News stories from Sunday February 17, 1980

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

Members of an inquiry commission that will investigate alleged crimes of the deposed Shah of Iran were chosen by Secretary General Kurt Waldheim of the United Nations. Naming of the commission had been delayed when the president of Bangladesh was declared too ill to participate. Mr Waldheim has called on Harry Jayewardene, a noted Sri Lankan lawyer who is active in human rights causes and is the brother of President Junius Jaywardene. [New York Times] J. Edgar Hoover blocked prosecution of four Ku Klux Klansmen who had been identified by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents as the bombers who killed four black children at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963, a Justice Department report said. As a result of the then-F.B.I. Director's action, it was 14 years before one of the Klansmen, Robert Chambliss, was convicted of murder. His alleged accomplices have never been indicted. The report also said that a fifth suspect in the bombing was hired by the F.B.I as a paid informer two months after the bombing of the Birmingham church despite lie-detector indications that convinced bureau agents that the suspect had been involved in the bombing. [New York Times] George Bush won the primary vote by Puerto Rico's Republicans. He outdistanced Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee, who conceded defeat, and six other candidates. Ronald Reagan's Southern support, which had been considerable, has eroded to the point where some Republican leaders now believe he may be upset by George Bush in the Alabama and Florida primaries, especially if Mr. Bush wins in New England contests. The Southern prospects of Senator Baker and John Connally also have declined sharply, Republican politicians said. [New York Times] Canada's Liberal Party apparently has a good chance of winning the general elections tomorrow, according to the last and most complete of the Gallup polls. The poll indicated that the Liberals, whose leader is former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, had a bigger lead than at any other time during the eight-week campaign, with a margin large enough to give them a majority in the new House of Commons. [New York Times] Further inquiry on Three Mile Island has been ordered as a result of questions raised on whether utility officials deliberately withheld information about the seriousness of the accident at the nuclear power plant last March. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission asked the head of its special inquiry group, Mitchell Rogovin, to take another look at its findings. [New York Times] Human labor is substituting for energy in come work places because of rising energy costs and the prospect of shortages, according to some government experts and economists. Secretary of Labor Ray Marshall says that the substitution of labor is a major reason why unemployment has not increased more sharply despite a sluggish economy. Harvard University economists have concluded that energy and labor are "substitutes" for each other. [New York Times] Criticism of Mayor Jane Byrne has replaced the wide admiration she inspired when she became Chicago's chief executive 10 months ago, entering office with an overwhelming mandate. Mayor Byrne's penchant for becoming embroiled in public conflicts is frequently mentioned by her critics, one of whom said she was exercising "government by combat." [New York Times] Israel's Embassy in Cairo will be opened tomorrow. The arrival of the first Israeli diplomats to be stationed in an Arab country was notable for its lack of color, in keeping with continuing Egyptian criticism of Israel's settlement policy on the West Bank. [New York Times] India took steps to strengthen government control at the local level by dissolving nine state assemblies controlled by the opposition and ordering new elections. President Sanjiva Reddy issued proclamations placing the nine states under "president's rule" until the elections. [New York Times]