Page 4-Tuesday, July 20, 1982-The Michigan Daily Israel, PLO trade shots-; te s ro sises BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP)- Israeli forces tradedbartillery fire with besieged Palestinian guerrillas and sent jet fighters thundering over west Beirut yesterday in an increasingly tense waiting game over the PLO's future in Lebanon. Negotiators here looked toward Washington-and today's scheduled meeting between President Reagan and two Arab envoys-for away out. LEBANESE police said the morning duels between the Israeli siege force and Palestine Liberation Organization guerrillas "strained but did not collap- se" an 8-day-old cease-fire arranged by the United States to give diplomacy a chance to ward off an Israel-PLO showndown in west Beirut. At one point, Israeli artillery and guerrilla gunners dueled for an hour near the closed airport on Beirut's southern outskirts. Low-flying jets roared over the capital on several reconnaissance missions. Police said there were no bombing runs or mock raids observed or reported. SPECIAL U.S. presidential envoy Philip Habib met with Lebanese inter- mediaries for an hour at Lebanon's shell-damaged presidential palace in Baabda, five miles east of Beirut. The participants refused to tell repor- ters whether any progress was made to resolve the diplomatic stalemate over how, when, and where to evacuate the PLO leadership and its estimated 8,000 guerrillas, trapped in the Israeli- encircled, Moslem-populated west Beirut. Lebanon's state radio said per- suading Syria to take guerrilla evacuees remained the top priority in U.S. efforts to find a country of exile for the PLO. REAGAN IS scheduled to meet in Washington today with an Arab League delegation consisting of Foreign Ministers Abdul Halim Khaddam of Syria and Prince Saud al-Faisal of Reagan ... to meet with Arabs Saudi Arabia. There was unanimity in Beirut and Jerusalem that the outcome of those talks was crucial for efforts to keep Israel from storming west Beirut. "We are in suspense, awaiting the result of the Washington ralks," said former Lebanese Prime Minister Saeb Salam, a key intermediary between Habib and Arafat. Khaddam met yesterday with U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz and said the besieged Palestinians "must under no circumstances be subjected to a forced exodus." The Syrian said earlier his country would accept the PLO leadership but not the guerrillas. ISRAEL HAS between 35,000 and 40,000 troops and 300 tanks ringing west Beirut, and gunboats sealed off all sea escape routes for the guerrillas. The PLO has used the truce to fortify its 10- square-mile enclave with dozens of 20- foot-high earthen embankments and sandbagged positions manned by anti- tank gunners in the main streets. In Brief Compiled from Associated Press and United Press international reports Iraq, Iran both claim victory Iraq claimed yesterday that it had regained firm control of the southern front in its war with Iran after a series of counterattacks against the in- vading forces that left "thousands of enemy corpses littering the bat- tleground." But Iran insisted its troops were consolidating their positions on Iraqi soil and preparing to "eliminate the enemy forces." Accounts of both sides agreed there was heavy fighting in the area around Basra, a key Iraqi oil-refining and port city near the Persian Gulf, 15 miles from the Iranian border. But they conflicted on the outcome of the battles, as has often been the case in the week-old fighting. They did seem to indicate that the front has not moved much since Iran's thrust into Iraq last Tuesday. Banks lower prime lending rate NEW YORK- Two of the nation's leading banks cut their prime lending rates one-half percentage point to 16 percent yesterday and the Federal Reserve Board lowered its key lending charge. Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co. in New York, ranked fourth by deposits, and First National Bank of Chicago, ranked eighth by deposits, lowered their prime rates, and other major banks should soon follow, credit analysts predicted. Some smaller banks, such as AmeriTrust Co. in Cleveland and Mitsui Manufacturers Bank in Los Angeles, also pared their prime rates to 16 per- cent from 16.5 percent. Head of American University in west Beirut abducted BEIRUT, Lebanon- Unidentified gunmen abducted the acting president of the American University of Beirut, David Dodge, from theuniversity campus in embattled west Beirut yesterday. Mohammad Abdul Latif, who said he witnessed the abduction, said a woman student told him Dodge's kidnappers shouted as they sped away that they belonged to "Amal," the paramilitary arm of Lebanon's pro-Iranian Moslem Shiite sect. Abdul Latif, a former student at the university, reported that one of the gunmen struck the 60-year-old Dodge in the head with a pistol butt before shoving him into an automobile and speeding away. University spokesman Radwan Mawlawi said there was no indication who the kidnappers were. A spokesman at the university's New York office said he was told by the State Department it did not know who was responsible. Mitsubishi indicted for theft of IBM trade secrets SAN FRANCISCO- A federal grand jury indicted Mitsubishi Electric Corp. of Japan and four of its employees yesterday on charges of conspiring to transport stolen IBM trade secrets. Besides the corporation, those named included Takay Ishida, 40, Torran- ce, California, an employee of Mitsubishi Electronics America Inc.; Kazuma Ban, Chiyoji Tanaka, and Akira Iwase, all in Japan and employees of Mitsubishi Electric Corp. Mitsubishi quickly denied any wrongdoing in a statement shortly after the indictment was returned in San Jose and announced simultaneously in San Francisco. "Mitsubishi Electric Corp. emphatically denies that it or any of its em- ployees has been involved in any unlawful conduct" the company statement said. Mitsubishi said it "intends to defend itself and its employees vigorously." Heat wave bakes Northeast; thunderstorms batter Midwest A heat wave cooked the Northeast another day yesterday while thunder- storms fanned the Midwest with hurricane-force winds and rain that sent waist-deep floods through towns and ruined millions of dollars worth of crops. In the Northeast, there was little relief from the temperatures of a sizzling Sunday that dropped horses in their tracks in New York City, ignited violen- ce around the fireplugs and beaches in Boston, and set records for the date from Newark, N.J., where it was 100 degrees, to Portland, Maine, where it was 95. Youngsters with razors slashed two city workers who tried to turn off one of the 200 fire hydrants that had been illegally tapped Sunday in Boston. The workers suffered minor cuts. A 21-year-old California woman was arrested at a count~ry music jamboree near St. Clairsville, Ohio, when she took off her shirt and refused to put it back on. It was a different story yesterday in the heartland, where storms with winds up to 75 mph accompanied by heavy rain and hail up to the size of hen's eggs in northeastern Nebraska destroyed an estimated $5 million in corn and soybeans, according to Dodge County Extension Agent Russ Lange. 4 4 4 4 HOUSING DIVISION/LSA FOR 1982-83 ACADEMIC YEAR RESIDENT ADVISOR AND GRADUATE STUDENT TEACHING POSITIONS AVAILABLE in the PILOT PROGRAM/ALICE LLOYD HALL Individuals must come to 1500 S.A.B. to update application presently on file. New applicants may pick up an application in the Housing Office, 1500 S.A.B. beginning at 7:30 A.M.-12:O noon and from 12:30 P.M.-4:00 P.M., Tuesday, July 20, 1982. Interviews for qualified applicants will take place during the week of July 26, 1982. For more information, call Dr. David Schoem, Pilot Director, 100 Observatory Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan (313) 764-7521, A NON-DISCRIMINATORY AFFIRMATIVE ACTION EMPLOYER