42 days remaining until launch.
Secretary of State George P. Shultz reacted angrily on the issue of terrorism during a visit to Belgrade after the Yugoslav Foreign Minister had commented about the October hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro, in which an American was killed. Foreign Minister Raid Dizdarevic had said at a news conference that, although Yugoslavia condemned terrorism, “one must also view the causes that lead to it.” Mr. Shultz pounded the table and said, “There must be no place to hide for people who do that kind of thing.” After a plane carrying the Palestinian hijackers was forced to land in Sicily in October, Italy refused to hold the man the United States says was the mastermind of the hijacking, Mohammed Abbas. Mr. Abbas flew to Yugoslavia, which also turned down United States requests to detain him, and is now reported to be in Iraq.
Three hundred households in Serbia canceled electric service in November. With an 80 percent rate of inflation this year and a 73 percent rise in the cost of living, the residents could no longer afford it. Throughout the country, whenever a train crosses from one of the six constituent republics to the next, the engine has to be changed. While countries elsewhere in Europe move toward integration, the Yugoslav republics ever more strongly assert their rights within the same country. Meanwhile, the ruling Communist Party, known here as the League of Communists, announced in November that 75,000 members turned in their party cards last year. Most of them were blue-collar workers. This is the heart of the problems in Yugoslavia, which is the last stop on Secretary of State George P. Shultz’s swing through Eastern Europe. With its economy in crisis and the country in need of determined leadership, as even Yugoslav officials concede, political disarray is paralyzing decision-making, and the party that allows no rival political force admits that its own appeal is waning.
The poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko again took the mantle of rebel and critic to demand that the candor and openness of which Mikhail S. Gorbachev has spoken be applied to Russian literature. At a congress of Russian writers in Moscow he called for the lifting of some of the most sensitive taboos of Soviet culture. The session was a closed one, but even so the poet’s strong words against distortion of history, against censorship, self-flattery, silence and privilege in the world of letters were strikingly bold. When the poet, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, finished, the congress of Russian writers burst into prolonged applause. “Today’s long-awaited striving for change for the better in our country gives us profound hopes that self-flattery will be forever rejected, and that nonconcealment will become the norm of civic behavior,” he said. “We, men of letters, will not be worth a penny if we simply report and laud the social transformations taking place independently of us.”
Protestant members of Parliament from Northern Ireland won the right today to run in an election early next year as part of a protest over a British-Irish accord to cooperate on the future of the province. Parliament approved, without a formal vote, applications for by-elections to be held in all but two of the province’s 17 constituencies. The election will probably be held on January 23. The action followed the resignation of 15 Northern Ireland Protestant Members of Parliament, most of them on Monday night. They contend that the British-Irish accord, signed last month, yields sovereignty to Dublin.
The International Press Institute accused United States and British leaders today of “double standards” in calling for curbs on press coverage, particularly of terrorist attacks. “It has been a year of strange double standards,” the institute said in an annual review. “Democratic world leaders who advocated limited reporting raised an outcry when South Africa finally pulled the plug.” In July, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of Britain called for a voluntary code of restraint on coverage of terrorist attacks. The Reagan Administration voiced support for the idea. The institute, which has its secretariat in London, said restrictions of reporting of terrorist incidents could force gunmen to even greater excesses that could not be ignored. “Experience has shown that silence builds up mystery and proves the best breeding ground for violent action,” it said.
Israeli occupation authorities today closed An-Najah University in the West Bank city of Nablus to prevent a symposium on armed struggle against Israel, military officials said. Israeli troops set up roadblocks near the Palestinian university to turn back the school’s 3,500 students during the day-long closing. Officials said the step was taken after Israeli authorities repeatedly warned the university against holding meetings like the one planned for today. Palestinian sources said troops entered the campus and confiscated pamphlets.
