News stories from Monday March 22, 1971

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

A battle for Highway 9 is raging in Laos. Communists blocked South Vietnam's withdrawal, captured a bridge to the east and attacked with tanks to the west. U.S. artillery was rushed to the border to support South Vietnam's withdrawal. A U.S. artillery base near the border is constantly being shelled by North Vietnam. [CBS] Fifty-three American soldiers refused an order to advance in South Vietnam on Saturday. General John Hill said that those who disobeyed would not be punished, but Capt. Carlos Poveda has been replaced. [CBS] North Vietnamese forces are threatening Luang Prabang, Laos; 600 foreigners were evacuated from the city yesterday. U.S. planes struck antiaircraft positions in North Vietnam. [CBS] Defense Secretary Laird assessed the Laos operation and noted that South Vietnamese forces never expected to permanently occupy Laotian territory. North Vietnam reacted to the operation violently but South Vietnam's objectives were achieved. Laird stated that forces stationed at Khe Sanh are capable of maintaining security in the area.Pentagon spokesman Jerry Friedheim said that South Vietnam won the battle in Laos, and South Vietnamese forces performed generally well in the operation. [CBS] Unionist Party leadership will choose the successor to Northern Ireland Prime Minister James Chichester-Clark, who has resigned. Candidates include moderate Brian Faulkner and the more extremist William Craig. [CBS] Pakistan President Yahya Khan and East Pakistan leader Sheik Mujibur reportedly reached an agreement intended to end their countries' political crisis. [CBS] The National Cancer Institute is studying the possibility of a relationship between marijuana and cancer. [CBS] The Supreme Court ruled that Congressman John Dowdy is not immune from prosecution for perjury and accepting a bribe. The court agreed to hear a case demanding the recount of the 1970 Indiana Senate election between Vance Hartke and Richard Roudebush.The justices also ruled that military commanders may bar from bases publications believed to be detrimental to troop loyalty, morale or discipline, and they ruled that Los Angeles police may refuse to issue press passes to representatives of underground newspapers. [CBS] Navy Capt. Robert Smith says that the new 1052-class destroyers intended for antisubmarine warfare are incapable of fulfilling their purpose, and he called the decision to build the destroyers the biggest mistake in the history of Navy ship procurement. [CBS] The House Armed Services Committee approved military pay raises three times greater than the figure requested by President Nixon. The committee rejected the plan for an all-volunteer military and recommended extending the draft for two years. [CBS] The death toll was estimated at 250 as the result of an avalanche and flood in a Peru mining town. An earthquake is believed to be the cause of a landslide into a lake, which made a giant wave and buried the town of Chungar. [CBS] Railpax announced train schedules between 21 cities which will go into effect on May 1. Current service is being cut in half. [CBS] A receiver for the bankrupt Rolls Royce Company set up a new corporation in order to continue manufacturing Rolls Royce cars. [CBS] Three youths tied up a guard at the Dade County Art Museum in Miami and stole half of a collection of antique silverware. [CBS] A car crash in Quincy, Illinois, last Saturday injured Robert Bang and his three sons and killed his pregnant wife. The force of the accident pushed the 8-month fetus through her abdominal wall; the baby is in satisfactory condition today. [CBS] The crisis in Northern Ireland points up the similarity between the British and U.S. governments and their problems. The possibility of civil war in Northern Ireland could have the same effect on Britain as the Vietnam war has on the United States. The Nixon administration and the Heath government are both conservative, but with a desire for basic reforms. [CBS]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 910.60 (-2.32, -0.25%)
S&P Composite: 100.62 (-0.39, -0.39%)
Arms Index: 0.93

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	528	4.84
Declines	874	7.47
Unchanged	281	1.99
Total Volume		14.30

* in millions of shares

Arms Index is the ratio of volume per declining issue to volume per advancing issue; a figure below 1.0 is bullish.

Market Index Trends
Date	DJIA	S&P	Volume*
March 19, 1971	912.92	101.01	15.15
March 18, 1971	916.83	101.19	17.91
March 17, 1971	914.02	101.12	17.07
March 16, 1971	914.64	101.21	22.27
March 15, 1971	908.20	100.71	18.92
March 12, 1971	898.34	99.57	14.68
March 11, 1971	899.44	99.90	19.83
March 10, 1971	895.88	99.30	17.22
March 9, 1971	899.10	99.46	20.49
March 8, 1971	898.62	99.38	19.34