Despite the support of the Reagan Administration, the longstalled international treaty banning genocide ran into a new delay on Capitol Hill as Senator Jesse Helms (R-North Carolina) blocked a vote in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Helms said he approves of the treaty but wants to make changes to “protect the sovereign independence of the U.S. Constitution.” His objections raised doubts that the Senate can ratify the treaty before it adjourns October 5. The treaty, signed in 1949, has languished in the Senate because of opposition by conservative groups who fear that it could be a step toward world government.
Nikolai V. Ogarkov was demoted as chief of the Soviet General Staff because he was showing “unpartylike tendencies,” according to a senior Soviet diplomat. Reagan Administration officials said the diplomat had made the statement to United States officials. They said that Marshal Ogarkov might have been dismissed because of possible disagreements with other policy-makers over military priorities.
Poland expects its 1984 grain harvest to be one of the best since World War II and is hoping to save scarce hard-currency reserves by cutting agricultural imports, Polish newspapers reported. They quoted Agriculture Minister Stanislaw Zieba as saying that the 1984 yield will be close to three tons per acre, well above average postwar yields. Western agricultural sources said Poland has about 8.1 million acres of land under grain cultivation, a figure that, based on Zieba’s assessment, would yield a harvest this year of around 24 million tons. Last year’s yield was 22.1 million tons.
Dr. David Owen, leader of the centrist Social Democratic party, said today that Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher headed “the most incompetent Tory Government since Sir Anthony Eden’s in 1954.” Dr. Owen said that what he termed Mrs. Thatcher’s ineptitude had thrown millions out of work, raised the share of gross national product consumed by taxes and caused a trade deficit in manufactured goods for the first time since the Industrial Revolution. It crippled Britain’s bargaining position on Hong Kong, he said, and “virtually invited” Argentina to invade the Falkland Islands two years ago. In a speech closing his party’s annual conference at Buxton, a spa in Derbyshire, Dr. Owen also called Neil Kinnock, head of the Laborite opposition, “perhaps the most vacuous leader the Labor Party has ever had.” Dr. Owen was a Labor spokesman before he help found the Social Democratic Party.
Public financing of religious schools was strongly urged by Pope John Paul II in an address in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Earlier, the Pope assailed economic systems that respond “only to the forces of the marketplace” and are governed “by the profit motive of the few rather than the needs of the many.”
An employee of the Libyan embassy in Madrid was shot in both arms as he drove to work, and police later arrested two suspects carrying Lebanese passports. The embassy said Mohammed Idris, whose wounds were not serious, works as an administrative aide. An anonymous caller told a news agency in London that the shooting was carried out by a Libyan exile group called Al Borkan (the volcano). He said the victim was an agent sent by Libya’s leader, Colonel Muammar Qaddafi, “to organize the liquidation of Qaddafi opposition.”
Rifaat Assad, vice president of Syria and younger brother of President Hafez Assad, has not been forced into exile as reported by a West German news magazine, a spokesman for the vice president said in Paris. The spokesman, Hamad Khalil, said Rifaat Assad was in Geneva for annual medical tests “and will return to Damascus very soon.”
Ethiopia forms a socialist republic.
Iraq said today that its air force attacked a “naval target” south of Iran’s oil terminal at Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf Wednesday night. The report came hours after Iraq said its navy attacked an Iranian convoy heading toward the port of Bandar Khomeini in the Persian Gulf, destroying four “naval targets.” In its announcement today, the Iraqi military spokesman said the attack took place at 11:03 PM Wednesday night. The spokesman, who did not give any further details, only said the target was hit directly. Shipping sources in the Persian Gulf said Wednesday that the 250,500-deadweight-ton Liberian-registered supertanker St. Tobias was hit by an Iraqi missile and was now heading to the port of Abu Dhabi in the Persian Gulf.
Iranian security agents foiled an attempt to hijack an Iran Air passenger plane on a domestic flight and arrested four would-be sky pirates, the Iranian government said. The four were arrested “following a clash at the Esfahan airport,” where the airline made an emergency landing. There were no reports of injuries. The plane was on a flight from Tehran to the southern city of Shiraz.
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s forces in the state assembly of Andhra Pradesh today postponed for the second time a vote on the reinstatement of the dismissed Chief Minister. National opposition leaders demanded that the legislature vote without further delay on the reinstatement of the Chief Minister, or state Premier, N. T. Rama Rao. If not, they told Governor S. D. Sharma, a Gandhi loyalist, the New Delhi Government must “face the consequences,” in the words of A. B. Vajpayee, one of the leaders.
