The Eighties: Friday, September 12, 1986

Photograph: Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres tells reporters Friday, September 12, 1986 that his 24-hour summit with President Hosni Mubarak, right, went well but had too little time to do all that he would have liked. Former Israeli Foreign Abba Eban, center, and Ezer Weizam, a minister without portfolio in Pere’s cabinet, listen to their Prime Minister. (AP Photo/Paola Crociani)

The United States and the Soviet Union today freed from jail a Soviet physicist in New York and an American journalist in Moscow to the custody of their respective embassies pending their trials. The agreement, orginally proposed by the Soviet Union, was announced by Secretary of State George P. Shultz at the White House, who made clear that Washington had accepted it grudgingly for the well-being of the American journalist, Nicholas S. Daniloff, Moscow correspondent for the magazine U.S. News & World Report. The United States has maintained throughout that Mr. Daniloff was innocent of any charges of spying and had been arrested on August 30 to provide the Soviet side with someone to trade for Gennadi F. Zakharov, a physicist attached to the United Nations who was arrested on espionage charges in Queens on August 23. Mr. Shultz, who handled the negotiations in an effort to head off a rapid deterioration of relations, was often testy today in his comments to reporters about the developments, which he acknowledged had failed to achieve the Administration’s goal of securing Mr. Daniloff’s immediate safe-passage to the United States.

The espionage arrest of a Soviet employee of the United Nations was carried out for a number of reasons, including a decision to confront the Soviet Union over the use of the United Nations for spying, according to Reagan Administration officials. They said other reasons for the decision to arrest the Russian, Gennadi F. Zhakarov, despite the possibility of Soviet retaliation, included a judgment by the Federal Bureau of Investigation that he was a relatively minor operative who could not be turned into a double agent or profitably fed false data. In addition, there was a strong feeling in the Administration that any spy caught “red handed” should be prosecuted, just as more than a dozen Americans have in the last year. The precise timing of the arrest, officials said, was based on Mr. Zhakarov’s requests in early August for classified information from the double agent he thought he was using, officials said. The arrest was approved at least a week in advance by the State Department and White House, but the move was made without the advice of some of the Administration’s most senior officials.

The Soviet Union is not prepared to comply with a Reagan Administration order to reduce the size of its mission to the United Nations by the beginning of next month, the chief Soviet delegate said today. The delegate, Aleksandr M. Belonogov, speaking at a news conference, called the American order to reduce the size of mission employees from 243 to 218 by October 1 illegal. “You see, we consider the action by the United States Government as absolutely illegal and running contrary to the agreement between the United Nations and the United States Government when our organization was established,” said Mr. Belonogov, who assumed the position of chief United Nations delegate in July. “And we still think that there is time for the United States Government to change its mind.”

Forty-one people were wounded today, two of them seriously, when an explosion apparently caused by a bomb tore through a corner of a large, crowded cafeteria on the edge of Paris. It was the second blast in the Paris area this week. The police said they assumed that the explosion was the work of a Middle East group that has undertaken a series of bomb attacks in an attempt to press the French Government to release imprisoned terrorists. The group, which calls itself the Committee for Solidarity With Arab and Middle East Political Prisoners, had claimed responsibility for seven bomb attacks in Paris between last December and Monday, when a blast in the post office at the Paris City Hall wounded 18 people. All of the bombs were set off in crowded commercial districts of the city.

A leading Solidarity activist, Zbigniew Bujak, was freed from prison today under an amnesty for hundreds of political prisoners. Mr. Bujak, who had been a fugitive for four and a half years before his capture on May 31, told reporters today that if Poland’s Communist authorities continued to bar legal opposition, the underground would continue its work. Mr. Bujak, 31 years old, was among several political prisoners freed today. The Government said Thursday that by Monday it would release about 225 political prisoners. Reporters at Rakowiecka Prison saw police drive inmates away in unmarked cars, including Tadeusz Jedynak, an underground leader, and Czeslaw Bielecki, an underground publisher.

President Hosni Mubarak and Prime Minister Shimon Peres ended the first Egyptian-Israeli summit meeting in five years today without resolving their basic differences over the region’s central issue, the Palestinian question. But in a blandly worded joint statement, the two men declared that 1987 would be “a year of negotiations for peace.” The two leaders also said that there should be an international conference to seek a Middle East peace, and that “in principle” a committee should be appointed to look into this possibility. Significantly, however, the call for an international conference did not appear in the joint statement, which was read to reporters in a rococo chamber of the Ras el Tin Palace here. This suggested that the two sides had not been able to agree on who would attend. In the past, Israel, backed by the United States, has rejected participation by the Soviet Union or the Palestine Liberation Organization, which Arab governments have sought.

