News stories from Sunday November 24, 1974

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

President Ford and Leonid Brezhnev, the Soviet leader, reached tentative agreement at their meeting in Vladivostok to limit the numbers of all offensive strategic nuclear weapons and delivery vehicles through 1985. Secretary of State Kissinger said it was a "breakthrough" in the efforts to halt the arms race, and that the final agreement could be signed next summer, when Mr. Brezhnev visits the United States. [New York Times] The call by President Ford and Mr. Brezhnev for a resumption soon of the Geneva conference on the Middle East was taken in a spirit of optimism in Cairo by moderate Arab diplomats. They expressed the hope that the prospect of early resumption of the talks would have a positive effect on the attitude of President Hafez al-Assad of Syria and possibly lead him to agree to a six-month extension of the expiring mandate for the United Nations peacekeeping force on the Syrian-Israeli front. [New York Times] Negotiators for the coal industry and the United Mine Workers agreed "in principle" on a second version of a proposed contract that could end the miner's strike in about 10 days if the union members approve it. Although none of the details were released, it was apparent that the mine operators granted increased union demands under government pressure. [New York Times] Greyhound Bus Lines and the Amalgamated Transit Union reached a tentative agreement, ending a week-long strike by bus drivers and terminal workers. Buses began rolling shortly after. Terms of the nationwide, three-year contract were not disclosed, pending a ratification vote by the union, which could take several weeks. [New York Times] Margaretta Rockefeller will undergo radical surgery this morning for the removal of her right breast, five weeks after an operation for cancer of her left breast, her husband, Vice President-designate Nelson Rockefeller, announced. [New York Times] A House-Senate conference committee has approved changes in a 1972 anti-sex discrimination law that would exclude fraternities and sororities from its regulations and would allow schools to continue separate gym classes for boys and girls. [New York Times] As New York City has plunged deeper into debt in recent months, the financial community has begun to put pressure on the city to reduce its mammoth appetite for borrowed money. Bankers and brokers who are experts in city affairs are not worried about the city's ability to pay off its debt commitment -- there is no doubt that the city can and will do that -- but they are convinced that the city's debt is growing too fast for its own good. [New York Times] Two former Premiers, the head of the ruling military council and a grandson of former Emperor Haile Selassie were among the 60 aristocrats and former officials whose execution was announced by the military government of Ethiopia. A Radio Ethiopia broadcast said the executions were "an act of justice." Most of those executed had been arrested during the seven-month anti-corruption drive by military officers that culminated in the overthrow of the Emperor on Sept. 12. [New York Times] Four Palestinian guerrillas freed their remaining hostages except three crewmen on a hijacked British airliner and then threatened to blow the plane up after Arab nations apparently refused them sanctuary. The gunmen were joined by seven guerrillas who had been released from confinement in Cairo and the Netherlands and brought to Tunis in exchange for the freedom of 40 passengers and crew members aboard the plane, which was hijacked Thursday. [New York Times] Cornelius Ryan, whose narratives of World War II battles -- "The Longest Day," "The Last Battle" and, most recently, "A Bridge Too Far" -- enthralled millions of readers here and in Europe, died at the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research. He was 54 years old. [New York Times]