Washington is encouraged by the broad arms proposal offered Wednesday by Mikhail S. Gorbachev, according to President Reagan. He called the plan “different from the things we have heard in the past” from Soviet leaders. “It’s just about the first time that anyone has ever proposed actually eliminating nuclear weapons,” Mr. Reagan said, responding to questions at a civil rights ceremony in the Cabinet Room. His comments came as American and Soviet negotiators resumed arms talks in Geneva, where the Russians formally introduced Mr. Gorbachev’s proposal. It was announced Wednesday on Soviet television and by the official press agency Tass. The session today in Geneva marked the first time that the two sides had met since the conference between Mr. Reagan and Mr. Gorbachev there in November. It was the fourth round of talks since the latest phase of arms negotiations began last March 12. Mr. Gorbachev’s offer called for a timetable to eliminate all nuclear weapons within 15 years. The Soviet leader insisted, however, that the scrapping of nuclear weapons could start only if the United States renounces the testing and deployment of space-based defenses, popularly known as “Star Wars.” “We’re very grateful for the offer,” Mr. Reagan said this morning. “We’re studying it with great care, and it is going to depend now on what takes place in Geneva.”
With the latest nuclear arms proposal by Mikhail S. Gorbachev, Moscow has seemingly reversed itself and opened the door to permitting research on space-based defenses and to eliminating its SS-20 medium-range missiles and all other nuclear weapons in Europe. According to some Administration officials, these are the two principal and possibly promising features of the Gorbachev plan announced Wednesday. But the plan continues to call for cuts in all offensive nuclear forces while banning defenses, which means it remains at fundamental odds with the Reagan approach, which is built around the introduction of defenses as most offensive forces are destroyed. But fundamental issues aside, Administration officials maintain that the Gorbachev proposal is an innovative package of tantalizing and often ambiguous proposals for complete nuclear disarmament by 2000. As such, they say, it serves notice on President Reagan that more pressure and hard bargaining are to come.
Dissension is continuing within the Reagan Administration over how to respond to what some officials have charged are Soviet arms-control violations, according to Administration officials. The continuing disagreements were reported as Administration officials said the State Department had completed a set of confidential proposals for consideration by President Reagan. The State Department proposals were described as consistent with the 1979 treaty on limiting strategic arms, which the United States has signed but not ratified. They contrast sharply with proposals by Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger that run counter to provisions of the treaty.
Vladimir Horowitz has changed his mind about visiting his homeland. The famed Russian pianist, who left the Soviet Union 61 years ago swearing never to return, announced he would play two recitals there this spring — on April 20 in Moscow and a week later in Leningrad. The announcement is the most important to date of the American-Soviet cultural exchange agreement reached at the Geneva summit.
The Polish police detained two senior Solidarity activists today, preventing them from holding a news conference on behalf of political prisoners that was scheduled to coincide with the start of a conference of intellectuals. The news conference, which was held in the apartment of Jacek Kuron, a leader of the Polish opposition, was to have been addressed by Mr. Kuron, who was one of those held. Solidarity sources said Janusz Onyszkiewicz, another activist, was also taken for questioning and both men were later released.
Britain has drawn up plans to cut defense spending in real terms (after adjustment for inflation) by almost 7% over the next three years, the treasury announced. The proposal is part of a plan, which must be approved by Parliament, for the first such cut in public spending since Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government took power in 1979. It will also be the first time that Britain does not fulfill an undertaking to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to boost defense spending by 3% a year in real terms. In cash terms, defense spending will increase to $27.3 billion from $26.2 billion but will not keep up with inflation.
The British Foreign Secretary, Sir Geoffrey Howe, told a high-ranking American official today that Britain will continue to urge the European allies to isolate Libya diplomatically and militarily. But he refused again to join the United States in economic sanctions, which the British regard as counterproductive. London was the second stop in a nine-nation tour in which Deputy Secretary of State John C. Whitehead hopes to persuade the European allies to join the United States in economic sanctions against Libya, a step the allies have refused to take. In Washington, Secretary of State George P. Shultz said that one of the objectives of Mr. Whitehead’s trip “is to raise the consciousness of people throughout Europe and European Governments with whom he will meet about what is really going on.”
Louis Farrakhan, the outspoken American Black Muslim leader, has been barred from entering Britain because of his anti-Semitic remarks, Home Secretary Douglas Hurd told the House of Commons. Farrakhan, leader of the Chicago-based organization Nation of Islam, had been invited to visit next month by the Hackney Black People’s Association, a north London group. Farrakhan caused a furor in the United States during the 1984 presidential election when he was quoted as having called Hitler a “great man” and describing Judaism as a “gutter religion.”
