Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze today proposed a United Nations-sponsored international conference intended to prevent the military use of outer space. In a letter to the United Nations Secretary General, Javier Perez de Cuellar, which was published in Moscow, Mr. Shevardnadze said the conference, to be held no later than 1987, would consider the establishment of a world space organization to control the peaceful uses of space. The primary goal of the conference, he said, would be to halt what he called the militarization of outer space, a term he said “implies renunciation by states of the development, testing and deployment of space strike weapons.”
The chairman of the Greenpeace environmental group said today that a new ship, much larger than the one sunk in New Zealand last month, would leave Amsterdam Sunday for the South Pacific to protest French nuclear tests in the region. The new ship, called Greenpeace, is a 218-foot converted oceangoing tug bought earlier this year for $500,000. It was originally acquired for a voyage to Antarctica. “Whoever is responsible for the bombing of our ship should know that their attempt to stop our nonviolent opposition to nuclear weapons testing has not succeeded,” the chairman, David McTaggart, said.
Feeding bread to pigs cost a Soviet collective farm chairman his job and membership in the Communist Party. Such carelessness with bread is almost sacrilege in the Soviet Union, where in the phrases of songs and poems often heard, bread is gold, the motherland, the hard work of the masses, life itself. Bread is credited with saving the starving people of Leningrad during the blockade in World War II. One poet put it this way: Bread, that pure, that sacred word. Bread, our very lives. In a village cafeteria in Siberia hangs a poster that reads: “Bread is the warmest, kindest of words. Write it always with a capital letter, like your own name.”
Christian and Muslim forces in Lebanon exchanged artillery and mortar fire today in barrages that spread from southern Beirut to engulf most of the city. The police said 19 people were killed and 82 wounded in the shelling. The Lebanese Forces, a Christian militia, said its gunmen fired on the car of the West German Ambassador, Antonios Eiter, as it crossed the Green Line, which divides the capital into the predominantly Muslim western sector and the predominantly Chrisian east. Mr. Eiter escaped injury, but his Lebanese driver was killed.
Javier Perez de Cuellar, the United Nations Secretary General, appealed yesterday for the immediate release of seven Americans and six other foreigners kidnapped or missing in Lebanon. The appeal came after Mr. Perez de Cuellar received a 21-page petition filed by the International League of Human Rights in cooperation with relatives of the missing people. It asked him to intervene with the Lebanese and Syrian Governments to determine the whereabouts of the 13 people. It is the first petition to the United Nations issued on behalf of all of those missing, Jerome Shestack, president of the International League of Human Rights, said at a news conference held with several family members after a meeting with the Secretary General.
Hanoi is giving up its fight to seat the Phnom Penh Government at the United Nations General Assembly. At a meeting in Phnom Penh of the Foreign Ministers of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, Vietnam’s Foreign Minister said Hanoi would not fight for the seat this year. For more than five years Hanoi has been trying to gain United Nations recognition for Phnom Penh. “It is useless,” the Foreign Minister, Nguyễn Cơ Thạch, told journalists after a two-day meeting here of the Foreign Ministers of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. In another development, the Foreign Minister said he expected high-level talks to take place in Hanoi with United States officials by the end of the month. Mr. Thạch said he had proposed that the meeting begin on August 28.
A federal magistrate ruled in Los Angeles today that Arturo Durazo Moreno, a former Mexico City police chief, should be extradited to Mexico. The Mexican authorities have charged Mr. Durazo with stockpiling arms, extortion and possessing contraband goods. He was arrested in Puerto Rico last summer and has been in federal custody since. Magistrate Volney Brown ordered Mr. Durazo’s extradition on the arms and extortion charges but refused to order extradition on the contraband charges, saying the acts are not criminal in the United States. According to a 1978 treaty, Mexico’s extradition request must now go to the State Department, which is to make a final decision. One of Mr. Durazo’s lawyers said a district court challenge is planned first. Affidavits in the case said Mr. Durazo, now 62 years old, collected money from auxiliary police officers and members of the city’s licensing bureau. He left Mexico in 1982 after six years as the city’s police chief.
