News stories from Sunday December 24, 1978
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Twice as much money was given to House committee chairmen seeking re-election in 1978 by political committees representing corporations, unions and controversial causes as in the previous campaign. This year, the contributions averaged nearly $45,000 to help the incumbents stay in office. In 1976, the average donation from special interest groups was $21,700. [New York Times]
- Growing discontent among the followers of Wallace Muhammad is evident as the fourth anniversary of the death of Elijah Muhammad, leader of the World Community of Al Islam of the West, approaches. The group, formerly called the Black Muslims, is still reeling from the radical changes made by Wallace Muhammad, the son of Elijah Muhammad. [New York Times]
- So many Indian families are being broken up, the children put in foster care or up for adoption, that a federal law has been passed giving tribal courts jurisdiction over such cases. Experts in child psychiatry have said that 20 times as many Indian children as Anglo children are placed away from their families, families whose only failing in many cases is poverty. [New York Times]
- A white Christmas is the last thing that Menard, Tex., wants. The agricultural town of 1,740 persons in the Texas hill country adjoins the Permian Basin, the largest field of oil and gas in the lower 48 states, but Menard cannot get enough natural gas to keep itself warm, and zero temperatures there are not unusual. [New York Times]
- Eight children died in a fire in a New Orleans apartment. The fire apparently was started by a short circuit in an artificial Christmas tree's lights. The children ranged in age from 1 to 18 years. Neighbors said five were siblings and three were grandchildren of a woman who escaped. [New York Times]
- An effort to get the Israeli-Egyptian peace talks going again failed in Brussels, where Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan of Israel and Egypt's Prime Minister, Mustafa Khalil, met. They agreed to maintain contacts and try to avoid the mutual recriminations that have marked the breakdowns in the negotiations. [New York Times]
- President Carter's decision to establish diplomatic relations with China was said by some American officials to be a major factor in the Soviet Union's reluctance to conclude the strategic arms limitation agreement with United States in Geneva on Saturday. American negotiators thought they had resolved some long-standing issues, but Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko suddenly balked, standing pat on what the Americans regarded as less-than-crucial matters. [New York Times]
- China held memorial services, in an extraordinary gesture of atonement, for two prominent victims of Mao Tse-tung's purges. The ceremonies were for Peng Teh-huai, a military hero ousted by Mao in 1959, and Tao Chu, who was the fourth-ranking member of China's Communist Party when he was purged in 1967. The eulogies noted that both men had died during the Cultural Revolution. [New York Times]
- The worsening of the fighting between Cambodia and Vietnam, which Carter administration officials say has become a full-scale war, is worrying the administration because of the possibility that two major powers might become involved: China on behalf of Cambodia, and the Soviet Union in support of Vietnam. [New York Times]
- Rampaging student demonstrators in Teheran slipped leaflets calling for "Death to the Shah" under windshields of cars stalled in traffic. The car drivers, who quickly shook the students' hands or raised a fist in sympathy, then hurried even faster to tear up the incriminating leaflets. Government troops wearing gas masks followed the students, but at a distance. [New York Times]
- Rhodesian guerrillas have killed more than 100 white farmers in the Cashel Valley agricultural region near the Mozambique border. At least 50 farmers have been killed this year. The slayings have cut the number of white farming families in the area from 60 a few years ago to 17. Government troops are now making only sporadic forays against the guerrillas. But many farmers are determined to remain. [New York Times]