Soviet dissident Andrei D. Sakharov and his wife appear to have vanished from their home in Gorky, exiled Soviet novelist Lev Kopelev said in Cologne, West Germany. Kopelev said that friends in the Soviet Union reported that guards at the residence have been withdrawn and that no lights have been seen in the apartment in two weeks. Sakharov, 64, was exiled to Gorky in 1981 after speaking out against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Kopelev also said that Ruth Bonner, mother of Sakharov’s wife, who lives in Boston, last month for the first time in many years failed to receive birthday greetings from her daughter.
Four bombs exploded here early today, wounding three people slightly and causing extensive damage at four companies with business interests in South Africa. A clandestine group called Direct Action took responsibility for the blasts, saying, “It is in the Paris ministries that blacks slaughtered by Pretoria begin to die.”
A banned television documentary on Northern Ireland has been revised and will be shown next month, the British Broadcasting Corporation announced today. The program, featuring interviews with a reputed Irish guerrilla leader, was withdrawn by the BBC’s governors a month ago after Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s Government said it gave a platform to terrorism. The publicly financed BBC was accused of bowing to virtual censorship in the action, which prompted a one-day strike by its 4,000 journalists and colleagues in rival commercial television networks, blacking out news reports for 24 hours.
The conflict between Arabs and Israelis in the occupied territories intensified today with the stabbing and serious wounding of another Israeli, this time in the Gaza Strip. A spokesman for the Israeli police said two Arabs attacked a truck driver, stabbing him three times in the back as he was delivering gasoline to a filling station in the Palestine Square of the Israeli-occupied town of Gaza, near the border with Egypt. The Israeli Army immediately imposed a curfew on Gaza and began detaining suspects for interrogation, the Israeli radio said.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told an Israeli envoy he is ready to hold summit talks with Prime Minister Shimon Peres, provided that a dispute over the Taba resort on the Gulf of Aqaba is submitted to international arbitration, Israel radio reported. The radio said that Avraham Tamir, director general of the prime minister’s office, briefed Peres after meeting with Mubarak in Cairo. Taba remains under Israeli control, but Egypt wants it returned under terms of the 1979 peace treaty with Israel.
A French researcher kidnapped in Lebanon in May was allowed to visit his Syrian-born wife and family in Beirut, an official of the Shia Muslim militia Amal said in a French television interview. Although the Amal official gave no details, French news reports quoted other Lebanese sources as saying that Michel Seurat was taken to his apartment last Friday to celebrate his daughter’s first birthday. The terrorist group Islamic Jihad has said it is holding Seurat.
An American Jewish Congress delegation has been invited to meet with Jordan’s King Hussein next week, the first such visit by a major American Jewish organization, one of the 25 delegates said. The group will meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak today in Cairo and travel to Amman, Jordan, on Monday. The delegation member, speaking anonymously, said the group is going to “listen and learn” about Hussein’s views and will not try to negotiate on Israel’s behalf.
Iraqi warplanes dropped more than four tons of explosives in a raid on Kharg Island today and shot down an Iranian jet in a dogfight over Iran’s main oil terminal, the Baghdad command said. An Iraqi military spokesman said the raid was designed to hinder Iranian efforts to repair damaged installations and extinguish fires caused by previous attacks on the island. Iraq gave the same reason for its last raid on Kharg Island, on September 2, when it said more than four tons of explosives were dropped. Earlier raids took place August 15, 20 and 30. The Iraqi spokesman said an Iranian F-14 Phantom jet that tried to intercept today’s raid was hit in a dogfight and went down in flames.
Three Sikhs were arrested in the machine-gun slaying of a Hindu politician, and one suspect killed himself by drinking a concealed poison, Indian news agencies reported. Arjun Das, 46, was killed in his office in New Delhi. His body was cremated at a ceremony marked by tight security and a visit by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, a family friend.
