Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights exchanged tank, missile and mortar fire sporadically for four hours. A military spokesman in Tel Aviv said that two Israeli soldiers had been injured. There was no estimate of Syrian casualties. The shooting on the Syrian front was in the Hurfah and Mizrat Beit Jihan areas, which have been the most explosive sector since the cease‐fire began in October. According to a military spokesman, a report from the front said that the shooting started today at 10:15 A.M. local time when Syrians fired an antitank missile or a recoilless rifle at an Israeli tractor near Hurfah, but missed their target. Israeli tanks then attacked Syrian machinery used in construction. The Israeli casualties were suffered when the fighting extended to the Mizrat Beit Jinan area and the Syrians opened up with mortar and tank fire, spokesman said.
Syrian forces today claimed to have destroyed an Israeli engineering unit, three tanks, a bulldozer and ammunition dump during a three‐hour artillery duel and clashes with Israeli forces on the Syrian front, a Syrian military spokesman said in Damascus.
On the Egyptian front, there was light weapons fire in the Israeli‐held sector west of the Suez Canal, mainly near Fayid and south of Kilometer 101 on the Cairo‐Suez Road where Israeli and Egyptian generals had been meeting.
Meanwhile, in Jerusalem an unsuccessful attempt was made by the commander of the United Nations Emergency Force to reopen the Egyptian-Israeli talks on the disengagement of forces at the Suez Canal front. Israel said that she was willing to return to the talks, broken off Thursday by Egypt, but the gap between the two countries remained wide.
Egyptian officials and government-controlled newspapers strongly hinted that Egypt might refuse to go to the proposed Middle East peace conference on December 18 if Israel failed to carry out a troop withdrawal to the October 22 cease-fire lines before that date.
A firm consensus appears to have been reached within the Nixon administration that the United States must put pressure on Israel to make significant concessions in the forthcoming Middle East peace talks in Geneva, high American officials said.
The people of Israel paid mournful homage to their first Premier, David Ben-Gurion, whose body lay in state throughout the day at the entrance to the Parliament in Jerusalem. More than 200,000 people slowly passed his bier and their faces reflected the short, violent history of the state that Mr. Ben-Gurion, as much as any individual, had helped to found.
Eight Palestinian guerrillas accused of murdering U.S. Ambassador Cleo Noel and two other diplomats last March during a commando raid on the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, were told at a hearing that they could not claim diplomatic immunity. The defendants have admitted the killings but contend their action was political, not criminal. At the hearing in Khartoum, Prosecutor General Abdel Moneim Mustafa said the Palestinians were not diplomats and the killings violated Sudanese law.
A Tunisian newspaper said today that Muammar el‐Qaddafi is threatening to expel from Libya the approximately 100,000 Egyptians who work there. The French‐language daily La Presse de Tunisie said that the Libyan leader had reportedly given orders that the Egyptians “be ready” to leave. No other details were provided. Yesterday, Colonel Qaddafi closed his embassy in Cairo, presumably in protest against Egypt’s conduct of the war against Israel and the ceasefire that followed. Colonel Qaddafi advocates all‐out war. The Libyan’s move comes as a delayed effect of his disappointment at Egypt’s refusal to hold a plebiscite on a full union of the two countries. It follows Libya’s nonparticipation in the recent fighting and her refusal to attend the meeting of Arab heads of state in Algeria last week.
California Governor Ronald Reagan, as a special envoy of President Nixon, arrived in Jakarta to discuss increased U.S. exports to Indonesia. Reagan said his talks would touch on the possibility of America increasing imports of Indonesian oil in the future. The United States now gets about 4% of its oil from Indonesia. Reagan said there would be no attempt to increase that amount now, because Japan is more dependent on Indonesian oil than is the United States.
Britain’s Foreign Secretary, Sir Alec Douglas‐Home, arrived in Moscow today for two days of talks with Soviet officials aimed at restoring normal relations; chilled since Britain expelled 105 suspected Soviet secret agents two years ago. Sir Alec, who flew here aboard a special Royal Air Force jet, was met by. Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko. “I hope my visit will improve Anglo‐Soviet relations,” Sir Alec said at the airport. “There’s too much confrontation and strife in the world and we want practical results.” European issues, the Middle East and trade are expected to dominate the talks. Sir Alec’s visit, his first to Moscow, was originally scheduled for late 1971, but was canceled after the expulsion of the suspected secret agents.
