News stories from Saturday August 5, 1978

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

An effort to reinstate prayer in public schools will be made in the Senate on Monday. The amendment, sponsored by Senator Jesse Helms, a North Carolina Republican, is opposed by eight major religious groups. [New York Times] Smoking can cause irreversible heart damage and may be responsible for maladies ranging from indigestion to cancer, the American Medical Association said. The A.M.A. released the findings of a $15 million, 14-year research project that was financed by leading tobacco companies and that supports previous conclusions of scientific researchers. [New York Times] Standards for American prisons have been drafted by the Department of Justice and the American Correctional Association in an effort to improve conditions across the country. The Justice Department and the association are also pressing for "accreditation" of the country's 3,000 correctional facilities based on the standards. [New York Times] Secretary of State Cyrus Vance arrived in Jerusalem in search of a formula to keep the Israeli-Egyptian negotiations alive. His latest trip in the role of mediator was taken in a mood of uncertainty and doubt. Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan greeted Mr. Vance with a remark that Egypt and Israel were "stuck" and needed the United States to help. [New York Times] Forty-one persons drowned in Canada after a bus went out of control and plunged into Lac d'Argent, 50 miles southeast of Montreal. Most of the victims were physically or mentally handicapped. They ranged in age from 14 to 86. Among the dead were two nuns, a priest and parents of some of the disabled. The bus driver survived. [New York Times] Arab terrorists killed four people in the Palestine Liberation Organization's office in Islamabad, Pakistan. It was the second attack in Pakistan by Arab terrorists in four days. Witnesses said the assailants, who escaped, spoke Arabic with Iraqi dialect. [New York Times] More than 20 percent of the beef designated as prime or choice is incorrectly graded, the General Accounting Office has found in a study of the Agriculture Department's beef-grading program. The G.A.O., investigative arm of Congress, also found that errors were generally in favor of the packers and that many consumers did not know what the grading labels meant. [New York Times] The late Carlo Gambino has no certain successor as the most powerful organized crime figure in the country, according to law-enforcement officials. They believe that Carmine Galante, now in prison for a parole violation, failed in his attempt to become "boss of all bosses" after Mr. Gambino's death two years ago by consolidating all five families in New York City. [New York Times] Japan is debating defense policies that deal with some of the fundamental taboos of the post-World War II period -- selling arms abroad, working into a new role as a partner of the West in defense by rearmament and upgrading the standing of the military. [New York Times]