Investigators studying the crash of a Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 last month have found evidence of improper rear-cabin repairs that could have led to the disaster, according to authorities involved in the inquiry. The repairs were made in the pressure bulkhead in the rear of the main passenger cabin after a 1978 landing that was so severe it injured 30 people on board. Examination of the bulkhead after the crash last month, in which 520 people were killed, has shown that a single line of rivets was used for part of the repair instead of the double line of rivets called for in the manual, the informants said. The repairs were made by a team sent to Japan by the Boeing Company, builder of the jumbo jet. The bulkhead, shaped somewhat like an umbrella canopy, is at the very back of the passenger cabin. It separates the cabin, which is highly pressurized in flight, from the unpressurized tail cone of the plane, which is behind it.
The Taiwanese Supreme Court today rejected the appeals of two reputed gangsters sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted of killing a Chinese-American journalist in California last year. A five-judge panel turned down the appeals of Chen Chi-li, 42 years old, and Wu Tun, 35, court officials said. Mr. Chen, reputed leader of Taiwan’s largest underworld organization, the Bamboo Gang, and Mr. Wu were convicted by the high court June 3 of killing the journalist, Henry Liu. Mr. Liu, 52, had written articles critical of the Taiwan Government. He was gunned down at the garage of his home in Daly City, near San Francisco, last October 15. Mr. Chen was accused of masterminding the murder, which Mr. Wu and another man were charged with carrying out. The other suspect, Tung Kuei-sen, 33, reportedly fled to Japan. Three senior military intelligence officers also were convicted of involvement in the murder.
Seventeen House Democrats urged the Internal Revenue Service to review two tax-exempt groups that have raised money for Nicaraguans opposed to the leftist Sandinista government. “We … have grave reservations as to the claims of the U.S. Council for World Freedom and the Nicaraguan Refugee Fund to tax exemption,” the congressmen said in a letter to IRS Commissioner Roscoe L. Egger Jr. Both groups have denied doing anything that would justify their loss of tax-exempt status.
President Reagan’s national security adviser told the leaders of the Senate intelligence committee today that no one on the National Security Council had violated the law by assisting anti-Government rebels in Nicaragua. But the chairman and deputy chairman of the committee said they still had serious concerns about the council’s involvement and were not fully satisfied with the Administration explanation. The two Senators would not say, however, that the Administration had violated the law. The chairman, Senator Dave Durenburger, Republican of Minnesota, said he saw no need now for hearings on the matter. The chairman of the House intelligence committee has scheduled hearings to begin September 17. Administration officials have acknowledged that a ranking member of the National Security Council, U.S. Marine Lieutenant Colonel Oliver L. North, helped raise private funds for the rebels and had been involved in some rebel activities during the time the Boland amendment was in effect.
Soldiers who occupied Guatemala’s principal university Tuesday night withdrew today and returned the campus to civilian control. A committee of professors, students and administrators met on the campus soon after the soldiers were removed and began to inspect the buildings. Several said they hoped classes could be resumed next week. Troops were sent to the campus after several days of anti-Government violence. They were to search for weapons and other contraband, but there was no announcement today regarding anything they might have found.
A guerrilla leader who is second in command in the Salvadoran Communist Party has been arrested and is being held for trial by a military court, a spokesman for the army said today. A press bulletin issued later by the national police indicated that the guerrilla leader, Americo Mauro Araujo Ramirez, may have provided key information that led to the arrest of three suspects in connection with the shooting June 19 of six Americans and seven other people in downtown San Salvador.
Thousands of Bolivian workers marched through La Paz today to protest harsh economic measures imposed last week, and labor leaders said a general strike that was to have lasted 48 hours would be extended through Monday. However, many businesses and banks opened in defiance of the strike. The strike, called by the Bolivian Worker’s Central, began Wednesday and has shut down factories, mines, airlines, public schools, gasoline stations and the central bank. Walter Delgadillo, secretary general of the Bolivian Worker’s Central, said roadblocks may also be set up. The strike is the first test of the efforts of the month-old conservative Government of President Victor Paz Estenssoro to stimulate industry and control inflation, which, at 14,000 percent, is the most severe in the world. Last week, the government effectively devalued the peso; raised the price of gasoline 10-fold; reorganized state companies; froze salaries until December; authorized the dismissal of workers, and shut down subsidized company stores.
