News stories from Saturday March 15, 1975

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

Aristotle Onassis, the Greek shipping magnate who in 1968 married Jacqueline Kennedy, the widow of President Kennedy, died at the American Hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris. He was brought to the hospital from Athens on Feb. 7 and underwent an operation for the removal of his gall bladder two days later. He also suffered from myasthenia gravis, a debilitating neurological disease, but the immediate cause of death, a physician said, was bronchial pneumonia. [New York Times] Secretary of State Kissinger made another apparently fruitless effort to persuade President Hafez al-Assad of Syria to withdraw his opposition to Egypt's negotiating alone with Israel on a new Sinai agreement. After five hours of talks in Damascus with Mr. Assad, Mr. Kissinger went to Amman, Jordan. [New York Times] Cambodian government forces retook the strategic town of Tuol Leap, eight miles west of Phnom Penh, the capital. This was the first major advance by government troops since the start of this year's insurgent offensive. Meanwhile, the insurgents kept up their rocket attacks on Phnom Penh. [New York Times] The administration is considering an offer of major concessions on the President's economic program in return for a commitment of congressional restraint on spending. The administration is reported to be willing to accept a tax cut of as much as $30 billion and a budget deficit of $70 billion or more in the fiscal year starting this July. This would be an increase from the $16 billion tax cut and a budget deficit of $52 billion proposed by the President in January. The substantial changes are being considered because the administration believes that Congress might go on a spending spree, White House officials said. [New York Times] White House sources confirmed that the Rockefeller commission would start investigating allegations of complicity by the Central Intelligence Agency in assassination plots against leaders of foreign governments as an outgrowth of its inquiry into the C.I.A.'s domestic activities. President Ford's growing concern over recent news reports linking the C.I.A. to several assassination plots was said to be responsible for the additional inquiry. [New York Times] Within the last two days, Portugal's new High Council of the Revolution has seized the great bulk of the country's financial power. It nationalized all insurance companies, following the nationalization of banks Thursday. The council declared that it had been "urgent" to take control of the 35 insurance companies because they controlled huge sums of money that were being used "not for the benefit of the working class but to augment still further the profits of a privileged minority." [New York Times] Former President Antonio de Spinola, a stanch opponent of the Communists, may have inadvertently bolstered their political fortunes in Portugal, according to an account of an abortive coup last Tuesday. Leftist officers supported by the Communists are now in control. Yet, according to the most plausible account now available, they came close to losing power on Tuesday and were saved by premature action of General Spinola. Brazil granted asylum to General Spinola, who fled Lisbon last week. [New York Times] Paul Leandri, a 37-year-old correspondent of Agence France-Presse, was shot and killed by Saigon police, who had summoned him to ask questions about a dispatch he had written about the battle for Ban Me Thuot. The police said Mr. Leandri was accidentally killed when he bolted from the police headquarters compound in his automobile. [New York Times] In the four months since the World Food Conference ended in Rome amid criticism of its failure to provide immediate famine relief, several of the meeting's long-range proposals for preventing famines have been moving toward realization at a promising pace, experts on the world food situation say. They also say that it is already evident that the conference marked a significant beginning in the world's efforts to prevent famine. [New York Times]