News stories from Saturday July 3, 1982

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

A fundamental shift in the workplace similar to the move from an agricultural to a manufacturing economy a century or more ago, may bring profound changes for workers as new computer-based technologies are installed. There is growing concern about whether the new technologies will allow the United States to create the number of jobs it needs, in regions where they are most needed and at wage levels to which many people have been accustomed. [New York Times] The Columbia is scheduled to land at Edwards Air Force Base in California at 12:10 P.M. tomorrow, ending a seven-day orbit of the earth and the fourth and final test flight of the world's first reusable space vehicle. Its two astronauts were to be welcomed by President Reagan. [New York Times] The government is being sued by 18 public housing authorities, including New York City's, for $500 million, which they say represents unpaid subsidies appropriated by Congress for fiscal year 1982, which are being cut back by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. [New York Times] West Beirut was sealed off by Israeli armored troops that moved into Beirut to take up positions at the so-called Green Line, which separates the Christian-controlled east side from the Palestinian strongholds in the west. At the same time artillery fire erupted between Israeli forces and Palestinian guerrillas on the southern outskirts. The Israeli move appeared designed to force the Palestine Liberation Organization and its guerrillas to leave western Beirut. Meanwhile, negotiations made some progress with an agreement that a multinational force would ultimately be deployed in western Beirut alongside the Lebanese army when it is allowed to enter. [New York Times] A heavily armed Palestinian suburb on Beirut's southern outskirts, which is prepared for street fighting, could explain why the Israeli army is reluctant to invade west Beirut. The suburb, El Lailake, is the southernmost Palestinian-controlled suburb of west Beirut. It is a honeycomb of narrow twisting streets. Every building seems to house five or six heavily armed Palestinian fighters. Anti-aircraft guns are hidden in alleyways and the streets are pocked with holes drilled to make land mines easy to insert. [New York Times] Eight South African miners were killed and hundreds were arrested in riots over pay in the Johannesburg region, press reports and and mine officials said. All the dead were black. The unrest apparently began over new wage scales that gave production workers a rise of about 12 percent and surface workers about 11 percent. [New York Times] Large new sources of funds for the World Bank are expected to follow the bank's sale of $1.5 billion in short-term discount notes in the New York money market over the next 12 months. In announcing the sale, the bank, which has never borrowed money for periods of less than one year, also said that for the first time it would make its borrowers pay variable interest rates, adjusted according to the bank's cost of funds every six months. [New York Times]