East-West relations are at a “very important moment” that could lead to a deepening of ties between the United States and Eastern Europe, Secretary of State George P. Shultz said after a meeting with Janos Kadar, Hungary’s leader.
The debate over the “Star Wars” missile defense program is increasingly shifting to arguments about its real military value, as opposed to its mere technical feasibility. Would a space- and land-based shield against missiles offer meaningful protection to the United States? Or, even if it were to become scientifically plausible, would it, instead, weaken America’s military power? Most experts agree that present and prospective Soviet actions will bear heavily on the answers. But whatever those answers are they will be crucial to what Lieutenant General James A. Abrahamson, director of the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization — the official name for the American missile-defense research program — says will ultimately “be the most complex and complicated decision ever faced by an American government.” And John E. Pike, a space analyst for the Federation of American Scientists who is generally critical of the program, agrees. He adds, however, “It is roughly comparable to the Hayes Administration’s trying to decide if it wanted to buy an air force.”
The United States and the Soviet Union have agreed for the first time on a comprehensive resolution condemning the taking of hostages, high-level diplomatic sources said today. The resolution calls for the release of all hostages and urges nations to prosecute and punish offenders, sources said. It will be presented Tuesday at a Security Council meeting requested by the United States. The council is expected to adopt it unanimously Wednesday. The Times of London reported on December 8 that the resolution was agreed to in principle at the Reagan-Gorbachev summit meeting in Geneva last month. Several weeks of negotiations between the two countries and other council members were needed to settle the document’s wording, sources said. Last week, the General Assembly adopted for the first time a resolution condemning all acts of terrorism as criminal.
The Soviet and American founders of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, the group that was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this month, will meet with the Soviet leader, Mikhail S. Gorbachev, in Moscow on Wednesday, the organization announced here today. The two physicians, Dr. Bernard Lown, of the Harvard School of Public Health, and Dr. Yevgeny I. Chazov, a Soviet Deputy Health Minister responsible for the care of Kremlin leaders, will ask Mr. Gorbachev to extend the Soviet Union’s moratorium on nuclear weapons tests, according to officials of the organization, which is based here. The Soviet Union announced July 28 that it would stop testing nuclear weapons beginning August 6, and that the moratorium would continue until December 31 — or indefinitely, if the United States joined it.
President Nicolae Ceausescu’s frail appearance in recent months and signs that official photographs of him have been altered have reinforced speculation that he is seriously ill, according to Western diplomats and others here. They say Mr. Ceausescu, Rumania’s leader for the last 20 years, may be grooming a member of his immediate family to succeed him. The diplomats say they have been struck by a marked deterioration in Mr. Ceausescu’s appearance, noting that his face has become thin and worn and that he looks increasingly frail.
Four people were arrested in Belgium today in a major breakthrough against urban guerrillas, Justice Minister Jean Gol said. One of those arrested, Pierre Carette, is suspected of leading the Fighting Communist Cells, an extreme leftist group that has taken responsibility for 27 bomb attacks on NATO, American and Belgian installations in the last 14 months. The four suspects, all carrying guns, were seized at a restaurant in the southern city of Namur by 30 heavily armed plainclothes policemen, a witness said. The suspects offered no resistance.
The Cuban defector who was the subject of a foiled kidnapping attempt last week in Madrid had inside knowledge about Cuban arms sales and purchases and about overseas military ventures in such countries as Angola, according to Spanish officials and to Cuban exiles here. Four embassy employees tried to kidnap the defector, Manuel Antonio Sanchez Perez, in Madrid last Friday, but they were foiled when bystanders intervened. Mr. Sanchez, a former economic official in the Cuban Government, is being kept in a safe house. The sources said that he held the rank of a deputy minister as a member of the State Planning Board. He was also said to have worked for a key agency known as the State Committee for Material and Technical Supply, which oversees purchase of supplies abroad. A few years ago, he was identified in the West as the chief of the agency’s World Planning Directorate.
Israeli leaders said today that they did not intend to carry out any pre-emptive action against the new Syrian surface-to-air missile deployments, provided the Syrians did not fire on Israeli planes flying over Lebanon. Israel announced Sunday that within the last three weeks Syria had installed a new network of SAM-2, SAM-6 and SAM-8 missile batteries along its border with Lebanon in a configuration that would enable it to hit Israeli jets flying low or high over most of Lebanon. “In today’s reality, given the existing lines between Israel and the confrontation states, I can see no political reason that would justify Israel’s initiating a war,” Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin said in a speech today that was political commentators interpreted as a signal to Damascus. Although Israeli officials remained deeply concerned about the new Syrian missile batteries, they said the deployment of the missiles was a direct result of the downing of two Syrian MIG jet fighters on Nov. 19 by Israeli fighter pilots. According to Israeli military sources, the pilots acted on their own initiative, and Israeli officials and analysts say that Israel is now going to have to live with the consequences.
