News stories from Saturday April 24, 1976
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Senator Hubert Humphrey, who has said for months that he had no intention of entering any primaries, also said that he would not enter the New Jersey primary on June 8 -- the last one open to him, regardless of the outcome of the Pennsylvania primary on Tuesday. In recent days, a number of his associates had been urging him to change his mind. Some had told reporters that if Jimmy Carter were stopped in Pennsylvania by the coalition to which Mr. Humphrey has given tacit support, Mr. Humphrey might well decide to run in New Jersey. [New York Times]
- The precipitous enrollment decline that threatened the existence of this country's Roman Catholic parochial schools has eased. They are attracting new students by emphasizing spiritual and moral values that many parents find lacking in public schools. There are now waiting lists at some Roman Catholic schools, particularly at the secondary level, and there is growing sentiment for lifting moratoriums on school construction that many dioceses imposed in the days of decline. "It's no longer a question of whether we are going to be able to save the schools, but what we are going to do to improve them," said the Rev. John Meyers, president of the National Catholic Educational Association. [New York Times]
- "Go into business for yourself" is increasingly a theme in the women's rights movement. Many are going into business rather than risk a long wait for advancement in the corporate world. They have overcome a reluctance to seek bank loans for capital, and loan funds have become more readily available. Examples of the expanding frontier are numerous. [New York Times]
- Despite the chilly relations between Hanoi and Washington, several American oil companies have been quietly invited by Vietnam to submit proposals for resuming the offshore oil exploration that was suspended when South Vietnam fell to Communist forces a year ago. American companies and concerns in Canada, France, Japan and Britain have held continuous secret negotiations with the Vietnamese and appear eager to resume drilling for oil in the potentially rich South China Sea. Information on the negotiations was provided by oil executives who wished to remain anonymous and by State Department officials. [New York Times]
- While strictly enforcing controls on American sales of military equipment to China, the Ford administration has quietly acquiesced to some European sales to China and to negotiations on future sales. Senior administration officials said that to facilitate these sales, France and Britain had been allowed to bypass the allied control mechanism to review all proposed sales of strategic items to Communist countries. They said this did not constitute a policy decision but rather a disposition to send a positive signal to China without provoking the Soviet Union. [New York Times]
- After stalling for two weeks, President Suleiman Franjieh of Lebanon signed a constitutional amendment that will permit Parliament to select a new head of state. He had been under intense pressure from Syria, the Lebanese left and his own allies in the Phalangist Party. He signed apparently only after his Phalangist allies threatened to break with him. Kamal Assad, Speaker of Parliament, called a meeting for Monday to fix a date to choose a new president, but there is nothing in the constitutional amendment that will oblige Mr. Franjieh to quit before his six-year term expires on Sept. 23. [New York Times]
- Portugal's new Constitution providing for "democracy and socialism" becomes effective at midnight tonight and the election tomorrow for the 263-seat National Assembly follows two years to the day the revolution that ended 48 years of dictatorship. The vote is not likely to be decisive for two reasons: The prospects are for a division of votes that will give the Socialists only a plurality over three other major parties, and a new president will be chosen in two months. But the vote is expected to confirm the general rejection of the Communists' effort to take power and what President Francisco da Costa Gomes said was the "consolidation of pluralist democracy." [New York Times]