U.S. officials said the United States and the Soviet Union have agreed to formally exchange views on the Middle East, but they did not characterize such talks as major negotiations. White House spokesman Robert Sims said that “such an exchange would be part of our regular diplomatic dialogue.” National security adviser Robert C. McFarlane described the projected talks as an “exchange of view, a talk, a get-together about how each of us views the problems of the area,” and he added, “This is not a matter of formal negotiation at all.” There was no indication when the exchange might take place.
President Reagan told his chief arms control negotiators today that although the United States wanted an agreement with the Soviet Union, he was not seeking just “a piece of paper.” According to Larry Speakes, the White House spokesman, Mr. Reagan met for 20 minutes with Secretary of State George P. Shultz and the other members of the delegation that reached an agreement in Geneva last week with the Soviet Union on the procedures for future talks.
For the last 13 days, the center of attention in Poland has been a tiny courtroom in Torun, the medieval town where Copernicus was born. From an unadorned room, where pebble-glass windows obscure scarce winter daylight, disclosures and tidbits have emerged daily to fuel a national conversation about the abduction and murder of a pro-Solidarity priest and about four security officers charged in the crime. Every morning most newsstands in Poland’s big cities run out of papers before the rush hour ends. Roman Catholic and Government weeklies have been publishing long, virtually uncensored accounts of the trial that are passed from household to household. And a Government poll taken last week showed that nightly broadcasts of selected portions of testimony are being heard by 7 of every 10 Poles.
The State Department, in response to a Polish Government protest, said today that it regretted that a Radio Free Europe broadcast had implied that Poland was similar to Nazi Germany and Prime Minister Wojciech Jaruzelski similar to Hitler. Poland regularly complains to Washington about broadcasts by Radio Free Europe, a station in Munich financed by the United States Government that beams programs to Poland and other Eastern European countries, but until today the State Department had brushed such protests aside. The latest complaint, concerning a broadcast meant to evoke parallels between Nazi Germany and present-day Poland, was made by the Polish Foreign Ministry to the United States Embassy in Warsaw last week and was expressed publicly by the Polish Government spokesman on Tuesday. It was taken seriously by Washington this time.
The West German government agreed to contribute $900 million over the next decade to participate in an American-led program to set up a permanently manned space station. The decision came in response to President Reagan’s appeal, made a year ago, for Europe, Japan and Canada to join the United States in building and funding the $8-billion Columbus space station project. Italy, France and Britain are expected to announce their intentions soon. West Germany also will contribute $500 million to further develop the French Ariane rocket for Europe’s commercial satellite project.
Attorney General William French Smith said the flow of heroin and other drugs into the United States has not substantially decreased despite major successes against organized crime in both Italy and the United States. Smith told a news conference in Rome that “we have decimated the leadership” of American drug rings, but he added, “Heroin is still available, as is cocaine, marijuana and so on.” He is in Italy for meetings of a joint working group to combat organized crime and drug traffic.
Official attempts to get minority ethnic Turks to assume Bulgarian first names have led to violent disturbances in this country, diplomats said today. The Communist authorities denied that such disturbances had occurred, saying the reports were invented. But accounts from diplomats say there have been casualties, including deaths, among Turks resisting police demands that they adopt Bulgarian names. One diplomat said there were unconfirmed reports that as many as 40 people were killed near Momchilgrad. Estimates of the number of ethnic Turks in Bulgaria, whose population is just under nine million, range from 400,000 to over a million.
The Gibraltar Parliament approved legislation to reopen the frontier with Spain on February 5, provoking a walkout by the opposition, which warned that the British colony’s future is in danger. The bill is part of a deal negotiated last November under which Spain agreed to open its frontier with Gibraltar in return for sovereignty talks over the colony and guarantees that Spaniards would be allowed to reside and work there. Gibraltar Chief Minister Joshua Hassan denied that the deal between Spain and Britain represents a surrender of sovereignty.
A judge who was accused of pro-American bias on a panel settling financial claims from the Iranian revolution has submitted his resignation. Swedish Judge Nils Mangard, one of three neutral-country judges on the U.S.-Iran tribunal in The Hague, told a reporter that he was stepping down for family reasons. Mangard, 69, was assaulted last September by two Iranian judges who charged that he favored Western interests in arbitrating financial awards. The tribunal, which also has three American and three Iranian judges, has decided about $300 million worth of claims out of a total of about $3.5 billion.
