France’s Communist Party withdrew from the new Socialist-led Government, accusing the Socialists of advocating economic policies that eliminate jobs and crush industries. The departure of the Communists raised the possibility of a new political relationship between the Socialists and some elements of France’s center parties. After all-night meetings of the Communist Central Committee and a 4 AM conference between its leaders and Laurent Fabius, the newly appointed Socialist Prime Minister, the party turned down four ministerial posts offered to it in Mr. Fabius’s Cabinet. Mr. Fabius later named a Cabinet made up of Socialists and two smaller left-wing groups. Until the break today, France had been, since 1981, the only major ally of the United States with Communists in its Government.
Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko and U.S. Ambassador Arthur A. Hartman met in Moscow to discuss questions of American-Soviet relations, the Tass news agency said. A U.S. Embassy spokesman confirmed that the two met but declined specific comment on the contents of the talk. Hartman last met with Gromyko on July 5, shortly after Soviet Ambassador Anatoly F. Dobrynin arrived with a message to Kremlin leaders from President Reagan.
Talks between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Warsaw Pact on reducing troops in central Europe broke for the summer today with no tangible progress. Each side blamed the other for the impasse. The talks convened in October 1973. Disagreement on troop strengths and ways of verifying any reductions are the main obstacles to agreement. The talks are the only remaining disarmament forum along East-West lines. The Soviet Union broke off two sets of nuclear missile talks with the United States last year after NATO began deployment of new medium- range missiles in Western Europe. Moscow and its military allies say troop parity exists. The West says it is outnumbered.
Talks between Britain and Argentina over the Falkland Islands broke down in Bern, Switzerland, less than 24 hours after they began. British Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe said in London that the talks ended when Argentina insisted on discussing its claims of sovereignty over the South Atlantic territory, and Britain refused to do so. Argentina said its delegation is returning to Buenos Aires. The two nations fought a war over the Falklands in 1982, when Britain drove out an Argentine invasion force.
Britain’s strongest earthquake in the last century shook buildings, toppled chimney pots and rattled breakfast teacups in western Britain and along Ireland’s east coast. Earthquakes of such magnitude are rare in the British Isles.
The Netherlands has joined the United States and Britain in formally warning the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization that it may withdraw. The Dutch ambassador to the Paris-based organization delivered a letter to the agency saying that if reforms are not made and “if one or more member states leave the organization, then the Netherlands would want to review its position” as a member. Washington has said it will reconsider its pullout only if UNESCO makes “significant changes.”
Alarm among Israeli commanders has been expressed over the trend of the latest secret military planning talks between Israel and Washington. Reagan Administration officials say the talks have been focusing increasingly on how to counter the Soviet Union in the region as desired by Washington rather than “radical” Arab governments as sought by Israel.
The Lebanese government ordered the closure of Israel’s liaison office in a Beirut suburb, but the office remained open. “We are here, I don’t know for how long. It is a political decision Jerusalem must make,” said an Israeli colonel at the office, in an area controlled by Lebanese Christian forces. The office is the last vestige of the May 17, 1982, troop withdrawal agreement that Lebanon has disavowed. Israeli army radio quoted sources as saying that if Lebanon withdraws soldiers guarding the office, Israel may be forced to close it.
Representatives of a quarter million Christians who fled the mountains of central Lebanon during warfare last fall demanded that the government arrange their immediate return under army protection. “Without the return of Christians to the mountains, the government is not a government of national unity,” a refugee representative said. In the mountain fighting, the small but powerful Druze sect, backed by Syria and Palestinian guerrillas, defeated Christian militiamen, and many of the Christian residents fled to Beirut.
Iraq claimed that its warplanes hit “a very large naval target” in the Persian Gulf. An announcement in Baghdad from the Iraqi high command said the unidentified vessel was attacked by Iraqi jets southeast of Iran’s main oil facility at Kharg Island. The announcement said the ship was “effectively and accurately hit” and that the jets returned safely to base. Iran dismissed the Iraqi claim as “a mere lie,” and independent shipping sources in the gulf could not confirm the attack.
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of India reshuffled her Cabinet, replacing Home Minister Prakash C. Sethi, who had been responsible for law and order in Punjab state and the crackdown on Sikh violence there. Gandhi shifted P.V. Narasimha Rao from the External Affairs Ministry to the Home Ministry and took over foreign affairs herself. Sethi was made planning minister, replacing S.B. Chavan, who Gandhi said will help with foreign affairs. The move comes a few days before the Indian Parliament begins what is widely regarded as its last session before general elections later this year.
