Cable1 Briefs

Press, 15 August 1978, Page 8

Cable 1 Briefs

Stonehouse ill John Stonehouse, the former British member of Parliament serving a seven-year sentence in Blundeston Prison, Suffolk, has collapsed at the jail. Stonehouse, who is 53, suffered a heart attack last year. The former Labour I Minister was sentenced in August, 1976, after being found guilty on charges of fraud, theft, and deception. — London. Plane ditches At least 2S people — including three senior United States officials — survived when a plane with 30 people on board crashed yesterday in shark-infested waters near Guam. American Navy officials said two people were still missing after the : twin-engine Cll7 Skytrain fell into the sea when an engine failed on take-off from Guam. — Agana. Party merger The ruling Egyptian Arab Socialist Party, headed by the Prime Minister (Mr Mamdouh Salem) has announced that it will merge with President Anwar Sadat’s new National Democratic Party, now being formed. The Salem party controls 308 of the 360 seats in Parliament and will provide the base for the new party. Mr Sadat has asked 220 people to join an organisational committee for his party, including professors, scientists, businessmen, and high-ranking Government officials. — Cairo. Dollar down

The United States dollar fell to a rate of 184.90 yen on the Tokyo foreign ex- 1 change market yesterday, close to the record low o' 184.30 established eiil.’er this month. After a weew ot relative ease, the dollar opened at 186 yen, slightly down on its closing rate last Friday, and men s'ipped steadily. The Bank of Japan was estimated by some dealers to have bought about SSOM in morning trading and more in the afteronon. — Tokyo, Pre-Budget spree Australians stocked up yesterday on liquor and cigarettes, anticipating a tough Budget when Parliament resumes today for an expected stormy spring session. Newspaper forecasts of the Budget backed up previous warnings by the Prime Minister (Mr Malcolm Fraser) of an austere Budget and set Off the buying spree. The newspapers said that the Treasurer (Mr John Howard) would also announce in his first Budget speech the end of the Staterun basic health insurance scheme, Medibank. — Canberra. Onassis denial

Christina Onassis in an interview published in Athens has expressed fury over printed reports that her third husband, a former Soviet shipping executive, Sergei Kauzov, is a spy. In the interview with the Athens “Daily Acropolis,” the 27-year-old shipping heiress asked: “Why do the papers write that my husband is a spy? How do they know it? Can they prove it? Why don’t they stop being interested in my private life?” Christina said: “I tell you that everything that has been written is false. I am not divorcing and I am returning to Moscow.” — Athens. Oil fire out

An oil-well fire that has blazed for seven weeks in Kuwait has been finally extinguished, a Government spokesman has said. The operation, in which some assistants of the American troubleshooter, Red Adair were involved, was complicated by difficulties in stemming the flow of gas and oil at the well. The Oil fdinister (Mr Aii Khalifa Sabah) said recently the cost of putting out the fire might reach 3.5 million dinars (about SIIM. — Kuwait.

Race-ad ban The Indonesian Government will ban newspaper advertisements with racial connotations after an alleged campaign against Chinese businessmen by an underground organisation, official sources have said. The sources, commenting on several advertisements in recent months offering jobs espej daily to people of Chinese I origin, said such publicity ) could bring “undesirable” re-1 | suits. The newspaper adver-J tisements by Chinese busi-i Inessmen are believed to have' lied the underground youth, igroup. styling itself the Anti-) I Chinese Movement, tai !mount a campaign against! I the Chinese in Surabaya, the! (country’s second largest) city. — Jakarta. ‘Vote doubtful’ The promised referendum among the white population lof Rhodesia, to be followed Iby free elections on the i basis of universal suffrage, I may be called off because of l continuing guerrilla activity, : the Rhodesian Prime Minisi ter (Mr lan Smith) has told the British weekly newspaper, the “Observer.” “I’m a little doubtful as to whether we will get to the stage’ lof having a referendum if) :) there is no improvement ini “the security situation, be-j cause de-escalation of terror-; J ism is all part of the (inter-; Inal) agreement,” he said. —i (London. '