A missing intelligence official from West Germany, in a note that is said to appear genuine, said he defected to East Germany because he was in “a hopeless personal situation,” according to an informed West German official. The note apparently written by Hans Joachim Tiedge, a counterespionage officer, evidently referred to his debts and drinking, and it strengthened a belief among investigators that he had not been a longtime East German spy. The two-sentence handwritten note, which the official said was dated August 24 and appeared to be genuine, was delivered on Thursday by Wolfgang Vogel, an East Berlin lawyer, to Ludwig Rehlinger, a Bonn official. Written on a blank piece of paper and signed, the note said Mr. Tiedge defected of his “own free will” on August 19.
A senior security adviser to Chancellor Helmut Kohl says the Government has adopted a low-key, somewhat skeptical approach to the Reagan Administration’s space weapons research program in an effort to prevent the issue from moving to the center of political debate here. The adviser — part of a 30-member delegation that will examine the Reagan Administration’s space weapons program in the United States this week — welcomed what he said was a “more dispassionate” discussion of the question on both sides of the Atlantic. “We want to take the emotion away from the thing,” said the adviser, who asked not to be named. “The discussion has become more factual. In the United States, too, there is not so much talk about ‘the vision’ — a shield covering the whole country and so on.”
Bombs caused nearly $1.5 million in damage to two West German computer companies with military contracts, officials reported. Police said no one was hurt, and there were no immediate claims of responsibility. The affected companies are a subsidiary of the Hoesch Steel firm in Dortmund, which has sold a computer program to the U.S. Army, and Scientific Control Systems in Hamburg, which is owned by British Petroleum.
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher announced a sweeping realignment of her Cabinet this evening in a what appeared to be a bold attempt to reverse a recent sharp decline in her political fortunes. With her Conservative Party in third place in the opinion polls and back-bench Tories in Parliament demanding a new initiative, Mrs. Thatcher carried out the most extensive shuffle of her six years in office. She installed new ministers in a third of the governmental departments, and chose a new party chairman — Norman Tebbit, a tough right-winger — to prepare for an election in 1987 or 1988. The major surprise of the shake-up, which had been predicted for months, was the demotion of Home Secretary Leon Brittan. From one of the so-called “great offices of state,” he was moved to the Department of Trade and Industry, where he replaces Mr. Tebbit. Mr. Brittan has been criticized as a poor communicator and may have damaged himself by his role in the suppression last month of a BBC television program on Northern Ireland.
Belgium’s King Baudouin dissolved Parliament today after a new rift developed in the Government over the sharing of the education budget. Prime Minister Wilfried Martens announced the action as he returned from a meeting with the King. The Flemish Christian Democrats, led by Mr. Martens, say they do not get their fair share of the education budget and they want to amend the Constitution. Walloon Christian Democrats oppose the change, saying they fear it would place them in a minority position in Wallonia, in southern Belgium, where the Socialists are strong.
Anatoly Karpov and Gary Kasparov made no pretence of camaraderie as they faced off at the ceremonial opening in Moscow of the second round of their stormy struggle for the world chess championship.
A prominent Palestinian guerrilla commander was shot and seriously wounded by unidentified gunmen in the latest in a series of attacks on Palestinians in southern Lebanon. Security sources said that Hussein Haybi, a deputy of Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat, was attacked by gunmen at the Ein el Hilwa refugee camp near Sidon. Shia Muslim leaders accuse Arafat of fomenting trouble by trying to rebuild the PLO’s power base in southern Lebanon.
Syria is consulting Lebanon’s warring factions in an effort to begin discussions on how to end a decade of fighting here. Leaders of the main Moslem and Druse militias are in Damascus, and a delegation from the Phalangist Party, Lebanon’s principal Christian political group, held talks there over the weekend with the Syrian Vice President, Abdel Halim Khaddam. The leader of the Phalangist delegation, George Saade, a party vice president, said Syria “has decided to end the state of war in Lebanon and is preparing for a dialogue that will include all Lebanese factions.”
Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi crushed a mutiny and arrested 43 officers who refused orders to prepare to invade Tunisia, the Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram reported. The paper, which frequently publishes stories critical of Libya, said Colonel Mohammed Barghash, commander of an air base near the Tunisian border, refused to order his pilots to carry out reconnaissance flights over Tunisia and instead tried to bomb Qaddafi’s residence. Another colonel, Khalifa Khadr, commander of land forces that were to attack Tunisia, also refused to carry out orders and tried to march on Qaddafi’s headquarters, Al Ahram said.
Iraq said its air force attacked Iran’s Kharg Island oil terminal today. It was the fourth attack Iraq has reported against Kharg, in the northern gulf, in the last 18 days. A military spokesman called the raid “destructive and powerful” and said it was intended to hinder Iranian efforts to repair damaged installations. Iraq’s first recent attack on the island was August 15. Iraq initially said that attack “reduced the island to ashes.” Ten days later, however, its warplanes returned, and on August 30 a third attack was carried out. Iranian officials have insisted that the three previous attacks caused little damage to the terminal.
A Pakistani official said today that United Nations-sponsored talks in Geneva have made progress toward a settlement of the Afghan war, including proposals on withdrawing Soviet troops. The official, Zain Noorani, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, told reporters at the Pakistani Embassy here, “There seems to have been considerable movement forward in respect of guarantees and also the need for the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.” Mr. Noorani was in London with Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, Sahabzada Yaqub Khan, who had attended the meetings and who briefed British officials.
More than 10,000 Soviet soldiers are trying to smash Afghan guerrilla supply routes near the Pakistani border in a major new offensive, sources said today. Officials of guerrilla groups, diplomatic sources and others said a Soviet force has been fighting for the last week to subdue guerrilla-held areas in Paktia Province.
A second political faction in Punjab State announced today that it would boycott state elections scheduled for September 25. S. P. Malviya, secretary general of the opposition Lok Dal Party, said party leaders had decided on a boycott because the party’s Punjab organization was in disarray after the murder in May of its chief, Balbir Singh, by Sikh extremists. A hard-line Sikh group, the United Akali Dal, has also said it would boycott the polls, but the group split Sunday, with a breakaway faction saying it would take part and field candidates. Fears of Sikh extremist violence have led the authorities to order a security buildup ahead of the elections, which are aimed at ending federal rule of the state. The Punjab has long been torn by unrest fomented by Sikh extremists seeking a separate state. Election commission officials said the Lok Dal decision would not affect the polls and that other national opposition parties would take part.
Pol Pot, the shadowy Cambodian dictator who led the nation during a reign of terror from 1975 to early 1979 in which as many as 1 million of his countrymen were killed, has been retired as military commander of the Communist Khmer Rouge, a broadcast by the rebel faction said. A Khmer Rouge statement cited a retirement age of 60 for “civil and military cadres.” However, Cambodian sources in Thailand speculated that there might have been a power struggle. Thai officials said Pol Pot’s removal could help the prospects for negotiations with the Vietnamese who occupy Cambodia by meeting Hanoi’s demand for his “elimination.” The Khmer Rouge radio said that Mr. Pol Pot, who ruled Cambodia for four years in a reign of terror in which as many as two million people died, until Vietnam invaded the country in 1979, would become a military adviser.
Nicaragua said it plans a large-scale military mobilization in the next few weeks to crush U.S.backed rebels known as contras. Defense Minister Humberto Ortega told a news conference that the Sandinista government will use all its resources to crush the rightist rebellion. Asked whether Nicaragua will continue using Sovietmade MI-24 helicopter gunships, he replied, “We are using and will use all the weapons at our disposal in whatever part of the country….” Ortega, brother of President Daniel Ortega, accused the CIA of trying to bolster rebel bases in northern Costa Rica.
Peru’s reformist new President, Alan Garcia Perez, has shaken his country out of prolonged pessimism after barely one month in office. The confident, youthful President has tackled an array of problems that had long appeared insoluble. Exuding self-confidence, the 36-year-old President has tackled problemthat had long appeared insoluble, including inflation, corruption, arms spending, narcotics trafficking, leftist terrorism and a seemingly unpayable $14 billion foreign debt. Mr. Garcia has sought to restore what he calls the “authority” of government and end the vacuum of power through which the country had been drifting under the former President, Fernando Belaunde Terry. “Who can deny that Alan Garcia has exhibited veritable prowess during his first 30 days in office?” the independent Lima weekly Caretas noted in an article titled, “Decision, Perseverance and Daring.” It echoed a view widely expressed even by those who opposed Mr. Garcia’s bid for the presidency.
