Secretary of State Kissinger shuttled back and forth between Israel and Egypt during the day, arriving in Tel Aviv confident that the two sides were close to an agreement on the separation of their forces near the Suez Canal. During the late night flight to Israel, an American official said that the main problems had been solved and that an announcement might be made tomorrow.
A high American official aboard Mr. Kissinger’s Air Force 707 jet on its way to Israel said that the main problems had been resolved and that it was possible that an announcement would be made tomorrow or Friday on the document, which will include an agreement on principles for disengagement of troops and details for carrying them out. Mr. Kissinger, in his talks with President Anwar el‐Sadat and other high Egyptian officials, was said to have brought the two positions close enough so that only about 10 per cent of the final, detailed document remained to be agreed upon.
The remaining obstacles were described as not major. “Nearly all the gut issues are now approaching resolution,” one high official said on the aircraft. Foreign Minister Abba Eban of Israel, who saw Mr. Kissinger off at the Tel Aviv Airport in the morning, was there to greet him shortly before midnight and drive with him in a downpour to Jerusalem to discuss tomorrow’s schedule, when Mr. Kissinger will inform top Israeli leaders of his discussions in Aswan. The Israeli Cabinet is expected to meet and American officials believed that the Israeli Government would endorse the document that has emerged from the six days of Mr. Kissinger’s “shuttle diplomacy.”
The Defense Department categorically denied a statement by Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wisconsin) that malfunctioning submarine distress buoys touched off military alerts and raised the possibility of accidental nuclear war. The Pentagon acknowledged there had been two accidental releases of the buoys in 1971 but said neither indicated enemy action and in each case the submarine informed its home base immediately. “There was no alert of any kind,” the Pentagon said. A Navy spokesman said technical corrections had been made to prevent further accidental launchings.
South Vietnamese sailors and militiamen today fired bursts of machine gun fire at Chinese who raised a Chinese flag on Robert Island in the disputed Paracel group claimed by Saigon, South Vietnamese military sources said here. The sources said two South Vietnamese Navy boats moved to the area today as top‐level meetings went on in Saigon to determine the Government’s response to the Chinese presence. First reports reaching Saigon said the navy and a militia platoon assigned to patrol the islands had opened fire. It was not clear whether the Chinese had guns and returned the fire, or whether they were unarmed fishermen. Foreign Minister Vuong Van Bac said at a news conference that Chinese boats had entered the waters surrounding the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea and had put Chinese ashore. This “sudden challenge” he added, constitutes “a threat to peace and security of this region.”
Five days ago, a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement again asserted China’s sovereignty over the Paracels and the Spratly group of islands farther south, between South Vietnam, Borneo and the Philippines. The westernmost of the Paracels lie 200 miles east of South Vietnam and about 220 miles from the Chinese Island of Hainan, but the northernmost islands are nearer to Hainan.
A Khmer Rouge rocket made direct hit today on the anteroom of the office of the Cambodian army commander in chief in Phnom Penh. The commander, Major General Sosthene Fernandez, was not hurt, members of his staff said. But a soldier was reported killed and four were wounded. A total of nine missiles were fired into Phnom Penh last night and today. Three struck the capital last night, one of them hitting a crowded apartment building in the center of the city, killing 13 persons and wounding 10 seriously. Shortly before noon today, the military headquarters was struck by a rocket and another landed in front of the Air Cambodia ticket office. Then three more struck in the riverfront area near a hotel housing refugees, and a sixth was reported to have landed in the northern part of the city.
The Communist insurgents have fired 122‐mm. rockets or 75‐mm. cannon shells into Phnom Penh on 15 of the last 25 days. Unofficial sources say at least 38 persons have been killed and hundreds wounded. The toll last night was the heaviest in a single attack. The Cambodian military command reported continued fighting five to seven miles northwest of the city, where a government task force has been attacking an entrenched rebel force. There was no word of any progress. American sources said the insurgent force, estimated at 1,000 to 2,000 men, had dug an elaborate bunker system that was hampering the government force’s advance.
