Dutch marines and police units stormed the prison chapel at Scheveningen near The Hague and liberated 15 hostages who had been held for four days by four convicts. The surprise move at 4 AM was carried out without injuries, a government spokesman said; the captors were arrested. A Dutch Government spokesman said immediately afterward that no one had been wounded and that the action had been “completely successful.” The spokeman said that the decision to storm the chapel where the hostages were held had been made by the group of police officials and Government ministers manning a center in The Hague and had been approved by the Dutch Government.
Besides a combat unit of the Dutch marines and a special mobile police force, a spokesman said, a fire brigade and public health officals had participated in the daring raid, but no further details were available. The move was surprising since in a similar situation one month ago, when three Japanese held a group of hostages in the French Embassy in the Hague, the Dutch Government had ruled out any attempt to win the hostages back by force, because of fear of endangering the hostages. The Japanese were allowed to fly out of the Japanese were allowed to fly out of the country after releasing their hostages. Shortly after the raid today the hostages, seemingly in good physical condition, were seen leaving the large red brick prison in a bus for an unknown destination.
Elaborating on the raid, the Dutch Justice Minister, Andreas van Agt, said that the Government never intended to let the four convicts escape the coun try, and that the basic tactic hed been to keep talking with the four while preparing the attack. Dutch officials said they were keeping secret the tactics of the break‐in, which they said was the first such successful rescue of this many hostages. The Dutch police did say than two shots had been fired during the raid and that 14 men took part. It was not immediately clear if any of the four convicts had been harmed during the raid. The Justice Minister pointed out that the raid at first presented “very difficult problems” because the chapel was built in a way that made it difficult to attack and for offcials to see what was going on inside.
According to Dutch officials, they had originally planned to storm the chapel last night, but at the last minute decided not to During the day yesterday they sensed that the four convicts were becoming nervous. Fearing that they might harm the hostages in panic, the officials decided to act late last night. The Justice Minister said there had never been a question of giving in to the demands because there was no country that would take the four, who included three, common criminals and one Palestinian guerrilla. Nor did they wish to let common criminals leave the country. Clearly, the Dutch also feared gaining a reputation as a country that was soft on terrorism. In the case six weeks ago, they had let four Japanese terrorists leave the country scot‐free.
A sniper’s bullet smashed through the kitchen window of a rural home near Belfast and killed a 43-year-old Protestant man washing up after work. A spokesman said a spent shell casing found on a nearby hill indicated the shooting was an assassination by an expert marksman. The bullet struck the victim between the eyes. A booby-trap bomb left in the kitchen cupboard of an abandoned house in Cravaignon seriously injured a British soldier on a routine inspection. In Londonderry, a suspected Irish Republican Army bomber accidentally blew himself up in his automobile outside a filling station.
Heroin and morphine worth an estimated $237,000 and diamonds valued at about $105,000 were seized by Belgian customs inspectors in Brussels when they were found in luggage aboard a flight from Paris. The drugs were in toy building blocks belonging to two Chinese from Hong Kong and the diamonds in the suitcase of a German girl, officials said. The three were detained.
Coal miners in eastern France went on strike seeking higher wages and better working conditions. Meanwhile, the continuing 13-day postal workers’ walkout cut deeper into the nation’s economy. Some workers in small businesses were being laid off temporarily by the strike, which has halted all mail deliveries, due to orders held up in the post.
Chancellor Helmut Schmidt of West Germany wound up three days of negotiations with Soviet leaders today amid indications that Moscow might be making some adjustments in its intransigence over West Berlin.
A crackdown on illegal recruitment and employment of foreign workers in West Germany has been decided on by the cabinet, which is proposing legislation to be enacted by the parliament. An official estimate says there are 230,000 illegal workers in West Germany, while unemployment is expected to reach 600,000 this month.
Albanian Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu took over the Defense Ministry portfolio, filling the post formerly held by Bekir Balluku who was purged last July reportedly for trying to patch up Albania’s long rift with the Soviet Union. Balluku once had been viewed as the likely successor to Albanian strong man Enver Hoxha, leader of the nation’s Communist Party.
Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, will meet with the leaders of Egypt, Syria and Jordan to coordinate strategy against Israel — political and military. King Hassan II of Morocco indicated that the Palestinians might have agreed at the Arab conference in Morocco to let King Hussein try to negotiate with Israel for a first-stage military disengagement from the West Bank.
Israel’s only woman cabinet minister, Shulamit Aloni, resigned to protest Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s action in bringing the powerful but divided National Religious Party back into the government. Rabin. had hoped to prevent the reformist Civil Rights Movement political party from leaving the coalition. But Mrs. Aloni, one of the movement’s three parliament members, voted to pull out of the government. The movement is pledged to a program of separation of religion and state.
King Hussein told Palestinians on the occupied West Bank of Jordan tonight that the Arab leaders’ declaration recognizing the Palestine Liberation Organization as the sole representative of of Palestinians would not change his feelings toward them, or cause him to stop aiding them.
