An Egyptian airliner with more than 100 people aboard, mostly tourists, was seized by seven Arab guerrillas shortly after takeoff from Cairo this morning but was recaptured at an airport in southern Egypt tonight by government commandos. All 98 hostages (92 passengers and six crew) on EgyptAir Flight 321 were rescued, unharmed, by Egypt’s commando team, the El-Sa‘ka Forces after three hijackers had taken over the Boeing 737 as it was flying from Cairo to Luxor. The armed group from the Abd al-Nasir organization, whose members later told police that they had been paid $50,000 of a $250,000 fee for the hijacking, demanded the release of five Libyan nationals imprisoned in Egypt, and for the aircraft to be flown to Libya. After the pilot convinced the hijackers that the plane had only had enough fuel to reach its destination, Flight 321 landed in Luxor and needed maintenance. Two commandos, posing as airport workers, made several trips in and out of the EgyptAir plane to give the appearance of checking on mechanical problems, and then gave the signal for the rest of the rescue team (commanded by Egyptian Army Colonel Sayed El Sharkawy) stormed the plane and took everyone alive, including the three terrorists. Egypt’s Prime Minister said Muammar Qaddafi, the Libyan leader, was behind the hijacking.
The Ford Administration is engaged in protracted and intricate negotiations with more than a dozen nations to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. At the same time, critics of these efforts have become more vocal, charging that the Administration’s nonproliferation diplomacy is too little and too late. At stake is whether the present nuclear weapons club, consisting of the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, France and China, and perhaps India and Israel, is going to be enlarged. Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger recently traveled to Iran and Pakistan to try to persuade the leaders of those countries not to buy certain nuclear power facilities that could be used to make a nuclear bomb. He has been having similar talks with other potential buyers, such as Brazil, South Korea and Argentina, and with the suppliers West Germany, France, Britain, the Soviet Union, Canada and Japan.
Administration officials working on the problem do not evince great optimism about the ultimate outcome, but they do point to progress in heading off the nuclear trend in South Korea and Iran. As a backdrop, the arms control community, joined by a number of members of Congress, has kept up a drumbeat of criticism. Most notably, Senator Abraham A. Ribicoff, Democrat of Connecticut, who is chairman of the Senate’s Government Operations Committee, has been seeking to use the committee’s powers under the Export Reorganization Act to prod the Administration. It is Mr. Ribicoff’s belief, shared by a number of his colleagues, that there is a good chance of preventing enlargement of the nuclear weapons club if only the Administration will attach stiffer terms to American nuclear exports.
After weeks of political uncertainty, the French government crisis appeared nearing a climax with President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing under heavy pressure to announce whether he plans to replace Gaullist Premier Jacques Chirac by installing the second government of his 2-year-old presidency. Giscard d’Estaing, an Independent Republican, met with Chirac for 40 minutes, but no announcement came out of that meeting. Rumors persisted that the premier had already submitted his resignation.
Guerrilla bombs wrecked two buildings on an industrial compound near Belfast as leaders of the Women-for-Peace movement planned all-Ireland demonstrations against continuing violence. Police cleared the area before the bombs went off and there were no casualties. Betty Williams, organizer of the peace movement, told of plans for rallies in Belfast, Dublin, Cork and eight other towns in the Irish Republic next weekend.
An East German Protestant pastor who set himself afire to protest Communist pressure against the church died of his burns, a church spokeswoman in West Berlin said. Western reports said that Oskar Bruesewitz suffered burns over 85% of his body after the incident in Zeitz. He was taken to a hospital in Halle where he regained consciousness only briefly and had to be fed artificially.
Artillery battles flared in Beirut while Christian and Muslim spokesmen issued bellicose statements that indicated more heavy fighting was likely. More than 200 people were killed and 350 wounded in the latest 24-hour period, according to estimates. Two American envoys, Robert Houghton and David Mack, met at Jounieh with President Suleiman Franjieh and with Falange and Maronite Christian leaders. Right-wing Christian militiamen reportedly struck into Muslim-held western Beirut today, and Palestinian and Lebanese Muslim reinforcements were rushed to the area by truck and jeep.
