[Ed: God have mercy. No matter how much we pay and appreciate these kids, it will never be enough.]
Egypt’s suspicions that Libya was responsible for the mining of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Suez are now “almost confirmed,” according to a senior Egyptian military official. He said speculation had focused on one Libyan ship in particular that was believed to have dropped the mines. General Ibrahim el-Orabi, Chief of Staff of the Egyptian Armed Forces, said in a briefing for Egyptian reporters that the belief that Libya was almost certainly responsible was based on new information that could not be fully revealed at this time. Libya has denied that it is behind the mining. The general acknowledged that no mines had been found, but he said that the mine-hunters in the southern end of the Gulf of Suez had detected five minelike objects. He did not elaborate.
Suspicion has been increasingly focused on the Libyan ship Ghat, which Egyptian officials previously called the Ghada, General Orabi said. “Upon checking the roll-on, roll-off ships that went through the canal in a certain time frame, some information has emerged that will not be revealed now,” the general declared. “But our suspicions are almost confirmed that the Libyan ship Ghat dropped those mines.” Egypt has also learned that mine- laying specialists were aboard the Ghat and that the mines that were planted were “most probably of Italian make,” he said. A spokesman for the Italian Embassy could not be reached late in the day for comment. The Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram reported today that the ship had “substituted its civilian crew for a Libyan Navy crew” during its movements through the Gulf of Suez.
A French court ordered the impounding of a Libyan ship suspected of involvement in the mining of the Red Sea, maritime authorities said in Marseilles tonight. They said the Ghat, a freighter owned by the General National Maritime Transport Company of Tripoli, Libya, which is currently undergoing repairs in Marseilles, would not be allowed to leave the port until further notice. The court’s ruling was based on a legal complaint by a French private transport company, Marseille-Fret, which says that one of its ships, the Rosa, has been held in the Libyan port of Benghazi since 1979, the authorities said. French officials had no immediate comment on the ruling.
A Libyan businessman who was facing trial in connection with guerrilla bomb attacks in London was found murdered in a London apartment, the police said today. The body of the Libyan, Ali el-Giahour, 45 years old, was found in an apartment in the West End on Monday, a police spokesman said. The spokesman refused to comment on speculation that Mr. Giahour had been killed by a Libyan death squad, but said it was believed he had been lured to the apartment where he was killed by an assassin. The businessman had been charged with conspiracy to cause explosions after five bombs went off at Arab targets in London in March. One bomb wounded 23 people in a crowded club. Mr. Giahour was free on bail.
Heavy fighting in Tripoli, Lebanon, erupted between Sunni Muslim fundamentalists and Syrian-backed militiamen. By nightfall, both leftist and rightist radio stations were saying that as many as 30 people, most of them civilians, had been killed and 125 people wounded. Fighting has sporadically flared in the old port, Lebanon’s second largest city, since the start of the year. The death toll is now estimated to have reached 450. The fighting is between a Sunni Muslim fundamentalist militia called Islamic Togetherness, which has gained control over most of the city, and a militia unit created by Syria. Members of the Syrian-backed unit — its name can be roughly translated as Arab Cavaliers — are popularly known as the Pink Panthers because of their raspberry-colored fatigue uniforms decorated with pictures of tanks, hand grenades, parachutes and other martial paraphernelia.
Iran threatened again today to open a new offensive against Iraq, saying Iranian troops stood ready “to attack and destroy the Iraqi regime and its supporters at any time.” The statement by the commander of Iran’s ground forces, Colonel Ali Sayyad- Shirazi, came two days after a Cabinet minister said Iran could attack soon unless the Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein, was overthrown and executed before an unspecified Iranian deadline. Iran’s official press agency quoted Colonel Sayyad-Shirazi as having said, “We are fully prepared to attack Saddam’s army and all those who have not yielded at any support for this criminal in the war.”
