Two terrorist organizations, West German and French, took joint responsibility today for the car bombing of a United States air base Thursday, describing the base as a “clearing house for wars in the third world from Western Europe.” The West German police said it was the first time the groups had jointly taken responsibility for such an attack. They said it underscored a new international dimension in attacks by terrorists against North Atlantic Treaty Organization installations. In a letter to news organizations, the Red Army Faction, a West German group whose activities date to the 1970’s, and Direct Action, a French group that first became known in 1980, said they had planted the bomb, which killed 2 Americans and wounded about 20 other people. Two of the wounded remained hospitalized in serious condition today. The groups’ letter said the Rhein-Main Air Base, where the bomb went off, was an “intelligence service nest” outfitted with “computers, planes and helicopters for the deployment of special forces” in the third world. The Red Army Faction, also known as the Baader-Meinhof Gang, shook West Germany in the 1970’s with a series of attacks and killings.
The Arab League did not endorse the Jordanian-Palestinian accord outlining a joint effort for peace with Israel. It only “noted” the accord at a special meeting in Casablanca, Morocco, that was attended by moderate Arab countries. In a communique expressing the consensus of the 16 Arab delegations, issued at the end of the three-day meeting, the Arab League members “noted with appreciation” a “detailed explanation” of the accord of Feb. 11 presented in a closed session of the meeting by King Hussein of Jordan and Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the accord’s major signers.
Rival gunmen clashed on the line dividing the Lebanese capital of Beirut and in a Muslim area today, killing at least six people. Christian and Muslim militiamen fired shells and rockets across the Green Line, between the mostly Muslim western section and mainly Christian east, for more than four hours. The militiamen also clashed in the maze of barricaded streets on the Green Line. Police sources said at least 4 people were killed and 10 wounded in West Beirut when shells smashed into residential areas. One person was reported killed and 9 wounded in the east. Rival Muslim gunmen fought in the Basta neighborhood, sources said. At least one person was reported killed and one wounded in the gunfights between the Shiite Amal militia and the Sunni Followers of the Revolution.
President Reagan meets with Secretary of State George Shultz to discuss the Middle East peace process.
The United States proposed to Vietnam today that an American delegation go to Hanoi to discuss Vietnam’s recent offer to resolve the missing-in-action issue, a State Department spokesman said. The department spokesman, Bernard Kalb, said the proposed delegation would include officials from the Defense and State Departments, the National Security Council and the executive director of the National League of Families. He said he could not name the delegation members. According to Mr. Kalb, there will be no change in United States policy toward Vietnam. There are 2,464 Americans still listed as missing in action in Southeast Asia, most of them in Vietnam. The proposal was issued today through the United States Embassy in Bangkok in response to a Vietnamese offer, made in July, to resolve the issue within two years.
A retired United States Army general who is active in assisting and advising Nicaraguan rebels said today that he was in contact with a member of the National Security Council in the White House to keep him informed of his work, including fund raising for the rebels. Administration officials and members of Congress have said in recent days that a National Security Council staff member is the United States official primarily responsible for coordinating contacts with the rebels. In an interview, the retired general, John K. Singlaub, said he called the National Security Council official from time to time. The topics, he said, have included the general’s work with Adolfo Calero, political head of the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, the largest rebel group.
The National Security Council’s direct involvement with the Nicaraguan rebels in the last year caused “some disquiet” among Central Intelligence Agency officials who feared the activities might be illegal, a senior Administration official said today. The official, who asked not to be identified, said the Director of Central Intelligence, William J. Casey, “hasn’t wanted to know some of the things the N.S.C. was doing because of the Boland amendment.” He was referring to legislation originally sponsored by Representative Edward P. Boland, Democrat of Massachusetts, that restricted or prohibited direct American aid to the Nicaraguan rebels. The legislation expired Thursday.
The 29 American peace activists who said they were held captive for a day by anti-Sandinista rebels arrived today in this town on Lake Nicaragua, a spokesmen for them said. Fourteen journalists who had been with the group arrived here earlier. Steven Hall-Williams, a spokesman in Washington for the Witness for Peace organization, which sponsored a trip by the activists along the river separating Costa Rica and Nicaragua, said the group arrived in San Carlos by boat late in the afternoon. The accounts brought back by the reporters and activists appeared to leave unclear the answers to several questions about the incident.
