News stories from Sunday January 1, 1978

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

There were no signs of survivors after an Air India jumbo jet with 213 people aboard crashed into the Arabian Sea. The plane crashed shortly after taking off from Bombay for Dubai on the Persian Gulf. Residents of a Bombay suburb said they had seen the plane split in two after an explosion. Wreckage was found two miles offshore. [New York Times] Most people believe that Congress is doing only a fair to poor job with President Carter's energy program, according to a public opinion survey conducted for the administration by the same group that conducted Mr. Carter's election campaign polling. Among the 1,500 people polled, 35 percent favored the President's original program, but 44 percent said they did not know if they backed it, and 21 percent said they opposed it. Congress's energy record was regarded by 36 percent as fair, 20 percent said it was poor, 25 percent said they did not know and 2 percent said it was excellent. [New York Times] Lessening of government control over the trucking industry by regulatory agencies is meeting fierce opposition. It is coming not from consumers but from businessmen who would have to operate in a less regulated environment. Deregulatory proposals under discussion would loosen the government's grip on transportation rates. [New York Times] President Carter got a warmer welcome in New Delhi than in previous stops on his trip abroad, reflecting improved relations with India. In his previous stop, Teheran, he conferred on the Middle East with the Shah of Iran and with the visiting King Hussein of Jordan, who indicated later that Mr. Carter had not persuaded him to join the Mideast negotiations in Cairo at this time. [New York Times] Blacks still face many barriers to employment opportunities despite civil rights laws, Supreme Court decisions and the outreach programs that promised more and better jobs. High unemployment is only one measure of economic problems that black people have. The gap between them and whites, which started to narrow in the 1960's, has been widening again in a number of key areas. [New York Times] Among 7,000 "boat people" now arriving in the United States after fleeing Vietnam in small boats, is a family that burned the boat they escaped in to avoid being expelled from a Malaysian island where they had landed. Refugee officials say that the later arrivals are more willing to accept hardships at the bottom of the ladder than those who fled in 1975, many of whom had more education. [New York Times] Federal permits for the first exploratory oil and gas drilling in the ocean floor off New Jersey will become effective Tuesday, but all of the five companies that sought them say they have no plans to place rigs in the area before March. The delay is a result of an environmentalist lawsuit that awaits a ruling by the Supreme Court, said a spokesman for one of the companies. [New York Times] Millions of pounds of uranium and billions of dollars are involved in three lawsuits winding through federal and state courts in New Mexico. Gulf Oil, through affiliated companies, is the defendant in two of the cases and the plaintiff in the third. Gulf's involvement grew from its vast uranium holdings in New Mexico and its participation, through its Canadian subsidiary, in an uranium cartel. A key ruling is expected soon in one of the suits on the admissibility of a report on Gulf's activities in the cartel. [New York Times] Authoritative American sources in Teheran said that King Hussein's refusal to join the Middle East negotiations in Cairo meant that Arab leaders would insist on increased United States pressure on Israel for more sweeping concessions on the Palestinian issue. King Hussein told television interviewers that the outlines of an acceptable settlement must be clear before Jordan could participate. [New York Times] "Great efforts" will be required to overcome the problems created by President Carter's recent statement that he opposes creation of a Palestinian state, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt said in a magazine interview published in Cairo. But he said he still is optimistic about overcoming the problems. He also said that Palestinians publicly opposed to his negotiations with Israel had tried to meet with him secretly, and that he had turned them down. A similar approach was made by Palestinians to Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan of Israel, but he also rebuffed them, Mr. Sadat said. [New York Times]