The Polish Government, acting on the final day of month-long amnesty, said today that it had withdrawn charges of illegal political activity filed against a Roman Catholic priest who is a close friend of Lech Walesa, the founder of the Solidarity movement. “The charges against the Rev. Henryk Jankowski have been dropped,” a government spokesman said. Father Jankowski has conducted regular church services in Gdansk in which he demanded revival of the union, suspended by martial law in December 1981 and banned a year later. The authorities accused him of engaging in illegal political activities and summoned him to the prosecutor’s office at least four times.
The son-in-law of Andrei D. Sakharov’s second wife asked a U.N. group to send an envoy to the Soviet Union to find out what has happened to the human rights activist. Efrem Yankelevich told the U.N. Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, in Geneva, that there has been no contact with Sakharov and his wife, Yelena Bonner, in more than three months. Sakharov, 63, was banished in 1980 to Gorky, 250 miles east of Moscow.
The confessed forger of Adolf Hitler’s “diaries” and a West German reporter accused of complicity in the scam went on trial in Hamburg. But the court quickly adjourned for a week to consider a defense request to disqualify itself because of pretrial publicity. Reporter Gerd Heidemann, 52, is charged with defrauding Stern. magazine by selling it 60 handwritten works he claimed were Hitler’s diaries for $3.2 million. The forger, Klaus Kujau, 46, operated a shop that sold Nazi memorabilia.
N.T. Rama Rao, ousted as the top elected leader of India’s Andhra Pradesh state, arrived at the presidential palace in an ambulance and met with President Zail Singh in an effort to win reinstatement. The 60-year-old former film idol, frail from recent heart bypass surgery, was accompanied by more than 160 lawmakers who, he said, continue to give him a majority in the state assembly. Aides said that Singh, a political ally of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, whose government arranged Rama Rao’s dismissal, made no specific commitment.
Sri Lankan Government troops have burned and shelled buildings and rounded up hundreds of men for questioning in the fishing village of Velvetthurai in Sri Lanka’s northern province, stronghold of a Tamil separatist movement, according to many village residents. They said Government moves against the village began early this month amid the latest violence between Tamil terrorists fighting for independence and Government troops, most of whom are members of Sri Lanka’s majority Sinhalese population. Government and military officials confirmed that village buildings had been burned and that male residents had been rounded up, but denied shelling the area. The officials said that the actions were aimed at curbing a sudden spurt of insurgent activity and that Tamil terrorists had been operating in the area.
Top U.S. and Chinese defense officials have discussed the possibility of port calls by U.S. naval vessels in China, but so far there has been no agreement, Pentagon spokesman Michael I. Burch said. His comment followed a report that China appears ready to allow U.S. ships to visit for the first time in more than 30 years. The possibility reportedly arose after talks between Chinese officials and Navy Secretary John F. Lehman Jr., who arrived in Peking on August 15 for a nine-day visit. Asked about the value of such naval visits by American warships to China, Mr. Burch said they would “show close cooperation between China and the United States.”
A Soviet official said relations between the United States and the Soviet Union are worse now than they have been since World War II, Japanese Foreign Ministry officials. reported. They were quoting remarks by Vladimir F. Petrovsky, director of the Soviet Foreign Ministry’s International Organizations Department, on the first of two days of Soviet-Japanese diplomatic talks in Tokyo.
Filipino crowds demonstrated in downtown Manila to mark the first anniversary of the assassination of the main opposition leader, Benigno S. Aquino Jr. The protests involved hundreds of thousands, but by late evening, the violence that many had feared did not develop.
The Salvadoran army chief of staff, in sharp public disagreement with a top U.S. military commander, has called on Washington to reduce the number of American military trainers in El Salvador. “I do not want an increase of advisers, I want the number diminished,” Col. Adolfo Blandon said in an interview, adding: “Do you realize this would be a first-to send advisers away, to do the opposite of what was done in Vietnam?” Earlier this month, Gen. Paul F. Gorman, commander of all U.S. military forces in Latin America, recommended boosting the number of U.S. trainers from 55 to 125.
