Moscow has voiced new pessimism over Washington’s positions on arms control. Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, in a new expression of unhappiness over Washington’s positions on arms control, says that a further extension of Moscow’s moratorium on nuclear testing will depend on the American response. In his comments, made Monday at a meeting with scientists and published today in the Soviet press, the Soviet leader accused Washington and the West of failing to respond to a broad range of Soviet proposals on nuclear and conventional arms. “We, naturally, hope for an adequate reaction from the American side and from the West in general,” Mr. Gorbachev told a group of organizers of an “international forum of scientists for an end to nuclear testing” held in Moscow over the weekend. “So far we are not satisfied with the position of either the American Administration or the other Western governments.” Gorbachev said that an extension of the Soviet Union’s unilateral moratorium on nuclear testing depends “to a large extent” on U.S. decisions on disarmament, the news agency Tass reported. The Foreign Ministry did not clarify Gorbachev’s remarks before an international group of anti-nuclear scientists in Moscow. But they appeared to mark a change from the previous Kremlin stand that an extension depends on Washington joining the Soviet moratorium, which is due to end August 6. The United States has refused to join, citing problems of monitoring compliance and plans to update American nuclear weapons.
When Representative John Edward Porter was contesting the Pentagon’s case for developing new chemical weapons last year, he adopted an unusual tactic. He turned to the Central Intelligence Agency. Mr. Porter, an Illinois Republican, arranged a closed briefing for the House Appropriations Committee at which the C.I.A. delivered an evaluation of the Soviet chemical warfare threat. The analysis was less ominous than that of the Pentagon, as the Army Chief of Staff, Gen. John A. Wickham Jr., has acknowledged in Congressional testimony. The C.I.A. view, General Wickham said, is that “there is less intention to use chemical weapons and, therefore, probably less of a threat.” The C.I.A. still views Soviet military capabilities as a threat. But on a number of major issues, the C.I.A. has presented a less grim picture of Soviet military programs than that offered by the Pentagon under Caspar W. Weinberger and by other senior Administration officials. To many Administration officials and members of Congress, this suggests that the agency, under William J. Casey, has generally maintained its tradition of independence and objectivity on Soviet military issues even as the Reagan Administration has taken policy in a more conservative direction.
Separatist Basque guerrillas claimed responsibility for the killing of nine Spanish civil guards in the third such car-bomb attack in a year in Madrid, and newspaper editorials called for a shake-up in the leadership of security forces. The incident points to a “a political failure that demands resignations,” rightist opposition leader Manuel Fraga told reporters. The bomb ripped apart a bus carrying 58 members of the paramilitary civil guards, wounding 45 of the guards and 11 passers-by. The claim of responsibility was made in the northern city of San Sebastian by the guerrillas, who seek an independent Basque state.
Protestants attacked police with firebombs as sectarian violence spread across Northern Ireland for the third day, police said. The worst clashes were in Belfast, where police fired rubber bullets at Protestants hurling firebombs. In one area, real bullets were fired at police but caused no casualties. The violence followed weekend marches commemorating the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, when a victory by Protestants ensured their dominance in the province.
A London judge ordered that a Palestinian be tried on charges of trying to blow up an Israeli airliner in April by smuggling a bomb aboard in his girlfriend’s baggage. A security agent spotted the bomb. Nezar Hindawi, 32, is to be held in jail until a jury trial, for which no date was set. Mohammed Said Fadda, 44, of London, who is alleged to have had possession of Hindawi’s gun, will also stand trial, on firearms charges. He was released on bail. The judge acted after two days of preliminary hearings in which British prosecutors implicated Syria in the incident.
East and West Germany exchanged accusations today over what appeared to be a failed attempt by a senior East German academic figure to flee to the West. The East German press agency accused West German intelligence agents of seeking to kidnap the scholar, Herbert Meissner, an economist and Deputy Secretary General of the East German Academy of Sciences, while he was traveling in West Berlin.
American and Turkish specialists report that political upheavals in opium-producing countries and a large increase in heroin addiction in Europe have produced a flow of narcotics from South Asia and the Middle East through Turkey that is increasingly difficult to police. The problem is complicated for European enforcement agencies by a comparable rise in the flow of hashish. In addition, the growing number of heroin addicts in Western Europe — they are now almost as numerous as in the United States, where 500,000 are estimated to be hard-core users — has created problems for enforcement agencies despite considerable increases in their budgets and staffs.
