News stories from Sunday November 18, 1979
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Three American hostages were released from the United States Embassy in Teheran, Iran, by student militants who took over the embassy 15 days ago. The three, two black Marines and a woman secretary, left the country on a flight to Copenhagen. Teheran radio reported that a total of 13 hostages -- five women and eight blacks -- would be released. The three were reportedly being released in accordance with the orders of Ayatollah Khomeini, although the radio broadcast said it was not certain they were innocent of "spying." [New York Times]
- Iranian students holding visas may be double the number estimated by U.S. immigration officials, who say they have no idea how many Iranians may be illegal residents because little effort has been made to follow up on expired visas or students no longer attending school. The Immigration and Naturalization Service said that it knows of at least 50,583 Iranian students in the United States. Several immigration experts said that the actual figure was closer to 100,000. [New York Times]
- A judgeship candidacy was withdrawn by Edward Markham, a Boston lawyer and close friend of Senator Edward Kennedy, who went to Mr. Kennedy's aid on the night of the accident at Chappaquiddick. This summer, Senator Kennedy reportedly urged Gov. Edward King of Massachusetts to appoint Mr. Markham to the state's Superior Court. Mr. Markham gave no reason for his withdrawal. [New York Times]
- "A minute quantity" of thorium, a radioactive material, was on a cargo plane that blew up over a lightly populated area near Salt Lake City. A Geiger counter check of the crash area found no trace of radiation contamination. Thorium is used to make watch dials glow in the dark and gives off very little radiation. [New York Times]
- Strong disapproval of the nuclear plant at Indian Point on the Hudson River 40 miles from Times Square was expressed by a senior official of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission at a hearing held a month ago by President's Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island. Robert Ryan, director of the nuclear agency's Office of State Programs, said that placing the Indian Point plant near New York City was "insane" and that the emergency response plans in the event of an accident were a "nightmare." [New York Times]
- New York City's economic gains would be wiped out by the recession that is expected by economists, and it would be hit harder than the rest of the country, according to staff economists at Citibank and the Chase Manhattan bank, whose regular reports on the city are considered to be authoritative. The latest reports estimated that the city would lose 30,000 to 60,000 jobs.
Two deaths at Metropolitan Hospital resulted from city-mandated cutbacks there, a group of doctors and nurses at the East Harlem hospital said at a news conference. Mayor Koch responded that similar, previous charges had not been substantiated. A spokesman for the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation said there was nothing in the hospital's records to support the charge. Hospital staff members released a sworn statement describing the two deaths allegedly resulting from a cutback in nursing and medical care.
[New York Times] - Inequities in military expenditures in the nation's 435 congressional districts has been found in an analysis of the Pentagon's budget prepared for a private consulting firm by Prof. James Anderson of Michigan State University. The study said that the Pentagon budget drains money from 305 districts and funnels it into 130 districts and concludes that "military spending is a principal source of drastic imbalance and inequity in the federal tax burden and budget allocation." It confirms findings of earlier studies that military spending is concentrated in the South and Southwest. [New York Times]
- Thailand will admit many Cambodians beginning this week from among the 560,000 refugees camped along its frontier. International relief officials said a site that could hold at least 200,000 refugees was being prepared about eight miles from the frontier and about 20 miles north of the border-crossing town of Aranyaprathet. [New York Times]
- Seven footprints preserved in a lake in northern Kenya may be the oldest left by a direct ancestor of man. The prints are believed to be 1.5 million years old, and unlike previous anthropological finds in Africa, are more interesting for what they indicate about the behavior of early human-like creatures than about their evolution. [New York Times]