News stories from Sunday June 20, 1982
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- A decision was made by President Reagan's principal advisers that Secretary of Labor Raymond Donovan should step aside until a special prosecutor has completed his report on accusations that he had ties to organized crime figures, an official said. A statement from Mr. Donovan is expected tomorrow, but it will not be about resigning, a spokesman said. [New York Times]
- Resegregation of schools has begun in some school districts in the the South and West, where white enrollment has declined sharply under desegregation programs. Some local school boards are trying to lure whites back by reducing busing and re-establishing neighborhood schools. The efforts are sometimes being made with the endorsement of blacks even if the result is further segregation. [New York Times]
- President Reagan rejected portions of a controversial policy report by the Department of Housing and Urban Development that says cities would be better off without many of the federal grants they are now receiving, a White House official told a meeting of the nation's mayors in Minneapolis. Richard Williamson, assistant to the President for intergovernmental affairs, said a draft of the report was discussed at a cabinet meeting Friday and that the President ordered it sent back for revision. [New York Times]
- Curbing the spread of nuclear arms appears to be a losing battle after 35 years of effort, according to United States officials and nuclear policy specialists. Critics of the Reagan administration say the White House has placed insufficient emphasis on stopping the nuclear spread. Efforts to curb it have also been severely complicated by growing international and regional tensions, officials and private analysts said. [New York Times]
- Prime Minister Menachem Begin arrived in Washington for talks with President Reagan amid signs that the Reagan sdministration was divided on how to react to the Israeli military moves in Lebanon. Administration officials said that Mr. Reagan was receiving conflicting advice from advisers. Secretary of State Alexander Haig, they said, advocates a soft public approach to Prime Minister Begin, while a public rebuke is reportedly favored by two other senior aides, William P. Clark, the national security adviser, and Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger. [New York Times]
- Withdrawal of Syrian forces from Beirut was sought by President Elias Sarkis of Lebanon but the request was turned down because it appeared to have been made under duress, with Israeli guns aimed at the presidential palace, a Syrian official said. Ahmed Iskander Ahmed, Syria's information minister, said its troops would not be withdrawn "until after the last Israeli soldier has left the country." [New York Times]
- No progress was reported in Beirut in the first meeting of a seven-member emergency council representing Lebanon's disparate factions on ways to end the Israeli siege of Beirut. One plan reportedly discussed by the Council of National Salvation was a Palestinian proposal calling for an Israeli pullback from the Beirut area, the use of Lebanese troops to patrol Beirut and guarantees for the safety of the some 6,000 Palestinian guerrillas from two foreign countries, presumably the Soviet Union and Saudi Arabia. [New York Times]
- The trade embargo against Argentina was lifted by the foreign ministers of the European Common Market, who rejected calls by Britain to continue the sanctions imposed after the Argentine invasion of the Falklands in April. [New York Times]
- Iraq's retreat from Iranian territory has begun, President Saddam Hussein announced. Its troops will complete their withdrawal to the Iraqi border within 10 days, the official Iraqi press agency said. [New York Times]