An accord on U.S.-Soviet talks in early January in Geneva on arms control and other issues is near, according to White House officials. They said an announcement of the scheduled meeting between Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko was expected in the next few days, after the last details are resolved. The idea for the Shultz-Gromyko meeting evolved from discussions held by the two sides in recent weeks, officials said. Konstantin U. Chernenko, the Soviet leader, proposed in a letter to President Reagan last Saturday that Mr. Shultz and Mr. Gromyko get together at an early date, officials said. The United States suggested a neutral site instead of Moscow, which had been initially thought of as the likely place for the first high-level Soviet- United States meeting since Mr. Reagan’s re-election. White House officials would not give a precise date but said the the meeting would be held in the first week or so of January. State Department officials said there had been intensive discussions with the Russians on the agenda for the talks. The United States wants to make sure that the Soviet side is willing to discuss all the outstanding arms-control questions, including ways of resuming the suspended negotiations on medium- range missiles and strategic arms. The Soviet Union has streesed its desire to open negotiations on banning the militarization of outer space.
Moscow’s allies in the Warsaw Pact have lived amid uncertainty over the Soviet leadership during the 15-month reign of Yuri V. Andropov and the nine-month-old reign of Konstantin U. Chernenko. East European officials speak openly of the current era as merely a transition. The 15-month reign of Yuri V. Andropov briefly excited hopes in independent-minded Hungary for economic liberalization in the Soviet bloc, and raised fears of the same thing among the hard-liners who rule Czechoslovakia. Mr. Andropov, a former ambassador to Hungary, was perceived here as sensitive to the need for updating a Soviet economic model, based on regional self-sufficiency, that many Eastern European economists regard as condemning their countries to stagnation and possibly unrest.
The nine months of incumbency of Mr. Andropov’s successor, the 73-year- old Konstantin U. Chernenko, have been characterized by a Moscow-directed attempt to tighten ideological discipline and economic ties within the Warsaw Pact. Its principal victim has been Erich Honecker, the East German leader, who appears to have badly misread the power relationships in Moscow as he embarked on a bold move to improve relations with West Germany.
Champion Anatoly Karpov and challenger Gary Kasparov played to a draw in the 26th game of the world chess championship in Moscow. The draw was their 17th straight. Some spectators were surprised that Kasparov offered a draw after just 23 moves, since he held a material advantage. Karpov, world champion since 1975, leads the match 4-0 and needs only two more victories to retain his title.
A group of 93 Polish tourists jumped ship during a shopping trip to a north German port last Friday, officials said today. The disclosure raised to 285 the number of Poles reported to have used Baltic Sea cruises to flee to the West in recent days. Harbor police officials in Travem “unde, a port near the border with East Germany, said the Poles failed to return to the 7,500-ton ferry Rogalin after it docked on a shopping and sightseeing cruise between Szczecin, Poland, and Copenhagen.
Francois Mitterrand’s political woes were intensified by a newly disclosed French intelligence report that agreed with estimates by the United States State Department and contradicted President Mitterrand’s assessments of Libyan troop strength in Chad. The dispute centers on a pullout of French forces from Chad while Libyan troops remained there in violation of an agreement. Prime Minister Laurent Fabius, pressed in Parliament to explain the pullout of French forces from Chad while Libyan troops remained, offered no direct response. But he said “that all necessary measures, taking all possibilities into consideration, will be taken” to obtain compliance with the French-Libyan agreement to withdraw from Chad. Taking political advantage of Mr. Mitterrand’s difficulties, the conservative and moderate opposition urged the Government to prepare a plan of action on Chad. Pierre Messmer, a former Prime Minister and now the Gaullist party’s defense spokesman, said Libya had to be warned that it faced “serious military consequences” if its troops remained in Chad.
A French parliamentary report published here today accused former President Valery Giscard d’Estaing of responsibility for approving a fraudulent project involving planes that could purportedly sniff out oil deposits beneath the ocean. The 644-page report was commissioned by Socialist and Communist members of the Parliament six months ago after revelations that from 1976 to 1979 a Government-owned oil company, Elf-Aquitaine, had paid $50 million for the development of the purported oil-sniffing technique. The report says that “without the agreement of the former President of the republic” the operation “could not have taken place.” The report also accuses former Prime Minister Raymond Barre of taking part in an attempted cover-up of the affair after the fraudulent nature of the project became known. The report has been viewed here as motivated by the governing Socialists’ desire to discredit Mr. Giscard and Mr. Barre, both leading opposition figures.
