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News stories from Sunday September 2, 1979
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Hurricane David headed for Florida from the Bahamas after killing more than 400 people and leaving 150,000 more homeless in the Dominican Republic on Friday. At least 600 Dominicans were reported missing. The 25 million residents of a 300-mile stretch of the Florida coast, from Palm Beach to Marathon in the Florida Keys, braced for the hurricane's 90 mile an hour winds. Another hurricane, named Frederic, rose in the South Atlantic and appeared to be following David's approximate path.
Thousands of Floridians fled as Hurricane David approached. Tens of thousands of people retreated in coastal areas as far north as Cape Canaveral. The storm was intensifying and was expected to strike the south Florida coast before dawn Monday. [New York Times]
- Pioneer 11 ended its rendezvous with Saturn after cruising within photographic range of Titan, believed to be the largest moon in the solar system. Five pictures of Titan showed a fuzzy ball of light with apparently more variations in color than had been expected. Project scientists said the pictures showed Titan's orange smog, which is similar to Earth smog, and evidence of a blue coloring along the moon's edge. [New York Times]
- A new challenge to affirmative action for blacks and the government's role in it will come before the Supreme Court when its new term begins in October, and the decision is expected to be as significant as those in the landmark Bakke and Weber cases. Fullilove v. Kreps, a challenge to federal programs setting aside a share of government contracts for minority companies, will be the third case in three years to present a major challenge to the special help for blacks. [New York Times]
- Reopening of a desegregation case is being sought by black parents in Topeka, Kan., who have petitioned the federal district court there to rehear the Brown v. the Board of Education case of 1954. They maintain that after 25 years school officials have failed to end segregation in the city schools. Among the plaintiffs is Linda Brown Smith, whose father, the Rev. Oliver Brown, initiated the original suit. [New York Times]
- Spying is part of diplomacy at the United Nations, of which Andrew Young remarked after his resignation as chief American delegate, "I know there are no secrets here." An inquiry by the New York Times revealed a world where intelligence gathering is an assumed way of life, where spying is so pervasive that some diplomats call their New York community "the stock exchange of global intelligence operations." [New York Times]
- A voyage around the world by way of the North and South Poles will be, if successful, the first longitudinal circumnavigation of the globe. The 52,000-mile voyage is being made by a British expedition, and is expected to take three years. The expedition left London with Prince Charles, its patron, at the helm of its flagship, the Benjamin Bowring, for the first leg of the journey. The 12-member party is being led by Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham Fiennes, who is accompanied by his wife, Lady Virginia. [New York Times]
- Kurdish rebels reportedly repulsed an Iranian advance on the their mountain stronghold of Mehabad, the objective in a new offensive by the Iranian government to subdue the Kurdish rebellion. Military sources said that both sides were in a preliminary maneuver for possibly the biggest confrontation since the Kurds renewed their struggle for autonomy six months ago. Iranian revolutionary guards and regular army units were deployed on three sides of Mehabad and controlled the main access routes to the city. [New York Times]
- China is seeking financial aid from the United Nations for the resettling of about 251,000 Vietnamese refugees who have entered China in the last 15 months. It has told the refugees, most of whom are ethnic Chinese, that they may emigrate to third countries if those countries want them. [New York Times]
- Extradition of suspected terrorists will not be permitted by the Irish government, Prime Minister John Lynch said in response to a British request. British authorities maintain that extradition, and the right of security forces to pursue suspected terrorists into Ireland are needed to end terrorism in Northern Ireland. The Irish government has long maintained that few if any countries permit so-called hot pursuit or extradition of persons suspected of terrorism. [New York Times]
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