The chief United States negotiator at the talks aimed at reducing strategic nuclear weapons said today that it was “entirely possible” that if the Soviet Union returned to the now-suspended discussions, it would try to include the issue of American deployment of medium-range missiles in Europe. But the negotiator, Edward L. Rowny, a retired Army lieutenant general, made it clear that he saw no virtue in suggestions that the United States should offer to merge the two negotiations on strategic and intermediate-range weapons into one conference. “It does not follow,” he said in the text of a speech, “that problems which could not be solved in separate negotiations can somehow be made more manageable in a combined negotiation. The unsolved problems will still remain and could indeed by complicated by such an arrangement.”
France’s troops in Chad were ordered by the French Government to extend their control of territory 60 miles northward in support of the Chadian Government and to attack any hostile forces that crossed the new line. The order was intended to reduce the northern area controlled by Chadian insurgents and Libyan troops. The Defense Ministry here said the order would move the unofficial cease- fire line that has divided Chad since last summer from the 15th parallel to the 16th. At the same time, France further strengthened its air force in Chad. Military officials here said at least three Mirage F-1 jets had left a French base for Chad. Four Jaguars flew to Chad on Thursday from Gabon. The new planes bring French combat strength in Chad to at least 14 combat planes, supported by refueling aircraft and radar surveillance planes.
These moves were in response to an attack Wednesday across the old demarcation line by anti-Government forces and the downing of one of three French planes sent on what officials here described as a reconnaissance mission over the area. Mr. Habre’s Government has long tried to persuade France to expand the territory under its control, but the French had previously refused. A French military spokesman said tonight that the order did not involve moving any French troops “for the moment.”
A new attempt by the Lebanese Government to satisfy Druze conditions for putting into effect a security plan to stabilize the fragile cease-fire appears to have failed. An offer issued Thursday by Prime Minister Shafik al-Wazzan to reinstate Druze officers who had effectively deserted from the Lebanese Army was greeted today with scorn by senior Druze officials. The offer had been extended in the expectation that it would satisfy the main Druze demand holding up agreement on the security plan. Without agreement on the security plan to disengage the warring factions and deploy the Lebanese Army in all areas of the country not occupied by Syrian and Israeli forces, officials say they see almost no possibility of a national unity government being formed that might pave the way for the withdrawal of the United States Marines and other contingents of the international force.
President Reagan meets with Republican members of the House of Representatives regarding keeping Marines in Lebanon.
An explosion occurred tonight at a government building in Sidon where an Israeli intelligence post and frontier guard headquarters are located. An Israeli Army spokesman said that a building in Sidon, Lebanon, where an explosion occurred was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, which caused some damage but did not cause any injuries. According to the spokesman, the building is used by the Israeli Army and security personnel.
Delegates from Iran and Iraq clashed at a conference of over 60 nations espousing nonalignment, and Cuba criticized the United States for its attitude to the proposed world information order, diplomats said today. The Indonesian organizers of the conference of information ministers, which opened Thursday, have barred journalists from lobbying among delegates in the convention hall and were themselves unwilling to give details. But diplomats said Iran’s Islamic Guidance Minister, Hojatolislam Mohammed Khatemi, apparently made remarks offensive to the Iraqis and a disagreement ensued. The Cuban Information Minister, Orlando Fundora, attacked the United States for what he termed its lukewarm attitude to third world calls for a more balanced flow of news between the industrialized and developing countries, the sources said.
Israel canceled an archeology show that had been scheduled to open in May at the Smithsonian Institution. A spokesman for the Smithsonian said that the Israelis had canceled the show because a dispute over ownership of 11 of the 320 archeological items had led the Smithsonian to insist on excluding them.
President Reagan meets with Foreign Minister Abe, of Japan, to discuss the possible ramifications of Japan backing away from trade & defense agreements.
Revival of the Vice Presidency in the Philippines appears to have won overwhelming approval Friday in national referendum on constitutional amendments. The office was abolished a decade ago by President Ferdinand E. Marcos.
Yuri V. Andropov, reported ailing recently and out of public view for more than five months, was confirmed today as a candidate for a parliamentary election March 4. But the 69-year-old Communist Party chief missed the party meeting at which the nomination was confirmed.
A Norwegian accused of spying for the Soviet Union was watched by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the three and a half years that he served with his country’s delegation to the United Nations, Norway’s chief prosecutor said. This was confirmed by the FBI. The chief prosecutor, Magnar Flornes, said that in those three-and-a-half years, the suspect, Arne Treholt, “had conspiratorial meetings” with a Soviet diplomat at the United Nations headquarters and in small New York restaurants. Mr. Flores identified the Russian as Vladimir Zyizyin.
