News stories from Sunday May 16, 1971
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- A national railroad strike is scheduled for tomorrow. Railroad negotiators and the AFL-CIO Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen are meeting, but little progress has been reported. The union wants its $3.78 hourly wage to be raised 54% over three years; the railroads offered 42% over 3 ½ years. A strike would halt most freight, and Amtrak. [CBS]
- U.S. B-52's bombed enemy supply routes in Laos, Cambodia and South Vietnam. North Vietnam is widening a foot path in northern South Vietnam to accommodate its supply trucks; the road starts at the Laos border and heads for Khe Sanh. South Vietnam Vice President Nguyen Cao Ky charged today that there is no social justice in South Vietnam. [CBS]
- Former President Truman supports the Nixon administration in opposing Senator Mansfield's amendment to cut U.S. troop strength in Europe by 50%. Secretary of State Rogers says that the U.S. is anxious to begin negotiations with the Soviet Union on mutual troop reductions in Europe. [CBS]
- President Sadat of Egypt fired his communications minister; UPI reports that 300 Egyptian officials have been arrested or fired. In Cairo, Egyptians demonstrated in support of Sadat. [CBS]
- Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi called for international assistance to help meet the needs of East Pakistani refugees. [CBS]
- In Sicily, a 50 foot high wall of lava from Mt. Etna missed one village but is headed for another. [CBS]
- Mount Ruapehu erupted in New Zealand. [CBS]
- The Democratic party raised $200,000 to pay for their 1968 campaign debts with a dinner in Milwaukee. Senators McGovern, Muskie, Hughes, Proxmire and Bayh attended the dinner. The Wisconsin primary is important to Democrat presidential contenders.
A Gallup poll shows Senator Edward Kennedy ahead of Senator Edmund Muskie as the first choice of registered Democrats in the 1972 presidential race.
[CBS] - Rep. William Anderson praised FBI director J. Edgar Hoover for his lifetime of distinguished service. [CBS]
- Violence broke out at the site of the "People's Park" in Berkeley, California. 500 protesters battled police in an attempt to tear down a park fence, then they broke store windows and burned barricades in the streets; the police used tear gas to break up the riot.
Berkeley city manager William Manley noted that the new radical city council members have no more control of the street people than the previous administration did.
[CBS] - The worst forest fire in the history of northern Minnesota is still not under control, but rain has eased the drought in Florida. [CBS]
- Russian officials will meet with U.S. fishing representatives to discuss charges of Soviet harassment of American lobster boats off the coast of New England. [CBS]
- British tugboats sprayed detergent on an oil spill in the English Channel; the spill was caused by a Norwegian ship after a collision. [CBS]