The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 1

tas Anml Circulation: 1,103,656 Daily 1,368,105 Sunday Monday, August 25, 1986 LF 100 PagCS Copyright 1986The Times Mirror Company Daily 25t 6THie People Were Sleepie as Volcano Gas Killed 2 0(D) Dow Takes a Monday Wash From Times Wire Services NEW YORK The stock market closed lower today. The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials closed down 16.03 at 1.871.77. New York Stock Exchange volume was about 104.35 million shares compared with 118.13 million shares Friday. Tables in Business Section Cuba Threatens Games Boycott From Reuters STUTTGART, West Germany Cuba will boycott the 1988 summer Olympic Games in Seoul if North Korea is not allowed to stage the games jointly, former Cuban athlete Alberto Juantorena said today. Juantorena, in Stuttgart as Cuban delegate to the International Amateur Athletic Federation congress, said: "If the discussions between South and North Korea about sharing the games do not succeed, we will definitely not be going." The International Olympic Committee gave the Games to South Korea but discussed staging some events in North Korea.

Commuter Plane Lands Safely SAN DIEGO GW-The pilot of a Sky West commuter plane shut down one of the aircraft's two engines because of an apparent malfunction before landing the plane safely in San Diego today, authorities said. The twin -engine turboprop was going to San Diego from Los Angeles when the pilot noticed oil pressure fluctuations in an engine. Nine passengers were believed to have been on board. The plane landed without incident at Lindbergh Field. AOf 'fs 3 il i Reuters Anatoly Shcharansky puts arm around mother as five members of family arrive in Vienna.

Others allowed to emigrate are: his nephew, Alexander, far left; his sister-in-law, Raya, holding her son, Boris; and his brother, Leonid, right. Men behind Raya are security officers. Home Resales Rise 1.8 in July WASHINGTON C)-Sales of existing homes rose 1.8 to an annual rate of 3.45 million last month in the first increase since April, the National Assn. of Realtors said today. Home mortgage interest rates had begun rising in May, cramping sales a bit in that month and in June, but rates began easing again in late June, helping resales of existing homes in July.

Today's figure is 8.8 higher than in July, 1985. U.S. Readies 3-Prong Plan to Fight Libyan Terrorism N.Y. Firm to Redo Pershing Sq. A New York architectural firm was selected today to design the renovation of downtown's Pershing Square Park.

A plan by SITE Projects Inc. was selected over 240 other proposals by a jury of architects, artists and local civic leaders. It calls for the square -block park to be rimmed with palm trees and dotted with clusters of "mini -environments" built around a restaurant and plant-woven trellis. The city's Community Redevelopment Agency is contributing $6 million to the renovation, with the rest raised by a nonprofit corporation. 5 Nations Rush Aid to Cameroon From Times Wire Services YAOUNDE, Cameroon At least 1,200 people were killed and 300 hospitalized when an underwater volcanic explosion unleashed deadly gases at Lake Nios in a remote area of northern Cameroon, President Paul Biya said today.

"The people were sleeping and heard a noise," Biya told reporters. "The gases intoxicated them and they died." Biya said the leak has stopped but issued warnings for travelers to the area. He appeared with visiting Israeli Prime Minster Shimon Peres, who earlier described the explosion as "a great catastrophe." Biya said that the tragedy occurred Friday night as the victims slept in their homes on the lake shore and that the gas spread over a 10-mile radius around the town of Wum, 250 miles northwest of here. He said 300 survivors were being treated in hospitals for gas poisoning. Biya said the type of gas that killed the villagers had not been determined.

U.S. scientists said there were four possibilities: hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide or a combination of the three. A government announcement Sunday night said the killer gas was hydrogen sulfide, but volcanic experts questioned the analysis. Haroun Tazieff, France's pre-eminent volcanologist, was quoted by the French press as saying hydrogen sulfide is light enough to dissipate quickly and has such a strong odor that people would be alerted and flee. Tazieff said it is much more likely that a large quantity of colorless, odorless carbon monoxide, released from beneath the lake's surface, hugged the ground, killing the villagers before they knew it.

Darrell Herd of the U.S. Geologi -cal Survey in Reston, said hydrogen sulfide is usually only a minor component of volcanic gases. He speculated that the disaster might have been caused by either carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide. 37 Killed Earlier Herd said that in 1984 a cloud of odorless carbon dioxide killed 37 people in the same area as the latest disaster. In 1984, the lethal gas had been trapped in sediment at the bottom of a lake and was released by a landslide or a small earth tremor, he said.