Thailand has ordered an urgent investigation of the Bangkok office of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, one of its biggest overseas installations, Prime Minister Sanya Dharmasakti said. He said five Thai government agencies were involved in the probe, which resulted from disclosure 10 days ago that a CIA agent had sent a phony letter to Sanya under the name of a Communist insurgent leader offering a ceasefire. Sanya said Thailand would not tolerate any CIA interference in the country’s affairs.
Bands of demonstrators, some of them 500 strong, roamed the streets of Jakarta today in a second day of protests against the visit of Premier Kakuei Tanaka of Japan. There was occasional violence — at times the protesters wrecked or burned a car — but there was far less than yesterday, when hundreds of cars were damaged or destroyed, some buildings set on fire and large numbers of shops looted and wrecked. Some crowds turned their anger today against the ethnic Chinese minority, looting and wrecking Chinese-owned places of entertainment, United Press International reported. The Japanese Government presented a formal request that measures be taken to protect the lives and property of Japanese residents here. It also asked compensation for the damage resulting from yesterday’s rioting.
Police sharpshooters surrounded a Spanish airliner seconds after it landed at Rome’s main airport but a report that armed Arabs were aboard proved false. Fiumicino Airport’s transit hall, crowded with nearly 400 passengers, was evacuated. The plane, an Iberia flight from Madrid, was searched and its 70 passengers were questioned. No weapons were found and no one was taken into custody, police said.
Five seamen died in the gale-swept English Channel and another 11 were saved in an international rescue operation after a Danish coastal vessel capsized south of Plymouth, England, in winds gusting up to 100 m.p.h. Seven survivors, including one woman from the 781-ton Merc Enterprise, were rescued by British and West German helicopters training at a nearby British navy base, while four more were picked up by the Russian ship Leningrad.
Serafeim of Ioannina was officially sworn in as Greece’s new Orthodox archbishop at a ceremony in Athens Cathedral. Attending were Premier Adamantios Androutsopoulos and the Greek cabinet, and Bishop Kyrillos of Chaldia, the official representative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Istanbul. Serafeim, 60, is expected to work toward reconciling relations with the Istanbul patriarchate, which were strained under the tenure of former Archbishop Ieronymos. Ieronymos resigned last month under what he termed political pressure.
In Norway, two Ocean Systems commercial divers died during a dive from the North Sea rig Drill Master, when the diving bell’s drop weight was accidentally released, causing the bell to surface from a depth of 320 feet (98 m) with its bottom door open and drag the diver working outside through the water on his umbilical. The two divers, Per Skipnes and Robert John Smyth, both died from rapid decompression and drowning.
All 18 crew of the British cargo transport MV Prosperity were killed after the craft’s engine failed and the vessel was driven onto the La Conchée Reef near Guernsey and sank. Only 16 bodies were recovered.
The murders of Barbara McCulkin and her daughters Vicki and Leanne took place in Australia when the three disappeared from their home in Highgate Hill, Queensland. Their bodies would never be located. Garry Dubois and Vincent O’Dempsey would be found guilty of their kidnapping and murder more than 40 years after the crime was committed, in 2016 for Dubois and 2017 for Dempsey.
The situation regarding the planned merger of Tunisia and Libya remained muddled. Tunisian Premier Hedi Nouira said the pledged union was a “leap into the unknown-reinforcing signs in Tunis that the country wanted it postponed for some time, if not forever. A scheduled referendum Friday on the question has been canceled by Tunisia to allow changes in its constitution, which has no provision for a plebiscite, Nouira said. There has been no public reaction from Libya but sources say it plans to go ahead with the referendum Friday.
