CAPITOL HILL ------------ On Capitol Hill - opening gavel today for the second session - ninetieth Congress. I f you blinked - you might have missed it. The Senate - in session less than an hour. The House - only slightly more than an hour. With the ~ 1 . _ . , a _ major -- emphasis~ ceremonial duties;a■ cl • .U•-:, 70 come - , over tax s, over the pligltt anti the 'first front so-called against SUPREME COURT ----- · - --------- That long-pend i ng merger between the Pe n ns y lvania Railroad and the New York Central - approved a t la st t o day by t he U S Sup r e m e C our t . £l • C l ear i ng the right of way for a tandem operation - - to become the largest private rail t1stem in the world. Wille more than - twenty thousand miles of track -- .....,.,,.,,11.ti»11 the co11ftt~, from Canada to l" i rginia - from the Mississippi to the East Coast. of the new Penn-Central •~er-.4io,t.; also - that three smaller eastern railroads will be merged with the Norfolk and Western - to ensure adequate competition. VIENTIANE ----------- War news from soulh8JSt Asia - marked tonight by what seems to be a major escalation of the fighting in La o s • R e P or t s fr om t he R o ya l L a o go v er nm en t in Vientiane - telling of North Vietnamese air strikes for the first time against Laotian ground targets. Also - a major Communist ground attack - ~ains¥he Laotian fortress at Nam Bue. Reason - we hear - to force a re-deployment of allied strength. The North Vietnamese apparently hoping - to ease Allied pressure - on their vital Ho Chi Minh supply trail -- through Laos - to South Vietnam. As for continued fighting in Vietnam - an American truck convoy today turning the tables on Viet Cong ambushers near Da k To. lts.tlr »k" With a U. S. counterattack killing twenty-four - the Americans losing none. A second similar ambush that also backfired - on the Bong Son plain. In this one - South Vietnamese troopers supported by U.S. air strikes -- killing~ VIENTIANE - 2 --- - ----- seve,aty-six of the e,aemy; as against losses of their own - called "very light." PALERMO (new) -------- On the island of Eicily, near Palermo - a series of catastrophic earthquakes today. ,,.l;evelling I scores of villages - causing widespread panic and confusion. Fir ~ t reports indicating perhaps as many as five hundred dead - thousands injured - and tens of thousands more left homeless. Unaccustomed snow and freezing temperatures - said to be adding to the calamity of half-crazed survivors. d.l't.f!. Most of the"'.A.,camped in the open tonight - against the threat of possible new tremors. The smell of burning sulphur - seeping through yawning chasms in the earth; lending an end-of-the -world ••s•s• quality to the current struggle j,r existence on that volcanic isle. Mother nature also on a r a m p a g ~ ~ PALERMO --------- , ryort from sunny Sicily - thirty-two / / right a t the / free z i ng mark. ~ that as it ma / - hundreds of thou ands of / residents of Palerm and nearby e camping out / , -fonight. In the ake of a series of iolent earthquakes - I I spreading d a th and de st ruction a cross the country si d • First reports ind eating perhaps hundr ds dead - I seeping through yaw ng chasms in the ea uality to current li e on that volcanic / M 6 t It tU' tt• IN f"-B tH.