The Sri Lankan government said its military will be given more funds to fight the growing Tamil separatist movement in the Indian Ocean island nation. The announcement came a day after at least 15 bus passengers belonging to the Tamil minority were killed in an ambush by armed men at Vavuniya. That attack occurred several hours after nine government soldiers were killed by a guerrilla bombing at a small coastal town north of Vavuniya.
The U.S. offer to accept thousands of Vietnamese political prisoners was praised by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Poul Hartling. Hartling. who flew from Ho Chi Minh City to Bangkok with about 250 Vietnamese refugees destined for resettlement in Canada, Australia and Western Europe, said the U.S. move “will be well-received” by Vietnam. Under the plan, 10,000 Vietnamese political prisoners would come to the United States.
Foreign Minister Nguyễn Cơ Thạch of Vietnam said Tuesday that his country would welcome attempts by a third party to promote peace in Cambodia, the Kyodo news agency reported today. Mr. Thach also said Hanoi would continue searching for American soldiers missing since the Vietnam War and repeated his nation’s willingness to allow political dissidents to leave the country, Kyodo reported in a dispatch from Hanoi. The agency said Mr. Thạch told its correspondent that Vietnam would unconditionally negotiate a peace proposal by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which has demanded that free elections be held in Cambodia and that Vietnam withdraw its troops from the country. “It would be better to form an international supervisory commission by neutral nations and let it play the role of peacekeeping in Cambodia,” Mr. Thạch was quoted as having said. His statement appeared to reverse Vietnam’s previous policy rejecting the United Nations as a mediator and an Indonesian proposal for the creation of an international supervisory group.
Opium-poppy production in Thailand has not been reduced despite the best efforts of a dozen nations to curb it. The failure demonstrates the weaknesses of crop substitution – a strategy that seeks to persuade farmers who make their living growing opium poppies or marijuana or coca to grow legal crops instead.
Kim Dae Jung, the South Korean opposition leader, who came to the United States after being released from prison, said today that he had decided to go home in December “to struggle for the return of democracy.” Mr. Kim said he had written to President Chun Doo Hwan and to Secretary of State George P. Shultz informing them of his plans. He said it was possible he might be sent back to prison, where he had served two and a half years of a 20-year sentence for sedition before he was released in December 1982. The State Department spokesman, John Hughes, said, “We fully recognize this is a matter for the Korean Government to handle, but we have expressed our hope to all concerned that his return will be trouble-free insofar as his personal situation is concerned.”
Mr. Kim, in a telephone interview from his office in Alexandria, Virginia, said that on his return he would “participate in the struggle for the restoration of democracy, disregarding any danger.” He added, “There is a possibility of my imprisonment.”
The Salvadoran air force has been issued new guidelines aimed at reducing civilian casualties from aerial bombardment, according to President Jose Napoleon Duarte. He added that he would also be issuing a general order defining the duties of government security forces and ordering them to respect both the law and human rights. Speaking at a news conference here, Mr. Duarte said air force pilots must now be informed whether civilians are in a target area before they begin an attack. The army high command is also required to give its approval before an air strike is launched by signing an order authorizing each attack. “We have tightened the tactical situation as much as possible so that there is no possibility of action in any area that could cause a danger to the civilian population.” Mr. Duarte said.
The State Department said today that it had reliable reports that an American Roman Catholic priest was kidnapped last week by insurgents in the Sudan. The State Department spokesman, John Hughes, said the Rev. Peter Curtin Major, a resident of Bentiu, was reported kidnapped about September 4. “The Sudanese Government is aware of the situation and of the U.S. Government’s concern that all appropriate action be taken to obtain the early, safe release of the American citizen concerned,” Mr. Hughes said.
Demonstrators stoned police on three occasions today in Johannesburg’s densely inhabited satellite of Soweto in continuing unrest in black townships. The violence today coincided with the seventh anniversary of the death in detention of Steve Biko, leader of the black consciousness movement. A police spokesman said tear gas and whips were used to disperse a crowd of people who had gathered at Soweto’s Regina Mundi Cathedral for a prayer meeting to commemorate the death of the activist, whose name is widely revered among many blacks. The meeting, the spokesman said, was prohibited under a sweeping ban on assemblies that came into effect at midnight last night. The ban outlaws indoor gatherings of two or more people called to discuss Government policy or “in memoriam of anything.” Outdoor meetings have been forbidden in South Africa for many years, and the new prohibition, the Government’s opponents said, reflects a tightening of security regulations that has coincided with the putting into effect of a new Constitution that offers people of Indian and mixed racial descent a limited political voice, but excludes the black majority.