The Brazilian government has seized more than 40,000 acres of land owned by large farm concerns and plans to divide it into lots and sell them to peasants, the presidential palace announced. President Jose Sarney, who had promised a sweeping land reform program, signed a decree expropriating 33,533 acres of privately owned farmland in southern Santa Catarina state and 7,020 acres in Bahia state in the northeast. “The president chose regions where there already are conflicts between squatters and speculators,” press aide Laura Fonseca said.
Six Chileans were reported killed in demonstrations Wednesday against the military Government of President Augusto Pinochet. More than three dozen people were wounded, six of them seriously. Activity in most of the capital returned to normal today, but the Chilean Human Rights Commission said there were scattered incidents during the day in which the police used tear gas to disperse crowds in two outlying neighborhoods. It was unclear if there were any injuries.
Mixed-race youths hurled rocks and gasoline bombs at homes in a white suburb of Cape Town and white residents responded with gunfire, the South African authorities said. The incident was the first known spilling of racial violence into a white area in a year of unrest in South Africa that has claimed over 670 lives and forced the authorities to declare a state of emergency in 36 districts. Two people of mixed racial descent were reported injured in the incident Wednesday night, adding to over 160 wounded since unrest first flared here last week after years of quiescence.
South Africa, acting to defuse a financial crisis that threatened its ability to engage in world trade, pledged to stand behind the international debts of all of its banks. The statement by Gerhard de Kock, the head of the central bank, came in response to private pleas by leading international bankers and emphasized support for Nedbank, the country’s largest indigenous bank. Nedbank has for days been the focus of the deep concern among the world’s bankers that disrupted the normal flow of funds to and from South Africa.
President Reagan attends a National Security Planning Group meeting to discuss signing or vetoing pending legislation calling for sanctions against South Africa. President Reagan met with his top advisers today to discuss how the United States could use its influence to end the violence in South Africa and bring about talks between the Government and prominent black leaders, Administration officials said. No announcements were made on the results of the session, and Larry Speakes, the White House spokesman, had said earlier that no decisions as such were expected. He described the meeting of the National Security Council as “an in-depth review.” The senior aides, who included Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Robert C. McFarlane, the national security adviser, also discussed legislation pending before Congress to impose economic sanctions on South Africa.
House Democratic leaders acceded to a request by liberal lawmakers unhappy with a proposed Pentagon budget to hold a separate vote on cutting $10 billion from next year’s defense bill. The agreement was reached during an hourlong closed meeting in the office of Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill Jr. (D-Massachusetts), which included some of the liberal Democrats along with Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wisconsin), chairman of the Armed Services Committee.
Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger told Congress that the Pentagon has “no problem” with a proposed congressional cut in the Reagan Administration’s MX missile program from 100 to 50 of the nuclear weapons. The Defense Department will not seek any more MX weapons next year to deploy, although it does plan to ask for 21 of them for use in tests and as spares, Weinberger wrote Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wisconsin), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Reagan originally sought 100 of the 10-warhead weapons for basing in Minuteman silos.
President Reagan speaks with Chief of Staff Donald Regan who reports that the unemployment rate in August was the lowest since April 1980.
Joseph Bonanno went to jail in Tucson, Arizona, for refusing to testify about a purported commission governing the Mafia. The ailing, 80-year-old Mr. Bonanno, a major figure in the history of organized crime, repeatedly refused to answer a prosecutor’s questions on the ground that his “doctors instructed me not to testify to protect my life.” But he later was taken to a hospital complaining of chest pains. U.S. District Judge Richard Owen sharply criticized Bonanno, 80, for an “absolute arrogant flouting of the duty to give testimony.” Bonanno, who contended he was too ill to answer questions by federal prosecutors, was taken to the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center and, from there, to St. Mary’s Hospital.
