Washington accused the Kremlin of using a mysterious powdery substance in helping to track the movements of American diplomats and possibly other foreigners in Moscow. The State Department said it had protested the practice in strongest terms and demanded that it be halted at once. Officials said the United States was more concerned about a possible health risk from the substance than about espionage questions. A State Department spokesman, Charles Redman, raised the possibility that the chemical might have the potential to cause cancer. He said one agent, apparently developed by the Russians for tracking purposes, was a mutagen known as nitrophenylpentadienal. A mutagen is a substance that is known to cause genetic change. The chemical cited by Washington in Soviet tracking efforts contains a mutagen known as NPPD. Nearly everything known in the United States about NPPD is the province of government scientists, who are keeping the information secret.
American residents here were informed of assertions about the use of a potentially harmful chemical by the K.G.B. in an extraordinary series of briefings today. In three separate one-hour sessions, about 500 diplomats, technicians, journalists, businessmen, teachers and other residents gathered in the ballroom of Spaso House, the Ambassador’s residence, for information that few found assuring and none found sufficient. The thrust of the information was that the K.G.B., the Soviet internal security agency, had intensified its use of the chemical as an aid in conducting surveillance of foreigners. In the absence of Ambassador Arthur A. Hartman, the briefings were held by the charge d’affaires, Richard E. Combs Jr., who said available information gave no cause for alarm.
Moscow condemned a U.S. decision to test a new anti-satellite missile and accused Washington of using its space program from the beginning as a “springboard for fighting aggressive wars.” The official Soviet news agency Tass said President Reagan’s decision to test the missile violates existing treaties and was the latest step in preparing for the militarization of outer space. The U.S. test will involve a missile launched from an F-15 jet fighter at a defunct U.S. satellite.
The editor of the authoritative British publication Jane’s Fighting Ships writes in the yearbook’s new edition that Japan has plans to build a 16,000-ton aircraft carrier — a type of ship not used by the Japanese since World War II. Retired Royal Navy Captain John Moore reports that the ship will be built between 1988-92 and will have as many as 14 helicopters for anti-submarine duties, as well as missiles and anti-submarine torpedoes. However, the Japanese Embassy in London denied the report.
For the second time in a month, the British Broadcasting Corporation has become ensnarled in a controversy that calls into question its cherished image of political independence. On Sunday, The Observer, a leading weekly newspaper, charged that M.I.5, the British security service, “secretly controls the hiring and firing” of BBC staff members. It cited a number of instances in which the careers of journalists, directors and others had purportedly been blighted by blacklisting.
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told a House committee investigating the 1983 truck-bombing of the Marine garrison at the Beirut airport that the military chiefs had unanimously advised President Reagan against deploying marines in Lebanon in the first place, according to a committee member. A transcript of the classified hearings by the House Armed Services Committee was made public today, with most references to the Joint Chiefs’ advice censored at Pentagon insistence. But one member of the panel, Representative Larry J. Hopkins, Republican of Kentucky, filled in details of a censored exchange with General John W. Vessey Jr., Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, in which, according to Mr. Hopkins, the general said the Joint Chiefs had opposed the use of the Marines.
In an attempt to halt the expansion of the Mormon church in Israel, the Internal Affairs Committee of the Knesset recommended that the government block completion of a Mormon academic center on the Mount of Olives. The center, planned by Brigham Young University, an institution of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has been under construction for four years and is one-third complete. It has run into heavy opposition from Israel’s chief rabbis and Christian groups, who fear that it will become a center for proselytizing by the Mormons.
Tunisia expelled another 30 Libyan diplomats, raising to 283 the number ordered out of the country in two days. The expulsions, accompanied by Tunisian charges of espionage against the Libyans, are believed to be in retaliation for Libya’s recent expulsion of more than 21,000 Tunisian workers. Libyan Ambassador Abdullah Harrari denied the espionage charges and complained that he will be left with only four or five diplomats in his embassy in Tunis.
