The death toll in the hijacking of an Egyptian airliner to Malta rose to 60 as passengers and others questioned the way in which Egyptian commandos had carried out an armed rescue attempt. The Maltese Government said that of the 60 who died, 57 were killed in the storming of the Boeing 737 on the tarmac in Valletta, Malta. Officials said that of the 98 people now thought to have been on the plane when it was hijacked on Saturday, only 38 survived. At the same time, the Maltese Government announced that one hijacker had survived the assault and was being treated in a hospital, where he was reported to be unconscious. A Government spokesman, saying it was unclear whether the man would survive, said no decision had been made on a trial or extradition.
Three people shot execution-style by the hijackers of Egyptair Flight 648 survived. Patrick Scott Baker, 28 years old, of White Salmon, Washington, played dead after being shot at point-blank range. Jackie Nink Phlug, 30, of Pasadena, Texas, lived because the bullet did not hit her brain. Tamar Artzi, 24, of Israel, escaped death “by .05 centimeters,” her doctor said, when the bullet fired at her head only nicked the tip of an ear. Logically, none of the two Israelis and three Americans who were singled out for execution and shot at point-blank range by the hijackers of Egyptair Flight 648 should be alive today. But these three survived. So did 23 others at St. Luke’s Hospital here, living through the shooting and the inferno that engulfed the airliner when it was stormed by Egyptian troops and the hijackers set off grenades.
President Reagan receives more information of the atrocities committed by the hijackers of the Egyptian airline.
The hijackers were pro-Libyan followers of Abu Nidal, a Palestinian known for his strong opposition to Yasser Arafat, according to sources close to the Palestinians in Lebanon. The sources speculated that Abu Nidal’s motive in ordering the hijacking was to deal a double blow to Mr. Arafat, the Palestine Liberation Organization leader, and to President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. The hijacking of the Egyptian plane ended violently Sunday night when Egyptian commandos stormed the aircraft and the hijackers detonated grenades. In all, 60 people were reported killed in the hijacking, including all but one of the hijackers.
Egypt said its troop assault on the hijacked airliner was carried out successfully and according to plan, but it did not mention the size of the death toll. In Malta, officials said 60 people had died in the hijacking and subsequent assault. President Hosni Mubarak sought to link the hijackers to Libya, without actually naming Libya. In remarks expressing sorrow at the death of innocent people, he said: “I regret the involvement of certain Arab countries in criminal practices that result in nothing but damage and destruction.”
Americans have been attacked in 72 countries since 1968, and American citizens and property are now the targets of about 30 to 35 percent of all international terrorist incidents, which have left 17 Americans dead and 154 wounded so far in 1985, according to the State Department. But the department also counts more than 90 planned attacks on American citizens and sites abroad that have been foiled in the last 12 months. For the United States, these are the silent victories in a shadowy war. The international range of the battle was illustrated by one of those thwarted plots. About a year ago a Libyan intelligence officer and a Palestinian from Jordan met in Rome to discuss an ambitious, dramatic plot. With nearly 200 pounds of explosives, a truck bomb would be assembled, parked near the United States Embassy in Cairo and set off by remote control on a busy weekday. At the Rome meeting, according to American and Egyptian intelligence, the Libyan promised $500,000 to the Palestinian for his part in the plot.
The Soviet Politburo endorsed last week’s Geneva meeting between President Reagan and Mikhail S. Gorbachev. The ruling body described the meetings as a “major political event in international life” that could improve the “political and psychological climate.” But it affirmed the Soviet position that reductions in offensive nuclear weapons were dependent on a ban on “space strike weapons,” a formula that includes the United States’ space-based missile defenses. The statement established the official line on the meeting between President Reagan and Mikhail S. Gorbachev. Its assessment echoed Mr. Gorbachev’s effort at a news conference Thursday to put an optimistic face on the meeting, despite its failure to resolve central issues of arms control.
The optimism generated by the Soviet-American summit meeting in Geneva has increased the likelihood that Erich Honecker, the East German leader, will reschedule a visit to Bonn that he abruptly canceled a year ago, West German officials and experts on Eastern Europe say. A visit to West Germany by Mr. Honecker, 73 years old, would be the first ever by a General Secretary of the East German Communist Party. It would give new impetus to relations between the two Germanys, which have lapsed into a somewhat desultory phase since Soviet pressure caused him to cancel a trip in September 1984. Conscious that advance publicity over the earlier visit aroused Soviet apprehensions, and contributed to the dropping of the milestone event, advisers to Chancellor Helmut Kohl have adopted a position of insisting that so far East Berlin has made no formal overtures to reschedule the trip.
