A Soviet military official said today that Moscow had learned through seismic means and satellite intelligence of three unannounced American underground nuclear tests. The official, Colonel Vitaly L. Kotyuzhansky of the Soviet Defense Ministry, said the three American tests were of low yield. He specified when the tests took place and said Moscow’s ability to detect the explosions showed that verification of a testing moratorium was not as difficult as Reagan Administration officials have suggested. Administration officials confirmed that the tests had taken place. Colonel Kotyuzhansky made his remarks at a news conference at the Soviet Embassy to publicize the Soviet testing moratorium and to emphasize the Soviet view that verification is not a serious barrier to a test-ban agreement. Administration officials said it was highly unusual for the Soviet Union to release information about its intelligence-gathering abilities. The official United States procedure is to announce only some tests publicly. In particular, the detonation of some very low-yield devices, which is difficult to detect, is not disclosed.
Reagan Administration officials also said the Soviet Union’s ability to detect the tests did not prove that there were no verification problems in monitoring a testing moratorium. They said the United States made no effort to hide those tests and conducted them out in the open at the Nevada test site. In addition, the Administration says verification is not the key problem. Administration officials have publicly said the United States will still not agree to a test ban even if the verification problems are solved because it needs to develop new nuclear warheads. Colonel Kotyuzhansky appeared at the news conference with Oleg M. Sokolov, the second-ranking official at the embassy, and Sergei I. Kislyak, a first secretary and arms control expert. At the press conference, Colonel Kotyuzhansky was asked about a statement by Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the Soviet leader, that the United States had conducted 18 tests during the Soviet testing moratorium, which began August 6, 1985. The United States has announced only 15 of the tests. The colonel said the three other tests occurred on August 15, 1985, and in the autumn of 1985 and the spring of 1986. In response to questioning, he said the tests had been detected by “seismic and space means,” a reference to the technique of monitoring underground explosions by detecting signals in the earth and to satellite reconnaissance. “Those tests only went to prove that there is no problem of verification,” he said.
An international symposium outlined a broad program to improve safety at the world’s nuclear power plants today, but some experts expressed uncertainty over whether the plan could be put into effect. The 13-point program was described at the close of a weeklong meeting of 500 scientists from 50 countries on the causes and lessons of the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in the Soviet Ukraine on April 26. The plan includes a call for international radiation standards, detailed exchanges of safety data, and suggestions that certain safety guidelines be mandatory in all the world’s nuclear plants. Many scientists agreed that improvements were needed, especially in the Soviet Union but also in other nations, to prevent another serious accident. The Chernobyl accident, the worst in commercial nuclear power history, has killed at least 31 people, is expected to kill thousands more from cancer, and has spread radiation around the world, contaminating food and people. In the accident, serious design flaws and human errors led to explosions that ripped open the reactor.
The United States military commander in Europe said today that he had warned American military personnel and families there to be on the alert for new terrorist attacks supported by Libya. The commander, General Bernard W. Rogers, said he had issued the warning because there were signs of renewed activity by Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi, the Libyan leader. General Rogers told reporters he had seen “credible evidence” that Colonel Qaddafi planned to resume support for terrorist attacks against Americans, staged through Libyan embassies and surrogates hired by the embassies. He declined to give details or sources of the information.
In Poland, Lech Walesa, the Solidarity founder, was questioned by the police today about his links to the underground opposition movement and later issued a statement demanding the release of all political prisoners. “We demand that all prisoners of conscience be freed,” Mr. Walesa said in a statement marking the sixth anniversary of the free trade union. “We demand that those who work independently for the good of the country are not punished with imprisonment.”
An Albanian Jew escaped to Greece this week, bringing a rare account of the continued existence of Europe’s most isolated and repressed Jews. Albania, a rigorously Communist country bordered by Greece and Yugoslavia, is almost totally closed to the world and hostile even to the other Communist nations. After persecuting the Moslem, Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox faiths since it seized power in 1944, the Government in 1967 declared Albania by law “the first atheist state in the world.” All houses of worship were razed, closed or diverted to worldly purposes, and clergymen and nuns were condemned to hard labor.
