Cable Briefs

Press, 10 April 1978, Page 8

Cable Briefs

‘lOOO drowned 9 About 1000 people were believed drowned when a storm sank 100 salt-cargo boats in the bay of Bengal, according to newspapers in J Dacca. The Bangladeshi authorities have made noi official comment so far on] delayed reports of the dis-! aster wh’ch occurred last! Tuesday. The newspapers] said fishermen had recovered! only nine bodies. The fleet; of boats was engaged in] I coastal tr ie in salt. Standing down Muriel Humphrey (Demo-; crat, Minnesota), has said: she will not run for election I this autumn because she, wants to resume private life; in Minnesota. The 66-year-1 old grandmother has served! about two months in the Senate after being named toj I succeed her husband, the Hate Hubert Humphrey, She (says she wants to retire (after the November election 'to be with her famiily. — Washington. Oil illness? ! Medical experts have' I begun screening workers in- ■ volved in cleaning up the oil [spill from the wrecked U tk- 1 ier Amoco Cadiz, after reiports that several Lave been taken ill. Sources say a number of volunteer workers and soldiers had developed a variety of symptoms including insomnia, eye and throat irritation, diarr 1 uea. , vomiting, dizziness, and/ chest pains. The sources say] a Red Cross team has begun]' taking blood, urine, and sa-p liva samples from residents |( and clean-up workers around;] Portsail, the fishing village; where the tanker went!, aground on March 16. — Paris.

Rhodesia meeting

Rhodesian Patriotic Front guerrilla leaders have agreed to meet the United States Secretary of State' (Mr Cyrus Vance) and Dr David Owen, the British Foreign Secretary, in Africa this

month, officials have said in Maputa, capital of Mozambique. No date or venue has been announced, but an informed source says an April 13 meeting in Tanzania, has been decided. The meeting is part of the latest Anglo- ! American bid to end the (Rhodesian bush war and arrange a negotiated transfer Ito black-majority rule in the breakaway British colony. —; Maputa. Talks shunned

I Cambodia has implicitly (rejected once again VietInam’s suggestions that the two countries negotiate over [their problems. The Voice of Cambodia radio, reporting that Hanoi’s troops were firing artillery shells and sending commandos into Cam-1 bodian frontier villages, said: ( “The Revolutionary Army; and the people continue to i (struggle together against the; (aggressors. The Vietnamesei (have not given up, and will (never give up, their plan to I (form an Indo-Chinese feder-l jation” (grouping Vietnam,! (Cambodia, and Laos under' Vietnamese leadership), thei Phnom Penh broadcast I said. — Bangkok.

Dole crackdmvn The Australian Federal Social Security Department has stopped paying unemployment benefits to up to 60,000 people throughout Australia in a big dole crackdown. Department sources in Canberra say about half these people will (have their benefits restored. {The action came after a' (sweeping review of unemiployment benefits in the last (two months by 250 departIment field officers. The reiview, now about two-thirds '(completed. is examining (whether people are genuinely unemployed and if (they are available and looking for work.—Canberra. ■>