News stories from Monday May 30, 1977

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

There might soon be stronger ties between Cuba and the United States, President Carter suggested, but he said Cuba's troops in Africa and its political prisoners at home were impediments. The President made a number of remarks on foreign policy after bidding farewell to his wife, who departed on a tour of Caribbean and Latin American countries. He also said that his meeting with Leonid Brezhnev, tentatively set for September, might depend on the progress of the Geneva arms limitations negotiations. [New York Times] More bodies were sought by firefighters in the ruins of the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Ky., where at least 160 people were killed in a fire Saturday night. The fire's cause was still undetermined, but officials were giving special attention to the oil-fired generator in the service basement. Richard Schilling, who jointly owned the club with his father and two brothers, would not comment on the fire's possible cause. Authorities said that when the club was reconstructed in 1970 it had met fire codes. [New York Times] Dr. Henry Kissinger apparently has decided not to take an endowed chair in political science that was offered by Columbia University, according to people close to the situation. Negotiations for the appointment, which has been opposed by some Columbia students and members of the faculty, have been underway for more than six months. Mr. Kissinger said he had not made a decision, but would announce one in two weeks. Columbia's president, Dr. William McGill, would neither confirm nor deny the withdrawal reports. [New York Times] An electronic funds transfer system -- called E.F.T. in banking circles -- is replacing the paperwork in banking processes. It is changing the way people pay bills and may eliminate the necessity for carrying cash. But there is a cog in the technological revolution, and that is the reluctance of consumers to change their habits. "We have passed the point of no return," said John Poppen, a vice president of Booz Allen & Hamilton management consultants. "We are reaching for the forms of full implementation, like it or not." The full use of E.F.T. nevertheless may be a quarter century away. [New York Times] Major shortcomings in the regulation of the pharmaceutical industry by the Food and Drug Administration have been found by a special federal panel, which will propose 91 detailed changes. The panel's final report, based on an investigation over 27 months, will be made public Tuesday. [New York Times] Many Americans who work for Japanese companies in the United States are complaining that promotions are generally not possible because they are not Japanese citizens. They are victims, they say, of discrimination that often gives them lower salaries and fewer fringe benefits than Japanese nationals receive. "Any American joining a Japanese company should understand that very few top-level positions will be filled by domestic individuals," said a former American who worked for a Japanese company. [New York Times] President Carter will ask Congress for an emergency foreign aid increase of $375 million "to help meet the most acute needs of the world's poorest nations," according to Secretary of State Cyrus Vance. The Secretary disclosed the President's intention at a meeting in Paris of the Conference on International Economic Cooperation and Development. He also said that the administration now favors continuing in some form the so-called north-south talks between rich and poor nations. [New York Times] The arms-control chief in the Nixon administration, Gerard Smith, will be appointed by President Carter as Ambassador at Large for high-level negotiations with other nations on the issue of preventing the spread of nuclear weapons. One of Mr. Smith's principal tasks, administration sources said, will be to renegotiate "just about all" of the 30 nuclear cooperation agreements between the United States and the countries it supplies with nuclear technology or uranium. [New York Times] South Moluccan terrorists were still holding 56 hostages in the Netherlands, but they seemed to have slightly softened the demands they have been making to the government. They were no longer insisting, a government spokesman said, on taking their hostages if they left the country on a plane provided by the government. [New York Times] Up to 27.3 million tons of high-grade metallurgical coal, valued at nearly $2 billion, will be shipped to Rumania by the Occidental Petroleum Corporation over the next 10 years. Occidental, which announced the agreement, said first deliveries were expected next year from a subsidiary, the Island Creek Coal Company, which is building a plant in Buchanan County, Va. The Rumanian government is making an initial advance of $53 million to assist in the construction. [New York Times] Control of all foreign banks in Saudi Arabia will be transferred to Saudi nationals within the next year, according to a Riyadh radio broadcast monitored in Beirut. A Saudi government decree announced over the radio reportedly said that the banks were given a year in which to turn majority control over to Saudi nationals. The decree was said to have followed a decision adopted by the Saudi cabinet Sunday night. [New York Times]