The Soviet Chief of the General Staff is an unassuming but forthright man with little taste for polemics. It is these qualities of Marshal Nikolai V. Ogarkov and his potential influence in policy-making that have focused diplomats’ attention on the Soviet Union’s top professional soldier at a time when Yuri V. Andropov, the political leader, has been out of public view for some five months, reportedly for health reasons.
The resignation of all Muslims in the Lebanese Cabinet and a refusal to fight by Lebanese Army soldiers was called for by the leader of Lebanon’s Shiites, Nabih Berri. He made the appeal as street clashes in Beirut between the army and Shiite militiamen intensified. Government sources said Prime Minister Shafik al-Wazzan, in an emergency meeting with President Amin Gemayel, once again offered the resignation of his nine-man Cabinet of technocrats, hoping to pave the way for a new Cabinet representing all the factional leaders.
President Gemayel’s leadership is being questioned by many Lebanese. Few Lebanese politicians seem prepared to endorse the demand by the Druze leader Walid Jumblat that Mr. Gemayel resign, but there is clearly widespread dissatisfaction.
Thousands of demonstrators marched by torchlight to the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem to protest Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon and to mark the first anniversary of the murder of a peace activist. Peace Now, the movement that organized the demonstration, claimed 50,000 people took part. Reporters estimated the crowd at 20,000. The protest was called to commemorate the death of Emil Grunzweig, killed a year ago when a hand grenade was thrown into a group of peace demonstrators.
Iran sentenced three senior military officers belonging to the banned Tudeh (Communist) Party to death for spying for the Soviet Union, the official Iranian news agency said. The agency said the Islamic Revolutionary Council handed down the verdicts and the Supreme Judicial Council approved the death sentences. The agency did not identify the three, but said a number of military men had been tried, including a former navy commander and several colonels. It added that death sentences are being considered for 10 other military men who are Tudeh members.
Nicaragua’s election preparations were postponed indefinitely because of air attacks the government said had been ordered by the United States. The government today indefinitely postponed a major step in the process leading to promised presidential elections next year, citing air attacks near here Thursday and Friday. Nicaragua said the raids, by anti-government insurgents, had been ordered by the United States. A communique issued here by the President of the Council of State, Carlos Nunez, said consideration of a draft of electoral legislation had been ”postponed until clarification of the events is obtained and Nicaraguans are permitted to carry out their political tasks in a climate of peace and tranquility.” The measure was to have been considered by the Council Tuesday.
In the last week Nicaraguan leaders have disclosed several provisions of their electoral plan but have cautioned that the one factor that could derail the entire process would be the continued attacks by two main rebel groups, both backed by the United States. These are the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, which operates along Nicaragua’s northern frontier with Honduras, and the Democratic Revolutionary Alliance, which is based in Costa Rica, on Nicaragua’s southern border. The Honduran-based group, which has been receiving aid from the Central Intelligence Agency, has claimed responsibility for the latest air attacks. Nicaragua’s arrangements for the promised elections have been a key issue in talks on ending Central America’s political, social and military problems. The Reagan Administration has also said internal political changes in Nicaragua are a major condition for a halt to its aid to Nicaraguan insurgents.
The Reagan Administration has certified to Congress that “while serious human rights abuses continue to exist in Haiti,” the Caribbean nation is improving its record and may receive U.S. aid, the State Department said. Congress is being asked for $54 million in aid, including $750,000 in military assistance. The New York-based Lawyers Committee for International Human Rights, charging that the certification is “a mockery,” pointed out that President Jean-Claude Duvalier has not allowed political parties, elections or a free press.
The leftist military regime of Suriname has installed a new Cabinet in an apparent attempt to win popular support and placate labor leaders who led a crippling five-week strike. Wim Udenhout, a teacher, was sworn in as prime minister, replacing Errol Alibux. Lt. Col Desi Bouterse, the nation’s military strongman, accused Alibux of mishandling a strike by bauxite workers in December. A union leader, Siegfried Gels, was named labor minister. and a professor, Alan Liefosjoe, is education minister.
Argentina’s Foreign Minister said Friday that Britain had put forward a proposal for improving relations between the two countries, but denied that secret negotiations were under way. The Argentine Foreign Minister, Dante Caputo, said the proposal, received through the Swiss Embassy, suggested lifting commercial restrictions and the possible transfer to Argentina of the bodies of 221 Argentine soldiers who were killed in the fighting for the Falkland Islands in 1982 and are buried there. Mr. Caputo spoke about the British proposal in Caracas, Venezuela, where he was a member of the Argentine delegation at the inauguration Thursday of Jaime Lusinchi as President.
