The United States and the Soviet Union said today that three days of talks here on regional issues had failed to narrow differences between the two countries. The discussions, which ended began Tuesday and ended today, were part of a series of talks to set the stage for a meeting between Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze on September 19 and 20, and for a possible meeting this year between President Reagan and Mikhail S. Gorbachev. Anatoly L. Adamishin, a Deputy Foreign Minister who headed the Soviet side in the regional talks, affirmed the Soviet position that no date for a summit meeting could be set until concrete progress on issues could be assured. So far, he said, there has been no evidence of progress. “As you know, we have to decide yet whether the summit meeting will take place, because it has to be productive,” he said. “It has to have some results, concrete results. We are not interested in an empty summit.” Mr. Gorbachev has called, in particular, for the signing of a nuclear test ban. The Soviet Union stopped testing a year ago and has invited the United States to join in. The Americans have refused on the ground that tests are needed for weapon development.
Administration officials said today that the United States would not exceed the limits of the 1979 strategic arms treaty before a possible summit meeting between President Reagan and Mikhail S. Gorbachev. The officials said the reason was that the Air Force had fallen behind schedule in deploying cruise missiles on bombers. The United States will exceed treaty limits when the 131st bomber is equipped with the missiles, unless other systems are dismantled. The delay may have the effect of pushing aside a possible irritant in a summit meeting. But as three days of Soviet-American consultations on regional issues ended here, the Soviet delegate said he had seen little evidence of progress for holding a summit meeting. The United States and the Soviet Union have been at odds over adherence to the terms of the 1979 arms treaty ever since President Reagan decided in May not to be guided by its provisions.
The U.S. and Moscow failed to narrow their differences on dealing with regional disputes in two days of negotiations in Washington, the two powers announced.
A statistical dispute arose here today at an international symposium over a projection that the Chernobyl nuclear disaster may cause 24,000 cancer deaths over the next 70 years. The two nuclear experts who made the projection Tuesday said they had misunderstood the Soviet data and the figure would probably be much lower. The 24,000 Chernobyl-related deaths had been projected by the experts in addition to the 9.5 million normal cancer deaths expected from all causes in a population of 75 million in the western part of the Soviet Union. One of the experts, Dr. Dan Beninson, said the number of excess deaths was now being put as low as 5,100. The other, Dr. Morris Rosen, said it might be in the range of 10,000. Both said the 24,000 figure was the maximum possible and not the average, as they had suggested on Tuesday.
American industrialist Armand Hammer said seismic surveys indicate good prospects for finding large amounts of oil in Israel. Hammer, the head of Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum, said at a dinner in Tel Aviv that he has put together a group of private investors which obtained a government concession to drill in the Negev Desert. A businessman close to the project said the Hammer group had been awarded a 2-million-acre concession in the desert near the Egyptian border at Nitzana, 95 miles south of Tel Aviv. Drilling is expected to begin in October. Israel spends about $1.1 billion a year, 5% of its annual budget, on oil imports.
A statement apparently written by the underground terrorist organization known as Islamic Holy War warned today that the group would kill the American hostages it is holding if any attempt is made to rescue them by force. It also threatened a dire fate for whoever attempted such a rescue. “We warn everyone who contemplates any foolish military or security action to free the captives that his as well as their fate would be much worse than that of United States marines on the outskirts of Moslem Beirut,” a statement issued here said. The four-paragraph statement, typewritten in Arabic, was sent to the offices of a Western news agency along with a photograph of an American hostage, David P. Jacobsen.
The State Department said it will take steps to recover two Airbus jetliners, powered by American-made engines, that were sold to Libya in violation of U.S. export regulations. The airplanes, worth $100 million, apparently were unknowingly sold to Libya by British Caledonian Airlines, which has since filed suit in a Paris court seeking to untangle the sale. The carrier said that it had received assurances that the ultimate user would be Europe Aero Service, a regional airline based in France, but that the aircraft were flown to Libya from Amman, Jordan, by Algerian pilots.
A U.S. naval battle group centered on the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy arrived at the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea today, bringing to three the number of such groups concentrated just north of Africa. American naval forces in the Mediterranean are being watched closely this week as some Reagan Administration officials have suggested that any resurgence of terrorism attributed to Libya could lead to military retaliation. Last spring the United States twice used aircraft based on carriers in the Mediterranean in attacks on Libya.
