News stories from Thursday January 1, 1970

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

In South Vietnam, U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew met with South Vietnamese V.P. Nguyen Cao Ky. Agnew and astronaut Eugene Cernan presented a gift of moon rocks to President Thieu. [CBS] Nine years of fighting have claimed more than 40,000 American lives. From 1961-1969 enemy deaths were 586,543. South Vietnamese losses are not available. Last week's toll: 86 Americans dead and 557 wounded. South Vietnam counted 243 dead, and enemy losses were 1,882. [CBS] The New Year's cease-fire in Vietnam ended. Allied troops resumed normal operations. [CBS] Israeli gunboats are on the way home after slipping out of Cherbourg Harbor and making a mockery of the French arms embargo. Soviet intelligence ships kept a close watch on the gunboats but didn't bother them. The boats are designed to carry surface-to-surface missiles, but Israel claims that the boats are for civilian use only. [CBS] President Nixon dedicated the 1970's to rescuing the environment from pollution as he signed a bill to create a three-man council to advise the nation on pollution problems. [CBS] The high cost of car repair is the primary reason for auto insurance rates going up according to a report from an alliance of 120 insurance companies. The report was filed in Washington at the Senate Antitrust and Monopoly Committee. [CBS] Ernest Fitzgerald opened up the C-5A scandal by revealing at a congressional hearing that the Air Force spent $2 billion over original estimates on the big cargo plane. Senator William Proxmire says that Fitzgerald's subsequent dismissal constitutes harassment. The Justice Department is checking for criminal violations of Fitzgerald's case. [CBS]