Oil prices tumbled in tumultuous trading as traders reacted to the mounting perception that OPEC would fulfill its threat to wage a price war against other petroleum-producing countries to protect a fixed share of the market. The price of crude oil for January delivery fell a remarkable $2.28, to $25.23 a barrel, after dropping $1.23 on Monday. Less than a month ago, by contrast, a comparable contract was trading at about $29.
Countries should use all types of aid, including covert assistance, to advance their diplomatic goals, according to Secretary of State George P. Shultz. In a major speech in London, Mr. Shultz sought to persuade the Western allies to support the approach being followed by Washington in such countries as Afghanistan, Nicaragua and now Angola.
Poland warned the United States it may retaliate against travel restrictions placed on Polish officials in America. The warning came in a formal protest over a U.S. order that Polish, East German, Czech and Bulgarian diplomats clear their U.S. travel plans through the State Department. The move is an attempt to curb espionage involving East Bloc nations. The Polish government called the directive “discriminatory and provocative” and warned of reciprocal action.
The United States and Spain formally agreed to open negotiations to reduce the American military presence in that country. The talks were sought by the Socialist government of Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez to bolster its effort to stay in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Twelve thousand. U.S. troops are now stationed at a Navy base and three air bases in Spain. The current troop agreement expires in 1987.
The Nobel Peace Prize was presented to the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, a Boston-based organization headed by two cardiologists, one American and the other Russian. The Oslo ceremony took place amid a controversy over the fact that the Russian, Dr. Yevgeny I. Chazov, had joined in signing a 1973 letter denouncing Andrei D. Sakharov, the Soviet physicist and dissident.
President Reagan said today that Soviet-American relations would continue to feel the impact of human rights issues. But in his annual speech marking International Human Rights Day, he abandoned the harsh tone with which he has previously denounced rights violations by the Soviet Union. “Make no mistake about it,” he said. “Human rights will continue to have a profound effect on the United States-Soviet relationship as a whole because they are fundamental to our vision of an enduring peace.” But he avoided mentioning particular dissidents, obstacles to Jewish emigration or other specific problems, as he has in the past. He adopted an approach that reflected his new strategy of pressing Soviet leaders privately and quietly on these issues in the hope, Administration officials said, that Moscow will not feel it has to resist because it is being publicly bludgeoned. Last month in Geneva, the President was reported to have spent more than an hour on the subject with Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the Soviet leader. “I made it very clear to him that human rights are an abiding concern of the American people,” Mr. Reagan said. “We had a long and confidential discussion. And at the conclusion of our meetings, we declared in a joint statement that humanitarian issues would be resolved in as humanitarian spirit. Americans will be watching hopefully to see whether that pledge is observed.”
Only 128 Jews were allowed to leave the Soviet Union in November, disappointing those who had hoped for an easing of curbs on Jewish emigration to coincide with the U.S.-Soviet summit in Geneva last month. Thus far this year, 1,249 Soviet Jews have been allowed to emigrate, the Intergovernmental Committee for Migration in Geneva reported. A record of 51,330 was set in 1979, the committee said, but numbers began falling sharply thereafter, declining to 21,470 in 1980 and only 922 last year.
Igor Y. Andropov, son of the late Soviet leader Yuri V. Andropov, will not return to his post as Ambassador to Greece, the Greek Foreign Ministry said today. A Ministry statement said Viktor F. Stukalin, 68, had been made Mr. Andropov’s successor. Mr. Stukalin was the Soviet representative to Unesco.
A Italian judge investigating the purported conspiracy to assassinate Pope John Paul II came to New York yesterday to interrogate a former Italian secret service agent who is in Federal custody here. The judge, Ilario Martella, traveled from Rome to question the former agent, Francesco Pazienza, about assertions that he prompted Mehmet Ali Agca to confess that the shooting of the Pope in 1981 was ordered by Bulgarian officials.
