News stories from Sunday February 3, 1980
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- A federal bribery inquiry involving members of Congress and other public officials widened after law-enforcement authorities succeeded in persuading some targets of the inquiry to cooperate, officials said. Law-enforcement officials said that the inquiry was expanded to include more names as a result of a Federal Bureau of Investigation move -- using a hundred agents in several states -- against the original targets.
The House Ethics Committee chairman said that his committee had already been investigating bribery allegations against some of the House members named in the F.B.I. inquiry. The committee will now broaden its inquiry to include all those named by the F.B.I., its chairman, Representative Charles Bennett of Florida, said.
[New York Times] - A march in Teheran was called off by the captors of the hostages at the American Embassy, who had planned it for tomorrow to demonstrate the support they have in the capital. Marches in provincial cities are being encouraged, however. The Teheran march apparently was canceled to prevent it from interfering with an unofficial inaugural speech that President-elect Abolhassan Bani-Sadr is scheduled to deliver. [New York Times]
- Production at a major gas field in northern Afghanistan, 50 miles from the Soviet border, has been announced in Moscow. The field was developed over the last three years with Soviet assistance. The possibility that a hostile regime in Kabul might cut off this supply and inhibit further Soviet development of Afghanistan's large gas resources may have been among the considerations that the led to the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. [New York Times]
- New Mexico's state prison was retaken by more than 200 state police and National Guardsmen after a 36-hour riot that left about 30 inmates dead and the prison destroyed by fire. Some of the dead inmates were described as horribly mutilated. Neither the riot-armed police nor Guardsmen fired a single shot at the inmates, who offered no resistance. [New York Times]
- Blacks are routinely tested for the genetic trait for sickle-cell anemia by the Du Pont Company, which employs well over 100,000 people. Though the trait for the disease is regarded as virtually harmless, the blood tests are given to all blacks seeking employment at Du Pont, whose officials emphasize the tests are only an effort help them avoid potentially harmful exposure to certain chemicals. However, in a three-month study by The New York Times of genetic screening of industrial employees no other instance was found of an ethnic or racial group singled out as blacks are at Du Pont. [New York Times]
- The cost of campaigning is up sharply because of inflationary pressures, and presidential candidates atay have to cut back on television commercials, campaign fliers, polling and other types of communication with the voters. Their most serious problem, however, is that despite inflation there has been no increase in the $1,000 maximum on contributions set by the 1974 federal election law. [New York Times]
- A strike by Chicago's teachers starting today was announced over budget cuts that call for the dismissal of 1,600 teachers, shortening the school year and renegotiation of the teachers' contract. [New York Times]
- An unauthorized landing by a Soviet plane was made at Kennedy International Airport and the 68 passengers were kept aboard while airport officials consulted with the State Department, which told them to permit the passengers to disembark and go through customs. The Soviet airline, Aeroflot, had been told to land at Dulles International Airport near Washington because ground service employees at Kennedy have refused to serve Aeroflot planes since the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. [New York Times]
- The British government spied on members of the Rhodesian constitutional meeting in London last fall, tapping telephones and bugging hotel rooms, said The Sunday Times of London. The newspaper, quoting an "impeccable source," said the spying was "by far the biggest surveillance sweep in recent years." [New York Times]