January 26, 1980

WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 Pushed by a December increase that was the sharpest in nearly a year, consumer prices rose 13.3 percent in 1979, the largest annual increase in 33 years, the Government reported today.

EL MALIZ AIRFIELD, Sinai, Jan. 25 Israel completed the first stage of its two-part withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula today by handing back to Egypt the largest chunk of desert so far.

Allen Curtis Lewis was acquitted last night of charges that he pushed Renee Katz, a 17-year-old music student, into the path of a Manhattan subway train last June 7. Miss Katz's right hand, which was severed by the train, was later reattached in a 16-hour operation at Bellevue Hospital.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Jan. 25 More than 30 foreign ministers from Moslem nations began arriving here today for an emergency meeting of the Islamic Conference called to assess, and most likely condemn, the Soviet Union's military intervention in Afghanistan.

The Exxon Corporation announced yesterday that in 1979, a year in which its customers coped with serious shortages and sharply higher prices, its profits rose 55.8 percent to a record $4.3 billion.

The New York State Bar Association yesterday endorsed the principle of allowing television and radio coverage of criminal and civil trials in New York State.

MOSCOW, Jan. 25--The Soviet Union published its economic figures for 1979 today, showing the lowest rate of overall industrial growth since the disruptions of World War II. There were shortfalls in oil, coal, steel and other key products.

TEHERAN, Iran, Saturday, Jan. 26 (Reuters) Finance Minister Abolhassan Bani-Sadr appeared today to have won 70 to 80 percent of the vote in Iran's first presidential elections, according to unofficial Interior Ministry estimates. He said that as President he would try to end the crisis between the United States and Iran over the holding of 50 hostages at the United States Embassy.

PRETORIA, South Africa, Jan. 25 Three black nationalists armed with rifles took 25 persons hostage in a suburban bank today in an attempt to win freedom for imprisoned nationalist leaders. But policemen stormed the bank and the attempt ended in death for all three gunmen and one of the hostages.

TOKYO, Jan. 25 The former Beatle Paul McCartney, held for 10 days for violating Japan's marijuana possession laws, was released for immediate deportation today. He left the New Tokyo International Airport at Narita tonight.

FRANKFURT, Jan. 21 Right from the first sentence there was trouble. Short, just seven words, a hard-packed morsel. It looked easy. It's a bit of a riddle, biblical may be, ambiguous:

SEOUL, South Korea, Jan. 25 Yun Po Sun, the 83-year-old former South Korean President, was sentenced today to two years in prison by a military court that convicted him of breaking a martial law decree banning street demonstrations.