Israeli jets bombed a training base in eastern Lebanon reportedly belonging to pro-Iranian Shiite militiamen suspected of involvement in recent suicide attacks on American, French and Israeli military barracks. The base is three miles from the Syrian border. The Christian Phalangist radio said 30 people were killed and about 50 wounded.
President Reagan attends a National Security Planning Group about Lebanon and the Iranian-backed car bombers.
Yasser Arafat’s last redoubt was in jeopardy as Syrian-backed Palestinian rebels fought their way into the Beddawi refugee camp outside Tripoli. Tripoli’s leaders met in efforts to prevent the fighting from spreading into the city of 600,000.
Cyprus is determined to reverse Tuesday’s declaration of independence by Turkish Cypriots through peaceful means, President Spyros Kyprianou said. He said he planned to devise a course of action in consultation with Greece and Britain and hinted he was considering some form of economic blockade.
Italy’s Socialist government easily won parliamentary approval for plans to install 122 cruise missiles in Sicily as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s program calling for the installation of 572 cruise and Pershing 2 missiles in Britain, West Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy. The vote was 351 to 219. In London, British Defense Secretary Michael Heseltine vowed that deployment of the cruise missiles there will go ahead, despite the “unruly and reprehensible behavior” of protesters.
The Daily Express of London cited reports circulating in Western European intelligence circles that Soviet President Yuri V. Andropov had been shot and wounded in the arm by the son of his predecessor, Leonid I. Brezhnev. Early editions said the reports claimed the alleged Kremlin shooting by the 51-year-old Yuri Brezhnev in a family feud is the real reason for Andropov’s three-month absence from public view. The Daily Express, an influential British tabloid that supports Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government, is known to have good intelligence contacts.
The Soviet Union is likely to deploy a partly pirated version of the U.S. cruise nuclear missile early next year, Jane’s Defense Review said. The British journal of weapons systems said the Soviet missile at first is to be carried by submarines. Ground-launched and bomber-carried versions would follow. It said the Soviet missile has a 1,500-mile range, comparable to that of the U.S. Tomahawk.
Fifty years of U.S.-Soviet relations were marked in the Soviet Union with bleak appraisals of the current situation and wistful evocations of a time when Americans were respected models and allies. The nostalgia expressed by commentators and others seemed to reflect a lingering affinity for Americans despite decades of rivalry and tension.
Longtime U.S. and Soviet diplomats agreed at a Washington dinner that United States-Soviet relations were now at one of their lowest ebbs. George F. Kennan, a former Ambassador to Moscow, warned that history teaches that a weapons race is “a dangerous trap from which, to date, the competing parties have never found a means of escape, except in the disasters of war.”
A unilateral moratorium on testing of anti-satellite space weapons was announced in August by the Soviet leader, Yuri V. Andropov. Nonetheless, according to an American expert on defense technology, the Soviet Union launched a “target satellite” into orbit on October 1.
Aviation experts say a new theory is the likeliest explanation of why a South Korean airliner flew into Soviet airspace September 1. The theory is that a one-digit, 300-mile human error was made in putting the takeoff location into computers on the Boeing 747, which was shot down by a Soviet fighter plane. All 269 people aboard were killed.
President Reagan meets with Secretary of State George Shultz about developing channels for direct contact with the Soviets outside the usual bureaucracy.
Burmese soldiers have attacked a guerrilla base run by rebels from the Karen ethnic minority near the Thai-Burmese border, prompting 300 Burmese refugees to flee into Thailand, a provincial official said today. The official said that after artillery shelling began November 12, 400 Burmese Government soldiers attacked the Karen base opposite the Thai district of Thongpha Phum in Kanchanaburi province, 75 miles from Bangkok. The Karens, one of a dozen ethnic minority groups battling the Rangoon Government for autonomy, control a long strip of territory along the border. The official said Thai intelligence has reported that many rebels were killed or wounded in the latest attack.
Salvadoran death squads “of the violent right” must be restrained, a high Pentagon official said. The official, Fred C. Ikle, said that by attacking the democratic center with assassinations and intimidation, “the violent extremists” on both right and left “are working together.”
Guerrillas who had vowed to disrupt last weekend’s local elections in Peru killed at least 26 people in one village and chopped off the fingers of an undetermined number of voters in four other villages on the day after the balloting, police reported. The Civil Guard command in Ayacucho, a center of guerrilla violence by the Maoist Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path), said the bodies were found in the village of Soccos by fleeing villagers.
