News stories from Monday May 25, 1981
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- A unified oil price was sought at a meeting of OPEC countries, but there was doubt that a compromise could be reached. Sheik Ahmed Yemeni, the Saudi oil minister, offered to raise the price of Saudi crude if the others reduced their prices, but his bid was rejected by even moderate members of the cartel. [New York Times]
- The number of Atlanta's missing and murdered young blacks rose to 29 as a new case was given to the police unit investigating the unsolved crimes over the last 22 months. [New York Times]
- A study of 32 nuclear arms accidents disclosed five previously unreported accidents, including one in the Atlantic in 1968 involving a submarine armed with a nuclear weapon. The Pentagon study said that in three of the newly revealed accidents, the weapons were not recovered. [New York Times]
- A first-place racing finish was voided for the first time in the history of the Indianapolis 500. Mario Andretti was declared the winner over Bobby Unser, who had been the first to cross the finish line. Unser was penalized for advancing his position as he re-entered the field from a pit area. The awarding of prize money was postponed pending an appeal. [New York Times]
- Direct treatment of the fetus in life-threatening situations by medical and even surgical methods is becoming increasingly frequent. The new techniques have been made possible in part by the great advances in recent years in finding evidence of fetal distress or genetic problems months before a patient's birth. [New York Times]
- Changes in the cityscape of the nation occur as new immigrants replace some of the earlier ones. A vivid example of such a transformation is Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago. It was long called "Polish Broadway," but as more and more Poles left, the vacuum was filled by blacks, Puerto Ricans and Mexican-Americans. [New York Times]
- Auto accident fatalities are rising in contrast with the sharp drop that occurred right after the national speed limit of 55 miles an hour was imposed. Safety officials are warning that as the use of fuel-efficient, but more vulnerable, small cars increases, the death toll will keep rising. [New York Times]
- A sharp drop in the size of households was reported by the Census Bureau. It said that Americans were increasingly living alone or having fewer children and that, from 1970 to 1980, the average number of persons per household declined from 3.11 to 2.75 while the total number of households increased by 27 percent, to 80,376,609. The trend began in 1930, and the largest percentage decline occurred in the 1970's. [New York Times]
- The recapture of a hijacked jet was announced by Turkey. It said that the four terrorists who forced a Turkish airliner to fly to Bulgaria Sunday had been arrested there and that all the passengers, including five Americans, had been freed. [New York Times]
- An Israeli drone was shot down in the vicinity of the Lebanese border by missiles fired from Syrian territory. It was at least the third Israeli pilotless craft that has been shot down since Syria moved missiles into Lebanon nearly four weeks ago. [New York Times]
- Moscow denied Israel's contention that Soviet advisers were accompanying Syrian army units into Lebanon. Responding to a statement by Prime Minister Menachem Begin, the press agency Tass said that "there have been no Soviet advisers whatsoever in Lebanon, nor are there any now." [New York Times]
- The suicides of two ex-Polish leaders were reported by the official Polish press agency. They were ministers in the regime headed by Edward Gierek, the party leader who was ousted last September. The two had been in charge of institutions that were criticized for financial irregularities and inefficiency or mismanagement. [New York Times]