Syria acknowledged today that it had stationed surface-to-air missiles along its border with Lebanon and said it was within its right of self-defense to station missiles anywhere in Syrian territory. The Damascus radio also said Syria rejected Israeli statements that the deployment posed a threat to Israel. But the Syrian Defense Minister, General Mustafa Tlas, said President Hafez al-Assad was intent on achieving a military balance with Israel. Israel said Sunday that Syria had stationed a variety of missiles on the Syrian-Lebanese border in the last three weeks. An Israeli spokesman said the missiles had a range of up to 35 miles and could jeopardize Israeli surveillance flights over Lebanon.
Ahmed Ben Bella, the first Prime Minister of Algeria after it gained independence from France, and Hocine Ait-Ahmed, another of the founders of modern Algeria, today announced the formation of a united front to oppose the one-party rule of the group they helped establish 31 years ago. “The National Liberation Front of yesterday is not the National Liberation Front of today,” Mr. Ben Bella said, referring to the sole legal party in Algeria. He spoke at a news conference this morning in London.
As tens of thousands of policemen and paramilitary troopers kept watch, the residents of Assam turned out in large numbers today to vote in a statewide election that is seen as a crucial test for Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s political control over the state. Election officials said that the balloting was peaceful and that most results would be announced Tuesday. “Barring a few, stray, minor incidents, the entire process has been completed peacefully,” P. C. Misra, the state’s chief electoral officer, said. He added that he was “astounded” by the huge numbers of voters who had walked long distances and waited several hours to cast their ballots.
Laos told a high-ranking U.S. government delegation that it has selected a second plane-crash site for excavators to search for missing American servicemen, the State Department said. The delegation, headed by Assistant Secretary of State Paul D. Wolfowitz, visited the Laotian capital of Vientiane on Sunday and Monday. It was the first visit to Laos by an official of Wolfowitz’s rank since 1978. In February, a U.S.-Laotian team found remains of 13 servicemen in Pakse, Laos. An estimated 700 American servicemen are still listed as missing in action in Laos.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff, in 1955, discussed the possible use of nuclear weapons to help stop a Communist invasion of South Vietnam, according to declassified State Department documents. The U.S. military leaders, in a study commissioned by the National Security Council, said: “No prohibitions should be imposed on the use of atomic weapons, or on other military operations, to the extent of precluding effective military reaction as the situation develops. If atomic weapons were not used, greater forces than the U.S. would be justified in providing would therefore be needed.”
Congressional negotiators, acting under strong pressure from the White House, today dropped a proposal that would have placed restrictions on the sale of American nuclear technology to China. The action came as House-Senate negotiators met to try to resolve differences between the two chambers on a multibillion-dollar bill appropriating money for most government agencies. The restrictions had been added by the Senate and left out by the House. The conference committee voted 15 to 7 to accept the House position. The agreement with China, which took effect December 11, permits the sale of reactors and other nuclear technology for China’s nuclear power program.
President Ferdinand E. Marcos said today that American pressure to remove the Chief of Staff, Gen. Fabian C. Ver, had contributed to a factional dispute that was hampering the work of the Philippine military. General Ver was reinstated as Chief of Staff on December 3, the day after he was acquitted on charges of involvement in the assassination of the opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr. in 1983. Mr. Marcos, who reinstated General Ver despite American pressure, said in an interview today that he expected the general to be removed from his post soon. Mr. Marcos also reacted to a statement Sunday by his opponent in elections scheduled for February 7, Corazon C. Aquino, that she would probably put him on trial for the killing of her husband if she won the election. “I realize she has nerve, but this is a little bit much,” Mr. Marcos said.
Latin American nations will have to take bolder action to confront the global debt crisis, President Julio Sanguinetti of Uruguay told the foreign and economic ministers of the region’s 11 most indebted nations. Opening a three-day conference of the debtor nations in the Uruguayan capital, Sanguinetti said that poor terms of trade and high interest rates have led to an enormous transfer of resources out of Latin America. The meeting will make specific proposals on interest rates, trade and cash flow problems, delegates said.
