The Reagan Administration, responding to a halt in nuclear testing by the Soviet Union, insisted today that the moratorium was being imposed at a time of Soviet nuclear advantage. Larry Speakes, the White House spokesman, was reacting to an assertion by Mikhail S. Gorbachev on Tuesday that Moscow had not completed its latest test series, as the United States contends, but had interrupted testing to announce its moratorium. The Soviet halt is to last until the end of the year, subject to indefinite extension if the United States were to join in.
The head of the Soviet Union’s nuclear power program confirmed today that inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna would visit Soviet reactors soon. It will be the first time the Soviet Union has opened up its civilian nuclear plants to inspection. The Soviet official, Gennadi A. Veretennikov, said the inspectors would visit a nuclear power station at Novovoronezhsky, south of Voronezh, in central European Russia, and a research reactor that he would not identify. Mr. Veretennikov, a former economic planning official, has been a Deputy Minister of Electric Power since August 1983, in charge of the nuclear power agency, known by the Russian acronym Soyuzatomenergo.
A West German court convicted a former SS sergeant of aiding in the murder of a Jewish concentration camp inmate and of helping to send hundreds of others to their deaths. Heinz-Guenter Wisner, 68, was sentenced in Duesseldorf to five years in prison for giving a poison injection to an unnamed inmate of the Riga-Kaiserwald concentration camp in Latvia. The court said that Wisner, as a member of the SS, the Nazi storm troops, took part in the selection process that sent weak and sick arrivals at the camp to their immediate deaths in 1944.
Lech Walesa, surrounded by hundreds of supporters, laid a wreath at a monument to slain shipyard workers to mark the fifth anniversary of Polish strikes that gave birth to the now-banned Solidarity union movement. Police made no move to intervene as the Nobel Peace Prize winner, wearing a T-shirt bearing the Solidarity name, laid the wreath of roses at the monument outside the V.I. Lenin Shipyards at Gdansk, where the strikes began.
An Italian court questioned a right-wing Turk about information he says he received that the plot to kill Pope John Paul II was arranged by the Bulgarian secret service. The Turk, Yalcin Ozbey, testified before members of the court in Bochum, West Germany, after refusing to travel to Rome for the proceedings.Mr. Ozbey is jailed there on forgery and arms charges. Last week the officials traveled to the Netherlands to question Samet Arslan, a Turk who was arrested in May carrying a gun while the Pope was visiting the Netherlands.
An army general will be tried before a military disciplinary court on two counts of unjustified use of violence for participation in the beating deaths of two Arabs who hijacked a Israeli civilian bus, a military spokesman said today. The procedure is a milder one than a court-martial. The decision to take legal action against Brigadier General Yitzhak Mordechai, chief infantry and paratroop officer, came after the publication Tuesday of the conclusions of a state inquiry into the deaths of the two hijackers. The inquiry, appointed by Attorney General Yitzhak Zamir, found that General Mordechai and eight other security officers had beaten the two Palestinians, who had hijacked the bus in April 1984, with weapons and slapped and kicked them after capturing them alive. The hijackers later died. The decision to try General Mordechai before a military disciplinary tribunal is a rejection of the commission’s recommendation to court-marshal him.
A TNT-loaded car exploded outside an apartment complex in Christian East Beirut, killing at least 12 people and wounding 120. The police estimated that more than 400 poounds of nail-studded explosives were packed into the gray sedan. Rescue officials said three children were among the dead. It was the third car bomb explosion in East Beirut in recent weeks. There was no immediate assertion of responsibility for the blast which occurred as Christain and Muslim militia forces fought at the Green Line. The police said at least five people had been killed and 16 wounded in the battles.
A United States official discussed a Middle East peace plan today with King Hussein and top Jordanian officials, the Jordanian press agency said. The agency said the Jordanians had insisted on peace talks that would include the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Morocco will soon finish building a wall of sand and electronic sensors that is greatly revolutionizing antiguerilla tactics, according to senior Moroccan military officers. The wall, which was started five years ago, will stretch for more than 1,560 miles across the Sahara. The wall is expected to help Rabat in its nine-year-old war against Polisario Front rebels.
Prime Minister Mohammed Khan Junejo said today that martial law in Pakistan would be lifted after eight years and democracy completely restored within five months. “The 1st of January 1986 will dawn with the complete restoration of democracy in the country,” he said. There was no immediate reaction from banned political groups that marched in Rawalpindi today. They had vowed more protests unless democracy was restored and chanted slogans against the United States for supporting the Government of General Mohammad Zia ul-Haq.
