The White House sent a team to Helsinki to arrange for a possible trip there by President Ford. If remaining problems at the 35-nation European security conference are ironed out in the next few days. Mr. Ford would be attending an East-West summit in Helsinki July 30.
The Soviet and American spacecraft Soyuz and Apollo shifted smoothly into new orbits in preparation for their link-up shortly after midday tomorrow. The Soviet astronauts corrected the television camera malfunction that had prevented their being viewed during takeoff. The American team successfully retracted a docking probe that could have interfered with preparations for the meeting.
Secretary of State Kissinger acknowledged today that he had advised President Ford not to see Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn because it would have been “disadvantageous”, to this country’s foreign policy — presumably its pursuit of détente with the Soviet Union. In answer to questions at a news conference in Milwaukee this morning before his return to Washington later in the day, Mr. Kissinger said that he regarded the exiled Soviet novelist as “one of the greatest writers of this period” and that “I have enormous respect and admiration for Solzhenitsyn as a writer.” But because of Mr. Solzhenitsyn’s views against the Soviet leadership and against the policy of détente as pursued by Moscow and Washington, Mr. Kissinger said that “the symbolic effect” of his meeting with Mr. Ford or other senior officials would have been “disadvantageous” from “the foreign policy aspect.”
The Soviet Union has agreed to buy 3.2 million metric tons of wheat — about 117 million bushels — from two major United States corporations. Cook Industries of Memphis will supply 2 million metric tons, or 73 million bushels, and Cargill, Inc., of Minneapolis will provide 1.2 million tons, or 44 million bushels. The value of the sales was not announced, but such a transaction would be worth abut $470 million, on the basis of current prices of wheat for future delivery and shipping charges.
Portugal’s military rulers dissolved the coalition Government today, hours after the withdrawal of the second of the nation’s two moderate parties. The Popular Democratic party withdrew from Portugal’s coalition cabinet as the Socialists did last week, widening the breach between the ruling armed forces and the exponents of parliamentary democracy. The armed forces leaders are now expected to form a military Cabinet with civilian technicians. This was the alternative to governing alone, with the Communist party as their ally. Military men had already occupied most of the posts in the outgoing government. The dissolution was not surprising. The withdrawal of the Popular Democrats signified a widening of the breach between the armed forces and the exponents of parliamentary democracy.
Payments by the Exxon Corporation’s Italian affiliate to Italian political parties to get specific legislative benefits from the Italian government were disclosed in a 1972 report by auditors within Exxon that was made public at a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on multi-national corporations. The payments, approved by higher Exxon officials, were tied by amount to corporate objectives such as the interest-free use of excise taxes collected in Italy.
Protestant leaders in Belfast said they expected the cease-fire declared by the Irish Republican Army’s militant Provisional wing five months ago to end by the end of the year, if not sooner. Their prediction, and a warning for Northern Ireland Protestants to defend themselves in an ensuing “holocaust of violence.” came in a statement issued by the Ulster Loyalist Central Coordinating Committee. an umbrella organization of Protestant political and paramilitary groups.
A London magistrate fined the wife of an Arabian millionaire the maximum penalty of $960 for shoplifting. Anissa Abdul-Hassan, 40, the wife of a Kuwait finance company director, admitted stealing 96 garments worth $480 from a London store. The prosecutor said two of Mrs. Hassan’s eight children helped her fill four large bags with the clothing.
Members of Britain’s House of Commons will get a raise of $2,750 a year, giving them $12,650 annually. They have not had a raise in more than three years, during which time prices increased about 80%. An independent inquiry recommended a raise of $7,700 a year. The legislators thus became the first victims of the Labor government’s crackdown against inflation. Many did not like it. Angry M.P.’s, who expected more, called the move “disgraceful,” a “debacle,” and “a degrading of Parliament and a demeaning of M.P.’s.” Trade union reaction ranged from sarcasm to applause.
A team of British scientists said it might be on the way to overcoming tooth decay in humans by immunization, thanks to experiments on monkeys. Prof. B. Cohen, of the department of dental science at Britain’s Royal College of Surgeons, said the teeth of a group of monkeys were completely protected against tooth decay after the monkeys had been immunized with a vaccine developed by his research team.
