The Reagan Administration plans to issue a report contending that Poland has broadened its suppression of individual rights since the 1981 declaration of martial law, a senior State Department official said today. The Administration’s analysis of the human rights situation is contained in the department’s year-end report to Congress on the world’s human rights situation. The Administration findings parallel those in a report that was made public today by the Lawyers Committee for International Human Rights, the State Department official said. According to the group’s report, “Poland – Three Years After,” martial law enabled the Government of Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski to broaden permanently the power of the Polish Army and the military police. The Government has also continued to limit Poles’ rights to organize trade unions and to speak freely by legalizing arrest and detention without trial, the report said.
West German terrorists stepped up a 2-week-old bombing campaign against U.S. Army installations, damaging a radio antenna near the Heidelberg-Mannheim autobahn and a U.S. intelligence office at a British facility in Düsseldorf. No one was injured in the early-morning attacks, authorities said. Damage was estimated at $112,000. They were the sixth and seventh attacks since December 18 in a campaign coinciding with a hunger strike by 39 jailed members of the Red Army Faction.
The demise of the English pound note, which became legal tender in 1797 during the French Revolutionary Wars, will come one step nearer today when the Bank of England stops issuing it. The government had said last month that it planned to phase out the familiar green note and replace it entirely with a coin that has been in circulation since April, 1983. The planned change upset many Britons who argued that the new coin could be confused with others.
The director general of UNESCO, Amadou Mahtar M’Bow of Senegal, has strongly criticized Jean Gerard, the departing American representative to the agency, calling her ignorant and “a politician.” Mr. M’Bow, dismissing Mrs. Gerard as “that woman,” said she had “no idea how UNESCO works.” Mrs. Gerard today rejected Mr. M’Bow’s remarks, saying it was “unacceptable for an international civil servant to make public political attacks on a member country of the United Nations system and on that country’s representative.” The comments by Mr. M’Bow, head of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, came during an interview on French television Saturday night.
The Israeli Prime Minister, Shimon Peres, said today that chances for a negotiated withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon in a few months were improved. “Over the weekend there was a little bit of diplomatic movement, which again enhanced the chances of negotiations,” Mr. Peres said in an interview from Jerusalem broadcast on NBC on “Meet the Press.” Mr. Peres refused to give specifics about the negotiations on Lebanon, which are to resume January 7.
The chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Yasser Arafat, arrived in Amman, Jordan from Southern Yemen today, a day after the assassination of a senior P.L.O. official, and he accused Syria of being behind the killing. Mr. Arafat said the shooting of the official, Fahad Kawasmeh, on an Amman street was the work of “hireling killers and the rulers of Damascus who protect and direct them.” Mr. Kawasmeh, a former Mayor of Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, was one of 11 elected members of the P.L.O.’s executive committee. The slain P.L.O. official’s relatives said they were trying to get Israeli permission to bury him in Hebron.
Gunmen abducted three foreign journalists from a restaurant, robbed them and threatened to kill them before releasing them several hours later, the journalists said today. The correspondents, two Americans and a Canadian, were kidnapped Saturday night. Steve Hagey, 31 years old, bureau manager of United Press International, was held most of the night after the Canadian, William Maclean, 29, of Reuters, and a freelance reporter, Maggie Fox, 25, were left tied up at Mr. Maclean’s apartment. The correspondents said four masked gunmen abducted them as they entered a restaurant near the Commodore Hotel in mainly Muslim West Beirut. They forced them into a car and several times threatened to kill them. The gunmen forced them to unlock their apartments and stole cash, stereos, cameras and rings. Mr. Maclean said that after three hours the men bound him and Miss Fox with electric cord, blindfolded them and then left.
