A 26‐year‐old Prague gunman who forced his way aboard a Czechoslovak domestic airliner carrying 111 persons and hijacked it to West Germany faces probable air piracy charges here, police officials said today. In Prague, the Czechoslovak Foreign Vlinistry identified the hijacker as one of the country’s most wanted criminals and said he was being sought for the robbery of a taxi driver and for other crimes when he hijacked the plane last light at the Prague airport. The ministry said that the hijacker, Rudolf Becvar, was put on the most‐wanted list a week ago after he had been declared a suspect in the slaying of his brother, Stepan, who was found shot to death. Early today, Munich authorities rebuffed Czechoslovak requests that the hijacker be returned, and the Ilyushin‐18 turboprop plane flew home before dawn without Mr. Becvar. None of the 104 other passengers and six crew members sought asylum, they said.
Erich Honecker, the Communist General Secretary of East Germany’s Socialist Unity Party (SED) and commander of the nation’s armed forces, was elected unanimously by the 500-member Volkskammer to the position of Chairman of the State Council, equivalent to the head of state. Honecker replaced Willi Stoph, who was moved to the position of Chairman of the Council of Ministers.
Portugal’s ruling Socialist Party will define its new political line and attempt to resolve serious internal differences at its second national congress meeting here this weekend. Prime Minister Mario Soares concedes that the fate of his three‐month‐old minority Socialist Government will depend largely on whether the party can achieve “unity and cohesion” at the three‐day congress. Evidence of the importance of the Socialist meeting was the announcement that 55 foreign delegations would attend, including the leaders of West European Socialist parties such as Bruno Kreisky, Chancellor of Austria; Willy Brandt, former Chancellor of West Germany and François Mitterrand of France.
A rally of Spanish right‐wing Falangists broke up here today in uproar, quarrels and fist fights when one of the speakers talked of shortcomings in the Franco era. In another part of the city, riot policemen fired tear gas and charged into a group of about 1,000 striking bus drivers protesting against the use of soldiers to operate their buses. The Falange Party, the ideological core of the National Movement, which was the only party that Franco allowed, was holding a 43rd anniversary meeting in an effort to unite rival factions for general elections next year. Booing, whistling and cries of “Franco, Franco, Franco,” erupted from the crowd of 2,000 after Sigfrido Hillens, a party official, referred to shortcomings of the Franco regime. Marshals linked arms to protect Mr. Hillens as some members of the audience stormed the stage to attack him. Fist fights broke out and several youths were kicked off the stage. Arguments broke out in the audience and there was general uproar despite cries of “Unity, unity!”
Lebanon’s cease‐fire held up today despite overnight clashes between right‐wing Christian forces and leftist Muslims in the eastern suburbs of the capital. Spokesmen for the Phalangists, the principal Christian political and militia force, today reported that 36 gunmen had been killed in a skirmish at an intersection near neighboring Muslim and Christian suburbs. Each side accused the other of having started the firing with heavy automatic weapons. The incident underlined the danger that fighting might start up again between the two sides if the Arab peacekeeping forces, which are supposed to separate the factions, do not arrive on the scene soon. Syrian troops assigned to the peacekeeping force were assembled, beginning yesterday, behind Syrian lines near the Beirut‐Damascus highway about 15 miles east of Beirut, but they have not yet started to move down the road. Today the fighting lines were relatively calm despite last night’s shooting. But the automobile of the commander of the peacekeeping force was reported to have come under gunfire as it crossed the line between Muslim‐held west Beirut and Christian east Beirut.
Prime Minister Mamdouh Salem and three members of his Cabinet have been elected to the People’s Assembly, Egypt’s parliament, in elections yesterday marred by clashes that took at least three lives and caused many injuries.
Ramnath Goenka, 73‐year‐old publisher of The Indian Express, dismissed five pro‐Government directors and regained full control of India’s largest newspaper chain today, sources with the newspaper said. In the latest development in the conflict between Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s Government and one of India’s largest newspapers, Mr. Goenka used an annual shareholders meeting in Bombay to oust K. K. Birla, the board chairman and a pro‐Government industrialist, and four other directors, the sources said.
