News stories from Saturday June 9, 1979

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

The Pope was barred by Polish authorities from entering the steel town of Nowa Huta, the scene of his greatest triumph as cardinal, and so he journeyed to a neighboring suburb and condemned the nation's leaders for treating men "merely as a means of production." The Pope had battled the Communist government for 20 years to build a church at Nowa Huta, and five years ago he was granted permission for the church, which was completed two years ago. [New York Times] President Carter's standing dropped to a new low recently, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll, which showed overall public approval of his job performance dipped from 42 percent in March to 30 percent this month. The new percentage is lower than the worst rating of any recent President except for Richard Nixon or Harry Truman. [New York Times] Suits over government flu shots given three years ago to prevent swine flu are still pending, despite a government pledge last June to expedite settlements in the most serious cases. The most serious cases involve citizens who took the shots and contracted a rare neurological disease that causes paralysis. Doctors concluded that the disease, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, had been caused by the vaccine. [New York Times] A debate over the volunteer Army is emerging in Congress, some of whose members are questioning its cost, its quality and its ability to attract adequate numbers of men and women. The debate is expected to reach the floor of the Senate this week and the House of Representatives soon after. [New York Times] The hottest spot in the solar system has been discovered by space scientists who said that in the interplanetary zone between Jupiter and Mars they have recorded the hottest temperatures ever measured. The measurements were made by instruments on Voyager 1 as it passed near Jupiter. [New York Times] A public struggle over the Bible between conservatives and ultraconservatives is shaping up in the 13 million member Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States. The struggle will be dramatized by the election of a new president at the denomination's convention. Ultraconservatives charge that some conservative leaders are not teaching the doctrine that God gave every word in the Bible directly. [New York Times] Turkey wants aid from the U.S., an extensive amount of aid that American officials calculate at $1 billion a year, to revive its economy and play its role in the Western alliance. The request came from Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit who said in an interview that Turkey also wants the U.S. to help it build its own arms defense industry. [New York Times] France favors nuclear power, and indeed, theirs is an unusual consensus on the subject. In the midst of the Three Mile Island nuclear crisis in America, President Valery Giscard d'Estaing ordered a speedup of his country's construction program for nuclear power stations, and his decision was accepted almost without question by the great majority of the population. [New York Times] The uprising in Nicaragua has spread to the capital city of Managua, with rebels seizing several outlying areas and reportedly inflicting heavy casualties on the government's National Guard. The guerrilla-backed uprising is aimed at the government of Gen. Anastasio Somoza. [New York Times]