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Compilod From Associated Press Reports

—News Digest:

End of the Bridge

USSR Won’t Participate In L. A. Olympic Games

A statement iasued by the 8oviet National Olympic Committee and distrib-uted by the official news agency Taae said: "The cavalier attitude of the U.S. authoritiee to the Olympic charter, the grosa flouting of the ideale and trąd i to na of the Olympic movement are aimed di-rectly at undermining it Thia linę that was manifested clearly earlier is oon-ducted now aa well.

“In these conditiona the National Olympic Committee of the U.S.S.R. ie compelled to declare that the participa-tion of Soviet eportamen in the games of the 23rd Olympiad in Loe Angeles is impossible." The statement said that "to act differently would be tantamount to approving the anti-Olympian actions of the U.S. authoritiee and organizers of the Gamea.

"Adopting this decision, we have not the slighteat wish to cast aspersions on the American public, to ckxid the good feelings linking sportamen of our coun-tries,” the statement said.

It eoncluded: The National Olympic Committee of the U.S.S.R., the sports

organizations of our country, will further support the efforta of the International Olympic Committee. the Aaso-ciation of National Olympic Committees. intematkmal sports feder-ations, the International Aaeociation of Sort* Writers directed atstrengthening the intematkmal Olympic movement, struggle for the preeervation of its purity and unity.”

The statement also said that “ex-tremist organizations and groupings of all sorts. aiming to create ‘unbearablc cond itiona’ for the stay of the 8oviet dele-gation and performance of Soviet sth-letea. have sharply stepped up their activity with direct connhrance of the American authoritiee.”

It said that while the U.S. authoritiee had madę asaurance that the Olympic charter would be upheld. The practical deeds by the American side. however, show thatitdoeenotintendtoensurethe security of all athletes, respect their rights and human dignity and create normal conditiona for holding the Gamea.”

2 in Assembly Disagree With Drinking Age Hike

Free

Beer

STATESMAN Wodnesday. May 9. 1984

Have A Beer % ⁿ” “ Us!

A

itod In The Student Union On The Second Ftoor. CaU 240-5139 For PurUter Info.

Albany, NY—Two key state Assembly Democrats tumed t hu mb* down yeeterday on raiaing the state's legał drinking age from 19 to 21 as requested by Gov. Mario Cuomo.

In a report prepared for Assembly Speaker Stanley Fink, Assembly members Yincent Graber of Erie County and 'Elizabeth Connelly of 8 ta ten Island said that instead of raising the drinking age. the State should take other action to reduce drunken driring fatalitiea Graber is chairman of the Asaembly's Transportation Committee while Mra. Connelly aereea as chairwoman of the subcom-mittee on drunken driring. Fink. the State Legialatures most powerful De-mocrat, has said he’s personalły against raising the state's lega! drinking age to 21.

While Cuomo and aome other influen-tial State legislatora have lined upon the aide of raising the state’s drinking age to 21, Fink and State Senate Mąjority Leader Warren Anderson, the statek most powewrful Republican. haee said

they don’t like the idea. Just last week. Cuomo administration officiais released data indicating a 42 per cent decline in the number of 18-year-old drinking drieers involved in fatal craahea in the 12 months after the State’* legał drinking age was raised from 18 to 19 in Decem ber 1982.

However. in their 71-page report to Fink. Graber and Mra. Connelly said there was "much eridence to indicate that raising the drinking age is not the panacea proponents suggeat.”

Claiming morę study was needed to determine the eaact effecta of raising the state's drinking age to 19. the two Assembly members said a State crack-down on drunken drieers in recentyear* has played a major role in reducing highway fatalitiea. And aa an altema-tive to raising the drinking age again. the two called for an 11-point program to make it eren tougher for New Yorkera w ho drink and drire. The pair also called for an inereaaed educational effort to alert young peopłe to the dangers of drinking and driring and for morę money to support anti-drunken driring program*.

Among other thinga, Graber and Connelly called for paasage of legislation which would make it impossible for anyone under age 21 from getting a drieeris license if they had bero con-ricted of an alcohol-rełatad offenae. "No ooe wanta to stop this earaage among our young mora than we,” aaid the twoi n a joint statement. "yst ras sowa bltpsople can dtffer aa to bow to addrsaa a pertk-ular problem.”

In their report. Graber and Mra. Con-neUy said that aren withewt a chaaga ia the statafr drinking aga. the number of fatalitiea iirrotriag 11 f nr Diii prob-Isrra—ii by as tntheoaa