Israel’s Parliament resolved a deeply divisive issue. By a vote of 62 to 51, the legislators rejected a motion by four Orthodox religious parties to redefine who is a Jew. The motion would have recognized no conversions to Judaism except those performed by Orthodox rabbis. The discussion preceding the decision was frequently a wild, emotional affair, involving at times four simultaneous shouting matches across the floor of Parliament. The debate was so intense that at some points it was impossible to determine who was yelling at whom. Had the motion been approved in this vote and subsequent parliamentary readings, it would mean that people converted to Judaism by Conservative or Reform rabbis would not be considered Jewish by the Government, and thus not entitled to Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return.
The general in charge of Israel’s military withdrawal from Lebanon says the army should not intervene if massacres occur among Lebanese factions after Israel departs. General Ori Orr, the army’s northern commander, made the statement when he briefed community leaders in northern Israel on Tuesday. Referring to the risk of massacres when Israeli troops leave, General Orr said: “I don’t know what will happen in Sidon after we pull out. But I want the problem to be Amin Gemayel’s. I will not recommend we intervene if there will be acts of massacre in the areas we leave.”
Two young Sikhs shot and wounded a leading Sikh priest and two aides today as they left their car in the Ludhiana district of the Punjab, a district official said today. The official said the two men had been on a motorcycle pursuing the priest, Kirpal Singh, who is head of the Akal Takht shrine at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, District Magistrate N. K. Lakhanpal said. He said the wounded men had been rushed to a hospital, where doctors said they were out of danger. According to an independent news report, Mr. Singh was hit by at least six bullets in the forehead and right thigh. The official said it was too early to say if the gunmen, identified as Sikhs by their dress and beards, were Sikh terrorists.
For the first time since Soviet forces joined the fray in Afghanistan in 1979, the Kremlin acknowledged today that one of its soldiers had deserted. But it said he chose to return home after finding only “sleazy propaganda and dubious love” in the West. The official Soviet agency Tass also accused the United States of offering Afghan rebels a bounty for live Soviet soldiers, who could be tortured and brainwashed into being traitors. Official reports here routinely portray missing soldiers in Afghanistan as having been captured by rebels. The case of Nikolai Ryzkkov, the Tass Russian-language service said, was “exceptional.” It said the 20-year-old deserter had been drugged, nearly starved and visited by lovers of both sexes and with links to the Central Intelligence Agency in an attempt to get him to make anti-Soviet statements.
China said today that Vietnamese troops attacked across the border into the Chinese province of Yunnan on Monday but were repulsed with “due punishment.” The Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ma Yuzhen, also said at a weekly news briefing that China would continue to assist “to the best of its ability” Cambodian rebels retreating from an offensive by Vietnamese occupation forces. In China’s border conflict with Vietnam, the official New China News Agency said that Vietnamese troops advancing under artillery cover crossed the border Monday but that by Tuesday night “all the invaders were expelled with a number of Vietnamese troops killed or wounded.” The report gave no Chinese casualty figures, but the agency said six Chinese civilians were killed and one wounded January 9 when the Vietnamese staged a border ambush in the autonomous region of Guangzi Zhuang. Later, the agency said China had released 15 Vietnamese soldiers and other “armed personnel” on a highway leading to the Vietnamese town of Đồng Đăng. A death certificate for one Vietnamese was also turned over.
Supporters of a self-exiled opposition leader predicted today that he would not be arrested or detained on longstanding subversion charges when he returns to the Philippines next Monday. The optimism of the opposition leader’s followers came largely in response to an order Tuesday from President Ferdinand E. Marcos to the Justice Ministry to review the four-year-old case against the exile, Jovito Salonga. In his directive, President Marcos explained that he was calling for the review to enable the 64-year-old Mr. Salonga to “pursue his political aspirations to the fullest.” “All indications are now that my father will not be arrested and that the Government is preparing to set aside the case against him,” said Steve Salonga, 36-year-old son of the former Senator.
Ethnic tensions in New Caledonia have effectively partitioned the South Pacific island both physically and spiritually into two hostile, armed camps. A state of emergency is in effect and 3,000 French soldiers have been sent there to keep the peace. Europeans want the territory to remain French while many Melanesians seek independence. President Francois Mitterrand said today that he would leave Thursday for the French terrority.
