President Nixon met with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger at the White House to discuss the situation in the Mideast; Kissinger is optimistic about the Geneva peace conference. A disengagement agreement between Israel and Egypt could produce several follow-up deals. A Palestinian extremist plot to disrupt the Geneva peace conference and assassinate Kissinger was thwarted last week.
Accelerating recessionary forces coupled with further painful increases in the cost of living were foreseen in both industrialized and developing countries following the doubling of the price of crude oil by major Persian Gulf exporting states. For practically all industrial nations, with the possible exception of the United States, which is relatively self‐sufficient in energy, the effect of the sharply higher prices is likely to be trade deficits, or deeper deficits, according to European experts.
Shepherds are tending their flocks outside of Bethlehem as Israeli soldiers guard the area tightly. The war and Arab terrorism have taken the glow off the holiday season; Bethlehem’s Christmas celebration was not a very joyous occasion.
Kuwait’s oil minister warned that crude oil prices may increase even more in the spring.
Spain has virtually closed the French border to Basques while the hunt continues for six Basques accused in the assassination of Premier Luis Carrero Blanco last Thursday. Residents of the Basque provinces of northern Spain, particularly young ones, have had their passports seized as they sought to cross the border to spend Christmas in the French Basque country. The tight measures indicated that the police believed that if the killers were still in Spain, they would seek refuge in France. On Saturday night, when the six were accused of the crime, the official announcement said they had their “bases” there.
It was leaden‐gray and wet in London, and at the carol service in St. Paul’s Cathedral the lights were dimmed. Dozens of cold churches offered the characteristic English carols, that blended the quavering shrillness of 70‐year‐old women sopranos and the fierce shrillness of 10‐year‐old boy sopranos. The Poverty Action group warned that, what with the holidays and the logjam at post offices, some people dependent on social security payments would “go hungry for a number of days.” The threat of a drastic change hangs over Britain, and the press and television reiterate it daily. The Sunday Times has warned of possible disease and famine.
A bomb went off prematurely in the hands of an Irish Republican Army member today, killing at least three persons and wounding 36 in a Northern Ireland border‐town pub, a British Army spokesman reported. Two of those who died in the explosion in Newry were believed to be I.R.A. men, the spokesman said. Five of the injured were described as in “very serious” condition, four with limbs blown off. The spokesman called the explosion the worst in several months.
The pub, the Malachy Clarke, is Catholic‐owned but frequented by both Roman Catholics and Protestants, as well as by off‐duty members of the security forces. The explosion demolished the bar and smashed the windows of a bus loaded with Christmas shoppers. Two I.R.A. men had just entered the pub with a bomb and ordered everyone to leave when the device went off, according to a survivor. “One of them had just said we had five minutes to run when it went off,” the witness said. “It blew the two gunmen to smithereens.”
Soldiers may have killed another I.R.A. man in a brief exchange of fire across the border in Ireland, near the village of Clady in County Tyrone, according to a British Army spokesman. Troops who fired at several gunmen shooting at them from Ireland saw one slumping to the ground and then being dragged away, the spokesman said. No soldiers were hurt. A second I.R.A. bomb today severely damaged an electric power transformer in Belfast, but caused no injuries, the British Army spokesman added.
Queen Elizabeth’s youngest son, Prince Edward, 9, was expected to leave London’s Children’s Hospital today after being admitted for suspected appendicitis. A Buckingham Palace spokesman said the prince, third in line to the British throne, was examined by doctors who ruled out an immediate operation. Prince Edward was rushed to the hospital from Windsor Castle, where the royal family traditionally spends Christmas.
Nuclear physicist Andrei D. Sakharov and writer Vladimir Maximov have appealed to the Supreme Soviet (parliament) to release a dissident prisoner as a gesture toward detente, it was disclosed in Moscow. They made the appeal on behalf of Vladimir Bukovsky, 30, who is in the third year of a 12-year sentence for anti-Soviet activities. They said he should be allowed to take up an offer to study in the Netherlands. A copy of the appeal was made available to Western newsmen.
“Peace pirate” Abbie Nathan put into the harbor at Marseilles, France, with his radio ship Peace after more than 2,000 hours of transmission to both Israel and the Arab states. Nathan broadcast from an anchorage 25 miles north of Port Said. He said he planned to remain in Marseilles for part of the winter to make repairs on his vessel and collect funds to continue his self-imposed peace mission.
A time bomb planted in a large department store crowded with last-minute Christmas shoppers was defused by police in Milan, Italy. The device was the 10th bomb found in Milan in the last two days. Police believe the bombs may have been planted by right-wing extremists because one of the targets was a leftist organization.
Belgian and Moroccan officials are trying to find out what caused a Belgian airliner to crash while approaching Tangier airport, killing all 106 persons aboard. Officials announced that the plane was carrying 99 passengers and a crew of seven, one more crew member than previously reported. Most of the passengers were Moroccans, with the others mainly Belgian or French. Officials were hoping to find the flight recorder, which might give some clue to the cause of the crash.