A Chinese province called today on the Central Committee of the Communist Party to expel Mao Zedong’s widow, Chiang Ching, and three other senior leftists from the party and deal them the “severest Punishment.” It was the first specific can tor punishment of the leftists since they were arrested nearly three weeks ago. But at the same time, there were indications from other provinces that the current attacks on the four top leftists would not be turned into a major nationwide purge of their supporters. So far there has been little official information on the fate of the four leftists, who have been accused of a wide variety of charges ranging from tampering with Chairman Mao’s directives to trying to seize power from the new party chairman, Hua Kuo‐feng. in addition to Miss Chiang, the accused are Chang Chunchiao, the senior Deputy Prime Minister; Wang Hung‐wen, the youthful second ranking member of the party, and Yao Wen‐yuan, the party’s chief propagandist.
An executive of Control Data Corporation said today that his company has received Administration approval to sell computer systems of comparable capability to the Soviet Union and China, and this was confirmed by Administration spokesmen.
Koreans in Los Angeles are being intimidated by the South Korean Intelligence Agency for voicing opposition to the Seoul government, according to leaders of the 70,000-member community and law enforcement officials. They said that reprisals ranged from beatings to economic boycotts. An immigrant who criticized the Seoul regime was beaten up in a bar and then vanished, and a Korean-language newspaper lost much of its advertising.
A newly disclosed federal inquiry has raised the possibility that American citizens are working illegally on behalf of the South Korean government. Federal officials said that the Justice Department was investigating many groups and persons connected with the Rev. Sun Myung Moon. The Foreign Agents Registration Act requires that all persons, American citizens and foreign nationals alike, who represent a foreign government or act to promote that government’s interests, must register as foreign agents with the Department of Justice. The department is in charge of the current investigation. The Federal officials familiar with the inquiry were careful to assert that Mr. Moon himself and his Unification Church were not being investigated, because Constitutional questions of freedom of religion might be raised. Instead, the inquiry is focusing on organizations associated with the church.
A Government-ordered inquiry into the uranium industry in Australia has decided that the mining and export of the ore should go ahead subject to the imposition of tight controls. The inquiry was set in motion by the former Labor Government 18 months ago under Justice Russel Walter “Fox, who delivered the report yesterday. The issue has aroused widespread controversy, with conservationists, headed by a group called the Friends of the Earth opposing the mining of uranium and other groups calling, for its export as an important factor in Australia’s foreign earnings.
An earth tremor today shook a large area around the town of Meckering, 85 miles east of Perth, the Australia Broadcasting Commission reported. There were no reports of several structural damage, and the broadcasting commission said no injuries were reported.
African nationalist leaders today bitterly condemned the Rhodesian Government of Prime Minister Ian a Smith and demanded that Britain assume full responsibility for the rapid transfer of bower to the black majority. The Africans, in opening statements at the second day of the Geneva conference on Rhodesia, told Mr. Smith that his Government was “fascist” and condoned “brutal atrocities” and torture of suspects. Mr. Smith termed the accusations “a complete pack of lies.” Although the speeches by four nationalist leaders were clearly pre-negotiating positions at the talks, which are designed to arrange for a transition to black majority rule, the accusations underlined the fierce anger felt toward Mr. Smith by the Africans and the gulf separating the white and black Rhodesians at the conference. After the 90‐minute session, which was adjourned until possibly Tuesday to give time for informal talks, Ivor Richard, Britain’s chief delegate to the United Nations who is presiding at the parley here, said he was “extremely impressed” with the statements by the nationalists and Mr. Smith.
The future of Secretary of State Kissinger has aroused wide speculation in Washington. He has indicated to confidants that if President Ford wins Tuesday’s election be will stay in his post at least two more years. If Jimmy Carter is elected, Mr. Kissinger will review lucrative offers from publishers for his memoirs and may consider a special post at Harvard.
