Arab oil ministers again postponed the expected lifting of the oil embargo against the United States and scheduled another meeting tomorrow. Sheik Ahmed Zaki Yamani, the Saudi Arabian Minister of Petroleum Affairs, said tonight in Vienna that “you can say categorically the embargo will be lifted” on Tuesday. He also said that oil production will be raised.
Secretary of State Kissinger has told his top aides that he probably will leave on another trip to the Middle East around April 20 to try to conclude a troop separation agreement between Syria and Israel in the Golan Heights area. The trip — his fifth to the Middle East since November — would take place after he holds preliminary talks here with Israeli and Syrian officials.
The Soviet Union’s Communist party newspaper, Pravda, ridiculed the Mideast diplomacy of Secretary of State Kissinger as a modern “mountain that produced a mouse,” noting with approval that the Arab leaders completed their meeting in Libya without announcing the end of the oil embargo against the United States. Pravda also asserted that the Nixon administration’s latest criticism of Western Europe “threatens to sink” the expanded European Common Market.
Syria reported artillery exchanges with Israeli forces today for the sixth day in succession and said that the Israelis had suffered casualties and lost equipment. Four Syrian soldiers were killed in the fighting, a military spokesman in Damascus said. The spokesman said that the Israelis had initiated the artillery clashes, which lasted about three hours. “Our tanks and other means of defense dealt heavy blows to enemy tanks and sources of fire,” he added. In an earlier incident, the Syrian spokesman said, a patrol clashed before dawn with Israeli soldiers in the northern sector of the front, in the salient occupied by Israel last October. The Israelis suffered casualties and were forced to withdraw, he said.
An Israeli Army spokesman confirmed today that there had been at least three hours of artillery clashes on the Syrian front. He said the firing had been started by the Syrians and had spread along most of the front line. The spokesman said there had been no Israeli casualties in the intermittent shelling, which took place as the Cabinet was meeting in Jerusalem to consider its policy on an agreement with Syria for the separation of their forces. The spokesman also expressed surprise at a report from Damascus of a clash between a Syrian patrol and an Israeli raiding party in the Golan Heights early this morning. The spokesman said that there had been no raiding party and that no clash had occurred. The front was quiet last night, he added.
Egypt’s President Anwar el‐Sadat believes that peace is near in the Middle East, according to interviews with the Egyptian leader published in the current issues of Time and Newsweek magazines. “Peace is now on the way,” Mr. Sadat said in the Newsweek interview, “a peace based on justice under which all states in the area can thrive and prosper.”
“I am a man of peace,” he said, “but the Israelis must not be so ambitious as to think there is instant peace. It is an evolutionary process at the end of which you have normal relations. My attitude is crystal clear, and I will discuss this openly in Geneva.
Iraqi Kurds, fighting for an autonomous Kurdistan, besieged a government garrison near Sakho on the border with Turkey and its 400 defenders were reported running short of supplies. The garrison is one of the last vestiges of Baghdad’s authority in the border zone. The Kurds have ignored a draft autonomy plan proposed by Iraq last Monday and now insist on a share in oil revenues from the Kirkuk area and the founding of Kurdish-language schools.
South Vietnamese and Communist troops battled in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam over the weekend and there were more than 500 casualties reported on both sides, the Saigon command said. If the casualty figures are found to be true, it would be the heaviest fighting in South Vietnam since the Vietnam cease-fire agreement went into effect a little more than a year ago. Casualties were listed as 348 Communists killed, while government forces had 68 dead and 108 wounded. The assault began with a barrage of 700 rockets, mortar and artillery shells hitting government camps northeast of Kon Tum.
The reports from the field said that a regiment of about 2,000 North Vietnamese troops attacked half a dozen Saigon Government positions near Kon Tum city with more than 700 rocket, mortar and artillery shells, and then followed through with infantry assaults. South Vietnamese Government officers said that the positions — previously manned only by militiamen — were reinforced last month because of a series of minor Communist attacks. The battle was described as the start of a Communist offensive in the Central Highlands.
Prince Norodom Sihanouk, head of the Cambodian government in exile, has just completed a visit to the Pathet Lao‐held zone of Laos, the Pathet Lao radio reported. The radio said that Prince Sihanouk, accompanied by his wife, Princess Monique, arrived a Samneua on March 12 and left yesterday for Hanoi, North Vietnam. He had been invited to visit Laos by the Pathet Lao leader, Prince Souphinouvong.
Admiral Noel Gayler, commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, said in an interview with U.S. News and World Report that North Vietnam is poised for a large-scale offensive in the south, although he assessed the chances of such action at less than 50-50. He said his men are prepared to resume combat, if necessary, including renewal of bombing and a naval blockade.
Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) released a letter to Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger in which he asked for clarification of current U.S. objectives in Indochina. He also expressed dismay over a cable to the State Department from the U.S. ambassador in South Vietnam. The cable allegedly implied that the views of congressmen who are critical of continued U.S. involvement in Indochina influence decisions made in Hanoi. Kennedy denounced the content of the cable as “the worst kind of innuendo.”
