Gulf News Report Published: December 11, 2007, 23:25
A daily pick of news events that happened on this day from the pages of Gulf News dated December 12, 1978.
Troops ring Opec hotel
Troops and armoured cars moved into place, ringing the Abu Dhabi Hilton Hotel, as part of a massive operation by UAE security forces to protect Oil Ministers attending both the OAPEC and OPEC meetings.
People entering and leaving the hotel have to submit to baggage searches and some parts of the hotel have been closed off to the general public. The precautions are being taken to prevent a repeat of the Vienna Opecconference when guerrillas forced their way into the Opec headquarters and seized a number of Oil Ministers as hostages before flying with their prisoners to Algeria.
5,000 die on long march from Keren
About 100,000 Eritreans, braving heavy Ethiopian government air and artillery bombardments are fleeing to the protection of the mountains following the surrender of Keren, the last stronghold of separatist forces in the province.
A guerrilla spokesman, from the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF), which is fighting for the independence of the Red Sea province from Ethiopia, said 5,000 people had been killed in air and artillery strikes on the columns of refugees and on the villages they had left.
Mechanic stole Chaplin's body
A young Polish refugee told a Swiss court that he dug up Charlie Chaplin's body and tried to sell it back to the comedian's family because he was in financial trouble.
Roman Wardas, a 24-year-old car mechanic, said he was out of work and going through hard times when he read a newspaper report about a similar case in Italy. "As a result I decided to hide Charlie Chaplin's body and solve my problems," Wardas told the Court at the start of his trial.