Jean-Pierre Hocke, a senior official of the International Committee of the Red Cross, was elected the United Nations’ new high commissioner for refugees in a unanimous vote by the General Assembly. Hocke, 47, a Swiss, succeeds Poul Hartling of Denmark in the $120,000-a-year post, which administers programs on behalf of about 10 million refugees worldwide. He takes office January 1.
Two prominent Lebanese Christians were released unharmed four days after they were kidnaped in Muslim West Beirut. Dr. Munir Shamaa, of American University Hospital, and Joseph Salameh, an economics professor and businessman, were freed at the home of Mohammed Fadlallah, a radical Shia Muslim cleric who has advised the pro-Iranian group Hezbollah (Party of God). Fadlallah said the two men were seized by relatives of Muslims abducted by the Christian Lebanese Forces militia coalition.
Prime Minister Abdel-Raouf al-Kassem of Syria arrived in Jordan today on a three-day visit amid speculation that he is carrying an invitation to King Hussein. It was the first visit by a Syrian Prime Minister to Jordan in six years. Mr. Kassem is to hold meetings with Prime Minister Zaid al-Rifai of Jordan, and he is to have a working lunch on Wednesday with King Hussein. Mr. Rifai visited Damascus last month.
The Chinese Communist Party had marshaled 4,000 shivering high school students into Tiananmen Square for a ceremony designed to shore up support for the Government’s “open door” economic policies. A bitter wind whipping past Mao Zedong’s mausoleum dropped temperatures to zero degrees as the students lined up for a pep rally Monday that culminated a week of pro-Government activities. Scripted speeches on the need for youth to back the policies were accompanied by raised fists and a mass oath of fealty to the party’s junior wing, the Communist Youth League. The point appeared to escape some of the youngsters who huddled into padded overcoats and scurried away as soon as the 30-minute ceremony ended. Compared with Mao’s day, the era of Deng Xiaoping has been relatively short on mass political tableaus, and some of the teen-agers appeared to feel that they would have been better off studying for exams.
Ferdinand E. Marcos was nominated by acclamation to be his party’s Presidential candidate in Philippine elections set for February. President Marcos was expected to name his vice presidential running mate in his acceptance speech today.
A Federal grand jury is investigating whether high-ranking Philippine officials may have received payments in connection with more than $100 million in military contracts financed by the Pentagon, according to businessmen and Reagan Administration officials. The disclosure suggests that the diplomatically sensitive inquiry, which began as an audit of a $6 million communications contract, has widened in recent months. The United States wanted to use the information in the case to convince President Ferdinand E. Marcos not to reinstate Gen. Fabian Ver as chief of the armed forces, but Federal prosecutors declined to reveal details, citing grand jury secrecy rules, according to an Administration official. “It could be a hot potato when it materializes,” said another official. “I have the sense that there are more names of Philippine officials involved in the case.”
The Government, in a measure that could further strain relations with the United States, introduced legislation today to ban nuclear-armed ships and aircraft from New Zealand. When New Zealand refused to allow the destroyer Buchanan to make a port visit in February, the United States retaliated by halting intelligence sharing with Wellington. Relations between the two allies remain near an all-time low.
The Socialist Party, which has governed Guyana for 21 years, took a lead of 6 to 1 tonight in presidential elections in which opposition leaders are charging fraud and interference. In results representing about 44 percent of the registered voters, the governing People’s National Congress of President Desmond Hoyte had 139,054 votes compared to 23,785 for its nearest rival, the People’s Progressive Party of Dr. Cheddi Jagan, a Marxist. The trend, if maintained, would give Mr. Hoyte his first full five-year term as President. He came to power four months ago after the death of President Forbes Burnham. Two of the three opposition parties are protesting the election by boycotting the vote counting, which began today. It is being done manually and is expected to continue over at least the next day or so.
