News stories from Wednesday October 25, 1972

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

North Vietnam says that President Nixon is tricky and crafty, and he is the real stumbling block to peace in Southeast Asia (not President Thieu). The Viet Cong stated that a cease-fire could come within hours, but UPI reports that Viet Cong Foreign Minister Madame Binh sees no early cease-fire possibilities.385,000 South Vietnamese currently live under Communist control; 10% of South Vietnam's hamlets are in enemy hands. There are 13 North Vietnamese divisions (100,000 men) still in South Vietnam. Thus, President Thieu opposes any cease-fire agreement unless North Vietnamese troops withdraw. Thieu has ordered an increase in the production of South Vietnamese flags; people with enemy flags will be punished. [CBS] American bombing strikes over North Vietnam have diminished. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird refused to confirm a deliberate let-up in bombing. [CBS] Four sailors on the U.S. aircraft carrier Midway died when a jet crashed on landing; 22 others were injured. [CBS] The Washington Post reports that White House chief of staff H.R. Haldeman has been named by former Nixon campaign treasurer Hugh Sloan as a person who had access to a secret fund for Republican espionage. But James Stoner, Sloan's attorney, says that Sloan did not implicate Haldeman in grand jury testimony, and White House press secretary Ron Ziegler denied the existence of a secret fund. Sloan testified to the General Accounting Office that a fund was available for Nixon finance chairman Maurice Stans and himself. Ziegler accused the Washington Post of character assassination; Post executive editor Ben Bradlee stands by the story. [CBS] George McGovern is hitting hard on the Watergate issue. Speaking in Milwaukee, McGovern placed the blame for Republican espionage in the President's lap. Former Senator Eugene McCarthy accompanied McGovern at a campus rally in Cleveland, and Senator Edward Kennedy joined McGovern at a shopping center rally in Detroit. McGovern will make a televised speech regarding Nixon administration corruption. [CBS] Republican espionage and sabotage charges have reached the boiling point. Washington Post accounts show a pattern of organization for shady political tricks; the White House refuses to open up regarding the matter. Vice President Agnew's attacks on the credibility of the press have paid off -- the public doesn't know whom to believe. [CBS] President Nixon made his fifth paid campaign radio broadcast, saying today that he will renew the fight against court-ordered busing. The President also hopes to give tax credits to parents with children in private schools. [CBS] Chicago state's attorney Edward Hanrahan has been acquitted of conspiracy charges in the 1969 police raid of Black Panther headquarters; the trial lasted four months. Judge Philip Romiti ruled that the evidence against Hanrahan was insufficient. Prosecutor Barnabas Sears undermined his own case by producing Panther statements saying they had fired back at the police. Hanrahan is running for re-election with Mayor Daley's support. Daley called the case a lesson against drawing hasty conclusions before all the facts are heard. [CBS] Following tension over school integration, five white men in Queens, New York, attacked two school buses that were carrying black and Puerto Rican children. [CBS] Attorneys for Sirhan Sirhan appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, claiming new physical evidence which proves he did not fire the shots which killed Senator Robert Kennedy. [CBS] Susan Roley and Joanne Pierce today became the first two women to join the FBI. [CBS] Israeli security officials discovered three letter bombs which were addressed to President Nixon, Secretary of State William Rogers and Defense Secretary Melvin Laird. They were mailed from a small town in northern Israel. Four others from Yugoslavia that were addressed to Arabs exploded in Tripoli, Cairo and Algiers. [CBS] Last May, a Hungarian emigre named Laslo Toth swung a sledge hammer at Michelangelo's "Pieta" statue in the Vatican; restoration has begun. Fragments have been recovered, identified and catalogued. The broken pieces will be put into place with a putty consisting of marble dust and resin. Experts hope to place the Pieta on view again as a Christmas present to the world. [CBS] The British pound fell to a record low on European money markets, at $2.15. [CBS] CBS' projections for the 1972 gubernatorial contests: Democrat Jay Rockefeller (John D. Rockefeller, IV), a McGovern supporter, is running for governor in West Virginia. He opposes the strip mining of coal. Incumbent Republican Arch Moore has noted Rockefeller's out-of-state origins, and Vice President Agnew made a visit to boost Moore's campaign. In Illinois, Republican Richard Ogilvie has moved back into contention for a second term although he imposed a state income tax during his first term. His opponent, Democrat Daniel Walker, rarely mentions George McGovern during his campaign speeches and has mended his quarrel with Chicago Mayor Richard Daley.Iowa will go Republican; Arkansas and Utah will go Democrat in governor races. North Dakota, Rhode Island and Vermont lean Republican. South Dakota, Texas, North Carolina and Kansas lean Democrat. Illinois and West Virginia, along with Delaware, Indiana, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire and Washington are too close to call. [CBS] For 30 years W.C. Fuller was a gardener in a Dallas, Texas, suburb. He died, leaving a $100,000 trust fund to pay for the college education of black children who want to study landscape architecture. [CBS]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 951.38 (-1.13, -0.12%)
S&P Composite: 110.72 (-0.09, -0.08%)
Arms Index: 0.89

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	695	8.22
Declines	727	7.67
Unchanged	356	1.54
Total Volume		17.43

* in millions of shares

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 24, 1972	952.51	110.81	15.24
October 23, 1972	951.31	110.35	14.19
October 20, 1972	942.81	109.24	15.74
October 19, 1972	932.12	108.05	13.85
October 18, 1972	932.34	108.19	17.29
October 17, 1972	926.48	107.50	13.41
October 16, 1972	921.66	106.77	10.94
October 13, 1972	930.46	107.92	12.87
October 12, 1972	937.46	108.60	13.13
October 11, 1972	946.42	109.50	11.90