News stories from Sunday June 20, 1976

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

President Ford appears to he the principal beneficiary in the breakup of the second largest bloc of uncommitted delegates to the Republican National Convention -- the one in West Virginia. Gov. Arch Moore, a Ford supporter, met with the President at the White House and said afterward that Mr. Ford was assured of 20 West Virginia votes, but he may have made an overstatement. [New York Times] The Democratic Rules Committee, which has been preparing recommended changes in rules for conventions after this year's in New York City, has refused to guarantee women an equal share of the convention seats. Instead, the committee approved a resolution requiring that the party conventions in 1980 and after "shall promote an equal division" between male and female delegates. This is not quite what the women's caucus had sought. The committee unanimously approved a plan that would make it possible for more women, blacks and young people to be delegates but without reinstating quotas. [New York Times] With all 435 House seats and one-third of the Senate up for election this year, Congress is especially sensitive to public criticism. possibly because of the bad publicity some of its members recently have had, and is undergoing a critical self-examination. Some reforms may ensue. House members call news conferences almost daily to propose changes in the way Congress spends and accounts for the more than $800 million it spends annually, allocates its perquisites, or deals with the thousands of congressional employees. [New York Times] With Palestinian guerrillas and Lebanese leftist irregulars providing security, the United States Navy carried out an unhurried evacuation of 263 Americans and other foreign nationals from Beirut under orders from President Ford. A landing craft took the evacuees to another Navy vessel that waited three miles off the coast. It seemed that fewer than one-tenth of the 1,800 Americans believed to have been in Beirut were making the 40-hour voyage to Athens. Others said they hoped to go by road to Damascus since they were not permitted to take their cars and large amounts of luggage aboard the Navy ship. And other people chose not to make the sea trip because of a ban on large pets and the prospect of animal quarantines in Greece. [New York Times] Mahmoud Riad, secretary general of the Arab League, said at a news conference in Damascus that he expected the first contingent of an Arab peace-keeping force to enter Lebanon "by land and air" this week. He said that the initial unit would consist of about 1,000 men from several unspecified nations and that they would take over Beirut's airport, which has been closed. [New York Times] South Africans of all races went to church to pray for racial peace and the government offered its first hint that. it might reassess its policies toward the country's 18 million blacks. The weather was bitterly cold, but the churches were filled. The police estimated that in three days of rioting in black townships last week 109 people were killed and 1,100 injured. [New York Times] Millions of Italians began voting in a crucial election that could give the Communist Party a role in the national government for the first time. Because of the possibility that the Communists may get cabinet seats, the election is being watched closely by officials in Western Europe and Washington. The voting will continue tomorrow, when the results will be announced. [New York Times]