Democratic legislators were accused by the White House of “playing politics” on the Lebanon issue and drafting a resolution that “aids and abets” enemies of peace in the Middle East. President Reagan’s spokesman issued a strong denunciation of the House Democrats’ resolution, which would call on Mr. Reagan to begin “a prompt and orderly withdrawal” of the American marines from Beirut.
Iran marked the fifth anniversary of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s return from exile with calls for the triumph of the Islamic revolution in Lebanon and North Africa. Muslim opposition movements in Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia are “good news,” Tehran’s Islamic Republic newspaper commented as Iran began official celebrations known as the “10 days of dawn.” Khomeini’s return after years of exile in Iraq and France led to the toppling of the Iranian monarchy in February, 1979, and the beginning of the country’s clergy-led Muslim fundamentalist regime.
Up to 7,000 new Jewish settlers will move into the Golan Heights in the next five years, almost doubling the Jewish population in the disputed area, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir told Parliament. In answer to a question, Shamir cited plans to build five new settlements in the area, captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war. About 10,000 Israelis live in 30 settlements on the strategic heights, which Israel officially annexed in 1981 in a move that no other country has recognized as legal.
Deploring “Sadat,” a mini-series about the life of Egypt’s assassinated leader, Egypt has banned all films produced or distributed by Columbia Pictures. Abdel Hamid Radwan, Egypt’s Minister of Culture, reportedly charged that Columbia’s docudrama, which appeared on American television, contained “historical errors that distort the accomplishments of the Egyptian people.”
Chad’s Ambassador said today that Chadian troops had driven back insurgent forces who had crossed into government-controlled southern Chad. The Ambassador, Ahmad Allam-Mi, said that Government troops had encountered a column of 600 rebels near Mounou. He said the rebels had been defeated in a battle that began Tuesday morning and lasted all day. In Ndjamena, Chad’s capital, a government communique said that several hundred rebel troops had been killed or wounded, and that 234 had been taken prisoner.
The Salvadoran election next month is a subject of concern in the Reagan Administration, according to United States officials. They said that Administration officials were privately concerned that the March 25 presidential election might lead to a confrontation between political leaders on the left and right that could set the stage for a military coup.
A private coalition of American human rights groups published its own certification report on El Salvador, concluding that the Salvadoran government does not meet conditions set by Congress for continued U.S. aid. President Reagan pocket-vetoed a requirement for semi-annual certification of El Salvador’s human rights progress last November. Groups in the coalition included the Americas Watch Committee, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Lawyers Committee for International Human Rights.
U.S. military activity in Honduras prompted an angry charge by Senator Jim Sasser, Democrat of Tennessee. Mr. Sasser, who is the ranking minority member of a key Senate subcommittee, said the Pentagon “may be trying to subvert the Congress” by building “a military infrastructure in Honduras that is far beyond anything necessary for the military exercises being undertaken there.”
Nazi-hunter Beate Klarsfeld said Chile has threatened to expel her if she continues to press for the deportation of Walter Rauff, a former German colonel accused of inventing and supervising the use of mobile trucks to gas 97,000 Jews during World War II. Klarsfeld said two immigration officials came to her hotel and asked her to sign a document saying she would either behave as a tourist or face expulsion. “Of course, I did not sign,” she said. Klarsfeld was detained briefly Monday for demonstrating for the expulsion of Rauff.
The Argentine Senate, after heated all-night debate, approved a government bill putting all trials of human rights violations by the armed forces in military, rather than civilian, courts. The opposition Peronists called the measure a “disguised amnesty” for military personnel accused of a role in the disappearance of thousands of people during a 1970s anti-guerrilla campaign. The bill, promised by President Raul Alfonsin, establishes different levels of responsibility for those who ordered rights violations, those who obeyed orders and those who exceeded orders. It is expected to be approved by the lower house of Congress.