At least 42 more people were reported killed over the last 24 hours today as Christian and Moslem gunners bombarded Beirut’s residential districts and the airport with artillery, rocket and tank fire. The police said most of those killed and wounded were civilians. The fighting that has raged for the last 10 days is the worst outbreak in six months, and the police said at least 280 people have been killed and 876 wounded by shelling and car bombs.
Opposition to Pakistan’s ruler, President Mohammed Zia ul-Haq, was expressed by tens of thousands of mourners who thronged the funeral rites of the son of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the late Prime Minister. The peaceful but sometimes boisterous gathering of opponents of the martial-law rule of President Mohammad Zia ul-Haq occurred amid the dust and scorching heat of this Indus River Valley farming community where the Bhuttos have long had influence as wealthy landowners. Leading the funeral from behind the scenes was Benazir Bhutto, who arrived in Pakistan this morning after more than a year and a half of self-imposed exile. She was proclaimed by her supporters as heir to her father’s once-powerful political organization.
Government offices, private markets, businesses and educational institutions were closed today throughout the Punjab, and elsewhere in India, to honor a slain Sikh leader. Sikhs in New Delhi, Calcutta and Bombay stopped work to protest the killing. The governments of the neighboring states of Haryana and Himachal also shut their offices and institutions to express sorrow over the death of the Sikh leader, Harchand Singh Longowal, who was regarded as a major moderating influence on Sikh politics. Mr. Longowal, who last month had signed a peace accord with Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, was shot and killed by Sikh gunmen on Tuesday after completing a speech in the Punjabi village of Sherpur, near Sangrur.
Grieving relatives tossed flowers and farewell notes from a helicopter today as they flew over the mountain in central Japan where a Japan Air Lines jumbo jet crashed nine days ago. Two twin-blade helicopters chartered by J.A.L. flew 81 people from 40 families in four trips over the crash site on Mount Otsutaka, 60 miles northwest of Tokyo. “Rest in peace, I’ll take care of your children,” said a note dropped into the trees by a brother of one victim from one of the red, white and blue helicopters. The relatives were among more than 400 family members or friends of those killed in the crash of J.A.L. Flight 123 who had asked the airline to arrange a trip to the mountainside, officials said. The rugged terrain made the site inaccessible by land. J.A.L. said it would continue the flights through the week. The Boeing 747 crashed into the mountain Aug. 12, killing 520 people in the worst single-plane accident in history. Four survivors were found.
The second anniversary of the slaying of the opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr. was marked today in anti-Government demonstrations across the Philippines. Nearly 100,000 people were estimated to have taken part in the various rallies. Opposition and church leaders sharply criticized the Government of Ferdinand E. Marcos for what they described as authoritarian rule, economic mismanagement, deteriorating peace and order and a failure to aggressive prosecute the military men accused of killing Mr. Aquino. Yet the day’s protest marches also underlined the divided nature of the opposition to President Marcos and the growing influence of the left.
New Zealand police said that the woman held in the sinking of the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior is a French army officer. Detective Allan Galbraith said in Auckland that New Zealand detectives working in France have established that the woman charged under the name of Sophie Claire Turenge is actually Captain Dominique Prieur. French newspapers had said she worked for France’s espionage agency. Galbraith said detectives have been unable to confirm the identity of the man charged under the name Alain Jacques Turenge.
Mexico’s Foreign Minister today criticized sentiments in favor of overthrowing the Nicaraguan Government, saying such an action would have “very unfortunate consequences” for Latin America. The Foreign Minister, Bernardo Sepulveda Amor, was responding to a report that some Reagan Administration officials are saying that United States differences with Nicaragua cannot be resolved so long as the Sandinistas remain in power. “We do not believe that the solution is by way of the removal of a legitimately constituted Government,” Mr. Sepulveda said. He added that such an action could bring a “possible rupture of the institutional order and legitimate systems of security,” in Central America and elsewhere in Latin America.
An American Catholic priest was released without charges after being detained for two days by Honduran security forces. A U.S. Embassy spokesman in Tegucigalpa said that Father John Donald, 46, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, was handed over to church superiors. He had been detained in northern Honduras, near where joint U.S.-Honduran military exercises are being held. Ramon Custodio Lopez, head of a human rights group, said the priest was detained for urging people to protest the presence of U.S. soldiers. Authorities reportedly believe that peasant groups with which the priest worked have been involved in guerrilla activity.
