News stories from Saturday December 31, 1977

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

Car manufacturers recalled 12.5 million defective vehicles in 1977, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The figure has set a record, the agency said, exceeding the total number of vehicles in the three previous years. The year's total included more than two million late-model cars that Chrysler recalled last week for correction of two possible causes of engine stalling and for hood latch problems. [New York Times] The New Year brings to almost every employed American an increased tax on earnings to help pay for the soaring cost of Social Security benefits. The increase that takes effect tomorrow is only an initial one. There will be further increases in 1979 and each year thereafter through 1990 unless wage-price inflation stops, which no government economist expects. Economists foresee a "fiscal drag" on consumption as wages are taxed away. That is one reason why the administration plans to ask Congress to cut income taxes. [New York Times] He will use force, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau said, against any "illegal" steps taken by the separatist government of Quebec Province to achieve independence from the rest of Canada. Mr. Trudeau gave the warning in an interview taped for use on national television tomorrow night. [New York Times] Egypt insists on Israel's full withdrawal from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and on recognition of the Palestinians' "inalienable rights" to self-determination, according to Foreign Minister Mohammed Ibrahim Kamel. In divulging Egypt's proposals for a Middle East settlement he said that the demands were not open to negotiation. If they were accepted, Mr. Kamel said the Israeli-Egyptian negotiations should then focus on the issue of security for Israel and the Palestinians and on the manner and the timing of the Israeli withdrawal and the granting of self-determination to the Palestinians. He did not mention an independent Palestinian state. [New York Times] In Teheran, President Carter and the Shah of Iran said they took "constructive steps" toward a Middle East settlement and ending the fighting between Ethiopia and Somalia. According to United States officials, "a very substantial identity of views" on the two issues was reached in a meeting that lasted an hour and a half. [New York Times] Spain granted its restless Basque provinces limited self-rule after prolonged discussions with members of Parliament from the Province of Navarre. They had expressed unwillingness to be included in a General Council for the Basque provinces. Navarre, which has its own traditions of autonomy, withdrew its opposition when Prime Minister Adolfo Suarez agreed to a referendum in that province if its municipalities agreed to join the General Council after local elections next year. The limited self-rule decree was similar to that granted to Catalonia in September. [New York Times]