A man who swerved a dump truck through East German police gunfire early today and escaped through the Berlin wall had a friend and their baby huddled on the floor under the windshield, the West Berlin police said. None of the three were hurt.
Muslim militants backed by Iran have begun what appears to be a determined campaign to dislodge the United Nations peacekeeping force from southern Lebanon. Positions of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, or Unifil, have come under repeated rocket and machine-gun attacks, and Shiite holy leaders have been touring southern areas preaching against the presence of the United Nations forces. Political commentators here say the drive is reminiscent of one mounted by Lebanese militants against the United States Marines in Beirut three years ago. That drive led to the withdrawal of the Americans and their European colleagues in the multinational peacekeeping force in Lebanon.
Disturbed by recent clashes between its forces and local Muslim militias, the French Government has become increasingly unhappy over the situation facing its contingent in the United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, according to diplomats and officials. A Government spokesman, Denis Baudouin, apparently in an effort to quell speculation that France was planning to withdraw from the United Nations force, said Thursday that there was “no question of a unilateral retreat.” Other officials here, however, said that if the situation did not improve, France and the other countries that have contributed troops in southern Lebanon might have no choice but to withdraw from the area.
King Hassan II of Morocco announced today that he was canceling a treaty of union with Libya because of Libyan criticism of his meeting with Prime Minister Shimon Peres of Israel. In a message to the Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi, the King said his decision was motivated by a communique issued on Wednesday by Libya and Syria after a two-day visit to Libya by the Syrian President, Hafez al-Assad. The communique denounced the Peres visit to Morocco on July 22 and 23 as “an act of treason” by Morocco and a “violation of the Arab consensus in defiance of the feelings of the Arab nation.”
United States officials said today that the explosion at an ammunition dump five miles west of Kabul on Tuesday was the work of Afghan guerrillas. The officials said the guerrillas had penetrated the security belt around Kabul to blow up the huge ammunition dump, a cluster of about 20 buildings, and to shell the Soviet Embassy and a fuel storage area in the capital.
A senior Soviet official, Valentin M. Falin, chairman of the Government press feature syndicate Novosti, said today that the limited Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan would involve 8,000 soldiers and would begin this fall.
An attorney for President Corazon C. Aquino of the Philippines obtained a subpoena today to question Orlando C. Dulay, a former Philippine Army colonel and provincial Governor, about the stripping of a mansion in Lawrence Township linked to Ferdinand E. Marcos, the deposed Philippine President. A process server was looking today for Mr. Dulay, who was found by the township police on the grounds of the estate on Tuesday but not held. On Thursday a state Superior Court judge authorized the Aquino Government to take control of the property after it was discovered that furnishings had been removed in violation of an earlier court order.
Mine workers in Bolivia began a 24-hour strike today to protest the detention of 162 labor and opposition leaders under a Government-imposed state of siege. About 20,000 workers at 23 state mines joined in the walkout, called from noon today until noon Saturday by the Bolivian Workers Central, the country’s main labor federation. Some factories were closed also, but other offices and shops continued operating.
Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister Robert Mugabe said today that his country would impose a tough package of economic sanctions against South Africa even though Zimbabwe recently renewed a special trade agreement with Pretoria. Speaking at a news conference before the meeting of nations professing nonalignment that opens here on Monday, Mr. Mugabe said that although his Government had again signed a special trade agreement with South Africa, the “decision to implement sanctions will override that agreement” once the sanctions agreed to by Commonwealth countries were in place. Mr. Mugabe, who will become the chairman of the nonaligned movement next week, said the 101-nation group would call for support from both the East and the West for the effort to eliminate apartheid in South Africa.
Naming a new envoy to Pretoria is under consideration by Reagan Administration officials. Barring some unforeseen problem, Edward J. Perkins, a career diplomat and currently Ambassador to Liberia, will be the new ambassador to South Africa, the officials said. Mr. Perkins would be the first black to fill the post. He would replace Herman W. Nickel, who will be stepping down in October, the United States Embassy in Pretoria announced.
