Moscow has proposed to Washington that Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko set an early date for a meeting to discuss arms control and other issues, Reagan Administration officials said. But they stressed that the date, place and agenda had to be worked out. A Soviet message to the United States could lead to a new meeting between Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko and Secretary of State George P. Shultz aimed at reviving nuclear arms negotiations, Reagan Administration officials said. “We like the tone of their public statements,” said one official, who declined to be identified. Communications are continuing through diplomatic channels, but “we’re not there yet,” he said. The likelihood, one official said, is that Mr. Shultz will go to Moscow in January or February if the Soviet side agrees that arms-control issues of concern to both sides can be raised. Message Received Saturday According to Administration officials, the Soviet message was received Saturday, a day after Konstantin U. Chernenko, the Soviet leader, had publicly called for a return to the era of detente between the two countries.
Jeane J. Kirkpatrick will leave the Reagan Administration. Mrs. Kirkpatrick, the United States representative at the United Nations, said she would “return to private life” next month. The statement, which Mrs. Kikrpatrick said she hoped people would accept as “the simple truth,” seemed to dampen speculation that she was being considered for another Administration post, such as President Reagan’s national security adviser, a job held by Robert C. McFarlane. A White House spokesman, Marlin Fitzwater, said of Mrs. Kirkpatrick’s statement, “As far as I know she has not discussed this with the President.” President’s Confidence Noted Mr. Fitzwater, who spoke in Santa Barbara, Calif., where the President is vacationing, added: “He has the greatest confidence in her and values her services very much. Certainly the President would like to see her stay on, as he has communicated to all members of the Cabinet.”
Israel and China have a secret military relationship, and the two countries recently signed deals worth more than $3 billion, the authoritative Jane’s Defense Weekly reported. The first suggestion of arms business between the two countries came earlier this year during a parade in Peking when diplomats spotted Israelimade cannons mounted on Chinese tanks, Jane’s said. “Several Israeli advisers are attached to Chinese army and air force units, helping them with the absorption of equipment supplied by Israel,” the British publication added.
Konstantin U. Chernenko’s portrait and pronouncements are a fixture on Soviet billboards, in the speeches of his colleagues and in the press nine months after he became the Soviet leader. However, the accolades and demonstrations of support barely conceal a widespread sense of a leadership in transition, of a Stalin-era generation nearing the end of its hold on power.
In a mass defection by Poles, 192 tourists were reported to have abandoned a Polish liner in Hamburg with the intention of seeking political asylum in West Germany.
West Germany’s Foreign Minister, Hans- Dietrich Genscher, early this morning abruptly canceled a three-day visit to Poland that officials had hoped would give new impetus to the flagging dialogue with Eastern Europe. The decision came just hours before Mr. Genscher was to fly to Warsaw, and followed an incident in the northern port of Hamburg, where 192 Polish tourists abandoned a cruise liner Monday night with the apparent intention of seeking political asylum in West Germany. The spectacular episode in Hamburg embarrassed both Warsaw and Bonn, but a senior Foreign Ministry official insisted it had not contributed to Mr. Genscher’s decision to put off the visit. The official said Mr. Genscher had informed the West Germany Ambassador in Warsaw that the trip was being postponed because of Polish restrictions that might have further strained relations between the two capitals.
The Reagan Administration appears to have blocked an attempt by Libya to acquire nuclear expertise from Belgium and other West European countries, according to diplomats and officials involved in the negotiations. Under United States pressure, these informants said, Belgium has agreed privately not to accept a $1 billion Libyan contract under which it was asked to help the Soviet Union with the construction of two nuclear-power reactors in Libya. Other West European countries with the necessary expertise have also said informally that they would not take over the contract Belgium has turned down, these sources said. Although Libya says it wants these reactors for peaceful purposes, the Reagan Administration strongly opposed any Western aid for the project, diplomats said. This is partly because of its general hostility towards the Libyan Government of Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi, which it accuses of fostering terrorism and subversion, and also because it fears Libya might use the reactors to develop a nuclear weapon, these sources said.
French Foreign Minister Claude Cheysson said today that France and the United States differed profoundly over how to deal with Libya. He said it was wise to seek normal relations with Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi’s Government because the logic of the American alternative could lead to military action against Libya that “no one would recommend.” At a news conference at the residence of the French ambassador, Mr. Cheysson said that overall French- American relations “were extremely good and extremely positive.”
Libya’s official Jana news agency reported that Colonel Muammar Qaddafi met in Tripoli with Abu Nidal, leader of a Palestine Liberation Organization faction who was reported to have died of a heart attack. A British television network reported on November 6 that Abu Nidal had died in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. Sources in Amman, Jordan, who are close to his family confirmed the death the next day, but his office in Damascus said he was still alive.
