News stories from Sunday June 15, 1980

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

Harm to Chinese-American relations could result from Ronald Reagan's campaign proposal to re-establish relations between Washington and Taiwan, a Chinese official in Shanghai warned an American delegation led by Gov. Harry Hughes of Maryland. Zhao Xingzhi, Deputy Mayor of Shanghai, told Mr. Hughes that Mr. Reagan's plan "goes against the common interests of our two peoples." [New York Times] The C.I.A. experimented widely in seeking new espionage techniques, according to records released under the Freedom of Information Act. However, the several thousand documents had been heavily censored. Among the projects were tests using trained seals and otters, monitoring the "bioplasma" fields of agents, and developing poison pellet guns. Stun guns, calibrated blackjacks and marsmallow barrages were also tested. [New York Times] A layoff of 2,300 auto workers at the General Motors plant in East Baltimore has followed the drop in car sales caused by high gasoline prices and the switch to imports from Japan. The plant epitomizes the problems of many United States auto factories: outdated equipment, questions of product quality, absenteeism in the face of the layoffs and poor morale. [New York Times] The Los Angeles police image of efficiency is under question in the wake of alleged brutality and "spying" on leftist groups and other organizations that have been critical of the Police Department. A local affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union has released copies of records from police files, obtained in a lawsuit, that indicate that undercover police officers attended meetings of the City Council and the Police Commission and then gave reports to their superiors. [New York Times] Dogs and tear gas were used by the police in South Africa to disperse blacks who were gathering in Soweto, a segregated black quarter outside Johannesburg, to observe the anniversary of anti-government riots there four years ago. The police were enforcing a government proclamation last week banning all political and commemorative meetings of more than 10 persons, the most repressive restriction on political activity in South Africa in nearly 200 years. [New York Times] Israel harshly denounced the Common Market declaration last week on the Middle East that urged that the Palestine Liberation Organization be "associated" with the peace talks. A cabinet statement, read to reporters by Prime Minister Menachem Begin, compared the European stand with the appeasement of Hitler at Munich and dismissed it as no better than the pledges given to Czechoslovakia in 1938. [New York Times] When King Hussein visits Washington this week he will try to make President Carter understand, if not accept, why most most Arabs still reject the peace talk formula followed by Egypt, Israel and the United States since the Camp David conference nearly two years ago, Jordanian officials said in Amman. [New York Times] Bengali immigrants were massacred in the village where they had settled near the Bangladesh border by indigenous tribal people, who are ethnically and legally distinct from most Indians. Nearly all the Bengalis in the agricultural village of Mandai were killed in a raid last weekend. Indian army troops, sent there, buried the bodies of 350 men, women and children. [New York Times]