Demonstrators in Jamaica blocked major highways with burning barricades for the second day in protests against government-ordered increases in fuel prices. Six people were reported wounded in clashes. Security police patrolled Kingston, the capital, and other major cities. Prime Minister Edward Seaga appealed for an end to the protests, touched off by a 21% increase in prices of gasoline and other petroleum products and a decline in the Jamaican dollar. The killed in the first day of rioting government said three people were Tuesday.
President Reagan attends a National Security Council meeting to discuss deploying Electronic Warfare capable planes near Cuba. Reagan writes in his diary:
“N.S.C. briefing—I made a decision to equip several planes with equipment capable of jamming Cuban radio & T.V. We may never use them — I hope not. But we intend to start Radio Marti — broadcasting truth to Cuba. We intend to offer Castro a channel upon which he is free to broadcast to our people. But we’ll also tell him that if he jams our radio & (as he has threatened) interferes with our commercial stations we’ll black out Cuban T.V. & radio. We must be prepared to carry that out instantly.”
The Ethiopian Government has impounded a 6,000-ton food shipment from Australia that was intended for famine victims in rebel-held areas. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said late tonight that the Australians had made “an unacceptable challenge to Ethiopia’s authority.” He said the Australian charge d’affaires had been called to the Foreign Ministry and told to tell his Government that the Australian action constituted “an infringement of Ethiopia’s sovereignty” and was “tantamount to interference in our internal affairs.”
State Department officials said today that the Reagan Administration would try to open a “limited military assistance relationship” with the Marxist Government of Mozambique as a result of recent changes in that southeast African nation’s attitude toward the United States. The officials, who attributed the changes to economic and military pressure on the Mozambique Government, said the Administration notified Congress several weeks ago that it wanted to give Mozambique’s armed forces $1 million in “nonlethal” military equipment, such as uniforms, vehicles and communications equipment. In addition, $150,000 would be spent to train Mozambican military personnel, some of them in the United States.
The proposed space defense against nuclear missiles would have to be backed up by antiaircraft radar installations and planes to protect North America against bombers, according to Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger. In an interview, Mr. Weinberger said that such a continental air defense system, largely abandoned 10 years ago as obsolete in an area of quick-flying offensive missiles, should be restored to assure that protection against nuclear attack was “thoroughly reliable.” The Defense Secretary declined to speculate about the ultimate cost of reconstructing a system to defend against relatively slow-flying bombers and cruise missiles that might be able to slip under an antimissile shield. Former Defense Secretary James R. Schlesinger estimated that rebuilding and sustaining a continental air defense would cost at least $50 billion a year.
The new chairman of the House Budget Committee said today that it would be difficult for the House to pass a deficit- reducing package that would cut spending by $50 billion in 1986, the goal that has been set by Republican leaders in the Senate. “There are some very unpalatable choices and whether we can put together a consensus is not clear yet,” Representative William H. Gray 3d, Democrat from Philadelphia, said in an interview. He said that many members of Congress were talking about cutting $50 billion in spending. But he added: “People really haven’t looked at what you have to do to get there. I have. It’s tough.”
President Reagan meets with members of the Committee on the Next Agenda to discuss initiatives for the President’s second term.
TIME defamed Ariel Sharon in an article about a 1982 massacre of Palestinian civilians in Lebanon, a Manhattan jury decided. The panel of four women and two men continued to deliberate on other issues in the libel case. The decision on defamation was announced in a hushed courtroom at 11 AM on the third day of its deliberations in the two-month-old trial in Federal District Court in Manhattan. The jury of four women and two men continued to deliberate on the additional questions of whether the article was false and whether TIME had published it with reckless disregard for its truth or falsity. If the jury’s answer to both questions is also yes, the trial will enter another phase to consider Mr. Sharon’s reputation and how much it was damaged. That would be the jury’s libel verdict.
The Internal Revenue Service announced that it will waive tax underpayment penalties this year for persons on Social Security who failed to take their benefits into account when making quarterly payments to Uncle Sam. The IRS said it is waiving the penalties because many Social Security recipients may not have been aware of new tax provisions involving Social Security benefits. Generally, half of Social Security benefits are taxable for single persons who earn more than $25,000 and couples who earn more than $32,000 a year. However, the agency said the waiver will cover only 1984. Social Security recipients will have to include the taxable portion of their benefits in estimated quarterly payments made for 1985.