Israeli soldiers opened fire today on a crowd of stone-throwing Arab students who were demonstrating in support of the Palestinian guerrilla leader Yasser Arafat. One student was killed and six were wounded. An Israeli Army spokesman said the soldiers were trapped by the crowd and had to open fire on the demonstrators to extricate themselves. But the Arab students said the army opened fire to break up the rally backing the Palestine Liberation Organization. The town of Bir Zeit, 15 miles north of Jerusalem, was put under curfew this afternoon as hundreds of student demonstrators were holed up in the cafeteria on the old campus of Bir Zeit University and Israeli troops ringed the college. After several hours of tense negotiations between university representatives and Israeli officials, the students agreed to disperse and the army let them pass. The killing of a 23-year-old Bir Zeit University engineering student, Sharif Khalil Taibe, was the first death of a West Bank demonstrator since Jan. 28, when a 17-year-old Nablus youth was shot in a similar protest clash with Israeli troops.
Former President Jimmy Carter accused Israel of violating the 1978 Camp David accords with Egypt, which he helped negotiate. In an interview with the Cairo paper Al Ahram, Carter said Israel violated the accords when it invaded Lebanon in 1982 and when, the previous year, it destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor and annexed the Syrian Golan Heights. Carter also called for the indirect participation of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Mideast peace efforts.
[Ed: Jimmy Carter. Always Wrong. No Exceptions. What a buffoon.]
The Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s health is declining, former Iranian Prime Minister Shahpour Bakhtiar said, predicting that his death will spark chaos in Iran. Bakhtiar, in exile in France, said Khomeini, 82, is suffering from a heart condition and “could die any day.” He said that “after Khomeini, it will be chaos,” with rivalries within the clergy for control.
A Cambodian rebel leader said today that fighting was continuing for a major guerrilla base near the Thai border, and he denied that Vietnamese troops had overrun the camp. Thai military and guerrilla sources said Tuesday that the Nong Chan camp, home to some 21,000 Cambodian civilians and 4,000 guerrillas, had been captured by Vietnamese troops after three days of fighting. But Abdul Gaffar Peang Meth, of the Khmer People’s National Liberation Front, said at a news conference today that fighting was still raging and that at least 120 Vietnamese had been killed since Sunday. He said that although one section of the sprawling camp, only 2,000 yards from the Thai border, had been taken and razed by Vietnamese troops, others were holding out. Thai military sources at the border estimated guerrilla casualties at 22 killed and more than 40 wounded.
China denied a report in Jane’s Defense Weekly that it has agreed to buy $3 billion in arms from Israel and has accepted Israeli military advisers. “We have no relationship with Israel,” Defense Ministry spokesman Qi Shuxue said by telephone when asked about the report. Told that the British journal’s publisher insists that the report was from “well-informed sources” in Israel, Qi said, “They have their own motives.” Jane’s said the accord marks a “new phase… in the clandestine relationship” between the two nations.
The Communist Party today made its strongest appeal yet for rehabilitation of China’s intellectuals, persecuted during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution. “To absorb progressive intellectuals into the party is the essential condition for the party to further develop, consolidate and expand,” the official party newspaper People’s Daily said in a front-page commentary. The commentary followed a party directive Tuesday to admit more intellectuals, particularly middle-aged and younger people, into the party.
Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos fell ill last week and continues to receive special medical treatment, senior Government officials said today. The President, they say, now seems to be recovering. On the Government-controlled television newscasts this evening, a photograph of Mr. Marcos was aired, showing him seated, reading today’s copy of the largest-circulation pro-Government daily, The Bulletin. In copies of the picture later issued by the presidential palace, Mr. Marcos’s fingers appeared swollen.
Families routed by liquefied gas explosions near Mexico City began returning to parts of the devastated area today with the promise of new, free homes to replace those destroyed, an official said. The death toll was reported to have risen to 334. Earlier in the day, health crews began fumigating the Tlalnepantla neighborhood that was turned into an inferno by a series of predawn explosions Monday.
A Soviet-built helicopter flying in bad weather crashed in mountains in northern Nicaragua, killing two senior officers of the Sandinista army and eight other officers and noncommissioned personnel, the Nicaraguan Defense Ministry said. Among the dead were Deputy Commander Alvaro Hernandez of the army’s high command and Deputy Commander Cristobal Vanegas, military chief of Jinotega and Matagalpa provinces, the ministry said. The crash occurred in Jinotega province, where rebels opposed to the leftist government have been active.
The Soviet Union apparently shipped a number of MIG-21 jet fighters on a freighter bound for Nicaragua but probably unloaded them in Libya before crossing the Atlantic, Jane’s Defense Weekly said. Quoting U.S. sources, the authoritative London journal said the Soviet ship Bakuriani, after taking aboard the type of crates that carry MIG components at a Black Sea port in October, was later observed “unloading similar crates for Libya before proceeding to Nicaragua.” U.S. officials had warned that the vessel might have carried MIGS to Nicaragua, but none of the Soviet jets were reported unloaded there.
