Cable Briefs

Press, 4 January 1980, Page 5

Cable Briefs

Jail destruction The New .-Year orgy of destruction 'by rioting prisoners at Suva prison has left only 27 out of a possible 170 cells habitable, officials have said. Inmates were in control for a day and two nights before surrendering on Wednesday when police stormed the prison armed with riot gear and a high pressure hose. The prisoners destroyed three buildings which contained irreplaceable prison records and also the records for Fijian cemeteries. Relatives are now faced with the task of remembering where their relatives were buried as the cemetery maps were also destroyed. —Suva. Official murdered An election official has been killed and his suspected assailant found dead in the first violent incident in the Philippines’ first local election campaign after more than seven years of martial law. The police said an election registrar in far northern Ilocos Norte was found dead of stab wounds on December 27. The next day his suspected killer, Flora Famoras, was found in an irrigation canal, apparently 7 poisoned, with the alleged murder weapon in his belt. The killing came at the outset of the campaign for the country’s 75 provincial governors, some 1500 mayors and their deputies, the first since 1972. —Manila. Govt survives The Israeli Government has easily defeated four -noconfidence motions over its decision to delay evacuation of a settlement on the West Bank of the Jordan River. The' settlement had been declared illegal by the Israeli Supreme Court. Opposition parties had joined together to protest against a Cabinet decision to postpone for another five weeks the evacuation of ‘ the Elon Moreh settlement near the Arab city of Nablus. — Jerusalem. Lemon power A watch repairer in the west Midlands has managed to keep a small electric motor running day 7 and night for the past five months powered by a single lemon. “I connected two wires to a lemon with a piece of copper and a piece of zinc and soldered them on to the motor,” said Mr Anthony Ashili; of Kidderminster. “Although the lemon is now black and shrivelled the motor is still going strong. “If I can make my small motor run for month after month on a single lemon, just imagine how much ‘juice’ there must be in a whole sackful.” — London. Princess miscarries A grief-stricken Princess Caroline has flown home to her parents in Monaco after having a miscarriage. The “Evening News” said a friend in New York had described the effect on the Princess and . her husband, Philippe Junot, aged 38, as “totally shattering.” Princess Caroline, aged 22, had hoped the baby, which was expected in June, would put an end to rumours that all was not well with her marriage.— London. Bus tragedy

At least 20 people are feared to have died when a bus slid off an icy road and fell into a swift-flowing river in central Yugoslavia. Nine people escaped through broken windows and doors and swam to safety before the bus sank in the Neretva River, the police said. The bus had been on a regular run from the Adriatic port city of Spit to Sarajevo, and many of the passengers were believed to have been returning from New Year holidays. — Belgrade, __