A comprehensive Congressional survey has concluded that the military’s readiness to fight is declining and that American forces could not sustain combat against the Soviet Union or many lesser powers. A 376-page report drawn from the 18- month inquiry appeared to be the most sweeping public indictment of readiness in the armed forces since the issue was raised by members of Congress, mostly Democrats, in hearings on the military budget last winter. “The United States Army cannot be sustained in combat for any extended period of time,” the report said. It questioned the Navy’s ability “to sustain full combat air and surface operations for more than a week’s time.” And the Air Force, the investigators concluded, “is not capable of conducting sustained conventional war operations against the Soviets.”
Release of 652 political prisoners in Poland in the next 30 days is authorized by an amnesty bill that was approved by Parliament on the 40th anniversary of Communist rule in Poland. Officials said the amnesty would apply to all political prisoners except those being held on charges of high treason, espionage and sabotage.
Further easing of sanctions against Poland probably will be approved soon by President Reagan in response to the amnesty announced by the Polish Government, Administration officials said. The officials said the sanctions likely to be removed were the ban on regularly scheduled commercial flights to the United States by LOT, the Polish airline, and the curbs on American-financed scientific exchanges with Poland. In January of this year and last November, Mr. Reagan announced some initial steps to ease the sanctions, which were imposed after the declaration of martial law in Poland in December 1981. Those included restoring Polish fishing privileges in American waters, allowing LOT to fly charter flights to the United States and agreeing to talks on rescheduling Poland’s $15.2 billion official debt to the West.
Leaders of the British dock union formally approved an agreement with employers, ending a week-and-a-half-long strike that had paralyzed much of the nation’s trade. Delegates to the Transport and General Workers’ Union accepted a deal hammered out earlier by union and port negotiators, and union leaders ordered their men back to work. John Connolly of the longshoremen’s union claimed victory in the strike, asserting, “We have reaffirmed our position about the use of scab labor in the course of this dispute.” However, the employers said, “The assurances that have now been exchanged between the parties are essentially in line with those available to the trade unions from the beginning.”
France’s newly appointed Socialist premier, Laurent Fabius, is viewed favorably by most of the nation, according to opinion polls published in French newspapers. Three polls taken since last week-when President Francois Mitterrand appointed Fabius, 37, to head the government-gave him approval ratings ranging from 54% to 60%. Before the former premier, Pierre Mauroy, resigned, he had slipped to 25% ratings in the polls. Mitterrand’s own popularity was running at 30% to 35%.
The Israeli command said that at least five people were wounded, four Palestinians and an Israeli soldier, in a grenade explosion in the town of Nablus, on the occupied West Bank of the Jordan River. It said the unidentified assailant had been firing at an Israeli patrol in a jeep. However, the Palestine Press Service, a small Arab news agency that reports on the West Bank, charged that Israeli soldiers themselves opened fire and hurled a grenade into a crowd in Nablus’ central plaza after the jeep attack, wounding five Palestinians. Tension has been high in Nablus, the service said, since an explosive device was found in the town’s largest mosque Friday.
Several attacks on Israeli soldiers or their Lebanese allies occur every day in south Lebanon. The Israelis, who respond to the attacks violently, were welcomed as liberators from the domination of Palestinian guerrillas, but now have become the targets of resentment and resistance.
Israel closed the only access road connecting occupied southern Lebanon with the rest of the country, and said it would be closed until Wednesday because of the Israeli elections Monday.
An Egyptian state security court today delayed until Sept. 30 its verdict on 302 Muslim extremists accused of plotting to overthrow the Government. Judge Abdel-Ghaffar Mohammed told a two-minute session he needed more time to study the case because he was recovering from eye surgery. The prosecution has asked the death sentence for 299 of the accused and life imprisonment for three. Two other defendants have died in custody and 19 are still at large. The accused, members of the outlawed Holy War group, face 12 charges, including an attempt to overthrow the government by force and killing more than 60 policemen.
Sikh extremists in India’s troubled Punjab state breached the wall of a major canal, raising fears of flooding and shortages of irrigation and drinking water. Officials said the 2,000-foot gash along the bank of the Bhakra canal caused a 50% reduction in the water flow to Chandigarh, a city of 500,000 that serves as the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana states. Police, meanwhile, killed a suspected Sikh extremist during an exchange of gunfire near Amritsar, the Sikhs’ holy city.