Uganda’s new military Government banned political gatherings today but pledged to free 1,400 prisoners jailed by the previous Government. Meanwhile, the Uganda radio appealed for soldiers loyal to Milton Obote, the former President, to lay down their arms, and the government announced “no fundamental change” in its foreign policy of nonalignment. General Tito Okello, installed as head of state after the army seized power July 27, announced a ban on political meetings held without the permission of the ruling Military Council. He spoke at the installation of Finance Minister Abraham Waligo, a former Obote official who became the sixth member of a caretaker civilian Cabinet. The radio said the political prisoners jailed by Mr. Obote would be freed Saturday in City Square in Kampala.
Violence spread in black townships around Durban, pitting South African black rioters against white policemen and Indian vigilantes armed with shotguns and pistols. At least 52 people were reported to have been killed in four days of riots, The fatalities represented the most sustained bloodletting in 11 months of unrest in South Africa that has now claimed about 600 lives. Township residents said they feared the toll would climb as bodies were recovered from gutted homes and buildings. The police have acknowledged killing 22 of the people slain in this area, but the circumstances of the other deaths remained unclear. At one point, the arson and looting engulfed the former home of Mohandas K. Gandhi. The house was pillaged and buildings and schools next to it were set on fire by black looters.
South Africa’s political climate will have a direct impact on relations between Pretoria and Washington, the Reagan Administration told South African officials in a “serious”discussion, Administration officials said. The presentation of the United States position stopped short of an ultimatum on the part of the American officials who met with the South Africans in Vienna this week. They said the Administration had made the South Africans fully aware of its concern over the continued internal strife within South Africa, including the state of emergency proclamation that Pretoria imposed in 36 magisterial districts in the Johannesburg area and eastern Cape Province on July 21. Describing the talks, a senior Administration official said, “What they talked about is overall reform, basic constitutional reform aimed at fundamental aspects of apartheid.”
President Reagan meets with the Joint Chiefs of Staff to receive reports on the capability of the Armed Forces.
Federal budget deficits will be higher than projected through 1988 even if Congress achieves all the spending cuts in the budget plan it approved last week, according to the Congressional Budget Office and Administration officials. The Congressional Budget Office projects the deficit at $175 billion in 1986, $163 billion in 1987 and $143 billion in 1988. Congressional sources said the projections were part of a final draft of a review to be made public next week. At the same time, Administration officials said today that rough estimates for the Administration figures to be made public at the end of the month show a deficit of around $185 billion in 1986, $155 billion in 1987 and $125 billion in 1988.
A Federal District judge today found Arthur James Walker guilty of spying for the Soviet Union and of conspiring with his brother in what American officials have called the most damaging spy case in decades. Mr. Walker was convicted of stealing classified documents for his brother, John A. Walker Jr., a retired Navy enlisted man accused of drawing two family members and a close friend into an elaborate espionage operation. Arthur Walker, a baldish retired Navy lieutenant commander, stood nervously clenching and unclenching his fists as Judge J. Calvitt Clarke Jr. delivered his verdict of guilty on all seven counts of espionage, conspiracy and unauthorized possession of classified information. After hearing testimony for four days in the nonjury trial, the judge listened to closing arguments today. He then took a 15-minute recess before ruling from the bench. Judge Clarke set sentencing for October 15. Mr. Walker faces up to three life sentences plus 40 years in prison and fines up to $40,000.
Attorney General Edwin Meese 3rd, saying he was uncertain how much Senate investigators wanted to know about the Justice Department’s decision to drop an investigation of the teamsters’ union president, Jackie Presser, said Thursday that his department would “cooperate fully” in the Senate investigation. The General Accounting Office, on behalf of the Senate Permanent Investigations Subcommittee, is investigating why the Justice Department, after a long investigation, decided against seeking an indictment of Mr. Presser, who has had close ties with the Reagan Administration.
District Attorney Edward G. Rendell said today that he would conduct a criminal investigation of the May 13 bombing by the police of a house occupied by members of the radical group Move. Mr. Rendell said he would investigate whether there was a conspiracy to kill members of the group who were in the house and to deceive senior city officials about the type of explosive used in the bomb. The announcement of the investigation came a day after City Managing Director James S. White said the bomb contained C-4, a powerful military explosive. Previously, police officials had insisted that the bomb was made entirely of a less powerful and less incendiary plastic explosive.
