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TRIPOLI Taking Them On Not content with taking on the United States, Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi has reactivated demands, dating from the Second World War, for reparations supposedly due the Libyan government from Italy, Germany, and Great Britain. Italy, which ruled Libya as colonial territory for many years, and harshly during the Mussolini period, is the chief target of the claims. In that era, Libyan authorities say, 27,000 Libyans died as victims of Italian colonialism, including almost six thousand executed opposition guerrillas. There is a claim for minefield damage and another for damage to domestic animals killed in bombardments during the war. The Italians say they fulfilled any obligations by paying a large sum to the pre-Qaddafi Libyan government in 1956. Much more recently, the Italians sent Qaddafi a set of maps showing the location of Axis minefields, with an offer to supply engineers and demolition experts to clear them. The offer was never acknowledged. Brochures distributed here also allege that at the end of the war, Great Britain simply replaced the Axis powers as the colonial authority. Britain ended all military connections with Libya when the Royal Air Force evacuated its base at El Adem in 1970.

PRAGUE Following the Leader The Communist parties of Eastern Europe have been holding national congresses in the wake of the Soviet Union’s congress and docilely following the lines laid down by Mikhail Gorbachev. In Prague, characteristically, there have been only routine promises and routine criticism. There were exhortations to improve the economy, inspire the workers afresh, reinvigorate investment policy, and pay more attention to announced social and political goals. The net result was a renewed mandate to the Czech leadership, which has not changed since the Dubcek regime was replaced after the Prague Spring of 1968. In Bulgaria, on the other hand, the emphasis was on rectifying economic failures, which have repeatedly come under fire from Soviet critics, especially as regards the quality of goods exported to Russian markets. As though in anticipated response, the Bulgarian government recently abolished five economic ministries and dismissed a number of high-ranking bureaucrats. Todor Zhivkov, the Bulgarian Party leader, is said to have been closest to former Soviet potentate Leonid Brezhnev of all the satellite chiefs, and Brezhnev elements have been a target for elimination under the new regime in Moscow. However, no one expects Zhivkov to leave his post, either willingly or unwillingly, in the near future.

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TRIPOLI Taking Them On Not content with taking on the United States, Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi has reactivated demands, dating from the Second World War, for reparations supposedly due the Libyan government from Italy, Germany, and Great Britain. Italy, which ruled Libya as colonial territory for many years, and harshly during the Mussolini period, is the chief target of the claims. In that era, Libyan authorities say, 27,000 Libyans died as victims of Italian colonialism, including almost six thousand executed opposition guerrillas. There is a claim for minefield damage and another for damage to domestic animals killed in bombardments during the war. The Italians say they fulfilled any obligations by paying a large sum to the pre-Qaddafi Libyan government in 1956. Much more recently, the Italians sent Qaddafi a set of maps showing the location of Axis minefields, with an offer to supply engineers and demolition experts to clear them. The offer was never acknowledged. Brochures distributed here also allege that at the end of the war, Great Britain simply replaced the Axis powers as the colonial authority. Britain ended all military connections with Libya when the Royal Air Force evacuated its base at El Adem in 1970.

PRAGUE Following the Leader The Communist parties of Eastern Europe have been holding national congresses in the wake of the Soviet Union’s congress and docilely following the lines laid down by Mikhail Gorbachev. In Prague, characteristically, there have been only routine promises and routine criticism. There were exhortations to improve the economy, inspire the workers afresh, reinvigorate investment policy, and pay more attention to announced social and political goals. The net result was a renewed mandate to the Czech leadership, which has not changed since the Dubcek regime was replaced after the Prague Spring of 1968. In Bulgaria, on the other hand, the emphasis was on rectifying economic failures, which have repeatedly come under fire from Soviet critics, especially as regards the quality of goods exported to Russian markets. As though in anticipated response, the Bulgarian government recently abolished five economic ministries and dismissed a number of high-ranking bureaucrats. Todor Zhivkov, the Bulgarian Party leader, is said to have been closest to former Soviet potentate Leonid Brezhnev of all the satellite chiefs, and Brezhnev elements have been a target for elimination under the new regime in Moscow. However, no one expects Zhivkov to leave his post, either willingly or unwillingly, in the near future.