LEAD: Marty Seiden peered out into the smoke-filled room and spoke about The Day. ''You've heard what's going to happen May 7,'' he said to the 31 Smokenders students seated before him in a Manhattan hotel room. Ashtrays at the ready, they listened to him in silence, save for the occasional cough.

FOR SMOKERS, DOOMSDAY LOOMS ON MAY 7

LEAD: Erskine Caldwell, the prolific novelist whose accounts of deprivation and depravity in the Depression-era Deep South brought him instant fame and instant notoriety, died of lung cancer Saturday in Paradise Valley, Ariz. He was 83 years old and lived in Paradise Valley.

WROTE STARK NOVELS OF SOUTH

LEAD: THE eulogy rang through the great vaulted Riverside Church in Manhattan. ''The phrase for Jackie Robinson went from 'black bastard' to 'black knight,' '' intoned the Rev. Jesse Jackson. ''We are all better because a man with a mission passed our way.''

THE DOORS WERE OPEN, BUT RECEPTION WAS HOSTILE

LEAD: American arms negotiators are planning to press the Soviet Union to agree to a total ban on intermediate-range nuclear missiles, officials traveling with Secretary of State George P. Shultz said today.

U.S. SAID TO WIDEN GOALS FOR BANNING MID-RANGE MISSILES

LEAD: Merrill Lynch Capital Partners has signed an agreement to buy the Borg-Warner Corporation of Chicago for $48.50 a share, or $4.23 billion, and convert the huge industrial organization into a private company, the two said jointly yesterday.

MERRILL UNIT TO ACQUIRE BORG

LEAD: South Korea's prospects for constitutional changes were shattered this morning when President Chun Doo Hwan ordered a halt to all debate on the pivotal issue until after the 1988 Summer Olympics are held in Seoul.

PRESIDENT OF SOUTH KOREA ORDERS A HALT TO DEBATE ON CONSTITUTION

LEAD: Driven by unemployment and war at home, hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans are estimated to have gone to live in the United States in recent years, according to American and Salvadoran officials.

SALVADORANS STREAM INTO U.S., FLEEING POVERTY AND CIVIL WAR

LEAD: TransCanada Pipelines Ltd. today offered what it said was the equivalent of $4.3 billion, about $3.29 million in United States currency, for the assets of Dome Petroleum Ltd. Dome's chief executive immediately rejected the offer, contending that it violated a confidentiality agreement between Dome and potential buyers.

TRANSCANADA MAKES OFFER FOR DOME

LEAD: Pretoria Decree Assailed  South African church leaders said they were prepared to defy an official decree forbidding protests on behalf of political detainees. Page A7.  Gandhi Aide Resigns  In a blow to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, the Indian Defense Minister resigned. His inquiry into possible kickbacks was at issue.

INSIDE

LEAD: A faint chemical odor lingers in the basement of the Uretek Inc. plant here, where workers walked off their jobs seven weeks ago in a dispute over health and safety conditions.

AT FACTORY, CHEMICAL FUMES SET OFF STRIKE

LEAD: The Mellon Bank Corporation, for years one of America's most revered financial institutions, is rapidly losing some of its luster.

Mellon's Growing Loan Pains

LEAD: The Islanders play better when they are desperate, or so they tell themselves. Evidently, they weren't worried enough after falling behind the Capitals, two games to one, in their playoff series after Saturday night's game. Tonight, they left themselves one game from elimination as they were beaten, 4-1, by a team that performs like a machine.

SERIES TIED; ISLANDERS FALL TO CAPITALS BY 4-1 AND FACE ELIMINATION

LEAD: The Libyan bombers appeared as silver flashes in the blue sky. Their falling bombs exploded nearby and sent plumes of sand, smoke and red-hot metal shards into the desert air. Chadian gunners fired hand-held antiaircraft missiles, but the circling planes flew too high to be hit.