Demonstrators supporting Panama’s sovereignty claims over the U.S.-held Panama Canal Zone burned a U.S. flag outside the hotel in Buenos Aires where Panamanian government chief General Omar Torrijos is staying. Earlier, President Juan D. Perón said the Argentine government fully supported Panama’s claims.
American businessmen in foreign countries are getting instructions on how to protect themselves and their families from terrorists and how to behave if kidnapped. A five-page leaflet titled “General Security Tips for U.S. Businessmen Abroad” is being distributed by the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City and through consulates in nine Mexican cities. Embassy security officers said the State Department drafted the pamphlet for worldwide distribution.
Judge John Sirica heard more testimony regarding the 18-minute gap in a White House tape. Secret Service agent Louis Sims verified the date of the tape recorder’s purchase. Prosecutor Richard Ben-Veniste outlined the time Rose Mary Woods had the tape in her possession. White House assistant Stephen Bull named himself, Miss Woods, Fred Buzhardt, General John Bennett and President Nixon as the only ones having access to the tape. Woods’ attorney Charles Rhyne objected to the to line of questioning. Judge Sirica will soon make a decision on sending the case to the grand jury. Rhyne stated that he does not think the White House is using Miss Woods as a scapegoat.
The search for the person or persons who erased 18½ minutes of a key Watergate tape recording was narrowed today when the special Watergate prosecution established in court that the erasure must have been made between last October 1 and mid‐November. This disclosure indicated that if the segment was deliberately erased, as suggested yesterday by the report of a court‐appointed panel of technical experts, the Watergate cover‐up continued into the fall. The narrowing of the search for responsibility for the erasure came as a result of testimony about the date of purchase of the tape recorder that the panel said had been used to obliterate the segment.
Vice President Gerald Ford declared that a tape gap does not justify impeachment, but other Republicans want to put some distance between themselves and President Nixon. A cross section of Senators revealed that Nixon is nearly destroyed as a credible president because of the latest outrage. The White House refused comment. An administration spokesman insisted that President Nixon was not responsible for the tape’s erasures.
The panel’s report touched off new moves toward additional investigation of the Watergate case by the special prosecution and the Senate Watergate committee and provided increased impetus for the House inquiry into the question of impeaching the President. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been brought into the case by Leon Jaworski, the special Watergate prosecutor. A spokesman for the Washington field office of the FBI said tonight that Mr. Jaworski had asked the bureau to investigate the circumstances surrounding the 18½‐minute gap in the tape and to report its findings directly to the special prosecutor’s office.
Richard Danner, an aide to Howard Hughes, denied telling the Senate Watergate Committee that President Nixon personally asked for financial support before the 1972 re-election campaign began.
Last October, the Providence Journal Bulletin carried details of President Nixon’s income tax payments. The IRS has traced the leak to itself; an IRS employee quit under the threat of being fired.
In the investigation pertaining to Pentagon spying on the White House, Defense Secretary James Schlesinger stated that he found improprieties. Schlesinger attributed the improprieties to overzealous officials in the White House.
A sharp decline in automobile production combined with an unusual drop in the output of gas and electricity last month led to the first significant monthly drop in the nation’s industrial production in two years, the Federal Reserve Board reported. In both cases the declines in production were attributed to the energy shortage.
James R. Hoffa said he would seek to regain the presidency of the Teamsters Union in 1976. He denied that he had agreed to forgo participation in union politics until 1980. In an interview recorded for Miami public television, Hoffa said he did not sign an agreement forbidding him from seeking union leadership when his prison sentence was commuted in December, 1971. “I signed a commitment that I would be on parole until March, 1973, and that’s all I signed,” he said. Hoffa served nearly five years of a 13-year sentence on charges of jury tampering, before President Nixon commuted the sentence.
Wages are expected to rise faster this year than they did in either 1972 or 1973, said John T. Dunlop, Cost of Living Council director. Last year wages failed to rise as fast as either prices or profits and Dunlop said he thought that labor would be trying to catch up. The government’s nominal guideline for wage increases is 5.5% a year.
