Two U.S. congressmen tried unsuccessfully to present the Russian Embassy in Washington with a petition calling on the Soviet Union to free Jewish political prisoners and allow Jews to emigrate to Israel. Reps. Robert F. Drinan (D-Massachusetts) and Benjamin Rosenthal (D-New York) said their visit with two embassy officials was “cordial” but included “strained and vigorous debate.” They will mail the petition, signed by 91 members of Congress, to Leonid I. Brezhnev, Soviet Communist Party leader.
Greece, accusing Turkey of committing “arbitrary and provocative acts,” asked the U.N. Security Council to call on the Ankara government to suspend its search for oil in a disputed area of the Aegean Sea. Turkey responded that the Greek government was trying to make the Aegean an exclusive Greek lake and was to be blamed for creating the dangerous tension between the two nations. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger will meet with the foreign ministers of Greece and Turkey in New York Saturday to discuss the dispute.
Two Palestinian guerrillas will face the death penalty in a Turkish court on charges stemming from their attack at the Istanbul airport after a vain attempt to hijack an Israeli airliner, a state prosecutor said tonight. Four men, including an aide to Senator Jacob K. Javits of New York, died in the explosions and automatic fire that raked an airport departure hall last night. More than 30 people were wounded. The prosecutor, Nejat Ulgen interviewed on television; said he intended to bring charges under an article that provides for the death penalty for murder or attempted murder. The attack was widely regarded as revenge for the Israeli rescue raid on Uganda’s Entebbe airport last month, but it appeared curiously unsophisticated in view of the sweeping security precautions always mounted here for planes of the Israeli airline, El Al.
Relative calm returned to the streets of Belfast and Londonderry for the first time in almost a week as women marched in a demand for peace in Northern Ireland. A sprinkling of men joined the 1,200 women from the Roman Catholic areas of west Belfast who marched through the streets chanting and shouting against the gunmen who took five lives since last weekend. The anger was directed particularly against the killing of three children by a carload of guerrillas fleeing from British soldiers.
Former Portuguese President Antonio de Spinola, held in a military prison since his return early in the week from 17 months in exile, was granted unconditional freedom in Lisbon. A military judge, questioning the 66-year-old Spinola, said he could find no reason to hold him for alleged connections with an attempted rightist coup in March, 1975. His return produced a storm of protest from Communists and other leftists.
More than a month after an accident in a chemical plant spewed a toxic cloud over several small towns north of Milan, officials here are still not sure what the effects will be or how to deal with them. Fourteen children are in the hospital with severe skin rashes and more than 100 pregnant women stand an increased chance of bearing malformed infants. About 730 people have been evacuated from the most contaminated zone and hundreds of children in surrounding areas have been sent to relatives or summer camps for protection. Scientists are still testing the area around the Icmesa chemical plant and the people who lived there. But since nothing quite like this has ever happened anywhere else, the scientists are not even sure what their best results would mean.
The severe summer drought will reduce grain harvests in Western Europe to their lowest level since 1970, the Common Market has estimated. The latest crop survey for the nine member countries of the European Economic Community said it was still too early to make an overall estimate.
Poland, normally one of Europe’s leading exporters of sugar, will began rationing sugar starting next week, for the first time in a generation. Rationing was announced tonight at a news conference called by Tadeusz Pyka, a Deputy Prime Minister, after he had conferred with the leaders of Poland’s 49 provinces Mr. Pyka said the sugar shortage was a result mainly of hoarding and speculation. He warned that meat might be rationed as well unless supplies improved. Under the new system, ration coupons will be issued with paychecks to all Poles belonging to unions or state enterprises. They will be entitled to two kilograms (4.4 pounds) of sugar a month for each member of their families at the current price of 10.50 zlotys (about 30 cents) a kilo.
More than 1,500 Lebanese Palestinian refugees, and perhaps as many as 3,000, were killed in a massacre of civilians at the Tel al-Zaatar camp in northeastern Beirut by a Christian militia group. The camp had been created and administered by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency during the Lebanese Civil War and most of the men, women and children housed at Tel al-Zaatar were Palestinian Muslims. Right-wing Christians in Lebanon announced that they had captured the Palestinian camp of Tell Zaatar. They had besieged the camp since mid-June. A left-wing radio reported Palestinians as having said that hand-to-hand fighting was still going on inside the camp, and witnesses said that thousands of civilians were streaming out of Tell Zaatar and surrendering to right-wing forces. The civilians were mostly women, children and old men. Few young men had apparently survived.
