Photograph: A United States Air Force C-5A Galaxy cargo plane lands at RAF Greenham Common, carrying U.S. Tomahawk cruise missiles for the airbase near Newbury, Berkshire, U.K., on Tuesday, November 15, 1983. In 1981 women’s peace camps were established at the base in protest of the cruise missiles being deployed in Britain. (Photo by Bryn Colton/Getty Images)
Turkish Cypriots declared their part of Cyprus an independent nation. The action was deplored by the Greek Cypriot President, who heads the island’s internationally recognized government. There were no reports of violence, but Turkish troops and Turkish Cypriot border guards were reported on alert along the so-called green line that has divided Cyprus since 1974.
Greece condemned the Turkish Cypriots’ announcement that the northern part of Cyprus had been proclaimed independent. Athens denied reports that it had called a general mobilization.
The United States demanded that the Turkish Cypriots reverse their decision. In an unusually blunt reaction, Washington also warned Turkey that by recognizing such a state, it had caused major problems for NATO and could jeopardize American-Turkish relations.
A senior U.S. Navy officer was slain along with his chauffeur by two unidentified gunmen in Athens. An anonymous caller said the group that killed the C.I.A. station chief there in 1975 was responsible for the attack. The victims were 53-year-old Captain George Tsantes and his Greek chauffeur, Nicholas Veloutsos, 62.
Palestinian rebels heavily attacked Yasser Arafat’s last stronghold in Lebanon, and troops and tanks advanced to within 200 yards of the camp outside densely-populated Tripoli. More than 100 civilians were reported killed or wounded. The assault was the most intense since the start of the fighting there November 3.
Fighting engulfed Beirut again as rockets struck streets, apartment houses and office buildings in the heart of the capital. The intermittent shelling was the most serious violation yet of the September 26 cease-fire between the Lebanese Army and rival militiamen that has been unraveling a bit more each day.
Syrian security forces systematically violate human rights by torturing detainees and carrying out political killings, Amnesty International said in a report. “No one (in Syria) can depend on the protection of the law,” the London-based human rights group said.
Soviet planes and helicopter gunships killed 50 to 80 Afghan guerrillas in an attack north of Kabul, the worst rebel losses in the area in months, Western diplomats in New Delhi said. The Soviet aircraft caught the guerrillas in the open November 8 or 9 in the Shomali Valley, where they apparently were gathering for an attack on Soviet and Afghan army installations, they said. Independent confirmation of the report was not immediately available.
Grenada’s Governor General swore in five members of an interim governing council. The council promised to hold elections ”as soon as practical” and to review all laws governing the citizens of the island.
A widening of the arms race into space may soon occur, according to most arms-control experts. This likelihood has galvanized a small group of respected American arms experts into increasing opposition to the Reagan Administration’s desire to develop space weapons.
More than a thousand people protested today against charges being brought against a Roman Catholic priest in Gdansk. The priest, the Rev. Henryk Jankowski, has been notified that he is to be charged with abuse of religious freedom and was summoned to the prosecutor’s office today for questioning. As Father Jankowski, an adviser Lech Walesa, the Solidarity founder, arrived at the courthouse, which was ringed with police, a crowd of several hundred had gathered. It grew to over a thousand by the time he left a little over an hour later. Some 50 members of the Western press were taken into custody and were later released. The prosecution of Father Jankowski reflects official annoyance over the identification of the church with Solidarity. Church celebrations have become staging grounds for pro-Solidarity demonstrations, most recently on November 11.
Cardinal Tomas O Fiaich, the Roman Catholic primate of Ireland, appealed to the Irish Republican Army to “stop in God’s name before you leave our country in ruins.” He spoke after the guerrilla organization took responsibility for the killing of Charles Armstrong, chairman of the Armagh, Northern Ireland, district council. His slaying brings to 14 the number of people killed in political violence in Ulster in the last month, the bloodiest month this year.
Japanese fighter planes scrambled to intercept three Soviet air-N craft that briefly entered Japanese airspace. The three planes, two TU-16 Badgers and one TU-95 Bear bomber sometimes used for reconnaissance, were part of a 10-plane formation that flew south over the Sea of Japan toward the strait between Japan and South Korea. The three were in Japanese airspace for about 90 seconds 43 miles north of Fukuoka, leaving before the Japanese fighters reached them.
The chief military investigator of the assassination of Benigno S. Aquino Jr. said that closed-circuit cameras filmed a section of the tarmac at Manila airport when Aquino was killed August 21. But Major General Prospero Olivas told a Philippine fact-finding commission that videotapes of the scene showed the tail of the plane from which Aquino was taken, and not the actual murder. Olivas had not mentioned the videotapes in earlier reports.
The Sandinistas are losing support in Western Europe because of their close ties to Cuba and attitude toward domestic critics, according to diplomats and foreign policy analysts in Nicaragua.
