The United States and the Soviet Union have agreed in principle to discuss problems of verifying the underground testing of nuclear weapons, Administration officials said today. Officials said the proposed meeting was likely to be held this summer, although no decision has been made on time or place. These discussions would be the first on verification under the Reagan Administration and might lead to progress on the issue of nuclear testing, some officials said. The two sides have been deadlocked on the testing issue. The United States wants to improve verification procedures under two existing treaties that limit the size of underground explosions. The United States has said that it will not ratify the two treaties, which were signed in the 1970’s, until additional measures are agreed to. The Soviet Union wants to discuss ways to verify a total ban on weapon testing. The agreement to meet said that the two sides would be free to raise any concerns on testing. American officials expect the Soviet Union to press for a total test ban. The Americans plan to bring up their concerns about verification of the existing treaties and to explore an apparently greater Soviet willingness to agree to on-site verification and discuss new methods of verification. Officials said Mikhail S. Gorbachev, in a recent letter to Mr. Reagan, had expressed general willingness to discuss verification.
Soviet decontamination crews have cleaned up at least seven villages around the crippled Chernobyl nuclear plant and have readied them for the return of their inhabitants, Pravda reported. In an article from its correspondent in the Gomel region of Byelorussia, the Communist Party newspaper said that daily checks of air radiation levels showed a gradual improvement in the area. However, Pravda also reported that 7,000 wells in the region of Bragin, about 50 miles north of the stricken plant have been hermetically sealed.
Two British soldiers were killed and two seriously injured in the explosion of a booby-trapped truck that they were inspecting in Ulster. In a message to news media in Belfast, the outlawed Irish Republican Army said its guerrillas had rigged the truck with explosives and abandoned it near an army observation post outside the village of Crossmaglen near the Ireland border. The IRA also claimed responsibility for the death of John McVitty, 46, a member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary. McVitty was killed by a shotgun blast while he and his 12-year old were cutting brush on a farm near the border town of Rosslea. The boy was not hurt in the attack. McVitty was the seventh member of the constabulary killed this year.
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said today that she thought it would be “immoral” and “utterly repugnant” for well-off Western nations to impose sanctions on South Africa that would throw poor Africans out of work. She said black South Africans like Bishop Desmond Tutu, who have called for such measures, had good jobs that enabled them to look after their children. Opinion surveys ostensibly showing that most blacks favored the idea of sanctions could not be trusted, the Prime Minister said, because of the likelihood of intimidation in conditions prevailing in South Africa’s black townships. “You’ve heard of ‘the necklace?’ ” Mrs. Thatcher asked a radio interviewer from the BBC this morning, referring to the mob executions whose victims have gasoline-filled tires placed around their necks and ignited.
A powerful bomb ripped through an annex of Paris police headquarters here today, killing a police inspector and wounding at least 22 people, 3 seriously. The bomb, which the police said contained about 20 pounds of explosives, demolished the fifth and sixth floors of the police annex, which is being used by a special anticrime squad. No group took responsibility. But police sources said they suspected that the bomb had been planted by Direct Action, a terrorist unit. Officials said the group was the likely perpetrator, given the power of the explosive and the evident intention to kill.
The Greek Socialist Government of Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, after several months of pro-Libyan statements, says the number of Libyan diplomats here is being significantly reduced. The Libyan Embassy denied today that the Libyans were being expelled by Greece as part of the measures taken by Western nations to combat Libyan-backed terrorism. “The only bodies that can take such decisions on our diplomatic personnel are the people’s congresses ruling the Arab Libyan Jamahiriya,” an embassy announcement said, using the Libyan name of the country. It said Libya maintained “friendly and strong relations with the Greek people.”
Terrorists using a remote-control bomb killed the research director of West Germany’s largest electronics company and his driver today. A seven-page letter found near the site of the bombing and signed by the Red Army Faction, a terrorist group, said the executive, Karl-Heinz Beckurts, a 56-year-old director of research and technology at Siemens A.G., had been killed because he supported nuclear energy and the United States’ space-based missile defense program. The Red Army Faction built its reputation in the 1970’s in a series of bombings and other attacks against West German businessmen and United States Army bases. The group has defined its goal as the overthrow of the West German political system.
