News stories from Sunday March 14, 1976

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

In many parts of the country proposals are being made for the loosening of environmental controls -- mainly by industry -- as a way of helping the economy. But a check has found that instances of actual relaxation are relatively few and that a major reversal in the national effort for environmental improvement seems unlikely. Environmental trends in 14 states from coast to coast were scrutinized. [New York Times] An audience of women politicians made Representative Bella Abzug (N.Y.) the star of the first full United States Senate candidates' forum of this election year. At a meeting in Syracuse, each of five Democrats who would like to run against the Conservative-Republican incumbent James Buckley, made a carefully differentiated appeal to the women's division of the Democratic State Committee. Mrs. Abzug was on friendly terrain and she made the most of it. [New York Times] Crime increased in wealthier neighborhoods and declined in poorer sections of New York City in 1975, according to a study by the New York Times. Many middle-income neighborhoods in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx had sharp increases in serious crime last year. At the same time, the rate of reported felonies decreased or leveled off in some inner-city areas that have long had serious crime problems. [New York Times] At the end of a three-hour speech to the Egyptian People's Assembly, President Anwar Sadat proposed that the Soviet-Egyptian Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation be abrogated. This was greeted with enthusiastic applause by assembly members, many of whom jumped to their feet and shouted, "Right now!" In his speech, Mr. Sadat cited grievances against the Soviet Union, but the breaking point came, he said, when the Soviet Union recently forbade India to provide Egypt with Indian-manufactured spare parts for Egypt's Soviet-made planes. [New York Times] In the 10th communique he has issued since proclaiming himself military governor of Lebanon last Thursday, Gen. Abdel Aziz Ahdab called on Parliament to elect a successor to President Suleiman Franjieh and said that "until this is done we will hold on to our arms." But many members of Parliament, apparently fearful of breaking the thread of legitimacy that holds the country together, seemed reluctant to choose a new President until the defiant Mr. Franjieh, who rejected a request of two-thirds of the members of Parliament that he resign, steps down or is driven from office. [New York Times] The French leftist opposition made sizable gains in nationwide local elections at the expense of the government majority headed by President Valery Giscard d'Estaing. On the basis of nearly completed results in the voting for local General Councils in virtually all of France's districts, called departments, the Socialist Party appeared to have made the major advance, winning what seemed to be 27 percent of the vote. [New York Times]