Cable Briefs

Press, 19 August 1977, Page 6

Cable Briefs

Plague victim California state health officials say that it is highly unlikely the death of a 55-year-old veterinarian is the start of an epidemic of pneumonic plague. Their statement was prompted by the death, from pneumonic plague, of Dr Joseph Cordell in a San Jose Hospital. Pneumonic plague, usually transmitted by cough droplets, is a highly contagious and virulent form of bubonic plague. — San Jose Siege continues The Japanese police continued their efforts yesterday to gain the release of five women hostages held by a 39-year-old man at knifepoint as the ordeal entered its third day in the southern Japanese city of Kochi. The authorities said there were no indications that the man, identified as Susumu Nakahira, an unemployed ex-con-vict out on bail, would surrender or release the hostages confined in a fourthfloor office. — Kochi. Hostages free A gunman has surrendered after releasing 39 people he had held hostage for six hours at a remote religious retreat north of Santa Cruz, California. Sergeant Mickey Aluffi, of the Santa Cruz sheriff’s department, identified the man in custody as Thomas Wilson, aged 26. — Santa Cruz. Pole voyage The Soviet nuclear-pow-ered icebreaker Arktika, taking advantage of summer pack-ice conditions, has smashed through to the North Pole and earned a place in maritime history. The 18,535-tbnne vessel’s achievement made her the first surface vessel to breach the hundreds of miles of icecovered sea to the geographical pole. —Moscow, Forbidden fruit Nine children are in hospi-' tai in Bradford, England.! after eating apples sprayed) with deadly Paraquat weedsprav. The police took the! children aged between six! and 12 to Bradford Royal Infirmary on Wednesday after a gardener discovered his apple tree had been stripped. Their condition is described as “comfortable.” — London. ‘Chinese shot spies' 1 Chinese border militia killed one of six armed Soviet spies who invaded Sinkiang province in western China in July, a Japanese news dispatch from Peking has said. Another member of the group committed suicide but the rest fled back into Soviet territory, the Kyodo news service said, quoting a Japanese mission now visiting China. The mission is headed by Professor Michio (Royama of the Catholic I Sophia University in Tokyo, j— Tokyo. ) ‘Ao torture'

I A Philippine military court has acquitted two national police lieutenants of charges filed after the United States Government protested against their alleged torture of a Filipino woman civil-rights activist. One of the men, Eduardo Matillano, had been alleged by Mrs Trinidad Herrera to have cranked a generator to send electric shocks into her thumbs and her breast while she was under investigation. A six-officer court-martial deliberated for two hours before returning the innocent verdict for Matillano and Prudencio Regis, whose father is a Philippine Army; general. The verdict ended a 1 trial that lasted six weeks. — Manila. I