Peruvian drug agents destroyed a modern jungle laboratory and captured three tons of cocaine paste, the equivalent of 2,200 pounds of refined cocaine, authorities said. Police described the raid as one of the most successful in a series carried out by U.S.-trained officers. The laboratory was situated in a tropical area 290 miles northeast of Lima, in the upper Huallaga Valley. Meanwhile, two pilots being held in Mexico City, Californians Samuel Garrison and William Granewich, were accused by Mexican authorities of trying to fly a chartered executive jet with several million dollars worth of cocaine from Colombia to the United States. The two apparently made an unplanned landing near the southern tip of Baja California.
Argentines reacted in sharply different ways today to a court decision on Monday that found five former members of military juntas guilty and acquitted four other former officers of responsibility for the disappearance of thousands of people during a campaign in the 1970’s against leftist guerrillas. Human rights groups along with some politicians were angered by the acquittals, but most political leaders accepted the court’s decision. Still other Argentines said they felt the sentences were too harsh. Julio Strassera, the Government prosecutor, said that he was surprised by the light sentences and that he was studying the possibility of an appeal.
Britain’s Royal Air Force ended a 13-month emergency food airlift operation in Ethiopia today, saying conditions had improved markedly since the flights began. “We came out here to fight the famine and we have done as much as we can,” said Flight Lieutenant Stuart Marston. “We were purely here for the emergency, and the emergency seems to have disappeared.” Two R.A.F. Hercules transport planes were used to mount the airlift to areas difficult to reach by road. Two C-160 Transall aircraft manned by West Germany will continue operations through Monday. Berhane Deressa, an Ethiopian Government official, said the end of the airlift “will create a vacuum” in relief deliveries. “Because we have been informed ahead of time, we have been able to build stockpiles,” Mr. Berhane said. “But we will still feel the pinch.”
The Reagan Administration intends to tell the Congressional intelligence committees next month that it plans to provide $15 million in covert aid for rebels fighting the Marxist Government of Angola, Administration and Congressional sources said today. Administration officials said Secretary of State George P. Shultz had approved the aid proposal before he left on Monday for a 10-day trip to Europe. But it was uncertain when the assistance would actually start flowing to the rebels, known as the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola and led by Jonas Savimbi.
Uganda’s military government and its guerrilla foes will sign a peace agreement Friday aimed at reuniting the war-divided country, Kenya’s President Daniel Arap Moi announced. Moi has been mediating in the talks between Uganda’s leader, General Tito Okello, and the rebel National Resistance Army. The rebels began their insurgency in 1981 against President Milton Obote and continued fighting after Obote was ousted in a coup last July. The peace plan is believed to give both sides roughly equal shares of power pending elections.
A bill to require a balanced budget by 1991 advanced in Congress when House and Senate conferees agreed on a compromise. Leaders of both houses predicted that Congress would send the measure to President Reagan today. He strongly endorsed the measure, although he said he still had reservations about the legislation’s effect on the military budget. The President said he would propose budgets with continued increases for the military. Congressional leaders, however, have said such increases would be politically impossible without tax increases, which the President opposes, or the elimination of 30 to 50 nonmilitary programs. The proposal represents a major revision of the current budget process, which Congress established 10 years ago.
President Reagan meets with departing Assistant for National Security Affairs Robert McFarlane.
President Reagan participates in a ceremony commemorating the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The White House indicated that President Reagan will keep a 20-year-old executive order requiring affirmative action hiring goals for government contractors, sidestepping confrontations with blacks, women, Congress and private industry. Since August, Attorney General Edwin Meese III — one of Reagan’s closest associates — has pushed for revising the landmark 1965 order signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson and endorsed by each of his successors. But after several meetings of a Cabinet subcommittee, where Labor Secretary William E. Brock III, among others, stridently opposed Meese, the issue has yet to reach Reagan’s desk and is not likely to, a White House official said.
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights agreed to investigate whether a $475,000 study it ordered on school desegregation is biased against the use of busing to integrate schools. One prominent scholar, Professor Gary Orfield of the University of Chicago, resigned from the study and told the commission he would continue to urge school districts not to cooperate with the study until its defects were remedied. Orfield charged that the study, approved by the conservative commission majority, was technically flawed and biased against the use of busing to achieve school desegregation.
