News stories from Sunday April 8, 1973

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

Pablo Picasso died at his home at Notre Dame de Vie in Mougins in southern France, just north of Cannes on the Riviera, at the age of 91. His death was attributed to pulmonary edema by his physician. A native of Spain, he had lived most of his life in France. He leaves his widow, Jacqueline, whom he married in 1961. [New York Times] James McCord has told a federal grand jury that he believed that Kenneth W. Parkinson, an attorney for the Republican re-election committee, channeled cash to the Watergate defendants in return for silence after their arrest inside Democratic headquarters last June. Sources close to the case said that McCord, one of seven men sentenced to prison for their role in the break-in, testified that he believed that Mr. Parkinson was responsible for "applying the pressure" on the defendants to plead guilty shortly before the trial began in January. [New York Times] Tomorrow is the third anniversary of Earth Day, an interlude of contemplation of the nation's deteriorating environment and of resolve to rehabilitate and protect it. The anniversary celebration will continue for a week under presidential proclamation. [New York Times] A spillway 25 miles from New Orleans was opened in an attempt to divert floodwaters from the Mississippi River, which is building toward its highest crest there in 23 years under almost incessant rains. In Mississippi, the Army Corps of Engineers poured tons of crushed rock into the Eagle Lake area to bolster a flood-endangered dam in Greenville. [New York Times] Three tankers and two cargo ships from a convoy of 18 vessels reached Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, today with the first fuel that the city has received in two weeks. The tankers brought enough fuel to last for six days. Government officials had said that nine tankers were needed to ease the capital's critical fuel shortage, which began last week when Communist troops cut all the roads to the capital and blocked traffic on the Mekong River. [New York Times] Six members of the two peace-keeping commissions, including two Viet Cong officers, were killed when their helicopter was shot down by a Communist missile in South Vietnam near Laos Saturday, a Viet Cong spokesman said. The three Americans, all crewmen of the chartered aircraft, also died. The spokesman termed the incident a "regrettable accident." [New York Times]