Uruguay’s military government expelled former Spanish Prime Minister Adolfo Suarez for trying to help in the legal defense of National Party leader Wilson Ferreira Aldunate, jailed June 16 when he returned from self-imposed exile to lead his party in presidential elections in November. He has been charged with collaborating with subversives and insulting the armed forces. Suarez arrived Sunday to join a legal defense team and was warned by government officials not to become involved in Uruguay’s internal affairs. About 500 people cheered Mr. Suarez as he left his hotel for the airport escorted by Spanish diplomats. The crowd chanted, “Adolfo, friend, the people are with you!” and carried placards saying, “Sorry, Adolfo, the brutes don’t think.” He left aboard a 4 PM flight to Buenos Aires.
The South African authorities arrested at least 17 of their most prominent nonwhite opponents today on the eve of an election that the Government says will widen the nation’s political base by granting a voice to people of Indian and mixed-race descent but not to the black majority. Some activist opponents put the number of detentions at more than 20. The election Wednesday is widely viewed as a kind of referendum among the country’s 2.8 million “colored” — that is, mixed-race — people on what is called the “new dispensation” whereby they and the nation’s 800,000 Indians will be given seats in a new three- chamber parliament. The white minority of 4.5 million that rules this racially divided nation overwhelmingly endorsed the notion of qualified nonwhite political representation last November.
Republican Convention Republicans adopted without debate the party’s most conservative campaign platform in decades, and party leaders immediately sought to appeal to voters who might be alienated by its hard-line approach on military and social issues. Speakers on the second day of the Republican National Convention coupled criticism of Walter F. Mondale with detailed arguments for the re-election of President Reagan.
The Republican platform was formally approved on a voice vote with only a few audible dissents. The 78- page document provides a conservative battle cry for the fall campaign by appealing to the economic self-interest of middle- and upper-income voters.
President Reagan learns that his lead in the polls over Mondale has decreased to only 8 points.
President Reagan participates in a message taping session for the Little League World Series Championship game.
Future Presidential contenders are generating the only real excitement at the Republican convention. Among those conspicuously competing for the attention of admirers, reporters and television cameras are Senator Howard H. Baker Jr. of Tennessee, Senator Robert Dole of Kansas and his wife, Elizabeth, the Secretary of Transportation.
Jack F. Kemp’s schedule at the Republican convention has included a score of appearances capped by a prime-time television speech on foreign relations. The upstate New York Representative and champion of supply-side economics is emerging as a leading contender for the party’s 1988 Presidential nomination.
Geraldine A. Ferraro defended vigorously the propriety of her financial affairs, acknowledging some sloppy record-keepng and technical mistakes by others, but insisting that neither she nor her husband had done anything wrong. The Democratic candidate for Vice President subjected herself to nearly two hours of grueling questioning by reporters in an unusual effort to resolve a controversy that has dogged her for two weeks. However, some questions remained unresolved.
John A. Zaccaro lent an additional $75,000 from an estate he was managing as a court-appointed conservator to the Manhattan real estate company he and his wife, Representative Ferraro, jointly own, according to lawyers for the couple. Both that loan and an earlier $100,000 loan were repaid last March.
Walter F. Mondale defended Representative Ferraro, saying that his running mate has emerged a stronger candidate than ever from her handling of questions over her and her husband’s finances. Mr. Mondale called on Vice President Bush to disclose his income tax returns. Mr. Bush has declined to do so, saying his money is in a blind trust.
The town board in Oak Park, Illinois, endorsed a $1-million-a-year plan to pay landlords and tenants who help integrate sections of the Chicago suburb, but postponed implementation of the program until after a meeting on October 1. Under the plan, landlords would be paid up to $1,000 a unit and tenants up to $300 if they cooperated. If the program is instituted, blacks — about 11% of Oak Park’s 52,000 residents — would be referred to predominantly white sections of the community, while whites would be referred to largely black areas. A private company would work as a rental agent.
