News stories from Tuesday July 22, 1980

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

A former Iranian official was slain at his home in Bethesda, Md., by a gunman dressed as a postal worker. The assassin fled. The victim, Ali Akbar Tabatabai, served as press attache at the Iranian Embassy in Washington during the rule of the Shah and recently had been an outspoken critic of Ayatollah Khomeini. [New York Times] Britain's jobless total has spurted to nearly 1.9 million -- 7.8 percent of the work force, the highest rate since the 1930's. The figure provoked a political storm inside and outside Parliament, but Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher stressed that fighting inflation remained her main priority, even at the cost of more jobs. [New York Times] New data on Billy Carter's ties to Libya were disclosed by the White House. It said that a top administration official had asked President Carter's brother to set up a meeting with a representative of Libya last November to seek aid to free the American hostages in Iran. The White House also said it learned last March that Billy Carter was trying to help an oil company in obtaining Libyan oil and that the White House official told him not to engage in any activity that could embarrass the administration. Libya seeks to gain political influence in the United States under a wide-ranging plan whose targets include labor unions, black organizations, oil companies and politically important individuals in addition to Billy Carter, according to intelligence reports. [New York Times] Blacks in Miami are frustrated and angry over the slowness of aid that was promised to help rebuild the Liberty City area, where three days of rioting in May took 18 lives and cost businesses millions of dollars. Washington has designated about $90 million for various types of recovery, but so far very little help has been given to the neighborhood, which erupted in violence again last week. [New York Times] Senate conservationists won by wide margins a series of test votes on legislation to protect Alaska's lands and wildlife from exploitation. But the two Senators from Alaska indicated they might introduce many amendments to delay passage of the bill and perhaps persuade the Senate to modify the planned restrictions. [New York Times] The Reagan drive for Republican unity was pressed by Senator Paul Laxalt, the leading conservative spokesman for the campaign. He predicted that conservatives originally upset by Ronald Reagan's choice of George Bush as his running mate would rally behind the ticket. [New York Times] Increased rights for cable televison were approved in a 4-to-3 vote by the Federal Communications Commission. It ruled that cable systems may carry as many stations from outside their franchise areas as they, or their viewers, want, and it eliminated rules that allowed broadcasters to stop cable operators from televising the same programs that are presented by local stations. [New York Times] The handling of an industrial spy case has generated questions. Two months ago, a Belgian businessman working for Moscow was charged with attempted bribery to obtain key computer secrets after he gave a check for $500,000 to an undercover F.B.I. agent. Since then, the businessman has been freed from jail under bond, hired a leading lawyer and bargained the original charge against him, which might have led to 40 years in prison, to a misdemeanor and a fine. [New York Times] Rains are drenching Europe in a summer that has left much of the United States hot and parched. Europe's rivers are overflowing and the fields are drowned in mud. The weather excesses are causing Europeans to wonder whether something odd and ominous is occurring. [New York Times] Broad prison reforms in New Mexico have been ordered by a federal court. Nearly six months after a riot left 33 inmates dead and buildings wrecked, the New Mexico State Penitentiary is still troubled, but state officials say that tensions have been eased and progress is being made to resolve the problems that led to the outbreak. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 927.30 (-1.37, -0.15%)
S&P Composite: 122.19 (-0.32, -0.26%)
Arms Index: 1.11

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	760	21.40
Declines	761	23.80
Unchanged	402	7.03
Total Volume		52.23

* in millions of shares

Arms Index is the ratio of volume per declining issue to volume per advancing issue; a figure below 1.0 is bullish.

Market Index Trends
Date	DJIA	S&P	Volume*
July 21, 1980	928.67	122.51	42.74
July 18, 1980	923.98	122.04	58.04
July 17, 1980	915.10	121.44	48.87
July 16, 1980	904.44	119.63	49.13
July 15, 1980	901.54	119.30	60.90
July 14, 1980	905.55	120.01	45.48
July 11, 1980	891.13	117.84	38.31
July 10, 1980	885.92	116.95	43.73
July 9, 1980	897.27	117.98	52.00
July 8, 1980	897.35	117.84	45.83