Italy’s Communist party made large gains in two days of local, provincial and regional elections, according to incomplete returns early today. The Christian Democrats, which have been Italy’s strongest political force, suffered sizable losses. The Socialist party, allied with the Communists in many local administrations and with the Christian Democrats in the national coalition government, also scored gains in the local voting, which ended this afternoon. According to these returns, the Christian Democrats polled 35 percent of all votes, as compared with 38.4 percent of all votes in the same areas in the last parliamentary elections, in 1972. The Communist party won 33.7 percent of the total popular vote, against 28.3 percent in 1972, and the Socialist party accounted for 12 percent, against 9.8 percent in 1972. Nearly 40 million were entitled to vote, and 91.9 percent did.
Portugal’s ruling Armed Forces Revolutionary Council handed over physical control of the Socialist newspaper Republica to Communist-led printers. The printers immediately occupied the Republica building. It had been sealed by the military government on May 20 following a job action by printers attempting to remove the Socialist publisher and influence editorial policy. The military turned the paper over to the printers after the publisher, Raul Rego, handed a list of conditions for reopening it to a military officer sent to remove the Government seal from the building. The officer, Major Dias Ferreira, refused the conditions. “The Revolutionary Council does not accept conditions from anyone,” he said.
In the first official U.S. visit of a West German head of state in 17 years, President Walter Scheel met President Ford in Washington and they exchanged pledges of friendship and promised cooperation in working on European problems. Mr. Ford and Scheel met for two hours.
Turkey’s National Security Council reportedly has drawn up a timetable for phasing out U.S. military installations because of the U.S. arms embargo, voted by Congress on grounds that Ankara had failed to make any move toward withdrawing its forces that invaded Cyprus last July.
Armed raiders dressed as militiamen overpowered guards at a militia camp at Magherafelt in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, cleaned the armory of its weapons and ammunition and escaped in two stolen military vehicles. “They seemed to know exactly what they were after,” a British army spokesman said.
A truck blew a tire, swerved across a median strip and sliced into a tour bus carrying British pensioners near Moffat, Scotland, killing nine persons and injuring 36, officials reported. The accident came 24 hours after a bus in Austria, also carrying elderly people, plunged off a steep mountain road, killing 21 persons. Less than three weeks ago, a tour bus carrying elderly women crashed in Yorkshire in England and killed 32 persons in Britain’s worst bus disaster.
Police evacuated thousands of people and about 30 were hospitalized when a poisonous cloud arose from a fertilizer shed in Heimstaetten on the eastern outskirts of Munich. West German police said the fertilizer, consisting mainly of nitro-phosphates, decomposed into gas when drenched by rain.
A group of French prostitutes announced the formation of a national federation of the estimated 20,000 “official prostitutes” in France to fight police persecution. “We have nothing to do with the unofficial prostitutes, amateurs and part-time streetwalkers,” a buxom girl who identified herself as Barbara told a news conference in a Paris theater. “They are competing with us without taking any of the risks.”
Simha Mordechai, a 23-year-old mother of a 7-month-old son, died from wounds she sustained during the initial Palestinian guerrilla raid on the northern Israeli settlement of Kfar Yuval. Her husband was killed Sunday in the raid. Her death brings to seven the total of Israelis and Arabs killed in the skirmish. Meanwhile, Arab and Israeli gunners continued to duel across the Lebanese border and the Israeli military command accused guerrillas in Lebanon of concentrating forces along the frontier with Israel.
A Lebanese military spokesman said today that four persons were wounded before dawn in the southern village of Nabatiye as Israeli gunners shelled four communities near the border. Lebanese artillery returned the fire, the spokesman added. The shelling was directed at the Arkub region, which was the target yesterday of five Israeli air strikes. Those strikes followed a guerrilla attack on a farmhouse in the Israeli border village of Kfar Yuval. The Israeli aircraft attacked the village of Kafr Shuba, and a military spokesman reported in Beirut that a woman had been killed. Today another body was reportedly found in the village ruins.
The Saudi Government is promoting an international school system to meet the increase in the number of children of Western contractors, advisers and technicians entering the kingdom. The system, authorized by royal decree, provides official support for American‐style grade schools that are expected to enroll 10,000 alien children by 1980. Foreign embassies consider this a major step by Saudi officials to adapt traditional Muslim attitudes toward education to the influx of foreigners, who are being sought to carry forward the oil-rich country’s economic and military modernization.
