News stories from Sunday October 10, 1982

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

Cuts in military spending, along with cuts in spending on Social Security, should be considered by the Reagan administration to reduce the federal deficit, according to the chairmen of many of the country's biggest companies. They fear the deficit could thwart economic recovery. [New York Times] More Democratic governors will probably be elected in the Nov. 2 elections and Democrats are likely to win back the governors' offices in some of the large states in the Middle West, including Ohio, Michigan and Minnesota, according to officials in both parties. Twenty-seven of the nation's 50 governors are Democrats. [New York Times] Fires destroyed more than 100 homes and injured scores of people over the weekend in southern California. The fast-moving brush fires were driven by the feared Sahta Ana "devil winds" of autumn. No additional homes were in jeopardy today, officials said. [New York Times] The derailment of a train with toxins and other hazardous chemicals aboard it outside Livingston, La. nearly two weeks ago, has turned into a nightmare. Experts said there has never been a derailment of hazardous or toxic chemicals as serious as this one. [New York Times] Israeli troops will not leave Lebanon until the Beirut government has signed a security agreement with Israel and all Israeli prisoners in Syrian and Palestinian hands have been returned, Israel announced. The Israeli cabinet also demanded again that the Palestine Liberation Organization leave Lebanon first, before the mutual withdrawal of Syrian and Israeli troops begins. However, some Israeli officials said that was merely an opening argument. [New York Times] Solidarity called for resistance to a new law replacing the outlawed revolutionary organization with tame, government-sanctioned unions. A letter smuggled out of Bialoleka Prison, signed by nine interned Solidarity leaders, said that joining the new unions would "constitute an ignoble act of collaboration." Another message, signed by four fugitive Solidarity leaders, called for a four-hour strike on Nov. 10, the second anniversary of the union's registration by a Warsaw court. [New York Times] A Polish priest was canonized in St. Peter's Square by Pope John Paul II. The Rev. Maksymilian Kolbe, who in Auschwitz volunteered to die in another man's stead, "did not die but gave his life for his brother," the Pope said in his homily after inscribing him in the church's register of saints. The man whom Father Kolbe saved, Franciszek Gajowniczek, now 82, was present for the ceremony. [New York Times] Yasser Arafat was not authorized to speak for the Palestine Liberation Organization in talks with King Hussein of Jordan, Syria asserted. Syria's Information Minister, Ahmed Iskandar Admed, said "nobody, unilaterally, has a mandate to speak on the Palestinian issue." The Information Minister also criticized United States policy in the Middle East and indicated that Syria accepted part of the Arab League peace plan that implies eventual recognition of Israel. [New York Times] Iran has deployed 100,000 troops on the front at Basra and perhaps 75,000 more in the hills east of Baghdad in preparation for attacks against Iraqi forces that could prove to be the climax in the Persian Gulf war, according to neutral military sources in Baghdad. [New York Times] The Free Democratic Party was cut out of the legislature in Bavaria by the victory of Franz Josef Strauss's conservative Christian Social Union in local elections. In the first test of opinion since the selection of Chancellor Helmut Kohl 10 days ago, his national Free Democratic coalition partners continued the downward slide in popularity that had encouraged them to desert Helmut Schmidt's Social Democrat-led government last month. [New York Times]