A new French Cabinet is to be formed. Prime Minister Pierre Mauroy and his ministers resigned and President Francois Mitterrand appointed Laurent Fabius, the 37-year-old Industry Minister, as the new Prime Minister. The governing Socialists have faced a succession of economic and political setbacks. Mr. Fabius, an economist and moderate technocrat, is the youngest Prime Minister in modern French history. He will be charged with forming a new government. A Cabinet meeting scheduled for Wednesday was canceled, and Jean- Louis Bianco, one of Mr. Mitterrand’s top advisers, said he could not say when a new government would be named.
It was not immediately known if the Communist Party, which has been the junior partner to Mr. Mitterrand’s Socialists, would be represented in the new Cabinet. But Mr. Fabius, a moderate technocrat, has been an especially strong advocate of the government’s new proposals to streamline industry, which have aroused the Communists’ opposition. He is seen as having a far less comfortable relationship with the Communists than Mr. Mauroy, who has been Prime Minister since President Mitterrand took office in May 1981. The Communist Party’s Central Committee met tonight “to examine the situation,” the party’s secretariat announced. The Wednesday issue of the party’s newspaper, L’Humanite, carries the news of the resignation without committing the party to a specific course.
“It is a hard task and it is an exalting task,” Mr. Fabius said in a brief statement late tonight. “It will require much calm, determination and the will, which I have, to modernize the country and unite the French people.” The son of an antique dealer, Mr. Fabius was born into an upper-middle- class family and represents the elite intellectual tradition of the Socialist Party. Mr. Fabius has been one of Mr. Mitterrand’s closest personal advisers. A graduate of the elite Ecole Nationale d’Administration, he joined the Socialist Party 10 years ago. Under the French Constitution, which gives great power to the President, the Cabinet’s resignation does not mean either new elections or, necessarily, a change in Government policies. But French Presidents often use Cabinet shakeups to signal policy changes. Jean-Marie Le Pen, the leader of the extreme right-wing National Front, dismissed the move as “almost without importance… For a long time, the Prime Minister has neither determined nor run the policies of France,” Mr. Le Pen said.
The 1963 hot-line link for crisis communications between Moscow and Washington will be upgraded under an agreement signed by Soviet and American officials. The new version, to be installed within two years, will speed up word transmissions threefold from the present 64 words a minute. It could also transmit graphics, such as maps showing the disposition of forces, according to a senior Administration official who briefed reporters at the White House today. President Reagan issued a statement describing the agreement as a “modest but positive step” toward reducing the risks of nuclear war by “accident, miscalculation, or misinterpretation.”
At the same time, Mr. Reagan and the Soviet Union continued to trade charges about the lack of progress in other arms-control areas. In a separate statement, the President blamed Moscow for an unwillingness to engage in “concrete negotiations” on its own proposal for the nonuse of force at the recently adjourned Stockholm conference on European security. The Soviet Communist Party daily Pravda repeated the accusation that Washington continued to engage in a “game of words” about the Soviet proposal to begin talks in September in Vienna on space weapons. Moscow insists the Administration is advancing “preconditions,” and the White House denies it.
The attempt to mediate the week-old dock strike faltered today and Britain started to run low on imported produce. “We are as far apart as we were on Tuesday of last week,” said a union leader, John Connolly, of the mediation bid. New talks were scheduled for Wednesday, but they were given little chance of success. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher told Parliament the strike “will do immense damage to the ordinary working people of this country.” But she gave no hint of whether she intended to intervene. Published reports said among the options being considered was declaration of a state of emergency and use of army troops.
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher announced that her government will challenge a court decision voiding her ban on union activities at a secret intelligence-gathering center. Earlier this week, a High Court judge ruled that Thatcher’s union ban at the Government Communications Headquarters in southwest England was “invalid and of no effect,” because the government had failed to consult beforehand with the six unions there. Thatcher had stressed that previous union walkouts at the facility hurt national security.
