Christmas Day.
Speaking from the outer balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Paul VI, in his Christmas message to the world, praised Jesus as “the brother of all, the advocate of the poor, the friend of the lowly, the companion of the suffering, the redeemer of sinners — in a word, our Savior.” The Pontiff was heard by 30,000 persons in St. Peter’s Square, among them some of the first Holy Year visitors.
A hijacker took over an Air India jumbo jet today and tried to force the pilot to go into a sharp dive over Rome, but the man was overpowered by the crew and the plane landed safely. The 151 passengers on the Boeing 747 were unaware of the drama in the cockpit as they circled Rome for nearly two hours. Stewardesses told passengers that the plane was on a holding pattern because of a strike of ground personnel. Most passengers on the Bombay‐to‐New York flight realized that something was wrong only after the jet landed when armored cars closed in and policemen boarded the plane. A long‐haired man in jeans was hustled out of the cockpit, his face stained with blood. “When I saw that scene, I got a terrible fright, and I’m still shaking,” said Anna Cerbazoni, a passenger who debarked in Rome.
In Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, student Branimir Donchev shot and killed eight people on the fifth floor of a dormitory at Sofia University. Motivated by anger following a rejection by a female student, and further inspired after watching the film “The Godfather”, Donchev traveled to Dormitory #1 with his father’s .380 Walther PP pistol a but was unable to find her. With several magazines of ammunition, he fired 36 shots at various people before being subdued.
A Soviet publication charged today that reports of Soviet concessions on emigration in return for United States trade benefits had been concocted by “knights of the cold war” in Congress. The reports of concessions by Moscow were fabricated, the paper suggested, to give the members of Congress a face‐saving explanation for not voting against the trade reform bill because such a negative vote might have cost them the support of American businessmen who favored the measure. The publication Literaturnaya Gazeta asserted that the 93rd Congress had adopted the trade reform legislation not because of any arrangement with Moscow on emigration but because of worry about the American economic situation.
The Soviet Union announced today that all its citizens from the age of 16 would be issued new internal passports, in what was described as a simplification of travel and residence procedures inside-the country.
Ethiopian soldiers with machine guns patrolled the main streets of Asmara as security precautions tightened in the trouble-hit Eritrean provincial capital. Troops strengthened checkpoints at all entries into Asmara, shaken by grenade attacks, clashes between army units and secessionist groups and a wave of stranglings.
A group of rebellious Laotian Army soldiers have taken over the provincial capital of Ban Houei Sai in northwestern Laos, informed sources said today. The sources, who could not be identified further, said that the soldiers, estimated to number 100, had demanded that the town be declared politically neutral and that the Government repeal the opium law passed by the National Assembly in 1971. Vientiane, the administrative capital of Laos, was declared politically neutral nine months ago as the seat of the coalition government. Rightists said the demands reported today were not negotiable. The opium law makes it illegal to cultivate opium in Laos for sale. It says that only the head of a household may cultivate it for family consumption.
Ten soldiers convicted of robbery and high crimes were executed by Cambodian military authorities, military sources reported. They were arrested after an armed robbery of Phnom Penh gold shops involving thousands of dollars worth of the metal. Three other soldiers convicted in the case received 20 years’ hard labor.
South Korean authorities attempted to trace an unidentified plane that came under anti-aircraft fire when it intruded into restricted airspace over Seoul. Gunners fired about 90 rounds of warning shots at the plane, a Defense Ministry spokesman said. A week earlier a Korean Air Lines jetliner strayed into the area and came under fire. One person was killed and 27 others were injured by falling shrapnel in that incident.
A “Council for the Restoration of Democracy” in South Korea was formally inaugurated by a group of prominent opposition politicians, civic and religious leaders. Seventeen members of the council met in Seoul to announce the opening of a nationwide, nonpolitical campaign. Most were signatories to a November 27 statement demanding constitutional reform and release of jailed dissidents.
