The Reagan Administration stepped up public pressure on Belgium today not to waver in carrying out the planned deployment of 48 American cruise missiles in March. “We have made clear to the Belgian Government the importance of continuing Intermediate Nuclear Force deployments, as agreed by NATO,” Alan Romberg, a State Department spokesman, said. “We look to the Belgian Government to fulfill its responsibilities to the alliance on I.N.F., as on other matters.” Larry Speakes, the White House spokesman, said, “It is our belief that the Government of Belgium will live up to its NATO commitment.”
There has been a new wave of terrorist attacks by the so-called Red Army Faction against American military installations and other targets in West Germany. The attacks, part of a so-called “anti- imperialist offensive,” have coincided with a hunger strike by a group of convicted West German terrorists. At the same time, Western European police officials have been probing for evidence of coordination among West German, French and Belgian left-wing terrorist groups. In Brussels today, a car bomb caused extensive damage to an American community center near NATO headquarters in Brussels and a note from a Belgian group said the attack was aimed at supporting the West German hunger strikers.
A four-month sit-in by East Germans at Bonn’s Embassy in Prague ended today when the last six of some 150 people who had camped there seeking a passage to West Germany went home. West German diplomats, reached in Prague by telephone, said the five men and one woman had been driven by embassy car to the station in Prague, where they had taken the train to East Berlin via Dresden. In East Berlin, a special representative, Wolfgang Vogel, who negotiated with the would-be emigrants, confirmed that the six had left and said they would be able to apply for emigration without fear of prosecution. They had no guarantees that their applications would be approved. Most of the original group of occupants left the Prague mission before Christmas and more went home earlier this month.
Spain expelled a Soviet diplomat for “improper” activity — a diplomatic euphemism for espionage, the Madrid government said. The announcement came hours after sources said that Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko will visit Madrid in February. A Foreign Ministry spokesman identified the expelled diplomat as Yuri Kolesnikov, second commercial secretary at the Soviet Embassy in Madrid.
Journalists of France’s prestigious daily Le Monde elected Andre Fontaine as new managing director in a bid to avert a financial crisis threatening the paper. He replaces Andre Laurens, who resigned last month after his leadership was rejected. Fontaine, a distinguished writer on foreign affairs and head of editorial operations, won the post with nearly 61% of the votes of the journalists, who hold 40% of the shares in the publication. Le Monde has been losing readers and advertising for three years.
Soldiers from the British Army’s Ulster Defense Regiment opened fire today on a carload of teen-agers after the vehicle crashed into a roadblock. The 30 or so shots killed the driver, Paul Gerard Kelly, a 17-year-old Roman Catholic, and wounded four others, one seriously. The names and ages of the others were not disclosed, but a man who lived nearby told reporters that the screams from the car sounded as though the “boys in the car were very young.” Gerry Adams, the Member of Parliament for West Belfast and president of Sinn Fein, the political arm of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, declared, “If last night’s incident had occurred in any other town in Europe, the car would have been immobilized rather than the passengers being shot.”
World chess champion Anatoly Karpov, playing white, gave up trying to press his one-pawn advantage in the adjourned 41st game of the marathon world chess championship in Moscow and agreed to a draw with challenger Gary Kasparov after the 71st move. Karpov, who leads the match, 5–1, needs one more victory to retain his title. It was the 35th draw in the match, which has already dragged on for more than four months. Play resumes today.
The decision by the Israeli Cabinet to withdraw on its own from Lebanon over the next six to nine months appears to signal the start of a new Israeli approach toward dealing with its northern neighbor. Since the new national unity coalition came to power last September, two basic strategic conceptions about the threat to Israel arising in Lebanon — and how the Israeli Army should be used to deal with it — have been competing for supremacy among Israeli decision makers. The two trends might best be described as the “Palestinian school” and the “Shiite school.” The Palestinian school is led by Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir, leader of the Likud bloc. It argues that the biggest threat to Israel from Lebanon is – and will remain – that posed by Palestinian guerrillas based in the Bekaa region and the areas north of the Israeli line on the Awali River. The Palestinian threat was the original justification for the invasion of Lebanon in June 1982, when the Likud Government of Menachem Begin was in power.