Airline industry officials agreed on a broad package of schedule changes to reduce delays at six of the nation’s major airports, and the plans were accepted by the Federal Aviation Administration. The final accord, reached after eight days of often heated talks between Government officials and negotiators from 100 domestic and foreign carriers, would increase the number of flights to and from Newark International Airport in most peak hours.
Transferring mentally ill patients from state hospitals to ill-prepared community treatment facilities has been a failure and “a major societal tragedy,” according to the American Psychiatric Association.
Voters in every Southern state back President Reagan, according to the public opinion polls. As a result, the campaign for Walter F. Mondale has decided to make a major commitment of his time and resources in Southern states where his strategists believe he has a fighting chance. One Southern Democratic state chairman remarked, “Mondale has nowhere to go in the South but up.”
Geraldine A. Ferraro’s finances will be the focus of a preliminary investigation into assertions that she violated the Ethics in Government Act by failing to disclose all of her financial dealings. The House ethics committee voted unanimously to open the investigation, but the panel’s chairman, Representative Louis Stokes, emphasized that the action was purely procedural and reflected no judgment about the conduct of Representative Ferraro.
Many antiabortion protestors tried to shout down Representative Geraldine Ferraro as she said before a boistrous rally in Scranton, Pennsylvania, that her Catholicism would not influence her public policies. A half hour later, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Scranton denounced the Democratic Vice Presidential nominee’s position on abortion as “absurd.”
President Reagan addresses 20,000 people at Union-Endicott High School. President Reagan, campaigning at enthusiastic rallies across upstate New York, assailed Walter F. Mondale’s proposal for tax increases for the affluent. Mr. Reagan said “the main difference between us and the other side is we see an America where every day is the Fourth of July and they see an America where every day is April 15th.”
President Reagan participates in the dedication of Santa Maria Towers for the elderly and disabled located in Buffalo, New York.
President Reagan’s military policies were denounced at a meeting of more than 200 women, many of them prominent, who gathered in Washington to discuss the prevention of nuclear war and to condemn the arms race.
Hurricane Diana hit the coast near Cape Fear, North Carolina, early today with winds of about 110 miles an hour. There were no immediate estimates of damage. Winds at Wilmington, North Carolina, about 25 miles north of Cape Fear, were clocked at 60 miles an hour.
The Senate approved and sent to the White House legislation that would make lower-priced generic drugs more widely available and could save ailing consumers $1 billion over a period of several years. In addition to making generic drugs more readily available, the bill encourages the manufacture of new drugs by authorizing longer patents on new medicines. Generic drugs are cheaper but chemically alike versions of brand-name drugs, which usually cost more. The bill has the support of the pharmaceutical and generic drug industries, labor, consumers and the Administration. President Reagan is expected to sign it.
A federal appeals court in New York has struck down a $10-million award to best-selling novelist Jackie Collins, who was misidentified in a skin magazine photograph as a naked woman in a movie orgy scene. Publishers praised the ruling because it extends the First Amendment protections established in libel suits to invasion-of-privacy cases. The ruling said also that the amount of money awarded “shocks the conscience” of the judges because the “enormous verdict chills media First Amendment rights.”
Penthouse magazine Publisher Bob Guccione, who ended Vanessa Williams’ reign as Miss America by publishing nude photos of her, said in New York that he has nude photos of one of this year’s contestants-and will publish them if she wins. Sy Presten, a spokesman for Guccione, said that the publisher would not say which one of the contestants appears in the 350 color slides. The pageant’s executive director, Albert A. Marks Jr., would not comment on what he called Guccione’s “threats.” Guccione, who has said that he intends to publish more pictures of Williams in coming issues, said the pictures of the present contestant “were taken about 18 months ago.”
The parents of a teenage murder suspect surrendered in Houston to begin serving jail time for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating the slaying of a female mail carrier. The court had revoked the bonds of Bernard and Odette Port prior to their surrender. The Ports’ lawyer, Randy Schaffer, asked a federal judge to grant bond for the couple and hear his arguments that the Ports have a constitutional right not to testify against their son. The younger Port, 17, is charged with murder in the June 7 shooting death of letter carrier Debora Sue Schatz, 23. He is free on $20,000 bond.
