Cable Briefs

Press, 2 October 1979, Page 8

Cable Briefs

Aid al tacked Vietnam has accused the West of conducting a smear campaign against Kampuchea and has said aid programmes are no more than a cover for intervention and aggression. The Communist Party newspaper, “Nhan l Dan,” said the “cover storv (of a famine is instigated by the same people who whipped up the so-cailed IndoiChina refugee problem." At 'the same time. “Nhan Dan” denied that Vietnam was taking any of the Kampuchea aid for itself. It said it was sending its own "heartfelt relief” along with ■ Laos, the Soviet Union, and East Germany. It said the United States was trying to paint a dark picture of the (Vietnam-backed Heng Samirin Government by calling 'for aid. and was trying to re-install the former Prime Minister, Pol Pot, who ;was ousted in January. — Bangkok. i Success claimed I The Kampuchean Presiident (Mr Heng Samrin) has said his Vietnamese-led' (troops have put out of ac[tion 50,000 Khmer Rouge (guerrillas since the start of 'the rainy season, the Viet-1 !nam News Agency has reported. In a report to tbe| second General Assembly of his Government, Mr Heng ISamrin said that more than (one million Kampucheans (had been liberated from the [control of the forces of ;ousted Prime Minister, Poll Pot. The Khmer Rouge have; been making their own) claims of successes since the rainy season began about j three months ago. The rains I are seen as favouring the small-unit guerrillas. and! now that they are coming to ( an end, there are predictions

of a new Vietnamese-led offensive to clear out the last resistance by the Pol Pot regime, which was driven from power in January. —i : Bangkok. Storm kills eight Typhoon Owen, packing 240km/h winds, slammed into Osaka, Japan’s second largest city, yesterday after inundating south-western Japan with heavy rains and flood waters that displaced thousands. The- police said the typhoon had left eight people dead, 33 missing, and: several injured in south-west [ and central Japan, before: (gradually losing force and: (moving onto northern Japan.' • —Tokyo. Moscow visit I The Greek Prime Minister i (Mr Constantine Karamanlis) I has gone to Moscow for a [five-day official visit to the 'Soviet Union. Mr Kara-1 nianlis, the first Greek Prime Minister to visit the Soviet Union, is expected to i indicate to Kremlin leaders , his country’s disillusion with the United States and its [desire for good relations with the Communist States to the north. Greece, once a full member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation,: withdrew from the Western [ alliance’s military structure! in 1974 when a fellow N.A.T.O. member, Turkey, invaded Cyprus. — Athens. Berserk passenger An American Airlines DCIO made an unscheduled landing at Stapleton International Airport in Denver, Colorado, yesterday after three people were slightly injured by a knife-wielding passenger, airline officials said. A Federal Bureau of Investigation official said the man apparently “went berserk” after having a few drinks on the scheduled Chicago to San Francisco flight

and attacked several passengers with a small knife. He { was taken off the plane still screaming and struggling after being subdued by memibers of the plane's crew and {some passengers, the F. 8.1. .said. — Denver. Colony's underground Traffic-congested Hong Kong has launched an underground railway system which |will rank among the busiest ■in the world. Sir Murray Maclehose, governor of this ■ overcrowded British colony, !pressed the button to start (the first train and traditional (Chinese lion dancers cavorted (down the platform. By the mid-1980s it is expected to 'carry I.BM passengers a day (on its 26 km of track. The (London underground, five 'times as long, carries one million people a day. — Hong Kong.