a063  0558  25 Oct 82
PM-Foreign Briefs,1st Ld-Writethru,710
    TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) - After months of labor unrest, the Cabinet
has decided to liquidate the strike-idled El Al national airline if
its workers don't agree within three weeks to tough retrictions on
union influence in the airline.
    Shemuel Soler, spokesman for the Histradut labor federation, told
The Associated Press Sunday he was optimistic an agreement to prevent
liquidation could be reached ''within two or three days.'' He said
the main snag was the Histadrut's insistence on higher compensation
for laid-off workers than management was offering.
    El Al, struck by stewards last month over in-flight working
conditions, has been shut down while management demanded employees
sign a ''statement of principles'' sharply curtailing worker power.
    The principles include an immediate layoff of 10 percent of the
4,900 workers, ending union influence over hiring and firing, and a
ban on all strikes except those approve by the Histradut.
    ---
    STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - An estimated 40,000 Swedes joined hands in
a four-mile ''human bridge of peace'' linking the U.S. and Soviet
embassies here in a celebration of United Nations Day.
    Soviet Ambassador to Sweden, Boris Pankin, emerged from the embassy
during Sunday's rally to shake hands with some of the demonstrators
while the U.S. Embassy remained closed, news reports said.
    The televised demonstration also included an appeal for peace and
disarmament by 1982 Nobel Peace Prize co-winner Alva Myrdal of Sweden
and featured actress Liv Ullmann, interviewed at the U.N. building in
New York.
    ---
    HANOVER, West Germany (AP) - A one-time East German border guard
used his knowledge of frontier security to dodge mines and other booby
traps and cross to West Germany early today, West German border
authorities said.
    A statement from the border police office in Hanover quoted the
unidentified 22-year-old left East Germany because he was dissatisfied
with economic conditions there.
    ---
    PEKING (AP) - Libyan leader Col. Moammar Khadafy arrived today on
his first visit to China, a nation that once expressed disapproval of
his extremist policies but now wants to mend fences.
    Khadafy arrived by special plane after a brief stopover in Moscow.
He attended a lavish welcoming ceremony in central Peking's Tienanmen
Square where he and Premier Zhao Ziyang reviewed a Chinese honor
guard.
    Khadafy and Chinese leaders are expected to discuss international
affairs, focusing on the Middle East.
    The Soviet Union supplies Libya with most of its weapons, but
relations have cooled as Khadafy has pursued an independent course and
expressed disappointment that the Soviets did little during the
Lebanese crisis.
    China is expected to take advantage of that rift to try and improve
its own ties with Libya.
    ---
    JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel is taking both open and secret actions to
free Jewish dissidents from Soviet prisons, Prime Minister Menachem
Begin said today.
    Addressing the leaders of the Brussels Conference, the roof
organization of Jewish groups working for free emigration of Jews from
the Soviet Union, Begin called for a renewed campaign of public
pressure on the Soviet government.
    ''We do whatever is humanly possible,'' Begin said. ''Not all of
them (Israel's actions) can be publicized or can be brought to public
notice.''
    Begin gave no details, but Israel reportedly has been involved in
several negotiations for the release of Anatoly Shcharansky in
exchange for captured Soviet soldiers or spies in South Africa and
elsewhere.
    Shcharansky, once the spokesman for the Jewish dissident movement,
was imprisoned in 1978 on a 13-year sentence for treason, espionage
and anti-Soviet activities.
    Arye Dulzin, the conference chairman, said 2,000 Jews emigrated in
the first nine months of this year, compared with the peak of 51,000
in 1979.
    ''The doors of Soviet Russia are closed,'' he said.
    ---
    PEKING (AP) - ''Friendship '82,'' a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 ''Super
80'' jetliner, swooped over the Great Wall of China today as the
U.S.-company made a pitch to sell China five to 10 planes costing $20
million to $25 million each.
    The jet, on an around-the-world flight made a 90-minute
demonstration flight with more than 100 Chinese airline officials,
pilots, dignitaries and reporters aboard.
    McDonnell Douglas and the Boeing Co., are competing for an important
share of China's new orders to replace its aging fleet of 162 planes.
Most are Soviet-designed but they include some British Tridents.
    
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