Japan’s Foreign Minister restated his Government’s opposition today to allowing nuclear‐armed vessels to pass through Japanese waters. But he left ambiguous whether that applied to American warships calling at Japanese ports. Foreign Minister Kiichl Miyazawa told a committee of the Upper House that if United States Navy ships “introduce nuclear weapons into Japan, it requires prior consultation” with the Japanese Government under the United States‐Japan Mutual Security Treaty. Mr. Miyazawa did not say whether regular port calls by United States warships carrying nuclear arms, such as Polaris submarines or, aircraft carriers, constituted introduction of nuclear weapons.
The Soviet Union has stepped up reconnaissance activities around Japan for undetermined reasons, Japan’s Air Self‐Defense Force reported today. Officials of the force said that TU‐95 long‐distance reconnaissance planes, nicknamed “Bears,” had made three flights around Japan’s territorial airspace in the seven days that began December 19. It was the first time in six years that Soviet reconnaissance planes had made such flights, the officials said. They said that in the latest flight, two of the “Bears” had appeared off the western coast of the Sea of Japan and had flown north along the coast. then down to Okinawa after having crossed the Tsugaru Strait between Honshu, the main island of Japan, and Hokkaido, the northernmost island. A total of 60 Japanese planes scrambled from their bases but there was no territorial violation by the Soviet planes, the officials said.
Crude oil leaking from an industrial refinery task continued to spread over a wide area of Japan’s scenic Inland Sea today, causing damage to fisheries estimated by various officials at mare than $20.6‐million. Officials of the Maritime Safety Agency said 18,600 barrels of oil from a mammoth tank at the Mitsubishi industrial complex in Mizushima, 300 miles southwest of Tokyo, had drifted 68 miles through the sea toward the Kii Channel and the Pacific Ocean in the last week. It covered an area where fishermen harvest seaweed and other fishery culture beds.
Taiwan’s premier, Chiang Chingkuo, said his nation needs friends in the world but that the Republic of China will never compromise with the Chinese Communists. In his annual report to the national assembly, Chiang said, “The Republic of China has always had a resolute viewpoint and stand on world affairs… It was so in the past, it is today and it will be in the future.” He said Taiwan maintains cultural, trade and other substantial relations with 103 nations.
Cyclone Tracy, which struck the city of Darwin the night before and raged through the early morning hours, moved onward by 8:30 a.m. after having killed 66 people, 45 of whom were on land and 21 at sea, and causing US$645 million in damage.
An airlift has begun to evacuate at least 10,000 people from the cyclone-devastated city of Darwin according to word from the Australian capital of Canberra. The north coast city was hit by cyclonic 125-mile-an-hour winds Christmas eve, leaving 90 percent of the city in ruins, 44 persons known dead as of today and hundreds injured. The death toll was expected to climb when reports come in from Katherine, a town 190 miles from Darwin, also hit by the storm.
Peru is negotiating to purchase the U.S.-owned Marcona Mining Co. holdings next year, a senior Marcona official said in Lima. The official, Ladislao Prazak, said negotiations for the purchase are well under way.
The body of a young man, killed by several bullets in the head, was discovered at a downtown Buenos Aires building where a leftist organization has its headquarters. The discovery raised Argentina’s 1974 death toll in political violence to 223.
An outbreak of typhoid in the Colombian Embassy in Santiago, Chile, where 55 Chilean political refugees have sought asylum, has been brought under control, an embassy spokesman said. He said that there was only one confirmed case of typhoid and that all the other refugees inside the building had been vaccinated.
Guerrillas have killed four members of the South African police force serving in Rhodesia and wounded fifth, the South African Government announced last night. The news came two weeks after the Rhodesian Prime Minister, Ian D. Smith, announced that he had reached a cease‐fire agreement with his country’s black nationalist groups. But there was no immediate official word of when the clash occurred. The South African announcement raises the possibility that some guerrilia groups operating in remote areas of Rhodesia have still not heard about the cease-fire. South African policemen with paramilitary training have been helping the Rhodesian security forces fight the guerrillas.
