News stories from Sunday August 15, 1976

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

President Ford won an important procedural victory on the eve of the Republican National Convention. Voting 59 to 44, the President's supporters on the convention Rules Committee defeated an attempt of Ronald Reagan's supporters to force an early announcement of Mr. Ford's running mate. Both the President and Mr. Reagan gained delegates as a few of the small group of uncommitted delegates shed their neutrality. But both remained short of the 1,130 votes needed for nomination. [New York Times] Ronald Reagan said on his arrival in Kansas City, Mo., that no decision had been reached on his strategy for the opening days of the convention. He said that the debate in the Rules Committee over the vice-presidential rule change was important enough to be decided by all the delegates. The committee had earlier defeated a proposal that would have forced President Ford to disclose his choice of a running mate before he was assured of the nomination. Mr. Reagan was confident that he could win the nomination on the first ballot and that a second-ballot nomination was possible, too. [New York Times] On his arrival in Kansas City, President Ford was exuberant and predicted victory, but it appeared that he was not quite sure of it. He broke tradition by arriving for the convention well before the balloting for the presidential nomination, which will be held Wednesday night. Despite repeated disavowals by his staff, many observers believed Mr. Ford arrived early because he still must persuade more delegates to vote for him. [New York Times] Well-placed sources at the Federal Bureau of Investigation said the bureau intends to continue its investigation, begun 38 years ago, of the Socialist Workers Party. The investigation will proceed, it was said, under classified Justice Department guidelines applying to radical organizations with foreign political connections. [New York Times] Leaders of the more than 80 non-aligned nations gathered over the weekend in Colombo, Sri Lanka, for the opening Monday of a four-day conference. Many of the hundreds of delegates said that this was a time of transition for the 20-year-old movement. A chief topic will be "a new international economic order" that would seek to narrow the gap between poor and rich nations. Among the heads of state attending the conference are President Tito of Yugoslavia and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of India. Secretary General Kurt Waldheim of the United Nations has been invited as a special guest. [New York Times] Warned that La Soufriere volcano on the French island of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean might erupt, the authorities ordered the total evacuation of 72,000 residents in seven communities in the volcano's area. Steam and ashes were being emitted from a crack about 1,500 feet below the 4,800-foot cone. [New York Times] Christian artillery bombarded Palestinian and leftist positions in mountains east of Beirut. The shelling was concentrated around Mt. Sannin and the town of Ain Tura and Matein in the upper Matein district, where large-scale fighting had been predicted following the fall of Tell Zaatar. A radio station controlled by President Suleiman Franjieh, head of the right-wing Lebanese front, announced that the "offensive for liberating the mountainside from the Palestinians has begun." [New York Times]