Italy’s Communist Party, which gained considerably more popular support in the elections last month, will now control parliamentary committees for the first time in the republic’s history. With 49 more seats in the Chamber of Deputies, where a Communist was recently appointed president for the first time, the Communists now have 228, second in number only to the Christian Democrats, who have 263 of the 630 seats. Under an agreement reached by the leaders of the various political parties, Communists will chair four major committees: Finance and Treasury, Public Works, Constitutional Affairs and Transport. The Communists are also bidding for committee chairmanships in the 315-member Senate and the other parties are expected to yield to their demands.
A former American Army captain is serving a five-year prison term in Yugoslavia after he was convicted of espionage charges. U.S. officials said in Belgrade. The U.S. officials said Michael Sedmak, 60, was arrested in September. 1974. The imprisonment came to light with the release from a Yugoslav prison of Laszlo Toth, 46, of Denver, Colorado. Toth served nearly a year in prison on conviction of industrial espionage. Sedmak, who is known to have relatives in Wisconsin, came in contact with Toth in prison. U.S. officials provided few details on Sedmak’s case.
The State Department kept secret the purpose of special tests to detect possible radiation-caused genetic damage on embassy employees returning from Moscow during the 1960s, according to doctors familiar with the study. Embassy personnel reportedly were told only that they were being checked for a kind of abnormal bacteria instead of being informed that they were being monitored for possible effects of microwave radiation, the medical sources said. The existence of the program over 18 months in 1967-68 was confirmed by Dr. Cecil B. Jacobson, who oversaw testing of samples by a George Washington University laboratory.
Thousands of auto workers crowded around King Juan Carlos during a visit to their plant in Vigo, shouting demands for political amnesty and rehiring of colleagues fired for participating in an illegal strike. The king, on a weeklong tour with Queen Sophia of Spain’s poor and politically restive Galicia region, was handed a petition asking also for an end to a government-decreed wage freeze, free education for their children and subsidized housing.
Nearly every segment of British politics and industry has reacted skeptically to the Labour Government’s decision last week to cut public spending and raise business taxes despite rising unemployment. The critics include not only labor and the liberal press, but also the business community, which was supposed to be a beneficiary of the move and now finds itself confronted with $1.5 billion in new taxes. Arthur Latham, chairman of the so‐called Tribune group of left‐wing members of the House of Commons. said tonight that as many as 20 members may refuse to support the Government on the cuts. Defections of this magnitude could cause a Government defeat. And two members who last year formed a separate “Scottish Labour Party” to speed independence for Scotland announced today that they would not be bound by party discipline, which, when rigorously enforced, routinely produces victory for the Government on close votes.
Heavy fighting continued in various parts of Lebanon today in disregard of the cease‐fire agreement the warring factions were reported to have reached Saturday. In a new development regarding the month‐old siege of the Palestinian camp of Tell Zaatar, the Palestinians said rightist forces had cut off the water supply to the camp, and, through constant shelling, had hampered efforts to rescue a large number of people said to be trapped in the underground shelter of a shelled building. A Red Cross team that managed to visit the camp for two hour’s last week reported that the inhabitants were already suffering from a water shortage and that infants were dying of dehydration. The Voice of Palestine radio reported today that 400 people, most of them women, children and elderly men, were believed to be still trapped in the shelter. The joint military command of the Palestinian‐leftist alliance said that militant rightists led by the National Liberal Party had massed a force to storm the Muslim quarter of Al Nabaah, which is adjacent to Tell Zaatar at the southeastern end of Beirut.
Many Japanese are reliving the period of the American occupation of their nation these days with the continuing release of hitherto secret postwar documents that shed some light on the sometimes shaky relationships between conqueror and conquered. The latest batch of papers, which was released here today, contains no great surprises, although Japanese were relieved to learn that the first meeting between Emperor Hirohito and General Douglas MacArthur was arranged after a Japanese initiative and not by an American summons. The first documents, released May 30, showed that Japan’s postwar Constitution was not imposed totally by the Americans, as many have charged, nor was it written solely by Japanese, as others have maintained.
Rep. G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery (D-Mississippi) said 29 U.S. citizens and 12 of their Vietnamese dependents will be permitted to leave Saigon early next month. Montgomery, chairman of the Select Committee on Missing Persons in Southeast Asia, said that the word he received from Vietnam was the first announcement of the exact number who would be allowed to leave “about August 2.”
