Page 4-Saturday, August 7, 1982-The Michigan Daily
Socialists resign from
Italy's ruling coalition
ROME (AP) - Premier Giovanni
Spadolini's key Socialist Party coalition
partners resigned yesterday en-
dangering Italy's 41st postwar gover-
nment.
Spadolini met with President Sandro
Pertini about his political future and
called a Cabinet meeting for today to
announce whether he'll step down. The
57-year-old Republican became Italy's
first non-Christian Democrat premier
since 1945 when he formed his five-
party government 14 months ago.
IN A BRIEF statement released after
a party caucus, the Socialists said their
seven ministers quit the 28-member
cabinet because other coalition parties
failed to support a Socialist tax bill in
the lower house of Parliament.
The bill, part of a government
austerity package to trim the estimated
$47 billion 1982 deficit, was defeated 223-
198 Wednesday after receiving Cabinet
and Senate approval.
"The conflict was determined by a
vast defection from the line of the
majority," Socialist leader Bettino Craxi
said. "We couldn't turn the other cheek
in the face of the political snipers'
piracy."
THE SOCIALISTS, with about 10 per-
cent of the popular vote, hold the key to
any government. The dominant
Christian Democrats, with 36 percent of
the popular vote, cannot rule alone.
The Christian Democrats have con-
sistently refused to rule with the Com-
munists, the country's second-largest
party with about 31 percent of the
popular vote.
Spadolini is not required to resign un-
til he loses a vote of confidence, but
Italian political analysts said that is
merely a formality because he no
longer hasa parliamentary majority.
THEY SAID, however, Pertini is not
required to accept Spadolini's
resignation. He could ask Spadolini to
stay on in a minority government, or
reappoint him to form a new one.
Pertini also has the option of appoin-
ting someone else to form a new gover-
nment, or calling a general election two
years ahead of schedule. But the 86-
year-old president is known to oppose
the latter course as destabilizing.
Some Italian political analysts have
said the Socialists hope that by bringing
down the government, they can force
yearly elections.
Then, if they make electoral gains,
they could press for an even larger
number of Cabinet seats or even the post
of premier.
Craxi made no secret of his disap-
pointment when he failed to obtain the
premiership after Arnoldo Forlani's
Christian Democrat government fell in
May 1981 in a corruption scandal.
Spadolini already has surpassed the
longevity of most of the previous 40
post-war governments, which averaged
297 days in power.
Heavy tank, artillery battles
escalate in west Beirut
In Brief
Compiled from Associated Press and
United Press International reports
Freeze leaders remain optimistic
WASHINGTON- Leaders of the nuclear weapons freeze movement
claimed yesterday to have scored a victory even though the House narrowly
voted against a freeze and said they now will concentrate their efforts on the
local level.
"We don't think it was a defeat at all," said Reuben McCornack, a
spokesman for the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign.
He referred to the 204-202 vote by which the House of Representatives sub-
stituted a White House-backed arms control proposal for the wording of a
freeze resolution last night.
Capping nine hours of often emotional debate, the House then passed the
resolution, 273-125. It is not binding on President Reagan.
Several Capitol Hill freeze supporters also said they were encouraged by
the closeness of the vote. A shift of one vote would have made the outcome
203-203 and the substitute motion would have failed.
Reagan names economic adviser
WASHINGTON- President Reagan yesterday named Martin Feldstein, a
42-year-old Harvard economist, to the key post of chairman of his Council of
Economic Advisers.
If confirmed by the Senate, Feldstein will succeed Murray Weidenbaum as
the president's chief economic adviser.
The president, who met with Feldstein Thursday in the Oval Office, "is
pleased to have one of the most outstanding leaders in the profession as his
chairman," White House spokesman Larry Speakes said.
An expert on capital formation, Feldstein is philosophically "in tune" with
Reagan, Speakes said.
Fifth 'Friday firebug' hits Boston
BOSTON- The Fifth rash of "Friday firebug" blazes in 9 weeks hit Boston
yesterday, leaving 11 people homeless.
One fireman suffered a minor injury in the latest series of fires, most of
them in vacant buildings, that caused about $200,000 damage.
Firefighters coping with the lingering effects of drastic budget cuts raced
across the city from fire to fire in the predawn hours, calling on help from 15
surrounding communities. Three of the fires were termed suspicious.
Other outbreaks of Friday morning fires were reported June 11, June 25,
July 2, and July 16.
