News stories from Saturday March 11, 1978

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

Terrorists struck in Israel. They seized a bus and as they sped 30 miles along the Mediterranean coast to Tel Aviv at least 21 persons were killed. About 70 persons were injured, but the provisional estimate did not include military casualties or Arab gunmen. Most casualties were hostages in the bus, which exploded during a gun battle with Israeli troops. A Palestinian military spokesman in Beirut said the attack had been carried out by members of Al Fatah, the largest guerrilla group in the Palestinian Liberation Organization.Prime Minister Menachem Begin postponed for at least a day his visit to Washington for talks with President Carter because of the terrorist attack. He was to have departed Monday. Defense Minister Ezer Weizman, who has been in the United States, was called home. [New York Times] Coal strike negotiators met in a new atmosphere of confidence, if not optimism, as both sides tried to preserve the practice of industry-wide talks. Both sides, eager to prevent further government intervention in the strike, agreed to bar from the talks agents of the federal Mediation and Conciliation Service who participated in shuttle bargaining sessions for weeks. [New York Times] Knowledge about the origin of the universe, its first moments at least, has increased enormously in the last decade. Cosmologists, astronomers and physicists believe man may be approaching an unprecedented insight, one that would forever shape the human view of existence and purpose, answering the question whether the universe was created for some purpose by God. [New York Times] France's President made a last-minute effort in a recorded television appeal to repulse a seemingly irresistible leftist advance in the French legislative elections that start tomorrow. The runoff election will be held next Sunday. Asserting that "victory is at hand," Georges Marchais, the Communist Party leader, said he would meet tomorrow with the leaders of the Socialist and Left Radical Parties to prepare an agreement for organizing a government of the left. The three parties are expected to win a majority in Sunday's voting in what amounts to primaries. [New York Times]