Ecuadorean soldiers and police stormed a house in Guayaquil where four leftist guerrillas were holding the nation’s leading banker. The rebels and their prisoner died in gunfire during the assault. The kidnappers, members of Colombian and Ecuadorean factions, had held Nahim Isaias since August 7. They demanded ransom, release of guerrillas arrested during the search for Isaias and safe passage from Ecuador. Isaias owned one of Ecuador’s biggest banks, Filanbanco, a national television station and textile factories. He was also said to have interests in several Miami banks. President Leon Febres Cordero, a personal friend of Isaias who had flown to Guayaquil to supervise the rescue efforts, said the kidnappers shot Isaias to death. when the raid began.
A black miners’ strike faltered in South Africa, and union leaders blamed intimidation by mine employers. Cyril Ramaphosa, general secretary of the National Union of Mine Workers, South Africa’s most powerful black labor group, said 28,000 workers were on strike by early this evening — 6,000 at mines where a strike had been declared, and the rest at mines where union members stopped work in support of the strike. Meanwhile, South Africa’s currency, the rand, recovered sharply as foreign-exchange markets reopened. Elsewhere, four people were reported slain in continuing violence in black townships, including a boy shot by a policeman near Cape Town. The violence has taken more than 600 lives since it began in the township of Sharpeville a year ago on Tuesday.
Many black groups have shifted toward radicalism and tough tactics in the year since the latest wave of unrest began in South Africa’s black townships, according to academics and other specialists there. Violence, the specialists say, has won a kind of legitimacy and has become more intense and more directed toward the overthrow of white rule.
A hurricane swept ashore along Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, peeling roofs from buildings and toppling trees and power lines. Hurricane Elena had bobbed and weaved for four days in the gulf, its erratic wanderings leading many residents to flee inland, return home, then flee again. But the repeated warnings worked, because the authorities reported the hurricane caused no deaths or serious injuries when it pushed ashore.The storm was blamed for three deaths earlier in Florida. One man was killed when a tree fell on his car, and two others suffered heart attacks. The storm’s winds, which exceeded 100 miles an hour, badly damaged buildings in Biloxi and neighboring Gulfport. Governor Bill Allain asked President Reagan to declare Mississippi’s coastal counties a disaster area and said the authorities would begin damage assessments immediately. The National Hurricane Center said as many as half the buildings in Biloxi had been damaged.
President Reagan travels from the Reagan Ranch to Independence, Missouri to make an address on tax reform. The President opened his fall drive for an income tax simplification with a blunt attack on the present system as “unfair, unworkable and unproductive.” Mr. Reagan stood in front of the bronze statue of Harry S. Truman in Independence, and repeatedly linked his tax revision proposal to the populist views that epitomized the Truman Presidency, strongly denying criticism that the proposal favors the wealthy at the expense of middle America. The plan has been criticized in Congress and elseuhere. Members of the Congressional tax-writing committees say they found lackluqter support for the plan among constituents last month but would nevertheless support it. Mr. Reagan, standing in the steamy, sun-drenched square, said, “Our fair share tax program is a good deal for the American people and a big step toward economic power for people who’ve been denied power for generations.”
President Reagan returns to the White House from his summer vacation at the Ranch in California.
As the Discovery’s crew prepared to return to earth, ground controllers activated systems of the repaired Leasat 3 satellite and found it in apparently excellent condition despite four months of dormancy. The communications satellite, which was rewired and redeployed by spacewalking astronauts, was reported to be responding to all radioed commands. Despite four months of dormancy, the liquid propellants for its maneuvering rockets had not frozen and the plumbing showed no signs of leaks. Meanwhile, the five astronauts of the Discovery stowed gear and adjusted their orbit to get ready to conclude the seven-day mission Tuesday with a landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Touchdown of the winged spaceship is scheduled for 6:15 AM Pacific daylight time, or 9:15 Eastern time. Colonel Joe H. Engle and Lieutenant Colonel Richard O. Covey of the Air Force steered the shuttle to a slightly higher orbit today to put it in a position so that the landing would come closer to sunrise.
