British officials hold talks with 2 West Bank mayors

British officials established contacts with Palestinian mayors in the West Bank, following 48 hours of talks between the foreign secretary, Lord Carrington , and Israeli leaders. In an officially secret program, senior British aides contacted two of three mayors whose dismissal by the Israelis last month set off violent protests by Palestinians. There were no new reports of disturbances in the occupied areas.

But in northern Sinai, now off limits to Israeli settlers in preparation for the handover this month of the peninsula to Egypt, ultranationalist Jews attempted a sea-borne landing from the Mediterranean. Israeli Navy patrol boats intercepted and chased away seven yachts trying to land scores of hard-liners on the coast, where they had intended to join hundreds of settlers still defying the Army's closure of the region.