News stories from Sunday May 11, 1980
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Six more bodies were recovered from the Tampa Bay, raising to 24 the number found since Friday morning when a freighter rammed the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, causing a 1,400-foot section of its southbound span to collapse. Officials believe that at least 32 persons died in the incident. Inquiries by federal and state investigators will begin this week. [New York Times]
- The arrival of 4,100 more Cubans in Key West brought to 34,000 the total number of refugees to land in Florida during the three-week exodus. Although one boat captain said Cuban authorities had forced him to take on a load of common criminals, federal officials said they detained none of the 4,100 as suspected dangerous criminals. They explained that while some of the latest newcomers might have been in jail, they were not "hard-core criminals."
Proved felons will be returned to Cuba if possible, officials of the Immigration and Naturalization Services said. But because Fidel Castro is unwilling to take them, the process could be difficult. Legal procedures could take up to a month to complete in each case. Because the U. S. does not maintain diplomatic relations with Cuba, the convicts would be shipped back via Mexico or Canada.
[New York Times] - Ronald Reagan feels confident that he will be the Republican Party's presidential nominee and has has begun to develop a national strategy for the fall election, targeting key states in the Middle West and Northeast. Mr. Reagan will address about 4,000 Republicans in New York's Nassau County Thursday. [New York Times]
- A total ban on exports to Iran may not be forthcoming as earlier promised by Western allies and administration officials are worried. Secretary of State Edmund Muskie is expected to discuss the matter of sanctions with foreign ministers in Brussels and Vienna this week. [New York Times]
- Germany's Social Democrats won a major victory, in state elections regarded as the most significant of the year before the national elections on Oct. 5. They defeated the Christian Democratic Party in a state that represents about one-third of the nation's voters. [New York Times]
- A martyr for Israel's extreme right is an American-born Protestant, James Eli Mahon, of Alexandria, Va. A Vietnam War veteran and former F.B.I. informer who penetrated radical groups, Mr. Mahon converted to Judaism, took the name Eli Hazeev and went to Israel in 1974 with the express desire of fighting Arabs. He was recently killed by Palestinian terrorists in Hebron.
A decision on seizing Arab lands was delayed by the Israeli cabinet, which had been considering a proposal made by Agriculture Minister Ariel Sharon, calling for the taking of 3,250 acres of land in the occupied West Bank to allow seven settlements to expand.
[New York Times] - The strikes have ended in Sweden, where more than 800,000 workers were involved in the country's worst labor crisis, affecting 31,000 private companies and one-fifth of the work force. The labor disputes had shattered the Swedish image of labor tranquility. The settlement calls for wage increases of about 7 percent. [New York Times]
- Cuban fighter planes attacked a boat belonging to the Bahamas Defense Forces as it towed two seized Cuban fishing boats. Four Bahamian crewmen were killed and an undetermined number of others were injured. The bombing incident occurred shortly before daybreak. [New York Times]
- Ugandan soldiers seized the state radio and post office after the army chief of staff was dismissed, increasing pressure on the civilian government. However, military authorities made no move to take control of the country or to place it under martial law. [New York Times]
- A trend away from at-large voting has been halted, some civil rights observers say, because of a recent Supreme Court decision that a city could choose to vote on an at-large basis, which can dissipate minority voting strength, rather than on a district basis, with each district choosing an individual representative. Civil rights lawyers think that the court's decision signals a federal retreat from efforts in the area of voting rights. [New York Times]