News stories from Monday April 9, 1979
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The nuclear-core crisis has ended at the plant near Middletown, Pa., Harold Denton of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced as the crippled unit was being eased toward a cold shutdown. Gov. Dick Thornburgh announced that it was safe for pregnant women and preschool children to return to the area.
A warning on curbing accidents such as the one that occurred at the Three Mile Island plant was issued by the government's senior advisory panel on reactor safety. It said that the accident indicated it would be very difficult for operators at 43 reactors to control such an accident properly. The panel advised, among other things, the speedy placing of new instruments on all pressurized water-cooled reactors to show specific levels of fluid.
Public opposition to nuclear power plants, apparently stirred by the accident in Pennsylvania, has increased sharply in the last two years, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll. It showed that only 46 percent now favor further development of nuclear power, compared with 69 percent in a July 1977 poll.
[New York Times] - High rates of cancer were found among people living near a nuclear weapons plant in Colorado. A physician and epidemiologist who is director of the Jefferson County (Colo.) health department said in a report said that people living downwind from the Rocky Flats plant near Denver had substantially higher cancer rates than Denver-area residents not exposed to plutonium emissions from the plant. [New York Times]
- Bert Lance was cited in a Justice Department complaint and consent decree. The data said that the former Director of Management and Budget, with White House aid, had helped to arrange a meeting between State Department officials and a Georgian investor seeking to protect an oil concession in Qatar that the Georgian and another investor had obtained earlier by paying a $1.5 million bribe. [New York Times]
- A civilian engineer was killed and 34 crewmen were injured in a series of 11 fires aboard the docked aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy. Capt. Lowell Myers, the vessel's commanding officer, said there was "very strong evidence of arson in seven of the 11 fires" that broke out. [New York Times]
- Celibacy was stressed by Pope John Paul II in a letter to all priests of the Roman Catholic Church. He urged them to keep faith with the commitment and "at moments of crisis" not to ask to be released from their vows. Ecclesiastical sources said that virtually none of hundreds of requests by priests for reduction to the status of laymen had been granted since John Paul II became Pope nearly six months ago. [New York Times]
- A curb on anti-satellite weapons is being sought by Washington in negotiations with Moscow in advance of signing a projected new strategic arms limitation treaty, United States officials said. Anti-satellite weapons are designed to track and destroy orbiting craft such as communications and spy satellites, upon which Washington strongly depends for warning of surprise attack and other military missions. [New York Times]
- Peking's economic drive for modernization is leading it to tap all possible sources of capital. One example is a growing attempt to attract wealthy overseas Chinese to finance philanthropic projects. [New York Times]
- At least 10,000 Moslems were slain in southern Chad early last month by marauding tribal gangs, according to Jesuit missionaries. [New York Times]
- Idi Amin's forces resisted assaults backed by Tanzania amid reports of continued fighting between the Ugandan President's beleaguered troops and the invaders on the key road between the capital of Kampala and Entebbe airport. [New York Times]
- Pakistan denied a charge by Afghanistan that Pakistani troops had crossed the Afghan border. The accusation was linked to widespread insurgency by Moslem tribesmen against the pro-Soviet regime. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 873.70 (-1.99, -0.23%)
Arms Index is the ratio of volume per declining issue to volume per advancing issue; a figure below 1.0 is bullish. | |||||||||||||||
| Market Index Trends | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | DJIA | S&P | Volume* |
| April 6, 1979 | 875.69 | 103.18 | 34.72 |
| April 5, 1979 | 877.60 | 103.26 | 34.54 |
| April 4, 1979 | 869.80 | 102.65 | 41.94 |
| April 3, 1979 | 868.33 | 102.40 | 33.53 |
| April 2, 1979 | 855.25 | 100.90 | 28.97 |
| March 30, 1979 | 862.18 | 101.59 | 29.97 |
| March 29, 1979 | 866.77 | 102.03 | 28.51 |
| March 28, 1979 | 866.25 | 102.12 | 39.92 |
| March 27, 1979 | 871.36 | 102.48 | 32.93 |
| March 26, 1979 | 854.82 | 101.04 | 23.42 |