Western diplomats have recently heard that the Soviet Defense Ministry may be preparing to increase the tour of duty for army draftees to three years from two. Juniors and seniors in Moscow high schools have reportedly been told by military officers in recent briefings that the length of service will be extended for those entering the armed forces on January 1. The draft calls affect 18‐year‐olds, normally right after they finish high school. The reason for such an extension said to be given at least one school was that the increasing complexity of technology and weapons systems mean that much more training was required for enlisted men. Hence, longer active duty was needed.
William Whitlaw was brought home from his post in Belfast as Northern Ireland secretary, to be replaced by Francis Pym, 51, former Conservative government chief whip. Whitlaw, 55, who succeeded in persuading Ulster Protestants and Catholics to form a coalition government, was known to want a new post. He will become secretary for employment in Prime Minister Edward Heath’s government. Brian Faulkner, who heads the Northern Ireland coalition, praised Whitlaw’s 21 months of service. “He will go down in history as the Englishman who made the greatest contribution toward finding a solution to our problems.”
The Roman Catholic Church issued a change in the Rite of Penance (Ordo Paenitentiae) for the first time in more than 350 years, three days after approval had been granted by Pope Paul VI. The previous text for the Rite had been promulgated in 1614 by Pope Paul V.
One of the crew of the Greek tanker Halifax tried to force the vessel to go to Cuba by fellow crew members after he stabbed the captain several times, police reported in Montego Bay, Jamaica. The crewman, Roderick Jones, at one point threatened to blow up the tanker if Captain G. Frangoloulos did not agree to go to Cuba. Police said he stabbed the captain in the face and hands, but then was jumped and beaten by other crewmen. A Jamaica coast guard vessel, responding to an SOS, escorted the tanker into port where the captain was treated for his wounds and the would-be mutineer was hospitalized.
First the guards went on strike and then the prisoners seized the Sierra Chia jail in Buenos Aires province. About 500 prisoners seized three guards as hostages, while the guards were engaged in a sit-in to back demands for better working conditions. Earlier, inmates at Mercedes jail outside Buenos Aires seized control when their guards marched to the police station to present their grievances.
Prime Minister Dr. Eric Williams announced his decision to stay on as leader of Trinidad and the ruling People’s National Movement until the next general election. Dr. Williams earlier had announced that he planned to quit politics and return to private life.
South Korean President Park Chung Hee replaced 10 cabinet ministers and the director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency in a sweeping government reshuffle, announced about an hour after all members of the cabinet had submitted resignations. Park kept Prime Minister Kim Jong Pil and nine other cabinet members, but dumped Lee Hu Rak of the CIA. Lee had been a major target of the political opposition and student demonstrators who had demanded his resignation, among others, in connection with the kidnapping from Tokyo to Seoul of opposition figure Kim Dae Jung. In addition, the political dialogue between North and South Korea has been stalled after North Korea refused to sit on the committee in August, demanding Lee’s replacement.
A leading politician who strongly supported Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfikar All Bhutto in the strife-torn province of Baluchistan was assassinated. Abdul Samad Khan Achakzai, head of the Pakhtoon Khawa National Awami Party, died after two grenades were thrown into the bedroom of his home in the provincial capital of Quetta. The attackers fled.
The Nixon administration is seriously considering a change in the controversial oil depletion allowance that would be aimed simultaneously at two objectives: increasing the supply of oil and limiting the “windfall profits” that oil companies might otherwise realize from the Arab oil embargo.
Millions of drivers, facing padlocked gas pumps and warnings of an energy crisis, kept their cars at home today. While city streets from New York to Los Angeles carried their usual light Sunday traffic, many of the country’s superhighways and scenic parkways were empty, their service islands bare, and their toll-takers languishing in inactivity.
The Senate, meeting in its first Sunday session in 112 years, failed to break a filibuster that has blocked legislation extending the government’s debt limit and financing presidential campaigns with public funds. When an effort to cut off debate on the measures was defeated by a vote of 47 to 33, or seven short of the required two-thirds, supporters of the campaign financing act accused the Nixon administration of aiding the filibuster with a lobbying effort so that President Nixon would not have to veto the campaign provision.
President Nixon paid $78,651 in federal income taxes for the years 1969 through 1972, according to White House documents. The still-confidential documents, being prepared for release this week as part of the President’s “Operation Candor”, list the biggest payment, $72,686, as being made for 1969. Mr. Nixon was said to have paid $4,298 for 1972, $878 for 1971, and $789 for 1970, the years he claimed various substantial deductions.
The American Medical Association is being swept by a rank-and-file rebellion by thousands of physicians. This was apparent at the opening of the A.M.A.’s clinical convention in Anaheim, California. The issue is the new government-required professional standards review organizations made up of doctors who, effective January 1, must monitor the quality of every doctor’s professional work if the services are being paid for under Medicare, Medicaid and federal maternal and child health programs.
