Christmas Day.
In an uncompromising Christmas Day message, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said the Falkland Islands are British territory — not Argentine — and that the 1,800 islanders have the right of self-determination. Thatcher’s tough tone, in a broadcast to the islanders and about 4,000 British servicemen stationed there, was in sharp contrast to recent suggestions in Parliament that Britain might take a more flexible line in any negotiations with Argentina’s new democratic government. Britain defeated Argentina in a 74-day Falklands war in 1982.
Dominic McGlinchey, once the most wanted man on both sides of the Irish border, was sentenced Monday to life in prison for the murder of a policeman’s mother. Mr. McGlinchey, 30 years old, chief of staff of the outlawed Irish National Liberation Army, stared at the courtroom ceiling as Justice James Hutton convicted and sentenced him for killing Hester McMullen, 63, in 1977. He had pleaded not guilty to the murder charge in the antiterrorist tribunal. Judge Hutton presided over the two-week trial at Belfast’s Crown Court and rendered the verdict and sentence in a 40-minute judgment. Mr. McGlinchey’s attorney, Joe Rice, said he would appeal the conviction. Mr. McGlinchey was captured with three lieutenants in a hideout on Ireland’s west coast on March 17 after a shootout with 40 policemen. He was extradited to Northern Ireland less than 18 hours later — the first Roman Catholic extradited on terrorist charges from the Irish Republic to the British province.
The bombing of a Naples-to-Milan express train that killed at least 15 people and injured more than 100 others was probably the work of an international terrorist conspiracy, Italian Defense Minister Giovanni Spadolini said. In a speech in Bologna, Italy, Spadolini said that even if the terrorists are Italian, “the terrorism is international and follows a political logic and international directives.” Several groups have claimed responsibility for the blast, in a tunnel near Bologna.
[Ed: Actually, it was the mafia…]
The Voice of America has signed pacts with five countries for modernizing its broadcast equipment and is pressing Israel for permission to set up facilities there to broadcast to parts of the Soviet Union and to Soviet troops in Afghanistan. Reagan Administration officials said the agreements and discussions with Israel and other countries in the Middle East, Africa and the Far East are part of a $1.5 billion modernization program.
Prime Minister Nikolai A. Tikhonov of the Soviet Union arrived in Ankara today on a two-day visit to this NATO country in which he and Prime Minister Turgut Ozal are expected to sign agreements on trade and technology. Mr. Tikhonov, who was accompanied by a 95-member delegation, is the first Soviet Prime Minister to visit Turkey since Aleksei N. Kosygin in 1975. In welcoming ceremonies at the airport, Prime Minister Ozal said that during the visit, Turkish officials “will try to find out possiblities to increase our cooperation, and at the same time we will exchange views on the questions related to our region and international problems.” There have been reports in the Turkish press that the Soviet official was bringing with him a proposed trade package for $6 billion over the next five years, and Foreign Ministry sources have confirmed that they are correct.
The crisis of French Socialism, which has led to self-examination among members of the governing party, has created a vast field of debate that has dominated political life for months. One aspect of the debate is within the left itself. The question is whether the Government’s language and economic policy should represent only a “parenthesis” until a return to doctrine is possible, or whether the Socialist Party must move toward advocating more individualism and less state control, putting the old doctrine aside.
Pope John Paul II spoke out today in “solidarity with the countless multitude of the poor” and with those suffering from hunger in Africa and elsewhere. The remarks came in his traditional Christmas message delivered before a crowd of 100,000 in St. Peter’s Square. The Pope, the spiritual leader of the world’s 794 million Roman Catholics, also expressed sympathy for victims of terrorism and violence and criticized “the cynical society of consumerism.” Many rich people, he said, are “frighteningly poor” in heart.
Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres said today that Secretary of State George P. Shultz had sent him a letter warning that Israel needed to take urgent measures for economic recovery and asking Israelis to show some restraint in consumption. News of the letter from Mr. Shultz, which Mr. Peres described as a “talking paper,” drew criticism from the Minister of Economic Planning, Gad Yaakobi. “We don’t need any sermons, message or ‘talking papers,’ ” he said. “Israel,” he said, “does not need moral preaching.” Mr. Peres spoke of the letter from Mr. Shultz in a meeting with government statisticians in Jerusalem, but did not give further details. However, a report in the newspaper Haaretz said Mr. Shultz had proposed that Israel take specific measures to improve the economy, including an end to government support for failing economic enterprises, bigger cuts in state budgets, a substantial lowering of living standards and greater independence for the Bank of Israel to slow down the currency printing presses.
Prime Minister Peres visited Bethlehem on Monday, Christmas Eve, becoming the first Israeli head of Government to make such a gesture since Bethlehem came under Israeli rule in the 1967 war. Accompanied by the Police Minister, Haim Bar-Lev, Mr. Peres was applauded when he appeared at a reception given by Mayor Elias M. Freij that was attended by 400 people. In a speech, Mr. Peres said in English that he was bringing a greeting of peace to all who seek peace.
Against the background of civil war, riots broke out at Beirut’s race track today when the four favorite horses tripped and fell at the start of a race. Meanwhile, five people were killed and six wounded in artillery battles between Druze and Christian militias south of Beirut, a Druze radio station said. In Christian East Bei/rut, exploding artillery shells drowned out church bells on Christmas Day, trapping thousands of people in churches for hours after midnight Mass and wounding at least 10 people.
An Indian supertanker was attacked today and set afire by warplanes in the Persian Gulf. Shipping sources said the planes were Iranian, indicating the strike was in retaliation for a recent wave of Iraqi air raids on gulf traffic. The attack on the fully loaded, 276,744-ton oil tanker Kanchenjunga, in the gulf’s central sector reportedly wounded one crewman and set fire to the vessel’s bridge and control room. But by late today the owners, the Shipping Corporation of India, reported from Bombay that the fire was under control, according to the London-based Lloyd’s Shipping Intelligence department. A Baghdad radio report, monitored in Nicosia, Cyprus, said Iranian planes carried out the rocket attack 70 miles northeast of Qatar.
A car bomb exploded in a crowded district of Tehran tonight, killing at least four people and wounding 50 others, the Iranian press agency said. The bomb was planted in a taxi in front of a small hotel near Shoush Square, the press agency said in a report received in London. The police estimated the device contained 20 to 25 pound of explosives. More than 40 buildings were damaged in the explosion, it added. The press agency accused what it called American “terrorist agents” of planting the device. The agency linked the explosion with the hijacking of a Kuwaiti airliner to Tehran just over two weeks ago.
Soviet commanders have reportedly alerted their more than 100,000 troops in Afghanistan for an expected wave of attacks by Islamic guerrillas as the December 27 anniversary of the 1979 invasion of the country approaches. Rebel leaders in Peshawar, Pakistan, and Western observers say the guerrillas are planning attacks on Soviet military convoys and installations throughout Afghanistan to demonstrate that the Soviet campaign to crush anti-Marxist resistance has failed.
Six world leaders plan to meet in New Delhi in late January to keep pressure on the United States and the Soviet Union to reach an arms agreement, organizers of the conference say. The six are from India, Mexico, Tanzania, Sweden, Greece and Argentina.
Vietnamese forces attacked at least four Cambodian resistance camps along the Thai-Cambodian border, using tanks and artillery barrages. Thai military officers and international relief officials estimated that 63,000 civilians fled across the frontier into Thailand. Vietnamese troops captured a large Cambodian rebel camp operated by the Khmer People’s Liberation Front, killing about 100 people and forcing tens of thousands of refugees to flee. Major General Salya Sripen, a Thai army commander, told reporters that the Nong Samet camp, near the Thai-Cambodian border, was destroyed after being occupied by about 1,000 Vietnamese troops, supported by artillery, tanks and armored personnel carriers.
China’s Christians have emerged from the persecution of the Mao Zedong era, when Protestants and Catholics were sent to jail or labor camps and their churches ransacked. One indication of their freedom to worship was the midnight mass on Christmas Eve at Nantang Cathedral in Peking. The church was jammed with 8,000 worshipers.