An attorney for Dennis Banks said the fugitive leader of the American Indian Movement left New York today to return to South Dakota. The lawyer, William M. Kunstler of New York, said Mr. Banks would surrender to the authorities in Rapid City at noon Thursday. Mr. Kunstler said in a telephone interview that he had tried to persuade Mr. Banks not to turn himself in but that Mr. Banks wanted to face sentencing for a conviction for riot and assault stemming from a 1973 demonstration at the Custer County Courthouse. “We had the feeling he was putting himself in jeopardy but on the other hand he wants to end the matter,” Mr. Kunstler said. He said that Mr. Banks, who has been a fugitive for nine years, decided to take the action because he can not support his wife and four children on the Onondaga Indian Reservation near Syracuse, New York.
Cathy Evelyn Smith today was ordered extradited to Los Angeles to stand trial for murder in the 1982 death of John Belushi, the comedian. Declaring there was enough evidence to bring Miss Smith to trial, Judge Stephen Borins ordered the extradition to be carried out within 15 days and also ordered that she be held in custody until extradition. Miss Smith was arrested in Toronto on a United States warrant in March 1983 after a Los Angeles County grand jury returned an indictment charging her with second-degree murder and 13 counts of administering an illegal substance. Mr. Belushi died March 5, 1982.
A tavern that gave away beer and a radio station that advertised the promotion have agreed to pay $92,500 in an out-of- court settlement with a couple whose son was killed by a drunken driver who had been to the bar. Manual and Ester Meade of Parkville, had filed a $5 million lawsuit in Clay County Circuit Court accusing the Merry-Go-Round tavern in the Kansas City suburb of Shawnee, Kansas, and KKCI-FM in Liberty with encouraging drinking to excess. The radio station had advertised free beer at the tavern. The case went to trial Monday and on Tuesday the tavern agreed to pay the couple $42,500. On Monday the radio station settled for $50,000, Mr. Meade said. The couple said the defendants were responsible for the death of their son, Scott Meade, 19 years old, who died on July 17, 1982.
Smoking appears to be the single most important cause of recurring ulcers, and giving up cigarettes is probably more effective than the leading ulcer drug for avoiding this painful condition, researchers have found. Doctors have long noticed that smokers are more likely to develop ulcers. The latest study concludes that they are also far more likely than nonsmokers to have ulcers recur after they have healed. Dr. Stephen Sontag of the Veterans Administration Hospital in Hines, Illinois, directed the study of 370 persons. The results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
America’s elderly, not normally a group to demonstrate in the streets, will conduct rallies, marches and other actions in 90 cities today to underscore their concern about the future of Medicare, according to the National Council of Senior Citizens. On Senior Health Action Day, senior citizens in Knoxville, Tennessee, will wear price tags on parts of their bodies to represent the cost of recent operations; in Chicago, petitions in the form of a roll of bandages will be presented to Reagan-Bush campaign headquarters; and, in Providence, Rhode Island, “health care” will be carried on a stretcher, the council said.
Twenty new television programs will be introduced on the three commercial networks in the next four weeks, starting tonight with the debut of “Glitter,” ABC’s new series about a personality magazine.
Cyndi Lauper sings “She-Bop” on The Tonight Show.
American country singer Barbara Mandrell is badly injured in a car accident.
Onix Concepcion went 4 for 4 and scored the game-winning run on Jorge Orta’s ninth-inning sacrifice fly to give the Kansas City Royals to a 3–2 victory over Minnesota and earn a first-place tie with the Twins in the American League West. The teams are now 74–71 with 17 games to play. With the score tied at 2–2 in the ninth, Concepcion led off with his fourth single. Willie Wilson was safe on an infield hit, which chased the reliever Rick Lysander (3–3). Ron Davis replaced Lysander and the pinch-hitter Dan Iorg’s sacrifice bunt advanced the runners. Orta then hit a sacrifice fly to left and Concepcion scored his second run of the game easily. Bud Black (15–11) allowed six hits in eight innings for the victory. Dan Quisenberry got his 40th save.
If nothing else for the Yankees, tonight’s game, a 2–1 loss to Toronto, was a smooth and restful one in which two veteran pitchers, Phil Niekro for the Yankees and Doyle Alexander for the Blue Jays, had the hitters walking back to the bench wondering why they were unable to hit “hittable pitches.” “These guys throw the ball right out there,” said Dave Collins of Toronto. “You think I got it, I got it. But then you don’t get it.” The Blue Jays barely chiseled out their runs and barely held off the Yankees, who did not score until the eighth inning. Rance Mulliniks, before he lined a single to open the third inning for Toronto, pulled three pitches foul down the right-field line. Then he timed Niekro’s pitch to get the hit. He also timed Niekro’s delivery perfectly in stealing second, his first stolen base of the year. He moved to third on a flyout and scored on a single to center by Damaso Garcia. The Blue Jays scored their second run when Cliff Johnson singled and eventually scored on a single by Ernie Whitt.
