President Reagan met today with Yuri F. Orlov, the freed Soviet dissident, and said later that a substantive improvement in Soviet human rights was crucial for a summit meeting with Mikhail S. Gorbachev in the United States. Mr. Reagan said there was “much room for improvement on religious persecution, long-divided families and suppression of emigration.” It was the first time that he had linked Soviet policies in the rights field to a summit meeting, and it seemed to be part of an effort to induce Mr. Gorbachev to talk about issues other than arms control at their Iceland talks this weekend. The two men will spend a total of six to seven hours together over two days. White House officials said Mr. Reagan planned to raise the issue of Jewish emigration. Emigration from the Soviet Union in general is severely restricted, but Jews and others with relatives abroad had been allowed to leave in substantial numbers in past years but that has changed. At their meeting in Geneva in November, officials said, Mr. Reagan spent 90 minutes with Mr. Gorbachev on the human rights issue, and the President may take the same amount of time in Iceland. “The President basically feels very strongly about it,” a White House official said. “We do want them to understand that there has got to be improvements in human rights. It is not a precondition. We do want improvement before a summit in the United States. Jewish emigration is at an all-time low. We want to make a point of it.”
President Reagan participated in a security meeting to discuss arms control. Senior Administration officials met at the White House today with President Reagan in preparation for the Iceland meetings this weekend. After the session, one official said the Administration decided to hold firm on key arms-control issues. On medium-range weapons, for example, the official told reporters that the United States would hold to its position that American Pershing 2 ballistic missiles should be deployed in West Germany under an “interim” agreement on medium-range arms. On the “Star Wars” missile defense program, the Administration was taking the view that the Soviet Union should agree to a new, broader interpretation of the treaty that the Administration says is legally valid. The official said this was the meaning of President Reagan’s July 25 letter to Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the Soviet leader.
President Reagan urged the House of Representatives today to drop completely the arms-control provisions he opposes, and one Administration official said he was “pessimistic” about agreeing to a proposal to put off consideration of the issues until next spring. At the same time, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said that it has become “so damn complicated” to work out a proposal to delay resolution of the issues until next year that he was working on a “comprehensive settlement now.” The resolution of the arms control issues is one of the major obstacles to the adjournment of Congress for the year. It appears now that the session might continue into next week because the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Representative Jamie L. Whitten, Democrat of Mississippi, has proposed a stopgap financing bill to extend operations to October 15.
A Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister said here today that Moscow wanted the Iceland meeting this weekend to produce preliminary accords on two or three arms control issues. The official, Vladimir F. Petrovsky, said at a news conference that the most promising areas were a nuclear test ban and the reduction of medium-range missiles in Europe. The United States has been cool to a nuclear test ban, contending that testing was needed as long as there were nuclear arsenals. The Americans also hope for agreement on medium-range missiles, but they want an accord to be global, covering missiles both in Europe and in Asia.
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence charged today that a Soviet intelligence officer holds the post of assistant to the Secretary General at the United Nations. The committee, in a report calling for broad changes in the Government’s security and counterintelligence programs, added new details to the Reagan Administration’s charge that the Soviet Union is using the United Nations as a platform for spying. “The K.G.B. has succeeded in infiltrating its officers into the U.N. bureaucracy, with some reaching positions of authority,” the report said. “The K.G.B. has held the position of assistant to the Secretary General since Viktor Lesiovsky held the post under U Thant. The current assistant is a K.G.B. China expert.”
The young Irishwoman’s resentment against the lover she thought had tried to turn her into an instrument of destruction finally burst out today at the end of her cross-examination. In more than three hours on the stand at the Old Bailey criminal court this morning and Monday afternoon, Ann Murphy had spoken in barely audible tones and avoided the gaze of Nezar Hindawi, the Jordanian accused of trying to send her on an El Al jumbo jet with a half-inch-thick sheet of deadly explosive hidden in her carry-on bag. Now glaring directly at him, she cried out: “You bastard you! How could you do that to me?” Shocked by her own outburst, she seemed to clutch at the air and the wooden edge of the witness stand in an effort to regain her composure. Sobbing and speaking as if to herself rather than the courtroom, she said: “Excuse me. Oh, forgive me, God forgive me.”
