News stories from Saturday May 26, 1973

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

Federal prosecutors now have evidence directly linking H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, former top White House advisers, to illegal activities against Dr. Daniel Ellsberg in 1971, sources close to the Watergate investigation disclosed. The prosecutors now have concluded, the sources said, that those activities were a major factor behind the decision at the White House to cover up the Watergate bugging a year later. [New York Times] The White House provided some additional details regarding the financing of the purchase of Richard Nixon's estate in San Clemente, Calif. But some questions remain unanswered. The White House disclosed, in response to inquiries, that the bulk of the estate, which cost $1,249,000, was controlled by an investment company formed by Robert H. Abplanalp, a multimillionaire businessman, who is a close friend of the President. The White House said it could not name the investment company, and that the information would have to come from Mr. Abplanalp, but it did disclose that the government paid $39,525 for improvements to the property, mostly for security reasons, and that the Nixons spent $123,514 on additional improvements. [New York Times] Skies over the Corn Belt states were hazy and gray last week, but the hot winds were finally blowing and farmers were into their fields far into the night, sowing corn and soybean crops dangerously delayed by the wettest spring in memory. From 75 to 90 percent of the corn in Iowa was already in the ground, a tribute to the speed and enormous size of modern farm machinery. Two weeks before, barely 18 percent of the corn crop had been planted. If the rains had continued, next fall's corn and soybean yields would have been drastically reduced, and any hope of at least holding farm prices where they are now would have faded. [New York Times] The Skylab I astronauts finally boarded the massive space station and partly deployed a parasol over its roof in an effort to make the overheated vehicle habitable for a planned 28-day mission. Moving cautiously from their Apollo spacecraft into the crippled Skylab, the astronauts assured themselves that the house-size laboratory was safe from noxious gases, floating debris or overwhelming heat. [New York Times] Governor Cahill's renomination campaign in New Jersey is encountering trouble as it moves into its final weeks amid charges of corruption against some of his closest political associates. Mr. Cahill, a liberal independent, is being seriously challenged in the Republican gubernatorial primary election by Representative Charles W. Sandman, Jr., a Cape May County conservative, who has a chance of pulling a major upset June 5, political analysts say. [New York Times] The commander of the Greek Navy destroyer Velos and 31 officers and men who had joined in a mutiny against the military regime in Athens debarked in the Italian fishing port of Fiumicino, near Rome, and asked for political asylum. The Velos, anchored three miles off Fiumicino, was due to go on to Naples with her crew of 270 officers and men. The disembarkment of the rebel commander, Capt. Nicholas Pappas, and the other mutineers came after more than 12 hours of tense negotiations with Italian officials, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Greek diplomats and military officers. [New York Times] An Icelandic gunboat shelled a British trawler off Iceland's northern coast, Iceland's coast guard reported, and said that the 884-ton trawler Everton from the English port of Grimsby had sprung a leak but was not in danger of sinking. The coast guard said the gunboat Aegir -- flagship of the coast guard fleet policing Iceland's extended 50-mile fishing limits -- had fired at the trawler after she refused to stop. [New York Times] The Soviet authorities declared a state of alert in a remote Central Asian valley and began evacuating some of the valley's 10,000 inhabitants in the face of a flood threat caused by a rapidly advancing mountain glacier. The emergency in the Vanch Valley of the Pamir highland, known as the "roof of the world," was disclosed in the Soviet press as the Bear Glacier, an eight-mile-long tongue of ice, started to move after having been relatively dormant for 10 years. [New York Times] Secretary of State Rogers ended his visit to Argentina. His next stop is Jamaica, the last of eight Latin American nations on his current tour. Before he left, Mr. Rogers conferred with Dr. Hector Campora, Argentina's new President, but details of their discussion were not immediately available. Mr. Rogers, who spent three days in Buenos Aires, was among more than 60 foreign-delegation chiefs who were on hand for the inauguration of the new Peronist government than replaced a military regime. Aides of Mr. Rogers said that he declined to attend the actual inauguration ceremony because of civil disorders that occurred as hundreds of thousands of Peronists danced in the streets. The hotel where the American delegation was staying was stoned. [New York Times]