The nation’s trade deficit soared to a record $18 billion in July, with imports twice as large as exports for the first time ever, the Commerce Department reported today. Several economists expressed dismay at the figures, which defied expectations that a steady fall in the dollar’s value would by now have started to reverse the trade flows. The deteriorating trade picture seemed certain to intensify sentiment in Congress for legislation to protect American industry and to become an issue in the fall elections. The $18 billion deficit far exceeded the expectations of economists, most of whom had believed it would be in the range of $14 billion to $16 billion. A rumor circulating this week that the figure would be $16.1 billion, suggesting another leak from the Commerce Department, thus turned out to be incorrect. It was noted, however, that the deficit in merchandise trade rose 27 percent, to precisely that amount.
The President and First Lady work on homework and house cleaning, respectively.
The President and First Lady meet with Ken Khachigian who is going to help with their speech on the Administration’s anti-drug policy.
The flagship enterprise of the wealthy Hunt brothers filed today in bankruptcy court for protection from its creditors, a victim of low oil prices. The Placid Oil Company, one of the largest privately owned oil companies in the nation, with 20,000 employees, filed the petition under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code. The action kept Placid’s 23 lenders from moving ahead with imminent sales of oil and gas fields, land, stock and real estate. Such sales had been scheduled to begin today in Mississippi and on Tuesday in Texas. Under Chapter 11, a company is protected from its creditors while it attempts to reorganize. Today’s filing, one of the largest Chapter 11 actions ever taken, means that next month information about the shrinking riches of the Hunt family is likely to be made public. Details of Placid’s business condition must be filed then with the bankruptcy court in New Orleans, where today’s filing took place.
‘My father never really cared about money,” Bunker Hunt once said about H. L. Hunt, the billionaire Dallas oilman. “It was just sort of how they kept the score.” The Hunts’ phenomenal riches were more than a personal scorecard, however. For, as much as any one family, the Hunts have defined the swaggering, risk-taking, entrepreneurial ethos of the oil patch. And just as H. L. Hunt’s rise from poverty was the fulfillment of this region’s most grandiose promise, its darkest days are now symbolized in the bankruptcy filing by the Hunts’ Placid Oil Company. Like his sons, H. L. Hunt faced ruin more than once and rebounded. And his heirs still have extraordinary resources at their disposal. Even so, “this is the most monumental financial reversal in modern American business history,” said Harry Hurt 3d, author of “Texas Rich,” a 1981 biography of the Hunt family. “It’s also the collapse of Texas’s greatest and most mythic family. The fact that the Hunts have declared bankruptcy is to Texas the equivalent of the Rockefeller family declaring bankruptcy in New York.”
Three Lutheran churches voted overwhelmingly today to merge into a single, more diverse and more effective denomination of 5.3 million members. “My friends, there will be a new church,” said Bishop James Crumley Jr., announcing the vote to exuberant applause and the singing of “Amen.” The new church will be called the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Bishop Crumley, head of the Lutheran Church in America, and the presiding bishops of the two other merging bodies said the church would have a larger voice in Washington on social issues, would speak more effectively for the nation’s Lutherans in reaching theological agreements with other faiths and would be in a stronger position to establish new churches in the United States and abroad.
A Vermont judge refused today to dismiss cocaine charges against John A. Zaccaro Jr., the son of Geraldine A. Ferraro, the 1984 Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate, and said that evidence of cocaine found in his apartment could be used against him. The judge ruled, however, that the police did not have “probable cause” to search Mr. Zaccaro’s car, and thus he held that the six to eight grams of cocaine seized from the vehicle was not admissible as evidence. The prosecutor, John Quinn, said that the judge’s ruling would “slightly damage” his case against Mr. Zaccaro for drug possession but would not affect a separate charge of selling cocaine.
A twin-engine plane crashed and burned after takeoff in Lander, Wyoming, killing all seven people on board, the authorities said today. Among the victims of the crash Thursday night was the president of a Tulsa, Oklahoma, chemical company that has a plant in Riverton, Wyoming, the plane’s destination, and the chief executive officer and chairman of the Western National Bank of Tulsa. Also killed in the crash were the two Tulsa men’s wives, two residents of Vail, Colorado, and the plane’s pilot. The crash occurred shortly after 11 PM as the plane left Lander for Riverton, about 30 miles to the north.