Four militant Palestinian guerrilla groups have denounced Yasser Arafat, the head of the Palestine Liberation Organizatiod, for joining in what they regard as a declaration of reconciliation with Kiig Hussein of Jordan.
Premier Yitzhak Rabin said today that the actions taken by Arab leaders at their conference in Rabat “bode no good” and “may possibly call for significant conclusions regarding our policy.”
A squadron of Israeli gunboats bombarded a Palestinian refugee camp of Rashidiyeh in southern Lebanon today, just hours after the Lebanese Army said it had repulsed an Israeli ground patrol in the same area.
U.S. Secretary of State Kissinger was preoccupied with Middle East developments as he flew from New Delhi to Dacca, capital of Bangladesh. He said he did not think the decisions at Rabat to give increased status to the Palestine Liberation Organization had foreclosed further Arab-Israeli negotiations. He planned urgent consultations with both sides.
Secretary of State Kissinger bluntly assured India today that the Central Intelligence Agency would not interfere in the political situation here. Mr. Kissinger, ending a three-day visit to New Delhi, said at a news conference.
President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu of South Vietnam removed three army corps commanders accused of corruption. This apparent bow to opposition pressure was spurned by Rev. Trần Hữu Thành, a Catholic priest who has been spearheading an opposition coalition. Policemen offset any impressions of softness by raiding the National Press Club and barring the priest’s supporters from downtown Saigon. The priest was hurt trying to hold back some of his stone-throwing supporters. The 59‐year‐old priest was punched in the face — by his account, by plainclothesman — as he tried to halt a rockthrowing spree by hundreds of Catholic youths. At least two journalists—a Vietnamese‐born citizen and a Vietnamese working for a television network—were reportedly assaulted by plainclothesmen.
Relief agencies reported that nearly 700,000 persons were homeless after Typhoon Elaine careened across the northern Philippines. Three earlier typhoons that hit the country this month left a total of 91 dead. The brunt of the storm apparently missed Hong Kong which received only heavy rains, and veered toward the south China coast.
The crash of Panarctic Oils Flight 416 killed 32 of the 34 people aboard, most of them oil technicians for Panarctic Oils. The Lockheed L-188 Electra came down 2.5 nautical miles (4.6 km; 2.9 mi) short of the airstrip on Melville Island in Canada’s Northwest Territories, then sank through the Arctic ice cap.
The United Nations heard charges today that “North American imperialists” were embarked on a “plan of genocide” in Puerto Rico that has led to sterilization of 200,000 women, or 35 percent of those of childbearing age.
The United States, Britain and France tonight vetoed a resolution in the Security Council to expel South Africa from the United Nations. Ten members of the Council voted for the resolution and two others abstained but the negative votes by the three Western permanent members of the Council defeated the motion to expel South Africa because of her policy of racial separation. It was the first time that three permanent members of the Security Council had cast vetoes on a resolution. A number of resolutions have been vetoed by two members. The Soviet Union and China, which also have veto power as the two other permanent members of the Council, supported the resolution introduced by African nations. Australia, Byelorussia, Cameroon, Indonesia, Iraq, Kenya, Mauritania and Peru also voted for the motion. Austria and Costa Rica abstained from voting. All 15 Council members had expressed, more or less strongly, their abhorrence of South Africa’s racial system during the 12 days of debate preceding the vote.
Admiral James L. Holloway 3d, the new Chief of Naval Operations, expressed confidence today that the United States Navy could maintain control of the seas in its rivalry with the Soviet navy.
Former President Nixon showed “some improvement” after three blood transfusions under intensive care in the Memorial Hospital Medical Center in Long Beach, California, his physician said. His internal bleeding had apparently stopped but he remained on the critical list. A hospital source said Mr. Nixon’s heart did not suffer cardiac arrest while in shock on Tuesday. Ron Ziegler, his former press secretary, told reporters that “We almost lost President Nixon (this) afternoon.”
Ford Motor company’s profits for the third quarter were down. The auto industry is in trouble. Chrysler Corporation chairman Lynn Townsend blamed President Ford for the lack of automobile sales. General Motors Vice President Thomas Murphy stated that the President meant only for Americans to show prudence in buying.
White House officials and others close to President Ford say that he will make sweeping cabinet changes between Tuesday’s election and Jan, 1, replacing some but not all Nixon appointees. Secretary of State Kissinger, Interior Secretary Rogers C.B. Morton and Treasury Secretary William Simon are virtual certainties to remain, at least for a number of months. There is disagreement as to whether Defense Secretary James Schlesinger will be replaced, but no such move is imminent according to several of the sources.
Productivity for the third quarter was down, but labor costs soared 13.9% during the quarter; more unemployment could result. The Labor Department said productivity in the July‐September period declined at a 3 per cent seasonally adjusted annual rate, reflecting a 3.3 percent drop in output and a three–tenths of 1 percent decline in man‐hours. Productivity — output per man-hour — has dropped in five of the last seven quarters. It fell 7.1 percent in the first quarter of the year and edged up to six–tenths of 1 percent in the second quarter.