A national director of a leftist coalition was arrested today by the Chilean Government, representatives of human rights groups said. Fanny Pollarolo, a director of the Popular Democratic Movement and a member of the Communist Party, was the highest-ranking political leader to be arrested since a state of siege was declared November 6. Mario Araneda, the vice president of a Santiago community organization, was also detained.
Two men charged with kidnapping six tourists, including two Americans, two years ago asserted today that the six were still alive and would be handed over in return for properties confiscated by the state. Gilbert Ngwenya, 42 years old, and Austin Mpofu, 25, refused to plead to charges of kidnapping and terrorism on the opening day of their High Court trial in the capital of Harare. Pleas of not guilty were entered for them by the judge. “These people are in my hands,” Mr. Ngwenya said of the captives when asked to plead. The two admit they were part of a gang that seized the tourists, including two Australians and two Britons, in western Zimbabwe in July 1982. Statements submitted as evidence said they did it to try to force the return of confiscated farms belonging to the opposition Zimbabwe African People’s Union of Joshua Nkomo, and to force the release of two jailed Nkomo aides.
Walter E. Fauntroy, the District of Columbia’s delegate to Congress, and two other black leaders were arrested after staging a sit-in at the South African Embassy in Washington to urge the release of 13 black labor leaders being held in South Africa. Handcuffed and led from the embassy along with Fauntroy were Mary Frances Berry, a member of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, and Randall Robinson, director of TransAfrica, a lobbying group.
The Fed approved a half-point cut, to 8½ percent, in its basic charge on loans to financial institutions, effective at once. The cut in the discount rate confirmed a shift toward lower interest rates because of the abrupt slowdown in the economy. The step to ease credit was approved, 7 to 0, by the Federal Reserve Board. It was the first cut in the central bank’s key lending rate since the recovery began in December l982.
President Reagan receives a call from the U.S. Representative to the United Nations.
President Reagan works on chores around the ranch.
If efforts to revise the tax system of the Federal Government prove successful, they will almost certainly generate a profound upheaval in state and local tax systems, according to state finance officials and other specialists.
Plans to reduce spending on aid to college students and to cut Federal assistance for mass transit are being considered by Reagan Administration officials as part of an effort to cut the Federal budget deficit.
Federal investigators have found no evidence of a national conspiracy behind the bombing and burning of abortion clinics around the country, representatives of three Federal agencies said today. The officials said the Government did not view the attacks as “terrorist” incidents or as criminal violations of laws protecting civil rights, although they might violate other Federal criminal laws. As a result, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is not actively involved in investigating the attacks, said Lane Bonner, a bureau spokesman. The cases are being handled by the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which has primary responsibility over use of bombs and incendiary devices.
Chemical arms should be scrapped as soon as possible to reduce any risk that leaks or explosions might endanger the public health, according to a panel of scientific and technical experts. The panel estimated it would probably cost from $2 billion to $4 billion and take 10 to 20 years to destroy 90 percent of the Army’s vast, aging stock of chemical weapons.
Two commuter trains collided outside Philadelphia, injuring scores of passengers and adding one more embarrassment for officials of a rail system racked by deficits, widespread deterioration and disruptions of service. About 140 people were injured in the collision, suffering mostly cuts and bruises, and 70 were sent to neighboring hospitals. Even as the collision stalled traffic in Narberth on the Paoli line, one of the area’s major commuter routes, Mayor W. Wilson Goode and transportation officials were inspecting a weak bridge that has disrupted travel on nearly a third of the system. The bridge’s condition was disclosed Saturday, a week after Mr. Goode and other officials hailed the opening of the new $330 million Center City commuter tunnel.
Nancy Reagan suffers from anemia, she acknowledged through her secretary. Mrs. Reagan also acknowledged in an interview that President Reagan has been estranged from his adopted son, 38-year-old Michael Reagan, for three years.
The Central Intelligence Agency filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission, charging that ABC News “deliberately distorted” the news in reporting that the agency conspired to kill a U.S. citizen, Ronald Rewald, who is under indictment in Hawaii. The CIA complaint charged that the network violated the “fairness doctrine” and asked the FCC to conduct an inquiry. ABC had reported that a former prison guard — Scott Barnes — had charged in a sworn statement that the CIA had hired him and planned to kill Rewald while he was in prison. But ABC announced that Barnes was unable to substantiate his charge, and the network had no reason to doubt the CIA’s denial.
Rep. George Hansen (R-Idaho) lost his attempt to prevent state officials from awarding his 2nd Congressional District seat to Democrat Richard Stallings, who was declared the victor by 133 votes. The federal court ruling gave Stallings title to the congressional seat — won in a hotly contested election — and made him Idaho’s only Democratic congressman. But Hansen, who campaigned for reelection despite facing a prison sentence for filing false financial reports in Congress, planned to continue his battle to retain his seat by paying for recounts of scattered election precincts.
