One-hundred-and-twenty-six more Polish tourists on a cruise to West Germany have abandoned a ferryboat with the apparent intention of seeking political asylum, the West German border police said. The episode brings to 428 the number of Polish travelers who have jumped ship in West German ports in the last two weeks seeking to emigrate to the West. A police spokesman said that the Poles had come ashore from the 7,500- ton ferry Rogalin during a 14-hour stopover Friday in Travemunde, a small port near the border with East Germany, and that 126 passengers failed to return to the ship and were expected to seek asylum. Increase in Asylum-Seekers The Rogalin plies a route twice a week between Szczecin, Poland, and Travem”unde. Though it is not unusual for small numbers of Poles to desert Polish cruise ships and ferryboats when they put into north German ports on sightseeing and shopping trips, the number has grown sharply in the last two weeks.
Britain’s National Coal Board offered a new bonus equivalent to $220 in an effort to tempt more strikers to return to work. But Arthur Scargill, president of the National Union of Mineworkers, called this a bribe and said that only 48,000 of Britain’s 189,000 miners are defying the eight-month walkout, as opposed to 65,000 claimed by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government. The strike, over government attempts to close unprofitable mines, leaving 20,000 men jobless, has resulted in violence against workers who refuse to stay out.
Storms sweeping Europe took 12 more lives today, bringing the total death toll to 14 as hurricane-force winds ripped roofs off houses, flooded roads and blocked highways with fallen trees. In southern and western England, villages and towns were flooded, and flooding was also reported in Wales, where a girl of 10 and a boy of 7 died when two cars collided on a flooded road. Three people died in West Germany, bringing the death toll there to five. The police in West Berlin, where winds exceeded 100 miles an hour, said a woman and her child were killed early today when a chimney crashed through the roof of their house. One person was killed in the Netherlands and in Belgium, the police said at least three people had died, including a bicyclist who was blown off his bicycle and into the path of a van. Damage in France was worst along the Normandy coast, where winds reached 100 miles per hour. Two French motorists were killed and an 8-month-old baby was crushed in his cradle when his parents’ apartment collapsed. More than 50 injuries were reported across the continent.
King Hussein’s call for a Middle East peace initiative based on United Nations Resolution 242 has little chance of winning approval from Yasser Arafat’s wing of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Palestinian sources and Western diplomats said here today. “We’re going to ignore it,” a Palestinian official said today. “We’ll refer it to the new executive committee and drown it in a sea of speechmaking and welter of detail.” Resolution 242, adopted after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, calls on Israel to withdraw from occupied territory in return for recognition of Israel’s right to exist.
Vice President Abdel Halim Khaddam of Syria conferred today with President Amin Gemayel and senior Muslim and Christian officials on plans to deploy the Lebanese Army in the Beirut area and along the coastal road all the way to the Israeli lines in southern Lebanon. The deployment of the Lebanese Army in strength in and around the capital was to have begun today but was delayed until midnight Sunday, an announcement said today. The state-controlled Beirut radio said the purpose of Mr. Khaddam’s talks with Mr. Gemayel, which were held at the President’s mountain resort at Bikfeiya, 23 miles northeast of here, was to insure the political support needed to carry out the deployment. In that respect, the most significant development was that Mr. Khaddam brought with him Walid Jumblat, the Druze leader, who has expressed reservatations about the plan.
Iranian Prime Minister Mir Hussein Moussavi said today that the International Committee of the Red Cross must change its policy before it will be allowed to operate further in Iran. In a broadcast on the Teheran radio he accused the Swiss-based Red Cross of spying in Iran. The Red Cross says it has suspended all activities in Iran. The radio also reported that Prime Minister Moussavi said Iran wanted the United Nations to prepare a detailed report on the condition of Iranians held in Iraq. On Friday the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva accused Iran of violating the Geneva Convention and of putting at risk the “physical and mental survival” of thousands of Iraqi prisoners of war.
