Increased Soviet missile deployment was reported by the Reagan Administration. Officials said that since 1979 Moscow has more than doubled its basing of SS-20 medium-range nuclear missiles, most of them aimed at Western Europe. The sources said this week that Moscow now had 378 SS-20’s carrying 1,134 nuclear warheads. This compares with 140 SS-20’s with three warheads each in December 1979, the date when North Atlantic Treaty Organization decided to deploy 572 Pershing 2 ballistic missiles and ground-launched cruise missiles with one warhead each by 1989. There were no American medium- range missiles in Europe in 1979. Today the number is approaching 100. The sources said the figures were first published in January and were confirmed again this week. Intelligence sources predict the gap will increase in the next few years as Moscow could be headed toward 600 SS-20’s, with three warheads each, plus new ground-launched cruise missiles.
The gap is expected to become a key issue in the Presidential campaign, with President Reagan contending that his military spending program has made the world ”a safer place” and the Democratic challengers saying it is proof of the consequences of four years without arms control. The overall nuclear balance of nuclear weapons in the European theatre – including medium-range, intermediate-range and battlefield weapons – has also shifted in the Soviet favor since 1979, according to Pentagon figures. Then, the United States held a small lead with about 7,000 nuclear warheads. This contrasts today with over 8,000 for the Soviet Union and about 6,000 for the United States, according to the figures.
The State Department called on the Soviet Union to let an outside observer see Soviet dissident Andrei D. Sakharov and his wife, Yelena Bonner. The department spokesman, Alan Romberg, said he could not confirm reports from Sakharov’s friends that the physicist has ended his hunger strike, which he reportedly began May 2. Romberg said the State Department is particularly disturbed by reports circulated last week that Sakharov is being treated with mind-altering drugs.
Imprisoned dissident Anatoly Shcharansky’s food rations and outdoor exercise periods have been cut in half, his wife said. Avital Shcharansky told reporters in Jerusalem that her husband has been put under “hard regime” in the Soviet prison, 480 miles east of Moscow. Prisoners under “hard regime” are allowed to write only one letter every other month, their rations are cut in half and time out-of-doors is reduced from one hour to 30 minutes a day.
Navy minesweeping helicopters and about 200 servicemen were sent to the Middle East by the Reagan Administration to help Egypt rid the Gulf of Suez area of explosives that have damaged commercial shipping.
Iran praised the attacks on commercial ships and said the mines had been placed by the same Muslim extremist group that claimed responsibility for the bombing of the United States Marine headquarters in Beirut last October. But Tehran denied involvement in the mining.
Iraqi warplanes attacked a Greek oil tanker south of Kharg Island, the Iranian oil export terminal in the Persian Gulf. It was the first attack on neutral shipping in the gulf in nearly a month.
An Iranian jetliner with 280 Muslim pilgrims aboard was hijacked and forced to land in Bahrain, the Iranian news agency IRNA reported. Officials in Bahrain said the plane took off and they thought it was heading for Cairo. The Iranian agency said the A-300 Airbus was en route to Jidda, Saudi Arabia, when it was hijacked after leaving Shiraz, Iran. The hijacking came six days after a French jet with 64 aboard was forced to Tehran, where the three Arab hijackers surrendered.
Rabbi Meir Kahane tried to enter the Al Aqsa Mosque complex in Jerusalem’s Old City to hang an Israeli flag in observation of a Jewish holiday. The militant American-born rabbi left when he was unable to pass through the locked gate leading to the site on Temple Mount, one of Islam’s holiest sites. Kahane, elected to the Israeli Parliament in last month’s general elections, advocates driving all Arabs out of Israel and the occupied territories. For religious Jews, the day marked the destruction of the Second Temple by Rome in the 1st Century.