A former Salvadoran employee of the United States Embassy here has charged that Salvadoran policemen raped and physically tormented her after she was detained three months ago by American security personnel on suspicion of being a guerrilla spy. American officials here say there is strong evidence that the former employee, Graciela Menendez de Iglesias, was spying for the guerrillas. But a Salvadoran military judge appeared to disagree, ordering Mrs. Iglesias released in October for lack of evidence.
Several peace marchers were injured by bottles and stones hurled at them by rightists in Costa Rica, police said. The incident took place at a hotel in San Jose, the Costa Rican capital, where some of the 300 marchers — from Europe, the United States and Latin America — were staying. The marchers later scrapped their march plans in Costa Rica and left by buses for Nicaragua. Security Minister Benjamin Piza told them he could not guarantee their safety.
The famine is over in most of Africa, but long-term recovery is in doubt because Western donors, particularly the United States, are reluctant to provide money and long-term farming assistance, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization reported. The agency’s director general, Edouard Saouma, said in a year-end report that because of plentiful rain, only six countries are in danger for 1986 — Ethiopia, Sudan, Angola, Botswana, Mozambique and Cape Verde. However, noting the reluctance of Western donors to follow up emergency food shipments with help to make Africans self-sufficient, Saouma asked: “. . . For every five boats filled with surplus wheat, why cannot one be filled with fertilizer or seeds?”
The African National Congress took responsibility for planting a land mine near South Africa’s border with Zimbabwe, which killed six whites. The blast, the seventh such recent incident, provoked a new warning from top officials in South Africa that it might send troops into the territory of its black-governed neighbor to halt activity by guerrillas of the outlawed group based there. “I must warn that this could lead to a situation similar to that of SWAPO in Angola,” said South African Defense Minister Magnus Malan, referring to periodic South African attacks against Namibian rebels operating from Angola.
President Reagan travels to Fort Cambell, Kentucky for a memorial service for the 248 soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division killed in a recent plane crash. President Reagan embraced members of the families of the 248 soldiers who died in the plane crash in Gander. Accompanied by Nancy Reagan, the President moved from one family member to the next in a hangar at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, the home base of the soldiers, all members of the 101st Airborne. Saying that “love is never wasted, love is never lost,” President Reagan came here today to embrace weeping families of the 248 American soldiers who died in a plane crash in Newfoundland last Thursday. Widows sobbed and clung to Mr. Reagan in a ceremony in an aircraft hangar that was suffused with grief. A woman, brushing tears aside, proudly brought forth a framed photo of her lost son and Mr. Reagan sadly nodded and clasped her shoulders. A father kissed Mr. Reagan’s cheek as a military dirge resounded across the gathering of more than 200 family members who listened to words of sorrow and reached to clasp one another, Mr. Reagan and his wife, Nancy.
Investigators were focusing increasing attention yesterday on the possibility that the the crash of a chartered airliner in Newfoundland last week was caused by a reversal of power in one of the engines. This would be consistent with the sudden veering and speed loss that Canadian officials said the plane had experienced just before it plunged to the ground. But other possible causes of the crash are still being investigated. Canadian investigators said the Arrow Air DC-8 had reached a speed sufficient for a proper takeoff before it decelerated and crashed. Pending a full investigation of the cause of the crash, the Defense Department is continuing to charter troop and cargo planes from Arrow Air, the Pentagon said. According to officials close to the inquiry, an examination of the wreckage showed that the right outboard engine’s thrust reverser, which helps to slow a plane on landing, was in the deployed position. The reversers on the jet’s three other engines were properly stowed, the officials said.
President Reagan made an extraordinary personal appeal to Republican lawmakers today and was reported to have won enough votes to assure passage of tax-revision legislation in the House of Representatives. Administration officials and Republican leaders in the House announced the President’s success tonight hours after he visited Capitol Hill on behalf of the top item on his legislative agenda. Democratic leaders made plans tonight to take the tax legislation before the House for a vote Tuesday. As a condition for the House Republicans’ support, the President agreed to send Congress a letter promising to veto any tax measure that did not make specific changes important to the Republicans. The President is eager to get the issue to the Senate, where he hopes to modify the House version.
President Reagan meets with Mother Teresa.
The doomed NASA space shuttle Challenger moves to the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida for mating with her external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters of the upcoming and fatal STS-51-L mission.
There are 43 days left until the ill-fated launch.
