in the camp.
Many guerrillas later were seen patrolling the narrow alleys of
Ein el-Hilweh.
Arafat's Fatah is the largest guerrilla faction of the Palestine
Liberation Organization.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Police arrested 21 members of a banned
peace group who met in a Warsaw apartment Saturday, a spokesman for
the group said.
Jacek Czaputowicz, leader of Freedom and Peace, said there had
been no attempt to keep the meeting a secret. It was the first time
police detained members of the group at such a session, he said.
The meeting was of the group's national board in charge of
raising money, paying legal fines and providing financial
assistance for imprisoned activists, he said.
A municipal official arrived with police at the apartment at
about 11 a.m. and declared the meeting illegal, Czaputowicz said.
Police detained everyone present, and 17 people remained in
custody Saturday night, he said. Opposition activists in Poland
frequently are detained for up to 48 hours on misdemeanor charges.
Freedom and Peace opposes Poland's military draft and demands
the right to alternative civilian service. It continues to operate
even though it has been declared illegal.
On Friday, Poland's National Defense Ministry Council endorsed
government proposals announced earlier to permit ``alternative
forms of military service.''
Czaputowicz said the detentions may be intended to show that
alternative service, if it eventually becomes law, did not result
from pressure from Freedom and Peace.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
PLO chairman Yasser Arafat said Saturday
that several Arab states pressured him to accept a U.S. plan for
Middle East peace, but he rejected it anyway.
Arafat did not name the Arab nations but said he would ask
leaders at an Arab League conference next month to renew their
backing of the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the
Palestinian people.
Arafat said his movement rejects any Middle East peace
initiative that does not recognize his group as such, including the
plan put forward by Secretary of State George P. Shultz.
``America still says `no' to the PLO, `no' to the Palestinians'
right to self-determination, `no' to the Palestinian state, `no' to
the representation of the PLO at this conference,'' Arafat declared
at the news conference at his heavily guarded military headquarters
near Baghdad. `` We say `no' to this American position.''
Shultz has called for interim negotiations, possibly beginning
May 1, and subsequent broader peace talks aimed at settling the
Arab-Israeli dispute. The discussions would be designed to return
the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip to Palestinian
control while providing security for Israel.
Shultz will travel to the Middle East next week to push the
initiative.
Arafat declined comment on meetings Shultz held Saturday in
Washington with two members of the Palestine National Council, the
PLO's parliament in exile. U.S. officials refuse to meet members of
the PLO, which they view as a terrorist group.
The Americans launched their effort after anti-Israeli violence
erupted in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip in December.
Arafat, who arrived in Baghdad on Friday after visits to several
Arab capitals, said Saturday he will push the Arab summit
conference to support the cause of the Palestinian protesters.
The 22-nation Arab League was expected to hold its session in
either Tunisia or Algeria sometime next month. No date was set.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Former President Carter applauded Secretary of
State George Shultz's meeting Saturday with two American members of
the Palestine Liberation Organization's legislative body and said,
``He should have met with them long ago.''
Israeli officials angrily charged that Shultz was violating a
longstanding U.S. commitment not to ``recognize or negotiate'' with
the PLO as long as it refuses to acknowledge Israel's right to
exist. But Carter said Shultz ``is not violating anything.''
Shultz conferred for one hour with the two Palestinian-Americans
at the State Department to hear their views on Shultz's latest
Middle East peace plan. The two professors, Edward Said of Columbia
University and Ibrahim Abu Lughud of Northwestern University, are
members of the Palestine National Council, the PLO's
parliament-in-exile.
State Department spokesman Charles Redman stressed that Said and
Lughud are U.S. citizens who did not characterize themselves as PLO
members. He said the meeting was ``not a negotiation'' but ``a very
useful exchange of views'' that represented no change in U.S.
policy toward the PLO.
Carter, interviewed at a luncheon of business and government
officials at Gannett Co. Inc. headquarters in suburban Arlington,
Va., said he knew Said and Lughud personally. ``They are very
constructive in nature,'' Carter said. ``They're American citizens.
They're not radicals.''
``We don't have any obligation not to meet with Palestinian
leaders,'' the former president said. ``The obligation we have is
not to recognize the PLO officially and not to negotiate with the
PLO. And Secretary Shultz is not violating any commitment.''
Carter said Shultz ``should have met with them long ago'' as
part of the Reagan administration's efforts to arrange Arab-Israeli
peace talks. He said he hoped that Shultz's ``belated effort'' will
succeed.
Carter endorsed Shultz's proposal for a preliminary
international conference on the Middle East convened by the five
permanent members of the U.N. Security Council _ the United States,
the Soviet Union, China, Britain and France.
Under Shultz's plan, a joint Jordanian and Palestinian
delegation would attend the conference with Israel and other
Mideast parties.
Carter said such a conference is favored by the leaders of
Egypt, Syria, Jordan, ``the overwhelming number of Palestinians and
half the Israelis.''
If such a conference were held, Carter predicted, the Arab and
Israeli leaders would be ``very moderate and constructive in their
presentation'' because ``it would be their one chance to have the
world listening to their best arguments.''
The former president, who has conferred extensively with Middle
East leaders since he left the White House in 1981, also endorsed
Shultz's call for direct Arab-Israeli peace talks after the
international conference, with the aim of finding a way to grant
self-rule to the 1.5 Palestinian Arabs living in the
Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Carter said deadlocks in bilateral talks between Israel and its
Arab neighbors could be referred to a wider conference for
discussion of ``new ideas.''
He said the Security Council members would be charged with
guaranteeing enforcement of any Mideast settlement and, together
with such wealthy nations as Japan and Saudi Arabia, would help
finance the substantial costs of a settlement. Carter estimated
those costs at about $15 billion over five years.
Carter said a peace settlement won't be easy to achieve, but he
insisted that ``the potential is there'' for accommodations on both
sides.
He warned that ``it is almost impossible to break down these
barriers without a firm and persistent commitment from Washington,
and that's what we have been missing for the last seven years''
under President Reagan.
``It may be that Secretary Shultz's belated effort will be
successful,'' Carter said. ``I sincerely hope and pray that it
will.''
<NEW DOCUMENT>
The state Senate voted to designate the
cranberry muffin the state muffin, then showed fourth-grade pupils
who proposed the idea how difficult politics can be.
A senator who said he had little taste for the idea added an
amendment likely to make the measure unpalatable to Gov. Tommy G.
Thompson. The amendment, approved Friday night on a voice vote by
bemused senators, would designate the Egg McMuffin the state
breakfast muffin and the ragamuffin the state's child muffin.
Sen. Mordecai Lee sponsored the amendment after calling the
cranberry-muffin campaign was a waste of legislative time. The
Legislature then adjourned its winter session early Saturday
without Lee's amendment being considered by the Assembly.
The bill, introduced last year at the request of a class from
Merrill that traveled to the Capitol as a class project to lobby,
was left in limbo.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
No knees is bad news, say eight male
students who wore miniskirts to protest a ban on shorts.
``I would like to know what is wrong with the boys' knees?''
said Alicia Williams, mother of Kennith Miller, sent home from
Jacksonville High School on Friday along with classmates who wore
miniskirts with hems a few inches above their knees.
``And why are they enforcing the dress code (on boys) when girls
can wear skirts up to their (hips)?'' she continued. ``If girls can
show their legs, why can't boys?''
Principal James Johnson said the school's dress code allows
skirts, but bars shorts and halter tops. He said he sends home any
girl who wears a miniskirt that is too short or revealing, but that
he has bent the rules by allowing male students to wear ``jams,''
or shorts that end below the knees.
Ms. Williams said the style nowadays is to wear jams at knee
level or a little above.
The boys said they thought their protest was a humorous way to
make a point.
``I don't find it humorous at all,'' Johnson said. ``They were
interfering with the educational process ... parading around and
disrupting classes.''
Johnson said the protest hurt his feelings. The boys should have
talked to him about the problem before wearing skirts to school, he
said.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
The producers of the action-adventure
movie ``Burning Vengeance'' wore their low-budget label proudly as
they arrived here for the world premiere.
Ron and Susana Ross showed up at Jake's Theater in a horse-drawn
carriage, which rents by the hour in this historic coastal city. It
carried a home-made sign calling it the ``R.S.R. Productions
Executive Limo.''
``We're just going to have some fun with this,'' Mrs. Ross said.
The line outside the theater Friday night was a fashion
hodge-podge of tuxedos and tennis shoes, sequins and sweatpants.
The 80 local actors and technicians who filmed the movie in
Wilmington last November were treated to a dinner with entrees
labeled ````Burning Vengeance' Blackened Snapper'' and ``Flaming
Ron Ross Tempura Shrimp Platter.''
Before the lights went down, the Rosses presented Golden Pentz
Awards _ named in honor of the film's star, Robert Pentz of
Carolina Beach.
Categories included ``Best Actor with Ability to Grunt in Three
Languages While Being Choked to Death'' and ``Best Performance by
an Actor Wearing Tight Jeans Without Appearing to be in Pain.''
``The main criteria for winning the Golden Pentz is how cheaply
you said you'd work on the next picture,'' said Ross, who filmed
``Burning Vengeance'' for $350,000.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur
Foundation has awarded 14 grants totaling $4.4 million to support
programs aimed at boosting childhood literacy and parent
involvement in education.
John E. Corbally, president of the Chicago-based foundation,
said the grants, to be formally announced Tuesday, are designed to
address problems outside the classroom that can determine whether
children considered at risk of failure eventually can succeed in
school.
Such children, he said, often fail because schools don't meet
their needs or because they lack parental support.
The grants include:
_$750,000 to Ohio State University to support a program to help
Ohio grade-school children with early reading difficulties.
_$733,000 for a four-year matching grant to the National Academy
of Sciences to develop science units for use in elementary schools.
_$700,000 to Brandeis University to support its ``Career
Beginnings Program,'' which uses college and community mentors to
help low-income students complete school and find jobs.
_$500,000 to the National Committee for Citizens in Education to
support ``ACCESS,'' the Columbia, Md.-based group's education
information clearinghouse.
_$424,900 to the Domestic Policy Association in Dayton, Ohio, to
support adult literacy programs.
_$400,000 to the College Board to support its ``Reading,
Thinking and Concept Development'' project, which will develop and
distribute video and print material to foster learning skills in
elementary and middle-school students.
_$400,000 to Work in America Institute Inc. in Scarsdale, N.Y.,
to support a two-year study on how to create home environments
conducive to learning.
_$150,000 to help support and expand KIDSNET, in Washington,
D.C., the nation's only database listing audio, video, radio and
television programs for children.
_$90,000 to Applied Behavioral & Cognitive Sciences Inc. in San
Diego to support research on how parents contribute to educational
skills of their children.
_$83,000 to the National Alliance of Business Inc. in
Washington, D.C., to support projects including development of
school-business partnerships in 12 cities to help at-risk students.
_$80,000 to the Council for Basic Education to prepare and
distribute a report on learning standards for students promoted
from elementary school.
_$50,000 to Designs for Change, in Chicago, to support a study
analyzing the effectiveness of advocacy groups in boosting
achievement in urban schools.
_$25,000 to the University of Washington, in Seattle, to support
research aimed at improving teacher training.
_$15,000 to Citizens Education Center Northwest in Seattle to
support a project aimed at assisting Hispanic farmworkers in
helping their preschool children make a successful transition to
public school.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Local elections in Lagos state,
rescheduled after authorities annulled the results of balloting in
December, were completed Saturday without violence, officials
reported.
``Everything has been orderly and peaceful. This is evidence
that the National Electoral Commission has learned a lot from the
mistakes of the December exercise,'' said Vice Adm. Augusut Aikhomu.
Aikhomu, No. 2-man in the military government, toured voting
centers Saturday. The News Agency of Nigeria said 10,000 police
were deployed at the 7,000 polling centers in the state.
Local elections had been held across the country Dec. 8. The
electoral commission said the voting in most areas went smoothly,
but it canceled the results in Lagos state saying there was
disorganization, including the late delivery of ballots,
indications of fraud and street disturbances.
Voters elected members of local councils.
National Electoral Commission spokesman Tonnie Iredia told
reporters Saturday's voting was better organized than in December,
but the turnout was lower. He gave noi figures.
Some people said their names were not on the lists of eligible
voters at polling centers, but Aikhomu dismissed their complaints.
He said all lists had been posted at centers in advance of the
voting and there was adequate time for eligible voters to have the
lists corrected.
The government of President Ibrahim Babangida had vowed the
elections in Africa's most populous nation would be conducted
without violence and fraud.
Gen. Babangida, head of state since a coup in August 1985, has
said Nigeria will return to civilian rule by 1992.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
A life of privilege and promise came to an end
Saturday as Robert Chambers left his comfortable Manhattan home for
the city jail to await sentencing for killing a teen-age girl
during a Central Park tryst.
Shortly after 10 a.m. under gray and rainy skies, the
21-year-old Chambers and his lawyer rushed past a horde of
reporters outside his Upper East Side apartment and sped away in
the back of a black limousine.
Chambers was processed at Manhattan Criminal Court and then
delivered early Saturday afternoon to the hospital at Rikers Island
where he will be held in protective custody until his formal
sentencing April 15.
Defendants in cases that have received wide publicity are
routinely segregated from the city jail's general population and
held in the hospital, said Ruby Ryles, spokeswoman for the city
Correction Department.
After sentencing, Chambers will be transferred to the state
prison system.
Chambers reluctantly pleaded guilty Friday to first-degree
manslaughter, bringing a surprise end to his murder case.
Throughout 10 weeks of trial, he had insisted he killed 18-year-old
Jennifer Dawn Levin accidentally during a rough sexual encounter in
Central Park early on the morning of Aug. 26, 1986.
The case, with its elements of fast-lane lives of easy sex,
drugs and drink, offered a glimpse into the lifestyle of some of
the city's most privileged youth.
Chambers, a former altar boy and preparatory school graduate,
and later a college dropout and drug addict, had been charged with
second-degree murder in Miss Levin's death.
But he pleaded guilty to the manslaughter charge Friday evening
and admitted he had intended to hurt Miss Levin the night he killed
her.
The plea, proposed by Chambers' lawyer Jack Litman, was part of
a deal that included burglary charges against Chambers and calls
for a sentence of five to 15 years in prison.
The bargain was justified by the district attorney's office
because the jury appeared headed for a deadlock after nine days of
deliberations.
One of the jurors, Michael Ognibene, expressed ``great relief''
at having the trial over Saturday.
``I'm satisfied,'' said Ognibene, who works for an international
banking concern. ``To me it proves the justice system works.''
pickup.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Iraq on Saturday admitted losing ground
to Iran in a major battle in its strategic northeast, and it
reopened a deadly duel of the cities by firing two missiles into
Tehran.
Iraq's Revolutionary Command Council, assembled by President
Saddam Hussein, acknowledged Baghdad had lost land to an Iranian
offensive, which Iran claims has resulted in 11,500 Iraqi
casualties. The battle region is about 80 miles east of the Kirkuk
oilfields, which produce about 1.5 million barrels of oil a day _
more than half Iran's daily output.
Despite the losses, the Iraqi command said it was resolved to
fight ``with all available weapons'' until Tehran agrees to settle
the 7{-year-old war.
Tehran's official Islamic Republic News Agency, also monitored
in Nicosia, said one Iraqi projectile hit an orphanage and the
other roared into a residential neighborhood. It reported seven
civilians killed.
The official Iraqi News Agency quoted an unidentified military
spokesman Saturday as vowing to ``level their (Iran's) cities.''
In the Persian Gulf, U.S. warships were escorting reflagged
Kuwaiti tankers in the 18th convoy of the year, part of an
operation to protect the Kuwaiti vessels from Iranian attacks.
Iraq has fired 112 long-range missiles into Tehran and Qom, seat
of Iran's religious hierarchy, in a missile duel that has killed
hundreds of civilians. Tehran says it fired 43 such projectiles
into Baghdad and dozens into other Iraqi cities since Feb.29.
In the offensive, the Iranian agency said Iranian
fighter-bombers attacked Iraqi ground troops Saturday while Iranian
Revolutionary Guards thrusted into the Kurdistan mountains.
Iranian communiques said Revolutionary Guards advancing into
northeastern Iraq have also seized control of the eastern shore of
Lake Darbandikhan. A hydroelectric dam on the lake provides power
for most of the region.
The Iranians claim they have killed or wounded 11,500 Iraqis,
captured 4,500 and destroyed 200 tanks and armored vehicles since
they launched the offensive March 16. They say their troops have
moved 10 miles into Iraq.
Meanwhile, other Iranian warplanes heavily bombarded Iraqi
troops around the strategic southern port of Basra, Iran said.
It was the third straight day the Iranians have hit that area.
An estimated 250,000 Revolutionary Guards and volunteers have
massed east of Basra in past weeks for a long-expected offensive.
Baghdad Radio reported three Iranian warplanes, all U.S.-built
F-5s, were shot down as they tried to bomb targets in the embattled
Kurdistan province on Saturday. The Iranian news agency reported a
Soviet-built Iraqi Sukhoi SU-22 was downed Saturday.
Iraq also hinted it may have used chemicals weapons that Iran
claims killed about 5,000 Iraqi Kurds during the offensive. Many
Kurds have long fought the Baghdad government for autonomy, and
Iran claimed it had ``liberated'' their communities before the
attack.
``Iraq has the determination and power to use all available
weapons to crush the invaders,'' its command council announced
Saturday in a veiled response to international condemnation of any
use of poison gases.
The United Nations has said it will send a team of experts to
investigate the reported Iraqi use of the weapons, outlawed under a
1925 Geneva agreement.
Iran agreed late Friday to send an envoy to the United Nations
for indirect peace talks with the Iraqis. But a top Iranian
official said he was pessimistic about the outcome.
In the gulf, the guided missile frigates Reuben James and Samuel
B. Roberts escorted the 290,085-ton supertanker Middletown and the
46,723-ton gas carrier Gas Princess into the gulf. The 35,663-ton
Courier, a Navy tanker, was sailing with them.
The trip north to Kuwait usually takes about two or three days.
The convoys began last July after Kuwait re-registered 11 of its
tankers in the United States. Iran accuses Kuwait of aiding Iraq in
the war.
comment; picks up 11th graf pvs, In what
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Secretary of State George P. Shultz, trying to
invigorate a Mideast peace plan, met Saturday with two members of a
group affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization and
will travel to Israel and four Arab countries next week to push the
initiative.
Shultz will arrive in Jerusalem April 3 for talks with Israeli
leaders and move on to Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Egypt before
returning to Washington on April 8, State Department spokesman
Charles E. Redman said.
``We're intensely involved in this process and we're going to
continue to push forward to do everything we can,'' Redman said.
Asked if there had been any progress in getting other nations'
approval of the plan since Shultz returned from his last trip,
March 5, Redman asserted, ``no one has said no; our proposal is
still on the table, people are actively and seriously considering
it.''
Shultz's return trip ``will give us a chance to continue to do
what it is we've been trying to do, which is to see if we can be
helpful in getting this this Middle East peace process underway,''
Redman said.
He said Shultz decided to make the trip Friday night after
meeting his chief Mideast envoy, Philip Habib, who recently toured
the area.
The U.S. initiative calls for interim negotiations beginning
perhaps by May 1 and eventually more intensive talks designed to
return the West Bank and Gaza to Palestinian control and to assure
security for Israel.
While none of the countries in the region has rejected the plan
outright, they have all expressed dissatisfaction with some of the
proposals.
One of the stickiest points has been arranging for
representatives of the Palestinians to take part in the talks. The
Palestinians want to be represented by the PLO, but Israel will not
meet that group and there also is a U.S. law against dealing with
the PLO, which the United States has declared a terrorist
organization.
The United States has sought to find representatives who would
be acceptable to both sides and include them in a Jordanian
delegation to any talks.
PLO chairman Yasser Arafat told a news conference in Baghdad,
Iraq, meanwhile, that he rejected pleas by several Arab states to
accept the Shultz plan because it does not recognize his
organization as spokesman for the Palestinians.
``America still says `no' to the PLO, `no' to the Palestinians'
right to self-determination, `no' to the Palestinian state, `no' to
the representation of the PLO at this conference,'' Arafat said.
``We say `no' to this American position.''
In what appeared to be a bow toward the Palestinians, Shultz
invited two American members of the Palestine National Council _
the PLO's self-described legislative arm _ to an hour-long meeting
at the State Department Saturday.
Israeli officials denounced the talks as a violation of a U.S.
commitment not to meet with the PLO. Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir
had protested the meeting to U.S. Ambassador Thomas Pickering,
negotiator on Mideast problems.
The guests, Edward Said, a Columbia University professor and
Ibrahim Abu Lughud of Northwestern University said they complained
to Shultz about Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip,
where 111 Arabs have been killed in recent demonstrations.
``One of the major aspects of our interest in seeing Secretary
Shultz was to relate to him directly as Palestinians our
extraordinary unhappiness, our anger at the repressive measures
taken by Israel,'' Said told reporters.
``We also made clear to the secretary that all Palestinians
regard the United States as directly involved in the repression
since it is clear to everyone that the United States supports
Israel and supplies it militarily and economically to an
unprecedented degree,'' he said.
He and Lughud also reiterated the Arab view that the PLO, headed
by Arafat, is the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian
people.
Both Redman and the two PNC members were repeatedly asked by
reporters after the meeting if they considered Shultz's invitation
a deviation from the U.S. policy of not dealing with the PLO.
``These gentlemen did not characterize themselves as members of
the PLO,'' Redman said. He said the meeting did not represent a
change in U.S. policy and he stressed the fact that the visitors
are U.S. citizens.
``This was not a negotiation,'' he said. ``This was a very
useful exchange of views as far as the secretary was concerned. The
secretary of course explained our proposal and what it is we're
trying to accomplish in working with the parties in trying to
advance the peace process.''
The visitors agreed that they were not negotiators or designated
representatives of the PLO.
At the same time, they likened the Palestine National Council to
a national congress and said it plays an important role in PLO
decision-making. They also said they had been in contact with
Arafat about the meeting.
