Cable Briefs

Press, 22 August 1979, Page 8

Cable Briefs

Jail strike over Prison officers are expected to be back at work at most New South Wales jails today. The general secretary of the Public Service Association (Mr Geoff Hammond) said prison officers employed at the state’s largest jail, Long Bay, had voted to resume work and take over supervision of the jail from the police. The police were called in at Long Bay, as well as at Cooma, Maitland, Cessnock, Bathurst, and Goulburn jails to maintain security after prison officers walked out last Friday in support of demands for the reopening of the Katingal maximum security centre to hold dangerous inmates.—Sydney. Daughter for star The British rock star, Rod Stewart, looked on while his wife, Alana, gave birth to a girl weighing 3kg yesterday, a hospital spokesman has said. The spokesman at Cedars Sinai Hospital said the mother and the baby were doing well. Stewart, who is 34, and his wife, who is 33, a former Texas model, were married in Los Angeles last April. He gave his bride a white Rolls Royce as a wedding present.—LOs Angeles. Mass break-out

Seventeen prisoners were still on the run yesterday, and 20 had been recaptured, after a series of escapes in Fiji. Incidents in the continuing prison crisis included a fresh escape from Suva’s central police station by four of the recaptured men. Later, 17 recaptured prisoners being held at the station awaiting court appearances hurled their handcuffs through the bars Of. their cell windows, sang, clapped, and banged on cell doors. Two prison warders were recovering after being injured, one of them suffering a broken jaw, in separate bashings by prisoners at Suva jail on Monday. The latest incidents came after Fiji’s biggest prison breakout, a mass escape by 20 inmates of Suva Jail, on Saturday night. —Suva. Hunger strike

About 60 people arrested in connection with a plot to overthrow President Anwar Sadat have gone on a hunger strike, the opposition Left-wing Unionist Progressive Party has said. A party statement sent to Reuters said the strike started two days ago in protest against alleged maltreatment of the prisoners. The ProsecutorGeneral (Mr Salah Rashidi) announced at the week-end that 56 people were arrested on Thursday in connection with the “plot to set up a Communist Government in Egypt.”—Cairo.

Stabbing suicide? An heiress to the Wrigley chewing gum fortune, Carlisle Highholt, died on Friday of a single stab wound in the chest “consistent with a self-inflicted wound,” a coroner’s preliminary autopsy report has stated. Further tests will be conducted to determine whether drugs or alcohol were involved in the death of Mrs Highholt, aged 40, whose body was found by her four-year-old adopted son in the bathroom of her mansion, the Chief Medical Examiner (Dr Thomas Noguchi) has said. Detectives said a final decision on whether Mrs Highholt committed suicide or was murdered would await the final results.—Los Angeles. Ex-Minister freed A former Deputy Government Minister who was detained by security police at the week-end has been freed, but two journalists arrested at the same time are still being held, their lawyer has said. Mr Robert Ssebunya, former Ugandan Deputy Information Minister under the ousted President, Yusufu Lule, told reporters he was considering suing the Government for unlawful detention. President Binaisa said last week that political opposition in Uganda would not be tolerated and said other political parties would have to co-operate with the broad “democratic” policies of the ruling Uganda National Liberation Front. He said elections would be held in 1981. — Kampala.