Helmut Kohl gave qualified approval to the Reagan Administration’s proposed research into a space-based defense system, but insisted that the Western European allies must be permitted to share in its ultimate benefits. The West German Chancellor said in a seminar on defense issues in Munich that it was “too early to reach a final judgment” on the United States program, which is officially called the Strategic Defense Initiative and has been dubbed “Star Wars.” But by the end of the decade, he said, the program must take account of “the strategic unity” of the NATO alliance and avoid possibly dangerous instabilities in a transition to deployment. In Washington, a study by the Congressional Research Service said Western European officials generally favored research on the proposed program, but overwhelmingly opposed deployment.
The Soviet Union paid glowing tribute to Yuri V. Andropov today, on the first anniversary of his death, confirming his niche in official Soviet history despite the brevity of his 15-month rule. An article in Pravda, the Communist party daily, said: “The best political and human qualities of Yuri V. Andropov — his fidelity to Leninism in theory and practice, his organizational talent, his feeling for the new and his ability to accumulate the living experience of the masses, his irreconcilability to everything alien to the principles of socialism, his attractive personality and modesty — unfolded with special strength. He enjoyed deserved authority and respect from the party and the people.”
Scottish planning officials have rejected an application by the Union Carbide Corp., to build a plant to mix toxic gases near Edinburgh. The rejection followed public demonstrations over fears of a gas leak similar to the one at the company’s plant in Bhopal, India, on December 3, that killed more than 2,000 people. Company officials had sought to allay such fears, saying that no comparison could be made with the Bhopal plant because of the tiny amount of chemicals that would be used at the proposed plant.
British Army bomb experts today defused a one-ton bomb — one of the biggest dropped on England during World War II — but the police said it was still unstable and posed a threat to homes in the area. About 200 families were evacuated Friday night from their homes, and the police sealed off the area. The bomb was discovered by Barry Hoult, 47 years old, who was driving a mechanical digger and said he made several attempts to scoop it up before he realized what it was. “There was a bump and I thought it was a big stone or an old pipe,” Mr. Hoult said. “I kept driving away at it and then realized something was wrong.”
The total number of Jewish settlers in the West Bank has reached 42,500, many more than most previous estimates, according to a new study just completed. The population study, produced by the West Bank Data Project, an independent research group headed by a former Jerusalem Deputy Mayor, Meron Benvenisti, found that as of Jan. 1, 1985, there were 9,000 Jewish families living on the Israeli-occupied West Bank – a total of 42,500 people living in 114 Jewish settlements. “The conventional wisdom here, and the figure most frequently quoted, was that there were 28,000 to 30,000 Jewish settlers,” said Mr. Benvenisti. “Our study shows how much further along the settlement activity really is. The current economic crisis is now slowing down the number of housing starts on the West Bank, but this will not be felt in the number of settlers until 1986 and 1987. In the meantime, there is enough housing stock to allow for a continued growth of Jewish settlers at a rate of 2,000 families a year.”
An extremist Jewish organization has threatened to assassinate Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres during a forthcoming visit to Rome on February 18, the Italian news agency ANSA said. The Italian news service said the threat came in a letter with a Vienna postmark that was delivered to its Rome office. The purported letter was signed by the clandestine Jewish organization Terror against Terror, which has a history of violence against Arabs on the West Bank. It accused Peres of having “betrayed Zionism,” of defending “Arab assassins” and wanting to let the Israeli state “fall to pieces.”
A Lebanese group that seized a Cyprus Airways jetliner for several hours on Thursday threatened to attack Cypriot installations worldwide unless Cyprus releases two jailed Lebanese, a private radio station reported today. The Voice of Lebanon, controlled by the Christian Phalangists, said the station was called by a man claiming to represent the Black Brigades organization, the name given by the gunmen who took over the plane at the Beirut airport to demand release of two imprisoned “brothers.” The gunmen freed the plane and 12 hostages after the Nicosia Government reportedly agreed to consider releasing the two. But on Friday, a Cypriot Government spokesman denied any deal guaranteed the pair’s release. The two men were arrested in June 1983 after hijacking a Rumanian jetliner chartered by Libya. The hijackers sought to determine the fate of Imam Mousa Sadr, founder of the Lebanese Shiite Muslim Amal movement, who disappeared during an official visit to Libya in 1978.
