News stories from Sunday January 28, 1979

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

Commutation of Patricia Hearst's prison sentence was recommended by the Justice Department to President Carter, administration sources said. Miss Hearst was convicted of participating in a 1974 bank robbery, and sentenced to seven years in prison. She has served a total of 22 months. [New York Times] A movement in state legislatures that could force a federal constitutional convention -- the first since 1787 -- over a balanced-budget amendment has upset leading members of Congress, who are planning ways to thwart it. The movement could this year win the support of the 34 states that could compel Congress to summon the convention if the lawmakers' efforts fail. [New York Times] The upheaval that American Catholics have had in their religious life in some respects was as overwhelming and as complex as the social and political changes in temporal life since the early 1960's. Thus, no region in the domain of Pope John Paul II more closely reflects the tensions, disarray and opportunities of modern Catholicism than the church in the United States. [New York Times] Physicians who insure themselves and require patients to sign an arbitration agreement before undergoing treatment are growing in number across the nation. Under the agreement, the patient gives up the right to sue for malpractice. [New York Times] Charles Evers, Mississippi's powerful black political figure, has put together an independent coalition, composed primarily of blacks, that will seek to influence issues and candidate selection for the state's general elections in November. [New York Times] Radical surgery for breast cancer is no more effective than more conservative, less mutilating treatment, according to Dr. Maurice Fox, molecular biologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. [New York Times] Nelson Rockefeller's body was cremated at a Westchester County crematorium, a family spokesman said. Meanwhile, family members and close friends converged on the Rockefeller estate in Pocantico Hills, where private funeral services will be held on Monday.Mr. Rockefeller's death will have few direct consequences on the New York state Republican Party, despite his domination for 18 years as few men ever had, party leaders said. But party leaders believed his death was likely to have a strong effect on the prospective Senate candidacy of Henry Kissinger, one of Mr. Rockefeller's closest associates. A different account of Mr. Rockefeller's death last Friday night has been given by a Rockefeller family spokesman, Hugh Morrow, who over the weekend had provided most of the details of the heart attack that killed Mr. Rockefeller. He said that Mr. Rockefeller had died at 11:15, not 10:15, as previously reported. [New York Times] Sweeping changes in intelligence gathering and evaluation might follow the efforts being made by the administration to improve American forecasts of political turbulence around the world, according to senior government officials. An interagency task force began in December to evaluate how stability in foreign governments is gauged. The group is expected to present its findings next month. [New York Times] As Shahpur Bakhtiar's peace overture toward Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini failed, violence broke out again in Teheran. Troops fired on demonstrators just west of Teheran University, where more than 20 people were killed Friday, and kept up a steady fusillade for five hours. By nightfall at least 28 people had been killed and hundreds wounded. "Bakhtiar's trip to Paris is out of the question for the time being," an aide of the Prime Minister said after Ayatollah Khomeini rejected the proposal for a meeting. "We have to try to work out another compromise formula."Ayatollah Khomeini rebuffed peace moves by Prime Minister Bakhtiar, saying that he would not receive him if he came to Paris as planned unless he resigned from office first. In a statement, the Ayatollah exhorted his followers in Iran to continue their struggle to establish an Islamic republic "to the last drop of blood." Frenzy, fear and a kind of dignity came to Bahrami Lane, a side street in Teheran off the square where army troops fired on thousands of anti-government rioters who shouted "Death to Bakhtiar." [New York Times] Teng Hsiao-ping arrived in Washington to start his nine-day visit to the United States. Mr. Teng, the senior Deputy Prime Minister of China, will have a series of talks with President Carter during the next three days and will also meet with members of Congress and journalists. [New York Times] Twelve days of negotiations by the American special envoy to the Middle East, Alfred Atherton, in Israel and Egypt failed to reconcile the differences that are keeping the two sides from resuming their peace talks. Each party blamed the other for the failure of the latest mediation effort, and Mr. Atherton went home. [New York Times]