Sri Lankan security forces chasing a flotilla of gunrunners killed four suspected Tamil guerrillas and arrested a fifth off the northern coast of Sri Lanka. One vessel, containing rifles, ammunition and hand grenades, was captured, defense officials said, and at least two others escaped. Security forces stepped up operations amid intelligence reports that Tamil militants plan another attack in the wake of an assault on a police station that killed 29 officers last week. The officials said at least four guerrillas were killed when a helicopter following the boats opened fire 10 miles north of the main eastern town of Batticaloa. The guerrillas abandoned the boats, swam to shore and disappeared into thick jungle, the sources said. The guerrillas want a separate Tamil state stretching from the northern tip of Sri Lanka to a point down the island’s east coast.
About 10,000 unmarried Afghan refugees have been expelled from Peshawar, capital of Pakistan’s North-West Frontier province, and 5,000 more will be expelled next month, an official said today. The official, the provincial commissioner for Afghan refugees, Rustam Shah Mohmand, said that the 80,000 Afghans who are being allowed to remain in the crowded city of 550,000 Pakistanis will receive special passes. The city has been a base for the Muslim resistance to the Afghan Government and the Soviet troops supporting it. Last August, after a series of bomb explosions aimed at Afghan targets in Peshawar, provincial authorities began to order unmarried Afghans and resistance groups out of the city.
U.S. and North Korean officers blamed each other for the exchange of gunfire at the Panmunjom truce area between North and South Korea Friday that left four soldiers dead and as many as six wounded. North Korea also traded angry words with South Korea, although the North made it plain that its true unhappiness was with the United States. The state- controlled radio in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, called the gun battle a “premeditated, deliberate criminal act” committed by American soldiers assigned to the United Nations Command, whose forces patrol the DMZ. In turn, a senior South Korean official accused the North of “an unpardonable, provocative barbarity.” The official, Lee Jin Hie, Minister of Culture and Information, said that North Korean soldiers were responsible for a “grave violation” of the armistice that was signed at Panmunjom in 1953, ending the Korean War.
France, in an attempt to halt a wave of violence in New Caledonia, announced today that it was speeding up the self-determination process for its South Pacific territory and said this could lead to its independence.
Separatist leaders in the French territory of New Caledonia in the South Pacific announced a truce after a week of political violence. Jean-Marie Tjibaou said that militant Melanesian Kanaks, who demand immediate independence from France, were stopping all protest acts against the new National Assembly elected last weekend to take over much of the running of the territory in preparation for a referendum on independence scheduled for 1989. The militant Kanaks boycotted the vote, and it was won by a party led by French settlers.
The directors of the largest Nicaraguan rebel force have expelled from their ranks a top leader who had openly discussed and was critical of the Central Intelligence Agency’s covert aid to the anti-Santinista group. Adolfo Calero Porotcarrero, head of the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, said he and five of the other six members of the National Directorate had unanimously voted to remove Edgar Chamorro from his position for not being “loyal.” Mr. Chamorro, reached by telephone at his home in Key Biscayne, Fla., said that he was being dismissed because of his comments to various newspapers. He said Mr. Calero had contacted him several days ago and complained specifically about an article in The New York Times in which Mr. Chamorro disclosed that he and other rebel leaders had been coached by the C.I.A. on how to win Congressional support.
Salvadoran President Jose Napoleon Duarte said he will not attend a planned second round of peace talks with leftist rebels but would be represented by a top-level commission at the meeting. San Salvador’s Roman Catholic Archbishop Arturo Rivera y Damas is to announce today the time and place for the second round of talks. The two sides first met last month in La Palma in an effort to find a peaceful solution to the fighting in El Salvador and agreed to establish a commission to work out details.
The U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia, is evacuating non-essential personnel because of threats by cocaine traffickers angered by a U.S.-Colombian crackdown on smuggling, an embassy spokesman said. More than 10 diplomats and their families have left and will not return for at least 40 days. About 100 U.S. employees are normally assigned to the embassy.
An election for a civilian government in Uruguay scheduled today is expected to end 11 years of repressive military rule. On the eve of the election, many Uruguayans seemed more relieved at the end of the dictatorship than they were concerned over which of the three main presidential candidates would win.
Chilean troops searching for anti-government activists rounded up hundreds of men in a Santiago shantytown and patrolled five others in a show of force three days before scheduled nationwide protests against the military regime. Witnesses said that about 70 people were arrested in Santa Julia, in eastern Santiago, in the third such sweep in the capital since President Augusto Pinochet declared a state of siege almost three weeks ago.
