Cable Briefs

Press, 21 October 1980, Page 8

Cable Briefs

King's Cross low life? r * The notorious nightlife of r ‘ Sydney’s Kings Cross may n have tb go underground if moves by the New South :s Wales Government and the ie Sydney City Council to rer- store the village atmosphere is to the popular tourist area g prove successful. The New d South Wales Minister for v Planning and Environment r (Mr Eric Bedford) and Sydney’s Lord Mayor (Alderman >- Doug Sutherland), in a joint a statement described Kings > Cross as having deteriorated into a "Sleazy Soho” riddled - with sex shops, and bluemovie houses. It said the council was determined to restore the Cross to its original village-type charm and to make it compulsory for , sex shops to be located in basements or above ground level. — Sydney. Giscard in Tibet President Valery Giscard ' d’Estaing of France has ber come the first Western Head 1 of State to visit Tibet when ; he arrived in Lhasa, the 5 Tibetan capital, at the weekend on the third leg of a ’ visit to China, the New • China News Agency has re- ' ported. Addressing a recep- 1 J tion put on by the regional * peoples government in 1 Tibet, Mr Giscard said: “The French people are very ■ interested in the Tibetan ; people because they began ■ to have contacts long ago.” ; —Peking. j ’ Soweto arrests The police have arrested at least 14 people attending . a church service in Johan- , nesburg’s black township of Soweto to commemorate the > third anniversary of a Gov- j , ernment crackdown on black ; and white critics, eye-wit-nesses have said. Black or- ; ganisations staged- commo morat i v e< services I throughout the country to ■ mark what they referred to as/‘black Wednesday,” Octo1 ber- 19, 1977,- when the Government. banned 18 black I consciousness groups, closed ‘ Three publications and also 1 barred several white antiApartheid organisations. Among those arrested in ■ Soweto were two members of the township’s “Committee of 10,” an influential, unofficial town council set up after the 1976 Soweto riots which shook the nation and left hundreds dead. — Johannesburg. Chinese go to polls 1 China’s first nationwide county elections have start- » ed, but residents of some r places will not vote until f I next year, the official Xin- , hua News Agency has re- I 1 ported. It said elections were 1 being held in 1200 counties or similar districts.. Voting J had been completed in 610 c and the remaining 900 would a hold election? between win- r ter and. next spring. The scale elections come after £ experiments in 550 counties * in choosing county people’s congresses, more than one 1 person allowed to run for each seat. Several non-Com-munist Party members have t won seats. County congress- s es serve three years. They in L turn elect provincial con- “ gresses, which elect the Nat- si ional People’s Congress. — Peking. tl