Photograph: President Ronald Reagan and Mrs. Reagan arrive at the Imperial Palace and greet Emperor Hirohito in Japan, Tokyo, 10 November 1983.
Vagueness on the pullout schedule of United States forces in Grenada was indicated by Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger. He said he could not give a “target date” or even set clear criteria for the withdrawal. Mr. Weinberger cited new incidents of sniper fire in the Grenadian hills and suggested there might be an extended role on the island for United States military engineers and other units.
Receptions accorded U.S. troops returning from Grenada contrast sharply with those given the troops who returned from Vietnam. “When I came home from Vietnam I was treated like dirt,” said an Army Ranger. “But now, I walk down the street and people slap me on the back and say, ‘Thanks.’ “
Syrian antiaircraft batteries opened fire on four American F-14 fighter jets as they were flying a reconnaissance mission over Syrian military positions in Lebanon, a military spokesman in Damascus said. The Defense Department confirmed that a single American Navy F-14 had encountered apparent antiaircraft fire during a routine flight, but it said the plane was not hit and returned safely to its carrier base. Defense Secretary Weinberger discounted the incident as routine.
Yasser Arafat was reportedly asked by a Lebanese Muslim politician to leave the city of Tripoli, where he has taken refuge from rebel Palestinians attacking his nearby stronghold. Reports from Damascus said the request came from former Prime Minister Rashid Karami. He was quoted as saying that the Palestinian leader had agreed to leave the city of 600,000.
An Egyptian envoy will visit Israel to resume talks on several key issues that have strained relations between the countries since Israel invaded Lebanon last year. The visit was announced in Cairo after David Kimche, director general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, met for two hours with Egyptian Foreign Minister Kamal Hassan Ali. The talks, to occur “sometime in the future,” will concern-among other issues-the status of Taba, a small border strip on the Gulf of Aqaba that Israel refused to leave when it withdrew from the Sinai in April, 1982; tourism and trade agreements, and the return of Egypt’s ambassador to Israel.
The Israeli government has decided to cut back on its program of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank as a cost-saving measure, Israel television reported. The network said that work on four new planned settlements — at Dolev near Ramallah and Hermesh, Kochva and Otniel south of Hebron — will be postponed until next March, and that there will be a cut in the rate of building in existing settlements.
Iran, angered by French delivery of five Super Etendard jets to its enemy, Iraq, has taken reprisals against France, the Ministry of External Relations said in Paris. The Iranians demanded that the French commercial attaché’s office in Tehran be shut down; it ordered stiff sanctions against French banks, and it closed the French Institute for Research in Iran, an archeological organization that has worked in Iran for a century. The action against French banks is expected to prevent them from financing Iranian foreign trade deals.
Lebanese factions meeting in Geneva began talks on the thorny question of the future composition of the nation’s army after reaching a consensus on key principles of constitutional and political reform, delegate sources said. A Muslim delegate said it is imperative that “the army is kept out of the country’s internal conflicts.” Problems not solved by the committee will be turned over to the main reconciliation conference, which recessed last Friday. The larger conference is expected to reconvene in about two weeks.
President Reagan becomes the first President of the United States to address the Japanese Diet. President Reagan urged Japan and its Parliament to join the United States in “a powerful partnership for good.” Mr. Reagan, speaking as the first American President to address Japan’s national legislature, said the two countries should work together to eliminate nuclear weapons.
President Reagan attends an archery demonstration at the Meiji Shrine in Japan.
President Reagan meets with Prime Minister of Japan Yasuhiro Nakasone. President Reagan has a private traditional Japanese lunch at the home of Prime Minister Nakasone.
President Reagan attends a state dinner at the Emperor’s Palace hosted by Emperor Hirohito.
Some of the 80 crewmen from the drilling ship Glomar Java Sea got off the vessel safely before it sank and may now be in Vietnam, an official of the Global Marine Drilling Company said today. The official, Gary L. Kott, president of the drilling company that was operating the Glomar Java Sea when it sank last month in a typhoon in the South China Sea, said divers exploring the vessel Wednesday found no bodies. But he said they did discover that both 60-man lifeboats were gone and at least one life raft was “properly launched.” Mr. Kott said the State Department was trying to arrange permission from the Vietnamese for a search of the Vietnam coastline. Mr. Kott said Global Marine was informed that the Vietnamese promised to search the area and to return any crewmen found there.
Heineken Breweries said that it received a message from the kidnappers of its chairman, Alfred “Freddy” Heineken, 60, and is ready to pay for his freedom. The note demanded that the company say no more to the press and said that the kidnappers will get in touch again. A company spokesman would not say whether the note mentioned any specific ransom for the chairman and his driver, who were seized by three armed men in Amsterdam Wednesday night.
