A bomb exploded in Harrods, one of London’s leading department stores, and set fire to part of the third floor, but the almost simultaneous discovery of the bomb by an employee and a telephone warning gave shoppers time enough to evacuate the store without injury, except for one minor casualty. The warning was telephoned to a newspaper. The caller was said to have an Irish accent. The bombing, the second such incident in London in three days, came a day after the militant Provisional wing of the Irish Republican Army announced a Christmas ceasefire in Britain and Northern Ireland, to start at midnight Sunday. The bomb, in a bag on a display shelf of the motor‐accessory department of Harrods, was spotted by a staff member about the same time as a warning was telephoned to the mass-circulation London Sunday Mirror. A newspaper spokesman said the caller had an Irish accent and that he had said there were three bombs, in shopping bags, in the big store in the Knightsbridge section of the city.
Harrods was the second West End store to be bombed in recent days. The blast today came as workmen were repairing the damage from an explosion Thursday in a car parked on Oxford Street, outside Selfridge’s store, a mile from Harrods. Last night, a bomb containing 44 sticks of Gelignite was found at the railroad station at Aldershot, Britain’s main garrison town, while soldiers were on their way home for Christmas. It was defused. A telephone operator was killed this week by a bomb planted at a London telephone exchange. Bombings in Britain reached a peak last month in Birmingham when 22 pub patrons were killed and 182 injured. The government subsequently outlawed the I.R.A., and the police were given unprecedented peacetime power tol search, detain and deport suspects.
Secretary of State Kissinger spent two-and-a-half hours with the Secretary General and the president of the General Assembly here today discussing a range of world issues and reviewing the Assembly session that ended this week. Mr. Kissinger had separate talks of more than an hour each with Secretary General Waldheim and Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the Foreign Minister of Algeria who is serving as president of the General Assembly. Mr. Kissinger said that among the topics discussed were the situation in the Middle East, negotiations in Cyprus and the United Nations resolution calling for negotiations in Cambodia. Regarding the Middle East, he said that “there is no dramatic new development.” But, he added, “we are still hopeful that progress can he made and we believe that it will be made.”
Congress’s approval Friday of trade legislation that, among other things, extends to the Soviet Union favorable credit terms and lower import tariffs was reported in the Soviet Union with a hint of dissatisfaction. An announcement by the official press agency, Tass, said that the legislation had been adopted with qualifications tacked on by “opponents” of expanding American-Soviet trade. Tass did not explain that the provisions linked the American concessions to freer Soviet emigration. The agency repeated Moscow’s statement last week that no arrangement had been made with Washington on the emigration issue.
A Senate Armed Services Committee report condemned Pentagon spying on the National Security Council, which included rifling of Henry A. Kissinger’s burn bags and pilfering papers from his briefcase, but said the 1970 and 1971 incidents posed no threat to civilian control of the military. The spying was done by Yeoman Charles E. Radford, with Rear Admiral Robert O. Welander of the Joint Chiefs of Staff office as “a cognizant participant,” the report said.
French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing said that despite his recent meeting with President Ford -differences remain in Franco-American relations. He listed France’s refusal to participate in NATO or the U.S.-sponsored International Energy Agency and continuing competition between the two countries to sell fighter aircraft to Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium.
Police found the bullet-riddled body of a man in Belfast after a group called the Protestant Avengers directed them to the site. Authorities said it was the first time they had heard of the group. The victim was not immediately identified.
An Army court in West Berlin sentenced Pfc. Daniel S. Orosz, 21, of San Diego to 60 days hard labor, forfeiture of pay for five months and reduction to the lowest rank for refusing to get his hair cut. The court-martial found that his refusal was in violation of a lawful order.
The Common Market Commission has fined the Belgian branch of General Motors $115,000 for violating the European Economic Community’s faircompetition rules, a commission official said today. The official said the decision to impose the fine on General Motors Continental of Antwerp was made by the commission yesterday. It has not yet been announced officially. The commission imposed the fine because it considered that General Motors Continental was charging an excessive price for issuing so‐called certificates of conformity for Opel cars brought into Belgium by independent importers. Under Belgian law, G.M. Continental has the sole right to issue certificates of conformity for G.M. and Opel vehicles imported into Belgium. The certificate is needed before a vehicle can be driven on Belgian roads.
