About 10 prisoners, including five Solidarity trade union activists, have begun a hunger strike to protest harsh conditions at Leczyca Prison in northeastern Poland, Solidarity sources said. Reporters were given a letter, signed by the five members of the outlawed trade union and smuggled out of prison. Addressed to the prison director, it said: “Political prisoners are isolated, do not get letters, are barred from holy Mass, and the medical care over them is inadequate. We demand regular visits by our families, an end to blackmail and threats and better airing of the cells.”
Journalists protesting a BBC decision to cancel a broadcast that featured a politician purported to be the chief of staff of the Irish Republican Army blacked out radio and television news broadcasts throughout Britain and Northern Ireland. The journalists also stuck the BBC’s External Service, which broadcasts in English and 36 other languages. Shortly before the strike ended at midnight, the British Broadcasting Corporation announced that it planned to broadcast the disputed documentary at a future date, but in altered form. “The program requires some amendment so that it can be transmitted,” the BBC general director, Alasdair Milne, told rporters. “In due course, it will be transmitted.”
Mehmet Ali Ağca described in detail to a court here today meetings of Turkish terrorists in Vienna and Milan to plan the assassination of Pope John Paul II. But two Turks who Mr. Ağca intimately implicated in the plot told the court he was lying. Mr. Ağca described how the Turks, including Sedat Sirri Kadem, a left-wing Turkish extremist who was flown to Rome on Tuesday to confront Mr. Ağca, met in Vienna in March 1981, about one month before Mr. Ağca shot and seriously wounded the Pope. Mr. Kadem said he was hiding from a police dragnet in Istanbul in March 1981, had never been in Vienna, and had not seen Mr. Ağca since 1979. Mr. Ağca later said that the Turks traveled to Milan, Italy, where he said they met in May 1981 with two other Turks, including Omer Bagci, one of the defendants in the trial here. But Mr. Bagci, sitting next to Mr. Ağca and Mr. Kadem, denied he met with Mr. Kadem or any of the other Turks Mr. Ağca named.
The opening game of the world chess championship between title-holder Anatoly Karpov and challenger Gary Kasparov will be September 3, the Soviet news agency Tass said. The first championship match between the two Soviet grandmasters had no limit on the number of games. It began nearly a year ago but was halted without a winner in February after 48 games. The new series will be limited to 24 games.
The president of Brigham Young University pledged in writing to Israeli officials that the Utah school’s new Mormon center in Jerusalem will not try to convert Jews to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Jeffrey R. Holland, president of the university, signed the document in the office of Jerusalem’s Mayor Teddy Kollek. “It is important for everyone to understand that this is not a missionary center,” Holland told reporters, adding, “We are not here to proselytize anyone.”
Angered by Egypt’s efforts to secure peace with Israel, Libyan strongman Muammar Qaddafi said he will expel about 100,000 Egyptians working in the country. In an interview in the leftist Cairo newspaper Al Ahali, Qaddafi said the Libyan Parliament has decided to “dispense with the services of all foreign workers” to prevent a drain of Libya’s currency. Most of Libya’s foreign workers are Egyptian. “The Egyptian government is responsible for the breach,” Qaddafi charged, adding that Cairo’s peace policy “gave a breathing space to the Zionist enemy (Israel).”
India signed a two-year cultural agreement today with the Afghan Government of Babrak Karmal, which is supported by the Soviet Union. The Afghan Foreign Minister, Shah Mohammed Dost, who is leading a delegation that is asking India to increase technical and economic assistance for the Afghan economy, was to meet with Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi today. The cultural agreement provides for exchanges of scholars, scientists, archivists, historians, artists, dancers, journalists, sports teams, films and books. India is to give 10 research fellowships to Afghans and train Afghans in the repair of historical monuments and the excavation of ancient sites.
Twenty-four ranking Chinese Communist Party officials have been dismissed from their posts and expelled from the party for failing to report that their sons were members of gangs that committed a series of rapes. The youths were convicted of crimes in the city of Beian in northern Heilongjiang province. They were members of three gangs, totaling more than 60 people, that committed 139 rapes there between 1979 and 1984. Of those convicted, five were sentenced to death.
