U.S. Marine officers were criticized for leaving their headquarters at the Beirut International Airport vulnerable to attack on October 23. A House subcommittee, after investigating the bombing of the Marine barracks that killed 241 American servicemen, has concluded that “very serious errors of judgment” were made by officers on the ground and up the chain of command.
Israeli gunboats pounded Tripoli’s harbor, and the planned evacuation of Yasser Arafat and 4,000 of his men was put off for another day. Five Greek transport ships and a French escort left the Greek Cypriot port of Larnaca in the evening in an attempt to evacuate the Arafat forces, now expected to be made tomorrow. The Greek ships, flying the United Nations flag, were originally scheduled to arrive here today to start transferring Mr. Arafat and his men to Tunis.
Washington has told Israel that it “hopes and expects” the Shamir Government will halt its military actions around Tripoli and allow Yasser Arafat and his supporters to be evacuated from the Lebanese city, Reagan Administration officials said.
Elsewhere in Lebanon, the Israeli bombardment was followed by Israeli aerial bombing and strafing of what were described as Palestinian bases near Aleih and Bhamdun, east of Beirut. Druse spokesmen said a hospital had been hit and the Syrians said that one of their positions had been attacked, but that the Israeli jets had been driven off by antiaircraft fire. The Israeli raids followed a guerrilla attack on Israeli soldiers Sunday in the southern coastal town of Sidon. Three Israelis were wounded in that attack. In the Shuf Mountains southeast of Beirut, the Lebanese Army and Druse militiamen fought a one-hour artillery duel in the first significant breach of Friday’s cease-fire. There was no report on casualties.
Lax security was partly responsible for the success of last month’s truck bombing of an Israeli military compound in Tyre, Lebanon, according to an Israeli Army report. A military investigating committee that prepared the report concluded that authorities at the Israeli camp failed to take certain prescribed defensive measures despite ample warning from intelligence units that the site might be a target for a car-bomb attack. The report suggested that failure to place a heavy armored vehicle at the compound’s entrance, as ordered, was the local command’s most serious omission. The report also said “the zigzag barrier at the entrance to the camp was ineffective” and the gate was not built strongly enough to withstand a vehicle.
After the nearly simultaneous truck-bombings October 23 of the United States Marine compound in Beirut and a French barracks nearby, the Israeli Army command ordered a series of new precautions taken. At the Tyre headquarters, soldiers erected the zigzag barrier of concrete blocks, built earth banks near a vulnerable building and received briefings on how to deal with booby-trapped vehicles. The report said, however, that soldiers left the entrance unprotected by the recommended armored vehicle. And despite the call for a high state of readiness, the investigation found that two guards were absent from their posts at the time of the attack, the earthworks were not completed, and the gates of the camp, although chained shut, were not locked. The report leaves open to question whether the gate and the absent sentries actually influenced the final results.
The report noted that the truck, laden with explosives, made its way easily around the concrete blocks set as obstacles before the gate, crashed through the gate and detonated in the middle of the compound, leaving a crater several yards deep and destroying nearby buildings.
Kuwait established a special security court to try 10 members of a Muslim fundamentalist group arrested in connection with last week’s bombings of U.S., French, and Kuwaiti government targets. The three-man tribunal will try the defendants within a week.
An American tourist has died of wounds suffered in a bus bombing in Jerusalem, a spokeswoman for Hadassah Hospital reported. The death of Serina Suzman, 60, of Anderson, South Carolina, raised to six the number of people killed in the blast that ripped through a crowded intercity bus December 6. Forty-one other people were injured, including Suzman’s sister-in-law. The Palestine Liberation Organization claimed responsibility for the attack.
The recently formed Turkish Cypriot secessionist regime admitted that one of its sentries accidentally shot a Greek Cypriot national guardsman to death on the Green Line separating the Turkish and Greek sectors of Nicosia. The Turkish Cypriot minister of foreign affairs and defense, Necati Munir Ertegun, explained the incident by saying that the Greek guard had been swearing at the Turkish sentry and threatening him with his gun. It was the second time in 16 months that a Greek Cypriot guard has been killed on the capital’s Green Line.
Prime Minister Turgut Ozal, outlining the program of his newly formed Government today, said that Turkey was extending its “hand of friendship towards Greece” and expressed hope that longstanding problems between the two countries would be solved in time “through peaceful means.” In an address to Parliament, he also expressed hope that “a reasonable solution can be reached” on the problem of Cyprus, where Turkish Cypriots recently declared their part of the island independent from the Greek side. Mr. Ozal mainly emphasized his government’s resolve to decrease inflation and improve relations with the United States and Arab countries.