A court sentenced the brother of a prominent Solidarity leader to 18 months in jail today hours after the Government announced plans for an amnesty for political prisoners to mark the 40th anniversary of Communist rule in Poland. Judges found Bogdan Bujak, brother of the fugitive Solidarity leader Zbigniew Bujak, guilty of leading a protest in Warsaw last December to mark anti- Government demonstrations in 1970 in which 50 workers were shot and killed by the police. A Government spokesman, Jerzy Urban, said at a news conference earlier today that initial work on an amnesty law had begun and the plan would be submitted to Parliament for ratification before the anniversary.
Arab guards stopped a man from crashing his car through a wooden gate in East Jerusalem leading to Al Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest shrines. Israeli police arrested the driver, identifying him only as a 31-year-old ultra-Orthodox Jew and suggesting that he was mentally disturbed. The Arabs who guard Temple Mount, which includes the mosque, said the car sped up a pedestrian ramp and was stopped by the Moors’ Gate, where guards smashed the car’s windows.
Iranian militants are still publishing photocopies of secret Government documents and personal papers found when they seized the United States Embassy in Teheran on November 4, 1979. The Iranians have published 30 paperback volumes of the sensitive documents and more may be published for years to come. Some of the material had been shredded by embassy personnel and was painstakingly pasted together by the Islamic militants.
Amid the chanting of prayers, the leader of a Sikh sect and his followers began repairing damage to the Golden Temple in Punjab today. But other Sikh leaders accused them of colluding with the Indian Government and threatened to demolish the restored structures. A top Sikh committee responsible for administering temple property ordered its employees out of the Golden Temple and asked Sikh high priests there also to leave the premises. The temporary president of the administrative body, Rajinder Singh Dhaliwal, told reporters that Sikh activists would try to enter the Golden Temple, the holiest Sikh shrine, to stop Baba Santa Singh, who leads a faction of the militant Nihang group, from carrying out the restoration work. Mr. Dhaliwal said the protests would be peaceful. The development opened the possibility of a division among Sikh leaders who, especially since the army raided the temple, have refused to cooperate with New Delhi.
Vietnam turned over bones believed to be those of eight American servicemen today. The bones, packed in separate wooden crates, were checked briefly at Hanoi’s Nội Bài Airport by United States specialists and loaded onto an Air Force cargo plane for transport to a military identification center in Hawaii. Officials from both countries said they would soon resume quarterly technical meetings to discuss Americans listed as missing in action in the Vietnam War. Richard Stevenson, a public affairs officer with the United States Pacific Command, said the talks would probably resume by the end of August. They were interrupted last year by Vietnam, which was angry over American criticism that Hanoi was dragging its feet on the issue. Hanoi has previously returned the remains of 88 Americans.
The new government of New Zealand announced a 20% currency devaluation. It also froze prices for three months and abolished all controls on interest rates. Prime Minister-elect David Lange said that trading in foreign currency. suspended since Sunday night, will resume today. Lange, of the Labor Party, said that New Zealand will continue to borrow money overseas. The nation’s foreign debt, which exceeds $11 billion, was a major issue in the recent election campaign, in which Labor defeated incumbent Prime Minister Robert Muldoon, a conservative.
The Jesuit order has told Father Fernando Cardenal, a Jesuit, that he cannot accept the post of minister of education in Nicaragua’s leftist government, Vatican radio reported. The broadcast said the order informed Cardenal that assumption of the post would be incompatible with his priestly duties. Cardenal is the third priest to be named to a Nicaraguan Cabinet post. Relations between Nicaragua and the Vatican have been under severe strain over the involvement of priests in politics.
Nicaragua’s ruling Sandinistas announced that chief of state Daniel Ortega will run as their candidate for president in the Nov. 4 elections, and junta member Sergio Ramirez will be their candidate for vice president. Ortega predicted in a televised speech that the Sandinistas will “remain at the head of this country.” He was a member of the junta formed in 1979, a month after the overthrow of dictator Anastasio Somoza.
