News stories from Wednesday July 12, 1978
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Andrew Young compared dissidents in the Soviet Union to civil rights campaigners in the United States and said there were "political prisoners" in both countries. Commenting in Geneva on the trials of two Soviet dissidents, the American representative to the United Nations said the Soviet Union was making a "terrible mistake" in stifling the human rights movement but added, "You cannot stop the world because of a trial." [New York Times]
- F.B.I agents face investigation on whether they concealed any violent crime committed by Gary Rowe. The Justice Department also will investigate whether Mr. Rowe was involved in violent crime while working as an F.B.I. informant. [New York Times]
- A shower of nuclear particles caused by Tuesday's violent solar flare may reach the Earth about five days from now, potentially endangering two orbiting Soviet astronauts and people flying in supersonic transport planes, a government astronomer reported. [New York Times]
- Grasshoppers are destroying wheat, barley and corn in southeastern Colorado and three other states. The Colorado legislature, in special session, voted emergency funds for a spraying program, but only after politically partisan debate. Nebraska has declared the situation a disaster. [New York Times]
- Prevention of grain elevator blasts is possible under technology that has long been known, according to experts at a symposium in Washington. Such explosions have killed 85 workers and injured 179 others since 1976. The most promising safety measure -- removal of the volatile grain dust that fuels the explosions -- has been blocked by economic obstacles which have stopped its use, the experts said. [New York Times]
- Philadelphia's Bellevue Stratford Hotel has put its furnishings on sale at reduced prices. As one of the 700-room hotel's owners put it, the mysterious disease that killed 29 members of the American Legion in Philadelphia two years ago simply ended the hotel's business. "The occupancy here literally went to zilch," he said. [New York Times]
- One year after New York's blackout, frustration and anger are still evident in the most dramatically affected neighborhoods. There is little evidence that officials have made good on their promise to help finance the restoration of property damaged and destroyed by looters. And some civic leaders are concerned that most of those convicted of looting and wrecking during the crisis have either received short sentences or none at all. [New York Times]
- President Carter condemned the trials of Anatoly Sharansky and other Soviet dissidents as "an attack on every human being who lives in the world who believes in basic human freedom and is willing to speak for these freedoms or fight for them." He made the denunciation in interviews With French and West German television correspondents in a day of an outpouring of condemnation of the trials by the House of Representatives and others. [New York Times]
- Guerrillas in South-West Africa accepted a Western-sponsored plan that would bring the disputed territory to independence as the new black African state of Namibia. The plan, which calls for a cease-fire, a United Nations-supervised election, with a United Nations force of at least 55,000 to safeguard against interference, was accepted in April by South Africa, which has controlled the territory for 58 years. [New York Times]
- Anatoly Sharansky's contacts with American reporters emerged as the main prosecution argument to sustain a charge of treason and espionage at his Moscow trial. The centerpiece of the government's case is the allegation that he conveyed secret information to a Western correspondent said to have cooperated with a Western intelligence service. [New York Times]
- Secretary of State Cyrus Vance conferred in Geneva with the Soviet Foreign Minister, Andrei Gromyko, trying to narrow differences blocking a new treaty to limit strategic arms. He then conveyed a message from President Carter expressing concern over the fate of Anatoly Sharansky, the Soviet dissident. [New York Times]
- The wife of Anatoly Sharansky said she is convinced the Soviet government has decided to execute her husband, and that his trial on charges of spying for the United States is the signal for a vast new wave of persecutions. [New York Times]
- The Joint Chiefs of Staff are limited in setting defense policy, according to a report prepared for the White House. They are hampered by the "historic unwillingness" of the military to assign its best officers to the body and they are plagued by procedures that need major overhaul, the report said. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 824.93 (+3.64, +0.44%)
Arms Index is the ratio of volume per declining issue to volume per advancing issue; a figure below 1.0 is bullish. | |||||||||||||||
| Market Index Trends | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | DJIA | S&P | Volume* |
| July 11, 1978 | 821.29 | 95.93 | 27.47 |
| July 10, 1978 | 816.79 | 95.27 | 22.47 |
| July 7, 1978 | 812.46 | 94.89 | 23.49 |
| July 6, 1978 | 807.17 | 94.32 | 24.99 |
| July 5, 1978 | 805.79 | 94.27 | 23.74 |
| July 3, 1978 | 812.89 | 95.09 | 11.57 |
| June 30, 1978 | 818.95 | 95.53 | 18.11 |
| June 29, 1978 | 821.64 | 95.57 | 21.66 |
| June 28, 1978 | 819.91 | 95.40 | 23.27 |
| June 27, 1978 | 817.31 | 94.98 | 29.28 |