State Department officials have informed members of Congress that U.S.-Soviet talks on a wide range of issues will be held in a few weeks as a follow-up to the Reagan Administration’s discussions with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko last week. The officials said that Gromyko and Secretary of State George P. Shultz agreed to keep the talks going through diplomatic channels, and Arthur A. Hartman, the U.S. ambassador to Moscow, is to participate. But the officials said there appears to be little likelihood that the stalled U.S.-Soviet arms talks will be resumed before the presidential election on November 6.
Soviet forces in the Far East were placed on war alert for 30 minutes on August 15, and U.S. and Japanese forces responded with a similar alert for the same length of time, the Tokyo newspaper Yomiuri reported. The newspaper said a coded Soviet message, monitored by U.S. and Japanese forces, read, “We are going into a state of war against the United States.” U.S. and Japanese officials declined comment on the report, which suggested it was linked to President Reagan’s off-the-record joke during a radio voice test August 11 about outlawing and bombing the Soviet Union.
A West German newspaper said that Soviet leader Konstantin U. Chernenko’s life is in danger because his heart is weakening. Die Welt, citing reports reaching the West from Moscow, said Chernenko’s heart condition is aggravating his serious emphysema, a respiratory disease. The paper added that the 73-year-old Soviet president has apparently reached the limits of his strength.
The Green Party made big advances in municipal elections Sunday at the expense of the parties in Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s federal coalition Government. Official results of voting in North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous West German state and the one that embraces Bonn, gave the antinuclear, ecologist Green Party 8.6 percent of the vote compared with less than 2 percent in the last local elections five years ago. Mr. Kohl, in power for two years today, saw the share of his Christian Democratic Party fall more than four points to 42.2 percent. Support for his coalition partners, the Free Democrats, dropped to 4.8 percent from 6.5 percent. The Social Democrats, removed from national government when the Free Democrats switched allegiance to the Christian Democrats on October 1, 1982, won the biggest share of the municipal vote. But they, too, lost ground to the Green Party, dropping 2.4 points to 42.5 percent. The Green Party, which won its first seats in the federal Parliament in March last year, was fielding candidates in most of the 427 local councils for the first time.
Britain’s Labor Party, meeting in Blackpool at its annual conference, blamed the police for picket-line violence in the 62-month coal strike, a stand that party moderates warned could lead to another election defeat. The victory of the anti-police resolution and of a pledge of unconditional support for the controversial strike were regarded as setbacks to party leader Neil Kinnock’s effort to change the Laborites’ radical image. Labor lost power to Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1979.
Private schools in Malta were deserted on the first day of the school year today as 20,000 students and teachers heeded a call by the Roman Catholic Church to stay home in the face of government plans to enforce free education. The move prevented what many had feared would be clashes between church supporters and the police over the government’s closing of eight church schools that refused to obey orders to provide free tuition. Archbishop Joseph Merceica announced Saturday that all 67 church schools would close so as not to risk violence at the eight schools. The church says it cannot afford to provide free education. The government says the schools are a source of social injustice since they cater only to those who can pay.
Soviet challenger Gary Kasparov, trailing 3-0 in his world chess championship match against countryman Anatoly Karpov, asked for a two-day postponement in play. The eighth game was rescheduled for Wednesday at Moscow’s ornate Hall of Columns. The world title will go to the first of the players to win six outright victories in the match. Draws do not count.
No agreement on Israel’s pullout from southern Lebanon is possible now, Secretary of State George P. Shultz said. He said the mission to the Middle East by a high-ranking State Department official last week had not resulted in enough progress for the United States to become an intermediary between Israel and the Syrians and Lebanese, as had been proposed informally by the Israelis. Such an agreement has “a long way to go,” he said.
Jordan turned down Israel’s bid to Jordan and other Arab governments to join in peace negotiations. King Hussein, in a speech at the opening of the Jordanian Parliament, said that Israel’s move was “an exercise in subterfuge and deception” and indicated that he would refuse to join any negotiations until Israel demonstrated its “seriousness” about achieving peace in the Middle East.
The Egyptian government rescinded food price increases the day after riots swept the Nile Delta industrial city of Kafr el Dauwar, near Alexandria. Police sources reported one person killed, 13 injured and 40 arrested in the rioting, touched off by the announcement of higher food prices and heavier payroll deductions for state pensions. Unofficial sources put the number of dead at three and the injured at more than 20.