The inspector general of the nation’s emergency preparedness agency, which has been the target of a recent congressional investigation of possible fraud and waste, has been moved from his post, an agency spokeswoman said. Robert Goffus, inspector general for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has been reassigned to his former job as comptroller. The agency spokeswoman, who denied the change represented a “shake-up,” said Goffus had planned to retire this year but Director Louis Giuffrida persuaded him to remain with the agency.
Bernhard H. Goetz “has every inclination” of testifying before a grand jury that could charge him with attempted murder in the shooting of four youths on a subway, Goetz’s lawyer, Joseph Kelner, told a judge. But Kelner said at a court hearing in New York that he first wants to see the videotaped confession Goetz supposedly made to New Hampshire police — a demand the prosecutor refused. Judge Jay Gold agreed with the prosecution and set the next hearing for February 6. Goetz, meanwhile, said he felt sorry for the mother of one of the shooting victims and said the use of the term “vigilante” in his case was “irresponsible reporting.”
A former CIA analyst testified under cross-examination at retired General William C. Westmoreland’s $120-million libel suit against CBS in New York that information the ICIA received about enemy troop strength was often ambiguous and “there could have been a problem in translation.” Analyst Sam Adams was sued by Westmoreland along with CBS correspondent Mike Wallace and CBS producer George Crile. The general charged that the network’s documentary, “The Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Deception,” humiliated him by contending that he falsified enemy troop estimates to show he was winning a war of attrition against the Việt Cộng.
Only a handful of special guests will be allowed inside Florida’s Kennedy Space Center next Wednesday afternoon to view the launch of the shuttle Discovery on its top-secret military mission, officials said. Discovery’s mission is the first fully classified American manned space flight. The exact launch time is secret to prevent Soviet tracking stations from locking onto the shuttle or its classified payload, which defense sources say is an Air Force “signals intelligence” spy satellite.
The supervisor of Richard W. Miller, the first agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation charged with espionage, said today that Mr. Miller went to him hours before he was arrested and “apologized to me and to the F.B.I. for his conduct.” He said, however, that Mr. Miller “adamantly” denied giving away any damaging information. The supervising agent, Gary G. Auer, testified at a pretrial hearing that Mr. Miller went to him unexpectedly on Oct. 2, after Mr. Miller had undergone five days of interrogation in a bureau inquiry into whether he had given classified information to Soviet agents.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission today put off a vote on procedural questions involving the resumption of nuclear power production at the Three Mile Island complex near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The questions have delayed a vote on restarting the undamaged nuclear unit at the complex for nearly six years. The vote postponed today, for two weeks, was on whether the commission can, in fact, vote on restarting the undamaged unit before it receives the results of hearings on charges of misconduct by management and the commission staff. Officials said the agency’s general counsel had advised that the commissioners could vote on restarting before receiving the findings. The technical complexity of the decision, the continuing hearings and the opposition of residents near Three Mile Island have all contributed to the delay. At issue is the Unit 1 reactor, which was out of service for routine refueling when its twin, Unit 2, experienced a partial meltdown in March 1979. While the commission undertook a post-accident investigation, the Unit 1 operating license was suspended. The General Public Utilities Corporation, which operates Three Mile Island, petitioned the commission later that year to start up Unit 1.
The Federal Communications Commission said that some manufacturers of cordless telephones are selling models that are more powerful than authorized, a situation that causes interference on other cordless phones. The government could fine the makers, ban the phones, ask the manufacturers to recall the phones or refer the matter to the Justice Department for prosecution. However, FCC attorney Robert Ungar said the government just wants to get the overpowered phones off the market and would rather not impose big fines.
The Federal Government has urged the voluntary recall of more than 1,600 transit buses from about two dozen cities, including Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Atlanta, because of suspension problems that investigators say could cause drivers to lose control. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the Neoplan USA Corporation should, “in the interest of safety,” take the buses back to repair cracking rear A-frames or the agency would begin a formal investigation that could lead to a recall being ordered. Officials of the company, with headquarters in Lamar, Colorado, could not be reached for comment. Neoplan has tried to strengthen the A-frames of some of the buses, according to the federal agency, but investigators said that was not adequate.