An Indian state with a population of 50 million has become the first political entity in the world to legislate population control by forced sterilization. The measure, passed last month by both houses of the Legislative Assembly of Maharashtra, of which the city of Bombay, population 7.5 million, is the capital, must be approved by the Government in New Delhi. It requires that men up to age 55 and women up to 45 be sterilized within 180 days of the birth of their third living child. The measure puts the first obligation on men, and affects women only if their husbands are exempt because vasectomy would endanger their lives.
Red Army soldiers wielding sledge hammers began demolishing buildings bordering Peking’s main Avenue of Eternal Peace as residents prepared for possibly months of an earthquake alert. On side streets, troops and civilian workers were knocking down walls of ancient dwellings-some of them dating back to imperial times-that had been damaged in recent earth tremors. Officials said Peking’s 6 million people may have to continue living in the streets for months if shocks continue to hit the city.
China is willing to hold talks and trade with Taiwan, according to Senate Republican leader Hugh Scott following a recent visit to the People’s Republic. In a report to the Senate, Scott said during talks with Chinese officials he was told the “Chinese were ready, at any time, to talk with representatives of Taipei, and to trade with Taiwan.”
Police arrested more than 50 persons in a sweep through Mexico City and its suburbs looking for survivors of a terrorist band that attacked the sister of Mexico’s President-elect Jose Lopez Portillo. Police Chief Daniel Gutierrez Santos said those arrested included a woman thought to have been involved in several gun battles with police.
A United States diplomatic protest over the isolation in which an arrested American priest is being held here reflects a complaint by many Argentines who cannot find out where and why their children or relatives are under arrest. The United States protest was delivered to the Foreign Ministry of Argentina’s military junta after the rejection by security authorities of two requests to allow a United States consular official to visit the Rev. James Martin Weeks, a Roman Catholic priest from Hartford. He has been under arrest in Córdoba since August 3. The United States note said this was a violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963, signed by Argentina, which assures access by a consular officer to an arrested person from another subscribing country. Continued refusal to allow a visit could harm the excellent relations between the United States and Argentina, the note said.
A Cuban deserter from the fighting in Angola, now in Lisbon, declared that he did not volunteer to fight in Angola and that many other Cuban soldiers there were also defecting to South Africa. His statements appeared today in an interview with the conservative Portuguese weekly newspaper Tempo, nearly four months after he fled here from Angola. Tempo did not give the defector’s name but published two photographs of him. It was clear that the deserter was Second Lieut. Vitor Manuel de Quesada Caballero, 33, whose arrival last April on a Portuguese Airlines flight from Angola was widely publicized.
Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger conferred today with the South African Ambassador amid reports that South Africa would make a major declaration tomorrow on the crucial question of independence for South-West Africa. South African diplomats said that in a speech at the opening tomorrow of a National Party meeting in Durban, Foreign Minister Hilgard Muller would in effect reply to an August 2 appeal by Mr. Kissinger. The Secretary had urged that South Africa take steps quickly toward self‐determination in South‐West Africa, a former German colony that is under South African control, stemming from a League of Nations mandate. The United Nations has said the mandate has ended.
The battle between policemen and stone-throwing demonstrators continued in Cape Town’s black townships. At least 27 persons died in two days of the most violent confrontations since anti-government rioting broke out two months ago. At least four blacks died at noon when policemen with automatic rifles opened fire on 1,000 demonstrators who had been stoning traffic. The killings brought the total death toll since June to at least 216. Since the disturbances broke out in the three townships yesterday, 77 blacks have been admitted to hospitals, many with gunshot wounds. Some of the injured were reported to have been attacked by police dogs. The pattern of the disturbances has been similar to those that erupted last week in black townships around Johannesburg, 800 miles to the northeast. The demonstrators, mostly students, have stoned and burned Government buildings and tried to stop residents of the townships from going to work. The demonstrators, mostly students, marched to the boundaries of the townships, Langa, Nyanga and Guguletu, which are close to one another in the southeastern suburbs of Cape Town.
The National Swine Flu Immunization Program, meant to vaccinate all 200 million residents of the U.S. against swine flu, was signed into law by U.S. President Gerald Ford.
First Approach and Landing Test (ALT) of the NASA Space Shuttle Orbiter Enterprise.
