News stories from Sunday July 12, 1981

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

Evacuation of the Santa Clara Valley area in California before the aerial spraying of the fruit fly infestation starts Tuesday was being planned by local residents although health officials insist that the pesticide malathion, which will be used in the spraying, is harmless to humans. [New York Times] A sevenfold increase in cruise missiles by 1987 is planned by military strategists in the Reagan administration. Officials said that plans for increasing the seaborne missiles, which are winged tubes with jet engines, called for deploying 900 Tomahawk missiles in 1987, as against 88 next year. The annual outlay for the weapons would soar to $1.5 billion in 1987 from $210 million in 1982, without accounting for the effects of inflation. [New York Times] A threat to the Du Pont-Conoco merger came from Joseph E. Seagram & Sons, which made a last-minute effort to thwart Du Pont's bid for the nation's ninth-largest oil company. In a move anticipated on Wall Street, Seagram offered to pay Conoco stockholders $85 a share for a 51 percent interest in Conoco -- or nearly $3.8 billion in cash. Du Pont last week reached an agreement to buy Conoco for $7.3 billion, or $87.50 a share, in a transaction that was described as the largest merger in American corporate history. But only $3.1 billion of the total price would be in cash, with the balance in Du Pont stock. [New York Times] The strike by mental health employees in Massachusetts spread to more than 60 percent of the total workforce at the state's mental hospitals and special schools as the impasse over the state budget that cut off the employees' pay checks remained unresolved in the legislature. Nearly 1,000 National Guardsmen took over the strikers' duties at seven institutions. [New York Times] Moves to punish rioters in Britain have been tentatively agreed upon by the government, which, however, will investigate the underlying causes of the riots that in the last 10 days have scarred more than 30 English cities and towns. Political sources said the cabinet would meet today. Among the measures already given provisional approval are the establishment of special courts with increased powers, legislation to make parents financially liable for their childrens' acts, and a youth employment program costing millions of pounds. [New York Times] Need for a stronger Western Europe was agreed upon at the opening of a two-day meeting in Bonn between West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and President Francois Mitterrand of France. Spokesmen for both sides said it was agreed that Western Europe should deal with the Soviet Union from a position of military strength. [New York Times] Israel bombed Palestinian targets again in Lebanon. In an attack lasting more than an hour and a half and following one made late last week, Israeli planes struck the Lebanese coast, destroying Palestinian artillery and damaging a weapons storehouse and an ammunition dump, according to an Israeli spokesman. [New York Times] A U.S.-trained Salvadoran army unit is engaged in a major operation against anti-government guerrillas in the mountains surrounding Cinquera, 42 miles northeast of San Salvador. The unit consists of about 1,200 soldiers of the Atlacatl Battalion, El Salvador's rapid reaction force. [New York Times]