A new approach to the Soviet Union has been decided on by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of Britain. Mrs. Thatcher said in an interview that President Reagan’s speech last week represented an “important change” in Soviet policy, and that she had decided last summer that a change was needed. She said that the Western alliance must work “steadily” toward regaining the confidence of the Kremlin and developing much broader contacts.
Norway arrested a top Foreign Ministry official on charges of spying for the Soviet Union. Arne Treholt, 41, was taken into custody at Oslo airport Friday and admitted having given classified documents to the Soviet KGB security police on several occasions, the Norwegian attorney general said. Treholt was recently appointed to a high post in the Foreign Ministry’s information department and handled media arrangements for the recent visit by Secretary of State George P. Shultz. Officials said he had access to a wide variety of classified Norwegian and North Atlantic Treaty Organization material.
Six East Germans entered the United States Embassy in East Berlin Friday, saying they would stay inside until they were granted political asylum in the United States. Today they appealed to President Reagan and said they would not eat until the Communist Government gave them exit visas. Additional police were stationed outside the building today as American and East German diplomats met to try to resolve the standoff. The five men and one woman said they were on an “open-ended hunger strike,” but it could not be confirmed whether they were refusing food. The East German Foreign Ministry refused all comment on the case, the first known incident of its kind at the American Embassy in East Berlin.
A U.S. State Department spokesman said the department had no comment on the incident except to confirm that the six were in the embassy refusing to leave.
Libya’s top-ranking diplomat in Italy was shot and critically wounded today by two gunmen outside his home, the police said. The Italian news agency ANSA said two young men walked up to the diplomat, Ammar D. el-Taggazy, and fired several pistol shots at him before escaping on foot. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Mr. Taggazy, 43 years old, is the head of the Popular Committee, which represents the regime of Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi in Rome. Officials at Umberto I Hospital said the diplomat was in critical condition and undergoing surgery.
Hungary announced prices increases for meat, beer and other items to reduce consumer demand in the wake of disappointing industrial and farm output. Meat, canned vegetables and heating oil will rise by 20%, beer 15% and building materials 30% beginning Monday. The announcement added that there would be offsetting compensation for many of those in need. The price of many basic goods was raised between 10% and 23% only last September.
Former West German General Guenter Kiessling, fired over allegations that he frequented homosexual bars, was quoted as saying that he used a secret pass and cover name to visit West Berlin in 1982 because he had no bodyguard and feared being kidnapped. “I did not use it to lead a secret double life,” Kiessling said in an interview. Kiessling, 58, who was a deputy NATO commander, has sworn under oath he is not a homosexual. His firing by the defense minister has touched off a political controversy.
The U.S. considers withdrawing from a small United Nations agency in Rome that helps small farmers and landless laborers in the poorest countries. The issue is being discussed at a time when the Administration is taking a hard look at all 120 international organizations in which the United States holds membership. The current question involves the International Fund for Agricultural Development. According to Administration officials from several departments, President Reagan has been called on to resolve a dispute over participation in the agency, which is encountering financial problems. The conflict is chiefly between Agriculture Secretary John R. Block, who is pressing for a continued American commitment, and officials in the Treasury Department and the Office of Management and Budget, who are opposed because of United States budget problems and what they see as a duplication of efforts with other agencies that lend money to poor countries.
Diplomatic and military officials acknowledge that the Reagan Administration seriously overestimated how quickly the Lebanese Army could be made into an effective force. A few weeks after the United States Marines were stationed in Beirut in September 1982 with the promise that they would be withdrawn quickly and replaced by Lebanese troops, a special Army commission found that the Lebanese Army had only half as many men on the payroll as had been estimated. State and Defense Department officials, Congressional aides and others who were involved in many of the initial decisions on the Marine deployment also said the Administration erred when it decided that it need not consult the leaders of Lebanon’s factional militias before deploying Marines at the Beirut airport.
