President Jose Napoleon Duarte of El Salvador met with President Reagan and, separately, with three House Democratic leaders today to appeal for increased United States economic and security assistance. “I need the understanding of the American people and American Government and of Congress,” Mr. Duarte said after meeting for an hour with the three House Democratic leaders — Jim Wright of Texas, the majority leader; Jamie L. Whitten of Mississippi, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, and Clarence D. Long of Maryland, the chairman of the appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations.
Mr. Duarte added, “I want a little bit of economic aid.” Mr. Duarte’s brief visit, his second to Washington since being elected President in May, coincided with a renewed effort by the Administration to gain Congressional approval for several Central America aid requests, including $117 million in military assistance and $134 million in economic support to El Salvador and $21 million for Nicaraguan rebels.
After meeting with Mr. Duarte, Mr. Wright said El Salvador deserved additional American aid but predicted that Congress would continue to block new money for the Nicaraguan rebels. He said it would be unfair for Congress not to provide additional assistance to El Salvador after encouraging that country to adopt democratic reforms. “It is a tender plant,” Mr. Wright said of democracy in El Salvador. “I cannot conceive of our letting the plant wither and die for lack of water.”
After conferring with Mr. Reagan for 30 minutes at the White House, Mr. Duarte said the President was “optimistic” about obtaining the additional economic and security assistance for El Salvador. White House officials said the purpose of Mr. Duarte’s visit was to hear from him about his recent meetings with European leaders and to discuss the internal military and political situation in El Salvador as well as the outlook for addition American aid. Mr. Duarte, who has kept his distance from American support for the Nicaraguan rebels, said he favored efforts to prevent the flow of arms from Nicaragua to guerrillas in El Salvador but stopped short of a full endorsement of the rebels.
Moscow says it has proposed to Washington that the two sides issue a joint statement to demonstrate their readiness for serious negotiations on banning weapons in space. A Soviet spokesman said Washington’s response would show whether it is serious about accepting a Soviet offer for talks in September or intends to continue what he called its “deceptive game” about the issue.
Washington is “pleased” that Moscow has accepted what a Reagan Administration spokesman characterized as an American idea in proposing a text for a joint statement on an agenda for proposed September talks to ban weapons in space, the spokesman said. But the White House indicated that Moscow’s wording fell short of what was acceptable to Washington.
West German policemen escorted a Soviet truck to the East German border today, ending a diplomatic standoff over electronic equipment and other cargo the Russians insisted was “diplomatic baggage.” West German customs officials reported the Mercedes truck crossed the border into East Germany on its way to Moscow less than 24 hours after the Soviet Union bowed to West German demands to open the sealed trailer. The truck was originally bound for Geneva. On Sunday West German officials checked the labels on the 207 bags and cartons inside the truck against an inventory provided by the Russians, but did not open them.
Hundreds of striking miners smashed windows, set tires ablaze and tore down a stone wall in clashes with police outside two Scottish coal mines as the British coal strike entered its 20th week. More than 40 arrests were made at the Bilston Glen mine, near Edinburgh, and the Blinkbonny mine, at Lothian. The strikers are militantly opposed to the state-owned National Coal Board’s plans to shut down 20 unprofitable mines and lay off 20,000 workers.
An international assembly of Lutherans, meeting for the first time in a Communist nation, began formal debate today on an agenda that includes world peace, racism and human rights as main topics. At its two-week meeting, the Lutheran World Federation is also to consider a motion on whether to suspend two white South African Lutheran churches from the federation. The federation consists of 97 affiliated churches across the world. The assembly, which is held in a different country every six years, opened on Sunday with a service attended by more than 10,000 people and broadcast over Hungarian television. The Lutheran Church in Hungary claims about 430,000 members.
Israel’s labor alignment was winning slightly more votes than the ruling Likud bloc but the Likud and its allies were in a somewhat better position to form the next Government, according to computer projections based on about 93 percent of the votes counted in parliamentary elections. The projected results were seen by Israeli political analysts as an upset by the Likud, which almost every pollster had predicted would lose decisively.
