News stories from Sunday October 26, 1980

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

An Iraqi missile attack killed more than 100 people in Dizful in Iran's oil-producing province of Khuzistan, Teheran radio said, as Iraq intensified its assault on the city. Dizful is the junction for major oil pipelines. The Iraqis were continuing their sieges of the provincial capital of Ahwaz and Abadan, an oil refinery city. [New York Times] A debate on the release of the hostages broke off and the Iranian Parliament adjourned until Monday. The debate began as a public session and then became a private one when journalists and the public were expelled. Tomorrow's session also will be private. A member of the commission that prepared the terms for the hostages' release said there were matters that should not be made public.The delay on the hostage issue did not upset the State Department. Some administration officials said it was probably a positive development and they noted press reports that resolutions in the Iranian Parliament proposing suspension of the debate or attaching conditions unacceptable to Washington had been blocked. [New York Times] The ordeal of the hostages' families has worsened since there have been reports that the Americans held in Iran might be freed. For the Sickmann family in Krakow, Mo., the telephone has become an instrument of torture. They are glued to it, hoping for a call from their son, Sgt. Rodney Sickmann of the Marines. Instead, there are calls from reporters who ask the same unanswerable questions. His family's anxiety increased when CBS had a telephone installed on their front lawn without their permission. [New York Times] Narrow, highly charged issues may swing the election. Many of these issues -- women's rights, abortion, busing and religious education are clustered under the "family" heading. Others are gun control and nuclear power. All are politically important because a small proportion of prospective voters hold such strong views about them. Polls and interviews indicate that their votes could be crucial in an election as close as this one seems likely to be. [New York Times] The Kremlin favors President Carter over Ronald Reagan. Its support is not unanimous, but according to Western diplomats, senior Soviet officials believe they would be better off with Mr. Carter. The key element in their support is said to be the pending strategic arms limitation treaty. [New York Times] Mayor Koch of New York City will campaign for President Carter in southern Florida and Philadelphia. He said he assumed the White House was counting on him to help increase support among Jewish voters, especially in Florida. [New York Times] The police are ill-trained to deal with urban disorders of the kind that erupted in Miami last May, a study of the Miami riot, sponsored by the Justice Department, concludes. The police, the study says, mistakenly believe that riots are a thing of the past. It also concludes that the police should place more emphasis on preventing than controlling riots. [New York Times] Immigration officials have a list of "proscribed" and "questionable" organizations, and aliens found to be members of those organizations are subject to special investigations and may be refused admittance to the country or expelled. The list was disclosed in connection with a lawsuit by Socialist Workers Party. A similar list compiled by the Attorney General's office was banned by President Richard Nixon six years ago. [New York Times] The New York Marathon was won by a 22-year old senior at the University of Oregon. Alberto Salazar ran the 26 miles and 385 yards in 2 hours 9 minutes 41 seconds. It was the fastest marathon ever run by a beginner, eighth on the all-time world list and second fastest by an American. [New York Times] Israel's President is in Egypt on an official visit, the first by an Israeli head of state to an Arab country. President Yitzhak Navon was warmly greeted in Cairo by President Anwar Sadat and a 21-gun salute. Egypt regards the visit as ceremonial. No state matters will officially be discussed. Mr. Navon, a scholar of Arabic, will meet Egyptian artists and writers and will visit archeological sites in Luxor and Abu Simbel on his five-day visit. [New York Times] An Afghan diplomat who fled to West Germany Saturday after denouncing his country and the Soviet Union at a United Nations meeting in Belgrade, planned his defection carefully, diplomatic sources in Frankfurt said. The diplomat, Akhtar Mohammad Paktiawal , is in Frankfurt seeking politcal ayslum. The sources said that Yugoslav and West German officials had helped him flee. [New York Times]