Switzerland accused Italy today of repeatedly violating its sovereignty by conducting unauthorized criminal investigations on Swiss territory. Switzerland, which is neutral, made the charges in an angry diplomatic note handed to the Italian Ambassador. A Foreign Ministry statement listed several incidents involving spying on Italians who live in Switzerland.
The European Economic Community said it will honor Greenland’s wish to leave the organization by January, 1985, and agreed to expedite negotiations among member nations to permit the withdrawal. Greenland entered the community as a territory of Denmark in 1973 but became a semiautonomous Danish province in 1979 and voted last year to withdraw from the Common Market. West Germany, which has major fishing interests in Greenland’s waters, had previously blocked a withdrawal agreement but has now softened its opposition.
Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau said a key element of his peace campaign — a disarmament summit — has been accepted conditionally by four of the five major nuclear powers. Trudeau told Parliament that the United States, Britain, France and China expressed interest in such a summit. He also said the Soviet Union indicated a desire for him to meet with President Yuri V. Andropov.
South Korea’s Agency for National Security Planning said it has arrested 12 Communist spies and collaborators connected with three espionage rings working for North Korea. The security police, formerly called the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, said some of those arrested have been indicted on espionage charges and others on charges of abetting spy activities.
Japan’s ruling party clung to power as eight independent legislators joined it, giving it a three-seat majority in the lower house of Parliament. The Liberal Democratic Party, which is conservative, lost its majority in general elections Sunday. Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone appeared to be facing the prospect of an intense struggle to retain control of his party and his office.
The Reagan Administration today sharply reduced economic aid to Zimbabwe, citing Congressional cuts in overall appropriations, according to Joseph W. Reap Jr., a State Department spokesman. Aid to Zimbabwe, previously $75 million, is down to $40 million. Relations between Zimbabwe and the United States have been strained for some time, with Zimbabwe voting against the United States in the United Nations on a number of occasions. Congress did not meet President Reagan’s full request for foreign aid and also diverted funds previously earmarked for Zimbabwe to other nations, including El Salvador and Israel.
The Reagan Administration was urged to immediately use food reserves to save millions of starving Africans and to pay for the emergency program later with a supplemental appropriation. The request, made at a news conference, came from two congressmen — Reps. Thomas A. Daschle (D-South Dakota) and William H. Gray III (D-Pennsylvania) — and from representatives of groups trying to alleviate the famine, which they said threatens 100 million people in 22 countries.
South African planes bombed the southern Angolan town of Caiundo for eight hours, killing dozens of civilians and destroying a school and a hospital, the Angolan government news agency charged. South Africa justifies its regular incursions into Angola by saying they are aimed at guerrillas of the South-West Africa People’s Organization, which is fighting for the independence of Namibia from the South Africans. Meanwhile, another neighbor of South Africa, Lesotho, alleged that South African-based mercenaries are about to launch an all-out attack, leading to a coup in the landlocked mini-state.
A raid on a hotel by men wearing clown masks may have toppled the head of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service. Foreign Ministry officials today confirmed that John Ryan had resigned as head of the agency, but refused to give details or to say if the resignation was connected with the arrest of five agents Dec. 1 in Melbourne. The police seized the agents after five armed men wearing masks attacked a hotel, threatening guests and locking up the staff. Foreign Minister Bill Hayden, who oversees the intelligence service, said the agents were on a practice exercise.
Homer’s “wine-dark sea” references are stirring new debate. Homer described the sea as “wine-dark” dozens of times in the Iliad and the Odyssey. Yet the sea in question, the Aegean, is no less blue or blue-green than any other. Two scholars said the ancient Greeks often diluted their wine with up to eight parts of water. They said the ground water of the region recounted in Homer’s epics was alkaline, and perhaps sufficiently so “to change the color of the wine from red to blue.
President Reagan participates in a meeting to discuss the 1985 Budget of the United States.
They hugged and kissed on the floor at the foot of the Christmas tree as they unwrapped shiny packages tied with silver-and-gold ribbon. Christmas had come a little early for the three celebrators, whose names were Nancy Reagan, 7-year- old Ahn Ji Sook and 4-year-old Lee Kil Woo. It was the first time the First Lady had seen the two children since she and President Reagan brought them back from South Korea a month ago for open-heart surgery at St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn. “They look wonderful,” she said. “This is Thanksgiving and Christmas all wrapped into one.” “I love you,” said Ji Sook as she hugged Mrs. Reagan. “I love you, too,” Mrs. Reagan said, kissing her, “and I’ve missed you.” Kil Woo didn’t seem to know what to make of it all, but he did recognize the gift he had wrapped for Mrs. Reagan. He snatched it from beneath the tree and gave it to her. “To My Hal Man Nee,” said the tag on the gift, using the Korean name for grandmother. “I love you.”