Iraqi aircraft raided two areas of Khuzistan province near the southern front of the Persian Gulf War, killing at least 14 people and injuring almost 100, the official Iranian news agency reported. There was no independent confirmation of the attacks. Tehran said the raids on the town of Bostan and the village of Magasis Ramleh breached a U.N.-sponsored agreement reached in June not to attack civilian centers. Both Iran and Iraq have accused each other of breaking the agreement. The press agency said all the deaths and 90 of the other casualties came in a raid on the border town of Bostan. Six other people were wounded in an earlier attack on the village of Magasis Ramleh, the report said. Both are in Khuzistan Province.
An Indian state will sue in the U.S. on behalf of the victims of the poison gas leak at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal that killed more than 2,000 people. The announcement in Madhya Pradesh followed many complaints about some American lawyers in Bhopal. Some officials say lawyers have been taking unfair advantage of local people. The government of India’s Madhya Pradesh state said it is filing suit in U.S. courts against Union Carbide Corp. seeking compensation for casualties and damage caused by the leak of poison gas that killed more than 2,000 people in the city of Bhopal on December 2. State officials said that their government is suing on behalf of all state inhabitants who were killed, injured or materially affected by the leak and that legal assistance centers are being set up to help victims and survivors.
Guerrillas eluded tight security to bombard Kabul, the Afghan capital, with rockets on at least five successive nights last week, Western diplomats here said today. Despite a steady security buildup in the weeks preceding the December 27 anniversary of the Soviet entry into the Afghan struggle, Muslim rebels began hitting Soviet and Afghan military installations with 107-millimeter rockets on Monday, the diplomats told journalists in Pakistan.
Cambodian non-Communist guerrillas, fighting Vietnamese troops in the heart of an overrun rebel camp, said today that they had killed or wounded about 100 of Hanoi’s soldiers but had sustained serious losses of their own. Some 4,500 guerrillas have been trying to retake the Rithisen camp, the largest guerrilla camp along the Thai- Cambodian border. The non-Communist rebel group, the Khmer People’s National Liberation Front, and two other anti-Vietnamese groups have their strongholds along the border.
Forty of China’s top military men retired in what appeared to be the most important shake-up in China’s General Staff in years. The retirements, which resulted from insistent prodding, appear to mark a major step forward in Deng Xiaoping’s drive to rid the aging officer corps of veterans who have resisted his campaign to get the four-million-member armed forces out of politics and into a more modern approach to warfare.
President Reagan will meet with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone in Los Angeles on Wednesday but it is unlikely that he will make specific demands for Japan to narrow its trade deficit with the United States, according to Administration officials. Despite the growing concern of American officials over the trade imbalance, the aides predicted a low-key meeting that would emphasize the friendship and cooperation between the two allies. However, the talks could lead to meetings of Cabinet officials of both countries who would sit down together in coming months to consider specific actions to reduce the deficit, both American and Japanese officials said. Dollar’s Strength Cited Many analysts here and in Tokyo believe that so long as the dollar remains high-priced relative to the yen – making American products less competitive than Japanese goods – only limited progress is possible in cutting the deficit. The trade deficit with Japan is projected at more than $30 billion this year and $40 billion in 1985.
Ailing Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos failed to attend his first scheduled public ceremony since he fell ill six weeks ago. Marcos’ decision not to attend a traditional flag-raising came as the nation’s largest opposition coalition said it will hold a convention in February to select a candidate to run for president if Marcos dies before his term ends in 1987.
A rampage in the Mexican town of Piedras Negras broke out following the defeat of an opposition mayoral candidate. One man died and 45 people were reported hurt today after supporters of a defeated mayoral candidate went on a nighttime rampage in this city near the Texas border. The violence continued until dawn, when the Mexican Army moved in. Local reporters at the scene said the police had opened fire on a group of about 1,000 demonstrators. The rioters, who charged that the governing national party had rigged the election, set fire to the city hall and jail, then fought firefighters who had arrived to put out the flames.
Fighting between left-wing guerrillas and security forces in El Salvador has killed 3,418 civilians and combatants over the last year, less than half the 1983 toll of 6,909, according to preliminary figures released by Roman Catholic Auxiliary Archbishop Gregorio Rosal Chavez. The church says more than 50,000 people have been killed since the civil war erupted five years ago. In another development, rebels attacked the country’s largest cement factory in Metapan, northwest of San Salvador, killing a national guardsman and wounding two. There were conflicting reports about damage to the plant.