A Salvadoran court has ordered the reopening of an investigation into the killing of Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero of San Salvador, who was killed by a sniper five years ago, a spokesman for the Attorney General’s office said today. The case was shelved in December after judicial authorities said there was insufficient evidence to indicate who was behind the killing. The case was shelved in December after judicial authorities said there was insufficient evidence to indicate who was behind the killing. A request to reopen the inquiry by the new Attorney General, Santiago Mendoza Aguilar, was granted Tuesday night, the spokesman said. Archbishop Romero’s killing is widely believed here to have been planned by right-wing death squads angered by his outspoken criticism of social injustices and abuse of authority. The death squads have been linked by United States officials to El Salvador’s main opposition party, the extreme right-wing Republican Nationalist Alliance, which has sought to block social changes proposed by President Jose Napoleon Duarte’s moderate Christian Democratic Party.
An earthquake shook Peru’s Pacific coast, injuring at least 14 people and damaging a dozen buildings in the northern city of Chimbote. The National Geophysical Institute said the quake registered 5.7 on the Richter scale, and was centered in the ocean 50 miles off Trujillo, which is 330 miles north of Lima.
Pretoria officials told aides of President Reagan at a meeting in Vienna that South Africa’s Government was ready to make political changes involving “power sharing” with the country’s black majority, according to a senior Administration official. The changes were more significant than the steps ultimately announced by President P. W. Botha.
The South African authorities threatened tonight to curb the access of the black activist Winnie Mandela to her imprisoned husband, Nelson, a leader of the African National Congress, who is serving a life sentence in Pollsmoor prison outside Cape Town. The warning came after Mrs. Mandela risked prosecution today to publicly condemn United States policy toward South Africa and to say the time for a negotiated peace in this country was past. Her words were interpreted by the authorities as relaying a political message by her jailed husband, whom she last met in prison earlier this month. Kobie Coetsee, the Minister of Justice, said in a statement tonight that the Government would reconsider “the manner and extent of continued visits” to prisoners, a warning that seemed directed at Mrs. Mandela.
A.T.&T. will end 24,000 jobs in a sweeping cutback at one of its major divisions. It said it was cutting the work force at its information systems division, which makes and sells business commmunication equipment, computers and home telephones, to increase its profitability in that highly competitive industry.
President Reagan attends a private gathering of friends at the home of Tom Jones.
Tough sanctions on employers of illegal aliens would cause economic disruption and encourage discrimination against legal minority-member workers, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative private research organization, said in an analysis of pending immigration bills. It conceded that present immigration policy is not working and suggested increased Border Patrol enforcement and the creation of an agriculture “guest worker” program. The Reagan Administration and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce support employer sanctions.
The use of plastics in building construction “can be a deadly way to save money,” the International Association of Fire Fighters said in opening a campaign to warn the public of the dangers of plastics fumes in fires. It also charged that the plastics industry has tried to suppress a film on the role plastics fumes played in such tragedies as the MGM Grand Hotel fire in Las Vegas. A plastics trade group replied that the industry is dedicated to making safe products and noted that natural substances also release toxic fumes while burning. The firefighters urged state legislatures to require tests on all building materials to determine toxicity.
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger urged lawyers to use arbitration and mediation to reduce the backlog of cases in federal and state courts. Burger said at a meeting of the American Arbitration Association in St. Paul, Minnesota, that “a host of new kinds of cases have flooded the courts,” including disputes over welfare losses, students’ grades and teachers’ tenure. He said litigation on such cases denies parties a quick resolution and enlarges “the costs, tensions and delays facing all other litigants waiting in line.”
The Government has proposed to regulate the size and number of protest signs in Lafayette Park across the street from the White House, and the idea is not going over well with the people who demonstrate there.
The A.H. Robins Company filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors. The pharmaceutical company has been besieged by health claims arising from its Dalkon Shield birth control device.
