News stories from Saturday March 10, 1973

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

President Nixon called on Congress to restore the death penalty for certain federal crimes and to enact a stringent new program of minimum jail sentences for heroin pushers. In a radio speech that was scornful of "soft-headed judges" and the "permissive philosophy" that says social injustice breeds crime, the President announced that he had asked Attorney General Richard Kleindienst to draft a capital punishment law that would survive review by the Supreme Court. [New York Times] Legislatures in more than half the states are considering a reinstitution of the death penalty. Passage of such legislation may be difficult, but the bills introduced, often backed by a governor, indicate that a sizable portion of the elected officials still consider the death penalty a strong deterrent to crime. [New York Times] Federal guard points outside the Indian-occupied community of Wounded Knee were pulled back today, and armored personnel carriers loaded on flatbed trucks rumbled back to nearby Pine Ridge. Justice Department officials insisted that the decision was "unilateral", but it was learned that a "mutual understanding" had been reached between federal agents and the rebellious Indians to pull back. Secretary of the Interior Rogers C.B. Morton said that the government would not bow to threats of militant Indians. [New York Times] Statistics for 1972 that will be released by the FBI later this month will show what law enforcement officers say is the first one-year decline of car thefts in United States history. The officers attribute the decline largely to the increased effectiveness of federally mandated antitheft devices, required on cars built since Jan. 1, 1970, that lock the steering wheel and transmission when the ignition key is removed. [New York Times] One of the two men accused of having assassinated two Americans and a Belgian at the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Khartoum, the Sudan, 10 days ago, has made a full confession, describing how the group reached the Sudan, where its weapons were obtained and how the operation was directed from Beirut, Lebanon, authorities in Khartoum said. Sudanese officials say that the conspiracy went far beyond local officials of al Fatah, the main Palestinian guerrilla group, and was directed from Fatah headquarters in Beirut. [New York Times] Canada vented her mounting frustration over failure of the international peacekeeping commission to fulfill its mission in Vietnam by publicly criticizing two of the commission's four-nation members for obstructing an investigation of alleged Communist cease-fire violations. Michael Gauvin, the Canadian delegation's chief, who made the charge, did not name the two delegations. But it was widely understood that they were Poland and Hungary, the two Communist members. Indonesia is the fourth member. [New York Times] Argentines will vote for the first time since 1965 in an election that will replace a seven-year-old military regime with a civilian government. The campaign, in which nine political parties are engaged, has been dominated by the re-emergence of the Peronistas, with their huge working-class base, as a legal political force. Although they were clearly conceded the lead going into the election, it is by no means certain that in the presidential race the Peronistas will get 50% of the total vote needed to win outright. [New York Times]