``This is probably one of the rare times that the secretary of
state in practice is dealing with Palestinians in exile and
therefore the message that ought to be understood by this is that
there is a Palestinian people, irrespective of location that must
be involved in the peace-making process,'' Lughud said.
Before heading to Israel next Sunday, Shultz will spend the
weekend in Rome, meeting Italian officials and taking part in
Easter celebrations.
for general strike; edits to tighten. Pick up 21st graf pvs: An
Arab...
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Israeli troops killed two Palestinians in a
West Bank clash Saturday and another died of wounds suffered
earlier. The Israel-appointed mayor of Gaza City offered to resign
in response to a PLO demand.
The army said nine other Palestinians were wounded by gunfire in
clashes on the West Bank.
Israeli officials protested a meeting between Secretary of State
George P. Shultz and two officials from the Palestine National
Council, the Palestine Liberation Organization's
parliament-in-exile.
Arab reporters in the Gaza Strip said troops continued a pattern
of overnight arrests in an attempt to choke off demonstrations
planned for Palestinian ``Land Day'' on March 30.
On that date in 1976, Israeli gunfire killed six Arabs during
rioting against the forced purchase of 1,500 acres of Arab-owned
land by Israeli authorities.Leaders of the Israeli Arabs called for
a general strike to commemorate the day, Israel Radio said.
Meanwhile, police closed predominantly Arab east Jerusalem to
vehicles from the occupied territorites. Only local residents,
United Nations personnel and foreigners were allowed to drive in,
Israel TV reported.
Arab reporters said there were arrests in the Jabalia, Nuseirat
and Breij refugee camps. The army had no comment on the arrest
reports.
The army said villagers in Kafr Thulth, 28 miles northwest of
Jerusalem, erected roadblocks, burned tires and surrounded an army
force, attacking it with metal bars, rocks and bottles.
It said troops fired at the crowd after it failed to respond to
warning shots, killing two Arabs and wounding others.
The Arab-run Palestine Press Service identified the dead as
19-year-old Majed Hussein Deeb and Hawad Qassem Ibrahim, 30.
Officials at Nablus' Al Ittihad Hospital said Ayed Salah, 21, of
nearby Zawata village, died at 4 a.m. of gunshot wounds to his
spinal cord and liver suffered on Friday. The army confirmed the
death.
Israel Radio quoted a military source as saying troops shot
Salah while trying to disperse Arabs who blocked the Nablus-Tulkarm
highway with burning tires. Another Arab was wounded, it said.
According to U.N. figures, 114 Palestinians have been killed
since unrest erupted Dec. 8 in territories captured by Israel
during the 1967 Middle East war.
Demonstrators in several occupied cities demanded the
resignation of municipal councils, following the lead of a
clandestine PLO leaflet calling for Saturday to be ``the day of
struggle against municipal councils and appointed village
councils.''
The Israeli-appointed Gaza City mayor, Hamza Turkmani, offered
his resignation and expected a reply later in the week, according
to knowledgeable municipal officials. They spoke on condition of
anonymity.
In the West Bank town of El Bireh, Arab protesters marched to
the municipal building and demanded the resignation of council
members. Troops responded with tear gas and rubber bullets, the
Palestine Press Service said.
In Bethlehem, slogans painted on the walls called for the
resignation of municipal council members.
An Associated Press reporter saw about 70 youths fling rocks at
soldiers and at the muncipal building, which faces the traditional
site of Jesus' birth across Manger Square. Troops fired rubber
bullets, then warning shots in the air.
An Arab reporter said troops used tear gas and rubber bullets in
a clash with about 150 young Palestinians who marched through the
Gaza Strip village of Beit Hanoun carrying banners demanding the
village council resign.
The reporter also said troops forced closure of shops along Gaza
City's central Omar el Mukhtar street, which was blocked with rocks
and burning tires.
The State Department announced that Shultz would return to the
Middle East April 3 to continue campaigning for his Arab-Israeli
peace plan, which was denounced in Baghdad by PLO chairman Yasser
Arafat.
Arafat told reporters the PLO rejects any Middle East peace
initiative that does not recognize the PLO as the sole
representative of the Palestinian people.
Shultz on Saturday discussed the plan with Edward Said and
Ibrahim Abu-Lughud, two Palestinian-American university professors
who belong to the legislative arm of the PLO.
Arafat declined comment on the meeting.
The U.S. envisions Israel exchanging land to the Palestinians
for peace.
Israeli Ambassador Moshe Arad protested that the meeting
violated a 13-year-old U.S. commitment to avoid talks with PLO
officials. The State Department maintains that Palestine National
Council members are not necessarily PLO officials.
jury investigating Rochon's charges; picks up 17th graf pvs,
Rochon's lawsuit
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Black FBI agent Donald Rochon, an alleged
victim of racial discrimination at the hands of fellow agents, was
also victimized by bureaucratic foot-dragging and a possible
cover-up by federal criminal investigators looking into the case,
his lawyer says.
Rochon's story of racial harassment _ portions of which have
been upheld by an administrative judge at the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission and an adjudication officer at the Justice
Department _ has been widely publicized.
Another part of his story that also could prove damaging for the
government is how Rochon's supervisors at the FBI and officials at
the Justice Department allegedly failed to aggressively follow up
his complaints.
A Justice Department spokeswoman, Deborah Burstion-Wade,
declined comment Saturday on the specifics of Rochon's allegations,
saying the department is investigating the case. But she did say
that ``it is not unusual for any thorough investigation to take''
months to complete.
Rochon's lawsuit against FBI and Justice Department officials
says that in early 1986 he was unable to persuade his superiors at
the FBI office in Chicago to investigate as a criminal matter death
threats he had received from fellow agents.
The suit alleges that he received anonymous obscene letters
threatening him with mutilation and death and threatening his wife
with sexual assault. The suit also charges that a fellow agent
forged Rochon's name on an application for an insurance policy
covering death and mutilation.
Rochon also has said he received a picture of a badly beaten
black man in his office mail, and that a picture of a monkey or ape
was pasted over the faces of his children in a photograph that he
kept on his desk.
FBI Director William Sessions has characterized Rochon's
complaints about harassment as ``extremely serious'' and said that
racial discrimination ``has absolutely no place in the FBI and will
not be tolerated.''
Rochon alleges in his suit that he was assured at one point that
his complaints were being followed up, but that he soon found out
otherwise.
In frustration, in April 1986 Rochon went outside the FBI,
sending a packet of material concerning alleged racial harassment
at the Chicago FBI office to the Justice Department's Office of
Professional Responsibility.
Two months later, the office referred Rochon's allegations to
the Justice Department's civil rights division.
To determine whether criminal action would be appropriate, the
division's criminal section asked the FBI to launch a criminal
investigation of Rochon's claims.
The ensuing FBI probe was ``a paper review,'' Rochon's attorney,
David Kairys, said in an interview.
In a court filing this month, the Justice Department said the
FBI conducted 75 interviews in its criminal probe. But Kairys says
he was told that all of the interviews were conducted last summer
following an EEOC decision that declared that Rochon had indeed
been discriminated against when he served in the Omaha, Neb., FBI
office in 1983 and 1984.
``This investigation it seems clear was a sham from the start,''
Kairys said. ``They never took the allegations seriously and they
never intended to really investigate and only started interviewing
people when they faced extreme embarrassment.''
It wasn't until last December, the month after Rochon sued FBI
and Justice Department officials, that the FBI referred its
evidence in the criminal probe back to the civil rights division.
At about that time, the Justice Department initiated a grand
jury investigation of Rochon's complaints.
Rochon's lawsuit says the Justice Department and the FBI used
the criminal probe as a basis to sidetrack two administrative
complaints Rochon had pending before the EEOC in connection with
alleged discrimination while he was serving at the Chicago office.
Rochon got a letter from an FBI official saying that the Justice
Department's civil rights division didn't want interviews in the
administrative proceedings taking place while the criminal
investigation was under way.
The FBI suspended action on the administrative EEOC matters
regarding Rochon's service in the Chicago FBI office.
``No further action will be taken concerning the processing of
your complaints until such time as we are advised to proceed'' by
the civil rights division, an FBI official wrote Rochon in August
1986.
In its court filing this month, the Justice Department said that
``as a matter of standard business practice, the criminal section
(of the Justice Department's civil rights division) seeks to ensure
the integrity of potential criminal proceedings by requesting that
civil investigations be stayed if they relate to the same events
that are the subject of the criminal proceedings.''
Court rulings say that certain compulsory statements taken from
law enforcement personnel in administrative proceedings could not
be used in subsequent criminal proceedings against them.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Evidence presented in a New Jersey court that
cigarette makers were aware up to 40 years ago that smoking might
cause cancer and other ailments will lead to a flood of
tobacco-liability cases, attorneys said Saturday.
The attorneys, including one involved in the New Jersey trial,
said they expected the documents would lead to the first verdict
against a tobacco company in a product-liability case. And now that
the documents are a matter of public record, their availability
will substantially reduce the cost of pretrial proceedings in other
cases, the attorneys said.
``This is a product that is as dangerous as alcohol and as
addictive as heroin,'' said Professor Richard Daynard of the
Tobacco Products Liability Project at Northeastern University.
``The evidence shows that.''
The project, which assists attorneys involved in suits against
tobacco companies, brought together lawyers involved in more than
100 tobacco liability cases nationwide as part of its fourth
anniversary conference.
A lawyer for cigarette maker Philip Morris Cos., one of the
defendants in the New Jersey case, said Daynard and other attorneys
at the conference were taking the documents out of context. The
attorney, Charles R. Wall, also criticized the group for discussing
them while the New Jersey was still under way.
``These issues will be decided in the courtroom where they
should be decided,'' Wall said. ``We disagree that there has been
proof that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer.''
Daynard and others at a Northeastern news conference said past
cases blaming smoking for deaths have failed because of
insufficient evidence that tobacco companies knew smoking was or
possibly was a health hazard.
The documents gathered for the New Jersey trial include internal
tobacco industry memos dating back to 1946 in which researchers for
cigarette makers discuss growing evidence of a link between smoking
and lung cancer and heart and respiratory problems.
They also include verification that cigarette makers developed
less dangerous cigarettes, and memos in which the companies are
advised that marketing those products would amount to an admission
that other cigarettes were dangerous.
Don Davis, an attorney in a Mississippi tobacco-liability case
that ended in a mistrial in January, said he hopes to use some of
the documents as evidence at the retrial.
William Townsley, a lawyer from Beaumont, Texas, called on
Congress to investigate the tobacco industry. He charged that
cigarette makers flouted laws that require manufacturers to warn
consumers of hazards or potential hazards of their products.
Wall maintained that tobacco industry documents discussing
possible health risks were part of industry reviews that contained
conflicting opinions.
``I don't believe these documents are incriminatory in any
way,'' he said. ``They show that the industry was concerned about
the charges against the product.''
Alan Darnell, one of the attorneys representing the estate of
Rose Cipollone in the New Jersey suit against three cigarette
makers, said the tobacco industry has a history of funding new
studies of the harmful effects of smoking to create the impression
that the link between smoking and health problems is inconclusive.
``They did worse than doing nothing,'' he said. ``What they did
was a sham.''
The Cipollone case is expected to go to the jury in May. She
died of lung cancer in 1984 at the age of 58 and had smoked for 40
years.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Angolan forces repelled a South African
attack on the southern town of Cuito Cuanavale, killing 18 black
South African soldiers and destroying four tanks, the official
Angolan news agency said Saturday.
ANGOP quoted an unidentified Angolan military source as saying
South Africa used artillery, jet fighters, helicopters and mortars
in a drive that began March 18 and lasted until Wednesday.
Cuito Cuanavale, 188 miles north of Angola's border with South
African-ruled South-West Africa, also known as Namibia, has been
under sporadic attack by South African forces and Angolan rebels
since December.
Angola's Marxist government has said the South Africans were
trying to seize the town's air strip to provide them with a staging
post for launching attacks further north.
Recent news reports said South African forces have moved west
and north of Cuito Cuanavale in an effort to outflank Angolan
government forces and Cuban soldiers defending the town.
The ANGOP report, monitored in Lisbon, said the South African
drive was repelled by government forces who also captured artillery
shells, other ammunition and documents.
It said 18 black South African soldiers were killed in the
latest fighting, but did not specify if they were from South Africa
or Namibia. Angola usually refers to troops from both countries as
South Africans.
The main Angolan rebel group, the National Union for the Total
Independence of Angola, has been fighting since Angola gained its
independence from Portugal in 1975 to force the Cuban- and
Soviet-backed government to share power. South Africa and the
United States support the rebels.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Sometimes it's hard to tell who's really on
trial in the federal racketeering case against Rep. Mario Biaggi,
D-N.Y., and six other men.
Sen. Alfonse D'Amato and Rep. Robert Garcia aren't on trial _ or
even charged with wrongdoing _ but a key prosecution witness spent
much of last week telling jurors how he made at least $30,000 in
illegal campaign contributions to D'Amato and helped pay $80,000 to
Garcia.
Attorney General Edwin Meese III isn't on trial either, but the
witness _ former Wedtech Vice Chairman Mario Moreno _ also
testified the company paid an additional $800,000 to a close friend
and former lawyer of the attorney general ``for his influence with
Ed Meese.''
Defense lawyers, in their cross-examination of Moreno, have
hammered at his admitted illegal acts in their effort to prove that
Wedtech ``corrupted an entire administration'' and didn't need to
bribe Biaggi for his help.
Biaggi, his eldest son, his law partner and four others are
charged with turning Wedtech, a South Bronx defense contractor,
into a racketeering enterprise that paid out millions of dollars to
obtain and then hold onto government contracts.
Wedtech, currently in bankruptcy proceedings, grew from a small
machine shop into a $100-million-a-year business through a series
of no-bid contracts set aside for minority-controlled companies.
Moreno has linked the defendants to numerous payoff and fraud
schemes and also admitted personally stealing $1.5 million in
company funds. Moreno is among four ex-Wedtech officials
cooperating with the government in return for leniency on state and
federal charges to which they pleaded guilty.
A D'Amato spokesman branded Moreno's testimony ``ridiculous,''
and prosecutors have said the senator will testify for the
government.
The prosecution contends that Biaggi enlisted the help of
D'Amato and other politicians to help secure no-bid contracts for
Wedtech, then extorted millions of dollars in Wedtech stock as a
payoff.
Moreno claimed Wedtech paid $80,000 to Garcia at the request of
the congressman and his wife for ``political favors and political
introductions.'' Garcia later denied the allegation through a
spokesman.
Moreno also testified that Wedtech paid $800,000 to San
Francisco lawyer E. Robert Wallach, a close friend of the attorney
general, ``for his influence with Ed Meese.''
According to the witness, Wallach said he had gotten Meese, then
presidential counselor, to intercede for Wedtech in contract
negotiations with the Pentagon and Commerce Department.
Moreno also said he and another Wedtech official offered Wallach
$200,000 to fix the Wedtech investigation. Wallach said ``he would
take a look and told us we were not going to go to jail,'' Moreno
testified, adding that Wallach never got back to them and the money
was never paid.
Moreno also said Wedtech paid: $130,000 to two Bronx bankers in
early 1984 for helping the company obtain a $500,000 cash loan _ at
$150,000 interest over three months _ from a Bronx businessman; an
additional $15,000 to a Manhattan banker Manhattan banker who
helped them launder the $500,000 cash; $10,000-$15,000 over six
years to a a manager at Consolidated Edison, a local utility, ``to
have Con Edison on our side whenever we needed it''; and $100,000
to two Teamsters officials in 1985 to settle a dispute with another
union.
The witness will continue his testimony Monday.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
President Miguel de la Madrid on Saturday
said indirectly that the United States is meddling in Panama's
internal affairs by trying to oust Panamanian strongman Gen. Manuel
Antonio Noriega.
``We urge that through reflection and dialogue it be the
Panamanian people who determine their political future,'' de la
Madrid said.
He spoke at a news conference after reviewing the situation in
Central America during two days of talks in this Caribbean resort
with Guatemalan President Vinicio Cerezo.
Although de la Madrid did not mention the United States by name,
his references to Reagan administration efforts in Panama were
clear.
``We two presidents (de la Madrid and Cerezo) are very worried
by the present situation, in which Panama is suffering
destabilization,'' he said.
``Of course we condemn any foreign intervention that aims at
destabilizing (Panama) and interfere in political matters that are
the sole concern of the Panamanian people,'' he added.
The Reagan administration has frozen all Panamanian funds in the
United States, causing a huge cash shortage in Panama. It has
called on Noriega to step down as the commander of Panama's
15,000-member Defense Forces.
Noriega is under U.S. indictments in Florida accused of drug
trafficking and money laundering.
In a joint communique issued earlier in the day, the two
presidents praised Nicaragua's Sandinista government and leaders of
the U.S.-supported rebel organization known as the Nicaraguan
Resistance for agreeing on a cease-fire in their six-year-old war.
The two sides reached agreement Thursday during talks at the
Nicaraguan border town of Sapoa for a 60-day cease-fire. During
that two-month period, the Sandinistas and rebels are to try to
arrange a more permanent truce.
``The two presidents considered it encouraging for the process
of pacification in Central America the developments in matters of
democratization, national reconciliation and cease-firing that have
taken place recently,'' the joint communique said.
with police description of the device
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Green laser fire ripped through the mist and the
faithful heard the words they've been waiting to hear.
``If we Republicans can let that future into our hearts... We
can, I am certain, become the leaders of the Congress of tomorrow.''
House Minority Leader Bob Michel of Illinois, who spoke the
words, isn't Moses, and the laser show at the Johnson Space Center
doesn't equal lightning on Mount Sinai. But Republicans are longing
to enter the promised land of congressional control. They came to a
conference in Houston to find the key.
About 70 GOP lawmakers visited the space center, the Texas
Medical Center, and institutes of higher learning that have made
Houston a technological haven. After years of being the complainers
and nay-sayers on Capitol Hill, they are searching for something
they can champion and capture the imagination of the American
public.
``You don't get votes by just saying the Democrats are mean to
us,'' said Rep. Lynn Martin, R-Ill., who heads a committee working
to overcome the Democrats' 255-177 advantage and win the House back
to the GOP.
Like the desert-wandering Israelites of old, the Republicans
have seen an entire generation move on during their exile from
power. Not a single current GOP member was serving the last time
the speaker of the House was a Republican 34 years ago.
With their three-day ``Congress of Tomorrow'' conference, which
ended Saturday, House Republicans launched a campaign to become
known as the party of the future.
Public investments in technology and education were the themes
of the weekend, including meetings with businessman H. Ross Perot,
supercomputer scientist Paul Chu, heart surgeon Michael DeBakey,
and workers at an oil refinery.
Secretary of Education William Bennett urged Republicans to take
the issue of quality education away from the Democrats.
``Americans are really quite Republican and conservative when it
comes to education,'' he said, alluding to the back-to-basics
movement in the schools.
Rep. Jack Buechner of Missouri, the only Republican to unseat an
incumbent House Democrat two years ago, said he was working to
convince fellow Republicans and Vice President George Bush,
accepted here as the obvious nominee of the party, that a strong
space and science plank was needed in the party platform.
Rep. Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., enthusiastically pointed out that at
the same time the Republicans were exploring 21st century ideas
here, Democratic presidential candidates were campaigning in
Michigan with a promise of trade protectionism for industrial
technologies of the past.
But as much as they wanted to look toward the future, the
Republicans found in Houston a healthy dose of the present.
Instead of the expected address on his latest heart-surgery
breakthroughs, Dr. DeBakey gave the lawmakers a lecture on the need
for stray dogs and cats in medical research and asked them to
oppose animal rights legislation.
Michel's keynote address at the space center rapped what he
called backward looking Democrats and trade protectionists. Sony
television cameras taped the speech and when lawmakers went later
to buy ``NASA'' lapel pins, they said ``made in Canada'' on the
back.
The city's oil-bust economy could be viewed only a short walk
from the plush conference hotel.
Entire neighborhoods seemed nearly vacant, with many houses
boarded up and dilapidated. As the police-escorted bus motorcade
roared to one of the events, one man held out his upturned hat as
though begging for money.
A planned outing Saturday to the new Wortham performing arts
center had to be canceled when police found what they thought was a
bomb. It was later discovered the device was harmless.
Houston Special Operations Sgt. John Scroggins described the
object as a pipe about five or six inches long, two inches in
diameter, that had caps on both ends.
A party was held Friday night at the El Mercado Del Sol, a mall
created to help the Hispanic community but which has been mostly
empty and financially troubled.
Privately, it was conceded that one Republican leader had
questioned whether Houston was the symbol they were seeking. The
organizers of the event, which was paid for largely by corporate
sponsors, were clearly disappointed that less than half the House
Republicans attended.
Even the most optimistic lawmakers said it was unlikely the GOP
could take over the House before 1992, when a post-census
redistricting could throw many seats their way if the party
succeeds in gaining control of key state legislatures.
The plight was illustrated by the two fundraisers held during
the weekend _ for Republicans bailing out of the House to seek the
Senate.
Rep. Beau Boulter's quest to unseat Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, D-Texas,
is a long shot. And Rep. Trent Lott's campaign for the Mississippi
slot held by Sen. John Stennis, the senior Democrat who is
retiring, is even more indicative of the House Republicans' morale
troubles.
Lott, 46, is the Republican Whip, which means he would have
become party leader after Michel decides to step down. Lott said
his decision to run for the Senate was mostly because of the
opportunity afforded by Stennis' retirement and personal reasons.
But, he condeded, his decision might have been different.
``If I thought that we had the prospect of having a majority (in
the House) next year or in four years, certainly that would be a
factor,'' he said.
Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, said he was optimistic but realistic.
``you win these things one step at a time,'' he said. ``We're
ready. The question is when.''
All the Republicans were hoping they wouldn't have to be as
patient as indicated by the laser computer-generated image of James
Madison that spoke to them at the space center.
``God speed to you, founding fathers of the 21st century,'' it
said.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Former President Jimmy Carter criticized
President Reagan on Saturday for proclaiming the innocence of
former national security aides Oliver L. North and John M.
Poindexter, indicted on criminal charges in the Iran-Contra affair.