An appeal has been made for food and other aid for 1.5 million people in the rebellious Ethiopian province of Eritrea, where famine has been aggravated by civil war. An organization called the Eritrean Relief Association said in recent messages to governments, relief agencies and newspapers that the Ethiopian Government had hampered efforts to supply food to Eritrea even though famine is as severe in that northern province as it is in the rest of the country. The government has denied the charge.
Buffeted by rebellion and drained by famine and bankruptcy, Mozambique’s Marxist Government reigns in this capital and other cities but is usually unable to impose its authority in the rest of the country. A rebel army estimated to have as many troops as the Government’s Army has spread terror and insecurity from the northern border with Tanzania to the southern border with South Africa and from the Indian Ocean to the frontiers with Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe. After three years of drought and widespread starvation that killed 100,000 people last year, according to Amos Mahanjane, director of disaster relief, the country is entering a period in which international aid, no matter how large, will not prevent famine.
The rosy fiscal outlook of the states that Treasury studies say exists is being questioned by state officials. A battle is shaping up over the Reagan Administration’s contention that the states and local governments can absorb further reductions in Federal aid and as well as the loss of some tax benefits.
President Reagan places a phone call to Rosemary Lourcey, Editor of the Longhorn Scene Magazine, Fort Worth, Texas.
President Reagan receives a call from his Army Aide, Maj. Robert R. Ivany.
Suggested Senate rules changes are expected to be completed this week. The committee preparing the recommendations is headed by Senator Dan Quayle, Republican of Indiana. With the help of the Quayle recommendations, senators are to decide early next year whether it would be better to continue the trend toward equality among members or vest more power in the leadership.
A permanent artificial heart implant was being prepared by doctors at the Humana Heart Institute International in Louisville, Kentucky. Dr. William C. DeVries, the surgeon who implanted the first artificial heart in Dr. Barney B. Clark two years ago, planned to begin the operation at 8 A.M. Eastern standard time today. The recipient will be a 52-year-old Indiana man suffering from severe heart disease.
The judge in the espionage case against an FBI agent and two alleged KGB agents has issued an order restricting access to some of the documents to be used against the defendants. U.S. District Judge David Kenyon said that defense attorneys would be allowed to examine the papers, marked “confidential,” “secret” or “top secret,” only at FBI headquarters in Los Angeles and that they must not discuss the contents of the papers with their clients. Richard Miller, a 20-year FBI veteran, has been charged with conspiring to pass sensitive government documents to suspected KGB agents Nikolai and Svetlana Ogorodnikov.
Sixteen Gulf Coast cities, including seven Texas ports, have gone all out to impress Navy officials who are studying possible sites for a new base that could mean a bonanza in jobs and business. The winner would get an annual Navy payroll of $50 million to $60 million, a $100 million port construction project, $9 million annually in housing allowances for 3,500 sailors, and up to 3,500 civilian jobs, according to James J. Ridge, a retired Navy captain who is heading the team that will select the site. The choice is to be announced in April. The Navy plans to complete the new base in the early 1990’s as part of an effort to disperse its forces, now concentrated at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; San Diego, and Norfolk, Virginia. Navy officials say the aim is to make better use of facilities for repairing ships and to give the Navy the ability to respond faster to potential crises.
General Motors rejected a car recall requested by the Government. The Government said that in certain circumstances power assisted brakes in 1.1 million 1890 X-cars do not work unless intense foot pressure is applied. Models involved are the Chevrolet Citation, Pontiac Phoenix, Buick Skylark and Oldsmobile Omega. Lawyers and spokesmen for General Motors have repeatedly denied that the brakes were defective.
What federal aviation officials now call “the most inspected airline in the nation” resumes limited service today, two weeks after it was grounded for safety violations. Final pilot and maintenance checks were being completed in Naples, Florida, so that Provincetown-Boston Airlines could go back to work with 26 small planes, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jack Barker said. The rest of PBA’s 110-plane fleet will remain grounded until they are given final approval. PBA, the nation’s largest regional airline, was ordered to shut down November 10 after a two-month FAA investigation into allegations of shoddy maintenance, inadequate pilot training and falsified inspection records.
