News In Brief

President Reagan told Chinese President Li Xiannian during their meeting Tuesday that the United States will sign a long-stalled nuclear cooperation agreement between the two countries. President Reagan also said Tuesday he will nominate Winston Lord, a former senior State Department official and an expert on Chinese affairs, to succeed Arthur Hummel as US ambassador to China.

Israel freeing 100 Lebanese

Israel will release 100 Lebanese detainees, mostly Shiite Muslims, from Atlit prison today, a military spokesman said Tuesday. The last prisoner release from Atlit was July 3, when Israel freed 300 men but denied that their release was part of a deal with the Lebanese Shiite hijackers of a Trans World Airlines plane.

The hijackers had demanded that Israel release all Lebanese prisoners at Atlit in exchange for freeing 39 Americans taken hostage on the plane.

US drops charge that Soviets rammed auto in E. Germany

The Pentagon backed off Tuesday from an earlier suggestion that a Soviet truck may have purposely rammed a car carrying three Americans in East Germany two weeks ago, saying it now appears it was an accident. Pentagon spokesman Fred Hoffman said US and Soviet military officials had met after the July 13 accident, which prompted an official American protest. Mr. Hoffman declined to elaborate despite repeated questioning or to say whether the Soviets had apologized for the incident, which occurred just four months after an American soldier, Maj. Arthur D. Nicholson Jr., was shot and killed by a Soviet sentry in East Germany.

Racial distortion in voting overturned in Alabama city

The Justice Department, working with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, has successfully attacked racially motivated local annexation in Bessemer, Ala. Under a decree signed Monday, Bessemer must change from a three-member city commission elected on an at-large basis to a mayor-council form of government with six single-member districts starting in 1986.

This is the first settlement obtained by the department's civil rights division under a section of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 aimed at overturning annexations that dilute the voting power of blacks.

Ethiopian Jews in Israel win concession on conversion rites

Ethiopian Jews, known as Falashas, won a concession Tuesday from rabbis who have demanded they undergo conversion rites to guarantee their Jewishness. After meeting Prime Minister Shimon Peres, Israel's two chief rabbis said in a statement that the new immigrants, like other Jews, would be required to take a symbolic ritual bath only before marriage in cases where their Jewishness was doubted.

The statement follows weeks of protests by 15,000 Ethiopian Jews angered because they have not been fully recognized as Jews in Israel.

More violence reported in India's Gujurat State

Four more people were killed in western Gujurat State Tuesday, and the local government said it will enforce a tough antiterrorist act beginning today. The measure prescribes the death penalty for acts that kill and gives the government powers to tap telephones, search houses, and hold secret trials. Rebel students said they would continue protests despite a truce signed Friday. Under the truce the government agreed to scrap a proposed 18 percent increase in quotas of jobs and college places reserved for underprivileged classes and castes. The rebels are demanding the complete scrapping of the minorities policy.

Banners in Manila Assembly call for ouster of Marcos

About 200 people created an uproar in the National Assembly Tuesdayby unfurling banners calling for the impeachment of President Ferdinand Marcos. The demonstration was reported to show support for opposition members who have signed a motion calling for the impeachment of Mr. Marcos, largely in connection with allegations that he, his wife, Imelda, and several of their closest friends have considerable property and other investments in the US and elsewhere.

Political torture widespreadin Turkey, Amnesty says

The torture of political prisoners, including electric shocks and beatings, is widespread and systematic in Turkey, the human rights group Amnesty International said in a report released Tuesday. The 76-page report, entitled ``Turkey: Testimony on Torture,'' said tens of thousands of people have been detained since the military takeover in 1980. It gave detailed accounts by seven women and six men of torture they said they had suffered or witnessed up to early 1984.

2 charged in bombing of Greenpeace vessel

A man and a woman were charged Tuesday with murder and arson in connection with the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior, a ship used in protests by the environmental group Greenpeace, police said. The investigation is continuing and no further details were given.

Congress to investigate military supply system

A congressional panel plans to investigate the security of the defense supply system following allegations of theft among crew members aboard the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk and the discovery of a ring alleged to have smuggled arms to Iran. Rep. Duncan L. Hunter (R) of California announced the investigation Monday.

Suit dismissed against Reagan which contested Vatican post

A federal judge has dismissed a suit filed by a civil rights lawyer against President Reagan for appointing a Vatican ambassador. Attorney Fred W. Phelps Sr. charged the appointment violated constitutional provisions of separation of church and state. US District Judge Richard Rogers ruled Monday that the case ``presented a nonjustifiable political question'' with which courts historically have not become involved.

Miami police report backs officer in stormy 1982 case

The officer whose fatal shooting of a black man sparked three days of riots in the Overtown neighborhood was justified in using deadly force, says a police internal-security report on the 1982 shooting. The report, released Monday, said Luis Alvarez broke three department rules but violated no state or department guidelines the day he shot Nevell Johnson Jr. in a video arcade. Mr. Johnson had a pistol tucked inside the waistband of his trousers, the report said. Mr. Alvarez has already been cleared by a jury of criminal wrongdoing.

Polish leader plans to visit UN in fall

Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, Poland's leader, will attend the UN General Assembly session in New York this fall, the government spokesman announced Tuesday. It will be General Jaruzelski's first trip to the West since he was named prime minister and Communist Party first secretary in 1981.

Lake Tahoe property owners lose appeal on building ban

In a severe blow to thousands of Lake Tahoe owners who plan projects on their property, a federal appeals court in San Francisco upheld Monday an injunction banning construction at the alpine lake on the California-Nevada border. The suit, filed by California's attorney general against the lake's planning agency, charged the agency's development plan endangers the fragile environment of Tahoe Basin.

But if the two sides reach a compromise plan, building could begin as early as next May, says the attorney for a group of property owners.

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