In Uganda, the hijackers of Air France Flight 139 freed 47 of their 257 hostages, including mothers, children, elderly people, and ailing people. The other 210, including all 70 Israeli citizens on board and the entire 12-member crew, remained captive. Forty-seven of the passengers held by hijackers of a French airliner in Uganda were freed, but about 210 hostages, including more than 70 Israelis, remained in the hijackers’ custody. President Idi Amin of Uganda said negotiations with five governments over the hijackers’ demands for the release of 53 prisoners were deadlocked. The hijackers, who say they are members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said they would blow up the hostages and the Air France airbus they captured Sunday over Greece unless their demand was met by 3 PM tomorrow [8 AM Thursday. New York time].
President Amin appealed to the five countries involved Israel, West Germany, Kenya. France and Switzerland — to satisfy the hijackers’ demands to free the prisoners, who are Palestinians and sympathizers with the Palestinian cause. A Uganda statement said the hijackers, half a dozen young men and women armed with machine guns and dynamite, made new threats today to kill the hostages, who are crowded into an unused airport lounge beside Lake Victoria. The hijackers also ordered Uganda troops to withdraw 200 yards from the lounge. The Uganda Government quoted them as saying they did not want anybody to come near them and would let President Amin know if they needed medicine or other items.
Israel was in continuous consultation today with France, West Germany and other governments, urging them to stand firm against the demands of hijackers of an Air France jetliner for the release of 53 prisoners in exchange for the passengers still being held on Uganda. There was no immediate indication, however, how Israel itself would respond to the demand. Government officials cautiously declined to discuss whether Israel would consider releasing some or all of the 40 prisoners the hijackers want freed from Israeli prisons. This list includes Kozo Okamato, the sole survivor of suicide attack by the extremist Japanese Red Army on the Lod Airport in May 1972, in which six people were killed, and Archbishop Hilarion Capucci, the Syrian‐born head of the Greek Catholic community in Jerusalem, who was jailed in 1974 on gun‐running charges. Israel’s strategy for the moment is apparently to attempt to weld a common front among the countries involved and try to face down the hijackers or, at the very least, win a postponement of the deadline the hijackers have set.
Forty-six of the 47 hostages freed by the hijackers in Uganda arrived on a special Air France flight tonight. Most told reporters they had been treated well by their captors, while others told of having agreed among themselves to disclose no details for the sake of those still being held. Security was tight as the 46 — one of the freed 47, an ailing elderly Frenchman, was taken to a hospital in Kampala — filed off the plane. Almost all declined to give their names. An elderly Frenchwoman said: “We decided among ourselves to say as little as possible so that those still held will not be hurt. If Air France decides to say more, that is up to them. But we are not going to tell you any details.”
The two-day Conference of Communist and Workers Parties of Europe came to an end in East Berlin with Communist leaders from 29 nations winning the okay from Soviet Communist Party leader Leonid Brezhnev for each Communist nation some autonomy in charting its own course. At the end of the conference, the conference produced a document, cleared with the Soviet Union Communist Party as a compromise with its satellite nations, endorsing the right of each of the parties to “develop their internationalist, comradely and voluntary cooperation and solidarity on the basis of the great ideas of Marx, Engels and Lenin” and, to that end, pledging to honor “the principles and equality and sovereign independence of each party, noninterference in internal affairs and respect for their free choice of different roads in the struggle for social change of a progressive nature and for Socialism.”
A freighter from the Soviet Union, the Dekabrist, rescued American balloonist Karl Thomas, whose attempt to fly across the Atlantic Ocean in his “Spirit of ’76” hot air balloon had been ended by a thunderstorm. On June 25, Thomas had departed from Lakehurst, New Jersey, with plans to fly to Paris, but ran into a storm the next day. He had thrown a life raft from the balloon as it was losing altitude, and jumped from the gondola from 200 feet (61 m) above the ocean, fracturing several ribs and sustaining some internal bleeding in one of his lungs.
The Christian Democrats, struggling to form Italy’s next government, tonight offered the Socialist Party a full partnership in governing the nation to keep the Communists in opposition. Benigno Zaccagnini, the party’s secretary, told the Socialists that they would have “co-responsibility leadership” and suggested that they would obtain important Cabinet seats. He said the voters in the elections 10 days ago had made it clear that they were opposed to the Communists’ campaign proposal for a share of national power. The Socialists, who obtained 10 percent of the vote, hold the key to the formation of the next government.