General Jose Olvis Arias, former Bolivian army commander who refused to obey a presidential order to surrender his command, has backed down from his threat to mobilize troops against the government. General Raul Lopez Leyton, successor to Olvis Arias, said the general accepted his offer of safe conduct out of the Miraflores army garrison in La Paz and other guarantees that he did not specify. Olvis Arias’ destination was not known. President Hernan Siles Zuazo had fired Olvis Arias after only two months, apparently based on suspicions of his involvement in a coup plot.
Angola’s almost hidden civil war has left countless dead, 20,000 amputees and aggravated malnourishment for one-third of the people of the once-fertile highlands. Nine years ago, Jonas Savimbi made the city of Huambo the capital of his short-lived Democratic Republic of Angola. Today he is trying to strangle it. Huambo is the center of Angola’s almost hidden civil war, a conflict that has left countless dead, 20,000 amputees and aggravated malnourishment problems for one-third of the people of the once-fertile central highlands. Mr. Savimbi leads the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, a pro-Western group known as Unita that is supplied by South Africa and is based in Jamba, 500 miles southeast of here. Opposing him is Angola’s Marxist Government, which is supplied by the Soviet Union and is based in the capital, Luanda, 300 miles northwest of here. Driven Into the Bush Caught in between is Huambo, once the capital of Mr. Savimbi’s Angola. His republic lasted two months, until January 1976, when the leftist forces, backed by Cuban troops, drove Unita guerrillas into the bush.
Many Federal tax changes in 1985 will simultaneously produce a reduction in personal income taxes, an increase in Social Security taxes, and extra record-keeping headaches for millions of taxpayers. The most conspicuous change will be the automatic adjustment, or “indexation” of the income tax for inflation. This historic change, resulting from the Economic Recovery Act of 1981, means that Americans will no longer be forced to pay higher taxes on income that has only kept up with living costs.
Cutting the U.S. trade deficit with Japan is unlikely to be dealt with in specific ways by President Reagan when he meets with Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone in Los Angeles Wednesday, Reagan Administration officials said. Despite the growing concern of American officials over the trade imbalance, the aides predicted a low-key meeting that would emphasize the friendship and cooperation between the two allies.
President Reagan visits the Eldorado Country Club in Palm Springs, California.
The major issue in Congress, which begins its 99th session Thursday, will be the Federal budget deficit, just as it has been in each of the last four years. Once again the same question will be asked: Can the deficit, which Congress and the Administration have sought to cut each year since 1981, be reduced? Since 1981, when the deficit was $57.9 billion, the red ink total has steadily grown, reaching a record $195.4 billion in 1983 and threatening to top $200 billion in 1985. House and Senate leaders in both parties have said reductions in the deficit are their top legislative priority and that they are willing to work with President Reagan. But it is still likely there will be sharp clashes with the White House, first, over the military budget, and possibly over the specifics of any domestic spending cuts.
Farm program cuts proposed by the Reagan Administration to help reduce the Federal deficits are bitterly opposed by farmers facing difficult times. Economists say experiences vary widely, but many farms are burdened by large debts and heavy interest costs, while prices are now depressed by lower surpluses.
The Chief Justice again asked Congress for help with the Supreme Court’s caseload in his year-end report on the judiciary, warning that “Supreme Court justices must now work beyond any sound maximum limits.” He added that “the precious time for reflection so necessary to a court that decides cases with far-reaching consequences has been reduced to, and possibly below, an absolute minimum.” The Chief Justice urged Congressional action on two proposals he has advocated for a number of years. One is the creation of a new Federal court, an “intercircuit tribunal,” that would relieve the Supreme Court’s caseload by deciding legal questions to which the 13 Federal appeals courts provideconflicting answers.