The Republican Platform Committee, in an emotional battle that could set up the party’s first convention floor fight, voted last night, 51 to 47, to endorse the equal rights amendment. The endorsement of the proposed constitutional amendment, which has been backed by Republican platforms since 1940, came shortly after the Platform Committee rejected, by a vote of 59 to 31, an effort to put the party on record against the proposed amendments. The 106‐member committee working into the night in an effort to write a platform to submit to the convention here next Tuesday, also endorsed — with little dissent — constitutional amendments barring the busing of students on the basis of race and permitting localities to conduct nonsectarian prayers in public schools. The committee was also preparing to endorse an anti‐abortion amendment.
President Ford signed today a measure that restricts the cases in which three-judge courts will be impaneled, thus reducing the workload of the Federal judiciary. The measure, passed by the Senate last week, will also have the effect of reducing the caseload of the Supreme Court which Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and others have characterized as excessive. Under previous law, three-judge panels had to be convened whenever an injunction was requested against the enforcement of a state or Federal law on the ground of unconstitutionality.
New York Republican leaders reacted angrily to conservative efforts to promote Senator James Buckley for the presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention next week, They said that it was essentially a “stop Ford” move, This was denied by Senator Buckley. It was believed that the move for Mr. Buckley would at least slow President Ford’s momentum and possibly prevent him from getting a first-ballot nomination, and that Ronald Reagan would benefit at least initially from this strategy. Mr. Buckley has not publicly supported either President Ford or Mr. Reagan, but he has been an outspoken admirer of Mr. Reagan and a frequent critic of the President.
The Center for Disease Control in Atlanta said that 17 metals, including mercury and arsenic, had been excluded as possible causes of the mysterious legionnaire’s disease that has killed 27 persons in Pennsylvania. The center also said that tests for one of the chemicals still under suspicion, nickel carbonyl, were declared invalid because of contamination and will have to be repeated before a definite conclusion could be made.
Wholesale prices rose only three-tenths of 1 percent in July, their smallest rise since March, mainly because of a decline in prices of farm products, processed foods and feeds. But other aspects of the Labor Department’s Wholesale Price Index contained warnings that the inflation rate might worsen somewhat in the future.
The trial of the San Quentin Six, the longest and most expensive in the U.S. state of California up to that time, came to an end after 16 months and a cost of more than two million dollars, “to convict three men who were already imprisoned, two with life sentences.” The six prisoners on trial had been charged with an escape attempt that had killed six people almost five years earlier on August 21, 1971. Three defendants — Fleeta Drumgo, Luis Talamantez and Willie Tate — were acquitted of all charges and, having served out their original sentences at San Quentin for other crimes, paroled afterward. Johnny Spain, already serving a life sentence for a 1967 murder, was convicted of the 1971 murder, but his conviction would be overturned on appeal and he would be released in 1988. David Johnson and Hugo Pinell were convicted of assaulting guards. Johnson would be released in 1993. Pinell, who had already been serving a life sentence for murder of prison guard at the Soledad prison, would be killed in a prison riot on August 12, 2015, thirty-nine years after the verdict.
An explosion killed 12 maintenance workers at a 30-story tall tower at the Tenneco Oil Company refinery in Chalmette, Louisiana, and injured 14 others. All but two of the dead were subcontractor employees of the Delta Field Erection Company. An official of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, to which the 10 Delta Field employees belonged, said that the blast had been caused by human error, noting “It was just a mistake on a man’s part.”
After five days of intensive talks in Washington, it was announced that the United Rubber Workers and the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, one of the companies struck by 60,000 rubber workers last April, had reached an “understanding on basic economic issues.” Sources close to the negotiations said that the total wage and benefit package was about 36 percent over three years. It was expected to provide the basis for a settlement with the other companies.
Representatives of striking rubber workers discussed whether to approve a wage offer that Labor Secretary W. J. Usery Jr. predicted soon could end a 16-week walkout. The package would add about 40% to the hourly average of $5.50 in wages and $3.05 in benefits going to United Rubber Workers members under master contracts that expired April 21, the Akron Beacon Journal quoted sources as saying. A URW spokesman said full resolution of the strike was at least two weeks away. The strike has involved 60,000 union workers at Uniroyal, Goodrich, Goodyear and Firestone.
Thousands of Appalachian coal miners began returning to work in the first major break in a wildcat strike that the industry says cost the nation more than $130 million in lost production. Mines in northern West Virginia were in operation for the first time in four weeks. The back-towork movement included miners in six other states. The strike escalated in mid-July from a local dispute into a broad protest against use of federal court orders, a procedure that miners see as tantamount to federal intervention in union-management affairs. A United Mine Workers official said it could be nearly a week before the mines were back in full production to allow time for locals to discuss the end of the strike and for safety inspections.