France’s right-wing opposition parties pledged to relax state controls over the French economy and de-nationalize large sectors of industry if they regain power from the Socialists in legislative elections in March. The most far-reaching proposals include the return to private ownership of leading state-owned banks, insurance and industrial companies; abolition of exchange and price controls, and a virtual end of public broadcasting. Opinion polls suggest that the neo-Gaullist Rally for the Republic and the center-right Union for French Democracy are likely to win a comfortable majority in the National Assembly.
Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, who returned today from an official visit to Yugoslavia, said in a speech in Belgrade Wednesday night that a distinction must be made between terrorism and actions of liberation movements. “We condemn terrorism as a nonpolitical and uncivilized action,” Mr. Papandreou said in a toast at a dinner given by the Yugoslav Prime Minister, Milka Planinc.
Anger among American women attending the International PEN Congress boiled over when a women’s caucus criticized “the underrepresentation of women.” The women drew up a formal protest they have demanded to read today before an afternoon plenary session.
Spain is about to establish formal diplomatic relations with Israel, according to Spanish and Israeli officials. A joint announcement could come Friday after a meeting of the Spanish Cabinet or soon afterward, the officials said. The only unresolved matter is how to coordinate the announcement, they added.
For the last week, the Soviet Union has stationed two destroyers and an intelligence-gathering ship off the Israeli coast, apparently to give Libya early warning of any possible Israeli air strike, Israeli military officials said today. Soviet surveillance aircraft, operating from bases in Libya, have also increased their monitoring of naval and air activities all across the Mediterranean, with particular emphasis on American activities, the officials said. In another development, a Kuwait Airways civilian jetliner that had taken off from Damascus, Syria, today accidentally strayed two miles into Israeli airspace over the Golan Heights, the Israeli Army spokesman announced.
Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Jews from Nazi concentration camps in World War II, became the first person today to receive honorary Israeli citizenship under a law to honor non-Jews. The Israeli Parliament enacted a bill last March to give honorary citizenship to non-Jews recognized as “righteous gentiles” by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial.
Israeli jets intercepted a Kuwaiti passenger plane that strayed over the strategic Golan Heights and escorted it out of Israeli-controlled airspace, the military said. An Israeli army statement said the Kuwaiti jet, traveling toward Kuwait from Damascus, Syria, with more than 100 people aboard, strayed about two miles into Israeli airspace due to a navigational error and weather conditions. The statement did not further identify the jet, presumably belonging to Kuwaiti Airlines.
Shultz-Weinberger discord continued on terrorism. Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger disagreed publicly again on using force against terrorist provocations in general and Libya in particular. The development came as Washington moved to deal with a new public threat from Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi, the Libyan leader. On Wednesday, Colonel Qaddafi vowed to help train Arabs for “suicide missions.” Mr. Shultz, urging firm action against the Qaddafi Government, said today that “when we identify the source” of terrorism, “such as Qaddafi, who is clearly identified, then we have to go after it.”
Muslim leftist militias moved against a Lebanese Christian alliance headed by President Amin Gemayel, raising fears in Beirut that the country was heading toward a resumption of full-scale civil war. On Wednesday, Mr. Gemayel’s forces crushed an opposition Christian militia in a battle that reportedly took 200 lives. Eleven Muslim militias and factions began advancing against Mr. Gemayel’s Christian militiamen a day after the President’s forces crushed the Lebanese Forces, headed by Elie Hobeika. The police said that 600 people had been wounded in addition to the 200 slain in the decisive 12-hour battle Wednesday. Mr. Hobeika was the only Christian leader to sign a Syrian-sponsored peace accord that was concluded in Damascus last month with the leaders of the Shiite movement Amal and the mostly Druze Progressive Socialist Party. President Gemayel and other Christian leaders opposed the pact as harmful to Christian interests, and differences over the issue are believed to have been a key factor in the fighting that erupted between them.
The Soviet Union was reported tonight to be seeking to play a mediator’s role in a violent power struggle in Southern Yemen, one of its closest allies in the Arab world. However, tribal uprisings in the countryside were said to be threatening to spread the battles. Fierce fighting continued for a fourth day in Aden, the capital, according to the fragmentary reports coming out of the country. Most of the communications were still cut, leaving Southern Yemen isolated. Merchant seamen in the harbor told their shipping agents of deafening blasts and balls of flame over the city, apparently from a burning ammunition dump. The battles pitted hardline Communists who are close to Moscow against the Government of President Ali Nasser Mohammed al-Hassani, which is avowedly Marxist but has lately been seeking reconciliation with Southern Yemen’s more conservative neighbors, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Yemen. Meeting Reported in Embassy A meeting was said to be under way tonight in the Soviet Embassy between President Hassani and rebel leaders in hopes of working out a deal. According to an unconfirmed report, those at the meeting included four rebel leaders whom the state radio had announced on Sunday had been executed for plotting to assassinate Mr. Hassani and stage a coup. As fighting continued, three senior Government officials from Southern Yemen arrived in Moscow today, presumably to discuss the fighting.