After weeks of scorching sunshine, Western Europe is suffering the effects of serious drought. Farmers desperately need rain for their parched land and livestock. British experts think the trouble is persistent changes in Atlantic weather patterns. They say the edge of the polar ice, cap has receded after several mild winters, moving the rain‐laden depressions northward so that they miss much of Europe and pass over Iceland and Scandinavia. French and Swiss farmers, unable to find pastures for their cattle, have had to slaughter herds and thousands of animals are threatened in Italy. Crops in West Germany, Belgium and Italy have wilted under relentless sunshine and temperatures reaching into the 90s.
Britain’s Labor government announced plans to ease price controls after August 1 but rejected pleas from industry and retailers to completely abolish the restraints. In the White Paper setting economic goals, the government also said investment, especially in the manufacturing sector, must take priority over public or private spending increases for the next few years.
Three gunmen who held eight employees of London’s Spaghetti House restaurant hostage for five days last fall were convicted and received prison terms. Franklin Davies, 28, a Nigerian, was sentenced to 21 years; Wesley Dick, 23, and Anthony Munroe, 22, both West Indians, were given 18 and 17 years in prison respectively. All three had refused to enter pleas in the case and spent much of their trial in cells below Old Bailey court.
Irish Republic traders and industrial organizations began to feel the pinch of a three-day-old strike by bank employees as they searched for cash to pay their employees and to continue in business. Although $620 million in cash was withdrawn from Irish banks last week in anticipation of the strike, the amount has proved insufficient to meet the needs of the economy. The Irish government in Dublin has taken a hard line with the strikers and has turned down their demands for pay raises that would exceed wage ceilings by 5% to 7%.
Freedom House, a 35‐year‐old group monitoring liberties around the world, charged yesterday that reports by two groups of experts brought together by UNESCO had proposed new government controls over news media in developing nations, starting in Latin America. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization termed the charge ‘totally unjustified.’ In a statement from its Paris headquarters, it said the charge was based on “personal opinions of experts never officially distributed by UNESCO.” The reports that Freedom House criticized were preparatory papers that emerged from meetings of 16 experts from 13 countries in July 1974 in Bogota, Colombia, and of 19 experts from 16 countries in June 1975 in Quito, Ecuador. Freedom House said the group that met in Ecuador had urged government‐run national news agencies as “the most suitable and apt policy.”
A district court in Jerusalem found that eight Jewish youths who sought to hold a public prayer last year on Temple Mount-sacred to both Jews and Moslems-were guilty of breaching the peace. A lower court had earlier acquitted the eight, and the Arab community had feared that that decision would affect its prayer rights on the mount. State attorney Gavriel Bach told Israeli radio that the decision reaffirmed that prayer by Jews on the mount was illegal and the police therefore had the right to prohibit it by force if necessary.
One of the two besieged Palestinian camps in Beirut reportedly fell to right-wing Christian forces after eight days of attacks. The Christian radio reported that the camp had been cleared of “mercenary gunmen,” and the military command of the alliance of Palestinian and Muslim leftist Lebanese said in a communique that the camp had been “penetrated.” Amin Gemayel, commander of the militia of the Phalangist Party, the largest Christian organization, said that from the military standpoint Tell Zaatar too “is as good as captured.” The joint Palestinian‐leftist command accused the Syrian expeditionary forces in Lebanon of providing cover for the rightists in their offensive against the two Palestinian camps. Palestinian sources asserted that Syrian troops were advancing on the southern port of Saida under an umbrella of artillery shelling and surface-to‐surface 107‐millimeter rockets.
Milod el-Sedik Ramadan, Libyan charge d’affaires to Egypt, was expelled after being held overnight in Cairo and charged with circulating “seditious leaflets instigating rebellion” against the Egyptian regime. He was arrested in a lower middle class district of the city, officials said, with thousands of leaflets and copies of Libyan newspapers critical of Egypt in his car. The charges were denied by press reports from a Libyan news agency in Tripoli.