Secretary of State George P. Shultz has ordered the U.S. Embassy in Damascus to look into the publication of an anti-Semitic book allegedly written by Syrian Defense Minister Mustafa Talas. The book, “The Matzo of Zion,” was printed last year in Damascus with the tacit approval of the Syrian government, charged Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies in Los Angeles. Hier said the book perpetuates the medieval “blood libel” in which Jews were accused of killing Christians to use their blood for matzo, the unleavened bread of Passover. Syrian officials in Washington have denied any knowledge of the book.
The Reagan Administration may send Vice President Bush to Syria to make a new overture to improve relations in the hope of reviving the Middle East peace process, White House officials said today. The officials said that the State Department and the National Security Council had left open the possibility that Mr. Bush could make an unscheduled stop in Syria while on a 12-day trip to the Middle East. He is scheduled to leave July 25. A meeting with the Syrian President, Hafez al-Assad, had been urged by King Hussein of Jordan when the Jordanian leader met with President Reagan last month. At that time, the King suggested that the United States take a more active diplomatic role in Middle East peace efforts.
Britain charged today that Iraq’s use of mustard gas and other chemical agents in its war with Iran was responsible for about 10,000 casualties and said Iraq appeared to be increasing its capacity to produce chemical weapons. The charges were made in a speech delivered at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva by Tim Renton, a Foreign Office minister. He presented a compromise proposal on verification procedures designed to win Soviet and American agreement on a comprehensive ban on chemical weapons. Mr. Renton said other countries in the Middle East, including Iran, appeared to be developing chemical weapons.
Libyan military exercises in the Gulf of Sidra passed without incident this week. The Libyan state radio service said Libyan forces fired missiles in the Gulf of Sidra on Monday to practice “the destruction of naval targets trying to cross the death line,” according to The Associated Press. The “line of death” is what Libya calls an imaginary border drawn across the Gulf of Sidra, where United States forces clashed with Libya in March. The United States refuses to recognize Libya’s claim of sovereignty south of the line, and occasionally flies aircraft and sends ships past the line to assert the right of passage in international waters.
President Reagan is expected to tell visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Mohammed Khan Junejo today that U.S. aid will diminish as Pakistan gets closer to acquiring a nuclear bomb, officials said. The reason is that, to keep the aid flowing, the Administration has had to certify annually to Congress that Pakistan does not possess a nuclear bomb. The Administration will once again have to make that assertion by October 1 if Congress is to approve a new $4-billion aid package. Also on the agenda for the two days of talks is Pakistan’s recent surge in opium production.
Armed men who kidnapped an American missionary in the southern Philippines have agreed to free their hostage without a ransom payment in the next two days, military authorities said today. Lieutenant Colonel Woodrow Estrera said emissaries of Ali Dimaporo, a former Governor of Lanao del Sur province, had made contact with the kidnappers of the American missionary, Brian Lawrence. He was abducted on Saturday from his home on a university campus in Marawi, the capital of the predominantly Muslim province in the southern Philippines. Mr. Dimaporo and other civilian leaders have joined the military in negotiating for the release of Mr. Lawrence, a 30-year-old Baptist evangelist from Madison, Wisconsin and 10 Roman Catholic nuns. The nuns were abducted Friday night by some 40 armed men who broke into the Carmelite convent in Marawi.
A member of the Nicaraguan National Assembly sought asylum in the Venezuelan Embassy today, diplomats reported. The politician, Felix Pedro Espinoza Briones, had expressed fears that the Sandinista Government was preparing to jail him. According to reports in Managua, Mr. Espinoza slipped over the fence around the Venezuelan compound and made his way into the building as people were arriving this morning. He is the first member of the assembly to seek foreign diplomatic protection.
The Reagan Administration has sent United States Army personnel and aircraft to help the Bolivian military in raids against major drug traffickers in north-central Bolivia, Administration officials said today. Much of the world’s cocaine is produced in the area. Under orders reviewed by President Reagan, officials said, a C-5A military transport carrying six Black Hawk transport helicopters and at least 100 United States Army pilots, officers and support personnel landed at Santa Cruz, Bolivia, on Monday. The force is based at the United States Southern Command in Panama.
