News stories from Sunday June 12, 1977

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

The United States was warned by a major international economic institution that its growing balance-of-payments deficit risks weakening the dollar and creating fresh monetary turmoil. The Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, in its annual report acknowledged that the United States "contributes to world recovery" by importing more than it exports, but, it said, the payments deficit, which is expected to be more than $10 billion this year, "should not reach excessive proportions or become lasting." The B.I.S., "the central bankers' bank," usually reflects in its yearly report the private views of the major Western central banks that own it. [New York Times] Members of the Kennedy family, joined by friends and political associates, broke ground at the end of a peninsula on Boston Harbor for the John Fitzgerald Kennedy memorial library. The site is in Boston's Dorchester section. Construction on the library is scheduled to begin later this month and to be completed in about two and a half years. [New York Times] Higher prices and lower interest rates are expected in the credit markets in the weeks ahead. There will be a summer rally in the bond and the money market too, according to many traders and analysts. They were optimistic allowing a near-record sale of tax-exempt bonds last week. [New York Times] Rugged, high-powered light trucks -- successors to the hot rods of the 1960's -- are selling at a sizzling pace. These "four-wheelers," equipped with a four-wheel drive, big engines, bucket seats, rollbars and shag-carpeted interiors, are being bought by thousands of Americans who have switched from the regular passenger car. If current forecasts hold up, combined sales of cars and trucks will set a record of between 14.7 million and 15 million this year. [New York Times] In dealing with its pornography problem, Cleveland will use questionnaires to determine obscenity standards. The city's garbage collectors are about to distribute 280,000 questionnaires to residents, asking their views on a number of subjects relating to the pornography industry. From the responses, to be returned by mail, Mayor Ralph Perk's staff will develop a set of community standards on obscenity. Most cities, including Cleveland, are losing a great number of court cases because they do not have community standards as defined by the United States Supreme Court, Mayor Perk said. [New York Times] Bitterness In the Hispanic-American community against the State Department has followed the failure of an attempt to appoint a lawyer of Puerto Rican origin as Ambassador to Colombia. Jose Cabranes, legal adviser to Yale University who teaches international law at Yale Law School, was chosen for the post by Secretary of State Cyrus Vance. Colombia, it turned out, was reluctant to accept Mr. Cabranes, who, in the meantime, returned to Yale. [New York Times] The Carter administration has developed a trade policy that seeks to allay fears abroad about protectionism while helping domestic industries that have been hurt by imports. The key to the policy is temporary protection under Orderly Marketing Agreements, whereby foreign suppliers agree to limit their exports to the United States. The accords are in place of generalized tariff and quota protection that some domestic industry groups have sought or that the International Trade Commission has been recommending. [New York Times] Some of the freed Dutch hostages described their 20 days of captivity by South Moluccan terrorists and their rescue by Dutch marines. The Dutch government and health authorities, however, made an effort to shield the released hostages from the press and television to ease the trauma of their ordeal. One of the four teachers rescued by the marines when they attacked an elementary school from four directions said they had been "treated correctly" by the kidnappers. It appeared that some of the women among the 51 hostages on the train that was stormed by the marines ware fairly friendly with their captors. [New York Times] In its new approach toward a treaty on limiting strategic arms, the United States has suggested, according to sources in Congress, that each side's offensive strategic force be cut by about 10 percent below 2,400 weapons -- missile launchers and heavy bombers -- agreed upon at Vladivostok in 1974. The reports from Congress were confirmed by administration officials. [New York Times]