Leaders of a six-year campaign in the northeastern state of Assam in which thousands have died have reached an accord with the Indian Government on most issues, negotiators said tonight. But no formal announcement was made today. Sources involved the three days of bargaining said that the settlement called for statewide elections, which could be held this winter, and the dissolution of the present legislature. In the elections in 1983, some 5,000 people were slain in widespread fighting between different religious, ethnic and linguistic groups. The campaigners, led by Assamese students, have demanded the deportation of millions of immigrants from Bangladesh and the deletion of their names from voters lists. Those demands were reportedly met.
Japanese authorities investigating the crash of a Japan Air Lines jumbo jet on Monday found new fragments of the vertical tail and of an air-conditioning duct floating Wednesday in waters far from where the plane went down. In the wake of the air disaster, Japan’s Transport Ministry today ordered all Japanese air lines to inspect the rear sections of all Boeing 747’s, concentraing especially on the vertical stabilizers and rudders. Without offering a definite conclusion, the minisytry said: “Circumstances seem to indicate that the damage to the vertical stabilizers and the rudders might be the starting point of the accident.” Japan Air Lines has 48 Boeing 747’s, the world’s largest fleet of jumbo jets. Three other Japanese airlines own another 21 planes. Nearly all were designed specifically for use in Japan -modified for short flights and heavy passenger loads.
Police in Ciudad Juarez, the Mexican border city across the Rio Grande from El Paso, patrolled the streets unarmed after their pistols were confiscated by the Mexican army. The army said the confiscation was part of a routine inspection — in Mexico, the army issues weapons and enforces arms regulations — but angry Juarez officials vowed to set up citizens’ patrols unless the 139 service revolvers are returned. The army answers to the federal government, controlled by the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, but Juarez is controlled by the opposition National Action Party.
The United States Attorney General, Edwin Meese 3rd, praised Mexico’s cooperation today in efforts to stem international drug trafficking and insure the safety of American tourists here. But he said there was “still a long way to go.” Mr. Meese’s remarks came at a news conference in the capital as he ended two days of meetings with his Mexican counterpart, Sergio Garcia Ramirez. Their tone was in contrast with harsh criticism of Mexico from United States officials earlier this year after a Federal Drug Enforcement Administration agent, Enrique Camarena Salazar, was kidnapped and murdered in Mexico City. Two of Mexico’s reputed top drug traffickers were arrested in that case, as well as dozens of lower-level figures, including several police officers. Mr. Meese said that “great progress has been made,” in the case but that “there is an ongoing investigation we feel will continue.”
The first part of the public trial of nine former military rulers ended today, after a dramatic 16-week airing of the most painful period in Argentine history. The defendants, including three former Presidents, are being tried on charges ranging from kidnapping to murder. Through the testimony of former government officials, diplomats and victims, the prosecution has tried to show that the nine were directly responsible for the disappearance of more than 9,000 civilians during the military’s counterinsurgency campaign of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. “I’m very satisfied,” Julio Strassera, the government prosecutor said today. “The time was short, but the case is impeccable. Everthing has been proved.”
Officials of Uganda’s new military government expressed disappointment that guerrilla leaders failed to show up for talks, but they said General Tito Okello’s regime is still willing to negotiate. There were persistent reports that Yoweri Museveni’s National Resistance Army guerrillas were making major advances, and there was a short-lived panic in Kampala, the capital, when rumors spread that rebels were in the city. At a press conference, three leaders of the new government denied that the guerrillas had captured towns in far western Uganda or taken Masaka, southwest of Kampala.
Pope John Paul II, visiting the Central African Republic, made a strong plea for self-reliance. At an outdoor Mass on a vast field of brush and red clay, the pontiff noted the poor nation’s potential wealth. “God gave you earth and water,” he said. “He entrusted you with this fertile land so it could produce sufficiently for all and so the children of this country would never die of hunger or suffer from malnutrition.” Then, speaking of graft, which had been rampant under the former rule of Jean-Bedel Bokassa, the Pope urged the country’s elite “to help, especially the most deprived, without accepting favoritism, intolerance among ethnic groups (or) corruption.”
