News stories from Sunday July 9, 1978

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

Nazis marched in Chicago at a rally of the National Socialist Party of America. The police kept the situation under control despite shouted exchanges of racial insults between the marchers and spectators on the Southwest Side. [New York Times] About 100,000 people marched in Washington in support of an extension of the seven-year deadline for ratification of the equal rights amendment. Many men and children were among the marchers. Ratification by three more states before next March is needed for the amendment to become law. [New York Times] Gerald Ford may skip primaries if he enters the 1980 Republican presidential nomination. The former President said that he might sit the primaries out and hope that no obvious frontrunner would emerge. This course, he said, could help him keep for a longer time his "credibility as a critic" of the administration. [New York Times] A Penthouse casino application for Atlantic City is being investigated by the New Jersey state police, who are studying British court findings that Pent-house Casino Ltd. in London had admitted alleged criminals in 1971. The investigation is also concerned with whether organized crime was involved in Penthouse International's purchase of an Atlantic City hotel. [New York Times] Israel rejected Egypt's plan for peace. The proposal of President Anwar Sadat, which was termed "unacceptable" by the Israeli cabinet, provided for Israel's withdrawal from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The cabinet decided, however, to accept an invitation for Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan to meet in London July 18 and 19 with Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and the Egyptian Foreign Minister, Mohammed Ibrahim Kamel. [New York Times] President Sadat met Shimon Peres, the leader of Israel's opposition, for more talks in Vienna on the Middle East. The meeting ended with the two still divided over crucial questions. An expected joint statement did not follow a 90-minute meeting, nor was there a prospect of another meeting. [New York Times] Rhodesian euphoria has vanished as whites, who once believed that blacks would never be a serious military threat and that the establishment of an interim government leading to a black government would reduce terrorism, find themselves more fearful than ever as guerrilla attacks increase. [New York Times] A former Prime Minister of Iraq, Abdul Razzak Naif, was shot and seriously wounded outside his London hotel in another of a series of recent attacks on Middle Eastern figures in that city. General Naif served as Prime Minister briefly after a military coup in 1968, but was ousted by Gen. Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, Iraq's present Prime Minister. General Naif survived a previous assassination attempt in London in 1972. [New York Times] Lebanon's President refused to withdraw his resignation announcement despite pleas that he do so. Kuwait's Foreign Minister, Sheik Sabah Ahmed al-Sabah, went to Lebanon in an attempt to persuade President Elias Sarkis to change his mind. [New York Times] A Ford Motor Company official, held responsible by the company for a plan to bribe an official in Indonesia in 1975 and forced to retire, later received a large unexpected bonus, company sources said. The bonus, possibly as much as $100,000, was paid in 1977 to Paul Lorenz. [New York Times]