Skylab 4 astronauts Gerald P. Carr, William R. Pogue and Edward G. Gibson worked a nearly full schedule with only a few breaks for relaxation. They conducted two long earth resources photo passes that covered the western and southwestern United States and parts of Mexico and South America. And Gibson spent hours at the solar telescope control panel, taking thousands of pictures of the sun. A major event of their 17th day in space was the chance to take showers. Each man was allocated only a few pints of water. And afterward they had to vacuum it up to prevent it from floating about the cabin.
The Navy spends about $50,000 a year for each of the 1,140 civilian technicians it hires through defense contractors, but the technicians themselves earn only $15,000 a year on the average. Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wisconsin), who released the figures, said some of the contractors apparently were “pocketing the difference and cheating both the Navy and their own employees,” almost half of whom were trained during Navy service. Aspin also made public a letter in which a Navy official said 90% of civilian technicians could be replaced by sailors.
The U.S. National League of Cities opened its convention in San Juan, Puerto Rico, as an estimated 15,000 supporters of Puerto Rico’s independence from the United States marched through the city’s tourist sector, where many of the delegates are housed. But the protest was not seen by many of the 6,000 delegates, most of whom had not yet arrived. The demonstrators were exultant over the announcement that Vice President-designate Gerald R. Ford had canceled his appearance at the convention because of “logistics problems of the Secret Service” and would not make the keynote address.
A woman and her daughter were killed and three persons were seriously injured when an explosion ripped apart a brick residence at rural Baker’s Fork, near Charleston, West Virginia, authorities said. The dead were Mrs. Charles McCormick, 26, of Charleston, and her daughter, Lisa, 4. Firemen theorized that an accumulation of gas in the basement had caused the blast. Hospitalized with burns and other injuries were Dorothy Newman, 42, whose home was blown apart by the explosion, her daughter, Denise, 8, and Christine Doughty, 8, a neighbor’s child.
New York State has begun an extensive antitrust suit against seven major oil companies, charging them with pervasive fixing of retail gasoline prices and attempts to drive independent competitors out of business. The action was announced by State Attorney General Louis J. Lefkowitz.
The economy and lifestyle of Southern California could be crippled if any national system of gasoline rationing does not take regional differences into account, according to transportation experts in Los Angeles. This is a problem not only for Los Angeles but also for any city where it is not unusual for people to go 30 to 50 miles to work, and having to commute by automobile.
Davis Cup Men’s Tennis, Cleveland: After clinching a famous victory the previous day, Australians Rod Laver and John Newcombe finish a 5-0 rout of the US with wins over Stan Smith and Tom Gorman.
The Capital Centre (USAir Arena) opens in Landover Maryland; the NBA’s Washington Bullets beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 98-96, in the opening game. The arena is demolished in 2002.
NFL Football:
Cleveland, apparently beaten, rallied for two touchdowns in the last six minutes to tie Kansas City, 20—20, and both teams lost ground in the battle for the playoffs. Greg Pruitt dashed 65 yards on a sweep to score the touchdown that put Cleveland within striking distance after Ed Pololak of the Chiefs had scored to give the Chiefs a commanding, 20—6, lead. The next time the Browns got the ball, Mike Phipps passed to Milt Morin over the middle and the eighth‐year pro broke three tackles in completing the 51‐yard scoring play with 2:40 left. Kansas City then had two chances with the ball and Cleveland one, but neither team could get into field position for a tie‐breaking field goal.
San Francisco quarterback Steve Spurrier, who spent Saturday in traction because of back spasms, directed a near flawless attack against Philadelphia, leading the 49ers to a 38—28 victory. He ran for two touchdowns and threw for one. In his first start since October 28, the former Heisman Trophy winner ran into the end zone twice from a yard out and threw a 28‐yard pass to Gene Washington for third score.