Israeli fighter-bombers strafed a boat today off this southern port, and the police said four civilians were wounded. Israel’s military command said the boat belonged to guerrillas. The Israeli jets made two strafing runs, setting fire to a fishing boat and a crane near a highway bridge south of Sidon, the police said. They said the boat was owned by a Lebanese fisherman who was the only user of a nearby dock. In Tel Aviv, a military spokesman said the planes had destroyed the boat and returned safely to base. The Israeli radio said the boat was well away from shore and appeared to be ready for a guerrilla operation against Israel. The radio did not elaborate. It was the second Israeli air attack in southern Lebanon in three days. On Wednesday, Israeli jets struck at a guerrilla base and two ammunition dumps in an industrial compound just outside Sidon. Three civilians were killed and 13 others wounded.

Another American, the second this week, was kidnapped at gunpoint in Muslim West Beirut today. The victim is Joseph James Cicippio, the chief accountant for the American University of Beirut and its hospital. The police said four unidentified gunmen kidnapped Mr. Cicippio, who grew up in Norristown, Pennsylvania, and turns 56 on Saturday, on campus as he was on his way to work at 7 AM local time. On Tuesday gunmen intercepted Frank Herbert Reed, 53, the director of the privately owned Lebanese International School, as he was driving to play golf at a club in the city’s southern suburbs. His whereabouts remained unknown today.

The Philippine Supreme Court today overturned the acquittals last December of 26 men in the assassination of Benigno S. Aquino Jr. in 1983, calling the trial “a sham” orchestrated by Ferdinand E. Marcos. In a unanimous decision by the eight justices who voted, the court ordered a new trial “with all deliberate dispatch” for the former armed forces chief, General Fabian C. Ver, who fled to Hawaii with Mr. Marcos in February, and for the other 24 soldiers and one civilian who were acquitted. Calling the verdict by a three-judge panel “dictated, coerced and scripted,” the court said Mr. Marcos had “misused the overwhelming resources of the Government and his authoritarian powers to corrupt and make a mockery of the judicial process.” “The Supreme Court cannot permit such a sham trial and verdict and travesty of justice to stand unrectified,” the 50-page decision said. There was no word on when a new trial might begin.

A Marcos estate and bank accounts in New Jersey are to be turned over to the Philippine Government under an order by Superior Court in Trenton. It was the first ruling on property in the United States owned by the former President.

A Nicaraguan businessman has gone on trial charged with spying for the Central Intelligence Agency, the official newspaper Barricada said today. The report said the man, Guillermo Quant Tai, 54 years old, appeared Thursday in a “popular tribunal” and was read charges against him, which include passing sensitive military information to the United States. The Government presented Mr. Quant at a news conference this month at which he admitted spying for the C.I.A. for more than two years but denied he had access to state secrets.

Salvadoran rebel leaders arrived here today to meet with Salvadoran Government officials on an agenda for peace talks. The rebels predicted difficulty in reaching an agenda, and the Government urged the rebels to abandon their armed struggle. The preliminary talks, mediated by Archbishop Arturo Rivera y Damas, the Roman Catholic Primate of El Salvador, are to set the stage for a third round of talks September 19 in the Salvadoran town of Sesori, east of the capital.

Nine of the 14 people accused of plotting to overthrow the military Government of Suriname have pleaded guilty to lesser charges. Five others remain charged with Neutrality Act violations and are scheduled for trial September 22. A United States Attorney, John Volz, said Federal prosecutors had allowed the nine suspects to each plead guilty to a misdemeanor weapons charge on Thursday because they agreed to cooperate with the investigation and because they were apparently not leaders of the plot. Violations of the Neutrality Act carry a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $3,000 fine. The weapons charge involved carrying dangerous weapons aboard an aircraft, and carries a top penalty of a $100,000 fine, or a $10,000 fine and a year in prison. Sentencing was set for October 29. All nine are free on bond.

President Augusto Pinochet, speaking in an interview less than a week after he survived an assassination attempt, asserted today that “all the people are with me.” The 70-year-old general, who appeared calm and in good health, said he had received a great outpouring of support since his motorcade was ambushed last Sunday night and five of his bodyguards were slain. The Government reacted by imposing a state of siege, rounding up political opponents and closing six opposition magazines. In the interview, which was conducted in Spanish, General Pinochet was critical of the United States, saying Washington would be displaying “political and economic myopia” if it opposed continued international loans to Chile to try to force him from power.

