Cable Briefs

Press, 10 November 1980, Page 8

Cable Briefs

Miners killed Five miners have beenkilled instantly in a methane; gas explosion in a coalmine in West Virginia. Their I bodies were brought 3km toi the surface 38 hours after! the blast. — Robinson. 5.4. boycott urged An overwhelming majority of United Nations members have voted for a total boycott of South Africa. The vote, 91 in favour, 16 against, and 26 abstaining, was taken by a committee of the General Assembly. The assembly itself is almost certain to endorse it at a later date. The resolution urged in particular Britain, the United States, West Germany, France, Japan, Belgium, Israel, and Italy to end all collaboration with South Africa. — New York. * Bacteria plot' West German urban guerrillas experimented with deadly bacteria in a Paris hide-out, apparently preparing a poison attack on a prominent figure, informed police sources have said. Notes on fatal bacteriological diseases and laboratory equipment were found at the Paris address, which was used by urban guerrilla suspects and was discovered by the Police last month, the sources said. The notes were written in the handwriting of Silke Maier-Witt, aged 30, one of West Germany’s most wanted urban guerrilla suspects, accused of taking part in the 1977 murder of a banker, Juergen Ponto, the sources added. — Karlsruhe. Lashes ‘did not hurt* An English engineer, Terry Auger, has shrugged off the 300 lashes he received in a Saudi Arabian prison, saying they did not really hurt. Mr Auger, aged 35, was back in Britain at the week-end, a fortnight after getting 300 strokes of the cane, spread over three days. The Derby man, who had served less than a year of a three-year sentence for manufacturing and selling alcohol in contravention of Saudi Arabia’s anti-drink law’s, described the prison as “a concentration camp.” — London. Courtroom suicide A 27-year-old man and his 21-year'-old wife have committed suicide in a courtroom in Washington, D.C., just as the judge was about to sentence them for possession of drugs. William and Tracy Melton appeared together to be sentenced after having been found guilty of possessing cocaine, LSD, and marijuana. As the sentence was about to be read, the couple sniffed some white powder — apparently potassium cyanide — then writhed in pain. They died shortly after being taken to a hospital. The Meltons could have served a maximum 20 years in jail, but as assistant to the judge later said the court had decided to give them only four months’ detention in a drug rehabilitation centre. — Washington.