The United States’ domination of world arms sales and recurring reports of new weapons deals with foreign governments have evoked new uneasiness among policy-makers and members of Congress over the impact of the arms on world affairs. Sales of American-made weapons have grown from about $2 billion a year in 1967 to about $11 billion in the latest fiscal year. The sales have been spurred in part by federal policies of liberal credit and a benign view of the sales and the rapid obsolescence of arms. Congress is weighing the idea of seeking greater control over the shipments.
Exiled Soviet writer Victor Fainberg estimated that 7% to 10% of patients in Soviet mental hospitals and clinics are actually political prisoners or people being persecuted for religious beliefs. He testified on the second day of an unofficial hearing on violation of human rights in the Soviet Union. It was organized by Soviet and Soviet bloc exiles in Denmark. The Kremlin has attacked the ‘conference as a gathering aimed at sabotaging detente.
French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing said in Paris that “further important decisions” concerning the Russians were expected next year, including a possible 60% to 80% increase in France’s oil imports from the Soviet Union. He said that the economic and trade agreements he signed during his just-completed five-day visit to Russia amounted to $568 million. France now gets about 3% of its oil from Russia.
Two U.S. soldiers drowned when their armored personnel carrier slid off the river bank at Kitzingen, West Germany, bringing the number of victims in current NATO maneuvers to eight dead and 20 to 30 persons injured. Three Americans were killed Friday. German police and maneuver headquarters appealed for more caution on roads in areas where about 57,000 soldiers, including 10,000 Americans, were operating.
Combined army and police teams sealed off the Howth Head Peninsula just northeast of Dublin and made a house-to-house search for the kidnappers of Dutch businessman Tiede Herrema. It was in that area where Herrema’s latest taped plea for help was found in the mailbox of a policeman’s house. Herrema, 52, was kidnaped near his Limerick home October 3. His captors have demanded the release from custody of three Irish guerrillas in return for his safety.
Pope Paul VI, leader of the Roman Catholic Church, criticized the Protestant Reformation that had been led in the 16th century by Martin Luther. In a speech in favor of European unity, the Pope said that “The Reformation, it is a historical fact, has contributed to a dispersion.” In a rare critical reference to Protestant history, Pope Paul VI said the Reformation of Martin Luther’s time had worked against European unity. “The Reformation, it is a fact, has contributed to dispersion,” he told more than 100 bishops, cardinals and prelates at a Vatican City symposium. His comments appeared aimed at spurring the bishops into a more active role in spreading Roman Catholicism.
The USSR performs a nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya.
Establishment of a $5 billion fund to aid developing nations hit by increased oil prices was discussed by financial experts of the world’s oil exporting countries. A report to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will be submitted to that body’s finance ministers meeting in Vienna in November. Iranian Oil Minister Jamshid Amouzegar proposed that part of the price increase be used to establish a 5-year, $5 billion aid program of outright grants to developing nations.
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s government issued an ordinance amending India’s Internal Security Act, saying the government no longer must disclose to anyone-including the judiciary-reasons for arrests made under the act, thus making it more difficult for the courts to free political prisoners. The ordinance was made retroactive to June 29 to forestall persons already in jail from challenging their arrests.
There is evidence that military units of the ousted South Vietnamese government are resisting the Communists in scattered regions. Saigon’s radio has twice reported seizing “former puppet soldiers.” The latest broadcast said that 500 of the insurgents, including many officers, had “gathered to harass the revolution and disrupt security and order.”
With the Vietnam war ended, the arrival of foreign diplomats and technicians in Hanoi has brought back capitalist customs such as tipping and bribes traditionally disdained by a Marxist society. If a customer wants some good meat in a state-run butcher shop or to be served speedily in a state-run restaurant, he can grease a palm.
Reporters traveling with Secretary of State Kissinger, who is to arrive in Peking tomorrow, were given the impression that Soviet-American relations would be high on the agenda for Mr. Kissinger’s four days of meetings with Chinese leaders. The impression was that relations among Peking, Moscow and Washington were entering a new phase and that the key to this phase was relations between Moscow and Washington. Chinese leaders, the newsmen were told, are concerned about Washington’s ability to maintain a balance of power in the face of Moscow’s ambition and military strength.
In Hong Kong, Chinese officials indicated that Peking was disappointed but still patient with the slow progress of relations with Washington. For example, in the year since Mr. Kissinger was last in China on his seventh visit, there has been little movement on the critical issue of Washington’s ties with the Chinese Nationalist government.
The giant Kohjin Co.’s application for corporate rehabilitation was approved by a Tokyo court, saving the firm from failure. The diversified textile corporation filed for bankruptcy Aug. 28, listing liabilities of $489 million.
A high American diplomat charged that Chile had voted for a draft resolution linking Zionism with racism in a United Nations committee in return for Arab support against charges that Chilean authorities were responsible for torture and other violations of human rights. Chile, the American official said, “sold her vote to the Arabs.”
In Santiago, lawyers and church groups have compiled hundreds of documented incidents of torture of political prisoners. The issue is a highly sensitive one for the junta governing Chile.
Three of the nation’s leading bankers warned Congress that a default by New York City would adversely affect international currency markets and they urged Congress to enact legislation to ease the city’s fiscal plight. The three bankers — David Rockefeller, chairman of Chase Manhattan; Walter Wriston, chairman of the First National City Bank, and Elmore Patterson, chairman of Morgan Guaranty Trust — issued the warning in a joint statement before the Senate banking committee. Earlier in an interview Mr. Rockefeller went further, saying that the city’s fiscal crisis had already had international repercussions and had contributed to the decline of the value of the dollar.
