News stories from Sunday October 30, 1977

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

A joint space mission is being planned to obtain the first view of the solar system and the sun from a new perspective, far above and below the plane in which the planets orbit the sun's equator. American and West European scientists plan to launch two spacecraft, one soaring below the solar equatorial plane and the other traveling above it, in polar-crossing orbits, to study the sun's radiations, magnetic fields and surface features simultaneously in the two solar hemispheres. The mission, planned for 1983, is also aimed at learning more about how the sun affects the earth's climate. [New York Times] Corporate profits slipped in the third quarter after rising to a record $104.3 billion, at an annual rate, in the second quarter, but still managed to show a slight gain over the year earlier, according to Wall Street estimates. On the basis of reports now pouring from the nation's corporations, most specialists expect a third-quarter rate of about $98 billion. [New York Times] Sluggish demand for loans from big corporate borrowers hurt major New York City banks again, according to third-quarter earnings reports. The biggest surprise came when Citicorp, the largest New York banking company, reported a drop in third-quarter profits. The picture was different on the West Coast, where major banks are benefiting from a strong demand for consumer and real estate loans. [New York Times] Farmers hit by a drought in the Southeast are reluctantly turning to the government for aid. Federal agencies are providing emergency low-interest loans and granting disaster payments to help farmers offset crop losses. Losses in Georgia alone have been estimated at $700 million, and the hardest hit region in the state includes Sumter, President Carter's home county. [New York Times] The scale of Korean hospitality to a 1975 delegation of Congressmen and their wives is under scrutiny by the Department of Justice and two congressional committees. Two of the Congressmen's wives have testified that they were offered "campaign contributions" for their husbands. [New York Times] The oil production outlook is in doubt for the federal government's vast reservoir at Elk Hills, Calif. The opening of the reserve just over a year ago was hailed as an aid for cutting the need for foreign oil. But President Carter wants the reserve shut down due to the flow of Alaskan oil, and others say the oil should be saved. [New York Times] Banning nuclear fuel for South Africa was opposed by Andrew Young, who said that such an American embargo might encourage Pretoria to step up its own capacity to develop nuclear weapons. The chief American delegate to the U.N. said in a TV interview that while he might personally favor such a ban, it was too late to impose one because South Africa had achieved a nuclear potential of uncertain extent. [New York Times] Cambodia has been transformed under Communist rule into a society regimented to an unprecedented degree, according to refugees who manage to flee the country. The Communists, they said, have reorganized all phases of life, separating families into communal work groups by sex and age, and a family shares a roof only when their members' communal groups happen to be working in the same place. [New York Times] Israeli postal workers struck for a day, communications technicians walked out for two hours and longshoremen planned to shut down the biggest port tomorrow to press their demand for wage increases to offset sudden price increases following the Likud government's elimination of subsidies. The government's action is aimed at a free market economy. [New York Times] Israel would release an archbishop now imprisoned as a gunrunner if it received a formal request from Pope Paul VI, the government said. A spokesman said that negotiations had been proceeding for some time with the Vatican for the release of the Greek Catholic Archbishop Hilarion Capucci, who has served almost three years of a 12-year sentence for smuggling arms to Palestinian guerrillas. [New York Times] An appeal to the kidnappers of Maurits Caransa from the family of the multi-millionaire Amsterdam businessman asked them to establish contact. The appeal said that none of the messages received from persons claiming to be the kidnappers seemed "serious." [New York Times]