The American Presidential campaign seems to be leaving Moscow puzzled and somewhat apprehensive. The indications are that the Russians are still comfortable with President Ford because his meetings with Leonid I. Brezhnev, the Communist Party chief, made him a known political quantity to the Kremlin. But Soviet analysts who have studied American public opinion polls are apparently sending up the message that Jimmy Carter, his Democratic opponent, might win. Consequently, the Soviet press has pointedly refrained from taking sides. In private conversations, Soviet officials also demur that predicting the outcome would mean “interfering in your internal affairs,” a scruple that has not been evident in Moscow about some other foreign elections. The cautious reaction points up a broader dilemma facing the Kremlin, which has sought stability in its ties with other governments. Now, the death of Mao Zedong in China and the coming elections in the United States, West Germany and Japan have created uncertainties about the continuing policies of Moscow’s principal ideological adversaries.
A “credibility gap” between Polish leaders and the rest of the country over promises of better living standards has forced the leaders to engage in an intense debate about what to do. Both Poles and Westerners indicate there has been an atmosphere of extreme tension since riots last June forced the government to back down on planned price increases.
Three ranking officials of the Irish Republican Army’s militant Provisional wing told a newspaper that they carried out the July 21 assassination of the British ambassador to Dublin. Christopher Ewart-Biggs. They said they blew up the envoy’s car because “he was sent here to coordinate British intelligence activities.” The names of the officials were withheld by the newspaper, which also quoted them as saying the attack on Ewart-Biggs was also in retaliation for the killing of IRA officer Peter Clery in Northern Ireland earlier this year.
Voting ended tonight in the Maltese general elections, considered crucial to the future of the strategic Mediterranean island and its British‐run North Atlantic Treaty Organization bases. The final result is not expected until Monday in the close contest between the ruling Labor Party of Prime Minister Dom Mintoff, who has steered the country toward nonalignment, and the pro-Western Nationalist Party of Georgio Borg Olivier. Bitter party rivalry produced violence at some voting booths, where there were reports of shooting, stone‐throwing and stabbings.
Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, winding up tonight a sharply fought campaign, predicted a narrow triumph in tomorrow’s general elections and said that Sweden’s sweeping social changes were threatened if voters elected a powerful coalition of opposition parties. At rallies across the gray damp port city and industrial center of Goteborg, the 49‐year‐old Socialist leader emphasized that Sweden’s voters faced a critical choice: whether to reject the policies of the Social Democratic Party, which has governed Sweden, either alone or in coalition, for 44 years, or to advance Socialist policies that have buoyed the economy, kept unemployment at 1.5 percent, improved working conditions in factories and spurred improvements in education, hospital care, old-age benefits and women’s rights.
The Yugoslav government, in response to a U.S. protest, said it does not agree that Carlos, the notorious international terrorist, has been in Yugoslavia. The State Department protested earlier this week that it had provided detailed information on Carlos’ whereabouts, but that the Yugoslavs had let him get away. Belgrade replied that “Carlos could not be positively identified as having been in Yugoslavia.”
Britain has denied a request from the Soviet Union to allow its survey ship Okeanograf to enter the Scottish ports of Leith and Aberdeen, a Foreign Office spokesman said today. He said the Soviet Union had been told that the dates suggested for the visits were not convenient. He said the request was made before an F‐14 fighter plane fell from the deck of the United States aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy last Tuesday off the north coast of Scotland. But the Daily Express newspaper said today that British Naval Intelligence was convinced that the Okeanograf “is a spy ship and was ordered into Leith as part of the Soviet snooping operations on the big NATO exercise in the North Atlantic,” in which the carrier was taking part.
Israeli security forces clashed briefly with pro-Palestinian teen-age demonstrators in West Bank towns on the fourth day of demonstrations. No casualties were reported in the latest violence in the occupied Jordanian territory.
Three Arab hijackers of an Egyptian airliner were sentenced by a military tribunal in Cairo to life imprisonment at hard labor. The two Palestinians and one Egyptian hijacked a Boeing 737 to Luxor but were thwarted when Egyptian army commandos overpowered them and released their hostages. They were acquitted on charges of collusion with Libya in the incident.
