Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige has charged that several Government agencies were “tolerating a massive giveaway program” that enabled the Soviet Union to acquire military and technical secrets. Mr. Baldrige said the agencies had enabled the Russians to acquire “tens of thousands of scientific and technical studies as well as other strategic information.” The Secretary cited Defense Department analyses of space weapons, chemical warfare, nuclear weapons, computer security, high technology telecommunications, electronics, computers and lasers; Energy Department analyses in nuclear energy and physics, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration analyses of space and rocket technologies. Mr. Baldrige, in a Jan. 16 letter to five top Administration officials, said, “The potential danger to our national security is that, through the giveaway program, the Soviets have access to studies and other strategic information covering much of the same type of technologies and products that the Administration is trying to keep out of Soviet hands through the multilateral export-control system.”
British troops shot to death three Irish Republican Army guerrillas in a hillside ambush in Strabane, a small market town on Northern Ireland’s border with the Irish Republic. The soldiers opened fire on the three in a field, a police spokesman reported. The army said the three, including a 16-year-old, were on a terrorist mission; the IRA said the men were “on active service.” Roman Catholic politicians reacted angrily to the incident, accusing the security forces of shooting to kill without sufficient provocation.
Labor unions controlled by the Communist Party, in an unusual move, joined the outlawed Solidarity union today in protesting government-proposed increases in food prices. The Government of General Wojciech Jaruzelski intends to raise food prices by 12 to 13 percent next month. The Solidarity underground has called for a 15-minute national strike on February 28 to protest the increases. The strike call was supported by Lech Walesa, who founded Solidarity. The new party-controlled unions, which have some 4.5 million members, were created by the government in 1982 to fill in the gap when Solidarity, which had 9.5 million members, was outlawed. The decision of the party-controlled unions to oppose the price increases was announced on a national television broadcsst by Romuald Sosnowski, deputy chairman of the new unions.
A man was killed and 15 people were wounded in Paris when a bomb exploded at an entrance to the Marks & Spencer specialty store. It was the third bombing at the Paris branch of the British-owned store since its opening in 1975. The police said they had no clear indication of who was responsible for the blast, although they had received several telephone calls concerning its origin. The callers said they spoke for the Caribbean Revolutionary Alliance, an outlawed group seeking the independence of France’s Caribbean territories; for Direct Action, a left-wing extremist group that has announced its fusion with the Red Army Faction terrorists of West Germany, and for groups calling themselves the Fatah Revolutionary Command and the International Collective Army Against Unemployment.
Hans-Dietrich Genscher stepped down as chairman of West Germany’s Free Democratic Party to make way for his hand-picked successor, Martin Bangemann, the Minister for Economic Affairs. Mr. Genscher, who is the Foreign Minister, led the party, a pillar of West German stability, for more than 10 years. He pledged support for his hand-picked successor, Martin Bangemann, the 50- year-old Minister for Economic Affairs. Mr. Bangemann, who entered the West German Government after losing his seat in the consultative European Parliament last year, was unopposed for the post of party chairman. The Free Democrats have historically been the pillars of West Germany’s political stability. Facing three critical state elections next month and in May, they are now seen as fighting for their political survival.
The Cypriot Parliament demanded Friday night that President Spyros Kyprianou either accept a United Nations-sponsored draft agreement with Turkish Cypriots or order new presidential elections. The President refused today to do either. In Parliament Friday night, the two leading parties, the conservative Democratic Rally and the Communists, combined to censure Mr. Kyprianou by a vote of 23 to 12. They demanded that the President accept the draft agreement for a settlement of the Cyprus dispute prepared by Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar of the United Nations. This would reverse his rejection of the document last month, when he met in New York with Rauf Denktaş, leader of the Turkish Cypriots, and the Secretary General.
