The People’s Republic of China announced that Prime Minister Hua Guofeng would be the successor to Mao Zedong as Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, the most powerful position in China. Hua was also the chairman of the Military Commission that governed the armed forces of the world’s most populous nation, giving him “a combination of authority that no other Chinese leader, including Mao”, had ever held. The spokesman refused to comment on the reported arrest of Mao’s widow and three other leading radicals who were said to have been accused of distorting Mao’s words.
The widow of Chairman Mao Zedong and three other radicals have been arrested and charged with plotting a coup, according to mounting evidence in Peking. Chinese citizens are being told in briefings here about the purge of the four leaders — Chiang Ching, Mao’s widow, Wang Hung‐wen, Deputy Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, Chang Chunchiao, the First Secretary of the Shanghai Communist Party and Yao Wen‐yuan, Second Secretary of the Shanghai Communist Party—according to reliable information that has separately reached at least three major embassies. The reports gained even more weight this morning when a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry declined to deny them or ignore them and responded with a simple “No comment.” In Washington, spokesmen for the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency said Monday night that their only information on the reported arrests came from news agency accounts. They said they had no independent knowledge of the situation.
Chinese citizens who were asked this morning about the purge of the full top rung of the national radical leadership displayed neither surprise nor concern, another sign the purge was a fact. There were no outward signs in Peking this morning that anything unusual was occurring. At Peking University, a supposed bastion of radical strength, a student said that the campus was very quiet and that no political meetings had occurred during the past day or so. The diplomats receiving these reports feel that the circulation of the stories is yet another indication of an immense and still unresolved power struggle going on behind the scenes in China. They point out that the appointment of Prime Minister Hua Kuo‐feng as the new chairman of the Communist Party has still not been confirmed officially, three days after posters hailing his appointment started appearing in the streets of Peking. “They can’t announce it,” a diplomat said, summing up the mystery. “The question is why. The answer is that there are serious problems, probably a real power struggle, in the Chinese leadership structure at the moment.”
The four leaders reportedly purged have often been called the Shanghai radicals and together they in effect constitute the entire top rung of the nationally known radical leadership in China. If they have been purged — and purged successfully — it will mean that the course of China and Chinese Communism has taken an abrupt swing from the left, only one month after the death of Chairman Mao. The repercussions of such a purge would he immense, not only in terms of policies but also in terms of the future of the thousands of allies the four radicals have throughout China. The four radicals came into prominence during the Cultural Revolution of the mid‐1960’s and were firmly supported by Mao. None of the four has appeared in public since Sept. 30. Chiang Ching was a key influence on her husband and helped radicalize the content of art, literature and music in China during the past decade. Wang Hung‐wen ranks second in the Communist Party hierarchy after Prime Minister Hua. Chung Chun‐chiao, who ranks fourth, has long been considered by foreign observers as a potential chairman or Prime Minister. Yao Wen‐yuan, who ranks sixth, has exerted significant control in recent years over the official press, which has tended to reflect a radical line.
The Soviet Union is spending more than $1 billion a year to protect its population from nuclear attack, 10 times more than the U.S. civil defense expenditure, the Defense Department reported through John David, director of its Civil Preparedness Agency. He said the $82 million that Congress authorized for shelters and other civil defense measures over the next year will require a lean program aimed at protecting 400 high-risk areas of the country.
The United States welcomed a French statement indicating willingness to discuss international limitations on the spread of nuclear technology. The French statement was issued by the newly formed Nuclear Policy Council, created after differences with the United States earlier this year over the proposed sale of a French nuclear reactor to Pakistan. “We intend to study the statement,” State Department spokesman Robert Funseth said.
The French Government made it clear today that it intended to provide Pakistan with a nuclear reprocessing plant, regardless of the newly stated willingness to cooperate in efforts to curb the spread of nuclear weapons. Authoritative government sources also said France’s new attitude toward the sale of nuclear facilities, disclosed yesterday, would not affect its contract to build a nuclear power plant in South Africa. Yesterday, the High Council for Foreign Nuclear Policy, headed by President Valery Giscard d’Estaing, announced that France would be willing to discuss nuclear‐facility agreements and the establishment of regional nuclear‐power centers with a view to curbing the nuclear spread. The shift was interpreted as an attempt to mollify the United States, which has criticized the agreement with Pakistan on the ground that a plant for reprocessing spent nuclear fuel could be used to yield plutonium, the ingredient of atomic weapons.
