News stories from Saturday April 2, 1977

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

The supersonic airliner Concorde must have a fair landing trial in New York or there will be "political consequences," President Valery Giscard d'Estaing of France told Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, who stopped in Paris on his way home from Moscow. He emphasized the importance of the Concorde issue in a 90-minute discussion with Mr. Vance. "It's not just a technical problem," the President's spokesman said after the meeting. "It is a political problem which will have inevitable political consequences if New York refuses Concorde landing rights." [New York Times] The border between Mexico and the United States has become perhaps the busiest in the world. The illegal flow of people, drugs and contraband shipments of everything from computer parts to tranquilized parrots has reached peak volumes in both directions. Efforts to control drug smuggling and illegal aliens have become increasingly feeble, and the border's problems are straining relations between the two neighbors. [New York Times] The nation's welfare policy is under detailed analysis for President Carter, who will receive a report this month. The study is not expected to bring changes quickly, but it is expected to bring about one of the hottest political debates of Mr. Carter's presidency. Mr. Carter, during his campaign, repeatedly called the welfare system "wasteful" and "unjust." Nevertheless, it is almost certain no changes in the system will be passed this year and there is considerable doubt that changes will be enacted next year. [New York Times] A pilot killed in Vietnam, Comdr. Thomas Kolstad of the Navy, was buried in his family's cemetery plot in Virginia, Minn. His name was on a list of 12 American fliers who the North Vietnamese said had been buried in their country. His remains were among those of other Americans turned over in Hanoi last March 18 to a special commission appointed by President Carter. [New York Times] Although relations between the United States and the Soviet Union have cooled off, Secretary General Kurt Waldheim of the United Nations said in an interview in Vienna, there is no prospect of another cold war. [New York Times] Possibly in violation of a United States law requiring registration, prominent Israeli politicians and their associates have been soliciting money here for political campaigns at home. Israeli law does not prohibit candidates from seeking foreign contributions, and there is no American law against giving money to foreign politicians, but the propriety of the fundraising has stirred a debate in the American Jewish community. Funds have been collected here for Gen. Ariel Sharon, leader of a new Israeli political party, and representatives of the archeologist Yigael Yadin, head of another new Israeli party. [New York Times] India's birth-control program will be considerably moderated to eliminate all forms of compulsion, the new cabinet minister in charge of the program said. Raj Narain, Minister of Health and Family Planning, said "if anybody wants voluntary sterilization, let him do it, but from the government side there should be no compulsion, no undue encouragement." The government of Indira Gandhi had encouraged sterilization with an increasing degree of compulsion. This was one of the issues that led to that government's downfall. [New York Times]