News stories from Saturday October 27, 1973

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

President Nixon's position that the new special Watergate prosecutor will be named by the administration rather than the courts drew continued opposition from Democrats in Congress. "No soap" was the comment of Senator Mike Mansfield, the Senate majority leader, about the President's announcement at his news conference Friday night. Mr. Mansfield said that he would support a bill that calls for a court-appointed special prosecutor to guarantee the prosecutor's independence. The bill has 53 co-sponsors, Democrats and Republicans. [New York Times] Many of New Jersey's top Republican leaders conceded that Representative Charles Sandman's campaign for governor had floundered badly and that he and the G.O.P. appeared headed for a major defeat in the elections a week from Tuesday. Every major poll and the seasoned judgments of political leaders from both parties have an overwhelming lead to Brendan Byrne, the Democratic candidate. [New York Times] Egypt and Israel agreed to negotiate face-to-face on implementation of the cease-fire along the Suez Canal as a result of the "good offices" provided by Secretary of State Kissinger, a State Department spokesman announced. The agreement for military representatives of Egypt and Israel to meet is intended to alleviate the situation of the Egyptian III Corps, surrounded by Israeli troops on the east bank of the Suez Canal. Under the agreement, the United Nations and the Red Cross would provide relief to the Egyptian forces. [New York Times] The Soviet Union dismissed President Nixon's explanation of why American forces were put on alert Thursday as "absurd" and called the American tactics "an attempt to intimidate the Soviet Union." The highly unusual timing and content of the Soviet statement, issued through Tass, the official Soviet press agency, suggested that Leonid Brezhnev was personally piqued at Mr. Nixon's public version of the crisis at his news conference Friday night and perhaps at Mr. Nixon's disclosures of testy, private conversations with the Soviet leader. [New York Times] The United Nations Security Council approved arrangements for a 7,000-man military force to serve as a buffer between Israeli and Egyptian forces. An agreement to approve Secretary General Waldheim's proposals on the arrangement nearly broke down when the Soviet and United States delegates engaged in an angry, arm-waving shouting match over the proposals, delaying the Security Council meeting. Mr. Waldheim's proposal provides for a United Nations emergency force drawn from smaller powers for an initial period of six months, with all 135 United Nations members sharing its cost of $30 million. [New York Times] The first contingent of United Nations emergency forces reached the city of Suez after being held up for more than 5 hours by an Israeli roadblock, a spokesman for the United Nations reported in Cairo. He said that 56 Finnish officers and men entered the city in mid-afternoon. Egyptian authorities are anxious to get the United Nations emergency force to Suez as fast as possible. The city of Suez, nearly devastated by previous fighting, is the lifeline for the Egyptian Third Army Corps. [New York Times]