Takao Doi, Mamoru Mohri and Chiaki Mukai are chosen to be Japan’s first astronauts. Mamoru Mohri is a chemist who worked with materials in vacuum. He has also worked with engineering of nuclear-fusion projects. He was selected to be a payload specialist, and he became the first Japanese citizen in space. He flew in two Space Shuttle missions (in 1992 and 2000), and served as chief payload specialist for Spacelab-J. Chiaki Mukai is a doctor who became the first Japanese woman in space, and the first Japanese citizen to have two spaceflights. She flew in two Space Shuttle missions (in 1994 and 1998), one of which was a Spacelab mission. Takao Doi is an aerospace engineer who has studied propulsion systems and microgravity. He also flew in two Space Shuttle missions (in 1997 and 2008) and visited the International Space Station. He is the first Japanese astronaut to conduct a spacewalk—and the first person to throw a boomerang in space.
Burma’s only legal political party elected a deputy today to the country’s longtime military leader, Brigadier General Ne Win. The move was widely seen in the region as a clue to who might succeed the 74-year-old general, who has ruled Burma unchallenged for nearly a quarter of a century. General San Yu, the country’s ceremonial President, was chosen Vice Chairman of the Burma Socialist Program Party at the ruling party’s fifth congress. General Ne Win was re-elected to the party chairmanship, the country’s most powerful position. General Ne Win, who seized power in 1962, relinquished the presidency in 1981 to General San Yu, 67. But General Ne Win has continued to be the country’s top leader, according to Burmese and diplomats in Rangoon.
Eight Pacific nations including Australia and New Zealand have signed a treaty declaring the South Pacific a nuclear-free zone. They said they would ask the United States, France and Britain to abide by its terms. The signing occurred Tuesday in a ceremony that fell on the 40th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in the final days of World War II.
Disagreements within the Reagan Administration and amendments by Congressional committees threaten to undo a pact signed with Micronesia, according to officials and legislators. The agreement would guarantee continued use of the missile testing facility at Kwajalein in the central Pacific. The pact with the three governments of Micronesia would provide limited automony and a variety of tax and trade benefits to the island nations, which have been administered as part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands since 1947. In exchange, the United States would retain military rights, including the use of Kwajalein, where a lease expires October 1. But no sooner was the pact signed two years ago, after 14 years of negotiation, than Congressional committees began criticizing it.
Rebels fighting to overthrow the Nicaraguan Government have been receiving direct military advice from White House officials on the National Security Council, senior Administration officials and members of Congress have disclosed. A senior Adminisitation official said the direction had included advice and “tactical influence” on the rebels’ military operations as well as help in raising money from private sources. The officials and lawmakers said the direct White House involvement in the rebels’ operations against Nicaragua began last year after Congress ended United States military aid to the rebels. Congress has since agreed to send the rebels $27 million in nonmilitary assistance.
Nicaraguan rebels reportedly seized 29 American peace activists and 18 journalists accompanying them. Spokesmen for the American organization, Witness for Peace, and the Nicaraguan Government said the group had been abducted from a boat on the river dividing Nicaragua and Costa Rica. A rebel spokesman in Costa Rica denied that his group had kidnapped anyone, however. Most of the Americans are from New York State. The journalists are believed to include Americans as well as Nicaraguans and others.
Uganda’s military rulers have put more than 1,000 members of ousted President Milton Obote’s secret police and bodyguard in a maximum-security prison at Luzira, prison administration sources said in Kampala, the capital. Their account corresponded with a report in the Kampala newspaper Munno that said 1,072 people were taken to the prison. The prison sources said the roundup was mainly of members of the National Security Agency, as the secret police are called. Meanwhile, Brigadier Basilio Olara Okello, a principal leader of the coup that ousted Obote, was promoted to lieutenant general and armed forces commander.
A man armed with an ax and a knife was shot to death by security guards after apparently trying to enter the office of Zimbabwe Prime Minister Robert Mugabe, witnesses said in Harare, the capital. “He said he wanted to see the prime minister and was asked if he had an appointment. Then he started running around brandishing the knife and was shot dead,” a government spokesman said. Mugabe, 61, has survived three attempts on his life.
The strife in South Africa spread today to townships near Durban, on the southeast coast, where at least four people, all apparently blacks, were reported killed as hundreds of Zulu youths fought pistol-firing policemen on streets littered with burned-out trucks and cars. Additional unrest was reported from Pinetown, near Durban; Pietermaritzburg, farther north; Port Elizabeth; Alexandra, near Johannesburg, and Cape Town. Durban’s black townships had remained quiet despite turmoil elsewhere, but the slaying there last week of Victoria Mxenge, a prominent civil rights lawyer, seems to have stirred passions among black political activists who attribute her death to an officially sanctioned death squad.
