Warning that the oil shortage could lead to a worldwide depression, Secretary of State Kissinger said that President Nixon would make a personal effort to persuade major oil-producing and oil-consuming nations to band together to ease the crisis. Mr. Kissinger, who said that individual efforts would inevitably lead to economic suicide, disclosed that President Nixon would begin his efforts, aimed at about 20 countries, next week.
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger held a news conference at the Western White House concerning the Mideast peace talks and Arab oil embargo. Kissinger claimed to be optimistic about the prospects for peace, and he doesn’t believe that the Israeli elections will affect the peace talks regarding disengagement. Kissinger will meet with Israeli defense minister Moshe Dayan in Washington tomorrow. Dayan is bringing Israel’s plans for troop disengagement to that meeting.
Israeli troops have blocked a delivery of nonmilitary supplies to elements of Egypt’s Third Army in the Sinai. A United Nations spokesman said that the Israelis told him they had prevented the trucks from unloading in retaliation for an Egyptian attack on an Israeli bulldozer nearby. Egyptian officers reportedly said the cut-off army did not really need the supplies, possibly because Egypt has opened some other supply line to the troops.
The Arab Boycott Office in Cairo has asked Fiat, Italy’s big automaker, to fire the Jewish editor of La Stampa, the newspaper owned by the company. The office maintained that the editor is a “Zionist working against the Arabs.” Failure to do so would mean that Arab nations would boycott Fiat’s products, said Mohamed Mahgoub, head of the office, which works under the 19-nation Arab League. The editor of the Turin paper is Arrigo Levi, one of Italy’s best-known journalists.
The oil crisis has begun to have serious effects in the Far East, where Japan is cutting its enormous exports by 15 to 25 percent, thus imperiling the economies of half a dozen Asian nations heavily dependent on Japanese supplies. Japanese officials fear the export cut will intensify growing resentment of Japan’s economic dominance in Southeast Asia and endanger Japan’s delicate relations with China.
Cambodian rebels killed eight persons and wounded 37 in a rocket attack on Phnom Penh. The eight rockets fired into the capital made a total of 29 since Khmer Rouge insurgents began a terror campaign with rockets 10 days ago. Twenty-two persons have been killed and 61 wounded, officials reported.
The British army moved up armored personnel carriers and increased patrols in Protestant areas of Belfast in an effort to halt the surge in bomb attacks across Northern Ireland since the new year. Army sources attributed half of the 10 bomb blasts in the past 48 hours to Protestants seeking to sabotage the new coalition government. They said the other blasts were set off by the Irish Republican Army for the same purpose. In Dublin, 20 suspected IRA gunmen were arrested in the biggest crackdown against the outlawed organization in the Irish Republic in 20 years.
The Irish Government intensified its action today against suspected terrorists with the arrest of 30 men at four places close to the border of neighboring Northern Ireland. Fifteen were released but the rest were held for questioning. According to Government sources, most of those held are from Ulster, but have been living recently in areas of the Republic close to the border. The 30 included 9 who were arrested late last night. The police raids followed the announcement yesterday by the Dublin Government that persons accused of murder in the British province on Northern Ireland would face trial in courts here if they sought refuge in the Republic.
The miners’ dispute is at the heart of Britain’s economic troubles. Negotiations in London continue to go badly. Prime Minister Heath blames the coal miners entirely; miners’ feelings for an all-out strike have increased. The coal shortage has set off a deadly economic chain reaction, as steel companies suffer badly from the coal shortage. The government and workers are at odds.
The arrest in England of three American sympathizers with Palestinian terrorists has caused problems. The British government will set free and then deport one American girl and her two male companions rather than punish them for criminal offenses. Reports differ regarding their mission in London, but they were supposedly smuggling arms into Britain for the terrorists. The men who were arrested were a Moroccan and a Pakistani who were students at a college in Santa Barbara, California. Student body president Sultan Aziz said that the campus was amazed and shocked to hear of their involvement. The other American who was arrested, Allison Thompson, lived close to the campus.
The General Accounting Office reported that U.S. military troops were used to build a private golf course in West Germany two years ago.
Two weeks after the assassination of the Spanish Premier, Luis Carrero Blanco, his successor, Carlos Arias Navarro, formed a new cabinet reflecting his own conservative political views and devotion to authority and order. In a major realignment, Mr. Arias eliminated the influence of figures associated with the Catholic lay movement, Opus Dei, who had led Spain’s economic upsurge for 15 years.
The Soviet Union issued its second blast in 24 hours against writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, calling him a “puppet… ever ready to fill any order for anti-Soviet slander.” The new attack came in the form of a second commentary by the official news agency Tass on publication in the West of the writer’s latest book, “Gulag Archipelago,” a report on Soviet prison camps. The new blast, stronger than the first, called Solzhenitsyn a renegade who sent his book for publication abroad “in exchange for a promise of any currency that looks more promising than others at the moment.”
