Libya offers big money

Press, 4 February 1986, Page 10

Libya offers big money

NZPA-Reuter Tripoli

Libya is offering higher salaries to lure back Americans ordered out by the United States Government, diplomatic sources said yesterday.

American oilmen were already earning up to SUSIOO,OOO ($200,000) a year before President Reagan imposed an economic boycott on Libya, accusing Colonel Muammar Gadaffi of sponsoring terrorism. The sources said Libyan companies were holding jobs open for American employees who felt obliged to leave and were trying to tempt them back with more money. Western diplomats said there was no mass exodus by Mr Reagan’s deadline of February 1 and it was not known how many of the estimated 1000 to 1500 Americans in Libya decided to stay on. A United States State Department spokesman said that at least half the Americans had left.

President Reagan ordered all Americans to quit Libya when he announced economic sanctions last January 7. He also banned Americans from travelling to Libya or doing business with the country. Diplomats in Tripoli said some Americans who left were frightened when the United States Navy put on a show of strength by staging exercises off the coast of Libya last week.

They feared the naval manoeuvres might have sparked an incident which might have led to Americans in Libya being held hostage, the diplomats said.

NZPA-AAP Brisbane Tired police in the worst-hit areas of northern Queensland said yesterday things were as normal as could be expected after Cyclone Winifred. The threat of more flooding had eased and the Weather Bureau re-

ported that levels in swollen streams would drop. At Cairns, which was hit by the northern edge of the cyclone, the police hoped that power would be restored to the city by late yesterday but a Queensland Electricity Commission spokesman, Mr David Price, said it could be days before all

blacked out areas had power again. Telephone systems were in chaos and residents were told to boil water until treatment plants, clogged by rubbish, were back in action. A man was killed, dozens injured, at least 1000 homes were damaged and sugar and

banana crops valued at, millions of dollars were destroyed in winds of up to 220km/h when the cyclone crossed the coast at Silkwood, 100 km south of Cairns, on Saturday evening. Widespread floods cut off towns and communities in the worst-hit region between Babinda and Ingham.

An Innisfail girl, aged 13, was yesterday in a satisfactory condition in Cairns Base Hospital after being hit in the stomach by flying roofing iron. The Minister of Primary Industries, Mr John Kerin, said Federal Government was ready to assist with natural disaster relief arrangements.