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A daily pick of news events that happened on this day in history from the pages of Gulf News dated November 16, 1978.
France to take Viet refugees
France has offered to admit 2,500 Vietnamese refugees stranded off Malaysia aboard the Hai Hong freighter. Deputy Foreign Minister Olivier Stien told the National Assembly: "France is ready to receive those refugees who are on the Hai Hong and who want to come to our country." The Malaysian government has refused the Vietnamese permission to land. It said it did not consider them genuine refugees, but fee-paying emigrants whose passage had been organised by an international syndicate.
Click here to view a Gulf News page on November 16, 1978(pdf)
"We feel that by such a move, we are not only respecting our constitution and our tradition of a country of asylum but also France's essence and heart," Stirn said. France has taken in about 45,000 Vietnamese since the end of the Vietnamese war three and a half years ago.
Hijacker is shot dead in midair
Soviet security guards shot dead an armed hijacker who tried to commandeer an airliner on a domestic flight.
Soviet news agency Tass said on an aircraft of the state airline Aeroflot flying across the Caucasun Mountains from Krasnodar, on the northern side of the Caucasus, to Baku, capital of the Soviet republic of Azerbaijan. Tass said security guards on the plane shot the hijacker after he put up resistance. No passengers were harmed.
IRA Provos continue bombing campaign
The Irish Republican Army "Provisionals" continued their heaviest Northern Ireland bombing campaign of the past year--and warned there will be no Christmas cease-fire.
Damage in the bombings throughout the province during the past 48 hours is put at millions of pounds. Up to yesterday 37 people had been wounded or injured, most of them civilians struck by flying glass or debris. No one was killed.
French left strikes over unemployment
France’s communist-led CGT Union staged day-long stoppages and demonstrations against government economic policies with unemployment, currently at its highest level since World War Two, as the major cause of complaint. Latest Labour Ministry figures put the number of jobless in October at 1,344,100-a rise of 4.6 per cent on September.
Sharjah flypast
The Rothmans aerobatic team fly over Sharjah on its way to give a demonstration of breathtaking flying skills at Ras Al Khaimah.
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