The seven-man crew, including a Florida congressman, met with space officials and reviewed flight plans at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, as the countdown began for Wednesday’s launch of space shuttle Columbia on its first flight in more than two years. The launch, scheduled for 4 AM PST, follows by just 15 days Atlantis’ return from orbit, marking the shortest turnaround time between shuttle missions.
The “Star Wars” debate is increasingly shifting to arguments about the real military value of antimissile defenses, as opposed to technical feasibility. The issues are: Would a defensive space- and land-based shield against nuclear missiles offer meaningful protection to the United States? Or, even if such a shield were scientifically plausible would it weaken America’s military power? Most experts agree that present and prospective Soviet actions will bear heavily on the answers.
The White House and the Defense Department today sharply criticized a pending Congressional proposal to ban further testing of anti-satellite weapons, saying that such a ban would send the wrong signal to Moscow. The Defense Department charged that the proposed ban would give the Soviet Union “life-or-death veto power over a vital U.S. defense program.” Robert Sims, the Pentagon spokesman, said the ban would undercut arms control negotiations, impair national security and waste some $20 million already spent to launch two satellites that were intended to serve as targets for tests of the American anti-satellite weapon, or ASAT.
The Transportation Department cleared the way for airlines to buy, sell or trade valuable landing and takeoff slots at four of the nation’s busiest airports, rejecting criticism that the approach benefits wealthy carriers at the expense of weaker ones. The final rule, which goes into effect next April, ends months of debate over how to deal with mounting congestion problems and an inability by the airlines to distribute landing and takeoff authority among themselves at the four airports in Chicago, Washington and New York. The government has ceilings on the number of planes that may land and depart daily at each of the airports, making it difficult for new entrant airlines to compete.
The Reagan Administration’s draft 1987 budget calls for the elimination of the Interstate Commerce Commission, the nation’s oldest regulatory agency, according to Administration and congressional sources. The commissionwhich oversees the trucking and railroad industries-is one of about two dozen programs and agencies slated for extinction in the spending blueprint prepared by Budget Director James C. Miller III, the sources said.
John Gotti assumes leadership of New York’s Gambino crime family after ordering the executions of Paul Castellano and Thomas Bilotti. Paul Castellano, the reputed leader of the nation’s largest and most powerful crime organization, and an underworld associate were shot to death late yesterday afternoon by three assassins on a busy street on Manhattan’s East Side. As Mr. Castellano and his associate, Thomas Bilotti, stepped out of a limousine on East 46th Street near Third Avenue shortly before 5:30 P.M., the police said, the three men approached, drew semi-automatic weapons from under their trenchcoats and opened up a barrage of gunfire at close range. Mr. Castellano and Mr. Bilotti were each shot about six times in the head and upper body and fell dead beside the open doors of their black Lincoln limousine, which had been parked moments before on the south side of 46th Street in a “no standing” zone. After the shooting, witnesses said, the gunmen fled on foot east to the corner of Second Avenue, where they jumped into a waiting dark car that sped south on the avenue and disappeared, leaving behind a grisly tableau of underworld murder.
The federal racketeering trial of 10 alleged members of the militant white supremacist group The Order went to the jury in Seattle after the government finished its closing arguments. Prosecutors alleged that the defendants, charged with racketeering and conspiracy, were part of a white supremacist plot bent on overthrowing the government and establishing an Aryan homeland.
A defense lawyer in the casino skimming trial of eight reputed organized-crime figures says he will subpoena Jackie Presser, president of the teamsters’ union, to testify next month. The lawyer, Joseph DiNatale, represents John Cerone of Chicago. Mr. DiNatale said Friday that Mr. Presser would be asked to impugn the testimony of Angelo Lonardo, who testified for the prosecution in exchange for having prison sentences reduced.
The Louisiana Governor’s brother was acquitted of 41 mail and wire fraud charges. But a Federal jury said it was deadlocked on whether Marion Edwards, brother of Governor Edwin Edwards, the Governor himself and other defendants were guilty of racketeering. Marion Edwards was charged with 50 counts of mail and wire fraud in a $10 million scheme. The judge told the jurors to try further.
A defense lawyer in the casino skimming trial of eight reputed organized-crime figures says he will subpoena Jackie Presser, president of the teamsters’ union, to testify next month. The lawyer, Joseph DiNatale, represents John Cerone of Chicago. Mr. DiNatale said Friday that Mr. Presser would be asked to impugn the testimony of Angelo Lonardo, who testified for the prosecution in exchange for having prison sentences reduced.
