Moscow’s new arms proposal is puzzling the Reagan Administration. A White House official said the Administration was trying to find out whether the proposal was a shift in Moscow’s attitude toward dealing with the Administration or was aimed at embarrassing the President. Mr. Reagan was said to be prepared to stress the seriousness of the Administration’s desire to hold wide-ranging arms control talks at a meeting today with Ambassador Anatoly F. Dobrynin.
On Friday morning Mr. Dobrynin presented a Soviet note to Secretary of State George P. Shultz proposing talks in Vienna in September on preventing “the militarization of outer space,” including “the mutual renunciation of antisatellite systems.” A few hours later, while Mr. Shultz was reporting to Mr. Reagan on the Soviet initiative, it was made public by Tass, the Soviet press agency, a White House official said later. “We didn’t know yesterday, and we don’t know today, what prompted the Soviets to act as they did,” the White House official said. “It is clear from what they’ve been saying for some time that they are deeply concerned about American technology outstripping them in not only antisatellite weapons, but in strategic defense systems against incoming missiles.”
Iran has built floating decoys to fool Iraqi-launched Exocet missiles and keep them from hitting oil tankers at its Kharg Island facility, Pentagon sources said. They confirmed a report that described the decoys as pyramids mounted on cubes perched on small floats that together contain so many different angles and corners that they reflect a bigger radar image than the flatter hulls of oil tankers. Iran’s use of the decoys may explain why Iraq has claimed more hits with its French-manufactured missiles than can be verified by international shipping sources.
Druze artillery was being removed from Beirut in what was described as a move to help Lebanon’s new Cabinet of national unity to re-establish peace in the city. A convoy of 19 vehicles with heavy artillery pieces headed for Druze strongholds in the Shuf mountains. The militia force of the Progressive Socialist Party removed Soviet-built rocket launchers, American-made jeeps mounted with recoilless rifles and North Korean-produced antiaircraft guns from an arms depot on the waterfront in Muslim West Beirut.
Baton-swinging police fought running battles with anti-American demonstrators disrupting a U.S. Army parade in Giessen, West Germany. Four policemen were injured and a protester was arrested. Police said the 500 protesters hurled stones and other objects-including blocks of rancid butter-at the nearly 400 policemen lining the route of the annual Independence Day parade. The violence apparently erupted when demonstrators, protesting U.S. missile deployment, surged through the police lines to block the advance of parade vehicles.
About half of the 55 East Germans who have taken refuge in the West German mission in East Berlin in an attempt to emigrate to the West, left the mission voluntarily, a mission spokesman said. East and West German officials said that the 25 people who left the mission would not be punished for seeking asylum in the West. Heinrich Windelen, West Germany’s minister of East-West German affairs, indicated that the 25 would be allowed to cross to the West “eventually,” but provided no timetable.
A Soviet ballet dancer, complaining of lack of artistic freedom, has asked for political asylum in the United States while on tour in Japan, U.S. officials reported. The dancer, identified as Yuri Aleshin, 25, of the Moscow Philharmonic Classical Ballet, slipped into the U.S. Consulate in Sapporo, 500 miles north of Tokyo, on Friday morning, the officials said. Aleshin was turned over to Japanese officials for protective custody.
Three guerrilla groups fighting to create an independent nation in the Ethiopian province of Eritrea have agreed to unite by the end of the year, the Mogadishu radio has reported. The state-run Somali radio, monitored in Nairobi, said Friday that the agreement was reached after talks this week in Khartoum, the Sudan. Somalia and the Sudan have supported the 22- year insurgency while Cuba has sent troops to support the central government. Signing the agreement were officials of the Eritrean Liberation Front-People’s Liberation Forces, the Eritrean Liberation Front-Revolutionary Council and the Revolutionary Committee, the radio said. The Eritrean Popular Liberation Front, one of the biggest rebel factions, did not take part in the agreement. Its backers are largely urban Christians. The others are strong among rural Muslims.
Sikh leaders vowed to launch a new campaign of civil disobedience in Punjab state if army troops are not withdrawn from the Golden Temple of Amritsar, the religion’s sacred shrine, by the middle of this month. The ultimatum was issued as the governor of Punjab, Bhairab Dutt Pande, announced his resignation, and the lieutenant governor of Goa, K.T. Satarawala, was appointed to replace him, the Press Trust of India said in an unconfirmed report. Indian national authorities planned a shake-up in the administration of Punjab, a 52% majority Sikh state, in an attempt to stem further religious violence.