The House overwhelmingly approved legislation today that would impose new economic sanctions on South Africa, including a ban on all new American investment. The vote was 308 to 77. Since the Senate adopted an identical measure last month, the bill now goes directly to President Reagan’s desk. Representative William S. Broomfield of Michigan, ranking Republican on the Foreign Affairs Committee, said he received a “clear signal” from the White House today that Mr. Reagan “doesn’t like the bill in its current form” and was likely to veto it.


The Assistant Attorney General for civil rights today denounced an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, William J. Brennan Jr., on the ground that he was trying to achieve “a radically egalitarian society.” The official, William Bradford Reynolds, said that such “radical egalitarianism” was “perhaps the major threat to individual liberty” in the United States today. His criticism, in a lecture at the University of Missouri School of Law in Columbia, was the strongest direct attack on an individual member of the Supreme Court by any high-ranking official of the Reagan Administration, according to Terry H. Eastland, a spokesman for the Justice Department. The text of the speech was made available here by the department.

Several senators joined opponents to the nomination of Justice William H. Rehnquist to be Chief Justice of the United States on the second day of debate on the nomination. Senate opponents of the nomination of William H. Rehnquist to be Chief Justice of the United States warned today that his confirmation would divide the country and threaten progress on civil rights. In the second day of debate on the nomination, several senators who had not previously announced positions took the floor to oppose Justice Rehnquist. One was Senator Bill Bradley, Democrat of New Jersey, who said that chances for a “second coming of Jim Crow” would be “dangerously higher” with Mr. Rehnquist as Chief Justice. Senator Bradley, who was undecided on the nomination until recently, said the key issue for him was Justice Rehnquist’s record on civil rights, both before and after he joined the Court.

An American Bar Association panel said in a letter made public today that recent allegations of unethical conduct by Associate Justice William H. Rehnquist of the Supreme Court would not change its rating of him as “well qualified” to be Chief Justice. The three-paragraph letter did not mention what critics of Justice Rehnquist have called the most important evidence of such conduct. It also declined explicitly to consider “the credibility of Justice Rehnquist’s testimony and statements to the Senate Judiciary Committee” on the ethical issue. It said this should be resolved by the Senate.

President Reagan meets with several of his advisors to discuss emerging budget trends in the national security program.

President Reagan participates in a ceremony to honor principles from exemplary elementary schools from across the Nation.

The Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate today endorsed some of the most controversial elements of the $2 billion antidrug bill approved overwhelmingly in the House Thursday night. The positions of the two Senate leaders, Bob Dole, Republican of Kansas, and Robert C. Byrd, Democrat of West Virginia, increase the chances that some of these provisions, which have worried members and groups concerned about civil liberties, could win Congressional approval. The House approved its drug bill Thursday night in a vote of 392 to 16. The measure calls for the use of the military to stop the flow of drugs into the country, the death penalty for some drug-related murders, and the use of some illegally obtained evidence in drug trials.

Saying that “education is too vital” to be “corrupted by drugs,” President Reagan urged teachers today “to take no drugs themselves and to do the best they can to keep all drugs out of schools.” Mr. Reagan used a ceremony in the Rose Garden of the White House to preview a nationally broadcast address he will deliver Sunday with his wife, Nancy.

With a familiar blimp moored in the background, officials of the Goodyear Aerospace Corporation said today that they would be bidding to get back into commercial airship production at this historic location. The Navy is seeking to build a new generation of lighter-than-air craft to help surface ships find and destroy low-flying cruise missiles. Goodyear, whose roots in airships stretch back to building zeppelins in the 1920’s and before, is expected to compete with the Boeing Corporation and the Westinghouse Electric Corporation for the contract to build the new craft. Officials here said the Navy had indicated it might buy as many as 75 of the airships at a cost of $3 billion to $5 billion by the turn of the century.

The House voted today to prohibit the space agency from proceeding with development of the $8 billion space station until the agency makes certain design changes on the project. The provision was adopted by a voice vote as an amendment to the $54 billion appropriation bill to operate the Department of Housing and Urban Development and 17 other Federal agencies in the fiscal year that begins October 1. The overall bill was approved by a vote of 295 to 46.

