News stories from Friday April 8, 1977
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Veterans of the Vietnam years who received less-than-honorable discharges, including deserters, are appealing by the thousands to the government to have discharges upgraded to an honorable status. The government's Joint Liaison Office in Overland, Md., has been receiving more than 3,000 telephone calls daily. The upgrading, initiated by President Carter, applies to persons who served in the armed forces from Aug. 4, 1964, to March 28, 1973. Persons with bad conduct and dishonorable discharges do not qualify for review. [New York Times]
- New data was given New York City and federal officials by sponsors of the Concorde supersonic jet, purporting to prove that, with revamped flight procedures, there would be "very little difference" between the Concorde's noise and that of long-range Boeing 707's. The Concorde's backers also said that their plane would have no problem meeting regulations at Kennedy International Airport regarding takeoff noise and that the plane would actually be quieter on landing than the Boeing 707 jet. [New York Times]
- "Morale here has been shot," an agent in the Federal Bureau of Investigation's New York field office said about the first felony indictment ever brought against an F.B.I. man. He reflected the general anger and concern expressed by F.B.I. representatives over a federal grand jury indictment charging a former New York supervisor, John Kearney, with five felony counts of conspiracy, obstruction of correspondence and illegal wiretapping. [New York Times]
- Efforts to find, develop and win approval for alternative sweeteners to saccharin, which the Food and Drug Administration proposes to ban, are being made by scientists around the country. Much of the research is unlikely to be significant, however, because no one knows what it is that gives sweet foods their flavor. [New York Times]
- West Germany approved export licenses for the controversial nuclear equipment it agreed to provide Brazil despite strong objections of the Carter administration that were relayed to the Bonn government in January by Vice President Mondale. Chancellor Helmut Schmidt apparently did not agree with the administration's contention that the West German agreement with Brazil would contribute to nuclear proliferation. The agreement with Brazil provides for supervision by the International Atomic Energy Organization in Vienna. [New York Times]
- Serious difficulties apparently broke up talks between Japanese and American negotiators in Tokyo on American proposals to cut back Japanese color television exports to the United States. Robert Strauss, President Carter's special trade representative, said that the sessions had made "great progress," but sources said the talks stalled over basic issues, including a ceiling for the Japanese exports. [New York Times]
- President Sadat of Egypt told Carter administration officials that he would expect normalization of relations with Israel in about five years after a general settlement of the Israeli-Arab dispute had been achieved. Administration officials were satisfied with the results of President Anwar Sadat's recent visit to Washington. They said that these areas had been examined: The nature of a final peace settlement, the territorial aspects, the Palestinian question, Mr. Sadat's view of Communist threats to Africa, and economic and military relations. [New York Times]
- President Carter said he has received assurances from Leonid Brezhnev that the Soviet Union is as serious as the United States about an eventual agreement on the limitation of strategic arms. The President said that if the Russians should present evidence that American proposals rejected In Moscow were, as the Russians charged, unfair and unequitable, he would give such proof consideration when further talks begin in Geneva next month. [New York Times]
- Opposition in Singapore to the government of Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew has been crippled by the government's Internal Security Department. A series of arrests in recent months has also crushed a fledgling human rights movement. [New York Times]
- Israel's Labor Party was expected to choose a replacement on Sunday for Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in the May 17 elections, Mr. Rabin withdrew from the candidacy, which might have given him a second term as Prime Minister, because of a conflict over his financial affairs. [New York Times]