NAACP lawyers said that they would appeal a $1.25 million judgment against the association for encouraging boycotts of white businesses in the 1960s but that they did not have the money to challenge the ruling. Chancellory Court Judge George Haynes of Hinds County, Mississippi, ruled that the NAACP and others “illegally created a monopoly” for black business in Port Gibson, Miss., by boycotting white businesses in the 1960s. Under Mississippi law the NAACP must post 125% of the judgment, or about $1.5 million, to file an appeal.
All persons taking the drug Triazure for control of the skin disease psoriasis were advised to stop the therapy immediately by the Food and Drug Administration. The agency warned that fatal blood clots could result from the medication. A 51-year-old man died while taking the drug, another patient underwent amputation of a leg after a blood clot developed and six other patients developed complications, the FDA said. The manufacturer, Parke, Davis & Co., is recalling stocks and removing the drug from the market, the FDA said. The company estimated that 500 to 1,000 patients have taken Triazure since it was first marketed a year ago.
Eight counts of bribery and extortion were lodged in Boston against Massachusetts state Senators Joseph J. C. diCarlo, the Democratic majority leader, and Ronald C. MacKenzie, a ranking Republican. The federal grand jury indictments followed a two-year investigation by U.S. attorneys’ offices in two states. The indictments charge the two with conspiring to extort $40,000 from a New York management consultant firm for whitewashing a legislative report investigating a $3 million contract awarded to the firm.
A tornado struck a mobile home community for retired persons at Largo, Florida, killing a woman and injuring at least seven other persons. The twister scattered sheet metal and plywood as it destroyed about 30 mobile homes and damaged about 70 others. The dead woman was identified as Judith Beandet, 78, who was inside a mobile home when the tornado ripped it apart, police said. Utility wires and poles were down for about a half mile around the four trailer parks that were in the center of the storm, and power to 20,000 homes was disrupted.
American singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson (35) weds (for third, and final time) Ireland’s Una O’Keeffe (22) at the Airport Marriott Hotel in Los Angeles, California; Ringo Starr serves as best man.
Major League Baseball:
Luis Tiant emerged the winner in a duel with Nolan Ryan when Fred Lynn drove in a run with a two-out single in the 10th inning to give the Boston Red Sox a 2–1 victory over the Angels. The Red Sox counted their initial marker in the third after Rick Burleson walked with two out and took third on a single by Denny Doyle. The pair then worked a delayed double steal attempt with Burleson scoring before Doyle was tagged out in a rundown. Tiant, who had pitched scoreless ball for 20 innings, had his string broken when the Angels pulled even with an unearned run in the seventh. Butch Hobson drew a walk in the 10th, advanced to second on a sacrifice by Burleson, took third on an infield out by Doyle and scored on Lynn’s single.
The Reds hammered four homers, two of them by George Foster and one apiece by Joe Morgan and Johnny Bench, while scoring seven runs in the last two innings to defeat the Cubs, 8–3. Morgan opened the barrage with a drive in the eighth off Rick Reuschel, who then was ejected in an argument with the plate umpire. Greeting Bruce Sutter’s appearance in relief, Foster hit his first homer of the game. Bench followed with a single and Dave Concepcion tripled to send the Reds ahead, 4–3. In the ninth, after two walks, Foster homered again and became the first major leaguer to drive in more than 100 runs this season with 102 to his credit. Bench wrapped up the scoring with the Reds’ fourth round-tripper of the game.
Putting himself into the game as a pinch-hitter, manager Frank Robinson singled in the ninth inning to cap a two-run rally that brought the Indians a 5–4 victory over the Rangers. Two unearned runs on errors by Larvell Blanks and Pat Dobson enabled the Rangers to take a 4–3 lead in the sixth. John Lowenstein, hitless in 23 previous times at bat, sparked the Indians’ uprising with a pinch-double in the ninth and scored the tying run on a single by Blanks. Rick Manning doubled, Blanks stopping at third. After an intentional pass to Rico Carty, Robinson ended the game with a long fly that went over the head of center fielder Juan Beniquez of the Rangers.
Catfish Hunter ended a personal four-game losing streak and breezed to his first victory since July 21 when the Yankees trounced the Twins, 12–5. The Yankees piled up 16 hits, including three apiece for Mickey Rivers, Carlos May and Willie Randolph. Chris Chambliss drove in three runs with a double in the fourth inning. The Yankees built up a 12–1 lead before Steve Braun whacked a bases-loaded triple for the Twins in the seventh.
