News stories from Sunday October 25, 1981

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

Births among unmarried mothers rose 50 percent in the last decade, and now at least one of every six American babies is born to an unmarried mother, according to government figures compiled from Census and health reports. In 1979, 55 percent of black American infants were born to unwed mothers, but the increase in out-of-wedlock births was substantially larger for American whites than blacks. [New York Times] Doubts about the financial soundness of the Central States Pension Fund of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters have been expressed by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress. In a report, the agency said that the pension fund's soundness was "questionable, " a view supported by two of the Teamsters' actuaries, and that it had unfunded liabilities of $7.6 billion. [New York Times] Plant shutdowns in California, which had led the nation in industrial expansion for 35 years, have laid off 45,000 people in the last two years, officials said. Plants built after World War II were closed because they were obsolete. Others were closed because foreign competition or higher transportation costs made them unprofitable. However, the state is providing more jobs than it is losing. [New York Times] World records were set in the 12th New York City Marathon, the biggest yet held. In a field of 13,360 finishers, the winners in the five-borough race were Alberto Salazar, a 23-year-old graduate of the University of Oregon, winner for the second consecutive year, and Allison Roe, 25, from Auckland, New Zealand. Salazar won the 26.2-mile race with a time of 2 hours 8 minutes 13 seconds, breaking Derek Clayton's 12-year-old record by 21 seconds. Mrs. Roe lowered the women's record to 2:25:28. Grete Waitz of Norway, the three-time defending women's champion and previous world record holder, was forced out with painful shin splints at 15 miles. [New York Times] Atlanta's fast growth is threatened by the tough realities that the city, which has been a model of social and economic progress for all races, must face in coming years. With a 14 percent decline in population in the last decade and a stagnant poverty rate of 25 percent, the city might not be able to raise sufficient revenue to maintain existing services. [New York Times] Poland faces a national disaster, the government said as it demanded that the Solidarity union call off a one-hour general strike set for Wednesday. The government warned in a communique that a nationwide walkout would "destroy the economy and the possibility of an agreement" with the independent union. It said it "demands the strike be stopped in the name of saving society from its disastrous effects." [New York Times] Greece will not unilaterally withdraw from the Atlantic alliance nor cancel American bases in Greece, its new Prime Minister, Andreas Papandreou, said in an American television interview. Both moves were part of the platform of Mr. Papandreou's Socialists. He said, "We have no desire to take our country into any adventure." He added that his government would be ready to resume negotiations with the United States on the American bases early next year, and indicated that he wanted to bargain on terms that would permit the bases to remain in Greece. [New York Times] An antinuclear protest in Paris was joined by about 50,000 people who marched, some wearing gas masks, some in in skeleton costumes, demanding an end to the East-West arms buildup. The Socialist government boycotted the march and the rally following it, that was attended by the wife of Secretary General Kurt Waldheim of the United Nations. [New York Times]