News stories from Saturday December 25, 1971

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

Indian officials said that the Indian Army would have to remain in East Pakistan for many months before the region, proclaimed the independent nation of Bangladesh after India defeated West Pakistani troops there, would be stable enough for the troops to be removed. One high official said the occupation army would be thinned out perhaps after three or four months. [New York Times] A search is underway for a Peruvian airliner that disappeared Friday on a flight from Lima to the jungle city of Iquitos with 92 persons aboard, including five from the United States. [New York Times] Associates said that a 25-year-old man who was held after allegedly commandeering an airliner Friday had been an honor student in high school, had attended Indiana University and had worked at post offices in Indianapolis and in Greenfield, Ind., until recently. The police said he tried to hijack the jetliner, apparently planning to escape by parachute with $300,000 ransom. [New York Times] Most people across the nation spent a quiet family day celebrating Christmas. President Nixon was with his family at the White House but slipped away for a while to prepare for his talks this week with Chancellor Willy Brandt of West Germany. [New York Times] Pope Paul VI, in a Christmas message delivered from the outer balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, appealed to modern man not to "reject" or "ignore" Jesus and His message. The Pontiff, characterizing the modern age as one of "radical secularism" and of "proud and intolerant self-sufficiency," said that Jesus "does not come to obstruct our freedom, our activity or our humanity" but rather "to enlighten, enlarge and gladden." [New York Times]