Israel broke a long-standing policy and announced its willingness to negotiate the release of an unspecified number of convicted Arab prisoners in exchange for hostages, including Israelis, being held by airplane hijackers in Uganda. Soon after the decision was announced the hijackers freed 101 hostages.
The day after freeing 47 hostages, the hijackers of Air France Flight 139 freed another 101 passengers from captivity and extended their deadline for release of 53 prisoners to 2:00 in the afternoon for Sunday, as Israel continued to negotiate for the safety of the remaining 110 people on board. After the June 27 hijacking, the group from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine had set a July 1 ultimatum for their demands to be met or for the hostages to be killed. Israel’s cabinet of ministers had voted to open negotiations with the terrorists, reversing a long-held policy after members of the hostages’ families had forced their way into Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s office.
Mrs. Dora Bloch, a 74-year old retiree and one of the hostages held at the Entebbe Airport in Uganda after the hijacking of Air France 139, became choked while eating lunch and was taken to a hospital in Kampala for treatment. She had dual Israeli and British citizenship after having married a Briton, and had been on her way to New York City to attend her son’s wedding when the airplane was hijacked by terrorists, and was not at the airport when the Israeli rescue of hostages took place. After the other hostages were flown back to Israel in a rescue mission, Mrs. Bloch was taken from her hospital bed on July 4 by Ugandan soldiers and murdered.
Carlos Arias Navarro, who had been Prime Minister of Spain since his appointment by Francisco Franco in 1974, resigned at the request of Franco’s successor, King Juan Carlos I. Arias, who had blocked the King’s attempts at reform, was given the concession of a title of nobility the next day. The unexpected resignation of Prime Minister Carlos Arias Navarro of Spain and his cabinet threw the government’s program for democratic change into confusion. Prime Minister Arias was a Franco appointee. His resignation was apparently the result of a decision by King Juan Carlos I. The King was known to be unhappy with the Prime Minister.
Pope Paul VI has decided not to attend the World Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia August 1-6, the Vatican announced. The Pope had been invited to the congress, and also to visit Mexico, Guatemala and Canada. The Vatican gave no reason for the decision, but sources had predicted the 78-year-old Pontiff would not make the trip, because of overwork and an arthritic condition in the knees.
A 39-year-old carpenter, Donald Neilson, was found guilty in Oxford, England, of murdering Lesley Whittle, a 17-year-old heiress he admitted kidnapping for ransom 18 months ago. Neilson had demanded $120,000 for the girl’s return. The prosecution said the girl was killed after a mix-up over the collection of the money. Sentencing was scheduled for next week — in Britain, the usual sentence for murder is life imprisonment.
Portugal announced today a broad array of austerity measures ranging from increased taxes and energy curbs to a crackdown on pornography. The action by the outgoing government reflect the country’s new sober mood after last Sunday’s election of the tough army general Antonio Ramalho Eanes as President. General Ramalho Eanes is not expected to be sworn in before the middle of this month, but, the effects of his election are already beginning to be felt. The provisional coalition government has been talking about the need for belt‐tightening for months. It approved legislation reducing electricity, consumption, but this was generally ignored even by official agencies. Portugal also grants autonomy to Madeira.
President Ford signed two foreign aid bills that included massive arms and economic assistance to Israel. One bill, covering a 27-month period beginning last July 1, authorized $6.9 billion in worldwide aid-of which $4.3 billion was earmarked for Israel. The second bill appropriated $6.2 billion for foreign aid for a 15-month period beginning last July 1.
Lebanese right‐wing Christian militiamen today intensified their efforts to capture a besieged Palestinian camp here as a special Arab League envoy met with Christian leaders in a new attempt to end the fighting. Christian forces opened additional attacks against the Tell Zaatar camp after overrunning the adjacent Jisr el‐Pasha camp yesterday. According to a Palestinian radio station, Tell Zaatar messaged last night: “The situation is becoming very difficult. We are encircled by rightist forces from all directions.” Beirut reverberated through the day to heavy artillery duels and exchanges of rocket fire as Palestinian guerrillas and their Lebanese leftist allies sought to relieve the Christian pressure on Tell Zaatar. All sides ignored an Arab League plea for a ceasefire at noon made early at an emergency meeting in Cairo.
Libya denounced the expulsion of its top diplomat from Cairo on charges of distributing subversive pamphlets and said it was fabrication. The envoy, Milod Sedik Ramadan, left Cairo after being arrested by Egyptian security police who said thousands of pamphlets were found in his parked car. The Libyan Foreign Ministry said Ramadan was “above such actions” and would not have been allowed to do such a thing.
