France’s Defense Minister resigned and the head of its intelligence agency was dismissed as the Government sought to resolve a political crisis surrounding the sabotage of an anti-nuclear protest ship in New Zealand. The departures of Charles Hernu and Admiral Pierre Lacoste represented a tacit admission by Paris that its agents were responsible for the sinking of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior. Press reports have linked the two officials to complicity in the bombing of the vessel, the Rainbow Warrior. Both denied responsibility for the sinking. The Defense Minister, Charles Hernu, an associate of President Francois Mitterrand for nearly 30 years and an architect of the Socialist Government’s military modernization program, gave his resignation to Prime Minister Laurent Fabius this morning. Mr. Fabius then announced, in a letter to Mr. Mitterrand, that the chief of the French intelligence agency, Adm. Pierre Lacoste, had been relieved of his duties.
The police in New Zealand say that they have collected more than 200 witnesses and 1,000 pieces of evidence in the sinking of the Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior in July, but that they have no proof of French Government involvement. One of their problems, a spokesman said today, is a difficulty in obtaining reliable information from the French, who have been slow to respond to requests from New Zealand. “Dealings with the French Government have been very, very awkward,” said Detective Sgt. Terence J. Bachelor. “It’s hard to get information, and when we do get it, it’s hard to tell if it’s reliable or not.”
In the political stagecraft preceding the November summit meeting in Geneva, Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger appears to have assigned himself the job of dashing what he regards as exaggerated expectations. Lest the audience or the other players forget, Mr. Weinberger has filled the theater of diplomacy with reminders that he considers the Soviet Union the villain of world affairs. He has revealed what he says are new details of Soviet efforts to buy or steal American military technology. He has urged cutbacks in the number of Soviet citizens allowed in the United States, saying they are all intelligence agents “or might just as well be.”
A Turkish witness for the prosecution in the papal plot trial denied today that accomplices of Mehmet Ali Ağca received $1.2 million from the Bulgarian secret service to kill Pope John Paul II, as Mr. Ağca had charged. The witness, Yalcin Ozbey, testified that he was in contact with two purported accomplices of Mr. Ağca, the Pope’s convicted assailant, “in a continuous way” after the 1981 shooting. “If they had received the money, they would have told me,” Mr. Ozbey said. “I would have seen it from their style of life.” Instead, he said, the two, Oral Celik and Sedat Sirri Kadem, visited him in West Germany two or three months after the shooting to borrow money.
For the first time since the end of the Korean war 32 years ago, North and South Koreans met and embraced long-separated relatives living on the other side of the fortified Korean border. Tearful reunions, at times intensely emotional, were held in a large hotel room in eastern Seoul as 15 North Koreans met brothers, sisters, cousins and uncles they had not seen for decades. Several learned for the first time that their parents had died. Most of them, like a 51-year-old North Korean man named Lee Yun Koo, sobbed hard.
Philippine soldiers fatally shot 14 people in a town 300 miles south of Manila during protests marking the 13th anniversary of martial law. Officials said the troops in the town of Escalante had opened fire in self-defense. It was the worst such violence in the 20 years of President Ferdinand E. Marcos’s rule since the opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr. was killed in Manila in 1983, witnesses and authorities said.
The bodies of 1,300 victims of the earthquake Thursday have been recovered in Mexico City and 1,000 more people are still missing, a Government spokesman reported. Tonight, a second temblor of undetermined magnitude struck, knocking out power in the northern part of the capital. The spokesman said that more than 5,000 people had been treated in Mexico City hospitals and that the death toll there might exceed 3,000. Officials said at least 250 buildings in the capital had been destroyed and 50 more damaged beyond use. The cost was put at “astronomical.” Red Cross workers said tonight’s earthquake toppled buildings in the downtown area and the Roma district, where damage in the initial quake had been heavy. In Mexico City, across from what was once his six-story building on Calle Atenas, in the Juarez district, Miguel Ramos watched as demolition crews pulled down debris that was hanging perilously over the streets. Four of the stories had fallen into the remaining two, and there was still one person inside, Mr. Ramos said. “He must have been turned into dust by now,” he added sadly.
