News stories from Sunday April 26, 1981

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

Social Security's solvency crisis should take precedence over the system's general reform, according to pension experts who will urge President Reagan to make the change in priority. If the President accepts the recommendation, and he is expected to, proposals in Congress to postpone the retirement age from 65 to 68 and to trim benefits for people who retire before age 65 will be seriously endangered. Instead, congressional attention is expected to be concentrated on potential sources of immediate savings for the system, such as revising the formula under which Social Security benefits are adjusted to annually to reflect cost-of-living increases. [New York Times] The Soviet press agency accused Secretary of State Alexander Haig of making "warlike calls" in his speech in Washington last Friday to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, in which he said that "the greatest danger to the world" stems from Soviet promotion of violence as the instrument of change. Tass said Washington's "hegemonic, militaristic policy" was raising tensions among nations. [New York Times] No changes in the National Park or the Wildlife Refuge systems will be sought by Secretary of the Interior James Watt, nor will he seek any major changes in the nation's land use and protection laws, Mr. Watt said in an interview in Washington. He said the Reagan administration's legislative program for natural resources was "nonexistent." [New York Times] 1,800 Cubans remain in U.S. jails one year after arriving in this country as part of the exodus of 124,789 refugees from their island homeland. Attorneys representing the refugee prisoners, who are being held because of alleged criminal records, have raised a number of challenges to immigration law. These have resulted in some modification of procedure, allowing the Cubans the right to a speedy hearing on detention and periodic review. [New York Times] Jobless benefits are running out for tens of thousands of auto workers laid off in the Detroit area in the past two years as a slump deepened in the industry. More than half of the 200,000 jobs on layoff status in the region are not expected to reopen, and Detroit, it is finally being acknowledged, is now "Motor City" in name only. [New York Times] Whether a soldier will be indicted for the the slaying of seven black men in Buffalo may be decided tomorrow by the Erie County District Attorney, Edward Cosgrove. The suspect is Joseph Christopher, a 25-year-old white Army private, who is in custody in Fort Benning, Ga., where he is charged with the attempted murder of a black soldier there. Meanwhile, federal agents and Buffalo detectives made laboratory tests and reviewed evidence in the Buffalo cases. [New York Times] Methane gas as an energy source is being considered in New York. Landfills across the state are being examined for the feasibility of feeding such gas, which is generated by decomposing garbage, into pipelines, or to nearby electric plants. Methane is now the energy source for a small electric plant on Staten Island. [New York Times] Protests by Ulster Roman Catholics appeared to be a preview of what is expected to be a violent showdown with the British government if Robert Sands, a member of the Irish Republican Army, who is on a hunger strike in prison, dies. Hundreds of Catholics clashed with troops in Belfast after it became clear that the intervention of the European Human Rights Commission had failed to end the hunger strike. Two commission members left the prison after Mr. Sands refused to see them. [New York Times] Israeli planes raided suspected Palestinian bases in southern Lebanon, while Syrian forces heavily shelled Christian villages and military positions in the strategic Bekaa Valley and around Jebel Sannin, a mountain east of Beirut. Lebanese authorities reported that 15 people were killed and 30 wounded in the Israeli attack. A Syrian military spokesman said that Syrian planes shot down two Israeli craft and that a Syrian plane was hit. Israel denied that there had been an air fight. [New York Times] In the French election's first round, President Valery Giscard d'Estaing took a slight lead over Francois Mitterrand, the Socialist leader. Jacques Chirac, the Gaullist candidate, and Georges Marchais, the Communist candidate, lagged far behind. The preliminary vote that eliminated eight other contenders from the May 10 runoff was so close that it was impossible to give either the President or Mr. Mitterrand a decisive lead. [New York Times]