The Chinese will see American TV under an agreement signed by China’s national television network and CBS. The Chinese will broadcast 64 hours of CBS television programming, beginning December 1. The programs will include segments of “60 Minutes” and football, hockey and basketball games.
Nicaragua’s plans for elections this fall were belittled by President Reagan, who declared that Washington had a “moral responsibility” to aid anti-Government rebels as long as Managua promoted “Communist interference” in the region. Mr. Reagan addressed leaders of 13 Caribbean governments at a conference at the University of South Carolina.
In Managua, the Government announced it would relax its 28-month-old state of emergency for the election campaign. Daniel Ortega Saavedra, the junta coordinator, made the announcement at celebrations here marking the fifth anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution. Mr. Ortega, addressing a crowd of more than 150,000 Government supporters, said the November 4 voting would be “the first free election in Nicaragua’s history.” But he said the emergency restrictions could not be lifted entirely because of the continued military threat posed by rebels. He announced that 7,391 Nicaraguans had been killed by insurgents in three years of fighting. Under the changes announced today, Mr. Ortega said, political campaigners will be free to travel to every part of the country, hold outdoor rallies and speak and write openly about any subject except national defense.
Many opposition leaders, however, said that only a complete repeal of the emergency law and other restrictive decrees could persuade them to take part in the election. They have complained that their access to television and radio is restricted and that they cannot compete fairly as long as the apparatus of government is controlled by the Sandinistas.
President Reagan today belittled Nicaragua’s plans for elections this fall and declared that the United States had a “moral responsibility” to aid anti-Government insurgents as long as Managua promoted “Communist interference” in the region. Speaking to leaders of 13 Caribbean governments at a conference at the University of South Carolina, Mr. Reagan said Nicaragua planned elections in November only after “mounting internal pressures and disillusionment abroad” over its policies. “We would wholeheartedly welcome a genuine democratic election in Nicaragua,” the President told the leaders at a luncheon at a campus student center. “But no person committed to democracy will be taken in by a Soviet-style sham election.”
Newspapers in Peru reported today that anti-Government guerrillas killed more than 200 civilians in the last five days. The military said it could not confirm the reports. The pro-Government newspaper La Cronica reported the purported killings by the Shining Path guerrillas and said soldiers also killed 15 villagers while searching for rebels.
President Reagan attends the Summit Conference of Caribbean Heads of State hosted by the University of South Carolina.
Democratic Convention: Geraldine A. Ferraro was nominated for Vice President by acclamation at the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco. Walter F. Mondale, in his speech of acceptance for the party’s Presidential nomination, called the historic ticket with the Queens Representative “a new door to the future.” Mr. Mondale pledged fairness in Government, a further cut in the Federal deficit and economic security and physical survival of Americans.
The selection of Geraldine Ferraro as the first woman to be the Vice-Presidential nominee of a major political party set off wildly emotional cheers and applause at the Democratic convention.
The choice of Representative Ferraro as the Democratic nominee for Vice President has uncorked an excitement that has made the party’s national convention a non-stop celebration for female delegates and transformed their political future. All week, the women’s caucuses and fund-raising parties, which in former years went begging for people, have been Standing Room Only.
Many black delegates at the Democratic convention do not share the confidence of Jesse Jackson that blacks made significant gains. They expressed frustration at what they say was a failure by Mr. Jackson to insist on concessions in return for the support of blacks.
President Reagan participates in a photo opportunity with winners of the National Association of Sport and Physical Education Awards Program.
An obsession with guns was said to occupy the thoughts of the man whose shooting rampage Wednesday at a McDonald’s restaurant in San Ysidro, California, left 22 people dead. The gunman, 41-year-old James Oliver Huberty, was little known by neighbors, who depicted him as a close-mouthed loner and hothead who occasionally went on quiet bicycle outings with his well-dressed wife and 13- year-old daughter.
The U.S. Postal Service and the two largest unions representing the nation’s mail workers agreed to resume negotiations today for a new wage and benefit package. Both sides agreed to return to the bargaining table after meeting with Kay McMurray, director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, said Alan Madison, spokesman for the American Postal Workers Union. The unions have asked for a 10% salary increase and the Postal Service is seeking a three-year wage freeze. Contracts with four postal unions representing 600,000 workers expire at 12:01 am Saturday.