President P. W. Botha, meanwhile, went on a tour today of the tribal homeland called KwaNdebele — situated north of Pretoria and due for nominal independence next year — and promised continued commitment to policies of ethnic and racial separation. The show of unconcern contrasted sharply with the country’s turmoil, its worst racial crisis in years, and seemed designed in part to assure white constituents and his limited black supporters that he would not be deflected from his policies by township violence.
A delegation of the South African Council of Churches meets with President P. W. Botha, following calls by the church for urgent discussions on the causes of unrest, forced removals and the emergency regulations in the country.
Pope John Paul II leaves Thursday for a 12-day journey through Africa, where the Roman Catholic Church faces competition from Islam, debates over reconciling African culture with Christianity and disagreements over birth control. Today on the eve of his journey, John Paul issued a strong condemnation of apartheid in South Africa, declaring that the church’s “repudiation of any form of racial discrimination is forceful and total.” The Pope’s 27th foreign trip will take him to seven countries, from the Ivory Coast and tiny Togo in West Africa to the vast reaches of Zaire at the heart of the continent, and then to a religious convocation in Kenya, on the eastern coast. He will also make a three-day visit to Cameroon and a stop in the Central African Republic.
The White House revised its description of the procedure used to remove a skin cancer from President Reagan’s nose last week and provided important additional details about the operation in response to skepticism expressed by several experts in dermatology. Presidential spokesman Larry Speakes defended his credibility and said White House doctors had given him incorrect information about the procedure used last week to remove a skin cancer from the President’s nose. Speakes issued a written statement correcting his earlier assertions that Reagan had not received an anesthetic when a dermatologist removed the patch of cancer from his nose. In fact, Reagan received a local anesthetic, the statement said. Faced with criticism of his handling of information, Speakes told the press: “I’m here to stay.”
President Reagan attends a National Security Planning Group meeting on counter-espionage.
President Reagan attends an Economic Policy Council meeting to discuss pending protectionist trade bills currently in Congress.
Agriculture Secretary John R. Block, predicting “another round of severe credit problems” for farmers in coming months, said the Farmers Home Administration will be unable to accept new borrowers. As a result of the credit crunch earlier this year, Farmers Home made a record $3 billion in operating loans. Block said the agency hopes to direct new borrowers to banks and credit associations for loans, which would be supported by federal guarantees. The Farm Credit System, the cooperative farm lending entity that holds one-third of farm debt, is also experiencing financial problems. Block said the system has more than $6 billion of its own reserves, but may require future federal aid.
The Supreme Court was assailed by Education Secretary William J. Bennett. He accused the Justices of failing to recognize that Judeo-Christian values are intimately entwined with American democracy and said the Reagan Administration would seek to nullify the effect of the Court’s decision limiting public aid to parochial schools.
The Fairness Doctrine does not serve the public interest now, according to the Federal Communications Commission. But the commission said it would continue to enforce the rule, which requires broadcasters to cover important community issues and present balanced reporting and differing views where there is controversy. The regulatory panel labeled the policy constitutionally “suspect” and said it “chills and coerces speech” and inhibits coverage of major issues. The unanimous position of the five-member panel, following two days of public hearings last spring, is certain to heighten debate in Congress over the merits of retaining the rule and could figure in future court tests of the policy, according to commission staff officials.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission voted to end eight years of efforts to regulate chain saws, after receiving a staff report that more than 90% of the saws on the market already meet voluntary safety guidelines. The commission praised the chain saw industry, noting that manufacturers have spent some $10 million on research and testing to improve safety — double what the commission put into its effort to regulate the saws. Manufacturers have incorporated such safety improvements as low-kickback chains, improved chain guides, brakes and better hand guards.
John A. Walker Jr., accused of being a Soviet spy, led Federal agents on a wild chase through the backwoods of Maryland before his arrest, witnesses said today at the espionage trial of his brother Arthur. Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation gave new details of the events of May 19, when John Walker was arrested and charged with operating what the authorities have said was an elaborate Soviet spy ring. The agents described how teams of bureau agents in camouflage gear searched through woods, kicking at insect-infested trash bags in search of what they thought would be a delivery for Soviet agents. After they found the bag, the agents removed it and hid in the woods and watched as John Walker twice returned to the site, apparently to assure himself that the bag had been picked up. The authorities have said the bag contained 129 classified Navy documents.