Political violence by the youth intensifies after funeral of assassinated Victoria Mxenge, a civil rights lawyer, who was respected and liked by the Congress of South African Students. Four South African blacks were killed in racial clashes. Police shot to death a black youth hurling rocks at them near East London, and in the same area, a rail policeman killed a black man firebombing his home. Outside Port Elizabeth, officers killed a black rioter, and near Durban, the body of a black man who had apparently been stabbed to death was found. In Soweto, black students were prevented by police from attempting to burn alive a teacher whom they accused of reporting class boycotts to the authorities. Meanwhile, long-imprisoned African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela was visited by his wife, Winnie. The incidents took place amid expectations that President P. W. Botha will make a major policy statement on apartheid. The three deaths brought the death toll in the last 11 months to at least 618.
The Reagan Administration is moving to revise, and likely weaken, a presidential executive order that for some 20 years has guided efforts to prompt companies holding government contracts to hire minorities and women, a government source said. The New York Times and the Washington Post, in today’s editions, quoted a draft version of the new order as saying that under its provisions, a government contractor would not be required “to utilize any numerical quota, goal or ratio” to remedy discrimination based on race, sex, religion or national origin. White House spokesman Larry Speakes, in California with the vacationing President, said of the document: “That is a month-old draft that has no standing whatsoever.”
President Reagan spends the day at the Ranch.
The Vice President urged a continued rearmament program at ceremonies aboard the aircraft carrier Enterprise in San Francisco marking the 40th anniversary of the end of hostilities in World War II.
Former Budget Director David A. Stockman said that the Reagan Administration has lost its last chance to control the federal deficit, leaving the nation headed toward economic instability. Stockman, in an interview for the September 2 issue of Fortune magazine, said there was virtually no chance Congress or the Administration will adopt the politically painful spending cuts or tax increases necessary to bring the deficit below $200 billion a year. The budget resolution Congress adopted August 2, Stockman said, is a “limp rag” that fails to plug the gap. “Basically, the window of opportunity has closed,” he said, citing the Administration’s lack of leadership, Congress’ refusal to sacrifice pork-barrel programs and his own tactical errors as reasons for the failure.
The Pentagon’s overseer of the all-volunteer armed forces is resigning to take an executive position with the Raytheon Corp., the Defense Department said. Lawrence J. Korb, 46, a professor and former Navy flight officer who joined the Reagan Administration in 1981, will be leaving September 1, at which time he will become the vice president for corporate operations at Raytheon. The company, based in Lexington, Massachusetts, is the nation’s ninth-largest defense contractor.
Social Security celebrated its 50th anniversary as Americans gathered across the country to praise the program that has paid $1.8 trillion in benefits. The program, signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on August 14, 1935, was intended to protect the aged against poverty. In New York, 4,000 persons gathered at the Roosevelt family estate to laud the program and urge a continuing fight against reductions in benefits. The speakers included Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr., one of the late President’s four sons, and Rep. Claude Pepper (D-Fla.), the oldest member of Congress.
Common Cause, the Washington-based lobbying group, called today for Congressional investigations of the National Security Council’s involvement with the Nicaraguan rebels over the last year. Last week the White House confirmed reports, first published in The New York Times, that the National Security Council had been helping several Nicaraguan rebel groups plan some operations and raise private funds. The rebels have been fighting to overthrow the Nicaraguan Government.
The Los Angeles City Council today unanimously approved an ordinance protecting victims of acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS, from discrimination in jobs, housing and health care. “We have an opportunity to set an example for the whole nation, to protect those people who suffer from AIDS against insidious discrimination,” said Councilman Joel Wachs, who introduced the measure. Deputy City Attorney Maureen Siegel, who helped draft the ordinance, said she believed Los Angeles was the first major city in the nation to pass such a law.
Chemical companies are bracing for greater government regulation and public scrutiny in the wake of Union Carbide’s chemical leak in Institute, W.Va. A recent series of highly publicized, less serious accidents around the country has heightened public concern. “With what the public has seen this week, they might think accidents are routine. They are not,” said Dominic V. Gagliardi, the manager of corporate loss prevention at the Dow Chemical Company.
The 1986 elections will test the Republican Party’s strategy to achieve political control in the Sun Belt states, according to political strategists. After the question of who dominates the Senate, the outcome of gubernatorial and legislative races in several of the largest states was seen as the most significant result of voting next year.
