News stories from Sunday July 25, 1982

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

A cut in tax deductions for business meals might be supported by the Reagan administration unless the House is willing to require more complete reporting of tips by restaurant workers, Treasury Secretary Donald Regan said. He was discussing the outlook for House action on the three-year, $99 billion revenue raising bill passed by the Senate Friday. The Senate deleted a provision requiring more thorough reporting of tips before passing the bill and instead adopted an amendment that would disallow deductions for half the cost of business meals that are not part of an overnight business trip. [New York Times] The defeat of Republican incumbents by farmers in as many as a dozen races in six Middle Western states in November is seen as possible if President Reagan does not renew the United States grain export agreement with the Soviet Union. [New York Times] A key environmental post is being eliminated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. In dismantling its Division of Environmental Hazards Research, the agency will dismiss Irwin Billick, the official who has done some of the government's important research on the effects of lead in gasoline on the health of children. [New York Times] Yasser Arafat signed a document accepting United Nations resolutions that include Israel's right to exist, an American Congressman said after a meeting with the Palestinian leader in west Beirut. But Mr. Arafat corrected Representative Paul McCloskey, saying what the P.L.O. had accepted was all United Nations resolutions "concerning the Palestinian question." [New York Times] Israel warned Syria not to introduce new weapons into the fighting in Lebanon. The Israeli cabinet secretary, Dan Meridor, said that he hoped that a threat published by Sana, the official Syrian news agency, to use weapons against Israel not yet used in Lebanon was "nothing more than words." He said that if Syria carried out its threat it would suffer "very grievous consequences." [New York Times] Philip Habib is a private consultant on Asia for the Bechtel Group Inc., company officials said. Mr. Habib, who is President Reagan's special Middle East envoy trying resolve the war in Lebanon, has worked as a Bechtel consultant in the Pacific region for about a year. Bechtel is a worldwide engineering and construction company active in Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations. A Bechtel official said Mr. Habib was hired "sometime last year" by George Shultz, who was then president of Bechtel and is now Secretary of State. [New York Times] India is moving cautiously back toward Western economic ideas. Indian leaders have apparently concluded that their blend of socialism and capitalism has not worked as well as had been anticipated. [New York Times] Unusually warm letters between Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and President Reagan led to Mrs. Gandhi's visit to the United States starting Tuesday. Econothic issues will be an important part of the discussions during her visit. [New York Times] Falkland Islanders seem convinced that they will never again experience the way of life that Britain fought to maintain in a war with Argentina that ended a month ago. It is expected to take three months to clear the fields and streets of Stanley, the islands' capital, of seven million rounds of live ammunition, but it may not be for years, if ever, that as many 12,000 mines can be removed. [New York Times]