Sixty-six persons arrested more than a year ago under martial law have been released in time for Christmas, a Manila military announcement said. It identified them as former student activists and suspected dissidents in central and northern Luzon. The midnight-to-4 a.m. curfew in the Philippines was lifted for Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.
Mohammad Mohammadullah became the acting president of Bangladesh upon the resignation of President Abu Sayeed Chowdhury. Mohammadullah would be elected president one month later and serve until January 25, 1975. President Abu Sayeed Choudhury of Bangladesh tendered his resignation, apparently over constitutional differences with the government. He has been president since the nation gained independence from Pakistan in December of 1971. A government spokesman said Choudhury had been appointed special representative of the government in charge of foreign relations and international agencies, with cabinet rank.
Henck Arron became the Prime Minister of Suriname, at the time a constituent part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in advance of the South American nation’s independence on November 25, 1975.
An annular solar eclipse occurred over Central America and the northern nations of South America. Lasting 12 minutes and 2 seconds, it was shorter than the record 12 minute, 9 second eclipse of December 14, 1955, but still longer than any eclipse to occur before January 14, 3080.
At least 143 passengers and crew died when the Jambeli, an overcrowded ferryboat, sank on Christmas Eve in shark-infested waters off the coast of Ecuador. Over 300 people were on the 160-person capacity boat when it capsized in the Gulf of Guayaquil off of the island of Puna; 142 people were rescued by other ships or were able to swim ashore. The Jambeli had departed Puerto Bolívar the night before en route to Guayaquil.”
The new military budget request now rounding into final shape within the Nixon Administration is expected to call for a step-up in spending of $5 billion to $6 billion over this year as part of a record $84-$85 billion Defense Department budget, government sources said. As early as last January the Administration had publicly estimated that defense spending in fiscal 1975 would rise to about $83 billion — over the current fiscal 1974 estimate of $79 billion — to keep pace with rising prices and military and civilian pay scales.
In the U.S., the District of Columbia (including the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C.), was granted limited self-government including the right to elect a mayor and a 13-member city council, as U.S. President Nixon signed the District of Columbia Home Rule Act into law. For more than 100 years, the administration of the district services had been carried out by a subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives. Congress still retained the right to veto the budget for the district.
The Federal energy chief, William E. Simon, appearing increasingly optimistic about prospects for an end to the Arab oil embargo, said that he could manage the fuel shortage for the next month or more without the emergency powers Congress refused to enact before it adjourned on the weekend. He said in an interview that his office would begin publishing a range of estimates of the shortage rather than a single figure. The “best case” estimate will be 1.2 million barrels a day, he said, as against an initial Government estimate of 3.5 million.
Vice President Gerald Ford held a news conference and criticized Congress for not passing any emergency energy legislation.
The Arab oil embargo hit Lewisboro in northern Westchester, New York last week. Dozens of schoolchildren who were accustomed to being picked up each morning near their homes were told that they must walk up to a mile farther to catch the bus because the school district’s fuel deliveries had been cut 14 per cent. Similar modest cutbacks in bus service have been made in scores of other school districts around the country recently because of fuel shortages, according to a check of communities in 10 states by The New York Times.
A bus was hijacked in St. Louis, Missouri, by three men who robbed the 18 passengers and driver of about $250 in cash, two watches and a ring. Police said the bus had just left Interstate 55 when the three men jumped from their seats, announced the hijacking and directed the driver to drive to a public housing project, where they robbed the passengers as they were lying on the floor. The three, armed with a sawed-off shotgun and pistols, then jumped from the bus and fled. Police said they had boarded the bus in the downtown area.
Federal Aviation Administration officials, tightening regulations on Miami International Airport’s freelance cargo plane operators after a crash fatal to nine persons December 15, reportedly received official warnings as early as 1965 of illegal and dangerous cargo activity at the field. An FAA team in 1965 reported violations and recommended changes to upgrade planes, pilots and procedures. Few of those recommendations have been carried out, aviation sources said, largely because of industry opposition. “The U.S. government has to look at this whole mess,” aviation director Richard Judy declared.
A former Green Beret, charged in Lincolnton, North Carolina, with the murder of one woman, was unable to direct authorities to any additional bodies despite his confession that he killed seven persons in the Carolinas. Authorities began a search after Tommy York, 28, led officers to the body of Mrs. Betty Parker Atwell, 38, of Sherill’s Ford. York claimed to have killed three other women in the nearby area, two near Columbia, South Carolina, and a man near Ft. Bragg, North Carolina.
Federal officers in Florida seized 25-30 tons of marijuana. More than 25 tons of marijuana was seized and 13 persons were arrested in early morning raids in five northern Florida counties. Police placed a $20 million value on the marijuana and called the haul the largest of its kind ever in this country. William Troelstrup, head of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said the drug, shipped from Colombia, was seized after it was unloaded from a boat docked in an isolated canal at Gulf County.
A customer at an undercover police fence operation for stolen goods in New York was shot to death in a gunfight with detectives after he tried to rob the operators. The dead Iman was identified as Harold Robertson, who at least once before had patronized the fence operation. His alleged accomplice, Davis Shumati, 22, and police Detective Ronald Kwoczka were wounded in the exchange. Chief of Detectives Louis C. Cottell said the gun battle blew the cover off the fencing operation set up two months ago to find out who was committing robberies in Queens.