The President and the First Lady host a Christmas party for members of the U.S. Secret Service and their families.
Greyhound strikers have approved a proposed three-year contract with the bus line by a margin of nearly 3 to 1, Harry Rosenblum, the union’s president, announced. The mail balloting ended a seven-week walkout marked by violence. Mr. Rosenblum said he was asking all union members to return to work at once, and Greyhound said it would resume full service tomorrow.
An analysis of federal grants to state and local governments under the Reagan Administration has found a major shift in both the regional distribution of funds and the purposes for which the money can be used. A greater share of federal money is now moving to the Southwest and Rocky Mountain states, rather than the Northeast. At the same time, grants for highways and health have been greatly increased and there have been substantial cuts in environmental and job programs.
With Walter F. Mondale far ahead in local opinion polls and boasting a strong New Hampshire organization, Senator John Glenn is seeking to avert a damaging setback to his Presidential ambitions in the nation’s first primary, which will be held in nine weeks.
Christmas has an impact on every part of the national economy. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, American consumers will spend more than $125 billion for products ranging from toys and turkeys to tennis racquets and travel. One economist estimates that at least $50 billion changes hands solely because of the holidays.
The Army plans to purchase more than $400 million worth of new camouflage battle-dress uniforms despite widespread complaints by officers and enlisted personnel that the garment is too hot and heavy. Those who have made complaints about the uniform include troops who took part in the invasion of Grenada.
A consumer group filed suit against the Transportation Department, accusing it of allowing thousands of deteriorating bridges to go uninspected and of failing to warn motorists of the dangers. The suit brought by the Center for Auto Safety charges that the department has refused to enforce laws that require states to inventory all bridges and inspect them every two years. Government officials estimate that about half of the 565,000 bridges across the country are in a condition that cannot support all traffic or are considered outdated. The Transportation Department had no comment on the suit, which asks the U.S. District Court in Washington to order enforcement of inspection requirements.
Margaret M. Heckler, health and human services secretary, announced a $218,000 grant for a major study in the New York City metropolitan area on why intravenous drug users contract the deadly disease AIDS. Although homosexuals are the primary victims of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS disease, intravenous drug users are the second largest risk group.
An explosion and fire today at an East Camden, Arkansas plant that manufactures military wares injured 18 people, including five severely burned in the magnesium flash, the authorities said. The explosion occurred at Tracor-MBA, where about 40 employees were working on an assembly line making flares, said the general manager, Jim Scivally. The most seriously injured were flown to burn centers by helicopter, but most other injuries were minor, and some workers were treated at the scene, Mr. Scivally said.
A federal judge ruled that Christine Craft can increase to $3.5 million the amount of damages she is seeking in a retrial from the former owners of the television station that took her off the news anchor desk. Craft, whose charge of fraud against Metromedia Inc. is scheduled for retrial in Joplin, Missouri, on January 4, can seek $500,000 in actual damages and $3 million in punitive damages, U.S. District Judge Joseph E. Stevens said in Kansas City. A jury found Metromedia guilty of fraud and awarded Craft $375,000 in actual damages and $125,000 in punitive damages.
A federal appeals panel in St. Louis upheld an award of $357,768 for attorneys in the Arkansas creationism case even though both sides in the case appealed them as excessive. U.S. District Judge William R. Overton set the amount for attorneys for the plaintiffs after barring officials of the Arkansas Department of Education from enforcing the state statute requiring the teaching of creation-science and evolution-science courses.
An aging spacecraft will dip within 75 miles of the moon Thursday to get a gravity kick toward the first rendezvous with a comet in 21 months, project officials announced in Greenbelt, Maryland. Engineers at the Goddard Space Flight Center predict the slingshot effect of the moon’s gravity will provide enough energy to increase the probe’s speed by 2,200 m.p.h. and change its course so it will meet the comet Giacobini-Zinner on September 11, 1985. If successful, the five-year-old spacecraft built to study solar radiation would rendezvous with the comet six months before five probes from the Soviet Union, Japan and the European Space Agency intercept Halley’s Comet, space scientists said.
