CABLE ITEMS IN BRIEF

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 34031, 20 December 1975, Page 15

CABLE ITEMS IN BRIEF

Anti-sex move The .owners of bars and clubs in Frankfurt have been establishing at an alarming 'rate private brothels and i massage parlours in their [own homes, to fight rising icosts, and a special anti-sex squad of six detectives has [forced the closing of 26 such [establishments in recent raids. —Frankfurt. R.A.F. decline The Royal Air Force had: been cut by 87 per cent since 1957, the Chief of the Air Staff (Air Chief Marshal Sir Andrew Humphrey) told a I Public Relations Association: meeting “The quality of the service is still high, but I am not happy about the quantity — there has been a steady erosion of the combat strength, and today we have only 13 per cent of the number’ of aircraft we had in 1957,” he said. “The Soviet! Union is spending more on: military research and development than the whole of the! Western world put together, and in the last 20 years the [balance of power had been [swinging against the West;ern allies.”—London. Journalist’s to strike Eight, hundred journalists with the British Broadcasting Corporation will hold a 24hour strike from 10 a.m. on December 29. in support of a claim for an increase of their annual award of 1’234 for night work. —London. Venezuela’s oil

The Venezuelan Congress has approved compensation agreements with foreign oil companies due to cease operations in the country on January 1, under the Government’s nationalisation policy. This was the final hurdle in a year-long process of taking lover the assets of Exxon, Shell, and other companies (which have been operating in (Venezuela for over 50 years. (The over-all compensation .amounts to sl,olBm.— Caracas. Belated accord

An international convention aimed at reducing the number of Stateless people in the world has finally come into force, more than 14 years after it was first drawn up and two years after being ratified by six States — Australia, Austria, Britain,' Ireland, Norway, and Sweden. The parties to the United Nations accord undertake, among other things, to grant citizenship to persons born in their territory who would otherwise be Stateless.—New York. Anagram for Nessie A Scottish member of Parliament has discovered an anagram for “nessiteras rhombopteryx” — the name applied to the fabled Loch Ness monster by the American researcher,' Dr Robert Rines, and the leading British naturalist, Sir Peter Scott. Mr Nicholas Fairbairn announced the anagram in a letter to “The Times”: “Monster hoax by Sir Peter S.”— London.

\Drug laic change The Italian Parliament has (enacted a law which makes (possession of small quantities lof drugs for personal use unpunishable, but the legislation also increases the penalties for drug-trafficking and, ifor the first time in Italy, it I makes a legal distinction between so-called hard and soft drugs.—Rome. Royal tour ' The Queen will visit several Commonwealth countries in 1977 as part of the celebrations to mark the silver jubilee of her reign.

Dates have not yet been fixed, but the Queen plans to visit New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, Papua New: Guinea, and Canada. Britons, will have a special holiday j on June 7 to celebrate the jubilee. and a commemorative 25p coin will be I issued. — London. Unwanted foxes . .. Rabies continues to spread, in West Germany, and has I cost the country millions of marks. Professor Albrecht von Braunschweig, of the University of Goettingen, says that three West German men and 4345 animals'died from rabies in 1974, and that in the first half of this year, 2514 cases were reported. “If the epidemic continues, foxes will have to be smothered in their dens in two or three years,” he said. The last fox-eradication campaign in Germany was in 1974. — Goettingen (Lower Saxony).

... and boars Farmers and local officials have killed 7600 wild boars Jin a campaign against plantation pests in the Indonesian of South Celebes, i the news agency, Antara, reports.—Jakarta. Threat seen i China alleges that the strength of the Soviet Union’s Pacific Fleet has increased drastically, and now threatens the security of Japan and other Asian countries. A New China News Agency report says: “The fleet’s tonnage is now twice that of the United States ;Seventh Fleet.” — Peking.

Il isit envisaged i The Soviet Union foreign' Minister (Mr Andrei Groiniyko) has accepted, in principle, an invitation to visit, Britain, the House of Com-' Irnons has been told by Mi; Roy Hattersley, a Minister' of State at the Foreign Office. —London. Fairy tale park Work will begin early next year on a SlOm pleasure park in Heming, Denmark, de-1 voted to the fairy tales and stories of Danish author, Hans Christian Andersen. The project, to be built on a 198,000-square-yard site, is due to be completed in 1978. A spokesman for the BritishDanish company planning the park says that it will be twice as large as the famous Tivoli Funland in Copenhagen, and will be called Andersen’s World Park. This year is the centenary of Andersen’s death.—Herning. Self sacrifice The Papua New Guinean I Prime Minister (Mr Somare) I I has continued his ‘“self- 1 [sacrifice” policy to try to convince his fellow-country-[men that the nation is facing jan economic crisis: he has [ordered a $lOOO-a-year cut in his own salary, which, at |512.000, is well below most lof his counterparts in other countries. He said he hoped ■that this might inspire trade 'unionists — and Ministers — to be more amenable to accepting some restraint in I their pay levels. — Port j Moresby.

\ Killed in Greece An Australian on holiday in Greece, Mr John Hastings, aged 24, who went to sleep under a bus, was crushed to death when the driver moved the vehicle from its parking spot, the Crete police report. A metallurgist from Perth, Western Australia, Mr Hastings was buried at Heraclion. —Crete.

Veto upheld The U.S. House of Representatives has failed to over-, ride President Ford’s veto of! tax-cut legislation, and Opposition Democratic leaders say that no further efforts to prevent Americans from paying higher income taxes! after January 1 are likely.! The vote in the House was' 265 to 157 — 17 votes' below the necessary two-! thirds majority which would! have overridden the Presi-I dential veto. — Washington. I

\C.hurch theft ' Thieves have stolen one of Austria's most valuable reliigious treasures, a sixteenth.century Greek icon of the 1 Virgin and Child, from a i central Vienna church. The I icon, brought from Crete in ■ 1673. has vanished from the main altar of St Michael's Church, opposite the Hof burg Palace. Well known among art experts as one of ; the finest Greek icons tn Europe, it will be difficult to sell, the police say. — I Vienna. Aeir satellite The Soviet Union has launched a communications satellite, Molniya 2, designed for long-distance telephone, telegraph. and television transmissions, the news agency, Tass, reports. — Moscow'. Beer shortage 1 Central Tanzania is threatened with a Christmas beer ‘shortage because heavy I rains have washed away j bridges, preventing brewery lorries from getting through. A spokesman for Tanzania I Breweries says that two lorries carrying 2000 cases are i stuck on the road from Dar-ies-Salaam to Dodoma. But (Other customers are close at (hand — more than 200 i people similarly stranded tn (dozens of buses. — Dar-es-i Salaam. Bush supported The United States Senate Armed Services Committee has approved, by 12 votes I the nomination of Mr George Bush as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, President Ford having said that he no longer • considers Mr Bush a possible Vice-Presidential candidate. Mr Bush must still Tace a full Senate vote when Congress returns from its I Christmas recess on January 19. — Washington. 1 .1), epidemic Venereal Disease reached epidemic proportions in Canada over the last 10 years, and the number of cases reported last year was a record, according to a report presented to the Federal Ministry of Health, which Isays that while cases of goInorrhoea are increasing i rapidly — 47,680 in 1974. I representing 215.8 cases per 100,000 of population — the inumber of syphilis cases shows a slight drop. — Otitawa.