The European Commission on Human Rights said today that five Western European nations had gathered enough evidence to indict Turkey’s former military regime on charges of torturing prisoners and other violations of human rights. An indictment, published today, could lead to the expulsion of Turkey from the Council of Europe. The accusing countries must now prove their allegations. A guilty verdict would go to the Council’s committee of ministers for a final decision. France, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands charged that the military Government of General Kenan Evren had tortured hundreds of political prisoners or subjected them to “inhuman or degrading treatment.”
Poland’s 27 Roman Catholic bishops pledged today to continue their struggle against domestic oppression but combined the statement with an appeal to Poles to cooperate with the Communist authorities. The bishops’ statement was made after a two-day conference presided over by Jozef Cardinal Glemp. Apparently alluding to the outlawed Solidarity union, the bishops said Poles “should stay in solidarity and strive to help each other” when food price rises decreed by the authorities take effect Monday.
“Social tension has not disappeared,” the bishops said in their statement. “Many working people feel embittered. Some of them are in prison despite the fact they believe they served a just cause. Many have been dismissed from work or discriminated against. “The church has not reduced its efforts to eliminate these harmful phenomena, because this is part of its mission. But the church also teaches that people should protect the good of society, which the state represents.”
Sir Joshua Hassan has won a fourth term as chief minister of Gibraltar in elections in the tiny British colony. Sir Joshua, who has dominated politics here for three decades, held control of the 15-seat House of Assembly when his Gibraltar Labor Party Association for the Advancement of Civil Rights won 8 seats in the voting Thursday. The main opposition party until now, the Democratic Party for British Gibraltar, was routed by the Gibraltar Socialist Labor Party, which won the other seven seats. The central issue in the election was the planned closing of Britain’s naval dockyard on Gibraltar. The Socialist Labor Party rejected a London-backed plan to commercialize the yard. The question of Spain’s claim to Gibraltar was not an issue.
The Times of London failed to appear for the second straight day today because of a dispute between management and a print union over the dismissal of 750 clerical workers. A spokesman said publication of The Sunday Times was also in doubt. “There has been no movement at all and no management-union meetings planned,” Arthur Brittenden, corporate relations manager of News International, the parent company of The Times that is owned by Rupert Murdoch, said Friday night.
President Reagan takes part in two interviews (Newsweek & Time) as a precursor to his candidacy announcement.
Three Mile Island’s undamaged reactor could be allowed to reopen, possibly as early as June, under a decision by a sharply divided Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The commission said it would decide before it knows the outcome of a pending criminal trial of the plant’s owners. The vote, affirming a decision made earlier in the week in private, was 3 to 2. The Unit 1 reactor, the twin of Unit 2, which was severely damaged in an accident in 1979, could reopen as early as June. The chairman of the commission, Nunzio J. Palladino, said he believed the agency could judge the “competency and integrity” of the management of General Public Utilities Corporation without awaiting the trial of its subsidiary, which operated the plant at the time of the accident. Mr. Palladino voted with the majority.
A dispute over economic policy has erupted again within the Reagan Administration over passages in the draft of the Economic Report of the President, which is scheduled to be submitted to Congress Thursday. The draft was written by Martin S. Feldstein, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. Most of the opposition is concentrated in the Treasury Department, a frequent adversary of Mr. Feldstein, and in the Commerce Department, which has supported Mr. Feldstein on some issues and fought him on others. The dissension over the report concerns the same issue that has led to White House rebukes of Mr. Feldstein in recent months — his analysis of the importance of Federal budget deficits to the domestic and world economies. In Mr. Feldstein’s view, the deficits are the overriding cause of high interest rates, the trade deficit and the high- valued dollar. Others in the Administration believe there are other causes in addition to the deficits.
Imposition of anti-dumping duties on Brazil has been recommended by the Commerce Department in an internal staff memorandum. The agency accuses Brazil’s state-owned steel producers of “dumping” steel in the United States at prices below “fair value.” If the International Trade Commission imposes the unusually stiff penalty duties, the price of some Brazilian steel, used in the American market by automobile and capital goods industries, could as much as double.
