A report on purported violations of arms control agreements by Moscow that was scheduled to be made public on Saturday will not be released until next February, White House officials said. This means that the report, said to detail some 19 possible Soviet violations, will not be released before Secretary of State George P. Shultz meets with Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko of the Soviet Union in Geneva on January 7-8. But the White House officials, aware that they would be accused of trying to cover up the Soviet violations to improve the atmosphere for the Shultz- Gromyko meeting, denied strongly that they were delaying the report for such motives. They said that the study, requested by the Senate and House Armed Services Committees by December 1, was not complete.
Moscow’s military budget will rise next year by 12 percent, to $23 billion, a new high, to maintain a strategic balance with the West, the Soviet Union announced. The projected arms outlays were presented as part of the 1985 Government budget at a session of the Supreme Soviet, the nominal legislature, in the continued absence of Defense Minister Dmitri F. Ustinov. He is said to have suffered a stroke in October. Western diplomats said they considered the announcement as a signal that the Soviet Union will match the military buildup of the Reagan Administration, especially in view of the deployment of new American medium-range missiles in Europe a year ago.
Anatoly B. Shcharansky has completed his second three-year stretch in prison and has been returned to a labor camp, his family reported today. They said they received a telegram from Mr. Shcharansky on November 18 in which he said that he had “reached the old place” on November 13, that he was not feeling bad and that he would give details when they next met. The relatives said they assumed that “the old place” meant a labor camp in the Perm area where he previously spent time. His mother, Ida P. Milgrom, has asked permission to visit. Mr. Shcharansky was an activist for human rights and Jewish emigration until his arrest in March 1977. He was accused of espionage, purportedly for the United States, and sentenced to 3 years in prison followed by 10 years in a labor camp. In labor camp, Mr. Shcharansky was sentenced to a further three years in Chistopol Prison for “continuing to maintain his innocence.” The new prison term did not add time to his overall term. His relatives said his three-year prison term ended October 26. They said they were told on October 22 that he had left Chistopol, suggesting that he had spent three weeks in transit.
The foiling of a terrorist plot to bomb the United States Embassy in Rome was reported by Administration officials. Italian authorities said they believed the suspects were linked with Islamic Holy War, which has claimed responsibility for bombing American installations in Lebanon. Rome’s Police Chief, Marcello Monarca, said that seven Lebanese were arrested Saturday near Rome and that one had a detailed map of the embassy containing notes on supposed “weak points.”
Britain and Spain agreed to open discussions on future control of British-owned Gibraltar, and Spain said it will lift its restrictions on the movement of people and goods to the tiny colony at the mouth of the Mediterranean. The two sides said that negotiations aimed at settling all differences over Gibraltar, including the issue of sovereignty, will begin once the Spanish restrictions are lifted. Spain said they will be removed by February 15. The announcement was made by British Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe after two days of talks with Spanish Foreign Minister Fernando Moran.
Rumania has expelled four members of the West Germany Embassy staff in Bucharest in retaliation for Bonn’s expulsion of five Rumanian diplomats, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said today. The Rumanian Government asked the four to leave the country by the end of the week, the spokesman, Jürgen Chrobog, said. He said two of them had diplomatic status. Mr. Chrobog said Bonn regarded the expulsions as retaliation for the decision November 9 to send home five Rumanian diplomats who had been linked to a plot to bomb Radio Free Europe’s Munich headquarters and kidnap a Rumanian emigre.
Israeli Air Force jets attacked Palestinian guerrilla bases in eastern Lebanon today, and 7 people were reported killed and 10 wounded. The raid, the first in about three months, came 48 hours after two Katyusha rockets were fired into Galilee in Israel. It was the first Israeli attack in Lebanon under the Government of Prime Minister Shimon Peres, which took office in September.
Citing the “grave threats” facing the Persian Gulf region, the leaders of Saudi Arabia and five oil sheikdoms called on the Arab world to reconcile its differences and urged non-Arab Iran to talk peace with its war foe, Iraq. The statement came as the Gulf Cooperation Council began its two-day annual summit meeting in Kuwait. The council members — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates — control 70% of the Middle East’s known oil Reserves.
Iraq has shelved plans for a U.S.-assisted pipeline project to carry its oil to a port in Jordan because the route would be vulnerable to attack by Israel, visiting Iraqi Foreign Minister Tarik Aziz said in Washington. Last December, Donald H. Rumsfeld, then President Reagan’s Mideast envoy, said private U.S. companies might help finance a pipeline to the Red Sea port of Aqaba, and the U.S. Export-Import Bank gave preliminary approval. Now, Aziz says Iraq “never asked for political assurances.” Instead, it wants the United States and Western Europe to participate in the project as “a guarantee against any adventuristic policy from Israel.”