The Senate completed action on a foreign relations fund authorization bill that requires the Administration to protect vital U.S. interests in negotiations on a new Panama Canal treaty. The bill, authorizing spending of $990 million, now goes to President Ford for his signature. It states that the Administration “must protect the vital interests of the United States in the Canal Zone and in the operation, maintenance, property and defense of the Panama Canal.”
Angola President Agostinho Neto was urged by the International Commission of Jurists in Geneva to grant clemency to four white mercenaries condemned to death in his African country. The appeal stressed that while asking for clemency, the commission “in no way condones” the use of mercenaries or the crimes for which they were found guilty. Sentenced to die are Britons Costas Georgiou, Andrew G. McKenzie and John Derek Barker and American Daniel F. Gearhart.
The Arms Export Control Act, granting the U.S. president authority to control the import and export of military weapons and equipment, was signed into law by U.S. President Ford.
The Ford Administration is delivering an unmistakable message to the big city mayors — the road to recovery must be paved by private enterprise. Carla A. Hills, the secretary of housing and urban development, told the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Milwaukee that the government could offer troubled cities support in dollars and expertise, but that nothing short of steady economic growth in the private sector would provide needed jobs for city residents. She added that President Ford had asked eight Cabinet secretaries to refocus urban programs in their departments on revitalization of city neighborhoods and that she would head a committee of the eight.
President Ford will visit Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, New York and Charlottesville, Virginia, on the long Fourth of July weekend marking the country’s Bicentennial.
Senator Barry Goldwater endorsed President Ford, urging his nomination to a full term as a means to continue “turning this country back in the right direction.” In a letter to Republican delegates, the Arizona Senator said he had reluctantly taken sides in the contest between Mr. Ford and former Governor Ronald Reagan out of concern over the delegates’ problem of trying to decide which of two conservative candidates was the more conservative. The Senator said that he greatly admired Reagan, whose career in national politics began in a series of televised appeals in behalf of Mr. Goldwater’s unsuccessful Presidential candidacy 12 years ago. Mr. Goldwater said that his preference for Mr. Ford “rests solely on the fact that at this time in our history I do not believe that our Government can suffer through months and months of reorganization that would be necessary” if the White House changed hands.
More than 860,000 persons dropped out of the food stamp program during April and May, the largest two-month decline since 1973, the Agriculture Department reported. But Agriculture Secretary Earl L. Butz still feels frustrated in efforts to make deep cuts in the program and plans to campaign for grass roots backing to eliminate aid to “greedy” recipients. The latest drop brought the May figure to 18 million people, down 400,000 from a revised April estimate which in turn followed a drop of nearly 462,000 from March. The May figure of a year ago was 19.3 million. Officials said they believed improved economic conditions had lifted many “working poor” above eligibility ceilings.
The Supreme Court ruled that judges could not generally issue gag orders against the press forbidding the publication of pretrial information in criminal cases. Three of the nine Justices said that gag orders were always unconstitutional, but the others left open the possibility that there could be some exceptional case in which a gag order would be allowed to assure a fair trial.
The Postal Rate Commission recommended making the now temporary first class 13-cent mail rate permanent, setting the stage for a possible increase to 17 cents late this year or early in 1977. Congress has made increases possible under a complex, two-step procedure. Each time the commission approves new “permanent” rates, the Postal Service, after a delay, can impose “temporary” rates one-third higher. The commission also recommended a 6.9% increase in second class rates, a 0.5% decrease in third class rates and no significant change in fourth class. The rate case now goes to the governors of the Postal Service.
A tabulation and projection of Republican National Convention delegates by the New York Times has shown that on July 18, a month before the convention, President Ford will be 44 votes short of the nomination, Governor Reagan 48 votes short, with 91 uncommitted delegates holding the balance. The picture may shift before the convention opens, but few Republican professionals expect any drastic realignments.
Clarence Kelley, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said in a statement that the bureau had carried out “a limited number” of burglaries in 1972 and 1973 directed at radical and terrorist groups, Mr. Kelley had previously insisted in congressional testimony and elsewhere that the F.B.I. halted illegal break-ins in 1966. Meanwhile, sources said that several F.B.I. officials had offered to tell Justice Department prosecutors what they knew about the burglaries in return for immunity against prosecution.