An Estonian woman who has been trying to return to her native United States for six years has received an exit permit from Soviet authorities, informed sources reported in Moscow. Mrs. Rita Varav, who is a physician, also obtained permission for her husband, Mati Karl, and their two young boys. She expects to live in Torrance, California, with an aunt, Mrs. Paul Lints. The Varavs are expected to leave in about three weeks.
A Lebanese military court today sentenced a Frenchman, Francois Ronget, to death on charges of aiding Israeli commandos who killed three Palestinian guerrilla leaders in a raid on Beirut last year. A panel of judges arrived at a decision after deliberating two hours. When the sentence was read, Mr. Ronget, 42 years old, turned pale and slumped in his chair. His lawyers said they would appeal. Before the sentencing, Mr. Ronget told the judges that he had never worked against any Arab country and asked for clemency. But the military prosecutor said that there was irrefutable evidence of Mr. Ronget’s role in the Israeli commando raid, including testimony from witnesses and five forged passports seized from him.
The Government of Ethiopia, which announced yesterday that it was embarking on its own road to socialism, marked the official opening of an ambitious rural development campaign today with a parade of 20,000 uniformed students. The students — boys and girls clad in khaki uniforms with canteens dangling from shoulder straps — marched around Addis Ababa’s racecourse watched by the chairman of the ruling military council, General Teferi Benti, and the 120‐member body’s two deputy chairmen. One of the deputy chairmen, Major Mengistu Haile Mariam, is considered the driving force behind the policy statement yesterday in which the council pledged to turn Ethiopia into a socialist country with a one‐party system, direct government control over most of the economy and collective farms on government land.
The Shah of Iran challenged American businessmen to become “more aggressive and dynamic” in competing for Iranian development contracts worth billions of dollars. In an interview in Teheran, he invited thousands of Americans to go to Iran to alleviate the country’s critical manpower shortage. He suggested that American companies advertise to encourage engineers, teachers, nurses, technicians and other skilled workers to apply for jobs. “In our current five-year plan,” the Shah said, “we shall be spending $80 billion to $90 billion on the purchase of capital goods and services to complete planned projects.”
Prince Norodom Sihanouk, the exiled former Cambodian Premier, today strongly attacked here a recent appeal by the American and French presidents that the two warring sides in Cambodia begin peace negotiations. Prince Sihanouk was commenting on the joint communiqué issued at the end of the Martinique meeting of President Ford and President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. Prince Sihanouk characterized the appeal as “inadmissible interference.”
The bodies of two crewmen and a woman passenger were recovered today from the wreckage of a Canadian National Railways passenger train that smashed head‐on into a freight train near Kingston, Ontario last night. Besides, the three dead, 50 persons were reported injured in the collision. Fifteen were hospitalized, two in serious condition. Witnesses said the impact of the crash melded the locomotives of the two trains together and ripped up several hundred feet of track.
Three bombs exploded today at the Federal District Treasury and two branch offices of the Bank of Mexico, shattering windows and causing other damage. The police said there were no casualties. Two men were arrested. They were identified as students who were running from the scene of the Treasury explosion.
The world’s largest Spanish language daily newspaper, Cronica, which published more than 600,000 copies daily in Buenos Aires, was shut down by Argentine President Maria Estela Peron because of the paper’s campaign for an Argentine invasion of the British-held Falkland Islands. A smaller daily, La I Calle, a center-left opposition daily of about 60,000, also was shut down because of alleged defense of terrorists and subversion. The Falklands, under British control since 1832, are located about 250 miles off the southern tip of Argentina.
Spanish officials said that Libya is financing, training and arming a liberation movement in Spanish Sahara, where five policemen were ambushed and killed recently. Libya, which also has been accused of supporting the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland and Moslem rebels in the Philippines, had no immediate comment.
“Lucy”: An international anthropology team working in eastern Ethiopia’s Hardar region said it had discovered fossil remains of a woman believed to be more than 3 million years old. Expedition members, including Karl D. Johannson of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, showed more than half a skeleton of a human-like creature to newsmen at Addis Ababa Institute of Archeology. They said the specimen represents the most complete early-man discovery ever made in Africa.
Mozambique authorities have arrested about 70 people following unrest here during the last few days. The Information Ministry announcing the arrests said today some of those held were believed to have been involved in the attempt by dissidents to seize power last September. More than 100 people died in September’s violence, which began when whites objecting to Portugal’s handover of power to a transitional government seized the local radio station.
