Former prime minister Giulio Andreotti of Italy was asked by President Giovanni Leone to form a new government of ministers from a coalition of Andreotti’s Democrazia Cristiana party and the Italian Socialist Party. Andreotti, a former Prime Minister and now Budget Minister, was selected tonight to try to form a new Italian Cabinet and end the political impasse growing our of last month’s elections.
Pravda, the Soviet Communist Party newspaper, described Jimmy Carter today as a “moderate” but criticized him for his foreign policy statements. Reporting on the opening of the Democratic National Convention, Pravda said that Mr. Carter’s popularity had been due “largely to his moderate. centrist position and ability to avoid sharp corners in statements on domestic problems.” Mr. Carter, in several statements, had shown a “realistic” attitude about Soviet‐American relations, according to Pravda. But the newspaper added that “Carter’s foreign policy statements show evidence of pressure from those elements of the Democratic Party who are connected with the military‐industrial complex and from the reactionary leadership of the A.F.L.‐C.I.O. trade unions and Zionist organizations.”
Air Force B-52 bombers have started long-range patrols to watch movements of the Soviet navy in the Atlantic, the Pentagon announced. Operating from bases in the United States, the Pentagon said the aircraft would supplement naval efforts. Only a few B-52s would be involved in what appeared to be the first step in a new maritime strategy, developed in the National Security Council.
The U.S. Defense Department, under a Congressional edict, is reducing the military advisory teams that started out by administering military aid to foreign countries and ended up serving largely as the foreign service of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The nine-member countries of Western Europe’s Common Market decided today to draft an international treaty that would commit them either to prosecute or to extradite hijackers and terrorists. In a declaration issued in the midst of a United Nations debate, the West European leaders at a meeting here condemned “the inhuman practice of taking hostages for the purposes of putting pressure on governments, for whatever political or nonpolitical ends and for whatever motives, as completely unacceptable.” Chancellor Helmut Schmidt of West Germany, who has been increasingly preoccupied by political violence, pressed for today’s accord.
Russian physicist Andrei D. Sakharov and 23 other dissident academics charged that Soviet secrecy laws violated the professional and human rights of scientists. The group listed its complaints in an open letter to the president of the Academy of Sciences, Anatoly Alexandrov and the chairman of the State Committee for Science and Technology, Vladimir Kirillin. The group said that “scientific work is incompatible with the automatic following of official doctrines” and called for an end to the dismissal of scientists for their religious or ideological views.
Plans to establish a new trade union in which all wage earners would participate were announced today by the Communist-influenced worker commissions that together form Spain’s most powerful though illegal labor organization.
French communists attacked and set fire to war criminal Joachim Peiper’s house in Traves, France. When the fire was extinguished, firefighters found the charred remains of a man holding a pistol and a .22 caliber rifle, as if defending himself. The arson investigators determined that person had died from smoke inhalation. The anti-Nazi political group The Avengers claimed responsibility for the arson that killed Peiper; nonetheless, because of the destruction caused by the arson, some French police authorities remained unconvinced that Joachim Peiper was the person found.
The court-martial begins in the USSR for Valery Sablin. Sablin was a Soviet Navy officer and member of the Communist Party who in November 1975, while serving as the political officer on the anti-submarine frigate Storozhevoy, led a mutiny against the Soviet state. Sablin’s stated aim was to seize control of the ship, sail it from Riga to Leningrad, and broadcast a nationwide address protesting the widespread corruption and stagnation of the Brezhnev era, calling for a return to Leninist principles and a new communist revolution. The mutiny was suppressed by Soviet naval and air forces while the ship was still en route. Sablin was arrested, court-martialed, and convicted of high treason. He was executed by firing squad in August 1976. His second-in-command, Seaman Alexander Shein, was sentenced to eight years in prison. The incident remained largely classified and suppressed by the Soviet government until the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The story became known in the West, albeit often inaccurately, and served as the inspiration for Tom Clancy’s 1984 novel The Hunt for Red October. In 1994, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation posthumously reviewed Sablin’s case, commuting the treason charge to lesser military offenses but upholding the original sentence.
Twelve countries have just concluded a secret meeting in Paris on possible exploitation of Antarctica’s mineral resources after 1989. The 12 agreed in 1959 to suspend territorial claims for 30 years so the continent could be reserved for scientific research.
Israel’s chief delegate, Chaim Herzog, charged in the United Nations Security Council that Uganda was threatening foreign residents in an attempt to influence the Council’s debate on the Israeli raid that freed hijacked hostages at Entebbe Airport. He alluded to a statement by President Idi Amin that the British would pay very heavily for talking on behalf of the Israelis and to a British warning earlier of threats to Britons in Uganda.
