News stories from Sunday August 17, 1980
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- John Anderson's campaign for the presidency on an independent ticket will enter a critical phase in the next two weeks. His strategists say that he must demonstrate that his candidacy is competitive with Ronald Reagan's and President Carter's, and that it is essential that Representative Anderson be included in the televised debates between the major party candidates to give him badly needed national exposure, and to demonstrate his oratorical skill and knowledge of the campaign issues. [New York Times]
- Two Cuban refugees were arrested at Miami International Airport just before boarding an Air Florida flight from Miami to Key West. Their clothing concealed liquor bottles containing gasoline. The arrests occurred amid increased security procedures following three hijackings to Havana on Saturday. Those hijackings, a day's record, brought to six that number of planes diverted to Cuba in the week. A Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said armed sky marshals are being placed on selected flights. [New York Times]
- Scrutiny of millions in payments to two major independent producers affiliated with the ABC network is beyond the limited authority the officials of the network's broadcasting companies who are responsible for internal cost controls. They are forced to rely upon sketchy or ambiguous data when approving payments requests, ABC's records indicate. These subpoenaed documents show that tens of millions of dollars have been paid by ABC to two prominent Hollywood producers, Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg, leading to an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission to determine whether ABC violated a federal law. [New York Times]
- The search for the Titanic's wreck in the North Atlantic was called off because of stormy seas and dwindling supplies of food and fuel aboard the research ship that was believed to have found the wreck using a sonar probe. The searchers hope to return next year with a manned submarine. [New York Times]
- Poland's rebellious workers unified to strengthen their bargaining position with the government. A strike committee, said to represent at least 50,000 workers in 21 major factories in the Baltic ports prepared a list of 16 demands that would seem to put them on a collision course with the government, which, however, continued to follow a patient course. A report of the settlement of the Lenin shipyard strike, one of the biggest walkouts, was premature. Officials said a special committee would investigate the workers' complaints. [New York Times]
- Britain closed its embassy in Teheran temporarily, the Foreign Office said. Only three British diplomats are now in Iran's capital, where demonstrations had been held outside the embassy compound. [New York Times]
- Rioting broke out in Kashmir, India's northernmost state, while in Uttar Pradesh, a north-central state, the death toll rose to 142 as violence between Moslems and Hindus continued for the fifth day in the city of Moradabad. There were also reports of unrest from other cities and towns in Uttar Pradesh. [New York Times]
- Israel-Egypt ties are mired In distrust less than a year and a half since the signing of their peace treaty. An exchange of blunt letters reveals the degree to which Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel and President Anwar Sadat of Egypt disagree on key issues in their Palestinian autonomy negotiations and how their new relationship has been overcome by mistrust and recriminations. [New York Times]
- Coal mine owners agreed to settle out of court a negligence suit brought by the survivors of 15 men who died in a 1976 explosion at a coal mine in eastern Kentucky. Lawyers said that the settlement could bring $10 million to $12 million in damages to 35 of the miners' survivors. The settlement is believed to be the largest ever agreed to in a damage suit by the coal industry. [New York Times]
- Farm abandonment is being reversed in New England, according to government statistics. For the first time since the end of World War II, figures compiled by the Census Bureau and the Department of Agriculture have not shown a decrease in the number of farms and farm families in the region. Preliminary figures indicate that the number of farms in the six New England states has increased by 30 percent since 1974. [New York Times]