News stories from Tuesday January 27, 1981
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- "Swift and effective retribution" for attacks on American government employees overseas was vowed by President Reagan as he welcomed home the freed hostages in an emotional ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House. Earlier, thousands of citizens cheered the 52 Americans in a motorcade through Washington. [New York Times]
- The ex-hostages spoke with reporters at their first formal news conference since their release a week earlier. Forty-one of the 52 Americans took part in the meeting at the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. They gave some new insights into their 14 months of captivity in Iran but avoided substantial discussion of some aspects of their ordeal. They made it clear they did not wish to discuss their treatment at length.
Contradictory medical reports about the freed hostages have created confusion about the state of their mental health. The confusion left the impression that the 11 former captives who did not attend the news conference at West Point were among those described by the White House as suffering from "severe" mental problems.
[New York Times] - Iran's eagerness to resolve the crisis over the hostages was revealed last September when Teheran alerted Washington in advance of Ayatollah Khomeini's statement outlining for the first time Iran's four conditions for freeing the Americans. The chief American negotiator disclosed that Iran had acted to insure that Washington would send a representative to a secret rendezvous in Bonn with a relative of the Ayatollah. [New York Times]
- A cabinet choice was defended by F.B.I. officials. In testimony before a Senate committee, they said that an "exhaustive" investigation had failed to corroborate allegations by underworld informers about purported illegal and improper activities by Raymond Donovan, the Secretary of Labor-designate. He is the only Reagan cabinet nominee who has not been confirmed. [New York Times]
- A unionization effort failed in the rural South. For the third time in seven months, workers in Athens, Ala., rejected a bid to be represented by the United Automobile Workers at the na tion's largest non-union plant of the General Motors Corporation. [New York Times]
- Evangelical political gains were hailed by conservative religious leaders, who exhorted their followers to press their fight for fundamentalist values. The Rev. Jerry Falwell, head of the Moral Majority, said that his organization had achieved its most speedy growth since many of the candidates who backed its moral stands won in the November elections. [New York Times]
- An artificial heart was approved for its first use in a human by the University of Utah's College of Medicine. The device must also be approved by the Food and Drug Administration for an attempt to save a human life. [New York Times]
- A dismissal of desertion charges against Private Robert Garwood of the Marines was granted by a military judge, but he ruled that a court-martial jury should decide the government's key charge that the private had collaborated with the enemy during the Vietnam War. [New York Times]
- Jean Harris took the stand at her trial, describing to a jury in Westchester County Court the love she said she felt for Dr. Herman Tarnower, whom she is accused of having murdered. She also told of how her personal life began to unravel in the year before the fatal shooting. [New York Times]
- U.S. policy at the U.N. was denounced by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. In an article in Commentary magazine, the New York Democrat asserted that United States votes at the United Nations had contributed to making Israel "an outlaw state" and had undermined the Camp David accords. One man criticized in the article termed the charges "nonsense." [New York Times]
- Indonesia's worst ship disaster was re-ported by officials who said that more than 500 people were missing after a passenger vessel caught fire in a storm and sank. The officials said that more than 620 people had been saved, but that rescue efforts were hampered by heavy seas and rain. [New York Times]
- Strikes erupted throughout Poland amid signs that the leadership of the independent labor movement no longer controlled local union chapters. The most serious stoppage occurred at Bielsko-Biala, near the Czechoslovak border, where a general strike affecting 110 factories was called to force the ouster of local officials. [New York Times]
- A Soviet-U.S. clash over human rights took place at the Madrid conference on human rights and cooperation in Europe. Washington accused Moscow of new repression against dissidents, and the Soviet delegate hinted that the 1975 Helsinki accords might be imperiled if the conference was not followed by one on disarmament. [New York Times]
|
Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 949.49 (+10.58, +1.13%)
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* |
| January 26, 1981 | 938.91 | 129.84 | 35.37 |
| January 23, 1981 | 940.19 | 130.23 | 37.22 |
| January 22, 1981 | 940.44 | 130.26 | 39.88 |
| January 21, 1981 | 946.25 | 131.36 | 39.19 |
| January 20, 1981 | 950.68 | 131.65 | 41.74 |
| January 19, 1981 | 970.99 | 134.37 | 36.64 |
| January 16, 1981 | 973.29 | 134.77 | 43.26 |
| January 15, 1981 | 969.97 | 134.22 | 39.63 |
| January 14, 1981 | 966.47 | 133.47 | 41.39 |
| January 13, 1981 | 965.10 | 133.29 | 40.89 |