Eight weeks before the killing of Jennifer Dawn Levin, a community group had told state liquor authorities that underage drinking was rampant at Dorrian’s Red Hand, the bar where the 18-year-old woman spent the hours before her death with the 19-year-old man the police say strangled her. And on August 19, one week before the crime, the police say they met with both Jack and Michael Dorrian, the husband and the son of the bar owner, and Nancy Hunt, the community activist who had gone to the State Liquor Authority with complaints that the preppy hangout at 300 East 84th Street served alcohol to minors. “I said to Jack Dorrian that one day, one of the girls you serve will drink too much and pass out on the street and some of the low-lifes around here will rape her or worse,” Ms. Hunt, a member of the board of directors of the East 84th Street Neighborhood Association, recalled of the meeting. Last night, in the wake of the slaying of Miss Levin and the arrest of Robert E. Chambers Jr., officials of both the State Liquor Authority and the Police Department confirmed that separate investigations of Dorrian’s were under way. But each official said he could not give any more details because the inquiries were in progress.
The man accused of the Central Park strangulation of 18-year-old Jennifer Dawn Levin may plead that he was insane at the time of the crime, his lawyer said yesterday. The lawyer, Jack T. Litman, said an insanity defense was one of the trial strategies he was considering for the 19-year-old suspect, Robert E. Chambers Jr. “It appears that the state of mind of Robert Chambers that led to this tragedy was completely out of character for him and therefore an insanity plea is possible,” Mr. Litman said in an interview. “There is no record that he had an aggressive or violent personality,” Mr. Litman added. “He didn’t go to the park to rape her. She had sex with him before. Something happened that I have to puzzle out.”
Jennifer Levin’s funeral service was attended by hundreds of relatives and friends. A dozen police officers kept crowds under control outside a West Side funeral chapel. During the service and afterward, mourners expressed grief and anger at reporters who were present, apparently because of the explicit nature of coverage of the murder. With psalms and muffled sobs, with memories of a zestful life and anger at a violent death, hundreds of relatives and friends yesterday mourned for Jennifer Dawn Levin. They gathered first in a dim sanctuary at the Riverside Memorial Chapel on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and later in brisk sunshine at the Nassau Knolls cemetery in Port Washington, L.I., and said goodbye to an 18-year-old woman who was slain at daybreak on Tuesday in Central Park. “Anyone who has ever been 18 years old knows that nothing bad can happen to you,” said Daniel Levin, Miss Levin’s uncle, who delivered the eulogy on behalf of the family. “That’s the way it’s supposed to be. Well, I guess we know now that isn’t true.”
Possibly no urban creature in America is more wedded to the automobile than the Houstonian. And the saga of the Katy “transitway” offers new evidence of how difficult it is to change such habits. Less than two years ago, for $12 million, Houston opened the first section of a special lane reserved for buses and company van pools that it hoped would ease congestion on the Katy Freeway, which serves the affluent western reaches out in the direction of the city of Katy. Motorists in the clogged regular lanes fumed as they watched an occasional bus zoom down the nearly empty lane in the center. So last year the authorities relented somewhat, opening the lane to authorized car pools with four people, then later just three people. Still no luck. Thus, on August 11, the lane was opened to any car with at least two people, reducing the definition of “car pool” to the minimum. The hours were also extended. Finally the center lane is buzzing. One day last week 1,599 cars zipped down the 5.5-mile lane toward downtown, as against 70 to 80 the previous week. In addition, there were the usual 83 buses and 70 to 80 company vans.
After 20 years of debate, California lawmakers have passed a bill aimed at recycling soda and beer cans and bottles. The measure passed Thursday night and sent to Governor George Deukmejian would add 1 cent to the cost of each container and establish 2,000 centers where consumers could return the empties and get their deposits back. The law would take effect September 1, 1987. If 65 percent of containers are not redeemed, the deposit would increase to 2 cents in 1989 and 3 cents in 1992. Most other states have deposits of 5 cents. Mr. Deukmejian has not said whether he would sign the bill, but his administration’s Department of Conservation helped draft the measure.
A Federal district judge agreed today to order Topps Chewing Gum Inc. to stop producing Garbage Pail Kids stickers while he considers whether they violate the copyright of the Cabbage Patch Kids dolls. Although Judge G. Ernest Tidwell’s ruling is not a final decision, a lawyer for Original Appalachian Artworks Inc. of Cleveland, Ga., maker of the dolls, said, “It’s a complete victory.”