Residential areas of Beirut were heavily shelled today and rival factions reported an intensification of fighting on all fronts in the country. The Muslim quarters of west Beirut were shelled at intervals throughout the day. Several shells fell near the UNESCO building, where Palestinians and leftists were holding a public rally. Leftist sources said the escalation was mainly in Beirut’s museum area near the line dividing the city’s Muslim and Christian sections. The two sides accused each other of responsibility for what some quarters have described as a sudden and grave deterioration in the security situation. According to hospital sources, about 50 people were wounded, some seriously, in the indiscriminate bombardment of several Muslim sections of the city. Right‐wing Christian radio stations also reported that many mortar shells had fallen in the Christian quarters in east Beirut. The Voice of Lebanon, the station of the right‐wing Phalangist Party, said the clashes in the southern suburbs of the capital and the eastern mountains gained in intensity last night and today.
Fighting persisted on Lebanon’s main battlefronts despite intense political efforts to end the 17-month-old civil war. President-elect Elias Sarkis arrived in Cairo, where he was expected to brief Egyptian President Anwar Sadat on his discussion of a peace plan with Palestinian commando leader Yasser Arafat and Syrian Deputy Defense Minister General Naji Jamil. Hassan Sabri Kholi, Arab League envoy of Lebanon, said he believed a “definite agreement” would be reached when the three sides meet again today. General Jamil was equally optimistic, saying the talks were a prelude to an end to fighting.
Censorship regulations for foreign correspondents were withdrawn by the Indian government as a gesture of good will. There was no indication, however, that the rigid controls on the Indian press were being relaxed. The withdrawal of the regulations will have little practical effect since most correspondents have ignored them anyway.
Starting at 3:00 in the afternoon Beijing time, three minutes of silence was observed nationwide in the People’s Republic of China for the death of Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong, who had led the nation for more than 25 years. In Beijing, at least 750,000 Chinese invited guests gathered in Tiananmen Square for the memorial services, led by Mao’s successor, Chairman Hua Guofeng, who praised the totalitarian dictator in his eulogy “It was under Chairman Mao’s leadership that the Chinese people, who had long suffered from oppression and exploitation, won emancipation and became masters of the country… the Chinese people love, trust and esteem Chairman Mao from the bottom of their hearts.”
Japanese and American experts will dismantle and inspect the top-secret supersonic Soviet MIG-25 flown to Japan by a defecting Soviet pilot, a government spokesman said in Tokyo. The MIG-25 was flown to Hakodate in northern Japan September 6 by Lieutenant Viktor I. Belenko, who was granted asylum in the United States and left Japan a week ago. The dismantling reportedly will start today. The Soviet MIG-25 that landed at Hakodate airport in northern Japan last week is less sophisticated than had been believed, bearing a resemblance more to a “manned rocket,” informed sources said today.
Indonesia is taking urgent measures to build up its rice stocks; fearful that a drought now affecting the, country could cause a repeat of the 1972 food crisis. Imports from Thailand, Burma and the United States have increased the country’s reserves from 700,000 tons to about one million tons. Officials believe the drought is certain to reduce the yield from harvests in central and east Java.
A man charged with entombing a 13-year-old girl in a concrete dungeon where she was abused physically and psychologically for six months believes his life is over and wants to commit suicide at the first opportunity, a court was told in Port Moody, Canada. A defense psychiatrist said he believed Donald Alexander Hay, a 43-year-old camper unit builder, may be suffering from a severe mental disorder. Hay already has made one suicide attempt.
[Ed: I don’t understand. Where’s the problem? He needs to die.]
Diplomatic sources reported that Argentina’s ambassador to the United States, Arnaldo Musich, has resigned because of growing pressures in the United States over alleged human rights violations in Argentina, especially those affecting American citizens. The Argentine Foreign Ministry said only that Musich resigned for “personal reasons.” No replacement was announced.
