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A daily pick of news events that happened on this day in history from the pages of Gulf News dated February 9, 1980.
Sign up for war, Carter tells 8 million
Click here to view a Gulf News page on February 9, 1980 (pdf)
President Carter has decided to seek military registration this year of 8 million American men and women aged 19 and 20.
Eighteen-year-olds would have to register in 1981, the sources said. Despite a law against sending women into combat, the controversy over their registration for the first time in US history may threaten Congressional passage of 20 million dollars to crank up the selective service system - dormant since 1973.
The mail registration proposal stipulates that all eligible Americans who are 18 now and turn 19 sometime during the year would have to register this year.
Oil prices up
The price of petrol in Dubai has gone up. The price of petrol (Super) has gone up from Dh4 to Dh5.30 per gallon marking an increase of 32.5 per cent. Similarly, petrol (Ordinary) will now cost Dh5.15 per gallon, an increase of 35.52 per cent over its previous Dh. 3.80 per gallon. The price of diesel has also gone up by about 9.21 per cent. Its previous rate was 3.50 per gallon.
Afghan Mujahideen call to expel Soviets
Afghan rebels have appealed "to the freedom loving nations throughout the world to come to the aid of Afghan Mujahideen".
Burhanuddin Rabbani, a leader of the Islamic Alliance for Liberation of Afghanistan said that "the Soviet superpower has not only brought misery and death to the people of Afghanistan, but it also has lacerated the world conscience by violating the accepted international norms and jeopardising the world peace."
Brown sparks storm over defence system in Japan
Japan, constitutionally prohibited from maintaining an army, navy or air force, is in the middle of a storm over the nation's defence system.
US Defence Secretary Harold Brown's recent call for "combined planning efforts" among the United States, Japan and Western Europe to counter-balance the Soviet global military build-up has provoked a flurry of attacks by opposition leaders in the Diet (Parliament).
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