In critical game for each team’s playoff chances, experience was the difference today as the Dallas Cowboys stopped the Denver Broncos, 22—10. The Cowboys, in the playoffs for the last seven seasons, kept their poise. The Broncos, never close to the playoffs before, lost theirs. Roger Staubach, the Cowboys’ quarterback, found Jean Fugett, a tight end, for touchdown passes of 27 and 5 yards. Toni Fritsch kicked field goals of 21 and 18 yards. Benny Barnes, a member of the Cowboys’ punt‐rush, tackled Billy Van Heusen in the end zone for a safety. In contrast, the Broncos, who never moved within field‐goal range in the first half, didn’t score their touchdown until only 91 seconds remained. Charley Johnson, continually pressured by the Cowboys’ pass‐rush into completing only 12 of 27 for 175 yards, collaborated with Riley Odom, his tight end, on a 17‐yard play. The Cowboys go against the Washington Redskins next Sunday in Dallas with the opportunity to take over first place in the Eastern Division of the National Conference if they win by more than 7 points. The points are a factor in the tie‐breaking procedures. The Cowboys lost in Washington, 14—7, earlier this season. But the Cowboys might not have the anchor of their defensive line, Bob Lilly, the 260‐pound tackle. Lilly’s availability was pronounced as “touch and go” by Coach Tom Landry. Lilly suffered a bruised thigh when tackled at the Broncos’ 5‐yard line after he had recovered a Bronco fumble by Joe Dawkins at the 11.
Gimpy-legged Sonny Jurgensen threw 11 consecutive completions and engineered two long fourth quarter touchdown drives Sunday to rally the Washington Redskins to a comeback 27—24 victory over the New York Giants. Jurgensen began with 12:42 left in the game when the Giants, who at one point led by 18 points, took a 24—13 advantage on a field goal. The veteran quarterback, bothered by bad knees, took his team 77 yards in nine plays, hitting on 5 straight passes. Larry Brown hammered over from six yards out for the second of his three touchdowns in the game. The Washington defense held and the Redskins got the ball back on their 34 with 6:43 remaining. Jurgensen connected on six more in succession and fired a 16-yard shot to Brown for the go-ahead score with 3:45 left. Jurgensen limped into action in the third quarter when Bill Kilmer limped off with a sprained ankle. The victory boosted the Redskins to a 9-3 record and a win or a tie with the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday would give them their division crown and a playoff berth.
The Falcons’ seven‐game winning streak and hopes for an N.F.L. Western Division title were snuffed out, as they were upset by Buffalo, 17—6. Although he didn’t score, O. J. Simpson kept the Bills’ drives alive with 136 yards rushing for a season total of 1,583, moving him into second place among single‐season rushers. Simpson’s mark is sandwiched between Jim Brown’s best of 1,863 and Brown’s second‐best of 1,545, Simpson trails the former Cleveland Browns star by 280 yards with two games to play. Jim Braxton bulled over from the 1 twice for Buffalo touchdowns, and John Leypoldt kicked a 20‐yard field goal. Two field goals by Nick Mike‐Mayer were the only Falcon scores.
Playing almost flawless football before a howling, sun‐drenched home crowd of 57,859 in Riverfront Stadium, the Cincinnati Bengals pounced on every Minnesota mistake to defeat the Vikings, 27—0, yesterday. The Bengals turned an interception and a fumble recovery by Bill Bergey, a linebacker, into scores and mounted an inspired defense which forced Fran Tarkenton, the Vikings quarterback, to the bench in the third quarter. Minnesota suffered its first shutout in 161 games (a 13—0 loss to Chicago in 1962). Lamar Parrish picked up fumble and scored with it from 23 yards out and Horst Muhlmann kicked a 22‐yard field goal for the Bengals’ 10—0 halftime lead. Essex Johnson ran 40 yards for a touchdown early in the third quarter to break the game open. Ken Anderson, Cincinnati quarterback, making his finest professional effort by picking the Vikings’ defense apart with his short passes, capped the scoring with a fourth‐quarter touchdown pass to Bob Trumpy, his tight end. The victory, coupled with the Cleveland‐Kansas City tie, propelled the streaking Bengals, winners of their last four games, into second place in the A.F.C. Central Division, a half‐game behind Pittsburgh.
Los Angeles crushed Chicago, 26—0, and lifted its won‐lost mark to 10‐2 and clinched the Western Division title with the help of Larry McCutcheon’s power running (152 yards on 24 carries). Dave Ray kicked four field goals and a brutal Ram defense allowed Chicago only one sally across the midfield stripe, that ending in a fumble on the 46. Buffalo’s upset of Atlanta also helped the Rams. Even though the teams could conceivably match won‐lost records at 10‐4 in the next two weeks, Atlanta can’t overcome the Rams’ 5‐1 division mark which would be used to break a tie. The Falcons are 3‐2 in the division.
Jim Plunkett, the quarterback, scored two touchdowns and connected with Randy Vataha on a 14‐yard pass play for a third as the Patriots downed the Chargers, 30—14. Vataha’s first touchdown catch of the season led New England to its first victory over San Diego since 1966. It stretched the Patriot winning streak to three games, longest since 1969. Mack Herron ran kickoff back 92 yards, second longest in Patriots’ history, for another score. Both San Diego scores came as a result of second‐quarter mistakes by the Pats. Floyd Rice sacked Plunkett, causing a fumble. He picked up the ball and ran 51 yards for the first touchdown and Robert Holmes scored on a 1‐yard dive that was set up by Doug Wilkerson’s pass interception.
