Cable news reports in brief

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33478, 8 March 1974, Page 11

Cable news reports in brief

Rise refused

The United States Senate has voted overwhelmingly to kill the proposal by President Nixon to increase a senator’s pay by SUSIO,OOO to $U552,500 a year. The proposal was rejected by 76 votes to 26. —Washington, March 7.

Ao sale An iron chastity belt put up for auction.by the Tower of London failed to reach its reserve price yesterday, and was.passed in at £llO. The Tower paid £350 for the belt 20 years ago. but decided to auction it from a collection of ancient armour because it seemed not strong enough to be genuine. — London, March 7. Numismatic event A sixteenth century British gold coin was bought yesterday for a record £21,000. The coin, a 1575 James VI £2O piece described as very fine and extremely rare, was bought at an auction sale by a London dealer. — London, ; March 7. Roval visit

Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon will visit the United States from May 2 to May 9 before going to Canada, it was announced from Kensington Palace todav. They will fulfil official engagements at the request of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Princess Margaret was last in America in 1965.—London, March 7.

New oil deal Libya has agreed to sell Sweden 2 million tons of crude oil a year, and will buy tankers and other merchant ships from Sweden. The deal was concluded m three days of talks between the Libyan Prime Minister: (Mr Jalloud) and his delegation and Swedish Ministers: and officials before Mr Jalloud left Stockholm for Tripoli yesterday.—Stockholm, (March 7.

Typhoid outbreak

More than 70 cases of typhoid have been confirmed ir Vibo Valentia, a town on the toe of Italy, and there are 100 suspected cases. Schools have been closed, 5000 people have been vaccinated, and an rtensive sanitary programme is under way. The source of the infection is not yet known, but. is thought most likely to be the town’s sewerage system. — Vibo Valentia, March 7. Record food exports The United States expected to export an unprecedented SUS2S,OOOm of agricultural products next year, the Secretary of Agriculture (Mr Earl Butz) told Congress yester[day. Food exports were runI ning at record levels, he said. ’ —Washington, March 7. [Pope ill

Pope Paul, who is 76, is suffering from a slight bout of influenza, well-informed Vatican sources report, adding that while his condition at present does not appear to be serious, he has been prevented from attending religious services in the last few days.—Rome, March 7. New Austrian law

The Austrian Parliament has given final approval to a law allowing conscientious objectors to do social work instead of military service. !The law, passed unanimously after compromises between ruling Socialists and the Opposition People’s Partv, comes into force next January.—Vienna. March 7.

Supplies short The Ford Motor Company of West Germany will have to lay off 25,000 men temporarily because of a shortage of supplies from Ford of Britain, where production is affected by the three-day week. The British company supplies its West German counterpart with engines and other components. — Bonn, March 7,

U Thant

The former United Nations Secretary-General U Thant, who is 65, is suffering from cancer, and recently underwent an operation designed to arrest the disease. United Nations sources say that he underwent surgery for what was described then as a benign lesion in one cheek, but

that the lesion was later shown to be malignant. Since his retirement in December, 1971, U Thant has. [been living in New York ’State, and has been working [on his memoirs and for the University of Chicago. He was a schoolteacher in Burma before entering politics and ! diplomacy. — New York, March 7.

Wo U.S. recession' President Nixon declared last night that there would be no recession in the United States in 1974. “The back of the energy crisis has been broken,” he told a press conference, “and as we go towards the end of the year, we will see the prices., of energy kept in check.” He also predicted that food prices, ' the second-largest factor in inflation, would be kept in control by bumper food crops and -wheat harvests. —Washington, March 17. i

Bank secretary gaoled

A bank secretary was sent to prison for 12 years in Jo hannesburg for using the bank’s money to finance his horse-racing bets. John Henry Kenny, aged 34, former secretary of the Bank of Lisbon and South Africa was convicted on fraud and theft charges involving about 265,000 rand (about: $280,000). He plead guilty. — Johannesburg, March 7. I Crime in London Crimes of violence increased by 13 per cent in London last year, but there were fewer rapes and muggings. Woundings and assaults rose in number from 1745 in 1972 to 1845 in 1973. but the number of muggings dropped to 1200, about 350 fewer than in the previous year, while rapes decreased marginally from 135 to 132 —London, March 7.

Invitation to exile The exiled Russian author Alexander Solzhenitsyn, \ has been invited by the American Federation of Labour Congress of Industrial Organisations to make a lecture tour of the United; States. A letter to the author from Mr George Meany, pre-, sident of the giant union federation, said that the A.F.L.-C.1.0. was prepared to organise a tour and arrange lectures “so that you may have an opportunity to communicate freely with the 'American people.” —Washing-, ton, Marcn 3. Olntuarx One of the pioneers of Russian rocket technology. Professor Mikhail Tikhonraviv, has died, aged 73. His brain was behind the highly-secret i Soviet space programme, and he was responsible for the first liquid-fuel-fired Soviet rocket in the early 19505, and involved in producing the first Sputnik satellites.—Moscow, i March 7.

Diving record

I Royal Navy diver* wearing atmospheric suits set a 'world record depth level of ; 1000 feet at the Admiralty s weapons establishment near ! Dorset yesterday. The five ' divers more than doubled ithe previous record which the “Guinness Book of Records” says was set several pears ago by a team which recovered a cargo of gold I ingots from a freighter sunk [off New Zealand in IMO The hulk lay at 438 Teet.—Dorset, March 7.