Theodore Bundy, condemned for killing two sorority sisters and a child, and another death row inmate were caught in an apparent attempt to break out of Florida State Prison, a prison spokesman said today. A bar in each of their cells had been cut and hacksaw blades, a pair of gloves and other escape items were found in Mr. Bundy’s cell Wednesday, said the spokesman, Vernon Bradford. Mr. Bradford said the other inmate was Manuel Valle of Miami, who was imprisoned four cells away from Mr. Bundy. Mr. Valle was convicted of killing a Coral Gables police officer on April 2, 1978. A bar in each cell had been cut at the top and at the bottom and were being held together by an adhesive-like substance, Mr. Bradford said. A report of the incident will be sent to local prosecutors to determine if the two prisoners will be formally charged.
The Rev. Sun Myung Moon said he will move the headquarters for his Unification Church to a federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut, while he serves an 18-month sentence for tax evasion beginning today. But Warden Dennis Luther said the Korean evangelist will be barred from trying to convert other inmates at the minimum-security prison. The 64-year-old founder and worldwide leader of the Unification Church was convicted in 1982 of failing to report $162,000 in income and filing falsified federal income tax returns.
Strikers shut down a kidney dialysis unit in Brooklyn and two in the Bronx, the first curtailment of vital care in the week-old walkout by employees at 28 hospitals and 17 nursing homes, and kidney patients were being referred to other centers. As the stalemate in negotiations continued, tires were reportedly slashed on the cars of a dozen doctors who were filling in for strikers. The Health Department has received no other reports of vital-care reductions since the hospitals were struck last Friday by 49,500 employees.
The Environmental Protection Agency announced that it is investigating a potentially cancer-causing pesticide commonly used on apples and peanuts, saying the chemical presents “lifetime dietary risks” that may be high. The pesticide daminozide — better known under the trade name Alar — has caused tumors in “multiple organs of male and female mice and rats,” the agency said.
Members of a SWAT team were flown by helicopter into a remote southwest Montana forest and began a sweep of six mountain areas where a woodsman and his son wanted for murder are believed holed up. The 10 lawmen were among scores of law enforcement officers looking for Don Nichols, 53, and his son Dan, 19. Authorities said the Nicholses shot and killed Alan Goldstein, 36, and wounded Kari Swenson, 23, top-ranked member of the U.S. biathlon team, who was being held captive in the Nicholses’ camp. Goldstein was trying to rescue Swenson, who had been kidnaped during the weekend while jogging on a mountain trail.
The fourth suspect in a $6.5-million holdup last Thanksgiving at a Memphis, Tennessee, Wells Fargo office surrendered to the FBI in New Orleans, joining his estranged wife and a brother-sister team in jail. The suspect was identified as Nathan Page Gervais, whose estranged wife, Marilyn, was arrested in Memphis earlier this week, along with James Broussard and Marie Broussard Reitmeyer. FBI agents found $3.2 million stashed behind walls in the homes of Gervais’ wife and James Broussard.
A Federal grand jury today indicted 22 members of the Pagan motorcycle club, including four of its top officers, on charges of racketeering in the manufacture and distribution of millions of dollars’ worth of methamphetamine and similar drugs. United States Attorney Edward Dennis Jr. said the two-year investigation that led to the indictments, conducted by Federal, state and local law-enforcement officers, was one of the largest drug investigations in the nation. He called the indictments a major blow to the “fourth largest outlaw motorcycle club in the country.” Mr. Dennis listed the other clubs as the Outlaws, Hell’s Angels and Bandidos. The Pagan club has about 300 members, he said. The attorney said the 22 defendants, named in two indictments, used “force, violence and threats of force of violence to accomplish the purposes of the conspiracy.” Eighteen of the men indicted have been arrested.
A North Dakota state agency got rid of a heap of paperwork today: 19 tons of it, state officials said. And that was just the start. Obsolete files, some dating from the 1930’s, were gleaned from the State Department of Human Services, the first and the largest of 148 state agencies ordered to weed their files. The waste paper was taken to a program called Recycle for Trees. Gov. Allen I. Olson, who ceremonially tossed a couple of boxes into a red dump truck at the Capitol, said the accumulation crept up on the agencies. “It comes kind of slowly,” he said. “You don’t really notice it, but it really is an excessive cost of government.” The goal of the program is to save money. The files removed from the Human Services file cabinets would have cost more than $96,000 a year to maintain, according to the Governor’s office.