President Ferdinand E. Marcos signed into law today the four constitutional amendments approved in a referendum last Friday, among them one restoring the office of vice president. The re-establishment of the vice presidency, which Mr. Marcos abolished a decade ago, represented a victory for the political opposition. Also regarded as an opposition victory is an amendment narrowing the parliamentary constituencies from regional to provincial and municipal levels. This change will make campaigning less expensive.
Final results of last week’s constitutional referendum in the Philippines showed that 45% of voters turned out, compared with the 70% claimed by officials. The low turnout was a victory for government opponents, who had urged a boycott to protest the rule of President Ferdinand E. Marcos. Voters overwhelmingly approved the four major constitutional amendments at issue, including redrawing parliamentary districts before May elections and restoration of the vice presidency, the election commission said.
President Reagan holds an informative meeting with President Spiljak of the Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia. President Reagan welcomed Yugoslav President Mika Spiljak to Washington and said he assured the Belgrade leader of the U.S. Administration’s deep commitment to achieving “equitable and verifiable” arms control agreements with the Soviet Union. “Such an agreement would be in our interest, in the Soviet Union’s interest, and in the interest of all mankind,” Reagan said.
Bonn reinstated a general who had been dismissed on the ground that he was homosexual and therefore a security risk. Chancellor Helmut Kohl said the defense minister and General Manfred Worner had reached a reconciliation that also permitted him to remain in office.
Alison Smale, a correspondent in the Moscow bureau of The Associated Press, was questioned for four hours today at the headquarters of the KGB security organization in connection with allegations against a Soviet citizen who is said to have planned to defect to the West. The session at the Lubyanka, the KGB headquarters, was the second for Miss Smale, a 28-year-old British subject. On December 5 she was questioned for five and a half hours in connection with the same case. Both times the principal Soviet official present was a KGB major, Vladimir V. Katolikov. Two British diplomats also attended the sessions. After today’s session Miss Smale said she had been told that she was being questioned as a witness.
Miss Smale declined to name the Soviet citizen involved. She said that the implication was that the man had been detained and was facing trial for his purported plan to leave the Soviet Union illegally, an offense that could bring a maximum sentence of three years in labor camp. She said she had told the investigator that the Soviet citizen involved had spoken to her about his desire to leave but had not discussed any details of his plans. Soviet law provides criminal penalties for persons found guilty of having prior knowledge of an offense and not reporting it to the authorities.
Indian diplomat Ravindra Mhatre is kidnapped and murdered by Kashmiri terrorists in Birmingham, England.
China and the Netherlands regain diplomatic relations.
Bob Hawke’s Australian Labor government re-instates universal healthcare as Medicare.
President Reagan proposed a budget totaling $925.5 billion for the fiscal year 1985 that calls on Congress to continue cutting domestic spending for the rest of the decade, to delay major tax increases and to spend increased sums for the military. Mr. Reagan tailored his budget to the election year.
Small cuts in Federal spending for food stamps, welfare, job training, higher education and social services were proposed in President Reagan’s new budget.
Democratic leaders derided efforts by the President to trim the budget deficit as “tokenism,” and said they would propose their own package of spending reductions and new revenues worth at least $200 billion over three years.
President Reagan signs a proclamation that the first week of February is “Tourism Week.”
President Reagan recently received news that there is a possible terrorist plot pointed at one of his daughters. Maureen has Secret Service protection; Patti is a spoiled child who is now complaining about her privacy being invaded. Her detail has been removed.
Walter F. Mondale was endorsed for the Democratic Presidential nomination by House Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill Jr., the nation’s highest-ranking elected Democrat. Richard Moe, a former chief of staff to Mr. Mondale, said that 100 members of the House were now supporting the former Vice President.
A new major steel merger is planned. The United States Steel Corporation, the nation’s largest steelmaker, announced it had agreed to acquire the National Steel Corporation, the seventh largest, for nearly $1 billion. The move stunned the industry. National Steel would bring to U.S. Steel some of the nation’s most efficient steelmaking facilities.
