40 years ago, April 18, 1986: Soviet ships take position

Soviet warships took position off the disputed Gulf of Sidra to help Libya ward off any more US air or naval attacks as Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi vowed to crush anti-government revolutions everywhere. This follows Mikhail Gorbachev’s assurance to the Libyan leader that the Soviet Union was coordinating with fraternal socialist states to stop the American “aggression”. Apart from a strong protest to the US administration and demanding immediate end to its “adventuristic anti-Libyan policy”, a representation had been made to the UK against the use of its airbase by the US Air Force to bomb Libya. The Supreme Court ordered that a new judge of the Bombay High Court will frame charges against the former Maharashtra chief minister, A R Antulay, on all counts except extortion. The High Court had considered 43 draft charges against Antulay in the “trusts” cases and dropped 22 important charges. The efficacy of the Non-Aligned Movement in settling conflicts among its own members was questioned in no uncertain terms by the foreign ministers of both Iran and Iraq. Tariq Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Iraq ,alleged that NAM had demonstrated “undoubted powerlessness” by maintaining silence on non-implementation of the UN resolutions by Iran. The Union Finance Minister, V P Singh, announced a new set of ground rules for searches and seizures. Under the new rules, the raiding party will not make any statement to the press and if statements are to be made, they will be made by the head of the department and will be factual in nature.