A West German court convicted a former Nazi officer of defaming the government and the dead by distributing videotapes claiming that the German army used no gas chambers at German death camps in World War II. Otto Ernst Remer, once a major general in the SS security force, distributed the videotapes at the May, 1985, reunion of SS veterans in Nesselwang, West Germany. Remer also referred to West Germany’s governing Christian Democrats as toads. The Kaufeburen, West Germany, court said it would suspend a six-month prison sentence for Remer if he paid a $460 fine.
Iran’s official press agency reported today that predawn air strikes by Iranian warplanes wiped out four Iraqi brigades, killing or wounding 2,300 soldiers. The press agency’s report, which was monitored in Nicosia, came a day after Iran said it had crushed four other Iraqi brigades and killed at least 2,000 Iraqis in fighting around the Iranian border city of Mehran. There was no official comment from Iraq on the latest Iranian assertion. Western reporters are rarely allowed into combat areas, and independent confirmation of war reports is usually not possible.
More than 8,000 of Iran’s top battlefield commanders gathered in Tehran to be screened for leadership positions in a new, 150,000-strong volunteer force for new offensives that Iranian leaders say are necessary to finish off the six-year-old war with Iraq. Mohammed Ali Rahmani, the clergyman who heads the volunteer forces, or Basij, said that commanders for the 500-battalion force would be selected on the basis of a detailed questionnaire.
Attacks by Tamil separatists on three trucks carrying passengers in Sri Lanka, and a retaliatory attack against a Tamil family, killed 22 people today, according to the police and residents of Trincomalee district. The police said 17 Sinhalese died when Tamils attacked the trucks. Residents said that hours later youths clubbed to death and burned a Tamil family of five in revenge. The government’s Joint Operations Command imposed a curfew on the area this morning. The killings were the latest in a cycle of violence since April, when Tamil militants intensified their campaign for a separate Tamil homeland in the north and east of the Sinhalese-dominated island. The Tamils make up 18 percent of the nation’s 16 million people. More than 4,000 people have died in the three-year struggle.
Lê Duẩn died in Hanoi. The head of the Vietnamese Communist Party, who was one of the chief architects of victory in the Vietnam War, was 78 years old.
President Corazon C. Aquino said today that she would offer clemency to the men who declared a rebel government Sunday and took over the Manila Hotel, but that she would require them to give a pledge of loyalty to her Government. She also said she would ban rallies and demonstrations “that are not truly an exercise of freedom of speech and assembly but are designed to further the rebel cause.” A Foreign Ministry official said that the passports of Arturo M. Tolentino, who declared himself acting president on Sunday, and 24 other supporters of former President Ferdinand E. Marcos had been revoked “pending investigation” into the incident at the hotel. But Mrs. Aquino’s executive secretary, Joker Arroyo, said that the office of the President had no knowledge of any such revocation.
A typhoon battered densely populated Luzon Island today, causing floods in four northern provinces and landslides that killed at least 20 people, including two children, the authorities said. The Office of Civil Defense and the Red Cross said 18 of the victims were buried by landslides in and around the mountain resort city of Baguio, 125 miles north of Manila.
A Canadian commission has concluded that the practice of clubbing baby harp seals to death for their pelts should be stopped because public opinion is against it. However, the Royal Commission on Seals and the Sealing Industry, after a two-year investigation, has decided that the practice is no less humane than methods used in slaughterhouses. The panel is also expected to urge that the government pay seal hunters in Newfoundland the equivalent of $36 million in compensation for lost earnings and a like amount to help them find alternative income. The panel’s full report will be released in September.
President Reagan places a call to President Miguel De La Madrid Hurtago of Mexico.
Cuba reportedly released 47 prisoners from a Havana detention center that has been used over the past seven years to hold young people on a variety of charges. The release of the 47 was disclosed in Havana by a man who was among a group of prisoners freed in May. The word came as White House spokesman Larry Speakes issued a confirmation of reports that U.S. and Cuban officials are holding private talks in Mexico City aimed at reviving an immigration accord between the two countries that was suspended in 1984. He gave no other details.
