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News stories from Sunday December 3, 1978
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Members of the People's Temple cult were barred by Pan American World Airways from a flight from Guyana to New York because the group of 18 men was not escorted by armed American officials the airline said it had been promised. Two of those taken off the flight were adopted sons of the Rev. Jim Jones, the cult's leader.
The State Department never warned Representative Leo Ryan of danger in his investigative visit to the People's Temple cult in Guyana, according to Jacqueline Speier, his legislative counsel, who was among the Ryan party and was seriously wounded when Mr. Ryan was killed. She accused the State Department and the American Embassy in Guyana with indifference and hostility to Mr. Ryan's trip. [New York Times]
- Teheran was calmer after two nights and a day of bloodshed, in which the loss of life was apparently far greater than first reported. However, troops continued to fire on opponents of the government in at least half a dozen incidents. [New York Times]
- Missile-destroying ray weapons, which could upset the world balance of power and revolutionize warfare, are the subject of a growing debate among United States government officials and scientists. The debate came after reports from American intelligence officials and scientists that the Soviet Union may be much farther ahead than the United States in the development of directed-energy weapons, which use high-energy laser beams or a beam of atomic particles. [New York Times]
- More poor people have been entering than leaving the rural South, reversing an exodus that began more than 50 years ago, according to a Census Bureau analysis of migration patterns. The reversal of the historic migration to the urban Northeast apparently is a response to the Sun Belt's economic vitality. [New York Times]
- Synanon's founder was arraigned in Arizona on charges of conspiracy to murder a Los Angeles lawyer with a rattlesnake. Charles Dederich, the 66-year-old leader of the Los Angeles-based shelter for former drug addicts and alcoholics, allegedly had asked two of Synanon's members to place the snake in Paul Morantz's mailbox. The lawyer was bitten, but has recovered. He represented a woman who had sued Synanon. Mr. Dederich was arrested at his home in Arizona, but was intoxicated and taken to a hospital, where he was arraigned. [New York Times]
- The overthrow of Cambodia's leaders was urged on the people of Cambodia by Vietnam. The Hanoi radio announced the formation of a Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation in what it called the "liberated zone" of Cambodia and reported that the front had called on the Cambodians "to rise up for the struggle to overthrow the Pol Pot and Ieng Sary clique." Prime Minister Pol Pot and Deputy Prime Minister Ieng Sary are the principal leaders of the Phnom Penh government. [New York Times]
- Israel's cabinet, awaiting a full report on the talks that Prime Minister Mustafa Khalil of Egypt has been conducting in Washington, made no decision on whether to resume the stalled peace negotiations with Egypt. [New York Times]
- Venezuelans voted for a new president, choosing among 10 candidates, but the race is actually between Luis Pinerua Ordaz of the ruling Democratic Action Party and Luis Herrera Campins of the Social Democratic Party. Between them, the two parties have governed the country since democracy was restored to it 20 years ago. At least 90 percent of the 6.2 million registered voters went to the polls. The outgoing President, Carlos Andres Perez, cannot seek re-election. [New York Times]
- The United States was accused of working in complicity with Britain to "entrench" Prime Minister Ian Smith's government in Rhodesia by Robert Mugabe, one of the government's principal black opponents. Mr. Mugabe evidently was disappointed with a talk he had in Naputo, Mozambique, where he leads a guerrilla group, with Andrew Young, the United States representative at the United Nations, and Richard Moose, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. [New York Times]
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