Six ex-policemen, including the former chief of Athens’ security police and his two deputies, were sentenced to prison terms of up to two years for torturing political prisoners when Greece was under military rule. The six were among 11 retired policemen who had been charged. Five were acquitted.
Kurt Waldheim of Austria made his long-awaited announcement today that he was ready to serve a second five‐year term as Secretary General. At the same time, he angrily rejected criticism from the United States that he had yielded to pressures from member governments to hire unqualified persons for high United Nations positions. So far no rival candidate for the world organization’s top executive post has come forward, and as of now none expected. In past months Chinese and some third‐world diplomats have expressed mild dissatisfaction that a European should be retained in a position at the head of an organization dominated by the less‐developed countries. The announcement today advances by another step the diplomatic maneuvering to choose a secretary general. The Security Council now must make its formal recommendation, and the General Assembly will conduct the final election, by secret ballot, before Mr. Waldheim’s first term expires at the end of the year.
Israeli troops, ordered to enforce calm in the occupied West Bank town of Hebron, where interreligious violence flared last week, today turned back a mass rally of nationalist Jews moving toward the town. “We are blocking all cars and buses heading for Qiryat Arba.” the Jewish settlement near the Arab town, a military spokesman said. Eight busloads of demonstrators and dozens of private cars were reported stopped at army roadblocks. A curfew of Hebron entered its 10th day, with streets deserted and shops shuttered. The Machprelah tomb of Abraham, where a Muslim mob ransacked Jewish synagogue, was closed while workmen repaired the damage.
The Syrian government vowed to take “decisive deterrent and punitive” action against the terrorists who attacked Syrian embassies Monday in Rome and Islamabad, Pakistan. In Rome, meanwhile, police held three men after the embassy attack in which four consular officials were wounded. But they were having difficulty establishing their nationality or identity. One terrorist was reported killed in the Islamabad attack and the other two were arrested.
A new offensive against Palestinian guerrillas in southern Lebanon was begun by tank-led Syrian forces. Syria’s objective was believed to be to cut off Saida, the last port of supply for leftist-controlled West Beirut.
Morocco and Algeria are on a collision course in the desert of northwest Africa where hundreds have died in a guerrilla war. A year after King Hassan II sent his Moroccan subjects on an unarmed “march of conquest” into the Spanish Sahara, Morocco is firmly in control of every settlement in its new territory, an area the size of Oklahoma. The desert republic of Mauritania has taken over the southern quarter of the former Spanish colony but has insufficient troops to police it. Both Morocco and Mauritania claimed the Western Sahara, and divided the territory under an agreement signed with Spain in November 1975. Vast areas of the open desert have become a no man’s land roamed by pro‐Algerian guerrillas armed by the Algerians with Soviet land mines, machine guns. mortars, recoilless rifles and antiaircraft missiles.
All 95 people aboard Indian Airlines Flight 171 were killed when the Sud Aviation Caravelle jet crashed while attempting to make an emergency landing while trying to return to Mumbai (Bombay) after its number 2 engine failed. The flight had been bound for Chennai (Madras) with 89 passengers and six crew when a compressor disc failed, fuel lines were severed, and the engine caught fire and plunged to the ground seconds before it would have reached the runway. The flight data recorder was recovered by a fisherman who had found it in his net.
American analysts regard the latest developments in China as a sign that those interested in pursuing a moderate international course including closer ties to the West are coming out ahead in the post-Mao Zedong leadership struggle. Officials in Washington refused to speak for the record, in part because the news reports from Peking had not been officially confirmed by the Chinese leadership. The reports about the arrest of Mao’s widow and other so‐called “radicals” were based on information reaching the British Embassy in Peking from what were described here as “low‐level” sources. But since the Chinese Foreign Ministry had not denied the reports, officials tended to regard them as having sonic validity. The election of Hua Kuo‐feng as chairman of the Communist Party appeared to be confirmed by Chinese officials, but the continued absence of any published announcement still produced caution here.
Soviet and Japanese officials began talks in Tokyo on the return of the Soviet MIG-25 Foxbat interceptor flown to Japan by defecting pilot Viktor I. Belenko a month ago. Representatives discussed technical problems for 15 minutes, a Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau unveiled economic, labor, social, resource and civil liberties plans he said would lead Canada into a “decade of opportunity.” In the speech opening the second session of Parliament, Trudeau promised labor a crash employment program and business a freer economic climate. To the average Canadian, he promised greater protection of civil rights combined with a reduction in arbitrary government actions. He said social policy would be amended to improve the lot of working mothers, the aged, children and the handicapped.