Egypt, in a confidential document seeking a $1 billion increase in American aid, has portrayed itself as a critical “strategic asset” to the United States. Reagan Administration officials said the document’s emphasis on “military interdependence” and crisis cooperation with Washington went well beyond Cairo’s usual public statements of its “special relationship” to the United States and its declarations of nonalignment and place in the Arab world. Administration officials said this was the first time Egypt had submitted a written brief in support of its aid program, something Israel has done as a matter of course for years. “It represents the first shot at doing what the Israelis do all of the time to show how important they are to us,” a high-ranking State Department official said.
Bangladesh’s leader, Lieutenant General Hossain Mohammed Ershad, dissolved his council of ministers and announced that the country will hold parliamentary elections April 6. the first in six years. Ershad, who imposed martial law after taking power in a 1982 coup, is expected to name a new cabinet today. The old one apparently was dissolved to satisfy opposition parties’ demands for a nonpartisan government to hold elections. Balloting scheduled earlier was canceled when opposition parties said they would not participate in elections held under military rule.
The Vietnamese-installed government of Cambodia selected Foreign Minister Hun Sen, an old guerrilla fighter against the United States, as premier-replacing Chan Sy, who died last month. Hun Sen ranks fifth in the Communist Party Politburo, remaining subordinate to Heng Samrin, Phnom Penh’s head of state. Meanwhile, Cambodian resistance forces continued battling Vietnamese troops on three fronts south of the border town of Aranyaprathet.
Taiwan said today that it had arrested several of its military intelligence officials in connection with the murder of a dissident author in California last year. A statement issued by the Chinese Nationalist Government did not disclose how many were being held but said a special committee had been set up to investigate the Defense Ministry’s intelligence agency. The statement also said the Government was determined to solve the murder of Henry Liu, an author who had often criticized the Nationalist President, Chiang Ching-kuo. “The Government is deeply shocked by the involvement of our intelligence officials in Liu’s murder,” the statement said. “The intelligence agency under the National Defense Ministry will be thoroughly investigated.”
The Philippine Justice Minister said today that a United States-based opposition leader, Jovita Salonga, charged with subversion, will not be arrested when he returns next Monday from nearly four years of voluntary exile. “So that he can pursue his political aspirations to the fullest, it is my desire that you review his case and take appropriate action,” an official announcement quoted President Ferdinand E. Marcos as telling Justice Minister Estelito Mendoza. It was not clear if Mr. Marcos was ordering the charges dropped, but Mr. Mendoza said he had instructed a prosecutor “to hold in abeyance the proceedings” against Mr. Salonga that have been pending in court since 1981. Mr. Mendoza said, “This means to say he should hold any warrant of arrest also.” Mr. Salonga, 62 years old, a leader of one faction of the opposition Liberal Party, has been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate. The Government linked him to 1980 terrorist bombings.
More than 200 brush fires have swept across the parched farmlands of southern Australia, blackening hundreds of square miles and forcing whole towns to flee. At least five people were reported killed and about 100 were injured. Hundreds of homes and farms were reported destroyed and at least 22,000 cattle, sheep and other livestock were burned alive, the authorities estimated. At least 50,000 acres of farmland were damaged. Fires burned from north of Sydney more than 500 miles south to Melbourne, and west from Adelaide across 600 miles to Canberra on the east coast.
A key leader of the pro-independence movement in New Caledonia, killed in a shootout with French security forces on Saturday, was buried in his home village today as his party accused a special French envoy of responsibility for his death. The slaying of the leader, Eloi Machoro, is widely expected to jeopardize efforts by the French Government to negotiate an accord between the indigenous Melanesians, known as Kanakas, and the white settlers who want this South Pacific island territory to remain a part of France.