Thailand and Laos opened talks today on a border dispute triggered by the occupation of three villages by Thai troops in a skirmish two months ago. Arriving at Bangkok’s Don Muang Airport, the Laotian Deputy Foreign Minister, Soubahn Srithirath, said his government hoped for an agreement on the villages of Ban Mai, Ban Klang and Ban Sawang, 300 miles northeast of Bangkok. “Our delegation will do its utmost and is convinced that with the goodwill of the two sides, mutual understanding and sympathy, the three-village dispute will rapidly be solved,” Mr. Soubahn said.
The talks had been set for last Thursday, but were cancelled abruptly by Laos. They were rescheduled when General Arthit Kamlangek, supreme commander of Thai armed forces, said Thailand was prepared to withdraw its troops from the villages during the negotiations. Thai officials described the talks as “cordial.” Traditionally friendly relations between the two nations deteriorated rapidly following a skirmish between Thai and Laotian forces and the occupation of the three villages by Thai troops in May.
Mexican President Miguel de la Madrid promised that his nation will pay its $89-billion foreign debt, warning that a default could prompt reprisals that would create hunger and suffering, Mexico’s official newspaper reported. El Nacional said De la Madrid also ruled out postponement of the debt or formation of a Latin American debtors’ cartel to press for global renegotiation of the region’s obligations. “In history, acts of this nature have had economic and often political reprisals,” the president was quoted as saying. Latin American nations owe international banks about $350 billion, with Mexico’s debt second only to Brazil’s $95 billion.
Uruguay has granted asylum to three Bolivian lawyers sheltered in its embassy in La Paz since a coup attempt last month against President Hernan Siles Zuazo of Bolivia, Foreign Minister Carlos Maeso Rodriguez said. The three lawyers, who are brothers, have been accused by Bolivia of conspiracy in the coup attempt, in which Mr. Siles Zuazo was kidnapped and held for 10 hours. “From the information gathered for asylum purposes, the participation of the asylees in the kidnapping is not proven,” Mr. Maeso said Friday. Uruguay’s charge d’affaires in La Paz said the evidence pointed to the participation by Jose, Luis and Cesar Zeballos Soto in the political conspiracy, but not in the abduction of the Bolivian President itself.
A Lagos high court has ordered Nigeria’s national police chief to pay $13,000 to a Nigerian editor for unlawful detention, the News Agency of Nigeria reported today. Dele Giwa, former editor of The Sunday Concord, was detained for a week in February 1983 after he published an official government letter that the police said was a classified document. Justice Yahaya Jinadu said that by failing to inform Mr. Giwa of the facts and the grounds of his arrest, the police had violated his personal liberty. He said the award was for Mr. Giwa’s loss of liberty and dignity.
Former Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith has changed the name of his political party and offered to cooperate with anyone opposed to government plans to turn Zimbabwe into a one-party state. Speaking after a one-day congress of his Republican Front, which will now be called the Conservative Alliance of Zimbabwe, Smith said party membership is open to anyone, including moderate blacks, who shares his belief in private enterprise and his opposition to “the one-party state of dictatorship.”
The USSR performs an underground nuclear test.
Walter F. Mondale has enlisted Senator Gary Hart and the Rev. Jesse Jackson to stump for him and is preparing to bring some of their staff members into his campaign organization, his aides said. Mondale strategists are preparing to get his campaign under way before the customary Labor Day kickoff.
Republicans want to add excitement to their convention next month, but do not know quite how to do it with President Reagan as the first incumbent since 1956 to face no strong opposition from within his own party.
President Reagan makes a radio address to the Nation about national commercial space initiatives.
President Reagan enjoys a horseback ride around the grounds at Camp David.
A new job training program that is the Reagan Administration’s alternative to the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act, is being praised by Administration officials for its accomplishments, but critics say the program is helping many who already had a good chance of finding jobs. The Administration says that with a modest amount of Federal money and the cooperation of local businesses, hundreds of thousands of people are being trained and placed in jobs in private industry nine months after the training program became effective.
The Reagan Administration has rejected Jesse Jackson’s request for continued Secret Service protection after his unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. A letter from Secretary of the Treasury Donald T. Regan. notifying Jackson of the decision was hand-delivered to a member of his entourage in California on Friday night, according to a Treasury Department official. The Administration planned to withdraw Jackson’s Secret Service bodyguards this weekend, officials said. Jackson, who has spoken of threats against his life, had asked to retain Secret Service protection indefinitely. It normally ends when an individual no longer is a major presidential contender.