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi appealed today for support from India’s multitudes against opponents who, she said, are harassing her because she worked “for the larger good of the masses.” The appeal by the Prime Minister and others by her lieutenants in the ruling Congress party reflected Mrs. Gandhi’s renewed determination not to leave office voluntarily, sources close to the party leadership said. These informants also reported bickering within the leadership about who should succeed Mrs. Gandhi as Prime Minister if she fails in her counterattack against a state court ruling that precipitated India’s political crisis five days ago. The High Court of Allahabad, Mrs. Gandhi’s home city in the state of Uttar Pradesh, ruled last Thursday that she was guilty of corrupt election practices and not entitled to a seat in Parliament, which is a precondition for the prime ministership.
The General Accounting Office quoted Navy officials as reporting that in currency flown to Saigon two days before the collapse of South Vietnam for the purpose of paying off Vietnamese employees, only about $4 million was disbursed, $5 million was burned and the remainder shipped out of Vietnam.
Saigon radio reported today that progress had been made toward restoring Tân Sơn Nhứt airport to normal operations. The broadcast, monitored in Bangkok, said that workers and technicians employed during the non‐Communist era were being used at the airport and that seven of the eight repair shops were now operating at or near full capacity. Most of the activity at Tân Sơn Nhứt has reportedly concentrated on repair of damaged planes and parts. The radio also said that hundreds of civil airline flights had been made to and from the airport since the first Communist plane landed there May 1, the day after the city’s surrender.
Japan’s Prime Minister Takeo Miki was punched in the face while attending funeral services for former Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Satō. Hiroyoshi Fudeyasu, a 34-year-old member of the Great Japan Nationalist Party, struck Miki, who then went on to deliver a eulogy for Sato. Mr. Miki was not seriously hurt by the attack, which sent his glasses flying. The attacker carried a five‐inch‐long knife and a letter calling on the Premier to use the knife to commit suicide if he could not stop his “pro‐Communist policy” and end his support for Japanese ratification of the treaty to halt the spread of nuclear weapons. The funeral was held without delay with most of the 6,000 people attending unaware of the incident.
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park was created in Australia which put the Great Barrier Reef under government protection.
Leaders of the divided black liberation movements of Angola, meeting here today in an attempt to stop bloodshed in that Portuguese colony, heard an appeal for unity and a ceasefire from their host, President Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya. The leaders of the three movements then began talks aimed at preventing all‐out civil war as Angola approaches full independence from Portugal on November 11. The leaders are Jonas M. Savimbi of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, Agostinho Neto of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola and Holden Roberto of the National Front for the Liberation of Angola. All have key aides in attendance.
Rhodesia’s African National Council today canceled a congress that had been expected to produce a major shake‐up in the black nationalist leadership. Bishop Abel Muzorewa, president of the council, which contains the various nationalist organizations, said the Congress had been postponed indefinitely “due to serious administrative and other extreme difficulties.” It had been planned for next weekend. The congress would have been the first since the rival Rhodesian nationalist groups, the Zimbabwe African National Union and the Zimbabwe African People’s Union, officially joined the council last December. Growing bitterness between the factions has threatened to undermine black nationalist unity in negotiating with the government over the future of white‐ruled Rhodesia.
Britain and South Africa have terminated the Simonstown agreements on naval cooperation, British Foreign Secretary James Callaghan told Parliament. Under the 20-year-old pact, the countries shared dry-dock and refueling activities at Simonstown base near Cape Town, South Africa, and held frequent joint exercises. The agreements caused political embarrassment in Britain’s ruling Labor Party because of disapproval of South Africa’s apartheid racial policies.
Well placed administration sources said that President Ford was considering the question of how best to deal with data on alleged assassination plots found in the minutes of the National Security Council meetings from 1959 to 1963. The data, the sources said, were discovered as White House aides began searching for information requested by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and were not part of the material gathered by the Rockefeller commission in its investigation of the Central Intelligence Agency.