And they said Administration officials should never have taken seriously Syria’s vague promises on withdrawing its forces from Lebanon, either in the fall of 1982 or the next spring, after Lebanon and Israel reached agreement on the terms of Israel’s withdrawal. Underlying the mistaken assumptions, the officials said, was a feeling of almost cocky overconfidence among many of the United States diplomats involved. Having successfully negotiated the Palestine Liberation Organization’s withdrawal from Beirut in August 1982, American diplomats “had the feeling that we could do anything,” said a senior official involved with the Administration’s diplomatic efforts in the Middle East. “What we’d done with the P.L.O. was a real stunt that no one believed we could accomplish,” he added. “Even people in our embassy there were laughing at us, saying we couldn’t possibly do it. But we’d pulled it off, so there was this heady feeling that we could pull this one off, too.”
Syrian-backed Druze insurgents shelled President Amin Gemayel’s Government palace today during a four-hour artillery battle with the Lebanese Army that left two soldiers dead. No casualties were reported at the palace, where the 41-year-old President was meeting with university alumni, but the state radio said two army corporals were killed and another soldier was wounded elsewhere during the barrages.
Army tanks rumbled through the eastern Moroccan city of Nador in the aftermath of riots that reportedly left more than 25 people dead, the Spanish news agency reported. The Moroccan government imposed a news blackout on the disturbance. The rioting reportedly began when students heard a report that the Ministry of Education planned to charge a $6 tuition at state high schools. The violence spread as residents joined students in overturning and setting fire to cars.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak received a high-ranking Jordanian diplomat for four hours at his Cairo residence, a sign that Egypt may be renewing its involvement in Mideast peace efforts. After the meeting, Adnan abu Odeh, Jordanian minister of the royal court, said only that the talks “dealt with Arab questions of interest to our two countries, as well as the results of the Islamic summit in Casablanca.” The summit meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference conditionally invited Egypt to rejoin, after having banished it five years ago for signing a peace treaty with Israel.
U.S. and Japanese negotiators were reported near agreement on a troublesome trade conflict-lifting restrictions on American sales to Nippon Telephone and Telegraph, which buys more than $3-billion worth of telecommunications equipment annually. Michael Smith, U.S. deputy trade representative. said in Tokyo that most obstacles to renewing an agreement on trade competition have been ironed out, and the pact might be signed this week. He said progress has been made on raising the Japanese ceiling on U.S. beef and citrus imports but that differences remain. Under American trade negotiation procedures, the results of the discussions this week in Tokyo must receive final approval from Washington. But Michael B. Smith, the Deputy United States Trade Representative, said, “We have agreement on an overriding number of issues.” American companies have complained that the Japanese telephone company’s practices in some areas tended to discriminate against foreign suppliers.
Nicaragua said that American-born Bishop Salvador Schlaefer will be allowed to resume ministering to his diocese on the Caribbean coast despite having helped more than 1,000 Miskito Indians flee government resettlement camps to neighboring Honduras. An official statement said Schlaefer, 65, told the Sandinista government that he accompanied the Indians because the road was mined, that he did not head the exodus and that he did not call the resettlement camps “Nazi concentration camps.”
President Reagan delivers a Radio Address to the Nation on his economic recovery program. President Reagan fired an opening salvo today in this year’s battle of the budget, calling critics of his deficits “doom criers.” The President strongly indicated he would ignore advice from aides who have been telling him taxes must be raised to keep the $180 billion deficit from ruining the recovery. “Deficits do matter,” he said, but he attributed them to “a pattern of overspending started 50 years ago.”
In a Democratic response, Representative Pat Williams of Montana accused Mr. Reagan of attempting to “dismantle” the Federal Government.
President Reagan will attend a rally for free enterprise in Atlanta Thursday and meet with Republican leaders from 14 Southern states, the White House has announced.
President Reagan works on his speeches, for the State of the Union Address, and his own announcement of running for re-election in 1984.
