The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 1

RESULTS-ENTRIES Late Racing WEDNESDAY Morning Final 0 WEDNESDAY, JULY 23, 1980 CIRCULATION: 1,043,028 DAILY 1,289,314 SUNDAY MF112 PAGES EKCJSLs DAILY 25c Volcaimo Back Oil Mt. St. Helens Spews 60,000 Foot Ash Plume By BILL CURRY Times Staff Writer VANCOUVER, Wash. Just as concern for Mt. St.

Helens was easing, the scarred volcano erupted three times Tuesday evening and early today, sending gas, ash and steam 60,000 feet into the Washington sky. Ash was reported falling early to- IX 3sAa f- day in Yakima, 75 miles northeast, reducing visibility to a mile at one point, and the plume had crossed into Canada. Falling ash was reported as far away as Wen-atchee, 130 miles from the volcano. There were no immediate reports of death, injuries or missing persons, and officials said a firefighting crew of 120 had been safely evacuated from the volcano earlier in the day. A series of four or five earthquakes in rapid succession marked the first eruption at 5:14 p.m.

and sent up a mushroom-shape cloud visible more than 100 miles away. Follows Quake Activity As the volcano erupted, a pyro-clastic flow of ash, rock and superheated gas poured down the north side of the mountain toward Spirit Lake, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The setting sun turned the streaming bank of gray -beige steam an ash pink and orange. The first of the three eruptions sent its cloud the highest an estimated 55,000 to 60,000 feet.

The eruptions followed earthquake activity that began early Tuesday, the first such activity at Mt. St. Helens in nearly a month. Although a flood watch was posted for a 10-mile radius around the volcano, a radio reporter circling over the crater in an airplane reported no signs of lava or mud flows. Officials compared Tuesday's eruptions to those of May 25 and June 12, and said it was far less explosive than the May 18 eruption that altered the face of Mt.

St. Helens and killed at least 30 persons, with 34 others listed as missing and presumed dead. Officials at a volcano monitoring center in Vancouver, said that gas that had built up under Mt. St Helens' lava dome apparently had been released and that the lava dome was now gone. Flights Canceled "It seems to have blown its center," said Phil Cogan of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

"The dome is gone." Officials stressed, however, that the disappearance of the dome does not indicate that more eruptions will or will not occur. Residents in the small town of Cougar on the south side of Mt St Helens were asked to evacuate but most chose not to leave. Some flights into Spokane, were canceled. But the reawakening of Mt. St.

Helens brought out hundreds of sightseers in Portland, where they gathered along highways, freeway overpasses and hillsides to watch the volcano plume. Please Turn to Page 18, Col. 1 IN NEW FORMS Caste Bias Runs Deep in Indian Society By TYLER MARSHALL Times Staff Writer PATNA, India When officials in the holy city of Varanasi organized the unveiling of a statue honoring a local politician last year, they managed to get Jagjivan Ram to preside. Ram was then the deputy prime minister, the nation's No. 2 leader, but when the ceremony was over and the crowd gone, a group of high-caste Hindus arrived to wash the statue.

In the course of the ceremony, Ram had touched the statue, they said, and although he was the deputy prime minister, he was also an untouchable, and therefore the statue had to be cleansed. The incident is one of the more blatant examples of caste prejudice, which still permeates virtually every aspect of life in India. Like racial prejudice in the United States, caste bias thrives even though it is universally condemned by India's politicians and is outlawed by the constitution. Poorest of India's States Nowhere does this bias run deeper than here in Bihar, the poorest, most backward of India's 22 states, where the Hindu relative of Jim Crow governs a system of prejudice far more intricate and complex than anything known in the American South. Sometimes the message is straightforward, in the worst tradition of the Ku Klux Klan.

