Rejouer mardi 14 février 1984

PHANTOM NEWS CONFERENCE WHERE BURGER SETS THE TONE

Date: 15 February 1984

By David Margolick

David Margolick

A few days ago a group of reporters took part in a little-known ritual at the midyear meetings of the American Bar Association. For forty-five minutes or so they met with Chief Justice Warren E. Burger for a session that, officially at least, never took place. On the record, the Chief Justice's relationship with the press has always been frosty. In his address to the bar group this year, for instance, he said that while the legal profession ranked ''near the bottom of the barrel'' in public opinion polls, lawyers shared that lowly station with journalists.

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COMPANY NEWS;

Date: 14 February 1984

The Maine National Corporation, which owns the Maine National Bank, signed an agreement today to be acquired by the Bank of New England Corporation of Boston in a transaction valued at about $75 million. The agreement calls for the Bank of New England to exchange 1.4 million shares of its common stock and $32 million cash for all of the common stock of Maine National.

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Obligations for L & N Funding

Date: 15 February 1984

The First Boston Corporation priced $250 million in Governmnent National Mortgage Association collateralized mortgage obligations for the L & N Funding Corporation of Dallas yesterday, with yields ranging from 11.12 percent to 13.05 percent. The $68 million in the first class of bonds due in September 1990 were given an 11 percent coupon and priced at 99 24/32 to yield 11.12 percent.

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1984 International

Date: 15 February 1984

Druse militiamen won a major victory over Lebanese Army units in the mountains southeast of Beirut. After 18 hours of ground fighting, artillery duels and air strikes, the army's Fourth Brigade said it had been forced to abandon strategic positions along a ridge overlooking the capital. (Page A1, Column 6.) Syria is supplying the Druse militias in Lebanon with large amounts of ammunition and small arms, according to Walid Jumblat, the Druse leader. He said the aim of the weeklong supply operation was ultimately to bring about the resignation of President Amin Gemayel. (A10:1-2.)

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U.S. SAYS THE CHERNENKO SPEECH HINTS DOOR MAY BE OPEN TO TALKS

Date: 14 February 1984

By Bernard Gwertzman, Special To the New York Times

Bernard Gwertzman

The United States said today that it welcomed some apparently conciliatory comments in the speech by the new Soviet leader, Konstantin U. Chernenko. American officials said the comments suggested that the door might be open to reviving a dialogue. Senior Reagan Administration officials said Mr. Chernenko's speech, which he gave after being chosen as the new General Secretary of the Communist Party, broke no major new ground. But they said it appeared to respond indirectly to President Reagan's call for a new ''constructive dialogue.'' Late this afternoon, President Reagan arrived at the Soviet Embassy in Washington and signed the condolence book for Yuri V. Andropov that was opened to the public this morning. The White House said Mr. Reagan signed this message: ''Please accept my condolences on the death of Chairman Andropov and convey my sympathy to his family.''

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AIDE SAYS REAGAN SHIFTS ON SECRECY

Date: 15 February 1984

By Leslie Maitland Werner, Special To the New York Times

Leslie Werner

President Reagan has decided to suspend key provisions of a widely opposed national security order that would impose lifelong censorship on more than 128,000 Government officials and greatly expand the use of lie-detector tests, an Administration official said today. The official said that those features of the directive, issued by Mr. Reagan last March but sidetracked on Capitol Hill, would be withheld while the Administration tried to negotiate a compromise with Congress. ''The President has decided to suspend those parts of the directive that are controversial, and where there has been a lack of understanding by Congress,'' the official said. ''We are talking to Congress about ways that we could improve security without interfering with people's rights.''

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REAGAN SEES MIDEAST CHIEFS; AN 18-HOUR BATTLE

Date: 15 February 1984

By Alan Cowell, Special To the New York Times

Alan Cowell

Syrian-backed Druse militiamen inflicted a major defeat today on Lebanese Army units in the mountains southeast of Beirut. It was the second severe setback in eight days for the army, the barometer of President Amin Gemayel's prospects. After 18 hours of ground fighting, artillery duels and air strikes, the army's Fourth Brigade said it had been forced to abandon key positions along a ridge line overlooking the Lebanese capital and was regrouping at the coastal town of Khalde. Druse officials said that Khalde itself had fallen, but there was no independent confirmation of this. U.S. Warships Open Fire United States naval vessels off the Lebanese coast fired about 45 rounds tonight, witnesses said, but in the earlier fighting there was little apparent American intervention to protect the beleaguered Government forces in their battle with Druse militiamen.

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SYRIAN FEAR: SOVIET SHIFT

Date: 14 February 1984

By Judith Miller

Judith Miller

Yuri V. Andropov's death has revived an undercurrent of Syrian anxiety about its relationship to the Soviet Union, according to Syrian officials and Western diplomats here. A high-level delegation that included Syria's Defense Minister, Lieut. Gen. Mustafa Tlas, left Damascus today to attend Mr. Andropov's funeral. A Syrian official said Mr. Tlas and other senior delegation members were expected to meet with Soviet officials after the funeral to coordinate political and military strategies, with particular emphasis on Lebanon. Syrian officials here were said to have been disappointed that Mr. Andropov's death forced the postponement of a visit of Geidar A. Aliyev, a First Deputy Prime Minister and Politburo member, at a time when Syria would welcome public demonstrations of support from Moscow. He would have been the highest Soviet official to visit Damascus for planning meetings in some time. A new date for the visit has not been set.

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VOWS TO RETAIN ARMS BALANCE, WARNS AGAINST 'ADVENTURISTS'

Date: 14 February 1984

By John F. Burns, Special To the New York Times

John Burns

Konstantin U. Chernenko was chosen by the Communist Party's Central Committee today to succeed Yuri V. Andropov as its General Secretary. His assumption of the post automatically made Mr. Chernenko the Soviet Union's pre-eminent leader. At 72 years of age, he is the oldest of the men named to lead the party since the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. Mr. Chernenko immediately made a wide-ranging speech to the Central Committee in which he praised Mr. Andropov for the ''tremendous prestige and respect'' he had gained among the Soviet people and endorsed many of Mr. Andropov's domestic policies. Selection Termed Unanimous On relations with the United States, he said that while the Soviet Union remained committed to peaceful co-existence and elimination of the threat of nuclear war, it would insure that it had enough arms ''to cool the hotheads of militant adventurists.''

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The Empty Craters of Lebanon

Date: 14 February 1984

How little we really know about what's happening in the Kremlin ought be clear from the fact that it was not until his funeral that we learned Yuri Andropov had a wife, named Tatyana. Instead of struggling to find meaning in the still-raw news from Moscow, therefore, Americans would do well this week to sort out the lessons of the failure of the Marine deployment in Lebanon. The sloppy definition of the Marines' mission these last 17 months is being crowned by some fanciful interpretations of the late but laudable decision to pull them out. Indeed, it has taken the Reagan Administration five days to admit that removing the troops from Beirut airport to ships in Beirut harbor is more than a ''redeployment of three miles.'' It is a confession that the Marines could not keep the peace or, as so often vowed, defend the Government of President Amin Gemayel. It is also a confession that President Reagan was wrong in his frequent claims of ''progress'' in strengthening the Gemayel Government and army.

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