News stories from Saturday February 26, 1972
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- At least 37 persons were killed in Logan County, W.Va., as a coal-slag dam burst under the pressure of three days of rains and a wall of water swept through eight mountain-valley towns. The toll, it was feared, may reach 90. In one town, Lorado, an observer said that the water reached the tops of telephone poles. [New York Times]
- Prime Minister Heath of Britain made clear, in an interview, that he was optimistic that the crisis in Northern Ireland could be solved through a political solution, with the region remaining a part of the United Kingdom. He said a united Ireland had "no historical or logical justification." [New York Times]
- As John Taylor, Northern Ireland's Minister of State for Home Affairs, continued to recover from an assasination attempt made Friday, the police questioned four men as suspects in the shooting. Doctors in Belfast said Mr. Taylor, who advocates a hard line against terrorism, would suffer no permanent injury from the six bullets in him. [New York Times]
- President Nixon said that he and Premier Chou En-lai of China would issue a communique tomorrow that would contain some areas of agreement as well as some disagreement. The agreements are for a new but circumscribed relationship between the United States and China providing a framework for future contacts. The President, looking weary after six days of talks, and the Premier spent the day in the resort city of Hangchow. Tomorrow they fly to Shanghai. [New York Times]
- Following a suggestion by Gov. William Waller, the Democratic party "regulars" of Mississippi recessed their state delegate-naming convention for six weeks and appointed a committee to try to negotiate a settlement of the group's dispute with the Democratic "loyalists" recognized by the national Democratic party. The committee's goal would be to send a compromise delegation to the Democratic National Convention in Miami Beach in July. [New York Times]