Talks intended to settle Britain’s seven-month-old coal strike collapsed tonight. The miners’ union leader, Arthur Scargill, said there was no hope for an end to the dispute soon. The two sides in the strike had been meeting over the weekend, and there had been optimism about a settlement. Mr. Scargill accused the National Coal Board of effectively breaking off the talks through their “complete intransigence and unwillingness to negotiate.” But the Coal Board chairman, Ian MacGregor, who runs the state-owned industry, said, “We are the only people who have made any concessions.” The leaders of the National Union of Mineworkers called the strike March 12 to protest the Government’s plan to close 20 money-losing coal mines. Mr. Scargill has demanded that the Government agree not to close any mines unless they are unsafe or have run out of coal. He denied that his union had agreed to refer the issue to an independent appeals body.
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher acknowledged today that it took two days after the explosion of a terrorist bomb in her seaside hotel early Friday for “the enormity of what has happened” to hit her. Speaking on a live television interview from 10 Downing Street, the Prime Minister said the full impact of the Irish Republican Army’s attack on the Cabinet in Brighton, in which four people were killed and she narrowly escaped death, sank in only when she went to church on Sunday near Chequers, her official country residence. Mrs. Thatcher, who has been widely praised for her calm after the explosion and for her composure in going ahead with her speech to the last session of the Conservative Party conference Friday afternoon, wept as she left the church service. “It was a lovely morning and the sun was streaming through the stained glass windows,” said the Prime Minister, who was 59 years old on Sunday. “The sunlight was falling right across the church onto some flowers, and it just occurred to me that this is a day I was not meant to see, and some of my dearest friends are not seeing this day.”
Nicolae Ceaușescu, the Rumanian leader, arrived for a visit to West Germany today. In keeping with Rumania’s independent foreign policy, he thus departed from a political quarantine imposed by the Soviet Union on its other Eastern European allies. The trip is the first by the leader of a Warsaw Pact nation to a NATO country since the Soviet Union abandoned nuclear arms talks last year over the deployment of new American missiles in Western Europe. Mr. Ceaușescu’s visit has assumed unusual significance for Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s Government, which is eager to demonstrate that it is maintaining a discussion with Eastern Europe despite the frostiness between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Last month, two other Eastern European leaders — Erich Honecker of East Germany and Todor Zhivkov of Bulgaria — called off planned visits to West Germany, evidently bowing to pressure from the Soviet Union. The Soviet leadership is believed determined to punish Mr. Kohl for accepting the new missiles, to demonstrate unity among the Warsaw Pact nations and, according to some diplomats, to assert its sway over its allies before embarking on a renewed discussion with the United States. Mr. Ceaușescu, who earlier this year defied the Soviet-led boycott of the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, immediately made it clear that the East German and Bulgarian cancellations would not affect Rumania. He did, however, reduce initial plans for a five-day itinerary to two days.
A French official said today that the Soviet Union appeared to be trying to intimidate journalists who report from inside Afghanistan through the arrest and probable trial of a reporter for the French state television network. The journalist, Jacques Abouchar, 53 years old, was captured in Afghanistan last month. The French Government has been told that he will probably stand trial in Kabul on charges of “illegally entering Afghanistan accompanied by an armed band.” The French official said it was clear that the Russians would seek to “maximize the benefits coming out of this operation.” French officials’ concern increased over the weekend after a report by the official Afghan press agency Bakhtar that criticized France for “using the most ridiculous and irresponsible justifications to defend the crimes of an agent who has acknowledged undertaking espionage activities.”
Two bombs exploded while three failed to go off outside branches of a French bank and a French insurance company office in Portugal. A Portuguese guerrilla group, known as FP-25, claimed responsibility. Callers told a radio station and a news agency that the bombings were in support of Basques in France who face extradition to Spain for guerrilla actions there. No one was hurt in the two blasts.
Pope John Paul II has decided to permit Roman Catholics to resume using a 16th-Century Latin liturgy in celebrating Mass, but only under strictly limited conditions, the Vatican announced. The decision in no way seeks to undermine the new Mass rituals celebrated in the local vernacular, as approved by Vatican Council II in 1963, church officials said. Nor, they said, is the decision viewed as a concession to conservative Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who broke with the Vatican over the new liturgy. “The church can afford to be more sympathetic to the nostalgic older priests,” now that the new Mass is widely accepted, one official said.
After 33 moves, chess challenger Gary Kasparov, 21, neutralized pressure from titleholder Anatoly Karpov and scored a draw in the 13th game of the world championship series in Moscow. Karpov, 33, leads the series, 4-0. The match will go to the first player to win six games; draws do not count. Kasparov is to play white in the next game, scheduled for Wednesday.