The Wilberg Mine in eastern Utah has become a tomb for 27 fire victims as crews finished sealing 15 portals in an effort to stop a fire that broke out December 19. The mine, 115 miles east of here, was technically sealed late Saturday, although the main entrance is not air- tight, according to Robert Henrie, a spokesman for Emery Mining Company, the operator of the mine. The mine is owned by the Utah Power and Light Company.
The Israeli Cabinet set up a committee to decide whether to release secret documents requested by the U.S. federal judge who is trying former Defense Minister Ariel Sharon’s libel suit against TIME magazine, Israel radio reported. The committee, headed by Prime Minister Shimon Peres, will make its decision today, the radio said. The suit, being tried in New York City, concerns TIME’s implication that Sharon encouraged a massacre of Palestinian refugees in West Beirut.
Dr. William C. DeVries, head of the team that performed the world’s second artificial heart implant on William J. Schroeder in November, said heart patients would be interviewed this week in a screening process for the next artificial heart implant, The Los Angeles Times reported today. “We need a dynamic, forceful fighter, a guy like Schroeder who wants to live,” Dr. DeVries said. Mr. Schroeder continues to be listed in serious but stable condition at Humana Heart Institute International in Louisville, Kentucky. Dr. DeVries told The Times that he had a list of 30 candidates for the next implant, which he said could be done as early as mid-January, and that interviews would be conducted this week in Louisville. He also said that, unlike Mr. Schroeder, the next implant patient should not have diabetes.
Supporters of a jailed minister, the Rev. D. Douglas Roth, removed plywood barricades, unchained the doors of Trinity Lutheran Church in Clairton, Pennsylvania, and held Sunday services for what could be the last time before a county sheriff enforces a judge’s order to seize the building. “Be strong and of good courage, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Even if they take the church, we will retake it,” Roth told his backers in a message recorded behind bars. The pastor is serving a 90-day sentence for contempt of court resulting from his protest against joblessness and steel firms.
Local advocates for the unemployed say they are weary of having to explain that they are not part of the group whose members have occupied a church in defiance of a court order. The advocates say the public’s tendency to confuse them with the militant Network to Save the Mon-Ohio Valley and the Denominational Ministry Strategy has hampered their work. “It’s not us,” said Rob Toy, director of the Mon Valley Unemployed Committee. Mr. Toy said a recent committee newsletter was returned with the words “How dare you use the house of God to demonstrate your point!” scribbled across the front.
The Civil Aeronautics Board goes out of business at midnight tonight, ending a 46-year history during which the agency helped guide a small airline industry into a major competitive force. The board closes its doors as a result of the 1978 Airline Deregulation Act. Under that law, the nation’s airlines already have assumed control of domestic routes and ticket pricing. Remaining regulations — such as international air transport, smoking rules, lost baggage liability, overbooking and charter rules — will be assumed by an office in the Transportation Department.
Air Force plans to build a space shuttle tracking station in a Florida state park known for its deer, alligators and natural beauty have prompted protests from officials. The 10,000-acre Jonathan Dickinson State Park was chosen as the site for the $6.46 million missile tracking station in 1978, after the state traded 10 acres there for a stretch of coast now used as public beach. Once a one-story building, power house, guard house and eight antennas are completed, the station will be used to collect information on shuttle and missile launchings and to track them. The Air Force is expected to sign a “notice to proceed order” on January 4 to begin construction, which could take a year to complete, said Dotty Elingson, an Air Force spokesman. The plans proceed despite strong opposition from Martin County officials and the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council. Last year, regional planners argued that the facility would harm the park’ environment. The Martin County Commission sent a letter to the Air Force asking that the station not be built in the park. But Miss Elingson maintained that the station would do no damage. “It’s in an area that does not appear to interfere with the park at all,” she said.