Cod and flounder imports from Canada are being investigated by the Treasury Department to determine whether the Canadian government is paying bounties to fishermen or processors which could result in payment of compensating duties. A complaint alleging such bounties was filed by the Fishermen’s Marketing Association of Washington State, a treasury official said. Total imports last year amounted to $3.2 million.
Prime Minister Fidel Castro said today that Cuban troops and arms would remain in Angola to protect the West African nation from any future invasion and help its development. Mr. Castro and President Agostinho Neto of Angola were the keynote speakers on the 23rd anniversary of the start of the Cuban Revolution. “Cuban military units and arms will remain in Angola to help the Angolan Republic in case of foreign aggression,” Mr. Castro said at Pinar del Rio, the capital of the island’s westernmost province. “They will stay as long as necessary until the Angolan armed forces are organized, equipped and trained; for the time they need us to turn back any invasion; until when they don’t need our military assistance,” Castro said in a speech over the Havana radio and monitored in Miami. Cuban troops fought with the faction headed by Mr. Neto that defeated western‐supported nationalist forces earlier this year in the civil war in the former Portuguese colony.
Cuba has confirmed that it is holding three missing U.S. lobster vessels and the nine Cuban exile fishermen aboard, the State Department said. The three vessels, the Mako, Miguelito and Canario, were believed seized in retaliation for an incident three months ago in which a Cuban fishing vessel was fired on and sunk in the Florida Straits.
Loyalist troops executed their commander and a junior officer caught in an antigovernment plot, Ethiopia’s ruling military council announced. The council said the two men were involved in a plot uncovered two weeks ago. On July 13, the government said 18 persons were executed in that coup attempt, and the plot leader, Brigadier General Getachew Nadew, was shot to death while resisting arrest. The two officers shot by their troops were identified as Lieutenant Colonel Berhanu Haile, commander, and Lieutenant Haile Mariam Hassan.
President Idi Amin of Uganda, acknowledging that his country is suffering a severe shortage of gasoline, .has resumed his war of words against neighboring Kenya. In a telegram sent to the United Nations and the Organization of African Unity, President Amin accused Kenya of choking off Uganda’s fuel supply and threatened to “take desperate action out of the need to survive.” He said that, even with strict rationing, Uganda would run out of gasoline by Wednesday. His charges over the Uganda radio, monitored in Nairobi, came amid signs of increasing discontent in the Uganda armed forces. Unconfirmed reports reaching here said that Field Marshal Amin had escaped an attack Saturday night by a group of armed troops who stormed his hilltop command post. Although shooting was reported, he apparently slipped away. Newspapers here said today that Uganda troops posted along the 50‐mile Kenyan border were bartering weapons for food. The military is said to have been slaughtering hippos for food at Murchison Falls, the source of the Nile River.
All schools in the black township of Soweto outside Johannesburg, South Africa, were closed after black children threw rocks at fellow students returning to class after intermittent disorders in recent weeks. The demonstrators dispersed when policemen arrived. No casualties were reported. Elsewhere in the township crowds of students hurled taunts at police units that have been on standby since anti‐Government rioting last month. The schools reopened last Thursday at the request of black leaders but attendance was poor. The schools originally closed after a week of rioting in several areas in which 176 persons were killed and 1,100 injured. Officials’ fears of a new upheaval among the 3.7‐million black students have not materialized. However, they maintain that the absenteeism in Soweto is partly the result of intimidation by “agitators.” Attempts by militants to promote a boycott were evident at several of the schools, where students arriving for classes were intercepted by groups of youths.
Viking I has detected an atmosphere on Mars that scientists believe is “encouraging to the search for life, but by no means conclusive.” The lander’s atmospheric “sniffer” made the following analysis of the content of .the Martian atmosphere: carbon dioxide, 95 percent, nitrogen, 2 to 3 percent; argon-40, 1 to 2 percent and oxygen, 0.3 percent. The atmosphere of Mars is less than 1 percent the density of Earth’s. At another news conference today, the project scientists reported that they were wrong the first time they looked at the color picture from Mars: the sky is pink, not blue‐gray.