A doctor at the main hospital in Yaounde said the victims were poisoned by a mixture of gases, including hydrogen and sulfur. He said the symptoms were like being gassed by a kitchen stove: burning pains in the eyes and nose, coughing and signs of asphyxiation similar to strangulation. The casualty figure seesawed throughout the day. At one point, an information minister said 2,000 had died. The official radio said that was a mistake and that 40 had died.

Rescue teams were initially blocked from reaching the scene because gas was detected in the air. The site is in a mountainous region with unpaved roads rendered nearly impassable in the current rainy season. One report had said the whole population had been wiped out in a community around Nios. The toll from the natural toxic gas release puts the disaster on a par with the worst man-made gas accident in history, when more than 2,000 people died in Bhopal, India, from a methyl isocyanate leak in December, 1984. Joseph Mokassa, top staff aide to the provincial governor in Bamen-da, the provincial capital, said by telephone that he saw many dead but did not have precise figures.

Peres arrived in Cameroon today and is expected to announce a resumption of diplomatic relations between the two nations. (Story, Page 2. It was the first official visit to black Africa by an Israeli prime minister in more than 20 years. He brought with him a 17-member Israeli medical team to assist local authorities. The United States, France, Britain and West Germany also sent rescue teams and other assistance.

official as saying, "We know the Libyans have forgotten the lesson they learned last April." Another top official told the newspaper that Kadafi "seems to have gone off his rocker again." The report coincided with the beginning of U.S.-Egyptian military exercises in the Mediterranean off the coast of Libya. However, U.S. officials said the exercises would not be conducted near Kadafi's "line of death" across the Gulf of Sidra. There have been frequent reports that Kadafi's rule is under challenge, and he went into seclusion after the surprise April bombing raid the first military assault ordered by Reagan to back up his anti-terrorism campaign. The Journal said the United States has prepared a three -pronged program of military, covert and economic actions intended to preempt more Libyan-sponsored terrorism, to exacerbate political and economic tensions in Libya, and to remind Kadafi and his inner circle that promoting terrorism may be hazardous to their health.

Frontier Bankruptcy Delayed DENVER (UPD The filing of bankruptcy papers for Frontier Airlines was delayed today while meetings were under way on the possible sale of Frontier to United Air Lines. S. Africa Police Fire on Students From Reuters JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-Police opened fire with shotguns on several hundred students in South Africa's largest black township today, killing one person and wounding eight, the government said. The dead man was an adult, but it was not clear whether the wounded were students. Earlier the Bureau of Information said a 5-year-old girl in Natal province was killed Sunday night when a hand grenade was thrown through her bedroom window.

WASHINGTON officials are pursuing a package of actions including making plans for another military strike to head off renewed terrorist actions sponsored by Libya, Administration officials said today. The officials said a three-pronged effort, combining covert activities and tightening the economic screws on Libya with plans for new military action, was undertaken because of indications that Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi is resuming his support for international terrorism. The Wall Street Journal, citing U.S. and West European intelligence sources, reported today that Kadafi has "gone off his rocker again" and has begun planning new terrorist attacks after a lull that followed April's U.S. bombing raid against Tripoli and Benghazi.

Back in Business The officials, who insisted that they not be identified, told United Press International that the CIA has become convinced the volatile Libyan leader is moving back into the terrorism business. The White House had no comment on the reports. President Reagan is vacationing in California. The officials described a concentrated effort by the United States to exploit what is seen as Kadafi's domestic vulnerability, melding unspecified covert activities and efforts to encourage U.S. allies to tighten an economic embargo against Libya to undermine his rule.

Contingency Plans The Pentagon is drawing up contingency plans for sterner military action against Libya in the event that renewed terrorist actions are traced to Kadafi, the officials said. The April attack was launched in retaliation for the bombing of a West Berlin night club that killed two people and injured scores of American servicemen. The Journal quoted a senior U.S. Shcharansky Sees Family; 1st Time Since 78 From Associated Press Anatoly Shcharansky was reunited with his family today for the first time since he was sent to a Soviet prison in 1978. Shcharansky, 38, was freed in an East-West prisoner exchange last February, and five members of his family were allowed to emigrate from the Soviet Union today.

The reunion occurred in the privacy of a Vienna airport lounge before all six flew to Israel. "I feel good now. I've seen Tolya," Shcharansky's 78-year-old mother, Ida Milgrom, said after the meeting. Milgrom; her elder son, Leonid; his wife, Raya, and their sons, Alexander, 14, and Boris, 1, arrived on a flight of the Soviet airline Aeroflot. They were subjected to rigorous customs checks in Moscow and seen off by 30 well-wishers.