About 100 demonstrators marched on the United State Embassy in New Delhi today to criticize what they said was involvement by the United States Central Intelligence Agency with Sikh extremists. The police erected a rope fence in front of the embassy gate as speakers said the United States Government was trying to destabilize India and encourage Sikh separatism. Indian press reports have alleged that the C.I.A. supervised training camps in Pakistan, but the embassy in India and the State Department have issued strong denials.
[Ed: When you fuck up at home, you can always blame it on the sinister Americans, eh, Indira? Sorry, that won’t save you…]
President Ferdinand E. Marcos appointed four new Cabinet members today, but retained most of the previous ministers, including his wife, Imelda, who has said she was quitting the government. Mr. Marcos made no comment on the reappointment of his wife, who was visiting her hometown on the southern island of Leyte as the President introduced the new 27-member Cabinet on national television. He appointed Assemblyman Arturo Tolentino as Foreign Affairs Minister, replacing Carlos P. Romulo, who retired last January. Other new faces included Assemblyman Rodolfo del Rosario as head of natural resources, Salvador Escudero as chief of agriculture and Simeon Datumanong in a new combined ministry to handle Moslem and cultural minority affairs. Estelito Mendoza was named Justice Minister in addition to his old Cabinet post as Solicitor General.
Pierre Trudeau officially steps down as Prime Minister of Canada after serving two separate terms for a total of 15 years. Mr. Trudeau was first elected Prime Minister in 1968 and became the longest serving Western leader at the time of his resignation. He became a leading spokesman for the needs of poor nations and tried to give a more independent definition to Canada internationally by urging less economic dependence on the United States. Most recently, he engaged in a crusade to end the nuclear arms race. The effort led to visits to Moscow, Washington and various capitals in East and West Europe.
John N. Turner was sworn in as Prime Minister of Canada in a private ceremony in Ottawa. He pledged a more “business-like” Government and announced the departure of 13 Cabinet ministers who had served the outgoing administration of Pierre Elliott Trudeau. He said at a news conference that he would meet with the full Cabinet and senior ministers individually next week to discuss Canada’s serious economic problems. The 55-year-old Mr. Turner appeared in high spirits, joking with reporters and talking with passers-by on the street from his car window as he left for a reception.
Serious violations of human rights by El Salvador’s Treasury Police were admitted by the new director of the special police squad, who said they would not continue under his command. The director, Colonel Rinaldo Golcher, said that a recent decision to disband the squad’s S-2 intelligence unit had been made because he and President Jose Napoleon Duarte believed that the unit had carried out political murders and other human rights abuses.
A suspect in the plot to kill the United States Ambassador to El Salvador is under preliminary investigation, the country’s highest-ranking police official said.
The United States will conduct a new series of small-scale Army exercises in Honduras and possibly elsewhere in Central America beginning in August and extending through the year’s end, Administration sources said. A Pentagon announcement said the maneuvers “will be company-sized and will emphasize small-unit training.” without specifying where they will be held or how long they will continue.
Former Argentine President Roberto Viola was freed by a judge who had ordered his arrest five days earlier in one of several cases charging abuse of human rights by top leaders of the former military government. A day before, the nation’s highest military court released another ex-president, Gen. Reynaldo Bignone, who also was being held in connection with a rights case. Civilian President Raul Alfonsin has ordered the prosecution of officers in cases involving thousands of disappearances and presumed deaths in the 1970s.
Bolivia’s President was kidnapped, but was found unharmed in a suburb of La Paz, the capital. Officials said President Hernan Siles Zuazo was apparently abducted by a group of renegade military officers.
President Reagan has widened his lead over former Vice President Walter F. Mondale, receiving 56% of the test election vote to 37% for his Democratic rival, according to the latest Gallup Poll of registered voters. In the previous Gallup survey, conducted in early June, the race was closer — 53% for Reagan, 44% for Mondale. Although Reagan holds a substantial lead over Mondale, it may narrow in the aftermath of the Democratic convention in mid-July, when many supporters of Colorado Senator Gary Hart can be expected to close ranks behind Mondale, the likely nominee, pollster George Gallup Jr. said.