Three “very dangerous” criminals escaped from Utah State Prison by prying open three doors and walking out the front door dressed in civilian clothes. But one man was recaptured about 7½ hours after the escape when officers, aided by search dogs, found him hiding on an island in the Jordan River. Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Lt. John Bernardo said the trio, which included two convicted killers, pried open the doors in a medium-security section of the prison and gained access to donated civilian clothes kept for indigent inmates leaving the prison.
Two bodies were found aboard the cruise ship Scandinavian Sun, 12 hours after a smoky fire forced hundreds of panicky passengers to flee as the vessel ended a daylong voyage to the Bahamas and returned to Miami. Thirty-one persons were injured. The dead were identified as a music teacher escorting a group of children on a church outing and a crewman. The blue-and-white liner was carrying 738 persons when the “small fire” broke out in an auxiliary engine room and created heavy smoke, a cruise spokesman said.
A judge in Maine found probable cause for a murder charge against three teenagers after a hearing Monday that included taped statements in which the defendants admitted throwing a 23-year-old homosexual into a stream, where he drowned. Federal District Judge David Cox scheduled a hearing on September 14 to examine psychological and sociological issues before he decides whether James F. Baines, 15 years old, Shawn I. Mabry, 16, and Daniel Ness, 17, all of Bangor, should stand trial as juveniles or adults. The three were accused of attacking Charles O. Howard on July 7 and throwing him off a bridge into Kenduskeag Stream. While admitting on the tape that they attacked Mr. Howard and threw him off the bridge, the three said they did not know he was unable to swim and they said they had no intention of killing him.
The neonatal intensive care unit at University of Maryland Hospital in Baltimore limited admissions of premature infants after the deaths of three premature babies on life support systems were blamed on bacteria-related blood poisoning. Two boys and a girl died within nine days this month after being exposed to Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a common bacterium, Dr. Lillian Blackmon said. She said the infants were apparently affected by the bacterium because of their weakened immune systems.
With a settlement so close that one union spokesman prematurely announced an agreement, representatives of 52,000 striking health workers met in New York with management and mediators and scheduled a night meeting. Picket lines remained up at 30 hospitals and 15 nursing homes struck by the health workers. Supervisors, managers and doctors have been working double duty for five weeks to maintain care of the 17,000 patients.
A Federal appeals court has ruled 144,000 acres of South Carolina land given the Catawba Indians in the 1760’s still belongs to the tribe. The court suggested a financial solution to end the protracted dispute. In a 4-to-3 decision Monday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed a lower court and ruled for the tribe despite a treaty and title and deed claims to the land from about 27,000 people. Judge Francis Murnaghan, writing for the majority, said it appeared to be a “tacit assumption” that removing the people on the property would never be allowed to occur. “Rather, through accommodation between the Indians and either or both of the United States and the State of South Carolina, the Catawba Tribe would relinquish all possessory claims in return for money or other benefits,” Judge Murnaghan wrote.
An aerial survey showed no damage to buildings on a hurricane-swept Pacific atoll where 13,000 tons of chemical warfare weapons are stored, but officials were waiting for a team to land before deciding when evacuated workers could return. Hurricane Keli, which was downgraded to a tropical storm Monday night after its 100 m.p.h.-winds abated, forced the evacuation of all 370 civilian and military workers from tiny, isolated Johnston Atoll, 715 miles southwest of Honolulu.
A prominent coroner conducted a second autopsy on a black man whose death in police custody triggered weekend violence in Waynesboro, Georgia, and said he found no evidence the man had been beaten to death. Dr. Joe Burton did the post-mortem on Larry Gardner at the request of Gardner’s family, which contends that Gardner was beaten by deputies who arrested him Friday. An initial autopsy concluded Saturday that the 32-year-old accused drug dealer and shoplifter had not been beaten, and apparently died of heat exhaustion.
A man whose wife and three children drowned in a flash flood, along with the children’s grandmother, shot himself to death today hours after learning of his family’s fate, the Navajo police said. Sgt. Alvis Kee said Darrell Soue, who lived on the Navajo Reservation, shot himself at his home after asking relatives to take him there so he could change clothes. “He went into his room, locked the door, they told him to come out, they heard a shot and they found him like that,” Sergeant Kee said.
