Five mortar shells struck a South Vietnamese primary school 45 miles southwest of Saigon today killing at least one child and injuring four others, according to first reports, a military spokesman said here. Far to the northwest, in Quảng Ngãi Province on the Central Coast, the Saigon command reported that five schoolchildren were killed when a passing army truck hit a mine yesterday. One other child was injured, as were two soldiers on the truck. The school hit by mortars, was about four miles from the primary school in Cai Lậy, where a mortar shell landed in the playground last March, killing 24 children and woundling 64 others.
The Pentagon announced today a two‐day extension of special commercial charter airlift of military supplies from Thailand to Cambodia. It said the original 10‐day, stopgap operation by two United States charter firms was being extended through February 26, while the regular contract airlift operation, conducted by Bird Air of Oakland, California, expands from 10 to 20 flights a day. World Airways of Oakland and Airlift International of Miami, Florida, are flying DC‐8 jet cargo planes into Phnom Penh. The two‐day extension will add $110,000 to the $1.2‐million cost of the airlift, which Pentagon officials have said is financed out of Cambodian military‐aid funds.
The collapse of the Soviet-American trade agreement raised questions in Moscow about the ability of the Ford administration to honor commitments in more complicated areas, a senior Soviet official said at a news conference in Washington. Vladimir Alkhimov, the Soviet Union’s Deputy Foreign Trade Minister, sought to put pressure on the United States to revise the trade bill that linked any trade benefits for the Soviet Union to a liberalized Soviet emigration policy.
Secretary General Waldheim today urged Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders to resume their suspended negotiations “on a new agreed basis.” Mr. Waldheim, who spoke in the Security Council, also offered his help to both sides, saying that the Cyprus problem represented a “crucial test of the effectiveness and credibility” of the United Nations. The Secretary General, reporting to the Council on his talks last Wednesday in Athens and Ankara with Greek and Turkish leaders, said that he had already suggested “some new possibilities” for reopening negotiations, but he gave no details.
The Chief Justice of Northern Ireland, Sir Robert Lowry, was named today chairman of the constitutional convention that is to decide on the province’s future form of government. His appointment was broadly welcomed by the Unionists, the main Protestant group, but was received cooly by the largest Roman Catholic group, the Social Democratic and Labor party, which considers him too much of an establishment figure. Sir Robert, born in Belfast and now 56 years old, is the son of a former Unionist attorney general of Northern Ireland. He was appointed a high court judge in 1964 and became Lord Chief Justice four years ago.
The Roman Catholic Church said today that abortion is morally unconscionable even if it is permitted by civil law. The statement released by the Italian Bishops’ Conference was an official church reaction to a ruling of Italy’s constitutional court earlier this week that an article in the penal code outlawing abortion was “partly unconstitutional.” The court said that abortion was not a crime if the pregnancy endangered the physical or psychological health of the mother. The wording was thought to permit a broad interpretation of dangers to health in allowing abortions. Until now, abortion has been a crime punishable by up to five years imprisonment for the woman seeking an abortion or the person performing it.
Voting 22 to 1 with nine abstentions, the 32-member United Nations Commission on Human Rights, in Geneva, accused Israel of violating the “basic norms of international law” in the territories she occupies, and adopted two resolutions of censure against Israel over her actions in the occupied Arab territories. Only the United States voted against both. She was accused of violating the 1949 Geneva convention on the protection of civilian war victims and of having wrought the “deliberate destruction and devastation” of E1 Quneitra in the Golan Heights. By a vote of 21 to 6 with 5 abstentions, the commission accused Israel of desecrating Moslem and Christian shrines and demanded the immediate release of the Greek Catholic Archbishop of East Jerusalem, the Most Rev, Hilarion Capucci, who was convicted of smuggling arms to Arab guerrillas and sentenced last December to 12 years in prison. Joining the United States in opposing this resolution were Britain, France, West Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. All five had abstained on the other motion along with Austria, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.
The weekly newspaper Akhbar al-Yom said today that an agreement on Israel’s withdrawal from Sinai passes and the Abu Rudeis oilfield in return for American guarantees of Israel’s security is “certain unless an unforeseen surprise occurs.” It said Secretary of State Kissinger will return to Cairo March 8 with the draft text of an interim accord. The paper told Egyptians to “expect good news.” In a front‐page report, the newspaper’s editor, Ali Amin, said that Mr. Kissinger had notified congressional leaders in the United States and the “world’s major capitals” of an agreement. In return for the withdrawal. Mr. Amin said the United States will give guarantees for Israel’s security but these will not be referred to Congress “for this is the prerogative of the President of the United States.”
