Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - April 15, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba 4 Winnipeg free press wednesday april 15, 1981 photo Nasa technicians examine nose of space shuttle Columbia to Check out state of heat resistant tiles on the Craft s underside spaceship in Good condition a smiling John Young left and Bob Crippen answer questions yesterday about shuttle flight. Lebanese ministers hit deck Ament Beirut a government minis ters and deputies Dove for shelter yest erday when mortar and machine gun fire crashed around the lebanese parliament building. After three hours sol Diers from both sides of the capital s moslem Christian Frontier escorted the officials to safety. Syrian forces and Lebanon s rightist Christian militias accused each other of starting the shooting which threatened a precarious ceasefire in the bloody syrian Christian confrontation. One guard was wounded on the parliament grounds and three civilians were reported killed in the sudden flare up of mortar and Small arms exchanges. This shelling is a Challenge to the dignity of the parliament speaker Kamal Assad said after his Rescue. Soon after the parliament shelling ended four guards were injured by three shells that slammed into a guard Post about 100 metres from the presidential Palace eight Kilometres East of the parliament building a police spokesman said. Assad was presiding Over parliamentary committee meetings in the Villa Mansour building which is on the five Kilometre Green line dividing Beirut s moslem and Christian sectors when shells started falling at 11 . In the courtyard and around the posh Villa. Shrapnel tears through bomb shrapnel Tore through Glass windows into the conference Hall forc ing ministers and legislators to crawl to Sanctuary in corridors the Christian voice of Lebanon radio station re ported. At the request of president Elias Sarkis the syrian command and the lebanese army mounted Rescue operations from opposite sides of the Green line the spokesman said. A syrian armoured unit got moslem ministers and legislators to the moslem Side and a lebanese army unit escorted the christians from the Villa to the other Side As sniper fire rang out from All directions. In an apparently unrelated incident two lebanese policemen guarding the . Embassy were wounded shootout near the embassy building on the seafront in the capital s moslem sector. Police said the shooting Fol Lowed an argument Between the offi cers and refugees trying to move into a derelict building about 100 metres from the embassy. Continued from Page 1 stretched several hours longer than expected when toxic freon Gas was detected around the ship. One Nasa official the concentrations were Small perhaps from a vented Cooling sys tem. Trials May be Cut if subsequent test flights Are Success Ful officials May consider accelerating shuttle program perhaps cutting thelast of three trial runs. That could Advance to mid-1982 the Date the ship can begin moving routinely into space carrying up payloads for military scientific and commercial missions. Donald Slayton a former astronaut who Heads the shuttle test flight pro Gram said the desert Landing at Edwards was so perfect that Columbia May return to Earth at a runway at Cape canaveral sooner than expected. The first Landing near the launch site now is set for the fifth mis Sion. Alan Lovelace acting Nasa director said Columbia s Shakedown flight was Sweet vindication for the Long delayed rocket ship flagship of a Fleet of at least four shuttles that will Anchor the . Space Effort for the next two decades. Each will be capable of at least 100 round trips into space carrying As Many As seven people and 32 tons of cargo. Gate to Opportunity i think John and Crip have opened the Gateway to Opportunity and i Hope the United states shows the resolve to seize that he said. John and Crip want a piece of the pie. As the Rookie of the group i can say that waiting 12 years to get my flight in space was really Worth Crippen said yesterday. Ill go stand in line for another 12 years if that is what it will take but i Don t think it will. I think we re Back in the space business to president Reagan said your Brave adventure has opened a new Era in space travel. You put new worlds with in closer reach and More knowledge within our grasp. Today our friends and adversaries Are reminded that we Are a free people capable of great deeds. We Are free people in search of Progress for Mankind and today we found a Little pm premiers won t Rule out joint meeting Ottawa up Federal and provincial leaders were keeping options open today As eight premiers prepared to meet to consider a proposal for constitutional amendment they Hope to sell to prime minister Trudeau. Spokesmen for Trudeau and the pre Miers would not Rule out the possibility that All the leaders could meet after tomorrow s meetings Here of the pre Miers alone. This was despite state ments in the last week that appeared to make such a meeting unlikely. Premiers Bill Bennett of British co Lumbia Peter Lougheed of Alberta Allan Blakeney of Saskatchewan Ster Ling Lyon of Manitoba Rene Levesque of Quebec John Buchanan of Nova Scotia Angus Maclean of Prince Edward Island and Brian Peckford of Newfoundland planned a private meeting tonight. They were to discuss tactics and tidy up the amending formula they have put together largely by Tele phone. William Davis of Ontario and Richard Hatfield of new Brunswick sup porters of the Federal liberals constitutional package that the others oppose will not be Here. The eight will meet before television cameras for about an hour at 10 . Cost tomorrow to put their official Stamps of approval on the formula. They will follow that with a news conference. No response no other event is scheduled. But spokesmen have been careful to note that neither Trudeau nor Lyon chair Man of the premiers conference nor any other Premier has said flatly that they could not meet tomorrow after noon to discuss the formula. The prime minister has not responded to the provincial a spokesman for Lyon said last night. It is difficult for the premiers to Call the place and time for a he was referring to a Telegram from Lyon to Trudeau on april 3 in which the Premier said there would be a meeting Here april 16 of the eight and they wanted to meet Trudeau subsequent Trudeau has not flatly rejected a meeting. But he said in a message to Lyon monday if the premiers on whose behalf you wrote to me can agree upon an amending formula i am sure that it will make our work easier the Constitution has been Patriot if All goes Well for the Federal govern ment the Constitution will be returned to Canada from Britain in july com plete with an amending formula of Trudeau s choosing but which the eight oppose. A spokesmen for the prime minister s office said last night the prime minis Ter s message did not Rule out Trudeau meeting some or All of them after the meeting. Lyon said in Winnipeg yesterday he Hopes Trudeau will give serious consideration to the proposals of the eight. The premiers have not said what their proposal is except that it is a modification of past formulas for