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Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33438, 21 January 1974, Page 15

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Diplomatic incident I In a belated report. United States State Department said] today that an American vice-consul in Leningrad w’ho was involved in a street scuffle with unidentified Russians had returned to America with his family. Mr David Schorer, aged 33, of Connecticut, was taken to la Leningrad police station (after the incident, on Janu-j I ary 10, but was released! (after he had been in touch! (with his fellow-diplomats.! The department denied that; he was “beaten”, and said that he suffered no serious injuries. Protests have been lodged with the Soviet authorities in both Moscow and Washington. — Washington, January 20.

Getty case A fifth man has been charged with participating in the kidnapping of Paul Getty 111. After the discovery of banknotes said to be part of |a SNZI.9m ransom in his I apartment, Giuseppe Lamanna, aged 49, was charged with abduction, inflicting I serious wounds, and criminal) association. He was one of) eight suspects rounded up! last Wednesday in the investigation into the abduction, last July,, of the grandson of the American oil multi-millionaire. — Rome, January 20. Archaeological find Archaeologists have unearthed four marble sarcophagi in perfect condition near Arles, in Southern France. The ancient tombs date back to the fourth! century A.D.—Arles, January;

\Conker problem Birmingham City authot- | ities are considering injecting birth-control serum into an avenue of trees to stop them bearing nuts. They are horse-chestnut trees, the fruit of which is the conker, the hard nut used by British schoolbovs to outsmash their rivals in a competitive game. The treeI are so productive that the [constant presence of boys i around them is considered’a hazard to motorists and a [ danger to the children themselves. The plan is not without its critics: “We have been trying hard enough in Birmingham to obtain free contraceptives for the citizens, and now the only completely free service is to be offered to trees,” commented .Mrs Theresa Stewart, a Birmingham City Councillor.—Birmingham, January

Relics destroyed Valuable relics of the Russian novelist, Leo Tolstoy, were destroyed in a fire which gutted the home of his grand-nephew, Count Nikolai Tolstoy, near Welshpool, Wales on Friday night. “The most serious loss is the destruction of the Tolstoy family paintings, manuscripts. and charters, including some which date back to the seventeenth century," Count Tolstoy said yesterday. The British-born writer, who is 38, had lived in the 400-year-old, half-tim-bered house for only six months. He and his family were out when the fire occurred. He estimates the lost at about sNZ44,ooo.—Welshpool, January 20.