Gulf News Report Published: December 03, 2007, 23:28
A daily pick of news events that happened on this day in history from the pages of Gulf News dated December 4, 1978.
Soviet ships from Red Sea pounding rebel positions
Soviet ships in the Red Sea are bombarding rebel positions and disembarking Ethiopian troops and armoured cars in Eritrea, the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) said.
A spokesman at the front's Rome office said the landings at Marsa Gulbub, near the Sudan border, were apparently the prelude to a thrust against rebel strongholds in the far north of the Ethiopian province.
"The battle is still going on and the Ethiopian forces are trying to disembark. So far we have succeeded in containing them but the enemy forces are overwhelming," the spokesman said.
South Yemen rejects Russian base claim
South Yeman President Ali Nasser Mohammed dismissed claims that the Soviet Union had a marine base in the Port of Aden.
"We have not put a marine base or any military base at the disposal of the Soviet Union or handed one over to them," President Nasser Mohammed said. "A simple reason is: the Soviet Union has not asked us for one. It has no interest in such a military base," he said.
Smith defends whites plan
Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith defended the proposed "national government," which will give Rhodesia's white minority considerable political influence for another five years, as the best way to ensure the country remains "worth living in."
In a nationwide radio and television broadcast Smith said the escalating guerrilla war and what he termed Anglo-American "Support" for the insurgents made it necessary to set up a biracial coalition government after elections among the 2.8 million black and 80,000 white voters.
China opens door to foreign firms
China is moving ahead rapidly to pump foreign cash into its modernisation campaign. In its drive to become a major economic power by the year 2000, Peking has apparently discarded the Maoist dictum of "self-reliance" which has guided the country of 800 million since the communist takeover in 1949.
In the latest policy reversal, Peking has told French, English and Japanese businessmen it may soon allow them to own up to 49 per cent interests in Chinese industries.