Lebanon’s main Christian militia freed some Syrian prisoners in a move heralding renewed efforts for peace in Lebanon. A spokesman for the militia, called the Lebanese Forces, said the prisoners, who were captured earlier in the 10year civil war, were handed over to Syrian officers near Syrian army lines in mountains eight miles from Beirut. The spokesman declined to say how many were freed. News reports said Syria would respond by freeing Christian captives soon.
India and Pakistan, longtime adversaries who have accused each other of developing nuclear weapons, pledged not to attack each other’s nuclear facilities and announced other steps to improve relations. The agreement came after a meeting in New Delhi between Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Pakistani President Zia ul-Haq. Zia said that if the moves to improve relations succeed, Pakistan will review its weapons purchases from the United States. The two sides, which have fought three wars, agreed to try to eliminate military clashes on a Himalayan glacier in disputed Kashmir. The agreement came after months of often angry accusations by the two longtime rivals, creating fears in Washington and elsewhere that tension was getting worse. The major issue lately has been India’s accusation that Pakistan is making a nuclear bomb, which Pakistan denies.
[Ed: But of course, Pakistan is lying: They ARE making a nuclear weapon.]
The Assam People’s Council, a new party formed in northeastern India by native Assamese who want to expel more than 1 million illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, took a strong lead in Assam state elections over Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s Congress-I Party. The Congress Party has controlled the state government for all but two years since 1947. A student-led anti-immigration campaign in the state has stimulated ethnic violence that has taken more than 4,000 lives in six years.
The independent Chinese Catholic Church has restored a large 19th-century church in Peking, in time for use before Christmas, an Italian religious news agency said today. An Vatican radio expert on Catholiism in China said the church would probably be used by the Patriotic Catholic Association, the group that was created by the Chinese authorities in 1957 to supplant the Vatican as the controlling body. The religious news agency, Agenzia di Informazioni Missionarie, which is operated by missionary orders, identified the Peking church as the Church of the Savior, a large building built in 1887, and said that Catholics had collected money to install an organ.
A former vice president and a retired chief justice told the Philippine Supreme Court that it should allow a special presidential election, even if it is unconstitutional, or the nation might be “plunged into (political) chaos.” The court was hearing a dozen challenges to the constitutionality of the snap election that President Ferdinand E. Marcos has called for February 7, a year ahead of schedule.
The New Zealand police indicated today that they might issue further warrants for the arrest of French secret agents purportedly involved in sinking the Greenpeace protest flagship Rainbow Warrior. Allan Galbraith, who heads New Zealand’s police investigation of the bombing, said in a television interview that further warrants were “possible, maybe even probable.” Mr. Galbraith, who has previously refused to discuss the case, would not be specific about the possible charges or who would be named. Paris has admitted it ordered agents to sink the vessel in Auckland in July as it prepared to head for France’s South Pacific nuclear testing site.
Just five years ago, Francisco Villagran Kramer resigned his post as Vice President of Guatemala and fled the country. “Death or exile is the fate of those who fight for justice in Guatemala,” he said at the time. Today, Mr. Villagran’s apartment in the capital is a gathering place for young activists eager to discuss what the future holds for Guatemalan democracy. He himself is said to be a possible candidate to head the Supreme Court. The military has run Guatemala for more than 30 years, and during that period Guatemalans have suffered some of the harshest repression in Latin America. Tens of thousands of people, many of them Indians descended from Mayan tribes, have died violently. During some periods, street-corner killings of students, businessmen, political organizers, university professors and trade unionists were common.
Guatemala wants U.S. backing for democratic development, but has no immediate desire for military aid, the President-elect, Marco Vinicio Cerezo Arevalo said as he began a visit to Washington for talks with Administration officials.
Cheering Nicaraguans gave a warm welcome to an International March for Peace caravan entering Nicaragua after being expelled under armed guard from Costa Rica. About 1,000 students and workers greeted the 217 marchers as they crossed the border, and a rally was held at the border checkpoint at Sapoa, 78 miles south of Managua. The marchers were criticized in Costa Rica, which accused them of being manipulated by Communist groups.
