News stories from Saturday February 16, 1980
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- A proposed international commission that will investigate alleged crimes of the deposed Shah is expected in Teheran by Wednesday, according to a Foreign Ministry spokesman, who said "probably the commission will arrive in Teheran in three or at most four days." He said,"It is certain that the hostages will not be released during the coming week."
Setting up an inquiry commission was delayed at the United Nations when a nominee in Bangladesh said he was ill and could not participate. The naming of the commission is now expected tomorrow or Tuesday.
[New York Times] - President Tito was much weaker, according to a bulletin from his physicians in Ljubljana, and the tone of the report suggested that the 87-year old Yugoslav leader might be dying. [New York Times]
- The elaborate undercover schemes devised by federal law-enforcement authorities to break up criminal conspiracies are likely to be reviewed by Congress and top officials of the executive branch. Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti and William Webster, Di-rector of the Federal Bureau of Investigation strongly defend the undercover inquiries as the best way to infiltrate organized crime, but others say the operations could set in motion a crime that otherwise would not have been committed.
Webster said in an interview that he, as the F.B.I.'s Director, personally reviewed and sometimes altered tactics in the investigation code-named Abscam before each meeting between undercover agents and members of Congress.
[New York Times] - Federal agents apparently covered up involvement in violent attacks on blacks, civil rights activists and journalists by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's chief paid informer, Gary Thomas Rowe, inside the Ku Klux Klan in the 1960's, according to a Justice Department report. [New York Times]
- Students opposing President Carter are stepping up campaigns that could affect results of primary elections in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The main issues on New England campuses are draft registration and the dangers of nuclear power. [New York Times]
- A strong public response to the census is the aim of a campaign sponsored by the Census Bureau and local governments. The nation's 20th decennial census, the most costly and difficult in its history, will start April 1. [New York Times]
- X-ray observations in space have led to a new concept of how the universe was formed. Some leading scientists now conclude that the evolution of the universe depended heavily on the sequences of catastrophic explosions, and that the shock waves that followed them may have had an important part in galaxy formation. [New York Times]
- A limited state of emergency at Lake Placid was declared by Governor Carey of New York to provide transportation for the thousands of visitors pouring into the Olympic area. His decree allowed officials to use school buses to shuttle people to the Games. [New York Times]
- Aeroflot planes will fly directly to Washington from Moscow and will not land at Kennedy International Airport until the airline makes satisfactory ground arrangements there, under an agreement reached between Washington and Moscow. [New York Times]