The Dutch Centrum Party expels 2nd Member of parliament Hans Janmaat due to fraud.
Israeli occupation forces in southern Lebanon have imposed strict new security measures at a crossing on the Awwali River defense line after a series of guerrilla attacks, Lebanese sources said. Travelers crossing the Awwali River Bridge near Sidon are now required to obtain permits from Israeli officials in order to cross in either direction. Travelers said Israeli troops conducted searches of people entering or leaving the areas, and many were turned back for not having the new permits, which are valid for three months.
Opposing U.S. and Israeli statements were made on a deferral of debt payments. Israeli officials said the Reagan Administration had offered to defer $500 million in debt payments until March and that Prime Minister Shimon Peres had accepted the offer. American officials including Secretary of State George P. Shultz responded that no such agreement had been reached.
Iraq said today that its planes had attacked a “large naval target” south of the Iranian oil port of Kharg Island. An Iraqi military spokesman said on television that the vessel was attacked at 5 PM. The Iraqis often use the term “large naval target” for a tanker. The communique said Iraq would “continue to destroy any maritime target that approaches the exclusion zone until the Iranian regime yields to the call for a comprehensive peace.”
Salvage tugs were mobilized in Bahrain for possible action after Iraq announced the raid, but no distress signal was received, shipping sources said.
At least 4 people were killed and 18 others injured today in religious clashes in India’s northern Uttar Pradesh state and in separatist violence in northeastern Tripura state, the Press Trust of India reported. The news agency said two people were killed in Uttal Pradesh when they exchanged gunfire with policemen in Maunath Bhanjan, which was placed under a curfew October 6 after an outbreak of Hindu-Moslem violence. Two people were killed and 18 hurt in Tripura during a 24-hour strike called by the outlawed Tripura National Volunteers, which is fighting for independence for the state.
Chinese Communist Party leaders are meeting to discuss a far-reaching package of economic reforms, the party newspaper People’s Daily reported. Among the items on the agenda at the annual meeting of the Central Committee are a package of industrial and urban changes to reduce the role of centralized planning, give more autonomy to factory managers and cut state subsidies on many goods, diplomats reported.
The Philippine armed forces were reorganized today, with 40 senior officers resigning. Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile said 17 generals and 13 colonels had been retired on the recommendation of armed forces Chief of Staff, General Fabian Ver. The changes came as an inquiry commission continued to deliberate on findings by its lawyers that a military conspiracy led to the assassination last year of the opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr. It was not known if the military reorganization had any bearing on the investigation. Five of the retired generals were commanders or deputy commanders of regional units, which have considerable power outside general headquarters.
The Salvadoran combatants agreed to form a joint commission to seek an end to the five-year civil war. The agreement was reached at a historic four-and-a-half-hour meeting led by President Jose Napoleon Duarte and insurgent leaders in La Palma, Salvador. The commission is to meet at an undisclosed site in late November to study ways to “humanize” the conflict. A joint communique stopped short of calling for a formal cease- fire, but that the meeting occurred at all was a major achievement for both sides.
The CIA has produced a psychological warfare manual for Nicaraguan rebels that instructs them to hire professional criminals for “selective jobs” and says some government officials can be “neutralized” with the “selective use of violence,” intelligence sources said. A photostatic copy of the 90-page Spanish-language manual, entitled “Psychological Operations in Guerrilla War,” was obtained by the Associated Press. Its authenticity and the CIA’s role in its production were confirmed independently by U.S. intelligence sources, who insisted on anonymity.
Chad’s warring factions will hold preparatory talks aimed at ending their 20-year-old civil war next Saturday in Brazzaville, Congo’s Foreign Minister, Antoine Ndinga-Oba, said today. His announcement, on the state radio, gave no details of who would attend the meeting. Last month, France and Libya agreed to withdraw their troops from Chad in a move widely interpreted as paving the way for peace talks. Previous attempts to hold the talks in the Congolese capital have failed because of President Hissen Habre’s insistence that he be regarded as Chad’s head of state rather than a leader of one of its factions. The last effort to get the two sides together collapsed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in January when Mr. Habre refused to attend talks sponsored by the Organization of African Unity because of the high-level welcome for former President Goukouni Oueddei.
The United States and the Marxist regime of Angola are engaged in productive talks on the conditions for a withdrawal of Cuban troops from the African nation, the State Department said. “The door remains open for further progress,” spokesman John Hughes said. Frank Wisner, deputy assistant secretary of state, is in Luanda for talks with Angolan officials, Hughes added.