$ 11 Wt& a 111'-Q ~ I> B-g-'?. t tHH y,. ~ ~ elsewhere - in Europe and the Middle East. With hurricane winds •~•i•W Scotland_)- snow in Cyprus for the first time j•11 in of snow and sand storms - - - m i I e s ':l;.. ~ ,;:t6,,-,, " eighteen years - plus a combination in the Holy L a n d ~ a few PARIS ----- Paris - a supersonic setback today. F.,.ance and Britain today postponing indefinitely - the scheduled first flight of the world's first supersonic jetliner - the Concorde. Reason - not given. However, the French ~ ~ i r f r a m e 1 -- designed lo accommodate British wW engines;*" rumors persisting in Europe - that Britain ,,<, is now threatening to withdraw from the joint venturer as a result of continuing friction - between the two natio,s. VATICAN -------- For only the second time in Vatican history an American prelate was appointed today to the Roman Curia - highest authority in the Catholic Church. Seventy- three year old Francis Cardinal Brennan - the much- r spected "quiet American" from Shenandoah, Pennsylvania- named head of the Congregation of Sacraments.,,Replacinx .,,,, newly-resigned Benedetto Cardinal Aloisi Massella - age eighty-eight. Barring the unforeseen ~ tx,x Cardinal Brennan t h us exp e c t e d to b e c om e t he fir s t A m er i ca n c h ur c h ma n - actually to serve on the Roman Curia. 8amwel Cardinal ~ Stritch of Chicago >- -":'o~~=w named to the church body b a ck in Nine t e en Fifty - E i g ht , only · to di e - b e for e he c o u l d take up his post. WASHING TON ----- - ----- Th is next - abo u t a w e ek e nd stor y -- carried far and wi de by radio, television and newspapers. You ma y ha v e heard i t - a supposed bulletin from the Federal Hous · ng Administrat i on r warning fe m ale employees ttill they run the risk of getting fat l e gs - from wearing min • - s k i r t s i n c o l d IIJ'• w ea t her • A s th e bull e tin exp la in e d it: "The bodily response to cold is a quick build-up of s u cc es s iv e lay er s of jfa tty m o le cul e s - under t he skin areas of the thighs, knees, calves and •sgk'lx ankles of female legs." Turns out no w - it was all a ~ : Press officers of the F H A reporting today - the y issued no such bulletin. Adding that whoever Perpetrated t h e ~ 11 ln ~.f;;: ~.zr.~ ~.:;.~~ ~ 1- ~ ~ Q_ 1;a1N!q" command - of governmental gobbl y dygook. /.... Summing up: M i ni-skirts - si; fat legs - no . -.So - -Y~ Jl•il tt s..Acan all br e athe a si g h of relief. HAMILTON ---------- From Hamil ton, New Zealand, comes the story today - of a remarkable Maori .. 1 n. --Porty-two year ,,, old Mrs. Wara Tengu -- who has just given birth to her twenty-first child - a bouncing baby boy. The new mother - qui• - later remarking: "He was supposed to be my last - but I think we'll have another. - we love children." Mrs. Tengu - still a long way from setting a motherhood record though. That remains the property of Mrs . F yo do r Va s s i l et - a Russi a n ; k peasant woman w ho lived about a hund r ed years ago. During twenty-seven confinements - Madame Vassilet giving birth to sixty-nine children; including sixteen Pairs of twins - seven sets of t r i ~ l e t ~ : : E / f q u a d r u p l e w ~ 1 ~ • ,.1 1o F ~ ~ • ~ - i,,,--«-s._ ~ ~ \ v---'1r I ' - - ~ for fatherhoJd~ll-time champ -- Fateh Ali Shah of Persia - a nin e teenth c e ntury Don Juan. Admitted father of one - hundred-and -fifty - four sons - - and Q__, ,I ..d . l r J )1'\..el,yt_ five-hundred - and-sixt y da~ghte _ rs. 1 'fliewl _...--.... .::1 p~s;&;,s-~ ~ , LAJ w(J._~ . EVANSTON ------- - -- "Wet s " 1 e rsus "dries" -- the story toda y from "dr y " E v anston, Ill i no i s - National Headquarters of the Women's Christian Temperance Unionrwhere WC T U Chairman Mrs. Fred Tooze has launched an all-out drive - - ( - ~ ~ - ~ to keep A from slipping through a new liquor sale law. ) - s ,. , .s Me 19. f l ~ w a r ~ that if the "w e ts" have tlaeir A.. ~ way - - "sections of Evanston will beco;fy.it:,.-ridden - ~ ~~~,J~ slum s - with bum s all o v er the place - --r s Ffa rows • lfl RAt- rampant,. !£_Om en and children - won't be safe in the streets; and people crazed by drink "1 will stumble around ~~ and make this nice residential cit~a mess." As you may have guessed -- Mrs. Tooze just doesn't - - - - 7 ~ ~ l i k ~ ~ ,-,,_i;;wa,A~-.) that wet stuff.