Wolfgang Sieler, a Social Democratic member of the West German Parliament, said that Defense Minister Manfred Woerner has agreed to check out a Stern magazine report that the U.S. military uses comic books showing nuclear warfare to teach the German language. Neither West German nor U.S. officials could be contacted immediately for comment. Stern said the comics are used at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California. “The first nuclear war takes place in Germany and is won by the Americans,” Stern said, referring to a copy of the instruction pamphlet it said it obtained.
East Germany feted Martin Luther on the 500th anniversary of his birth in the city of Eisleben. Bearing lanterns through the city’s cobbled streets, thousands of citizens of the Communist-led country gathered in the market square in a setting dominated by a huge placard that read, “God Over All Things.”
A Central American defense bloc, founded under United States sponsorship in 1963 and now being revitalized, is studying the legality of a joint military action against Nicaragua, according to a report of a secret meeting last month of the military chiefs of staff of El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama and Honduras.
The Panama Canal will be maintained and improved without increased toll rates in 1984, the agency that operates the waterway announced today. The Panama Canal Commission, the nine-member agency set up by Congress to maintain the Canal, decided not to raise toll costs because the members said they believed that since trade levels are falling and the maritime industry remains steeped in recession, the canal must do its part to keep transportation costs from rising. “We think that with traffic down in the waterway, we can get by without a toll increase,” said William R. Gianelli, chairman of the commission’s board of directors.
President Ferdinand E. Marcos, declaring he is through “being charming,” told more than 500 foreign and Filipino businessmen that they failed to understand the Philippines’ economic problems and urged them to rid their ranks of hoarders, smugglers, liars and tax dodgers. Marcos made the comments in rejecting their calls for political reform during a meeting in the presidential palace.
A Zimbabwean Government spokesman said today that Bishop Abel Muzorewa, under detention, had ended a week-long hunger strike. But officials of Bishop Muzorewa’s opposition party were unable to confirm the statement. John Tsimba, Government information director, said the former Prime Minister had “come off” the hunger strike on Tuesday. But Edward Mazaiwana, secretary general of the minority United African National Council, said only that his party was aware of “these rumors, but we don’t know if they are true because we have not been allowed to visit him.” Bishop Muzorewa, 58 years old, is bishop of Zimbabwe’s United Methodist Church. He was Prime Minister in 1980 during the transition from colonial status to full independence from Britain with an elected black leadership. Prime Minister Robert Mugabe has accused Bishop Muzorewa of “clandestine activities.” He was seized October 31.
Pro-Western insurgents in Angola said today that they shot down an Angolan jetliner that crashed after takeoff, killing all 126 people aboard. But the Angolan national airline said its plane appeared to have crashed because of a “technical fault.” The Boeing 737 crashed Tuesday just after taking off from the airport at Lubanga, Angola, on a regularly scheduled flight to Luanda, the capital. A statement from the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola said its “special commandos” destroyed the airliner, which it said carried Government troops. Angola’s press agency denied reports there were military recruits on the plane and said it carried “only two soldiers.”
A reconstituted civil rights panel will likely be established by Congress. At least 55 Senators were said to be supporting a plan to transfer the United States Commission on Civil Rights from the executive branch to Congress. Proponents of the plan say the independence of the present panel can no longer be guaranteed if it remains in an executive branch headed by President Reagan.
Rep. Daniel E. Lungren (R-California) said he has gathered 112 of the 218 signatures needed to force the House to consider immigration-reform legislation. Lungren is trying to bring the measure to the floor using a discharge petition. House Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill Jr. (D-Massachusetts) said last month that the bill would not come up this year. The bill would penalize employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens and extend limited amnesty to illegal aliens who have been in this country since January 1, 1982. O’Neill said he feared President Reagan would veto the bill to curry favor with Latinos.
The $1.6-billion “superfund” for cleaning up toxic waste dumps should be extended beyond 1985, the chairman of a major chemical firm said, but the chemical industry should not bear all the costs. Louis Fernandez, chairman of both Monsanto Co. and the Chemical Manufacturers Association, told a House Commerce, Transportation and Tourism subcommittee: “We refuse to pay 100% of the cleanup cost when we are not responsible for 100% of the dumping.” The fund gets 87.5% of its funding from the industry and 12.5% from the government.
Air safety is not threatened by a 16% reduction in the number of federal aviation safety inspectors since 1981, Federal Aviation Administrator J. Lynn Helms told a House Public Works and Transportation subcommittee. Improved management, productivity and inspection procedures will offset the decreases, he said. But California Rep. Norman Y. Mineta (D-California) said he is not convinced. In fiscal 1983, he said, 7% fewer inspections were conducted than in the previous year.
Dairy surpluses are pouring into government warehouses and underground storage caves across the country at a cost of $3 billion a year as thousands of dairy farmers are expanding their herds to produce even more milk. The power of the dairy lobby derives from the presence of dairy farms in nearly every Congressional district in the country outside of cities.
