Cable Briefs

Press, 28 October 1977, Page 6

Cable Briefs

Blaze kills 7 Fire has raged through a modern, nine-storey office building in central Lima, Peru, and firemen hampered by crowds of onlookers watched helplessly as trapped office workers leaped to their deaths in desperate attempts to escape the flames. At least seven persons were killed and 20 injured before the blaze was extinguished. — Lima.

Big oil spill A Soviet tanker carrying 17,790,910 litres (4.7 M gallons) of oil in the narrow Sodertelje Strait south of Stockholm is reported to be leaking thousands of [litres of oil. Six salvage ships and clean-up equipment have been rushed to [help the 176-metre Tsesis [avert an ecological disaster. — Stockholm.

Deportation started ! The United States State Department has said that deportation proceedings are under way concerning two Lithuanians who entered the United States illegally last year and who are wanted by ’ oviet authorities for a 1970 hijacking. The two, Pranas Brazinskas and his son, Algirdas, requested political asylum in the United States but were rejected after the hijacking, in which a flight attendant was killed. The department described the hijacking as a non-political crime. — Washington.

Arab request The Arab League has asked the Europea. Common Market to break all ties with Israel and recognise the Palestine Liberation Organisation. Mr Taher Radwan, of Saudi Arabia, speaking on behalf of other members of the Arab League, made the appeal at the beginning of three days of talks between the two groups, the so-called “Euro-Arab dialogue.” But Common Market officials said that the Community was sticking by its view that the discussions should deal only with economic matters. They said there was no chance that it would accede to the Arab political demands. — Brussels.

Mandela trial The South African black leader, Winnie Mandela, has denied in court that she broke a Government banning order by having a conversation with two other people about a chicken- Mrs Mandela was testifying in her trial on charges of violating the Government order exiling her to the remote village of Brandfort and making her a banned person. She denies the charges. The prosecutor (Mr Neil Botha) has alleged in one of the' charges that she took pa-d lin the conversation about a >chicken with two other people — which, he argued, constituted an unlawful social occasion. — Bloemfontein.