The Soviet Union followed its disavowal on Wednesday of a deal on emigration for trade benefits with a private denunciation of congressional approval of a four-year ceiling of $300 million on Export-Import Bank credits to the Soviet Union. State Department officials said that the Soviet Ambassador, Anatoly Dobrynin, had told Secretary of State Kissinger that Moscow was angry about the credit curbs.
The Soviet Union’s disavowal of any understanding linking American trade concessions to freer emigration from the Soviet Union has not caused noticeable alarm among Jewish activists in Moscow, but some expressed concern for the future.
A bomb exploded in a parked car in London’s busy Oxford St., injuring several people. It was the third consecutive day of bombings in London. Police said the device went off opposite Selfridge’s department store 15 minutes after the Daily Mirror received a telephoned warning from a man who spoke with an Irish accent. The bomb exploded in a car parked across the street from Selfridge’s store on Oxford Street shortly after 9 PM. An hour before, the street had been crowded with Christmas shoppers. Most stores had stayed open until 8 PM. The police cleared the length of Oxford Street in case other bombs had been planted. A number of small fires started in shop‐front Christmas displays in the bomb area, hut were quickly extinguished. A Scotland Yard spokesman said the explosive was possibly the biggest planted in recent bombings, attributed by the police to the Irish Republican Army’s Provisional wing. Tonight’s explosion was thought to have been caused by a 100‐pound bomb.
Five suspected IRA terrorists robbed a U.S.-owned bank at Shannon Airport of $360,000 and then fled in a hijacked panel truck, Irish police said. The truck was later found abandoned 12 miles from the airport near the village of Feakle, where Irish Republican Army leaders met with clergymen last week to discuss a Christmas truce.
The United Kingdom’s 1971 “rent freeze”, a prohibition against the raising the price of property rentals, was ended by the government of Prime Minister Harold Wilson. The decision came after the London Stock Exchange’s FT 30 stock market index had fallen 73% during the year.
The right wing of the governing Labor party, long a silent majority, has decided to open a campaign against the troublesome left, generating new problems for Prime Minister Harold Wilson. The decision follows a marked increase in the strength and confidence of the left wingers in the party, who argue that, among other things, Mr. Wilson is moving too slowly toward true socialism and is “selling out” the cause by planning to keep Britain in the Common Market, an association they oppose. Their rebellion reached a high point this week when more than 50 left‐wing Labor Members of Parliament refused to obey party orders and voted to condemn the Government for not cutting deeper into defense spending.
Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh (who used the Anglicized name “Carroll O’Daley” earlier in his career), formerly the Chief Justice of Ireland from 1961 to 1973, was sworn into office as the fifth President of Ireland. He would resign on October 22, 1976, after coming under severe criticism for his delay in implementing the Emergency Powers Bill.
A U.S. Army court-martial in West Berlin fined and sentenced another soldier for refusing to have his hair cut. Pvt. Robert Nuchow, 19, of Leonia, New Jersey, was sentenced to five months at hard labor and fined $225 a month for five months. Earlier, the court sentenced Spec. 4 Richard Shadions, 22, of Hoboken, New Jersey, to 60 days at hard labor and a $300 fine for the same offense.
Colonel Ramon Trabal, 45, the military attache at the Uruguayan Embassy in Paris, was shot and killed in the basement garage of his Paris apartment building. An anonymous caller phoned a French news agency and said Trabal had been killed in revenge for the torture of urban guerrillas in Uruguay. The caller specifically cited the torture of a trade unionist named Raul Sendic, and said the “Raul Sendic International Brigade” killed Trabal.
A spokesman for Aristotle Onassis denied reports that the Greek shipping magnate was gravely ill. The Greek press earlier quoted members of his entourage as having said Onassis, 68, was seriously ill and expressing concern for his life.
Hundreds of angry Israeli relatives of soldiers killed in the 1973 Mideast war broke into a hall where former Defense Minister Moshe Dayan was to speak and refused to let him enter the room. The protesters hold Dayan responsible for Israel’s lack of preparedness in the war. Dayan instead talked to a group of professors at Bar Ilan University. Mr. Dayan, who was Defense Minister during the war, left the Cabinet last spring under the pressure of similar protests. He remains in Parliament, however.
Dayan, the former Israeli Defense Minister, charged tonight that the United States threatened in October, 1973, to fly supplies to Egyptian troops surrounded in the Suez Canal area if the Israelis refused to allow food and water through their lines. This differed from reports at the time that the United States had obtained Israeli agreement to the passage of supplies by saying the Soviet Union had threatened to intervene militarily on behalf of the encircled Egyptian 3rd Army. The Israeli agreement on supplies, made on October 28, 1973, four days after the second cease‐fire arranged through the United Nations, was disclosed by Mr. Dayan here during an appearance before a group of professors at Bar Ilan University.