The explosives used in the bombing in the Capitol Monday night resemble devices used in other recent bombings, according to William H. Webster, the FBI director. He said “a number of individuals” were under investigation, but added, “We don’t know who did it.”
San Francisco voters rejected new restraints that would have sharply slowed the construction of new skyscrapers downtown and approved curbs on where people may smoke in the workplace. The margins of votes were paper-thin.
A Toledo, Ohio, man who established his own church to avoid paying taxes was sentenced to 22 months in prison and fined $100,000. Robert J. Febre pleaded guilty to charges of tax evasion and mail fraud. Febre’s wife, Veronica, pleaded guilty in June to a charge of conspiracy to transport currency and was placed on two years’ probation. U.S. Attorney William Petro said Febre purchased a mail-order church charter from a California firm in 1978.
Greyhound Lines Inc. and union representatives agreed to continue health and welfare benefits for retirees during the strike by 12,700 bus drivers and terminal workers. Ed Ploski, administrator of two trusts that provide medical benefits to retirees of Greyhound, said in Phoenix that the trustees voted to continue the benefits through a reserve fund that contains about $12 million and could cover at least four months of payments. Retirees had been informed earlier this week that their benefits would end because of the strike, which began November 3.
The state cracked down on New York City businessmen who are violating a new returnable bottle law, sending out two dozen undercover agents to investigate compliance and threatening merchants with $500 fines. Under the law, consumers pay a 5-cent deposit when they purchase soft drinks, sparkling water or beer. The money is refunded when the containers are returned. A spokesman for the Department of Environmental Conservation said some merchants are selling non-deposit containers, others are refusing to redeem them and others are restricting the times when they accept them.
Six current or former Pennsylvania state hospital aides pleaded not guilty today to abusing mentally retarded residents in what the Justice Department called the first case to use Federal civil rights laws to protect the mentally handicapped. The six were among nine defendants indicted last week on charges of assaulting residents of the Pennhurst Center and psychologically intimidating them. Trials are tentatively scheduled for December and January. The six were freed on bonds. Officials said the indictments stemmed from a year-long investigation in which a state trooper worked undercover for five months as an aide at Pennhurst in 1981 and 1982. Pennhurst, a 75-year-old state institution northwest of Philadelphia in Spring City, has 622 residents.
Raymond L. Flynn is favored in public opinion polls in the mayoral race in Boston. Mr. Flynn is running a populist campaign against Melvin H. King, a former state legislator and the first black to become a Boston mayoral finalist. Mr. King has also run a strong campaign.
A socialist-leaning marine veteran who opposed the United States invasion of Grenada has been given an honorable discharge, a Marine spokesman said today. The discharge for Staff Sgt. James Stryffeler, 22 years old, of Cincinnati, was approved Tuesday by the Undersecretary of the Navy, said Maj. Robert Anderson of the Marine recruiting center in Cincinnati. “The decision was that Sgt. Stryffeler’s continued service was not in the best interest of the Marine Corps,” Major Anderson said. He said Sergeant Stryffeler had asked for the discharge. Major Anderson said the sergeant had a good service record. Sergeant Stryffeler acknowledged he belonged to the Young Socialists Alliance and had received legal aid from the Political Rights Defense Fund.
Winds up to 105 m.p.h. buffeted the Oregon coast while a snowstorm dropped more than a foot of snow around the Great Lakes. Oregon’s winds knocked down power lines and closed U.S. Highway 101 in the Humbug Canyon area. The National Weather Service reported sustained winds of 68 m.p.h. and gusts to 105 m.p.h. at Cape Blanco, Oregon. Winds gusting to 70 m.p.h. were common from San Francisco north along the coasts of Oregon and Washington. Meanwhile, the snowstorm dropped up to 14 inches of snow on parts of Michigan and Wisconsin.
Garry Sherman and Peter Udell’s musical “Amen Corner”, based on James Baldwin’s drama “The Amen Corner”, opens at Nederlander Theatre; runs for 28 performances.
“Marvelous” Marvin Hagler retains world middleweight boxing title with a 15-round unanimous points decision over Roberto Durán at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas; it is first time Hagler has gone the distance as champion.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1235.87 (+3.36).
Born:
Miranda Lambert, American country music singer and songwriter (“The Weight of These Wings”), in Longview, Texas.
Ryan Mattheus, MLB pitcher (Washington Nationals, Los Angeles Angels, Cincinnati Reds), in Sacramento, California.
Brian Dinkelman, MLB second baseman and outfielder (Minnesota Twins), in Centralia, Illinois.
Craig Smith, NBA power forward (Minnesota Timberwolves, Los Angeles Clippers, Portland Trailblazers), in Inglewood, California.
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