A county attorney testified at proceedings to determine whether she should be removed from her post of Scott County prosecutor in Minnesota. The attorney, R. Kathleen Morris, dismissed child sex abuse charges filed against 21 residents of Jordan last fall. The Minnesota Attorney General said Miss Morris handled investigations into the abuse and murder making so poorly that it was impossible to reinstate the sex abuse cases. Miss Morris is being charged with misconduct.
The former head of a state housing agency was charged today with 20 felony counts, including 15 for embezzlement, in an indictment that also named a past Rhode Island House Speaker and a bank officer. The indictments by a special grand jury were the first resulting from a state and Federal inquiry into allegations of abuses at the Rhode Island Housing and Mortgage Finance Corporation, an agency created to give low-interest loans to low- and middle-income residents.
A jury of eight women and four men was sworn in today for the second perjury and conspiracy trial of Mayor Roger Hedgecock of San Diego, who faces removal from office if convicted of any of the charges. Opening statements were expected to begin Tuesday with the trial expected to last at least two months.
Road crews used snowplows to clear highways of golf-ball-size hail that piled into three-foot drifts and killed livestock in Phillips County, Kansas, a sheriff’s spokesman said. Hail, high water and downed trees forced the closing of an eight-mile stretch of Kansas Highway 9. “It’s a no-man’s-land of hail,” said Tad Felton, a Phillipsburg radio reporter. “The water was so high over that roadway that when it receded, it left a residue of hail five, six, seven feet deep.”
Three thousand gallons of radioactive water spilled inside the containment building at Three Mile Island’s damaged nuclear reactor, a spokesman said in Middletown, Pennsylvania. In a separate incident, an electrical box in the turbine building short-circuited, causing a fire that went out when power to the box was shut off. The water spilled during a test when a coupling broke on a new pumping system that is to be used when fuel is removed from the damaged reactor, beginning in October. The reactor was crippled in March, 1979, when it lost cooling water, overheated and began to melt.
Michael Jackson buys ATV Music (including publishing rights to most of the Beatles song catalog) for $47.5 million; 10 years later he sells ½ of his interest to Sony for $150 million.
Major League Baseball:
Mike Young and Fred Lynn hit two-run homers and Nate Snell pitched three and two-thirds innings of scoreless relief for Baltimore as the Orioles downed the Indians, 8–4. Rick Dempsey added a sacrifice fly and a bases-empty homer for the Orioles, who have hit 24 home runs in their last 11 games while extending their major league-leading total to 147.
At Fenway, the Red Sox pound out 21 hits in whipping the Royals, 16–3. Bill Buckner hit his fifth career grand slam in the 4th inning and Dwight Evans and Steve Lyons belted two-run homers as Boston ended a five-game losing streak. Wade Boggs went 4-for-6 in regaining the American League batting lead with a .360 average. Kansas City’s George Brett went 1-for-4, dropping to .357.
The Yankees scored four runs in the ninth inning to beat the Chicago White Sox, 10-7, at Comiskey Park. “It just shows they’re going after all the marbles,” Billy Martin said of his players. “They want to win the pennant.” The Yankees aren’t even in first place, but they needed this victory desperately to stay close. Earlier in the evening, division-leading Toronto slipped past Texas, 4–1, and a defeat would have pushed the Yankees eight games out of the lead. “I think,” said Dave Righetti, “that we’re going to be in Toronto’s ear the rest of the way.” Righetti earned the save, his 22nd of the season, after Ron Hassey delivered a two-run single and Mike Pagliarulo a two-run double to center field in the ninth off Bob James. It lifted the Yankees from a 7–6 deficit after eight innings.
Dave Stieb pitched a four-hitter, and Jesse Barfield scored twice and drove in two runs as the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Texas Rangers tonight, 4–1. Stieb (11–8) walked four and struck out four in going the distance. The Blue Jays scored in the third when, with one out, Barfield walked, stole second and advanced to third on a passed ball by Geno Petralli. He came home on a sacrifice fly by Garth Iorg.
Don Sutton posted his 292nd career victory as the Oakland Athletics swept a doubleheader from the Minnesota Twins. Sutton (12–6) allowed five hits over seven and one-third innings in Oakland’s 5–0 victory in the opener. The A’s won the second game by 7–4. The 40-year-old Sutton, who has won 9 of his last 10 decisions, struck out four and did not allow a runner past second base. He got relief help from Steve Ontiveros.