Thirty-six people were killed and 354 injured Thursday when the earthquake struck a series of towns in Jalisco State, northwest of Mexico City, according to reports reaching here today. The worst damage in the region was said to be in Ciudad Guzman and several nearby towns. Officials said 38 people remained hospitalized today in Ciudad Guzman. Eight others were transferred to hospitals in Guadalajara. Most were reported hurt in the collapse of houses.
Seeking news of the missing and waiting to identify the dead were common experiences for many of the 18 million residents of Mexico City. Recovery, narrow escapes and inescapable loss seemed to have occurred again and again against a backdrop of crushed buildings, wailing ambulances and grim crowds. The Hotel del Carlo stood like a cracked accordion on the Plaza de la Republica. Smoke rose from the debris of the Hotel Romano, five blocks away, while on the Avenida Juarez anxious family members gathered to await word about relatives buried in the debris of a Government technical school.
Hispanic residents of Los Angeles sought information on friends and relatives in Mexico, but remained virtually cut off from any communication with the earthquake-ravaged country. While officials from relief organizations and Government agencies exhorted residents to be calm and wait, local Hispanic organizations mobilized to distribute what little information they have and gather aid for the victims. The Mexican consulate and Spanish-language news organizations have been flooded with telephone calls from anxious relatives and people offering help, but the extensive damage to the communications systems in Mexico has hampered the release of news and stalled the efforts of the aid groups. At the consulate, telephones rang steadily as staff members repeated the same message in Spanish and English. “We’re sorry, but we have no contact now with the offices in Mexico,” Enrique Silva Guzman, deputy consul general, told a caller in Spanish. “All I can do is to take down your name and the name of your family members, put them on the lists, and wait until we can communicate with Mexico.”
American officials said today that the Mexican Government had declined, for the time being, to accept offers of financial help from the United States to aid in earthquake relief. Starting Thursday night, and throughout the day today, President Reagan, both houses of Congress and spokesmen at the State Department made repeated offers of aid. But Secretary of State George P. Shultz, who met today with Mexico’s Ambassador, Jorge Espinosa de las Reyes, said that Mexico had requested only the assistance of emergency technicians from the United States. After a 30-minute meeting at the State Department, Mr. Shultz told reporters that Mexico had asked for help from American mine rescue technicians, expert in probing rubble for signs of life, and from demolition teams trained in safely razing teetering buildings, damaged beyond repair by the earthquake.
Nicaragua filed a $375 million compensation claim against the United States at the World Court today. Nicaraguan representatives, accusing the Reagan Administration of using a “big stick” policy against the Sandinista Government, said the sum represented damages caused by United State aggression. Nicaragua also asked the Court to order the United States Government to stop supporting anti-Sandinista rebels. On the last day of oral pleadings in the case, Carlos Arguello, Nicaragua’s Ambassador to the Netherlands and head of his nation’s legal team, asked for “$375 million in compensation from the United States, which reflects the minimum direct damage suffered by Nicaragua as a result of the United States violations of international law.” The United States has boycotted the proceedings, asserting that the Court has no jurisdiction. The Court ruled in November that it had such authority.
Thousands of Bolivian mine workers defied back-to-work orders today after President Victor Paz Estenssoro decreed a state of siege and banished 144 strike leaders into internal exile. But rail service, long-distance telephone service and oil pipeline deliveries resumed, indicating dwindling support for a 17-day-old general strike. At least 520 union officials and strikers were arrested Thursday in raids on union halls and workplaces. They were fasting to protest a wage freeze and other Government measures to stem the world’s highest inflation rate, 14,000 percent annually. Top labor leaders were sent from this Andean capital to two Amazon villages, but a clandestine command continued directing the illegal strike. The leftist-led Workers Central called the strike September 4, in a direct challenge to a new President determined to curb its power.
South Africa acknowledged today for the first time that it was supporting the rebels fighting the Angolan Government. Defense Minister Magnus Malan, in making the admission, said the support for the insurgents, led by Jonas Savimbi, would be halted “on condition that all foreign forces are withdrawn from Angola,” a reference to the 25,000 to 30,000 Cubans supporting the Marxist Government in Luanda. It was unclear tonight whether he was formally offering Angola a trade-off. Earlier this week, South Africa said its troops went into southern Angola after rebels challenging Pretoria’s disputed control of South-West Africa. Those soldiers, according to a military communique issued Thursday by South Africa, were to be withdrawn by the weekend.