A bill to raise the federal debt ceiling was killed by the House shortly after it had voted to boost the limit by $68.99 billion to a record high of $599.99 billion through mid-1976. The bill died on a vote of 225 to 175. The Ways and Means Committee had recommended an increase of $85.1 billion to a total of $616.1 billion through June 30, 1976. The Ford Administration had told Congress it would be willing to let the debt limit go to $617.6 billion through 1976, as suggested by congressional budget guidelines. An increase will be required soon because the present temporary $531 billion top on Treasury borrowing is due to expire at the end of this month, with the legal limit falling to its permanent $400 billion level.
The House passed without dissent and sent to the Senate a bill to increase veterans’ disability and survivor benefits by substantially more than President Ford recommended. Meanwhile, the last batch of the 212,279 late June checks for veterans in school were mailed, the Veterans Administration said. The disability measure is estimated to cost $394.8 million in the year beginning July 1 and $98.7 million in the following quarter, a transition period as the government shifts to an Oct. 1 fiscal year. The bill would provide increases of 6% to 10% in basic rates of compensation. Mr. Ford has called for an increase of only 5%.
Members of the United States Senate generally pay women less than they pay men doing the same type of work, according to a study published today by a group of women who are Congressional employees.
President Ford signed a $473.04 million bill that will provide summer jobs for about 840,000 youths from disadvantaged families. The bill provides $456 million for jobs, $15.3 million for summer youth recreation and $1.7 million for associated transportation. The Labor Department, which will administer the program with the Community Services Association, said the money would be distributed by 433 state and local governments. The jobs will pay a minimum of $2.10 an hour for youths between 14 and 21 and will last from 9 to 12 weeks. The youths must come from families whose annual income is under $5,050 a year.
With expressions of regret, President Ford announced he was accepting the resignation of Deputy Press Secretary Gerald L. Warren, who was former President Richard M. Nixon’s chief Watergate spokesman during his last year in office. Warren will leave the White House about the middle of August to become editor of the San Diego Union.
The Supreme Court unanimously banned the minimum legal fees set by bar groups that home buyers pay as “closing costs” when they take title to property. The Court said that the fees were a form of illegal price-fixing that violates the antitrust laws. The decision, based on a single suburban transaction in Virginia, appeared certain to bring down the closing costs that consumers and lawyers have regarded as artificially high in many parts of the country.
Senator William Proxmire (D-Wisconsin) said he had documentary evidence that the defect which caused the crash last April of a C-5A transport loaded with Vietnamese orphans was common to most if not all of the Air Force’s C-5A fleet. Proxmire told reporters he was not yet prepared to make the evidence public, but would do so soon. The Air Force has blamed the crash, which killed 155 persons, mostly children, on the failure of a ramp locking mechanism. Proxmire said that the Air Force “has known about these deficiencies for several years.”
The Agriculture Department’s investigative agency two years ago found that the division responsible for assuring the safety and quality of United States grain shipments was failing to meet some of its principal obligations. Some of those shortcomings still have not been corrected. They ranged from withholding information about dangerously contaminated grain to suggestions of cozy relations between federal officials and an organization of major exporters.
The House refused to accept the resignation of Representative Lucien Nedzi as chairman of its Select Committee on Intelligence Activities, Mr. Nedzi has been at odds with fellow Democrats on the committee. The House vote appeared to cast new doubts on the future of the committee,
In a surprise move, Peter Leonard, 22, pleaded guilty to murdering 24 persons who died in the June 30, 1974, fire at Gulliver’s discotheque in Port Chester, New York. The unemployed 10th grade dropout also pleaded guilty to arson and burglary charges. The judge gave him a temporary sentence of 15 years to life and set July 16 for permanent sentencing, which could be a minimum of 15 years to life and a maximum of 25 years to life. According to the indictment, Leonard broke into a bowling alley adjacent to the discotheque and, after burglarizing a cigarette machine, set a fire in a store room. Fire and smoke later trapped the 24 young persons who died.
In a major shift in policy and philosophy, whites, long considered as “devils” by Black Muslims, will be able to become members of the religion founded on separation of the races. The softening of the black separatist philosophy had been coming for several years. Last year, the designation “white devils” was dropped quietly. The official announcement came yesterday at a rally here marked by the first public appearance of Wallace D. Muhammad, the new spiritual leader of the religion, known by its members as the Nation of Islam. Mr. Muhammad, 42 year old succeeded his father, Elijah Muhammad, who led the religion for more than 40 years until his death at 77 in February.