The Mexican government, claiming that its economic austerity measures are working, forecast that it I will slash inflation and increase industrial output while it tries to create 400,000 new jobs in 1984. In a message to Congress, President Miguel de la Madrid said that “despite economic recovery,” the government “can’t yet speak about success,” and he warned that more sacrifices will be required. His message said government spending is expected to increase by 55% to 11 trillion pesos for 1984, about $7.3 billion at current exchange rates.
A senior Pentagon official called for increased military aid for Honduras and Costa Rica to counter Nicaraguan and Cuban efforts to spread communism in Central America. In a speech to the World Affairs Council of Dallas, Fred C. Ikle, undersecretary of defense for policy, criticized Congress for slicing the Administration’s military aid request for the Caribbean region, saying that if “we calibrate our support at a level so low that we are bound to be always short of success, we ask for defeat in the long run.”
Kim Young Sam, a former opposition leader and strong critic of South Korean President Chun Doo Hwan, praised President Reagan for speaking in favor of greater human rights and democracy during his recent visit. But he said in an interview in Seoul that the real value of Reagan’s words will be determined by whether democracy actually comes to South Korea. Unless dissidents are freed, 305 banned politicians are allowed to participate in politics and direct elections are permitted, Kim said, South Korea will not have political freedom, and anti-American sentiment will grow.
Pro-Western Angolan rebels today warned all foreigners, especially members of international and religious organizations, to leave combat zones in the country as quickly as possible. A communique from the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola said it could no longer be held responsible for their safety.
Zimbabwe today released from detention without trial a fourth white air force officer who had been accused of subversive activities. A Government spokesman said the officer, Air Lieutenant Nigel Lewis-Walker, a British-Zimbabwean national, had been freed unconditionally. The airman’s lawyer, Alan Mollat, told reporters his client had promised a review tribunal examining his 16-month detention that he would leave Zimbabwe if released. Lieutenant Lewis-Walker was arrested with six other white officers after saboteurs, said to be South African-backed, destroyed or damaged a quarter of Zimbabwe’s air force combat planes in a raid on Thornhill Base in July last year. All seven were cleared of subversion allegations by the courts but detained again without further trial under state emergency powers. Four have now been released and three of those deported to Britain.
The Senate this morning paved the way for Congress to adjourn by the end of this week by adopting legislation to raise the national debt ceiling and allow the Government to continue borrowing money. The bill to raise the level of Government debt, made necessary by the continuing budget deficits, passed by a vote of 58 to 40 and now goes to a conference with the House, which approved a higher debt limit as part of the budget resolution earlier this year.
The debt ceiling measure was soundly defeated in the Senate two weeks ago, and the key to the reversal this morning was the ability of Senator Howard H. Baker Jr. of Tennessee, the majority leader, to produce Republican votes for it. Democrats had said that before they backed the bill, they wanted to see a large majority of the 55 Republicans recorded in favor, as a way of protecting themselves against potential attacks by conservative foes. Senator Baker’s efforts at persuasion were reinforced by a letter from President Reagan, who urged senators to pass the legislation. For one dramatic moment, it was unclear whether enough Republicans would fall in line, but after some urgent consultation, Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania switched his vote and backed the bill, and the Democrats followed suit.
The Senate rebuffed the President by soundly defeating a bill that would provide tax credits for parents who send their children to private schools. The vote was 59 to 38. President Reagan had placed the tuition tax credits at the top of his legislative priority list, but Senator Bob Dole, the Kansas Republican who offered the proposal, said it was probably dead now unless supporters could convince Congress it would not harm the public schools.
The votes came as lawmakers in both houses wrestled with a string of fiscal issues they want to resolve before they adjourn for the year. A compromise was reached between White House and Congressional officials on legislation authorizing Federal subsidies for 100,000 additional housing units across the nation.
The House approved by voice vote a compromise measure to extend the life of the Civil Rights Commission and revise its structure. Under the new version, which has already passed the Senate, Congress and the President would each appoint four members of the Commission. The measure apparently ends a long battle in which President Reagan tried to oust three members of the current commission and dominate the panel with his own appointees.
Congressional leaders said that a deal had been made to speed passage of two highly contested bills, one increasing the American contribution to the International Monetary Fund by $8.4 billion, another authorizing new housing programs. The supplemental appropriations bill could be used as the vehicle to rush the measures into law.
Highly classified documents from the Carter Administration have been found by congressional investigators in files from President Reagan’s 1980 election campaign, said Rep. Donald J. Albosta (D-Michigan), whose House subcommittee is inquiring into how Carter materials reached Reagan’s campaign. Albosta, who has set January 26 as the tentative start for public hearings, refused to say whether the documents were found in the Reagan campaign archives at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University or in personal files maintained by former Reagan campaign staffers.