In Los Angeles, Ronald Reagan announced his choice of liberal Republican U.S. Senator Richard Schweiker as his vice presidential running mate, in an effort to woo moderate Republican delegates away from front runner President Gerald Ford in advance of the Republican National Convention. Senator Schweiker, 50 years old, is regarded as one of the most liberal and pro-labor Republicans in Congress. His choice of Mr. Schweiker was apparently influenced by his struggle with President Ford over uncommitted delegates, particularly the key Pennsylvania delegation. The Schweiker announcement came as a complete surprise. As recently as late last week Mr. Reagan was saying that if nominated he would probably let convention delegates select his running mate from a list of candidates he would submit to them.
Ronald Reagan’s bold running mate gamble stunned the Republican Party today and seemed bound to alter the pre carious balance of a fiercely competitive contest for the party’s Presidential nomination. But only the events of the next several days will determine if the California’s designation of Senator Richard S. Schweiker of Pennsylvania to be his running mate was a stroke of tactical brilliance or a devastatingly bad mistake. It was apt to be one or the other. Mr. Schweiker represents the antithesis of the strongly conservative ideology embraced by the bulk of the delegates to the Republican National Convention, an ideology President Ford and Mr. Reagan have both tried to project in their rivalry for the Presidential nomination. The liberal Americans for Democratic Action gave Mr. Schweiker an 89 percent rating in 1975 — compared with 95 for Senator Mondale — while the conservative Americans for Constitutional Action gave him a low rating of 8.
The designation of Mr. Schweiker to balance a Reagan ticket was described by Mr. Reagan’s strategists as an integral part of an attempt to lure 50 to 100 of the moderate Republican delegates who are now allied with Mr. Ford or are uncommitted. There was no immediate indication that it would do so, and Mr. Ford’s camp professed delight that it would drive conservative uncommitteds and even some Reagan delegates into the President’s camp. What made Mr. Reagan’s announcement so striking was not that he had named a ticket mate three weeks before the Republicans convene in Kansas City, Missouri, although the early designation was in fact a political rarity, but that Mr. Reagan’s choice was someone so pronouncedly identified with the minority, liberal wing of the party.
The U.S. budget deficit for the 1976 fiscal year ended June 30 totaled $65.6 billion, an increase of nearly half over the $43.6 billion deficit of 1975, but still substantially smaller than what the Administration had predicted earlier, the Treasury Department said. Last January, the Office of Management and Budget forecast a deficit of roughly $76 billion. Eleven days ago, that prediction was revised to $69.6 billion. Receipts rose to $300 billion from $281 billion in 1975 while outlays rose to $365.6 billion from $324.6 billion. The greater part of revenue came from individual income taxes — $131.6 billion, up from $122.4 billion in fiscal 1975. Corporate income taxes edged up to $41.4 billion from $40.6 billion.
President Ford signed a bill that would provide communities in coastal states, including those on the Great Lakes, with $1.6 billion to meet the problems of growth that may arise from offshore oil and gas development. The measure, called the Coastal Energy Impact Bill, authorizes federal financial assistance in the construction of roads, schools, hospitals, sewerage systems and water lines.
Justice Department lawyers were said to have recommended that officials of the Central Intelligence Agency not be prosecuted for opening mail between the United States and Communist countries. A government official close to the investigation said that the lawyers who had investigated this aspect of the C.I.A.’s operations had “found evidence of presidential knowledge” of the mail openings that had made them legal.
The House Ethics Committee formally recommended that Rep. Robert L. F. Sikes (D-Florida) be reprimanded on two counts of financial misconduct. It was the first time the committee has taken action against a congressman since it was created in 1968, following allegations of misdeeds against the late Adam Clayton Powell. The full House is expected to vote on the recommendation Thursday. The reprimands carry no penalty. The report said Sikes, chairman of a House military appropriations subcommittee, had failed to disclose that he held stock in Fairchild Industries, a major defense contractor, and had failed to report his interest in a bank on a naval base. Sikes’ office said he believed the report was disappointing and unjustified.
Law enforcement officers were unable today to explain what motivated a 30-year-old taxi driver who was fatally shot last night after he scaled a White House fence carrying a three-foot length of pipe. Interviews with family and friends provided the police with few clues, not even a fixed address, for Chester M. Plummer Jr. of Washington. His name was not on a list of individuals considered potential threats to the President, nor was he known to have any grievances against the Government or President Ford. “He was just a quiet guy. He never made threats,” said Sgt. Robert Sharkey, a detective with the District of Columbia police, who are conducting the investigation. Mr. Plummer was shot in the chest as he moved up the lawn of the White House about onethird of the way from Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House. According to the Secret Service, he ignored repeated orders to halt and raised the pipe in a thveatening manner at Pvt. Chary, A. Garland of the Executive Protective Service, who fired a single shot. Mr. Plummer was pronounced dead at 11:05 PM after emergency efforts at George Washington University Hospital failed.
