Egypt, Jordan and the P.L.O. will meet in March or April to work out a new approach toward resuming negotiations for the return of Israeli-occupied territories, Egypt’s senior foreign policy adviser to President Hosni Mubarak said. The adviser, Osama el-Baz, said, “Since the time is not right for Israel to join us, the United States should act as a go-between.”
A meeting in London between Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Donald Rumsfeld, President Reagan’s special Middle East envoy, encouraged speculation that the United States and three of its major European allies were actively seeking some alternative to keeping their military forces in Lebanon.
American warships in the Middle East have been placed on a heightened state of alert because of new reports of the danger of terrorist attacks from hostile aircraft, Administration officials said tonight. The officials said there was increased concern about aircraft attacks on warships in the Mediterranean Sea, the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean, including possible suicide missions. “We continue to be concerned about the threat of state-supported terrorism,” the official said. He noted that American intelligence officials have concluded that recent attacks against the United States in the Middle East — including the bombing in October of the Marine headquarters in Lebanon that killed 241 Americans — have had the support of Iran and the acquiescence of Syria.
The disclosure of increased concerns and of the higher state of alert for American warships has coincided with a flurry of news reports about possible threats in the region. Some reports, based on intelligence sources, suggest that airplane parts were being shipped in cases from Iran, through Syria, to Lebanon, where they might be assembled for possible use in suicide attacks. The Administration official said recent news articles about threats of possible suicide attacks on American warships from such aircraft were “essentially correct.”
King Hassan II said tonight that Egypt’s return to the Islamic Conference Organization, decided on by the 42-member organization Thursday night at the end of a four-day meeting, would not be without conditions. The communique at the end of the meeting Thursday did not mention conditions for Egypt’s return. But the King, speaking at a news conference today, confirmed reports in some Moroccan newspapers that there was a condition. The condition was that Cairo would have to agree “to adhere to the principles, rules and decisions of the Islamic Conference Organization.” These decisions include the repudiation of the Camp David accords.
World tensions were reduced by the meeting this week in Stockholm between Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko of the Soviet Union, President Reagan said, but it “did not resolve our differences.” Mr. Reagan said also that the United States and its allies would soon propose long-awaited “practical and concrete measures” in Stockholm “to reduce the risk of surprise attack or war by accident or misunderstanding.”
Canada’s Prime Minister said he was encouraged by the United States-Soviet contacts this week at the European security conference in Stockholm. But Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau said that he hoped that more substantive steps could be taken in the context of his own effort to promote a disarmament agreement.
The Soviet Communist Party newspaper Pravda today criticized the recent visit to the United States by Prime Minister Zhao Ziyang of China and said Washington “is not interested” in solving China’s problems. A Pravda commentator, Vsevolod Ovchinnikov, said American officials “stated unambiguously” that they viewed ties with Peking as serving common strategic interests. Pravda said Mr. Zhao “avoided confirming this ‘community of interests’ directly, but he did not deny it either.”
“While condemning in words ‘any hegemonism,’ the Chinese leadership proclaims the readiness to establish ‘stable and durable relations’ with the present U.S. Administration,” Pravda said. “But it is well-known that the aggressive actions of the U.S. Administration in the Middle East, in Central America, in Africa, just like its attempts to turn countries of Western Europe into the Pentagon’s nuclear hostages, are the manifestations of extreme forms of hegemonism.”
Andrei D. Sakharov, the dissident Soviet physicist who won a Nobel Peace Prize, has sent a letter to the European security conference appealing for medical care for his wife, the newspaper Expressen reported today. The letter was published in Sweden’s largest daily, which said it was to be distributed today to all delegations at the conference. Dr. Sakharov said in the letter that his wife, Yelena Bonner, has had repeated heart attacks and is severely ill, but that because of the couple’s difficulties with the Soviet authorities she cannot get proper medical care.
“Only a trip abroad to get nursing can save her, and me, as her death would also be mine,” Dr. Sakharov said in the letter dated January 12 in Gorky, where he has been forced to live in internal exile since 1980. His wife is allowed to travel from Moscow to see him and is virtually his only contact with the outside world. “I fear — and I believe the fear is justified — that if Elena were to be hospitalized” in the Soviet Union, “some means may be found to bring about her death,” Dr. Sakharov wrote. Dr. Sakharov, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975, is perhaps the most prominent dissident in the Soviet Union.
French officials today expelled four people arrested in an investigation of the railway bombings December 31 that killed five people, judicial officials said. Thirteen others were held for court action. The identities and nationalities of the 17, all described as Muslim fundamentalists, were not disclosed. They were among dozens of people arrested this week. The others were released after questioning.
The state- controlled Polish press today reported the easing of two American economic sanctions against Poland and urged the United States to end all the restrictions imposed after martial law was declared two years ago. “These partial moves can in no way be considered proper, since they are only illusory actions constituting a dodge in the face of the obvious need to depart from the policy of restrictions, which is still treated by the U.S. Government as a means of interfering in Poland’s internal affairs,” the Polish press agency said from Washington. President Reagan announced Thursday that he would allow Polish charter flights to the United States and Polish fishing in American waters.