The Rev. Allan Boesak, a prominent anti-apartheid leader, was formally charged and freed on bail today after nearly a month in detention. He was released after being charged with subversion under a section of this nation’s vast body of security laws. The charges related to calls by Dr. Boesak for school and consumer boycotts and withdrawal of foreign investments. He was also accused of involvement in illegal gatherings.
Vice President Bush met today with the families of the six remaining American hostages in Lebanon and told them that the United States would be willing to talk to the captors to try to gain their release. Participants in the meeting said Mr. Bush made the statement in response to a question from a family member. It was the first group meeting he has had with them. According to Marlin Fitzwater, Mr. Bush’s press secretary, the statement was consistent with the Administration’s policy and was made after the Vice President had said the Administration was willing “to meet with any responsible officials” to gain the Americans’ freedom.
President Reagan travels to Bethesda Naval Hospital for a post-operative check up where he is pronounced to have made a 100% recovery. President Reagan today underwent the first of a series of what the White House called “normal and routine” medical examinations, and doctors said later that he had made a “complete recovery” from the surgery he underwent in July. A White House statement late today said doctors at the Bethesda Naval Medical Center had reported a “100 percent complete recovery” from the operation in which a cancerous polyp was removed along with a section of the President’s colon. The announcement today did not mention cancer, nor did it say specifically whether physicians had examined Mr. Reagan for a recurrence of cancer. However, some of the tests that the President underwent today are among those routinely administered to check for a reappearance of cancerous growths or cells in patients who have had malignancies removed, according to medical authorities.
President Reagan travels to Camp David for the weekend.
Secretary of Agriculture John R. Block said today that omnibus agriculture bills pending in both the Senate and House would need “major surgery” to avert a veto by President Reagan. The Administration’s principal objections to both bills centers on their costs and on a four-year extension of current levels of income subsidies to farmers, Mr. Block said. The Administration favors a one-year extension of such subsidies before beginning to eliminate them.
An inquiry on academic standards is under way, the Justice Department said. It disclosed it was investigating whether public schools had engaged in an “offensive” form of discrimination by lowering the standards to make it easier for minority students to graduate. William Bradford Reynolds, the Associate Attorney General for civil rights, said the inquiry was begun after reports some minority students were placed in programs “that were not teaching them the basic fundamentals but were geared to just getting them through and giving them a diploma.” To avoid charges of discrimination, he said in an interview today, some schools may have downgraded their curriculums to assure that large numbers of minority students graduate. “If it’s something that can be tied to race,” he said, “then it is highly offensive to the Constitution.”
John Z. DeLorean was indicted by a Federal grand jury today on charges that he defrauded investors in the failed DeLorean Motor Company of $12.5 million and used $8.9 million of that amount for his own enrichment. The indictment charges in part that Mr. DeLorean, once regarded as heir apparent to the presidency of the General Motors Corporation, engaged in a pattern of racketeering beginning in 1978 that stemmed from his conduct of the business of DeLorean Motors. Mr. DeLorean’s lawyer said the former automobile executive would plead not guilty. Mr. DeLorean was accused of using the $8.9 million to help buy the Logan Manufacturing Company, which is based in Utah and makes equipment for grooming ski slopes, and to buy such personal items as $28,000 in jewelry.
Representative Jim Broyhill announced today that he would run for the United States Senate seat being vacated next year by Senator John P. East, setting the stage for a potentially divisive Republican primary. Mr. Broyhill, a 12-term Republican Congressman, will compete in the primary against David Funderburk, who resigned in March as United States Ambassador to Rumania. Mr. East has endorsed Mr. Funderburk, as has the conservative National Congressional Club, the political action committee that was a key part of Senator Jesse A. Helms’s 1984 re-election victory over Gov. James B. Hunt Jr., a Democrat.
