Italy, Sweden, Japan, Tanzania and Guyana are beginning two-year terms on the 15-nation U.N. Security Council, replacing Australia, Austria, Indonesia, Kenya and Peru. The five members whose terms expire at the end of 1975 are Byelorussia, Costa Rica, Iraq, Mauritania and Cameroon. The five permanent members are Britain, China, France, the Soviet Union and the United States.
The Defense Department cited presidential statements to support its chemical-warfare planning and strongly defended itself against a charge by Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wisconsin) that it may be disregarding congressional instructions about new nerve gas production. The Army said Congress never even considered “legislation which would have banned production.
Hopes for extending the holiday cease-fire in Northern Ireland, called nine days ago by the Irish Republican Army, rose with a British announcement of release of a number of political prisoners. Today’s British announcement was a new phase in what appeared to be the most hopeful developments in the province since a low point was reached with the downfall of the moderate Protestant‐Roman Catholic coalition government last spring. The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Merlyn Rees, announced that 20 of the nearly 600 prisoners held under detention orders would be released and 50 more would be allowed to go home for a three‐day parole. In addition, 100 convicted prisoners whose terms expire between now and the end of March will be freed immediately. Further, in a letter to the people of Northern Ireland, Mr. Rees promised that if the halt in violence were made permanent, there would be a gradual release of all detainees and a steady reduction in army activity.
French Premier Jacques Chirac joined the entire population of the mining town of Lievin to mourn the 42 victims of last Friday’s coal-mine explosion. The disaster in the mining town of 30,000 was the worst in France in nearly 70 years. Chirac was joined by representatives of the Belgian government, the Common Market, trade unions and other mines throughout France.
The government of France implemented law number 74-696, breaking up the Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française (ORTF) broadcasting monopoly into seven businesses, effective January 6.
Italian insurance companies are not advertising it yet, but they almost routinely write policies now covering the ransom paid to kidnappers. The standard premium now, is 1 percent of the ceiling amount the company contracts to pay. No insurance had apparently been taken out for the seven persons known to have been kidnapped recently. “Kidnapping has become a very profitable industry,” said Costantino Belluscio, a member of Parliament. “In the last five years kidnappers have raked in $24.5‐million, no less than $8‐million in 1974 alone.”
Ten skiers were killed today near Bludenz, Austria when an avalanche cascaded down a mountainside in Austria’s second serious winter sports accident in two weeks.
Mikhail Shtern, a Jewish physician whose arrest and trial have attracted Western attention, was sentenced today by a Ukrainian court to eight years in a labor camp on charges of swindling and bribe-taking, his elder son, Viktor, reported.
Israeli forces entered two villages approximately a mile across the Lebanese border at about midnight, blew up six houses and took six prisoners, Israeli military headquarters here announced this morning. One of the Israeli units came under artillery fire on its way back home but there were no casualties, according to the report. The houses, in Yarim and Aitaroun, north of Mount Manor, had been “used by terrorists” the Israeli announcement said. The prisoners detained had been suspected of assisting terrorists and were taken for questioning. The Israelis said the houses were evacuated and thoroughly checked before they were blown up. The Israeli raid, in the small hour of the morning, followed the interception of three Arab guerrillas, who infiltrated yesterday from Lebanon. They were wiped out in a brief exchange of fire.
Diplomatic sources in Cairo said that illness, not a rift in relations, caused the Soviet leader, Leonid Brezhnev, to postpone his visit to the Middle East. The sources disclosed that he received his Egyptian visitors in a sanatorium outside Moscow. Egypt’s foreign and defense ministers returned to Cairo and were immediately received by President Anwar Sadat. The report appeared to eliminate the theory that the postponement was part of a new Soviet-United States crisis.
Ethiopia’s military rulers today announced the nationalization of all land, financial institutions and insurance companies.
Iraq charged that Iranians have shelled its territory for two days. The charge by the Iraqi army command was quoted by the Iraq News Agency in Bagdad. The command said the village of Galaat Dazza was the target. It warned of ‘consequences of the continued Iranian aggression which caused loss of life and material damage.
The death toll in northern Pakistan’s earthquake was estimated at 5,200 today, up 500, with the discovery of two more mountain villages practically destroyed in the disaster Saturday. Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto appealed for international aid. Among the country’s needs, said Brigadier Aftab Ahmad Khan, who is supervising rescue operations, are “literally tons of plaster of paris” to set thousands of broken limbs. He also asked for 2,000 to 3,000 tents, medicines, blankets and food. Thousands of the injured, made homeless by the quake, are still living in the open, beyond the reach of medical care.