Chicago teachers voted overwhelmingly to go on strike, approving the third walkout in as many years against the nation’s third-largest school system. Of 28,000 rank-and-file union members, the teachers voted 3,548 to 494 to reject the latest wage increase offered by the school board and then returned to negotiations, almost certainly delaying the scheduled start of school today. A last-minute appeal by Governor James R. Thompson failed to bring the Chicago Teachers Union and Board of Education into agreement. Teacher walkouts have already idled nearly 46,000 students in Illinois and Michigan.
Eleven alleged Puerto Rican terrorists linked to a $7-million Wells Fargo robbery were held without bond at an undisclosed location. Federal authorities in Hartford, Connecticut, refused to tell even defense attorneys where they were. The 11, to be arraigned today in Hartford, were among 17 persons named in a federal indictment resulting from the September 12, 1983, robbery of a Wells Fargo depot in West Hartford. They were brought from Puerto Rico under tight security aboard a military aircraft.
Firefighters controlled a fire burning over 6,600 acres in Wyoming’s rugged Rattlesnake Hills, while workers in Washington state battled to save houses from a blaze that had already left 19 families homeless. In Idaho’s Salmon National Forest, an army of 1,000 firefighters, aided by helicopters, bulldozers and rain, launched a major offensive against a 31,150-acre fire. Earlier, another group of firefighters contained a 1,028-acre blaze in Grand Teton National Park in western Wyoming.
The Rev. Jerry Falwell led more than 5,000 persons in a Dallas rally against pornography as 350 antiapartheid demonstrators protested the Baptist preacher’s support of the racist regime in South Africa. Falwell and members of the National Federation for Decency carried signs and marched a mile from Cole Park near downtown Dallas to the Southland Corp. headquarters to protest the sale of adult magazines at the company’s 7-Eleven stores. Walking on the opposite side of the street and carrying signs protesting racism were about 350 members of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People.
High school students strongly support excluding those with low grades from sports and other activities, a national survey released in Washington shows. The survey of nearly 7,000 juniors and seniors in all 50 states found that most viewed participating in school activities as “a very important part” of their education. The study was sponsored by the National Federation of State High School Assns., which issues the rule books for all high school sports.
Senator William Proxmire (D-Wisconsin) criticized the Justice Department for its investigation of claims concerning cost overruns involving 14 nuclear-powered ships made for the Navy by the Newport News, Virginia, Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co. Proxmire said department officials “are guilty of mismanaging a criminal investigation” and announced that he plans to hold hearings later this year on the case.
The world’s youngest artificial heart patient, Michael Drummond, 25, was improving but may have to remain on the Jarvik-7 device permanently, his mother said. Joan Drummond, a nurse for 30 years, said she was told by doctors that there is a slim possibility that her son might have to stay on the polyurethane heart because of the slow growth of scar tissue around the artificial heart implanted in emergency surgery in Tucson last Thursday. “Being a mother, I’m afraid I blocked things like that out,” she said after talking to doctors.
As many as six residents of the East Los Angeles neighborhood where a crowd captured the prime suspect in 16 “night stalker” slayings claim credit for the capture and are thus at odds over who deserves the $70,000 reward. The suspect, Richard Ramirez, was arrested Saturday after a crowd chased him when he purportedly tried to steal a car from Angie De La Torre. Her husband, Manuel, said he and a neighbor, Jose Burgoin, were the only ones who caught Mr. Ramirez. But Mr. Burgoin said his sons Jaime and Julio participated. And Jose Perez said he and his cousin Olegario Garcia joined Mr. De La Torre in the capture.
A three-alarm fire swept a northeast Kansas City apartment building early today, killing six people and injuring six others. “The fire was deliberately set,” said Harold Knabe, a Fire Department spokesman. One of the 20 residents of the three-story building ran to a nearby fire station and pounded on the door to alert firefighters at 1:59 AM, said Mr. Knabe.
