President Reagan is informed that a defacto cease fire has arisen in Lebanon. A new cease-fire in Lebanon went into effect. It was announced jointly in Damascus by representatives of the Lebanese Army and the Muslim militias, who have been at war in the last three weeks. They said they hoped the cease-fire would lead to reconvening the talks among the warring factions that ended inconclusively November 4 in Geneva.
Donald Rumsfeld, the United States special envoy to the Middle East, conferred with Israeli leaders today, but Israel made no commitment on allowing the evacuation of Yasser Arafat and his guerrillas from Lebanon. Mr. Rumsfeld, who arrived Thursday night from talks in Damascus with Syrian leaders, met alone with Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir for 70 minutes. Mr. Rumsfeld said later, “Any comment might harm my mission.” But Defense Minister Moshe Arens said tonight that Israel could prevent the Palestinian evacuation and would reconsider its attitude to the pullout only if Mr. Arafat promised to abandon terrorism.
A senior Israeli official, speaking about the evacuation of Mr. Arafat and his 4,000 Palestine Liberation Organization fighters from the northern Lebanese port of Tripoli, said, “I should like to again make it absolutely clear that Israel has given no commitment on the evacuation of the terrorists from Lebanon.” Israel also said it intended to maintain pressure on Mr. Arafat by sending in gunboats to attack guerrilla strongholds north and south of Tripoli.
Iran said today that its artillery killed 95 Iraqi soldiers in retaliation for Iraqi air raids earlier in the week, the official Iranian press agency said. President Ali Khamenei of Iran told a prayer meeting in Tehran that Iran “will retaliate on the battlefronts for the recent Iraqi crimes against Iranian civilian targets,” the press agency said in a report monitored here. He was referring to Iraqi air raids and long-range missile bombardment of eight Iranian border cities Wednesday and Thursday that left at least 32 civilians dead and more than 300 wounded, according to official Iranian announcements. In Baghdad, the Iraqi armed forces said its border gunners pounded Iranian positions and infantry patrols, killing an Iranian soldier and destroying five Iranian positions. The Iraqi communique did not list any Iraqi casualties.
Solidarity rallies in Gdansk and other Polish cities were blocked by riot policemen. The rallies were called by leaders of the outlawed union in memory of scores of workers who were shot while protesting food prices 13 years ago. By noon, the center of the Baltic seaport of Gdansk was like a city under occupation. There were clumps of policemen every few feet checking identification papers; caravans of police vehicles, blue lights flashing, cruising the streets; water cannons and armored personnel carriers parked in conspicuous ranks and skirmish lines sealing off the workers’ monument at the gates of the Lenin Shipyard, the birthplace of Solidarity, the independent labor union.
A policeman and a soldier were killed today during the rescue of the chairman of a supermarket chain who was kidnapped by the Irish Republican Army three weeks ago, the police said. Don Tidey, 49-year-old chairman of Quinnsworth Stores, was rescued near the village of Ballinamore, about 10 miles south of the border with Northern Ireland, the police said. A gun battle broke out between the security forces and the kidnappers and the policeman and soldier were killed by a hand grenade thrown at a search party. Another policeman was wounded as he dived to protect Mr. Tidey in the rescue. Two of the kidnappers were captured but a search was underway for another three or four men who are suspected of involvement in the abduction. The government, supported by Mr. Tidey’s companies, rejected a ransom demand of $7.5 million.
Two bombs exploded at a military installation in northern Spain today, wounding three servicemen and causing extensive damage, the authorities said. E.T.A., the Basque guerrilla group, said in a call to a newspaper that it was responsible for the bombs and that four other bombs were at the site. Military sources said a third bomb was discovered under a propane gas tank and defused.
The Reagan Administration, in a 44-page report summarizing its rationale for the invasion of Grenada last October 25, said today that United States forces found “almost 900” personnel from Cuba, the Soviet Union, North Korea, Libya, East Germany and Bulgaria on the island. The report said the total casualties were 18 Americans killed and 116 wounded, 45 Grenadians killed and 337 wounded and, among the roughly 800 Cubans on the island, 24 killed and 59 wounded. The report cited three considerations that it said were the basis of the decision to invade: the effort to ensure the safety of 1,000 American citizens, the response to a formal request for aid from the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States and a response to an appeal from the Governor General of Grenada, Sir Paul Scoon. On the island, the report said, were found five “secret military agreements — three with the Soviet Union, one with North Korea and one with Cuba.”
A panel named in Argentina to investigate the disappearances of more than 6,000 people will give any evidence it finds to the courts for prosecution, President Raul Alfonsin announced. It was the latest in a series of steps the President has taken in his first week in office to rectify the abuses of nearly eight years of military rule.