A provincial South African Supreme Court justice hearing the first legal challenge to the state of emergency today described a key part of the June 12 decree as unintelligible. A Government spokesman, meanwhile, contended that the state of emergency was achieving its goal of restoring order. Under the decree, 3,500 to 4,000 people have been detained without charge, and most constitutional guarantees have been suspended.
Congressional leaders in Washington said today that a strong majority of the Senate was prepared to vote for tough economic sanctions against South Africa. The statements came amid what the Reagan Administration has described as a comprehensive review of its policy toward South Africa, where a second emergency decree has been put into effect amid widespread protest against the Government’s apartheid policies. Senator John Heinz, a Pennsylvania Republican, said a sanctions measure “will have all the votes it needs” to pass the Senate and overcome any possible filibuster by its opponents. Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, added: “A large majority of the Senate would like to take some action on South Africa. They’d like to cast a vote to indicate their unhappiness.”
Reagan Administration officials acknowledged today that a tentative decision to name a black businessman as the next Ambassador to South Africa was part of an effort to buy time in the face of increasing Congressional pressure to impose severe economic sanctions against South Africa. The officials made it clear that the White House was determined to prevent a Congressional takeover of United States policy toward Pretoria. Toward that end, President Reagan’s advisers are trying to put the boldest possible face on the policy “reassessment” under way within the Administration. But Reagan advisers are struggling to find proposals that are strong enough to satisfy Congress and still fit within the narrow policy limits defined by the President, who continues to oppose economic and diplomatic sanctions.
President Reagan endorsed legislation that would guarantee 37 million Social Security recipients cost-of-living increases whenever prices rise by abolishing the current 3% automatic trigger. White House spokesman Rusty Brashear said that Reagan had endorsed a proposal introduced by Senator John Heinz (R-Pennsylvania). Although the Social Security Administration holds that every 1% jump in inflation costs $2 billion in additional benefit payments, a spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget said the change would be expected to have “a negligible impact on the fiscal 1987 budget.”
The President pressed Senate G.O.P. leaders to move quickly with his nomination of Daniel A. Manion to a Federal appellate court post, according to legislators. President Reagan told Senate Republican leaders today that he considered the judicial nomination of Daniel A. Manion a major test of his Presidential power. Senators said that at a White House meeting this morning Mr. Reagan had urged them to push for Mr. Manion’s confirmation. “The President considers it now a battle in which his prestige is at stake,” said Senator Richard G. Lugar, a Republican from Mr. Manion’s home state of Indiana.
President Reagan participates in a ceremony to present the National Security Medal to Robert E. Rich, Deputy Director of the National Security Agency.
President Reagan addresses the National Teenage Republican Leadership Conference.
The Senate voted to confirm Terrence M. Scanlon as head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, acting more than a year and a half after he was nominated by President Reagan. Action on Scanlon was delayed while the General Accounting Office and then the Justice Department investigated allegations that he had misused his office as a member of the commission.
Two members of Congress seeking to put a stop to the “revolving door” through which federal officials leave their jobs and go directly into lobbying for foreign governments released a report listing 78 persons who have done so in the last five years. Reps. Howard Wolpe (D-Michigan) and Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) said that those named in a General Accounting Office report have broken no law. However, Wolpe and Kaptur said they are calling for a four-year ban on lobbying for foreigners by former senior officials.
Congressional investigators confirmed that up to 800 Lockheed Corp. documents relating to super-secret U.S. weapons programs, which may include the F-117 stealth fighter jet, are missing or have been falsified, staff aides said. The missing documents related to weapons projects known as “black programs” — so secret their cost is kept from Congress. Earlier this year, Lockheed corporate investigators told the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on investigations and oversight that internal company audits showed that up to 800 documents were missing.
The Defense Department, challenged by states who oppose the training of National Guard units in Central America, urged Congress to clarify the reserve’s dual state/federal status in peacetime. James Webb, assistant defense secretary for reserve affairs, told a Senate Armed Services subcommittee that the overseas training missions “are absolutely essential.” The federal government is accused of unconstitutionally trying to remove governors from the chain of command in the use of National Guard units.
Citing a threat to public health from a two-week buildup of uncollected trash, Philadelphia Mayor W. Wilson Goode asked a state court to order striking health care and sanitation employees back to work. The request came two weeks after 14,000 workers in two union districts walked off the job in a contract dispute, halting garbage collection, closing libraries and museums and slowing other services. The city also reinstated an earlier request to have members of white-collar District Council 47 ordered back to work. Members of that union ratified a new contract but many of its 2,500 members have honored picket lines.