A rightist coalition appears to have won the most seats in Guatemala’s new 88-seat Constituent Assembly, despite finishing third in the July 1 election, according to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal. The results, still subject to challenge by other parties, show that the National Liberation Movement and the Authentic Nationalist Central will have 23 seats in the assembly, two more than the number they were estimated to have won at the completion of the vote count.
Argentina should establish a national center to coordinate witness depositions, dental records and other information relating to the thousands of civilians who disappeared during military rule in the 1970s, a report by the American Association for the Advancement of Science recommended. Hundreds of unidentified bodies are being exhumed and studied in an attempt to prosecute the responsible military officials. The report, requested by a panel organized by Argentine President Raul Alfonsin, said the center could be set up within a few months at a cost of $10 million.
The Soviet spaceflight Soyuz T-12 carries 3 cosmonauts, Vladimir Dzhanibekov, Svetlana Savitskaya, and Igor Volk to the Salyut 7 space station. On 25 July Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to perform an EVA. She had hurriedly been added to the crew when the Soviets found out the Kathryn Sullivan was scheduled to perform an EVA on STS-41-G in October. Igor Volk was the “passenger” on the flight; he was a test pilot and slated to command the first mission of the Soviet space shuttle Buran. He went along on the Soyuz to gain space experience. With the collapse of the USSR and cancellation of Buran, this became his only spaceflight.
Democratic Convention: Jesse Jackson moved to heal the divisions created by his Presidential aspirations and added his voice to those calling for a Democratic Party united behind the candidacy of Walter F. Mondale. In an intense, evangelical speech to the second session of the Democratic National Convention, the civil rights leader pledged he would “be proud to support the nominee of this convention.” Alluding to the bitter disputes that arose among Democrats after he used anti-Semitic language, Mr. Jackson called contritely for harmony among the party’s constituencies. His speech sought to answer longstanding questions about his loyalty to the party in the general election.
Democrats compromised on two critical platform issues after defeating three proposals by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, including one calling for the elimination of the runoff primary. While supporters of Walter F. Mondale were winning the three floor contests at the Democratic convention in San Francisco, they agreed to compromises on platform planks dealing with affirmative action and the use of American military force abroad, avoiding debates and divisive votes on those sensitive issues.
President Reagan participates in a signing ceremony for H.R. 4616, legislation encouraging states to raise their minimum drinking age to 21. The U.S. enacts the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, prohibiting under-21’s from buying or possessing alcohol as a condition of receiving federal highway funds. Federal highway funds would be cut for states that did not raise the drinking age to 21 under legislation signed by President Reagan. At the ceremony, he urged cooperation in ending “the crazy quilt of different states’ drinking laws.”
President Reagan participates in Cabinet Council meetings dealing with Economic Affairs and Commerce/Trading.
President Reagan signed into law legislation allowing the federal government to sell its Landsat system of earth-monitoring satellites — but not the weather satellites — to private companies. In a written statement released after he signed the bill, the President said the Administration’s policies of limiting burdensome governmental regulation and encouraging competition in the marketplace “will guide the implementation of this legislation.”
The Justice Department is investigating gifts that allegedly were given by General Dynamics Corp. to retired Adm. Hyman G. Rickover while he was head of the Navy’s nuclear shipbuilding program, the Washington Post said. Rickover, 84, was quoted as saying he accepted gifts — jewelry, silver and other “mementos” — from General Dynamics, and other shipbuilders. But Rickover said the gifts never swayed his criticism of industry.
Women are not only paid considerably less than men but have less work experience because they are three times as likely to interrupt their careers to tend to family matters, the Census Bureau reported. The report said, “Women get into jobs where experience is not a very important factor. You can describe them as dead-end jobs.” The report said 72% of women who have ever worked experienced a career interruption of six months or longer, compared to 26% of males.
