Gold hits a record $161.31, and silver hits a record $3.97 an ounce in London. The French franc lost 4 percent of its value against the dollar today and the price of gold soared to record levels, above $140 as ounce, following France’s announcement Saturday that it would let the franc float.
The United Kingdom ended its embargo against delivering weapons to the Middle East. Arms deliveries had been suspended immediately after the Yom Kippur War broke out on October 6. Foreign Secretary Alec Douglas-Home informed the House of Commons that deliveries would be carried out, including “the supply of small arms and helicopters to Egypt and some naval equipment and spare tank parts for Israel.”
Palestinian guerrillas and European underground leaders have held a series of recent meetings on ways to step up terrorist attacks throughout the continent, according to Western intelligence sources in London. The Palestinians reportedly want logistical support from the Europeans, ranging from false papers to hideouts, in exchange for money, weapons and training facilities in Lebanon. The European groups include guerrillas from Ireland, France, Italy and Spain. They are reportedly coordinated by the European Trotskyite Movement.
Greek military police have seized a former minister of justice, loannis Agathangelou, who was considered the right-hand man of deposed President George Papadopoulos, sources said in Athens. Also reportedly arrested over the weekend were 24 civil servants and merchants involved in the purchase of “poor meat from South Africa.” The charges against Agathangelou were said to involve “state security.”
An anonymous telephone caller threatened to explode a bomb in the U.S. Embassy in Rome unless $170,000 was left in front of a statue in a park. Police arrested Fabio Morgantini, 37, on suspicion of extortion when he picked up a package supposedly containing the money but actually stuffed with newspapers. Plainclothesmen deceived the suspect by playing soccer near the statue while awaiting his arrival.
Rescuers in Turkey saved 680 train passengers who had been stranded for almost two days by large snowdrifts that had immobilized the train cars in subzero weather. The train had departed Erzincan en route to Istanbul when it encountered a snowstorm near the village of Tekevler. During the night, temperatures had dropped to as low as −22 °F (−30 °C). Using flamethrowers to melt the snow, rescuers were able to get through after 44 hours and transport the passengers to aid stations at Elazig for medical treatment.
Communist-led Khmer Rouge insurgents fired four rockets into the center of Phnom Penh today, killing two people and wounding eight, the military command reported. The dead were two Cambodian workers who were putting sandbags and steel plating on the roof of an apartment block to protect it from rocket attacks. The top floor of the building was wrecked. The command said that government troops had been inflicting heavy casualties in a campaign to drive out the insurgents entrenched eight miles northwest of here. Rockets have been fired from the area into the capital almost daily for the last month. Twelve of the insurgents were captured today. “To the south, other insurgents stepped up their pressure on government posts around the town of Kompong Kantuot, about 15 miles from here, and the road from Phnom Penh to Cambodia’s seaport at Kompong Som was cut only three days after government troops had reopened it.
Finance Minister Takeo Fukuda warned Japan today to brace for “year of ordeal” in fighting inflation and trying to reverse deep deficits in the balance of payments. As Mr. Fukuda was delivering his policy speech before Parliament, his ministry announced that Japan went $10.1billion into the red during 1973— marking her first payments deficit in six years and a $14.8‐billion swing from $4.7‐billion surplus in 1972. The Government closed the Tokyo foreign‐exchange market today in the wake of the floating of the franc by France. The market will remain dosed tomorrow, pending developments in Western Europe. There were indications that when trading resumed, the floating yen would slip again. Mr. Fukada, a political rival of Premier Kakuei Tanaka, said that Japan was “engulfed in a flame of extraordinary price spirals, to which the oil problem is adding fuel.”
More than 1,000 Indonesian students demonstrated at two universities to protest the arrest of student leaders during anti-Japanese rioting last week. They condemned interference by authorities in school affairs, demanded more freedom of expression and called on the government to consider the causes of the disturbances in which 775 persons were arrested and 11 were killed.
South Korean military authorities in Seoul said they have arrested 11 persons, including 10 Christian clergymen, on charges of violating President Park Chung Hee’s order banning activities critical of the constitution. Names were not given. The arrests brought to 13 the number of persons detained under the January 8 order. If convicted, they could draw maximum prison terms of 15 years.
