Elections for the 120-seat Knesset took place in Israel. Israeli national elections are underway as Prime Minister Golda Meir fights for her political life against challenger Menachem Begin. A record number of Israelis turned out for the vote. Mrs. Meir and defense minister Moshe Dayan both suffered as a result of the Mideast war. Begin’s hardline, hawkish political views may get him a large portion of the military vote. The campaign’s key issue is the Geneva peace conference. Prime Minister Golda Meir’s Alignment party won 51 seats and its coalition partners, including the Mafdal won 16 seats to maintain a majority.
The White House is keeping an eye on the Israeli elections. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger reported to President Nixon that negotiations at the peace conference will become more active after the elections. If Kissinger is correct, the Arab oil embargo against the United States may be lifted.
The great majority of East Jerusalem’s Arabs boycotted the municipal election, setting back Israeli hopes for advancing integration of the city under Israeli rule. Jerusalem was divided between Israel and Jordan until the 1967 war.
Arab guerrillas claimed responsibility for the shooting Sunday night of Joseph Edward Sieff, president of Marks and Spencer, the British store chain, who had worked actively in support of Israel. The announcement in Beirut by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine came soon after London police warned leaders of Britain’s Jewish community to be vigilant. Mr. Sieff was reported to be doing “better than expected.”
Police in Tel Aviv charged a Portuguese seaman who tried to board a Lufthansa jetliner at Lod Airport with a loaded pistol with illegally carrying a gun. Police said that Portas Maria Olbo will appear in court today and they will ask that he be remanded to custody until he is brought to trial. Security forces arrested Olbo after finding the gun in one of his boots during a routine body search. Olbo said he bought the gun in Texas for his brother in Holland.
Effective today, crude‐oil prices in some producing countries rose by 60 to 90 per cent to record levels as Libya, Indonesia and Bolivia adjusted their export prices following a pattern set by the major Persian Gulf producers a week ago. Libya, the principal North African producer, announced a posted price of $18.77 a barrel.
King Faisal of Saudi Arabia launched the world’s largest religious festival as he walked barefoot into Mecca’s Grand Mosque and washed the Kaaba, the 50-foot cube of black stone that is Islam’s holiest shrine. About 2 million Moslem pilgrims chanted, “Liberate Jerusalem.” Sixteen Arab and African radio stations were hooked into the Saudi radio network for a live description of the annual event that started the week-long rituals of Hajj, or Moslem pilgrimage. The religion claims more than 500 million adherents.
The New Year will find no American soldiers fighting in Indochina, however MIAs still exist. More than 1,200 U.S. MIAs are still unaccounted for today; military teams continue to search. Crash sites are prominent throughout Indochina, but most of the sites are inaccessible because of the Communists’ hold on those areas. General Daniel James stated that the U.S. government and the North Vietnamese government are now discuss the MIA problem through diplomatic channels. The U.S. search team may be discontinued soon.
Only 50 U.S. military personnel remained in Vietnam. South Vietnamese armed forces totaled 1.1 million. 233,748 South Vietnamese have been killed in combat as of this date.
In the United Kingdom, as a result of coal shortages caused by industrial action, the Three-Day Week electricity consumption reduction measure came into force at midnight. Britain began a three-day work week to combat its worst economic crisis since World War II. The whiskey industry and pubs are exempt from the three-day week. The three-day restriction, allowing manufacturers to use electricity on only three out of seven days in a week, would continue in effect until February 21.
Scotland Yard detectives questioned a teenaged American girl who arrived in London on a flight from Los Angeles Saturday with guns and ammunition concealed in a trunk, police sources reported. The girl was arrested shortly after she left the terminal building of London’s Heathrow Airport. A man she contacted at the airport was also arrested, the sources said. Police refused to identify the girl or the man.
Carlos Arias Navarro became Spain’s premier but, although the decree was published, the government said he would not take the oath of office until Wednesday. A spokesman said there was no political significance to the delay in the swearing-in. Political insiders said it was not likely that the new premier would make many changes in the cabinet left by his assassinated predecessor, Luis Carrero Blanco.
The Greek military government abolished the constitutional court set up five months ago by a referendum to legalize political parties for parliamentary elections. The court had the power to screen party programs and to dissolve any party deviating from its program or whose candidates acted against the constitution. The new premier, Adamantios Androutsopoulos, said the court hampered procedures for an effective democratic administration and introduced police methods into political relations. When the junta took control November 25 it said a plan for elections next year was suspended indefinitely.
The Soviet government executed the director and the bookkeeper of a fruit-juice factory in Azerbaijan for grand larceny. A Communist Party paper in that Soviet republic on the before a firing squad, and said they Caspian Sea reported the men who died were bosses of a gang that operated in the plant.