Eli Lilly & Company pleaded guilty to criminal charges that it failed to inform the Federal Government about four deaths and six illnesses related to its arthritis drug Oraflex. Under a plea agreement with the Justice Department, the company was fined $25,000. The company’s former chief medical officer, Dr. William I. Shedden, entered a plea of no contest to similar charges. The charges against him and the company, all of them misdemeanors, were announced along with their pleas, which were arranged in an agreement with the Justice Department. The prosecutor in the case said a grand jury that had investigated the matter had found no evidence of intentional wrongdoing.
Recent failures in equipment used to detect wind shear at Detroit Metropolitan Airport reflect growing neglect of the nation’s air traffic control system, union officials representing airport technicians said. Poor weather has disabled the equipment four times in the last three months, said Terrence Apkarian, president of Local 106 of the Professional Airways System Specialists. A Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said that the problems at the airport were being corrected and that the faulty equipment never endangered air traffic.
The Tennessee Valley Authority, citing concern over key emergency safety equipment, announced today that it would shut down the Sequoyah Nuclear Plant indefinitely. The shutdown will leave the Federal power agency without nuclear-generated electricity. The authority has already closed another nuclear plant and has delayed seeking a license for its third because of safety problems. “I view this action as consistent with T.V.A.’s safety-first operating policy and I have so informed the T.V.A. board today,” said Hugh G. Parris, the authority’s nuclear chief.
Tennessee filed suit today seeking to block the United States Energy Department from asking Congress for approval to store spent nuclear fuel in the state temporarily. The Energy Department told Governor Lamar Alexander of Tennessee on April 26 that it intended to put the temporary storage facility at one of three Tennessee sites, chosen from among sites in several states. Under the proposal, spent nuclear fuel from all civilian nuclear power plants in the United States would be shipped by truck or train to the site and stored indefinitely in concrete casks. If the site is approved by Congress, shipments could begin by 1995.
The judge who heard Cathleen Crowell Webb’s original assertion that Gary Dotson raped her says her recantation of the charges was “implausible.” Mrs. Webb, who now lives in southwestern New Hampshire, said in April that she lied in 1977 when she accused Mr. Dotson of raping her. At the time Mrs. Webb, whose maiden name was Cathleen Crowell, was 16 years old. She said she had staged the alleged incident because she was afraid she was pregnant by her teen-age boyfriend.
The Government illegally subsidized large corporate farmers in California’s Central Valley with more than $1 billion worth of inexpensive irrigation water, according to two organizations. They accused the Bureau of Reclamation of having provided the water at a fraction of its cost, resulting in subsidies of nearly $3.5 billion, far more than the $2 billion subsidy intended by Congress.
The Alaskan chief state prosecutor, who was instrumental in bringing impeachment proceedings against Gov. Bill Sheffield, was dismissed today from the post he has held for 10 years. The prosecutor, Dan Hickey, 39 years old, announced that he had been asked to resign by his immediate superior, Attorney General Hal Brown. “None of this comes unexpectedly,” Mr. Hickey said.
Space emergency rescue teams are preparing this week for something they hope will never occur — the possible crash of an American space shuttle. The crews are fanning out from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to such places as Spain and Senegal, where they are practicing their skills with foreign firemen and medical aides in advance of the scheduled launching of the shuttle Discovery on Saturday.
The Boston school bias case is approaching an end after 11 years and considerable violence. Federal District Judge W. Arthur Garrity Jr., who took control of the city’s schools after ruling that officials had segregated black children in inferior schools, held what may be the final hearing in the case.
A Montana State University worker who inhaled fumes from a poisonous gas and four persons who tried to help him were hospitalized briefly after some of the substance escaped a school research station near Norris, Mont. Paul D. Griffin was trying to dispose of the phosgene, used in World War I, by shooting its metal container and allowing the liquid to evaporate, an acceptable method of disposal.
Sara Jane Moore, the former bookkeeper and California housewife who tried to kill President Ford in 1975, was denied parole today by the United States Parole Commission. Miss Moore, who is 55 years old, is serving a life sentence at a Federal women’s prison in Pleasonton, Calif. A spokesman for the commission said it continued her request for parole until the year 2000.