The State Department softened its position in regard to the message from President Kim Il Sung of North Korea expressing regrets about the killing of two American Army officers last week by North Korean troops. On Sunday, the department said that President Kim’s message was “not acceptable,” but the department statement today, ordered by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, described the message as “a positive step.” The department announced that the United States, seeking assurances on the safety of American personnel in the demilitarized zone established after the Korean War, had called for a meeting of the Korean armistice commission.
Planning and operation officers in the Defense Department are confident about the United States military position in South Korea and the capabilities for early and powerful reinforcement in the event of war. Granted Chinese neutrality, which most officers expect, the prevailing opinion is that the United States and South Korean forces can “handle” any North Korean offensive. These sources do not discount the high state of training and readiness of the North Koreans. They argue, however, that American forces in Korea and the northwest Pacific are also well trained and better equipped and that after powerful infusions of American arms, the South Korean Army, in the words of one officer, “is just about the toughest, best-equipped army in East Asia.” The core of United States resistance to any invasion by the North would be the Army’s Second Division, which has been brought to a high state of efficiency by a succession of innovative commanders seeking to instill the lessons of the Vietnam War in the new professional Army.
The chief rival of Prime Minister Takeo Miki within the ruling Liberal-Democratic. Party called today for the resignation of Mr. Miki before general elections, which must be held by December 9. Deputy Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda said at a meeting of his supporters that “there is no way for the Liberal‐Democratic Party to win the coming elections except under new leadership.” Later in the day he held a joint news conference with Finance Minister Masayoshi Ohira and said that the 21‐ month‐old Miki administration had lost its “capacity to govern.”
A Roman Catholic priest, believed to be a Spanish citizen, was killed in northwestern Colombia while fighting with left-wing guerrillas, army sources said in Bogota. The Rev. Florentino Agudelo was shot to death by soldiers in a clash with members of the Castroite National Liberation Army, the sources said. Further details were not given.
Brazil declared a three-day period of mourning for former President Juscelino Kubitschek, 73, founder of the futuristic capital of Brasilia, who died in an auto crash Sunday. His body will lie in state in Rio de Janeiro and then be flown to Brasilia for burial. Killed in the crash with Kubitschek, who headed the nation from 1955 to 1961, was his chauffeur. He came into office under the slogan: “50 years of progress in five.” His regime gave strong support to Brazilian automobile and steel production, shipbuilding and hydroelectric power.
Zambia’s President Kenneth Kaunda has reportedly told Angola’s leader, Agostinho Neto, that he still believes an Angolan government of national unity is the best solution to the continuing military difficulties in the south and north, where guerrilla groups of two defeated factions in Angola’s civil war are still operating. Kaunda has met with Neto twice in the past week-during the nonaligned conference in Sri Lanka and in Lusaka, Zambia, while the Angolan was making a brief stop on his way home from the conference.
Rhodesia announced that its troops killed nine black nationalist guerrillas within 24 hours, bringing to almost 900 the number of guerrillas reported killed this year. Some of the nine dead were said to be responsible for the deaths of three African civilians who were shot between July 29 and August 12.
A new black Rhodesian nationalist party has been formed and one of its leaders says it is ready to reopen constitutional talks with the Government if guerrilla leaders are allowed to attend. The leader of the new group, Robert Mugabe, who is in self-exile in Mozambique, is a central figure in the so‐called “third force” between the factions of the African National Council led by Joshua Nkomo and Bishop Abel Muzorewa. As political chief of the Zimbabwe Liberation Army, Mr. Mugabe is believed to have masterminded the reorganization of the black nationalist guerrilla movement and to have started their guerrilla campaign this year. Zimbabwe is the black African name for Rhodesia.
Fighting between black South African groups began in Johannesburg after two-thirds of the population of the city’s black neighborhoods in Soweto refused to return to work, while another one-third ignored the strike. As many as 1,500 Zulu workers in the suburb of Orlando West went from house to house after several Zulu residents of a hostel in Mzimhlope had been taunted and had rocks thrown. After returning from work, the Zulu laborers returned home, gathered weapons, and took revenge on the demonstrators, killing at least four. The demonstrators then burned down the Zulu hostel, and, with apparent approval by the white South African government and its Johannesburg police force, the Zulus created a vigilante mob to protect other black South African employees who had returned from work, while violently attacking demonstrators.