A Federal district judge today refused to set bail for Jerry A. Whitworth, one of four Navy men accused of participating in a Soviet spy ring. Judge John P. Vukasin Jr. said that because Mr. Whitworth could face a life sentence if convicted and “there’s a high probability that he has sequestered funds,” he represented a serious risk. Defense attorneys, who had requested the hearing in an effort to obtain bail, had submitted 25 letters from friends, relatives and former colleagues attesting to the character of the retired Navy radioman. A small group of friends and relatives had pledged money and property to secure bail.
Michael Drummond had strokes, forcing his doctors to begin a search for a human heart under emergency conditions. They said Mr. Drummond, the first recipient of an artificial heart approved by the government for temporary use, had suffered several small strokes and was in very unstable condition. Dr. Jack G. Copeland, the surgeon who a week ago implanted the artificial heart in the patient, Michael Drummond, said that his condition was now so unstable that he was in the most urgent need of a human heart. The North American Transplant Coordinators Organization in Pittsburgh, a clearinghouse for human organ transplants, has been notified and search for a compatible heart has begun. Inquiries had already begun, and although one might be found in a matter of hours, the search could take several days.
Classes began yesterday for Chicago’s 431,000 public school students after a two-day strike of teachers, but walkouts continued elsewhere. A tentative agreement between the Chicago Teachers Union and school board officials was reached Wednesday. The union set a ratification vote for September 19. The two-year pact calls for a 6 percent pay increase in the first year and 3 percent in the second. Also in Illinois, Wheaton-Warrenville District 200 reopened seven schools by yesterday. In Seattle, where teachers struck Tuesday, their representatives and district officials met yesterday. In Rhode Island, walkouts by Pawtucket and Newport teachers continued, as did strikes in four Michigan school districts. In Ohio, teachers stayed out a second day in Toronto. In Pennsylvania, Butler County teachers picketed and Pittsburgh’s Roman Catholic schools were shut a third day.
Food, shelter and water remained scarce today on the Gulf Coast, with the authorities estimating that more than 25,000 families in Mississippi, Florida and Alabama suffered property losses from Hurricane Elena. President Reagan declared Mississippi’s coastal counties of Harrison, Hancock and Jackson a disaster area Wednesday, qualifying them for Federal aid. Alabama officials are seeking that designation for Mobile and Baldwin counties. Wade Guice, the civil defense director for Harrison County, Mississippi, has said the overall destruction appears to rival the $2 billion in damage done by Hurricane Frederic in 1979. Alabama officials estimate that Hurricane Elena did more than $54 million in damage to homes and agriculture.
In efforts to eliminate the AIDS virus from the nation’s blood supply, Federal health officials recommended that any man who has had sexual contact with another man even once in the last eight years refrain from donating blood. The national Centers for Disease Control has considered homosexual or bisexual men with multiple sexual partners to be at increased risk for AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome, which weakens the body’s immune system, leaving the victim helpless to a variety of deadly infections. But the latest recommendation from the Food and Drug Administration, published by the Federal centers here, applies even to men “who may have had only a single contact, and who do not consider themselves homosexual or bisexual.”
A key ecumenical accord is in view, according to a high-level commission of Anglican and Roman Catholic theologians. They said they were close to an agreement on the means of attaining salvation, an issue that has divided the two churches since the 16th-century Reformation. A principal source of conflict has been the question of justification — whether salvation in heaven can be attained by simple faith, as many Protestants assert, or whether it depends on a believer’s good works, as Catholics hold. On Faith, Grace and Conduct An eventual accord, according to members of the commission, would recognize that salvation depends on faith and the “grace of God,” but that its attainment is helped by personal conduct.
12,000 color pictures of the Titanic were taken by two remote-control submarines operated from the research vessel Knorr, which is heading home to Massachusetts after finding the luxury liner that sank in the North Atlantic in 1912. The photographs include evidence that an explosion amidships spewed luggage, cargo and personal effects over the ocean floor.