The U.N. General Assembly, in a 91-6 vote, passed a resolution urging the United States to lift its trade embargo against Nicaragua. The resolution said the embargo, imposed last May, “adversely affects” Nicaragua’s economy and hampers its development. U.S. Ambassador Vernon A. Walters told the assembly that the embargo was imposed in retaliation for Nicaragua’s “aggression against its neighbors.” Voting with the United States against the measure were Gambia, Grenada, Israel, Sierra Leone and St. Christopher and Nevis.
The authorities said today that they had found more bodies buried in mass graves in a southern area where guerrillas are active, bringing to at least 64 the total number of bodies exhumed in less than a week. Victor Gomez, governor of the Cauca district, said the new graves were found Monday near Tacueyo, a town 217 miles southwest of Bogota. Military sources say the rebels usually bury the bodies of their comrades in mass graves to conceal their losses.
The Ugandan military Government and rebel leaders signed a peace accord today in a festive ceremony, but there was little confidence that stability would return quickly to their troubled country. Loud cheers broke out as the Ugandan head of state, General Tito Okello; the rebel leader, Yoweri Museveni, and President Daniel arap Moi of Kenya, signed the agreement at a ceremony attended by hundreds of Ugandan and Kenyan officials and foreign diplomats. The atmosphere in the Kenyatta International Conference Center was heightened by three choirs singing patriotic and religious songs. But the three signers, all wearing dark civilian suits, looked solemn and impassive for most of the ceremony.
The International Press Institute criticized South Africa for its press restrictions and also condemned calls by world leaders to curb media coverage of terrorism and violent protests. “Perhaps (leaders) fail to see that terrorists and rioters have the same goal-to be heard,” the group said in its annual review of press freedom in 65 countries. It said the real reasons behind calls for news restrictions “are to cover the fact that the governments can’t cope with their problems-be they Cape riots or the sticky legacy of Northern Ireland. Censorship is a handy tool.”
The South African police today reported the arrest of two television journalists under the internal security laws. The journalists — Roger Lucey, 31 years old, and his brother, Patrick Lucey, 28 — are South Africans working for the London-based World-Wide Television News. A spokesman for the news organization said here today that the crew had gone to film the aftermath of unrest that erupted Monday in Moutse, east of Pretoria. While conducting an interview, they heard shots, saw a confrontation and started filming. The police arrived and arrested them.
The House passed tax legislation that would make the most extensive changes in the Federal income tax system in more than 40 years. Although the measure differs in many important respects from President Reagan’s proposals, passage of the bill by the Democratic-controlled House was a significant victory for Mr. Reagan. The measure now goes to the Senate. The key vote came on a motion to the bill back to the Ways and Means Committee, a parliamentary way of killing the legislation. This motion was defeated, 256 to 171, with 207 Democrats and 49 Republicans voting to keep the measure alive and 39 Democrats and 132 Republicans voting to kill it.
President Reagan attends a farewell reception for departing Assistant for National Security Affairs Robert McFarlane.
President Reagan meets with Congressmen to discuss tax reform.
Major cutbacks for Federal agencies are proposed in President Reagan’s draft budget for 1987 The budget would end Federal support for the agricultural Extension Service, slash spending for the Tennessee Valley Authority, reduce the staff of the Social Security Administration and abolish the Interstate Commerce Commission, the oldest Federal regulatory agency. The 1987 plan includes $50 billion in spending cuts and fee increases to reduce the 1987 deficit to $144 billion.
A stopgap funding bill passed the House and Senate, averting a partial shutdown of the government today. The funding extension through Thursday will give House and Senate conferees time to try o reach a new agreement on a catchall appropriations bill for the rest of fiscal year 1986.
