News stories from Saturday December 22, 1979

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

An oil price increase will be delayed by President Carter as a means of keeping pressure on Congress to approve the administration's oil "windfall" profits tax. The White House announced that Mr. Carter will sign an executive order "in the next few days," postponing a plan permitting producers of remaining "marginal" oil to increase their prices from $6 to $13 a barrel. [New York Times] Revoking the license of a nuclear plant in Tennessee has been recommended by federal investigators because of the failure of the plant's operators to account for the disappearance of more than 20 pounds of highly enriched uranium, which is enough to make one nuclear bomb. [New York Times] Chrysler will sell more assets and make further cost-cutting and possibly negotiate new terms of a loan agreement to raise $400 million in operating capital until the federal aid recently voted by Congress arrives in late winter, Lee Iacocca, Chrysler's chairman, said at his first news conference since taking control of Chrysler in September. [New York Times] A vast grapevine provides marijuana to cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, who use it to relieve the nausea that frequently follows the treatments. The network also provides an information and supply network for those chemotherapy patients who do not have time to wait for legal marijuana available under revised state drug laws, and cooperating with it are police authorities who provide confiscated marijuana to hospitals for use by cancer patients. [New York Times] The administration warned Moscow in the strongest diplomatic terms that any effort to block the Security Council of the United Nations from imposing economic sanctions on Iran would be regarded as an unfriendly action. It has informed the Soviet government, officials said, that the United States expects Soviet support for sanctions on exports of certain items to Iran, and if Moscow cannot vote for the sanctions, it should abstain and make no effort to raise opposition to the sanctions among other nations. [New York Times] Iran declared an emergency in Zahidan, the capital of its Baluchistan and Seistani Province, where ethnic tensions led to fighting. A revolutionary militiaman was killed and three were wounded in the latest battle. The fighting broke out Thursday and since then 11 Seistanis and Baluchis have been killed, and many more injured. [New York Times] Some form of revenue sharing for state governments is likely to be continued in the budget to be proposed next month by President Carter, administration officials said. If he does, he will modify his stand against some aspects of revenue sharing. [New York Times] Somalia has offered a naval base to the United States, which has been seeking a military base from which it could strengthen its position in the Middle East, according to American and Somalian sources. The base was a former Soviet naval and air base strategically situated in the port of Berbea on the Horn of Africa. [New York Times] The replacement of Pol Pot as Prime Minister of the insurgent forces fighting the Vietnamese-backed government in Cambodia has been reliably reported to the State Department. The move is said to be designed to strengthen the rebels' political support. Mr. Pol Pot's successor is said to be Khieu Samphan, one of his close associates. [New York Times] Poor verbal and mathematical skills among students entering New Jersey colleges prevent them from doing college-level work, according to the Basic Skills Council appointed by the State Board of Higher Education. The board will have to continue remedial programs for poorly prepared college freshmen it has been seeking to drop. Deficient students are being produced by schools with the best reputations in the state, the report said. [New York Times]