Cable Briefs

Press, 11 April 1978, Page 8

Cable Briefs

Qoboza appeal The black South African editor. Percy Qoboza, who was released from detention ist month, has appealed to he international community o avoid anti-apartheid iction which insecure Afrikaners could see as a threat, “Time” magazine has said. “The level of resistance among the Afrikaners will rise sharply if external pressure should be mounted against them,” he was quoted as saying. Mr Qoboza, who is 39, was editor of the leading back Johannesburg newspaper, the “World,” which was banned by the South African Government in a clampdown on opponents of its race policies last October 19. Mr Qoboza was detained the same day. — New York.

'Doctors leaving*

The South African heart surgeon, Christiaan Barnard, says white doctors are streaming out of South Africa because they fear black-majority rule. Professor Barnard told a conference on health care in Toronto that hundreds of doctors were leaving the republic, most of them for North America. “They despair of the future with the whole of the Western world so opposed to South Africa.” he said. — Toronto.

Lucky escape

Three 10-year-old boys have narrowly escaped death when thev tried to throw a home-made landmine on to a bonfire. The police said the boys, playing on waste ground in Dungannon, 65km west of Belfast, found a plastic bomb and thinking it contained rubbish tried to put in on their bonfire. But it was so heavy they became suspicious and called the police. Bomb disposal experts found the bag contained skg of explosive wired to a detonator and packed in shrapnel. — Belfast.

Expatriate held

Michael Townley, an American expatriate deported from Chile, is being held as a material witness in the murder of former Chilean Foreign Minister, Orlando Letelier, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has said. Mr Townley, who is 35, lived in Chile for 21 years and was associated with extreme Right-wing groups opposed to the Government of the late Marxist President, Salvador Allende. Mr Letelier, exiled after the Chilean Army seized power was killed in September, 1976, by a bomb which blew up his car in Washington. His American assistant, Mrs Ronnie Moffitt, also died. According to Washington press reports, the police believe the fatal bomb was planted by Cuban exiles, and that Mr Townley made a secret visit to the United States shortly before the killing. — Washington.