Western nuclear experts said today that they did not believe the Soviet Union’s announced plans to fix flaws in reactors similar to the failed Chernobyl unit would make them acceptably safe. But Soviet experts insisted, on the third day of a symposium on the Chernobyl disaster, that the proposed modifications would increase safety. Since the loss of the No. 4 unit at the Chernobyl plant and the shutdown of the three other units there, the Soviet Union has continued to operate reactors of the same type at five major commercial nuclear power stations. Western representatives at the symposium, which has been organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the proposed Soviet improvements would increase safety but would not be enough to insure protection against another accident that could again spread wide radiation. After two days of relative harmony, Western scientists expressed displeasure at the Soviet safety plans and also at Soviet answers to questions about the accident.
Diplomats here said today that the United States had made a concession in talks with the Soviet Union by agreeing that NATO would give notice of troop movements from North America to Western Europe. The diplomats said the move came at the 35-nation East-West conference on European security, where the NATO allies had long resisted providing such information, on the ground that the mandate of the conference was limited to Europe. The United States had also expressed concern that such a concession could open Western naval operations in the Atlantic to inspection. The Swedish delegate, Curt Lidgard, said at a news conference that the American concession had removed a major stumbling block. He said details still remained to be worked out, including the size of movements subject to notification. The accord would basically apply to the United States, Canada and the Soviet Union, since they are the only countries that regularly transfer troops to Europe from elsewhere.
The Agency for International Development has withdrawn its contribution to the United Nations Fund for Population Activities this year because of its involvement in China’s population program, officials said today. The United Nations group, which provides aid to 134 countries, will lose $25 million as a result of the decision, which was disclosed today to Congressional leaders and others. The American action comes after months of intensive lobbying by anti-abortion activists, who asserted that the Chinese Government’s population program involved the widespread use of compulsory abortions. Chinese officials have repeatedly denied reports that their program coerces abortions or sterilizations.
Lebanese Christian and Muslim leaders agreed to a national reconciliation dialogue in a new bid to end Lebanon’s 11-year-old civil war. All 10 members of Premier Rashid Karami’s half-Christian, half-Muslim Cabinet, which has not met in a year, agreed to hold the opening session of the peace talks next Tuesday at the closed Beirut race track in the no-man’s land of the Green Line dividing the capital into Muslim and Christian sectors. The Christian conferees issued an appeal for a cease-fire as a prelude to the dialogue, and Shia Muslim militia chieftain Nabih Berri declared his willingness to abide by a truce if other factions do.
The French troop transport ship Ourgagan, which had been on its way to allied exercises in the Atlantic, was ordered to the Mediterranean a day after Premier Jacques Chirac gave notice that France might withdraw from a U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon, military sources said in Paris. The sources noted that the ship could be used to evacuate the 1,400-man French contingent from southern Lebanon. Chirac said that it is “absurd to maintain in these conditions” the entire 10-nation U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, and “notably the French” units. Eighteen French soldiers have been wounded in a series of shoot-outs since August 11.
The White House issued a new statement on Libya today, saying its assertions that Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi was planning new acts of terrorism were based on “a realistic assessment” by American officials. “The U.S. Government is dealing with realities in this situation,” Larry Speakes, the White House spokesman, said. “This is a realistic assessment.” His statement today was the latest in a series of differing assessments of the Libyan’s intentions from Administration officials in Washington and other officials there and in California, where President Reagan is vacationing.
Vernon A. Walters, acting as a special envoy, is expected to raise with Western European allies two new American ideas for tightening trade curbs on Libya, Administration officials said today. The officials said one of the ideas would be to ban the import into the United States of all refined products made with oil from Libya. The other, they said, would be to ban activities of American affiliates overseas that have only token business in Europe and do most of their work with Libya. A trade embargo announced by President Reagan in January exempted overseas affiliates in an effort to avoid a rift with European governments, which have traditionally opposed American efforts to have subsidiaries obey trade embargoes.
