CABLE NEWS IN BRIEF

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24237, 20 April 1944, Page 5

CABLE NEWS IN BRIEF

New German Air Weapons.—-The ' Official German News Agency hat announced la new German bomb carrying about 40 small high explosive bomb*. , . which are scattered when the “mother bomb’’ explodes. The. News Agency; also says that the Luftwaffe now has a new six-engined flying-heat capable of carrying , 100 fully equipped soldiers on its lower deck.—London; April 18. Fuel Scarce in Australia.—Wood, coke, and coal will be very scarce for Australian civilians this wintw. says an official announcement. Coke will - be practically unprocurable, ail sup-, plies being required for essential industry. Very little coal will be , re? leased, and manpower and transport . problems will affect the supply vOf wood, particularly in metropolitan areas.—Sydney, April 19. International Petroleum Conference. —Conferences opened in .Washington to-day between the British and United’. States delegations to the Petroleum Conference. No statement* will he made, says an agency. corres-' pondent, until the delegates have met for two or three preliminary sessions. It is believed that the entire question of British and United States collabora- . tion in postwar petroleum matter* will come up for discussion.— Rugby, v April 18. v Arrested on Operating Table. —The Germans in Denmark arrested a young ' Australian airman when he .was. on an operating table, and the airman,: , later, died-before reaching an internment camp, according to the Danish , Press Service. The- report says that t two Danish surgeons, in the presence •> ' of a German doctor, had nearly fin-" ished an operation on the airman, who V had crashed in Denmark, when Ger-'. mans burst into the operating theatre, <.. lifted the Australian from the table, ’, placed him : on a stretcher, 'and.; took - him outside.—London, April 18. • Interned U.S. Airman Now in England.—A dispatch from an American bomber base in England reveals that Sergeant Theodore Laban, 'who > was ; forced down and interned in Siberia ■ after the American raid on Tokyot in, April, 1942, has reached England and > is now participating in the air war-, fare against Germany; It is not dmuged how or when Sergeant Laban .left,. Russia. Nor are the whereabout*,;, known of four other airmen who were interned with him.—Washington, April’!18. . . • .. U.S. Submarines Sink-15 Shlpfc—- > United States submarines have sum 15 more enemy vessels in Pacific and Far Eastern waters. A Navy communique says that one large tanker, . two medium tankers, one medium i: naval auxiliary (a repair ship), seven medium cargo ships, two medium ' cargo and passenger vessels,; one small cargo and passenger ship, and one, small cargo ship have been sunk.— Washington, April 18, Mussolini at Cabinet Meeting.—The Berlin radio announced that Mussolini to-day presided over a meeting- of the > Fascist Republican Cabinet in northern Italy. Reports, that Mussolini was dying were put out by correspondents in Switzerland a few days ago.—Bourdon, April 18. t Year’s First‘Haid Alarm.—Hostile aircraft crossed the Szechwan border to-day heading for Chungking. They caused the first air raid alarm in the Chinese capital this year. The inhabitants proceeded to assigned dugouts, many of which had recently been screened as a precaution against gas attacks. The all clear was sounded an hour later.—Chungking, April 18.