About 7,000 municipal workers walked off the job in Detroit after union and city officials failed to reach a contract agreement in last-minute negotiations. The 18 locals of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees struck over the city’s refusal to go higher than a 2% wage increase and its offer of an equity formula tied to city finances that would cut union members’ wages if city finances declined.
An undersea robot entered the sunken luxury liner Titanic today through a skylight, worked its way down the grand stairway and descended four levels for the first view of the great wreck’s deep interior. Under remote control from a submarine perched on the upper deck, the video robot was driven into one first-class room and photographed a many-tiered chandelier still intact after 74 years under the icy North Atlantic 850 miles from here. In a triumphant radio communication with the expedition’s headquarters here, the leader, Dr. Robert D. Ballard, said that because the mission fulfilled a long ambition of his, “it was like landing on the moon.” His excitement was prompted especially, he said, by being able to “go down four decks and go into one of the rooms and look up at a beautiful chandelier.” The self-propelled vehicle loaded with television and still cameras is called Jason Jr., and this trip, financed by the Navy, is officially a test of its abilities. The robot is scheduled for eight more dives on this mission, one each day, weather permitting, and will explore as much of the ship’s interior as it can.
The family of Michael J. Smith, the Navy commander who piloted the shuttle Challenger on its catastrophic final mission, has filed a $15 million negligence claim against the space agency and a key employee. The claim charges that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and several of its employees should have known that “a catastrophic accident would likely occur” and had failed to take action to prevent it. The space agency will have six months to decide how to handle the claim, which was dated July 2 and filed with the space agency under the Federal Tort Claims Act. The claim is the first by survivors of the Challenger crew’s of seven, killed in the disaster Jan. 28. An investigation by a Presidential commission uncovered and described in detail numerous errors and misjudgments by the space agency and its chief rocket builder that led to the accident.
Four men were arrested today and charged with plotting to fly a reputed organized crime figure out of prison in a helicopter with state police markings, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said. The bureau said the plan included landing the helicopter in the prison yard of the Federal penitentiary at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, and “neutralizing” guard towers with a grenade launcher and machine guns before picking up the mob figure, Stephen Vento Sr., 44 years old, who is serving a term for dealing in drugs. The bureau said those arrested in the plot were Mr. Vento’s son, Stephen Jr., James Dickerson, Charles Stearly and John Valentine.
The probable causes of the crash of a Delta Airlines jumbo jet trying to land in Dallas last August were pilot error, inadequate training and a lack of a promptly radioed warning on the severity of a sudden wind shift, according to the four-member National Transportation Safety Board. The crash killed 137 people.
The South’s worst drought in history has taken the lives of at least 10 heat-prostration victims in 10 days of temperatures well into the 100s. The drought has severely damaged crops and pastureland.
The G.O.P. race for governor of Massachusetts suffered another setback. Gregory S. Hyatt, a 32-year-old lawyer, announced today that he would drop out of the race, following charges that he had accepted money from a reputed organized crime figure. His decision left his party with the names of two gubernatorial candidates on the ballot for September 16 both of whom have now withdrawn, Embarrassed leaders of the party are now seeking a replacement, who would have to run in the primary as a write-in candidate. Whoever wins the primary will oppose the popular Governor, Michael S. Dukakis, a Democrat.
Officials in Pennsylvania have charged a man in connection with a threat of tampering with a product. The man, Norman M. Allen, 21 years old, of Honesdale, Pennsylvania, was arrested Monday and charged with knowingly communicating false information that a consumer product had been tainted, said Wayne Davis, an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Philadelphia.
In the biggest case of false billing by a military contractor, a unit of Litton Industries has agreed to plead guilty to 325 counts of fraud for overbilling the Pentagon by $6.3 million. The unit, Litton Systems Inc., has agreed to pay the Government $15 million, the maximum allowable.
