News stories from Monday February 16, 1981

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

The agreement with Iran that led to the release of the 52 American hostages is expected to be carried out by the Reagan administration. Officials said that an interagency panel had found no substantial legal obstacles to putting the terms of the agreement negotiated by the Carter administration into effect. The finding has been sent to the White House for a final decision by President Reagan. [New York Times] Optimism over British-American links was expressed by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in a meeting with American journalists in anticipation of her visit to the United States next week. She said she expected the longtime "special relationship" between London and Washington to be enhanced because she and President Reagan agreed on many issues. [New York Times] The highest-paid would not receive the full 30 percent tax cut over three years proposed for most taxpayers by the Reagan administration, according to administration and congressional sources. As a result, Representative Jack Kemp, a key architect of the plan, broke with the White House and said he would pursue his own tax-reduction program. [New York Times] Organized labor challenged the administration in calling for economic policies likely to conflict with those that are to be proposed by President Reagan on Wednesday. The executive council of the A.F.L.- C.I.O. expressed opposition to wholesale cuts in federal spending, high interest rates and the deregulation of natural gas prices and called for job and training programs for the unemployed and for specifically-directed, rather than general, tax cuts. [New York Times] Democrats' support for budget cuts proposed by President Reagan is prompting Democratic legislators to back some of the trims. Representative James Shannon, a Democrat from Massachusetts, has been repeatedly told by constituents that working people are "fed up" with large federal programs that benefit what they regard as the undeserving poor at the expense of the middle class. [New York Times] Both sides in the Jean Harris trial asked the jury to consider only guilt or innocence on the single charge of second-degree murder. The maximum penalty is 25 years to life in prison. The judge may offer the jurors an opportunity to consider lesser penalties, including those for manslaughter, when he instructs the panel on Wednesday. [New York Times] Farming in Puerto Rico has lagged for decades while the economic development plan of the 1950's and 1960's succeeded in expanding industry and gave Puerto Ricans one of the highest living standards in the Caribbean. Each year, the island, which has good soil, abundant water and two growing seasons, imports $1.2 billion worth of food from the mainland. [New York Times] A major sports project in Indianapolis is to be built with funds from two trusts. Lilly Endowment Inc. promised the city $25 million to expand its convention center with a 60,000-seat enclosed stadium, and the Krannert Charitable Trust pledged an additional $5 million for the project. [New York Times] Pope John Paul II arrived in Manila after a stopover in Karachi, Pakistan, for what the Vatican has described as a goodwill gesture to the world's 800 million Moslems. Twenty minutes before the Pontiff reached a stadium in Karachi, a grenade exploded near a reviewing stand, killing the man carrying it and wounding three people. [New York Times] Critics of Islamic rule were denounced by Ayatollah Khomeini as 38 Iranian intellectuals circulated a letter charging that Iran was again being subjected to repression. The revolutionary leader asserted that the critics were enemies of Islam and he particularly decried writers. [New York Times] Yemen held two Americans for a year on espionage charges. The two men said they had been tortured by the Yemeni authorities in an effort to extract confessions. The two were released on Feb. 8 after months of efforts by the State Department, which never revealed that they were being held. Seven Yemenis, including three Jews, were also arrested and accused of taking part in a spy plot. [New York Times] American officials began talks in Bonn at the start of a mission designed to gain West European support against what the Reagan administration charges is intervention by the Soviet Union and its allies in the conflict in El Salvador. West Germany has halted aid to the United States-backed government there because of its alleged violations of human rights. [New York Times] Business halted in the Basque region of Spain in a huge protest over the death of a suspected terrorist who was being held by the police in Madrid. As a general strike paralyzed industrial and commercial activity, there were a number of clashes between demonstrators and the police. An autopsy suggested strongly that the suspect had been tortured to death. [New York Times]