The U.S. will offer a new arms plan to the Soviet Union at the Geneva negotiations today, calling for “very significant, balanced reductions” of nuclear arsenals, President Reagan announced. He said in the White House press room, “I would characterize our arms control position as deep cuts, no first-strike advantage, defensive research and no cheating.” The announcement came less than three weeks before he is scheduled to meet in Geneva with Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the Soviet leader. Secretary of State George P. Shultz will travel to Moscow this weekend for a planning conference with Mr. Gorbachev, which some government officials have said may include discussions of the possibility for future summit meetings. Mr. Reagan’s announcement of the new arms proposal followed debate within the government on how to respond to a Soviet plan calling for a 50 percent cut in nuclear arsenals. Administration officials said Mr. Reagan was essentially offering a variation of earlier proposals to reduce offensive nuclear missiles, but was making no substantive change in his insistence that the United States continue with its space-based missile defense program, popularly known as Star Wars.
President Reagan gives an interview to 4 Soviet journalists from Tass, Novosti, Pravda, and Izvestia.
Dutch Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers said he will ask his Cabinet today to approve deployment of U.S. cruise missiles in the Netherlands despite a last-minute Soviet request to delay the decision. Lubbers told Parliament he will ask his coalition to approve the stationing of 48 Tomahawk medium-range nuclear missiles under a five-year agreement. The Soviet ambassador earlier delivered an offer of unspecified high-level discussions of the issue if the Netherlands further delays its decision, Lubbers said.
Italian President Francesco Cossiga, as expected, rejected Prime Minister Bettino Craxi’s resignation and directed Craxi’s five-party coalition to go before Parliament for a vote of confidence to end a crisis sparked by the Achille Lauro hijacking. Craxi, Italy’s first Socialist prime minister, agreed to move quickly to resurrect his coalition, which collapsed October 17. He scheduled talks in Parliament on Monday, with the vote to follow.
Yelena G. Bonner may leave the Soviet Union, according to Secretary of State George P. Shultz, who said that Moscow had informed Washington of its position. His statement was the first official confirmation that Miss Bonner, the wife of Andrei D. Sakharov, the rights leader, had been given permission to go abroad for medical treatment.
Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that radical Rabbi Meir Kahane may legally sponsor anti-Arab legislation in the Knesset (Israel’s Parliament) even if it damages the country’s democratic character. Kahane, an American-born rabbi who campaigns for the expulsion of Arabs from Israel, sued Knesset leaders for barring him from introducing legislation that they viewed as racist. The bills would strip non-Jews of citizenship, and bar marriages between Jews and gentiles.
Militant Islamic factions in the Middle East have obtained increasingly sophisticated weapons and are beyond the control of any government, the International Institute of Strategic Studies said in its 1985-86 Military Balance survey. The London research center also said that Israel maintains military superiority over any of its neighbors. But it warned that a belief held by radical Lebanese groups that Israel has been defeated and driven out of Lebanon “bodes ill for future peace.”
Polisario guerrillas fighting Morocco for control of Western Sahara have set new conditions for peace in the desert territory, the official Algerian press agency reported today. In a communique issued by its executive committee and carried by the press agency, the Polisario demanded total evacuation of the Moroccan army and administration and withdrawal of “100,000 Moroccan settlers” from towns and costal areas. The communique also called for direct talks “between the Saharan and Moroccan Governments” to arrange an interim administration and a joint United Nations and African security force to run affairs of the former-Spanish territory in a transitional period.
Iran’s spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, told the country’s new Cabinet today not to “nationalize everything” and suggested that its members should minimize their ideological differences. “Give the committed merchants -those who want to serve the country -a free hand to serve, and don’t nationalize everything,” he said. At his home in Teheran, Ayatollah Khomeini received President Hojatolislam Ali Khamenei, Prime Minister Mir Hussein Moussavi and 22 ministers of the Cabinet approved by Parliament on Monday.
Five Soviet deserters in Afghanistan talked with a reporter during his nine-week, 600-mile journey in the company of Afghan rebel commanders. The five defectors, in their early 20’s, have adopted Afghan names and dress, several are learning Persian and several speak the language fluently. Several have become Muslims, and others are preparing to convert to Islam.