The former Argentine President Isabel Martinez de Perón transferred more than $8 million from a Perónist Party charity to her own bank account and then withdrew some of the funds, the official Telam news agency has quoted court sources as having said. The agency said the sources maintained that the money was given to the charity by at least 63 companies, including 12 from abroad. Named among the foreign contributors were the Siemens and Mercedes‐Benz companies of West Germany, the French Renault and Italian Fiat auto manufacturers and several banks in Spain and Italy. The sources said Mrs. Perón transferred the money to a private bank account held in her maiden name and later drew undisclosed amounts. Mrs. Perón, widow of the late President and Perónist Party founder, Juan Domingo Perón, was deposed by the military last March. She is now under house arrest and is facing several charges involving Government funds.
Rhodesia’s Prime Minister and Secretary of State Kissinger will meet tomorrow in Pretoria, South Africa. The announcement of the secretary’s meeting with Ian Smith followed an earlier report that progress had been made on the issue of black rule for Rhodesia in talks between Mr. Kissinger and South African Prime Minister John Vorster. The Secretary also met with non-white South African leaders who urged him to use his influence to end apartheid before violence engulfed South Africa.
A Carter campaign blunder was charged by the White House after the Democratic nominee was reported in an interview with the Associated Press as advocating what the White House said was higher taxes for half the families in the country. A spokesman for Mr. Carter said Mr. Ford’s spokesman had distorted the interview. But the controversy was complicated by an error in the story dropping Mr. Carter’s reference to lowering taxes for middle-income families also.
Television restrictions demanded by the League of Women Voters on the right of the television networks to show shots of the audience have raised doubts over whether the debate between the presidential candidates will be shown. A meeting between the networks and the league was held on the restriction, agreed to by both candidates, to limit coverage only to the debaters. Richard Salant, president of CBS News, angrily left the meeting after being told to “shut up” by a league representative.
An overwhelmingly Democratic House of Representatives will again be elected in November, according to a survey by the Gallup Poll. In the 1974 election, Democrats won 291 of the 435 House seats. The Gallup findings pointed to a similar outcome this time. Republicans were given a chance of only a modest recovery, at best. The nationwide survey found 57% of voters favoring Democratic candidates for House seats, while 34% favored Republicans. In the South the figures were 60% Democratic, 24% Republican; outside the South, Democrats led, 56% to 36%.
A margin of three votes will enable President Ford to run in New York State as a Conservative as well as a Republican. The Conservative Party’s state committee approved the listing of Mr. Ford’s name on their line on the ballot, but 137 opponents of his candidacy voted to leave his name off.
Edward Aguirre of San Mateo, California has been picked by President Ford to become U.S. commissioner of education. Ford said the former teacher shared his opposition to “the heavy hand of Washington bureaucracy dictating policies at the local school level.” Aguirre, 47, has been regional director of the U.S. Office of Education in San Francisco since 1973. If confirmed by the Senate, he would be one of the highest ranking Spanish-Americans in the government.
Thousands of travelers shifted to other airlines because Trans World Airlines was grounded by a strike of 12,000 mechanics and ground crew personnel. A TWA spokesman in Chicago said there had been no instances of passengers being unable to find space on other airlines. No overcrowding was reported by the operational airlines. Officials at Los Angeles International Airport said there was little impact from the strike, other than some delays in answering reservation line telephones. The strike began at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, with pay the basic issue.
Lay and clergy representatives of the Episcopal Church voted by a 7-1 majority to approve a new version of their Book of Common Prayer, the first extensive revision of it since the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. The church’s bishops have yet to vote on the issue. The old version, compiled in 1549, has long been considered a literary masterpiece whose rolling Elizabethan phrases have influenced worship throughout Protestantism. Approval of the revision by the House of Deputies came after two days of sometimes contentious deliberation at the church’s governing convention in Minneapolis.
One of the five persons charged with hijacking a TWA jetliner last week was at LaGuardia Airport in December less than an hour before an explosion there killed 11 persons, according to sources close to the case. But Zvonko Busic, a member of a Croatian nationalist organization, insists he had nothing to do with the airport bombing December 29. Sources said Busic has told investigators that he was responsible for the hijacking and a bomb left behind at Grand Central Station, but he has denied any connection with the LaGuardia bombing.
