News stories from Saturday September 29, 1979

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

Steps to bolster the dollar will be taken by American and West German economic strategists. The two countries announced in Hamburg that they would intervene quickly in foreign exchange markets to combat "unwarranted as well as erratic movements." [New York Times] A House-Senate impasse jeopardized the funding of at least 10 major federal agencies as the end of the 1979 fiscal year approached. Differences between the two houses came to head late Friday night when the Senate angrily refused, 59 to 9, to ratify a House version of the appropriation bill that included restrictive abortion language and a 5.5 percent pay increase for Senators, Representatives, federal judges and 21,000 senior federal officials. President Carter decided not to call the House back from a 10-day recess. [New York Times] It is almost certain that no Libyan bribes were taken by White House officials or John White, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, according to Justice Department officials, to get the administration's approval for the sale of military and commercial aircraft to the North African country. Their opinion was based on evidence gathered in an eight-month investigation of a possible bribery conspiracy between Libya and Robert Vesco, the fugitive financier. [New York Times] Evidence that Exxon passed on artificially inflated price increases to customers in Canada and elsewhere was produced at an unpublicized civil trial that took place two years ago in Canada. The case provides the most detailed documentation available to the public on pricing practices of an international oil company. [New York Times] Mexican compensation for damage to the Texas coast by a runaway Mexican oil well in the Gulf of Mexico will be discussed in negotiations agreed to by President Carter and President Jose Lopez Portillo at their meeting in Washington. The talks were given "a high priority, urgent basis," an administration official said. [New York Times] Pope John Paul II began his Irish visit with an appeal to terrorists "to desist from hatred and violence and to repent." The Pope addressed more than 200,000 people in Drogheda, near the Northern Ireland border, and attempted to allay suspicions among northern Protestants of his church and of himself. He appeared to have avoided the political thickets into which some had feared he would fall when he spoke of the sectarian conflict in the north. [New York Times] The Pope will enter a religious climate in the United States far less settled than when Pope Paul VI made the first American papal visit 14 years ago. During his seven-day tour, which will begin in Boston on Monday, the Pope will be in the midst of the most pluralistic religious region that he has visited as the head of the world's 730 million Roman Catholics. [New York Times] China said the Cultural Revolution was the culmination of a series of errors made by its Communist Party. In a speech observing the 30th anniversary of the People's Republic of China, the party's deputy chairman, Yeh Jianying, said the Cultural Revolution was an "appalling catastrophe suffered by all our people." [New York Times]