An investigative report by Seymour Hersh of The New York Times revealed that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency had been conducting espionage within the United States against U.S. citizens. According to well-placed government sources, the Central Intelligence Agency, in direct violation of its charter, conducted an extensive illegal domestic intelligence operation during the Nixon administration against the antiwar movement and other dissident groups in the United States. An investigation by the New York Times has established that intelligence files on at least 10,000 American citizens were maintained by a special unit of the CIA that reported directly to Richard Helms, then the agency’s director and now the Ambassador to Iran.
The Central Intelligence Agency spied on antiwar activists and other dissidents and kept intelligence files on 10,000 Americans during the late 1960s and early 1970s, The New York Times said. The article charged that such a “massive illegal domestic intelligence operation” violated the CIA’s charter. Internal security is the responsibility of the FBI. The Times said at least one prominent anti-war congressman was among those placed under surveillance. It said the CIA recruited double agents and informers to infiltrate militant dissident groups and that the agency’s illegal activities included domestic break-ins, wiretapping and secret inspection of mail.
The White House announced that President Ford would appoint Vice President Rockefeller as vice chairman of the Domestic Council and would expect him to play a major role in “explaining” the President’s domestic and foreign programs “throughout the country.” The Vice President will also become the vice chairman of the National Security Council.
Because the last two years were tumultuous ones politically, the legislative accomplishments received less attention than they might have otherwise. The 93rd Congress, which adjourned Friday night, will go down in history as the Congress that helped expose and depose a President and, in the process, set a precedent for investigation and impeachment, but congressional leaders believe that some of the laws that were enacted may also prove to be historic, among them the legislation affecting pension reform.
Inflation, unemployment, layoffs and concern over the national economy have produced generally disappointing Christmas sales across the country. Most people apparently have approached the holiday in a sober, even somber mood. They are paring their shopping lists, keeping a tight rein on buying by using cash more than credit and purchasing fewer decorations.
Recycling, the idea nurtured by environmental awareness that brought millions of Americans into collection centers with their carefully separated newspapers, glass and cans, has been hit hard by the recession. The market for waste material, especially newspapers, a staple of many of the collection drives, has dropped so severely that some centers have had to close.
The 9-year-old son of a Philadelphia psychologist apparently was offered as a sacrifice in a ritualistic murder, Miami police said. The boy, Arnold Frank Zeleznik of Ft. Washington, Pennsylvania, was found with his throat slashed in a motel room a few doors from where his parents,” Mr. and Mrs. Carter Zeleznik, had just checked in with another son, Robert, 6. A former mental patient identified by police as Robert Grant or Vernal Walford, 31, of Hartford, Connecticut, was arrested about 20 minutes after the slaying in a taxi at Miami’s airport. He was covered with blood. Police said they found a poorly spelled message in the suspect’s pocket: “God of Isreal say so. The God say the temple must not be used for any violance nor any police office. Child offer has sacrefices.” An open Bible, with a page torn out, was found near the boy’s body. The victim had been left alone in the lobby for a few moments by his father.
Prompt action by the government to restore consumer confidence and stimulate the economy could lift the nation out of its sixth postwar recession by mid-1975, Board Chairman Thomas A. Murphy of General Motors Corp. said in a year-end statement. He singled out oil and the energy supply as vital and said the government still had not established a coherent and realistic energy policy.
Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall has taken over full-time management of the presidential campaign of his brother, Rep. Morris K. Udall (D-Arizona). On November 23, Morris Udall became the first Democrat to announce he was running for President. “As I size it up, now that this extra year has been added to the campaign, it’s a contest of long-distance runners,” Stewart Udall, a long-distance jogger, said. He said he expected the brother relationship to be a bonus. Not only is there an intimacy of knowledge about each other, he said, but “people talking to a brother know he’s close to the candidate, almost an alter ego. People will feel that if they’re talking to me, they’re talking to him.”
The American Bar Association president expressed disappointment at President Ford’s preliminary selections for the board of directors of the Legal Services Corp. James D. Fellers, ABA president, criticized the choice of Denison Kitchell of Phoenix as chairman, saying Kitchell had no background in legal services.
A change of heart may have caused two kidnappers of a Butler, Ohio, bank president’s two teenage children to release them and return his car, which they had stolen to make their getaway, police said. The men, armed with a shotgun and a pistol and wearing ski masks, kidnapped Andy Mickley, 16, and Janet Mickley, 15, Friday night and demanded $50,000 ransom. However, the youngsters were freed several hours after the kidnapping and before any ransom was paid. “There’s just no logical explanation yet,” Police Chief Fred Horne said. “They may have had a change of heart. We’re still trying to figure it out.”
