The Soviet Union has cut its troop strength in Afghanistan to 76,000, Jane’s Defense Weekly said. The Soviets, who most recently were reported to have 115,000 men in the country, face “many more Afghan winters” fighting Muslim guerrillas, Mark L. Urban, a London-based specialist on Soviet affairs, wrote in the military reference publication. Urban said the Soviet garrison now includes three infantry divisions, compared to the seven divisions estimated by Western intelligence. About 24,000 support troops and advisers back up combat troops, he said.
A U.S.-Soviet compromise agreement on the goals and format for resuming negotiations on limiting and reducing nuclear arms and on “preventing an arms race in space” was announced by both countries in Geneva. The agreement, worked out during two days of what were described as often sharply debated discussions by delegations headed by Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko, was termed “a success” by Mr. Shultz. Vladimir B. Lomeiko, the Soviet spokesman at a news conference that ended after midnight, called the talks “important and useful.” He said the important thing was that the two sides had agreed to discuss “the entire complex of issues,” meaning space as well as nuclear weapons. President Reagan received word from Secretary of State George Shultz from Geneva that the Soviet Union has agreed to enter negotiations on nuclear weapons.
A Soviet television commentator portrayed the Shultz-Gromyko meeting on Tuesday night in a guardedly favorable light, saying that it had paved the way for a continued dialogue. The commentator, Valentin Zorin, said in a broadcast from Geneva that the meeting had made it possible for the Soviet Union to state its case. “The clarification of each other’s positions is also an important factor that facilitates the continuation of the Soviet-American dialogue,” he said.
Ida Milgrom, mother of jailed Soviet human rights activist Anatoly Shcharansky, said she has received official confirmation that her son has arrived at a detention camp in the Ural Mountains. She told a Western reporter in Moscow that she has been authorized to visit him on January 14. Shcharansky, 36, was sentenced in 1978 to a prison 500 miles east of Moscow. His whereabouts have been unknown since his mother failed in an attempt to see him after he completed the first of two prison terms in October.
Chess champion Anatoly Karpov and challenger Gary Kasparov agreed to a draw in the 39th game of their world championship match in Moscow. Play resumed on the 41st move after Monday’s adjournment, and Karpov offered a draw after the 48th move. The next game is scheduled for today. Karpov leads the match, 5 to 1, and needs one more victory to retain his title.
The central figure in a murder trial of secret policemen here portrayed himself today as an inexperienced, reluctant and even squeamish killer who inexplicably beat a pro-Solidarity priest to death after having been enticed into kidnapping the cleric with suggestions of support from “the top.” In deliberate and measured testimony, the witness, Grzegorz Piotrowski, a former captain, also described himself as a man enraged by the failure of state authorities to curb what he viewed as the illegal activities of activist priests aiding the outlawed Solidarity movement. At one point the soft-spoken former mathematics teacher declared that neither he nor his three co-defendants would have found themselves in the dock if the law had been enforced against the Rev. Jerzy Popiełuszko, the priest who was slain in October. Mr. Piotrowski said he had been particularly hurt when two years ago Czeslaw Kiszczak, the Minister of Interior, rejected his plan for a raid on the priest, whom he knew to be in possession of illicit materials. He insisted that he bore no hatred toward the priest and noted that until the night of the murder he had “never hit anyone in his adult life.” Instead, as head of a unit monitoring churchmen, he had been concerned with Father Popiełuszko’s involvement with the Solidarity movement.
The Greek government approved a new defense policy that implies that a NATO ally-Turkey-poses a greater threat to Greece than does the Soviet Union or neighboring Communist states. Last month the government announced that it was redeploying its armed forces to face Turkey, rather than Bulgaria, a member of the Soviet Bloc. Officials said, however, that the new policy does not affect Greece’s obligations to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Greece and Turkey have long feuded over conflicting territorial claims.
Prime Minister Shimon Peres told Parliament today that he had personally authorized a briefing and a statement by the Cabinet secretary confirming that Ethiopian Jews were being airlifted to Israel. The publicity is believed to be responsible for the suspension of the covert operation, which was said to have brought 7,000 people from the Sudan to Israel. About 4,000 other Jews are said to remain in camps abroad, and 6,000 to 8,000 in Ethiopia.
A Belgian charter airline said today that because of pressure from the Sudan it had stopped carrying Ethiopian Jews from the Sudan to Israel. “The mission was interrupted independent of the company,” Paul Degeiter, the spokesman for the airline, Trans European Airways, said in a telephone interview. “It was not we who stopped it, but the operation had to be terminated.”
Israel said today that it would not return to the withdrawal talks with Lebanon on Thursday because of what it called Lebanese stalling. Senior military officials said Israeli Cabinet members would meet Wednesday to begin discussing what Israel should do next about a withdrawal from Lebanon. They emphasized that they were not walking out of the withdrawal talks sponsored by the United Nations in the southern Lebanese town of Naqura but were reviewing all their options in view of what they see as a lack of any progress. The officials gave no indication when or if they would return to the talks.