A State Department official said the Cairo report of an agreement on Israeli withdrawal seemed based more on imagination than the facts. He said that Mr. Kissinger still has considerable negotiating to do when he returns to the Middle East and that “nothing is certain.” The official also said there is no thought being given to the United States giving Israel security guarantees during this interim stage. Such guarantees would only be considered as part of a final peace settlement, he said.
The reassignment of the American ambassador to Thailand, a controversial figure because of his military and intelligence background, was announced here today as King Phumiphol Aduldet formally appointed a two‐party minority government. The United States Embassy said that Ambassador William R. Kintner, who arrived here late in 1973, would return to Washington next month to head a high‐level government study of American policy interests in the Pacific region. But the timing of the announcement aroused speculation that the United States was moving to de‐emphasize the military aspect of American‐Thai relations with the advent or the first elected Thai Government in more than 25 years.
South Korean President Park Chung Hee’s new political structure, announced last week, will include a new supreme council, a reshuffled Cabinet and a revitalized National Assembly, an authoritative member of the ruling party said today. Mr. Park announced his plan shortly after he was given a vote of confidence in a referendum last week, but he gave no specifics. A member of the Democratic Republican party, who is informed about the project, outlined it today. The new council will represent business, labor, farm, various Christian churches and Buddhist sects, the universities, artists and intellectuals and the ruling and Opposition parties.
Five thousand Filipinos chanting revolutionary songs staged the first anti‐Government demonstration today since President Ferdinand E. Marcos imposed martial‐law rule two and a half years ago. The protest march grew out of a four‐hour religious procession organized by a Roman Catholic group advocating boycott of the February 27 referendum on martial law in which Mr. Marcos seeks a public vote of confidence. It was the first mass rally in the Philippines since Mr. Marcos proclaimed martial law in September, 1972, and banned political gatherings.
Colombia will restore full diplomatic relations with Cuba, Foreign Minister Indalecio Lievano announced today. He said that negotiations were being conducted through Switzerland, which has been handling Colombian affairs in Havana since 1961. The move weakens the diplomatic and economic blcckade against Cuba ordered by the Organization of American States in 1964. Venezuela renewed diplomatic relations with Cuba in December. Mexico never severed relations. Argentina, Peru and Panama ignored the O.A.S. ban and exchanged ambassadors with Cuba.
Ten bomb explosions damaged branch offices of United States and other foreign concerns in the Argentiine river port city of Rosario today and a rightist labor leader was shot to death by three men. Police sources said bombs went off at offices of the First National City Bank of New York, Boston Bank, the Bank of London and South America, the American tractor concern of Massey and Ferguson, the New Italian Bank, an Argentine Bank, the German Roemer laboratories and several automobile showrooms. Two police officers were reported wounded in the bombings. Rosario, 186 miles northwest of Buenos Aires, has long been a guerrilla stronghold. The police sources said that it was unclear who had planted the bombs, but the leftist Peoples Revolutionary Army raised its red banner outside a city railroad installation soon after the attacks.
Fierce fighting broke out on at least four fronts in the Ethiopian province of Eritrea as Ethiopian forces used fighter-bombers, armored vehicles, artillery and troops in attacks on villages and roads held by Eritrean secessionist guerrillas. The attacks followed several days of troop build-ups in Eritrea. Several thousand citizen soldiers, called Territorial Guardsmen, have also been sent to that northernmost Ethiopian province to guard urban areas and to free regular troops for combat. Informed Ethiopian, forejgn and diplomatic sources reporting these events had no word on the results of the day‐long clashes or on whether this was the start of an expected major Ethiopian offensive. The Ethiopian Government refused to comment on the battles. But knowledgeable Ethiopian sources here contend that the renewed and heavy fighting is a further indication that the Provisional Military Administrative Council is trying to gain a clear military advantage over the approximately 6,000 guerrillas of the Eritrean Liberation Front rather than seek a ceasefire.
Officials of Cape Province bowed to heavy criticism and announced today that the Nico Malan Theater here would be open to all races seven days a week. The announcement rescinded a plan of two days ago to reserve Monday and Saturday nights at the plush, $15‐million opera house for whites only. The decision to have two nights a week for whites had in turn reversed an announcement of last month that the theater would be fully integrated.
