Cable Briefs

Press, 24 September 1980, Page 8

Cable Briefs

Hanoi spurned China has rejected Vietnam’s proposal to resume the negotiations between the two countries which stopped; nine months ■ ago. The official New China News Agency said that the Chinese Foreign Ministry had sent a negative reply to the Vietnamese Embassy in Peking to a proposal by Hanoi on September 12 that talks between the two countries be resumed in the Vietnamese capital on October 6. “The so-called negotiation proposal put forward by the Vietnamese side is nothing but a trick for propaganda purposes, an attempt to deceive world public opinion,” the Chinese said. —Peking.

Hostages 9 tax bill The United .States House of Representatives has voted to exempt the 52 American hostages in Iran from paying income tax during their captivity. A bill giving the in-come-tax relief now goes to the Senate. It would also provide education benefits for the families of the hostages and reimburse the hostages and their families for any medical treatment needed because of their ordeal. The bill also applies to any American civilian Government or military employee who might be taken in future. — Washington.

Crooked bond store More than two tonnes of prohibited imports, including huge amounts of pornography, was smuggled into Sydney in 18 months due to the infiltration of organised crime into Sydney bond stores, according to an internal Customs Department report. The material, from Copenhagen, was destined for New Zealand and New Caledonia, but through pillaging and false documentation at a Sydney bond store, never went there, according to the report. The report, signed by a senior ■ investigator in the department’s detective operations unit on May 8 this year, alleges that a slack and crooked system has existed in at least one big Sydney bond store for nearly three years. — Sydney.

Afghan defects Abdul Kayum Mansour, the Afghan charge d’affaires in Pakistan, has defected to the West, the “Guardian” has reported, quoting sources in Peshawar. Mr Mansour disappeared early this month, after selling his possessions, according to the daily newspaper, which noted that the diplomat was recalled to Kabul and told he would be returning permanently to Afghanistan. The sources quoted by the’ “Guardian” said they believed that he may reqdest asylum in West Germany. — London.

Ransom demand Members of a radical Italian political group have demanded five billion lire (more than $6 million) ransom for three West German children they claimed to have kidnapped two months ago in Italy, the Italian news agency, Ansa, has said. Officials of the Ansa bureau in Bonn said they had been given three letters by Dieter Kronzucker, father of two of the kidnapped children, in which the writers demanded the ransom to -finance a proletarian revolution in the Italian island of Sardinia. — Bonn. Sect head killed

. The head of the Damascus branch of the radical Muslim Brotherhood sect, Ghaleb Ahmad Allousi, is reported to have been killed by Syrian security services. Newspapers in Damascus said that Mr Allousi, also known as Nabil, was the last of the Brotherhbod’s leaders in Damascus still being sought The rest had either been arrested or killed in the Syrian Government’s drive against the sect which has been leading a revolt against the Government.- ; — Damascus/."'