The Soviet Defense Ministry reported successful tests of ground-launched cruise missiles. It said the tests were being conducted in response to what it called massive deployment of such weapons by the United States. A statement issued by the official Soviet press agency Tass under the heading “At the U.S.S.R. Defense Ministry” said, “If the United States continues seeking military superiority, the Soviet Union will be compelled also in the future to adopt countermeasures to make certain that the balance of forces between the U.S.S.R. and the United States, between the Warsaw treaty and NATO will not be upset.” Soviet leaders and the Soviet press have several times reported testing of long-range cruise missiles, most recently in a Pravda editorial on July 31, and Western experts have long reported that the Russians were developing such weapons.
Today’s statement was one of several pronouncements on issues of disarmament and peace in the press, including a letter from Konstantin U. Chernenko, the Soviet leader, to a conference on nuclear-free zones held several months ago in Britain. Mr. Chernenko addressed the message to J. Hetherington, Mayor of Manchester, where a conference of local government leaders on nuclear-free zones was held last April. Several cities in Western Europe have proclaimed themselves nuclear-free to protest the arms race. The Soviet Union, while backing the campaign by the Western cities, has not let any of its own cities claim nuclear-free status.
Diplomats said publication of the note seemed designed more to quell rumors in the Soviet Union about Mr. Chernenko’s physical and political well-being than to address a relatively obscure, and in any event, long-finished conference. Mr. Chernenko has been unseen and largely unheard in public since he left for vacation in the south on July 15, and rumors have begun circulating in Moscow that he returned for medical treatment in early August.
In another development, the Soviet daily Pravda issued its first comments in three weeks on the long-debated Soviet proposal to negotiate a treaty with Washington on weapons in space. The commentary once again accused the United States of obstructing the talks from the outset by seeking to change the subject proposed by the Soviet Union. Moscow’s proposal had been to negotiate a treaty on preventing the militarization of outer space, coupled with a moratorium on tests of space weapons once negotiations began. The United States wanted to broaden the talks to include medium-range and strategic weapons, and had resisted a moratorium.
The USSR performs an underground nuclear test.
The Kremlin has refused permission for Pope John Paul II to visit Lithuania this month for a religious celebration, the Vatican announced. It released a papal message sent two days ago to Roman Catholics in Lithuania, in which John Paul expressed his sorrow at not being allowed to participate in celebrations marking the 500th anniversary of the death of St. Casimir, the Soviet republic’s patron saint. The pontiff praised Lithuania’s 2.5 million Catholics for
being “… strong in tribulation, persevering in prayer.”
Finland’s chapter of the human rights organization Amnesty International accused the Helsinki government of sending back defectors from the Soviet Union. Organization spokesman Bjorn Sundell told reporters that Finnish authorities do not give defectors a chance to apply for political asylum. Sundell said his group has taken up the cases of 10 people in Soviet jails who had been sent back after crossing into Finland. Meanwhile, Finnish officials denied a charge from an Estonian official who, on defecting to a Western country, said that he did not flee to Finland because he felt authorities there would send him back.
British dockworkers shut down 19 ports in a walkout to show sympathy with coal miners who have been on strike since March 12. All of Scotland’s 12 ports were closed by the strike. Elsewhere, the freight ports of Liverpool, Hull, Garston, Teesport and Tilbury were also closed. However, the nation’s largest passenger harbor, at Dover, remained open, and thousands of vacationers boarded ferries at the start of the busiest summer weekend. The dock workers struck to protest the use of outside labor to unload imported coal for a Scottish steel mill deprived of fuel by the miners’ strike.
Youths threw rocks at the police, and rival gangs clashed with each other in incidents in Northern Ireland early today, the police said. In Castlederg, in County Tyrone, 100 Roman Catholic youths fought with about the same number of Protestant youths for an hour until the police intervened, a spokesman for the Royal Ulster Constabulary said. Policemen fired plastic bullets, he said. A policeman and a youth were hurt, neither seriously, the spokesman said. Three people were arrested on charges of riotous behavior. In a Protestant area of east Belfast, about 50 youths put up barricades and threw rocks at the police, a police spokesman said. He said no one was hurt, but two store windows were smashed and one youth was arrested.
