News stories from Saturday August 6, 1977

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

In his proposed revamping of the nation's welfare system, President Carter abandoned his pledge to limit the cost of the revised system to the present government spending levels for welfare and employment programs. Instead, he advocated spending $6.2 billion additional on welfare and jobs for the poor and proposed a tax reduction for middle-income people. His proposals are expected to have a tough time getting through Congress, but the President said he was confident that measures would be enacted next year. However, if enacted, it would be more than three years before the new welfare system would become effective. [New York Times] President Carter's proposed increase in national welfare appropriations appeared to have deflected much of the criticism that had been anticipated for the revamped welfare system. The final plan contained modifications intended to mollify critics. The President seemed to have won the support of Mayor Lee Alexander of Syracuse, the president of the United States Conference of Mayors, which had been one of the harshest critics of the evolving plan. Vernon Jordan, the head of the National Urban League, who had accused the President of reneging on his campaign pledges to the urban poor, said the new welfare program was "an encouraging one." [New York Times] A strike threatened for tomorrow was averted when a tentative contract agreement was reached between the Communications Workers of America and the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. The cost of the three-year contract was estimated at $3.3 billion by the union's president. [New York Times] President Carter said he had "full confidence" in Bert Lance, whose financial dealings with the Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company are being investigated by the Comptroller of the Currency. Nevertheless, there was growing concern in the administration that Mr. Lance was having difficulty answering questions about his finances and his banking career before he became budget director. [New York Times] Prime Minister John Vorster of South Africa accused the Carter administration of promoting "chaos and anarchy" in southern Africa. In a speech in Pretoria, Mr. Vorster attacked the administration with unusual severity, describing Washington policy toward white-ruled Africa as "strangulation with finesse." He implied that President Carter has stepped up pressure for black rule as a means of rewarding American blacks who provided the margin. of victory in the presidential election. [New York Times] A 75-pound bomb exploded in a crowded Woolworth's store in Salisbury, Rhodesia, killing 11 persons and injuring 76. The police said it was the worst act of urban terrorism in Rhodesia's five-year guerrilla war. Most of the casualties were said to be black people. [New York Times] The United States and 13 other rich industrial oil-exporting countries agreed to lend about $10 billion to establish an international loan fund for poorer nations hurt by the worldwide recession and the rising price of oil. Secretary of the Treasury Michael Blumenthal said that the Carter administration would ask Congress to approve a contribution of $1.7 billion. [New York Times] Secretary of State Cyrus Vance said he had been unable to bring the Arabs and Israel together on two of the key issues holding up a Middle East conference in Geneva -- the question of Palestinian rights and the extent of Israeli withdrawal from occupied Arab territory. [New York Times]