He also said that early in 1968, less than a year after the 1967 war, Israel was ready to return all of the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt and the, Golan Heights to Syria for a peace treaty with the two countries. “Israel’s readiness to do so was brought to the direct attention of the then Egyptian President, Gamal Abdel Nasser, who rejected it,” Mr. Dayan said. “All we asked in return in addition to the peace treaty was that both areas be demilitarized.”
The Indochina war entered its 29th year amid the heaviest fighting since 1972 and Saigon military officials predicted even more intense battles after the Christmas holiday. The upsurge in fighting came on the anniversary of the beginning of the French Indochina war. On December 19, 1946, Hồ Chí Minh’s Việt Minh forces blew up Hanoi’s French-run power stations and fled to the countryside.
The United States disclosed that beginning in April, 1973, it had passed on to North Vietnam and the Việt Cộng information folders on 87 American servicemen missing in Vietnam, proving “conclusively” that the Communists possess information on the particular individuals. A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Saigon said this does not necessarily mean the men are alive but that the North Vietnamese and Việt Cộng — who have repeatedly stated that they hold no more U.S. American prisoners — have information on their status.
Moon Se Kwang was hanged today at a Seoul prison for killing the wife of South Korean President Park Chung Hee in an assassination attempt on her husband August 15. The execution of the 28-year-old Korean resident of Japan came three days after the Supreme Court upheld his death sentence.
Kenya has closed all but one of four major road border crossing-points with Tanzania and has suspended all rail and steamer traffic between the two countries, a government official said today.
Former New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller was sworn in as the 41st Vice President of the United States shortly after the U.S. House of Representatives voted, 287 to 128, to approve his nomination to fill the position that had been vacant since U.S. President Gerald Ford had taken office on August 9. The House action followed the 90 to 7 vote by the U.S. Senate on December 10. Nelson Rockefeller was sworn in tonight as the 41st Vice President of the United States. He took the oath of office with a hand on a family bible and was sworn in by Chief Justice Warren Burger in a televised ceremony in the Senate chamber. Mr. Rockefeller was escorted by President Ford, and members of Mr. Rockefeller’s family, Congress, the cabinet and New York state dignitaries were among those who attended the ceremony.
A wide range of energy conservation alternatives, including gasoline rationing and a gasoline surtax, were presented to President Ford by economic and energy advisers. The White House said Mr. Ford planned no immediate decision on which ones to adopt for a national energy program to be presented to Congress next month. Administration spokesmen have said that options include mandatory measures to replace the voluntary energy saving approach that President Ford proposed early this fall. Among the options are an allocation program, a limit on oil imports and an increase in gasoline taxes.
The House and Senate gave final approval tonight to the legislation appropriating $1 billion for jobs for the unemployed next year. The money was part of a $5 billion appropriations bill that also allocates money for increased unemployment compensation. President Ford supports the measure and, it is believed, certain to sign it. It was estimated that the measure would provide 100,000 jobs nationwide at an average salary of $7,500. More than $2‐billion would become available for unemployment compensation, with the exact amount depending on the number of persons out of work next year.
President Ford signed the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act into law, after the legislation was enacted due to concerns over whether former President Richard Nixon intended to destroy records in his possession.
The only nuclear power plant in the U.S. state of Arkansas, designated Arkansas Nuclear One, began operations as the first of two reactors began producing energy. Both reactors are located near the town of Russellville.
A group of 10 leading private economists — including three former chairmen of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers — reportedly favored some government stimulus for the economy at a White House meeting, which President Ford did not attend, but all of his chief economic advisers were there. One participant said, “I can’t think of anyone who didn’t favor stimulus in some form.”
Attorneys for Paul John Knowles of Jacksonville, Florida, charged that he had been drugged before his fatal shooting by authorities in Georgia and demanded an investigation. Knowles, who had been charged with seven murders in three states, was killed as he was being transported to Clayton County south of Atlanta in what the Georgia Bureau of Investigation called an escape attempt.
The 69,000-member National Society of Professional Engineers was found guilty by a federal judge in Washington of violating federal antitrust laws by banning its members from competitively bidding for contracts. It was a major victory for the Department of Justice in its campaign against what it called price-fixing by professional organizations.