A Federal appellate court panel ruled today that the public and the press had no constitutional right to see documents and depositions during civil trials in which such materials were used as evidence. The decision could be an important precedent for delaying public access to trial records until after the trial has ended and public interest about the matter has waned. The 2-to-1 ruling upheld a decision in the 1982 trial of a libel suit by the president of the Mobil Oil Company against The Washington Post. The trial judge had refused to allow immediate public access to documents that Mobil contended were confidential.
Three states, the District of Columbia and the Federal Government today made public a comprehensive blueprint for cleaning up the polluted waters of the Chesapeake Bay. The plan, announced at a news conference by the Governors of Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania, Mayor Marion S. Barry Jr. of Washington and Lee M. Thomas, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, calls for coordinated and sustained efforts to reduce the flow of toxic substances and organic nutrients into the great Chesapeake estuary. While no overall figure was given for the total cost of the cleanup effort, Mr. Thomas said that “millions and millions and hundreds of millions of dollars over time” would be required. A key feature of the plan is that it would hold each governmental jurisdiction surrounding the bay and its tributaries accountable for financing and carrying out its part of the cleanup effort.
A laywer for the Justice Department told a Federal judge today that the Reagan Administration had “no hidden agenda” behind its motion to dismiss an indictment of Allen Friedman, the uncle of Jackie Presser, the teamsters’ union leader. At a hearing here, the lawyer, William Bryson, reiterated the Justice Department’s position that it would rather not try Mr. Friedman again than confirm or deny whether Mr. Presser, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, was ever a Government informer. Mr. Bryson said that this argument was supported by several cases that allowed prosecutors to shield the identity of informers. The hearing was before Federal District Judge Sam H. Bell, who heard the original case in which Mr. Friedman was convicted on embezzlement charges. Judge Bell said he would issue a written opinion in the case. He suggested in his comments that he saw constitutional barriers to a judge’s forcing the executive branch to particpate in a new trial for Mr. Friedman.
Teachers in Rhode Island reached a tentative agreement in their strike today, allowing 53 violators of a back-to-work order to be freed from jail. But picket lines remained up at schools in five states affecting 68,000 students. Most of the disputes were over pay.
In Monmouth County, New Jersey, teachers in Marlboro Township settled a strike this afternoon that began in the morning while teachers in the Manalapan Englishtown Regional District continued a walkout for the second day. Terms of the tentative three-year agreement reached in Pawtucket were not released. It was to be submitted to teachers for a ratification vote. The proposed settlement allowed the freeing of 53 teachers sent to jail on contempt-of-court charges.In Marlboro, where most of the 3,600 students remained out of school, teachers agreed to a tentative contract and scheduled a vote on ratification Sunday. In Manalapan Englishtown, with 3,300 students, contract talks are scheduled Sunday.
California’s 26 Roman Catholic bishops, who are unanimously opposed to the death penalty, want lawmakers to make their own decision on the issue based on conscience rather than public opinion. “Capital punishment is not the best response we can make as a society to violent and even heinous crime,” the bishops said Thursday in a statement declaring their opposition to capital punishment. The statement, released at a news conference in the Cathedral of Sacramento, is consistent with stands taken by Pope John Paul II and other regional bishops’ conferences in the United States and other countries. Bishop John Cummins of Oakland, president of the Catholic California Conference, said the church planned no sanctions against Catholic lawmakers and voters who disagreed with the church, although the bishops hoped disagreement would be based on conscience rather than public opinion.
The nation’s first professorship in humane ethics and animal welfare has been established at the University of Pennsylvania, school officials announced today. The endowed professorship at the university’s School of Veterinary Medicine comes on the heels of complaints about the school’s use of baboons in experiments on head injuries. One goal of the endowed professorship will be to investigate alternatives to animal experiments for medical research, according to Robert Marshak, dean of the veterinary school. The professorship was a gift from an animal welfare activist, Marie Moore. Earlier this month, the United States Department of Agriculture lodged a complaint against the university’s animal research laboratory and fined the school $4,000 for inadequate sanitation, veterinary care, ventilation and anesthesia.
Walt Disney World in Florida records its 200-millionth guest.