The Baltimore Orioles downed the Detroit Tigers, 3–1. Dennis Martinez retired the first 12 Detroit batters and went on to hurl a six-hitter. Martinez (6–7) struck out six and walked none while hurling his second complete game of the season. Baltimore scored two runs in the second inning off Roger Mason (0–1), a rookie making his first start. Two walks, sandwiched around Mike Young’s double, loaded the bases. Eddie Murray scored and Young advanced to third on a sacrifice fly by Wayne Gross, and Young came home on an infield single by Lenn Sakata.
In other American League games, the Boston Red Sox edged the Milwaukee Brewers, 5–4, the Chicago White Sox beat the Oakland A’s, 4–2, the Cleveland Indians defeated the California Angels, 7–1, and the Texas Rangers spanked the Seattle Mariners, 8–1.
New York Mets rookie phenom Dwight Gooden strikes out 16 Pittsburgh Pirates in a 2–0 victory to break Herb Score’s Major League rookie strikeout record of 245. Gooden now has 251. The tall and taciturn right-hander from Tampa, Florida, overpowered the Pirates on five hits, gave no walks, pitched his second straight shutout and seventh straight victory and ended the evening with more strikeouts than any other rookie in history. He passed that milestone in the sixth inning when he struck out Marvell Wynne. It was his 11th strikeout of the night and the 246th of his brief career in the big leagues, and it broke the record set by Score for the Cleveland Indians 29 years ago. He also outpitched John Tudor, who stayed even until the fourth inning. Then, Keith Hernandez led off with a single and Hubie Brooks drove his 16th home run of the season past the fence in left-center field. And that was all the scoring. He also kept the Mets breathing in a pennant race that probably was as dead as the records he broke. They remained seven games behind the Chicago Cubs, who won earlier in the day, with only 16 games to play.
The Chicago Cubs walloped the Montreal Expos, 11–5. Ryne Sandberg hit a three-run homer during a five-run fifth inning that helped carry the Cubs to victory. The clout, his 19th of the season, awakened an offense that had been slumping. With Expos leading by 2–1 in the sixth, Ron Cey, who had three hits, led off with a bloop single to right off Bryn Smith (11–12). Jody Davis followed with a hit-and-run single to right, sending Cey to third. An infield out by Tom Veryzer scored Cey. Gary Lucas relieved and intentionally walked the pinch-hitter Henry Cotto. Bob Dernier greeted the reliever Dick Grapenthin with a single to center, scoring Davis, and Sandberg followed with his homer. The Expos cut the margin to 6–5 in the seventh, helped by Andre Dawson’s three-run homer. But the Cubs scored three in the seventh, spakred by Ron Hassey’s pinch-hit, two-run homer.
The Philadelphia Phillies won two from the St. Louis Cardinals, 3–1 and 6–5. The pinch-hitter Len Matuszek hit a three- run home run off relief pitcher Bruce Sutter with one out in the eighth inning to give the Phillies a doubleheader sweep. In the first game, Shane Rawley allowed only seven hits in the victory. The Phillies moved into third place, one-half game ahead of the Cardinals. The Phillies, trailing by 5–3 in the nightcap, got one-out singles from Tim Corcoran and John Wockenfuss to chase the St. Louis reliever Neil Allen. Sutter gave up the three-run homer to Matuszek on the first pitch. In the opener, Rawley (9–4) aided by four double plays, struck out four and didn’t walk a batter in his second complete game of the season. Kurt Kepshire (4–5) was the loser.
The Atlanta Braves downed the Houston Astros 4–1. Paul Runge and Alex Trevino of Atlanta broke a 1–1 tie when they scored on a ground ball by Rafael Ramirez in the seventh inning and the Braves moved into a tie with Houston for second place in the National League West.
In other National League games, the Los Angeles Dodgers thumped the San Diego Padres, 8–1, and the Cincinnati Reds defeated the San Francisco Giants, 7–4.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1200.31 (+2.32).
Born:
Taylor Jenkins, NBA head coach (Memphis Grizzlies 2019-), in Arlington, Texas.
Paul Ranger, Canadian NHL defenseman (Tampa Bay Lightning, Toronto Maple Leafs), in Whitby, Ontario, Canada.
Skyler Green, NFL wide receiver and punt returner (Dallas Cowboys, Cincinnati Bengals, New Orleans Saints), in Houma, Louisiana.
Died:
Geoffrey Lloyd, 82, British politician and Governor of the BBC.
History Diaries 