Eight people were arrested in Bilbao, Spain today as hundreds of Basque youths fought with police during a protest over a French court ruling that four suspected Basque guerrillas should be extradited to Spain, the police said. Demonstrators burned a Spanish flag and threw rocks, bottles and gasoline bombs at the police, who responded by firing rubber bullets to disperse the protesters. Several people were slightly hurt. In another incident, a Basque refugee support group said it set two French cars ablaze early today in the northern Spanish town of Pamplona. A court at Pau in southwestern France ruled this month that four suspected members of the Basque separatist group E.T.A. should be extradited to Spain on charges of murder. In France, 800 people staged a march against the extradition ruling today in the village of Hasparren, near the Spanish border.
Thousands of Parisians today commemorated the 40th anniversary of the liberation of their city from four years of German occupation. There were veterans in uniform, with medals and military insignia. Others unfurled French flags as speakers talked of bittersweet memories of the liberation, which ended what they called the most brutal and disturbing period in modern French history. This morning at 9:45, church bells in the city rang as they did on August 25, 1944, the morning after General Philippe Leclerc’s Second Armored Division had pushed from the southern outskirts of the city, over the Austerlitz Bridge to the Right Bank of the Seine, and up to the City Hall.
An Israeli newspaper published an account of a previously unreported massacre of Palestinian villagers in 1948 by Israeli troops who had been part of an underground terrorist group. The Daily Hadashot, a year-old politically independent paper, said hundreds of men, women and children were killed in a village called Dweima, 20 miles southwest of Jerusalem, by an army unit composed of former members of the outlawed Stern Gang. The brigade had reportedly been commanded by the late soldier-statesman Moshe Dayan, but a military historian said Dayan left the unit three months before the Oct. 28, 1948, killings.
King Fahd of Saudi Arabia invited 6,000 Lebanese Muslims to make a pilgrimage to Mecca hours after pro-Iranian Islamic extremists ransacked and torched the Saudi consulate in Beirut. Saudi Arabia informed the Lebanese government that it will waive normal visa formalities for Muslims wishing to make the annual pilgrimage to Islam’s holiest shrine. The Islamic Jihad (Holy War) organization said the attack on the Saudi consulate was a “first warning to the reactionary regime, allied to the United States and secretly supporting the Zionist state.”
Hijackers who seized an Indian Airlines jetliner and demanded to be flown to the United States freed the remaining 79 passengers and crew of 6 today and surrendered more than 24 hours after commandeering the aircraft. The hijackers, said by a senior Dubai police official to number seven, are thought to be members of an outlawed Sikh extremist movement called the All-India Sikh Students Federation. A senior diplomat at Dubai airport said they gave themselves up as the passengers streamed away from the plane. The passengers were expected to return to India on another Indian Airlines plane that landed in Dubai earlier in the day. They were kept away from reporters in a transit lounge at the airport.
More than a million people took part in a national day of protest today to back demands for the reinstatement of the ousted chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, and general strikes paralyzed two states. At least 49,000 opposition party activists were jailed in Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state, for picketing government offices, a state official said. Hundreds of demonstrators also were detained in several other states, officials said. Thirty people were hurt in sporadic violence, but no deaths were reported, according to news reports. Protesters were demanding reinstatement of N. T. Rama Rao, the dismissed Chief Minister of the state of Andhra Pradesh and a critic of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Mrs. Gandhi’s opponents, united by Mr. Rama Rao’s dismissal, called for the protest.
Israeli intelligence agents and former British Army commandos are training Sri Lanka’s security forces as part of a new drive by the Government to combat a violent Tamil separatist movement in the north, the country’s National Security Affairs Minister says. The minister, Lalith Athulathmudali, said in an interview this week that the training programs were aimed at overhauling the organization of intelligence gathering, building an effective information-gathering network and training a paramilitary unit to combat the Tamil insurgents. In Israel, Government officials denied any role in military training aid to Sri Lanka. A Sri Lanka official on a private visit to Israel had hinted earlier at assistance from the Israelis in an antiter rorist intelligence program.