At least five men firing automatic weapons from speeding cars killed a Sicilian industrialist and his driver today in what the police described as a typical Mafia ambush. Investigators said the industrialist, Roberto Parisi, 54 years old, the director of a electricity equipment factory, died at a hospital of multiple wounds. His driver, Giuseppe Mangano, 38, died at the scene. Mr. Parisi was head of ICEM, a company that makes material for electrical production and distribution. The police said Mr. Parisi was driving to his office when five or six men in two cars sped up to his auto, firing submachine guns and pistols. The police later found the cars, but no trace of the killers. ICEM had been involved in an anti- Mafia investigation for about a year, the news agency ANSA reported.
A joint approach to peace with Israel formulated by Jordan and the Palestine Liberation Organization has been outlined in the text of an agreement between Jordan and the P.L.O. that was made public by Jordan. It specifies five principles upon which their “bid for joint action” should be based. A key provision includes “total withdrawal” by Israel from “the territories occupied in 1967 for comprehensive peace as established in United Nations and Security Council resolutions.”
A disgruntled Beirut Airport guard demanding a promotion hijacked a Lebanese airliner for five hours today, threatening to crash it into the presidential palace. The drama ended with the hijacker disappearing, apparently into nearby shantytowns. One passenger died of head injuries after he was sucked out of the open door as the plane took off. Earlier, seven others were injured sliding down escape chutes.
The emir of Kuwait, Sheik Jabbar al Ahmed al Sabah, accepted the resignation of his government and then asked the crown prince and Cabinet ministers to stay on temporarily until a new government is formed. The prince, Sheik Saad al Abdullah al Sabah, acts as the prime minister and is expected to be asked to form the new Cabinet. The resignations were required under the nation’s constitution after Wednesday’s National Assembly elections, in which more than half of the 40 incumbents in the legislature were defeated.
A train crowded with wedding passengers caught fire today in Madhya Pradesh and 50 people burned to death, the United News of India said. A government railway spokesman said 34 bodies were recovered and 12 people were injured. The news agency quoted the local police as saying more than 50 bodies had been found. United News of India, quoting unidentified railway sources, said the fire broke out at about 12:45 AM in two cars of the train as it passed near Musra station, near Raipur, about 480 miles southeast of New Delhi. The cause of the fire, which was fanned by strong winds, was not immediately known.
After nearly eight years of martial law and despite the arrest of hundreds of political activists, there are small signs that an election of some consequence is going to be held in Pakistan next week. The voting for a new National Assembly and provincial assemblies is to occur Monday and Thursday, and Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq, the President, has promised to return the nation to civilian rule if it goes smoothly. The general’s critics, discussing his promise to return Pakistan to civilian rule, say he has promised an end to martial law since he took power in 1977 but that the transition has never come to pass. In this vibrant port on the Arabian Sea, where tens of thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets in past years, rallies today consist of a few hundred people. The rallies break up soon after they start. Demonstrations, processions and loudspeakers are banned.
South Korean President Chun Doo Hwan carried out sweeping changes in the leadership of his Democratic Justice Party less than two weeks after a new opposition party loyal to dissidents Kim Dae Jung and Kim Young Sam made surprising gains in parliamentary elections. Roh Tae Woo, a former general with close ties to Chun, was named party chief as 23 of 29 top party posts were changed. Roh, one of Chun’s classmates at the Korean military academy, played a key role in Chun’s rise to power.
Two reputed gangsters were slain at a bicycle track in southwestern Japan today, four weeks after the slaying of Japan’s most powerful underworld leader raised fears of a gang war. The police in Kochi said Masahiro Yokoma, 34 years old, and Hisashi Hiura, 34, were shot to death, and a companion, Tsuyoshi Maeda, 32, was seriously wounded in the attack by several unidentified men at the track. The two killed were reputed members of Ichiwakai, a splinter group from the 10,400-member Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan’s largest underworld organization.
A landslide during a monsoon was reported to have killed at least 11 people when it buried four homes on the island of Lombok Thursday night, and The Jakarta Post said 10 other people had been reported dead since Wednesday in floods in central and eastern Java and the country’s eastern islands. According to news reports, 11 bodies have been recovered since the landslide and two people are still missing.