Ethiopian officials and relief agency officials denied reports that guerrillas have seized a major famine relief center. “Korem is not occupied,” Tafari Wassen, head of information for Ethiopia’s Relief and Rehabilitation Commission said. A worker from a Western, church-related relief organization said he saw no sign of rebel activity when he flew over Korem and landed at the airstrip at nearby Alamata. About 40,000 refugees have gathered at Korem for emergency rations. Mr. Tafari declined to give details of what had been taking place in Korem, which is in the Tigre region about 225 miles north of Addis Ababa. On Monday, sources close to the relief effort said rebels of the Tigre People’s Liberation Front had taken control of the area on Sunday, cutting off the road south as well as the airport at nearby Alamata. Today, several Western diplomats and relief officials said privately that information they had received supported those reports. “It appears the rebels have made a show of strength,” a diplomat said. “They don’t like to feel forgotten.”
Separatist Tamil guerrillas killed at least 25 policemen and wounded 10 others by driving a truck loaded with explosives into a police station, the Sri Lankan Government said today. National Security Minister Lalith Athulathmudali said 25 bodies had been removed from the ruins of the police station about 10 miles from the northern city of Jaffna. He said the guerrillas, fighting for a separate state for Sri Lanka’s minority Tamils, appeared to have carried out a suicide raid.
After a three-day artillery bombardment, Vietnamese forces seized most of a major Cambodian rebel camp near the Thai border today, senior Thai military officers said. The officers, as well as Cambodian rebel officials, also said the Vietnamese appeared poised to strike at other guerrilla strongholds on the Thai-Cambodian border. They said the early dry-season offensive had already seriously wounded dozens of Cambodians and sent more than 20,000 civilians fleeing the Nong Chan camp. The Thai Army secretariat’s office Bangkok said Thai forces had been placed on full alert near border areas and were ready to repel any Vietnamese soldiers who might intrude into Thailand. The reported seizure of the Nong Chan camp was confirmed by the army secretariat’s office, but no confirmation was available from other sources. Initial reports of major military confrontations in the border area between the Vietnamese and the Cambodian rebels at times have proved unreliable or exaggerated.
Mexican troops sealed off devastated areas near here today and survivors waited at crowded relief centers for word of relatives missing in the liquefied gas explosions that killed more than 300. Eduardo Garduno, spokesman for the attorney general of Mexico State, said, “As of now, the official figure of confirmed dead is 306.” The death toll was initially put at more than 260. Red Cross and police officials said at least 500 people had been seriously injured by the blast, which turned the working-class district of Tlalnepantla into an inferno.
U.S. and Nicaraguan diplomats completed two days of secret talks in Manzanillo, Mexico, their eighth session on Central American conflicts. Neither side released any details of the talks, but in Managua, Nicaragua, a member of the Sandinista junta said the negotiations were not productive. Rafael Cordova Rivas said: “The United States does not want to talk. They do not want to make deals. What they want is to bend us to their will.” There was no comment from the U.S. side.
CIA Director William J. Casey canceled the suspension of one of six mid-level CIA employees being punished over a manual for Nicaraguan rebels, U.S. intelligence officials told the Associated Press. The officials said Casey acted on behalf of the chief of a CIA task force that oversees covert operations against Nicaragua’s leftist government because the man had received an agency commendation in September, 1983. The CIA manual advised rebels on how to “neutralize” Nicaraguan officials.
The United States plans to deny a request from Honduras for F-5 fighter planes, a State Department spokesman said today. The spokeman, John Hughes, said “we are concerned about the threat the arms buildup in Nicaragua poses to the entire region” but “I can state that at present we have no plans for providing F-5’s to Honduras.”
Bolivian President Hernan Siles Zuazo announced that he wants presidential elections in May, a year ahead of schedule, a concession to an opposition-dominated Congress that has been demanding his resignation. However, the powerful Workers Central labor coalition, which dislikes the mostly right-wing opposition even more than it does Siles, called early elections unconstitutional and said Siles should finish his term. The labor coalition is striking for wage increases to match Bolivia’s 1,500% annual inflation.
Economic growth slumped to a 1.9 percent annual rate in the July-September quarter, the Commerce Department reported. It was the poorest performance since the recovery began in late 1982. The revised calculation of the gross national product confirmed the view of a growing number of analysts that the country might already be in a “growth recession,” which is characterized by growth so slight that the economy cannot absorb increases in the labor force and unemployment.
