The U.S. Senate rejected by a 63-27 vote a proposed $1 billion cut in a $104 billion defense appropriations bill and refused, 52 to 40, to defer purchase of an additional 60 Minuteman III missiles. Final action on the Pentagon budget bill for fiscal 1977 was postponed until next week. The Senate bill, unlike that passed by the House, prohibits funding of B-1 bomber production until February 1.
Austrian authorities believe that the most likely cause of the collapse of the main Reichsbruecke bridge across the Danube was material fatigue. Police called off the search for more victims after divers recovered the body of the driver of a minibus that plunged into the Danube. They said there was no definite indication that Karl Kretschmer, 22, had any passengers with him. Earlier, witnesses said they believed the van carried four persons.
The State Department denied charges that U.S. Ambassador Laurence H. Silberman is engaged in an anti-Yugoslav campaign, as alleged by Yugoslav President Tito. Silverman came under fire of Yugoslav authorities for his strong defense of an American citizen, Laszlo Toth, who served 11 months in a Yugoslav jail on an espionage conviction which Silberman said was “totally unwarranted.”
Portugal’s new Socialist Prime Minister today presented a program intended to restore the authority of the state, revive the paralyzed economy and improve the quality of life. Mário Soares, who heads a minority government, made a clear effort to win a broad consensus for his program pledging that the social gains achieved by the two‐year‐old revolution were irreversible, but offering guarantees and incentives to the private sector as well as a revision of controversial labor legislation. The 51‐year‐old Socialist leader gave a four‐hour summary of the program in an address to the Assembly of the Republic this afternoon. The full text, which runs 260 mimeographed pages, was handed out to the parliamentary delegations at the end. “This is the first time in 50 years that a Prime Minister has come here to render accounts to representatives of the Portuguese people,” Mr. Soares declared, emphasizing that Portugal was now beginning parliamentary life after 48 years of right‐wing dictatorship and two years of military rule.
A local mayor said today that Italy’s Christian Democratic Government had agreed to change the law and allow abortions for women affected by poisonous vapor leaked from a chemical factory. The mayor, who asked not to be identified even though he administers one of the towns worst affected by the deadly gas, met Health Minister Luciano Dal Falco in Milan and said afterward: “The government has agreed that pregnant women should be allowed to abort if they wish.” Abortions are illegal in Italy for any reason, but it was understood that the government is considering an emergency decree that would allow women in the Seveso‐Meda area north of Milan to have pregnancies terminated. The decision was said to have been taken because the highly toxic TCDD chemical that was accidentally released from the Swiss‐owned Icmesa factory here three weeks ago can have serious effects on unborn children.
A former Nazi SS troop leader went on trial in East Berlin charged with taking part in the murder of thousands of Soviet citizens, including many Jews, during World War II. Western correspondents were invited to the war crime trial, the first one there in many years. Herbert Drabant, 61, is accused of participating in the shooting of men, women and children mainly in the Caucasus in 1942 and 1943.
An attempt by the Labor Party Government to eliminate privileged schools for gifted children received a setback today. By unanimous vote, the House of Lords Judicial Committee — five peers sitting as the nation’s highest court — decided that the Government had been wrong to ask a school district in Tameside, a suburban district of the northern industrial city of Manchester, to abolish its system of selective education. Under that system, which, survives in about a fourth of the country, children take, examinations at age 11 and, on the basis of ability, are directed into so‐called grammar schools for brighter children and what are known as secondary modern schools for those who do not do well.
Israel is moving vigorously to exploit the power vacuum in southern Lebanon and prevent Palestinian forces from reasserting control over the area just north of the Israeli border. Israeli security forces have stepped up their patrols in recent days on both sides of the frontier to block any Palestinian redeployment in the area. The daily Israeli forays a mile or two into Lebanese territory are also designed to discourage Palestinian reprisals against Lebanese villagers who have been crossing the frontier in search of medical treatment and supplies. Meanwhile, the “open fence” policy has been expanded to include temporary jobs for Lebanese workers in Israeli factories. Twenty Lebanese tobacco sorters showed up this morning for work in an Israeli cigarette plant and Israeli officials said they expected that about 150 Lebanese would be employed in various jobs in the next few weeks. The Israeli motive is to preserve the calm that has prevailed in recent months along the border and prevent southern Lebanon from becoming once again a staging ground for Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israeli border settlements. By developing close working relations with the southern Lebanese villagers, the Israelis also hope to encourage them to resist re‐establishment of Palestinian control in the area.