William J. Schroeder, the longest-living recipient of an artificial heart, is to be discharged Sunday from Humana Hospital Audubon and move to a specially equipped apartment nearby, a Humana spokesman said today. Mr. Schroeder, 53 years old, has been recovering from two strokes he suffered after receiving the Jarvik-7 heart November 25. Sunday will be his 260th day on the device. The hospital spokesman, Linda Broadus, said Dr. William C. DeVries, the surgeon who implanted the heart, has said that Mr. Schroeder has shown steady improvement since he was readmitted to the hospital May 6 after his second stroke, which left him unable to speak and partly immobilized. Mr. Schroeder and his wife, Margaret, had lived in the apartment for a month. The second person to receive a permanent artificial heart, he is the only one to live outside a hospital. Humana’s other artificial heart patient, Murray P. Haydon, 58, is in its coronary care unit. Since his February 17 implant, Mr. Haydon has needed a respirator to aid his breathing.
Governor Bob Graham today pledged a sweeping effort to stop armed bandits who have ambushed and robbed nearly 100 motorists since Jan. 1 on a five-mile stretch of Interstate 95 between Miami and Fort Lauderdale. The robbers throw debris onto the highway to stop cars, then windows with rocks, rob the motorists at gunpoint and flee, the authorities said.
Doctors said today that the July 24 surgery on Governor George C. Wallace of Alabama was a success, meaning that pain from a 1972 shooting that left him paralyzed should subside. Mr. Wallace, 65 years old, looking pale, appeared at a news conference. “I’m smiling today,” he said. “It’s going to take a little while to convalesce and I’m going to get better.” He underwent a surgical procedure, a dorsal-root entry zone, at Swedish Medical Center adjacent to Craig Hospital. Doctors made an incision in his back and applied electrodes along his spinal column to relieve chronic pain from the assassination attempt that put him in a wheelchair. Dr. Daniel P. Lammertse, medical director at Craig Hospital, qualified his optimistic appraisal by saying that the ultimate success would not be known until pain from the operation subsided. Mr. Wallace is to return to Montgomery, Alabama, Saturday.
A peak under the security blanket over the “Stealth” bomber by Senator Barry Goldwater provides a clue about the plane’s supersecret design. It is in the shape of a flying wing, the Senator said. He reportedly had seen a full-scale model a year ago and is going to see it again next week while traveling on the West Coast. An aircraft in the flying wing shape would have no fuselage or tail. “It does look like a flying wing,” he said, adding that the Air Force would soon begin to build a working prototype for test flights. There has been intense speculation about the unconventional flying-wing design in technical journals for several years. But the Defense Department has kept tight security over the Stealth program since its existence was disclosed by the Carter Administration in 1980.
Six sulfite preservatives were banned by the government after the Food and Drug Administration had said that the preservatives, which are used in fresh vegetables and fruits, had been linked to 13 deaths. The ban would apply to both food markets and restaurants and is expected to take effect after a 30-day period for public comment.
After working for two hours to repair a damaged kidney from an automobile crash victim, doctors here last month implanted the organ into the wife of a senior adviser to the King of Saudi Arabia. When the organ failed after 18 hours inside her body, doctors at Presbyterian-University Hospital here replaced it with the 26-year-old donor’s second kidney, again bypassing Americans who had been waiting longer for the life-enhancing operation. The two operations, as well as hundreds of similar ones on other foreigners around the country, have inflamed a simmering national debate among medical experts and government officials on how to distribute the limited supply of kidneys and other organs. In its broadest sense, the debate is about how doctors should choose among thousands of sick and dying people who need transplants.
A key regulator of human fertility, an elusive brain hormone, has been discovered by scientists in California. The hormone, whose existence was long suspected, has been found to inhibit the body’s production of prolactin, which is crucial to fertility. Its discovery is expected to shed new light on the chemistry of human reproduction.
Adventure comedy film “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” starring Paul Reubens is released.