Secretary of State Kissinger said in Milwaukee that the “extremely unfortunate” Egyptian threat not to renew the mandate of the United Nations peace-keeping force in Sinai would complicate the American efforts to achieve a new Egyptian-Israeli agreement. He seemed exasperated by Egypt’s move, which, he said, had surprised the United States. Top officials were consulting in Washington all day on the significance of the ambiguously worded letter from Foreign Minister Ismail Fahmy yesterday to Secretary General Waldheim. The letter seemed to leave open a possibility of keeping the approximately 4,000‐member United Nations force in place beyond the July 24 expiration only if an accord was reached before then or if the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution — certain to be rejected by Israel — demanding an Israeli withdrawal from all Arab territories occupied since the war of 1967.
In Jerusalem Premier Yitzhak Rabin warned that Egypt’s threatened refusal to renew the United Nations mandate could jeopardize negotiations on a new Sinai accord and undermine the existing disengagement agreement. Speaking before Parliament, Mr. Rabin stressed that Israel was observing the terms of the existing agreement on the basis of reciprocity and that the continued presence of the approximately 4,000‐man United Nations force in the Sinai buffer zone was an integral part of that agreement.
Secretary General Waldheim said today that the Middle East situation looked especially dangerous now that Egypt had announced she might not renew the mandate of the United Nations peacekeeping force in Sinai. Speaking at a news conference, he said he was confident, however, that Egypt would agree to a renewal if the Security Council took “certain steps.” He did not elaborate. But Egypt’s Foreign Minister, Ismail Fahmy, said in Cairo yesterday that he had sent a letter to Mr. Waldheim announcing that his Government would refuse to renew the mandate that expires July 24 unless the Security Council moved to assure speedy Israeli withdrawal from occupied Arab territories.
The Islamic countries are working with more determination than ever to recover Muslim religious and political rights in Jerusalem as part of a Palestinian state. This was the main theme of the sixth Islamic conference of foreign ministers from 40 countries of Africa, Asia and the Middle East. They were told by King Khalid of Saudi Arabia that the foremost goal of all Muslims must be to see Jerusalem “once again Arab, free, pure and dedicated to Allah and the faith.” Israeli troops conquered East Jerusalem from Jordan during the six‐day war of 1967. Earlier Islamic conferences, adopted resolutions opposing Israel’s annexation of Jerusalem’s Arab quarter, including the Al Aqsa Mosque, one of the shrines of Islam.
King Khalid of Saudi Arabia arrived in Cairo today for a five-day visit to demonstrate his support for President Anwar el-Sadat at a critical moment in the search for a peace settlement between the Arabs and Israel.
A Pentagon official said that U.S. arms sales abroad totaled $9 billion to $10 billion last year, and Rep. Benjamin S. Rosenthal (D-New York) told him: “You’re building the biggest firecracker in history.” Lieutenant General H.M. Fish Jr., head of the Defense Security Assistance Agency, said about 80% of the arms sales went to the Middle East. He testified at a House subcommittee hearing on a proposed $350 million missile and gun sale to Jordan, which he said is an example of how the arms sales are used to promote peace and Mideast stability.
The Indian Government, acting by decree, announced an expansion today of the emergency powers under which it has arrested thousands of its political opponents in the last three weeks. The order was largely technical, plugging legal loopholes in the one issued late last month when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi plunged the country into the gravest political crisis of its 28 years of independence. The new rules, in the form of an amendment to the Maintenance of Internal Security Act, give the government the power to seize the property of people who have gone into hiding to escape imprisonment. “No person detained shall have any right to personal liberty by virtue of natural law or common law,” they say. The act was also amended to make it clear that it applies to foreigners as well as citizens.
The South Korean Government put into force today a newly enacted national defense tax with the avowed aim of eventually making United States military aid unnecessary. The law, which was approved by the National Assembly last week, adds to existing income, property and corporate taxes. It also increases taxes on such items as liquor, theater tickets and telephone calls. The measure is expected to raise about $400‐million a year for the next five years, and the Government hopes that South Korea can be self‐reliant in national defense by that time.
Canada’s Minister for Energy, Mines and Resources, Donald Macdonald, announced that exports of natural gas to the United States would be reduced because of an impending shortage that will also restrict Canadian users. He said the cutbacks would be taken in consultation with Washington so that American consumers dependent on Canadian supplies would be protected as far as possible.
Delegates of 24 member countries of the Organization of American States convened in San José, Costa Rica, today to seek ways to accommodate Cuba once more in the hemisphere body, ending 11 years of boycott. The O.A.S. failed to lift the 1964 embargo on trade and political relations with the Government of Premier Fidel Castro when an attempt was made at a meeting of foreign ministers last November in Quito, Ecuador. At that time, a pro‐Cuba faction believed it had sufficient supporters — 14 of the 21 members who imposed the embargo — to lift the ban. But only 12 countries voted for the change. The United States was among those abstaining.