President Ford called on Congress today to approve without cuts his 92.8‐billion defense budget and vowed that he would sign no “declaration of dependence and inferiority.” In a speech prepared for the annual conference of the Reserve Officers Association of tae United States, Mr. Ford said the money he wanted spent on the military in the fiscal year beginning July 1 was “a basic minimum to assure the security of this nation in an insecure world.” He said a cut in defense spending would be a risk. “The declaration which our forefathers signed in 1776 launched the independence of this nation,” Mr. Ford said. “I will tell you this tonight: I am not going to sign any declaration of dependence ands inferiority.”
Calling on Americans to accept as the price of freedom, the “plain patriotism” and sacrifices displayed by George Washington in the American Revolution, Mr. Ford said: “I promise you that I will never turn my back on defense because I remember when it saved freedom. I will never accept second best in defense nor will I ever reject my full cornmitment to our armed forces and my solemn duty to the American people.” The association presented Mr. Ford with its highest award, the Minute Man of the Year. He was the 18th person and the first President to receive the award.
Former U.S. Attorney General John N. Mitchell, former Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman, and former presidential adviser John Ehrlichman were each sentenced to a minimum of 2½ years, in prison by U.S. District Judge John J. Sirica. All three had been convicted in January of obstruction of justice charges in connection with the Watergate scandal. Mitchell joked with reporters about his famous wife, from whom he was separated, saying, “It could have been a hell of a lot worse. He could have sentenced me to spend the rest of my life with Martha Mitchell.” Robert Mardian, former Assistant Attorney General under Mr. Mitchell, was sentenced to serve 10 months to three years.
Senate reformers prepared today for another assault next week on the Senate’s filibuster rule. But Senator James B. Allen, who used his detailed knowledge of parliamentary procedures to block a change in the rule yesterday, said this afternoon that “we have several other things in our arsenal.” Senator Allen, an Alabama Democrat, held the floor all day today and prevented the Senate froth voting on a measure that would give, emergency financial help to the Penn Central and other bankrupt railroads. Senator Vance Hartke, Democrat of Indiana, chief sponsor of the bill, which would provide the railroads with $347 — million in grants and Government‐guaranteed loans, told the Senate that the Penn Central would be unable to meet payrolls Monday or Tuesday unless the legislation was enacted. Mr. Allen held the bill hostage, however because of his, strong opposition to a proposal sponsored by Senators Walter F. Mondale, Democrat of Minnesota, and James B. Pearson, Republican of Kansas, that would permit a three‐fifths vote of the Senate, instead of the present two‐thirds, to cut off a filibuster. Mr. Allen’s strategy was to persuade Senator Mondale and his allies to give up their effort in return for his concession to allow a vote on the Penn Central bill.
The Justice Department disclosed that a secretary to the Speaker of the House, Carl Albert, and a Texas lawyer, had been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of fraudulently representing themselves as influence peddlers. The six-count indictment charged that Pauline Girvin, the secretary, and Joe Ben Champion, the lawyer, had falsely claimed to have had influence with Mr. Albert and had told clients that, in return for fees, they would use their good offices with Mr. Albert to have him arrange for the dropping of criminal charges faced by the clients.
Senator Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. said today that President Ford and Secretary of State Kissinger could not have a foreign policy partnership with Congress if they continually charged critics with political partisanship. The Texas Democrat, a candidate for his party’s 1976 Presidential nomination, renewed his criticism of Mr. Ford and Mr. Kissinger in a speech prepared for delivery at the Washington Press Club. “I would like nothing better than to have an effective foreign policy partnership between Congress and the executive branch,” Mr. Bentsen said. “But I will not be a silent partner or a’limited partner. There will be questioning. There will be criticism and analysis. There will be suggestions and policy guidelines. There will and must be prior consultation.”
The Labor Department reported that consumer prices in January continued to be less inflationary. The Consumer Price Index, after adjustment for normal seasonal changes in some prices, rose by six-tenths of 1 percent last month, a little less than the seven-tenths increase in December, but the smallest increase since last April. Prices of clothing, automobiles, beef and sugar declined, but costs of medical care and utilities, and prices of some foods, mainly cereals, bakery products, fruits and vegetables were higher.