El Salvador’s Army seems less harsh after five years of fighting a civil war. Its commanders are trying to win popular support in small towns that have generally been under guerrilla control. A Salvadoran political analyst and critic of the army says in general its performance in terms of the people has improved a few notches.
Jubilant members of Colombia’s most active leftist guerrilla group danced arm in arm with villagers in Corinto after the M-19 movement signed a cease-fire agreement with the government. The Cuban-line group, known more formally as the April 19 Movement, became the fourth rebel organization to sign a one-year cease-fire offered by President Belisario Betancur. The truce is to go into effect Wednesday. M-19 has an estimated 8,000 members.
South African Law and Order Minister Louis Le Grange today defended the police crackdown during elections this week, saying it was aimed against people promoting revolution. He also issued figures that show that at least 173 people were detained just before and during elections Wednesday for South Africans of mixed race. “It is our duty to insure that a revolutionary climate is not fostered in any way,” Mr. Le Grange, who was opening a trade and agricultural fair, said. Among those still in jail are antiapartheid leaders of the United Democratic Front and the Indian Congress Movement who called for a boycott of the polls, saying the new Constitution, which gives mixed-race people and Indians a junior role in the Government beginning next month but still excludes the black majority, is a sham designed to entrench apartheid.
President Reagan makes a radio address to the Nation about the 1984 Presidential campaign. President Reagan used his weekly radio address today to challenge Congressional Democrats to “close their mouths forever about budget deficits” unless they give the President new authority to cut spending. Seeking to blunt Democratic criticism of his economic policies, Mr. Reagan implied that unbridled spending by Congress was the cause of the record Federal budget deficits under his Administration. In the paid radio address, Mr. Reagan called for giving the President power to reject specific spending requests without vetoing an entire appropriation bill, a change he has sought since taking office. Mr. Reagan also backed a proposed constitutional amendment that would require Congress to allow no more spending than the Government takes in. Momentum has been gathering in Congress for a possible vote next month on the balanced-budget amendment. “Until the leadership of the Democratic Party supports these two long overdue reforms, they should close their mouths forever about budget deficits,” he said.
President Reagan, at Camp David for the weekend, enjoys a horseback ride through the surrounding forest.
Support for his underdog candidacy was sought by Walter F. Mondale at a meeting with 15 Democratic governors in St. Paul, Minnesota. Mr. Mondale scheduled a similar meeting Tuesday with the Rev. Jesse Jackson and other black leaders. Political associates of Mr. Jackson said the civil rights leader, who attracted record numbers of black voters to the polls in the primaries, appeared to have settled his differences with Mr. Mondale. They said they expected him to announce that he would campaign extensively for the Democratic ticket in the fall. Mr. Mondale’s meeting with 15 of the nation’s 35 Democratic governors today followed complaints that his campaign staff insulated him and that he was closed off from the advice of other Democrats. All 35 of the nation’s Democratic governors were invited to attend today’s meeting. Mondale aides said they were not disappointed by the low turnout, since, they said, many governors were on vacation. The aides said a second meeting would be scheduled for the fall with those who did not come today.
In a news conference after the meeting, as the governors looked on, Mr. Mondale sharply heightened his attack on President Reagan, suggesting that the President was a candidate who tried to “flimflam the American people” by avoiding tough questions and somehow “skate by the election.” Mr. Robb said the Democratic governors had sought today’s meeting so they could discuss what they could do to help the Mondale campaign in their states. The governors of two important industrial states, Ohio and Michigan, both said Mr. Mondale faced uphill battles there.
The Department of Agriculture’s civil rights and equal opportunity programs are suffering from poor management, inadequate guidance by policy-makers, poor morale and possibly illegal personnel practices, a USDA inspector general’s investigation found. Inspector General John V. Graziano’s findings, based on a “limited inquiry” prompted by complaints from a USDA employee, tended to confirm charges made for months by disgruntled civil rights office employees. They contend that the USDA systematically has halted enforcement activity. Graziano said the department needs to establish policies for conducting civil rights compliance reviews and to follow up on civil rights discrimination violations.
