News stories from Sunday April 12, 1970

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

The Apollo 13 astronauts -- Capt. James Lovell of the Navy, and Fred Haise and Jack Swigert, both civilians -- passed the halfway mark outbound and were cruising smoothly toward the moon. With a short blast of the spaceship's main rocket, the craft was aimed to go into lunar orbit with a low altitude of 69 miles. [New York Times] Gov. Claude Kirk of Florida, bowing to the authority of a federal court, announced that he would reinstate the Manatee County school board and direct it to put into effect a court-ordered integration plan. The court had ordered the Governor to pay a $10,000-a-day fine unless he released control of the system by Monday. [New York Times] Despite the growing nationwide trend toward abortion reform, serious shortcomings in the new liberal laws are being discovered. In many states where reforms have been made, pressure is mounting for repeal of all restrictions on abortions. One criticism of the reform laws is that the poor cannot afford the abortions. Federal funds should be given to poor women to help them obtain abortions in states where abortions are legal, the chief medical officer of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare said. [New York Times] An inspection of the ruins in an Egyptian village where, according to the Egyptian government, 30 children were killed last week when Israeli jets bombed a school, has turned up no visible evidence of any military equipment. On the day of the bombing, requests by foreign correspondents to visit the school were turned down by Egyptian officials who said that darkness and bad roads prevented the inspection. [New York Times] North Vietnamese troops were reported to have opened a heavy attack on a second United States Special Forces camp not far from the beseiged Dak Seang camp. The enemy assualt on Dak Pek is the third special forces camp to come under attack since April. Both Dak Pek and Dak Seang are reportedly used as bases for patrols that gather intelligence on enemy troop movements along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. [New York Times] New York City's Fire Department labeled as "suspicious" a four-alarm fire that badly damaged two Union Square buildings and injured 28 firemen. The blaze, which started in a ground-floor discotheque and tavern, also damaged the law offices of a firm defending the Black Panthers charged with bombing conspiracy. One of the Panther lawyers said that defense material had been damaged. [New York Times]