An American priest was kidnapped in West Beirut by gunmen, the fifth American to disappear on the city’s streets in 10 months. Witnesses said about eight men brandishing automatic rifles grabbed the priest, Lawrence Martin Jenco of Joliet, Illinois, from his car as he was being driven to his relief offices in the mostly Moslem and increasingly lawless western sector of the Lebanese capital. Father Jenco, 50 years old, is a priest of the Servite order who has worked here about three months as director of the Catholic Relief Services operation in Beirut. The relief agency has been providing aid to war refugees and other victims of the decade of strife in this country.
Iraq said its jet fighters attacked three “naval targets” today in the Persian Gulf. But marine salvage executives confirmed only one raid. The executives said an engineer was killed on a South Korean cargo vessel. The Iraqis first reported, and shipping sources confirmed, the attack on one ship, the 11,367-ton Hanlimmarine, at 11:30 AM. Attacks announced by Iraq on two more ships south of Iran’s main Kharg Island oil terminal were not confirmed. It was the 67th confirmed attack by either side in the so-called tanker war, an outgrowth of the 51-month-old Iran-Iraq war.
Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi appointed a former Cabinet member general secretary of the ruling Congress Party, it was announced today. Ghani Khan Choudhury, 57 years old, former Railway Minister, will be in charge of party affairs involving youth, women, students and the party’s organization in India’s states, the announcement said.
Cambodian rebels, under heavy attack from Vietnamese artillery and tanks since early Monday, were ordered today to withdraw from their headquarters camp at Ampil, guerrilla spokesmen said. But late this afternoon, reporters who reached the perimeter of the camp, just inside Cambodia about 30 miles north of this border town, heard almost nonstop rifle fire, as some members of the non-Communist rebel group, the Khmer People’s National Liberation Front, apparently continued to battle the Vietnamese attackers. The camp was still being pounded by Vietnamese artillery late today, as it had been all day Monday and through the night. The Thai Army, now on full alert along the border, returned warning fire when shells strayed into Thai territory.
About 60 miles north of Ampil a Thai fighter plane was shot down by a Vietnamese surface-to-air missile, Thai military officials reported. They said the plane was downed while it was supporting Thai troops battling Vietnamese units that had crossed the border. More than 10 Thai soldiers have been killed in skirmishes with the Vietnamese since Saturday. Thai Army officers told reporters tonight that they expected all 5,000 guerrillas who had been at Ampil to be withdrawn by Wednesday. Vietnamese forces and their Cambodian Government allies were reported to be striking at many major rebel bases today. “It’s a full frontal attack,” a Western relief official said.
State Department officials said today that Vietnamese attacks on Cambodian rebels operating along the Thai border were some of the heaviest ever and seemed aimed primarily at discrediting the rebels as an opposition force in Cambodia. The officials said that while some of the fighting had spilled over into Thailand, there was no indication that the Vietnamese were intent on seizing any Thai territory permanently or engaging Thai forces in major battle. The rebels, whose camps are situated only a few miles from the Thai border, often retreat into Thailand when pressed by the Vietnamese forces, which support the Government of Heng Samrin in Phnom Penh. Thai and Vietnamese units have tangled periodically and, according to dispatches from Bangkok, Vietnamese gunners shot down a Thai fighter plane today.
Laos denounced Thailand today for shelling and attacking two Laotian militia positions near three disputed border villages last week. Laotian militias repelled the attacks last Wednesday and Thursday, the chief Laotian delegate to the United Nations, Kithong Vongsay, told Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar in a letter.
A Philippine opposition newspaper reported today that an inquiry board would recommend the indictment of Gen. Fabian C. Ver, the suspended Chief of Staff, and 25 others for the 1983 slaying of Benigno S. Aquino Jr., the opposition leader. The report, in the daily Malaya, followed recent indications that the Government panel would agree with the majority ruling of a citizens board in October finding the 26 men indictable. “I know that is what people expect,” a member of the Government panel said. “But I will not confirm or deny the Malaya story.”
A French plan for the independence of the Pacific territory of New Caledonia was attacked by all sides today. Settler-dominated groups said the plan, offered Monday by Edgard Pisani, a French special envoy, was unacceptable because they wanted to remain French. Leaders of the indigenous Melanesian Kanakas said that while it was the first clear statement on independence, the plan had major flaws. A militant Kanaka leader, Jean-Marie Tjibaou, said, “Pisani’s plan is a gamble to change the mentality of the settlers.” Mr. Pisani arrived on Dec. 4 to draw up an independence formula after confrontations between independence- seeking Kanakas and settlers left 16 people dead. He has proposed a referendum in July in which the 75,000 voters, Kanakas and European settlers, would decide on independence. If it were approved, New Caledonia would become independent January 1, 1986, and a treaty would be drawn up for special continued defense and internal security links with France.
