News stories from Saturday November 8, 1980
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Iran's government-owned television, directed during the early days of the revolution by Sadegh Ghotbzadeh, has become a major means of solidifying the power of Iranian leaders and creating, or controlling, national unity. Ironically, a televised appearance by Mr. Ghotbzadeh during which he criticized the Islamic Republican Party led to his arrest today.
Iran has not filed formal charges against former Foreign Minister Ghotbzadeh, The prosecutor's office said that he might face additional charges in addition to those which led to his arrest.
[New York Times] - Iran said it had turned back an Iraqi advance on Abadan, and there were reports from both sides of clashes elsewhere in Iran's oil-producing province of Khuzistan. [New York Times]
- Carter strategists tried to avoid the President's television debate with Ronald Reagan. "We'd all pretty well reached the conclusion that a debate could only hurt us," Jody Powell, the White House press secretary, said. But the President's advisers believe that the debate was only one of many factors in losing the election. [New York Times]
- Crimes committed by blacks has become a major concern of growing numbers of black Americans. Leaders of national civil rights groups, community leaders and ordinary citizens, alarmed by the wave of thefts and assaults in black communities, have been taking measures to deal with a problem they had been reluctant to discuss. A Harlem pastor, the Rev. Wyatt Walker, said "It's a matter of our community's physical survival." [New York Times]
- More than 100 Haitians stranded on a tiny island between Cuba and the Bahamas are to be rescued Monday, more than a month after the United States Coast Guard notified the Bahamian government that it had sighted them. Five from the group reportedly starved. [New York Times]
- Massachusetts faces a fiscal crisis and drastic cutbacks in municipall services if a $1.5 billion tax cut approved by voters last week is not reversed by the legislature. The new law will reduce property taxes by 75 percent in Boston and from 30 percent to 40 percent in many other communities. [New York Times]
- A new moon near Saturn has been discovered by the spacecraft Voyager 1, which is photographing the planet. It is probably no more than 50 miles wide and was found about 500 miles outside Saturn's "A ring." Voyager now has discovered three Saturn satellites. The two others are also small. [New York Times]
- A crucial court decision in Poland is expected Monday on the new union organization's charter. Communist Party officials met at factories throughout Poland to plan anti-strike strategy and assess local union strength. The Supreme Court will uphold or rule against a clause in the union's charter affirming the "leading role" of the Communist Party in the independent union movement. The clause was inserted by a lower court, and union leaders threaten to strike if it is not withdrawn. [New York Times]