News stories from Sunday July 31, 1977

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

The killer who calls himself "Son of Sam" shot and critically wounded a young couple in a car parked on the Brooklyn waterfront a mile south of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge while massive police patrols focused elsewhere in the city. Police Department ballistics experts confirmed he had used the same .44-caliber revolver that had been used to kill five young people and wound six others. [New York Times] The Carter administration's decision to withhold disaster status for New York City because of the July 13-14 blackout basically means rejection of the city's bid for federal reimbursement of $11.7 million in the police department's and other overtime. President Carter disclosed the decision last week without explaining the reasons for it. It was indicated elsewhere, however, that federal officials believed that the New York state government, especially, could have provided more assistance of its own before seeking disaster status for the city. [New York Times] Public opposition to nuclear energy projects in France took a violent turn when about 30,000 demonstrators -- not all of them were French -- were confronted by policemen at the construction site of a fast-breeder reactor in southeastern France. A demonstrator died -- he was said to have been trampled by protesters fleeing from tear gas -- and at least 20 were injured. Five policemen were wounded. One of them lost a hand. [New York Times] Jobs for the mentally retarded, a generally overlooked minority, are being found by a national organization in Texas despite the high unemployment rate and priorities for other groups. An "enormous advance" in job placement for retarded persons has been made in the last few years, said Michael Stumbaugh, director of a federally sponsored job training project for the National Association of Retarded Citizens in Arlington, Tex. His project is 10 years old, but most of its 20,000 jobs were found in the last three years, and placements are now running at 5,000 a year. [New York Times] The instruments of protectionism -- import surcharges, advance deposits, quantitative controls, tariffs and non-tariff barriers-- are "perceptibly" more widespread than before the world recession began in 1974, the International Monetary Fund said in its 28th annual report on foreign-exchange restrictions. The recession's impact on trade and payments liberalization would have been worse, the report said, if there had not been an increase in world trade last year that persuaded countries not to impose broader trade restrictions. [New York Times] High prices in Canada and a falling Canadian dollar are not only keeping vacationing Americans out, they are also discouraging Canadians from vacationing in their own country. Canadians have increased their shopping in the United States because prices are lower, while the Canadian dollar has fallen in value to about 93 United States cents, its lowest level since 1970. Canadian money traders have put their funds into stronger currencies such as the Swiss franc or the West German mark. [New York Times] Prospects were brightened for Secretary of State Cyrus Vance's Middle East mission this week with the statement by President Anwar Sadat of Egypt that he was optimistic about reconvening a peace conference. There were "alternatives" to having the Palestine Liberation Organization represented in Geneva, Mr. Sadat said in a television interview taped last week. Israel's opposition to the P.L.O.'s participation in the conference has been a main obstacle to getting it started. [New York Times] France has developed a broad African policy with a long-term goal of extending France's special relationship with Its former African colonies to each of the African countries. President Valery Giscard d'Estaing, who is said to tell officials at Elysee Palace meetings to "think African," has extended French interests first to French-speaking countries that are not former colonies, notably Zaire, then to former Portuguese territories, and now to all the African states. [New York Times] Four young women are the prime suspects in the murder of an internationally known West German banker, Jurgen Ponto, near Frankfurt. A nationwide search was started for the suspects who, police spokesmen said, were linked with anarchists and possibly with the terrorists who killed West Germany's chief prosecutor, Siegfried Buback, in Karlsruhe in April. [New York Times]