News stories from Monday October 23, 1978
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Japan and China inked a historic peace and friendship treaty and Chinese Vice Premier Teng Hsiao-Ping said Peking "fully understands" Japan's military alliance with the United States -- in effect endorsing continued U.S. military presence in Asia. [Chicago Tribune]
- Former world chess champion Bobby Fischer of the United States and reigning world chess champion Anatoly Karpov last year held six secret meetings in an effort to arrange a match, chess officials say. Fischer, 36, has withdrawn completely from public matches since winning the world title in 1972. Karpov, 27, last week won a 93-day match with challenger Viktor Korchnoi to retain his world title. [Chicago Tribune]
- Selective buying brought the skid of blue chips to a halt, but the broad stock list continued to sink. Declining issues held a wide margin over gainers but the Dow Jones industrial average recovered to eke out a gain of 1.65 to 839.66.
Consumer confidence, depressed for most of this year, advanced in September for the second consecutive month, the Conference Board reported. The index of buying plans, however, showed a decline.
Treasury Secretary Michael Blumenthal predicted that business and labor will cooperate with President Carter's new wage-price guidelines plans, but he refused to give details at the American Bankers' Association convention in Honolulu.
[Chicago Tribune] - British punk rock star Sid Vicious, free on bail in the stabbing death of his American girlfriend, was hospitalized in a psychiatric ward after he reportedly slashed his arm in a suicide attempt to "keep my part of the bargain." Vicious, whose real name is John Simon Ritchie, was treated in Bellevue Hospital for superficial cuts on both wrists and on his right forearm. [Chicago Tribune]
- Betty Ford says she may have been "too candid, too open," about her treatment for drug abuse and alcoholism, because the publicity sometimes upset her enough to make her sorry she shared the experience with the public. However, in a telephone interview today, she said she feels overall that "the pluses outweigh the minuses" in her habit of openly expressing her thoughts and feelings. [Chicago Tribune]
- Apparently anticipating a settlement to an 11-week-old strike, officials of the New York Times and the Daily News said late today they were preparing for Sunday publication. Intensified bargaining was underway when the officials said the Times may even publish a Saturday edition of stories already prepared on major events that occurred during the walkout. [Chicago Tribune]
- Federal officials say they hope to make interest-free loans available to all college students, regardless of their families' wealth, in time for the spring semester. Under the guaranteed student loan program, the government will pay all interest until a student has been out of college for nine to 12 months. After that, repayment is at an interest rate of 7 percent. A bill Congress passed in its final hours in lieu of tuition tax credits threw out the income eligibility level for these loans. [Chicago Tribune]
- Forty-eight women in a national cancer detection project were mistakenly told they had breast cancer, and 37 then underwent surgery, a medical review panel concluded in a report released today. The mistakes came about because of difficulty in diagnosing the minimal breast cancers that can be uncovered by mammography, the panel said. [Chicago Tribune]
- In Austin, Texas, a routine target shooting excursion became a tragedy when a 17-year-old youth was shot to death and his stepbrother took his own life in remorse, authorities said. The Travis County medical examiner ruled that Bruce Garth, 23, put a shotgun in his mouth and pulled the trigger after Brett Henry, 17, was accidentally killed with a 22 caliber rifle. The two had left home Saturday for an afternoon of target practice. [Chicago Tribune]
- A Virginia grand jury, concluding the daughter of diplomat David Bruce did not kill herself as originally believed, has indicted her Greek-born husband on a charge of murder. Indictments alleging murder, bigamy and embezzlement have been returned against Marios Michaelides, who is in Greece and could not be reached for comment. [Chicago Tribune]