The Foreign Ministry said today that the Soviet Union “supports Libya in its desire to defend its national sovereignty,” but did not specify what steps, if any, Moscow would take in the event of American military action against Libya. Gennadi I. Gerasimov, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, said in answer to questions at a briefing that he would not indulge in “premature specificity.”
Saudi Arabia has released 113 Iranians arrested three weeks ago during the annual pilgrimage to Islam’s holiest shrines, the official Iranian news agency reported today. The People’s Mujahedeen, an Iranian group opposed to the Government of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, asserted that the pilgrims detained by the Saudis were members of a special unit of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards and were caught trying to smuggle explosives and weapons to sabotage oil installations in Arab countries that support Iraq. The Islamic Republic News Agency, monitored in Nicosia, said the pilgrims were freed Wednesday night.
Officials at the United Nations Fund for Population Activities, reacting to the withdrawal of a $25 million American contribution, denied today that the fund supported coerced abortion in China and accused American groups of using the issue as a pretext for cutting aid for all family planning methods. “We reiterate the point that we don’t support abortion programs in China, or for that matter, anywhere else in the world,” Jyoti Singh, a spokesman for the fund, said.
Four foreigners who are members of the Children of God religious sect have been ordered to leave China because they promoted sexual promiscuity among young people, the New China News Agency said. It quoted the Public Security Bureau in Guangdong province bordering Hong Kong as saying the four had been teaching foreign languages in Canton colleges. The bureau did not name them or give their nationalities. Hong Kong newspapers have recently carried articles about religious cults in which young women were said to lure recruits through sexual favors.
A judge gave the Philippine Government authority today to take control over a 13 ½-acre estate near here linked to Ferdinand E. Marcos, the deposed Philippine President, that has been stripped of most of its contents. The Philippine Government also took steps to seek the deportation of Orlando C. Dulay, a former Philippine Army colonel, provincial governor and supporter of Mr. Marcos, who authorities said had escaped from his homeland, where he is charged with several murders and election fraud. The police said Mr. Dulay was found on the Lawrence Township property Tuesday, removing trash bags from the garage.
Administration officials said today that they saw no evidence that Mexico intended to restrict the activities of American drug agents in that country. The officials were responding to a diplomatic note issued Wednesday by Mexico suggesting that a Drug Enforcement Administration agent who was seized in Mexico had exceeded his authority when he met with an informer. American officials said there was no specific treaty or agreement that prescribes what the enforcement agency is permitted to do in Mexico. They said that for many years American agents, with Mexico’s approval have met with sources in the criminal underworld. The officials said Mexico’s diplomatic note appeared to have been crafted to assuage the opposition in Mexico caused by American drug investigations there.
U.S.-backed Nicaraguan guerrillas killed the commander of a crack counterinsurgency unit and five of his troops, official and rebel sources said. Capt. Benito Arauz was killed in northern Jinotega province in combat with the rebels, a Defense Ministry statement said. Arauz’ unit, the BLI Special Combat Battalion, was intercepted by contras, as the rebels are called, along a road between the towns of Wiwili and Patasma, about 105 miles north of Managua, the statement said.
Bolivian President Víctor Paz Estenssoro calls a state of siege. The government imposed a nationwide state of siege today in response to labor unrest and hundreds of arrests were reported. Troops surrounded 7,000 miners who were marching on La Paz to protest layoffs. Low world prices for tin have been disastrous for Bolivia, throwing the economy into chaos, and the government decided Monday to close most of the mines that provide the bulk of its export income.
A convoy of trucks carrying 700 tons of relief food has arrived in the southern Sudanese town of Juba, the World Food Program said in Rome. The U.N. agency said the shipment came from the town of Nimule on the Ugandan border and is the first to reach the south by road since the end of July. The news agency estimates that 2 million people are in danger of starvation in southern Sudan because of dislocations caused by fighting between government troops and guerrillas.
Cameroonian Government and American officials said today that the situation in northern Cameroon, where 1,500 people were killed by volcanic gas, now appeared to have been stabilized. They said that medical and food supplies had reached most of the homeless and that doctors in the field had begun treating most of those affected by the poisonous cloud. “The disaster is under control,” said Neal Walsh, a spokesman for the American Embassy in Yaounde, which has been heavily involved in the relief efforts. He said supplies were flowing to the distribution points and the vast majority of the survivors appear to be taken care of.