India and Portugal today re-established diplomatic relations after a break of nearly 20 years.
North Vietnamese forces spearheaded by tanks overran a South Vietnamese district town 75 miles north of Saigon today, the military command announced. The town, Phước Bình, was the sixth district capital in the current Communist drive, which began December 6. It was the fourth to fall in isolated Phước Long Province on the Cambodia. border and the last in the province in government hands. The command said government forces knocked out five Soviet‐built T‐54 medium tanks before retreating from Phước Bình to a base camp half‐a‐mile away. Spokesmen said the base camp was shelled and attacked by North Vietnamese troops and tanks but at last report government defenders were holding.
Spokesmen said the Phước Bình district town garrison consisted of about 300 government troops. Initial reports listed six government soldiers wounded and 42 missing. There was no immediate report on North Vietnamese losses. The North Vietnamese and Việt Cộng already control much of the northern sectors of the provinces bordering Cambodia, which shortens supply lines of the Communist side. The fall of Phước Bình district town leaves the provincial capital of Phước Bình City as the remaining government stronghold. Lieutenant Colonel Lê Trung Hiền, chief spokesman for the command, had said earlied that if Phước Bình district town fell, the provincial capital, two and a half miles to the northeast, would be in serious danger.
Japan’s Premier Takeo Miki in his New Year message told the Japanese people today that the troubled situation in the Middle East and inflation were the greatest issues facing Japan and the world in 1975.
In Mexico City’s Lecumberri Prisen, 26 American women were severely beaten Monday, the San Francisco Examiner reported. It said four men were beaten earlier. Two Examiner reporters are there investigating reports of harsh treatment of Americans jailed for narcotics offenses. US. Consul General Peter Peterson said that the US. Embassy had a report of some sort of incident at Lecumberri. The women reportedly were taken from Los Reyes women’s prison to Lecumberri for conjugal visits.
The leader of a Nicaraguan guerrilla group which was flown to Cuba after a successful mass kidnaping in Managua said the plot had been planned for 20 days, according to Radio Havana. The chief terrorist of the Sandinista Liberation Front, identified only as Comrade Marcos, said the capture for ransom of a dozen prominent government officials was his gang’s first mission and was “a political action of profound social repercussion.
The Argentine Government has authorized the federal police to hire 3,000 new policemen to keep up with the increased work load. Federal police handle most crime control in Buenos Aires and do specialized jobs throughout the country.
Chile’s President General Augusto Pinochet offered to free 200 political prisoners and fly them immediately to Mexico, adding that Chile was waiting for a positive response from Mexico to make the proposal effective at no cost to Mexico. Mexico severed relations with Chile in November largely on grounds of political persecution. Four months ago, Chile challenged Cuba and the Soviet Union to exchange political prisoners under Red Cross supervision.
British Foreign Minister James Callaghan arrived in Livingstone, Zambia, for talks with Rhodesian nationalist leaders. British officials said Callaghan would meet the Rhodesian nationalists in the Zambian capital of Lusaka Friday. On his arrival the British minister was met by James Chikerema, a representative of the African National Council, Rhodesia’s only legal black political organization, and Zambia’s Foreign Minister Vernon Mwaanga.
America’s widely heralded gold rush turned into a walk yesterday as only a scattering of investors and speculators took advantage of their new freedom to buy gold. Restrictions on holding private gold within the United States, implemented by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, were removed. The first day of legalization of gold bullion sales in the United States after 41 years brought only a trickle of purchases instead of the widely heralded gold rush. Prices fell $5 to $9 an ounce in various centers of the world’s gold trade — in London it dropped to $186.50 from $195.25 on Monday. The lack of activity was ascribed by some brokers to the New Year’s Eve holiday or to excessive prices. Others said potential investors had been scared by warnings that gold prices fluctuate erratically.
On his final day as a Senator, J. W. Fulbright told an interviewer that the country might be facing its greatest peril since 1942, when he arrived in Washington as a Representative. He expressed concern that the energy crisis might impel many to urge seizing Persian Gulf oil fields and said that any such move would be “another disaster” like the country’s involvement in Vietnam. In retrospect, he said the government’s “finest hour” may have been President Eisenhower’s decision in 1954 not to send units to aid the French at Điện Biên Phủ.