President Hafez al-Assad met this week with Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi and assured him that any future aggression against Libya would be regarded as an attack on Syria, according to a communique issued in the Libyan city of Benghazi. The joint statement, made public Tuesday night, said Syria, Libya and hard-line anti-Arafat Palestinian guerrillas had revived an alliance aimed at the United States and Israel. The Damascus radio reported that the two leaders had met jointly in Benghazi with Colonel Saed Musa and Colonel Abu Khalid al-Amleh, leaders of a breakaway faction of the mainline Al Fatah Palestinian movement.
The Arab League called Cameroon’s resumption of diplomatic relations with Israel a “severe blow” to Arab and African people. “This decision can only be intended to undermine and split the principles of solidarity and cooperation that unify Arab and African states,” the organization, which includes 21 nations and the Palestine Liberation Organization, said in a statement. Israel and South Africa “together lead a campaign against the rights of our people and multiply threats to their security and territorial integrity,” the league said.
A series of huge explosions rocked the Afghan capital of Kabul for more than five hours today when an army ammunition depot blew up, Western diplomatic and exile sources reported. It appeared that many people had been killed, they said, and clouds of smoke spread over the city. The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the depot at the base of the Afghan Army’s Eighth Division exploded around midnight. The sources said the explosions might have been the work of Muslim guerrillas, who have been fighting the Soviet-backed Communist Government for seven years. The sources said Afghan and Soviet security forces repeatedly opened fire after the explosions began and swept surrounding hills with searchlights. The Kabul radio confirmed that the depot blew up and said that residents had been evacuated. However, the radio said that no one had died and that rescue work was in progress.
At least 2,000 opponents of the government of Pakistani President Zia ul-Haq have been jailed during the last two weeks, police reported. A police statement denied press reports that 7,000 opposition activists had been jailed in Punjab province. The statement said that about 1,000 people are under arrest there and that another 1,000 are under arrest in the southern province of Sind. Meanwhile, a few peaceful protests were reported across the country as the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy, an alliance of 11 opposition parties sought to sustain its drive to oust Zia.
China, moving to resume Communist Party ties with the Eastern European countries after a 20-year hiatus, announced today that the East German leader Erich Honecker would visit Peking in October. Mr. Honecker’s visit at the invitation of the Chinese Communist Party is expected to pave the way for the formal renewal of party ties with East Berlin and other East European parties that sided with Moscow in the China-Soviet split of the 1960’s.
Mexico protested to Washington that American antidrug agents were operating in Mexico beyond the limits permitted by their diplomatic status. As a result, Mexico said in a diplomatic note, American-Mexican ties are being harmed when American agents encounter difficulties.
Two witnesses to the burning death of a Chilean resident of the United States during anti-government protests in Chile were freed by police after being detained for a day, a military judge in Santiago reported. The sister and brother-in-law of Carmen Quintana, 18, who was gravely injured in the burning incident which caused the death of Rodrigo Rojas of Washington, D.C., were detained to answer possible arms charges. However, Judge Alberto Marquez said that no charges would be filed against the two.
International relief has begun flowing into the mountainous region of the small West African nation of Cameroon where an estimated 1,500 people died in a cloud of poisonous volcanic gas last week. A senior Western diplomat in the Cameroon capital of Yaounde said today that once all the promised aid reached the four afflicted villages it should be sufficient to meet the immediate needs of the 1,000 to 2,000 people made homeless. The few hundred injured when the gas descended on their villages, crops, livestock and water supplies last Thursday already appear to be well taken care of in Cameroon hospitals. Cameroon’s President, Paul Biya, today announced the formation of a national disaster committee to match up the various international offers of material and scientific aid with the needs of the survivors.
Uganda has closed its border with Sudan because of Khartoum’s alleged support of anti-government rebels operating in northern Uganda, a government official in Kampala announced. The border was closed several days after about 400 rebels loyal to ousted Ugandan leader General Tito Okello attacked the northern town of Gulu, Minister of State for Internal Affairs Kiiza Besigye said. The Ugandan move blocked the only route that had remained open for Western food aid to southern Sudan, where an estimated 2 million people face starvation. Khartoum has denied that it backs the rebels.
