News stories from Sunday May 6, 1979

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

The biggest anti-nuclear demonstration ever held in the nation took place in Washington, when more than 65,000 people marched peacefully from the White House to the Capitol, reflecting the quickening pace of the anti-nuclear movement. [New York Times] Nuclear energy is needed more than ever by industrial and developing countries. But the industrial nations continue to fall behind with their nuclear plans, partly because of the opposition of environmentalists and the growing concern about the safety of nuclear development. This month in Paris, the International Energy Agency will tell Western energy officials that it has again reduced its estimates of the contribution nuclear energy is likely to make by 1985. [New York Times] "Battered women" accused of murder are finding self-defense to be an increasingly effective argument at their trials. One of a growing number of examples of how self-defense or retribution have freed women accused of murder is the case of Diana Cervantes Barson of Houston, who was charged with murdering her common-law husband. Miss Barson shot him, chain-sawed his body into five pieces, put them in garbage bags and loaded them in the trunk of her Cadillac and drove to California where she asked relatives to help dispose of her cargo. She was acquitted by a Houston jury. "A clear-cut case of affirmation of a woman's right to physical self-defense," the defense lawyer said. [New York Times] Fears of a widening gasoline shortage are apparent in a number of states. A survey has found that worry over a shortage is accompanied by various business and consumer responses, from the inventive to the illegal. "The fear of non-availability of gas is amazing," said Bruce Ratner, New York City's Commissioner of Consumer Affairs. It is the No. 1 topic at community meetings he attends. [New York Times] Concern over the 1980 census is rising among minority-group members, especially Mexican-Americans, who fear that they will again be overlooked and that the result will be the loss of job opportunities, federally-financed programs, and, possibly most important, influence at the polls. [New York Times] Viruses are being examined for messages from other worlds. Two Japanese scientists are searching for special meaning in the coded genetic signals within certain bacterial viruses. They have proposed that part of the genetic sequence is a message encapsulated in virus particles to survive prolonged space journeys and dispersed into the universe by one or more highly advanced civilizations. [New York Times] A Peking poster told of imprisonment of many top Chinese political prisoners in an inconspicuous walled complex in a Peking suburb, where they are often tortured, deprived of food and forbidden visits by relatives. It was dated March 3, and was written by a leading Chinese dissident, Wei Jingsheng, who was arrested a few weeks after the poster appeared. He has reportedly been charged with being a counter-revolutionary, which carries the death penalty. [New York Times] A special armed force in Iran is being organized to "protect the Islamic revolution," Ayatollah Khomeini said in ordering formation of the force after two political assassinations and attacks by Islamic followers against leftists. [New York Times] Bruno Kreisky's Socialist Party won a narrow majority in Austria's national election, assuring him of another four-year term as Chancellor. His party, according to an official count, received about 51 percent of the total vote in a four-way race. [New York Times] Israeli jets attacked a Palestinian camp and a neighboring village in northern Lebanon, killing seven persons and wounding 90, according to Palestinians, Lebanese and the Lebanon radio. The raid, said to be retaliation for a recent Palestinian attack in northern Israel, followed a bombardment during the night of two southern Lebanon villages by Israeli-backed Christian militias. [New York Times] Trade concessions and more aid for developing countries will take up much of the discussions between rich and poor countries at the fifth United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, which opens in Manila tomorrow, with delegates from 159 nations attending. The meeting will continue for three weeks. [New York Times]