News stories from Sunday January 21, 1979

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

Congressman Daniel Flood's defense has seriously been damaged by the chief witness in his trial on bribery, conspiracy and perjury charges. The seemingly remarkable memory of the witness, Stephen Elko, resisted a challenge by the defense, strengthening his credibility. [New York Times] Booing greeted Governor Jerry Brown at the California Democratic Convention when he faced an audience preheated by State Assembly Speaker Leo McCarthy's appeal to traditional Democratic philosophy. Governor Brown appears to many people, including Mr. McCarthy, to have moved toward the right. [New York Times] Some industrial countries are cutting back on their pioneering government health programs because of soaring inflation in the cost of medical care. The problems facing Britain, Sweden, Canada and Australia are expected to color the debate in the United States over whether such a program, if feasible, can be afforded. [New York Times] Reforms are needed in the boarding school system on Indian reservations, critics and defenders of the system agree. But solutions to the problems that have aroused child psychologists, educators, family counselors and Indian activists have proved more elusive, and debate continues over whether the schools should not be scrapped altogether. [New York Times] Two members of Iran's regency council reportedly asked to resign under pressure from Ayatollah Khomeini, but Prime Minister Shahpur Bakhtiar said it was untrue and insisted that he would not give in to the Moslem leader's demand that he step down. The Ayatollah has said that when he returned to Iran he would replace the regency council with an Islamic revolutionary council.The Ayatollah demanded a review of all the business contracts Iran had placed with American and other foreign companies, and threatened to cancel those contracts that go "against the interests of the people." He again appealed for national unity and accused the Shah of attempting to instigate a coup in Iran. The thousands of Iranian students at American universities appear ambivalent about the political uproar at home. Most seem to be from upper middle class families; many resent the support the United States has given the Shah and profess anti-American feelings. Some concede sympathy for Marxism, while others say they have no interest in politics and are here only to get an education unavailable at home. [New York Times] Assurances to Taiwan that some of the security guarantees in the mutual defense treaty will be retained after the pact is terminated at the end of this year will be sought by two Democratic Senators, Edward Kennedy and Alan Cranston. Both are backers of the normalized ties with China but wish to show that liberals as well as conservatives are concerned about the future of Taiwan. [New York Times] Increased tension along the frontier between China and Vietnam is causing concern among United States specialists on Southeast Asia. An administration analyst said that it was "not at all an impossibility" that China would send troops over the frontier "to teach the Vietnamese a lesson." [New York Times] El Salvador's military rulers have been accused by the Inter-American Human Rights Commission of murdering and torturing opponents in clandestine cells and of "systematically persecuting" the Roman Catholic Church. The commission lists 99 known "disappeared persons" and says many are believed to be still alive. [New York Times] Israel's cabinet has made decisions on peace treaty proposals by the United States, but Prime Minister Menachem Begin said that they would not be disclosed until the American special envoy, Alfred Atherton, informs the Egyptian government of their content. The decisions seemed to be tentative, because Mr. Atherton was continuing his talks with Israeli officials instead of going on to Egypt. [New York Times]