The trans-Siberian railway stopped operations for the first time in 15 years when a train carrying petroleum hit a log, derailed and exploded, the Soviet government newspaper Izvestia reported. It said the 53-car train derailed on a bridge in the Chita region of eastern Siberia, causing $1.1 million worth of damage to the train, the bridge and nearby power lines. The newspaper did not say if any passengers, crew or rescue workers were injured, or when the railway was shut down.
The Soviet Union and Japan ended two days of rare high-level talks today. The talks were intended to improve a relationship that has been troubled for most of the postwar era. The Foreign Ministers of the two countries, Eduard A. Shevardnadze of the Soviet Union and Shintaro Abe of Japan, met in Tokyo. It was the first such meeting in a decade, and the ministers found several areas of accord. They also talked optimistically about holding future talks. But most of agreements dealt with relatively minor issues, such as trade payments and the desirability of resuming scientific consultations that were broken off in 1979.
In what is shaping up as a major political test, El Salvador’s President Jose Napoleon Duarte is facing stiff opposition from all sides as he prepares to announce a series of sweeping economic measures that include devaluation and tax increases. Government officials say the measures will be announced before the end of the month. Meanwhile, they are leaking them to test public reaction. In interviews, a number of officials said the measures were crucial to Mr. Duarte’s political future and were designed to begin the long process of recovery after six years of precipitous economic decline and war. “This is a key moment for Duarte,” a Western diplomat said. “If he can get these measures through, he can set the foundation for the rest of his Government.” But it is obvious that the proposals, particularly devaluation, will confront Mr. Duarte with one of his toughest political challenges. The devaluation was planned and promoted by American economic advisers, who say it is necessary for economic recovery.
The Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry said at least two army officers were wounded and two helicopters were seriously damaged today in an artillery attack by anti-Sandinista rebels from inside neighboring Costa Rica.
The State Department criticized as “clearly inadequate” the security protection given to Senator Edward M. Kennedy during his visit to Chile, and said that demonstrators who heckled him represented a pro-government organization. Spokesman Bernard Kalb said Chilean authorities failed to clear demonstrators out of the road that the Massachusetts Democrat and his party intended to take after their airport arrival in Santiago on Wednesday. Kennedy, indicating that the protesters may have been hired by the government to embarrass him, called them a “rent-a-crowd.” Kennedy, a strong critic of the Chilean military government, later flew to Lima, Peru.
Faced with the politically explosive challenge of chopping as much as $60 billion out of next year’s budget, Congressional leaders are now advancing proposals that would radically alter the way Congress drafts the annual spending plan. Most of the proposals call for some form of “summit meeting” or “grand coalition” that would involve members from both parties and both chambers. Their task would be to bypass existing procedures and start outlining a deficit-reducing package soon after Congress reconvenes later this month. In effect, the budget exercise would start where it usually ends, with a House-Senate conference.
President Reagan participates in a kick-off ceremony for the Child Safety Partnership.
President Reagan and Vice President participate in a ceremony to present the Young American Medal.
President Reagan today issued a proclamation deploring what he called “the terrible toll” of abortion and reaffirming his commitment to “the sanctity of human life.” He proclaimed Sunday as National Sanctity of Human Life Day, and he noted that on January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court issued a ruling that guaranteed women access to abortion.
The space shuttle Columbia, which had trouble leaving the earth, was prevented by bad weather from getting back today, but the crew used the extra time to continue experiments, including one involving President Reagan’s proposed missile defense program. Officials of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration set a new attempt at a landing in Florida for Friday at 7:12 AM. The planned landing today had been scheduled for 8:28 AM, but was postponed as predawn rain clouds reduced visibility over the three-mile runway at the Kennedy Space Center. “We will wave off for 24 hours,” Mission Control in Houston told the astronauts about 15 minutes before they were to fire their retrorockets in preparation for the landing. “It looks like you’re going to get your five days.”
The cameras of the Voyager 2 spacecraft have detected six more small moons orbiting Uranus, doubling to 12 the number of satellites now known around the distant planet, space agency scientists reported yesterday. The discovery raised speculation that Uranus might well have as many as 30 moons, more than any of the other planets have. Saturn has at least 20. Scientists said they would not be surprised if Voyager 2, in its close encounter with Uranus next Friday, identified at least 18 even smaller satellites imbedded in the 9 known rings of dark particles circling the planet.