Carter told a meeting of government and business leaders that
Reagan showed ``a callous attitude toward the principles of law
enforcement'' when he said Friday that North and Poindexter would
be found innocent of the charges and that he still thinks North is
a hero.
``I think they violate basic principles of law enforcement in
this country for the chief law enforcement officer _ that is
President Reagan, in case you've forgotten _ to make the statement
that indicted persons are guilty in his opinion ... or not
guilty,'' Carter said at a meeting held at Gannett Co. Inc.
headquarters in suburban Arlington, Va.
North and Poindexter, along with arms dealers Richard V. Secord
and Albert A. Hakim, pleaded innocent Thursday to charges of
consipiracy, theft and fraud in the Iran-Contra case.
Reagan has said previously he did not think any laws were broken
in the Iran-Contra affair.
In what seemed to be an off-the-cuff response to a question
posed from the audience after a speech to young people Friday,
Reagan said, ``I just have to believe they're going to be found
innocent because I don't think they were guilty of any lawbreaking
or any crime.
``I still think Ollie North is a hero,'' the president said.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Attorney General Edwin Meese III's personal
finances are under investigation to see ``whether there was an
unexplained amount of money'' coming to him, a newspaper reported
Saturday.
The primary purpose of the investigation is to determine whether
Meese derived any benefit, or promise of benefit, from his
relationship with his longtime friend E. Robert Wallach while
Wallach was representing Wedtech Corp. and the promoters of a $1
billion Iraqi oil pipeline, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The inquiry under the supervision of independent counsel James
C. McKay is comparable to an Internal Revenue Service ``net worth''
examination, conducted in cases in which persons are suspected of
not having paid taxes on substantial illicit gains, the Los Angeles
Times said.
``The purpose is to see and analyze whether there was an
unexplained amount of money coming to Mr. Meese,'' the newspaper
said, quoting an unidentified source familiar with the
investigation.
However, Nathan Lewin, a lawyer representing Meese, said it
would be ``the most outrageous thing in the world to draw a
negative inference'' about Meese because of the type of
investigation under way.
Lewin said the investigation focuses on transactions made before
1985, when Meese invested his funds with San Francisco financial
adviser W. Franklyn Chinn in what the attorney general described as
a limited blind trust.
The Times said investigators were looking at how Chinn turned
Meese's investment of about $50,000 into $95,000 within 18 months,
a return exceeding 80 percent.
Wallach, Meese's former lawyer, and Chinn, who was introduced to
Meese by Wallach, were indicted Dec. 22 on federal charges of
defrauding Wedtech, a now-defunct defense contractor based in New
York. At the time, McKay said there was insufficient evidence to
indicate Meese was involved in any criminal activity in connection
with Wedtech.
Meese has acknowledged intervening with the Pentagon in 1982 at
Wallach's request to be sure Wedtech got ``a fair hearing'' in its
effort to win an Army engine contract.
Investigators are also scrutinizing Meese's moves to arrange a
meeting between Wallach, who had been hired by a major financier in
the Iraqi oil pipeline project, and Robert C. McFarlane, who was
President Reagan's national security adviser at the time, the Times
said.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Sobbing elderly women clad in black
begged President George Vassiliou Saturday to help locate hundreds
of Greek Cypriots who disappeared during the Turkish invasion of
Cyprus 14 years ago.
It was Vassiliou's first official encounter with the anguished
relatives of missing Greek Cypriots since he was elected last
month. He assured the families he would do ``everything possible to
speed up procedures to end your ordeal.''
More than 2,000 people packed a downtown Nicosia movie theater
for the meeting with Vassiliou.
The meeting was organized by the Committee of Relatives of the
Missing after Turkish Prime Minister Turgut Ozal declared last
month there were no Greek Cypriots missing in the Turkish sector of
the divided Mediterranean island.
Vassiliou is a native of Famagusta, a port city that now is part
of the Turkish-held eastern zone.
Speakers told the meeting there has been no progress in efforts
to determine the fate of the 1,619 Greek Cypriots missing since
Turkey sent troops into Cyprus in July 1974.
Turkey said it acted to protect Turkish Cypriots after Greek
Cypriot militants temporarily seized power from the Cypriot
governnment. Turkish Cypriots later declared their zone a republic,
but only Turkey has recognized that move.
``We want to know if our children are dead or alive,'' one woman
shouted at the meeting. ``We've been living in anguish for 14
years.''
Many of the missing disappeared after the International
Committee of the Red Cross had listed them as prisoners of war in
camps in Turkey.
``There's no doubt the responsibility for determining the fate
of your missing loved ones lies with Turkey,'' Vassiliou said.
A special United Nations committee appointed in 1984 to try to
trace the Greek Cypriots and 600 Turkish Cypriots also listed as
missing has failed to determine what happened to them.
Vassiliou said he will ask U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez
de Cuellar to make the committee more effective.
The U.N. group's failure was ``due to a lack of sincere
cooperation by the Turkish side,'' said the Rev. Christophos
Papachristoforou, a Greek Orthodox priest and president of the
relatives committee.
``Turkey holds the key ... and our aim must be to find a way to
force it to cooperate,'' said Papachristoforou, who has four sons
among the missing.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
The case of a 23-year-old American
photographer, tried Saturday on charges of drug smuggling, has
hightlighted differences between the legal systems and national
customs of Spain and the United States.
Conan Owen, a 1986 graduate of Syracuse University, was charged
with smuggling more than four pounds of cocaine from Chile to Spain
in a false-bottomed suitcase. He received the suitcase from a
travel agent near his home in Annandale, Va.
Both prosecuting attorney Teresa Calvo, who asked for a 10-year
jail sentence, and presiding Judge Jose Presencia Rubio expressed
incredulity that a university graduate would accept a job from a
passing acquaintance and agree to carry a suitcase halfway around
the world for someone he hardly knew.
In Spain, the custom is only to do business with people you know.
During his year in Barcelona's 85-year-old Model Prison, Owen
said he didn't understand why he had not been freed on bail pending
trial. Bail was denied because Owen was a foreigner caught with a
substantial amount of relatively pure cocaine.
When U.S. law enforcement agents testified Saturday that Owen
had provided them with information leading to a half dozen
indictments of members of a suspected cocaine smuggling ring, the
judge called it all ``very interesting'' but said he was only
interested in Owen's case.
Attorney General Edwin Meese III even delivered copies to
Spanish judicial authorities of a statement made by George
Barahona, the man who hired Owen, and who early last month received
a two-year suspended sentence for narcotics violations from a
federal court in Virginia.
In the statement made in a plea bargain agreement, Barahona said
Owen knew nothing about the drugs and had been used as a carrier.
But plea bargaining does not exist in Spain.
In her summary, Calvo implied that plea bargaining was a
less-than-honorable institution.
U.S. officials faced a similar problem several years ago when a
Spanish court was considering U.S. and Spanish requests for
extradition of Colombian cocaine baron Jorge Luis Ochoa Vasquez.
The U.S. indictment of Ochoa, who was arrested in Madrid in
November 1984, was based on extensive testimony obtained through a
plea bargin.
The Spanish court instead sent Ochoa back to Colombia in July
1986. He went free a week later.
situation during war years. Picks up 6th graf pvs, `Assigned
to...'.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
An underage World War II soldier dubbed
``the Boy Hero,'' who was decorated for shooting down Japanese
aircraft and helping shipmates in two battles, says his age was
both a blessing and a curse.
At age 12, Calvin Graham was one of this country's youngest war
heroes.
For his exploits, which will be the subject of a two-hour
television movie Sunday night, Graham was awarded a Bronze Star and
a Purple Heart.
But his youthful looks and a bureaucratic error landed him in
the brig and cost him his medals. It took him over 30 years to win
back his decorations, and the former gunner, now 58 and a resident
of a Fort Worth suburb, is still seeking disability benefits for
his war injuries.
The son of sharecroppers, Graham left home after his father died
in a traffic accident and his mother remarried. He said his
stepfather beat him and his brother and then threw them out of
their Houston home when they tried to fight back.
Graham shined shoes and sold newspapers to make money until he
joined the Navy in July 1942, enlisting with the aid of forged
papers that claimed he was 17. He was sent to the USS South Dakota
for a Pacific tour.
Assigned to a 40mm gun crew on the ship's fantail, Graham helped
shoot down about 300 enemy planes launched from five Japanese
aircraft carriers in the battle of Santa Cruz.
Graham's gunnery officer asked him his age when he congratulated
the crew.
``I told him I would be 13 in April,'' Graham said, according to
a story in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. ``He was shocked and I
knew I had made a mistake. But I was proud of what we had done and
I felt like I was 6-foot tall. I didn't care at the time if people
knew how old I was. I felt like I had done what I set out to do.''
Later, Graham tried to tell the officer he had been kidding, but
the boy hero was called before the ship's captain, who told him he
would have to go back home.
``He told me it wasn't anything to be ashamed of, he had already
sent three others back that same day. But I stuck to my story and
claimed I was 17,'' Graham said.
``He said, `Well, you may have wished you took me up on this in
the next 24 hours,' '' Graham remembered. ``We were headed for
another battle.''
At Guadalcanal, an enemy ship knocked out Graham's gun with a
14-inch shell, and he was assigned to help the wounded. The ship
later took 47 hits on its superstructure.
``Everyone who was in there that night was either killed or
wounded,'' said Graham. ``I went up there and there were guys'
hands and arms and legs floating around in the water. The bloody
water was waist-high.''
Exploding shrapnel hit Graham in the mouth but he continued to
help medical officers attend to injured crewmen.
Graham received the Bronze Star for his actions. When his ship
returned to Brooklyn Naval Yard in New York, the captain gave him
leave to get a notarized letter from his mother permitting him to
stay in the Navy despite his age.
But when Graham returned with his letter, he was told instead by
an executive officer to turn himself in to naval authorities in
Houston. He was sent to the brig at the Naval Air Station in Corpus
Christi for over a month and treated like a deserter because
authorities thought he was really 17 and trying to lie about his
age. He also had his medals taken away..
Then the Navy admitted its mistake and released Graham after his
13th birthday, giving him a ``cancellation enlistment'' with
honorable conditions. But the Navy did not return his medals.
Years later, Graham enlisted the support of Rep. Jim Wright and
Sen. Lloyd Bentsen and won his honorable discharge from the Navy
and reinstatement of his medals. But he is still denied disability
benefits for his war injuries.
Now confined to a wheelchair and crutches because of injuries he
suffered after the war while a legitimate member of the Marine
Corps, Graham monitors the status of proposed legislation that
could restore his war benefits, corresponds with former shipmates
and writes stories of his experiences. He helped write some of the
material for ``Too Young the Hero,'' to air on CBS.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
President Daniel arap Moi was sworn in
Saturday for a third five-year term and called on Kenyans to heal
the wounds left by the violent election campaign.
Thousands of people gathered for the outdoor inauguration
ceremony in Nairobi's Uhuru Park, and pro-Western Moi told the
crowd, ``My government is committed to defending our constitution
and to abide by the tenets of democratic rule.''
He made a 30-minute speech after his new and expanded Cabinet of
29 ministers was sworn in.
Moi also said four people were killed during the campaign, which
was marked by frequent street battles between rival political
groups. It was the first report of election-related deaths.
Most of the violence occurred during the nominating process on
Feb. 22 by Moi's ruling Kenya African National Union. There were
few disturbances during the general election on March 21 and Moi
ran unopposed for another term.
Some church leaders, lawyers and legislators criticized the
system used by Moi's party to nominate candidates for the general
election. Under the system, party members physically lined up
behind candidates' photos or their representatives to be counted,
and there were clashes.
Critics also denounced the rule that allowed party nominees who
won more than 70 percent of their nomination votes to go to
Parliament unopposed.
About 4.3 million of Kenya's 5.6 million registered voters are
listed as members of the Kenya African National Union, the
country's only legal political party.
Moi, 64, referred in his speech to rumors he is seriously ill.
``Many say: Moi is sick ... I say go on imagining. If anyone is
praying for my death, then that is his own business.''
Moi has ruled since the August 1978 death of Kenya's first
president, Jomo Kenyatta, who became head of state after Kenya
gained independence from Britain in 1963.
Moi survived a major crisis in August 1982, when junior air
force officers attempted a coup.
Two years ago, Moi's government cracked down on a Marxist
movement called Mwakenya.
Several international organizations and local lawyers accused
the government of human rights violations, including torture, of
some of nearly 100 people arrested for alleged links with Mwakenya.
About 80 were convicted and jailed. Human rights activists said
many were tortured into confessing. The government said 13 people
were detained without charge or trial, and that all but three were
freed by the time Moi called elections on Feb. 5.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
About 8,400 gallons of slightly
radioactive water leaked into the Hudson River from the Indian
Point No. 2 nuclear power plant, the plant's operator said Saturday.
The water was discovered missing from a 345,000-gallon storage
tank outside the containment structure, said Bea Meltzer,
spokeswoman for Consolidated Edison.
``It's really a minuscule amount'' that is undetectable, because
river water normally contains a small amount of ambient, or
background, radiation, said Meltzer.
The discovery was made Saturday morning, but officials were
unsure how long the leak had existed.
Carl Abraham, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
said the leak posed no health hazard.
The radioactivity in the water, he said, was ``about one-tenth
of 1 percent of what they would be allowed to release to the river
if they did it on purpose'' in a scheduled discharge.
The leak in a steam line allowed water from a refueling water
storage tank to leak into a non-nuclear boiler and condenser
system, then into the river, said Con Ed spokesman John McCann. The
leak was stopped by closing valves on the line.
The incident had no effect on operations at the plant, located
roughly 25 miles north of the New York City line, McCann said.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Fourteen of 47 Tanzanians charged
with murder in the massacre of government militiamen four years ago
have died in prison from various illnesses, a published report said
Saturday.
Hospital death certificates produced during a court hearing
showed the men died of illnesses that included pneumonia, diarrhea
and kidney failure at varying times during their imprisonment, the
government-owned Daily News reported.
The hearing was held Wednesday before High Court Judge A.G.
Korosso, who granted a government application for the state to
withdraw its cases against the dead men, the newspaper said.
The 33 remaining defendants have denied the charges and their
trial is continuing.
They are accused of ambushing and killing 48 militiamen at
Mwamalole village in central Maswa district on May 23, 1984. The
troops were attacked as they prepared an assault on rustlers who
had stolen 680 head of cattle and killed a herdsboy.
Tanzanians were shocked by the viciousness of the attack.
Slashed bodies were found scattered in the bush and 42 of the
militiamen were buried in a mass grave because the bodies could not
be identified.
Tanzanian courts have a huge backlog. It is not unusual for
people to spend more than a year in jail before they are brought to
trial.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Fire swept through a three-story apartment
building early Saturday, killing six immigrants, including two
children, as they huddled in their kitchen, authorities said.
The fire started in a vacant second-floor apartment and spread
to the hallway and third floor, said Newark Fire Department
spokesman Larry Krieger.
``There was no one in the apartment when it started,'' he said.
``It was being remodeled and someone could have left something on.''
Three men, a woman and two young children died when their
third-floor apartment was engulfed by flames, Krieger said. The
victims were found in the kitchen, he said.
Another man in the apartment, Juan Rodriguez, managed to escape
by jumping out a window. Krieger said the seven, natives of the
Dominican Republic, had moved in less than a week earlier.
Identities of the victims were not immediately released because
relatives had not been notified, Krieger said. He said one child
was about 3 months old, the other 2 years old.
Rodriguez and five residents of another apartment were taken to
University Hospital, Krieger said, but hospital officials said
their records indicated that only five people were treated. Three
of the five, including Rodriguez, were admitted for observation and
were listed in fair condition, hospital officials said.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
A Defense Ministry spokesman said
Saturday there have been no violations of the cease-fire between
government troops and rebels, known as Contras.
The official, speaking with the condition he not be identified,
said ``all is calm'' in zones where fighting had occurred
frequently before the truce.
Sandinista and Contra leaders agreed to a provisional truce at
the beginning of their cease-fire talks on Tuesday in the southern
border town of Sapoa.
A 60-day cease-fire agreed to Wednesday is to begin April 1. The
two sides scheduled a meeting in Managua for April 6 to begin
negotiations on a permanent.
A Defense Ministry report said there was no military activity in
Manteles Verdes, Cama, Wilson and other towns in Zelaya province
that were the scenes of earlier battles.
``There has been no (rebel) activity these days against the
Sandinista army,'' said Hermenegildo Torres, a peasant from the Rio
Cama area that is considered a rebel stronghold in central Zelaya
province.
Carlos Suarez of Guapi, a village about 140 miles east of
Managua, told The Associated Press a large number of Sandinista had
gathered in the village but he said ``there is calm and tranquility
and we can sow the fields.''
mill owners... with report flour taken to government warehouses.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Troops loyal to Gen. Manuel Antonio
Noriega raided Panama City's port area Saturday and cleared it of
barricades set up by striking dockworkers. The army threatened
force to make the nation's banks reopen.
Banks ignored the threats, and dockworkers stayed away from work
as part of a general strike called by opposition leaders to force
Noriega from power.
Troops also raided several flour mills and shut down a union
hall.
Noriega announced Friday that soldiers would seize flour from
the nation's mills, apparently to distribute it to Panamanians who
have been short of food because of the strike.
Defiant mill owners retaliated by announcing they were donating
the flour to the Roman Catholic church's food program for the
needy, but troops began raiding the mills before donations could be
made.
Esther Kwaiben, treasurer of the church's program, said more
than 1.3 million pounds of flour stored in the mills apparently had
been taken to government warehouses.
At the Harinas Panama mill, the general manager, Tirso
Wolfschoon, his wife and other company employees were arrested. At
General Mills de Panama, troops kicked out all the employees and
took over the plant.
Noriega opponents got a boost when groups representing 55,000
retirees announced they will join nationwide street demonstrations
which the National Civic Crusade has called for Monday.
``We will block the streets of this country. Let the president
come and speak to us in the street,'' said retiree Manuel Escudero.
The Crusade is made up of about 200 political parties,
professional groups, and student and labor unions. It was formed
last June for the sole purpose of forcing out Noriega.
Noriega controls Panama through the 15,000-member Defense Forces
which he heads. But that control could weaken the longer his
soldiers go without pay. Their payday was Friday, but because of
Panama's current cash crisis, they didn't receive money.
Armed troops raided the capital's port before dawn, moving aside
several ship containers that had been blocking the entranceway to
the docks since March 14, when the port's 300 workers went out on
strike because they had not been paid.
A few hours later, the nearby union headquarters was wired shut
and scores of workers who had been keeping vigil disappeared.
National Port Director General Diomedes Concepcion denied reports
that some had been arrested.
``The port had to be opened,'' Concepcion told reporters, adding
``if not, we are aiding the enemy.''
Noriega reiterated threats to force banks to hand over an
estimated $70 million in their vaults so the government could pay
its troops.
But the Panamanian Bankers Association, which groups 90 of the
118 Panamanian and foreign banks operating in this country,
rejected the request.
The government's request ``does not solve the problem of the
fiscal and financial crisis of the nation that has deep political
roots,'' said a statement by the group.
Panama ran short of cash last month after the Reagan
administration blocked all Panamanian funds in the United States,
including revenues from the Panama Canal.
The Reagan administration recognizes Eric Arturo Delvalle _ now
in hiding _ as Panama's legitimate president. Noriega supporters in
the national legislature ousted Delvalle, who had been the civilian
president, on Feb. 26 after Delvalle tried to fire Noriega.
Since then, street demonstrations and a general strike have
failed to push Noriega out of power.
The strike has shut down more than 90 percent of the nation's
industry. Cash and food are in short supply.
In a decree made public Saturday, the government declared a
moratorium on all rent payments. The gesture was a hollow one,
since people have not been paying their rents for more than a month
because of the cash shortage.
Most supermarkets and drug stores remained closed Saturday,
defying a warning from the Noriega regime the previous day that
they would lose their business licences if they did not reopen.
The Panama Canal so far has not been affected by the turmoil.
New Book</HEAD>
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Getting President Reagan ready for a news
conference was ``like reinventing the wheel,'' says former White
House press spokesman Larry Speakes in a gossipy new book, portions
of which were published Saturday.
Some tidbits from the book entitled ``Speaking Out'' by Speakes
and Washington writer Robert Pack, were included in the April 4
edition of U.S. News & World Report.
Despite the difficulties preparing the president for news
conferences, Speakes describes him as a super guy, according to the
magazine.
But Nancy Reagan is ``likely to stab you in the back'' when
stirred up, while daughter Maureen is a ``punch-you-in-the-nose
type'' who is ``to the right of Attila the Hun,'' the book says.
In a generous sprinkling of criticism, Speakes describes former
Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger as ``a whiny type ... the
loosest of cannons, the baddest boy,'' while Vice President George
Bush is called ``the perfect `yes' man'' who ``tried to avoid
taking a portfolio.''
Robert McFarlane, the former national security adviser who
pleaded guilty to criminal charges in connection with the
Iran-Contra affair, is ``one of the most bizarre characters I've
met,'' Speakes writes.
Speakes says Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North, a former National
Security Council aide who has been indicted in the Iran-Contra
affair, is not a favorite of Mrs. Reagan's, even though her husband
has referred to him as recently as Friday as a ``hero.''
The first lady is said to have quipped, ``Not funny, sonny,''
while watching North banter during a television interview.
Speakes left the White House in February 1987 to accept a
communications position with Merrill Lynch in New York.
{
<NEW DOCUMENT>
The Vatican's official newspaper on Saturday
denounced as ``tragic and startling'' the decision by a Swedish
hospital to set an age limit for radiation treatment of cancer
victims.
In a front-page editorial, L'Osservatore Romano described as
anti-human the recent decision by Stockholm's Radiumhemmet cancer
clinic to refuse radiation treatment of patients over 70 because it
said it lacked sufficient resources.
``Without going into the merits of the technical and financial
problems that the state's health service has to confront in very
civilized Sweden, there remains the tragic and startling decision
left to the discretion of a head physician,'' the newspaper said.
The editorial compared the action to ``the aberration'' of
euthanasia and added: ``To let die on a humanitarian pretext such
as relief from suffering, or to let die for an opportunistic
calculation based on age, are two sides of the same coin.''