Benazir Bhutto, a prominent leader of the opposition to President Mohammad Zia ul-Haq, is expected to leave Pakistan soon, Government officials and newspapers reported today. She has spent two months under house arrest. The apparently imminent departure for France of Miss Bhutto, daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was seen this week as a setback to the attempt by her father’s once-powerful political organization to revitalize its campaign against General Zia’s martial law regime. General Zia and Prime Minister Mohammad Khan Junejo have said recently that Miss Bhutto, 31 years old, could leave any time she wishes, but that she would not be able to engage in political activities before she left.
With demonstrations and speeches across the country, India today mourned the death of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on the first anniversary of her assassination. Mrs. Gandhi’s son, Rajiv, who succeeded her as Prime Minister, led the tributes at a meeting attended by more than 100,000 people on the lawn at Raj Path, the main thoroughfare of New Delhi. The Prime Minister laid a wreath at the base of an 88-foot painting of Mrs. Gandhi and spoke of her dedication in building the foundations of Indian unity. There was heavy security at the rally. Those in attendance had to pass through metal detectors and helicopters hovered overhead.
Jesse Helms, combatting abortions, has threatened to hold up President Reagan’s nomination of an Ambassador to China until he receives a letter from Mr. Reagan promising that United States funds will not be granted to any country that coerces abortions and sterilization. Mr. Helms has bottled up the appointment of Winston Lord as Ambassador to China for nearly five weeks. This diplomatic issue, more so than others in the past, has aroused more interest in New York than in Washington, given Mr. Lord’s background as a former head of the Council of Foreign Relations, as the husband of the novelist Betty Bao Lord and as an associate of former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger. But it turned out today that Mr. Helms, a conservative Republican from North Carolina, objects not to the nominee but to the policies of the equally conservative Reagan Administration.
Ferdinand Marcos predicted victory over the Philippines Communist insurgency within one year, provided that Manila receives financial aid from Washington. At the same time, the Philippines President rejected United States warnings of increasing political and military crisis in his country. Responding to American predictions that the New People’s Army, the Communist guerrilla force, might achieve a “strategic stalemate” with the Philippine armed forces within three to five years, he said: “If at all there are going to be any changes, it will be because we have wiped out the N.P.A., or because they have surrendered.” In a three-hour interview, Mr. Marcos admitted to some irritation with continuing American pressure on him and asserted that any show of dissension between the two allies could be an invitation to meddling by the Soviet Union or Vietnam. While asserting his continued backing for the presence of two large American bases here, he said a failure by the United States to pay the full compensation agreed on could lead the Philippines to reassess its commitment to regional defense.
U.S. Ambassador Stephen W. Bosworth disclosed the previously unreported killings of 15 Americans in the Philippines in the last two years, four of them “allegedly at the hands of security forces.” Bosworth, in a talk in Manila, gave no details of the American deaths but a U.S. Embassy spokesman said they apparently occurred in outlying areas and generally were not reported in Manila. It was not clear whether those killed were visiting Americans or resident U.S. citizens, and no names were given.
Queen Elizabeth II sailed into the small harbor at St. George’s, Grenada this morning in a light rain, symbolically bringing to a close a discordant chapter in the history of this former British colony, the mother country and the United States. The Queen and her husband, Prince Philip, stepped ashore in Grenada two years and six days after United States combat troops swarmed in to restore order after the collapse of the island-nation’s leftist Government. The British Government had advised against the invasion and Sir Paul Scoon, who as Governor General of Grenada serves as the Queen’s representative, had been criticized in London for requesting the United States intervention. For their part, most Grenadians had welcomed the Americans as saviors and expressed dismay that the British had not only refused to help them but had criticized the United States for doing so.
President Jose Napoleon Duarte of El Salvador said today that Nicaragua was serving as a “sanctuary” for a new stage of terrorism under way in his country. Accompanied by his 35-year-old daughter, who was held captive for 44 days by Salvadoran guerrillas, Mr. Duarte met this morning with President Reagan at the White House. He later delivered an emotional speech to the National Press Club, in which he stressed that there was a link between Nicaragua’s Marxist Government and terrorist activities in El Salvador. “In Central America, in my own country,” he said, “countless persons from all walks of life, and in the case of my family, my daughter, Ines Guadalupe, would not have been victims of the merciless violence of the terrorists if terrorists did not have the support, direction, approval and timely protection of the terrorist dictatorship in Nicaragua.”
