News stories from Saturday January 12, 1980
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Leonid Brezhnev accused the Carter administration of deliberately seeking to "poison" relations with Moscow. In his first public statement on the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, he denounced American leaders as unreliable, emotional and capricious and warned that retaliatory measures would "boomerang."
A new strategic doctrine to contain the Soviet threat in the Middle East and southern Asia in the 1980's is being shaped by President Carter and will be announced in a major speech. Where the new policy will be announced has not been decided.
[New York Times] - A vote to rebuke the Soviet Union for its intervention in Afghanistan fell further behind schedule in the United Nations General Assembly and was put off at least until Monday. The delay was said to be a tactical victory for the Soviet Union. [New York Times]
- Iran executed 11 rebels in Azerbaijan Province, setting off new rioting in Tabriz, the provincial capital. The executions by firing squad followed the capture by government troops of the headquarters of the former Moslem People's Republican Party, which professed loyalty to Ayatollah Kazem Shariat-Madari. [New York Times]
- A cutback in energy consumption should be the first priority in any future national energy policy, concludes a study prepared by the National emy of Sciences for the Energy Research and Development Administration, predecessor of the Department of Energy. The study, to be made public on Monday, was five years in preparation and is the first major government work to find that conservation in the form of improved energy efficiency offers the greatest potential for easing long-range energy problems. [New York Times]
- Government antirecession measures in the form of tax-reduction and spending proposals are being prepared by a study group that is expected to report within a week to the Cabinet-level Economic Policy Group. Under pressure from labor groups, the council will propose federal funding for a new round of local public works projects, which might be favorably regarded in an election year. [New York Times]
- Corruption and rock-bottom morale runs through the Immigration and Naturalization Service, hampering it from carrying out its most fundamental responsibilities, a New York Times investigation has found. Almost without exception, people connected with with the agency, or who formerly worked for it, described it as beset by political interference and official indifference, with a record of selective enforcement, brutality and other wrongdoing unmatched by any other federal agency. [New York Times]
- A new federal student-aid law is giving unintended revenue to many states that are taking advantage of the law and high interest rates to gain millions of dollars. The law's effect has been scrutinized by the Congressional Budget Office, which, in a report scheduled to be released next month, says that if the law is not changed the cost to the government will be over $1 billion before the end of the decade. [New York Times]