It said the Swedish case ``is even more alarming for the bleak
greyness of the motivations: Lack of equipment, financial cuts by
the state, lack of personnel....The substance is that the life of a
man is no longer the normative worth for a doctor.
``The only criteria for discrimination would be age. Would there
then be an age in which life ceases being the most precious gift?''
L'Osservatore Romano also commented on abortions in Britain.
An editorial said the Vatican hoped that a move in the British
Parliament to prohibit late-term abortions would be the first step
toward a complete ban by Britain on abortions.
A bill before Parliament would reduce the time limit for
abortions from 28 weeks to 18 weeks. The measure is now in
committee.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Hundreds of thousands of people inundated
beaches Saturday as the third day of record heat scorched Southern
California, while authorities guarded against gang violence and
brush fires.
The noon high of 93 degrees at Lindbergh Field in San Diego
broke a mark for the day set in 1923. Inland areas of San Diego
County had highs near 100 degrees.
A high of 100 was reported in the desert resort of Palm Springs
100 miles east of Los Angeles, where the high of 98 broke the
record for the date set in 1986.
The National Weather Service blamed northeasterly winds caused
by a high pressure system over Western states reversing the usual
flow of cooling ocean breezes for Southern California. Instead, the
hot winds blew out of the desert.
Heat records were also set in Arizona, where the reading of 100
in Phoenix broke the record for the date by seven degrees, and a
reading of 99 in Tucson topped the record for the date there by 10
degrees.
California forecasters predicted temperatures would drop to the
70s on Sunday as a front brought cooler marine air.
In Palm Springs, an estimated 50,000 young people on spring
break dressed for the weather, wearing ``bathing suits, shorts,
tanks tops, as little as possible,'' said police Officer Karen
Holtz. ``They all seem to hover around the yogurt places and ice
cream places. I don't blame them.''
An estimated 200,000 people swarmed to Zuma and Santa Monica
beaches to splash in 62-to-64-degree water, but surfers had to make
do with 2-foot swells.
``It's just a full-out summer day,'' said lifeguard Capt. Don
Rohrer at Santa Monica.
By early afternoon, there already had been several rescues,
including a person who was taken to a hospital for a possibly
serious neck or spine injury, he said. Rohrer estimated there would
be up to 50 rescues for the day.
``The only thing that's saving us right now is favorable tide
conditions,'' he said. ``If the rips (riptides) were pulling a
little stronger, we'd probably have well over 100.''
On Friday night, three people were hospitalized after more than
20 gang members got into a scuffle at Dockweiler State Beach, near
Los Angeles International Airport.
At Zuma Beach in the Malibu area, Los Angeles County sheriff's
deputies were called in Friday night to quell a fight involving 300
youths.
The situation was under control Saturday, said Zuma lifeguard
Glen DuPont.
``There is a large force of sheriffs (deputies) here, and that
is a wonderful deterrent,'' he said.
Those who opted to stay home and use their air conditioners sent
power usage soaring, but not to the record heights reached a day
earlier. Spokesmen for the Southern California Edison and San Diego
Gas & Electric companies said the power drain was less because many
businesses were closed for the weekend.
Not everyone was relaxing, however.
In San Diego, city firefighters continued to mop up a 100-acre
brushfire near Lake Hodges, where one firefighter was treated
Friday for heat exhaustion.
``We've got a lot of hot spots. If the wind were to spring up,
we might lose it,'' said a fire dispatcher who declined to identify
herself. ``They're up there practically stomping it out by hand.''
sted tribal law, bars Stevens' use of real eagle feathers.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
A businessman was named a special Sioux
chief Saturday and pledged to unite Indians to regain land they
lost after gold was discovered, although some Sioux believe he is
``impersonating an Indian.''
``I promise you I will carry the battle lance of our people ...
until the Black Hills are once again ours forever more,'' Phillip
J. Stevens, of Irvine, Calif., told a crowd of more than 600 people
who attended a ceremony at the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation.
Stevens, who wore fringed buckskins decorated with Indian
beadwork, was given a shield and headdress made of imitation eagle
feathers and the name Man Who Walks With The Shield. He could not
receive real eagle feathers under federal law because he is not an
enrolled member of a Sioux tribe.
The plan to make Stevens a special chief to lead the land battle
was pushed by members of the Grey Eagle Society, a group of Sioux
elders, and other traditional-minded Indians.
Chieftainships are unrelated to the legal governance of a tribe,
which under federal law is done by an elected president and council.
At the ceremony, Stevens smoked a sacred pipe with Oglala Sioux
Chief Oliver Red Cloud, Northern Cheyenne Chief Austin Two Moons of
Montana and other leaders after singing and praying.
``We seek to injure no one in South Dakota. We only seek the
return of lands that are rightfully owned by the Lakota (Sioux)
people,'' Stevens told reporters.
``They (the Black Hills) are sacred to the Sioux people. They
are our altar to God. ... It is like stealing their church,'' he
said of the rugged area of western South Dakota.
The federal government signed a treaty in 1868 saying 7.3
million acres of the region belonged to the Sioux, but then
abrogated the treaty and took the land after gold was found in the
Black Hills.
Stevens supports a bill that would give the Sioux over 1 million
acres plus money, but says more money is necessary to improve
living conditions on reservations where unemployment reaches 85
percent.
However, not all Sioux believe Stevens has earned the right to
become a special chief, and a historian said it's an unprecedented
title. Some argued Stevens was not an enrolled member of any Sioux
tribe and has not substantiated his claim to be a great-grandson of
Sioux warrior Standing Bear.
Opponents also said he is splitting the Indian community and
could damage efforts to regain the land.
On Friday, the Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council filed for
a temporary restraining order in federal court in Rapid City to
make Stevens prove he is of Indian descent or stop making the
claim. The council advises the eight Sioux tribal councils on
treaty issues.
The complaint said Stevens ``is impersonating an Indian,
claiming Indian heritage that is questionable.''
No ruling was expected until sometime this week at the earliest.
Stevens said at Saturday's news conference that he had given
Sioux leaders an affidavit signed by his father saying Standing
Bear was his great-grandfather. Two members of the Standing Bear
family appeared at the ceremony Saturday to support Stevens.
Another supporter, Homer Whirlwind Soldier, said at the ceremony
that Stevens would have the status to negotiate with federal
officials for land. ``We send a general in to fight a general, so
we give Mr. Phillip Stevens the symbol of authority.''
Stevens told reporters that he and other Sioux chiefs will ask
Interior Secretary Donald P. Hodel to meet with them and set up a
public hearing on the issue.
Stevens acknowledged that only one of the seven tribal councils
that support the return of the Black Hills has endorsed his
proposal and the plan to make him a special chief, but he said a
petition signed by Sioux people in South Dakota indicates he is
supported by a majority.
``I think that the will of the people has been neglected by the
people elected to do the will of the people,'' Stevens said.
Stevens is an engineer who played a role in development of the
Minuteman III before he founded Ultrasystems Inc. in Irvine,
Calif., in 1969. He recently sold the $160 million-a-year
engineering company to devote his time to the Black Hills effort.
Stevens, 58, supports legislation introduced by Sen. Bill
Bradley, D-N.J., that would return 1.3 million acres of federal
land in the Black Hills to the Sioux.
The Black Hills region was deeded to the Sioux in the Fort
Laramie Treaty of 1868. But after gold was discovered by an
expedition led by Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, prospectors
swarmed in and the treaty was abrogated in 1877. The Indians were
forced onto reservations in less desirable parts of the state.
The Supreme Court in 1980 upheld a settlement for the land,
which with interest has grown to nearly $200 million. Most of the
Sioux tribal governments have refused the money, saying they want
the land.
Bradley's bill would return about 1.3 million of the land
covered by the original treaty. It applies only to federal land in
the area of timbering, mining and tourism, and does not include
Mount Rushmore.
Stevens argues the Sioux also should get up to $3.1 billion for
their loss of revenue since the land was taken.
Bradley's bill, introduced two years ago and still not out of
committee, is opposed by South Dakota's congressional delegation.
Many backers of Bradley's bill say Stevens' plan to seek
additional money would wreck the bill's chances in Congress.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
A lawmaker called for a government inquiry
Saturday after the body of a guided missiles engineer was found
inside a car filled with exhaust fumes, the latest in a mysterious
string of deaths of British scientists.
Trevor Knight, 52, who was found dead Friday, was the eighth
British scientist involved in defense-related work to die in
unusual circumstances since August 1986.
Doug Hoyle, a member of Parliament for the Labor Party, said he
would ask Defense Secretary George Younger to order an urgent probe
of the deaths and report the findings to Parliament.
``What is the link between all these?'' Hoyle asked. ``Is it not
surprising what is happening to top scientists?
``Is it simply overwork, or is there something more sinister
afoot?''
The government so far has rejected an inquiry, saying there was
no evidence to suggest the deaths were linked other than by
coincidence.
A Defense Ministry spokeswoman said Saturday that any
investigation would have to be done by police on a case-by-case
basis.
Knight, who worked in the guided missiles division of the
Marconi electronics firm, was found in a car parked in a garage at
his home in Harpenden, 25 miles northwest of London, after he
failed to report for work.
Hertfordshire police said the car was filled with exhaust fumes,
but gave no details. Chief Inspector Chris Partridge said, however,
that the death was ``not being treated as suspicious,'' a phrase
British police use for a suspected suicide.
Marconi spokesman Ray Bryant confirmed Knight worked in the
guided missiles division of the company's Stanmore plant.
Bryant refused comment on the fact that five of the scientists
worked for Marconi, a major British defense contractor, or an
affiliated company.
The string of deaths began Aug. 5, 1986, when Vimal Dajibhai,
24, was found dead in a gorge beneath a bridge in Bristol. The
inquest returned an open verdict, meaning there was insufficient
evidence to establish a cause of death.
Dajibhai was a junior software engineer checking torpedo
guidance systems at Marconi Underwater Systems in Watford, near
London.
The other deaths were:
_Ashhad Shariff, a computer systems analyst working for another
Marconi unit near London, who was found strangled in October 1986
in a park near Bristol. An inquest ruled he killed himself by tying
one end of a rope to a tree and the other to his neck, then driving
off in his car.
_Richard Pugh, a computer designer found dead in his Essex home
in January 1987 under circumstances police never have explained.
_Peter Peapell, a lecturer at the Royal Military College of
Science at Shrivenham, who was found dead in February 1987 beneath
his car with the engine running and the garage doors shut. The
coronor's report was inconclusive.
_David Sands, who was working on an air defense systems contract
for Easams, a Marconi affiliate, died in March 1987 when he drove
his car loaded with tanks of gasoline into a vacant restaurant.
_Victor Moore, 46, a Marconi scientist who died of a drug
overdose in April 1987. His wife told an inquest he had been under
strain in his job at Marconi Space and Defense Systems in
Portsmouth.
_Russell Smith, 23, a lab technician for Britain's Atomic Energy
Authority, whose body was found Feb. 1 halfway down a cliff at
Boscastle in western England. Police found a note but have not
disclosed its contents.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis conceded
Saturday that Jesse Jackson had won a popular-vote victory in
Michigan's Democratic presidential caucuses.
``It looks as if Reverend Jackson has won the popular vote in
Michigan,'' Dukakis said at a news conference prior to a Wisconsin
Democratic fund-raising dinner attended by all the party's
presidential contenders.
``I congratulate him for that. He ran a good campaign and he has
my congratulations,'' Dukakis said.
But Dukakis refused to categorize the Michigan loss as a
significant setback.
``I don't think I did very well in Michigan. I think I did
reasonably well, but I don't think I did spectacularly well,''
Dukakis said.
He said Michigan's troubled economy, plagued by auto-industry
layoffs, was a factor in Jackson's victory and his own defeat.
``The people of Michigan have been through a very difficult
time,'' said Dukakis, who has campaigned in part on his ability to
turn around what was a faltering economy in Massachusetts. ``There
is great unhappiness, great concern, great uncertainty. There are
laid-off workers. Workers today who have jobs are worried they are
going to be next.
``Jesse has strong feelings about that, as I do,'' he said.
Although the full United Auto Workers Union has not endorsed any
candidate, UAW Local 72 in Kenosha, Wis., endorsed Jackson, who
rallied to them when Chrysler Corp. announced it was closing down
an auto plant there later this year, a move that will cost 5,500
jobs.
Dukakis said he would campaign hard in Connecticut, which holds
its primary Tuesday, as well as Wisconsin, which votes April 5, and
then on to later primaries.
``As I said in the beginning of this campaign, it's a
marathon,'' Dukakis said. ``You've asked me about inevitability. As
I have said on more than one occasion, nothing is inevitable about
anything in American politics.
``I hope when we finish up in California and New Jersey, I have
a lead I can take into the convention . . . and win the
nomination.''
with San Francisco protest ending; several arrests in Washington,
rally near White House. Picks up 10th graf pvs, ``In Chicago.''
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Protesters opposed to U.S. policies in Central America marched
in major cities Saturday with chants including ``Hey, hey, Uncle
Sam, not another Vietnam,'' and signs reading ``No Contra Aid.''
The demonstrations were largely peaceful, but police in Boston
had to break up a shoving match between the protesters and
counter-demonstrators.
The rallies were organized by a group calling itself the Pledge
of Resistance, which claims 80,000 supporters nationwide.
About 1,500 people marched in the rain in Boston, saying they
backed the signing last week of a ceasefire in Nicaragua between
the leftist Sandinista government and the U.S.-backed Contra rebels.
``We have to make it clear to the government that there's no way
we're going to go for giving aid to the Contras right now,'' said
Lauren Voloshen, a spokewoman for the Central American Solidarity
Association, which sponsored the Boston rally.
The counter-demonstration was staged by about 30 members of
Young Americans for Freedom, who shouted, ``Peace through
strength!''
More than 2,000 demonstrators rallied peacefully in front of San
Francisco's City Hall as part of the ``national day of emergency
protest.''
``You're strong and you're right,'' city Supervisor Nancy Walker
told the cheering crowd, adding that demonstrations in the United
States helped lead to the end of the Vietnam War.
Demonstrators in Civic Center Park across from the City Hall
held signs reading ``Stop Reagan's War,'' ``No Contra Aid,'' and
``Hands Off Nicaragua.'' As the protesters marched cross town to
gates of the Presidio Army base, their ranks swelled to 5,000, and
a few demonstrators lobbed eggs toward police officers at the base
gate. The demonstration ended with a rally a short distance away.
Police reported no arrests.
Police said several people were arrested in Washington, D.C., on
charges of blocking traffic when they unfurled a banner on
Pennsylvania Avenue.
About 600 demonstrators marched from the Capitol to a rally in
Lafayette Park, in front of the White House. President Reagan was
inside, but it could not be determined if he witnessed the protest.
In Chicago, about 500 protesters marched through downtown,
carrying a mock casket emblazoned with the words ``Bury Contra Aid
Forever.''
``A public message has to be given that this is serious _ the
whole effort for peace in Central America,'' said Sister Joellen
McCarthy, 45, of Chicago, a nun who has spent five years in
Nicaragua. ``It's so important for our national credibility. We
preach democracy, and yet we won't accept the democratic processes
in other countries.''
Joe Hansen, 20, of Edgerton, Wis., said he does not believe
Reagan's warning that the ruling Sandinista government in Nicaragua
poses a long-term threat to the United States. ``I think it's just
a lot of propaganda,'' he said.
``I'm speaking out against an immoral war,'' he said. ``The U.S.
doesn't belong in someone else's politics.''
The Chicago demonstrators chanted slogans including ``Hey, hey,
Uncle Sam, not another Vietnam,'' and ``Cease fire, way to go;
Reagan, this is not your show.''
About 200 people demonstrated in Pittsburgh. They chanted
anti-administration slogans and carried signs reading ``Peace with
Nicaragua,'' ``U.S. Troops out of Honduras,'' ``End Contra war!''
and ``Reagan, how many more Nicaraguan children must you kill.''
About 200 people gathered in Miami, where Central America peace
activists just two years ago were pelted with rocks and eggs.
``This is a day to rejoice because at least, and at last, reason
has been heard,'' said Andreas Gomez of the Latin
American-Caribbean Solidarity Association.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Jesse Jackson won a decisive victory Saturday
over Michael Dukakis in Michigan's Democratic caucuses, where
Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt's fading presidential hopes may have
come to an end.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Britons lost one hour's sleep as clocks were put
forward one hour at 1 a.m. Sunday to 2 a.m. to start British Summer
Time.
British Summer Time is one hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time and
will end early on Sunday Oct. 23 when clocks revert to GMT.
In the United States, the Eastern Standard Time zone is five
hours ahead of GMT and four hours ahead during Eastern Daylight
Savings.
Western Europe is one hour ahead of GMT and two hours ahead for
a short period in summer and Britain is being pressed by its 11
partners in the European Economic Community to introduce Summer
Time hours in line with Western Europe. Britain has been reluctant
to agree.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
A man who became the first Coloradoan to
cite the state's ``make my day'' law after he shot and killed a
neighbor was found guilty Saturday in the unrelated murder of his
estranged wife.
David Guenther, 35, showed little emotion as an Adams County
jury found him guilty in the death of his wife and the attempted
murder of her friend in March 1987. The jurors had deliberated for
three hours.
``It made my day,'' said prosecutor Bruce Levin, in a reference
to an earlier case in which Guenther achieved notoriety as the
first person to invoke Colorado's law allowing homeowners to use
deadly force against intruders.
The law was nicknamed after a line in a Clint Eastwood film in
which a detective invites a criminal to ``make my day'' and give
the detective an excuse to shoot.
Authorities dropped the charges against Guenther in the 1986
shooting death of a neighbor and the wounding of two other people
on the basis of that law. He shot the three after his wife got into
an argument with them on the Guenthers' front porch.
However, a higher court later reversed that ruling, tightening
the criteria under which homeowners could claim immunity from
prosecution under the law. Guenther than was acquitted of all
charges in the case last fall, basing his argument on self-defense,
rather than the ``make my day'' rule.
Levin, who called Guenther ``a murderer who can't keep his story
straight'' in closing arguments Saturday, said the guilty verdict
``was supported by the evidence and it was a just verdict.''
Prosecutors said earlier they would not seek the death penalty.
Sentencing was set for May.
Guenther's estranged wife, Pamela, was killed and a friend,
Stanley Stinson, was shot several times outside a restaurant in
Commerce City on March 1, 1987. The Guenthers' two children, ages
11 and 13, witnessed the shootings and testified at their father's
trial.
Guenther initially denied any involvement, but later claimed he
shot the two because he saw them kissing. Guenther's attorneys
argued he shot the pair in an ``act of passion'' and without
premeditation.
Prosecutors maintained the shootings were part of a pattern of
threats and violence by Guenther against his wife. Testimony showed
he had taken Mrs. Guenther hostage at their home one week before
her death, violating a court order to stay away from her. He
released her unharmed after a standoff with police that lasted
several hours.
Guenther was free on bond from that incident when his wife and
Stinson were shot.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Lord Carrington, NATO secretary-general, said in a
report published Sunday he doubts that nuclear weapons will be
totally abolished.
``I am not optimistic that you can ever get rid of nuclear
weapons altogether. I am not sure it would be a good thing anyway,
because they are the ultimate deterrent,'' he was quoted as saying
in an interview with London's Sunday Express weekly.
``I am sure, though, that we can all live at a much lower level
of armaments, and one of the reasons I am optimistic is that it is
very much in Mr. (Soviet leader Mikhail S.) Gorbachev's interests
to do that,'' he said.
Carrington will be 69 when he retires from his post with the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization in July.
He told the Express the West cannot disarm on its own, expecting
the Soviet Union to do the same.
The agreement reached by President Reagan and Gorbachev at a
December summit in Washington for the superpowers to eliminate
medium-range nuclear weapons and for continued talks on chemical
weapons and reducing long-range missiles were originated by NATO,
Carrington said. He added that Gorbachev ``contrived to let it be
thought that all these initiatives are actually his.'' Because of
the superiority of Soviet-bloc conventional forces in Europe, ``the
idea that you can maintain a deterrent which is obsolete is not an
idea which makes any sense,'' he said.
temperatures and more records broken. Picks up 10th graf,
`Temperatures around...'. Conforms with AM-Heat Wave, a0657.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Rain and scattered thunderstorms drenched parts of the South and
East from Texas to New England on Saturday, while snow and strong
winds chilled the mountains in the Northwest, and some Southwest
cities basked in record high temperatures.
Morning and early afternoon rain showers and thunderstorms were
scattered from south central Texas across the central Gulf Coast,
northwest Florida and southwest Georgia.
Thunderstorms produced three-quarter-inch hail at Gulf Shores,
La., and marble-size hail at Mexia, Texas. Lightning and heavy rain
caused power outages at Elba, Ala.
Showers and thunderstorms also extended from Tennessee across
the Ohio Valley and from eastern North Carolina across eastern New
York state and New England.
More than an inch and a half of rain fell between 7 a.m. and 1
p.m. EST Saturday at Patuxent River, Md., while an inch was
measured at Salisbury, Md., and Dover, Del.
One inch of snow fell at Marquette, Mich., during the same six
hours. Snow was scattered across Minnesota, Wisconsin and upper
Michigan.
Snow was expected to continue through Saturday night across the
Olympic Mountains in Washington and the Cascade Range in Washington
and Oregon. Snow was forecast through Sunday morning in the western
and southern mountains and passes of Montana.
Rain continued along the northern Pacific Coast.
A high temperature of 100 in Phoenix, Ariz., Saturday broke the
record for the date and was the earliest in the spring that 100
degrees has been recorded. A reading of 99 in Tucson, Ariz.,
surpassed by 6 degrees the previous record for March set just the
day before.
Los Angeles International Airport and Santa Maria, Calif., also
had records for March with 95 degrees. The high was 98 in downtown
Los Angeles. A reading of 93 in San Diego broke a record of 82 set
in 1923.
Temperatures around the nation at 2 p.m. EST ranged from 19
degrees at International Falls, Minn., to 98 degrees at Thermal,
Calif. The nation's low Saturday morning was 12 degrees at Warroad,
Minn.