Most radioactive reinforcing rods that were shipped to the United States from Mexico have been found, according to officials of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and state experts in Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado, but state officials were waiting for word on how the contaminated rods would be disposed of. Some of them have already been embedded in concrete in buildings in the Southwest.
The definition of a civil right, according to the new majority on the United States Commission on Civil Rights, appears to be a right not to be discriminated against because of factors such as race. For the former majority on the commission, the definition was broader, taking in certain social and economic programs without which, it was argued, true equality could not be achieved.
Latino members of Congress agreed to seek passage of their own immigration reform bill to replace one already passed by the Senate and still awaiting action by the full House. The substitute is to be introduced shortly by Rep. Edward R. Roybal (D-California). The endorsement of the substitute by Latino members came shortly after leaders of various Latino organizations unanimously denounced the pending legislation as unfair to Spanish-speaking Americans. The leaders, following a two-day conference in Washington on the legislation, said at a news conference they unanimously oppose a Senate-passed bill.
The House approved and sent to the Senate legislation that would extend the government’s earthquake hazard reduction program for two years and authorize federal agencies to spend $135.9 million on it. The measure covers earthquake programs of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Science Foundation and the National Bureau of Standards.
A teen-ager hit by a car while listening through headphones to a portable radio is suing Sony Corp. and three other defendants for $80,000, contending that Sony failed to warn of the product’s “inherent and unreasonable danger,” given “the immaturity of minors.” Marcus Martino, 19, was struck by a car while crossing a street in Springfield, Pennsylvania. He said in his suit that he suffered a leg injury and “severe mental anguish and emotional distress” that caused him to drop out of school and lose wages from the restaurant where he worked.
Millions of counterfeit, junked, and outdated electronic parts have been sold to the Pentagon to be used in sophisticated weapons systems, it was reported by NBC Nightly News. It said 12 firms are under investigation for selling useless parts to the armed services, and the first indictment is expected to be returned by the end of the month. NBC said one New York firm allegedly sold the government “1 million counterfeit, or out-of-date, or even scrap parts.” Some of the electronic parts were installed in Hawk missiles, NBC said.
A steel workers’ food fund, once praised by President Reagan for self-sufficiency, is drying up and 1,100 families will have to find grocery money elsewhere, a union officer said. A sign in the hallway at the offices of United Steelworkers Local 1211 in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, reads, “Effective February 9, we will no longer issue food certificates. The food fund has been depleted.” Since August, 1982, the fund has spent $350,000 in $25 vouchers. Most of the persons who use the fund had worked at Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp.’s Aliquippa Works. About 4,500 of the 8,500 local members have been laid off in the last two years, a union official said.
The Justice Department said it will move to deport George Theodorovich, a Ukrainian immigrant accused of World War II war crimes who has lived in the United States for 36 years. Theodorovich, of Troy, New Year, disappeared after he was charged in August, 1983, with concealing that he had been with the Ukrainian police in the city of Lvov in 1942. The Ukrainian police have been linked to the murder of thousands of Jews in Lvov during August, 1942.
The Environmental Protection Agency may force schools to eliminate cancer-causing asbestos, a top official said, because local authorities in many cases have not acted. A spokesman said an agency study found its rule calling for voluntary action against asbestos has been largely ineffective. Since last June, the EPA has required schools to inspect buildings to see whether asbestos is present and report the findings to parent-teacher associations, but many school districts have not done so.
American lawyer and businessman David Stern becomes NBA Commissioner, succeeding Larry O’Brien; stays in position until 2014.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1212.31 (-8.27).
Born:
Rob Ninkovich, NFL defensive end and linebacker (NFL Champions, Super Bowl 49 and 51-Patriots, 2014, 2016; New Orleans Saints, Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots), in New Lenox, Illinois.
Wallace Wright, NFL wide receiver (New York Jets), in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Lee Thompson Young, American actor (“Rizzoli & Isles”), in Columbia, South Carolina (d. 2013, suicide).
History Diaries 