The West German federal criminal police announced tonight that they were seeking two men believed to be Arabs in connection with a car bombing Sunday at an American military shopping center in northern Frankfurt. The attack wounded 35 people. A police statement issued in Wiesbaden said the two men purchased the car used in the bombing at noon on Saturday at a used-car lot in Gravenbruch, outside Frankfurt. The federal agency said that in buying the silver BMW, one of the two men showed what appeared to be a Moroccan passport bearing the name “Azuz Mohsein” — most likely, “Mohsein Aziz.”
Belgian Cardinal Godfried Danneels told a synod of Roman Catholic bishops at the Vatican that the findings of the Second Vatican Council remain completely valid. “It is impossible to regress,” he said in a keynote address at the synod, called by Pope John Paul II to review the reforms adopted by Vatican II 20 years ago. Other speakers discussed what they saw as negative aspects of the reforms.
A senior Israeli official is conducting an intensive investigation of alleged Israeli espionage operations in Washington and it is likely that some “heads will roll” soon, according to officials in Jerusalem.
King Hassan II of Morocco said today that he would be happy to receive Prime Minister Shimon Peres if the Israeli leader had serious proposals for a Middle East peace. An aide to Mr. Peres quoted the Prime Minister as having said, “There were exchanges of messages between the King and myself, and I will be happy to meet with him.” King Hassan, in a television interview with French reporters, said Mr. Peres had asked to meet with the King in his capacity as chairman of the 21-nation Arab League.
Terry Waite, the envoy of the Archbishop of Canterbury, said he has made progress in his efforts to free kidnaped Americans in Lebanon but that the “situation is very dangerous and highly volatile.” Waite, who flew to New York to meet Presbyterian and Episcopal church leaders and U.S. officials, told a press conference there that he is willing to meet Kuwaiti officials to discuss the kidnapers’ demands. Members of the radical Islamic Jihad (Islamic Holy War) have said they will hold the Americans until Kuwait releases Shia Muslims convicted in bombings of the U.S. and French embassies.
Iranian gunboats have seized a Kuwait-registered cargo ship with a 43-man crew in the Gulf of Oman, the ship’s owners said today. The United Arab Shipping Company said its 23,800-ton Ibn al-Beitar was intercepted Sunday, about 20 miles northeast of the Omani capital of Muscat. “The master did advise he was being boarded, but after that we lost communications,” said a company official. The company said the ship was carrying 6,000 tons of general cargo for Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
India signed an agreement today to buy 11 British Sea Harrier jets as well as Sea Eagle missiles in a major sign of warmer relations between the two countries, authoritative sources said. The long-awaited sale also appeared to signal the start of arms purchases by India from Western nations instead of the Soviet Union, its main military supplier. The Sea Harrier is derived from a plane built for the United States Marine Corps. India already has eight Sea Harriers in service on its only aircraft carrier, the Vikrant.
China announced a campaign to purge die-hard Maoists and corrupt officials from the 40 million-member Communist Party. The drive is the latest effort by the government. to eliminate opposition to the free-market reforms of Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping. A major policy statement, published in the People’s Daily newspaper, said “those who refuse to receive any education should be cleared out of the party organization.” Deng, 81, and his allies are using the drive in support of their pragmatic reforms.
Supporters of Philippine opposition figure Corazon Aquino said they have gathered 1 million signatures on petitions seeking to persuade her to run for election against President Ferdinand E. Marcos. The widow of slain opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr., she had set that number of signatures as a condition for her candidacy. Anti-Marcos forces are split between her supporters and those of former Sen. Salvador Laurel, leader of the country’s major coalition of opposition parties.
Prime Minister David Lange said today that United States officials had refused to meet with an official delegation that was planning to travel to Washington early next month to explain New Zealand’s proposed legislative ban on nuclear warships. “I think the spirit of Geneva lasted less than 24 hours when it comes to an ally such as ourselves,” Mr. Lange said, alluding to last week’s meeting between President Reagan and the Soviet leader, Mikhail S. Gorbachev. At a news conference, Mr. Lange said new drafts of the anti-nuclear legislation would ease proposed restrictions on admitting nuclear-armed and nuclear-powered warships to New Zealand ports. Relations between the United States and New Zealand have been strained since February, when Mr. Lange’s Labor Government barred a port call by a United States Navy frigate because Washington would not say if it was carrying nuclear arms.