Indian troops re-entered the Sikhs’ holiest shrine in Amritsar for about an hour, tore down a separatist flag and arrested about 150 militants who tried to take over several buildings in the Golden Temple. Police said that about 100 troops and paramilitary forces rushed into the complex after militants raised the “Khalistan” flag, symbol of a separate nation by that name sought by extremists in Punjab state. The trouble erupted after 48 hours of non-stop prayers to celebrate the end of a 115-day army occupation of the Golden Temple and its return to religious leaders Saturday.
A Bangladeshi Cabinet member accused by opposition groups of responsibility for attacks on their supporters during a national strike last week was dismissed today, officials said. An official statement said Mahbubur Rahman, the Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, who was also secretary general of the government-backed Janadal Party, quit both the Cabinet and the party for personal reasons. Government officials said he was told to resign to help pacify both the opposition and a faction inside the government.
China displayed its first ICBMs in a military parade in Peking marking the 35th anniversary of Communist rule. The military section of the parade included intercontinental missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads, submarine-launched missiles and self-propelled howitzers never shown before in public.
As North Korean ships continued to deliver relief supplies to his country, South Korea’s President charged today that the North at the same time was strengthening its military forces near the demilitarized zone. President Chun Doo Hwan said there had been “unusual movements in the North, as they have deployed large tank units, long-range guns and guided weapons in the forward areas along the truce line.” The North Koreans also have “intensified the training of their 100,000 commando troops,” he said. In an open-air speech to thousands of servicemen and women gathered for Armed Forces Day ceremonies, Mr. Chun said South Korea had to bolster its own defense to more than match military increases in the North. “We must build a superiority of strength,” he said, “so that the enemy won’t be tempted to start an aggression.” The South Korean President provided no details, but Western analysts confirmed that North Korean armored units had been observed moving southward recently toward the buffer zone at the border between the two countries. They said, however, that both sides had steadily strengthened their military ability, and thus it was not clear whether the movement of the Northern forces had immediate significance.
Nicaragua’s rejection of changes in a peace plan for Central America has led to an impasse with the United States that threatens a period of increased tension between the two countries, Reagan Administration and Nicaraguan officials said. Nicaragua’s head of state, Daniel Ortega Saavedra, said in an interview in New York that the Sandinistas were unwilling to accept any modifications in a regional peace treaty proposed by four Latin American nations last month and endorsed by Nicaragua 10 days ago.
Salvadoran soldiers killed five guerrillas and dismantled a rebel camp in a sweep through rebel-held portions of Chalatenango Province, an army spokesman said today. The spokesman said the fighting on Sunday was near the towns of La Laguna and Las Vueltas between members of the Popular Liberation Forces, one of five leftist guerrilla groups, and the United States-trained Atlacatl Batallion. The statement also said 33 peasants were taken from rebel-held areas to a nearby army base in what it described as a rescue. The report did not mention civilian or Government casualties. The Foreign Ministry said President Jose Napoleon Duarte and Foreign Minister Jorge Eduardo Tenorio would visit Honduras on Thursday to discuss stalled negotiations over a longstanding border dispute.
Major General Mohammed Buhari marked Nigeria’s independence day today by announcing the release of 250 people detained since the coup that put him in power nine months ago. In a radio and television address on the 24th anniversary of the West African nation’s independence from Britain, General Buhari said the process of releasing detainees “will be a continuous one.” He said further details on the releases would be made public later. Since toppling the civilian Government of Shehu Shagari in a New Year’s Eve coup, General Buhari’s Government has arrested hundreds of former public officials, businessmen and some of their relatives.
South Africa warned the U.S. and other Western governments not to respond favorably to a request for sanctuary by six political fugitives who have been in the British mission in Durban since September 13.
First Amendment cases were accepted for argument as the Supreme Court opened its new term. The Justices agreed to hear cases involving the definition of obscenity, the right to speak in favor of homosexuality, and the right of lawyers to seek clients for specific cases. The Court sidestepped several civil rights cases.
President Reagan participates in an Immigration and Naturalization Service Swearing-in ceremony.
President Reagan attends a meeting of the Economic Club of Detroit and Women’s Economic Club of Detroit.
President Reagan stops his motorcade to participate in a brief Q & A session with students from Bayou View Elementary School.
Federal spending levels were extended for three days under an agreement reached by the House and the Senate, averting the threat of a shutdown of Government agency services on the first day of the new fiscal year. The action postponed the fiscal deadline until midnight Wednesday, the evening before Congress is scheduled to adjourn.
