NEW YORK : Libyan Decision Day

U.N. sanctions descend on Libya Wednesday unless Col. Moammar Kadafi gives up two Libyan suspects in the terrorist bombing of Pan American Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988. While crying out defiance, Kadafi also has been sending out emissaries to U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali and the Arab League in a desperate campaign to avert sanctions. But his vague proposals to allow the suspects to go to trial in a disinterested country or in some U.N. body fall far short of the U.N. demand that he turn them over to either of the two governments that have indicted them--the United States and Britain.

Libya might still escape the full effect of the sanctions if the International Court of Justice, in a decision due today, asserts jurisdiction in the case. Although the United States insists that Security Council pronouncements have precedence over International Court decisions, such a ruling could make many countries reluctant to impose sanctions.