The leader of the House of Judah religious sect and six subordinates were convicted today of causing a boy’s death. “The intent of the defendants was that the children had no choice but to do their work or be subject to brutal beatings,” said Judge Douglas Hillman of Federal District Court, who decided the case after the defendants requested a nonjury trial. The leader of the sect, William A. Lewis, 66, along with his female companion, his son and four members of the cult council could be sentenced to life in prison. Mr. Lewis and five of the defendants were also convicted of of holding the victim, 12-year-old John Yarbough, in involuntary servitude from 1981 until he was beaten to death July 4, 1983. Mr. Lewis and the others were allowed to remain free on bond pending sentencing. No date was set.

Puerto Rico remained cut off from virtually all telephone communications with the rest of the world today as technicians labored to replace vital equipment damaged by a fire in a key plant Wednesday night. Local service has since been disrupted on much of the island and overseas telephone operations have been effectively silenced. “It may be possible that we will be back in business this weekend,” said Carmen Judith Velez, a spokesman for the government-owned Puerto Rico Telephone Company. “If not, it may take another 10 or 12 days.”

The telephone equipment damaged by fire in Puerto Rico this week includes the end of a large cable that runs from Jacksonville, Fla., to San Juan, associated electronic devices to regulate the signal, and power converters to supply the right kind of electricity. Also damaged were large switches that take the telephone calls from the United States mainland and route them to their intended locations in Puerto Rico. The damage to the switches also disrupted local telephone service on the island. Information on the Puerto Rican system was supplied yesterday by the American Telegraph and Telephone Company, which owns the undersea cable and has two experts in San Juan to observe the repairs and provide advice.

Four Polish crewmen jumped from two fishing vessels at Coos Bay, Oregon and sought political asylum, the Immigration and Naturalization Service reported today. Three of the crewmen left one vessel, the Amarel, on Thursday, and the fourth was from the Delfin, said Carl Houseman, district director for the immigration service. Mr. Houseman said defections from the Polish fishing fleet off the West Coast “have been happening for many, many years.”

Flooding rivers in Michigan after three days of record rains continued to disrupt life in the small farm towns and resort villages along the Lake Michigan shore. The storms forced thousands to abandon their homes, cut off electricity to thousands more, swamped crops at harvest-time and swept away bridges and dams. The bright skies today appeared incongruous with the sight of people still being forced from their homes as flood waters advanced down the White River. At the same time, the villages that experienced flooding Thursday began cleanup efforts.

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley vetoed the city’s latest redistricting plan Thursday, but the City Council overrode his veto today by a vote of 11 to 3. The plan, designed to increase Hispanic representation, is opposed by many San Fernando Valley residents. Mayor Tom Bradley said Thursday that a sense of fairness impelled him to veto the redistricting plan. For months, individual Council members have struggled to retain their bases of political support as the Council labored to satisfy demands of a lawsuit filed by Justice Department, calling for greater Hispanic representation. The latest plan carves out a new, predominantly Hispanic district near downtown Los Angeles and designates it the First Council District. The First District previously was in the San Fernando Valley.

Heroin use, regarded for decades as the nation’s most devastating drug problem, has stopped spreading in New York City and young people are spurning the drug, social scientists and drug-treatment centers say. On the street corners of Harlem, the Lower East Side and other inner-city neighborhoods around the country ravaged by the heroin epidemic of the late 1960’s and early 70’s, teen-agers — the people who determine future drug trends — are turning to cocaine as their drug of choice. “People in their teens now are smoking cocaine, they are not doing heroin,” said Mark Raskin, a spokesman for Daytop Village, a drug treatment center in New York City. “Every generation wants to change. Our music changes. Our clothes change. Our drugs change.”

Jacques-Henri Lartigue, one of the most celebrated photographers of the century, died yesterday in Nice. He was 92 years old, and had begun taking pictures at the age of 7.

Limited U.S. premiere of the film adaptation of Marsha Norman’s play “‘night, Mother”.

“Blue Velvet,” directed by David Lynch and starring Isabella Rossellini, Kyle MacLachlan, and Dennis Hopper, premieres in Toronto.


Major League Baseball:

The Minnesota Twins fire manager Ray Miller and replace him with coach Tom Kelly.

Harold Baines’s one-out, 10th-inning single over a drawn-in outfield scored Daryl Boston with the winning run tonight, giving the Chicago White Sox a 3–2 victory over the California Angels. Bob Boone of the Angels caught in his 1,791st game, moving him past Gabby Hartnett into third place on the career list. Al Lopez holds the record with 1,918 games behind the plate; Rick Ferrell is second with 1,805.