The Jewish Agency plans new towns and villages for 500,000 settlers in Israel and in a lightly populated section of the Arab Gaza Strip over the next 10 years, Israel radio said. The agency issued its plan as anti-Israel violence continued on the West Bank and as troops turned back about 60 Israeli demonstrators who were attempting to break ground for an unauthorized Jewish settlement on the West Bank. The new settlement plan, apparently designed so as not to further antagonize the Arabs, requires government approval.
A top State Department official reportedly told a Senate committee today that the United States had virtually completed negotiations for the sale to both Egypt and Israel of nuclear power reactors under strict safeguards to prevent their diversion to production of atomic weapons. Alfred L. Atherton Jr., Assistant Secretary for Near Fastern and South Asian Affairs, reportedly told the Foreign Relations Committee that the identical accords are the most comprehensive ever‐devised to insure that the nuclear reactors could not be used to manufacture material for atomic explosives. Despite Mr. Athertun’s assurances, several Senators who had been present told reporters that they were skeptical about the value of the projected sales — which would cost Egypt and Israel more than $1 billion each.
Evacuation of wounded from the Tal Zaatar refugee camp in Beirut was to start today following agreement between rightist faction leaders and the International Red Cross. Officials of the Red Cross said the agreement guaranteed security for a convoy of nine trucks to enter the besieged Palestinian camp, under shelling since June. Evacuation of the estimated 4,000 wounded in the camp was expected to take from three to five days.
The United States does not have any “open-ended arms sale” agreement allowing Iran to buy unlimited amounts of U.S. weaponry, White House Press Secretary Ron Nessen said. Nessen’s comments came after a Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff report was released by Senator Hubert H. Humphrey (D-Minnesota), asserting that this country has “no control over sales of weapons to Iran. The report said that Iran had spent billions of dollars since 1972 to purchase sophisticated U.S. weapons. The White House denial was accompanied by a similar denial by the State Department that large-scale arms sales to Iran, ordered secretly by President Richard M. Nixon in 1972, have continued to the present.
China now seems to be taking the position that Taiwan can be reunited with the mainland only by military force, according to authoritative diplomatic sources. Peking has never categorically excluded the use of force. but recenty it appears to be emphasizing military action as the only solution. This position has been conveyed in private conversations. Political observers and Administration officials are convinced that if Peking decided to take this stance publicly any new Administration would find it much more difficult to abrogate the United States defense treaty with Taiwan, a central Chinese condition for establishing full diplomatic relations with Washington. The United States now recognizes only the Republic of China on Taiwan and has had a mutual defense treaty with that government since 1954. Washington and Peking maintain informal diplomatic relations through “liaison offices.”
Alexander Agyeman of Ghana was installed as the traditional ruler of the Akyem people in Ghana’s Eastern Region, and crowned as King Osagyefo Kuntunkununku II.
Prompted by black community leaders, many pupils returned today to classes in the Johannesburg suburb of Soweto. The police said attendance was normal for the first time since the schools officially reopened 10 days ago. But African sources said absenteeism was still widespread at senior high schools. The schools were closed immediately after the rioting in Soweto and other black townships in which 176 people died. Fourteen Soweto schools were damaged by fire and the remainder have been almost deserted since classes resumed. The end to the boycott was urged yesterday at a mass meeting in Soweto by Mayor T. J. Makhaya. At the same time, Lennox Mlonze, a member of the Urban Bantu Council, called for an end to violence and the burning of schools.
Stating that American realization of Africa’s importance to foreign affairs had not come easily but “grew out of painful experience,” Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger promised a predominantly black audience tonight that the United States “will pursue our new Africa policy with conviction and dedication.” “Whatever our past omissions, the lesson has been learned,” he declared. Mr. Kissinger spoke at the 66th annual conference of the National Urban League. It was the first time that a Secretary of State had spoken on foreign policy to a black American organization. The Secretary’s speech was received favorably, in general, but Mr. Kissinger was booed when he said, in reply to a subsequent question about why the State Department had so few black Americans compared with other Federal agencies, that the examinations for the State Department were “very complicated.” He said the department had taken steps to bring in more blacks and that within two or three years there would be an appreciable increase.