A new constitution for the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma took effect on the eve of its independence day celebrations, establishing a one-party regime. It had been approved in a constitutional referendum held on 15 December. Burma also adopted a new flag. As part of the celebration, Burma’s government released 1,212 political prisoners, but detained 1,028 others.
The Soviet Union has agreed to supply India with SAM-6 missiles of the type used by the Arabs during the October Mideast war, the Hindustan Times reported in New Delhi. The Defense Ministry refused to comment on the report, which also said India would get Yakovlev short takeoff and landing planes for its aircraft carrier, Vikrant.
The Navnirman Andolan or “Re-invention Movement” took place in India at Ahmedabad, in the state of Gujarat, as students of an engineering school, who had been up in arms since December 20 against price increases for food at the school, confronted the police who tried to intervene. Some students were arrested. On January 7, the protesters called for an indefinite student strike for Gujarat state’s universities and colleges and increased their demands to new campus facilities, better food and the arrest of black market sellers.
Three armed youths seized the Yugoslav-born manager of a paper factory near his plant in Buenos Aires in the latest of a rash of kidnappings plaguing Argentina, police reported. The plant said it had had no contact with the kidnappers of Jose Ludvig, 51, seized as he was driving home from work. Meanwhile, Miguel Angel de Bonis, an Argentine arms merchant, has been released by guerrillas after six days of captivity, police said. No ransom figure was given.
Five men who drifted helplessly for two months in a disabled 47-foot sampan were reported in good condition after they were rescued by a Japanese vessel about 1,400 miles southwest of Honolulu. A Coast Guard spokesman said he believed the men survived by catching fish. The sampan left Honolulu October 25 on a fishing expedition and had been missing since November 12. The crew was identified as Gale Middleton, of Philadelphia; Don Van Cleave of Albany, New York; Fred Munro of Altamount, New York; Lambert Kanakaole of Hawaii, and Ed Yamamoto of Honolulu.
On Victoria Street in East Sydney, Australia, a 30-man team of workmen used sledgehammers and axes to batter down the doors of 19 houses in the King’s Cross section of the city, 13 of which were occupied by squatters who had barricaded themselves inside to protest against a proposed development and then defied a court order of eviction. More than 40 squatters fighting a proposed $20 million redevelopment project in Sydney, Australia, were arrested after a pitched battle with 100 policemen and 30 development company employees. The squatters — estimated at 100 — defied a court order for eviction and barricaded themselves in 19 tenement houses in King’s Cross-equivalent to London’s Piccadilly Circus or New York’s Times Square. The squatters were supported in their campaign by conservationist groups seeking to retain the old and rather seedy looking Victorian era architecture in preference to a high-rise development project.
Canada indicated plans to increase her export tax on oil shipments to the United States by almost 200 percent, a move that would cost American importers nearly $120 million a month. The stated purpose of the tax, now $2.20 a barrel, is to shield Canada, the United States’ largest foreign oil supplier, from soaring world oil prices.
Gold hits record $121.25 an ounce in London. The price of gold hit record of $123.70 in official commercial trading today. It reached similar levels in London and Zurich but then sagged. Gold closed at $120 an ounce in Zurich, $8.75 above Dec. 28, the last previous trading day. In London, gold was fixed at $121.25 in the afternoon, an increase of $3.75 from Wednesday.
President Nixon signed a bill that will increase Social Security benefits by 11 percent for 30 million Americans and increase the Social Security taxes for everyone earning more than $10,800 a year. The bill, which replaces a 5.9 percent benefit rise authorized last year, calls for a 7 percent increase in checks received next April and a 4 percent increase in checks received next July. To pay for the added benefits, Social Security taxes will be paid on the first $13,200 of a wage earner’s annual income, raising the ceiling from $10,800.
The federal government asked stations to limit gasoline sales to 10 gallons per customer. Energy czar William Simon estimates that gasoline prices will increase 8-11 cents per gallon in the next two months, but stated that he foresees no further price increases after March. Major league baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn announced a cut in team charter flights to conserve energy.
William Simon, the federal energy administrator, said that most major oil companies had agreed to encourage service stations to limit sales to 10 gallons a customer, but it was unclear just how effective their efforts might be. The 23 major companies own only about 10 percent of the nation’s service stations and have no influence over policies of the others.
The government hopes to change America’s attitude toward car pools. Transportation Secretary Claude Brinegar stated that car pools must be instituted or the U.S. faces gasoline rationing. The federal highway administration has worked out a car-pooling computer program.
A Gallup poll revealed that 85% of Americans expect economic difficulties in 1974.
The House Judiciary Committee and most major news organizations generally agree on compromise legislation to protect a reporter’s confidential sources and information. The bill will be brought before Congress during the next session.
Caspar W. Weinberger, secretary of health, education and welfare, approved a 40-cent monthly increase in optional Medicare insurance premiums covering doctor’s bills. The 6.4% raise to $6.70 a month beginning July 1 will cost 22.5 million aged and disabled beneficiaries an additional $108 million a year. The Social Security Administration attributed the boost to increased use of doctors’ services, rising costs and use of hospital outpatient services and a trend toward more expensive procedures.
