Cable Briefs

Press, 17 July 1978, Page 8

Cable Briefs

Indians killed Gunmen thought to be in-i volved in international drug trafficking have shot dead six Indians, including a child, to seize their land in the Guajira region of northeast Colombia. An international drug syndicate controls vast expanses in the area. Spokesman for the Koguis and Arhuaco Indians of the Sierra Nevada said about 100 tribe members had been slain in the same way in recent months after refusing to give up their land to marijuana growers while others were being forced against their will to cultivate marijuana. — Bogota. Crime protest A man who called himself a Baptist minister allowed himself to be nailed to a wooden cross for 10 minutes in an appeal for an end to crime in America. William Dicks, who described himself as minister of S. Johns Missionary Baptist Church in San Jose — two of the city’s baptist clergymen said they never heard of him — had three-inch nails driven into his hands and feet. “I am nailed to thio cross here because I have a message for every young person, adult, and senior citizen of the United States,” Dicks said, “I am asking you here today to refrain from all crin. — Oakland. Malta move

I The Government of Malta has extended its t< itorial waters and closed down the British forces radio station in violation of a 1972 accord. The Government of the Socialist Prime Minister ( T Dom Mintoff), who has steered his country on a neutralist course, adopted the measures five days after banning British journalists for allegedly spreading “a pack of untruths.” — Valetta. Ecuador votes A huge turnout at the polls marked Ecuadorians’ first vote for a President for 10 years. The militai dictatorship which has held power for six years has pledged to respect the election outcome and turn the Government over to. civilian rule, probably before the end ■ the year. — Quito. Drugs seized The police have seized 18 tons of marijuana worth an estimated S2BM and arrested 15 men after interrupting their unloading off the coast. A spokesman said the marijuana was seized near Tofino. on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. — Tofino. Jets sold United Airlines has placed a $1.2 billion order with the Boeing Company for 30 new-generation, middle-size 767 airliners. It was the largest commercial order ever placed for a single airliner or a package of planes. — Chicago. Island fighting Fretilin guerrillas fighting in East Timor have made more claims of American involvement with Indonesian forces fighting them on the island. In a Fretilin broadcast monitored near Darwin yesterday, the self-styled Fretilin Minister for Information and National Security, Alarico Jorge Fernandes, said that American military advisors and “mercenaries” had been assisting Indonesian forces during fierce fighting near the town of Remexio, about 15km southeast of Dili. More than 300 civilians had been killed in the shelling of the town, Mr Fernandes said. — Darwin. ‘Wagner ill' Gustav Franz Wagner, a 66-year-old Austrian suspected of responsibility for the extermination of at least 150,000 Jews during World War 11, has been reported to be under treatment at a psychiatric hospital near Brasilia. Wagner, whose extradition is being sought by West Germany, was said to be confined in a room with barred windows reserved for violent patients. Sources at the hospital in Taguatinga said he was mentally ill. — Rio de Janeiro.