Epidemiologists from the United States Public Health Service and the Pennsylvania State Health Department began an investigation yesterday of an apparent outbreak of a mysterious illness that might have caused from six to 14 deaths among 10,000 people who attended a state American Legion convention in Philadelphia July 21‐24. Estimates of the number of persons affected vary. The Pennsylvania Health Secretary, Dr. Leonard Bachman, said at a news conference in Harrisburg that there had been 12 nonfatal cases of the illness and “at least” six deaths from an illness with similar symptoms among the legionnaires since July 25. The ages of those who died ranged from 39 to 82 years. After the conference, state legion officials said they knew of 14 persons who had died of similar symptoms resembling a bad cold and of another 35 people who had been hospitalized throughout the state. Some victims were reported to have had chills, fevers to 107 degrees and chest pains. “There’s no cause for any panic,” Dr. Bachman said.
Ronald Reagan’s chief campaign strategist, John Sears, said that 12 convention delegates had endorsed Mr. Reagan in the last week. Most of them, he said, had previously been backers of President Ford, and he insisted that there had been no significant defections from Mr. Reagan since he named Senator Richard Schweiker as his running mate. James Baker, Mr. Ford’s chief delegate scout, said that only three of the 12 delegates named by Mr. Sears as Reagan backers had been regarded as Ford supporters.
Rain and fog grounded search helicopters for a time and slowed other rescue efforts today in Colorado as the estimated death toll in the Big Thompson Canyon flood rose to 77. State and county officials said that 57 bodies had been recovered and that at least 20 more had been sighted in the area between Loveland and Estes Park. More than 100 people who were stranded on hillsides, in tents and in homes and motels in the canyon were finally evacuated after a break in the day‐long rain, according to Sheriff Robert C. Watson of Larimer County. Sheriff Watson said all known, persons who wanted to leave had been rescued, although, some survivors refused to leave their mountain homes. President Ford declared the region a disaster area. Property damage was estimated in the millions of dollars.
The Department of Justice reportedly has greatly increased the scope of its investigation begun earlier this year into allegations that Federal Bureau of Investigation agents burglarized the homes and offices of militant political figures over the last five years. According to sources close to the investigation, department lawyers informed some 50 agents last week that they were under investigation in connection with the burglaries and advised them that they might be called to testify. This brings to 75 the number of agents and officials now involved in the inquiry.
Superior Court Judge Mark Brandler, suggesting that two sworn witnesses might have been less than honest in reporting a possible prejudicial remark by a juror now deliberating the fate of William and Emily Harris, rejected today defense motions for a mistrial and to remove the juror. At 6 PM, after deliberating nearly eight hours today, the jurors returned to their hotel. Thus far, they have considered; the charges for 16 hours and 20 minutes since Friday. Ruling from the bench at the end of a three‐day hearing into possible misconduct by jurors and himself, Judge Brandler refused to disqualify himself from the trial or to stop jury deliberations, now in their third day. Judge Brandler, looking harried, said that he doubted the credibility of one of the hearing witnesses, a former prospective juror in the case. Judge Brandler suggested that Mrs. Jeanne Barton might have been so “disappointed” by not being selected as a juror that she might have “magnified” or been “mistaken” in what she overheard the sitting juror say.
Family welfare rolls in the nation rose 0.3% in March, the Department of Health. Education and Welfare reported. About 60% of the increase was attributed to more fathers’ being out of work and signing up their families for assistance. The 11,485,701 persons in the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program represented an increase of 31,341 individuals and 18,663 families over February. California, with an increase of 4,371 families headed by fathers out of work, led the other states in this category.
U.S. food export policy is designed to feed cash registers, not the world’s hungry, an American Roman Catholic bishop said at a symposium at the 41st International Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia. “A fundamental conflict exists between the right to food for persons in need and the right to sell by agricultural merchants,” Bishop James Rausch of Washington, D.C., said. “U.S. food policy today clearly gives higher priority to the latter right.” More than a million persons are expected to attend events at the eight-day congress, the first to be held in the United States in 50 years.
The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., has become the world’s most successful cultural center, but its roof leaks, the House was told. By a 260-121 vote, the House authorized $3.3 million to fix the leaks, which were said to be so serious that the center could be closed as dangerous without the repairs. The 125 leaks apparently are a result of defects in the original design, said Rep. Ronald B. (Bo) Ginn (D-Georgia), who said the center draws 3.5 million tourists annually and follows only the Capitol and the History and Technology Building as attractions.