Fighting broke out in northern El Salvador to disrupt a 72-hour Christmas cease-fire that had been called by rebel forces. Each side blamed the other for attacks that broke the truce, which was never formally accepted by the Salvadoran army. Fighting was reported in two nearby towns in Chalatenago province, about 33 miles north of San Salvador. The clandestine rebel radio Venceremos said two soldiers were killed or wounded during what it said was an army incursion in the town of Concepcion Quetzaltepeque. An army officer said a rebel was killed when guerrillas attacked troops in the town of Dulce Nombre de Maria.
Anti-Sandinista rebel leader Alfonso Robelo announced plans to abandon the armed fight against the Marxist-led Nicaraguan government to dedicate himself entirely to political action. Robelo, 44, said that although he is leaving the Costa Rica-based Democratic Revolutionary Alliance at least “for 1985,” he does not condemn those who chose to continue the military struggle. Robelo has been waging an internal battle with Eden Pastora, the military head of the alliance, who opposes joining Honduranbased rebels who are fighting the Sandinistas on Nicaragua’s northern border.
Peru’s restored democracy is fighting to survive economic and political troubles and a pessimism that runs deeper than discontent with the lame-duck Government of President Fernando Belaunde Terry, whose term ends in July. The streets of Lima, the capital, reflect a society in disarray, and there are almost daily clashes between the police and striking workers. Some Peruvians are predicting another military takeover.
The Reagan Administration finds itself caught between two promises: its pledge to Atlantic allies and the Soviet Union to negotiate seriously on space- based weapons, and President Reagan’s strong personal commitment to develop space-based defenses against nuclear attack. A result, Administration officials acknowledge, has been confusion about how the so-called Star Wars defense will be handled in arms control talks, as a bargaining chip or something to be protected at all costs; and about how it will be presented to Congress, as a way of defending missiles or of defending people. Few Concrete Decisions Although Mr. Reagan has expressed his visions of space-based protection against nuclear attacks and of convincing Moscow that this is the way out of the arms race, he seems to have made few concrete decisions. It is a situation ready-made for subordinates to fill in the blanks, push for certain explanations and positions, and see which way the wind is blowing. That is exactly what has occurred in recent days.
Despite the campaign against drunken driving and efforts to get people to use seat belts, traffic fatalities increased in 1984 after three years of steady decline, according to highway safety officials. Safety experts attribute the increase to a rebounding economy that has seen Americans drive more this year. About 1,200 more people — for a total of 43,800 — were expected to die on the nation’s highways this year than in 1983, when the total was 42,584. Meanwhile, the holiday traffic death toll reached 474 at 10 p.m. since the holiday began at 6 p.m. local time Friday. The prediction was for up to 470 deaths.
President Reagan places a call to former President Richard M. Nixon.
The President and First Lady host a private Christmas Day dinner with family and close friends. In Washington, President Reagan and his wife, Nancy, spent Christmas Day at the White House exchanging gifts before a festive dinner, joined by Mrs. Reagan’s brother, Dr. Richard Davis, and his family and other guests. The Reagans’ children were not on hand this year.
President Reagan receives a book from Farah Pahlavi, the exiled Empress of Iran.
The safety record of a coal mine near Orangeville, Utah, where 27 people died in a fire had improved steadily since 1979 and was as good or better than other mines in central Utah, managers said. They rejected the criticism of Richard Trumka, president of the United Mine Workers, who alleged the Wilberg Mine’s accident rate was too high. The fire broke out in a conveyor belt Wednesday night, trapping 27 miners and executives as they sought to set a one-day production record. Meanwhile, the families of the 27 victims spent a gloomy Christmas without loved ones and faced the possibility that the bodies may never be recovered from the still-burning shaft.
An estimated 20 million smokers — more than a third of all the smokers in the nation — smoked not at all or less than usual during this year’s Great American Smokeout, the American Cancer Society said. Participation in the well-publicized daylong moratorium against smoking was the highest since the smokeout program began in 1977, the society said. The society said a Gallup Poll survey estimated that 5.4 million smokers refrained completely for 24 hours on November 15 and that 15 million cut down. About 3 million were able to keep off cigarettes as much as five days after the smokeout, it said.
