News stories from Sunday March 3, 1974

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

In the worst air disaster in history, a Turkish jumbo jet on its way to London exploded and crashed in the area of Ermenonville, 26 miles northeast of Paris, soon after it left Orly Airport, killing all 345 persons aboard. Bodies found nine miles from the crash site "tends to prove that the explosion occurred in flight," according to the French transportation secretary. Five of the passengers might have been guerrillas carrying bombs, the Turkish airline said in Istanbul. [New York Times] Chief Judge John Sirica of the Federal District Court in Washington was expected to decide this week how to dispose of the sealed grand jury report given to him Friday by one of the Watergate grand juries, a well-placed source said. The report is said to outline the grand jury's conclusion that President Nixon was involved in a conspiracy to cover up the Watergate bugging. The judge can order the report resealed, or send all or part of it to the House Judiciary Committee which is considering Mr. Nixon's impeachment, or he can order that the report be released publicly. [New York Times] A month after the abduction of his 20-year-old daughter, Patricia, and 10 days since the last message from her kidnappers, Randolph Hearst made a new appeal for some word from his daughter. "You might ask the people who are holding you if you could be allowed to send us a letter or get in touch with us by tape." Mr. Hearst said addressing his daughter. [New York Times] Egypt has proposed that the oil ministers of Arab oil-producing countries meet in Tripoli, Libya, next Sunday to consider, among other things, the easing of the Arab oil embargo against the United States. A similar conference had been scheduled for Feb. 14, but was canceled at the last minute at the request of Saudi Arabia, acting on behalf of the President of Syria. [New York Times] Gunmen who identified themselves as members of an Arab youth organization hijacked a British Airways jetliner with 102 persons aboard and forced it to land outside Amsterdam. They set it afire after allowing all the passengers and crew to flee. The police captured the hijackers. [New York Times] Premier Golda Meir of Israel stunned her party and the country by suddenly announcing that she was giving up her five-week effort to form a new coalition government. She stated her decision in a moment of apparent pique in a closed-door meeting of her Labor party after members of Parliament from the right and left had criticized her leadership and attempts to form a minority government. [New York Times] Chancellor Willy Brandt's Social Democratic party suffered a severe setback in elections for the Hamburg State Legislature, losing the absolute majority it has had since 1957. The votes the party lost appear to have gone mostly to the opposition Christian Democrats. [New York Times]