The South African authorities revised the death toll upward today in the Soweto strife of two days ago, saying 21 blacks had died — 9 more than were officially acknowledged on Wednesday. The authorities said they would order an inquest into the slayings. But the opposition United Democratic Front, the largest nonparliamentary anti-apartheid group in the country, said that the killings represented “cold-blooded massacre” and that the death toll was actually higher. The official tally places the killings by the police among the highest since the nation’s newest convulsion of violence and protest took root almost two years ago. Moreover, the revised death toll in Soweto, a vast black township outside Johannesburg, was by far the highest since riots there in 1976, when more than 550 people died.
Two key restrictions on reporters seeking to cover unrest under South Africa’s emergency decree have been relaxed in recent days because of court challenges to their legality. The rulings affect both reporters for South African news organizations and foreign correspondents. Theoretically, reporters may now witness protest and write about it. In Soweto, Johannesburg’s huge black satellite, reporters could write this week about the actions and deployments of the police and army without fear of official reprisals under the newest emergency decree, imposed on June 12.
Jerry A. Whitworth was sentenced today to 365 years in prison and was fined $410,000 for his role in a Soviet spy ring that the Government has characterized as the most damaging espionage conspiracy in decades. Calling Mr. Whitworth “one of the most spectacular spies of this century,” Judge John P. Vukasin Jr. of Federal District Court said Mr. Whitworth would have to spend a minimum of 60 years in prison before being eligible for parole. He is 47 years old. United States Attorney Joseph P. Russoniello characterized the sentence as the harshest for spying since the death penalty was declared unconstitutional for espionage and other Federal crimes in 1972.
President Reagan rejected the idea of a 23.79% pay raise for civilian federal workers and instead proposed a 2% increase effective January 1. Federal law requires the President to decide each year on what pay adjustment would be needed to bring federal pay into line with private-sector salaries. Reagan said an annual salary survey determined that figure to be 23.79%, but Reagan invoked a section of the law that enables him to submit a smaller proposed increase to Congress in deference to “economic conditions affecting the general welfare.”
President Reagan spends much of the morning working on homework.
President Reagan hosts a fundraising reception in his suite for his Presidential Library.
An unreleased federal study shows 5% of young American adults are illiterate and another 15% are semiliterate — even though 98% have completed the eighth grade. A government source said the Young Adult Literacy Assessment, to be issued September 24 by the Education Department, was based on a survey of 3,600 people last spring and summer. It was conducted by two private groups, the Educational Testing Service and the National Assessment of Educational Progress, at a cost of $1.8 million.
Education Secretary William J. Bennett said enrollment at the nation’s schools and colleges will top 57.4 million this fall, with almost one-fourth of all Americans attending classes. Education spending will also soar, jumping to $278.8 billion — $15.4 billion over 1985-1986 — during the coming year, and a record $4,263 per pupil will be spent in public elementary and secondary schools, he said. The biggest increase in enrollment will come at preschool and elementary schools, reflecting a surge in the birth rate since 1977.
The government index designed to predict what the nation’s economy will do climbed 1.1 percent last month, its second-best performance this year, the Commerce Department reported today. The gain in the index of leading indicators, however, was undercut by a sharp downward revision for June. This turned what had been originally reported as a rise of three-tenths of 1 percent into a decline of four-tenths of 1 percent. Taken together, analysts said, today’s data suggest that the economy is likely to continue to grow, but at a lackluster pace, not much faster than in the second quarter, when the gross national product expanded at an annual rate of less than 1 percent.
The search for the remains of the space shuttle Challenger and its crew, the largest salvage operation in history, ended officially after NASA determined that no other debris was essential to the investigation into the January 28 explosion. The $100-million operation off Cape Canaveral has recovered 245,000 pounds of wreckage, representing 45% of the shuttle.
The Lockheed Corporation appears to have overcharged the Defense Department by hundreds of millions of dollars for the C-5B military transport plane, the Air Force said today. The Government plans to seek repayment. The apparent excess charges, the Air Force said, would amount to between $400 million and $500 million if applied to all 50 planes being supplied by the Lockheed-Georgia subsidiary. The Air Force has already signed contracts to buy the first 29 aircraft and holds options for the other 21.