The status of black Americans is “very grim,” according to John E. Jacob, president of the National Urban League. He urged President Reagan to “take a handful of small steps that could begin to heal the breach between his Administration and black people.”.
Washington’s new Governor, Booth Gardner, took charge of a state slowly emerging from a severe recession and major unresolved problems. Mr. Gardner, a Democrat, pledged to tackle unemployment, underfinanced higher education, pollution and inefficiencies in government.
The Government may return to Cuba hundreds of Cubans being held in the Atlanta Penitentiary, a federal appeals court ruled. The court’s action stayed a federal district judge’s ruling that forbade the Government from deporting any Cubans who were now or ever had been in the Atlanta Penitentiary until their appeals for asylum were decided by Federal immigration officials.
Federal and state wildlife agents arrested or began serving arrest warrants on about 130 people in six Eastern states on charges of illegal traffic in wildlife, notably striped bass, the Federal Fish and Wildlife Service said today. The arrests ended separate investigations that began in Pennsylvania in 1982 and North Carolina in 1983 in which agents discovered “a significant illegal market for striped bass from the Chesapeake Bay and inland waters of North Carolina,” the service said. Catches of striped bass, also called rockfish, have fallen dramatically in recent years and on January 1, Maryland banned all taking of the species as a conservation measure. State and Federal agents posing as fish dealers bought 6,700 pounds of oversized bass, those larger than then- legal limits for fish from Virginia and Maryland waters, destined for markets in Philadelphia, the District of Columbia, New York, Maryland and Virginia.
A national medical society opened a major campaign today to see that adult Americans are as well protected by vaccines as their children are against a variety of diseases. “Immunization isn’t just kid stuff,” said Dr. Robert H. Moser, executive vice president of the 60,000-member American College of Physicians. The doctors said there were safe, effective and largely underused vaccines against seven adult ailments: tetanus, diphtheria, measles, rubella, hepatitis B, influenza and pneumococcal pneumonia.
There are still major gaps in knowledge about what happens when poisonous liquids are incinerated, says a draft report by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Science Advisory Board. The report, made available Tuesday by the conservation group Greenpeace, said there was no documentation that burning toxic chemicals on land or sea harmed human health or ecological systems. Incineration is a disposal method coming into increasing use as more toxic wastes are created and fewer are disposed of in landfills. Legislation passed by Congress last year requires waste disposal companies to gradually eliminate the use of landfills and burning of wastes in ordinary boilers.
Howard R. Hughes wrote hundreds of notes from 1966 through 1970 ordering his aides to use his fortune to buy the services of Presidents and other prominent political figures, according to a new book. The book, “Citizen Hughes” by Michael Drosnin, uses the memorandums to portray Mr. Hughes as a confused, drug-addicted, bedridden billionaire.
Record medical malpractice claims are being filed by Americans against physicians, an American Medical Association report said. It said that people were filing more than three times as many claims as they did 10 years ago and were winning record settlements. A second, internal report said organized medicine must make a more concerted effort to find incompetent doctors and remove them from practice.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1230.68.
Born:
Joe Flacco, NFL quarterback (NFL Champions, Super Bowl 47-Ravens, 2012; Baltimore Ravens, Denver Broncos, New York Jets, Cleveland Browns, Indianapolis Colts), in Voorhees, New Jersey.
Isaiah Gardner, NFL defensive back (Jacksonville Jaguars), in Detroit, Michigan.
Junior Guerra, Venezuelan MLB pitcher (Chicago White Sox, Milwaukee Brewers, Arizona Diamondbacks, Los Angeles Angels), in San Felix, Venezuela.
Jeff Manship, MLB pitcher (Minnesota Twins, Colorado Rockies, Philadelphia Philllies, Cleveland Indians), in San Antonio, Texas.
Masi Marjamäki, Finnish NHL right wing (New York Islanders), in Pori, Finland.
Renée Felice Smith, American actress (“NCIS: Los Angeles”), in New York, New York.
Sidharth Malhotra, Indian actor (“Shershaah”), in Delhi, India.
Died:
Robert Fitzgerald, 74, American poet and translator.
History Diaries 