Three Somali hijackers ended a three-day drama by giving themselves up to authorities and releasing more than 100 remaining hostages in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where they had forced a Somali jetliner to land Saturday. All of the hostages, who included one American, were reported in good condition. Ethiopian officials said Somalia agreed to the hijackers’ demand not to execute seven youths for anti-government activity, but Somali accounts did not confirm this. The three hijackers, led by a Somali army captain, said they were granted asylum by Ethiopia.
Increased aid to Afghan rebels is planned by the Reagan Administration, according to American officials. They said that about $280 million in covert military aid had been earmarked for the guerrillas in this fiscal year, more than doubling the aid provided last year. This will bring total American aid to $625 million since Soviet troops intervened in Afghanistan in December 1979. This does not include additional aid of $100 million provided last year by Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries, China and Israel, according to official estimates. Although all those interviewed agreed that the aid was substantial, there was disagreement over how much arms aid was actually reaching the rebels, whether the weapons were adequate and, above all, whether the guerrillas were winning or losing.
The British Deputy High Commissioner for western India was shot and killed today by two unidentified assailants as he was being driven to his office in downtown Bombay, the police said. The diplomat, Percy Norris, was shot at close range as his car slowed near a traffic junction about a quarter- mile from his office, according to the Bombay Police Commissioner, Julio Rebeiro. He said the assailants, who fled from the scene, were described by witnesses as wearing blue track suits.
North Korea postponed until next year its scheduled December 5 economic talks with South Korea, saying the safety of delegates could not be guaranteed because of tension arising from the shootout between border guards at Panmunjom last week when a Soviet defector crossed the demarcation line to the south. South Korea expressed regret at the postponement, the first major hitch in what had been steady progress recently toward widening dialogue between the two Koreas. Both sides, however, said they hoped to reschedule the meeting soon, suggesting that neither wanted the shootout at Panmunjom, in the Korean demilitarized zone, to undo their attempts in the last few months to improve relations. The economic talks, which began amicably on November 15, were the first at the governmental level in four years.
Thousands of Filipinos paid tribute to the slain opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr. today. The emotional tribute at Rizal Park was in celebration of what would have been Mr. Aquino’s 52d birthday. He was assassinated on August 21, 1983, while under custody of Philippine military forces at the Manila airport.
The Quebec Liberal Party won a special election in a provincial district that had been a stronghold of the separatist Parti Quebecois, damaging Quebec Premier Rene Levesque’s efforts to hold his dissent-ridden government together. Liberal Jean-Francois Viau defeated the Parti Quebecois candidate to win a seat in the provincial legislature, giving the Liberals 49 seats in the 122-member body and the Parti Quebecois 68. Meanwhile, Quebec Immigration Minister Louise Harel became the sixth member of Levesque’s provincial cabinet to resign, citing disagreement with his decision not to make Quebec independence the prime issue in the next provincial election.
A helicopter crash that killed the Salvadoran Army’s leading combat commander last month was probably caused by a bomb and not by mechanical failure or leftist rebel gunfire as originally reported, according to military officials in San Salvador who are close to an investigation of the crash. The officials, including two military officers who have studied the crash, said in interviews over the past few days that both the nature of the wounds of those who were killed as well as the damage to the helicopter indicated that a bomb had caused the aircraft to go down Ocober 23 in rebel-dominated Morazan Province, killing the commander of the army’s Third Brigade, Lieutenant Colonel Domingo Monterrosa, as well as 2 other senior combat officers and 11 other passengers and crew. But although they say they believe a bomb blew up the American-provided UH-1 helicopter, the two officers who studied the crash said they had so far not been able to find traces of explosives on the wreckage of the aircraft. The absence of such evidence, they said, has puzzled senior military officers and has held up a final report on the crash.
Government troops patrolled the streets of the capital of Santiago today as Chileans held brief demonstrations in more than half a dozen locations to protest against the 11-year rule of President Augusto Pinochet. The Government said it would call up the country’s 160,000 reserves in its fight against “terrorism” and indicated that the foreign press would be included in its crackdown by canceling all press credentials. A broad-based coalition of political and labor groups called the two days of protest in defiance of a three-week-old state of siege in which hundreds of mid- level political leaders have been arrested and nearly 500 Chileans have been sent into exile in remote regions of the country. The opposition is calling for a return to civilian rule before 1989, when General Pinochet is scheduled to step down. Ricardo Lagos, the president of the Democratic Alliance, a coalition of moderate groups, said that the protests would be peaceful and that the objective was to draw attention to the conditions in Chile.
