Cable briefs

Press, 2 July 1979, Page 8

Cable briefs

Thatcher The British Prime Minister (Mrs Margaret Thatcher) has expressed deep concern about the personal safety of the Queen at the Commonwealth conference due to be held in Zambia next month, Mrs Thatcher, who arrived in Canberra on Saturday for a two-day visit, said the British Government would think hard before approving the monarch’s planned trip to Lusaka for the conference late next month. “The position at the moment is that the Queen will go unless we advise her not to.”—Canberra.

Aetc cardinals Pope John Paul has created 14 new cardinals, but has confounded predictions by keeping the identity of a fifteenth secret. Their election swells to 135 the College of Cardinals, the governing body of the Roman Catholic Church. The new cardinals, with an average age of 61, come from eight countries in three continents. The unnamed cardinal was said to be Monsignor Julijonas Stepanovicius, apostolic administrator in Vilnius, capital of Soviet Lithuania. The Vatican Yearbook lists him as "impeded” in carrying out his duties, and he has lived for many years under strict surveillance in a small town far from Vilnius on the Latvian border, —Rome. Synthetic oil hope A 10c per gallon tax on petrol could finance the pro-

oil to make the United States largely independent of oil imports in 10 years time, the Deputy Energy Secretary (Mr John O’Leary), has said. He tcrid the Joint Economic Committee of Congress that such a tax would produce about SII,OOOM of revenue annually, enough to mount a massive effort to produce synthetic fuels from cdal, shale rock, and other sources. The House of Representatives has approved legislation aimed at producing 500.000 barrels of synthetic fuel a day by 1984 and two million barrels daily by 1990 through a combination of Government purchases and loans and loan guarantees to industry.—Washington. Journalist attacked The British Charge d’Affaires in Islamabad is to see Pakistani Foreign Ministry officials about an incident in which a British journalist, Chris Sherwell, was beaten up while investigating Pakistan's nuclear programme. A French diplomat was beaten up near the same spot last week. Sherwell, who has filed an official complaint with the police, said the incident took place when he was trying to trace the residence of a Pakistani physicist, Abdul ?adir Khan, in Islamabad. he scientist, Qadir Khan, is be’ieved to be active in a Pakistani nuclear programme that includes the production of enriched uranium which could be used in a nuclear oomb.—lslambad.