The space shuttle Challenger’s cargo doors were closed for flight at the Kennedy Space Center, and officials said they were confident the winged spaceship would blast off Friday morning on its eight-day Earth observation mission. Challenger’s countdown begins Wednesday, and, if all goes well, the shuttle will blast off at 4:03 AM PDT Friday.
Asbestos makers face a class action that has been approved by a Federal judge in Philadelphia on behalf of the nation’s primary and secondary schools. It would involve 55 manufacturers in a single litigation action instead of separate cases.
A Senate panel subpoenaed records of the Justice Department related to past Federal investigations into allegations of fraud in the Navy shipbuilding industry. It was issued at the end of a hearing on the Justice Department’s management of investigations into charges of false shipbuilding claims against the Navy in the 1960’s and 1970’s. The Justice Department overlooked evidence of potential fraud when it closed investigations into shipbuilding claims filed by two large shipyards and now is failing to cooperate with a Senate inquiry, two Senate subcommittee chairmen said. Panels led by Senator Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and Senator William Proxmire (D-Wisconsin), are investigating allegations that the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Co. and General Dynamics Corp.’s Electric Boat Division tried to defraud the government by filing false claims of cost overruns.
A Bronx grand jury has indicted Labor Secretary Raymond J. Donovan, the Secretary confirmed this evening. Mr. Donovan immediately sought and was granted a leave of absence from his Cabinet post to defend himself. It was not clear what charges were contained in the sealed indictments returned last week against Mr. Donovan, who said he was “outraged and disgusted by the actions and the obviously partisan timing of the Bronx District Attorney,” Mario Merola.
Public transit officials, opening their annual convention in Washington, D.C., were greeted with a wheelchair protest by about 100 disabled demonstrators who demanded that more be done to provide them access to buses, trains and subways. About 20 persons were arrested for breaking police lines after the protesters, linking wheelchairs, blocked two entryways to the convention center where the meeting of the American Public Transit Association was underway.
The Illinois Supreme Court has refused to reconsider its decision upholding the conviction and death sentence of mass murderer John Wayne Gacy, justices announced in Springfield. The court last June upheld Gacy’s 1980 convictions in the sex killings of 33 young men and boys in the Chicago area. It could be months or years before Gacy finds out if he is actually going to die because of appeals open to him in state and federal courts.
More than 2,000 miners today struck two independent coal companies that refused to sign a new contract with the United Mine Workers, but 110,000 others went to work under the first strike-free national settlement in 20 years. Union members did not report to work at West Virginia, Kentucky and Pennsylvania mines owned by the A. T. Massey Coal Group, the nation’s sixth- largest coal producer, said E. Morgan Massey, the company president. Also affected was National Mines Corporation, a smaller operator employing about 350 miners, most in Kentucky.
Negotiators for the United Automobile Workers and the Ford Motor Company today set October 12 as an informal deadline for reaching agreement on a new labor contract. Meeting for the first time since September 7, when the union chose the General Motors Corporation as the focus of bargaining, officials for both sides set the goal for concluding the talks and said a Ford pact might not completely parallel the one reached 10 days ago at G.M. “Obviously we can’t reach a settlement without some kind of job protection plan,” said Peter J. Pestillo, Ford’s vice president for labor relations. “Whether it will be like General Motors remains to be seen.”
A Texas grain warehouse was declared in default on its multimillion-dollar Government contract today after its owner did not come up with 966,000 bushels of missing Government-owned corn, Agriculture Department officials said. The warehouse, in Plainview, Texas, is the largest in the country. Its owner, P. L. Blake of Greenwood, Mississippi, had been given until Friday to replace the missing grain or pay the Government $2.9 million, said Merrill Marxman, deputy administrator for commodity operations at the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service. Mr. Marxman said that agriculture officials believed the shortage was a result of normal shrinkage in long-term storage but that the warehouse was still responsible for producing the full amount of the grain.
Potential saturation of air traffic in the United States is causing rising concern in the National Transportation Safety Board following its inquiries into nine recent collision hazards, including the crash of a small airliner. Restoration of flight restrictions might be necessary, the board’s chairman said.