The Soviet Union issued a forecast predicting a miserable year for the capitalist world.
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi said her recent economic agreements with the Soviet Union do not in any way damage India’s nonaligned foreign policy. “We were offered help in critical sectors,” she told her first news conference in 17 months. “We are not going to refuse help from any nation.” She made it clear she included the United States in that statement.
Reiterating the determination of the Chinese Nationalist (Taiwanese) Government never to deal with the Chinese Communists, Premier Chiang Ching‐kuo today envisaged the continued separation of Taiwan from the Chinese mainland for an indefinite period. Because of the world energy crisis and the possible recognition of Peking by more governments in 1974, the Premier foresaw difficult times ahead for this island territory of 16 million people. But he voiced confidence in, his regime’s ability to cope with whatever arise. Mr. Chiang underscored the separateness of Taiwan’s future by emphasizing his government’s determination to pursue a program of economic growth that in five years would put Taiwan into the ranks of the world’s developed countries.
Prominent civic and student leaders spurned a strong warning from President Park Chung Hee and went ahead with a campaign to restore democratic liberties suspended under South Korea’s military-style constitution. Elder politicians, religious leaders and prominent intellectuals wrote the president asking for the restoration and seeking a meeting with him. Backed by student leaders at Seoul National University, they are also collecting signatures to petition the president to bring back the old constitution.
The Chilean government has guaranteed safe conduct out of Chile to 191 people who took refuge in the French Embassy in Santiago after the September 11 coup but the fate of 29 others there remains in doubt, according to the French ambassador to Chile, Pierre de Menthon. He said the guarantees had been sought from Chile before the December 11 deadline for such passes. The ambassador said he believed Chile would try to extradite the 29 refugees from the embassy, which is technically French territory. His remarks were carried in an interview in a French newspaper.
A key government official predicted that prices of gasoline, heating oil and diesel fuel would rise by 10 cents a gallon in January and February. The official, Charles Owens of the Federal Energy Office, offered the estimate as William Simon, director of the office, authorized distributions of gasoline, heating oil and diesel fuel to raise prices to cover increased operating costs, such as higher rent and electricity bills.
The Shell Oil Company announced that it was increasing prices for gasoline, heating oil and most other petroleum products. Other oil companies were expected to announce similar rises.
Special Watergate prosecutor Leon Jaworski announced that he expects several indictments within the next two months. John Dean, Egil Krogh, Donald Segretti, Fred LaRue, Jeb Magruder and others have admitted their guilt in the Watergate scandal so far.
It was reported that President Nixon’s brother Edward was paid $21,000 for acting as a “consultant” on the selection of the site for the Nixon library.
The nation’s population will be 211.7 million on New Year’s Day, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates. The forecast represents a net gain of only 1.5 million over the figure of a year ago. The net gain for 1972 was 1.6 million. A bureau spokesman said the decline corresponds with the nation’s falling birthrate, which is now 2.08 per couple, or slightly below the 2.11 figure that is called the “replacement level.” Several years ago, the birth rate per couple was 2.7. Last year, according to census estimates, the net gain resulted from about 3.2 million births, 2 million deaths, and a net immigration of 350,000.
A passerby alerted by muffled cries pried open the trunk of an abandoned car in Ocala, Florida, and freed a kidnaped coed, police reported. They said Kathy L. Morris, 20, who had been abducted from a birthday party in Daytona Beach, was unharmed. She had been missing since Sunday when police said a man armed with a pistol and knife broke into the party, terrorized Miss Morris and three coed friends, then fled with Miss Morris as hostage after stealing the money from the women’s purses and carrying off a stereo set. Police were still searching for the man.
New Year’s Day opens a new era in the controversial history of oleomargarine in Wisconsin, one of the nation’s major dairyland states. It is the first day Wisconsin stores can sell oleo without a state tax of 5¼ cents a pound. Because the dairy industry has been so important and politically powerful in the state, the butter substitute has been an often-bitter issue.
All of the nation’s “high-level” radioactive wastes from the recycling of nuclear power-plant fuel in the next two years will be stored at General Electric’s fuel recovery site near Morris, Ill., 55 miles from Chicago, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. The $25 million plant will be the only facility that extracts plutonium and uranium from “spent” nuclear fuel. The potentially lethal wastes will be solidified, encased in stainless steel canisters and submerged in a water-filled basin, said a GE official. Both GE and Atomic Energy Commission officials acknowledge that the site will be the sole storage place until 1976, when two more sites should be opened.