Joe Namath repaid the team that put him out most of the season when he threw 15 yards for one score Sunday and set up the decisive field goal with a 63-yard pass to lead the New York Jets to a 20—17 win over Baltimore. Namath, who missed eight weeks with a separated shoulder he injured against the Colts September 23, threw 15 yards to Emerson Boozer in the second quarter and set up Bobby Howfield’s 18-yard field goal in the final period with a bomb to Jerome Barkum. Howfield’s kick made it 20—7 before the Colts rallied to make it close. Baltimore blew an opportunity to tie the game after they moved to the Jets’ 25 late in the game. A holding penalty against Elmer Collett set them back to the 40, and George Hunt missed a 46-yard field goal try with 1:51 remaining. Phil Wise had an 80-yard return with a fumble for New York’s other touchdown, and Howfield kicked a 30-yarder in the first quarter.
Ken Stabler, the National Football League’s leading passer, connected with Fred Biletnikoff on a 21‐yard touchdown pass play to break a 3—3 tie and lead a sluggish Oakland team into first place in the Western Division with a win over the stumbling Houston Oilers, 17—6. Phil Villapiano picked up a fumble and ran 52 yards to set up a Mary Hubbard score that clinched the victory. The Oilers recovered a fumble and intercepted Stabler three times but were unable to convert them into touchdowns, Skip Butler’s two field goals of 44 and 16 yards were their only scores.
The Packers thumped the Saints, 30—10. Archie Manning completed 14 of 23 passes for 143 yards and connected with Jubilee Dunbar on a 29‐yard touchdown pass for New Orleans, but Green Bay linebackers Jim Carter and Tom Toner, and Al Matthews, a safety, picked off three of Manning’s passes and the Packers turned them into touchdowns. Carter and Matthews scored on interception runbacks of 42 and 58 yards, respectively, and Jerry Tagge, Green Bay quarterback, faked a handoff and ran 41 yards around left end for the score after Toner’s interception.
With 10:11 to play, Lions quarterback Bill Munson hit Charley Sanders with a 5‐yard touchdown pass to give Detroit a 20—16 victory over St. Louis. The Cardinals played most of the second half without Jim Hart, their starting quarterback. Hart suffered a shoulder injury on the last play of the first half and was replaced by Gary Keithley. Keithley moved the Cards to Detroit’s 25 in the last minute but Mike Lucci snuffed out the drive with art interception to preserve the Lions’ victory. Steve Owens scored the other Detroit touchdown from the one, and Errol Mann kicked field goals of 36 and 52 yards.
Cleveland Browns 20, Kansas City Chiefs 20
Philadelphia Eagles 28, San Francisco 49ers 38
Dallas Cowboys 22, Denver Broncos 10
New York Giants 24, Washington Redskins 27
Buffalo Bills 17, Atlanta Falcons 6
Minnesota Vikings 0, Cincinnati Bengals 27
Los Angeles Rams 26, Chicago Bears 0
San Diego Chargers 14, New England Patriots 30
Baltimore Colts 17, New York Jets 20
Oakland Raiders 17, Houston Oilers 6
New Orleans Saints 10, Green Bay Packers 30
Detroit Lions 20, St. Louis Cardinals 16
Born:
Monica Seles, Yugoslavian-born tennis player with ten Grand Slam tournament wins, including (in 1992) all four of the women’s singles finals at Wimbledon and the Australian, French and U.S. Open tournaments; in Novi Sad, SR Serbia, Yugoslavia.
Jan Ullrich, German road cyclist (Olympic gold, road race, 2000; Tour de France, 1997; Vuelta a España, 1999), in Rostock, Germany.
Alessandra Santos de Oliveira, Brazilian WNBA center (Washington Mystics, Indiana Fever, Seattle Storm), in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Grant Wahl, American sports journalist who suffered a fatal heart attack while in Qatar to cover the 2022 FIFA World Cup; in Mission, Kansas (d. 2022).
Died:
Abdul Samad Khan Achakzai, 66, Pakistani politician who founded the Anjuman-i-Watan Baluchistan within British India, was assassinated by two grenades thrown into his home at Quetta.
U.S. Admiral Richard G. Colbert, 58, President of the Naval War College 1968 to 1971.
History Diaries 