News stories from Saturday November 1, 1980
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Iran's Parliament approved conditions proposed by a commission for the release of the 52 American hostages. The commission recommended that the Deputies accept a basically unchanged version of the guidelines set by Ayatollah Khomeini. "If some of the conditions need time to be met, given acceptance of all the conditions by the American government, the Iranian government will free a group of the criminals whenever one of the conditions is met," the commission said.
The terms set for freeing the hostages by Ayatollah Khomeini weeks ago could provide "the basis for working out an agreement" for their release, Secretary of State Edmund Muskie said. But no arrangement for their release has been concluded yet, he said. Hope for the hostages' release has been crushed so often that a hint of resignation is apparent in the conversations and daily life of many of their families. The resignation seems in some measure a protective shield.
[New York Times] - Heavy Iraqi casualties were claimed by Iran, which also said it had repulsed an Iraqi armored-unit assault on Abadan, the site of Iran's huge oil refinery complex. The Teheran radio said Abadan's defenders had destroyed a bridge to Abadan so that the Iraqis could not cross to the strategic city. [New York Times]
- Despite Ronald Reagan's sizable lead over President Carter in the battle for electoral votes, which increased after the Cleveland debate, he still does not have enough to insure an electoral majority, according to a final nationwide survey by The New York Times. The 50-state survey gives Mr. Reagan 24 states with a total of 235 electoral votes; the President, 13 states with 145 votes, and none for John Anderson, the independent. An electoral majority is 270 votes. [New York Times]
- The President has not cooperated fully with the Justice Department's investigation of his brother Billy's relationship with Libya, a department report said. It also charged Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti with deliberately "dissembling" and says that the President's brother withheld information and lied while under oath. [New York Times]
- The people of Atlanta turned out to search for four missing black children who were among 14 children who disappeared in the last 16 months. Whites joined blacks in a search party of about 1,000 people. Ten of the 14 children, from seven to 15 years of age, were found dead. [New York Times]
- The Kremlin is unenthusiastic about both the American presidential candidates. A commentary taking up a half-page in Pravda by one of its New York correspondents characterized both candidates as exponents of a military fervor that has taken hold of "the highest official levels in America." [New York Times]
- West Germany has decided to withdraw its pledge in 1978 to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to increase its defense outlays. [New York Times]
- Redistribution of land in Zimbabwe has been started by Prime Minister Robert Mugabe, who once promised that white-owned lands would be confiscated to redress the imbalance in white and black ownership of agricultural land. [New York Times]