Police in riot gear lined the streets of Waynesboro, Georgia, a curfew was ordered and liquor stores remained closed as the man whose death in police custody prompted two nights of riots was buried. Rumors that Larry Gardner, 32, a black man, had been beaten to death at the Burke County Jail prompted rioting last weekend in Waynesboro, a mostly black town of about 6,000 persons. A 9 PM curfew was put in effect for the weekend, and beer and wine sales were prohibited until Monday. Authorities, citing two autopsies, said Gardner died of heat exhaustion after officers arrested him on drug and shoplifting charges August 17.
A $6-million federal emergency grant to revitalize areas damaged during the 1980 Miami riots has not been used properly, black businessmen and community leaders charged, saying they have been blamed for a lack of development when they have no control over the funds. They want Rep. Parren J. Mitchell (D-Maryland), chairman of the House Committee on Small Business, to conduct a federal inquiry to determine how the grant was used and document the need for more money.
Corpus Christi residents, in the grip of an eight-month drought, began taking shorter showers today as a rationing plan to cut water use by 25 percent went into effect. The rationing should help existing resources last through the fall, when more stringent rationing could be ordered, said Doug Matthews, director of public utilities. Lawn watering already has been curtailed. Under the rationing plan, single-family allocations will range from 6,000 gallons a month for a family of four to 12,000 gallons for a family of 12.
The personal secretary to Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh did not defame a woman by calling her a bigot in a letter to the sect’s newspaper, a jury found in a verdict the woman called “quite unfair.” The Multnomah County Circuit Court jurors deliberated about three and a half hours Friday before voting, 10 to 2, in favor of the guru and his followers in a $1 million lawsuit filed by Donna Smith Quick, a former member of the City Council in Antelope, where the sect established a community in 1981. Miss Quick’s lawyer, Garry McMurry, said he was considering appealing the verdict. Miss Quick called the verdict “quite unfair.” The guru said he had known nothing of Miss Quick or the letter written by his secretary, Ma Anand Sheela, to The Rajneesh Times, a weekly publication, in April 1983.
Hospitals are more efficient and cost conscious since a new Medicare payment system took effect nearly a year ago. The changes apparently have not diminished health care. After nearly a year of experience with the new system, hospital officials around the country say the average length of stay for both elderly and younger patients has declined dramatically. Still, many health officials say they need more experience with the system to draw firm conclusions about its effects.
Computerization of Federal records may be undermining the Government’s administrative and historical record, according to administrators, archivists and historians. Their worry focuses on the effect that several computer technologies may be having on collecting and storing such Government documents as the drafts of speeches and preliminary memorandums outlining policy options. When these documents are written on paper, the bureaucracy tends to save them systematically. When a computer or word processor is used to write a document, there is sometimes pressure to erase the electronic copy and use the storage space for fresh material.
A freighter owned by a Taiwanese concern that is apparently bankrupt has been anchored off the California coast for nearly a month, and its crew of 25 to 30 men is nearly out of food and fuel, the Coast Guard says. But Coast Guard officials said today that arrangements were being made to refuel the ship this week for a return voyage to Taiwan. The Panamax Nova has been anchored some three miles off Point Reyes since July 28 without funds for food, fuel or entry into San Francisco Bay, about 40 miles to the south, according to Lieut. Michael Swegle, a Coast Guard Marine Safety Officer. A crewman radioed Friday that they “were out of food,” Lieutenant Swegle said. Another Coast Guard officer said: “We will try to get them food on Monday. Things have been initiated and are beginning to roll to get the Government of Taiwan to pay for whatever fuel the ship might need.”
The Michigan Supreme Court has ordered that Roger Gauntlett, an heir to the Upjohn pharmaceutical fortune, be resentenced for child molesting. The court held that the sentence of probation and “chemical castration” by an Upjohn drug was illegal. Mr. Gauntlett, 42 years old, pleaded no contest in July 1983 to first-degree criminal sexual conduct for raping his stepdaughter from the time she was 7 years old until she fled the family home in 1982 at the age of 14. Court documents indicated the first judge in the case planned to allow the great-grandson of the founder of the Upjohn Company to contribute $2 million to a rape crisis center rather than go to jail.