The comprehensive immigration bill now in Congress is strongly opposed by Hispanic leaders, who met for one hour with Walter Mondale. He promised to lobby against the measure, but the Hispanic delegates held to a threat to boycott the first ballot for the Presidential nomination at the Democratic convention.
The etiquette of a national slate headed by a man and a woman is the subject of intense discussions among Walter F. Mondale, Geraldine A. Ferraro and many Democratic officials. The territory the running mates are exploring includes such issues as who should stand where, who should walk first, whether to touch, how to address each other. Patrick H. Caddell, the pollster, offered this advice: “Mondale cannot, whatever he does, kiss her.”
An attack on an Olympic contender was reported by the authorities in Big Sky, Montana. They said two mountain recluses had kidnapped a top member of the United States’s women’s biathlon team on Sunday, chained her to a tree and shot her, then killed a searcher and fled into the rugged terrain near the resort. The kidnapped woman, 23- year-old Kari A. Swenson, was reported in stable condition with a wound in the chest. The bullet had entered her chest just below her collarbone, went through her lung, collapsing it, and exited below her shoulder blade. Swenson remained in the clearing, in pain so intense it prevented her from moving, for four hours before she was rescued. It had been over 18 hours since her abduction. Swenson later attributed her survival to the breath control skills she developed as a biathlete.
The search for the fugitive Alton Coleman shifted back to Ohio today when a man who was abducted in Kentucky was found in Dayton, Ohio in the trunk of his automobile and a minister and his wife were beaten and their automobile was stolen. Mr. Coleman, 28 years old, is sought in connection with a series of murders, rapes, abductions and thefts in the upper Middle West. Police Chief Tyree Broomfield said officers were investigating whether the fugitive was involved in the abduction of Oline Carmical Jr. of Williamsburg, Kentucky, who was found in the trunk of his auto about 6 AM in a park here. The police said Mr. Carmical was abducted late Monday from a motel in Lexington, Kentucky, where Mr. Coleman had recently been reported seen. The beating victims were identified as the Rev. Millard Gay, 79 years old, and his wife, Kathryn, who were found bound in their west side home. The couple told the police their station wagon, had been stolen. The Gays were not believed to be seriously hurt.
Voters in the predominantly white tobacco-farming community of Hemingway, South Carolina, narrowly rejected an attempt to secede from their predominantly black county in a move that opponents said was racially motivated. A referendum for Hemingway and the surrounding Johnson Township to leave Williamsburg County and join neighboring Florence County failed to get a necessary two-thirds majority by 159 votes. The final tally showed 1,299 votes in favor of the move and 889 voters against it, but the margin was not enough to permit the township of 54% white residents to leave Williamsburg County. The 84.8-square-mile county is one of the poorest in the state and is more than 65% black.
Four men convicted in a highly publicized gang-rape case appeared in court in Cambridge, Massachusetts, seeking a new trial on charges they took part in raping a woman on a barroom pool table. The men, Daniel Silva, 27, Joseph Vieira, 28, Victor Raposo, 23, and John Cordeiro, 24, were convicted on charges of aggravated rape in March for the 1983 rape of a 22-year-old woman in a New Bedford, Massachusetts, bar. Sentences ranged from six to 12 years.
Homosexual activists packed a Bangor, Maine courtroom today and watched angrily as three juveniles were allowed to remain free on charges of killing a homosexual man who drowned after he was thrown from a bridge. David McMannus said of the decision, “It says to every fag-basher this is the time — go out and get them.” Judge David Cox of District Court allowed the youths to remain free in the slaying of Charles Howard, 23 years old, on July 7. Judge Cox set a July 31 deadline for prosecutors to decide if they would seek to try the three, James Francis Bains, 15, Shawm I. Mabry, 16, and Daniel Ness, 17, as adults rather than juveniles. He allowed them to remain in their parents’ custody.
