News stories from Saturday December 15, 1973

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

President Nixon called on Congress to complete action before Christmas on legislation providing emergency powers to conserve energy as he signed a bill putting the nation on year-round daylight saving time on Sunday, Jan. 6. He urged Congress to act on other energy-saving measures submitted by him, even though they might "require inconvenience and sacrifice." [New York Times] President Nixon's intended gift to the American people of his estate in San Clemente, Calif., will give him another big tax deduction right about the time the one for his pre-Presidential papers is running out. Tax lawyers who have been looking at the President's financial disclosures calculate that the deduction for the gift of the estate will be somewhat smaller year by year than the one Mr. Nixon has been taking for the disputed gift to the National Archives of his papers. Since the President and Mrs. Nixon intend to use the San Clemente estate throughout their lives and will give it to the nation only after both are dead, they will be eligible for an immediate tax deduction, but not for the estate's full value. [New York Times] A steady 10-year decline in high school students' scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test, underlined by a drop for this year's graduates, puzzles educators who thought students were getting smarter. The S.A.T. is the principal admissions examination used by many of the country's institutions of higher education, especially the private ones. It is sponsored by the College Entrance Examination Board. [New York Times] Americans who have come to take mobility for granted are facing this holiday season the most choked system of transportation that the nation has experienced in years, possibly since World War II. Cancellation of hundreds of airline flights because of jet fuel shortages has made seats unavailable on scores of routes over the holidays, and uncertain gasoline supplies have made families wary of driving very far on holiday trips. [New York Times] The American Psychiatric Association decided that homosexuality is not a mental disease, changing a position it has held for almost a century. The board of trustees of the 20,000-member group voted instead to categorize homosexuality as a "sexual disorientation disturbance" rather than continue to list it as a "mental disorder." Dr. Robert L. Spitzer, a psychiatrist at the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, said at a news conference in Washington: "We're saying that homosexuality per se is not a psychiatric disorder." [New York Times] J. Paul Getty III, a 17-year-old grandson of the American oil billionaire, was found at a deserted service station in southern Italy, more than five months after he had disappeared from Rome. "My kidnappers cut my ear off," the youth told a police captain who found him. An agent of the Getty family gave a huge ransom to bandits somewhere in southern Italy. Sources close to the family said that the equivalent of $2.8 million, presumably in Italian banknotes, had been paid. [New York Times] Britons began the weekend facing renewed power cuts and a complete suspension of Sunday train service. Tomorrow, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Anthony Barber, will announce a series of economic restrictions complementing the cuts in energy use and in the work week announced by Prime Minister Heath last week. His message is likely to involve tax increases and other restrictions on spending money. [New York Times] The heads of the nine Common Market countries, meeting in Copenhagen, managed after a long and bitter argument to agree to face the oil crisis together, but only at the price of a new statement on the Middle East that they hoped would please the Arabs. West German Chancellor Willy Brandt said that the leaders had succeeded in speaking with "a single European voice," but "a very difficult period lay ahead." [New York Times] A senior American official traveling with Secretary of State Kissinger in the Middle East said that the start of the Middle East peace conference in Geneva would probably be delayed about three days, to Friday. The conference had been expected to begin Tuesday. He said that because of continuing disagreement over procedural questions, it had been agreed to delay the opening to allow time for the problems to be ironed out. Formal announcement of the new starting date is not expected until after Mr. Kissinger discusses the situation with Israeli officials. [New York Times]