South African authorities reported today that 12 blacks died in overnight violence between residents of this black township and security forces. The fighting, the worst in Soweto since rioting in 1976 left more than 550 dead, was said by witnesses to have begun when residents sought to resist efforts to evict them for failure to pay rents as part of a mass protest against apartheid. Previous official accounts had put the death toll at 11, but some anti-apartheid activists said it was higher. The officially reported death toll was the highest in a single area since the the newest emergency decree — the second in a year — was imposed 11 weeks ago.
An archdiocese, deploring apartheid, has announced it will divest itself of all its holdings in companies that do business with South Africa. The action by the Archdiocese of Baltimore would be the first such step by a Roman Catholic diocese in the United States.
President Reagan signed legislation authorizing a $2.4-billion program to protect American embassies and diplomats abroad. The bill authorizes $2.1 billion over five years for the construction of new facilities and revamping of others around the world to make them more secure. The construction program, about $600 million less than the amount requested by the Administration, was the outgrowth of a bipartisan panel that urged beefed-up security at U.S. embassies in response to increased terrorism. The bill also permits the payment of rewards for information leading to the arrest or thwarting of terrorists.
President Reagan learns his hearing has improved from the previous year’s visit.
The President and First Lady enjoy dinner at the Bloomingdale residence.
Bob Dole, leader of the Senate’s Republican majority, today rejected a request to reopen the Federal investigation of Associate Justice William H. Rehnquist and said the Senate will proceed as scheduled with his nomination as Chief Justice. On Tuesday, four Democratic opponents of Justice Rehnquist wrote to Senator Strom Thurmond, the South Carolina Republican who is chairman of the Judiciary Committee, requesting a more complete inquiry by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
NASA may bury wreckage from the shuttle Challenger in abandoned Minuteman missile silos next year, but recovered mementos carried aloft by the crew will be returned to states, institutions and individuals, officials said. Air Force Col. Edward O’Connor, who directed the search for shuttle wreckage, told United Press International he has proposed that Challenger’s wreckage be stored in one or two abandoned Minuteman silos at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Recovered mementos from the Jan. 28 explosion were part of Challenger’s official flight kit, which contained hundreds of flags, medallions, pins, decals and other items.
Quotas for women and minority members are appropriate in choosing national leadership, according to a ruling approved by the founders of the new Lutheran denomination of 5.3 million members. The ruling requires that 10 percent of members of the panels must be “persons of color and/or persons whose primary language is other than English” and that 50 percent must be women.
Both the victim and the suspect in the strangling death Tuesday of an 18-year-old woman moved in the same Manhattan circle of privileged young people, a circle centered on the Upper East Side singles bar where the two spent the hours before the murder, the police and others close to the case say. For Jennifer Dawn Levin and Robert E. Chambers Jr., life was private schools, fancy apartments, foreign vacations and underage drinking at a preppy hangout called Dorrian’s Red Hand. But for Mr. Chambers, it was also unemployment, academic futility and signs of cocaine abuse. The two had known each other for about two months and dated several times, the police said, before they met early Tuesday morning at Dorrian’s Red Hand, at 300 East 84th Street. The owner, Jack Dorrian, said he knew both as regulars. Mr. Chambers was arraigned this morning on murder charges.
A federal magistrate denied bail for a Soviet citizen held on spy charges despite assurances from his government that he would show up for court appearances. Gennadiy F. Zakharov, 39, a Soviet citizen employed by the U.N. Secretariat in New York, was arrested on a subway platform last Saturday as he allegedly purchased secret defense documents from an FBI informant. U.S. Magistrate Carol B. Amon ruled that the government had proved Zakharov might flee the country if released.
A liberal lobbying group said it found 130 incidents in which attempts were made to censor books, films and curricula in schools and libraries during the 1985-86 academic year. The People for the American Way, founded by television producer Norman Lear, said the incidents represented a 35% increase over a year earlier, and more than double the number of incidents that the group found in its first censorship survey, conducted four years ago.
