News stories from Friday March 12, 1976

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

Eleven men were killed Thursday night in the second of two explosions in a Scotia Coal Company mine near Whitesburg, Ky., within three days, bringing the number of dead to 26. Federal safety officials, fearful of more blasts, said it would be days before the bodies could be removed from the gaseous shaft. A 20-man rescue team, lowered 360 feet through a ventilation shaft, found the 11 bodies, including those of three federal mine safety officials. [New York Times] Gov. Milton Shapp of Pennsylvania, whose campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination produced only one convention delegate in the Massachusetts and Florida primaries, withdrew from the race. Because he had been expected to do reasonably well in his home state's primary on April 27, his announcement enhanced the potential importance of Pennsylvania as a major and perhaps decisive battleground for other Democrats. [New York Times] A research group in Florida reported that syphilis bacterium had been grown in a test tube for the first time and then used to develop an experimental vaccine that might eventually make human beings immune to the disease. Injections of the vaccine into rabbits were said to have given promising results, but four more years of experiments with animals will be necessary, the researchers said, before it could be injected into humans under experimental conditions. [New York Times] Gen. Abdel Aziz Ahdab, a Sunni Moslem who proclaimed himself military governor of Lebanon on Thursday, continued today to demand the resignation of President Suleiman Franjieh, a Christian, but Mr. Franjieh refused to step down. [New York Times] The Nigerian government announced that the former defense minister and 29 others had been put to death for their part in the attempted coup last month in which the chief of state, Gen. Murtala Ramat Muhammed, was assassinated. The government also said that it was seeking the extradition from Britain of the former head of state, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, to defend himself against charges that he had helped plan the attack. [New York Times] Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's government assumed direct control over the west coastal state of Gujarat in India after the defeat of the local government, headed by Chief Minister Babubhai Patel, in a vote in the state assembly. Mr. Patel had headed a nine-month-old coalition that had been united mainly by its opposition to Mrs. Gandhi and her Congress Party. Gujarat was put under President's rule -- direct administration of the state from New Delhi. Now all of India's 22 states are controlled by the Congress Party. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 987.64 (-15.67, -1.56%)
S&P Composite: 100.86 (-1.03, -1.01%)
Arms Index: 1.27

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	465	5.74
Declines	1,063	16.72
Unchanged	374	3.56
Total Volume		26.02

* in millions of shares

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*
March 11, 1976	1003.31	101.89	27.30
March 10, 1976	995.28	100.94	25.90
March 9, 1976	993.70	100.58	31.77
March 8, 1976	988.74	100.19	25.06
March 5, 1976	972.92	99.11	23.03
March 4, 1976	970.64	98.92	24.41
March 3, 1976	978.83	99.98	25.45
March 2, 1976	985.12	100.56	25.59
March 1, 1976	975.36	100.02	22.07
February 27, 1976	972.61	99.71	26.94