Three federal judges overturned a Justice Department official’s decision and ruled today that parts of North Carolina’s 1982 reapportionment plan must be done again to assure that blacks get their share of power at the polls. Saying the state’s 1982 plan violated the Voting Rights Act, the judges gave the Legislature until March 16 to draft a new proposal for state House and Senate districts. The ruling was only the second time since passage of the Voting Rights Act that a federal court has overturned a statewide reapportionment plan which had received prior Justice Department approval.
Computer data about potential voters is providing Walter F. Mondale with daily assistance in his drive for the Democratic Presidential nomination. Information about 80 million Americans from a computer in Texas has been merged with computerized lists of telephone numbers and registered voters.
Tougher Las Vegas law enforcement, directed at casinos suspected of skimming winnings and passing the money to concealed owners in organized crime, is the result of new cooperation by state and Federal agencies. The initial target of the intensified effort is the Stardust hotel and casino.
Detroit drug traffickers hire children as “runners” to supply the city’s estimated 50,000 addicts, city and Federal authorities said. They said the young people, some of them 12 years old, were well paid; in the east side Jeffries housing project, teen-agers are driving new Corvettes, which were Christmas bonuses from the pushers. A 15-year-old boy recently bought a Mercedes-Benz for $62,000 in cash.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson urged the United States to develop a “more meaningful” framework for dealing with Africa, based on mutual respect and productivity. He made the appeal at a meeting with representatives of about 50 African countries in a closed session at the United Nations. He had been invited to speak by the Organization of African Unity.
Miami Police Chief Kenneth Harms was dismissed by City Manager Howard Gary today after disagreements over how the Miami Police Department should be run. The dismissal came a day after Mr. Gary strongly reprimanded the Chief for publicly criticizing a plan to reorganize the department, which had been proposed by a consulting concern and endorsed by the City Manager. Mr. Gary appointed Herbert Breslow, assistant chief in charge of operations, to replace Chief Harms. “I made this decision,” Mr. Gary said, “because I thought it was in the best interests of the citizens of Miami. The decision also reflects my goal to continue improvements in the City of Miami Police Department, which the former Chief could not support.”
The State of California and Procter & Gamble are at odds over a state-requested recall of Duncan Hines muffin mix from food stores because some packages contain high levels of the carcinogenic chemical ethylene dibromide, or EDB. The State Department of Health Services said Thursday that the company agreed to a recall after it was told three batches found in stores near Stanford University contained EDB at levels higher than 300 parts per billion. But Peter J. Hayes, manager of public affairs for the food concern, said today that the level of EDB was not dangerous and that there would be no recall.
“Our position is that we are totally confident of the safety of our products,” he said. “Even the minuscule EDB levels that may be present in our mixes are essentially removed in the baking process. The state agency said Thursday that the concern was trying to determine where the tainted batches had been distributed, but the company said the batches were either in stores or had already been purchased and were not in warehouses. The chemical has been widely used for 25 years to keep bugs out of stored grain. The Federal Government is expected to announce a specific safety level next month. Florida has also ordered recalls of products with more than 1 parts per billion.
Hot, dry winds gusting to hurricane velocity fanned flames yesterday through the brushlands of California. At least 24 homes burned, 110 were evacuated and half a million people lost electric power in two days of firestorms. The Santa Ana winds, blowing out of the desert at up to 100 miles per hour, toppled trees, flipped trucks on their sides and ripped down power lines. At least three people were killed, including the driver of a van that was hurled several hundred feet over a cliff, a Yosemite Park worker who was crushed by a tree and a man who was electrocuted by a downed power line.
Singer and entertainer Michael Jackson was burned during filming for Pepsi commercial. Jackson was hospitalized tonight with burns of the scalp after an accidental explosion set fire to his hair during the filming of a commercial, a spokesman said. The explosion about 6:30 P.M. was in material being used to create smoke effects for a concert scene in a Pepsi- Cola commercial. “Something went wrong and it exploded and Michael’s hair caught on fire,” said John Branca, a spokesman for Mr. Jackson.
Geffen Records released “Milk & Honey” album by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, featuring un-released recordings made during the 1980 “Double Fantasy” sessions, including “Grow Old With Me”
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1230 (+0.31).
Born:
Jay Richardson, NFL defensive end (Oakland Raiders, Seattle Seahawks, New Orleans Saints), in Dublin, Ohio.
Alonzo Coleman, NFL running back (Dallas Cowboys), in Halifax, Virginia.
Davetta Sherwood, American actress (“The Young and the Restless”), in Mount Vernon, New York.
Died:
Lou Crosby, American actor, and radio and TV announcer (“Lum and Abner”; “The Lawrence Welk Show”).
History Diaries 