A Federal advisory committee today prodded the Reagan Administration to set up a national network to arrange for the transplanting of human organs, and said all people who need such transplants should receive them “regardless of their ability to pay.” The panel concluded 18 months of work by calling for the United States to “end wealth discrimination in heart and liver transplantation.” The panel said some patients who met “medical eligibility criteria” were denied access to heart and liver transplants “because of inability to pay.” The 25-member panel said private and public health programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, should cover the surgical costs of heart and liver transplants, as well as the expensive drug therapy needed to prevent bodily rejection of organs after surgery. The drug therapy usually extends over many years, often for the rest of the patient’s life.
In a grueling test of advanced technology and personal determination, a feather-light experimental aircraft today ended a four-and-a-half-day flight that broke world records for distance and endurance. The aircraft Voyager landed here at 6:30 AM Pacific daylight time, braving choppy desert winds after 111 hours of continuous flight that covered 11,600 miles. There was enough fuel left over, according to flight officials, for the airplane to fly from California to New York. The previous distance record for flying over such a closed circuit was 11,336 miles, achieved by a B-52 bomber in l962. The earlier endurance record of 84 hours 32 minutes was set in l931. Today’s new records are provisional, pending verification by international aviation authorities.
Cocaine-related deaths in Los Angeles County increased dramatically between 1982 and 1985, the county Drug Abuse Program office reported. Rene Topalian, assistant director of the program, blamed the increase on a “high proportion” of middle-class and upper-middle-class users. There were 118 cocaine-related deaths in the county last year, compared to only 43 in 1982, the office reported. Cocaine-related problems that put people in hospital emergency rooms increased 314%-from fewer than 300 such cases in 1982 to more than 1,000 in 1985, the report said. Topalian said the big demand for the drug has made it more available at a reduced cost.
Major League Baseball:
At the Houston Astrodome, the American League wins the All-Star Game 3–2 for its 2nd triumph in the last 15 years. The pregame buildup had been about pitching, about Dwight Gooden and Roger Clemens and their memorable achievements as the two dominant pitchers in baseball. But Gooden was merely a footnote tonight, his work reduced to three innings and a home run that he permitted in the second inning. Clemens became the leading character in a game that came down to pitching and helped the American League to a victory over the Nationals in the 57th All-Star Game. Clemens — performing in the Astrodome, not far from where he grew up — was the winning pitcher and the most valuable player. Gooden, whose season has been marked by similar struggles, was the loser.
As a Mexican left-hander with a screwball, Fernando Valenzuela is also known as “Carl Hubbellito,” a reference to the New York Giants’ left-hander who popularized the screwball half a century ago. And last night the Los Angeles Dodgers’ ace matched the most revered record in All-Star Game history — King Carl’s five consecutive strikeouts in the 1934 game at the Polo Grounds. Valenzuela’s five were not quite so famous as Hubbell’s five. His victims were, in order, Don Mattingly, Cal Ripken, Jesse Barfield, Lou Whitaker and the opposing pitcher, Teddy Higuera.
A slide in the price of shares of the International Business Machines Corporation again infected the stock market yesterday and the result was the third consecutive double-digit loss for the Dow Jones industrial average, which closed at its lowest level in nearly two months. Trading volume picked up significantly yesterday, making it the 10th-busiest day for Wall Street on record, as investors, fearful that a broad market downturn was under way, sold the stocks not only of companies that would likely suffer from a weak economy but also issues that have been rising on takeover speculation. The Dow average, after several rally attempts failed during the day, finished with a loss of 24.75 points at 1,768.70. The blue-chip index, which fell by 27.98 on Monday and 10.40 on Friday and had a loss of 79.44 points last week, is down to a level not seen since mid-May.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1768.7 (-24.75)
Born:
Tyler Kennedy, Canadian NHL centre and right wing (NHL champions, Stanley Cup-Penguins, 2009: Pittsburgh Penguins, San Jose Sharks, New York Islanders, New Jersey Devils), in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada.
Yahya Abdul-Mateen, American actor (“Watchmen”), in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Ari Aster, American screenwriter and director (“Midsommar”, “Hereditary”), in New York, New York.
Died:
Benny Rubin, 87, American actor and comedian (“Benny Rubin Show”).
Billy Haughton, 62, American harness driver and trainer (Hambletonian x 4; Little Brown Jug x 5; Messenger Stakes x 7), from head injuries in fall at Yonkers Raceway.
Florence Halop, 63, American actress (“Night Court”, 1985-86-Florence; “St Elsewhere, 1984-85”), of lung cancer.
History Diaries 