A cruise ship in dry dock in Norfolk, Virginia, with 145 sleeping crew members aboard, tipped over and crashed onto its side in the water, injuring 31 persons, one critically, and briefly trapping dozens in cabins turned topsy-turvy, authorities said. The 487-foot, Panamanian-registered Veracruz 1 had arrived just hours before the early morning accident at Norfolk Shipbuilding & Drydock Corp. for 10 days of routine maintenance before the start of the winter cruise season, Bill Birkhead, a lawyer for the shipyard, said. Cause of the accident was not immediately determined.
Bible clubs held at two western Michigan elementary schools for the last 30 years are unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled in Kalamazoo, Michigan, as he issued an injunction against the practice. U.S. District Judge Richard Enslen acted on a suit filed by state Attorney General Frank Kelley against the Tri-County School District, north of Grand Rapids. “I believe the evidence (shows) that the governmental (school) activity… advances religion,” Enslen said.
The Humane Society and a critic of genetic engineering sued the federal government to halt experiments aimed at using a human growth hormone gene to produce super strains of livestock that grow faster and bigger than normal. The critics contend the experiments, which so far involve sheep and pigs, violate ethical standards for research and are a step into the unknown that could open “a Pandora’s box” of animal suffering and genetic consequences. Such experiments “are endeavoring to improve upon nature without really understanding how nature works,” said Dr. Michael Fox, a Humane Society veterinarian, referring to joint research by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Dr. Ralph Brinster of the University of Pennsylvania.
New insight into aging and medical advances point to real progress against mankind’s most unrelenting enemy, according to medical researchers. Some of the biological hallmarks of age can be delayed, they say, resulting in increased vitality in later years.
Country singer Barbara Mandrell, injured in an automobile accident September 11, has been released from a Nashville hospital and is progressing well at her home in Hendersonville, Tennessee, a spokesman said. Mandrell, 37, suffered a broken leg and underwent surgery to have a metal pin placed in her right thigh. Doctors said she is expected to be on crutches for three or four months, and full recovery is expected to take eight months.
Gary Trudeau’s Doonesbury comic strip resumes after 2-year hiatus.
Actress Sigourney Weaver (34) weds filmmaker Jim Simpson (28).
Peter Ueberroth replaces Bowie Kuhn as 6th commissioner of Major League Baseball; he has a 4 year tenure.
Walt Alston, who guided the Dodgers of Brooklyn and then Los Angeles to seven National League pennants and four World Series championships during his 23 years as their manager, died yesterday in Oxford, Ohio, after a long illness. He was 72 years old.
Braves manager Joe Torre is fired by owner Ted Turner and replaced by Eddie Haas. Atlanta was 80–82 this season, 12 games behind the first-place Padres.
The Chicago Bears’ Bob Avellini, who fell out of favor with Coach Mike Ditka for changing a play two weeks ago against Seattle, was placed on waivers yesterday. His departure clears the way for activating Steve Fuller, who may start Sunday against New Orleans because of Jim McMahon ‘s injuries.
NFL Monday Night Football:
Cincinnati Bengals 17, Pittsburgh Steelers 38
Pittsburgh’s 38–17 victory over the Bengals gave Head Coach Chuck Noll his 150th career victory. After a scoreless first quarter, Rich Erenberg scored on a 31-yard run and Dwayne Woodruff ran an interception back 42 yards to give the Steelers a 14–10 halftime lead. But after halftime, it was all Steelers. Gary Anderson made a 31-yard field goal and David Woodley and Weegie Thompson connected on a 23-yard score to give Pittsburgh a 24-10 lead. Walter Abercrombie added a five-yard score in the fourth quarter and Donnie Shell returned an interception 52 yards to give Pittsburgh the decisive victory. For the game, the Steelers’ defense had six sacks, including three by linebacker Mike Merriweather, and the defense had five interceptions.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1198.98 (-7.73)
Born:
Matt Cain, MLB pitcher (World Series Champions-Giants, 2010, 2012; Perfect game, June 13, 2012; MLB All Star, 2009, 2011, 2012; San Francisco Giants), in Dothan, Alabama.
Chris Johnson, MLB third baseman and first baseman (Houston Astros, Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves, Cleveland Indians, Miami Marlins), in Naples, Florida.
Died:
Walter Alston, 72, Baseball Hall of Fame manager (World Series 1955, 1959, 1963, 1965; Brooklyn-Los Angeles Dodgers), from heart attack complications.
Billy Goodman, 58, American baseball infielder (MLB All-Star 1949, 1953; AL batting champion, 1950; Boston Red Sox), of cancer.
History Diaries 