News stories from Tuesday October 6, 1981
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Egypt's President was assassinated by a group of men in uniform as he watched a military parade in Cairo. The assassins broke rank as the parade passed by and threw grenades and fired rifles at the reviewing stand, fatally wounding Anwar Sadat. Others in the crowded reviewing stand area were killed or wounded. The parade was commemorating Mr. Sadat's 1973 war against Israel. For the time being, Egypt's affairs are expected to be run by Vice President Hosni Mubarek, President Sadat's long-time associate. The interim president for the next 60 days, pending elections, will be Sufi Abu Taleb, Speaker of Parliament. [New York Times]
- The assassination stunned Israel, which had such a high stake in Mr. Sadat's friendship. Fear for the Eyptian-Israeli peace treaty dominated all emotions. [New York Times]
- Mr. Sadat's death was celebrated in much of the Arab world. In West Beirut, which is mostly Moslem and leftist dominated, there was noisy jubilation punctuated by gunfire. Most statements attributed Mr. Sadat's isolation in the Arab world to the Camp David accords with Israel. One of leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Saleh Khalef, said, "We shake the hand that fired the bullets." [New York Times]
- Western leaders mourned Mr. Sadat. President Reagan who was host to the Egyptian President in Washington in August, said his assassination was an act of "infamy, cowardly infamy, that fills us with horror." Leaders of major Jewish organizations in the United States also expressed sorrow, and the president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations said that prayers will be offered for Mr. Sadat at Yom Kippur services. Sorrow was also expressed in major European capitals and at the United Nations, the General Assembly held a special memorial session. [New York Times]
- The slaying was characterized as apparently the work of "Islamic fundamentalists" within the Egyptian army by Secretary of State Alexander Haig, at a briefing for senators, congressional sources said. Mr. Haig reportedly said that there was known to be widespread discontent among lower-ranking officers in the army and that 56 junior officers had been detained before the military parade began. [New York Times]
- A key vote on the Awacs was delayed in the House until tomorrow, in part because of the assassination of President Anwar Sadat of Egypt. The House Foreign Affairs Committee delayed a resolution of disapproval of President Reagan's proposed sale of $8.5 billion in air defense equipment to Saudi Arabia, including five Awacs planes. Twenty-four members of the 37-member committee have co-sponsored the disapproval resolution. Meanwhile, the President and other administration officials continued to attempt to change the minds of 20 Republican Senators who are against the sale, or at least unenthusiastic. [New York Times]
- Early returns in Atlanta's election for Mayor indicated that Andrew Young, the former Congressman, was a frontrunner. With 35 percent of 188 precincts reporting, Mr. Young received 10,923 votes, or 40 percent of the votes, while state Representative Sidney Marcus had received 10,650, or 39 percent of the early returns. [New York Times]
- A social program funding bill providing $87.3 billion was approved by the Democratic-controlled House despite a threatened presidential veto. The key vote on a motion to send the bill back to committee for deeper cuts was 249 to 168, or 29 short of the two-thirds majority needed to overcome the expected veto. [New York Times]
- The B-1 bomber faces opposition in Congress. It was discussed as the House Armed Services Committee continued its hearings on the Reagan administration's strategic weapons program. Congressional approval of the bomber "is by no means certain," Representative Melvin Price, the committee's chairman, told Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, who attended the hearing with Gen. David Jones, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The decision to build the plane "comes years later than it should have," Mr. Price said. [New York Times]
- Britain softened its stand against the I.R.A. members imprisoned in Northern Ireland, granting them the right to wear their own clothes at all times instead of any prison-issued clothing. The right to wear their own clothes is of great symbolic importance to the prisoners, who started a hunger strike to gain status as political prisoners. The British concessions stopped well short of the hunger strikers' main "five demands." [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 856.26 (-3.61, -0.42%)
Arms Index is the ratio of volume per declining issue to volume per advancing issue; a figure below 1.0 is bullish. | |||||||||||||||
| Market Index Trends | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | DJIA | S&P | Volume* |
| October 5, 1981 | 859.87 | 119.51 | 51.28 |
| October 2, 1981 | 860.73 | 119.36 | 54.57 |
| October 1, 1981 | 852.26 | 117.08 | 41.59 |
| September 30, 1981 | 849.96 | 116.18 | 40.70 |
| September 29, 1981 | 847.89 | 115.94 | 49.79 |
| September 28, 1981 | 842.56 | 115.53 | 61.32 |
| September 25, 1981 | 824.01 | 112.77 | 54.39 |
| September 24, 1981 | 835.14 | 115.01 | 48.88 |
| September 23, 1981 | 840.94 | 115.65 | 52.69 |
| September 22, 1981 | 845.70 | 116.68 | 46.81 |