Iran has lowered its oil prices in line with cuts recently approved by the majority of members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the Middle East Economic Survey reported. Iran initially dissociated itself from the new OPEC price structure adopted last month. But the oil journal said Iran notified its customers Friday that it had cut the price of its light crude oil by $1.06 a barrel, down to $28.05, and Iranian heavy crude by 20 cents, down to $27.35 a barrel. OPEC’s price structure is based on a benchmark rate of $28 a barrel for Saudi light crude oil.
Indian officials, concerned by the uncovering of a major espionage network, have slowed talks on buying billions of dollars worth of advanced weapons from Western countries competing for the contracts, a Western diplomat says. The network reportedly extended to the office of the Prime Minister and to the Defense, Commerce and Finance Ministries. The Western diplomat said Friday that officials in the Defense and Finance Ministries were shaken by the extent of the network, which purportedly sold military, economic and other Government secrets to diplomats from the Soviet Union, Poland, East Germany and France. Many officials were “lying low,” he said, and were apparently unwilling to make major decisions while the spy ring continued to unravel.
Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, seeking to reduce tensions with Sri Lanka, conferred for more than an hour today with a special envoy from President J. R. Jayewardene of Sri Lanka.
Pakistani President Zia ul-Haq’s martial-law government banned a meeting, scheduled for today, of the 11-party opposition alliance, the Movement for Restoration of Democracy, which is urging voters to boycott the February 25 parliamentary elections on the grounds that they will not be “free, fair and impartial.” Pakistani newspapers also reported that the government arrested dozens of opposition leaders in an attempt to derail the planned boycott. Among those arrested under martial-law regulations was the alliance leader, Fatehyab Ali Khan, the papers said. The alliance decided January 19 to boycott the February 25 elections, saying the voting would not be “free, fair and impartial.” Opposition parties are demanding a role in the elections. They also insist the election be held under the 1973 Constitution, which General Zia has suspended.
The Vietnamese-installed government of Cambodia said it is ready to cooperate with Washington in the search for 91 Americans still listed as missing in Cambodia. Deputy Foreign Minister Kong Korm said that his government is ready to meet with U.S. officials to pass on any information it has. Korm would not rule out the possibility that American search teams may be allowed into the country, even though the United States does not recognize the current regime in Phnom Penh.
The Seoul Government acknowledged that some force was used Friday against the opposition leader Kim Dae Jung, but it strongly denied charges that South Korean security agents had beaten and kicked Mr. Kim and prominent American supporters. A government spokesman accused Mr. Kim of violence at the airport when he returned from exile in the United States.
A Chinese official protested the Reagan Administration’s decision to withhold a $23 million contribution to the United Nations Fund for Population Activities today, saying the action was “unreasonable” and based on false information about China’s birth-control policies. The protest came after the announcement in Washington this week that the American money would be withheld because of concerns that it might go to support forced abortions in China. The Chinese reaction took the form of an item on the official New China News Agency that quoted an unnamed official of the State Family Planning Commission as saying that “not a single U.S. dollar” has gone toward abortion in China and that in any case there were no forced abortions here.
The spray-painted words “No Nukes” are daubed on the entrance to the Victoria Tunnel, on the way from the airport to downtown Wellington. A sign on St. Andrew’s Church, just down the street from the nation’s Parliament building, tells visitors that the church has been declared “a nuclear-free zone.” The windows of many houses and shops display anti-nuclear stickers; inside a circle, the likeness of a nuclear warhead has a diagonal line drawn through it. The decision this week by Prime Minister David Lange to refuse a United States request for a port call by an American warship without assurance that it carried no nuclear weapons seems to reflect public opinion and political realities in this island nation of 3.2 million people.
The clubbing of harp seal pups in Canada seems to have ended, the hunters of the white coated pups and their opponents say. “There will be no commercial clubbing of whitecoats in the foreseeable future, perhaps never again,” Kirk Smith, executive director of the 2,000-member Canadian Sealers Association, said in an interview here Friday. Acknowledging the impact of the protests, he said, “It is quite evident that this is something that cannot be resold.” But sealers say some pups will continue to be killed for personal use, and the two sides differ over defining how old a seal must be to no longer qualify as a pup.
A white paper on Central America prepared by the Reagan Administration asserts that the Soviet Union, using Cuba, is trying to turn all the region into a satellite of the Eastern bloc. The paper was prepared as part of an effort to persuade Congress to approve the Administration’s Central America aid package.
