Opinion Forty Years Ago: Bombs In US
Armed leftists broke into a building housing the Indian embassy in Beirut.
Bombs went off in Washington, New York and Chicago causing some damage but no injuries. All of them went off about the same time at dawn, indicating that the same group or groups may have been responsible. In Washington, two explosions believed to have been caused by four powerful bombs tore a three-feet hole in the State Department building. Five bombs exploded in New York in banks and on Wall Street. Three exploded in Chicago in front of a bank and business buildings. A stick of dynamite was found at one location and a suspicious box at another. Responsibility for the New York explosions was assumed by a Puerto Rican organisation called the FALN, but the police were not sure whether it was telling the truth.
PM On Science
The overall impact of science on society is not what it should be, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi said while distributing the Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar awards to distinguished scientists in Delhi. The PM said though the government funds research in frontier areas like nuclear energy, space and electronics, “at least some number of scientists and engineers should be willing to work on simple problems”. R&D should also be geared to improve the everyday life of the ordinary man. She identified some priorities like solar energy utilisation, innovations in pumping water and lift irrigation systems, improving the bullock cart and so on.
Guns In Beirut
Armed leftists broke into a building housing the Indian embassy in Beirut. Details were not available, but the Indian embassy, as also the Venezuelan and Dutch diplomatic missions housed in the same building, was deserted. The gunmen apparently wanted to use the premises as a vantage point for sniping. Casualties in the six-week-long battle between Muslim and Christian gunmen in Lebanon mounted to at least 800 dead, with 2,000 wounded.
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