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News stories from Sunday April 7, 1974
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries -- the cartel that has pushed up the price of oil by 400 percent in the last year -- faces serious internal problems and possible breakup by 1980 because of potential sharp conflicts of interest among its members, according to Walter Levy, an influential oil economist, whose views save been given wide attention by high government circles here and abroad.
The members of OPEC, whose representatives met in Geneva, decided to set up a special fund to help poorer developing countries, but they failed to agree on how much money to contribute. The lack of agreement reflected a political split in the 12-nation group. Iran, Venezuela and Algeria firmly sponsored the fund, but Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other Arab countries resisted. [New York Times]
- Donald Alexander, the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, refused to say yes or no when asked if the $432,787.13 owed in back taxes by President Nixon may have included a negligence penalty of 5 percent. Under sharp questioning on the television program "Face the Nation," Mr. Alexander declined repeatedly to say whether such a penalty had been assessed. He based his refusal to answer the question on the principle of confidentiality between the I.R.S. and the taxpayer. But he did not invoke that principle when he said there had been no fraud penalty against the President. [New York Times]
- President Nixon's tax advisers were ordered by the White House to take some of the deductions from his taxable income that were later declared improper by the congressional investigation of his tax returns, according to Arthur Blech, the President's personal accountant. "It was take 100 percent of that and take 50 percent of that," Mr. Blech said in an interview. The instructions, he said, had come from John Dean, John Ehrlichman and other former high Nixon aides. [New York Times]
- President Nixon, one of the chiefs of state who attended memorial ceremonies in Paris for President Pompidou on Saturday, conferred with other heads of government over the weekend including leaders of the Soviet Union and Japan, said "au revoir" to a friendly crowd of Parisians and returned to Washington. His aides said that the trip demonstrated that Mr. Nixon, even though he is under an impeachment inquiry at home, is needed in the presidency if the United States is to continue as a leader for world peace. They were clearly relieved at the absence abroad of opposition and criticism that the President sometimes encounters at home. [New York Times]
- Jacques Chaban-Delmas, former Premier of France, won the full backing of the powerful Gaullist party as its candidate for President. Valery Giscard d'Estaing, the Finance Minister and head of the Independent Republicans, allied with the Gaullists, but a personal rival of Mr. Chaban-Delmas, will announce today whether he too will run. Edgar Faure, twice Premier and now president of the National Assembly, insists that he will not back out of his declared candidacy despite enormous pressures. This means that the right will probably present three contenders to the voters May 5 against a single contender from the left -- the Socialist party chief, Francois Mitterrand. [New York Times]
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