Work time lost to strikes declined in 1973 to 1.4 working days per thousand, lowest in 10 years, the Labor Department reported. It represented a decline from 1.5 days in 1972 and was the lowest since the 1.1 figure reported in 1963. The department said, however, the decline was due to an increase in employment resulting in more man-days worked rather than a decline in the strikes and disputes, both of which increased last year.
An estimated 2,500 drivers and warehouse workers again have struck five supermarket chains that supply 80% of the food of the Detroit area. At the same time, a wildcat strike over wages shut down the 200-acre Hunts Point market in the Bronx and threatened to choke off fresh fruit and vegetables to 20 million residents of the New York City metropolitan area. A spokesman for the Detroit Teamsters said there still were disagreements over a new contract. In the Bronx, a spokesman for the Teamsters local said. “By tomorrow or the next day we will have no fresh fruit or vegetables in the city.”
Two men were arrested and charged with murder in the death of Grand Ole Opry star David (String bean) Akeman and his wife, Nashville police said. The two were identified as John A. Brown and his cousin, Marvin Doug Brown. Two other men, brothers of Marvin Brown, were charged as accessories to mur der and with receiving stolen property. They were identified as Roy Brown, who was in custody, and Charles Brown, who was being sought. Akeman, 58, a long-time country music entertainer, and his wife, Estelle, 59, were found shot to death in their home north of Nashville last November 10.
President Nixon has decided to nominate Virginia Governor Linwood Holton to be assistant secretary of state for congressional relations, administration officials said. His nomination to be the State Department’s chief liaison officer with Congress is expected to be sent to the Senate within a few days. Robert J. McCloskey, who has been named to serve as an ambassador-at-large and whom Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger considers one of his top aides, will have overall supervisory jurisdiction with regard to the Bureau of Congressional Affairs.
A Landslide kills 9 in Canyonville, Oregon. After heavy rainfall on already saturated soil, an almost instantaneous catastrophic landslide took place near Canyonville. Although the area of the landslide was relatively small at only 15,000 cubic yards, a telephone repair crew was working on a coaxial cable in the area, and nine people were killed in the slide. The slide temporarily blocked Canyon Creek, which was already near flood stage. Much of the slide sediment was washed away by the creek.
Daylight Savings Time, voluntary conservation programs and voltage reductions apparently cut nationwide electrical consumption by 10 percent for the second week in January, according to industry figures. Though electrical output normally grows at about 7 percent a year, the nation actually consumed 4 percent less than in the same week a year ago.
“Jaws” by Peter Benchley is published by Doubleday.
In the second leg of the 1973 European Super Cup, played at Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam, Netherlands, AFC Ajax defeated A.C. Milan by a score of 6–0, winning the Cup 6–1 on aggregate.
The BBWAA elects former Yankee teammates Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford to the Hall of Fame. Mantle becomes just the 7th player elected into the Hall of Fame on first year of eligibility.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 856.09 (+9.69, +1.14%).
Born:
Kate Moss, English supermodel; in Croydon, Greater London, England, United Kingdom.
Tatiana Issa, Emmy Award-winning Brazilian director and producer, 3-time Emmy Award winner; in São Paulo, Brazil.
Àngel Llàcer, Spanish Catalonian stage actor and singer, winner of three Butaca Awards for El Somni de Mozart (1998), Mein Kampf (1999) and The Full Monty (2001); in Barcelona.
Daryl Porter, NFL defensive back (Detroit Lions, Buffalo Bills, Tennessee Titans), in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Kaipo McGuire, NFL wide receiver (Indianapolis Colts), in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Todd Rohloff, NHL defenseman (Washington Capitals, Columbus Blue Jackets), in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.
Died:
Roy Bargy, 79, American composer and pianist.
Johnny Barfield, 64, American country and old-time music performer.
Fred A. Seaton, 64, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, 1954 to 1961
History Diaries 