Troops sealed off escape routes today around the rugged hills of the southern Phillipine brushland, where an armed gang vanished after kidnapping a Roman Catholic bishop and his companions on Friday. Major General Delfin Castro told church leaders today that his troops had secured “all possible escape routes” through the hinterlands of Zamboanga del Sur province, 490 miles south of Manila. Bishop Federico Escaler, 63 years old, and his party were kidnapped as they traveled to Zamboanga City from the diocese in Ipil, about 70 miles away. Two women from the party of 11 were later released. Still held were two students, the bishop’s driver, the Bishop and five women, including a nun and the bishop’s secretary. The general said the kidnappers retreated into the bush with their hostages and later startled a group of shrimp fishermen along the Tigbao River, killing three shrimpers who tried to flee. He said there was no sign the hostages had been harmed.
Guatemala said elections for a civilian president and Congress will be held in late October, returning the country to civilian rule. A statement by the military regime’s supreme electoral tribunal said a timetable drawn up by Guatemala’s main political parties has been approved. Under the timetable, a second round of voting, if it becomes necessary, will take place November 24, and the new congress and mayors will be inaugurated in mid-December.
Ethiopia again denounced the Israeli airlift of its black Jews, calling it an act of kidnapping, and urged other nations to pressure the Israelis to send them back immediately. A Foreign Ministry statement contended that the Ethiopian Jews, sometimes called Falashas, are not really Jewish. “The uprooting of a black people, with black civilization, from where they have lived peacefully for centuries is a serious offense not only to Ethiopia and Africa but also to blacks worldwide,” Ethiopia asserted. Israel organized the clandestine airlift of 10,000 or more Jews to save them from devastating famine.
Three of 13 foreigners who died in the crash of an Air Mali turboprop plane near Timbuktu have been identified as Americans, the West African airline said. The Americans, who worked for the U.N. Development Program, were listed as Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Jacquellart and Hugo Wild. Their hometowns were not given. Other known foreign victims were Dutch, Belgian, Italian, French and Algerian. An investigating team has gone to the remote crash site.
South Africa’s only commercial nuclear power station has been indefinitely closed to correct flaws in stainless-steel water piping. Investigators are checking for corrosion at the Koeberg One reactor after iron particles were found in the pipe at a second Koeberg reactor, which is being tested for start-up later this year. Some Americans are employed at the Westinghouse-designed facility, 20 miles north of Cape Town.
The Senate confirmed Edwin Meese as Attorney General more than a year after his nomination by President Reagan. The 63-31 vote came after five days of filibustering by Farm Belt senators who had delayed action on the confirmation to extract pledges from the Reagan Administration of emergency farm credit relief. All those voting against Mr. Meese’s confirmation were Democrats. A smiling Mr. Meese, flanked by his wife, Ursula, and their daughter, Dana, met with reporters on the White House lawn immediately after the confirmation vote. “I’m not bitter at all,” he said. “I think a number of people had questions. We answered those questions. Right now I’m just glad it’s over.”
President Reagan speaks with Edwin Meese regarding his confirmation as Attorney General.
A battle-weary Senate finally resolved one acrimonious dispute today over farm credit measures, but the lawmakers set the stage for another skirmish over the same issue next week. The agreement reached today ended a week-long filibuster against the confirmation of Edwin Meese 3d, who was then approved as Attorney General by a vote of 63 to 31. The farm credit compromise, approved by the Senate leadership, provides that members from both parties can offer proposals for additional aid to hard-pressed farmers who are seeking financing to start spring planting. The proposals, four from each party, would be offered as amendments to an African famine relief bill that is scheduled for floor action on Monday.
Farm aid was the topic of President Reagan’s weekly radio broadcast. He said that only a minority of the nation’s farmers are in severe financial distress and that taxpayers must not be asked to “bail out every farmer hopelessly in debt.”