A man who gave a Sikh name checked baggage onto a Vancouver-to-Toronto flight that connected with the Air-India jet that plunged into the Atlantic last June 23, a Canadian investigator said today. The crash of Air-India Flight 182 killed all 329 people aboard. At a court hearing, Sgt. Michael Atkinson of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police also testified that a man using a Sikh name also checked in for a Vancouver-to-Tokyo flight the same day, when a baggage explosion killed two luggage handlers at the Tokyo airport. In both cases, the passenger in Vancouver gave the name Singh, which is common to all males professing the Sikh religion. Two Indian lawyers said that in neither case did the man actually board the flight, but in both cases baggage was checked through to the connecting Air-India flights. After the crash of Air-India Flight 182, anonymous callers claiming to represent Sikh extremists said a bomb had been planted on the plane. The extremists seek independence from India.
With about two-thirds of the votes counted, the ruling Liberal Party appeared to retain the presidency of Honduras today, if the rules set by a new election law are observed. But the result is already being debated in the streets and may well be challenged in the courts. In a show of emotion and differing interpretations of the results, activists of both the Liberal and National parties filled the streets of the capital tonight waving banners, honking horns and shouting, their candidate had won the presidency.
Scientists studying the Colombian volcano that erupted and killed more than 20,000 people are concerned about a possible breakup of glaciers on the peak. Scientist Pablo Medina said that six glaciers on the edge of the Nevado del Ruiz snowpack are badly fractured. Two glaciers melted by the volcano eruption November 13 triggered mud slides that roared down the mountainside and buried the town of Armero, 29 miles to the east.
Leftist guerrillas exploded 17 bombs in banks and other targets in Chile’s three largest cities, injuring 11 people, police said. Three banks, a school and a bakery were damaged in Santiago. The worst explosion occurred outside a bank in Concepcion, 327 miles south of Santiago, where the 11 people were hurt. Explosions were also reported in Valparaiso. Propaganda leaflets from the Manuel Rodriguez Front, a Communist guerrilla group, were found near the site of one of the bombings. The front has claimed responsibility for hundreds of bombings since it began a campaign of violence against the military government two years ago.
101 legislators urged the President not to proceed with his plan to provide covert aid to the rebels fighting against the Soviet-backed Government in Angola. More than 100 House members, fearing fundamental damage to U.S. relations with black African governments, sent a letter to President Reagan urging him not to aid Jonas Savimbi’s guerrilla movement. The House voted earlier this year to overturn the Clark Amendment of 1976, which barred assistance to any faction in Angola, where the Marxist government has long battled Savimbi’s rebels. New legislation seeks $27 million in humanitarian aid for the rebels.
The authorities today reinstated more than 1,700 black student nurses and auxiliary workers at Baragwanath Hospital who went on strike earlier this month for improved wages and other benefits. The decision by hospital authorities came after a Supreme Court Justice issued a ruling on the case of three student nurses, saying they had been unlawfully dismissed because their cases were not individually considered. The judge said that the hospital, the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, had a duty to consider each case on its merits. He said that the nurses and auxiliary workers could not strike because their jobs were essential, but he added that this put a great responsibility on the authorities to insure that there were adequate channels through which to voice grievances.
A former communications specialist for the National Security Agency admitted he sold highly confidential information about American intelligence activities to Moscow for more than five years, according to prosecutors. Federal officials said the suspect, Ronald W. Pelton, 44, was identified as a spy by Vitaly Yurchenko, the turnabout Soviet defector who returned to Moscow this month. In Mr. Pelton’s case, an official said, evidence was found to support Mr. Yurchenko’s allegations. Mr. Pelton told the Federal Bureau of Investigation in an interview Sunday that he met with a Soviet intelligence officer several times from January 1980 through January 1983, according to a bureau affidavit filed in Federal District Court today. It said the spying went on until September of this year.
The spate of espionage arrests is coincidence and reflects increased awareness of security problems, not a sudden decision to round up all known Americans who were spying for foreign powers, according to Administration officials.
Senator William Proxmire said today that the Interior Department was negotiating what he said might be an illegal “secret agreement” to provide farmers in California’s Central Valley with cheap subsidized water. In a letter to Interior Secretary Donald P. Hodel, Senator Proxmire, a Wisconsin Democrat, joined three other Senators in asking that Congress be given a chance to review any Federal agreement with California’s Westlands Water District before it is signed. The other Senators were Howard M. Metzenbaum of Ohio, also a Democrat, and Richard G. Lugar of Indiana and Gordon J. Humphrey of New Hampshire, both Republicans. At issue is federally subsidized water, which was never authorized by Congress, to irrigate 156,000 acres, now planted in cotton, wheat, barley and other crops. The acreage is adjacent to the 500,000-acre Westlands Water District, for which Congress authorized subsidized water in 1963.