Searchers have found the Titanic off the coast of Newfoundland 73 years after the luxury liner struck an iceberg on her maiden voyage and sank with the loss of more than 1,500 lives, a team of American and French researchers announced. They said they had verified the liner’s identity with sophisticated new undersea robots, cameras and sonar.
Health-care officials trying to control the problem of medical incompetence say many of their efforts are confounded by a disjointed, unwieldly and loophole-ridden stytem of medical peer review. Many officials say the medical disciplinary network is plagued with flawed laws, feuding officials, underfinanced agencies and a fear among many physicians that if they take action against incompetent colleagues they will be the target of costly lawsuits.
Each day a platoon of city buses rolls out into Los Angeles carrying an advertisment featuring what appears to be a doting mother cautioning a homosexual son: “Play safely. L.A. cares.” The public-service advertising campaign reflects galvanized concern here about acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS, The increased attention on the disorder is as much the result of the recently announced illness of the actor Rock Hudson as it is of reports of a growing number of AIDS cases here. One of the most striking examples of the emerging concern has been the growing support for a dinner set for September 19 to help AIDS patients. It has already received the endorsement of such figures as Elizabeth Taylor; Dr. Armand Hammer, the business executive, and Mayor Tom Bradley.
A glut of potatoes has lowered payments to Maine growers to 42 cents for a 10-pound bag, and they expect receipts to drop much more after the harvest starts in earnest this month. The outlook is bleak because potato growers around the country planted more acres this year and they have enjoyed enough rainfall and no other major weather problems.
Jerry Lewis’ 20th Muscular Dystrophy telethon raises $33,100,000.
Joakim Nystrom upset Boris Becker at the United States Open in Flushing Meadows, Queens. The Swedish player defeated Becker, 17, the youngest winner of the Wimbledon men’s singles championship, by 6-3, 6-4, 4-6 and 6-4.
Major League Baseball:
Cal Ripken drives in 6 runs as the Orioles batter the A’s, 12–4. Ripken, who drove in a first-inning run with a groundout, led a seven-run second inning with a three-run homer. Dwayne Murphy has a double and 2 homers for Oakland, in 3rd place in the American League West. The A’s Jose Canseco strikes out in his first major league at-bat. During his 17 seasons in the major leagues, the slugger strikes out 1,942 times en route to hitting 462 home runs.
At Arlington, the Red Sox thrash the Rangers, 11–2, as Mike Easler hits his second grand slam in three days. Tim Lollar pitched a two-hitter over eight innings. Jim Rice hit a two-run homer, Bill Buckner went 4 for 5 with a double, 3 runs, and 3 RBIs, and Wade Boggs added three singles as Boston had 19 hits.
The Yankees have come a long way this season, and today Dave Righetti and Brian Fisher showed once again why the relief corps has become a major element of that advance. Just when it seemed as if starter Ron Guidry would squander a 7–0 lead, Fisher and Righetti stifled Seattle in the final four innings and preserved an 8-7 victory. Their effort enabled the Yankees to remain four games behind the first-place Toronto Blue Jays, who defeated Cleveland. The way the Yankees pummeled Frank Wills in the first two innings, it appeared that the relief corps could take the day off. Dave Winfield slugged a three-run home run in the first inning, then added a sacrifice fly in the second, and Ken Griffey drove in three runs with a pair of singles. That quickly, the Yankees led, 7–0.
Lloyd Moseby singled home Ernie Whitt in the seventh inning with the tiebreaking run for Toronto as the Blue Jays beat the Indians, 3–2. With one out, Whitt doubled to left-center. An out later, Moseby lined a 3–2 pitch up the middle off Curt Wardle (6–6). The triumph enabled the Blue Jays to stay four games ahead of the Yankees in the American League East. Dave Stieb improved his record to 13–9 with relief from Tom Henke, who earned his ninth save. Stieb gave up nine hits, all singles, in seven innings. He walked two and struck out six.
The Angels crushed the Tigers, 11–1. George Hendrick hit a three-run homer in a nine-run fourth inning as the California Angels won and stayed 2 ½ games ahead of Kansas City in the American League West. Jim Slaton (6–10) held the Tigers to four hits in eight innings. Slaton, who had lost seven of his previous eight decisions, retired the Tigers in order for the first four and one-third innings before walking Darrell Evans and yielding a single to Nelson Simmons. Evans hit his 30th home run of the season in the seventh inning, making him the seventh player to hit 30 or more homers for three teams.