Their emigration was part of the February exchange agreement. Anatoly Shcharansky had been convicted of spying for the United States but he and the U.S. government denied the charges. Shcharansky lives in Israel with his wife, Avital, who was allowed to leave the Soviet Union several years ago and had traveled the world seeking support for his release. He flew to Vienna shortly before the Aeroflot jet arrived.

When asked for comment about his family's emigration, the Jewish human rights activist said in English: "(The Soviets) wanted to get something for this. I hope they get nothing." It was the first time all the Shcharanskys had been together since Anatoly was sentenced. Milgrom said in Moscow that she had seen her younger son only six times, on rare prison visits. Feeling 'Wonderful' "Well, here we are in Vienna," she said as she stepped off the plane smiling. Did she ever think the day would come? "No," she replied.

She said "wonderful" in Russian when asked how she felt, adding that the most important thing was to "see my son." Leonid Shcharansky, 39, begged off a barrage of questions with the comment: "I am very, very tired, especially the last few days in the Soviet Union." On the flight from the Soviet capital, they were relieved about the departure but not exuberant. There was a sense of anticipation and some apprehension about the future. "You leave behind a lot, really a lot," Leonid said. "First, at least, we'll go to Israel. But we'll see after that.

We're just starting out in the West. We lived here for 40 years, and now we'll see what happens there." Post Office Killer Trained Soldiers at Base in England Dog Barred, Sightless Man Sues Hospitals NEW YORK (UPI)-A blind man filed complaints against nine hospitals today because they refused to let his guide dog accompany him into the labor room when his daughter was born. Frank Perino, 43, said he and the dog attended natural childbirth classes at St. Vincent's Hospital on Staten Island with his wife, Kathy, for five weeks before their daughter, Mary Frances, was born May 19. "But shortly before she was born, the hospital said I could not come to the labor room to attend the birth," Perino said.

He had already filed a complaint against St. Vincent's and today he added nine other hospitals that also turned away his dog. "They gave a variety of excuses," Perino said. "Some said the dog was unsanitary and some said there was not room for the dog." Perino and his dog, an Akita named Mountain, were finally allowed in the labor room at Lenox Hill Hospital where the child was born. "Mountain and I were in the labor room at Lenox Hill for 12 hours," said Perino, who was born blind and who works at Inner Sight, an agency that trains dogs to guide the blind.

LONDON GB-The Oklahoma man who killed 14 postal workers and then himself spent two weeks this summer at a U.S. Air Force facility in England teaching soldiers to fire rifles, a base spokesman said today. A statement issued by the U.S. Air Force public affairs office at RAF Mildenhall in eastern England confirmed a report in the Sunday Times of London that Patrick Henry Sherrill trained soldiers to use the M-16 rifle. "Tech.

Sgt. Patrick Sherrill served two weeks at RAF Mildenhall beginning July 19. He was among 104 members of the Oklahoma National Guard who served their required two weeks' annual training at the base," the statement THE LATEST WEATHER Fair skies are forecast for Tuesday by the National Weather Service. The downtown high should be in the upper 80s after an overnight low in the mid to upper 60s. said.

RAF Mildenhall, 20 miles northeast of Cambridge, is technically a Royal Air Force base but in effect is run by the U.S. military. The statement described Sherrill as a weapons instructor and said his course consisted of about an hour of classroom instruction and about half an hour on the firing range. On Wednesday, the 44-year-old Sherrill gunned down 14 postal workers and then turned the weapon on himself in Edmond, Okla. U.S.

Air Force Sgt. Christina Dort, 24, a firearms instructor who worked with Sherrill at Mildenhall, was quoted in the Sunday Times as saying Sherrill was "a very nice and happy man." She added: "He did tease the two other instructors from Oklahoma that he was getting another job back home and he seemed very excited about it. But apart from that he seemed to be very popular with the men and I was shocked when I recognized his picture in the paper and read about what he had done," "I never saw him shoot," she said. "I just saw him helping the others, and he was obviously very good, having done a nine -week course in Texas." INDEX Astrology Part VIEW Page 8 Books VIEW 8 Bridge VIEW 8 Classified VII CLASSIFIED 1-20 Comics VIEW 9 Crossword VII CLASSIFIED 20 DearAbby VIEW 5 Deaths II METRO 2 Doonesbury VIEW 8 Editorials II METRO 4,5 Local News II METRO 1,3,6 Markets IV BUSINESS 1-8 Movies VI CALENDAR 1-7 Music VI CALENDAR 1,6 Sports III SPORTS 1-23 Stage VI CALENDAR I TV-Radio VI CALENDAR Weather II METRO 2.