Cable Briefs

Press, 16 June 1979, Page 8

Cable Briefs

Pacific N-dump? The United States is considering three Americanowned islands in the central Pacific for use as temporary storage depots for spent nuclear fuel, the State Department has said. The islands are Wake, which has a United States force installation, Midway, the site of a naval base, and Palmyra, which is owned by a private family, officials have said. None of the islands has any indigenous population. The aim is to find a place for the United States and other nations in the Pacific Basin Ito store spent fuel for up to 30 years, the department has 'said.—Washington.

Vietnam protest Vietnam is countering criticism by Britain, the United States, and some Asian nations that it is pur-| (suing a “human exports poi-J :icv” by extracting money from refugees and sending them abroad to burden other countries. The Vietnam News Agency has carried two dispatches blaming the exodus of refugees from Vietnam on the wars against it by the United States and China and said a protest Note had been sent to the British Government rejecting its “sheer fabrications, distortions, and slanders against Vietnam.” A Foreign Ministry spokesman noted that the Hanoi Government had agreed to set up an orderly departure programme and claimed that "all illegal departures have been and will be tried in accordance with the laws of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam."—Bangkok. Refugee bus crash

I A desperate Kampuchean [refugee grabbed the driver 101 a bus in a bid to escape I repatriation, sending the veihicle plunging into'a ravine in a crash that killed three refugees and injured several, Thai newspapers have reported. They quoted police as saying the crash occurred on Tuesday night near the town of Kabinburi, about 130 km northeast of Bangkok. The bus, one of a convoy, was taking the refugees from a camp in the eastern frontier town of Aranyaprathet to the northern Kampu-i chean border ivhere than 40,000. people were, pushed back to their war-i torn country in a six-davj operation that ended oni Wednesday.—Bangkok.

Minister quits ■ Dominica's Minister of Internal Affairs, Sports, and Tourism (Mr Luke Coriette) has resigned from the crumbling Administration led bv Patrick Jo’hn. In his letter to the Prime Minister, Mr Coriette said the Government could* not cope with the present crisis and should itself resign. The President (Mr Fred Degazon) left the | country earlier this week tafter violence erupted during | Opposition demonstrations (aimed at bringing down the | Government. — Roseau l(Dominica). i Actress guilty I The American movie ac- ' tress, Linda Blair, aged 20, * has pleaded guilty to a Fedieral misdemeanour charge of I conspiracy to possess" co- ' caine. The charge was substituted for an earlier grand jury indictment carrying a more serious charge of con'spiracy to possess with intent to distribute narcotics. Government attorneys recommended supervised probation for Miss Biair. The judge reminded the actress, who starred in “The Exorcist” when she was 14, that while the - plea did not take away her civil rights she could be sentenced to a yea-’s prison. — Jacksonville Amin man extradited A Kenyan magistrate has ordered a former provincial governor and former Minister under the ousted Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin, to be extradited to Uganda to answer murder charges. Lieutenant-Colonel Nassur Abdallah, former-governor of I Uganda’s central province, I was ordered to be handed over immediately to the Ugandctn police. But the lawye - for Brigadier Sabuni busman, Minister of Industry and Power under Amir, told the court he would apply to the High Court for extradition to be stayed pending appeal against the order. Uganda's new authorities are seeking the extradition of 46 former members of Amin’s Administration. —Nairobi.