The Indian Government announced today that it had arrested more than 2,100 people in search operations for Sikh terrorists in northern Punjab since it took direct control of the administration there in October. Home Affairs Minister Prakash Chandra Sethi told a parliamentary committee that the detainees were being investigated. A Government spokesman did not give further details of the arrests. Punjab, one of India’s most affluent states, has been shaken by more than 16 months of violence largely between authorities and militant Sikhs who are demanding more autonomy. More than 200 people have been killed in clashes since the agitation began.
South Africa’s decision to withdraw its troops from southern Angola could lead to an improved climate for ending the stalemate in the negotiations for finding a formula for the independence of South-West Africa, the United States said. South Africa said Thursday that its pullout would begin on January 31.
In the complicated southern Africa situation, negotiations have been going on for years on ending South African control over Namibia. The South Africans have agreed to a United Nations formula leading to elections in an independent Namibia, but have linked their withdrawal to the pullout of the 25,000 Cuban troops in Angola. The Angolans, in turn, have said the Cubans are needed to protect them against the South Africans, who have gone back and forth from Namibia into Angola. The South Africans have also given considerable military and economic help to an Angolan insurgency group known as Unita, whose forces are based in eastern Angola. In the American view, the South African move could break the deadlock because it would meet the Angolan demand that there be a total withdrawal of all South African troops from Angola before they would discuss the pullout of Cuban forces.
The African National Congress took responsibility today for two bombings in South Africa on Thursday, the eve of the 22d anniversary of the guerrilla group’s decision to take up arms against white minority rule. In a telex statement from its office in Lusaka, Zambia, to The Associated Press in Johannesburg, the guerrilla group said the bombings “constitute an affirmation of our determination to intensify and extend our armed offensive against the Pretoria regime.” A bomb extensively damaged the first four floors of a Foreign Ministry building in Johannesburg Thursday night, slightly wounding seven people. The African National Congress has said it was responsible for three bombings of Government offices in Johannesburg in the last week. Also on Thursday night, three bombs went off on a street near the beachfront in Durban, 300 miles southeast of Johannesburg. No one was wounded.
Pleas for political asylum from Poles have been rejected by the hundreds under an accelerated federal effort to clear a backlog of applications from foreign nationals. An exact number of the rejections of applications from Poles was not available from the Government. However, Polish applicants in various parts of the country report a flurry of recent rejections.
The Producer Price Index fell two-tenths of 1 percent last month, the Government reported. It was the first decline this year since spring for the finished goods indicator, the leading gauge of industrial price changes. Lower food and energy prices helped bring the index down.
Tighter controls over textile imports were decided on by President Reagan in response to persistent lobbying by textile producers from many states and well as their members in Congress. The textile bloc historically has been especially successful in winning import protection in election years since the early 1960’s.
President Reagan establishes the National Endowment for Democracy.
President Reagan “believes in the people’s right to impose capital punishment for most serious murder offenses” but he thinks it is a matter to be dealt with by the states, according to the White House spokesman, Larry Speakes. Mr. Speakes was asked Thursday about Mr. Reagan’s position in light of the increase in executions.
With the naming of two more people, the appointment of eight members to the United States Civil Rights Commission has been completed and the agency is ready to start work. The last two appointments were announced by the Speaker of the House, Thomas P. O’Neill Jr.
A woman who asked to kill herself by starvation in a California hospital was barred from doing so in the hospital by Judge H. Hews of the California Superior Court in Riverside County. He ruled that the 26-year-old Elizabeth Bouvia, who is paralyzed, had the right to kill herself, but not with the assistance of society.
The St. Louis Globe-Democrat, which had been scheduled to close December 31, will publish at least two weeks beyond that deadline, the first sign of serious negotiations to sell the newspaper. The two-week extension was reported Friday by the afternoon St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Earlier in the day, Jeffrey M. Gluck of Columbia, Missouri, publisher of Saturday Review and two smaller magazines, said he was close to an agreement to buy the newspaper. The Justice Department had said the owners of The Globe-Democrat had agreed not to shut it if “serious” negotiations were underway. The government is involved because of the law covering The Globe-Democrat’s sharing of printing and business operations with the Post-Dispatch. The Newhouse group and the Pulitzer family own an agency that operates the business sides of both newspapers.
A lawsuit has been filed seeking more than $1.8 billion in damages for 183 people who assert they suffered serious health problems as a result of exposure to dioxin at two Missouri sites. The suit filed Thursday in St. Louis Circuit Court says the plaintiffs were exposed to the toxic chemical in Times Beach and at Castlewood. Named as defendants were the Syntex Agribusiness Inc., of Palo Alto, California; the Charter Company and the Charter Oil Company of Jacksonville, Florida; the Independent Petrochemical Corporation of St. Louis; the Northeastern Pharmaceutical and Chemical Company, a defunct manufacturing concern that operated a plant in Verona, Missouri, and the five trustees of the company.
