News stories from Monday February 8, 1971
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Five thousand South Vietnamese forces, supported by 200 U.S. planes, drove 10-20 miles into Laos, halfway to the Ho Chi Minh trail; the attack began at dawn. North Vietnam is reported to have two divisions in Laos. U.S. planes attacked North Vietnamese bunkers. American ground personnel and correspondents are not allowed past the border. [CBS]
- There were only small protests in the U.S. over the invasion into Laos. The Nixon administration claims that the attack will shorten the war and save the lives of American soldiers. State Department spokesman Robert McCloskey said that no U.S. ground forces have crossed into Laos, and the operation will be limited in time and area. The purpose of South Vietnam's attack is to disrupt North Vietnamese forces and stop its flow of supplies. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will be briefed by Secretary of State Rogers about the invasion. [CBS]
- The Soviet Union denounced South Vietnam's attack into Laos as "criminal aggression." United Nations Secretary U Thant deplored the attack; Laotian leader Souvanna Phouma issued a mild protest but placed most of the blame on North Vietnam. South Vietnam President Thieu pledged that the attack would be limited in time and territory. [CBS]
- U.S. forces guarding the demilitarized zone in South Korea are being withdrawn. U.S. troop strength in South Korea will be cut from 62,000 to 42,000 by July. [CBS]
- There was more rioting in Belfast, Northern Ireland, after a British military vehicle accidentally ran over a 5-year-old girl and four other children were wounded by machine-gun fire. [CBS]
- Egypt took the press to Port Taufiq on the Suez Canal to display its military readiness; filming of these Egyptian military positions was allowed today for the first time. Egyptian officials called the one month cease-fire extension the last chance for diplomacy, and stressed their preparedness for war. [CBS]
- Father Philip Berrigan and five co-defendants pleaded innocent to an alleged plot to kidnap Henry Kissinger. A court of appeals upheld Berrigan's six-year sentence for his anti-draft activities. [CBS]
- A judge found Hobart College in New York innocent of grand jury charges of criminal coercion related to campus disorders there last spring. [CBS]
- President Nixon submitted his environmental program to Congress, a package of 14 bills mostly created by the Council on Environmental Quality and screened by White House staff and the President. Strip miners will be compelled to restore land; grants will be offered to states for land use; power plant sites will be more carefully organized, and 1.5 million acres of wilderness will be preserved.
Other programs, not passed by the last Congress, are being resubmitted. The EPA will set noise level standards for trucks, construction equipment, snowmobiles and aircraft; registration for the use of pesticides will be required, and water polluters will help finance waste disposal plants.
[CBS] - The Senate confirmed the nomination of John Connally as Secretary of the Treasury. [CBS]
- Fourteen big-city Mayors told Congress that unemployment is a major urban problem. The Mayors back a bill to allow hiring of the unemployed for short term public service jobs. [CBS]
- Apollo 14 will splash down tomorrow in the South Pacific. The astronauts held a news conference from their spacecraft today. [CBS]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 882.12 (+5.55, +0.63%)
Arms Index is the ratio of volume per declining issue to volume per advancing issue; a figure below 1.0 is bullish. | |||||||||||||||
| Market Index Trends | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | DJIA | S&P | Volume* |
| February 5, 1971 | 876.57 | 96.93 | 20.48 |
| February 4, 1971 | 874.79 | 96.62 | 20.86 |
| February 3, 1971 | 876.23 | 96.63 | 21.68 |
| February 2, 1971 | 874.59 | 96.43 | 22.03 |
| February 1, 1971 | 877.81 | 96.42 | 20.65 |
| January 29, 1971 | 868.50 | 95.88 | 20.96 |
| January 28, 1971 | 865.14 | 95.21 | 18.84 |
| January 27, 1971 | 860.83 | 94.89 | 20.64 |
| January 26, 1971 | 866.79 | 95.59 | 21.38 |
| January 25, 1971 | 865.62 | 95.28 | 19.05 |