Gulf News Report Published: February 07, 2008, 00:15
A daily pick of news events that happened on this day in history from the pages of Gulf News dated February 7, 1980.
Bani-Sadr denounces students as 'dictators'
Iranian President Abolhassan Bani-Sadr angrily denounced the Muslim militants holding the US Embassy hostages in Tehran as "dictators who have created a government within a government."
Bani-Sadr's attack, his strongest yet on the embassy militants, came after they broadcast allegations that the Minister of Information and National Guidance, Nasser Minachi, had "close links with the CIA." Minachi was arrested by revolutionary guards, but the ruling Revolutionary Council ordered his release.
Major gas strike
A major gas find, the first in the Sharjah and with a preliminary output capacity of 15 million cubic feet per day was discovered offshore. The sources said that laboratory tests have proved that preliminary output capacity of the well could reach 15 million cubic feet per day.
Lebanese army to fill in for Syrian truce-keepers
The Lebanese Government ordered its newly rebuilt army to fill the security vacuum expected to result when the Syrian peacekeeping forces withdraw from Beirut this weekend.
A statement issued by President Elias Sarkis' Cabinet said: "the Cabinet ordered the Lebanese army to take immediate measures necessary to fill the security vacuum along the lines of confrontation.
Grenade attack on Mugabe house
Marxist guerrilla leader Robert Mugabe escaped an apparent assassination attempt when a hand grenade was thrown at his house, but exploded harmlessly against a wall. But an official of "Mugabe's political party was seriously injured in a separate incident when rockets were fired into his home in a suburb of the capital.