News stories from Tuesday December 24, 1974
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Pope Paul VI tapped three times on the "Holy Door" to St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, walled up since the last Holy Year of the Roman Catholic Church in 1950. After workmen removed the door he led a procession into the church, inaugurating the 1975 Holy Year. In a Christmas mass after midnight he prayed for the coming of peace on earth. [New York Times]
- Christian pilgrims attending the midnight mass in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem were subjected to close body searches by Israeli security forces because of recent terrorism in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The town was sealed off by soldiers after the Palestine Liberation Organization warned that the pilgrims might be caught in a crossfire. The Arab Mayor, Elias Freij, called the security "too strict." The crowd seemed much smaller than usual. [New York Times]
- The State Department announced that Richard Helms, Ambassador to Iran and former head of the Central intelligence Agency, had categorically denied any "illegal" domestic spying by the C.I.A. under his leadership. But James Angleton, his former counterintelligence aide, was quoted as saying that there was something to the allegations published by the New York Times. Representative Lucien Nedzi, chairman of the House Intelligence Subcommittee, said that there had been an overstepping of bounds by the C.I.A. [New York Times]
- The Environmental Protection Agency postponed for six months the enforcement of clean air standards requiring review by the states of land-use plans for projected highways, shopping centers, ports, stadiums and airports. The standards had been scheduled to take effect Jan. 1. [New York Times]
- The New Hampshire Ballot Law Commission announced that Louis Wyman, the Republican candidate, had won the November election to the United States Senate by two votes, reversing the 10-vote margin of John Durkin, the Democrat, in the Nov. 27 recount. Mr. Wyman saw no clear mandate in his victory and called for a runoff election. Mr. Durkin said he might be amenable to this. [New York Times]
- A federal grand jury is investigating the finances of Irving Goldman, New York City's Commissioner of Cultural Affairs. Court papers disclosed that the jury had heard testimony that he had used the Jola Candy Corporation, a family business, to evade income taxes. Mr. Goldman could not be reached for comment and a City Hall spokesman said there would be none from Mayor Beame, who appointed him to the $1-a-year post last February. [New York Times]
- A leak from a refinery on Japan's scenic Inland Sea has become the country's biggest oil spill, stretching 80 miles by 20 miles. Damage to beaches and fisheries was already estimated at more than $20 million. There was speculation that the land reclaimed from the sea on which the refinery was built might have given way under a storage tank. [New York Times]
- John Stonehouse, the British Member of Parliament who was discovered in Australia after disappearing Nov. 20 in Miami Beach, sent an apology to Prime Minister Harold Wilson in London. He said he had fled because of "incredible pressures" in his business affairs and "various attempts at blackmail" in an effort to "create a new identity and attempt to lead a new life." [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 598.40 (+8.76, +1.49%)
Arms Index is the ratio of volume per declining issue to volume per advancing issue; a figure below 1.0 is bullish. | |||||||||||||||
| Market Index Trends | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | DJIA | S&P | Volume* |
| December 23, 1974 | 589.64 | 65.96 | 18.04 |
| December 20, 1974 | 598.48 | 66.91 | 15.84 |
| December 19, 1974 | 604.43 | 67.75 | 15.90 |
| December 18, 1974 | 603.49 | 67.90 | 18.05 |
| December 17, 1974 | 597.54 | 67.58 | 16.88 |
| December 16, 1974 | 586.83 | 66.46 | 15.37 |
| December 13, 1974 | 592.77 | 67.07 | 14.00 |
| December 12, 1974 | 596.37 | 67.45 | 15.39 |
| December 11, 1974 | 595.35 | 67.67 | 15.70 |
| December 10, 1974 | 593.87 | 67.28 | 15.69 |