News stories from Sunday July 23, 1978

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

Strikes by postal employees over the tentative agreement reached last week between their union and the United States Postal Service threaten to spread. The protests began in Jersey City and San Francisco, which have some of the nation's largest parcel-post facilities. The Postal Service again warned strikers in those cities that they would be dismissed if they did not return to work immediately. [New York Times] Taxpayers' revolts may spur a trend among cities to contract with private business for work formerly done by municipal employees. More than a half million public employee jobs have been contracted out in the last decade, according to Charles Brown, spokesman for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. New York State's highest court upheld Westchester County's right to replace tenured civic employees by contracting work out to a private firm, a decision that is expected to encourage similar contracting around the state. [New York Times] Competency tests for students are being endorsed by education officials in many states despite frequent opposition from organized teachers' groups. The competency movement has spread to 34 states and has, for the most part, won popular acceptance, an official of the Education Commission of the States has reported. [New York Times] Ten bills took priority as White House aides and congressional officials met and prepared a list of measures they hope to push through Congress as the end the second session of the 95th Congress approaches. They gave top priority to 10 measures, including a tax cut, the energy program, and aid for New York City. [New York Times] Protests by car owners over prices and maintenance costs have led manufacturers and dealers to give customers new alternatives for resolving disputes. The Ford Motor Company, for example, has established the Ford Consumer Appeals Board. The industry also hopes to reduce the growing number of consumer complaints that wind up in court. [New York Times] Israel refused Egypt's request that it make a conciliatory gesture by returning the Sinai Desert town of El Arish and Mount Sinai to Egyptian administration. Prime Minister Menachem Begin said he made such a gesture last November with his proposal for partial autonomy for Arabs in occupied lands. [New York Times] The political fight in Israel between Prime Minister Menachem Begin's Likud Party and the opposition Labor Party continued. One of issues the opposition relentlessly hammers on is the Prime Minister's health, insisting that he is physically and mentally ill. "Dirty tricks," Mr. Begin commented to reporters. [New York Times] The Soviet Union objects to an American plan for deploying mobile intercontinental missiles and this has complicated the Carter administration's search for a strategic arms agreement this year with Moscow, administration officials said. They said the top Soviet arms negotiator had told Paul Warnke, director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, that an American proposal for hiding hundreds of land-based missiles among thousands of underground silos might not be acceptable. [New York Times] Four hundred bishops from 100 nations and 25 regional churches attended the opening session of the 11th Lambeth Conference in Canterbury, England. It was the beginning of three weeks of deliberations that are believed crucial to the future of the Anglican Church. In an opening address, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Donald Coggan, criticized those bishops whose "spiritual life" had died. [New York Times] A battle broke out in Lebanon between Syrian troops and Christian militia troops in Al Hadath, a predominantly Christian suburb of Beirut near the presidential palace. Syrian units of the Arab League peacekeeping force shelled Christian positions with rocket launchers and artillery, the Christian Phalangist Party radio said. [New York Times] Vietnam will talk with China about the exodus of ethnic Chinese from Vietnam, according to a Hanoi radio broadcast monitored in Hong Kong. Vietnam suggested that the talks could start in Hanoi on Aug. 8. China, accusing Hanoi of persecuting and expelling nearly 160,000 ethnic Chinese, proposed the talks last week with a warning that the situation was becoming increasingly grave. [New York Times]