The space agency postponed the launching of the shuttle Columbia by 24 hours because tired workers had fallen behind in their countdown tasks. “Essentially, there were too many tasks to complete and too little time to complete them,” said George Diller, a spokesman for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. “We felt it was more prudent to delay than to take a chance on making a mistake.” The launch was rescheduled for 4 AM PST Thursday at the Kennedy Space Center with Columbia carrying a crew of seven that includes a Florida congressman and the first Latino-American astronaut.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee M. Thomas said the agency is hamstrung by “deadline gridlock” — a profusion of cleanup deadlines set by courts and Congress that cannot all be met. Thomas, speaking to an industry-labor group in Washington, said his agency faces so many deadlines that EPA officials working with limited resources have been forced to pick what schedules they will try to satisfy. Thomas said: “You can’t meet all the deadlines,” but he did not specify what deadlines EPA would not meet.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee voted 21 to 2 to issue contempt of Congress citations against two New York City brothers who have refused to provide information about the purported U.S. investments of Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos. A subcommittee has been investigating the U.S. investments of Marcos and his wife, Imelda. That panel voted 6 to 3 last week to issue the citations. If the full House upholds the committee decision, Joseph and Ralph Bernstein would each face up to a year in jail and a fine of $1,000.
The Arrow charter jet crash inquiry will not be joined by the Defense Department, a senior Air Force general said. He said the Pentagon was “not technically responsible” for the chartering, safety or operation of the Arrow plane in which 248 American soldiers died in a crash last week. He said the multinational force office in Rome was responsible for chartering the plane.
James L. Buckley was confirmed by the Senate to be a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia over the objections of the two Senators from Connecticut, his home state. The nomination of Mr. Buckley, a conservative Republican and former Senator from New York, was confirmed in a vote of 84 to 11.
John Gotti, a fastidious, well-groomed 45-year-old resident of Queens, is believed by law-enforcement officials to be a central figure in an internal fight for leadership of the Gambino crime family. The power struggle erupted in violence on Monday with the execution of Paul Castellano, the reputed leader of the Gambino family, and his close associate, Thomas Bilotti. The Gambino ring, one of five such families based in New York, is the nation’s largest and most powerful crime organization. According to Lieutenant Remo Franceschini, commanding officer of the Queens District Attorney’s Squad and a former member of the Police Department’s intelligence division, the struggle pits members of the Dellacroce wing of the Gambino family against those in the Castellano wing.
The slaying of Paul Castellano, reputed head of the Gambino organized-crime group, was apparently sanctioned by the heads of the city’s other crime groups, New York State’s top expert on organized crime said. Ronald Goldstock, director of the state’s Organized Crime Task Force, said the other crime leaders were believed to have approved his murder because his legal and internal problems as head of the Gambino group were endangering them.
Two Ku Klux Klan leaders and four other persons pleaded guilty in Statesville, North Carolina, to federal civil rights charges in a series of cross-burnings designed to harass blacks and whites who associate with blacks. The pleas came just before the scheduled start of a trial of four of the defendants. The two other defendants had already agreed to plead guilty and testify for the prosecution at the trial.
Farmers demanding a moratorium on foreclosures stormed a farm credit office in Mankato, Minnesota, and kept it chained shut for six hours, but they agreed to leave with a promise that Governor Rudy Perpich would sit down and discuss their problems. About 12 farmers from the group Groundswell seized the Production Credit Association office when it opened for business and chained the doors to highlight their credit concerns.
Prosecutors in Governor Edwin W. Edwards’ racketeering trial in New Orleans asked the judge to provide grand jury and trial testimony of all defendants to the jurors, who reported that they remained deadlocked. “They should not have to rely on their recollection of what was said and what was not said,” argued U.S. Attorney John Volz, who pointed out that the trial had lasted almost 13 weeks. Defense attorneys objected to the motion. U.S. District Judge Marcel Livaudais said he would rule today. William Jeffress, arguing for the defense, objected to jurors getting transcripts.