An ex-chief of Argentine intelligence was charged with illegal association with a right-wing terrorist group that has been blamed for many assassinations and disappearances in the 1970’s. A federal judge in Buenos Aires indicted the former official, retired General Otto Paladino, and ordered him held without bail.
Panama fired Vice President Jorge Illueca after he angered the country’s powerful National Guard. At the United Nations, where he is president of the General Assembly, Illueca denied that Panama is participating in the Central American Defense Council, which he called “repulsive to the international conscience, because its principal architect was Anastasio Somoza,” the late Nicaraguan dictator, “and its father was the Southern Command,” the U.S. military headquarters in Panama. Carlos Ozores, former foreign minister, was named to replace Illueca. Panama said Illueca will retain his U.N. post.
Environmental specialists renewed warnings that air, water and soil pollution have surpassed acceptable limits in Mexico City. The scientists, from the National Polytechnical Institute, said that 900 tons of sulfur pollutants enter the atmosphere every day and that 8,000 tons of garbage are generated daily, making the city one of the world’s dirtiest and most disease-ridden.
Pro-Western rebels in Angola said today that they captured 5 British and 12 Portuguese citizens in attacks on government positions in eastern Angola on Sunday. A communique from the rebel group, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, said the 17 had been seized in raids on Kazombo and Kavungu and on a bridge over the Zambezi River in the Moxico Province. A rebel spokesman said he believed the foreigners were technicians working on development projects. The rebels reported other attacks on government positions and Cuban military convoys as part of an offensive begun on Nov. 2. The objective of the offensive, expected to last six months, is to take control of Lunda Province and to penetrate Luanda Province.
About 15 former government leaders have been arrested in the West African nation of Upper Volta, government sources said. Those arrested reportedly include former Presidents Maurice Yameogo and Saye Zerbo and former Premiers Gerard Kango Ouedraogo and Joseph Conombo. In the most recent of many changes of government in Upper Volta, one of the world’s poorest nations, former Premier Thomas Sankara, a leftist army captain, overthrew President Jean-Baptiste Ouedraogo in August.
The 201-room Tahara’a, one of Tahiti’s largest hotels, said Monday that it was shutting down and looking for a buyer because it could no longer absorb losses from a three-week-old strike by hotel workers. Meanwhile, the 200-room Tahiti Beachcomber said it had reopened, and the union representing the workers threatened to ring the hotel with pickets and force it to close again. A spokesman for the third hotel affected by the strike, the 230-room Hotel Sofitel Maeva Beach, said he was willing to meet with union leaders. Tahiti’s hotel workers are demanding a 5-day, 40-hour week at the same pay as their current 6-day, 48-hour week. The Tahiti Tourist Promotion Board says the strike has cost the economy $764,000 and that 1,500 tourists had been lost for the season.
An equal rights plan was defeated in the House by six votes after a bitter partisan debate. The vote was 278 for passage and 147 against, shy of the necessary two-thirds majority needed for proposed constitutional amendments. The measure was unexpectedly scheduled for floor action by Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill Jr. after the Democratic majority limited debate to 40 minutes.
The Senate refused to go along with either total decontrol of natural gas prices as the Reagan Administration wants or stronger price controls as a cure for spiraling home heating bills. Now, it must begin considering more than a dozen alternatives between the two extremes. But chances are extremely thin that Congress can agree before its Friday adjournment on a package that will provide any relief this winter for the 45 million families that heat their homes with gas. The government predicts that average retail gas prices this winter will rise 7%, in addition to 120% in increases over the last five years.
Senate-House negotiators rejected a proposal to appoint a national drug czar and adopted a compromise $303-million supplemental spending bill. The measure, which now goes to the full House and Senate for approval, commends “the actions of the United States armed forces engaged in military operations in Grenada.” A provision to suspend for six months a proposed Federal Communications Commission rule allowing the television networks to own the shows they broadcast was dropped because a Senate committee is expected to act today on a bill suspending the rule.
Strong opposition to nerve gas was maintained by the House. It voted, 258 to 165, to instruct its conferees to oppose a Senate-approved measure that authorizes $124 million for production of nerve gas arms.
President Reagan meets with Republican Congressional Leadership. President Reagan bade Congress today to approve legislation raising the national debt ceiling to $1,600 billion, warning that failure to do so would cause the Federal Government to run out of cash December 1. This evening, an aide to Senator Howard H. Baker Jr., the Senate majority leader, said for the first time that there appeared to be enough votes to pass the debt ceiling measure.
President Reagan meets with Senators to discuss the Tuition Tax Credit legislation.
Senator John Glenn, in a speech evidently designed to start a major new round of political fighting with former Vice President Walter F. Mondale, today accused Mr. Mondale of exhibiting ”a fundamental lack of support for an adequate national defense” throughout his Senate career. Mr. Mondale retorted that he had a ”balanced, consistent record” for needed defense programs while Mr. Glenn ”gives a blank check to the Pentagon.” Mr. Glenn’s attack came in a speech to the Coalition for a Democratic Majority, a key group of Democratic conservatives promoting a stronger defense posture for the party. Earlier in the day Mr. Mondale addressed the same group in a speech intended to allay any fears that, as a traditional Democratic liberal, he would be soft on military preparedness and relations with the Soviet Union. Glenn strategists said that with today’s speech, the Senator opened a political offensive designed to regain momentum lost in October and to demonstrate that most Democrats agree with his more conservative views on defense policy and economics.
