News stories from Saturday January 23, 1982

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

Lie-detector tests conducted by the Defense Department to find the source of an unauthorized disclosure of confidential information have been taken by about 25 senior officials, according to Pentagon officials. The lie-detector tests failed to find the source of the disclosure. The tests were begun by Deputy Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci, who took the first one himself. Among the officials who submitted to the test were Under Secretaries Fred Ikle and Richard Delauer and Secretary of the Navy John Lehman. [New York Times] Civil liberties suffered in 1981, the American Civil Liberties Union said in an assessment of President Reagan's first year, and added, "1982 could be worse." The President is beginning his second year in office under increasing charges that he is undermining civil rights and civil liberties in many areas. In the past year, his administration reversed many of the civil rights policies of his recent predeces-sors, attacked laws and court decisions on racial integration and began dismantling much of the government's machinery for enforcing the rights of minorities and women. The administration's actions are expected to be put to a test in Congress and the courts this year, but there is general agreement that important changes have already taken place in a number of areas. [New York Times] Contract talks with General Motors and Ford will be resumed by the United Auto Workers. Union negotiators voted to pick up the talks over wage and benefit concessions with the two companies that broke off Wednesday. They said they expected to resume the G.M. talks Tuesday, with a Thursday night deadline, and to pick up the Ford talks on Friday. [New York Times] A French-Soviet natural gas contract was signed by France despite strong objections by the Reagan administration, which fears the the agreement will make Western Europe too dependent on Soviet energy. The gas is to be carried in a 2,800-mile pipeline from western Siberia and extending into France, West Germany, Italy and several other Western European countries. [New York Times] Snow, sleet and rain fell all day in the New York City metropolitan area deepening the slush that flooded nearly deserted streets. The weather was bad elsewhere. Blizzards swept through again in the Middle West, covering Minnesota's Twin Cities with 18 inches of new snow, and avalanches stranded 3,000 skiers at a Utah resort. [New York Times] Fire damaged the Roosevelt house in Hyde Park, N.Y., destroying much of a 75-foot section of the roof and several bedrooms in the oldest part of the house. The 35-room mansion was the birthplace 100 years ago of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It is a national monument maintained by the National Park Service. Many furnishings and paintings were saved. [New York Times] A Soviet economic report for 1981 confirmed previous predictions of a generally poor year economically. Breaking with precedent, it omitted the size of last year's grain harvest, suggesting a figure so low as to be politically embarrassing. [New York Times] The Middle East weapons buildup has more than doubled since the 1973 war and there is no end in sight. Israel and its potential Arab adversaries have almost as many conventional weapons as those that the Soviet Union and its allies have in Northern and Central Europe. Israel is ready to strike at any sign of a threat. The Reagan administration's concern over preemptive military action by Israel prompted a letter sent last week by Prime Minister Menachem Begin to President Reagan, pledging not to attack Syrian and Palestinian forces without "clear provocation." [New York Times] Poland's foremost actor resigned from the Polish Communist Party, saying in a letter that he could not do "anything else." The actor, Tadeusz Lomnicki, had been a party member for 30 years and had risen to membership in the Central Committee. He said that Solidarity had restored his faith in "a chance for socialism in Poland," but that he now did not "find any internal justification for maintaining that position." He is among thousands of loyal party members that include intellectuals and workers who are turning in their party cards. Some factories reportedly have baskets filled with surrendered cards. [New York Times]