News stories from Sunday January 24, 1982

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

Congress will convene tomorrow with an agenda dominated by the same economic issues that it grappled with only five weeks ago. The short, election-year second session of the 97th Congress is expected to be preoccupied with problems of the faltering economy, President Reagan's expected call for a new round of budget cuts and a package of new taxes to reduce an increasing budget deficit. Such controversial issues as abortion, school prayer and school busing, which were overshadowed in the previous session by the President's economic program, are expected to receive more attention this year. [New York Times] The U.S. conducted chemical warfare during the Vietnam War, secretly spraying herbicides on Laos, and openly spraying them on South Vietnam. The spraying in South Vietnam was begun only after a debate at the highest levels of government over whether the United States could be criticized by other nations. These disclosures and other details are con-tained in the draft of an unpublished Air Force history that provides insights into how government policy was made during the war. [New York Times] An inquiry Into a plane accident at Boston's Logan International Airport Saturday night has been started by the National Transportation Safety Board. A World Airways DC-10 skidded and broke in two as it plunged into Boston harbor. There were no deaths among the 196 passengers and 12 crew members, but four persons were severely injured. [New York Times] Medical care costs rose 12.5 percent last year, the largest increase since the government began reporting medical costs in 1935. The overall increase was boosted by a sharp rise in the cost of hospital rooms. [New York Times] The Roman Catholic Church spoke out on behalf of the Polish people. The Roman Catholic Primate of Poland, Archbishop Jozef Glemp, said in a sermon broadcast over the national radio that Poles had the right to honest information from the government-controlled news media and the right to know why they were being deprived of civil liberties. The sermon was followed by a pastoral letter read in churches all over Poland that warned of the dangers of civil war and said workers had the right to organize independent trade unions. The sermon and the letter indicated that the church hierarchy was united in an effort to put intense pressure on the military rulers on the eve of a major address to Parliament by Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, the Polish leader. [New York Times] The Kremlin turned against Italy's Communist leaders after years of increasing tension brought to a head by events in Poland. A 5,000-word editorial in Pravda accused the Italian party leaders, who had condemned the use of "force and repression" in Poland, of following a policy of "aid to imperialism," tantamount in Marxist terms to treason. [New York Times] Israel's military superiority in the Middle East is the dominant fact of life there. It is also clear that the government of Prime Minister Menachem Begin intends to preserve and use that superiority to maintain the political status quo in the region through the 1980's. In response, the Arab nations are gearing up to carry their struggle for the Palestinians and the return of remaining occupied territories to Washington. [New York Times] Israel would move into Sinai if there was an Egyptian violation of the demilitarized status of the peninsula after Israel's withdrawal in April, Defense Minister Ariel Sharon has reportedly made clear to the United States and Egypt. In his recent talks with Secretary of State Alexander Haig and Egyptian officials, Mr. Sharon was said to have stopped short of threatening an all-out war. [New York Times]