News stories from Saturday March 2, 1974

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

The Watergate grand jurors concluded that President Nixon was involved in the Watergate cover-up and decided a month or more ago to urge the courts to turn over their conclusions and evidence to the House impeachment inquiry, well-placed sources said. According to the sources, the grand jury first began considering last summer the possibility that Mr. Nixon had joined in a conspiracy to obstruct justice, the central cover-up charge contained in the indictment issued Friday against seven former White House and Nixon campaign officials. [New York Times] The activities of the White House "plumbers" unit will be among the subjects of further indictments expected this week in the broadening inquiry by the special Watergate prosecutor, Leon Jaworski, sources close to the investigation said. [New York Times] The number of high-income individuals who pay no federal income tax is growing again, according to a report made public by Senator Walter Mondale, Minnesota Democrat. Information from 1972 tax returns, which has just been compiled by the Treasury Department, shows that there were 402 persons with incomes in excess of $100,000 in that year who paid no federal income tax, Mr. Mondale said. In 1971, the number was 276, a decline from earlier years. [New York Times] Prime Minister Heath moved to win the support of the British Liberal party in his attempt to remain in power despite the severe setback to the Conservatives in the general elections. Mr. Heath, whose party will be outnumbered by the opposition Labor party in the House of Commons, conferred with Jeremy Thorpe, the Liberal leader, who with 13 other Liberals in the 635-seat House, will hold much of the balance of power. [New York Times] Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn has addressed a long letter to the Soviet leaders, asking them to abandon Communism as an alien, unworkable political philosophy, dismantle the Soviet Union and focus on developing Russia proper as a separate state. His 15,000-word proposal of national priorities, dated Sept. 5, also urges a halt in the headlong rush into an urbanized, industrial society and a return to the traditional Russian rural way of life, including more settlement of the vast, empty reaches of northern Russia and Siberia. After several months had passed without a reply from the Soviet Government, Mr. Solzhenitsyn decided to make his statement public. [New York Times] A 26-year-old Catalonian anarchist was executed by garroting in Barcelona despite widespread appeals to Generalissimo Francisco Franco for clemency. A few hours later, the government was reported on the point of expelling the Roman Catholic Bishop of Bilbao, the Most Rev. Antonio Ailoveros Ataun, who has been under house arrest since last Wednesday for championing greater freedoms for Spain's Basque minority. This was one of the most serious confrontations between the Spanish government and the Roman Catholic Church since the Franco regime took power in 1939. [New York Times]