News stories from Sunday January 20, 1974

Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:

On the Suez-Cairo road, Israeli chief of staff David Elazar and Egyptian chief of staff Mohammed Gamasy met to work out the technicalities of troop withdrawal plans. The Geneva peace talks have been suspended until the disengagement plans are finalized. [NBC] Secretary of State Henry Kissinger returned to Washington after meeting with Syrian President Assad. Assad reportedly has softened his position about releasing the names of Israeli POWs who have been captured by Syria. [NBC] The Iraqi news agency reported that Arab oil-producing countries will soon lift the embargo of oil shipments to the United States. Normal production will be resumed because of the Egypt-Israeli disengagement agreement. [NBC] Senate Republican leader Hugh Scott advised President Nixon to tell the American people everything about Watergate. Scott allegedly has information that would clear the President. [NBC] Scott said that he had information that would clear President Nixon of wrongdoing in some aspects of the Watergate scandals, but declined to say what the information was. During a televised interview, he said "I have some information which is not yet public, which is enormously frustrating to me, because it seems to me to exculpate the President, but I cannot break through the shell down there of all of his advisers, who feel differently about it, who feel that the President no longer needs to make some of these replies." "I think it would help if he did," Senator Scott said. [New York Times] The 93rd Congress will begin its second session tomorrow beset by two problems left over from its last one -- the possible impeachment of President Nixon and the energy shortage. In sharp contrast to a year ago when the Democratic-controlled Congress convened after Mr. Nixon's landslide re-election victory, Senators and Representatives will be returning after a month's vacation with the President seriously weakened politically by the Watergate scandals and facing an impeachment inquiry. [New York Times] For months now, in a tantalizing sidelight to the Watergate inquiry, investigators have been trying to learn more about reported relationships between gambling interests in the Bahamas and the bank in Key Biscayne, Fla., owned by President Nixon's close friend Charles G. "Bebe" Rebozo. At least one investigator has been looking into the possibility that the bank may have served as a way-station for funds "skimmed" from the gambling tables in the Bahamas and, after an interval, funneled into the 1972 Republican presidential campaign. [New York Times] The military reserves could be trimmed by about 300,000 men and still meet essential military commitments, according to a study by the Brookings Institution. In urging a one-third reduction of the present force of 900,000 paid reservists, the study estimates that a streamlining of the military reserves could reduce defense spending by $1.4 billion a year. [New York Times] In a final, devastating attack with MiG's and ground troops, the Chinese apparently wrested complete control of the disputed Paracel Islands from a small and lightly armed South Vietnamese force, according to reports from the Saigon command. [New York Times] The five members of the Soviet Embassy in Peking who were expelled from China yesterday on charges of spying had been held incommunicado for four days, according to Soviet sources in Peking. The sources said that two Soviet diplomats and their wives had gone out shopping last Tuesday and were arrested after dining at a hotel. An interpreter who was sent to assist them was also held with them until Saturday, according to the Soviet account. [New York Times]