Transcript alterations that had House Republicans crying foul for months were committed by a lone Democratic aide who attributed his actions to “emotional stress,” the Ethics Committee reported. The panel said Lester O. Brown, 31, who was fired September 2, was “solely responsible” for doctoring the transcript of acrimonious hearings in July of last year. Republicans said the alterations made them look foolish. In a finding with broader but less partisan implications, the committee said stenographic reporters routinely make grammatical and other revisions in transcripts.
Security at the White House has been tightened to include searches of visitors’ bags and the use of bomb-sniffing dogs to check all vehicles — including the limousines of congressmen and Cabinet members — that enter the grounds. In a clampdown triggered by terrorist acts both at home and abroad, guards have begun searching the briefcases and handbags carried by visitors and guests and will make periodic spot checks of permanent pass holders, such as news media.
Two White House officials and at least 23 present or former EPA employees — including former agency chief Anne McGill Burford — may be called to testify at the trial of fired EPA official Rita M. Lavelle. Their names appeared on lists of potential witnesses submitted by prosecution and defense lawyers to U.S. District Judge Norma Johnson in Washington. Lavelle is charged with perjury and obstructing a congressional investigation.
The eight telephone companies that will be created by the breakup of A.T.&T. on January 1 will be financially sound and, together, are likely to pay slightly higher dividends than the present A.T.&T. — $5.46 a share annually instead of $5.40 — according to voluminous documents the company filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing consisted of 58 documents containing more than 20,000 pages.
Ginny Foat was found not guilty of murder in the death of an Argentine businessman in New Orleans 18 years ago. One member of the jury of six men and six women in Gretna, Louisiana, said the panel discussed the charge against the California feminist leader for two hours, had no disagreements and took one vote.
Larry Flynt, the publisher who has been ordered to pay a fine of $10,000 a day until he discloses the source of a tape recording in the John Z. DeLorean drug case, delivered his second installment in court today in two suitcases packed with small notes. Federal District Judge Robert Takasugi promptly ordered Mr. Flynt to go to the court clerk’s office and count the money before handing it over. Mr. Flynt’s aides said he brought the money in 8,000 $1 bills and in $5, $10 and $20 bills.
A 1981 leak of reactor cooling water at the Sequoyah Nuclear Plant was a “serious accident” with the potential to cause severe reactor core damage similar to what occurred at Three Mile Island in 1979, Tennessee Valley Authority officials admitted. The leak at the TVA’s Sequoyah plant in Soddy Daisy, Tennessee, was discussed in a Nuclear Regulatory Commission study released earlier by the Union of Concerned Scientists, an anti-nuclear group.
The Arizona police today arrested the wife of a discharged Phelps Dodge Corporation striker on charges of disturbing the peace as sporadic demonstrations continued at the copper company. The arrest followed an automobile accident and stone-throwing Tuesday in which two workers were injured. A demonstrator suffered minor injuries, the state police said. Allan Schmidt, a police spokesman, said a woman driving to work was distracted by demonstrators and drove into a sign, which hit Evelyn Caswell, a demonstrator, who was treated at a hospital. Nancy Hicks, the wife of a discharged striker, was arrested on charges of disturbing the peace after she became abusive at the scene of the accident, the police said.
The only legal maker of Quaaludes in the United States said that it will discontinue producing and selling the sedatives because of diminishing sales and a bad reputation associated with the frequently counterfeited drug. The Lemmon Co. of Sellersville, Pennsylvania, announced: “Widespread availability of counterfeit methaqualone tablets and the illegal action of ‘stress clinics’ has led to the abuse of the drug and detracted from its legitimate uses.” The Drug Enforcement Administration said its drug abuse warning network recorded 526 incidents involving Quaaludes in September, 1982, contrasted with 1,040 reports in September, 1980.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1251.32 (+3.36).
Born:
Britta Steffen, German swimmer (Olympics, bronze medal, 4x200m freestyle relay, 2000; 2 gold medals, 50m freestyle and 100m freestyle, 2008), in Schwedt, East Germany.
Kari Lehtonen, Finnish National Team and NHL goaltender (Olympics, Bronze medal, 2014; Atlanta Thrashers, Dallas Stars), in Helsinki, Finland.
Marcus McNeill, NFL tackle (Pro Bowl, 2006, 2007; San Diego Chargers), in Chicago, Illinois.
Chris Gocong, NFL linebacker (Philadelphia Eagles, Cleveland Browns), in Lancaster, California.
History Diaries 