A 48-hour slowdown against certain airlines was begun by French-speaking air controllers in Canada. A spokesman for the controllers said the action was taken to back demands for use of French as well as English in air control. He said the campaign was aimed at airlines that refused to fly in Canada during the recent nine-day pilots’ strike. The conflict between Canada’s French-speaking minority and the English-speaking majority over the use of French in the airline industry has shaken the government of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and has set off a rebellion within his Liberal Party, The Prime Minister said the issue was the most divisive one facing the nation in many years.
Documents indicating a plot to overthrow the government of Jamaica have been seized, Prime Minister Michael N. Manley said. Manley said a prospective election candidate for the opposition Jamaica Labor Party had admitted owning the documents. Eleven days ago, the government began acting under a declaration of emergency, which it said was necessary because of a wave of violence that had claimed more than 160 lives this year.
Hundreds of protesters broke windows, set fires in the streets and stoned buses in downtown Lima, and the military government declared a state of emergency throughout Peru. The demonstrators shouted, “Down with the military government! Up with salaries!” The protests came a day after the government of General Francisco Morales Bermudez announced increased taxes and higher prices for public transportation, telephone and electrical service and gasoline.
Eleven persons have died in renewed political violence in Argentina, security forces said in Buenos Aires. Five suspected urban guerrillas, who had fired on a sentry post at the army garrison of Camp de Mayo, were shot and killed. Other killings were reported in the Buenos Aires suburbs.
African foreign ministers argued over the wording of some 47 resolutions in a late session tonight as they sought to fix an agenda for the meeting of the Organization of African Unity that begins in Mauritius tomorrow. Many of the issues under consideration were generally conceded by individual delegates to he of slight significance and unlikely to be carried out even if agreed upon. These included calls for the extension of fishing privileges to landlocked countries and the creation of a continental news agency by countries whose government‐controlled newspapers reflect the widest range of ideologies. It was understood that even on such points there has been a good deal of eleventh‐hour squabbling on emphasis and even on punctuation. But by far the greatest division concerns what have emerged as the major issues of the preparatory conference — the Djibouti question and a possible boycott of the Olympic Games.
The wave of arrests in South Africa that began with the recent outbreak of rioting has continued since the rioting was suppressed, with the Government reportedly making widespread use of laws that permit indefinite detention without trial. In accordance with practice, the police have disclosed almost nothing about the “largescale detentions” reported in the local press. However, they have confirmed that one of those seized was Victor Gallingi, an official of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Southern Africa. Mr. Gallingi, who is black, was arrested by the security police in Pretoria, the capital, on Tuesday. A simultaneous swoop by another security detachment in Johannesburg resulted in the arrest of Thomas Manthatha, an executive of the Black People’s Convention, which is militantly opposed to apartheid.
Congress gave final approval today to a bill authorizing $32.5 billion for military weapons, including a start on production of the B‐1 bomber and construction of 17 new warships. Senate passage by a 78‐12 vote sent the bill to the White House. The House passed the measure, 339 to 66. yesterday. Both chambers worked today to clear their calendars of major legislation before a two-week recess. The recess, officially beginning tomorrow and lasting until July 19. covers the Fourth of July holiday and the Democratic National Convention, which begins in New York July 12.
The House Democratic leadership overcame stubborn opposition today from conservatives in its own party plus that of most Republicans and passed the remaining pieces of a reform package aimed at preventing payroll padding and expense account abuses. Members also approved, by more normal party line vote, creation of a 15‐member commission that will spend 18 months examining the chamber’s administrative practices and make recommendations for changes. The main action rescinded the power of the House Administration Committee to increase or create new perquisites and allowances for members.
The Supreme Court in a 6-to-3 decision ruled that states may not require women to get the consent of their husbands before allowing them to have abortions. The Court also ruled, 5 to 4, that states may not impose general restrictions requiring all single women under the age of 18 to get the consent of a parent before undergoing an abortion. The rulings were made in one of two cases involving Missouri’s abortion law. The Court ruled unanimously in a third abortion case involving a Massachusetts. law and suggested that states might be able to enact calling for parental consultation and consent if the law allowed a “mature minor” to avoid this requirement and if the law allowed other minors to undergo abortions, despite a parent’s refusal to consent if it was in their “best interests.”
After a floor debate with election-year overtones, the House approved two Democratic proposals aimed at dealing with an alleged payroll-sex scandal. One proposal established a commission to recommend revisions of House payroll and expense accounting procedures. The other stripped the House Administration Committee of much of the power former Chairman Wayne L. Hays (D-Ohio) won in 1971 to create and enlarge members’ allowances.
The Administration’s plans to inoculate all Americans against swine flu this year were put in jeopardy when a House subcommittee on health declined to consider legislation sought by vaccine manufacturers to protect them against claims won by persons who might suffer a reaction from the vaccine. Rep. Paul G. Rogers (D-Florida), panel chairman, said at this point he saw no need for legislation. The interested parties should work it out among themselves, he said.