Warplanes bombed villages in northern Afghanistan, leaving up to 300 civilians dead, and Muslim guerrillas killed nearly 200 Soviet and Afghan troops in a third week of intense fighting, Western diplomats said today. ”The Soviets are jumpy and shoot at anything that moves,” one diplomat said, quoting reports from the Panjshir Valley, near the capital of Kabul. ”Afghan troops hunker down in fortified positions and let the Soviets take the bulk of the fighting.” The heaviest fighting was reported to have taken place in the Shomali Valley, which runs north along the main supply route between the Soviet border and the Afghan capital. Other major battles were reported in the adjacent Panjshir Valley and the Logar Valley, south of Kabul. The diplomats said the highest civilian death toll came in the Shomali village of Shakaradara, where ”200 to 300 civilian casualties were reported,” a diplomat said.
A Sri Lankan Government official said today that there had been an attack in the northern coastal town of Valvettiturai, where rebels are fighting for a separate minority Tamil state, but he refused to comment on a report of more than 100 civilian and guerrilla deaths. The Times of India reported from Colombo that the Sri Lanka Navy shelled the town Monday, killing more than 100 people. About 10 security personnel also died, it said. A spokesman for the Sri Lanka High Commission, or embassy, in New Delhi said 60 Tamil guerrillas ambushed an army convoy in Valvettiturai on Monday, leading to an hourlong battle in which 12 people died. Many Tamils, who make up 18 percent of Sri Lanka’s 15 million population, are demanding a separate state.
The younger brother of Benigno S. Aquino Jr. said today that at least a million Filipinos would march in demonstrations on August 21, the first anniversary of the assassination of the opposition leader. The brother, Agapito Aquino, said the demonstrations, which are to include the arrival from New York of a 10-foot-tall statue of the slain politician, were meant to signal to President Ferdinand E. Marcos that ”we do not want his blood, just the return of our freedoms.” The street rallies, which began July 23 and have increased in size, are expected to peak on the August 21 anniversary, with demonstrations in Manila and four other cities. ”At least a million, maybe as many as two million people, will turn out on August 21 in a nonviolent exercise,” Mr. Aquino said.
Daniel Ortega Saavedra, leader of the Nicaraguan junta, said Monday night that the Government would relax press censorship, restore the right to strike and allow people to petition the courts for release from jail. His announcement, in a speech at an international conference of mayors, came the same day that the Government said the country’s main opposition coalition had lost its legal status because it failed to meet a deadline for registering for the November 4 election. The three opposition parties in the Nicaraguan Democratic Coordinate coalition have said they will not take part in the elections unless the Sandinistas remove restrictions on press and other freedoms and enter into a national discussion with United States-backed rebels.
Mexico denounced assertions that it has altered its foreign policy in Central America, saying the assertions were motivated by ”ignorance or bad faith.” Such assertions have been made in recent weeks by members of the Reagan Administration.
Peruvian President Fernando Belaunde Terry decreed a 60-day extension of a nationwide state of emergency and suspension of civil rights in an effort to combat mounting guerrilla violence. Belaunde’s decree also extends for two months the military’s complete control of the battle against guerrillas. More than 100 people have died in guerrilla violence in the last two weeks, mainly in a mountainous interior province where the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) guerrilla organization has been most active.
About 30 bombs exploded in Chile, knocking down power lines and temporarily blacking out millions of homes, police reported. The blasts also damaged a U.S.-funded cultural institute in the port city of Valparaiso and the offices of the Coca-Cola Export Corp. in Santiago, the capital. An explosion outside the offices of Santiago’s telephone company, in which U.S.-based International Telephone and Telegraph has an interest, smashed nearby shop windows. No injuries were reported. Callers to Chilean news organizations said the Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front, a Communist-led underground movement, was responsible for the explosions.
Chile’s President vowed to remain in power until at least 1989 as he acknowledged he has lost some popular support in his nearly 11-year rule. In a rare interview, the President, General Augusto Pinochet, said he would not speed a transition to democracy despite demands for him to do so by the opposition and even members of his own Government.
Uganda reportedly suspended a United States military aid program in response to rising criticism by the Reagan Administration about Ugandan human rights abuses. Administration officials said some private relief agencies had estimated that the Ugandan Army had killed more than 100,000 civilians in the last year in an effort to combat rebel forces.