A suspected member of the Black Liberation Army who was acquitted of a federal bank robbery charge last Friday has been indicted in New York City on new charges of attempting to kill two police officers last March 6. The new indictment against Fred Hilton, 20, who was rearrested immediately after his acquittal, was announced by Bronx District Attorney Mario Merola. Hilton is charged with acting in concert with other unnamed persons to “cause the death” of the two officers in a radio car in the Bronx.
Defense Secretary James R. Schlesinger ordered the daily costs paid by military dependents for hospitalization be doubled. The increase is the first in 25 years and is apparently in response to criticism of the military for maintaining a system of free or nominally priced medical services while raising pay dramatically. Military dependents now must pay $3.50 for each day in a military hospital instead of the previous $1.75. Schlesinger also said that hospitalization rates would be reviewed annually.
In a two‐minute ceremony in his apartment in Belle Harbor, Queens, Abraham D. Beame was sworn in last night as the 104th Mayor of New York City. Mr. Beame took the oath in the presence of only his family, Brooklyn Surrogate Nathan R. Sobel, an old friend of Mr. Beame’s, who administered the oath, and a handful of newsmen.
Spencer Kimball was named president of the Mormon Church, succeeding Harold Lee. Taft Benson was selected as president of the Council of 12 Apostles, making Benson next in line for the Mormon presidency.
In Sydney, Australia, the heavy metal group AC/DC performed their first major concert, a New Year’s Eve gala at the Bondi Lifesaver Club at Bondi Beach.
Johan Cruyff is chosen European Football Player of the Year.
Australian Open Women’s Tennis: Australian Evonne Goolagong Cawley beats Chris Evert 7-6, 4-6, 6-0 for her first of 4 home singles titles.
Sugar Bowl, New Orleans, Louisiana: Notre Dame 24, Alabama 23. In a rare postseason meeting of two of the unbeaten and untied college football teams in the U.S., No. 1-ranked Alabama (11-0-0) met No. 4 Notre Dame (10-0-0) in the Sugar Bowl game in New Orleans. Notre Dame defeated Alabama, which had been named national champion by UPI on December 4, by a single point, 24—23. Notre Dame won the right to claim a national college football title with a victory over Alabama tonight in a Sugar Bowl classic that surpassed expectations for sustained excitement. A 19‐yard field goal by Bob Thomas with 4 minutes and 26 seconds left became the final points for the unbeaten Irish before a game‐record crowd of 85,161 and millions more who watched on national television. Notre Dame then showed even more courage, in the tradition of a championship team, by running out the clock in the final three minutes with two first downs. One of the first downs came when Tom Clements, on third and 8 from his own 2‐yard line, dropped back into the end zone and completed a 35-yard pass to Dave Weber, a sophomore tight end. It was the 11th consecutive victory for Notre Dame, a 7-point underdog: Alabama, rated No. 1 nationally before the game, suffered its first setback in 12 games and extended its victoryless postseason record to seven successive games. But the Crimson Tide had nothing to be ashamed of with tonight’s showing, coming from behind on three occasions to take the lead. The quality of play rivaled the 1971 Nebraska‐Oklahoma Thanksgiving Day classic, and the emotional pitch was so intense throughout the stadium that almost the entire Notre Dame team poured onto the field after Al Hunter’s 93‐yard kickoff return had erased a 7—6 Alabama lead midway into the second quarter.
Thomas’ game‐winning kick followed an Irish drive from their 19‐yard line to the Alabama 2. Clements, voted the game’s most valuable player, delivered the crucial completion with a 15‐yard to Dave Casper, the all‐America tight. end, on third and 1 from the Alabama 45. Notre Dame held Bama’s prolific wishbone offense for three plays following the field goal. A roughing-the-kicker penalty was called against the Irish on fourth down, which forced Alabama into a crucial decision: Take the field position on the punt, which rolled dead at the Irish 1‐yard line, or consider gambling on what would have been fourth and 3 at its 45. With three minutes left, the Tide decided to trust their defense to regain a final shot for the offense. It might have worked, but Clements hit Weber and then followed with a 7‐yard keeper, again on third down, that sealed the third national title for Coach Ara Parseghian and satisfying sequel to the controversial 1966 tie game with Michigan State.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 850.86 (+2.84, +0.33%).
Born:
Curtis Myden, Canadian 200m and 400m swimmer (Olympics, 2 bronze medals, 1996), in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Shandon Anderson, NBA shooting guard and small forward (NBA Champions-Heat, 2006; Utah Jazz, Houston Rockets, New York Knicks, Miami Heat), in Atlanta, Georgia.
George Jones, NFL running back (Pittsburgh Steelers, Jacksonville, Jaguars, Cleveland Browns), in Greenville, South Carolina.
Khaled K. El-Hamedi, Libyan peace activist and founder of the International Organization for Peace, Care and Relief (IOPCR); in Tripoli, Libya.
History Diaries 