News stories from Sunday November 26, 1978

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

The final count of the dead found in the People's Temple commune in Guyana is 909, according to American officials. The final shipment of 183 bodies were sent home to the United States, while the 200 members of the recovery crew started back to their military bases in the Panama Canal Zone and the United States. The survivors of the mass suicide and killings are being held by Guyana pending a criminal investigation.The State Department had hardly any background information on the People's Temple sect and knew virtually nothing about its relations with the Guyanese government, department officials said. They said that the department did not know what kind of relationship the Rev. Jim Jones, the sect's leader, had with Prime Minister Forbes Burnham of Guyana. The officials responded to reporters' questions about charges from the Burnham government's opposition leaders that the government was trying to conceal its links to the People's Temple. As a focus of speculation, controversy and even fear in Guyana, the House of Israel ran a close second to the People's Temple, even before the horrific events of the past week. The House of Israel is a group of black converts to Judaism led by a former civil rights activist in the United States and fugitive from justice. [New York Times] President Carter's proposed welfare reforms will be severely curtailed. His domestic advisers said that the President will ask Congress in January for a package that would include a stringent provision tying relief payments to work registration and a sharply reduced public works program, but would increase relief for New York City and local governments. [New York Times] Gerald Rafshoon, the advertising man who shaped Jimmy Carter's image during the 1976 campaign, has generated more controversy and received more publicity than all the other presidential advisers since he became part of that small circle six months ago. He repeatedly has been described as the guiding hand or evil genius, depending on one's point of view, behind every presidential action. His name has even become a verb. To "Rafshoon" something is to politicize it for the image it would create. [New York Times] The defeat of liberal Senators who will be up for re-election two years from now is one of the goals of the leaders of the right-to-life movement, which gained strength as a political force in this fall's elections. The leaders of the anti-abortion movement will also seek congressional approval by 1982 of a proposed constitutional amendment that would end legalized abortions except to save the mother's life. [New York Times] Federal regulation of the automobile industry could jeopardize the survival of the Chrysler Corporation and the American Motors Corporation if a recession comes in the next seven years, according to a controversial study sponsored by the government. [New York Times] The equal rights amendment is still three states short of the 38 needed for ratification nearly seven years after Congress submitted it to the states. Its proponents are concentrating their lobbying efforts on four states: Florida, North Carolina, Illinois and Oklahoma. The elections this fall did little or nothing to improve its prospects. [New York Times] Fire destroyed a Holiday Inn near Rochester, New York, killing 10 persons and injuring 25. A fire department chief said that the hotel in Greece, a Rochester suburb, had been cited this month for minor fire code violations. Hotel guests said that no fire alarm was heard even as the fire swept through the three story building. [New York Times] China's Deputy Premier said that the time had come to correct the action taken by the Chinese Politburo to purge him after the Tien An Men Square demonstration in Peking in 1976, according to Japanese press reports from Peking. Teng Hsiao-peng made the statement in a meeting with a Japanese politician who was visiting Peking. The Politburo decision was "wrong," Mr. Teng was reported to have said. [New York Times] Israel's recent arrest or detention of 15 West Bank residents opposed to the Camp David accords has raised questions about whether the Israeli military administration has decided to crack down on Palestinian Arabs who are against a transitional civil autonomy plan. [New York Times] A formal explanation of Egypt's position on its stalled peace negotiations with Israel will be sent to President Carter on Tuesday, President Anwar Sadat told reporters in Cairo. Mr. Sadat said he still expected a treaty "sooner or later." [New York Times] Iran's workers responded to a call from Shiite Moslem religious leaders for a one day strike with demonstrations and work stoppages. The sect's leaders, acting with the National Front opposition to the Shah, said they called the strike to protest action by army troops in the city of Meshed on Tuesday, when an undetermined number of demonstrators were killed and the dome of a holy shrine was damaged. [New York Times]