Senator Sam Nunn, chairman of a Senate subcommittee investigating military academy honor codes, assured West Point Officials today that “no new honor code will be legislated from Washington.” This appeared to ease what had become a major concern among United States Military Academy officers after two weeks of hearings spurred by disclosure of widespread cheating at West Point. A nine‐member team of officers responsible for a recent internal study of the West Point code testified to the need for change in the code’s administration but argued for a chance to make changes within the Academy at their own pace. The officers were practically unanimous in calling for greater leniency in what is now a single penalty — expulsion — for violating the code, which states that a cadet “will not lie, cheat or steal, nor tolerate those who do.”
Four inmates were killed and 26 were injured when foam rubber mattresses were set on fire in a minimum security dormitory at the McDowell County Prison in Marion, North Carolina. The building was gutted. Lieutenant Mack Wilson said prisoners piled the mattresses on the floor and set them ablaze. “They blew up. They’re dangerous when you put them all together like that,” an official said. He added that the prison had been trying to replace the mattresses because of the fire danger but they did not have the funds. Officials said all 63 prisoners in the unit had been accounted for.
A New Jersey state appeals court ruled unconstitutional a Trenton ordinance that made parents liable for penalties when their children were convicted of delinquency twice in one year. The court said the city’s law was based on the false presumption that a second offense was “more likely than not the result of passive or active wrongdoing on the part of the minor’s parent or parents” and would deny parents the right to due process. It said most experts believed that children growing up in poor city areas like parts of Trenton “are those most likely to be identified as juvenile delinquents.”
New York City and most of its labor unions agreed in principle to new two-year contracts, ending the threat of a strike and clearing the way for new federal loans to avert the threat of default. The unions agreed to comply with city budget requirement calling for a reduction of $24 million in labor costs. The State Emergency Financial Control Board met and quickly approved the agreements and city officials were confident that Treasury Secretary William Simon would approve also and release the money the city needs.
In its search for a suitable landing site, Viking 1 is transmitting hundreds of clear photographs showing the Martian landscape to be more rugged and geologically puzzling than most scientists had expected. Deep intersecting cracks stretch across the broad plains, knobs of older rock project through the surface. “Islands” shaped like teardrops stand out in the meandering channels of what may have been ancient rivers. Some of the craters appear to be fresh and quite different than those found on the moon. Sand dunes, pits and steep escarpments also mark the planet’s ruddy face. Somewhere among all these features Viking project scientists hope to find a relatively smooth patch where the unmanned satellite can put down its landing craft and begin the first surface photography of Mars and the search for signs of possible life.
John Walker of New Zealand sets record for 2000 meters, 4:51.4.
It took all of Chris Evert’s noted patience and mental strength to prevail over the heavy serves and dipping volleys of Martina Navratilova in the semifinals at Wimbledon today. In a 125‐minute battle of errors, Miss Evert won by 6–3, 4–6, 6–4, and with that squeaky victory she goes into the final Friday against Evonne Goolagong. It will be the 27th meeting in their rivalry. The Australian destroyed Virginia Wade, whose nerves were jangling, 6–1, 6–2, under a hot sun and in a swirling wind at this cathedral of tennis.
Major League Baseball:
A previous winner of eight straight decisions, Wayne Garland was kayoed in the sixth inning and suffered his first defeat of the season when the Red Sox beat the Orioles, 6–4. The Red Sox were trailing, 4–3, going into the stanza, but Fred Lynn tripled and Carl Yastrzemski doubled to tie the score and Jim Rice smashed a homer for the winning blow.
Nolan Ryan makes a one-batter start, the shortest start of his career, after his name is mistakenly put on the lineup. Singles by Bruce Bochte and Mario Guerrero around a sacrifice by Dave Collins produced a run in the 10th inning and enabled the Angels to defeat the White Sox, 2–1. Manager Dick Williams of the Angels, who had Gary Ross warming up to start, inadvertently wrote the name of Nolan Ryan on the lineup card. Under the rules, Ryan had to take the mound. After warming up hurriedly, Ryan retired Chet Lemon, the White Sox leadoff batter, on his second pitch and then left the game in favor of Ross.
Earl Williams and Willie Montanez each homered with two men on base to propel the Braves to an 8–3 victory over the Dodgers. Burt Hooton, who started for the Dodgers, allowed only one hit until the fifth inning when Ken Henderson walked, Darrel Chaney singled and Williams whacked his homer. Then in the sixth, Rod Gilbreath doubled, Jim Wynn singled and Montanez homered.
