Thirty-three inmates at the Long Kesh Prison (later called the “Maze Prison”) in Northern Ireland, most of them convicted terrorists of the IRA, attempted to escape through an underground tunnel which they had dug. IRA member Hugh Coney was shot and killed by a guard after emerging outside the walls, and 29 others were captured only a few yards past the prison. The other three were captured within 24 hours.
Two British soldiers were killed today in apparent retaliation for the death of a prisoner shot during a mass jail break last night. The soldiers were members of a patrol hit by two bursts of automatic fire as they crossed the main square in the village of Crossmaglen, about 45 miles southwest of here and a mile from the border with Ireland. Crossmaglen is a recognized center of activity by the Irish Republican Army, whose militant Provisional wing took responsibility for the attack. As the police sought the missing men, there were other violent incidents throughout Ulster. A Belfast police station was badly damaged in a bomb attack, although a warning was given and no one was injured
The Turkish army is laying hundreds of mines along big stretches of the perimeter of the British DhekeIlia base on Cyprus’ south coast, authoritative sources in Nicosia said. The Turks, who invaded Cyprus last July, have also constructed a wall of barbed wire and laid mines south of the Greek Cypriot area of Famagusta on the east coast, which they captured in August, the sources said.
American soldiers in central Germany have been warned about a dangerous mixture of heroin that may have been responsible for weekend deaths of two teenage GIs, the Army said. Official determination of the cause of death awaits autopsies. But Medical Corps sources speculated that the two men might have died after using heroin laced with strychnine. a combination known to GIs as “bad skag.”
Expressing fears that the United States and the Soviet Union are seeking to divide the world between them, the French foreign minister, Jean Sauvagnargues, told the French National Assembly’s foreign affairs committee that the convergence of the two superpowers “can naturally only tempt them to form a condominium by seeking to strengthen their control over the respective camps. That is a risk we must watch carefully and guard against.”
The public prosecutor in the Bordeaux wine fraud trial asked for the maximum sentence-one year in prison and a $5,400 fine-for wine broker Pierre Bert, the only one of 18 defendants to plead guilty. A conditional prison sentence and fine were asked for Lionel and Yvan Cruse, accused in the case which involved selling cheap doctored wine under false labels as expensive Bordeaux. The defense has not yet completed its summing up.
U.S. Ambassador to Portugal Stuart Nash Scott was abruptly removed, apparently because U.S. Secretary of State Henry A Kissinger distrusted the ambassador’s assessment of the crisis in Portugal, sources close to the U.S. Embassy in Lisbon reported. Frank C. Carlucci, a much decorated career diplomat with years of service in Africa and Brazil and now an undersecretary of health, education and welfare, will be named to the post, White House sources reported.
Italian Premier-designate Aldo Moro said he would meet with President Giovanni Leone today amid signs his efforts so far to end the country’s 5-week-old government crisis have failed. Political sources said Moro would tell the president that the only way to end the stalemate is to form a minority Christian Democrat cabinet and hope for guaranteed parliamentary support from at least two of the remaining three center-left parties.
Secretary of State Kissinger conferred with President Anwar Sadat of Egypt in Cairo and King Faisal of Saudi Arabia in Riyadh. Their strong endorsement of his step-by-step negotiating approach eased American concern about the impact of the recent Arab summit meeting on hopes for peace.
Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko of the Soviet Union called openly for Palestinian statehood as part of a Middle East settlement. In making the official address on the eve of the anniversary of the 1917 Revolution, he predicted failure of the blockade of Cuba, “just as the imperialist policy of non-recognition” of East Germany has failed. He disclosed that the Soviet Union had harvested its biggest cotton crop and second biggest grain crop.
Switzerland will join the new International Energy Agency being set up by 11 other major oil consuming nations but will follow the lead of Sweden and Austria in seeking a special neutrality clause, Swiss President Ernst Brugger announced. He said the move was aimed at maintaining Swiss economic independence “without which we cannot remain neutral.” He said the energy agreement should provide conditions for an enlarged dialogue with oil producing countries.
A Jordanian airline was hijacked today by one of its security guards and a passenger, who forced the plane to fly to Libya. The Caravelle jet was allowed to fly back to Amman, the Jordanian capital, with its crew of six, three security guards and seven passengers after the two hijackers had surrendered to Libyan authorities at the Benghazi airport. The identity and motives of the hijackers were unknown. After taking control of the aircraft this morning during a flight from Amman to Aqaba, Jordanian’s southern port, the hijackers tried to obtain permission to land in Lebanon and then in Cyprus. They were turned away and the plane then flew on to Libya.
