Cable briefs

Press, 28 May 1981, Page 6

Cable briefs

Leader to quit Bolivia’s military ruler, General Luis Garcia Meza has said in a surprise announcement that he will hand over the presidency to a successor in August. The announcement came after the failure of an attempt to topple the President.— La Paz. Missile approval The West German Chancellor (Mr Helmut Schmidt) citing support from President Ronald Reagan and the French President (Mr Francois Mitterrand) easily won parliamentary approval for his stance 0n.N.A.T.0. missile strategy. Mr Schmidt told the Bundestag his talks

last week with President Reagan showed both countries would respond firmlv in the face of Soviet expansionism, but also wanted to keep East-West dialogue alive.— Bonn. 56 Rape charges The Japanese police have ! arrested a man who allegedly raped 56 women in their apartments in Sendai by using chloroform during the last five years. According to the police, Masanori Kato at times bored a hole in a wall before invading a woman’s apartment, sprayed chloroform into the room with a syringe, put his victim to sleep, then invaded the room and raped her. Kato, aged 46, unemployed had told the police that he had learned the drugging method from a pornographic film.— Tokyo. Helicopters downed Angola’s armed forces shot down two South African heli- ! copters recently, according i to a Defence Ministry com- j munique quoted by the Ango-1 lan news agency, A.N.G.O.P. 1 The agency said the two J French-built Allouette 111 1 helicopters were shot down ! during South African raids on Angola, but did not say where or when. The communique also listed South African military intrusions into; Angola from neighbouring i South-W’est Africa since the \ beginning of April—Lisbon.