South African police shot and killed one of the young black demonstrators in Soweto who stoned buses and trains in an attempt to force compliance with a three-day national strike among black workers on whom the economy of the white-ruled country depends. At least six of the demonstrators were wounded. Thousands of workers in Soweto decided not to challenge crowds of youths at railway and bus terminals, but the strike appeared to have little effect elsewhere in the country.
The southern African nation of Botswana introduced a new currency the pula, to replace the South African rand, which had been used as the legal currency since the republic’s independence from the United Kingdom in 1966. Each pula, which had par value with the rand, was worth 100 thebes.
A spokesman for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) announced that the Viking 1 lander had found no signs of life on the planet Mars, based on its test of looking for organic material by heating soil samples to temperatures of 500 °C (932 °F) and then attempting to detect carbon by tandem mass spectrometry. Dr. Klaus Biemann told a press conference, “We can say if there was as much as 12 parts per billion we would see it. Organically speaking, it’s a very clean material.”
The House agreed today to meet with the Senate in an attempt to compromise their differences on tax legislation for the fiscal year 1977, including proposals to permanently extend current tax cuts for individuals and businesses. The conference will start “as quickly as the Senate is ready,” perhaps by late tomorrow or sometime Wednesday, according to Representative Al Ullman, Democrat of Oregon, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Present tax cuts, provided in the Tax Reduction Act of 1975, are worth $180 a year to a typical family of four making $15,000, and individual income tax payroll withholding rates are frozen at the existing levels until September 1. The freeze is expected to be continued for as long as the Congress needs to complete work on the tax bill. The House bill would extend many of the basic cuts and would include major changes in the nation’s tax laws, curbing the use of various tax‐sheltering devices and boosting the tax on higher incomes.
Jimmy Carter bluntly responded today to President Ford’s recent attacks on Congress by accusing him of irresponsible, short‐sighted vetoes that he said have “contributed to needless human suffering.” Citing the President’s 53 vetoes since taking office two years ago, the Democratic Presidential nominee offered a vigorous defense of Congress, characterizing it as much more attuned to the nation’s mood than Mr. Ford. Speaking before about 1,000 people at a downtown hotel here, Mr. Carter presented as harsh an appraisal of his Republican opponent as has been heard from him in his pursuit of the White House this year. The President, Mr. Carter said, has vetoed “about four times as many bills per year as his predecessor, and to be four times as negative as Mr. Ford’s predecessor is a remarkable achievement.”
Secretary of the Army Martin Hoffmann Intervened in the West Point cheating scandal by offering dismissed cadets a chance to apply for readmission to the United States Military Academy after a one-year period of “reflection”, preferably while serving as enlisted men. He made the announcement while testifying before a Senate Armed Services subcommittee. There would be no guarantee that all dismissed cadets would be readmitted, but “a large number” would be, he said. He offered several other concessions In help alleviate what he called “this extraordinary situation.”
The House voted to ban within three years the manufacture of polychlorinated biphenyls, called PCB’s, which have been linked to cancer and birth defects, water pollution and the contamination of wildlife. The ban was included in an amendment to the Toxic Substances Control Bill. A similar measure has passed the Senate, but without the PCB prohibition. The bill, however, with or without the PCB ban, faces the possibility of a veto by President Ford on the ground that its broad provisions would impose almost impossible testing requirements on the chemical industry.
The administrator of federal pension law enforcement resigned in a memo suggesting his job had been impeded by the slow workings of the Labor Department. James D. Hutchinson, 32, announced he would resign effective October 1 because of “both professional and personal considerations.” A spokesman insisted the resignation had nothing to do with an ongoing investigation of Teamsters Union pension funds, which will not be interrupted. Labor Secretary W.J. Usery Jr. said he had accepted the resignation “with reluctance.” No successor was named.