Former Miss America Vanessa Williams, who resigned her crown under fire because of sexually explicit photos of her with another woman published in Penthouse magazine, has admitted posing nude for a second photographer. Penthouse Publisher Bob Guccione said that the second set of nude photographs of Williams will appear in the magazine’s January issue. The pictures were taken by photographer Greg Whitman and Williams said she signed a release before posing for the shots.
Severe thunderstorms soaked the western half of the nation, spawning hail and high winds that damaged property and overturned vehicles in some areas. Wind gusts of 60 mph were clocked in western Montana. At Clyde Park, Mont., winds felled power lines, broke windows and blew roofs off mobile homes. Golf ball-sized hail fell in Salmon, Idaho; Missoula, Montana, and McQueen, Oklahoma. A thunderstorm in the Texas Panhandle caused property damage at Amarillo. Clovis, New Mexico, measured three inches of rain and Yuma, Arizona, got 2.2 inches of rain in 30 minutes, the weather service said.
Truman Capote, the writer, died at the home of a friend in Los Angeles. He was 59 years old.
Baltimore Orioles’ ace Mike Flanagan stops the Athletics, 4–2 in Oakland to go 10–0 at Oakland Coliseum. In 13 starts, he has 6 complete games and an earned run average of 1.88. A year from today he’ll lose at Oakland. Sammy Stewart got the final three outs for his ninth save. Ken Singleton broke an 0-for-19 slump with a single, a homer and a bases-loaded walk. A homer by Dave Lopes in the second inning and a double by Bill Almon, a single by Jeff Burroughs and an error in the eighth accounted for Oakland’s runs.
Tony Armas capped an eight-run fourth inning with a three-run double and belted his 35th homer in the sixth to lead the Boston Red Sox to an 11–6 drubbing of the Cleveland Indians. The Red Sox sent 12 batters to the plate in their biggest inning of the year in handing Cleveland its third loss in a row. Armas, who leads the major leagues in homers, also took the lead in extra-base hits with 62. Al Nipper (6–5) allowed four runs on nine hits in six innings before Steve Crawford, who has a 5–0 record, relieved for his first save.
Don Mattingly has his third 5-hit game of the year to pace the New York Yankees to a 14–1 sinking of the Seattle Mariners. The Yankees pounded out a season-high 23 hits. Omar Moreno is a homer shy of the cycle. Dennis Rasmussen improves to 8–4. The batting title race between Dave Winfield and Don Mattingly took a new turn. Mattingly, who went five for six tonight, overtook Winfield as the American League’s leading hitter. The Yankees first baseman is now hitting .354. Winfield is at .353.
Tom Seaver pitched a three-hitter for his fourth shutout of the season and 60th in his career, as the Chicago White Sox downed the Kansas City Royals, 3–0. The victory was Seaver’s 285th career triumph and broke a three-week drought dating back to a 7–3 decision on Aug. 4 over the Milwaukee Brewers. Seaver (12–8) struck out four and walked two.
Jack Morris went eight innings for his 17th victory, and Ruppert Jones hit a three-run homer, as the Detroit Tigers defeated the California Angels, 5–1. The victory before Anaheim Stadium’s biggest crowd of the year, 51,203, was the Tigers’ fourth in their last five games and moved them 12 games ahead of Toronto in the American League East. The Angels lost for the eighth time in their last 10 games and fell five games behind Minnesota in the West. In becoming the league’s first 17-game winner, Morris, who has lost eight, struggled early, walking five in the first three innings. But the Tigers’ defense turned three double plays in the first four innings, and Morris settled down. He allowed nine hits before giving way to Willie Hernandez with runners on first and third and none out in the ninth.
Dennis Lamp walked Andre David with the bases loaded and two out in the 12th inning to force in the winning run and give the Minnesota Twins a 5–4 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays today. Bobby Castillo (2–0), who worked five shutout innings, allowed only two Toronto hits, none over the final four innings. Jim Gott pitched to one batter in the 12th and dropped to 6–6.