Prejudice against women officials has been broken by Walter F. Mondale’s consideration of a woman as a running mate on his ticket, Mr. Mondale said at the convention in Miami Beach of the National Organization of Women. He said that he had “broken the barrier” and that women will “never again” be barred from the nation’s highest offices. His address, however, was concerned with an attack on the Reagan Administration’s arms control and domestic policies, and set the themes for his expected campaign for the Presidency in the fall.
The President and First Lady participate in a national radio address about the Nation’s economy and drug abuse.
President Reagan places a call to former President Richard Nixon.
The President and First Lady watch the movie “The Karate Kid.”
Flight delays are increasing at the nation’s airports. Delays for the first four months of this year were 55 percent over the same period in 1983, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Agency officials say the airlines are trying to put too many planes in the air at peak periods. The congestion worsened in May and June and delays through last Tuesday were up 75 percent over the like period last year. New York’s three major airports, La Guardia, Kennedy and Newark were listed as the worst.
Riot-equipped police, saying they were attacked with a Molotov cocktail, fired tear gas into a crowd at a rally in Clifton, Arizona, marking the first anniversary of a bitter strike by copper unionists. Two officers were injured and 13 persons were arrested. The incident came after carloads of copper workers were pelted with rocks in a renewal of violence in the strike against Phelps Dodge Corp.
The Key West (Florida) Police Department was used as a racketeering enterprise that dealt in bribery and cocaine traffic for six years, U.S. Attorney Stanley Marcus said in announcing indictments of 22 persons, including the deputy police chief, a sergeant and a lieutenant. Thirteen persons were charged with racketeering, conspiracy, bribery and narcotics offenses. A second indictment by a federal grand jury charges nine persons with conspiring to possess and distribute large quantities of cocaine and bribe police officers.
A federal judge, following the lead of the U.S. Supreme Court, ordered Cincinnati to abide by seniority requirements in laying off or demoting police officers, reversing his previous ruling that it had to protect affirmative action hirings. U.S. District Judge Carl B. Rubin, ruling at the request of the Justice Department, dissolved an April 11 order that had barred Cincinnati from making layoffs or demotions in accordance with seniority. The Supreme Court ruled June 12 that seniority systems cannot be ignored during financial emergencies to protect affirmative action plans.
An Arkansas state trooper was shot and killed today after he stopped a driver, and the authorities said a man sought in the killing was arrested after a shootout with the police in neighboring Oklahoma. The trooper, Louis Bryant, 37 years old, died after the incident on a rural stretch of U.S. 71 near De Queen, about 20 miles from the Arkansas-Oklahoma border, said Lieutenant John Chambers of the state police headquarters in Little Rock. Officials said the only one wounded in the shootout was the driver, shot four or five times. A spokesman for the sheriff’s office in McCurtain County, Okla., identified the driver as Richard Wayne Snell, 54, of Muse, Oklahoma.
A federal appeals court in Washington refused to grant a stay that would prevent the government-sanctioned killing of 22,000 fur seals scheduled to begin Monday in Alaska’s Pribilof Islands. Three animal welfare groups argued that the kill violates U.S. law and international treaties. Earlier this month, the Commerce Department agreed to pay native Aleut Indians $500,000 to kill the animals.
Evidence that may link an insurance salesman, already charged with strangling a teenage girl, with the deaths of five other women was being evaluated by officials in Lisbon, Connecticut. Michael Ross, 24, was being held without bond, charged with capital felony in the death of Wendy Baribeault, 17, whose body was found beneath a pile of rocks June 15. Police in other Connecticut towns have recently uncovered the bodies of three teenage girls and suspect Ross in those deaths.
A woman has been awarded $17,000 in damages from the Government, which hid her son in the Federal witness protection program with his father. She had sought $1.5 million. “I really wasn’t fighting for the money, it’s the rights of people and their children,” Donna Ruffalo said after the decision Friday. Mrs. Ruffalo said the $17,000 award justified her belief that Federal District Judge Howard F. Sachs favored the government. The father, Michael Ruffalo Sr., who was divorced from his wife in 1972, entered the witness program because he thought he was going to be killed for giving the Federal Bureau of Investigation information about slayings involving organized crime figures. The boy testified that he did not want to live with his mother because he feared he would be killed.