Patricia Hearst, still looking pale and gaunt, won a six month delay in her state trial today with her lawyer predicting that even by the new trial date, January 10, he would not be able to find jurors who had never heard of her bank robbery conviction in San Francisco. Inside the maximum security courtroom where her former underground revolutionary companions William and Emily Harris are on trial on the same kidnapping, assault and robbery charges, the 22‐year‐old Miss Hearst waived her right to a speedy trial. “Is that agreeable with you, Miss Hearst?” asked Superior Court Judge William L. Ritzi in the 10‐minute hearing. “Yes,” whispered Missl Hearst, who sat erect in her chair and occasionally conferred with Albert Johnson, onel of her lawyers and confidants. Miss Hearst has renounced the Harrises, members of the self‐styled Symbionese Liberation Army, the group that kidnapped her, and their paths did not cross in the bulletproof courtroom today.
Striking coal miners shut down West Virginia’s rich coal industry to protest the use of federal restraining orders and fines against union members in labor disputes. The strike also spread into neighboring Ohio. Pennsylvania and Illinois were expected to be next. Spokesmen for the railroad industry said the strike was having a serious impact. West Virginia coal operators reported virtually all the 59,300 miners in the state were idle. The strike began July 19 as a protest by a United Mine Workers local near Charleston against a $50,000 fine levied by a federal judge.
Fugitive financier Robert L. Vesco, who fled the United States four years ago to avoid prosecution on fraud and other charges, has given up his U.S. citizenship and is now a naturalized Italian, a spokesman for the multimillionaire said in San Jose, Costa Rica. Alberto Abreu, who said he was authorized to speak for Vesco, declined to give details but said the switch in citizenship did not take place in Costa Rica, where Vesco has lived most of the time since leaving the United States. Vesco and six associates have been indicted by the U.S. government on charges of allegedly stripping the Investors Overseas Services mutual fund and other enterprises of millions of dollars.
Funeral services will be held Wednesday in Kensington, Maryland, for executed mercenary Daniel Gearhart, whose body arrived home Monday from Angola, according to a spokesman for Gearhart’s church. The funeral will be held at Holy Redeemer Roman Catholic Church, which received more than $8,000 in contributions to help pay for shipping the body. In England, mercenary leader Costas Georgiou (alias Colonel Callan), who with two other Britons was executed along with Gearhart, was buried in a private ceremony in North London, his family said.
Completion of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline could be further delayed because of the potential closing of highways severely damaged by pipeline-related traffic, Governor Jay S. Hammond said in Juneau. He issued the warning in a letter to President Ford, urging the President to support legislation to provide Alaska with a $70 million emergency appropriation “for immediate repair of damaged highways…” The appropriation has passed the Senate and is awaiting action in the House.
Major League Baseball:
Don Sutton, reached for two runs in the first inning on two walks, a triple by Jim Wynn and single by Willie Montanez, settled down to pitch a five-hitter and the Los Angeles Dodgers overcame the Atlanta Braves, 6–2. Sutton had nine strikeouts, bringing his career total to 2,007. Singles by Steve Garvey, who had four hits, and Bill Russell drove in two runs in the third inning, when the Dodgers went ahead to stay.
Doubles by Bobby Grich and Reggie Jackson and a single by Lee May produced two runs in the first inning and Al Bumbry hit a homer in the third to power the Orioles to a 3–1 victory over the Yankees. Ross Grimsley, completing his first game in nine starts, scattered six hits while outdueling Catfish Hunter.
Designated hitter Rico Carty doubled, driving in two runs, to highlight a three-run seventh inning that clinched the Indians’ 9–4 victory over the Red Sox. Carty also hit a two-run double in the first as the Bosox suffered their 12th loss in 14 games.
Amos Otis hit a two-run double in the first inning to spark the Royals to a 4–0 triumph over the Angels behind the six-hit pitching of Al Fitzmorris. In posting his second shutout and 12th victory, Fitzmorris bested Nolan Ryan, who yielded four hits and had seven strikeouts to increase his major league-leading total to 184.
