News stories from Sunday December 15, 1974

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

President Ford and President Valery Giscard d'Estaing of France held extended discussions at their meeting in Martinique on energy policy and other key issues, but failed to report any substantive agreement. However, a White House official said privately that it was still possible that the two sides would announce an agreement on energy policy tomorrow, when the talks are scheduled to end. [New York Times] Gen. Alexander Haig assumed supreme command of Allied Forces in Europe, the military arm of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, in a brief ceremony in Casteau, Belgium. General Haig, former White House Chief of Staff under President Nixon, replaced Gen. Andrew Goodpaster, and asked "to be judged on my performance, and not how I got here." [New York Times] Travel industry leaders said in interviews that they expected this year's holiday travel to be one of the slowest such periods in a decade, The nation's depressed economy -- with widespread layoffs, inflation and apprehension about what lies ahead in the new year -- will apparently keep many Americans at home instead of on a warm beach or with relatives in distant cities. [New York Times] The recent amendment requiring colleges to allow students to see their own files has indirectly led a team of Harvard biochemists to consider the repudiation of a major series of experiments. Serious doubts about the experiments' validity arose when it was discovered that an honors student who had a key role in the research had forged or doctored four letters of recommendation for medical school, for admission to Phi Beta Kappa and for a scholarship. [New York Times] Interviews with college placement officers and graduating students in universities in many parts of the country indicate that major companies are still sending their recruiters to campuses, although at several institutions the number of recruiters scheduling interviews is fewer this year than last. Several college placement officers expressed surprise at the number of jobs available. For example, majors in accounting and engineering, especially chemical or petroleum engineering, will find better job opportunities this year and the starting salaries will be 5 to 7 percent higher than last year. [New York Times] There were indications in Rhodesia's capital city of Salisbury that numerous problems remained in the way of a settlement between the country's white government and the black majority. There appeared to be continuing divisions among black Rhodesian nationalist movements. A leading black nationalist said his faction had agreed only reluctantly to new constitutional talks with the government of Prime Minister Ian Smith, who said he would resist quick political change. [New York Times] African delegates to the United Nations are moving to increase pressure on South Africa over the issue of South-West Africa, which they call Namibia. The African initiative coincides with new developments in the eastern tier of southern Africa, where the white-minority governments of South Africa and Rhodesia have started talks with their black neighbors and black liberation movements. South-West Africa, renamed Namibia by the United Nations in 1968, is a mineral rich territory about twice the size of the state of California. [New York Times]