News stories from Sunday December 14, 1980

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

John Lennon was remembered throughout the world as millions of people heeded a plea from his widow, Yoko Ono, that they participate in a 10-minute silent tribute in observance of his death. The largest vigil took place in Central Park in New York City, not far from the Dakota apartment house where the former Beatle was fatally shot last Monday night. [New York Times] The hostages might be released by Christmas, an Iranian official said, if the administration acted quickly to meet Iran's terms for freeing them. The official, Ahmad Azizi, the director of American hostage affairs, said reports in Lebanon and Kuwait that said an accord had been reached under which the 52 Americans would be freed on Christmas Day was "newspaper speculation." [New York Times] Iran's key cities of Abadan and Ahwaz appear to be surprisingly undamaged despite their having been nearly surrounded and under Iraqi artillery bombardment since mid-September, a tour of Khuzistan Province, the principal battle area, by foreign and Iranian journalists indicated. [New York Times] Quarreling among delegates from Iran and Iraq threatened to break up a meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Companies in Bali, Indonesia, where new prices will be set. Unity among its members is one of OPEC's new objectives. Sources said a clash between the Iranian and Iraqi delegates could disrupt the meeting, resulting in a 5 percent to 10 percent rise in oil prices. [New York Times] The solvency of many companies is threatened by the extraordinary rise in interest rates over the last month. The banks' prime lending rate has climbed to 20 percent from 14½ percent. The possibility of a deep recession next year is feared, and high rates have caused turmoil in the financial and commodity markets. [New York Times] A fruit fly infestation in California might contaminate the state's billion dollar fruit crop. Aerial pesticide spraying, the most likely effective way to control the insect, is not possible because of strong urban resistance. Other means of pest control were found to be inadequate. [New York Times] A pay increase for Congress is a "dead" issue, according to Republican leaders who supported the plan. The dispute, which is expected to be finally settled tomorrow in a House-Senate conference, is the last obstacle to adjournment of the 96th Congress. [New York Times] Black conservatives urged a reduction of the minimum wage, abolition of rent control, and an overhaul of many social programs as they met with representatives of Ronald Reagan in San Francisco. Edwin Meese, head of the transition group, pledged that more than one cabinet post and other positions "at the highest executive and managerial levels" in the new administration would be filled by blacks. [New York Times] Polish farmers want their own union. About 1,000 of them attended a demonstration in Warsaw and where they bitterly attacked the government's agricultural policies, and several speakers warned of possible strikes if their efforts to organize were obstructed. [New York Times] The terrorists who kidnapped an Italian magistrate last week said in statements sent to newspapers in Rome and Milan that Giovanni D'Urso, an official of the Justice Ministry, was being held in a "people's prison" and that he would be tried for having "tortured" and plotted the "mental and physical annihilation" of prisoners in the high-security jails holding suspected and convicted terrorists. [New York Times]