News Digest
Official: Kuwaitis caused deadlock I
ALGIERS, Algeria — An Alge
rian official said Wednesday that
Kuwait’s“intransigence” had created
a deadlock in negotiations with Shiite
Moslem hijackers for the release of 32
hostages on a Kuwaiti jumbo jet.
Food and water were taken in the
afternoon to the blue-and-white Boe
ing 747, which the hijackers call the
“plane of martyrdomIt baked under
the North African sun on an isolated
patch of tarmac at Hourari Boumedi
enne airport.
A delegation from Kuwait arrived
Wednesday afternoon to help in ef
forts to free the remaining hostages
and the plane, which was hijacked
April 5 on a flight from Bangkok to
Kuwait with 112 people aboard.
It spent three days on the ground in
Mashhad, Iran, flew to Cyprus on
Friday and arrived here early
Wednesday.
The six to eight gunmen, who have
killed two passengers, demand that
Kuwait free 17 pro-Iranian extremists
convicted in the 1983 bombings of the
U.S. and French embassies there. The
hostages included three members of
the Kuwaiti royal family.
Sheik Nawaf al-Ahmed al-Sabah,
Kuwait’s defense Minister, affirmed
Wednesday his country’s “unwaver
ing and principled stance of rejecting
blackmail,” the Persian Gulf
sheikdom’s official news agency
KUNA reported. “We would not
change our altitude.”
A ranking Algerian official told
The Associated Press privately: “If
they merely wanted to restate their
known position, there was no need for
them to send their high-level delega
tion to Algiers.” He said “the intran
sigence” of Kuwait had stalled nego
tiations.
His remarks appeared to confirm
unofficial reports that Algeria was
pressing Kuwait for more flexibility.
The jet left Lamaca, Cyprus, early
Wednesday after 12 more hostages
were released. They arrived Wednes
day night in Kuwait and were met by
the interior minister, Sheik Salem
Sabah al-Sabah.
On the same Boeing 727 to Kuwait
were the bodies of the two slain pas
sengers, their coffins covered in the
red, black, green and white Kuwaiti
flag.
Fifty-seven other hostages were
freed at Mashhad, a city in northeast
ern Iran. Passengers released Tues
day said one gunman boarded the
plane at Massad and the hijackers got
a new supply of weapons there.
^ • ■*
Dukakis: Gore should get tacts straignt
NEW YORK — Democratic
presidential candidate Michael
Dukakis said Wednesday that rival
Albert Gore Jr. “ought to get his facts
straight” after Gore touched off a
campaign clash about the use of nu
clear weapons in Europe.
President Reagan, with his vice
president on the campaign trail and
talking tough about drugs, stepped
into the political arena himself, say
ing politicians don’t criticize Jesse
Jackson for fear of being labeled rac
ist.
“I have to believe that a great
many of us would find ourselves in
great disagreement with the policies
that he is proposing, and would per
haps be more vocal about them, if it
wasn’t for concern that that’d be
misinterpreted into some kind of a
racial attack ” Reagan said.
In Albany, N.Y., Gov. Mario
Cuomo met with Jackson and praised
the candidate as “a singularly impor
tant Democrat.” Jackson applauded
Cuomo’s decision not to make an
endorsement before the primary sea
son June 7—and more importantly in
this pivotal state, before Tuesday’s
New York primary.
“Governor Cuomo, just keep a
freeze on all endorsements and keep
extending your support,” he said.
Gore stirred a new foreign policy
controversy in the final week of the
New York primary campaign after
Dukakis told the New York Daily
News ‘we reserve the right to use
nuclear force” in the event of a Soviet
invasion of Europe “when there ap
pears to be no other alternative.” He
added, “I don’t think that’s going to
happen.”
Gore, battling for survival in the
three-candidate race for Democratic
presidential nomination, quickly
jumped on the Massachusetts gover
nor and said he had “made a signifi
cant mistake in saying that he would
launch a nuclear strike against the
Soviet Union under . .. specific cir
cumstances.” However, Dukakis
never used the word “strike.”
Gore, a senator from Tennessee
who has rejected appeals that he tone
down attacks on his rivals, said the
Dukakis statement was “unwise and
irresponsible and it underscores . . .
that experience in foreign policy is
relevant.”
At a news conference in Boston,
Dukakis said Gore “ought to get his
facts straight.”
“The policy I advocated has been
the policy of the government of the
United States for many, many years.
It’s the policy of the NATO alliance,”
he said.
