Cable Briefs

Press, 23 October 1978, Page 6

Cable Briefs

Kidnap victim The kidnapped chairman of the organising committee |of the 23id World chess u|. jympiad opening on Wednesday had previously received ;threats to try to make him call otf the event, said his wile. Elida Zaniungo. She • told reporters that'her husband. Kodolto, aged 54. had been advised anonymousiv to cancel the olympiad or '“suffer the consequences” She did not elaborate. —- Buenos Aires. .-! Shipping: danger A Japanese chemical tanker whicn foundered in a tropical storm in the Souih china Sea a week ago, poses a secondary danger to shipping and may explode in a collision. tne Philippines coast guard has warned, the owners fear that the vessel, carrying a flammable cargo of vinyl chloride, could be floating just below the sur- ’ face, posing a danger to other ships. — Manila. Mikoyan dies Anastas Mikoyan, the last of the Soviet leaders to have worked directly with Lenin, died in Moscow, on Saturday, according to reports from the Soviet capital. Mr Mikoyan, aged 83, had been | virtually retired from political life since 1976. His posts included the presidency of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (head ol Stale, in 1964-65, and First Vice Premier from 1955 to 1964. — Paris. , Sex passage ent A passage about Prince Charles’s “normal, healthy sex life” was cut from Robert Lacey’s book “Majesty.” Mr Lacey said that he cut out the passage alter Buckingham Palace had put exclamation marks against it and he had spoken to a libel lawyer. Commenting on the problems of writing a book about the Royal family, Mr Lacey said: “When you are dealing with a healthy young man who is not married. then there are all sorts of problems.” —London.

Media attention

The United States ambassador to the United Nations, Andrew Young, said yesterday he does not mind the controversy that has surrounded some of his statements because media attention helps educate the public about world affairs. “It’s not important what 1 say or that 1 be reported accurately, the important thing is that the American voters think about what is going on in the world and develop [some understanding and ! commitment to doing something about it,” Mr Young said. —Cleveland, Ohio, j Hijack suspect Fibres from a wig were clues that led to the arrest .in New York, on Saturday of Rudi Kreitlow, suspected to be the “phantom hijacker” who threatened to blow ' up a transatlantic airliner last summer. Mr Kreitlow, a 63-year-old West German living in New York, was arI rested after an eight-week hunt by the United States ) and Swiss authorities. The hijacker’s demands included ! the release of Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s deputy. Sirhan Sirhan, Robert Kennedy’s assassin, and five Croatian extremists held in United. States prisons.—Geneva. Name change Moves are under way th ; change the name of the Philippines to Maharlika (Freedom) in the effort to throw off its colonial past, a Manila newspaper has reported. The Sunday magazine “Panorama,” said that maharlika, . from the old Sanskrit word maharaddhika. meaning nobility, and related to the Malay word merdeka, which means freedom or independence, was also the name of ■ President Ferdinand Marcos’s World War Two guerrilla unit.—Manila. Gem discovery A ground engineer at London airport has found gems worth $16,000 in a packet in the first class washroom of a British VCIO airlicer brought in for maintenance. British Airways said that nobody had claimed the gems and customs officers speculated a would-be smuggler panicked and dumped them after arriving from the Far East. The airline expects to the sell the jewels, but it gave the engineer, Terence Moore, a $l4OO reward for honesty. — London. Jones phone box The pop singer, Tom Jones, heard that the post office was going to pull down the telephone kiosk in Laura Street, Pontypridd. South Wales, where he and his wife Linda did much of the their courting more than 20 years ago. So Tom, who now lives in California, wrote to the post office to ask if he could have it for old time's sake. Now the old phone box is being repaired and painted before it is shipped to the United States. The cost? $5OO, plus freight. — London.