Mr. Soue’s wife and three of the couple’s four children and the grandmother died Monday when their car was caught by a flash flood in an arroyo in northwest New Mexico, Sergeant Kee said. The grandmother was 75 years old and the oldest child was 3. The sergeant said the couple’s 3-week-old son, Brandon, was found on the edge of the wash after the accident and was in good condition. The infant is with relatives. Police believe the mother may have placed the infant on the edge of the arroyo and returned to the car for the other children.
Materials found on the moon and in the asteroids should be exploited in future space operations, a panel of scientists and engineers told national space agency officials after 10 weeks of debate.
Shuttle launching site problems will be the focus of a high-level Air Force investigation, according to the Pentagon. It said a survey team led by Edward C. Aldridge Jr., Undersecretary of the Air Force, would fly to the launching site at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, to examine construction work.
Red Sox rookie Roger Clemens strikes out 15 and walks none as Boston whips the Kansas City Royals, 11–1. Clemons (8–4) gave up seven hits. The 22-year-old rookie right- hander recorded the most strikeouts for a Red Sox pitcher since Bill Monboquette struck out 17 Washington Senator batters in 1961. Jim Rice hit his 299th career home run, and Tony Armas added another homer. Boston scored six runs in the sixth inning, powered by Armas’ 34th home run of the year, and a double by Dwight Evans.
In looking for reasons behind their impressive second-half resurgence, the New York Yankees have cited a marked improvement in their infield defense as one of the key elements. Last night, though, it was the infield offense that was the key element in an 8–2 romp over the sagging California Angels. The quartet of Mike Pagliarulo, Bobby Meacham, Willie Randolph and Don Mattingly collected a total of nine hits and drove in the first seven runs, providing Phil Niekro with lusty support as he picked up his 15th victory against 7 defeats. The victory, their 30th in 43 games since the all-star break, moved the Yankees four and a half games behind the second-place Toronto Blue jays, the closest they have been to second since April 30.
At Detroit, Lance Parrish cracks a first-inning grand slam, off Larry Sorensen, and the Tigers drive by the Oakland A’s 12–6. Milt Wilcox goes six innings for the win. Darrell Evans added a three-run homer and Larry Herndon also connected for the Tigers. Wilcox (14–7) allowed four hits, striking out seven.. Rickey Henderson has a leadoff homer and 3 runs scored, and Carney Lansford extends his hitting streak to 24 games, but the A’s have little else to show for it.
Jerry Willard hit a two-out, two-run homer in the ninth as the Cleveland Indians won their seventh straight, edging the Toronto Blue Jays, 3–1. With two out in the ninth, George Vukovich tripled to right-center and on an 0–1 pitch, Willard connected for his ninth homer of the season. Roy Smith (5–4), a rookie right- hander, checked Toronto on five hits before Ernie Camacho relieved in the ninth, giving up one hit, for his 17th save. Dave Stieb (12–5) went the distance and now has not won a game since beating Texas on July 29.
Jack Perconte ended a 3-for-30 slump with three doubles and drove in two Seattle runs as the Mariners downed the Baltimore Orioles, 4–3. Perconte rapped a two-run double in the fourth inning, following Steve Henderson’s single and a double by Jim Presley. Another Perconte double, one of 13 Seattle hits, started a two-run rally that made it 4–0 in the sixth and finished Storm Davis, who lost his third straight game and dropped to 12–7.
Rangers’ pinch-hitter Alan Bannister singled home Larry Parrish from second base with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning to give Texas a 4–3 victory over the Chicago White Sox. Parrish opened the inning with a single to right and moved to second on a sacrifice by Pete O’Brien. After George Wright lined to first, the pinch-hitter Buddy Bell was intentionally walked and Bannister came through with his game-winning hit.