A bitter feud between two rival Muslim factions in the northern Lebanese port of Tripoli flared anew, with fierce fighting in the streets, forcing thousands of civilians into shelters and wounding at least four people. The Voice of Lebanon radio said the fighting erupted between the Tawhid, a fundamentalist Islamic militia, and the “Pink Panthers,” a smaller, Syrian-backed militia vying for control of the city. The Tawhid represents the dominant Sunni Muslim population in Tripoli. The two militias have clashed since last fall, when they took opposite sides in a battle within the Palestine Liberation Organization, with the Tawhid backing PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat.
The Pentagon informed Congress that it intends to provide training to 150 Kuwaiti pilots at an estimated cost to the Persian Gulf nation of $78 million. The majority of the training will be handled by the Air Force, the Pentagon added. Congress was also told that the Defense Department plans to help Jordan and Egypt upgrade their Hawk anti-aircraft missile systems.
A leader of an Afghan rebel movement said yesterday that there was now greater cooperation among the various anti-Soviet guerrilla groups. But he also said a severe shortage of weapons, ammunition and basic supplies hampered their efforts to assault Soviet strongholds in key cities. At a news conference in Manhattan sponsored by Freedom House, a human rights organization, Dr. Shah Rukh Gran, a commander of the National Islamic Front of Afghanistan, also said the Soviet Union’s attempt to build an Afghan Army to quell the resistance had been largely unsuccessful. Dr. Gran, a 33-year-old physician, said that although the guerrillas had captured some Soviet rifles and other weapons, including tanks, from Soviet troops, they lacked ammunition.
India’s Parliament convened with a shouting match, a near fistfight and a walkout by opposition parties demanding an immediate debate on the ouster of the state government of Kashmir by allies of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The scuffle started when a member of Gandhi’s Congress-I Party threw a punch at an opposition lawmaker from Kashmir. He missed, and the two were separated. The five-week legislative session also is expected to produce heated debate on the government’s handling of Sikh terrorism in Punjab state.
In a written statement, the opposition said the government’s actions in Kashmir were “unconstitutional” and posed “a grave threat to the functioning of parliamentary democracy.” The Kashmir state government was dismissed July 2 after 12 state lawmakers withdrew their support. The opposition has charged that Mrs. Gandhi’s supporters engineered the maneuver.
Maneka Gandhi, the estranged daughter-in-law and political rival of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, announced Saturday that she would seek election to the parliamentary seat held by her brother-in-law, Rajiv Gandhi.
Restoration of the Great Wall of China north of Peking is being pressed by four newspapers there. Farmers outside the capital are being asked to return any pieces of the wall that they carried off to build houses and other buildings.
Canadian women have assailed the new Prime Minister, John N. Turner, for patting two female leaders of the Liberal Party on the backside as he greeted them. One of the women, Iona Campagnola, the party’s president, responded by slapping him in the same place.
Authorities are searching for the former director of the Mexico City secret police in connection with the 1982 murders of 13 bank robbery suspects, the anti-government Proceso newspaper reported. Citing police and judicial sources, it said two former police investigators, who confessed to the murders, have apparently named the director, Francisco Sahagun Baca, as the mastermind behind the crimes. The motive reportedly was to find and steal several hundred thousand dollars of the bank robbers’ loot.
A team of Green Berets from the Army’s 7th Special Forces Group in Panama joined Honduran forces in beginning two weeks of counterinsurgency exercises in Honduras, the Pentagon announced. The number of troops involved was not given. The exercises, part of a virtually unbroken 18-month series of joint maneuvers designed to bolster friendly governments in Central America, are being conducted near Comayagua and Marcala. The latter city is 21 miles from El Salvador’s Morazan province, which is dominated by leftist rebels.
About 5,500 Peruvians were arrested in a weekend drive against terrorism and crime, according to the authorities. But officials said that no one suspected of being a major figure in the Shining Path guerrilla movement had been found in the 12 hours of raids of cantinas, dance halls, discotheques, arcades, and parks in metropolitan Lima. Most of those arrested were charged with lacking proper identification, but police also found 479 abandoned children, arrested 283 prostitutes and seized more than 300 vehicles from owners who lacked registration papers, a spokesman said.
Surprisingly strong economic growth in the second quarter was announced by the Commerce Department. It said growth was at a 7.5 percent annual rate while inflation eased when it might have been expected to increase. The department reported that inflation fell to a 3.2 percent annual rate in the quarter, from 4.4 percent in the first quarter.