A Ugandan arriving in Nairobi was quoted today as having said he had seen what he presumed to be the body of the missing hijacking hostage, Dora Bloch, in a forest near Kampala, the Uganda capital. The body was half burned, the Ugandan, who asked to remain unidentified, said, according to the Nairobi newspaper Daily Nation. Mrs. Bloch, a 75‐year‐old woman of both British and Israeli nationality, had been taken to a Kampala hospital before the Israeli raid on the Entebbe airport on July 3 because she had choked over some food. Uganda has asserted that she was returned to the airport before the Israeli raiders rescued the more than 100 hostages held there by pro‐Palestinian hijackers. The British Government rejected this account yesterday, saying there was little doubt that she was dead.
A Syrian tank column entered Baalbek, a large Muslim center, in an advance seen by some as a Syrian effort to win military control of eastern Lebanon, including the fertile Bekaa valley. Libyan authorities said Syrian forces south of Beirut had begun a limited withdrawal from the city and port of Saida at the demand of the Libyan Prime Minister, Abdel Salam Jalloud, who has been mediating in Beirut and Damascus. Jalloud who has been acting as a mediator here and in Damascus for nearly two months. One of the principal military figures in the right‐wing Christian faction. William Haoui, was killed outside the isolated Palestinian camp of Tell Zaa tar, which has been under constant attack for the last 22 days. He was head of the military council of the Phalangist movement, the largest rightwing Christian force.
The Phalangist radio charged that Mr. Haoui had been shot and killed by the Palestinian defenders of Tell Zaatar as he supervised the surrender of a group of persons, including civilians, who had come out of the camp under a white flag. Mr. Haoui’s death is expected to lead to an intensification of fighting around Tell Zaatar and on other fronts as the rightist Christians strive to avenge his death. Although not a professional soldier, Mr. Haoui was responsible for much of the planning and operations of the rightwing Christian military forces. He worked closely with Colonel Antoine Barakat, a professional soldier in the now disintegrated Lebanese Army, who is the most frequently mentioned man on the right‐wing Christian side.
Information officials of 60 nonaligned nations meeting in New Delhi adopted a constitution for a proposed news agency pool for the Third World to counteract what they called the “monopoly” of Western news agencies.
The five-man mission sent from Hanoi to break friendly ground in Southeast Asia ended its visit to Manila today after obtaining a guarantee from the Philippine Government that military bases here would not be used for aggressive purposes in the region.
The Philippines asked for a temporary halt to U.S. Navy bombing practice as a result of reports that six Filipinos had been killed and two wounded in practice strikes last month. Foreign Secretary Carlos P. Romulo, in a diplomatic note to the U.S. Embassy, referred to news reports of three bombing incidents claiming casualties at the “impact area” 70 miles northwest of Manila. A U.S. Navy spokesman said a Navy team was investigating the incidents.
More than 1,300 residents of Guam sought shelter in schools as they braced for Typhoon Therese, a powerful storm with sustained winds of 155 mph gusting to 185. The National Weather Service said the typhoon was expected to bypass Guam 135 miles to the northeast, bringing high winds and squalls to the island.
The U.N. Trusteeship Council overrode Soviet objections and approved by a 3-1 vote the American plan to grant self-government to the Pacific islands of Micronesia. The council upheld political unity for the territory, which includes the Marianas, Carolines and Marshall islands, despite some Marshall islanders who wanted independence from the United States and separation from the poorer Carolines.
Welcomed by booming cannon, bosun’s pipes and applause, Queen Elizabeth II stepped from the royal yacht Britannia at the Nova Scotia port of Halifax to begin a 13-day visit to Canada. She will fly to Montreal Friday night and open the 1976 Olympic games on Saturday.
The Mexican government said thousands of square miles in 10 states were under water from torrential rains that sent rivers over their banks, drowned two persons and swept away bridges, roads and crops. The hardest hit areas were in the states of San Luis Potosi, Tamaulipas, Veracruz and Guanajuato. The two drowning victims were in the city of San Francisco del Rincon in Guanajuato state. The city was totally cut off by a flood.
The execution of 18 Ethiopian military leaders and merchants, including the third-ranking member of the ruling hierarchy, was announced on the Addis Ababa radio. It said they had committed crimes ranging from plotting a coup to food hoarding. Sources in the Ethiopian capital said the city was calm but they had no clear-cut analysis of the executions, There have been reports of division within the ruling council during recent months. Ethiopia’s military government announced the execution of 18 persons, including Major Sisaye Hapte, one of the leading members of the ruling military council, in connection with an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the regime. Brigadier General Getachew Nadew, commander of the armed forces in rebellious Eritrea province, was also reported slain while resisting arrest. The announcement, broadcast by government radio from Addis Ababa, said all 19 had been convicted of treason and given the maximum penalty.
