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News stories from Sunday February 12, 1978
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Efforts to end the coal miners' strike, now in its third month, are "back to square one," a union official said after the United Mine Workers bargaining council rejected a contract proposal, 30 to 6. Arnold Miller, the union's president, spent nearly four months negotiating with the major mine owners, but it became apparent soon after a tentative agreement was announced last Monday that the union membership would not accept it. [New York Times]
- The pressure on the dollar and the French franc were reported to be among the world economic problems discussed by Treasury Secretary Michael Blumenthal and the Finance Ministers of Britain, France, West Germany and Japan. They held one of a series of informal meetings at the Chateau de Versailles near Paris. Mr. Blumenthal is due to have a meeting tomorrow in Bonn with West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, a visit described by one diplomatic source as "a last, personal shot" at trying to resolve policy disagreements between Washington and Bonn. [New York Times]
- Taxpayers reporting over $50,000 income are major beneficiaries of the special-treatment provisions of the tax code. A new Treasury analysis has found that those taxpayers received almost one-third of the $84 billion in special-treatment benefits last year. The analysis was made for Senator Edmund Muskie, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, who released it as part of an effort to build support for proposed tax changes. [New York Times]
- A high school graduation test has been challenged by the New York State Board of Regents because many of the regents believe the test's standards are ridiculously low. The exam was developed by the State Education Department and asks students, for example, to tell time on the face of clock reading 1:35 and how many pennies there are in $4. It will be better to have no test than this one, some of the regents say. [New York Times]
- The mysterious buyer of stock in Financial General Bankshares Inc, has identified himself as Eugene Metzger, a Washington lawyer. He said he had recently purchased 15 to 20 percent of the bank holding company on behalf of a group of unidentified individual investors. Speculation concerning the transaction had forced a halt in trading of Financial General shares last week and the Washington Post reported that Bert Lance, former budget director, was orchestrating the purchase. But Mr. Metzger said that "to the best of my knowledge, Bert Lance has not acquired any of the stock, and has not been a principal in the negotiations." [New York Times]
- Israel protested to the United States that Secretary of State Cyrus Vance's statement that Israeli settlements in Sinai "should not exist" contradicted earlier comments by President Carter. A statement read to reporters by Prime Minister Menachem Begin on behalf of the cabinet made the strongest criticism of United States policy toward Israel since he took office.
The Carter administration denied that it had ever endorsed Israel's maintaining settlements in Sinai after the occupied territory is returned to Egyptian sovereignty. Israel contends that when its peace plan, including maintenance of the settlements, was presented to President Carter by Prime Minister Begin, no "reservation" was indicated and "the plan as a whole was received with a positive reaction." A State Department official said that when Mr. Begin met with Mr. Carter in December, the administration "did not endorse it." [New York Times]
- Ethiopian troops have captured Diredawa and Harar from Somali forces in a strategic and heavily populated part of the Ogaden region. The Somalis, who had virtually surrounded the two cities, were pushed back, losing ground in the east, north and south. [New York Times]
- South Africa named a non-white to the Davis Cup team that will play against the United States next month, breaking a segregationist policy that brought demands for its expulsion from international tennis. Peter Lamb, 18 years old and of mixed race, will be one of two juniors on the South African team in the match in Nashville. [New York Times]
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