News stories from Saturday April 16, 1977
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Environmentalists rallied in support of President Carter's water projects policy, even though he evidently plans to restore partial or complete funding to nearly half of the 30 projects that had been considered for possible cancellation. An environmentalists' coalition, having polled congressional sources, estimated that 17 of the projects would receive no funding in the fiscal year 1978. Two were shelved temporarily pending safety studies. [New York Times]
- Opponents of the supersonic Concorde jet ignored a court order and demonstrated in Queens, Brooklyn and Nassau in an effort to raise support for tomorrow's planned protest and motorcade of thousands of cars at Kennedy International Airport. Organizers of the protest said that 2,000 to 4,000 cars were expected to join the "Roar Against the S.S.T." [New York Times]
- Some changes will be made in the recruitment, testing and training of women by the United States Military Academy at West Point following an assessment of their first year at the formerly all-male institution. Officials have found, for example, that women from the Deep South are poor prospects for the academy and that college students are more likely to drop out than recent high school graduates. They also learned that few, if any, female recruits had a realistic idea of the grueling physical and mental stress they would encounter. [New York Times]
- Saudi Arabian oil interests and the Mexican government are offering to buy a large part of the American tuna fleet, which has been "beached" in San Diego since last February in protest against a ruling of the National Marine Fisheries Service. The issue is the number of porpoises that can be accidentally killed each year when they become ensnared in tuna fishermen's nets. The Arab and Mexican offers were said by the American Tuna Boat Association to carry the greatest financial inducements among the proposals received from eight countries. [New York Times]
- Three Soviet trade unionists were refused permission by the State Department to enter the country to attend a longshoremen's convention in Seattle this week. The decision was said to have been made by Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, who apparently deferred to an A.F.L.-C.I.O. policy which has succeeded in preventing any Communist union official from entering the country on union business. It was viewed in the State Department as an early, but not necessarily definitive, test of how bold the administration will be in carrying out President Carter's publicized promise to lift restrictions on travel to the United States. [New York Times]
- Italy will get an additional loan of $1 billion from the United States and other major industrial countries provided the government takes new steps to clear up its financial troubles. The decision to help Italy was agreed on at a conference in Paris of top monetary officials from the world's 10 principal industrial countries, known as the Group of 10. It was also disclosed at the meeting that President Carter might ask Congress to subscribe to a proposed new $25 billion international credit plan, known as the Financial Safety Net, which Congress has refused to support. [New York Times]
- Increased efforts were made by Prime Minister Zulfikar All Bhutto to persuade opposition leaders to negotiate a settlement of the country's political crisis. The opposition was steadfast in its insistence that Mr. Bhutto resign, and anti-government demonstrations continued but were less violent. The Prime Minister said he would hold a news conference today to present his latest settlement proposals. [New York Times]