A gunman murdered Andrea Wilborn and Stan Farr and injured Priscilla Davis and Gus Gavrel, in an incident at Priscilla’s mansion in Fort Worth, Texas. T. Cullen Davis, Priscilla’s husband and one of the richest men in Texas, was tried and found not guilty for Andrea’s murder, involvement in a plot to kill several people (including Priscilla and a judge), and was exonerated from a wrongful death lawsuit. Cullen went broke afterwards.
The legality of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company’s private-line service tariff was upheld by an administrative law judge of the Federal Communications Commission, who said that A.T.&T.’s long distance telephone rates were reasonable in relation to its rate of return. Judge David Kraushaar also disagreed strongly with an F.C.C. trial staff recommendation that the commission ask Congress to divest A.T.&T. of the Western Electric Company, its manufacturing and supply subsidiary. His findings are subject to a separate inquiry by the F.C.C. itself on the legality of the A.T.&T.’s private-line tariff, but his findings will take effect in 50 days unless there is a review.
Nine major reforms urged in a confidential accounting review were ignored by the Teamsters Union Central States Pension Fund, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Included was a proposal to strip the fund’s trustees of loan-making powers. The $250,000 report was ordered in 1972 to show the willingness of the fund managers to improve the fund’s financial affairs but the review was largely window dressing, the newspaper said. Other suggested reforms included putting a halt to inflating, through bookkeeping techniques, the value of foreclosed properties and shaky loans; limiting the size of investments in any one area; making financial reports to beneficiaries at least once a year; listing bad debts at regular intervals to help managers cut losses; taking over costly accounting, asset managing and legal work being performed by outsiders; changing banking practices to eliminate high checking costs and to allow the fund to draw interest, and studying an expensive contract with a former consultant.
The U.S. Agriculture Department officially declared a victory in the Southern California war against the Mediterranean fruit fly and revoked emergency regulations and quarantines imposed on Los Angeles County as a result of the pest. A giant birth control project under which 568 million sterile male fruit flies were released to find mates and effectively halt reproduction of future generations ended in May, according to officials. The fly, a native of Africa, can be declared eradicated because three complete life cycles for it have failed to produce any native offspring. USDA officials said. Also called the “medfly”, the fly thrives on more than 200 kinds of soft fruit and vegetables, crops which in California have an annual harvest value of more than $1 billion.
A single charge of conspiracy was lodged in the kepone pollution incident against the Allied Chemical Corp., the now-defunct Life Science Products Co. and two executives of Life Science. The grand jury indictments, filed in Richmond, Virginia, marked the second time that Allied has been indicted on a charge of conspiring to violate federal antipollution laws by dumping the pesticide into the James River. Life Science was not named in the first indictment, which had been dismissed because the district judge said that his reading of the indictment indicated that prosecutors were accusing Allied of conspiring with itself. Life Science had manufactured kepone for Allied.
An internal Army report made public yesterday tells of a Government effort to conceal the Army’s sponsorship of experiments with hallucinogenic drugs that resulted in the death of a civilian subject in New York 23 years ago.
The search for the Loch Ness monster has been simplified and the leader of the expedition, Dr. Robert Rifles of Boston, has gone back to what he calls “the basics.” The simplification was partly a matter of choice and partly a matter of necessity: All the experts on the search team, including Dr. Rifles, have returned home for business or personal reasons. The expedition will now be in the hands of three residents of the Loch Ness area, who have been shown how to operate the equipment.
Viking Project scientists, still puzzled by the apparent abundance of oxygen and chemical activity in the soil of Mars, said yesterday that their current “working hypothesis” was that “some unique and rare photochemistry might be operating on Mars to cause the reactions we are seeing.”
Fritz Lang, the Viennese-born film director best known for “M,” a terrifying study of a child killer, and for other tales of suspense, died in Los Angeles at the age of 85. He had been ill for some time, and had been inactive professionally for a decade.
Major League Baseball:
The Padres swept two games from the Braves, rallying for four runs in the ninth inning to take the opener, 7-3, and winning the nightcap, 7-0, behind the five-hit pitching of Rick Sawyer, making his first National League start. Merv Rettenmund, Enzo Hernandez and Dave Winfield delivered run-scoring singles to spice the late rally in the first game, when unbeaten reliever Butch Metzger posted his ninth victory. Johnny Grubb, with two homers, a single and four runs batted in, led the Padres’ 13-hit attack in the nightcap.