Peru has reportedly accepted a Soviet offer of up to 36 supersonic light bombers only after having sought to buy planes from the United States. A United States armament salesman said Peru had wanted to buy aircraft last year similar to 18 Northrop F‐5 jets that are being delivered to Chile. But after waiting seven months for an answer from the Pentagon, it accepted a Soviet offer that was made on very favorable long term payment conditions, the source said.
President Idi Amin of Uganda ordered his chief of staff and defense minister, Major General Mustafa Adrisi, to take an indefinite leave, Kenya Radio reported. The report said Colonel Mondo, secretary for defense, would assume Adrisi’s duties.
The Government of Prime Minister Ian D. Smith sees little chance that an agreement on an interim government under a black chief minister can be reached at the Geneva conference later this month, although it expects most of the principal black nationalist leaders to attend. According to a Government source. the Smith Cabinet holds it more than likely that the talks will stalemate because of “posturing” and mutual “outbidding” by the nationalist spokesmen through demands that the white Rhodesian electorate cannot be persuaded to accept. In this event, the source said, Rhodesia will propose that other black leaders be invited by the conference chairman. Britain, and that a government be agreed on without the consent of the principal figures of the existing, factionalized nationalist movement. Such leaders, it was suggested, are exemplified by the seven black ministers and deputy ministers who joined the Smith Government last April.
The government of Transkei, a South African tribal homeland about to be declared independent, said its police arrested noted black actor-playwrights John Kani and Winston Ntshona in response to local complaints that their play was vulgar, abusive and “highly inflammable.” Kani and Ntshona were arrested last Friday after a performance of “Sizwe Banzi Is Dead” in Umtata, Transkei, the Rand Daily Mail newspaper reported. The American Theater Critics Association has condemned the detention.
Riot policemen in Cape Town, South Africa shot and killed a man who, officers said, tried to bomb a gasoline station today in a segregated suburb during the first flare‐up of unrest in townships around Cape Town in three weeks. Groups of youths ran through the black townships of l.anga, Nyanga and Gugletu, four miles southeast of the city center, smiling cars and buildings. The police said at least five vehicles had been overturned and burned. Policemen used tear gas and clubs to disperse out. 5o0 Hack children marching down Klipfontein Road, which leads to the black suburbs. Several persons wore injured in the police charges, witnesses said, but officials at Cape Town hospitals gave no details. The police said the man who tried to throw a bomb into a gas station had been killed in Phillipi, township for what the Government calls “colored” people on the barren, wind‐swept flats southeast of Cape Town’s white central business and shopping districts. Colored is the Government’s official term for persons of mixed race.
President Ford, campaigning in New York City for the first time, made a strong appeal for support by Jewish and middle-class voters. He stressed his backing for Israel and deplored “terrorism” in the world and on the streets of American cities and heavy taxation of the middle class. The President, in a motorcade through Brooklyn, received lukewarm greetings in two Jewish neighborhoods and was hailed in heavily Republican Bay Ridge. The President was also greeted by at least two G.O.P. feuds—one between the state’s two Republican Senators, Jacob K. Javits and James L. Buckley, and the other between Richard M. Rosenbaum, the Ford campaign chairman here who is also G.O.P. state chairman, and George L. Clark Jr., Republican chairman in Brooklyn. Mr. Clark, who would normally have been the President’s host in Brooklyn, was apparently shut out by Mr. Rosenbaum because of Mr. Clark’s earlier support of Ronald Reagan.
Swine flu vaccination programs in nine states and in Pittsburgh and its suburbs were suspended today, two weeks after they began nationally, after the deaths of three elderly persons who received the vaccine yesterday at a clinic in Pittsburgh. Federal and Pennsylvania health officials said there was no evidence that the deaths had resulted from the vaccinations. But they also said that the highly unusual circumstances of three fatalities among the patients of one clinic in such a short time required investigation. All three patients are known to have had heart disease, health officials said. and autopsies showed that two died of heart attacks. The family of the third patient did not permit an autopsy. After the deaths, swine flu immunizations were halted throughout Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh, and the Federal Center for Disease Control sent doctors to investigate.
President Ford signed a bill awarding $750,000 in compensation to the widow and children of Frank R. Olson, an Army civilian biochemist who jumped from a hotel window in 1953 after CIA agents had secretly given him LSD as part of a research program. Olson went into a depression from which he never recovered. Mrs. Alice Olson said the money represented compensation “for the deception of 22 years” by the government. Ford said giving the drug “would appear to have been a proximate cause” of Olson’s death. His approval of the bill, Ford said, underscored the basic principle that a citizen should be protected “from unreasonable transgressions into his personal activities.”