Hospitals, which feared they would suffer substantial losses under government rules that limit Medicare payments, actually made above-average profits the first year of the program, a government study reveals. Hospital profit margins on Medicare operations rose to 14% in 1984, the first year of a prospective payment system, about triple the average profit margin for all patients in recent years, according to an internal report by Richard P. Kusserow, inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services, the Washington Post reported.
The Statue of Liberty held her lamp high above New York Harbor again after workers hoisted a glimmering, 22-ton torch plated with gold leaf onto her upraised hand. Unlike the old torch, which contained glass panes and was lit from inside, Liberty’s new light is in keeping with the original design drawn by Frederick Auguste Bartholdi, who created the 305-foot landmark. The flame is covered with several pounds of 24-karat gold leaf and will be illuminated from the outside by spotlights. The old torch, which allowed water to leak inside the statue, was removed July 4, 1984. Foundation officials I will not light the new flame until July 3, for the celebration of Liberty’s centennial.
A federal judge in Tucson said he will limit testimony by a government informant in the trial of 11 sanctuary movement members because the government did not try hard enough to locate more than a dozen Central Americans allegedly smuggled into the United States. But U.S. District Judge Earl Carroll said he will allow informant Jesus Cruz to testify about the Central Americans if the government can demonstrate that its efforts to locate them were adequate.
A twin-engine plane carrying members of the Iowa State University women’s cross-country team crashed in a freezing drizzle this evening, killing seven people aboard as it burst into flames in a residential neighborhood, the authorities said. Bad weather had forced three planes, which were carrying members of the men’s and women’s teams and coaches, to be diverted from Ames, Iowa, to Des Moines, and the other two planes landed safely, Sgt. Bill Mullins of the Des Moines police. said. Twenty-one members of the teams and coaching staff were aboard the three planes, which were on their way to Ames from Milwaukee.
A judge ordered Cathy Evelyn Smith to stand trial for the 1982 death of John Belushi. The judge rejected defense assertions that Miss Smith, a 38-year-old former backup singer, was acting in behalf of the 33-year-old comedian she repeatedly injected him with heroin.
A Florida woman accused of killing Wall Street financier Nicholas Deak denied that she fired the gun, and suggested that the judge “chat with Deak” to determine her innocence. “The case is preposterous,” Lois Lang, 44, told Criminal Court Justice Edward McLaughlin at a New York hearing to determine whether she would testify before a grand jury. “Why don’t you chat with Deak? He’s alive, you know.” Lang was charged with invading the headquarters of Deak-Perrera Inc., a leading foreign exchange firm, on November 18 and shooting founder Deak, 80, and his receptionist, Frances Lauder.
A 23-year-old man escaped the Texas death chamber when the U.S. Supreme Court issued an indefinite stay hours before he was to receive a lethal injection in Huntsville. Jay Kelly Pinkerton was scheduled to die early today for the murders of two Amarillo women. The court will consider whether jurors opposed to the death penalty can be excluded from capital cases.
President Reagan receives the 38th presentation of a Thanksgiving turkey from the National Turkey Federation. President Reagan met Wilfred the Tom Turkey and a gathering of reporters in the Rose Garden, and it was Wilfred who had the last word. The President fended off questions dealing with substantive issues and said: “The only questions I will take today are about the turkey.” Wilfred gobbled loudly, evoking laughter. “I agree with everything you’ve said,” Reagan said solemnly. Wilfred, a 55-pound gift from the National Turkey Federation, is on his way to the Evans Farm in Vienna, Virginia, where he will join other animals at a children’s zoo. After a last gobble from Wilfred, Reagan returned to the Oval Office on the eve of his departure for a Thanksgiving holiday stay at his California ranch. The President will be taking Lucky with him. The 65-pound black sheep dog has been living in the lap of luxury at the White House, but the President and Mrs. Reagan have decided that “dogs that size love to run and be outdoors,” according to the First Lady’s press secretary, Elaine Crispen, and so Lucky will be leaving with the President for a new life at the mountaintop ranch near Santa Barbara.
Rhode Island’s Chief Justice serves at the whim of the General Assembly and can be ousted by a simple majority vote, an attorney for Gov. Edward D. DiPrete argued before the state’s Supreme Court today. But a lawyer for Chief Justice Joseph A. Bevilacqua said the rule giving the Legislature power to vacate the seat was obsolete and violated Judge Bevilacqua’s rights. The four sitting members of the court did not indicate when they would rule on whether the General Assembly can remove Chief Justice Bevilacqua for his friendships with reputed crime figures.
