News stories from Sunday January 14, 1979

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

The birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., should be a national holiday, President Carter told a gathering in Atlanta to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Dr. King's birth, and he called on Congress to designate it as one. Mr. Carter said that his administration would remain true to Dr. King's goals. [New York Times] The right of fertile women to hold jobs that might impair pregnancy is one aspect of what is becoming a major new civil rights issue. Another part of the issue is the likelihood of a threat to the reproductive capacity and genetic stability of hundreds of thousands of men and women employed in chemical plants and hazardous workplaces where they may be exposed to substances that can prevent conception or deform fetuses. [New York Times] A civil disobedience protest was held by Alaskans against President Carter's designation of 56 million acres in Alaska as national monuments. More than 2,500 people gathered in Cantwell on the edge of Mount McKinley Park, invoking the spirit of pre-Revolutionary War days and purposely breaking Park Service regulations. [New York Times] Thousands of Iranians continued demonstrations in Teheran against the Shah. The capital was tumultuous, and the many motorists who were able to drive again when increased oil production eased the fuel shortage added to the clamor. Karim Sanjabi, leader of the opposition National Front, predicted that the rioting and violence would persist after a regency council assumes the Shah's powers. [New York Times] President Carter announced that the Soviet-American agreement on strategic arms would be submitted to the Senate as a treaty instead of as an executive agreement. This decision, his aides said, was intended to increase the possibility of getting the Senate's approval this year. Any further delay, Mr. Carter said in a speech in Atlanta, would "deal a severe blow" in American-Soviet relations. [New York Times] The U.S. Embassy in Taiwan will be replaced by a new American organization called the American Institute in Taiwan, and David Dean, one of three veteran diplomats being assigned to it, will be in charge with the title of chief executive, government sources said in Washington. [New York Times] China is revising its legal system to provide a basis of civil, criminal and commercial codes and guarantees of public trials that will replace the arbitrary laws of the last 20 years. [New York Times] Israel welcomed the new U.S. effort to revive its stalled peace negotiations with Egypt, but indicated that it did not expect an early break in the deadlock. Alfred Atherton, the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East is expected in Israel on Tuesday. [New York Times] Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia entered a Manhattan hospital and was said to be suffering from exhaustion. He was admitted to Lenox Hill Hospital after a night of what State Department officials described as disjointed conversations with Andrew Young, the American representative at the United Nations.Vietnamese troops in Cambodia attacked a village two and a half miles from the border with Thailand but appeared to be pausing as Cambodian troops tried to evacuate hundreds of their wounded soldiers to Thailand under the protection of the International Red Cross. Local Thai officials reportedly completed arrangements with the Red Cross for acceptance of about 300 to 400 Cambodians, but then a difficulty developed and none of them crossed the border. [New York Times]