Canada reported that the number of unemployed rose by 150,000 in January, to a nationwide total of 1.47 million, or 11.2 % of the work force, in a population of roughly 25 million. The new figures prompted opposition spokesmen to challenge Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau to unveil new job policies or call an immediate election. By comparison, U.S. unemployment for the month declined to 8%, while California rose slightly to 8.4%.
Sweden is modifying its air defense equipment to shoot down U.S. cruise missiles if they infringe on Swedish airspace en route to the Soviet Union, Britain’s Observer newspaper reported. The paper quoted the Swedish chief of staff, Rear Admiral Bror Stefenson, as saying: “We would consider any cruise missiles entering Swedish airspace as violating our neutrality just as much as if a foreign army were to march across our territory.” The United States is deploying 464 of the low-flying nuclear missiles in Western Europe.
Mild weather and the need for snow in Sarajevo overshadowed politics and medal predictions as the chief preoccupation on the eve of the XIV Olympic Winter Games. The Games, with 1,500 athletes from 49 countries participating, will start Tuesday with 6 hockey games.
A United States-owned oil company said today that it was suspending its operations in the Sudan to protect its workers after three foreign oilmen were killed Thursday. The managing director of Chevron Sudan, Gary Connell, said in a press release the company made the decision to protect its staff working in vulnerable areas in the Sudan. ”The decision includes seismic surveys, construction and digging of oil wells in the Bentui area in southern Sudan,” Mr. Connell said. ”Chevron hopes to resume operations when security of personnel can be assured.” Gunmen killed a Briton, a Kenyan and a Filipino in an attack on their barge Thursday. Seven other workers were wounded in the attack. President Gaafar al-Nimeiry has accused Ethiopia and Libya of inciting trouble in the southern part of the Sudan. Both countries have denied the accusations.
A dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed in parts of southern Zimbabwe and additional troops are being dispatched to counter an increase in South Africa-trained rebels, a government official said. Zimbabwe last week reported a sharp increase in Matabeleland province of “killings, rape, mutilation and torture” by rebel forces. Home Affairs Minister Simbi Mubako told a news conference that more rebels have been infiltrating the province from South Africa in recent days, “to intimidate the local population and curtail government development projects in the area.”
The Ethiopian authorities have arrested 17 members of an anti-government group, including three colonels and a major caught distributing leaflets, the Ethiopian press agency reported. A government statement on Friday said the 17 were remnants of the Ethiopian People’s Democratic Alliance, an outlawed group whose aim, according to the government, was to undermine Ethiopia’s Communist revolution.
A second satellite launching by the space shuttle Challenger was postponed at least one day following the disappearance of the satellite that was launched after Challenger took off Friday morning from Cape Canaveral. Flight controllers, engineers and tracking stations around the world sought traces of the Western Union satellite that was apparently lost. The second was to have been launched for Indonesia.
Interest costs on the Federal debt since President Reagan took office exceed all the savings achieved by the Administration in health, education, welfare and social service programs, the President’s proposed budget for the fiscal year 1985 shows. Federal officials said the increase was mainly a result of the growth of the budget deficit.
President Reagan’s health is good, his doctors said on the eve of his 73d birthday and the start of his re-election campaign. Although Mr. Reagan is the oldest American President to hold office, many heads of other nations have been older. His age and health could become a campaign issue, but Democrats have not raised it yet.
President Reagan telephones a woman from Peoria Illinois to address her complaint after his State of the Union address. Reagan writes in his diary:
“Called a woman in Peoria Ill. who had wired after the St. of the U. Her complaint was over freedom of choice. She was referring to abortion and she called herself an ex Repub. who wouldn’t vote for me. I was going to write her & then just on a hunch I phoned. It took a little doing to convince her it was really me. We had a nice talk and I was right that her problem was abortion. I made my pitch that there were 2 peoples rights involved in abortion — the mothers & the unborn child. She promised to give that some deep thought. We had a nice visit. She’s a 51-year-old divorcee working for less than $10,000 a year — has a 17-year-old son ready for college & a married daughter. I think I made a friend.”
The President and First Lady watch the movie “Broadway Danny Rose.”
The Reagan Administration welcomes some recent Supreme Court decisions in church-state cases and hopes to persuade the court to embrace a “benevolent neutrality toward religion,” Attorney General William French Smith said in a speech at a dinner in Los Angeles sponsored by Pepperdine University Law School. “We would like to see the court re-assess the consequences of its own ‘establishment clause’ precedents and the lower courts’ increasing tendency to be hostile toward religion,” Smith said. He referred to a clause in the First Amendment to the Constitution that includes the language, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”
The Environmental Protection Agency has ordered a new study of a proposal to incinerate toxic chemicals on ships stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. Jean E. Caufield, a program analyst in the EPA’s Office of Planning, Policy and Evaluation, said the study was requested because EPA Deputy Administrator Alvin L. Alm said not enough is known about incinerating chemicals to be dumped at sea. It was not clear whether the study would delay an EPA decision on a company’s request for an offshore incineration. permit for the Gulf of Mexico. Delaware and Maryland are also seeking to prevent offshore incineration.