Two of South Africa’s far right white parties agreed to work together to resist political reforms being pushed by Prime Minister Pieter W. Botha’s governing National Party. The Conservative Party and the Herstigte Nasionale (Purified National) Party announced agreement on political and economic issues and on a united front in parliamentary by-elections.
Ex-colleagues of Basil Tsakos, a Greek entrepreneur who paid $40,000 to the wife of Senator Mark O. Hatfield, have given the Senate ethics panel sworn statements disputing the Oregon Republican’s explanations for the payment, according to other former associates of Mr. Tsakos. Mr. Hatfield called the allegations totally false. The Senator aided Mr. Tsakos in gaining support for a proposed $10 billion trans-African oil pipeline project.
Walter F. Mondale is retreating from his threat to dismiss President Reagan’s appointees to the Commission on Civil Rights. Nevertheless, the panel’s chairman, Clarence M. Pendleton Jr., sharply criticized Mr. Mondale’s positions on civil rights, asserting they were ”worse” than those of President Reagan.
Walter F. Mondale, who has proposed six nationally televised debates with President Reagan, today teasingly suggested a seventh one, between Mr. Reagan and Vice President Bush. In the wake of apparently contradictory comments Monday about a possible tax increase by the Republican running mates, Mr. Mondale twitted Mr. Reagan and Mr. Bush in a speech today to dockworkers and labor officials at the sweltering Toledo port. Mr. Mondale, standing in shirtsleeves before a Liberian tanker, which periodically honked, blew smoke and emitted throbbing engine noises as he tried to speak, observed that Mr. Reagan has vowed not to cut the Pentagon budget. ”He said he won’t raise taxes,” Mr. Mondale went on. ”He says he won’t cut the safety net, and he says we’ll have a balanced budget in this next term.”
Mr. Reagan said he had no plans for a tax increase. He also said that Mr. Mondale was ”not telling the truth” when the candidate questioned the truth of the President’s opposition to taxes. Mr. Mondale has said tax increases were inevitable next year, because of the deficit, no matter who is President. Shortly after the Monday luncheon, Mr. Bush said the Administration would, after spending cuts had been exhausted, consider some type of ”revenue increases,” while not raising personal income taxes. ”Any President would keep options open” on the subject, Mr, Bush said.
President Reagan spends the day clearing brush along the trails at Rancho del Cielo in California.
President Reagan receives a call from Secretary of the Interior William P. Clark.
Richard Mulberry, the Interior Department’s inspector general who was accused of failing to properly investigate a coal-leasing controversy, has resigned effective September 30. A department spokesman would not comment on reports that Mulberry had been asked to quit. A General Accounting Office investigation in June accused Mulberry of inadequately investigating allegations that Interior officials had leaked data to a coal company prior to the 1982 sale of rights to mine coal in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming and Montana. An Interior Department task force also called the investigation inadequate. In 1983, the department said that there had been no leak. After the inquiry was reopened, investigators found that leaks had occurred, and one company lawyer said a deputy assistant secretary had disclosed figures to him. That official, David Russell, later was dismissed by Interior Secretary William P. Clark.
The Senate passed on a voice vote a bill aimed at protecting women’s pension rights as workers and survivors of male employees. The House has passed similar legislation. The bill reduces to 21 from 25 the age a pension, profit-sharing or stock bonus plan may require an employee to reach in order to participate in the plan, and to 18 from 22 for vesting purposes. This is designed to ensure that women are credited fully for their early work experience because many leave the workforce in their early 20s for child-bearing.
Although it questioned the legality of a court order and ordinance giving blacks, Latinos and women preference for fire department promotions in Miami, the Justice Department told the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta that the ordinance must be upheld because a valid challenge has yet to be raised. The department’s civil rights division said the Miami firefighters’ union had not pressed the proper legal and constitutional challenges in U.S. District Court, where the ordinance was upheld in June, 1983.
The Senate voted 94 to 0 to pass a bill that its sponsors said would save hundreds of millions of dollars yearly in the purchase of spare parts from military and other government contractors. The provisions were in the form of amendments to a House bill designed to enhance competition. One of the proposals by Senator Carl Levin (D-Michigan), the principal author of the amendments, would bar contractors from adding unjustified overhead charges to the cost of spare parts obtained by defense subcontractors — as in the case of an Allen wrench that wound up costing $9,600.