The Nicaraguan Air Force has tripled its stock of Soviet-made transport helicopters over the last two months, according to diplomats and military specialists here. Diplomats said this week that the Sandinistas had unloaded as many as 15 new MI-17 helicopters at the ports of Corinto and Bluefields since the beginning of May. Before the shipments, the air force was thought to have seven or eight of them. The flow of helicopters into Nicaragua was said to reflect the Government’s belief that its war against United States-backed rebels will step up. The House of Representatives voted last month to approve $100 million in aid to rebel groups.
Riot policemen firing tear gas and water cannon disrupted a funeral procession of 2,000 people in Santiago, Chile today as they mourned a youth believed to have been burned to death by soldiers. Four mourners were injured and the United States Ambassador to Chile was trapped briefly in the panic after the police moved in while the coffin of the youth, 19-year-old Rodrigo Rojas de Negri, a Chilean-born resident of Washington, was carried out of the Chilean Human Rights Commission. Angry mourners shouting “We want justice!” and “Fascism killed him!” began yelling “Assassins!” as the police fired tear gas and jets of water into the crowd of 2,000 awaiting the start of the funeral march. Witnesses said the police also used tear gas to disperse another crowd that planned to join the march.
The Reagan Administration has suspended disbursement of economic aid to Zimbabwe in response to sharp criticism leveled by a high Zimbabwean official at the United States Embassy’s July 4 reception, State Department officials said today. The criticism of the United States prompted former President Jimmy Carter and the senior American diplomat to walk out of their own embassy. As a result of what the department described as “the uncalled-for behavior” by the Zimbabwean official, David Kariamazira, the Minister of Youth, Sport and Culture, the Administration decided not to turn over the remaining $13.5 million in economic aid for this fiscal year, pending an overall review of relations, officials said. Agreements on two aid projects that were to be signed today in Harare, the Zimbabwean capital, were postponed, officials said.
The South African Government said today that an order barring indoor meetings in the Johannesburg area was incorrectly formulated and and would be amended to exclude labor unions. The ban, affecting more than 30 community groups, student bodies and trade unions, was published in the Government Gazette on Monday, provoking protests from unions and employers alike. Labor experts said it would make it almost impossible for unions to function in the Johannesburg region.
A panel of experts convened by Federal health agencies said today that it was essential to develop more sensitive and accurate screening tests to protect the nation’s blood supply from AIDS. The panel said that the tests now in use had sharply reduced the likelihood that or acquired immune deficiency syndrome would be spread by transfusions of blood or blood products. “Our blood supply is much safer than it was two to four years ago,” said Dr. Thomas C. Chalmers, a professor at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York who is chairman of the 13-member panel. Another member, Dr. Richard H. Aster, president of the Blood Center of Southeastern Wisconsin, estimated that the chances of contracting AIDS from a blood transfusion were “substantially less than 1 in 10,000.” A person undergoing surgery would face a much greater risk of dying from the anesthesia than of contracting AIDS from any blood transfusion received, he said. But the tests now used to screen all blood donations in this country have two main weaknesses, the panel said. First, the tests fail to detect a small number of contaminated blood donations, perhaps 120 units a year nationwide, the panel said. Patients who received the blood in transfusions might become infected with the AIDS virus. Second, the tests falsely identify many blood samples as infected when they are not, the panel said. At least 20,000 individuals have donated blood that tested positive for AIDS in initial screening tests but then negative on more accurate followup tests.
President Reagan participates in a photo opportunity with departing Senior Associate Counsel, David B. Waller.
Justice Department officials say the department will ask Congress to include espionage in an existing Federal law that bars people convicted of Federal crimes from profiting from the sale of their stories. The law, modeled after those in New York and other states, now provides that such profits go only to the victims of a violent crime. The plan in the Justice Department was prompted by testimony in Federal District Court here by Margaret Walker that her father, John A. Walker Jr., expected to earn more than a million dollars from the book and movie rights for the story of his 18 years of espionage. Some writers and others are skeptical about the amount, but a number of book and movie projects about the Walker spy ring are in progress. Mr. Walker, who has confessed that he headed a Soviet spy ring that the Government has characterized as the most damaging espionage conspiracy against the United States in three decades, will be sentenced next month in Baltimore. Under his plea agreement with the Government, he is expected to be sentenced to life in prison.
