News stories from Saturday September 9, 1972

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

A major presidential campaign issue may erupt from Senator George McGovern's charge that the Nixon administration had made windfall profits possible for grain speculators and exporters in the recent wheat trade agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union. Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz vigorously attacked Mr. McGovern's assertion that grain dealers, with the administration's cooperation, had used their "inside information to exploit" the trade agreement "to the disadvantage of both the American farmer and American taxpayer." [New York Times] When the 1973 cars go on sale in a few days most of them will not look very different from the 1972 models. But the 1973 models will have a number of changes that were made to meet consumer demands for increased safety and reduced pollution. Among the changes will be new types of bumpers designed to reduce the American car's vulnerability to damage. [New York Times] The Soviet spaceship Venus 8, which reached Venus in July, found that the planet's surface resembles the earth's granitic rocks and that some sunlight does penetrate the dense cloud cover to the surface. A preliminary report on the findings of Venus 8, made public by Tass, the Soviet press agency, described the new information as being of "fundamental scientific significance." [New York Times] An interim report on the autopsies performed in Munich on the bodies of the 11 Israeli athletes killed by Arab terrorists reportedly shows that all were struck by bullets. It seemed likely to German officials in Munich connected with the operation that bullets fired by the Arabs were responsible for the deaths of nine Israeli hostages since they were sitting tied and blindfolded inside two helicopters that brought them from the Olympic Village to Furstenfeldbruckairbase, where they were killed. Two of the 11 Israelis were killed at the Olympic Village in Munich. [New York Times] Thousands of Americans living abroad are apparently being denied the right to vote in the 1972 presidential election, despite a new federal law intended to provide for the first time absentee ballots for all citizens living or traveling overseas. Although both political parties are actively organizing campaigns in foreign countries, their efforts are being frustrated at home by a combination of ignorance, complex and confusing legal questions and a bureaucratic vacuum. [New York Times] A Viet Cong demolition squad reportedly attacked South Vietnam's biggest refugee camp today, taking a heavy toll in life and property. Reports from the camp, which is on the northwestern edge of Danang, said that 20 refugees were killed, 94 were wounded and 200 families left homeless. One government militiaman also was reported killed. The attackers were said to have withdrawn after the raid on the lightly guarded Camp Brooks compound, once a United States Marine supply base, without losing one of their men. [New York Times] Israeli Air Force jets intercepted four Syrian warplanes over the occupied Golan heights today, downing three of them in a brief battle, an Israeli military spokesman announced. The fight was the first in more than two years between Israeli and Syrian planes and it underscored the new tension in the Middle East caused by the slaying of 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team in Munich. In addition to the air battle, the military spokesman said that an Israeli Navy missile boat sank a small attack boat manned by guerrillas off the southern Lebanese coast early Friday morning. [New York Times]