Cable Briefs

Press, 11 August 1979, Page 8

Cable Briefs

Mock attacks Soviet warplanes. inI eluding the new Backfire i bomber, have staged more - than 30 mock missile attacks • on two United States desi troyers in the Black Sea within the last week. United - States military sources have ■ I said. They said the destroy, ers Caron and Farragut were . not endangered by the SoI viet practice manoeuvres ■ and continued on course in f their six-day ”show-the-flag J cruise” through international ’ waters. The United States Navy periodically orders small numbers of destroyers • and cruisers into the Black Sea from the Mediterranean, Usually the Russians limited ■ their reaction to shadowing the American war1 ships. — Washington. Ecuador hand-over The small South American republic of Ecuador will today become the second of • three military-ruled Andean nations to return towards civilian rule this month. Jaime Roldos, a 39-year-old Left-of-Centre lawyer, takes over from a threeman military junta. Mr Roldos, a soft-spoken intellectual, won the Presidential election earlier this year by a landslide. A provisional President took office in Bolivia earlier this week, ending more than ten years of Army rule. Peru, which borders Ecuador in the south, is due to return to civilian rule next July after a Presidential poll scheduled in May. — Ecuador. Race-law change People of all races will be ■legally able to buy or rent property in hitherto whitesonly residential areas of Namibia under a law going into effect today. The office of South Africa’s adminis-trator-general for the territory (Dr Gerrit Viljoen) confirmed that a white-resisted act abolishing racial discrimination would take effect then, but not all provisions will be applied. It will not yet be compulsory for hoteliers, restaurateurs, Innkeepers and tourist resorts to receive all races, although they no longer will be prevented from doing so voluntarily, Dr Viljoen’s office said. — Windhoek (Namibia). Cot-death tragedy A British couple has suffered the heartbreak of losing four babies in succession to cot deaths, the mysterious affliction in which apparently healthy infants suddenly die. A Government pathologist said that the tragedy maj' help experts to discover the cause of the nightmarish phenomenon. Under investigation is the possibility that heart failure, due to abnormal electrical. impulses, may be an import-; ant factor. Michael and* ; Janet Wright, who live in Camborne, Cornwall, have y lost four babies in five years. Only their eight-year-’ * old first-born child, Mandy, i has survived in- r fancy. — London.

O.P.E.C. "Notes Several member nations of - the Organisation of Petro- ' leum Exporting Countries have sent diplomatic Notes . to the United States about a ~ court case alleging 0.P.E.C., . violation of United States. - price-fixing laws, a State'* Department official has said.. {. The Notes, some claiming- <• immunity from prosecution,' - follow the United States’ >* Justice Department’s calhj last month that O.P.E.C.' -' appear in court in Los' J Angeles to defend its inter--,» ests against the charges ’ brought by the International. - Association of Machinists • and Aerospace Workers. The’ ’ union seeks damages and a& court injunction to stop • O.P.E.C. from passing on oil ' price increases to American * customers. — Washington. Klan march About 50 Ku Klux Klans- ’ men some flying the Con- • federate battle flag from axe ’ handles, have completed the . first leg of a 80km white- * rights march from Selma to * Montgomery in expectation • of a possible confrontation * with the Montgomery police C at the week-end. There were - no serious incidents as the * Klansmen retraced the first ; 12km of the route taken by ■ the Rev Martin Luther King, jun., and voting rights dem- *. onstrators 14 years ago. One • Klansman was arrested for . possession of three firearms under a month-old Alabama law prohibiting carrying such weapons within 300 m iof a public demonstration. ! Mayor Emory Folmer, of has vowed that • :he and the police will not I allow the Klan past the city j limits because they had not • been issued a parade permit by the City Council. — Selma (Alabama). Pol Pot trial

The trial in absentia of the ousted Kampuchean Prime Minister, Pol Pot, and ‘ his deputy, leng Sary, on charges of genocide will • start in Phnom Penh next Wednesday, the Vietnam News Agency has reported. • The agency, quoting the . news agency of the Viet- - namese-backed Kampuchean Administration, said earlier that two warrants signed recently by the Information, ■ Press, and Propaganda Min- * ister fMr Keo Chanda) summoned the two men to a * special court "at 8 a.m. on ; August 15 to answer the • facts imputed to them.” Foreigners might be invited to the proceedings, ahe agency • said. — Bangkok.*