Striking machinists at three Caterpillar Inc. plants in Illinois overwhelmingly approved a 32month contract, ending a monthlong strike and triggering the eventual recall of 1,900 workers laid off during the walkout. Members of Local 851 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace workers voted 1,659 to 426 to approve the pact, which provides raises of 27 cents an hour for more than half of the union members.
Fixed penalties for juveniles convicted of crimes should be adopted by state legislatures, according to a Justice Department study.
Union negotiators announced today that they had reached a settlement with Geo A. Hormel & Company in a bitter, yearlong labor dispute in Austin, Minnesota. “Considering what has happened here, we exceeded expectations,” said Joseph T. Hansen, regional director of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, who is trustee of the striking Austin local. “It’s a terrific agreement.” Members of the militant faction of the local, whose leadership has been displaced by the national union, did not agree, citing the lack of a guarantee that all the strikers would get their jobs back. The strike at the flagship plant of Hormel has attracted national attention in the year it has continued.
Four white men were arrested today in connection with shotgun attacks this week on the houses of two black families living in a white neighborhood in Toledo, Ohio, and city officials have formed a committee to ease racial tension. Kirk R. Tabener, 27 years old, and three 16-year-olds were charged with felonious assault and criminal damage.
A Federal district judge says 1,284 union flight attendants who ignored picket lines in a strike against Trans World Airlines earlier this year are entitled to keep their jobs. “In my judgment, all permanent employees working during an economic strike are safe from displacement,” the judge, Howard Sachs, wrote Monday in a bench statement, which is not a formal opinion for purposes of appeal but indicates how a judge will rule.
An outbreak of legionnaires’ disease at the City of Hope National Pilot Medical Center in Duarte, California, has affected six patients, three of whom died, hospital officials said today. The three most recent cases of the pneumonia-like illness, which were discovered over the past two weeks, have led to the evacuation of 35 patients from two wards of the hospital, according to Dr. Ralph Jung, acting medical director of the center. The earlier cases, which occurred in March and June, involved patients who received bone-marrow transplants or chemotherapy. All three of those patients have died.
The E.P.A. has repeatedly violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to protect threatened animals and plants from pesticides, a report prepared for the agency found.
An unarmed intercontinental ballistic missile launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base was intentionally blown up during a test flight because of an undisclosed problem, the Air Force said. “The destruct signal was sent well into the missile’s 30-minute test flight,” said base spokesman Sgt. Fred Bolinger. The 78,000-pound Minuteman 3 missile, capable of carrying explosives to three separate targets, lifted off from an underground silo for its 30-minute flight across the Pacific Ocean to Kwajalein Atoll, Bolinger said.
Father James Provost, a prominent canon law scholar who has taken controversial stands on what church leaders feel are too liberal views on sexual issues and other topics, was granted tenure at the Vatican-chartered Catholic University of America in Washington. University documents indicate that the virtual lifetime contract was offered Provost only after he agreed to publicly endorse a statement saying Catholic practices are controlled not by church lawyers but by the Pope and his bishops. Provost also agreed to publish “clarifying articles” concerning his views on the availability of church sacraments to divorced and remarried Catholics and the role of the laity in running local churches.
Researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Washington reported that although the AIDS virus destroys certain cells that are crucial to the body’s immune system, it causes production of other disease-fighting cells or B-cells to increase dramatically, neutralizing their ability to battle infection. This activity may explain why AIDS victims have high levels of gamma globulin, a substance produced by B-cells, in their blood, the researchers said. It may also explain why patients develop bacterial infections such as pneumonia and meningitis.
Diverse topics mark the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association in Washington. The topics include “The Book of Joshua as a Political Utopia.”
Major League Baseball:
Don Sutton allowed four hits in 7 ⅓ innings for his 307th career victory and Dick Schofield recovered from a beaning to produce a tie-breaking single in the sixth inning to boost the California Angels to a 4–2 victory over the Detroit Tigers. With their fourth consecutive victory and Texas’ loss at Chicago, the Angels moved 4 ½ games in front of the second-place Rangers in the American League West race. Sutton, 12–9, struck out three and walked two before being relieved by Donnie Moore, who finished the game for his 18th save despite giving up a ninth-inning homer to Alan Trammell. The victory tied Sutton with Mickey Welch for 15th place on the all-time list.