A 41-year-old woman who tried to stop an attempted robbery outside her home was abducted, held captive and raped by as many as 20 men, Chicago police said. Mark Foster, 17, and Edric Jones, 20, were arrested and charged with aggravated criminal sexual assault. Other men were being sought. Detective William Murphy said when the woman went to the aid of the robbery victim, five robbers reportedly threw her into a car and took her to an apartment, where she was raped.
The first female to captain a 747 across the Atlantic (Newark to London) is Lynn Rippelmeyer, for People Express Airlines.
The Minnesota Twins in general and Gary Gaetti and Kent Hrbek in particular executed their third triple play in three years last night, then went on to edge the Yankees, 2–1. Hrbek completed the rare groundball triple play in the second inning, then started the winning rally in the eighth. With the game tied, 1–1, he doubled against Dave Righetti, moved to third on a single by Tim Teufel and scored on Tom Brunansky’s one-out fly to center field. Beyond showing the Twins’ consistency, the triple play, which Rick Cerone grounded into, was indicative of the problems experienced by the Yankees, who had won seven of their eight games since the all-star break. The Yankees put 14 runners on base in the first 7 innings, but only one scored.
Ron Kittle smashed a two-run home run to center field in the ninth inning, and Tom Seaver and Jerry Don Gleaton combined on an eight-hitter as the Chicago White Sox defeated the Cleveland Indians, 3–0. Seaver (9–6) and Steve Farr (1–6), a rookie, were locked in a scoreless duel through the first eight innings. Seaver struck out three and walked one to snap Cleveland’s three- game winning streak.
Kirk Gibson and Lance Parrish belted home runs and Ruppert Jones collected four hits to lead the Detroit Tigers to a 9–2 win over the Texas Rangers. Following Jones’s sixth-inning single, Gibson slammed an 0–1 pitch from Odell Jones, the Texas reliever, into the left-field seats for his 14th home run of the season to give the Tigers a 6–0 lead. The two runs batted in raised Gibson’s total to 53, a personal high.
Orel Hershiser pitches his third straight shutout for the Dodgers, striking out 9 in a 10–0 two-hitter at St. Louis. Including four innings of relief, Hershiser (6–3) extended his string of scoreless innings to 31. The 25-year- old Los Angeles rookie struck out nine and set down the final 20 batters he faced. He also singled home the Dodgers’ fourth run. German Rivera drove in three runs with three hits.
The Cincinnati Reds defeated the Mets, 9–6. They even beat Bruce Berenyi, who had found instant success since the Reds traded him to the Mets last month. And they helped Mario Soto, on his fourth attempt, win his 10th game of the season. It was a wild game that the Reds won on three unlikely plays: Brad Gulden foiled a double play by knocking the ball out of Rafael Santana’s hands at third base in the sixth inning. Ron Oester made a diving stop on a line drive by Rusty Staub with the bases loaded in the seventh. And John Franco, a rookie pitcher from Brooklyn, struck out Darryl Strawberry with the bases loaded in the eighth.
Jerry Koosman hurled a four-hitter and Tim Corcoran drove in four runs with four hits as the Philadelphia Phillies pounded the Atlanta Braves with a 17-hit attack on the way to a 9–1 rout. It was the fourth victory in a row for the Phillies, who took command from the start by chasing Atlanta’s Craig McMurtry (7–11) with a five-run first inning. Koosman (11–7) walked one and struck out seven.
The Pittsburgh Pirates downed the San Diego Padres, 5–1. John Candelaria pitched a three-hitter and belted a two-run homer, his first in the major leagues, as the Pirates scored their ninth victory in 10 games. Tony Pena and Dale Berra cracked solo home runs as Candelaria ran his personal winning streak to four games. Candelaria is now 13–0 in July games dating back to July 30, 1980. Candelaria (9–6) did not allow a hit after the fourth inning, retiring the final 13 batters he faced.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1102.92 (-8.72).
Born:
Adam Morrison, NBA small forward and power forward (Charlotte Bobcats, Los Angeles Lakers), in Glendive, Montana.
Ryan O’Byrne, Canadian NHL defenseman (Montreal Canadiens, Colorado Avalanche, Toronto Maple Leafs), in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
Alessandra De Rossi, Filipino actress (“Amanda”), in England, United Kingdom.
Died:
Carol Eberts Veazie, 89, actress (Maude Endles-“Norby”).
History Diaries 