News In Brief

NATO-missile foes stage protests in Belgium, Sicily

An estimated 20,000 people formed a human chain around a Belgian military air base here Sunday to protest NATO plans to deploy 48 nuclear cruise missiles at the base. Defense Minister Freddy Vreven has said the first cruise missiles are due to start arriving in Belgium next March, with all Missiles operational in 1987.

In Sicily, 15,000 demonstrators gathered at Comisco to protest NATO missiles at an air base there and to commemorate Sicilian Communist leader Pio La Torre, whom the Mafia shot and killed April 30, 1982.