Major League Baseball:
The Yankees and Red Sox resumed their fierce rivalry tonight at Fenway Park, battering each other for a combined total of 16 runs and 31 hits. In the end, the Yankees had the better of the outburst. Rickey Henderson, Don Baylor, Billy Sample and Bobby Meacham batted in two runs each as the Yankees raced back from a 6–3 deficit to hang a 10–6 defeat on the Sox. In all, the Yankees collected their 10 runs on 19 hits, and the Red Sox had 12 hits. Every hitter in the Yankee starting lineup had at least one hit, with Sample and Willie Randolph leading the way with three hits apiece. By the middle of the second inning, the Yankees had a 3–0 lead. The margin was erased in the third when Boston tied it, 3–3. In the fifth, the Red Sox chased the Yankee starter Ed Whitson and controlled a 6–3 advantage. And in the sixth, after putting together six runs and six hits, the Yankees were out to a 9–6 lead.
The Royals edged the Blue Jays, 4–2. Bud Black outpitched Dave Stieb as Hal McRae, George Brett and Steve Balboni provided the offense for the Royals. The Blue Jays’ lead in the American League East dropped to a still-hefty eight games. Black raised his record to 8–11. Stieb (10–8) gave up eight hits in 7 ⅔ innings as the Blue Jays lost for only the third time in their last 18 games. Toronto closed to 3–2 in the eighth when Tony Fernandez doubled, went to third on a single by Damaso Garcia and scored on a sacrifice fly by Lloyd Moseby. But in the bottom of the eighth, Balboni hit his 24th home run of the season and the first surrendered by Stieb in eight career starts at Royals Stadium.
The Indians topped the Tigers, 4–2. Andre Thornton put the Indians ahead with a two-run home run off the relief pitcher Willie Hernandez in the eighth inning, and Pat Tabler followed with a home run to cap a four-run outburst. Jack Morris, who held Cleveland hitless until Thornton’s two-out single in the sixth, took a 2–0 lead into the eighth but walked the lead-off batter, Otis Nixon. Brett Butler followed with an infield hit, and Julio Franco’s run-scoring single made it 2–1 and chased Morris in favor of Hernandez (6–5). Hernandez picked Butler off second base before Thornton hit his home run. Tabler’s homer provided an insurance run. The winner, Jamie Easterly (2–0), pitched on inning of scoreless relief.
Ron Washington, a reserve infielder starting at shortstop, homered and tripled, and Kent Hrbek hit a two-run double to pace a 14-hit attack that powered Minnesota to a 6–1 victory over California. The Angels had 13 hits, 4 by Juan Beniquez, but stranded 11 base runners. Frank Viola (11–9) got he win for Minnesota.
The Rangers downed the Orioles, 5–2. Charlie Hough gave up five hits and was within one out of pitching his 10th complete game, but he had to settle for improving his record to 11–11. Dave Schmidt got the final out for his fifth save. Gary Ward and Steve Buechele each hit two-run homers to lead the Texas attack.
Tom Seaver, in his first start since joining the 300-victory club, was no mystery to the Brewers at Chicago, as the Brewers topped the White Sox, 8–7. In 4 ⅓ innings, he was hammered for 10 hits and six runs. He escaped the loss when the White Sox rallied to tie in the sixth. However, Robin Yount hit a sacrifice fly in the eighth to send in the tie-breaking run and give Rick Waits his second victory in two nights.
The Oakland A’s beat the Seattle Mariners, 6–4, as Don Sutton won his 291st game and the eighth in his last nine decisions in this game at Seattle. Sutton (11–6) went seven innings, giving up six hits and three runs. Dwayne Murphy drove in two runs for the A’s with a single and his 16th home run. Mike Moore (10–7) took the loss for Seattle.
The hits kept coming and the good times for the Mets kept churning last night. They defeated the Chicago Cubs, 6–4, at Shea Stadium, racking up 16 hits just a day after they had 20 hits. It did not matter that 14 of the hits were singles or that the Mets stranded 14 runners. What mattered was that near the end of the barrage Wally Backman’s slow ground ball squeezed by the Cubs’ shortstop Larry Bowa, and that brought in Roger McDowell with the fifth and decisive run.
