News stories from Sunday January 7, 1973

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

Police and snipers exchanged fire near a Howard Johnson hotel in New Orleans. At least four persons were killed (three of them police), and 14 were wounded. After a fire broke out on the 11th floor of the hotel, a sniper shot at firemen from an upper floor. After that the situation became confused. It is believed that one sniper may have held 12 hostages while a second sniper fired at police from different areas of the building. Assistant police superintendent Louis Sirgo was killed by a sniper.A black maid, who was held hostage for a short time and then released, stated that the snipers were only interested in killing white policemen. Since New Year's Day, three New Orleans policemen have been shot by snipers; one was killed. [NBC] Henry Kissinger arrived in Paris to resume Vietnam peace talks on Monday. He is back in Paris to try to negotiate an end to the Vietnam war. North Vietnamese negotiator Le Duc Tho called the upcoming talks "decisive". North Vietnam wants the October agreement to be signed. Kissinger says he hopes for success in the talks, but Le Duc Tho stated that the U.S. must either sign the October agreement or resume the war. [NBC] 165 B-52's bombed North Vietnam below the 20th parallel. Other U.S. planes bombed the enemy in South Vietnam. [NBC] North Vietnam and the Viet Cong staged 15 significant attacks and many smaller ones in South Vietnam. [NBC] Agitation continued against Irish Prime Minister Jack Lynch for leading a crackdown against the Irish Republican Army. Lynch is currently visiting New York City, where he was confronted by a crowd of IRA supporters who threw eggs at him. On the "Issues and Answers" television program, Lynch said that British troops should remain in Northern Ireland. [NBC] Fire broke out in a 100-year-old townhouse hotel in Rutland, Vermont. Five people are reportedly missing; the hotel was destroyed. [NBC] In Buffalo, a car carrying a man and four children was hit by a freight train while driving across railroad tracks. All five were killed. [NBC] An oil spill from a barge is being cleaned up on the Mississippi River near Helena, Arkansas. 800,000 gallons of diesel fuel were spilled when a barge broke away from its tow boat and hit a bridge. Three other barges also broke away and leaked more fuel, but they have now been recovered. EPA spokesman Al Smith said that diesel is the worst of all fuels as far as polluting, and he expects extensive damage to the river. It is hoped that a swift current will help disperse the oil. [NBC] It was announced that President Nixon and Israeli leader Golda Meir will meet on March 1. [NBC] The Palestinian National Council is meeting in Cairo, but Egyptian President Anwar Sadat has not visited the council's meetings as he has done in the past. Yasser Arafat is expected to retain the post of commander-in-chief of the guerillas, though his leadership is under fire from some delegates. The main topic of the council meeting is Palestinian unity. [NBC] Israeli and Syrian forces exchanged fire in the Golan Heights area. [NBC] Culebra is a small island near Cuba which the U.S. Navy uses as a target for gunnery practice. The people of Culebra have been fighting the Navy about this. The bombardment range is fenced off, and the Navy has stopped using explosive warheads in its practice shells, but the 1,000 residents of Culebra are still angry. The say that the Navy is going back on its promise not to use the island as a target after 1975. In 1971, Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird ordered the Navy to study the feasibility of moving its target site to a different island; the Navy claims that moving would be impossible. Laird now says that the Navy will use Culebra as a target range until 1985 or later. Culebrans are appealing to Congress. [NBC] Three people were killed in a Greyhound bus crash in Smithfield, North Carolina. [NBC] In Managua, Nicaragua, the government now estimates that between 10,000 and 12,000 people were killed in the recent earthquake. [NBC] Sgt. Ernest Pounder, a highly-decorated Green Beret, is now a conscientious objector and has applied for discharge from the Army. [NBC] President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines is suspending indefinitely the referendum for a new constitution. [NBC]