In his first major league at bat, Oakland’s Terry Steinbach homers at Cleveland. It comes off Gregg Swindell in a 9–3 Indians victory. Mike Witt (18-8) is the winner. Joe Carter doubled twice and singled, scoring four runs and driving in another. The RBI was Carter’s 104th of the season. Carter went 3 for 4 with a walk, stole his 22nd and 23rd bases of the season and threw out a runner at the plate from right field. Jose Canseco gave the A’s a 1–0 lead in the first inning with his 31st home run.

The Detroit Tigers beat the Baltimore Orioles, 5–3. Kirk Gibson’s two-out single in the seventh drove in Tom Brookens with the tie-breaking run. With the score tied 3–3, Brookens
singled off Scott McGregor, 10–12, stole second and scored on Gibson’s line shot to center. John Grubb knocked in an insurance run for the Tigers with a pinch single in the eighth.

The Seattle Mariners edged the Kansas City Royals, 4–2. Bob Kearney hit a two-out, two-run single to highlight a three-run 10th inning and help Seattle end Kansas City’s four-game winning streak.

The Cincinnati Reds topped the Los Angeles Dodgers, 8–3. Bo Diaz hit a two-run homer and a run-scoring double. powering the Cincinnati Reds and ending the Dodgers’ four-game winning streak Left-hander Chris Welsh, 6–6. pitched six innings, allowing two runs and nine hits. The Reds won their first game in seven tries at Dodger Stadium this season. Brian Holton, 1–1, was lifted for Pinch-hitter Jerry a pinch-hitter with a 3–2 deficit. The rookie was replaced by Jerry Reuss, making his first appearance since July 11 because of arthroscopic surgery in his left elbow

The Milwaukee Brewers downed the Toronto Blue Jays, 4–1. Paul Molitor had two hits, scored twice and knocked in a run for Milwaukee. Jim Clancy (14–10) lost his third game in a row as the Blue Jays fell 10 games behind the Red Sox.

The Texas Rangers bowed to the Minnesota Twins, 4–2. Kirby Puckett hit a three-run homer to make Tom Kelly’s managerial debut a success. Kelly was named interim manager after the Twins fired Ray Miller. Texas also had a manager making his major league debut. Art Howe was substituting for Bobby Valentine, who was suspended by the American League for four games for “questioning the integrity” of Umpire Larry Barnett Thursday. Puckett, whose home run was his 28th, went 2 for 4 to gain ground in the American League batting race. He is batting .344, third behind Wade Boggs’s .350 and Don Mattingly’s .346.

Life in a pennant race is treating the Boston Red Sox so well that they can afford to have a .350 hitter sacrifice. But then, the bunt by Wade Boggs was typical of the successful moves the Red Sox have made this season. Boggs’s bunt, in fact, was so shrewd that it led to a four-run outburst in the eighth inning that broke open a close game and gave the Red Sox a 7–2 victory over the Yankees at the Stadium last night. Bill Buckner singled home a run in that late flurry, giving him four runs batted in for the game. In his previous two times at bat, Buckner hit a pair of home runs against Scott Nielsen.

No, not even with Dwight Gooden pitching and six cases of champagne cooling, the Mets didn’t do it tonight. Gooden took an eight-hit pounding in five innings filled with trouble and with four errors by his teammates, and the six cases were still cooling when the Philadelphia Phillies completed a 6–3 victory that kept the Mets from clinching their first division title in 13 years. They were foiled before a crowd of 43,070 fans in Veterans Stadium. Bruce Ruffin, a 22-year-old rookie left-hander, outpitched Gooden and beat the Mets for the second straight time. And venerable Mike Schmidt, who will turn 37 in two weeks, nailed Gooden for a three-run home run that delayed the Mets’ date with history.

Pinch-hitter Jerry Mumphrey hit a sacrifice fly in the 10th inning and Keith Moreland followed with a run-scoring double, giving the Chicago Cubs their fifth straight win, edging the Pittsburgh Pirates, 9–8. Frank DiPino, 3–7, pitched a scoreless ninth for the win and Dave Gumpert earned his second save by pitching the 10th inning. Moreland’s was his second RBI double of the game.