America’s unmanned landing on Mars will be attempted next Tuesday in a low, dry basin, the officials of the Viking mission said today after weeks of searching for a safe landing site. The landing zone for the three‐legged robot experimental package is about 460 miles northwest of the site originally chosen for a landing on the Fourth of July. That landing was called off when the terrain was found to be unexpectedly rough. The landing will come 11 months to the day after Viking blasted off from earth on a search for life on another planet.
The Democratic National Convention, after sweeping aside a last potentially divisive issue, adopted early a platform bearing the clear imprint of Jimmy Carter. Only a few scattered “nays” were heard as the platform was approved on a ringing voice vote. Earlier, in its first recorded vote, it had defeated a proposal to discuss three issues for 20 minutes each by 1,957½ to 735. The Women’s caucus had accepted a compromise committing the party to promote rather than require equal representation for women. Mr. Carter welcomed the prospect that the names of other candidates would be placed in nomination tonight. The convention responded warmly to speeches by party heroes past and present.
Jimmy Carter said in a telephone interview that he had not told even his closest advisers who was pre-eminent in his mind as a vice-presidential running mate. He said he would hold a final working session this morning with his associates on information concerning the six United States Senators he has under consideration. Speculation, even among his staff, centered increasingly on Walter Mondale of Minnesota and Edmund Muskie of Maine. Many Democrats felt John Glenn’s failure to capture the crowd in his keynote speech had hurt his chances, but Mr. Carter told his staff he had not told anyone that Mr. Glenn had been dropped from serious consideration.
Deep in the heart of Manhattan, Texans and New Yorkers are mysteriously saying nice things about each other. Many members of the Texas delegation believe it is more than a temporary cease-fire between the capitals of the Sunbelt and of the Eastern establishment.
High government sources in Washington said that federal agents were investigating additional allegations that Representative Otto Passman used his congressional powers to influence the awarding of a lucrative shipping agency contract. They said the investigators had been told that the Louisiana Democrat paved the way for replacing late last year a shipping agency that had represented Egypt with a new concern, Pan Mediterranean Shipping Corporation. formed by two of his friends. These are Tongsun Park, a wealthy South Korean with power and influence in Washington, and Grover Connell, head of America’s biggest rice exporter. The sources said the shift was aborted in February after the Agriculture Department demanded full disclosure of all ownership and beneficial interest in Pan Mediterranean Shipping.
The Federal Government prepared today to reimburse flood victims for losses caused when the Teton Dam collapsed in Idaho last month. A spokesman for the Bureau of Reclamation, which owns the dam, said the bureau would begin receiving claims on damaged houses, crops, herds, and businesses tomorrow morning, make its inspections and decisions as quickly as possible, and start disbursing funds within a week. The bureau, which is part of the department of the Interior, got $200 million for damage payments when President Ford signed a $9.7 billion public works bill yesterday, A bureau spokesman said the President had indicated that he would ask for additional funds if they were needed later.
Pat Nixon, partially paralyzed by a stroke, is steadily improving and advanced today from simple arm and leg therapy to walking and standing at least once a day. She began arm and leg strengthening exercises At her bedside yesterday with the aid of a physical therapist, and today her treatment was expanded to include standing and walking once or twice a day, said Dr. John Lungren, the Nixon’s personal physician. “Although Mrs. Nixon’s condition would still have to be called serious because of the nature of a stroke,” Dr. Lungren said, “basically the entire picture has improved. “Her speech has improved, her blood pressure remains under control, although there still is some motor weakness on the left side of her body.”
The Federal Energy Administration expects to extend its July‐August freeze on domestic crude oil prices through September and possibly through October, official sources reported today. They also disclosed that the agency was preparing to ask Congress to permit liberalization as of September 1 of the statutory formula that limits crude oil price escalation to 10 percent a year.
The Massachusetts Supreme Court has ruled that life-prolonging treatments may be withheld from a severely retarded man suffering leukemia who is incapable of making such a decision himself. A full report of the court’s ruling will be issued at a later date and may serve as a blueprint for such cases in the future, the court said. The ruling involves Joseph Saikewicz, 67, a resident of a state institution for the last 53 years, who has a mental age of 3. He is suffering from acute myelogenous leukemia, which is always fatal, although the lives of its victims often can be prolonged with drug therapy.