Heike Drechsler of East Germany ties the world women’s 200 m record (21.71 seconds)
Major League Baseball:
Rich Gossage, the San Diego Padre relief pitcher, has been suspended without pay for the rest of the season for criticizing the team’s management, Ballard Smith, president of the Padres, announced today. In a prepared statement, Smith cited major league Rule 13, which allows owners to take disciplinary action for repeated and continuing insubordination and similar player behavior not in the best interest of the club.
Bob Dernier hit a three-run homer in a five-run Chicago fifth inning and Manny Trillo had three hits and two RBI to power the Chicago Cubs to a 7–3 victory over the Atlanta Braves.
Joe Carter hit three home runs, drove in four runs and went 5 for 5 tonight, leading the Cleveland Indians to a 7–3 victory over the Boston Red Sox. Carter, who also singled twice, became the first Cleveland player to hit three home runs in a game since George Hendrick on June 19, 1973, and the first to accomplish the feat on the road since Bill Glynn on July 5, 1954. Carter has hit 24 home runs this season, 7 against the Red Sox. Boston, which lost for the fifth time in six games, saw its lead in the American League East fall to three and a half games when the Toronto Blue Jays rallied to defeat the Minnesota Twins, 6–5.
California scores 8 runs in the bottom of the 9th inning, the final 4 coming on Dick Schofield’s 2-out walk-off grand slam off Willie Hernandez, to beat Detroit, 13–12. The Angels maintained their 4 ½ game lead over Texas in the American League West. Chet Lemon’s three-run homer in the seventh had given Detroit a 11–3 lead.
The Texas Rangers downed the Chicago White Sox, 5–2. Charlie Hough and Mitch Williams combined on a four-hitter, and Geno Petralli’s two-run single keyed a four-run fifth inning to lead Texas. Hough (12–8) held Chicago hitless for four innings and gave up four hits in seven and one-third innings. Williams did not allow a hit in getting his seventh save. The victory was the seventh in 10 games for the Rangers.
The Pittsburgh Pirates bowed to the Houston Astros 3–2. Mike Scott allowed six hits in seven and two-thirds innings for his 14th victory and Jose Cruz hit a two-run single to lead the Astros. Scott (14–9) won for the ninth time in his last 14 starts. The major leagues’ leader in strikeouts and earned run average struck out six and allowed only one earned run. He increased his strikeout total to 241 and lowered his ERA to 2.24.
The Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Kansas City Royals, 3–1. Ted Higuera pitched a six-hitter and set Milwaukee’s single-season strikeout record. Higuera, 17–8, fanned six and put his season total at 173, four more than Marty Pattin recorded with the Brewers in 1971. The husky Mexican right-hander, 7–1 since the All-Star break, raised his career record against the Royals to 4–1.
The Mets came home from some highly broadening travel in a buoyant mood last night, and took one more step forward when they knocked off the Los Angeles Dodgers, 2–1, behind the five-hit pitching of Bob Ojeda. It was the fourth straight victory for the Mets, who can do no wrong these days, and they achieved it before a crowd of 45,667 in Shea Stadium. It was also the 15th of the season against four losses for Ojeda, tying him with Sid Fernandez for the best record on the best staff in baseball. The Mets had good reason to be buoyant as they came home from the West: They held a 20-game lock on first place in the National League’s East, they had just won eight of nine games in California and 10 of 11 over all, and they had only 13 games to play on the road in the 35 that remained.
Dave Stewart (8–1) won his fourth straight game with a six-hit shutout as the A’s won 4–0, in the second game of the doubleheader for their second sweep of the Orioles in two days. The A’s won the opener, 4–3. The Orioles lost their seventh straight game and dropped into last place in the American League East. They have not been in last place since 1955. Mike Davis homered twice and went 4 for 4 in the first game for the A’s. The consecutive sweeps were the first for the A’s since moving to Oakland in 1968.