The Pope ended a visit to France by calling for “all of humanity” to reject international terrorism. Speaking at a farewell ceremony in Lyons, John Paul II expressed his desire that France “know the peace to which it has a right.”
British police were going house to house seeking witnesses to the killing of a U.S. airman who was beaten by a gang in the Saxmundham village in eastern England. Sgt. Michael Sambogna, 28, of Palisades Park, New Jersey, a member of a maintenance squadron at a nearby base, died of head injuries after the Saturday attack. He reportedly was walking to a pub with four other servicemen, all in civilian clothes, when they were attacked. The motive was unknown.
The phone rang today just when the telegram had said it would, and Zbigniew Bujak, a former Solidarity official, and Adam Michnik, a former Solidarity adviser, took turns on the line. They were listening to Caroline Croft, who was calling from the United States to confirm that the two men had been chosen to each receive the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award. The award, worth $40,000, was established by the friends and family of Mr. Kennedy to honor people who have advanced the cause of human rights.
An Israeli civilian was fatally stabbed today in the Israeli-occupied town of Gaza, the second such incident in Gaza in less than two weeks, army spokesmen said. The victim, a taxi driver from the Israeli coastal town of Ashkelon 15 miles away, was stabbed in the back and throat while waiting for his car to be repaired in a Gaza garage, spokesmen said.
Two masked men on a motorcycle shot to death a senior Sunni Muslim cleric with silencer-equipped pistols near a West Beirut mosque, police reported. There were no clues to the identities of the killers of Sheik Subhi Saleh, 53, regarded as the second-ranking Sunni leader in Lebanon. Meanwhile, six bullet-riddled bodies of Christian militiamen were found in a dry riverbed in East Beirut, police said. The victims were believed to be among 55 militiamen reported missing after a failed attempt last month by Elie Hobeika, an ousted pro-Syrian militia commander, to regain control of the Lebanese Forces, the nation’s largest Christian militia.
Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, warning of “new aggression,” urged Libyans to turn the nation “into a fortress.” Qaddafi spoke on the 16th anniversary of the expulsion of the Italian community, the country’s former colonial rulers. Warning of “new colonialist ambitions,” Qaddafi said, “We must not allow America, Italy or any other power to have a foothold on Libyan shores.”
Italy has freed three Libyan prisoners in exchange for four Italians held in Libya, including two accused of involvement in a coup attempt against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, officials said today. The exchange was announced by the Foreign Ministry after the Italians arrived home on an International Red Cross plane.
Iran has halted loading operations at its main Kharg Island oil terminal in the Persian Gulf after an Iraqi air attack damaged the last operating berth, oil industry sources said. Loading operations at Kharg could resume in two to three days after emergency repairs, the sources said. Iran and Iraq have been at war since 1980.
Secretary of State George P. Shultz said today that there were signs that Moscow was planning a “publicized” partial troop pullout from Afghanistan during the Iceland talks this weekend. Mr. Shultz seemed concerned that such a pullout might allow the Soviet Union to avoid pressure during the two-day meeting between President Reagan and Mikhail S. Gorbachev for an agreement on a total withdrawal. At a news conference in which he covered the main points he expected to come up in Iceland, he said the forces to be pulled out would be “a very, very small proportion” of the 115,000 troops in Afghanistan. The United States has tries to put the Soviet Union on the defensive on the issue of regional conflicts, particularly on Afghanistan. By drawing attention in advance to the Soviet pullout, Mr. Shultz seemed eager to reduce the effect of such a Soviet move.
Five men from Sikh-dominated Punjab state have been arrested in connection with the apparent attempt to assassinate Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, the United News of India reported. It quoted Punjab police as identifying one of the men as a Sikh priest from the state, where Sikh extremists are fighting for an independent homeland. A lone gunman fired a handgun in the general direction of Gandhi last Thursday as the prime minister was leaving a Hindu prayer meeting in New Delhi. Gandhi was not injured. A suspect, 26-year-old Karamjit Singh, from Punjab, was arrested at the scene.
A district court judge in Bhopal, India, granted an injunction barring the Union Carbide Corp. from destroying any documents related to the December, 1984, gas leak at its pesticide plant that killed more than 2,000 people. Judge K. S. Shirivastava signed the “non-destruct” order and set October 30 for the next hearing in the damage suit against the U.S.-based corporation. The order was sought by the government after the firm said a similar order issued last May by U.S. District Court Judge John F. Keenan was no longer binding.
Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger arrived in the Chinese capital today on the first leg of a round-the-world-trip that will also include consultations with military leaders of India, Pakistan, Egypt and the European allies. The 19-day trip gives Mr. Weinberger an opportunity to firm up ties with Asian powers that have fragile relations with each other and to counter a Soviet regional diplomatic effort. As Mr. Weinberger arrived in Peking, where he will stay for three days before visiting a military region near the Vietnamese border, a Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister, Igor A. Rogachev, was wrapping up his own talks here.
The committee drafting a new Philippine constitution voted today to propose that President Corazon C. Aquino’s six-year term of office be extended slightly despite calls for an early presidential election. The 45-member Constitutional Commission voted overwhelmingly in favor of extending the President’s term to June 30, 1992. The moved stretched Mrs. Aquino’s term by four months to make the next presidential election coincide with congressional elections. Only the four commissioners representing the opposition voted against the extension.
The state and Federal law-enforcement authorities in Texas said today that they had arrested three men who identified themselves as members of the Mexican Federal Judicial Police and had charged them with kidnapping seven American citizens. The kidnapping victims, two women and five children, escaped unharmed after being abducted in Donna, Texas, the authorities said. They said the kidnappings were believed to be a result of a cocaine trafficking deal gone awry. The arrests took place on Sept. 18 but were disclosed today as part of a summary of the first results from an extensive new law-enforcement campaign along the Mexican border.
An American seized by Nicaragua reportedly admitted he had been flying in a rebel supply plane that had been shot down over a jungle. Nicaraguan officials charged that the downed plane was operated by the Central Intelligence Agency. In Managua, Government officials showed reporters a man whom they identified as Eugene Hasenfus and whom they described as an American captured from the downed plane. They also gave the names and showed identification cards of two other American citizens they said died when the plane was shot down.
An American-built cargo plane that was shot down over southern Nicaragua on Sunday was operated by a private group led by a retired United States Army major general, Reagan Administration officials said today. The officials said the plane was operated by an organization headed by the retired general, John K. Singlaub, and had taken off from El Salvador. It had flown down the Pacific coast of Nicaragua and turned inland to deliver ammunition and supplies to rebels seeking to open a southern front against the Sandinista Government in Managua. Spokesmen for the Administration, the State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Department of Defense all emphatically denied that the flight was in any way connected with the United States Government.
Three Uganda Cabinet ministers, a former vice president and 14 others were charged with treason in a Kampala court. They could face the death penalty if they are convicted on the charges of plotting to overthrow the government of President Yoweri Museveni. The most prominent defendant is Paulo Muwanga, vice president under then-President Milton Obote, Museveni’s longtime foe. Also accused were Commerce Minister Evaristo Nyanzi, Energy Minister Andrew Kayiira and Environment Minister David Lwanga.
A Congressional committee warned today that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration might lack the technical expertise to operate the space shuttle program properly. The panel, the House Science and Technology Committee, expressed its concern in a report on the findings of its own investigation into the destruction of the space shuttle Challenger. Panel members concluded that the entire Congress, the White House and even the committee itself had “played a contributing role in creating” pressure “that directly contributed to unsafe launch operations.” The committee also warned that, even today, “the pressure to push for an unrealistic number of flights continues to exist in some sectors of NASA and jeopardizes the promotion of a ‘safety first’ attitude throughout the shuttle program.” The committee also expressed concern about the safety of a new shuttle booster rocket, now under development, that is made of lightweight carbon filaments rather than steel.
President Reagan participates in a signing ceremony to make the Rose the National flower.
The impeachment trial of a Federal District judge opened before a silent Senate. The judge, Harry E. Claiborne, who is serving a two-year prison term for Federal income tax evasion, was described by members of the House, who urged his dismissal, as a disgrace to the Federal judiciary. When the Senate’s first impeachment trial in half a century began shortly after 10 o’clock this morning, it was a play in search of characters. Senate leaders had given notice that a quorum, at least 51 members, must be present at all times in the trial of Federal District Judge Claiborne of Nevada, who is serving a two-year prison sentence after being convicted of tax evasion in 1984 but has refused to resign. Only 10 senators were present, however, when the trial was scheduled to start. So as the clerk droned through the roll-call three times, reading a list of names that started with Senator James Abdnor, Republican of South Dakota, and ending with Senator Edward Zorinsky, Democrat of Nebraska, the ruddy-faced judge sat at one table and the nine members of the House Judiciary Committee who serve as prosecutors sat at the other — everyone waiting for the senatorial jury to arrive.
