Cable Briefs

Press, 28 August 1979, Page 8

Cable Briefs

Eight executed ' Eight men have been executed by firing squad in Mo- ’ zambique for high treason, ’ espionage, and terrorism, 1 Maputo Radio has reported. They had been sentenced to ' death by a military court ■ last Tuesday. — London. Tanker explodes , One crew member is dead, and five are missing, after an empty oil tanker exploded and sank in the Gulf, the official Emirates News Agency has said. A search has begun for men missing . from the 29-000-tonne Singap o r e-registered Cherry Duke. Tugs rescued 39 of the estimated 47-man Filipino crew off Das Island, about half-way between Abu Dhabi and Qatar. They were flown by helicopter to hospital in Abu Dhabi. — Abu I Dhabi. Sniper arrested A former patient in a mental hospital was in custody yesterday after a sniper attack in Honolulu in which five tourists were wounded. The police arrested the suspect 20 minutes after the shooting spree in the Waikiki Beach section. He was charged with attempted murder. The suspect, whom the police did not identify, had also been arrested in a sim- ; ilar incident in 1973. He was later committed to the State , psychiatric hospital. He had ] been on leave from that in- i stitution since May, . the ■ police said. — Honolulu. ( i Memorial visit

Pope John Paul II brought the tiny Italian mountain town of Canale d’Agordo a moment of glory at the week-end with a visit in commemoration of its most famous son, Albino Luciani, elected as Pope John Paul I exactly one year ago. It was the Pope’s last scheduled trip before he flies to Ireland and the United States late next month. In a homily during a Mass in the town square the Pope described the 33 days of his predecessor’s reign as '‘an extraordinary phenomenon.” The impression left by the smiling Pope as Luciani was known, has already made the papal birthplace a focus for tourists and pilgrims. — Rome. Working for rain god Naked women are tilling the fields of drought-strick-ened Uttar Pradesh state at night to try to placate the rain God. Popular belief in the northern Indian state has it that this is the only way to appease the god and bring rain. Mass . prayers were also being offered in an effort to end what the Press Trust of India news agency described as the worst August drought for 40 years in India’s most populous state. — New Delhi.