Caspar W. Weinberger criticized a House subcommittee for making public a long report on inadequacies in military readiness that contends that the United States could not sustain combat against the Soviet Union or many lesser powers. The Defense Secretary accused the panel of endangering national security and playing politics. The subcommittee chairman rebutted the assertions.
President Reagan greets delegates to the American Legion “Boys Nation.”
The President and First Lady host a private dinner with Vice President and Mrs. Bush.
President Reagan intends to wait out the initial “euphoria” over the Democrats’ nomination of Geraldine A. Ferraro for the Vice Presidency and gingerly avoid putting himself in the position of criticizing her, a White House political official said today. The strategy of gentlemanly reserve, in which Reagan campaign officials have been warned away from any hint of “sarcasm” about her nomination, will be pursued despite the complaint by some White House aides that Representative Ferraro “has been getting away with murder” in news reports thus far, in the words of one Reagan campaign official.
“If she were a man, her crack about Reagan being a bad Christian would have seen the press land all over her for having a loose lip,” one Administration official complained to a reporter in contending that a double standard can be seen in the initial treatment of Mrs. Ferraro’s historic candidacy. “Right now, we’re waiting for the initial euphoria to pass and for you guys to begin doing negative stories on her.”
Senate Republicans, acting on President Reagan’s orders, are refusing to compromise on military spending levels and are threatening even larger deficits, House Democratic leader Jim Wright of Texas said. Wright’s comments at a news conference and in a statement were the latest salvo in a partisan dispute that has stalled in committees two key pieces of legislation-the budget resolution and a defense authorization bill. A major item of disagreement is the amount to be devoted to military spending.
A federal judge ruled that a Nativity scene erected by the city of Birmingham, an affluent Detroit suburb, last year was unconstitutional because it promoted only one set of religious beliefs, attorneys said. The ruling appeared to be the first on the constitutionality of Christmas displays since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in March that a Pawtucket, Rhode Island, display promoting several religious beliefs was constitutional, said Jon Kingepp, an attorney for Birmingham.
The Reagan Administration supported Missouri’s effort to avoid paying more than $200 million for busing black students from St. Louis to surrounding white suburban schools. In legal papers filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, the Justice Department praised the busing desegregation plan — which settles a long-running dispute — but argued that the state should not be saddled with such heavy costs to implement it. Both Missouri and the city of St. Louis have appealed a ruling that requires spending as much as $500 million for the desegregation plan.
The Norfolk, Virginia, school board, citing potential legal entanglements, voted 6 to 0 to delay implementation of a neighborhood schools plan until September, 1985. The plan would end 13 years of cross-town busing for racial integration for the city’s 20,000 elementary school students. It would create a system of 35 neighborhood elementary schools, 10 of which would be more than 95% black.
Nuclear regulators acknowledged that in 1982 they approved a license containing hundreds of errors for a new nuclear power plant in Mississippi. In a letter to a House subcommittee chairman, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said that, because of the errors, the plant might have operated without properly functioning safety equipment.
The plot to kidnap a wealthy Mexican bridge player in Washington was conceived earlier this month in the Houston apartment of one of the three men arrested in the kidnaping, federal authorities said. Glenn I. Wright, 42, described by the government as the ringleader in the kidnap scheme, was ordered held on $1.5-million surety bond. Bond for Dennis Moss, 26, of Cocoa, Fla., was set at $1 million and for Orland Tolben of Houston at $500,000. Edith Rosenkranz, 60, of Mexico, was abducted Thursday and driven around the Washington area for two days. Her husband, George Rosenkranz, is a founder of the Syntex Corp. She was released Saturday night after her husband dropped a briefcase containing $1 million at an Alexandria, Va., parking lot. The woman was not hurt and the money was recovered, authorities said.
The McDonald’s Corporation yielded today to a local protest and held up its plan to immediately reopen the restaurant where a gunman killed 21 people last week. A committee in the border community of San Ysidro collected 1,400 signatures Sunday on a petition calling for the razing of the restaurant and the building of a memorial park. Bob Kaiser, director of media relations for McDonald’s, said that after the Sunday demonstration the decision to reopen was being held in abeyance. “The concern is for the people, not simply business,” he said. Last Wednesday James Oliver Huberty, 41 years old, an unemployed security guard, became the killer of the most people in American history by one gunman in a day when he opened fire at the San Ysidro restaurant. A police officer killed him with one shot fired from the top of the post office next door.
