News stories from Sunday July 6, 1980

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

The hostages' captors announced that because of "satanic plots" against the hostages they had moved some of them from cities in western Iran to "different parts of the country so as to have them under the control of the nation, until such time as their final fate is decided." The statement hinted at threats to the hostages' lives and charged that the United States was behind them. [New York Times] The Shah's condition was stable but still serious following his third operation in less than a week for complications arising from his lymphatic cancer, according to medical sources in Cairo. [New York Times] Crude oil imports declined by 25 percent during the four weeks ended June 30, an indication of "very substantial progress" in conserving fuel in the United States, Energy Secretary Charles Duncan said. This and other indicators, he said, provided hope that oil imports for 1980 would average 7 million barrels a day, down from 8.5 million barrels a day in 1977. [New York Times] Thirteen aliens died in a desert in Arizona where they had been abandoned by smugglers. The illegal aliens, residents of El Salvador who had been brought across the border from Mexico, were thought to be part of a group of 50 or more, 13 of whom were found alive but severely dehydrated.Fewer illegal Mexican aliens are being seized along the United States border this year, despite Mexico's poorest harvest in three years, immigration officials said. However, they attributed the lower lower capture rate to strains on the Border Patrol's resources, which they said have been stretched to the thinnest point in years by efforts to search for Iranian students and to process the Cuban refugees. [New York Times] The Republican Party can cope with unemployment about as well as the Democrats can, according to a new poll. The findings of the poll buoyed party officials as they began to gather for their national convention in Detroit. The poll also indicates a substantial increase in support for the Republican congressional candidates over the last seven months. [New York Times] The 'electronic newspaper' has begun experimentally. Last week The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch began transmitting its entire editorial content to 3,000 home video terminals around the country through a computer system called CompuServe. For $5 an hour, the home viewer can sit at a computer and call up on its screen a list of all the stories appearing in the daily editions of The Dispatch. The system will soon include 13 more newspapers. [New York Times] The medical use of marijuana in New York state will be permitted under a bill signed by Governor Carey, but only among cancer and glaucoma patients. State officials said it probably would be several months before the therapeutic use of marijuana was authorized, because medical review procedures must be established, and then followed, in each case. New York becomes the 24th state in the last 30 months to legalize the medical use of marijuana. [New York Times] The decline of old cities continues, according to extensive research on whether new construction, housing rehabilitation and economic activity was a signal that the decline that began in the 1950's was ending. [New York Times] The Pope said Latin America's wealth should be distributed more equitably among the people, who, he said must decide whether the sharing would be peaceful or violent. John Paul II said that "anyone who sees the reality of Latin America, the way it looks today, must agree that the realization of justice faces a clear dilemma. It will evolve through bold and sweeping reforms, respecting principles of human dignity, or it will come about -- but without lasting or beneficial effect, of this I am convinced -- through violence." [New York Times] Violence in Central America has followed the overthrow of the Somoza regime by Sandinist guerrillas in Nicaragua a year ago. The Sandinist victory has led to an open bid for power by the armed left in El Salvador and its influence is also apparent in Guatemala and Honduras. [New York Times] China's Prime Minister, Hua Guofeng, and President Carter will meet for the first time when they arrive in Tokyo this week to attend a memorial service for the former Prime Minister of Japan, Masayoshi Ohira. State Department officials said their talks could include such subjects as Indochina, Asian security, and relations with the Soviet Union. [New York Times]