Cable Briefs

Press, 22 February 1980, Page 6

Cable Briefs

Govt backs down The British Government has backed down over some of its proposed tighter immigration rules after strong protests from race relations and immigrant groups. The Home Secretary (Mr William Whitelaw) told Parliament that foreign husbands and fiances of British women would have an absolute right to enter Britain, so long as the marriage was not arranged so the man co Id secure entry. Mr Whitelaw said' he had also abandoned a rule under which dependants of students and work-permit holders would not have been allowed to work in Britain.—London. Riot charges Eight people, including two women, all connected with the banned magazine “Formosa,” were today charged with sedition and plotting the overthrow of Taiwan’s Nationalist Chinese Government after riots in December i-> which 180 policemen were said to have been hurt in the southern city of Kaohsiung. A military hearing will begin in about two weeks. The magazine, launched only last August but banned three days after the riots, supported the Taiwan independence movement, which wants the island to be independent of both the Communists in Peking and the Nationalists now ruling Taiwan.—Taipei. Singer dead

An autopsy will be performed on Bon' Scott, lead singer of the top rock group AC-DC, who was found dead in London on Tuesday night after a heavy drinking bout. Scott, aged 33. was discovered unconscious in a car parked outside a south London flat by a friend, Alistair Kinnear. AC-DC’s latest record “Touch Too Much” is at present No. 34 in the British pop charts. Formed in Australia in 1974, the group moved two years later to London and began touring successfully in Europe and the United States. It had been due to cut its seventh album soon.—London.