AT&T will give lists of reporters’ telephone calls to government agencies which request such information. A group of reporters intends to sue. AT&T said it was required by law “to submit such records to government agencies upon valid subpoena or on demand pursuant to lawful processes.” AT&T said that the law requiring submission of the records was the Communications Act of 1934. The phone company also rejected a proposal that it give advance notice to customers of such subpoenas because AT&T, said this “would inject the telephone company into controversies between government authorities and private citizens.”
An official in Dade County, Florida, said that the Secret Service has refused to allow local tax collectors into President Nixon’s Key Biscayne compound for the last four years. However, the official, Dade County’s Tax Assessor, A. H. Blake Jr., said known additions to President’s Nixon’s homes, such as a dock, auxiliary building or enclosed porch, had been assessed promptly. “The only real difference is we don’t physically inspect the property,” Mr. Blake said. “I guess you can say it’s on the honor system,” he added. “But when the Secret Service says ‘no,’ you just don’t argue.”
President and Mrs. Nixon plan a quiet Christmas dinner at the White House with family and friends, a spokesman said today. The Nixons also planned to exchange gifts around the Christmas tree in the living quarters Christmas morning. The 4. P.M. Christmas dinner in the Red Room will include roast turkey and dressing, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. At the dinner, in addition to the President and Mrs. Nixon, will be their daughters and sons‐in‐law, Mr. and Mrs. David Eisenhower and Mr. and Mrs. Edward F. Cox, as well as the Eisenhowers’ friends, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Milligan, and the President’s personal secretary, Rosel Mary Woods. Mr. Nixon is expected to spend at least part of the day in his office. He has scheduled a meeting Christmas Day with Secretary of State Kissinger and will also continue to review legislation sent him by the just‐adjourned Congress, aides said.
White House aides said that the President hasn’t decided whether to go by air or train on his vacation after Christmas. The king of the hobos, “Steam Train” Maury Graham, stated that President Nixon should hop a freight train to conserve energy.
College students around the country are changing their tastes in studies, away from many of the abstract and theoretical courses that were popular during the nineteen‐sixties, and toward studies that teach “hard” knowledge or that lead to professional training and a comfortable career. Some colleges say it is “the new vocationalism.”
The astronauts aboard Skylab 3 offered their Christmas greetings, stating that all people should work for peace. “One of man’s principal goals for the future should be to learn to live in peace and harmony with one another,” the mission commander, Lieutenant Colonel Gerald P. Carr of the Marines, said in a taped television show. “To that end I wish for all the world a most fruitful and peaceful day.” The first astronaut crew since Apollo 8 in 1968 to be in space at Christmas, Colonel Carr, Dr. Edward G. Gibson, a scientist, and Lieutenant Colonel William R. Pogue of the Air Force showed off a Christmas tree they had fashioned from used soup and cookie cans. They prepared the TV show between preparations for their Christmas Day space “walk” intended to capture the best view yet of Comet Kohoutek.
“We must look back and understand each other and cooperate,” Dr. Gibson said, his voice catching as he spoke. “I think those would be the best Christmas gifts we could give one another.” Colonel Pogue expressed the hope that men would pause and reflect during the Christmas season, saying he had never believed “Christmas is only for children.” All three expressed Christmas wishes to their families, whom they will not see until at least mid‐February.
The astronauts had to spend most today training their solar observatory on Kohoutek as it raced toward the sun at more than 200,000 miles an hour, and on a partial eclipse of the sun. A five-and-a-half-hour space “walk” is scheduled to start between 11 and 11:30 A.M. with Colonel Pogue and Colonel Carr carrying three special comet cameras outside first, mounting them into position and shooting pictures. Dr. Gibson will stay inside to monitor the equipment. While outside, the astronauts plan to replace film in the solar observatory instruments, and Colonel Carr hopes to repair a balky light filtering device on one of the telescopes.
The Soyuz 13 cosmonauts, nearing the end of their flight, spent their seventh day in earth orbit today conducting scientific experiments, the Tass press agency said. “Pyotr Klimuk and Valentin Lebedev feel well,” it was added. Last Friday Tass reported that the astronauts, launched December 18, were nearing the halfway mark of their flight, implying that it would end in the early part of this week.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 814.81 (-3.92, -0.48%).
Born:
Stephenie Meyer, American novelist known for the “Twilight” series of seven fantasy novels; in Hartford, Connecticut.
Shawn Heins, Canadian NHL defenseman (San Jose Sharks, Pittsburgh Penguins, Atlanta Thrashers), in Eganville, Ontario, Canada.
Matt Tebbutt, British chef and TV host; in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom.
Died:
Periyar (Erode Venkatappa Ramasamy), 94, Indian social activist and founder of the Dravidian movement.
Sergei Chakhotin, 90, Turkish-born Soviet Russian surgeon and organizational theorist.
One of the most beautiful songs ever.
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