News Digest By The Associated Press
Attack authorized, Reagan says
WASHINGTON — U.S. military for
ces had shadowed the Iranian ship they
attacked Monday night for days, wait
ing for conclusive evidence the vessel
was laying underwater mines, Pentagon
officials said Tuesday.
The officials, who requested ano
nymity, said the vessel Iran Ajr had
been tracked by radar and by air for
several days as it steamed through the
central gulf toward Bahrain "because it
had been seen loading suspect devi
ces" before leaving an Iranian port.
"It was no accident" that U.S. heli
copters from the Frigate USS Jarrett
were flying near the Iranian ship Mon
day night, using infrared sensors to
monitor its activities, one official added.
"When we caught them in the act,
we had the evidence we needed and we
moved in," he said.
The Pentagon said three Iranians
were killed and two were listed as
missing in the attack, while 26 Iranians
were rescued, four of them wounded. It
said a Navy boarding party found 10
mines aboard the Iran Ajr, a 1,662-ton
amphibious landing craft.
President Reagan, meantime, de
fended the U.S attack on the ship as
clearly "authorized by law” because
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the vessel was sowing mines in interna
tional waters.
Reagan also insisted, however, the
United States had not entered a shoot
ing war with Iran, and White House and
§
Pentagon spokesman said the crew
men of the Iranian vessel would bo
returned to Iran.
At the same time, Iranian leaders
dismissed the U.S. account of the inci
dent and vowed revenge.
Pentagon sources reported U.S. mil
itary bases around the globe had been
reminded to maintain an alert for ter
rorist activity, and tensions in the gulf
itself remained high.
An unidentified Iranian hovercraft
closed within one mile or so of an
American frigate that was towing the
crippled Iran i\jr on Tuesday afternoon
and stopped its approach only after
warning shots were fired across its
bow, the Defense Department said.
Despite the confrontation and rising
tensions, the Pentagon announced that
Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger
would proceed with a scheduled trip to
the region. Weinberger will leave Wed
nesday on five-day trip that will include
stops in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and
Egypt and visits to U.S. warships.
A U.S. military helicopter, believed
to be an Army MH-6 Special Operations
aircraft, attacked the vessel while a
second copter flew nearby, sources
said. Chief Pentagon spokesman Fred
Hofman said the Ameican aircraft used
7.62mm machine guns and 2.75-inch
rockets to attack the boat and caused
extensive damage.
Khamenei denounces U.S.,
vows revenge for gulf clash
UNITED NATIONS — Iranian Presi
dent Ali Khamenei fumed at the U.S.
“arch-Satan” before the United Nations
Tuesday and swore Iran would avenge a
U.S. attack on an Iranian ship in the
Persian Gulf.
The U.S. delegation stalked out in
protest after the black robed and tur
baned Khamenei indicted the “bully
ing” United States and announced:
“This is a beginning for a series of
events, the bitter consequences of
which shall not be restricted to the
Persian Gulf.”
"1 declare here, very unambiguously,
that the United States shall receive a
proper response for this abominable
act," the gray beared cleric said in an
hour and-20 minute speech in Farsi.
Hundreds of angry, dissident Iran
ians demonstrated against the funda
mentalist Tehran government outside
the United Nations building, shouting
"Expel Khamenei from the U.N.! Down
with the criminal, murdering regime!”
"I do not intend to sit by passively
when our country is insulted, our pres
ident pilloried and the truth trampled,”
Deputy U.S. Ambassador Herbert Okun
told reporters.
He called Khameini’s charges against
the United States "false accusations
(which) distort the facts and misre
present our policy totally."
In Brief
Report: commission lacks shutdown guidelines
WASHINGTON — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission lacks guide
lines on shutting down nuclear power plants for safety violations, and
some have operated for years with significant problems, according to a
report by the General Accounting Office released Tuesday.
"The report shows that the NRC has failed in its basic responsibility"
to protect the public, said Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato, R-N.Y. He called the
report "rather damning."
Boy rescued from burning house in Kearney
KEARNEY — Two men crawled through heavy smoke and kicked open
a jammed door to rescue an 8-year-old boy from a burning house early
Tuesday, authorities said.
Kearney Fire Chief Dick Rains said people sleeping inside the house
were awakened by the 2 am. fire, and everyone ran out. Two others were
sleeping in a camper in the driveway and did not wake up until
firefighters arrived, he said.