The nation’s pornography industry was the target of an advisory panel’s report to the Attorney General, which recommended more vigorous law enforcement and increased citizen vigilance against the industry. A passage that was the subject of dispute among the panel’s 11 members said there was a “causal relationship” between some kinds of pornography and acts of sexual violence.
Philadelphia officials asked a court to force 850 striking health workers back to work as a nine-day strike by 14,000 municipal employees kept thousands of tons of garbage piling up on city streets. A hearing was set for today. Mayor W. Wilson Goode, in a television address, said that the city would hold firm against “unreasonable” demands by the workers. Meanwhile, a rupture in a water line left about 20,000 homes and businesses in West Philadelphia with little or no water.
The lawyer for Jerry A. Whitworth admitted today that the former Navy radioman had sold communications secrets to John A. Walker Jr. but said Mr. Whitworth was unaware that Mr. Walker was working for the Soviet Union. “There is no question that Mr. Whitworth received money, and a lot of it, for the classified information which he provided over the years,” the defense lawyer, James Larson, said in his closing argument in Federal District Court. “The question is, what was his intent?”
A federal judge in Tampa, Florida, declared a mistrial in the racketeering case of reputed Florida crime boss Santo Trafficante Jr., ruling that the prosecution had introduced prejudicial hearsay evidence. U.S. District Judge William Castagna’s ruling abruptly ended the trial in its third week. Castagna said photos and audio tapes presented by the government as the basis for admitting hearsay testimony fell short of showing that Trafficante, 71, agreed to participate in a conspiracy.
A strike by 7,500 pulp and paper workers against Weyerhaeuser Co. spread to five mills in Oregon and Washington, and the company said it would seek a court injunction to stop what it called illegal picketing. Most of the 2,000 workers at the five mills refused to cross the picket lines set up by members of two unions that struck Weyerhaeuser June 16. The pickets disrupted mill operations in Everett, Cosmopolis and Longview, Washington, and at Springfield and North Bend, Oregon. The unions, which struck the company rather than accept a $4 per hour wage cut, rejected a modified offer this week.
Three mine supervisors were buried under rock 780 feet below the surface as a section of a coal mine roof collapsed, officials said. The victims were supervising construction work during routine maintenance while union miners were on vacation when the roof gave way at the Freeman United Coal Co.’s Orient No. 6 mine near Waltonville, Illinois, a spokesman for the company said. The accident occurred in the second week of a 21-day vacation shutdown, Mr. Ryan said. The three victims were supervising repair work, he said. The State Department of Mines and Minerals reported that on June 20 a miner was electrocuted at the mine, apparently when he came in contact with a fuse box.
A derailed railroad tank car that had been spewing toxic fumes since Tuesday exploded tonight in Miamisburg, Ohio, forcing new evacuations and causing more injuries in the path of the fumes, the authorities said. At least 25,000 people were evacuated tonight from four Dayton suburbs, including many of Miamisburg’s 15,000 residents, officials said. At least 61 people were treated for breathing problems, eye irritation, nausea and other symptoms, officials said.
A research team set off for the North Atlantic to photograph the interior of the Titanic for the first time since the “unsinkable” luxury liner struck an iceberg and sank in 1912. About 100 well-wishers in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, waved as the research vessel Atlantis 2 pulled away. The team will seek to confirm that the wreckage, which was found last September, is not deteriorating in its watery grave 400 miles south of Newfoundland. The sinking of the British liner claimed 1,513 lives.
Two weeks after the last vote was cast in a disputed runoff, Democrats are still looking for a nominee to succeed Gov. George C. Wallace and a way to end a feud that could put Republicans on Alabama’s political map permanently. “What we are witnessing is the birth of the two-party system in Alabama,” said Marty Connors, executive director of the state Republican Party, which has been buried under Democratic rule for a century. A Democratic primary deadlock between Attorney General Charles Graddick and Lieut. Gov. Bill Baxley has inspired some to liken Alabama balloting to elections in the Philippines, replete with assertions of fraud. The stalemate is serious enough that it has silenced Governor Wallace, who is ill and is retiring after four terms. “He hasn’t said zip about it,” Governor Wallace’s press secretary, Frank Mastin Jr., said of the Baxley-Graddick fight. “He isn’t going to get involved.”