Members of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement in Peru took over six radio stations here tonight and announced a truce. Tupac Amaru, one of three leftist rebel groups in this troubled South American nation, said it was halting its attacks to give the newly elected president, Alan Garcia, an opportunity to run the government for the benefit of the poor. The guerrillas warned in the tapes that they would resume their attacks if Mr. Garcia did not keep his promises and if he followed the policies of what they called “the despicable Government” of the former President, Fernando Belaunde Terry. Earlier, gunmen fired at a crowd at a bus stop, killing two sailors and a civilian and wounding eight other seamen, officials said. The police said a larger rebel group, Shining Path, was responsible.
Pope John Paul II arrived in Nairobi, Kenya today for a visit that is expected to highlight the controversy over his strong opposition to contraception and sterilization. In Kenya, the Roman Catholic Church and the country’s political leaders have clashed over government plans to encourage birth control. The government argues that its 4 percent annual population growth rate, the highest rate in the world, is potentially catastrophic for a country with limited farmland.
Uganda’s military rulers named a British subject as the country’s Chief Justice today and appointed four more ministers, completing a civilian Cabinet. The Government-run Uganda radio said the Briton, Peter Allen, 56 years old, who has worked in the country’s police and judicial system for 30 years, would replace George Masika, who held the post under former President Milton Obote.
When President P. W. Botha addressed white followers in Durban Thursday night to speak of what he calls racial reform, he told them South Africa was crossing the Rubicon. The message was not lost on the black majority, either. But where Mr. Botha seemed to build visions, or a chimera, of a new and harmonious nation on the other side of the momentous divide, the signal to blacks was different. Excluded last year from a new Parliament opened to limited participation by Asians and people of mixed race, and with some black townships under virtual siege by the army and the police, some blacks saw Mr. Botha’s speech as possibly the final rebuff. His talk struck many as a distillation of white intransigence heralding war, not peace, and a sign, if one was needed, that South Africa’s leader would not talk to those whom blacks consider leaders of equal or greater stature, such as the imprisoned nationalist Nelson Mandela.
In a stinging reply to President P. W. Botha, Bishop Desmond M. Tutu said today that the prospects for peaceful change in South Africa were “virtually nil” and that the nation was “on the brink of a catastrophe.” Bishop Tutu made the assessment, his gloomiest yet, in reaction to what he and many other blacks and opponents of the government’s racial policies viewed as a dismaying lack of significant changes offered in an address by Mr. Botha Thursday in Durban. Critics said that instead of offering major concessions, Mr. Botha merely repeated existing policy and provided only vague hints about the possible relaxation of some of the building blocks of apartheid. [Senior Reagan Administration officials said they were disappointed at the lack of concessions to the black majority by Mr. Botha, but they said he offered the possibility of negotiations as an alternative to violence.
Mr. Botha’s speech disappointed Reagan Administration officials because of its lack of major concessions to South Africa’s black majority. But they said there were several considerations that contributed to a restrained response by the United States. Among the considerations, they said, was the need to keep the possibility of negotiations as an alternative to violence in seeking changes in South Africa. The officials said Mr. Botha’s speech Thursday contained this possibility
Boeing advised 70 airlines using the 747 that they might want to inspect the tail section of the plane. Boeing’s advice followed the crash of a Japan Air Lines 747 in Japan Monday. Officials of four of the 12 American airlines that operate 747’s said they had begun inspections on their own.
President Reagan spends the day at the Ranch.