The political mood in Great Britain this weekend is again one of “crisis,” with the two‐week‐old Labor Government of Prime Minister Wilson facing a crucial parliamentary test tomorrow and counting on the votes of fringe political groups to win. Mr. Wilson, who heads the first minority government here in some 45 years, has threatened to call a new general election if he loses, although few politicians here see that as likely outcome. Many opposition Conservatives, who will be joined by the Liberals in the challenge, realize that the electorate would not be overjoyed with another election campaign now, and would undoubtedly direct their displeasure at the Tories for bringing down the Labor administration so soon.
Still, the tension is running high on the eve of a scheduled House of Commons vote on Conservative amendment to the Labor Government’s legislative program. The Tory proposal calls for statutory wage controls. The Labor party’s emphasis is on a voluntary program to fight inflation. It is possible that the Tories might withdraw their amendment and avoid a confrontation, particularly if the Labor Government makes clear in debate that formal wage controls would remain in force until a “social compact” was worked out with the trade unions.
A guerrilla raid on the armory of a United States naval communications station in Londonderry was foiled early today by American servicemen. The armory is close to the base’s hall, where 400 guests were dancing at the annual St. Patrick’s Day ball when the raiders struck. The attempt ended with the raiders scrambling over a boundary wall and fleeing into a nearby public housing area. The four hooded and armed raiders, driving a hijacked truck, entered the base by cutting through a chain on a rear gate. They took a sentry as hostage and seized four more guards on duty near the armory. The servicemen, who refused to hand over the key to the small store of arms, were tied up. One escaped while the raiders, believed to be members of the Irish Republican Army on an arms‐gathering foray, were attempting to force the lock on the armory.
The Greater London Council, owners of a stolen Jan Vermeer painting, “The Guitar Player,” made an 11th-hour appeal to the thieves not to carry out their threat to burn the multimillion-dollar painting on St. Patrick’s Day to show their disgust at the “lunatic attitude” capitalist societies show toward their treasures. The thieves have unsuccessfully asked for the distribution of $1.2 million worth of food to the poor of the West Indian island of Grenada and the transfer from English jails of two convicted Northern Ireland guerrilla bombers, Dolores and Marian Price. Albert Price, father of the women, also appealed to the thieves to return the painting. “My daughters do not want it destroyed or damaged nor do I,” he said.
The Portuguese Government appeared today to be in complete control of the country after putting down an army revolt yesterday. The revolt by 200 infantrymen was the most spectacular manifestation of the agitation that swept the armed forces after the dismissal Thursday of the country’s most prominent general, Antonio de Spinola. The general had proposed offering the nation’s African territories of Mozambique, Angola, and Portuguese Guinea equal status with Portugal in federation as a way of ending the war against guerrillas there. About 30 officers were arrested yesterday, according to a government spokesman. They were believed to be mainly junior officers, followers of General Spinola. The most prominent was Lieutenant Colonel Joao Almeida Bruno, a close associate of General Spinola when the general was commander in Portuguese Guinea, or Guinea-Bissau as it is known to African nationalists.
A time bomb exploded in the children’s wear section of the crowded Kintetsu Department Store in Osaka, Japan, but police reported no injuries. They said the store received anonymous phone calls from a man demanding the release of two brothers arrested for questioning about bombs placed in public lockers at the Kintetsu parent company’s rail stations.
In Bangladesh, at least 50 protesters were killed when members of the JSD, a paramilitary force of supporters of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman fired into a crowd of people marched upon the house of Home Minister Mansur Ali.
Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley held emergency meetings with police officials after the murder of Paul Fitzritson, 38, the executive chairman of National Sports Ltd. who arranged last year’s world heavyweight title fight between Joe Frazier and George Foreman. Fitzritson, was the fourth Jamaican businessman to be murdered in 16 days.
President Nixon’s public appearances about the country are taking on the flavor and scope of a national political campaign. He has stepped up the number and variety of public contacts as he seeks to show himself as a President firmly in control of his job and unperturbed by impeachment proceedings. Some of his appearances, as in Nashville Saturday night, have all the trappings of a campaign stop before an election — crowds, banners, bands, advance men, controversy and oratory.
Federal Judge John J. Sirica will file a written opinion tomorrow announcing what is be done with the material give to him by the Watergate grand jury for forwarding to the House impeachment inquiry. If he follows through on what he told lawyers in the case during a bench conference on March 6, the day he heard arguments on the issue, Judge Sirica will rule that at least the grand jury’s two‐page “transmittal letter” be made public. “I think the two pages ought to be made public,” he said then. “I have read it.” The other material transmitted by the grand jury to him is believed to include a report and evidence bearing on President Nixon’s Watergate‐related actions.
Judge Sirica has a number of options, ranging from giving the report to the House Judiciary Committee to suppressing it. His actions to date attempting to uncover the fact of the Watergate affair and the identities of all participants however, indicate that he is unlikely to prevent the committee from ever seeing any of the Grand Jury’s information. Judge Sirica will be making his ruling tomorrow, though not only from the standpoint of the judge who supervises and assists a grand jury but also as the judge who must assure a fair trial for the seven men indicted by the jury in the cover‐up of the break‐in at the Democratic National Committee offices in June, 1972.
