News stories from Saturday January 20, 1979

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

The world's energy problems alight be solved if an experimental power plant being planned by a consortium of nations conducting advanced fusion research is successful. The fusion fires that burn in the heart of the sun would be "ignited" in a self-sustaining, controlled manner. In contrast to machines now under construction and intended to merely release more fusion energy than is injected, the experimental plant would be used to exploit fusion energy to generate power. [New York Times] The increased amounts of federal aid given to cities over the last two decades are now heading into a period of decline, urban specialists say, and they see the change as having long-term implications for the national effort to revitalize old urban areas. [New York Times] Tennessee's new Governor, Lamar Alexander, was exploring ways to void the pardons and paroles that his predecessor, Ray Blanton, who was removed from office Wednesday night, granted to 24 murderers and 28 other convicts. The state Senate censured the former Governor for the most controversial of his paroles while the F.B.I. continues its investigation of Mr. Blanton's executive clemency orders. [New York Times] The Democratic party and President Carter's evangelist sister, Ruth Carter Stapleton, are using selected lists of the names and addresses of about 10,000 past and potential contributors, which they gave to each other. Last fall, the Democratic National Committee exchanged a computerized list of 5,000 names for another list of 5,000 potential contributors to Mrs. Stapleton, who regularly raises money to finance her religious activities and is building a $2 million retreat center near Dallas. No money changed hands as part of the trade, which was described as "routine" and "even-steven" by a party direct-mail specialist. [New York Times] Iran's armed forces and the Islamic opposition are conducting highly tentative negotiations, sources in Teheran said. The talks, if successful, could bring the country out of its political impasse. Ayatollah Khomeini, the exiled Shiite Moslem leader, is demanding an Islamic republic, and the mostly conservative generals are privately discussing a coup if the Ayatollah succeeds in eradicating all vestiges of the Shah's rule.Ayatollah Khomeini announced in France that he would return to Iran "in a few days," ending a 15-year political exile. "I will join you very soon," he told his followers. However, an aide said that the Ayatollah would be in Teheran in time for prayers Friday, the Moslem sabbath. The Carter administration was encouraged by an apparent consensus among various factions in Iran for an independent, non-Communist government, and it believed that this enhanced the possibility of a long-term political solution. A State Department official repeated President Carter's backing for the government of Prime Minister Shahpur Bakhtiar, but it was clear the administration was uncertain whether Mr. Bakhtiar would be able to do more than serve in a transition period. [New York Times]