Four Latin American foreign ministers opened a two-day meeting in Panama City to discuss objections to a proposed Central American peace plan. Panamanian Foreign Minister Fernando Cardoze predicted eventual success but stressed that he and his colleagues cannot impose a solution. The ministers of the Contadora Group — Panama, Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela — prepared a draft treaty last spring, but El Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica objected to some provisions.
The United States has provided the Salvadoran Air Force with a new gunship specially designed for counterinsurgency warfare, United States Embassy officials said today. The aircraft, a major increase in the weapons available to the Salvadoran military, is officially called an “airborne fire support platform.” It was delivered to El Salvador two weeks ago and is now ready for combat, the officials said. The new gunship is essentially a converted slow-moving twin-prop DC-3 airplane mounted with machine guns designed to be fired in tandem and with great precision by the plane’s pilot, American Embassy officials said.
Two men were killed and seven were wounded today when a nail bomb exploded in a shop in the town of Ondangwa, in Namibia, the territory’s security police chief said. Col. Sarel Strydom said the bomb was “most probably” planted by guerrillas of the South-West Africa People’s Organization, whose 18-year fight against South African rule of this nation, also known as Namibia, has been concentrated in the northern part of the territory. The bomb contained three-inch nails, Colonel Strydom said. It exploded at a shop that the South-West Africa Territory Force said guerrillas attacked twice last year.
The White House chief of staff and the Treasury Secretary will switch jobs, President Reagan announced unexpectedly. James A. Baker 3d will leave the White House for the Treasury, and Treasury Secretary Donald T. Regan will be the President’s chief of staff. The announcement stunned even senior White House and Administration officials.
A basic deficit reduction proposal worked out by Senate Republicans would freeze spending across the board and eliminate all cost-of-living increases next year, Congressional sources said. The freezes would affect both military spending and Social Security. President Reagan rejected both choices in his budget proposal, which fell short of trimming the deficit to $100 billion by 1988. Republicans will consider the proposal today.
The police may detain a person without a warrant provided they know the person is wanted for investigation by a police department in another city, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously. The ruling, an extension of the warrantless “stop and frisk” rules the Court established in the 1960’s for police officers who suspect a crime is being committed or is imminent, applies the rules to a situation in which the suspected crime has occurred in the past.
In another ruling, the Court held that Trans World Airlines violated the law by forcing 60-year-old pilots to retire, rather than take other jobs in the cockpit. But the ruling limited the damages the pilots could recover.
Two entertainment unions, the Screen Actors Guild and Actors Equity Association, yesterday asked President Reagan to rescind his inaugural committee’s decision to use only nonunion performers without paying them for their services at next week’s inaugural celebration. In a resolution adopted by its governing council, Actors Equity, the 35,000- member stage actors union, said the plan deprived the performers of “the dignity and protection of prevailing wages and working conditions.” Equity’s governing council also authorized the expenditure of emergency funds to hold a protest in Washington on or around Inauguration Day, if the inaugural committee’s plans were not changed.
Bernhard Hugo Goetz, who is accused of attempting to murder four teen-agers on a subway train last month, posted $50,000 cash bail and was released from a Rikers Island jail late yesterday afternoon. Edward Hershey, a spokesman for the city’s Department of Correction, said he believed that Mr. Goetz had used his own money to bail himself out of the jail, where he had been held in a special unit since Thursday. Mr. Goetz, a 37-year-old electronics specialist, had refused offers from the public and from his family to help with the bail. He said he wanted to take care of it himself.
Joseph Carl Shaw, a former military policeman who confessed to the 1977 murders of two Columbia teen-agers, was moved today from death row to the state’s death house to await South Carolina’s first execution since 1962, scheduled on Friday Mr. Shaw, who has halted all appeals, and two other men pleaded guilty to killing 17-year-old Thomas Taylor, then raping and killing Mr. Taylor’s girlfriend, Carlotta Hartness, 14.
West Hollywood officials say the owner of a restaurant is violating a law banning discrimination against homosexuals by distributing matchbooks that warn homosexuals to stay out. After voters in West Hollywood, which has many homosexual residents, approved its incorporation as a city on November 6, the City Council passed an ordinance banning discrimination against homosexuals. In a letter to Irwin Held, owner of Barney’s Beanery, the interim City Attorney, Michael Jenkins, said, “This type of written material would seem to be in direct contradiction” of the law. Mr. Held said he did not consider the matchbooks, which say “Fagots Stay Out,” evidence of discrimination. “Last I heard, fagot meant a bundle of wood,” he said.