Government sources said that the report to President Ford from William Colby, Director of Central Intelligence, in response to the December 22 New York Times allegations of domestic spying, told of thousands of files on American citizens. It also told of electronic surveillances, break-ins and mail inspection. But the sources said the report seemed limited to areas of wrongdoing outlined in the original New York Times account of these activities. The Times quoted well‐placed sources as saying that the CIA had violated its charter by mounting a massive intelligence operation in the late nineteen ‐ sixties and early nineteen‐seventies against the antiwar movement and other dissident groups in the United States. Intelligence files on at least 10,000 American Citizens were compiled, the sources were quoted as saying. The Los Angeles Times said today that Mr. Colby’s report acknowledged that the CIA kept files on more than 9,000 Americans and stated that there were at least three illegal break‐ins. The New York Times’s sources confirmed that account, but added that Mr. Colby had also told the President of electronic surveillances and the surreptitious opening of mail. The report did not say specifically whether the electronic surveillance involved bugging or wire‐tapping or both.
The Privacy Act of 1974 was signed into law by U.S. President Ford, prohibiting the disclosure of information without the written consent of the subject individual, providing individuals a means to obtain their records and correct mistakes, and to find out whether the records have been disclosed.
A Senate subcommittee dominated by Democrats announced today that it would hold hearings next week to try to determine the winner of a contested New Hampshire senatorial election. The three‐member panel will act in response to a petition submitted yesterday by John A. Durkin, a Democrat, challenging the 2‐vote victory of his Republican opponent, Representative Louis C. Wyman. The subcommittee will hear testimony from both candidates and from New Hampshire officials, including those on the state’s Ballot Law Commission. Mr. Durkin is challenging the commission’s action overturning the result of a November 27 recount that found him the winner of the November 5 senatorial election by 10 votes.
The initial Senate recommendation on seating will be made by the Rules Committee’s Subcommittee on Privileges and Elections, headed by Senator Claiborne Pell, Democrat of Rhode Island. The two other members are Senators Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, the Democratic whip, and Robert T. Griffin of Michigan, the Republican whip. The full Rules Committee, also dominated by Democrats, will then make its recommendation to the Senate, the final arbiter on which, if either, man to seat. Because of the narrowness of the vote margin, the Senate may decide to seat neither man, thus declaring a vacancy. Such action would shift the burden back to New Hampshire and thus require a new election.
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger granted states and cities a temporary reprieve from federal labor regulations scheduled to go into effect at midnight. He acted less than five hours before the regulations upping wages and cutting hours for policemen and firemen were to take effect. The states and cities seek to block enforcement of a new law extending the Fair Labor Standards Act to 11 million nonsupervisory state and local government employees. They told Burger that the new standards would increase costs by more than $1 billion in 1975. The chief justice said his order would remain in effect only until the matter could be presented to the full court “at the earliest convenient time.” The court reconvenes January 13.
State and Boston police asked U.S. District Judge W. Arthur Garrity Jr. to keep South Boston High School and its two annexes closed when vacation ends Thursday. Boston Police Commissioner Robert J. diGrazia said police have information that the safety of school children would be in danger if the schools reopened. DiGrazia and the state commissioner of public safety, John F. Kehoe, added that they could not divulge what they termed hard intelligence about the possible trouble. They said, however, that the desegregation issue, resulting from Garrity’s court order, was at its most volatile point ever.
A regional Atomic Energy Commission official, James Keppler, said in Oklahoma City that he had found “no violations posing a safety threat to the public” at Kerr-McGee’s nuclear plant near Crescent, Oklahoma. An unidentified Kerr-McGee executive was quoted earlier this week as saying the plant had at times during the last year been unable to account for up to 60 pounds of plutonium that could be fashioned into a crude nuclear weapon. Keppler, however, did not address himself specifically to that point, which is to be investigated by Congress.
The jury in the Watergate cover-up trial will resume its deliberations this morning. It spent much of its time listening to White House tape recordings of four conversations in which H R. Haldeman, one of the defendants, participated.
The police chief of Houston said today that he had no intention of hiring former convicts to serve beside his men despite demands of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Chief Carrol M. Lynn said that the Federal agency’s office here sent him a letter last week charging that Houston had discriminated in hiring for its police force by inquiring into applicants’ arrest records, credit ratings, military service records and educational background. “I will close and lock the doors of the Houston Police Academy before permitting criminals to enroll as police cadets,” Chief Lynn said in a telephone interview. “I’m not going to lower standards.”
The Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company admitted that it kept a $634,000 political slush fund from which it made illegal campaign contributions between 1963 and 1973. It also acknowledged that it faced a grand jury investigation for income tax evasion and that back taxes and penalties could reach $11 million.
