European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 18, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Pago 28 the stars and stripes news briefs seasonal drop in exports widened . Trade deficit Washington a the nation s Trade deficit widened slightly in january to s 12.4 Bil lion after to months of Sharp improvement. The Commerce department said thursday. The excess of imports Over exports was lip from the 112.2 billion deficit in december. Exports which had propelled improvement in november and december fell by 10 percent i january to 122.3 billion. The Reagan administration said he figures Are better than they appear at first glance. There was a seasonal decline in exports which have dropped in january every year of this decade said Commerce Secretary c. Wil Liam Verity in a statement. Overall he said he figures confirm he improving trend of the past few months. There is obviously a Long Way 10 go to eliminate the Trade a Cicil. Bui we Are on the right track verily said. Austria s Sinowitz to quit As socialist party chief Vienna. Austria api socialist party chief Fred is Nowata Slid thursday he will resign his Post Ai an extraordinary party conference on May 11, becoming the latest victim of the continuing controversy Over president Kurt Wald he inns world War ii past. The 59-year-old party chief and former Chan cellar has been one of the socialist party s most outspoken critics of Waldheim. After a meeting of he socialist party leadership sin Walz told a news conference he pro posed that Chancellor Franz Wranitzky be nominated As the Only candidate for election As party chairman no the May convention. Political analysis said his resignation was an at tempt to unite and strengthen the socialist parly. Sinowitz said he had grown tired of holding Public office after serving 17 years in National politics. Mitchell to leave Berlin for reassignment in . Berlin Mai. Gen. John h. Mitchell the . Commander m Berlin will be reassigned Earty this summer to the special assistant to the vice chief of staff of the army. Maj. Gen. Raymond e. Haddock chief of staff of the . Army training and doctrine come at fort Monroe va., will replace Mitchell As the Berlin commander. Mitchell has served in Berlin since july 1984,. No Date has been i for the change of com Mand. Friday March 18.19bb unrest uprisings add to tenseness in Panama Panama City Panama a the government announced thursday it was taking Over All Public scr Iccy a Day after a failed coup attempt by rebel officers sparked noting by thousands of people. Soldiers Loyal to military strongman Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega patrolled the streets after wednes Day s rampage by people fed up with military Rule and the nation s financial crisis. The disturbances were the largest since civilian demonstrations for Noriega s ouster began last summer. Dressed in Battle gear and armed with shotguns sidearms ear Gas canisters and robber truncheons soldiers spread throughout the City and were on every Corner in Many areas. The coup attempt wednesday led by Panama s police chief was quickly crushed. Trie civilian government installed by the Noriega forces is under increasing economic and political pres sure from the United states for Noriega to step Downs military Leader and leave the country. A decree issued thursday said the government would take Over electric service communications Potts water services airports hospitals and the farm and Dairy products marketing Institute. The decree said defense form were instructed to cooperate with the government agencies and insure hat Public order is maintained. Electric Power shut of by striking workers wednes Day was restored Early thursday but then went off again. The cause of the outage was not known. Wednesday s protests erupted spontaneously throughout the capital and in the country s second largest City. Colon so Miles o he North. The attempted coup was the fins indication of opposition to Noriega within the Panama defense forces the 15,000-member military and police unil he Heads. H began after Dawn with gunfire inside the walled defense forces Headquarters in he capital the . Southern military come put its 10,000 personnel and their dependent on highest Security Alert. Anti Noriega demonstrators temporarily blocked Access to two of the command s seven bases along the Panama canal. Noriega was indicted last month by to Federal grand juries in Florida on drug trafficking charges that link him to Colombia s infamous med Calm drug Cartel. Spain formally offered him Asylum and reports Indi Cate the dominican Republic and Paraguay have also made the same offer Banks remained closed by government order for the 12th straight Day on wednesday. Most had closed Day earlier because of a run on deposits and the govern ment inability to provide them with Cash to cover withdrawals. Charges from Paga 1 today program. Rep. Lee Hamilton d-ind., who chaired the House Iran Conata committee defended the indictment saying it reflected Many of the committee s findings even though he panel did not say criminal acts were involved. Secord called the charges a creation of fantasy.  