A proposal to restructure taxes was made public by the Treasury Department. It said its plan to reduce income tax rates while eliminating many popular deductions and other tax preferences was fairer, simpler and more conducive to economic growth than the current tax system. President Reagan said many changes might be made before tax legislation is submitted to Congress next year, and leading members of Congress expressed doubt that the current proposal would be approved. Altogether, according to Treasury officials, taxes paid by individuals would be lowered by 8.5 percent, and taxes paid by companies would be raised by 25 percent. The total tax revenue received by the Government would be essentially the same as it is now.
The President will have more trouble getting his way in the Senate next year than he had in 1981 even though Republicans hold the same 53-to-47 majority. In part, this is because the Senate’s work is increasingly slowed by filibusters and revolts.
President Reagan participates in an interview with 5 editors and writers from the Washington Times.
The President and First Lady host a private dinner for entertainer Frank Sinatra.
The Senate majority leadership race was in doubt. As the 53 Senate Republicans prepared to choose a leader today, the five aspirants for the post were locked in an extremely close battle.
The 55 mile-an-hour speed limit on most of the nation’s highways was strongly endorsed by a Federal advisory panel, but it said that higher speed limits in rural parts of the interstate system could have strong benefits without a “proportional impact on safety.”
William J. Schroeder, the second recipient of a permanent artificial heart, breathed on his own, and his doctors said his new heart was working “beautifully.”
Ariel Sharon completed his testimony in his libel trial in Manhattan by declaring that a TIME magazine article had created “a new wave of hatred” against him. Mr. Sharon, a former Israeli Defense Minister, testified that TIME “described me as a man who encouraged murder.”
The Manhattan federal jury hearing retired General William C. Westmoreland’s libel suit against CBS got an unexpected day off when he could not testify because of what his lawyer called severe pain from a back injury that Westmoreland suffered as an Army paratrooper. The 70-year-old soldier was facing a resumption of cross-examination by CBS lawyers, but according to the office of Judge Pierre N. Leval, he won’t be able to return to the witness stand until Thursday.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation yesterday arrested a former Central Intelligence Agency contract employee in New York and accused him of having infiltrated the agency to channel national security information to the Czechoslovak intelligence service. The man, identified by F.B.I. officials as Karl F. Koecher, a native of Czechoslovakia, was arrested a day after he and his wife, Hanna, had sold their Manhattan apartment and hours before they planned to leave on a plane for Zurich, Switzerland. Mrs. Koecher was detained as a material witness, but was not charged. Mr. Koecher, 50 years old, was held overnight in the Metropolitan Correctional Center pending arraignment today in Manhattan Federal Court. He faces espionage charges that could carry a life sentence.
Former FBI agent Richard Miller, accused of selling secrets to the Soviet Union, is trying to sell his story to book publishers, television and movie producers to pay his legal bills. “The only reason we are doing it is to pay his attorneys and feed his eight kids,” said Costa Mesa attorney E. Gary Smith, a civil lawyer representing Miller. Smith said that he is representing Miller’s family free and that New York publishers and Hollywood film producers have shown an interest in the story. Miller, 47, is accused of turning over classified documents to Svetlana Ogorodnikova, 34, and her estranged husband Nikolai, 51, Soviet emigres who allegedly are spies for the Soviet Union. He is the first FBI agent ever charged with espionage.
A federal judge approved an out-of-court settlement of a 28-year-old desegregation lawsuit against Houston public schools. U.S. District Judge John V. Singleton closed the lengthy case after reviewing the agreement reached in October by attorneys for the Houston Independent School District, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Mexican-American Legal Defense Fund. Under the agreement, a seven-member committee will be formed to monitor educational achievement until 1990 and will receive annual reports on the district’s compliance with the settlement.
Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Michigan) was arrested outside the South African Embassy in Washington during the latest in a series of marches protesting the racial policies of South Africa’s white minority rulers. Conyers and Bill Simons, vice president of the American Federation of Teachers, were taken into custody when they attempted to cross a police barricade to deliver a statement to embassy officials. Conyers and Simons were among about 100 demonstrators peacefully marching, carrying signs and chanting anti-apartheid slogans one block south of the embassy.
