The Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), made up of Middle Eastern members of OPEC, formally ended the oil embargo declared by its members on October 17, 1973. The Arab oil countries, except Libya and Syria, ended their oil embargo against the United States and moved to restore production to meet the needs of American consumers. Saudi Arabia pledged an immediate production increase of a million barrels a day for the United States market, which would restore half the current deficit in American imports of Arabian oil.
The announcement that most Arab countries were lifting their embargo against the United States was greeted in Washington with restraint, partly because it had been expected and partly because the official statement said nothing about increases in the production of crude oil. Government and major oil officials continued to be optimistic that Saudi Arabia, the largest producer, would restore her output to what it was before the start of the Middle East war. Still, there was a feeling of unease.
Israel lost two dead and three injured today in artillery and tank duels on the Syrian front, an army announcement said. Reports from the front said that observation posts had seen fires in Syrian ammunition dumps, antitank positions, tanks, jeeps, and other vehicles. The report said that the Syrians fired hundreds of shells including antitank missiles. An army announcement here said that Syrian tanks and artillery opened their attack against Israeli positions in the salient taken during the October war last year.
Syrian gunners today reported inflicting fresh losses on Israeli forces in the Golan Heights. A spokesman said Israeli gun batteries and tanks were destroyed and an unspecified number of Israeli soldiers killed. He did not mention any Syrian casualties.
The U.S. State Department announced that the U.S. and Britain would assist Egypt in clearing mines from the Suez Canal in order to reopen the waterway between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The United States agreed to an Egyptian government request to help sweep mines from the Suez Canal to make the waterway safe for international shipping, the State Department announced. Britain also will help in the operation, but Egypt rejected a Soviet offer of assistance, it was reported. American helicopters and minesweeping rigs will be flown to the area in giant C-5A transport planes, the Pentagon said. The canal has been closed since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
Iraq has mobilized 48,000 troops for a showdown with a rebellious Kurdish minority in the country’s oil-rich northern region, the Beirut newspaper An Nahar reported. The newspaper said the troops would launch an offensive against the 20,000-strong guerrilla army of Mulla Mustafa Barzani after a 15-day ultimatum expires March 26.
A 48-hour battle for control of a key river crossing in the Vietnamese Central Highlands ended today, leaving the heaviest casualties since the Vietnam cease‐fire 14 months ago. South Vietnamese officers from the Highlands headquarters reported that 440 North Vietnamese soldiers had been killed in the fighting while government forces lost 75 killed, 105 wounded and an unknown number of missing. Fierce fighting flared up Saturday morning when North Vietnamese troops attacked with an artillery, mortar, and rocket barrage on government ranger positions along a provincial road about 10 miles northeast of Kon Tum city. “At this moment,” one of the officers said today, “nobody is actually controlling this stretch of road. The positions lie close to the Đăk Bla River over which, military sources in Saigon said, the North Vietnamese wanted to clear an infiltration route before the beginning of the monsoon rains in May. A Vietcong spokesman in Saigon said that 230 South Vietnamese soldiers had been killed or captured while being “duly punished for encroaching upon the territory of the Provisional Revolutionary Government northeast of Kon Tum.”
The government’s Highlands headquarters said that about 1,500 South Vietnamese soldiers participated in the battle. Government air force planes made 64 strikes against the North Vietnamese, who were said to have fought with their 28th Regiment, based in Cambodia, and three demolition and infantry battalions. North Vietnamese forces were supported by long‐range guns, key weapons in their gains in the 1972 offensive. The North Vietnamese were believed to have Soviet-made tanks in reserve in the mountainous terrain. The battle was the fourth major clash in the Central Highlands bordering Laos and Cambodia in 12 months. The three others, in Quảng Đức, Kon Tum and Pleiku Provinces, were seen here as moves by the North Vietnamese to strengthen security for areas in which they were building roads and to sap morale in the government army.
The Defense Department said today that without some immediate budgetary help from Congress it would run short of funds next month to support the military operations of the South Vietnamese armed forces. Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee, William P. Clements Jr., Deputy Secretary of Defense, and Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, predicted that the Saigon Government would have to “sharply curtail” its military operations next month unless Congress raised the ceiling on spending for military aid to South Vietnam. The committee is considering an Administration request that the ceiling for the present fiscal year, which began last July 1, be raised from the $1.126 billion approved by Congress late last year to $1.6 billion. The proposed increase in military aid for South Vietnam is becoming one of the most controversial items of the Pentagon’s request for $6.2 billion in additional funds for the current fiscal year. Critics of the Saigon Government are opposing the proposed increase in military aid. In the Senate, Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, and James B. Pearson, Republican of Kansas, have introduced an amendment to block any raising of the spending ceiling.