James U. Ruppert, accused of slaying 11 members of his family on Easter Sunday, schemed to collect $300,000 through their deaths, the prosecution contended at the opening of his trial today in Hamilton, Ohio. John Holcomb, the prosecutor, said the killings had been “part of a master plan with the end in view he would be sent to Lima, a state mental institution, where he would eventually be declared sane and then walk out with $300,000 in his pocket.” Mr. Ruppert is charged with 11 counts of aggravated murder in the shooting deaths of his mother; his brother; sister‐inlaw, and eight nieces and nephews who were visiting with his mother for dinner on March 30.
Women inmates armed with chunks of concrete and hoe handles fought nightstick-swinging guards today at the North Carolina Women’s Prison before reaching an agreement on grievances. Eleven inmates and six guards were injured. The guards, before the agreement was reached, had retreated outside the chain‐link fence surrounding the institution and the women had resumed their night‐long sit‐down demonstration for five more hours before ending the protest. When prison officials promised about 11 AM to close the prison laundry and to respond to two of the five other grievances by Thursday, the women agreed to return to their dormitories. But they refused to go back to work until after a meeting Thursday.
New York City’s policemen, firemen and other public-safety officers won judicial affirmation of their right to hand out “Fear City” pamphlets warning visitors to stay away from New York because of crime and fire hazards. But the 24 unions sponsoring the anti-layoff campaign decided to delay distribution to give several business leaders time to honor a promise to intercede with Mayor Beame.
Randy Farland finds a 14-leaf clover near Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
The NBA Milwaukee Bucks trade Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Walt Wesley to L.A. Lakers for 4 players.
Major League Baseball:
Tim Hosley hit a home run leading off in the eighth inning and the Cubs scored three more runs with five successive singles in a rally that produced a 9–7 triumph over the Phillies. Steve Carlton, staked to a 5–1 lead, yielded back-to-back homers by Andre Thornton and Manny Trillo in the sixth and the Cubs tied the score in the seventh when Jerry Morales hit a two-run homer off reliever Gene Garber. The Phillies took an early lead on a two-run homer by Tommy Hutton in the fourth and three-run outburst in the sixth, climaxed by Tony Taylor’s two-run triple.
Rich Folkers won his second straight game as a starter and delivered a two-run single in a six-run, sixth inning outburst to lead the Padres past the Giants, 7–1. The victory lifted the Padres into third place in the National League West, the highest position in club history for this date, and extended the Giants’ losing streak to six games.
Coasting to a 9–2 win with 2 outs in the 9th inning, Reds pitcher Don Gullett is struck on the pitching hand by a line drive off the bat of Atlanta’s Larvell Blanks. The liner breaks his left thumb and Gullett will be out of action for 2 months. A six-run splurge in the eighth inning, climaxed by Joe Morgan’s two-run homer, clinched the Reds’ victory over the Braves. Cito Gaston homered for the Braves in the fourth.
Rennie Stennett, Willie Stargell and Al Oliver hit home runs in the Pirates’ 15-hit attack on Ron Bryant and four relievers that buried the Cardinals, 10–4. Bryant, making his first start for the Redbirds, was tagged for a two-run homer by Stargell in the first and three-run blow by Stennett in the second. Bob Gibson, making his first relief appearance for the Cardinals after 303 consecutive starts, yielded a solo homer to Oliver in the fifth.
With the Astros leading, 2–1, in the seventh inning, Steve Garvey hit a two-run homer that cleared the center field fence as the Dodgers went on to win, 4–2. The triumph, only the second in seven games for the Dodgers, made Don Sutton the first 11-game winner in the National League. A two-run homer by Cesar Cedeno in the third gave the Astros the lead after Willie Crawford homered for the Dodgers in the second.