The Executive Council of the A.F.L.‐C.I.O. charged today that the Federal Reserve System under the chairmanship of Dr. Arthur F. Burns had brought recession to the American economy and unemployment to millions of workers. “The time is long overdue,” the council said, “to overhaul the structure of the Federal Reserve and its policies — to make them responsible to the needs of the American people.” In a statement approved by the labor group at its winter meeting here, the council said that the Federal Reserve’s “arrogant brinkmanship” with the American economy in 1973 and 1974 had resulted in the “worst downward spiral” since the Depression and added that there was no end in sight.
By making optional some equipment that is now standard in nine of its small cars, the General Motors Corporation announced that it would reduce the prices of those cars by $104 to $313. This step by General Motors, the auto industry’s price leader, puts pressure on the rest of the car manufacturers to lower their small-car prices.
Meanwhile, the Ford Motor Company reported that the number of its laid-off workers would total 67,100 next week. This is 38.3 percent of Ford’s hourly work force. Ford, the Chrysler Corporation and the American Motors Corporation have not indicated what action they would take once their rebates end except to make clear that the rebates, which range from $200 to $600 a car, could not be continued.
A Federal judge in Brooklyn yesterday sentenced Meir Kahane, head of the militant Jewish Defense League, to one year in prison, declaring that the rabbi had twice “willfully and intentionally” violated the terms of his probation. The judge, Jack B. Weinstein, gave Rabbi Kahane’s lawyer, Barry Slotnick, until Wednesday to file an appeal. Mr. Slotnick said he would do so. Judge Weinstein originally sentenced Rabbi Kahane to five years’ probation in July, 1971, after the rabbi pleaded guilty to a one‐count indictment charging that he had made a fire bomb. But the judge said then that, as a special condition of the probation, the rabbi could “have nothing to do directly or indirectly with guns, bombs, dynamite or any other weapons.” In a courtroom packed with 250 people, many of them his followers, Rabbi Kahane said “I did what the government says I did. I violated probation.” Addressing Judge Weinstein, he added: “Do what you have to do with a clear conscience. I did what I had to do with a clear conscience.”
Five persons, including a grandmother, her daughter and her granddaughter, were killed early today when fire raced through a two‐story frame apartment building in north Chattanooga. The police identified the victims as Jerry and Lucielle Cortney, both in their 40’s; Mrs. Beaula Thompson, about 50, her daughter, Vickie, 18, and granddaughter, Johnnie, 3 months.
In Nebraska, two persons were killed and three wounded today during a gun battle in a quiet residential neighborhood following the armed robbery of a North Omaha supermarket.
A would‐be robber demanding $100,000 and holding a woman hostage at a Las Vegas, Nevada savings and loan office was shot to death by police today after a six‐hour standoff. The woman was freed unharmed. The police said that the gunman was dead on arrival at nearby hospital. He had been shot in the chest by a police sniper armed with a highpowered rifle. The coroner’s office identified the man as James S. Duton Jr., 30 years old, of Santa Barbara, California. The shooting ended a drama that had begun when the man tried to hold up the Home Savings and Loan office just half‐mile from the Las Vegas Strip. Assistant Sheriff Barton Jacka said the shooting was “part of an executed plan” to free the woman, Anita Jetland, 34, an employee of the savings and loan.
The Oakland A’s owner, Charlie Finley, will find out on his 57th birthday tomorrow whether he has won his battle with his star right fielder, Reggie Jackson, over a salary increase for the 1975 baseball season. Finley and Jackson shook hands today and joked with each other and then entered the meeting room at the American Arbitration Association to discuss their differences.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 749.77 (+4.39, +0.59%)
Born:
Lional Dalton, NFL defensive tackle (NFL Champions, Super Bowl 35-Ravens, 2000; Baltimore Ravens, Denver Broncos, Washington Redskins, Kansas City Chiefs, Houston Oilers), in Detroit, Michigan.
Reggie Stephens, NFL defensive back (New York Giants), in Dallas, Texas.
Brandon Berger, MLB pitcher (Kansas City Royals), in Covington, Kentucky.
Scott Miller, Australian swimmer (Olympic silver medal, 100 m butterfly, and bronze medal, 4×100 m medley, 1996) and convicted drug trafficker, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Troy Slaten, American actor (Jerry-“Parker Lewis Can’t Lose”), in Los Angeles, California.
Affirmed, American thoroughbred racehorse and 1978 winner of the U.S. Triple Crown of horse racing; near Ocala, Florida (d. 2001).
Died:
Joseph Lortz, 87, German Roman Catholic theologian and Nazi sympathizer.
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History Diaries 