Cable briefs

Press, 27 March 1981, Page 5

Cable briefs

No new outbreaks No new outbreaks of foot-and-mouth diseasse have been reported in Britain this week. The disease was discovered bn the Isle of Wight last week, and almost • 600 pigs and cattle have been slaughtered. A . Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food -spokesman said: “We are still getting a number of. farmers asking for vets to check stock, but so far all have proved negative.” It was too early yet to say that the outbreak was over. — London; Basque support , The Spanish Prime Minister (Mr Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo) has won cautious backing from .the moderate Basque leader Carlos. Garaicoechea for his decision to give the military a direct role in the battle against Basque political violence. After a meeting with Mr Calvo Sotelo the leader of the Basque Autonomous Government said there was a reciprocal desire to work together in the diffiicult political situation. .' ' rt •'•••••y Another ‘spy’? The London “Daily Mail,” has alleged that Charles Howard Ellis worked for Britain’s enemies for nearly 30 years. The paper’s defence . reporter, Chapman Pincher, ■said that the Australian-born Ellis, known as Dick to his friends, was recruited by a relative to work for the Nazis before and during the Second World War, and decided then to work for the Russians. He was effectively No. 3 in the Secret Intelligence Service in 1944, and had access to innumerable Anglo American secrets, Mr Pincher said. — London.

Political affairs A blond Washington lobbyist who posed nude for “Playboy” magazine has been quoted as saying that she had affairs with a number of Congressmen, all of them members of the House of Representatives and all Republicans. C.B.S. News quoted Paula Parkinson as saying that the number of Congressmen with whom she had affairs .was less than a dozen and that none did anything illegal. Mrs Parkinson, who is 30, told the network she is co-operating in a Justice Department investigation into allegations that more than a dozen Congressmen may have ’- m illegally or unethically i > enced by her. — Washington.