Earlier this year, following a bitter land dispute between an untouchable and a low-caste but relatively powerful farming family, a gang crept into the untouchable village, locked people in their huts and then set them afire. "From the village of 150, there were about six survivors," said Sha-ram Akinchan, a professor of sociology at the A. N. Sinha Institute of Social Studies here. Four of those who survived the incident have since been killed, Akinchan said.

Caste bias is also widespread in Bihar's law enforcement agencies, and justice is rare. The opposition leader in the state legislature, Kar-puri Thakur, recently accused the police of trampling four untouchables to death during a raid on a village in which the only homes not ransacked were those of four upper-caste people. Tip of the Iceberg But caste violence represents only the tip of the iceberg. Most discrimination is more subtle and felt most by those from lower castes trying to move up the social scale. Akinchan, who was born into a lowly caste of goldsmiths but acquired a higher education at the expense of a philanthropic Brahman, is an example of upward mobility.

It is far from the norm, however. He described his appointment to the Sinha Institute as something of a fluke. "There was some confusion because I was so well-educated and had good recommendations," he recalled. "I think they felt I was upper caste." Still, his sociology degree from the Sorbonne in Paris accounts for little at the more prestigious social Please Tarn to Page 8, Col. 1 FEATURE INDEX ART.

Calendar, Page 2. ASTROLOGY. Part II, Page 5. BOOK REVIEW. View, Page 1.

BRIDGE. View, Page 6. BUSINESS. Part TV. CALENDAR.

Part VL CLASSIFIED. Part VH. COMICS. View. Page 7.

CROSSWORD. Part VII. Page 20. DEAR ABBT. Part II.

Page 2. EDITORIAL, COLUMNS. Part II. Pages 6, 7. FILMS.

Calendar, Pages 1-6. METROPOLITAN NEWS. Part IL MUSIC Calendar, Pages 1, 4. SPORTS. Part UX STAGE.

Calendar, Pages 6, 7. TV-RADIO. Calendar, Pages 1, 8, 9. VIEW. Part V.

WEATHER, DEATHS. Part Page 23. Khomeini Foe Assassinated in Washington By OSWALD JOHNSTON and DON SHANNON Times Staff Writers WASHINGTON A leading opponent of the revolutionary Khomeini regime in Iran was shot and killed Tuesday in the doorway of his suburban Washington home by a man posing as a mail carrier. The victim was Ali Tabatabai, a former press attache at the Iranian Embassy here during the rule of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. Tabatabai became widely known in Washington's expatriate Iranian community as a spokesman for former Prime Minister Shahpour Bakhtiar, himself the target of an assassination attempt in Paris last Friday.

On the day he was killed, Tabatabai had been organizing demonstrations against the Ayatollah Ruhol-lah Khomeini's regime scheduled for next Sunday in Washington and Los Angeles. Associates said he telephoned Bakhtiar in Paris earlier Tuesday to discuss the demonstrations. They Are Mad, Really Mad' In a telephone interview with United Press International only a few hours before his death, Tabatabai said, "You have no idea what madmen they are (in Iran)." Saying that press reports of gruesome official executions in the streets of Tehran were true, he added, "They (the religious zealots wielding power in the country) are mad, really mad." Local police and the FBI said Tabatabai, opening the door of his Be-thesda, home, was shot several times in the stomach by a man dressed in the summer shorts and pith helmet of the U.S. Postal Service. The killer claimed to have two special delivery packages for Tabatabai, according to one of three Iranians who were in the house when the anti-Khomeini activist was shot FBI sources said the abducted mailman, Tyrone Frazier, 31, was released unharmed and that he provided a description of his abductors.

Citing the attempt on Bakhtiar, Please Turn to Page 7, Col. 1 Last week Billy Carter, under pressure from the Justice Department, registered as a foreign agent of the radical Libyan government and disclosed that he had accepted $220,000 from that regime. The relationship between Billy Carter and the Libyan government has been the subject of a federal investigation for more than a year. In Please Turn to Page 10, Col. 1 THE WEATHER National Weather Service forecast Considerable low cloudiness early moming hours today and Thursday, otherwise hazy sunshine.

