News stories from Friday April 17, 1981

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

A plane collision in Colorado killed at least 15 persons. The planes, a twin-engine commuter plane and a single-engine skydiving craft carrying parachutists, collided in clear weather 40 miles north of Denver. [New York Times] Six more miners were found dead in the Colorado coal mine where they were trapped following an explosion Wednesday. All 15 of the trapped men died. Nine other bodies were found by rescue workers at about midnight Thursday. [New York Times] Coal contract talks broke off in Washington and it appeared that they might not resume for several weeks. [New York Times] Two students were shot to death at the University of Michigan, the police said, as they confronted a fellow classmate who apparently had thrown firebombs in their dormitory. [New York Times] Ross Fields was freed on $355,000 bail. The 37-year old boxing promoter, also known as Harold J. Smith, is charged in a civil suit in Los Angeles with embezzling $21.3 million from the Wells Fargo Bank. He said that he had information about narcotics-related transactions at the Wells Fargo Beverly Hills branch. [New York Times] An end to busing in Los Angeles was barred by a federal judge who issued a court order preventing the school district from carrying out its plans to end busing for integration next week, pending the outcome of a suit filed by National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. [New York Times] The number of new jobs that will result from President Reagan's "Program for Economic Recovery" is a matter of conjecture, judging from the predictions given by the administration, government departments and econometric models developed by private concerns. Forecasting job growth is a very uncertain exercise, made more uncertain by the current economy and the many powerful and complex changes in the nation's workforce. [New York Times] Worker protection from lead poisoning is being reconsidered by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which established industrial safety rules two years ago. The agency announced that it would assess whether industry's cost of compliance is justified by the health benefits to the more than 800,000 workers who are exposed to lead. Meanwhile, the Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to set aside a decision by a United States Court of Appeals that upheld the regulations last August. [New York Times] Forty tons of food and medicines were carried by trucks into Zahle, a Lebanese Christian city, which has been besieged by Syrian forces who are fighting Christian militias. Fighting continued, but the Syrians allowed the convoy, sent by the International Committee of the Red Cross, to pass. [New York Times] An independent farmers's union was approved by the Polish government, which thereby gave direct control over almost all areas of industrial and agrarian productivity in Poland to independent labor organizations outside the Communist Party. The new union, Rural Solidarity, will be given official status May 10. [New York Times] Proposed American aid to Pakistan caused sharp disagreement between Indian and American officials in Washington. India regards Pakistan as a threat to its security. Indian and American officials said that Eric Gonsalves, the senior career official in India's Foreign Ministry, expressed India's deep concern over the administration's plans to provide military aid to Pakistan as part of of a $1 billion assistance program that would also give economic aid, at a meeting with Secretary of State Alexander Haig and other American officials. [New York Times]