The chairman of an inquiry into the murder of Benigno S. Aquino Jr. said today that the panel had cause to doubt that the man blamed by the Government was the real killer. The Government of President Ferdinand E. Marcos has maintained that the opposition leader was slain by Ronaldo Galman, who the police say was a criminal and a Communist guerrilla. Mr. Galman was shot dead by guards at the Manila Airport moments after Mr. Aquino’s assassination in August. But Corazon Juliano Agrava, the chairman of a government-financed commission that has been examining evidence for three months, said today that “there is now evidence that puts into doubt that Galman is the killer.” Miss Agrava, a former appeals court judge, did not say what the evidence was.
At least one witness has testified, however, that Mr. Galman could not have shot Mr. Aquino even though he was standing nearby when guards escorted the former senator and opposition leader from the plane that brought him home from three years of exile in the United States. Miss Agrava opened the hearing to the public and invited questions from the audience after a subpoenaed witness failed to show up. The questions reflected the continuing interest in the Philippines about the slaying of Mr. Aquino. “Are you now convinced that the named assassin was not the killer,” asked one woman wearing a yellow T-shirt emblazoned with Mr. Aquino’s picture.
United States Embassy officials and the chief of the Honduran armed forces said today that two Honduran military officers have admitted they fabricated a report that a United States helicopter forced down by Nicaragua last week was following a flight plan that included stopping at a village near the Nicaraguan border. The officers’ report, which the embassy said involved a false flight plan, contradicted both official United States and Honduran versions of the circumstances surrounding the helicopter’s flight. General Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, chief of the Honduran armed forces, said, “I disavow what these men said.” He called the confusion over the incident “quite a lamentable moment.” The helicopter, an OH-58 Kiowa observation craft, was forced down by Nicaraguan Government soldiers on January 11. The pilot, Chief Warrant Officer Jeffery C. Schwab, was killed after taking cover in a ditch about 200 yards from the Nicaraguan border.
Nigeria’s military Government has recovered millions of dollars in currency hoarded by former officials and is trying to retrieve millions more smuggled out of the country, a member of the new regime says. Brigadier Tunde Idiagbon told reporters Thursday that the stockpiles of money ranged from $56,000 found at the home of former Vice President Alex Ekwueme, to $4.5 million at the residence of the last civilian governor of Kono State, Alhaji Sabo Bakin Zuwo.
Democratic Party officials rejected a compromise on the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s challenge to the party’s delegate-selection rules. Officials in Walter F. Mondale’s campaign had sought to negotiate a settlement in the long-standing dispute, but party officials rejected Mr. Jackson’s arguments that the rules were discriminatory and could cost the Democrats the 1984 election. In a major concession, representatives of the Mondale campaign agreed to the lowering of the “threshold” that requires candidates to get 20 percent of the primary or caucus vote before qualifying for a proportional share of the state’s convention delegates.
The nation’s economy grew at an annual rate of 4.5 percent in the final quarter of 1983 while inflation remained subdued, the Commerce Department said. The pace of growth in the quarter was less than half the recovery’s 9.7 percent rate last spring, but the Government said the slowdown was encouraging for this year’s prospects.
President Reagan meets with several thousand of his political appointees at Constitution Hall for the Third Annual Administration Executive Forum.
President Reagan meets with Governors about the problem of acid rain. A group of Northeastern and Middle Western governors said after a White House meeting today that they had received no commitment from President Reagan that he would take immediate action to curb acid rain. Governor Kean of New Jersey, a Republican who has been critical of the Administration’s environmental policies, said he believed that the President wanted to come up with a policy on acid rain “but he wants to be sure of himself.” Governor John Carlin of Kansas, a Democrat, said that from the tenor of the meeting, which was attended by the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, William D. Ruckelshaus, and the White House chief of staff, James A. Baker 3rd, the chances were “very slim” that the Administration would seek anything more than research funds.
Spokesmen for all three national television networks say they have no plans for special coverage or analysis following President Reagan’s five- minute speech on January 29 at 10:55 P.M. The speech will come on a Sunday. The news divisions of CBS and ABC normally broadcast 15-minute national newscasts after 11 P.M. on Sundays, but NBC News has no national news broadcast after 11. Despite the speculation that swirled around Washington this week about the President’s speech, the news divisions of the three networks are going on the assumption that President Reagan will use the time to announce his intention to run for re- election.
Companies and individuals accused of dioxin contamination at six sites in Missouri are being sued by the Reagan Administration to force them to clean up the sites. The six sites named in the lawsuit, including four horse arenas at which the Government says dioxin-laden oil was sprayed to control dust, are among at least 37 places in Missouri where dioxin contamination has been found.
Redskin fans have been flying south from Washington to Tampa, Florida, since last Saturday for the game with the Oakland Raiders, whose fans are also gathering in Tampa. The city is giddy with excitement over its role of host at the Super Bowl game and anticipation of $60 million in tourist income.