Saudi Arabia’s King Faisal pledged again tonight that Saudi Arabia would try to keep oil prices at the current level and if possible reduce them, at least symbolically. The King’s assurances were made to Secretary of State Kissinger at a 90‐minute meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where Mr. Kissinger stopped on the way from Cairo to Amman. The, assurances were made public by the Saudi Foreign Minister, Omar Saqqaf, who said: “I repeat that the policy of my King and my Government is still the same as it was, namely to keep the prices as they are and to try to reach a reduction, albeit a symbolic reduction, or if we can, a greater reduction. And we would be doing this because of our awareness of the welfare of humanity at large.”
The South Vietnamese Government of President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu ordered new crackdowns today on opposition groups. He restricted the distribution of printed materials and issued a reminder that all meetings and demonstrations judged harmful to public order and security were prohibited. Saigon military authorities warned the population against keeping publications they said were being circulated illegally. Opposition movements have circulated leaflets, documents and bulletins criticizing government policy and alleging widespread corruption in the administration. Under the controversial press law, all publications must be cleared with the Ministry of Information. Also, the Rev. Trần Hữu Thành, leader of an anticorruption movement, announced that he would begin a series of prayer meetings across the nation Sunday. And Premier Trần Thiện Khiêm, said in a letter to the speaker of the House of Deputies that he was ordering an investigation into the beating of two Deputies during a demonstration last week.
The Parliament of Singapore unanimously re-elected Benjamin Sheares to a second term as president, a largely ceremonial job, with 59 of the 65 members present and all 59 voting in his favor.
More than 2,000 Korean Roman Catholics attended a defiant mass today demanding abrogation of the nation’s restrictive Constitution, while anti-Government protests continued to mount as the scheduled visit by President Ford neared.
Argentina’s President Isabel Perón unexpectedly issued an emergency decree of a “state of siege” in the South American nation in an effort to deal with political violence that had claimed 136 lives during her first 129 days in office. The decree banned all public meetings and allowed any suspected terrorists to be arrested without a court order and held indefinitely without being brought to trial.
At least 80 people died in a collision between two passenger trains 43 miles (69 km) west of Cotonou, Dahomey.
South Africans anticipated major shifts in government policies following Prime Minister John Vorster’s appeal for the world to give him six months to change the republic’s international standing. Vorster made the call in a speech thanking Britain, France and the United States for last week’s use of their Security Council vetoes to keep South Africa in the United Nations.
The Soviet Union’s lunar probe Luna 23 landed on the Moon in the Mare Crisium for the purpose of gathering and returning lunar soil to the Earth. The probe’s drill was damaged when Luna 23 tipped over after landing on “unfavorable” terrain.
Democratic leaders took their congressional victory, raising their majority to two-thirds in the House of Representatives and three-fifths in the Senate, as a mandate to construct their own program on the economy and other pressing issues. Democrats won 27 governorships against six for the Republicans and an independent in Maine; in Alaska the outcome was undecided. In the Senate, Democrats captured Republican-held seats in Colorado, Florida, Kentucky and Vermont. Only in Nevada did the Republicans capture a seat held by a Democratic Senator. The race in North Dakota was too close to call.
Voters switched in about the same proportion to Democratic candidates without distinction of region, ethnic group, or economic classification, according to analyses and major polls of Tuesday’s voting. One survey showed about 8 percent in each category who voted for Republican congressional candidates two years ago switching to Democrats.
White House aides said that President Ford intended to adhere to his conservative economic program, which had been drawn up in anticipation of the Democrats’ sweeping congressional gains. A clash with congressional leaders who say that they have a mandate for stronger measures appears to be on the way.
Former President Richard M. Nixon’s condition showed some improvement, but he has developed a patch of pneumonia in one lung, his doctors say.
U.S. Treasury Secretary William E. Simon conceded in a press conference that the United States economy was in a recession as stock prices continued to fall. William E. Simon told a group of economists meeting here that “in my judgment, the current economic malaise will eventually be recorded as a recession.” Mr. Simon and other Administration spokesmen have until now refused to characterize the current economic downturn as a recession. Mr. Simon also said that despite the huge Democratic victory in yesterday’s elections, the Administration will not back down from the econmic proposals it submitted to Congress four weeks ago. “We are not retreating from our positions,” he said.