A young attaché in the Chinese Embassy in Moscow was reportedly expelled in apparent retaliation against Peking. China earlier had declared five members of the Soviet Embassy in Peking personae non grata for alleged espionage. The Chinese attaché, Kuan Heng-kuang, was accused of possessing espionage material in Irkutsk as he was returning home from a six-year term of service in Moscow.
The commander of the Israeli forces in the October war traded charges publicly today with the war’s most popular hero. The hero, Major General Ariel Sharon, protested that the Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General David Elazar, had ended his appointment as a reserve division commander as “a purely political act.” General Sharon, who led the Israeli thrust across the Suez Canal, which turned the tide of the war, is active in the Opposition Likud bloc and was sworn today in Jerusalem as a member of Parliament. General Sharon relinquished his command to enter Parliament, but had requested an emergency appointment as division commander. General Elazar, through spokesman at army headquarters here, accused General Sharon of casting aspersions on other commanders and units, offending fellow officers and harming the spirit of the armed forces. The Chief of Staff added that these offenses were breaches of military etiquette and discipline, but said he was not preferring charges because General Sharon’s appointment was being terminated.
Pakistan’s second nuclear reactor, the PARR-II, became operational at the Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science & Technology (PINSTECH), located in the Nilore section of Islamabad.
The Defense Department is considering establishing a naval base in the Indian Ocean on the British‐held island of Diego Garcia. Pentagon officials said today that preliminary discussions had already been held with the British Government about expanding the small naval station on the island so that it could support naval operations in the Indian Ocean. The move, it was said, was being planned in view of the expected expansion of Soviet naval power in the area once the Suez Canal is reopened. The Pentagon officials denied reports that the British had initially rebuffed American requests concerning the station out of apparent concern over how oil‐producing Arab states might react.
Under 1966 and 1972 agreements with Britain, the United States operates a small communications station on the equatorial island as part of the global communications network of the Defense Department. The station, with 200 naval personnel, went into operation last spring. Over the years, the Defense Department has repeatedly emphasized that Diego Garcia would be a “modest” and “austere” communications facility. However, the original Navy impetus for obtaining base rights on the island was to have a permanent air station and base to support operations in the Indian Ocean as the Navy carrier fleet was reduced in size. The original Navy purpose was never quite fulfilled, but it has now gained a new significance with the expected reopening of the Suez Canal, which is likely to follow the disengagement of Egyptian and Israeli forces along the canal. The assumption of defense officials is that the Soviet Union will take advantage of reopened canal to increase its naval presence in the Indian Ocean. The Defense Department is therefore looking ahead to establishing a counterbalancing naval force in an area that controls the sea lanes to Middle East oil.
As its carrier fleet is reduced, however, the Navy is hard‐pressed to maintain a carrier task force in the Indian Ocean and still meet its commitments in the Mediterranean and western Pacific. A presence in the area also imposes a strain upon the Navy’s supply lines. When the carrier Hancock was sent into the Indian Ocean during the October war in the Middle East, for example, it took three tankers and two supply ships from the western Pacific to support the carrier task force. With the Defense Department now committed to maintaining naval forces in the Indian Ocean on a regular basis, officials observed that some of the logistic strain on the Navy would be eased if it could rely on a support and refueling base at Diego Garcia. To a certain extent this could also reduce the need for carriers by providing a base for aerial reconnaissance over the western stretches of the ocean.
The People’s Revolutionary Army, a leftist guerrilla group, said it pulled off the weekend assault on the Azul army base in Argentina and that it was only a step toward “national liberation.” It also said it was holding a kidnaped officer in a “people’s prison.” He was identified as Lieutenant Colonel Jorge Roberto Igarzabal. Between 60 and 70 guerrillas broke into the tank garrison and held parts of it for seven hours. The garrison commander and his wife were killed. Argentine authorities said they have arrested four persons in connection with the raid.
