News stories from Sunday December 31, 1978

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

The likelihood of identifying and prosecuting alleged conspirators in the assassination of President Kennedy is remote, federal law enforcement officials said. They would not, however, publicly comment on a House committee report Saturday that both Mr. Kennedy and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. may have been the victims of separate conspiracies. [New York Times] The veterans lobby opposes many of the Veteran Administration's $20 billion-a-year medical, education, housing and welfare programs, including a new pension law that becomes effective tomorrow. A small group of Vietnam veterans also complains that their problems and needs are not being helped by the lobby or the V.A. [New York Times] The Washington Star averted a possible permanent shutdown when an 11th-hour agreement was reached between management and labor. The two sides agreed to return to the bargaining table soon after a preliminary injunction was issued barring the Star's publisher, Time Inc., from carrying out its threat to close the paper at midnight. [New York Times] Dallas is insisting that children under age 16 may see the science fiction movie "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" only if accompanied by a parent or a guardian, and has gone to court to enforce compliance. United Artists, the movie's distributor, is challenging the city law under which Dallas rates movies shown within city limits. [New York Times] 1979's higher minimum wages and increased Social Security payroll tax will add to inflationary pressures on costs and taxes, many economists believe, including those who advise President Carter. Income taxes for individuals will go down, reflecting across-the-board tax cuts. [New York Times] I.R.S. rulings and other government restrictions may force some scientific and medical journals to close down, the Journal of the American Medical Association says. The Internal Revenue Service, a Journal editorial said, has told publishers of 90 percent of the chemistry and physics journals published in the United States that it plans to revoke their tax exemption. [New York Times] Dependents of Americans in Iran were told by the United States Ambassador that it was best to go home, at least temporarily. Ambassador William Sullivan made the official recommendation public, citing a growing fuel shortage that may affect food production and "the conditions prevailing in the cities."The Carter administration refused to characterize its call to Americans to leave Iran as an "evacuation." A State Department spokesman said, "This is a voluntary action." But there was no question that the administration was concerned over the rising anti-Americanism in Iran. Its problem was how to withdraw Americans without seeming to desert the Shah. [New York Times] China appealed to Taiwan to establish commercial ties with the mainland and to allow direct postal service, shipping and personal visits in the first step toward reunification. Peking also announced that it had ordered an end to the shelling of Quemoy and Matsu, islands off the Chinese coast where Nationalist troops are garrisoned. [New York Times] China's attitude to the U.S. has changed radically in the last few months, as underlined by a student who said, "We must learn from America." Many Chinese have great hopes for their new relations with the United States, and an indication of their importance to the government will be Deputy Prime Minister Teng Hsaio-ping's attendance at a ceremony at the American liaison office marking the normalization of relations between the two countries. [New York Times] Israel decided to resume peace negotiations with Egypt "within the week or next week," Prime Minister Menachem Begin said. He did not say where the talks would be held, or who the principal participants would be. [New York Times]