United for 35 years under one telephone area code, New York turns into a city divided at midnight tonight. Manhattan and the Bronx keep the familiar 212, while Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island get the new-and largely unwelcome-718. The new area code means residents of Manhattan and the Bronx must dial 1-718 before numbers in Brooklyn, Queens or Staten Island, and callers from those boroughs must dial 1-212 before numbers in Manhattan and the Bronx. The new code actually began in September, but dialing it had not been mandatory.
Dozens of cats, dogs and chickens have been mutilated in what the police think may be the work of a satanic cult. Sheriff John Overly of Union County in Ohio said today an investigation was continuing into the death of 78 chickens, 24 cats and 8 dogs. “I’m not saying it definitely is cult-related but I can’t say it isn’t either,” Sheriff Overly said. However, Dr. Tad Sullivan, a veterinarian who did an autopsy on several dead dogs, said the animals could have been killed by rampaging dogs.
Risks taken by women on the road to equality were never more visible than in 1984: the first woman ran for the Vice Presidency on the ticket of a major party, the first American woman walked in space, and a team of American female athletes won 62 gold medals in the Summer Olympics. But progress on women’s rights has been mixed this year, according to a review of major advances and setbacks by the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund.
James R. Schlesinger, former energy secretary, warned that the current oil glut could boomerang on the United States before the end of the decade. Appearing on ABC-TV’s news program, “This Week With David Brinkley,” Schlesinger said there will be problems because the availability of oil supplies “will cut down on drilling activity, will cut down on the search for substitutes and will cut down on conservation.”
Environmental scientists warn that indoor air pollution may cause or aggravate half of all the illnesses in the United States and may contribute to thousands of deaths annually, Newsweek magazine reported. Scientists estimate that 2,000 to 20,000 cases of lung cancer each year may be caused solely by indoor radon pollution, the magazine said. Radon gas is produced by the decay of uranium in the soil.
The Northwest dug out from as much as two feet of snow and forecasters warned of avalanches, while winter cold in the East displaced unseasonably balmy weather that broke scores of high-temperature records. Before the cold air reached the upper Eastern Seaboard, the summery snap set new warm weather records in a dozen cities, while a dozen more in the Southeast enjoyed record warmth through the day. A winter storm warning was in effect for mountain passes of northwest Montana, and travelers’ advisories were issued for much of Idaho and Washington and the higher elevations of northern Utah.
AFC Divisional Playoff Game:
Pittsburgh Steelers 24, Denver Broncos 17
The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the host Denver Broncos, 24–17, to advance to the AFC Championship Game against Miami. Steelers running back Frank Pollard led the team to victory with 99 rushing yards, 4 receptions for 48 yards, and two touchdowns, the second in the game’s closing minutes to the put Pittsburgh ahead for good. The Broncos got their first chance to score after the opening drive, in which Rulon Jones’s sack of Steelers quarterback Mark Malone forced a fumble that was recovered by defensive end Andre Townsend on the Steelers 23-yard line. But Denver only gained 1 yard with their next three plays and Rich Karlis missed a 39-yard field goal attempt. On the next play, Denver’s Tom Jackson recovered a fumbled snap from Malone on the Steelers 22 set up quarterback John Elway’s 9-yard touchdown pass to Jim Wright. Pittsburgh responded by moving the ball 62 yards to the Broncos 11-yard line, where Gary Anderson’s 28-yard field goal made the score 7-3. Denver then drove to a 3rd and goal from the Steelers 6-yard line, only to lose the ball when Elway threw a pass that was intercepted by Pittsburgh defensive end Gary Dunn. Late in the second quarter, Pollard rushed 4 times for 45 yards on a 78-yard drive that ended with his 1-yard touchdown run, giving the Steelers a 10-7 lead with 1:14 left in the half.
