Cable Briefs

Press, 7 June 1980, Page 8

Cable Briefs

I Pad with Oman | The United States has I reached an agreement with I Oman to use some of its airI fields and ports, the Stat< I Department said yesterday. I In exchange, Oman will be I able to buy American I weapons for its own secur- | ity and will receive Amerij can help for its economy. The agreement was designed I “to strengthen stability and s security in the region in the face of Soviet ■ • exI pansionism.” a State Departi ment spokesman said. The United States did not intend to station any American mil- ! itarv units in Oman, but i some American military peri sonnet might go there in i connection with weapons I sales., — Washington. Mayor blamed A Quebec Government commission of inquiry has blamed the Mayor of Montreal (Mr Roger Drapeau) for the enormous cost of. the 1976 Olympics. The three man commission interviewed dozens of .people in a long inquiry into why the cost of staging the Olympics rose from an original estimate of * $3OO million to $l7OO million. The report said Mr Drapeau, mayor for the last 25 years, was the project manager until late 1975 when the. Government intervened to end the chaos. If accused Mr Drapeau of 3 extravagance in employing a! _ Paris-based architect and . choosing “very unusual, im- ’ mense and complex designs’’ , for the main Olympic j installations. — Montreal., f - 23 killed i Twenty-three people, ini eluding five women, were - killed when fire gutted a . basement saloon of a three- - storey hotel in the riot-torn i city of Kwangju, southern . Korea. Police said some of the victims were burnt be- • yond recognition. According ; to eye-witnesses, there were . about 50 guests when the ■ fire broke out with an explosion, but many escaped [ to safety through an emer- . gency exit. — Seoul. Soyux Two cosmonauts were yesterday orbiting the earth aboard a modernised version of the Soyuz spacecraft designed to take the Soviet space programme into the 1980 s. Dubbed the Soyux-T-2, it has the same dimensions and outward appearance as the Soyuz craft which has been the workhorse of the Soviet space programme since 1967. But for the first time it includes its own computer system and many other modifications, including new solar batteries for its power; system. — Moscow.