speaking in a Telephone interview he said he would crush the Case with Legal mane vering in Hopes that nobody else has to go through what i  the massive 101-Page indictment resumed wednes Day by a special grand jury that has investigated he Case for 14 months charges North Hakim and Secor engaged in a conspiracy to circumvent a statutory ban on . Aid to the nicaraguan rebels by Selling up a private weapons Supply network for the contras the alleged conspiracy which he indictment says was later joined by Poindexter also corrupted the arms for hostage deals with Iran by diverting More than half lie 530 million generated by the weapons sales to foreign Bank accounts controlled by Hakim and Secord the indictment said. This Money was used for other activities of the alleged Enterprise including diversion o he con Das As Well As the personal gain of Hakim Secord and North the. Indictment  and Secord were runner accused of conspiring to give North illegal gratuities in he form of si3,800 Security system at his great Falls va., Home and setting up a $200,000 education fund for North s , a retired Navy rear Admiral and North now assigned to Marine Headquarters Are charged with obstructing congressional inquiries by falsely denying that North coordinated the private arms network. Both also Are charged with obstructing the novem Ber 1986 congressional inquiry into the arms sales to Iran As the Iran Centra affair was unravelling by Mak ing false statements to the House and Senate Intelli gence committees North is also charged with obstructing the nov. 21 23 presidential inquiry by attorney general Edwin Mcnese Iii by destroying and falsifying classified documents and making false statements to a desc s investigators. The indictment also alleges that Pom Denler deleted a file of All messages he Send and received in the National Security Council s computer system after memo discussing a diversion was uncovered by Meese s investigation. Honduras from Page 1 spokesman said. Palmerola is about to Miles Northwest of Tegucigalpa the capital and about 125 Miles West of where heavy fighting was reported wednesday. Honduran military intelligence sources said about 4.000 honduran soldiers were surrounding about 2,000 nicaraguan troops. The armed forces spokesman said the troops were Sis Miles inside Honduras. The sources told the associated press that the sandinista soldiers had been in the Border province of Lancho East of Tegucigalpa for 24 hours when Hon Duran troops encircled them wednesday. The sources speaking on condition of anonymity said the entire honduran military is on Alert. The . Embassy spokesman said 26 c-141 planes with troops were arriving at Palmerola every 30 min utes in an operation code named Golden pheasant. In Washington presidential spokesman Marlin Filz water said the Complete deployment would take about 27 hours. The two battalions will conduct Field exercises with honduran units. It was the most dramatic show of . Force in the six year nicaraguan War and came in response o request for help from honduran president Jose Azo Nanoyoa. Since 1981, Honduras has been a key ally for the United slates in Central America. Until Early 19b7, Honduras was the major staging ground for attacks into Nicaragua by the .-Backcd contras. The rebels now say most of their forces Are inside Nicaragua. The United slates maintains about 1,100 soldiers at any one time distributed among several military installations in Honduras. Ortega did confirm that heavy fighting was under Way near the Border but Nicaragua s defense ministry denied sandinista troops entered Honduras. Bendana said sandinista troops were on a routine military operation to push contras Back into Honduras and said in had been successfully completed. Ben Dana said sandinista troops had begun withdrawing from the Border Region and he invited the United nations and organization of american Stales to visit the area to see for themselves. The intelligence sources in Honduras said the Sandi Nisla troops apparently entered Honduras late tuesday o destroy a base Camp of he contras. Some Senate democrats said Reagan is unjustified in his action. But sen. Alan Dixon d-i1i. Said after a classified briefing thai there has clearly been a penetration by sandinista troops in fair numbers into Honduras. Most of the men being ferried on a total of 55 transport planes were flying directly to Palmerola but about Soo would Parachute into honduran territory about 5 Miles away and then move toward Palmerola said the commander of the 82nd airborne maj. Gen. . Shultz appearing before the Senate budget com Mittee Laid out this scenario intelligence efforts detected preparations for nicaraguan drive March 9. First Contact Between the sandinista and contras inside Honduras came he next Day. On tuesday the contras reported heavy fighting and attacks from nicaraguan bombers inside Honduras on wednesday we saw a presence of 1,600 o2,000 sandinista troops in Honduras. Aiding the nicaraguan ground forces were bombers and heavily armed helicopters he said. Shultz Laid part of the responsibility for the contras dire Straits on the House which last month voted not to renew Aid to the rebels. Bui the drumbeat of demo cratic opposition continued. House speaker Jim Wright of Texas said i know of nothing hat justifies sending troops to Honduras. Sen. John Kerry d-mass., called the . Move an Ovir Carton adding i think the notion that there s a real invasion is just  it s an overreaction said Senate majority Leader Robert Byrd . We be heard the administration cry Wolf Wolf  for the republicans sen. Larry Pressler of South Dakota said on Abc that As predicted As soon As the moneys were taken away from the Freedom Fighier Ortega invaded another  Pressler said Nicara Gua had become