Rick Sawyer, purchased by the Padres from the Yankees’ Syracuse (International) farm club July 30, posted his third straight victory and second shutout by defeating the Mets, 3–0. Tom Seaver, who had an 18–1 career record against the Padres prior to this season, lost to the San Diego club for the third time in as many decisions this year. The Padres collected only five hits but bunched them all in the second inning. Willie Davis led off with a double and Mike Ivie and Dave Winfield followed with infield hits to load the bases. After Ted Kubiak was retired, Fred Kendall singled to drive in two runs. Sawyer then clinched his own decision with a single to produce the Padres’ third run.
After falling to hold a 3–0 lead, the Athletics came back with a run in the eighth to beat the Brewers, 4–3, for their sixth straight victory. The A’s counted their first three runs in the fifth on doubles by Billy Williams and Phil Garner, singles by Bill North and Bert Campaneris and a sacrifice fly by Joe Rudi. The Brewers picked up a run in the sixth and knotted the count in the top half of the eighth when Bill Sharp walked, Von Joshua doubled and Robin Yount singled. The A’s retaliated with the tie-breaker in their half with a walk to Sal Bando, a stolen base by pinch-runner Larry Lintz and single by Gene Tenace.
At Philadelphia, the Braves edge the Phillies, 4–3, pinning the loss on Jim Lonborg. A loser of nine straight decisions — three in 1975 and six this year — Frank LaCorte gained credit for his first major league victory when the Braves defeated the Phillies. The Braves picked up a run in the first inning and made it 4–0 in the third when Jerry Royster walked, Cito Gaston doubled and Willie Montanez homered. LaCorte gave up a run in the fifth and was lifted in the sixth. Mike Beard walked Ollie Brown with the bases loaded before getting the third out. Adrian Devine took over in the seventh and yielded the Phillies’ last run on three singles in the ninth.
Boston Red Sox 2, California Angels 1
Cincinnati Reds 8, Chicago Cubs 3
Texas Rangers 4, Cleveland Indians 5
New York Yankees 12, Minnesota Twins 5
San Diego Padres 3, New York Mets 0
Milwaukee Brewers 3, Oakland Athletics 4
Atlanta Braves 4, Philadelphia Phillies 3
Prices on the New York Stock Exchange ended mixed yesterday in sluggish trading despite signs that the nation’s inflationary trend had not worsened. Analysis said that traders had anticipated a report, issued by the Labor Department shortly after the exchange opened, that the Wholesale Price Index rose only 0.3 percent in July, slightly less than the 0.4 percent increase in June. The Dow Jones industrial average closed 0.33 point higher at 987.12. It had moved in a narrow downward pattern until the last half‐hour of trading, when stepped‐up buying pushed it upward. However, declines on the exchange outscored advances by a 7‐to‐6 ratio.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 987.12 (+0.33, +0.03%)
Born:
Antoine Walker, NBA forward (NBA champions-Heat, 2006; NBA All-star, 1998, 2002, 2003; Boston Celtics, Dallas Mavericks, Atlanta Hawks, Miami Heat, Minnesota Timberwolves), in Chicago, Illinois.
Brad Lukowich, Canadian NHL defenseman (NHL Champions, Stanley Cup, 1999-Stars, and 2004-Lightning; Dallas Stars, Tampa Bay Lightning, New York Islanders, New Jersey Devils, San Jose Sharks, Vancouver Canucks), in Cranbrook, British Columbia, Canada.
Lew Ford, MLB outfielder (Minnesota Twins, Baltimore Orioles), in Beaumont, Texas.
Ismael Villegas, Puerto Rican MLB pitcher (Atlanta Braves), in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico.
Wednesday 13 [Joseph Poole], American punk rock musician (Wednesday 13, Murderdolls), in Lexington, North Carolina.
Mikko “Linde” Lindström, Finnish gothic rock guitarist and songwriter (HIM), in Klaukkala, Finland.
Died:
Tom Driberg, 71 controversial British House of Commons member who served as an MP from 1942 to 1955, and 1959 to 1974, despite having been a former member of the Communist Party of Great Britain and being openly gay. Driberg, who had been ennobled as “Lord Bradwell of Bradwell Juxta Mare” in December, was dead on arrival at a hospital after collapsing in a taxi cab at Bayswater, London.
Roger Q. Williams, 82, American aviator and aircraft designer.
History Diaries 