Bill Schroeder hit a pair of bases-empty homers and Ben Oglivie had a two- run homer to lead the Milwaukee Brewers past the Texas Rangers, 7–6. Don Sutton (12–10) went the first seven-and-one-third innings for the victory.
Rick Mahler pitched a five-hitter and the rookie Brad Komminsk hit a tiebreaking two-run homer in the sixth inning as the Atlanta Braves scored a 3–2 victory today over the Chicago Cubs. Komminsk’s homer, his seventh of the season, came with two outs after Dale Murphy had singled, and ended a three-game Atlanta losing streak. The loss was only the second in the last seven games for the Cubs, the leaders in the National League East, and was charged to Scott Sanderson (6–4).
Bob Brenly, who destroyed the New York Mets with two home runs in the first game of Friday night’s doubleheader, swatted a three-run homer last night that plunged the Mets to a 5–4 loss to the San Francisco Giants. The Mets, who scored a run in the ninth inning and had a runner at third base when the game ended, derived no consolation from the close nature of the game because it was the Giants’ eighth one-run decision in eight victories over them this season.
Ken Landreaux broke a 3–3 tie with a two- run homer in the seventh inning to lead the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 7–4 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies. Steve Sax and Pedro Guerrero also drove in two runs as the Dodgers tagged John Denny (6–4) with the loss. Bob Welch, the first of five Los Angeles pitchers, improved to 11–12. Philadelphia moved ahead, 3–2, in the fourth. Von Hayes singled and scored on a Mike Schmidt triple. With two out, Ozzie Virgil hit his 18th home run. After the Dodgers tied the game, 3–3, in the sixth, Landreaux hit the first pitch after Denny hit Dave Anderson with a pitch in the seventh and gave the Dodgers a 5–3 lead.
Lee Lacy collected three hits and drove in three runs to spark the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 5–3 victory over the Cincinnati Reds. With the Pirates ahead 1–0 in the third, Lee Mazzilli led off with a single and Tony Pena singled two outs later. Lacy then hit a drive to deep center field that bounced off Gary Redus’ glove for a triple, allowing two runs to score. John Candelaria (11–10) allowed four hits through five innings before leaving the game with an injured left hip. Larry McWilliams, making his first relief appearance since 1982, got the last out for his first save.
Terry Puhl slammed a triple and two singles and Bob Knepper hurled a four-hitter to lead Houston to its fourth straight win, beating the St. Louis Cardinals, 5–2. The Astros grabbed a 1–0 lead in the first off the starter Dave LaPoint (9–10). Bill Doran singled, stole second and scored on Phil Garner’s single. The Cardinals tied the score 1–1 in the second. In the fourth, the Cardinals took a 2–1 lead with an unearned run. Lonnie Smith was safe at second on an error. He scored when David Green singled. The Astros tied the score 2–2 in the fifth, but the Cardinals reliever Jeff Lahti entered in the seventh and allowed two runs. Enos Cabell doubled and Garner walked. After an infield out advanced both runners, Jerry Mumphrey singled home two runs for a 5–2 lead.
Goose Gossage got his 25th save of the year and Graig Nettles hit his 20th home run with two out in the 13th inning, as the San Diego Padres edged the Montreal Expos, 4–3. The game was tied 1–1 after nine innings. In the top of the 11th the Padres scored two runs, but the Expos answered with two to tie it again. Nettles, the Padres’ 40-year-old third baseman, has eight homers in his last nine games.
Born:
Leslie-Anne Huff, American actress (“The Vampire Diaries”), in the San Fernando Valley, California.
Linda May Han Oh, Australian jazz bassist, composer, and educator, born in Malaysia.
Died:
Truman Capote, 59, American author (“Breakfast At Tiffany’s”, “In Cold Blood”), of liver cancer.
Viktor Chukarin, 62, Soviet gymnast (Olympic gold 1952, 56).
Waite Hoyt, 84, American MLB baseball HOF pitcher (World Series 1923, 1927, 1928; AL wins leader 1927; New York Yankees), from heart failure.
Andy Varipapa, 93, American ten-pin bowler (BPAA All-Star champion 1947-48).
History Diaries 