An engine on an American West airliner carrying 115 persons malfunctioned after takeoff, forcing the Boeing 737 to return to Eppley Airfield in Omaha, where it landed safely. No injuries were reported. “The engine had quite a flame coming out of it and was trailing smoke,” said Air Force Master Sgt. Thomas Koenig, who observed the aircraft from his yard. The flight originated in Des Moines and was en route to Ontario, California, with stops in Omaha and Phoenix. The Federal Aviation Administration said the jet will be inspected today.
The nation’s future power needs would be best met through smaller electrical plants but the industry is largely ignoring the advice and planning to build more costly and environmentally risky coal and nuclear plants, a study said. “Soaring costs, high interest rates and environmental damage caused by large power plants have wreaked havoc on the once-booming electric industry,” the report by the Worldwatch Institute said.
Leaders of the nation’s cities, worried about the federal deficit and tight local budgets, gathered in Indianapolis for a conference focusing on such problems as housing the homeless and attacking chronic unemployment. Those attending the conference of the National League of Cities were told by Alan Beals, the league’s executive director, that “the spirit of enterprise, hard work and dedication among city officials has kept cities on the right track this year despite an economic recovery that has left many cities behind.”
The demolition of buildings on the site of the 1984 World Fair in New Orleans has been delayed by a Federal bankruptcy judge who wants to find out if the structures could be used to raise money to pay off fair contractors. The Louisiana World Exposition, which closed November 11, is unable to pay more than $100 million in debts. Judge T. H. Kingsmill Jr. ruled that starting Monday the fair must give contractors 48 hours notice of buildings to be torn down.
At least 300 unexploded balloon-borne bombs launched by the Japanese during World War II might still be scattered across the United States and Canada, the author of a new book said in an interview with Associated Press. Bert Webber, who wrote “The Silent Siege, Japanese Attacks Against North America in World War II,” said that about 6,000 balloons carrying 30,000 bombs were sent across the Pacific in hopes of starting forest fires and creating panic.
Hearing officer Joan Katz in Anchorage, Alaska, has rejected a “comparable worth” claim by 75 nurses whose wages are about $3,000 a year less than those of male physicians’ assistants. Katz said the nurses failed to prove the jobs were similar enough. Both state jobs have comparable educational requirements, Katz noted, but the physicians’ assistants work more independently from doctors, are qualified to diagnose more ailments and prescribe more drugs than the nurses.
Women face job discrimination so deep and pervasive that despite substantial of progress in the workplace it will be years before they begin to approach parity with male workers, authorities in the field say. They agreed that one of the factors that have limited women’s progress is that most working women are in low-paying jobs, generally in low-paying industries.
Examination of secret records in Mississippi kept by the state’s defunct Sovereignty Commission, which defended segregation, is being sought by the American Civil Liberties Union. The records were sealed in 1977 until the year 2027. A federal judge ordered them opened last month for inspection by the civil rights organization, which is a plaintiff in a seven-year-old lawsuit. The plaintiffs contend that the state commission used its authority to illegally spy on Mississippians.
The South Tucson, Arizona, City Council has approved a $2.1-million bond issue to pay the settlement of a suit by a former policeman who was partially paralyzed in an accidental shooting. The ex-officer, Roy Garcia, was injured in a 1978 shooting by another police officer that left Garcia confined to a wheelchair. South Tucson officials, who had said the judgment could force the city into bankruptcy, agreed to pay Garcia about $2.6 million in cash and property by February, 1985.
MLB pitcher Roger Clemens (22) weds Debra Lynn Godfrey.
Born:
David Booth, NHL left wing (Florida Panthers, Vancouver Canucks, Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings), in Detroit, Michigan.
Joel Guzmán, Dominican third baseman, first baseman, and shortstop (Los Angeles Dodgers, Tampa Bay Devil Rays), in Quisqueya, Dominican Republic.
Brandon Bair, NFL defensive end (Philadelphia Eagles), in Rexburg, Idaho.
Died:
Godfrey Ridout, 66, Canadian composer.
History Diaries 