The Teamsters Central States Pension Fund, which is under federal investigation for alleged mismanagement, said two trustees who had refused to testify during the inquiry were resigning. Bob Billings, a spokesman for the $1.4 billion fund, identified the two trustees as William Presser, 69, international vice president and head of the Teamsters’ Ohio Conference, and Frank Ranney, a Teamsters officer in Milwaukee. Billings had no comment on a New York Times report that Presser and Ranney had been forced out by Teamsters President Frank Fitzsimmons. Fitzsimmons was quoted by the newspaper as saying the resignations were “a matter of public trust.”
Susan Saxe sits in the wooden prisoner’s dock now, six years later, in a demure green blouse, short dark hair, small hoop earrings, watching the people who will sit in judgment on her. On September 23, 1970, a branch of the State Street Bank and Trust Company was held up here and, as the robbers escaped, a policeman, Walter A. Shroeder, was gunned down. He was one of a police family, and a brother was also killed on duty. According to the authorities, Miss Saxe, now 27 years old but then a Brandeis University student, committed the robbery with another Brandeis student and three former convicts to finance revolutionary activities. It was the height of the student and radical protest movement against the war in Vietnam then, only a few months after the invasion of Cambodia and the slaying of four students at Kent State University by Ohio National Guardsmen. This week, in somewhat different times, Susan Saxe, who once wrote poetry, began her trial for the bank robbery and for the murder of Officer Shroeder.
Big-city school systems in many places may be facing, because of a lack of funds, the same sort of massive cutbacks that have struck the public schools in New York City. In Chicago, where schools closed last June when the money ran out, teachers accepted a new contract recently without a wage increase. In many other cities, programs are being slashed and goals once thought obtainable are receding because of the forced reductions.
A “God bless America” festival attracted 35,000 persons to the Washington Monument grounds, where Korean evangelist Sun Myung Moon called his Unification Church the world’s “greatest religion.” Moon, who plans to move to Europe, said the talk would be his last major speech in the United States. Many parents have accused him of brainwashing children into leaving home to join his church. Opponents staged demonstrations at the Washington rally, and four persons were arrested on disorderly conduct charges.
The Philadelphia County Council of the American Legion has shifted its first meeting of the season to the Bellevue Stratford Hotel, the site of the state Legion convention in July at which a number of legionnaires are believed to have contacted mysterious disease. The county group said it wanted to show its faith in the hotel which has had a serious drop in business since the first reports of the ?? that has claimed 29 lives and caused 151 others to become ill. “The council decided to move the meeting to the Bellevue to show its confidence in the hotel and to give it a boost in its time of need,” said Joseph Chase, a spokesman for the group.
Employees at Yosemite National Park have become the first employees in the nation’s park system to join a union. The National Labor Relations Board announced yesterday that Service Employees Local 250 had won the union election among park employees. Results from the July election were delayed pending challenges on the vote. The final vote was 320 for the union and 227 against.
Vineyard owners should suspend use of the pesticide Torak, California’s health director said. Dr. Jerome Lackner made the recommendation after 130 farm workers became ill earlier this month at some Madera County vineyards where the pesticide was used in July. Twenty-six of the workers received hospital emergency room treatment and three were hospitalized. State and county health officials found abnormally high levels of Torak in their bodies. Lackner said that theoretically the vineyards should have been safe 30 days after they were sprayed. Lackner said owners should stop using Torak until tests show it won’t make workers sick.
Radioactive wastes dumped in the Pacific Ocean near the Farallon Islands should not have been, but do not constitute any health risks, an Environmental Protection Agency scientist reported. W.D. Rowe told a House subcommittee that gradual deterioration of the waste containers will continue, allowing small amounts of the components to be released. “But it is improbable that any significant plutonium buildup will occur that could present a hazard to public health or the marine environment,” he said. A unique species of giant sponges was recently discovered growing on the leaking barrels.
