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A daily pick of news events that happened in history from the pages of Gulf News dated January 24, 1979.
Shah's mystery deepens
Despite denials from Panamanians, Iranian Foreign Minister Sadegh Qotbzadeh insisted that deposed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi being held by Panamanian authorities in preparation for extradition to Iran.
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"Panama's President didn't want us to announce the arrest of the Shah," said Qotbzadeh by way of explaining the denial from a Panama National Guard Source, a spokesman for the Shah and Panama's ambassador to Washington. He said a Panamanian delegation had been in Tehran studying the extradition request and members of it had confirmed to him the Shah was detained. He did not make clear whether the delegation was at present in Teheran.
Sakharov an 'intolerable traitor'
The Soviet Union branded Andrei Sakharov a traitor and charged the dissident leader passed State secrets to American diplomats at the US Embassy.
The Government newspaper Izvestia announced that Sakharov had been expelled from Moscow, but it gave no further details of his fate. The tone of the article was ominous, and it said Sakharov's activities "cannot be tolerated any more."
Worried Waldheim dashes back to UN
United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim has cut short his visit to South Asia to return to New York as quickly as possible because of a tense international situation.
Waldheim stopped over in Pakistan for six hours on his way back from New Delhi to discuss the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan and efforts to secure the release of American hostages in Tehran with the Pakistan Government.
Britain, China, Australia support pull out from Games
Britain, Australia and China supported the US call for a boycott of the Summer Olympic Games. But in Europe not a single Olympic Committee has come in support of a walk out. Committees in Britain, France, West Germany, Belgium, Finland, Denmark, Italy and Switzerland have all said they were going ahead with plans to send teams to Moscow.
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