The Houston Astros bested the San Diego Padres, 5–3. Billy Hatcher’s two-run single broke a ninth-inning tie and capped a three-run rally as Houston ended a two-game losing streak. The Padres took a 3–2 lead in the bottom of the eighth against former Carson High School standout Charlie Kerfeld, 10–2. Tony Gwynn singled, took second on a groundout and third on a wild pitch, then scored standing up on Kevin MeReynolds’ sacrifice fly. But Houston rallied against reliever Lance MeCullers, 8–8.

Robbie Thompson’s grand slam broke a 2–2 tie and Mike Krukow gained his 16th victory Friday night as the San Francisco Giants routed Atlanta 11–2 and extended the Braves’ losing streak to six. Thompson, a rookie, hit his first major-league grand slam in the fourth off Jim Acker, 3–5. Thompson added a run-scoring double in the five-run fifth. Krukow, 16–8, won for the fourth time in five starts. He allowed six hits in six innings and struck out seven. He allowed two runs — on solo homers by Bob Horner and Rafael Ramirez. Horner’s 21st homer gave Atlanta a 1–0 lead in the second. but the Giants scored twice in the second on Bob Brenly’s 12th homer and Will Clark’s run-scoring single. After Ramirez tied the game with his seventh homer in the fourth, Thompson hit his grand slam, his seventh homer this season. San Francisco sent nine batters to the plate in the fifth, and six of them got hits. Will Clark and Thompson hit run-scoring doubles, while Brenly, Jose Uribe and Joel Youngblood added RBI singles.

The Montreal Expos nipped the St. Louis Cardinals, 4–3. Tom Nieto’s two-out single in the 11th inning scored Wayne Krenchicki from second base with the tie-breaking run. Vince Coleman stole his 94th base in the fourth inning, giving him 204 in his career and moving him past Jack Smith into second place on the Cardinals’ career list behind Lou Brock.

California Angels 2, Chicago White Sox 3

Oakland Athletics 3, Cleveland Indians 9

Baltimore Orioles 3, Detroit Tigers 5

Seattle Mariners 4, Kansas City Royals 2

Cincinnati Reds 8, Los Angeles Dodgers 3

Toronto Blue Jays 1, Milwaukee Brewers 4

Texas Rangers 2, Minnesota Twins 4

Boston Red Sox 7, New York Yankees 2

New York Mets 3, Philadelphia Phillies 6

Chicago Cubs 9, Pittsburgh Pirates 8

Houston Astros 5, San Diego Padres 3

Atlanta Braves 2, San Francisco Giants 11

Montreal Expos 4, St. Louis Cardinals 3


The stock market fell sharply again amid the heaviest trading in Wall Street history. In a roller-coaster session, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 34.17 points, to 1,758.72 -a decline of 1.91 percent. Trading volume on the New York Stock Exchange soared to 240.5 million shares, topping Thursday’s record of 237.6 million shares. On Thursday, the industrial average known to most investors as “the market” plunged a record 86.61 points. That decline amounted to 4.61 percent. Worldwide Selloff In reaction to that selloff, share prices fell sharply on stock exchanges around the world yesterday in a vivid demonstration of how interdependent global financial markets have become. In Tokyo, for instance, the stock exchange experienced its steepest one-day plunge ever. Despite the volatile price movements, however, the Reagan Administration said it saw no reason for concern.

The stock market’s plunge this week was as much a product of computer technology and Wall Street inventiveness as it was a reflection of new worries over the economy. Part of the market’s decline clearly relates to emerging concerns on Wall Street over the failure of interest rates to come down further. High interest rates impose a drag on all economic activity, from the purchase of new homes and new cars to investment in factories and equipment, thus presaging a bleak period for the economy. But at least as important, experts say, is the new order on Wall Street, where the combination of exotic financial markets and instruments, and advanced computer capabilities, has introduced a degree of uncertainty — and volatility — heretofore unknown.

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1758.72 (-34.17)


Born:

Emmy Rossum, American actress and singer (“Phantom of the Opera” (film); “Shameless”), in New York, New York.

Alfie Allen, English actor (“Game of Thrones”), in London, England, United Kingdom.

Yang Mi, Chinese actress (“Eternal Love”), in Xuanwu District, Beijing, China.

Kyle Weiland, MLB pitcher (Boston Red Sox, Houston Astros), in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Steve Garrison, MLB pitcher (New York Yankees), in Trenton, New Jersey.


Died:

Frank Nelson, 75, American comedic radio and screen actor (“The Jack Benny Show”; “I Love Lucy”), of cancer.

Jacques-Henri Lartigue, 92, French photographer and painter.