News stories from Saturday August 8, 1981

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

Modified flight schedules set by the nation's airlines since the controllers' walkout include about three-quarters of the flights normally scheduled before the strike began and are expected to remain in effect through Labor Day, airline officials said. Last-minute cancellations have been reduced to "virtually nothing," according to the airlines and the F.A.A. [New York Times] Federal restrictions on flights by small, privately owned aircraft were relaxed after officials concluded that the small planes would not unduly burden the emergency personnel called in to man the control stations during the controllers' strike. The lifting of the restrictions was cited by officials as evidence that the airports were returning to normal operations, but the traffic situation was being re-evaluated frequently. [New York Times] Support by foreign controllers for the striking American counterparts appeared to be growing. Controllers' unions in France and New Zealand, joining unions in other countries, said they would refuse to clear American outbound flights. [New York Times] The nation has vast water supplies that should be adequate for generations, according to experts who say that new methods of managing water must be found to provide adequate and fair distribution. The specialists say that under outdated laws, government subsidies and political rivalries, water supplies are being squandered by poor management and inefficient use, especially in agricultural areas. [New York Times] The massive Greenland ice sheet whose earliest layers are believed to be 100,000 years old has been deeply penetrated by an international team of scientists. After more than 6,600 feet of ice had been penetrated by hollow drills that extracted six-foot cylinders of ice, layers of silt showed that the bottom was near. Hidden within the samples of apparently pure ice, are clues to the volcanic and climatic factors that produced past ice ages and could set the stage for another. [New York Times] Full production of neutron weapons was unexpectedly decided on by President Reagan at a White House meeting Thursday, administration sources said. He ordered that the nuclear material tritium, which is now being bottled separately, be combinaed with the Lance missile and eight-inch artillery shells to make complete enhanced radiation weapons. These are designed to produce far more radiation and far less blast and heat than other tactical nuclear weapons and to kill people without severe damage to their surroundings. The President adopted the new weapons policy despite warnings that it would lead a storm of protests in Western Europe, the officials said. [New York Times] A top Soviet commander conferred in Warsaw with Prime Minister Wojciech Jaruzelski, who is also Poland's Defense Minister. The visit by Marshal Viktor Kulikov, the Soviet commander in chief of Warsaw Pact forces, coincided with a stepped-up press campaign in Moscow against the Polish trade union. The announcement said Marshal Kulikov and the Prime Minister had discussed "current activities of the armed forces, including issues pertaining to the combat readiness of the Polish army, which is a reliable link in the defense system of the Warsaw Pact." [New York Times] A ninth hunger striker died in Ulster's Maze Prison. Thomas McElwee, 23 years old, died after 62 days without food. His death set off another round of rioting among supporters of the Irish Republican Army. [New York Times]