A federal appeals court reversed the conviction of former Assistant Attorney General Robert Mardian, who had been found guilty of having conspired to cover up the 1972 Watergate break-in. In a separate opinion, the appellate judges upheld the convictions of three other former aides of President Nixon — H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman and John Mitchell.
The 15 trustees of the Teamsters’ union major pension fund, according to informed sources, have agreed that at least 11 of them will resign by the end of this month. The decision was made under mounting pressure by three government inquiries and to try to forestall the government from placing the fund in receivership under supervision of a federal judge.
Retail sales in the nation moved up last month only one-tenth of 1 percent from a lower, revised August level, but sales were 10 percent above the year earlier total, the Commerce Department reported. Sales in September reached $54.59 billion compared with August’s $54.53 billion level. The trend was adversely affected by a steep drop in car sales.
The nation’s corn crop was estimated by the Agriculture Department at a record 5.87 billion bushels, which would be 2 percent above last year’s crop. The estimate on corn, a major ingredient of livestock feed, was one-half of 1 percent below the 5.89 billion bushels indicated earlier.
U.S. District Judge George C. Young said the federal government had acted improperly in the first trial of former Senator Edward J. Gurney (R-Florida) in not giving the defense certain information it had. But Young said the improper conduct did not warrant dismissal of the remaining charge and began picking a jury for Gurney’s retrial on the last of seven counts from a 1974 indictment. The retrial, in Orlando, Florida, is expected to last three weeks. Gurney, 62, is charged with lying to a grand jury that was investigating an alleged influence-peddling scheme. The jury in his first trial last year cleared him on five counts but failed to reach a verdict on the other two, one of which was later dropped.
Joseph Kallinger, the Philadelphia shoemaker accused of robbing and terrorizing women in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, was convicted of murdering a young nurse, Maria Fasching, 21, in Leonia, New Jersey, last year. The jury of five women and seven men, sitting in Hackensack, New Jersey, deliberated less than two hours. It rejected the defense that Kallinger had been legally insane at the time of the crime. Kallinger was also convicted of robbery, possession of a dangerous weapon and contributing to the delinquency of his teenage son, Michael, who allegedly was with him during the crimes. Kallinger, 39, allegedly committed a series of robberies and sex crimes. He is to be sentenced Thursday and faces a maximum of life imprisonment.
A federal grand jury indicted Matthew Feldman, president of the New Jersey Senate, on charges of bribing a restaurant chain official to gain $240,000 in business for Mr. Feldman’s liquor distribution company. The grand jury said that Mr. Feldman had paid $6,400 in bribes and it also indicted Daniel Feldman, the political leader’s son.
Striking members of the United Automobile Workers have approved a new three-year labor contract with the Ford Motor Company, the union announced tonight. It was uncertain, however, when the four week old strike by more than 165,000 Ford workers would end. Only about two‐thirds of the union’s 99 Ford bargaining units had settled today on contracts involving local issues. Workers in those units will remain on strike until the local agreements are reached and approved. Included were some units at plants believed essential to full Ford production. The walkout was to enter its second month at midnight tonight. The national settlement narrowly escaped rejection by 25,000 skilled workers by 489 votes out of 17,425 cast.
History’s worst dirigible disaster, the 1933 crash of the U.S. Navy’s Akron, was caused by structural failure rather than crew error, according to a new, unofficial book by Thom Hook, an information specialist with the Federal Aviation Administration. The 785-foot-long Akron crashed into the ocean off Barnegat, New Jersey, during a storm on April 4, 1933, killing 73 of the 76 men aboard. A Navy court of inquiry concluded that the crew was at fault. But Hook, in “Sky Ship: The Akron Era,” contends that the actual cause of the crash was failure of the upper vertical fin at the Akron’s rear. The same fin on the Akron’s sister ship, the Macon, failed 21 months later and caused it to crash off Point Sur, California. Two of its 83-man crew died.
Federal loan guarantees and the government’s vast purchasing power will be used to stimulate commercial development of solar energy, federal energy chief Frank G. Zarb said in Chicago. Though the solar equipment industry quadrupled its output last year, Zarb said, its growth continues to be hampered by high production costs and by the high costs of installing solar heating and cooling apparatus. Zarb said $2 billion in loan guarantees have been authorized for investment in solar energy and other renewable energy sources.