Major League Baseball:
With help from Max Leon, who relieved in the ninth inning, Jamie Easterly (1–0) gained his first victory since returning from Richmond (International) when the Atlanta Braves defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5–2. Easterly left the mound with a man on base and one out. Leon gave up a run-scoring single by Manny Mota but ended the game when Ed Goodson lined into a double play. The Braves scored twice in the second inning on one hit, a single by Jim Wynn, plus a wild throw by Bill Russell on a grounder by Tom Paciorek and a wild pitch by Dennis Lewallyn. Paciorek homered in the fourth. The Braves then clinched the decision in the seventh with run-scoring hits by Jerry Royster and Willie Montanez.
Gary Ross lowered his earned run average to 2.91, while showing a record of only 8–15, after the Angels’ righthander shut out the Twins, 6–0. The Angels took advantage of three walks, two errors and a passed ball to score three runs off Dave Goltz in the second inning. Dave Collins, who drove in a run with a single, accounted for another RBI with a grounder in the fourth.
The Phillies finally win. The Phillies gained a bit of breathing room in the East Division race by defeating the Cubs, 4–1, to pull four games ahead of the Pirates. The victory was only the Phillies’ sixth in their last 22 contests. Steve Carlton (18–6), who struck out 11, scattered nine hits and gave up the Cubs’ run in the seventh inning when loser Rick Reuschel (13–11) doubled and Mick Kelleher singled. The Phillies began their scoring in the first with a double by Garry Maddox and single by Mike Schmidt. Jay Johnstone, who had a 4-for-4 day, tripled in the fourth and came home on a sacrifice fly by Tim McCarver. The Phillies clinched the decision with a final pair in the ninth on a double by Johnstone, infield hit by Bobby Tolan, single by Larry Bowa scoring pinch-runner Ollie Brown, and a balk by Reuschel. It is the first-place Phillies 6th win in their 24 games.
Ed Halicki and Gary Lavelle (9–6) yielded only one hit apiece while pitching the Giants to a 5–0 victory over the Reds. Halicki was forced from the game after suffering a bruised back in a home-plate collision with Bill Plummer in the fourth inning. The Giants’ attack on loser Fred Norman included homers by Gary Thomasson and Chris Speier. Pete Rose doubled off Halicki in the first and Cesar Geronimo singled off Lavelle in the fifth for the Reds’ safeties.
The Indians beat 21-game winner Jim Palmer in the opener of a doubleheader, 5–1, but then had less success in the nightcap and lost to the Orioles, 3–2. Boog Powell smashed a homer off Palmer in the second inning and the Indians then added three runs in the third with the aid of sacrifice flies by Rico Carty and George Hendrick. Jim Kern saved the game for Stan Thomas, coming in to strike out Ken Singleton and Tony Muser after the Orioles had scored on three singles with one out in the eighth inning. The defeat snapped the Orioles’ seven-game winning streak. In the nightcap, after Mark Belanger batted in a run in the fourth inning, the Orioles claimed their victory with two counters in the seventh on a single by Brooks Robinson, pass to Tom Shopay, single by Al Bumbry and sacrifice fly by Rich Dauer. The Indians came back with a run in their half of the seventh on a triple by Buddy Bell and sacrifice fly by Carty. After manager Frank Robinson knocked in a run with a pinch-single in the eighth, Tippy Martinez replaced Rudy May on the mound for the Orioles and induced Rick Manning to ground into a double play. Robinson makes his final Major League appearance as a player when he pinch-hits in the 8th and singles against the Orioles Rudy May.
Although playing only three innings before leaving the game with a groin injury, Carl Yastrzemski knocked in four runs with a homer and single to start the Red Sox off to a 5–4 victory over the Tigers. The veteran star homered with Rick Miller and Fred Lynn on base in the first inning and knocked in Steve Dillard with a single in the third. The Red Sox added what proved to be their deciding marker in the eighth when Lynn walked, Jim Rice singled and Cecil Cooper grounded into a fielder’s choice.
Erupting for all their runs in the first inning, the Padres defeated the Astros, 4–1, behind the six-hit hurling of Dave Freisleben (10–13). Johnny Grubb led off by drawing a pass and scored on singles by Willie Davis and Jerry Turner. After Doug Rader walked to load the bases, Fred Kendall cleared the sacks with a double.