Major League Baseball:
A federal jury in Pittsburgh convicts Curtis Strong of 11 counts of cocaine distribution after a trial whose prosecution witnesses revealed how widely the drug problem afflicts major league baseball. Prominent players who were granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for testimony include Dave Parker, Lonnie Smith, Keith Hernandez, Jeffrey Leonard, and Tim Raines. Also escaping prosecution because he cooperated with the FBI is Pittsburgh’s mascot Pirate Parrot AKA Kevin Koch.
Their eighth consecutive loss, a 4–2 decision to the Baltimore Orioles, rubbed the Yankees the wrong way tonight, but then, Manager Billy Martin rubbed his nose at the wrong instant, and it was that ill-timed act that helped the Yankees tumble six and a half games behind Toronto. Martin’s rub occurred in the seventh inning and contributed to the Orioles’ two-run rally that decided the game and put the Yankees in their most precarious position of the season. Martin’s pitch-out sign is touching his nose. Martin rubbed his nose with thinking, and catcher Butch Wynegar just happened to be looking. The mistake led toa walk, followed by two run-scoring hits. With the Blue Jays defeating Milwaukee, 7–5, the Yankees fell further from first than they have been since August 15 and were faced with this irrefutable fact of pennant-race life: Any combination of their losses and Toronto victories totaling 10 will mark an end to the Yankees’ presence in that race. The Yankees have only 15 games left.
Jimmy Key pitched a one-hitter for seven innings and Garth Iorg and Rance Mulliniks each drove in two runs as Toronto held off Milwaukee to win, 7–5. Key (14–6) retired the first nine Milwaukee batters before Paul Molitor extended his hitting streak to 11 games by leading off the fourth inning with his 10th home run of the season. Key left in the eighth with two runners on base and nobody out, and the reliever Tom Henke gave up a run-scoring single to Randy Ready.
Henke ran into trouble in the ninth when Ted Simmons and Earnest Riles led off with singles and, one out later, Paul Householder hit his eighth home run of the season to make it 7–5. Gary Lavelle relieved Henke and struck out the final two batters for his seventh save.
At the Royals Stadium, Steve Balboni hits a 1st inning grand slam, off Bert Blyleven, and the Royals ride it to a 5–1 win over the Twins. The Royals snap a four-game losing skid. Balboni, mired in a 3-for-30 slump, hit a 2–1 offering from Bert Blyleven (14–16) over the left-field fence for his 33rd home run. He will hit three more homers to set the Royals team record. Charlie Leibrandt gave up eight hits in 7 ⅓ innings and improved his record to 16–8.
Bob Boone crashed into the Cleveland catcher Jerry Willard and jarred the ball loose to score the go-ahead run in the seventh inning as California won 7–5 over the Indians and stayed tied Kansas City for first place in the American League West. With the score tied at 5–5, Boone started the seventh with a single off the reliever Dave Van Ohlen, who had held the Angels hitless since a five-run first inning. Boone took second on a sacrifice by Gary Pettis. Rod Carew then singled to center, and Brett Butler’s throw home was in plenty of time. But Boone bowled over Willard and scored. Carew took second on the play, advanced to third on a single by Brian Downing and scored Reggie Jackson’s sacrifice fly.
Jack Morris threw a seven-hitter at Boston, and Chet Lemon hit a home run and a two-run single to give the Tigers their fourth win in a row, downing the Red Sox, 6–2. Wade Boggs, the major league’s leading hitter, had two more hits to give him 221. He needs one more to break Tris Speaker’s 73-year-old Red Sox record for hits in a season. He has 14 games left to break the record, and is batting .373.
The White Sox pummeled the A’s, 10–4. Ron Kittle hit a home run and drove in three runs at Chicago to lead the White Sox assault on Tommy John. John gave up 10 hits in 3 ⅓ innings.
In a wild one at Arlington, Texas, Phil Bradley singled home a run in the ninth to put the Mariners in front. But Bobby Jones and Ellis Valentine hit homers in the bottom of the inning to win it for the Rangers, 10–9.