President Ford’s senior advisers will fly to Colorado for several days of talks with him. The conferences are expected to lead to basic policy decisions concerning energy and the economy. Despite Mr. Ford’s repeated expressions of dislike for a higher gasoline tax, he continues to entertain proposals for such an increase to discourage driving and to move toward a cut in oil imports of one million barrels a day by next fall. Some energy planners privately doubt that the goal will be achieved. If Mr. Ford comes to share that skepticism, he can be expected to stress not fulfillment of the goal to the very last barrel but actions that will move the country in the right direction — toward importing a little less oil in 1975 and a lot less by the 1980–85 period. Mr. Ford has been unable to insist on shelving the gasoline tax proposal because it fits too neatly with the advice he is getting from many quarters to ask Congress for a general income tax reduction to reverse the recession. The gasoline tax would raise the revenues that would keep an income tax cut from adding excessively to the budget deficit. A big deficit tends to drive up interest rates, choking off house building and investment.
A young man dressed like an Arab in a white robe shattered the Christmas calm in Washington when he drove a car through a White House gate. He was believed to have had “explosives,” which actually were emergency flares. The man, identified as Marshall Fields, surrendered after about four hours to White House security police and was taken to a hospital for psychiatric examination. With President Ford and his family out of town, the building was empty except for staff. There were Secret Service agents and security guards on the grounds. The Secret Service already had a file on Mr. Fields, a college dropout and former taxi driver, as a person who had made a threat against government officials, a spokesman for the service said. The threat was reportedly not against the President.
A Secret Service spokesman said Mr. Fields’s only demand was to speak to the ambassador of Pakistan. He surrendered after the Howard University radio station met his demand to broadcast an appeal for a meeting with the ambassador. The ambassador, Sahabzada Yagub Kahn, had no intention of meeting with Mr. Fields, according to a spokesman for the embassy.
Concern over the nation’s economy has caused President Ford’s popularity with the American people to slide to its lowest point since he took office less than 5 months ago, the latest Gallup poll shows. The poll, taken early this month, showed that 42 percent of the national sample questioned approved the job Mr. Ford is doing; 41 percent disapproved and 17 would register no opinion. Last Aug. 9, shortly after he took office, Mr. Ford’s approval rating was 71 percent of the 1,500 adults questioned.
Former Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford has urged Congress to form a special committee to investigate published charges of domestic spying by the Central Intelligence Agency. Mr. Clifford, who helped to draft legislation in 1947 setting up the C.I.A., said that previous investigations by Senate and House Armed Services Committees had not got very far. Meanwhile, in Vail, Colo., where he is skiing, President Ford is awaiting a 50-page report on the domestic spying allegations from William Colby, Director of Central Intelligence.
In the early morning of December 25, 25-year-old model Sandra Zahler was beaten to death in her apartment in Kew Gardens, Queens, New York City, adjacent to the site of the 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese. According to Robert D. McFadden of The New York Times, “[A]t least one neighbor heard her dying screams and did nothing”. The murder was not reported until Zahler’s body was discovered over 34 hours later.
An attorney for the estate of slain accused killer Paul John Knowles said in Miami that he and the attorney for the Knowles family had been refused permission to participate in an inquest Monday into Knowles’ death at the hands of a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent. The GBI has cleared Inspector Ron Angel of any wrongdoing in shooting Knowles, 28, a Florida ex-convict, in what police said was an escape attempt.
The women in Congress are talking about establishing their own caucus to increase their influence and unify their strategy. A first step was taken this month when the 12 incumbent women Democrats and their four new colleagues stated their preferences for committee assignments and won the backing of the other women for the posts. The new House will have 18 women members — 16 Democrats and two Republicans. “We’re realizing that in unity is strength, although we may differ in our approach or ideology,” said Rep. Shirley Chisholm (D-New York).
Armed inmates at Lorton, Virginia, Reformatory were holding nine guards hostage in a mess hall, authorities said. They added that two other inmates had escaped, taking a guard as hostage but releasing him unharmed shortly afterward. Police described the escapees as armed and very dangerous. The reformatory, 15 miles south of Washington, D.C., is operated for the district government. Police said the inmates holding hostages in the mess hall were heavily armed with shotguns and rifles. Police said there was no immediate explanation of what sparked the disturbance or what the inmates were demanding.