A fire at a hotel for the elderly in Waukegan, Illinois, killed eight people. Seven others were injured, and others were forced to flee into near-zero cold. Fires killed at least 16 persons around the nation, including eight tenants of an Illinois senior citizens residence who died in a pre-dawn blaze that also injured six persons and left 21 others homeless, authorities said. Other Christmas Day fires killed eight persons: two in a foster home in Baldwin, Michigan; two near St. Albans, West Virginia, in a fire apparently sparked by electrical failure in Christmas lights; a 78-year-old woman and her 58-year-old son died in a Covington, Tennessee, house fire that may have been caused by a cigarette; and a mother and daughter in a Minneapolis suburb.
Robert Lee Willie was moved from Death Row at the Louisiana State Penitentiary to the death house about three miles away, where he is scheduled to be executed Friday for his third murder conviction, authorities said. Willie, 26, spent Christmas alone, said Warden Frank Blackburn. Willie, who has no appeals pending, is to die in the electric chair for the 1980 murder of a woman who vanished after a high school graduation celebration.
Explosions before dawn today ripped through three Pensacola, Florida offices where abortions were performed, destroying one facility but causing no injuries, the authorities said. The offices were less than two miles from one another, close enough for one person to carry out the bombings in the 15-minute interval, Lieut. Tim Poe of the police said.
Several commuter plane accidents this year have brought a surge of new questions about the adequacy of Government monitoring of commuter airlines. The concern also arose from the discovery of slipshod and fraudulent practices that have led to the grounding of a number of lines.
The Federal Privacy Act is obsolete 10 years after it was passed because its protections have been outdated by computer technology, according to an unusual mixture of business, professional and civil liberties organizations. They and members of both parties in Congress have called for the reshaping of the privacy laws in the next session of Congress. Some believe new restrictions on the authority of the Federal Government to collect computerized information are required. Others worry that inaccurate information transmitted over huge federal telecommunication networks poses a threat to the fair treatment of individual people. Still others are concerned that computerized communication forms do not enjoy adequate legal assurances of privacy, as do more traditional forms of communication.
Disappointed scientists said they would try again tomorrow for the release of an artificial comet that would have been visible from the ground. They said a “miserable” cloud cover over the Southwest and Hawaii halted the experiment on Christmas Day, when a satellite was to release a comet-like barium vapor cloud over the Pacific Ocean.
A defense fund for John Z. DeLorean has been established on the West Coast. Mr. DeLorean, who is said to owe a total of about $1 million in legal fees arising from his federal trial on charges of cocaine-trafficking, solicited money to help pay his lawyer in a November 7 advertisement in a Los Angeles newspaper. A decision was delayed on running a similar advertisement on the East Coast.
The police today tentatively identified the body of a baby found in the Red Cedar River as an infant who was taken from a shopping cart in a discount store while his mother was in the restroom. Police officials said the body was probably that of Benjamin Wing, 2½ months old, who disappeared last Saturday. A suspect was in custody, the police said. The authorities sent out composite drawings Monday of women who may have been involved in attempted kidnappings at Meijer’s stores in Okemos, Michigan, and Jackson, Michigan, on Friday, and a similar incident Saturday at a K-mart in Lansing. No child was actually taken in any of those cases. However, in each instance mothers reported turning briefly away from shopping carts containing their youngsters and discovering another woman attempting to walk off with the cart. In all three incidents, the mother managed to halt the other woman.
Two children sold by their mother five years ago may get a belated Christmas gift from Minnesota officials seeking a way to allow their guardian to qualify for welfare, officials said today. State officials have twice rejected the woman’s application for general assistance to support the children, but a doctor who knows the family recently intervened to protest the state’s handling of the case. “I’ve prayed so hard for this for so long,” said the guardian, identified only as Betty to prevent the children’s natural relatives from claiming custody. “Having it come true on Christmas seems symbolic.” The natural mother was working as an exotic dancer when she sold her children, both under 2, to Betty’s daughter for two glasses of beer five years ago. Although Betty, 60, has a poverty level income, she has not qualified for assistance because she is not related to them by blood or marriage. “I think at the minimum they’re going to scour the rules to see if some rule can be found to help this lady,” said John Clawson, assistant commissioner in the Department of Health and Human Services.