Cesar Cedeno and Terry Pendleton hit consecutive triples in the ninth inning tonight to break a 3–3 tie and send the St. Louis Cardinals to a 5–3 victory over the Montreal Expos. The victory moved the Cardinals two games ahead of the Mets in the National League East race. With one out in the ninth, Cedeno tripled past first base off reliever Randy St. Claire (4–3). Pendleton followed with a triple to the same spot, scoring Cedeno. Ozzie Smith followed with a squeeze bunt to score Pendleton. Todd Worrell (2–0) pitched two scoreless innings for the victory.
It took four hours, 12 pitchers and 11 innings to complete, and it may haunt the Mets’ memories of their 1985 pennant race for a long time: the night they lost a 7–5 thriller to the Pittsburgh Pirates, the team with the worst record in baseball, in a game decided on a bad-hop single. It was an evening that started with Ron Darling pitching for the Mets and that ended with rookies trying to prevent exactly what happened. And it happened in the 11th when Bill Latham walked Sixto Lezcano, who took second on a bunt and scored on a grounder that R. J. Reynolds hit at Keith Hernandez. But the ball took a high hop over the surest glove in town, and the Mets were suddenly and maddeningly behind.
The Reds downed the Astros, 5–3. Max Venable’s pinch-hit double broke a 2–2 tie and Eddie Milner’s single drove in two more runs in the four-run sixth that snapped the Astros’ nine-game winning streak. The Reds, who started the night five and a half games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West, won their sixth consecutive game and their ninth of 11. Jay Tibbs (9–15), for whom Venable batted, gained the victory. Tom Hume and Ted Power finished; Power pitched the ninth for his 23d save.
The Cubs topped the Phillies, 3–1. Ryne Sandberg hit a two-run home run at Philadelphia, and rookie Reggie Patterson and Lee Smith combined on a six-hitter.
The Padres crushed the Braves, 11–1. Garry Templeton had four hits, and Tony Gwynn drove in four runs at San Diego as the Padres found a team they could handle with ease. It was the fifth loss in a row for the hapless Braves.
The last place Giants sent a note of cheer to their fans Friday night, then delivered a poison-pen letter to the Dodgers. The crowd of 10,484 at Candlestick Park received a personal message from the team’s new president, Al Rosen, who promised the usual fresh approach. His closing line: “Beat the Dodgers.” That much the Giants lived up to, winning, 5–3, and cutting the Dodger lead to 4 ½ games over the second-place Cincinnati Reds. It was the Dodgers’ third loss in a row and the fifth in their last six games. The Reds, winners of six in a row, have cut five games off the Dodger lead in a week, the worst seven-day stretch experienced by the Dodgers since the middle of May. Once again, the bullpen collapsed, as reliever Tom Niedenfuer was unable to protect a 3–2 lead that he inherited from Fernando Valenzuela in the seventh. Niedenfuer gave up a tying single to Bob Brenly and a two-run pinch single to Chris Brown.
New York Yankees 2, Baltimore Orioles 4
Detroit Tigers 6, Boston Red Sox 2
Cleveland Indians 5, California Angels 7
Oakland Athletics 4, Chicago White Sox 10
Cincinnati Reds 5, Houston Astros 3
Minnesota Twins 1, Kansas City Royals 5
Pittsburgh Pirates 7, New York Mets 5
Chicago Cubs 3, Philadelphia Phillies 1
Atlanta Braves 1, San Diego Padres 11
Los Angeles Dodgers 3, San Francisco Giants 5
Montreal Expos 3, St. Louis Cardinals 5
Seattle Mariners 9, Texas Rangers 10
Milwaukee Brewers 5, Toronto Blue Jays 7
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1297.94 (-8.85)
Born:
Ian Desmond, MLB shortstop, outfielder, and first baseman (All-Star, 2012, 2016; Washington Nationals, Texas Rangers, Colorado Rockies), in Sarasota, Florida.
Kevin Mattison, MLB pinch hitter and outfielder (Miami Marlins), in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Curtis Brinkley, NFL running back (San Diego Chargers), in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Moisés Fuentes, Mexican boxer (WBO minimumweight title 2011-13; WBO interim junior flyweight title 2013-14), in Mexico City, Mexico (d. 2022, from a blood clot in his brain as the result of a 2021 fight with David Cuellar).
History Diaries 