The House ethics committee yesterday found Representative Robert L.F. Sikes, Democrat of Florida, guilty of charges that he had used his office for personal gain, but the panel recommended to the House that he be “reprimanded,” the least of the disciplinary actions that could be taken. The committee said that charges brought by Common Cause, a public‐interest lobby, that Mr. Sikes had used his position as chairman of a House Appropriations Committee subcommittee to advance his own interests were true. But the panel found him guilty only of “misconduct.”
An official of the Government agency that four months ago raised the possibility that the nation might face a return of the devastating 1918‐1919 pandemic of swine flu said yesterday that there was no reason to believe that the new swine flu virus would be any more deadly than other strains of influenza in recent years. He said that if the virus, discovered last February at Fort Dix in New Jersey, did produce an epidemic this fall, it would be more likely to compare with the Asian flu pandemic of 1957 or the Hong Kong flu pandemic of 1968. He added that the mass immunization planned for this fall to combat the new virus was justified and would have been warranted in 1957 and 1968 if it had been possible. The official, Dr. H. Bruce Dull, assistant director of the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, where the mass immunization plan rose, made the statements at a public forum here on the swine flu controversy to lay to rest the popular belief that the new virus strain was as dangerous as the virus of 1918.
Kenneth Gibson, is the first black president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
New York City received the first of $2.3 billion in federal loans that will help the city stay solvent in the new fiscal year. An initial emergency loan for $500 million authorized by Treasury Secretary William Simon will be used to meet a payroll and to avoid debt default. The federal government lent $500 million to New York City to avert default this week and recommended more cuts in spending, an end to rent controls and income tax reform. The loan was contingent on the city adopting by July 31 a plan to reduce spending by $135 million in the fiscal period that began Thursday. Treasury Secretary William E. Simon said, “The city has made considerable progress toward the objective of fiscal and financial reform” and noted it repaid $280 million borrowed in November. The loan came after the city got labor unions to reduce pay and benefits by $24 million.
Hundreds of Detroit policemen called in sick to protest the layoff of about one-fifth of the force and Police Chief Phillip Tannian said he would fire the protesters and replace them with laid-off officers unless they were genuinely ill. He blamed the Detroit Police Officers Association for the “illegal work stoppage” in the wake of the layoff of 972 men from a force of 5,200. Officials said absenteeism dropped to 35% for the night shift after more than 50% called in sick earlier and there was “no indication” that crime was on the rise. The force was trimmed in a move to cope with what Mayor Coleman Young said would be a $103 million budget deficit. The layoffs, which came after similar cutbacks in other city departments, would save $20 million.
A federal judge in Washington ruled that eligibility for food stamp assistance must be determined by the resources a family has when it applies for stamps, rather than by its anticipated income. The decision, which should make it easier for migrant workers to receive food stamps after moving to a new location, was the result of a suit brought by migrant farm labor organizations, but it also has implications for other food stamp recipients.
At 12:01 AM on Sunday, 45 laborers will be mustered on a secluded West Front roof of the United States Capitol to spend a good part of their Fourth of July flying more than 9,000 American flags. Using hoists to lift cases of boxed flags up the side of the West Front to the roof of the Capitol above Statuary Hall, the laborers, working in assembly‐line fashion, will unpack each flag, attach it to a line from one of 20 flagpoles, pull the flag to the top until it unfurls, then quickly run it down again to be repacked in its box. It will be the peak day in a boom year for a little-known Congressional operation that is struggling to keep up with a growing demand from constituents, schools, civic groups, veterans organizations and others seeking flags that have flown over the Capitol.
New Jersey’s public schools were closed because the state Legislature, despite an all-night session, failed to come up with a new system for financing them. The state Supreme Court had ruled that a property-tax system was unfair to poor towns and neighborhoods and had ordered that such financing be discontinued July 1. When a challenge to that order failed in federal court, the Assembly failed twice to pass Senate-backed proposals for a graduated income tax. The state has 1.5 million students enrolled in more than 6,000 schools.
Karl Thomas, who attempted to cross the Atlantic in his red white and blue “Spirit of 76” balloon, was rescued from the ocean by a Russian freighter late Wednesday night. He had run into heavy storms and radio contact with the balloon had been lost. He took off from Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey last Friday. Mr. Thomas, in the balloon’s jettisoned gondola, was found 550 miles southeast of New York and 300 miles northeast of Bermuda.
Tina Turner escaped her abusive husband and singing partner Ike Turner after he had beaten her on their way to the Statler Hilton Hotel in Dallas, where they were scheduled to perform as a duo. Tina Turner would go on to launch a successful solo career, with more success than she had had as half of the duo of Ike and Tina Turner.