Eleanor and Richard Parnes considered themselves among “the luckiest couples in the world” today, two and a half weeks after immigration officials who had deported Mrs. Parnes allowed her to return. “It’s good to be back here, very nice,” said Mrs. Parnes, 29 years old, who is expecting a baby in May. She was deported to the Philippines on November 15 and allowed to fly back to Los Angeles December 7. Mrs. Parnes had been an undocumented alien since leaving her job as a housekeeper to the Philippine consul general in Los Angeles in 1974, and had been under an immediate deportation order for several years. The United States Immigration and Naturalization Service arrested Mrs. Parnes in November and deported her. But after public outcry and widespread publicity, she was allowed to return.
Accidents, adverse health effects and some property damage will probably result if a Navy facility in Fallon, Nevada, from which supersonic jets are flown is expanded, a Navy report has said. But, it continued, the 5,000-square-mile area in central Nevada is the “only suitable site” for the Navy’s proposed Supersonic Operations Area and Strike Warfare Center. The Navy commissioned the report to assess the effect of expanding restricted airspace for its new center. The researchers, who spent two years on the project, estimated that the facility would initiate 41 to 136 supersonic flights a day, with an average of 27 sonic booms reaching the high desert floor of central Nevada.
At Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco, 11 of the city’s best restaurants offered a candlelight Christmas Eve feast to the needy, complete with a roaming violinist. The restaurants donated $12,000 worth of turkey, barbecued ribs, smoked chicken and pasta salad for more than 3,000 guests.
An arctic chill frosted the Midwest, sending temperatures plummeting as low as 18 below zero, as dense fog blanketed Alabama and Florida. Gale warnings were posted along the Atlantic Coast from Maine to Rhode Island, where sustained winds blew up to more than 70 mph and a gust of 120 mph was reported on top of Mt. Washington, New Hampshire. Travelers’ advisories and warning of freezing rain were posted for parts of Michigan and Texas, and a winter storm watch was issued in Montana. The temperature plunged to 18 below zero at International Falls, Minnesota, and an 11-below reading was reported at Marquette, Michigan. Subzero readings registered as far south as northern Illinois and eastern Iowa.
Ballon d’Or: Juventus’ French midfielder Michel Platini is named Europe’s best football player for the 2nd consecutive time; beats Bordeaux midfielder Jean Tigana and Verona striker Preben Elkjær.
New York Knicks basketball forward Bernard King scores 60 points, but New York loses, 120–114 to the New Jersey Nets on Christmas Day at Madison Square Garden. King scored more points than any player in the league since April 9, 1978, when David Thompson had 73 points for Denver against Detroit and George Gervin 63 for San Antonio against New Orleans.
Born:
Georgia Tennant [née Moffett], British actress (“Doctor Who” episode “The Doctor’s Daughter”; “Merlin”); daughter of Peter Davison [Moffett], the fifth Doctor; wife of David Tennant, the tenth Doctor, in London, England, United Kingdom.
Jessica Origliasso, Australian singer-songwriter and actress (“The Veronicas”), in Albany Creek, Queensland, Australia.
Lisa Origliasso, Australian singer-songwriter and actress (“The Veronicas”), in Albany Creek, Queensland, Australia.
Nadiya Hussain, English TV chef and writer (“Nadiya’s British Food Adventure”), in Luton, England, United Kingdom.
Limas Sweed, NFL wide receiver (Pittsburgh Steelers), in Grimes County, Texas.
Thomas Williams, NFL linebacker (Jacksonville Jaguars, Buffalo Bills, Carolina Panthers), in Vacaville, California.
Chris Richard, NBA power forward and center (Minnesota Timberwolves, Chicago Bulls), in Lakeland, Florida.
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