The man who heads the police investigation into the 26 known murders attributed to the ”Green River killer” said today that he doubted the statements of two prisoners in San Francisco that they abducted, raped and killed at least 11 of the women in a three-month Seattle area crime spree in 1983. The two are in jail in on unrelated charges. The special investigator, Captain Frank Adamson, said, ”We’ve been aware of the information for two weeks. I’m very, very skeptical. It appears these people might not be involved.” Captain Adamson pointed out that in recent years one of the two men, Richard Carbone, 32 years old, had been out of jail only in July and early August. Mr. Carbone and Robert Matthias, 25, described the killings in interviews with reporters.
Tedious oil pumping operations, complicated by stormy seas, slowed down considerably today as crews tried to remove the remaining oil from a crippled tanker that spilled almost two million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Meanwhile, the cleanup effort dragged on at Galveston Island, where thick layers of tar and oil washed up on the beaches and Federal officials prepared to launch an investigation into the spill. It was originally thought the pumping operation would take about four days, but high seas in the area about 11 miles off Cameron, Louisiana, slowed the work and the oil has cooled, making it extremely thick, according to a Coast Guard spokesman.
The American Bar Association’s House of Delegates voted to amend its code of judicial conduct and make it “inappropriate” for judges to belong to clubs that practice “invidious discrimination” on the basis of race, sex, religion or national origin. The provision provides no specific penalties for violation, but is a comment on language already in the code that tells judges to “avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety” — conduct that has been subject to discipline in the past. The ABA’s Code of Judicial Conduct has been adopted by all 50 state bar associations. A compromise on judges’ belonging to private clubs with discriminatory membership practices was approved by the house of delegates of the American Bar Association. The group agreed that it is ”inappropriate” for judges to belong to such clubs, but it left individual judges free to decide whether clubs to which they belong do discriminate.
Fifty-seven persons have been indicted in the largest methaqualone manufacturing and trafficking operation ever. Officials unsealed four indictments issued August 2 in U.S. District Court in Miami against the 57, of whom 18 were said to have been arrested in Miami, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Newark, New Jersey. They were charged with continuing criminal enterprises, multiple conspiracies or single counts in the illegal trafficking of marijuana, cocaine or methaqualone, used to make Quaaludes, from 1979 to 1983, said Leon Kellner, executive assistant U.S. attorney. ”What the results of these indictments have done to the market is that you simply will not see illicit, counterfeit Quaalude tablets on the street any longer,” he said. ”We have pretty well dried up this market, not only in the United States but worldwide.”
Hundreds of communities in 20 states geared up yesterday to take to the streets after dark in a ”National Night Out” against crime, with outdoor block parties, concerts and citizen patrols designed to show criminals that people were fed up with being afraid. Residents were being asked to turn on their porch lights and sit outside between 9 and 10 PM to put a dent in a ”ridiculous” crime wave, said Matt Peskin, director of the National Association of Town Watches.
David Rabe’s “Hurlyburly” premieres in NYC.
Bill Buckner and Tony Armas each hit grand slams in the first two innings off Detroit Tigers ace Jack Morris to spark the Boston Red Sox to a 12–7 victory in the first game. Detroit takes the 2nd game 7–5 in 11 innings, after scoring a run in the 9th to tie. Lance Parrish’s two-run homer ends it and Aurelio Lopez goes 9–0.
The Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees split a double header with Chicago’s 6–3 triumph in game 1 stopping New York’s 8-game win streak. LaMarr Hoyt is the winner. Ron Guidry strikes out 13 to win the nightcap, 7–0. He set down the last 15 batters he faced in completing a four-hitter and his first shutout since June 1, 1983. He finished with a flourish, striking out Carlton Fisk, Tom Paciorek and Greg Luzinski on nine pitches in the ninth inning.