Argentine President Maria Estela Peron was under doctors’ orders to rest as her government faced growing defiance from workers and politicians upset over her economic policies. Her last official act after going to bed — reportedly with a mild case of influenza — was to order police to protect strike-threatened bus owners who try to maintain services by driving their own vehicles. Meanwhile, pilots and ground crews of the state-owned Aerolineas Argentinas joined other groups of workers staging wildcat strikes for higher wages.
The expulsion from this city of the forces of one of two black liberation movements that fought bitterly for more than five months has brought at least a temporary peace to the Angola capital. But the defeat in Luanda of the relatively conservative National Front for the Liberation of Angola by the left wing Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola may have intensified the political impasse. It appeared increasingly unlikely that the two movements and a third rival organization could find a formula for an orderly transfer of power from Portugal to a new black government in November. The three movements, which fought separate guerrilla wars against the Portuguese in this huge territory in southwestern Africa agreed in January to cooperate in a transition government. But the rivalry of the Popular Movement and the National Front brought an almost instant breakdown of the agreement and more than 3,000 people, many of them civilians, were believed to have been killed during bitter street fighting since February.
The evacuation of thousands of Portuguese nationals, who were preparing to move away from Angola in advance of its scheduled independence from Portugal in November, began as the airline Swissair began sending jets to Luanda during a temporary lull in the Angolan civil war.
Gangs of hungry Africans looted shops in Angola’s battle-wracked capital and ransacked homes abandoned by their white owners. After a week of fierce fighting by two rival African liberation movements that has left more than 300 dead. Portugal sent in troop reinforcements in a desperate attempt to restore order. Officials said the Portuguese government had chartered planes to transport 2.500 whites out of the country.
President Ford and Congress took steps today to advance their conflicting energy policies, but each was expected to block the other’s program. The President sent Congress formal notice of his plan to lift all price controls on oil over the next 30 months. Under the law, either the House or Senate can stop the plan from going into effect by majority vote within five working days. Even Republicans concede that the House will do so when it votes next Tuesday. The Senate, meanwhile, gave its final approval to legislation that would roll back the price of oil that is not subject to control — exactly the opposite of what Mr. Ford wants to do. The President, however, has already announced his intention to veto the measure, The 57-to-40 Senate vote on final passage indicated that there is not the necessary two‐thirds support to override the veto. The President and Congressional leaders knew of course, that their actions today were almost certainly futile, but each side apparently believes its position will be politically advantageous.
The House by a one-vote margin insisted there should be no government ban on schools conducting separate physical education classes for boys and girls or permitting single-sex organizations such as honorary fraternities or sororities. The 212–211 vote came on an amendment to a $7.9 billion bill for government aid to education during the 15 months that began July 1. The amendment was aimed at regulations of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare scheduled to go into effect Monday.
The House, accepting a Senate-House compromise two days after the Senate acted, sent a $2.02 billion health program authorization bill to President Ford. The measure is about $500 million below amounts that had been contained in separate bills that Mr. Ford pocket vetoed after the previous Congress adjourned last year. The new legislation would authorize $1.422 billion for health revenue-sharing and health services programs covering grants to states for health activities and project grants involving such matters as family planning. community mental health center, migrant health and control of rodent-carried diseases. Democrats backing the measure said Mr. Ford had already decided to veto it.
James O. Eastland, Democrat of Mississippi, who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee agreed today to act on House‐passed legislation to extend the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Senator Eastland, who has been in the hospital because of broken ribs suffered in a fall, called a meeting for tomorrow after a warning by Senator John V. Tunney, Democrat of California that there was a “serious possibility” that the act would expire if the Senate did not act quickly. He named Senator Philip A. Hart, Democrat of Michigan, to act as chairman when the committee takes up the legislation approved by Senator Tunney’s Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights.
The Federal Trade Commission formally accused the Kroger Co., the nation’s third largest supermarket chain, of falsely advertising sales specials. The complaint alleged that advertised sales items either were not readily available, were overpriced, or were sold at higher than advertised prices. The FTC said the alleged violations occurred over a period of time in a “significant number” of the 1,258 Kroger stores in 20 states. The company’s retail food sales totaled $3.8 billion in 1973. Kroger replied that the FTC’s information was based on a two-year-old survey involving many of its smaller stores with inadequate storage space that had since been replaced by larger stores.