Homebuilding fell a sharp 2.4 percent in July, the Commerce Department reported. The drop in this important economic indicator, added to mounting evidence that the economy is not rebounding from the disappointing first six months of this year. The steep decline from June surprised many analysts. The steady recent fall in interest rates had been expected to buoy the housing sector. Building permits, an indicator of future activity, fell nine-tenths of 1 percent in July following a 3.7 percent decline in June. And in another indication that the economy is failing to regain momentum, the Government reported yesterday that factory operating rates were unchanged in July for the fourth consecutive month.
Major changes in the operations of the Federal Aviation Administration were ordered today by Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Hanford Dole, who made public a report highly critical of the agency. The report, produced by the Transportation Department’s three-member Safety Review Task Force, said it had found “no diminution of safety” because of the agency’s operating practices. It added, however, that improvements were needed in several areas if the agency was to keep pace with changes in aviation, particularly the increased competition resulting from deregulation. The report said the agency had trouble formulating rules in a timely manner, citing delays of as much as eight years. It said interpreting and carrying out rules and policies was not uniform around the country.
Huge corn crops will be reaped this year, and E. W. Dixon, of Plattsburg, Missouri, is looking forward to one of the best crops he has ever produced because he signed up last spring for a Federal program that helps to offset a slump in prices. But the size of the national crop is dismaying news for Government policy-makers, who must increase farm price supports to keep pace with the crop.
Alarms at Union Carbide plants must be set off by managers at the first hint of a release of toxic material and “apologize later” if the evacuation proves unnecessary, the company’s top executive said. In announcing the new procedure, Warren M. Anderson said that “life has changed” in the chemistry industry, since the disaster that killed 2,000 people in Bhopal, India, last December. Referring to plant supervisors who must quickly weigh the consequences of whether to initiate emergency mobilizations, Mr. Anderson said that “there are good people who have good judgment” in the company “and they use it.” But he said, “We’re taking that judgment away.”
Evidence obtained through a wiretap of John A. Walker Jr.’s telephone and in a search of his home and office can be used at his trial on espionage charges, a Federal judge ruled today. Prosecutors have said that the wiretap led directly to the arrest of Mr. Walker and three other men accused of spying for the Soviet Union in a Navy espionage ring. At a pretrial hearing in Federal District Court here, Judge Alexander Harvey 2d said today there was probable cause to believe that Mr. Walker was operating as an agent of a foreign power when the wiretap was authorized by another Federal Court this spring. Judge Harvey rejected defense arguments that the wiretap might have been improperly approved.
The Veterans Administration is investigating more than 75 of its employees who have been accused of accepting money and gifts worth as much as $50,000 to $60,000 from Smith Kline & French Laboratories Ltd., sources close to the investigation said today. The employees under investigation include pharmacists and physicians who sit on the hospital formulary committees that determine which drug products are bought; one or more directors of V.A. hospitals, and personnel at the central office of the agency’s department of medicine and surgery in Washington, the sources said. Donna St. John, a spokesman for the veterans agency, acknowledged that an investigation involving a single major drug company was under way, but she declined to name the company or any of the agency’s employees under investigation.
The Army is aiding family problems with programs such as day-care centers for abused children at Fort Ord, California, and other military bases. Officers say that child abuse is only one of the products of the strains of Army life, that have also led to alcoholism and divorce.
More than 20,000 striking automobile haulers will return to work Sunday, even though their votes on a proposed new contract will not be counted until mid-September, a spokesman for the teamsters’ union said today. The 18-member General Executive Board of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the union’s governing body, gave rare authorization to the ending of a strike before approval of a contract, according to the union spokesman, Tim O’Neill said. Negotiators for the striking teamsters and the automotive transport industry reached agreement here Wednesday on a tentative three-year pact to settle the strike that began July 26 over wages and working conditions. That pact was backed today by 91 of the 92 union leaders who were voting on whether to recommend its ratification by the rank and file, Mr. O’Neill said. He said the ballots would be mailed to members Thursday and they would be asked to return them by September 12. Neither side would disclose details of the contract.