Eleanor Smeal urged militant plans for the women’s movement on such issues as abortion and equal pay. Mrs. Smeal, the president of the National Organization for Women, called for demonstrations, lawsuits and political action to counter what she called an effort “by fascists and bigots” on the Republican right to roll back gains women and blacks have made in recent decades in the courts and Congress. Speaking at the National Press Club, Mrs. Smeal said her organization, which is $1 million in debt and is losing members, would begin a recruiting campaign on campuses and among corporate and professional women.
The leader of the Covenant, the Sword and the Arm of the Lord, a militant white supremacist group based in north Arkansas, was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years in prison on Federal racketeering and weapon charges. Six other members of the group were also sentenced by Federal District Judge Oren Harris for their roles in illegal activities conducted by the racist group.
The E.P.A. proposed adding 38 sites to its priority list of toxic waste sites requiring expedited cleanup because of the dangers they pose to public health and the environment. The additions bring the total number of sites on the list to 850.
Health officials said nearly 15 million American workers may be exposed to substances known or suspected to cause birth defects and called the problem widespread and serious. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health said in Atlanta that 9 million of the workers are exposed to radio frequency-microwave radiation used for heating and drying in such industries as automobiles, textiles, furniture and rubber. An additional 2 million potentially are exposed to ethylene glycols used in solvents, antifreeze, aviation fuels, brake fluids, paints and paint thinners. Others are exposed to such substances as formaldehyde and lead.
A study of residents living near the Three Mile Island nuclear plant found no evidence of increased cancer as a result of the 1979 accident that released radioactive gas, Pennsylvania health officials said. However, officials added that radiation-caused cancers can take as long as 20 years to develop and promised that health studies will continue in the area southeast of Harrisburg. Authorities said follow-up reports will be issued.
Two disciples of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, once touted as the “guru of free love,” have been exposed to AIDS and have been isolated, spokesmen for the Oregon commune of Rajneeshpuram said. The two followers have been exposed to a virus linked to acquired immune deficiency syndrome, but they have not shown any symptoms of the fatal disease, said Ma Anand Puja of the Rajneesh Medical Corp. The man and woman are being limited in their outside contact, Ma Anand Puja said.
An oppressive September heat wave baked the East Coast, forcing the early closing of many schools, while the remains of Hurricane Elena doused southern Illinois and Kentucky with more than seven inches of rain. Hot, humid weather cut short classes for the second day for thousands of Maryland and Virginia schoolchildren in the Washington area. Record high temperatures were reported throughout the East. The mercury climbed to 96 in the capital, breaking last year’s record of 94. In New York City, it was 94 in Central Park, breaking a record set in 1961.
Major League Baseball:
Lonnie Smith, the first baseball player to testify in the Federal trial of an accused drug dealer, today named Joaquin Andujar, Keith Hernandez and Gary Matthews as players who were involved in cocaine use with him when he was with the Philadelphia Phillies and the St. Louis Cardinals. In his four hours on the witness stand, Smith also identified Dickie Noles and Dick Davis as fellow users, and named Davis, a former major leaguer now playing in Japan, as the person who introduced him in 1981 to Curtis Strong, the Philadelphia caterer who is on trial on 16 charges of cocaine distribution. Strong was one of seven men indicted last May who were accused of selling cocaine to baseball players in Pittsburgh. Smith, a Kansas City Royals outfielder, said he was introduced to Luis Martinez, whom he identified as his St. Louis cocaine supplier, in 1982 through Andujar, who that season was the No. 1 pitcher for the World Series champion Cardinals. Martinez pleaded guilty to two counts of cocaine distribution last year and is in Federal prison serving a three-year sentence, according to Charles Shaw, an assistant United States Attorney in St. Louis. Shaw said that Martinez worked for Andujar by running errands.
Boston’s first two batters — Dwight Evans and Wade Boggs — crack homers off Cleveland’s Neal Heaton in Boston’s 13–6 win in game 1. Evans adds another home run to back Oil Can Boyd’s first win in 7 weeks. Mike Easler and Jim Rice drove in three runs each as the Red Sox routed Cleveland in the opener of the doubleheader. Cleveland wins the nightcap, 9–5. Andre Thornton had a two-run homer for the tribe in that one.
