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Press, 15 July 1976, Page 8

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Explosion at plant ■ Ten persons were injured yesterday, some seriously, in an explosion which rocked a perfume chemical plant at Union Beach, and touched off a general fire alarm. The explosion shattered windows in the community and shook residents in several coastal towns within a five-mile radius. — New Jersey. Flood alert Troops are reported to be standing by to join relief operations in the north-east Indian state of Assam, where more than one million people have been hit by devastating floods in one month. — New Delhi. Rebels surrender About 20 members of the Free Papua movement fighting for independence from Indonesia in the remote province of Irian Jaya recently surrendered to Government troops, a provincial commander, Brigadier-Gen-eral Imam Munander, has said in Jakarta. — Jakarta. Ardour danijfened Britain’s leading rain-

maker, 56-year-old Mrs Doris Munday, claims to d have brought rain to China, n Peru, and India, but will not a do anything to end Britain’s it unrelenting drought. “I could d probably flood I-ondon e tonight,” she told the “Daily s Mail”, “but every time I k bring rain something awful il happens. Last week I ended e a drought in Guernsey, and my washing machine blew up. When I soaked the test match, someone hit my car.” — London. e ! Fund for body 11 The United States State 1 Department is frying to ar- ' range the return of the body 5 of the executed mercenary, Daniel Gearhart, although his widow says he does not have the 3U55000 the Ange olan Government wants for . its release. The townspeople •j of Kensington, Maryland, , where Mrs Gearhart lives, i are organising a fund-raising . drive to help her. — Wash- [ ington. s Crain record Record crops of corn and near-record yields of wheat in the United States this - year are expected to be

available to offset the ravages of the drought in Northern Europe. The United ' States Agriculture Department has predicted that corn output will be 14 per cent up on last year’s record, and wheat will be only four per cent short of the record last year. — Washington. Fishermen saved A Dutch freighter has rescued 12 Taiwanese fishermen who had been adrift in the South China Sea for five days after their fishing vessel sank, according to a Government spokesman in Hong Kong. The freighter, the 7352-tonne Straat Honshu, picked up the fishermen when they were drifting in two lifeboats about 170 miles south-east of Hong Kong. — Hong Kong. Consumer boost The Supreme Soviet of the Russian Republic has passed a motion to put into effect the policy of improving the production of consumer goods. This decision will be implemented by both local Soviets and the State Plan Committee, who must concern themselves with quality. During the debate, published in the daily newspaper, “Sovietskaya Rossia,” Mr Vitali Vorotnikov, vice-

• president of the republic, i named the sectors requiring 1 most effort, such as - women’s wear, men’s shirts, i cotton stockings, children’s : clothing, and food. — Mos--1 cow. ' Press pool Sixty countries have agreed in New Delhi to set up as soon as possible a . news pool among their re--1 spective press agencies to i “blunt the domination of j international news agencies.” - The conference said disi semination of information i was at present in the hands , of a few agencies in devel- - oped nations. The rest of the i people in the world were i forced to see each other, and ) even themselves, through ; the medium of these agencies. — New Delhi. Quiet failure t The accused leader of a I coup attempt against Presi- : dent Jaafar Nemery ofi I Sudan has said in a public! ' “confession” that his putsch! : failed partly because the 1 conspirators were not able ito operate the national - radio. Colonel Mohamed • Nour Saad, named as the ■ coup’s military commander, ■ also blamed the lack of reinforcements from Libya for the failure. — Khartoom.