News stories from Saturday August 2, 1980
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- An "open" Democratic convention received the endorsement of the Senate Democratic leader, Robert Byrd. While he would reject a rule that would bind delegates to vote for certain candidates, the Senator from West Virginia said he nevertheless expects that Jimmy Carter will be the party's presidential nominee. In his weekly news conference, Mr. Byrd was critical of the manner in which Mr. Carter has handled his brother's dealings with the Libyan government.
A poll of Democratic delegates showed that less than half of those who support Sen. Edward Kennedy's bid for the presidential nomination would back President Carter in a November campaign against Ronald Reagan. While 47 percent would support Mr. Carter, 16 percent would defect to Rep. John Anderson, the independent candidate. Others were undecided.
[New York Times] - Billy Carter's oil dealings with Libya were conducted with political leaders, not oil officials, according to a business adviser of the President's brother. Jack McGregor said that one official who approached Mr. Carter about a lucrative deal involving Libyan crude oil was Ahmed Shahati, who has been linked in American intelligence reports to a plan to win political influence in this country. [New York Times]
- Why a large black underclass persists, leading to the widespread racial tension the nation is currently experiencing, is the subject of continuing debate. On view is that the flight of middle-class Americans and jobs from the central cities is due to overt racial prejudice. An assessment that is increasingly being propounded by blacks is that economic forces, more than racism, are to blame. [New York Times]
- National parks are in trouble, accord. ing to environmentalists and officials of the National Park Service. Endangerment to their continued existence as the "cathedrals" of American civilization has come in the form of excessive use and deteriorating facilities, energy exploitation and other development on private land adjacent to their borders, as well as crime and other social problems. In Yosemite and Yellowstone, park jails are often full. [New York Times]
- A person was seen engulfed in flames in Red Square as crowds lined up to enter Lenin's Mausoleum on the day before the Moscow Olympics closed. Officials denied that it had taken place. Witnesses included a member of the Irish delegation whom police questioned to determine whether he had taken pictures of the incident. [New York Times]
- An explosion killed at least 78 persons and injured nearly 200 others in the central train station of Bologna, Italy. There were no reports of American casualties, and most of the victims appeared to be Italians. Police are investigating the cause of the explosion, which occurred at a time when the station was packed with people bound for their vacations. [New York Times]
- A postponement of the autonomy talks with Israel and the United States, scheduled to begin Monday, was asked by Egypt. The delay was to give the two other countries an opportunity to respond to President Anwar Sadat's protest against the new Israeli law formalizing the annexation of East Jerusalem. The written protest is to be delivered tomorrow to Prime Minister Menachern Begin of Israel by the Egyptian ambassador. [New York Times]
- About 70,000 Arabs work in Israel. These Arabs, who live in the occupied West Bank and board buses that take them into Israel each working morning to fill jobs scorned by many Jewish laborers, represent one-third of the labor force of the occupied areas. However, the daily contact has not seemed to bring Arabs and Jews any closer psychologically or politically. [New York Times]