More than 5,000 Pennsylvania students missed their first day of class as teachers struck two school districts, while strikes in Illinois and Michigan kept nearly 14,000 students out of school. No talks were scheduled in the Pennsylvania strikes, which were called in a dispute over salaries, benefits and job security. The largest of the strikes idled 8,200 students in Champaign, Illinois, for a third day.
The Pentagon calculates that it might have to discharge close to 600,000 active-duty and reserve personnel if spending cuts are imposed under the deficit-reducing law, officials said today. The calculation assumes that Congress takes no steps between now and October to raise additional revenue, cut the Federal budget or alter the law. The threat of extensive military layoffs is one aspect of the law that should help persuade Congress to meet budget targets, fiscal experts have said.
A Federal court plan to distribute more than $200 million among 250,000 Vietnam veterans and family members who claim injury from the wartime herbicide Agent Orange has been blocked by an appeals court. The stay came more than two years after settlement of a lawsuit by Vietnam veterans against seven chemical manufacturers, and just two days before parts of the plan were to take effect. The stay, ordered Tuesday in Manhattan by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, was announced yesterday by Federal District Judge Jack B. Weinstein of Brooklyn, in whose court the plan had been set up. In one of many strange twists in the eight-year-old case, the stay was sought by lawyers heading the veterans’ case. The lawyers argued that the distribution plan failed to connect the veterans’ ailments to their exposure to Agent Orange and thus ignored a fundamental contention of the veterans.
Two Louisiana prison fugitives released a hostage unharmed Tuesday near the Mexican border but remained at large, the authorities said today. The hostage, Lieutenant Karyn Laccheo of the Army, was interviewed in Pecos, Texas by law officers after being freed Tuesday in El Paso, said Edward Terseo of the Pecos Police. She had been abducted Sunday in Houston. The authorities speculated that the two convicts, Danny Weeks, 33 years old, and James Colvin, 32, might have been trying to cross into Mexico. Agent Gary Webb of the Federal Bureau of Investigation said that officials did not have any leads on their whereabouts. Mr. Weeks and Mr. Colvin were discovered missing from the Louisiana Penitentiary in Angola on Saturday night, said Warden Frank Blackburn. Both were serving terms for armed robbery; Mr. Weeks also had been convicted of second-degree murder.
Amish farmers are thriving in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, at a time when leading agricultural economists have declared the small commercial family farm a relic. By holding their size to 80 or 100 acres and mixing farm technology with hard work, the Amish provide a vibrant farm economy.
Governor Bill Sheffield was defeated 2 to 1 in the Democratic gubernatorial primary in Alaska by Steve Cowper, a lawyer and former State Senator. Republican voters nominated State Senator Arliss Sturgulewski for Governor over a former Governor, Walter J. Hickel.
Attorney General Charles Graddick asked the Alabama Supreme Court today to reverse a Democratic Party decision that gave Lieutenant Governor Bill Baxley the party nomination for Governor. Mr. Graddick, who outpolled Mr. Baxley in a June 24 runoff, also filed notice in Federal court of plans to ask the United States Supreme Court to overturn a three-judge panel’s ruling Tuesday that allowed Mr. Baxley’s nomination to stand.
The Archdiocese of Baltimore has announced that it will divest itself of all its holdings in companies that do business with South Africa. The action would be the first such step by a Roman Catholic diocese in the United States. An official of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops said yesterday that the move by the Baltimore diocese could influence the bishops when they meet next month to consider a similar nationwide proposal on divestment. Until now, the strongest action on divestment by a Catholic diocese had been taken by the Milwaukee Archdiocese, according to Robert Wonderly, a spokesman for the bishop’s group. The Milwaukee archdiocese had announced that it would divest itself of holdings from any companies that did not abide in South Africa by the so-called Sullivan principles, which set guidelines of corporate behavior, including desegregation in the workplace and equal pay for employees. The guidelines were devised by the Rev. Leon Sullivan of Philadelphia, a Baptist minister.
A Los Angeles City Council committee voted Tuesday to rename a Little Tokyo street for Ellison S. Onizuka, the shuttle astronaut who perished in the Challenger disaster, rejecting arguments by merchants that the change will hurt their businesses. The two-member panel agreed to change Weller Street, a block-long street lined by stores and restaurants that cater to Japanese tourists, to Onizuka Street.
