News stories from Friday December 26, 1980
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Half of the 52 hostages were shown on film sent to television networks in the United States by the Iranians. Twenty-one of them spoke, many directing remarks to their families and seeming to read from prepared statements. The hostages thanked Americans for their support and voiced hope for release from captivity.
All 52 American hostages were visited by the Algerian Ambassador to Teheran who told reporters, "I found them all in good health and the conditions of their present existence satisfactory." The visit by the Ambassador and an emissary from the Algerian Foreign Ministry appeared to be part of an effort by Iranian officials to prove the hostages were being treated well and were neither ill nor imprisoned.
[New York Times] - Evidence that the hostages are alive and accounted for was welcomed by United States officials, who said this "in no way diminishes the flagrant violation of international law and standards of conduct that their detention represents." The State Department said it hoped that Iran's willingness to allow the Algerian Ambassador to Teheran to visit all 52 Americans might set a precedent for regular visits by outside observers. [New York Times]
- Migration to the Sunbelt should be encouraged, according to a presidential commission's draft of a "national agenda" for the coming decade. The draft says that instead of trying to stem the decline of older cities in the Northeast and Middle West, the federal government should help people seek jobs and other economic opportunities in the South and Southwest. [New York Times]
- Busing was opposed in South Carolina by members of the county school board in Charleston who reacted cynically and angrily to a letter sent to them last week by the Justice Department. The letter said that the county, to avoid a lawsuit by the government, had to affirm its willingness to implement an integration plan without regard to school district boundaries. [New York Times]
- Surveillance material will he released next month in Michigan, following an order by two judges who held that the compilation of dossiers by the State Police Department was unconstitutional. Release of the surveillance information, collected from 1950 to 1971 and including dossiers on some 38,000 Michigan residents, followed a six year legal battle. [New York Times]
- The government inherited $1 million from an Army veteran who died two years ago, having willed to his country the bulk of a fortune that his father had earned from oil royalties. The legacy is to be turned over to the Federal Reserve Bank in Dallas shortly after the first of the year. [New York Times]
- A final offensive will be launched by insurgents in El Salvador against the country's civilian-military junta before President-elect Ronald Reagan takes office Jan. 20, a top guerilla commander announced. Guerilla commanders, openly confident of an early leftist victory, said that a new "democratic revolutionary government" would replace the American-backed junta and would seek friendly relations with the United States. [New York Times]
- The Soviet leader met with the Polish Foreign Minister and expressed confidence in the Polish Communist Party's ability to overcome the country's current difficulties. Leonid Brezhnev's remarks contributed to a general impression of recent weeks that the prospect of Soviet military intervention in Poland has been ebbing. [New York Times]
- Iraqi forces have invaded Iran's northwestern province of Kurdistan, President Saddam Hussein of Iraq announced in remarks to group of cabinet ministers that were subsequently published. The President said the war front now stretched the full length of the Iranian-Iraqi border, from the northern tip of the Persian Gulf north to the point where the borders of Iraq, Iran and Turkey meet. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 966.38 (+3.33, +0.35%)
Arms Index is the ratio of volume per declining issue to volume per advancing issue; a figure below 1.0 is bullish. | |||||||||||||||
| Market Index Trends | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | DJIA | S&P | Volume* |
| December 24, 1980 | 963.05 | 135.88 | 29.48 |
| December 23, 1980 | 958.28 | 135.00 | 55.25 |
| December 22, 1980 | 958.79 | 135.78 | 51.96 |
| December 19, 1980 | 937.20 | 133.70 | 50.67 |
| December 18, 1980 | 930.20 | 133.00 | 69.57 |
| December 17, 1980 | 928.50 | 132.89 | 50.81 |
| December 16, 1980 | 918.09 | 130.60 | 41.62 |
| December 15, 1980 | 911.60 | 129.45 | 39.69 |
| December 12, 1980 | 917.15 | 129.23 | 39.53 |
| December 11, 1980 | 908.45 | 127.36 | 60.24 |