A federal task force believes that the national coal strike expected to start Saturday will cause immediate production losses and labor layoffs. If it runs six weeks, the damage is expected to be greater than in the six-week 1971 stoppage. Officials are publicizing these points to dispel any ideas that government can produce a better solution than collective bargaining or do much to assuage the effects of a strike.
Confirmation of Andrew Gibson as Federal Energy Administrator appears to face problems because of a $1 million separation agreement with a former employer. When he resigned in May after 16 months as president of Interstate Oil Transport Company of Philadelphia, he won a contract for $100,000 a year for 10 years — an unusual sum, particularly for short tenure.
The Justice Department filed a pre-trial brief in its six-year-old antitrust action against International Business Machines Corporation. In its strongest plea yet it argued that anything less than breaking up the corporation would fail to end its ability to manipulate prices.
The Administration’s chief economic spokesman, Treasury Secretary William Simon, conceded for the first time that the United States is in a recession. He and other Administration spokesmen have until now refused to characterize the downturn as a recession. Speaking to a group of economists in Chicago, Simon said that despite the Democratic victory in elections, the Administration will not back down from the economic proposals it submitted to Congress four weeks ago. “We are not retreating,” he said.
Two former National Guardsmen now on trial on charges stemming from the 1970 Kent State shootings told FBI agents they shot men advancing on them, according to statements read in a Cleveland court. In his statement, James E. Pierce, 30, said he feared he “would not get out alive.” Lawrence A. Shafer, 28, said, “The mood of the mob was hostile and I felt I was in danger.” Pierce and Shafer are among eight former guardsmen charged in the shootings.
An attorney representing Ronald O’Bryan of Pasadena, Tex., charged in the Halloween poison murder of his son, said he would ask for an immediate examining trial to see the prosecution’s evidence. The lawyer, Richard E. Harrison, spent three hours with O’Bryan in jail where he is being held under $100,000 bond. Harrison said he was representing O’Bryan at the request of O’Bryan’s uncle, a longtime client.
United Rubber Workers kept the Uniroyal plant in Painesville, Ohio, closed for a second day in a dispute over exposure to hazardous vinyl chloride gas. A spokesman for about 300 union members said they were demanding a pay increase of 75 cents an hour for employees who had to work closely with the gas, which has been linked to a rare but fatal liver cancer called angiosarcoma.
Orchestra conductor Lyle C. (Skitch) Henderson failed to convince a federal judge that his income tax indictments on fraudulent deductions for a donated music collection was “discriminatory” because former President Richard M. Nixon was not indicted similarly for a donation of papers. Four counts were thrown out, however, leaving Henderson, 56, facing trial in New York on two counts each of attempted tax evasion and filing false statements on returns. Henderson valued his gift of 676 music scores to the University of Wisconsin at $350,000.
National Institutes of Health medical researchers under leadership of Dr. Roscoe O. Brady reported progress in treating a group of hereditary diseases caused by missing body enzymes. Tests indicated that replacing a missing enzyme in victims of Gaucher’s disease reverses the biochemical cause of the disease. Although the disease is a rare hereditary affliction, the research results point to future treatment of dozens of other hereditary diseases for which doctors have little effective treatment.
Three men locked a briefcase bomb on the wrist of bank manager Margaret Curran, pinned a microphone to her coat to monitor her speech and sent her off alone to her bank in Quincy, Massachusetts, for ransom of the three hostages they were holding in her home. But on the way Mrs. Curran silently flipped a business card from her car window to an alert policeman, and officers met her at the Hancock Bank & Trust, and carefully cut the briefcase loose. In one sense, nothing happened. There was no loot for the thieves, who escaped, and so no arrests for the police. There was no harm to the hostages and, as authorities discovered, no bomb in the briefcase and nothing attached to the mike.
New regulations for the use of offroad vehicles in San Bernardino National Forest are being planned because of “significant” damage to the desert side of the forest by motorcycles, jeeps and dune buggies, the U.S. Forest Service said in San Bernardino. Gene Murphy, spokesman for the forest service, said the public is being asked for suggestions and comments on the situation before a final plan is drawn up setting aside certain areas where such vehicles can be operated.
The Los Angeles Dodgers’ Mike Marshall becomes the first relief pitcher to win the Cy Young Award. Ironman Marshall set Major League records with 106 appearances and 208 innings in relief.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 669.12 (-5.63, -0.83%).
Born:
Frank Vandenbroucke, Belgian road racing cyclist, in Mouscron, Belgium (d. 2009).
Susan Calman, Scottish comedian, television presenter and writer, in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom.
History Diaries 