Jogging among Americans has declined in appeal since the peak year of 1984, when 18% participated, a Gallup Poll found. About 13% said they now jog, and the decline is most pronounced among young adults under 30. The frequency of jogging has also declined since 1984, when 34% of those who ran jogged every day or almost every day. Of those surveyed for the 1985 and 1986 polls, the percentage of those who jog daily has dropped to 21%.
The U.S. Forest Service said firefighters had contained the last of thousands of August blazes that destroyed timber and wilderness in nine Western states. Forest Service spokesman Jim Sorenson announced containment of the 18,000-acre Anderson fire in southwest Idaho, but a forecast of a possible lightning storm kept six crews at the Crouch fire camp, and 540 firefighters worked to widen a 44-mile line around the blaze. A total of 6,895 forest and range fires have scorched 742,000 acres since August 2.
Major League Baseball:
The Chicago White Sox defeated the Kansas City Royals, 3–1. Ron Karkovice, playing in only his ninth game in the majors, hit a three-run home run in the second inning to power Chicago to victory. Floyd Bannister (8–10) allowed six hits in working his fourth complete game and helping the White Sox snap a five-game losing streak.
Tony Fernandez doubled home the winning run as a pinch-hitter in the eighth inning to break a 3–3 tie and give the Toronto Blue Jays a 6–3 victory and a sweep of their doubleheader tonight against the Cleveland Indians. Ernie Whitt’s leadoff homer in the 12th inning gave Toronto a 3–2 victory in the first game. With the victories, the Blue Jays moved within five games of the American League East-leading Boston Red Sox, who lost to Texas 4–1. Garth Iorg led off the eighth inning of the second game with a single. Iorg took second on sacrifice bunt by Kelly Gruber and scored as Fernandez doubled to left-center field. The Blue Jays added two runs on George Bell’s RBI-double and Jesse Barfield’s run-scoring single in the ninth.
Nolan Ryan posts his 250th career victory, allowing one hit in 6 innings as the Astros beat the Cubs 7–1. Phil Garner went 4 for 5 to spark Houston. Ryan, a 19-year veteran, increased his record to 9–8 in becoming only the 26th pitcher in major League history to reach the milestone. He walked one, struck out five and allowed only a first-inning leadoff single by Jerry Mumphrey.
The Philadelphia Phillies edged the Los Angeles Dodgers, 2–1. Jeff Stone scored from second base in a collision at home plate on Von Hayes’s two-out single in the ninth. Bruce Ruffin (7–3) allowed five hits over eight innings for his fourth consecutive victory. Steve Bedrosian pitched the ninth. Stone, who reached first on a one-out error by the shortstop, Dave Anderson, stole second on a 3–0 pitch to Milt Thompson, who eventually struck out. Hayes then lined a single to left field and Stone scored when he knocked the throw from Bill Russell out of Alex Trevino’s glove.
The Minnesota Twins bested the Milwaukee Brewers, 7–5. Kirby Puckett broke out of a 1-for-21 slump with four hits, helping Minnesota end a three-game losing streak. Puckett had three singles and a double, and three RBI as the Twins ended Milwaukee’s three-game winning streak.
Eric Davis connects for a tie-breaking grand slam in the 9th inning, off Don Robinson, in Pittsburgh as the Reds down the Pirates, 9–5. Dave Parker has 4 RBIs, three coming on a 3rd inning 3-run homer. Don Robinson (2–3) opened the ninth by allowing a single to Ron Oester and walking Max Venable. After a sacrifice, Buddy Bell walked. Parker struck out and Davis followed by hitting Robinson’s first pitch into the left-field seats. Pittsburgh had built a 4–0 lead in the first two innings. But Parker hit a three-run homer in the third and, in the fifth, his double tied the score at 5–5.