The New York Mets fell five games out of first place tonight when they lost again to the San Diego Padres, 7–4, and they were stung the most by the 40-year-old expatriate Yankee, Graig Nettles. Nettles led a 15-hit offense with a double and home run off Ed Lynch and a single off Brent Gaff, and he scored two runs and knocked in two others. But, when the Mets rallied with four hits and two runs in the ninth inning, another old Yankee finished them off: Rich Gossage, who retired Rusty Staub on two pitches and saved his 25th game for the Padres and his second in two nights against the Mets. Worse for the Mets, the Chicago Cubs won again and the Mets fell another full length behind them in the National League’s East. It was the first time all season the Mets had been five games from the top, and they now have lost nine-and-a-half games in the standing in 25 days.
Jody Davis broke out of a 1-for-17 batting slump by driving in four runs with a two-run homer and bases-loaded single today to lead the Chicago Cubs to an 11–5 triumph over the Houston Astros. Davis’s single with the bases loaded capped a three-run rally in the third against Mike Scott (5–11). Davis, the Cub catcher, belted his 18th homer of the year in the fifth off the reliever Joe Sambito to lead a second three-run inning. Dennis Eckersley (7–7) worked the first seven innings for his fourth straight victory. Tim Stoddard and Lee Smith pitched the final two innings.
Marvell Wynne’s bases-loaded one-out single in the ninth scored Denny Gonzalez with the winning run as the Pittsburgh Pirates edged the Atlanta Braves, 5–4. Gonzalez led off the ninth with a double down the left- field line off Jeff Dedmon (3–2) and Gene Garber went in to face Doug Frobel, who sacrificed Gonzalez to third. Garber then intentionally walked Dale Berra and the pinch-hitter Lee Mazzilli before Wynne, who went 3 for 5, singled to right for the winning run. Don Robinson (2–5) struck out five in two innings of relief for the victory.
Wayne Krenchicki singled home the go-ahead run in the seventh, and Eddie Milner followed with a two-run homer to send the Cincinnati Reds to a 4–1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. Joe Price (6–9) and Ted Power stopped St. Louis on seven hits to snap the Reds’ three-game losing streak. Ron Oester singled to lead off the Reds’ seventh and extended his hitting streak to 20 games, longest by a Cincinnati player since Pete Rose’s 44-game streak in 1978.
The Los Angeles Dodgers eked out a comeback win over the Montreal Expos, 4–3. Candy Maldonado drove in Mike Marshall with the deciding run in the third inning, and Fernando Valenzuela (10–14), after giving up three runs in the first, contained Montreal the rest of the way and snapped the Expos’ six-game winning streak. Each team had a three-run first, but Dan Schatzeder (6–4) lost it by allowing a double to Marshall and a single to Maldonado after two were out in the third.
The Philadelphia Phillies routed the San Francisco Giants, 12–5. The Phillies, winning their fourth straight game, scored 10 runs in the eighth inning at San Francisco, with pinch-hitter Sixto Lezcano delivering a pair of run-scoring singles in the inning. Giant reliever Frank Williams (6–2) left in the eighth after singles by John Russell, Ivan DeJesus and Lezcano. In his second appearance of the inning, Lezcano drove in the ninth run with an infield single. Al Oliver delivered a two-run single during the rally, giving him four RBIs against the team that traded him away on Monday.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1239.73 (+22.75).
Born:
Melvin Emanuel “B.J.” Upton, MLB centerfielder and third baseman (Tampa Bay Devil Rays-Rays, Atlanta Braves, San Diego Padres, Toronto Blue Jays), in Norfolk, Virginia.
Dustin Molleken, Canadian MLB pitcher (Detroit Tigers), in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Melissa Schuman, American singer (Dream-“He Loves U Not”) and actress (“Love Don’t Cost a Thing”), in San Clemente, California.
Eve Torres, American professional wrestler and actor (WWE), in Boston, Massachusetts
Alizée Jacotey, French pop singer (“Moi… Lolita”), in Ajaccio, France.
[Ed: The last thing the Democrats needed in 1984 was to defend their nominees. Running against a popular incumbent with a strong economy was enough of an uphill battle.]
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