An American B-52 bomber completed a test of an unarmed cruise missile in Canadian airspace today, amid protests on both sides of the border. The 20-foot-long missile remained attached to the B-52 in the test of its guidance systems. The use of Canada as a testing ground “pushes that country out of a stance of neutrality into a partisan position in relation to the nuclear arms race,” said the Rev. Walter Scott of Grand Forks, a spokesman for the Red River Valley Peaceworkers. Activists in both the United States and Canada telephoned Government officials to express their opposition.
[Ed: “Neutrality?” Have you ever hear of NATO, you drooling mouth breather? Canada was NOT NEUTRAL in the Cold War.]
Protests erupted across Jamaica hours after sharp increases in the price of fuel took effect. The police said three people were killed and three were injured. The disturbances were the worst since Prime Minister Edward P. G. Seaga took office in 1980. Hundreds of Jamaicans blocked roads in major cities with burning tires and tree branches to protest the government’s decision to raise the prices of gasoline, kerosene and propane by about 20%. Businesses, schools and government offices were closed, domestic flights were grounded and the opening session of Parliament was canceled. Police used tear gas to disperse crowds in Kingston, the capital. Two deaths were reported. In the second big increase in 13 months, the price of gasoline went from the equivalent of $1.81 to $2.19 a gallon.
Salvadoran guerrillas attacked a coffee plantation in eastern San Miguel province, killing five soldiers, burning two coffee warehouses and causing about $2 million damage, military officials said.” There was no immediate report of rebel casualties. The rebel radio said an armed C-47 plane inflicted civilian casualties near Moncagua, in San Miguel province. The C-47, equipped with three .50-caliber machine guns, is the latest U.S.supplied addition to the government’s arsenal.
Brazil’s first civilian President in 21 years, the opposition candidate Tancredo Neves, was elected overwhelmingly by an electoral college in Brasilia. Mr. Neves, a 74-year-old centrist whose victory had been widely forecast, defeated the governing party’s candidate, Paulo Salim Maluf, 480 votes to 180 votes, with 17 College delegates abstaining and 9 absent. Mr. Neves is to take office in two months. As Mr. Neves won a clear majority with the 344th vote cast in his favor shortly before noon, a loud cheer went up across Brazil. Crowds who had gathered in towns and cities to follow the vote count immediately began celebrating.
Mozambican rebels killed two British men Monday in an ambush near the South African border, a British Consulate official said here tonight. She said the British Embassy in Maputo, the Mozambican capital, had confirmed that the two Britons were attacked while driving near the border.
President Reagan receives the Diplomatic Credentials from new Ambassadors to the United States from the nations of Solomon Islands, Colombia, France, and Guinea.
President Reagan met today with about 20 black business executives, educators and other officials. The talks were hailed by some as a new attempt to reach blacks but assailed by others as an effort to circumvent the leadership that has historically spoken for blacks. The meeting at the White House was requested by the group, which presented what it described as an agenda for black progress. The session fell on the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and around the nation, remembrances of the civil rights leader coincided with controversy over how his memory should be honored and who should participate.
President Reagan attends a Cabinet Council meeting.
Students may be searched by public school teachers and officials as long as there are “reasonable grounds” for believing the search will obtain evidence of a violation of the law or school rules, under a 6–3 ruling by the Supreme Court. The decision, which grew out of a New Jersey high school official’s search of a Piscataway student’s pocketbook for evidence of smoking, was one of the Court’s most important rulings on the constitutional rights of students. Associate Justice Byron R. White wrote the opinion. The Court steered a middle course between two competing visions of the relationship between the Constitution and the public schools. The opinion rejected the argument that the Fourth Amendment’s limitations on search and seizure do not apply at all in the school setting as well as the argument that the limits apply with full force.