The Senate voted today, 94 to 0, to approve a bill that would free more than $7 billion in Federal highway trust funds for Interstate road construction and other highway projects. Officials lobbying here in behalf of New Jersey and Connecticut have said their states urgently needed the long- delayed funds. Connecticut is to receive about $230 million and New Jersey is entitled to $214 million. States have pushed for prompt movement by Congress this session so that the money could be freed in time for work to start in the Spring.
A report by the National Governors Association recommended cuts in military spending and tax increases if necessary to bring down the federal budget deficit. “We’re concerned that all the cuts are going to be made on the state and local level,” said Governor Charles S. Robb (D-Virginia). The governors open their winter meeting today in Washington. “We’re just here to tell the President and Congress that ‘we’ll help you take the heat” higher taxes would elicit from the public, Robb said. Governor John Carlin (D-Kansas), chairman of the association, said: “We want them to know when they do cut (programs)… we’re either not going to pick up that responsibility or we’re going to go to the people and ask for a tax increase.”
An internal audit of Air Force medical facilities concluded that there was a “high potential” before March, 1984, for poor medical care to go undetected and uncorrected because of ineffective quality control. Twenty-five of 54 hospitals reviewed “had programs that were marginal or unsatisfactory,” it said. Secretary of the Air Force Verne Orr said he was assured by the Air Force surgeon general that “corrective actions were implemented beginning in May, 1984.” Audits have found similar problems in the Army and Navy.
A federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia, has upheld a jury’s verdict that Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr. interfered with news gathering efforts of NBC News but reduced the judgment against LaRouche from $3 million to $200,000. LaRouche had sued NBC for libel for two broadcasts in which the former independent presidential candidate was described as the head of a “political cult” that harasses its critics. A federal court jury decided that LaRouche was not libeled. Ruling on a countersuit by NBC, the jury found that LaRouche’s group tried to sabotage a network interview with Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-New York), and that was the basis of the judgment against LaRouche.
A former leader of the American Nationalist Party, a neo-Nazi group, hanged himself in a Boise, Idaho, jail cell, one day after returning from Seattle where he had spent 10 days testifying before a federal grand jury about the Aryan Nations Church and a neo-Nazi splinter group called The Order, authorities said. Members of both groups are suspects in several armored car and bank robberies. Eugene T. Kinerk, 22, was found hanging from a vent by a torn bed sheet, U.S. Marshal Blaine Skinner said. Kinerk of La Grande, Oregon, left a suicide note saying he was afraid of what might happen to him after testifying against his former comrades. He was awaiting a federal court trial in Boise on bank robbery charges.
A 24-year-old man was charged with second-degree murder for fatally stabbing one of two men he tried to stop from stealing candy from a New York subway newsstand, authorities said. Andy Frederick of Brooklyn is accused of stabbing Felix McCord, 28, during a scuffle on a subway platform. McCord and Ali Peterkin Jr., 24, were buying candy from a vendor and “decided to steal some… in addition to what they had bought,” a police spokesman said. As they argued with the vendor, Frederick approached and “tried to stop the argument,” the spokesman said. McCord was stabbed in the scuffle.
Convicted killer Howard Mattheson won a stay of execution from the Supreme Court a little more than 30 hours before he was to die in Louisiana’s electric chair. The justices voted 6 to 2 to give Mattheson, 63, a chance to argue that he was poorly represented at his trial. He was convicted in the 1978 slaying of a 75-year-old receptionist at a beauty salon.
William J. Schroeder may be spending his last weekend in Humana Hospital Audubon where he and the world’s only other artificial heart recipient are recuperating. Both he and Murray P. Haydon were described today by a hospital spokesman, Robert Irvine, as steadily improving.
General William C. Westmoreland was so dispirited by the willingness of his former intelligence chief and other former aides in Vietnam to testify against him in his $120 libel suit against CBS that he decided to settle the case, according to his friends. He was also shaken by the willingness of his former intelligence chief to “break the old West Point tie,” and take the stand against him that he was open to a proposed agreement that bore a close resemblance to an offer made by CBS a year ago. Of the two significant differences between the documents, one was favorable to General Westmoreland, the other to CBS. The proposal in 1984, nine months before the trial, said General Westmoreland “believes that the broadcast was prejudicial in concept and execution.” The agreement reached last week does not. The 1984 proposal also said CBS News “stands by the accuracy and fairness of its broadcast.” In the final agreement, this language was reserved for a separate statement by CBS.