A federal judge in Las Vegas ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to show cause why it should not set aside its emissions regulations governing Kennecott Copper Corp.’s smelter at McGill, Nevada. Judge Roger Foley set November 4 for a hearing on the firm’s motion that the EPA be enjoined from enforcing its regulations. Kennecott contends the EPA rules made it economically unfeasible to reopen the smelter and rehire hundreds of workers in eastern Nevada.
Major climatic changes in the next two centuries were predicted in a report by a committee of the International Council of Scientific Unions. The report said it was “alarming” that industrial activity was expected to raise the carbon dioxide content of the world’s atmosphere from four to eight times present levels.
The experimental Sikorsky S-72, a combination of helicopter and fixed-wing airplane developed by NASA and the U.S. Army, made its first flight. The hybrid aircraft was not accepted for general use and only two were developed.
Major League Baseball, National League Championship series:
The Big Red Machine of Cincinnati will not be denied as the Reds complete a three-game sweep of the Philadelphia Phillies, winning 7–6. Once again, the Phillies got a strong starting pitching performance that went for naught. Jim Kaat held the Reds to one hit after six innings. Meanwhile, his teammates provided him a 3–0 lead via a consecutive doubles in the fourth by Mike Schmidt and Greg Luzinski off Gary Nolan and RBI doubles by Garry Maddox and Schmidt in the seventh after a leadoff walk off Manny Sarmiento. But in the bottom of the seventh, Kaat began to lose it. Ken Griffey led off with a single, Joe Morgan walked. Ron Reed then replaced Kaat to face Tony Pérez, who promptly singled home Griffey. George Foster followed with a sacrifice fly. After a walk to Johnny Bench, Reed retired Dave Concepción, but then surrendered a two-run triple to César Gerónimo to put the Reds ahead 4–3.
In the eighth, the Phillies rallied against Reds closer Rawly Eastwick. Jay Johnstone led off with a double and went to third on a wild pitch as Bob Boone walked. Larry Bowa doubled in Johnstone and Dave Cash hit a sacrifice fly to give the Phillies the lead at 5–4. The Phillies added another run in the top of the ninth on an RBI triple by Johnstone to make it 6–4. With Reed still on the mound in the ninth, Foster and Bench hit back-to-back homers to tie the game. Gene Garber relieved and promptly gave up a single to Concepción. Tom Underwood came on to surrender a walk to Geronimo. Pinch-hitter Ed Armbrister sacrificed the runners to second and third. Underwood then intentionally walked Pete Rose to load the bases. With the infield drawn in, Griffey hit a high bouncer toward Bobby Tolan playing first. Tolan charged, but the ball got past him and Concepción scored to send the Reds to their second straight World Series; they would sweep the Yankees in four games, becoming the only team in the divisional era (to date) to go undefeated in the postseason.
Philadelphia Phillies 6, Cincinnati Reds 7
Major League Baseball, American League Championship series:
The New York Yankees win Game 3 over the Kansas City Royals, 5–3. The first Yankee post-season home game since 1964 started ominously for the Bombers, as the Royals tagged righty Dock Ellis for three runs in the first. He settled down immediately after though and went eight solid innings, aided by several double plays and two base runners caught stealing. The Yankees narrowed the margin to one in the fourth on a Chris Chambliss two-run homer off Andy Hassler and then tacked on three more in the sixth, as Kansas City manager Whitey Herzog carted in four relievers in that inning alone. Sparky Lyle got the save by pitching a scoreless ninth inning, as the Bronx Bombers took a two games to one lead.
Kansas City Royals 3, New York Yankees 5
The stock market fell again on a broad front in more active trading. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 8.47 to close at 932.35. Since September 21, the index has plummeted 82.44 points, or 8 percent. In credit markets, government notes and bonds rose sharply in price, and corporate and tax-exempt bonds also gained.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 932.35 (-8.47, -0.90%)
Born:
Tom Burke, NFL defensive end (Arizona Cardinals), in Poplar, Wisconsin.
Maurice Carter, NBA shooting guard (Los Angeles Lakers, New Orleans hornets), in Jackson, Mississippi.
Sarah Lane, American television personality and ballet dancer, in San Francisco, California.
Xulhaz Mannan, Bangladeshi journalist and gay rights activist; in Dhaka, Bangladesh (murdered 2016).
Zazon (stage name for Élisabeth Castro), French actress and filmmaker; in Paris, France.