The publicity surrounding the espionage case of Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Jay Pollard already has cost Israel $500 million in additional U.S. aid in the current fiscal year, according to sources. Until last week, Senators Bob Kasten (R-Wisconsin) and Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii) had been pressing for the aid to allow Israel to reduce its debt on previous U.S. loans. But sources said the two senators were persuaded to withdraw their proposal, which had been expected to be enacted into law as part of a stopgap spending bill, because many members of Congress were reluctant to vote for it in the wake of Pollard’s arrest on charges of spying for Israel.
A Federal district judge refused to release Ronald William Pelton from jail today, finding that the former employee of the National Security Agency, who faces espionage charges, was likely to flee and was a danger to the community. The judge, Frank Kaufman, upheld an earlier ruling by a magistrate that Mr. Pelton be held without bond. In his summary of the case, Judge Kaufman for the first time disclosed that Mr. Pelton had admitted to “recreational use” of an opiate drug. Mr. Pelton’s attorney later identified the drug as the painkiller Dilaudid.
Texaco must pay Pennzoil $10.53 billion for breaking up a merger agreement between Pennzoil and Getty Oil. The total award, $11.1 billion, is the largest in the history of the United States civil justice system, dwarfing a $1.8 billion award obtained by the MCI Corporation in 1981 in a case against the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. That award was later reduced to $113.4 million. Texaco said immediately that it would appeal the judge’s decision. Under Texas law, this normally would require Texaco to post a bond of $12.2 billion, a sum equal to roughly a third of its assets. But Judge Solomon Casseb Jr. waived the requirement “at this time” after an agreement was reached in more than three hours of negotiations this afternoon between lawyers for the two companies.
A ban on all tobacco advertising was urged by the American Medical Association. The association’s policy-making body, the House of Delegates, voted overwhelmingly to press for new Federal laws to make it illegal to advertise or promote any kind of tobacco product in any media.
The latest violent rural outburst was the killing Monday of three people, including a bank president, in Hills, Iowa, by Dale Burr, a 63-year-old workaholic farmer, heavily indebted and faced with bankruptcy. He also took his own life. Since 1982 thousands of farmers and hundreds of rural businesses have failed.
Arab-Americans have been targeted for violence by a group seeking to harm “enemies of Israel,” according to William H. Webster, the F.B.I. director. He said the bureau had found links among a series of recent attacks on Arab-Americans and others that left two people dead.
The toxic waste cleanup program would be expanded to $10 billion over five years under a bill approved in the House by a vote of 391 to 33. Earlier, the House approved a sharp increase in excise taxes on oil and chemical companies to pay for most of the expanded program. The $10 billion program would be nearly twice the size recommended by the Reagan Administration.
Roger Hedgecock resigned as Mayor of San Diego after a judge refused to grant him a new trial on his convictions for conspiracy and perjury on his campaign financing. The Mayor stepped down, effective immediately, minutes after Judge William L. Todd Jr. of Superior Court denied his request for a third trial and said he would go ahead with sentencing Mr. Hedgecock on felony charges today, which would automatically cause him to forfeit his job. Mr. Hedgecock, an environmentalist whose goal had been to stop growth that he said could turn San Diego into another Los Angeles, submitted his resignation to the city clerk at San Diego City Hall at 3 PM Judge Todd sentenced Mr. Hedgecock to a three-year suspended sentence, including one year in the custody of the county sheriff. The form that probation will take will be determined by the sheriff, the judge said. Mr. Hedgecock was also fined $1,000.
Jerry A. Whitworth faced four additional espionage charges in a new indictment issued by a Federal grand jury in San Francisco. The latest indictment charges that Mr. Whitworth, a retired Navy petty officer who was a communications specialist, joined confessed spy John A. Walker Jr. in 1974 in selling classified Navy data to Moscow. In the indictment, announced by United States Attorney Joseph P. Russoniello, Mr. Whitworth is accused of four new counts of delivering national defense information to a foreign government. The four new charges in the 13-count indictment each carries a term of up to life in prison. Three lesser counts of espionage were dropped from the former indictment.