Sanford K. Bronstein, former president of Miami’s debt-ridden Cedars of Lebanon Hospital, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for stealing $862,750 from the facility. Bronstein, 57, was convicted in October on 64 counts of grand larceny, forgery and conspiracy.
Warning that Americans are wasting energy at an alarming rate, two congressional subcommittees have called upon federal and state governments to establish strict energy conservation plans. Separate reports from subcommittees of the House Government Operations and Science and Astronautics Committees said energy usage is expected to reach an annual acceleration rate of 4.5% by 1980. Committee spokesmen said this figure should be cut to 2% through “a national commitment to energy conservation.”
Russell Train, head of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, said the nation has made significant progress in curbing air pollution but faces new pollution hazards created by the energy shortage. Train said the latest EPA report covering the period 1970-1973 is “encouraging” but warned it is unlikely that the nation will meet the air purity standards set for mid-1975. He said this was due to increased use of high sulfur fuels in some areas.
Winds howling down the Columbia River Gorge near Vantage, Wash., blew 23 railroad freight cars off a mile-long trestle. Merchandise ranging from women’s shoes to patio furniture spilled from tractor-trailers being carried piggyback on flat cars and floated down the river. In Salt Lake City, winds gusting to more than 50 mph toppled the 75-foot Salt Lake Tribune Christmas tree and blocked traffic for several hours. Interstate 80 east of Wendover, Utah, was closed because of high winds Saturday night.
The number 10 ranked Miami of Ohio Redskins, 10-0-1 in the Mid-American Conference, defeated the Georgia Bulldogs, 21 to 10, to win the Tangerine Bowl in Orlando.
AFC Divisional Playoffs:
Miami Dolphins 26, Oakland Raiders 28
The Oakland Raiders defeated the Miami Dolphins, 28–26, in the AFC playoff opener. In a play that became known as the “Sea of Hands,” the Raiders’ Clarence Davis somehow caught the winning touchdown pass with 24 seconds left in the game among “the sea of hands” of three Dolphins defenders. The game began when rookie receiver Nat Moore returned the opening kickoff 89 yards for a Miami touchdown. Dick Anderson then intercepted a pass from Ken Stabler, but fellow safety Jake Scott was hurt on the play and would miss the rest of the game. Oakland’s defense made a stand in their own territory to force a punt. Later on, the Raiders tied the game with Stabler’s 31-yard touchdown pass to Charlie Smith. But with 1:01 left in the half, Miami’s Garo Yepremian kicked a 33-yard field goal to put the Dolphins back in the lead. The Raiders scored on their opening drive of the third quarter with Stabler’s 13-yard touchdown pass to Fred Biletnikoff, who hauled in the ball with one arm along the right sideline and barely tap his feet in bounds through tight coverage by cornerback Tim Foley, giving them a 14–10 lead. Aided by a 29-yard pass interference penalty against the Raiders on third down, Miami struck back with Bob Griese’s 16-yard touchdown pass to Paul Warfield. But Oakland lineman Bubba Smith blocked the extra point attempt, keeping the Miami lead at just 2 points, 16–14.
Early in the fourth quarter, Yepremian increased Miami’s lead to 19–14 with a 46-yard field goal. Later in the period, Oakland got the ball on their own 17-yard line. Stabler started the drive with an 11-yard completion to Biletnikoff. On the next play, he threw a pass to Cliff Branch at the Dolphins’ 27-yard line. Branch made a spectacular diving catch and then got back up and ran the rest of the way to the end zone for a 72-yard touchdown reception, giving the Raiders a 21–19 lead with 4:37 left in the game. With 2:08 left to play, the Dolphins took a 26–21 lead with a 68-yard, 4-play drive that ended with Benny Malone’s 23-yard touchdown run, evading four tackle attempts by Raider defenders on the way to the end zone.
