Cable briefs

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33928, 22 August 1975, Page 9

Cable briefs

Fill suspect Australia’s 24 Fill fighterbombers are being examined for engine faults, the United States Air Force having decided to ground more than half its Fill fleet. The checks, for possible faulty engine-compressor blades on each of the $12.5m aircraft, were ordered after a U.S.A.F. Fill had burst into flames while preparing for take-off in Nevada. — Brisbane. Trial awaited

One hundred and eighty eight political prisoners are awaiting trial on treason charges in the year-old independent West African Republic of Guinea-Bissau, the Portuguese Government News Agency, A.N.I. reports. The detainees, all liable to the death penalty if convicted, are described by the agency as either police informers under the former Portuguese colonial Administration, pro-Portuguese party members, or members of the so-called Guinea Democratic Movement founded after the coup d’etat in Portugal last year. — Bissau.

Rebels by-passed The Papua New Guinea Government has by-passed the rebel Bougainville Provincial Government by making a $46,000 allocation for rural improvement funds to local Government councils through the District Commissioner (Mr R. Hearne). Since the Bougainville Provincial Government announced its intention to work for the island’s secession, all national Government funds to it have been frozen.— Port Moresby. India’s deficit

India had an unprecedented foreign trade deficit of 10,440 million rupees (about $936m) in the last financial year, compared with 4020 million rupees (s36om) in 1973-74. The increase was- due mainly to world prices of fuel, fertilisers and food. — New Delhi. Britain’s sugar

Agreement is near in Britain’s talks with cane sugar supplier-nations over the quantities to be shipped this year at the premium price of £260 a ton; the United Kingdom proposal to receive about 1.3 m tonnes during 1975 — roughly the normal quota — at the premium price has proved generally acceptable to all suppliers except Fiji. Talks with that country are continuing. The European Economic Community, of which Britain is a member, now has a £l6O a-ton guaranteed price. — London.

Ulster talks Private talks between representatives of Ulster’s Protestant majority and Roman Catholic minority communities on the structure of a future Northern Ireland Government have been adjourned until next Tuesday. Delegations of the United Ulster Unionist Council — a coalition of Protestant parties — and the mainly - Roman Catholic Social Democratic and Labour Party having met for two hours in Belfast. A joint statement said that there were wide areas of possible agreement, but that there was disagreement on the basic structure of an executive government. Both sides would now examine in detail the areas of discord. — Belfast.

U.K,, incomes drop Price and tax increases combined this year to cause a drop of more than 6 per cent in the net disposable income of British workers, according to two estimates: the Confederation of British Industries (C. 8.1. estimates a drop of 7.3 per cent from the final quarter of last year to the third quarter of this year; and the stockbrokers, Phillips and Drew, estimate a 6.3 per cent drop. — London.

Workers poisoned Forty-one people have died and 232 more are, suffering from nose and larynx trouble apparently because of hexachrome poisoning at industrial centres throughout Japan, according to a survey by the Kyodo News Service, Agence France-Presse reports. The Ministry of Labour in Tokyo had earlier confirmed only 24 deaths and 172 cases of sickness. The Government recently began checking hexachrome poisoning cases among workers at small factories using chrome. — Tokyo.

City liberated’ The Royal-Lao capital of Luang Prabang has been “liberated” in a local admin-; istrative change which com-1 pleted the transfer of power I from old neutralist and Rightist leaders in the nation’s population centres, according to reports from the city. After groundwork by Pathet Lao and other: Leftist groups, district and! sub-district meetings were: held in the administrative! capital of Vientiane resulting ’ in the naming of new officials. The nation’s central Administration in Vientiane has not been changed. — Vientiane.