Nicaragua said it would accept a reduction — rather than elimination — of U.S. military advisers and maneuvers in Central America during recently suspended talks in Mexico, Nicaraguan officials and sources in Mexico City told the Washington Post. While the proposal represented a softening of the Sandinista position, the sources said Washington broke off the talks because it wanted a region-wide treaty and Nicaragua continued to insist upon a bilateral agreement.
Salvadoran President Jose Napoleon Duarte said Friday that he would complain to the United States Embassy here concerning reports that American officials had openly favored a victory for Mr. Duarte’s conservative opponents in coming legislative elections. “It is unheard of that functionaries of the Embassy of the United States could give these sort of declarations,” Mr. Duarte said in reply to a question from a reporter. “I am going to protest to Ambassador Pickering about what you have told me.” Thomas R. Pickering is the United States Ambassador here.
Bolivia sharply devalued its currency and raised the price of food, gasoline and other items today in an effort to stem the threat of an economic collapse. Inflation during January was 80 percent. In recent weeks, bread has virtually disappeared from markets and beef and poultry have rarely been available. The official exchange rate was raised from 9,000 pesos to the United States dollar to 50,000 per dollar. On the black market, a dollar still brought 120,000 pesos. Gasoline prices were increased 575 percent and food prices an average of 400 percent. To compensate for the higher prices, workers were given a wage increase of 340 percent.
Ethiopia’s Marxist leader, Lieutenant Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam, announced austerity measures, including fuel rationing and a ban on some imports, as part of efforts to combat the drought and famine that threaten millions with death by starvation. Luxury cars and textiles can no longer be imported, he said.
President Reagan makes a Radio Address to the Nation on economic growth. President Reagan said today that his Administration was “raring to go” and urged Congress to “work with us in a spirit of cooperation and compromise” to reduce the Federal budget deficit and overhaul the tax system. “We’re going to begin working now and pushing hard in Congress and across the country,” Mr. Reagan said in a radio speech from the Presidential retreat at Camp David, Md. White House aides said Mr. Reagan’s remarks were designed to offer a signal to Congress that the Administration realized the budget was “a starting point” and, essentially, negotiable.
President Reagan does homework at Camp David.
Federal judges continue to uphold the numerical goals that were set to increase the employment of blacks and women, despite the Reagan Administration’s contention that the Supreme Court prohibited their use last year. The Court ruled that the numerical goals could not interfere with a legitimate seniority system to protect the jobs of blacks.
The Administration’s chief civil rights enforcement officer predicted that not only will all court-ordered affirmative action end soon but that the federal government will stop keeping track of compliance. Assistant Attorney General William Bradford Reynolds also predicted in a speech in Miami that Supreme Court decisions will make it more difficult for public and private employers to use quotas as a means of achieving racial balance.
Many regions of the country remain vulnerable to President Reagan’s proposed $7-billion cut in federal aid, despite state budget surpluses, according to the latest “Fiscal Survey of the States,” a study by the National Governors Association. The report said the 50 states expect to end the current fiscal year with a $5.3-billion general fund surplus. But half of that surplus will be concentrated in five states: California, Minnesota, New Jersey, Texas and Wisconsin.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is asking General Motors Corp. to recall 1.75 million A-cars because of “significant safety problems” involving rear brake lockup. The agency urged the automaker to repair the brakes of 1982-84 models of the Chevrolet Celebrity, Buick Century, Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera and Pontiac 6000. The agency cited 448 complaints, 69 accidents and 23 injuries in a letter to GM. “GM does not believe such action is warranted,” a GM spokesman said, adding that the automaker will respond to the agency in the next few weeks.
About 4,000 doctors, ministers, educators and other professionals are working under fake diplomas from “schools” run by seven persons indicted in the FBI’s Dipscam probe, an FBI official said. The seven were indicted in Charlotte, North Carolina, on charges of conspiracy, mail fraud and wire fraud, bringing the total number of persons charged in Dipscam to 13. The previous six were found guilty. The FBI said the schools with the largest number of “graduates” are Northwestern College of Allied Science, with addresses in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Springfield, Missouri; American Western University in Tulsa, and Southwestern University in Tucson.
Federal authorities are investigating another incident involving a Continental Airlines jetliner that flew from Newark, New Jersey, to Denver after damaging its tail section on takeoff. The plane was able to land safely. It was the second such incident in a month involving the same aircraft, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The bolt on Flight 315 apparently was sheared on takeoff from the tail’s skid, which is a protective device on the underside of the fuselage.