Senator Lawton Chiles today filed suit seeking to force the Reagan Administration to remove Cuban refugees who have been convicted of crimes from a detention camp for illegal aliens near here. The suit by Mr. Chiles, a Florida Democrat, asks the Federal District Court in Miami to transfer 90 convicted felons who arrived in the 1980 emigration from Mariel, Cuba, to Federal maximum security facilities.
Excess supply is keeping food prices in check. Food prices have risen less than the general inflation rate, creating a boon for consumers and more problems for farmers.
A possibly illegal water subsidy was the focus of a letter to Interior Secretary Donald P. Hodel from Senator William Proxmire and three other Senators. The letter said the Interior Department was negotiating what may be an illegal secret agreement to provide farmers in California’s Central Valley with cheap, subsidized water.
A struck poultry plant is shipping out 50,000 turkeys a day. Workers struck the Marval plant in Dayton, Virginia, 18 months ago over working conditions. Almost all the workers have returned to the plant, and now the union is seeking public support for a boycott of Marval products.
There are more toxic chemical plants in New Jersey than in any other state. Since the chemical accident that killed more than 2,000 people last December in Bhopal, India, Jersey officials have put top priority on answering the question: could such a disaster occur here?
Details of disciplinary proceedings against the lawyer Roy M. Cohn should be made public, a state appeals court panel ruled. The panel said Mr. Cohn had, in effect, waived his right to confidentiality by publicly accusing a court-appointed disciplinary committee of “having been constituted of incompetents who prosecuted him for a political purpose, upon meritless charges, with the intent of ‘smearing’ him.”
A researcher who tracked the criminal history of every person born in 1958 who lived in Philadelphia from 1968 to 1975 says his study shows that the juvenile justice system is too soft on the chronic offender. “We know who he is by the time he is 13 or 14,” said Paul E. Tracy, assistant professor of criminal justice at Boston’s Northeastern University. “My idea is, let’s do something about him early and not wait until he’s an adult.”
High wind and low temperatures drove the wind chill in North Dakota to as low as 50 below zero, while ice, snow and freezing drizzle closed schools and contributed to scores of highway accidents. Police closed several highways in the eastern and southeastern parts of the state because of drifting snow and poor visibility. Freezing rain also was reported in some parts of Nebraska and Michigan. At least 18 deaths in six states were blamed on the weather. Police reported hundreds of traffic accidents in the last three days.
White Sox shortstop Ozzie Guillen, who hit .273 with just 12 errors in 150 games, is named American League Rookie of the Year. Milwaukee lefty Teddy Higuera finishes 2nd.
NFL Monday Night Football:
Joe Montana led the San Francisco 49ers on a 66-yard drive early in the second period, and they went on to a 19–6 victory tonight over the Seattle Seahawks. On a third-down play, Montana threw to the fullback Roger Craig for a 33-yard gain, and Fred Solomon caught a 27-yard pass on the next play for the game’s first points. The 49ers added 5 points in the quarter on a safety and Ray Wersching’s 32-yard field goal. Dwight Clark established a team record for career receptions when he caught a 22-yard touchdown pass from Montana in the final period. It was Clark’s 408th catch. Montana finished the game with 16 completions in 32 attempts for 232 yards. He was intercepted three times in the first half. Two interceptions were in the opening quarter, when he completed just one of seven attempts for a 4-yard gain. The 49ers, defending Super Bowl champions, brought their record to 7–5. The 49ers are two games behind the Los Angeles Rams in the National Football Conference West. The Seahawks (6–6) fell two games behind in the A.F.C. West race.
Seattle averted a shutout, which would have been the team’s first since 1982, when the linebacker Sam Merriman blocked a punt by the 49ers’ Max Runager and fell on the ball in the end zone for a touchdown with 1 minute 55 seconds remaining in the game. The extra-point attempt by Norm Johnson was blocked. The Seahawks refused 3 points in the first period, accepting a penalty and a first down instead of Johnson’s 44-yard field goal. They were pushed back by a penalty and a sack of Dave Krieg, and Johnson then missed a 49-yard field goal attempt. Johnson also missed a 45-yard attempt in the second half. Krieg left the game in the fourth quarter after suffering a bruised shoulder. The rookie Gale Gilbert finished up at quarterback. Seattle Seahawks 6, San Francisco 49ers 19
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1456.65 (-7.68)
Born:
Dan Carpenter, NFL kicker (Pro Bowl, 2009; Miami Dolphins, Buffalo Bills), in Omaha, Nebraska.
Derek Lokey, NFL defensive tackle (Kansas City Chiefs), in Nacogdoches, Texas.
Haley Webb, American actress (“The Final Destination”), in Woodbridge, Virginia.
History Diaries 