News stories from Monday August 20, 1979

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

The State Department was alerted that Andrew Young might meet with a representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization four days after the meeting had taken place, according to a senior United States intelligence official. He said the information came from United States intelligence sources in the Mideast.The State Department insisted that it did not have on July 30 a report on Andrew Young's unauthorized July 26 meeting with an official of the Palestine Liberation Organization. A spokesman said that the office of the Director of Central Intelligence had no knowledge of any such report. [New York Times] Black backing for Palestinians rose. The president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, after meeting with officials of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said that his group unconditionally supported "the human rights of all Palestinians, including the right of self-determination in regard to their own homeland." [New York Times] The first Bahamas-to-Florida swim was accomplished by Diana Nyad, who completed the 60-mile route in 27 hours and 38 minutes. The 30-year-old New Yorker grinned triumphantly as she waded ashore at Juno Beach, Fla., after beating currents, sharks and jellyfish in the journey from North Bimini. She was welcomed by boats and hundreds of people. [New York Times] A priest was "wrongly charged" with robbery, according to a lawyer who testified that his own client was involved in a series of robberies of stores in the Wilmington, Del., area. The defense lawyer for a 39-year-old Pennsylvania man told the court that his client "had involvement" in the robberies for which Father Bernard Pagano has been on trial for 10 days. [New York Times] A befouled border river flows through the agriculturally-rich Imperial Valley in California, causing increasing concern among state health officials, who fear that it may lead to an epidemic. One termed the New River "an open sewer," but there is little that those who live along me river can do because the source of the pollution is in its headwaters in Mexico. [New York Times] A relaxed President Carter enjoyed the tranquil vistas of the upper Mississippi River aboard the steamboat Delta Queen. He bantered with fellow passengers and reporters and made frequent forays into crowds lining the banks to welcome him, including more than 2,000 people in Dubuque, Iowa. [New York Times] Robert Strauss is reportedly seeking clarification of who is in charge of Washington's Middle East policy. President Carter's special Middle East envoy returned to Washington and acknowledged privately that the results of his four-day mission to Israel and Egypt were "not good." Mr. Strauss was said to be irritated over being forced to carry rigid instructions and he wants to get a commitment from Mr. Carter that he is in charge of Mideast policy. [New York Times] Iran further suppressed opposition as its religious leaders closed 22 opposition newspapers and ordered political groups that oppose Islamic rule to surrender their weapons. [New York Times] India's politics were in turmoil as Prime Minister Charan Singh resigned after only 24 days in office. He acted after former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi announced that her supporters would oppose a parliamentary vote of confidence in his government, thus insuring its fall. She was angered at cabinet appointments. [New York Times] Israeli jets attacked Lebanese towns for the first time in almost a month. Lebanese sources said that six persons had been wounded. [New York Times] Rhodesian rebels will attend a parley in London next month, they announced. The guerrilla leaders, whose forces have been fighting to topple the government of Prime Minister Abel Muzorewa, said that they would join the British-sponsored peace conference, but they rejected a British appeal for a cease-fire during the talks. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 886.52 (+3.16, +0.36%)
S&P Composite: 108.83 (+0.53, +0.49%)
Arms Index: 0.50

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	818	19.96
Declines	648	7.94
Unchanged	433	4.40
Total Volume		32.30

* in millions of shares

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*
August 17, 1979	883.36	108.30	31.63
August 16, 1979	884.04	108.09	47.01
August 15, 1979	885.84	108.25	46.14
August 14, 1979	876.71	107.52	40.91
August 13, 1979	875.26	107.42	41.98
August 10, 1979	867.06	106.40	36.74
August 9, 1979	858.28	105.49	34.63
August 8, 1979	863.14	105.98	44.97
August 7, 1979	859.81	105.65	45.41
August 6, 1979	848.55	104.30	27.19