Senator John V. Tunney (D-California) accused the FBI of misusing its computer network by collecting “raw, unverified data” on individuals, possibly for political reasons. He said the agency experimented with using its criminal information retrieval system in early 1974 for intelligence-gathering purposes. He said it was clear abuse of the FBI’s National Crime Information Center. a computer network run by the FBI and shared with state and local law enforcement agencies that keeps track of such things as stolen automobiles, wanted persons and arrest records. Tunney made his charges at a hearing on legislation to limit the FBI’s use of the system before the Senate constitutional rights subcommittee, which he heads.
A House criminal justice subcommittee voted today to summon the special prosecutor, Henry S. Ruth Jr., for questioning in closed session about his Watergate investigation. The subcommittee approved unanimously by voice vote motion by Representative Elizabeth Holtzman, Democrat of Brooklyn, to call Mr. Ruth before Congress starts its August recess. She said that he should be asked if he had conducted “a Full, complete and thorough” investigation and also to disclose the nature of his final report, which he said he would submit to Congress in August. His office terminates in September. She has expressed fear since the third and final Watergate grand jury was dismissed July 3 that Mr. Ruth would close up shop with “serious questions” still unanswered. She cited the 18 ½‐minute gap in a White House tape and the extent of Richard M. Nixon’s Watergate activities.
The prosecution, which had been accused by the defense of racism for rejecting five black prospective jury members, accepted a black woman to serve on the jury that will try Joan Little in Raleigh, North Carolina, for the murder of a white jailer she says tried to rape her. Mrs. Pecola Jones, 49, a machinist, was selected even though she said she objected to the death penalty. She joined two white women and a white man, all under 30, who so far have been selected.
The Defense Department has concluded that the Navy has understated the long-term cost of the F-18, which was to be its “low-cost fighter” for the 1980’s, by at least $1.6 billion. The finding would make it necessary either to raise Navy budgets, which are already running $2 billion short of the projected costs of its five-year shipbuilding program, or to scrap the F-18 program and develop a lower-cost plane.
Patricia Hearst’s parents filed a court petition asking to take control of her estate, saying they feared “artful and designing persons” might take advantage of the fugitive heiress. Randolph and Catherine Hearst said in the petition filed in San Francisco Superior Court that their “only wish is to promote, by any possible conduct, the interests and ultimate safe return” of their daughter who inherited a family trust when she turned 21 last February 20.
Defense lawyers concluded their presentations today at the trial in United States District Court of former Senator Edward Gurney and three co‐defendants on charges stemming from an election campaign fund‐raising operation. The jury is expected to begin deliberations next week. Before that, the Jurors will hear a brief rebuttal presentation by the Government, closing arguments by lawyers for both sides, and legal instructions from the presiding judge, Ben Krentzman. Mr. Gurney, 61 years old, is a Florida Republican who was a member of the Senate Watergate committee while in office. He did not seek re‐election last year after being indicted on seven felony charges of conspiracy, bribery, unlawful compensation and making false statements to a grand jury.
The man who entered the restroom of an airborne jumbo jet and died after apparently trying to set himself afire was identified as Anthony G. Townsend, 24, a Miami college student. He was dead by the time the National Airlines DC-10 made an unscheduled landing at Jacksonville, Florida. “He had no problems that I could see,” said his father. George Townsend. But Army psychiatrists and court records said Anthony had a history of mental problems and run-ins with the law. Authorities said Townsend died of smoke inhalation after spreading papers over the lavatory floor, lighting them and then squatting over the fire until he collapsed unconscious.
The Municipal Assistance Corporation has been told by its underwriting banks that they will be unable under present circumstances to sell its next $1 billion bond issue to meet New York City’s expenses in August, corporation sources said. It has appealed to Mayor Beame for “drastic actions” — possibly a freeze on all city wages — as the only way it will be able to issue the bonds. The wage freeze idea was raised Monday evening when Mayor Beame met with Felix Rohatyn, a director of M.A.C. When Mayor Beame rejected it as impractical, one source said, Mr. Rohatyn asked him to come to a meeting of all the directors scheduled for tomorrow. A corporation source called it a crisis situation, taking the city back to where it stood in May and June unless the municipal government acted decisively.
A palace revolt flared in professional baseball tonight when Bowie Kuhn found himself fighting and apparently losing for re-election as commissioner in the face of an outbreak of opposition within the American League. A vote was put off until tomorrow.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 872.11 (-9.70, -1.10%)
Born:
Jamie Oliver, Welsh keyboardist (No Devotion), in Pontypridd, Wales, United Kingdom.
Died:
Lester Dragstedt, 81, American surgeon who, in 1955, was the first person to successfully separate Siamese twins.
History Diaries 