The impact of New York City’s fiscal crisis is being felt around the nation. When cities and states borrow money by selling securities in the bond market staggered by New York’s crisis, the cost is shared by American taxpayers and homeowners. By some estimates, the debacle will cost local and state governments and taxpayers an extra $3 billion for a single year of borrowing at swollen interest rates.
Governor Carey’s staff is working with Democratic Senate aides in Washington on a plan to get the federal government to guarantee New York City’s borrowing for a limited time — perhaps one to three years — and to set up a special panel to monitor city budget cuts. The conferees believe that a $5 billion guarantee is the necessary amount to meet the city’s borrowing requirements.
President Ford signed an executive order ending all Navy control over Culebra, an island off Puerto Rico that the Navy had used as a bombing and gunfire target until this year. The Ford Administration, responding to repeated complaints from Puerto Rico, had stopped the use of targets on the island July 1 and ended all weapons training activities in the area September 30.
Four officials of the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration have resigned and five have been reprimanded after an investigation of hiring practices, a spokesman said. The report by the General Accounting Office said the agency had violated Civil Service regulations when it had hired applicants as consultants or temporary employees while trying to get them approved as permanent employees.
Northrop Corp. has been notified by the Pentagon that in the future it must provide detailed reports on certain overhead expenses charged to the government under defense contracts. Many contractors are allowed to omit detailed accounting to minimize paper work. In a separate statement the Pentagon said its auditors had found no evidence that the Department of Defense had reimbursed Northrop for hunting lodge costs or tickets to sports and other events, but Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wisconsin) called this “an out and out falsehood.” Congressmen have charged that Northrop and other major defense contractors were improperly charging the Pentagon for the costs of entertaining defense officials, political donations and lobbyists’ salaries.
A man described by authorities as a “maniac” shot and killed three adults and three grade school-age children in a home in Sutherland, Nebraska, and then fled. The victims apparently were all related. Authorities warned residents of the town of 850 persons to stay home and lock their doors as law enforcement men made a street-to-street search for the killer, who reportedly carried a shotgun. The Lincoln County sheriff’s office said it was seeking a man in his early thirties. He was described as being about 5 feet 9, having black hair and wearing a brown and white jacket and blue jeans. Authorities withheld the names of the victims.
Valium, the drug most often prescribed by doctors to treat anxiety, has become the No. 1 choice of drug abusers, according to a study released by the National Council on Drug Abuse. Dr. Jordan Scher, executive director of the council, said the statistics “mean that an excellent drug for medical purposes is being overused medically and is certainly being abused by drug abusers.” Scher said the study showed that since 1973 there had been nearly double the number of “Valium mentions” in drug overdose cases and “involvements with Valium in drug overdose deaths” had increased up to five times.
Despite inflation, recession and high charges, the nation’s private college “prep” schools are steadily growing in enrollment and popularity. Public schools, under criticism by middle class parents, are experiencing declining enrollments, frozen budgets and reduced services. But many private day and boarding schools are enlarging their programs, starting costly building plans and routinely turning away applicants.
The Department of Agriculture, in an unusual action, moved to put a Louisiana grain inspection agency out of business and to revoke the warehouse license of a grain company whose shipments the agency was authorized to inspect and grade. The action was reportedly caused by government findings of a pattern of alleged kickbacks and profiteering involving the agency and officials of the company. The two are the Delta Weighing and Inspection Bureau, Inc., and the Mississippi River Grain Elevator, Inc.
Scientists have reported mapping, on the genetic material of a virus, the precise location of the gene that makes a cell become cancerous. The studies of viruses in animals, by a team at the University of California, Berkeley, have no immediate relevance to the problem of human cancer, but they represent an advance in understanding the complex events through which viruses and living cells interact to produce cancer.
The worst outbreak since 1924 of bubonic plague in California has prompted state and federal health officials to treat forest animal burrows with insecticides. Authorities hope to kill the fleas on the animals which can transmit the disease. Two campgrounds in Plumas National Forest have been the target of the insecticide treatment, but a state biologist said the areas, Grasshopper Flats and Grizzly Campgrounds, should be safe for camping when they open next Spring
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency called the first air pollution alert in state history when carbon monoxide levels exceeded federal standards in downtown Rochester. The Mayo Clinic and two hospitals were warned to shut off their air intake systems for several hours when carbon monoxide readings reached an average of 18.3 parts per million, above the 15 ppm alert level.
The drummer of the pop music group known as the Who spent the night in a Scottish jail and was fined $120 after he admitted having maliciously damaged an airline ticket desk computer at Prestwick Airport. Keith Moon, 30, of Sherman Oaks, was accused of shouting and swearing and of punching a computer, which then broke down. Moon’s flight had been diverted to Prestwick because of bad weather and he said he had become angry after being shunted around all day.
Simon & Garfunkel reunite on “Saturday Night Live”, sing “My Little Town.”
1975 World Series:
After a travel day, Game Six is postponed due to rain.
Born:
Alex Cora, Puerto Rican MLB shortstop, second baseman, and third baseman (World Series champions, 2007; Los Angeles Dodgers, Cleveland Indians, Boston Red Sox, New York Mets, Texas Rangers, Washington Nationals), and manager, 2018-19 & 2021- (Boston Red Sox), in Caguas, Puerto Rico.
Jean-Guy Trudel, Canadian NHL left wing (Phoenix Coyotes, Minnesota Wild), in Sudbury, Ontario.
Died:
Graham Haberfield, 33, British TV actor, of heart failure.
Al Lettieri, 47, American movie actor (“The Godfather”), of a heart attack.
History Diaries 