News stories from Sunday March 12, 1978

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

Prime Minister Begin strongly hinted that there would be an Israeli reprisal for the Palestinian terrorist attack Saturday. In response to a question about whether one was planned, Mr. Begin, clearly showing signs of grief over the slain Israelis, said that there would be no impunity for "those who killed Jews." The postponement of his visit to Washington for at least a week was taken by some observers as a sign that Israel, as it has in the past, would retaliate. He said there was no doubt that the terrorists who came ashore near Haifa had set out in two small boats from Lebanon. [New York Times] Resistance to school desegregation seems to be softening. Busing children out of their neighborhoods to promote racial balance in city schools is still deeply resented, but it is now grudgingly accepted as a fact of life, avoided only by moving away or private schooling. "I don't think there is a groundswell of support for desegregation," said Dr. Robert Wynkop, an adviser to the Louisville schools. "But the community recognizes that while they may not like it, they have to live with it." [New York Times] No coal agreement was reached by strike negotiators despite reports of "progress" and "forward movement." This meant that the government would have no choice but to try to enforce the Taft-Hartley back-to-work order it obtained in court last Thursday. Tension was mounting in the coal fields. Despite the court order prohibiting picketing or other "interference" many miners have said that anyone returning to work would face picket lines and perhaps violence. [New York Times] Britain's high income taxes may be a factor in the country's industrial stagnation, many Britons are growing to believe. The Treasury collects 83 percent of every extra pound in salary exceeding the equivalent of $41,000 a year and up to 98 percent of "unearned" investment income. Suggestions of tax cuts for the well-to-do are no longer sure political suicide. A recent poll found that 72 percent of senior executives would consider taking jobs abroad to avoid the taxes. [New York Times] France's left-wing opposition was holding a bare majority in legislative elections. Incomplete but widespread returns indicated that its lead over the government coalition was too narrow to assure its earlier confident predictions of victory in the final round of voting next Sunday. Leaders of the government coalition predicted that they would overtake their leftist opponents, who said they still have a chance providing they can restore their damaged alliance and go to the second round firmly united. But the Communist Party's leader, George Marchais, cast doubt on that possibility. [New York Times] The Palestinian raid in Israel has dimmed prospects for significant progress in Prime Minister Begin's talks with President Carter. Mr. Begin was to have departed for Washington tomorrow, but the visit has been tentatively rescheduled for late March. Carter administration officials said that they expected positions to harden in Israel and probably in Egypt. [New York Times] A dollar-stabilization agreement was reached by Washington and Bonn, according to government sources, with more funds to be made available for market intervention. Details of the agreement are expected to be announced Monday, and to be reviewed by governors of the central banks in Western countries at their regular monthly meeting in Basel. [New York Times] The Dutch are no longer congratulating themselves over the discovery in 1959 of natural gas off the Netherlands coast. The country is now suffering from the "Dutch Disease," diagnosed by C. J. Oort, a former Finance Ministry official, as "a general euphoria that slowly turns sour, destroying the corpus economicus." Too much of the gas revenues has paid for wage increases, pensions, unemployment benefits and public works; too little has been invested in new industries that would create jobs. [New York Times] Souvenir hunters in Nairobi found bargains in the hours before Kenya's ban on the sale of wildlife trophies went into effect at midnight. Curio shops moved quickly to get rid of their stocks of hides, ivory, horns, lion-claw necklaces, elephant-feet wastebaskets, and antelope-leg lamp stands. The ban on trophies is believed to be a more important conservation measure than Kenya's ban on hunting of last May, because many of the curio shops were believed to be fences for poachers who are held responsible for the loss of much of the country's wildlife. [New York Times]