Sparked by Juan Beniquez, who led off with a triple, the Red Sox scored four runs in the 12th inning and defeated the Tigers, 6–2. Mickey Lolich, who started for the Tigers, pitched nine innings without striking out at least one batter for the first time in his career. John Wockenfuss homered for the Tigers in the third. Jim Rice singled for the Red Sox in the fourth and scored with two out on a single by Dwight Evans. Tom Walker replaced Lolich in the 10th and gave up a homer by Rice, but the Tigers chased Jim Burton in their half and tied the score with singles by Mickey Stanley and Tom Veryzer around a sacrifice by Wockenfuss. Reggie Cleveland relieved and was the winner on an outburst in the 12th. After his triple, Beniquez scored on a sacrifice fly by Rick Burleson. Singles by Carl Yastrzemski and Rice and a hit batsman then loaded the bases and the Red Sox added their three other runs on a double by Rico Petrocelli and squeeze bunt by Rick Miller. Fred Lynn went hitless in five trips and was stopped on his 20-game batting streak.
Gorman Thomas homers in his 3rd straight game, connecting for a grand slam, but the Yankee bats are too much as the Brewers fall, 10–7, at Shea. A pair of five-run innings carried the Yankees to victory over the Brewers. The Yankees went on their first scoring outburst in the second inning with five runs on four singles and three walks, including two with the bases loaded. Thomas hit his homer off Rudy May in the fourth after Hank Aaron and Charlie Moore had singled and Tommy Bianco had walked to load the bases. The Brewers went ahead with two more runs in the fifth, but the Yankees broke away with their second five-run inning in the sixth. Kerry Dineen and Walt Williams singled and both raced home on a double by Ron Blomberg. Thurman Munson walked and Graig Nettles then climaxed the scoring with a three-run homer.
Larry Hisle, who homered with a man on base in the first inning, capped a three-run rally with a single in the ninth to bring the Twins a 7–6 victory over the Athletics. Dan Ford also homered with a mate aboard in the fifth to put the Twins ahead, 4–3, but Phil Garner tied the score with a circuit clout in the seventh and the A’s powered their way in front with back-to-back blows by Reggie Jackson and Gene Tenace in the eighth. Steve Braun homered to ignite a Twins’ rally in the ninth. Tom Kelly, Danny Walton and Ford followed with singles for the tying run. Then, after a pass to Rod Carew loaded the bases, Hisle delivered his winning hit.
Three-run homers by Brooks Robinson and Lee May provided the power for the Orioles, who defeated the Indians, 8–3. Robinson belted his drive in the fourth inning. The Orioles added their other runs in the fifth. A walk to Mark Belanger, single by Ken Singleton and errors on grounders by Paul Blair and Al Bumbry accounted for two tallies and resulted in the removal of Jim Bibby. Don Hood relieved and on his first pitch, May smashed a homer for three more runs. The Indians had a circuit clout by George Hendrick among their 9 hits off Jim Palmer, who gained his 11th victory.
Philadelphia Phillies 7, Chicago Cubs 9
Atlanta Braves 2, Cincinnati Reds 9
Baltimore Orioles 8, Cleveland Indians 3
Boston Red Sox 6, Detroit Tigers 2
Houston Astros 2, Los Angeles Dodgers 4
Oakland Athletics 6, Minnesota Twins 7
Milwaukee Brewers 7, New York Yankees 10
St. Louis Cardinals 4, Pittsburgh Pirates 10
San Diego Padres 7, San Francisco Giants 1
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 834.56 (+10.09, +1.22%)
Born:
Anthony Carter, NBA point guard (Miami Heat, San Antonio Spurs, Minnesota Timberwolves, Denver Nuggets, New York Knicks, Toronto Raptors), in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Mamadou N’Diaye, Senegalese-American NBA center (Toronto Raptors, Dallas Mavericks, Atlanta Hawks, Los Angeles Clippers), in Dakar, Senegal.
Chris McAllister, Canadian NHL defenseman (Vancouver Canucks, Toronto Maple Leafs, Philadelphia Flyers, Colorado Avalanche, New York Rangers), in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
José Nieves, Venezuelan MLB shortstop, third baseman, and second baseman (Chicago Cubs, Anaheim Angels), in Guacara, Venezuela.
Asa Carlsson, Swedish tennis player (1995 Futures-Stockholm), in Vasteras, Sweden.
Frederick Koehler, American actor (‘Chip’ – “Kate & Allie”), in Queens, New York, New York.
Died:
Don Robey, 71, American record producer.
History Diaries 