News stories from Saturday September 25, 1976

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

Opposition to nuclear power is gathering force throughout Western Europe and has slowed the pace of reactor building. Denmark and Norway have delayed the building of their first nuclear plants and the Netherlands has put off a decision on whether to build more plants. Public opposition has snarled utilities in West Germany and Switzerland through protracted legal skirmishes. [New York Times] Sales of nuclear fuels and nuclear power technology to foreign nations would be halted under his administration, Jimmy Carter said, unless the nation agreed not to build nuclear weapons or its own fuel-reprocessing plant. The Democratic candidate said that the United States must provide leadership in an attempt to guard against nuclear weapons proliferation and accused the Ford administration of not doing so. [New York Times] Whistle-steaming down the Mississippi, President Ford opened a three-day campaign trip through the South. During a six-hour steamboat trip down the river to New Orleans, Mr. Ford sought to portray his Democratic opponent as a big spender. While leaving his audiences to deduce that Mr. Carter would spend more of the government's money than he would, he attacked Senator Walter Mondale, the Democratic running mate, as the "biggest spender in the United States Senate." [New York Times] An investigation into reports that President Ford may have received funds from two maritime unions that had been laundered through Michigan Republican committees is said by federal officials to be under way. Charles Ruff, the Watergate special prosecutor, apparently began the inquiry the day after Mr. Ford was nominated. [New York Times] The largest increase in the number of poor persons in the United States since the government began keeping statistics in 1959 occurred during 1975. The Bureau of the Census said the increase, 2.5 million persons, was proportionately the largest among whites, families with a male head and those not elderly. The government defined the poverty level in 1975 as an income of $5,500 or less for a nonfarm family of four. [New York Times] Joshua Nkomo, a Rhodesian nationalist leader, told a group of supporters in Salisbury that a turning point may have been reached in Rhodesia. Mr. Nkomo, who spent five months traveling abroad in search of backing for black majority rule, is thought to be playing a key role in the formation of the interim biracial government. In his remarks, he played down reports of splits among the nationalist groups. [New York Times] Plans for an international fund to help Rhodesia make the transition to black rule will be worked out in detail by officials from the United States, Britain and South Africa. The fund, which Secretary of State Kissinger said would amount to more than a billion dollars, will be used to train blacks in skills previously denied them and to aid the Rhodesian economy. Another major purpose of the money will be to compensate whites who leave the country. [New York Times] Black African leaders began to gather in Zambia to discuss Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith's acceptance of the proposals for majority rule in Rhodesia. Publicly, the leaders of the five "front-line" nations made no comment; but Tanzanian leaders privately voiced reservations about Mr. Smith's plans for a temporary government that would leave a good deal of power in the hands of whites. Zambian officials seemed to favor the plan. [New York Times]