A choir director was stabbed to death on the steps of Chicago’s Precious Blood Church by an usher Christmas morning when he tried to break up a fight between choir members and ushers, authorities said. A 16-year-old youth was arrested in the fatal knifing of Wesley Coleman, 19. An argument broke out shortly before the midnight Mass between the singers and ushers, who were wearing ROTC uniforms. “They said, “You guys in the uniforms. You sissies in the choir.’ Things like that,” a police spokesman said. Coleman apparently bumped into the uniformed youth, who allegedly grabbed a knife from a friend and stabbed Coleman once.
Two members of a Jamaican religious cult were killed and a third wounded when an early morning argument erupted into shotgun fire at a Christmas Eve party in Brooklyn. Policeman Arthur Lasky said members of the Rastafarion religious sect had rented a basement for the party and that more than 100 persons attended. Lasky said the cause of the argument was not known and sect members refused to cooperate with the investigation.
Two children buried when a cave they were digging caved in at Lawton, Oklahoma, were rescued by two military men who dug them out with their hands. Scott Cohoon, 10, and Scott Williams, 11, were being treated at the nearby Ft. Sill Army Base hospital for bruises. Captain Edward Greene said a young companion who had been playing with the two boys alerted him to the accident and he and an unidentified British officer ran to the scene and dug them out.
When he returned for the holidays after six months aboard the carrier Constellation, sailor Steve Whitlock stepped off the plane at Huntsville, Alabama, and found a present waiting for him — a large box with legs, arms and head protruding. It was his wife, gift-wrapped. “It was the only thing I could think of that he really wanted for Christmas,” she said. “Outasight,” said Whitlock.
An effort to save Florida’s coconut palms with injections of an antibiotic appears to have failed to stop the spread of the deadly disease, called lethal yellowing.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management accepted more than $1 million in bids for leases on 21,600 acres of federal land for geothermal development in Nevada, A BLM spokesman in Reno said Chevron Oil Co. of San Francisco posted the highest single bid: $55,000 for a 2,500-acre parcel in the Beowawe area of north-central Nevada. The same firm was the high bidder on five of nine parcels, with bids of about $836,000 for 11,000 acres. Getty Oil Co. bid $75,000 for two parcels and the Natomas Co. of San Francisco bid $189,000 on two parcels. The BLM spokesman said leases will be issued as soon as the companies fulfill remaining legal requirements.
The next major decision in what has come to be known, as the great fighter plane sweepstakes is due January 15, now that the United States has rebuffed a French proposal that the two countries share in fighter sales in Western Europe. On that date, the Defense Department is scheduled to choose between two new American planes being offered to meet Air Force desires for a lightweight interceptor to supplement the advanced F-15’s now being produced by McDonnell Douglas. The new fighters are the YF-16, a single‐engine aircraft built by General Dynamics, and the YF-17 Cobra, a twin‐engine plane produced by Northrop. The Air Force reportedly would buy at least 650 fighters, and roughly half that number could be expected to be sold in Western Europe. There, four members of the Atlantic alliance — Norway, Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands — are seeking an advanced fighter to replace their aging F‐104’s in the nineteen‐eighties.
Born:
Nagma (stage name for Nandita Morarji), Indian film actress known for the 1990 blockbuster “Baaghi”; in Bombay (now Mumbai), India.
Ed Husain, British author and activist; in London, England, United Kingdom.
Tamara Bleszynski, Indonesian TV actress and singer; in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia.
Chris Naeole, NFL guard (New Orleans Saints, Jacksonville Jaguars), in Kailua, Hawaii.
Kerlin Blaise, NFL guard (Detroit Lions), in Orlando, Florida.
Died:
Ahmad Ismail Ali, 57, Egyptian Minister of Defense and Commander-in-Chief during the Yom Kippur War, of cancer.
Harry Ray, 65, American film make-up artist, costume designer and actor (“Avanti!”).
Giacomo Devoto, 77, Italian linguist, author of a celebrated dictionary of the Italian language.
History Diaries 