The Chicago Board of Education voted to oust Ruth B. Love as superintendent of the city’s public school system. The 6 to 5 vote was mainly along racial lines, with four whites and two Latino members voting against renewal and four black members and one white voting for the pact. Love is black. Among those voting for renewal was former board president Sol Brandzel. Love sat at the meeting table with a drawn face as the board voted against renewal of her $120,000-a-year contract.
Buoyed by United States Supreme Court decisions that relaxed the ban on use of illegally seized evidence, Rhode Island’s Attorney General today asked the Court to reinstate the attempted murder conviction of Claus von Bülow. In a 100-page appeal filed at the Supreme Court in Washington, Attorney General Dennis J. Roberts 2nd argued that the Rhode Island Supreme Court “grossly misapplied” the exclusionary rule in overturning Mr. Von Bülow’s 1982 conviction of twice trying to kill his wife, an heiress. Martha von Bülow, 52 years old, remains comatose in a New York hospital from what the state said were insulin injections given her by her husband on Christmas holiday visits to their Newport mansion in 1979 and 1980. The state Supreme Court said the authorities violated Mr. von Bülow’s constitutional right of privacy by not obtaining a search warrant before testing a syringe and drugs that the state said were Mr. Von Bülow’s.
The mosquito is winning its war with mankind, in the view of many scientists. They say that mosquitoes are becoming resistant to new insecticides almost as fast as chemists can develop them and that some diseases carried by mosquitoes, including malaria and dengue fever, are rising around the world.
Vanessa Williams relinquished her Miss America title, saying that publication of nude photographs of her with another woman made the prospect of remaining in that post too difficult. Miss Williams said she would reluctantly abide by the pageant officials’ request that she step down to avert “potential harm to the pageant and the deep division that a bitter fight may cause.”
Suzette Charles (Miss New Jersey), 21, replaces Williams as 57th Miss America 1984.
The California Angels’ Mike Witt strikes out 16 Seattle Mariners in a 7–1 victory. Witt walked only two, and improved his 1984 record to 11–7. The Angels got two runs in the second and never looked back.
With the bases loaded and one out in the ninth inning tonight, Rollie Fingers got Don Mattingly out on a popup and Don Baylor on a fly ball to earn his 23rd save of the season. That would have been an exemplary accomplishment for any relief pitcher, but was nearly a miracle for a 37-year-old who missed the entire 1983 season with a career-threatening elbow injury. “Considering where I was at,” Fingers said after the Brewers 6–4 victory over the Yankees, “considering the operation and how I wasn’t feeling that good in spring training, I can’t complain.”
The Kansas City Royals’ relief ace Dan Quisenberry gets his 200th career save in the first game of a doubleheader. The Royals sweep the Toronto Blue Jays, 9–8 and 7–2.
Ron Cey hit a three-run homer in the sixth inning tonight to lift the Chicago Cubs to a 3–2 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies and give the Cubs’ right- hander Rick Sutcliffe his fifth straight victory. Chicago overcame a 1–0 deficit in the sixth off Shane Rawley (3–2) with the help of the Phillies’ defense, which failed to turn a potential double play that would have ended the inning without a run scoring.
The Mets continued their high-wire act last night in Shea Stadium when they went 12 innings to edge the St. Louis Cardinals, 4–3, for their fourth straight victory and their 18th in 22 games in July. They also continued their remarkable flair for surviving the close ones. This was their seventh extra-inning game of the season, and they have won all seven. They also moved 19 games over the .500 level, the highest altitude they have reached in 12 years, and they stayed two and a half games in front of the Chicago Cubs in the race in the National League’s East.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1096.62 (-4.75).
Born:
Brandon Roy, NBA shooting guard (NBA All-Star, 2008–2010; NBA Rookie of the Year, 2007; Portland Trail Blazers, Minnesota Timberwolves), in Seattle, Washington.
Died:
Lloyd Gough, 76, American actor (“Sunset Boulevard”, “The Front”, “The Green Hornet”), of an aortic aneurysm.
History Diaries 