Limited economic talks with Moscow will be resumed by the United States, Reagan Administration officials said. They also said that the Administration had softened its opposition to talks with Moscow on curbing the development of antisatellite weapons. The announcements were interpreted by some officials as part of a general relaxation in tone and attitude toward the Soviet Union in response to concern at home and abroad over Soviet-American tensions.
Chancellor Helmut Kohl was hit by an egg and showered with fruit today at a campaign rally called by his conservative party for the European parliamentary election on Sunday. Demonstrators protesting the Kohl Government’s policies fired two flares at the podium and tossed fruit as the Chancellor walked along steel barriers shaking hands with the crowd outside Frankfurt city hall before his speech. Seconds after a flare burst next to Mr. Kohl, an egg thrown from the crowd hit him on the arm, breaking against his dark blue suit and drawing cheers from protesters.
Although visibly upset, Mr. Kohl continued to walk along the barrier, shaking hands as aides raised umbrellas to ward off more objects. Bodyguards crowded around him. The police estimated that 7,000 people attended the rally organized by the Christian Democratic Union of Hesse State. Most of the crowd cheered and applauded the Chancellor. Several hundred people in the crowd, including a few with pink and green hair, young leftists and labor unionists, jeered the Chancellor throughout his 55-minute speech.
Iran said it would not attack tankers in the Persian Gulf if Iraq stopped its raids, and that it would welcome a United Nations effort to halt the attacks on commercial shipping. The Iranian News Agency said the official, Hojatolislam Hashemi Rafsanjani, the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, was speaking in a sermon to a weekly prayer meeting at the University of Teheran. He welcomed the Iran- Iraq moratorium on attacks on each other’s border cities arranged last weekend by the United Nations Secretary General, Javier Perez de Cuellar. Hojatolislam Rafsanjani then added, “We say the same thing about the Persian Gulf.”
“We declare to the United Nations that if the Iraqis do not strike in the Persian Gulf, we will not fire even one bullet,” Hojatolislam Rafsanjani was quoted by the Iranian press agency as saying. Administration officials and Persian Gulf specialists were divided today over the significance of the Iranian pronouncement. The State Department spokesman, John Hughes, said that while the United States would “welcome any development which reduces the fighting as positive, Iran’s intentions are not yet clear.”
Iraq had no immediate response to Hojatolislam Rafsanjani’s remarks. In Baghdad, according to dispatches received here, an unidentified Iraqi Air Force commander vowed to crush any Iranian aggression. Iraq’s attacks on Iran’s Kharg Island oil export terminal were but a “harbinger of a broader operation against Iran, should the Teheran regime persist in pursuing the war and threatening Iraqi and gulf interests,” the commander was quoted as saying.
Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar announced today that he intended to send United Nations observers to Iran and Iraq to monitor compliance with an agreement by the two countries not to attack each other’s civilian targets. After a diplomatic initiative by the Secretary General last weekend, Iran and Iraq agreed to stop bombarding civilian targets in each other’s country. Both, however, said they would comply only if they could be assured that the other side would also do so. Mr. Perez de Cuellar, in a note to the President of the Security Council, said teams would be set up on Saturday and would proceed to their respective countries as soon as they received permission from the two governments.
Meanwhile, the Middle East News Agency, an official press agency run by Egypt, reported that a hijacked Iranian airplane refueled in Manama, Bahrain, and landed later today in Luxor, Egypt. The Associated Press quoted an official at the Cairo airport as saying that five military men and three civilians were taken into custody at a military base after talks with Egyptian officials at Luxor.
Rival Beirut militiamen hijacked 19 semitrailer trucks traveling between the Christian and Muslim sectors of the Lebanese capital in the morning rush hour today, prompting officials to close the only crossing briefly. The drivers were released unharmed, but the six-wheel trucks carrying fuel and food remained in the hands of the militias, which may have commandeered them to carry arms and ammunition, the police said. There was no shooting, but the police and French truce observers closed the Museum Crossing as a precaution. A security committee representing the principal warring militias and the Lebanese Army intervened and arranged for the reopening of the crossing at 8 AM. Cars and pedestrians began passing both ways but not trucks, the police said. Overnight, one civilian was killed and six were wounded in sporadic exchanges of gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades in the downtown commercial district and in the southern outskirts of the city, the police said.