The authorities have seized $5.5 million in “very high quality” counterfeit money and arrested four people. Mack W. Richardson, special agent in charge of the Secret Service office in Portland, said Friday that the money and printing equipment, including an offset press, were seized at a home in Brownsville, Oregon, about 30 miles north of Eugene. Arrested there were Billy Ray Powell, 43 years old, and his wife, Mary Ann, 38, Mr. Richardson said. Also arrested were Charles James Jones, 39, of Cottage Grove, and Deborah G. Godat, 24, of Roseburg.
The four were being held at the Lane County Jail in Eugene and were scheduled to appear before a federal magistrate here on Monday on charges of manufacture, possession and passing of counterfeit Federal reserve notes. Mr. Richardson said the equipment produced “very high quality” counterfeit money. He said the seizure was the largest ever in Oregon and one of the largest in the nation. The arrests ended a three-month investigation after counterfeit bills were passed in Oregon, Washington and California.
The Grand Strand Hospital in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina has reached a $25,000 out-of-court settlement with a couple who went home last year with the wrong baby. “We’re glad it’s over and settled,” said Donna McCaskill, a hospital spokesman. “It was just a human error, a mix-up.” Steven and Kitty Bonita Smalls, who checked out of the hospital June 5, 1983, with the baby of Tammy Jo Harvin, initially sought $600,000 from the hospital on the ground that it was negligent. Larry Hyman, an attorney for both families, said Miss Harvin’s suit was still pending. Court records indicate that both mothers delivered their babies June 3, 1983, and the families left the hospital hours apart. The mistake was discovered later by Miss Harvin’s mother, who noticed that the infant’s arm bracelet identified the child as the Smalls’ baby.
A former Pasadena policewoman, forced to resign after marrying another officer, has been hired as the mayor’s secretary. Gail Kello, a 31-year-old former police personnel and training officer, said Mayor Johnny Isbell and her former boss, Police Chief David Mullican, came up with the job offer Friday. Mrs. Kello handed in her badge Thursday after marrying Larry Kello, 36, a motorcycle patrolman, on Wednesday night. The marriage put the couple in violation of a Pasadena Civil Service rule barring married couples from working in the police force. Her secretarial job represents a cut in income of about $1,000 a month. But she will be able to maintain her sick pay and retirement benefits.
The abduction of Edith Rosenkranz is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the local police in Washington. Mrs. Rosenkranz was abducted Thursday from the garage of the Sheraton-Washington Hotel, where she and her husband, founder of Syntex pharmaceutical company, were playing in an international bridge tournament.
Scientists at the National Institutes of Health, with assistance from a team at UC San Diego, have cloned the gene for an enzyme blamed for Gaucher’s disease, a relatively rare and sometimes fatal genetic disorder that affects mostly persons of Eastern European Jewish descent. The discovery could lead to identifying and locating defective genes that cause about 300 genetic disorders relating to enzyme deficiencies, the Washington Post reported. Gaucher’s disease is more common, although less well-known, than the fatal Tay-Sachs disorder, which also afflicts mostly Eastern European Jews.
A federal appeals court affirmed a sex discrimination award of more than $50 million to a group of Northwest Airlines stewardesses who were paid less than their male co-workers. The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington did, however, send the case back to U.S. District Judge Aubrey E. Robinson Jr., who made an award of $52.4 million in 1982, for slight modifications in figuring back pay and interest. Robinson found that the women made as much as $3,000 less each year than male flight attendants performing the same work.
Guards at Attica Correctional Facility in New York, scene of the nation’s bloodiest prison revolt in 1971, quelled a seven-hour uprising that was touched off when a guard shot a bat-wielding inmate. The all-night rebellion began after an inmate was shot in the arm for striking a guard with a metal baseball bat. The guard was not seriously hurt, but 182 inmates refused to return to their cells until dawn Saturday.
The Danny Santiago pseudonym used by an “Anglo” author of a novel about a Mexican-American family in Los Angeles has evoked mixed reactions from writers of Hispanic origin, some of whom regard the deception as serious. It has been established that Daniel James of Carmel, California, wrote “Famous All Over Town,” which received a $5,000 award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.
U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors overlooked inhumane treatment at the Atlanta Zoo, focusing instead on cobwebs and weeds, a report by the General Accounting Office said. The GAO, a federal watchdog agency, plans to publish the report this fall, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. An investigation of the zoo, which lost its accreditation in March, disclosed that several animals had died under questionable circumstances.