This was to be another simple notch in the Mets’ string of victories. But before they would win again, 6–5, in 11 innings over the Padres, the Mets’ night would grow complicated. In the very end they would need a spectacular double play by their backup catcher, John Gibbons. In the bottom of the 11th inning, Garry Templeton led off with a double. Then with one out, Tim Flannery hit line-drive single to center field. Len Dykstra grabbed it on one bounce and threw home on one bounce, where Gibbons was waiting not only the ball but for Templeton about to crash into him. The collision happened but somehow Gibbons held on to make the tag. At the same time, Flannery was racing around second toward third, but Gibbons had the wherewithal to get up and made a perfect throw to Howard Johnson at third, who applied the tag for the final out.
In Seattle, Ken Phelps hit a two-run homer, and Mike Trujillo worked five innings in his first start since coming to Seattle in trade from Boston as the Mariners beat Baltimore, 4–1. Trujillo, who had appeared only in relief for Boston, scattered five hits, and Mark Huismann relieved to earn his fifth save, allowing two hits over four innings. The M’s Harold Reynolds ties the Major League mark with 12 assists at second base. He’s the second second sacker to do it this season.
Montreal Expos The San Francisco Giants nipped the Montreal Expos, 3–2. Rob Thompson raced home with the winning run on Andy McGaffigan’s second wild pitch in the eighth inning. Dan Gladden, a pinch-hitter, opened the eighth with a walk and one out later scored on Thompson’s single to tie the score. Thompson reached second on a groundout, went to third on McGaffigan’s first wild pitch and scored on the second wild pitch as Candy Maldonado was walked.
The Atlanta Braves bowed to the St. Louis Cardinals, 2–1. Rick Mahler walked Terry Pendleton with the bases loaded in the eighth inning to force in the run that gave St. Louis the victory. Vince Coleman singled with one out and took second on a wild pitch. Mahler (11–14) intentionally walked Willie McGee, Tom Herr grounded out and Andy Van Slyke was intentionally walked to load the bases. Mahler walked Pendleton on a 3–2 pitch. McGee, coming off the disabled list, was 2 for 2.
The Texas Rangers beat the Boston Red Sox, 4–1. Larry Parrish and Toby Harrah hit home runs in the sixth inning, and Edwin Correa and Mitch Williams combined on a five-hitter for Texas. Correa (8–11) went five and two-thirds innings and allowed five hits, walked five and struck out five, and Williams pitched three and one-third innings of hitless relief. Bruce Hurst (8–7) allowed 11 hits in six innings for Boston, which has lost four of its last five games.
Kansas City Royals 1, Chicago White Sox 3
Toronto Blue Jays 3, Cleveland Indians 2
Toronto Blue Jays 6, Cleveland Indians 3
Chicago Cubs 1, Houston Astros 7
Philadelphia Phillies 2, Los Angeles Dodgers 1
Minnesota Twins 7, Milwaukee Brewers 5
Cincinnati Reds 9, Pittsburgh Pirates 5
New York Mets 6, San Diego Padres 5
Baltimore Orioles 1, Seattle Mariners 4
Montreal Expos 2, San Francisco Giants 3
Atlanta Braves 1, St. Louis Cardinals 2
Boston Red Sox 1, Texas Rangers 4
Stock prices, bolstered by a strong oil sector, ended barely higher yesterday after Tuesday’s broad advance. The Dow Jones industrial average edged up 0.28, to 1,904.53 — its second-highest close ever — as advances outnumbered declines by 878 to 729. On Tuesday, the Dow jumped 32.48 points, to 1,904.25, ending just points below the record 1,909.30 close on July 2. Tuesday’s prices were propelled by a cut in the prime rate to 7.5 percent, from 8 percent, by the nation’s major banks. Computerized buying programs also pushed up prices.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1904.53 (+0.28)
Born:
Sebastian Kurz, Austrian politician, Austrian Chancellor (201709), Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), in Vienna, Austria.
Jordy Mercer, MLB shortstop and second baseman (Pittsburgh Pirates, Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, Washington Nationals), in Taloga, Oklahoma.
Mario [Barrett], American R&B singer (“Let Me Love You”), in Baltimore, Maryland.
History Diaries 