The House passed and sent to President Reagan legislation providing substantial rewards for whistle blowers who prevail in fraud suits against military contractors. The bill would provide for rewards of up to 30% of the money recovered. It was sponsored initially by Senator Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), who said he based it on the 1863 Federal False Claims Act, which President Abraham Lincoln intended to combat Civil War-era contractors who sold the government boxes of sawdust labeled “Muskets” or who repeatedly sold the same horses to the cavalry.
Congressmen urged four veterans to halt their hunger strike on the Capitol steps, but the veterans, protesting U.S. aid to contra rebels, vowed to “put their bodies on the line” and urged others to join them. “We need you to live,” Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) told the demonstrators at a crowded Capitol Hill news conference called to praise the veterans’ efforts. “We need you desperately. We don’t need your deaths. We need your life and your dedication to bring peace. … Please end your fast.”
A former Defense Department buyer who accepted $114,000 in bribes was sentenced to six months in prison, five years’ probation and a $10,000 fine. Sidney W. Weiss pleaded guilty in August to two counts of bribery and one count each of conspiracy and tax evasion. He was the 16th buyer convicted in a probe of the Defense Industrial. Supply Center in Philadelphia.
Two recent incidents in Miami in which someone posing as an air traffic controller radioed false instructions to pilots have raised concern among industry experts, who say such incidents have the potential for disaster. “It isn’t considered to be a major problem because it happens so infrequently,” Joann Sloane, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration in Washington, said today.
The postal governors approved a $7.2-billion, five-year building program for handling increased mail volume, especially in the fast-growing South and West, and for replacing aging post offices elsewhere. The building improvement program accounts for more than half of an overall $11.7-billion plan that also includes $2.3 billion for letter-sorting equipment, $1.5 billion for computers and other management tools, $279 million in vehicles and $362 million for stamp-vending machines and other customer service equipment.
Surgeons who use everything from laser beams to frozen probes to reattach retinas soon may have another option — super glue. Researchers from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, said they have developed a way of using a medical-grade type of commercial “super glue” for the delicate eye surgery. Although the method still is experimental, they said, it has successfully been used in cases in which conventional treatment failed to reattach retinas.
A sex discrimination case against United Airlines was settled today for $37 million, ending a 20-year battle over a rule that forced female flight attendants to resign if they got married. Federal District Judge James B. Moran gave final approval to the settlement, which covers 1,725 attendants who were forced to quit under the rule. The attendants contended the rule violated their civil rights. Charles Novak, a United spokesman, said the airline was pleased to have the issue resolved. “It’s been a very long case for us,” he said. Judge Moran gave tentative approval to the settlement in July. In it United agrees to pay more than $37 million in back pay to some of the women and to reinstate 475 flight attendants. About 400 flight attendants have returned to work because of the case. The case, one of the nation’s oldest sex discrimination cases, began with a complaint filed before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1966 by Mary Sprogis, who resigned over the no-marriage rule. United dropped the rule in 1968.
Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr. warned today that “any attempt to arrest me would be an attempt to kill me,” and one of his spokesmen would not preclude the use of violence against law-enforcement officials who tried to take the conspiracy theorist into custody. The spokesman, Dana Scanlon, said Mr. LaRouche was prepared “to defend himself by every means at his disposal” if an arrest was attempted. Mr. LaRouche’s threat was made in a prepared statement prompted by the indictment of several of his top associates Monday on Federal charges of credit card fraud. A perennial Presidential candidate who has warned of a range of conspiracies, Mr. LaRouche was not indicted, but Justice Department officials said he remained under investigation and might later face criminal charges.
Drug education officers held special sessions today with children at an elementary school where two fourth- grade pupils ate rock cocaine brought by a classmate, the authorities said. The officers spoke at two morning assemblies at the Martin Luther King Jr. School, the police said. On Monday, a boy and a girl, both 9 years old, ate the rock cocaine, the police said. The boy was hospitalized for a short time after he went into convulsions, school officials said. The girl was admitted to a hospital, the police said. The child suspected of bringing the drug to the school told the police that his mother’s boyfriend gave it to him, the police said. The boyfriend, Rory Heidelberg, 22, was arrested on suspicion of furnishing cocaine to a minor.