James Neal, the chief prosecutor at the Watergate cover-up trial, accused, mocked and scorned the five defendants as he began his final argument to the jury at the conclusion of 46 days of testimony. He was also scornful of former President Richard Nixon, and he told the jury that under the “directions” of Mr. Nixon, H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s inquiry into the Watergate case had been “thwarted.”
Governor-elect Hugh Carey of New York announced that Mario Cuomo, an old friend who had run unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for Lieutenant Governor, would be appointed Secretary of State and that Raymond Schuler, the incumbent Secretary of Transportation, would keep that post in the Carey administration.
An attempted holdup at a Richfield, Minnesota, supermarket that led to the taking of 40 hostages ended when the three gunmen freed their prisoners and surrendered after some six hours. Police said none of the hostages appeared to be injured. However, one gunman suffered a minor gunshot wound and another was cut by glass. One gunman said he and his cohorts were trying to pay back white America for its treatment of Indians.
A federal grand jury indicted six sugar refining companies on charges of illegal price-fixing that affected the regional markets of the West Coast and the Middle West. A third civil suit alleged a similar conspiracy in Western and Mountain States. The three regional markets are in 23 states.
James A. Maniatis, the man who brought the van used to cart off $4.3 million in a Chicago vault theft, received a relatively light 18-month sentence from a federal judge who noted that it was his first crime. The assistant U.S. attorney in charge of the case said that Maniatis was involved only on a “peripheral basis.” Five other suspects, including the armored express guard on duty at the time of the burglary, were arrested and charged.
All copyrights would be extended for two years under a bill sent to the White House for President Ford’s signature. The final action came when the Senate accepted House amendments. The extension is a stop-gap measure because legislation overhauling the copyright law is expected in the next Congress. The copyrights date to 1906.
Four men and a woman were arrested in New York in connection with a bank swindle in which $5 million in negotiable checks were stolen from the Chase Manhattan Bank. The FBI said the five posed as bank messengers, picking up checks at branch banks after convincing officials that they were to deliver them to Chase headquarters.
Coal operations began returning to normal for the first time in more than a month but a dispute with truckers threatened to shut the mines again. The United Mine Workers bargaining council approved a revised contract for the 4,500 construction workers but talks between the UMW and the Western Pennsylvania Coal Haulers Association have collapsed.
A company spokesman said the New American Library was suspending plans to publish a paperback edition of “The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano,” for which it was going to pay $800,000. Little, Brown & Co., the book’s primary publisher, is investigating allegations about the book but is proceeding with plans to publish. Questions have been raised concerning the publisher’s claim that the book was “dictated” by Lucky Luciano, the late Mafia boss.
“The Man with the Golden Gun”, ninth James Bond film, starring Roger Moore, Britt Ekland and Christopher Lee, premieres in London
The race to sign Catfish Hunter begins in the law offices of Cherry, Cherry & Flythe in Ahoskie, North Carolina. Yankee and Red Sox representatives are the first arrivals.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 604.43 (+0.94, +0.16%).
Born:
Jake Plummer, NFL quarterback (Pro Bowl 2005; Arizona Cardinals; Denver Broncos), in Boise, Idaho.
Martin Chase, NFL defensive tackle (Baltimore Ravens, New Orleans Saints, Jacksonville Jaguars), in Lawton, Oklahoma.
Antony Jordan, NFL linebacker (Indianapolis Colts, Atlanta Falcons), in Sewell, New Jersey.
Felipe López, Dominican NBA shooting guard and point guard (Vancouver Canucks, Washington Wizards, Minnesota Timberwolves), in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Ricky Ponting, Australian international cricketer, four-time winner of the Allan Border Medal and two-time World Cup winning captain, with 168 Test Cricket matches; in Launceston, Tasmania, Australia.
Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong, Scottish-born Ghanaian skier and the first athlete for the African nation of Ghana to compete (2010) in the Winter Olympics; in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom.
Jasmila Žbanić, Bosnian film director and European Film Award winner in 2021 for “Quo Vadis, Aida?”; in Sarajevo, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia.
Mikko “Mige” Paananen, Finnish rock bassist (HIM), in Helsinki, Finland.
Died:
Gunnar Andersson, 51, Swedish aviator, died in a helicopter crash.
Catrano Catrani, 64, Italian-born Argentine film director and producer, known for the popular 1958 movie Alto Paraná
Ian Fraser, Baron Fraser of Lonsdale, CH, CBE, 77, British peer and politician who advocated for the blind after being blinded in World War I.
Russell D. Oliver, 64, American sports competitor and coach, died of cancer.
[Ed: Watch out for that gal; she’s murder.]
History Diaries 