The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the court-ordered school busing desegregation plan for Louisville, Kentucky, that began amid violence a year ago. The 1976-77 school year begins September 1. The court affirmed the decision of U.S. Dist. Judge James F. Gordon, whose July 30, 1975, desegregation plan ordered the busing of 22,600 students in Louisville and surrounding Jefferson County.
About 90% of the inmates at the New York state prison in Attica, scene of a bloody revolt in 1971 that left 43 men dead, went on a “general strike” to back demands for parole and sentencing reform. Inmates mainly stayed in their cells, although about 100 went to breakfast and 350 went to lunch. The rest of the 1,843 inmates were fed in their cells, a prison spokesman said. Corrections Commissioner Benjamin Ward met with 10 inmate representatives in an attempt to resolve the dispute. The prisoners had sent Governor Hugh L. Carey a list of demands, which he received Thursday.
“I can’t believe I said those things about my father.” The statement is attributed to a crying Patricia Hearst, the kidnapping victim turned fugitive who in taped messages during her flight is believed to have called her father “Adolph,” a “corporate liar” and a “pig.” The statement appears in the September issue of The Ladies Home Journal as part of a psychological report on Miss Hearst, and was reported yesterday by the Associated Press. The report grew from mental tests given to Miss Hearst after she was arrested last summer. Her lawyer. F. Lee Bailey, released parts of the report in prepublication excerpts from his book on Miss Hearst’s conviction last spring on a Federal bank robbery charge.
Nearly half of the nation’s colleges and universities are in a “less than healthy” financial condition and over 14% — about 300 — are sinking toward insolvency, according to a new financial report on American higher education being printed in Change magazine, a leading educational journal. The 20-page report, based on data for the years 1972-74 from 2,163 of the nation’s 3,200 institutions, found that two-year colleges and publicly funded four-year colleges and universities are better off than private ones, larger institutions are better off than smaller ones, black colleges fare slightly worse than white ones, religious-affiliated and single-sex colleges generally are in poor condition and colleges in the Far West and Southwest are better off than those in the Northeast.
The National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society advised their breast cancer detection centers in 27 cities against routine use of X-ray screening for women under 50. In a nine-point letter sent to the clinics, which have screened 263,000 women since the joint program began in 1973, the NCI and ACS detailed “interim guidelines” for use of X-ray mammography. NCI program coordinator Richard Costlow said the guidelines should help directors decide how to proceed until NCI chief Frank J. Rauscher Jr. makes a final decision on the question “within the next several weeks.”
A uniform standard for air pollution quality has been developed by a federal task force for voluntary use by major metropolitan centers, a spokesman for the President’s Council on Environmental Quality. said. The Pollutant Standards Index will measure the levels of five major pollutants, with “good” air falling in the 0 to 50 range, “moderate” air from 50 to 100, “unhealthful” from 100 to 200, “very unhealthful” from 200 to 300 and “hazardous” from 300 to 500.
The chances are one in 1 billion that a nuclear power plant disaster will spread radiation to a highly populated area, according to a federal regulation official. In testimony before a hearing conducted by the state Energy Commission on safety and evacuation procedures at the San Onofre nuclear power plant near San Clemente, B. Rusche, director of the federal office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, cited the low odds but added that the probability did not take into account sabotage or terrorist attack.
A vice president of the Boston Playboy Club was one of four men arrested in connection with an alleged plot to blow up the downtown building. A spokesman for the district attorney’s office said the scheme was to collect $500,000 in insurance. Arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit arson and to defraud were Wilfred M. Sherman, 47, vice president and board member of Playboy Club of Boston, William Oxman, 64, owner of the building, and Henry J. Duchainery Jr., 28, and Edward J. Denner, 40.
Bus drivers and mechanics in Los Angeles today went on strike for the second time in two years against the country’s fourth-largest mass transportation system, forcing 760,000 commuters to find other means of transportation. The strike involved 2,400 buses serving Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside Counties and led to jammed freeways, streets and parking lots as commuters took to their own cars, shared rides with others or walked to work. The Los Angeles mass transit system is one of the country’s largest, ranking behind only New York, Chicago and Philadelphia. Some 5,000 drivers belonging to the United Transportation Union and 1,000 mechanics represented by the Amalgamated Transit Union were involved in the strike against the Rapid Transit District.