The Food and Drug Administration said it has approved a new drug for the most virulent forms of the skin disease psoriasis, but the agency warned that women who could become pregnant should not use it. The FDA said the medication, etretinate, can cause major congenital defects, perhaps as long as several years after a woman stops taking it. The drug is chemically related to Vitamin A, which in high doses also can harm unborn children. The FDA will require Hoffman-La Roche Inc., of Nutley, New Jersey, which will market the drug under the brand name Tegison, to include a boxed warning on the label.
A much used pesticide may not be sold or used, the Environmental Protection Agency announced in an unusual emergency order. The agency said the pesticide dinoseb endangered field workers, posing risks of birth defects and sterility.
Allied Stores sought to thwart a hostile $66-dollar-a-share takeover bid by the Campeau Corporation. Allied’s board approved a $67-a-share merger offer from Edward J. DeBartolo Sr., the largest developer and manager of shopping malls in the country, and Paul A. Bilzerian, a leading investor.
Hal B. Wallis, the producer, has died at his home in Rancho Mirage, California, at the age of 88. Mr. Wallis produced, co-produced or supervised more than 400 films, including “Little Caesar,” “Jezebel,” “High Sierra,” “The Maltese Falcon,” “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” “Casablanca,” “The Rainmaker” and “True Grit.”
Cheryl Crawford died at New York Hospital at the age of 84. Miss Crawford, a prominent producer of such plays as “The Rose Tattoo,” “Brigadoon” and “One Touch of Venus,” was a founder of the Group Theater and the Actors Studio.
Steve Yzerman is named captain of the Detroit Red Wings, a title he holds for over 1,300 games.
Major League Baseball, American League Championship Series, Game 1:
In the American League Championship Series opener, California behind Mike Witt downs Boston’s 20-game winner Roger Clemens 8–1. Angels left fielder Brian Downing went 2-for-5 with four RBI and Mike Witt pitched a five-hit complete game, allowing just one run in the sixth on Marty Barrett’s RBI single after a two-out walk and single. After getting two outs, Red Sox starter Roger Clemens walked two in the second before Ruppert Jones’s RBI single, Wally Joyner’s RBI double, and Downing’s two-run single put the Angels up 4–0. Gary Pettis’s RBI single with two on extended their lead to 5–0, the run unearned due to shortstop Spike Owen’s throwing error to first on Bob Boone’s ground-ball. In the eighth, Dick Schofield singled with one out, stole second and scored on Boone’s single. After a Pettis single, Joe Sambito relieved Clemens and allowed a two-out walk to load the bases, then Downing’s two-run single capped the game’s scoring at 8–1 as the Angels took a 1–0 series lead.
California Angels 8, Boston Red Sox 1
Stock prices ended virtually unchanged yesterday as investors continued to display a lack of conviction over the outlook for interest rates, earnings, crude oil prices and the course of the economy. After being down a bit more than 9 points in early trading — spurrred primarily by an estimate of reduced earnings for I.B.M. — the Dow Jones industrial average finished unchanged at 1,784.45. Declines led advances, 804 to 724.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1784.45 (+0)
Born:
Jairus Byrd, NFL safety (Pro Bowl, 2009, 2012, 2013; Buffalo Bills, New Orleans Saints, Carolina Panthers), in San Diego, California.
Chase Daniel, NFL quarterback (New Orleans Saints, Kansas City Chiefs, Philadelphia Eagles, Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Los Angeles Chargers), in Irving, Texas.
Bret Lockett, NFL defensive back (New England Patriots), in San Dimas, California.
A.J. Price, NBA point guard and shooting guard (Indiana Pacers, Washington Wizards, Minnesota Timberwolves, Cleveland Cavaliers, Phoenix Suns), in Orange, New Jersey.
Holland Roden, American actress (“Teen Wolf”), in Dallas, Texas.
Died:
Hal B. Wallis, 88, American producer (“High Sierra,” “The Maltese Falcon,” “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” “Casablanca,” “True Grit.”).
Cheryl Crawford, 84, American actress and producer (“Touch of Venus”, “Brigadoon”).