The Chicago White Sox downed the Texas Rangers, 6–2. Steve Carlton recorded his 321st victory as Chicago earned its first triumph over the Rangers in 10 games this season. It was Carlton’s second American League victory after 319 with St. Louis, Philadelphia and San Francisco in the National League. In six and a third innings, Carlton (7–13 over all and 2–2 with the White Sox this season) gave up six hits, walked four and struck out four, lifting his career mark to 4,015 strikeouts, second to Nolan Ryan of the Houston Astros. The 41-year-old Carlton was backed by Ron Hassey’s two-run double and Harold Baines’s 20th homer.
Tony Fernandez and George Bell each had four hits as the Toronto Blue Jays won their fifth consecutive game tonight, routing the Cleveland Indians, 9–1, with a 16-hit attack. The second-place Blue Jays now trail the Boston Red Sox, who were idle, by four and a half games in the American League’s Eastern Division. Jim Clancy (14–7) struck out five, walked none and gave up nine hits as he pitched his fourth complete game and won for the eighth time in his last 10 decisions. The run Clancy allowed was Andre Thornton’s 17th home run in the sixth inning.
The Minnesota Twins beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 6–2, as Gary Gaetti drove in four runs with three singles and his 27th home run to support Bert Blyleven. Blyleven (14–10) struck out seven, walked three and allowed seven hits in completing his 12th game. The Twins chased the starter, Chris Bosio (0–3), during a four-run fourth. Kirby Puckett and Kent Hrbek singled and Gaetti hit the home run. Roy Smalley followed with a home run, his 20th, for a 4–0 lead. Bosio got the second out of the inning, but walked the next two batters and was relieved by Bryan Clutterbuck.
The Oakland Athletics swept both games of a doubleheader with the Baltimore Orioles by one run, winning 5–4 and 8–7. Dave Kingman hit a two-run homer, his 30th, with two out in the ninth inning to provide the victory in the first game. Carney Lansford’s two-run triple into the right field corner with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning gave Oakland the nightcap victory and the sweep. Lansford connected off reliever Don Aase, 5–6, who lost both games by giving up two-out hits in the ninth when he was on the verge of earning his 32nd save.
Their slumps have gone hand in hand. When Rickey Henderson struggled, it seemed as if he took the Yankees with him. But tonight, Henderson hit a home run to lead off the game, scored two runs and helped the Yankees to a 4–2 victory over the Seattle Mariners. Boston was idle, so the Yankees picked up half a game in the American League East race and now are six games out of the lead. But they also trail the Toronto Blue Jays, who beat Cleveland and are still in second, four and a half behind.
Detroit Tigers 2, California Angels 4
Texas Rangers 2, Chicago White Sox 6
Toronto Blue Jays 9, Cleveland Indians 1
Minnesota Twins 6, Milwaukee Brewers 2
Baltimore Orioles 4, Oakland Athletics 5
Baltimore Orioles 7, Oakland Athletics 8
New York Yankees 4, Seattle Mariners 2
The stock market ended mixed yesterday, held in check by continued worry that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries may fail to limit output. Oil company shares fell yesterday after several strong sessions. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 4.36, to 1,900.17, but advances led declines by 829 to 757. Volume on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday dropped to 125.1 million shares, from 143.3 million on Wednesday.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1900.17 (-4.36)
Born:
Armie Hammer, American actor (“Call Me By Your Name”, “The Social Network”), in Santa Monica, California.
Florence Welch, British singer-songwriter (Florence and the Machine), in London, England, United Kingdom.
Jeff Green, NBA power forward, small forward, and center (NBA Champions-Nuggets, 2023; Seattle SuperSonics, Oklahoma City Thunder, Boston Celtics, Memphis Grizzlies, Los Angeles Clippers, Orlando Magic, Cleveland Cavaliers, Washington Wizards, Utah Jazz, Houston Rockets, Brooklyn Nets, Denver Nuggets), in Cheverly, Maryland.
Shavonte Zellous, WNBA guard (WNBA Champions-Fever, 2012; WNBA All-Star, 2013; Detroit-Tulsa Shock, Indiana Fever, New York Liberty, Seattle Storm, Washington Mystics), in Orlando, Florida.
Tommy Hanson, MLB pitcher (Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Angels), in Tulsa, Oklahoma (d. 2015, from organ failure following “complications of cocaine and alcohol toxicity”).
Gilad Shalit, Israeli soldier held captive in Palestine, in Nahariya, Israel.
History Diaries 