Cable Briefs

Press, 12 January 1981, Page 8

Cable Briefs

Murder not Ripper’t The Yorkshire Ripper police have ruled out the f murder five years ago of a Preston prostitute, Joan Harrison, as one of the Ripper b murders. The murder was f linked to the Ripper by let- ii ters and tapes sent to the police. These documents, v which received wide public- n ity and led the police to be- a lieve the Ripper came from n north-east England, are now u believed to offer clues only ii to the Harrison murder. — f London. ' o Congressman guilty With a fifth United States ii Congressman convicted on a Abscam charges, the Gov- o ernment’s conduct during p the undercover “sting” operation is now going on trial; s District Judge George Pratt, E who has presided over three a Abscam trials,, will ■ begin ii holding hearings tod.ay in a Brooklyn ‘that coufd scuttle I: seven Abscam convictions, including the latest guilty g verdicts against Congress- t man Raymond Lederer. Two r of the other six convictions ■ recorded: in. Abscam have already: been thrown but on the grounds of entrapment and Government misconduct. Mr Lederer was the. only f one ,of; 'fiyb ■' Congressmen indicted in the' case to be reelected in November. — g New York. h '■'■ :. .■ : s Sabotage suspected Sabotage is suspected in a n fire blazing at the -Exxon c Corporation’s oil terminal in p Montego Bay, in Jamaica, p the police said. Witnesses c had I reported seeing a man « running from the area short- J ly after ■the;., fire J started. c Flames were still leaping £ high froth four large storage tanks . last evening. Officials J of t Esso, the ■ Exxon sub- j sidiary which owns the ter- ( minal, estimated that. the r ' fire .could' cause millions of , dollars in. damage and some problems with petrol sup- ’ plies in the region. — Mon- ’ tegp Bay. ! Sinking toll 230 ’ The death toll from the ‘ i sinking of a passenger river boat in northern Brazil . ,l stands at 230 after the authorities ■ called off the search for further victims. Officials said river patrol boats had recovered 230 bodies from the River Jari,. a tributary of the Amazon, but many people were missing and had probably been swept out to sea.- The boat ; possiblv carrying 500, sank , after hitting a sand bank. ‘ ■ The police said that 200 pas- . : sengers had survived. — J MaCapa, Brazil. s Hijack foiled I A group of tried to • hijack a Polish airliner to the West yesterday but were , ! told there was not enough ; ; fuel and were arrested,.when , i it landed in Warsaw, the official Pap news agency has s said. Pap ..said the group,' which it did not identify, , threatened to set off a bomb aboard the Lot'airline flight between Katowice, in Silesia, and Warsaw unless the pilot flew them to either Vienna or Frankfurt; According to the agency, the captain refused, saying he did not have enough fuel’for either flight. The plane, landed at Warsaw and “owing to ■ the . efficient action of the militia (police) and border guards the hijackers were arrested,” Pap said.—Warsaw, ’ ’: 30 die in fire - Firefighters have found the bodies of three of the 10 people still missing in a fire that is believed to have killed 30 residents, of .the Beachview Rest Home in Keansburg, '- New, . Jersey. Governor : Brendan Byrne said that the home, which had 109; patients and went up in flames; before dawn on Friday (U.S. eastern; time), had been well run. — Keansburg..