Mexico City’s Chamber of Commerce asked authorities to take drastic measures to restrict the in-1 flux of hippies into Mexico. Two shaggy Canadian men were not allowed into the country after deplaning from a flight from Ottawa to Mexico City last week. Most hippies, mainly from the United States, trek to the southeast states of Puebla and Oaxaca, mainly because of a natural abundance of hallucinogenic mushrooms.
Skeptical U.S. Senators and the heads of major oil companies battled at the opening of the Senate oil hearings. The oil companies insisted that the shortage isn’t contrived. Senator Abraham Ribicoff stated that oil companies are responsible for scaring Americans needlessly about a fuel shortage and causing them to change their buying habits because of fear. Ribicoff was also critical of foreign tax credits and depletion allowances for oil operations overseas, and he declared that the tax breaks should be stopped. Gulf Oil president Z.D. Bonner stated that industry and government must stop bickering, learn to cooperate and attempt to solve the energy crisis.
At the White House, President Nixon met with officials of the Federal Energy Office and the IRS to discuss the oil companies and the energy crisis. The President promised several thousand agents to the IRS if necessary to stop price gouging.
The 93rd Congress returned for its second session; members are faced with the energy shortage and their attempt to impeach President Nixon. Majority leader Tip O’Neill said that the President should resign in the best interest of the country because he lacks credibility. Republican leader John Rhodes said that the White House should cooperate with the impeachment probe. Rhodes announced that he favors resignation if the President is impeached. Senator Robert Byrd also offered his advice to the President to resign if he is impeached.
Senator Carl Curtis attempted to keep new Ohio Senator Howard Metzenbaum from being sworn in until an investigation into Metzenbaum’s taxes is begun. Vice President Gerald Ford swore in Metzenbaum after Curtis’ move was rejected.
Herbert Porter, the former scheduling director for President Nixon’s re-election campaign, was charged with lying to the FBI.
Vice President Gerald Ford’s hometown newspaper, the Grand Rapids Press, was critical of Ford’s recent speech defending the President.
Senior presidential aides ordered all White House staff members to report any contacts with the news media.
In a 7–2 decision, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Cleveland Board of Education v. LaFleur that compulsory maternity leave for teachers, beginning a specified number of months before childbirth, was unconstitutional.
Four health bills, including three authorizing a total of $533.2‐million, were overwhelmingly approved by the House today despite some objections by the Nixon Administration. Measures dealing with alcoholism and so‐called crib deaths were passed by the House as scaled‐down versions of bills already approved by the Senate. It is expected the Senate will call for a conference with the House to reach compromises on these. Bills providing a massive consolidation of the Public Health Service law, and revising Federal programs for health statistics and research on how health services are provided were sent to the Senate for action. Three of the measures passed by voice vote. The only demand for a record vote came on the alcoholism bill, and the measure passed, 338 to 22.
While there was no organized floor opposition to the various bills, Republicans noted before the votes that the Nixon Administration had objected to such things as alleged duplication of existing powers in some cases or continued stress on what Administration officials term undesirable categorical grouping of authority in other cases.
Many car seats designed for young children are dangerously inadequate though they pass the Federal Government’s safety standard, Consumers Union charged today. “Under present Federal safety standards,” the group asserted, “you cannot buy a car safety restraint for a small Child with any assurance that it will protect him from serious injury or death in a crash.” The organization, which publishes Consumer Reports magazine, said tests of seven car seats meeting the less rigorous government requirements showed four of them “not acceptable.” James B. Gregory, administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, acknowledged through spokesman that the government standard did not go far enough and promised that it would be improved in March. About 1,900 children under 5 years of age were killed in crashes during 1972, according to National Safety Council estimates, and 76,000 youngsters were hurt in traffic accidents.
On the Skylab 4 mission, astronaut Edward Gibson made the first filmed record of the birth of a solar flare, recording the 23-minute process from the moment that he observed a bright spot on the Sun through the Apollo Telescope Mount, and filming through the moment of its eruption. The Skylab 4 astronauts photographed a Mississippi cotton patch today in an experimental effort to give farmers a better yield from each acre they plant. Lieutenant Colonels Gerald P. Carr and William R. Pogue and Dr. Edward G. Gibson triggered the space station’s earth study cameras during the 8,100‐mile-long picture‐taking sweep from the northwestern United States to South America. The spacecraft’s controlling gyroscope No. 2 operated normally today after a weekend of nothing but bad behavior.
