Cable Briefs

Press, 15 August 1980, Page 6

Cable Briefs

Children freed

About 30 policemen have raided a Melbourne suburban house and taken away four children who have been kept in isolation from the outside world for the last eight years. The police said the raid was organised after four other children who had been in the house left it and came to them for help. They said none of the eight children had left the house or had any education since they migrated to Australia eight years ago. The police cut an elaborate alarm system around the Tottenham house before the raid. — Melbourne. Britons held

Three Britons believed to have been arrested in Iran may eventually be used as a bargaining counter for obtaining the release of several dozen Iranians detained in Britain, it is feared in Government circles in London. Observers said this preoccupation was behind a British Note sent to Iran asking about the circumstances of the trio’s arrests, their present whereabouts, and what they were being charged with. They are an Anglican missionary, Jean Waddell, aged 50, and a physician, Dr John Coleman, aged 57, and his wife, Audrey. — London.

‘Observer* hope New hopes of saving the “Observer” newspaper emerged yesterday. The Government’s arbitration service announced that both sides had accepted an invitation to further peace talks today. The paper’s American owners have been threatening to close it unless they can reach a pay agreement with 25 machine minders who are holding out for a better pay deal. — London. Terrorists recant ’■ . Nine members of the terrorist Japanese Red Army who hijacked a passenger plane to North Korea in 1970 want to apologise for their action and return home, a Japanese newspaper has said m a report from Pyongyang. A reporter of the “Mainichi Shimbun” quoted the group’s leader, Takamaro Tamiya, aged 37, as saying in an interview: “We want to apologise to the Japanese people . . and make a fresh start in Japan.” The Red Army became notorious later for the massacre at Tel Aviv airport when they opened fire in a crowded terminal. — Toyko. Soviet

The Soviet Union is building its first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, a giant of 75,000 tonnes, the authoritative “Jane’s Fighting Ships,” has reported. Also building were at least two nucleardriven battle-cruisers, of 32,000 tonnes and heavily armed with guns and missiles, designed to protect carriers and to take action independently, “Jane’s” said. Reports of a Soviet nuclear powered aircraft carrier have circulated in the West for. some time. — London. Ban-bomb call

The 1980 World Ban-the-Bomb Conference has ended its international meeting in Japan after adopting a declaration urging an end to the military expansion race. The eight-point declaration called specifically for total disarmament. It also called for implementing the recommendation at the first United Nations special disarmament conference. Lome 400 participants, including 95 foreign delegates from 25 countries and 11 international organisations, applauded the messages from Vietnam, Cuba and Yugoslavia and the United Nations Disarmament Commission calling for the abolishment of nuclear armament and survival .of mankind. .— Tokyo.