- Egyptian officials in Cairo expressed reservations about the draft of a peace treaty with Israel but peace conference sources in Washington said the problems were more over wording than on major differences. Diplomatic sources in Washington said President Carter has promised to consider picking up much of the bill for Israel's pullout from the Sinai. an effort which could cost the United States up to $1 billion. [Chicago Tribune]
- U.S. and Soviet negotiators failed tonight to conclude a treaty to limit strategic weapons, complicating prospects for a signed accord or a presidential summit before the end of the year. The next step in the drive by the two nuclear powers to restrain the arms race was not made clear as the talks ended at the Kremlin. [Chicago Tribune]
- Pope Paul II set aside protocol in an emotional tribute to his homeland as he held an audience for Polish pilgrims. He left his security men and his aides gasping when he mingled for an hour with 3,000 of his countrymen, listened to Polish songs, tried on a mountaineer's hat, and kneeled in homage to his former church superior, Stefan Wyszynski, 77, primate of Poland. [Chicago Tribune]
- Dr, Benjamin Levich, a prominent Soviet physicist who applied to emigrate to Israel nearly seven years ago, said today that he has been told he may leave Russia. Sen. Edward Kennedy [D., Mass.], at his meeting in Moscow last month with Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev, interceded on behalf of Levich and 17 other Soviet Jews seeking to emigrate. Scientists throughout the world also petitioned the Kremlin asking that Levich be granted an exit visa. [Chicago Tribune]
- A number of Australians reported seeing unidentified flying objects after a 20-year-old pilot disappeared while describing a hovering U.F.O. A land, sea, and air search has not yet turned up any trace of Frederick Valentich, who was flying south of Melbourne Saturday when he reported sighting a mysterious airship. [Chicago Tribune]
- Pro-statehood forces have won control over the Democratic Party of Puerto Rico, setting the island on a course toward more participation in U.S. politics. Franklin Delano Lopez, a former campaign worker for President Carter, was elected president of the Democrats' island chapter. Pro-commonwealth and independence groups had called for a boycott of Sunday's special election. [Chicago Tribune]
- Los Angeles firefighters fought a losing battle as suburban brush fires, fanned by desert winds, destroyed at least 70 homes. The worst fire began in Agoura and spread over a 20-mile front, destroying 15,000 acres. In the Brentwood section, flames threatened the Mandeville Canyon residential area, home of celebrities. Two fire-fighting helicopters made forced landings, one of them going off a 500-foot cliff. All aboard escaped injury. [Chicago Tribune]
- Tests in which MiG-25 jetfighters "shot down" drones similar to U.S. cruise missiles preceded withdrawal of Soviet demands for SALT restrictions on the weapons, according to Pentagon officials. However, cruise missiles now being built "can penetrate existing Soviet air defenses" and will be successful against future defenses, said a spokesman for the Defense Department. [Chicago Tribune]
- "Mother-In-Law Day" is "the silliest thing I ever heard," in the opinion of one of the nation's better known mothers-in-law -- Lillian Carter. The President's mother and First Lady's mother-in-law said that Sunday's commemoration seemed designed only to encourage people to spend money. The 80-year-old Miss Lillian, who was in Kansas City campaigning for local Democrats, also said she's asked her son whether he minded that she had won $350 gambling in Las Vegas. "He said, 'I don't care what you do, Momma,'" she related. "Do what you can for the Democrats and, if you have some fun on the side, go to it." [Chicago Tribune]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 839.66 (+1.65, +0.20%)
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* |
| October 20, 1978 | 838.01 | 97.95 | 43.67 |
| October 19, 1978 | 846.41 | 99.33 | 31.81 |
| October 18, 1978 | 859.67 | 100.49 | 32.97 |
| October 17, 1978 | 866.34 | 101.26 | 37.87 |
| October 16, 1978 | 875.17 | 102.61 | 24.60 |
| October 13, 1978 | 897.09 | 104.66 | 21.93 |
| October 12, 1978 | 896.74 | 104.88 | 30.17 |
| October 11, 1978 | 901.42 | 105.39 | 21.74 |
| October 10, 1978 | 891.63 | 104.46 | 25.47 |
| October 9, 1978 | 893.19 | 104.59 | 19.72 |