News stories from Sunday September 17, 1978

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

The 13-day-old Camp David summit ended tonight with the signing of two agreements between Egypt and Israel which President Carter called "a significant achievement in the cause of peace." The agreements provided a framework for continuing negotiations for an overall peace between Israel and all of its neighbors, and the framework for a separate Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. [Chicago Tribune] George Bush, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, is quietly setting about his new goal -- to become President of the United States -- although his name is not known to many Americans and he is hampered by not holding an office. "I'm trying not to be too shrill about this," Bush told a reporter. Trying not to offend any potential voter, Bush has carefully chosen his topics so far. He is against apartheid and terrorism in South Africa. And he is in favor of closer relations with China, but not at the expense of Taiwan. [Chicago Tribune] The national director of the Congress of Racial Equality has turned the group into a "black Mafia," complete with "hit men" and mercenaries, former CORE leader James Farmer said. Farmer, who helped found the group 30 years ago, made his remarks on America's Black Forum, a syndicated television interview program. [Chicago Tribune] The growing number of proposed purchases of American banks by foreign institutions "raises some international policy questions that have to addressed," said John Heimann, United States Comptroller of the Currency. [Chicago Tribune] The head of the scandal-plagued General Services Administration has ordered an overhaul of the agency's purchasing practices, G.S.A. sources said. Administrator Jay Solomon reportedly issued a directive to agency heads last Tuesday, ordering the merger of purchasing offices into a new Office of Acquisition Policy?which would report directly to him. [Chicago Tribune] The most powerful earthquake this year smashed a major town and 40 nearby villages into rubble, killing 15,000 persons in remote eastern Iran, health officials said. Hardly a wall remained standing in what was once the busy town of Tabas, where 11,000 of its 13,000 residents were killed. Sixty other villages suffered serious damage, the official news agency Pars said. [Chicago Tribune] In Leon, the residents of Nicaragua's second largest city buried their dead and sifted through the debris of shattered buildings in the wake of the National Guard's defeat of rebel troops. There were stories of Gestapo-like executions, but most incidents were impossible to confirm. Many residents remained defiant of government forces and talked confidently about how the routed rebels will return to fight again. [Chicago Tribune] Arab landowners near Jerusalem won a round in their bitter struggle against Jewish land settlement in occupied Arab territory. The Israeli high court issued a temporary injunction ordering Israeli officials to suspend construction of dwellings on 20 acres at Bethel near Jerusalem and to stop housing Jewish civilians in them. [Chicago Tribune] The leaders of Poland's powerful Roman Catholic Church, in one of their sharpest challenges yet to the government, called for the abolition of censorship in this Communist nation, saying it is a "weapon of totalitarian regimes." A pastoral letter signed by all Polish bishops was read from church pulpits throughout the country. "'The social life of a nation needs openness and free public opinion," said the letter. [Chicago Tribune] Prime Minister John Vorster, 63 and ailing, may step down from office Tuesday, opening a fierce contest for leadership of South Africa's white government. Vorster, who succeeded the assassinated Hendrik Verwoerd in 1965, had been hospitalized for a week earlier this month. [Chicago Tribune] A Los Angeles Superior Court commissioner took one look at the Richard Pryor case and decided he was the perfect jurist for the situation. Commissioner Sherman Juster sentenced comedian Pryor to four months in jail, three years probation, and a $500 fine for ramming his car into an auto driven by two women friends of his wife. Then he suspended the jail term on the condition that Pryor give 10 benefit performances for worthy causes or work 480 hours on community services projects. Before the sentencing, Juster commented: "This court may be the ideal one to handle the case. I've never seen Mr. Pryor on television or in the movies or anywhere else." [Chicago Tribune]