The Federal Election Commission, in a tough interpretation of federal campaign spending rules, signaled that it may clamp down in a vote next week on use of political action committee money by potential presidential candidates. Hopefuls “testing the waters” for a presidential race could not accept any money from such multi-candidate committees for travel or political activity related to their presidential aspirations, under a recommendation from the commission’s legal staff. The staff opinion also would restrict multi-candidate PAC spending for some state steering committees.
The American workplace, shaped by the attitudes of government and industry, has failed to adjust to dramatic changes in the American family, a panel of labor, corporate and academic leaders concluded in a study published today. “The majority of Americans are finding that their work and family lives increasingly come into conflict,” the panel found. It is a conflict that is difficult for the people and a drain on the nation’s resources, the panel said. The panel said that both government and corporations should adopt policies, including many already in force in Western Europe, to make it easier for employees to work and rear children both.
A justice upheld Bernhard H. Goetz in the shooting of four youths who asked him for money in a Manhattan subway train 13 months ago. The State Supreme Court justice, Stephen G. Crane, dismissed attempted murder and assault charges against Mr. Goetz, saying he was acting because of “prejudicial error” by a prosecutor who instructed the second grand jury in the case. Justice Crane said he would permit prosecutors to take the highly unusual step of impaneling a third grand jury to hear the celebrated case.
Desmond M. Tutu, the Anglican Bishop of Johannesburg who is a leader in the fight against South Africa’s policy of strict racial separation, met today with Roger B. Smith, chairman of the General Motors Corporation, and W. Michael Blumenthal, chairman of the Burroughs Corporation, for an hourlong “exchange of views.” The meeting was held just before Bishop Tutu addressed more than 2,000 business executives and civic leaders at the Economic Club, one of the nation’s most prominent business forums.
Steelworker union leaders approved a 1986 industry bargaining plan, saying the union would grant concessions only to companies that proved they were in dire condition and only if companies agreed to a reorganization that could include greater worker participation in corporate decisions. The union said it planned to bargain with the companies separately but simultaneously. The negotiations will be the first steel industry talks conducted with separate companies in three decades. In 1985 the major companies ended the industry-wide bargaining that had existed since 1956.
The parent union for meatpackers striking the Geo. A. Hormel & Co. in Austin, Minn., refused to give permission for picketing at the company’s other plants and told the Austin strike leaders that they are leading a “mass suicide.” “In the name of human compassion, I urge you to put a stop to the suffering P-9 members and their families have endured for five long months before it is too late,” said William Wynn, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers. About 1,500 P-9 members went on strike August 17 in a long-simmering dispute over wages and working conditions at the Austin plant. Hormel had cut wages by 23%, dropping base pay from $10.69 to $8.25 an hour. Hormel said the change was needed to stay competitive.
Two convicts surrendered their knives and freed three hostages unharmed, ending a 30-hour siege of a maximum-security prison’s mess hall in Ypsilanti, Michigan. The inmates released their captives after officials agreed to transfer the pair to a federal prison. Namon Travis asked for the transfer because he said he feared for his life. Elvis Williams gave no reason. Both men are convicted armed robbers.
Two Cubans were acquitted today of charges that they led a 1984 riot among hundreds of Cubans awaiting possible deportation at the Federal Penitentiary here. A Federal jury returned not guilty verdicts for Jose Hernandez Mesa, 34 years old, and his former brother-in-law, Leonel Hidalgo Diaz, 23. About 500 shouting, debris-throwing Cuban inmates chased guards out of the cellblock on the night of November 1, 1984. They burned mattresses, threw objects and threatened to kill guards, according to witnesses. The riot started after Mr. Hernandez was told he would be moved into segregation. Assistant United States Attorney William McKinnon argued that, while the conditions at the prison might explain why 500 people followed the defendants, those conditions did not excuse Mr. Hernandez and Mr. Hidalgo. The Atlanta penitentiary, which houses 1,800 Cubans, is the chief holding place for Cubans the Government wants to deport. They came to this country in 1980 and were detained because of crimes, mental problems and other factors.
Defense lawyers lost another attempt to convince the judge in the Tucson sanctuary movement trial to allow refugees to describe how they fled persecution and death in Central America. Lawyers for the 11 clergy and lay workers on trial had renewed their efforts, but U.S. District Judge Earl Carroll upheld his original October 28 order ruling out a defense based on humanitarian or religious reasons. The defense said that the jury needed to hear the refugees’ stories.