Six federal agencies signed memoranda of understanding agreeing to coordinate the cleanup of Chesapeake Bay, with the one in charge — the Environmental Protection Agency — calling the agreements the first step in a long journey. The agreements were signed by EPA administrator William D. Ruckelshaus and representatives of the five other agencies that will work with the EPA on the cleanup. They are the Army Corps of Engineers; the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; the Soil Conservation Service; the U.S. Geological Survey, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
A lawyer for Environmental Protection Agency chief William D. Ruckelshaus told a federal judge in San Francisco that Ruckelshaus might refuse to regulate dangerous airborne radiation rather than use emissions standards already proposed by the EPA. Justice Department lawyer Peter Steenlind Jr. argued that Ruckelshaus should not be held in contempt of court even though he has not followed either of the courses in a September 17 court order: set final emissions standards or declare that radiation emissions are not dangerous.
Regulations approved today as part of a campaign against drunken driving will soon ban happy hours and beer-drinking contests in Massachusetts bars. Governor Michael S. Dukakis signed the ban, which is to go into effect December 10. The measure also prohibits the sale of more than two drinks to one person at a time, eliminates the sale of extra-large drinks at the price of regular drinks, and bans the sale of reduced-price drinks to particular groups on promotional nights. The Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission’s rules allow bars to serve pitchers of beer or other drinks to two or more people and permit hotels to provide liquor services to guests.
[Ed: Without Government, Who Would Save Us from Happy Hour? Good grief.]
A San Diego judge today ordered a 13-year-old boy to remain in a foster home, refusing to let him live with either his father, a homosexual, or his mother, an evangelical Christian. Judge Judith McConnell of Superior Court said the boy, Brian Batey, would be in “grave danger” if left in the care of the mother, Betty Lou Batey, who once took the boy away from the father, Frank Batey. The judge said Mrs. Batey endangered the boy by allowing him to make major decisions on his own and by looking to him as “her protector.” But, she added, “Threats that Brian has made to run away if placed with his father must be taken seriously.”
A high school senior in Massachusetts who skipped school because she was harassed for refusing to stand for the national anthem returned to classes today, but she stayed in her seat when the anthem was played. The girl, Susan Shapiro, 17 years old, returned to Randolph High School after a six-day absence. The school superintendent, a representantive of the Justice Department and Susan’s mother met Tuesday to arrange for Susan’s safety. The family, which received threats after a newspaper report about Susan, was encouraged by more than 100 telephone calls after Susan’s experiences were reported on national television, Mrs. Shapiro said. Susan has repeatedly said, “The people make the country, not the flag.”
A scientific advisory group, rejecting ocean dumping or a huge nuclear explosion, said the Army should burn thousands of tons of obsolete, lethal chemical weapons, some of which are already leaking. Some of the deadly weapons have been around for 40 years and all are at least 16 years old, the National Research Council said in a 215-page report. The weapons are stored at Army depots in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Oregon, Utah and on the tiny Johnston Atoll, south of Hawaii.
The South and West experienced the largest population surges of the decade, mostly at the expense of the Middle West, the Census Bureau said in a report to be released today. The report said the migration from the Midwest to the South and West is a continuation of a trend that has been evident for the last several decades. Alaska had the largest percentage population gain — 19.2% — between 1980 and 1983, while California led the nation in numerical growth, gaining 1.5 million persons, according to a bureau survey of population trends.
The parents of Baby Fae, who captured world attention during the three weeks she survived with a walnut-sized baboon heart, have sold exclusive rights to their story to People magazine, the publication announced. “What they really wanted to do was tell their story once and for all the way they wanted to say it,” said Hal Wingo, People’s assistant managing editor, who would not disclose how much the magazine paid the California couple for their story: Wingo said the parents agreed to give a first- person account of their five-year relationship, their daughter’s birth in Barstow, her controversial transplant operation at the Loma Linda University Medical Center and her death November 15, after being assured that the magazine would protect their anonymity. The first of a two-part series on Baby Fae’s parents will appear Monday.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1201.52 (+6.4)
Born:
Jena Malone, American actress (“Bastard Out of Carolina”, “Hunger Games” series), in Sparks, Nevada.
Álvaro Bautista, Spanish motorcycle racer (125cc World Champion, 2006), in Talavera de la Reina, Spain.
Quintin Berry, MLB outfielder and pinch runner (World Series Champions-Red Sox, 2013; Detroit Tigers, Boston Red Sox, Baltimore Orioles, Chicago Cubs, Milwaukee Brewers), in San Diego, California.
Mike Sims-Walker, NFL wide receiver (Jacksonville Jaguars, St. Louis Rams), in Orlando, Florida.
Brandon Keith, NFL tackle (Arizona Cardinals), in Silsbee, Texas.
Josh Boone, NBA power forward and center (New Jersey Nets), in Mount Airy, Maryland.
[Idjits.]
History Diaries 