Andy Van Slyke and Terry Pendleton hit consecutive home runs for the second straight game tonight as the St. Louis Cardinals rallied with a four-run fourth inning to defeat the Philadelphia Phillies, 5–4. The Cardinals trailed by 3–0 before they got four consecutive hits on just six pitches for four runs to make Joaquin Andujar the first 18-game winner in the majors this season. Tom Herr started rally with a single. Jack Clark doubled Herr to third and then Van Slyke hit a homer over the right-field fence. Pendleton followed with a homer almost in the same spot.
The Dodgers downed the Reds, 3–1. Pedro Guerrero cracked a three-run homer in the first inning to carry Bob Welch to his seventh straight victory. Welch (8–1) scattered eight hits, including Pete Rose’s first-inning single. Rose now needs 21 hits to surpass Ty Cobb’s career mark of 4,191. Welch struck out two and walked two in outdueling Tom Browning (9–9). Browning yielded seven hits, including three by Enos Cabell. After missing nearly a month of the season with a bad elbow, Welch has bounced back to complete five of his last seven starts. Guerrero slugged his league-leading 28th homer of the season after Mariano Duncan and Cabell had opened the inning with singles. The long blast over the center-field wall helped Guerrero apologize for missing Thursday night’s loss. The Reds’ lone run came on Nick Esasky’s home run in the second inning.
Bryn Smith and Jeff Reardon combined for a five-hitter, and Tim Raines and Hubie Brooks each had two hits and scored two runs for the Expos as they thumped the Pirates, 7–2. Smith (13–4) went 7 ⅔ innings for the victory, giving up four hits, and the reliever Jeff Reardon earned up his league-leading 29th save. The Pittsburgh starter, Rick Reuschel (8–5), who left the game after the fourth inning with a blister on his right index finger, took the loss. The Expos took a 3–0 lead in the first after Raines and U. L. Washington led off with singles. After Andre Dawson flied out, Brooks singled to left, scoring Raines. One out later, both runners scored on Tim Wallach’s single to left.
Miguel Dilone, playing his first game for San Diego, had three hits, stole two bases, scored twice and drove in the go-ahead run in the first game of a doubleheader to pace the Padres to a 6–4 win. Dave Dravecky (9–7) went six innings to earn the victory, with the left-hander Gene Walter, who like Dilone joined the Padres from their Triple-A Las Vegas farm team, pitched the final three innings to gain the save in his major league debut. Nolan Ryan (8–10) was the loser, allowing nine hits and five runs, striking out seven in 5 ⅔ innings. The Padres made it a sweep by taking the nightcap, 2–1. Dilone again scored the winning run on Steve Garvey’s bunt. San Diego starter Eric Show (8–7) went 6 ⅓ innings, giving up five hits and a run, to earn the victory.
The Braves scored five runs in the eighth inning, breaking a 2–2 tie and winning, 6–5 at San Francisco. The Giants had only six hits, the first three off Atlanta starter Steve Bedrosian. Reliever Jeff Dedmon (5–1) got the victory and allowed only one hit, a two-run homer by David Green in the bottom of the eighth. Bruce Sutter came on in the eighth for Atlanta to post his 18th save of the season.
New York Yankees 10, Boston Red Sox 6
Milwaukee Brewers 8, Chicago White Sox 7
Detroit Tigers 2, Cleveland Indians 4
Toronto Blue Jays 2, Kansas City Royals 4
Cincinnati Reds 1, Los Angeles Dodgers 3
California Angels 1, Minnesota Twins 6
Pittsburgh Pirates 2, Montreal Expos 7
Chicago Cubs 4, New York Mets 6
St. Louis Cardinals 5, Philadelphia Phillies 4
Houston Astros 4, San Diego Padres 6
Houston Astros 1, San Diego Padres 2
Oakland Athletics 6, Seattle Mariners 4
Atlanta Braves 6, San Francisco Giants 5
Baltimore Orioles 2, Texas Rangers 5
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1320.79 (-9.07)
Born:
Anna Kendrick, American actress and singer (“Pitch Perfect”, “The Accountant”, “A Simple Favour”), in Portland, Maine.
Vivek Ramaswamy, American businessman (Roivant Sciences) and political candidate, in Cincinnati, Ohio.
JaMarcus Russell, NFL quarterback (Oakland Raiders; Worst all-time bust in the history of the NFL draft), in Mobile, Alabama.
David Roach, NFL defensive back (St. Louis Rams), in Abilene, Texas.
History Diaries 