Cable Briefs

Press, 14 November 1977, Page 8

Cable Briefs

Huge ‘pot’ haul The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Steadfast has boarded and seized a mystery vessel in Bahamian waters and has found an estimated 20 tons of marijuana aboard. The marijuana has an estimated street value of SUSI2M. A Coast Guard spokesman said the vessel the Caybur had no home port designation on its stern as required by international law, and carried no papers, although the captain said it was registered in Honduras. The crew, who claimed to be Colombian, also had no papers. — Miami. Cuban ‘threat?

i President Carter has : called Cuban troops and advisors a threat to peace in Africa. In a recent interview i with a group of regional editors and news directors, the President said Cuba has about 20,000 troops in Angola and the build-up is spreading into other African countries. “The Cubans have, in effect, taken up on the colonial aspect that the Portuguese gave up in months gone by,” h e said. — Washington.

‘Mao’s nephew dead?

Mao Yuan-hsin, generally believed to be a nephew of the late .Chinese Communist Party chairman Mao Tsetung and a supporter of the purged “Gang of Four,” has committed suicide, a Hong Kong newspaper has said. The Chinese-language Ming Pao, an independent paper, said that Yuan-hsin, former vice-chairman of the Liaisoning Provincial Revolutionary Committee, was arrested on October 7 last year together with the "Gang of Four.” — Hong Kong. Dope king killed

Colombia’s cocaine king, Ivan Dario Carvalho, has been assassinated in Bogota in front of his luxurious home by three unidentified gunmen. The three assassins escaped in a taxi. The police confiscated some 50 kg of cocaine and dismantled two modem drug processing laboratories, in a raid on Carvalho’s home in April, 1975. Carvalho, who was 50, had degrees in chemistry and education and was said to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. He was released after his arrest amid rumours of huge bribes paid to high officials. — Bogota. Laws eased The South African-ap-pointed administrator-gen-eral of Namibia (South-west Africa) has relaxed stringent emergency regulations which had been in effect for five years. The new regulations specify that permission is no longer needed to hold political meetings, indefinite detention has been repealed, judicial power of tribal authorities has been abolished, and sentences for contravening security regulations have been eased. Three weeks ago the pass law which required blacks to carry an identity book and obtain permission to be in urban areas was abolished. — Windhoek.