The defense rested today in the three-month racketeering trial in Seattle of 10 members of a white supremacist group, the Order, and prosecutors began presenting rebuttal witnesses against the only defendant who testified on his own behalf. The defendant, Ardie McBrearty, called the final defense witnesses. In all, the defense called 43 witnesses over eight days.
The State Department recommended Monday that asylum be denied to a Syrian ship stowaway who jumped handcuffed into the Mississippi River last week, one of his lawyers said. Immigration and Naturalization Service officials in New Orleans said they would follow the department’s advice regarding the Syrian, Mohammed Marie, 20 years old, according to the lawyer, Jessica Bagg. She said the decision would be appealed.
Astronomer Carl Sagan said “the time… is now” to seek answers to a global warming trend that scientists say will eventually turn Midwestern croplands into dust bowls and flood coastal cities. Sagan, testifying at Senate hearings, said scientists agree the problem is “real” but it is not known exactly when higher temperatures produced by the “greenhouse effect” will reach critical levels. However, “the time to solve the problem is now,” Sagan said at Senate hearings. Sagan, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and television personality, said the greenhouse effect — the trapping of the sun’s heat by the Earth’s atmosphere — makes life possible. But either too much or too little could make the Earth too hot or too cold for life to continue, he said.
The West Virginia Judicial Investigation Commission recommended action against state Supreme Court Justice Richard Neely for requiring his state-paid secretary to baby-sit. The commission, which investigates complaints against judges, found that there was sufficient evidence to recommend a hearing on whether Neely violated canons of judicial ethics. Neely declined to comment on the finding.
Winds up to 74 mph whipped blinding snow across northern Utah, closing schools and causing power outages, while snow and freezing rain caused hazardous driving conditions throughout much of the nation’s midsection. Snow fell from the central Rockies through much of the central Plains, and a mixture of snow, freezing rain and sleet was scattered from eastern New Mexico across the Plains into southeastern Iowa. At least 10 people were killed in traffic accidents on icy highways.
“Out of Africa”, based on the book by Isak Dinesen, directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford premieres in Los Angeles (Best Picture 1986)
In the first major swap of the winter meetings, the Oakland A’s trade catcher Mike Heath and pitcher Tim Conroy to the Cardinals for Joaquin Andujar, 21-game winner with a volatile temperament. Andujar pitched a career-high 269 ⅔ innings this year and won only one game after August 23. He was 17–4 on July 26th. He will win 17 more games over the next three seasons.
The Atlanta Braves trade Steve Bedrosian and Milt Thompson to the Phillies for Pete Smith and Ozzie Virgil. Bedrosian will save 103 games in 3+ seasons in Philly and wins a Cy Young in 1987. Virgil hits 51 homeruns over 3 seasons in Atlanta and makes the 1987 All Star team. Pete Smith pitches for 11 seasons and has a 47-71 record with a 4.55 ERA. Thompson will play for 6 teams over 13 seasons, he had 2 stints in Philadelphia hitting .279 with 22 homeruns and a 93+ OPS+. His best year was 1987 when he finished 17th in MVP voting. He hit .302 with a career high 7 home runs and 46 steals.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1499.20 (+2.18)
Born:
Matt Forte, NFL running back (Pro Bowl, 2011, 2013; Chicago Bears, New York Jets), in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Brandon Anderson, NFL defensive back (Tampa Bay Buccaneers), in Dublin, Virginia.
T.J. Hensick, NHL centre (Colorado Avalanche, St. Louis Blues), in Lansing, Michigan.
Roman Červenka, Czech NHL centre (Calgary Flames), in Prague, Czechoslovakia.
Raven-Symoné, American actress (“The Cosby Show”; “That’s So Raven”), singer, and TV personality (“The View”), in Atlanta, Georgia.
Grace Chatto, British electronic-pop singer and cellist (Clean Bandit — “Rather Be”; “Symphony”), in London, England, United Kingdom.
History Diaries 