The trial of Larry Flynt for shouting obscenities at the Supreme Court justices last fall has been delayed until September 12 because of the Hustler magazine owner’s medical problems, prosecutors said in Washington. Flynt was to have been tried on criminal charges stemming from his outburst during an October 31, 1983, court session. Flynt screamed profanities at the justices because they had refused to allow him to represent himself in a case being argued that day.
Investigators raided nine sites Monday in a search for evidence in the McMartin Pre-School child pornography case. Investigators seized “lots and lots of photos but no child pornography,” according to Glenn Stevens, a prosecuting attorney who accompanied investigators on the raids. The authorities said the sites where warrants were served included several homes, with three of them the homes of friends of Raymond Buckey, the chief defendant in the McMartin School case. Mr. Buckey, his grandmother, mother and sister and three former teachers at the school face more than 200 counts on charges they conspired to molest 42 children.
[Ed: Nothing found — because the entire case was nothing but hysterical horseshit and psychiatric malpractice from the start.]
Postal contract talks were halted by leaders of 500,000 employees of the Postal Service who said they would not resume bargaining until the agency dropped its demand for a three-year wage freeze.
NFL place-kicker Jan Stenerud was traded by the Green Bay Packers to the Minnesota Vikings for an undisclosed draft choice. The 41-year-old Stenerud, whose 338 field goals are a pro football record, played 13 years for the Kansas City Chiefs before joining the Packers in 1980.
Reggie Jackson stroked a two-run homer, the 493rd of his career to tie Lou Gehrig’s total, in helping the California Angels to a 5–3 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays tonight. Jackson hit his 15th homer of the season with two out in the seventh off James Key, a left-hander who had just come on in relief after Fred Lynn’s single. The blast, which climaxed a three-run tiebreaking rally, brought him into a 13th-place tie with the Yankee Hall of Famer on the career home run list.
Dan Petry and Willie Hernandez combined on a five- hitter, and Darrell Evans slammed a two-run first-inning homer as the Detroit Tigers ran their winning streak to five games, downing the Chicago White Sox, 3–2. Petry (12–4) struck out five and walked one in seven and two-thirds innings to post his fourth victory in his last five starts. Hernandez recorded his 17th save.
The Seattle Mariners beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 3–1. Mark Langston, a rookie left-hander for Seattle, allowed two hits and struck out 12 before leaving in the ninth inning. Langston (8–7) won his sixth game in his past eight decisions. His strikeout total was the highest by an American League pitcher this season. He was relieved by Mike Stanton in the ninth after issuing a leadoff walk, his fifth.
The Houston Astros’ Mark Bailey overcomes two questionable ninth-inning calls to lead a 3–2 triumph over the Mets. Jobbed by a bad call at the plate that gave New York a 2–1 lead in top of the ninth, Bailey gets revenge with a two-run blast off Doug Sisk that caps an emotional night where fines are passed out to players on both squads.
The Los Angeles Dodgers shut out the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5–0, in Pittsburgh. Ken Landreaux got the first Dodger hit off Jose DeLeon in the seventh, but it was a homer, and Los Angeles, behind Alejandro Pena’s pitching, went on to win.
Steve Garvey hit a homer and drove in three runs to lead San Diego to a 6–5 win over the Chicago Cubs. Garvey, who ranks ninth among active players in runs batted in with 1,101, drove in the game’s opening run with a ground ball in the first, made the score 5–1 in the fifth with his fifth homer of the year and doubled in the final run in the sixth. The Padres’ Eric Show (10–6) allowed six hits and struck out three before departing with two out in the eighth.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1122.9 (+6.07).
Born:
Asami Kimura, Japanese singer (Country Musume), in Hokkaido, Japan.
Died:
J. Delos Jewkes, 89, American light opera, vaudeville, choral (Mormon Tabernacle), film and television bass singer, and actor (“Stars and Stripes Forever”; “The Music Man”; “The Andy Griffith Show”), of a heart attack.
History Diaries 