A federal jury in Kansas City, Missouri, began deliberating the case of five reputed organized-crime figures accused of skimming $2 million in untaxed gambling profits from two Las Vegas casinos. U.S. District Judge Joseph E. Stevens Jr., who began hearing the case September 23, sent it to jurors after reading them a list of 103 instructions. The panel deliberated an hour before retiring for the night. Earlier, the defense asked the jury to keep in mind reasonable doubt in their consideration of the case.
A bust of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was unveiled in the Capitol, near statues of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, as the nation continued its commemoration of the slain civil rights leader. “Today, Martin Luther King Jr. takes his rightful place among the heroes of this nation,” said Senator Charles McC. Mathias Jr., who presided over the unveiling, one of several events this week leading up to the first observance next Monday of the new national holiday honoring Dr. King. An estimated 1,000 guests, including members of Congress, veterans of the civil rights movement and numerous political leaders, crowded the rotunda as the bust was unveiled by Coretta Scott King, the widow of the civil rights leader.
Timothy E. Wirth, a Democrat who has been in the House for six terms, announced today that he would run for the Senate seat to be vacated by Gary Hart. The Congressman from Boulder is expected to be unopposed for the Democratic Senate nomination. Three Republicans have entered the race, Representative Ken Kramer of Colorado Springs, State senator Martha Ezzard of Cherry Hills Village and Terry Considine, a Denver business executive. Mr. Wirth, who has been expected to announce this plan ever since Senator Hart announced January 4 he would not run for re-election, said reduction of the Federal deficit was the No. 1 domestic priority.
The way the AIDS virus zeroes in on its target in the body’s immune system has been found, researchers reported, raising hope for ways to counter the deadly disease. The researchers said they had found how the AIDS virus was able to discriminate among many white blood cells and infect only the cells that coordinate the immune system.
The White House acknowledged today that it had raised the idea with the New York State Republican chairman of making a campaign issue of Governor Cuomo’s granting of clemency to a convicted murderer. The acknowledgment came amid allegations by the Governor that the Reagan Administration was involving itself in the matter, a move he called “distasteful” because he said clemency decisions should be made outside the political arena. “The White House reached out to a chairman of the Republican Party in this state and said, ‘Jump on this issue of life and death, jump on this issue of clemency, get in there and try to influence the Parole Board,’ ” the Governor said at a news conference in his Manhattan office.
Two businessmen presented the trustees of The St. Louis Globe-Democrat with a $500,000 check today, consummating the purchase of the 134-year-old newspaper that had been in bankruptcy proceedings. The two, John B. Prentis 3d and William E. Franke, formed the Veritas Corporation to acquire the newspaper, which suspended publication Dec. 6. They said the newspaper would resume publication January 27 under present plans. Jeffrey M. Gluck, the newspaper’s former owner, ceased publication after the Federal bankruptcy judge, David P. McDonald, announced he was appointing a trustee. He was a retired banker, Edwin S. Jones. The new owners said they would commit more than $4 million to operations of the newspaper.
The number of influenza cases in the United States is increasing, federal health officials said, with most states reporting a type of the respiratory disease that primarily attacks children. The national Centers for Disease Control said in Atlanta that through last Monday, 16 states reported flu activity. Twelve of those states listed cases caused by the B-type influenza virus, which has mostly struck children. Ten states had flu cases resulting from the same virus that was responsible for epidemics in the 1950s and 1960s.
First meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force.
The Minnesota Twins trade second baseman Tim Teufel and minor leaguer Pat Crosby to the Mets for minor leaguers Billy Beane, Bill Latham, and Joe Klink. They also trade catcher Dave Engle to the Tigers for infielder Chris Pittaro and minor leaguer Alex Sanchez.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1541.63 (+14.34)
Born:
Mason Gamble, American actor (“Dennis the Menace”), in Chicago, Illinois.
Mark Trumbo, MLB outfielder, first baseman, and designated hitter (All-Star, 2012, 2016; Los Angeles Angels, Arizona Diamondbacks, Seattle Mariners, Baltimore Orioles), in Anaheim, California.
Reid Brignac, MLB shortstop, second baseman, and third baseman (Tampa Bay Rays, Colorado Rockies, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, Miami Marlins, Atlanta Braves), in St. Amant, Louisiana.
Petteri Nokelainen, Finnish NHL centre (New York Islanders, Boston Bruins, Anaheim Ducks, Phoenix Coyotes, Montreal Canadiens), in Imatra, Finland.
Jordon Dizon, NFL linebacker (Detroit Lions), in Kauai, Hawaii.
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