The recession in which Wall Street, the automobile and the construction industries have been mired all year is spreading into industries producing goods such as appliances, textiles, television sets, furniture, lumber and semiconductors. Corporate executives are cutting investment in new plants and equipment. Many economists do not expect recovery before late in the summer of 1975.
Evidence of negligence in the design and development of the DC-10 was offered in federal court in Los Angeles by a lawyer for plaintiffs in the crash near Paris in March of a Turkish Airlines DC-10 killing 346. Lee Kreindler contended that a subcontractor had given early warning that there would be structural failure if a DC-10 lost its cargo door.
Serial killer Carl Eugene Watts, suspected in the murders of at least 14 people, committed the first known homicide for which he was convicted, killing 20-year-old Gloria Steele in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Inflation and unemployment are hitting the poor harder than any other income group, according to a discussion paper prepared under the direction of economist John Palmer of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Hardest hit are the “working poor.” Low income workers suffer at the same time. from dwindling job and advancement opportunities and lower wages. They also are hit by larger tax burdens to be paid out of smaller incomes and difficulty in obtaining credit and interest rates that compensate for inflation on what savings they have, the paper said.
A machinists’ strike that idled National Airlines for the last 108 days ended in time to put the nation’s eighth largest carrier back in the air for a share of the winter season’s lucrative New York-to-Miami trade. After contract ratification was announced by the 1,800-member International Assn. of Machinists, a National spokesman said limited service would resume Friday. The 26-month contract hikes hourly wages for top-scale mechanics from $6.98 to $8.28 by Sept. 1, 1975. The agreement also covers stock clerks, utility employees, maintenance and warehouse workers. A union spokesman said gains also had been made in pension and hospitalization benefits.
A letter to a Portland, Oregon, newspaper signed by a “J. Hawker” said that a $1 million extortion threat of a power blackout and water system damage was being temporarily suspended because of poor weather. “We are still here and we will wait,” the letter warned. “J. Hawker” is the name used by a person or a group that wrote earlier threatening letters and claimed responsibility for the bombings of 11 power transmission towers.
Federal Judge W. Arthur Garrity made final his order to totally desegregate Boston’s public schools by next fall and told the school committee that integration should be achieved with minimal busing. The order calls for “the greatest possible degree of actual desegregation in all grades in all parts of the city, taking into account the safety of the students and the practicality of the situation.” Schools were calm as authorities began decreasing the number of police assigned to protect students from the racial violence that flared in the first five weeks of classes. Attendance continued to climb and officials announced a crackdown would begin on students chronically absent.
A coal-burning utility has 100 times more potential of a damaging accident than a nuclear plant, according to a Santa Monica research chemist. In a prepared speech to the Atomic Industrial Forum in Washington, Philip Hammond of R and D Associates said he believes the public is ready to accept nuclear power “on their own understanding and knowledge.” The knowledge must come from a nuclear industry willing to speak with candor and with emphasis on the fact that “nuclear power is a choice among alternatives.” The “other alternatives must be scrutinized as sharply as the nuclear option,” Hammond said.
The Navy’s boss, Admiral James L. Holloway III, said inflation was hitting hard at the service’s shipbuilding program and that there probably would be cutbacks. Holloway, in his first news conference since becoming chief of naval operations on July 1, said the inflation rate for shipbuilding was 22%, roughly 10 points higher than for consumer goods. The Navy has a fleet of 508 ships and this will be cut to 496 next year. The service is working on revised spending proposals to send to Congress, Holloway said, without giving specifics. He added that, overall, he was not uncomfortable with the state of the Navy in the face of the Soviet sea threat.
The first phase of space-exploration-is over and the pioneering phase is beginning, said the first civilian astronaut to walk on the moon. On the horizon is the civilization of space, geologist Harrison H. Schmitt told a conference in Huntsville, Alabama. He foresaw the day when students of all ages and nations will attend orbiting classrooms, studying everything from nuclear physics to poetry and prose. Schmitt, who flew on Apollo 17 two years ago, said the Apollo and Skylab projects had proved conclusively that man could live in space, opening the way for routine flights to earth’s new frontier in the space shuttle, starting in 1979. “Compressed into the last decade of space activity, history has seen the equivalent of two centuries of exploration of the Great American West,” he said.
“The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” horror film premieres in Los Angeles.
Catfish Hunter is named the American League Cy Young Award winner. He led the league with 25 wins and a 2.49 ERA.
Muhammad Ali regained the world heavyweight boxing title, defeating George Foreman by knockout in the 8th round of a bout at the 20th of May Stadium in Kinshasa, Zaire, billed as “The Rumble in the Jungle”. American writer Jay Caspian Kang would later call the fight “arguably the greatest sporting event of the 20th century.”
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 673.03 (+13.69, +2.08%).
Born:
Martin Henriksson, Swedish Melodic death metal bassist and guitarist (Dark Tranquillity), in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Died:
Begum Akhtar (born Akhtaribai Faizabadi), 60, Indian singer and actress, reportedly died of stress from singing too high at her final concert.
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