News stories from Saturday November 4, 1978

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

Just as a settlement of the 88-day multi-union strike against New York City's two big morning dailies seemed in sight, the Newspaper Guild went on strike against the New York Times. John Pomfret, a spokesman for the paper, said "negotiations are continuing" with the guild. Fringe benefits, job security and guild jurisdiction are among the disputed issues. The effect of a strike by guild members, who include reporters, editors, other editorial and commercial employees, is unclear because it is not known whether other unions will honor guild picket lines. [Los Angeles Times] A 13-year-old boy has become the youngest person in modern American history to be indicted for murder under adult laws. The case is the first major test of a New York state law that mandates that children charged with violent crimes be treated, tried and sentenced as adults. Robert Davis is charged with taking part in a robbery in which another youth was killed. If convicted, he would face a maximum term of life in prison. [Los Angeles Times] One chemical worker was killed and 23 were injured when a 14,000-gallon tank exploded and burned at a chemical plant on the east side of Houston. It took 100 firemen nearly four hours to put out the blaze in a polymerization unit at the Denka Chemical Corp., which manufactures neoprene, a synthetic rubber. Investigators were looking for the cause of the explosion. [Los Angeles Times] The once-commanding lead that Democrat Alex Seith had over Sen. Charles Percy (R-Illinois) dwindled to less than 1% in the final Chicago Sun-Times straw poll. The final poll showed Seith with 50.4% of the vote and Percy with 49.6%. The first full canvass, published Oct. 29, had given Seith 53.3% to 46.7% for Percy. [Los Angeles Times] Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin, speaking at a Moscow celebration of the 61st anniversary of the October Revolution, said the Soviet grain harvest will set a record of 230 million tons, about 50 million tons higher than the past five years' average. The previous record was 224 million tons in 1976. The record harvest could mean purchases of wheat and other grains from the United States will probably not exceed the 6 million tons required under the U.S.-Soviet grain purchase agreement. [Los Angeles Times] Pope John Paul II confirmed three leading cardinals in their Vatican government posts and rescheduled the Latin American bishops' conference which had been postponed because of the deaths of his two predecessors. The conference will open Jan. 27 in Puebla, Mexico. Confirmations were given to Cardinals Serio Pignedoli and Opilio Rossi of Italy and Bernadin Gantin of Benin. Gantin is the highest ranking cardinal from black Africa. [Los Angeles Times] The U.N. General Assembly assessed its members $168.7 million to spend on U.N. peacekeeping forces in the Middle East next year. The Soviet Union, China, Vietnam, Laos, Albania and Syria all said they would not pay their share. U.N. contingents are stationed in the Sinai peninsula between Israeli and Egyptian forces, in the Golan Heights between Israelis and Syrians, and in southern Lebanon, where recent violence has involved Palestinians and their leftist Lebanese allies against right-wing Lebanese Christian militiamen. [Los Angeles Times] The United States asked the U.N. Security Council to investigate "massive human rights abuses" in Cambodia, as well as the threatened escalation of the Cambodia-Vietnam border war. A letter to the United Nations said that the United States has spoken out on human rights in Cambodia, whose government President Carter has called one of the world's human rights violators. [Los Angeles Times] The president of the Chess Olympics Organizing Committee escaped from his kidnappers and walked into a police station 300 miles northwest of Buenos Aires. Police said Rodolfo Zanlungo, who disappeared one week before the chess tournament began, showed up bruised but otherwise unhurt at the police station in Sen Jenaro Norte. His wife told authorities last month he had been abducted after receiving anonymous threats demanding the olympics be called off. [Los Angeles Times] Cuba appealed to the large Cuban exile community to begin a "direct conversation" with Havana as soon as possible. The nation's envoy to Washington, Ramon Sanchez Parodi, said, "This decision reflects a change of attitude and a better understanding on the part of my government regarding the situation of Cubans living abroad." The dialogue would concentrate on the departure from Cuba of political prisoners, reunification of divided families and visits to Cuba by exiles. Sanchez reported "a little over 3,000 political prisoners" in Cuba, most of whom will be eligible for emigration to the United States under an amnesty policy. [Los Angeles Times] The Nicaraguan Workers Central became the second group to pull out of the Broad Opposition Front that is trying to negotiate a political settlement with President Anastasio Somoza. A spokesman said the powerful labor group withdrew because the front was not being tough enough in its demands for Somoza's resignation. More than a week ago, The Twelve, made up of businessmen, religious leaders and intellectuals sympathetic to the Sandinista National Liberation Front, pulled out citing the same reason. [Los Angeles Times] South Korea gave or arranged grants totaling $2 million to Harvard, Columbia and three other U.S. universities "in its attempt to influence American academic opinion," House investigators said. However, the report by a House international relations subcommittee said there was no evidence that any of the universities accepted grants "with conditions limiting academic freedom." The report concluded that the grants had been part of a broad South Korean effort to influence U.S. officials to maintain military support for Seoul and reduce American criticism of South Korean President Park Chung Hee. The other universities that received grants were the University of Hawaii, Western Michigan University and the University of California at Berkeley. [Los Angeles Times]