The Soviet Union proposed a ban on chemical weapons, starting in Europe, and called for a meeting between NATO and Warsaw Pact ambassadors to discuss it. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has already called for a global chemical weapons ban, saying that a regional reduction only allows the weapons to be moved elsewhere. Western diplomats said the Soviet proposal could be a conciliatory move before the Stockholm security conference next week, or it could be a propaganda move.
The Soviet Union wants to develop a rapid deployment force patterned after the U.S. military’s concept of a mobile combat group, Jane’s Defense Weekly said. It added that the Soviet military already has “an impressive amphibious lift” capability and that rapid deployment units will probably include forces equivalent to the U.S. Marines, plus tanks and amphibious vehicles. The weekly, a new publication, also said that the Soviets are building two new classes of nuclear submarines and a nuclear carrier.
Washington and the Vatican established full diplomatic relations for the first time in 117 years. The action was described by spokesmen for the Reagan Administration as aimed at improving communications at a time when Pope John Paul II has become increasingly involved in international affairs.
Many Protestant groups, some Jewish groups and some civil liberties organizations criticized the re-establishment of full diplomatic ties between the United States and the Vatican.
Shipments of natural gas from Siberia to Western Europe have been further delayed by a serious fire that destroyed imported electronic equipment crucial to the functioning of the pipeline, according to reports circulating in Moscow. Informed Westerners said the damage might have been sufficient to cause a delay of six months or more in the commissioning of the largest pumping station on the 2,800-mile pipeline. An explosion and fire late last month at a Siberian control center caused serious damage to the 2,800-mile pipeline being built to carry natural gas from Siberia to Western Europe, sources in Paris and Washington said. The accounts cast doubt on Soviet reports that the project has been completed ahead of schedule. A French specialist associated with the $10-billion venture said he believes that the pipeline is now unlikely to become fully operational until at least the end of 1985, roughly a year behind schedule.
A British government clerk appeared in court on charges of having leaked a classified document on the arrival of U.S. cruise missiles in Britain to a newspaper. Sarah Tisdall, 23 — dubbed the “mole” in Britain’s popular press — was charged with violating the Official Secrets Act by sending the Guardian a memorandum addressed to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The memo, from Defense Secretary Michael Heseltine, advised Thatcher that the cruise missiles were expected to arrive at Greenham Common air base November 1.
A Bulgarian Tupolev 134 crashes at Sofia airport in Bulgaria; 50 people die.
President Reagan speaks with Senators Tower (R-Texas) and Warner (R-Virginia) about their trip to the Middle East; and about Beirut in particular.
King Hussein of Jordan, appointing a new prime minister and Cabinet, confirmed that he will hold talks with Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat in a fresh move toward bringing about the eventual return of the Israeli-occupied West Bank to Jordan. Hussein, who has been hospitalized with a peptic ulcer, listened to a radio broadcast of the swearing in of his new 20-man Cabinet, with Ahmed Obeidat replacing Mudar Badran as prime minister. Earlier, Hussein reconvened his Parliament after a suspension of nearly 10 years, and it amended the constitution to allow for parliamentary representation of Palestinians on the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Two Republican senators just back from a Mideast tour unequivocally endorsed President Reagan’s Lebanon policy, warning that a hurried withdrawal of U.S. Marine peacekeeping troops from Beirut “would have a disastrous effect” on continued U.S. influence in the region. On the eve of Senate hearings on the Marines’ deployment, Armed Services Committee Chairman John Tower of Texas and John W. Warner of Virginia, a member of the panel, rejected both the idea of moving the Marines along the coast to the south of their present site at the Beirut airport and the idea of stationing them aboard Navy ships. A withdrawal of American troops from Lebanon now would be “disastrous,” according to Senator John Tower, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, who returned to Washington from a weeklong trip to the Middle East. Mr. Tower, Republican of Texas, also said Washington had to increase economic and military aid to Lebanon.
More Palestinians have been named to posts in King Hussein’s Cabinet and to other key positions in the Jordanian Government, it was announced. The King was hospitalized Monday with a bleeding ulcer, but was said to be recovering and in good condition.
President Reagan is involved in a critical discussion with Premier Zhao about Taiwan. From Reagan’s diary:
“Premier Zhao (P.R.C.) arrived. We had a formal S. Lawn ceremony with full mil. honors. The day was freezing cold which held off a rain that didn’t fall till around noon. Zhao is a likeable fellow & a very capable one. China’s communism makes room for some pvt. enterprise etc. In our Oval office meeting he took off on Taiwan being the block to full relationship & even hinted that if peaceful negotiations didn’t resolve the problem he might have to use other means. I told him we wanted a resolution of the problem but any use of force would change our relationship beyond repair. We got along fine from then on.”
Souvanna Phouma died at his villa in Vientiane, Laos, at the age of 82. Souvanna Phouma, a neutralist, served intermittently as Prime Minister of Laos from 1951 to 1975, when the Communists took sole control.
The United States and Honduras will conduct a new set of large-scale military exercises in that strategically placed Central American nation beginning next June, just three months after they end the current seven-month joint military exercise known as Big Pine II, Pentagon officials said. The new maneuvers, which are still being planned, are intended to apply pressure on the leftist government in neighboring Nicaragua.
A former Argentine President, General Reynaldo Bignone, was arrested on charges of having abused his authority, illegally detaining two people, and covering up a crime. The arrest order was issued by Judge Carlos Oliveri after General Bignone testified for nearly five hours on the arrest and disappearance in 1976 of two army conscripts, both Communists.
