Word: primed
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...member party caucus proceeded through two rounds of secret balloting, tension mounted in the crowd gathered outside Capetown's white-columned senate building. Finally the doors opened: Defense Minister Pieter W. ("P.W.") Botha, 62, an uncompromising hardliner, had been chosen to succeed retiring Prime Minister John Vorster...
There was no doubt that Pik Botha was the public favorite. An opinion poll of South African whites the week before the caucus had shown him leading by 83% over the other two candidates. He was also reputedly Vorster's choice for Prime Minister. But Pik's popularity -and his junior status as a minister appointed only 18 months ago-rankled his colleagues. In the end, he was forced to drop out, after receiving only 22 votes on the first ballot...
Afterward the new Prime Minister admitted that the caucus battle, his chilly reception and the country's problems left him with no real sense of victory. "It's a hard job," he said, "and I have no illusions whatsoever." Aloof, autocratic and given to occasional outbursts of temper, Botha is essentially a party man, who rose through the ranks as leader of the relatively small western Cape, still the historically sacred region of Afrikaner origins. He is not the patient negotiator that Vorster was. But he has proved to be a shrewd organizer. After becoming Defense Minister...
Investigators in Rome were having no luck getting information from Corrado Alunni, 30, a prime suspect in the kidnap-murder of former Premier Aldo Moro. Alunni has brushed off every question by reciting the terrorist version of name, rank and serial number: "I consider myself a fighting Communist and a political prisoner in a state concentration camp and do not intend to collaborate with this system of justice." Even so, the probe into Alunni's recent whereabouts shed some light on the sybaritic life-style that Europe's leftist outlaws can occasionally afford. Not long before his arrest...
...housing boom could hurt if the Federal Reserve tightens credit much further in its battle against inflation. Last week the discount rate hit 8% and bank prime-interest rates reached 9¾%-in both cases the highest levels in nearly four years. Worried that tight credit might cause a recession, President Carter last week said he thought rates were "too high," and added that he hoped the Fed would soon be able to ease the squeeze...