A group of 37 cadets involved in the West Point cheating scandal asked the U.S. Military Court of Appeals to halt academy action against them and restore them to good standing. The court began considering whether it has jurisdiction. In the past, it has handled only appeals in criminal cases involving military justice. No crime has been charged in the cheating scandal. The cadets are among 173 third-year students implicated in charges of cheating on a take-home electrical engineering test March 3.
A telephoned bomb threat at the trial in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, of two American Indian Movement members charged with killing two FBI agents forced the jury to move from the federal courthouse to a motel. Officials said the caller did not say where the bomb had been planted nor if it had any connection with the trial, but the jury, in the second day of deliberations, was moved as a precaution. The agents were shot to death June 26, 1975.
A break-off of negotiations in New York City between Uniroyal and the United Rubber Workers has put a quick end to the latest effort to end a 12-week strike against the Big Four of the tire industry. Uniroyal called the halt an “indefinite recess.” URW President Peter Bommarito and other URW officials departed without comment. The union reportedly told the company that a strike settlement for the industry would have to be set at Firestone. Talks in Cleveland between the union and Firestone and Goodyear were recessed indefinitely last week after the industry’s latest offer was rejected.
The Justice Department charged a school board with religious discrimination for dismissing a teacher because he was absent for eight days in a two-month period to observe religious holidays. It was the first such suit the department has filed. It charged the Bridgeport, Washington, school board with violating the 1964 Civil Rights Act by discharging Lyle Davis, 36, who taught science and mathematics in the town’s 130-student high school. Davis, a member of a small denomination known as the World Wide Church of God, was dismissed on Oct. 25, 1974, after taking off his church’s holy days in October and September. The suit asks for Davis’ reemployment and payment of lost wages.
Two commuter trains collided after dark within 200 yards of the station in New Canaan, Conn. One person was killed and 24 injured. A ConRail spokesman said the 5:08 PM train from New York City apparently was struck in the rear by the 5:27 PM train, also from Grand Central. The rear car of the earlier train was derailed and was leaning precariously on an embankment. Police, fearing the car might overturn and pull other cars down, were keeping spectators away from the area. The ConRail spokesman said the cause of the collision was not immediately known.
California state officials in Sacramento say that with proper; water conservation, piecemeal solutions to local crises, ingenuity and luck. California’s huge farming, timber, and cattle businesses can get through the state’s worst drought in 50 years without extensive permanent damage. However, they are warning Californians that an abnormally hot autumn with the expected increase in number of fires and their intensity could greatly add to the nearly billion dollars’ worth of losses already reported by farming, dairy, ranching, timber, and fish and wildlife operations because of the continuing drought.
Major League Baseball:
The National League, and most especially the Cincinnati Reds, treated President Ford and 63,974 other baseball fans to a convincing display of muscle tonight by overpowering the American League, 7-1, and winning the All-Star Game for the fifth straight year. George Foster, one of 7 Reds position players on the squad, homers, drives in 3 runs, is named the game’s MVP. Rookie Mark Fidrych gives up 2 runs and takes the loss. It is the National League’s 13th win in the last 14 games.
The stock market shrugged off a spate of profit taking yesterday and closed almost unchanged in fairly heavy trading after posting a 41‐month high on Monday. The Dow Jones industrial average, reflecting losses in several key issues, closed 5.15 points lower at 1,006.06 after advancing during yesterday’s early trading. But the general market was stronger. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners, 743 to 711, while 438 closed unchanged.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1006.06 (-5.15, -0.51%)
Born:
Sheldon Souray, Canadian NHL defenseman (NHL All-Star, 2004, 2007, 2009; New Jersey Devils, Montreal Canadiens, Edmonton Oilers, Dallas Stars, Anaheim Ducks), in Elk Point, Alberta, Canada.
Darcy Verot, Canadian NHL centre and left wing (Washington Capitals), in Radville, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Emma Bonney, English billiards player and 13-time world billiards title winner; in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, United Kingdom.
Lisa Riley, English soap opera actress known (“Emmerdale”); in Bury, Lancashire, England, United Kingdom.
Oleg Sentsov, Ukrainian filmmaker and activist who was imprisoned in Russia for four years after the Russian invasion of Crimea; in Simferopol, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union.
Died:
William Haoui, 67, the leader of Lebanon’s right-wing Phalangist Christian political party was shot and killed by a sniper while surveying Tel el-Zaatar, where the Phalangist militia had recently defeated the Palestinian Muslim attempt to take over Beirut.
Joachim Peiper, 61, German military leader (SS, by assassination).
History Diaries 