Militant leftists pushed a virtually bankrupt Turkey further to the brink of civil war by calling a two-day general strike even as the military commanders sought more powers to quell the violence that has been plaguing the country for over ten days.
Bombing and shooting Incidents marred the strike that paralysed the Aegean resort city of Izmir which was yet to recover from violent outbursts and left at least two dead and thousands in police custody.
Wave of bomb attacks in Salisbury
Thousands of white Rhodesian civilians reported for military duty as police hunted those responsible for a wave of bomb attacks in Salisbury.
The call-up was aimed at curbing political violence which had been increasing as the British colony prepares for pre-independence elections on February 27-29. The series of powerful explosions occurred just as former Prime Minister Ian Smith's Rhodesian Front appeared headed for a landslide victory in the country's white minority elections.
Rebels seize Afghan Provincial capital
Afghanistan rebels reportedly were loosening the Soviet Union's iron grip on Afghanistan, with guerrillas claiming they seized a provincial capital and US administration sources saying the security situation was deteriorating in Kabul,
Jalalabad and Kandahar. In Washington, an Afghan rebel leader disclosed he met an aide to President Carter and appealed for 40 million dollars worth of light arms to use against Soviet troops who invaded his homeland.
Leftists seize banks in riot-torn San Salvador
Leftists militants captured nearly 400 hostages in six apparently co-ordinated raids in a sharp escalation of political violence. Some 150 members of the leftist Federation of Agricultural Workers broke off from the other march by some 3,000 peasants and seized about 300 hostages at the Agricultural Development Bank in Downtown San Salvador.
The Federation members clambered into the bank through broken windows after an initial attempt to storm the five-story building was turned back by the structure's heavy steel doors.