A two-run homer by Ellis Valentine carried the Expos to a 2–1 victory over the Cubs in the first game of a doubleheader and the Expos also won the afterpiece, 3–1, behind the three-hit pitching of Steve Dunning and Dale Murray. Valentine’s homer came in the sixth after Steve Stone had pitched five hitless innings. Larry Parrish hit two doubles and a single for the Expos in the second game.
For the second consecutive game, Cincy’s Pete Rose hits a leadoff homer, this one his club-record 693rd extra base hit. The Reds lashed 16 hits in routing the Giants, 9–3. George Foster and Dan Driessen each had four hits and Pete Rose two, including his ninth home run. Fred Norman limited the Giants to seven hits while notching his ninth victory in 11 decisions. Rose’s homer, off John Montefusco in the first inning, was his third leadoff homer in the last seven games.
Larry Dierker pitched a two-hitter and Bob Watson collected three hits, including a homer, and drove in three runs to lead the Astros to a 7–0 victory over the Padres. Dierker yielded a single to Enzo Hernandez in the third inning and a double to Johnny Grubb in the fourth as he recorded his third shutout of the season and 24th of his career.
The Tigers edged the Brewers, 4–3, when Ben Oglivie delivered his fourth single of the game, scoring Rusty Staub with two out in the 13th inning. Staub had singled and advanced to second on a single by Jason Thompson. The Tigers took a 3–2 lead in the 11th on a homer by Staub, but Hank Aaron homered in the bottom half of the frame for the Brewers. John Hiller gained the decision with 2 ⅔ innings of two-hit relief after Jim Crawford replaced Frank MacCormick and worked 10 innings, retiring 22 successive hitters.
Pitching against his old team, Bert Blyleven strikes out 9 and allows 2 hits as the visiting Rangers shut out the Twins, 3–0. Blyleven wins for the first time in six starts. Toby Harrah hit his ninth homer of the season in the fourth. Tomorrow, Blyleven will show that he’s kept his old phone book when, during a long rain delay, he calls the Twins dugout at 10 PM, pretending to be a Twins official, and says that the game has been called. The players exit the dugout for the locker room and start undressing and showering. About fifteen minutes later the game is actually called and will be made up as part of a doubleheader the following day.
Bill North singled to open the last of the third inning, stole second and third bases, then scored what proved to be the winning run on a single by Bert Campaneris as the Athletics defeated the White Sox, 3–1. The two stolen bases brought North’s major league-leading total to 50. Paul Mitchell went 7 ⅔ innings and gained his fourth straight victory with help from reliever Rollie Fingers.
The Phillies scored two runs in the sixth inning, then added two more in the eighth to support the six-hit pitching of Larry Christenson and Tug McGraw in a 4–1 victory over the Mets. Dave Cash tripled to start the home half of the sixth and scored on Larry Bowa’s sacrifice fly. Mike Schmidt followed with a double, his sixth successive hit over two games, took third after Greg Luzinski flied out and scored on Jon Matlack’s wild pitch. In the eighth, McGraw doubled and scored on a triple by Cash. When Felix Millan failed to handle the throw from the outfield, Cash came in to score the Phillies’ fourth run.
The scheduled game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Cardinals at St. Louis was postponed due to rain. The game will be made up as part of a doubleheader on September 24.
Los Angeles Dodgers 6, Atlanta Braves 2
New York Yankees 1, Baltimore Orioles 3
Cleveland Indians 9, Boston Red Sox 4
Kansas City Royals 4, California Angels 0
Montreal Expos 2, Chicago Cubs 1
Montreal Expos 3, Chicago Cubs 1
San Francisco Giants 3, Cincinnati Reds 9
San Diego Padres 0, Houston Astros 7
Detroit Tigers 4, Milwaukee Brewers 3
Texas Rangers 3, Minnesota Twins 0
Chicago White Sox 1, Oakland Athletics 3
New York Mets 1, Philadelphia Phillies 4
The stock market continued to mark time yesterday and closed mixed in the second slowest trading session of the year. At the conclusion of trading on the New York Stock Exchange, the Dow Jones industrial average was ahead by 0.60 at 991.51 although declines outnumbered advances by 746 to 604.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 991.51 (+0.60, +0.06%)
Born:
Kevin Olsen, MLB pitcher (Florida Marlins), in Covina, California.
Marcus Spriggs, NFL defensive tackle (Cleveland Browns), in Washington, District of Columbia.
History Diaries 