Cambodian rebels today captured Phsar Oudong, a former royal capital 24 miles northwest of Phnom Penh, the military command said. It was the first major town to fall to the Communists in more than three years. Government defenders destroyed their artillery pieces in the town’s market to prevent their ‘use by the enemy, and then retreated half a mile to the north, “where they are reorganizing,” a spokesman said. The capture of Phsar Oudong appeared to be a major propaganda gain for the Communist insurgents since it came on the fourth anniversary of the overthrow of Prince Norodom Sihanouk, former chief of state, who now heads a government in exile in China.
Reinforcements were rushed to Phsar Oudong from Phnom Penh in helicopters, which came under heavy shelling from the Communist forces as soon as they touched down, military sources said. Before today, the insurgents controlled four provincial capitals, all of them in the remote northeastern region. Military sources said there had been hand‐to‐hand fighting in the center of Phsar Oudong, where government troops had prepared for a final stand. The sources said the fighting had destroyed most of the historic buildings and relics in the town, which was the capital of Cambodia for two and a half centuries until 1866. One officer said that about 500 rebels had been involved in the attack
Another major battle appeared in prospect at Kampot, a provincial capital 93 miles southwest of Phnom Penh on the Gulf of Siam. A western newsman here said that a battalion of President Lon Nol’s palace guards was airlifted to Kampot yesterday. A force of about 10,000 Cambodian Communists and North Vietnamese has besieged the town, pushing Government defense lines to within two miles of the center of Kampot. The town has been without water for about two weeks, and civilians and soldiers are drawing drinking water from a swamp, a recent visitor to the city said. American C‐130 cargo planes from Thailand have been parachuting supplies to Kampot since the beginning of the siege.
Portugal’s Premier Marcello Caetano emerged apparently in full command of the nation’s political and military situation, lifting a nationwide military alert two days after an attempt by rebel army officers to overthrow the government. At the same time, two more officers, General Amaro Romao of the military academy and Admiral Tierno Bagulho, a member of the general staff, were dismissed.
Cardinal William Conway, Roman Catholic primate of all Ireland, launched a new campaign for peace, calling for an end to violence after a weekend which left eight persons dead. In a Mass Sunday in Belfast, Cardinal Conway said less than 10% of the population was involved in the strife, which he said most Catholics opposed. In Dublin, Archbishop Alan Buchanan also called for a halt in the fighting.
Neo-fascists Giovanni Ventura, Franco Freda and Marco Pozzan have been ordered to stand trial for organizing a 1969 bombing of a Milan bank in which 16 people died and 88 were injured, Italian justice sources said. The development came soon after a court adjourned until March 27 the case against Pietro Valpreda for planting the bomb. Eleven others are accused with Valpreda on related charges. It is expected Valpreda’s lawyers will seek to have the cases joined in one trial.
Police fired on an estimated 5,000 demonstrators at the residence of Bangladesh Home Minister Mansoor Ali, killing three persons and wounding 18 others, the government reported. The demonstration was sponsored by the opposition National Socialist Party to protest alleged misrule and corruption by the Awami League government. Party officials claimed 60 wounded.
Troops moved into Patna, India, the capital of Bihar state, to control students rioting against food shortages and high prices. Official sources said police opened fire on crowds of students, killing five and wounding 60. The mobs had burned public buildings and had looted shops.
Yves Boisset, 36-year-old production manager of Peugeot’s Argentine subsidiary who was kidnaped three months ago, has been released and is on his way home, the auto firm said, adding that he was in good health. Peugeot gave no details about any ransom or about who had kidnapped him. Meanwhile, there was no word on oil executive Victor Samuelson, 36, of Cleveland, Ohio, despite payment by Esso Argentina of a record ransom a week ago. The firm, however, said it was optimistic he would be released.
Chief Judge John Sirica of Federal District Court in Washington ordered that a grand jury report and accompanying material bearing on President Nixon’s conduct in the Watergate scandal be turned over to the House impeachment inquiry, but appeals are expected to delay the order. In a 22-page opinion, Judge Sirica made it clear that the secret report, as well as a sealed briefcase of evidence, deals with President Nixon’s acts “in his public capacity” during the period under investigation.
Members of the House Judiciary Committee expressed confidence that their impeachment inquiry would be accelerated by Judge Sirica’s decision to give the committee the sealed grand jury report. They said that the court decision would increase, rather than diminish, their determination to obtain relevant tape recordings and documents being withheld by the White House.
Judge Sirica’s decision to give the grand jury report to the House impeachment inquiry was announced on his last day as Chief Judge of the Federal District Court in Washington. He reaches the retirement age of 70 tomorrow, and will be succeeded by Judge George Hart. Judge Sirica, however, will remain on the bench and continue his involvement in the Watergate case by trying former aides of President Nixon.
The prosecution put Rose Mary Woods, President Nixon’s personal secretary, on the witness stand in the Mitchell-Stans trial in Federal District Court in New York and she promptly told the jury that each defendant was “a fine man.” Her testimony was also a mixed blessing in other ways as far as the prosecution was concerned. She became involved in contradictory evidence produced by the defense and the prosecution.