The state of California reversed itself today and granted a new parole hearing to Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, who assassinated Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York in 1968. The 41-year-old assassin was rejected for release from prison for the seventh time last June in a hearing at the California Training Facility at Soledad. Gilbert Saucedo, executive officer of the Board of Prison Terms, said the board decided that hearing officers had failed to follow appropriate guidelines in denying parole and scheduling the next hearing for two years later. Mr. Sirhan shot Mr. Kennedy at a Los Angeles hotel on June 5, 1968, after the Senator’s victory in the California Democratic Presidential primary. Mr. Kennedy died the next day. Mr. Sirhan was convicted in 1969 and given a death sentence, but the sentence was reduced in 1972 to life in prison.
As many as 80 inmates demanding better living conditions took control of two wings of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, stabbing three guards and seizing seven others as hostages, authorities said. Dozens of state troopers were sent to the maximum-security prison in McAlester, Oklahoma, to try to regain control of the facility, where about 150 convicts were outside their cells. Hostage negotiators were in the two units and talking to the inmates, said Dan Reynolds, an administrative assistant to the warden.
Six of 10 defendants in the trial for the murder of a mother of six face up to life in prison after being convicted of savagely beating her in an alley while a crowd watched. After six and a half days of deliberations, the jury also acquitted two defendants Monday, then recessed without reaching a verdict on the remaining two defendants.
The National Labor Relations Board has “indefinitely postponed” a union representation vote scheduled for Thursday at an Ohio Honda motors plant after the United Automobile Workers formally charged the company with an unfair labor practice. The complaint, filed December 13 with the labor board’s regional office in Cleveland, accuses Honda of illegally interrogating workers about their attitudes toward unions, allowing antiunion material to be distributed on company time and granting increased holiday and vacation benefits in the midst of the organizing drive in order to discourage union activity. Honda officials at the plant in Marysville, Ohio, angrily denied the charges.
Five young men — three burglars, an arsonist and a car thief — arrived at the Dodge Correctional Institute two hours southeast of here by car last month with long hair, designer jeans, tattoos and an attitude of independent swagger. In short order, the swagger was gone. Their hair was shorn to a nub. Their clothes, jewelry and cigarette lighters disappeared into gray plastic bags. Stripped, showered and deloused, they were ordered into the baggy, impersonal uniforms of prison and formed a line in front of Lieut. James Combs, a former Army drill instructor at Fort Jackson, S.C. “Hold your head up!” he barked. “Make believe you are somebody!” That was their welcome to a Georgia program meant to give young criminals a tough 90-day experience of prison life that they will never wish to repeat. Housed in an isolated part of the Dodge Correctional Institute, the program, which the state describes as “shock incarceration,” gives state judges an alternative to sentencing young convicts to longer terms among hardened inmates in regular prisons. It is one of a number of new measures being taken across the South to keep criminals out of overcrowded and increasingly expensive prisons.
A faulty weld on a main pulley caused a ski lift accident at the Keystone resort in Colorado that injured 49 people, but the flaw might not have been detectable even with the most sensitive equipment, a state engineer said today. The weld connecting the pulley to the main driveshaft broke Saturday on the Teller chairlift on Keystone’s North Peak.
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service today proposed that the last six North American condors remaining in the wild be captured immediately and placed in zoos. “We came to this conclusion with great reluctance,” said Jan Riffe, director of research for the wildlife service. The wildlife service operates a condor recovery program in concert with the California Fish and Game Commission, the Audubon Society and other interested parties.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1544.50 (-8.60)
Born:
Fernando Abad, Dominican MLB pitcher (Houston Astros, Washington Nationals, Oakland A’s, Minnesota Twins, Boston Red Sox, San Francisco Giants, Baltimore Orioles, Colorado Rockies) in La Romana, Dominican Republic.
Seth Olsen, NFL guard (Denver Broncos, Indianapolis Colts), in Omaha, Nebraska.
History Diaries 