Ted Turner won corporate approval of a $1.5 billion offer to take over the MGM/UA Entertainment Company. The acquisition will put the Atlanta entrepreneur at the head of one of the most diversified entertainment empires in the entertainment industry, adding movies to a business that already encompasses sports teams, the satellite station WTBS-TV and cable news services. The agreement follows Mr. Turner’s bruising defeat in his attempt to take over CBS. Because of that, analysts said yesterday, the success of the MGM/UA deal is vitally important to his credibility. The acquisition will give Mr. Turner, whose main asset now is WTBS-TV, a 2,200-film library that includes such standbys as “Gone With the Wind,” “The Wizard of Oz” and “Singin’ in the Rain.”
Monoclonal antibodies are effective in stopping the body’s attempts to reject transplanted organs, researchers reported in the latest edition of the New England Journal of Medicine. Antibodies are tailor-made proteins with a very specific shape, which allows them to attach to the surfaces of various cells in the body. Drugs can be attached to the antibodies so that treatment can be directed to specific cells. Rejection by the body remains a major problem in organ transplants, the researchers said. Use of an experimental monoclonal antibody called OKT3 on 60 patients whose bodies were rejecting their transplanted kidneys resulted in success in 94% of the cases.
A federal judge in New York banned construction of the multibillion-dollar Westway highway and redevelopment project for Manhattan’s West Side and harshly criticized the agencies that approved it. U.S. District Judge Thomas P. Griesa, who three years ago ordered the Army Corps of Engineers to reconsider Westway’s environmental impact, said the Corps’ conclusion last year that Westway would have only minor effects on the Hudson River’s striped bass population was “arbitrary and without reasonable basis.” Governor Mario M. Cuomo said the decision would be appealed, but it was a major victory for the coalition of environmental groups.
A federal judge today took another step in relinquishing control of the nation’s oldest school system by returning responsibility for student transportation to the Boston School Committee. Federal District Judge W. Arthur Garrity Jr., who in 1974 ruled the school system racially segregated, also expressed a desire to close the case by the end of the month. The system has been under court jurisdiction 11 years. “My hope is to resolve these matters before the month is out,” he said. “But the court is seeking to leave the case, not leaving behind a whole list and agenda of controversies.”
The National Right to Work Committee today filed a legal challenge to the agreement between the General Motors Corporation and the United Automobile Workers for G.M.’s new Saturn plant in Tennessee. The complaint, filed with the National Labor Relations Board in Detroit, charged that the agreement making the union the exclusive bargaining agent for Saturn plant workers and giving preference in hiring to U.A.W. members violates the National Labor Relations Act and Tennessee law. The National Right to Work Committee opposes compulsory unionism. General Motors recently selected Spring Hill, Tennessee, as the site for a plant to produce Saturn automobiles.
A record cocaine flow enters the country despite improved vigilance by Federal and local officials, officials say. They also say they expect that improved smuggling strategies will keep the record-breaking amounts coming.
Thieves are stalking Miami highways. They are preying on motorists whose cars break down or ambushing drivers late at night after halting them with objects hurled through windshields or placed on the road. About 75 such robberies have occurred. Undercover policewomen have helped capture 17 men and 4 boys, all residents of areas lining the expressways.
The plethora of product choices in American society has caused bewilderment among many consumers, and they and consumer advocates are beginning to question whether they have too many options. Most respondents to a survey by American Express said there were so many products on the market it was difficult to choose between them.
Barbra Streisand records the “Broadway Album.”
Bobby Hebert, the quarterback who led the Michigan Panthers to the first United States Football League championship and who was on the runner-up team for the last two years, signed last night with the New Orleans Saints.
Major League Baseball:
A baseball strike ended in its second day when negotiators resolved nine months of disagreement in only one hour. The season will resume today. Commissioner Peter Ueberroth announced that a tentative agreement had been reached by negotiators for the owners and the players on a five-year contract. The deadlock was broken when the owners agreed to drop a demand for a ceiling on the salary a player could receive in arbitration.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1325.04 (-0.12)
Born:
Grayson Hall [Shirley Grossman], 62, American actress (“The Night of the Iguana”, “Dark Shadows”), of cancer.
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