Four broad proposals to ease hunger at only slight additional cost to the Government were recommended by a Presidential advisory commission. In a news conference, the chairman of the panel, J. Clayburn La Force Jr., seemed to depict hunger in graver terms than those used in the commission’s final report.
A W-2-type form would be issued by each Federal agency providing benefits to individuals so Government programs could be reduced and directed to the “truly needy,” under a recommendation by a Presidential advisory commission. Copies of the forms would be submitted to the Internal Revenue Service.
A standard that deportable aliens must meet to avoid deportation was tightened by the Supreme Court. The Justices ruled, 9 to 0, that a statute setting seven years of “continuous physical presence” in the United States as a condition for a suspension of deportation must be interpreted literally.
Four Democratic contenders for President appealed for votes from Iowa’s tiny black and Hispanic communities at a forum in Des Moines by attacking the policies of the Reagan Administration and pledging to do more to combat discrimination. Senators Alan Cranston and Gary Hart also attacked Democratic opponents. On some issues, Senator John Glenn differed with the others, who included George McGovern.
Ohio Senator John Glenn called for a two-year moratorium on a $2-a-month “telephone access charge” scheduled to be added to home phone bills beginning in April. Glenn made his proposal before the Waterloo, Iowa, Kiwanis Club as he campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination in a state where aides concede he has scant chance for victory in leadoff caucuses on February 20.
Colorado’s election and registration laws that limit access to the state’s election ballot by minority parties and their candidates were ruled unconstitutionally restrictive by a federal court judge. In the 20-page ruling in Denver, sought by the Libertarian and Citizen parties, U.S. District Judge Jim Carrigan issued an order barring the state from using voter registration forms that do not treat all political parties equally. Colorado now requires a third party to get at least 10% of the votes cast for governor. Otherwise, such candidates must circulate petitions to get on the ballot for each election.
Charles Z. Wick, head of the U.S. Information Agency, secretly tape-recorded a telephone conversation with former President Jimmy Carter in 1982, The Washington Post said. Wick apologized to Carter in recent days, and the ex-President told Wick he did not hold a grudge, but believed Wick made a serious error in judgment, according to the Post. Carter’s name is the latest to appear from documents turned over Monday to Senate and House committees. Wick has acknowledged taping conversations without telling people. President Reagan, a longtime friend, has defended Wick.
The government’s top agricultural and environmental officials met to discuss possible contamination of food supplies and drinking water with traces of a cancer-causing pesticide, as Agriculture Secretary John R. Block cautioned that public fear of EDB seems to be growing faster than knowledge of what actual risk exists. William D. Ruckelshaus, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, said his agency is attempting to determine a tolerance level for the pesticide, ethylene dibromide, and hopes to have some results within “a couple of weeks.”
A University of Utah panel approved guidelines permitting surgeons to implant an artificial heart in a second human patient, healthier than Barney Clark was and able to use a portable heart-drive system. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration now has 30 days in which to approve the guidelines. Clark, 62, the Seattle-area dentist who died March 23 after 112 days on the device, eventually succumbed to multiple organ failure.
Gun possession charges against actress Jennifer O’Neill’s ex-husband were dismissed in a White Plains, New York, court in a case stemming from an accident in which the movie star shot herself in the stomach. John Lederer, 36, was divorced several months ago from O’Neill. The actress, 36, invoked “husband-wife” privilege in refusing to testify about whether Lederer owned the revolver with which she shot herself October 22, 1982. She pleaded guilty last year to a misdemeanor in the case and was sentenced to one year on probation.
A federal judge reduced one of the prison terms of former CIA agent Edwin P. Wilson to 10 years, but Wilson still faces 52 years behind bars. Wilson, 55, received the five-year reduction from Judge Richard L. Williams, sitting in Alexandria, Virginia, after a ruling by an appeals court that Wilson was in effect charged twice for the same crime in illegal arms dealings with Libya. The judge also dropped $200,000 in fines for the same reason. His fines now total $215,000. Wilson was convicted in November, 1982, of heading a scheme to smuggle arms to Libya.
California will have enough money in its next fiscal year to set aside an emergency fund of nearly $1 billion while sharply increasing spending for education and many other needs, according to Governor George Deukmejian. Mr. Deukmejian, a Republican, submitted to the Democratic-controlled Legislature a proposed budget of $29.9 billion for the fiscal year beginning July 1.
Upgrading Southern public schools is being pressed by political leaders with increased state taxes and a variety of innovative programs. For years, public school systems throughout the South have been rated the poorest in the nation. Now, more than elsewhere, politicians are seeking to reverse a legacy of poorly financed schools, low teacher salaries and high student dropout rates.
Clara Peller first asks, “Where’s the Beef?” in the famous commercial for Wendy’s hamburger chain.
Conductor Eugene Ormandy leads his last concert, with the Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, NYC.
Luis Aparicio, Harmon Killebrew, and Don Drysdale are elected to the Hall of Fame by the BBWAA. Aparicio becomes the only non-pitcher in the Hall of Fame who played his entire big-league career at only one position.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1278.48 (-7.74).
Born:
Pago Togafau, Samoan-American NFL linebacker (Philadelphia Eagles, Arizona Cardinals), in Long Beach, California.
Hunter Jones, MLB pitcher (Boston Red Sox, Florida Marlins), in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
Dean Clark, Canadian NHL defenseman (Edmonton Oilers), in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Karen Souza, Argentinian jazz and bossa nova singer, songwriter, and producer (Essentials; Velvet Vault), born in La Pampa, Argentina.
Died:
Souvanna Phouma, Prince and Prime Minister of Laos (1951–54, 1956–58, 1960 and 1962–75).
History Diaries 