Cable Briefs

Press, 28 November 1979, Page 8

Cable Briefs

No survivors Rescue workers are sifting i the wreckage of the Pakisi tani Airlines Boeing 707 ■ which caught fire and i crashed shortly after take i off from Jeddah, killing all 1 156 people on board. Three Saudi Air Force helicopters ; rushed rescue teams into the i mountainous area 48 kms i north of the city of Taif where the aircraft smashed : into the ground, scattering ) ! debris over a skm radius. The 1 crash occurred after the pilot reported a fire aboard and turned back to Jeddah. —Riyadh. Plaque refused Thomas Crapper, the Victorian sanitary engineer, will not be commemorated by London’s city fathers after all. A plan to erect a blue plauqe honouring the lavatory maker has been rejected by the Greater London Council’s historic buildings committee, a G.L.C. spokesman, Victor Kenny said. “Memorable though _ Crapper’s name might be in popular terms,” said the G.L.C., “evidence from the Patent Office shows that he was not a notable inventor _ or pioneer in his chosen field and therefore the case for the plaque is not justified.” — London. U.N. visit A United Nations team has arrived in Eastern Thai-. land to visit border areas) and a big refugee camp for. Kampucheans, Thai military ■ sources have said. The, 1 United Nations mission was invited to inspect the situation along the tense border by the Prime Minister (Gen- ! eral Kriangsak Chamanand). Shooting incidents and resisI tance from Rightist Khmer )Serei (Free Khmer) guerrilla ) leaders have delayed the exIpected flow of refugees from )a huge encampment straddling the border to the new camp. Khmer Serei leaders have said they were willing to let the old, the sick and ■ the very young leave the shanty town, but not the able-bodied, who are needed to fight: — Bangkok.

Air-traffic ‘danger*

Computer breakdowns) in the United States air-traf-l ■ fic control system are in- 1 creasing the danger of mid-1 . air collisions, pilots and sys- j tem controllers have fold! Congress. But the Federal! Aviation Administration said) the system was safe and 1 was being improved. The! hearings were called by the! House of Representatives) Ways and Means oversight! sub-committee to investigate I recent near collisons over North Carolina and Califor- 1 nia. The pilots and con- 1 trailers said the F.A.A.’s colli- ! s i o n-avoidance systems frequently break down for brief periods because of! 1 computer failures, forcing! the use of older, less reliable 1 back-up systems.—Washington. i Artist protests A 27-year-old self-styled 1 artist has chopped off two! of his fingers after the art! l editor of the “Soho Weekly ! News” said he could not talk to him until after the 1 paper’s deadline. Rushed to 1 Bellevue Hospital, Henry 1 Benvenuti, Of Manhattan, at ’ first refused permission for 1 surgeons to try to reattach i the third and fourth fingers on his left hand. But a hos- ■ pital spokesman said Benvenuti agreed to the surgery after talking to his girlfriend and a psychiatrist. The doctors said the delay could have adversely affected the chances for the surgery’s success. —New York.

s7fill experiment The United States Army spent S7BM on a secret, 25year programme using human subjects —■ including prison inmates —' to test drugs intended for chemical warfare, the “Philadelphia Inquirer” has reported. The paper said a $386,486 contract with the University of Pennsylvania for experiments on 320 prison inmates during the last decade was the largest of its kind. The secret testing of prisoners at Holmesburg Prison in Philadelphia from 1964 to 1968 was intended to determine the dosage of various drugs needed to disable mentally 50 per cent of a given population, the “Inquirer” said. Huge bushfires Huge bushfires covering thousands of square kilometres are sweeping across central Australia. Firefighters are concentrating their efforts on a dangerous blaze which has taken hold in good grazing country on Garden Station, about 60km north-east Of Alice Springs. The fire started five days ago from a lightning strike, and has blackened about 30 sq km. — Alice Springs.

Electricity cheats Electricity boards throughout Britain could lose millions of dollars if police fail Ito track down the source of a gadget which can enable consumers to steal electricity. The cheating device comes in a small aluminium box with two electrical leads. When connected it prevents the meter recording the true amount of current used, and is also thought ta be able to make the meter dials turn backwards. The boxes, described as '‘extremely dangerous” to use, are reported to be selling for about 5350 each in some pubs and clubs. —London.