Gary Dotson’s attorney today lost a bid to have a retesting of the physical evidence from the trial in 1979 in which Mr. Dotson was convicted of raping Cathleen Crowell Webb. Jack Rimland, the defense attorney, argued that a new test on Mrs. Webb’s panties, blood, hair and saliva samples could show Mr. Dotson did not rape her. At the trial, Mrs. Webb asserted that Mr. Dotson had raped her. However, she recanted that testimony earlier this year. Judge Richard J. Fitzgerald of Criminal Court denied the motion. He is to rule Monday on a defense motion for another trial. Mr. Dotson lost a bid for a new trial on the basis of Mrs. Webb’s recantation. In May, Governor James R. Thompson commuted Mr. Dotson’s prison sentence after a clemency hearing. Mr. Dotson has continued to fight to clear his name.
[DNA evidence eventually cleared Dotson. But the Illinois court system fought tooth and nail to avoid releasing him.]
A man who fled from a Spokane jail where he was being held on a fugitive warrant was recaptured here today after his wife telephoned for an ambulance for her injured husband, who fell from a roof in his getaway, officials said. The fugitive, Paul J. Schneider, 23 years old, who the authorities said is a member of a white supremacist group, was arrested at Samaritan Hospital, according to Sgt. Dean Mitchell. Mr. Schneider’s wife, Kimberly, 22, was arrested for aiding and abetting, the Sergeant said. The authorities said Mr. Schneider was being held on a fugitive warrant from California in connection with a 1984 armored car robbery attributed to members of the Order, a militant white supremacist group. Mr. Schneider, who the authorities say is a member of the group, was listed in stable condition with a compression fracture of his back and a fractured left leg, according to a hospital supervisor. He fell about 20 feet when trying to make his way down from the roof of a jail building, officials said.
An outbreak of virulent citrus canker was confirmed today at a central Florida nursery, and agriculture inspectors began preparing for their biggest battle yet against the tree-killing disease. The State Agriculture Department said all three million trees and saplings at the Adams Citrus Nursery near Orlando, one of the 10 largest in the state, would be burned.
Tornadoes spawned by the remnants of the hurricane that struck Louisiana battered north Alabama today, killing a woman, injuring 20 people and heavily damaging dozens of buildings in several communities, the authorities said. Another woman died of a heart attack when a tornado roared through her neighborhood. In Parrish, 40 miles northeast of Birmingham, the twisters severely damaged or destroyed 11 homes and five commercial buildings, said Gloria Mosley, a spokesman for the Alabama Emergency Management Agency. Margaret Hartley, 66 years old, was killed here when a twister ripped apart her mobile home. Mrs. Mosley put the total number of injured in the state at 20.
American pop singer Madonna (27) weds actor Sean Penn (24) at a clifftop mansion in Malibu, California on her, and the day before his, birthday; they divorce in 1989.
Gabriela Sabatini, the 15-year-old sensation from Argentina, scored a stunning straight-set upset over top-seeded Pam Shriver tonight to gain a berth in the semifinals of the $150,000 United Jersey Bank Classic at Ramapo College. Miss Sabatini, who has risen to No. 12 in the world and was seeded seventh, trailed in both sets but still came away with a 7–5, 6–4 victory. Miss Sabatini’s surprising success set up a semifinal meeting with 16-year-old Steffi Graf of West Germany, who had a run of seven straight games in an afternoon match to beat ninth-seeded Kathy Jordan, 6–4, 6–4.
Major League Baseball:
Mike Young’s three-run homer in the sixth, his eighth in the last 12 games, brought Baltimore from behind to beat the Rangers, 4–2. The Orioles have won six of their last seven games, and their four-game winning streak is the team’s longest in two months. The Rangers have lost four straight and 12 of their last 16. Young, with five homers and 12 RBIs in his last six games, connected for his 19th off the reliever Mike Mason with the Rangers ahead, 2–1. Mason had replaced starter Jeff Russell (0–3) after Cal Ripken Jr. led off the sixth with a single off the glove of Pete O’Brien at first, and Eddie Murray walked. The Rangers took a 2–1 lead in the top of the sixth on a bases-empty homer by Cliff Johnson, his 12th. Dennis Martinez (9–7) allowed the first Texas run on singles by Gary Ward, George Wright and Gino Petralli. But Wright was thrown out by the right fielder Lee Lacy as he tried to reach third base.
