News stories from Saturday April 29, 1978

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

Aldo Moro seemed resigned to accepting death as the only way out of his ordeal as a captive of the terrorist Red Brigades, which sentenced him to die more than a week ago. Another letter from the former Prime Minister of Italy from his "people's prison" was addressed to his Christian Democratic Party and sent to Il Messaggero, a Rome newspaper. It was a testament of religious faith and love for his family from a man facing death, but he repeated his early appeals for an exchange of terrorist prisoners for his release, which his kidnappers have demanded. [New York Times] Richard Nixon admits in his memoirs that he was a participant in the Watergate cover-up and that he misled the public about his role in it. But he says his actions were the result of a series of misjudgments or tactical errors as he found himself drawn into the scandal that drove him from the presidency. Excerpts from the forthcoming book, "RN; The Memoirs of Richard Nixon," begin today in the Times and other newspapers. The book is scheduled to be published May 15 by Grosset & Dunlap. [New York Times] Statehood is a big issue in Puerto Rico. Economic and political frustrations are pushing the island to another plebiscite on the nature of its relationship with the United States. Gov. Carlos Romero Barcelo reopened the issue by announcing more than two years before the next gubernatorial election that if his New Progressive Party is re-elected in 1980 he will press for statehood in a plebiscite the next year. [New York Times] Byron Hove, the black minister dismissed Friday by Rhodesia's transitional government for refusing to retract remarks critical of the white-dominated judiciary and police, left the country to resume his law practice in London. He had been a government official for two weeks. In a departing statement, Mr. Hove said that the recent accord with black leaders was a device by Prime Minister Ian Smith to "cheat" blacks of any real power in the nation's future. Bishop Abel Muzorewa, the black leader who sponsored Mr. Hove for the government post, scheduled a meeting of his United African National Council in Salisbury today to prepare a response to the dismissal. Mr. Hove said he would be surprised if the party did not renounce the accord. [New York Times] The Soviet Union pardoned the pilot and navigator of the South Korean airliner that was shot at by a Soviet plane and forced to land when it entered Soviet air space April 20. [New York Times] The leaders of the military coup in Afghanistan killed President Mohammad Daud and four senior members of his government when they resisted the takeover last Thursday, the Afghan radio said in a report monitored in India. Mohammad Naim, President Daud's brother and chief adviser, was also reported slain. The others killed, according to the radio report, were: Defense Minister Gen. Ghulam Rasuli; Vice President Syed Abdullah Illahi; Interior Minister Abdul Karim, and Defense Chief Commander Gen. Mohammad Musa. [New York Times]