The Beach Boys will not be part of the annual July 4 celebration on the Washington Mall next year, the National Park Service announced, saying that the focus will be on a more traditional patriotic and “family-oriented” program. The planning committee said it considered the Park Service’s ability to handle the crowds, which this year totaled 550,000 in the downtown park areas, the damage connected with the celebration — including an overload on the subway system and the leaving of 206 tons of garbage — and the tone of the program.
The Christian Science Monitor had a right to fire lesbian reporter Christine Madsen because members of the newspaper’s staff are employees of the Christian Science Church, which enforces specific standards of sexual morality, the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled. Courts do not have the right to interfere in such ecclesiastical decisions, it said in dismissing a $1-million suit. But it added that Madsen could seek damages under common law for invasion of privacy and emotional distress.
The New York Lotto pays $41 million to three winner (the winning numbers are 14-17-22-23-30-47).
Film adaptation of John Pielmeier’s stage drama “Agnes of God”, directed by Norman Jewison, and starring Meg Tilley, Anne Bancroft and Jane Fonda premieres.
American Mary Decker Slaney runs the mile in a world record 4:16.71, in Zurich, Switzerland; this is the third time she held the record.
Manager Stan Wasiak of Vero Beach (Florida State League) becomes the first minor league manager to record 2500 wins as Vero Beach wins 3–2 over Miami. The win comes less then a week after Wasiak set the record for most wins. He has managed for 36 consecutive seasons.
Major League Baseball:
There is no consensus on cocaine use in baseball. Commissioner Peter Ueberroth, the owners and the players have reached no basic agreement on the proper way to approach a solution to the problem. However, everyone concerned is trying to deal with the issue. Commissioner Peter Ueberroth, for one, said in a recent interview that he was attempting to extend his mandatory drug-testing program to the winter leagues in Latin American countries. “I’m going to go outside the United States and Canada, into the winter leagues,” said Ueberroth. “There are places where players play where people look the other way. I don’t know how much leverage I’ll have. I’m running into resistance. But I’m getting a steady flow of information that some of the root causes are there.”
Ryne Sandberg drives in 6 runs on 4 hits, including a pair of homers, to lead the Cubs to a 9–5 win over the host Braves. Rick Cerone has a 3-run homer for Atlanta. Chris Speier’s two-run homer broke a 5-5 tie in the eighth inning.
The Dodgers collect 22 hits as they beat the Phillies, 15–6. Candy Maldonado has 5 hits and Mike Marshall has 4 hits, including a grand slam, and drives in 5. Winning pitcher Fernando Valenzuela has 2 hits as he notches his 15th. He allowed nine hits in seven and one-third innings, including three-run homers by Von Hayes and Derrel Thomas.
There they were in the top of the ninth inning last night at Shea Stadium, and the Mets had it all going again: one out, nobody on base, Roger McDowell firing the sinkerball and the Mets savoring a 2–1 lead they had just taken over the San Francisco Giants. But the scenario took a twist. Chris Brown bounced a single through the middle of the infield, and up came Bob Brenly, the catcher. The Mets remembered him, all right. Last year, Brenly batted .357 against them, hit four home runs and knocked in 14 runs. But this year, he was 0 for 12 against New York pitching, he was hitting only .214 over all and he conceded: “I was pitiful.” The count rose to two balls and two strikes, and then McDowell gave his sinker a rest. He threw a slider that didn’t slide and Brenly whacked it into the left-field bullpen for his first hit of the season against the Mets. Two runs crossed, the Mets went quietly in the bottom of the ninth against Scott Garrelts and the Giants snatched the game, 3–2.
The Padres topped the Expos, 6–2. Graig Nettles had three hits and knocked in two runs and Eric Show hurled an eight-hitter for San Diego. Show (9-7) walked two and struck out four. Bill Laskey (5-13) was the loser.