IN THE DESERT, CHAD EXHIBITS SPOILS OF WAR

LEAD: A police officer from Alaska, a mayor from Indiana and a horde of corporate executives and lobbyists will converge on Washington today to urge the Government to spare certain Japanese products from stiff tariffs scheduled to take effect Friday.

MANY SEEK EXEMPTIONS AT JAPAN TARIFF HEARINGS

BUSINESS DIGEST: MONDAY, APRIL 13, 1987

LEAD: West German and American politicians, business executives and economists have clashed sharply here on national policies for checking the fall of the dollar, reducing the American trade deficit and resolving the world debt crisis.

BONN, U.S. POLICIES SPUR CLASH

LEAD: New York City, which owns Yankee Stadium, is in an unusual position for a landlord. For each of the last five seasons, it has paid the Yankees more to maintain the stadium than the team has paid the city in rent.

Metro Matters; City as Landlord: A Tenant Is Paid To Stay and Play

LEAD: In a case that started as a contract dispute between two oil companies, Texaco Inc. yesterday filed for bankruptcy in a dramatic attempt to stay alive pending the outcome of its bitter battle with the Pennzoil Company.

TEXACO, FIGHTING PENNZOIL ATTACK, ASKS BANKRUPTCY

LEAD: The long-running Guinness scandal is again a focus of national attention, as new details, charges and countercharges in the case were revealed last week in a London high court.

EX-GUINNESS CHAIRMAN ACCUSED ON DOCUMENTS

LEAD: Of all the violent, chaotic sights last night, the most curious and most significant was Bob Froese, the Rangers' goalkeeper, following Lindsay Carson of the Flyers down the ice, yelling at him and goading him.

SERIES TIED; COMBATIVE PLAY CONTINUES; FROESE IS IN THE MAIN EVENT

LEAD: Eight months after contracts were signed, a Koch administration plan to lower concrete prices by subsidizing the construction of a concrete plant in Manhattan is in serious jeopardy.

CITY PROJECT ON CONCRETE THREATENED

LEAD: At morning strategy sessions all over Wall Street, bond traders are asking, ''How's the dollar?''

BOND MARKET DRIVEN BY DOLLAR

LEAD: Turning the theory of how to fight the drug trade upside down, police departments around the country are increasingly blanketing drug-plagued neighborhoods with officers and arresting large numbers of small-time dealers and buyers.

WAR ON DRUGS SHIFTING FOCUS TO STREET DEALS

LEAD: In Rome last week, on his way from the Soviet Union to the United States, 60-year-old Michael Arbitman worshiped in a synagogue for the first time, gratefully touching the pages of the Torah with his wizened hands.

WITH JOY AND PRAYER, AN EMIGRE FAMILY MARKS PASSOVER

LEAD: Larry Hogan Mize, born and raised within a few miles of the Augusta National Golf Club, fulfilled a boyhood dream today when he won the 51st Masters by beating Greg Norman with a historic shot.

MIZE MASTERS 140-FOOTER TO WIN TITLE IN PLAYOFF

Steven De Vuyst is a Belgian politician and former member of the Chamber of Representatives. A member of the Workers' Party of Belgium, he represented East Flanders from June 2019 to May 2024.

Steven De Vuyst, Belgian politician

Steven_De_Vuyst

John-Allison Weiss is an American indie pop singer, songwriter, and performer. To date, they have released four full-length albums and several EPs. Their most recent LP, The Long Way, was released on February 17, 2023, through Get Better Records.

April 13, 1987

Headlines from April 13, 1987

FOR SMOKERS, DOOMSDAY LOOMS ON MAY 7

WROTE STARK NOVELS OF SOUTH

THE DOORS WERE OPEN, BUT RECEPTION WAS HOSTILE

U.S. SAID TO WIDEN GOALS FOR BANNING MID-RANGE MISSILES

MERRILL UNIT TO ACQUIRE BORG

Billboard 200

Licensed To Ill

Slippery When Wet

The Joshua Tree

Graceland

The Way It Is

Notable Births

Historical Context for April 13, 1987