amending the Constitution. Their position is considered to be bolstered by the fact that Levesque s parti quebecois government strongly opposed to Trudeau s package was re elected with an overwhelming majority this week. If the premiers want to change tru Deau s package before it is sent to Britain for passage in the parliament at Westminster they must act fast. Tuesday deadline under an All party agreement it will not be possible to Amend the package in the commons after next tuesday. Presumably the progressive conserva Tives who have been supporting the premiers could present their plan As part of an omnibus tory amendment that will be presented tuesday. The supreme court of Canada begins hearing appeals against constitutional judgments by the Manitoba and Newfoundland Appeal courts later this month. Nip rapped in budget continued from Page 1 momentum to our in other budget moves the govern ment exempted used immovable machinery purchased As part of a Plant from sales taxes retroactively to May 14, 1980. The government also will exempt Lien notes on farm machinery truck and automobile dealerships from corporation capital taxes effective july 1. Admitting it was a relatively Small Ransom also announced the government plans to spend in a demonstration program for Energy efficient housing. Under the plan 100 buyers of houses to be built this year to Energy efficient standards will receive a tax free Grant on completion of the House. Ransom laced his budget with Liberal amounts of nip and Ottawa bashing resulting in frequent and noisy heckling from opposition benches. He said his budget was cautious because of fear the Federal government would reduce Transfer payments to the province move he predicted could Cost Manitoba Between Mil lion and million in cutbacks. Defending the government s deficit Ransom said it remains within manageable and the government will make Quick adjustments if needed. We Are using the deficit concept in exactly the manner that responsible economists suggest it should be co operation pledged by postal Union Leader continued from Page 1 the Bill would allow the Post office and the unions to bargain under the Canada labor code instead of the Public service staff relations act and would broaden the list of negotiable items. Parrot said he is anxious to see who will be appointed to head the proposed postal corporation and what direct Ion the company will take. He pledged the co operation of the unions As Long As there is better service for the Public and Good relations with the throughout much of the final round of postal debate opposition maps focussed on poor postal service and slow mail delivery. The Bill similar to 1978 legislation that never got off the ground is expected to streamline postal operations which now Are handled by three Federal departments Treasury Board pays the Bills Public works builds and maintains facilities and the Post office department runs daily operations. The legislation also gives the Public the right to oppose increases in postal rates. But the Bill was carefully crafted so the proposed corporation As yet unnamed would be denied a monopoly Over electronic data transmission in coming years As technology is Deve loped to permit electronic mail Deli very. Conversion of the government department to a Crown corporation has been recommended by unions and in several Federal studies for years. Parrot noted the government was first urged to consider the Crown corporation idea in 1947. Arm stand irks allies the los Angeles times Washington Secretary of de sense Caspar w. Weinberger said yesterday that he is opposed to any arms control talks with the soviet Union until the russians at the very limit their troops now deployed in positions near the polish Border. At the very least the divisions deployed around Poland Are about of them have to be Weinberger told a group of reporters at a breakfast meeting. American allies have been pushing the United states to begin arms talks with the soviets As part of a planned nato buildup of tactical nuclear weapons in Western Europe. But Weinberger s hard line approach to arms talks was at Odds with a formula adopted by nato defence ministers in Bonn last week and with positions taken publicly by Secretary of state Alexander m. Haig or. Weinberger and other Allied defence chiefs had agreed in Bonn that such arms talks should go Forward unless the soviets intervene in the a Temal affairs of the West germans in particular were annoyed last week when Wein Berger told reporters a Day after Leav ing Bonn that talks could not go Forward so Long As there were threats of violence or intimidation around Poland. This seemed to the germans to go Well beyond the formula worked out the Day before. Now Weinberger has stretched the formula further by suggesting that the soviets would have to reduce their forces near Poland before talks could begin. Officials at the department of state who refused to permit use of their names said that they anticipated an eruption of dissatisfaction in Europe especially in West Germany Belgium and the Netherlands when Wein Berger s latest position on the arms control talks Issue becomes known there. The substantial West German invest ment in detente with the soviet bloc and the reluctance of Belgium and Holland to deploy modernize nuclear weapons has been an irritant within nato for several years. Haig was told by the germans when he visited Bonn last saturday that the arms talks should get under Way in parallel with nato s nuclear deploy ment preparations in order to keep pressure on the soviets to stay out of Poland. In the German View arms negotiation is one of the few remaining Points of leverage we have with the one of the state department officials said. Haig stopped briefly in Bonn two Days after Weinberger s visit there and caught the full Brunt of West German unhappiness with the defence Secretary s hard line statements to re porters travelling with him. At a news conference in Bonn Haig refused to discuss what Weinberger had said about making arms talks contingent upon the soviets dropping threats against Poland. Later however reporters travelling with Haig were told that repetitive threats or a High level of reference to danger of a soviet invasion were a bad idea. The statement was Given to re porters by a senior government offi Cial on condition that he not be identified. One might make the Case that an overemphasis repeated warnings at a High level could distort the Deci Sion making process in a negative the official said. I think we have to be measured in the warnings every time the West opens its Mouth every time we say something it has an effect on in any Case the Reagan administration apparently has decided to put off even the beginnings of arms control talks with the soviets until after Haig. Meets next september at the United nations with soviet foreign minister Andrei a. Gromyko. Meanwhile Weinberger indicated yesterday that the soviet military threat against Poland appears slowly easing even while soviet Politi Cal propaganda against Solidarity the Independent polish Trade Union federa Tion continues at a High pitch. Weinberger annoys allies ;