The American League’s leading batter, George Brett rapped a triple and two singles in four trips to lead the Royals to a 4–2 victory over the Twins. Brett drove in one run and scored another. This was the 16th time this season that the star third baseman had collected three or more hits in a game. Kansas City lefty Paul Splittorff (8–6) notched the victory. Larry Hisle has 3 of the 7 hits off Splittorff and steals 4 bases.
The Pirates, after taking a 2–1 lead, erupted for four runs in the sixth inning and outlasted the Cubs, 7–5, for their 12th victory in the last 16 games. The defeat was the Cubs’ sixth in succession. In the sixth, Al Oliver singled, Dave Parker walked and Richie Zisk drove them both home with a triple. Ed Kirkpatrick followed with a double and then crossed the plate himself on a single by Manny Sanguillen. Randy Jones won his 14th against 3 losses.
Bringing his phenomenal record to 14–3, Randy Jones pitched the Padres to a 3–1 victory over the Reds on a six-hitter. The Reds counted their run in the third inning on singles by Cesar Geronimo and Ken Griffey around a pass to Pete Rose, but the Padres came right back with a pair in the fourth. Dave Winfield singled, Doug Rader doubled and Fred Kendall hit a sacrifice fly for the first run and the go-ahead tally followed on a double by Enzo Hernandez. Singles by Tito Fuentes and Willie Davis, plus a sacrifice fly by Rader, added the other run in the fifth.
The San Francisco Giants had 16 hits and crushed the Houston Astros, 10–2. Gary Thomasson drove in three runs with a single and double, while Gary Matthews accounted for two with a triple. Cesar Cedeno homered for Houston. Ed Halicki (7–10) got the win.
Gaylord Perry pitched seven scoreless innings before leaving the game because of an aggravated groin muscle pull and received credit for the 225th victory of his career when the Rangers defeated the Athletics, 3–2. Steve Foucault, who relieved Perry, allowed the A’s runs. The Rangers scored twice in the fifth on a single by Lenny Randle, a stolen base, singles by Jim Sundberg and Gene Clines and a wild pitch by Mike Torrez. What proved to be the deciding run followed in the seventh on a triple by Dave Moates and single by Sundberg.
The scheduled game between the New York Yankees and the Tigers at Detroit was postponed due to rain. The game will be made up as part of a doubleheader on September 24.
The scheduled game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Expos at Montreal was postponed due to rain. The game will be made up as part of a doubleheader on September 24.
The scheduled game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Mets at New York was postponed due to rain. The game will be made up as part of a doubleheader on September 15.
Baltimore Orioles 4, Boston Red Sox 6
California Angels 2, Chicago White Sox 1
Atlanta Braves 8, Los Angeles Dodgers 3
Kansas City Royals 4, Minnesota Twins 2
Chicago Cubs 5, Pittsburgh Pirates 7
Cincinnati Reds 1, San Diego Padres 3
Houston Astros 2, San Francisco Giants 10
Oakland Athletics 2, Texas Rangers 3
Stock prices pushed ahead yesterday on stepped‐up volume as the broad market outperformed the blue‐chip Dow Jones industrials. Moving higher were technology, drug and capital‐goods issues, as well as a wide range of stocks selling at less than $20 a share. The Dow industrials, showing gains of up to 4 points throughout the session, finished at 1,002.78, a 2.13 point gain. But most price gains were in other sectors of the New York Stock Exchange, as advancing issues led declines by better than a 2‐to‐1 ratio.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1002.78 (+2.13, +0.21%)
Born:
Alicia Thompson, WNBA forward (WNBA champions-Storm, 2004; New York Liberty, Indiana Fever, Seattle Storm), in Big Lake, Texas.
Jason Bostic, NFL safety (Philadelphia Eagles, Buffalo Bills), in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Died:
Firpo Marberry, 77, American baseball player (Washington Senators).
Shad Polier, 70, American civil rights lawyer.
Gustav Knittel, 61, German SS Commander and convicted war criminal who served eight years imprisonment for his participation in the Malmedy massacre of 84 American prisoners of war on December 17, 1944.
Federico Romero, 89, Spanish zarzuela poet.
Waring Cuney, 70, American Harlem Renaissance poet.
History Diaries 