News stories from Sunday August 16, 1981
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- About one-fifth of Atlantic flights normally controlled by Portuguese air controllers were rerouted by the Federal Aviation Administration in response to the controllers' 48-hour boycott imposed in support of the American strikers. The boycott began at 8 tonight and was to continue through 8 Tuesday evening. The F.A.A. established two new flight routes that will affect about 20 percent of trans-Atlantic flights originating in Southern Europe and North Africa. [New York Times]
- Another quarantine of farm produce has accelerated and complicated the normally hectic harvest period in a section of the nation's richest farmland. The new order was imposed Saturday on 264 square miles of California's San Joaquin Valley after the discovery of an apparent infestation of the Mediterranean fruit fly. At least 56 flies were discovered, the largest group found since the state's eradication efforts against the pest began in December. [New York Times]
- The F.B.I. inquiry into the bombing last August of Harvey's Resort Hotel-Casino in Stateline, Nev., near Lake Tahoe, Calif., has led to the arrest of five persons in Fresno, Calif., it was learned from law enforcement officials. A source said unofficial reports that the bombing might have been done by terrorists were not supported by the inquiry's findings. [New York Times]
- Some detained Cuban refugees might be released soon, lawyers representing them believe. Judge Marvin Shoob of Federal District Court in Atlanta has scheduled a series of hearings, with the first set for tomorrow, on the merits of the decision by immigration officials that 1,800 Cuban refugees cannot be admitted into the United States on grounds they have criminal records. [New York Times]
- The Army's top leadership is being recast by the Chief of Staff, Gen. Edward Meyer. By Labor Day, more than 20 of the generals who have run the Army will have been replaced as General Meyer continues to a campaign to restore the service to a state of readiness. [New York Times]
- The Philadelphia Bulletin survived a closedown deadline and planned to publish on Monday. An immediate threat to close the 134-year-old paper was lifted when eight unions voted to grant $4.9 million in concessions demanded by the publisher. The concessions were made in various forms, and amounted to a 10 percent wage cut. [New York Times]
- Polish students postponed marches they had planned to call for the release of five men they said were political prisoners. The demonstrations had been opposed by the government, the Solidarity union and the Roman Catholic Church. A final decision on whether to hold the marches will be made Saturday, an organizer said. [New York Times]
- "A wrong was done to Israel" when the Reagan administration suspended delivery of 16 fighter planes after the Israeli attack on an Iraqi nuclear reactor last month, Prime Minister Menachem Begin told reporters in English and Hebrew. Speaking after the first meeting held by the cabinet of his coalition government, he said that President Reagan had "decided to right that wrong" and that he expected the suspension to be lifted in the next few days. [New York Times]
- Yasser Arafat backed a peace proposal for the Middle East that was made recently by Crown Prince Fahd of Saudi Arabia calling for Israel's withdrawal from the Arab territory it has occupied on the West Bank since 1967 and removal of the settlements it has established there. The leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said, however, that he did not expect the United States or Israel would consider the plan. [New York Times]
- Widespread hunger is intractable throughout the world despite intensified efforts to eradicate it and a promise by the World Food Conference seven years ago that by 1984 no family would fear for its next day's bread. Nutrition experts estimate that one out nine people, or about half a billion individuals, are undernourished, and that a billion or more others should have a more varied diet. Deprivation of nutritious foods is the basic hunger problem, the specialists say, affecting far more people than famine and much harder to solve. [New York Times]