Highs both days in the mid -80s. High Tuesday. 84; low, 63. High July 22 last year, 81; low, 63. Record high July 22, 98 in 1887; record low, 52 in 1880.

Complete weather information and smog forecast in Part Page 23. NEW ERUPTIONS Mt. St. Helens and ash 60,000 feet in the sky. Associated Press photo Gates Requests 5-Foot Police Height Standard CHICKEN, PORK AFFECTED Record Heat Wave Will Push Food Prices Up PRESIDENT REBUKES BROTHER Billy Carter Role in Iran Hostage Crisis Disclosed By ROBERT L.

JACKSON and DON IRWIN TlffiM Stuff Wrllw sends a new plume of steam SING Writer ident and senior economist at Bank of America, which Tuesday presented its annual report outlining 1980 prospects for California agriculture. Please Turn to Page 18, Col. 1 DECISION BY FCC COULD INCREASE CABLE TV SHOWS By PENNY PAGANO Tlims Staff Wrttw WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission Tuesday paved the way for the nation's cable television systems to increase the number of programs they can carry. In a major action, the commission voted 4 to 3 to eliminate rules that limited the programs and the number of TV signals that cable systems could pick up from distant cities. The commission said the old rules had artificially restricted competition and that their removal would offer viewers "greater choices of when to watch nationally syndicated programs, as well as which programs to watch." Please Turn to Page 11, CoL 4 By BILL Tlnws Stiff Californians may be escaping the record heat wave scorching the Midwest and South, but they will still have to sweat out its after-effects at the supermarket in the form of higher food prices.

Consumers will pay more for several foods, especially chicken, pork and some fresh vegetables, because of the month-old drought, many analysts say. The only bright spot for consumers may be that beef price increases could ease in the short run although they are expected to bounce back up later. The food cost increases some of which are already occurring will come on top of price hikes already forecast for the second half of this year. On the other hand, fanners in California the nation's No. 1 agricultural state will benefit from higher farm prices, experts say.

They are now receiving higher prices for chicken, cotton and grain, brightening an outlook which already had them doing better than their counterparts elsewhere this year, even though farmers everywhere are suffering from higher production costs this year. "The heat wave will have a positive impact on (California) farmers but a negative impact on consumers," said Eric Thor, a vice pres By JERRY BELCHER and RICHARD O'REILLY TtiMt Staff Writers In a move to expand recruitment of women into the department, Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates asked Tuesday that the minimum height standard for officers be dropped to 5 feet. The current minimum is 5 feet, 6 inches. The proposal, a response to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeal's interim order that 25 of all new officers hired be females, drew instant verbal fire from male cops on the beat Gates had been a longtime foe of political and legal efforts to reduce the standard to 5 feet Opposed by Male Officers Los Angeles is one of the last big-city police forces that maintains a minimum height standard in excess of five feet according to a department official.

Most of the others either have none or lowered them years ago. Nine out of 10 male officers interviewed Tuesday strongly opposed the height standard reduction, which applies to both men and women. "It's ridiculous," said Officer Javier Gonzalez in a typical reaction. "I refuse to work with them they're putting me and themselves Please Tarn to Page 25, CoL 1 WASHINGTON The White House said Tuesday that as part of its effort to free the U.S. hostages in Iran, it used Billy Carter's controversial ties to Libya to arrange a meeting between national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski and a Libyan official.

The White House disclosed also that Brzezinski had warned Billy Carter last March not to do anything that might "cause embarrassment" to his brother, President Carter, or to the Administration. In a statement President Carter rebuked his brother and sought to divorce himself from any past improprieties on Billy's part and said all the facts should be made public. "I do not believe it is appropriate," the President said, "for a close relative of the President to undertake any assignment on behalf of a foreign government Facts relating to the existence of any such relationship should be fully and publicly disclosed." I.