The last time he pitched, the Giants’ Mike Krukow said he felt so good that he didn’t think he’d lose another game this season. So much for the power of positive thinking. The Phillies countered with the power of positive hitting. The Giants’ ace made his earliest exit of the season, failing to finish the third inning, as the Phillies registered a 6–4 victory Friday night before 21,572 fans at Veterans Stadium. “This one is really tough to swallow,” said Krukow, 13–8 with a 3.33 earned-run average. With Cincinnati and Houston winning Friday, the Giants dropped into third place in the National League West for the first time since May 31. Now eight games behind the Astros, the Giants will have to come back the hard way they play 21 of their remaining 34 games on the road. For the Giants, Friday was not a good way to start a 10-game road trip. Krukow allowed seven hits and five runs in two innings. Von Hayes did a lot of damage with a run-scoring single and a triple. “Hayes beats me like a harpooned seal,” Krukow said. “I’ve tried everything to get him out, and I can’t.” Lifetime, Hayes is 16 for 34 (.471) against Krukow.
The night seemed to turn into a succession of unlikely events. Ron Guidry pitched a mere one and one-third innings, Don Mattingly played third base for the first time in his big-league career, and the Yankees squandered a 5–0 lead in the second inning. This was the finish: Juan Espino lined a ninth-inning double to the gap in left-center off Karl Best, sending home Dave Winfield, who had led off with a single and gone to second when Dan Pasqua walked. It gave the Yankees a 13–12 victory over the Seattle Mariners at the Kingdome.
The Cincinnati Reds shut out the St. Louis Cardinals, 2–0. Bill Gullickson, who has permitted only six earned runs over his last 65 innings, pitched a three-hitter to help the Reds move into second place. He retired 18 of the last 19 batters he faced.
The Blue Jays beat the Twins, 6–5. Tony Fernandez scored on Jesse Barfield’s grounder with one out in the bottom of the ninth to give the Blue Jays their sixth consecutive victory, which cut Boston’s lead to three and a half games. The Blue Jays came back from a 4–1 deficit. Mark Eichhorn (12–4) pitched two innings for the victory. Keith Atherton (5–10) pitched one-third of an inning and took the loss.
The scheduled game between the San Diego Padres and the Expos at Montreal was postponed due to an explosion and stadium damage. The game will be made up as part of a doubleheader tomorrow.
Chicago Cubs 7, Atlanta Braves 3
Cleveland Indians 7, Boston Red Sox 3
Detroit Tigers 12, California Angels 13
Texas Rangers 5, Chicago White Sox 2
Pittsburgh Pirates 2, Houston Astros 3
Milwaukee Brewers 3, Kansas City Royals 1
Los Angeles Dodgers 1, New York Mets 2
Baltimore Orioles 3, Oakland Athletics 4
Baltimore Orioles 0, Oakland Athletics 4
San Francisco Giants 4, Philadelphia Phillies 6
New York Yankees 13, Seattle Mariners 12
Cincinnati Reds 2, St. Louis Cardinals 0
Minnesota Twins 5, Toronto Blue Jays 6
Stock prices ended mixed for the second straight session yesterday in slow pre-holiday weekend trading. The Dow Jones industrial average, which has shown little conviction in its direction throughout this week, ended 1.83 points lower at 1,898.34, but advances led declines by 829 to 710. For the whole week, the Dow rose 10.54 points, after climbing 32 points the week before. Volume on the New York Stock Exchange grew slightly yesterday, to 125.3 million shares, from Thursday’s 125.1 million.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1898.34 (-1.83)
Born:
Jarius Wynn, NFL defensive end (NFL Champions, Super Bowl 45-Packers, 2010; Green Bay Packers, Tennessee Titans, San Diego Chargers, Dallas Cowboys, Buffalo Bills), in Augusta, Georgia.
Torri Williams, NFL safety (Houston Texans), in Leander, Texas.
Lea Michele, American actress and singer (“Glee”), in The Bronx, New York, New York.
Niccole Byer, American comedian, actress and TV host (“Nailed It”), in Middletown Township, New Jersey.
Lauren Collins, Canadian actress (Paige Michalchuk in “Degrassi: The Next Generation”), in Thornhill, Ontario, Canada.
Hajime Isayama, Japanese manga artist (“Attack on Titan”), in Ōyama, Japan.
History Diaries 