George Brett and Hal McRae hit bases-empty home runs for the Royals to life Kansas City to a 3–2 win over the White Sox. Mark Gubicza (11–7) allowed four hits over seven and two-thirds innings. The victory snapped a three-game losing streak for the Royals. The Royals took a 1–0 lead when McRae hit his 12th home run leading off the second inning against Gene Nelson (8–9). Daryl Boston singled leading off the White Sox third, went to second on a groundout and came home on a single by Rudy Law. Brett led the fourth with his 23rd home run. Then, with one out, Steve Balboni and Darryl Motley hit consecutive doubles for a 3–1 lead.
The Minnesota Twins downed the Milwaukee Brewers, 6–1, as Tim Teufel and Tom Brunansky hit homers, and Mike Smithson (13–11) gave up four hits in seven innings.
Dave Parker hit a two-run homer, and Tom Browning won his 15th game tonight as the Cincinnati Reds beat the Cardinals, 4–1. The Cardinals, whose lead in the National League East over the second-place Mets was reduced to one game, have lost four of their last five. Pete Rose went 0 for 3 with a walk to remain at 4,186, five short of Ty Cobb’s career record for hits. He was the only player in the Reds’ starting nine who did not get a hit. Rose said he would sit out Tuesday’s game.
Nolan Ryan leaves in the 1st inning after surrendering two runs and recording two outs, but the Cubs are scoreless after that in losing to the Astros, 7–2. Bill Dawley, the first of three relievers, notches the win. Eric Bullock’s first major league hit, a tiebreaking two-run double in the fifth inning, helped Houston defeat Chicago.
Keith Hernandez has his second 5-hit game of the season, Ray Knight has 3 hits and 4 RBIs, and Darryl Strawberry drives home 3 runs to pace the Mets to a 12–4 win over San Diego. The Mets collect 18 hits in all. The Mets’ breakout made life simple for Sid Fernandez (6–8), who pitched five-hit ball and scored his first complete-game victory in 36 starts in the big leagues. He struck out only six batters, well below his average of more than 10 a game, but he finally got a splurge of runs from his teammates.
Jay Johnstone, batting for the first time since July 4, hit a pinch-single with one out in the 11th inning to drive in the winning run as the Dodgers broke a four-game losing streak, edging the Expos, 5–4. The Expos had tied the game with two runs in the ninth against Tom Niedenfuer.
Tom Foley beat out an infield single and later scored on Luis Aguayo’s double in the 10th inning to give Philadelphia a 4–3 victory over the host San Francisco Giants. Steve Carlton, who had been on the Phillies’ disabled list for 10 weeks because of an arm problem, allowed three hits over five innings in a strong return performance. Two of the Giants’ hits off Carlton were bloopers and one of the three runs off him was unearned.
Mike Brown hit a three-run homer, and Steve Kemp went 3 for 4 and drove in a run to lead the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 5–4 victory over the visiting Atlanta Braves.
Oakland Athletics 4, Baltimore Orioles 12
Houston Astros 7, Chicago Cubs 2
California Angels 11, Detroit Tigers 1
Chicago White Sox 2, Kansas City Royals 3
Montreal Expos 4, Los Angeles Dodgers 5
Milwaukee Brewers 1, Minnesota Twins 6
Seattle Mariners 7, New York Yankees 8
Atlanta Braves 4, Pittsburgh Pirates 5
New York Mets 12, San Diego Padres 4
Philadelphia Phillies 4, San Francisco Giants 3
Cincinnati Reds 4, St. Louis Cardinals 1
Boston Red Sox 11, Texas Rangers 2
Cleveland Indians 2, Toronto Blue Jays 3
Born:
Yani Gellman, Canadian-American actor (“The Lizzie McGuire Movie”), in Miami, Florida.
Bruce Davis, NFL linebacker (Pittsburgh Steelers, Oakland Raiders), in Houston, Texas.
History Diaries 