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.