Bombings El Salvador

The government of El Salvador announced Thursday night that it is suspending aerial bombardments and the use of heavy artillery in response to a six-day-old guerrilla cease-fire. The rightist administration of President Alfredo Cristiani, in a communique, said its action is "a demonstration of good faith" aimed at "the disappearance of all acts of violence, contributing in this way to a prompt accord on definitive cessation of hostilities."

The California Supreme Court, sidestepping a potentially important test of free-speech guarantees, has decided not to hear a case that had been granted a hearing under former Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird involving a protest at a privately owned shopping center. The court, now led by Chief Justice Malcolm M. Lucas, issued a brief order Thursday saying the petition for review had been "improvidently granted" and would not be heard by the new court.

The state Supreme Court said Friday it will decide if political protesters can be barred from using a privately owned shopping center to perform a play attacking U.S. foreign policy and depicting bombings in El Salvador. The justices, in a brief order, said they will review a state appellate court ruling upholding an injunction forbidding a group of "street entertainers" to perform skits at the Horton Plaza shopping center in San Diego.

In little-noticed actions, the state Supreme Court has been dropping from its crowded docket a wide range of cases that previously had been accepted for review under former Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird. The new and more conservative court, with appointees of Gov. George Deukmejian now in the majority, in recent weeks has dismissed 14 cases the old court had agreed to decide.