A 65-year-old Washington state woman was convicted Sunday of murdering her 80-year-old husband, who prosecutors say was shot and his body chopped up and burned. A jury deliberated four days before convicting the woman, Ruth Neslund. Her husband, Rolf, disappeared five years ago. She denied the charges, saying she thought her husband had taken an extended trip to his native Norway or had committed suicide. No body has been found, although bloodstains were discovered in the house. She faces a mandatory life sentence.
A propane tank explosion leveled a two-story gas company office and repair garage in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, killing 11 people and leaving one missing, with 10 more injured and in serious condition, authorities said. The blast and fire apparently came when a welding torch was lit near a nearly empty propane tank on a flatbed truck that had just pulled into a repair bay, said Les Sitter, vice president for Rocky Mountain Natural Gas Co. There were about 30 workers in the building when the explosion occurred.
Princeton University’s three remaining all-male supper clubs are subject to New Jersey’s anti-discrimination laws and must provide equal access to women, an administrative law judge ruled in Princeton. The ruling by Judge Robert Miller gives New Jersey jurisdiction in the case and clears the way for a full hearing in February to determine if the social and dining clubs — Ivy Inn, Tiger Inn and University Cottage Club — actually discriminate by barring women from joining. Miller’s 10-page opinion upheld a May ruling that said the clubs were not private organizations.
Arctic air poured into the northern Plains and upper Great Lakes, driving wind chills to 50 below zero, while unseasonably cold weather in the East spread freezing temperatures as far south as Florida. Temperatures were below zero from upper Michigan to eastern North Dakota. Gusty west winds made it feel even colder, with wind chills of 40 to 50 below zero stinging Grand Forks, North Dakota, and Duluth, Minnesota.
Film “The Color Purple” based on novel by Alice Walker, directed by Steven Spielberg starring Whoopi Goldberg and Danny Glover premieres in New York.
NFL Monday Night Football:
The Miami Dolphins moved to within one game of winning their third straight American Conference East title tonight by defeating the New England Patriots, 30–27. The victory gave the Dolphins sole possession of first place in the division with an 11–4 record, a game ahead of the Patriots and the Jets. Miami now needs only a victory over the Buffalo Bills here next Sunday to win the division. The Bills, who are 2–13, have beaten the Dolphins in Miami once in the last 16 years. The Patriots last won a game in Miami in 1966. The victory virtually assured the Dolphins of a wild-card berth in the playoffs. The only way they would now fail to qualify is if on the final weekend of play, the Patriots beat the Cincinnati Bengals, the Jets beat the Cleveland Browns, the Denver Broncos beat the Seattle Seahawks, and the Dolphins lose to the Bills by 39 points or more. The Patriots could still win the division, but it would take the equally unlikely combination of the Dolphins losing to the Bills, the Jets losing to the Browns and the Patriots defeating the Cincinnati Bengals. The Patriots have a better chance for a wild-card spot. All they need is a victory over the Bengals or a loss by the Broncos to the Seahawks Friday night. The outcome tonight does not materially affect the Jets, whose best ticket to the playoffs is still a victory over the Browns. Miami’s victory did not come without its anxious moments. After Ron Davenport put Miami in the lead, 27–13, with a 1-yard touchdown run with 11 minutes 8 seconds left, the Patriots charged back by scoring on a 1-yard run by Mosi Tatupu and Cedric Jones’s 16-yard return of Joe Carter’s fumble on the ensuing kickoff. That tied the score, 27–27, with 7:22 to go. Less than three minutes later, Fuad Reveiz’s third field goal of the game, from 47 yards out, pushed the Dolphins into the lead. But the Patriots still had more than four minutes to do something about it. They couldn’t. Tony Eason, who had thrown two earlier passes that were intercepted, tossed another. On second down, at the Miami 34, he threw deep down the middle to the tight end Derrick Ramsey. Glenn Blackwood, the strong safety who had intercepted Eason earlier, picked off another, at the 11, to preserve the victory.
New England Patriots 27, Miami Dolphins 30
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1553.10 (+17.89)
Born:
James Nash, British racing driver, in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom.
Amanda Setton, American actress (Brook Lynne Quartermaine — “General Hospital”), in New York, New York.
Died:
Paul Castellano, 70, American organized-crime chief, shot dead at a New York city restaurant.
Thomas Bilotti, 45, American organized-crime figure, also shot dead at a New York city restaurant.
History Diaries 