Robert and Lois Bentz of Jordan, Minnesota, who were acquitted of child sexual abuse charges, have been reunited with their 11-year-old and 6-year-old sons who had been living in foster homes. Judge Charles Gegen of Dakota County ordered that the family will remain under the supervision of social workers for up to a year. The Bentzes were among 25 persons charged with sexually abusing more than 40 children in Scott County. James Rud, 27, was sentenced to 40 years in prison for abusing children, but charges against others were dropped.
Millions of acres of farmland already have been lost by farmers or are likely soon to fall into the hands of creditors in an economic convulsion gripping farm life and rural communities in the country’s principal food-producing regions. Farmers are struggling to repay loans that rose from a total of $132 billion in 1979 to $215 billion currently, carrying interest rates totaling more than $21 billion a year. And the number of farm borrowers being denied credit is growing.
William J. Schroeder is stronger than he was when he received his artificial heart, which is working flawlessly, but his memory has been severely impaired by a stroke that occurred after the surgery.
An Ohio man with severe heart disease underwent evaluation for a possible human heart transplant or artificial heart implant at the Humana Heart Institute in Louisville, Kentucky, where William Schroeder became the world’s second artificial heart recipient. Cardiologists have not decided whether Wilburn Nevels, 59, of Cleves, Ohio, is an appropriate candidate for a heart transplant or mechanical heart implant. An institute spokeswoman said it was unlikely a decision would be made for several days.
Prosecutors in the case of Andrija Artukovic, whose extradition has been requested by Yugoslavia, have filed a document expanding on their assertions that he was responsible for mass murders in World War II. In the brief filed in advance of a hearing set for next week in Los Angeles, Assistant United States Attorney David Nimmer quoted witnesses who were in Yugoslavia when Mr. Artukovic was Interior Minister of the Nazi government of Croatia. One witness, Franjo Truhar, who was a chief of police in Yugoslavia in the war, quoted Mr. Artukovic as telling him, “It is necessary to slaughter and kill Serbs even without Germans suggesting it to you.” Another witness, Boza Barbaric, identified as a resident of Cerin Municipality in 1941, told of receiving written orders commanding that all Serbians in his town be killed “by order from minister Dr. Andrija Artukovic.” Mr. Artukovic, 85 years old, has been in the United States since 1948.
Four people, including a patient, were killed today in Oregon when an ambulance airplane lost power in both engines as it approached an airport and crashed in a pasture, the authorities said. There were no survivors of the crash about a half mile from Medford-Jackson County Airport, said Jeff Maldonado, chief sheriff’s deputy in Jackson County. The plane, a Rockwell Aero Commander, belonged to Mercy Flights of Medford, which Mr. Maldonado said transports patients from small communities to areas with better facilities. The other three victims were crew members from the Medford area, Mr. Maldonado said.
There was jubilation in Massachusetts at Springfield’s four high schools Friday after more than 150 students barred from extracurricular activities for having low grades were reinstated when the requirements were relaxed. Of 258 students disqualified in a grades crackdown last week, 154 were reinstated to teams and clubs by the change in requirements approved Thursday by the Springfield School Committee, Superintendent Thomas Donahoe said. The committee, which had required that students get a C in each major subject, said students could participate if they maintained a C average.
From campuses to Congress, there is concern that illegal computer-assisted tampering with educational grades and records could replace old-fashioned diploma mills and unaccredited offshore schools as the easier way to a university degree. Educators, legislators and law-enforcement officials say that no one has a reliable idea of the extent of computer-tampering. Representative William J. Hughes, Democrat of New Jersey, whose computer crime measure was passed by the last Congress, said in an interview that neither colleges nor financial institutions were willing to document the suspected problem for fear of losing public credibility and confidence. Last week the University of Southern California and the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office said they were investigating allegations that bogus degrees had been sold for as much as $25,000, “documented” by faked complete transcripts planted in the university’s computer.
Enrollment at professional schools is declining after two decades of growth when it seemed that every other graduating senior wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer or a dentist or a veterinarian. Enrollment in all those categories has declined. Educators think talented young people are reappraising their options and their financial burdens.
Dog food with a birth control drug added has been developed by the Carnation Company, which has applied to the Food and Drug Administration to approve nonprescription sale in supermarkets.
Madonna’s album “Like a Virgin” goes #1 for 3 weeks.
Born:
Nigel Dawes, Canadian NHL left wing (New York Rangers, Phoenix Coyotes, Calgary Flames, Atlanta Thrashers, Montreal Canadiens), in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
David Gallagher, American actor, American actor (“7th Heaven”), in New York, New York.
History Diaries 