Jim Beattie and Jack Lazorko combined on a six-hitter and Al Cowens hit a two-run homer as Seattle defeated California, 6–1, to gain a doubleheader split. In the opener, Rod Carew’s run-scoring double in the 12th inning gave the Angels a 3–1 victory. Stu Cliburn (7–2) pitched three and one-third innings of scoreless relief. Beattie (5–5) hurled six innings of shutout ball in the second game, giving up three hits, walking one and striking out five. Lazorko, making his first appearance in the major leagues, picked up the save.
Nelson Simmons cracked a two-run homer and Jack Morris (13–6) and Willie Hernandez combined for a six-hitter as Detroit edged Milwaukee, 4–3. The Tigers scored their winning run in the third. Darrell Evans walked, and when Kirk Gibson singled the ball scooted under Ben Oglivie’s glove in right, allowing Evansv to go to third and Gibson to second before Lance Parrish followed with a run-scoring single to left.
The wind is blowing out at Wrigley as the Cubs and Expos each hit three homers in the 8–7 Montreal win. Scot Thompson’s pinch-hit single in the seventh inning broke up a tie game. Catcher Sal Butera, the pitcher Bryn Smith, and Mitch Webster hit bases-empty home runs for Montreal. Smith (14-4) survived a grand-slam homer by Ron Cey as the Expos won for the fifth time in six games.
The Mets suffer a 2–1 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies at Shea Stadium, putting an end to their nine-game victory streak. Keith Hernandez, who is one of the game’s best hitters with men on base, failed to come through twice with the bases loaded. The second time was in the ninth inning, when he ended the game with a double-play ground ball to second base off Don Carman, the Phillies’ reliever.
The Dodgers blanked the Braves, 5–0. Bob Welch limited Atlanta to five hits in winning his eighth straight decision and Ken Landreaux drove in two runs. The Dodgers, who won their sixth game in a row, have held their opponents to one earned run in the last 52 innings. The shutout was the Dodgers’ third in the last four games and 19th of the season, tops in the majors.
Dave Dravecky (10–7) tossed a five-hitter and San Diego turned an error by the Cincinnati shortstop Dave Concepcion into four runs in the third inning, as the Padres downed the Reds, 4–1. The victory put the Padres back into second place in the National League West, with Cincinnati dropping to third.
Pinch-hitter Dickie Thon blasts a three-run shot off Mark Davis to key a 7–5 victory over San Francisco. Mark Bailey drew a one-out walk and Phil Garner singled before Thon broke a 3–3 tie by hitting Mark Davis’s 3–2 pitch over the left-field screen. Thon also drives in an insurance run to give him four RBIs. Jeff Heathcock wins as Nolan Ryan leaves after three innings.
The Pirates-Cardinals game in St. Louis is rained out. They’ll play a doubleheader tomorrow.
Cleveland Indians 4, Baltimore Orioles 8
Kansas City Royals 3, Boston Red Sox 16
New York Yankees 10, Chicago White Sox 7
Montreal Expos 8, Chicago Cubs 7
Atlanta Braves 0, Los Angeles Dodgers 5
Detroit Tigers 4, Milwaukee Brewers 3
Oakland Athletics 5, Minnesota Twins 0
Oakland Athletics 7, Minnesota Twins 4
Philadelphia Phillies 2, New York Mets 1
Cincinnati Reds 1, San Diego Padres 4
California Angels 3, Seattle Mariners 1
California Angels 1, Seattle Mariners 6
Houston Astros 7, San Francisco Giants 5
Toronto Blue Jays 4, Texas Rangers 1
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1316.98 (+1.68)
Born:
Shea Weber, Canadian National Team and NHL defenseman (Hockey Hall of Fame, inducted 2024; Olympics, gold medals, 2010 and 2014; NHL All-Star, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015-2017, 2020; Nashville Predators, Montreal Canadiens), in Sicamous, British Columbia, Canada.
Esmil Rogers, Dominican MLB pitcher (Colorado Rockies, Cleveland Indians, Toronto Blue Jays, New York Yankees), in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Chris Valaika, MLB second baseman, pinch hitter, and first baseman (Cincinnati Reds, Miami Marlins, Chicago Cubs), in Santa Monica, California.
Carlton Powell, NFL defensive tackle (Atlanta Falcons), in Norfolk, Virginia.
Charlotte Kate Fox, American actress (“Asadora”; “Massan”), in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Died:
(Edith) “Gale” Sondergaard, 86, American Academy Award-winning stage and screen actress (“Anthony Adverse”; “The Letter”), of cerebral thrombosis.
History Diaries 