News stories from Sunday April 13, 1980
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The United States is urging its allies to impose economic sanctions against Iran later this month and to break diplomatic ties by mid-May if progress has not been made toward the hostages' release, administration officials said. They said the administration has decided to tell both its allies and Iranian leaders that the allies should join in the economic and diplomatic sanctions already taken by the United States. If these fail, the message continues, new steps will be tried that could culminate in military action.
Eight of the Common Market countries said they would withdraw their ambassadors temporarily from Iran in protest against the captivity of the American hostages. Ambassadors of Britain, France, West Germany, Italy, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands and Ireland will go home tomorrow or Tuesday. Luxembourg, the ninth member, has no regular diplomatic representation in Iran. The ambassadors of Japan and Norway are also going home for "consultations."
[New York Times] - Moscow responded angrily to the boycott of the Moscow Games voted by the United States Olympic Commission. Tass, the Soviet news agency, said that the vote was taken under "unprecedented pressure and blackmail" from the White House. [New York Times]
- There will be no steel strike, despite the deadline at midnight tomorrow and unresolved major issues, because of an "experimental negotiating agreement" between the United Steelworkers of America and nine steel companies. If the two sides fail to produce an agreement by the deadline the unresolved issues must be submitted to binding arbitration. [New York Times]
- New Orleans was deluged by a thunderstorm that covered its streets with up to three feet of water. About 150 people were evacuated from homes in Kenner, a suburb. Tornadoes caused damage and injuries in nearby towns in Louisiana and Mississippi. [New York Times]
- The Southwest's urban sprawl may be curtailed as the region faces a future without cheap gasoline. "In-filling" is a new planning tool. An example of it is being provided by Phoenix, where a citizen's committee adopted a plan calling for developers to be given financial and other incentives for building homes in undeveloped neighborhoods that had been bypassed in favor of outlying areas. Mass transit, which had been regarded by many in the Southwest as a tax-subsidized service for the poor and aged is being considered as an alternative to the car. [New York Times]
- All Israeli forces withdrew from southern Lebanon after a five-day occupation that had accomplished certain "engineering tasks," an Israeli military source said. Israeli troops entered the area last Wednesday, two days after an attack on a kibbutz in northern Israel by Palestinian terrorists who had entered from Lebanon. [New York Times]
- Vietnam is deeply worried over the possibility of another famine in Cambodia, and its concern has been deepened by its lack of confidence in the government of President Heng Samrin, who was installed in January 1979 when the Vietnamese army overthrew Prime Minister Pol Pot. Vietnamese officials in Phnom Penh said they shared the anxiety of international relief aides over the Cambodian government's inefficient distribution of food sent to Cambodia by the Soviet Union, Vietnam and other nations. [New York Times]
- New York banks are slowing lending to developing countries. Jamaica was recently refused emergency financial aid, and Brazil was turned down when it sought new bank credits. The banks fear that some countries are so deeply in debt they will not be able to meet their payments as scheduled. A report on lending to developing countries issued by a major investment banking house was described by one of its partners as "the most negative we have ever released." [New York Times]