Young voters back President Reagan in higher percentages than any other age group, according to a number of polls. Many young people disagree with Mr. Reagan on specific policies, but they perceive him as a firm yet kindly grandfather figure who inspires confidence. This 15-year shift from a time when young people said, “Don’t trust anyone over 30,” has left Democrats stunned.
The President stepped up his attack on Walter F. Mondale on military and foreign policy issues. Mr. Reagan asserted that if the Democratic nominee for President was elected he would “jeopardize the security of this nation” by opposing needed new military programs.
President Reagan enjoys lunch at the local McDonalds in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
President Reagan is presented with the keys to the City of Macon, Alabama by Mayor Israel.
The Central Intelligence Agency’s Freedom of Information Act passes.
Walter F. Mondale mockingly described what he depicted as President Reagan’s lack of knowledge of nuclear weapons and how that could affect the President’s decision-making in a crisis. Mr. Mondale, at a news conference in San Francisco, said that in 1982, Mr. Reagan had erred in saying strategic submarine and bomber missiles “do not have nuclear warheads” and that the missiles “are recallable.”
Except for one slightly damaged part, Challenger returned to earth in better shape than any previous shuttle, space agency officials said today. The $1.2 billion Challenger, which carried a record crew of seven on an eight-day voyage that ended with a perfect landing Saturday, suffered some nicks on its thermal tiles and some surface damage to its orbital maneuvering system pod, said a spokesman, James Harrington 2d. The pod, containing a large jet thruster and several smaller ones, will be removed and a replacement will be borrowed from the Atlantis, the nation’s fourth space shuttle, which is under constrution in California. The radar panel and wobbly communications antenna that plagued the early part of the mission have not yet been inspected, Mr. Harrington said. Discovery is scheduled to make the next flight, an eight-day mission beginning November 7.
A new creche case will be decided by the Supreme Court, which ruled early this year that a municipality may have a religious Christmas display if it wants one. The Court agreed to review, in a case from Scarsdale, New York, whether a municipality that chooses to bar a nativity scene from public property may nonetheless be required by the Constitution to permit one.
Two condemned killers at the Florida prison in Starke won temporary reprieves from separate federal judges, less than 24 hours before they were to go to the electric chair in the nation’s first double execution in 19 years. Charles Foster’s motion centered on whether his public defender used psychiatric records that might have led to leniency. Earlier, Frank Smith, who is black, won a reprieve on an argument that included a claim that race played a part in his sentencing. The two Death Row inmates had been scheduled to die today.
Archbishop John J. O’Connor said yesterday that Roman Catholic bishops expected public officials and candidates for election to publicly oppose “abortion on demand” and “work for modification” of legalized abortion. The New York Archbishop, in a major address on abortion and public policy that he has been preparing for several weeks, said he was not seeking to influence voters for or against particular candidates. At the same time, he stressed that the greatest public need faced by political figures was to “protect the rights of the unborn.”
The National Transportation Safety Board, reporting on a study of 51 accidents involving drunk driving, said that one-third of the drivers involved had a suspended license, and nearly three of every four had a previous traffic offense involving alcohol. Safety board Chairman James Burnett said finding that repeat offenders are involved in many drunk driving accidents demonstrated the inability of law enforcement agencies and the judicial system to deal with a problem that accounts for 27,000 highway deaths annually.
Prosecutors in Hastings, Minnesota, dropped charges against 21 persons accused of participating in two alleged child-adult sex rings — ending an investigation that scandalized an entire community. Prosecutor Gehl Tucker said continuing the prosecution could cause serious emotional harm to child witnesses. Dismissing the charges would be in the best interest of the children and of justice, he said.
Lake County, Indiana, police, knocking on doors at dawn, launched “Operation Pay or Stay” — a roundup of 152 parents who have fallen behind in child support payments. The men, and some women, owe between $2,500 and $12,500 in child support and their total liability exceeds $500,000, authorities said. They said the parents had the choice of signing agreements to hand over cash or 25% of their wages, or go to jail. By late afternoon, 14 persons had been picked up by police, authorities said.
Followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, who have imported thousands of transients from around the country to Rajneeshpuram, his commune in Oregon, filed a suit in federal court aimed at blocking Oregon’s Wasco County from restricting new voter registrations. Wasco County Clerk Sue Proffitt last week ordered that all new voter registrations in the county be rejected. County and state officials say they fear the Rajneeshees are busing street people to Rajneeshpuram in an effort to pad voter rolls and influence the county elections.