Pinch-hitter Darrell Porter hit a three-run homer in the ninth inning to break a 4-4 tie and send the St. Louis Cardinals to a 7-4 victory over the Houston Astros tonight. The pinch-hitter Andy Van Slyke led off the ninth with a single off the reliever Dave Smith (6-5). One out later, Ozzie Smith singled and Porter hit a homer.
The Reds downed the Pirates, 8–5, as Nick Esasky hit a two-run homer and Pete Rose had a single and two runs batted in for Cincinnati. Rose now needs 14 more hits to break Ty Cobb’s record.
Julio Franco and Joe Carter drove in two runs each tonight and Neal Heaton pitched a six hitter as the Indians scored a 5-2 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays. The Indians, who are in last place in the American League East, took two games of the three-game series from the Blue Jays, the leaders in the division. Heaton (7-13) struck out six and walked four in pitching his fourth complete game. Doyle Alexander (2-8) took the loss.
The evening was a long, seemingly endless struggle for the Yankees, who scored seven runs in the first two innings but then had to wait until the 10th inning to beat the California Angels, 13-10, tonight. The victory, their seventh straight and 14th in the last 15 games, moved them to within three games of Toronto in the American League East. In the 10th, the Angels third baseman Jack Howell threw away a Willie Randolph grounder, allowing Don Baylor to score from third base. The Yankees added two more runs on Bobby Meacham’s single.
Steve Henderson’s double off the center-field fence and an error by Dave Bergman each scored a run as Oakland came from three runs behind in the ninth inning to defeat the Tigers, 4–3. Donnie Hill led off the ninth against the reliever Willie Hernandez with a double, took third on Dave Collins’s single and scored on a single by Mike Heath.
The Brewers beat the Twins, 3–2. Robin Yount’s bases-loaded single in the bottom of the ninth scored Jim Gantner with the winning run. With one out, Gantner broke an 0-for-34 slump with a single off the losing pitcher, Steve Howe (1-3). Ed Romero walked and Earnest Riles followed with his third hit of the game to load the bases. Yount then greeted Ron Davis with his third game-winning run batted in of the season.
Gary Ward belted a three-run homer in the first inning as the Rangers sent the Red Sox to their sixth consecutive loss, bowing 5–3. The Red Sox had eight hits, including a homer and a single by Wade Boggs, but grounded into four double plays.
Charlie Leibrandt and Dan Quisenberry combined on a six-hitter and George Brett’s homer in the fourth inning broke a 1-1 tie, as the Royals edged the White Sox, 2–1.
The Baltimore Orioles out-slugged the Seattle Mariners, 11–8. Eddie Murray drove in three runs to highlight a 10-run third inning that carried the Orioles to their ninth victory in the last 11 games
Chicago Cubs 9, Atlanta Braves 5
Texas Rangers 5, Boston Red Sox 3
New York Yankees 13, California Angels 10
Kansas City Royals 2, Chicago White Sox 1
Toronto Blue Jays 2, Cleveland Indians 5
St. Louis Cardinals 7, Houston Astros 4
Minnesota Twins 2, Milwaukee Brewers 3
San Diego Padres 6, Montreal Expos 2
San Francisco Giants 3, New York Mets 2
Detroit Tigers 3, Oakland Athletics 4
Los Angeles Dodgers 15, Philadelphia Phillies 6
Cincinnati Reds 8, Pittsburgh Pirates 5
Baltimore Orioles 11, Seattle Mariners 8
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1329.53 (+5.83)
Born:
Shonn Greene, NFL running back (New York Jets, Tennessee Titans), in Sicklerville, New Jersey.
Dante Hughes, NFL defensive back (Indianapolis Colts, San Diego Chargers), in Los Angeles, California.
Olayinka Sanni, WNBA forward and center (Detroit Shock, Phoenix Mercury), in Chicago Heights, Illinois.
Albrecht Schuch, German actor (“All Quiet on the Western Front”), in Jena, East Germany.
Laura Haddock, English actress (“The Recruit”), in Hatfield, England, United Kingdom.
Jacob (Jake) Pitts, American heavy metal rock guitarist (Black Veil Brides), in Pocatello, Idaho.
History Diaries 