The first test in flight of an advanced antisatellite missile was announced by the Air Force. The missile was fired from an F-15 fighter plane over Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The test involved only the booster and booster guidance system and did not involve a target, the Air Force said. Major Ralph B. Filburn, U.S. Air Force, flying a McDonnell Douglas F-15A-17-MC Eagle, serial number 76-0086, successfully launched a Ling-Temco-Vought ASM-135A anti-satellite missile to a point in space.
The ASM-135 was a three-stage guided missile using a solid-fueled Boeing AGM-69 Short Range Attack Missile (SRAM) as its first stage and an LTV Aerospace Altair 3 rocket as the second stage. The third stage was the homing vehicle, which used an infrared seeker to intercept the targeted satellite. This was not to be an explosive warhead. The satellite would be destroyed by the kinetic energy of the very high-speed impact. The ASM-135 was 18 feet (5.48 meters) long, 20 inches (50.8 centimeters) in diameter and weighs 2,600 pounds (1,180 kilograms).
There were five test launches of the ASM-135, including one in which an orbiting satellite was intercepted and destroyed. The missile was not placed in production, however, and the program was cancelled.
Acting just two days before the return of Congress, which could have held up his plans, President Reagan appointed two Administration loyalists to the board of the Legal Services Corp., an agency he has sought to abolish. Using recess appointments, which at least temporarily circumvent the requirement that the Senate confirm presidential nominations, Reagan named former White House aide Peter Joseph Ferrara, 28, and former Assistant Secretary of Labor Albert Angrisani, 34, to succeed William F. Harvey and Frank J. Donatelli. The action brings to six the number of vacancies filled on the 11-member board-a quorum to conduct business. None have been confirmed by the Senate.
A law book company was barred from publishing an opinion of a federal district judge in Colorado that criticized Justice Department prosecutors. The department obtained the order from a federal appeals court earlier this month. The head of the department’s tax division said the Federal judge’s opinion was “slanderous,” and unfairly accused three of his prosecutors of misconduct.
The Administration is preparing to challenge a federal court decision that ordered the State of Washington to give millions of dollars in back pay and raises to women employees who were found to have suffered overt, intentional discrimination. Administration officials say they knew such a challenge would be unpopular with women voters and women’s organizations but they would not be deterred from their challenge.
A troubled nuclear power plant near Cincinnati will be converted to a coal-fired facility, the three local utilities involved in the construction of the Zimmer plant announced. “There will be an immediate cessation of Zimmer as a nuclear facility,” William H. Dickhoner, president of Cincinnati Gas & Electric, said.
A bus carrying the Whitefish High School wrestling team crashed along U.S. Highway 2 on the southern edge of Glacier National Park. Nine died and 18 others were hospitalized in the deadliest highway accident in Montana history.
Too many legal questions remain to dismiss the case of a woman paraplegic fighting for the right to die, despite a dismissal action by the State Supreme Court, a judge ruled Friday. Judge John Hews of Superior Court refused to dismiss the lawsuit of Elizabeth Bouvia, saying a full trial was warranted on her request to be allowed to starve to death while a hospital provided painkillers and hygienic care. Judge Hews also extended an order enabling Riverside General Hospital to continue to force-feed Mrs. Bouvia, who is 26 years old, and restraining the cerebral palsy victim from declining food or refusing to cooperate with her medical care and ultimate discharge. Judge Hews agreed with attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union, who represent Mrs. Bouvia. They said many legal questions remained and should be aired at a trial.
The Colorado River basin, troubled by flooding and saltiness, is losing its underground water faster than it is being replaced, a new study shows. The U.S. Geological Survey’s first annual National Water Summary, which gauges water quality and availability and analyzes the impact of floods and droughts, said the Colorado is the only one of the nation’s 21 river basins where such water loss is occurring. The 1,400-mile Colorado River, which irrigates 1.5 million acres of prime farmland, directly affects seven basin states, including California. Salinity costs an estimated $120 million a year to control.
Police from 19 states who gathered in Monroe, Louisiana, to share information on unsolved murders believe there are more than 30 slayers who drift around the nation, killing as they go. The law enforcement authorities met to compare notes on suspected slayings involving drifters Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Elwood Toole, who once traveled together and claim to have killed more than 150 persons. By the end of the three-day conference the visiting officers had confirmed 81 of the slayings, said Monroe Police Lt. Joe Cummings.