The California Angles downed the Oakland A’s, 5–2. Brian Downing slugged a three-run homer in the third inning and left-handed John Candelaria went six innings for his second American League victory for the Angels. Candelaria (2–0) turned in the longest of his three starts since being acquired from Pittsburgh. He walked two and struck out six, surviving a big threat in the second. Mike Heath drew a leadoff walk before singles by Mike Davis and Steve Henderson loaded the bases. Donnie Hill doubled to score Heath and Davis, giving Oakland a 2–0 lead. But Steve Kiefer struck out and Alfredo Griffin lined into an inning-ending double play. Stu Cliburn blanked the A’s over the final three innings to pick up his fourth save.
Bob Stanley walked Willie Randolph with the bases loaded in the 10th inning last night to give the Yankees a 5–4 victory over the Boston Red Sox at the Stadium. The walk to Randolph came on four pitches and capped a two-out Yankee rally that began when Dave Winfield banged a double to left field. Steve Crawford then walked Dan Pasqua intentionally and Butch Wynegar unintentionally to load the bases. Stanley came in and his final pitch to Randolph, called inside by home-plate umpire Drew Coble, was contested by the Red Sox.
Hal McRae drove in two runs with a pair of singles, and Charlie Leibrandt pitched a nine-hitter for the Royals, as Kansas City topped the Blue Jays, 4–2. McRae singled in runs in the first and fifth innings as the Royals smashed 13 hits, 12 of them singles, to win for the seventh time in their last nine games. Leibrandt (11–6) struck out six and walked four. The Royals got three runs and five hits in the first inning off the starter Jimmy Kelly. Lloyd Moseby hit a two-out, two-run homer to right in the ninth inning to stop Leibrandt’s bid for a shutout.
The Tigers edged the Indians, 3–2, as Nelson Simmons drove in the winning run with a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning. Kirk Gibson led off the eighth with a double, went to third on Lance Parrish’s sacrifice bunt and scored the winning run on Simmons’s fly ball to deep center off Neal Heaton (6–13). Simmons has gone 8-for-16 with eight runs batted in since being recalled Monday from the Tigers’ Triple-A affiliate at Nashville. Aurelio Lopez (3–7) replaced the starter Juan Berenguer in the sixth inning and allowed no hits in three and one-third innings of relief, striking out four and walking none.
Gorman Thomas drove in two runs to lead the Mariners to a come-from behind victory, besting the Twins, 6–5. Thomas’s eighth-inning single to left scored Alvin Davis, who had doubled, to break a 3–3 tie. After Al Cowens walked, Jim Presley added a double to make it 5–3. Thomas has 23 RBIs in his last 24 games.
The Brewers beat the White Sox, 3–2. Ben Oglivie’s game-winning double capped a two-run, eighth-inning rally for Milwaukee. Ed Romero led off the Brewer eighth with a walk and went to third on Robin Yount’s double. He scored as Ernie Riles grounded out to the shortstop. Oglivie then delivered his double to drive in Yount with the winning run.
Bob Forsch pitched a four-hitter, and Jack Clark and Tito Landrum hit home runs tonight, leading the St. Louis Cardinals into sole possession of first place in the National League East with a 6–1 victory over Montreal. Forsch (5–5), making only his second start since June 22, moved St. Louis one game in front of the Mets, who lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Forsch also singled home a run to cap a three-run second inning as the Cardinals won their fifth straight game and ninth in their last 10 outings. Clark’s home run, his 21st of the season and first since July 30, opened the St. Louis scoring in the second off the loser, Bill Laskey (5–12).
