News stories from Monday September 4, 1978
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Ten passengers, including seven women, who survived the crash of a Rhodesian airliner near the war-torn Zambian border were gunned down by black nationalist guerrillas, Rhodesia's military command said. Eighteen of the 56 persons on board survived the crash Sunday evening of the four-engine Viscount turbo-prop plane bound for a resort town. [Chicago Tribune]
- Declaring that "compromise will be mandatory" in the upcoming Camp David summit, President Carter flew by helicopter to his Catoctin mountain retreat to await the arrival of the leaders of Egypt and Israel. "There is no cause for excessive optimism, but there is also no cause for despair," Carter said of peace prospects for the Middle East summit, which formally convenes Wednesday. [Chicago Tribune]
- A Brookings Institution study says the Pentagon could save more than $900 million a year by reducing the "steady enrichment" of its white-collar civilian employees and ending what the study says is overpayment of its blue-collar workers. The study also contended that about 377,000 jobs now filled by military personnel could be handled by civilians, including private contractor personnel, to save additional money "without jeopardizing national security." [Chicago Tribune]
- In Ecorse, Michigan, an angry motorcyclist who was pelted by beer cans and other debris at a soccer game later opened fire on the crowd Sunday night, wounding five spectators, authorities said. Three of the wounded are in critical condition. An 18-year-old man was arrested today in connection with the incident, police said. They said the man in custody was a resident of Ecorse. Soccer spectators had tossed objects toward two motorcyclists who had intruded on their game on a suburban Detroit high school field. [Chicago Tribune]
- A helicopter dropping prizes at a church festival backed into a crowd of about 500 persons in Derry, Pa., its rotors killing 7 and injuring at least 18. The three occupants of the aircraft survived. The accident occurred at a parking lot of the St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church on the final day of the church's three-day Labor Day Festival. The helicopter pilot said the engine failed. [Chicago Tribune]
- President Carter emphasized that the investigations of the General Services Administration will go after any high officials involved in alleged bribery, corruption, fraud, arid theft. "No one is exempt from the investigation at all -- either inside or outside of the government," said Deputy Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti after a surprise Labor Day meeting with Carter and G.S.A. administrator Jay Solomon. [Chicago Tribune]
- Seven Americans demonstrated briefly against the arms race in Red Square, distributing leaflets and shouting "Peace and friendship" in Russian. Soviet police quickly took four of them into custody, plus six British tourists who had accepted leaflets. Correspondents for three American news outlets, including the Chicago Tribune's Jim Gallagher, also were taken into custody and detained for about half an hour at a police station near the entrance to the square. [Chicago Tribune]
- India's summer monsoon rains struck with a fury over the weekend, swelling rivers out of their banks in seven northern states and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee their swamped villages. Thousands of persons were unaccounted for near Calcutta in West Bengal, the worst-hit state. Joyti Bosu, chief minister of West Bengal, denied reports that 15,000 persons had been washed away there, but he said, "It is one of the greatest disasters." [Chicago Tribune]
- The Arab world's newest queen wears blue jeans in the afternoon, washes her own hair, and grabs a sandwich as often as a sumptuous meal. She even persuades her chauffeur to let her drive her own Mercedes from time to time. She's Noor al Hussein, formerly Lisa Halaby, a 27-year-old American graduate of Princeton University and now the wife of the king of Jordan. After two months of royal life, she says she's only beginning to get a handle on her new responsibilities, but she seems to relish the challenge. [Chicago Tribune]
- After five years of study, government safety experts are readying design change proposals to curb the thousands of injuries inflicted by power lawn mowers each year. In response, industry representatives are mounting a congressional lobbying campaign to block the effort, calling it a federal intrusion into private enterprise that would be expensive to the consumer. The proposals are to be presented to the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission this fall. [Chicago Tribune]