Kary Mullis discovered how to copy or “amplify” small segments of DNA on this day. The PCR method makes it possible to copy a large number of DNA fragments in only a few hours.
The Environmental Protection Agency announced new rules today to reduce harmful emissions of benzene into the air, but it also proposed to withdraw other pending benzene rules, saying they were unnecessary. The agency said that next spring it would issue a final standard under the Clean Air Act to control the leakage of benzene from petroleum refineries and chemical plants. Benzene, derived from petroleum and other sources, is used in the manufacture of a wide range of products. It has been found to cause serious health problems for humans, including anemia and adult leukemia, and has caused other forms of cancer in test animals.
A report on malnutrition among New England children is expected next month from the Citizens Commission on Hunger in New England, the only nongovernmental, professional group trying to make an authoritative assessment of the problem across a whole region of the nation. Earlier, the Massachusetts Department of Health reported that from 10,000 to 17,500 children in that state might be chronically malnourished.
The McDonnell Douglas Corporation, one of the nation’s largest manufacturers of military equipment, said today that it would acquire Hughes Helicopters Inc. for about $470 million in cash. The takeover will represent a substantial expansion of McDonnell’s military contracts. Hughes Helicopters, which is owned by the estate of the late Howard R. Hughes, is the principal supplier under a $7 billion contract to build 515 AH-64 Apache helicopters for the Army over the next six years. The Hughes estate, which has tried twice to sell the faltering unit, had hoped to get $500 million for it to help pay estate taxes.
Spokesperson for rock band “The Who” announces the group is disbanding.
George Steinbrenner fires Billy Martin as manager of the Yankees for the 3rd time, replacing him with Yogi Berra and giving Martin a front-office job. Billy Martin was out again as the Yankees’ manager and, as expected, was succeeded by Yogi Berra. Martin’s third term as manager ended almost one year after it began. Berra’s second term began 19 years after his first one ended. The change in managers was the 11th in 11 years made by George Steinbrenner, the Yankees’ principal owner.
NFL Football:
The 25th and 26th interceptions that Richard Todd had thrown this season — the highest total in the National Football League — were turned into touchdowns 61 seconds apart tonight as the Jets’ season ended in a 34—14 loss to Miami. For the Dolphins, their playoff season was just beginning after the victory was secured by Mike Kozlowski, who intercepted those passes — his only interceptions of the season — in the final period and ran them back for scores. The Jets finished with a 7-9 record, ending a two-year stretch as winners. The Dolphins, with a 12-4 record, assured themselves of the home-field advantage for the first round of the playoffs.
The Jets only moved fitfully in the half, a combination perhaps of the Dolphins’ defense and the fact that the Jets came into this game with only two days of on-the-field practice because of wet weather. The Dolphins easily moved on their first drive, with Don Strock ending the 69-yard march on a 29-yard pass to Mark Duper. Uwe von Schamann kicked the extra point. Todd helped move the Jets into the 7—7 tie by leading an 88-yard drive. On a blitz, he found McNeil with a 20-yard scoring pass, and Pat Leahy kicked the extra point. But the Dolphins, benefitting from the penalties against Lynn and Holmes, who were playing their last game as Jets before moving to United States Football League teams, went ahead when David Overstreet snared a Strock 2-yard pass. Touchdowns by Duper and Overstreet underscored the Dolphins’ successful seasons, year after year.
The Jets tied the game at 14—14 midway through the third quarter after McNeil threw 5 yards to Marion Barber for a touchdown. Joe Pellegrini, who went to center after Guy Bingham received a sprained knee, snapped the ball for the extra-point attempt by Leahy so high that Pat Ryan, the holder, instead decided to run into the end zone. Later in the period, von Schamann gave the Dolphins a 17—14 edge on a 49- yard field goal and, in the final period, made the score 20—14 on a 20-yarder. That was merely a prelude to Kozlowski’s more remarkable touchdowns — interception returns of 35 and 38 yards. It was the 13th time in the league’s history that a player twice scored on interceptions in a game.
New York Jets 14, Miami Dolphins 34
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1242.17 (+5.39).
Born:
Tom Wilhelmsen, MLB pitcher (Seattle Mariners, Texas Rangers, Arizona Diamondbacks), in Tucson, Arizona.
Kelenna Azubuike, Nigerian-American NBA shooting guard and small forward (Golden State Warriors, Dallas Mavericks), in London, England, United Kingdom.
Joey Dorsey, NBA power forward and center (Houston Rockets, Sacramento Kings, Toronto Raptors), in Baltimore, Maryland.
Danielle Lloyd, English beauty queen, fashion model, and television personality, in Liverpool, England, United Kingdom.
History Diaries 