Edmund S. Muskie, who served as a United States Senator and was Secretary of State in the Carter Administration, was admitted to Webber Hospital here today with ”chest pains,” a doctor said. ”He is in fair condition and undergoing tests,” Dr. Carl Morrison, chief of staff at the hospital, said. ”Senator Muskie is resting comfortably right now.” Mr. Muskie, 69 years old, was rushed to the hospital early this morning from his vacation home in nearby Kennebunk.
Billie Sol Estes, convicted of swindling, emerged from prison today and proclaimed: ”I’ve done the crime, I’ve done the time and I did it alone.” Mr. Estes spent more than 10 years in prison for fraud and concealing assets. Smiling broadly and wrestling with five rowdy grandchildren, Mr. Estes spoke with reporters at a local restaurant after his release from the Federal prison camp here. Mr. Estes, 58 years old, a one-time friend and financial supporter of former President Lyndon B. Johnson, will spend the next 30 days under the supervision of a Salvation Army halfway house in his hometown of Abilene.
Raymond L. Flynn won the mayoral race in Boston. Mr. Flynn, a City Councilman of conservative Irish roots and populist views, overcame Melvin H. King, a former State Representative and the first black to gain a mayoral runoff in Boston.
High winds flung a tree into a mobile home in Cordova, Alabama, in the early morning and killed an 84-year-old woman as a stampede of tornadoes injured 19 other persons and ripped buildings to pieces in the northern part of the state. At least 10 houses, 10 mobile homes and 21 other structures were destroyed. Many more were damaged as the tornadoes, heavy rains and high winds uprooted trees and snapped power lines, blacking out thousands of homes, farms and businesses for hours. Cullman County, 30 miles north of Birmingham, was hit the hardest.
David S. Saxon, chairman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, proposed that the federal government require all youths to join the military or perform civilian work in exchange for college benefits similar to the GI Bill of Rights. Saxon said a program of mandatory universal service could offer “a new method of attack” on social problems and lend purpose to the lives of “young people adrift in the backwaters.” Saxon described his proposal in a speech before college presidents in Washington for the annual meeting of the National Assn. of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges.
A federal appeals court ruled that the Agriculture Department erred in telling schools serving federally subsidized lunches that they could not sell soft drinks until lunch period had ended. In effect, the court said Congress did not intend to allow schoolwide bans on junk food sales when it gave the agriculture secretary power to limit food sales that compete with subsidized lunches and breakfasts.
The National Conference of Catholic Bishops overwhelmingly elected Bishop James Malone, 63, of Youngstown, Ohio, to a three-year term as its president, giving him 150 votes to a combined total of 127 votes for nine other nominees. Archbishop John May of St. Louis was elected vice president. Malone, son of an Irish-born steel worker, had been vice president of the conference under Archbishop John Roach, whom he succeeds.
The New York City Council passed a bill requiring establishments that sell alcoholic beverages — except groceries that sell beer — to post notices warning that alcohol can cause birth defects. The legislation has the blessing of Health Commissioner David Sencer, an indication that Mayor Edward I. Koch will sign it. Councilman Jerry Crispino said there are estimates that the city pays up to $75 million annually for the lifetime care of about 900 babies born with alcohol-related defects.
Heart attacks have been halted by a human protein derived from cancer cells in a pilot study on seven patients, according to American and Belgian researchers.
75th hat trick in New York Islander history by NHL star Mike Bossy.
Cal Ripken is named MVP of the American League, edging Orioles teammate Eddie Murray. Ripken hit .318 and led the league in hits (211) and runs (111) while playing every inning of every game, and is the first player ever to win the Rookie of the Year and MVP Awards in consecutive seasons.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1247.96 (-6.10).
Born:
Sasha Pavlović, Montenegrin NBA shooting guard and small forward (Utah Jazz, Cleveland Cavaliers, Minnesota Timberwolves, Dallas Mavericks, New Orleans Hornets, Boston Celtics, Portland Trailblazers), in Bar, Montenegro, Yugoslavia.
Craig Hansen, MLB pitcher (Boston Red Sox, Pittsburgh Pirates), in Glen Cove, New York.
Kyle Greentree, Canadian NHL left wing (Philadelphia Flyers, Calgary Flames), in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
Died:
Dai Rees, 70, Scottish golfer (British Open runner-up 1953-1954, 1961), of car accident injuries.
John Le Mesurier, 71, British actor (“The Italian Job”, “Jabberwocky”, “Dad’s Army”), of cirrhosis of the liver.
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