Sunday's forecast called for rain showers across New York state
and New England, as well as the northern Pacific Coast. Snow should
be scattered across the northern Rockies, changing to rain across
the upper Missouri Valley. Winds were expected to be strong and
gusty from Nevada across the Rockies and the central Plains into
the Texas Panhandle.
High temperatures were forecast in the 30s and 40s from the
Great Lakes to the Ohio Valley and the upper Mississippi Valley,
and in the northern Rockies and Pacific Northwest; in the 50s and
60s from New England across North Carolina, the Tennessee Valley,
the northern Plains, the central Rockies, Nevada and the central
Pacific Coast; the 80s in central and southern Florida and much of
Texas; the 80s and low 90s in the Southwest deserts; and the 70s in
most of the rest of the nation.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
The Defense Department has scaled back its
plans to develop a massive space security shield and instead has
settled on a far less ambitious immediate goal of protecting U.S.
military installations, The Washington Post said in Sunday's
editions.
The newspaper said the department _ five years and $12 billion
after President Reagan launched the Strategic Defense Initiative
(SDI) program _ has abandoned plans to try to protect U.S. cities
as well as its military centers from a Soviet attack.
The Post quoted senior U.S. officials as saying that the
decision to concentrate on a limited defensive system reflects
broad agreement within the administration that the president's
dream cannot be attained.
The threat of a ballistic missile attack will not be diminished
in the foreseeable future, the officials told the Post, which did
not identify them.
The reorientation of Reagan's SDI program, also known as Star
Wars, was revealed in part by a 1987 Joint Chiefs of Staff
classified document calling for developments and deployment of a
defensive system to stop only 30 percent of the nuclear warheads in
a massive Soviet first strike, the Post said.
The four-page secret document accepted the view of SDI officials
that even this limited defense would help deter a Soviet attack,
the paper said. However, if this American view turns out to be
wrong and the Soviets initiate a massive first strike, the system
the Pentagon now envisions may stop only 1,500 nuclear warheads,
allowing as many as 3,500 others to penetrate and wreak devestation
on U.S. and allied territory, the Post said.
The newspaper said SDI officials believe this limited defensive
system could be deployed beginning in 1996 at a cost of up to $150
billion in current dollars, double the expense they predicted last
year.
Many scientists and military experts, however, question whether
the defensive weapons being pursued in the SDI program will be able
to achieve even the scaled-back goals, the paper said.
The Post cited U.S. officials as saying the Soviets may have
sensed the course of internal American decision-making over SDI and
predicted that Reagan's dream would be abandoned, causing them to
tone down their public criticism of SDI in recent months and
tolerate more aggressive SDI research under a potential new arms
pact.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Donald J. Trump said Saturday he bought the posh
Plaza Hotel for $390 million but he does not plan to put his name
on it as he has so many of his other prized buildings, according to
a published report.
The multimillionaire real estate mogul outbid two other
Manhattan real estate developers who wanted the hotel at 59th
Street and Fifth Avenue, The New York Times reported in its Sunday
editions.
The new president of the hotel will be Trump's wife, Ivana, who
will be paid ``$1 a year plus all the dresses she can buy,'' Trump
said.
Trump, whose other properties include Trump Tower in Manhattan
and Trump Plaza in Atlantic City, N.J., said he plans to make the
building ``the most luxurious hotel in the world,'' but the name
will remain the same, the Times said.
``It's got the most important name in the world and it's going
to remain that way,'' he said.
Trump said he signed a contract for the deal Friday and would
take possession in 120 days.
The hotel's current owners are Robert M. Bass, the Texas
multimillionaire, and the Aoki Corp. of Japan. They took over the
hotel three months ago as part of their joint $1.5 billion purchase
of the Westin hotel chain from the Allegis Corp.
Trump said he paid $210 million for the real estate, including a
small apartment house next door to the hotel, and $180 million for
the hotel and its contents.
The hotel was built in 1907 along the lines of the French
chateau and its first guest was Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, son of
Cornelius Vanderbilt, then the richest man in America.
Guests at the nearly 1,000-room hotel have included Princess
Grace, the King of Morocco, and the Beatles, whose visit in 1964
drew throngs of screaming teens to the Plaza.
The Plaza is in the final stages of a major renovation, but
Trump said he planned to upgrade everything even further.
national delegate figures; picks up 8th graf pvs, bgng: ``We are...
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis
overcame a strong showing by Jesse Jackson in the final weekend of
Democratic caucuses to win North Dakota's presidential preference
poll Saturday.
Dukakis had 629 votes to Jackson's 416 with two rural districts
left to be counted Saturday and Sunday in the precinct caucuses,
which are the first step toward picking 15 of North Dakota's
national convention delegates. Another 467 people voted uncommitted.
Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt received 393 votes, followed by
Illinois Sen. Paul Simon with 145 and Tennessee Sen. Albert Gore
Jr. with 130. Other candidates received a total of 57 votes.
Gephardt had been backed by fellow House member Byron Dorgan,
North Dakota's lone representative in the House.
If those results hold up at the state convention next month,
Dukakis will win five national convention delegates from North
Dakota, Jackson will gain three and Gephardt two. Another five
delegates would be uncommitted.
Ellen Austin, state campaign coordinator for Dukakis, said North
Dakota voters liked his stands on agriculture and health care
issues. The endorsement of Sen. Kent Conrad also helped, she said.
``We are more than pleased at the super showing Mike has shown
in North Dakota,'' Ms. Austin said.
``We can't see how Dukakis can lose the (Democratic)
nomination,'' she said. ``And I would like to predict he will be
elected the 41st president of the United States.''
The precinct caucuses elect delegates to attend legislative
district conventions, which are held immediately after each caucus
is adjourned. The district conventions will elect 1,372 delegates
to the state convention, where 15 of North Dakota's 20 delegates to
the Democratic National Convention will be selected next month.
While people attending the caucuses express preferences for
presidential candidates, the delegates to the state convention
often label themselves instead on the basis of their sentiment on
various state issues, such as agriculture or labor.
The outcome, however, does reflect the presidential preferences
expressed at the first level of the process, said state party
Chairman George Gaukler.
One small town planned to hold its meeting Sunday but the
outcome would not affect the overall statewide result.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Jesse Jackson said Saturday that cab drivers,
cooks, maids, small business people, farmers and other working men
and women shared his dramatic victory in Michigan's primary-like
Democratic presidential caucuses.
``The excitement is when you consider how the common people,
workers, men and women, people who want a higher minimum wage,
those who want work as an alternative to welfare, they are
winning,'' Jackson said at a news conference while attending a
Democratic fundraising dinner.
``Cab drivers are winning. Cooks are winning. Maids are winning.
Small business people are winning. People who want jobs are
winning. Those who want to save their farms are winning.''
Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis came in second in Michigan.
``People are responding to authenticity and message and soul
over just money and mechanics,'' Jackson said. ``The only thing
that is inevitable tonight is that when we, the working people,
stand together, we win and we make America stronger.''
Jackson said he has stood with farmers fighting foreclosure,
with striking factory workers and with high school students and
their parents trying to stop the flow of illegal drugs.
``That Rainbow Coalition of people with whom I have worked has
been standing by me,'' Jackson said.
Jackson refused to characterize the Democratic race as a
two-person contest between himself and Dukakis, the two men who
lead in national convention delegates.
``In my opinion it is a five-person race,'' Jackson said. ``I
would not be presumptuous enough to eliminate anyone from the
race.''
But Jackson did not shy away when a reporter asked him if he
might be the front-runner after the Michigan win.
``I've been there for over a year,'' Jackson said.
Jackson is mounting a strong campaign in Wisconsin, where he has
been endorsed by United Auto Workers Local 72, which represents
about 5,000 workers at a Chrysler plant in Kenosha that is to be
closed later this year. Jackson also has been endorsed by the union
representing striking workers at the Patrick Cudahy meat packing
plant in Cudahy.
He picked up two significant political endorsements on Saturday:
William Dixon of Madison, Wis., former national campaign manager
for Gary Hart, and Karen Lamb, wife of veteran Milwaukee Mayor
Henry Meier. The mayor, however, has not endorsed Jackson.
County</HEAD>
later taken from house, autopsy set for Sunday. SUBS last 2 grafs,
bgng `A crowd...', with 5 grafs to UPDATE with 100 people attending
closed meeting called by local leaders. No pickup.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
A Lumbee Indian activist running for judge
in his racially troubled county was found shot to death Saturday at
his home, officials said.
Julian T. Pierce, who had complained to a friend of death
threats, was shot three times at point-blank range with a shotgun,
Sheriff Hubert Stone said.
``It just looks like he was actually assassinated,'' the sheriff
said, calling it ``one of the worst'' murders he had investigated
in his 33 years as a lawman.
Gov. Jim Martin appealed for calm in Robeson County, where two
Indians were charged with holding a newspaper staff hostage in
February. He said the state had offered a $5,000 reward for
information leading to the killer's arrest and conviction.
``North Carolina has suffered another tragedy,'' Martin said at
a Raleigh news conference. ``I want to express on ... behalf of the
people of the state the grief we share and the sadness for what has
happened.''
``The investigation will leave no stone unturned,'' the governor
said.
Pierce, 42, was an attorney in nearby Pembroke. He had resigned
as director of Lumbee River Legal Services, which provided legal
representation to low-income county residents, to seek a newly
created Superior Court judgeship.
He was running against District Attorney Joe Freeman Britt in
the May 3 Democratic primary. Britt released a statement saying he
was ``shocked and dismayed'' at learning of the death.
Pierce was found lying face down in the blood-spattered kitchen
near a door which had several glass panes broken. Stone said the
murderer either forced his way inside or broke the glass, stuck the
gun through the opening and fired.
A longtime friend who said he had spent several hours with
Pierce on Friday said Pierce had been threatened and feared for his
life.
``We were looking for this to happen,'' said Earl Moore, owner
of a cabinet shop. ``He knew something could happen _ I won't go
into it. ... If he had been white he wouldn't be dead today.''
Moore said he wouldn't cooperate with authorities because he didn't
trust them.
Stone said he knew nothing about threats against Pierce.
Pierce was ``liked by all ... he had no enemies that I know of
...,'' the sheriff said. ``It took a very mad person to commit a
crime like that.''
Nothing appeared to have been stolen from the house, Stone said.
Robert Morgan, director of the State Bureau of Investigation,
said ``we don't have any motive.'' Morgan said he believed Pierce
lived alone.
Authorities believe that the shooting occurred between midnight
and 6 a.m., the sheriff said.
The Red Springs Police Department received a call about the
death Saturday morning, said Chief Deputy Al Parnell of the Robeson
County sheriff's department.
Authorities received the first word of the death from ``a
friend'' of Pierce, said Morgan, who would not identify the caller.
FBI agent Paul Daly said agents from the FBI and the State
Bureau of Investigation were assisting county investigators.
``We will look into it from the aspect that it could be a
potential civil rights violation,'' said Daly, in charge of FBI
operations in North Carolina.
``He had a real good chance (to be elected) ...,'' said the Rev.
Elbert Chavis. ``I don't think he had any enemies. He was a fine
man. He would have been elected. All we want now is a thorough
investigation.''
At midafternoon, the body was still in the house, in a rural
area about 15 miles from Lumberton, as forensic experts combed the
scene. The body was later transferred to a hospital morgue in
Lumberton and officials said it would be transferred to the state
medical examiner's office in Chapel Hill on Sunday for autopsy.
Robeson County, bordering South Carolina in the southeast corner
of North Carolina, is the home of The Robesonian newspaper, where
two Lumbee Indians were charged with holding the staff hostage Feb.
1. The men charged with hostage-taking, Eddie Hatcher and Tim
Jacobs, said they wanted to call attention to racial injustice and
corruption in the county.
A letter written by Hatcher before the hostage incident
criticized The Robesonian's coverage of Pierce's announcement for
the judgeship. The letter, which was published in the weekly
Carolina Indian Voice newspaper in January, said Pierce's story
didn't receive as prominent display as did Britt's announcement.
But Robesonian Editor Bob Horne said both candidates received
front-page display with a photograph.
The protesters also cited the death of a black jail inmate in
January and the shooting death of an unarmed Indian in November
1986. The Indian was shot by Deputy Kevin Stone, the sheriff's son,
in an incident that a coroner's jury later ruled to be an
``accident and-or self-defense.''
Robeson County's population of 100,000 is 37 percent white, 37
percent Indian and 26 percent black. Blacks and Indians long have
alleged racism and corruption in the local criminal justice system.
Britt, who is known for the number of death-penalty verdicts he
has won, has been a frequent target of the complaints.
``I was shocked and dismayed by the death of Mr. Pierce,'' Britt
said in a statement released to the Robesonian on Saturday. ``His
murder was so senseless and violent. It is very sad and tragic, and
I extend my personal condolences to his family and friends.''
He declined further comment to the newspaper, and there was no
answer when telephone calls were placed to his home Saturday
evening.
Saturday evening, about 100 people gathered at an elementary
school outside Lumberton for a meeting called by various local
officials and clergymen in an effort to calm citizens' feelings.
The meeting, closed to the press, broke up quietly after about 2{
hours.
Jack Morgan, a county commissioner, said he asked for the
community to remain calm and let justice take its course. He said
participants suggested that the county commission ask the state
attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor in the case, and
vowed to bring such a proposal to the county group Monday.
Because of the meeting, he said, ``I feel a little better about
what they will do in their communities tomorrow.''
Earlier, a crowd of about 60 people, mostly Lumbee Indians,
stood outside Pierce's one-story brick ranch house. Many said they
believed the slaying was politically motivated and that they didn't
have much faith that the sheriff's department would investigate the
killing adequately.
Morgan said, ``I'm sure that there are those who share that
feeling, but if they don't trust the county, the SBI and the FBI, I
don't know who else we can turn to.''
<NEW DOCUMENT>
An armored truck was hijacked on a street Friday
by a gun-toting duo who made off with more than $1.2 million,
police said.
Officer Joe Gallagher said the robbery occurred at 8:20 a.m. in
Brooklyn. Two employees of Rapid Armor stopped for breakfast and
left a third employee, Robert Molinelli, in the back of the truck.
Gallagher said a man carrying a gun entered the back of the
truck by unknown means and handcuffed Molinelli. Another man got
into the truck and drove away.
At an intersection, witnesses said, the men fled in a white van,
taking two canvas bags containing $1,235,177 in cash. They left
behind $50,000 in cash and coins, said Sgt. Peter Sweeney.
Molinelli was uninjured, police said.
A secretary who answered the phone at Rapid Armor said the
company had no comment.

<NEW DOCUMENT>
Ballots to more than 4,400 voting members of
the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will be mailed this
weekend, Academy President Robert E. Wise said Friday.
The returned ballots will determine Academy Award winners in 23
motion picture categories.
The ballots must be received by Price Waterhouse and Co., an
international auditing firm, no later than 5 p.m. April 5, Wise
said.
Price Waterhouse officials will tabulate the ballots and place
the winners' names in sealed envelopes. Those envelopes are opened
April 11 during the 60th annual Academy Awards presentation at the
Shrine Civic Auditorium.
That show will be televised by ABC.
Georgia prison sentences.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
A 17-year-old was arrested Friday for allegedly
burning a 3-foot cross and smearing racial ephitets on the house
and car of a black woman who moved into a mostly white neighborhood
three weeks ago, police said.
The suspect, charged as a juvenile, was arrested by an officer
who saw him walking near the neighborhood where incidents were
committed, said Lt. Larry Leeson.
Leeson said officers investigating the burning of a 3-foot cross
Friday also found ``KKK'' painted in shaving cream on the
windshield of a car owned by Carrie Venable, 50.
Police found similar writings on a cardboard sign on the porch
of Ms. Venable's house, Leeson said. Ms. Venable told police she
had also had a car tire slashed and a license plate stolen.
Ms. Venable said she has no plans to move. ``I'm not going
anywhere. I'm here to stay so they might as well get used to it,''
she said.
In Rome, Ga., on Friday, U.S. District Judge Robert L. Vining
sentenced four men to six months in prison for burning a cross in
the yard of a black family in an Atlanta suburb.
The four pleaded guilty in January to felony charges of
conspiring to violate the family's civil rights.
Alan Tieger, an attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice's
Civil Rights Division, said the four were members of a loose-knit
group called the ``Liberty Heights Klan,'' intent on keeping blacks
out of the Liberty Heights neighborhood in Doraville.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
The Soviet Union has purchased an additional
475,000 metric tons of federally subsidized wheat for delivery in
May, the Agriculture Department said Friday.
The Foreign Agriculture Service said the Commodity Credit Corp.
had agreed to pay in-kind bonuses to five grain exporters at an
average value of $21.95 a ton.
The subsidy payments were being made under the Export
Enhancement Program, which provides grain companies and others with
government-owned crops as bonuses to stimulate overseas sales of
American commodities.
Since last April, total subsidized sales of wheat to the Soviets
have totaled amore than 10.8 million tons.
The Foreign Agricultural Service identified those receiving the
bonuses and the amounts of grain involved as Garnac Grain Company
Inc., 50,000 tons; Richco Grain Ltd., 200,000 tons; Mitsubishi
International Corp., 25,000 tons; Artfer Inc., 50,000 tons; and
Louis Dreyfus Corp., 150,000 tons.
The sales left 525,000 tons still remaining for the Soviets to
purchase under a 2 million ton offer made by the United States on
Jan. 29.
The United States also made the Soviets an additional 1 million
ton offer on Saturday.
The two countries are preparing to negotiate a new long-term
grain agreement to replace the one that expires Sept. 30.
It calls for the Soviets to buy 9 million metric tons a year, of
which 4 million must be wheat and 4 million corn. The rest may be
purchased in wheat, corn, soybeans or soybean meal, with every ton
of beans or meal counting as two tons of grain.
Wheat sales to the Soviets slumped badly in 1986 despite the
agreement but picked up against last year as the United States gave
that country the green light for purchases under the subsidy
program.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Cattle producers and cattle and beef importers
will vote in a referendum in May to determine if their current
promotional program will continue, the Agriculture Department
announced Friday.
Anyone who produces cattle or has imported beef or beef products
since Oct. 1, 1986 will be eligible to vote. A simple majority of
votes will determine whether to continue the promotions, which have
included television spots by actor James Garner and actress Cybill
Shepherd.
``Real food for real people'' has been the slogan of the
commercials.
The referendum will take place on May 10 in all states except
West Virginia, where the voting will be one day earlier.
Extension Service offices will distribute ballots in April and
absentee ballots will be available from them by mail.
The program is funded by a fee of $1 per head on all domestic
and imported cattle and an equivalent fee on beef imports. It was
established under federal legislation approved in 1985.
UPDATE update with demonstration by Angela Davis and others.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
City health officials are ready to begin
clinical trials on drugs to treat AIDS victims but are prevented by
cumbersome federal policies, the city's chief health officer told a
presidential commission on Friday.
``We could do community trials; we'd be happy to. We could get
clinical trials with controls going tomorrow,'' Dr. David Werdegar,
director of the city's Health Department told members of the
Presidential Commission on the Human Immunodeficiency Virus
Epidemic.
Large-scale clinical trials that could begin at San Francisco
General Hospital, community hospitals and the University of
California Health Science Center are prevented by a national
cooperative drug trial policy Werdegar called ``lead-footed.''
The national policy is ``unduly long and cumbersome,'' said
Werdegar, who estimated the city's 4,514 AIDS patients will
increase to as many as 18,000 by 1993.
``As our own projections show only too well, time is of the
essence,'' he said.
Former Mayor Dianne Feinstein, who also testified during the
second day of the commission's three-day stay in San Francisco,
urged the panel to eliminate the use of placebo-controlled trials
in patients with AIDS where possible.
``Science protocols must not be used to deprive individuals with
these fatal conditions of possible relief from suffering,''
Feinstein told the seven commissioners.
She also called for national civil rights legislation barring
discrimination in housing, jobs, medical care and insurance
coverage against people with AIDS.
Despite local ordinances, AIDS patients are still summarily
fired from jobs, evicted from apartments and denied insurance when
people learn of their conditions, said Feinstein, who left office
in January.
Cities such as San Francisco, which has spent $50 million since
1981 to fight AIDS _ more per capita than any other city in the
nation _ will not be able to keep pace with the epidemic unless
federal grants to cities increase, Feinstein said.
Meanwhile, several blocks away at United Nations Plaza,
demonstrators including Angela Davis joined supporters of the
city's AIDS-ARC vigil who chained themselves briefly to the doors
of the old Federal Building in a protest against President Reagan's
response to AIDS.
``The money that should be used toward an extensive system of
education around AIDS and toward development of a national health
plan for every single person is going into the war machine,'' said
Davis, a member of the Communist Party of the USA, which helped
organize the demonstration.
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome is caused by a virus that
damages the body's immune system, leaving victims susceptible to
infections and cancer. It is spread most often through sexual
contact, needles or syringes shared by drug abusers, infected blood
or blood products, and from pregnant women to their offspring.
As of Monday, 57,024 cases had been reported to the U.S. Centers
for Disease Control. Of those, 31,836 people have died.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
A museum security guard pleaded guilty Friday
to kidnapping a 2-day-old boy from his mother's hospital room, then
pretending for four months the child was hers.
Dorothy Jean Brown, 44, of Riesterstown, Md., could receive up
to life in prison at sentencing May 13 in U.S. District Court.
Ms. Brown answered ``yes'' and ``no'' to Judge Frederic N.
Smalkin's questions in a barely audible voice as she admitted
taking Kendol Kernes from a bassinet at Johns Hopkins Hospital on
June 18 while his mother, Patricia Nixon, slept.
A government statement of facts, to which the defendant agreed
in pleading guilty to kidnapping, said that police in mid-October
received an anonymous tip that she had a 4-month-old baby but had
not been pregnant.
Ms. Brown, a guard at the Baltimore Museum of Art for 14 years,
told police that she had delivered the child in Baltimore on June
18. She identified him as Tony Gilmore Jr., named for her
boyfriend, the statement said.