A woman accused of running the largest child pornography mail-order operation in the nation has been convicted of distributing movies supposedly involving children as young as 3 years old. The woman, Catherine Stubblefield Wilson, 45 years old, was convicted Friday of 15 counts of pornography distribution by Federal District Judge Richard A. Gadbois Jr. She had testified that she had not distributed films through the mail, but Joyce Karlin, an assistant United States attorney, said, “Since she was arrested in 1982 there has been no commercial distribution of child pornography anywhere in the country.”
Calling the Atlanta Zoo the home of “human and animal tragedies,” a grand jury recommended Friday that the zoo be run by an independent city-county authority instead of the City Parks and Recreation Department. The action was a result of an inquiry prompted by the death of a zoo elephant, Twinkles, that had been transferred to a traveling circus in North Carolina.
Lillian Hellman, the playwright, died of cardiac arrest early Friday morning at Martha’s Vineyard (Massachusetts) Hospital, near her summer home. She was 79 years old.
The longest pro football game is played. The LA Express beat the Michigan Panthers, 27–21, in the USFL playoffs. The game lasts 93 minutes and 33 seconds. Mel Gray’s 24-yard touchdown run 3 minutes 33 seconds into the third overtime period ended the longest game in professional football history today and gave the Express a 27–21 victory over the Panthers. By eliminating the defending league champions, the Express advanced to Saturday’s Western Division final against the winner of Sunday’s first-round game between the Arizona Wranglers and the Houston Gamblers.
A wild pitch by the Minnesota reliever Ron Davis allowed Detroit’s Larry Herndon to score the winning run in the eighth inning as the Tigers edged the Twins, 4–3, tonight. With the score tied at 3–3, Herndon singled off Ken Schrom (1–3). Herndon went to third when Tom Brookens hit a pinch-hit single off Len Whitehouse. Davis came on and made a wild pitch on a 1–2 count while facing Barbaro Garbey and Herndon scored. The victory before a crowd of 48,095 enabled the Tigers to maintain a 10-game lead in the American League East over the Toronto Blue Jays.
Vance Law belted his 11th homer of the year with one out in the bottom of the 11th inning to give the Chicago White Sox a 5–4 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. He did it on a 3-2 pitch from the reliever Sammy Stewart. The Orioles tied the score at 4–4 in the ninth. With two out, Eddie Murray hit a routine pop to shallow right center. Four White Sox converged on the ball but it fell between them and was ruled a double. Gary Roenicke followed by lining a double to left center to drive in Murray.
Terry Puhl connected for three hits tonight, including a two-run homer, and drove in three runs, while Mike LaCoss and Dave Smith combined on a six-hit shutout as the Houston Astros defeated the Philadelphia Phillies, 7–0. Puhl, who in his last 22 games has 31 hits in 76 at-bats, raised his average to .310. LaCoss (3–0), in only his second start of the season, allowed five hits in six innings, striking out four and walking two. Smith allowed one hit over the last three innings to gain his third save. Charles Hudson (7–6) took the loss.
Mario Soto belted his first major league home run and pitched a four-hitter for his ninth victory to pace Cincinnati to a 4–1 victory over the Montreal Expos. Soto (9-1), who has won his last eight decisions, struck out seven. The Reds’ right-hander is still pitching while the Reds appeal his five-day suspension, imposed by the National League for his part in a brawl with Claudell Washington of Atlanta. Soto’s homer came as he led off the third inning against the Expo starter Bryn Smith (6–6). The blow put the Reds ahead, 2–1.
Born:
Miles Austin, NFL wide receiver (Pro Bowl, 2009, 2010; Dallas Cowboys, Cleveland Browns, Philadelphia Eagles), in Summitt, New Jersey.
Tyron Brackenridge, NFL cornerback (Kansas City Chiefs, Jacksonville Jaguars), in Pasadena, California.
Fantasia [Barrino], American singer (American Idol, “Back to Me”), in High Point, North Carolina.
Died:
Lillian Hellman, 79, American playwright, (“Toys in the Attic”, “Little Foxes”).
History Diaries 