The U.S. and its NATO allies agreed on a six-point proposal to present next week to the Soviet bloc and other European countries on ways to reduce the risk of war in Europe, State Department officials said. The proposal is to be presented to a new East-West conference opening Monday in Stockholm. It will be attended by Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko of the Soviet Union.
President Reagan gives a national radio address about the National Bipartisan Commission on Central America. The President backed the $8 billion in aid for Central America that has been recommended by his Presidential commission on Central America. In his weekly Saturday radio address, Mr. Reagan gave his first explicit endorsement of the commission’s report and called on Congress to adopt “a bipartisan spirit” toward the five-year program that the Administration is drafting.
The President said he intended “to send the Congress when it reconvenes a comprehensive plan for achieving the objectives” of peace, democracy and development in Central America because “it’s morally the right thing to do.” He did not mention precise aid figures but he warmly endorsed the approach of the commission, and later a senior White House official said the President accepted the general proportions of aid recommended by the panel. Asked if that meant the Administration plan would incorporate the $8 billion recommendation, the official replied, “The President does not believe that is exorbitant, so I would not lead you away from that figure.”
Nicaraguans, in an election scheduled for early next year, will vote for a president and a vice president, as well as a 19-member assembly with powers to draw up a constitution and make laws, the Sandinista government said. Carlos Nunez, president of the Council of State, said the president will be chosen by a simple majority, while the assembly will be elected by proportional representation. He added that “international guests of credibility and prestige” will be allowed to observe the election. Marxist-oriented Nicaragua has been ruled by decree since a revolution in 1979.
U.S.-backed guerrillas, operating from Honduras, have begun a new 1,500-man offensive in two northern Nicaraguan provinces, a clandestine rebel radio station said. The radio 15th of December said the contras are “well-armed and ready for sacrifice.” The Nicaraguan Defense Ministry reported heavy fighting in northern Jinotega and Nueva Segovia provinces. Meanwhile, in El Salvador, government troops heightened security around a key hydroelectric dam after receiving information from area residents that an attack was being prepared.
The official Soviet news agency Tass warned Iranian leaders that sharp criticism of Moscow’s involvement in Afghanistan would harm Soviet-Iranian trading links. The news agency said Hashemi Rafsanjani, Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, had recently attacked the role of Soviet troops sent to support Kabul’s Communist government four years ago. It accused Iranian leaders of wanting to return Afghanistan to the dark times of feudalism, backwardness and poverty.
Syria’s President remained obdurate and stiffened his demands on withdrawing Syrian troops from Lebanon. After talks with Donald Rumsfeld, the United States special envoy, President Hafez al-Assad, said, according to the official Syrian press agency, that he not only continued to oppose the simultaneous withdrawal of Syrian troops with Israeli forces, but added that his soldiers would not leave until the United States Marines and other troops of the multinational force had departed.
Mauritius expelled Libya’s diplomats and ordered the Libyan Embassy closed because of what it called interference in the Indian Ocean island’s affairs and attempts to destabilize the country. Prime Minister Aneerood Jugnauth said the embassy had issued a document by Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi saying Christians do not understand the Islamic faith and appealing to them to study the Koran. Jugnauth called it an “insult to the Christian religion,” and said he had no doubt that the document called for a cultural revolution.
The Chadian Government has put the blame for the collapse of peace talks with Chadian rebels in Addis Ababa on the Ethiopian leader, Lieutenant Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam, and the acting Secretary General of the Organization of African Unity, Peter Onu. The Government protested about what it called the “inaccurate and offensive terms” used in Colonel Mengistu’s communique Friday announcing his failure to get all Chadian factions around the negotiating table for the talks he had sponsored. Colonel Mengistu said President Hissen Habre’s absence was the main reason for the breakdown.
But the Chadian Information Minister, Mahamat Soumaila, said in a government statement issued Friday night that “the absence of President Habre was motivated exclusively by the over-dignified welcome given to the rebels.” The Chadian rebel leader, Goukouni Oueddei, was met at Addis Ababa’s airport when he arrived for the talks by Colonel Mengistu, the current O.A.U. chairman. Mr. Habre felt this was a major breach of protocol, which effectively placed Mr. Goukouni on the same level as Mr. Habre.
Hong Kong suffered its worst violence since leftists rampaged in 1967, as riots and looting in the Kowloon section left 32 people injured and 130 arrested. The violence grew out of a two-day strike by taxi drivers who, protesting increases of up to 500% in their licensing fees, blocked main roads with their cabs. Rioting flared along Nathan Road, a main shopping thoroughfare, and nearby streets. At least 700 police using tear gas and batons restored order after shops were looted and vehicles damaged.
Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang landed in New York City on the last leg of his U.S. tour. Arriving from San Francisco, he was met at the airport by Mayor Edward I. Koch and members of China’s U.N. delegation. He is to be interviewed on television, meet with business leaders and see New York attractions today. On Monday, Zhao is to have breakfast with former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger and others at Kissinger’s apartment, then meet with former President Richard M. Nixon before leaving for Canada.
The police shot and killed at least three workers of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s Congress Party today during violent protests in Kashmir State against the local ruling party, authorities said. The Congress Party said five of its workers were killed, more than 2,000 injured and 4,000 were arrested. The killings capped six months of sometimes violent acrimony between Mrs. Gandhi’s party and the National Conference, which swept to victory in elections in India’s northernmost state in June. Hamidullah Khan, district police commissioner in Srinagar, capital of Kashmir, 425 miles northwest of New Delhi, confirmed that three Congress Party workers were killed. He said two people were slain in Bijbehara, near the state capital, and a third in Kulgam, 69 miles south of Srinagar.
But Congress officials said policemen with guns and tear gas and wielding canes killed five workers in the two localities. The violence erupted during a “protest day” called by the Congress Party against the administration of Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah. The state’s Congress Party has complained that Mr. Abdullah has failed to quash a separatist movement in the predominantly Muslim state, which allegedly is receiving help from neighboring Pakistan.
Mexico City officials announced that a water rationing program, begun this weekend, will last until the end of the dry season in June. The government announcement said that the dam that supplies Mexico City “does not have enough water to operate normally… because of the severe drought in 1982 and insufficient rains in 1983.” The government plans to publicize a list of suggestions for conserving water, and is studying the possibility of recycling polluted water for washing cars and watering parks.
Thirty-one countries agreed to give $9 billion over the next three years to an agency of the World Bank that makes interest-free loans to more than 40 of the poorest countries. The amount agreed on after exceptionally difficult negotiations was far less than the $16 billion the World Bank had initially sought.
Major tax increases will not be sought by President Reagan in his 1985 budget, some advisers say. Administration officials said Mr. Reagan’s aides are still arguing over a separate plan to propose a commission on the budget deficit in an effort to show that the President is dealing with the problem in an election year. Treasury Secretary Donald T. Regan is said to be opposed to the idea, mainly because he thinks such a commission would end up proposing tax increases.
A former Nixon Administration National Security Council staff member cannot recover damages from former President Richard M. Nixon and other officials who tapped his telephone for 21 months, a federal judge has ruled in Washington. Morton Halperin says he will appeal the dismissal of his 11-year-old lawsuit on the grounds that it was “wrongly decided” against the instructions of an appellate court. U.S. District Judge John Lewis Smith Jr. said the four defendants in Halperin’s action — Nixon, former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, former Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House chief of staff H. R. Haldeman — are immune from being sued in the case.
Politicians and celebrities joined a church service, march and rally in Atlanta to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the slain civil rights leader. Actress Jane Fonda and her husband, Tom Hayden; comedian Dick Gregory; and Atlanta Falcons football star Billy (White Shoes) Johnson were among those attending a service at Ebenezer Baptist Church, followed by a march and rally downtown. Former President Jimmy Carter was among 1,500 attending a dinner honoring Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, another in a series of events marking the 55th anniversary of King’s birth.
Commonwealth Edison’s appeal of a federal panel’s refusal to license its $3.3-billion Byron nuclear power plant near Rockford, Ill., could last more than a year and add nearly $300 million to the project’s cost, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. But if extensive repairs are ordered on Byron’s construction and safety inspection work, sharply criticized by a licensing board of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the added. costs could rise to more than $1 billion.
Air Illinois, which halted operations during a federal investigation of a plane crash that killed 10 people, returned to the skies for the first time in a month carrying a dozen passengers, including the company president, Roger Street. The airline grounded its 13-plane fleet December 15 during an inquiry into the October 11 crash in Southern Illinois. The Federal Aviation Administration had accused it of inadequate maintenance and training.
A couple who received offers of financial aid after reporting that they had been robbed in New York are now being sought by Oregon state police. Officers said that they want to question Michael and Diane Hoskins about a $1,200 diamond ring and other jewelry reported missing by Michael Hoskins’ mother. A Pendleton, Ore., woman has said that she is married to Michael, and Travelers Aid officials have questioned the couple’s account of being robbed.
The leader of the House of Judah religious sect offered thanks to God as a judge in Allegan, Michigan, declared him innocent of a child-cruelty charge in the death of a 12-year-old boy. William A. Lewis, 62, the “spiritual teacher” of a sect of “Black Hebrew Israelite Jews,” was charged in the July 4 beating death of John Yarbough at the sect’s rural camp. Circuit Judge R. Max Daniels, who heard the weeklong trial, earlier dismissed child-cruelty charges against two other defendants, Robert Lee and William L. Lewis, son of the sect leader.