Police could not find any birth or hospital records to back up
her account. Confronted with that information, Ms. Brown told a
detective her twin sister had delivered the baby in Ms. Brown's
home, the statement said.
Ms. Brown later fled with the child to Philadelphia, where she
was arrested Oct. 30. The baby was returned safely to his mother.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
A woman has sued Continental Airlines for
detaining her at Dulles International Airport after she doodled on
her food tray.
Nita Brasch of Dumfries filed the $150,000 suit Thursday in
state court, claiming the airline falsely imprisoned her and
humiliated her when she and her son returned from Boston last year.
Mrs. Brasch said the jet landed in a snowstorm and passengers
had to wait aboard three hours. Frustrated, she drew on the airline
food tray a cartoon of someone trapped in a plane, she said.
Though her son offered to wash the tray, Mrs. Brasch said, she
was arrested and charged with defacing an aircraft. A U.S. District
Court judge dismissed the charge, but she had to pay attorney fees,
the lawsuit says.
Continental spokesman Ned Walker in Houston said the company had
no comment because it had not been served with the suit.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
A contract dispute left more than half
the school district's 1,200 teachers speechless, but they taught
nonetheless.
The teachers proclaimed Thursday a ``day of silent protest,''
during which they would not speak while school was in session.
They wrote assignments on blackboards or on overhead projectors
and answered questions from students with nods, gestures and notes.
``They had some clever things,'' said Stu Reeder, principal of
La Puente High School. ``Some teachers made signs that would say,
`Please be quiet,' `No, you can't go to the restroom,' or `You're
goofing off. Get back to work.'''
``It's kind of funny, actually,'' said Dana Watanabe, 16, a
junior at Los Altos High School in Hacienda Heights, 20 miles east
of Los Angeles.
``They all gave us tests and a lot of people saw movies. ... I
think it's better than having them go on strike or something.''
Teachers in the Hacienda-La Puenta Unified School district,
which serves 22,000 students in La Puente, Hacienda Heights,
Valinda and parts of the City of Industry, have been working
without a contract since August
They are seeking a 12 percent raise over the next two years,
while the district's top offer has been 3 percent. Starting salary
is $20,265.
``I thought the teachers handled their action satisfactorily,''
said John Clonts, assistant district superintendent. ``From what I
saw, it didn't seem to have any adverse effects on the students.''
Union officials estimated that between 80 percent and 85 percent
of the district's teachers kept their vows of silence, while
district officials estimated participation at between 50 percent
and 75 percent.
The next negotiating session is scheduled for April 8.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Larry Dobbs thought some denture adhesive
was all he needed to get out of jail, but he's still stuck behind
bars.
Dobbs, 39, ate a tube of Poli-Grip _ container and all _ about
six hours after being booked into the Delaware County Jail on
Thursday.
Sgt. Richard Pickett said Friday he wasn't surprised. During
previous stays, the jail commander said, Dobbs ate a soda bottle
and a light bulb.
``We were just waiting to see what it was going to be this
time,'' Pickett said. ``He just wants out of jail.''
Dobbs, who was returned to Indiana from Florida to face a charge
of driving while intoxicated, was treated at a hospital and
transferred to the Indiana Reformatory at Pendleton, where he can
be watched more closely, Pickett said.
Dobbs also is awaiting trial on charges including forgery, theft
and criminal conversion, the officer said.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
A student who had threatened to burn a
puppy to draw attention to U.S. policy in Centra America pleaded
innocent Friday to carrying a knife.
David Read, 26, was released on his signature after arraignment
on a charge of carrying a concealed weapon, said Dane County Deputy
District Attorney Steve Tinker.
Police who arrested Read on Thursday on a warrant issued in July
for non-payment of a fine found a seven-inch dagger in his pocket,
Officer Maryanne Thurber said. ``He said he was afraid for his
safety,'' she said.
Earlier this week, enraged people across the nation had called
humane societies, radio stations and police to denounce the
University of Wisconsin-Madison student's announced plans to burn a
puppy to demonstrate the brutality of war.
The warrant was issued after Read failed to pay a fine from a
1985 disorderly conduct charge, said Jeanine Hayes, a Sheriff's
Department clerk. Officers knew Read because of attention resulting
from the puppy threat, Thurber said.
Read said Thursday he never really intended to burn a puppy, but
had made earlier this week to focus public attention on war in
Central America.
``People panicked to save the life of one mythical puppy while
thousands were dying,'' he said.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
The U.N.-sponsored Afghanistan peace talks went
into weekend recess on an upbeat note Friday after word came that
the superpowers were softening their positions on key issues.
The Soviet Union was said to have dropped its objections to a
Pakistani proposal to let U.N. mediator Diego Cordovez play a role
in getting the process under way of forming a transitional Afghan
government.
The United States signaled new flexibility in trying to resolve
a second major problem concerning future military aid to parties in
the 8-year-old Afghanistan war.
A Western source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said
Cordovez asked both Washington and Moscow to assign high-ranking
officials to a new search for a compromise in the aid issue. There
was speculation he wanted the co-chairmen of a special U.S.-Soviet
working group to concentrate on the problem.
That working group was set up at the Washington meeting between
Secretary of State George Shultz and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard
Shevardnadze this week. They named Michael Armacost, U.S.
undersecretary of state for political affairs, and Anatoly
Adamishin, a Soviet vice foreign minister, as co-chairmen.
Cordovez told reporters negotiations will resume Monday.
He met with both the Pakistani and Afghan delegations after a
senior U.S. official said in Washington that the interim government
issue was now ``swiftly soluble.'' The official, speaking on
condition of anonymity, said Thursday that Moscow indicated support
for having Cordovez act in a personal capacity to promote an
infra-Afghan dialogue.
Pakistan argues that only such a government, replacing the
Soviet-backed one headed by President Najib, could oversee
implementation of a peace settlement and ensure the safe return of
more than 5 million Afghan refugees.
Moscow and its Kabul allies maintained that the question of
Afghanistan's future government was not a subject of Geneva talks
and any attempt to link its formation with the settlement would be
interfering with Afghanistan's internal affairs.
Last week, the chief Pakistani negotiator, acting Foreign
Minister Zain Noorani, indicated a modified position. He told
journalists Pakistan wants signing of a settlement accompanied by
an ``all-round commitment to the principle of forming'' such a
government. Cordovez might subsequently convene a meeting between
the Afghan factions.
Originally, according to a Pakistani source, this was also
vetoed by Moscow.
The first indication that Moscow had dropped its objections came
at Shultz's Wednesday news conference. He said the United States
welcomes ``the development through which Mr. Cordovez will, in a
personal capacity, be ready to serve as mediator among the
contending parties.''
Shultz in turn seemed to be taking a more flexible stance on
Washington's demand that Soviet military aid to the Kabul
government cease at the same time as U.S. aid to the Islamic,
anti-Marxist guerrillas fighting it. The Soviets said that amounted
to interfering with relations between two sovereign states bound by
international treaties.
Shultz suggested in Washington that both sides agree at least on
a temporary freeze on arms assistance ``or on something close to
it.'' He said this would ensure stable conditions during the
projected withdrawal of the estimated 115,000 Soviet troops from
Afghanistan.
The secretary said the Soviets ``did not feel they could agree
to that,'' but he made plain his hope that Moscow would have second
thoughts, saying the U.S. proposal remains on the table.
Special Soviet envoy Nikolay Kozyrev called on Cordovez Friday,
feeding rumors that there was movement in what the senior U.S.
official in Washington termed the ``only unresolved issue.''
arrangements.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Rep. James Howard of New Jersey, the
influential chairman of the House Public Works and Transportation
Committee, died Friday, a day after suffering a heart attack while
playing golf. He was 60.
``It was very peaceful and he experienced no pain,'' his
daughter, Marie Howard, said in a statement.
Howard, a Democratic member of the House for 22 years, collapsed
Thursday on a suburban Maryland golf course. Doctors at Montgomery
General Hospital in Olney, Md., labored for nearly two hours to get
the lawmaker breathing on his own. He was then rushed by helicopter
to the cardiac unit at Washington Hospital Center.
He never regained consciousness. A statement issued by his
office said Howard died of complications from the heart attack, his
third.
Funeral Services were scheduled for Tuesday at St. Catharine's
Roman Catholic Church in Spring Lake, N.J.
Reaction to Howard's death was quick.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., said, ``Jim always said he was
inspired by President Kennedy to enter public service, and was one
of the most effective and loyal supporters that John and Robert
Kennedy and I ever had.''
House Speaker Jim Wright, D-Texas, said of Howard: ``He worked
hard, played hard, loved his family, his state and his country with
a burning intensity.''
Reps. Glenn Anderson, D-Calif., and John Paul Hammerschmidt,
R-Ark., the two ranking members on the Public Works panel, issued a
joint statement saying, ``No person ever has done more to build
this nation's backbone, its highway and public transit network, its
dams and sewage treatment plants, its airports and its buildings.''
Transportation Secretary James Burnley said in a statement, ``He
was a knowledgeable and effective lawmaker who was, above all, a
dedicated public servant.''
Howard was known among colleagues as one of the House's toughest
horse traders. He was an aggressive and agile lawmaker who wielded
his considerable clout in an old-fashioned, behind-the-scenes way.
He was instrumental in passage of the Clean Air and Clean Water
acts, and fought to end ocean pollution and to protect his largely
coastal New Jersey district from the ravages of erosion.
When stricken on Thursday, Howard was in the company of one of
the literally hundreds of lobbyists seeking to curry favor with his
influential committee.
The Spring Lake Heights, N.J., Democrat was an avid golfer. He
had a fondness for cigarettes and coffee.
Howard excelled at eyeball-to-eyeball negotiations with other
members, using his clout to make deals, or to push his position.
Despite his power, Howard has sometimes held a tentative grip on
his seat. During the Reagan landslide of 1980, he won re-election
by a margin of only about 2,000 votes over his GOP challenger.
The committee which he headed since 1981 was one of Congress'
least glamorous, but most powerful. The panel has jurisdiction over
multibillion dollar highway and water projects, as well as the
airline and trucking industries.
Howard was criticized for traveling and being entertained on the
expense accounts of groups seeking his influence. He was also one
of the largest recipients in the House of business-related campaign
contributions.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
British journalist Alec Collett's fate
was still a mystery Friday, the third anniversary of his kidnapping
in Beirut by terrorists who have claimed they killed him in 1986.
Collett worked for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency,
or UNWRA, which marked the third year of his abduction with an
appeal for his release.
``We call on those who unjustifiably kidnapped the innocent Alec
Collett to let him return to his family immediately,'' said Per
Olof Hallqvist, UNRWA's director in Lebanon, ignoring the report of
his death.
Collett, 66, a New York-based journalist, was abducted March 25,
1985 while on a writing assignment for the U.N. agency.
The Revolutionary Organization of Socialist Moslems said its
members kidnapped Collett. It demanded the release of three Arab
guerrillas jailed in Britain in connection with the June 1982
attempt to kill Shlomo Argov, Israel's ambassador to London.
The group claimed it hanged Collett on April 23, 1986, to avenge
British support of U.S. air raids on Libya. Some of the American
fighter-bombers that attacked Tripoli and Benghazi on April 15,
1986, flew from bases in Britain.
President Reagan ordered the raids, accusing Libyan leader Col.
Moammar Ghadafi of supporting international terrorism.
After announcing Collett had been killed, the organization
released a video tape purporting to show Collett's body hanging
from a gallows. Those who viewed the 4-minute tape said the victim
resembled UNWRA photographs of Collett.
But Collett's colleages said they could not be certain the
hanged man was the missing journalist.
Twenty-two foreigners, including Collett, are still listed as
missing after being kidnapped in Lebanon. Among them are nine
Americans.
Terry Anderson, 40, chief Middle East correspondent for The
Associated Press, has been held the longest. He was kidnapped in
west Beirut on March 16, 1985.
At the United Nations in New York on Friday, officials and
journalists marked the anniversary of Collett's abduction with a
vigil.
``It pains me deeply to acknowledge that another year has
passed,'' said U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar.
``Despite my frustration at the complete lack of information, we
continue to pursue every outlet of information.''
Collett's wife, Elaine, told the group at the U.N.
Correspondents Association Club ``the call I received three years
ago remains a nightmare today.''
``I want to know the whereabouts of my husband. The reality is
harsh, and despite rumors circulating that he is alive, which
confirms my gut reaction, there are no assurances to verify them.''
Roy Murphy, president of the Foreign Press Association, said in
a statement addressed to the kidnappers: ``Alec Collett is not an
oppressor _ he was working on behalf of the dispossessed and
homeless when he was taken.
``Claiming to execute Alec Collett in retaliation for the U.S.
bombing of Libya is pointless _ he is a British citizen working for
an international agency.''
``If Alec Collett is alive, you can gain sympathy and goodwill
for your cause by releasing him, now,'' the statement said. ``If he
is dead, you can still gain by revealing where he is buried. By
staying silent, you gain nothing but the revulsion and contempt of
all.''
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Four applications to build a bullet
train linking Miami, Orlando and Tampa were submitted Friday,
bringing Florida a step closer to a spage-age, high-speed passenger
rail system between its top tourist spots.
The applications are to be revealed Monday by Gov. Bob Martinez
and legislative leaders.
After a year's review, the state's High Speed Rail Commission
expects to narrow the list to three semifinalists and award the
franchise in 1991. Planners hope to have the trains running by
1995, Florida's 150th birthday.
``This is a major milestone in this project,'' said Diana Hull,
commission spokeswoman. ``Today's deadline will put us one large
step along toward putting high-speed rail in Florida.''
The 300-mile, multibillion-dollar project will link Miami with
Tampa, on the Gulf Coast, and Orlando, in central Florida, but the
applicants will determine precise routes, financing agreements and
which technology to use.
The train, which is still being developed, is expected to travel
at average speed of 250 mph.
Amtrak provides passenger service between Miami and the Orlando
area, about 250 miles apart, but there is no rail service
connecting Tampa to either city. Tampa is about 85 miles from
Orlando.
The team that wins the franchise will be allowed to develop
property for rail stations and connecting attractions, a financing
plan that mirrors one used by industrialist Henry Flagler when he
built a rail line nearly 100 years ago down Florida's Atlantic
Coast and eventually to Key West.
In theory, the plan will allow the franchise holder to recoup
its $2 billion to $5 billion in startup costs, while fares will
support operation and maintenance. The idea has been in the
planning for six years.
The comission will balance financial arrangements, environmental
concerns, growth patterns and technologies, select the best overall
plan _ or reject all of them _ and make a recommendation to the
governor and Cabinet.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
A white-supremacist
paramilitary group was denied permission for an outdoor rally
Friday, so the members met in a town hall where their leader
delivered a fiery denunciation of the government.
A magistrate banned the outdoor meeting under security
legislation white authorities usually apply to black organizations.
The move followed a Cabinet minister's statement that the extremist
white group should stop ``intimidatory actions.''
The Afrikaner Resistance Movement, whose members wear
swastika-like emblems and carry guns at public appearances, said it
had expected 4,000 supporters at a stadium in Randfontein, about 20
miles west of Johannesburg. Hundreds of members packed the town
hall in nearby Krugersdrop.
Eugene TerreBlanche, the group's leader, condemned President
P.W. Botha's government for subjecting his group to the same
restrictions applied to black anti-apartheid groups.
He said the Afrikaner Resistance was being treated like the
outlawed African National Congress, the black guerrilla movement
seeking to end rule by South Africa's white minority.
Under the state of emergency in effect since June 12, 1986,
outdoor rallies are illegal unless approved by a magistrate or by
Adriaan Vlok, the law and order minister.
The government has been criticized for restricting black
gatherings, even funerals or meetings in churches, while allowing
TerreBlanche's group to hold rallies for racial division and armed
resistance to any political power for blacks.
Botha's National Party has tried to discredit the Conservative
Party, the main opposition, by emphasizing its links with the
Afrikaner Resistance, but white voters chose Conservatives in two
parliamentary by-elections March 2 and are expected to do so in
another at Randfontein next week.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
About 35 Kurdish exiles protesting the alleged use
of chemical weapons by Iraq burst into the London office of Air
France on Friday and threatened to set themselves on fire, police
said.
The protest, on New Bond Street in central London, ended
peacefully after 3{ hours. There were no reports of injury or
arrest.
It was the third sit-in demonstration in London this week by the
group, which calls itself Kurdish Organizations in the United
Kingdom.
Group spokesman Kurdo Ali said the protesters want France to
intervene through the United Nations to halt the alleged use of
chemical weapons by Iraq against Kurdish border towns during the
6{-year-old Iran-Iraq war.
He said France is the main supplier of weapons to Iraq and
added: ``We would not be suprised that components of chemical
weapons have been supplied by France.''
Police said protesters threatened to douse themselves with
gasoline and set their clothes afire. But they left the building
peacefully after speaking with a representative of the French
Embassy. Kurdo said French Ambassador Luc de La Barre agreed to
meet with the group Monday to discuss their grievances.
Earlier, the embassy said in a statement: ``We deny sending any
kind of component for chemical weapons to Iraq. It is of great
concern to us, the use of chemical weapons in the Iran-Iraq war,
and we condemn these practices.''
On Wednesday in London, about 40 Kurdish demonstrators occupied
British Red Cross headquarters and 20 Kurdish students occupied
Arab League headquarters.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Prosecutors probing accusations of
widespread government corruption said Friday that they are
examining secret bank accounts belonging to the brother of former
President Chun Doo-hwan.
Hundreds of students at three universities staged
anti-government rallies, with many protesting the alleged
corruption. Violent clashes broke out as students hurled rocks and
firebombs and fought with riot police.
Prosecutor-General Lee Chong-nam said investigators have located
secret bank accounts used by Chun's younger brother, Chun
Kyung-hwan. Lee said the younger Chun would be questioned soon
about whether he misappropriated funds of the semi-official Saemaul
development movement he once headed.
Prosecutor Kang Won-il said officials had seized secret ledgers
showing how Chun Kyung-hwan and other top Saemaul officials had
diverted funds.
The ongoing investigation now centers on charges the younger
Chun embezzled $8 million under a false name to invest in stocks,
Kang said.
``Considerable progress has been made in the prosecution
investigation on Chun's alleged embezzlement and receiving of money
through influence peddling,'' Kang said.
A probe into the activities of Saemaul movement has revealed
widespread corruption, embezzlement and influence peddling.
Officials believe huge sums of money, land and other property were
embezzled.
The Saemaul movement was set up in 1971 to organize rural and
urban development and modernization. Saemaul means ``New
Community.''
About 200 Saemaul and government officials have been questioned
about diverting funds, selling influence, extorting donations and
other crimes, according to the prosecutor-general's office.
Prosecutors are investigating charges government officials were
involved in corruption or helped to cover it up to protect
President Chun and his family.
The younger Chun, who was named to head Saemaul while his
brother was president, resigned in 1987 after being linked to
gangsters. He tried to flee to Japan last week, but returned Sunday
to face questioning.
President Roh Tae-woo, who took over from the elder Chun on Feb.
25, promised before he was elected in December that his
administration would put an end to high-level corruption.
In Seoul, riot police firing tear gas thwarted an
anti-government and anti-U.S. demonstration by about 300 radical
students who tried to march out of Yonsei University.
The Korean news agency Yonhap said about 1,000 students clashed
with riot police firing tear gas at two separate universities in
Kwangju.
Kwangju was the scene of a bloody nine-day anti-government
insurrection in 1980. At least 191 people were killed and more than
800 others injured in the uprising, the worst in modern South
Korean history.

Howard; AMs separate moved as a0691 on Joffrey.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Robert Joffrey, dancer-choreographer who guided
his Joffrey Ballet from an itinerant troupe in a station wagon to
international acclaim, died Friday. He was 57.
The Joffrey Ballet now ranks with the New York City Ballet and
American Ballet Theater as one of America's big three ballet
companies, but it began in 1956 when Joffrey borrowed a station
wagon to tour the United States with his fledgling troupe.
Within 10 years of its 22-city auto tour, the Joffrey Ballet had
performed throughout the Far East, in the Soviet Union and at the
White House. Joffrey built by far the most far-ranging repertory.
He brought into the company ballets of strong classical base and
flowing quality by the British Royal Ballet's Frederick Ashton; the
1932 stylized anti-war masterpiece, ``The Green Table,'' by Kurt
Jooss; a group of ballets created for Serge Diaghilev; John
Cranko's full-length ``Romeo and Juliet,'' and dances by American
choreographers from Agnes de Mille to the avant garde.
Joffrey own ballets include ``The Nutcracker'' in 1987 and his
striking 1967 ``Astarte,'' in which a couple dance in front of a
billowing white silk curtain on which a movie of them dancing is
projected.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Durwood Manford, former speaker of the
Texas House of Representatives and member of the State Board of
Insurance for 22 years, died Thursday at age 71.
Manford was first elected to the House in 1940 at the age of 23
and served five terms. He served as speaker for one term, which
included the 51st Legislature in 1949. That Legislature was the
longest continuous session in state history _ 177 days.
Manford served as chairman of the State Board for Texas State
Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation, on the
Industrial Accident Board, and as a member of the Board of Water
Engineers, 1957-61. In 1961, Gov. Price Daniel appointed him to the
State Board of Insurance, where he served until 1983.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
James Howard, a New Jersey State
representative, died Thursday of a heart attack. He was 60
Howard gained his congressional seat on the coattails of
President Johnson's 1964 victory. During the Reagan landslide of
1980, he retained his seat by a margin of only about 2,000 votes
over his GOP challenger. In 1986, Howard won re-election with 59
percent of the vote in a largely Republican district.
He had been chairman of the Public Works Committee since 1981.
The panel considers multibillion-dollar highway and water projects.
Cancer</HEAD>
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Seven-year-old Brooke Ward, cancer-free after
receiving the first bone marrow transplant arranged through a
computerized donor registry, wrinkled her nose at TV cameras Friday
and left no doubt where she'd rather be.
``Home,'' the little girl from Raleigh, N.C., said from behind a
baby-blue face mask during her one-word news conference. She and
her mother fly home Saturday after four months' treatment in
Seattle.
