News stories from Sunday July 4, 1982

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

The Columbia landed smoothly at 9:10 A.M., Pacific standard time at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The seven-day orbit around Earth was the reusable spacecraft's fourth and last test flight. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced that the shuttle was ready for regular cargo-hauling operations to and from space. President Reagan, who welcomed the shuttle's two astronauts, announced a national space policy that emphasizes the shuttle's role in scientific, commercial and military operations in space. [New York Times] President Reagan affirmed his dedication to the United States space program in a speech at the welcoming ceremonies Edwards Air Force Base, but withheld the promise of funds that NASA officials have been pressing for at the White House. [New York Times] The Sun Belt has prospered since it began to challenge the dominant economic and political power of the Northeast and Middle West a decade ago. But the region, which includes the vast warm-weather half of the country, from Florida to southern California, is finding that its prospects are not unlimited. As it inherits much of the power of the North, it is also faced with a fuller measure of the social, economic and environmental problems that have long bedeviled Northern cities. [New York Times] Mammography's ability to detect very early and presumably highly curable cancers in young women as well as those who are older has been confirmed by a five-year breast cancer detection project sponsored by the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute. [New York Times] Israel rejected any peace proposal that would leave the Palestine Liberation Organization with a political or organizational presence in Lebanon. All members of the P.L.O. "without exception" must leave Lebanon, a statement by the cabinet said after discussions of the political negotiations being held in Beirut. The statement was an apparent response to reports in Jerusalem that the P.L.O. had offered to withdraw some of its fighters if permitted to keep a political office and a unit in the Lebanese army. [New York Times] The Israeli siege of west Beirut was intensified. Water, food and fuel were prevented from entering the encircled stronghold of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Israeli ground troops blocked almost all traffic into west Beirut while tanks in a hillside village overlooking Beirut fired on Palestinian neighborhoods. [New York Times] A gunshot wound in the head killed President Antonio Guzman of the Dominican Republic, who was scheduled to leave office next month. The government said Mr. Guzman's pistol had accidentally discharged. But high government officials said privately that Mr. Guzman had committed suicide. Vice President Jacobo Majluta Azar was sworn in as interim President, and he reaffirmed that his government would transfer power to President-elect Salvador Jorge Blanco as scheduled on Aug. 16. [New York Times] The Pope's plan to visit Poland next month is being discouraged by the military government, which is urging him to cancel or at least postpone the visit, according to Roman Catholic and other Western diplomatic sources. [New York Times] The U.S. initiated talks in Angola that are intended to prevent a dispute over the presence of Cuban troops there from endangering negotiations on ending the conflict in South-West Africa, also known as Namibia. [New York Times] Millions of Mexicans voted for a new President, fully aware that he will be the official party's nominee, Miguel de la Madrid, although there were six opposition candidates of left and right on the ballot. [New York Times]