The virtual end of tooth decay among children and young adults by the turn of the century is predicted by public health officials because of new developments in dental technology, the wider application of discoveries already made and the fluoridation of municipal water supplies. This year alone, a half-dozen advances have been reported in dental research, including the identification of the gene that produces tooth enamel.
Record low temperatures were reported in dozens of cities in the Great Plains. With winter still two days away, the National Weather Service said a frigid front had stalled over the nation’s heartland, bringing icy temperatures throughout the Middle West and snow to Pennsylvania and western New York.
The original FIFA World Cup trophy, the Jules Rimet Trophy, is stolen from the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation in Rio de Janeiro.
Former Cy Young Award winner Vida Blue is sentenced to 90 days in prison for cocaine, and recently convicted and suspended first baseman Willie Aikens is traded by Kansas City to Toronto for designated hitter Jorge Orta.
The Pirates sign free-agent outfielder Amos Otis, a 5-time AL All-Star, to a one-year contract.
The Tigers sign free-agent slugger Darrell Evans, who hit .277 with 30 home runs for the Giants in 1983.
NFL Monday Night Football:
The National Football League’s playoff picture took its final form tonight as the San Francisco 49ers routed the Dallas Cowboys, 42—17, to win the Western Division of the National Conference in the last game of the regular season. The victory by the 49ers, to bring their regular-season record to 10-6, means that the Cowboys’ opponent in the N.F.C. wild-card game next Monday in Dallas will be the Los Angeles Rams. It also established the possibilities for the games the following weekend. If the Cowboys defeat the Rams, the second round of N.F.C. games would feature the Cowboys returning to Candlestick Park to play the 49ers and the Detroit Lions playing the Redskins in Washington. If the Rams defeat the Cowboys, the Rams would play the Redskins in Washington and the Lions would play the 49ers in San Francisco. The victory by the 49ers marked the first time since the final two weeks of the 1982 season that the Cowboys had lost consecutive games. The Cowboys’ previous loss was eight days ago, 31—10, to the Redskins. Tonight’s loss, which brought their season record to 12-4, was also the Cowboys’ third straight to the 49ers and their most one-sided defeat since the sixth game of the 1981 season, when the 49ers beat them here, 45—17.
The 49ers dominated the Cowboys in every phase of play. They scored on touchdown passes of 6, 77, 18, and 16 yards by Joe Montana; a 56-yard punt return by Dana McLemore and a 48-yard return of an interception by the cornerback Eric Wright. Danny White, though he set a Cowboy record for throwing a 29th touchdown pass in one season, was beleaguered throughout by a strong 49er pass rush and, for the most part, good coverage of his receivers. He threw two interceptions; Gary Hogeboom, who replaced him late in the fourth quarter, threw one. White finished with 277 yards passing, 166 of which came in the first half, which ended with the 49ers ahead, 21—10. Like the Redskins before, the 49ers also succeeded in shutting down the Cowboys’ running game, as they held Tony Dorsett to 32 yards on 15 carries, and the team to 62. Montana completed 14 of 26 passes for 223 yards.
The first score came early on a six-yard pass to Roger Craig after White dropped back to pass from the Dallas 29. He was hit by the linebacker Keena Turner, blitzing from the left side, and the ball popped free. The left end Lawrence Pillers, charging toward White from the other side, picked it up and ran it back 16 yards to set up a touchdown. Later in the period, a Dallas linebacker, Jeff Rohrer, was called for being an illegal man downfield on a punt. The penalty led to the 49ers’ next touchdown. The Cowboys were required to punt again, and this time, Dana McLemore took it at his 44 and ran 56 yards for the score. The Cowboys took the ensuing kickoff and moved to the 49ers’ 29. Rafael Septien kicked a 47-yard field goal. Seconds later, the 49ers scored again when Montana threw into the left flat to Freddie Solomon, and Solomon turned the play into a 77-yard touchdown. The Cowboys scored again early in the second period. White connected with Tony Hill for 30 yards and a first down at the 10. Five plays later, White sliced through the middle of the line for a touchdown, cutting the 49ers’ lead to 21—10 with 8:11 left in the half.
But there was bad news for the 49ers, too. Star wide receiver Dwight Clark suffered a knee injury, and will miss the playoffs.
Dallas Cowboys 17, San Francisco 49ers 42
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1244.61 (+2.44).
Born:
Matt Stajan, Canadian NHL centre (Toronto Maple Leafs, Calgary Flames), in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
History Diaries 