About 150 relatives of missing people took over the Metropolitan Cathedral in Guatemala City, locked themselves inside and vowed to stay in the Roman Catholic cathedral until the military government accounts for their loved ones. A three-man civilian committee met with leaders of the protest and agreed to mediate with the government. Four guerrilla organizations have fought Guatemalan military governments for years, and thousands have been killed or kidnaped. The U.S. Embassy said 564 civilians were killed last year, while 435 disappeared.
Two opposition parties that took part in controversial general elections in Liberia last month said they will challenge the results in court and not accept their allotted 14 seats in the two houses of Congress. The Liberia Action Party and the Unity Party said in a joint statement that the official results announced this week do not reflect the vote and aspirations of the Liberian people. The nation’s election commission said that military ruler Samuel K. Doe won the presidency with 51% of the vote. His party won control of Congress.
The trade deficit rose to a record $15.5 billion in September, reflecting a surge in American imports of cars, clothing, steel and other manufactured goods, the Commerce Department reported. A cheaper dollar is expected to make American exports more competitive abroad and foreign-made goods relatively more expensive in this country, but most economists say such effects take some time to occur.
President Reagan meets with the Kansas City Royals baseball team, winner of the 1985 World Series.
The Environmental Protection Agency almost doubled the recommended limit of decay-retarding fluoride in drinking water, in a move that means the handful of communities with a naturally high level of fluoride in their water will not have to reduce it. The action reversed a decade-old finding that mottled teeth, a consequence of high fluoride levels, is an “adverse health effect.” However, the Natural Resources Defense Council challenged the action, saying it sets a precedent for tolerating naturally high levels of barium and arsenic in drinking water.
Jack F. Kemp, seeking funds for early phases of the race for the Republican Presidential nomination in 1988, came to New York City to raise more than $1 million. The Representative from the Buffalo suburbs has been stumping with his message of supply-side economics.
Using themselves as guinea pigs, scientists aboard the space shuttle Challenger today conducted a number of experiments involving the puzzles of weightlessness, but they had trouble with a twin furnace assembly in the Spacelab research module. The eight-member crew, consisting of five Americans, two West Germans and a Dutchman and directed by scientists at a control center near Munich, West Germany, worked around the clock in two shifts in the laboratory. Much of the first 24 hours of the mission, which has been paid for by West Germany, was devoted to life sciences research, ranging from rides on a “space sled” to fruit fly research. A spokesman for the Munich control center said the results “appeared to be very encouraging.”
U.S. handling of a Soviet sailor who was forced to return to his ship by American officials near New Orleans last week will be the subject of an investigation by order of President Reagan, according to Administration officials. Irene Padoch, an interpreter who first interviewed the seaman, said she was convinced that he wanted asylum.
An Air Force program to develop a new “super missile” for its jet fighters has survived a crucial, top-level review and work will be allowed to continue under strict guidelines, the Pentagon said. The decision authorizes the Air Force to continue development of the Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) but makes clear that it must continue to contain the cost of the missile.
The radical group MOVE made two desperate attempts to help four children escape their burning rowhouse, a 13-year-old survivor told an investigative panel in Philadelphia. Michael (Birdie Africa) Moses Ward said the first escape attempt began after police dropped a bomb on the roof May 13 but stopped when “the cops started shooting.” The second attempt came “when the fire got real heavy and we smell (ed) all that smoke and we couldn’t breathe. That’s when we started yelling, “The kids coming out.” Michael escaped, but burning debris apparently trapped the others.
The man police say is the chief suspect in two bombings in Salt Lake City, in which two people were killed, was charged with a federal firearms violation unrelated to the blasts. Mark Hofmann, 31, was charged with one count of possession of an Uzi submachine gun, U.S. Attorney Brent Ward said. The charge was filed just hours after Hofmann left the hospital, where he had been recovering from injuries received when his car blew up October 16. That blast is believed to have been an accident.
A Federal district judge today rejected charges of negligence against the Boeing Company and two other defendants in a suit related to the crash of an Air India Boeing 747 in 1978. The plane rolled over shortly after a night takeoff in Bombay and plunged into the Arabian Sea. All 213 people on board were killed. In a 139-page decision, Judge James M. Fitzgerald ruled that the plaintiffs, families of almost all of those on board, had not proved their contention that the accident had been caused by malfunction of a cockpit instrument used to guide the plane’s turns, climbs and descents.
