Cable Briefs

Press, 20 February 1980, Page 8

Cable Briefs

14 die in floods At least 14 people have died in floods in southern California and Arizona. that have caused giant mudslides, forced thousands of people to leave their homes, and have washed out roads and powerlines. In, Los Angeles, Joshua Patlak, aged 22, went shopping for groceries and spent 18 hours clinging to a log after being washed out 8 km into the Pacific. Mr Patlak, who was wearing a wetsuit, said he was wading along the side of a creek when he was .hit by the log and carried downstream into the Pacific. He was rescued by a helicopter which landed in the ocean after spotting him. Mr Patlak said later about wading along the side of the creek: “It was a dumb thing to do. And I lost my groceries.” — Los Angeles. Bid to pay ransom The family of the South African ambassador to El Salvador ■ (Mr Archibald Dunn), held hostage in the Central American State since November 28, has decided to pay a ransom for his release, the kidnapped diplomat’s brother has said. Speaking to reporters, Mr R. A. G. Dunn announced the setting up of a support fund to raise the money. He said the family was not aiming at a specific sum, but suggested that one million South Africans might each contribute two rands in order to offer a sum of 2 million rands (about $2.2 million). The kidnappers’ demands have been mainly political, such as the publication of the People’s Liberation Front manifesto in some 100 newspapers in South Africa and around the world, the release of political prisoners, and the breaking of diplomatic relations with South Africa. — Pretoria.

Baby-killer sentenced

A court in Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic, has sentenced a doctor to death for having poisoned a new-born baby on the orders of the ousted Em, peror Jean-Bedel Bokassa, the doctor’s father-in-law. Two other people received ten-year and six-month suspended prison sentences in the first of six cases being tried in a packed stadium involving 34 people accused of murder and brutality under the Bokassa regime. — Bangui.

IXeiv Polish P.M. Edward Babiuch, aged 52, has been appointed Poland’s new Prime Minister in place of Piotr Jaroszewicz who was forced to quit last week. The , appointment of Mr Babiuch, Poland’s sixth Prime Minister since the Communists came to power- in 1945, had been widely predicted following the shaker up which led to Mr Jaroszewicz’s resignation last week. Mr Babiuch, a former coal miner and a trained economist, has a reputation for being a tough but openminded organiser. — Warsaw.

Torture charge A Palestinian is in a psychiatric hospital in Bethlehem as a result of being tortured in Israel’s Ramie prison, the Mayor of the occupied Jordan West Bank town of Nablus, Bassam Shakaa, has told journalists. Mr Shakaa said that Nader Afouri, aged 28, was arrested in 1978 and accused of belonging to a terrorist organisation. Israeli authorities, denying the torture charge, said they were aware that Nader Afouri suffered from mental problems and he had been treated by doctors during his imprisonment. — Jerusalem. No growth Western nations and Japan will experience zero growth in 1980, more than 10 per cent inflation, and record deficits and unemployment because of the December round of oil price hikes, the Organic sation of Economic Co-opera-tion and Development has predicted. The latest predictions of the Paris-based organisation, made up of 24 Western industrialised nations including New Zealand, arid Japan, do not take into account the most recent 6 to 7 per cent price rises announced by the oil-producing nations in January and February. — Paris. Farm talks fail Common Market FamvMinisters have failed to reach agreement on farm prices, the Franco-British lamb dispute, or sugar production. Common. Market sources said that most countries wanted a higher rise in farm prices for the next year than the average 2.4 per cent increase proposed by the farm commissioner (Mr Finn Gundelach). Some called for increases of up to 8 per cent. — Brussels. Korea talks open North and South Korea have opened a fresh round of talks at Panmunjom aimed at arranging the first meeting of the two Prime Ministers since the division of the Korean Peninsula at the end of World War Two. The Koreas, which fought a bitter three-year. war in the early 19505, agreed last Month to revive. their- Reunification talks through, the P.M.’s meeting as early as possible.—Panmunjom,