News stories from Saturday February 17, 1979

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

China invaded Vietnam. The attack followed what Peking described as "incessant armed encroachment." The Chinese press agency, Hsinhua, stressed that China "did not want a single inch of Vietnamese territory."Vietnam accused China in the U.N. of starting a "war of aggression" and asked in a message that the United Nations take "appropriate measures" to force China's withdrawal. Vietnam's Foreign Minister, Nguyen Duy Trinh, said Hanoi was determined to exercise its right of self-defense and China must bear the entire responsibility for initiating the war. The United States asked China to withdraw its forces from Vietnam and said it opposed the invasion with the same severity with which it had earlier criticized Vietnam for attacking Cambodia. Washington also advised the Soviet Union both publicly and privately not to retaliate and attack China. [New York Times] Iran's oil exports "to all parts of the world, including the United States," will be resumed as soon as possible, and Iran is eager to maintain good relations with Washington, Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan said. In his first interview since taking office on Monday, Mr. Bazargan deeply regretted the attack on the American Embassy in Teheran on Wednesday. [New York Times] Hispanics are the fastest-growing minority in the United States, and some demographers expect them to overtake blacks as the nation largest minority before 1985. Their rapidly growing numbers are the result of an Hispanic immigration rate unequalled since the turn of the century and a high birth rate. [New York Times] Calls for arms control are beginning to be heard from Southern Baptists and other evangelicals, who believe that the issue has been neglected by their churches for too long. Collectively, they are adding a powerful new voice to a grass-roots movement within other churches to seek arms controls and to curb the nuclear weapons race. [New York Times] Influential Democrats in New York will be approached by President Carter's political aides, who assume that Governor Carey will chart an independent course toward the 1980 election. President Carter has recently had White House meetings with Assembly Speaker Stanley Fink and Queens Borough President Donald Manes, who is also the Democratic leader of Queens County. [New York Times] Two arrests have been made in the $5 million Lufthansa robbery Dec. 11 at Kennedy International Airport. One of the two men arrested -- the police did not identify them -- was charged with participating in the robbery. Sources close to the investigation identified him as Angelo Sepe, 37, a resident of Ozone Park, Queens. [New York Times] New York's fuel supplies have hardly been affected by the cutoff of oil from Iran, state energy officials said. They do not foresee a need to expand the voluntary energy-saving measures already undertaken. [New York Times] The U.S. Embassy in Kabul said that Soviet advisers had joined them in urging the Afghan police to use delaying tactics in dealing with the guerrillas holding Ambassador Adolph Dubs. The embassy has asked the Afghan government for the police report about the incident, in which the police rushed into the hotel room where the Ambassador was being held and was killed in the crossfire. [New York Times] Two anthropologists disagreed on a recent claim that there had been found in Ethiopia a new species of a pre-human being, ancestor of to all other known forms of human and human-like creatures. Richard Leakey, who is from Kenya, rejected the claim in an address at a meeting in Pittsburgh, which was also attended by Dr. Donald Johanson, one of the two American anthropologists who made the find. Both men lead major fossil hunting expeditions in eastern Africa. Both are often considered rivals. [New York Times]