The number of calories people burn when they are resting appears to be inherited, possibly explaining how obesity may be passed down through families, a new study said. In the study, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Clifton Bogardus of the National Institutes of Health said in Phoenix he found strong evidence that the basal metabolic rate may explain how the tendency to become obese is passed along. The rate was measured by the amount of oxygen consumed and the amount of carbon dioxide produced. The results showed the standard method of calculating the rate by body size, age and sex was only 83% accurate, Bogardus said.
The McDonnell Douglas Corp. has agreed to repair at its own expense problems with the Army’s new Apache attack helicopter, officials said. The problems, which have not resulted in any accidents, range from cracks inside the tail boom section of the sophisticated gunship to improper wiring. The company’s subsidiary, McDonnell Douglas Helicopter, will repair about 100 Apaches, estimated to cost about $48 million, which have already been delivered to the Army. It will also adopt the modifications in its current production line, officials said.
Shoulder harnesses for the rear seat of cars are recommended in a report prepared by the staff of the National Safety Transportation Board. It reportedly says back-seat passengers may be safer in some accidents when they are not wearing a lap safety belt, which is all that is required for rear seats under current law. According to those familiar with the report, it says that in some accident situations rear-seat passengers wearing only lap belts may be vulnerable to greater injury than if they were wearing no belts. Safety board members have reviewed the report once and received additional staff documentation on it this week.
“Genius grants” are expiring for the 21 men and women in the first group awarded them by the MacArthur Foundation. The five-year grants are designed to free gifted men and women to pursue their creative endeavors by temporarily lifting financial burdens. One recipient said he felt like a “condemned man” knowing the money would stop but added on reflection, “Another five years probably would spoil me.”
Aftershocks subsided today from an earthquake that left at least $4.5 million in damage in southern California, officials said. There were 29 reported injuries from the earthquake early Tuesday morning, with one victim reported still in serious condition, according to the authorities. A 96-year-old man found dead of a heart attack in a trailer park died hours before the quake, the Riverside County Coroner’s office said today. He originally was thought to have been a quake victim. The quake measured 5.9 on the open-ended Richter scale of earthquake severity. It was originally measured by scientists at the California Institute of Technology at 6.0 on the scale, classifying it as severe, but calculations with more precise data today caused them to lower the magnitude. The authorities put the total quake damage at $4.5 million to $5 million, and said a final estimate of damage to dwellings in remote desert areas might take months.
Columbia Records releases “The Bridge,” singer-songwriter Billy Joel’s 10th studio album.
Major League Baseball:
The Padres trade pitcher Tim Stoddard to the Yankees for pitcher Ed Whitson, who had become the target of such fan abuse in New York that manager Lou Piniella would no longer pitch him in Yankee Stadium.
The Boston Red Sox edged the Oakland Athletics, 7–6. Wade Boggs atoned for two errors with three hits as Boston rode a six-run third inning to victory. Boggs, who raised his major league-leading average to .373, drove in a run with a single in the third, singled in the fourth and doubled home a run in the the sixth. He allowed two unearned runs in the third when he was unable to hang on to a grounder by Bruce Bochte. Dave Kingman followed with his 19th home run, the 426th of his career, and moved into a tie with Billy Williams for 19th place on the career list.
The Cleveland Indians beat the Chicago White Sox, 6–3. Joe Carter and Mel Hall hit two-run homers, and Julio Franco went 5 for 5. Phil Niekro (6–6) posted his third straight triumph. He gave up six hits, struck out three and walked none in his fourth complete game this season.
The Kansas City Royals snapped a club-record 11-game losing streak tonight, blanking the Baltimore Orioles, 3–0, as Danny Jackson teamed with Bud Black on a three-hitter. It was the first victory for the Royals, who won the World Series last season, since June 26 when they beat Oakland, 9–2. Lonnie Smith scored all the Royal runs. Jackson (5–6), whose wife gave birth to their second child earlier today, allowed three hits while walking three and striking out three. Black came in with two on and none out in the seventh and got his third save. Rich Bordi (3–1) making his first start after 26 relief appearances, allowed all the Kansas City runs.
The Los Angeles Dodgers rolled over the St. Louis Cardinals, 8–2. Fernando Valenzuela (11–6) pitched a five-hitter, and Jeff Hamilton had a three-run double in a four-run first inning for Los Angeles. Valenzuela struck out nine, losing his shutout in the ninth.
