News stories from Saturday September 30, 1978

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

President Carter told a cheering crowd of 8,000 black politicians and community leaders that he would continue to press for passage of the Humphrey-Hawkins full employment bill. The President also used his appearance at the annual dinner of the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington to praise U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young. Carter said that Young, frequently criticized for his public remarks, was "a man who is not afraid to speak out when he sees something wrong. I don't know of anyone who has done more for our country throughout the world than Andy Young." [Los Angeles Times] "Ted in '80" buttons and "Elect Kennedy President" signs greeted Sen. Edward Kennedy as he made his first campaign appearance in New Hampshire in 10 years. He addressed a crowd of 1,000 at the state Democratic convention in Manchester and praised party candidates facing tough November election fights. New Hampshire has the nation's earliest presidential primary, and Kennedy has stayed out of the state to avoid starting rumors that he was a presidential candidate. In his speech to the convention, Kennedy praised President Carter for facing a number of difficult issues and for advancing "a foreign policy that combines both might and right." [Los Angeles Times] Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd criticized President Carter for describing the $10.1 billion public works bill as "pork barrel" legislation and vowed to work to override an expected veto. The West Virginian defended the bill's disputed water projects, citing the danger of floods in his home state and the water needs in areas of the West. Carter had recommended that Congress approve 26 new construction projects, but to that list Congress added 27 other projects, including six that Carter had described as wasteful and unnecessary. [Los Angeles Times] Abortions for members of the armed forces and their dependents were suspended at midnight because of uncertainty over whether Congress would permit military hospitals to perform them in the new fiscal year, which begins Sunday. The only exceptions will be in cases in which a woman's life is in danger or in which pregnancies resulted from rape, the Pentagon said. [Los Angeles Times] Archbishop Fulton Sheen, 83, who had open heart surgery a year ago, has been in Lenox Hill Hospital in New York since Sept. 4, hospital officials disclosed. Sheen, known for his weekly television show in the 1950's, was admitted because he "was overdoing things and he ran into minor problems with his heart," a spokesman said. [Los Angeles Times] An international economic conference will bring together President Carter, former secretary of State Henry Kissinger and 2,500 of the world's business leaders tomorrow at Florida's Disney World. Carter will address the opening session of the 26th World Congress of the International Chamber of Commerce after an afternoon tour of the Kennedy Space Center. The President is to tour the space shuttle facilities and present the congressional Space Medal of Honor to six former astronauts. [Los Angeles Times] The State Department said it could not at present issue a visa to Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith, who has been invited by a group of Senators to visit the United States. A State Department spokesman said the ruling also applied to Chief Jeremiah Chirau, who serves on the four-member Rhodesian Executive Council with Smith, the Rev. Ndabaningi Sithole and Bishop Abel Muzorewa. However, there is no problem in the case of Muzorewa and Sithole as they have visited the United States before, the spokesman said. [Los Angeles Times] A bankrupt Finnish contractor hijacked a Finnair domestic flight at gunpoint, collected a reported $206,000 in ransom -- $168,000 from the airline and $38,000 from the country's largest newspaper -- during shuttle stops at Helsinki and the northern Finland city of Oulu, and then took off for a refueling stop in Amsterdam. The hijacker, identified by police as Aarno Lamminporras, released 45 of the 48 people aboard the plane before leaving Finland, taking three crewmen with him to Amsterdam. From there he was reported heading either to Stockholm or back to Helsinki. [Los Angeles Times] Physicians attending Saudi Arabia's King Khaled have postponed heart surgery planned for the 65-year-old potentate because he may have a cold. Khaled originally was scheduled to have a coronary bypass operation at Cleveland Clinic. The king, who suffered a massive heart attack in 1970, completed an exhaustive series of cardiac tests at the clinic Friday. He has had scarring and clotting in a portion of his heart as a result of the attack. [Los Angeles Times] Roving American envoy Alfred Atherton met Egyptian leaders and later said he saw no obstacles in the way of Israeli-Egyptian peace talks. After arriving in Cairo from Jerusalem, Atherton saw Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and had talks subsequently with the minister of state for foreign affairs, Boutros Boutros-Ghali. [Los Angeles Times] Sen. Henry Jackson called for the United States to offer Israel and the Arab world an American aid program patterned after the post-World War II Marshall Plan for Europe. The Washington Democrat said such a project would provide the nations of the Middle East with a material incentive in the search for lasting peace. The financial aid would be based on a full partnership of Israel and Egypt, who, with the United States, could "do much to reverse the misery of centuries and make the deserts bloom," Jackson said. [Los Angeles Times] Momentum gathered for settlement of strikes against three New York newspapers as negotiators for the New York Times and the Daily News met with a federal mediator and with the president of the striking pressmen. There was talk that the New York Post might try to resume publication on Tuesday after it had been announced that the paper and the delivers' union had reached a tentative settlement. The three papers were struck by pressmen Aug. 9 in a protest over posting of unilateral changes in working conditions. Four other unions then struck one or more of the papers. [Los Angeles Times] A 40-foot yacht sank in the Pacific 500 miles off Cape Flattery, Wash., and 12 persons, three of whom may be ill, were waiting in a life raft for rescue, the Coast Guard reported. Three ships were heading toward the yacht, the Phantom Blue. A Coast Guard plane from San Francisco was sent to the scene to drop food and survival gear. Distress messages from the yacht were received by ham radio operators. [Los Angeles Times] The American alligator is rallying, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The toothy reptile, once in danger of extinction, is now estimated to number about 800,000. In 1977 about 75% of the alligators in the United States were reclassified from the endangered species list to the threatened list -- a less serious predicament. [Los Angeles Times]