News stories from Sunday March 15, 1981

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

Illegal aliens apparently get federal housing subsidies with ease, according to preliminary inquiries by congressional investigators, while hundreds of thousands of citizens wait months or years for such assistance. The Department of Housing and Urban Development says "there is no legal basis for inquiring into the citizenship status of persons applying for federal housing subsidies. [New York Times] School districts will not be sued by the Education Department to help bring about school desegregation through busing, Secretary of Education T. H. Bell said in a television interview. He said "the problem with busing is that at the end of the bus ride you're still back in that racially isolated neighborhood." He was asked whether there should be a federal law or constitutional amendment prohibiting busing in desegregation efforts. He responded: "I certainly wouldn't oppose that, from my own point of view, and looking at the results so far."' [New York Times] The future of medium-size cities is good, according to urban experts and businessmen, who use industrial development to measure economic vitality. Shreveport, La., and Fort Wayne, Ind., are among the 125 cities with populations of 50,000 to 250,000 that are in the medium category. Some, like Shreveport, are struggling to keep growing, and others, like Fort Wayne, hard hit by the decline of the auto industry, are trying to keep from dying. [New York Times] Michigan's economic problems are forcing the state to sharply reduce its support of its universities. Its allocation for public higher education was cut by more than $100 million for this year, the first time since the Depression that its support for higher education declined. [New York Times] Applications for gun licenses by New York City residents have reached a record number. The Licensing Division of the Police Department reported that applications in the last seven months were almost twice the total for the same period a year earlier. The license processing has been made quicker by a provision in the state gun law that requires the Police Department to act on an application within six months. Previously, the processing was very slow, discouraging people from applying. [New York Times] Syria must decide what to do with the three men who hijacked a Pakistan International Airlines jet and took more than 100 passengers as hostages, an official of the Pakistan Defense Ministry said. The hostages were released when hijackers surrendered in Damascus Saturday night. The official, Mohammed Rahim Khan, who is also head of the Pakistan airline, said that the fate of the 54 Pakistani prisoners freed by Pakistan in compliance with the hijackers' demands, was also a matter for Syria to decide. [New York Times] Iraq's President offered arms to Iranian minorities fighting the Teheran authorities. In a speech reported by the Baghdad radio, President Saddam Hussein said "we are ready to extend all types of aid, including guns, to those Iranian people so they may achieve their national rights and estabish good-neighbor relations with Iraq." He reiterated that Iraq was ready to occupy more Iranian territory if Teheran continued to ignore Iraq's demands for ending the Persian Gulf war. [New York Times] A new party was formed in Israel and it will seek Israel's departure from the occupied West Bank. Meron Benvenisti , a former deputy mayor of Jerusalem, said that the party, to be known as the Peace and Civil Liberties Movement, would be on the ballot in the June 30 parliamentary elections. He said the party would seek an "interim trusteeship" for the West Bank, to be dissolved if Israeli reached agreement with the Palestinians on political co-existence. [New York Times]