A House Republican leader today praised the Judiciary Committee’s handling of the impeachment inquiry, saying it was acting with restraint and care. Representative John B. Anderson of Illinois, chairman of the House Republican Conference, said the White House should turn over all evidence requested by the committee. Continued refusal to do so could become “the basis for charge relating to impeachment,” Mr. Anderson said on the National Broadcasting Company’s “Meet the Press” program. Mr. Anderson praised the committee for not being stampeded into hasty action by recent White House attacks and refusal to turn over information.
The feast of St. Patrick is normally the grandest day of the year in Boston, but in South Boston, the city’s tough, proud Irish neighborhood, the celebration today was overshadowed by tensions building over the issues of schools, busing and race. Mayor Kevin White was at the head of the parade when the booing started.
A group of militant women are believed to be among the leaders of the Symbionese Liberation Army, the professed kidnappers of Patricia Hearst. Although the Federal Bureau of Investigation has refused to identify any of the women, it was learned from usually reliable sources that they come from the Berkeley area near San Francisco, that they have been involved with inmates at various California prisons and that they were associates of both Jack Remiro and Russell Little. The two inmates have been charged with the murder of Dr. Marcus Foster, the Oakland, Calif., schools superintendent the Symbionese group said they killed.
The coming decade should see a “revolution” in conventional warfare possibilities brought about by a new generation of “smart bombs” that will fulfill the age-old military dream of a weapon so precise that one shot will destroy a target. This is the conclusion of Defense Department officials who foresee precision-guided bombs revolutionizing warfare in much the same way that tanks changed ground combat in World War I and radar altered air defense in World War II.
Policemen used helicopters, planes and dogs to search for a man who lured two teenage women to a vacant farmhouse near Huntsville, Alabama, bludgeoned one to death and seriously injured the other with a lead pipe. Jacqueline Zettle, 19, of Florence, Alabama, was killed. Bobbie Ostrander, 19, of Lohman, Missouri, was listed in critical condition. Both were violinists with the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra and students at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Police said the two women had met the unidentified man at a church function and agreed to go with him to the house, where, he said, a band leader lived.
The special federal grand jury that investigated former Vice President Spiro T. Agnew and indicted Baltimore County Executive Dale W. Anderson is expected to issue more indictments next month, the Baltimore Sun reported. The newspaper quoted informed sources as saying there was evidence of corruption in Baltimore County that had not been investigated fully and that was expected to be the subject of additional charges.
Teachers in Kansas City, Missouri, voted overwhelmingly to go on strike today, union leaders said. A spokesman said only about 30 persons voted no among the 1,600 teachers who met for a strike vote. The union represents 3,100 teachers and professional personnel in the 62,000-pupil district. Contract talks between the Kansas City Federation of Teachers and the school district broke off Friday when the union rejected a 5.5% salary increase.
The American Mutual Insurance Alliance said a proposed federal “no-fault” insurance plan would force 90 million consumers, including millions of retired persons, to pay more for auto insurance and possibly receive no benefits. The alliance, a national organization of mutual property and casualty companies, said it was a long-time supporter of no-fault insurance — but at the state, not the federal, level. It is said under the federal plan no-fault benefits would not be paid when medicare benefits were available and when there was no wage loss. The alliance said that in certain cases payment to an “innocent retired person” would be reduced by $2,500 under terms of the proposed bill.
Three persons were being held in jail in Canton, Ohio, on charges of extortion after they allegedly tried to force a New York City radio station to broadcast their views. The FBI said the three, Larry N. Cooper, 26, Gwendolyn McCutcheon, 21, and Carol Holmes, 19, had called radio station WABC several times, threatening to kill a hostage if their demands for air time were not met. The station was told to provide four hours time for a taped statement, the FBI said. A WABC spokesman said the callers had wanted the time to discuss prison reform and other issues related to the nation’s legal system. The three surrendered after officers surrounded the building they were in, the FBI said. No hostage was found. The FBI said Cooper was the director and Miss McCutcheon an associate of a nonprofit service organization known as the Alternative Political Action Committee.
Contract negotiations between United Press International and the Wire Service Guild were suspended when the guild negotiating committee presented demands it said were “final” and which UPI said were unacceptable. The guild said it would strike today if its demands were not met. The guild has demanded 10% in wage increases in each year of a two-year contract, an agency shop and a 37½-hour week for all domestic operations. Top scale of the key “newsman” category of the expired contract was $300 a week. UPI said it had told the guild that in this category it would match the guild’s Associated Press contract of $317 a week in the first year and $335 in the second.
Born:
Dorin Recean, Prime Minister of Moldova since 2023; in Dondușeni, Moldavian SSR, Soviet Union.
John Hall, NFL kicker (New York Jets, Washington Redskins), in Port Charlotte, Florida.
Eric Lane, NFL running back (New York Giants), in East Orange, New Jersey.
Died:
Louis Kahn (Itze-Leib Schmuilowsky), 73, Estonian-born American architect.
Carroll Nye, 72, American film actor (“Gone with the Wind”).
History Diaries 