``We're very excited about it,'' Margurite Ward said as she held
an occasionally fussy Brooke. ``Back at Christmas time we didn't
even think we'd probably reach this day.''
Mrs. Ward said there had been little hope for her daughter, who
had acute lymphocytic leukemia when she arrived at Fred Hutchinson
Cancer Research Center on Dec. 2.
The Wards had been told the odds of finding a bone-marrow donor
outside the family were one in 15,000.
However, the new computerized National Bone Barrow Donor
Registry, based in Minneapolis, located Diane Walters of Milwaukee,
whose marrow matched Brooke's. The transplant was performed Dec. 15.
Christmas week was especially difficult, as Brooke's body tried
to rid itself of the new, foreign marrow.
She left the hospital as an outpatient Jan. 29, staying in the
Seattle area with her mother, and they returned on Friday to thank
doctors before leaving for home.
Dr. William Bensinger said there was no evidence of leukemia in
Brooke's body. ``I think the outlook for her is favorable,'' he
said.
Dr. Pat Beatty, director of the bone marrow registry at Fred
Hutchinson, said three similar transplants had been performed at
the cancer center since Brooke's operation, and five more were
scheduled.
About $118,000 in donations have been raised to help Brooke's
bills. The operation costs about $100,000.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Overheated wiring is believed to have caused a
fatal fire Feb. 20 aboard a passenger train in Nebraska, an Amtrak
spokeswoman said Friday.
``This is a preliminary determination, and the official cause of
the fire will be announced at the appropriate time by the National
Transportation Safety Board,'' said the spokeswoman, Debbie
Marciniak.
The fire broke out in a crew car on Amtrak's California Zephyr
as the Chicago-bound train was pulling into Hastings, Neb., 150
miles west of Omaha.
A crew member died of smoke inhalation. Nineteen other crew
members, passengers, police and firefighters were treated at
hospitals for smoke inhalation.
Ms. Marciniak said the burned car was inspected March 1 by a
private fire investigator and by representatives of the Federal
Railroad Administration, the NTSB, the Nebraska Fire Marshal's
office, Amtrak and one of its unions.
Preliminary reports show the fire originated in wiring in the
wall behind a heater in the luggage compartment of the crew car,
she said.
``Rubber insulation became separated from the wiring because of
extensive tightening of the plastic straps that were used to bundle
the wires. Overheating was caused by the reduced insulation,'' Ms.
Marciniak said.
``The plastic straps began to melt due to the extreme heat,
dripping burning globs of plastic on the wooden floor, causing the
floor to catch fire. Then the flames proceeded into the body of the
car.''
Ms. Marciniak said Amtrak already has taken steps to prevent a
recurrence.
``We've disconnected power-source wiring on cars of this type,''
she said. ``We are adding a stainless steel plating to the floors
to prevent fire from spreading.''
There were no smoke detectors on the train, but because of the
fire, Amtrak began installing them in all crew cars and is
considering using them in passenger sleepers.
NTSB spokesmen in Chicago did not return a telephone call Friday
evening.
number killed to 12, not 11; picks up 8th graf pvs, The meeting ..
. SUBBING 13th graf pvs, British news ... to UPDATE with scheduled
arraignments. Picks up 14th graf pvs, A private ....
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Britain's Cabinet officer for Northern Ireland
said Friday he is exploring a new political structure for the
province in an effort to bring peace, possibly based on power
sharing between Protestants and Catholics.
Tom King, the Northern Ireland secretary, gave no details but
said he would discuss the prospects Tuesday with the moderate
Social Democratic and Labor Party, which represents most of
Northern Ireland's Roman Catholic minority.
There was no immediate reaction. Previous attempts at sectarian
power sharing have collapsed under opposition from Protestants.
Britain governs Northern Ireland directly from London.
Protestant political leaders oppose any weakening of British
control over the province's affairs.
King spoke with reporters after hours of talks with Foreign
Minister Brian Lenihan of the Irish Republic that focused on
increasing security cooperation against a common threat, the
outlawed Irish Republican Army.
A joint statement said both governments condemned the increase
of violence Northern Ireland and urged both Protestants and
Catholics to repudiate those responsible.
``They appealed to both communities to repudiate those in their
midst who sought to promote the spiral of violence and to do all in
their power to bring this violence to an end,'' said the statement
issued by the Northern Ireland Office
The talks in a heavily guarded London office marked the first
full British-Irish government meeting since Oct. 21, King said.
Twelve people, including two British soldiers, have been killed
since March 6, when British commandos shot dead three unarmed IRA
guerrillas who allegedly were on a bombing mission in Gibraltar. At
the guerrillas' March 16 burial, a Protestant gunman killed three
people and wounded 68 at Belfast cemetery.
The meeting was called under the British-Irish Agreement of
November 1985, which gave the government of the overwhelmingly
Catholic Irish Republic a consultative say in the running of
Protestant-dominated Northern Ireland.
The ministers agreed to hold further meetings after Easter to
include social and economic issues.
Among the issues discussed Friday was Britain's decision to
abandon a short-lived policy of not attending IRA funerals
following the killing of two British soldiers who drove into an IRA
cortege in Catholic West Belfast on March 19.
Moderate Catholic leaders, including bishops, had advocated the
policy in the hope of avoiding clashes between police and mourners.
The soldiers were mobbed, beaten, stripped and then shot when they
drove into the funeral of one of the Milltown victims, an IRA man.
The Irish delegation ``stressed the continuing importance of
ensuring that these and other public occasions should be organized
in a sensitive manner,'' the statement said.
Belfast police said in a statement Friday that two men will
appear in Belfast Magistrates Court on Saturday to be formally
arraigned on charges of murdering the two British soldiers at an
IRA funeral in west Belfast on March 19. Police did not name the
two accused men.
A private family funeral was held Friday in the central England
county of Bedfordshire for one of the slain soldiers, Cpl. David
Howes. His colleague, Cpl. Derek Wood, was buried Thursday with
full military honors.
The violence erupted at an already low point in British-Irish
relations, chilled by a series of incidents beginning in January
when Britain announced it would not prosecute Northern Ireland
policemen for an alleged ``shoot-to-kill'' policy operated by the
mainly Protestant police force in 1982.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Federal police have arrested a number
of West Germans suspected of spying for communist countries,
security officials said Friday.
They were responding to a report in the newspaper Bild that said
eight ``high-karat'' agents, including government employees and
border policemen, were arrested in raids across West Germany
Thursday and Friday.
Security officials, speaking on condition they not be
identified, were asked about reports that up to 15 people were
arrested. One official told The Associated Press: ``That number is
too high. It is several, but less than 10.''
The officials said a doctor in the Aachen area was among those
arrested, but they did not identify him and would not give
additional details.
Hans-Juergen Foerster, a spokesman for the federal prosecutor's
office in Karlsruhe, refused comment. ``We will explain everything
on Monday,'' he said.
Bild said the raids may have been connected to last week's
arrest of Elke Falk, a secretary in the Federal Ministry for
Economic Cooperation in Bonn.
Ms. Falk is suspected of being a communist spy for years,
according to the prosecutors' office.
She worked in the West German chancellory from 1974 to 1977 and
later in several ministries.
She is being held in investigative custody and no charges have
been filed against her.
Officials have not said which communist country she allegedly
worked for.
In West Germany's last major espionage scandal, 15 communist
agents were arrested or disappeared between August and December
1985.
Among them was Hans-Joachim Tiedge, the chief counter-espionage
officer responsible for catching East German agents. He fled to
East Germany.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
A policeman who shot to death a teen-ager
carrying what turned out to be a pellet pistol was acquitted Friday
of involuntary manslaughter.
``This reassures me how fair the criminal justice system is,''
said Patrolman John Dolan Jr., 40. The 19-year veteran was charged
in the death of 16-year-old Marcus Norris, who was felled by a
shotgun blast Dec. 31.
Dolan said he shot Norris because the teen-ager pointed a pistol
at him that appeared to be real. Authorities said Norris had a
pellet pistol, a non-lethal gun that uses air pressure to fire
small projectiles.
Norris had been target shooting at cans shortly before he was
killed, authorities said.
Norris' death led City Council to pass an ordinance banning the
sale of toys that look like firearms. The shooting had also sparked
complaints that police are overly rough with blacks. Norris was
black; Dolan is white.
The jury of four blacks and eight whites deliberated for eight
hours over two days.
James Turner, the teen-ager's godfather, said of the acquittal:
``Here, there is no justice.''
Norris was killed at a motel his mother manages after Dolan was
summoned to check out a report of a man brandishing a pistol.
Norris' mother, Faye Black, testified along with a family friend
that her son had dropped the gun and raised his hands in surrender
before he was shot, but a passerby told the court the teen-ager
pointed the pistol at Dolan.
``It was a tragedy,'' Dolan said. ``I would give anything if it
hadn't happened, but it was totally beyond my control.''
Dolan's defense was financed by the Memphis Police Association,
and a half-dozen or more off-duty officers in uniform attended his
trial each day.
Ray Maples, president of the police association, said Dolan
acted properly. ``Anytime somebody points a gun at you after he's
been told to drop it and does not, your life is in danger,'' he
said.
Dolan, who has been assigned to desk work since the shooting,
said he looks forward to returning to patrol.
``I hope a situation like this never develops again, but on an
armed robbery-type call, I will do what I've been trained to do,''
he said.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Two young brothers were seriously
injured Friday by the explosion of a homemade grenade they found,
officials said.
They said the children, aged 7 and 8, were injured in the face,
throat, legs and arms when the grenade blew up in San Fernando, a
working-class suburb 12 miles north of Buenos Aires.
A third child playing with the brothers escaped injury,
firefighters reported.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
The Soviet Union has asked Portugal
about the possibility of dividing Angola into north and south,
sources close to the Angolan rebel movement UNITA said Friday.
They said Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze raised the
question with Portuguese officials during a four-hour visit to
Lisbon on Thursday. The sources, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, cited well-placed informants but would not elaborate.
Government officials could not be reached for comment Friday
evening.
Shevardnardze said after meeting with President Mario Soares,
Prime Minister Anibal Cavaco Silva and Foreign Minister Joao de
Deus Pinheiro that he felt Portugal could play an important role in
resolving the conflict in its former colony.
UNITA, supported by the United States and South Africa, has
fought Angola's Marxist government since independence in 1975 and
claims to control large areas in the south.
A Lisbon-based spokesman for UNITA, the National Union for the
Total Independence of Angola, denied reports that it proclaimed a
separate government in southern Angola.
He said that was a misintrepretation of a new system of
administering areas under rebel control, and UNITA opposes any
division of the country.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
A high school honor student driving
his mother's sports car plowed into a group of partying teen-agers
early Friday, killing one and leaving another brain dead, police
said. Five others were injured.
About 50 teen-agers had gathered at the end of dead-end road to
celebrate the first night of Santaluces High School's spring break,
and most scattered when they saw Eric Christopher Norstrom speeding
toward them, police said.
Norstrom, 16, lost control of the Mazda RX7 when he tried to
stop in front of the group, police said. Police estimated his speed
reached 85 mph before the 200-foot skid.
Amber Hunter, 16, died at the scene, police said. Charles Hamby,
an 18-year-old dropout, was declared brain dead at Bethesda
Memorial Hospital in Boca Raton, doctors said.
Four others were hospitalized in fair or stable condition, and
one was treated and released.
No charges were filed. Police said they were awaiting the
results of a blood-alcohol test on Norstrom.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
This pool report was written by Stewart Powell
of Hearst News Service.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
_
ABOARD THE USS SAMUEL B. ROBERTS IN THE PERSIAN GULF (AP) _ The
cherished traditions of seamen sailing wooden ships ``with a star
to steer her by'' are living in close quarters with technicolor
technology aboard the Navy's most modern warships.
The interplay is constant between past and present aboard
vessels such as this 445-foot frigate patrolling near the Strait of
Hormus as part of the U.S. mission to protect merchant vessels in
the Persian Gulf.
The sounds and practices of yesterday merge imperceptibly with
those of today, as the warship monitors the activities of Iranian
naval vessels and passes combatants of allied nations on station
near Abu Musa Island, a staging point for Iranian speed boat
attacks against international shipping.
Nostalgia has nothing to do with it. Binoculars, barometers and
paper navigation charts, every bit as much as the radar screen and
computer, play a critical role in keeping this $400 million guided
missile warship and her 202-member crew on the warrior's edge,
ready to fight with a handful of captain's commands.
No matter what the crisis, the familiar clang of the ship's
polished brass bell sets the rhythm of the day, calmly parceling
out the hours of day and night in half-hour increments. Eight bells
struck every four hours still marks the change of watch even though
the sound is now passed via ship intercom.
The shrill whistle of the boatswain's pipe echoes as well,
alerting the crew to an announcement of importance much as the pipe
once orchestrated the actions of yeomen high in the yardarms on
clippers rounding the Horn.
Technology has its place, to be sure, often hidden deep within
the ship where millions of dollars in sophisticated gear work
around the clock. One deck beneath the bridge, where lookouts
strain to spot ``contacts'' with binoculars and young mates polish
brass each morning, the amber, blue and green displays of a
computerized combat information center flicker and glow. The
command center, geared to ``fight the ship'' into the 21st century,
links the ship with ``eye-in-the sky'' surveillance aircraft that
track every ship and plane for hundreds of miles.
But ships like these, plowing through the best and worst nature
has to offer, hold on to what they know best, chary to relinquish
what has worked for generations.
Says Senior Chief Petty Officer George ``Jack'' Frost, the
senior enlisted man who has been in the navy for 20 of his 37
years: ``I don't think you can ever replace the seaman's eye no
matter how much technology you have. Instinct is still a man's best
defense.''
The systems that are ``up'' today, in the 20th century computer
slang, could be ``down'' tomorrow. SATNAV _ satellite navigation _
could be off a few crucial miles if the earth orbit has
deteriorated.
``I always tell my men that stars and planets never go down,''
observes the Roberts skipper, Cmdr. Paul X. Rinew, a
detail-oriented leader who prides himself on being ready for
anything. ``Venus is always there.''
``You can walk out on the bridgeway at night and it's like Times
Square,'' says the 40-year-old skipper, a native of the Bronx
borough of New York City. Celestial navigation ``was good enough to
get them (explorers) across the Atlantic, it's good enough for us.''
On this humid, hazy day, the ship frequently spurns radio
communications to use a 1000-watt, 12-inch signal lamp to blink out
messages in Morse code _ a method in use since before the Titanic.
Administrative messages, greetings to captain, words of praise _
all are blinked from one U.S. ship to another to keep secure radio
channels open for more important communications.
``I take pride in my rating, no doubt about that,'' explains
Petty Officer Charles Dumas, 30, of Newport, R.I., a signalmen
first class planning to re-enlist at sea next week after years in
the Navy. ``It's a good life, a signalman's life.''
Signalmen often exchange pleasantries of their own between
official messages. ``It's great to talk to other country's ships to
find out what's going on,'' says First Class Petty Officer Serge
Kingery, 40. ``It's the only place on the ship to be afforded that
opportunity, we can talk no matter what nation it is.''
Signal flags of yore are flung, as well, just as they did in
John Paul Jones' time. Each multicolored flag spells a letter for
messages, with certain single letter flags signals specific ships
actions.
Boatswain mates similarly carry forward the traditions of
forefathers on fore decks. Deck lines are wrapped and stowed neatly
within several feet of the missile launcher capable of remotely
firing harpoon anti-ship and standard anti-aircraft missilers at a
moment's notice.
Like the men before them, the bosun's mates scrub, chip paint,
handle the ship's small boats and use a ``monkey fist'' on a light
line to cast a rope over to an adjacent vessel to begin an underway
replenishment. The lead-centered woven rope ball has been used
almost as long as men have been at sea. The rating today attracts
much the same type of sailors it did before.
``I like working outside,'' says Jim Owens, 24, a bosun's mate
third class from Newport, R.I.
Now as then, the mates with idle time stage practical jokes on
newcomers to the ``Sammy B'' as she is affectionately known. A
favorite: ordering a rookie on board to the rail to keep an eye out
for the ``mail buoy'' _ a fictitious navigational buoy where
vessels supposedly pick up their mail bag.
``Sure, we keep 'em up there for a while,'' say Owens. ``'Course
a year later, he's doing the same to someone else.''
And for anyone thinking the tatoo has gone out of fashion in
this man's Navy, just ask Frost, 37 of Kingstown R.I.
``I would never let anyone put anything on me when I was
drunk,'' he says. ``I would at least want to know what was going
on.''
A star adorns his left hand. His wife's name, Dawn, wreathes his
wrist beneath his watch strap. The phrase ``American Navy'' in
Chinese characters adorns his shoulder, along with his outdated
service identification number _ all needled in to his ruddy,
freckled skin at Pinkies, a notorious tatoo parlor in Hong Kong.
The ship intercom announces the ``smoking lamp is lit,'' which
allows smoking by sailors who in previous generations used a
constantly lit ``smoking lamp'' to light cigarettes on wind-swept
ships.
And the ``dog watch'' now as then remains the watch that rotates
the starting hour for work details forward by several hours a week.
The phrase traces its origins either to the watch during the dog
hours of early morning, or ``dodging the watch.''
Like so much in the Navy, the language and practices of
yesterday blend with the demands of today _ assuring that today's
Navy will pass it all on to tomorrow's.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
A bomb exploded Friday night in front of
a Bogota bank, injuring several people, news reports said.
The blast occurred about 10:50 p.m. at a branch of Banco
Internacional in the northern part of the capital. The Bogota radio
station RCN said several people were injured, but no other details
were available.
Citibank of New York owns 48 percent of the Banco Internacional,
bank officials in Bogota said.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
A judge Friday refused to bar the city
from altering a City Hall mosaic of a smiling black man freed from
slavery.
Edward A. Kane Jr., the son of the designer, had sued after
residents, contending the mosaic is demeaning to blacks, persuaded
City Council to remove the smile, add other facial features and
replace the man's broken rope with a hoe.
But Madison County Judge Edward Ferguson said Friday the lawsuit
did not contain enough information for him to grant a preliminary
injunction.
In the lawsuit filed last week, Kane contended that the mosiac
created by his late father in 1965 is a work of art and that
alterations would violate constitutional rights to free speech and
artistic expression.
The 10- by 40-foot mosaic shows white pre-Civil War settlers in
covered wagons and a freed slave, with a broken rope hanging from
his wrists, celebrating his freedom.
Residents of this predominantly white town of more than 12,000
contend it does not show blacks making any contribution to the
city. The artist was white. Kane said he hasn't decided whether to
pursue the case.
``I'm a little let down, but this is America, the land of change
... don't preserve anything,'' Kane said, shaking his head.
News Digest: PANAMA CITY, Panama _ PM-Panama, a0448; DETROIT _
PM-Political Rdp, a0456; JERUSALEM _ PM-Israel, a0438; WASHINGTON _
PM-Shultz-Palestinians, a0412.

<NEW DOCUMENT>
Republican conservatives in Congress are wary
of the Nicaraguan cease-fire, with one saying the United States may
have to ``take some action with external forces'' if the Contra
rebels quit the field.
``It's down to that,'' said Rep. Rod Chandler, R-Wash. ``It's
definitely a new era.''
Chandler was among GOP conservatives attending a retreat Friday
in Houston. In Washington, meanwhile, President Reagan said that
``there is reason to have caution'' about whether Nicaragua's
leftist government will keep its agreements.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Critics say President Reagan interfered with
the legal process by predicting that former White House aides
Oliver L. North and John M. Poindexter will be acquitted of charges
in the Iran-Contra affair.
In off-the-cuff remarks Friday, Reagan called the affair ``the
so-called scandal'' and said he still considers North ``a hero.''
But he refused to say whether he was considering granting any
pardons in the case.
``I just have to believe that they're going to be found innocent
because I don't think they were guilty of any lawbreaking or any
crime,'' Reagan said in response to a question at a seminar
sponsored by the Center for the Study of the Presidency.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
A subdued Robert Chambers Jr. pleaded guilty to
strangling a young woman during sex in Central Park, ending the
10-week-long ``preppie murder'' trial that focused attention on the
lifestyles of the young rich.
Chambers, 21, pleaded guilty Friday to a lesser charge of
first-degree manslaughter, halting jury deliberations that lasted
nine days and raised fears of a possible mistrial.
Chambers admitted that he intended to seriously hurt Jennifer
Dawn Levin, 18, the night of her death. Her battered, partly nude
body was found under a tree behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art
on Aug. 26, 1986.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Gov. Evan Mecham, defending himself
against charges he misused $80,000 from a protocol fund, said he
was never told it was public money and was given carte blanche to
do nearly anything he wanted with it.
Mecham testified at his Senate impeachment trial Friday that
when the proceeds of his inaugural ball were converted into a
protocol fund, nobody questioned whether it should be considered
public money instead of private.
Mecham, taking the stand for the second time in his trial, said
inaugural committee Chairman Bill Long told him, ``We've gone
through all of this rigamarole'' in determining that the inaugural
funds could not be used to pay off campaign debts.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Robert Joffrey, the acclaimed choreographer
whose vision created the Joffrey Ballet and made it one of the
nation's foremost dance companies, has died after a lengthy
illness. He was 57.
Joffrey died early Friday at New York University Medical Center
of liver, kidney and respiratory failure, hospital spokeswoman
Terrie LoCicero said.
As artistic director of the Joffrey Ballet for three decades,
Joffrey guided the troupe from its early days as a struggling
six-member company traveling in a borrowed station wagon to
international acclaim.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
The aging of America's population led to a
national record of 2.1 million deaths last year, but births topped
3.8 million for the highest number in 23 years, the government says.
The National Center for Health Statistics reported Friday that
deaths in 1987 totaled ``2,127,000, about 28,000 more than the
previous year and the largest number ever reported for the United
States.''
Deaths from heart disease, the nation's No. 1 killer, slipped
slightly, but cancer claimed more victims than in the year before,
the study showed.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
The ancient art of weaving baskets from
sweetgrass, brought over from Africa by slaves and passed down for
generations in South Carolina's Lowcountry, is threatened by the
modern-day condominium.