Amtrak and the Brotherhood of Railway and Airline Clerks resumed stalled contract negotiations after the union had threatened to strike the nation’s rail passenger system on February 1. Amtrak already had moved to forestall the walkout by invoking provisions of the National Railway Labor Act, which provides for long-term mediation before the union is free to strike. Union officer Thomas Fitzgibbon said the union would be willing to settle for terms similar to those granted last March by individual railroads to 500,000 employees. They provided for a 4% wage hike plus $47.25 in monthly take-home pay and fringe benefits.
Theology students at Concordia Lutheran Seminary in St. Louis began boycotting classes in protest against the school Board of Control’s suspension of their president, Dr. John H. Tietjen, on charges of advocating a false doctrine and malfeasance in administration. The suspension threatens to split the 3 million-strong Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the second largest Lutheran Church in the United States, senior church members warned. Dr. Tietjen, 45, head of the seminary since 1969, is considered a liberal and has long been at odds with the conservative faction that supports a literal interpretation of the Bible.
A Ralph Nader research group urged the government not to let Alka-Seltzer be sold as a remedy for stomach ailments as well as for headaches, claiming that millions of ulcer victims might suffer. The Health Research Group made its plea during a hearing by the Food and Drug Administration, which is about to take final action on a recommendation by a panel of experts that Alka-Seltzer be allowed to continue on the market unchanged. The health group contends that aspirin in Alka-Seltzer can cause stomach bleeding in some persons and therefore is a danger for the 10 million Americans who have ulcers, many of them undiagnosed. Miles Laboratories, makers of Alka-Seltzer, called the charges “tired and untrue.”
A bus strike by 350 drivers against Carolina Trailways entered its 43rd day today, becoming the longest in the company’s history. The drivers will vote this week on a new contract offer, but union leaders have recommended that the proposal be rejected.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 854.63 (-0.84, -0.10%).
Born:
Jerald Sowell, NFL fullback (New York Jets, Tampa Bay Buccaneers), in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Jerry Wunsch, NFL tackle (Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Seattle Seahawks) in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
Noel Scarlett, NFL defensive tackle (Dallas Cowboys), in Atlanta, Georgia (d. 2021).
Keith Hufnagel, American skateboarder (founded skate/clothing company HUF), in New York, New York (d. 2020).
Malena Alterio, Argentine-born Spanish TV actress and comedienne known for “Aquí no hay quien viva”; in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Maxwell Atoms (stage name for Adam Maxwell Burton), American animator known for the “Grim & Evil” cartoon series and its more popular sequel, “The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy”; in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Kim Dotcom (born Kim Schmitz), German-born internet entrepreneur and computer hacker convicted of computer fraud, data espionage and embezzlement; in Kiel, West Germany.
Robert Ghiz, Canadian politician and Premier of Prince Edward Island 2007 to 2015; in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada.
Died:
Lewis Strauss, 77, Chairman of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, 1953 to 1958, after having been one of the AEC’s founding members 1946—1950, and U.S. Secretary of Commerce 1958-1959, died of a lymphosarcoma.
Arnaud Denjoy, 90, French mathematician known for Denjoy’s theorem on rotation number, and the Denjoy–Luzin theorem, Denjoy–Riesz theorem, Denjoy–Wolff theorem and the Denjoy–Koksma inequality.
Hans Lauda, 77, Austrian industrialist who co-founded and served as the first President of the Federation of Austrian Industries (Die Industriellenvereinigung) from 1946 to 1960.
Everett Richard Cook, 79, American military officer, World War I flying ace and businessman.
Robert Guy Howarth, 67, Australian scholar, literary critic and poet, died three weeks after he had been struck by a motorcycle in a pedestrian accident in Sydney.
Leon Volkov, 59, Soviet Air Forces defector and writer for Newsweek magazine, widower of Galina Talva, died of a heart attack.
Carrie Fisher was such a pretty little thing…
History Diaries 