{ title: 'Press-Republican. (Plattsburgh, N.Y.) 1966-current, December 22, 1983, Page 1, Image 1', download_links: [ { link: 'http://www.loc.gov/rss/ndnp/ndnp.xml', label: 'application/rss+xml', meta: 'News about NYS Historic Newspapers - RSS Feed', }, { link: '/lccn/sn88074101/1983-12-22/ed-1/seq-1/png/', label: 'image/png', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn88074101/1983-12-22/ed-1/seq-1.pdf', label: 'application/pdf', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn88074101/1983-12-22/ed-1/seq-1/ocr.xml', label: 'application/xml', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn88074101/1983-12-22/ed-1/seq-1/ocr.txt', label: 'text/plain', meta: '', }, ] }
Image provided by: Northern NY Library Network
Unemployment an '84 worry, Kirkland says —Page tO 1^7 ^•••••••••••••i 'Scarf ace' has a lesson, actor says 1 1 -Page 28 •pel M ^•••••••IHMIIIBMBBH ^•IH^MHHHBHi Judges uphold suspension of Jacinto Vasquez —Page 22 j Press-Republican The Hometown Newspaper of ^H Clinton, Essex Franklin Counties Vol. 90-No. 103 £ Copyright 1983, The Press-Republican Plattsburgh, N.Y., 12901, Thursday Morning, December 22,1983 Suggested Price: 30c 34 Pages Arafat in Egypt; meeting set ByHANZADAFIKRY PORT SAID, Egypt (UPI) - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat arrived in Egypt aboard a Greek vessel Wednesday and Egyptian of- ficials set a meeting with him to end Cairo's six-year rift with the Palestine Liberation Organization, A spokesman for the Suez Canal authority said the Greek ship Odysseas Elytis would join a south- bound convoy through the canal, reaching Ismailia early Thursday where a high-level Egyptian delega- tion will meet Arafat. Arafat's ship, evacuating his besieged guerrilla forces from Tripoli, Lebanon, was carrying his supporters to Yemen and Marxist South Yemen.- Government official said the Egyptian delegation will be led by Prime Minister Fuad Mohieddin and include Butros Ghali, state minister for Foreign Affairs. The newspaper Al Ahram said in Thursday's editions the delegation will convey President Hosni Mubarak's greetings to Arafat. It called the PLO chairman \the symbol of Palestinian struggle and the legitimate Palestinian leader- ship whom Egypt supports in the struggle to regain the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.\ Another newspaper, Al Gomhouria, said the meeting will take place aboard the yacht \Al Quds,\ which means Jerusalem in Arabic, on Lake Timsah near Ismailia. The yacht is the property of the canal authority. It was not known immediately if the delegation would accompany Arafat back to Cairo for a meeting with Mubarak. «~JiarlieiU- Mubarak told reporters, in Cairo the PLO chief wouldHbe welcomed if he decides to come to Cairo. \If he intends to come here, I am going to meet him. Whenever he decides to come, we will welcome him.\ A meeting with Mubarak would be the first between the PLO chief and an Egyptian leader since President Anwar Saitet went to Jerusalem in 1977 to strike a separate peace ac- cord with Israel. Top PLO officials began arriving in Tunis for central committe and executive committee meetings to discuss strategy following Arafat's forced evacuation from Tripoli Tuesday aboard five Greek ships, escorted by French warships. The evacuation marked the se- cond time Arafat has been ousted from the Lebanon — first by in- vading Israeli troops that besieged the PLO in Beirut in Aug. 1982 and now by Syrianbacked rebels seeking Arafat's ouster as the 12-year leader of the PLO. \(Syrian) President Hafez Assad shall be disgraced in history for this exodus,\ Khalil Wazzir, Arafat's military commander also known as Abu Jihad, said in a statement car- ried by the Palestinian news agency WAFA. \Assad had hoped to obtain the Palestinian card, but the Palesti- nian people shall never allow anyone to have it/' he said. The guerrillas' arrival in Cyprus aboard three of the Greek ships con- trasted sharply to their disem- barkation in the summer of 1982 when the fighters fleeing Beirut ar- rived singing songs and carrying their hand grenades, pistols, rifles, bazookas and machine guns. The 396 fighters who landed in Larnaca were unshaven and wear- ing a medley of hats ranging from kafiyeh, the traditional Palestinian checkered cloth .headdress, to cowboy hats. They walked