Wisconsin teachers applauded President Ford when he accused Jimmy Carter of bidding for teachers’ support with the prospect of federal tax dollars. “You are too sophisticated, too experienced, too knowledgeable to simply throw your weight to the highest bidder,” Mr. Ford told 4,000 members of the Wisconsin affiliate of the National Education Association, which has endorsed Mr. Carter. In a busy day, the President campaigned in Milwaukee, Cleveland, St. Louis and Houston.
A steady attack on Republican economics was intensified by Jimmy Carter, who likened the Ford policies to the pre-Depression policies of Herbert Hoover and who warned of “more hard times ahead” if President Ford wins next Tuesday. Addressing a big, receptive audience in Philadelphia, the Democratic nominee derided Mr. Ford’s assurance that the economy was improving. Mr. Carter also campaigned in New York, Toledo and St. Louis in a westward trek toward California.
The Philadelphia rally posed a possibly disastrous threat to Mr. Carter’s campaign in Pennsylvania. Mayor Frank Rizzo refused to attend because the Carter staff had invited some leaders of an abortive recall drive against Mayor Rizzo last summer. However, the mayor was persuaded to meet Mr. Carter later and told him he would “win big” in Philadelphia.
For broadcast advertising President Ford has spent $4 million more than Mr. Carter. The latest reports show that the Ford campaign committed $11.3 million, while his challenger spent $7.1 million.
Senator Walter F. Mondale said today that if President Ford and Senator Robert J. Dole, his running mate, had “had their way about it,” Richard M. Nixon would “still be President of the United States.” In what he said was a response to the issue of “trust in Government” raised by Mr. Ford in recent days, the Democratic Vice‐Presidential nominee abandoned his standard stump speech on economics to recall here in detail the responses of Mr. Ford and Mr. Dole to the unfolding Watergate scandal three years ago. Mr. Mondale accused the President, while he was House minority leader and later when he was Vice President, of having embarked “on a course of behavior that was designed to protect Mr. Nixon,” whose activities, he said, Mr. Ford had defended “to the bitter end.”
Eugene McCarthy’s bid to regain his place on the New York state ballot as an independent candidate for president was unanimously rejected by the United States Supreme Court. The action came less than five hours after he filed a plea with the court.
Economic statistics that have at times given warning of an economic downturn declined in September for the second successive month. The Commerce Department reported a drop of seven-tenths of 1 percent in its index of leading indicators. The report was cited by Jimmy Carter as new evidence that the economy was still in trouble. President Ford and his advisers discounted the significance of the report, the last broad economic index to appear before Election Day.
Frank E. Fitzsimmons, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and Roy L. Williams, who was twice acquitted of charges of embezzling union funds, will remain on the new board of trustees of the union’s major pension fund, the fund announced yesterday. In addition, the six new trustees named yesterday to the reorganized board of the Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund include three representatives of the union who were described by a teamster watchdog group as “beholden to the old trustees.” “What kind of cleanup is this?” asked John C. Sikorski, acting executive director of Prod, the watchdog organization. “They’re keeping the two guys, Fitzsimmons and Williams, who have been in this muck the longest. Once again this shows that the fund is not genuinely intent on cleaning itself up. It’s just a miserable P.R. stunt.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is testing for fingerprints on a nearly empty half‐pint whiskey bottle found in the wheelhouse of the ferryboat George Prince, which was involved in a collision with a Norwegian tanker on October 20 that killed more than 70 people. The discovery of the bottle was disclosed yesterday, the fifth day of a hearing by the Coast Guard on the collision, which occurred in the Mississippi River, 30 miles from New Orleans. A coroner’s report released earlier said the captain of the ferry, Eugene Auletta, had been drinking on the job and had consumed enough liquor to be considered legally drunk in many states at the time of the crash. Seventy‐four people are known to have died in the crash and four others are missing and presumed dead. Eighteen passengers survived.