Major League Baseball:
The Philadelphia Phillies broke Dick Ruthven’s spell with a four-run, eighth-inning outburst and beat the Atlanta Braves, 4–2. A leadoff walk to Bob Boone, successive singles by Bobby Tolan, pinch-hitter Tim McCarver and Dave Cash, a sacrifice fly by Larry Bowa and single by Greg Luzinski did the damage. Jim Lonborg wins his 14th.
Six-hit pitching by Vida Blue (12–11) and home runs by Sal Bando (No. 24) and Don Baylor (No. 14) powered the Athletics past the Orioles, 3–0. This was Blue’s fifth shutout of the season and his first road victory since June 6.
The Red Sox staged a six-run uprising in the sixth inning to defeat the Angels, 7–3. A two-run single by Jim Rice was the key blow of the inning, marked by two walks and two errors. Bill Lee, with help from relievers Dick Pole and Tom Murphy, was credited with his first victory of the year as a starter.
The Cardinals exploded for 14 hits, nailing Jack Billingham for eight blows and four runs in four innings, en route to a 9–5 triumph over the Reds, despite Joe Morgan’s 24th and 25th home runs. Rookie Garry Templeton had a single and triple, drove in two runs, scored four runs and stole one base for the Cardinals.
George Hendrick’s infield hit scored Rick Manning from third base with the run that lifted the Indians over the Royals, 4–3. Dennis Eckersley allowed seven hits and struck out 12 in posting his ninth victory. Ray Fosse drove in the Tribe’s first three runs with his first homer since 1974 and a two-run single.
Rookie Mark Wagner’s second hit, a two-run single, capped the Tigers’ three-run sixth inning that produced a 5–4 victory over the White Sox and ended their three-game losing streak.
The Dodgers scored four runs in the sixth inning to overcome the Expos, 6–3. Bill Buckner’s homer, a run-producing single by Bill Russell and two-run single by Steve Yeager were the decisive blows in the rally. Tommy John (7–8) got the complete-game victory.
Graig Nettles and Thurman Munson provided a punch that enabled the Yankees to snap their three-game string of defeats with a 9–4 conquest of the Twins. Nettles had four hits, including two doubles and his 21st homer, while Munson, ending an 0-for-16 slump, contributed two singles and drove in three runs.
Dave Winfield worked reliever Dave Giusti for a base on balls with two out and the bases full in the sixth inning and that produced the run that gave the Padres a 5–4 decision over the Pirates.
George Scott drove in three runs with a homer and two doubles and Gorman Thomas also homered as the Brewers spanked the Rangers, 6–2, behind the seven-hit pitching of converted reliever Eduardo Rodriguez.
Philadelphia Phillies 4, Atlanta Braves 2
Oakland Athletics 3, Baltimore Orioles 0
California Angels 3, Boston Red Sox 7
St. Louis Cardinals 9, Cincinnati Reds 5
Kansas City Royals 3, Cleveland Indians 4
Chicago White Sox 4, Detroit Tigers 5
Montreal Expos 3, Los Angeles Dodgers 6
Minnesota Twins 4, New York Yankees 9
Pittsburgh Pirates 4, San Diego Padres 5
Milwaukee Brewers 6, Texas Rangers 2
The stock market dropped yesterday for the fourth consecutive session with the Dow Jones industrial average off 2.58 points to 971.49, its lowest close in almost three months. In the last four sessions, it has tumbled 27.85 points.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 971.49 (-2.58, -0.26%)
Born:
Scott Caan, American TV actor (co-star of the second “Hawaii Five-0” series); in Los Angeles, California.
Kate Sobrero, American soccer defender (Olympic gold medals, 2004, 2008), in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
Pat Garrity, NBA power forward and small forward (Phoenix Suns, Orlando Magic), in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Mark DiFelice, MLB pitcher (Milwaukee Brewers), in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.
Cole Liniak, MLB third baseman and pinch hitter (Chicago Cubs), in Encinitas, California.
Dai Koyamada, Japanese freestyle boulderer and rock climber; in Kagoshima, Japan.