quietly to buses wTiic1T1Sn)ve uhdeFTft&vy police escort to Larnaca airport, where most immediately boarded planes for Baghdad, Iraq. The remainder awaited flights to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. More fatal bombings in Beirut By STEVE HAGEY BEIRUT, Lebanon (UPI) - A truck bomb blew^up near a French military base and another bomb ex- ploded in a bar during cocktail hour Wednesday, killing at least 10 peo- ple, including a French soldier, and wounding 23 others, Beirut radio said. The twin bombings came just two hours after a sniper wounded a U.S. Air Force enlisted man near the bombed remains of the U.S. em- bassy TiTa day of violence that in- cluded an Israeli bombardment in eastern Lebanon and new fighting in the Shouf mountains near Beirut. State-run Beirut radio said the truck-bomb explosion killed nine people and wounded at least 19 others. The radio said one person was killed and at least four wounded in the blast at the Marble Tower hotel. A previously unknown organiza- tion calling itself the \Black Palm\ claimed responsibility for both Beirut bomb attacks in a telephone call to the rightist Voice of Lebanon radio. The attacks came on a day of violence in which a U.S. Air Force enlisted man was wounded by a sniper. Israeli warplanes bombed guerrilla bases in eastern Lebanon and fighting erupted in the moun- tains overlooking the capital. The truck bomb exploded at nightfair on a road behind the French base near the Museum Crossing at the Green Line dividing Christian east Beirut and the Moslem western half of the city. The expiosion leveled two three- story buildings across the street from the French base, badly damaged another building and a French outpost. One of the destroyed buildings housed offices of the rightist Christian Phalange party. Bingo! They're game for changes More than 100 Plattsburgh area senior citizens gathered at the D'Youville Senior Center Wednesday to * lobby state Sen. Ronald B. Stafford and state Assemblyman Andrew W. Ryan Jr. (at table) for changes in the state's bingo rules. The petitioners want to raise the limits seniors can now win at private bingo games. (PR Staff Photo By Steve Frazier) Inflation called under control By DENIS G.GULINO WASHINGTON (UPI) - The strongest phase of the economic recovery is over, but consumer price inflation is still under firm control as gasoline, meat, fruit and vegetables got cheaper in November, the government reported Wednesday. The Commerce Department's preliminary \flash\ projection of JiS^^aaMmiS^ro^th. showed a marked slowdown to a 4.5 percent annual expansion of the gross national pro- duct in the current quarter. Treasury Secretary Donald Regan and the rest of the administration had hoped for a $ percent to 7 percent growth rate, and officials waited until Wednesday to make final the ad- ministration's economic assumptions underlying deficit and spending policy for future years. Most private economists, although also hop* ing for better news this quarter, considered such a slowdown inevitable. One possible advantage of seeing the rapid improvement fade, Regan told reporters, is that interest rates finally may fall early next year. The November Consumer Price Index, reieased Wednesday by the Labor Depart- ment, performed in exactly the moderate fashion that was expected. It-climbed only 0.3 percent and kept the entire year's rate of in- flation at 3.8 percent with no surprises an- ticipated when December's report is issued. Gasoline prices dropped 0.8 percent in November, a 1.5-cent price break at the pump for the average gallon. ~HFooOncH7iffemfling remain am mcaisr edged up a scant 0.1 percent, much less than October's 0.5 percent climb. When groceries eaten at home were measured alone, they declined 0.1 percent in price. Fruits and vegetables, no longer in short supply because of summer drought damage, fell 1 percent in cost. Meats, benefitting from continuing heavy cattle slaughters, were off 0.2 percent. - In a separate report Wednesday the Labor Department said the spending power of the average blue-collar American worker drop- ped 0.6 percent in November, only the fourth monthly setback this year. Workers were employed 0.3 percent fewer hours and made 0.1 percent less an hour dur- ing the month, the department said. Although seemingly comparable