Cabled briefs

Press, 24 March 1977, Page 7

Cabled briefs

Sue tear ban plea

India, the world’s sixth nuclear power, said that any future treaty banning under-; ground nuclear weapons tests,! should not seek to regulate peaceful atomic blasts as well. The Indian delegate (Mr Kashi Prasad Jain) told the 30-nation Geneva disarmament conference it would be a basic error “if a treaty on a comprehensive ban on nuclear weapon tests were to seek to regulate peaceful nuclear explosions.” 1 — Geneva. ; | !\ew envoy soon

President Carter will ani nounce soon that he has i chosen Philip Alston, a long- | time friend and supporter, las Ambassador to Australia, I White House officials have isaid. Mr Alston, who helped IMr Carter in last year’s I Presidential campaign, is a , member of the Atlanta law I firm of Alston, Miller, and ’Gaines. — Washington. Smoking drop More Americans than ever smoke cigarettes, but their proportion of the population has fallen and the growth of the habit has been halted, a United States Government statistician has said. His testimony highlighted a daylong session of the newlyformed National Commission on Smoking and Public Policy. — Los Angeles. Anti-smuggling move The Kenyan Coffee Board has ordered anyone holding unlicensed stocks of coffee to declare them — an apparent move against smuggling from Uganda, The board’s chairman (Mr E. N. Kurai) told the Kenyan News Agency that if stocks were I not declared, the board i would ask the Government to impose controls on the movement of non-Kenyan coffee into and out of the country. — Nairobi. Duke dies The Duke of Portland, one of Britain's biggest landowners, has died at his family home near Worksop, centra) England. He was 84. The heir to the title is his cousin, Sir Ferdinand Cav-endish-Bentinck, who lives in Kenya. Sir Ferdinand, who is 88, has no sons and the dukedom, which dates from 1716, may become extinct. — London. Heart patient diet, Mrs Betty Anick, aged 57, the world’s longest surviving! heart-transplant patient, has; died at Venice Hospital, a short time after taking ill at; her home. Mrs Anick, who received a new heart in ani operation in 1968, moved to! Venice a month ago after! selling her home in a subur-1 ban area near Milwaukee.! Death apparently was due to! an irregular heartbeat. — Venice. 30 drown At least 30 passengers drowned and 17 ethers spent several hours in the water before rescue when a launch sank in Lake Lanao on the far southern Philippines island of Mindanao, military sources have said. The boat went down in high winds. The first the rescuers knew of the incident was when three of the passengers, mostly teachers and students from an agricultural college, managed to swim ashore after three hours in the water. — Manila. Amin 'loves U.S.'’ Proclaiming his love for America, the Ugandan President (Field-Marshal Idi Amin) has said he wants to visit the United States and address the United Nations. “We are not against Ameri-j cans. 1 love America very] much,” President Amin told' an American radio station,! WNJP, in an interview at! the studios of the Uganda j Broadcasting Corporation in! Kampala. President Amin ! said news reports of a reign; of terror in Uganda are’ completely’ false. — Newark,! New Jersey. I Aircraft explosion 1 ! A Singapore Airlines i !Boeing 707 jet aborted its! ! take-off when an engine j I failed and exploded at Perth Son Tuesday. The plane, j carrying 137 passengers, ! stopped safely 300 metres •from the end of the runway !at Perth Airport with a I spray of white-hot metal ; pouring from the engine.! [The passengers, bound fori iSingapore, were transferred! ;to an Air India flight which! left soon afterwards. — ■ Perth. Tram revival The city of Casablanca; ; has decided to revive the ! tram to solve its traffic ; problems. Preliminary stud- | ies are being made by a I French company and it is ; expected that the first tram ! network will be laid out within five years. Trams were [abolished "in Casablanca beifor World War 11. — Casabjlanca. Jobless drop Unemployment in Britain has dropped for the second month running to stand at 5.8 per cent of the workforce, Government figures show. The total of 1,328,382 registered unemployed at the last count of March 10 was down 36.776 compared witl the figure issued in Februarv, when the jobless ratio ’■vas 5.9 per cent. — London.