The California Angels downed the Milwaukee Brewers, 6–1. Don Sutton (8–5) recorded his sixth straight victory and 303d of his career, and Gary Pettis scored twice and knocked in a run to lead California to its fourth consecutive triumph.
The Detroit Tigers shut out the Minnesota Twins, 7–0. Jack Morris (8–6) pitched a six-hitter, and Lance Parrish hit two home runs, his 20th and 21st, which moved him into a tie for the American League lead with Jose Canseco and Jesse Barfield.
The Montreal Expos edged the Houston Astros, 2–1. Floyd Youmans (9–5) threw a two-hitter, striking out 11 batters, to win his fifth straight decision and Andre Dawson hit a home run for Montreal.
The Mets took an 11–1 beating from the Cincinnati Reds yesterday in Shea Stadium and were swept in a three-game series for the first time in a year. And later everybody walked through the debris now littering storybook season and asked why. Dwight Gooden, who was cuffed around for four runs in the first inning and who lasted only four innings, put it this way: “Just one of those days when you don’t have it. Everything goes wrong.” Cincy collects 17 hits, 5 by little-used infielder Wade Rowden, a career .217 hitter.
Atlanta’s Dale Murphy does not play in the Braves 7–3 win over the Phillies, ending his consecutive-game streak at 740. Murphy hadn’t missed a game since September 1981. Ken Oberkfell drove in two runs with a bases-loaded single and recently acquired Doyle Alexander scattered eight hits over seven innings.
The Pittsburgh Pirates bested the San Diego Padres, 6–4. Joe Orsulak homered and scored three times and Johnny Ray drove in two runs with a home run and double to boost Pittsburgh.
The Chicago Cubs beat the San Francisco Giants, 6–3. Terry Francona’s bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the 10th inning gave Chicago the victory. Chicago executed a triple play in the fifth inning.
Dave Winfield sat for seven innings tonight, but he kept his unhappiness to himself. In the eighth, he rose from the bench and delivered a run-scoring double that the Yankees needed, and they went on score a 5–4 victory over the Texas Rangers. It was Winfield and his right-field replacement, Claudell Washington, who got the hits that sent the Yankees out of town with two victories in three games here. But the end was not seen first-hand by Manager Lou Piniella, who was ejected in the sixth inning.
The Seattle Mariners bowed to the Toronto Blue Jays 6–5. Cliff Johnson keyed Toronto’s three-run rally in the eighth inning with a two-run pinch-hit single to lead the Blue Jays.
Oakland Athletics 6, Boston Red Sox 7
Cleveland Indians 6, Chicago White Sox 3
Baltimore Orioles 0, Kansas City Royals 3
St. Louis Cardinals 2, Los Angeles Dodgers 8
California Angels 6, Milwaukee Brewers 1
Detroit Tigers 7, Minnesota Twins 0
Houston Astros 1, Montreal Expos 2
Cincinnati Reds 11, New York Mets 1
Atlanta Braves 7, Philadelphia Phillies 3
Pittsburgh Pirates 6, San Diego Padres 4
Chicago Cubs 4, San Francisco Giants 3
New York Yankees 5, Texas Rangers 4
Seattle Mariners 5, Toronto Blue Jays 6
After two days of heavy losses for Wall Street, stock prices inched higher yesterday even though volume tailed off and investors seemed most interested in speculative issues. The Dow Jones industrial average, which lost a record 61.87 points on Monday and another 18.27 on Tuesday, rose by 5.34 points yesterday, to 1,826.07. The gain erased some slippage early in the session.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1826.07 (+5.34)
Born:
Antoine Cason, NFL cornerback (San Diego Chargers, Arizona Cardinals, Carolina Panthers, Baltimore Ravens), in Long Beach, California.
Brandon Uranowitz, American actor (2023 Tony for “Leopoldstadt”), born in Livingston, New Jersey.
Kiely Williams, American singer and actress (Aqua in “The Cheetah Girls”), born in Alexandria, Virginia.
Died:
Lê Duẩn, 78, Vietnamese communist politician (General Secretary of Vietnam 1960-1986).
Karl-Heinz Beckurts, 56, West German Siemens manager, murdered.
History Diaries 