Denver tied the game in the third period when safety Roger Jackson blocked a punt give them a first and goal on the Pittsburgh 4-yard line, leading to Karlis’ 21-yard field goal. The next time Denver got the ball, they drove 54 yards to take a 17-10 lead on Elway’s 20-yard touchdown pass to Steve Watson (who finished with 11 receptions for 177 yards). But the Steelers tied the game with quarterback Mark Malone’s 10-yard touchdown to Louis Lipps. With 3 and half minutes left in the game, Pittsburgh drove into position for Anderson to attempt a go-ahead field goal, but he missed the kick from 26 yards. A few plays later, Steelers safety Eric Williams intercepted a pass from Elway and returned it 28 yards to the Broncos’ 2-yard line to set up Pollard’s winning 1-yard touchdown run. Malone finished the game with 227 passing yards and a touchdown. Elway threw for 184 yards and two scores, but was sacked four times and intercepted twice. This was Elway’s first playoff game as a starter; because of the Broncos’ elimination, he was denied the opportunity to play in the only Super Bowl to be held at his college home field, Stanford Stadium. The Steelers outgained Denver who was outgained in ten of their 16 games in the regular season and ranked bottom 10 on total offense and total defense. Running back Sammy Winder, who rushed for 1,153 yards during the season, was held to just 37 yards on 15 carries. This was the third postseason meeting between the Steelers and Broncos. Both teams split the prior two meetings.
NFC Divisional Playoff Game:
Chicago Bears 23, Washington Redskins 19
The Chicago Bears upset the defending NFC champion Washington Redskins, 23–19, in Washingotn. The Bears upset the Redskins’ bid for a third consecutive NFC championship with clutch plays and a stout defense that forced 3 turnovers and 7 sacks. Chicago’s victory was Washington’s first and only playoff defeat throughout their tenure at RFK Stadium. With the scored tied 3–3 in the second quarter, the Bears executed a halfback option play at the Redskins’ 19-yard line, with running back Walter Payton throwing a 19-yard touchdown to Pat Dunsmore. Then on the second play in the third period, Bears wide receiver Willie Gault caught a short pass from quarterback Steve Fuller, evaded Redskins cornerback Darrell Green who was too aggressive in trying to make an interception, and turned upfield for a 75-yard touchdown. Redskins running back John Riggins capped off a 74-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown run then cut the lead, 16–10. But a running into the punter penalty call against Ken Coffey set up Dennis McKinnon’s 16-yard reception to cap a Chicago 77-yard scoring drive to push their lead back to 13 at 23–10.
Washington attempted a comeback late in the third quarter. Rich Milot recovered a Fuller fumble at the Chicago 36-yard line, setting up a one-yard touchdown run by Riggins to cut the Bears lead to six. Then after being backed up deep in their own territory on fourth down with eight minutes left in the game, Chicago punter Dave Finzer stepped out of the end zone and gave the Redskins an intentional safety, making it 23–19. Washington then advanced to the Bears 24-yard line, but quarterback Joe Theismann threw three straight incompletions and Mark Moseley missed a 41-yard field goal attempt. Two other Washington possessions went nowhere and Chicago moved on to the NFC championship game. Payton finished the game with a career postseason high 104 rushing yards, and caught one pass for 12. This game would be the only time in Joe Gibbs’ original tenure in Washington that his team would lose their opening playoff game. It happened for the only other time in what was Gibbs’ final game in his career in the 2007-08 NFL playoffs to the Seattle Seahawks. This was the fifth postseason meeting between the Bears and Redskins. Both teams previously split the prior four meetings.
Born:
LeBron James, Team USA and NBA small forward, power forward, point guard, center, and shooting guard (Olympic gold, 2008, 2012; NBA Championship, 2012, 2013-Miami; 2016-Cleveland; 2020-Lakers; 20 × NBA All-Star, 2005–2024; NBA MVP, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013; Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat, Los Angeles Lakers), in Akron, Ohio.
Andra Day [Cassandra Batie], American singer-songwriter (“Rise Up”), and actress (“The United States vs. Billie Holiday”), in Edmonds, Washington.
Dalia Stasevska, Ukrainian-Finnish conductor (Lahti Symphony, 2021-present), in Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union.
Died:
Massa, oldest gorilla on record (b. 1930).
History Diaries 