Florida officials formally asked the Federal Government today to compensate nurseries for future losses in the fight against citrus canker, which threatens the state’s citrus industry. Doyle Conner, Florida Agriculture Commissioner, said he had asked the Federal Agriculture Department to declare an “extraordinary emergency,” a technical move that would clear the way for payments. No amount was mentioned. Mr. Conner said the first step would be to determine whether the Federal Government would provide the payments. The state, he said, already is committed to indemnifying nurseries for the destruction of infected plants. In all, more than four million young plants have been destroyed, all nursery stock. No canker has been found in commercial groves.
Seeking research grants, universities are increasingly making exceptions to rules against secret research to help develop a variety of products for the computer industry.
Some excessive sexual activity has all the hallmarks of an addiction and can be treated in a fashion similar to other addictions, such as alcoholism and gambling, a growing number of sex therapists believe. People with this problem typically use sex as a psychological narcotic.
The first view of a solar system being born may be revealed in a newly made photograph of a disk of material surrounding a young nearby star. The photograph lends strength to the theory that planets and solar systems like ours developed from such orbiting clouds.
The Nobel Prize for medicine was awarded to three experts for their profound insights into the body’s natural defenses against disease. The Nobel laureates are Dr. Cesar Milstein of Britain and Dr. Georges J. F. Köhler and Dr. Niels K. Jerne, both of Switzerland.
An ancient, highly nutritious grain that once sustained the Aztecs but has lain in agricultural obscurity for nearly five centuries has been rediscovered by scientists. The grain, called amaranth, may become the first food crop to be developed rapidly for wide cultivation using sophisticated techniques.
The worst drought in Texas in a generation is ending amid heavy showers and thunderstorms over several weeks. The improvement has been marked in nearly all parts of the state, as well as in New Mexico and northern Mexico, although it has not been uniform.
A powerful storm packing heavy rain and snow hit the Rockies, snarling traffic in Denver, delaying flights from 45 minutes to an hour and knocking out electricity to thousands of homes. Although warm ground at lower elevations was melting much of the snow, a new storm was heading into Colorado that would intensify the weather through the night, said the National Weather Service in Denver. Earlier, some Southern Colorado Power customers were without power after three inches of wet snow blanketed Pueblo disrupted power for as many as 5,000 customers, a utility spokesman said.
NFL Monday Night Football:
Green Bay Packers 14, Denver Broncos 17
Steve Foley and Louis Wright, Broncos’ defensive backs, each returned a fumble for a touchdown in the opening minute tonight and Denver held on for a 17–14 victory over the Green Bay Packers. The game was played in a driving storm that left the field ankle-deep in snow. The Broncos, extending their winning streak to five games, raised their record to 6–1 and kept pace with the Los Angeles Raiders in the American Conference West. Green Bay (1–6) dropped its sixth straight, its longest slump since 1958. The scores by Foley and Wright marked the second consecutive game Denver’s defense had contributed two touchdowns. Despite a mostly anemic offense, the Broncos made the 14–0 lead stand up with key defensive plays. The final one came when Rulon Jones, a defensive end, sacked Green Bay’s Lynn Dickey and forced a fumble after the Packers had driven to the Denver 19 with 3:08 to play. The loss offset a brilliant performance by Green Bay’s James Lofton. The wide receiver caught a career-high 11 passes for 206 yards, including a 54-yard score midway through the fourth quarter that narrowed the margin to 17–14. Dickey was also outstanding, completing 27 of 37 passes for 371 yards. On Green Bay’s first play from scrimmage, running back Gerry Ellis was hit by linebacker Tom Jackson and fumbled. Foley scooped up the loose ball and dashed 22 yards for a score. On their next play from scrimmage, the Packers’ Jessie Clark was stripped of the ball by a linebacker, Steve Busick. Wright recovered and ran 27 yards for another touchdown with 14:23 still left in the opening quarter. Rich Karlis, a barefooted kicker, made it 17–0 in the second quarter with a 30-yard field goal. Green Bay cut the gap to 17–7 on Ellis’s 5-yard run late in the third quarter.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1202.96 (+12.26)
Born:
Jessie Ware, British pop singer-songwriter (“What’s Your Pleasure?”), in Hammersmith, London, England, United Kingdom.
Alex McKenna, American actress (“The Stupids”), in Los Angeles, California.
[Ed: Scowl. I’m dreaming of a Ceaușescu Christmas…]
History Diaries 