News stories from Sunday January 31, 1982

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

A C.I.A. internal investigation into its possible links to two former agents who sold their services to Libya will be examined in closed hearings by the House Intelligence Committee to determine whether the agency made an adequate investigation, according to people familiar with the committee's work. The C.I.A. investigation, conducted in 1976 and 1977 to find whether any agency officials helped establish a terrorist training project in Libya, may have failed, these sources said, to examine all possible sources of information. [New York Times] A resolution adopted by Republicans in California moved a step closer to a recall drive against Chief Justice Rose Bird of the California Supreme Court. The resolution, adopted at the Republicans' convention in Monterey, was provoked by a state Supreme Court decision Thursday that cut the ground from under a successful Republican referendum drive. That sought to keep reapportionment plans for the districts for the legislature and House of Representatives from going into effect before the primary election June 8. The new district lines favor Democratic candidates. [New York Times] Poles fought with the police in Gdansk in violent clashes in which more than 200 people were arrested and 14 injured, the Warsaw radio said. The fighting broke out despite official appeals for calm on the eve of new food price increases. The governing military council ordered a stricter curfew in Gdansk aimed at clearing the streets from 10 P.M. to 5 A.M. It also suspended all public entertainment and sports and banned private cars from the roads. [New York Times] Teachers are being tested before being assigned classes in a growing number of states, in an effort to provide better teachers and counter increasing dissatisfaction with the nation's public schools. Eighteen states have proposed requirements for teaching-license applicants. [New York Times] Nineteen Salvadoran civilians were routed from their homes in a suburb of San Salvador by armed men in uniforms and shot to death, according to relatives who identified the assailants as government troops. The Salvadoran army, in an apparent reference to the same incident, characterized the slayings as part of an operation to clear out leftist guerrilla hideouts. [New York Times] $71 million in U.S.-guaranteed loans to Poland will be paid off by the administration without requiring the American banks that hold the loans to declare that Poland is in default. The decision would presumably also apply to $396.5 million of guaranteed debt that Poland owes by the end of the year. The money is part of a total of $1.6 billion in loans to Poland that the Agriculture Department made or guaranteed to finance grain exports. The decision to avoid a formal declaration of default was reached at inter-agency meetings of sub-cabinet officials in the last two weeks. [New York Times] U.S. military aid to Egypt and Israel would be increased by the Reagan administration. Congress will be asked to increase Egypt's allotment by $400 million and Israel's by $300 million in the next fiscal year, administration and diplomatic sources said. [New York Times] Troops from four European countries will participate in the Sinai peacekeeping force called for by the Camp David accords and the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty to insure the continued demilitarization of Sinai after Israel completes its withdrawal on April 25. A United Nations-sponsored peacekeeping force had been proposed, but this was blocked in the Security Council by the Soviet Union. The alternative of troops provided by Britain, France, Italy and the Netherlands was agreed to by the Israeli cabinet after weeks of argument. [New York Times] China is willing to discuss phasing out of American military aid to Taiwan with the United States. The official New China News Agency indicated that China might settle for a mutually agreed phasing out of weapons deliveries to Taiwan rather than an immediate end. The agency appeared to confirm reports that the Chinese in private discussions with American officials had proposed setting some kind of deadline. [New York Times]