From the pages of Gulf News dated August 2 to 8, 1979

August 2

Kaunda attack at Commonwealth summit
ZAMBIAN President Kenneth Kaunda opened a Commonwealth heads of state conference here and launched an immediate attack on the new black-led administration in neighbouring Zimbabwe Rhodesia.

August 4

Israelis in sneak raid kill seven commandos
Israeli commandos slipped through territory under United Nations supervision to attack two Palestinian commando bases in the Mount Hermon region of southern Lebanon. At least seven commandos were killed in the raids on the two bases about 15km inside Lebanon.

August 5

Indian Airlines plane crashes with 45 aboard
An Indian airlines plane with 45 people aboard crashed into a hill last night minutes before it was due to land at Bombay's Santa Cruz airport. The twin-engine Hawker-Siddeley 748 was on a domestic flight from Pune. It crashed near Panvel town about 50km from Bombay.

August 6

Jail, fines for gambling in new law
President His Highness Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan in his capacity as Ruler of Abu Dhabi issued a new amendment to the law on gambling. The new penalties include imprisonment, fines, the confiscation of gambling equipment and the monies, and the closing down of the place where the gambling was discovered.

Italy's new PM forms government in 48 hours
Sixteen months after declaring himself "politically dead" Francesco Cossiga became Italy's new Prime Minister. The last time the 51-year-old Christian Democrat made headlines was on May 10 last year when he resigned as Interior Minister 24 hours after urban guerrillas shot dead his party president Aldo Moro.

August 7

Hijackers give up in Geneva
Three Spanish Foreign Legion deserters landed at Geneva airport today aboard an airliner they hijacked at gunpoint, and surrendered immediately to police. The DC-9 aircraft of the Spanish Iberia airline flew the hijackers from Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands to Lisbon and then to Geneva after an overnight stop.

War in Western Sahara ends
Mauritania has signed a peace accord with the Polisario guerrillas and formally renounced all claims to that part of the Western Sahara which it has administered since Spain withdrew in 1976.

August 8

Two Tehran papers closed after new law
Armed Islamic revolutionary guards closed two Tehran publications after the council of the revolution announced a new law governing the press. About 30 militiamen brandishing automatic rifles occupied the offices of the independent newspapers Ayandegan and Ahangar.

Maria's march to elections
PORTUGAL'S first woman Prime Minister, Maria De Lourdes Pintasilgo, has described her caretaker task as a 100-day march to general elections in the autumn.