The Supreme Court’s decision upholding searches of public school students drew mixed reactions at the Piscataway, New Jersey, high school where the case originated.
A deficit cut of $50 billion is needed now to impress the financial markets and to get a decline in interest rates, Paul A. Volcker, the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, told Republican senators.
Government fees would be raised for a number of financial services under proposals to be submitted to Congress by the Reagan Administration, officials said. They said the Administration, in an effort to help cut the budget deficit, seeks to increase charges for such services as home mortgage insurance, farm credit and export loan guarantees. The charges, being sought to help shrink the Federal budget deficit, would be paid either by the individuals benefiting from the services or, in some cases, by the agencies involved. But the proposals, to be submitted in the President’s budget on February 4, are likely to run into stiff opposition from Congressmen sensitive to the pleas of those affected. “With many farmers going broke, I really don’t think O.M.B. picked a very auspicious time for such action,” said Senator John D. Melcher, a Montana Democrat, referring to the Office of Management and Budget. “If they attempt to do this, I’m sure we can block it.”
Sanctuary for Central Americans considered to be political refugees will continue to be provided by United States church groups despite the federal indictment of some of their leaders. Supporters of the sanctuary movement, reacting to the indictment of 16 people on charges of conspiring to smuggle illegal aliens into the United States, declared they would put the Government “on trial” for its policies in Central America and in dealing with aliens. In addition to the 16 indictments, returned by a Federal grand jury in Phoenix last week and announced Monday in Washington, more than 60 other people, mostly Salvadorans and Guatemalans who entered the United States with help from the sanctuary movement, were arrested over the weekend. The nationwide crackdown sharply aggravates the conflict between liberal church groups and the Federal Government, which says the aliens are fleeing poverty, not persecution, and do not qualify for political asylum.
The jury in former Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon’s $50 million libel suit against TIME magazine recessed for the night in New York without reaching a verdict. Meanwhile, the Israeli Parliament allowed U.S. District Judge Abraham D. Sofaer to release evidence that was sealed earlier, including former Israeli Supreme Court President Yitzhak Kahan’s testimony that classified Israeli documents failed to support TIME’s disputed allegations about Sharon’s involvement in the 1982 massacre of Palestinian refugees. TIME had objected that key documents were excluded from Kahan’s review, but Sofaer felt compelled by the Israeli government to keep details of those objections secret and closed the courtroom when they were entered into testimony.
Doyle Skillern, condemned to die for a murder in which the confessed triggerman may soon go free, was executed by lethal injection for the 1974 slaying of Patrick Randel, an undercover narcotics officer. Skillern, 48, died at 12:23 AM CST in the Huntsville, Texas, death chamber. Both Governor Mark White and the U.S. Supreme Court had rejected a reprieve. Testimony showed that Skillern waited in a car while Charles Sanne, 51, shot Randel. Sanne was sentenced to life in prison and could be paroled in June. Skillern was the fifth Texas inmate to die since 1982.
In a final report, the Senate Ethics Commmittee said today that “not one witness provided evidence of any corrupt behavior” on the part of Senator Mark O. Hatfield in his dealings with a Greek financier.
A federal jury in St. Paul, Minnesota, awarded $10,000 to a 74-year-old woman who claimed a “singing cowboy” caused her to suffer chest pains and a nervous condition by warning passengers over an airplane’s address system to be ready for a crash-landing. The jury decided that Air California Inc. was 80% negligent and that passenger-jokester Larry White of Waukon, Iowa, was 19% responsible for damages. The jury said passenger Adeline Miller, who also was awarded $226 in medical expenses, was 1% negligent in the case. The January 29, 1983, incident occurred on a flight with 162 vacationers returning from Las Vegas to Rochester, New York.