Former Atlantic City Mayor Michael J. Matthews, saying “greed” had gotten the better of him, pleaded guilty in Newark, New Jersey, to extorting $10,000 from an undercover FBI agent. The plea brought an abrupt end to Matthews’ federal trial on charges of selling his political influence in the casino resort city to an organized crime family. The 50-year-old defendant said he presumed the $10,000 payment, made in his City Hall office on November 21, 1983, was intended as a campaign contribution.
A feisty legal secretary whose do-it-yourself legal forms made her a popular heroine in Jacksonville, Florida, was granted clemency from a 30-day jail term for selling do-it-yourself kits for simple legal matters. “I’m relieved,” said Rosemary Furman, 57, after the unanimous vote by Governor Robert Graham and the six-member Florida Cabinet, sitting as the state’s clemency board. Furman said she would continue working with poor people with legal troubles, although she had to close her Jacksonville office as a condition of her sentence.
A convicted child molester who is believed to be the leader of a child sexual abuse ring in Scott County, Minnesota, said he fabricated stories of sex parties and accusations against other adults in hopes of leniency, television station WTCN reported. James Rud pleaded guilty to 10 counts of child sexual abuse in August and began telling Scott County officials about the alleged sex parties involving many adults and children in Jordan, Minnesota, the station said.
The crew of a Philadelphia commuter train that backed into another train and injured 150 people, failed to use a flag man to watch for other traffic, a preliminary report says. A spokesman for the Federal Railroad Administration said the investigation showed no flag man was present when the local backed into an express train at the Narberth station last week. “It’s not a federal rule but an operating rule most railroads adhere to,” said the spokesman, Thomas Simpson. “Apparently they didn’t.” Mr. Simpson said the preliminary report listed the cause as “failure to get proper flag protection” but said the final report would be available in two months. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, which operates commuter trains in the Philadelphia area, had no comment. The accident, in the morning rush hour on November 21, is also being investigated by Septa and the National Transportation Safety Board.
Maryland’s highest court on Monday ordered the immediate removal of a judge accused of forging another judge’s signature. The judge was reported to be attempting to clear the driving record of a grandson of a political supporter. District Judge Stanley Y. Bennett, 49 years old, became the third judge in Maryland’s history to be ousted from office by the Court of Appeals. The court said Mr. Bennett still could collect a pension and other accrued benefits. He was accused of forging a signature changing a reckless driving conviction against a 16-year-old to three months’ probation.
Water gushed through a small hole in the bow of a 482-foot freighter, threatening to sink the vessel in stormy Pacific seas today 180 miles off the northern California coast, the Coast Guard reported. The vessel, the Ratna Kirti, battered by 20-foot seas and 50-knot winds, reported it was taking on water through a four-inch hole in the vessel’s bow. The ship, with its crew of 52, sought to ride out the storm while aid was dispatched by the Coast Guard. The Ratna Kirti is of Indian registry and is carrying a cargo of potash. She was heading from Port Angeles, Washington, to Singapore.
Chemicals used until 1978 in aerosol propellants could deplete protective ozone in the atmosphere faster than previously thought, leading to more skin cancer, scientists said. The class of chemicals involved, chlorofluorocarbons, has been banned for aerosols in the United States for the last six years. Three Harvard University researchers reported their new findings in last week’s issue of the British scientific journal, Nature.
A blizzard with winds up to 90 miles an hour lashed parts of the Pacific Northwest yesterday, leaving up to 16 inches of snow, knocking out power to thousands of homes and closing interstate highways. Interstate 84, Oregon’s main east-west route, was closed most of the day between La Grande and Baker in the northeastern part of the state. “It’s still a whiteout up there,” State Police Lieut. Kirk Wyrick said at mid-afternoon. “Visibility is still zero.” Parts of Interstate 5 were closed in southern Oregon and northern California, and traffic was snarled on other mountain roads. One person was killed in a weather- related highway accident near Crystal Springs, California. In San Francisco, skyscrapers swayed as winds of 60 miles an hour were recorded at the airport. Up to 16 inches of snow fell around Puget Sound in Washington while 3 inches of rain fell in 24 hours at Laurel Mountain, near the Oregon coast.
The 1984 American League Gold Glove team is announced, and it is made up of the same 9 players as the 1983 team: catcher Lance Parrish, first baseman Eddie Murray, second baseman Lou Whitaker, third baseman Buddy Bell, shortstop Alan Trammell, outfielders Dwight Evans, Dave Winfield, and Dwayne Murphy, and pitcher Ron Guidry.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1220.19 (+7.84)
Born:
Domata Peko, Samoan NFL defensive tackle (Cincinnati Bengals, Denver Broncos, Baltimore Ravens, Arizona Cardinals), in Pago Pago, American Samoa.
History Diaries 