The Civil Aeronautics Board ordered a sweeping revision of air fares that will make first-class passengers pay more, and end a system in which long distance economy-class passengers subsidized travelers on shorter trips. The board canceled virtually all current domestic air fares, effective July 16, and ordered the airlines to submit new fares based on the agency’s formula.
The government moved to make air bags, or some similar kind of “passive” restraint system, mandatory on all automobiles sold in this country beginning with 1977 models. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced that the controversial safety requirement would become effective on Sept. 1, 1976.
President Nixon’s chief domestic adviser said that New York City would receive “a lot more money” for mass transit than is now provided under White House-sponsored transportation legislation. Kenneth Cole, director of the Domestic Council, also predicted that the new mass transit legislation would be enacted by July 1.
A federal judge in Philadelphia sentenced a plane hijacker to 50 years in prison after the prosecutor urged a penalty “so severe that others will think twice before attempting it.” Michael S. Green, 36, a Washington, D.C., garage attendant, was convicted last June of seizing a National Airlines jet carrying 113 passengers and a crew of seven on July 12-13, 1972, while the plane was over New York City on a flight from Philadelphia. The FBI later arrested him and an alleged accomplice at a Texas airfield.
President Nixon will hold his second question-and-answer session in five days today when he flies to Houston to appear on national television before members of the National Association of Broadcasters at 5 pm PDT. Selected White House correspondents also will be allowed to join in the questioning. Mr. Nixon will spend the night in Houston and on Wednesday tour the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, the White House said.
The Wire Service Guild called a nationwide strike against United Press International after last-minute negotiations failed to result in a new contract. A guild spokesman said virtually every member of the union walked off the job, depriving the news service of about three-fourths of its 950 domestic editorial and clerical employees. Management spokesmen said some guild members and enough nonunion and supervisory personnel were on hand to maintain service indefinitely. The guild authorized the strike after UPI rejected a final proposal for a 10% pay increase in each year of the two-year contract, plus fringe benefits. The old contract had a top scale of $300 a week.
James Earl Ray, serving a 99-year sentence for the slaying of Dr. Martin Luther King, asked a federal judge on Monday to end his solitary confinement. U.S. District Judge L. Clure Morton heard arguments in Nashville on Ray’s petition, then adjourned the proceedings pending submission of written evidence. “What it boils down to then is escape,” Morton said at the end of the session. Ray has been in solitary confinement at Tennessee State Prison since July 22, 1972. In his first court appearance since pleading guilty in March, 1969, Ray, 46, claimed that his ability to concentrate and his physical well-being were deteriorating because of the confinement.
The House passed legislation for special bonuses to attract skilled men to the military — but only after insurgent feminists extracted a promise that bills to admit women to the service academies would get a hearing. There was little discussion of the bill’s main provision, which would set up an $84.5 million-a-year program of enlistment bonuses up to $15,000. The bill now goes to a conference with the Senate, where the issue of women in the academies is one to be considered.
Bowing to objections of New York City school officials, the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare has canceled the national distribution of questionnaires that asked elementary school pupils how they and their parents and teachers reacted to children of other races. The federal agency had told a number of city schools that they would receive special federal grants only if they administered the racial attitude questionnaire.
The estimated cost of the Rockwell International B‐1 bomber program has risen $1.3‐billion to $15‐billion because of a recent program change and an allowance for greater inflation, informed Defense Department sources said today. The increase followed the disclosure last week of a rise in the Air Force’s other large aircraft program — a $1.4‐billion increase for the McDonnell Douglas F‐15 fighter program. The sources said the cost of the bomber program, aimed at producing 244 planes, is now estimated at $15‐billion instead of $13.7‐billion. Each B‐1 bomber will cost the Air Force about $61.5‐million. The previous estimate was $56‐million, the Defense Department officials said.
The new World Football League (WFL) conducted a draft of NFL and Canadian League players whose contracts had expired or were set to expire at the end of the 1974 and 1975 seasons, with each of the 12 WFL teams making selections. Of the 12 first round picks, six — Larry Csonka, Tim Rossovich, Virgil Robinson, Mike Taylor, Pete Beathard, and Ted Kwalick— would play for WFL teams.
At Pompano Beach, country singer Charlie Pride plays for the Texas Rangers against Jim Palmer and the Orioles. The former Negro Leaguer grounds out and singles in 2 at-bats, as the O’s coast, 14—2.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 874.22 (-13.61, -1.53%).
Born:
Anne Tønnessen, Norwegian women’s footballer (soccer), (Team Norway, Olympics, gold medal, 2000) in Sokndal, Norway.
Brantt Myhres, Canadian NHL right wing (Tampa Bay Lightning, Philadelphia Flyers, San Jose Sharks, Nashville Predators, Washington Capitals, Boston Bruins), in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Torrian Gray, NFL safety (Minnesota Vikings), in Bartow, Florida.
Laure Savasta, French WNBA guard (Sacramento Monarchs), in Marseilles, France.
Died:
David C. Imboden, 87, American actor (“King of Kings”).
History Diaries 