The President and First Lady enjoy a morning horseback ride around the ranch.
President Reagan continues work on the ranch irrigation project.
“A new tax system” has been drafted by the Treasury Department, according to a senior department official. Some lobbyists who watch tax matters closely said they understood the Treasury would recommend reducing or eliminating the current difference between tax rates on capital gains and those on other income and would propose instead that capital gains taxes be adjusted to take account of inflation. Under the plan, the 16 present tax brackets, ranging from 11 percent to 50 percent, would be eliminated and would be replaced by a single rate or perhaps one or two step-ups.
The Reagan Administration intends to propose cutbacks in the retirement program for federal employees that officials said would produce billions of dollars in long-term savings. Under an Administration plan to reduce federal budget deficits, as outlined by officials in the Office of Personnel Management, Government workers would contribute more to the cost of their pensions and would be penalized for retiring early. In addition, the annual cost-of- living adjustment in benefits would be reduced. Details of the proposals for the Civil Service Retirement System, which would need Congressional approval to become effective, came to light as officials said the economic slowdown would force further revision of projected deficits. The Administration’s aim is to reduce the deficit to $100 billion by the fiscal year 1988; officials have already projected a deficit in the range of $200 billion that year if there are no changes in federal spending and taxing patterns.
Three boys’ admission of lying caused the authorities to drop a widely publicized investigation of alleged child murders linked to a sex abuse ring in the small Minnesota town of Jordan, according to sources familiar with the case. Six persons, claiming their civil rights were violated when they were charged in a child sex abuse investigation, have sued Scott County, Minn., officials for more than $125 million. Meanwhile, state and federal officials refused to comment on reports that an investigation of child homicides related to the sex case was dropped because two boys admitted they made up the story of the killings. The suits were filed Monday in federal court in Minneapolis. The court actions were prompted in part by the cancellation, effective Tuesday, of Scott County’s liability coverage by its former insurance carrier.
For the first time since a 1973 court ruling halted the practice, a Nativity scene will be included in the Christmas Pageant of Peace, the federally sponsored annual holiday celebration near the White House, according to a spokesman for the National Park Service. The spokesman, Sandra Alley, said the move by the Park Service was in accord with a United States Supreme Court decision last March. The Court ruled that a Nativity scene was a cultural symbol, not a religious symbol, and therefore did not constitute a government endorsement of Christianity.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration today announced a new policy designed to speed commercial use of space. It described the move as the next major step in the American space program. The policy document sets forth a series of plans to expand private investment in space activities and to reduce the technical, financial and institutional risks of doing business in space.
A major study sponsored by private utilities said that reducing acid rain would clearly benefit at least one deadened lake in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York, although not enough to restore a flourishing fish population. The Electric Power Research Institute, which sponsored the detailed, seven-year study, said it could not tell whether the finding would apply to all Adirondack lakes — or all lakes in areas vulnerable to acid rain. Nevertheless, the report was hailed by environmentalists seeking new controls on emissions of sulfur dioxide, which form the basis for acid rain pollution.
Mexican-Americans are less likely to see a physician or a dentist than whites, blacks or other Latinos and are among those least likely to be hospitalized, but that does not mean they are healthier, government researchers said. The government’s first national report on Latino health indicators also said Cuban-Americans and Puerto Ricans had the highest rate of physician visits and were the Americans most likely to be hospitalized.
U.S. Chief Justice Warren E Burger refused to permit the scheduled execution of a Virginia man convicted of raping and murdering a 71-year-old woman in May, 1978. Burger let stand a lower court order postponing Wednesday’s execution of Morris Odell Mason. A federal appeals court had postponed Mason’s execution to give him time to seek formal review of his case by the full Supreme Court.
Outgoing Education Secretary Terrel H. Bell criticized as “unprecedented” the screening of his possible successors by conservative groups. “That’s the function of the United States Senate — I guess it is, anyway,” Bell said from his home in Salt Lake City. Bell announced November 8 that he was resigning effective December 31. Last week, two leading candidates for the job, William J. Bennett, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and Boston University President John Silber met with a private gathering of conservative lobbyists that the White House personnel office reportedly authorized.
Former Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon refused to testify about certain details surrounding the September, 1982, massacres of Palestinian civilians in Beirut until he was ordered in private to do so by the federal court in Manhattan in his $50-million libel suit against Time Inc. Sharon, now his country’s trade and commerce minister, testified that Lebanese Phalangist forces who massacred hundreds of civilians in 1982 had been under orders to seek out only PLO terrorists.