The revived Cubs scored three runs in the first inning, two coming on Pete LaCock’s homer, and defeated the Phillies, 4-2, for their sixth victory in seven games. This was only the 14th defeat in 47 road games for the National League East leaders.
Five-hit pitching by Rick Wise sparked the Red Sox’ 3-1 victory over the Indians. Carl Yastrzemski drove in two runs with a single in the first inning and sacrifice fly in the seventh as the Bosox won their fourth straight game and celebrated the rehiring of Don Zimmer as manager for 1977.
A home run by Dusty Baker with two out in the 11th inning enabled the Dodgers to overcome the Astros, 5-4. The Dodgers had rallied to tie the game, 4-4, when pinch-hitter Manny Mota singled with the bases full in the ninth.
The Brewers struck for two runs in the sixth inning and added four in the seventh to beat the Orioles, 7-1. A fielder’s choice grounder by Gary Sutherland and single by Von Joshua produced two runs in the sixth after the Brewers filled the bases on George Scott’s single, a double by Hank Aaron and intentional walk to Sixto Lezcano. The Brewers linked four walks with Joshua’s single, Sutherland’s sacrifice fly and a single by Robin Yount for four runs in the seventh.
The second game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Milwaukee Brewers is postponed due to rain. It will be made up on September 11.
The Twins, behind the pitching of Steve Luebber and hitting of Butch Wynegar, trimmed the Athletics, 3-0, and completed a sweep of the five-game series. Wynegar’s two-run double in the first inning sent the Twins on the way to their eighth victory in succession.
Doyle Alexander, who had lost chances for no-hitters in the late innings of three previous games this season, retired 20 batters in succession before Rusty Staub singled in the seventh, but the righthander went on to pitch the Yankees to a 1-0 triumph over the Tigers. Alex Johnson singled in the ninth for the Tigers’ only other hit. The Yankees scored in the third when Mickey Rivers singled following a double by Sandy Alomar.
Jose Morales hit a three-run homer in the ninth inning — his fourth homer and third as a pinch-hitter this season — as the Expos frustrated the Mets, 5-4, before a Jacket Night crowd of 53,523.
Pete Falcone allowed four hits and had nine strikeouts in pitching the Cardinals to a 4-0 victory over the Pirates. The Cardinals scored three runs in the seventh, bunching a double by Bake McBride and singles by Keith Hernandez, Hector Cruz, Lee Richard and Falcone.
Johnny Bench had three hits and drove in the tie-breaking run in the eighth inning, when the Reds scored four runs to defeat the Giants, 5-1. Bob Bailey, Pete Rose and Joe Morgan also had run-scoring blows in the six-hit outburst.
San Diego Padres 7, Atlanta Braves 3
San Diego Padres 7, Atlanta Braves 0
Philadelphia Phillies 2, Chicago Cubs 4
Boston Red Sox 3, Cleveland Indians 1
Houston Astros 4, Los Angeles Dodgers 5
Baltimore Orioles 1, Milwaukee Brewers 7
Oakland Athletics 0, Minnesota Twins 3
Detroit Tigers 0, New York Yankees 1
Montreal Expos 5, New York Mets 4
St. Louis Cardinals 4, Pittsburgh Pirates 0
Cincinnati Reds 5, San Francisco Giants 1
The stock market eased slightly yesterday in continued sluggish trading. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 2.38 points to close at 982.26. Analysts attributed the decline to investors’ continuing concern about economic growth. The Commerce Department reported yesterday that inventories rose 1.2 percent in June, the largest one‐month accumulation since December 1974, as new orders leveled off. The report followed last week’s news that the index of leading economic indicators in June registered only a 0.3 percent gain, the smallest since an 0.1 percent increase last November.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 982.26 (-2.38, -0.24%)
Born:
Sam Worthington, English-born Australian actor (“Avatar”, “Clash of the Titans”); in Godalming, Surrey, England, United Kingdom.
Reyes Estévez, Spanish athlete, in Cornellà de Llobregat, Spain.
Nigamananda Saraswati, Indian Hindu monk who went on an ultimately-fatal hunger strike to call attention to the pollution of the Ganges River; in Darbhanga, Bihar state (d. 2011)
Died:
Fritz Lang, 85, Austrian-born film producer (“Metropolis”, “The Big Heat”), from a stroke.
Monroe J. Rathbone, 76, President of the largest U.S. oil company, Standard Oil Company of New Jersey (now the Exxon Corporation) from 1953 to 1965
History Diaries 