News stories from Sunday January 11, 1970
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Nigeria announced that her troops had captured the provisional Biafran capital, Owerri, amid indications that the Nigerian civil war was ending and expressions of fear that the civilian population in Biafran-held areas faced starvation or massacre. Relief workers streaming from the area reported that the Uli airstrip, Biafra's supply link to the outside, had been put out of operation by shelling and that Biafran troops were fleeing. [New York Times]
- President Nixon ordered eight cargo planes and four helicopters put on ready alert to help distribute food and medical supplies in Biafran territory and called for a strengthening of international observer teams to prevent possible atrocities. In London, Prime Minister Wilson called his senior ministers into urgent session as his Foreign Secretary expressed confidence that atrocities would occur. [New York Times]
- A gradual elimination of student and occupational draft deferments will be proposed this year by the Nixon administration "so that all young men are treated equally and fairly," Secretary of Defense Laird said on television. The new policy would not affect men already holding such deferments. Congressional action is required to end undergraduate student deferments. [New York Times]
- Interviews with school officials and the results of a Senate study indicated that crime and violence have increased sharply in the public schools. As a result, some school systems have called in private guards to deal with nonstudents invading the schools and other problems. [New York Times]
- Sources that have closely followed the Paris talks on Vietnam said the U.S. was increasing its pressure on the Communists to end the Vietnam war. The Americans were said to believe that the Communists are on the defensive at the negotiating table -- voicing an untenable position that will have to be changed sooner or later. [New York Times]
- A proposal that Columbia University create a new School of National Studies in urban, Afro-American and Puerto Rican studies was made in a major report released by the university's Urban Center after 14 months of preparation. Such a new school, the report said, would help fill a need for new institutions to prepare students for modern society. [New York Times]