"We were really being overloaded-it was hectic," said a harried fire
department dispatcher.
Firefighters have expressed fear privately that "Friday firebugs" are in-
tent on running the department ragged on Friday mornings.
But fire department spokesman Ken Bruyell said, "We really don't know-
I think the timing is a combination of coincidence and people probably set-
ting them. The fires are not setting themselves."
Acid taints nose and eye drops
in possible extortion scheme
LOS ANGELES- Eye drops, nose drops, and nasal sprays have been
taken off the shelves of one supermarket chain in Southern California
because someone has been lacing them with sulfuric acid, a company of-
ficial says.
It is the second time in eight months that the Alpha Beta chain has been the
target of someone putting dangerous acids in products.
Pasadena police turned over seven vials, six of them contaminated with
sulfuric acid, to the FBI, which will analyze them for latent fingerprints,
said Pasadena police Officer Jay D'Angelo. He said the vials were being sent
to an FBI lab yesterday and the results could be available shortly.
"We thought this case was connected to the previous incidents and they
agreed," D'Angelo said. "Based on information on the previous incidents,
they had the same m.o. (method of operation), the same content."
The FBI was involved in the previous case because it may entail extortion,
a violation of the Hobbs Act.
New Jersey becomes 37th
state to restore death penalty
TRENTON, N.J.- Calling it "a terrible, serious step," Gov. Thomas Kean
yesterday made New Jersey the 37th state to restore the.death penalty, and
he recommended lethal injections astan execution method.
"People will know that from this date that if they go out and take a life,
their life can be forfeited in exchange," Kean said. Only those convicted of
first-degree murder and people who hire killers would be subject to the death
penalty under the new law.
"I'm relieved it's signed and now we'll go through life hoping and praying
we did the right thing," said the law's sponsor, state Sen. John Russo, a
Democrat.
Kean said the death penalty would be a deterrent to violent criminals "but
not to all people who commit crime or to all people who commit murder."
The governor said he will recommend that injections of a lethal drug be
used for the executions. The legislature must specify a method of execution
in a separate measure.
I
(Continued from Page 1)
the official Soviet news agency Tass said
the veto proved that America was an
"accomplice of Tel Aviv's brazen
agression.,
The Israeli jets, roaring in hours af-
ter Israel refused U.S. and U.N.
demands to pull back from newly
gained territory in west Beirut, struck
,close to Lebanese Prime Minister
Shafik Wazzans office, demolishing the
apartment building that housed
refugees and was frequented by
guerrillas.'
WASSAN WAS in suburban Baabda
negotiating with U.S. presidential en-
voy Philip Habib at the time, and
neither PLO chief Yasser Arafat nor
any ranking PLO official was in the
building when the planes smashed it in-
to a pile of smoking rubble.
The United States said it has sent
message to the PLO warning of "a real
danger of military action" by the
Israelis-meaning an all-out assault,
unless the Palestinian fighters
evacuate west Beirut soon.
Israeli Defense Minister Sharon, ar-
chitect of the two-month-old invasion
aimed at crushing the 'aLO, told
Israel's Armed Forces Radio that the
besieged guerrillas were in no position
to bargain and described their situation
as "very bad."
He said Israel's tank thrusts Wed-
nesday into Palestinian-held areas of
west Beirut had greatly improved his
forces' field positions.
SOURCES close to the PLO said
guerrilla security offices were on the
same street where the apartment
building was bombed yesterday.
The flattened building was about 200
yards from Wazzan's office.
Two hours after digging through the
rubble with bulldozers, PLO guerrillas
reached the basement and spoke with
trapped survivors through a bullhorn.
"We were told there are at least 15
people down there," a PLO rescue
worker said.
More than 300 people, many of them
women and children and some crying,
surrounded the area.
Before the latest bombings, Wazzan
said the PLO has agreed to evacuate its
guerrillas from west Beirut and
Lebanon in a 15-day period, beginning
on the day an advance contingent of a
multinational peacekeeping force
arrives.
Murray backs selective cuts
(Continued from Page 1) those choices.
Even with a selective cutting system Murray's opponents in the primary
and sharing of staff, higher education a
will still be forced to reduce expen- are Lana Pc/lack, Ron Allen, and
ditures like other units in the state, Peter Eckstein. The Republican
Murray said, and. the administration, candidate, Roy Srith, 'is running
staff; and faculty will have to make unopposed.