A sweeping revision of Medicaid has been called for by a bipartisan group of state health officials. The National Study Group on State Medicaid Strategies said the program had ”basic structural problems requiring fundamental reform.”
A plea bargain giving suspended sentences to four blacks accused of trying to kill two white policemen was called “distasteful” by a prosecutor in Montgomery, Alabama, while a defense lawyer said it would not end racial tension in Alabama’s capital. District Attorney Jimmy Evans said he agreed to pursue plea bargaining at the request of a policeman who was wounded in a confrontation with black funeral mourners last year. Four defendants — Elbert Taylor, 51, and Worrie Taylor, 49, of Warren, Ohio, and Willie James Taylor Sr., 47, and Larry Hill, 28, of Pontiac, Michigan — pleaded guilty to third-degree assault after having been charged with attempted murder, kidnaping and robbery. The four were ordered to pay $11,000 in restitution to Montgomery police investigators Les Brown and Ed Spivey.
Five men and a woman who spent six days adrift after their two boats ran out of gas survived by eating raw fish and sharing one beer a day until a Navy destroyer rescued them. ”Thank God for the Navy,” one of the men, Jose Ramon Minsal of Hialeah, said Friday. The Navy destroyer USS John Hancock rescued the six Thursday night after they prayed together and then fired their last flare, which was spotted by the crew of a Navy plane. Neither boat had a radio to call for assistance. One boat had taken the other in tow after running out of gas. Rescued in addition to Mr. Minsal were Abundio Fernandez, 35 years old, of Miami; Maria Faroy, 26, of Miami Springs; and Mr. Minsal’s brother Pedro, 32, Barbaro Lara, 19, and Jose Rodriguez, 32, all of Hialeah.
Mt. St. Helens, showing signs of possible eruption, is rumbling with earthquakes similar to those recorded before the volcano’s last major explosion in March, 1982, seismic experts reported. Readings as high as 2.6 on the Richter scale have been recorded. Researchers have been unable to enter the crater of the southwest Washington mountain because of dense fog.
A federal judge in Tulsa, Oklahoma, refused a Pennzoil Co. request that he block Texaco Inc.’s proposed $10.1-billion takeover of Getty Oil Co. — the largest such attempt in U.S. corporate history. U.S. District Judge James Ellison said Pennzoil had “failed to show” that it would be damaged by the successful merger of Getty and Texaco. Pennzoil, an unsuccessful Getty suitor, claimed that the Texaco-Getty deal was anti-competitive and would serve to drive middle-sized companies like Pennzoil out of business.
The 1983 traffic death toll was the lowest in 20 years and the number of fatalities per miles traveled was the lowest ever recorded, Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Hanford Dole said. Preliminary statistics indicated that 43,028 persons were killed in traffic accidents last year, down 2.1% from the 1982 total of 43,947, continuing a downward trend that began in 1981. The number of deaths per 100,000 vehicle miles traveled was 2.6-the lowest rate ever recorded.
The unarmed security guards who patrol public schools in Philadelphia have been given the power to arrest suspects, school officials say. The new authority will be given to about 200 guards who have completed a 40-hour training course at the Philadelphia Police Academy, said Elliott Alexander, a school district spokesman. ”Previously, they had no control at all,” Mr. Alexander said. ”Anybody could just run away from them while they waited for police to come to make the arrest.” He said the guards would remain unarmed but they have been trained in self-defense. Since August, when a campaign against school crime began, more than 920 suspects, students and adults alike, have been arrested.
Wesleyan University will sell its stock in a mining company because of the firm’s role in the racially divided nation of South Africa. The 29 members of the board of trustees voted unanimously at Middletown, Connecticut, to sell the 12,000 shares in the New York-based Newmont Mining Corp., valued at $580,500.
“9” closes at 46th St Theater NYC after 739 performances.
“Backstage Magic” opens at CommuniCore.
Frank Aquilera sets a world frisbee distance record (168m) in Las Vegas.
The Indians trade third baseman Toby Harrah and minor leaguer Rick Brown to the Yankees for pitcher George Frazier, outfielder Otis Nixon, and minor leaguer Guy Elston.
Born:
Doug Fister, MLB pitcher (Seattle Mariners, Detroit Tigers, Washington Nationals, Houston Astros, Boston Red Sox, Texas Rangers), in Merced, California.
History Diaries 