Sheriff’s deputies charged a suspect today with murdering four men, including a deputy sheriff and a policeman, who were shot to death in October in a shed on a northeast Texas ranch. Lester Leroy Bower Jr., 37 years old, a salesman for a chemical company, was arrested Friday in the Dallas suburb of Arlington. Philip Good, a Grayson County deputy; Ronald Mayes, a former Sherman policeman; Bob Tate and Jerry Brown were found shot to death October 8 in a tin shed on a ranch owned by Mr. Tate.
A federal court jury in Helena, Montana, acquitted four of the nation’s largest electrical contracting companies and six of their executives on charges of conspiring to fix bids on nuclear power plants in Washington and Indiana. Those acquitted were Lord Electric Co. Inc. of New York City, its president, Peter F. Matthews, and Vice Presidents Henry A. Kammenzind and Paul E. Arbogast; Fischbach & Moore Inc. of Dallas and its Western Division president, Lawrence E. Grundy, Commonwealth Electric Co. Inc. of Lincoln, Nebraska, and its board chairman, Paul C. Schorr III; and L.K. Comstock Co. Inc. of Danbury, Connecticut, and its chairman, Charles L. Scharfe Jr.
The insolvent City & County Bank of Jefferson County, Tennessee, a remnant of the crumbled billion-dollar empire of brothers Jake and C. H. Butcher Jr., was sold to a Newport, Tennessee, institution for $345,000. The C&C, which was declared insolvent because of “excessive loan losses,” was the 14th Tennessee bank to fail in 12 months, most of them connected with the Butchers. The sale to the Merchants & Planters Bank of Newport has been approved by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Below-freezing temperatures were recorded in every state of the continental United States yesterday, and records for cold were set in parts of the Middle West. Temperatures were almost 20 degrees below normal in the New York area and around the Northeast. In New York, yesterday’s low temperature in Central Park was 8 degrees above zero at 7 A.M., according to the National Weather Service. The normal low for the day is 28. The record low, set in the blizzard year of 1888, was 1. Record lows were set in and near the Ohio Valley and the Great Lakes. The coldest place in the country yesterday was Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., where the temperature fell to 33 below zero, that city’s coldest January day ever. It was 19 below zero — the coldest ever — in Toledo, Ohio. At 2 P.M. in New York, under sunny skies, the temperature in Central Park reached its high for the day of 18 degrees, markedly lower than the normal high for the day of 35 degrees.
The U.S. Men’s Figure Skating championship is won by Scott Hamilton. Scott Hamilton’s four perfect scores in the national figure skating championships Friday night may have ushered in a new era in the sport. After a decade in which the gold medal artistry of John Curry and Robin Cousins of Britain dominated the men’s division, Hamilton’s “ballistic effect” has stressed flow, glide, and speed as well as a fierce competitive instinct.
Born:
Haloti Ngata, NFL nose tackle and defensive end and defensive tackle (NFL Champions, Super Bowl 47-Ravens, 2012; Pro Bowl, 2009-2013; Baltimore Ravens, Detroit Lions, Philadelphia Eagles), in Inglewood, California.
David Harris, NFL linebacker (New York Jets, New England Patriots), in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Greg Peterson, NFL defensive end (Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Jacksonville Jaguars), in Kenansville, North Carolina.
Robert Ray, MLB pitcher (Toronto Blue Jays), in Lufkin, Texas.
Tobias Stephan, Swiss NHL goalie (Dallas Stars), in Zurich, Switzerland.
Luke Grimes, American actor (“Yellowstone”), born in Dayton, Ohio.
Died:
Jackie Wilson, 49, American soul singer-songwriter and performer (“Lonely Teardrops”, “Higher and Higher”, “I Get the Sweetest Feeling”), dies from stroke complications.
Naval Construction:
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) fleet tender Tanga is commissioned.
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