Long-time supporters who had been worried over the recent behavior of Representative Wilbur D. Mills were relieved and pleased by his statement yesterday admitting that he was an alcoholic and pledging to abstain from drink and remain in Congress.
The southeast slope of the 13,680-foot Mauna Loa volcano erupted today, sending fountains of molten lava up to 300 feet in the air for almost four hours along a three-mile rift in the 13,680-foot volcano on the island of Hawaii.
Popular Electronics displays the Altair 8800 computer.
Singer-songwriters Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks join rock band Fleetwood Mac.
Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff, a player for FC Barcelona at the time, was awarded the Ballon d’Or as best soccer football player in Europe, becoming the first player to obtain the award three times.
Happy New Year. The New York Yankees sign Catfish Hunter to a 5-year contract worth a reported $3.75 million. This is triple the salary of any other Major League player. Catfish will win 40 games over the next two seasons before suffering arm trouble.
Australian Open Women’s Tennis: Australian Evonne Goolagong Cawley retains her title; beats Martina Navratilova of Czechoslovakia 6–3, 6–2.
In the 41st Sugar Bowl college football game in New Orleans, the 8th ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers defeated the 18th ranked Florida Gators, 13 to 10. Both defenses asserted themselves early, and Florida got on the scoreboard first when running back Tony Green ran for a 21-yard touchdown after an interception. Neither team could sustain a drive until late in the second quarter, when the Gators moved into Nebraska territory and kicked a field goal to build a 10–0 halftime lead. The score was unchanged in the third quarter when Nebraska QB David Humm threw his fourth interception against just two completed passes. Florida gained possession at the Nebraska 35-yard line and appeared to take a commanding lead soon thereafter when Tony Green ran 18 yards down the sideline for an apparent touchdown, but the officials incorrectly ruled that he had stepped out of bounds at the five-yard line. Florida soon faced fourth and goal from inside the Nebraska one yard line and coach Doug Dickey chose to leave his offense on the field. The Gators ran an option pitch to the left side and running back James Richards slipped and fell while trying to cut towards the goal line, giving Nebraska possession on downs.
Nebraska head coach Tom Osborne inserted reserve quarterback Terry Luck into the game as his offense lined up in the shadow of their own goal posts, but the backup would not factor prominently in the outcome. Instead, Osborne turned to his running backs, as the Huskers mounted an 18-play, 99-yard drive that consumed almost nine minutes off the clock and did not include a forward pass. The lengthy drive culminated in a short touchdown run by freshman back Monte Anthony early in the fourth quarter, cutting the Gators’ lead to 10–7. Florida was forced to punt on their next possession, and Nebraska again used their ground game to slowly move the ball down the field. After converting on fourth and two from the Florida 49-yard line, the Huskers tied the game at 10–10 on a Mike Coyle field goal with 7:12 remaining. Florida’s offense was again unable to move the ball, and after another punt, Nebraska took possession at their own 25 with about four minutes left. Nebraska continuing to rely on its bruising running attack against a tiring Gator defense, which nevertheless seemed to slow the Huskers’ offense until running back Tony Davis broke free on a 41-yard run into Florida territory, setting up a 39-yard field goal with 1:46 remaining to give Nebraska the lead. Florida QB Don Gaffney’s last-minute Hail Mary pass was intercepted, and Nebraska held on for a 13–10 win.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 616.24 (+12.99, +2.15%).
Born:
Scott Nichol, Canadian NHL centre (Buffalo Sabres, Calgary Flames, Chicago Blackhawks, Nashville Predators, San Jose Sharks, St. Louis Blues),in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Mario Aerts, Belgian road cyclist (La Flèche Wallonne 2002, Grand Prix d’Isbergues 1996, Circuit Franco Belge 2001, Giro della Provincia di Lucca 2001), in Herentals, Belgium.
Tony Kanaan, Brazilian auto racer (Indianapolis 500 2013; IndyCar Series 2004; Indy Lights Series 1997), in Salvador, Brazil.
Tracy Henderson, WNBA center (Cleveland Rockers), in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Ryan Sakoda, Japanese American professional wrestler, in Tokyo, Japan.
Died:
Donalee Tabern, 74, American scientist and inventor of Pentothal – world’s most widely used anesthetic.
Jacob Adler, 100, Austro-Hungarian born Galician Jew and later an American Yiddish language writer and humorist.
V. R. Parton, 77, English chess enthusiast who invented several chess variants, including “Alice chess” and a 3-dimensional variant.
History Diaries 