Algeria said that its troops intercepted a 60-man Moroccan contingent inside Algerian territory early today and killed two Moroccan soldiers, wounded two and captured 31 in the fight that ensued. A Defense Ministry communique said the rest of the Moroccans fled to their side of the border. The communique, read over the state radio and television, said an Algerian Army unit spotted the Moroccans south of the town of Bechar on Algeria’s western coast. Morocco dismissed the clash as “nothing more than a passing incident” and did not mention casualties or captured soldiers. Relations between Algeria and Morocco — both former French possessions — have been strained because Algeria backs the Polisario Front guerrillas in their fight for control of the Moroccan-held Western Sahara.
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s government has been insisting that “certain foreign powers” supported the Sikh terrorist movement in Punjab with the aim of destabilizing India. But the government has yet to provide proof of foreign complicity to overcome doubters among Indians and Western diplomats. While she has persuaded few outside her government, Mrs. Gandhi is reliably reported to have conveyed in private the belief that the United States has been meddling in Punjab. According to well-placed officials, she told two visiting former West German Chancellors, Helmut Schmidt and Willy Brandt, that the Central Intelligence Agency had a hand in Punjab’s troubles. The government’s accusations against Pakistan have been fairly forthright. But any conclusions that China and the United States are the other suspected “foreign powers” have been left to others to draw.
The official Cambodian radio said today that Vietnam would withdraw some troops from Cambodia this month. It said the troops to be withdrawn included three brigades and some regiments and battalions. “The Governments of the People’s Republic of Kampuchea and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam have agreed to partially withdraw Vietnamese volunteer troops from the western and northwestern provinces of Kampuchea and send them home,” the Phnom Penh radio said. Vietnam is estimated to have 180,000 troops in Cambodia in support of the Heng Samrin Government, which it installed in 1979 after toppling the Peking-backed Pol Pot Government. A coalition of rebel groups, including the Pol Pot forces, continues to wage a guerrilla war against the Hanoi-backed Government.
North Korea said today that a South Korean soldier was killed on the northern side of the demilitarized zone on Thursday. The North Korean Central News Agency, monitored here, said the soldier had been hiding in the countryside for several days and had “spied on the position of our People’s Army outposts and their duty as well as military secrets.” Espionage material was found with his body, the agency said. “Such espionage is a crude violation of the armistice agreement and a grave criminal act rendering the situation strained,” it said. The agency added that a protest had been made to South Korea.
The 40th anniversary of D-day in the Pacific came and went quietly in Saipan, despite events on the Marianas chain island that were as critical to the ultimate Allied success as the landings in Normandy. Only a few American veterans returned to the Saipan, where 128,000 American troops landed on June 15, 1944. The Americans on that date began a 25-day campaign that senior officers later called “Japan’s Pearl Harbor.”
Mexico said it agreed to take a role in talks between the United States and Nicaragua toward a negotiated rather than a military solution to the Central American conflict, but there was no confirmation from American officials. Mexico said the invitation came from the United States and Nicaragua.
The anti-Sandinista offensive begun last March in northern and central Nicaragua appears to have ended with some rebel forces remaining inside the country, according to a Nicaraguan military commander. But the Nicaraguan authorities also say they believe that a force of 6,500 insurgents is regrouping and will begin a new and more destructive offensive in coming weeks.
Argentina’s financial troubles reached a new crisis. The Reagan Administration refused to grant further time for Argentina to qualify for a $300 million Treasury loan. But the United States left the door open for the loan’s approval if Argentina meets its conditions and shows some willingness to compromise in the loan negotiations.
Thomas P. O’Neill Jr., the Speaker of the House, assailed President Reagan today as “cruel” and “inhumane” for linking money for summer jobs for youths to funds for covert operations in Nicaragua. A $100 million appropriation for the summer jobs is contained in a $1.4 billion urgent supplemental spending bill that includes $21 million for covert operations to aid rebels opposing the Government of Nicaragua. The Administration says the money is needed to stop the flow of arms to rebels in El Salvador. But the House Intelligence Committee and several senators say they believe the real reason is to overthrow the Sandinista Government in Nicaragua.