Ed Lynch joined his pitching mate Dwight Gooden at the end of a streak tonight. Lynch, who had not lost a game in six straight starts since June 28, lasted just five innings, allowing eight hits and four earned runs as the Mets took a 7–1 pummeling from the Pirates in front of 9,289 at Three Rivers Stadium. Lynch’s record fell to 10–6. His innings-pitched and hits-allowed line was identical to Gooden’s on Thursday, when Gooden’s streak of seven victories in seven starts came to an end. But the Mets went on to win that game, 10–7, and Gooden was not involved in the decision to keep intact his 12-game victory streak.
The Cubs won over the Phillies, 6–5. A two-out squeeze bunt by Chris Speier with the bases loaded in the eighth inning scored Bob Dernier with the winning run. Speier’s bunt off the reliever Kent Tekulve (4–8) gave Lee Smith (6–4) the victory. Dernier reached base on a walk and stole second. Leon Durham was intentionally walked before Ryne Sandberg reached base on a fielder’s choice. Tekulve then issued an intentional walk to Keith Moreland to load the bases for Speier. He bunted the first pitch down the third-base line and Dernier sprinted home.
Phil Garner’s bases-loaded single with one out in the ninth knocked in the pinch-runner Dickie Thon with the winning run as the Astros triumphed over the Reds, 5–4. Mark Bailey opened the inning with a double off Ted Power (4–3) and the pinch-hitter Terry Puhl was intentionally walked before Thon came in to run for Bailey. Bill Doran bunted to load the bases. Power then got Craig Reynolds to pop up before Garner grounded a single off Power’s leg, just out of the reach of the shortstop Dave Concepcion.
Kevin McReynolds hit a home run and Andy Hawkins went five and a third innings to record his 15th victory as San Diego handed Atlanta its fifth consecutive loss, winnning 6–3. Hawkins (15–4) departed in the sixth after giving up a run-scoring single to a pinch-hitter, Milt Thompson, that trimmed San Diego’s lead to 4–3. The rookie right-hander Lance McCullers took over for Hawkins and went the rest of the way for his second save. The Padres battered Braves ace Rick Mahler (16–11) for nine hits and four runs in five innings.
The Dodgers downed the Giants, 5–1. Los Angeles rookie shortstop Mariano Duncan, who went on a new diet after being hospitalized Thursday for low blood-sugar, mustered enough energy for his first four-hit game at San Francisco. “I don’t want to talk about the diet,” Duncan said after his two-run homer, three singles and three runs scored enabled the Dodgers to win their eighth consecutive game. Others were eager to discuss Duncan, who has hit faithfully in nine of his last 10 games and appears to have a bright future at shortstop, from where he scooted behind second and deprived Chris Brown of a second-inning single.
Texas Rangers 2, Baltimore Orioles 4
Oakland Athletics 2, California Angels 5
Philadelphia Phillies 5, Chicago Cubs 6
Cleveland Indians 2, Detroit Tigers 3
Cincinnati Reds 4, Houston Astros 5
Chicago White Sox 2, Milwaukee Brewers 3
Seattle Mariners 6, Minnesota Twins 5
Boston Red Sox 4, New York Yankees 5
New York Mets 1, Pittsburgh Pirates 7
Atlanta Braves 3, San Diego Padres 6
Los Angeles Dodgers 5, San Francisco Giants 1
Montreal Expos 1, St. Louis Cardinals 6
Kansas City Royals 4, Toronto Blue Jays 2
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1312.72 (-5.04)
Born:
Agnes Bruckner, American actress (“Blue Car”), in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California.
Cristin Milioti, American actress (“The Penguin”), in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
Taylor Goldsmith, American folk-rock singer-songwriter, and guitarist (Dawes), in Los Angeles, California.
Daric Barton, MLB first baseman (Oakland A’s), in Springfield, Vermont.
History Diaries 