News stories from Saturday August 16, 1975

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

A Federal District Court judge in Detroit declined to order the widespread busing of children to accelerate the desegregation of Detroit's public schools. In a long-awaited decision, Judge Robert DeMascio rejected two divergent desegregation proposals, both involving extensive busing, that had been advanced by the Detroit Board of Education and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The judge ordered the school board to devise a less-sweeping desegregation plan with less busing. In Detroit, the school population is 74 percent black and 26 percent white. [New York Times] The nuclear industry is growing worldwide, with more suppliers moving into more countries, selling a wider range of related technology. Such exports have become the focus of a worldwide controversy that has spread to high levels of international diplomacy because such plants produce a by-product -- plutonium -- which after relatively simple chemical reprocessing can become the raw material for a nuclear bomb. To prevent the ostensibly peaceful uses of nuclear power from being used for the development of nuclear weapons, the supplier nations are reported to be in secret negotiations in an attempt to reach agreement on rules governing the controls to be placed on sales. But the efficacy of the controls is being questioned. [New York Times] A ransom, believed to be $4.5 million, was left for the kidnappers of Samuel Bronfman II early this morning, with an agreement that the 21-year-old heir to a liquor fortune was to be released within hours. But last night there was no word from the kidnappers about the release of the young man, abducted eight days ago. Law enforcement officials were becoming increasingly concerned about his well-being. [New York Times] That millions of Americans cannot afford legal counsel when they need it -- the poor, the elderly, Indians on reservations and middle-class people -- is a fact known among the legal profession. Ways to change that situation are increasingly getting the attention of lawyers, but not yet with any resolution. Lawyers are calling for solutions that include legal clinics, the deliberate undercharging of middle-class clients on personal matters and bar association backing of public interest law firms. [New York Times] In the seven weeks since the Supreme Court ruled that certain mentally ill persons may not be confined against their will, the decision has not, apparently, led to the release of a single mental patient other than Kenneth Donaldson, the plaintiff in the case that led to the Court's decision. It had been expected that thousands of people would soon be released from psychiatric hospitals, but the decision has produced little more than controversy about its narrow and sometimes vague language and efforts to decide how, or even whether, it may be immediately applied. Physicians and lawyers say each of the three conditions on which the decision says a mental patient may be released is stated imprecisely enough to need further clarification. [New York Times] A research study funded by Consumers Union says it has found evidence that multi-national drug companies "take advantage of a weaker regulatory situation" in Latin America "to pursue labeling and advertising policies of a dangerous kind." The study said that the companies "frequently minimize risks' and exaggerate claims" for their dugs in a way they cannot do in the United States because of federal restrictions. The drugs discussed are sold only by prescription in the United States. [New York Times] Hundreds of anti-Communist demonstrators using stones and gunfire broke up a Communist rally in Alcobaca in central Portugal led by the party's secretary general, Alvaro Cunhal. Several persons on both sides were badly injured in the fighting around the sports stadium. Mr. Cunhal, who had been the main speaker, ended the rally and retreated into a room in the stadium. Party aides said he was ailing and asked for a doctor, water and fruit juice. Between 2,000 and 3,000 Communist militants and a large group of Portuguese and foreign newsmen were trapped inside the stadium and were waiting for military forces from nearby Caldas da Rainha. [New York Times] The new Dacca government moved today to take Bangladesh out of the political orbit of India. A day after the military coup in which the government of President Mujibur Rahman was overthrown and Sheik Mujib was reportedly killed, the Bangladesh radio stressed the common cause of the world's Islamic countries, and referred in a friendly way to Pakistan, which was the first country to grant diplomatic recognition to the new government. The Bangladesh radio, monitored in Calcutta, said that Sheik Mujib had been buried "with full honors" in Tungipara, his hometown, 60 miles from Dacca. The Indian government expressed grief at the Sheik's death and said it was watching developments. [New York Times]