The Food and Drug Administration said it would require more stringent testing to assure the uniform quality of a heart drug used by an estimated 3.5 million Americans. The drug, Digoxin, is chemically related to digitalis, or foxglove, and has long been used as a heart stimulant. The agency said persons taking the drug have found that some doses are more effective than others, apparently because of differing rates at which the pills dissolve.
Bad weather prevented the release from prison of Bernard L. Barker, convicted member of the Watergate burglary team, pending outcome of his appeal. Barker, who once testified he was performing “a service to my country” when he took part in the June 17, 1972, break-in, was supposed to have been flown in from a federal prison farm at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., to Washington, where officials were ready to process his release. But marshals said bad weather would prevent his departure until today.
The leaders of last year’s Wounded Knee confrontation will go on trial next week in St. Paul, Minnesota. Wounded Knee, South Dakota, had been the scene of outrages for American Indians for generations, including the 1890 massacre which occurred there. Last spring, militant Indians revisited Wounded Knee to make Americans aware of the Indians’ problems. Navajo babies’ chances of survival are extremely low. Indians desire return to the time before the white man’s interference. Indians are bilingual and bicultural only because of the white man’s forced influence on his society. Indian children often lag behind white children when they begin school, and some believe that Indian children would benefit by being removed from the Indian environment.
U.S. District Judge Julius Hoffman dismissed all criminal charges against 12 members of the U.S. domestic terrorist group Weather Underground, including those against Bernardine Dohrn, Mark Rudd and Kathy Boudin.
A majority of news media organizations and a House Judiciary subcommittee have reached general agreement on a bill to protect newsmen against forced disclosure of confidential information. The agreement is a result of months of discussions between the subcommittee and representatives of the press, radio and television. It clears the way for an attempt to move the bill through Congress in the coming session. The subcommittee originally approved a bill last June but the chairman, Robert W. Kastenmeier, Democrat of Wisconsin, delayed further action on it to seek the support of the media.
A major icestorm cracked tree limbs, downed power lines and made roads treacherous as an inch of ice covered much of eastern Arkansas, western Tennessee and northwest Mississippi. Freezing rain or icestorm warnings were issued for southern Illinois, much of Kentucky and southwest Pennsylvania. In Louisiana and Mississippi, up to three inches of rain fell and moderate flooding was expected. Other thundershowers occurred in southern Florida and parts of the Atlantic Coast. In the Southwest, a storm. warning was out as temperatures fell and in southern Colorado, road crews fought snowdrifts in an attempt to reach thousands of isolated cattle.
Miguel Pinero’s “Short Eyes,” premieres in NYC
Unable to pry Dick Williams away from Finley, the New York Yankees sign Bill Virdon as manager.
With the NCAA recognizing the unofficial champion of college football as the team that finished in first place in the Associated Press poll of sportswriters (as well as United Press International’s poll of coaches), the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame finished in first place in the AP poll. Notre Dame, which finished 10-0-0 in regular play and defeated 11-0-0 Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, received 33 first place votes and 1,128 points overall to finish at number one, while Ohio State (10-0-1) had 11 first place votes and 1,002 points. The UPI poll, taken before the 1973 bowl games, had declared Alabama the national champion in December.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 880.69 (+25.37, +2.97%).
Born:
Todd Warriner, Canadian National Team and NHL left wing (Olympics, Silver Medal, 1994; Toronto Maple Leafs, Tampa Bay Lightning, Phoenix Coyotes, Vancouver Canucks, Philadelphia Flyers, Nashville Predators); in Blenheim, Ontario, Canada.
Stefan Ustorf, German National Team and NHL centre (Olympics, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006; Washington Capitals), in Kaufbeuren, West Germany.
Davide Ancilotto, Italian professional basketball player who died of a brain ischemia during a preseason game; in Mestre, Venice, Italy (d. 1997).
Mike Ireland, Canadian speed skater and Olympia, 2001 world sprint champion; in Winnipeg, Canada.
Alessandro Petacchi, Italian road racing cyclist; in La Spezia, Italy.
Hayley Yelling, English long distance runner and European cross country champion, 2004 and 2009; in Dorchester, Dorset, England, United Kingdom.
Faat Zakirov, Russian cyclist, winner of the 2001 Tour of Slovenia; in Andijan, Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union.
Franck Riester, French politician and government minister; in Paris, France.
Katie Porter, U.S. Representative for California since 2019; in Fort Dodge, Iowa.
François Choquette, Member of the Canadian House of Commons, 2011 to 2019; in Granby, Quebec, Canada.
Died:
Gino Cervi, 72, Italian comedian, stage, film and TV actor known as the star of the RAI series Le inchieste del commissario Maigret (“The Investigations of Commissioner Maigret”) from 1964 to 1972
Arthur Daley, 69, American sportswriter for The New York Times, 1956 Pulitzer Prize winner.
Maksim Shtraukh, 73, Soviet film and theater actor, known for portraying Vladimir Lenin in six movies, including as the star of Lenin in Poland in 1966
History Diaries 