News stories from Saturday November 11, 1978

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

More than 2,500 Vietnamese refugees are stranded on a decrepit freighter riding anchor near Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, seeking haven that has been denied them there and in Indonesia. They are the largest number of Vietnamese to have escaped their homeland in a group. The refugees boarded the freighter in late October from fishing boats. Nearly half are under 17 years of age. All are suffering from hunger, thirst and illness. [New York Times] The 96th Congress is expected to have a lighter workload when the new session begins Jan. 15 than the 95th had. Administration and legislative officials say that few new initiatives are planned for the 96th, mainly because of the country's economic problems and Congress's growing conservatism, a trend reaffirmed and strengthened in last Tuesday's elections. [New York Times] Legionnaires' disease has struck one of the best and newest of the Veteran Administration's hospitals. Since the first case was identified in the summer of 1977 at Wadsworth Veterans Hospital in Los Angeles, the disease has spread to 47 other patients and three staff members, killing 16 patients. The 51 cases is the largest number that has broken out in a specific area since 224 persons caught the disease at the 1976 state convention of the American Legion in Philadelphia. [New York Times] The United States is getting more difficult to govern because of a piecemeal, inefficient system of authority for which the presidency and Congress are partly to blame, according to political leaders, scholars and public interest groups across the country. John Gardner, the founder of Common Cause, the public affairs lobby, says the nation is being whipsawed by special interest groups, resulting in "a paralysis in national policymaking." [New York Times] One of the leaders of the revolt against the Shah of Iran was arrested by the military government. Karim Sanjabi was arrested at his home on the outskirts of Teheran as he was preparing to hold a news conference. The 73-year-old Mr. Sanjabi, head of the National Front, managed, however, to pass a statement to some reporters that scathingly attacked the Shah and rejected any likelihood that he would cooperate with the military government. [New York Times] A plebiscite in Nicaragua proposed by President Anastasio Somoza to test the electoral strength of his political opponents was immediately rejected by them because it did not offer the president's early resignation. The Broad Opposition Front, a coalition of 14 leftist and rightist groups, reiterated its vow to withdraw from a mediation effort led by the United States if President Somoza does not resign by Nov. 21. [New York Times]