Heart recipient Anthony Mandia, who had developed life-threatening pancreas and kidney problems, has improved and his condition has been upgraded to critical but stable, spokesmen at a Hershey, Pennsylvania, hospital said. The human heart implanted in Mandia, who had spent 11 days on the Penn State artificial heart, is functioning well and his vital signs are normal, the spokesmen said. In Pittsburgh, Thomas J. Gaidosh, who survived for four days on a Jarvik-7 artificial heart before receiving a human heart, was described as in serious condition but “awake and alert.”
The Nation magazine charged that a group of businessmen headed by Chrysler Corp.’s Lee A. Iacocca has staged a “corporate takeover” of the Statue of Liberty in the course of restoring it. It accused Iacocca, chairman of the Statue of Liberty centennial commission, of cronyism. In addition, it said that some restoration officials had awarded themselves lucrative contracts and that a continuing cash shortage has been masked by “deceptive figures.” The writers said also that Iacocca, who was not available for comment, has used his connection to benefit Chrysler and his political aspirations.
An engineer testifying on the crash of a Delta Air Lines jetliner in Dallas August 2 said that although the plane encountered violent wind shear weather conditions on its landing approach it still could have flown out of danger. Richard Bray, a National Aeronautics and Space Administration engineer, told a National Transportation Safety. Board hearing that the plane “came very close” to avoiding the crash.
Cameron Hooker, a former mill worker, was convicted today in Redwood City, California, of abducting a young hitchhiker at knifepoint and holding her in bondage for seven years. Mr. Hooker, 31 years old, could be sentenced for up to 75 years in prison on charges of kidnapping, rape and other sex-related crimes. Judge Clarence Knight set sentencing for November 22. “Praise the Lord, I’m glad we got justice,” the 28-year-old victim said when she learned of the verdict. Mr. Hooker’s lawyer said his client would appeal the verdict.
Inspectors found a toxic chemical in low levels in four types of wine under the Riunite label, the largest selling imported wine in the United States, the Federal Government said. It also said the chemical, diethylene glycol, had been found in eight less widely sold Italian wines. An official of Riunite’s importer said the company had agreed to a recall involving at least 400,000 cases of wine.
A humpback whale that has spent three weeks in inland California waters made a brisk dash downriver toward San Francisco Bay today, officials said. The 45-ton, 40-foot-long whale traveled at least 14 miles down the Sacramento River to within 25 miles of San Francisco Bay. Word of the whale’s movement came as several dozen experts convened to figure out how to get the whale to return to the Pacific Ocean.
Birth control pills have no significant effect on the risk of developing breast cancer before 45 years of age, according to the largest study of the issue yet made. The study found that users of the pill had no greater risk of developing breast cancer than those who had never used the pill.
The Reform Jewish membership has increased by 23 percent, to 1.3 million, in the last decade, partly because the movement has actively sought the participation of interfaith couples, its leader said.
Salvagers identified a pirate ship positively when they chipped away the thick coating of corrosion on a bell brought up from a wreck to reveal the ship’s kitchen plaque, “THE WHYDAH GALLY 1716.” The ship went down off Cape Cod in 1717, laden with the booty of up to 52 other ships, and the salvagers had believed that many artifacts they had raised were from the pirate ship.
New Zealand author Keri Hulme is the first, first-time novelist to win the Booker Prize for “The Bone People.”
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1374.31 (-1.26)
Born:
Javy Guerra, MLB pitcher (World Series champions-Nationals, 2019; Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Angels, Miami Marlins, Toronto Blue Jays, Washington Nationals), in Denton, Texas.
Andy Parrino, MLB shortstop, second baseman, and third baseman (San Diego Padres, Oakland A’s), in Brockport, New York.
Diyral Briggs, NFL linebacker (NFL Champions, Super Bowl 45-Packers, 2010; San Francisco 49ers, Denver Broncos, Green Bay Packers), in My. Healthy, Ohio.
Carla Thomas, WNBA forward (Chicago Sky), in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.
Pierre Kwenders [José Modabi], Congolese-Canadian pop and world music singer-songwriter, and multi-lingual rapper, in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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