Federal officials say they are concerned about a slowdown in the decline of the nation’s infant mortality rate. The rate declined by an average of 4.6 percent a year from 1965 to 1982. Although it continued to decline in 1983 and 1984, it did so at a pace “well below the annual average decline” for the previous years, according to a report prepared by the United States Public Health Service. The report has not been published, but copies were recently sent to state health officers. Rate Below 11 per 1,000 The infant mortality rate appears to be stabilizing at slightly less than 11 deaths for each 1,000 live births, after declining steadily from a level of 24.7 in 1965, according to data collected by the Public Health Service.
A disposal site for radioactive waste in South Carolina has been accepting 45 percent of the nation’s low-level waste, and now the state wants to close it down. State officials threaten to close it unless Congress approves an eight-state agreement limiting its use for waste generated in southeastern states.
The 23 Cuban refugees deported from the United States to Havana Thursday will receive checks, in some cases for thousands of dollars, from the Federal Government. Norman A. Carlson, director of the Bureau of Prisons, who accompanied the refugees on the flight to Cuba, said each Cuban would be sent a check as payment for work performed at the Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta, where they had been detained. He said that when prisoners earn money, “we give them credit at the prison commissary and when they leave prison we send them a check for what’s left.” The Atlanta penitentiary, which houses 1,733 Cubans awaiting deportation, operates a sign shop, a textile division and numerous other industries. Some of them saved no money in prison, but many have in excess of $2,000 in prison accounts that will be paid, Mr. Carlson said. The Cubans were among those who came to the United States in the Mariel boatlift and are being deported as undesirables under an agreement between the Reagan Administration and the Cuban Government.
State foresters reported today that the newest series of brush fires in Florida, including one that charred more than 4,000 acres, were under control, but cautioned that a shift in wind could rekindle some of them. The largest of the fires, a 4,070-acre blaze just east of Naples, was contained and smoldering within a boundary of ditches, said Paul Wills, a spokesman for the state Division of Forestry. The southwest Florida fires, like those that burned more than 120,000 acres and killed a forest ranger earlier this month, were the work of arsonists, officials said. The new fires claimed a house, three mobile homes and a barn, but caused no injuries, officials said.
A group of Protestant, Roman Catholic and Jewish leaders, in a joint statement of concern, have called on the public “not to stand in judgment” of AIDS victims, “but to grow in compassion” for them. The group met last week in a Manhattan church to focus on the needs of those afflicted with AIDS and to rebut assertions that the disease was a punishment from God upon those who engaged in homosexual acts. The Rev. Carl Flemister, executive minister of the American Baptist Churches of Metropolitan New York, called the idea of divine retribution “un-Christian and judgmental.” “The AIDS crisis calls on us not to stand in judgment, but to grow in compassion,” the religious leaders said in a joint statement.
Indiana University basketball coach Bob Knight threw a chair onto the court during a game and was ejected. When Knight yelled an obscenity in response to a foul call on an Indiana player, Referee Fred Jaspers assessed him with his first technical foul. After Knight picked up a chair from the bench area and threw it, a second technical was whistled. A third technical followed, and Knight left the court after Indiana’s athletic director, Ralph Floyd, came to the floor to meet with the coach and officials. An assistant coach, Jim Crews, took over for Knight. Knight did not make himself available for comment after the game.
Born:
Brandon Pettigrew, NFL tight end (Detroit Lions), in Tyler, Texas.
Corey Elkins, NHL left wing (Los Angeles Kings), in West Bloomfield, Michigan.
Azotti [Yuri Denysenko], Ukrainian electronic dance music DJ and producer, in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (today Kyiv, Ukraine).
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