News stories from Saturday October 15, 1977

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

The Panama Canal pacts will gain added support because of the joint statement by President Carter and the Panamanian chief of government, Gen. Omar Torrijos, clarifying them, according to Senator Robert Byrd, the majority leader. He told reporters that the statement was "a very important diplomatic achievement" and "goes to the heart" of objections to the treaties raised in the Senate and elsewhere in the country. [New York Times] The payroll tax for Social Security would increase by one-tenth of 1 percent and the taxable wage base would rise by $1,800 over the Ways and Means Committee bill, under an amendment backed by House Democratic leaders. The amendment would make the payroll tax 6.55 percent on the first $29,700 earned for a maximum bite of $1,945.35, more than double this year's maximum. The increase would take effect on Jan. 1, 1981. [New York Times] A white-owned company in South Africa may win a major part of a $30 million rail renovation contract that was intended to aid a minority-owned business in the United States, according to sources in Washington. The contract is for the manufacture of 1.2 billion concrete rail ties needed to upgrade tracks between Boston and Washington. The winner, an industry specialist said, would be the nation's first major manufacturer of heavy rail ties. [New York Times] Parole is a waning practice. In Maine and California, criminals are now sentenced to fixed prison terms and granting them time off for good behavior is the only conventional way of shortening terms. Several other states are weighing similar policies. In Washington, the Senate Judiciary Committee will recommend making fixed sentences the rule for federal prisoners, with early release on parole the exception. One argument against parole is that variations in sentences for similar crimes and the unpredictability of parole arouse prison unrest. [New York Times] The lives of 87 hostages held by hijackers in an airliner in Dubai and of Hanns-Martin Schleyer, the West German industrialist held by kidnappers for six weeks, were in increasing jeopardy. Terrorists have threatened to kill the hostages and Mr. Schleyer tomorrow unless 11 terrorists are released from German prisons. The Bonn government sent urgent messages to both groups, but there were no signs that the terrorists were being released. [New York Times] Indira Gandhi was thwarted in an attempt to reassert her leadership of India's Congress Party. Her supporters within the long dominant but now defeated party had attempted to have the former Prime Minister made its president at a contentious national convention marked by repeated criticism of the authoritarianism of her former government. The delegates, however, reaffirmed support for her against corruption charges made last week by the new government. [New York Times]