The University of California’s nine campuses have been ordered to refrain from using racial quotes as criteria for admission to special programs. The order came from Donald L. Reidhaar, university general counsel, yesterday after the California Supreme Court refused to change its decision that there had been unconstitutional “reverse discrimination” at the Davis campus. Mr. Reidhaar said that he would appeal the case to the United States Supreme Court and ask for a stay against the state court ruling. The suit was originally filed by Allan Bakke, who said that he had been refused admission to the Davis School of Medicine because its program for minority preference discriminated against whites. When the state Supreme Court denied a rehearing to the University of California, it also amended its September decision and ordered that Mr. Bakke be immediately admitted to the medical school program. it originally said that this decision was up to the Superior Court near the Davis campus. The State Supreme Court said that the university had not “established that a program which discriminates against white applicants because of their race is necessary to achieve” the school’s objectives of integrating the student body and improving medical care for minorities.
Alaska has accused the Congress of Racial Equality of trying to harass and threaten businessmen into buying ads in a CORE magazine, the attorney general’s office said today. The unfair trade practices suit tiled by the state in Superior Court seeks an injunction and a $5,000 fine against the civil rights group. CORE’s national director, Roy Innis of New York City, and Charles Cook of Los Angeles, the Western regional director, were ordered in a court summons to respond to the suit within 40 days. The suit centers on allegedly illegal efforts by CORE to put pressure on Alaska businessmen by telephone and mail for advertising space in the “Equal Opportunity Journal.” It accused CORE salesmen of using “false, deceptive and misleading” statements in trying to sell ads and employing “abusive language and threats” against companies that refused to purchase advertisements.
In the agriculture sector of the economy, the government reported that the average prices that farmers got for raw products declined 5 percent from September 15 to October 15.
Banks across the country followed the lead of the Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company by cutting their prime lending rate to 6½ percent from 6¾ percent, the second quarter-point reduction in barely a month. Among those adopting the lower rate where the nation’s two largest banks — Bank of America and Citibank.
A spy ship whose mission was to recover part of a sunken Soviet submarine will leave Long Beach Harbor next week for a Government mothball fleet in Northern California. The Hughes Glomar Explorer, whose top secret assignment in the Pacific Ocean was disclosed last year, will be deactivated at the National Defense Reserve Fleet in Suisan Bay east of San Francisco Bay. Dismantling of the Explorer’s massive derrick towers was completed Wednekday at the United States Naval Support Facility Mole on Terminal Island.
Dr. Linus Pauling and a physician in Scotland have published a report asserting that vitamin C can prolong the lives of persons in the final stages of incurable cancer. Their report, covering 100 patients is, published in the October issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The mean survival time of the patients treated with vitamin C was about 210 days, according to the report, but only 50 days for a comparable group of patients who did not receive the vitamin. The study involved only “terminal” cancer patients. These were patients considered hopeless after all conventional methods of treatment had failed. The vitamin was given as a dietary supplement.
The number of deaths in the United States from Rh hemolytic disease, or “blue baby” disease, is dropping, the Federal Center for Disease Control said today. The disease occurs in infants with Rh positive blood type carried by an Rh negative mother. The mother’s antibodies, which normally fight disease, attack the baby because of the opposing Rh blood factor. The survey credited a new drug, RhoGAM, which when administered to the mother within 72 hours after the birth of her first child prevents antibodies from building up to attack her next Rh positive baby. The disease seldom occurs in first babies.
Prime-rate reductions by many of the nation’s largest banks pushed the stock market sharply higher yesterday, the Dow Jones industrial average climbing 12.30 points to 964.93, its high for the day. Stock prices posted a sharp advance in expanded trading, with gains outnumbering losses by better than a 2-to-1 ratio.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 964.93 (+12.30, +1.29%)
Born:
Milena Govich, American actress, director, singer, dancer, and musician, Detective Nina Cassady on “Law & Order”, in Norman, Oklahoma.
Glenn Berggoetz, American comedian and film producer known for the 2011 film “The Worst Movie Ever!” and for the 2010 comedy “To Die Is Hard”; in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Joe Davenport, NFL tight end (Indianapolis Colts), in Springdale, Arkansas.
Mohsen Emadi, Iranian-Mexican Poet, in Sari, Iran.
Died:
Konstantin Vasilyev, 33, Soviet Russian painter, was killed in a railway accident.
