News stories from Wednesday July 26, 1978

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

The first known baby conceived outside the body received a warm welcome from scientists and the British press. English churchmen gave the birth qualified approval.Laboratory conception, a procedure that has gained attention with the recent case in England, raises questions that go to the heart of such issues as the sanctity of life. Though defenders maintain that the procedure is safe and mimics nature in many ways, critics are concerned about the medical problems involved and the possible destruction of embryos. [New York Times] In another genetic advance, scientists have for the first time been able to identify a single gene from among the millions in a human cell, according to a team of researchers from Harvard, Yale and Haceteppe University in Turkey. The new technique was said to allow researchers to detect a birth defect in an unborn child. [New York Times] The Bakke decision was interpreted officially by the Justice Department for the first time. In a court brief the department urged approval of an affirmative action program that sets strict numerical quotas for the promotion of blacks in the Detroit police department. White police officers had challenged the program, which mandated the promotion of one black to the rank of sergeant for every white. [New York Times] Data on a reported murder plot against the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was unchecked for five years because an F.B.I. agent disregarded a basic regulation about dissemination of criminal information, a bureau spokesman said. The spokesman said the violation resulted from an "administrative error" and not from any attempt to block a full inquiry into the assassination. He said that the agent responsible had retired and that no formal inquiry into his actions was planned. [New York Times] Miners' union leaders stopped a rank-and-file move to force a recall election to oust the union president, Arnold Miller. By a vote of 14 to 5, the union's executive board ruled that the recall procedure used by the dissidents did not meet technical requirements of the union constitution. The vote means that any court action brought by the challengers can be contested by union lawyers. [New York Times] Changing planes in Atlanta has helped make the city's airport the nation's second busiest, after Chicago's O'Hare, but it has also brought increasing grumbles from Southern air travelers who have to make the "Atlanta connection" to get where they're going. The loudest complaints come from booming Birmingham, Ala., where city boosters want more direct flights. [New York Times] Government computers will get tough new security measures to prevent fraud, misuse and invasion of privacy under orders being prepared by the Carter administration. The move, which comes at a time when there is increasing concern over security of the government's vast computer files, will require new guidelines and regulations to protect files from destruction or unauthorized use. [New York Times] Repeal of economic sanctions against Rhodesia was rejected by the Senate. However, it adopted a compromise provision that, in effect, would require President Carter to lift the sanctions, but only after he had determined that a Rhodesian government had been established by free elections under impartial international observation and that it had committed itself to negotiate with rebels. [New York Times] Egypt ordered Israel to recall a military delegation that had been a symbol of direct Israeli-Egyptian contacts since January. Israel's Prime Minister, Menachem Begin, who reported the recall order on national television, suggested that the move was part of a new war of nerves and urged patience. It was seen elsewhere as Egyptian reprisal for Israeli refusal to return a Sinai town as a "gesture." [New York Times] Ethiopia says that its troops have won their first major victory over Eritrean rebels in three years with the recapture of the important supply town of Tessenei near the Sudan. The Ethiopian radio also said that government forces had made significant advances south of Asmara, the Eritrean provincial capital, and had repulsed rebels outside Massawa, a vital Red Sea port. Diplomats said they had no reason to disbelieve the reports. [New York Times] The lightest sentence against dissidents in a recent series of Soviet trials was unexpectedly received by Mariya Slepak, the wife of a prominent Jewish activist. She was given a suspended prison camp term for her part in unfurling a banner from an apartment balcony declaring, "Let us out to our son in Israel." Her husband, Vladimir, was sentenced last month to five years in exile, and she may now accompany him. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 847.19 (+7.62, +0.91%)
S&P Composite: 99.08 (+0.64, +0.65%)
Arms Index: 0.72

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	980	23.44
Declines	476	8.25
Unchanged	439	5.14
Total Volume		36.83

* in millions of shares

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 25, 1978	839.57	98.44	25.40
July 24, 1978	831.60	97.72	23.27
July 21, 1978	833.42	97.75	26.07
July 20, 1978	838.62	98.03	33.34
July 19, 1978	840.70	98.12	30.85
July 18, 1978	829.00	96.87	22.86
July 17, 1978	839.05	97.78	29.18
July 14, 1978	839.83	97.58	28.37
July 13, 1978	824.76	96.25	23.62
July 12, 1978	824.93	96.24	26.64