The Chicago Cubs sweep a pair from the visiting New York Mets, winning 8–6 and 8–4. Rick Sutcliffe (9–1) beats Ron Darling (10–5) in the opener, benefiting from a 6-run 5th inning. Keith Moreland hits a 3-run home run and Cey a 2-run shot in the 5th. A 5-run 4th in game 2 propels Chicago to the win for reliever Tim Stoddard. Lee Smith notches his 25th save.
Dan Driessen doubled home one run and singled home the game-winner in the bottom of the eighth to lift Montreal to a doubleheader split with Philadelphia, winning the nitecap, 3–2. In the opener, Juan Samuel stroked an inside-the-park homer and Mike Schmidt hit one out in a four-run third inning as the Phillies won, 6–2. The Expos entered the eighth of the second game trailing by 2–1 but tied it when Gary Carter singled home Tony Scott, who drew a leadoff walk and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Mike Stenhouse. Stenhouse was safe at first on the play when the Phillies’ pitcher, Bill Campbell (4–4), didn’t make a throw after fielding the bunt. He advanced to second on Carter’s single and scored on Driessen’s base hit.
The Los Angeles Dodgers edged the Atlanta Braves, 2–1. A two-out single by Steve Yeager in the 11th scored Terry Whitfield with the winning run. After sending the game into extra innings on Ken Landreaux’s two-out homer, the Dodgers started their 11th-inning rally on consecutive singles by Whitfield and Landreaux. An out later, Yeager singled to center against the reliever Donnie Moore (2–3), easily scoring Whitfield. Ken Howell (2–2), the Dodgers’ fourth pitcher picked up the victory.
Nick Esasky’s sacrifice fly with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning scored Dave Parker and lifted the Cincinnati Reds to an 8-7 triumph over the San Diego Padres tonight. Steve Garvey, the Padre first baseman, set a National League record by playing in his 139th straight errorless game.
Japan beats the U.S., 6-3 in the final of the Los Angeles Olympic baseball demonstration event. Japan defeated a confident United States team in the “gold-medal” Olympic baseball game tonight. Baseball was a demonstration sport at the Olympics, with no official medal status. The winning Japanese will receive token gold medals and the United States token silvers – awards slightly different in design from the regular Olympic medals.
Greg Louganis of Mission Viejo, California, appearing at the top of his form in his bid for a sweep of the Olympic diving gold medals, today built an overwhelming lead in winning the preliminary phase of the springboard competition. Louganis, who has lost only once in the last six years on the 3-meter board, received five perfect 10’s and amassed a total of 752.37 points after 11 preliminary dives.
The U.S. collects its first Olympic gold medal in women’s basketball history with a 85-55 win over South Korea in the final at the Los Angeles Games. The United States, with its main competition at home in the Soviet Union, easily won its first gold medal in women’s basketball tonight, defeating South Korea. The Americans controlled the game with their work on the backboards, where they outrebounded the South Koreans, 46-20. The Americans held a 3-to-1 advantage in offensive rebounds, and repeatedly used second and third shots to help build a lead that grew to its high of 30 points in the final seconds. Despite that severe disadvantage, South Korea came within 10 points with 15 minutes 50 seconds to play, but then Cheryl Miller led a 14-0 spurt that put the United States in control. Miss Miller scored 16 points to lead the Americans. She made 7 of 10 shots, grabbed 11 rebounds, and had 5 assists. She was the tournament’s leading scorer with an average of 16.5 for the six games, and was the inspiration for one of the two displays at the end of the game.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1204.62 (+1.66).
Born:
Wade LeBlanc, MLB pitcher (San Diego Padres, Miami Marlins, Houston Astros, Los Angeles Angels, New York Yankees, Seattle Mariners, Pittsburgh Pirates, Baltimore Orioles, St. Louis Cardinals), in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Lester Hudson, NBA point guard and shooting guard (Boston Celtics, Memphis Grizzlies, Washington Wizards, Cleveland Cavaliers, Los Angeles Clippers), in Memphis, Tennessee.
Died:
Esther Phillips, 48, American singer (“What a Difference a Day Makes”), from liver and kidney failure due to long-term heroin abuse.
Harmonica Frank [Floyd], 75, American blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player, of lung cancer and diabetes complications.
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