News stories from Saturday November 24, 1973

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

President Nixon will announce tonight on nationwide television what he described to reporters as "tough, strong action" to meet the energy crisis. The principal steps are expected to be a ban on the sale of gasoline on Sundays and reduced distribution of home heating oil. White House officials stressed that emphasis would be on conservation rather than rationing of gasoline or fuel oil. Meanwhile, House Speaker Carl Albert in a statement blamed Nixon administration policies for the energy crisis, which he said could lead to a recession with more than 8 percent unemployment next year. [New York Times] Secretary of State Kissinger has said privately that he is "virtually certain" his telephone was tapped at some point since he joined the Nixon administration in early 1969, according to a former White House associate. Mr. Kissinger reportedly made the remark shortly before his confirmation as Secretary of State in September. Mr. Kissinger denied through a State Department spokesman that he had ever expressed such a belief to anyone. [New York Times] A public interest law firm in Washington published an exposition of what it asserts are "indictable common crimes" committed by President Nixon. The paper lists 28 counts of criminal violations allegedly committed by Mr. Nixon both directly and through his White House and re-election campaign staffs and his private representatives. The alleged crimes involve the Watergate scandal, campaign financing, violation of civil liberties and the use of federal funds for personal enrichment. [New York Times] Small cars, for years the automobile industry's unglamorous stepchildren, have in the last few weeks suddenly become the hottest items on the market, with drivers rushing to trade in their big, gas-eating cars with an urgency that automobile dealers describe as "panic" and "hysteria." As a result, people will wait months for delivery of new compacts; the price of used small cars has increased substantially, and the trade-in and resale value of big cars has plummeted so fast that some new car dealers say they may soon refuse to accept big-car trade-ins at all. [New York Times] Ismail Fahmy, Egypt's Foreign Minister, declared at the opening of the Arab foreign ministers' conference in Staoueli, Algeria, that the Arab countries should step up their use of the "oil weapon," and Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Algeria's Foreign Minister, said they should "multiply their forces in the struggle with imperialism and Zionism." Anti-Israeli militancy was the keynote as ministers and other high officials representing 16 Arab nations and the Palestinian refugees gathered for the first large-scale Arab meeting since the October war against Israel. [New York Times] The South Vietnamese Air Force has made further large air strikes against Communist-held areas northwest of Saigon, military sources in Saigon reported. The raids on Katum and Thien Ngon airfields in northern Tay Ninh Province Friday morning were the heaviest since the January cease-fire, the South Vietnamese sources said. [New York Times]