LEAD: Reagan Administration officials say they believe that one of the hijackers of a Kuwaiti airliner in Algiers is a Lebanese national wanted in the United States for a 1985 hijacking in which a United States Navy diver was murdered.

U.S. LINKS HIJACKER ON KUWAITI PLANE TO 1985 AIR PIRACY

LEAD: The outcome of New York's Democratic Presidential primary next Tuesday may hinge not on who endorsed whom, or on the much-discussed Jewish or black vote, but on a factor that has drawn scant attention of late: the white Roman Catholic vote across the state.

White Catholic Voters Called Pivotal in New York Primary

LEAD: Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have been refused permission to treat patients with implants of fetal tissue until the legal and ethical issues can be studied by an expert committee.

Federal Agency Bars Implanting Of Fetal Tissue

LEAD: The computer industry is rapidly embracing a simple and elegant design concept that industry experts predict will dramatically lower the cost of computers while increasing their power.

Shift to Simplicity Promises Big Advances in Computing

INSIDE

LEAD: Larry Speakes resigned yesterday from Merrill Lynch & Company less than a week after disclosing that he had fabricated Presidential quotations while serving as the White House spokesman.

Speakes Quits Wall St. Amid Furor Over Fake Quotations of Reagan

LEAD: Prices at the producer level rose six-tenths of 1 percent in March, the Government said yesterday, reinforcing suspicions among some economists that inflationary pressures are building, though not rapidly.

PRODUCER PRICES POST BIGGEST RISE IN NEARLY A YEAR

LEAD: A man arrested Tuesday in New Jersey with three bombs was held without bail yesterday as authorities investigated whether he had ties to the Japanese Red Army. A Federal magistrate said there was a risk the suspect, Yu Kikumura, would flee the country.

No Bail for Man In Bomb Arrest

LEAD: After Soviet troops withdraw from Afghanistan, an Afghan Army of questionable military reliability will be pitted against a guerrilla army of uncertain military ability.

Ability of Either Side To Conquer Is Unclear

LEAD: A Japanese terrorist with links to radical Lebanese groups is suspected in the bombing of a U.S.O. club in Naples that killed five people, including an American, senior Italian officials said today.

A Japanese With Lebanese Links Blamed in Naples U.S.O. Bombing

LEAD: ''The Levin family has gone through hell because of my actions, and I am sorry. For two years, I have not been able to say I'm sorry, and I wish to have my feelings known.'' - Robert E. Chambers, at his sentencing in the death of Jennifer Levin.  [ 36:1. ]

Quotation of the Day

LEAD:  International 3-5, 32  One hijacker of a Kuwaiti jet may be a Lebanese national wanted in the United States for a 1985 hijacking in which a Navy diver was murdered, according to Reagan Administration officials.  Page 1  Two hostages delivered a plea for Kuwait to comply with their captors' main demand and release 17 convicted terrorists.

NEWS SUMMARY

LEAD: The military commander of the Palestine Liberation Organization was shot and killed at his home here Friday night, Kuwait's official press agency quoted P.L.O. officials as saying.

Top P.L.O. Official Is Reported Slain in Tunis

LEAD: An article in Business Day yesterday about a dispute involving several advertising agencies incorrectly described the status of a suit filed by the WPP Group against Young & Rubicam. State Supreme Court Justice Herman Cahn has denied WPP's request for a preliminary injunction against Young & Rubicam but has not yet ruled on the merits of its suit.

Corrections

LEAD: Despite a continuing cash shortage brought on by United States economic sanctions, the military Government had enough money to pay its 15,000-member armed forces this week, diplomats and bankers in Panama said today.

Panama Pays Military, but Not Retirees

LEAD: Virtually the entire contra leadership arrived in Managua on Friday night and opened peace talks with the Sandinista Government.

Contra Chiefs Arrive in Managua and Talks Open

LEAD: An article in Business Day yesterday about a takeover battle for Belgium's largest company, Societe Generale de Belgique, inaccurately described Gevaert N.V., one of the participants in the struggle. Gevaert is a Belgian holding company.

LEAD: Reagan Administration officials, disappointed over their failure to dislodge Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega as Panama's leader, said today that they were now aiming their efforts at weakening his hold on the loyalty of the military.

U.S. Trying New Tack To Undermine Noriega

LEAD: Unidentified attackers set off a bomb and planted a booby trap outside a United States Air Force radar and communications station near here today, an American Embassy spokesman and Spanish military officials said. The explosion caused damage but no injuries.

U.S. Post in Spain Bombed

LEAD: The United States today vetoed a Security Council resolution that urged Israel to return deported Palestinians to the occupied territories and called for a Middle East peace settlement under United Nations auspices.

U.S. Vetoes U.N. Resolution Critical of Israel

LEAD: In the United States, he is being held in a maximum-security Federal prison on charges of drug trafficking and is a suspect in a murder case. But in this poor and dusty town of 20,000 people near the Honduran-Nicaraguan border, Juan Ramon Matta Ballesteros is viewed not as a criminal but as a benefactor.

Seized Honduran: Drug Baron or a Robin Hood?

LEAD: Two of the hostages who have spent 11 days on a hijacked Kuwaiti airliner delivered a plea today for their captors' main demand to be met: the release of 17 convicted terrorists imprisoned in Kuwait.

2 Jetliner Hostages Urge That Demands Of Hijackers Be Met

LEAD: A Japanese man arrested with three powerful homemade bombs on the New Jersey Turnpike was ordered held without bail today as the authorities continued investigating possible links between the suspect and a left-wing terrorist group.

Japanese Suspect in Investigation Into Jersey Bombs Is Denied Bail

LEAD: A talent for waiting and a sense of humor have helped bring Diego Cordovez success in his six-year search for an Afghan settlement.

Diplomatic Handyman: Diego Cordovez

LEAD: The Reagan Administration and refugee organizations have criticized what they called foot-dragging by the United Nations in organizing efforts to plan the return of millions of Afghan refugees.

U.N. Seeks Oversight Role in Afghan Resettlement; U.S. Says U.N. Must Act

Kyle Henry Erovre Okposo is an American former professional ice hockey right winger who played 17 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the New York Islanders, Buffalo Sabres, and Florida Panthers. He was drafted seventh overall by the Islanders in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft. Okposo won the Stanley Cup with the Panthers in 2024.

Kyle Okposo, American ice hockey player

Kyle_Okposo

Khalil Ibrahim al-Wazir was a Palestinian leader and co-founder of the nationalist party Fatah. As a top aide of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman Yasser Arafat, al-Wazir had considerable influence in Fatah's military activities, eventually becoming the commander of Fatah's armed wing al-Assifa.

April 16, 1988

Headlines from April 16, 1988

U.S. LINKS HIJACKER ON KUWAITI PLANE TO 1985 AIR PIRACY

White Catholic Voters Called Pivotal in New York Primary

Federal Agency Bars Implanting Of Fetal Tissue

Shift to Simplicity Promises Big Advances in Computing

INSIDE

Billboard 200

Dirty Dancing

Bad

Faith

Kick

More Dirty Dancing

Notable Births

Notable Deaths

Historical Context for April 16, 1988