Nicaraguan president announces cease-fire plan
MANAGUA, Nicaragua — President Daniel Ortega said Tuesday the
government would start a partial truce and withdraw troops to desig
nated areas to open the way to a total cease-fire with U.S.-supported
Contra rebels.
"We are working on concrete actions to make known the first zones
where the cease-fire vill be declared," Ortega said. He said the location
of the designated areas would be announced but did not specify a
timetable.
Seriously ill twins described as fighters
BALTIMORE — West German Siamese twins separated two weeks ago
in a 22-hour operation were described by their doctors as fighters. But
the doctors say the semicomatose boys are still seriously ill and are not
yet assured of survival.
"I don’t think you’ll find anyone here giving odds because there is
nothing to compare it to," said Dr. Mark Rogers, director of pediatric
intensive care at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Patrick and Ber\jamin Binder
were bom joined at the back of the head and shared a common vein.
Human rights group invited to Moscow
VIENNA, Austria — The Kremlin issued an invitation to a Western
group highly critical of its human rights policy to meet officials in
Moscow, the Society envoy to the 35-nation Helsinki review conference
announced Tuesday.
i
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Hahn story published
Church secretary says Bakker ruined her life
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Jessica Hahn, declaring
"I am not a bimbo,” says in a Playboy magazine
interview that she “hated every second" of her
sexual encounter with PTL founder Jim Bakker
seven years ago and "it has ruined my life."
A copy of the November issue of the magazine,
which includes a 31 page interview and semi
nude photo layout of Hahn, became available
Tuesday as she concluded two days of testimony
before a federal grand jury looking into hush
money paid her after the liaison.
"You know, two men nad me in one day,” Hahn
said in the interview, referring to Bakker and
Oklahoma City evangelist John Fletcher, who
she said accompanied him to a Florida motel
room for the tryst with the young church
secretary.
". . . I’ve been treated as less than human, as
a thing, as a pawn," she said. “And just because I
don’t have a Bible or a microphone — just
because I don’t draw millions of people on TV
—doesn’t mean I'm not human."
"This has been a game to Jim Bakker and John
Fletcher," she said in the interview. "This has
been politics toJerry Falwell (who took over PTL
from Bakker) . . . 1 hate Jim Bakker for it. I hate
John Fletcher for it.”
Bakker, who resigned in disgrace from the TV
ministry after Hahn's story became public, has
acknowledged having sex with her but claims
she was the one who seduced him.
Fletcher has acknowledged introducing Bakker
to Hahn, but has not commented on her allega
tions that he also had sex with her.
Hahn's lawyer, Dominic Barbara, said her two
days of testimony before the grand jury focused
on possible IRS testifying under a limited grant
of immunity from prosecution.
Bakker and his top aides are under investiga
tion for possible mail, wire and tax fraud in
federal probe focusing on how the $172 million
television ministry raised and spent money.
SAT scores still too low,
education secretary says
NhW YORK — Minority students scored
Mg gains on the Scholastic Aptitude Test in
1987. But the average for ail groups stagnated
for the third straight year, raising doubts
about the progress of school reform.
The average verbal score among the 1.1
million coliege-bound students who took the
two part multiple-choice exam was 430, down
a point from 1986, but still six points above
the all time low on that section reached in
1980, the College Board reported Tuesday.
The average mathematics score gained a
point to 476, its highest level since 1976. The
verbal and math portions are each scored on a
scale of 200-800.
Secretary of Education William J. Bennett
“Mlnan interview, however, that he believed
the SAT scores were "still too low" and that
reforms "had not gone deep enough."
Blacks continued a decade-long pattern of
gains. Average verbal scores have risen 21
points to 361 since 1977, and 20 points to 377
on the math.
But blacks remain a long way from closing
the gap with white students who averaged
447 on the verbal section in 1087 and 480 on
the math.
“The black white SAT difference has been
reduced by 50 points in 11 years. This is
positive, but the simple truth is that the SAT
scored of black and white students are a long
way from parity,” said College Board presi
dent Donald M. Stewart at a news conference.
The national SAT averages, cited by the
federal government and others as a bar
ometer of school performance, have changed
little since 1086. From 1981 to 1984, scores
improved steadily.
Similar flat results were announced Mon
day for the rival ACT exam, the predominant
college entrance test in 28 Vl^westem and
Western states. The four-part exam, adminis
tered by the American College Testing Pro
gram in Iowa City, Iowa, and taken by approx
imately 777,000 graduating high school
students, dipped 0.1 percent to 18.7 from the
year earlier, on a scale of 1-36.
