The World - News from Feb. 5, 1985

Spain lifted its blockade of Gibraltar, ending 16 years of isolation from the rest of Europe for the people of Britain’s tiny colony at the western entrance to the Mediterranean. Hundreds of people gathered on both sides of the frontier to witness a midnight ceremony at which Spanish officials unlocked 10-foot-high, green iron gates that had blocked the road linking Gibraltar to the Spanish mainland. Negotiations are to begin in Geneva today between Britain, which governs Gibraltar, and Spain, which claims it, over the political status of the territory.