The Reagan Administration was asked Monday to oppose a court-ordered school consolidation plan for districts in the area of Little Rock, Arkansas, the scene of one of the nation’s most dramatic integration battles nearly 28 years ago. Attorney General Steve Clark of Arkansas, accompanied by former Governor Frank White, representatives of two school districts and several parents, asked the Administration to support their appeal against an order directing consolidation of Little Rock’s schools with those in neighboring North Little Rock and Pulaski County.
Twenty-six people have been indicted for distributing nearly 300 tons of marijuana and hashish nationwide in the last 10 years, the Justice Department announced today. As the indictment, filed in Federal District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, was announced, federal agents confiscated a 1,000-acre estate in Virginia among assets from the operation valued at more than $13 million that the Government sought to seize. The indictments list drug transactions dating back to late 1974 that totaled more than $100 million.
Richard Viguerie, a professional fund raiser for conservative causes, announced today that he would seek the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor of Virginia in the election this year. “Sometimes it takes someone who has been on the outside to see what’s wrong with government,” he said at a news conference here.
The owners of 144 homes in the Atlanta area, surrounded on three sides by new office buildings, formed a corporation and sold their 85.5 acres to the developers of a proposed office complex for $35 million, about $225,000 per homeowner. The move reflects a trend that urban specialists say is reshaping the landscape of many metropolitan areas as settled residential districts are being overrun by development.
Honeywell Inc. has agreed to pay $800,000 in civil penalties to settle charges that it failed to report defects in some of its gas heater control valves linked to 22 deaths and 77 serious injuries from explosions and fires. The agreement was announced by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Sophisticated new equipment at bridges along the U.S.-Mexico border is expected to cut down on the number of counterfeit border crossing cards used by aliens, immigration officials say. Al Giugni, director of the El Paso sector of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, said new cameras, microscopes, enlargers and reference libraries of travel documents are expected to cut the use of phony documents by 20%.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission conducted a “deliberate cover-up” of an informal health survey of people living near the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, sponsors of the study asserted today. A commission spokesman said the survey had been rejected as biased. The study concluded that there had been an increase in cancer deaths since some radioactivity was released in the accident at one of the two reactors there in 1979, according to the survey’s sponsors, area residents seeking to block the use of the second reactor. The residents filed a complaint with the Justice Department because their data, which had been copied by the agency and sent for analysis to the Federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, were incomplete. Bob Newlin, a commission spokesman, said the photocopying mistake had been rectified as soon as it was discovered. The commission will hold a hearing Wednesday on a request to restart the second reactor.
A U.S. Air Force helicopter sent to evacuate a sick seaman from a merchant ship crashed on the vessel, killing six crewmen and leaving a seventh missing and presumed dead. The HH-53 helicopter crashed and started a fire aboard the Asian Beauty, a Panamanian-registered ship that was 540 nautical miles north of Honolulu, Air Force spokesman Sgt. Paul Chute said.
Cold Canadian air dropped the wind chill to 33 degrees below zero at Buffalo, New York, and whistled between New York City skyscrapers at 50 mph, plunging the wind chill in Manhattan to 20 below. Gale warnings were posted along the Atlantic Coast from Maine to North Carolina. Twelve to 20 inches of snow was on the ground at Edinboro, Pennsylvania, and up to a foot was forecast for extreme western Maryland.
CBS’ premiere of TV made teen drug abuse drama, “Not My Kid”, based on the previous year’s book by Beth Polson.
Hours after he is sworn in for a second term Sunday, President Reagan will toss the coin that determines who kicks off in the Super Bowl game between the Miami Dolphins and the San Francisco 49ers, the White House and the National Football League said today.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1230.79.
Born:
Brandon Mebane, NFL defensive tackle (NFL Champions, Super Bowl 48-Seattle, 2013; Seattle Seahawks, San Diego-Los Angeles Chargers), in Los Angeles, California.
Pavel Podkolzin, Russian NBA center (Dallas Mavericks), in Novosibirsk, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union.
Stephanie Raymond, WNBA guard (Chicago Sky), in Rockford, Illinois.
History Diaries 