The Royals were forced to call on five pitchers but pulled out a 6–5 victory over the White Sox with a run in the ninth inning to maintain their 5 ½-game lead over the Athletics in the West Division. The White Sox kayoed Al Fitzmorris in the second while taking a 3–0 lead. The Royals tied the score in the fourth but fell behind again in the fifth when Kevin Bell tripled and Bucky Dent singled. Rallying once more, the Royals came back with two runs on a bases-loaded single by Amos Otis in their half. The White Sox pulled even in the eighth when Sam Ewing singled and Lamar Johnson doubled. However in the ninth, Fred Patek singled, Buck Martinez sacrificed and Jim Wohiford singled to drive in the Royals’ winning marker.
Graig Nettles, who leads the league in homers, smashed his 28th of the season following a single by Chris Chambliss in the fourth inning to provide the Yankees with their winning margin in a 5–3 victory over the Brewers. The Yankees scored three times in the first with the aid of a triple by Lou Piniella, but the Brewers rallied for a matching trio in the third, two of their tallies counting on a double by Mike Hegan. Dock Ellis (16–7) get the win.
Four-run bursts in each game of a doubleheader led the Cardinals to 4–1 and 7–4 victories over the Expos, who were locked into the cellar of the East Division for the rest of the season. In the opener, the Cardinals counted all their runs in the second inning. Ted Simmons singled and scored on a double by Willie Crawford, who was out trying to stretch his hit. Hector Cruz walked, Luis Alvarado singled and when both Ellis Valentine and Wayne Garrett committed errors on the play, Cruz scored. Bob Forsch (7–10) singled to drive in Alvarado, moved up an extra base on the throw and scored on a single by Jerry Mumphrey. In the nightcap, the Cards picked up four runs in the first inning with the aid of five walks, three coming with the bases loaded. Tom Walker, who once belonged to the Expos, was credited with Cardinal saves in both games Joe Keener starts his 10-day ML career by giving up a hit to Jerry Mumphrey, balking him to second base, then picking him off. But he walks four, throws a wild pitch and gives up 4 runs.
Held to five hits by Tom Seaver (14–10), the Pirates lost to the Mets, 6–2, and fell four games behind the Phillies in the East Division race. Dave Kingman and Ed Kranepool whacked homers for the Mets and Jerry Grote drove in two runs with a bases-loaded single. Kingman’s blow was his 35th of the season.
The Athletics were held to only five hits by Tommy Boggs but made them do for a 3–2 victory over the Rangers. In fact, the A’s winning run in the seventh inning counted without the benefit of a safety on two walks, an error and sacrifice fly by Bert Campaneris. The Rangers rallied in the eighth, starting with a homer by Mike Hargrove. Singles by Jeff Burroughs and Tom Grieve around a passed ball added another tally and chased wining pitcher Vida Blue (16–12). Juan Beniquez singled off Jim Todd, but Paul Lindblad came in and retired Doug Ault to end the inning.
Los Angeles Dodgers 2, Atlanta Braves 5
Minnesota Twins 0, California Angels 6
Philadelphia Phillies 4, Chicago Cubs 1
San Francisco Giants 5, Cincinnati Reds 0
Baltimore Orioles 1, Cleveland Indians 5
Baltimore Orioles 3, Cleveland Indians 2
Boston Red Sox 5, Detroit Tigers 4
San Diego Padres 4, Houston Astros 1
Chicago White Sox 5, Kansas City Royals 6
New York Yankees 5, Milwaukee Brewers 3
St. Louis Cardinals 4, Montreal Expos 1
St. Louis Cardinals 7, Montreal Expos 4
Pittsburgh Pirates 2, New York Mets 6
Texas Rangers 2, Oakland Athletics 3
Born:
Steve Watkins, American politician (Rep.-R-Kansas, 2019–2021), in San Antonio, Texas.
Ronaldo (Ronaldo Luis Nazario), Brazilian soccer football striker, national team member and three-time FIFA World Player of the Year (1997, 1998 and 2002), later owner of the Real Valladolid Spanish professional team; in Rio de Janeiro.
Angie Braziel, WNBA forward (Charlotte Sting, Indiana Fever), in Odessa, Texas.
History Diaries 