Illinois Governor James R. Thompson today signed a measure providing $2 million to clean up an abandoned factory in Ottawa, Illinois blamed for the deaths of dozens of women who used radium to make the numbers on watches and clocks glow in the dark. The measure will allow cleanup work to begin at the former Luminous Process Inc., closed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 1978. About 45 women who worked at the plant in the 1920’s and 30’s succumbed to “violent” deaths because of breast and bone cancers and related diseases caused by radioactive poisoning, Mayor James Thomas said. About 50 years ago, hundreds of women employed at Luminous Process twisted radium-dipped brushes between their lips to form the fine brush tips needed to paint clock numerals.
About 150,000 people in 18 northeastern Pennsylvania communities face up to eight more months of boiling their drinking water because of water pollution. Thus far, 210 people have been stricken with giardiasis, a bowel ailment, and water from the Pennsylvania Gas and Water Company’s Spring Brook Reservoir 10 miles north of Wilkes-Barre has been found by the United States Environmental Protection Agency to be the source of the disease. Three lawsuits have been filed against the water company, in state and Federal courts. The Federal case asks $3 billion in damages.
More Arizona State police officers were sent to Clifton today to quiet renewed violence between strikers at the Phelps Dodge copper mines and workers who have been crossing picket lines. The Arizona Department of Public Safety in Phoenix said “a large number” of officers had been dispatched to join 40 already on duty in the southeastern Arizona town, where 11 people were arrested Friday in stone-throwing incidents. The disturbances followed an afternoon meeting of Phelps Dodge workers, who have been on strike since July 1. Five people were taken into custody when a crowd of 200 gathered outside the mine and smelter, shouting and throwing stones and bottles.
Self-managing work teams make many decisions once reserved for management. At the General Motors battery plant in Fitzgerald, Georgia practices that historically have represented distinctions between blue-collar and white-collar workers have partly been eliminated. The plant is an example of the substantial success being achieved by industry as companies adopt new management practices that lessen authoritarianism and hierarchy, and stress participation in management.
Although Minneapolis Mayor Donald Fraser’s veto of an ordinance defining pornography as discrimination against women was upheld by the City Council, the Council has also decided to allow reintroduction of the measure. After a vote of 8 to 5 to sustain the veto Friday, the Council, in a 12-to-1 vote, decided to allow the measure to be introduced again and to have a study group more work on it. The ordinance defined pornography as any material that depicted the sexual subordination of women.
The State Board of Education today ruled that biology textbooks used in the public schools of Texas do not have to mention Charles Darwin, who formulated the theory of evolution. Critics of the decision accused the board of bowing to pressure from religious conservatives, who opposed any requirement that the theory of evolution be mentioned. In a preliminary vote Friday, the 27-member board rejected, 14 to 7, a proposal requiring that biology texts purchased for the 1985 school year mention Darwin and others “who have advanced biological science and their primary contributions.” The board then approved the decision today without comment.
The parental roof still shelters more people under 30 than at any time since the first years after World War II. In 1982 and most of 1983, according to demographers, the rate at which young Americans established their homes fell to the lowest point since the 1950’s, reflecting a poor job market and high housing costs.
Snow and high winds blasted the central Rockies, with light snow showers scattered ahead of the storm all the way to the Northeast, and freezing rain left roads treacherous in Virginia, causing hundreds of traffic accidents and three fatalities. A winter storm warning was issued for extreme western Kansas, with 5 to 10 inches of snow expected. In Colorado, 12 to 14 inches of snow fell in Big Thompson Canyon and 10 to 12 inches at Loveland. Wind gusts of up to 75 m.p.h. whistled through canyons in Utah and temperatures fell below zero in the northern plains from Montana across the Dakotas to Minnesota.
Madonna first sings “Holiday” on American Bandstand (ABC).
Ray Mancini scores a 3rd-round TKO of Bobby Chacon to retain his WBA lightweight title in Reno, Nevada; Chacon is so severely battered he thanks referee Richard Steele for stopping the fight.
Born:
Erick Aybar, Dominican MLB shortstop and second baseman (All-Star, 2014; Los Angeles Angels, Atlanta Braves, Detroit Tigers, San Diego Padres), in Bani, Dominican Republic.
Mike Pelfrey, MLB pitcher (New York Mets, Minnesota Twins, Detroit Tigers, Chicago White Sox), in Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
Brandon Meriweather, NFL safety (Pro Bowl, 2009, 2010; New England Patriots, Chicago Bears, Washington Redskins, New York Giants), in Apopka, Florida.
Died:
Ray Kroc, 81, American fast food entrepreneur (McDonald’s) and owner of baseball’s San Diego Padres, of heart failure.
Brooks Atkinson, 89, American drama critic (The New York Times).
Olivia Newton John — “Twist of Fate”
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