An attack submarine named after retired Admiral Hyman G. Rickover was commissioned at Groton, Connecticut, as the man known as the father of the nuclear Navy became the third person to have his name grace a Navy vessel while still alive. Rickover, 84, attended the ceremonies at which he was praised as a “truly remarkable American.” Rickover, who retired two years ago after a 60-year career, was the principal promoter of nuclear-powered vessels.
Marita Koch of East Germany sets world women’s mark for 200m, 21.71 seconds.
Bill Buckner has a grand slam, Jim Rice hits a 3-run homer and Tony Armas goes solo as the Boston Red Sox crush the host California Angels, 16–4. The Red Sox pound out 20 hits and Bruce Hurst (10–5) gets an easy win.
Chet Lemon and Howard Johnson drove in two runs each during a five-run fifth inning to lead Detroit to its eighth victory in nine games, as the Tigers downed the Texas Rangers, 7–6. Tom Brookens walked to open the fifth, took second on a wild pitch and scored on Rupert Jones’s one-out single. Walks to Kirk Gibson and Darrell Evans loaded the bases and Lemon followed with a two-run double to tie the score 5–5. Danny Darwin relieved the Texas starter Dickie Noles, 1–1, and Johnson greeted the reliever with a single to score Evans and Lemon.
The Baltimore Orioles edged the Kansas City Royals, 4–3. Cal Ripken Jr. had three hits, and Rich Dauer broke a 3–3 tie with a sixth-inning double as Baltimore ended a three-game losing streak. Ripken drove in one run and scored another. John Shelby, the Oriole center fielder, hit a first-inning homer. Ripken followed Shelby’s homer with a double off the left-field wall and scored when Gary Roenicke singled. Baltimore went ahead by 3–1 in the fifth when Rick Dempsey walked leading off, took second on Floyd Rayford’s single and scored on Ripken’s single. The Baltimore starter, Storm Davis (9–4), gave up all three Kansas City runs before he was relieved by Tom Underwood in the seventh.
Jim Gantner’s two-out, two-run single highlighted a three-run 10th inning that gave the Milwaukee Brewers a 7–4 victory over the Oakland A’s. Oakland’s Chuck Rainey (0–1) gave up a leadoff single to Ben Oglivie in the 10th. Ed Romero sacrificed him and Rainey walked Dion James and Rick Manning with two outs to load the bases. Gantner then lined a single to right field to score two runs and Robin Yount singled Manning home.
The remarkable young arms that carried the New York Mets into first place this season did it again tonight, when Sid Fernandez and Doug Sisk pitched New York to a 2–1 victory over the Cincinnati Reds. They did it one night after Dwight Gooden and Jesse Orosco combined for a 3–2 victory in 11 innings. As a result, the Mets won for the 16th time in 20 games in July and stayed one and a half games in front of the Chicago Cubs in the National League Eastern Division, with 71 games still to play.
Thad Bosley hit a tiebreaking single with two out in the 11th inning, powering the Chicago Cubs to a 4–3 victory over the San Francisco Giants today. With one out in the 11th, Jody Davis singled and was forced when Larry Bowa bunted. Bowa then stole second and scored as Bosley lined a single down the left-field line off the loser Greg Minton (1–7). Rick Bordi (4–1) was the winner. The Giants’ Dusty Baker had a two-run single off Lee Smith with two out in the eighth inning to tie the score, 3–3. With one out, the pinch-hitter Gene Richards singled. One out later, Manny Trillo doubled, and both runners scored when Baker singled.
Steve Sax broke an 0-for-17 slump with a two-run triple in the sixth inning, and the left- handed pitcher Rick Honeycutt won his first game in more than seven weeks as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 3–1. Honeycutt (8–4), who had not won in seven starts since June 4, pitched an eight-hitter. He struck out two and issued one intentional walk.
Born:
Byron Bitz, Canadian NHL right wing (Boston Bruins, Florida Panthers, Vancouver Canucks), in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Paul Davis, NBA power forward and center (Los Angeles Clippers, Washington Wizards), in Detroit, Michigan.
Tony Taylor, NFL linebacker (Atlanta Falcons), in Watkinsville, Georgia.
Died:
Michael Osborne, 34, American rock guitarist and vocalist (Axe).
History Diaries 