Following a 20-yard kickoff return by Ron Smith, the Raiders got the ball on their own 32-yard line with 2 minutes left to play and all three timeouts left. After a 6-yard completion to tight end Bob Moore and a short run, Stabler went deep to Biletnikoff, completing two consecutive passes to him for gains of 18 and 20 yards. Then after a 4-yard catch by Branch, Frank Pitts made a bobbling first down catch at the Dolphins 14-yard line. On the next play, Clarence Davis ran the ball 6 yards to the 8-yard line, where the Raiders called their final timeout. On the next play, Stabler dropped back to pass and looked for Biletnikoff in the end zone, but he was tightly covered. With Dolphins defensive end Vern Den Herder dragging him down, Stabler threw a desperate pass to the left side of the end zone into a “sea of hands”, where Davis fought his way through the Dolphins defenders to make the touchdown catch. Trailing 28–26, the Dolphins got the ball back with 24 seconds left. But on their second play of the drive, Oakland linebacker Phil Villapiano intercepted Griese’s pass at the Raiders 45-yard line, allowing his team to run out the rest of the clock.
“This has to be the toughest loss I’ve ever suffered”, said Miami coach Don Shula, “The Raiders are a great credit to professional football”, he added. “They needed touchdowns to win and they got them.” Moore finished his first career playoff game with 184 all-purpose yards (142 KR, 40 Rec, 2 PR). Biletnikoff caught 8 passes for 122 yards and a touchdown. Stabler completed 20 of 30 passes for 294 yards and four touchdowns, with one interception. This was the third postseason meeting between the Dolphins and Raiders, with both teams splitting the first two meetings.
NFC Divisional Playoffs:
St. Louis Cardinals 14, Minnesota Vikings 30
The Minnesota Vikings beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 30–14, to advance in the NFC playoffs. Aided by the Cardinals’ turnovers, the Vikings scored 16 points in less than 7 minutes in the third quarter. On their first possession of the game, St. Louis drove to the Vikings 35-yard line, but lost the ball on a failed 4th and 1 conversion attempt. St. Louis eventually got onto the scoreboard first with quarterback Jim Hart’s 13-yard touchdown pass to receiver Earl Thomas, but Minnesota countered when quarterback Fran Tarkenton completed a 16-yard touchdown pass to John Gilliam. The 7–7 tie would last till the end of the half. The Cardinals had a chance to take the lead with a 56-yard drive to the Vikings 6-yard line, but Jim Bakken missed a 23-yard field goal attempt as time expired.
On the third play of the second half, Jeff Wright intercepted a pass from Hart and returned it 18 yards to set up Fred Cox’s 37-yard field goal, giving his team a 10–7 lead. Exactly 60 seconds later, on the Cardinals’ ensuing drive, Terry Metcalf lost a fumble while being leveled by Vikings linemen Alan Page and Carl Eller. Cornerback Nate Wright picked up the loose ball and returned it 20 yards for a touchdown that increased Minnesota’s lead to 17–7. A few minutes later, Tarkenton finished off a 16-point quarter with a 38-yard touchdown pass to Gilliam. In the 4th quarter, Vikings running back Chuck Foreman, who finished the game with 114 rushing yards and 5 receptions for 54 yards, recorded a 4-yard touchdown run to give Minnesota a 30–7 lead. By the time Metcalf rushed for an 11-yard fourth-quarter touchdown, the game was already out of reach for the Cardinals. This was the first postseason meeting between the Cardinals and Vikings. This was the final NFL on CBS game as a play-by-play announcer for Brent Musburger, and the last for Irv Cross as an analyst until 1990. Musburger and Cross were named hosts of The NFL Today along with Phyllis George for the 1975 season.
Born:
Karrie Webb, Australian professional golfer (U.S. Open, 2000, 2001; British Open, 2002; PGA Championship, 2001; 41 x LPGA Tour titles); in Ayr, Queensland, Australia.
Raymond Austin, NFL defensive back (New York Jets, Chicago Bears), in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Keri Chaconas, WNBA guard (Washington Mystics), in Washington, District of Columbia.
Died:
Huberto Alvarado Arellano, 47, Guatemalan Communist and General Secretary of the Partido Guatemalteco del Trabajo (PGT), was executed by the Guatemalan Army the day after being arrested. Two years earlier, his predecessor, Bernardo Alvarado Monzón, had been executed by the government. Alvarado Arellano’s mutilated body was found the next day on the outskirts of Guatemala City.
Richard Long, 47, American film and TV actor, known for the sitcom “Nanny and the Professor,” of a heart attack.
Sterling North, 68, American editor and author known for the children’s novels Midnight and Jeremiah and Rascal.
History Diaries 