News stories from Sunday February 24, 1980
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The U.S. hockey team beat Finland at the XIII Olympic Winter Games at Lake Placid and won the gold medal. The victory followed by two days the the most startling result in recent Olympic history when the American team upset the Soviet squad, 4 to 3. The Russians had won the gold medal at the previous four Olympics. [New York Times]
- Administration officials indicated that they were still wary that an end to the hostage crisis was in sight. They were confused over conflicting statements on the fate of the hostages in Teheran. Ayatollah Khomeini's statement that their release would be decided by the new Parliament, which probably will not convene until April, caused consternation in Washington because it seemed to contradict the American understanding that the hostages would be freed in about two weeks.
Iran promised to cooperate with the United Nations commission that has gone to Teheran to investigate Iran's grievances against the deposed Shah. Government officials, however, again insisted that the panel's task was not to arrange the release of the hostages at the American Embassy.
[New York Times] - Kabul remained shuttered in defiance of martial law orders imposed when an anti-Soviet demonstration broke out last week, according to diplomats and other travelers from Afghanistan arriving in Pakistan. [New York Times]
- Intense pressure from Washington appears to have temporarily averted a right-wing coup against El Salvador's besieged military-civilian junta, American officials in San Salvador said. Right-wing terrorists assassinated El Salvador's Attorney General Saturday, and later bombed a militant labor federation. [New York Times]
- Domestic oil prices climbed and the American economy lost many millions of dollars after the Energy Department auctioned some federally owned oil for the world's highest contractual price two months ago. The sale of Elk Hills oil in California to the Phillips Petroleum Company on a high bid of $41 a barrel contributed to the chaos in the world oil market at that time, when the domestic price of decontrolled oil was about $30 a barrel. The response at home and abroad has made officials in Washington cringe. [New York Times]
- Republican candidates argued over who should have been allowed to debate Saturday night in Nashua, N.H., and whether it was George Bush's fault that the event was limited to him and Ronald Reagan. The first real problem of Mr. Bush's smooth-running campaign erupted on the eve of the first state primary of the 1980 presidential campaign in New Hampshire. [New York Times]
- President Carter's budget proposals for the next two years are strongly opposed by the economic and financial communities on the ground that they would encourage excessively high spending that would further worsen inflation. The opposition includes both liberals and conservatives. [New York Times]
- Many homes were destroyed in Lake Elsinore, Calif., when a lake fed by a runoff from more than a week of heavy rain continued to overflow. Trailers and vehicles were also ruined and some residents had to flee. The Army Corps of Engineers began clearing a flood-control channel that had not been used in more than 60 years. [New York Times]