Executive Director Benjamin L. Hooks of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said he was “appalled” at a statement by Clarence M. Pendleton Jr., head of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, that black leaders led black Americans into a “political Jonestown” in the last election. In a speech last week, Pendleton, who is black, accused black leaders of committing political suicide as President Reagan won reelection with little black support.
A halfway house for patients referred by the Veterans Administration caught fire today, killing five men, officials said. The other 31 residents of the two- story Messner’s Home escaped without injury after the smoky blaze began at 3:24 AM, the officials said. Firefighters told Ralph Messner, the owner of the home, to which Veterans Administration social workers refer some patients, that the fire started in a couch in a three-bedroom apartment on the second floor. Damage to the rest of the building was slight. The victims, who ranged in age from 64 to 70, had lived in the apartment for periods ranging from six days to 14 years.
Declaring “I love Los Angeles,” Tom Bradley said Monday that he would seek a fourth term as mayor of the nation’s second-largest city. Mr. Bradley, a former police officer whose last campaign was his unsuccessful bid for Governor in 1982, announced his re-election plans at a fund-raising dinner. The election is next April. If he won and served out his term, Mr. Bradley, who will be 67 years old next month, would be the first mayor to have governed Los Angeles for 16 years. Mr. Bradley, a Democrat, became Los Angeles’s first black mayor by unseating Sam Yorty, a three-term incumbent, in 1973.
Mayor W. Wilson Goode said today that he had asked the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority to build a temporary bridge in 10 days to restore some train service to the city’s new commuter tunnel. Most traffic to the $330 million tunnel, which opened November 10, has been halted since last weekend when a railroad bridge in North Philadelphia was closed because it was unsafe. Mr. Goode said a temporary bridge could carry two of the old bridge’s four tracks so that some trains could use the new Market East Station. The new tunnel links the former Reading and Pennsylvania rail lines into a unified system. The bridge closing makes the tunnel virtually useless.
A black family forced out of an all-white neighborhood by a group that threw bricks through the windows of their apartment has filed a $1 million civil rights suit charging that the police in Chicago and neighboring Cicero failed to come to their aid. The suit was filed Monday in Federal District Court. The home of Spencer Goffer, a 31-year-old automobile mechanic, Patricia Franklin, 28, and their 8-year-old son, Michael, was attacked on November 7, shortly after they moved into the white neighborhood. The four-square-block area borders Cicero, and is patrolled by the police from Chicago, Cicero and Oak Park, another suburb. The suit alleged that the Cicero and Chicago police did not adequately patrol the area and disregarded calls for help.
A California man who picked up a hitchhiker in 1977 kept her in a box, blindfolded and bound with leather restraints, for seven years before letting her out so she could get a job, the police said today. Cameron Hooker, a 31-year-old mill worker, was held in the Tehama County jail under $500,000 bail on more than two dozen charges, including rape, kidnapping, sodomy, rape with a foreign object and oral copulation. Mr. Hooker pleaded not guilty today. A hearing was scheduled for December 5 in Red Bluff Justice Court. “It’s just too hard to believe,” said one neighbor who asked not to be identified. “I knew the girl and I knew Cameron and they were so normal.” Mr. Hooker, who lived with his two children in his mobile home, was estranged from his wife, the authorities said. Mr. Hooker was arrested Sunday after the woman, 27, went to the authorities, the police said.
About half the 3,309 fugitives captured in a sweep in eight East Coast states over 10 weeks may be back on the streets, according to Stanley E. Morris, the director of the United States Marshals Service.
The SETI Institute (Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence) is founded.
McDonald’s makes its 50 billionth hamburger.
Seattle Mariners first baseman Alvin Davis, who hit .284 with 27 home runs and 116 RBI, wins the American League Rookie of the Year Award. Teammate pitcher Mark Langston and Minnesota Twins outfielder Kirby Puckett are the runner-ups.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1195.12 (+9.83)
Born:
Jo-Jo Reyes, MLB pitcher (Atlanta Braves, Toronto Blue Jays, Baltimore Orioles, Los Angeles Angels, Miami Marlins), in West Covina, California.
Tashard Choice, NFL running back (Dallas Cowboys, Washington Redskins, Buffalo Bills, Indianapolis Colts), in Lovejoy, Georgia.
Cartier Martin, NBA small forward (Charlotte Bobcats, Golden State Warriors, Washingotn Wizards, Atlanta Hawks, Chicago Bulls, Detroit Red Wings), in Crockett, Texas.
Ferdinando Monfardini, Italian racing driver, in Isola della Scala, Italy.
Died:
Trygve Bratteli, 74, Norwegian Prime Minister (Labour: 1971-1972, 1973-1976).
History Diaries 