LEAD: The Marine Corps announced today that it was dropping the most serious charge against a former Marine guard at the United States Embassy in Moscow -that he had allowed Soviet agents to roam through the compound.

MARINES DROP MOST SEVERE CHARGE AGAINST MOSCOW EMBASSY GUARD

LEAD: More evidence of stepped-up inflation emerged today as the Government reported that one of its main price indexes climbed in April by seven-tenths of 1 percent, the biggest increase in 18 months.

STOCKS PLUMMET

LEAD: The Public Health Service today recommended mandatory AIDS testing for the more than 500,000 applicants seeking permanent residence each year in the United States.

HEALTH OFICIALS SEEK AIDS TESTS FOR IMMIGRANTS

LEAD: Western defense ministers called today for eliminating all Soviet and American medium-range missiles, rather than allowing the two powers to keep 100 warheads each outside Europe, as Washington and Moscow had earlier agreed.

NATO MINISTERS URGE NEW STANCE BY U.S. ON MID-RANGE ARMS PACT

LEAD: In the latest in a series of seemingly contradictory stands on taxes, the Cuomo administration announced today that recently proposed increases in taxes and fees could be deferred because of an unexpected $850 million rise in 1986 income tax revenue.

CUOMO, IN A SHIFT, SAYS TAX INCREASE CAN BE POSTPONED

LEAD: Teacher Certification   A Carnegie Foundation panel announced creation of a board to devise tests for professional certification of the nation's teachers. Page 9.

INSIDE

LEAD: The United States Commission on Civil Rights today rejected a draft statement that harshly criticized the Supreme Court's recent decision upholding job preferences for women and members of minority groups.

RIGHTS PANEL REJECTS A STATEMENT ASSAILING HIGH COURT JOBS RULING

LEAD: President Reagan said today that he was deeply involved in private American efforts to aid the rebels in Nicaragua, even during a two-year period when Government aid to the rebels was barred by Congress. He indicated that he was proud of it.

PRIVATE AID IDEA FOR REBELS IS HIS, PRESIDENT ASSERTS

LEAD: ''As a matter of fact, I was very definitely involved in the decisions about support to the freedom fighters. It was my idea to begin with.'' - President Reagan, on private aid to Nicaraguan rebels.  [ 1:1. ]

Quotation of the Day

LEAD: INTERNATIONAL  3-7,32   The President knew of private aid to the Nicaraguan rebels and was ''definitely involved'' in decisions for the financing effort, he said. ''It was my idea to begin with,'' he said.   Page 1   A marine facing spying charges will not face the death penalty, the Marine Corps said.

NEWS SUMMARY SATURDAY, MAY 16, 1987

LEAD: A majority of Israelis favor participation in an international peace conference on the Middle East but are not willing to bring down the Government to pursue the idea, according to a newspaper survey published today.

MAJORITY OF ISRAELIS BACK PARLEY, BUT NOT A COST OF CABINET'S FALL

LEAD: A Miami dispatch yesterday about reorganization of the Nicaraguan rebel movement described the voting for the movement's new directors incorrectly. The director whose election was most contentious was Alfonso Robelo, not Adolfo Calero.

Corrections

LEAD: Abe Stolar, a 75-year-old Chicago native who has been trying to leave the Soviet Union since 1974, will be permitted to depart along with four members of his family, Senator Paul Simon said today.

Senator Says Moscow Will Let Stolars Leave

LEAD: Because of an editing error, an article yesterday about Governor Cuomo's nomination of Thomas F. Hartnett to be State Labor Commissioner misidentified Elizabeth D. Moore. Ms. Moore, who has been nominated to be director of the Governor's Office of Employee Relations, is Mr. Cuomo's first assistant counsel, not Mr.

LEAD: With doubts already being voiced about the project's cost and usefulness, a corruption scandal involving construction contracts for a $2.5 billion north-south railroad is seriously threatening what President Jose Sarney had planned as the historic public-works effort of his administration.

CONTACT SCANDAL SHAKES BRAZIL CHIEF

LEAD: Andrei D. Sakharov told Prime Minister Jacques Chirac of France today that the Soviet Government had interrupted the process of freeing imprisoned dissidents. But his statement was later questioned by former prisoners, who said the pace of releases had quickened in the last three weeks.

SAKHAROV AND CRITIC DIFFER ON DISSIDENTS

LEAD: Chancellor Helmut Kohl asserted today that any Soviet-American agreement to eliminate short-range nuclear missiles - those with ranges of 300 to 600 miles - must be accompanied by a ban on battlefield nuclear arms of even shorter range.

KOHL URGES BROADENING OF ANY SHORT-RANGE MISSILE ACCORD

LEAD: Army troops closed two newspapers today as tensions increased after a coup on Thursday.

TROOPS SHUT DOWN 2 FIJI NEWSPAPERS

LEAD: Many of the finest homes in this small town are deserted, relics of a time when the European and Melanesians trusted each other.

AS HAVE-NOTS WATCH, THE HAVES GET TANNED

LEAD: Two key figures in the Iran-contra controversy have appealed to the Swiss Supreme Court to block delivery by Swiss authorities of documents and records sought by United States Justice Department investigators, Swiss officials said today.

2 in Iran-Contra Affair Seeking to Block Data

LEAD: The White House asked a Nashville radio station today to refrain from using a tape of President Reagan saying he listens to ''WSM, the 50,000-watt blowtorch of the South.''

Message From the Sponsor

LEAD: The White House will notify Congress next week that it intends to sell a half-billion dollars' worth of F-15 fighter planes to Saudi Arabia, Reagan Administration and Congressional officials said today.

White House Planning To Sell F-15's to Saudis

LEAD: Following are excerpts from the question-and-answer portion of President Reagan's session with regional editors at the White House today, as recorded by The New York Times.  Shape of Presidency Q. To those people who might say your Presidency and you have been mortally wounded by the Iran-contra affair, how would you answer those people?

EXCERPTS FROM PRESIDENT'S MEETING WITH EDITORS

LEAD: South Africa told a United States journalist today to leave the country within two weeks.

Third U.S. Reporter Is Told to Leave South Africa

LEAD: A four-hour airport drama ended here this afternoon when Polish commandos stormed a bus on the airport tarmac and overpowered a young Pole who had commandeered it and was threatening to kill passengers with a grenade unless he was flown to the West.

Warsaw Commandos Storm Bus and Overpower Hijacker

Thomas Michael Onslow-Cole is a former British racing driver. He won the International GT Open in Pro-Am category in 2018 and in 2019 and the 24H Series in 2015.

May 16, 1987

Headlines from May 16, 1987

MARINES DROP MOST SEVERE CHARGE AGAINST MOSCOW EMBASSY GUARD

STOCKS PLUMMET

HEALTH OFICIALS SEEK AIDS TESTS FOR IMMIGRANTS

NATO MINISTERS URGE NEW STANCE BY U.S. ON MID-RANGE ARMS PACT

CUOMO, IN A SHIFT, SAYS TAX INCREASE CAN BE POSTPONED

Billboard 200

The Joshua Tree

Slippery When Wet

Licensed To Ill

Look What The Cat Dragged In

Graceland

Notable Births

Historical Context for May 16, 1987