to last year's inflation rate of 3.9 percent analysts. say this year's rate is actually a big improve- ment, perhaps 1 full percentage point better. The reason is that government statisticians changed the way they measure consumer in- flation in January, substituting rents for the costs of owning a house. The new combination of slower growth and iow inflation could mean unemployment will improve more slowly, in the view of some analysts. But, Regan told reporters Wednesday it also could mean interest rates go down soon. \Interest rates should move down further,\ he said. \We are not overheating (the economy) as many had feared. We have eliminated, I would think, most of the danger of boom and bust on this recovery cycle.\ The GNP projection, made four times a year, is based on partial data and estimates and will be revised on the basis of all the fourth quarter's performance in January. The previous quarter expanded at a strong 7.7 percent annual rate, following the second quarter's peak growth at a 9.7 percent pace. 4 'detained' in British bombing; no suspects By CATHY BOOTH LONDON (UPI) - Scotland Yard detained four people Wednesday in the hunt for the Irish nationalist ter- rorists who set last weekend's Har- rods department store blast that killed five people on a crowded Loo- don street Officials of the British govern- ment's Northern Ireland office, meanwhile, severed ties with Sinn Fein, the legal political wing of the Good Morning Weather Winter storm watch today and tonight Snow possibly heavy at times probably mix- ing with freezing ram Lotteries The daily number dra^n Wednesday in the New York State tottery was 45* The numbers drawr. Wednesday xn the New York Sure .ono game were 42-2M&4-IM4 the supplementary amber was 5 Business News 6 7 Classified 2&-31 Comics T Date Calendar § Deaths Public Record 12.13 Editorial 4 Entertainment 26 2! Horoscope 2€ Ann Landers r Lively Arts §.§ Sports 1W2 24 Weather 14 • Budweiser charged with ballpark monopoly — Page ? • Johnny Cash taking treat- men: to avoid drug dependence — Page 32 • Plattsburgh High jpsets Peru spikers — Page 15 • Crown Point. Keene Valley m tourney final — Page It • Buffaio gets Empire State Games —Page 21 IRA, because it refused to condemn the bombing. Special Branch officers and anti- terrorist unit detectives raided homes across London in the morn- ing hours to detain the four suspecu. described as IRA sym- pathizers. American bishop killed MANAGUA. Nicaragua (UPI) - Anti-Sandinista rebels killed Americaa-bora bishop Salvador Schlaefer Wednesday during an escape attempt, the Nicaragnan government announced. \We have information that in- dicates Bishop Salvador Schlaefer was assassinated today by counter- revolutionary forces when he of- fered resistance/' said the an- nouncement which was broadcast on aatioaal radio and television. But authorities indicated they were not believed to be directly in- volved in the Saturday car bombing that killed five people and wcmnded §5 others. The IRA claimed responsibility for the bombing. The four, whom police refused to identify, were held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. which gives British police the right to search, arrest and detain suspected terrorists. The raids came a day after police traced the car in which the ex- plosives were packed to a buyer they believe was connected to the IRA bomb team. Russian roulette in Florida | ft G i a a—a—H L^3BJTS^ fllWlWilMll i TITUSVILLE, Fla. (UPI) - Hal Peterson is fed up^with thieves stripping cars at his auto repair shop and has posted a sign warning: 'This place is guarded by a shotgun three nights a week. You guess what three nights.\ The warning apparently works. Since posting the warning three weeks ago. Peterson said there have been no thefts at his Quali- ty Auto Repair shop Peterson bought the shop in September and said spare tires, batteries, radiators and accessories were routinely stolen from cars waning tc be ser- viced. \The police can't do much about it. It gets pretty frustrating after a while, \he said Tuesday. Peterson said he is not kidding about the sign Either he or mechanic PaulT>oyoc will be at the shop — armed — on certain nights Tm dead serious about it I'm not going to have ooe more thing stolen from here. I can\t afford it and I don t need to hassle