The World - News from Jan. 29, 1989

A newspaper report that Britain will withdraw more than half its troops from Gibraltar was described by the Ministry of Defense as “speculative.” Early editions of Sunday Times of London said the government will pull more than 1,000 of its 1,900 troops out of the British colony. The article quoted a ministry source as saying now that Spain is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, it is no longer necessary to maintain such a large presence. But the ministry downplayed the report. British control of Gibraltar is a highly sensitive issue between Britain and Spain, which claims that the 2.2-square-mile colony at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula is rightfully Spanish.