The House has rejected additional funds for the Nicaraguan rebel operation three times, but Reagan Administration officials and Senate Republican leaders have rebuffed the Speaker’s request to allow separate action on the summer jobs bill. Mr. Reagan made the latest rejection after the conclusion of the formal part of his news conference Thursday night. As he was leaving the dais, Mr. Reagan was asked if he would agree to separate the measures. The President smiled and said that he wanted both the jobs bill and the money for Nicaragua. “The President, in my opinion, is being actually cruel on this,” Mr. O’Neill told reporters.
“To me, it’s inconceivable that a man would punish the poor of America,” the Massachusetts Democrat continued. “The black youth are 44 percent unemployed. To hold them hostage so that he could have hired gunmen down in Nicaragua is absolutely a disgrace to the Administration.” “Here is summer right upon us,” the Speaker said. “We’ve had about eight days of 95-degree weather. It’s inhumane. It’s cruel. I don’t understand the President of the United States.”
The Mondale running-mate search will begin with Mayor Dianne Feinstein of San Francisco and Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas. Walter F. Mondale said that he would begin his Vice-Presidential search by interviewing Mayor Feinstein and Senator Bentsen and that “additional conferences with other potential candidates” would be announced soon. He also challenged President Reagan to at least six debates on specific issues, including arms control.
A slight rise in industrial output in May that was viewed as compelling evidence of a slowdown and news that the Producer Price Index remained unchanged for the second straight month were hailed by economists and the White House as signs that the economy was not overheating and inflation remained in check. The Government reported that industrial production rose only four-tenths of 1 percent last month, the slimmest advance since November and the second smallest increase since the current expansion began.
James S. Brady, the White House press secretary, said today he would travel with President Reagan occasionally in the re-election campaign and offer political advice along the way. Mr. Brady, who was shot in the head during the assassination attempt against Mr. Reagan on March 30, 1981, will have to hold down his politicking because he is on the Government payroll. However, he said the President had invited him to be on board his campaign plane. “They have to have someone in the plane who knows politics,” said Mr. Brady, then in a teasing way he added, “He said modestly.”
The President and First Lady participate in a photo opportunity with Washington Charities Dinner Committee.
The President and First Lady watch the movie “The Way We Were.”
Representative George Hansen was sentenced to 5 to 15 months in prison and fined $40,000 for falsifying Government financial disclosure forms. Mr. Hansen, Republican of Idaho, may be paroled after at least five months of his four concurrent prison terms are served. He was given the terms on each of four counts of violating the Government ethics law.
Customs agents in Miami today seized at least 2,000 pounds of cocaine found inside domestic freezers aboard a Panamanian jet in what officials said was one of the nation’s largest cocaine seizures. “Each freezer was filled with little packets,” said Jay Ahearn, a spokesman for United States Customs at Miami International Airport. “Each packet was marked with little code names for each customer.” The shipment was worth $200 million to $300 million on the street, he said. The plane, an Inair Airlines DC-8 cargo jet, arrived about 3 PM from Panama City and the cocaine was seized within hours in a routine search, he said. The freezers were checked because they were not listed on the flight manifest. So far, no one has been arrested, Mr. Ahearn said.
Charges against a Richmond, Virginia woman whose two children died in a house fire while she was at work have been dismissed for lack of evidence. The prosecution said the woman, Cassandra Grice, 32 years old, frequently left her children, Indea, 9, and El-Jamin, 5, unattended. The children died in their suburban Chesterfield home January 25. Indea called the emergency number 911 for help, but the call was described as mishandled. “I don’t think Mrs. Grice properly supervised the children,” Circuit Judge John Daffron Jr. said Wednesday in dismissing the charges. “But to convict her of this crime requires a quantum leap from the negligence presented in this testimony to the negligence required for conviction.”
