News stories from Sunday October 16, 1977
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Cleveland schools may close on Friday because of a lack of money. Unless the Ohio legislature approves an emergency bill or a federal court intervenes. the school district will probably become the largest since the Depression to shut its doors for lack of funds. Prospects for the bill's passage or for court action are in doubt. [New York Times]
- Protesting the neutron bomb, six demonstrators interrupted a Washington church service attended by President Carter. He later said they had his sympathy and termed them "fine young people." The police arrested five demonstrators on charges of disturbing a religious gathering, but made no charge against Elizabeth McAlister, a former nun and antiwar activist. [New York Times]
- The steel industry faces new trouble as the nation's auto industry, traditionally one of the biggest users of steel in the country, sharply cuts use of steel in new cars. Detroit is well into the first phase of making most autos much lighter than current models by 1,000 pounds or more by 1985 to meet federal efficiency rules. To do so, the industry is substituting plastics and aluminum for steel. The steel industry is already hard pressed by foreign competition and rising costs. [New York Times]
- Gold is again luring investors as prices of stocks drop and mounting inflation trims yields on fixed-interest securities. The latest method for investing in gold is the depository certificate, which basically represents ownership of gold bullion bars of up to 400 ounces that are stored in a bank in Zurich. [New York Times]
- Leaving the I.L.O. is an issue that faces President Carter this week. His cabinet advisers will give him divided recommendations on whether the United States should proceed with its announced intention to withdraw on Nov. 5 from the International Labor Organization, a United Nations agency. Two cabinet members want the deadline for withdrawal to be put off a year to give the United States' industrialized allies more time to "depoliticize" the agency. A third adviser believes that failure to pull out would undermine the credibility of American insistence on reforms to keep the Soviet Union and the Arab bloc from using the agency as a propaganda forum. [New York Times]
- President Carter plans to visit Saudi Arabia late next month, bringing to nine the number of countries he will visit on his 11-day foreign tour, administration officials said. Mr. Carter is expected to confer with Saudi leaders on oil and Middle East peace efforts during a stop in Riyadh. [New York Times]
- Four hijackers, whose demands were rejected by West Germany, forced the pilot of an airliner carrying 87 hostages to fly to Aden despite the refusal of the Southern Yemen government to grant it permission to land there. The jet made a bumpy landing beside the runway, but no one was reported injured. The plane was refueled and reportedly landed in Mogadishu, Somalia. There were no reports of negotiations with West Germany over the hijackers' demands for the release of 11 jailed terrorists in return for the hostages' lives.
Rejection of the terrorists demands was revealed when the West German government argued successfully against a court injunction that would have forced it to release the prisoners in return for a promise of the release of Hanns-Martin Schleyer, a businessman kidnapped six weeks ago by terrorists. The kidnappers had warned they would kill Mr. Schleyer if their demands were not met.
[New York Times] - The proposed arms accord between the Soviet Union and the United States is being strongly defended by the Carter administration. Reacting to mounting concern in Congress and the Pentagon over the pact to limit strategic weapons, the administration has begun depicting it as a major advance toward curbing the growth of Soviet missile power. A high administration official said the proposed accord met major objectives of the White House. [New York Times]
- A debate on Eurocommunism as well as internal pressures for liberalization Is under way in the Soviet Union's hierarchy, according to Communist sources at the Belgrade conference on European security and cooperation. The tug-of-war in the Soviet leadership is believed to involve the treatment of Soviet dissidents and Western pressure for human rights, but it seems to have centered more on the issue of handling differences with Communist parties in Western Europe. [New York Times]