Willie Randolph went 4 for 4, smacking two home runs in a game for the first time in his career, to lead the Yankees to a 7–3 victory over the Oakland A’s. The victory was the sixth straight for the Yankees, and kept them two and a half games behind the division-leading Toronto Blue Jays, who defeated Minnesota, 7–0. Ed Whitson, a winner in just one of his previous five starts, held his own for the most part and came away with his ninth victory against seven defeats. He was cruising along with a 3–0 lead until the sixth inning. Then, with two outs and two A’s on base, Dwayne Murphy hit the first pitch to him over the center-field wall to tie the score. But the Yankees came right back in their half of the inning on Randolph’s first homer to take a 4–3 lead. His second homer came in the eighth, also with bases empty, for the final run.
Doyle Alexander pitched a two-hitter, and Lloyd Moseby hit a home run and drove in three runs tonight to lead the Toronto Blue Jays to a 7-0 victory over the Minnesota Twins. The Blue Jays maintained their two-and-a-half-game lead in the the American League East as the second-place Yankees also won. Alexander (14-8) pitched his first shutout of the season, striking out five and walking one. The right-hander, who was 35 years old on Wednesday, allowed just a double to Kent Hrbek in the fourth inning and a single by Greg Gagne in the sixth.
Omar Moreno, who was out of baseball three days ago, hit an inside-the-park home run in the first inning and then lined a two-run triple that capped a three-run eighth inning for the Royals, who beat the Brewers, 4–1. The victory moved Kansas City one game behind idle first-place California in the American League West. Moreno was signed as a free-agent after being released by the Yankees.
The White Sox routed the Rangers, 11–4, as Harold Baines got four hits in five times at bat, including a three-run homer, and drove in four runs for Chicago. Tim Hulett added a bases-empty home run, and Rudy Law, Daryl Boston, Ozzie Guillen and Joel Skinner had two hits apiece as the White Sox rapped out a total of 16 hits. Joel Davis (2-2) pitched seven innings for the victory. Jeff Russell (1-5) gave up seven runs on eight hits in two-plus innings for Texas.
The Cardinals downed the Cubs, 6–1. Danny Cox (15-8) pitched a two-hitter, walked one, struck out five and went the distance for the 10th time for the Cardinals, who won their third straight and improved their lead to 1 ½ games over the idle Mets in the National League East. Tito Landrum hit a three-run home run, and Willie McGee and Cesar Cedeno each had three hits for the Cardinals. This was the makeup of a game postponed by the players’ strike last month, and the victory improved the Cardinals’ season record over Chicago to 9-2. The big blow by St. Louis came in the fifth inning with the Cardinals holding a 3-1 lead. McGee, who improved his major-league leading average to .368, and Cedeno each singled and the Chicago manager Jim Frey went out to talk to rookie loser Steve Engle (1-3). Landrum blasted Engle’s first pitch after the meeting over the left-field wall for his fourth homer of the season.
The Astros edged the Pirates, 4–3. Bob Knepper (12-10) won his 47th game with Houston, tying Dave Roberts for most victories by an Astro left-hander. Knepper gave up eight hits, and Dave Smith got the final three outs for his 21st save. The victory was the eighth in the last nine games for the Astros. Glenn Davis and Jerry Mumphrey drove in two runs apiece for the Astros.
Cleveland Indians 6, Boston Red Sox 13
Cleveland Indians 9, Boston Red Sox 5
Pittsburgh Pirates 3, Houston Astros 4
Milwaukee Brewers 1, Kansas City Royals 4
Oakland Athletics 3, New York Yankees 7
Chicago Cubs 1, St. Louis Cardinals 6
Chicago White Sox 11, Texas Rangers 4
Minnesota Twins 0, Toronto Blue Jays 7
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1325.83 (-0.89)
Born:
Tyler Colvin, MLB outfielder and first baseman (Chicago Cubs, Colorado Rockies, San Francisco Giants), in Augusta, Georgia.
Tatia Jayne Starkey, Ringo Starr’s firt grandchild, in London, England, United Kingdom.
History Diaries 