News stories from Thursday December 21, 1978
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- An airliner was hijacked by a 16-year-old girl. She held those aboard hostage at the Marion, Ill., airport in an effort to help free at least one of the same prisoners her mother had sought to help escape last May. The girl's mother was killed in that attempt after she hijacked a helicopter. After hours of communicating with the daughter, F.B.I. agents boarded the jetliner. She surrendered and no injuries were reported. [New York Times]
- President Carter may undergo surgery this week. The White House issued the statement after the President had canceled his appointments Thursday because of an aggravated attack of hemorrhoids. [New York Times]
- A new drug that helps a heart that is failing beat much more forcefully and that someday may be added to digitalis treatment for congestive heart failure has been discovered by doctors. The drug, called Amrinone, is available on an experimental basis at three medical centers in this country. [New York Times]
- President Kennedy's slaying is the subject of a new debate. A House committee has received additional evidence that four shots were fired at the President in Dallas 15 years ago, reopening the dispute over whether he was attacked by one or two assassins, committee sources said. [New York Times]
- Cleveland's fiscal crisis has been developing for at least a decade. The problem of financing a city with a declining economic base has been compounded by local propensities. In the last 10 years voters have rejected three income-tax increase proposals and even voted a property tax rollback. [New York Times]
- Terri Buford, a top aide to Jim Jones until two months ago, charged that every violent, illegal or '"reprehensible" act undertaken by the minister or members of his cult had been initiated or approved by Timothy Stoen, a former prosecutor who was also chief legal adviser to the cult leader before Mr. Stoen resigned from the People's Temple two years ago. [New York Times]
- Extradition of Gary Thomas Rowe by Georgia was sought by an Alabama prosecutor on the ground that new evidence would prove that Mr. Rowe murdered a civil rights worker while he was paid by )he F.B.I. as its chief spy inside the Ku Klux Klan. [New York Times]
- Mayor Koch pressed President Carter to "fulfill the commitments that we feel were made" to increase federal aid to New York City this year and next and warned that the city "does not have the resources" to close its budget gap by itself. The Mayor placed the onus for possible future budget cuts directly on Mr. Carter. [New York Times]
- Some progress in arms talks was reported in Geneva by Secretary of State Vance and Foreign Minister Gromyko. They said that they had made gains toward resolving the issues holding up an accord to limit strategic weapons, but that some hard problems remained. After five hours of meetings, American officials insisted it was premature to say whether the latest negotiations would succeed.
Moscow is concerned about the new American-Chinese relationship. The press agency Tass made public Tuesday's message from Leonid Brezhnev to President Carter in an apparent effort to show that the Soviet leader had questions about the relationship and would watch it closely.
[New York Times] - A high-level mission to Taipei next week will discuss a framework for unofficial relations between the United States and Taiwan, the White House announced.
Taiwan wants more American arms, Prime Minister Sun Yun-suan said. He added that his government sought to buy high-performance military jets and defensive missiles.
[New York Times] - Palestinian guerrillas fired rockets at the northern Israeli town of Qiryat Shemona in retaliation for air strikes Wednesday against guerrilla positions in southern Lebanon. Western diplomatic sources said it appeared that the Palestinians were ready to open a new campaign against Israel. [New York Times]
- Israel put limits on the meeting set in Brussels this weekend among Secretary of State Vance and high Israeli and Egyptian officials. Prime Minister Begin said that the talks would not be a resumption of the stalled peace negotiations, but would determine "how, when and where" future negotiations could be held.
Cairo blamed Israel for causing the deadlock over a projected peace treaty by reneging on understandings previously reached. Egyptian officials cited examples to underline their contention that Prime Minister Begin had misrepresented Cairo's position.
[New York Times]
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| Market Index Trends | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | DJIA | S&P | Volume* |
| December 20, 1978 | 793.66 | 94.68 | 26.52 |
| December 19, 1978 | 789.85 | 94.24 | 25.96 |
| December 18, 1978 | 787.51 | 93.44 | 32.90 |
| December 15, 1978 | 805.35 | 95.33 | 23.64 |
| December 14, 1978 | 812.54 | 96.04 | 20.85 |
| December 13, 1978 | 809.86 | 96.06 | 22.48 |
| December 12, 1978 | 814.97 | 96.59 | 22.21 |
| December 11, 1978 | 817.65 | 97.11 | 21.01 |
| December 8, 1978 | 811.85 | 96.63 | 18.56 |
| December 7, 1978 | 816.09 | 97.08 | 21.18 |