“We have always reserved the
right to use nuclear force under those
circumstances. That’s not saying
we’re going to do it, but we have
always reserved the right to do so,**
Dukakis said.
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Soviets send 15,000 new troops to Afghanistan
WASHINGTON — The Soviet Union, on the verge of signing an
agreement calling for the withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan,
sent 15,000 more troops plus armored vehicles into that country,
administration sources said Wednesday. ..fT_
The troops were sent across the border within the past week, said U.S.
intelligence sources who have been monitoring the fighting. The
sources spoke on condition they not be further identified.
At the same time the Soviet troops were dispatched, the sources said,
Soviet armored units already in Afghanistan moved south fiom Kabul
to relieve the beleaguered city of Gardcz.
These units consisted of an undetermined number of soldiers and 420
vehicles, including T-72 tanks, armored personnel carriers and mobile
rocket launchers. . , . r . c . ,
The increased activity was reported the day before the Soviets were
exnected to sign as guarantors of a United Nations agreement on the
withdrawal of the Red Army from Afghanistan.
Reagan says he did not know about fake quotes
WASHINGTON — President Reagan said Wednesday he did not
learn until recently that his former spokesman, Larry Speakes, had put
words in his mouth on at least two occasions while briefing reporters on
presidential meetings. . . . . ,
Reagan did not directly answer, however, when asked whether he
approved of the practice or would allow it to continue. His current
spokesman, Marlin Fit/.watcr, has condemned any such procedure and
said he never would do it.
Taxpayers handle tax forms better than expected
WASHINGTON — With a Friday midnight deadline in sight,
taxpayers are having less trouble with the new federal tax law than had
been expected, government auditors said Wednesday.
Filers are making fewer mistakes than expected and asking fewer
questions of the IRS than had been anticipated. And they arc not running
in droves to professionals to do their returns.
Chances of getting the correct answer to your tax questions from the
Internal Revenue Service have improved slightly, but the agency’s
telephone “assistors” are still giving the wrong answer to 279 of every
1,000 queries. IRS Commissioner Lawrence B. Gibbs told the House
Ways and Means oversight subcommittee.
Gibbs and Rep. J.J. Pickle, D-Texas, agreed that is too many errors.
“You get better odds in Las Vegas,” Pickle said.
“We must and will improve our accuracy rate for our customers,
Gibbs promised. He mentioned plans to make assistors full-time rather
than seasonal, employees; to raise their pay; and to give each immediate
access to computerized information necessary to answer questions.
« a 1 •
Merchants jund business climate
i improved by better political ties
MOSCOW — Seven major U.S. companies
said Wednesday they’ve joined forces with the
Soviets to produce everything from crackers to
computcrdisks in a consortium that will market
capitalist products in a socialist economy.
In addition, U.S. industrialist Armand
Hammer announced a joint venture under
which he will build two plastics factories in the
Ukraine.
U.S. Commerce Secretary C. William Ver
ily and a group of about 400 American business
leaders are in Moscow this week for meetings
with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev and
other officials about the possibility of expand
ing trade between the superpowers.
Several agreements have been announced
already, and the businessmen say the climate
for broader cooperation has warmed considera
bly in recent months.
James H. Giffcn, president of the new
American Trade Consortium involving the
seven companies, said this week’s activity
could lead to an unprecedented volume of U .S. -
Soviet trade.
Giffcn, who also is president of The Merca
tor Corp., attributed the trade successes to “the
improved political atmosphere” following
Soviet Communist Party General Secretary
Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s visit to the United
Slates in December.
Both governments began campaigning for
expansion of commercial tics after the Wash
ington summit, the businessmen said.
The Soviets are actively seeking joint busi
ness projects with capitalist countries to help
improve the quantity and quality of consumer
goods and to earn convertible foreign curren
cies to pay for grain and other imports.
Few U.S. companies had been able to put
together joint ventures. While there is huge
demand among Soviets for consumer goods
and service, they have only rubles to spend,
which cannot be converted by the western
businesses seeking to take home their profits.
But on Monday, Honeywell, Inc. announced
a joint venture to supply automated production
controls for Soviet fertilizer factories, and on
Tuesday Roma Food Enterprises of Piscata
way, N.J. began selling pizza in Moscow from
a mobile van.
Hammer’s $200 million plastics plant deal
was the second joint venture he has announced
recently, and the companies forming the new
consortium claim their efforts will result in a
network of projects to make goods for both
Soviet and foreign markets.
“This is not aid, this is trade,” said Giffcn.
“What we’re after is profit.”___
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472-1766 Nighl News Editors Jowth Zucco
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