Booming coastal development of the past 20 years is reducing the
availability of the sweetgrass favored by local artisans for the
baskets, a popular purchase for tourists, folklorists said.
``What's at stake is the continuation of this traditional
African craft,'' said Myrtle Glascoe, director of the Avery
Research Center for Afro-American History at the College of
Charleston. ``If people can't get the grass, they won't continue to
do the craft.''
News Digest: DETROIT. Slug AM-Caucus Rdp. NICOSIA, Cyprus. Slug
AM-Iran-Iraq. WASHINGTON. Slug AM-Afghan End Games. WASHINGTON.
Slug AM-Unsafe Water. JERUSALEM. Slug Am-Isreal. MISSION, S.D. Slug
AM-Sioux Chief. UNDATED. Slug AM-Elderly Guardians.
^By The Associated Press
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Michael Dukakis has laid out plans to establish
himself as the Democratic presidential front-runner by building up
a lead of 250-350 delegates over his nearest challenger, targeting
delegate-rich New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
In addition, the Dukakis organization hopes to reap delegates
from what it sees as two rival campaigns about to collapse, as well
as pick up support from ``super delegates'' and others now counted
as uncommitted.
``I think that there's a magic number in this process in terms
of what kind of distance is going to be adequate to separate a
front-runner from second- or third-place candidates in this
process,'' said Tad Devine, who handles delegate selection for the
Massachusetts governor.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Secretary of State George P. Shultz, trying to
invigorate a Mideast peace plan, met Saturday with two members of a
group affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization and
will travel to Israel and four Arab countries next week to push the
initiative.
Shultz will arrive in Jerusalem April 3 for talks with Israeli
leaders and move on to Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Egypt before
returning to Washington on April 8, State Department spokesman
Charles E. Redman said.
``We're intensely involved in this process and we're going to
continue to push forward to do everything we can,'' Redman said.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Newspapers and television are coming under
increasing fire from governments across the world, which claim
their coverage of violence and unrest only creates more of the same.
In some cases, coverage has been limited. In others, it has been
banned outright.
A graphic television film of recent bloody rampages at two
Northern Ireland funerals prompted strong complaints from the
British government. That reaction was mild compared with other
countries.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
The cease-fire pact between the
Sandinistas and Contra rebels puts new pressure on the United
States to hold direct talks with the Nicaraguan government _
something Washington has long refused to do.
It also highlights how little progress U.S. allies in Central
America have made in negotiating cease-fires under a regional peace
plan.
Before last week's agreement, many observers doubted the leftist
Sandinistas would ever make political concessions to the
U.S.-backed Contras.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
In their tenth month of crisis, many
Panamanians are adopting the American view that officials in
Washington can't see beyond the Potomac River.
As Panama's problems have grown from bad to desperate, the word
out of Washington has been that the days, even hours, of Gen.
Manuel Antonio Noriega are numbered.
Panamanians aren't convinced.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
A Lumbee Indian activist who was a
candidate for Superior Court judge in his racially troubled county
was found shot to death Saturday at his home, the FBI said.
Julian T. Pierce was killed sometime Friday night or early
Saturday, said special agent Paul Daly, calling him the victim of
an apparent burglary.
The Red Springs Police Department received a call about the
death Saturday morning, said Chief Deputy Al Parnell of the Robeson
County sheriff's department.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Rewriting his own rules for superpower
summitry, President Reagan is preparing to go to Moscow for talks
with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev that appear unlikely to
produce a new arms treaty or resolve major disputes.
With the end of his presidency fast approaching, Reagan has
decided to ignore his requirement that a summit must hold the
promise of success and must lead to the signing of a substantial
agreement.
``The man is 77 years old, and I think he wants to come out in
the history books as somebody who has done tremendous things in
superpower relations for the long-term benefit of U.S. national
security,'' said William J. Taylor, vice president for
political-military affairs at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
President Reagan's defeat last week on a major
anti-discrimination bill demonstrates the chasm between his
administration and the rest of America when it comes to civil
rights, say those who fought for passage of the measure.
Some conservatives counter that Reagan's positions are very much
in tune with the American mainstream.
The enactment of the Civil Rights Restoration Act over Reagan's
veto was the latest skirmish in the administration's rocky
seven-year attempt to redefine _ and some say erase _ the federal
government's role in ensuring basic rights to all citizens.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Top television series such as ``The Cosby
Show'' and ``Moonlighting'' have had their seasons shortened and
anxious advertisers have broken ranks to sign separate contracts as
scriptwriters and commercial actors turn up the heat in their
strikes.
Hollywood labor's spring offensive against motion picture and
television producers and advertisers has put more than 109,000
people on strike and forced more than 1,100 others out of their
jobs due to the resulting shutdown of projects.
The action has cost workers $4 million in lost salaries and
benefits and threatened network advertising revenue by forcing
early reruns.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Black FBI agent Donald Rochon, an alleged
victim of racial discrimination at the hands of fellow agents, was
also victimized by bureaucratic foot-dragging and a possible
cover-up by federal criminal investigators looking into the case,
his lawyer says.
Rochon's story of racial harassment _ portions of which have
been upheld by an administrative judge at the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission and an adjudication officer at the Justice
Department _ has been widely publicized.
Another part of his story that also could prove damaging for the
government is how Rochon's supervisors at the FBI and officials at
the Justice Department allegedly failed to aggressively follow up
his complaints.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
An American photographer stood trial
Saturday on drug smuggling charges and testified that his only
crime was being stupid enough to let a cocaine ring dupe him into
doing its dirty work.
The trial of 23-year-old Conan Owen, whose case has drawn the
attention of Attorney General Edwin Meese III, began and ended
Saturday. The three-judge panel that took testimony for 2{ hours
wasn't expected to issue a verdict for about a week.
The free-lance photographer from Annandale, Va., is charged with
smuggling 4.13 pounds of cocaine into Spain in a suitcase on March
13, 1987.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Shaking down shopkeepers. Taking protection
money from criminals. Dealing drugs. Collecting kickbacks.
Demanding bribes. This, prosecutors say, is how some municipal
employees spend their days.
The problem is as old as government and the prognosis for a cure
is as bleak as ever.
``There's always going to be people who take advantage of the
system. Eight percent of the Apostles were corrupt, and look at who
screened them,'' said U.S. Attorney Andrew Maloney.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
The aging of the baby-boom generation is
creating a ``couch-potato economy'' that will be marked by low
unemployment, more savings and rising productivity, economists and
population experts say.
The dawning of a couch-potato economy is the best thing that
could happen to the United States after years of yuppie splurging,
says Edward Yardeni, the economist who coined the term.
``Yuppies are slowing down. We're all getting older, a little
less frivolous,'' Yardeni, 38, director of economics and
fixed-income research for Prudential-Bache Securities Inc., said
this past week.
Exhibit No. 1 in Yardeni's case is the shift noted last year in
consumer-spending priorities after the go-go years of 1985 and 1986.
In 1985, the two fastest-growing segments were brokerage and
investment fees and audio and video equipment.
In 1986, the leaders were boats and recreational vehicles.
In 1987, America seemed to turn suddenly sedentary. Books and
maps finished first, followed closely by funeral and burial
expenses.
The numbers from the Commerce Department may be misleading
because the biggest percentage risers are small segments that
fluctuate widely, but Yardeni is convinced that they tell a story.
``I'm not promising you that the transformation definitely
happened in '87,'' but something is afoot, Yardeni said.
He said the shift could point to an increased savings rate.
``And that should leave room for a boom in exports and a boom in
capital spending. Which is not a bad mix at all.''
One reason for Japan's extraordinary success is its high savings
rate, which creates a pool of money for investment.
Trailing behind the American baby boomers is the ``baby-bust''
generation _ the smaller complement of workers that is entering the
work force now.
There are too few qualified baby busters to fill all the
entry-level jobs. But Yardeni optimistically sees a positive side
to that: It will force business to find ways to automate more, he
says, increasing the nation's productivity.
Yardeni's ideas are supported by others, including Cheryl
Russell, editor-in-chief of American Demographics magazine in
Ithaca, N.Y.
As baby boomers settle down, they are beginning to put aside
money for their children's education and their own retirement, Ms.
Russell said.
But baby boomers will still be spending, too, something that is
good news for producers of consumer goods.
``Baby boomers are entering their peak earnings years, so they
will be able to spend more and save more at the same time,'' Ms.
Russell said.
In spite of the free-spending reputation of the young, Ms.
Russell said, households headed by people aged 35 and over lead
their juniors in every broad category of spending except two:
alcohol and rented dwellings.
The mix of spending is what is changing. Couch potatoes spend
less money on movie tickets, more on things like VCRs. And, of
course, couches.
The changing habits of the nation are more than a myth. The
Roper Organization last year reported a poll finding that more than
half of people over 30 prefer doing things at home, while more than
half of people under 30 prefer doing things outside the home.
The median age in the United States is rising, Ms. Russell
notes, and it has just passed 30.
``Everyone's tired,'' said Thomas Miller, 30, editor of the
Public Pulse, a Roper newsletter. ``Some peole call it the
cocooning phenomenon. Some people call it the couch-potato economy.
We think it's mainly exhaustion.''
<NEW DOCUMENT>
In other business and economic news this past week:
_The government said the economy, as measured by the gross
national product, grew at a brisk 4.8 percent annual pace in the
final three months of last year.
_The government reported that in February consumer prices rose
just 0.2 percent, factory orders for durable goods fell 1.8
percent, personal incomes advanced 0.9 percent and spending
increased 0.7 percent.
_A government report said that corporations' after-tax profits
shot up 8.4 percent in 1987, the best performance in three years.
_The Federal Home Loan Bank Board said the savings and loan
industry lost $3.2 billion last year _ the largest amount since the
Great Depression _ mainly due to insolvent institutions in Texas.
_The government said it posted a $23.9 billion budget deficit in
February after a $16.1 billion surplus the previous month.
_The National Association of Realtors said that sales of
existing homes posted a modest increase of 3.8 percent in February.
_Automakers reported a slight decline in domestic car sales in
mid-March.
_The Postal Service announced that higher postage rates,
including a 25-cent charge for first-class letters, would take
effect April 3.
_Texaco Inc. won final bankruptcy court approval for a plan that
would settle its multibillion-dollar dispute with Pennzoil Co. and
bring it out of Chapter 11 protection early next month.
_A federal bankruptcy judge approved Prudential Insurance Co. of
America's offer to pay $11 million to settle claims resulting from
a clerical error in which a lien it held was listed as worth
$92,885 instead of $92,885,000.
_Eight states filed suit accusing dozens of insurance companies
of conspiring to create the liability insurance crisis, making
coverage unavailable or too costly for many governments and
businesses.
_The Supreme Court ruled the government may limit a family's
eligibility for food stamps when a family member is on strike.
_Former stock speculator Ivan F. Boesky began a three-year
prison term for his conviction in the nation's biggest
insider-trading scandal.
_Northwest Airlines announced a smoking ban on all its domestic
flights except to and from Hawaii and on some foreign routes.
_Du Pont Co. said it would stop producing chlorofluorocarbon
compounds, which destroy the earth's protective ozone layer.
_Campeau Corp. raised to $6.53 billion its bid for Federated
Department Stores Inc., while friendly suitor R.H. Macy & Co. said
it might sweeten its $6.3 billion offer for the retailer.
_American Stores Co. offered $1.72 billion to acquire Lucky
Stores Inc. of California in a deal that would create one of the
nation's largest supermarket and discount drug chains.
_Bank of New York Co. began a hostile $1.08 billion tender offer
for Irving Bank Corp., but Iriving said it was seeking a ``white
knight'' friendly bidder and other alternatives.
_General Electric Co. launched a double-pronged attack in its
bid for Roper Corp. by boosting its tender offer to $507 million
and filing lawsuits challenging Roper's agreement to merge with
Whirlpool Corp.
_West Point-Pepperell Inc. intensified the bidding war for J.P.
Stevens & Co. Inc. by announcing a $1.1 billion tender offer for
the textile maker and indicated it could go even higher if Stevens
agrees to a friendly deal.
_Beazer PLC raised to $1.63 billion its hostile tender offer for
Koppers Co., a building materials and cement company.
_Entertainer Merv Griffin raised his bid for hotel and casino
operator Resorts International Inc. by $70 million to $295 million,
more than twice the amount real estate tycoon Donald Trump proposed
to pay for the portion of the company he doesn't already own.
_A group led by investor Howard Kaskel offered Kansas City
Southern Industries Inc. $60 a share, or about $594 million, for
the 89 percent of the railroad concern it didn't own.
_Black & Decker Corp. withdrew its $2.45 billion bid for
American Standard Inc., ending the bidding war over the plumbing
giant.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Wall Street analysts are expecting new signals
in the next few days of a healthy outlook for the economy.
They're not so sure, however, whether the figures will be enough
to prop up the stock market after its sharp selloff of late.
When the government reports Tuesday on the index of leading
economic indicators for February, economists at Shearson Lehman
Hutton Inc. expect it to show an increase of 0.9 percent. Another
major brokerage firm, Merrill Lynch, is looking for a 1.0 percent
rise.
Anything in that range would be the best showing for the index,
which is designed to measure forces influencing the future course
of the economy, since last summer, well before the market crash.
Among the 12 components of the index, Shearson says, building
permits are likely to make a strong contribution, rebounding from
an ``abnormally low'' level in January.
Another indicator already known to be upbeat is the stock market
itself, which turned in a good showing last month.
For a while at midwinter, worries mounted that the index was
foreshadowing a recession with three consecutive monthly declines.
That caution light stopped flashing, however, when the decline
originally reported for December was revised to show a small gain.
Now, if the February figure lives up to its advance billing,
fears of an impending business slump will presumably continue to
fade. Yet Wall Street, with its traditional perversity, may not
find the news reassuring.
As the Merrill Lynch Market Letter observes in its current
issue, ``A faster pace for the economy could be a double-edged
sword for the market.
``It would support our projections that corporate profits _
based on Standard & Poor's industrial index _ will climb about 17
percent this year. But it would also fuel fears about increases in
interest rates.''
That same reasoning applies to the report on the employment
situation for March, which is scheduled to be issued by the Labor
Department on April 1, when the markets will be closed in
observance of Good Friday.
The February figures, which showed a much larger-than-expected
increase of 531,000 in nonfarm payroll employment, came as a blow
to the bond market by quashing hopes that the Federal Reserve might
ease credit further.
Shearson analysts figure that pace is unsustainable, and are
projecting a ``somewhat weak payroll employment gain of 150,000''
for this month. Still, past experience has shown that these data
can spring some big surprises.
While near-term recession fears were supposedly ebbing in the
past week, so were stock prices. The Dow Jones average of 30
industrials dropped 108.42 points to 1,978.95, for its worst weekly
showing so far in 1988.
The New York Stock Exchange composite index fell 6.07 to 146.58;
the NASDAQ composite index for the over-the-counter market 9.04 to
372.54, and the American Stock Exchange market value index 4.47 to
294.64.
Volume on the Big Board averaged 157.26 million shares a day,
against 175.26 million the week before.
As bizarre as investors' responses to positive economic news
might seem, there is a logical thread that runs through them,
especially when you consider that the market's biggest concern is
not the known present but the unknown future.
Most economists agree that employment figures are a
``coincident'' indicator _ in other words, a rise in employment now
is no reliable indication of better business conditions later on.
The leading indicators, similarly, are old news for the market
in the sense that they partly reflect what stock prices themselves
were doing several weeks ago.
The chief concern about economic strength is that it may be
setting the stage for a tighter credit policy, increasing
inflationary pressures, and other forces that might bring on a
recession six months or even a year from now.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Gillette Co. stock was up in heavy trading for the
third consecutive day Friday amid speculation that yet another
suitor was mulling an attempt to takeover the consumer products
firm.
Stock of Gillette, already the subject of a hostile takeover bid
by Coniston Partners, was up 2} to 46}.
Meanwhile, the New York Stock Exchange took a sharp drop for the
second straight session. In its worst week so far in 1988, the Dow
Jones average of 30 industrials closed at 1,978.95, down 44.92
points from Thursday and 108.42 points for the week.
A Gillette spokesman would not comment on the rumors, nor would
a spokesman for Philip Morris Cos., rumored on Wall Street to be
planning to pay $60 a share for Gillette in an acquisition. Philip
Morris shares fell 3 to 88{.
Reese Stone, spokesman for Philip Morris Cos. Inc., said he had
not heard any conversations concerning his company and Gillette.
``I don't know anything about it, but our policy is we don't
comment on acquisition rumors,'' he said.
Gillette spokesman Dave Fausch said ``we don't comment on
rumors.'' Asked to explain why Gillette stock was up Friday on a
generally bearish market, he said, ``we also have no comment on
stock market activities.''
Allan Kaplan, a tobacco and beverage analyst for Merrill Lynch
in New York, said he had heard the rumors but doubted their
validity.
``(Philip Morris) Management has been saying all along that they
aren't in the market for a large acquisition,'' he said. ``They
just announced a small one. But this would cost them $7 billion, if
they paid $60 a share for it. And I'm not sure they are willing to
make another acquisition until they get General Foods going.''
Philip Morris acquired General Foods in November 1985, he said.
``All you hear is rumors,'' said Marc Cohenm, a Sandford
Bernstein analyst who follows Philip Morris. ``It's all over the
place but I have no way of knowing if there are any transactions
taking place.''
Coniston, a New York investment firm which controls about 6
percent of Gillette's stock, announced last month it was
approaching potential buyers of the Boston-based company and might
take other moves to boost Gillette's share price.
Last month Coniston nominated four candidates for the seats
available on the 12-member board of directors at Gillette's annual
meeting April 21.
Gillette Chairman Colman M. Mockler Jr. responded by asking
stockholders not to sign proxy cards being distributed by Coniston
soliciting support in the elections.
Earlier this month, New York real estate developer Donald Trump
was granted a Federal Trade Commission waiver of the standard
waiting period for acquiring large blocks of stock and was allowed
to purchase up to 24.9 percent of Gillette stock.
Trump owns about 400,000 shares, which was less than
three-tenths of 1 percent of Gillette's 115 million common shares
outstanding.
Gillette underwent a major restructuring after rebuffing a third
hostile takeover bid by Revlon in 1986, which agreed not to seek to
gain control of Gillette under a 10-year pact signed in November
1986.
John C. Maxwell, an analyst with Wheat First Securities of
Richmond, Va., said the rumored takeover of Gillette by Philip
Morris has been around for days and added that it makes no sense.
``It's another cash cow. It's in the razor blade business.
That's not exactly a growth industry,'' said Maxwell, who follows
Philip Morris.
``I can't pronounce the name, but there's also rumors that a
Japanese pharmaceutical company is interested.''
Maxwell said the flurry of rumors riddling the market is a sign
of another fall. ``They pushed up all these stocks the last time on
disingenuous rumors. They just pumped all these stocks and then the
market fell 500 points.''
<NEW DOCUMENT>
Roper Corp. said Friday its board will
meet next week to review General Electric Corp.'s $507 million
tender offer and the $470 million acquisition agreement it has with
Whirlpool Corp.
A meeting date was not set, Roper spokeswoman Kathy Sanders said.
Whirlpool asked Roper's board of directors to confirm its March
18 recommendation that Roper shareholders accept Whirlpool's
$50-a-share offer. The board said earlier this week it would
consider GE's sweetened $54-a-share offer.
GE, meanwhile, said it would move its federal court action in
the Roper acquisition struggle to Michigan after a judge in
Kalamazoo rejected its request to move a related lawsuit by
Whirlpool to Delaware.
``It was simply a matter of whether it would be consolidated in
Delaware or Michigan,'' said spokesman George Jameson at GE's
Fairfield, Conn., headquarters.
Jameson said GE will withdraw the federal suit it filed in
Delaware and refile it in U.S. District Judge Richard A. Enslen's
court in Kalamazoo.
``Whirlpool will be inconvenienced by litigating in Delaware,
while GE will be inconvenienced by litigating in Michigan,'' Enslen
said in a written order Thursday, but he noted many of the main
witnesses are in Michigan.
GE raised its per-share offering from $45 to $54 for the
Augusta, Ga.-based appliance and lawn equipment maker after Roper
board's ecommended that shareholders accept the $50-a-share bid
from Whirlpool.
Whirlpool has not said whether it will respond with another
increase. ``We don't have a comment on that at this point,''
spokeswoman Donna McLean said Friday.
Analysts said merging with Roper would move Whirlpool ahead of
GE as the nation's top appliance maker.
Whirlpool's federal court suit charged that GE's initial offer
for Roper was an attempt to sabotage a Whirlpool-Roper merger
agreement announced in February, in which Whirlpool said it would
pay $37.50 a share.
In its lawsuits, GE claimed Whirlpool and Roper failed to
adequately disclose terms of their merger agreement under
Securities and Exchange Commission laws and failed to publicly
disclose a prior interest by GE in acquiring Roper.
<NEW DOCUMENT>
The oil market has ended the week on a firm
note, with crude prices rising above the psychologically important
$17-a-barrel mark for the first time since mid-February.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, the May contract for West
Texas Intemediate, the benchmark U.S. crude, settled at $17.03 per
barrel Friday. That was 7 cents higher than Thursday's close.
Among refined products traded on the exchange, the April
contract for wholesale heating oil rose 0.38 cent to 47.78 cents
per gallon, after slipping 0.33 cent Thursday. Unleaded gasoline,
up 0.08 cent Thursday, rose 0.61 cent to 47.94 cents a gallon.
Traders attributed the increase to speculation that the
five-member pricing committee of the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries would take substantive action to stabilize
prices when it meets the first week in April.
OPEC President Rilwanu Lukman had announced plans to hold the
meeting earlier this week. Analysts, though, expressed doubts over
whether anything would be accomplished prior to the cartel's
regular meeting in June.
Still,``the marketplace is telling us it's afraid of selling,''
explained Madison Galbraith, a senior trader with Merrill Lynch
Energy Futures. ``There was very strong trade buying.''
Oil prices have fallen recently amid allegations that the OPEC
member states were cheating on production levels as well as pricing
rules.
There will be no Economy Rdp this cycle.
The AP