News stories from Saturday January 3, 1981

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

The latest American proposal for freeing the hostages was discussed at the Prime Minister's palace in Teheran by Iranian officials and the Algerian diplomatic intermediaries who returned from Washington with the proposal Friday. [New York Times] The 97th Congress convenes Monday with Republicans sharing power with the Democrats for the first time in nearly a generation. The first item on the agenda will be confirmation hearings for President-elect Ronald Reagan's cabinet. But the lawmakers will probably face much tougher battles in dealing with the pressing problems of the economy. [New York Times] Zbigniew Brzezinski turned down a request to the White House from Senate Democrats for files on Alexander Haig for use in Senate confirmation hearings on his designation as Secretary of Stare in the Reagan administration. He insisted that he would not cooperate with "some indiscriminate witch hunt" but added that he might be able to comply with the request if the Democrats made it quite specific and if White House counsel were satisfied that the doctrine of executive privilege would not be violated. [New York Times] Young men born in 1962 will be required to report to post offices from Monday through Saturday as a second round of draft registration begins nationwide. About 1.9 million men are in that age group. [New York Times] Fraudulent Social Security documents appear to be growing in use, particularly among illegal aliens, who use the cards to obtain jobs and unauthorized government benefits, the General Accounting Office said. [New York Times] Only one of every 100 persons arrested on felony charges in New York City serves any time in state prison, and more than 80 percent of those arrested as felons are not prosecuted as such. The 100,000 yearly felony cases must compete for limited prosecutorial and court resources. As a result, law enforcement officials have decided to treat all but the most serious offenses as misdemeanors, which can be disposed of in criminal court, generally through a plea agreement reached during arraignment. [New York Times] The first confirmed cloning of a mammal has been reported by Swiss scientists. Using cells from mouse embryos, they have produced three mice that are genetically identical with the original embryos. Cloning is the production of a plant or animal identical with one from which a cell or cell nucleus has been taken and activated to become a complete organism. It has been performed to a limited extent in frogs and other amphibians, but the possibility of cloning mammals had not been previously demonstrated. [New York Times] Emigration of Soviet Jews declined precipitiously last year compared with 1979, according to figures released in New York by the National Conference of Soviet Jewry. Soviet officials relied on increasingly stringent and apparently arbitrary rules to curtail emigration. [New York Times] Control of China's armed forces has been taken over by Deng Xiaoping, the country's paramount leader, unofficial Chinese sources in Peking said. The post had been held by Hua Guofeng, who has evidently been forced to resign as party chairman. [New York Times]