A Federal safety board concluded today that improper track repairs led to the 1983 crash of an Amtrak train that killed four people in Texas. The National Transportation Safety Board said the crash of Amtrak’s Eagle on Missouri Pacific Railroad tracks near Woodlawn, Texas, was the result of small cracks in the rail that resulted when a torch instead of a saw was used to cut the rail. When the passenger train went over the repaired section the track shattered, the investigators said. Four people were killed and 72 were injured in the derailment November 12, 1983.
Production workers at the General Motors Corporation, who were told in contract negotiations last summer that they could expect to receive about $1,000 in profit sharing for 1984, will get only about half that amount, company officials said today. The profit-sharing provision was a key part of the contract negotiated last fall by the United Automobile Workers. Workers accepted pay increases of less than 3 percent a year in return for increased job security and the additional income from a share of General Motors’ profits.
Federal District Judge Carl Bue ruled today that the stepmother of a 17-year-old Texas boy charged with murder must stay in jail because a contempt citation was having the “desired effect” of compelling her to testify in the case. The woman, Odette Port, was jailed almost four months ago for refusing to testify against her stepson, David Port, before a Harris County grand jury. Since then she has answered some of the grand jury’s questions. David Port has been charged in the shooting death of Debora Sue Schatz, a mail carrier who disappeared June 7, 1984, while delivering mail in the Ports’ neighborhood.
The Hughes Aircraft Company says it has resumed delivery of missiles to the Defense Department, which stopped accepting them last year after reports of shoddy workmanship at the company’s plant in Tucson, Arizona. Three Maverick air-to-ground missiles were delivered in late December to the Air Force, the company said in a statement Monday. Deliveries of other products would resume soon, it said. The Air Force, Navy and Army withheld about $125.5 million from Hughes last year.
The National Transportation Safety Board recommended yesterday that Bandeirante airliners get further inspections and that structural changes be required in their tail sections. The board also urged the Federal Aviation Administration to ban passenger flights by the unmodified planes until they can be inspected for loose or sheared rivets.
An appeals court today upheld the Reagan Administration’s easing of Federal standards on how much protection must be provided by car bumpers. The victory was the first for the Administration in the elimination or modification of automobile safety regulations begun in the Carter Administration. The same court, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, found last year that officials of the Department of Transportation had improperly rescinded a requirement that new cars be equipped with air bags and another that tires be graded for durability. Judge Antonin Scalia wrote the majority opinion in today’s 2-to-1 decision, with Judge Edward A. Tamm joining him. Judge J. Skelly Wright dissented.
Results of a pilot study by the Centers for Disease Control indicate that aspirin given to children suffering from chicken pox or flu increases the risk that they will contract Reye’s syndrome, a potentially fatal ailment. The syndrome can include vomiting, fever, convulsions and comas. The study found that young victims of chicken pox or flu who were given aspirin were 12 to 26 times more likely to develop Reye’s syndrome than those young victims of the diseases who were not treated with aspirin. The differing degrees of risk depended on what statistical risk model was used for the calculations.
The Highway Beautification Act of 1965 has failed to accomplish its goal of making the nation’s roads safer and more scenic by removing advertising billboards, according to two Government reports. A report by Congress’s General Accounting Office, released today, shows that 20 years later, nearly 200,000 “nonconforming” and illegal billboards remain standing on the highways covered in the act: the interstates and such “primary highways” as U.S. 1. In the meantime, the report notes, the Government has spent nearly $200 million to compensate billboard owners who did remove their signs. The report also found that while nearly 600,000 signs had been removed, new signs had been erected at a substantially faster pace. In 1983 alone, the report found, three times as many new signs were put up as old ones were torn down.
Sir Brian Horrocks, the World War II general who helped take North Africa from the Germans, died Sunday night, his family announced today. He was 89 years old.
Japan launched its first deep space probe, a test spacecraft designed to go into solar orbit near Halley’s Comet as it swings by in February, 1986, on its 76-year orbit of the sun. The launch is part of a multinational project also involving the United States, the Soviet Union and the European Space Agency. A Japanese-built rocket called Sakigake (Pioneer), carrying a 300-pound payload, was launched from the southern tip of Japan’s home islands this morning, local time (the evening of 7 January GMT). In three days, it is to be propelled out of Earth’s orbit on a 14-month, 106-million-mile trip around the sun.
The San Diego Padres sign free agent reliever Tim Stoddard to a three-year, $1.5 million contract. Stoddard was 10-6 with seven saves for the Chicago Cubs last season.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1191.70.
Born:
Terrell Thomas, NFL cornerback (New York Giants), in Los Angeles County, California.
Josh Bell, NFL cornerback (Denver Broncos, Green Bay Packers), in Los Angeles, California.
Matt LaPorta, MLB first baseman and outfielder (Cleveland Indians), in Port Charlotte, Florida.
Rachael Lampa, American Contemporary Christian music singer-songwriter (“Blessed”), in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
History Diaries 