A jury of six men awarded the singer Connie Francis $2.5 million yesterday as compensation for her rape in a Howard Johnson Motel in Westbury, Long Island, New York, on November 8, 1974. Local court experts described it as one of the largest awards ever made in a rape case.
The United States Tennis Association withdrew from the Davis Cup organization following the defeat of two American resolutions that would have imposed sanctions on countries for withdrawing from cup matches for political reasons. Some member countries have refused to play against South Africa. Britain and France withdrew from the 1977 competition in support of the United States position, but did not withdraw from the cup organization, which was holding its annual meeting in London.
Major League Baseball:
The Indians paste the Toledo Mud Hens 13–1 in an exhibition game in Toledo. Manager Frank Robinson, hitting as the designated hitter, flies out to centerfield and, while returning to the dugout, exchanges angry words with Hens pitcher Bob Reynolds. Suddenly, Robby flattens Reynolds with a right-left combination and is quickly ejected from the game.
With Dave Roberts (8–6) pitching a four-hitter, the Detroit Tigers shut out the Baltimore Orioles, 2–0. The Tigers picked up an unearned run in the fourth inning and clinched their victory when Alex Johnson homered in the sixth.
Playing against his ex-teammates, Bill Melton scored one run and drove in another to provide the Angels with a 2–1 victory over the White Sox. In the second inning, Melton doubled and crossed the plate on a single by Ron Jackson. Then, in the next stanza, Dave Chalk singled, reached second on an error and counted the deciding run on a single by Melton.
Pat Dobson, facing his former teammates, became the American League’s first 10-game winner this season when the Indians defeated the Yankees, 3–2. The Indians scored what proved to be their winning run in the seventh inning when Duane Kuiper doubled and Rick Manning singled. While with the Yankees last season, Dobson did not record his 10th victory until August 15.
Sal Bando hit two homers, smashing a 2–2 tie with his second blow and sending the Athletics on their way to a 5–2 victory over the Royals. Bando hit his first homer of the game in the second inning to account for the A’s initial tally. After his second homer broke a tie in the ninth, the A’s went on to add a pair of insurance runs on a single by Jeff Newman for the rookie catcher’s first major league hit.
With two out in the 10th inning, Jack Heidemann raced home on an infield hit by Bernie Carbo to give the Brewers a 6–5 victory over the Red Sox. Heidemann set up the winning run with a single and stopped at second on another single by George Scott. Carbo then grounded deep to Rick Burleson and beat the shortstop’s long throw by an eyelash, while Heidemann, running with the pitch, came home from second to score.
Jon Matlock goes to 10–2 as he shuts out the Cardinals, 13–0, on 5 hits. Matlack pitched his fourth shutout of the season and John Milner hit his second grand-slam homer in one week as the Mets massacred the Cardinals for their seventh straight victory. The Mets scored six of their runs in the sixth inning. Walks to Wayne Garrett and Matlack around a double by Ron Hodges loaded the bases. Mike Phillips singled to drive in two runs. After Felix Millan drew a pass to fill the sacks again, Milner sent everyone home with his grand slam.
The Padres broke a 3–3 tie with doubles by Johnny Grubb and Tito Fuentes in the fourth inning and then clinched a 5–3 victory over the Dodgers in the fifth when Fred Kendall hit his first homer since 1974.
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 26.
Detroit Tigers 2, Baltimore Orioles 0
California Angels 2, Chicago White Sox 1
New York Yankees 2, Cleveland Indians 3
Oakland Athletics 5, Kansas City Royals 2
Boston Red Sox 5, Milwaukee Brewers 6
St. Louis Cardinals 0, New York Mets 13
Los Angeles Dodgers 3, San Diego Padres 5
A selling wave in chemical issues — touched off by disap3ointing news about Du Pont, the industry leader — engulfed the stock market yesterday. This was enough to blunt the market’s general advance on Wednesday and to send the Dow Jones industrial average sagging below the 1,000 level once again. The blue‐chip average finished at 994.84 with loss of 7.94 points.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 994.84 (-7.94, -0.79%)
Born:
Szymon Ziółkowski, Polish athlete (Olympic gold medal, hammer throw, 2000), in Poznań, Poland
Aleah [Julia Stanbridge], South African metal musician (Trees of Eternity), in Cape Town, South Africa (d. 2016)
Justin Lo, American-born Hong Kong singer; in Syracuse, New York.
Haaz Sleiman, Lebanese-born American actor; in Beirut, Lebanon.
Kellie Bright, English soap opera actress (“EastEnders”); in Brentwood, Essex, England, United Kingdom.
Died:
Zhang Wentian, 75, former General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party from 1935 to 1943, later persecuted during the Cultural Revolution.
Anneliese Michel, 23, West German woman who died from malnutrition after her parents asked two Roman Catholic priests to treat her for psychosis by exorcism.
History Diaries 