Killers who strike again and again are becoming increasingly common, according to evidence gathered by law enforcement officials. A Justice Department study has found that in the past decade there have been more than 30 cases in which a single killer has murdered at least six people over a period of time, in most cases choosing strangers as the victims.
Two advocates of Puerto Rican independence, the eighth and ninth in the last year, were found guilty yesterday of criminal contempt of court for refusing to testify before a Federal grand jury investigating nearly 40 unsolved New York City bombings. The F.A.L.N., the group advocating independence for Puerto Rico, has taken responsibility for the blasts. Like seven people convicted, on similar charges in the last year, the latest two found guilty, Michelle Miller and Silvia Baraldini, held that the grand jury was a “political tool” of the Government to attack the Puerto Rican independence movement. They vowed they would not “collaborate.” Prosecutors responded that the grand jury was concerned not with legal activities by the movement but with acts of criminal violence, and they charged that the women might have “crucial” knowledge about those responsible for the violence.
Racial divisions in Fort Wayne, Indiana, have widened following the death in prison of an 18-year-old black accused of murdering a white newspaper editor, his wife and child. Federal investigators attempted to reconstruct the events leading to the death of Calvin D. Perry 3rd, found hanged in his cell, and a federal conciliator was trying to re-open a fragile dialogue between the city’s whites and blacks, divided over suspicions that Mr. Perry was murdered.
Kevin H. White, who stepped down as Mayor of Boston this month after 16 years in office, has been appointed a professor of communication and public management at Boston University, the school’s president has announced. “We are proud that from among all the opportunities available to him, Kevin White has chosen to accept a faculty appointment at Boston University,” the school’s president, John R. Silber, said.
The morning Pledge of Allegiance to the flag is on the way out in some public schools in Berkeley, California. The City Council has already voted not to salute the flag before meetings and some schools don’t even fly flags. The school board has decided not to require the Pledge of Allegiance and will design a substitute, optional pledge urging world peace. That is similar to a move by the City Council of this city, home of the University of California, which recently voted to continue a longstanding refusal to begin meetings by saluting the flag.
Six tons of flour, rice, beans, powdered milk and other perishable food donated by the United States Government for soup kitchens in Detroit, Michigan, has spoiled and is being destroyed, a newspaper reported today. Some of the bulk food delivered to the city was packaged by the Department of Agriculture in July 1981 and its shelf life may have expired, The Detroit News reported.
Painful cold air wafting down from the Arctic sent temperatures falling as low as 40 degrees below zero yesterday and set records in more than two dozen cities as it spread across the eastern two-thirds of the nation. Snow fell in Florida, and never had a January morning been so cold in parts of West Virginia. At least 28 deaths have been attributed to this week’s frigid weather. A cold wave the last two weeks of 1983 killed more than 350 people in the nation’s coldest December ever.
The invasion of cold air, called the Siberian Express because it originates in Siberia by way of the polar regions and western Canada, pushed temperatures below zero from the Rockies all the way to New England and as far south as Nashville. It was 40 below zero Friday in Minong, Wisconsin, compared with the morning low of 11 above at Nome, Alaska. “In fact, if you want a nice, warm vacation, you can go to Alaska,” said Nolan Duke of the National Severe Storms Forecast Center in Kansas City, Missouri. Juneau and Anchorage were both at or above the freezing mark, he said.
Johnny Weissmuller, who played Tarzan of the Jungle in many movies, died at his home in Acapulco, Mexico. He had been an Olympic swimming champion who set 67 world records in the 1920’s. He was 79 years old.
The U.S. female Figure Skating championship is won by Rosalynn Sumners.
In a move that stuns New York fans, the White Sox draft Tom Seaver as compensation for losing Type A free agent Dennis Lamp to the Blue Jays. The Mets left Seaver off their protected list assuming — wrongly — that no team would want to select the aging star, who finished 1983 with a 9-14 record and a 3.55 ERA. Seaver was claimed by the Chicago White Sox from the free-agent compensation pool. It was a coup that stunned the Mets. Seaver, 39 years old, and the symbol of the Mets’ franchise for most of the last 17 years, said that he was shocked and confused and suggested that he might retire.
Free agent Pete Rose signs a one-year contract with the Expos.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1259.11 (-6.91).
Born:
Bonnie McKee, American singer (“Somebody”) and songwriter (Collaborating with Katy Perry-“California Gurls”, “Teenage Dream”, “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)”, “Wide Awake”, and “Roar”) in Vacaville, California.
Olivia Hallinan, English actress (“Lark Rise to Candleford”), in Hounslow, London, England, United Kingdom.
Gabe Gauthier, NHL left wing (Los Angeles Kings), in Buena Park, California.
Died:
Johnny Weissmuller, 79, Romanian-American actor (“Tarzan”) and swimmer (5 Olympic gold medals, 1924, 28), of pulmonary edema.
History Diaries 