The wife of a former Indiana University football player who was shot to death by the Bloomington police has filed a Federal civil rights suit charging that the policemen who killed her husband were “negligent and careless” and “motivated by race.” The suit was filed Thursday by Cynequa Smith and her attorney, Rich Hailey. Mrs. Smith is asking $5 million in damages. Her husband, Denver, was shot in an altercation with the police on September 12, 1983, after he allegedly threatened motorists with a tire tool and then attacked police officers. Defendants in the suit are the city of Bloomington, the Bloomington Police Department and four Bloomington policemen involved in the death. The suit notes that Mr. Smith was black and the four officers were white.
Simon Geller won a court round in his battle to keep the license he uses to broadcast symphonic music out of his home in Gloucester, Massachusetts. A three-judge panel in a federal appeals court said the Federal Communications Commission had used “meandering” reasoning that “raises serious First Amendment concerns” when it refused to renew Mr. Geller’s license in June 1982.
The State Supreme Court in Lincoln, Nebraska ruled today that petitions cannot be used to put an initiative on the ballot to determine whether Nebraskans favor a two-way nuclear freeze and oppose deployment of the MX missile in the state. In a 4-to-3 decision, the court rejected a request from proponents of the initiative to order the Nebraska Secretary of State, Allen Beermann, to accept and file a petition. The action was filed by the Nebraska Freeze-MX Initiative Committee. The court said the government should not have to provide a “straw poll” on the public’s “opinions, sentiments or attitudes on public issues.” It said the proposed petition “is nothing more than a nonbinding expression of public opinion and not a proper subject for the initiative in Nebraska.” In Nebraska, the initiative process allows citizens to place a proposed law on the ballot by gathering sufficient signatures of registered voters. If approved at the polls, the initiative becomes law.
An alert was declared yesterday at a nuclear plant in Vernon, Vermont, when an instrument used to measure the nuclear reaction in the reactor core was accidentally withdrawn into an unprotected area after becoming radioactive. A spokesman for the plant, Stephen N. Bravar, said that nine workers were in the unprotected area but that none received a dose approaching the limit set by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The incident did not interrupt the operation of the 540-megawatt plant, although workers notified officials of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the state of Vermont and the two other states lying within 10 miles, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. An alert is the second-lowest category of the four-stage nuclear emergency system. It was the first declared by the plant, which is 12 years old and is owned by a consortium of New England utilities.
The “Thicke of the Night” TV Talk Show last airs in syndication.
The St. Louis Cardinals trade third baseman Ken Oberkfell to the Atlanta Braves for pitcher Ken Dayley and first baseman Mike Jorgensen. Oberkfell was leading St. Louis with a .309 batting average.
Seattle Mariners pitcher Mark Langston strikes out 12 batters in a no decision against the Texas Rangers. Seven of the strikeouts are in a row. Seattle wins, 4–3, in the 9th.
After Boston scores a run in the 11th, the Toronto Blue Jays answer with a pair to beat the Red Sox, 4–3. Mike Easler has 3 hits for the Sox to extend his consecutive game hitting streak to 20.
American boxer Thomas Hearns retains the WBC light middleweight title with a 2nd round KO of Roberto Durán of Panama at Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas; this marks the first time in his illustrious career Durán is knocked out.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1086.90 (-10.71).
Born:
Tim Lincecum, MLB pitcher (World Series Champions-Giants, 2010, 2012, 2014; National League Cy Young winner, 2008, 2009; All-Star, 2008-2011, No-Hitters, 2013, 2014; NL Strikeout leader, 2008-2010; San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Angels), in Bellevue, Washington.
Cliff Pennington, MLB shortstop, second baseman, and third baseman (Oakland A’s, Arizona Diamondbacks, Toronto Blue Jays, Los Angeles Angels, Cincinnati Reds), in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Kristen Ruhlin, American actress (“The Girl in the Park”), in Charleston, West Virginia.
Died:
Meredith Willson, 82, American composer for stage (“The Music Man”), and screen (“The Great Dictator”; “Little Foxes”).
Ned Glass, 78, Polish-American actor (Sol-“Julia”, Uncle Moe-“Bridget Loves Bernie”), of heart failure.
History Diaries 